People Will Say We’re in Love-Chapter 12

 

"Dear, dear, Stefan," Helena all but purred as she rose from the bench and meet her youngest son as he descended the stairs onto the docks. "Surprised to see Mother?"

He looked at her and brushed past her to stand near the edge and watch for the launch to take him home. He turned around and glanced at her before turning away again. "Your incarceration must have been kind. Did you enjoy being surrounded by your own element?" he asked throwing a jab at her.

"Tch, Stefan, you were always the one at a loss for wit. But, that is no matter. I just wanted you to see that your little attempt to imprison me has not worked," she said joining him at the dock’s edge. She looked at her son and wondered exactly he wished to accomplish by having her arrested. Surely he must have know that there was no way that Lucky was going to point the finger at her for his kidnapping.

He gave her a small smiled. "Maybe not his time, but I can assure you that next time, I will not fail."

"Next time," she repeated incredously. "There will not be a next time, Stefan. A next time would take an ingenious plan, and we both know that you are a little low of those. I suggest that you cease this battle that you can not win. I did not kidnap Lucky; he will even tell you that. I saved the Spencer boy, which is something that he will most likely be indebted to me for the rest of his life for. Give up, Stefan."

"Mother," he said turning to face her completely now. "You must surely know that I will not give up until everyone knows the truth about what you have done."

"Really, Stefan, is it very wise to be making such threats when you are obviously in such a precarious situation. One little push," she said softly as she came closer, "and my problems with you would be over. Such an accident can be explained."

He took hold of the hand she placed on his chest. "Yes, Mother, there are many types of accidents that can be explained. You would be wise to remember that. Ms. Jensen," he said noticing her as she walked up the dock.

"Mr. Cassadine, Mrs. Cassadine," she said in greeting to them both. This situation did not look very good. The tension between the son and the mother was very thick. She did not know if it was best to leave them alone, then again, she didn’t want to be caught in between whatever was going on here.

"Why, if it isn’t our illustrious assistant district attorney, but, if I believe what I hear, you will not be in that position for long," Helena said smiling. "May I ask why you are seeking to leave the District Attorney’s office? Does the lack of winning cases bother you, or does it bother you that lesser attorneys such as Alexis Davis win over you?"

Dara fought the urge to roll her eyes. She took a deep breath. "That is my own concern, Mrs. Cassadine."

Stefan gave her a small smile. He had to admit that he respected any woman that was able to stand up to his mother. "I believe you were leaving, weren’t you, Mother."

She smiled; "I had no such intention. The launch is coming, Stefan," she pointed out. "Perhaps Miss Jensen and I can have a little chat."

Stefan looked over at Dara again. He had no intention of leaving her there with his mother. "I am sorry, but Ms. Jensen and I have an appointment. She will be accompanying me to Spoon Island. I believe you said that you wanted to discuss the Lucas Spencer, Jr. case with me."

Quickly playing along, she responded, "Yes," she said nodding. "I did. I brought the information that we need to go over," she said gesturing to her briefcase. She was glad that she decided to go to Kelly’s to catch-up on some work, and she had her briefcase.

Helena offered them one last smile. "Of course. I do believe that I will stay here, though. It is a very nice night."

"Do be careful, Mother. The docks are not always safe at night," he said as he turned to assist Dara to the launch.

Dara sighed as she leaned against the railing. "I see your mother has found it necessary to return to Port Charles. Just when we thought we had gotten rid of her," she said shaking her head.

"I was surprised that you played along with me. My real intention was for her to leave so that you would be free to go home. She can be very difficult. I will accompany you home when a decent amount of time has passed. There will be several more launches tonight."

She shrugged and smiled. "I thought that I would take my chances with going to Spoon Island with you rather than stay there with Helena. She is liable enough to push me into the water. I don’t think that you would, would you?" she asked joking.

He shook his head. "No, I would not, but you are quite right about her, though. That is her style. It was the best decision to come with me."

"I thought so," she said looking ahead to the island. There was always that fog, or so it seemed. She shuddered and hugged herself. Was it a better decision to go there? She had not been to Wyndemere very often, but she knew that it wasn’t the happiest home in the world. "Home sweet home," she mumbled when the launch docked and stood on the island.

He smiled at her. "It is my home, and it suits my purposes. Shall we?" he said gesturing forward.

"Sure," she said picking up her briefcase from the ground and walking behind Stefan as he guided the way.

*****

AJ drank down his second glass of vodka of the hour. It was getting harder and harder to get an affect from the alcohol. Maybe he was becoming immune, he thought, then laughed out loud about that. "Jax, just the man I wanted to see," he said when he reached the table.

"Somehow, I doubt that," he said sitting down across from him. "What do you want to talk about, AJ? Are you sure that you’re able to discuss anything right now?" he asked noticing the array of empty glasses on the table.

He shrugged. "It won’t be any different any other time. You know what they say, alcohol really does a good job of dulling the pain. Maybe you should try it; you know with your break-up with Chloe and all."

"I don’t think so," he said leaning back in his chair. "So, what is your decision? Have you finally reached one and will stick with it?"

"I want to go through with this. I want to take my family down. They don’t care about me, and I don’t care about them. I want to help you get ELQ," he told him.

Jax smiled; that was just what he wanted to hear. He nodded, "That seems like a wise decision." He stood up, "I’ll get back to you."

Suddenly irate, AJ attempted to stand up, but wasn’t quite able to. "What do you mean you’ll think about it? You told me this is what you wanted, and you can have it. We can have it; we can have ELQ."

"I mean, I will think about it. Forgive me, but I don’t really trust your judgment right now. I don’t want you to sober up and then decide that you don’t want to do business with me after I’ve invested a lot of time and effort into it. Get sober, and then give me a call," he said and then walked away from the table.

"’Get sober,’" he said mimicking him before laughing out loud. "No one tells me when to sober-up. I’ll stop drinking when I’m good and ready to."

"And when will that be?" he heard the question behind him.

He turned around and smiled when he saw who it was. "Oh, if it isn’t the lovely Hannah Scott, or rather soon to be Taggert. How may I help you?"

She sighed and sat down. "The first thing you can do is stop drinking. Why are you doing this to yourself, AJ?" she asked. "Carly is not worth all of this."

He shrugged. "Why should I stop? I have nothing to stop for. I don’t have my son, Hannah," he wailed.

"And you won’t ever have your son, acting this way. This is not the way to get your son back. Carly won’t let you anywhere near him now because of you drinking, AJ. This is getting out of hand."

"What do you care anyway, Hannah? I’m not your problem; I’m not anybody’s problem."

She hated to see him take this downward spiral so lightly. He was hurting himself and everyone around him; why couldn’t he just see that? "I care because you are my friend. You may not think that you have any, but I want you to know that you still have me." She looked at her watch. "Look, I have to go now. I’m picking up some take-out, and I’m going to meet Marcus. If you ever need anyone to talk to, know that I am here to listen. I care about you, AJ, and if you would just look around, you would see that many other people care too."

He looked around and gestured. "I don’t see anyone lining-up to tell me how they care about me. I think that you are mistaken."

"You know what," she said standing. "I don’t even know why I try anymore."

He shook his head and looked up at her. "Neither do I."

She sighed. "Good-bye, AJ."

She was wrong. No one cared about him, and he didn’t care if they cared or not anyway. He didn’t need any of them. They didn’t matter to him anymore. They were apart of another life, one that didn’t exist anymore, one that he wanted to put behind him. He staggered from the table and onto the elevator to his room upstairs.

*****

Esmerelda removed her glasses and began cleaning them with the tail of her T-shirt. She was studying Sonny. He was being very quite and distant this past week. She narrowed her eyes at him. Surely he could not still be thinking about the situation with her and Jax that was only present in his mind. "Are you upset with me, Sonny?" she asked finally. This silence had to be stopped.

He looked over at her on the couch. "Why would I be upset with you?" he asked returning to the work in front of him. Without Jason there, he didn’t trust anyone enough not to double check everything.

She shrugged and then replaced her glasses. "That’s what I was wondering too. I haven’t done anything, that I’m aware of anyway. Is this about my little visit to Carly? Did she give me a bad report?"

"You visited Carly. May I ask why?"

"Just got bored one day," she answered with a smile. "I only went over to get to know her a little better, you know feel her out. She isn’t such a bad person after all. At least what I know of her, anyway. I get the feeling that she has rubbed more than me the wrong way since she’s been in this town."

He laughed. "That’s an understatement."

She smiled. He was laughing with her again. Maybe he wasn’t upset, maybe all they needed to do was talk. "So, since that isn’t it, because obviously Carly didn’t tell you about our little bonding session. Could it be my boss? It seems that he is an off-limits topic as of late."

"He’s an off-limits topic because you want it that way," he mumbled as he returned to the papers in front of him.

She rolled her eyes and placed her laptop on the table in front of her and stood up. "You know what, Sonny, I’m not going to be able to do this. Now, why don’t you just tell me what’s on your mind. For some reason, there is a lot more to this than you are saying. Talk to me."

"You don’t want to hear what I have to say," he informed her not looking at her.

She placed her hands on her waist. "I’m saying that I want to hear what you have to say now because I can tell you have something to say. Okay," she said going over and sitting on his desk beside him, "say it."

"All right," he said leaning back in his chair. "I don’t like that you are working for Jax. I’ve made this known to you. I didn’t like the fact that you went away with him for a weekend when you had just met him. I don’t like that you have been very chummy with him lately. There, are you happy."

"It’s a start. Now, why do you feel the way that you do?" she asked seriously. They stared at one another for a few seconds before breaking into laughter. "Be serious, Sonny," she said. "I’m serious, why do feel this way."

"For a minute there," he said still smiling, "I thought I was at some shrink’s office. Maybe you’re in the wrong profession."

"You’re in the right one, there’s no doubt about that. You definitely know how to dodge a question. I know that you two don’t like each other because of Brenda, but there honestly must be more to it than that. There are far greater things to hate a person for than for having a common ex-lover," she surmised.

"And does your mother know that you talk about things such as lovers, young lady?" he asked trying to inject humor into the conversation again. Esmerelda, I really don’t want to talk about his right now, okay. Just be careful around Jax. Promise me that you will."

She nodded. Whatever it was, it must be serious. "Okay, I will. Sonny, you have nothing to worry about, I can take care of myself. Besides, there is nothing there anyway, so you really have nothing to worry about. Thanks for mentioning my mother, by the way. I think that a phone call to them is pretty much long overdue," she said standing up.

"You haven’t called them yet?" he asked incredulously

"I’ve been busy," she answered in the same tone. "They will understand. I hope." She shrugged. "It really doesn’t matter. What are they going to do, ground me? I’m probably going to go to bed after I talk with them," she said gathering her things. "Have a good night, Sonny."

"You, too, Esmerelda," he said as she disappeared up the stairs.