The Compound

A week later

Michael wakes with a frown on his face. It's still dark. He hears another noise. Very quietly he gets out of bed, silent in his bare feet he goes over to his door and eases it open. Ever since Morlee was born... well about a week after she was born, he started sleeping with this door shut. Otherwise he was up all night. Morlee didn't have to go to school or Mama either. School is hard enough in English, pero esta muy dificil en Español-- especially with no sleep. Michael goes across to his mother's room. There he sees a man standing over her with his hand over her mouth. Michael flashes back to the wedding and starts screaming as if stung by a hundred bees. Before his mother can call him back he is out on the balcony that surrounds the second floor of the compound. "JEFE! JEFE! JEFE! He's hurting Mama! He's taking Mama!" Racing as if the hounds of hell are after him, Michael pounds along the balcony. Lights come on all around the compound as his cries are heard. Michael barely has time to pound on Alcazar's door when it is flung open. Lorenzo is knotting his robe. Michael is panting and crying at the same time.

"What is it?!" Alcazar is already moving toward Carly's rooms.

"He's holding her down. He has his hands over her mouth. He's going to hurt her. He's going to take her."

Alcazar breaks into a run. He catches Conner as he is coming out of Carly's quarters and slams him up against the wall with his forearm against the WSB agents throat. "Give me one reason why I should not kill you now!" Alcazar hisses in the smaller man's ear. "One reason why I shouldn't throw you over that railing?!"

"Lorenzo! No!" Carly calls out from just inside the doorway. She's got her hands full with Michael who is reliving the worst moment of his life. "Shhh. Baby. Shhh Mister Man. Mama's right here. I'm fine."

"I should have yelled. I should have told Daddy. It's my fault. Mama's gone."

"No. Mama's right here. You saved me. See." Carly gets down on her knees so that she is at the same eye level as Michael and hugs him close. "I'm right here. I'm fine."

Simon had taken long enough to grab his pistol before running up the stairs and to the front of La Senora's quarters. "I have him." Simon tells Lorenzo. "He can wait. You have other concerns." Simon indicates Carly and Michael with a tilt of his head.

The reddish haze clears from Lorenzo's eyes and he looks in Carly's quarters. Carly is rocking Michael and the boy just keeps muttering over and over. His body is rigid. "Mama's gone. Mama's gone."

"What am I supposed to do?" Carly looks at Lorenzo.

"I'll send for the doctor." Lorenzo sees one of the staff that had poked their head out to see what is going and he waves them off to get the doctor from his bed. That taken care of, Lorenzo comes into Carly's quarters. He switches on a light. That doesn't seem to impact on Michael's recitation.

Carly picks Michael up, even though he is too big for her and hugs him to her. "I'm right here. I have you. Mama's fine. Come on, Michael. Come back to me. Don't do this." Carly looks up at Lorenzo with worried eyes. "He saw Ric take me from the church-- chloroform me, drag me away."

"Your mother is safe, Michael." Lorenzo says sternly, harshly-- trying to break thru since Carly didn't seem to be making headway. "Look. Open your eyes. Look. You did yell. You did tell me. Your mother is safe because of you. Your mother is right here."

Michael's recitation stops abruptly and Carly feels an easing in the rigidness of his body. She gives an exhale of relief and starts peppering his face with kisses. "Don't ever to that to me again, Mister Man. Not ever. You scared me."

"Mama." Michael wraps his arms around Carly in a strangle hold.

Carly sees a chair and manages to sit down without dropping Michael or banging his head into something. She hugs him across her body with his legs hanging over the arm of the chair. "Tell me what happened."

"I dropped the rings."

"No. Tell me what happened tonight."

Michael frowns, and then he looks over at Lorenzo and frowns harder. Finally he answers his Mother's question. "I heard a noise. It wasn't Morlee. I came into your room. He had a hand over your mouth. And he said he was taking you home."

Carly winces. Damn Ric. She'd love to lie right now. Deny what Michael had heard. But that was what Sonny had done when Michael had told him about Ric and it looked like Michael still has issues with it. "That WSB agent isn't like Ric. The agent's Daddy knows Grandma Bobbie. So he was talking about back in Port Charles. He was talking about home for a visit with Grandma Bobbie. He shouldn't have put his hand over my mouth. That wasn't very nice. But he didn't want me to wake up you and Morlee."

"He's a liar! He lied to the Jefe! If he wanted to talk to you about Grandma Bobbie why didn't he talk to you during the day? Why was he being sneaky?!"

"Yes, Carly. I would like the answer to that as well." Lorenzo stands with his arms crossed in the doorway.

"Don't start with me." Carly snarls at Lorenzo.

The doctor comes into the room carrying his bag and dressed in striped pajamas. His hair is all askew. The tension thru the room is palpable. "Sedatives all around?"

Carly growls in his direction. She focuses back on Michael. "Mister Man, I think that Lorenzo needs to talk to the doctor. Let's go in your room okay?"

"Okay." Michael sits up embarrassed as he realizes that he'd been laying in his mother's lap like a little baby in front of the Jefe. But it doesn't stop him from keeping a firm grip on his mother's hand and escorting her into his room.

Carly tucks Michael into bed and then lays down beside him in the small twin. She cuddles up next to him, wrapping an arm across his body and tucking him in next to her. "Just go to sleep, Michael. I'm right here."

Outside Michael's room the doctor is talking with Alcazar. Or rather listening to Alcazar as he explains what happened. The doctor grunts and closes back up his bag. He probably could give the child a mild sedative just to help him sleep but it seemed as if La Senora had it well in hand. "Do you want the truth or what you want to hear?" The Doctor says wryly with the shake of his head. He might be the Jefe's man but in order to make sure that he didn't take a wrong step and end up dead he had made sure that he'd known every minute of La Senora's medical history especially this last pregnancy. Carly had been very straight with the doctor: about every instance of drugging from Morlee's conception on; almost being electrocuted; the premature labor at five and a half months; the conditions she'd been living under for her entire pregnancy.

"The truth." Lorenzo demands impatiently.

"You already know." The doctor shrugs. "The boy flashed backed to when his mother was first kidnapped-- how helpless he felt then. It sounds as if he saw her being drugged and then dragged off."

"Carly said he did. He... shut down. Then and again tonight."

The doctor nods. "Not before coming to get you. He relived a similar situation and reacted to it differently-- probably the way he wished he'd reacted to Lansing's attack on his M

other. Similar situation-- different outcome. This might actually assist in Michael's recovery from the trauma of the initial kidnapping. Michael will probably sleep better at night... eventually. As he works it thru his subconscious."

"But?" Carly says from the doorway. Michael had settled into a sleep deep enough for her to come out and hear what the doctor had to say. "There is a but in there somewhere right?"

"Not a but. An until. Until he realizes that he didn't foil a kidnapping but a rescue. Then he will blame himself all over again."

Before Lorenzo can pinch the doctor's head off, Carly is right in front of him. "You just shut the hell up! Michael is never going to hear anything like that. NEVER. What Michael knows is that Lorenzo is a business associate of Sonny's who gave me a safe place to stay until his sister was born. And that is all he will ever know!"

"Of course, Senora." The doctor agrees with a nod of his head. "I don't think you'll be needing me here tonight. Buenos Noches."

"Good Night." Carly says it in such away as to convey the drop dead message she is feeling. She follows the doctor shutting the door after him and then leaning her forehead against the door.

Lorenzo comes up behind her and puts a hand on the nape of her neck. He can feel the knots that are so tight that Carly is trembling. "He's fine. He's already asleep." He murmurs softly in her ear.

"I didn't know what to do." Carly admits softly. She stays with her head against the door not moving from under Lorenzo's hand. "When Ric took me, it happened so fast... it seemed like forever but... I was fighting him off and then there was something over my mouth and nose and I thought he was killing me and the smell.. and then everything started going dark around the edges. Then I woke up in that room. I didn't even know Michael was there-- that night outside the church. I didn't know he'd seen everything. Not until later, on the monitors, when Mac was questioning him. Mac Scorpio told that psycho that there had been a witness. That's how I found out my baby had been in the hospital."

"Lansing is scum. I should have killed him."

"You tried often enough." Carly jokes wryly. She'd wanted Lorenzo to kill Ric ... so badly. It would have been perfect. Ric dead and Sonny with no guilt. She shrugs out from under Lorenzo's hand. She walks away going downstairs to the little kitchenette. "Do you want a brandy?"

"Sure." Carly pours him a snifter and then puts the kettle on for tea. "Aren't you going to have one?"

"Morlee." Carly says and that explains it all. "And if you think I'm going to have warm milk..." Carly shudders. "Tea. A nice cup of tea. Settle me straight down."

"Come here." When Carly looks at him funny, Lorenzo repeats the demand. "Come here." Slowly Carly comes over to Lorenzo where he is standing by the breakfast bar in the kitchenette nook. Lorenzo turns her around so that she is facing away from him and with firm hands starts massaging the knots out of her shoulders.

Carly's head slumps forward. She really should make him stop. She should really step away. Maybe in a couple of hours. But even as the knots starts to dissolve her mind keeps racing over everything that happened tonight. "You can't kill the WSB agent." Carly blurts out seemingly out of nowhere.

There is a pause in the hands before Lorenzo resumes. "Oh?"

"The doctor said until. If Michael ever does find out... there can't be anything that he would blame himself for. Besides wouldn't that really screw whatever deal you are making with them?" The tea kettle starts whistling. Carly moves away from Lorenzo quickly not wanting it to wake the kids. She takes it from the heat and starts making herself a pot of tea.

"What did young Donnelly tell you?" Lorenzo watches Carly carefully.

Carly hesitates in the pour and then finishes pouring the hot water into the pot and setting it aside to steep. Even the preparation of tea was relaxing, maybe Virginia had been on to something with this. Whenever she'd stressed her adopted mother out, Virginia had always prepared a pot of tea. They'd gone thru a lot of tea at the Benson household. "Why did you bring him here? You could have left him on your island, in Caracas, on the yacht. Why bring him here?!"

"I asked first."

"I could tell you that he didn't get to say much at all. Michael interrupted before he could say anything." Carly suggests coolly. She really doesn't like being questioned.

"And I could say that I brought him here as a test. We both might be telling a shade of the truth. What did he tell you?"

Carly sighs. "He said that no matter what deal the WSB made with you, that it was personal for his dad-- because of Bobbie. He'd make sure I got home, just a message: a promise, no plan."

"Mr. Donnelly knows his agency well."

Carly realizes with narrowed eyes what Lorenzo is admitting. "They did make a deal! What does the WSB get in exchange for not interfering with your... business?"

Sean Donnelly slams down the phone. This is Bullshit. Wading boot deep Bullshit. As soon as Conner had been taken hostage, Sean'd been cut out of the negotiations. Sure, he still got to talk to Alcazar. Bobbie still got to talk to Carly. But the real negotiations had been taken away from him. And he'd just found out why. The WSB, as is typical for agencies that actually got things done and whose credo is the ends justify the means, had made a deal with Lorenzo Alcazar. The WSB would get their agent back. And Lorenzo would front a few deals for them on occasion. Provide cover for a few agents as needed.
In return for all this generosity, he is off limits for everything he'd done in the past and everything up to genocide in the future. The WSB had given away the farm on this one. Or rather one woman and her two kids. As far as the WSB is concerned, Carly is La Senora Alcazar and whatever Alcazar wants to do with his wife and kids are his business. Carly would find no help from the WSB. If anything they are now another wall she'd have to crawl over to get away from Alcazar. What the hell is he going to tell Bobbie?

There is a knock on his door. "Sean, I'm going to swing by the penthouse and check on Sonny before I head into General Hospital." Bobbie doesn't like lying to Sean but it is the deal that she made with Jason. Jason wasn't exactly fine with the idea of the WSB getting Carly out. He didn't trust the WSB any more than the trusted the PCPD, the FBI or the CIA. It'd be easy to say that he didn't trust anything that went by its initials but with Jason it's more he doesn't trust anyone. Only Jason didn't shout it to the rooftops the way that Luke does. Nope, Jason kept his mouth shut and did things the way he figured they ought to be done. And Bobbie figured it couldn't hurt. If the WSB could get Carly out then great. And if they couldn't then she didn't want to put a stick in Jason's spokes.

"Bobbie, have you got a minute?"

Considering she was going to be reading a magazine for half an hour over at an empty penthouse. She'd never been so caught up on her reading. "Sure."

"I just got off the phone to my boss at the WSB." Sean's voice is grim.

"Are they okay? Has anything happened to Carly, the kids... Conner?"

"They've negotiated a release for Conner. He should be clear in a couple of days."

"Carly?"

Sean shakes his head.

Bobbie starts shaking her head too. "No, this can't be happening. Not again. He bought them off didn't he? He made some kind of deal so he gets to keep my daughter, my grandchildren like they were things: a car, a house, a painting. THEY CAN'T DO THAT! How can they do that?!" Bobbie nearly collapses in sobs.

Sean catches her before she reaches the ground and hugs her close. "I'm so sorry, Bobbie."

"You knew it might happen. You knew."

"I'm a cynic." Sean jokes bitterly. "I was hoping to be surprised. As soon as Conner is released and I get to talk to him, I'm going to resign from the WSB. I'm not going to be part of this. I'll get her back, Bobbie. If I have to do it myself I'll get her back."

Bobbie pulls away from Sean. "I have to go. I have to check on Sonny."

"You're going to tell Morgan." Sean realizes. It was easier to think of the coldly efficient Crime Lord of Port Charles as Morgan than as Jason. Jason was a sweet kid who should have grown up to be a great doctor. Not the man that wore Jason's face now.

"Are you going to ask me not to?" Bobbie questions.

Sean shakes his head. "Do what you have to do. If Morgan waits on whatever he's planning until my kid is clear I'd appreciate it. But as long as his people know Conner isn't with Alcazar... I'll have to make do with that."

"I'll pass it on."

Alcazar looks down at the WSB agent that is tied to a chair in his cell only the binding keeps Conner upright. What had been a room, plain and comfortable is now a cell. There is no bed anymore. Conner had used a bed spring to jimmy the lock. And while Simon wasn't the man who had beat Conner on the island, he had come up using his fists and whatever was handy. There had been no punches pulled. Conner had escaped on his watch, his turf and had actually gotten into the same room with La Senora. Only knowing that the Jefe wanted the WSB alive had kept him so. Whether it was alive so that he could have the satisfaction of killing him himself, or alive to give back to the WSB-- Simon didn't care either way.

Alcazar goes into the bathroom and draws a glass of water. Comes back and throws it in Conner's face rousing him from his stupor. Conner lifts his head with great effort. One eye is swollen shut. It looks as if his nose is broken. "When the WSB pick you up, make sure that you pass on that you owe La Senora your life. I told you to stay away from my woman. She is the one with mercy. Not me. And there won't be another chance. Cross me again and she won't have the opportunity to plead for your life. The WSB has already sacrificed her to serve their ends. Do you really think they won't do the same to you? Do you think that La Senora would plead for your life knowing that the WSB has given me their blessing?"

"Yes." Conner says around a fat lip. "Because she knows it's not about the WSB. Not for me, not for my Father. If what you're saying is true and my Dad knows about it, he's probably already quit the WSB so he can hunt you down like the rabid dog you are."

Lorenzo runs a hand over Conner's hair in an almost affectionate gesture. "How proud you are of your Father. It's admirable... really. He and I have had some interesting conversations over the last week. He admires you too. A chip off the old block, I am sure. But you know every man has to set his own priorities. I realize that his are not the same as the WSB's. Neither are mine." With that Alcazar leaves.

Bobbie taps her foot impatiently as the elevator rises to the penthouse floor. It was still early, still dark outside. Jason would be awake though. And if not well she really didn't care about waking him. This was something he needed to know. As she comes out onto the landing she sees Marco. "Stuck with nightshift?"

"Hey Mrs. Spencer."

"I need to talk to Jason."

"Kinda early." Marco sees Bobbie's resolve face. He'd seen similar often enough on Mrs. Corinthos to know he is not going to win and anything he did to get Bobbie to go away would get him in trouble with Jason. "Let me make sure he's decent."

"I'm a nurse. I don't care if he's decent or not. I have to be at the hospital in less than fifteen minutes and I don't want to talk to Jason on the phone about this."

Marco nods. "Gimme a sec." Marco goes into Jason's penthouse. He leaves the door ajar behind him.

Mistake. Bobbie walks in right after him. It doesn't surprise her to see Jason racked out on the couch. Right now Jason doesn't have a life only a job. If he had a life he'd be in bed with Courtney. Instead he is sleeping on the couch and Bobbie wouldn't be surprised if there is a gun under one of the cushions. It wasn't like Jason had to worry about Michael finding it. "Thanks Marco. I have it from here." Bobbie stands aside and holds on to the door waiting for Marco to leave.

"Sorry boss."

"Yeah, I got it from here." Jason runs both hands thru his hair and sits up. He steps into the jeans that are laying on the floor like a fireman's uniform and pulls them up. He stands to button the jeans and then reaches for a t-shirt. "What's up, Bobbie?"

"The WSB sold Carly out. Hell! They didn't sell her out they sold her."

Jason pulls the t-shirt over his head.

"You aren't surprised."

"No, and Carly wouldn't be either. She's dealt with the FBI often to know that all the players come to the table with a different agenda. And Carly was never the WSB's."

"Sean hopes you'll wait with whatever you're planning until he can get Conner out of Alcazar's compound. He's already said he's going to quit the WSB and he'll do everything he can to get Carly back. Sean's not part of this... betrayal, Jase. I really wish you'd let him in on the plan you have for getting Carly back." There is a long silence. Jason is comfortable with silence and doesn't try to fill it. But it starts making Bobbie nervous. "You do have a plan, right?"

"I'm sure that Carly does by now."

"Jason!" Bobbie's jaw drops. "You can't seriously believe... You can't mean... I don't believe..."

"Just listen real carefully whenever Carly calls, Bobbie. Anything that might be a clue, an intent... Be ready for whatever play she makes."

"Jason, you have got to be kidding! She just had a baby! Two kids! How on earth is Carly going to get away from Alcazar? What kind of plan could she come up with?"

Jason shrugs. "It's Carly, Bobbie. I'm sure it's a doozy. If all of a sudden you get a collect call from Afghanistan... accept it."

"They are going to release Conner within a couple of days. He's been inside the compound. You've been inside the compound. You could get her out."

"If it were that easy, Sonny would have gotten Carly out months ago. The compound is a tough nut, Bobbie. And the only way to crack it is going to crush the meat inside."

Bobbie winces. It's a mental image she can do without. "Jase, you can't just let Carly do this on her own. You can't."

"We're doing what we can, Bobbie. The only two people left in this town that can be used against Carly are you and me. So if you want Carly away from Alcazar... don't do anything to draw Carly to Port Charles. Alcazar has this town wired. Carly steps foot in Port Charles and she's his. If, no when, she gets away from him, she can't call either of us-- ever."

I can't believe I'm saying this. "Why don't you just... kill him?" Bobbie finally asks.

Jason shrugs. It's on my list of things to do.

The laps had gone quickly. Cept her mind had been racing with everything that had happened the night before. She'd actually lost count of the number of laps and only quit when she got tired. Carly rolls over on the blanket that she'd spread out on the courtyard. The bricks of the courtyard are warmer and it felt good after the brisk cold water as she allows the South American sun to dry the water droplets from her skin. There is a shadow that passes over her and then a plop of a small object in the middle of her back. Carly reaches behind her and grabs whatever it is and sits up to examine it. While she does Lorenzo sits on the blanket next to her.

It's a Venezuelan passport. Carly checks it out. Running a hand over the front and then opening it up to see the picture of her, the kids and Alcazar. "Wow. It's looks so real."

"It is real. No one will ever question it." Alcazar says with a smile and what he believes is a quip. "What do you say... Christmas in Florence? I believe I owe you a picnic and a tour of the Pitti Palace."

"Lets go now." Carly demands seemingly out of the blue.

He blinks. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." Carly nods. "I don't want the WSB around Michael. I don't want you around the WSB. Lets go. Pack up the kids and go to Italy. I've never been to Europe. It would be your turf. Show us all the places where those history stories you tell actually happened. Maybe Michael can check out Oxford. Didn't Prince William go there or something?"

Lorenzo laughs. "I believe he went to Eton first."

"That's boarding school-- forget it." Carly starts to get up and wraps a towel around her hips tying it in a knot. "Do you have anything you can't take care of just as easily over there?"

"No. Not really." Alcazar is almost bewildered at the speed that Carly is going. He thought he'd have to talk her into going to Europe.

"You know Simon isn't going to let that agent go anywhere. Not after the stunt he pulled. Simon would probably prefer to handle the whole exchange thing-- save face you know? Lets just go." Carly extends a hand to Alcazar and then pulls it back abruptly before he can take it. "I only have one condition."

"What's that?"

"No France. No South of France, No North of France, No French Riviera. If you try to take me into Paris it will be kicking and screaming." Carly warns with a pointed finger.

"What do you have against France?"

Robin "They eat snails." Carly says flatly. "Do we have a deal?" She holds out her hand again.

Lorenzo studies Carly with narrowed eyes but extends his hand. "Deal."

Carly cups his hand with both of hers and pulls him to his feet. As soon as he is on his feet, Carly plants both hands in his chest and gives him a push. "Good. Then go get Michael. I have to figure out what I'm going to pack and into what. And that is all your fault since you bought it all."

"Or you could pack nothing at all and pick up more things there." Lorenzo answers with a shrug. "Then you wouldn't have to figure anything out. You'd know first hand."

"While you're picking up Michael you can tell him all about how the first thing we do in Italy is go shopping." Carly draws out the last word way beyond two syllables.

Lorenzo winces. "You have a point."

Back Home Next