RIPPLE EFFECT
The emergency ward was screaming with action as Tony waited anxiously while blood was taken from him. "Hurry up!" "I'm going as fast as I can," Amy told him. "I just can't believe that this is happening. You mean that after all of this, after the kidnapping, the trial and everything, that Michael is your son?" "Yes," Tony answered, worry etching lines of concern on his face. "And he’s been shot. That $%^&* bastard Jason Morgan got my son shot." "But I thought that the blood tests showed Michael couldn't be your son." "Ask Bobbie how it happened," Tony snarled as his ex-wife approached. Her eyes were wide with fear. "Tony? What happened? What's going on?" "I know that I deserved your contempt, your anger, but did you have to endanger my son's life to punish me for my affair with Carly?" Tony watched as understanding washed over her face. "I lost everything that was important to me, Bobbie, because of you. Yeah, I did some stupid things, but I never endangered my son's life. You did. And you'll pay for your part in the deception, Bobbie. I've already called my lawyer. She'll be here anytime." "Tony," Bobbie began. "Please. Try to understand what happened." "I know what happened, Bobbie. And it all comes down to that." He pointed at the gurney that was being wheeled into the emergency room, his son lying still on it, with Jason trailing along, his shirt stained with blood. "You gave my son to a mobster. Damn you!" Jerking the needle from his arm, Tony hurried to the stretcher while Amy finished sealing off the blood container, her eyes meeting Bobbie's with disgust. "You're in a world of trouble now," she observed. "Shut up, Amy," Bobbie muttered, hurrying over to see the child who was at that moment being taken to emergency surgery. "Bobbie?" Jason asked, trying to keep up with what was happening. "Bobbie? You've got to help Michael." "Jason? Oh, Jason...my God, you've been shot, too." Looking down, Jason nodded. "I hadn't noticed." With that, he crumpled to the floor. "Man, this is going to get really sticky," Taggert commented as he looked at the body behind the bush not far from where Jason and Michael had been shot. "No sh**!" Garcia nodded, speaking into the phone to Mac Scorpio. "We have the shooter, and he's dead, but you aren't going to like this. It's AJ Quartermaine." "What?" Mac exploded, surging to his feet, phone in hand. He looked at Edward Quartermaine, who had been standing in his office, yelling at him about not being able to keep the streets safe for his family, berating him for not having already arrested Jason. Mac continued the call. "You're sure about this? Sure that he was the gunman?" Mac paused, listening to Garcia answer the questions. "Right. Okay. Bust Sonny for the shooting-we know that he shot the guy who was shooting at Jason and the baby, so bust him and make it stick. Go by the book. Make sure that Taggert doesn't get carried away with himself on this one. You think you have problems? I've got Edward Q here in my office." "You're arresting Sonny Corinthos? Right now, you should be giving him a medal. At least, common criminal that he is, he shot the person who shot my great-grandson." Edward paused to catch a breath, his anxiety over the baby showing in his voice. "Go to the hospital, Edward," Mac told him, suddenly grim. "Lila, Monica and Alan are going to need you when they find out that the gunman was AJ and that he's dead." Edward approached his family, his feet heavy and his heart heavier. Reading the pain in Emily’s and Alan’s faces, he said, "You've heard about AJ?" "It's a good thing that you're here," Alan told him, his tone weary and beat. "Mother didn't take it well-she’s in a private room under doctor's care. It's her heart..." He nodded as Edward registered that. "Come on, I'll take you there. Ned and Reginald are there. We've called Tracy..." "The baby? Jason?" "Both are still in surgery," Alan told them as he and Emily walked along beside Edward. "Monica is with the baby's surgical team, as is Tony. He and Jason are both getting the best of care." As they arrived at Lila's room, they were pushed aside by a team of doctors responding to an emergency code inside." "Lila? No!!" Suddenly, Edward grasped his chest, sinking to the floor in agony. "Lila," he muttered, swiftly sliding into unconsciousness. "AJ?" Sonny asked, shocked. "He was the gunman?" "Yeah," Taggert answered, smiling wryly. "You iced a Q." "He was shooting at Jason. Hell, he hit the kid. What did you expect me to do?" "We'll let the law decide that." "Um, Tag," Garcia began, looking at the papers that had just been handed to him. "We'll have to let Sonny go. AJ was shot at close range with a .22, and Sonny was packing more heat than that." "Oh, my God, oh, my God," Carly muttered, rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped around her. What should she do? What should she do? "The hospital," she muttered, suddenly. "I should be at the hospital. That's where I should be." Standing up, she straightened her dress and took a few shaky steps towards the hospital from the park bench where she’d run when everything she’d planned had come crashing down around her. "It was only a .22," she told herself. "Only a .22. How much damage can one little gun do?" Pausing in the cafeteria to get a coffee, she was accosted by Amy who asked, "Why aren't you with your son, Carly?" Looking at Amy who had an oddly sympathetic look on her face, Carly snapped, "I'm just here for some coffee. For Lila. That's all." Catching the openly skeptical look on Amy’s face, she continued. "The waiting is hard on all of us, so I said that I'd get her some coffee." "You're going to have to do better than that, Carly," Amy told her. "Lila prefers tea, and besides, she's in cardiac intensive care. So is Edward." "What?" "I see you're not as well informed as you've been pretending to be. AJ's death hit them very hard, especially since it appears that he was the one shooting at Jason and Michael. Carly? Carly??" But Carly couldn’t hear her from whatever black hole of fear into which she'd just fallen. Amy picked up a phone. "We need help in the cafeteria. We have a woman in what appears to be a state of shock. Yeah, she’s just rocking back and forth, holding her arms around herself. Non responsive." Kneeling beside Carly, Amy said gently, "It's going to be okay, Carly. Everything is going to be okay." "How is Michael?" Alexis asked Tony Jones who was standing quietly, sipping orange juice. "He'll be fine we think. Apparently much of the blood that panicked Jason was his own, and he didn't realize it." Tony shook his head. "I'm glad that you were willing to help me, especially considering that you have been representing Jason." "Under the circumstances," Alexis began, "I think that the case involving Jason and AJ is now academic. Jason has already voiced willingness to give you complete custody of Michael. In fact, I have his signature on a letter of intent drawn up a few minutes ago, and notarized by someone from the hospital's legal center. It is binding, for all intents and purposes." "That's good, but I want it legal and irrevocable, and I want complete and full custody, with Carly out of the picture." Alexis nodded. "I quite understand." "One more thing," Tony added, his voice low and intense. "I want to pursue a lawsuit against Bobbie Jones charging her with fraud in manipulating the blood tests that kept me from my son, and when we have that proven, I want complete custody of Lucas, and I want Bobbie's nursing license revoked." "Are you certain?" "Look around us, Alexis. I made a mistake with Carly I thought that I loved her and sucker that I was, I betrayed Bobbie. But, Bobbie had already betrayed me both with Damian, and she tried to do so with Alan Quartermaine. I did my best to forgive her-BJ's death hit both of us hard, especially since I found her in Damian's arms on the day that BJ died. Still, while I'm not without sin, I never would have entrusted either of my sons to a mobster, no matter how good a father he tried to be. Bobbie's lies nearly cost Michael his life." "Okay, then I'll get started." |