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Title: Just Between Friends
Author: speedy
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Expecting her second child and caught up in a mafia war, Carly Corinthos has a secret that will change the lives of everyone she knows.
Disclaimer: I'm not the Rat, so obviously the characters aren't mine. I'm just borrowing them for awhile.
Notes: Just moving this over from my now defunct website. This veers off canon right before the panic room fiasco in 2003.
Chapter 3
Frisco stepped apprehensively out of the elevators of GH and spotted his former sister-in-law working at the nurses' station just a few feet away. He took a deep breath and approached her slowly.
"Hey, Bobbie," he said, smiling with all the boyish charm he could muster.
She looked up, her stunned eyes meeting his, then squealed in surprised delight. "Oh my god, Frisco! You're home!" she rushed around the desk to give him a big hug. "It's so good to see you're still in one piece!" she halfheartedly teased.
"I'm just lucky like that," he replied, chuckling. "Is my brother around anywhere? Lucas said he was on duty today."
"He's doing rounds. I'll page him for you." She reached for the phone and paged Tony over the PA system. "So you stopped by Kelly's I take it."
"For a moment, yeah. I was looking for the girls, but they don't seem to be around right now."
"Those two always seem to be off doing something these days, ever since they got boyfriends."
"Boyfriends?" he repeated sadly. He knew they were that age, but he hadn't expected his little girls to be dating yet. "I certainly came home at the right time. I'm sure Mac could use some help keeping them locked up, at least until they're 30."
Bobbie laughed, lightly slapping his chest. "Oh, Frisco! You can't keep them locked up forever. Besides, they might find someone like you."
"In that case, they're getting locked up until they're 70," he said, watching as his brother swiftly walked down the hallway towards them, busy looking through a chart.
"Oh, you're not that bad!"
Hearing his kid brother's voice, Tony stopped what he was doing and raised his head. Frisco smiled, seeing his brother stunned speechless. "Is that all you've got to say to me?" he teased.
Tony crossed his arms as he reached them. "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out where to start."
"Well, 'hello' and 'how are you' are always good."
"I prefer 'what the hell are you doing here'."
Frisco shrugged, taken back by his older brother's coldness. "I came to see my brother and my daughters. Something wrong with that?"
Tony's voice was anything but welcoming. "When you just show up out of nowhere after all these years, yes."
Bobbie rolled her eyes. "For goodness sakes, Tony! Can't you just be happy he's here right now?"
"It's a little difficult when I don't hear from him but once every two or three years, when he can remember to spare a minute to say hello to me."
"Fine," Frisco said with a sigh. "Then I won't tell you my big news." He started to walk back to the elevators.
Tony shook his head and tossed the chart onto the desk. "Alright, I'll bite. What's the big news?"
The younger brother turned back around, his hand running through the hair at the back of his head. "I, uh, got married," he told them, trying to smile as if he was happy about it.
"Frisco, that's wonderful," Bobbie said excitedly.
"Married, little brother?" Tony asked skeptically.
The agent looked at his brother, offended. "Yeah, married. Can't I even get a congratulations from you?"
"I feel sorry for your wife considering you left the last one for your job. Five times, if I remember correctly."
Frisco threw his hands in the air in frustration. "Jesus! Nothing I do is ever enough for you, is it? Because I don't fit this perfect image you have in your mind of what I should be, just like you." Behind him, the elevator doors opened. He took one last look at this brother. "You're no better than Dad." He slipped into the elevator just before the doors closed.
Carly's blood turned cold. She'd seen her best friend, her brother and her ex-husband, yet none of them had recognized her. Maybe it was just that they had no reason to. But then why would Luke recognize her?
"I... I'm not Caroline," she stammered.
"You've lost your touch, Caroline. There was a point in time when even I couldn't tell if you were lying."
She pulled herself together. She'd done this before. She had lived cover story after cover story for almost two years. She could lie to Luke. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said, leaning back and crossing her legs, keeping her hands still on the table.
"Come on, tell me what you're up to!" he urged, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Do you treat all your customers like this?"
"Just the ones that are blood." She opened her mouth to deny it again, but he stopped her. "Don't bother denying it, Caroline. I ain't buying."
She sighed. "How..."
"I never trusted her," he replied, cutting her off.
She snorted. "You never trusted me."
"True, but you actually answer to Caroline. She never did. And she's not nearly the pain in the ass that you are." He stood up. "Let's go back to my office," he said, nodding towards the back of the club.
Carly followed him quietly. Once in the privacy of his office, he sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Want to tell me what happened?"
"I was kidnapped," she told him, sitting in one of the chairs across from him. "Charlotte took my place." Much to Carly's dismay, Luke started laughing. She almost regretted missing him. "I'm glad you think this is funny."
"It is! You came here pretending to be her and she came here pretending to be you," he said, his laughter dying down to a chuckle. "So how did she manage to kidnap you?"
Carly looked down sullenly. "She didn't. Luis Alcazar did."
"Luis Alcazar?" he repeated in confusion. "What did he have to do with anything?"
"He was the one that kidnapped me. Charlotte just saw an opportunity and took it. Luis didn't know about it until he came here with Brenda."
"Why would Alcazar have wanted to do something like that?"
"Some twisted sense of revenge. Brenda hadn't let go of Sonny and Luis was furious about it."
"What about Charlotte?"
"I don't know why she did what she did. I don't even know how she's alive. Why did everyone just accept that she was me?"
"You'd been away for a couple weeks, no one knew where you were. Then she shows up. She was thinner, her hair was shorter and darker," Luke told her. "She said she just felt like changing it and you really hadn't been eating before you left. She knew everyone, she knew everything about you, she acted like you for the most part. Everyone just figured the divorce from Sonny was the difference in you."
"But you didn't buy it."
"I did in the beginning, but there was something just off about her. I couldn't put my finger on it. Then when she didn't answer to Caroline, I knew she wasn't my niece. I pulled out the papers I gathered when I was looking for you and there was a picture of you and her. You two looked like sisters. With a little effort, she could pass for you. I just never could figure out why she'd want to."
Carly shook her head sadly, tears in her eyes. "Mama, Michael, Jason... I still can't believe they believe her."
"She's a convincing liar, I'll give her that. Even I was fooled for a while." Luke shrugged. "How'd you get away from Alcazar?"
"The WSB freed me, but Alcazar attacked us before we could get out of Venezuela. So they put me in protective custody. I've had a 24-hour guard ever since."
"I don't see a guard around now," he replied, gesturing around his office.
She sighed, thinking of Frisco, one of the rare times she thought kindly of him. "He's mad at me right now. I kinda screwed up. He'll come find me in a little while."
"How'd you manage to screw up protective custody?" Luke snickered.
"Coming here," she explained guiltily. "He didn't want to, I had to talk him into it."
"He got something against Port Chuckles?"
"Two daughters, a brother, an ex-wife and her ex-husband. He says it hurts too much to see them when he can't be with them."
"Now that sounds like something Frisco Jones would say."
"I should've known you'd know him," she groaned.
Luke leaned forward, smirking. "You mean to tell me the guy you've been stuck with day and night all this time is Frisco? Tony's brother Frisco?" he asked, chuckling.
"Please don't laugh, Luke. I'm aware of the irony."
"So he's mad at you just for talking him into coming back?"
Carly grimaced. If he laughed at the fact Frisco was protecting her, he was going die at how she'd really screwed things up. "It's a little more complicated than that."
"How so?"
"Well, we're kind of, um..." she trailed off, fidgeting nervously. "Married."
Luke lost it upon hearing that. "You two are married?" he asked incredulously, laughing. "How the hell did that happen?"
She glared at him. "I was trying to stop Jason from marrying that... that... girl and things just sort of got out of hand," she told him sheepishly, yet defensively.
"And you ended up marrying him?" he barked amusedly. "Did you at least stop Jason's wedding?"
"No," she admitted quietly.
"Let me get this straight," he said, trying to hold back his laughter. "Not only did you fail in stopping Jason from getting married to your ex-sister-in-law, you ended up married to your ex-stepfather/lover's brother that's supposed to be protecting you from a guy that was pushed off a balcony at the Port Charles Hotel seven months ago who was upset at your ex-husband's ex-lover?"
She couldn't help but laugh herself. Luke always had a way of putting things in a certain perspective. "When you say it like that, it sounds like something from As The World Turns."
"This whole town could be a soap opera, darlin'. You know that."
"Yeah, I can see it now," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Port Charles."
"Nah," Luke said, getting up to pour them drinks from his private stash of good scotch. "We're probably not interesting enough. They'd have to bring on vampires and psycho doctors."
Chapter 5
Author: speedy
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Expecting her second child and caught up in a mafia war, Carly Corinthos has a secret that will change the lives of everyone she knows.
Disclaimer: I'm not the Rat, so obviously the characters aren't mine. I'm just borrowing them for awhile.
Notes: Just moving this over from my now defunct website. This veers off canon right before the panic room fiasco in 2003.
Chapter 3
Frisco stepped apprehensively out of the elevators of GH and spotted his former sister-in-law working at the nurses' station just a few feet away. He took a deep breath and approached her slowly.
"Hey, Bobbie," he said, smiling with all the boyish charm he could muster.
She looked up, her stunned eyes meeting his, then squealed in surprised delight. "Oh my god, Frisco! You're home!" she rushed around the desk to give him a big hug. "It's so good to see you're still in one piece!" she halfheartedly teased.
"I'm just lucky like that," he replied, chuckling. "Is my brother around anywhere? Lucas said he was on duty today."
"He's doing rounds. I'll page him for you." She reached for the phone and paged Tony over the PA system. "So you stopped by Kelly's I take it."
"For a moment, yeah. I was looking for the girls, but they don't seem to be around right now."
"Those two always seem to be off doing something these days, ever since they got boyfriends."
"Boyfriends?" he repeated sadly. He knew they were that age, but he hadn't expected his little girls to be dating yet. "I certainly came home at the right time. I'm sure Mac could use some help keeping them locked up, at least until they're 30."
Bobbie laughed, lightly slapping his chest. "Oh, Frisco! You can't keep them locked up forever. Besides, they might find someone like you."
"In that case, they're getting locked up until they're 70," he said, watching as his brother swiftly walked down the hallway towards them, busy looking through a chart.
"Oh, you're not that bad!"
Hearing his kid brother's voice, Tony stopped what he was doing and raised his head. Frisco smiled, seeing his brother stunned speechless. "Is that all you've got to say to me?" he teased.
Tony crossed his arms as he reached them. "Sorry, I'm just trying to figure out where to start."
"Well, 'hello' and 'how are you' are always good."
"I prefer 'what the hell are you doing here'."
Frisco shrugged, taken back by his older brother's coldness. "I came to see my brother and my daughters. Something wrong with that?"
Tony's voice was anything but welcoming. "When you just show up out of nowhere after all these years, yes."
Bobbie rolled her eyes. "For goodness sakes, Tony! Can't you just be happy he's here right now?"
"It's a little difficult when I don't hear from him but once every two or three years, when he can remember to spare a minute to say hello to me."
"Fine," Frisco said with a sigh. "Then I won't tell you my big news." He started to walk back to the elevators.
Tony shook his head and tossed the chart onto the desk. "Alright, I'll bite. What's the big news?"
The younger brother turned back around, his hand running through the hair at the back of his head. "I, uh, got married," he told them, trying to smile as if he was happy about it.
"Frisco, that's wonderful," Bobbie said excitedly.
"Married, little brother?" Tony asked skeptically.
The agent looked at his brother, offended. "Yeah, married. Can't I even get a congratulations from you?"
"I feel sorry for your wife considering you left the last one for your job. Five times, if I remember correctly."
Frisco threw his hands in the air in frustration. "Jesus! Nothing I do is ever enough for you, is it? Because I don't fit this perfect image you have in your mind of what I should be, just like you." Behind him, the elevator doors opened. He took one last look at this brother. "You're no better than Dad." He slipped into the elevator just before the doors closed.
Carly's blood turned cold. She'd seen her best friend, her brother and her ex-husband, yet none of them had recognized her. Maybe it was just that they had no reason to. But then why would Luke recognize her?
"I... I'm not Caroline," she stammered.
"You've lost your touch, Caroline. There was a point in time when even I couldn't tell if you were lying."
She pulled herself together. She'd done this before. She had lived cover story after cover story for almost two years. She could lie to Luke. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said, leaning back and crossing her legs, keeping her hands still on the table.
"Come on, tell me what you're up to!" he urged, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Do you treat all your customers like this?"
"Just the ones that are blood." She opened her mouth to deny it again, but he stopped her. "Don't bother denying it, Caroline. I ain't buying."
She sighed. "How..."
"I never trusted her," he replied, cutting her off.
She snorted. "You never trusted me."
"True, but you actually answer to Caroline. She never did. And she's not nearly the pain in the ass that you are." He stood up. "Let's go back to my office," he said, nodding towards the back of the club.
Carly followed him quietly. Once in the privacy of his office, he sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Want to tell me what happened?"
"I was kidnapped," she told him, sitting in one of the chairs across from him. "Charlotte took my place." Much to Carly's dismay, Luke started laughing. She almost regretted missing him. "I'm glad you think this is funny."
"It is! You came here pretending to be her and she came here pretending to be you," he said, his laughter dying down to a chuckle. "So how did she manage to kidnap you?"
Carly looked down sullenly. "She didn't. Luis Alcazar did."
"Luis Alcazar?" he repeated in confusion. "What did he have to do with anything?"
"He was the one that kidnapped me. Charlotte just saw an opportunity and took it. Luis didn't know about it until he came here with Brenda."
"Why would Alcazar have wanted to do something like that?"
"Some twisted sense of revenge. Brenda hadn't let go of Sonny and Luis was furious about it."
"What about Charlotte?"
"I don't know why she did what she did. I don't even know how she's alive. Why did everyone just accept that she was me?"
"You'd been away for a couple weeks, no one knew where you were. Then she shows up. She was thinner, her hair was shorter and darker," Luke told her. "She said she just felt like changing it and you really hadn't been eating before you left. She knew everyone, she knew everything about you, she acted like you for the most part. Everyone just figured the divorce from Sonny was the difference in you."
"But you didn't buy it."
"I did in the beginning, but there was something just off about her. I couldn't put my finger on it. Then when she didn't answer to Caroline, I knew she wasn't my niece. I pulled out the papers I gathered when I was looking for you and there was a picture of you and her. You two looked like sisters. With a little effort, she could pass for you. I just never could figure out why she'd want to."
Carly shook her head sadly, tears in her eyes. "Mama, Michael, Jason... I still can't believe they believe her."
"She's a convincing liar, I'll give her that. Even I was fooled for a while." Luke shrugged. "How'd you get away from Alcazar?"
"The WSB freed me, but Alcazar attacked us before we could get out of Venezuela. So they put me in protective custody. I've had a 24-hour guard ever since."
"I don't see a guard around now," he replied, gesturing around his office.
She sighed, thinking of Frisco, one of the rare times she thought kindly of him. "He's mad at me right now. I kinda screwed up. He'll come find me in a little while."
"How'd you manage to screw up protective custody?" Luke snickered.
"Coming here," she explained guiltily. "He didn't want to, I had to talk him into it."
"He got something against Port Chuckles?"
"Two daughters, a brother, an ex-wife and her ex-husband. He says it hurts too much to see them when he can't be with them."
"Now that sounds like something Frisco Jones would say."
"I should've known you'd know him," she groaned.
Luke leaned forward, smirking. "You mean to tell me the guy you've been stuck with day and night all this time is Frisco? Tony's brother Frisco?" he asked, chuckling.
"Please don't laugh, Luke. I'm aware of the irony."
"So he's mad at you just for talking him into coming back?"
Carly grimaced. If he laughed at the fact Frisco was protecting her, he was going die at how she'd really screwed things up. "It's a little more complicated than that."
"How so?"
"Well, we're kind of, um..." she trailed off, fidgeting nervously. "Married."
Luke lost it upon hearing that. "You two are married?" he asked incredulously, laughing. "How the hell did that happen?"
She glared at him. "I was trying to stop Jason from marrying that... that... girl and things just sort of got out of hand," she told him sheepishly, yet defensively.
"And you ended up marrying him?" he barked amusedly. "Did you at least stop Jason's wedding?"
"No," she admitted quietly.
"Let me get this straight," he said, trying to hold back his laughter. "Not only did you fail in stopping Jason from getting married to your ex-sister-in-law, you ended up married to your ex-stepfather/lover's brother that's supposed to be protecting you from a guy that was pushed off a balcony at the Port Charles Hotel seven months ago who was upset at your ex-husband's ex-lover?"
She couldn't help but laugh herself. Luke always had a way of putting things in a certain perspective. "When you say it like that, it sounds like something from As The World Turns."
"This whole town could be a soap opera, darlin'. You know that."
"Yeah, I can see it now," Carly said, rolling her eyes. "Port Charles."
"Nah," Luke said, getting up to pour them drinks from his private stash of good scotch. "We're probably not interesting enough. They'd have to bring on vampires and psycho doctors."
Chapter 5
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