fic: what would you do if i sang out of tune (ghtng, cameron/molly, lana/jake)
Title: What Would You Do If I Sang Out of Tune
Author: empressearwig
Fandom: General Hospital AU
Pairing/Characters: Lana/Jake, Molly/Cameron
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Any character first appearing on General Hospital does not belong to me. Any original characters appearing in this AU do.
Warnings: None.
Notes: Written for 50prompts, prompt #48 - Writer's Choice.
The doorbell rang.
"Will you get that?" Jake called out from the kitchen, where he was putting the finishing touches on dinner.
"Yes!" Lana answered from the dining room, as she finished setting the table. Jake didn't like her in the kitchen while he cooked. He claimed that she distracted him, and then his cooking turned out as poorly as hers always did. She sniffed. She was learning how to cut people open, but she couldn't boil water without burning it. She ran down the hall to the front door, flinging it open to find Molly and Cameron standing on the other side. "Hi," she said happily. She stepped back from the door. "Come on in."
Molly and Cameron came inside, and Lana closed the door behind them.
Cameron passed her the bottles of wine he was holding, which she set down on an end table. "Jake in the kitchen where he belongs?"
"I heard that!" Jake yelled from the kitchen.
"I meant you to," Cameron said loudly, laughing at his brother. He looked down at Lana, dark eyes twinkling. "Good of you to keep him in his place."
Jake came out of the kitchen to join them. "Hey, I'm an enlightened 21st century kind of guy. My manliness isn't threatened by the fact that I can cook." He wrapped an arm around Lana's shoulders, looking down at her and smirking. "Besides, if you value your stomachs, it's better for everyone involved if I'm the one that does the cooking."
Lana's jaw dropped and she elbowed him in the side. "Jerk!"
Jake let out a whoosh of air as her elbow made contact. "You put some force behind that." She tried to squirm out of his arms, but he pulled her back, pressing a quick kiss to her scowling mouth. "You love me, and you know it."
She sniffed. "I'm strongly reconsidering my position on that."
"Did you know we were getting dinner and a show?" Cameron asked Molly, amusement at the other couple's antics laced through his voice.
In unison, Lana and Jake turned to him with matching disgruntled expressions and ordered, "Shut up, Cameron."
Molly broke down into helpless giggles, as Cameron started laughing loudly.
"You know, it's not late to kick them out," Jake said to Lana, glaring at his brother.
"We'd have to give the wine back," Lana pointed out.
Jake shrugged. "Says who?"
"Says me," Cameron said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"And me," Molly interjected. "I've really been looking forward to a glass all day."
Jake heaved a dramatic sigh. "Well, I suppose we can't deny you your wine, Mol. God knows you must need it after dealing with rugrats all day at work and then coming home and having two more." He grabbed the bottles and headed back into the kitchen, everyone following along behind him.
"Alex is much better behaved than my kids at school are," Molly said, shooting Cameron a mischievous look. "No comment on the other one."
Cameron made a grab for her, making Molly shriek with laughter as he pulled her into his arms. "You'll pay for that, wife," he threatened.
She batted her eyelashes at him. "Do your worst."
"Now I need a drink," Jake muttered, digging through a drawer for a corkscrew.
Lana settled herself at one of the stools that at the counter and watched as Jake opened and poured the wine, hands quick and competent from working at Luke's and the Haunted Star. "You know, you really found your calling," she complimented. "You're clearly meant to serve."
He made a face at her.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
Molly sat down on the stool next to Lana's. "Hard to believe you two are getting married in a month."
Jake handed a glass to Molly. "Why's that?"
She took a sip. "Because you act exactly like my kids do on the playground."
Cameron snickered. "That sounds about right."
Jake glared at his brother before turning to his fiancé. "You know, it doesn't seem quite right that I'm being ganged up on in my own home. Do I go to Cameron's and do this to him?"
Lana couched her features into a thoughtful expression, tapping her fingers against her chin. "Yes, I believe you do."
"You don't live here yet," he pointed out. "I can make you sleep on the couch tonight."
Her eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."
He smirked. "Wouldn't I?"
"Not if you want sex again before our honeymoon," she threatened, voice dripping with sweetness.
His eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."
She smirked. "Wouldn't I?"
They stared at each other, locked in a battle of wills, each daring the other to blink first.
Molly decided to change the topic of conversation. "Speaking of Lana not living here, when are you officially moving in?"
Lana turned her attention away from Jake with a haughty sniff. "I take my boards in two weeks, and I'll move after that."
"Are you keeping the apartment in Ithaca?" Cameron asked. "Won't you have to do some of your rotations there?"
"I thought about it," Lana admitted. "Because, yeah, I'll probably have to do a couple there, though I did get permission to do the majority of them at GH." She shot a look at Jake. "But I decided I'd rather live with that lug than have two places, you know?"
"What are you going to do when you do have to be there?" Molly asked.
Lana shrugged. "Stay with friends, hotel rooms, find a short term lease. There are lots of options."
"So, two weeks between the test and the wedding?" Cameron asked. "That's cutting it kind of close."
"I know, I know," Lana groaned. "But it was really the only time it worked into the schedule, especially since someone," she shot Jake another look, "Is insisting on a two week long honeymoon. I have to be back for my first rotation at the beginning of July."
Jake shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a horrible awful man for demanding two weeks alone with my new wife. I should be taken out and shot."
"Honey, if I wanted you shot, I'd do it myself," Lana said sweetly, reaching across the counter to pat his hand. "You know I'm a better shot than you are."
"Don't sell yourself short, Lan," Molly laughed. "You're a better shot than everyone in this room."
"True," Lana admitted, taking a sip of her wine.
"So, speaking of the wedding," Molly began.
Jake turned to the stove to check on his spaghetti sauce. "Must we?" he groaned.
"Hush," Molly scolded. She looked at Lana. "Have you given anymore thought to what I asked?"
"Molly," Lana said unhappily. "Do we have to talk about this?"
"Yes," Molly insisted. "The shower is in two weeks, the wedding is in four. We have to talk about this."
Jake turned back with a confused look on his face, and quickly noted the look of distress on Lana's. "What's going on?"
Molly looked at Lana to explain.
Lana shook her head. "No. This is your deal, you explain it to them."
"Fine," Molly huffed. She looked warily back and forth between her husband and brother-in-law. This was not going to make them happy, she knew that. Family loyalty was too important to them, but then so was it to her. She took a deep breath. "I want to drop Lila from the guest list to Lana's shower."
"And the wedding," Lana added. "Don't forget that."
Jake and Cameron looked at her with flabbergasted looks.
"What?" Jake spluttered.
"Yeah, I'll second that," Cameron agreed, eyeing his wife with concern. "What's going on Molly?"
She folded her arms over her chest defensively. "I don't want that woman in my house."
"Molly," Cameron groaned. "We've talked about this."
"You mean you've lectured," she countered, eyes flashing. "You haven't bothered to try to understand how I feel about this at all, Cameron."
"That's not true at all," he said hotly. "Morgan's your brother, I understand that. But Spencer's mine."
"But she's not family to either of us," Molly sneered. "So what's the big deal about dropping her from the guest list?"
"To the shower or the wedding?" Jake asked.
Molly shrugged. "Both."
"I already told you that if you don't want her at your house you don't have to have her there," Lana said in frustration. "You're throwing the shower, you can control the guest list. But you're going to have to be the one to tell her she's not welcome, Mol. I won't do it."
"Why not?" Molly looked like she wanted to stamp her foot in frustration.
Lana hesitated, unsure how to say this, and knowing Molly would be furious with her when she did. "Because, well, I can't condemn her for it."
Molly stared at her in shock. "Excuse me? You can't condemn someone for having an affair for more than a year, for breaking up two marriages and a baby’s family, just because they're selfish?"
"Molly, Lila didn't do that on her own," Lana said gently. "Spencer had as much to do with it as she did. And what they did was wrong. Completely." She shrugged, helplessly. "But they wanted to be together, they love each other. I can't condemn that."
Molly gasped. "I can't believe you think that it's okay!" she cried.
"I didn't say it was okay," Lana said, desperate to make her understand. "Can't you understand what I mean? That I can hate what they did and not hate them?"
Molly shook her head. "No."
The best friends stared at each other unhappily.
Jake and Cameron exchanged looks over their heads. Molly and Lana never fought. Not really. And for it to be now, when they should be happily planning Lana's wedding, made it all the worse.
Jake stepped in, unable to bear the look of abject misery on Lana's face any longer, and hoped that Molly would shift her anger from Lana to him. "Molly, I understand how you feel, I do. And what you do about the shower is your business, though I wish you'd leave Lana out of it, because she has enough stress right now between the boards and the wedding, but we cannot disinvite Lila from the wedding. She and Spencer are a package deal now, and Spencer's one of the groomsmen. So I'm sorry, but that's not up for discussion."
She stared at him in shock. No one ever talked to her that way, and if they did, Cameron wouldn’t let them. She looked up at her husband, expecting him to be ready to take his brother’s head off, but found him looking down at her, in seeming agreement with Jake. “You agree with him?”
“Molly, it’s his wedding,” Cameron said as gently as he could.
She shook her head. “I don’t mean about that. About Spencer and Lila being a package deal.”
He hesitated. “Well, yes.”
Molly could feel the tears start to fill her eyes and rather than give them all the satisfaction of seeing her cry, seeing how angry and upset she was, she got up off the stool and stalked to the French doors that opened to the backyard, and disappearing into the night.
“Molly!” Cameron called after her.
He got a slammed door for his pains.
He looked back at Jake and Lana who were equally stunned. Any of them might go around slamming doors and throwing temper tantrums, but that wasn’t Molly. She was the calm one, the steady one, the peacemaker. Clearly they’d all underestimated how upset she was.
Jake came around the counter and sat down on Molly’s stool, reaching out for Lana’s hand. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, a mixture of shock and misery on her face. “I hate fighting with Molly. It’s why we never do, because neither of us can stand it.” She looked out at the dark backyard. “I didn’t realize she was this upset, Jake, I didn’t…”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Lan,” Cameron sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “I didn’t see it either.” He looked out at the yard, barely able to make out Molly sitting on the porch steps. “I should go out there.”
“I think you might want to give her a few minutes,” Jake advised. His thumb stroked gently over Lana’s knuckles, trying to soothe her. “She probably needs to cool down.”
“You think?” Cameron sank down on the stool next to Jake. “I can’t think of the last time Molly and I disagreed so completely about anything.”
“That’s probably because it’s never happened,” Lana said dryly.
Jake snorted. “I think she’s right.”
“Aw, honey, I know how much you hate to admit that,” Lana teased, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“You must be feeling better if you’re bantering with my brother,” Cameron said with the faintest trace of amusement in his voice.
“Maybe a little,” Lana conceded.
“Which probably means that it’s time for me to go talk things out with Molly.” He stood. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” Lana said. As he brushed past her, she caught his sleeve. “Cam? Let her know how sorry I am?”
He smiled at her, and squeezed her hand. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Lan.”
She bit her lip. “I know, but -”
“But it’s Molly.” He nodded. “I know. And I’ll tell her, and then the two of you can make up on your own, okay?”
She nodded.
Cameron slipped out into the backyard to face the music.
Jake and Lana watched him go.
Jake tugged on their joined hands, pulling her off her stool to stand in front of him, between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and looked her in the eyes as he asked, “Are you really okay?”
“Yes?” she tried, not quite able to meet his eyes.
“Lana.”
She sighed. “Molly’s my best friend. We’re getting married in a month. I take the most important test of my life in two weeks. Nothing is the way it’s supposed to be and it sucks.”
He nodded. “I know. And I’m sorry. If I could make this all perfect for you, I would, you know that. I love you, Lana.”
“I love you, too.” She tried to smile at him. “Hey, you know what sounds like a great idea?”
“What?”
“Let’s elope.”
He stared at her in surprise. “Elope?”
She nodded, growing excited by the idea. “It would get rid of so much of my stress, we wouldn’t have worry about alienating friends and family, because your brother’s a manwhore…” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pouted. “Please?”
He shook his head as he said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but no.”
“No,” she repeated, narrowing her eyes at him. “Clearly my pout is losing its effectiveness. I’ll have to work on that.”
“For the sake of the men that love you, I beg of you don’t.” He smiled at her. “If I thought eloping was what you really wanted, Lan, I’d take have you on the next flight to Vegas, hell, I’d commander the Cassadine jet, but it isn’t. You wouldn’t be happy if we did.”
She frowned. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.” He pressed a quick kiss to her frowning lips. “Lana, you want your wedding day. You want to have your dad walk you down the aisle, to wear your pretty white dress, all of it. I know you do. And you know you do too.”
Her frown deepened. “It’s not fair that you know me so well.”
“True,” he said. “But then you’re so much smarter than me that I have to take my advantages where I can them.”
“Now you’re just sucking up,” Lana laughed.
He grinned. “Is it working?”
“Maybe,” she murmured, leaning into kiss him. When she drew back, she said, “I do love you, Jake Spencer.”
He tightened his grip on her waist. “I love you, too, Lana Drake-soon-to-be-Spencer.”
They were silent for a moment, content to simply be wrapped in each other’s arms.
Eventually Lana turned her head to look out into the dark backyard. “What do you think is happening out there?”
“Cameron’s talking her down.” At Lana’s doubtful look, he said, “He is. He always does. He always will.”
“I really hope you’re right…”
*
Molly sat on the porch steps trying to cool her temper.
None of them understood how she felt, no matter what they said, but none of them deserved to have her lose their temper with them. Most of the people she loved most in the world were in the room, and she’d treated them as if they were beneath her contempt, as if they were as bad as Spencer and Lila.
It wasn’t fair. She knew that, but she couldn’t help herself. It seemed like everyone she knew was lined up to support Spencer and Lila, the ones that had ruined everyone’s lives, while only she and Kristina stood by Morgan’s side, supporting him.
None of them knew how devastated Morgan was, none of them had to see him trying to lose himself in alcohol and his own grief, none of them cared.
She shook her head.
That wasn’t true. They cared about Morgan, but Spencer was their family, and Morgan wasn’t. For Cameron and Jake it was really that simple. Most of the time she understood, but damn it, she was their family too, and Morgan was hers. Someone should give a damn.
But no matter how much she wanted someone, anyone, to be on her side, she knew she wasn’t being fair, especially to Lana. She knew she was making outrageous demands, and that there was no way Lana could do the right thing, whatever that was. Lana was getting married. This should be the happiest time in her life, and now all this other stuff was getting in the way. Including Molly.
She was a terrible best friend.
From behind her she heard the doors open and someone step outside.
“It’s safe to approach,” she said in a dull, flat voice.
“Are you sure,” Cameron asked carefully, not coming any closer. “I can go away…”
She shook her head, though she wasn’t sure he’d be able to see it in the dark. She patted the spot on the steps next to her. “Come sit down.”
He did, stretching his legs out in front of them, and resting an arm just behind her back. They sat in silence for a moment, till finally Cameron asked, “So how’s your night going?”
She couldn’t help it, she laughed. “Pretty lousy, how about yours?”
“The same,” he said gravely. “My wife’s pretty pissed at me, and I’m worried about her, and her best friend thinks that it’s her fault that they’re fighting, and my brother, well he’s Jake. He’s cause for worry every damn day.”
“Your wife isn’t pissed at you,” she sighed. “Pissed at the situation, but not you.” She snuck a guilty look up at him. “Lana thinks it’s her fault that we’re fighting?”
He nodded. “She wanted me to tell you that she’s sorry.”
Molly felt tears spring to her eyes. Great, one more thing for her to feel bad about. “But it’s not. She didn’t do anything wrong.” She turned her head and buried it in his shoulder. “I’m ruining her wedding.”
He sighed. “You are not.” He grabbed her chin, tilting it up to look at him. “Lana loves you. She understands why you feel the way you do. She’d never hold that against you, baby.”
“I hold it against me!” Molly exclaimed in frustration. “This should be the happiest time of her life, and it’s being completed overshadowed by the drama in everyone else’s lives, and I’m making it worse, not better.”
“I don’t think that is what you’re doing, but even if you were, no one would hold it against you, Mol.” He looked her directly in the eye. “Morgan is your brother. All of us understand that loyalty. And none of us like what Spencer and Lila did to him. I promise you that.”
“But that doesn’t mean he’s not your brother,” Molly finished for him. She sighed. “I do understand that, it’s just hard.”
He nodded. “Believe me, I know. I have to see Spencer practically every day at work, and most times I’m ready to ring his neck. I’m mad at him, too, but he’s still my brother. He’s still Jake’s brother, and unfortunately that means that there are certain things that can’t be changed.”
“Like Lila being at the wedding.”
“Exactly.” Cameron pulled Molly onto his lap, tucking her head against his shoulder. He stroked her hair gently. “Feeling any better?”
She nodded. “I need to apologize to Jake and Lana.”
“You really don’t.”
“I do,” she insisted. “I feel terrible, and it’s the only way I’ll feel better.”
“You know, if you were more like the rest of us, and threw temper tantrums on a regular basis, you wouldn’t feel the need,” Cameron pointed out, helping her to her feet.
Molly made a face at him. “Yes, but I prefer leaving the temper tantrums to our toddler.”
“Sure, go and play the grown up card,” he teased, opening the door to go back inside.
She stepped into the house, and found Lana looking at her hesitantly, almost uncertainly, in a way that she didn’t think she’d ever seen before. It broke her heart. She rushed forward, and enveloped Lana into a crushing hug, tears trickling down each woman’s cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” Molly whispered in her ear. “So, so sorry.”
Lana shook her head. “No, I am.”
Molly pulled back, sniffling. “We are not going to have a fight about which of us is sorrier. I forbid it.”
Lana laughed, wiping her hands against her cheeks. “Okay. Friends?”
“Best friends,” Molly corrected, hugging her again.
“Well now that you two have kissed and made up, dinner?” Jake suggested. “It is why you came over, after all.”
“I think that sounds like an excellent idea,” Cameron said, resting his hands on Molly’s shoulders. “And you know how I hate to say that about Jake’s ideas.”
Jake made a face at his brother.
“What do you say, Mol?” Lana asked hopefully. “Dinner?”
Molly looked around the room at the faces of the people she loved best and nodded. “I think dinner sounds great.”
A smile of relief broke out on Lana’s face, and she took Molly by the elbow to steer her away from the men so they could talk about the latest plot twist on the soap they both watched but couldn’t discuss in front of Jake and Cam. Cameron slid onto the stool and chatted idly with his brother about a band that Jake had booked to play at Luke’s in a few months.
There would be more fights to come, more drama to avert, but for the moment, things got back to normal.
Which was enough.
Author: empressearwig
Fandom: General Hospital AU
Pairing/Characters: Lana/Jake, Molly/Cameron
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Any character first appearing on General Hospital does not belong to me. Any original characters appearing in this AU do.
Warnings: None.
Notes: Written for 50prompts, prompt #48 - Writer's Choice.
The doorbell rang.
"Will you get that?" Jake called out from the kitchen, where he was putting the finishing touches on dinner.
"Yes!" Lana answered from the dining room, as she finished setting the table. Jake didn't like her in the kitchen while he cooked. He claimed that she distracted him, and then his cooking turned out as poorly as hers always did. She sniffed. She was learning how to cut people open, but she couldn't boil water without burning it. She ran down the hall to the front door, flinging it open to find Molly and Cameron standing on the other side. "Hi," she said happily. She stepped back from the door. "Come on in."
Molly and Cameron came inside, and Lana closed the door behind them.
Cameron passed her the bottles of wine he was holding, which she set down on an end table. "Jake in the kitchen where he belongs?"
"I heard that!" Jake yelled from the kitchen.
"I meant you to," Cameron said loudly, laughing at his brother. He looked down at Lana, dark eyes twinkling. "Good of you to keep him in his place."
Jake came out of the kitchen to join them. "Hey, I'm an enlightened 21st century kind of guy. My manliness isn't threatened by the fact that I can cook." He wrapped an arm around Lana's shoulders, looking down at her and smirking. "Besides, if you value your stomachs, it's better for everyone involved if I'm the one that does the cooking."
Lana's jaw dropped and she elbowed him in the side. "Jerk!"
Jake let out a whoosh of air as her elbow made contact. "You put some force behind that." She tried to squirm out of his arms, but he pulled her back, pressing a quick kiss to her scowling mouth. "You love me, and you know it."
She sniffed. "I'm strongly reconsidering my position on that."
"Did you know we were getting dinner and a show?" Cameron asked Molly, amusement at the other couple's antics laced through his voice.
In unison, Lana and Jake turned to him with matching disgruntled expressions and ordered, "Shut up, Cameron."
Molly broke down into helpless giggles, as Cameron started laughing loudly.
"You know, it's not late to kick them out," Jake said to Lana, glaring at his brother.
"We'd have to give the wine back," Lana pointed out.
Jake shrugged. "Says who?"
"Says me," Cameron said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"And me," Molly interjected. "I've really been looking forward to a glass all day."
Jake heaved a dramatic sigh. "Well, I suppose we can't deny you your wine, Mol. God knows you must need it after dealing with rugrats all day at work and then coming home and having two more." He grabbed the bottles and headed back into the kitchen, everyone following along behind him.
"Alex is much better behaved than my kids at school are," Molly said, shooting Cameron a mischievous look. "No comment on the other one."
Cameron made a grab for her, making Molly shriek with laughter as he pulled her into his arms. "You'll pay for that, wife," he threatened.
She batted her eyelashes at him. "Do your worst."
"Now I need a drink," Jake muttered, digging through a drawer for a corkscrew.
Lana settled herself at one of the stools that at the counter and watched as Jake opened and poured the wine, hands quick and competent from working at Luke's and the Haunted Star. "You know, you really found your calling," she complimented. "You're clearly meant to serve."
He made a face at her.
She stuck her tongue out at him.
Molly sat down on the stool next to Lana's. "Hard to believe you two are getting married in a month."
Jake handed a glass to Molly. "Why's that?"
She took a sip. "Because you act exactly like my kids do on the playground."
Cameron snickered. "That sounds about right."
Jake glared at his brother before turning to his fiancé. "You know, it doesn't seem quite right that I'm being ganged up on in my own home. Do I go to Cameron's and do this to him?"
Lana couched her features into a thoughtful expression, tapping her fingers against her chin. "Yes, I believe you do."
"You don't live here yet," he pointed out. "I can make you sleep on the couch tonight."
Her eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."
He smirked. "Wouldn't I?"
"Not if you want sex again before our honeymoon," she threatened, voice dripping with sweetness.
His eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."
She smirked. "Wouldn't I?"
They stared at each other, locked in a battle of wills, each daring the other to blink first.
Molly decided to change the topic of conversation. "Speaking of Lana not living here, when are you officially moving in?"
Lana turned her attention away from Jake with a haughty sniff. "I take my boards in two weeks, and I'll move after that."
"Are you keeping the apartment in Ithaca?" Cameron asked. "Won't you have to do some of your rotations there?"
"I thought about it," Lana admitted. "Because, yeah, I'll probably have to do a couple there, though I did get permission to do the majority of them at GH." She shot a look at Jake. "But I decided I'd rather live with that lug than have two places, you know?"
"What are you going to do when you do have to be there?" Molly asked.
Lana shrugged. "Stay with friends, hotel rooms, find a short term lease. There are lots of options."
"So, two weeks between the test and the wedding?" Cameron asked. "That's cutting it kind of close."
"I know, I know," Lana groaned. "But it was really the only time it worked into the schedule, especially since someone," she shot Jake another look, "Is insisting on a two week long honeymoon. I have to be back for my first rotation at the beginning of July."
Jake shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a horrible awful man for demanding two weeks alone with my new wife. I should be taken out and shot."
"Honey, if I wanted you shot, I'd do it myself," Lana said sweetly, reaching across the counter to pat his hand. "You know I'm a better shot than you are."
"Don't sell yourself short, Lan," Molly laughed. "You're a better shot than everyone in this room."
"True," Lana admitted, taking a sip of her wine.
"So, speaking of the wedding," Molly began.
Jake turned to the stove to check on his spaghetti sauce. "Must we?" he groaned.
"Hush," Molly scolded. She looked at Lana. "Have you given anymore thought to what I asked?"
"Molly," Lana said unhappily. "Do we have to talk about this?"
"Yes," Molly insisted. "The shower is in two weeks, the wedding is in four. We have to talk about this."
Jake turned back with a confused look on his face, and quickly noted the look of distress on Lana's. "What's going on?"
Molly looked at Lana to explain.
Lana shook her head. "No. This is your deal, you explain it to them."
"Fine," Molly huffed. She looked warily back and forth between her husband and brother-in-law. This was not going to make them happy, she knew that. Family loyalty was too important to them, but then so was it to her. She took a deep breath. "I want to drop Lila from the guest list to Lana's shower."
"And the wedding," Lana added. "Don't forget that."
Jake and Cameron looked at her with flabbergasted looks.
"What?" Jake spluttered.
"Yeah, I'll second that," Cameron agreed, eyeing his wife with concern. "What's going on Molly?"
She folded her arms over her chest defensively. "I don't want that woman in my house."
"Molly," Cameron groaned. "We've talked about this."
"You mean you've lectured," she countered, eyes flashing. "You haven't bothered to try to understand how I feel about this at all, Cameron."
"That's not true at all," he said hotly. "Morgan's your brother, I understand that. But Spencer's mine."
"But she's not family to either of us," Molly sneered. "So what's the big deal about dropping her from the guest list?"
"To the shower or the wedding?" Jake asked.
Molly shrugged. "Both."
"I already told you that if you don't want her at your house you don't have to have her there," Lana said in frustration. "You're throwing the shower, you can control the guest list. But you're going to have to be the one to tell her she's not welcome, Mol. I won't do it."
"Why not?" Molly looked like she wanted to stamp her foot in frustration.
Lana hesitated, unsure how to say this, and knowing Molly would be furious with her when she did. "Because, well, I can't condemn her for it."
Molly stared at her in shock. "Excuse me? You can't condemn someone for having an affair for more than a year, for breaking up two marriages and a baby’s family, just because they're selfish?"
"Molly, Lila didn't do that on her own," Lana said gently. "Spencer had as much to do with it as she did. And what they did was wrong. Completely." She shrugged, helplessly. "But they wanted to be together, they love each other. I can't condemn that."
Molly gasped. "I can't believe you think that it's okay!" she cried.
"I didn't say it was okay," Lana said, desperate to make her understand. "Can't you understand what I mean? That I can hate what they did and not hate them?"
Molly shook her head. "No."
The best friends stared at each other unhappily.
Jake and Cameron exchanged looks over their heads. Molly and Lana never fought. Not really. And for it to be now, when they should be happily planning Lana's wedding, made it all the worse.
Jake stepped in, unable to bear the look of abject misery on Lana's face any longer, and hoped that Molly would shift her anger from Lana to him. "Molly, I understand how you feel, I do. And what you do about the shower is your business, though I wish you'd leave Lana out of it, because she has enough stress right now between the boards and the wedding, but we cannot disinvite Lila from the wedding. She and Spencer are a package deal now, and Spencer's one of the groomsmen. So I'm sorry, but that's not up for discussion."
She stared at him in shock. No one ever talked to her that way, and if they did, Cameron wouldn’t let them. She looked up at her husband, expecting him to be ready to take his brother’s head off, but found him looking down at her, in seeming agreement with Jake. “You agree with him?”
“Molly, it’s his wedding,” Cameron said as gently as he could.
She shook her head. “I don’t mean about that. About Spencer and Lila being a package deal.”
He hesitated. “Well, yes.”
Molly could feel the tears start to fill her eyes and rather than give them all the satisfaction of seeing her cry, seeing how angry and upset she was, she got up off the stool and stalked to the French doors that opened to the backyard, and disappearing into the night.
“Molly!” Cameron called after her.
He got a slammed door for his pains.
He looked back at Jake and Lana who were equally stunned. Any of them might go around slamming doors and throwing temper tantrums, but that wasn’t Molly. She was the calm one, the steady one, the peacemaker. Clearly they’d all underestimated how upset she was.
Jake came around the counter and sat down on Molly’s stool, reaching out for Lana’s hand. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, a mixture of shock and misery on her face. “I hate fighting with Molly. It’s why we never do, because neither of us can stand it.” She looked out at the dark backyard. “I didn’t realize she was this upset, Jake, I didn’t…”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it, Lan,” Cameron sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration. “I didn’t see it either.” He looked out at the yard, barely able to make out Molly sitting on the porch steps. “I should go out there.”
“I think you might want to give her a few minutes,” Jake advised. His thumb stroked gently over Lana’s knuckles, trying to soothe her. “She probably needs to cool down.”
“You think?” Cameron sank down on the stool next to Jake. “I can’t think of the last time Molly and I disagreed so completely about anything.”
“That’s probably because it’s never happened,” Lana said dryly.
Jake snorted. “I think she’s right.”
“Aw, honey, I know how much you hate to admit that,” Lana teased, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“You must be feeling better if you’re bantering with my brother,” Cameron said with the faintest trace of amusement in his voice.
“Maybe a little,” Lana conceded.
“Which probably means that it’s time for me to go talk things out with Molly.” He stood. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” Lana said. As he brushed past her, she caught his sleeve. “Cam? Let her know how sorry I am?”
He smiled at her, and squeezed her hand. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Lan.”
She bit her lip. “I know, but -”
“But it’s Molly.” He nodded. “I know. And I’ll tell her, and then the two of you can make up on your own, okay?”
She nodded.
Cameron slipped out into the backyard to face the music.
Jake and Lana watched him go.
Jake tugged on their joined hands, pulling her off her stool to stand in front of him, between his legs. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and looked her in the eyes as he asked, “Are you really okay?”
“Yes?” she tried, not quite able to meet his eyes.
“Lana.”
She sighed. “Molly’s my best friend. We’re getting married in a month. I take the most important test of my life in two weeks. Nothing is the way it’s supposed to be and it sucks.”
He nodded. “I know. And I’m sorry. If I could make this all perfect for you, I would, you know that. I love you, Lana.”
“I love you, too.” She tried to smile at him. “Hey, you know what sounds like a great idea?”
“What?”
“Let’s elope.”
He stared at her in surprise. “Elope?”
She nodded, growing excited by the idea. “It would get rid of so much of my stress, we wouldn’t have worry about alienating friends and family, because your brother’s a manwhore…” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pouted. “Please?”
He shook his head as he said, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but no.”
“No,” she repeated, narrowing her eyes at him. “Clearly my pout is losing its effectiveness. I’ll have to work on that.”
“For the sake of the men that love you, I beg of you don’t.” He smiled at her. “If I thought eloping was what you really wanted, Lan, I’d take have you on the next flight to Vegas, hell, I’d commander the Cassadine jet, but it isn’t. You wouldn’t be happy if we did.”
She frowned. “You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.” He pressed a quick kiss to her frowning lips. “Lana, you want your wedding day. You want to have your dad walk you down the aisle, to wear your pretty white dress, all of it. I know you do. And you know you do too.”
Her frown deepened. “It’s not fair that you know me so well.”
“True,” he said. “But then you’re so much smarter than me that I have to take my advantages where I can them.”
“Now you’re just sucking up,” Lana laughed.
He grinned. “Is it working?”
“Maybe,” she murmured, leaning into kiss him. When she drew back, she said, “I do love you, Jake Spencer.”
He tightened his grip on her waist. “I love you, too, Lana Drake-soon-to-be-Spencer.”
They were silent for a moment, content to simply be wrapped in each other’s arms.
Eventually Lana turned her head to look out into the dark backyard. “What do you think is happening out there?”
“Cameron’s talking her down.” At Lana’s doubtful look, he said, “He is. He always does. He always will.”
“I really hope you’re right…”
*
Molly sat on the porch steps trying to cool her temper.
None of them understood how she felt, no matter what they said, but none of them deserved to have her lose their temper with them. Most of the people she loved most in the world were in the room, and she’d treated them as if they were beneath her contempt, as if they were as bad as Spencer and Lila.
It wasn’t fair. She knew that, but she couldn’t help herself. It seemed like everyone she knew was lined up to support Spencer and Lila, the ones that had ruined everyone’s lives, while only she and Kristina stood by Morgan’s side, supporting him.
None of them knew how devastated Morgan was, none of them had to see him trying to lose himself in alcohol and his own grief, none of them cared.
She shook her head.
That wasn’t true. They cared about Morgan, but Spencer was their family, and Morgan wasn’t. For Cameron and Jake it was really that simple. Most of the time she understood, but damn it, she was their family too, and Morgan was hers. Someone should give a damn.
But no matter how much she wanted someone, anyone, to be on her side, she knew she wasn’t being fair, especially to Lana. She knew she was making outrageous demands, and that there was no way Lana could do the right thing, whatever that was. Lana was getting married. This should be the happiest time in her life, and now all this other stuff was getting in the way. Including Molly.
She was a terrible best friend.
From behind her she heard the doors open and someone step outside.
“It’s safe to approach,” she said in a dull, flat voice.
“Are you sure,” Cameron asked carefully, not coming any closer. “I can go away…”
She shook her head, though she wasn’t sure he’d be able to see it in the dark. She patted the spot on the steps next to her. “Come sit down.”
He did, stretching his legs out in front of them, and resting an arm just behind her back. They sat in silence for a moment, till finally Cameron asked, “So how’s your night going?”
She couldn’t help it, she laughed. “Pretty lousy, how about yours?”
“The same,” he said gravely. “My wife’s pretty pissed at me, and I’m worried about her, and her best friend thinks that it’s her fault that they’re fighting, and my brother, well he’s Jake. He’s cause for worry every damn day.”
“Your wife isn’t pissed at you,” she sighed. “Pissed at the situation, but not you.” She snuck a guilty look up at him. “Lana thinks it’s her fault that we’re fighting?”
He nodded. “She wanted me to tell you that she’s sorry.”
Molly felt tears spring to her eyes. Great, one more thing for her to feel bad about. “But it’s not. She didn’t do anything wrong.” She turned her head and buried it in his shoulder. “I’m ruining her wedding.”
He sighed. “You are not.” He grabbed her chin, tilting it up to look at him. “Lana loves you. She understands why you feel the way you do. She’d never hold that against you, baby.”
“I hold it against me!” Molly exclaimed in frustration. “This should be the happiest time of her life, and it’s being completed overshadowed by the drama in everyone else’s lives, and I’m making it worse, not better.”
“I don’t think that is what you’re doing, but even if you were, no one would hold it against you, Mol.” He looked her directly in the eye. “Morgan is your brother. All of us understand that loyalty. And none of us like what Spencer and Lila did to him. I promise you that.”
“But that doesn’t mean he’s not your brother,” Molly finished for him. She sighed. “I do understand that, it’s just hard.”
He nodded. “Believe me, I know. I have to see Spencer practically every day at work, and most times I’m ready to ring his neck. I’m mad at him, too, but he’s still my brother. He’s still Jake’s brother, and unfortunately that means that there are certain things that can’t be changed.”
“Like Lila being at the wedding.”
“Exactly.” Cameron pulled Molly onto his lap, tucking her head against his shoulder. He stroked her hair gently. “Feeling any better?”
She nodded. “I need to apologize to Jake and Lana.”
“You really don’t.”
“I do,” she insisted. “I feel terrible, and it’s the only way I’ll feel better.”
“You know, if you were more like the rest of us, and threw temper tantrums on a regular basis, you wouldn’t feel the need,” Cameron pointed out, helping her to her feet.
Molly made a face at him. “Yes, but I prefer leaving the temper tantrums to our toddler.”
“Sure, go and play the grown up card,” he teased, opening the door to go back inside.
She stepped into the house, and found Lana looking at her hesitantly, almost uncertainly, in a way that she didn’t think she’d ever seen before. It broke her heart. She rushed forward, and enveloped Lana into a crushing hug, tears trickling down each woman’s cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” Molly whispered in her ear. “So, so sorry.”
Lana shook her head. “No, I am.”
Molly pulled back, sniffling. “We are not going to have a fight about which of us is sorrier. I forbid it.”
Lana laughed, wiping her hands against her cheeks. “Okay. Friends?”
“Best friends,” Molly corrected, hugging her again.
“Well now that you two have kissed and made up, dinner?” Jake suggested. “It is why you came over, after all.”
“I think that sounds like an excellent idea,” Cameron said, resting his hands on Molly’s shoulders. “And you know how I hate to say that about Jake’s ideas.”
Jake made a face at his brother.
“What do you say, Mol?” Lana asked hopefully. “Dinner?”
Molly looked around the room at the faces of the people she loved best and nodded. “I think dinner sounds great.”
A smile of relief broke out on Lana’s face, and she took Molly by the elbow to steer her away from the men so they could talk about the latest plot twist on the soap they both watched but couldn’t discuss in front of Jake and Cam. Cameron slid onto the stool and chatted idly with his brother about a band that Jake had booked to play at Luke’s in a few months.
There would be more fights to come, more drama to avert, but for the moment, things got back to normal.
Which was enough.