Part 94

The Connors rented a van big enough to fit everyone in for the drive to Gettysburg. It would take about seven hours to get there, and Kathleen said it would be more fun if everyone could go in one vehicle, and that it would obviously be more comfortable if that one vehicle was one that eight people could ride in.

They left early in the morning, so as to get there in the middle of the afternoon.

Kathleen asked Zander about the trip he had taken to Philadelphia, with Amanda. "Did that one help you?" she asked.

"Yes. I really liked seeing that State House, where the meetings of the Continental Congress were. We saw Benjamin Franklin's house, and the Liberty Bell. We took a drive to this place called Washington's Crossing. It was really narrow right there, the Delaware River. We went out to Valley Forge, and they had replicas of the huts the soldiers stayed in.

"Now we're going to a Civil War Battlefield," Kathleen said. "Do you know when that was, Zander?"

"1860?"

"Good. That is when the war started. Gettysburg is the field for the famous battle that happened in 1863. It was the furthest north that the Confederate Army ever got. Where Lincoln made his famous speech."

At the battlefield, there was plenty of space to walk around in. There were markers to tell of what had happened in each place, and monuments to various regiments, erected later. The spot where Lincoln had given the Gettysburg Address was marked out.

"Can you see him there, speaking?" Quinn asked Zander, as they stood there.

"I can even hear the speech," he said.

"Get his Kentucky accent," she said, imitating one.

"Is that where he was from?"

"Sure, I saw his birthplace. With Shyster Sean. When I visited him and his family in Kentucky. But you went to school in the US up until the 8th grade at least, right? You must have learned something."

"I don't think he can remember many of the specific facts, from that era," Kathleen said.

"I don't remember this. I remember from school in Russia, actually, that he was from Illinois."

"Lincoln was from there, too," Kathleen said. "He was only born in Kentucky, and was not very old when his family moved to Indiana. There's a site there, Lincoln's boyhood home. We've taken the kids there on the way back from Indy. Then as an adult, as a lawyer, he lived in Illinois. So you remember right."

The battle lasted three days, the first three days of July. There were different sites where different things had happened. Monuments were scattered all over, erected later by the states the regiments had come from.

At one place called "Little Round Top," Pete and Tim climbed onto a cannon. Brad pretended to be cleaning it.

"It would be terrible to be in this battle," Tim observed. reading some of the details from the guide book. "Wars suck."

"They do," Joe said. "Korea sure did. Though we didn't have such a delicate way of putting it at the time."

"I would get killed so fast," Zander said, vaguely seeing himself trying to fight on Cemetery Ridge in the Battle of Gettysburg. "People always tell me I act without thinking. You'd have to be really on your toes and thinking all the time not to get killed in a battle like this."

"You're trained ahead of time," Joe said. "And you do have to go on your gut instincts. But they are properly trained to respond."

"Probably a lot like playing tennis," Quinn put in. "You don't think about each move as you're doing it, right? That's how it was with cheerleading. You got so you knew the moves so well, you were no longer thinking about them one by one. You, Zander, in fact, are good at those things. You'd be good at things that require you to act without thinking."

He looked down at her. "That is a nice thing to say. I've never heard it put in a positive light like that, before, Quinn. I always got the impression nothing requires that. Nobody needs that. And I was always doing it."

"Where he's trained, that is," Kathleen said. "He can act quickly - but it turns out badly if he's not and acts on too little knowledge. That's why we are educating this gut," she laughed, giving him a playful punch in the stomach, "so when he acts on it, the underlying information is sound."

"I like that," Quinn said, looking at Zander. "I like his knowing he's going to do better the more he learns."

"He learns well," Kathleen said.

"Thank you for that encouragement. I'm not used to it. My old boss told me I never learn. And I'm pretty sure a Quartermaine or two has told me that, too."

"They are wrong," Kathleen said. "What kind of a name is Quartermaine? Doesn't it sound rather English?"

Zander laughed. It was a nice laugh. Quinn felt good he was amused.

But she couldn't understand the quality of what he felt, a happiness he had not felt before.

"It sounds like a nautical term," Joe said. "Like their ancestor was the guy who had to man that part of the topsails on a sailing ship."

"Surely they are goddamnenglish," Danny said.

"Excuse his language," Joe said, "He's becoming like my grandmother; God rest her soul. To her, goddamnenglish was all one word."

Pete sang: "God's curse on you English, you cold hearted monsters."

Zander joined him for the second line. "Your deeds they would shame all the devils in hell."

"They are getting better and better trained every day," Danny remarked.

"Hey Mom, you have your camera. Would you take a picture of Zander and I?" Quinn asked.

"OK, Go up there - no, a little further down. By those rocks."

"Now get one of Zander and Pete."

Pete jumped up with alacrity, put his arm around Zander's shoulder and put on a picture-smile.

They were to stay overnight at a motel, since the drive was so long. They had four rooms on the second floor, all coming out onto the same balcony, at various distances up and down the length of the motel.

The four boys had a room, Danny and Kathleen had a room, Joe had one, and Quinn had one.

Zander walked down to Quinn's room to visit her.

"Sometimes it is nice to be the only girl," she said. "I get my own room. You've got three roommates."

"Yeah, it's wonderful to know I get to spend the night with those three."

Quinn laughed. "Come sit on this bed with me awhile." He sat down and put his arm around her. She cuddled up next to him.

"I like my job," she said, "but sometimes it is nice to get away from the ICU and hang out near a real battlefield."

"Do you ever think of doing other types of nursing?"

"Every once in awhile. I wonder how it is in wards where the problems are less serious. They can be serious anywhere, but all the ICU cases are. They say it is a step down from emergency. Some people like to work emergency, but it's too much crisis for me. People go in and out. I like the slower pace where you know the patient for a longer time. Which you know about."

"Your patients probably all remember you. I mean, from being in the hospital only."

"Good point. I like that. Think of the emergency people, the patients may not even ever have been aware of them. But what would bother me is that I would never know them. Those that don't make it die right there – people I don't even know! The ones that go on to be admitted to the hospital – I wouldn't know what became of them. The emergency nurses can't follow up like we can. New emergencies are constantly coming in!"

"I think it would be hard to deal with sick people all day. Or injured. You're not seeing people at their best, that's for sure."

"Joanna dates this real estate agent. He maybe gets to see people when they are happy. They have the money to buy a house! They must be pumped up!"

"It must be nice to be Jerry, or somebody who owns a restaurant. People are going out. They want to have a good time."

"Being a teacher must be in the middle. The people don't think they are having a good time when they come there. But they are young, and funny. Mom tells funny stories about things kids do in school. Then there is being a tutor – that would depend on your one student. If the student's mother can fly you both around, though, that's got to be pretty nice. And the student is a good looking young man. Yep," she laughed. "Amanda has the best job of anybody."

"It's not bad, when you think of it. Of course, we might want to ask her. Maybe the student is an airhead."

"I happen to know he's not! Mom was asking you about Philadelphia, but I never got to ask you about Monticello. Did you like that?"

"I did. It is really interesting. Thomas Jefferson, he did everything. Designed the house. Designed clever things for it. Collected information on local plants. He had a garden that was a museum by itself. Have you ever been there?"

"No."

"You'd like the house. One thing it has: a porch that is shaped like three sides of a square, one side goes along the back, the other two are walkways out to two little houses – both two stories. Sort of the opposite of the gate house – the two small houses aren't connected to each other but to the main house, each one."

"Cool. What were they used for?"

"A guest house. A study."

"That's perfect for a guest house. They're with you, but not with you. Clever."

"He was clever."

"How is Thomas Jefferson, by the way?"

"Still dead. His grave was there. It was a big monument. It's amazing he isn't buried under the capitol rotunda, or someplace like that. He was so important to the existence of the system. I guess that's it. It's the system, not the person. In Russia, it's more the person, that explains why Lenin is preserved there in Red Square."

"Preserved? Like a mummy?"

"Must be. You can look right at him."

"Look right at him! Weird! When did he die?"

"Back in the twenties, I think. We didn't study that era so much there. They were into everything but that, they had only then gotten rid of it. People would talk about how he should be taken out of there and buried under the wall like the rest of the leaders were. Allowed to be like normal dead people."

"Did you see this?"

"Yeah. Dad said they took him as a child, and it was a big deal, and you had to be quiet and awed and all that. He thought it was insane, even then. And had to keep that totally to himself. When he was with us there, Dad was free to say what he thought about it."

"And what was that?"

"Pretty much what I bet you think of it! Crazy. Stupid! Bury the guy under the wall, and he was a damned tyrant and all that. Kind of like all the English wrapped up in one."

"Does he look life-like? Did you see it?"

"Yes, by then you could go in without it being a big deal, and people from all over the world would go through, curious. He looks like he is asleep, and in ill health."

"He's been there like that, what seventy and more years! I wonder what chemicals they used! Or do they maintain him! Ugh! What a thought! The temperature has to be kept at a certain level. Good thing it's cold there naturally!"

"Right up your ally, nurse. I will take you there someday. In fact, I better do it before they take him out and bury him under the wall. Of course, you'll be asking the attendants 3000 questions. They will all remember you too. Remember, that day, Boris, when that American nurse asked us so many questions! I wanted to bury Lenin right then! I was about to break the glass and do it!"

"Poor Boris. He doesn't know what he is in for." She leaned up to kiss him.

"Thank you for taking a picture with me," she said.

"I'm glad you want one," he said.

She walked him to the door. He kissed her good night a few times. "Good night, Quinn," he said, and took her hand, not letting go until her outstretched arm wasn't long enough.

The boys were throwing various things at one another. They turned on the TV and changed channels, making fun of the people who appeared on each one they stopped on long enough to notice anything going on. Zander felt like an adult, and the only one in the room to boot. He had an urge to tell them to be quiet and go to sleep. He wondered what was happening to him.

Danny came by the room and shut off the TV, and told them to go to sleep. Zander looked at him gratefully. Danny smiled as if he understood him.

Soon Tim, Brad and Pete were sound asleep.

Zander couldn't sleep. He started to feel fidgety. He thought he might bother Pete, who was sleeping in the same bed, so he got up and went out to the balcony to get some air.

It was nice out there. Calm, and dark, as it is in the middle of the night. The motel at that moment felt like the hospital on the midnight shift. Full of people, but lonely, because they were all quiet.

He heard a door open, and looked down the walkway.

It was Quinn, who had come out, more or less the same as he had.

He watched her lean against the railing and look up at the sky for a few seconds. He whistled long and low, so as not to startle her too much. She looked in his direction. When she saw him, she laughed.

He walked down to her. "I don't think there is any woman nearly as beautiful as you."

She put her arms around him.

"I miss you. I mean, you have to sleep in a room about, oh, 30 yards away. It's terrible."

"I know. I can't feel that sorry for you though. You don't have three really immature roommates."

"That's true."

She hugged him for awhile. "Do you think, if Oksana had this trip, she would put you in a room with them? Or would she put you in a room with me?"

"I don't know. I really don't. Especially since I'm 21 now. I guess I wasn't with either of them when I was old enough for that to happen."

"I wondered if having no religion made a difference."

"Is it religion?" he asked. "It's a rule?"

She smiled. "Absolutely, to the religion, but as to my family, I don't know. It is partly social custom, too. I think they know what the rules are, they taught me what the rules are, but I don't really officially know if they expect me to abide by them. I think they don't. They could easily have put me in with them. I'm surprised they didn't do it to save a few bucks. And that would be the motive. So maybe they sort of wink at this kind of rule."

"So I am in with my roommates as a concession to appearances."

"Sure. Maybe. I'm not totally sure."

"You have me curious. I would like to ask Oksana to take us on a similar trip, and then see what she does."

She laughed. They kissed and held each other tighter and tighter. Quinn said, "Come in, I don't have roommates."

There was something about the middle of the night and the hint of being forbidden, somehow, because her family had set up the rooms the way they had, and knowing for appearance sake that he had to get back into the other room before sunrise, that created an extra charge of electricity. The rest of the world seemed excluded from ever knowing anything like this; Quinn felt like she was on fire; she made love to him with a wildness she didn't think she had in her. She had thought he was wild and intense; she felt like she had caught it from him that night.

"You are the best," Quinn said, pushing his hair out of his face. "The most passionate, exciting. I feel all wired and charged up when I'm in bed with you."

"That's how I think of you."

"Really?"

"Really. I haven't known you the longest, but I know you better than anyone. And there's still a lot I don't know, and I want to find it all out."

"Yeah," she ran her hand along his cheek bone, lazily, "Me too."

She helped him with the pajamas he'd had on, when he had come out onto the balcony. He put them back on, and opened the door. The night was cool and silent. They stood there a moment, enjoying the quiet and the presence of each other, hugging close. She smiled when he wanted her to close the door and she wouldn't. "I'll close mine when your close the one to your dorm room," she said. She let him walk up to the other room, open the door, then wave down to her to close hers. It was a game to see who would shut the door last, and Quinn finally shut hers, smiling. She went back to bed and fell into a deep sleep.

The van was going along through the Pennsylvania mountains, back up to western New York.

Tim started reading something from a guide book about civil war women, and how the camp followers were often prostitutes. He declared that the book said that most of the nurses following the army doubled at the latter profession.

"They might have been the only women the army saw, over the course of months," Danny said.

"That's what is says here," Pete said, reading over Tim's arm.

"Well, our Quinn would have been a nurse," Kathleen said, "Guess the job was a lot more demanding in those days."

"She is loyal patriot of her country," Tim answered, "And would not have shirked any duty."

Quinn took the newspaper, which they had obtained to read the motor racing results, folded it up and whacked Tim on the head with it. Tim only laughed.

"Do you know what the Russian word for brother is?" Zander asked her. "You'll love it."

"Tell me."

"Brat. That's how you pronounce it. Brat."

"Crazy language," Tim said.

"It's a good language, brat," Quinn said. "The most accurate language in the world."

They were quiet awhile, looking at the scenery. Peter and Tim got to talking about baseball. They had gotten onto the Mercy High School Team.

"I wish you could play something," Quinn said to Zander.

"Tennis, he plays," Pete said, overhearing. "He has played over the house, against me, and I was beating him at first, which seemed like a miracle. Then he started to get it back, and keeps getting it back so he is getting closer to normal. Normal for him. Now he beats me soundly every time."

"Do you like tennis still?" Quinn asked Zander, "You had a lot of those medals in that."

"Yes. It clears my mind."

"You need more and better opponents," Pete said.

"I know. You are wretched."

"Now this term brat does notes apply only to little brothers, Q.," Pete said. "It applies to older ones also."

"I see that!" Quinn laughed. "Where can he find better opponents?"

"Maybe at the university?" Pete asked. "Or a country club? Maybe there's a league."

"There must be. Maybe there are some other people out there who need to get beat," Quinn said, passing her hand down Zander's arm, "and if you want to, you can be the one to do it. For fun. Something you can do well without having to do all that thinking first."

"Yeah, all that dumb thinking," Zander smiled and leaned his forehead against hers. "Who needs it?"

Nicholas and Gia's engagement party was at their house; one they had started living in together as contentious roommates, but which had eventually become their joint residence. The house had seen them getting to know each other, becoming friends, falling in love and deciding they wanted to be husband and wife. For sentimental reasons, if nothing else, it was to become the first home of their marriage.

Gia had decorated the place herself, and picked out some good caterers. She put music on, and danced around the living room a bit, happy that everything was starting to be in train for their wedding, and finished with the work and preparations for the party, able to start to relax and have a good time.

Nicholas took her hand and danced with her a little, then hugged her close and kissed her. She smiled happily. The doorbell rang.

"Someone's here!" she said. "Do you want me to get it or do you want to?"

"Why, we'll both get it," he answered, smiling. "It's our house."

"I love you," she said, "let's go see who is here first."

It was Alexis. Gia welcomed her warmly, relieved that the first guest wasn't a Quartermaine. It would be better if they arrived when there were many pleasant people there already to dilute their entrance and presence.

Gia showed her aunt-to-be around the house, pointing out improvements and decorations, and then went with her to get her a drink. The doorbell rang again, and on account of this business, Nicholas went to get the door on his own.

Gia looked up to see it was Cheryl Shue and her boyfriend Scott. These two came down as Gia invited them over and asked them what they would drink. Cheryl introduced Scott to Alexis.

Alexis asked him what he did. He was an assistant manager at ELQ. "I'm impressed," Alexis said. "You look so young."

Lucky came in next; alone, saying his parents were almost there. Nicholas' father and uncle showed up soon after that. Gia blessed her luck. By the time the Quartermaines got there, they would hardly need noticing.

Soon her mother was there, and Marcus and Dara arrived soon after. V. came with them. Elizabeth Webber came with Dr. Paul Whitman. Gia was quite courteous to these two; her good mood and happiness overshadowed everything else. Dr. Whitman was handsome and very pleasant, and Gia found she liked him. He even seemed to cause an improvement, if slight, in Elizabeth's personality.

When Gia saw the Quartermaines come in, the room was crowded with talking guests. Nicholas ran up to them immediately. Gia let him handle them. She noticed Jasper Jax came in soon afterward.

"Cheer up, Emily," AJ said. "It's a party, after all. We don't have to stay long."

"I know," she said. "I don't feel like I belong so much, anymore. All the time that I've been at school, I guess, makes things different. Strange how you think things aren't changing when you are not there. It is strange to see Elizabeth with someone we barely know, for example, and avoiding Lucky."

"Here, have my car keys," AJ said. "You can stay as long as you want, but you know you can go whenever you want, too."

"Thanks, AJ, you're the best."

AJ saw V. and Jax and told Emily he was going to go and talk to them for a bit.

"I'm glad you made it home in time for the party, Emily," Lucky said, coming upon her. "You look good. How is school going?"

"OK," she said. "I got a part time job at a law firm. But my grades aren't real good."

"That will improve. You were first in your high school class."

"College isn't high school."

"Yeah. And you're not at PCU; you're at a real university."

"PCU is OK," she said. "You graduated from PCU. How can you say that?"

"Well, I graduated from there, but I know it's not Harvard."

"How are things at Deception?"

"Great. Really looking up. We're busier than ever. We got rid of Sonny, you know."

"Oh, and got Zander's mother."

"I'm sorry, Emily. I didn't mean to bring him up."

"You didn't. "

"Do you have another boyfriend at school? I bet you do."

"No."

"Have you seen Vinnie?"

"No, hardly at all. I have my job, and classes. I rarely run into him, and when I do, I don't talk to him."

"Don't let that get you down. There are nice guys in the world. You have really had exceptionally bad luck, that's all. Don't think all guys are like Vinnie and Zander."

"I'll try not to. I know you, for one. What happened with Elizabeth?"

"As you can see, everything's the same," he answered, indicating Elizabeth and Paul, several feet away but visible from where Lucky and Emily were. Elizabeth was holding a glass of wine in one hand and had her other arm around Paul, while she whispered something to him. He put his arm around her waist and smiled broadly. Elizabeth took a drink and leaned against Paul a little more.

"Let me go and get you a drink," Lucky said, heading off Emily's inevitable sympathy comments. He went and got her a glass of wine. "Thanks" she said, taking a sip.

Nicholas tapped a glass to that everyone would give him their attention. He and Gia had prepared a little speech thanking the wedding party for being in the wedding. He described Elizabeth and Emily as his friends, Lucky as his best friend and brother, and Stefan as his closest friend and uncle. He said he looked forward to having Marcus as his brother-in-law. He thanked Jasper Jax for being one of his ushers.

Gia thanked Elizabeth and Emily for being such good friends to Nicholas, and for caring enough for him to be her bridesmaids. She mentioned V. as a good friend to Marcus, her brother, and for being a friend to her and being her bridesmaid. She described Cheryl as being as wonderful and kind as she was beautiful and added that she was honored to have Cheryl as her maid of honor. She said she couldn't wait to have Lucky as her brother-in-law, and Stefan as her uncle, and thanked her brother Marcus, and Nicholas, for being such a wonderful fiancé as to have her beloved brother as one of his ushers. She thanked Jasper Jax for being in the wedding.

Everyone applauded that. Lucky proposed a toast to the couple. Gia and Alexis ran around making sure everyone had a glass of champagne.

Gia and Cheryl looked at some pictures of the bridesmaids' dresses. V. and Elizabeth eventually came over to the couch and started looking with them. Gia was aware she should ask Emily to join this group, but since they had gotten together without effort on anyone's part, delayed a minute. She need not have worried. It figured that Nicholas noticed and brought Emily over, Lucky in tow. Lucky got her another glass of champagne, and generally acted as if the rest of the girls could start doing something now that Emily was with them.

Fortunately for Gia and Elizabeth, V. and Cheryl were kind enough to take up the talking to Emily. V. showed her the pictures of the dress, and Emily said they looked very nice.

Cheryl asked Gia about her honeymoon.

Gia said they would go for three weeks to Italy. She had a deal with Oksana. Gia had two weeks of paid vacation, and could take only one of them and take the other two weeks unpaid and let Deception use a couple of wedding pictures. Nicholas was fine with it, so this way Gia still had a week of paid vacation left.

Cheryl said, "Deception was a good place to work now. Oksana is clever that way. You can do creative things."

"I noticed Oksana was showing her son around the other day," Gia said.

"That was my idea," Alexis said, "I think if both parents would show Zander the ropes, sort of pass some knowledge down, they could do him some good; teach him something, and help them get closer again. After all that happened, these little things mean a lot."

"I'm glad for them they made up," Cheryl said, "Does he live with her now?"

"No," Alexis said, "He lives with me."

"I remember you and Quinn coming to Deception to ask me about what I knew about Zander's past," Cheryl said. "And we didn't even know about Oksana then. How funny that it has changed so that the person you were looking for is one of the owners now."

"And Zander was only Quinn's patient, then," Alexis rejoined, "I remember you asking if you and she had switched boyfriends, since you are dating her high school boyfriend."

"Scott, the guy with you tonight?" Elizabeth asked Cheryl. Elizabeth had just met Scott, having met Cheryl through Lucky ages ago.

"Yes," Cheryl answered.

"Paul is Quinn's ex too," Elizabeth said, "So there are two of them at this party."

"Emily used to go out with Zander," AJ said, "so that makes two of Zander's ex girlfriends at this party too."

"Oh," Cheryl said, looking at Emily. "That must have been later. You were a year behind me, weren't you?"

"Yes," Emily said, bewildered. She took a sip of champagne.

"So I guess you know all about that, too," Cheryl said, sympathy in her voice, "Running away because of his parents' custody battle."

Emily was silent.

"I talked to Quinn about how Zander got kidnapped away from his mother by his father, he and his brother," AJ said. "Carly tried to cut me out like that too, and I wanted to do that to her, but now I'm thinking differently, after hearing that story. I wouldn't want my kid turning out like Zander! But kidding aside," he said, catching Alexis giving him an evil eye, "it did not have good effects."

Cheryl said, "It would be awful not to see one of your parents at all. And to be in a different country from where they were."

"The situation with Carly is a bit different," Alexis said.

"Yeah, Zander was telling me, at least his parents didn't shoot at each other," AJ said. "But being taken out of the country like that, he never saw his mother at all."

"Where's his father?" Elizabeth asked.

"Around," Alexis said. "Zander made up with him pretty well, too."

"I felt so bad for him," Cheryl said, "didn't you?" she addressed that to Emily, then said, "I'm so glad it's starting to work out for him."

"Yeah, I always sort of liked him," V. said. "In spite of all he'd done. Now that I know how it came about, it looks different."

The chatter broke down more, and Emily noticed AJ had gone off to talk to Alexis. V. and Cheryl were looking at the dress again.

Emily went out for some air. It was a cool night. She saw AJ's car and realized she had the keys. She decided to go find Zander and ask him about all this.

In a moment or two, AJ looked around and realized she was gone. He went out and saw that his car was gone. He went back in and was going to continue at the party, but started wondering about whether Emily should be driving. He thought she might have had a drink or two. She was so thin, that it wouldn't take much for her to be over the limit. No, he thought to himself. I'm paranoid because of my own history.

He noticed Jason was staring at Elizabeth and Paul Whitman, who had gone and sat down by Elizabeth now and was leaning over so she could fix his tie.

This did not bode well, AJ thought.

"Hey Jason," he said to his brother. "I let Emily have my car keys. She left without saying anything. I think she might have been a little upset. We were talking about Zander back there, stuff she never even knew. Maybe we should take your car and go after her."

Jason agreed readily, apparently not enjoying what he was seeing.

They went out and got into Jason's car; AJ, sitting in the passenger seat, kept his eyes on the road ahead, while Jason drove. It was a deserted looking road, going through a wooded area, where any houses were back off the road.

There was nothing up ahead. "I hope she didn't drive too fast, AJ said. Then he saw his own car off to the side of the road.

"Wait, Jason!"

AJ did not need to explain, as Jason saw AJ's car. The front end was crumpled up against a tree.

Jason pulled off the road, ran out of the car and up to AJ's.

Emily was laying with her head back against the headrest, muttering a little, conscious, but out of it.

"What has she had to drink?" Jason said. "I can smell alcohol on her breath."

"Oh, no!" AJ said. "She can't have had that much. But she doesn't weigh very much. But is she all right?"

"Yes," Jason answered, checking her over, "nothing broken. Nothing bleeding. Emily, can you hear me?"

"Jason?" she asked. Her eyes closed then.

"We should take her to the hospital," AJ said.

Jason thought they should call the paramedics.

"But you're trained, Jason, and if nothing's broken, maybe it would be better to take her in your car," AJ said. "What if they decide to test for alcohol? She could get arrested.

"How do we explain that our passenger, in our undamaged car, was injured like this?" Jason asked. "She'll have to be arrested, that's all."

"Wait," AJ said. "She has no record, and I know if you try to become a lawyer they ask you about everything on your applications. This could hurt that even years from now. It's my fault, I gave her the car keys. I already have a DUI record, and I haven't even had anything to drink tonight. It's my car. The worst I'll get is reckless driving, and my record doesn't matter anyway."

Jason looked at AJ for a minute.

"Emily knows she was driving," he said.

"We'll have to talk to her before she says anything," AJ said, "and just say she's dreaming or something, if she says anything without being aware of it."

"All right," Jason said. "But I'd rather that the paramedics come and move her safely. I can move her to the passenger seat, but I don't want to have the drive to the hospital be without the proper equipment."

"OK," AJ said, "then I'll call 911 as if I'm at the scene of the accident; then call you to come, so that you came along alone in your car."

"Damn, Emily," Jason said, "why weren't you wearing a seat belt?" He checked her over, and was satisfied that with a manual spinal stabilization, he could move her out and over to the passenger seat.

When he did so, AJ sat in the driver's seat, having thought of moving the seat so that it was set for his height. He adjusted the mirrors.

AJ called 911 and after describing their location, called Jason's phone. They decided that Nicholas and Gia's place was near enough that Jason could have gotten there before the paramedics.

"A mild concussion, it looks like," Jason told the paramedics when they arrived.

"It is the best thing in the world, knowing you were waiting for me, here," Quinn said, moving her hand up and down Zander's arm, the back, then the palm, while lying in bed with him at her apartment. "when I was on the swing shift."

"Now it is the other way round. It's gonna be hard to let you get up to go to work for the midnight shift."

"On midnight shift, I really work well," she laughed. "My memories from the evening are wonderful."

He kissed her, pulling her closer. Then she put her head on his shoulder, and traced her finger on his chest. He stroked her arm a bit, and leaned his head against hers.

She said, "I know somewhere I can take you, soon."

"Where, Miss Connor?"

"Where would both you and I want to go on Memorial Day?"

"The tomb of the unknown soldier?"

"You are studying very hard! Your mind is so full of history! You forget a more historical event for that day!"

"The war? The soldier's memorial? Isn't it the day for memorials of fallen soldiers? George Washington's grave?"

She laughed. "You're studying way too hard! Memorial Day has another function."

"I give up. My brain is too full of American history. What took place that day?"

"It's a matter of what takes place every year on that day!"

He smiled. "Indianapolis."

He smiled, and played with her hair a little bit. "Maybe I can get Dad to take us in a first class way, but I think I'd rather go the Connor way. It's probably more fun."

"Of course. Sergei can come anyway. And then you and I can go and see South Bend."

"Where's South Bend?"

"In Indiana."

"What's there?"

"Educational institution."

"Oh! Notre Dame. Will you take me to see the dorm none of the others could get into, it was so full of Connors and Hanleys, and Joe Quinn, moving the freshman in? All relieved she did not go to Glorified High School!"

"Oh! So they told you about that! Who, Joe, or Danny or Kathleen?"

"You told me that."

"Me? I don't remember telling you that story."

"But you did. When I was still in the hospital."

"How did I come to be telling you that story then?"

"I don't remember, but you did."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. I can see you standing there with your chart in some pink scrubs telling me that story, I swear!"

"OK. What a memory. I think you will pass this test for sure."

"Well, my memory for historical facts is not what it is for stories from questioning nurses."

She got up in a little while, and got ready to go to work. He watched her putting on her clothes.

"Stay here," she said, "if you want to, and go to sleep."

"I'm here in a bed and you are there in scrubs," he said. "It reminds me of being in the hospital."

She kissed him good bye, sitting on the bed. "I really like you better uninjured," she said, laughing, as she got up to go.