Part 44

Leo sat down in his brother's office.

"Well, how's the kid?" he asked. "I mean my new nephew. Or, old nephew. Newly discovered nephew."

"Well. The medication he's on hasn't created any problems," David answered. "I'm going back tonight. I don't know whether it's to check on him some more or to harass his father."

"You can only take care of Alexander so much at this point, and you'll never make up for lost time," Leo advised.

David looked at Leo and smiled. "You really do know what goes on in my head almost better than I do," he said ruefully. "Probably it's what you would be doing."

"Could be. Though I'd spend most of my time yelling at Donna."

"No, you'd see there's no point in that now."

"I'm dying to see this kid," Leo said, with a short laugh. "Or, that is, young man. See if he really looks like the old man."

"Kind of. His case contradicts the theory you start to look like the people you live with."

"Good, that means I won't be looking as much like you as I thought."

"Maybe you look like your unknown, missing father."

"Scary thought. Well, it's better than looking like Vanessa."

"I wouldn't mind looking like her outside as long as I didn't have her inside."

Leo laughed. There was a knock at the door.

It was Anna Devane, the Chief of Police in Pine Valley.

"No, stay, Leo," she said, in her usual polite, but firm, tones.

Aha, Leo thought. Whatever it is, she thinks David can sweet-talk her out of it. Leo was of the belief Anna's cool and professional approach to her job could never be undermined except by questions involving one person: her ex-husband David.

She sat down in a chair next to Leo. David pretended to look unconcerned.

"Someone talked to me last week," she said. "Whatever you're doing, David, to this patient in New York State, do not believe that I will not sign the order of extradition. You will be in New York within hours."

David looked at her. "I won't do anything wrong to that patient," he said. "Dr. Lewis is wrong."

"So you know his name," she said. "You know more than I do about what is going on. Of course you do," she added. "You always do. Of course you aren't telling me everything. You always do that, too. But when it comes time to extradite you to New York, then you'll go, whether or not I understand what is going on and regardless of your explanations." She stated this as if stating it would make her believe it.

"Don't worry, Anna," Leo said. "David won't mess with this patient."

"I like you," Anna said to Leo, "I believe you are honest in what you say. At least, that it is something you believe. But you," she said, turning to David, "I don't believe, not for a minute. And when the time comes, I'm not going to be listening to your excuses. I don't care if you save the patient's life, as you'll claim, I already know."

"I know," David said.

"If he says so, it will be true, Anna," Leo said. "And the conventional treatment is working, as I understand it. But David wouldn't do anything to this patient that he wouldn't do to me. Isn't that right, David?"

"Yes."

"Then what's special about the patient?" Anna asked. "Why do you go to New York to work on his case? Never mind. I know I won't get the truth out of you. But no matter. Whatever you decide to tell me later won't work, David, and you'll be sent to the New York authorities."

She got up, and said good-bye to Leo.

"Well, I guess you had earned that, David," Leo said with a grin.

"So that's what Cam was doing. I wondered, because I asked around the hospital, and he hadn't been here."

"He's defending his turf, David."

"Yes. In his way. He's fighting the wrong person, though."

Cameron sat down opposite Donna where she sat in the coffee shop of the Port Charles Hotel. Donna looked at him blankly. She had resigned herself to this sort of thing.

"You haven't done our son any favors," he said to her. "His biological father can do nothing to restrain his worst impulses, and will only make them worse."

"He's grown up. He has a child. He has to follow a drug regimen to control a heart condition. He started school on his own. Do you think people never change for the better because you don't?"

"And how is Peter going to take this? I don't suppose you will consider sparing him this news."

"I'm sure you'll take care of all that. I thought we were talking about Alexander for once?"

"Why should we not talk about Peter?"

"He's even older, and more grown up, and smart, and aren't you the one always saying how well he does? What are you even worried about? Can we not discuss Alexander only?"

"They kind of go together," Cameron said.

"The effect on Peter is minor. He's a grown up. And successful, with brains and talent. We don't need to discuss him; it's just your obsession. Try being concerned with Alexander; maybe he wouldn't have been involved with so many problems if you ever had. Your favoritism was always wrong, no matter what you knew or suspected."

"I knew and suspected nothing. I know you believe yourself very clever to have fooled me. But at this point it really doesn't make any difference."

"I don't think I was clever, I only think - never mind. I'm glad you have the decency to say it makes no difference, though."

"I spoke to Dr. Quartermaine about his treatment," Cameron said, shortly. "Make sure you follow her advice."

He got up and left.

"I'm actually getting somewhere, since he talks to me," Donna told Zander and Brenda. "Before this he ignored me as much as he could. Now he has no one else to go through."

"You believe him that it makes no difference?" Zander asked her, anxiously. "I think I really would be upset if he just rejected me and claimed he no longer has to do with me. I know that doesn't make sense," he said. "But I've been dreading finding that out."

"I'm sorry, sweetheart," Donna said. "That you worried about that. He's still talking about you the same way. His ire is all directed at me. As it should be. Finally."

"No, he has no ground to be mad at you," Zander said.

"Don't worry about that, dear. I already put you into a bad enough position, so let me deal with my Cam issues on my own," she said. "I promise I can handle it. It's way beyond you, you know, you had nothing to do with all that. Even if you are the subject of it."

"I think I can talk to him now."

"Let me give you some advice," Donna said. "Stick to one subject, and go back to it no matter what he says. Don't let him distract you. When you want to talk about him, he'll change the subject to you and you have to ignore it. It's hard, I know. You've got to ignore him and go back to it. I'll stay with you and help you."

"You don't have to do that, Mom. I can handle Dad."

"Don't be macho, Alexander," Donna said.

"Yeah, don't be macho," Brenda said. She put her arm around Zander, grinning.

"You need me to help you with this," Donna said. "Otherwise, he'll be off onto the subject of you in no time, and you'll be defending yourself, when he ought to be the one under fire. And you may as well know, he'll change the subject to David Hayward, too. I don't know if he'll do that to you, but he does it to me. It's a new weapon for him. That's why I'm going with you. He has a right to use that weapon against me, but not against you."

"It's so long ago!" Zander protested.

"You're defending me again," Donna said. "Stay off that subject. It's new to Cam. Anyway, don't worry about him, either."

"What's he gonna tell me, that David's a crook?"

"Yes. He went to Pine Valley and talked to the chief of police there."

"David and I already discussed our criminal records."

Brenda giggled.

"Well, we did," he said, drawing a hand through her hair. "We exchanged criminal histories. But another thing. The Pine Valley chief of police, I think, is David's ex-wife."

"Well, those are never a source of favorable information," Donna said. "But Cam's opinion of David's influence on you is not the point. Anyway, stick to your subject. What is it?"

"Ginny, of course."

"It ought to be you."

"Well, what can I do? Threaten him he'll never see me again? That's nothing; he doesn't want to."

"That's not true, Alexander."

"What does he think is David's influence on me?"

"Something about how he'll encourage your worst impulses; that kind of garbage. Anyway don't let him get onto that, because it's not your point."

"OK," Zander said. "Let's go after him, Mom."

Donna and Zander went to Cameron's room.

He did looked shocked when he opened the door. Donna hoped that it would undermine his sarcasm but worried for a second that it might exacerbate it.

"Well, Alexander, come in," he said, almost politely, rudely ignoring Donna. "I would have come to see you in the hospital, but," then he looked at her, "your - parents - wouldn't let me."

"Oh, no, Dad! No way do you get out of it. It's way too late. You get all the credit. You raised a kidnapper."

Cameron wanted to ask him if that was why he had done it, the kidnapping. Just to show that he, Cameron, was a failure as a father. He bit his tongue. Alexander was a cardiac patient, and he knew he couldn't do otherwise.

"It makes no difference to me," Zander went on, unused to no answer from Cameron, and feeling funny talking without having been distracted from his point. Cameron always had done that to him before. Zander realized that Donna had indeed figured it out. Then he rushed out all he had prepared that he would say, at the same time resenting he had to be so prepared to talk to his own father. Like it was a test at school.

He went on: "You'll see your granddaughter at exactly the same time as you would have before; that's when I feel like you've changed somehow - I don't know how you're going to be able to prove it, even, but you've changed somehow so that - so that I don't think your presence is harmful to her. And don't threaten us with court action. We've talked to a lawyer and the judge will consider a bunch of things. But not just what you want. The relationship between you and me will all come out in that legal question. So will what I think will happen to my relationship with my daughter as a result of your influence. And that I picked up on it right away so that you have no history of seeing her."

"I really don't want to do all that," Cameron said, as mildly as he could. "At first I worried you wouldn't be able to take care of her, but now I think that between you and her mother you can manage. I thought maybe she'd taken you in, but I saw your paternity test. I really don't intend to upset you. I don't want you upset."

"You're a liar!" Alexander was yelling now. Donna took his arm, as if to start pulling him out of the room.

"I don't want you upset," Cameron repeated, trying to talk in a milder tone than came naturally to him. "Relax, please, Alexander."

Alexander glared at Cameron for a minute. Donna's touch on his arm calmed him down.

"Don't forget who the real liars are, Alexander," he said. "You and I did the best we could. We didn't know. Your mother and Hayward let us go on for decades."

"Oh, shut up! You aren't to blame for anything, are you? There's no woman in the world that wouldn't cheat on you. You couldn't hang onto any woman!"

Cameron was paralyzed. He didn't even have any cutting words at his disposal for this, and Alexander was a cardiac patient. He repeated that in his mind, and tried to get control of his tone. He wanted to yell at Donna, but knew he had to wait until later, at the very least. When he could get her alone. For the first time since his divorce, he had a desire to get Donna alone so he could argue with her.

Alexander then said, "You tried to get out of it, just now, calling them my parents. You never cared and never considered yourself to be - "

"I wasn't. You misunderstand me a lot. Like then. I meant to test where you stood, that's all."

"Maybe you should make yourself clearer."

"OK. It is my fault. But I was not part of the lie - I was on the receiving end of that, with you. But I was part of the whole situation. It's not your fault," he went on, at a loss for words for once in his life. "It's the three people twenty and more years older than you that screwed up your life. But they took chances on it. You might have died on account of our not knowing Hayward's family's medical history."

"Oh, so I supposed to believe Mom did that on purpose just to spite you?"

"No, I'm sure it wasn't like that," Cameron said, unnerved at Alexander's use of phrases he used himself. "That wouldn't be the way she saw it. I only point out I didn't lie to you, too."

"No. You wouldn't lie to be kind. No, if you thought I was stupid, you wouldn't lie about it, you'd tell me I'm stupid."

"I don't think you're stupid."

"Come on!"

"I really don't, Alexander, that's why - no let's not talk about this now. Another time. You've had enough."

"Mend your ways, or you'll end up alone, Dad. Even Pete would rather not have you around. I know it. He doesn't need all that pressure. Nobody does. He'll be with us in the end, because we'll accept him whatever he wants to do."

"Us?"

"Mom and I. And Ginny. Our family."

"All right, all right," Cameron said, suddenly wanting them gone. "But go on, you've had enough for now."

They went out the door, and so did not see how relieved Cameron was. He too had expected a total rejection based on biology.