Part 82

In the late morning, Zander was waiting for Alexis to call him upon getting out of court. He passed this time at Kelly's, opening up the office mail and writing things in the calendar where they indicated it was necessary.

Paul and Elizabeth came in and up to the counter, looking for a cup of coffee. Paul had on an expensive suit and tie, and Elizabeth looked like an art student in a flowery skirt with high heels. Yet they looked well matched.

He glared at both of them.

"The brilliant, happy pair," he said sarcastically.

Paul looked like he was about to say something, but thinking the better of it and staying silent, and trying to come up with something better to say instead. He heard Elizabeth say, reassuringly, "It's OK, Zander. Talk to Quinn. You can do more good going to Quinn."

"You are amazing," Paul said to her, when they got outside, coffee in hand. She stood up on her toes and kissed him. "You told him he could do more good talking to Quinn. As if he was actually doing some good right there!"

She smiled. "He needs positive vibes," she answered. "I know him well enough to know he's had enough criticism to last a life time."

"Brilliant," Paul said, "I will remember it."

"We can keep Smith in line," she answered, smiling up at him sweetly, sipping coffee.

"Well, if we can do that, we can do anything!" he answered, "but I am a little concerned about Quinn. She didn't seem as up as I thought she might be. I thought she'd be relieved, but she was a little depressed."

"It's the change," Elizabeth said. "In the long run, she'll see the good in it. I can even talk to her. Strange as it seems, I think I can cheer her up."

"That does sound strange," Paul said. "But I trust your judgment. You have no reason to be other than honest. I think you like Quinn, even, in a way. She's on the day shift now. She'll be off at four."

Elizabeth had Quinn's number, and called her at about 4:05, and asked her to talk to her in the park. Quinn said she saw no reason for it. Elizabeth said she was not looking for an argument, and wanted to try to straighten things out between the two of them, and Quinn might feel better.

Quinn thought this was ridiculously impossible, but then agreed, thinking it might feel better to give Elizabeth a piece of her mind. Why not, when Elizabeth asked for it?

"I wouldn't have done this to you, if I felt the least doubt. It is so strange. It feels so right. And so it follows it wasn't right for you two. Which makes it a good thing for you to have your freedom."

"Pardon me if I disagree. You of all people telling me that it's good. Naturally you want to feel like it is."

"Naturally, but I don't think I'm being dishonest. It might be a little frightening for you - in denial of what you really want, but – well, now you can go for it."

"You've already been with a shrink too long!" Quinn dismissed the notion of what she really wanted as not worth inquiring into further.

"I thought so before I knew he existed. You may not want to hear this now. But you and Paul can, I think, be friends. I think so highly of you."

"Thank you. I have nothing against him being happy. You either. He could have given it a little more time, and it would probably have worked out. But I don't have to regret any of that now. You've spared me."

Quinn went to the Outback with Alexis, who invited her out to lunch one day. Jerry Jax looked sympathetic how he knew, Quinn could only speculate and made such a ridiculous fuss over them that Quinn laughed, and assured Alexis that the Outback was safe from making her feel sad from now on.

Quinn and Joanna were in Luke's Bar. Joanna said she'd been there a few times, and it was mellow; an easy going place, quiet enough to talk in most of the time. There was a band there playing blues in a sort of low key way.

"There's no point in dating anyway," Quinn was saying, swirling her wine in her glass. "May as well just go around, make eye contact with guys, until you and your Destined One see each other."

"Maybe that would work as well," Joanna took a swig of beer, "or better. Didn't they use to parade all the unmarried people in the town square in the olden days? In Spain or some country like that?"

Quinn laughed. "Yeah. Once a week we just parade around. The woman on the inside of course. The men going in the opposite direction. On the outside. Circling around the park. This way Paul sees Elizabeth before he wastes time with me."

"I wonder if I even would have married Charlie in that game," Joanna said. "My Destined True Love that I would recognize the first time off could be married to somebody else right now."

"Yes, some woman is married to my husband, too," Quinn laughed.

"Don't say that! He might be about to walk in the door here."

"You are ever the optimist," Quinn said.

"Can I join you lovely ladies?" a voice said.

Quinn looked up, prepared to be annoyed. She wasn't, because it was only Lucky Spencer. "Sure, sit down," she said. "We're in the same boat, aren't we?"

"How do you mean?" he asked, sitting down, putting his beer on the table.

"Paul and Elizabeth," she said, looking at him as if he was dense.

"Who and Elizabeth?" he asked.

"You've really lost touch since you broke up, haven't you?"

"Yes. She's been really odd, whenever I've seen her. At work, she's always busy, and she'd stayed away from Kelly's – that's where we both live, over Kelly's – for the longest time she's ever stayed. I tried to get her to talk a little while back, when Zander's mother started taking over Deception, but she acted really distant."

"So you don't know she already has someone else," Joanna said.

"Someone else? No, that's only Jason Quartermaine, who always tries to step in whenever Elizabeth and I argue or she needs space, or whatever."

"I shouldn't tell you this, then, you should ask her," Quinn said.

"Go ahead and tell me, because my chances of talking to her are nil. She goes out of her way not to talk to me."

"It's not Dr. Quartermaine," Joanna told him, "It's Quinn's boyfriend, or, ex-boyfriend, Paul."

"I don't even understand. Who's he?"

"A doctor on staff at the hospital – a psychiatrist," Quinn explained.

"She didn't see a psychiatrist when she was in there, did she?"

"No. I introduced them, when she was doing that drawing of me at the speedway. Isn't that rich, Joanna? I introduced them. And now I think of it, there was something funny about it. They started to talk to each other, like they knew each other already. It was weird. I didn't think much of it, then."

Lucky was speechless.

"I'm really sorry," Quinn said.

He took a drink. He looked at her. "Well, don't be," he said. "Obviously, I wasn't going to learn about this any sooner. And I would rather know than not. It must be one of her 'I need space' things – but it's usually Jason and his motorcycle. He makes her feel free," he went on, mockingly, "riding on the back of his motorcycle."

"She wanted to do her drawing of Paul with a motorcycle," Quinn said. "I thought nothing of his going to pose for her for that. Paul never has owned or driven a motorcycle that I know of. She borrowed a motorcycle, he said."

"It would be a trick if she got Jason's for that," Lucky said. "I think I might actually sympathize with Jason. Well, no. On second thought, I'll never go that far."

They were silent awhile.

"But you," he said, realizing what had happened with Quinn. "How long were you dating this psychiatrist? It wasn't that serious, I hope?"

"It supposedly was, since we were thinking of getting married."

"Then I'm sorry," he said. "You sure don't deserve that."

"Well, it really wasn't all that hot, in spite of that," Quinn said.

"Yeah, she turned down his proposal. Don't let her get you to feel sorry for her over that," Joanna said, looking at Quinn, "she waited too long."

"My family and friends down to the last one are relieved," Quinn told Lucky. "They think I had no future with him. I was keeping an open mind. Now I don't have to. I'm getting used to it."

"I wonder if I should even bother to talk to Elizabeth about it," Lucky said. "I think I won't. I'd love to see how long she expects to go on without knowing. Maybe it isn't even a big deal."

"He thought it was," Quinn said. "Maybe not. Maybe it was enough for him to realize he didn't really want to get married."

"True," Joanna said. "It wouldn't take much for him to think that - if he could even be interested in someone else, while at the same time you aren't sure, well, he could have finally seen the light."

"Maybe the whole thing is a mirage to see if you'll fight back," Lucky suggested.

"No, that's isn't like him," Quinn said. "If it were, he's not getting any fight. I'm not up for that. It's so sudden. That's what bothers me. How can you believe in anybody, if they can suddenly change like that?"

"Was it really sudden?" Joanna asked. "Didn't you disagree about Thanksgiving?"

"He was understanding, as usual," Quinn said. "Or he didn't fight about it. Well, he wasn't so positively understanding. I remember him being rather, I don't know. He is not that easy to read, when you get right down to it. But come to think of it, he was rather – sarcastic – about it. Sarcastic for him, anyway. Saying that I was too involved in the patient's soap opera, or something like that."

"What patient? Did you go to see a patient for Thanksgiving?" Lucky laughed. "Boy, you're dedicated."

"By that time, it really wasn't so much seeing a patient."

"It arose out of the patient and his problems," Joanna commented. "Didn't Paul always think you were too involved with the patient?"

"I wasn't! The patient was difficult. I thought we persevere against challenges. It was like pulling teeth to get a medical history, but so, we still tried to get it. Then when we got it; other things developed, but by Thanksgiving, it was more like seeing a friend – or going to my folks, anyway. They were invited there, so we as a family were there. I think I resented Paul acting like he should just plan Thanksgiving and deem that we should see my family the day after only, without consulting me. Zander and his family had little to do with that."

"Oh, Zander, here we go again," said Lucky. "Why am I not be surprised he is at the bottom of this?"

"It's not his fault," Quinn said.

"His victims never think so," Lucky said. "So you lost your boyfriend over Zander. Another one for Zander to add to his list."

"That's silly!" Quinn declared. "I did not lose my boyfriend over Zander! It was just that his mother invited my family to Thanksgiving at their house. They had invited his father, to see Peter, and invited my whole family."

"What's the big deal about inviting the father?" Lucky asked.

"Peter hadn't seen him," Quinn explained. "They're divorced, and the father had been in prison."

"Zander's father in prison," Lucky said. "Why am I not surprised? Drug dealing?"

"No - interference with custody – that's why it was a big deal to invite him over," Quinn said. "He had taken Zander and Peter, when they were kids, to live with him when he didn't have custody. He took them out of the country. So he went to prison for that. When he got out, there were orders against him seeing Peter – Zander too, but he waived them and talked to his father. But they set it up so the father could come over on Thanksgiving and see Peter."

"What a lovely thing to invite your family to," Lucky said.

"It was nice," Quinn said. "We helped with being able to break the ice and keep it from being really awkward, and we had a really nice time."

"It figures that family is trouble," Lucky said. "Why are they suddenly around? They didn't care about Zander before, now there're around, throwing Thanksgiving Dinners and taking over companies."

"It is way more complicated than that," Quinn said.

"When Dr. Monica Quartermaine wanted his medical history," Joanna explained, "Zander wouldn't say anything. His lawyer Alexis, and Quinn, and the cops, put all the pieces together and found the parents, then the parents found Zander, we got the medical history, and Zander's pretty much in the clear, and even reconciling with the parents. Happy ending."

"Not with Zander," Lucky said. "No, see the happy ending is all his. Meanwhile, you lost time with Paul, had to do all this stuff you wouldn't have otherwise done to help Zander. I've seen it happen to my oldest friend, Emily Quartermaine. Before you know it you are eye-deep in Zander-related problems, and everything else falls apart. I saw Emily lose her boyfriend, have no time for friends, no time for fun, and barely time for her family, in exchange for visiting a jail and visiting a court trial. She had to move out of her parents' house and live at Kelly's. You're an adult now, but you're still getting the effect, Quinn. I hope he is worth it. Emily thought he was, and learned her lesson a little too late."

Quinn tried not to laugh. "I'm not laying this at Zander's door! It's not that simple."

"OK, maybe not, but can you honestly say that, with no Zander, you would have cared that much? You'd have said, OK, go to my folks tomorrow for Thanksgiving."

"I'd still have met Elizabeth. Unless you claim Zander somehow put her in the hospital! She'd still have done the drawing of me, and I'd still have introduced her to Paul!"

"Paul wouldn't have been so vulnerable, if you had been with him all that time you were working on digging up Zander's family for him," Joanna offered, jokingly.

Quinn laughed now, since Joanna was the one who had said it. "It could have been some other patient!"

"No," Lucky said. "Some other patient would have called his parents and had his medical history sent to the hospital."

"That is true," Quinn admitted. "Still, come on."

"The relationship was doubtful," Joanna said. "We all thought so. It was weak, because you didn't want to marry him, and he's so wonderful. You must have know he was not the one. Something would have happened to make that come apart. In fact, I vote for his going for Elizabeth even without Zander."

"Zander gets off the hook again," Lucky said. Even he was starting to laugh a little. "He always does."

The next thing Zander did was invite her over to Alexis' for a Russian dinner. "Now look how he's victimizing me," Quinn joked to Joanna. "Russian food!"

"Awful of him," Joanna quipped.

Zander and Alexis were cooking this dinner, and when Quinn came over they explained what everything was. Zander told her where you had to get the various ingredients in Moscow.

"Did you fly over there yesterday?" Quinn grinned.

He laughed at himself – he'd been telling her where to go as if she were in Moscow and could go out and get everything. He told her how he had to hunt up a couple of things in Port Charles.

"Then there's whole milk," Zander said. "I don't want to use skim, because they never have it there. Russians could care less about that stuff," he added. "Alexis can hardly deal with having this whole milk in her apartment."

"I'll live!" Alexis laughed. "I can't believe they don't have any skim, that's what!" She explained to Quinn. "Not in all of Moscow!"

"Maybe at one of the Western-style markets," he said. "You'd have to make a special trip there, though, and spend more roubles."

"I got roubles for skim milk," Alexis said.

Quinn laughed. She was cheered up a little more. She thanked Zander, "though it's the least you could do," she said.

"How's that?" he grinned.

"Well, I realized it is all your fault about Paul and Elizabeth!"

"What?" he said, eyes sparkling, since he could tell by her smile it was a joke.

"I did not have enough time for Paul, because I was looking for your medical history," Quinn explained. "This is exactly what happened to Emily, so Lucky explained it to me the other day. For her it was legal; for me, it's medical. I was spending time on figuring you out and who your parents were. This led directly to my dismissal by Paul. If you think about it, it really is very logical."

"I see," he answered. "I hid my history for the sole purpose of luring you in."

"Exactly."

"Being as I am the all powerful swami, you of course succumbed. Therefore, you did not have time for Paul and therefore Paul had nothing to do. Paul notices Elizabeth. It works out perfectly. Well, here I am. Let me have it."

"I can't!" Quinn laughed helplessly. Her spirits really did lift, right then, quite a bit.

"Here," Alexis said. "Have a piece of caviar. It's the least that blackguard can do for you."

Alexis went up to bed, telling Quinn to stay as long as she wanted. She came down with some pillows and blankets for the couch, in case she wanted to stay. "This is where he will sleep," she said, indicating Zander. "Then he will give you his room. This is the way he always does things. Pay it no mind, and just sleep upstairs. Don't even think of going if it gets late."

"Thanks, Alexis," Quinn said.

Zander came from upstairs, where he had gone to get "The Letter." Quinn had remembered to bring him the ones he had written in the hospital, not to send, but for therapy; which he had later given her.

She took his letter from Emily when he handed it to her. Quinn was sad that he kept it from the hospital.

"No," he said. "I kept it for Danny and Kathleen to cut up with it, like they did Joe's letter, remember?"

"It's good material for cutting up," Quinn said. She re-read it.

Dear Zander,

I am writing this from school, and mailing it to Alexis, so she can deliver it to you. Please do not try to get her to tell you where I am.

I cannot believe you would lock my brother in a warehouse and be part of a plot to kill him.

Michael, my nephew, is in enough danger with AJ trying to get him away from Sonny and Carly. Instead of leaving well enough alone, AJ was at that warehouse you work at with you locking him up.

Please, please, please, leave my family members alone.

As for me, I never want to see or hear from you again.

Emily Quartermaine

"She underlines her last name, as it to emphasize that she is a member of that family," Quinn said. "Why does she use that word? It isn't necessary, is it? Leave my family alone. Why does she use that word members? Is it a family, or a club? You need a membership application?"

Zander laughed. "Great minds think alike! That was my thought exactly! She told me when she broke up with me over her grandfather to leave her family members alone, too. I remember the phrase, because both times I found it to be so annoying. Whatever I may have done," he held up his hand, as if taking an oath, "I have never harmed any of her family members!"

"It probably is a club," Quinn said. "But why isn't she equally as angry at these Sonny and Carly people? Isn't Carly the one who shot you? OK, she knows nothing of that, but really, she may end up apologizing to you. It can't be OK for Carly to try to shoot AJ, if it's not OK for you to lock him up! Especially when your locking him up saved him from this Carly person!"

"Carly is a member who was kicked out," Zander explained. "She married AJ. That made her an associate member."

Quinn started giggling.

"It made her an associate member," Zander repeated, laughing, "and when she left AJ, of course, she lost her associate membership."

"I know!" Quinn said, "You had a provisional membership, which one gets for being a boyfriend or girlfriend to a member! Working for Carly's new husband, you had a conflict of interest. You had to be kicked out for that! So it followed that the romance had to be closed!"

"True love," he mused. "Yes, I thought I loved her, and I had never loved anybody before! I didn't know it was only a club membership! Now how do you know if you really love somebody, then?"

"Was it love at first sight?"

"No, not at all."

"That's how you know. Danny and Kathleen must be right. I talked to both Paul and Elizabeth, separately. The way they both describe it is so strange. Both can only say that they feel it is right. There is no doubt about it. He said he knew when he saw her. "

"Maybe for some people, that's true, but a lot of other people might end up being sorry. Paul and Elizabeth might end up sorry, for all we know."

There was a knock on the door. Elizabeth opened it. It was Paul. She could say nothing; only start kissing him and kissing him. They sat on her bed, which served as the couch, hand in hand. He pulled her really close. Then, both feeling like there was no effort that could fight it no matter how superhuman, they gave in and started undressing each other.

Elizabeth was totally amazed. Time seemed to slow, and the daylight faded away, until it was dark. Finally, settling down, and cuddling up to him under one of the sheets, she said: "That was just like in the movies. I didn't think it really happened that way. You are really good."

"No, I'm not. I never was before, anyway."

"That is really a sweet thing to say," she smiled, and looked up at him. She started kissing him again.

"She sounds so immature," Quinn was going on, and asked, "Were you really lovers?"

"Only once."

"What?"

"For real."

"The last day before she went to college?"

"No, the night I wrecked her prom."

"So you wrecked more than her prom. But how did you get from there to August when she left for school then? Isn't that the only thing on your mind at that point, when you think you're in love?"

"Normally."

"But you didn't try to get her into bed again? "

"No."

"How is that even possible? I could kick you! I felt like you had this intense love affair and had a real broken heart over her letter. You barely would be friends with another girl."

"I thought it was. Which is what is scary, you know? How do you know? It is easy to see now, but in the middle of it, how can you? It was the court and the trial and that I had to testify, at least, there was all that drama at the time."

"You never even thought of it in all that time?"

"I remember this one day in my room at Jake's. I was packing to go. Something happened, I don't even remember anymore what it was. Before I testified something made it seem too dangerous, for her. Her family always thought she was in danger by being with me, because I was in danger for testifying. One time, I thought they were right, so I said I was going to get out of town, so she'd be safe and all that. They were always worried about her being safe. Alexis talked me out of it later, but anyway, Emily comes to my room to argue she should go too - go out of town with me."

"So you're alone in this room. So far, so good."

"There she was, standing between me and the bed. We had already had this one night - itself it was another big drama, if you're ever so bored you want to hear about it, let me know."

"Oh, thanks. For now this story is exciting enough, though. She's there by the bed. So you make an attempt to take advantage of that, right?"

"I thought about it. But I could tell she was a zillion miles away from all that. See, with her, it's the drama. Sex may be part of the staging, but it's nothing itself. Anyway, she went on about how we loved each other and should always be together and how her older sister, Skye, would help us out financially and arrange for us to travel. I knew with her with me it wouldn't be safer for her anyway! And I knew with Skye in on it there was going to be some kind of price."

"I still don't buy it. Even with all that going on. In fact, it would be more likely. She's so in love with you! Has to run away with you! She's been with you. From then on there should have been only one thing on her mind! Do I have to repeat that?"

"No," he laughed. "But you see, do you think – well, her prom night - I must have done a terrible job! I didn't distract her myself. Only with my problems."

"She must have done a terrible job. But I won't ask any more about this. This relationship does not flatter the male ego in the least."

"No."

"How did you wreck a prom, anyway?"

"We got there. The guys came up to me and tried to score some controlled substances. The girls came up to her and asked her what it was like to date a criminal."

"So a few people did that."

"Well, she wanted to leave."

"She wanted to leave over that?"

"Hard to describe, but she made it seem like it was ok. Really came across as putting a value on me, like she did this for me. She was happy that night. Somehow the gossip mill was working so a few days later, her family realized she had never really been there, and they were furious."

"And of course, you continue to harm her."

"How?"

"Elizabeth is Little's Emily's best friend. Lucky is Little Emily's oldest friend. This with Paul makes a breach between her oldest friend and her best friend. Now, she has to pick between them."

"You know, I think I can follow that line of reasoning! I would bet she has to lose her best friend because of this."

"And as you recall, it is your fault."

"Therefore, she is losing her best friend because of me! I'm going to avoid Lucky if possible, so I don't catch hell."

"Of course it would have nothing to do with Little Emily writing Elizabeth only one letter all semester. But does she really blame other people like that?"

"No. She's like Teflon. Her friends and family do it for her."

"Lucky is the one she'll stick by. He's her champion. I know that from my own experience."

"Yes. Her oldest friend isn't a category that can be replaced."

"Good thought! A new best friend is possible. A new boyfriend is. But you can't top your oldest friend, no way!"

Quinn took his letters out. "Here," she handed them to him.

"You never read them?" he asked.

"No."

"What happened to your famous curiosity?" He grinned and turned to read them. He was sitting on the floor, and she was sitting on the couch. When he read a page, he tossed it to her and went to the next.

She had to get up for the flying paper. She read;

You are so frivolous, Emily, you jump to believe your family members, as you always call them, is it some sort of club that only jerks are allowed to join? - when they lie, even though by now you should know they are, when they have done it before.

I am sick of being accused of this or that to your family members. You already have another guy, so why don't you just tell me instead of making up this new lie about my terrorizing your loud mouthed brother - and you really think I am stupid enough to believe it? I had no idea AJ was in there and I did what Sonny had told me to do.

But that doesn't matter, as you are trumping up this stupid incident yourself, because you have another guy. I don't stand a chance at a distance, as you are so easy to distract. You can transfer your so called "love" to anybody dumb or lonely enough to need your attention that you so shallowly grant, with big, empty words to go alone with it. It is so easy for you to break up over the slightest thing, that your declarations of love have become equally frivolous in value. See how long this new love of your life lasts after a few rounds with your family members.

Your professions of fear are exaggerated and pointless. I have no desire to even talk to your pathetic family members. Tell the jerks to leave my family and friends alone.

Your address and directions to it could drop from the sky into my lap, and you would have no need to worry. I have no intention of contacting you. In fact, I don't want to hear from you again either, even if you change your pitiful, shallow, little mind again. Don't call me and don't send me another crummy letter - if I get another one, I'll throw it out unread.

Quinn couldn't help giggling at the way he had underlined every use of the word "members." She read the others:

Sergei:

You have to have control over everything, don't you? You can't leave it to me, when all you had to do was send me my crummy Russian passport, the one you so kindly got me to take me into an unstable third world nation that you previously fled because it was so horrible.

The custody orders you were violating are still in effect? What a surprise! Did you discuss that with any of your high priced fancy lawyers? You can discuss business deals with them, but when it came to your sons - oh, gee, I forgot! Did you know you did something illegal or does it just not matter to you whether what you do is illegal or not? So you found out the hard way.

I guess it wasn't good enough it was only me that would come back, you had to have Pete too, though both of us are not legally in your custody to start with! You had a chance to have one son in your illegal custody another year, but that not being good enough, you had to come back and try for both. Do you think the court decrees are just pictures the judge draws in his spare time to amuse you with?

Oksana:

Congratulations, every t is crossed and every I is dotted and every form is perfectly filled out and everyone is in their proper place. If the world could only live up to your standards, the world would be a Perfect Place. Failure to live up to your standards results in the desire to remove oneself from anywhere they can be exercised. This means you will lose everybody who doesn't live up to your standards. So you're happy, right?

He had run out of energy at this point.

"These are concise, " Quinn commented. "They go right to the point. Very good. I think they should be published," she teased.

"No," he said. "But I just may save Little Emily's and try to send it to her some time."

"Keep a copy," Quinn advised.

Lucky was at a loss - there was no way to even start trying to convince his mother she'd made a mistake.

He was at the house for breakfast one Sunday. While he was playing video games with his little sister, he heard his mother going on to his father.

It sounded as if her new partner wasn't there much more than Carly, but what she did for the company for about 100 times as effective. No, he heard Laura amending herself happily, a million times as effective. "When she's not there, even, she's doing things," Laura marveled. "Things come in. Other things get done. The needed person calls."

But top among Oksana's Svengali-like hold over his mother, in Lucky's opinion, was the sneaky trick of stating the opinion, unasked, that Laura move into what had been Carly's office. And redecorate it to boot.

It appeared Oksana was way bigger than Deception and thought of Laura as the one who was running it day to day, and was one of those employee-motivators who thinks people will do a good job if you treat them really nice. Or something like that. So Oksana took Laura's office as hers, and gave Carly's to Laura without a struggle, in fact, insisted on it!

This was amazing to Lucky, who had heard his mother's similar at-home comments during the time of the Great Battle for the Biggest Office at Deception, when no-show Carly had insisted on having the Big One for herself.

Lucky shook his head. He remembered Laura fuming over Carly being so insistent on that and wasting time with these sorts of power games. She had agreed to Carly taking that office to shut that off. In the months after that, Laura grew more and infuriated that Carly spent little time there, and when she was there, was on the phone or involved in other personal business.

In the days after Laura got this office for her own, Carly's gloomy set up was transformed into a place far more cheerful, yet sharp and professional.

The expansion was going to be a snap, as Oksana already was involved in a company dealing in lotions and facial treatments. This company ended up merged with Deception and was moved up from Florida, where it had originally been, and Deception actually took up almost half of the Equitable Building by the time it was moved in. Many of the employees of Deception were excited by the new floors, and they were allowed to roam at will on them and talk to the new employees. It was becoming a definite medium sized company rather than a small one.

Laura had always been sensitive about charges of nepotism and had never allowed for Lucky to do much that she felt someone in his job couldn't already do. Now she was less worried, because they were able to get three new photographers. Now he was one of 5 rather than one of 2, and Laura was more comfortable. She bubbled over about how many new models they could have. In that department, the nepotism over her son Nikolas' fiancée was similarly about to be diluted.

The best part of all, to Laura, was how legitimate they now were. "Only think, Luke," she said, "everything is totally legal and we don't have to worry about Oksana backing out or sending thugs. Somebody more against organized crime I never saw! Alexis thinks that she could have run across some Russians and had to head them off, you know how awful Russian organized crime can be. So Oksana has an eye for it and dislikes it thoroughly. I did not understand before how much better it would be to be legit! We pay all of our taxes this way, and we don't have to worry about the IRS, or the FCC or the FTC, or the INS or the SEC."

"Go for it, baby," Luke said. "Would you like some alphabet soup?"

"Sonny would go on about how legit this particular company was, but he said that about other companies he had. Like that coffee company, where Carly did the shooting. And we have international markets open up some, with connections to the legal establishments and requirements and treaties and all that stuff already there so that we don't have to break into it like beginners or in some semi-legal or illegal way," Laura added.

"If I had a picture of Alexis, I would salute it every day," Luke said.

Laura laughed and agreed.

So Lucky didn't see how even starting the subject of how this Oksana was Zander's mother and how that should put a stop to all these plans was going to be of any use. His mother didn't know any more about Zander than had been in the newspapers, and wasn't the type to judge him that harshly anyway - she had a soft spot for out-of-control youth that belied the fact she had more successfully raised her own sons. His father Lucky considered as hopeless. He would probably even empathize with the likes of Zander.

Zander called Quinn and told her that he was at the soccer game at Mercy High School. Pete was playing, of course. Her brother Tim was there, hanging out with some other friends of theirs. Didn't she want to come down before she missed more of this?

Quinn laughed and said she would try to get there before the end of the game.

It wasn't too crowded, and it was easy to make her way down to Zander, he was a row or two behind Tim. Tim came up to talk to her for a minute.

"Sander," Tim said. "Is everyone in Russia crazy? Why is that language so complicated?"

Quinn pulled at Tim's backwards baseball cap, and twisted it around to face frontward. "It's not complicated to them, English is, dorkhead." Tim pulled his cap around backwards.

"I will never be able to remember all the case endings," he said. "I do not understand how any human being can, and that includes all Russians who ever lived."

"It is from using them all the time," Zander said. "Don't try to memorize the endings, make up sentences. Then you remember the sentences and the vocabulary in them and the endings. The endings are much easier to remember if they're part of a word in a sentence. They the words of the same gender, when you need to put them in that case, remember you sentence for that gender. And you get a reinforcement of a use of that case, too."

"That's more to memorize, but I guess it makes sense."

"More, but much easier than a set of boring endings. If you do it, I'll make a tape of me saying them. You can play that when you're doing some chore, and you'll get them reinforced and the pronunciation, too."

"A good deal, Tim," Quinn said.

"I'll try it," Tim vowed. "Don't tell Pete. Then I can shock him out of his wits by knowing all the endings."

"I will never tell Pete," Zander said, grinning. "Never."

Quinn laughed.

Somebody called Tim, so he hit them each in the arm with the greatest affection and went down a few rows.

The cheerleaders jumped up, and started another cheer. Pete got the ball and dribbled it downfield. Quinn jumped up and yelled for him.

It was cold. She shivered.

"Take my jacket," Zander said, taking it off, "you're freezing."

"No!" she said. "I've got a jacket"

"It's too thin," he said. "You're shivering."

"You'll be really cold without yours," she said. "Did you consider that?"

"Ever the nurse," he said. "Still taking care of me, I see."

"Someone has to! How do you even think of sitting here without a jacket, to give it to me who already has one?

He submitted to her, putting his jacket back on. She sat down next to him, arms folded, moving around to warm up.

"Here," he said, putting his arms around her.

"Well," she said slowly, "that does do some good." He complained about her elbow poking him, eventually accusing her of having more than two elbows. She sighed, and rolled her eyes, pretending he was troublesome. After a moment, she put his arm around his waist, so he could be spared these multiple elbows.