CHAPTERS 14 AND 15
GH2010.14 Mornings Are A *itch
Tom Hardy Sr. wakes up on the couch in his office. His head pounds as he
tries to remember the night before. Realization hits him as he looks
around, seeing pieces of his wardrobe scattered carelessly around the
room. He runs his hand through his hair as he stands, then starts to collect
his clothes.
He barely has time to get his clothes on when there's a brief knock on the
door and Alexis comes in. "Hey, one of the nurses said you were here
working all night. I thought I'd drop by and see if you wanted to go out
for breakfast."
Evasively, he says, "I, uh, still have a lot of work to finish."
"After working all night?" Alexis questions, then continues, "Right. A
doctor's work is never done."
"Kind of like a lawyer's."
Alexis nods, "TouchÉ. Nonetheless, you have to eat." She hugs him
affectionately, "Besides, I've canceled all my appointments this morning, so
I'm all yours."
"I see. Well, I have appointments this morning I can't cancel," he says
curtly.
She pulls back, stunned slightly by his sharp reply. "How about I call your
secretary and set up an appointment to see you then?" she says harshly.
She turns sharply and starts to head out the door. He calls after her,
"Alexis, wait."
Alexis stops at the door and turns around slowly. Tom walks over towards
her and wraps his arms around her, "I'm sorry," he says, kissing her
quickly. "Let me see what I can do."
Alexis smiles and hugs Tom. Over his shoulder, she sees the half empty
liquor bottle and frowns.
AJ stumbles in the front door of the Quartermaine mansion just as Dylan is
coming down the stairs for breakfast. Taking a good look at his cousin,
Dylan practically pulls AJ in the house then shuts the door. "Man, what are
you doing out of the hospital?"
AJ stares at Dylan, "Ned? What the hell are you doing here?"
Dylan laughs sarcastically, "Whoa, AJ, you been hitting the sauce awfully
early these days, huh?"
AJ shakes his arm free of Dylan's grasp, "Get off me, I can handle myself."
"All right then, handle yourself right up to bed to sleep it off."
A thought occurs to AJ, "No! I gotta get to the hospital to see Bradley!"
Dylan shakes his head, "No, Cousin, you aren't going anywhere until
you're sober."
Grumbling, AJ lets Dylan push him up the stairs and into his room where
he falls face first into the bed.
Dr. Tony Jones and Keesha are having a conference in Tony's office. "Are
you sure you don't want either Alex or AJ here with you?" Tony asks.
Keesha shakes her head, "Alex had an emergency and no one's seen AJ
since last night." She gets right to the point, "Tony, tell me about my son."
Tony takes a deep breath before responding, "I was going over some of
Bradley's tests last night. I noticed an abnormality in his synapse response.
The connecting dendrites in the frontal lobe are not firing properly."
Keesha cut him off, "In English, Tony, what does it mean?"
"It means there could be significant brain damage when he wakes up. He
might be a completely different child, personality wise." Tony takes
another deep breath, "Keesha, I have to be completely honest; Bradley may
not wake up at all."
Keesha bends over in shock, then sits up, strengthening herself. "What are
our options?"
"I've called in Dr. Hans Von Vetten. He's the best neurologist in the
world. I just came from a conference where he was speaking, and he's on
his way to Port Charles as we speak."
Keesha shakes her head, "Isn't there anything you can do? I don't know
about turning this over to someone I don't know."
Tony takes her hand comfortingly in his, "Keesha, I don't know of anyone
I'd rather have handling this situation than Dr. Von Vetten. And I don't
know if this will make you feel any better, but he is Laura Cassadine's step
father, so he was on his way here anyway; which is lucky for us."
Keesha sits back, "If you're sure he's the best."
Tony nods, "Absolutely."
"Do whatever is necessary to save my son," she says determinedly.
CHAPTER 15: News Travels Quickly
Nikolas walks towards his suite at the Port Charles building of Cassadine
Inc. As he opens the door, he is surprised to see Lucky sitting behind his
desk with his feet propped up, smoking a cigar.
Lucky smiles, "Nikky boy, you've got a problem."
Nik frowns, "With my security, apparently."
Nik swats at Lucky's feet to encourage him to get up. Lucky gets up,
crosses the to the other side of the desk and sits on the edge while Nik sits
down. "Yeah, that too," Lucky quips, then continues, "but that Yagi stuff
is really tricky."
"Tricky? How?"
Lucky took another puff on his cigar, "Well, all of the seven branches of
the company, including the one here in Port Charles, are clean as a whistle.
Everthing's on the up and up, but one of the Turkish branches sent me on a
paper trail leading..." Lucky stops and decides to rephrase the last part.
"Let's just say the money running through there is the cleanest in the
world. Unfortunately, it has the Cassadine's picture all over it."
Nikolas explodes, "What!"
Lucky spells it out a little clearer, "The paper trail leads right to the
Cassadines. That's why I'm back here."
"Who's feeding information on Cassadine Inc to ELQ? And why is ELQ
involved in the mob scene?" Nikolas gets an idea he would rather not
have, "Morgan?"
Lucky shakes his head, "Nah, Jason wouldn't do that to Alexis or her
family. Somebody hates your guts, bubba." Then he adds, "And a high up
connected somebody at that."
Nikolas sits back and sighs, "Find out who it is, Lucky. I want this taken
care of."
Lucky smiles, "I'm not gonna fire them for you. You'll have to do that
dirty work yourself."
"Forget the disciplinary action. Just find out who is responsible."
Lucky nods, "Gotcha."
"No one makes a game of the Cassadines and gets away with it," Nikolas
affirms.
Lu sits up in bed as she talks on the phone, "I'm telling you, Georgie, he is
absolutely wonderful. The perfect gentleman."
"I want details, Lu!"
Lu laughs, "Well, come over here, and I'll give them all to you." A
thought occurs to her, "Where were you last night?"
"I went to the mall, why?"
"How late were you out?"
Lu hears Georgie sigh before saying, "Late enough." Then she catches on
to Lu's idea. "Ahh. Well, afterwards, you and I came back here and just
hung out. You were going to spend the night, but decided to go home."
Lu smiles, "Brilliant, Georgie. Yeah, I wanted to be here when my
grandmother got here."
"She's coming today?"
"Sometime. You on your way?"
"Give me 20 minutes to get ready, then I'm there. Lu, be prepared to spill
everything."
Lu smiles again, "G, you're the greatest."
Before they both hang up, Georgie jokes, "Yeah, you just keep on thinking
that."
Lu hangs up the phone then flops back on the bed, giggling.
Laura and Stefan sit down to breakfast in the Wyndemere living room.
Stefan glances curiously at his wife, "Where is everyone this morning?"
Knowledgeably, Laura replies, "Staci ate already. She was up at the crack
of dawn to play that computer chess game. Lu was still asleep when I
came down, and Nikolas went to the office for a meeting."
Stefan looks at his wife and adds, "And Timoria was tucked up beside
Lesley Lu, while the dogs are asleep on the dock."
"Yes, as a matter of fact," she continues before raising an eyebrow, "Are
you mocking me?"
Stefan smiles, "No, just basking in the marvel of your knowledge."
Laura holds up one of the breakfast croissants, "You're lucky I don't slap
you with this croissant."
"It could be worse, it could be trout." Stefan looks at Laura with the most
serious expression she's ever seen. Then they both begin laughing.
Neither one of them notice when another person enters the room. "With
all this laughing going on, does that mean breakfast is over?" Lesley asks.
Laura stands quickly and goes to her mother, embracing her. "Mother!
We didn't hear you come in."
"Apparently." Lesley looks from both Laura to Stefan, "What was so
funny?"
"Your daughter was threatening to slap me with a fish," Stefan deadpans.
Lesley smiles, "Sure she was," Then she turns to Laura and asks,
"Seriously?"
Laura shakes her head, "No, of course not. The fish was his suggestion."
Laura looks behind Lesley, expecting Hans. Finally, she asks, "Where's
Hans?"
"He went to hospital."
"That was quick," Laura admits.
"What was so pressing that he had to go to the hospital instead of
accompaning you here?" Stefan asks.
"Alan Quartermaine's grandson. Tony asked Hans to help him."
"Makes sense," Laura says thinking more about Alan than Tony.
Lesley smiles, "Besides, I have news I wanted to give you myself." She
pauses for dramatic effect.
"What?" Laura asks quickly, not wanting to wait another second.
Lu bounds into the room, "Grandma!" She throws her arms around Lesley
before asking, "What news?"
"Hello baby. I was just about to tell you that Hans and I are moving to
Port Charles."
Lu throws her arms up in the air, "Cool news Grandma!"
Laura throws her mother a quizzical glance, "That's wonderful, but why
after all this time?"
Lesley motions towards the table and chairs, "Sit down, it could be a long
story."
They all sit around the table, waiting for Lesley to tell them about Hans'
new job at the PCU medical school.
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