At the Baldwin, Jordan, & Baldwin Law Firm, Scott Baldwin looked at the barely legible return phone number which consisted of only six digits and then leaned back in his chair with frustration. He hated to admit that he was starting to miss being a lowly public servant. At least when he had been an underpaid county prosecutor, he had a paralegal and a secretary. As the newest partner at his father's firm with Tom Jordan he had some work study student from PC High, Tiffany Peterson.

Tiffany was sixteen and apparently, or perhaps allegedly, aspired to a career in law. To say that Scott couldn't envision her ever becoming a great legal eagle would be an overly kind understatement of her lack of aptitude. A more accurate assessment would be that his youngest daughter would probably be a more competent assistant. Heck, his younger sister Monica's youngest daughter would probably be an improvement over Tiffany. Serena was five and his youngest niece, Katelyn, would be four in another six months.

That she would be four, not that she was actually three, was what Katelyn told anyone who asked how old she was. Scott suspected she had inherited, or perhaps learned, that life approach that from her mother. Monica had always been motivated and driven; she was five years younger, but she had finished medical school before he even started law school. She had graduated from high school early and then done some combined undergrad and medical school program. In contrast, he had kind of taken the scenic route through college while majoring in sociology and broken hearts.

He got it together eventually, he even passed the challenging New York state bar on the first try. His father thought all of that was another reason that Scott should be more patient with Tiffany and her gum cracking ineptitude. Scott supposed that sounded good in theory but, in practice, it was beyond frustrating to have an assistant who was unable to take a simple phone message or make a photocopy. With that thought, Scott released another frustrated sigh and then depressed the intercom button on his phone. "Tiffany, can you come in here for a moment?" he asked in as even a tone as he could muster.

Tiffany bopped into the room with earphones in her ears chewing a wad of gum. "Yeah," she mumbled.

"This phone message has only six digits," Scott said.

Tiffany gave him a blank stare. "Yeah, so?" she asked with a shrug of her shoulders.

So that isn't going to get me any closer to reaching Judge Casto at his fishing cabin on Kemp Lake than I was before he returned my call! As obvious as that explanation was Scott was quite certain that it would be lost on Tiffany, so he took another deep breath and asked, "Did you write the number down somewhere else first and then copy it to the message slip?"

Tiffany rolled her eyes and popped the bubble she had blown in a synchronous motion. She rolled her eyes again and then released her own frustrated sigh. "I have better things to do than copy you know," she before she turned quickly and flounced out of his office.

Scott just shook his head. Suddenly he wished he had picked up on Danielle's hints that she was looking for a job and hired her. But he hadn't, so he was stuck with Tiffany and partial call back numbers. Life just stunk sometimes.

XXXXXXXX

Deception Cosmetics Chief Operating Officer, Amy Elizabeth Morgan grabbed the laptop case from her desk and started out of her office. It was time to turn from cosmetics mogul to chauffeur. Her big sister, Chloe, was flying all the way in from Milan to attend the reception their great aunt Lila was hosting, for their cousin Ned and his newest wife, and someone had to pick her up at the airport.

Caroline Benson had become the third Mrs. Ned Ashton a week earlier but most of the family, including Lila Quartermaine, hadn't been able to attend the ceremony in Florida. So, Lila had arranged a formal dinner at the Port Charles Grille to welcome Ned and Carly back to Port Charles after their honeymoon. In theory that was a great idea. In practice, in Port Charles, it was very rare for a major social event to end without scandal, destruction, death, or, more likely, some combination of the aforementioned three. Amy knew that all too well, she had witnessed more than her share in the thirteen months she had lived in Port Charles.

Unlike her cousin, Amy was not a Port Charles native. After his older sister, Lila, married Edward Quartermaine, and his older brother, Harold Jr, perished in a 1961 hotel fire; her grandfather had inherited the Morgan Manufacturing Plant and the original Morgan Estate in Oyster Bay, NY. An artist by training and passion, Joshua Morgan had considered his inheritance more of an albatross than a gift. Fortunately, his wife Inez had a latent knack for business and their son had inherited her business mind and skill set.

Phillip Morgan had assumed full control of the company after he finished his MBA in 1973. Chloe had been almost three and she was born later that year. Exactly what was going to happen when her father was ready to retire was the unanswered question. Five years ago, there had been a lot of hope that her cousin Jason, the grandson of Harold Morgan Jr. might be interested in the company. He had been taking a few business classes at PCU then. But ultimately, he ended up graduating with a degree in criminal justice and became a Boston PD Detective in 1995. Amy had been able to tell her father had been disappointed by Jason's career path. There was this unspoken mantra that the company must be passed down in the family and suddenly his anticipated successor had found his own path.

Amy also remembered her mother's random comment that there were worse things Jason could do than pursue a career in law enforcement. Actually, Amy was sure her mother had been a bit quietly proud, her own father had been a former police captain. Of course, none of them had realized how telling her mother's comment actually was. Less than a year after he had made detective her cousin left behind a promising career in law enforcement to be Sonny Corinthos's hired gun. Amy knew that was an oversimplified explanation, but she couldn't do much better than that because there was so much about the whole situation that didn't make sense and she doubted it ever would.

She had been in California when the accident, that had killed HJ and Jan Morgan and left their son with traumatic brain injury, had happened. After her own college graduation in 1995 she had taken a designer position with Forrester Creations in Los Angelos. It wasn't exactly Milan, but she hadn't studied design at the Sorbonne in Paris either, as Chloe had. She also hadn't wanted to use her big sister's connections to get her first job. She had wanted to do it on her own. She had too, at least in the beginning.

Then things got complicated and messy. Then her focus shifted from making her way in the fashion world to surviving. That was when she had needed to rely on her cousin to get her second job. That was when Ned had hired her at Deception Cosmetics. He was a good older cousin, but there was more. After she had told him all that had really happened in LA, he had told her a secret that he had shared only with Lois who had left him and filed for divorce immediately after. Then Amy had understood exactly why Ned needed her at Deceptions much more than she really needed to be there. Somehow that had made it mostly ok. Or at least she tried to tell herself that, Amy thought with a sigh as she pulled her office door closed and turned the key in the lock.

Her assistant, Danielle, turned to face her as she stepped away from her office door. "Did you need anything else before you left?" she asked.

Danielle had only worked at Deception for a few months. She had been hired to replace yet another, at least the eighth since Amy had joined Deceptions, secretary who had gotten fed up with their CEO Katherine Bell and refused to work for her. Since honest, accurate, self reflection wasn't one of Katherine's strengths she hadn't realized that perhaps she needed to alter her behavior. Instead she had snatched up Amy's personal assistant and moved on. The fact that Amy no longer had an assistant had then hardly been Katherine's concern. As had become a familiar pattern, Amy had just listed the position and started interviewing candidates.

That had brought her to Danielle Ashley, an actress who had discovered that Port Charles was a long way from Broadway only after she had agreed to move to be closer to her fiancé, Dr. Jake Marshak, an intern at Port Charles General Hospital. She had also learned that intern salaries weren't much above minimum wage. So, she was looking for something to pay the bills until Jake transferred to Cornell Wyle or she found a passion for something besides acting, ideally something that was more geographically compatible with upstate New York.

It had sounded good, plus she hadn't really had any other promising candidates, so she had given Danielle the job. So far she wasn't regretting that decision. So far…

"No but remember I'm taking Monday morning off since my sister will be here. Ideally you will work on putting the packets together for Friday's shareholder's meeting. If anything truly pressing comes up just call my cell."

Danielle looked a little sad for a moment. She seemed to force an uncomfortable smile. "That's cool that you're so close," she said.

"We're sisters," Amy said quickly. "Well, I should go, Chloe's plane is supposed to get in at four and traffic will be horrendous getting over to the airport," she added. Then she slipped out the door in an effort to avoid thinking about all the distance she had introduced into her relationship with Chloe. Chloe had no idea what had happened in LA or why she had suddenly decided to make a sort of lateral move into the cosmetic industry. Amy wasn't really planning on enlightening her over the long weekend either.

XXXXXXXX

As he lay in bed with his lover, Rex Stanton realized he might actually be falling in love. He had originally pursued Lucy Coe as a means to an end, but over the past few months her flamboyance had appealed to him. Her quirks were becoming endearing rather than merely tolerated out of necessity. He would ask her to marry him soon. That was all part of the plan, but he had a feeling that he might enjoy wedded bliss more than he had imagined.

Lucy first stirred in her sleep and then began to stretch and awaken. She looked at him first, but then at the clock at which point her brows seems to knit themselves into a frown of frustration. She took a deep breath in and then exhaled. "Rex, you promised we wouldn't lose another entire day in bed," she said with a finishing pout.

Rex sat up and then pulled her back toward him to lie against his chest. When she curled into his embrace, he decided she couldn't be too mad. "We haven't lost an entire day it's only half past noon on the west coast," Rex said.

Lucy tilted her chin to look up at him. She brightened slightly and then frowned again. "But it must be at least seven or eight in Paris, and I thought you were going to contact your friends there."

"Oh that has already been taken care of," Rex said.

Lucy's eyes widened. She sat up all the way and pulled away from him slightly. Then she looked fully into his eyes with what Rex thought was love. "It has?" she asked.

"Of course, Temptation Designs will be represented at Fashion Week in November in Paris."

"My designs at Fashion Week? In November! In Paris! Paris, France right? Because I've heard there is a Paris in Texas. Kathy and Mac went there looking for Damian but by then he had high tailed it back to good old Port Charles. My designs at Fashion Week! In Paris! Paris, France. Oh what will I wear? I'll have to design something, something new, something that says Lucy Coe has arrived!"

"Well there is plenty of time for that. In the meantime, why don't we just pick up where we left off?" Rex asked.

In moments, Lucy was back in his arms and they were halfway to ephemeral bliss. Rex smiled. Lucy was definitely very nubile, and definitely even more naïve. He liked both, but it was the latter that would ensure his final plan went all the way to completion. That was most important, and he would not lose sight of that.

XXXXXXXX

Ali Barrington climbed into her boyfriend Jamal's jeep after cheering practice, leaned over the gearshift and brought her lips to his. Jamal pulled her closer to him as they kissed and for a few moments she was almost oblivious to anything, or anyone.

Only almost though because the sound of her newest best friend, Sarah Webber, clearing her throat with more disgust than amusement did eventually reach her. She kissed Jamal once more and then pulled back slightly. She met his disappointment with a seductive wink. "We're giving Sarah a ride, I'll make it up to you later," she promised.

Sarah looked a bit put upon but she did climb into the back of Jamal's jeep. Jamal gave Ali another a look but didn't say anything as he peeled out of the parking lot behind the field house.

Sometimes Ali wondered if Sarah's prude act was more real than just for her grandmother's benefit. After all Sarah was Audrey Hardy's granddaughter.. Of course, Ali's own grandmother had once mentioned that Audrey March's prude act had been exactly that, an act, so perhaps that didn't fit at all. Of course it seemed that Audrey had really perfected the act over the years so perhaps Sarah had learned from her grandmother's influences. Ali leaned over and kissed Jamal's neck and his frown melted a bit. "Bring Zander tonight, Sarah thinks he's cute," she said.

"Ali!" Sarah shrieked.

"Oh please, you can't expect anyone except for your grandmother to possibly believe that you're actually interested in his royal dorkiness. Sure he's nice to drag to formal family functions but you need someone a little more fun for like everyday use. Anyway, Zander has connections," Ali said.

"What kind of connections?" Sarah asked.

"He's the one who brought the Ecstasy to the last party. Just see what happens," Ali said.

"I'm telling Grams that I'm sleeping over at your house so we can work on the history project. She's going to some party the Quartermaines are throwing, so make sure your parents think I'm sleeping over too in case they happen to be at the same party," Sarah said.

For a brief moment Ali wondered if she wouldn't be so out of control if her mother cared enough to have a clue about what she was actually doing. Perhaps she would just be as sneaky as Sarah and it wouldn't really change anything. She supposed it didn't really matter because it wasn't like Elizabeth Barrington was suddenly going to care. Her grandmother cared. Yet, Ali knew that Amanda Barrington would be horrified if she knew about the drugs and the raves that were the staple of her granddaughter's life. Ali couldn't bear to see that disappointment in her grandmother's eyes so she tried to be a little discreet. She tried to tell herself that what her grandmother didn't know was much better for her blood pressure. Her grandfather had died from some horrible stroke before she was born so she really didn't want to push her grandmother to the same fate.

"Ok, I'll do that," Ali said with a roll of her eyes. "Tonight is going to be great! My friend JR is coming down from Philly, I'm fixing him up with Tiff," she added. Tiffany Peterson had been her best friend before Sarah came to stay with her grandmother. It wasn't exactly that she had chosen Sarah over Tiffany it was more that Mr. Peterson thought that forcing Tiffany to find a job would make her responsible. What it had actually done was really cut into their time to just hang. Ali missed that.

"JR, were his parents fans of eighties television?" Sarah asked.

Ali wrinkled her face. What? "Maybe, they're about as self absorbed as Mal and Elizabeth so I wouldn't know. He's named for his father though, Adam Chandler Jr. Being called Junior got kind of old so he became JR a few years ago. He thought it sounded better. I have to agree."

Sarah didn't look like she agreed but she didn't say that. "So how did you meet this guy?" she asked.

"Summer camp at Big Bear. We both got banished there for the whole summer in 1996. It actually wasn't so bad, there isn't a lot of supervision if you know what I mean. It's kind of like the lifestyles of the teens of the rich and dysfunctional. Now that would be a better reality series than that real world crap."

Sarah laughed.

"No, I'm serious, this one guy he's the son of this fashion designer who is old enough to be his grandfather. I'm not just saying that either. Like his mother was engaged to his father's oldest son. Apparently that loser, left her so she got all doped up on pills that she washed down with a lot of vodka and passed out. Her almost father in law snuck into the guest room and started sexing her up. It sounds like rape to me, in fact I mentioned that. That didn't go over so well. He practically turned into some wide eyed killer. Actually that was when I met JR he helped me escape stage left I guess you could say," Ali said.

"So, I guess that was why you decided not to go back this year?" Sarah asked.

"Not exactly, psycho boy was too busy doing his nanny so he wouldn't have been attending. His sister Bridget and I still email some. I didn't want to be separated from Jamal for a whole summer, I would have died. Not that Elizabeth would have cared and you know Malcolm only cares about the bottom line at Barrington Jewelers so I just signed up for that summer SAT prep course. That was actually brilliant because suddenly Malcolm is convinced I'm focused on my education. Maybe he won't have to donate a building to get me into college like he did with Ashley," Ali finished.

Sarah laughed again. Somehow that bothered Ali more than she could really explain.