General Hospital Rewrite Part One

November 14th 2016

7:27 a.m.
"Why the long face?" Lucas asks his little sister. "I'm missing school." she says. "I'd be excited to miss school." he tells her. "I've missed so much though. I wanna pass junior year." she says. "Oh. Well don't you have a friend brining your work?" he asks. "Yeah, Cassy is gonna bring by everything I missed so I don't fall too far behind." she says. "You seem to like this Cassy." he points out. "Yeah, I guess. I mean, she's my lab partner and we star in the play together. Plus, she gets me." she says. "She seems a bit off."
"How do you think our whole family looks?" Jodie asks. He laughs at her. "You're right. Who are we to judge?" he asks rhetorically. "So, why isn't Alex brining your work?" he asks. "He um, he isn't answering my texts." she tells him. "Is he ignoring you?" he asks. "I think so." she admits. "If he wants to push you off to the side, show him what he's missing." he suggests. "I'm not taking that advice from my brother!" she exclaims. "I wasn't suggesting that you perv." he states. "Ignore him back. He makes the first move or neither of you do. Either he snaps out of it and starts giving you the attention you deserve or you leave him."
"I mean, that could work. What if I do that and he just thinks I'm not interested?" she worries. "He started it. Guys are stupid. I'm saying that as someone who's a guy and has dated guys." he says. She sighs. He puts his hand on her shoulder. "If he doesn't realize what he has, he doesn't deserve to have it. You are worth so much and anyone would be lucky to be with you. There are plenty of fish in the sea." he tells her. "I think I got a flounder." she laughs. "I think I might've too." Lucas says. She tries to hide her smile. His pager goes off and he frowns. "I gotta go. You gonna be okay alone?" he asks.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm gonna do the work I've missed so far." she tells him. "Okay, I love you Jodie." he says. "I love you too Lucas." she says as he kisses her head. "You call me if you need anything." he offers. "I will, I will." she pushes him playfully. "Don't cause any trouble." he warns. "No promises." she laughs. He rolls his eyes and leaves. She pulls her laptop over and opens her browser. *Benson Jameson* she types into the search bar. She searches the results for something she hadn't already read, with no luck. She erases his name and hovers her fingers over the keyboard.
She places them on top of a few letters, careful not to press down. *Jennifer McKean* she hits enter and clicks the first link. It's an article about her fake death. *In a tragic home invasion and a mother and young daughter were murdered.* Jodie hits the back button. She scrolls down until she finds a site that's not about their deaths. Unable to find anything she almost gives up until she finds one with Nathan Waller in it and clicks it. It's a typed up version of a newspaper article. *After years of a professional partnership Nathan Waller of Bust Corp and Jennifer McKean of Star Global Finances tied the knot today. They'll welcome their daughter in the spring.*
Jo stares at the screen. "Their daughter?" she asks herself, frantically looking for the date of the article. *Originally in print October 3rd 1989.* The text comes both as a relief and horror to Jodie. She opens a new tab. *Jennifer Waller* she hesitates to hit enter. Most results bring up another person, a Broadway actress. *Jennifer and Nathan Waller* she changes the search. Most results have something to do with their professional lives, that wasn't Jo's interest. She clicks to the next page and hovers the curser over the third link down. Its a crime blog that looks at though it hasn't been update since Jodie was in diapers.

*The Waller Baby and Her Mother
While some reports claim the baby was still born, others claim she died of natural causes after birth. These discrepancies lead me to believe that there's more to the story. It's no secret that Nathan and Jennifer Waller aren't the most honest couple. Both have been investigated for ties to the mob, separately and together. The infants death is surrounded by facts that don't add up. Unfortunately seeing both parents history, there's not much to hope that the child's true outcome was better than the one her parents concocted.
Because of her recent disappearance I believe the death of Mrs. Waller's daughter to not be an isolated incident. Perhaps she finally couldn't live with what she'd done or perhaps she was another of her husband's victims. Police reports about her disappearance all say that her whereabouts are completely unknown and she basically fell off the side of the Earth. When Nathan was asked about her he simply said, "When he Jenny is found, I will deal with it." Wether or not this a threat aimed at his wife it didn't raise any suspensions.
However, I do not believe she's dead or that her husband knows where she is. When questioned Agent Tomas McKean, Jennifer's brother, said that he truly believed his sister to be dead and any farther investigation would only cost unnecessary money and grief for her loved ones. That's funny because only a few weeks after her disappearance Agent McKean lead an investigation to attempt to put Nathan Waller in prison. After it went bad, Agent McKean took a leave of absence and unaccounted for, for almost two months.
When asked in a recent interview if Nathan would start a new family after the death of his daughter and disappearance of his wife Waller said that there was no room for family in his life. Back to my point on why I think he doesn't know. If Nathan Waller knew where his wife was don't you think he'd have wanted the investigation stopped? I do. I believe it happened like this:
After having a partner with benefits type relationship, Jennifer McKean discovered she was pregnant and instead of causing any scandals, her and Waller married. Something went wrong in their illegitimate business and Waller no longer trusted his newly wed wife. He had her car hit, in an attempt to kill her, not thinking of their unborn child. Unfortunately for him she survived and went into premature labor where she delivered their daughter but do to her prematurity the baby wasn't able to survive. Jennifer didn't realize that she was sleeping next to the man who caused that tragedy.
When she eventually figured it out she sought help from her brother to help her and get away before he can try again. Why wait almost ten years you ask, simple, she was once again expecting his child. After the discovery of her second child she wanted answers about the first and found the truth about Nathan. She's very much alive and somewhere safe with her baby.*

Jodie can feel herself getting colder. She goes down to the timeline. "No, she couldn't have been having another baby, the time doesn't fit with me." she tells herself. "That must've been when she wanted out of the business." that much she'd known. "Who's this author?" she asks herself, looking around for a name. "Randy Wright." she says aloud. She opens another tab and types his name in. "Lets see, all these people seem normal." she mutters. *Crime Reporter Murdered* she reads. "Oh Randy, who else did you piss off?"
*Crime reporter Randell​ D. Wright was murdered in a random mugger earlier today. Who's gonna blog about his murder?* she sneers. How the media made fun of people's deaths was beyond her. "Random mugging?" She closes his tab and opens another. *Nathan Waller* she hits enter and immediately erases the search. *Star Global Finances* she hits clicks the go button. *Star Global Finances is a world wide financially agency currently owned by Bust Corp but run by Veronica Heidegger.* She rubs her eyes. "Heidegger? Why do I know that name?"
She opens another tab, her computer starts to move slower now. *Veronica Heidegger, was only twenty four years old when she took control of SGF. Earning her spot as the youngest CEO of Star Global Finances. She took the places of youngest from Jennifer Waller who at the time she came into power was twenty seven years old.* Jo skips to personal life. *Born April 17th 1990 to Janice and Howard Heidegger in Macon, Georgia.* She swipes away the email notification on her phone. "The spring of 1990." She repeats. "Oh Mom, what did you do?"
"What did who do?" a voice asks from the doorway. Jodie's blood runs cold. She looks up and relaxes when she sees Liz Webber. "You're pale. Are you feeling alright?" she asks, going to Jo's side. Jodie shuts her laptop, nonchalantly. "I'm fine." She says. "I know what you're going through." Liz tells her. "I doubt it." Jo says. "I know similarly to what you're going through." She corrects. "I'm going through Hell." Jo says. "It does feel like that doesn't it? Makes you sick to think about it? You wanna scream and cry. You feel like you wanna curl up in a hole and wait."
"This isn't the first time it happened to me." Jodie said irritability. "I know." she says softly. "I just wanted to help." she says. "I'm sorry. I'm just in a bad mood. I don't mean it personally. I appreciate the help." she smiles at her. "I know how much Jake adores you and how much you've accepted him. I just needed to thank you." she says. "I've known him as long as I've known Danny and he's a good kid." Jodie tells her. "I came to make sure you were okay and see if you needed anything."
"I'm good. Thank you." she says. "You did anything just ask." she offers. "I will. Thanks." Jo waits for her to leave. She opens her laptop and looks at the tabs. She moves the curser to the top of the page and closes all of them. She puts her laptop off to the side and pulls out her schoolwork.

Next time:
Jo gets an unexpected and unwelcomed visitor
Alan does something unexpected
Ava grows closer to someone
Julian struggles to stay strong and not lash out or lose hope
Alexis gets a surprise but very welcomed visitor