October 18, 1997
In her London Loft, Julia Barrett handed the wet washcloth to her ten-year-old son who dutifully wiped his face and then collapsed down onto the cold bathroom tile.
"Cooper, honey, come on, you know Mommy doesn't like you to lie on the floor. Let's get you back into your bed and I'll bring you a basin in case you get sick again," Julia said.
"I just need to lie still," Cooper whispered.
"Mommy will help you, but we need to get you off of this hard, cold, floor," Julia said.
"I'll get him," her best friend, Cord Roberts, offered.
Julia stepped back and allowed Cord to scoop her son up off the floor and carry him back into his bedroom. She pulled the blankets up securely once Cord had laid her child down and then wedged herself on the edge of her son's bed. She brushed a few wisps of light brown hair off her son's forehead and sighed. "Just try to rest, Cooper, I'm right here and you're going to be ok," she whispered.
"Poor kid," Cord said as he laid a hand on her shoulder.
"His father had headaches like this," Julia said without thinking. The words just kind of slipped out and she regretted them almost instantaneously. She felt Cord start to knead her shoulders gently, but he didn't say anything. Sometimes he could almost be too good at respecting her space.
"I think I want to take him back to the neurologist in the states. Maybe there is something else or something new they can try. I just can't let him keep suffering like this."
"I think that is a good idea. I have a meeting in Toronto at the beginning of next month and I need to sit down with Ned about some Norscott stuff, so I was actually planning to fly into New York and then drive up. You and Cooper could come with me and see your sister. If Tina would stop ignoring my calls, we could even see if Sarah and CJ could join us for the weekend. Supposedly Sarah is striving for perfect attendance this year and can't miss school."
Julia had a feeling that Cord ex's wife had probably come up with the perfect attendance scenario on the fly like she came up with most of her schemes. She wasn't advocating that Cord's daughter should skip school needlessly, but she also knew she was only in seventh grade. She doubted she could miss anything truly life altering. In contrast, having a solid relationship with her father could be life altering. Julia should know, she had never had such a thing.
"Apparently Dr. Ryan relocated his practice to Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan. Perhaps we could fly into JFK and then drive up to Port Charles," Julia said.
"Why don't you try to schedule the appointment on Monday, talk to your sister, and let me know. I will check on Ned's schedule and have my secretary make the final arrangements. My Toronto meeting is three weeks from Tuesday so we could spend time before or after that in Port Charles depending on Ned's schedule, or perhaps Brenda's," Cord said.
Julia couldn't quite bring herself to admit that suggesting she wanted to visit was usually enough to inspire Brenda to schedule some out of state modeling trip just so she would have an excuse to not see her sister. Sometimes the element of surprise could be used to one's advantage. Julia knew that her approach was a bit pathetic, but the only other option seemed to be accepting that she wasn't meant to have a relationship with her sister at all. She wasn't quite ready to accept that. Perhaps she should be…
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Dr. Lois Cerullo released a heavy sigh as she watched her nephew push her daughter on the swings. It was almost Halloween and a definite chill hung in the air, but three-year-old Brooklyn was determined, or maybe stubborn, and she had wanted to play on the swings. So, they were at the playground with hats, mittens, and their winter coats.
Brooklyn Ashton squealed as her cousin, Dante, pushed the swing higher and Lois tried to reflect on how proud her brother would be to see his son was just as kind and gentle with his little cousins as Vinny himself had been with his own siblings. Sometimes that worked for her. Other times she could only really think about how Dante was growing up without his father, and how Brooke, Dante, Mark, Patrick, and Vincent were all growing up without their grandfather.
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Dr. Ryan Grabler watched his wife wipe the same section of their kitchen island for the third time. "Perhaps we need to trust Ned to tell us what he and Carly need. Admittedly this isn't my area of medicine, but I think that strict bedrest even during extremely high-risk pregnancies hasn't been shown to be helpful and, in some cases, could even be harmful," he suggested.
"Or perhaps our daughter has her big brother wrapped around her finger," Tracy suggested.
Ryan didn't necessarily dispute that fact. However, he didn't think that his stepson was so blinded by his six-year-old baby sister's charms that he would do something which might endanger his wife or the child she was carrying. "Oh, I accepted that years ago. I'm just saying that it was likely completely safe for Ned and Carly to take Shannon to lunch at Bear Paw Café or Ned would have never suggested it."
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Edward Louis Quartermaine looked up with a bit of trepidation when his wife whirred into his study on the main level of the West Wing. It was rare for Lila to enter his study. In fact, it had only happened twice in the past ten years.
Once it had been when she had heard their cousin Quentin's daughter screaming from inside after she found her grandfather, and Edward's Uncle Herbert, unresponsive on the floor. Lila had called for an ambulance but when the noise brought Monica and Alan downstairs, they said it was already far too late. They had used more technical terms, but Edward had tuned them out as he had filed numbly out of the room. For the first time, his home sanctuary had been the last place he had wanted to be. He had known that Herbert had been diagnosed with Stage IV Cancer but somehow, he had figured that they had many more months to disagree about the best direction for ELQ Enterprises. He had been wrong.
Apparently, he had also been wrong that Herbert's death had been due to natural causes. Quentin's wife Betsy had claimed that it had been a mercy killing. She had insisted that she had only carried out her father in law's final wishes. Edward wondered about that, especially since her sanity completely disappeared after that admission. He shook his head at the unpleasantness of the memories.
At least the next time Lila had ventured into his study no one had actually died. Although, at the time, he imagined many would have understood if Lila had wished he had. Fortunately, Lila was a much better woman than he deserved. With that thought Edward looked up from his spreadsheet, met his wife's eyes, and hoped for some granted mercy.
"I have some good news to share. Carly has been released from the hospital," Lila said.
"That is good news!" Edward said. It was! Yet, somehow, he sensed Lila had more on her mind.
"Yes, dear, I just want to make sure we're clear on a few things. Right now, Ned's priority needs to be Carly and the baby. So, any plans you had to send him out of the country need to be rethought. We are going to have another great grandbaby that is going to have to take precedence over the situation in Jakarta. I don't care how inept you feel Stuart Morris may be. That is not a problem for Ned to solve right now!" Lila said and then she quickly turned and whirred out of his study as abruptly as she had entered, carefully before he could protest.
Edward just shook his head. Lila was always at least a step ahead. On some level he knew she was right. He would have to figure out the situation with Harver Shipping without Ned's direct assistance.
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Dr. Buzz Stryker steeled himself when he heard the furious clicking of heels and looked up to see that Audrey Hardy was indeed approaching the 5 East Physician work area. He quickly averted his eyes back into the chart he was working on and hoped that she was merely passing through. Perhaps she was actually leaving the unit which would be incredibly convenient since he really needed to talk to his patient alone.
"Dr. Stryker, might I have a word with you?" Audrey asked.
Buzz forced a smile, or at least he forcibly removed his frown. "Yes, Audrey, how can I help you?" he asked.
"I am very frustrated that you seem no closer to a diagnosis for Sarah than you were two days ago," Audrey said.
After viewing the recorded footage of Sarah easily bounding out of bed, chatting animatedly with friends, and even scarfing down two candy bars, Buzz convinced that malingering was the only diagnosis which fit. He hadn't brought that up during his morning rounds because he had wanted to give Sarah the opportunity to come clean herself. Unfortunately, it was next to impossible to speak with her alone.
"On the positive side, I think we have excluded all of the significant or life-threatening diagnoses. Sometimes that is the important thing," Buzz suggested.
"I highly doubt that. Sarah hasn't kept a thing down since she was admitted, and the poor child is in there having cramps that look so painful they make me want to cry. Now, I talked to her father and he thinks maybe she should be transferred to another facility. I'm sorry but the quality of physicians here at PCGH is just not the same as it was when my Steve was the Chief of Staff. I'm sure Alan means well, but it just isn't the same."
Buzz had held a lot of respect for Dr. Steve Hardy, so he wasn't going to dispute that his death was a loss for the hospital. He also held a lot of respect for Dr. Alan Quartermaine and his clinical diagnostic skills were largely unparalleled. He hadn't had much interaction with Dr. Jeff Webber although he had heard several of his internist friends commenting on his poor work ethic, and his general lack of integrity. That was a potentially deadly combination if Buzz had ever heard of one.
But then another thought struck him. Was Sarah's feigned illness a desperate plea for attention from her absent physician father? Or did he just have his own hangups there because of everything his own daughter had been through? "Perhaps I could speak with Dr. Webber and allay some of his concerns," he offered.
Audrey pinched her face back into her usual glare of disapproval. "Jeff is a very busy physician, Dr. Stryker. I doubt he has time to listen to your excuses. Perhaps your time would be best served by working on arranging the transfer," she said before she turned on her heel and made her way towards the elevator.
Buzz refrained from cursing at Audrey Hardy's departing form. With the exception of Psychiatric facilities, he was quite certain no hospital in the tri-state area was about to accept Sarah Webber in transfer. So perhaps, rather than embarking on yet another exercise in futility, it was time that he had a candid conversation with his patient.
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Somberly Miguel Morez made his way down the path through Memorial Cemetery. Outside of Port Charles he could sometimes forget that Lily was really gone but that protective denial shattered in an instant, and forever, when he knelt down in front her grave. As tempting as it was to blame Sonny Corinthos, Miguel could not. The truth was that if he and Lily had worked things out, she never would have married Sonny and she definitely would have never been getting into that car the night she became the casualty of her father's retaliation.
Miguel was far too familiar with Hernando Rivera's capacity for retaliation and retribution. His own family had been decimated. For a long time, he and Lily had believed that their first-born child had also been sacrificed. It was only weeks before Lily's death that she had learned that their son was indeed alive. After her death, all the leads to their son seemed to evaporate. That left him to pray that the boy was alive and safe but neither seemed likely where Hernando Rivera was concerned.
As he stood, Miguel sensed he was no longer alone. He turned to see Sonny standing awkwardly about fifteen feet back from Lily's polished stone.
Sonny squeezed his chin uncomfortably but then met Miguel's eyes. "I'm sorry I'll give you some space," he offered and started to turn away.
"No, it is ok, I was about to go," Miguel said.
"Are you sure? I can come back later," Sonny offered.
"I'm sure, I need to meet someone for dinner soon anyway," Miguel offered.
"I, uhh, wish you and Brenda all the best, really. I want her to be happy; she deserves that," Sonny said.
Miguel decided to accept that Sonny wanted to believe that. "Brenda and I are just friends," he said. He saw some light return to the older man's eyes. It was his turn to be conflicted on his feelings.
"Brenda mentioned you were trying to locate your son. I can give you what my PI managed to dig up initially. I also hired this out of state guy Paul Williams, and he was the one who actually located your son," Sonny said.
Miguel gulped. "Uh, thanks," he said.
"You're staying at Kelly's I guess? I can have Johnny drop it off later he has a bit of a crush on one of the waitresses," Sonny said.
"Thank you," Miguel repeated. "I appreciate that. I should go now, or I will be late," he added. Then, he turned, and took several long strides away from the plot. He might have made real progress in facing his grief head on, but he was nowhere near a point where he could share that grief with Sonny Corinthos. He doubted he ever would be and perhaps that wasn't such a bad thing.
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Sarah Webber was afraid she had met her match in Dr. Stryker. Actually, she had sort of sensed that neither of Emily's parents had actually believed that there was anything wrong with her either, but they knew her grandmother wouldn't hear it, so they had let it go. They could do that and just sign off as consultants which they both had first thing in the morning. Dr. Stryker was the admitting attending so he didn't have the luxury of signing off so he would have to find a way to discharge her. In preparation for that, he had confronted her with the video of her anything but poor health and offered her the option to miraculously be perfectly healed by Sunday morning or to accept that he could and would transfer her to an adolescent psychiatric unit.
Somehow, he had been unmoved by her offended denial. He had merely reiterated the options and told her she had twelve hours to decide what she wanted to do. So, she had tried another tack and unleashed a few fake tears. That had actually had some effect, although not the effect she had hoped for. In fact, it had made things worse because that had launched him into some psychobabble about how he was sure her parents loved her and that them being busy didn't negate that. Apparently, he believed that she had faked the whole incident in hopes of bringing her father back to Port Charles from his latest locum gig.
Sarah laughed out loud when she remembered that part of the conversation. The idea was ludicrous! Oh, she might pretend that her father was her hero but that didn't mean she actually enjoyed spending time with him. Like her mother, she was quite content for him to work locum shift after locum shift, like it was his job because, it kind of was. If that didn't work for him then perhaps, he shouldn't have married a woman with expensive tastes and no desire, or employable skills, to work to fund them herself.
Regardless, Sarah was afraid to call Dr. Stryker's bluff. She was even more mortified at the idea of some psychiatric admission so that left her with only one choice. She would be making a miraculous recovery by Sunday morning!