Chapter 9- Aztec Lullaby

Carly just couldn't understand Drew and Sam. And even Scout herself. She knew the little girl adored her, so she didn't know what had changed. Sam must've been filling her head with lies. Donna and Avery were both very well-behaved and kind children. Even though Carly had grown to tolerate Ava, she knew Avery had turned out so well because of Carly's influence, not Ava's. So, there was no way that Donna and Avery would pick on Scout. If anything, Scout probably wouldn't follow along with Donna and Avery's good ideas for play.

Still, she felt she better talk to the girls about this issue because she didn't want to lose Drew after she had already lost Jason.

"Girls, do you know why Scout seems upset?" Carly asked after they returned home from tobogganing.

"She doesn't like our ideas," Avery explained. "We were getting bored with playing House all the time."

"Yeah, we were bored, Mommy," Donna agreed. "And our games are more fun than hers."

"Did you tell her that she wouldn't see her family again if she didn't do what you want?" Carly asked.

Donna nodded. "Uh huh. Because that's what happens when people don't do what we want. Like when Michael told Mama Nina she can't see Willow if she doesn't do what he wants."

Carly scrunched her face. "What?"

"And everyone always does what you want, Mama Carly," Avery added. "We want to be just like you."

"Let's go back a bit," Carly said, ignoring Avery's last comment. "Michael told Nina what?"

"He said he would tell Daddy and Willow that it's Mama Nina's fault that Drew went to jail and got hurt unless she only saw Willow when he said she could," Donna said.

"It was Nina?" Carly clenched her jaw.

GHGHGH

Maxie stared at Esme lying on the ground, blood gushing the snow. "What the heck is going on?"

Cody kneeled beside Esme and shook her a little. "You okay?"

Esme slowly sat up and looked between them. "Ace… I have to get to Ace!" She rose but swayed back and forth.

"Careful." Cody helped her stand. "Ace is your kid?"

Esme nodded.

"I can hear him crying," Maxie said. "Why would you leave your baby alone in a cabin?"

"Maxie, help her stand," Cody said. "I'll kick the door down."

Maxie's mouth dropped, appalled at the idea of helping her.

"The key…." Esme pulled a key from her pocket. Maxie yanked it from her and unlocked the door.

Maxie went in and brought out the crying baby. "It's okay, Ace."

"It's not Ace," Esme said. "Is Ace in there?"

"There was no other baby in there," Maxie said. "You kidnapped this baby?"

"Maxie, don't jump to conclusions," Cody said.

Maxie looked at him. "Call the police."

GHGHGH

"What's your name?" Georgie asked, sitting down on the bed.

"Charlotte."

"Nice to meet you, Charlotte. Do you know why you were brought here?"

Charlotte shrugged. "Kind of. That was my grandfather."

Georgie's eyes widened. "You're a Cassadine."

Charlotte nodded. "I think he's mad at Papa, so that's why he took me away."

"Who's your papa?"

"Valentin."

"I don't know a Valentin," Georgie said. "Is Nikolas your cousin?"

"Yeah."

"I knew him, a bit. My cousin was friends with him. Are you from Port Charles?"

She nodded again.

"I know this is scary," Georgie said. "But maybe we can help each other. Do you know Maxie Jones or Mac Scorpio?"

"Maxie was my mom's best friend."

"Oh wow, who is your mom?" Georgie asked.

"Lulu Spencer."

Georgie bit her lip, remembering how much Lulu put her and Dillon through. "I knew your mom."

Charlotte frowned. "But she's in a coma now."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Charlotte, I am Maxie's sister. You know her well?"

"A bit. Me and Rocco used to play with Georgie sometimes." Her eyes widened. "Oh! Was Georgie named after you?"

"I—I don't know. Who is she?"

"Maxie's daughter."

Georgie teared up a bit. "Maxie has a daughter? I didn't think she would ever want kids."

"She has two daughters," Charlotte explained. "And a son."

"Wow… I—I've missed a lot. Do you happen to know anything about the rest of my family? My stepdad Mac lives in Port Charles, at least the last I knew. And same with my cousin Robin Scorpio. My mom and dad both lived elsewhere."

"Robin was Emma's mom. I knew Emma a bit. They moved away though."

"Robin's a mom too, now…."

"And Mac works with my stepdad," Charlotte said. "Well, I don't know if he's really my stepdad anymore, but I sometimes stay over there still with my brother."

"Okay."

"Is your mom Maxie's mom?" Charlotte asked.

"Yes, she is. Do you know anything about her?"

"Yeah, she lives in Port Charles and is married to Mac."

Georgie smiled a little. "They re-married?"

"Yeah."

GHGHGH

Carly dropped Avery and Donna off with Josslyn and headed straight for the Metro Court. Normally she would stop to say hi to Olivia, but she stormed right into the Crimson offices instead. Nina was sitting at her desk and talking on the phone.

She looked up and her eyes widened. "I'll have to call you ba—"

Carly charged over and slapped her face.

GHGHGH

"Have you found anything yet?" Felicia asked through her phone as she paced the waiting area at the hospital.

"Apologies, Mrs. Scorpio," Spinelli said. "I'm still trying to hack into the system. It'll be difficult because of the malfunction, but not impossible."

Felicia sighed. "Okay, thank you, Spinelli. I'll let you get back to work. And you don't need to call me Mrs. Scorpio, you can call me Felicia.

She slipped her phone away and walked over to Sam, Molly, and TJ. "Anything yet?"

Sam shook her head. "I've questioned all the staff and they don't remember anything."

"Someone must have seen something."

The elevator dinged and Maxie stepped out carrying Scarlett with Cody right behind her.

TJ and Molly hurried over and Sam and Felicia followed.

"Oh, Scarlett!" Molly took her in her arms and TJ rubbed her back.

"Where did you find her?" TJ asked.

"In a cabin in the woods," Maxie explained as Felicia wrapped an arm around her. "Guess who kidnapped her."

Cody frowned. "We don't know that for sure."

"Well, the police arrested her," Maxie said. "She had the key to the cabin and given her history, it must've been her. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

The elevator dinged again and Dante stepped out pushing a wheelchair with Esme handcuffed to it.

"Let's get Scarlett checked out," TJ said, prodding Molly and the baby to a room.

Felicia moved over to Esme and smiled at her. She reached out to touch her shoulder but then pulled back awkwardly. "Are you okay, Esme?"

Esme just stared at her lap.

Felicia looked down at the cloth wrapped around her bloody hand. "You hurt your hand."

"Esme, we're going to get you checked out, but before you go in, can you please answer my questions again?" Dante asked. "Because I'm still confused by your answers. Did you take baby Scarlett from her hospital room?"

Esme shook her head.

"Did you leave the hospital by yourself?" Dante asked.

She nodded.

"Did you go to the cabin by yourself?"

She shook her head.

"Who took you there?"

She paused for a moment, then mumbled, "Nobody."

"Did you willingly go with someone?" he asked.

"No."

"Do you know who brought Scarlett to the cabin?"

"Nobody did."

Dante cleared his throat. "Maybe after you've seen the doctor then whatever drug you're on will wear off and I can ask you again."

She finally looked up at him. "I want to see my son."

"Mom." Maxie put a hand on her shoulder. "Let's get out of here. I've had quite the day."

When Felicia turned back, Dante was pushing Esme down the hall. "I—I can't leave yet. I need to make sure Esme and Ace are okay. And I have to talk to Dante."

"Why?" Maxie asked. "What's going on with you, Mom? You've been acting strange."

"Esme didn't kidnap the baby," Felicia said. "I was with her all night."

Maxie gaped at her. "WHY? You never work nights, and I thought you weren't going to be their health aide anymore."

"Well, you said that sweetheart, I didn't."

"Mom, that girl is certifiably insane. And she was clearly on drugs right now."

"There's got to be more to this, Maxie," Cody spoke up. "The bedroom at the cabin was locked and—"

"And the cops said the key worked both inside and outside of the bedroom," Maxie said. "And she had the key."

"And the bedroom window was shattered," Cody added. "She cut her hand, so she must've been trying to escape."

"Yeah, she probably did it to make herself look like the victim."

"How would she know anyone was coming?" Cody asked.

"Either that or that warped brain of hers convinced herself she had to escape from her own clutches."

"Maxie, that is enough," Felicia said sternly. "Go home to the kids and I'll call you later."

Maxie glared at her. "Yeah, right. You haven't even been answering my calls. Fine, go help that little psycho."

GHGHGH

Nina rubbed her cheek where Carly slapped her. "I take it you saw Sonny today…."

Carly scrunched her face. "What? No. I know what you did. Donna told me that you're the reason Drew went to prison. How dare you report us? You're really that obsessed with me, aren't you?"

"Not everything is about you, Carly."

"Oh, really? Then why did you report me?"

"I shouldn't have," Nina said. "I'm sorry."

Carly laughed. "You're not sorry. Did you even consider how this would affect Donna and Avery? And what about Willow and the kids whom you claim to love?"

"I wasn't thinking—"

"You never think, Nina. All you think about is yourself."

"That's not true."

"Yes, it is. It's always about you and your pain. And you think that's an excuse to hurt others."

"Oh yeah? And what about you? You hurt people all the time. I had the right to know who my daughters are and Willow did too. Nelle didn't have a chance to know, but you should have told Willow."

"Willow said she didn't want to know in fear she would end up like you," Carly said.

Nina shut her eyes. "I know. You keep rubbing that in my face. But you know she changed her mind. She wanted to know, and you still kept it from her."

"What I did was to protect Willow and my family."

Nina gritted her teeth. "What about my family? You're the one who's self-absorbed, Carly. Only Carly matters in Carly's world and everyone is expected to bow to you."

"See? You always apologize and the very next words you say show that you clearly are not sorry."

Nina grinned. "I'm not sorry for hurting you. I'm sorry that I hurt others by hurting you. I feel awful that it affected your children, Drew, Scout, Willow, Wiley, and Amelia. But at the end of the day, Carly, I reported a crime. A crime that you and Drew committed."

"You married a mobster and you're concerned about a little insider trading crime?"

Nina frowned.

"Stay away from my family, Nina," Carly said. "And that includes Willow and the kids." She turned and left.

GHGHGH

Felicia approached Esme's room but hovered in the doorway next to Dante.

"Ow! Ow! That hurts. That hurts." Esme sobbed and yanked her hand away when Willow tried to remove the tiny pieces of glass from her hand using tweezers.

"I know, Esme," Willow said. "We can't give you anything for the pain until the blood tests show what medication you're on. But we have to get the glass out and stitch you up."

Esme shook her head, crying. "No, I just want to see Ace."

"He'll be out of surgery soon."

Esme's eyes widened and her breathing sped up. "Surgery? He's in surgery?"

"Oh, I thought you knew," Willow said.

"I need to go to him!"

"I can go find out how he's doing, but I need to get this glass out first. The longer it stays in, you'll be at risk of infection."

"No, no, it hurts," Esme cried.

Felicia made her way over. "Esme, sometimes I find it helps to think about other things when I'm getting needles or what not. Distractions really help."

Esme scrunched her face. "Why are you still here?"

Felicia pulled a chair close to the bed and smiled a little. "Because I care about you, Esme."

"Why?"

Willow took Esme's hand again and tried to remove more glass, but Esme pulled it back and shrieked.

"What are some things you like to do with Ace?" Felicia asked.

Esme looked at her. "Swim. Spencer and I taught him last summer."

"Are you a swimmer?"

"Not really. I just like swimming with Ace. I prefer being with horses—" She yelped when Willow started on her hand again.

Felicia reached for her good hand which was handcuffed to the bed. "You like horse-back riding?"

Esme shook her head. "I don't know how. Mr. Prince wouldn't let me ride them."

Felicia scrunched her face. "Mr. Prince?"

"But I loved taking care of them." Her hand jerked, but Willow kept a firm grip and continued. "I love horses."

Felicia smiled. "My grandmother owned a ranch in Texas and I rode all the time growing up. And she taught my older girls to ride."

Esme screamed and tried to pull her hand away, but Willow started the stitches.

"Shh, shh, it's okay." Felicia softly squeezed her good hand and started humming.

Esme's shoulders relaxed and she gaped at Felicia. "I—I've heard that before."

Felicia smiled. "That is an Aztec lullaby. I sang it to all my girls when they were babies."

Esme met her eyes for a second, then stared at the doorway.

"Okay, Esme, good job," Willow said. "You're all stitched up now. I'll go check on Ace."