Melissa McKee Murdoch pulled the door to Kelly's Diner open and stepped inside. It had been unseasonably warm for October and it was tempting to grab a table on the small patio but Chase was supposed to meet her for lunch and would hate that so she ventured inside. "Hi Ruby!" she called.
"Melissa, hi, how are you?" Ruby Anderson asked as she started to prepare a glass of iced tea.
"I just finished up a sixteen-hour ICU overnight shift. I'm supposed to be meeting Chase for lunch and then I am going home for a nap!" Melissa said as she pulled out a stool at the counter and reached for the glass of tea.
"Sixteen hours? Like I tell Bobbie, that is insane!"
"It wasn't exactly by choice. Apparently, Amy Vining got a jury summons but neglected to tell anyone so she called off at the last minute and someone had to stay. ICU patients don't exactly take care of themselves. Betsy came in to work eleven to seven and theoretically Amy is going to work her day shift tomorrow unless she somehow gets empaneled on this jury, which I can't imagine, especially considering Amy threatened to kill Dr. Dorman herself on more than one occasion."
Ruby gasped. "You're not saying that you think Amy is responsible for his murder, are you?"
"No, I'm just saying I doubt she is a good impartial juror for this particular case because she knew the victim," Melissa said. She wasn't really sure she thought Amy was a good impartial juror for any case but decided it wouldn't be polite to voice that aloud. After all Amy's sister, Laura Webber Spencer, was married to married to Ruby's nephew, Luke Spencer, so, at least in a sense, Amy was family.
"Well, that is a relief, I would hate to think, Luke brought a murderess into the family," Ruby said.
Melissa forced a friendly laugh and decided not to point out that many, including his own sister, would argue that Luke had brought a murderess into the family when he married his wife, Laura Vining Webber. There was no dispute that she had killed Rick Hamilton after he had broken off their relationship when she had been nineteen. Her mother had been charged with first degree murder. At the last minute, after her mother ended up being convicted of manslaughter, Laura had found her conscience and admitted the truth. At the time she had been a few months away from her twentieth birthday. Her attorney had tried for youthful offender status but it was denied due to a prior drug charge adjudicated in California. In the end she ended up pleading guilty to 3rd degree assault and ended up with a suspended sentence and probation. Somehow, at least in Port Charles, that fact was much more easily forgotten than many other indiscretions of other residents. Some people were just lucky that way. Melissa herself, not so much.
"That was a sweet picture of you and your gorgeous husband in the Port Charles Herald on Sunday," Ruby said.
"Huh? Chase and I were in the paper?" Melissa asked.
"They did a special two page spread with photos from Ned Ashton's latest wedding reception. I guess you made the guest list."
"Oh, yeah, Chase and Ned are childhood friends. Ned was Chase's best man at our wedding," Melissa explained. Sometimes she thought Ruby had a selective memory especially when she was fishing for the latest gossip.
Ruby rolled her eyes. "Well, his newest wife certainly isn't any accounting for taste," she said.
Melissa tended to agree but she supposed it really wasn't her place to have an opinion. She was also quite certain that an equal number of people had probably wondered what Chase saw in her a few years earlier. Fortunately, the bell on the door jangled and when she turned, she saw Chase walking through it saving her from future comment.
Chase gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "Sorry, I am a little late. Apparently, we inadvertently empaneled a juror with a felony conviction so it took a while to straighten that out," he said.
"How did that happen, or this one of those things you can't explain due to attorney client privilege?"
"Apparently Judge Lombardi's clerk forgot to include the first page of the juror questionnaire which asked about convictions so then Judge Lombardi explained that at the beginning of voir dire and asked people to excuse themselves. Two people did, one of whom didn't actually have a felony conviction, but another individual was purportedly too embarrassed to come forward."
"So, then what happened?"
"That juror had a relative also empaneled who disclosed the conviction to Judge Lombardi and he removed the juror and replaced her with a guy who thought his last DUI conviction was a felony conviction but apparently it somehow was not."
"Should it have been a felony conviction?"
"Since it was his fourth offense in five years, you would think so. I guess it was prosecuted by Michael Schultz himself so perhaps there was a valid reason why it wasn't charged that way or perhaps it was another reason why he is no longer DA but I shouldn't have an opinion on that."
"Or at least not one you express publicly?" Ruby asked.
Chase winked. "Something like that, spousal privilege has it's perks even for the law abiding."
XXXXXXXX
Keesha Ward walked down Elm Street towards Wharf Street to meet AJ and Brenda for lunch at Kelly's Diner. She had taken the route so many times, but sometimes she was struck by the reality that she was essentially tracing the final steps of her Uncle Bradley. For inexplicable reasons today was one of those days.
Her Uncle had been an US Attorney at the time of his death. Although the police had arrested Damian Smith and AJ's aunt, another US Attorney, Abigail Donnelly-Quartermaine had secured a conviction their family was still left without a real sense of justice and more questions than answers. Perhaps it would always be that way. Her cousin Justus seemed to feel that way. Her cousin Faith was much younger and at eleven she had just wanted her daddy back. Her father's death had made her uncharacteristically stoic but Keesha was quite certain that, even at fifteen, Faith still just wanted her daddy back.
AJ had just pulled up to the curb on Wharf Street when Keesha reached the diner. "How was your test?" she asked as Brenda stepped out of the car.
"It's over, we'll just leave it at that," Brenda said.
"I bet you did a lot better than you think," Keesha offered.
"I just spent the last ten minutes telling her the same thing, so I guess great minds think alike," AJ said as he wrapped an arm around her as they walked into the diner.
Brenda shook her head. "I appreciate the vote of confidence, really, guys but this is me, the person voted most likely to take a decade to complete a bachelor's degree."
"Why would you say that?" Keesha asked.
"Let's just say that my sister is less than impressed that I have only managed to accumulate about sixty credits towards my bachelor's degree in three years," Brenda said as they seated themselves at a table by the door.
"You started college early and you're basically working your way through school. It isn't a competition, but I didn't think your sister did either of those things so I don't think she is really in a position to have any legitimate ability to evaluate your progress," AJ said.
"When you say it that way it sounds so reasonable and logical. But whenever I talk to Julia all of that seems to go out the window. It's like I'm five years old again and I just spilled paint on one of her books," Brenda said.
"Ok, that I can understand," Keesha admitted.
Brenda raised an eyebrow. "You can?" she asked.
"Well, not literally, but in the greater sense, sure. It is somewhat of a common theme in some of the more emotionally charged discussions or disagreements I have had with my cousin, Justus," Keesha said.
"But I thought you had a great relationship?" Brenda asked.
"We're cousins; we're always going to love each other and we were definitely raised that family sticks together but we have also had our differences of opinion. Justus was wary about me dating Jason, given how it all ended I guess he was right. I wasn't impressed that he started dating Simone before she had divorced Dr. Hardy and then I thought he let her go far too easily which was painfully ironic, especially given the timing."
"I never knew that Justus didn't approve of Jason," AJ said.
"It wasn't that he didn't approve of Jason. Honestly, whether he will ever admit it aloud or not, it was much more that he didn't think interracial relationships were advisable," Keesha admitted reluctantly. She knew her admission opened up the follow up question, did Justus approve of her relationship with AJ? She wouldn't be able to answer that question because she and Justus had carefully both avoided that topic.
XXXXXXXX
Across the diner, Melissa McKee Murdoch took a hasty bite of her clam chowder to save herself from saying something she would regret later. Her husband wanted her to befriend a piranha! Ok, so said piranha was also the wife of his best friend, but did that really change things? Melissa thought not! As she took another bite of chowder Melissa realized she probably should have seen the request coming after church the prior Sunday.
October 5, 1997
Melissa McKee Murdoch stood on the lawn in front of Trinity Episcopal Church waiting for her father in law to extricate himself from some conversation with Edward Quartermaine. Perhaps her husband was telepathic; or maybe he just knew her well because he flashed her a knowing smile.
"Are you still really behind with work or might we get to take advantage of this wonderful weather and go for a bike ride or something?" Melissa asked.
Chase shook his head. "Unfortunately, I still have a lot of work to do on the trial and jury selection starts on Tuesday."
"I was afraid of that," Melissa said. The trial had been lurking and looming since the summer. Although Chase hadn't exactly told her, because he wouldn't because certain things had to be confidential, Melissa sensed he had his own questions about Kaylee Reynolds' guilt.
"I'm sorry, I will make it up to you, somehow," Chase said.
"I'm holding you to that, just not this month," Melissa said.
"It may not be next month either. Justus Ward has more than fifty defense witnesses. This trial will definitely be a marathon," Chase said.
"In that case, then I so get to pick where we go for lunch," Melissa said.
"Oh, that I can allow."
Melissa forced a smile as she saw Ned and Carly Ashton reach the bottom of the church steps and turn towards them. Ned was her husband's friend so she would treat him, and even his home wrecking wife, with respect. She didn't really have anything against Ned. It wasn't like she was still holding a grudge because he had rejected her when she had been seventeen. She had moved past that and Ned had technically been the one to introduce her to her husband so that more than made up for it. Melissa couldn't really say she didn't have anything against Carly but she pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind.
"Ned, Carly, hello," Chase said warmly.
"We're glad you were both able to join us for the reception on Friday, I hope you enjoyed the evening," Ned said.
"It was wonderful," Chase said.
"Yes, very wonderful," Melissa said but she sent her husband and look which confirmed that the most wonderful aspects of the evening had been before and after the reception.
"Are we still on for tennis tomorrow morning? I reserved a court for six," Ned asked when he and Carly joined them.
Melissa saw Chase hesitate. She suspected he felt guilty for making plans with Ned when he had basically announced that she might as well consider herself single for the next few months. "Don't decline because you feel badly you just got done telling me how you have no time. There is a limit to how much time you can spend on this trial so, go play tennis with Ned."
"Sometimes you are way more understanding than I deserve," Chase said.
"But then other times I make up for all of that and more I'm sure," Melissa said.
Ned and Chase both laughed and Melissa joined them with another seductive smile for her husband. Carly looked uncomfortable and left out and Melissa decided she was kind of a witch because she didn't really feel badly about that. After all, Carly had broken up former foster mom, Bobbie Jones' marriage by sleeping with Bobbie's third husband, Dr. Tony Jones.
"Well, marriage is a cooperative process, right?" Ned joked.
"Ours definitely is," Melissa said smugly. She kind of regretted the words once they were out when she saw the way Ned winced. Carly was his third wife after all. Of course, he had kind of opened the door, as her husband would say.
"How long have you been married?" Carly asked.
"We celebrated our third anniversary in June. Ned actually introduced us," Melissa said. She sensed that Carly was curious how she and Ned had met for him to make the introductions but she doubted she would actually have the guts to ask. There wasn't really a huge story there. It had been the summer of 1989; she had been waitressing at Kelly's Diner, Ned had come in for lunch while home from Duke University over the summer. He thought she was a child. His younger cousin, AJ Quartermaine had thought she was cute. She had thought AJ was a child.
"Now you see why he is my best friend," Chase quipped.
"And here I thought it was because of my rapier wit," Ned protested.
"Oh, that too, of course, right, honey?" Melissa said with a quick good-natured roll of her eyes.
"Oh definitely," Chase agreed.
Melissa noticed again how Carly seemed uncomfortable. Perhaps she had no idea what they were talking about. She probably didn't.
"Somehow I'm guessing you don't think having lunch with Carly is as great an idea as I thought it might be," Chase's words pulled Melissa from her thoughts.
Melissa heard the trepidation in her husband's voice as if he truly had made the suggestion because he thought she would appreciate it, not because he was doing a favor for his best friend. "Obviously I am missing something because I really can't imagine why you would think I would want to have lunch with Carly," she said.
"You were saying you wished you were closer to the wives of my friends."
Melissa suspected he was referring to her frustration that all the other wives of his fraternity brothers from Cornell were pretentious snobs. Technically she really didn't want to be closer to them because they were pretentious snobs, however, even so their rejection stung a bit. For half a second, she contemplated whether Carly Ashton thought she was a pretentious snob.
"It is totally up to you."
"I'll think about it. Maybe we can just have Carly and Ned for dinner some evening," Melissa suggested. She figured that would buy her a little time because it would be at least a month if not two before Chase wasn't completely wrapped up in the Pierce Dorman trial. She was pretty sure Chase knew that too, but he just smiled and took another bite of his burger.
Perhaps she was a hypocrite as well since her main reason for disliking Carly was that she had broken up former foster mom, Bobbie Jones' marriage by sleeping with Bobbie's third husband, Dr. Tony Jones. Of course, Melissa herself had basically decimated Bobbie's second marriage to attorney Jake Meyers. Bobbie and Jake had diplomatically denied the latter and acknowledged that she was a grieving teen when she and her eight-year-old brother had come to live with them after their mother died from cancer.
Years later, Melissa could appreciate everything they had both given her and done for them. At fifteen and sixteen she had just been too mired in her own grief to appreciate anything. She had pushed against any limits they set and then run away to Florida with her boyfriend, Zach. Unfortunately, Zach was basically a budding sociopath and sold her into a prostitution ring. Melissa also grasped that most foster parents would have notified children's services, and perhaps the police. Perhaps a rare few would have looked for her, however, Bobbie Spencer Meyers was probably the only one who would attempt to go undercover in the same prostitution ring Melissa was trapped in. The potential, and actual, sacrifices her foster mother had made had been lost on Melissa at the time. In retrospect, she understood and appreciated them greatly. She even understood that Jake had partly reacted the way he had in an effort to ensure that her brother had a safe home and at least one parent who was above reproach even in the eyes of a judgmental social services system. She had gotten her act together, finished high school, excelled in nursing school, and become an ICU nurse at PCGH. She had healed and grown. Maybe that was also Carly's goal, maybe…