Brenda Barrett sunk down onto the bed in her suite. She should finish getting ready for bed; she had class in the morning at eight thirty. Unfortunately sleep seemed mostly counterproductive since it was almost more exhausting to deal with her nightmares than to just stay awake. She knew that made no sense, but most of her life didn't.
The sound of her cell phone was a welcome reprieve from her thoughts. She reached for it and flipped it open with her thumb. "Hello," she began.
"Brenda, it's Karen, I'm sorry to call so late!"
"It's ok, it's not quite nine. What's up?"
"Umm, if you aren't home alone with the kids do you want to go somewhere and get coffee?" Karen asked.
As much as she didn't want to sleep, Brenda also didn't really feel like putting on actual clothes. She had thrown on a pair of sweats and t-shirt from the prior year's Nurses' Ball when she and Keesha had emerged from the Jacuzzi. "Somehow neither Monica nor Alan are on call tonight but how about if you come over here anyway? Edward just had some new fancy coffee home barista contraption installed in the rec room," she said.
Karen laughed. "Isn't the rec room in the basement? Does he even ever down there?" she asked.
"Yes, although I think he prefers to call it the ground floor. There is also an ice cream shoppe and soda fountain down there so I think he spends a lot more time down there than he likes to admit," Brenda said.
"I had forgotten about that. Check and see if there is still Coffee Heath Bar Crunch hidden in the back of the freezer down there and you have a deal."
"I'm sure there is, I think when you have twenty flavors at your disposal at all times ice cream kind of loses it's novelty," Brenda said.
"I can imagine!" Karen said.
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Carla Solieto cradled baby Gianna"s head as she started upstairs to the nursery. She really did not want to know what her husband was discussing with Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan downstairs. That said, she was a smart enough to know that it had something to do with the Zacchara Family. Pretty much everything had for the past two years.
Carla kissed Gianna's head as she laid her down in the crib. "Sweet dreams my little angel," she whispered. Then she straightened and crept out of the room. To her surprise, Tony was standing in the hallway when she turned around after gently pulling the door closed.
"I need to go out for a bit. I can stop at Waldbaum's and pick up diapers on my way home. She still needs size one, right?" Tony asked.
"Yes," Carla said. There was more she wanted to say, or perhaps really to ask, but she knew she couldn't. So, she just extended up onto tiptoes and kissed Tony's cheek before she silently walked past him towards the master bedroom.
XXXXXXXX
As she made her way through the main floor of her home turning off lights, Dr. Monica Quartermaine heard a gentle rapping at the front door. She pulled the door open to reveal her niece Karen.
Karen appeared a bit sheepish as she stood on the front marble porch. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you," she said.
"It's ok, you didn't wake me. Come in!" Monica said a bit warily.
"Brenda invited me over for a bit of ice cream antisocial," Karen said as she stepped into the foyer.
Technically, Brenda and Karen had been friends long before their family had known Brenda or known that Karen was family. As much as Monica truly loved her niece, she still held a lot of guilt that she hadn't realized that she was her brother's child until Karen had been through so much. "That sounds like fun. How was the first day of your new rotation?" Monica asked.
"It was ok, I left early because of being post-call," Karen said.
"You will do fine, I know that Ellen has high expectations but she holds herself to the same high standard so just relax, do your best, and it really will be fine," Monica said as Brenda came down the Grand Staircase into the foyer.
"Umm thanks," Karen mumbled.
"Enjoy the ice cream, I need to get to sleep myself," Monica said before she started up the same staircase Brenda had come down. At the top of the stairs she passed through the upstairs balcony lounge area and then into the West Wing where their master suite was. It was also where her in-laws' master suite was which had taken a bit of getting used to. Truly sometimes it still did.
Alan was sitting in one of the wing chairs beside the fireplace in the sitting area of their suite when she stepped inside. He glanced up from a journal article. "Is something wrong?" he asked.
"I'm not sure; Karen came over, purportedly to eat ice cream with Brenda," Monica said.
"So, are you worried they will eat all of the Mint Chocolate Chip or is this just more generalized concern for Karen?" Alan asked.
"Karen doesn't like mint so I think my ice cream stash is safe. I guess it is just disconcerting to think about Karen growing up right here and none of us having any clue what she was going through. Somehow, I can't just let go of that," Monica said.
"So, don't let go of it but don't get buried in it either. I try to take the stance that everyone, even the SICU nurses, does the best they can. Karen had struggles and challenges but she persevered and survived. So, support that, and support her!" Alan said.
Monica knew her husband was correct, at least on the surface. Unfortunately, everything was much harder beneath the surface.
XXXXXXXX
Brenda Barrett set the tub of Coffee Heath Bar Crunch down on the ice cream bar in the rec room and dug around in one of the under-counter drawers for an ice cream scoop. As she started to scoop ice cream, she remembered when she Stone, Robin, and Miguel had kind of taken over Kelly's Diner in their quest to make the largest ice cream sundae. That had been one of about thirty things on Stone's final Bucket List that he and Robin had worked through in the last two months of his life.
"Ok, so I know I'm a horrible friend," Karen began as Brenda slid a dish of ice cream across the bar to her.
"You're busy, I get it," Brenda said. In Karen's case, she actually did. Or at least mostly.
"I am, but I could still be a better friend. I mean I barely checked in with you after everything with Sonny," Karen said.
Brenda shrugged her shoulders as she resealed the ice cream tub. "Iknow that Sonny ended our engagement for my safety. The problem is that sometimes hearts defy logic," she said as she put the tub of ice cream back in the chest freezer beneath the bar.
"Definitely," Karen said after she took a bite of ice cream.
"How is Jagger? Is he any closer to closing that huge case and getting back to Port Charles?" Brenda asked.
"I don't think so. Although between the time difference and both of our crazy schedules I haven't spoken to him since the beginning of last week so perhaps a miracle happened," Karen said.
"That must be hard, I'm sorry. I guess just hang in there because eventually even the case that never ends will end, right?" Brenda asked.
Karen shrugged her shoulders. "I guess," she said.
Brenda noted the uncertainty in her friend's voice but she let it go. She wasn't exactly someone anyone should turn to for relationship advice. She took another bite of ice cream.
"I think it's a lot less about the case and a lot more about all of Jagger's guilt about Stone," Karen said.
"You mean because he wasn't here right at the end?" Brenda asked. She had never considered that. In fact, she kind of thought that Stone hadn't really wanted Jagger there at the absolute end. She wasn't sure she wanted to admit that to Karen though.
"That, the fact that Stone was even HIV positive at all, and all of his failure to keep the family together in the first place," Karen said.
"That sounds like a lot to unpack," Brenda said.
"Yep," Karen said with a sigh.