Zander was out in the lounge. He didn't realize it, but he was sitting in the chair Oksana had been sitting in. Quinn thought he looked OK, and went down the hall to see two other patients.
Quinn came out of Nicole McNabb's room and headed back to the nurse's station to get some information. She saw Joanna sitting on the arm of Zander's chair, her arm casually thrown around his shoulders.
"Thank you!" she said to him.
"What for?"
"For telling me about some of the stuff in that book! And some of what happened to you!"
"What good was it?"
"Two weeks ago when Charlie brought the kids back late, I was furious. I was ready to call my lawyer. Fortunately I can rarely get through to that woman and so nothing happened. I'm beginning to see why she makes it so hard to reach her! But this last weekend, he did it again! A half hour late. It makes it harder to get everything done to get them in bed on time when they are starting a new week of school. But I just did it all and didn't bother to get mad. I thought, oh well, it's just a half hour."
He smiled. "You wouldn't do all that stuff my parents did anyway."
"You never know. What if I had the money to do it? I might have. I was mad enough!"
Quinn was looking down at her charts, but smiled to herself, hearing that.
"I see that grin," Joanna said. "There's my witness! She heard me complain about Charlie for the whole 10 minutes on the way in to work from Kelly's!"
Quinn looked up. "I understand. You'll do the same for me someday, I'm sure."
"You're not paying attention," Zander said, "since you just told Joanna you're sure you're going to get a divorce after you had the kids."
"Statistic-wise, I don't imagine I'm any different," Quinn said, going over to them.
"Well, that's cynical," Joanna said. "But you're supposed to think you are the exception. Don't we all? Besides, you probably are. She turned down one lawyer and one doctor already, " Joanna explained to Zander. "So when she accepts, we will at least know the husband is the most perfect husband in the world."
"And who would that be?" Quinn asked, laughing. "Tell me so I can start dating him right now. Is it Prince William?"
"Are there any Kennedys left?" Zander asked Joanna. "One of them would be perfect."
"Doesn't have to be that grand," Joanna said, going along with the joke. "Grab one of the Quartermaines. Q.Q. Wouldn't that be cool? One's a doctor – he's single. The other one, Junior – he's divorced. I don't know what he does, but with his family owning ELQ, he'll always be a CEO whenever he pleases."
"Money isn't everything," Quinn said.
"No kidding," Zander said, "But what about the shrink?"
"He's the one turned down," Joanna said.
"But she talks like she's still with him."
"I guess she is. But my opinion, is well, if when he asks, you're not excited to death and so happy and all that, then why stick with it? She thinks she should still consider it, because it's the mature thing to do."
"If I were him, I'd hate that."
"Why?"
"I would not want any girl to marry me because it was" – he pitched his voice really low, to say, like an announcer – "The Mature Thing to Do."
"Well, you'll never have that problem," Joanna said, ruffling his hair.
"Huh?" Zander said. "Oh, I get it. Yeah, marrying me would never be the mature thing to do. It would be the stupid thing to do."
"Don't be too insulted by that," Quinn said. "There's a compliment hidden in that."
"There is?"
"Think about it. She marries you even though it is a stupid thing to do."
He still looked confused.
"We'll let you figure that one out," Joanna said, grinning.
The next day, Zander Smith was finally moved out of ICU to a regular room upstairs. "Freedom," Joanna said, when she saw Quinn. "Well, except for his little brother at your folks house."
"That's no problem," Quinn said. "No problem at all."
"Still I'm glad Zander's better."
"Yeah, he was getting hyper, too," Quinn said. "I guess they know better how to handle that in the regular ward."
Joanna smiled.
