In the lady's room at Neptune's Net, a night club on Locke Street, Sarah Webber reached for the tube of fluorescent pink lipstick her friend Ali Barrington was offering. "This will be great under the black light. I still don't get how you got us in here!" she said.
"It was all Zander so just be nice, ok?" Ali asked
Sarah applied the lipstick to her lips and then smiled seductively. "I'm always nice, remember?" she said.
Ali just rolled her eyes as she took her lipstick back and passed it to her other friend, Tiffany Peterson.
Sarah couldn't really stand Tiffany. She was blonde and flighty, a lot like her older brother Steven's mother, Heather Webber, who Sarah's mother couldn't stand. Andrea Trent Webber wasn't exactly quiet about her hatred either. Of course, her husband, and Sarah's father, hardly cared if his current wife wanted to trash his former wife. Sarah was well aware that Tiffany had been Ali's BFF since first grade. Her new BFF was a bit less fickle than her father and wouldn't appreciate Sarah trashing her friend. For that reason, Sarah kept her opinions to herself.
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In the Versailles Room at the Port Charles Hotel, Ned Ashton found his cue as the wait staff began to clear away the dinner plates. It was time for him to serenade and then dance with his bride. A first dance was one of those time-honored traditions. The fact that it was hardly his first dance, or even his first dance with Carly didn't matter. Their guests needed to believe that their union was one of love and commitment. Ned had focused more on the latter when he had written the song to commemorate their union. The lyrics did not betray his true feelings but embedded in a melodic ballad the overwhelming message was one of optimistic commitment. It was fitting because that was exactly what his union with Carly represented.
Ned leaned close to Carly and whispered, "It's almost over. We just need to dance a few songs and then we can politely excuse ourselves."
Carly nodded but didn't speak.
As he stood, Ned noticed the sadness buried deep in his wife's brown eyes. Perhaps she wasn't doing any better with accepting their marriage arrangement than he was. He leaned his head down and kissed her gently if not tenderly. Then he stood fully and focused on his next task-serenading his new bride.
"Is there love, tonight?
When everyone's dreaming
Of a better life
In this world, divided by fear, we've got to believe that
There's a reason we're here
Yeah, there's a reason we're here, Oh, yeah
'Cause these are the days worth living
These are the years we're given
And these are the moments…
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives"
The first verse and chorus brought Ned across the room and back to Carly. As the spotlight enveloped them he reached down for her hand and began the second verse.
"See the truth all around
Our faith can be broken
And our hands can be bound
But open our hearts and fill up the emptiness
With nothing to stop us, is it not worth the risk?
Yeah, is it not worth the risk? Oh, yeah
'Cause these are the days worth living
These are the years we're given
And these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives."
Carly stood and joined him. He pulled her close and continued to sing.
"Even if hope was shattered
I know it wouldn't matter
'Cause these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives
We can't go on
Thinking it's wrong
To speak our minds
I've got to let out what's inside
Is there love, tonight?
When everyone's dreaming
Well, can we get it right?
Yeah, can we get it right?
'Cause these are the days worth living
These are the years we're given
And these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives
And even if hope was shattered
I know it wouldn't matter
'Cause these are the moments
These are the times
Let's make the best out of our lives
Oh, yeah, let's make the best out of our lives!
Oh, yeah, let's make the best out of our lives!"
As he pulled Carly into a final embrace, Ned reflected on the simple truth of his lyrics. Therein lay the challenge for them. A new song began to play, and more couples joined them on the dance floor. They both knew the drill they would dance a few more songs and then politely excuse themselves. It was hardly a monumental task, but it was starting to feel like one as the pain in his head intensified once more. Ned supposed that was only fitting as well.
XXXXXXXX
"Do me a favor?" Josh Barrington asked his friend Nikolas Cassadine.
"You may state your request fully," Nikolas said.
Josh refrained from laughing at Nikolas's unique vernacular. "You really are destined to become an attorney like your cousin, aren't you?" he asked instead.
Nikolas appeared perplexed, or perhaps he was amused. Josh couldn't always tell the difference.
"My tutors have always felt that I had a particular aptitude for the study of law. How does that relate to your request?" Nikolas asked.
"It doesn't. It was just an observation," Josh said. He was quite sure there wasn't a kind or tactful way to point out to Nikolas that he usually managed to turn ordinary conversations into depositions. So, instead, he decided to just focus on what he needed. "Will you ask Emily to dance?" he asked.
"Is that your request?"
"Yes, I want to ask Allison and she'll be more likely to go for it if that doesn't leave her sister feeling left out. So, what do you say?" Josh asked.
Nikolas didn't respond. His eyes darkened slightly, and his melancholic frown deepened as he silently analyzed the situation.
Josh had learned the hard way that there truly weren't any simple, and certainly not any spontaneous, decisions for a Cassadine Prince. It had been frustrating initially when they had been teen volunteers on Pediatrics over the summer. But over time he had gotten used to Nikolas's need for silent deliberation before things that most people would decide on a whim. He supposed everyone had their hang ups and Nikolas was a decent guy underneath his.
"I will honor your request," Nikolas said.
"Thanks! Emily is cool, and she won't step on your feet or anything."
XXXXXXXX
As she watched her parents dance, Emily Quartermaine smiled. It had certainly taken her awhile to see them as that, and to believe that accepting them didn't mean denouncing the people who had given her life and raised her as long their own lives had allowed. Her father had been a cop who died in the line of duty less than a month before her first birthday. Her memories of him were created from the photos and home movies she had watched years later and the stories her mother had told her. She had been ten when her mother lost her battle with breast cancer. It would be three years in another month. Sometimes it seemed like it had been so much longer and other times it seemed like it had been only yesterday.
A gentle hand on her shoulder pulled Emily from her reverie and she averted her eyes to see someone tall, dark, and handsome standing to her left.
"May I have the honor of this dance?" Nikolas Cassadine asked.
Emily felt her cheeks grow warm. A prince was asking her to dance! She gulped. "Sure," she said and then regretted the response. It wasn't that she didn't want to dance with Nikolas. She did very much, but she was certain that sure wasn't exactly the appropriate response. She tried to put that worry aside and let Nikolas take her hand as they followed her sister, Allison, and Josh Barrington to the dance floor.
XXXXXXXX
In her husband's arms, Dr. Monica Quartermaine watched her two teenage daughters dance. "Don't look now but I think our little girls are growing up," she whispered to her husband.
Alan winked. "This must be Lorena's lucky day," he said.
"Perhaps ours too. Josh is good boy, from a good family," Monica said. Then she shook her head and laughed. "I should stop. I'm starting to sound like your father. I want our daughters, and our sons, to follow their hearts."
"You just want them to date those who are substance free?" Alan asked.
"Yes! I know I should feel like we dodged the bullet with that. Seeing Matt doing drugs at that party was a turn off and Alli and Em came to us and told us what was happening, but I just can't get past that a child is dead."
"You did what you could. You tried to talk to Mr. Reynolds, he just wasn't in a place to hear you. It's a tragedy no matter how you slice it, Monica, but you can't beat yourself up because our kids need you. I need you!"
"The trial begins on Monday," Monica said quietly. It was hard for her to wrap her head around Kaylee Reynolds being Dr. Dorman's killer. The young woman had spent time in their home, visiting her old college roommate who had become their nanny, and then later studying with their son. She had seemed kind, and respectful. At one time Monica had felt Matt Reynolds must be a good boy from a good family just based on her impression of his older sister. Of course, at one point, Dr. Pierce Dorman had been a colleague she respected and trusted, so she was hardly a good judge of character.
Then there was the possibility that her impressions of Kaylee had been correct. Perhaps, in the moment, when she had learned who was responsible for her brother's death she had just snapped. The scary thing was that Monica could almost understand that. She wasn't sure how she would have reacted if it had been one of her daughters. That scared her.
"We should discuss that at home. I know you've been subpoenaed to testify," Alan said.
"Nothing gets by you," Monica said.
Alan flashed one of his goofy grins that had drawn her in so many years ago. "Only on days that don't end in Y," he said.
XXXXXXXX
In a booth at Neptune's Net, Jamal Woods felt conflicted as he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. He and Ali had met about six months ago. He was just doing his job, selling drugs at a Rave for his boss. He supposed Ali was doing her job as well working him for a little extra. Or maybe she had been because she had slipped her number in with the folded bills she handed him. He had taken a chance that she wasn't some undercover drug officer and called her.
Fortunately, at least for him, she had really been a sophomore at PC High. A blonde, wild, and incredibly spoiled sophomore. She was also the younger daughter of Barrington Jewelers heir, Malcolm Barrington. Jamal had been sure that her interest in him would be short lived at best. Eventually she would tire of thumbing her nose at her parents' authority by dating the bad boy. Six months later she was saying she loved him and Jamal was beginning to believe she really could.
The last part was what left Jamal conflicted. It wasn't that he didn't love Ali because he thought he did. He just felt like he was living a double life with her. Sure, she knew that he ran drugs sometimes to make ends meet. She had met him buying drugs so that much had to be obvious. She just had no clue who he was running drugs for and that it wasn't really something he could just walk away from. Ali believed he had come to Port Charles on a whim when he got sick of the Chicago winters. That was only half of the story.
The other half had started four years earlier when he had been thirteen. His mother had overdosed again and been shipped off to some court ordered rehab. He had already spent more time in foster care than he wanted to, so he had run. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. Years later, he was starting to question if foster care would have really been worse than being a soldier for the Mancusi Crime Family.
XXXXXXXX
Back in the Versailles Room of the Port Charles Hotel, Jasper Jacks frowned as he watched his date dance with the groom. Brenda claimed that Ned was one of her best friends. Ned's second wife was one of her best friends as well which should have precluded anything between Ned and Brenda. Jax had no evidence of any impropriety there but he knew that the presumption wasn't always upheld. After all, he had slept with his brother's girlfriend, the night she declined the offer to become his brother's fiancée. There were some women you just couldn't let get away.
Jax was quite sure Brenda Barrett didn't fit in that category. Brenda was more of a functional girlfriend. She looked nice on his arm. She filled a place and helped him maintain an image. Best of all, Brenda happened to be the best friend of the woman he refused to let get away and he wasn't above using Brenda to inspire a bit of jealousy and help her see what he had known the first time he had seen her across the Port Charles Hotel lobby. They were destined to be together.
Jax had only felt that pull with two other women. One he had married, but she had died tragically in 1989. He had become a widower at age twenty-one. That was far too young so, less than twenty-four hours after he had buried his bride, he had found himself in bed with the woman who had just broken his older brother's heart. It had been a dead ended tryst. Jax had known it would have to be, but the pull had been too strong, and, for a few moments, he had forgotten about Miranda.
The moment had ended too quickly. Yet, the flame had never been fully extinguished. Jax had not been too proud to nurture the few dying embers, but his efforts had been largely in vain. There was still the matter of his brother of course. There was also more. She had a son, a son who meant everything to her. Intellectually Jax had known he needed to cut his losses. Yet, he had struggled to do so for more than six years. Then he met Lois Cerullo.
Technically, she had been Lois Cerullo-Ashton when they had first met. Some men would have been deterred by that detail. Jax might have if it had been anyone else but, from the moment he had spotted Lois across the lobby of the Port Charles Hotel, he had known he wasn't meant to let her get away. Her exotic beauty had caught his eye, but it was her fire and strength that had drawn him in and inspired him to fight for her. His father always extolled that a Jacks never walked away from a challenge. Jax had considered making Lois his exactly that, a challenge.
Initially it had been an uphill battle. Lois had been appalled that he would pursue a happily married woman. For months she had not wavered in her stance or conviction. Jax had seen that as more of a testament to her virtue and loyalty than the strength of her love for her husband. He could respect that she wasn't the kind of woman who would take her vows lightly. He knew he could also work with that if he exercised some patience and found the right partner. Unfortunately, he had selected the wrong partner sixteen months earlier. Together they had managed to break up the Ashton marriage but neither of them had been able to close the deal on a relationship in the aftermath. His co-conspirator had already moved on to another. Jax was merely biding his time waiting for Lois to acknowledge what he had known since January 9, 1996. They were meant to be together!