October 7, 1997
Brenda Barrett exhaled as she flipped back through her statistics exam. Amazingly she had solved all the problems. Or at least she had answers. Her older sister would point out that solving involved having correct answers or workable solutions and Brenda had her own doubts there but her eyes were starting to cross so she closed the exam booklet, got up from her seat, and then laid her exam and booklet on the table at the front of the room.
When she exited Willard Hall, Brenda blinked in the bright mid-morning sunshine and started her trek across the arts quadrangle. As she trudged along, she began to regret her decision to skip breakfast before her exam. She had been too nervous about the exam to eat but she was starting to feel light headed.
AJ Quartermaine fell in step with her as he came out of Danvers Hall. "How was your test?" he asked.
"It's over," Brenda said.
"That bad?"
"I don't know, I answered everything so I guess if my answers are right, I'll do great. I'm sure they aren't though so I guess we will just see if Professor Mason is generous with partial credit."
"I bet you did a lot better than you think. How about I treat you to lunch?"
"Someone has to pick up Katelyn from Preschool at 11:30," Brenda said.
"I am pretty sure grandmother and Reginald would love to do that," AJ said.
Reginald Jennings was Lila Quartermaine's personal driver. Apparently when Monica Quartermaine had enforced the no servants policy, she had allowed Edward to keep his chauffeur. Years later after Lila broke her hip and ended up in a wheelchair, she hired the grandson of one of her inlaws' original butlers as her mother in law's personal driver. Like most, he adored Lila.
"I hate to impose on her like that," Brenda said.
"I don't think picking up her granddaughter is a huge imposition. I could call her and ask," AJ offered.
Brenda engaged in internal debate. She probably shouldn't drive when she felt so light headed. She probably definitely shouldn't be driving an innocent three-year-old. Perhaps AJ sensed that and it was why he was offering. She was afraid of that and he had certainly done that before.
June 6, 1996
"Grandmother wouldn't mind if we went to lunch first. When we come back, I'll wait until everyone is home from school and then take Kirk with me, so you will just have the girls," AJ offered as they came out of the Post Office.
AJ's grandmother had sent come up with a long list of morning errands for them to do while she volunteered to watch Katelyn and Brooke. However, Brenda had a feeling she just wanted to give her a reason to leave the house, something she had been avoiding doing lately. Lila had been a little too thrilled about her plans to meet Keesha for lunch the day before as well.
"Why? So, you can pay Alli and Em to watch Brooke and Katie? I'm not completely incompetent, AJ!" Brenda protested as they started walking across the town square.
"I never said that. I certainly don't think that. Anyway, he has soccer practice at four, so I might as well just take him with me when I go to Ward House it will save me a trip back here later."
"Did you chauffeur your brother all over when Rosa was your parents' nanny?" Brenda asked.
"Well, no, but I also couldn't drive during most of that period. For the record, it isn't that I don't trust your driving. Anyway, cousin Celia would remind me to consider my carbon footprint and would not be thrilled to hear about me making you make needless trips. Somehow she still plans on having children and would like them to still have a planet to inherit."
"Is she the one who sent your grandfather the aerator shoes?"
"Yes, so he can give something back to the environment when he is puttering around in the backyard. I think she was also hoping it might inspire him to golf on foot, you know another way to reduce his carbon footprint."
"Is this why Celia went to work at ELQ-West? Edward got sick of hearing about his large carbon footprint?" Brenda asked.
AJ laughed. "No, she's always been there. Her dad took over after his father died so it just made more sense, I guess for her to work with her dad."
"I guess that works for some people," Brenda said with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Do you want to work with your dad?" AJ asked as they reached the other side of the square where he had parked. He unlocked the door for her, held it open while she climbed inside, and then closed it gently but securely.
Brenda sighed. Chivalry was surviving right through the twentieth century. Some people would say that Dr. Monica Quartermaine had raised her son well. Brenda wouldn't really dispute that but living with Quartermaines had shown her that AJ's sense of chivalry came from his father, the other Dr. Quartermaine, and indirectly from his grandfather.
"So, do you want to work with your dad?" AJ repeated once he had gotten into the driver's seat.
"No, although it isn't like it worked great for my sister either. Apparently, it must be going even worse recently because I guess she's considering moving to London to run the International Division of Barrett. So now I'll probably never see my nephew again. Yes, I know, it is not all about me and, if I should happen to possibly forget that for even a minute, then I'm sure Julia will remind me."
"Do you feel like your dad compares you to Julia?" AJ asked.
"There is no comparison. Julia is everything I will never be."
"Well, I guess the important question is if you want to be that? I mean she will always be older, sort of like Ned will be, but we're nineteen now we can be our own people not just Ned's cousin or Julia's little sister."
"So, Edward compares you to Ned?"
"I don't think he means to but, well, Ned is kind of his heir apparent. Ned will always be the oldest grandchild, that is a fact, and before the accident, although he would have never said it, I think Jason was his favorite. He's not really a grandchild, but he was in a way."
"Don't be mad that I'm still friends with Jason. I know he was awful to your parents, but I just can't completely walk away, and Robin is dating him, so it would be so awkward for her if we weren't at least on speaking terms."
"I'll never be able to hate Jason and I would never be mad at someone for being friends with him. It is weird to see him with Robin. He was so not interested before but if they're happy that is good, I guess. It just seems off and it stinks for Keesha."
"Yeah, it does, I don't want her to feel like I'm choosing Robin over her, but I don't know."
"Keesha doesn't feel that way. She's not quite up to hanging out with Robin and Jason and watching them do their cute coupley things but she understands that Jason made a choice."
"Choices just stink sometimes," Brenda said.
"Yeah, they do sometimes. I thought Miguel was a pretty smart guy but now I'm not so sure."
Brenda knew she should admit that she had broken up with Miguel. Sonny had told her that he was going to ask Lily for a divorce. But then Lily had told Sonny she was pregnant, and he couldn't abandon his son the way Mike had abandoned him. Sonny had then decided to stay in his marriage, but the accident had happened less than forty-eight hours after that decision. She wasn't up to explaining all of that to AJ though. Actually, she wasn't really up to explaining it to anyone. "I think Miguel and I were really just meant to be friends. There just wasn't anything more than that there, probably ever. At least we're still friends," Brenda said.
"Well, you guys are doing better than Nikki and I did. Probably because you are less of a drama queen than Nikki," AJ said. He smiled at her as he signaled and then glanced in the mirror before pulling away from the curb.
"Tell my sister that the next time she comes to wheel and deal with Ned. She'll find it very entertaining that I could possibly be less of a drama queen than someone, anyone really, I guess," Brenda said.
"Maybe your sister needs to acknowledge her own emotions more."
Brenda laughed. "Yeah, I dare you to tell her that. Or maybe I don't because I'm sure the emotions she would channel would be anger and disappointment over my lack of college progress. She wouldn't be working on channeling any inner calm or caring compassion like Lois."
"Lois is one of the best things Ned ever brought home."
"You make her sound like a stray pet."
AJ stopped for a red light on Federal Avenue. He turned to look at Brenda for a moment. "I didn't mean it that way. I think Lois is great but, if you had known Ned's first wife, Jenny, then you would understand exactly why the family was so thrilled to meet her."
"Your family truly welcomed Lois with open arms the first time they met her? Because, well, that isn't exactly Lois's take on the situation."
"Ned brought her to brunch after church the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Grandmother adored her and Grandfather was charmed. He likes strong women who aren't afraid to speak their minds, even if he doesn't readily admit that."
"Right, your Aunt Tracy kind of gave that away just by her existence. I notice she didn't get banished to ELQ West."
AJ laughed. The light turned green and he made a right onto Main Street. "I told you Celia wasn't banished. Although, at this point, I'm not sure if Port Charles holds anything but bad memories for her. Aunt Tracy has really never worked for ELQ. That was the plan originally, I guess when she started working on her business degree at PCU. Then I guess she was supposed to take over as in house counsel when she finished law school but somehow she took the job at CPS instead."
"Why?" Brenda asked. She noted that AJ had driven right past where he could have turned onto Lilac Drive which would take them back to the Quartermaine Mansion. So apparently, they were going to lunch. When AJ turned right onto Commerce Street, she figured they were taking the scenic loop around the town square and would eventually end up on Tower Road on their way to the Outback.
"Who knows? I was not even conceived at that point. It was before my parents were even married."
"Maybe they offered her more money," Brenda suggested.
"County agencies don't usually outbid Fortune 500 companies in salary wars so I'm thinking probably not. Perhaps it's just more evidence of Grandmother's influence. Or perhaps it was Mitch's influence even back then."
"Mitch? Ned's father? I thought his name was Larry."
"It is, hence, Edward Lawrence Ashton. Mitch Williams was a friend of hers. They went to PCU Law together and I guess were friends ever since they were on law review together."
"Did he work as an attorney with CPS too?"
"I don't think so, but he was a big victims advocate. He was a prosecutor and he took over as DA when Chase Murdoch Sr. died. He and Aunt Tracy were engaged for a while. Perhaps that was just a political stunt though. I heard Ned say that once."
"What do you mean?"
"Mitch was campaigning for Attorney General and I'm sure it didn't hurt to have an engaging, and articulate fiancée on his arm on the campaign trail. The Quartermaine name probably just sweetened the deal. He ended up winning the election but then she didn't move with him to Albany and things fizzled out."
"So, you think he just used her to improve his image during the campaign. Kind of like a trophy wife?" Brenda asked. Somehow it was hard to imagine Tracy Quartermaine-Grabler being anyone's trophy wife.
"From something Aunt Tracy said, I think anything he did was with her permission. Perhaps the engagement was real but the logistics got sticky once he needed to move to Albany. I don't know. I was only three when he was elected. I do vaguely remember the party the night of the election or at least I remember all of those balloons. I had a bowtie too, which matched dad's; I thought I was the epitome of cool."
"You knew what epitome was when you were three?"
"Maybe not, although I knew a lot of big words because it isn't like the Quartermaines can have dinner without debate. Ned would tell me what they meant. I used to get in trouble at Pre-school because I would use all those words and everyone was sure I had no idea what they meant but I did. I think that was how I ended up starting kindergarten a year early."
Brenda smiled a little at the image of Ned translating dinner table topics for his younger cousin. It was kind of cute. "So, you and Ned were closer when you were younger?"
"I want to think Ned and I are close now. We're family and, since my dad was kind of the only father figure Ned had growing up, sometimes we're almost sort of pseudo siblings. Maybe that makes things harder. We're also nine years apart; so, most of our lives we were at vastly different developmental stages. I think it is just taking us awhile to figure out how to interact as adults. Or maybe it is just taking a while for Ned to accept that I am an adult now. Yeah, day to day is rough but, if I needed him to, I know he'd have my back. Your sister is probably the same way," AJ said as he pulled into a parking spot behind the Outback.
"Maybe," Brenda said. But, honestly, she wasn't sure of that.
AJ killed the engine and turned to look at Brenda directly. "You and Julia are ten years apart, right?" he asked.
"We're fifteen years apart, at least going by a calendar. Of course, if you go with the Lucy Coe theory, that age is a state of mind, then we're probably more like thirty."
AJ laughed. "I was thinking she was around Ned's age but I guess she is a little older than that. I guess I first remember her from that patent interference hearing with Barrett Industries in 1993."
Brenda shrugged her shoulders again. "If you say so." She honestly had no idea what AJ was talking about. It wasn't like Harlan had ever shared anything about Barrett Industries with her.
"There was some copper extraction process that ELQ Enterprises had patented. A few years later Barrett Industries submitted the same process for patent. Their application was denied, so they appealed the denial and requested a patent interference hearing. At that point, it becomes a question of who really came up with the idea first not just who filed first," AJ explained.
"So much for you snooze you lose," Brenda said. She laughed a little, in spite of the overwhelming, and overpowering, sensation of loneliness.
"Grandfather would agree with you on that. He thought the whole process was preposterous. Little else was discussed at the dinner table for a few weeks until Grandmother put him on notice."
That sounded about right to Brenda. "So, who won?" she asked.
AJ smiled. "Grandfather knew what was good for him and got with the program. Or were you referring to the hearing? Ned managed to show that ELQ had been working with the technology sooner. It was a bit of a hollow victory for him because he came home to celebrate with his wife and found she was in their bed with former ELQ attorney, Paul Hornsby."
"Ouch!"
"Yeah, more evidence to my earlier point that Jenny wasn't exactly a good wife for him, or to him. So, let's lift the mood, how about some lunch?"
"You mean since your car just magically took us to The Outback," Brenda said. There had been a time when Sonny's car had just magically taken him to the Quartermaine Mansion to see her.
"As I said the other day, you say the word and I'll take you straight home. But I happen to know that today's lunch special is that grilled Portabella and Mozzarella sandwich that you love."
Brenda sighed again. "You're too kind, seriously," she said. She truly meant the words. She didn't deserve AJ's kindness, not after all that had happened.
"My grandmother would dispute that one could be too kind. Come on, I'll treat you to lunch," AJ said.
XXXXXXXX
When AJ guided her through the front door of The Outback, Brenda immediately spotted Katherine Bell and groaned internally. She so did not need another reminder that part two of her Deceptions photo shoot would be happening tomorrow. Part one had been more than enough to push her last nerve. Deception photo shoots with Katherine tended to do that. Of course, photo shoots for Temptations, Lucy Coe's dress line, were different but in truth often just as annoying. Lucy didn't spend the entire shoot tossing out depreciating barbs. Actually, Lucy tended usually tended to gush about how wonderful Brenda was for at least a few minutes at least as a lead in to spending the rest of the shoot babbling on about her own wonder. Perhaps her agent had a point when they suggested that she really should expand her modeling horizons beyond Port Charles.
After they were seated at a table in the center of the room AJ glanced back at the table where Katherine sat with Jasper Jacks of all people. "Perhaps Grandfather is less paranoid than we think," he said.
Brenda took a sip of her water. She remembered how Sonny used to joke that he wasn't paranoid, everyone really was out to get him. She hadn't realized at the time how accurate his words were. "What do you mean?" she asked.
"Grandfather thinks that Jax's next move will be to raid Deception Cosmetics. I suppose lunching with Katherine Bell might be part of that."
"Do you really think she's passing on trade secrets while in full view at The Outback? That would only be more than a little obvious," Brenda said.
"Perhaps, but when Laura Templeton defected to Jabot a few years ago Jack Abbott flew in and wined and dined her at the PC Grille with an offer she couldn't refuse. I'm not sure if that was obvious or just arrogant and cocky," AJ said.
Brenda didn't really know Jack Abbott but she could see how those words could apply to Jax. Somehow, he still hadn't given up on his conquest to make Lois his. The fact that she was married to a man she loved who happened to be the father of her daughter was more of superfluous trivia than a deterrent for him. "Ok, well, then, in that case, perhaps Jax is luring Katherine away to Jax Cosmetics and my next photo shoot will be one thousand times better."
AJ laughed. "I'm not sure Katherine isn't heartless, and with a friend like her you might merely have one more enemy, but her business instincts aren't bad. She's done decent things for Deceptions from a marketing standpoint."
"I guess I'll have to take your word on that," Brenda said.
"She hired you right?" AJ asked.
"Yeah, just don't remind her of that until after I get through tomorrow's photo shoot. Somehow I'm sure that would just give her more of a sense of entitlement to lob derogatory comments at me all day."
AJ seemed shocked by her words. "Is it really that bad?"
"It can be. Or I think it can. Perhaps, Julia is right and, I'm just overly sensitive. That has always been her view on things."
"I don't think you're overly sensitive but I know when I get down on myself everyone else's criticism seems a lot harsher."
Brenda sighed. "If you're trying to compare your relationship with Ned to mine with Julia it isn't the same."
"I'm not saying that exactly. I'm just saying maybe just keep trying to believe that you and Julia will eventually get there because I think you will."
"Sometimes I think, if it wasn't for Cooper, Julia would have written me off years ago. But see Cooper loves me, he's probably the only one in the family who does, so she's kind of stuck. She can't completely excommunicate me because Cooper would miss me. I would miss him too; so, they better not actually end up moving to London."
"He is around Kirk's age, right?"
"Close, he is in between Dylan and Kirk, I guess. He will be ten on Christmas Eve. He is great! Julia is supposed to let him come visit this summer. Of course, she was supposed to let him come visit last summer and she never did."
"Maybe you could go visit him?" AJ suggested.
"Maybe, they live in Seattle now," Brenda said
"That was one of the stops on Ned's West Coast tour."
"Yeah, and Julia actually brought him to that. He and his friend, Sarah, gave Brooke chocolate though so she had a cow."
"Your sister did? Or Lois did?" AJ asked.
"My sister and then she insinuated that the fact that Lois wasn't flipping out like she was meant she was an ineffective mother. A lot of times I think the J in Julia must be for Judgmental."
AJ cracked half of a smile and then hid it a little sheepishly. "Lois seems like a really good mom," he said.
"She is. Brooke was fine, and that whole chocolate thing is probably a little bit of overkill anyway. Of course, Julia does everything by the book so I'm sure she never let Cooper have chocolate before he was two. Ned somehow smoothed the chocolate incident over."
"With Lois?"
"More with Julia, she would probably be more likely to let Cooper come visit if he asked. That's so pathetic you know she trusts some random business associate with her son but not her own sister."
"Are you sure she really feels this way?" AJ asked.
"Well, when we were in Seattle, Cooper wanted us to take Brooke to the aquarium but Julia was sure that was a bad idea. Then Ned thought it was a great idea and volunteered to come. Somehow Sarah's father and Ned are old friends so he convinced Julia that she could trust Ned. It's just no one trusts me!"
"My parents trust you. Considering that they hired you, right after Tara Kincaid, when they didn't want to trust anyone, I think that says a lot."
"They hired me because Ned intervened on my behalf after the shrew convinced Harlan to freeze my trust fund. At best, your parents trust Ned."
"They do trust Ned and I think being Brooke Lynn's godmother was probably a point in your favor because they know that Brooke Lynn is practically Ned and Lois's world. That is how it should be. That is how it always was for me growing up, it is what I hope that Alli, Em, Kirk, and Katelyn will always have too."
Brenda winced and bit her lip at AJ's words. It was almost painful to hear how loved he felt because she could only contrast it to how unloved she had felt growing up. Her mother had been too busy spending Harlan's money to even remember she had a daughter most days and Harlan was still waiting for a child that was worth getting to know. She certainly hadn't been that child. The whole idea was just too depressing so she changed the topic. "So, was Tara really as much of a psychopath as Ned said?"
"You could say that, just don't around my mom ok? She still has some guilt for not picking up on that sooner but she was distracted with a lot. She had just had the surgery and radiation so her own health wasn't the greatest, the hospital never hired anyone to replace her so they really needed her back at work immediately if not sooner, Paige was dying, and Emily was distraught. I don't think it is surprising that she didn't pick up that Tara was trying to seduce dad."
"Your father is in his forties."
"Yes, and I'm sure she was aware of that, since we celebrated his forty second birthday that summer. I think it was a few days afterwards that she tried to join him for a nighttime swim without her suit. Apparently, he explained that was not, and never would be, acceptable behavior and had the pool shock treated."
Brenda laughed. "He had your pool deskankified, I like it."
AJ raised an eyebrow. "Deskankified?" he asked.
Brenda smiled. "Consider it an adverb, basically it's the act of removing all traces of the skank and their utter skankiness. I bet Ned never taught you that one."
AJ smiled back. "No, I guess that never came up at family dinners. That is probably good because I doubt that would have gone over well at my non-denominational Christian preschool."
Brenda laughed. "No, probably not."
"So, what do you say?" AJ asked.
AJ's question pulled Brenda from the earlier memory. She had been such a mess that summer, after Lily had died. AJ had been so kind and understanding. He was still so kind and understanding and it would be so easy to fall back into the pattern of letting him guide her life like she had then. Things were different though, and she didn't really want to mess up his relationship with Keesha. "Ok, if your grandmother doesn't mind picking up Katelyn, we can go to lunch. Why don't we go to Kelly's and see if Keesha wants to join us?"
Brenda dropped down to a nearby bench while AJ made the arrangements with his grandmother.
"Grandmother says she would love to collect Katelyn and have a picnic lunch in the rose garden. There are only going to be so many nice days before winter comes. She also pointed out that Katelyn's piano instructor will be coming for her lesson at 1:30 so there isn't any rush for us to get home, or if we do get home earlier you should completely feel free to take a nap," AJ said when he joined her a few minutes later.
"How convenient," Brenda said.
"Isn't it? Do you want me to drive your car? I'm parked at the Delta Tau Delta House so I can leave my car there until someone can bring me back to get it a lot more securely than you can in the commuter student lot."
AJ's words seemed to confirm Brenda's earlier suspicions but she decided that maybe the safest thing was to just go along with it. The responsible thing would probably also be to not skip breakfast again.