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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 18
Frisco sighed aggravatedly at the sound of his ringing cell phone again. Between the phone and the cold shoulder he was getting from most of the guys, he wasn't getting much done. "Jones."
"I've been arrested."
He recognized the cold, emotionless voice immediately. Jason Morgan. He was away meeting with Lorenzo Alcazar again. Obviously something had gone wrong. Frisco groaned. This was the last thing they needed. "I'm not a lawyer. Maybe you should call your aptly named cousin."
"Scott Baldwin somehow found out about Alcazar's shipment. We were raided."
"What about Alcazar?"
"Never showed."
What a coincidence. He had no doubt this meeting was a setup. "Make a deal," he instructed the younger man.
"I am not making a deal with Baldwin."
Frisco didn't really want to deal with uncooperativeness. The kid needed to be here giving out orders, not behind bars. "Tell him what was going down and about Sonny. Tell him you'll hand him Lorenzo Alcazar on a silver platter. If he isn't biting, call me again and I'll talk to Scott. It wouldn't hurt to have the PCPD and the District Attorney on our side on this."
Jason was unconvinced. "Baldwin is not going to help us. He has been gunning for Sonny and I for years."
"He can be reasonable. And if nothing else, he knows me. He knows which side of the law I work on."
"We don't have time for this. Just come down here and bail me out."
Frisco wasn't about to take orders from a hit man. "I'm not bailing you out on anything. Make the deal."
He ended the call, dropping the phone irritatedly. All he could do was wait.
"Get out," Charlotte demanded, before Ric Lansing could even get a word out.
Carly had been in the kitchen making herself a sandwich when she heard the door. A hand on the gun she was keeping close by, she walked to the living room in time for the fireworks.
"I just came by to see if there's been any word on Sonny," Ric replied, concerned.
"I'm not telling you anything!" Charlotte yelled, pointing to the door. "Now, get out!"
"Please reconsider, Carly."
Ric's tone was calm and even. But it was the look in his eyes that chilled Carly to the bone. He suddenly reminded her very much of the pictures she'd seen in the newspapers of Ted Bundy. Cool, collected, charming even, on the outside, but his eyes betrayed the darkness of his soul.
"I don't want you here, Ric. I don't want you anywhere near my family," Charlotte said, glaring at him. "Leave or I'll have Max throw your ass out."
He relented, holding a hand up in defeat. "Fine. I'll go," he said, stepping towards the door.
The two women shared a concerned look as the door closed behind him. Charlotte walked over the bar, a hand on her bulging belly.
Carly didn't know what to say. She watched Charlotte poured herself a glass of water. "That guy is psycho."
"Stay out of it." Charlotte growled. She dropped the glass, groaning in pain as she collapsed.
Carly rushed to her former friend's side. "Charlotte?"
Her breathing was erratic and she was clearly starting to panic. "The baby..." She groaned again. "Oh god..."
Michael came down the stairs, followed by Courtney. "Call an ambulance," Carly told them, looking at Courtney.
The blonde grabbed the phone, Michael kneeled to next to Carly and Charlotte. "Mommy?"
Carly gently pushed him away. "Michael, she's going to be fine, but we need to give her a little space. Okay, sweetie?"
The boy just nodded and took a couple steps back, obviously scared. She wanted to reach out to him, but turned back to Charlotte instead. "Lay on your back," Carly told her, helping her turn over.
"The ambulance is on its way," Courtney said from behind her. "What can I do?"
Carly pointed in the general direction of the sofa. "Pillow..."
The blonde handed her a throw pillows from the sofa. Carly put it underneath Charlotte's head. "You need to calm down, Carly." The name sounded so alien to her, but she gave it no thought as she held the other woman's hand. "Just take deep breaths."
"It's going to be okay," she heard Courtney tell Michael.
Carly glanced back and to her dismay, saw Pollyanna kneeling with her arms around Michael, comforting him.
That was supposed to be her job.
Frisco sifted through the Carly-edited pages of the file, passing on potentially useful information to Stan for further investigation. Through Consolidated, Alcazar had warehouses and piers throughout the world. Sonny could be held at any one of them.
Or worse.
Carly had done a good job of editing out non-relevant information, but he wasn't sure it was enough. A trip back to the penthouse with Stan might be necessary. Jason had questioned Sonny's bodyguards, coming back with nothing. He refused Frisco's request to talk to them himself, so the hit man's word was all they had.
At the rate the investigation was going, it was a needle in a haystack until Alcazar made his move.
"Hey, Jones, can I ask you a question?" Stan said quietly.
"What?"
The computer geek hesitated. "Do you think the boss is dead?"
Frisco's eyes never left the file. "No," he replied, shaking his head. "We have something Alcazar wants..."
His voice drifted off. The words Port Charles jumped off the paper at him.
"Jason!" the agent shouted, adrenaline beginning to rush through his veins as it usually did when he hit a good lead. The younger man rushed over, standing next to Stan. Frisco grinned. "I think I know where Sonny is." He pointed to the entry on the list of assets. "Alcazar has three warehouses in Port Charles, all in different sections of the waterfront, leased through another company..."
"I know the company," Jason said, cutting him off.
"According to the last activity reports," Frisco moved his finger to the second address, "this has been the most active over the last few days."
"Great. Let's go." Jason didn't move, though. His eyes remained locked on Frisco. "Unless you have another suggestion, of course," he added knowingly, with a hint of annoyance.
"It's just a hunch, Jason. An educated hunch, but still a hunch. There's no guarantee I'm right."
Jason crossed his arms, sighing irritatedly. "Just spit it out, Jones. I know you've already got your own plan."
Frisco ignored his tone. "Three teams, one at each warehouse. No one moves in until we have something more solid."
There was no argument from Jason, to Frisco's surprise. He only issued an order as he walked to the front room, where the rest of the men were waiting. "Stan, make sure Frisco gets whatever we need. I'll take care of the guys."
The ambulance arrived in only few minutes to take Charlotte to General Hospital. At Courtney's request, Carly went along with Charlotte in ambulance. Courtney stayed behind to wait for Leticia. It was decided that it was best for Michael if he stayed at the penthouse instead of going to the hospital.
Charlotte was rushed through the emergency doors. Carly slowly followed as the gurney was pulled behind a curtain. She watched in silence as the other woman was moved to an ER bed. A nurse entered, someone Carly didn't recognize, taking Charlotte's vitals and talking to the paramedics before they left.
Carly actually understood most of what was being said from nursing school. Charlotte's blood pressure was understandably raised, but everything else seemed normal.
She fidgeted while the nurse - Natalie, according to her badge - asked the same basic questions the paramedics had earlier.
Mama. The thought of her mother entered her mind and stabbed at her heart. As much as it killed her, Bobbie should know. She thought Charlotte was her daughter; she'd be concerned about her. Someone had to tell her.
"Is Bobbie Spencer working today?" Carly asked, interrupting the nurse.
"I think so."
"Would you have her paged? This is her daughter."
"Oh, alright. I'll be right back."
The nurse left, but quickly returned with supplies. She started to put in an IV. "The doctor will be in in just a moment," she said, looking at both of them.
A moment was right. The words were barely out of the woman's mouth and the doctor appeared. Carly turned her head to see who it was and internally cringed. Monica Quartermaine, her former mother-in-law. Oh joy.
"Carly," the petite blonde said coldly. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut. "Cramps," she replied breathlessly.
"Okay, Natalie here is going to get you hooked up to a fetal monitor and I'm going to see what we can give you to stop those cramps."
Monica walked out into the hallway, gesturing to Carly to follow her. She stopped a few feet away and turned around. "Robin, right?" she asked in hushed voice. "Frisco's new wife?"
Carly had to remind herself that she was playing the part of sweet little Mrs. Jones, who was new to Port Charles. She smiled politely, repressing all the evil thoughts she was having about her ex-mother-in-law. "That's me."
"Do you know how Carly's cramps started?"
"She's been really stressed lately."
"That stress wouldn't happen to have anything to do with why I haven't been able to get a hold of my son the last couple of days?"
Her smile faded. "I probably shouldn't say anything," she replied nervously.
The look on Monica's was resignation. "I'm going to go ahead and admit Carly for observation tonight. It's very important now that she gets relaxed and stays relaxed. The more stressed she is, the more likely she's going to miscarry."
"I'll try my best to keep her calm, Dr. Quartermaine."
"Please, call me Monica," she said, actually looking friendly as she touched Carly's arm. "I need to go check on the medication now, let me know immediately if anything changes."
Carly watched her walk down the hallway, stopping at the nurses' station. She felt like she'd just stepped into Bizarro World. Monica being nice to her, helping Charlotte, keeping this stupid lie going... She glanced back at the curtain. This was beginning to get just plain weird.
"Robin!"
Carly groaned and reluctantly turned her head. Blondie was rushing towards her. God, she needed a vacation.
Jason and Frisco sat in a beat up van outside of the active warehouse, a safe distance away but still in visual contact. Small teams of men that Jason assured Frisco were good had been dispatched to the other two warehouses, in radio contact with their boss and the "g-man", as they were referring to Frisco behind his back. The rest of Jason's men were busy preparing for the rescue and inevitable shootout.
"What do you know about the Alcazar organization?" Jason asked, breaking their self-imposed silence.
"What do you know?" Frisco replied, eyeing the younger man.
"Don't answer a question with a question."
"Answer mine and I'll be able to answer yours."
Jason sighed, obviously reluctant, but chose to answer the question anyway. "I know what we had on Luis, what I dug up on the drugs. But we never aware of any brother. His name was never mentioned anywhere."
"It wouldn't be. Lorenzo ran the back end. Luis was the front man, the negotiator, the businessman. Lorenzo ran the guerilla ops, controlled the security, did the dirty work."
According to the background Frisco had on the Corinthos organization and what Carly had told him, it sounded like a similar position to Jason's on the surface.
The younger man nodded slightly, coming to the same conclusion. "So he answered to Luis."
"No, they were equal. Luis made the deals and controlled the money. Lorenzo delivered the goods and backed up their threats."
"How well do you know him?"
"Well enough."
"What should I be expecting?"
"He's cold blooded and completely ruthless, far more than Luis ever was. He's meticulous, a stickler for details. He's very intelligent, with history degrees from Oxford. He's very good at strategy. And he never makes an idle threat." Frisco paused, weighing his next words. "The WSB has lost a few agents by underestimating him."
Cars pulled up to the entrance to the warehouse and several men got out. "It's Alcazar," Jason said coldly. "He's going inside."
"I guess we've got the right place. Let's pull the other teams in and get ready."
Blondie was next to Carly before she could even take another breath.
"How's Carly?" she asked in a rush.
"She's being admitted for tonight," Carly told her. "They're going to give her something to stop the cramps."
"So they haven't stopped?"
"Not yet. Monica Quartermaine is her doctor. She said Carly needs to stay relaxed."
"Relax?" Courtney cried. "How is she supposed to relax when her husband is missing?"
Carly shrugged. "She has to or she'll lose the baby."
Courtney closed her eyes and pushed her hair back in frustration. "God, can this week get any worse?"
"Oh yeah, it can always get worse," Carly said, the words seemingly bypassing her brain and going straight out of her mouth. They couldn't just stand out here in the hallway, one of them had to go back in and she wasn't about to do it. "Why don't you go in and sit with her?" she suggested, giving the blonde a weak but devious smile. "I'll go outside and try to get a hold of Jason."
"Okay."
Carly waited until Courtney had disappeared to leave. She walked outside the emergency room entrance, into the parking lot. She leaned against the wall, the rough bricks digging into her back. Alone, the stress of the last couple of days zapped her strength.
She was in way over her head.
Chapter 20
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 18
Frisco sighed aggravatedly at the sound of his ringing cell phone again. Between the phone and the cold shoulder he was getting from most of the guys, he wasn't getting much done. "Jones."
"I've been arrested."
He recognized the cold, emotionless voice immediately. Jason Morgan. He was away meeting with Lorenzo Alcazar again. Obviously something had gone wrong. Frisco groaned. This was the last thing they needed. "I'm not a lawyer. Maybe you should call your aptly named cousin."
"Scott Baldwin somehow found out about Alcazar's shipment. We were raided."
"What about Alcazar?"
"Never showed."
What a coincidence. He had no doubt this meeting was a setup. "Make a deal," he instructed the younger man.
"I am not making a deal with Baldwin."
Frisco didn't really want to deal with uncooperativeness. The kid needed to be here giving out orders, not behind bars. "Tell him what was going down and about Sonny. Tell him you'll hand him Lorenzo Alcazar on a silver platter. If he isn't biting, call me again and I'll talk to Scott. It wouldn't hurt to have the PCPD and the District Attorney on our side on this."
Jason was unconvinced. "Baldwin is not going to help us. He has been gunning for Sonny and I for years."
"He can be reasonable. And if nothing else, he knows me. He knows which side of the law I work on."
"We don't have time for this. Just come down here and bail me out."
Frisco wasn't about to take orders from a hit man. "I'm not bailing you out on anything. Make the deal."
He ended the call, dropping the phone irritatedly. All he could do was wait.
"Get out," Charlotte demanded, before Ric Lansing could even get a word out.
Carly had been in the kitchen making herself a sandwich when she heard the door. A hand on the gun she was keeping close by, she walked to the living room in time for the fireworks.
"I just came by to see if there's been any word on Sonny," Ric replied, concerned.
"I'm not telling you anything!" Charlotte yelled, pointing to the door. "Now, get out!"
"Please reconsider, Carly."
Ric's tone was calm and even. But it was the look in his eyes that chilled Carly to the bone. He suddenly reminded her very much of the pictures she'd seen in the newspapers of Ted Bundy. Cool, collected, charming even, on the outside, but his eyes betrayed the darkness of his soul.
"I don't want you here, Ric. I don't want you anywhere near my family," Charlotte said, glaring at him. "Leave or I'll have Max throw your ass out."
He relented, holding a hand up in defeat. "Fine. I'll go," he said, stepping towards the door.
The two women shared a concerned look as the door closed behind him. Charlotte walked over the bar, a hand on her bulging belly.
Carly didn't know what to say. She watched Charlotte poured herself a glass of water. "That guy is psycho."
"Stay out of it." Charlotte growled. She dropped the glass, groaning in pain as she collapsed.
Carly rushed to her former friend's side. "Charlotte?"
Her breathing was erratic and she was clearly starting to panic. "The baby..." She groaned again. "Oh god..."
Michael came down the stairs, followed by Courtney. "Call an ambulance," Carly told them, looking at Courtney.
The blonde grabbed the phone, Michael kneeled to next to Carly and Charlotte. "Mommy?"
Carly gently pushed him away. "Michael, she's going to be fine, but we need to give her a little space. Okay, sweetie?"
The boy just nodded and took a couple steps back, obviously scared. She wanted to reach out to him, but turned back to Charlotte instead. "Lay on your back," Carly told her, helping her turn over.
"The ambulance is on its way," Courtney said from behind her. "What can I do?"
Carly pointed in the general direction of the sofa. "Pillow..."
The blonde handed her a throw pillows from the sofa. Carly put it underneath Charlotte's head. "You need to calm down, Carly." The name sounded so alien to her, but she gave it no thought as she held the other woman's hand. "Just take deep breaths."
"It's going to be okay," she heard Courtney tell Michael.
Carly glanced back and to her dismay, saw Pollyanna kneeling with her arms around Michael, comforting him.
That was supposed to be her job.
Frisco sifted through the Carly-edited pages of the file, passing on potentially useful information to Stan for further investigation. Through Consolidated, Alcazar had warehouses and piers throughout the world. Sonny could be held at any one of them.
Or worse.
Carly had done a good job of editing out non-relevant information, but he wasn't sure it was enough. A trip back to the penthouse with Stan might be necessary. Jason had questioned Sonny's bodyguards, coming back with nothing. He refused Frisco's request to talk to them himself, so the hit man's word was all they had.
At the rate the investigation was going, it was a needle in a haystack until Alcazar made his move.
"Hey, Jones, can I ask you a question?" Stan said quietly.
"What?"
The computer geek hesitated. "Do you think the boss is dead?"
Frisco's eyes never left the file. "No," he replied, shaking his head. "We have something Alcazar wants..."
His voice drifted off. The words Port Charles jumped off the paper at him.
"Jason!" the agent shouted, adrenaline beginning to rush through his veins as it usually did when he hit a good lead. The younger man rushed over, standing next to Stan. Frisco grinned. "I think I know where Sonny is." He pointed to the entry on the list of assets. "Alcazar has three warehouses in Port Charles, all in different sections of the waterfront, leased through another company..."
"I know the company," Jason said, cutting him off.
"According to the last activity reports," Frisco moved his finger to the second address, "this has been the most active over the last few days."
"Great. Let's go." Jason didn't move, though. His eyes remained locked on Frisco. "Unless you have another suggestion, of course," he added knowingly, with a hint of annoyance.
"It's just a hunch, Jason. An educated hunch, but still a hunch. There's no guarantee I'm right."
Jason crossed his arms, sighing irritatedly. "Just spit it out, Jones. I know you've already got your own plan."
Frisco ignored his tone. "Three teams, one at each warehouse. No one moves in until we have something more solid."
There was no argument from Jason, to Frisco's surprise. He only issued an order as he walked to the front room, where the rest of the men were waiting. "Stan, make sure Frisco gets whatever we need. I'll take care of the guys."
The ambulance arrived in only few minutes to take Charlotte to General Hospital. At Courtney's request, Carly went along with Charlotte in ambulance. Courtney stayed behind to wait for Leticia. It was decided that it was best for Michael if he stayed at the penthouse instead of going to the hospital.
Charlotte was rushed through the emergency doors. Carly slowly followed as the gurney was pulled behind a curtain. She watched in silence as the other woman was moved to an ER bed. A nurse entered, someone Carly didn't recognize, taking Charlotte's vitals and talking to the paramedics before they left.
Carly actually understood most of what was being said from nursing school. Charlotte's blood pressure was understandably raised, but everything else seemed normal.
She fidgeted while the nurse - Natalie, according to her badge - asked the same basic questions the paramedics had earlier.
Mama. The thought of her mother entered her mind and stabbed at her heart. As much as it killed her, Bobbie should know. She thought Charlotte was her daughter; she'd be concerned about her. Someone had to tell her.
"Is Bobbie Spencer working today?" Carly asked, interrupting the nurse.
"I think so."
"Would you have her paged? This is her daughter."
"Oh, alright. I'll be right back."
The nurse left, but quickly returned with supplies. She started to put in an IV. "The doctor will be in in just a moment," she said, looking at both of them.
A moment was right. The words were barely out of the woman's mouth and the doctor appeared. Carly turned her head to see who it was and internally cringed. Monica Quartermaine, her former mother-in-law. Oh joy.
"Carly," the petite blonde said coldly. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Charlotte squeezed her eyes shut. "Cramps," she replied breathlessly.
"Okay, Natalie here is going to get you hooked up to a fetal monitor and I'm going to see what we can give you to stop those cramps."
Monica walked out into the hallway, gesturing to Carly to follow her. She stopped a few feet away and turned around. "Robin, right?" she asked in hushed voice. "Frisco's new wife?"
Carly had to remind herself that she was playing the part of sweet little Mrs. Jones, who was new to Port Charles. She smiled politely, repressing all the evil thoughts she was having about her ex-mother-in-law. "That's me."
"Do you know how Carly's cramps started?"
"She's been really stressed lately."
"That stress wouldn't happen to have anything to do with why I haven't been able to get a hold of my son the last couple of days?"
Her smile faded. "I probably shouldn't say anything," she replied nervously.
The look on Monica's was resignation. "I'm going to go ahead and admit Carly for observation tonight. It's very important now that she gets relaxed and stays relaxed. The more stressed she is, the more likely she's going to miscarry."
"I'll try my best to keep her calm, Dr. Quartermaine."
"Please, call me Monica," she said, actually looking friendly as she touched Carly's arm. "I need to go check on the medication now, let me know immediately if anything changes."
Carly watched her walk down the hallway, stopping at the nurses' station. She felt like she'd just stepped into Bizarro World. Monica being nice to her, helping Charlotte, keeping this stupid lie going... She glanced back at the curtain. This was beginning to get just plain weird.
"Robin!"
Carly groaned and reluctantly turned her head. Blondie was rushing towards her. God, she needed a vacation.
Jason and Frisco sat in a beat up van outside of the active warehouse, a safe distance away but still in visual contact. Small teams of men that Jason assured Frisco were good had been dispatched to the other two warehouses, in radio contact with their boss and the "g-man", as they were referring to Frisco behind his back. The rest of Jason's men were busy preparing for the rescue and inevitable shootout.
"What do you know about the Alcazar organization?" Jason asked, breaking their self-imposed silence.
"What do you know?" Frisco replied, eyeing the younger man.
"Don't answer a question with a question."
"Answer mine and I'll be able to answer yours."
Jason sighed, obviously reluctant, but chose to answer the question anyway. "I know what we had on Luis, what I dug up on the drugs. But we never aware of any brother. His name was never mentioned anywhere."
"It wouldn't be. Lorenzo ran the back end. Luis was the front man, the negotiator, the businessman. Lorenzo ran the guerilla ops, controlled the security, did the dirty work."
According to the background Frisco had on the Corinthos organization and what Carly had told him, it sounded like a similar position to Jason's on the surface.
The younger man nodded slightly, coming to the same conclusion. "So he answered to Luis."
"No, they were equal. Luis made the deals and controlled the money. Lorenzo delivered the goods and backed up their threats."
"How well do you know him?"
"Well enough."
"What should I be expecting?"
"He's cold blooded and completely ruthless, far more than Luis ever was. He's meticulous, a stickler for details. He's very intelligent, with history degrees from Oxford. He's very good at strategy. And he never makes an idle threat." Frisco paused, weighing his next words. "The WSB has lost a few agents by underestimating him."
Cars pulled up to the entrance to the warehouse and several men got out. "It's Alcazar," Jason said coldly. "He's going inside."
"I guess we've got the right place. Let's pull the other teams in and get ready."
Blondie was next to Carly before she could even take another breath.
"How's Carly?" she asked in a rush.
"She's being admitted for tonight," Carly told her. "They're going to give her something to stop the cramps."
"So they haven't stopped?"
"Not yet. Monica Quartermaine is her doctor. She said Carly needs to stay relaxed."
"Relax?" Courtney cried. "How is she supposed to relax when her husband is missing?"
Carly shrugged. "She has to or she'll lose the baby."
Courtney closed her eyes and pushed her hair back in frustration. "God, can this week get any worse?"
"Oh yeah, it can always get worse," Carly said, the words seemingly bypassing her brain and going straight out of her mouth. They couldn't just stand out here in the hallway, one of them had to go back in and she wasn't about to do it. "Why don't you go in and sit with her?" she suggested, giving the blonde a weak but devious smile. "I'll go outside and try to get a hold of Jason."
"Okay."
Carly waited until Courtney had disappeared to leave. She walked outside the emergency room entrance, into the parking lot. She leaned against the wall, the rough bricks digging into her back. Alone, the stress of the last couple of days zapped her strength.
She was in way over her head.
Chapter 20
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