Chapter 9: Choose Your Battles Carefully

Dr. Monica Quartermaine took a deep breath as she wheeled the echo machine down the hallway. Sometimes practicing medicine was so much like raising toddlers; you really had to choose your battles carefully. It was different though because AJ wearing that clown nose, which they had got for his Halloween costume, in the Christmas pictures, and even well into the new year, had been harmless. It had even been mildly amusing at first. Sometimes she questioned if Dr. Larmon's desire to rule out dissecting aortic aneurysms in anyone with chest pain who she didn't override him and take to the cath lab immediately was harmless. Quite honestly on the patient in question, especially with the positive d-dimer, she would favor a pulmonary embolus over a dissection.

Except that wasn't actually true, because she knew the patient in question. Because she did, it seemed much more plausible that she had hyperventilated to the point of passing out and hit her head on something on the way down. The fact that she didn't recall that implied to Monica that she needed a CT of her head along with her chest and Monica would have been inclined to have done both of those tests before a trans esophageal echocardiogram if she was in charge. However, as Dr. Larmon was quick to remind her, it wasn't her patient, yet. So, she took another deep breath and pushed the echo machine through the door.

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In the waiting area outside the Emergency Department, Kyle Durant tried to not reflect on the last time he had sat in the same position. That had been almost eighteen months ago after Manny Ruiz had crashed his father's dinner party. The gentle vibrations from his cell phone reminded him he hadn't turned it off and he instead picked it up and headed for the side entrance. "Durant," he said as he stepped outside.

"Sonny Corinthos, hate to bother you but I haven't been able to reach Alexis on her cell for the past hour. Kristina left her inhaler in Alexis' car. I tried to just pick up a new one, but the pharmacy says there aren't any refills left on the prescription."

Kyle supposed no one could argue that Sonny wasn't a responsible father. "Does she need it right now?" he asked.

"No, it's the one she is supposed to do twice a day but I guess things were hectic this morning so she did it in the car and forgot to put it in her bag. She won't need it until tonight, but I was hoping to catch her before she headed out on her date."

Alexis had a date? Kyle wondered if Sonny actually believed that or if he was just fishing for information. He suspected the latter. Ally would have said he was a control freak and, where Ally was concerned, Kyle might believe that. He also could acknowledge that both parties had contributed to the dysfunction of their third marriage, and probably to the preceding two although he hadn't been around for those really. Their divorce had been final for about a week and he really hoped it would be their final divorce. Of course, the custody issue of their two sons still remained to be determined and Kyle wasn't looking forward to that either. "What if I drop Kristina's inhaler off before bed? Sometime before eight, right?"

"Is Alexis alright?"

In spite of his profession's negative stereotypes, Kyle didn't lie. Yet, he believed in people's right to privacy. "I will have her call you when things settle down. In the meantime, I will make sure that Kristina gets her inhaler," he suggested.

"I'd hate to inconvenience you. If you and Lex are going to be working all night, I'll just swing by the courthouse. That way I can make sure my movie selections are appropriate."

"That probably isn't a good idea."

"Why is that?"

Ok, so maybe privacy wasn't always possible, Kyle decided as he took a deep breath.

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Carly Benson Ashton Spencer Durant realized her life was even more messed up in 2007 than it had been in 1997. In 1997 she had seduced her mother's husband, then cheated on him with a recurrent one-night stand which could never be explained that simply. She had conspired to keep her son's paternity secret from her fiancé; but owned up to the truth with her baby's biological father, a man she would always love. That had led to another lie, another faux father, and a marriage of convenience that gave her the second chance no one had ever given her before.

In 2007, Carly was once again forced to live up to a year's worth of irresponsible choices. She was also about to enter into a marriage without love only she doubted there was any chance of salvation or redemption. Although as she thought about it, she acknowledged that she and Ned had never really had a marriage without love. Sure, Ned might have married her barely knowing her because he loved his cousin Jason. But love had grown in their marriage, first for both of them with her unborn child. Then, after Michael Edward Ashton was born, he became their son. Although his legal, not biological father, Ned had truly become his father in all senses. So much so that when she and Ned were preparing to amicably divorce in 2000, she had considered giving Ned primary custody.

As touched as Ned had been by her trust, he had encouraged her to trust herself and they had gone with joint custody. Living in the same small city, and eventually even working for the same family corporation—ELQ Enterprises they managed to coparent from a place of mutual respect with a strong focus on what was truly best for their son even if it might require some inconvenience or humility on one, or both, of their parts. They had remained steadfast to this approach even after Ned had remarried his second wife and the mother of his daughters, Dr. Lois Cerullo. Although, to Lois's credit, she would have never expected, or accepted, they do anything less.

Peels of the doorbell pulled Carly from her thoughts and she started towards the front door with hesitation and trepidation. Michael was home so she really hoped she was not about to open the door to a man she was forced to call her boyfriend, but who had truly become her worst nightmare.

When she opened the door, Carly didn't see a paunchy gray-haired terror but her dark haired and even darker eyed Latinx brother in law holding his sweet almost two-year-old daughter who waved. Technically Molly was Sonny's neice, but Carly tended to agree that he had become her father. His seven-year-old daughter, Kristina, stood behind him on her front porch, holding a bowl of salad and wearing one of those patented Cassadine pouts.

"I need a favor," Sonny said.

Carly laughed. "Why am I not surprised?" she asked. It wasn't the first time Sonny had shown up on her doorstep looking for somewhere to leave his kids. The difference was that usually those kids were also her twin sister, Ally Rescott Alden Bowman Rescott Corinthos Alcazar Durant Corinthos's children.

Kristina looked from Carly to her father. "Maybe Aunt Carly doesn't want us to have dinner here," she said.

"Aunt Carly is just surprised. Why don't you take the salad into the kitchen and I'll grab the lasagna and Panini from the car," Sonny said.

Kristina didn't move. She looked back up at her father who gestured sternly with his eyes. Then she pouted slightly but did comply.

"Where do you want this?" Bruno asked from the doorway where he stood holding a playpen.

Sonny shook his head. "I told you to collapse that thing first. You aren't going to get it through the door. How did you get it over here anyway?" he asked.

"We tied it to the top of the limo. Sorry, boss, but, well, Ernesto told me the last time he collapsed the thing he could never get it back up. You might want to step out of the way Ma'am I need to get a little bit of a running start."

Sonny held up an extended palm. "Just set it down, Bruno. Here, Carly," he said as he passed Molly to her.

Carly smiled as Molly wrapped her chubby little arms around her neck. Molly's mother kind of hated her, for various reasons including, but definitely not limited to, the fact that she was Ally's twin sister, but Carly had always found Molly charming.

Sonny leaned the playpen just inside the door. "Let me just grab that lasagna."

"So, we're going to have dinner with you while daddy gets my inhaler," Kristina announced when she came back into the room.

"Right, of course," Carly said. While Sonny would probably return with Kristina's missing inhaler, she was certain there was much more to the story. She just hoped her sister wasn't involved.

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Back at PCGH, Dr. Monica Quartermaine hung up the Dictaphone, after dictating the stat reading on Alexis Davis' stat trans esophageal echocardiogram, with a sigh. As expected, the echocardiogram was completely normal. As she started around the corner, she saw Dr. Joe Scanlon approaching with a stack of papers.

"You're on call for Cardiology tonight, right?" he asked.

"Yes, what do you need?"

"Just take a look at this EKG. Chest pain started about thirty minutes before presentation."

Monica took the tracing and looked at it quickly. "Oh, he needs to go to the cath lab. Did you give them a heads up? Can you also give a heparin bolus?" she asked.

"The unit clerk is supposed to be calling. He's over here in trauma five," Dr. Scanlon said as they turned in the opposite direction.

"Is Dr. Larmon still here?"

"No, he had to leave early for some reason. Honestly, I just don't even ask anymore. He told me he's waiting on an echo on the lady in seven."

"I just finished dictating it. It is completely normal. I think she probably had panic attack and passed out but she has PE risk factors so I would recommend a PE Protocol CT. I think she hit her head when she fell so you need a Head CT too, definitely if you're going to anticoagulate."

"Just out of curiosity, did you mention any of this to Dr. Larmon?"

"Yes, but he pointed out that technically it wasn't my patient. I guess it still isn't but those are my recommendations. If you do all of that and it is negative and you feel uncomfortable discharging and want to do a twenty-four hour rule out call me later and I'll take care of the admission," Monica said as they reached trauma five.

"Thanks, I'll see if they can do that Head CT immediately so we can anticoagulate if we get held up with the Chest CT," Joe said as they stepped into the room. He turned to the patient. "Mr. Pratt, this is Dr. Quartermaine she is going to take care of getting your arteries reopened so you're getting blood to your heart and brain."

Mr. Pratt seemed to look her once over as she stepped closer to the bed. "Don't you have someone male?" he asked.

"Actually, Dr. Quartermaine is our Cardiology and Critical Care Chief. You're in good hands, Sir, try to remember it's 2007 and women can do anything they want to do."

Monica pulled out her stethoscope as Dr. Scanlon left the room and reminded herself of benefit of choosing battles carefully.