"I can turn the monitor off in here so you can get some rest if you want. We have central monitoring, so everything transmits out to the main nurses' station anyway," Carla Greco offered.
"It's ok; I kind of like hearing that sound and knowing for myself he is ok in there," Carly Ashton said.
"Ok, well, if you change your mind, or if you need anything else, just hit the call button," Carla said before she slipped from the room.
"Are you feeling any better?" Ned asked.
"I think so. I'm sorry, I'm really not sure what happened before," Carly said.
"You have no need to apologize. I'm going to see what I can shift around and how much I can work from home," Ned said.
"You don't have to do that!" Carly said. She wondered if she was so adamantly denying because she was afraid maybe that was what she needed him to do.
Ned reached out and interlaced their fingers. "We're in this together, Carly. I meant it when I said I would be there for you and the baby. I will," he said.
"Ok, umm, thanks," Carly said uneasily.
"Would you like me to arrange for your mom to come stay for a while?" Ned asked.
Carly was afraid her face must have lost all color. Her mother still had no idea she was pregnant. Everytime she had almost worked up the nerve to tell her she lost her nerve before she picked up the phone. "Ummm…."
Ned squeezed her hand. "This is totally your call, so just tell me what is helpful. If having your mom here is helpful, I can have the ELQ Jet in the air in the morning. If it doesn't feel right then if you say that I will completely respect your position on that," he said.
Carly knew that her husband was way more understanding than she deserved. "Was it hard to tell Tracy about the baby?" she asked.
Ned took an audible deep breath and released it slowly. "Most conversations with my mother are hard. We love each other but, on some level, almost everything has been tense, awkward, or both," he said.
"I think I understand. I actually was closer to my dad, even after the divorce, well, at least until he went to find his missing baby sister and essentially went AWOL," Carly said.
"How old were you?" Ned asked.
"Almost fifteen. He hadn't been able to reach Aunt Natalie for a week and usually they talked almost every other night. So, he left that Monday. My birthday was coming up on Wednesday. He called me on my birthday and promised we would do something when he came back. He just never came back," Carly said.
"I'm sorry," Ned said.
"I guess his sister overdosed, or that was what my mom said. My dad never believed that, theoretically he's still looking for her killer in Las Vegas," Carly said.
"I'm sorry," Ned said again.
"Yeah, my mom hated him for abandoning us. For a long time though I just wanted to see him again. That made my mother furious. High school was rough scene for us. I left home almost immediately after graduation."
"Did you go find your father?" Ned asked.
"I tried for a while. Then I gave up, or maybe I just accepted that some people don't want to be found. Ironically, that was what my mother told my father before he left to go look for Aunt Natalie in the first place."
"Sometimes people don't I suppose," Ned said.
"Anyway, I went back to Miami for a few more years. I did the PT assistant course at the Community College and worked in a nursing home. That was incredibly depressing."
"Did you and your mom work things out?"
"Not really. We rarely saw each other. I probably came to Port Charles as much to get away from her as to experience four seasons," Carly said. She caught Ned's smile at the reference to what she had told his cousin and she smiled as well.
But then Carly's heart sunk. What if Ned found out that her true motivations to come to Port Charles were so much more sinister than he realized? Sure, Ned knew that she had slept with someone else's husband. But when he found out that it had more than a temporary indiscretion would he hate her like everyone else? If he did then what would that mean for her child? Would Ned also consider she was an unfit mother and try to take her child? If he did, might it actually be the right thing to let him?
XXXXXXXX
Emily Quartermaine was a little surprised to see her father walking across the track to the high jump apron, where she and her cross-country teammates were stretching or lounging after their interval training workout and cool down had been completed. Lately she had been getting a lot of rides home from Lisa Moore, one of her teammates who was a senior with a license and her own car.
"Em, it looks like your dad is here," Keith Simmons, a sophomore on the boys' XC team announced.
"Thank you, Keith," Emily said quickly before one of the other guys started calling him Captain Obvious again. Keith was not naturally swift, but he was a hard worker. He had run more miles over the summer than anyone else on the team and had even clawed his way onto the Varsity roster for post-season.
"Dad, is everything alright?" Emily asked uneasily as she took a few steps towards her father and carefully away from her collection of teammates.
"Everything is fine. Your sister was done with practice early so AJ collected her after he finished up with his youth soccer team. I just thought maybe we could stop off for a milkshake at Café Decadence on the way home," her father offered.
"Café Decadence isn't exactly on the way home," Emily said. It wasn't if you wanted to be literal, which usually she didn't but something just felt wrong.
"Is that your way of saying you would rather go to Uncommon Grounds?" her father asked.
"What is really going on here, dad?"
"I know today has been a bit rough for you so I just thought maybe we could stop for a milkshake before we rejoined the chaos of life in the Quartermaine family. Your mom has STEMI call this evening, but she sends her love as well.
"So, I'm guessing you and mom both were involved with Sarah's care. Or is that something you aren't allowed to tell me?"
"Well since Sarah, told us both to thank you I suppose Sarah herself gave us permission to disclose there was some interaction. I think we can also tell you that Sarah should be fine in the long run and if we skip over the intervening details we can stay in compliance with HIPAA. So, how about that milkshake?"
"I think Uncommon Grounds only has Smoothies, but I could go for a Strawberry Oatmeal Smoothie. Let me just grab my stuff!" Emily said.
XXXXXXXX
Dr. Mark Henry Quartermaine wondered if he was overstepping as he swiped his ID badge which granted him access to the L&D Unit at PCGH. As a physiatrist, this was not his usual territory but by chance, or perhaps God's greater plan, he had been in the patient and staff outpatient elevator when Ned, Carly, and Dr. Meadows had entered along with all kinds of portable monitors and hanging IV fluids. That had looked anything but good, especially since he was quite certain it had been established at Sunday Brunch that Carly wasn't due until Christmas time.
He had offered to Ned that he could call him if he needed anything. Despite his intentions, the words had felt empty and he highly doubted his cousin would take him up on his offer. Silent, stoic, suffering had pretty much always been Ned's modus operandi and Mark knew how much it upset Ned's mother and his godmother The Honorable Tracy Quartermaine-Grabler.
April 11, 1982
Mark Henry Quartermaine smiled as he watched his younger cousins Jason Morgan and AJ Quartermaine dart through the Quartermaine rose garden hunting for eggs along with a few other children from the neighborhood. He supposed technically Jason wasn't truly his biological cousin as he was related to AJ and some of his other Quartermaine cousins on their mother's side. Jason's grandfather, Harold James Morgan Jr had been Lila Morgan Quartermaine's older brother. When he and his wife both perished in the Bel Air Hotel Fire in November 1961, Edward and Lila had taken in and raised their then twelve-year-old son Harold James Morgan III. Out of respect for the Morgan lineage, they had never formally adopted HJ but in many ways he had he come to consider them a second set of parents and they clearly had a grandparent type relationship with HJ's son Jason who had just turned eight the month before.
Yet, as he strolled the rest of the way through the rose garden, Mark made note of another younger cousin who was conspicuously absent. Ned, a boarding student at Ethan Allen Academy, had turned fourteen in February so Mark doubted he would have been scavenging for eggs. Yet, as he sat down on a bench beside Ned's mother, the Honorable Tracy Quartermaine, he sensed how upsetting her son's absence was to her.
"Just how many eggs did you hide?" Tracy asked after he had sat down.
"I only hid what your mother gave me to hide but I think there were about one hundred eggs," Mark said. It had seemed like more than that though. He had spent over an hour crawling around in the rose garden at dawn preparing for the egg hunt. Afterwards, he had barely had time to grab a bite and shower before it was time to head to church at Trinity Episcopal with the rest of the family.
"You're a good man, Mark Henry Quartermaine," Tracy said.
Mark shrugged his shoulders. "I do what I can," he said. He debated if he should say more. Were they meant to address the elephant in the room?
Despite having a bit of a complex about becoming a godmother at age fifteen, his cousin Tracy had always been there for him. She had flown all the way back to the US at the end of her second trimester to attend his father's military funeral. He had been four, the whole event had been surreal but he remembered that Tracy had never left his side and since it hadn't been the love of her life in the casket she had been much more able to focus on his immediate needs than his mother had in the moment.
Eight years after that, when his mother was losing her battle with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma, and his older sister Dorothy had abandoned him, for reasons even six years later Mark couldn't quite grasp; Tracy had just quietly been there to listen. Perhaps it was time for him to return the favor. "We all have our rough patches," he said.
"If you're referring to your cousin, Ned, I'm afraid this is a bit more than a rough patch," Tracy said.
Mark noticed how sad she looked. So, he hadn't said anymore. He had just silently laid his hand over hers as they sat in silence while the children found the rest of his one hundred eggs.
At least outwardly, and definitely academically, Ned had thrived at Ethan Allen Academy, then Duke University, and finally Harvard Law School. Yet, Mark had noted that Tracy's eyes had still held the same sad wariness at the reception to celebrate Ned's installation as ELQ Enterprises Pro Counsel as they had in Alan and Monica's rose garden a little more than eleven years earlier.
"Can I help you?" a white-haired nurse asked Mark as she peered at his hospital issued ID badge. Ironically, her tone sounded anything but helpful.
"I'm Dr. Mark Henry Quartermaine, I was looking for my cousin, Ned Ashton, I believe that his wife was just admitted," Mark said.
"I've got this Judy," a much younger nurse wearing green scrubs said as she stepped forward. She turned to Mark, "Would you mind just waiting here, while I check and see if Mrs. Ashton is up to visitors or if your cousin would rather step out and update you in the hallway?" she asked.
"No, that is fine," Mark said. As he stepped back against the wall, once again he wondered if he had crossed the line from supporting to intruding. He was a bit surprised when the nurse came back and then led him into Carly's room.
Ned met him at the door, and they embraced. "I hope I'm not intruding. I just wanted to be sure you both knew that if there is anything Beth or I can do we absolutely are here for both of you," he said after they separated.
"We appreciate that," Ned said.
Yet, Mark knew there was a lot he wasn't saying. "Is it ok if I tell Beth you have been admitted? If you would prefer I not right now then I think technically this is a gray area of privacy, but I will honor the confidence," he offered. Once the words were out, he was still a bit uneasy about the offer. He and Beth did not keep secrets and she would be hurt later but there were certain professional standards he had to uphold. He wondered if this was how his Uncle Alan had felt fifteen months earlier.
In Alan's case, Mark didn't think there had been much gray. He had been the trauma surgeon on call when Lois had been shot. He had saved her life and then he had kept their secrets since Lois had been almost twenty weeks pregnant at the time and the baby had not survived.
Ultimately, Ned had broken down at Sunday Brunch on what should have been his baby's due date. That had been in January right after he and Beth had moved back to Port Charles so he could take the position as the Director of the PCGH Inpatient Physical Rehabilitation Unit. Their daughter Kensington had been seven months old at the time and Mark had been afraid perhaps that had just added insult to injury in the context of Ned's pain.
"I don't mind if you tell, Beth, I just don't feel up to calling everyone right now," Carly said.
"That is understandable. Now, would it be helpful if she brought you anything? Or would it be more helpful if we both gave you some space to rest?" Mark asked.
"If you weren't planning on going to that reception Ned is supposed to play at, perhaps she could keep me company tomorrow evening. Then, perhaps Ned will change his mind about backing out at the absolute last minute," Carly said.
"I'm sure Miguel can handle stepping in. In fact, the song I was going to play was written by him," Ned protested.
"We hadn't planned on attending because I was supposed to be on call but since I had to fill in for Dr. Harris at the last minute last weekend he is supposed to take this weekend so I could do that wonderful dad thing with Kensington and you and Beth could hang out," Mark offered.
"Sounds good, I'll convince Ned it is a good idea by tomorrow evening," Carly said.
Mark laughed. His wife thought that there was hope for Ned and Carly's marriage. He was praying she was right. She usually was anyway after all.
XXXXXXXX
Dr. Matt Harmon sensed tension when he wheeled into the room to do his next admission. Sometimes the best way to deal with that was to just cut through it. So, he said, "Hello, I am Dr. Matt Harmon, I am the intern on call this evening. I will be taking care of getting you admitted."
His patient, a rather obese, African American women crossed her arms across her chest defiantly. Yet, Matt noticed that the effort caused her to wince and gasp a little. The ED attending had discussed the case with Dr. Devlin who was on call for Cardiology and he was convinced the patient had indigestion but had deigned to have them admitted to his service for an Acute Coronary Syndrome Rule Out.
A younger African American male, who Matt presumed was her son, gave her a strong look. "Don't start, Mama, you are not going back home. I can see you're still in a lot of pain."
"I told you Winston, I would not be admitted at this hospital if it was the last hospital on the planet and I really was dying!" Alice Morgan ranted. Then she clutched her chest and gasped more.
"I asked about transfer to Mercy, Mama, but I guess they don't have beds and Frank says this is the place to be anyway. Do you really think his baby brother would be doing his residency here if it wasn't?"
"I'll thank you not to discuss my business with the neighbors, Winston!" Alice said. Her words were punctuated by alarms as her pulse oximetry reading dropped and her heart rate shot up.
Mary Scanlon RN came bustling into the room. "Alice, you need to relax, and keep your oxygen on," she admonished as she replaced the nasal canula prongs.
"I'll relax just fine at home," Alice said.
"Why don't we repeat another EKG?" Dr. Harmon asked.
Mary Scanlon RN looked anything but thrilled to be given another task, but she grudgingly pulled the EKG machine over and then glared in Matt's direction for a minute until he wheeled himself backwards out into the hallway. The patient's son followed him.
"Sorry, about my mom," Winston offered before he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans with a shrug.
"It's ok, we don't expect patients to be at their best when they might be having a heart attack," Matt said.
"So, you think it is her heart?" he asked. He looked concerned and even a little scared.
"I haven't examined her yet, but the first EKG showed some small ST depressions and her presentation is somewhat classic. Is her cardiologist over at Mercy, is that why she wants to go over there?"
"No, she sees Dr. Phillips when I can drag her somewhere. He manages her diabetes. He tried to refer her to some cardiologist he likes over here, Dr. Quarter or something like that but she didn't keep the appointment."
"Oh, Dr. Monica Quartermaine, she is one of the interventional cardiologists and she is exceptionally good. Your mom would be in good hands with her. I was going to see if maybe we could figure out how to get her over to Mercy because I would rather she go over there than go home but since both Dr. Phillips and Dr. Quartermaine have privileges here it probably makes the most sense if she just is admitted here. Maybe if you explain to her that Dr. Phillips has privileges here that will give her some confidence in the hospital."
"Oh, she knows that, and it really isn't anything against this hospital. I mean good grief she delivered her babies here over thirty years ago, but see, my sister, she and my mom they don't really get along and my sister is a doctor here. That is the problem," Winston said.
Matt couldn't think of any Dr. Morgans on staff, although he supposed it was possible that Winston's sister had married and practiced under her married name. Many physicians did, including the aforementioned Dr. Monica Quartermaine. It felt inappropriate to ask what Alice's estranged daughter's name was.
"My sister is Dr. Ellen Burgess, I guess she got some promotion lately, mom read about it in the paper and that was when she canceled her cardiology appointment."
Matt hadn't expected that. He supposed that Dr. Burgess hadn't mentioned anything about her family. Although he had presumed that was because she was a stickler for boundaries. Of course, she also hadn't mentioned a husband and she didn't wear a ring. "Dr. Burgess in the Director for Medical Education for our Internship Program," he said after some uncomfortable silence.
"Ok, right, that was in the paper. Anyway, running into her might be just enough to actually push Mama over the edge into that coronary syndrome that other doctor wanted to admit her to rule out," Winston said.
"Well it looks like, Dr. Devlin, was going to do the admission to his own service. So, if you have your mother listed as no information, then I think it is unlikely your sister will even know she is here," Matt suggested. Yet, as he said the words, he felt a lot of empathy for Ellen. She certainly was an enigma. He also certainly understood what it was like to be estranged from family. The difference was that in his case his family didn't, and couldn't, even know where he was.