Part 6
Joanna again saw AJ in the waiting room at Baldwin & Baldwin.
Sean came out and saw them both. "Sorry we are running late," he said. "Ms. Shields, you've got the earlier appointment."
They left AJ in the waiting room.
Sean took Joanna into the law library, then disappeared for awhile.
Joanna went back and opened the waiting room door. "Come back in and keep me company," she said to AJ. "Now I'm waiting for him in the library back here!"
AJ went back and sat with her at the table in the law library.
"Domestic Relations Cases," AJ read. This was on a series of thick volumes on one of the shelves.
He got up and picked out one of the books and opened it.
"Division of military pensions. And they think being a lawyer is exciting!"
"It isn't the most interesting subject," Joanna agreed, "That's the only issue Charlie and I have left. His and my retirement plans. We were supposed to each take our own, but mine was bigger than his, or something."
She went over and picked out another book.
"This is more interesting," she said. "Custody and Visitation."
"That's my volume," AJ laughed.
"No, here's yours," Joanna said, looked at a lower shelf. "Defense of Drunk Driving Cases."
"True," he said, looking injured. "I paid for all that."
"I was referring to the current case."
"Current case. What current case?"
"Emily, you bonehead," Joanna said. "Haven't you taken on the great big defense all by yourself?"
"So you don't believe me," he said, looking away, as if a little hurt.
"No, I don't."
"Why not?"
"Your sister's injuries."
"Oh, yeah, but how does that really prove anything?"
"For one thing, why weren't you hurt? If the impact was that strong, then, even if you had a seat belt on, you should have gotten hurt."
"I had a stiff neck."
"That's a new one. And how come you didn't make your sister put on her seat belt?"
AJ didn't reply, thinking of what the answer must be. He began to realize it wasn't as easy as he had planned for it to be. Lawyers would ask him questions like this.
"You could have been a lawyer," he said to Joanna. "You come up with the hard questions."
"You're not doing her any real favors, you know, AJ."
"I thought – I just thought, it doesn't matter what my record is, but hers – if she wants to be a lawyer – you know – this kind of thing makes more trouble – and, well, she – she would make a good lawyer, and she is honest."
"Not if she doesn't take the rap."
"It just seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Don't they all?" Joanna asked, putting the book back.
Sean found Dr. Paul Whitman's office, and asked if he could see him. He gave his name.
Paul remembered Sean from the wedding. He shook Sean's hand.
Sean knew from Emily's talking about her friend Elizabeth that Paul had previously been with Quinn.
"Small world," Sean said, "I just saw my old girlfriend, from Notre Dame, who I heard was your girlfriend, too."
"Quinn?" Paul asked. "Why that's odd? You came up here with Emily, right?"
"Right. She is a student at the University of Kentucky."
"OK. I remember Quinn talking about visiting you there. What a small world! On top of that, Emily's old boyfriend is Quinn's boyfriend now."
Sean grinned as he sat down.
"Quinn is the nurse who talked up my client's bruises, on a drunk driving case," Sean said. "Which client is also my friend Emily. One of the nurses says you and a girl visited her while she was in the ICU."
"Elizabeth," Paul answered. "She has known Emily a long time."
"I know, Emily speaks highly of her," Sean said.
"She does?"
"Sure. Do you remember Emily saying anything about the accident or her injuries when you visited her?"
"Not really," Paul said. "It's sort of a blur in my mind. I remember going to check for her about something. I think Emily wanted to know if Quinn was still seeing Zander, and I went out and saw that Quinn had a picture of she and Zander on her bulletin board. And she still had half a picture, which used to be a picture of Quinn and myself, on her bulletin board. I remembered laughing with Emily and Elizabeth over how Quinn gave me back my half of that picture. But the accident and all that - if we talked about it, I've forgotten it."
"Do you think Elizabeth might remember?"
"She might. She stayed with Emily while I went out, and talked to Emily alone then, I assume."
"Can you get me in touch with Elizabeth?"
"Sure."
"Now this Zander," Sean said.
"What's he got to do with it?" Paul asked.
"Well, I wondered. Quinn dates this guy, and he used to be in love with Emily, heck, we don't know if he still is or not."
Paul waved a hand. "Quinn wouldn't bother to lie about something like that to try to keep Emily away from Zander," he said. "You ought to know Quinn better yourself. She doesn't need to worry about that, if Smith left her, she'd have a new guy in no time. She doesn't want to settle down, which you know. She likes Smith because he is young and carefree."
"Do you think she is more allied to him, that sort of thing? I've seen the equivalent in divorce cases."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, gets back at Emily on Smith's behalf. He's mad at Emily for breaking up with him."
"No, she wouldn't bother with those games. Man, you didn't know her very well, did you? Good thing she didn't marry you."
"She talks about that?" Sean looked offended.
"Well of course, I went out with her a while, and we find out about each other's pasts. Just from talking."
"Well, if you remember anything, here's my card." Sean got up to go.
Paul looked down at the card. "I'll ask Elizabeth to call you," he said.
Alexis and Jerry were sitting on Quinn's couch, watching the races at Michigan International Speedway. Alexis ate popcorn, occasionally offering some to Jerry.
"She must have been charged with DUI then," Alexis was saying.
"You mean you think the cops actually charged Emily with DUI?" Quinn asked.
"Yeah. You're not going to see lawyers, or their clerks, running around asking questions unless there has been a charge."
"I really did start something up," Quinn said.
"Stirring up the pot, eh?" Alexis grinned. "Well, you said what you thought."
"I feel bad, now. I don't know what I expected. AJ to get into trouble somehow for lying. I don't think I had a clear vision of Emily getting charged with it."
"Poor, poor Emily," Zander said. "There is something about her. Everybody else feels responsible. Even Quinn."
"Now it feels disloyal, having been her nurse," Quinn said.
Alexis said, "That's interesting. But a nurse doesn't have that kind of duty of loyalty, probably. Is there some nurse code of ethics? I doubt that it provides you have to keep something like this confidential. Just her medical condition. Maybe we can look it up, and it might get you feeling better about it."
"Thank you, that's a good idea, Alexis," Quinn said.
Kathleen went with Amanda and Zander to Port Charles University. They had gotten an appointment with Tracey Cannon, the head of admissions.
"We have this report done to analyze his education in Russia," Kathleen said, handing the report to Tracey.
Tracey looked it over. "With that and the GED, you should be able to get in," she said to Zander. "I'll give you the application form, and you can fill that out, and submit it with this and anything else we can think of. But the basics are there. The translation of the transcript shows you've got good grades from there, plus the GED makes you the equivalent of a high school graduate here."
"I wanted to see too about him getting some credits, if possible," Kathleen said. "For example, rather than taking the classes for the foreign language requirement, can you give him some tests to pass to get him credit for that? The regular College Level Examination Program doesn't have the language. But you do have it at PCU."
"I see," Tracey said. "I'll talk to the head of the Russian Department."
"Thank you," Kathleen said. "Then we wanted to get started in the summer session if that's possible."
"Should be, if you apply right away," Tracey said. "Let me look at what you should take then, though. They don't offer everything in the summer. But you could get a couple of classes that should go towards your general college credits and aren't something you think you might be able to test out of."
"I'm still going to help you, Zander" Amanda said, as the three of them walked out. "Make sure you get on a good footing with the first classes, and with the placement tests."
"Thanks," Zander said. "I can use all the help I can get. It was OK studying for a specific test, but I haven't taken an actual class in years. It seems harder, somehow. I don't know how I would do it without both of you."
"There is more time to study for a class," Amanda pointed out, "and more tests, which, with you, I think may be better. There are finals too, but you can do them if you could do the GED. Especially when you just had the class. With the GED you hadn't studied the subjects for years."
"You'll do fine, Zander," Kathleen said.