When I get stuck or am uncertain about the direction that I want to take I sometimes go back and reread reviews to see other perspectives. Sometimes that helps to refocus and forge ahead. So, if you're reviewing thank you! I also periodically go through reviews for questions and flesh out to make things clearer. So, if you feel like I've lost the plot and therefore you're struggling to read just ask and that will help me tighten things up. I'm kind of in that zone of indecision right now so any additional reviews would be so appreciated!

1-Is the mystery Johnny, Johnny O'Brien?

Yes! (Although someone told me that GH never gave the character a last name and someone just picked O'Brien in fanfiction and then everyone else copied and went with it.) When Sonny tells Miguel that he will have Johnny drop off the files because he has a crush on one of the waitresses, he is referring to Johnny O'Brien and Tina Harding. Tina Harding is an AMC character who I'm borrowing in a time prior to her canonical AMC arrival. She is a twenty-year-old college student who aged out of foster care in Brooklyn (although she seems to have a decent relationship with her foster parents so perhaps, they allowed her to age out by choice because it preserved her birth certificate/heritage, gave her additional money for college, etc) and then started her freshman year of college at PCU in Fall 1995. She waitresses at Kelly's and lives upstairs so she kind of takes Liz under her wing when she starts working there. She met Johnny O'Brien working at Kelly's and they have a friendship vs. a slow burn romance. To the guest who asked I think you're also a Liason fan so maybe you see parallels with Jason/Liz/Jake's Bar.

2-Are Ned and Carly falling in love?

I think maybe Ned and Carly are falling in love with the baby she is carrying. Look for them to become more physically intimate but in a very platonic way. Ned's character seems to use compassionate touch well and Carly is basically terrified, insecure, and physically very ill. She will be in his arms so lines may get blurry/crossed. Then there is the issue that, the love of a child can really change a couple so who knows. I still think that in the end this will all end up with a Jarly wedding and Ned and Lois remarrying but I really am just going to write and see what happens. I won't fight my muse if it seems like Ned and Carly should stay together.

3-What does the future hold for Lark Madison?

Initially Lark was introduced for plot reasons as it allowed Dr. Julie Devlin to be found/rescued. Her story will flesh out a little more in the next chapters as it is discovered that she is actually kind of a legacy character.

I'm a little intrigued by the suggestion that Alan & Monica could adopt her. I'll have to think some more but I think I'm going in a different direction. I've written other stuff with her being adopted by Frank Scanlon (as I think did happen on PC). It may be beyond the scope of this story, but I think looking at the parallels between Lark and Julie (or maybe between Julie and Suzanne Madison) could be interesting. I think I'm channeling that Julie really is innocent of the GHH murders (which I also think is where PC canon ended up although they flip flopped on that a lot it seems) and I think in this she is going to be a lot more understanding that Lark is messed up and even forgiving so I guess we'll see how that all plays out.

4-When will someone give Liz Webber the benefit of the doubt?

I think canon GH had Liz and Emily become friends more because Liz was using Em to get to Lucky who she had a crush on. In this I'm actually having Liz not go there, or at least not intentionally. So, when she and Sarah get dumped on the Hardy doorstep Audrey promptly decrees that they must be BFF with Alli and Em since their parents were such great friends. (Ok, Audrey is delusional but anyway.) Sarah pretends to be BFFs because what else would Sarah do? Sarah is also quite happy to use Alli and Em if convenient or if they have something she wants and then turn right around and diss them behind their backs with Alli, and Zander. On the other hand, Liz is kind of frustrated with life and not exactly trusting of Audrey's judge of character, so she is a little reluctant to befriend them but once they show her that they are decent humans she is so much more genuine than her sister which Alli and Em recognize and appreciate. So, Liz's friendship with Alli and Em will definitely flesh out more in later chapters and although Audrey can't really be bothered, and Sarah would rather party with her friends Liz's sweet 16 will be celebrated by the Qs.

Liz may also find some help along the way from her uncle, Dr. Tom Hardy and I think I am still going to do the whole Liz/Lucky canon version of 1998 but maybe have Lucky own his own culpability more.

5-Is Dr. Jones really a victim?

I think that different people may answer this question differently. I know that on canon GH, Carly calculatingly seduced Tony to get back at Bobbie (and I am going with that as well). However, although Carly flirted and fed Tony's ego when he was vulnerable due to BJ's not so distant death, and Bobbie's even more recent infidelity; Tony himself was well aware that he was married. So, he could have just not gone there. But he went there, and it didn't end well. Now he is intentionally malicious, cruel, and even violent and that just is never right. It also makes it seem very plausible that Carly ws afraid of him which is part of why she could't tell him the truth initially and also why she is so desperate to no have him have any contact.

So, while I wouldn't really consider Tony a victim, I do think he is deserving of some compassion. I also think several of his colleagues (including the Doctors Quartermaine) are channeling that compassion and extending as much grace as possible. They just are also holding him accountable, and I think that is ok. Unfortunately, Tony doesn't seem to think that is ok or that certain rules apply to him at all so I think we will see things get a lot worse before they get better.

6-PCPD Partners?

Detective Pairings Before the Taggert Suspension*:

Marcus Taggert /Alejandro Garcia

Frank Scanlon/Ross Janelle

Andy Capelli/Curis Vanburen

Mark Lavery/ Samantha Welles

David Harper/Vincent Viscotti

Detective Pairings After Taggert Suspension*:

Allison Jordan/ Alejandro Garcia

Andy Capelli/Marcus Taggert

David Harper/Ross Janelle

Frank Scanlon/Curtis Vanburen

Mark Lavery/Samantha Welles

Vince Viscotti/Brian Lamont

**Working from the canon incident where Taggert believed Sonny was an addict and turned an interrogation room into a sauna hoping it would force him to confess to killing his stepfather (Sonny actually didn't kill him). Mac reprimanded him on canon I think, but in this he was suspended for several weeks and when he returned, he was paired with Andy Capelli because newcomer Allison Jordan was working with his old partner.

7-Who is Dr. Richard Carmichael?

Dr. Carmichael is a 31-year-old EM attending at PCGH. He was born in NJ and attended UMDNJ then did his EM residency at Jacobi. He came to Port Charles right out of residency in July 1995. He met Ted Murty towards the end of 1995, and they moved in together after Ted and Eleanor divorced. He is a generally decent human and generally a competent and compassionate physician. His character will be developed as we see a lot of him working in the ED at PCGH. He is technically a canon character because he made a cameo appearance in the scene where Lucky & Liz confronted Mr. Murty. After Liz stabbed Lucky, Richard returned home and patched him up pretty literally.

8-You're making me feel for Carly here, what is up with that?

I think I said this before but I'm basically going from a place that Carly is a decent albeit wounded person. Sometimes hurt people lash out and sometimes desperate people do desperate things and I think Carly is here. If you think about it, she:

*Had a rough adolescence and her mom was not supportive and was rather critical.

*Her dad basically disappeared (looking for his baby sister who disappeared, was eventually found dead, and essentially lost himself in grief) during her rough adolescence so she really felt pretty alone. It probably didn't help that one of her three best friends died in an accident as all of this was going on.

*Was dealing with all the insecurity and was I not good enough issues that often come out with adoption and didn't really have anyone to help her process that.

*Felt rejected by her biological mom (although to be fair to Bobbie I think she was pretty broken at the moment when Carly crashed into her life, she had no idea who Carly was, and just couldn't give any more). So, then she just lashes out and blows up Bobbie's life by seducing her husband.

*Unfortunately, seducing Bobbie's husband catapulted her into a relationship that became pretty abusive (and if you watch old Tony/Bobbie stuff he wasn't always a prince with her either, so I think this fits).

All of that is probably plenty to make pregnancy scary and stressful but then add in harassment by Dr. Jones and the fact that she becomes critically ill early in the third trimester, and I think most people would agree she is in a miserable situation. So, yeah, I think you can extend her some compassion and kindness. That is kind of where Monica and Alan are and where Tracy is trying to be.

9-Student Doctor Devlin isn't evil?

So, I wasn't watching when GH introduced Dr. Ian Devlin, ignored his family connections, and then basically burned him after a few months (was it even that long?). I haven't done much with him in other stuff, but I basically used the Emory Medical School Class of 1998 along with Dr. Patrick Drake and Dr. Lisa Niles backstory and wrote from there. He comes to PCGH in January 2008 (as on canon) but he doesn't kill anyone and sticks around. I haven't written this but at some point, I might consider pairing him with Dr. Lisa Niles (who also ends up at PCGH in October 2009) since she is respecting the sanctity of Emily and Patrick's marriage more than she respected Patrick and Robin's on canon GH.

At this point he is a MS4 getting ready to try to match in Internal Medicine. PCGH is not going to be at the top of his match list largely because of Uncle Bennett so he will probably fade off canvas to elsewhere for residency.

10-Was Rex trying to kill Lucy?

No, even if only because he isn't done using her yet. He bought the baby lie so commissioned Dr. Hayward to induce some kind of illness to cause her to miscarry. He also needed an opportunity to go out of town and not have to answer questions about his whereabouts or whatevers.