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A few short hours later, the group began to reconvene at the Port Charles International Airport. Jason, Carly, and Luke anxiously waited for Todd, Blair, and Johnny to arrive so that they could be on their way. Carly's eyes continued to scan the area trying desperately to locate her friend. A few moments later, she spotted her.
Todd and Blair were walking towards them, each of their long strides synchronized with one another. It was only then that Carly realized how perfectly paired the couple actually was. They definitely made an impact and caught the eye of more than a few strangers. Their hands were linked and the same look of determination was on both of their faces. Whatever Blair was going through, it was obvious she was taking it in stride.
Luke watched Blair with the same interest as Carly. He didn't know why, but he felt a small sense of pride as he watched her make her way toward them. She was a strong one that much he knew. He stepped closer to Carly and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"Looks like you were worried over nothin' darlin'," he told his niece quietly.
"You were worried too," she snarked.
"Bah! She's not a Spencer, what do I care?"
"Because you just do," she told him confidently. He didn't answer her and she couldn't help but smirk. "You're such a softie," she told him laughingly.
"Lies," he muttered.
Carly leaned her head against his shoulder, the earlier hurt she felt was for the most part now gone. She didn't tell him, but she loved her uncle. She was grateful for the adoption. She didn't realize it until years later after she met Bobbie, but she was. She had two mothers who loved her and she loved them in return. And that was one thing in her life that she could never be sorry about.
Carly stepped forward as Todd and Blair neared and she could see the fire back in Blair's eyes. It had been missing the past few days, but it was back.
"Sorry, we're late," Blair smiled. "I wanted to talk to the kids before we left."
"It's ok," Carly offered quickly. "We're still waiting for Johnny."
"Good," Blair smiled.
Todd kissed Blair on the temple and made his way over to Jason and Luke. Carly sat down on one of the seats and Blair joined her.
"You ok?" Carly asked her after a moment.
Blair let out a sigh before answering her. "Actually yeah," she told her quietly. "I--I had my moment earlier, but Todd was there and I actually feel better. Better than I have in days."
Carly smiled sadly at her. "I'm glad to hear that."
"How about you?" Blair asker her quietly.
Carly simply shrugged a shoulder and Blair squeezed her right hand reassuringly. "I feel stupid and selfish for feeling mad at Luke and Bobbie again even if it lasted a minute or two. I know the circumstances. I know their reasons and I know that they were right to do what they did."
"But it still hurts," Blair finished for her.
"I know I have no right," Carly continued. "Especially after hearing just a little of what you went through."
"Carly, it's ok."
"No, it's not. Because I know I was lucky that Virginia adopted me. I know that my life could have been like yours."
"But it wasn't," Blair told her. "Remember that."
Carly laughed slightly. "You know, my intention was to be your friend and cheer you up, not the other way around."
"You did cheer me up," Blair chuckled. "And believe it or not, as weird as all this is, I'm glad we were together when we heard all of this."
"Me too," Carly grinned.
"Why do we have the most depressing conversations ever?" Blair laughed after a moment.
"I have no idea," Carly laughed as well. "But I have the perfect thing to talk about instead."
******
"It looks like the girls are ok," Luke stated as he watched Carly and Blair.
"Of course they're ok," Todd snapped at him. "Did you expect them to be crying over what an ass you are?"
Todd knew well and good that Blair had no harboring ill will against Luke, but he was still mad as hell at him. The reasons were unjustifiable and on some level he knew there was no one to blame, but he couldn't help it. As far as he was concerned Luke had hurt his wife, intentional or not, and he wanted to hurt him right back.
"Chill out, Manning," Luke continued. "I was just making conversation."
Todd took a step closer to Luke his fists clenched at his sides. It wasn't too hard to notice the anger building on Todd's face and Jason stepped in to stop any incidents from happening. The last thing he needed was for Todd and Luke to kill each other.
"Hey!" Jason called distracting both men. "I heard back from my contacts in Florida. None of them know who could be behind this."
"Maybe it's one of them," Todd told him, his eyes still focused on Luke.
"I thought of that, but it doesn't make any sense. There haven't been any threats, Manning. Not to Carly. Not to Blair. Nothing. If it were one of them, I would know it."
That grabbed Todd's attention and he turned to face Jason. "So whoever this freak is, he's after Blair and Carly like we've been saying."
"Yeah," Jason sighed. "Look the best thing we can do right now is go to Florida see if there's anything that triggers Carly or Blair's memory and go from there."
"And if another envelope is dropped while we're down there?"
"We'll come back."
Todd internally debated what the best recourse would be. Expose Blair to memories she didn't want to deal with or wait it out in Llanview.
"Todd, going to Florida is the only lead we have," Jason reminded him. "They'll be safe with us."
Physically safe, not emotionally. Todd ran a hand through his hair, seriously considering his options. His eyes went to his wife who was talking softly with Carly. She had told him that she was ok, but he had his doubts. Was he willing to risk more unnecessary inflicted pain on her?
Blair's gaze shifted from Carly to Todd almost sensing that he was watching her. She noted the look on his face and her heart raced a little. She had seen that look on him before too many times to count. He was completely focused on her and only her. She bit her lip in response. Possessive Todd had always had the same effect on her. Instead of feeling offended or annoyed or even slightly angry, she loved him even more for it. He was going to protect her at any cost. God, she loved him. She smiled at him then, letting him know that she really was ok. He let out a breath and nodded once, his decision made.
He turned back to Jason and Luke. "So when's your boy Johnny going to get here?"
********
"So I talked to Sonja a little bit ago," Carly began telling Blair, finding gossip the best way to pass the time and put a stop to their depressing conversation. "And apparently she slept with Steve last night after the Nurse's Ball."
Blair's eyebrows rose in curiosity, a small smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "So I hear."
"From Steve?"
"Uh-uh, from Lou. I talked to her on the way here and she told me that she slept with Johnny last night, but she only mentioned it in passing. The kicker is that she didn't want to talk about that, she just went on and on about Steve and Sonja."
"That's funny, because Sonja wouldn't shut up about Johnny and Lou."
"Weird," Blair frowned as she processed that information.
"No, what's weird is that Steve and Johnny got into it this morning."
"What?" both girls exclaimed and turned to see Todd standing over them from behind.
"Yeah, Johnny told me about that," Jason added joining them.
"And you didn't say anything?" Carly exclaimed.
"It wasn't a big deal," Jason shrugged.
"Wait, wait, back up," Blair started. "Why did they get into it?"
"Steve was pissed that Johnny slept with Lou," Todd told them sitting down in the row of seats behind the girls as he picked up a disregarded newspaper.
"And Johnny was pissed at Steve for sleeping with Sonja," Jason added as he sat next to Todd and took the front page section of the paper.
Todd glared at Jason for taking his paper and mindlessly picked up another section. Luke took the seat on the other side of Todd and snatched the Sports page out of his hands. "It happened at the club before you all got there," Luke added with disinterest.
Carly and Blair shared a look as their clueless husbands and Luke carried on.
"But why would Johnny go after Steve?" Carly asked Jason and Todd.
"Steve went after Johnny," Todd clarified. "But I heard Johnny gave just as good as he got."
"That makes even less sense. Why would Steve go after Johnny like that?" Blair wondered. "He's never gone after any of the guys Lou's dated."
"Not true," Todd told her. He was relegated to reading the Life section of the paper and was surprised to see a photo of himself plastered on the first page. It wasn't even a good shot of him - he was smiling at Blair. What the hell? Didn't these people know he had a reputation to uphold?
"What do you mean, Todd?" Blair questioned curiously.
"Like six months ago, Steve went after that chef guy Lou dated for a minute - the Frenchy. Steve beat the crap out of him." Todd noticed the other smaller photo at the bottom of the page of him and Jason deep in conversation. He looked pissed in that shot. Now that was better and it may turn out to be good for Sun sales. He cheered slightly.
"Why?"
"Why what?" he asked distractedly.
"Why would Steve fight him?"
"Dunno. Something about hurting Lou even though she was the one that broke it off," he finished disinterestedly.
Carly was doing her own processing. She was right about Sonja. She was still in love with Johnny, otherwise why would she be so upset about Johnny and Lou? She slept with Steve and knew it was a mistake, she got that much from her from their phone conversation. But after Sonja had gone on and on about Johnny and Lou, she proved her theory.
"I was right about Sonja," Carly muttered aloud. "I knew she was in love with Johnny."
Jason's ears perked up as he heard Carly talking to herself. "Carly, don't."
"Don't what?" she muttered, her mind going into overdrive. She couldn't figure out why Johnny had gotten mad over her and Steve though. Unless . . .
"Carly no plans." Jason said the words, but he knew doing so was pointless. He knew his wife and he knew she was most likely already on stage two of whatever new plan she had just thought up.
"Uh huh," Carly replied distractedly. "No plans," she echoed.
There was only one reason why Johnny would be so pissed at Steve and it didn't have anything to do with protecting Sonja's honor. Carly couldn't believe it but the pieces all fit. It was the only sensible conclusion - Johnny was in love with Sonja. It made sense the more she thought about it. They were in love once and it was more than possible that they would fall back in love. Or that they never stopped being in love - whatever the case may be.
How the hell did she miss this? She was so wrapped up in distracting Sonja at the Nurse's Ball that she never once gave Johnny or his actions a second thought. But now that she thought about it she could see the clues. The way Johnny clung to Lou that night almost as if he were trying to prove something. The way he pointedly ignored Sonja.
"Jason?" Carly began, turning around to face him.
"Yeah?" he answered already sensing that he was about to be bombarded with questions.
"Did Johnny ever mention Lou to you guys?" she questioned him quietly.
"I don't remember," he told her, not wanting to get involved in his friend's personal life.
"Jason, come on."
He sighed as he lowered the newspaper to stare at his wife. "Why do you want to know?"
"Because I want to know if I'm right."
"Right about what?"
"Was Johnny using Lou to distract himself from Sonja? Tell me the truth, Jase. He was purposefully trying to avoid Sonja, wasn't he? Or prove some stupid misguided point?"
He stared at her for a moment before answering her, thinking about the day Johnny took off to Llanview to prove his point that there was nothing serious going on between him and Sonja. "Carly just let it go. Let them figure this out on their own."
She couldn't help the small grin that began to pull at the corners of her mouth. "I'm right, aren't I? Johnny's in love with Sonja."
Blair processed the latest information at hand. The way Lou was acting at the Nurses Ball not wanting to stay with Steve. It all started to make sense now. Why would she be so upset about Steve sleeping with Sonja unless . . .
"Lou's in love with Steve," she muttered in awe. How could she have missed this? "How could I have missed this?" she questioned verbally.
And when did Steve fall for Lou? The over protectiveness, the flirting, the constant teasing. The jealousy? Maybe there was a reason for that aside from their friendship. Maybe they both didn't realize their feelings for one another until now.
Blair continued to mull over her information before turning back to Todd. "Todd . . ."
"Blair, come on let it go," he told her, dropping the newspaper to the floor. "Look Steve and Lou . . . they're adults. They know what they're doing. Let them handle this on their own."
"Manning's right, Carly," Jason broke in. "Whatever's going on between Sonja and Johnny leave it alone. They’ll figure it out on their own."
"Yeah, they've been doing such a bang up job at it so far, right?" she replied sarcastically. "Do you know what this means?" Carly laughed as she turned back to Blair. "Sonja's in love with Johnny."
"Lou's in love with Steve," Blair added.
"Johnny's in love with Sonja," Carly continued.
"And Steve's in love with Lou," Blair finished.
"Where the hell did you get that from?" Jason asked in disbelief.
"It all makes sense now," Carly began ignoring Jason's remarks.
"No wonder they've been acting all weird," Blair muttered.
"Our friends are in deep need of mental help."
"Yeah, no kidding," Blair laughed.
Chapter 13
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