Written in 66 minutes.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2024

General Hospital: Emergency Room Waiting Area

There were twenty-seven rows of linoleum tiles  between the elevator and the nurse’s station. Molly had paced the length so often in the last few months that she’d had more than one opportunity to check her work.

In April, waiting with Sam for news about Dante.

In August, waiting for news about Kristina and the baby. She’d been with her mother that night, with Sam, and with TJ. Surrounded by people who loved and cared about her.

Tonight, on a rainy night in October, Molly stood alone in the emergency room, waiting once again for news about a loved one — waiting to learn if the accident victim being flown to the hospital was her sister.

Twenty-seven rows of linoleum. The seventeenth one had a large crack in it, and Molly had nearly miscounted it every time but there were only twenty-seven.

Walking back and forth, her eyes trained to the floor, counting in her head though she knew the answer by heart, her arms wrapped tightly around her upper torso. Eleven, twelve—

She was careful not to step on the cracks — she wasn’t superstitious by nature, not anymore, but there enough of that romantic streak she’d had as a teenager writing stories about love in her room, to hold a little room in her mind for the strange patterns of the universe. Could stepping on a crack really break your mother’s back? Was it really bad luck?

Maybe she’d stepped on that crack in August and not known. Maybe it was somehow her fault that night had ended in tragedy, a horror that had rippled out until her life was scarcely recognizable — it was a silly thought, but Molly wasn’t just a closet superstitious romantic — she was also a control freak, and it brought a strange sense of calm to think she had any power to change what had happened miles away, far outside her view.

It was on the thirteenth trip that Molly’s attention was dragged from counting tiles and trips and avoiding cracks — she saw a familiar figure weaving in and out of a crowd of people by the emergency room doors — shaggy brown hair, lanky figure and panic etched into his young features.

She had told him to stay at home, to wait for her call.

“Is my mom here?” Danny demanded of the woman behind the counter. “Sam McCall. That’s my mom. Is she here—”

“I told you to hold on—” Jake said, finding Danny at the counter just as Molly reached him. Beside Danny’s older brother, Aiden, soaked and out of breath, leaned over, resting his hands on his thighs, trying to catch their breath.

“Danny—” Molly locked eyes with the nurse, shook her head slightly. She took her nephew’s shoulder, the t-shirt soaked to the skin. “Danny, I told you to wait for me—”

“I couldn’t. Aunt Molly—” Danny shook his head. “I couldn’t. Where is she? Where’s Mom?”

“I don’t kn0w,” Molly told him. “All I know is there was an accident near Grandmom’s house, and that they were bringing someone in. Danny, it might not even be her—”

The elevator behind her dinged, and she cut off abruptly, twisting to see a doctor and an orderly coming out — both pulling a gurney with a dark haired woman stretched out. Then TJ was there, his hands flying, talking animatedly with Elizabeth, also soaked to the bone, responding his questions. Bringing up the end of the group was Chase, holding a gauze pad, already bloodied, to his forehead.

“Elizabeth!” Danny rushed forward.

“Mom!” Jake called at the same time.

Elizabeth turned away from TJ, her eyes wide with panic, the ends of her hair whipping around her face, the tips still so soaked that drops of water were flung in every direction — one hitting Molly in the face at the same time she realized the woman on the gurney was not Sam.

But a different sister.

Kristina.

Molly swallowed the bubble of panic that rose in her throat, looking up to TJ who were still moving with the gurney, not looking back at her. Because he was so focused on his patient? Or because he couldn’t look at her? Because he knew something Molly didn’t?

Where was Sam?

“What are you doing here?” Elizabeth demanded. “What happened? Are you hurt?” She took Jake by the arm, started to scan him for injuries. “You were supposed to be at home—”

“Where’s my mother?” Danny demanded. “What happened to Aunt Kristina?”

“We’re fine, Mom, stop—” Jake shook off Elizabeth’s grasp. “Mom. Danny got a call from his mother—”

“What? You did?” Now Elizabeth’s attention was on Danny. “When? What did she say?”

“S-She—” Danny’s voice faltered. He was young, but not stupid. “She was scared. She said she couldn’t get. But she got out, didn’t she? You got her out, or Dad—where’s Dad? Where’s my dad?”

“Your dad is fine,” Elizabeth said, taking Danny by the shoulders. “He’s—he’ll be here when he can. We don’t—” She looked at Molly briefly, and the sorrow in them made Molly break the contact first. She wrapped her arms around her torso again, tightly, as if she could create a barrier around her to block out what was happening.

What reality was beginning to form.

“We don’t know where your mother is,” Elizabeth said finally, but Danny was already shaking his head.

“No, no, no, you have to know! Make someone find her phone! She called me! She said she couldn’t get out, so you have to go find  her! Call Dad and tell him to find her!”

“He and Dante are doing everything they can,” Elizabeth promised. She reached for Jake’s hand, squeezed it. “I need you to stay with your brother, okay? I need you all to stay right here. Chase is hurt, and I have to get him help—”

“I’m fine—”

“You need stitches,” Elizabeth started to say, but Willow came up behind them, some towels in her arms.

“Hey,” she said, a little breathless. “I can take Chase to get stitches. Why don’t you take the boys to the locker room, get dry?”

“I don’t—” Elizabeth started.

“I’m right here,” Molly said finally, taking a deep breath. “I’ll stay right here and wait for an update. You should—” Her voice broke, but she pushed through. “You shouldn’t sit around in those clothes. I’ll stay—I’ll stay right here.”

And keep counting tiles while her life fell apart around her.

Again.

Quartermaine Estate: Foyer

 “I should be there,” Drew said following Michael to the coat closet where the younger man rummaged for an umbrella. “I should be—”

“There’s nothing to do there,” Michael told his uncle, turning back to face him, a little impatient now. “I told you. We don’t know anything more than my father told us. We don’t—” He stopped. “They didn’t even confirm who was taken to the hospital. All we know is there was an accident, that Sam and Kristina were involved. You should stay here with Scout.”

“I just—” Drew stopped, collected himself. “Sam has to get out of this. She has to—I know you disagree with how I handled the custody situation—”

“Do I think snatching Scout out of her home just to look good in the press was a good idea?” Michael interrupted. “No. She wasn’t in any danger. Not from Sam. As soon as you found out Rocco and Dante moved out—as soon as they came to stay here, you should have dropped it. But it was more important to have the voters see you as someone who matters. And now you’re having regrets because if Sam doesn’t live, you’re the reason she didn’t get to see her daughter.”

General Hospital: Locker Room

As soon as his mother stepped out of the shower area, changed into a clean, dry pair of scrubs from her locker, Jake took her elbow and pulled her over towards the door, away from where Danny and Aiden were changing into their own borrowed scrubs.

“Mom, tell me straight. Did his mom get out?”

Elizabeth exhaled slowly, weighing the choice to keep Jake in the dark a little longer. “What did Sam tell Danny? Do you know?”

“He put her on speaker phone so he could hear her better. She sounded scared, Mom. I’ve never heard her like that. She said she couldn’t get out. She needed to tell Danny she loved him.”  Jake paused. “She was saying goodbye, wasn’t she?”

“I—I don’t know exactly. Maybe. The car went over the embankment—” Elizabeth stopped when Danny approached.

“Tell me,” the younger boy demanded. “Tell me what happened to my mom. Please.”

“We don’t know,” Elizabeth repeated. She reached for Danny’s hand. “I can tell you what I do know. Your mother and Kristina were in Sam’s car, Chase was behind them—”

“Why? Was he following them?” Jake wanted to know.

“That’s not—I’m not sure why,” Elizabeth said, then looked back to Danny. “There was an accident. The car went over the side, and the part of the road drops down towards the creek. We don’t know where it landed for sure, only that Chase could see headlights. But the hillside was muddy, and it was dark, and he couldn’t get down there right away. The creek was rising.”

“She said she couldn’t get out,” Danny said, his voice sounding small. Impossibly young. “But Aunt Kristina did.”

“I don’t know. She was unconscious when they found her.  Your dad and Dante went down when we got there. I don’t know much more than that. I’m sorry, Danny. I wish I had something more to tell you, something more definite.” She stroked his shoulder lightly. “But we’ll go back to wait with Molly. And your grandmother and Sonny are on their way. I know they could use your support.”

“And I’ll be right here,” Jake told his brother, who looked at him, his dark brown eyes swimming with tears. “I’m not going anywhere. We’ll deal with this together.”

General Hospital: ER Waiting Room

Alexis practically flew through the double doors and was halfway to the nurse’s station before she spied Molly by the elevators. “Molly? How did you get here so fast?” she demanded.

“I was already—” Molly furrowed her brow, looked at Sonny and Diane who had come in after her mother. “I was already here with TJ. We got a call from Danny—how did you know to be here? You didn’t answer any of my calls?”

“I—” Mystified, Alexis looked at Diane. “I don’t know where my phone is. I don’t—” She stopped. “What do you mean, you got a call from Danny?”

“Did the helicopter get here?” Sonny wanted to know. “The last we heard they were on their way to the hospital.”

“I—” Molly started to answer, then saw TJ exiting the trauma room, subdued. Her lip started to tremble. “TJ? What’s going on?”

“Hey. You—” TJ saw Alexis and Sonny, angled himself so that he was facing all of them. “Kristina is still unconscious. She has some superficial scratches and bumps, and we’re sending her up for a CT scan  and X-rays— we don’t think there’s any internal bleeding right now, but we don’t know anything for sure. They said that she hasn’t been conscious since they found her, so that’s our first priority.”

“She’s not awake—what did Elizabeth say when they got here? What did Chase say? Where’s Sam?” Molly demanded.

“They didn’t get Sam out?” Alexis broke in, her voice climbing an extra pitch. “What does that mean? Where is my daughter?”

“All I know is that by the time Chase reached the area where he’d seen headlights, the creek waters had risen too high to go further, and he found Kristina on the ground. He never—he never saw Sam.”

“Oh, God—” Alexis closed her eyes, brought her hands to her mouth. “Oh, God.”

“Danny talked to Sam,” Molly said faintly, and her mother looked at her, desperate hope reflecting back. “She was scared. She couldn’t get out.

“Oh, God,” Alexis repeated, the final words coming out as a low moan. She reached for Sonny’s hand, and he took it, his other arm around her shoulder, holding her up.

“I don’t understand. I don’t understand,” Molly said. “Why were all of you—” She looked at her mother, at Chase who was returning with a freshly stitched forehead, at Elizabeth and her boys. “Why were you all out there tonight? Why was Chase following my sisters at all?”

“This isn’t really the time,” Chase said, a bit pained. “We should wait—”

“No. No, there’s no point in waiting. Kristina’s unconscious, she can’t tell us what happened. And Sam—” Molly stopped, took a deep breath. “The only person who talked to Sam said she couldn’t get out. She’s probably dead. They both might be dead. So damn it, tell me why they were out there!” Her voice rose as she spoke, panic lacing the words until they climbed to almost a shrill cry, breaking on the final word, and she turned away, looked away, pressing her fist to her mouth.

“Mom said she was going to prove she didn’t tell everyone about me.”

Molly turned back at Danny’s words, confused at first. “What?”

“Mom. We saw her today—” Danny had to stop, his voice cracking.

“You saw her?” Elizabeth said, stepping towards him. She looked at Jake. “What happened?”

“She was in the parking lot after school,” Jake said, subdued. “Pretty upset. Desperate. Wanted Danny to know she’d never hurt him like this. And she said—she said she’d find out who did this if it was—” He closed his mouth, his own eyes watering slightly. “If it was the last thing she ever did.”

Molly raised her fingers to her lips, looked at her mother. “Kristina. Kristina did this. She told Reynolds about Danny, didn’t she?”

“I—” Alexis just shook her head. “I don’t—Maybe. I don’t know. We don’t know for sure—we don’t—”

“Aunt Kristina did it?” Danny asked, his voice thin, tears thick in his throat. “Why? Why would she do that to me? To Elizabeth?”

“Is that why you were you out there?” Molly demanded of Chase. “Why you and Dante and Jason and the entire damn world was following my sister around? Because you thought she did this?”

“Mols,” TJ said, taking her by the shoulder.

“No! No! I can’t do this again! I can’t sit in a room waiting to find out someone else I love is dead because of Kristina! She killed my daughter, and now she’s killed—” Molly stopped, she couldn’t articulate the words, couldn’t put the words out there. She’s killed my sister.

“We don’t know anything yet,” Elizabeth said carefully. She stepped up to Molly, took her hand, waited for the younger woman to look at her. “We just don’t. And I think maybe we’ve speculated enough for right now.”

Molly wanted to argue, but she saw Elizabeth look at Danny, and swallowed her argument. Elizabeth was right. Whatever Kristina’s crimes, whatever Molly wanted to say about it all — Danny didn’t need this, and if Sam was—if the worst had happened — then he’d need someone to look after him. To look for justice.

And to make sure that this time Kristina didn’t get away with destroying more lives.

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