General Hospital OC One-shots

Jodie's 18th Birthday

This takes place in the What If? world.

February 18th, 2018

Noon (5 hours until party)

"Good morning, Tom. How are you?" Alexis asks, sitting across from him, almost making him choke on his coffee. He wipes his chin with a napkin, laughing at Alexis. "I'm doing very well, it's a happy day. I can't wait for tonight, Jodie's going to be so happy. And that girl's happiness is everything to me. Of course I'm excited to have twenty something people in my apartment too."
"I offered my house for the party, but you're too damn stubborn." Alexis comments, leaning back in her chair. "Me, stubborn? Never." He laughs. "You're in a really great mood. What else is going on?" She asks. "Shane's flying in, Pam and I are picking him up at two."
"Ah, your boy. Where is Pam?" Alexis asks. "Getting a hair cut. She loves getting hair cut, it's one of her things. She just loves people playing with her hair. I could go on for hours about her, I'm such a lucky man. I won't let her go this time, not again."
"You've finally got the wife and daughter you lost as a teen. I've been trying to do the same with Sam, but she just won't accept Julian as a part of our family. I know Jodie's not crazy about him, but it's getting better. Isn't it?" She asks. Tom shrugs, taking another sip of his coffee. "She hasn't called him an asshole in at least a week, it's progress."
"Slow and steady wins the race." She says. "Exactly. Jo's got a long time to accept Julian, let's not rush her. She's got a lot more birthdays before forgiveness is an issue. Right now we should let her focus on becoming an adult. I can't she's an adult. I feel like just yesterday I was meeting her for the first time."
"I did only meet her yesterday." Alexis reminds her. "That's fair enough. Has it really been six months already?" He asks. "Oh yeah. I can't believe it either. Oh, I have to tell you what I got Jodie, but you can't laugh." She tells him. "Why would I laugh?"
"It's a quilt, don't laugh. Doing what I can to keep sober, I decided to try quilting. I didn't like it very much. But I did complete one quilt, and it's for Jodie. It's got all her favorite colors and the different sections are things she loves. There's one for Les Mis, one with cooking, a keyboard, an animal one, all kinds of things. Do you think she'll like it?" She asks. "From you, she'd love anything."
"Someone is being very nice, I like this Tom. So, what'd you get Jodie?" She asks. "A place to live and college tuition." He jokes. "Seriously, what'd you get her?"
"New phone. She dropped her old one and now the screen's all cracked." He tells her. "You'd get her a new phone if she asked. She owns your soul." Alexis says. Tom can't help but laugh. "That is true. Pam's getting her, well all of us, a cruise. The four of us are going on a cruise over the summer. Pam's giving Jo the tickets today."
"That sounds like so much fun, I hope you all enjoy." She says. "Thank you, I'm ready for a little getaway." He tells her, glancing down at his watch. "Oh damn, I gotta get going. Gonna pick Pam up, then we're getting Shane from the airport. I'll see you tonight."

"So, how's it feel to be an adult?" Fernando asks, rubbing Jodie's foot with his, under the table. She smiles, giving his shin a gentle kick. "Feels like people will finally stop giving me crap about dating you."
"You're family loves you too much to stop bugging you about dating an older man." He tells her. "You're right, they'll never let us be. But at least you know that you can never get away with breaking my heart." Jo says. "Babe, I'd be the first person to beat myself up if I ever broke your beautiful heart."
"Someone really wants go get laid." She comments, taking a sip of her drink. "I just love you so much. Do you know that, right?" He asks. "Of course I know that. You're the most amazing guy I've ever meet." She says leaning in for a kiss. He groans and pulls away. "Jodie McKean, are you trying to seduce me?"
"Give me your apartment key and I'll tell you."

Five (party time)

"Thanks for walking me to my apartment, I'll see you." Jo says, kissing Nando lightly. "Can I stop in and say hi to Tom?" He asks. "Oh, yeah. Sure." She says, opening the apartment door. She flicks the lights on, nearly dropping her bags. "Surprise!"
Nando wraps his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "Wh-what's going on?" She asks. "It's a surprise party, dummy." Tom teases, tossing a handful of confetti at her. "I told you that I didn't want a big party."
"It's not a big party." Tom claims. "There's gotta be twenty people packed in here. It's not that I don't appricate it, I do. But this is exactly what I didn't want. Oh, thank you, Tommy. This is exactly what I wanted." Jo admits, letting her guard down and hugging Tom. "Don't thank just me. This wouldn't have been possible without Alexis, Pam, Nando, and Cassy. They're who you should be thanking."
Jodie hugs and thanks Alexis first, then her grandmother, then best friend, then back to Nando for a kiss. Next is Shane and Niels, kissing both their cheeks. She moves on to Ava, then Codi, then Molly, then Brad, then Drew, then Griffin. Lucas opens his arms, hugging her so far she almost falls over. Sam frees her from their brother's hug, giving her a more manageable one. Danny and Leo are next, Scout still preoccupied by confetti.
Once Jo's greeted everyone in the apartment, she stops and looks around. Sam and Lucas glance at each other, knowing who she's looking for. Though her face gives no clear signs, Tom knew his granddaughter's heart was breaking. Julian was nowhere to be found.
Scout tugs on Jo's pant leg, offering her a handful of confetti. Jo picks Scout up, kissing her head. Her neice is enough to distract Jodie from the missing guest, but not Tom.
"Where is he?" He asks Alexis. She shrugs. "He was supposed to be here. I don't know why he's not. All I can think is something happended at the pub. I'll call him." She says, going into the hallway.
Tom turns his attention back to Jodie, who's sitting on the ground with Leo, Danny, and Scout, Nando next to her. He laughs and sits on the arm of the couch. Pam rests her head on his side. "You did good." She says. "No, she did good." He motions to Jodie. "It's her strength that got us all here. Not many teenaged girls would survive what she did. If she were anyone else she wouldn't be here celebrating with her adorable neice, nephew, and brother. Instead, her loved ones would be knee deep in mud cursing out God."
"You're an asshole, Tom." Pam says. He groans in agreement, putting his arm over her. "I love you." She adds. "I love you more."

Seven (1 hour until party end)

Jodie jumps onto Nando's lap. Danny and Leo climb onto the couch next to them, Sam placing Scout on Jo's lap. Codi puts her arms around her girlfriend's shoulders, holding Cassy close. Drew rests his chin on Sam's shoulder, sneaking a kiss at her cheek. Tom sits next to Pam, Shane joining on the other side. Alexis chooses a spot near Molly and the door. Everyone else finds a place somewhere around Jodie. She starts opening gifts, thanking the respective person.
As Jodie is thanking Sam for the new Polaroid, there's a soft knock on the door. Only Alexis hears, so she checks the peep hole, sighing and opening it. "Where the Hell have you been?" She demands quietly, shoving Julian. "Something happended at Charlie's, I had to break up a fight. It's fine, no one's hurt."
"Expect Jodie. She thinks you bailed on her. Don't say anything yet, let her open her presents first." Alexis warns. He presses his back to the door, making himself as invisible as possible.
Jodie pulls a tee shirt out of a bag, looking over to Lucas. "I love it so much. I loved The Greatest Showman." She says, reaching out to give her older brother's hand a squeeze. "There's more." He tells her. She lights up even more, the way the sun inexplicably gets brighter at random on an already sunny day. She pulls out a CD box and rolled up poster. "It's signed? H-how did you get me a signed poster? Nevermind, it doesn't matter. You're the best brother ever. I love you, Lucas."
"I'm sure you do, kiddo." He laughs, starting to blush from all the attention and Jo's smile. She keeps going on presents, continuing to thank people as she goes. She gets to one and stops, pulling to the frame out of the box. "Oh Cassy, it's beautiful." Jo beams, showing off the painting of the friend group.
When she finishes the pile of presents and cards she looks up, giving another general thanks. That's when she notices Julian, not exactly smiling but also not frowning at him. "Hi, Julian." She greets. "Hi, baby girl. I got you a little something." He says, handing her the box and attached bag. "Open the bag first."
She takes out a small, denim sun hat with a strawberry patch marking the front. "I bought it as a gift for your second birthday, found it in some magazine. It was on backorder and I didn't get it in time. I got a week after I thought I lost you. I figured, it won't fit but it's better late than never. I was gonna take you strawberry picking again that summer. Guess that ship has sailed."
Jo peels the wrapping paper off the square present, opening the photo album to the first page. "I'm sorry it took so long to get you that, it took a while to find all the best pictures. I'm glad I took so many, it let me be picky on what I used. I hope you like it, I kept you in mind. There's actually a few blank pages at the end and room for extra pages, incase you wanna add more. I know a lot has happened since you were two."
Jo blinks at him, dark circles around her blue eyes as she fights tears. "Thank you, Dad."
Julian smiles and nods, looking down to hide his face. Sam and Lucas exchange another look, both unsure how to respond, if they should at all.
Nando rubs Jo's arm and kisses her cheek. "There's one more gift, but I couldn't fit it in the apartment." He tells her. They get up and walk towards the window. Nando puts one hand on Jo's shoulder, pointing out the window with the other. "The one next to Tom's."
"Fernando, did you buy me a car?" She asks. "Well, I bought you a black 1967 Chevy impala, but yeah, a car." He says. She punches his arm. "You can't afford to put new tires on your car, why are you buying me a car?"
"Calm down, I'll explain. The car only cost a few hundred bucks, it needs a lot of work. You said you wanted me to teach you a little about cars, well, this is it. This is the first thing we build together. After this, there's a million more dreams for us to chase, together. Happy birthday, Jodie."
Jo gives up on fighting back tears, letting them stream down her cheeks. She burries her face in Nando's chest, wiping her face dry on his shirt. She turns her head and looks around at her family, her smile making her everyone else smile. "For the world we're gonna make." She whispers, panning to see everyone.

Why can't it always be happy family time? I should write the author a strongly worded letter, oh, wait.