The Rise of Caroline Spencer-Chapter 6
The Lawyer’s Meeting
********************
Serena Baldwin was coloring on the couch when the doorbell rings. She
goes to open the door.
" Hello."
" Well, hello young lady. I’m looking for Scott Baldwin."
" He’s my Daddy."
" Serena, did you wait.." Scott says, coming out from the kitchen with
an apron on and flour on his clothes and face from the cookies he was
making.
" I saw it was a lady, Daddy, and she didn’t look harmful."
Scott looks at Carly suspiciously, " But, Serena, I have rules for a
reason."
" I knoooooowww . To keep me safe. Well, Daddy, I’m going upstairs to
play. Nice meeting you.", she says to Carly as she bounds up the stairs.
" Excuse me. Do I know you? Did we have an appointment?"
" No. You don’t know me. But, my Uncle referred me to you."
" Your Uncle?"
" Luke Spencer."
" LUKE SPENCER is your Uncle? Now, I know something’s wrong. He wouldn’t
refer me to get a glass of water if I was on fire."
Carly rolls her eyes and sticks out her hand. " I’m Caroline Bensen."
Scott looks at her with bewilderment.
" Carly Roberts?"
Nothing.
" I’m Bobbie Spencer’s daughter."
Lightbulb. " OH. You’re THAT Carly Roberts." Scott extends his hand. "
Well, this is interesting. Nice to meet you. Why do you need a lawyer?
Shoot someone else in open court?"
" Very funny. Luke didn’t tell me that you were a comedian. So. You
going to listen to my case?"
Scott motions Carly over to the couch. Before she can sit down, " Just
put your coat down. If we’re going to do this meeting, it’ll be in the
kitchen. Come on."
Carly enters the kitchen which is a complete mess.
" Looks like a tornado has hit here."
" Nope. Only me, trying to make cookies so that my daughter can take
them for a bake sale. You bake?"
" I’m from the South, Mr. Baldwin. I tried to get out of it, but, it
seemed that the only place that my Mama, Virginia, and I didn’t fight,
was in the kitchen. That’s whenever she got me in there. Baking was her
specialty. I can make cookies like you wouldn’t believe."
" Good." Scott throws her an apron. " Get to work."
" Hey. I can’t spill my guts to you without knowing you’re my lawyer. I
don’t want my opposition to come and get you to tell them everything you
know."
" Got $5 bucks?"
" In the movies, they always ask for a dollar."
" That’s Hollywood, sugar. This is Port Charles. Put a Sawbuck in my
hand, or keep stepping." Carly pulls out a $10 bill and hands it to him.
" Will this do?"
" Ooh...You’re rolling in the dough."
" Ha ha."
" So, you fashion those cookies with the cutter and answer my
questions."
" Ok."
" So. You’re the Carly Roberts who stole Bobbie’s husband and then shot
him."
" Hey, I shot him because.."
" He kidnapped your kid. I can understand that. Someone kidnapped my
kid. I get why you did that."
Carly felt her defensiveness roll away. " Glad to know someone
understands."
" So. Why are you here? What do you need a lawyer for?"
" Someone wants to take my kid away."
" Who? The gangster Morgan? Come on. You may have shot someone, but,
you’re not a gangster. I can’t believe he thinks that he can mount a
credible fight for custody. "
" Hey! Jason’s an ex-gangster. And, it’s not him that wants to take
Michael away."
" Then who?"
" Michael’s biological father."
" Excuse me?"
" Yeah. Michael’s biological father knows the truth and wants to get
custody."
" Does he have a name?"
" AJ Quartermaine."
" WAIT! You were sleeping with BOTH Brothers?"
" I only slept with AJ ONCE. ONCE, OK? And, I slept with Jason a long
time ago. Jason’s my friend. My best friend."
" Start from the beginning.", Scott says with a sigh, as he and Carly
cut out cookies.
" I think it would be better to start in the middle. I was living with
Tony and no one knew that I was Bobbie’s daughter. I saw Bobbie and Tony
getting closer, so, I knew that Tony had custody papers drawn up against
Bobbie. So, I broke into Justus Ward’s files and stole them and mailed
them to Bobbie. Tony put things together, found out that I was the one
who did it, and we had a big fight. Huge one. He left me. I was upset. I
went to Jake’s."
" That dive?"
" Yeah. Jason lived in the apartment above it. I did what I usually did
when my life with Tony became not too rosy: I looked for Jason. He
listened, didn’t judge, usually gave kick in the teeth advice, but,
always made me feel better, cause someone was listening..you know?"
" Um-hmm."
" So, Jason wasn’t there. But, this guy named AJ was there. I didn’t
know they were brothers. We got drunk. We went upstairs. We got it on.
We conceived Michael."
" Ok."
" But, when I went back to the apartment that I shared with Tony, there
was Tony. He was willing to give us another chance...and we
reconciled.."
" You mean.."
" Yeah."
" Got it. Continue."
" So. I found out that I was pregnant. Of course, the surprise turned to
a nightmare when I realized when the date of conception was. And, that
it was a coin toss between who was the Daddy."
By this time, Scott was gathering some cookies. He took a platter over
to the table and a gallon of milk. He offered Carly a glass and poured.
" So..."
" So. I was pregnant. Then, AJ moved in across the hall from Tony and
me."
" Uh-oh."
" Yeah. That’s what I thought. At first. But, then, I realized that AJ
had no memory of the night we spent together. "
" Lucky girl."
" Not so lucky. Because, it was bugging AJ. And, he kept on insisting
that he wanted to find out what happened the night he blacked out. But,
I couldn’t let him do that. I mean, if he remembered about us, he would
put two and two together, and know that he could possibly be the
father."
" So, what did ya do?"
" I thought about some of the conversations that AJ and I had been
having. He had told me that if he ever fell off the wagon again, that he
would leave town. He would go to one of those residential rehab placed
out of state. So, then, my plan was born."
" What plan?"
" The plan where I got AJ to believe that he went off the wagon, so that
he would leave town and leave me and my baby alone."
" I am afraid to ask...but, what did this plan consist of?"
" Well, I brought AJ over to my apartment, and I drugged him."
" Drugged him?"
" Gave him a strong Mickey."
Scott then went and had a flashback of his own, of when he confronted
Bobbie about the time that she drugged him.
" And so...Scott..SCOTT!!" Carly yells.
" Huh?"
" Where were you? You weren’t here."
" You are DEFINITELY Bobbie’s daughter.", Scott deadpans.
" Well, whatever. So, I drugged AJ. Got him and dumped him down in the
courtyard of our apartment building and poured booze all over him. Then,
I called his parents."
" How sweet...when you do something, you go all the way, don’t you?"
" Yeah. Well, at the time, it seemed what I had to do."
" So. How did it work out."
" I almost got AJ on the plane out of town, until that stupid Keesha
interfered."
" Stupid Keesha?"
" Keesha Ward, AJ’s old girlfriend. Ms. Holier-than-thou thought
something was wrong, so she and AJ went snooping. "
" So, she had the brain AJ was missing."
" Yeah. And, they put everything together. They found the bartender I
bought off and everything."
" Oh."
" So. Once they did that and AJ realized that we slept together, he
realized that he could possibly be the father of my baby."
" And, then what did he do?"
" Well, we danced around the issue and he stopped me from marrying Tony
a couple of times. I pleaded and cried and played on his sympathies. I
thought it had worked..until.."
" Until?"
" Until the day he showed up at General Hospital with a court order for
a paternity test and he told me that he was going to take my baby away
from me as soon as it was born."
" So, THAT"S when you decided to go to Jason?"
" No. No..I told AJ that he would never get his hands on my baby and
that I was going to raise it with Tony. And, I fully planned to do that.
Until..."
" ANOTHER Until?"
" Yep. The day that Tony told me we weren’t going to move into the house
that I thought we were going to live in. And, that he had decided it on
his own. I was sitting in his office, waiting to discuss things with
him, when Amy came in with a folder for him. Inside were papers. Papers
just like the ones that I had mailed to Bobbie, all those months ago.
But, now, those papers had MY name on them, instead of Bobbie’s. He
intended to take my child. When he came back, he told me that I was
unfit to raise a dog. That, as soon as the child was born, that he was
going to take it from me. He told me he never loved me, and that he
planned to marry me for a few years, and then divorce me and take the
kid."
" Nice guy."
" Tell me about it. I then told him that he was a fat, middle aged loser
that never satisfied me and not only was he never going to get my child,
but, he couldn’t get hold of my child, because it wasn’t his. When he
asked whose it was...I told him Jason."
" Finally, Gangsterman enters the picture."
" So, I arrived on Jason’s doorstep, wet, alone, with only the clothes
on my back. And, he took me in. I told Jason my story and asked him if
he would help me, just until the baby was born. I needed somewhere to
cool my heels and think. Both Tony and AJ were gunning for me."
" Did Tony know about AJ?"
" Nope. He had no idea about AJ. I had told him Tony."
" Did AJ suspect anything about Jason?"
" No. As long as I did the talking, AJ took Jason’s silence for
confirmation that what I said was true. Noone asked Jason directly if he
was the baby’s father, so Jason didn’t have to lie."
" Amazing."
" I know. So, I put Jason as the baby’s legal father, and in charge of
things for both of us...you know..power of attorney."
" Yep."
" And, it was a good thing, too. It was a bad birth. I bled all over the
place. I nearly died and so did Michael. Without Jason handling things,
I’m scared of what would have happened to us." Carly sighs. " After
Michael was born, I had a bad case of post- partum, and I took off. I
went to Florida. I arrived back in town the day that Jason had Michael
baptized. It was wierd. I come back, and there’s Jason, standing in a
church, getting my son baptized. Giving him a name. The picture of the
two of them, standing there, is something that I will never forget. So,
the baptism went off with some Quartermaine inteference, and we settled
in. I was back. But, so was Robin."
" Robin?"
" Jason’s former girlfriend who didn’t act like it."
" Oh. She knew the truth...about AJ I mean. But, no one else. For
everyone else. Michael was Jason’s son. I was having a problem with
Michael, though."
" What?"
" Well, maybe I shouldn’t tell you ."
" Carly. If it has to do with you and Michael, as your attorney, I need
to know."
" Ok...I wouldn’t pick Michael up. I was afraid of being with him. Some
of it was still post partum. But, I think that some of it was that I
blamed myself for him being sick in the first place."
" That was wrong."
" I know....but, I felt what I felt. Well, Bobbie picked up on it, and
she really helped me. She was relentless. She kept pushing and pushing
until I wanted to hold Michael. So, the night of the blizzard of Winter
98, the two of us walked a mile in the snow to get to the Port Charles
Grille. Bobbie handed Michael to me, and I held my son for the first
time. A surge of love went through me, like nothing I had ever felt
before, and I told Bobbie that I was her daughter."
" THERE?"
" Yep."
" Wow."
Carly dunks the cookie in the milk.
" So, I told Bobbie that she was my mother."
" And..."
" She slapped me and called me a bitch."
Scott laughs. " That sounds like Bobbie, alright."
" So, I got into a huge fight with my adoptive mother, who, of course,
with my karma, was right there, observing it all."
" Nawww.."
" Yes. And, she had a stroke, right there on the spot and died less than
24 hours later."
" I’m sorry."
" Yeah. Me too. "
" So. Jason helped me bury her. We took the body back to Florida. It was
just Jason, Michael and me. We cleared up the house, and all the rest of
the matters. I remember going to my Mama’s grave, and telling her that I
wasn’t going to mess up this time. That I knew what I had with Jason.
So, then, we went back home, and I was getting into a groove with
Michael, and I took him out for the first time, by myself...and that’s
when it happened."
" The kidnapping?"
" Yep. Until then, I really didn’t know what it was all about, you know?
Life, death, whatever. I didn’t know. I didn’t know that I could be as
weak as I was when he was missing. I didn’t know that it was possible to
lose all use of your senses. To lose all use of your thoughts and
desires. I had never in my life thought that anything could be more
important than me and what I wanted. Until I thought that I might never
see Michael again. And, then, it hit me."
" What?"
" That I literally couldn’t remember my life before he was born. It was
like this huge mental block for me. I had been fighting and fighting for
him. And, it seemed like it was for nothing. Michael was defenseless. I
was his parent. I was supposed to be looking out for him with everything
in my being, and...."
" You had failed." Carly looks up from the table to realize that Scott
was holding her hand and she looked into his eyes. She saw complete
understanding.
" Yeah. I thought it was punishment for me. I hadn’t exactly been the
best person."
Scott nodded in agreement. " It was agony...and when Jason found
Michael, my joy was complete. All that was left was to get the
punishment for the man who took him."
" Jones."
" Yep...my former Stepdaddy. He kidnapped Michael, and when goody-goody
RObin found out, INSTEAD of telling Jason..she went to ‘appeal’ to the
good doctor, and got herself kidnapped too. She nearly died because of
it. But, did she blame Tony? NNOoooooo. Tony wasn’t to blame, according
to her. I WAS. I drove him to taking my child...whatever. So, instead of
the 44 years that I thought Tony was going to get, he got NO jailtime
and a year’s probation."
" That sucked."
" Majorly...and when he looked at me after the verdict was read...and he
smirked at me and mocked me...he said he had done nothing wrong. He said
that he’d do it again. I was so full of rage at that moment...I shot
him."
" In open court, full of witnesses."
" Yep. Then, I spent a little time in jail. Then, I was sent to
Shadybrooke for ‘evaluation.’"
" I thought I read that you were in with the criminally insane."
" That came later...dear, wonderful Pferncliffe."
" So...you had a mental breakdown. It happens."
" Not to me, it didn’t. I faked it."
" Excuse me?"
" I faked it. You see, I thought that I was going to be judged well
enough to stand trial, and that if I went to trial, they would send me
away for years. Jason told me that he had arranged things for my
release. But, when you’re locked up and you’re hanging by a thread, and
people like Edward Quartermaine, AJ and Tony Jones visit you, working
you, telling you that Jason’s sold you out and is going to leave you
there...you can lose faith. That’s what I did. I lose faith in the only
person who has ever come through for me each time. So, I thought, if I
faked insanity, I would be sent away, but, that I could be ‘cured’ in a
few months..and that would beat a few years in a maximum security
facility."
" Logical...but risky. What if they had caught on?"
"They didn’t."
" Does anyone KNOW that you faked being in Pferncliffe?"
" Outside of Jason and Uncle Luke, everyone thought it was for real.
Even Bobbie."
" You must be good."
" I am."
" So, you do your stint in Pferncliff, recover due to the brilliance of
their care, and are released."
" Yep."
" All along, AJ doesn’t know about Michael?"
" Nope. I came home, after Jason got me out..and he took me to the
cottage where he and Robin lived. I had to get used to Michael. I had to
get comfortable with him. And, then, when the time came, I was going to
get my own place, and Jason and I would have joint custody. But, then
Moreno began his stuff, and we all had to move back to the Penthouse,
which suited me just fine, because I thought of it as my home..not that
awful cottage. Then, things got a little sticky between Robin and I and
Bobbie offered to move us into the Brownstone, and we did. It turns out
that Jason didn’t really want joint custody...he lasted a few hours. He
moved into the Brownstone with us."
" Where was Robin?"
" Crying in her spilt milk. She forced his hand..it was either her or
Michael and me. Jason chose Michael and me. So, they broke up. Jason
thought that she was cool with his decision....but, then, she came to
me, trying to work out an ‘arrangement’ behind Jason’s back."
" And you said?"
" Hell no. It wasn’t what Jason wanted, and I didn’t want it either. He
had chosen, she should have just accepted it like a woman. Instead, like
the whiner she is, she got revenge on me. She had no problem keeping her
mouth shut, as long as I was in Pferncliffe and she was playing Mommy to
my child. But, the moment that I came home, all of a sudden...AJ has a
right to know. So, she fought with me and went to tell AJ the truth."
" And, all hell broke loose."
" You got that right. AJ came over, telling me that I wasn’t taking HIS
son anywhere and that he was going to get Michael. And that I wouldn’t
see him. And, that he’d put me back in Pferncliffe."
" Whoah. He threatened to put you back in an institution for the
criminally insane?"
" Yep."
" Ok...what have you told him?"
" Nothing. I’ve been stonewalling him. Look Scott, I love my son. And,
because of how I grew up, there’s NO WAY, that I’m going to be cut out
of his life. I never calculated on Jason being the baby’s father. I
thought he’d help me out for a month or two..max. But, I’ve seen my son
with Jason. Everything that he is, is because of Jason. I’m his mother.
I love him. But, a boy needs a father. A father who can love him. And, I
don’t know anyone who can love Michael more than Jason.
Yes, AJ provided the sperm. And, he’s not a child molestor. And, now
that the cat is out of the bag, I concede that Michael will get to know
him. But, I’m not trading Jason for AJ. I can only guess that AJ
might/sorta be alright as a father. I KNOW what Jason can do for my son
and does do on a daily basis. But, the fact is, he has little to no
legal standing. And, me standing with Jason hurts both our cases. I want
my own claim to my son. I don’t want to be beholden to ANY man when it
comes to my child, and that even includes Jason. I want to be able to
have in my hand, a document that says that I can have my son all day
long for as long as I want. And, that I can have anyone with him that I
want. When that happens, it will be Jason. No, it wasn’t fair to keep AJ
away from Michael. But, it’s done. No, it may not even have been legal.
But, it’s done. AJ can’t erase Jason from Michael’s life or heart. I’m
not going to let him. He’ll have to get his own place there...and he
sure in hell shouldn’t expect me to help him get it.
So...now that you’ve heard my sad, pathetic tale...will you help me?"
Scott looked at Carly. When she first had told him that she was the
niece of Luke Spencer, he had every intention of turning her down. But,
listening to her. He had been a screwup. For many years. Pulled scams
like her. Hurt countless people. But, the love of Dominique and Serena
had changed all that. He knew what it was like to be on your knees to
God as your infant had been taken. He had been there, thinking it was a
punishment for all whom he had hurt. He understood how she pulled the
trigger. God help him if he had ever REALLY been alone with Rex Stanton.
She just wanted a chance to make things right. She just wanted a chance
to be a parent, now that all her lies were out. She wanted someone in
her corner. He knew her reputation. He knew it well. Actually, he had
seen her predecessors: her mother Bobbie, and he was in love with
another one, Lucy. Everyone had said that Dominique was crazy in
choosing Lucy to bear Serena. Even he had his doubts. But, he had to say
that her instincts were great. Lucy changed for the better because of
Serena. She was still Lucy, but, something grew inside of her. A belief
in love...and if Scott Baldwin could give that to this young woman, then
he would. Remembering Lucy, Scott even understood Jason Morgan and what
he sees in her.
" Scott?"
Scott extends his hand. " Aw hell. I’ve never really been able to walk
away from the underdog."
" So, you’re still my lawyer after knowing everything?"
" Yep..Carly,...Caroline...Bensen..Roberts..who the hell are you?"
Carly thought about that for a minute and laughed. " You’re right. If
I’m going to fight, it would be good to know who I am. I am Caroline
Bensen-Spencer...can you arrange that?"
" THAT will be the easiest thing I’ll ever do for you. The rest...well,
that will take some time. But, I will fight for you, Caroline. I’ll
fight for your and Michael."