Those Old Familiar Places-Chapter 1:The Letters (Part X)
Spinelli’s speech was abruptly ended by an outraged screech of pain. In executing his flamboyant declaration to Elizabeth he had stepped heavily onto the foot of a WAC standing directly behind him. “You big oaf! Why don’t you look where you’re going?” Reacting to the agony of her bruised instep, she furiously shoved Spinelli sending him once more sprawling back to what appeared to be his new domicile-the club floor.
Stunned, Spinelli scrambled backwards on his hands all the while peering up at his newest adversary. A look of unabashed reverence spread across his face as he gazed up at the girl glaring back down at him. She was hopping one legged, her foot out of its encasing high heel as she rubbed at it, trying to reduce the pain. “Botticelli’s Venus,” he breathed out worshipfully, unable to move his eyes from her face. “Arising from the ocean, encased in a clam shell and nothing more except her flowing locks…”
“What did you just say?” The girl narrowed her eyes and putting her injured foot down limped menacingly towards the hapless young man who scooted backwards never once averting his adoring stare. “Did you just talk about me in the all together?” Now her voice had a hiss to it and she stood over him her arms akimbo as she pinned him with her merciless and unforgiving stare.
“I…the Wolverine meant…no offense,” he stammered out alarmed at her fierce expression. “It is just to see such miraculous beauty materialize out of thin air as it were. Well, only reference to the art of the masters was a suitable comparison, could effectively praise one as beauteous as you…”
His protestations, his words of flattery were ineffectual falling as they were on deaf ears. “Hmmph,” she made a strangled noise of disgust as she turned away from his prostrate form. Over her shoulder she called out a parting admonition, “Stay away from me, you creep. My father’s the Port Charles Chief of Police and we have guns at home, lots of ‘em.” Suddenly she spotted Robin Scorpio still standing awkwardly in the crush of people surrounding the bar. With a shriek of joy, entirely forgetful of her interaction with Spinelli, she called out to her. “Robin! What are you doing here? How on earth did my prim and proper cousin end up in a place like Sonny’s and unescorted from the looks of it…” She trailed off as she peered at the pale and pinched expression on her cousin’s face. “Sweetie, what’s wrong, don’t you feel well?” Now there was real worry evident in her tone and Spinelli sighed with appreciation as he heard it.
“Isn’t she a ministering angel, Stone Cold?” He queried his mentor as he was hoisted once more to his feet by a pair of strong arms. “What a creature to have descended upon us from the heavens themselves. We are thrice blessed this evening.“ He turned his starry eyes onto the other two women, including them in his general thesis on feminine beauty. “To be in the company of such exemplars of the womanly ideal is to grow intoxicated upon the allure and glory of their exquisiteness.”
Lila looked at him gravely, touched by his sincerity, his raw emotionalism. “Thank you, Wolfie. Elizabeth and I are both honored to be included in such company when it is clear that you esteem that young woman above all others.”
Jason shook his head in negation, not at all liking the events of the past moments. “Well, he shouldn’t.” He stated flatly. “That’s Mac Scorpio’s adopted daughter, Spinelli. Getting involved with her is going to cause you nothing but grief.”
“Au contraire, Stone Cold, love causes joy not grief. Anyway, your warnings are too late as the Wolverine fears he has been mortally wounded by the straight flight of Cupid’s arrow from his bow to my heart.” He sighed theatrically as he looked longingly over at the bar where the blonde WAC was animatedly talking to her cousin who looked at her with a doleful expression all the while giving monosyllabic responses to her endless chatter.
Jason grabbed Spinelli by the arm and started pulling him towards the door that led to the back regions of the club. “C’mon, Romeo, let’s go check out the game and make sure everything is under control.” He sent a brief glance towards Elizabeth, “We’ll be back in a couple of minutes.” It was enough of a promise to bring a smile of anticipation to her lips.
Elizabeth looked over at the dance floor and the tables surrounding it with dismay. “Lila, there’s no place to sit!” She practically wailed her complaint. She wanted to find a table where they could wait for Jason to come back and perhaps even have the opportunity to feel his arms wrapped around her as they danced together.
Lila gave her a knowing look and said reassuringly, “Relax darling, remember it’s all a matter of who you know.” Just then Carly passed them by looking frazzled but entirely within her element as she immersed herself in the demands of the club patrons. “Carly!” Lila practically had to shout to be heard over the noise of the crowd but she managed to get her attention.
“Lila,” she stopped by them, her foot tapping impatiently as her eyes roved the room ceaselessly searching for potential trouble that she could resolve before it became an issue. “What can I do for you?” Her tone was impatient but finally her eyes came to rest on Lila’s face and she recalled herself and the bond they shared through Jason. “Did you get your stockings all right?” Carly turned her attention to Elizabeth.
“Yes, thank you,” Elizabeth murmured feeling strangely shy as she recalled the time in the storeroom.
“Carly,” Lila was intent on bringing her attention to the matter at hand. “Elizabeth and I would like the opportunity to sit and enjoy the music, perhaps have a drink. I don’t suppose there’s any hope of our procuring a table on a night like tonight?” She had intentionally phrased it as a challenge sure that Carly would rise to the occasion and she was not disappointed.
Carly grinned conspiratorially at Lila, “I think something can be arranged, come with me.”
“Maxie!” Robin loved her younger cousin, she and her Uncle Mac were the only family she had but sometimes her constant talking, her exuberance concerning all aspects of life were more than she could tolerate. “I’m fine but I came here to…” Well, obviously for a myriad of reasons she couldn’t say why she really had come to Sonny’s, so she settled instead for a tiny fib. “To relax, to get away from everything and everyone,” subtly was a wasted exercise on Maxie.
“Relaxing at Sonny’s?” Even Maxie knew that was nonsense but she could see her fellow WACs waving frantically, they had managed to snag a table right by the dance floor. Maxie took one last look at Robin, trying to gauge if she should stay and keep her company or go join her friends.
Robin read her face and grinned at her, the lines of tiredness and depression smoothing out as she suddenly was almost pretty, her brown eyes sparkling with mischief. “Go on, join your friends and have a good time. Be careful though and don’t stay out too late. You know Uncle Mac worries until we’re both tucked up safely at home.”
“You’re sure?” It was only a perfunctory check, made out of politeness more than anything, Maxie was already turning to go and find her friends.
“I’m sure, now go on.” Robin made a shooing motion and watched her indulgently as she made her way to the table eliciting a lot of appreciative male glances while traversing the edge of the dance floor.
“What about you? Don’t you deserve to have a good time?” It was Patrick and he was regarding her quizzically over the edge of his drink. Robin had lost track of the number of refills he had asked Luke for and that didn’t include what he had imbibed before she had arrived.
“I’m fine,” she said repressively, the brief moment of joy flickering out of her eye like a snuffed candle.
“You heard her, she’s fine.” The voice was seductive and smoky, imbued with the promise of unnamed delights. “Now me on the other hand, I think I require some specialized medical attention. My heart was sprained earlier tonight.” The dark haired woman in the scarlet dress picked up Patrick’s hand and brazenly placed it on her bosom. “Is this where my heart is, Doc?” she all but purred at an entranced Patrick who seemed entirely uninterested in removing his hand from its current placement.
“No, it’s a little more towards here, “and he suited his action to his words as he shifted his hand slightly to the left of where it had been previously pressed.
Robin stared bitterly at the tableaux playing out before her shocked eyes. She had never seen anything remotely like it, the lack of propriety, the disregard of her propinquity. She started to move away from them unable to watch any longer. Tonight had been a disaster, a mistake from beginning to end, at least for her. On the other hand, it appeared as though it might have been an unexpectedly successful outing for Nurse Webber. She had found both an old friend and a potential romance. Robin didn’t begrudge her either occurrence, it wasn’t Elizabeth’s fault that things had ended the way they had in her own quixotic quest. Obviously, coming to Sonny’s had been a bad idea, a major misjudgment and that from someone who prided herself on having excellent judgment, who was infallibly cool, calm and collected. The only exception, the single misstep she had made was a direct result of the raging, irrational fever that this dissolute reprobate currently seated at the bar and so crudely flirting with a literally scarlet woman engendered within her.
Robin wished she had been struck deaf or that the noise of the crowd at the bar had raised up several decibels from what it been when she had already thought it intolerable. Anything to block out the seductive murmuring that she could still hear though no longer see as she had turned her back to them, unable to watch a moment longer.
“So, can you feel it, my poor wounded heart?” It was a lazy drawl, and Robin was sure if she looked she would see it accompanied by a slow burning smile of seduction.
“Well, Sam, I have a prescription for that. One that I would be willing to fill personally for you…” Patrick’s voice had become husky with desire.
It was enough, the first words he had spoken to her this evening should have clued her in, sent her back out into the night. Yet, she had stayed despite her humiliation, her shame even then she had remained. Some rebellion against her chemistry, her need for him, formulated within her and she belatedly found the strength to do what she ought to have long since-leave. Robin was standing at the coat check impatiently waiting for her coat so that she could fulfill what was suddenly her predominant desire to get away from Sonny’s and everyone and everything it represented. She knew it would take an effort of will to forget about Patrick, to stop trailing after him like a love struck teenager but he wasn’t interested in her as tonight had so aptly demonstrated and so now all that was left for her was to reclaim her tattered self respect and to return to her self-imposed isolation of no friends and definitely no romance. It just wasn’t in the cards for her.
“Leaving so soon?” He was behind her, holding her coat while he waited for her to slip into it.
She hadn’t seen him leave the bar, follow her, or retrieve her coat from the attendant. She had been too absorbed in her wretchedness to notice her surroundings and she had never, not in her wildest imaginings, thought that he would choose her over what had been so clearly on offer back at the bar. Even now as she peered up at him she felt the first stirrings of hope intermingled with the suspicion that he was perhaps teasing her or worst of all, that he felt pity for her.
“Why are you here?” She knew she sounded abrupt but she couldn’t help herself. “Why did you abandon…Sam?” Even saying her name, the single syllable was painful. She was everything that Robin could never be and while she knew she shouldn’t want to emulate her she would have traded her medical degree for Patrick to look at her in the same way he had been gazing at Sam.
Patrick laughed shortly and pointed back at the bar. “I wouldn’t say I exactly abandoned her…”
Robin looked where he had indicated and saw what he meant. Sam was surrounded by a group of sailors. Her head was thrown back exposing a long creamy column of neck as she laughed uproariously at some witticism. “She doesn’t look too bereft at the loss of your company.” Robin commented dryly while a small smile curved her lips.
Patrick gasped theatrically and clutched at his chest. “Why, Dr. Scorpio did you just a make a joke? I’m not sure my heart can withstand the shock.” He was grinning impudently at her and she responded with a shy smile that lit up her face making him feel happy that he had indulged his impulse to pursue her when he had seen that was truly intending to leave. “May I have the honor of escorting you home?” He asked her, extending his arm for her to take.
“You may indeed, Dr. Drake.” She whispered, unable to believe the way the evening had worked out, the fire suddenly running through her veins and the future that had seemed unattainable moments ago but was now potentially within her grasp. She placed her hand tentatively on his arm and he possessively pulled her closer to his side as they exited out through the old speakeasy door which had seen many a couple come and go and had discreetly kept the knowledge to itself.
“Elizabeth, look,” Lila nudged her friend, they were both standing on the edge of the dance floor while Carly was off cajoling, negotiating-it was difficult to say which-with a group of sailors, asking them to relinquish their table to the vaunted needs of the weaker sex. “Isn’t that the woman you were with when I first encountered you this evening?” Lila didn’t point, she would never be a caught in such an unladylike act but she jutted her chin pointedly in the direction of the person she meant.
“Oh, my gosh! Dr. Scorpio-Robin, I forgot all about her!” Elizabeth was mortified what with everything that had occurred during the course of this eventful night, all thoughts of her companion had slipped her mind from her first delighted glimpse of Lila and she had spared no further consideration for her presence or her well being until this very moment. “I should go to her. I owe her an apology…” She was getting ready to go to Robin, to beg her forgiveness for so thoroughly having neglected her when Lila placed a gently restraining hand on her shoulder.
“I shouldn’t my dear, I really shouldn’t, “ she murmured repressively as she saw the clear exclusion of all exterior distractions indicated by the body language of the man and woman standing in such close proximity to one another. A reminiscent smile played across Lila’s lips as she fondly recalled the myriad times that she and Edward had been so mesmerized by each other that they might have been the only two people on earth. “It appears to me that she feels no need for apologies of any sort.” She gave a short little laugh as a glissando of emotions coursed through her from sharp envy to tender empathy.
“Oh,” Elizabeth said again, this time in a startled tone as she realized exactly who Robin’s surprisingly attentive companion was. She felt strangely melancholy at this evidence of Robin’s most fervent desire having come to fruition. “You’re right, she isn’t aware of anyone but Dr. Drake.”
“Come on you two,” it was Carly, impatient with their scattered attention. They had no idea what she had gone through to get a table for just them, crowded as the club was, it was equivalent to the value of beach front real estate in Long Island during the summer season. “You need to get to the table before it’s snatched from under our noses.” She shepherded them towards the vacant circular piece of wood under a stained cloth that was eliciting predatory looks from those tired of standing on the fringes of the room. “Uh, uh,” she barked assertively at a marine who was trying to claim it for himself and his buddies and their girls. “This one’s reserved for the ladies here boys. Sorry about that, I’m sure something will open up soon.” She lied cheerfully while she grinned disarmingly at them and they backed reluctantly away.