As she slipped into the jacuzzi beside the Quartermaine Pool, Keesha Ward thought of the Calgon Commercial and then of her Grandmother and her "Calgon take me away!" days. She smiled at the memory but then winced at the pain of that loss. "I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've planned a baby shower from a jacuzzi. Actually, I'm sure it's the first time I've planned anything from a jacuzzi but after today this was definitely the right idea and probably about all I could handle. So, thank you!"

"I know the feeling! There wasn't school so Kirk and Serena were home all day but apparently Emily and Allison both scheduled themselves to volunteer at PCGH. Then Somehow Katelyn came home from swimming super charged instead of super exhausted as I would have been if I had done all that swimming. So, she never actually napped. But I probably shouldn't complain about watching three children when you spent the afternoon with ten times that," Brenda Barrett said.

"We're actually at an all-time low census at Ward House. We only have twenty residents plus three more who come for childcare. Two of those kids didn't come because I presume their parents had the day off due to the holiday so it was only twenty-one. Of course, Aunt Harriet was distracted with everything with Isaiah and Trina is sick so it was pretty much all on Rhonda and me. Fortunately, AJ came to volunteer but he had to go to some rush meeting at five. I love those kids but I have never been so happy to see the nighttime staff show up at 6:30 in my life."

"Oh yeah, I was equally thankful that neither Alan nor Monica were on call today," Brenda said.

"Ok, so do we start with a date?" Keesha asked.

"Sure, well unless starting by finding someone else to do this is still an option?" Brenda asked.

Keesha laughed. "Yeah, I don't think it is. Do you know when she is due?"

"I think Ned said some time in mid-December," Brenda said.

Keesha frowned. "That doesn't give us much time. November and December are always hectic months in general and really a little late so that seriously probably leaves us this weekend which is way too short notice and next weekend."

"Ok so next weekend it is, I guess? Do we want to do Saturday or Sunday?"

"Probably Saturday unless that conflicts with something," Keesha said.

"When is the Delta Tau Delta Fall Formal?" Brenda asked.

"Not until some time in November, maybe the fifteenth if that is a Saturday," Keesha said.

"Ok so October 25th. Now guest list? Can we get away with just the Quartermaines?"

"Maybe that is safer," Keesha agreed.

"Usually Quartermaines and safe guest list don't exactly fit in the same sentence but umm, yeah…"

"Well if we invite Monica, Tracy, Lila, and Beth that is four plus us we're up to six. We really need a few more. AJ is always saying how his mother complains about having no input into who gets invited to parties in her home so why don't we task her with inviting the rest of the guests."

"Good idea!" Brenda agreed.

"Oh, wait, who was that woman who was Carly's maid of honor? We should probably invite her. Why don't you see if Ned has her address or phone number?" Keesha said.

"He is supposed to be back on Wednesday so I guess it will have to wait until then," Brenda said.

"I think AJ said she lives in the city so that might be ok," Keesha said.

"Ok, that was a lot less traumatic than I was anticipating," Brenda admitted.

Keesha tended to agree. Although there was still the fear that the real drama, and trauma surrounding Carly Ashton's baby shower would come from hosting it not planning it.

XXXXXXXX

Carly Ashton unpacked the takeout box from Café Decadence onto the long table in the breakfast nook. "We have water, milk, and juice. There might also be beer or soda somewhere in the back of the pantry. I can look if you're interested."

"Water is fine. I really don't drink and definitely not when I am driving," Beth Quartermaine said.

Of course, she doesn't, Carly thought. She forced a smile before she spoke. "That is very responsible of you. If only everyone shared that view," she said.

"Oh, I know. I know how hard Jason's accident was for everyone, but especially for Ned," Beth said.

Carly considered that. She had never known Jason Morgan before his accident. Was it selfish that she wasn't sure his accident was such a great tragedy? She was quite sure that Jason Morgan, the Boston PD Detective would have never given her the time of day.

Beth seemed to catch her discomfort with the topic, although Carly was sure she had no clue where her mind had truly gone. It was definitely better that way!

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to dwell on the painful patches of the past. Anyway, water is fine. I'm so glad you knew that Café Decadence would do takeout. There is still so much Mark and I are figuring out being back in Port Charles."

Carly made her way over to one of the cupboards and removed two glasses. She filled both with crushed ice and water from the dispenser in the refrigerator door and then crossed back over to the breakfast area. "About that…" she began as she set the glasses down on the table.

"Yes?" Beth said softly.

"I feel like we're actually starting to become friends and I really want that, I do! However, I sense that you don't have any idea that I was basically the town pariah before I married Ned. Actually, I probably still am the town pariah people are just more restrained because a lot of their paychecks are signed by my husband's grandfather," Carly said. She forced herself to laugh to punctuate her words. It was her attempt at steeling herself against the rejection that she was afraid was about to come but, truly, it just hurt more.

"My first stepmother always used to say that you needed to actually live in someone's life for a few days before you judged. She was right. I'm really trying to channel that advice with my second stepmother. It would be so much easier if she wasn't so judgmental herself!" Beth said.

Carly wasn't sure how to interpret Beth's response. It sounded so good but it also sounded superficial. It was tempting to just smile and nod but it was more tempting to push ahead and perhaps actually have a real friend in Port Charles. "I had an affair with Dr. Tony Jones. I got pregnant and had no idea if he was actually the father of my baby," she said. Then she swallowed hard and locked her eyes on Beth's face for her reaction.

If Beth was shocked, she hid her emotions well. "I knew you and Tony were engaged in June. Mark mentioned it. So, yes, when you ended the engagement and then married Ned shortly after I guess I presumed that some of the motivation for it was that Tony wasn't your baby's father. I think it took a lot of courage to go to Ned with the truth. The easier path would have certainly been to let Tony believe he was the father," she said.

"In some ways, maybe," Carly said. She had certainly thought that at one point. Ultimately Tony had been the one who ended their relationship and threatened to take her child but even before then Carly had been full of reservations and regrets about her choice.

"Easier isn't always better though, and I think that anyone who wants to judge you for telling the truth needs to unpack that and their own issues a little more," Beth said.

"Really?"

"Life is messy, Carly, it just is. Ned deserves to know and raise his son and you deserve to let Ned love you because, from my vantage point, he clearly does," Beth said.

Carly could believe that Beth saw love in Ned's eyes. She just didn't believe that it was love for her. Ned was being kind to her because he loved Jason. Ned was going to raise Jason's son because he loved Jason. Perhaps that was all she deserved though and perhaps she was meant to be grateful for that. She was beginning to accept that.

"I'll be honest Carly; Ned hasn't had an easy time of things these past five years either. His first marriage was a disaster, and I'm still atoning for my role in all of that. I liked his second wife. She was warm and kind but it just didn't work out and I think that divorce was much harder for Ned than anything with Jenny," Beth said.

"Why do you feel so guilty about Ned marrying Jenny. You said that before but did you really know that the kiss you interrupted wasn't innocent?" Carly asked.

"It didn't exactly look innocent but beyond that, no. But three months later, when Ned walked in on Jenny and Paul in his bed; I hate to say it wasn't a complete shock."

"Ned actually walked in on them in the act in his own bed?" Carly asked. She hadn't known that. Her heart went out to Ned but then she felt like an even bigger hypocrite because essentially, she and Tony had recreated the same scenario for Bobbie to face. Of course, she hadn't thought of any of that at the time.

"That was what Jenny told me at the time," Beth said quietly.

"You were friends before she married Ned, right?"

"Theoretically, yes, although in retrospect I'm not sure Jenny is capable of being a friend," Beth said.

Beth's words left Carly to wonder if she herself was capable of being a friend.

XXXXXXXX

Dr. Chris Ramsey would be the first to admit he was not a budding pediatrician. Yet interns were required to do at least one month of Internal Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics. He had tried to arrange to do a month of Pediatric Surgery and have it count for his pediatric requirement but Dr. Burgess had denied him. So that left him facing a month of toddler terrors dripping snot and an attending who simply went by Buzz.

Technically Buzz was also known as Dr. Brian Stryker. The fifty-three-year-old had just celebrated twenty years of service at Port Charles General Hospital. He split his time between some clinic at some Children's Home and driving his medical van into the worst neighborhoods of Moriches and the Warehouse District of Port Charles. His daughter, Sandy, had apparently been less willing to take on his vow of poverty so she had pursued a DVM rather than a MD and she was married to some Quartermaine cousin who she had met during vet school at Cornell University. It was kind of hard to argue that she had made the wrong choice.

"Dr. Ramsey, how are you coming with that History & Physical?" the infamous Buzz asked as he ambled up to the nurses' station.

Chris rolled his eyes. Apparently gray with a combover was making a comeback because several of the nurses seemed to eat up Dr. Stryker's affable gaze. "My H&P has been on the chart awaiting your co-signature for at least fifteen minutes," he said.

Dr. Stryker reached for the chart, opened it, flipped through, and started to read. Then he frowned, shook his head, and frowned more deeply.

"Is there a problem?" Chris asked.

"I suppose we all have to start somewhere. After all, it is only the first day of the rotation," Dr. Stryker said.

Chris resented the implication that his work was somehow inadequate. "If you find fault with my work, Dr. Stryker, I would like to hear it. After all, how can I be expected to improve without feedback?"

"Fair enough, I've heard positive things from some of my colleagues about your performance on other services so I trust you can excel in Pediatrics with some additional effort. Your history is a bit limited and lacking. I see no mention of the birth history, the developmental history, or the nutritional history. These are all important components of any pediatric histories but especially for a child being admitted for failure to thrive," Dr. Stryker said.

It was all Chris could do to not frown and shake his head himself.

XXXXXXXX

Dr. Karen Baldwin-Cates closed the textbook on her lap with a sigh. She was starting to understand why Jake had always looked so stressed during the prior rotation. She glanced at the clock it was almost eight-thirty so it was almost five-thirty in California where her husband Jagger still worked as a Vice Detective with the San Francisco PD. Theoretically he was supposed to be transferring back into the PCPD after closing a few high-profile cases.

Or at least that had been the plan after she learned that she matched at PCGH in March. Then she hadn't realized that process would require more than seven months. Then she had been optimistic that meant they would move together back to Port Charles in June. Or that at least when Jagger came out in August to attend the wedding of their mutual friends Brenda Barrett and Sonny Corinthos that he would have been staying. None of it had exactly worked out. Brenda and Sonny hadn't married and Jagger still had at least a few months' worth of loose ends he needed to return to San Francisco and tie up.

The phone ringing pulled Karen from her thoughts. She leaned back and picked up the cordless phone from it's docking station on the sofa table behind the couch. "Hello," she said.

"Hi, Karen, it's Gina…"

Gina Michelle Cates Williams was her husband's younger sister. She was also somehow an eighteen-year-old first year medical student at Stanford University. Actually, she wasn't even eighteen, she would be eighteen in November. "Hello, Gina," Karen said with trepidation.

It wasn't that she had anything against her husband's sister, it was more that they were almost complete opposites. Despite losing both of her parents days after her ninth birthday, and initially being placed with foster parents who were more concerned about spending their foster care subsidy on drugs than actually caring for their charges, Gina had thrived. In a way she was the bipedal example of that which doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Or perhaps it was more that adversity opened doors to new opportunities. Since some would argue that much of her path to success was paved by her supportive adoptive parents, Dr. and Mrs. Williams

"I hope I'm not calling at a bad time," Gina said.

"No, it's ok; I'm not on call again until Wednesday. What's up?" Karen asked.

"Ok so that probably means you won't be on call on Friday, right?" Gina asked.

"No, I'm not on call on Friday, why?" Karen asked.

"Friday night is the night of the Dedication Gala for Stone's Wing. We don't have a soccer game or a major test on Monday so my dad arranged for me to fly home for the weekend. I guess Jagger is still in the middle of some big undercover thing at work so he won't be there and I was just hoping you would be," Gina said.

Karen had forgotten about that. Apparently the Quartermaine Family had donated tickets for any housestaff who wanted to attend and weren't on call. That had been announced at the beginning of September, well before anyone had published an October schedule so she had pushed the thought out of mind. "Umm, I think that the housestaff were all invited so I guess I could."

"My father bought a table so you could also sit with us if you wanted," Gina offered.

Karen heard the uncertainty in her sister in law's voice. Gina's adoptive parents had always been rather wary of Gina having a relationship with her brother Michael, also known as Stone. His inability to finish high school, his years spent on the streets, his heroin addict girlfriend, and his connection to Sonny Corinthos had all probably all raised their own independent concerns she was sure. They probably should have but it wasn't really that simple. Of course, perhaps she was the wrong person to ask since there had been a period in her life when Sonny Corinthos had been the first person who had ever taken up for her and advocated for her.

"Umm, I think my dad and Grandparents are actually going as well so I would probably sit with them but maybe we can do lunch on Saturday if I don't have to round all day," Karen said. The truth was that with Dr. Burgess as an attending she might have to spend all day Saturday rounding.

"Ok, I would like that. I guess I will see you Friday and we can make plans then," Gina said.

"Sure," Karen agreed.

"Ok, I guess it's time to get back to reviewing Head and Neck Anatomy," Gina said.

"Have fun!" Karen said. Anatomy had been anything but easy for her and Head and Neck had been a particularly challenging unit.

"I think fun is a bit of an optimistic idea. It is interesting though; maybe I will end up doing ENT after all. I"ll see you Friday!" Gina said.

Karen hung up the phone and sighed. As much as intellectually she had dismissed the Stone Cates Memorial Gala until she knew her call schedule, she knew that was only part of it. The rest of it was so much messier. Most people presumed that she had met Stone through Jagger. They were brothers after all. But she had met Stone first when they had worked together at the Paradise Lounge.

May 4, 1992

In the dressing room at the Paradise Lounge, Karen Wexler struggled to find one point to focus on. Maybe if she could make that one point stop then she could manage to stand. But when that point started spinning itself, she gave up and buried her head in her hands.

"Are you ok Kari?" Stone Cates asked as he laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm just tired," Karen said but even she could realize that her voice sounded fuzzy.

"She can't go on like this," Tammy Hanson said.

"I'll be fine, I just need a minute," Karen tried to protest but then everything went black.

XXXXXXXX

Karen's head felt heavy as she struggled to open her eyes. Once she finally did, she was overcome with terror as she realized she had no idea where she was. Then she saw that Stone was sitting in a chair on the other side of the bed. She was afraid to ask how she had gotten there or what might have happened.

Stone must have sensed her questions and fears. "It's ok, Kari, you weren't feeling well so I brought you upstairs. I just stayed in here to make sure you were ok," he said.

Stone had been so kind to her, so much kinder than she deserved. That had been a bit of a foreign concept, especially given that he really seemed to just want to be her friend. At the time, she had a hard time trusting that. One thing led to another. Ultimately their boss, Sonny Corinthos, confronted her about her drug use and then offered to pay for rehab. Of course, she had denied everything and Sonny had claimed he had no choice but to have her take some leave from the Paradise Lounge. She had lied to Stone and told him she was being given time to study for her finals. She suspected Sonny had told him the truth. Then a week later, right after her finals were over, she had broken down. Then she had no choice but to let Sonny make the arrangements for some inpatient detox program in the city.

When she had returned to Port Charles with a shaky six weeks of sobriety, Sonny had taken her to lunch and fired her. Then he had helped her get a job washing dishes and waitressing at Kelly's Diner. She had been angry, but she had also known it was the right decision. Waitressing at Kelly's had been how she met her husband since he lived upstairs. She hadn't realized initially that he was Stone's brother. Eventually she had made the realization that Stone was really Mike.