Chapter Fourteen
Monica was leaving the operating room when she saw Sam McCall on the surgical floor. Wondering what she was doing there that late, she asked Epiphany Johnson how often the woman was there.
"Frequently."she said. "I see her outside the hospital room door where she was a patient all the time. I think she is coming to grips with her loss. I know she has been spending time with Dr. Winters, at least she is on the schedule to do so."
Monica made a mental note to mention it to Alan, knowing that Lainey Winters had expressed reservations about Sam McCall. She found she wasn't real comfortable with the other woman wandering the hospital like she clearly was.
Brook was glaring at Dillon as they headed into the ER. "This is so your fault."
"Hey, I told you not to jump." he said as he helped his limping niece into a chair. Going to the counter he explained why they were there and were told to take a seat, it would be a few minutes.
The sound of an ambulance pulling in, then a young woman and a baby being wheeled in followed by a police car carrying Georgie. "Georgie?"
Turning to look at her former boyfriend, she said "I have to find out how Corinne is."
"Wait, why is there blood all over you." he asked just as several others entered at the same time.
"Georgie, we need to get you cleaned up." said Epiphany. "I have scrubs set up for you to shower."
"She needs to be checked out too." said Johnny as he came in behind Mac."She went into shock after helping Corinne."
"I am fine, Johnny." she said with a soft smile. "Hey, did you grab my purse from the table?"
"Your dad has it." He said. "Go, shower, I will be waiting here for when you are done."
"Johnny, are you sure? I mean, its a holiday, you were only supposed to be meeting me for a quick visit. What about your family?"
"Dad left after we ate." he didn't try to explain that they weren't exactly the normal family. He had made plans to tell her about his family but now this had thrown a kink in his plans.
"Georgie?"Turning towards Dillon as the nurse called for Brooklynn. As the teenager went with her, she clearly wanted to stay and get answers."What is going on?"
"Nothing, Dillon." she said as she followed the head nurse away from the waiting room.
"Who are you?" Dillon asked Johnny. The Italian looked at the kid then walked away without answering him. "Hey, I was talking to you."
"Yeah, I heard you." he said and didn't stop as he approached Mac Scorpio."How is she doing?"
"Better, I called Corinne's grandmother, she is on her way here. Wanted to know girl or boy so she could bring her some of the stuff the baby will need." Mac could see that John was clearly thrown by all that had happened that evening. Apparently seeing babies being born was not that easy, even for a mob prince.
"Has anyone spoken to Corinne, let her know. I just... you sometimes don't know what is going on once the curtains are closed, Sir. We have no idea what she is really like to her granddaughter." John of all people knew that sometimes your family was scarier than complete strangers.
"I know, I will be there, watching from the sidelines." he said then looking at the man, grimaced. He had sworn not to say anything about the odd relationship between his daughter and this man, but the more time he spend around him, he found himself liking his calm and reasonable approach to life.
"I am going to see what I can do for Georgie. Her car is at the diner, we met there because she was dropping off her key then she was going to try and speak to her former friends."
"I wish she wouldn't." he said then frowned "Wait, if she had a key, why didn't Georgie unlock the door and Lorenzo throw a chair into the glass."
"He didn't ask, he just reacted." he said shrugging. "I would have done the same."
Georgie had showered and was leaving to change when she felt a draft. Exiting, she looked around and said "What the heck, where did the scrubs go?"
Picking up the phone, holding her towel tight, she called "Ms. Johnson, the scrubs you left me are gone."
"Okay, I will bring some right down." said the woman who looked at Mac who was waiting for his daughter along with the young man who had visited a few times while Georgie was volunteering. "Someone took Georgie's scrubs as a joke. I have to get her some new ones."
"Is that a frequent problem for you?" asked Mac not liking the sound of that. That someone could be around the hospital in scrubs and not be noticed was not a good thing, especially with all the meds that were easy to access with the right codes and keys.
"No, which is why I am not worried. I will be looking into it though."she said with a frown that made Johnny glad he wasn't the guilty party.
Bobbie Jones went to her bedroom, closed the door and rubbed her temple. This had been one of the worst Thanksgiving dinners she had ever experienced, even worse than the one where she had ended up in jail with Scott Baldwin.
There had been Carly who had not been happy, when questioned later, Bobbie had pointed out that she had TOLD her that Jason had said he wasn't coming over. Carly had stormed off, driving off to her house with Lorenzo after saying her mother didn't know what she had been talking about.
She hadn't even said goodbye to the boys, which looking back might have been a good thing. Morgan was too young to notice and she was worried about Michael and his attitude lately. Then there was Lucas who had been expecting Brook and Dillon only for them to not arrive.
Groaning as the real reason for her headache popped to the forefront, the argument between Laura and Audrey Hardy. Audrey hadn't been happy with Laura's insistence that Lucky needed to stay where he was, that he had been horribly wrong to try and escape. But to try and kidnap Elizabeth was even worse.
Thankfully Carly had gone before this, considering she had been convinced that Elizabeth was at fault, the idea of Audrey and Carly agreeing on anything was reason enough for a normal person to shudder.
The older woman's beliefs and complete faith in her nephew would be touching, except that Bobbie soon got that it was not she thought Lucky better than anyone else for Elizabeth, but that she thought others were worse, much, much worse.
After hearing her refer to Zander and Jason as thugs, of Ric as having been driven to insanity by Jason and Sonny, she finally got that it was all about her public image. That had stunned Bobbie, making her take a good look at Lucky and her own lackluster feelings and knew that she was feeling she owed her nephew, that she owed her daughter.
Which she truly didn't. Yes, Carly had had a bad life, but if she had lived with her, been raised in that whorehouse, she would have had no life. Her choices since arriving in Port Charles were on her too, she had made the choice to sleep with Tony, with AJ.
She didn't love Jason, she was obsessed with him, just like Lucky was with Elizabeth. For her daughter and her nephew it was all about control, not love. Well she was done excusing behaviors. Laura was right, Lucky could face his own and as for Carly, she would always be her daughter but right now, Bobbie had to concentrate on what was best for those boys, not her daughter.
Leaving her office, Monica saw Epiphany and asked what was going on. Telling her about Georgie delivering the baby, she made Monica laugh as she told her what the younger girl had been muttering.
"Well Mac will be happy to hear that." she said with a chuckle. "At least until he decides he wants grandchildren."
"Who wants grandchildren, Mom?" asked Emily as she walked over to her Mom. Being told about what was going on, she was asking about the baby when she heard Courtney calling out her name.
"Courtney."she said slightly snappishly. "What do you want?"
"To talk to you, please?" she asked, she had thought if she asked while Monica was there, Emily would give in, but it didn't work that way.
"About what? I can't think of a single thing we have to talk about." she waspishly. "Courtney, I spoke to Jason today. I know what you asked him to do. If this was a way to try and manipulate him, don't go there. I will have no problem going public with all he told me."
Convinced he wouldn't betray her totally, Courtney left quickly. She had one more way to get what she wanted, then she would have to go to Carly. There was no way, none she was going to be a single mother.
Hurrying down the hallway, she ran into a dark haired nurse and was about to apologize when she saw the nurse ducking into the stairwell and pull the door closed behind her. "Well that was rude."
Monica looked at Emily and asked "What is going on?"
"Lets just say that Courtney is without a man and has decided to once again go after a man who is already with someone else." she said darkly.
"I don't remember her doing that before." said Monica thoughtfully."Her normal action is to go after her next man while with someone else. Unless you are talking about Brenda, but we all know the true story there, Emily."
"No, I am not talking about Brenda." she said. "What you didn't know, is that Sonny forced Jason to lie to Elizabeth who Jason was dating and in love with back then. Elizabeth broke things off and pow, suddenly Courtney with Carly's help moved in on him."
"Elizabeth?"she asked doubting her daughter. "Are you sure?"
"Yes Mom, it was Jason who told me about it." she said annoyed to realize that thanks to Elizabeth and Jason's habit of keeping things to themselves, they were going to have to deal with more doubts as they told the world. "He feels foolish that he let them use him. He isn't letting them control him anymore."
Monica could see that Emily was truly excited about something but she was confused. "I thought you went to Elizabeth's house today with Ned.
"I did, Jason was there." she said. Seeing her mother's eyes widen as that sank in, she said "I promised to keep silent until tomorrow but needless to say, I think Carly is going to be in for a real shock."
Just as Monica was about to ask what she was talking about, every single beeper in the hospital went off and the doors went into lock down."What is going on?"
Hurrying to the hub, she quickly made a call and said "What?"
There was silence then Monica said "Have you called the police yet?"
Getting an answer, she said "Have you spoken to him?"
Hanging up, she said "Someone kidnapped the baby that Georgie delivered."
Mac arrived on the obstetrics floor. As his officers arrived and checked each person leaving, after questioning them. It was late when Mac called the FBI.
Epiphany Johnson was in with Corinne when she heard her asking for Nadine Crowell. "I will call her."
"Thank you." said the young woman who was weeping. "Why, why would they take my baby?"
"We don't know, but I promise the police will find out who did this."If they didn't, she was sure that one of the less than reputable members of society might. She had overheard Emily calling her brother and she was well aware of who the Zachara family was.
Just to be sure, she had called her son, Stan was already working for Mac looking at the footage. He had been rather scathingly disappointed with what little the camera's showed. General Hospital didn't have the best security camera's and that they were even digital was a miracle
Mac was talking to Steven Webber who was doing some forensic tests at his request. "Sir, what am I looking for?"
"Anything to track down who did this." he said grimly. "We have no leads. All we have is a fuzzy picture of someone wearing scrubs. We already know that they got the scrubs from the locker room while Georgie was showering."
"What else?" he asked as he saw Mac looking at his notebook while Alan who had arrived and Monica approached.
"We know it was a female, smaller than Georgie from how the pants bagged around her ankles." he said "And that she left the hospital with the baby within an hour of the baby arriving. Since the little girl was being checked out for most of that, it looks like an impulse grab."
"Which is why she is dangerous." said Steven, he had worked several such cases. "Usually women who do this, do it to keep a man. But it is very rare, no matter what the media says."
Mac was about to speak when he saw contacted by the FBI. "When do you want me to do that?"
Hanging up, he said "Alan, I need to know if you are up to speaking to the press with me. The FBI agent in charge, thinks putting a local face on this will help. He recalls when Georgie was grabbed. Thinks I might be able to draw more attention to the case."
Standing in front of the hot camera lenses, Mac felt tired as he looked at the talking points the FBI had given him. Grimacing at the idea of using what happened to Georgie he only hoped it worked.
Downstairs, Georgie was standing in the waiting room, in Johnny's arms unaware that both Brook and Dillon were observing the two of them as they watched the teleconference.
At the Jones house, people were gathered, while Bobbie was on the phone with Det Garcia about what had happened at her diner. "Thank you, tell Mac I will be on the lookout.
The Quartermaines were watching as was Lorenzo Alcazar who had snapped at his wife to be quiet as she tried to talk over the news reporter. "I was there when she delivered. Whoever did this is going to regret it."
Jason and Elizabeth were watching while he was on the phone. "Spread the news, tell the men that there is a reward for finding this baby alive and getting her back to her mother."
Mac hung up the phone from his tenth call on the way down to the parking lot while Alan was speaking to his own staff. "Are you ready?"
"No but I have to get the word out." he said grimly.
Standing in front of the press, he gave them the vital statistics, then started to mention the human element. Ending with how his daughter had helped deliver the baby.
Taking a deep breath, he was asked a question by a reporter about how common these cases were.
"After my youngest daughter Georgie was kidnapped as a baby, I keep up on these sorts of cases. He is right, it is rare. Usually the woman has low self-esteem and has either lied about being pregnant or has recently suffered a miscarriage. Normally there is a medical complication that prevents her from getting pregnant naturally."
Seeing them writing this down, he said "Everyone needs to be on the lookout for a woman who has suddenly shown up with a child, who has not been in the hospital or has said she gave birth at home."
"These woman are NOT insane, they plan this out. While it looks like an impulse crime to us, they have meticulously plotted what they are going to do once they have the child."
"Sir, you said they are trying to hold only a man. Wouldn't he notice?"
"Not if she has been lying to him about being pregnant." he said. "You need to understand, these woman are usually very good con artists."
"They deceive their boyfriends or husbands about their pregnancies and manipulate themselves into position to abduct children." he said."In jail interviews, the women expressed disappointment that they were caught not regret at what they have done."
"They focus on how awful this is and 'Can you believe it's happening to me? These women's needs are above the community's needs, above the natural parents. It's one thing to steal a wallet - but a newborn – that gives you an idea how selfish these women are!"
Mac stepped off the stage and was handed a phone. "What?"
"Sir, Jason Morgan is on the phone wanting to be patched to you." he said to his boss.
"Morgan what is going on?"
"Sir, my men saw Sam McCall with a baby entering the Towers through the staircase a half hour ago, she was wearing scrubs." Jason didn't tell him that he had watched the press conference and had had a hunch.
His men had done some checking and had confirmed what he had sadly suspected. Feeling guilty because he had blown off what Dr. Winters had tried to tell him, not wanting to be drawn back into Sam's mess, he had possibly let her create an even bigger one. Elizabeth had already called Nadine back to watch Cam for them.
"Morgan, stay out of it." he was told then heard a dial tone. Jason thought about it, but before he could agree there was another call on his phone. Seeing the number for the penthouse, he showed it to Elizabeth who said "Answer it."
"Morgan."he stated with the phone on speaker.
"Jason, I need you to come home. Our daughter wants to meet her father."said the happy woman on the other end. "She is asleep in her crib, just like we planned. You have to come home, so we can take Delilah to meet her grandmother. I called over there, that rude maid hung up on me."
Grateful for that at least, Jason saw Elizabeth pick up her phone then walk to the kitchen. Hearing her soft words then his wife returning, she mouthed Mac to him as Sam continued to talk.
Jason saw Elizabeth lift her phone then she mouthed for him to play along. Not wanting to but understand that this newborn was in danger, he did as requested. "I will be there as soon as I can get away, Sam."
There was the sound of dial tone as the woman seemed satisfied with his response. Mac told the two of them to meet him at the Towers."Elizabeth, stay out of sight for now. Maybe down in the lobby."
Grabbing Lainey Winters, Mac caught the woman up and winced saying. "I told Morgan to play along."
"It might work to get him inside the penthouse, but if she figures out the truth, it could backfire, sir. It might endanger the child."she said coolly professional.
TBC