Part 92

Zander and Amanda went out to the Charter Gate at Port Charles Airport. The pilot there ready to fly them to Charlottesville was the same one who had flown them to Quebec City, Jackson Delaney. He had let Amanda sit up front with him then, as Amanda had instructed Zander to look at his history book while they were on the trip. This time, she said Zander should sit in the cockpit if Jackson allowed it.

"This guy had his own new sports car, a Porsche," Amanda said to Jackson. "So I don't think you can impress him much with your mere jet."

"I'm amazed you don't want to drive that Porsche down there," Jackson observed, as Zander buckled his seat belt.

"It's a long way," Zander said. "Over 500 miles."

"If I had a brand new Porsche, that's be a very short distance."

"Yeah, it all depends on how it comes into your possession."

"I'm trying to figure out a way it could come into my possession and I wouldn't want to drive it all over the place."

"Keep thinking," Zander answered. "I hope you are lucky enough to be unable to ever figure it out."

The next time he saw Gail, he got there before Oksana. Gail talked to him a little while alone. Zander complained to Gail about the car.

"You have talked of how much conflict your parents had," Gail answered. "They suspended that to give you the car. Look at that part of it for awhile. Sleep on it."

When he went back to Oksana's house, to see Pete, he noticed an addition to the rack they had in the entryway, for their car keys. Their names were on nice engraved little signs that said: "Peter's Keys," and "Oksana's Keys." Now there was another set, with an index card taped above it. It said, "Sander's keys" and had an arrow pointing to them. Someone, probably Pete, had written up another card that said the same thing in Russian, and taped it underneath, for good measure.

Zander saw it. He felt disgusted for a minute. His parents were so manipulative, he thought. They could even get him to feel guilty for rejecting their expensive sports car.

Jasper Jax was at the Outback, pestering his older brother for information.

"What is going on, Jerry?" he demanded to know. "Who owns this Alter Corporation?"

Jerry knew that Jasper had ways of finding this out, and so was only trying to see if Jerry would tell him voluntarily.

"I met the guy," Jerry said. "I don't know much about him."

"Are you doing this yourself?"

"Me? Little Brother, I'm a mere restaurateur! I'm not raiding anything. That's your area. Why don't you try getting in on it yourself?"

"I have fiduciary duties to ELQ," Jax said.

Jerry had heard Jax use this term a lot in the past. Jerry thought it was a general term meaning, generally: "What I am telling you is baloney, but I'm hoping this obscure legal term will get you to fall for it."

So Jerry laughed and asked, "Why does ELQ keep you from signing up with Alter Corporation? How are they going against ELQ?"

It appeared this his "fiduciary duties" to ELQ prevented Jax from revealing more. He went on, "I hope you don't have anything to do with Pexander Corporation."

Jerry laughed. "Never heard of them, mate. How about a beer? You could use one."
Nurse Spencer came into the break room with an older lady. "Joanna, Quinn," she said. "I want you to meet Audrey Hardy. She was the head nurse here before she retired. She's just back from a stint in Africa. These are two of my best nurses, Audrey, Joanna Shields and Quinn Connor."

They all said they were pleased to meet each other.

"What was it like in Africa, Mrs. Hardy?" Joanna asked.

"Very challenging," Audrey answered. "I'm going to do a talk on it later and I hope you'll come. This year I'm again doing an old job of mine. One that I don't mind – organizing the annual Nurse's Ball."

"We were in that last year," Quinn said, "Time flies. It's time already to get ready for it?"

"You bet. You two can sing, that's what I have down from last year," she said. "No rush, just time to start thinking about what you want to do."

"OK," Quinn said. "I've got an ace in the hole. I can get my brother to play the guitar. Joanna can join up with us if she wants."

"Good idea," Bobbie said. "Sort of a reverse of Peter, Paul and Mary?"

"Yes," Joanna said, light bulb going off. "We'll do something folksy and sixties-ish."

"See how easy that is?" Audrey said, delighted. "I know you will all be wonderful."

"She is charming," Quinn said, when Audrey and Bobbie had left the room. "Can't believe she is Elizabeth's grandmother."

"Hope she likes the new psychiatrist," Joanna said.

"When you get under this," Jax told the ELQ board, "looking at the Florida companies, the Dutch companies, and the Russian venture, you keep coming up with this name: Sergei Kash, Kan, Khach - "

"Goodness!" Monica said. "That's Zander's father!"

"What!" Edward was immediately suspicious. "I knew it was something up to undermine ELQ!"

"Not necessarily," Monica argued. "Barrington had various problems. He's an investor, in the neighborhood. It's naturally where he'd go."

"Who is Zander?" Jax asked.

Monica explained briefly.

"What is the brother's name?" Alan asked Monica.

"Peter. Peter and Alexander," she said. "Pexander. Don't know why I didn't get that off the bat."

"Alter is the same in reverse," Jax observed.

"It is! That makes it likely it's this Sergei behind all that, too!" Ned exclaimed.

"Who is this Sergei?" Edward said, "I mean, besides being that deviant's father. Which means, no doubt, he's a criminal."

"Russians," said Sonny's lawyer, Bill Worth, looking at Jax's printed material, and then looking a little worried. "Russian organized crime."

"Right up your client's alley isn't it?" Alan said, sarcastically, to Bill.

"Sure enough," Jax said, looking back at his employee's report. "Alter is owned by two of the same Florida corporations and another Russian Joint Venture. Signs of an attempt at a raid," he turned to Bill, "see if you get approached by someone trying to buy your shares in ELQ."

"That's usually someone working for you," Bill Worth answered. "Are you willing to suspend such activity for now? Or is all of this about the Russian guy only a screen for your to get Mr. Corinthos to sell his?"

"Why would that be?" Jax said. "You criminals are so stupid, you don't even see when someone is on your side due to force of circumstances."

"What do you mean?" said Bill. "How do we know you aren't in up to your ears with this Russian guy?"

"I wouldn't be dealing in a corporation which has interests adverse to this one," Jax said.

"Why not? You're a minority shareholder in this one."

"I'm a director. Check your law books, counselor. But I suppose an honest person is not within your imagination."

"OK, OK, cool it," Ned beseeched them, "your infighting won't help."

"We've got to get this under control immediately," Edward declared.

Gia Campbell wasn't all that pleased that the Engagement Party she and Nicholas were giving had to be scheduled so as to coincide with Miss Emily Quartermaine's Spring Break. The wedding was planned for June, and Emily would be back home after her freshman year then, but they had planned the wedding for June anyway, and Gia had confidence that the wedding itself could have been planned without regard to Miss Emily Quartermaine.

There had been a couple of weekends in consideration for their Engagement party, though, and Gia had disliked the pressure to fit it into Emily's schedule. When Emily was around, the world tended to revolve around her, and Gia did not think it was unreasonable that this Engagement Party be about herself and Nicholas.

She confided in Marcus, and he promised her it would be about her and Nicholas, even if he had to take Emily Quartermaine in. That was almost funny enough to make Gia laugh, since the chances of arresting Emily, even if she had committed a crime, seemed remote.

"And she will never commit a crime," Gia said, "or at least, if she does, she'll never be held responsible for it."

"This police station is straight up," Marcus insisted. "Nobody gets away with anything because of their name."

Gia got more sympathy from her mother, who was nevertheless the hospital administrator, and therefore under the influence of Quartermaines on the hospital board, besides working with both of Emily's parents on a daily basis.

Gia was tired of arguing with Nicholas about it. He would only think she was jealous. Though Emily had never competed to be the lead model at Deception, it seemed to Gia that the general opinion was that if only she had, she would have won.

"You'd be amazed at how the little witch gets credit for everything she doesn't try to do," Gia told her mother.

"Oh, that's from being the youngest, spoiled little precious daughter of a wealthy family," Florence Campbell said to her daughter. "Of course you get credit for actually doing it, dear, and that means much more."

Nicholas had been friends with Emily for a long time, and he always thought it was longer than it really was, in Gia's opinion. Nicholas' brother Lucky was also obsessed with Emily. Gia didn't feel it was a threatening obsession on Nicholas' part; it was more the feelings guys might have for their sisters, though it was a bit much for Gia. Gia knew Marcus was always there for her, and would always be on her side, but he wouldn't do an unreasonable thing like expect his fiancée to schedule the engagement party around her. Nor would she expect him to. Gia only wondered that Emily didn't insist that Nicholas have his Engagement Party whenever it suited him. But it was not like Emily, in Gia's opinion, at least, to even think of such a thing.

Gia hadn't liked Zander Smith at first, mostly on cue from Marcus, but later came to appreciate his existence, as he and his problems had taken Miss Emily's attention up so well that Nicholas had managed to have time to fall in love with herself. She only hoped her brother-in-law to be, Lucky, could be similarly fortunate, and was glad Miss Emily Quartermaine had chosen to go away to college rather than stay in town and go to Port Charles University, the institution from which Gia would be graduating this spring. With Miss Emily far away, Gia thought, Lucky had a chance that his life could revolve around his own concerns.

Gia's life had been so busy with modeling, classes, and with Nicholas, and being relatively new in town when she started with all those things, her female friendships were in sad repair. She had been horrified at Nicholas' bright idea that Emily be her maid of honor. She got Emily moved down to bridesmaid in short order. Eventually, she hit upon Cheryl Shue, the kindest and most down-to-earth of the other models at Deception. Then she'd asked V. Ardanowski, Marcus' colleague, another such person, to be another bridesmaid. Lucky's former girlfriend Elizabeth had been asked ages ago and accepted, but now Gia wasn't sure about that, since Elizabeth had unpardonably dumped Lucky suddenly for some other man. Fortunately for Gia, this other man was not Jason Quartermaine, a couple which would have endlessly complicated Gia's wedding. Gia was stuck with inviting all of the Quartermaines.

Lucky said go ahead, he didn't care, if Gia and Elizabeth still wanted it. "I'm going to be Emily's date, and Elizabeth can even bring Doctor Witless with my blessing," he added. "I couldn't care less," he said, with less conviction than hurt pride.

Gia figured that was a pejorative name for Elizabeth's new man.

Later, Gia realized there were problems arising from the issue of inviting Zander's mother.

"You shouldn't have her here, along with Emily," Nicholas said.

"Why ever not?" Gia said. "Oksana owns our company. She's like my boss. She's been so good to us, that I can't possibly not invite her. Maybe she won't come, but I've got to invite her. Emily must be all over Zander by now. Didn't she dump him? She never even knew his mother."

"I've seen that woman, and no way will Emily not recognize her," Nicholas said.

"What can we do?" Gia asked. "There will be many people there, and Emily will just have to bear it. It's not like she has to talk to her or anything. We can make sure they sit at different tables. We don't even have to try. Emily will be with the wedding party," she said, remembering that unfortunate fact.

"At any rate, Oksana doesn't have to be at the engagement party," Nicholas said.

Gia gave in on this, not wanting to argue about it, so long as she could invite Oksana for the wedding. The Engagement party finally consisted of her family, the Spencers and the Cassidines (the two sides of Nicholas' family); the Quartermaines, Marcus' girlfriend, Dara Jenson, Cheryl Shue, V. Ardanowski, and tentatively, Elizabeth Webber.

"Oh, you can replace me if you want," Elizabeth said when Gia called her. "I totally understand. It was all based on me being the girlfriend of Nicholas' brother, and since that isn't so any more, and you want to ask someone else, I understand."

"That isn't necessary," Gia said. "I don't have time at this point for a replacement, you count as a friend of Nicholas, and Lucky said he doesn't mind. You can even bring your date to the wedding."

"OK, if you're sure," Elizabeth answered. "I'll be glad to do it."

Jax next found that Alter Corporation owned the land under Kelly's and a second third of Barrington Corporation, which was now called "Barrington-Pex." "Now this Sergei guy controls Barrington," Jax fumed. "Now we really have to do something."

ELQ stock started falling the next day, when it appeared that Barrington-Pex had undercut them on dock facilities.

He tried to pump Jerry again, but got nowhere.

"I happened upon a chance to buy some stock in Alter Corporation," Jerry told Jax. "I can't tell you a thing. You understand. I have fiduciary duties to Alter Corporation."

Jax went away in total surprise. Usually he could get these things under control quickly. This came from left field, somehow.

He went off to V. Ardanowski's apartment. One of the rooms was the art studio he had furnished for her, believing she had talent. At times, her ear was well attuned to the ground. He has always found her to be admirably sensible.

"I don't know," she said, continuing with her painting. "I noticed the change in the name. Does it mean much?"

"It could," he said, looking at the painting. "Well, I'll be! You are an ambitious one, aren't you? A new version of Washington crossing the Delaware!"

"It's for fun. But why not? The same subject can have a new interpretation."

"Yes. I like how you have him sitting down. Probably, that is more realistic."

"I thought so. Did you know that the river is very narrow in this spot?"

"Oh really? So it wasn't a long trip."

"Nope. How do you know all of this, anyway, being from Australia?"

"I'm an American citizen, I'll have you know, and I had to study all this to become naturalized."

"Oh, good, I can consider you another authority. So you know all about the stealth attack on the Hessians?"

"Yep. I always admired old George Washington. Now, I'm more like one of the Hessians, though."

"You'll come out of it on your feet like you always do."

Zander didn't like to put anything up on the walls of Alexis' penthouse. He had no better place than the gate house. He called Quinn and asked her to come and pick out where his picture of Florida and Russia should go. She had two weekdays off, and came over on the first one.

After considering every room in the house, the living room wall came out the winner. Zander vowed to get Diana or Rosa in with a nail and hammer.

"A mounting kit would be better," Quinn laughed. "Maybe delegate this job to Rosa."

"OK. Come up to the hall to listen to music."

"OK," she smiled.

You could tell he didn't live here. The CD played the same five whenever Quinn was there; four of Oksana's original ones and the Irish music. She tentatively concluded he was never there when she wasn't.

They cuddled up on the couch in the hall and looked at the photo album from Florida for a little while. "What did you do with those medals?" she asked.

"I have them in a drawer at Alexis' penthouse. I'm not sure what to do with them."

"A drawer there is good. So long as you look at them every once in awhile."

"OK, nurse."

"It's getting warmer. You can think about playing tennis."

"OK," he laughed. "I will join the country club."

She leaned over and kissed him, slowly. He kissed her back, and ran his hand all the way down her leg, to her feet, and took her shoe off. He flipped off her other shoe and went back up her leg to her lower back, when he started to kiss her again. She let him go on until he pushed her only far enough away to unbutton her blouse, which he did starting from the bottom. She liked how he was an mixture of considerate and aggressive all at once. It was a sort of thrill when the fundamental aggression starting coming out, but she could still feel safe.

Her shirt was loose enough she felt his hands on her bare back, a kind of touch she had not felt before from him, and she was felt all the electricity of it, until he suddenly stopped and just hugged her.

She hugged him back, a little mystified.

"I'm so nervous," he said.

"You could have fooled me," she said. It was touching, though, she thought. She had never met any other guy she thought would ever have admitted it. "Besides," she said, reassuringly. "After all you've been involved in, you have no reason to be nervous with a little nurse!"

"You've been involved in real relationships. All my experience is scattered. Here and there. No real relationship. Not months or years like you with the same Paul or the shyster."

"Oh, those boring individuals. You being yourself is more than enough for any woman. These high school girls don't know what they gave up, that's all."

"That is a nice thing to say."

"It's true."

"Oh, I don't mean you're making it up. But a lot of people might keep that to themselves."

"So they would gain the upper hand, right?"

"Yeah, I guess."

She shifted so as to be able to lean his head back against her shoulder, and let him know it was all right.

"I get you, you know. I really do."

"Thank you," he laughed. She felt him relax.

"You have guts like I've never seen. I guess you can them from those people that can take these big risks that end up making them rich. The type with the guts to defect from a tyrannical regime and make it in a strange country."

"Thanks, Quinn. You make those two sound good."

"And they aren't all bad! You're theirs, so they can't be. I know why you feel so tentative though. And then there's Little Emily and her total love followed by sudden rejection. But I will keep hanging around until you are bored or else can trust me."

"I don't think you'd do things like that. You don't deserve even having to be compared to Little Emily. But I shouldn't even talk about her any more. It's not fair to you."

"On the contrary, I can learn from it. What makes you tick. What makes you nervous. You're afraid of wrecking my prom, if only figuratively, aren't you Zander? I wouldn't let you, anyway. You're fine. Everything is fine by me. So tell me, about how that feels, to wonder about it."

"I trust you not to do a sudden rejection. I really do, Quinn."

"You head does. But in there, you feel like changing things brings on a 180."

"You know how painful that can be. What about Dr. Witless?"

"True," she laughed. "And it was a mild case, compared to what you got. I don't want to sound like Paul. I know I sound like Paul. In fact, he is the one with the theory it is hard for you to trust anyone after you mother moved you to that other house in Daytona, and after your father moved you to Moscow. Then Little Emily's sudden rejections, like her sudden, unexpected letter when you were in the hospital. You know, there is some theory that one is attracted to those who will treat them like their parents did. Something about what is familiar at least being something you have developed some strategy to handle."

"OK, Doctor Pauletta. That is interesting. I never realized that. I can see your parallel here, though."

"Did it feel the same?"

"Yes Doctor, I think it did. I never wanted to think about my parents, so I repressed it. Is that the right word? I'll run this by Dr. Baldwin. I repressed my parents, and thought it all arose with Emily. Now you're getting it, and that is why I say it isn't fair to you."

"I get you as you come. It's all right, Zander. Sander. Whatever your name is."

"Like that night she got the call about her grandfather being hurt. We went to the hospital. He wasn't hurt too bad. Even while we were there waiting, she was saying, that very night, she had said we were only waiting for the right time. We had been in the barn. We were always meeting in this barn. I always felt protective of her, she liked that. But she said she was serious, she really wanted to be with me, all that. Said. Back than, I didn't get it that words were one thing and deeds another."

"Didn't the farmer ever come in?"

He laughed a little. "No. Maybe it was an old abandoned farm of her family's or something."

"Were there any animals?"

"No. Hay, but no animals."

"Not even a horse?"

"No, Quinn, not even a horse."

"OK. But you felt safe that nobody was going to come in."

"She did. So I went with that, I guess. Dumb. I never thought to ask."

"OK, sorry, I'm getting you off of the track. What happened? That wasn't the night of her prom, so I take it nothing happened?"

"Oh, plenty happened. Plenty of drama. She said she wanted me. We were making love – in this barn. Well, this place was sort of sentimental by then. We'd talked there so much."

"OK."

"We didn't get too far, when her cell phone rang."

"So?"

"Well, she got up to answer it."

"She answered her cell phone?"

"Yes. It was somebody, I forget who, one of her family members, telling her of the attack upon her grandfather."

"Huh? She answered her phone?"

"It was ringing."

"OK, she forgot to turn it off. But it would have stopped ringing in a little while."

"I guess her family members might have panicked and looked for her. Maybe they knew something about this barn. But she must have thought they wouldn't show up there. Oh well, I don't know. She answered it. There was no question we had to go to the hospital right then, because her grandfather had been attacked and he was there."

"I can promise you this much. On the beach in Florida, there is no way I would have answered my cell phone. Had I taken it there. Or any phone. Even if I was expecting a call telling me I won the lottery."

"What if it was someone who was going to tell you the true solution to the Kennedy assassination?" He wanted to lighten it up for her.

"Who cares? For Paul, or Sean, I might have delayed a little for that. But not you."

He smiled. "Anyway, that very night, he got out of the hospital – we were relieved he wasn't hurt badly. As it turns out, he wasn't hurt at all. We all went to the police station. She talked, he talked, he dropped the charges. That very same night, we went back to that barn. She was quiet on the way. When we get back to the barn, instead of kissing me like I thought she would, she told me she never wanted to see me again, to leave her family members alone, and – I'm sure I've bent your ear with this before."

"You really needed that," Quinn answered, sarcastic. "That is the worst thing that she could have done. She's too immature to have known it. If she had known you, she'd have known that was the worst things she could possibly have done!"

"Now I see how frivolous everything was. At the time, it was really tough." He stopped talking, swallowed hard. She could see that it was a bad memory. "I was alone, remember. She was everything. Really, that was too great a burden on her."

"Not to say she was doing it consciously, but it sounds to me like she was in love with love. She wanted to be cool, like she thought someone was when they had that experience. Be a girl who'd done it. Without waiting until she really did have the experience."

"Then she could have stuck with Juan. She was closer to it with him, when she first met me. I don't know. She did say there were other girls hanging around him. He's a big rock star, you know. Then he was a little rock star."

"Then she had to work for it, to compete with them. Why do that when she can have someone stuck in a situation like you were? And you felt guilty. That gave her a certain control."

"She was so nice to me, then. I really thought she did not love Juan, and she was falling in love with me. I was still a really guarded person then. I was not going to fall in love with her if I could help it. As time went on, it looked safe. Does that make sense? So she must have stayed consistent for awhile."

"It wouldn't take long for someone sitting in jail who thought he was never going to know anyone else that was even going to be nice to him for the indefinite future. I don't think she did it maliciously. But it looks so consistent with her general maturity level. You were easy and controllable, due to the situation and due to all that guilt – I sound like Paul again. Somehow, you ended up with a girl who would treat you like your parents did, in a parallel way; and one of the few women on earth who could not really want you. I cannot get over that she answered the cell phone!"

"It's nice of you to say there are only very few such women, but she didn't have competition."

"I don't mean to say anything false. It's my opinion. I see it is hard for you to believe. I don't want to be telling you this girl did not love you. But I really don't think she any more than thought she did. Or did only as much as she could, which was barely minimal. I'm convinced of it, and so I want to convince you the world is not always so unpredictable. You didn't know. You see it as the fake attack on the grandfather that crashed your romance at the time, but none of that story about her grandfather mattered in the least. It would have been something she would have dealt with after she had already been with you. That would have made a big difference to the way she saw it. If it had been me, I'd have been very sorry to find out that my grandfather got hurt, but I would not have even known until after I had been with you. And my grandfather is a much nicer guy than hers is. I would have ignored the cell phone! I wouldn't have heard it. And all of this goes for every other female on this planet."

"There is another piece of evidence for your theory, Nurse Question."

"What is it?"

"She was writing in her diary one day, awhile before that, I think. She let me read it. It said something like, 'oh, before today, I never realized what it really meant to be in love, to be like Elizabeth and Lucky.' She thought they were madly in love, too. The diary went something along the lines that now she had what Elizabeth had. She and I had what Lucky and Elizabeth had. So you may be right. In fact, you are. She was only competing with Elizabeth."

"Again, I don't think she meant it that way. The diary shows in fact that it is something unconscious. She could really use a lot of therapy, you know that?"

"Let's give her Dr. Dumbo's card next time we see her."

"Your head understands this is different. But in here, you're still insecure. I don't blame you. A lot of words can't do you any good. But this house would have to be on fire for me to get distracted from you. The other side could be on fire. The side we were in would have to be."

He hugged her again, and was quiet.

"And I do want you for yourself," she went on, "I understand you are hesitant to trust any woman, that makes perfect sense. I'm here for you; that's what I was put here for. The same as Joe needed a goddaughter or Danny and Kathleen needed a daughter or the hospital needed another nurse. But you figure into it too. Those are words, but I do have deeds to back that up."

"I know, Nurse Question. You helped me get really straightened out. Really straightened up, not merely out of jail. I always need all this help. I wish I could be of some help to somebody else on occasion too."

"You are! What are you thinking! I needed to have fun. You've been great about that! Alexis has some stuff, oh, your idea about driving her around, wasn't it? You listen to people. That is all good. It doesn't have to be big, obvious things! You mostly needed help because you were cut off from your family. I'd have needed a lot more help if I had ever done that! When Dr. Dumbo dumped me for Elizabeth, you really cheered me up! Maybe it seems like little to you when your situations got so much more extreme."

"You could have replaced Dr. Dumb in a flash."

"I would probably have looked around, hung out with Joanna. By then, I could have gone out and hung out with V. or Alexis, too. We got to be friends while we were investigating you. I was determined not to get involved. So I would have dated this series of doctors, lawyers, cops, maybe even forensic detectives that I would have met through going out and through these various girlfriends. I had all those options and didn't take them. Instead I immediately went against my biggest determination at the time; not to get involved with any one guy."

"But I got picked only because I was not worth getting involved with."

"Oh, do you think that?" she turned and stroked his cheek, looking at him, concerned.

"No," he answered, turning his head, "not as mean as that sounded. I'm sorry."

"I only meant to find some way to reassure you. I know words aren't good, but I keep spilling out words." She reached up and kissed his lips. "There. Is that better? Maybe I'll shut up. I should definitely shut up."

She kissed him again. Encouraged by his letting her, she did it again, slower. She took off her unbuttoned shirt and tossed it. She said: "No way would I have answered that damned cell phone!"

He smiled, and then pulled her back towards him and unhooked her bar. "If you really will take me over a forensic detective," he said, kissing her neck.

"There's nothing you can do but risk it," she said. "Trust me."

"You mean it? It's not my Porsche?" he asked, his eyes dancing mischievously.

"I can't think of any man I rather be with than you; with your shifting first name, your false last name, your house you don't live in and your car you don't drive."

He laughed, then he started kissing her again. He stood up and pulled her up and kissed her again. He remembered how light she was, when he had picked her up on the beach. He leaned down and picked her up again and carried her into the bedroom.

Quinn woke up early, under a black quilt. No one had ever slept in the bedroom before. She looked over at Zander and smiled, then took him back into her arms, laying his head against her shoulder. He seemed to protest against this peremptory movement but never awoke enough to do anything, but cuddled up against her and fell back into a sound sleep.

She kissed his forehead, and relaxed, and had almost fallen back asleep herself, when the door downstairs, on the bedroom side of the house, opened suddenly.

This woke Zander up. She watched, amused while he tried to figure out where he was.

"Does someone else live here, too?" she asked, eyes twinkling.

"I bet it's Rosa. No, it's probably Diana, cleaning. I better go tell her to put that off," he jumped up. She laughed as he looked for his clothes. He managed to go down in jeans only, to whoever had come in.

Diana was in the study downstairs, carrying cleaning supplies, all right. She jumped when Zander came down the stairs.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said to her. Upstairs, Quinn giggled. You apologize to the maid, she thought.

"No, no, Mr. Sander, I thought - "

"I wasn't here, because I've never been here before. Don't say mister; that'll kill me, Diana."

"OK."

"You don't have to do this now. Put it off for later, OK?"

"OK," Diana said, backing out the door. She closed it, and took a deep breath.

"Start a day by having a heart attack," she muttered to herself.

"No matter what you say," Quinn said, "You are used to being a son of the aristocracy. You handle the servants very authoritatively."

"Yet I cannot even get you a cup of coffee," he said. "Wait, let me check. Oksana might have fixed all that up too. She's no slouch." He went off across the hall towards the kitchen.

Quinn laughed, stretched again, and leaned back against the pillows. She got a good look at this room for the first time. It was really very cool. The walls had this black and tan pattern, and so did the sheets. There was this state of the art looking TV and sound system there. "With a stereo right out there in the hallway!" she thought. "I can get used to this. Rich people! They think up conveniences we would never even think of!" The sunlight came in through one, very large window. It had a nice window seat. Tempted, she got up, using the sheet for clothes.

She was sitting looking out at the new leaves on the trees when he came back with two cups of coffee. "Told you," he said.

"Have a seat," she said, making room. "Thank you." They both sat there awhile, drinking the coffee and looking out the window.

Eventually, she leaned towards him. "You are really wonderful," she said, pushing his hair aside. "Really wonderful."

"You are too," he said. "And beautiful. You would make a good painting right here in this window, too."

"Shall I call Elizabeth?"

"Oh, not just yet," he said, leaning over and kissing her.

"Are you going on any other trips to see history?" she asked.

"Yes, - oh, I should call Amanda. I'm late. Or am I even late? I don't even know what time it is."

"Me neither," she said. "Maybe that fancy stereo equipment knows."

"What is all this stuff?" he was up and looking at it. "There's a stereo set up the hallway about 10 feet away."

"That's what I thought. Rich people!"

"Yeah, even the gatekeeper has two stereos."

"There's a TV in here, too," she said.

"Yeah, I guess the living room is too far away," he observed.

He found the remote and flipped the television on, long enough to find out it was one minute until he was to meet Amanda. He went out to the hall to find his phone. Quinn listened to him talk to Amanda, smiling to herself.

"Canceled school today," he came back. "She's planning a trip to Philadelphia, instead. Let me take you out for breakfast. You must be hungry, and Oksana's not that organized. This house has only coffee and liquor. And I'm not calling up to the main house."

"OK, I'll meet you at Kelly's in an hour," she said, picking her blouse up off of the floor."

"No, no. The Port Charles Grill," he said. "The top of the line only for you, Nurse."