Part 5
"I really want to do something special for your birthday," Zander said to Quinn. "Like you did for me."
"Just be there yourself and that makes it special right there," she said.
They were sitting on the couch at Quinn's apartment.
Zander put his arms around her. "Thanks for saying that, Quinn."
"I don't only say it. I mean it will really feel that way."
"I get it."
She snuggled up with him for awhile.
"I know they'll have a party and all that. I can get you a present. But I want to do something really special. Something else."
"I wonder what you will think up!" she kissed him on the cheek.
Alexis Davis wouldn't take Emily's case, saying she had been at the party and could be a witness. A lawyer could not take a case where the lawyer might have been an actual witness to events.
There were many lawyers at Baldwin & Baldwin, however. Sean was already working there as a clerk, and made out the case that one named Bernard Bach was the best.
Bach grilled both AJ and Emily. AJ insisted that he took the wheel when they left the party. He couldn't remember much more. Emily affected not to remember anything.
Bach was not impressed. What kind of a driver remembered so little about the events leading up to an accident? Emily he didn't believe for a second. Why would she remember nothing? He was sure she was driving on that ground alone.
But he was only the lawyer, and his personal opinion didn't matter, except insofar as he decided that there was no way Emily was going to take the stand.
He related all this to Sean Monroe, a new clerk who appeared to have taken a great interest in the case.
"We need to do discovery and get what the cops have," he said to Sean. "Otherwise, the fact they are prosecuting makes no sense. There's some hint it has to do with the injuries, so we have to talk to the nurses and doctors first. That girl is not credible and can't go on the stand. AJ can be forced onto it. He's the second smoking gun."
Sean offered to go to the hospital to talk to the doctors and nurses. Bach agreed. "Her injuries are the crux of the case. Number one, injuries. Number two, AJ."
Sean talked to as many of the nurses and doctors and ambulance attendants as he could find that afternoon. The general medical opinion was that Emily's injuries showed she was driving. They were all nervous about the Quartermaines owning the hospital. Sean tried to put them at ease, saying he was working for Emily's lawyers, not the cops, so that what they told him would help.
He noticed that Emily was ever so slightly unpopular with the staff.
Some found it hard to tell him what they thought of AJ making up a story that he was driving. But Sean got the idea they thought he would lie to keep his sister from getting charged. They all knew he had a history of DUI and figured he could afford to do it, would think of doing it, and was likely to do it. Comments like, "they stick together," and "they will do anything to protect Emily" resonated in his ears and were all "off the record."
Sean knew that Quinn was dating Emily's old boyfriend, but pretended to learn about it from and ICU nurse, Teri Hayes she showed him a picture of Quinn and Zander, which Quinn had tacked to her bulletin board. That didn't signify, as everyone saw the bruises. It was generally thought Quinn had pointed them out first, but then, she had been the nurse on the case. Teri had been too, for another shift, and was sure she would have noticed them sooner or later, anyway.
It also came out that one of the doctors on staff, a psychiatrist named Paul Whitman, had visited Emily in the ICU, with another girl. Sean took this down.
Sean learned Quinn and Joanna were on the midnight shift, so he went back then to see if he could talk to them. He had to explain his way past security guards and get Edward Quartermaine on the phone to convince them to let him in.
The ICU was quiet. He walked, briefcase in hand, silently down the hall.
He saw Quinn in one of the rooms, stethoscope hanging around her next, wearing light green scrubs, with her hair pulled back in a French braid, writing in a chart. He had not seen her in a couple of years. She had not changed, he thought, except to look a little more adult, sophisticated, he thought. Her looks had only improved. He wondered if she had a cooler temper now.
Sean stood in the hallway, unable to think of anything to do but stand there smirking. He was sort of looking forward to seeing the look on her face when she saw him.
But he was rather disappointed. At first, she was a little taken aback, but it didn't last. Maybe Emily was right and she somehow knew he might be around.
"Well, so we meet again, Quinn," he said.
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
"Looking for you. I have to see you in a professional capacity."
"It's the only capacity you will."
"You and a Joanna Shields."
Joanna was in another patient's room. In a few minutes, she came out to the lounge.
"Oh, I remember you from the wedding," he said to Joanna.
"Yes, and since you were Emily's date, I wonder that you can work this DUI case with much objectivity."
"Oh, I'm not objective. I work at Baldwin & Baldwin, and they've been hired to defend her. Your opinion, Ms. Shields, should be very interesting, though. You were there as AJ's date, and he's the one who was driving the car."
"I don't know about that. I wasn't there. I do know what I saw when it comes to Emily's injuries, though."
"Still it follows your opinion is AJ is lying?"
"I don't know. I don't have to decide that. I can tell you what I saw as to her injuries. I don't know who was driving."
"Do you think he is lying?"
"I don't know."
"He never discussed this case with you?"
"No."
"And you noticed Emily's injuries, Quinn?"
"Yes."
He seemed to wait for her to say something else. When she didn't, he asked, "How come?"
"She was my patient, and I was looking at her condition."
"These bruises didn't need treatment, did they?"
"I don't say that. The doctors decide that."
"You think she lies if she says she wasn't driving?"
"Yes."
"Why is that?"
"Because of the bruises."
"Nothing else?"
"No."
Joanna smirked a little, watching this exchange. "Let me ask you some questions," she said to Sean.
Sean looked wary, but did not oppose it.
"How do you just happen to come into this town."
"I got asked on a date, and I remembered how I liked the Baldwin & Baldwin firm and was interested in taking the New York State Bar Exam. And my date's family happened to know a few of the lawyers there."
"So it all worked out so very perfectly," Joanna concluded.
"Yes, very lucky," Sean answered.
"Do you intend to continue dating this particular girl, or did she just lead you to the law firm in question?" Joanna asked, knowing Quinn might be dying to ask this question but never would.
"Oh, I like Emily," he said. "If that's what you want to know."
"You believe she's telling the truth that she wasn't driving?" Joanna asked.
"I don't think she ever said that," Sean answered. "Personally speaking, it wouldn't make much of a difference to me if she was. Nobody else got hurt."
"The law is offended," Joanna said.
Quinn struggled not to giggle.
"That's true," Sean said. "But then, we don't know, do we? We argue the case, we don't have to decide. For all we know, Quinn here made up a case against Emily out of jealousy."
"That isn't so," Quinn shot back at him.
"That remains to be seen," said Sean.
"I don't need to do anything to her out of jealousy," Quinn said.
"You never know. Emily of course told me about this Zander Smith, and he does not sound like a reliable person at all. Strange choice on your part, Quinn. Strange indeed."
"I couldn't care less about anything than what you think," Quinn retorted. "I think it's she that's jealous, and she's somehow using you in the process."
"Accusing her again, are you?" Sean said. "Couldn't be that she likes me, could it?"
"Doubtful," Quinn replied, with a hint of sarcasm.
"Well, I'll be off to work some more on my case," Sean said. "See you later." He left satisfied that Quinn's temper was still intact.
"I feel like he was trying to push you," Joanna said, after he had gone. "Is that his lawyer-ness, or the way he usually was?"
"It is the way he usually was, and he's gotten worse," Quinn answered.
Zander was helping Quinn get ready, in her apartment, for Alexis and Jerry to come over.
"So she said she didn't remember," Zander said, in response to Quinn's telling him of her run-in with Sean. "Count on dumb little Emily to say that. How can she not remember? If she wasn't driving, she could say it. So she was, but she doesn't want to take on telling a lie, so she dodges by claiming memory loss. Now she can claim she never lied. Too much."
"AJ is doing her no good," Quinn declared. "He thinks he is playing the hero, but he is not."
"It's the way they always do. They call it 'protecting Emily' and it justifies anything and everything. They even had me doing it at one point."
"Weren't they protecting her from you? You'd think they'd never accept any so-called help from you."
"The family wouldn't. But I could think it, on my own behalf. You know, you can justify anything on that ground. Anything at all."
"I wonder if your parents said that to themselves, you know, Oksana when she took you across town, and Sergei when he took you to Moscow."
"Could have been." He went over and put his arms around her, standing behind her and interfering with her popcorn-making. She giggled. "I'm glad you're the kind that can take care of yourself," he said.
"I hope so. Thank you. Now I know I don't have to be jealous of little Emily, then."
"How so?"
"Sean is her protector now."
"Do you dislike that?" He let go of her so she could turn to look at him.
"Not so much that, as his giving me a bunch of stuff about it. He hinted I told on her because I'm afraid you still want her, or she still wants you, or something. He got me so mad I don't know exactly what he said. He even had the nerve to hint I was jealous of him! Like I might want him back!"
"Now why would you want that?" Zander smiled.
"Joanna asked him if he really likes Emily. He said he did, of course. I wonder if they are a real couple."
"You think he is really here to try to get to you?"
"I know it sounds egotistical, but - "
"Not to me! In fact, I bet that part is true at least."
"Thank you Zander, you're flattering. I don't know. Hard to believe he would after all this time. Still, it's also hard to believe he is really that crazy about Emily. He's more arrogant than he used to be. Just not the type to take up with a younger girl and be all sweetness and flowers and candy."
"You think he is manipulative enough to try to use Emily and my past to try to somehow, get us back together so he can free you for his own self?"
"He wasn't like that before. Now he is. It looks that way, anyway. Maybe it's just because he's here, though."
Zander put his arms around Quinn and kissed her. She sighed, and kissed him back. "Let those two play whatever games they want," she said.
"Maybe in the interests of posterity, we should consider keeping them apart. They sound like Oksana and Sergei."
Quinn giggled. "Right down to having the same career. He's probably one of her mentors! Like the coach! Well, there are no foreign countries he can take the kids to!"
"He can still run off to Kentucky with them," Zander said.
"Poor kids. Poor, poor kids." Quinn giggled, and hugged Zander close.
"Part Quartermaine too," he said. "That really sucks for them."