Part 21

"Shyster," Zander muttered to himself as he walked along. He had not gotten much further when his phone rang. He looked at it. Since it was Quinn, he answered it.

"I had a cat-fight with Little Emily," she said. "I want to tell you what I did before she does."

"I wouldn't listen to her anyway, Quinn," he replied. "And you're not alone. I had a battle with the Shyster."

"You did? I wonder if it was before or after I saw him."

"It was within the last minute."

"After, must have been."

"I won, I think. Did you?"

There was silence for a moment, then she laughed. "Yes, I bulldozed over her. You may feel sorry for her after hearing this."

"I already feel sorry for her. Where are you?"

"Meet me at my place. I picked up some hamburgers from Kelly's."

Quinn went into her apartment and played her messages. "Quinn, this is Sean," she heard.

"How did he get my number?" she yelled to nobody in particular. She heard knocking, so she turned the answering machine off. "Better not be you, Sean!" she said to herself. She opened the door, ready to lecture, but it was Zander.

"Hi! Come in."

He came in and put his backpack down. "You look tired," he smiled, and went over and massaged her neck.

"That feels perfect," she said. "Relaxing."

"Here, sit down. Were the patients demanding today?" he asked, massaging her neck some more.

"Yes. In fact they were. It always happens in bunches. And I learned that both you and I will be invited to the Witless Wedding."

"I wouldn't want to miss that."

She giggled. "You make me laugh," she said. "On the way to Kelly's I met Little Emily. She called me a tattle-tale and I told her she was frigid."

She looked back at him. He was still working on her shoulders, then moved to her upper back. "You would know. You're the nurse."

"Well, you would know a little better, I think! But I just went on what I know."

"You made your diagnosis on what you know."

"Yes," she giggled. "And that was it. You may disagree?"

He shrugged. "I'm no medical expert."

"She attacked me with a deadly weapon - a glass of iced tea, or coke, or something like that. Then she ran."

"Were you injured?"

She giggled again. "No!" she hit at him playfully. "It cooled me off a little."

"I'm going to keep a glass of ice water around," he said. "I'll be prepared for the Irish temper."

"My Irish was really up by the time Sean came along, and that wasn't two minutes later."

"This is when he kissed you?"

She whirled around. "How did you know?"

"He told me. That was when I hit him. No, wait. I didn't hit him until he told me we should ask you which one of us was bigger. He declared himself bigger on height." Zander couldn't go on, because he started to laugh.

"He is so irritating!" Quinn exclaimed. But she ended up laughing.

"Which one of us is?" Zander asked. "No, don't answer that. I don't want to know. But he definitely, most definitely, has the agenda to get you back. He told me he would, or said I was afraid he would succeed. He says you were kissing him madly already."

"You don't believe him."

"Of course not."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

"OK, so long as you don't let him get to you."

"I did hit him. He got to me. I hit him, and he wasn't hitting back. I think he could file charges, because I assaulted him. He was rubbing his jaw."

"Do you think he was faking, or that you really hurt him?"

"Faking. I dunno. Not for sure. He could easily say I hurt him."

"He tested you. Now he knows how to get you to lose it."

"Naturally, if he's going to go around kissing you, he knows that. No real test." He pulled her close, and she laid her head on his shoulder.

"How was the test for your class at PCU?"

"I think I did all right. It's a good thing Amanda is still helping me. I really do have a deficit."

"Don't worry," she said, stroking his arm. "You'll do college all right. But don't get any more criminal record. In case you want to be a teacher, or something like that."

"That's a good thought! I better watch out."

"See that's why Sean did that. He's a lawyer. He could have extra problems, not just a criminal charge. You know, the Bar Disciplinary Board."

"Well, I'll be. What a shyster. That doesn't stop him from provoking someone else. I'm glad you mentioned that, Quinn! What a thought. I never had anything to go for before. I wonder if I'm already wrecked. I've already got a record."

"Maybe not."

"I gotta buy ear plugs in case I run into him again," Zander said. "I have this feeling I'm going to want to deck him a lot."

She giggled. "I wish Little Emily would keep him at home, but frigid as she is, I don't have much hope! Hey, are you hungry, Sandy? Do you want those hamburgers?"

"Later," he said, and leaned over to kiss her.

"Sounds like Offensive Touching, at most," Alexis said. "Even if you don't hurt someone, you can't touch them without their permission. It's only a misdemeanor, though. If it's any comfort, the iced tea throwing was an offensive touching, too. The kiss sounds like even more, maybe that could be cast as a sexual assault. I'm not sure."

"It was very offensive," Quinn said, starting to giggle.

"I'm sure!" Alexis laughed. "Sounds like a fine day out on the docks. I wonder if the moon was full."

"If it wasn't, it should have been," Zander said. "And we can't let him stop us from coming to Kelly's in the morning like this. But it's dangerous. He could come down any minute. I'm glad you're here, Alexis."

"Maybe there's a way to get him to be the one to lose it," Alexis said.

"No, he remains perfectly calm. That's his MO," Zander replied.

"Tell him I said he was the smaller," Quinn suggested.

All three of them burst into laughter.

"Well, I better go to the hospital," Quinn said, getting up.

She kissed Zander. Alexis and Zander said goodbye to her as she walked out.

"She's wonderful," Alexis said.

"Yes," Zander replied. "I'd give a lot to hear her tell Emily off. I tried telling her off myself, but I'm not as good. What is Dad doing to the Quartermaines' Company?"

"He bought out a minority shareholder. Sonny. If anything, it's an improvement for them."

"Well, they don't see it that way."

"They may, in time. Right now Edward Quartermaine doesn't like it, because of some other things Sergei did. He'll get over it."

"Does that old guy ever get over anything?"

"Eventually. How's school?"

"Good. I have an advantage over the rest of the students because I have my own tutor."

"She only helps you study."

"Yeah, I don't know if I could concentrate without her."

Joanna was laughing as Quinn related the story.

"What did Sean say on your answering machine?"

"I never listened!"

"Call it on break and listen."

Quinn did. "Quinn, this is Sean," it said. "I don't know what you see in Smith, but you ought to know he's capable of violence. He hit me a couple of times. I'm not injured though. Call me and we can go out and talk over the old days."

"He's capable of violence!" Quinn exclaimed to Joanna. "So am I, when it comes to Sean Monroe! Sean better get used to it if he's going to go around provoking people like that!"

"I'll say," Joanna smiled. "Let's go for lunch."

They were sitting in the cafeteria when AJ came along. He sat down with them.

"You might not want to sit here," Joanna advised. "This is the Sean haters club."

"What did he do now?" AJ asked. "Another round of questioning on the case?"

"He got into a fight with Quinn and a little later he got into a fight with Zander."

"I thought lawyers were supposed to help settle disputes, not be in the middle of them," AJ said.

"This is personal," Quinn said. "And you may as well tell your sister, she has no good deal there. The way he behaves to me is not consistent with any loyalty to her."

"Poor Emily," AJ said. "Quinn has both guys and Emily has none."

"She can have Sean. I wish she'd do a better job of - keeping him in line," Quinn replied.

"I'll tell her," AJ said, with a grin. "Joanna, do you want to take all the kids to the park this evening?"

"Well, I have to - OK," Joanna said.

"You can try to keep me in line," he said. "Maybe you learned from Quinn. She's good at that. Look how little trouble Zander has gotten into, compared to what he used to."

"It's your sister that needs to learn," Joanna observed.

"She is the weakest link," Quinn agreed.