Ned Ashton sat down beside his new bride and forced a smile for the professional photographer that was milling about. He had agreed to his grandmother's party for two reasons. First, and foremost, she was his adored grandmother and he had a hard time saying no to her. He also knew that the more other people believed that his marriage to Carly was real the less complications there would be after the baby was born. Complications were to be avoided, any successful businessman knew that. Ned was successful, at least in business he was.

Ned winced as new pain seared through his temples. Apparently, his migraine was not going to go away. Well isn't that just wonderful? Sarcasm was definitely a Quartermaine trait and he had it in spades. That worried his mother. Actually, a lot of things worried his mother…his migraines…his inability to find a wife who loved him…her fear that he never would…his third marriage. She hadn't said the last parts aloud, or at least not while he had been within earshot, but Ned could sense things. He had instincts. They usually served him well, at least in business, even if not in matters of the heart.

His first wife had married him for his money. Or maybe it was his family's money because he had been a third-year law student at the time and Jenny Eckert was more of the instant gratification type. After graduation they had moved back to Port Charles and he took the job as ELQ Pro-Counsel. He had thought married life suited him until the day he came home and found his wife making love to, former ELQ Pro Counsel, Paul Hornsby in their bed.

Things only went further downhill from there when Jenny told him she was pregnant. She had also told him there was no way the child she was carrying could possibly be his as she had known she was pregnant before they had consummated their marriage. Apparently, she hadn't actually been a virgin bride. With all of that on the table, Ned hadn't had the strength, or heart, to do anything but grant her the divorce she was demanding.

His second wife had been supposed to be "the one". She was the mother of his daughters. She probably wouldn't like to hear him use the plural because somehow it seemed easier for her to just forget that Carmina had ever existed than to acknowledge the violence that had taken her from them and ripped their world to shreds. That had been the beginning of the end for them. They couldn't grieve for their child together because Lois wouldn't let herself remember and it was impossible for him to forget.

His second divorce brought him to his third marriage with a wife he knew didn't love him. He didn't love her either, so, perhaps, that made it ok. His friend, and surrogate little sister, Brenda thought that was just more evidence that he had made a major mistake. Ned would agree with that, but his major mistake wasn't his third marriage but having not taken more steps to protect his wife and child from targeted violence. He hadn't so their daughter was dead and the woman he still loved hated him. Now there was another child, one that would never replace either of his daughters, but one that needed to be protected and Ned had vowed to do exactly that.

Perhaps that was for the best because, perhaps, love just wasn't a viable option for him. He had accepted that, or he mostly had. His mother just didn't understand because her second husband, Dr. Ryan Grabler, was truly "the one". Ned was happy for her, he truly was, or at least mostly, it was just complicated. Of course, complicated was kind of the theme of his relationship with his mother. She loved him, he knew that, at least intellectually. Emotionally was where things were so much less clear.

April 13, 1989

As he opened his eyes, Ned Ashton decided he must be delirious. Fevers could do that he supposed. There really wasn't any other good explanation for the mirage like hallucination of his mother sitting beside his bed. He blinked his eyes a few times, but the image didn't fade. Instead it began to speak.

"How are you feeling, darling?" Tracy Quartermaine-Grabler asked as she leaned over and brushed some hair back from his forehead.

"Mother? What are you doing here?" Ned finally asked.

"Do you really have to ask that question, darling? Now don't worry, I made the nurses fax all of the labs to your Uncle Alan's office and he is going to talk to that Dr. Hummingbird, or whatever his name is. Your Uncle Alan said that you should be getting better not worse and he is afraid it might be something called an empyema."

"His name is Dr. Humiston," Ned said through gritted teeth.

"Maybe the nurses had trouble reading his signature and got confused. Because it certainly sounded like Dr. Hummingbird to me," his mother contended as she brushed more hair off of his forehead.

"You really didn't need to bother Uncle Alan with this," Ned protested.

"Oh, darling, your uncle doesn't see it as a bother. He was going to come with me but he couldn't find call coverage. You really don't look well, Ned, and you're shivering. Are you feeling worse, sweetheart?"

Ned shivered more and shut his eyes. He felt his mother pull the blankets up to his chin and smooth them out. He felt her lips brush gently across his forehead. Ned cringed a little as he realized she probably did the same thing every night when she tucked his little two year old brother, Dylan, into bed. Apparently, Dylan wouldn't go to sleep without the stuffed squirrel that his Uncle Alan had given him shortly after birth, at least two bedtime stories from his father, and his mother fixing the blankets just right. All of that was a far cry from the childhood Ned had known. He wanted to be happy for his brother. He wanted to be happy that his mother had married someone who loved her and loved their child the way Lord Lawrence Ashton had probably never loved either of them. He really did but sometimes it was just complicated.

His Uncle Alan had been correct, about the empyema. He had instincts too, perhaps it was a Quartermaine thing. Apparently, Alan's instincts also served him well, as a surgeon. Unlike his nephew, who had been the ring bearor in his wedding, Dr. Alan Quartermaine had only married once. He and his wife, Dr. Monica Baldwin Quartermaine, a cardiologist, would be celebrating twenty-two years in December. Somehow, they made things work and, in his less cynical moments, Ned could admire that. Before his marriage to Lois had ended, he had even been inspired by it. After he had signed his second set of divorce papers it had been hard for Ned to be inspired by anything.

XXXXXXXX

Tracy Quartermaine-Grabler smiled slightly as she cut into her filet mignon. When Ned had been about five he had always ordered that if they ate out. He had called it "mushroom meat" which she had found charming. She wondered if her mother had remembered that when she had selected the menu or if they were merely eating filet mignon because her father knew it was one night he could eat red meat without comment from his cardiologist daughter in law.

Her elder younger brother's wife was certainly not afraid to speak her mind when needed. There wasn't anything wrong with that. In fact, in the Quartermaine family, it was an essential quality. Tracy knew that as much as her father complained he had come to respect, admire, and even love his elder son's wife. It had just taken a little time. When Alan had first married Monica Baldwin she had been in middle of her fourth year of medical school at Cornell and was more focused on where she would match for Medicine/Pediatrics residency than entertaining for her surgeon husband, or even creating the newest Quartermaine heir. Tracy supposed it had been a bit of a hard sell, at least for her father. Alan had been in love and their mother had the grace to love anyone her son wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

Tracy had tried to emulate her mother's approach when Jennifer Eckert shoved an ostentatious ring in her face while Ned stood silently and slightly sheepishly. She had pushed past the first thought that had come to her, which had been that clearly, she had failed at teaching Ned what was tasteful in jewelry and tried to warm her heart for the young woman hanging on her son. She hadn't truly succeeded, at least not over that awkward dinner to celebrate their engagement.

Later, a kernel of Tracy's faith had been restored when Ned had revealed that Jenny had selected her own ring. Apparently, she hadn't been suitably impressed with the ring Ned had originally offered and had accepted his proposal contingent on being allowed to select her own ring. That admission had raised more than a few red flags, so Tracy had committed a cardinal sin of her own and advised for a long engagement. It had been her best attempt at diplomacy. She feared that Ned was anything but ready to marry Jenny and hoped that a little time would allow Ned to see that just as clearly.

Ned hadn't heeded her advice. In fact, he and Jenny married less than two months after that awkward dinner because, apparently, Jenny had always dreamed of having a May Day wedding complete with a May Pole. So, Tracy had exercised some more diplomacy and not pointed out how absurd that idea sounded. The actual wedding had been pretty absurd too.

May 1, 1993

Tracy Quartermaine-Grabler reminded herself that silence had its place as she watched the bridal party begin their dance around the May Pole, their toast to her son and his new bride. She smiled a little as she watched her brother's oldest daughter, ten-year-old Allison, guide the little ring bearer beside and then back in front of her untangling the ribbon he was clutching and preventing him from being sucked into fray of pole. Jenny had made it quite clear that she wanted her wedding to be the talk of at least the county, if not the entire state, but Tracy doubted even her daughter in law would like to achieve fame by being responsible for some poor six-year-old being decapitated by her May Pole.

"When Jenny asked if Cooper could be in her wedding I guess I should have asked her if ballroom dancing was a prerequisite," Julia Barrett, the mother of the younger ring bearer said.

Tracy turned to face Julia. "Dylan was initially very excited to be a page until I clarified that the page was not the one who wore a funny hat and told jokes."

Julia laughed. "Cooper and his little friend Sarah were both court jesters for Halloween. They were completely adorable."

"I'm sure. Dylan was Steven Spielberg, he even convinced his father to buy him a video camera to use as a prop. It was also a bit of an early Christmas which worked out well since by Christmas morning he was too busy videotaping the festivities to pay much attention to any of his gifts."

"I understand, once my sister showed up for Christmas, Cooper lost interest in most of the gifts as well."

"Brenda, right?"

"Correct, she is attending Briarton-Griggs Academy on Celia's recommendation."

Tracy nodded but felt uncomfortable. Her cousin Celia Quartermaine had clearly received an excellent education at Briarton-Griggs. She had gone on to become an environmental engineer and was working at ELQ-West with her father, Quentin. Yet, the mention of boarding school reminded her of everything that had led to her sending Ned off to Ethan Alan Academy. Those memories weren't the easiest to face even eleven years later.

The May Pole dance ended, and Allison escorted Cooper back to his mother. Julia smiled down at her son. "Did you thank Allison for helping you?"

"Of course, mommy," Cooper said.

As Julia and her son rejoined her fiancé, William Eckert, Tracy was struck by how much the earnest look on Cooper's little face reminded her of Ned. Ned had been so serious and so stoic even when he had been five or six. At the time she had just believed that was his personality, but perhaps it was just the earliest evidence of the distance in their relationship. Sometimes she wondered about that.

Afterward Tracy had reminded herself that supporting her son meant supporting his marriage. She had truly wanted to support her son. In spite of her best efforts, Ned's first marriage had been short. Perhaps she should have warned him that sometimes surprising your spouse merely leaves you in shock. She had learned that the hard way while she had been pregnant with Ned. But, at the time, while she had suspected her daughter in law wasn't above an extramarital affair, she hadn't realized she was actually having one, with ousted former ELQ counsel Paul Hornsby no less. It got worse from there when Jenny announced that she was pregnant, with Paul's baby, and demanded a divorce.

The baby really was Paul's, or at least two paternity tests claimed that, and Ned sunk into something in between despair and depression after their divorce was final in early September. Perhaps she should have been the best person to understand Ned's feelings, she knew too well what it was like to realize the person you married had perhaps never even loved you at all. Perhaps familiarity wasn't a good thing though and that was why Ned refused to talk about it, or about anything really, with her. He seemed to spend an excessive amount of time at Luke's and she had begun to wonder if he was using alcohol to self-medicate. His paternal grandfather had certainly done that. Perhaps his father had as well. He had certainly abused alcohol. It was part of why she had been so concerned when Ned wouldn't talk to her and it was clear that his friends were using drugs. Ned had never tested positive for anything, but she had still worried about alcohol. She had worried more about that when he had gone off to college at Duke although there had never really been any evidence that he was drinking excessively, or possibly at all, even after Maggie's death.

Then they met Lois. It had been the Sunday before Thanksgiving when Ned had brought her to brunch at Alan and Monica's. Tracy's first impression had been that she was nothing like Jenny, and that was good. Lois was loud and opinionated, but she was alive, and Ned seemed more alive with her than he had in months. Apparently, she was also the entertainment director at Luke's which explained Ned's recent intrigue with the place.

She had been fond of Lois even before Ned announced they would be getting married. Their wedding had been much more subdued but, in many ways, much more elegant as well. As Ned and Lois exchanged vows, she had hoped that perhaps, just like her second husband was a keeper, Ned's second wife would be a keeper too.

Sadly, Ned and Lois's marriage had lasted just under three years. Their older daughter, Brooke Lynn, had been born in the first year and Ned had been an adoring and devoted dad. He really had which was why it was so hard to see Lois push him out of their daughter's life. Tracy had tried to be understanding because she suspected that their divorce had a lot to do with the death of their younger daughter and she couldn't even begin to imagine what that had been like for Lois, or for Ned, honestly.

Ned wouldn't discuss any of that with her. He talked to her brother, his Uncle Alan, some. Alan and Monica had buried a child in between AJ and Allison. Alan had some perspective she supposed, and she tried to be grateful that Alan was there for Ned and that at least Ned was talking to someone. She was grateful, but it still hurt that Ned couldn't, or wouldn't, share the hard things with her. She was his mother. She loved him. She wanted to support him, but there were walls she couldn't seem to get past.

While Ned had been married to Lois it had seemed that a few bricks of the wall had fallen. Perhaps that was ironic since she had once heard Lois telling her friend Brenda that, at best, her mother in law hated her less than her predecessor. That overheard conversation had been painful because she didn't hate Lois. She actually really liked her, yet, the more she tried to show her that the more Lois apparently felt patronized and ridiculed. So, she had taken a step back and hoped that in time Lois might come to trust her. Or that perhaps Ned would come to understand that she would never hate anyone he loved. She hadn't even hated Jenny, initially because Ned was convinced he loved her and then after that because her sister in law had convinced her life was too short for hate. But none of that had happened because Ned and Lois's daughter had died, and their marriage fell apart.

Now Ned was married for the third time, to a third wife who didn't really seem to be much like either Jenny or Lois. Tracy sensed that Carly was a bit enamored with Ned's net worth, yet, she didn't believe that Carly had married her son only for his money, as she was afraid Jennifer Eckert truly had. Carly also seemed quite capable of forming her own opinions and was quite willing to express them. That reminded her of Lois a bit, but Carly seemed insecure and vulnerable in a way Lois never had. She also didn't imagine that Lois would have ever slept with someone else's husband. It was well known that Carly had been involved with Dr. Tony Jones long before he had even begun the divorce process. Apparently, she had also been involved with Ned at the same time since reading between the lines it was quite clear to her that Carly must have learned that Tony wasn't actually the father of her son.

While none of the decisions Carly had made were ones Tracy would want her own daughter to make she felt that there was some integrity in admitting to Ned that he was the father of her child. She could imagine it might have been tempting to just allow Tony to believe the baby was his. She decided to focus on the integrity that had brought Carly back into Ned's life. She could support that, she could definitely support the new grandchild Carly was carrying, and she loved her son desperately, so she hoped that all of the rest of the pieces might fall into place.