Zander and Quinn came home from their honeymoon. A limousine awaited them and took them to the gatehouse. Oksana had thought they should be able to get to the house still alone, and Alexis had agreed, saying Oksana was starting to understand romance a lot more.
Zander carried Quinn over the threshold. He put her down, and then gave her a long kiss.
"Now is the start of our lives," he said.
"This is as happy a day as any," she said. "I used to hate coming back from vacations. But this - this is not like that."
"I love you and I will always love you," he said.
"I love you," she said. "And I always will."
Later, Danny, Kathleen, and Brad came over.
"Our first visitors," Zander said.
"I'm glad we are," said Kathleen. "This is a new family."
"The best mother-in-law anyone ever had," Zander said to her, and he hugged her.
"You know, suddenly I feel so much happiness, and you will feel it too, someday," said Kathleen. "You'll see your children fall in love, get married."
"You've seen it once, and you'll see it again," Quinn said. "Tim and Brad - I wonder what women will become part of our family like Zander is now. Crazy women, I would say."
"We know already of one," Danny said. "Diana. Tim thinks he is going to marry her, and what can we do?"
"He's right," Zander said. "He's like his dad, knows his mind early on."
"How did you like Ireland, Zander?" Danny asked.
"I love it," Zander said. "It's the most beautiful place I've ever seen. And the people! They are the best there is."
"It was their main crop at one time," Danny said.
"No," Zander said. "That's rocks."
"Zander loved trying to speak Irish," Quinn said.
"And the people are so nice about it," Zander said. "Totally patient. They really have the gift of gab. None of them need the Blarney Stone."
"Did you kiss the Blarney Stone, Zander?" Brad asked.
"Yep," Zander said. "And come to think of it, I have been talking much more since then. You know what a 'craic' is, Brad? You should. It's a fun, lively chat. We have those over your house all the time. I just didn't know the word for them before."
"Heck, I didn't know that word," Danny said. "But it is an Irish family thing. Sitting around shooting the breeze. Telling jokes."
"We've had quite a few craics in our house," Quinn said.
"Maybe an occasional ballyhooley," Zander said. "That's a telling off. See, I'm learning."
"Yeah, but not as fast as I learn Russian," Quinn said. "Because you don't have a good teacher like I do."
"Oh, I learn plenty from you, nurse," Zander said, putting his arm around her.
"Yeah, she's in charge now, Zander," Danny said. "She runs your life from now on."
"Hey!" Kathleen laughed. "And where would you be today if I had not run your life, Daniel Connor?"
"Hard to say," Danny said. "Very hard to imagine. Fortunately, I'll never know."
"Right Danny, it is lucky for you," Zander said. "Like it is for me."
Matt Delaney faced his class. The honors history class was noisy as usual. This was his first year with them. Previously, he had been stuck with "monster classes." That was what teachers called classes when the bulk of the class members were unambitious academically.
The class was noisy, but the main difference was that once you started the class, they shut up. Nothing new happened. With monster classes, somebody did something to interrupt the class, invariably, at some point during the class period.
Amy Friel sat in the last row. "What were Roosevelt's plans for the economy?" Matt asked her. He loved picking on those who made it a point to sit in the last row. He had done that when he was in school.
"He wanted to prime the pump," Amy answered.
The class laughed.
"Prime the pump," said Matt, knowing that the pump was somehow sexual to them and that was why they were giggling. "What economic theories were behind this desire he had to prime the pump?" Sure enough, they giggled a little more at his clever use of the word "desire."
Maxie Jones raised her hand. "That the government could create jobs by spending money?"
"Yes," Matt said.
"FDR was a socialist," said Amy Friel.
"Labels, labels," said Matt.
Maxie laughed.
"Now if you were FDR, Amy," Matt addressed his student, "what would you have done to avoid socialism, as you term it?"
The class laughed again. They knew Amy couldn't answer that right off.
"Ah, I just thought of a homework assignment," Matt said. The class groaned. "Yes, a short paper on just what else could have been done and an argument for why it would have worked. Or if you want, a defense of Roosevelt's policies."
"Creative," Maxie said.
"You can be creative," Matt said. "For this assignment. Maybe someday you will be as creative and brilliant as I am." The class half laughed, half groaned. Mr. Delaney loved to joke that he was the brilliant one from whom they could learn if they would just pay attention.
Quinn was back at work. She had a new name badge, which said, "Q.Kanishchev." She looked at it whenever there was a lull. She loved it.
Sarah Webber, MD, was at the nurses' station looking at a chart. It appeared this particular intern was headed for surgical oncology, specifically breast cancer surgery. Quinn had a chance to talk to her a little that day, and learned she had considered general practice, or obstetrics and gynecology. But the hospital staff had argued that her hands and her mind were steady and that she was, therefore, an ideal surgeon.
Open minded, Sarah was thinking about that.
"Delivering babies and C-sections need steady hands," Quinn said.
"Now that you are married," Sarah said. "Everyone will bug you about when you're going to have kids. Elizabeth told me. Everyone bugs me about getting married, and Elizabeth assured me there is never any end to these things, because once you do get married, it's 'when are you having a baby?'"
Quinn smiled. "I'm ready to be bugged out that, then. The best part is when you're engaged. Then you get questions about the wedding. Before you are engaged questions about when you're getting married are so annoying. If you don't have a boyfriend, that gets highlighted, if you do, the fact he isn't into marrying you at that point gets highlighted. Or that you are dating someone you're not interested in marrying. But then once you're engaged, it's wonderful! All the questions are fun. Then the honeymoon is great. Nobody bugs you about anything!"
"I'm sure you had a great time on your honeymoon."
"I did," Quinn said. "It is a once in a lifetime experience. You'll find out someday."
"I hope so," Sarah said. "One day."
A few minutes later, Quinn looked up. There was her friend Valerie's mom.
"Mrs. Edwards" she said, not thinking. "Oh, I mean, I'm sorry, Mrs. - "
"Hancock, but that's OK, Quinn," Allison said. "You, and guys in the band, are the only people in the world who I will let continue to call me Mrs. Edwards."
Quinn smiled.
Sarah, distracted from her chart, listened.
"How are you?" Allison said. "I'm here to see Dr. Singh. But you - you have a new last name too, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to say it."
"Oh, everyone can call me nurse K now, Mrs. Edwards," Quinn said. "Kanishchev, well that's so - hard to say when you're not Russian or Russian by marriage."
Allison laughed. "But you're happy abut it."
"Oh, yes, so happy and very proud of it," Quinn said. "It's fun to be able to boggle people's minds with just your name."
Amanda was at Kara's house, helping her with school work. Beth shooed the other children upstairs, so they'd have some peace.
So many people had been generous with time and help since Kara's surgery. The most amazing of these things was Oksana referring Amanda to tutor Kara. Neither Oksana or Amanda would take any money. So she didn't know whether Amanda was volunteering her time or whether Oksana was paying Amanda. Beth and Karl felt grateful to both of them.
The tutoring was allowing Kara to keep up in a way she might not have been able to without it. Kara joked how school must consist mostly of changing classes and standing in line and quieting down, because without everyone else, you could do the actual learning work in two to three hours.
"That's true," Amanda said. "With a tutor, you need far less time. That's one advantage of it. And another is we can work on subjects in the best order for you. We're not limited by the needs of the rest of the class."
"That's how Zander gets through college so fast?" Kara said.
"Partly," Amanda said. "I help him with his way of learning things. He needs to look at things from a different perspective. You on the other hand, are just plain smart in the traditional way."
"Thanks," Kara said. "I really like doing it this way. Then on the other hand, I really want to get back to school. I just have to be back to normal by the time volleyball season starts."
"How's that looking?" Amanda asked.
"Dr. Jones says I should be able to play when my treatments are done," Kara said. "They'll be done like a week into the season. I hate missing even that week. I'm the captain of the team. I can still go to practice. But I'm not sure I can stand sitting there and watching."
"That could be frustrating," Amanda said. "You know my sister Amy? She's on the volleyball team at Port Charles High."
"She is? I don't know her, but I might remember her face if I saw her. My cousin is a teacher over there."
"Your family is everywhere!" Amanda laughed.
"Which ones do you know?" Kara asked. "Besides me, and Branwyn?"
"I know Jackson. He's flown Zander and I places, for Zander's history lessons."
"Oh, he loves that," Kara said. "I've heard him talking about it. He has no other clients doing such an interesting thing. I guess I should have realized that was you. You and Zander."
"We never take Peter," Amanda said. "I think it must be the scheduling – when we did those trips, it was during school hours. Peter could have learned from them too."
"He did, some, I guess, secondhand," Kara said. "Then Zander went out on his own. He gave us the tour of Fort Niagara. That was the first date I had with Peter."
"Aw, that's sweet, your first date," Amanda said. "And Zander out on his own. Yeah, I like that. It is always wonderful to have a student follow in your footsteps."