Part 84
Alexis answered her door. It was Oksana.
"Hi!" Alexis said. "Come in! Is anything happening with Deception?"
"No, it's not business; I want to invite you on New Year's - the Russian way - I talk Sander into fixing it up so it'll be as they do it there now. As much as possible, anyway."
"Oh, I'd love that. Lately he has been into teaching me about my Russian heritage. We had a dinner here a few nights ago, with Quinn, too."
"You know how to speak any Russian?"
"Somewhat. From high school and college. My brothers and I."
"You want to practice; just tell one of us."
"Thank you. Spah-see-bah. I would like to brush up on that. It is thoughtful of you."
"Anything you think of, I can do. I couldn't thank you enough. You really do a lot of my job, to take care of him, as I see."
"Not at all," Alexis said. "I like Zander, and I always have, even when I first met him. He came that way, so it is your doing. No matter what he says. What do kids know, anyway?"
"Not much," Oksana laughed, "still, you help him out a lot."
The door rang again. It was Zander and Quinn, who had been out looking for Christmas presents, and had some for Alexis. Zander looked surprised to see Oksana there, and even a little suspicious.
"What are you doing here, Mom?" he demanded to know.
"We were discussing how wonderful you are," Alexis said, taking the presents, "I'm going to save these for New Years, like a good Russian."
"That's right," Zander said. "You are catching on, comrade."
Later, Quinn and Zander met Peter at the Port Charles Hotel. Oksana had allowed for this little visit, so long as Zander was there. Quinn was glad to see this working out.
Zander and Pete got into a discussion about soccer that Sergei walked away from, to fix some drinks. He smiled at Quinn.
She felt shy, and as if she were interfering, but it was too important to her not to take the opportunity. So she asked Sergei if he knew where Zander's medals were.
"I have them all. Back in the house. In Daytona." Sergei answered her calmly enough. He didn't seem upset or surprised, so she went on: "I thought about him having them, so he has a reminder of some positive things. Achievements he did. Like that. You know, good reminders. That he's good. OK."
Sergei understood her, to her relief. "I can give them to him. You can come and get them, OK? You come down, you and Joe and anybody else in your family - for the Daytona 500 races, in February, maybe - stay in the house - and you can find the medals. And the yearbook from school. Some pictures, I have, too."
He related this plan to Zander, and invited him on this trip for good measure.
Zander said he thought it was a good one. He looked at Quinn, almost shyly. "You can take a vacation, maybe?" he said. "If you can get time off. You'd like that race, I'm sure."
She smiled and said she would try.
"It'll be warm there," he said, as if he were a lawyer arguing a case. "You can sit on the beach. It's a good vacation for you," he said. "You need a break. After that patient gave you all that trouble and all, back in the fall."
"That was pretty hard work. I probably could use a vacation, on account of that one patient."
He laughed and hugged her impulsively. He looked up, still holding her loosely, and asked, "Dad, how did you get that stuff back from Moscow? It must have been in the apartment. You were being carted off to jail."
"I write to Aleksei Semyonovich from jail. He's a neighbor," Sergei explained aside to Quinn. "He shipped the important stuff - he was going to bring it himself, but the consul wouldn't give him a visa."
Quinn laughed, and looked up at Zander, as if explaining: "This consul said Aleksei had to get his green card first, and that would take a year!"
"That's exactly right, Q-girl," Peter said.
"You are catching on, Quinn" Zander said. "You always have been smart. But Dad, if Aleksei trusted it to the Russian mails, then it isn't in Daytona. It is sitting in a little post office in Siberia. Where it has been for about a year, after a year's sojourn in St. Petersburg."
"That is only too true," Peter explained to Quinn. "Everybody jokes like that about the Russian Post Office."
"Now, Sander, my boy, I know that stuff is more valuable than for trusting it to them! " Sergei protested. "Aleksei could get a visa to London and he shipped it from there. I've seen it. It was there when I get back to the house. I have my assistants keep track of it."
"Thank heavens!" Quinn said. "That is important stuff. I would even send Aleksei a thank-you note, but I don't know if I want samples of my handwriting in the possession of the Siberian authorities."
"You find a very smart lady here, Sander," Sergei said, "She don't have to be told twice."
On Christmas Day, the Connors house was pretty full. Kathleen's parents had gone to her sister's, but her brother was there with his family. Danny's parents were there. Oksana and her two sons were there. Rosa and her two nieces had a week's visit to their hometown.
Quinn had gone over on Christmas Eve. It was still fun on Christmas morning; just her and her two brothers and her parents and Joe. He'd been there early every morning for years, and the habit didn't die even when the children were as old as they were now.
Then everyone got up and straightened up a little and started working on dinner.
Danny claimed to be helping in the kitchen. He'd do a little job and then disappear, telling whoever was there he'd do any job they asked.
"Remember to come up with a job for him at least once an hour," Kathleen told Tim and Quinn.
Tim wasn't doing too bad at helping. He pared potatoes. He cut up carrots. He was a whiz with that kind of thing.
Brad was just too many people in the kitchen, and got out of it on that account. He went outside with a basketball.
When everyone else had come, everything was pretty much ready, with too many people around trying to help.
Quinn got out of the kitchen for that reason.
Standing around in the living room, she looked idly at Tim's Russian book.
"How can you read those letters?" she asked.
"That part wasn't too bad," Tim said. "Like cracking a code. It's the cases and the prepositions that kill you."
"Russian spelling is truer," Zander told her. "When you learn the letters, you can tell how to pronounce the word."
"Except for which syllable the stress goes on," Tim said. "That is the biggest mystery of the universe. If I try to guess, the only rule that works is, that it does not go on the syllable I think it should naturally fall on."
Zander smiled. He took a piece of paper out of Tim's notebook and wrote some of these letters on it. He gave it to Quinn.
"What's that say?" she asked.
"Quinn," he said.
"The K is the only one that I can follow."
"That letter is -oo- like in boot - that one isn't quite the I in Quinn, but it'll have to do. That is an N. "
"An N. It looks like an H."
"No," Tim said, from the chair where he had taken up a game of video baseball against Pete. "It's an N."
Peter said: "Yes Q, it's an N. And the language is so pitiful, it has no Q. That's why Sander used K and -oo- "
"What a funny looking little letter. It looks like a B attached to an I. But then I guess ours look funny to the Russians."
"Funny?" Peter exclaimed. "They are hilarious! None of them have the same sound consistently. Some of them are redundant."
"Which?"
"Think about C. Why does English need C? Where it is, S or K will do. There is no need for this C."
"I have my ending sentences made up, Sander," Tim said. "for the instrumental case. See, these are they - " he got back up and went back to Quinn, and pulled out a folded piece of notebook paper from the book.
"What do your sentences mean in English?" Quinn asked, secretly impressed at Tim's writing in the Russian alphabet.
"Well, it's a fascinating story," Tim said. "It goes like this: I work as a waiter. Dad works as a teacher. I'm going to the opera with Aleksei. My sister works as a nurse. I'm going to the ballet with auntie. The train is behind the station. The table is in front of the window, and the car is in front of the building."
"That is worthy of James Joyce," Quinn said. "But I don't believe you're going to the ballet or the opera with anybody."
"Well, I'll have to if I ever intend to remember the endings for the instrumental case. And that's just one case, Quinn."
"What is hardest about learning English?" Quinn asked.
Zander called across the room: "Mom, come over here, please. Quinn has a question."
Oksana came over. She said it was spelling. "And contractions. Don't and Can't and I'm - now I know those. But I don't like "doesn't." It seems like it should be "don't." I try to use "doesn't" but I think of "don't" first. I try to even not use them, and use "do not." It is hard to hear the end of the past tense. Walkt, it sounds like, and walkt and walk are hard to hear different. Then there is words. There are words that mean 20 things. There are words that sound alike, spelled different. There are words spelled the same but for one letter, but they don't rhyme."
"There's a list that goes around the internet of those.," Zander said. "Crazy things about the English language."
"Some foreigner probably wrote it," Oksana opined.
"What about different accents?" Quinn asked. "In Florida, people had southern ones, didn't they?"
"Some did, some did not. But when they do, they talk slower," Oksana said. "Once you know that accent, they talk a little slower and you can understand it some small bit easier."
"Did you go to church?" Zander asked Quinn, sitting next to her at dinner. Quinn thought she would have to interfere to arrange this herself, but Kathleen happened to put her next to him anyway. "Don't you have to go on Christmas? Pete said we had to go, but we didn't."
Quinn was amused at Pete the Catholic. "Catholic High School has that much influence after one semester? I'm impressed. You can go on Christmas morning. We went at midnight. You can go at midnight. Only on Christmas."
"Really? How long does it last?"
"Oh, not that long. An hour. Then we come back and eat breakfast. It's fun. We cook breakfast at one in the morning. It's a family tradition. I wish we thought of asking you."
"I don't think Pete knew you could go at midnight. He thought we should go this morning."
"He'll learn," Quinn said.
"He already knows all kinds of interesting stuff from his religion class. "
"I was working on that, Oksana!" Danny was saying, loudly enough to get their attention, "even when I was a student back at that Glorified High School!"
Quinn had no idea what Danny was talking about, but said, "Dad! That's where Zander's going to go to college! Do you have to use that name for it!"
Danny stopped. "Oh, my big mouth! Pay no mind, Zander! I graduated there myself."
"I know," Zander said, almost laughing. "So did Mrs. Connor."
"You remember!" Kathleen exclaimed. "That's sweet. It is a fine institution."
"They just called it that for the purpose of trying to get Quinn to pick Notre Dame," Joe explained.
"That is true," Danny declared. "When she wanted to go here, instead, when the Fighting Irish were calling her - she wanted to go to PCU to be with her true love, for all time, Scott Jankowski!"
"I was only 18 then!" Quinn defended herself stoutly. "How was I to know he wasn't my true love for all time?"
"OK, there, there, Quinn. I won't call GHS GHS. I'll call it," he slowed down and used a clipped English accent, as extremely snooty as he could make it "Port Charles University."
"Since it is your alma mater," Zander said, "you should."
Danny laughed loudly, and everyone else followed. "You got it, Zander! Port Charles University. Port Charles University," he repeated, with his best upper class accent.
In the week after Christmas, Emily went to Jake's, but Jake told her that Zander didn't live there any longer.
She thought for a minute. She didn't want to try to find his mother's house. Maybe she could find out where he worked. She decided to go ask Alexis.
When she went into Alexis' office, though, she was shocked to see Zander sitting at her desk – the one she'd worked at when she worked for Alexis herself.
He didn't seem glad to see her. This threw her for a loop.
"I have to talk to you," she said.
"I have nothing to say to you and no desire to hear anything you have to say."
She saw that he was mad at her. "I didn't know what had happened. Now I do."
"You wouldn't hear my side before, and I'm not hearing yours now, and besides – never mind – I wrote you a letter I couldn't send. I'll send it to you at home."
"My parents will take it when they see it's from you."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot. You're too much of a baby to handle your own mail."
"You don't have to be so mean! My family never told me Carly shot you."
"I don't care."
"I can't believe you're mad at me! I had no way of knowing all this! I had no choice."
"You did have a choice. You always have a choice. You could have told me where you were at any time!"
"I promised my family. If you had not agreed to my going away this would never have happened."
"You agreed too! Geez Emily, are you responsible for anything you do?"
"You wanted me to go."
"Of course I did. I was sick of hearing how I wrecked your life and deprived you of every opportunity. Your father and mother convinced me you needed to go."
"But what have you been doing all this time?"
"Life. I have a family. I have a job. I have a girlfriend. And I don't have time for you." He started dialing on the phone. "Read the letter. It'll be at Deception. In Oksana Kanishcheva's office."
"Who is that?"
"My mother." He wasn't looking at her, and attended to the business over the phone.
Alexis came out of her office, having gotten off the phone. She asked if she had really heard Emily?
"Yeah. What a lot of nerve. She even acted like she thought I was waiting around for her to discover she was wrong about me locking up AJ. I think she believed I was going to jump for joy. Oh, I'm sorry Alexis," he said, realizing, "maybe she was here to see you. I kind of drove her away. Told her I was going to send her the letter I wrote her in response to hers, but couldn't actually send because she goes to college at an undisclosed location."
"That's OK. If she wants to see me, it's be tough for her to do that without running into you, but that's life. What effect do you think that letter will have?"
"It tells her to leave me alone."
"Will she listen?"
"I think so. She has no reason not to. She's got someone else. I told her I did."
"Good for you." Alexis smiled warmly. She put her hands on his shoulders, "I really like your someone else. For you, I do. You need a grown-up, who can understand what she is getting into."
"Very funny," he said, but he patted on of her hands.
Emily went to Lucky first, and explained what had happened.
"Are you sure?" Lucky asked her. He had stopped his photo shoot to attend to her. "You don't need this. It's all over."
"I'm sure. I want to at least figure out what he's so mad about. Let's go."
They went up to the executive floor. Lucky gave their names to the receptionist.
As they waited, she told him: "He was wearing a tie. And he looked younger, somehow. That's the only way I can describe it. Younger. And he acted more immature than he did before."
The receptionist said they could go in.
Oksana was putting down the phone, and was on her feet behind the desk.
Emily's jaw dropped. She saw the same bright dark hair. The same big eyes. She stared, and said nothing.
Lucky was glad he was there. "This is Emily Quartermaine. Oksana. Emily was a model once. I came with her as her friend. Zander has a letter for her?"
"This is yours then," Oksana said, handing the letter over to Emily. "My son ask me to give it to you. Are you looking for a job?"
"No," Emily answered, recovering. "I guess Zander told you only bad stuff about me."
"Nothing at all. If you are interested, leave your photos."
Oksana took Peter to the hospital for an EKG. Peter thought it was a riot, but he cooperated. A couple of times he pretended to be keeling over, saying, "my heart!"
The EKG technician smiled. "It's a precaution. I can see you are stout of heart."
Sergei was in the waiting room when they came out.
"OK, Dad, it's your turn," Peter said. "Don't keel over, OK? We'll wait for you."
They had agreed to take Peter out to lunch after this, at his request, and they figured that prepared to, they could last an hour without a battle. Zander was at work. Oksana even thought it might be easier without Zander. If they told him after they had succeeded in getting through it without any cross words, they would do better with him.
Sergei didn't get it, but went along without arguing. He didn't see why Oksana thought Zander was such a bear, but knew that arguing with her was futile.
"Very nice!" Gail was saying, as she saw the Quartermaine family, gathered together to go out for lunch. "You all look splendid! A handsome family!"
The handsome family went to the elevators.
"If we stop by ICU, so I can pick up a report," Monica said, "I'll be set for the day."
"You aren't going to read that report at lunch, Mom," Emily protested.
"I'll look at it in the car on the way over."
The elevator stopped on a couple of other floors, but no one else got in. Anyone waiting for an elevator and saw the chief of staff and Dr. Monica Quartmermaine, AJ, Dr. Jason and even Skye and Emily, was not bold enough to take that one.
Employees in the lobbies affected whispered among themselves when they were sure the elevator doors had closed. Most of the employees of the hospital liked the family members individually - there were a few who admitted that they didn't like bratty Emily - but together, the Quartermaine Family was, well, no fun at all. They were referred to behind their back as "The Family" which of course led to "The Manson Family," which led to "The Mansons -" good enough code even to use in front of them, had they dared. The female employees would then fall to discussing what they saw of Skye's jewelry and clothes - always impressive.
Quinn was in the lounge area for a moment with Sergei, Oksana and Peter, feeling really gratified that they took time to stop by only to say hello to her. She turned instinctively when she heard the sound of the elevator bell, and was momentarily stunned to see the Mansons exit, as one, and as if they were a small herd of tigers.
Monica looked fairly civil, picking up her report from Joanna, and asked if they had been in to do EKGs. Oksana confirmed that.
"That's Zander's mother," Emily said, without thinking.
"Yes," Monica said, apparently up to trying to make it work out without a battle. "Uncanny resemblance, no? This is Oksana, which we are allowed to use rather than trip on the last name. And his father, Sergei, and his brother Peter," she added. "This is my family, Dr. Alan Quartermaine, my husband, and my children, Skye, AJ, Dr. Jason and Emily Quartermaine."
"Very glad to meet you," Oksana said. Peter was well trained enough to say the same thing. Sergei looked like he didn't know what was going on.
"So you're Zander's parents," Dr. Alan Quartermaine said. Quinn didn't like the tone, nor did she like it when he went on, "You haven't done a very good job, have you?"
They all stared.
"Unless you think raising a high school drug dealer is a good job," he continued, sarcastically.
"Dad," Emily started to protest.
"Never mind, Emily," Monica said. "Put a sock in it, Alan. Let's go. Nice to have seen you," she said, as the Mansons retreated to the elevator, she with her report in her hand.
"Those are my patient's family," Monica was unable to contain herself when the door had shut on them again. "Keep your personal comments for outside the hospital."
"Sorry, dear," Alan said absently. "I was completely taken by surprise. I never knew they existed. In fact, now I'm amazed. I never even thought about Zander's parents. So I said the first thing that came to mind without thinking."
"Then you can go easier on Zander about acting without thinking," Monica said.
"Enough of Zander," AJ said. "This is a holiday party! We're all together, and we have Emily home for Christmas Break. Let's have fun, not be arguing about Zander. Haven't we had enough of that?"
"They were fun," Peter said, "Where do they keep them locked up, Q.?"
"In the basement," Quinn said.
"They looked like they were going out," Oksana said.
"Rumor has it they are going out to lunch," Joanna said, helpfully. "They'll probably go to the Port Charles Grill, which they own."
"You wouldn't happen to be going there, would you?" Quinn asked mischievously.
"The Outback is very nice," Oksana said. "Please - come along," she said to Quinn and Joanna.
"Thank you," Quinn said, "I'd love to, but there's no way we have a long enough break for it."
"Another time, then."
"Yes," Quinn smiled, "for sure." She watched them into the elevator.
"You have my cell number Q.," Pete said, yanking her braid a little bit as he went after them. "Call me if you want to find out if they run into each other in the parking garage. You strike me as the type who wants a warning of the next World War."
"Go on," Quinn giggled.
"That was close," Joanna commented, after the elevator door had shut on them.
Finally, the day before New Year's Eve, in the afternoon, Elizabeth was there when Emily went by her studio. Lucky always wanted to go with her, but Emily thought his presence would stifle everything.
Elizabeth was friendly, hugged her even, and bade her come in.
Emily recognized the nurse in the picture.
"Zander knew about Vinnie, Elizabeth," she said. "Why'd you tell him?"
"I did? I don't remember. Are you sure you didn't tell someone else?"
"Nobody."
"Not Lucky?"
"I told Lucky, but he didn't tell Zander."
"I think it was the letter. When I was in the hospital, your letter was there. Zander was in the ICU when I was. He came to my room a couple of times. Told me about your letter breaking up with him. He was talking about why you did it. I remember now. I thought he should know the real reason."
"But it wasn't like that," Emily said. "I broke up with Zander before I got with Vinnie. And you were in the hospital? I didn't know that either."
"That's how it is bound to be when no one can reach you. But how much time before?" Elizabeth asked. "It didn't look like it was very much sooner. Your letter to me wasn't dated much later. You were over it all very quickly. Nobody begrudges you your right to a social life at college though. It doesn't matter now, anyway."
"You've got to help me straighten Zander out," Emily argued.
"About what? You've got nothing left with Zander anyway. Why bother? Just go back to college and back to Vinnie."
"We broke up. I don't want Zander to be mad at me for no reason, that's all."
"Is he mad at you?"
"He won't talk to me."
"That's understandable. But so what? You don't want to talk to him either."
"I don't see why he can't be friendly. Maybe we can work it out, eventually."
"I don't see what there is to work out. You've got someone new; OK, you broke up with him, but you'll be going back to school, where you're likely to meet someone else. Zander has someone new, who lives here, where he lives."
"Why did you break up with Lucky?"
"We really drifted apart."
"That's not true. I know you met someone else. How could you do that to Lucky?"
"Same way you could do it to Zander, I guess."
"But Lucky hadn't done anything. I thought Zander had locked AJ up."
"It is more complicated than that."
"What's complicated? You love Lucky."
"I was in high school when I thought that."
"And past high school."
"I know, but you grow up eventually."
"How did you end up doing this painting of this girl, when you stole her boyfriend?"
"I knew her in the hospital. She was the nurse on my case. And she was on her way to breaking with him in the long run. I knew she liked Zander, even when we were in the hospital, and I hadn't met Paul yet."
"She said that?"
"No. I could tell. Even if she couldn't."
"She likes him. But whether he likes her, is another thing."
"He does. I don't see it makes any difference to you."
"When I knew Zander had not done anything wrong to AJ, and when I knew I couldn't be with Vinnie, well that sort of puts it back where it was, doesn't it?"
"No. Everything still happened. You told Zander you were done with him! So he went on as if that were true! You can't erase that by breaking up with Vinnie now!"
"He shouldn't have known about Vinnie, Elizabeth."
"Yes he should, and you should have told him."
"I wasn't talking to him anymore, but that was for a reason that turns out to be wrong!"
"You still can't undo those months that passed!"
"I didn't do anything wrong, is all."
"No. Perhaps not. It all happened. I suppose things happen. He can't undo how close he is to Quinn."
"Who is this?" Emily asked, looking at the picture of Paul with the motorcycle.
"That's Paul."
Emily looked at it for awhile.
"So you love this Paul?"
"I don't know."
"Everything's really changed," Emily said.
"Your grades aren't even good. I can't believe this report. You were at the head of your class your senior year," Monica was looking at Emily's report card.
"This is college. It's harder."
Monica sighed. "I suppose so. I hope you're getting settled in there. You've got to buckle down next semester. I know you can do better than this."
"Are you going to make me to go PCU?" Emily asked.
"Of course not. I don't think you should miss out on going away to college. But you've got to study, too."
"I will. I had all that going on with Vinnie."
"Merely having a boyfriend is no reason not to get good grades!"
"He's still there. Maybe I shouldn't go back."
"He's not the only one there! You have friends there! You were telling me all about them on the drive from the airport!"
AJ was amazed. He saw Quinn, who he had always thought was cute, and had a terrific personality - friendly, and caring, with a good sense of humor - out on the upper floor patio at the end of the hall in ICU - talking out there, alone, with Zander. Standing really close to that deviant, she then reached up and gave him a kiss. A really nice kiss, which lasted long enough for AJ to shake his head and wonder for the hundredth time how Zander managed it.
It must be sheer lack of effort, AJ mused. Maybe the rest of us think too hard about how to impress a girl. He turned around, when they finally stopped kissing and looked then like they were walking back in.
A little later, curious, and knowing Zander wasn't likely to reveal these secrets he knew, AJ stopped and didn't go in when he heard Quinn and Joanna talking in the break room.
"What are you doing on your day off?" he heard Joanna asking.
"Ice skating. Going out to dinner."
"With whom?"
"Zander."
"What happened to the no date vow?"
"This is different. We're friends."
"Oh, you're just friends. Tell me about it."
"Now, don't be so cynical. In a way, he is the perfect date. Here are the reasons: He's three years younger. Not finished school. Has to reconcile with parents and reunite with brother. Not entirely over last girlfriend. No further along than I am when it comes to that. No time or energy for any commitment. Underage, so always the designated driver and I can drink up a storm. "
"Ha ha ha. So you are safe from too-early proposals?"
"And from drifting on because it is so proper, so - supposed to work, on paper."
"Are you sure you don't simply want him?"
"Of course I do! For the reasons I gave! "
Joanna sighed. "I thought your wild streak was played out driving on the speedway."
"It must not be."
"OK, have your wild oats sown. Not a bad idea, actually."
"You should try it."
Oksana explained to Gail: "I'm not as upset as he thinks about drug dealing. I'm upset he rather do that than come back to me. I'd give you money to survive without you having to talk to me," she turned to Zander. "You do not have to resort to things like that."
"Violating the legal rules, and you're not upset? I don't believe it, Mom," Zander said.
"You must so stubbornly insist on a thing once you think you know it!" Oksana exclaimed, with exasperation. "I am not so - so - so - stuck, stuck about a legal rule!"
"Then I don't have to call you for a hand-out and can break a few while I'm at it."
"Stop saying things like that! You're my minor child. You were. You're a minor child. Even over 18, you're my son. What hand-out? Where do you get names for things that sound bad, for things that are not bad? I work hard. OK, you do not like it, maybe I overdo it. I did it so you would live good. Certainly not have to do illegal things! What happen to some of those kids you sell drugs to?
"See, sure enough, that's my fault. Nobody forced them too. Rich spoiled high school kids, buying drugs, that is the fault of the drug dealer. They had no choice. Their parents had no choice but to leave them free for long periods of time without knowing what they were doing. And yeah, you work hard. Have to leave that at my door too. If you were doing it to support me, you may as well have stopped when you had as much money as the Connors have. But you had to do more than that. Way more. You did it for yourself. You like it, it's your thing. You have a right to it. But you don't have to lay it all on me. "
"Good point," Gail said, and to Oksana, "Let's not bring those kids and their problems into it. One issue at a time. I think Zander feels bad about this drug dealing, because he thinks you think less of him for it. "
"Right," Zander agreed, spiritedly. "I think so much of this conditional love, stuff. It reminds me of my old girlfriend. All I have to do is screw up. I can do that without trying. So they're always about to leave! Boy, Mom, you've been tricked. Now you moved yourself and Pete to a town where everybody knows you have a son that's a drug dealer. There goes your reputation. I knew you would be sorry!"
"I do not care what they think in the town! They know you better than I do! Nobody before even said a word! Why does this Dr. Quartermaine tell me when his wife didn't?"
"Well, wait a minute," Gail said. "These details are beside the point. Zander, it seems to me you know Oksana will take care of you unconditionally, but your concern is she doesn't love you if you've screwed up, as you so elegantly put it."
"What's the difference?" Oksana looked a little bewildered.
"Do you think you're the family scapegoat?" Gail asked Zander.
"I don't know. No. Not this family's scapegoat."
"Well, you can think about that for the next week," Gail said. "And following up from before, Zander, what did you do that was fun?"
"Fun? Oh. I did something."
"And?"
"I - let me think. I think I went Christmas shopping, with Quinn. Will that do?"
"Yes. OK. Anything else?"
"We put a tree in the gatehouse, and decorated the tree. We went to see Dad - we were watching Pete with Dad. It was fun anyway."
"OK."
"I could not avoid things that weren't fun," he went on. "When my old girlfriend came to the office and I realize she must be here for Christmas vacation. She wants to talk to me about stuff that no longer matters and turn her dumping me into my fault. Her family is going to blame me for this very conversation she initiated, and claim I was trying to talk to her. I can't wait to run into one of them."
"Who is this?" Oksana asked.
"Emily, the one I gave you the letter for," Zander answered.
"Oh, that explain it," Oksana said to Gail, "she is Dr. Quartermaine's daughter, then."
"Aren't you going to ask me what I did to her?" Zander demanded of Oksana. "Well come on, Mom? Don't you want to know my other screw-ups?"
"I do not know you did anything to her, except write her a letter," Oksana said.
"Hang around the Quartermaines, and you will find the way to blame me for all of her problems."
"I do not want to. I really do not care about her. She have family. I saw them all. You are my concern, not her."
"Really? You were worried about unnamed drug users. I was responsible for all their problems."
"Do not do a thing like that again," Oksana said. "I will help you. Your father will. I worry about those kids only a little. I worry about you more. You do a thing like that, and you get into dangerous things. To you. I do not like it because it can hurt you."
"Maybe there isn't a no screw-up condition here after all, Zander," Gail said.
Zander scowled. He looked doubtful. But he didn't argue. By now, Gail knew this was a good sign.
"Let's try, Oksana, to be consciously avoiding criticism, blaming, and things like that," Gail said. "They don't work," she added, knowing this was a most persuasive point for this particular patient.
"You could let her stay, if she wanted to," AJ was telling Ned and Alan. "He's got a girlfriend. I don't know how he does it! This nurse, she's the cutest one in the whole hospital. What in the world does she see in Zander? I love my sister and I think she's the greatest, but she made a very bad judgment call there. OK. She was in high school. Romanticized the legal system. Thought she wanted to be a lawyer. He was the oppressed, unjustly treated defendant. In her romantic mind, anyway. But here is a girl who is - really a woman, who is - a professional, a college graduate, has dated a doctor - now I'm really amazed. Then on the general help-Zander end, there's Alexis, and Mom, and V. the cop and every other woman who crosses this guy's path. They go out of their way to wreck their lives to help him."
"As you said, she dates Zander only for fun," Ned observed. "She won't think she's in love with him. That's the difference."
"That probably is the best use any woman could have for Zander. Maybe it isn't such a bad judgment call for this particular young woman. You've got a point."
"How does he get so lucky?" Ned mused, as if repeating that question might yield an answer.
"Who knows? I've asked myself that question so many times I can't think straight. But this nurse, well, she realizes he's too young and has too many problems. So it's only to have some fun. She's the type everyone wants to marry; beautiful and smart and stable. She wants to have some fun first. That's her due. Zander is useful for that, with his wildness. He's too young and too unstable for anything more. So she's made a wise choice, that way."
"OK, that explains her," Ned answered. "It's a start."
"Hi, guys," Emily said, coming in.
"Emily! How long were you here?" AJ asked, conscious of what he had said about her.
"Not long," she said. She had stopped when she heard them talking about Zander, to let them say what they had to say without thinking they were saying it in her hearing. Then she had come in. This was the Quartermaine way.
She told them she had not heard anything.
Zander was in the office again, taking a break to work on the computer on a banner which would say, "Happy New Year, Quinn," in Russian. He wanted to see if she would recognize her name.
He positively scowled at being interrupted at this with the entrance of Emily Quartermaine.
"I can't believe Elizabeth told you about Vinnie. That' s what you're so mad about, isn't it?"
"Not now. Now I just don't have time," he said, hitting "Save."
"I'd have come back if I'd have known you got shot."
"You'd have still thought I locked AJ up! You'd still have your new boyfriend. How could that have made a difference?"
"I would have come back! Then I wouldn't have been with Vinnie! You could have explained about AJ then!"
"What difference should it make if you really had loved me, you still would have, without coming back and without my having been shot!"
"I can't believe you are mad at me! I didn't know."
"Did you hear what you said? You'd have been here and you wouldn't have broken up with me. You were there, so you were with this Vinnie. That's what made the difference. Whether or not I was shot or not did not make any. It was only your physical location that mattered."
"I don't have a boyfriend any more," she said, hopeful that this would mollify him a little bit. "Vinnie and I broke up. He has a child. He was keeping it a secret."
"Then how did you find out? Never mind. I don't want to know."
"I was wrong about Vinnie."
"I'm not wrong about Quinn."
"I have to go back to school. And don't come after me, if you're going to be so mean!"
"You have nothing to worry about there! I won't be coming after you again. I told you I have a girlfriend. A grown-up. A woman."
"Well, you're nothing to her. Nothing but a toy. Everybody at the hospital knows."
She marched out, feeling highly wronged.
"You said she wasn't his girlfriend," she accused Lucky, later.
"She's not."
"He keeps saying she is."
"He's lying. Trying to get to you. Trying to get you to feel jealous. Get back at you for Vinnie."
"He is awfully mad. That could be true. Anyway, she's not all that serious about him. Keep an eye on him, will you?"
"What? You're done with him, Emily?"
"Would you say the same thing about Elizabeth?"
"No. OK. I'll know what happens. How will I be able to avoid it, with Oksana around?"
"Tell me when she dumps him."
"Right. By that time, you'll have another Vinnie around."
"Why would you say that?"
He put an arm around her and shook her a little bit. "Sorry. OK. But have the background reports done first, next time, OK?"
"Let me know what goes on," she said. "I'll give you my email address." She took a notepad out of her purse and a pen and started writing. "I'm at the University of Kentucky. At Lexington."
"I won't tell anybody that. That you for giving me your confidence, Emily."
"Let's stay in touch," she said. "It wasn't such a good idea for me to know nothing. I don't want to come home for Spring Break to find everything changed around yet again. Zander may not like me now, but he could change his mind, and I won't have any warning."
"Yeah, never thought about that," Lucky said. "I'll be sure it stays a secret from him where you are."
"Thanks, Lucky. You're the greatest friend anybody could ever have."
