Here – Chapter 24
Monday, 24-Jul-00 03:27:54

152.163.206.187 writes:
Here - Chapter 24

"There's my Mister Man!" Carly exclaims, lifting Michael into the air and hugging him fiercely when he runs to meet her. She settles him on her hip, "Are you happy to see me?"

He giggles and hooks his hands around her neck so tightly she nearly chokes. She returns his affection and feels like crying. The level of desperation in his grasp only illustrates to Carly how much her little boy must need her, how much he must miss her.

God, I am so sorry, Michael... she thinks, the guilt almost overwhelming her. She kicks herself again for setting her son up for a lifetime of fractured family life. Then she stops the self-flagellation with the realization that millions of children grow up with divorced parents, that having divorced parents does not automatically mean that the child is doomed. She laughs sardonically to herself, I mean, look at me!

With a sigh, she puts Michael down on the grass and looks over her shoulder toward the Quartermaine house, glad that AJ is at work. She shrugs her backpack from her shoulders, kicks off her worn sandals, and sits on the ground Indian-style next to her son.

She unzips her backpack and pulls out her Accounting text book and her highlighter. He watches her, his eyes wide with curiosity. She takes a deep breath, smiles at him enthusiastically and announces, "Okay, Michael, today we're going to learn all about depreciation..." She flips through the first few pages of the heavy tome and begins reading out loud to her son.

Amazingly, he listens to her, his eyes bright with rapt interest.

Carly grins to herself. She can not help but believe that Jason reading all of those boring travel and history books to her son must have made the child extremely patient. Too bad it didn't work with me...

She only thinks of Jason in small bursts now, and mostly happy ones. She recalls their friendship with a sort of melancholy acceptance. Just as when she grieved the loss of her mother, with time she finds herself focussing on the positive while the negative becomes blurry and unreal. The hurt has calmed to a dull roar in her gut instead of the slashing pain she used to feel.

With the touch of Michael's hand on her knee, urging her to continue, Carly is brought back to the present. She studies his freckled face, openly-adoring eyes, and strokes his darkening hair, "You know what? This is boring!" She sets the book aside and leans toward her little boy and whispers, "Do you want to know a secret???"

He nods and his smile widens as he bites his bottom lip in anticipation, a habit Carly recognizes with a heart flutter as completely attributable to her.

She pokes him playfully in the stomach, causing him to burst into a giggle, "Mommy is going to take her driver's test..."

He looks at her expectantly, having no idea what she is talking about.

She laughs and explains softly, "That means that Mommy is going to be able to take you anywhere you want! To the zoo, or the park, or the museum! We can anywhere, just the two of us!"

She watches as he perks up at the mention of spending time alone with her. She adds, "We won't need a lousy chauffeur, or a yellow taxi, or a bus! Doesn't that sound fun?"

He nods, excited, then suddenly jumps into Carly's lap and embraces her.

Carly closes her eyes and squeezes him to her, making small circles on his back. She does not hear AJ's approach until he is directly behind them.

"Hello, Carly," AJ says with forced friendliness.

"AJ," Carly mutters, not trying as hard to fool their son. She looks up at him over her shoulder, Michael still clinging to her neck, "I thought you were at work today..."

He crosses his arms over his chest, "I just came back to get some papers. Latecia told me you were here, so I thought I would come over and say 'hi.'"

She says through clenched teeth, "That's nice..."

He scratches his nose, then clasps his hands together, "Would you mind if we had a talk?"

Carly rolls her eyes, "What? Now?"

AJ nods.

She offers evenly, "I'm busy with Michael right now, AJ. Maybe some other time?" Her eyes say How dare you try to cut my time with Michael short?

AJ puts his hands out to his sides, trying to appear reasonable, "This will only take a minute, Carly."

She purses her lips, resigned, and he goes back into the house, taking that for agreement.

With a withering stare, she puts her book and highlighter into her backpack and takes Michael inside, reluctantly handing him over to Latecia.

She tells Michael, "I'll be right back, okay?"

The disappointed look on her son's face breaks her heart. He nods politely, but she can see how sad he is. His tiny bottom lip is poked forward in pre-pout and his chin is beginning to quiver.

This better be good, AJ, Carly thinks as she stalks after AJ into the study.

"What's going on?" she snaps as soon as they are alone in the room and the door is closed behind them.

"That's my question for you..." AJ begins, putting on his holier-than-thou attitude with which Carly is so familiar. He sits behind Edward's desk and runs his fingers along the edge. After a moment he says, "How is Sonny?"

Carly rolls her eyes, sick of the conversation before it even starts. She sighs tiredly, "Not this again...." She shakes her head, "Like I told you the last time we talked about this, you have nothing to say about who I see or where I spend my time!"

AJ smiles thinly, "My lawyer begs to differ..."

She does not fall for it. She replies, "My lawyer doesn't."

AJ smirks, but she can tell her response has shaken his confidence slightly.

Carly levels her finger at AJ and leans over the desk to get closer, "My lawyer says there is no way you can dictate who my friends are!"

He nods, a light frown on his lips as he moves into attack mode, "Well, I think I'm going to trust my attorney, Carly. He's one of the best. Not some loser from the worst part of town."

Carly blinks and says in disbelief, "What? You're having me followed now or something??"

AJ laughs, "I can read, Carly. I saw your lawyer's address on the custody file. Where'd you dig him up? Is he a friend from Ferncliff?"

Carly narrows her eyes at him, thinking AJ's gone below the belt. She hisses, "I didn't make any friends in Ferncliff." After a brief pause, she mutters under her breath, "Nobody has friends in Ferncliff..."

He slaps his hands down on the desk, "All right, Carly. You've got your legal advice. I've got mine." He looks into her eyes carefully, "Are you really willing to put your lawyer up against mine?" He watches her face fall, then moves in for the kill, "Are you really willing to risk the custody agreement we've got? For Sonny Corinthos?? Is that mobster more important to you than your own son?"

Carly feels herself growing angrier the more AJ speaks. "Why should I have to make that choice?? Who the he!! are you to try and force me to make that choice??" she asks furiously.

He looks at her incredulously, "Who am I?? Despite your best efforts, Carly, I am Michael's father. I have every right to be concerned with who my son spends his time with!"

Carly starts to retort, but then she thinks of her lawyer's smoky, smelly office and Aubrey's stained fingernails and ratty suits. She chews the inside of her cheek and imagines AJ's slimy, sleek, moneyed Quartermaine attorney meeting Aubrey face-to-face and her heart sinks. What if he's wrong, Carly? What if Aubrey has no idea what he's doing? Maybe he's a sheister... Her eyes shift around the room. She is talking herself into a breakdown, oh God...

"So," AJ says, satisfaction all over his face when he reads the hopelessless in hers, "I take it we've got a deal?"

Carly blinks and looks hard at AJ. She sees the smug look in his eyes and can not stand it. Her jaw set in determination, she says evenly, "A deal?? Not on your life, AJ." She knows agreeing to these terms today means that he will feel as if he can make more demands 8tomorrow. "You call your damn lawyer, AJ, and I'll call mine. We'll see how it turns out." She lifts her chin arrogantly and lays down the law, "There is no way you're going to control my life, AJ. No way..."

Then she stomps out of the study and slams the door shut. When she is in the wide hallway, she swallows hard and closes her eyes. God, I'm begging you, please don't let him call my bluff...

AJ is somewhat deflated by Carly's sudden outburst. He knows he has no say in what she does, but he knows that he is right to be concerned about Michael being around Sonny. He rubs his eyes, really not wanting to do this, but feeling as if he has no choice.

Heavily, he picks up the telephone and dials his lawyer's office.

******

"I really don't need this from you today," Carly snaps when she meets Luke in the club parking lot.

He is sauntering toward her, his neck surrounded by a large off-white brace. He gives her an innocent look, "What?"

She rolls her eyes.

He unlocks the passenger door of his car and tosses the keys over the vehicle to her.

She catches them easily and sighs, "So what happened to you?"

He tries to shake his head but can only manage to move his entire upper body from side to side. "This is what you call 'preventative medicine,' Caroline."

She smirks at him and climbs into the driver's seat.

She feels a bit of satisfaction as she watches him struggle into his seat with his head, neck, and shoulders immobilized. He groans, bends at the waist, only to nearly hit the dashboard with his face.

When he sees the amused look on her face out of the corner of his eyes, he pounds on the dashboard with a hand, "Come on! Let's go! What are you waiting for? Sundown??"

She stifles a grin and starts the engine.

"I have things to do today. Important things," Luke grumbles, realizing bitterly that the joke of the neck brace is not on Carly, but on him.

She pulls out of the lot and smoothly moves into the street, feeling pretty confident behind the wheel today.

He starts to turn his head toward her to speak, but angrily sees that he can not.

She steals a few glances in Luke's direction and reads the frustration on his face.

"Watch! there's a stop sign up ahead," he warns needlessly, as he does every single time they approach the same intersection.

"Got it," she answers blithely, enjoying Luke's growing discomfort.

Luke never realized how itchy a person can get. Especially when they can't scratch. It is as if the more he thinks about the fact that he can't reach the skin on his neck, the more he needs to scratch. After a few moments, it starts to feel downright painful.

Finally, after much moaning and shifting and futile contorting, he cracks, "Could you pull over?"

Carly keeps her eyes on the road, ignoring him.

"Caroline, could you pull over please?" he asks more insistently.

She turns to look at him, "What's the problem, Luke? Need to take a leak??"

The suggestion of relieving himself only serves to make him feel the urge. And make the itching even more overpowering. "Come on! Pull over, damn it!"

Carly relents and pulls over to the side of the road.

With a loud groan, Luke manages to crawl out of the car. He stands up and tries to unfasten the neck brace. Suddenly, he feels himself unable to. I snapped the damn thing!!! Why can't I get it off?? He thinks his problem may have something to do with aging, but then dismisses that thought since that particular ailment does not apply to him. He figures it must be stuck.

After a few minutes of struggling, he turns to the car and places his hands on the roof. He blows air out of his mouth and opens and closes his hands. He whines, "Caroline...could you give me a hand here?"

Knowing what she is going to do before she does it, he is neither surprised nor amused when he hears her weak applause from inside the vehicle.

"Caroline!" he snaps.

With a long sigh, she slowly gets out of the car and walks around to the other side to help her uncle. Without a word, she reaches up and quickly unhooks the neck brace. Then she gets back into the car.

Once free, Luke twists his neck, stretches his arms above his head and bends to the side a few times before climbing back into the passenger seat with a "whew..."

"You okay?" Carly asks.

"Just dandy. Let's get going..." he looks over his shoulder for oncoming traffic and gives her the unnecessary 'okay' signal with a wave of his hand.

She pulls back on to the road.

"Those things are awful," Luke tosses the neck brace to the back seat then proceeds to rub the back of his neck with a hand.

She stops at a red light and sighs, "That's why healthy people don't usually wear them."

He barks out a laugh and inquires delicately about her sullen mood, "Who peed in your corn flakes this morning?"

She makes a face at the comment then says, "AJ," just as the light turns green.

Luke nods, "Oh." Then he has to grab the dashboard as she jerks the car forward.

She suddenly starts talking, more to herself than to Luke. But Luke's presence makes the talking far less embarrassing. "That jerk has the nerve to think he can tell me who I can and can't spend time with! Can you believe that??"

She turns to Luke with an incredulous look on her face, but does not give him a chance to respond before adding, "I mean, sure, maybe hanging out with the town's head criminal isn't the smartest thing in the world. Well, I should say, alleged head criminal, right? But, anyway, is it against the law?? No. Has Sonny been convicted of anything?? No. Who does AJ think he is? He's a control freak is what he is. Plain and simple. A control freak who can't let go!"

Luke's eyes nervously bounce between Carly's reddened, ranting face and the road, noting with dread that she is not exactly staying in her lane. He clears his throat, "Uh, Caroline..."

She swerves back to her side of the line, still talking, "He thinks he can threaten me with his family's high-priced lawyers? Scare me into doing whatever he wants? Well, he can think again! He can't scare me! He has no idea what it takes to scare me! It takes a he!! of a lot more than some egomaniacal Quartermaine wanna-be control freak, I'll tell you that, man!"

Luke takes a deep breath, watching with trepidation as the traffic thicken approaching rush hour. He gestures to the right and offers with feigned calm, "You might want to turn off here...less traffic..."

To his relief, she makes the turn and they are now driving down a side street. She continues, "So I told him where he could shove his damn lawyers! I'll take him on in court myself if I have to!"

Luke furrows his brow, for the first time interested in what she is saying, "I thought you had a lawyer...?"

She shrugs, slowing down emotionally now after the outburst. Her voice is quiet, "I do, but...I just don't know if he's going to be able to take on AJ's lawyers."

Luke nods slowly, "I see."

She looks at Luke, "I'm doing the right thing, right? I mean, if I give AJ an inch on this, he'll take a mile. I know it."
8
He replies, "So you're fighting AJ on principle, right? Not because you really want to keep seeing Corinthos...?"

Carly blinks. "Of course!" she insists much too strongly. She finishes, "It's a slippery slope, man!"

Luke mutters knowingly, "Yep. It sure is..."

****

Carly covers her head with her pillow when her phone starts ringing. "Ugh..." Then she picks it up, "Yeah??"

"Carly, it's AJ."

Immediately, she sits up, completely panicked, "Oh my God! What happened? Is it Michael?? Is he all right?"

AJ replies calmly, "No, no. Don't worry. Michael is fine."

"Oh..." Carly says. Then she rolls her eyes, "Do you have any idea what time it is???"

AJ responds, "Do you?"

She realizes she does not know the time and looks over at the digital clock on her nightstand. 10:00am. Great, she groans to herself.

Grimacing, she mutters sleepily, "What do you want, AJ??"

AJ announces, "We need to meet this afternoon at my lawyer's office. To hash things out."

Carly runs a hand through her hair, "This afternoon??" It was only yesterday that they'd had their last argument about Sonny. "That's kind of short notice, AJ." What does he have up his sleeve? She tries to calm herself. She lies easily, "My lawyer might be too busy to meet today."

AJ says, "Come on, Carly. You don't need your lawyer. Me and you. We can work this out."

Carly laughs into the phone, "You're kidding, right? You expect me to meet alone with you and your shark of a lawyer?? You must think I'm stupid or still crazy."

He shrugs into the phone, "So bring your lawyer. Makes no difference to me. I just think it would be best if we work things out. The sooner the better." He adds, "For Michael's sake."

Carly closes her eyes, then breathes into the receiver, "I'll see what I can do."

"Noon," AJ supplies just before she hangs up on him.

She digs through her purse and digs out Aubrey's card. She dials the number and gets Aubrey's voice saying he's not in the office and to please leave a message.

"Um, hi. This is Caroline Benson? I'm supposed to meet today with my son's father and his lawyer at noon? You got papers from there, right? So you have his lawyers' address? I would really, really appreciate it if you could meet me there. And if you can't, could you call me as soon as you can and let me know?" She rattles off her phone number and hangs up.

She jumps from her bed and starts going through her closet, looking for something semi-decent to wear. Of course, nothing seems suitable. Part of her wants to just skip the meeting. After all, she was not ordered to be there. She would not be breaking any laws by not showing up at this hastily-called conference.

But another part of her agrees with AJ. She is tired of having AJ hovering over her, ready at any moment to swoop down and tell her what to do with her life. At the very least, Carly figures she can give AJ and his lawyer a piece of her mind. And she knows she will not be signing anything without her own lawyer looking it over first.

She just hopes her lawyer's not lying in a gutter somewhere.