General Hospital Rewrite Part One

June 21st 2016

5:27 p.m.
     Julian's the last to sit at the table. He smiles across at Jo. She smiles back. They decided on a family dinner. Sam had come alone but Lucas had brought Brad. In total six of them had ended up at Julian and Alexis' dinning room table. It was Jo's first time seeing her father's house. She'd seemed so impressed she was nearly speechless.
     "So I went to the police station to see if Arthur had left anything there. Turns out he had a ton of stuff but Jordon wouldn't release anything to me, so I ended up calling Dad to come and tell them he owns everything that was Arthur's and eventually she gives it to him. We managed to find out one of the American leaders of the organization but without the woman, he's worthless." Sam starts explaining. "Do you have leads about who the woman is?" Brad asks.
     "Not even the slightest. You know the worst part? He's in Port Charles right now and if we can't do something in the next two weeks he's going back to L.A. and we'll miss our shot." Jo says. "You can just have the feds arrest him there." Julian tells her. "I want the satisfaction of being able to watch the arrest." She says. "I don't know if I want you to be that close to this. These are dangerous people Jo." He says.
     "I know they are. I wanna be there when the people who ruined my life get what's coming to them." She states. "Alright, calm down. I just don't want you getting hurt." He says. "I get it, gotta make things look good for the judge." She counters. Julian has applied for full custody of Jo earlier and the judge wanted him to prove himself as a suitable caregiver for a tennage girl. Jo had to be moved in with Julian and be interviewed after a week to find out if he should be made her permanent guardian.
     Alexis had managed to get them to drop the fact that Jo had basically been on the run for months. While out for lunch, Jodie had nearly gotten into a fight with Sonny and when he found out who she was, Julian had to explain so he could convince Sonny not to tell the cops about the man he'd shot. Sonny has responded by simply saying 'The man had a gun didnt he?' and walking away. As Jo got more comfortable around Julian more of her personality was starting to come out. She clearly had a fiery temper and a sharp tounge.
     "So Lucas, how long have you and Brad been engaged?" Jo asks, changing the conversation away from her. "More than a year. Brad proposed to me at last year's Nurse's Ball." Lucas answers. "What's a nurse's ball?" she asks. "Its an annual charity ball the hospital throws to raise money for AIDs research and cure development." Sam says. "Maybe we can take you next year." Julian says. She smiles at the thought.
     "So Jo, you gotta tell us about yourself. What are you into, theater, art, music?" Alexis asks. "I like theater. I starred in my school's performance of Nightmare Before Christmas. I played Jack, only one guy auditioned and I think he was tone deaf." She laughs. "I need to see that." Alexis says. "I put on quite show." She remarks.
     "So you're a good actresses?" Alexis asks. "No, not really, I can sing though." She brags. "Maybe you can perform at the Nurse's Ball next year." She suggests. "I don't know about that." She reacts.
     The conversation turns more friendly and they all finish dinner and talk for a while. Before they realise it it's late and Sam has to go. Brad and Lucas leave not too long after.
     Jodie starts yawning and spacing out. "Why don't you hit the hay." Julian suggests. "Yeah I think I need to." She says, clearly exhausted.  She heads upstairs to go get ready for bed. Alexis moves closer to Julian. "You really trust her?" she asks. "She's only given me reasons to." He replies. "I do too. But there is something off about her. I think she's seen something or been through something we don't know about." She says.
     "She has this friend, Jensen, I think it might have something to do with him. She has this thing when she gets nervous, like how I rub my ring, she holds the locket on her neckless." He tells her. "She told me he got it for her as a birthday present for her fifteenth." He adds. "She might just miss him." Alexis says. "This is different. When she talked about him, she almost cried. I think whoever he was, he died." he says.
     "You could just ask her." She says. "Ask me what?" Jo asks from the stairs. "I, uh, I wanted to talk to you about Jensen. You just seemed so upset talking about him." Julian admits. She straightens up and tightens her jaw. "Jensen was my best  friend. What more could you want to know?" she snaps, taking off upstairs. "Okay I was wrong, don't ever ask her about him again." Alexis says. "I should go talk to her."
     "That's a bad idea. She needs time to cool off. Give her a little while then check on her, I bet she's just gonna fall asleep." She says. Julian laughs.

9:53 p.m.
     Julian had given her time to calm down and walked upstairs to see if she wanted to talk. He was mentally preparing himself for his first real father-daughter talk. He knocks on the door and waits for an answer. "If you don't answer I'm coming in." he warns. He waits a second and opens the door. He walks over to the side of Jo's bed. She's fast asleep, just like Alexis thought she would be.
     He kneels in front of her. He places his hand on the side of her head and kisses her forehead. "I already took care of the monsters in your closet. Goodnight Jo Jo. Sleep tight sunshine." he says, feeling the relief of finally getting to say that again after fourteen years.
     He walks out and closes the door. He makes his way to his room and gets ready to go to bed. It doesn't take long for him to fall asleep.

1:46 a.m.
     Julian opens his eyes and sits up. He looks around his room in a panic. Alexis sits up too, having been woken by him. "What's wrong?" she asks.
     "Help!" Jodie screams, still in her room. Julian gets up so fast he nearly falls. He runs to her room and gets to her bedside. She tosses around and screams for help. He grabs her shoulders. "Jodie, Jodie wake up." He says, shaking her awake. She wakes up sobbing. Julian holds her close to his chest. "Shh, you're okay. You're alright, I'm here." He soothes. "You're safe, Daddy's here. Just go back to sleep." He says soft as possible.
     She stops struggling and relaxes, melting into his arms. Alexis waits by the foot of the bed. Julian looks over at her, still holding Jo in his arms. He kisses the top of her head. "You're okay, Daddy's not gonna let anyone hurt you." He promises. She whimpers and starts to fall back asleep. Julian looks up at Alexis again, pure horror in both their eyes.