CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

BALLROOM, THE NURSES BALL:

Chloe(as Mac seats her)Mac, thank you for inviting me to be your date for the evening. I always hate coming to these events alone.

Mac: I know what you mean. So, how long do you think you’ll be staying in Port Charles, this time.

Chloe: Well, at least until Sonny and Carly’s wedding which is supposed to happen a week from now.

Bobbie:(comes up to them)Hello, Mac. (she nods coldly in Chloe’s direction)Chloe. Mac, have you heard from Felicia, lately.

Mac: Why would I? If anyone hears from her it would be your brother not me.

Bobbie: I just thought Felicia would call you because your so close to the girls. (she turns to Chloe)Mac is the only real father they’ve ever known.

Chloe: I see.

Bobbie: Well, I’m so sorry I intruded on your date, Mac. The next time I talk to Felicia I’ll let her know you’re not feeling lonely without her and the girls around.

Chloe(watching as Bobbie heads off to her table)I think she was trying to make me feel guilty for being out with you a married man.

Mac: Did she succeed?

Chloe: Not in the slightest. You’re not the first married man I’ve been out with. Oh, dear, I see I’ve shocked you again.

Mac: So you know about dildos and married men. What else do you know about?

Chloe: I’d say that’s for me to know and for you to find out. (she smiles as she takes a sip of her champagne)

Mac: (watching Bobbie)I really don’t know where Bobbie gets off. Felicia’s the one who spent the last year chasing after a married man and Bobbie acts like I’m the one whose betraying her because she sees me out with a beautiful woman.

Chloe: So you think I’m beautiful.

Mac: You know you are. I may not like much about Jax, but I do like his taste in women.

Chloe: I’ll be sure to tell him so. So can I count on you to bid on me when the time comes?

Mac: What are you talking about?

Chloe: Lucy Coe convinced some of us women to offer ourselves up as dates for a bachelorette auction so the men can bid on us. We’re going to do this little song and dance number where we all dress up like hookers. I even understand that some of the woman involved in the number were really once hookers, themselves. It’s rather distasteful but I agreed to do it because its for charity.

Mac: You don’t sound like you like hookers very much. Do you have a problem with them.

Chloe: I just can’t understand why any woman would be willing to do that to her body for money. If I was poor and hungry I would never sell my body for money. And there’s not just that. They don’t care if the men they sleep with have a wife and children waiting at home for them. They don’t care that by doing what they’re doing they could be breaking up a family. All they care is the men have enough money to pay for their favors.

Mac(as his suspicions about Chloe being the murderer begin to grow)You sound like this is something personal.

Chloe; I suppose it is. My father would always go to hookers to have sex with them throughout his marriage to my mother. In fact, a hooker was the reason my father eventually left both me and my mother when I was a child. He fell in love with this hooker and married her. She left the life when she managed to land herself a rich husband. In the process I lost my father all because of some cheap hooker who didn‘t care that she was dropping her pants for a married man who had a child at home wishing her father was around to tuck her in at night and tell her bedtime stories instead of crawling in bed with some hooker.

Bobbie(as she sits down at Sonny and Carly’s table)I can’t believe Mac had the nerve to come here with Chloe Morgan.

Sonny: Would you prefer he’d come with Laura instead.

Bobbie: I’d prefer that Mac had come alone. How can he do this to poor Felicia.

Carly: Poor Felicia is getting what she deserves from what I’ve heard.

Bobbie: Carly, I know you’ve never liked her...

Carly: That’s right, and the feeling is mutual. I still remember that crappy present that airhead gave me at my bridal shower and she thought she was so cute doing it, too. It would serve her right if her husband finds somebody else. Anyone stupid enough to get involved with Uncle Luke gets what’s coming to them.

Stefan(stops at Sonny’s table as he heads to his own)Mr. Corinthos. Ms. Benson. Barbara.

Bobbie: What are you doing out of the hospital?

Stefan: I had myself released. You didn’t think I’d miss the Nurses Ball, did you. Have a nice evening. (he heads off to his own table and stops in his tracks when he sees whose sitting there)Mother, what are you doing here?

Helena: I’ve heard so much about this Nurses Ball, I thought I’d finally come to one. This is the Cassadine table, isn’t it. And I am a Cassadine. I am the mother of all Cassadines. So why shouldn’t I be sitting here. You’re not going to be dreary enough to insist I leave, are you?

Stefan: Fine, stay if you must, but don’t expect me to converse with you.(the house lights suddenly go down and Lucy comes out on stage)

Lucy: Welcome to Nurses Ball 2000. We’ve got some really great entertainment for you, this evening. I hope you’ve brought your check books and are ready to write out some big, hefty checks. Now on with the show. Our first performer tonight is our own AJ Quartermaine who promises to do a very unique performance of the song A Bicycle Built For Two. Now here’s AJ Quartermaine and Hannah Scott to perform A Bicycle Built For Two.

Carly(groans to Sonny as AJ and Hannah come out peddling a bike dressed in nineteenth century costumes)Oh great, our two most favorite people.

AJ(and Hannah continue to peddle the bike around the stage as he begins to sing)Carly! Carly! Please don’t say I do.(there’s a dead silence as he continues singing his warped lyrics)Dump that mobster, he’s not the man for you.

Hannah(hisses loudly to AJ)AJ, those aren’t the words. What do you think you’re doing!

Alan: Oh my god, he’s completely crocked.

Edward: And to think I thought when he wasn’t sitting at our table we’d be spared from him for the evening. I should have none better.

AJ(singing)It’s all right if you bed him. But please, oh please, don’t wed him.

Hannah(angrily)AJ, stop peddling this damn bike and let me off. If you want to embarrass yourself, fine, but I’m not going to continue to let you embarrass me!(he doesn’t pay her any attention as he keeps peddling dangerously close to the edge of the stage)

Sonny(shaking his head in disgust at AJ’s antics)And you wonder why I don’t want to perform on stage. Look at him. He’s making a complete ass of himself.

Carly: I told you he isn’t going to leave us alone. Even if you do what you’re planning to do to him, he still won’t leave us alone. We should just kill him and have it done with.

AJ(still singing, only he’s stopped watching where he’s going and he’s staring straight at Sonny and Carly)Come back to me. We’re destiny.

Hannah:(screams)AJ! Watch where you’re going!

AJ: Can’t you see how much I love...(the bike goes careening off the stage as AJ and Hannah go flying through the air screaming)

Sonny(finishes it for AJ as he lands on top of their table)You. Maybe you should have considered singing the Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze.

AJ(grabs Carly’s wrist and starts slobbering all over it, drunkenly)I did this for you, Carly. I wanted to show you how much I love you. Don’t marry him, Carly. He doesn’t love you, but I do. Give me another chance and I promise it’ll be different this time.

Carly(tries to pull free of his grip the more she tries to break free of him the more his grip on her begins to tighten)Let go of me! Get your slimy paws off me. What’s it going to take for you to get it through your head that your very touch repels me and it made my skin crawl when we were married to have to have sex with you. The worse mistake I ever made was marrying you and now that I’m finally free of you, I would never go back no matter how desperate I was.

Sonny(finally at an end to his patience pries AJ’s finger’s off of Carly’s wrist.)You never learn do you, Quartermaine. Do you think Carly would ever want anything to do with you after you killed our child. I’m going to tell you for the last time. Stay away from Carly.(then he gives AJ’s chest a shove that sends AJ careening backwards. He lands on top of Hannah who was just starting to get up off the floor)

Hannah(yells)Would someone get this drunk off of me!(Taggart throws back his head and laughs)

Dara: (to Taggart)Aren’t you going to jump to her aide.

Taggart: I think I’ve done enough of that, already. She chose to come to the ball with AJ, so let her get out of this mess all on her own.(Edward and Alan pull AJ off Hannah and lead him out of the ballroom)

Lucy(comes back out on stage)Well, these things happen. It wouldn’t be the Nurses Ball is someone wasn’t up to a little mischief. Now why don’t we all take a little break while the ladies participating in the bachelorette auction come backstage and prepare to perform their number.

Chloe(to Mac) Well, I guess that’s me. (Chloe gets up and heads backstage)

Taggart(leans over to Mac)So, how’s it going.

Mac; You may have been on to something, Taggart. Chloe has a very strong dislike for hookers and the woman who was murdered was an ex-hooker.

Bobbie(to Tammy)That’s us too.

Sonny(Looks at Carly)You’re not going to put yourself up on the auction block, as well?

Carly: No, why would I want to spend the evening with a stranger when I can spend it with you. And you’d better not bid on anyone, either.

Tammy(to Bobbie)You know, Bobbie, this is really kind of bizarre, isn’t it. Two ex-hookers preparing to dress up like hookers and auction ourselves off to some man.

Bobbie: It’s not really much different from what we did for a living only this time we’re doing it for charity.(they both laugh as Andreas follows them backstage to carry out his deadly mission for his Madam.)