Part 37

Carly went with Ginny to the nurse's station on the floor where Bobbie was working. The nurses in the immediate vicinity stopped to fuss over the baby.

"Her EKG is normal," she said.

"Oh, that's good," Bobbie said, obviously relieved, taking her granddaughter.

"I keep thinking what if she'd had this disorder and I had no idea she did, because I'd lost contact with Zander and Sonny thought she was his," Carly said. "Thank you for talking me out of that."

"You would have done it. I was only a sounding board."

"It would have been two generations for her, too," Carly said. "With Zander's own paternity not being the way it was on record."

"Some things it is best not to fool with," Bobbie said. "Like mother nature. Right, doll?" she said, to Ginny.

"I'm back," Donna said, to Zander, as he woke up.

"Didn't know you left," he said, grinning.

"I took Brenda home to get some sleep. David was here. Now I'm here, and he's on the phone to Pine Valley Hospital about his patients."

"Sounds like some sort of guard duty. Not necessary. Really."

"Yes it is, and don't worry about it."

"I'm good. The medication isn't killing me. Everybody should get back to their lives."

"Not yet."

"How about yours?"

"My what?"

"Your life. All the stress you've had lately would be enough to kill anybody."

"I'm fine. I'm just happy. Glad I'm not depressed and I can be of some use."

"How do those drugs do that?"

"They increase the pathways in your brain and so you can think positive as well as negative. Something about depression closes off those paths - some chemical that keeps them open gets into short supply. Anyway, you can see the same things differently."

"How much better do you feel from getting away from Dad? Maybe that's most of it."

"Maybe!"

"Have you gone out on dates?"

"What a question, Silly! As if being married to your father for 20 years isn't enough to get any woman to swear off men forever!"

"Well, he wrecked 20 years for you, don't let him wreck the next 20."

"I have children to catch up with. And a grandchild. I see these books you were reading about fatherhood. It's wonderful you would do that. I understand why you don't want to just follow your instincts."

"Yeah, I didn't like reading in the first chapter in one of these about how you learn from your own father and do it his way without thinking."

"You wouldn't be exactly like that. You have a good heart."

"It's not so good from what Dr. Quartermaine and David tell me."

"You know what I mean, silly!"

"Do you know anything about Dad's father?"

"I didn't know him very well. He died when Pete was little. Before you were born, I think. He was polite. Aloof. Friendly on the surface, but you weren't going to find out much from him."

"Sounds just like Dad."

"He wasn't quite as tough. I think he'd have gone easier on you. Maybe Dad will mellow out with age, too."

"I hope he mellows out with something. One of these books suggests I find out about him and Dad. But that doesn't look too good. I can't imagine Dad telling me, or even asking."

"I wish I had talked to Uncle Carl more. He wasn't that talkative either."

"What a family. You didn't marry him for love, did you? I mean, it's impossible any woman could fall for him."

Donna laughed. "It doesn't matter. I love you and Peter. Regardless of how you came about, and I wouldn't change it. Think of you and Carly. Obviously your relationship never worked out, but now you can't regret it, or your daughter wouldn't be who she is."

"We almost put her in the same situation I am. Growing up thinking Sonny - that's Carly's husband - was her father."

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't mean that to criticize you, Mom. I'm just glad I didn't do it."

"I know. Still, I'm sorry you had to find this out now."

"It's OK. You saved my life."

"Hayward," David heard as he put the phone down.

Cameron's sharp voice irritated him out of thinking about his cases at Pine Valley Hospital.

They were in the doctors' lounge, which professional courtesy had allowed as a refuge for both of them.

"I've been looking into you, Hayward," Cameron said. "Dr. Martin at Pine Valley Hospital told me about your illegal uses of unapproved drugs and your suspension."

"Well, it saved somebody's life."

"He said that was your excuse."

"That's an excuse?"

"Alexander already has the same problem, of doing whatever he thinks he should do, without regard to the law, or any other restriction. The last thing he needs is you taking over and encouraging him. He's already a danger to other people."

"I am not trying to take over. What are you talking about? There's nothing to take over. And he cut you off before he ever heard of me."

"Obviously you don't know of some of the things he did during that time. And without you encouraging him."

"To do what? What is it you believe I'm going to encourage him to do? And why is he likely to listen to me? Didn't you tell me he never listens to anybody?"

"I think you will tell him what he wants to hear, for one thing."

"If he listens to me at all, it's because I haven't spent 22 years telling him he's a jerk. If he doesn't listen to you, it's your doing."

"Well, that's the advantage of not raising him."

"An advantage I and every other genetic stranger has."

"You'll excuse me thinking he was like me," Cameron said, cuttingly. "Since I wasn't in on your little secret."

"Now I get it. You came here to tell me his faults, which you seem to see in great abundance, are genetic and have nothing to do with all his years with you. While laboring under the mistaken notion that he inherited them from you, you treated him as you were treated, a process you believe resulted in a fine upstanding citizen, you, who now has figured out why this treatment didn't do the same thing for him."

"You're in way beyond your depth, Hayward."

"In what?"

"Alexander is too much for you to handle."

"I'm not trying to handle him! And you should only be concerned with his health right now."

"His long term chances of survival depend on his getting control over himself."

"Which he can't do without your lectures."

"Well, he's certainly not going to learn it with you encouraging him. You think you can just step in and play Mr. Nice Guy, when - "

"You're driving me nuts! Is this your way of saying you still care about him? Too bad you can't just tell him. You'd carry way more weight than I could."

"Now that you've given him this great ammunition," Cameron sneered, "without telling me first, I don't see what good it will do."

"You're done, anyway. He's twenty-two. He's a father himself."

"Now I can see for sure this is way over your head. Do you not see the danger to that baby?"

"Go away, Cam!"

"I'm sure you wish I would," Cameron said as David went out the door.