General Hospital Rewrite Part One

October 31st 2016 Part 1

3:35 a.m.
     Jodie walks down the street. She turns to face the person walking behind her. Alex has disappeared and been replaced by a dark figure. She tries to run but can't move. Her cries for help come out silent. He walks over to her. He walks behind her. She swallows hard and waits for him. He puts a hand on her shoulder and pushes her to the ground. The darkness around his face fades away. She struggles but her arms won't move, her body frozen in place.
     "Not again. Please not again." she begs. "You gonna run Jodie?" he taunts. "You gonna run like last time? Try to run Jodie. Try. I dare you. You can't get away. Just like last time. All you'll do is exhaust yourself. Its not use. You're mine. You will always be mine. You'll never be free of me. Unless you fight. Which you won't. You're too scared. Too scared of me." He puts his hands on her shoulders and hold her to the ground. "You're just a scared little girl, alone in the woods." He fades away and the ground turns to a bed of crunch leaves.
     She cries for help and sits up. The forest disappears and her bedroom replaces it. She pulls her knees up to her chest and shakes her head from side to side.

6:45 a.m.
     "Happy Halloween!" Jodie says as her parents come down the stairs. Leo squeals with delight when he hears his sister's voice. He'd been asleep when Olivia had dropped him off the night before and by the time he'd woken up she was already getting ready to sleep. Julian puts Leo on the ground so he can run to Jo, which he does. He falls against and hugs her leg. "Gogo!" he giggles as she picks him up. "Okay so run the plan for tonight by me again." Julian requests.
     "I'm going trick or treating with you and the kids, then at like nine I'm heading over to Alex's dad's house and I'll be home for midnight." Jodie says. "You'd better be." he warns. She smiles at Leo and kisses the side of his head. "I will." she promises. "Oh God, I gotta get going." she passes Leo back to her dad and says her goodbyes. Alexis puts her hands on Julian's shoulders. "She's a good, strong girl. She'll be okay." she says. "You're saying that for yourself." he comments.
     "It's not working." she tells him. "Maybe I should go get her. You know, drive her to school instead." he suggests. "She'll kill you." Alexis warns. "Maybe we should give her pepper spray, or a knife." he says. "I don't know honey." she rests her head between his shoulder blades.

9:32 a.m.
     Julian sits in his office and turns his computer on. He leans back in his chair and takes a deep breath. Nina opens the door and walks in. "What do you want?" he asks. "Don't bite my head off just yet. I'm not here for any malicious reasons. Just wanted to have a conversation with my friend." she says. "We aren't friends." he replies. "Oh come on. Of course we are." she retorts. He shakes his head. "No, I'm typically not friends with people blackmailing me."
     "Oh Julian, it's because I'm blackmailing you that we're friends. You have no choice but to be my friend." she says. "You're insane." he mutters. "And you have no choice in this." she says. "Actually I have someone coming for a meeting so you'll have to go." he tells her. "What's the meeting about?" she asks. "Not Crimson." he says. "That's vague." she says. "It's personal Nina. Family affairs are the one thing in my life you shouldn't get involved in."
     "Okay okay. Well, when you're done I got lots you can do." she says. "Please leave now." he says. She walks out and only a few minutes later Hayden walks in. "I hope I'm not too early." she says. "No, no, just a bit. I kinda just got here." he tells her. "I can go, or help." she offers. "I'm actually all set. I'm just a little, you know, flustered with everything that's been going on lately." he tells her. "Well that's why I'm here." she says. His mind does blank. "What?" he asks.
     "For the personal assistant job. You e-mailed me back and said to come around quarter to ten." she reminds him. "I did, sorry, I think I need you more than I realized." he laughs. "I know that you must've had some second thoughts because of my situation with Nicholas and your wife being his aunt so thank you for even giving me the chance to try out of this job." she says. "You can't walk ten feet in this town without crashing into someone you have an obscure relationship to." he comments. "Still, it's a huge thank you." she says.
     "So why do you wanna come work for me?" he asks, starting the interview. "Well, in all honesty, I just need a job and I figured the best place to start looking was the king of second chances." she says. "I'm what, the king of second chances?" he asks. "Well yeah. You gave Nina a job and she did bad things. When after Dillon exposed that affair you still let him work here. You yourself, I mean, how many second chances have you gotten? I just hoped you could do the same for me."
     He smiles. "Uh, why aren't you working at ELQ anymore?" he asks. "Well, with everything that's going on, I just felt I wasn't welcomed there anymore." she says. "Their loss." he says. "It seems like you're over qualified for this position." he tells her. "I know you were probably expecting some pretty blonde just out of college desperate for a pay check." she says. "I didn't care what they look like or if they're male or female. I'm married and I have no interest in anyone other my wife." he states.
     "I know! I wasn't making assumptions. I was just saying, the stereotypical personal assistant." she says. "Oh, okay." he looks back down at a pile of papers, pretending to read something so he can think of another question. "Uh, just know this job is gonna be a lot of taking calls and answering e-mails. I'm gonna drag you into boring meetings that are like hours long. Once and a while I go to photo shoots so you can come along on those. There's a lot of dealing with possible ad companies that all have the same bitchy attitude. Its similar to Hell on Earth."
     "Sounds like something I can do." she tells him. "I'll probably ask you to get me coffee and food occasionally." he warns. "I've done worse for a pay check." she laughs. "Believe me so have I. If I'm gonna be completely honest, you're the only one who actually wanted the job. My reputation proceeds me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a mean, well, depending who you ask. I guess it's just that people don't wanna be associated with The Julian Jerome."
     "I have no problem with that." she says. "I can tell." he comments. "Its actually a step up from where I am now." she adds. "You'll be busier around holidays and next March I'm gonna need you to really step up." he says. "What's happening in March?" she asks. "My wife's due in early March." he tells her. "Congratulations, I remember hearing something about your wife expecting when I lived with Nicholas."
     "Well thank you." he says. "So, do you have any questions?" he asks. "Yes, actually. Do you have any concerns about my resume or me?" she asks. "Uh, not really. I wanna say you have the job but I'm welcoming walk ins so I'll get back to you." he tells her. "Thank you again for even considering me." she says. "Have a nice day." he says. She gets up and walks out of his office.