Who We Are

by SCLindseySC

Set in 1997 with a few twists, Caroline Benson, reeling from her recent break up with Dr. Jones fears he will take her child. In desperation, she turns to her unborn son's biological father, Jason Morgan. When Jason fears his life is too dangerous for a child Carly launches another wacky plan that may not just give her child a father, but also heal years of Quartermaine hurt.

105. Questions Welcome

**So, some of these are more reader requests than questions and I guess I can only do the best my muse can. But I love seeing your thoughts and ideas and then I kind of think of them and let my muse go.

1-Can Ned and Carly just stay together? Please!

I will admit that Ned and Carly are growing on me as well. I guess we'll see but I am concurrently writing Bless the Broken Road and think I want those stories to work in compatible verse at some point. Of course, how I get there is a bit tricky who knows maybe the two stories won't fit together.

I actually started writing this as a different lead in to Jarly where Michael is truly a Jarly baby but if you are reading BTBR you will say wait a minute Michael is almost 10 in that story and he thinks that Ned and Carly are his parents. He does and as I write more it's pretty obvious that even if I manage to end BTBR with a Sexis/Jarly double wedding that Jason will probably never be more than Michael's stepfather/uncle.

2-Can Dr. Julie Devlin please not turn into a criminal?

Full disclosure the whole Julie storyline didn't work well for me and I am likely taking things in a direction where she was framed but not truly a killer. (I think PC kind of took that path eventually too, right? But PC was getting a bit too weird by that point and maybe I missed important nuances.) I am still going to do the General Homicide storyline in the next book of this series and Julie may face charges but I'm not sure how that will all work out.

3-Is Rex Stanton a sociopath?

Yes, I think he truly lacks a moral compass. I think maybe that is the difference between him and Lucy Coe in that she may be immoral, selfish, and even a bit narcissistic, but she has at least some shreds of conscience and there are a few lines she won't cross. Ultimately Lucy will try to do the right thing where Serena is concerned but it may be too little too late and when she is asked to understand that actions have consequences that will be hard for her and may actually push her right back into Rex's orbit.

4-Were Julia Barrett and Celia Quartermaine friends on GH?

So, I think the characters didn't actually overlap much (or maybe at all on GH) but in what I have written the characters were friendly business associates that eventually became friends as they conquered misogyny and crashed their glass ceilings. Celia gave a portion of the eulogy at Julia Barrett's funeral in a story I wrote set in 2007 (partly perhaps because Ned Ashton was coordinating everything because Brenda could not deal).

5-Is Tracy Quartermaine-Grabler a bad mom?

So, in the way I have written her she would definitely be the first to say YES! Having said that I think the first point is that Tracy Quartermaine and Tracy Quartermaine-Grabler are very different moms, and she has a lot guilt about all of that. Obviously, she had an easier time raising Dylan and Shannon with Dr. Ryan Grabler that attempting to coparent with Lord Larry Ashton who cheated on her while she was pregnant with Ned and was on wife #7 or 8 before Ned started college.

I have written Ned's adolescence as a very scary and traumatic time for both of them. They were both dealing with a lot of loss and grief. She was really trying to get through to Ned and didn't believe she was or that she could. I think it's easy to say if you're struggling to connect with your teen sending him hundreds of miles away isn't going to make it easier and I see that. Of course, at the time she sent him to Ethan Allen Academy I think she truly believed that he was going to end up dead if she didn't. I also think that Ned forgives Tracy more than she forgives herself.

6-Why is the cardiologist doing a bronchoscopy?

Yeah, I'm taking a little license here (but so much less than GH takes so bear with me). Monica does do critical care so yeah, she should be able to do bronchs but yeah I agree not commonly, it worked better for her to do it so I went with it. **Oh and if you're a physician and believes that Bronchoscopy is the domain of Pulm-Crit yeah there are lots of people who agree (and some surgeons who will throw down as well so umm, yeah).

7-Who is Dr. Doyle? Who is Dr. Hayward?

*Dr. David Hayward is the son of Charles Hayward & Vanessa father died 12-12-64 as a result of his criminal enterprises although David did not realize that at the time. He apparently also didn't realize his mother was pregnant from an affair she was having with Richard Fields. Since all of Charles assets went into a trust for David his half-brother was placed for adoption and Vanessa went off in search of another benefactor. David used those assets to finance his education. He attended MIT from 1970-1975 and then Stanford for a PhD and MD where he graduated in 1984. He initially pursued surgery but switched into Stanford's IM program in 1986 and finally completed training in 1989. He spent a few years in San Diego and then did Cardiology/Interventional from 1994-1997. He fell in love with/was obsessed with Dr. Alyssa Doyle an IM intern she rebuffed him, so he tormented her until she took Dr. Jeff Martin up on his offer to reach out to a friend at PCGH. He was rather erratic and multiple nurses complained but his research seemed promising, so UCSD stuck it out. He showed up in Port Charles in October 1997 when Rex Stanton paid him to inject his wife Lucy Coe Stanton with a cocktail of interleukin, IFN, and TNF-alpha to simulate the flu. He mentioned that he was meeting with Stefan Cassadine about working at PCGH later that afternoon. As you can imagine much of his motivation is that he has learned that Dr. Doyle is now an IM PGY2 at PCGH.

*Dr. Alyssa Marie "Aly" Doyle Graduated from UCSD in 1992 and then attended Stanford Medical school graduating in 1996. She went back to UCSD for residency and did her internship there in 1996-1997. She was harassed by Cardiology fellow Dr. David Hayward and her mentor Dr. Jeff Martin was afraid that she might be sacrificed because the university had a fair amount invested in Dr. Hayward's research. He called in a favor with Dr. Alan Quartermaine and Aly received an IM PGY2 spot at PCGH for 1997-1998. Aly arrived in Port Charles on 6-24-97. She closed on a small home on Maple Street on that afternoon and then spent a week getting settled before starting as a PGY2 at PCGH on Tuesday 7-1-97 with an ICU rotation. I think when she was on AMC there was some credit scandal (like she was missing a credit from undergrad and Dr. Hayward learned about that and blackmailed her) but that is kind of silly and I'm not going there so at least in Port Charles she might actually have the upper hand over Dr. Hayward.

8-How many AMC characters are you planning on stealing?

Hmm… not sure! So far none of these characters have played a major role but if it helps:

*Brian Bodine (3-15-73) Dated Hayley Chandler during high school. Graduated from PV High in 1991. Started college at PVU and married An Li Chen in 1992 because she needed a green card. They consummated the marriage after Brian was hurt that Hayley married Will Cortlandt. He went on trial for killing Will Cortlandt but was acquitted in early 1993. An Li Chen miscarried their baby. He kind of befriended JR Chandler when he was dating Hayley and then while he was hanging around with JR Dixie decided she liked him but then Tad returned and she dumped him. He ended up transferring to Clarkson and completed an engineering degree from there in 12/95. He went back to PV over the holidays and considered reconciling with Hayley,but it didn't work out and he decided to take the ELQ job after all and moved to Port Charles in January 1996. In WWA, in October 1997 Hayley says that he is working at ELQ and she calls him to take JR to the airport when he got drunk partying with Alison Barrington, Tiffany Peterson, on the same night that his stepmother Liza Colby was having a miscarriage. He reappears when Celia Quartermaine brings him to meet with Ross Chandler (because no one felt comfortable with her meeting with Ross alone).

*Trask Bodine (1-2-66) Grew up in poverty, and had to drop out of high school at age 16 in 1982 when his parents were killed and he needed to work to support his little brother Brian. He worked as a used car salesman and made decent money. In 1989 he got his GED and then went into the military in January 1990. His brother Brian stayed with Myrtle Fargate so he could finish high school in Pine Valley. He finished up his military commitment in April 1996 and joined his brother in PC. He joined the marine reserves and started bartending at the Outback. He is the bartender that attempted to cut Katherine Bell off as he felt she was intoxicated. He clocked out for the evening and Sean Cudahy kept serving her.

*Ross Chandler (11-1-50) Son of Palmer Cortlandt and Lottie Chandler. Raised by the Chandlers in Pigeon Hollow, WV. Married and then divorced Cynthia Preston when he was in his early 20s. Later his heritage revealed in early 80s when he came to work for Uncle Adam Chandler in Pine Valley, PA. He married Ellen Shepperd Dalton in 1984 and they adopted fourteen-year-old Julie Rand in 1985. Was eventually accepted as a son by Palmer Cortlandt. In 1986 Ellen was helping ex-husband Mark Dalton fight his cocaine addiction and he fell into an affair with Natalie Marlowe. When Ellen found out she left him, and he returned back to Natalie who wanted to break things off. He raped her when she rejected him. This traumatized his daughter, so she fled and ran away. She later returned and convinced him to do the right thing and admit to his crimes. Served a prison sentence for rape from 1987-1989 and was working in Dubai off screen in 1989 on. In 1997 he crossed paths with his adoptive daughter Julie Rand Chandler Jennings and although they loosely reconciled, she admitted she would never trust him with her young daughter. This prompted him to try to clean up his image (which he believes Celia Quartermaine can help him with).

*Sean Cudahy (1-10-58) Younger brother of Tom Cudahy. Schemed with Palmer Cortlandt and Sybil Thorne to break up Nina & Dr. Cliff Warner. He worked to seduce Nina while Sybil tried to seduce Cliff (she did bear his son in 1980) but one night in late 1981 when Palmer didn't feel Sybil was doing her part, he sent Sean to convince her to go along. Sean brought a gun, and it went off. Cliff was actually arrested for Sybil's murder and went to trial in 1982. Monique Jonvil (who is really Daisy Cortlandt, Nina's mother) revealed that Sean was with Sybil on the night she died so Cliff was acquitted, and Sean was tried in early 1983. He went to prison but was released and back in Pine Valley in 1988. He got involved with Cecily Davidson but really just wanted her money. They were supposed to marry in January 1989, but she caught him kissing her mom Bitsy before the ceremony and then outed him in front of everyone and didn't go through with the ceremony (she did end up in a sham marriage with Nico Kelly in an effort to obtain access to her trust fund). Sean then managed to get some low-level job at Cortlandt Electronics but ended up getting fired. At some point he moved to Port Charles, NY popped up in WWA as the bartender at the Outback who over-served Katherine Bell.

*Gregory Arthur Nelson (8-1-63) Son of Pine Valley socialites Art & Enid Nelson. Graduated from PV High in 1981. Married Jenny Gardner (much to Liza Colby's displeasure) on 2-14-84. Unfortunately, she died in a jet ski accident set up by her former fiancé, Tony Barclay (who was gunning for Greg) on 8-13-84. He graduated from Temple with a BS in International Business in 1985 and ultimately left Pine Valley in 1986 to take a job in Hong Kong. He subsequently obtained an MBA from Harvard and moved up the corporate ladder at Wachovia Bank. In 1996 he showed up on the ELQ Board of Directors. He will come to Port Charles in the next few chapters to attend the ELQ Board Meeting.

9-Who is Matthew Sinclair? Is he the same guy Brenda dates later?

Matthew Sinclair is a (at least currently) very undeveloped OC. In Fall 1997, he is a mid-late 30-year-old architect in Port Charles. He and Celia Quartermaine are loosely dating but she spends 90% of her time in Utah so….

**I had to look up the second question but apparently when Brenda returned in 2010 she was dating a famous actor, Murphy Sinclair. Sonny's electromagnetic field killed that relationship and history ultimately repeated itself with a twist. As I'm currently writing I see no connection between the Sinclairs (and ideally Brenda will be settled down raising babies with Cruz Rodriguez long before 2010 so….yeah).**

10-Who is Betsy Chilson?

I try to develop and then use abandoned peripheral characters and day players rather than add in peripheral OCs. A lot of times these characters remain rather peripheral and undeveloped but sometimes something comes of that. So with that disclaimer, Betsy Chilson is also before my time but from what I understand she was a GH canon nursing student and then nurse around the same time as Dawn Winthrop (who in my twist on canon is the deceased abandoned daughter of Elizabeth Barrington and Eric Forrester and is not Dr. Monica Quartermaine's daughter) and Meg Lawson. The three of them even shared an shared an apartment at one point.

**Probably more information that most want but for my purposes:

PCGH/PCU Combined Nursing Program. Students receive and associates in nursing through PCU and do clinicals for their RN at PCGH.

Class of 1983

Amy Vining-ED and ICU RN at PCGH

Class of 1989

Sheila Cantillion-RN on Med-Surg PCGH

Gwen Sanborn-ICU/Stepdown at PCGH

Class of 1990

Alysha Reyes Pediatrics at PCGH (who is about to become Alysha Reyes Garcia after she marries Detective Alex Garcia)

Class of 1991

Betsy Chilson-ICU RN at PCGH

Meg Lawson-Pediatrics at PCGH

Melissa McKee-Murdoch-ICU RN at PCGH

Dawn Winthrop (deceased)

Class of 1992

Mara Beck ICU at PCGH

Class of 1994

Staci Hughes ICU at PCGH

Evie Randolph (Kim's sister) currently working in North Carolina

Class of 1996

Lisa Rowe-ICU/CCCU RN at PCGH

Class of 1998 (anticipated)

Kim Randolph

11-Is Caroline Benson capable of growth?

Several reviewers have expressed frustration with Carly as a character (and I admit that when I started writing this I wasn't much of a Carly fan myself and I don't watch GH anymore so I haven't seen what has been done with her lately) and in my limited perspective I think like many GH characters Carly has had moments where she showed humanity and even perhaps selflessness (not completely sure about that) but then it gets undone with plot driven stuff to maintain the CarSon relationship (which is unhealthy at best).

I actually started writing this with the premise of how would things be different if Carly was clearly a decent human underneath it all when she was pregnant with Michael (canon Carly who drugged AJ and considered inducing her baby early to avoid getting caught in her multitude of lies likely acted out of desperation but it was all just a little too much) so I started from a place where Carly had only been sleeping with 2 men (Tony & Jason) and was actually transparent with the father of her child and let things go from there. I really try to have characters grow and evolve (with the caveat that we all have our moments of struggling and sometimes we backslide) in logical and believable ways so if I write future Carly stuff in this verse then she will be similar but perhaps more fully evolved.