General Hospital Rewrite Part One

July 14th 2016

9:37 p.m.
     "How'd you sleep last night?" Julian asks Ava. "Better than you from what I can see." She says. He laughs. "I was worried about my little sister." He says. "No." She shakes her head. "You were worried about someone, or something, but it's not me. What's wrong?" she asks. "Just nerves." he brushes it off. "You're full of it." She tells him. "I don't wanna burden you." He says. "You just saved me." She reminds him.
     "I didn't save you. I got a text you sent me after you were tied up all day." He argues. "You saved me." She repeats. "If you say so." He gives in. "Jules, you gotta promise me when Sonny comes to get Avery, you won't let him." She says. "I won't." he promises. "See, you're my hero." She says. He laughs again. "You must be pretty high to think of me as your hero." He comments. "I'm actually not on anything at the moment."
     "Oh my bad. You must just be insane." He corrects. "Damn right I am. And you're my big brother who just saved me. Yes no, shut up." She says. He laughs and gives up arguing. "So, let's talk about you." Ava suggests. "What about me?" he asks. "Anything. Your kids, how you're feeling, anything." She says. "Well, kids are good. Sam's doing well, the baby is healthy. Lucas and Brad are planning their wedding and not telling me anything. I think things are finally gonna be peaceful between Olivia and I, so that makes things better for Leo, who's just the best son. Jodie is, well, she's troubled." He says.
     "How so?" she asks. "She's been through a lot in a short period of time. She's so young and she's been through things that most adults can't even handle. She acts so strong, like she doesn't care, but then she breaks down and I don't know what to do most of the time. I look at her sometimes and see this woman, who I hardly know, and others, I see the toddler I remember. It's hard to look at her and know that hides all this pain behind her smile." he says.
     "The apple didn't fall too far from the tree." She comments. He tilts his head and looks at her. "Come on Jules, you've been out of the hospital for weeks and you haven't gone back to work full time, you still stand with more weight on one side, you're shaky and nervous. Yet, you still smile. You still laugh, and love. You're doing the same thing your little girl is doing." She tells him. "She's your daughter, even if you didn't raise her, she's still just like you." She adds.
     He cracks smile. "You know, you're right. She's a mini me." He says. "As long as she doesn't make my mistakes." he adds. "Well, she has you to keep her from making them." She says. "Yeah I guess so."
     "So, any news on the baby front?" she asks. "I don't know." He admits. "What do you mean you don't know?" she asks. "Well, we don't wanna know until we're sure. I mean, Alexis wants to wait til she's sure before she has another test done. We only want positive results." He tells her. "So she might already be expecting?" she asks. "I mean, we hope so but we aren't sure." He admits. "I really hope you are too. It's about time the Jerome family got some more good news." she says.
     "Well, I mean we got Jodie back, and Sam's expecting. Lucas and Brad are getting married and we all have custody of our kids. Things are pretty good." He argues. "Still, a lot of bad has happened." She says. "Yeah, kinda sucks." He agrees. "You'd better do good and bring another happy, healthy Jerome baby into this world, and make sure not to mess up that wonderful marriage you got going for you."
     "I will Ava." He promises. "I mean right now. Go find your wife and show her how much you love her. After yesterday and all that's happened, I really got to see just how fragile humans are. Life is precious, we have to live it to the fullest. That's why, the second I'm able to, I'm leaving the business." She tells him. He smiles. "On Ava! That's so great. I'm so proud." he says.
     "I cant yet, and no one can know I want to." She tells him. "Obviously." He says. He kisses her forehead. "I'm really just so proud of you." He says. She smiles. "Get out of here before I get too emotional." She tells him. "Oh but I'm your older brother, its my job to be an ass." He says. "Really though, go home. Spend time with your wife, be with your kids. It'll give me sometime to rest and you time with the people most important to you."
     "You're my sister." He reminds her. "We aren't as close as you and Alexis and Jodie and your other kids. I'm fine on my own. I'll be out by tomorrow and we can go back to hardly speaking." She says. "Lets change that. I wanna be a better brother. Like you said, humans are fragile."
     "You're already a good big brother." She says.

I know this part was a bit boring but Jerome sibling time is important to me.