The nurses were all gathered around someone in the lounge. Eventually, Quinn saw it was AJ Quartermaine. He was holding a toddler in his arms – she presumed it was his son. Everybody was oohing and aahing over the baby and going on about how cute he was.
"Well, now he has custody," Joanna told Quinn. "His ex is under arrest for the attempted murder of him and Zander Smith."
"Oh, so after all, it was just mistaken identity?"
"Looks like it. How do you not know your own ex-husband? Especially if you want to kill him. If I was going to try to kill Charlie, I wouldn't be shooting at other guys!"
"I guess Charlie had best be careful, then."
"You can bet on that!"
Now that Zander Smith was finally out of her hair, Quinn noticed that there was another, similar case. It was not nearly as severe, but it was a shadow of the same thing, as it were.
Elizabeth Webber had a boyfriend who came in every day; and who occasionally stayed above an hour. His parents had come in once, and a friend or two here and there. Still, she was alone a great deal of the time.
Like Zander, she appeared to have no parents and no other family. Quinn learned that her grandmother had once even been their head nurse, but she was retired now, and was with off doing some good work abroad, like Elizabeth's parents, who were physicians. Apparently Elizabeth did not choose to interrupt them at whatever they were doing to have them come back to attend to her now. This extended to her sister, who was said to be in medical school, also abroad.
So later that day, when Joe Quinn came in, he ended up reading poetry to Elizabeth.
Then Quinn stopped to see her on her way out for the day, as she sometimes had with Zander.
"Sorry for all that noise. AJ Quartermaine was showing off his son."
"Oh, that's great," Elizabeth said. "I suppose he got custody of him."
"Yeah, I suppose your best friend must be happy. Or unhappy. I'm too confused by her letter to Zander to tell. Did you let him read your letter?"
"Yes."
"You think she is OK with that?"
"She'll probably get upset with me if she finds out about it. Just seemed fairer to him, you know? He can get under your skin. I didn't feel well. I guess I'll be sorry, but with her, you never know. She may get really upset with me or it may never matter."
"A best friend that gets upset with you?"
"Yeah, I don't know, maybe Zander is right. She might have two more best friends at her college already. She's been upset with me before."
"What for?"
"I got back with Lucky instead of getting together with her brother."
"Man! Demanding little witch! Seems to think her brothers are the center of the universe! Oh, sorry."
"It's ok. You don't know her."
"Good thing! Sheesh! What are these incredible good qualities she had to make up for all that bossiness?"
"Well," Elizabeth, "Well, let's see. She's been through a lot."
"Oh, yes. Zander put her through a lot. Anybody else? Can't be her brothers."
"There's her sister, Skye, who is a lot older and yet competes with her, or something. There's Juan, I guess he put her through a lot. She was addicted to drugs once, and her friend died. Just a friend, but they were buddies, both taking the same drugs. Her father. Maybe I shouldn't tell you about him. You work here."
"Don't have to. I'm already convinced everybody has put her through a whole lot."
"I can see you might not like her."
"Not particularly. I guess I just felt sorry for Zander, so I took it from that view, you know? I know him and I don't know her. Natural. There are probably people out there I've never met who think I'm a jerk. Friends of my ex-boyfriend in Kentucky could. And I know Zander was in jail and all that. Not in a position to be picky. But she was. Very strange."
"You feel sorry for him, is that all?"
"Yeah, or it was. I guess I've been on his case so long he's like my little brother or something. He's finally gone out of ICU. Of course he could come up here to see you. But then he's not my problem. You can't imagine how much lighter my job just got!"
