Chapter 3

"I thought we could start by showing you what exactly you'd be investing in," Nadine said, clasping her hands in front of her as she grinned at Johnny.

"I'd be investing in the clinic," he replied, shifting his eyes around the sparkling clean facility. "Medicine. Clean sheets. Your paycheck."

Her jaw ticked at his words, but he saw her eyes fill with patience as she shoved a snarky reply to the side. "Exactly, but I thought if I showed you-"

"Do I look like I need visuals?" he asked, slipping his hands in the pockets of his jacket and rocking back and forth on his feet. He would have admired her snarky reply much better. "I'm well aware of how my money would be spent, but I won't lie, my lawyer thinks it's a complete waste seeing as this was built on some tarnished relationship-"

"Emily was the love of Nikolas' life, and her death was a tragedy," Nadine murmured uncomfortably, her eyes darkening, and he wondered who it was a bigger tragedy for.

"You like Nikolas?" he asked, leaning against the front desk and grinning at her. "And Emily's death sort of put a damper on things because he's in love-"

"We're talking about the clinic and the money that you're going to spend poorly," she cut in, walking around the desk to stand in front of him. "Your lawyer will just have to deal with the realization that you're doing something good with the money instead of letting him shove it into some offshore account. Or worse, his pocket."

Ah, yes, the snark.

He appreciated this side of the blonde nurse more than the one desperately seeking money because she was completely in love with her best friend.

"If you weren't doing this because you loved Nikolas, I think I'd like you," Johnny murmured, pushing himself away from the counter and motioning around the empty clinic, not giving her time to spit and sputter a reply. "So, dazzle me with your wit and words, Nadine. There better be a good reason why I got out of bed at eight a.m. on a Sunday morning."

"Late night?" she asked, flashing a chipper smile as pointed at the donuts and cartons of milk on the counter. "I at least brought you breakfast."

He wrinkled his nose as he picked up one of the tiny cartons of milk that reminded him of the cafeteria in his boarding school. Sometimes she just made it too easy to press her buttons. "I'm, uh, I'm lactose intolerant."

She started to argue, but then gave him a serious look as her cheeks flushed. "You are….lactose intolerant."

So much for the nurse putting up a fight.

"We can skip the food anyway," he shrugged, raising his eyebrows. "I'm not hungry…at least not for food anyway."

"You…" She gritted her teeth and held up her hands, taking several deep breaths, and he couldn't help but laugh. "I cannot stand you."

"You brought this upon yourself," he reminded her, rolling his eyes. "Now if you want to back out of your end of the bargain and just-"

"The Emily Bowen Quartermaine Clinic was established by Nikolas in hopes of helping the less fortunate people of Port Charles. His fiancé had just finished medical school and was following a line of doctors in her family. Medicine was always very important to them and-"

"Are you giving me a biography or are we talking about why I'm investing in the clinic?" he cut in, walking back to the desk and picking up a donut with chocolate sprinkles. She bit her cheeks and glared at the donut, and he immediately realized that it was her donut, and that she'd brought him the boring, old glazed ones.

"Well, you may or may not know that General Hospital doesn't accept uninsured patients, which means they have to go all the way to county," she said slowly, trying to regroup. She grimaced when he bit into the donut and he couldn't stop himself from holding it out and offering her a bite. "Just eat it, and don't choke because I refuse-"

"Don't you take a vow as a nurse?" he interrupted, chewing slowly, and grinning when she closely watched how he licked chocolate from the corner of his mouth. "If I choked, you'd have to save me."

"Unfortunately," she muttered, rolling her eyes before launching back into her help the poor because it's good speech. "Not everyone can afford to make it to county, and in some situations you don't have the time, so patients can come to the clinic and-"

"I'm bored," Johnny sighed, tossing the half eaten donut down on the counter and looking at her. He dusted his crumb ridden fingers against his worn jeans. "If you thought telling me – basically giving me a history of medicine in Port Charles was going to-"

"You're not even listening to me," she hissed, pursing her lips. "I just thought you'd want to know where you were spending your money. My Aunt Rayleen always said you never gave money away unless-"

"Rich people don't care where they put their money as long as it makes them look good," he shrugged, folding his arms over her chest. "And you can give this feed the children speech until your blue in the face, but it's not going to-"

"This is just a game to you, isn't it?" she asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "I'm trying to convince you to donate money to something that will change people's lives, and you're too selfish, too bored, too conceited to do something for the sake of it being good."

"I like doing things for the sake of my own good," he corrected smugly, grinning crookedly. "And honestly, I don't see how giving millions of dollars to Nikolas Cassidine is going to help me."

"You are such a selfish ass-" She stopped mid-sentence, her lips curving into a wide smile as the door to the clinic opened. "Nikolas, I, uh, I…" She raked a shaky hand through her hair and dropped her eyes to the floor.

"Your delightful nurse here was giving me a tour of the clinic," Johnny chimed in, nodding politely at Nikolas who seemed surprised to see them standing there. He looked awkward, nervous even and Johnny knew that the upstanding woman had ran straight to Nikolas and confessed her sins. Was there nothing she did with dirty hands? "I like to know where my money's being spent when I'm doing something for the sake of all the good in the world."

"You sure do," Nadine growled lightly, her jaw tense as she glared at him.

"I see," he murmured, looking between his nurse and possible benefactor. "Well, I'll leave you two to it. I left some paperwork in my office." He gave Nadine a lingering look. "I'm relieved that you're doing as I asked."

"Always," she replied, her eyes softening at the man's kinds words.

Ha.

She so wanted to bang her boss.

"Stop grinning like that, you-"

"I'd watch the name calling if I was you," he interrupted, watching Nikolas disappear down the hall to his office. "Looks like you're boss is counting on you making things right with me, and better yet, I bet it's driving you completely insane that I can't stand you."

"As opposed to you liking me?" she asked, arching her eyebrows.

"You like being liked, and you're willing to sell yourself short to make sure-"

"You don't even know me," she warned, tensing up.

"And you don't know me," he reminded her, starting towards the door. "So the next time you decide to call me names and make assumptions about me and my money, you should think twice." He jerked the door open and started outside, calling out to her over his shoulder. "I'll be in touch, Hello Kitty."

He lingered next to the door long enough to hear the long string of dirty words that escaped her mouth, and then he laughed all the way to his car.

**********

"Well, I've really done it this time, Ricky," Nadine sighed, combing her fingers through her cat's thick fur as he purred loudly, his body draped across her middle as she sprawled on the couch. "It frustrates me that so few people actually believe in Nikolas and his cause. I can tell he doesn't want all these donations from people who pity him and the loss of Emily, but that's what it looks like he's getting. And it's my fault because if I hadn't opened my big, fat, stupid mouth to Johnny Zacchara, Nikolas would have a hefty donation that wasn't out of pity. I fail at life."

The cat yawned lazily and let out a soft meow.

"You're not supposed to agree," she pouted, sticking out her tongue at him. "Okay, okay, I'll be nice." She gently eased the cat off her lap and onto the cushion next to her when he not-so-subtly sank his claws into her Muppet pajama bottoms. "Kermit doesn't like when you do that to his face."

The cat meowed again before jumping off the couch and scampering away.

She'd become a complete and total pain to everyone around her, including her cat. Not even Ricky Ricardo wanted her company these days. He didn't come to greet at the door when she came home or saunter back and forth between her legs when she cooked dinner. Like everyone else, he was tired of Nadine being sleepless and rude, and she knew she had to stop this.

"Alright, Ricky, I'll be nicer," she said, getting up and sliding on fuzzy pink slippers. The cat peered around the end of the couch, his eyes slits as he meowed. "I promise. I'll buy you tuna and those fancy cat toys you like, and I won't complain when you wake me up in the morning to play."

The cat let out a low purr and rolled onto his back, and she was pleased that they seemed to reach some kind of understanding. "Nice doing business with you," she murmured, leaning over and running her fingers along his belly. "I can be nice. I'm just – ow, Ricky!" She jerked her hand away when he bit her, jumping to his feet, his tail sticking straight up as he ran from the room the moment music jarred through the walls, shaking what few pictures she had hanging on them.

"I. Will. Kill. Him," she hissed, sinking back down on the couch and holding her face in her hands. She closed her eyes and started to count to ten, briefly debating whether or not to try some of those relaxing yoga techniques Spinelli was always on her to use these days. "Don't you start, Ricky."

She scowled when the cat slinked back into the room, his fur fluffed in protest of the wailing sounds that were seeping through the walls, and then he started howling.

"Ricky, do you want that tuna I just promised you?" she asked, wagging her finger at him. "Do you want me to be nice and pleasant and…" She gave up when he continued to howl, rolling around on the floor as if he were in pain. "Don't make me go over there, Ricky. Actually, I refuse to go over there."

She grabbed some three month fashion magazine from the coffee table and leaned back on the couch, flipping through the pages. "Johnny's just acting out over this morning. When he realizes he's ruined my day enough, he'll turn the music off and go bang some whore or something." She continued to turn the pages, trying to ignore the sound of the cat's howling over the music. "Ricky, stop. I am not going over there."

Swearing under her breath, she slammed the magazine down on the coffee table and got up. "Fine, but when you don't have your favorite tuna and your cat toys because I'm cranky and miserable, you remember this moment."

She snatched a sweater from a chair near the door and shrugged it over her tank top before tearing the door open and starting next door. Taking a deep breath, she knocked gently at first, straining to hear if Johnny was even in there, and that's when she heard the voices.

"Stop being such an immature-"

"Get the hell out!"

"This whole angry teenager thing was okay-"

"Go to hell, Claudia!"

"You're going to make a mistake, and I am not-"

"I've never needed you to clean up anything-"

"John, this is everything to our family and you're-"

"Not a part of that family!"

"Sheesh," Nadine murmured, torn between going back home and making him answer the door. The latter won out, only because she could hear Ricky howling in the hallway, so she beat harder and harder, until finally the door swung open.

"What the hell do you want?" Johnny snarled angrily, his chest heaving. His eyes wandered over her, and she could have sworn she saw the faintest hint of smile when they settled on her pajama bottoms, but by the time they were back on his face, he was pissed all over again.

"Oh, I didn't know you had company coming," purred a low voice as a dark-haired women stepped up behind him. "Well, isn't this cute? Why wasn't I invited to the pajama party?"

"What. Do. You. Want?" Johnny spat, tensing up when the woman poked him in the shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize you had company. I-"

"The music? Is Beethoven ruining your perfect day?" he hissed, turning around and stalking over to the stereo. He opened the glass door and leaned over and hit the off button. "Better?"

"Yes," she whispered, folding her arms over her chest as she backed towards her apartment. "Thank you."

He slammed the door without so much as a word, his voice raising long enough to tell the woman to either shut up or leave, and things remained silent for the rest of the night.