April 10, 2014

Inspiration

If you follow my writing, you know the last time I was obsessed with the GH teen scene was back in 2003 when Scott Clifton joined Lindze Letherman (Georgie) and Robyn Richards (Maxie) as Dillon Quartermaine. I fell in immediate love with Dillon. He’s one of my four ride or die favs (AJ, Patrick, Dillon, and Elizabeth can do no wrong). I also had a huge crush on CJ Thomason and Andrew St. John who played Lucas Jones and Kyle Radcliffe.

I wrote quite a few GQ episode tags back then (Dillon & Georgie), but a lot of them were lost in when my computer crashed in July 2003. This story was meant to be part of a series, but the second story is lost. The title was retained, lol — It was going to be The Sweetest Thing with several stand alone stories. This was the first.

Timeline

This is set in the spring of 2003, probably late April, early May. Dillon has arrived in Port Charles, and Georgie has a huge crush on Lucas. Elizabeth is working at Kelly’s.


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I can do this. I’m strong. I’m independent. I’m a woman.

Okay, I’m fourteen.

But I’m still all of the above.

With those thoughts in mind, Georgie Jones took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and reached for the door handle to Kelly’s.

She pulled the door open and entered the small diner. You can do this, she chanted mentally. It’s not like you’re asking for much. You just want a job application.

She spied Elizabeth Webber working quietly behind the counter and after glancing around the diner, she determined that the manager, Bobbie Spencer, was not there. So, she’d deal with the only waitress she saw.

Besides, the way Georgie figured, Elizabeth Webber practically ran the diner. She was always there, always keeping everything calm. If a fight broke out, Elizabeth solved it. If a waitress called out sick, Elizabeth covered the shift.

Elizabeth Webber, Georgie decided, was one of the best people she knew. Although technically Georgie didn’t know Elizabeth all that well…but hell, everyone knew Elizabeth in some way.

“Um, excuse me,” Georgie said. She nervously tugged at the sleeve of her soft pink button down sweater. Pink, Georgie had decided, looked good on her. It complimented her dark blonde hair and lightened her brown eyes. Pink made her feel professional.

“Hey, Georgie,” Elizabeth greeted. “Can I get you anything?”

Georgie chewed her lip and took a deep breath. “A job application?”

Elizabeth widened her eyes. “A job application? You want to work here?”

“Um, yeah,” Georgie replied. She smoothed a hand over her light brown cords. Light brown, Georgie had decided, went well with a pink sweater and by not wearing jeans, she’d shed her teenage image and hopefully looked older.

At least sixteen.

Elizabeth looked around, hunted underneath the counter. “That’s great!” she said. “You know, I started working here when I was fourteen. God, I was such a horrible waitress. Spent far too much time looking at Lucky Spencer and too little time paying attention to what people ordered.” Elizabeth pulled a piece of paper out and handed it to her. “If you want you can fill it out now and I can give it to Bobbie when I drop off the night’s receipts later.”

“Sure,” Georgie replied. She slid onto a stool and opened her small purse. Small purses, Georgie had decided, looked more professional than big clunky ones. She fished out a blue Bic pen and uncapped it. “So, are you guys hiring?”

Elizabeth shrugged. “We’re always losing someone to college or better jobs.” She smirked. “I’m personally hoping we lose someone soon.”

Georgie grinned. “Courtney?” She regretted her word almost immediately when she saw Elizabeth’s face close off. Great, she offended the best chance she had at getting this job. Damage control. “I only say that because…well…um, you know…you hear things.”

Elizabeth folded her arms. “What kind of things?” Her tone had gone as cold as ice and Georgie was now miserable. She set her pen down. There went this job.

“Well…just that two of you don’t like each other,” she replied, dully. “I mean…she’s dating your ex-boyfriend and my sister told me that he broke up with you for her.” Georgie sighed and pushed the application away. “I’m sorry. I…I shouldn’t have said anything.”

Elizabeth sighed and the tension drained from her body. “No, look, don’t worry about it. You’re right, we don’t like each other but it’s not because she’s dating Jason.”

Georgie must have looked skeptical because Elizabeth continued. “I just don’t appreciate the way she constantly runs out on her shifts and calls out sick.”

“Oh.” Georgie shifted. “I still shouldn’t have said anything. I mean, I don’t want to remind of you…anything. Because, you know, I really admire you.”

That surprised Elizabeth and she smiled. “Really? Why?”

Georgie shrugged. “Everyone does,” she replied easily. “My sister thought you were great, the way you handle that Lucky thing last summer and I remember Roy DiLucca talking about how brave you were when Jason shot you last summer.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Jason did not shoot me. Zander did and it was a complete accident. Besides, the bullet didn’t really hit me.”

“It didn’t?” Georgie asked.

“No. Jason and Roy were fighting, and Zander, being the completely moronic hothead that he is, picked up a gun. Then Jason and Zander were fighting over the gun and the trigger was pulled.” Elizabeth slid the sleeve of her cornflower-blue shirt up to reveal a light pink scar on her upper left arm. “See? The bullet just grazed me.”

“Oh. Did it hurt?” Georgie asked, cringing as soon as she realized how stupid the question was.

“Well, I didn’t feel anything at first,” Elizabeth replied. “I think I was a little shocked. But it kicked in and I almost passed out. Jason caught me and he managed to bandage it.” She smiled and leaned forward a little bit, lowering her voice. “I’ll tell you a secret.”

Georgie, feeling much better about this right now, leaned forward eagerly. Being confided in by Elizabeth Webber! Take that, Maxie, she thought smugly.

“I didn’t feel anything until I got to the hospital because I was too busy looking at Jason,” Elizabeth told her, smiling.

“He is cute,” Georgie agreed.

“Uh huh. And it was just really easy to get lost in his eyes, you know?” Elizabeth said. “They’re an incredible shade of blue.” Her cheeks flushed and she leaned back. “But none of that really matters now. Anyway, go ahead and fill out that application. I’ll put in a good word for you.”

Georgie watched as Elizabeth headed onto the main floor to take care of a customer. She then turned in her attention back to her application.

“Whatcha doin’?”

Irritated, she looked up at the interruption. “I’m filling out a job application, Lucas,” she told him.

Lucas Jones frowned. “For Kelly’s?”

“Yeah. Why not?” Georgie asked, defensively.

Lucas smirked. “Why would you want to work here?”

“Because I like this place,” Georgie replied. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing. I just thought you had higher hopes than being another Elizabeth Webber.”

Georgie narrowed her eyes. She might like Lucas, but no one insulted her idol. “And what’s wrong with that?”

“Come on. She’s nice and all, but she’s twenty-one and still working in the same place as when we were kids.”

“Maybe she likes it here. Maybe she enjoys her job,” Georgie said hotly.

“And maybe she’s got no place else to go,” Lucas said pointedly.

“Can I get you anything Lucas?” Elizabeth asked from behind him. He spun on the stool to look at the unhappy waitress.

“Elizabeth.” Lucas swallowed. “I, uh…”

“For the record, I work here because I enjoy my job,” Elizabeth told him. “I like seeing the people I care about on a daily basis. It pays well and I have a flexible schedule so I can go to school and work on my art. I’m sorry if people think I’m pathetic because I have worked in the same place for the past five years, but I can’t be responsible for small-minded people. Now, I’ll ask you again. Can I get you anything?”

“I was just stopping by,” Lucas said quickly. He slid off the stool and passed her, his head ducked down.

“Sorry about him,” Georgie apologized as she signed her name and completed the application. “He thinks he knows what’s best for me and tries to tell me.”

“It’s fine,” Elizabeth replied, smiling briefly. “You get used to it after a while.” She took the application from the young girl and perused. “I’ll drop this off with Bobbie and I’ll call you when she makes a decision.”

“Thanks, Elizabeth,” Georgie said, sliding down from the stool. She put the pen away and smiled one last time at the waitress before leaving.

….

Elizabeth handed Bobbie the receipts and the day’s earnings so that Bobbie could drop it off at the bank on her way to the hospital the next morning.

“Georgie Jones dropped off a job application,” Elizabeth reported as Bobbie examined the receipts.

“Hmm…do we need another waitress?” Bobbie asked, making a note in the account book.

“We could use the help,” Elizabeth said honestly. “One of the waitresses tends to be slightly unreliable, so I’m sure Georgie will come in handy.”

“Which waitress?” Bobbie asked, even though she already knew.

“Courtney,” Elizabeth said. “But it has nothing to do with my personal feelings towards her, I just—”

“Elizabeth, it’s okay. I’ve had the other girls complain as well,” Bobbie interrupted. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to speak with you about.”

“What?” Elizabeth asked warily.

“I’m rarely at the diner these days between the hospital and Lucas, so I was wondering if you’d like to come on as assistant manager,” Bobbie suggested.

“Really?” Elizabeth asked. “Are you serious?”

“Definitely. So you can make decisions like this and not worry about me. I trust you, Elizabeth. You’ve been working there longer than anyone and you really understand the way it works.”

“Wow, I’d love to,” Elizabeth replied, smiling. “Thanks, Bobbie.”

“So, I’ll let you make the final decision concerning Georgie and Courtney. I’ll see you tomorrow, same time?”

“Sure,” Elizabeth replied. She picked up the receipts, intent on calling Georgie Jones first thing in the morning.

April 1, 2014

Timeline

This is set vaguely in 2006. It’s written from the POV of Georgie about her sister, Maxie. It’s not particularly tethered to any piece of the GH timeline, other than it taking place after the events of that fall: Maxie’s affair with Lucky and the pregnancy she faked to keep him.

Inspiration

In 2006, I was watching Veronica Mars for the first time, and I was inspired by the grief Veronica felt for Lilly.  Ironically, the show killed Georgie a year later and I have never forgiven Guza for the trauma.


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She remembered thinking that the day should have started differently, started with some sort of bang or explosion instead of her alarm clock bursting into song at 7:30 A.M. and she should have been doing something major, something significant when she was told instead of standing behind the counter at Kelly’s, refilling salt canisters and glaring at the back of her soon-to-be ex-husband’s head.

The bell chimed above the door, the double doors swung open and her father stood there. And she knew something awful had happened. Something that put that look onto his face.

And then he spoke and the world stopped.

Life went on afterwards. People went on. They went back to their lives, they kept living, loving, laughing, crying and after a week, after two, it had stopped being the front page news story and it wasn’t mentioned on the evening news.

But she was stuck in that moment, watching over and over again as her strong, wonderful and loving father walked into the diner and told her that her sister had been murdered. That her sister, her other half, her best friend, the bane of her existence and the one person that drove her more insane than anyone else wasn’t living anymore. She was dead, she was gone, she’d been stolen and she was never coming back.

The world kept turning, kept revolving. The sun kept rising and setting and the moon still hung the same way in the sky. But the landscape had changed and it was all wrong and there was something missing.

It wasn’t fair, she kept telling herself. And for a while, she also told herself it wasn’t true. It could never happen, not after losing Jesse. It wasn’t supposed to happen twice in a year, twice in a lifetime.

Her mother stopped. She slept more than she woke, she didn’t eat unless someone put something in front of her. Her father kept working, because that was what he did best. He worked. He worked and he worked and then he worked some more and finally when he passed out, it was on the couch in his office rather than their home. But then he’d wake up and work some more.

She couldn’t understand why people were smiling and how someone could laugh. Couldn’t they feel it? Couldn’t they understand that it was all wrong now? That a piece was missing and now the puzzle would never fit back together?

It was her sister that had been murdered, killed by some stranger on the campus one night before she could return to her dorm. Just stabbed over a twenty dollar bill in her pocket that she’d refused to give up. Twenty dollars and now her sister was gone.

She’d sat through the viewing, watched these people cry, these people who didn’t know her sister, could never know, never understand her, never really value her the way she deserved to be.

No one had ever understood Maxie but she had. Georgie had always understood her sister and always found a way to fix her messes, to keep her safe, to keep her sane and to keep her breathing. She’d understood that her sister didn’t know how to be unselfish and never fully realized that there were other people in the world and that their wants and needs mattered just as much as hers.

Maxie had been selfish, Maxie had been beautiful. Maxie had been a bitch, but she’d been loyal. Maxie was her best friend and Maxie was her worst enemy.

She’d been her sister and that was all Georgie could ever say when people, when her friends, those well meaning people kept asking how she was and if she needed anything and if there was anything they could do.

She couldn’t understand why they kept asking questions they knew the answer to. No, she was not fine. And she needed her sister so unless they could fix that and bring her back, then no, there was nothing they could do. So could they please just shut the hell up and leave her alone?

She imagined her mother would be worried about her if her mother were coherent, if she were able to see past her own grief, her own pain and her father was still searching for Maxie’s killer, so he didn’t even see her anymore.

And then someone had wondered (not to her, but she’d overheard it) how Georgie could miss Maxie, when she’d been nothing but a home wrecking slut with a viperous tongue and had been well on her way to killing herself with alcohol? How could she miss and mourn and grieve for a sister who’d been killing herself anyway?

Because Maxie was hers, the one person in all the world that was hers and no one else’s just like Georgie had been Maxie’s. Because they were family and you never turned your back on family, you never said oh, well, too much drama, I think I’ll find another friend. You were never on your own as long as you had your family. And Georgie had never been alone, never on her own.

But Maxie was gone now and she wasn’t sure if this was going to be the way her life would be forever. If it would always be this sinking sea of black darkness with no light, no break in the waves, no sunlight hitting the surface–just an endless abyss and her, always standing on the precipice, always thinking about going under but never going through with it because knew if she did, she’d see her sister on the other side.

And boy, would Maxie be mad at her for throwing it away.

So she pretended and she lived, and she breathed and she woke in the morning and went back to sleep at night and mostly, she remembered to eat and she went to class and sometimes she even pictured Maxie standing at her side, telling her to live them for both and telling her to laugh, and smile and love but Georgie always ignored that and put it out of her head. Because there was no reason to do any of those things now.

She had no reason to live, but no reason to die and she figured there should always be something in between but she wasn’t sure what that was yet. She wanted to find it one day but then again, what if she found it was nothing at all? So maybe she wouldn’t worry about it.

She’d keep breathing because Maxie would want that. She’d keep living and pretending. And maybe one day, the clouds would clear and there be some sort of epiphany and she’d understand that there was indeed a reason for everything.

But she was beginning to think there wasn’t and that the real mystery of the human soul was why everyone kept breathing when there wasn’t any point.

January 30, 2014


Welcome to the sub-site for Mad World, my General Hospital series. Mad World is set in the summer of 2003 and begins the day Jason was supposed to marry Courtney, but Ric kidnapped Carly and locked her away in a panic room.

The Original Series
In Book 1, Break Me Down, we visit the panic room storyline where Jason and Elizabeth work alongside Bobbie and the PCPD to find Carly. In Book 2, All of Me, Carly and Elizabeth begin to recover from the trauma they suffered at the hands of Ric while a serial rapist stalks young women in the park.  Book 3, This is Me, followed Carly and Elizabeth dealing with Ric’s escape and the fallout of the serial rapist case, and Book 4, Liberty, returns to Ric’s reign of terror and all the damage he’s created in Elizabeth and Carly’s lives.

New Entries
The first Mad World novella, At Christmas, is set in December 2006, a little over two years after the epilogue of Book 4.  Reading the first four books is recommended, but not necessary. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Begin reading with Chapter 1 or jump to the newest book, At Christmas


Update

14 Jan 2024: Book 4.5, At Christmas, completed!