Part 2

Retired Nurse Audrey Hardy was giving two talks on her tour of Africa; all of the nurses were going to get to go. Quinn and Joanna were on the day shift, and so would be able to hear Nurse Hardy at 4 p.m. She was giving another talk at 1 a.m. and another at 9 a.m. – she knew nurses' schedules.

So the day shift gathered in the big classroom-like hall at the end of the Main floor of the hospital.

Nurse Hardy showed slides and talked. First, she described her 38-hour trip with a flight to Washington, Frankfurt, Johannesburg and finally to Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. She had a slide of a map of southern Africa, and pointed Malawi out. She said it was the size of Portugal, had over 10 million people, and that almost one million of them were infected with HIV. The HIV/AIDS epidemic brought an increase in tuberculosis, malnutrition, and other acute diseases.

She explained that more than 60 percent of the nursing positions there are vacant, because trained nurses have the opportunity to immigrate to the UK and other countries. Those that stayed in Malawi worked long hours and under difficult conditions; there was also an acute shortage of medical supplies and equipment. Many facilities did not have necessities like aspirin, band aids, or rubber gloves after the first week of the month.

Not only all of this, but then the country had been struck with a famine, the worst one in 50 years.

Nurse Hardy had worked at Bottom Hospital in the capital, Lilongwe. It was crowded, with 50 women in the postnatal care wards. Relatives would come into the hospital to provide food and care. They could cook right there in the hospital. She showed a slide of a picture of some women in colorful clothes, cooking over a fireplace.

Then she showed some pictures of the hospital building from the outside. It was a ramshackle set of single-story buildings. There were several programs going on: family planning, AIDS prevention, and experimental research that the patients could sign up for. She would describe one of them in detail: the program for prevention of mother to child AIDS-transmission, the PMTCT program

She had a photo of the line of patients – early every morning they waited in a line outside the clinic. They got there however they could, mostly on foot, and these often bare feet. "Almost every one very one, as you can see, carries a child in her arms, or has a baby on her back in a sling trussed around her bosom," Nurse Hardy pointed out. "I never saw two women dressed alike; they wore every color in the rainbow, usually in big, bold patterns. The piece around the waist is called the chitenje."

She showed slides of the clinic, which was only six small rooms, a file room and a lab. One wry photo was of a bunch of papers in disarray, the current record keeping system, she called it. The nurses laughed politely.

The patients would then come in, and the nurses would interview them. She showed some pictures of herself and other nurses, and interpreters, talking to the patients. They had to talk indirectly, she explained, not mentioning HIV by name. The nurses would give information about HIV, HIV testing and transmission, and then do one-on-one counseling, then they draw the patient's blood. "About 80 of the women who hear the small group talk agree to be tested," she said. "If they are positive, we describe the anti-HIV pill, nevirapine, that they can take when they go into labor, and stress how important it is for them to come to the hospital for the delivery, so that their baby can get medicine too. Then in the third trimester we give the mothers a 200 milligram tablet of nevirapine to take at home when labor starts. When the mothers come to the hospital, we'll check their status and give the babies a single dose of nevirapine syrup shortly after delivery – this treatment decreases transmission by 50 percent."

The patients had some interesting impressions. "I recall asking this patient why she chose to give birth at home," she said, showing a slide of the patient sitting in the clinic, "and the patient responded, 'I am not comfortable answering that question.' I asked another, this one, why she stopped breast-feeding, and she answered, 'Because I was pregnant again and the milk is no longer for this child, it is for the child I am expecting.' Another came back the day after the blood test, saying, 'I spoke with my husband and he does not want me to have this test. He does not want to die and he wants me to get my blood back.'

"Some of the mothers enrolled on a research study who were given a few kwacha, the local currency, for travel expenses, thought we were buying their blood to take to the United States," she said. "We finally decided to hire a local cartoonist from one of the newspapers to make a giant cartoon of a person, illustrating how much blood is in the body, and how much we were taking."

They also had tracing nurses, whose job it was to go and find the women who tested positive but didn't return. "We are close to having 100 percent of the women being found," she said, "which was a thing to be proud of, because it was rare in the region."

"Interesting that with that shortage, the relatives help with some of the work," Joanna said to Quinn, as they walked out. "It's a good thing we don't have to do that."

"I know," Quinn said. "Imagine. Trying to get Grandfather Quartermaine to cook dinner for Little Emily."

"Or any of those stressed-out family members that pepper you with questions you can't answer," Joanna added.

They stopped at Luke's for awhile.

"It seemed really interesting," Quinn said. "Very challenging, do you think? And Nurse Hardy seemed so dedicated to the place."

"Very different," Joanna said. "It might be good training, too, for a little while, anyway. What did she say she was there for, two years?"

"Yes. A long time. I think it was brave of her to go there and do that for that length of time."

"Now I have to tell you about something that you won't believe," Joanna said.

"OK. Tell me something I won't believe."

"You know that wedding, Nicholas Cassidine and that model?"

"Yeah. The ones that came to see Miss Emily when she was in the ICU, and the guy ticked off old grandfather."

"The very ones. Their wedding. Well, AJ asked me to go to it."

"As his date?"

"No, as the nurse on call for Little Emily. Yes, as his date, silly! I knew you wouldn't believe it."

"I'm very impressed. Where do you think that came from?"

"I saw him a couple of times outside the hospital."

"Oh, you had the same lawyer, I remember. Where else?"

"Then I saw him at the park one day when I was there with the kids. He was there with Michael."

"Hmmm. So have you gone all the way with this Glen yet?"

Joanna laughed and put her hand over her mouth, having just taken a drink of her rum and coke. "Does that have a bearing on this?"

"I guess. I mean, how is it going with this Glen, do you want to go out with another guy? If you do want to go out with another guy, then do you want to go out with AJ?"

"AJ is a potential problem. Were it to work out badly, he'd still be around."

"But do you want to go?"

"Yes."

"Will Glen be peeved?"

"Peeved would not be the word. He might be surprised. I've been seeing him for months now. And I haven't gone all the way with him, as you so elegantly put it."

"Kind of a long time. I submit that you are not really so attracted to Glen. Now you're even willing to go out with another guy. Another guy who is a potential pain in the neck."

Joanna laughed. "I suppose I'd really better go. It promises to be a really upscale wedding."

"Is it this wedding you want to see, or AJ?"

"A little of both, I guess."

"You like him!"

"I guess."

"Such enthusiasm!"

"I'm nervous. Being one of the Mansons and all. I keep thinking of the potentials if it goes badly. And why wouldn't it?"

"They won't fire you over it. I made it through Emily as a patient without getting fired. I even yelled at a couple of the Mansons!"

"It's a good thing there is a shortage of nurses here, too. I guess I could survive. They aren't as protective of AJ as they would be of her."

"And if it goes really bad, there's always Malawi."

Joanna laughed, and threw her balled up straw paper at Quinn.

Quinn was at Zander's later, telling him about it while the Pocono 500 played on the TV.

"It was really interesting. Patient's families there cooking dinner. Trying to stem the tide of the epidemic. I think I'll go over there. Help my fellow man. Or woman, I guess it would be."

"But I don't – "

"Don't?"

"I mean - "

"What? Tell me."

"I don't want to pressure you."

"Oh, forget about all that."

"I don't want you to go."

"I don't mean now, silly!"

"You mean, someday?"

"Maybe. Someday, maybe. Maybe someday. It was idle talk. I was fantasizing for a second. Now, sober reflection takes over. Those tours are for two years, and I'd never want to go unless I could find a program for it that was much shorter."

"Good, because I, well, never mind. Please stay here."

"I will! There are people I don't want to be separated from!"

"Well, you said you wanted to go."

"Nurse Hardy went as a widow. Her grown children are all somewhere else, and that's different. Maybe I could consider it in those kinds of circumstances."

"OK. OK. I'm glad this plan is really put off, then."

"Really," she said, hugging him, "I'm sorry. I was running my mouth, Zander. It was going faster than my brain. I have not the least desire to go to Africa. Not unless a certain man wants to go with me."

"You mean it?"

"I mean it." She kissed his cheek. "You're so silly," she said.

The cars on the TV went on down the Long Pond Straightaway. Zander looked at them like he was mesmerized by them. Quinn knew Paul had been right, for sure, now.

Had her little comment really sounded like the words of someone seriously about to pack her bags for a long assignment in Africa? She knew she hadn't meant it all that seriously.

"Don't see that Zander can know what you mean seriously and what you don't." Joe commented, when she told him about it the next day, during a break at the hospital. "The gift of gab can be a curse, too."

"Do you think you would have known I was kidding?"

"How did you put it?"

"I think it was, that I'm going to go over there too and help my fellow man by helping those women."

"Maybe you didn't catch the right tone."

"Yeah. I should have maybe used a silly accent. I must have sounded straight and serious."

"Sounds as if you straightened it out."

"It really struck me, after all I've said and done, that he could think for a minute I would suddenly abandon him and go to Africa."

"You might expect he'd wait. You went to Notre Dame while Scott went somewhere else, and he knows that."

"And we were not long ago walking around the campus. Maybe. Zander seemed to think he wouldn't go as far as Notre Dame, if he had a family like mine. We were talking about that, walking around the campus."

"You said you liked him because he was different. But then just remember it. He's different."

"Yeah," Quinn smiled. "Quite different."

Quinn called Zander later. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I was playing tennis."

"At your – Oksana's house?"

"At the country club."

"Oh, that's good!"

"I need better opponents, you remember."

"Was it fun?"

"Yes, it was."

"I'm glad. Who was this good opponent?"

"Jackson Delaney. The pilot of the charter plane. I ran into him when I came to look into the tournaments."

"Really, is he good?"

"Pretty good. Do you want to come out here for dinner?"

"The country club? I don't belong to it."

"You can come in with me."

The Port Charles Country Club was at the edge of the lake. The restaurant was pretty, decorated mostly in white, and fancy.

"You will not believe this," Zander told her, after they had been seated. "But Oksana has a date."

Quinn smiled. "This is my week for hearing about unbelievable dates. I'll tell you mine after you tell me yours. Who is the lucky man?"

"Stefan, Alexis' brother."

"What do you think of that?"

"I'm kind of blown away. She's never had a date that I know of or can remember. That's what blows me away. Not the actual date, but that she hasn't had any."

"Where to, any place in particular?"

"The wedding. Gia, Taggart's sister, who works at Deception. And the groom is his nephew. Lucky's half brother."

"Oh, that's where my unbelievable date is for, too."

"Your date? You're going to that wedding?"

"No, no. I mean another person. That has an unbelievable date for it. Joanna. I'll tell you who asked Joanna. But back to Oksana. She has to have dated someone in all those years."

"Maybe she wanted to keep it a secret."

"Ask Pete about, you know, those years you were away from home."

"That's an idea."

"Joanna has kids, and I don't think she wants them to have to deal with a guy unless there's a minimal something to it. Maybe Oksana felt the same way, but now you're old enough to know she's going out. Now, do you want to know who asked Joanna?"

"Yes."

"AJ."

"AJ!"

"Yeah," Quinn smiled broadly. "Do you advise her against it?"

"Definitely," he grinned.

"What about the couple we've been working on? Alexis and Jerry. She must be going. She's the groom's aunt."

Zander laughed. "Here we are, leaving it all to Alexis! Maybe we have to do something. I wonder if she asked him to go."

"Maybe you can set it up as her assistant."

"I might have to," he said. "Oh, and Emily needs a date."

"How do you know?"

"She told me when she assaulted my ears at the Nurse's Ball, that she needed one. She asked me if I wanted to go in a sarcastic way, not to ask me to go really but to annoy me. I said I only went on dates with you. She went from there to say you would drop me if you knew I thought like that."

"I'm appalled. She doesn't know me one bit."

"I know, Quinn, she was trying to burst my bubble."

"Or she was experimenting. Just to see your reaction. If you react too much, she figures you're insecure. She knows she has a chance."

"I did react too much. Not because she has a chance. Because she ticks me off."

"Hold the Irish temper, boy!"

"I'll try," he answered. He took her hand.

"I haven't gone out with anyone else," she said, shyly, almost. "I don't think I would want to, either."

He looked at her for awhile. She looked back, and held his hand. They felt like they were in a spell, until a waiter came up.

At the rehearsal, the wedding planner asked who would be matched up with who. Cheryl and Lucky would go together, of course, but as to the rest: what order would they go in, and who would go with who?

Gia wanted V. to go with Marcus. Somehow, Nicholas got the wedding planner to put V. with Jax. Gia panicked. She suggested in as light as voice as she could that Elizabeth go with Marcus.

The last thing she wanted for her wedding album was for her brother to be stuck in a lot of photos with Emily.

Fortunately, Nicholas did not get himself involved, and more fortunately, Nicholas obviously didn't consider either Elizabeth or Emily to be more important than the other. Or he didn't understand the importance of Marcus. Either way, Gia was happy with it, and she sighed nearly aloud in relief. It was determined that Emily would go first with Stefan Cassidine, V., with Jax, would be next, then Elizabeth, with Marcus.

Gia's father had come into town the previous evening. His second wife and his other daughter and son were there. Gia had not asked her half sister to be in the wedding, pleading adults only. She tried to steer her father clear of Marcus, whom he had not gotten along with all that well as a stepfather.

During the dinner, V. told Dara, "I have a case you may want to file. I'll tell you about it at work tomorrow."

"I'll be there," Dara said. "Don't you think the bride looks stressed out?"

"Yes," V. said. "I suppose that's par for the course."

"I don't know," Dara said. "I hope you're right. I'd hate to be that nervous on my wedding day. If I ever have one."

"Me too," V. said. "I suppose there are always family problems and people you don't want running into each other."

"Yes," Dara said. "Her father is new to the particular scene, and she doesn't know how he will react. And her parents are divorced. That must create tension all by itself."

"Yes, one would hope they could be friends again by the time weddings roll around for their children. But some of that kind of stuff never dies."

After dinner, Zander showed Quinn around the country club. They took a walk in the garden there.

"Hey Zander," Quinn said, "since we're into matchmaking, and it looks like Emily is free, how about making a match for her?"

Zander considered. "There's Lucky."

"No," Quinn said. "They must be friends. They would have gotten it together by now if they had that kind of attraction for each other."

"I think you may be right. She knew him while he was with Elizabeth and probably thinks of him in a brotherly way because of that. And when she was with me he lectured her in a brotherly way to drop me."

"I'll keep an eye out," Quinn said. "There's a doctor or two."

"Make sure they don't think you're after them for yourself," he grinned. He pulled her close and kissed her.