Daily Updates

From: rika@netcom.com (Melissa Martin)
Subject: GH: Update, Wednesday, 10/23/96
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 1996 22:21:48 GMT

                         GENERAL HOSPITAL UPDATE
                       Wednesday, October 23, 1996

Today's Storylines:
------------------
* OUR DAILY FEDERALLY-MANDATED DOSE OF BOBBIE JONES
* BATTLE STATIONS
* REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
* I HOPE THEY'RE OUT OF HONEY
* CAROLINE IN THE CITY

OUR DAILY FEDERALLY-MANDATED DOSE OF BOBBIE JONES
-------------------------------------------------
Bobbie lets Stefan into Steve Hardy's office.  She widens her eyes
at him and tells him he did a good thing in saving the hospital.
She tells him not to be offended if anyone questions his presence
in Steve's office.  She invites him to drop by the nurses' station
if he needs "anything", and begins to ever-so-slowly stroll out of
the room until Stefan asks her to wait.  (Your updater screams,
"NO, Stefan, let her go!!!!"  But it was not to be.)

Bobbie has been on Stefan's mind since he left her yesterday.
He asks how she is feeling.  Instead of answering the question,
she says she has thought about him too - his kindness and his
restraint in the face of Luke's fury.  Stefan recognized that she
was grieving in some way.  Bobbie says she'd better get back to
work - because they are both working at GH, she thinks they had
better keep personal things out of it.  Stefan is amused.

Bobbie tells Stefan he won't be able to access Steve's computer.
How she draws this conclusion, I don't know, but he says he that's
okay.  Stefan tells Bobbie that today is Nikolas's first day
working at the hospital, and he asks Bobbie to keep a widened eye
on him and throw one of those "wonderful smiles" at him now and
then.  She agrees to do so and leaves.  Stefan looks pleased with
the encounter, and immediately boots up Steve's PC.  He then
tries to contact Mac.

Bobbie reappears in time to chide Lucy and Kathy (see below).
That task accomplished, she removes Caroline's photo from her
pocket and gazes at it.  Nikolas arrives and asks if she is okay.
She tearfully shows him the picture, explaining who the little girl
is.  She then proceeds to tell Nikolas the story of her teenage
pregnancy.  He gets her reason for telling the story, and asks
her to go for a walk with him - he could use a tour.  As they
walk off, Stefan watches them go.  (I sometimes think there are
actually four or five Stefans, allowing him to always be wherever
he needs to be at a given moment).

Stefan finds Mac in the lobby.  Stefan claims to be concerned
about the charges against Tom Hardy, and about the possibility
of a major investigation affecting the confidence level in the
hospital.  Mac promises to do any investigating with discretion
and keep the press out of it.  That satisfies Stefan for now,
but he may be in touch again later.  Mac can hardly wait.

The Grand Tour apparently done, Nikolas and Bobbie return to
the nurses' station area.  She widens her eyes at him a couple
of times and tells him she never intended to tell anybody about
her daughter.  He promises not to tell anyone, and then leaves
to pick up his assignment for the day.  The omnipresent Stefan
arrives just in time to see Nikolas leave, and takes his place
on the sofa next to Bobbie.  He tells Bobbie how good she is
for Nikolas.  She assures him, "That goes both ways."

Tom goes into Steve's office, and finds Stefan (possibly one of
the Stefan clones, since last we knew he was out talking to
Bobbie) there.  Tom remarks, "I feel like a broken record - what
are you doing in my father's office again?"

Out at the nurses' station, one of the nurses reminds Bobbie of
the hospital reopening celebration coming up Friday.  She widens
her eyes at the nurse, heads for the elevator, and comes face to
face with Carly when the elevator door opens.

BATTLE STATIONS
---------------
Lucy (wearing a nifty black jumpsuit with animal-print collar and
cuffs) is nervously hanging out by the nurses' station.  Mac arrives
and asks how Kevin is doing.  Lucy thinks he may be better - he
woke up and asked for Gail.  Mac offers to get her breakfast, but
Lucy refuses.  She figures Mac is furious with her and thinks that
she filed the charges to be petty and vindictive.  She regrets
filing the charges, but she was desperate to get Kevin out of the
prison.  Mac assures Lucy he isn't mad, and they share a hug.  Just
then, Kathy stalks over and tells Lucy to get away from Mac.  Kathy
shows Mac and Lucy the front page of the "Port Charles Herald" -
there is a big photo of Mac under the headline, "Collins' Girl-
Friend:  Scorpio Abused Power."

When we return to them, Kathy is still expressing her indignation.
Mac tries to calm Kathy down without success.  Kathy orders Lucy to
call the "Port Charles Herald" and demand a retraction, and then
make public apologies to Mac on the evening news and on Veronica
Bowles's show.  Mac asks Kathy not to speak for him.  Kathy says
she is just protecting him, and Lucy tries to explain that she
filed the charges to protect the man she loves.  No, insists Kathy,
Lucy was just being nasty and vicious.  Lucy finally loses
patience - for openers, she didn't leak anything to the press.

Just then, Bobbie walks by and asks, "Would you two take this
somewhere else?"  Heck, yes, that area by the nurses' station
is NEVER used for arguments or inappropriate activities!  Mac
is only too happy to drag the combatants away.

Later, after Mac's conversation with Stefan (see above), Kathy
comes over, looking for Lucy and still frothing at the mouth.
Mac thanks her for defending him, but he wants her to cut Lucy
some slack.  She can't believe it.  He has to check in with HQ;
he asks her to resist the urge to badger Lucy, who has been
through enough lately.

Lucy arrives just then - she hopes Mac hasn't left the hospital.
Kathy snaps:  "Oh, no, he's just going to abuse some more power."
Kathy slaps down a folder (it was mighty close to being a
CLIPBOARD.....) and tells Lucy to sign it.  It's an official demand
for retraction of the newspaper article.  Lucy refuses to sign.
She tries again to explain that nothing was personal - she was just
desperate to save Kevin.  Kathy, as before, doesn't believe it,
and accuses Lucy of using Kevin's instability to justify her hateful
behavior.  Mac walks up in time to hear this, and he reminds Kathy
that he asked her to stop.  She gets angry - she is just taking his
side and standing by him.  She was just trying to help.  Mac
replies, "And, again, I've asked you to stop."  Kathy doesn't like
this - she leaves angrily.  Lucy apologizes to Mac.  Just then, a
nurse tells them that Gail just called - Kevin has asked to see
them.  They head for his room.

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST
--------------------------
Kevin is in a hospital bed, his wrists in restraints, one hand
alternately forming a fist and relaxing.  Gail Baldwin arrives.
At first, he doesn't respond to her, and she asks if he knows who
she is.  He finally speaks her name, and she remarks that he sent
for her - has he remembered something?  Kevin's reply:  "All of it."

Later, we return to them.  Some conversation must have taken place
in our absence.  Gail asks if Kevin's mother was beautiful.  He says
that Felicia, without sparkle or warmth, would be a dead ringer for
her.  Kevin remarks that it explains a lot about himself and Ryan.
Gail comments that it explains his *initial* attraction to her.
It's her hair, says Kevin - it's the same hair.  Did Kevin love
his mother?  He's not sure - "it wasn't that clean."  Most of
the time he didn't like her - not even his father did.  Yet he
must have loved her on some level, because he was jealous.  If he
hadn't been jealous, "I guess we never would have known.  Of course,
a lot of good knowing did."  Ryan would never have told - even
after he killed her, he never said a word about it, not even to
Kevin.

Gail remarks that he is assuming she knows what "it" is, but he
has never told her.  Kevin tries to evade, but Gail insists that
he has to talk about it so that he can begin to put it behind him.
(Even though we've heard the story before, I'll reproduce it here
for anybody who missed it, and also because there are a few new
details here and there).

It was the summer he was four - for Ryan it had gone on longer than
that.  Kevin had noticed his mother's trips into the bathroom with
Ryan for "private time", and wondered why she didn't like him well
enough to take him there too.  He didn't know what was happening -
he wondered why she was so flushed afterwards.  He wanted to know,
so one day he pretended to be Ryan.  It was "like a ritual":
jasmine-scented petals, oils in the water.  The water was steamy
hot.  She took Kevin's clothes off and put him in the tub.  He
was frightened - he knew "things like this weren't supposed to
happen with your mother."  He tried to get away, but she got
angry and started calling him the same kind of names she used to
call Ryan.  When the four-year-old Kevin started to cry, she "got
all nice and reassuring".  Then he started to yell that he was
not Ryan - he was Kevin.  His mother didn't believe him.  She got
angry, told him he was ruining the game, and he should "SHUT UP!"
He grabbed her by the ears and shook her "until she saw me... ME...
not Ryan."  She finally let him go.  Ryan couldn't do that - he
couldn't say, "I'm Kevin - stop molesting me."

Ryan couldn't get away.  Kevin and his father did - but they left
Ryan behind with that monster.  "And he became one too, and all
things being equal, so did I."  Gail tries to assure him that he
is not a monster, but he responds, "Do you have another word for
the kind of person who would allow the horrors that happened to
my brother, my twin, to go on and on and on?"  Gail points out
that Kevin didn't leave Ryan - he was taken away.  Kevin shouts
the $64,000 question:  "Why did my father DO that?  Why take me
and not Ryan?  Why not take both of us?"  Gail agrees that it is a
very valid question, one they should discuss at another time.  For
now, she wants him to understand that he didn't allow anything to
happen - he was just a child.  "I got away scot-free," Kevin
insists.  No he didn't, Gail tells him, he paid an enormous cost.
He left the house with unspeakable knowledge, and he suppressed it
because it was the only way he could survive.  Now he bears the
weight of survivor guilt two times over - for not being molested,
and for leaving Ryan.

Kevin insists that he should have helped Ryan.  Gail points out
that he tried to help - he told his father about the abuse.  He
did all that he could.  Children should be able to trust their
parents to do what's right for them.  It's not Kevin's fault that
his parent failed him.  Kevin says he loved Ryan - and he's so
sorry for what happened, and it hurts.

Later, Mac and Lucy visit him.  Lucy is relieved to see that they
have removed Kevin's wrist restraints.  He tells her he remembers
everything.  Mac asks how Kevin feels, and he sums it up:
"Terrible.  Better." Lucy is pleased that he is remembering - he's
going to get better, and then she's going shopping for an
"outrageous wedding dress."  Kevin grins, remarking that she
doesn't give up.  Lucy:  "On you?  Never."  Mac gets the LOD:
"You don't know the half of it," at which Kevin chuckles and Lucy
looks nervous.  While it means everything to Kevin that Lucy hasn't
given up on him, he tells her he has a lot of wrongs to set right
before he can consider a commitment like marriage, starting with
Felicia.  He wishes he were close to being ready.  Mac leaves,
telling Lucy, "Don't worry."  He leaves Kevin and Lucy holding hands
and gazing into each other's eyes.  Felicia approaches the door, but
pauses in uncertainty outside.

I HOPE THEY'RE OUT OF HONEY
---------------------------
Tom is reading the Port Charles Herald article to Felicia.  The
charges against them are mentioned in the article.  Felicia worries
that Tom might be in trouble at the hospital because of the charges,
and apologizes for getting Tom into "all of this."  Tom replies that
they are in it together - that is, if they still *are* together?
Of course we are, says Felicia.  Tom isn't so sure - he gave Felicia
space, but now it feels like a chasm between them.  Now what?

Felicia is ashamed of having held Tom at gunpoint, and they haven't
gotten past it.  She thinks he must hate her for that.  He assures
her there is no room for hate in his heart when it comes to her.
Yes, he was scared at the time, but he has gotten over it.  Because
they didn't talk about it enough at the time, a space opened between
them.  Felicia remarks, "Until finally you're not making love
anymore."  Lately, all she's wanted to do is sleep.  Tom assures
her it's not an unusual reaction to a stalking, but she's worried
that he feels "deprived."  She offers him the chance to walk away
if he needs to.  He doesn't want to walk away.  What if I'm "out
of sync" for months, she asks?  (Yeah, your updater should be so
lucky....)  He'll wait, anticipate, and remember the past.  As to
what happens next - well, I doubt I have to paint you a picture.

We rejoin them in bed.  Tom would like to spend the whole day
there, but he needs to get to the hospital.  Felicia decides to
go along - she wants to see Kevin.

CAROLINE IN THE CITY
--------------------
Carly is writing a note when Jason arrives, bearing a muffin from
Kelly's and coffee from Jake.  Carly is concerned that Jake knows
she is there, but Jason assures her Jake won't say anything.  Carly
thanks Jason for bringing the food; he asks why she is so nervous.
Is someone else looking for her - besides Dr. Jones?

Carly asks what Tony said when he asked about her.  She tells Jason
that Tony is the one she's in love with.  She tells him that Tony
was lonely, that Bobbie slept around, and that Bobbie lied to Tony
about important stuff.  Jason gets in a good line:  "Oh, and that's
a problem for you?", but he smiles when he says it.  Carly says she
wouldn't lie to Tony if she didn't have to.  She tells Jason about
Luke's threats - she figures he might even ask Sonny to take care
of her.  Jason doubts it would come to that - but, when she
questions him, he admits that if Sonny told him to find Carly,
he'd do it.

Carly asks Jason if he thinks she is wrong to want to be with
Tony.  She thinks she and Tony and Lucas could be happy together.
She didn't even like Tony at first, but whenever she needed anything,
he was there.  She can't imagine her life without him now.  Jason
understands - even when the loved one isn't around, they are the
reason you get up in the morning.  Carly thinks Jason is lucky:
nobody thinks he is wrong to love Robin.  So what, says Jason -
what is in his heart for Robin has nothing to do with what other
people think.  Carly agrees - no matter what Bobbie or Luke say,
she loves Tony and she's not going to give him up.

--------------------
by Rika, 1/2 of the Wednesday Update Team