Chapter One: The Early Years

Monica was in the market for a distraction after Leslie Faulkner proved to be more of an adversary for Rick Webber's attention than she had bargained for. Suave and sophisticated Alan gave Monica the kind of intense consideration that she craved but even more intriguing to our young doctor was the fact that he called her on her history of using other men to make Rick come running back to her. Alan offered her everything she craved but Monica was never any good at letting go.

Alan Quartermaine’s stay in Port Charles was to be temporary. When his evaluation of the cardiac wing concluded, he made plans to wind up his affairs and return to his affluent family in Southampton, but his tumultuous relationship with Monica Webber had blossomed in to a romance and he was reluctant to go. He admitted to Monica that he had strong feelings for her and she confided that she returned those feelings. Alan moved to Port Charles and his rich, influential family soon followed.

Alan’s father Edward amassed a fortune through his conglomerate, ELQ, he wasn’t a born blue blood. Alan’s mother Lila was a kind and generous lady; gracious and elegant and very old school money. Tracy had inherited all of Edward’s business acumen, but he wouldn’t give her a fair chance to run the company because she was female. Alan had not inherited the family business sense. This caused Tracy to have a huge chip on her shoulder. Tracy was complete bitch and reveled in it.

Alan’s insecurities concerning Rick and Monica were a problem from the very beginning of his relationship with Monica. Monica fought her attraction to Rick, trying to negate it by sheer force of will while assuring Alan that she was over Rick. Alan tried to keep his exceedingly jealous nature a secret but was not always able to do so. In the winter of 1979, Monica was quarantined in the hospital with Alan, Rick and many others during an outbreak of Lassa fever. Confined in close quarters as the epidemic raged, Monica and Rick struggled to maintain a professional relationship but as the death toll rose and more of the staff fell ill, Monica turned not to Alan for support but to Rick. Distressed, Monica quickly transferred away from Rick, confiding to her best friend Gail (an older woman whom she had known growing up in the foundling home) that she loved Alan and was determined to stay away from Rick Webber.

Tracy knew Alan too well not to see how unraveled he was by Monica. Saucy sister also knew that Alan had a dark and jealous streak that ran deep. She recognized the symptoms and determined to make sure Alan found out any and every iota of information to stir his jealousy. Tracy didn’t want to share the families wealth with Monica, who to Tracy was someone just above white trash even though she was a doctor.

When Rick found out the stunning news that his brother was Steve Hardy’s son, he was jolted so profoundly that he began to struggle personally and professionally. As soon as the quarantine was lifted, Rick left town. Concerned with Rick’s behavior, Monica followed him. Alone together, Rick and Monica kissed but made the mature decision not to make love and left to return home where Rick moved out of Lesley’s bedroom and into the guest room. Rick informed Lesley that he had been with Monica, although not Biblically, however Monica made the poor decision to lie to Alan and say that she had stayed the night at the hospital. Alan’s jealousy raged.

Rick continued to spiral out of control and Monica continued to try to help him until they finally gave in to their passion and made love. Monica declared herself to Rick and wanted to tell Lesley and Alan at once but Rick convinced her that they should take the time before extricating themselves from their respective marriages to be certain that was what they both wanted to do. Almost immediately, Laura was in a car accident and Rick rushed to Lesley’s side, the emergency helping him to put his life into perspective, and decide to stay with Lesley. Monica, who had separated from Alan, refused his attempts at reconciliation but she was torn and turned to her mother-in-law, Lila, for advice. Lila told her about Edward’s infidelity that had resulted in an illegitimate son and told Monica that despite Edward’s straying, Lila had never regretted keeping her family together. Reconciled to her “fate,” Monica went back to Alan and promptly discovered that she was pregnant!

This only served to make Tracy more determined to rile Alan’s rage at Monica. She knew that Alan’s child would be the heir to the fortune and she and her son, Ned would lose out. Tracy determined to find out proof that Monica was still in love with and that the baby was Rick Webbers.

Knowing her brother, Tracy knew exactly what buttons to push to fan the flames of jealous rage she knew he struggled to keep in check. Monica fought to keep her affair and her child’s suspected parentage from Tracy and Alan. Rick and Monica were forced to give a deposition in a malpractice suit where they had to admit to their affair. The papers were sealed but Tracy (bitter from her failed marriage to the corrupt Mitch Williams) determined to get her hands on them and out Monica to the family; reasoning that it would seal her son Ned’s inheritance if she discredited Alan’s heir.

Edward, ever the old fashioned patriarch refused to give Tracy any more money until she married so Tracy started putting the heat on her fiancé, corrupt D.A. Mitch Williams to tie the knot. Mitch was mob connected, greedy and knew exactly who he was romancing: The Quartermaine Fortune. They married but Mitch never stopped his torrid affair with Heather Webber’s sexy cousin, Susan Moore. Mitch took full advantage of marrying well and the Quartermaine’s bankrolled his run for the senate. He remained on the mob payroll even as Tracy insisted he get Robert Kennedy tough on organized crime. He started at The Campus Disco, where Luke Spencer laundered money for Frank Smith.

In the late stages of her pregnancy Monica is ordered on bed rest and trapped alone in her new house as a blizzard shuts down Port Charles. As luck would have it though, Lesley Webber has let her good friend Gail talk her in to visiting Monica and they were there together when Monica went into labor and delivered her son prematurely. A difficult breach home birth left Monica on the verge of death and in her delirium, she told Lesley that the baby was Rick’s! Monica languished near death in a state of hopelessness that revolved around her fear of living her life hiding the secret of Alan Junior's parentage. She feared Alan’s jealousy and being blackmailed. She lost the will to survive.

Lesley and Rick decided that Monica needed encouragement to live and Rick told Monica that he loved her. It worked: Monica survived. Nobly, Monica told Rick that she was staying with Alan, not remembering what she blurted out to Lesley after the difficult delivery. Lesley and Rick both suspected that Monica was still in love with Rick, but Monica vows to stay with Alan. Tracy, on the other hand, was more determined than ever to prove that Alan was not the baby’s father.

Monica began to believe that Alan’s love for her was secure and was feeling that she had made the right decision to stay with him when Alan got his hands on the deposition (thanks to Tracy) in which Rick had had to give details about their sordid affair. Seething with rage, Alan began quietly terrorizing Monica. She was in a constant state of panic as Alan began building a nursery on the top floor of the Georgian mansion he gave to Monica. The tensions continued to climb at AJ developed a heart problem and in a race against time, Rick skillfully corrected the problem in emergency surgery but AJ needed a transfusion. Franticly, the staff paged Alan who was in the lab staring in shock at a test that showed AJ and Rick shared the same blood type, one that precluded Alan from being his father. Alan left the hospital and left Rick to give blood for AJ. Still, Alan pretended not to know and made elaborate plans for AJ’s christening when he planned the collapse of the new nursery’s roof with Monica and Rick inside.

On the day of the christening, Alan was ready to collapse the roof on an unsuspecting Rick and Monica when he realized that Lee Baldwin had figured out that he was up to something. Alan “saved” Rick and Monica from the collapse and was hailed as a hero even as his unquenched determination to kill them solidified. Frustrated with her suspicions, Tracy filed a paternity suit against Monica, infuriating Edward and prompting him to disinherit Tracy. Rick wanted to claim AJ as his son and Lesley filed for divorce to clear the way for Rick to marry Monica and raise his son as a family.

Rick told Alan about the affair and that AJ was his son and Alan pretended shock and begged Rick for time to come to grips with the news all the while plotting to kill his wife and her lover. He devised a plot to “catch” them making love and kill them planning to claim temporary insanity. Alan pretended not to know the truth as a cover while stalking Rick and Monica all over town as they began to hope and plan a life together. Alan followed them, sneaking up the stairs to their second floor wharf love nest with gun in hand, determined to carry out his plan. Fate intervened. A gas explosion ripped the building apart.

It was clear to Monica that Alan had intended to kill them. Rick went to Alan and told him that Monica and he were going to go to Tracy and tell her the truth about AJ. Alan promised them that he would keep AJ if they did that because legally AJ was his son.

Edward devised a plan to test Tracy and approached her with his new will in hand, The will that disinherited Tracy for her continued efforts to prove that AJ was not Alan’s biological son. Edward pretended to have a heart attack before he signed the new will. He collapsed gasping and writhing in agony and begged Tracy to get and give him his heart medication. Tracy stood back with the pills in her hand and did nothing as her father’s fevered pleading went silent. Tracy’s momentary relief turned to horror when Edward sprang up from the floor, laughing and signed the document that left her nothing. She had failed yet another of her fathers cruel tests. Edward did relent enough to leave Tracy 2 million dollars but she could only use the money on her estranged husband Mitch Williams political bid for the governor’s office. Tracy swallowed her pride and went to her husband, who had left her for his mistress; Susan Moore and told him that he would only get the money if he ditched Susan and took her back. Mitch took the money even though it meant Tracy instead of Susan and they went to Albany to live.

With the battle lines drawn over AJ, Monica was surprised to find that AJ had an identical birth mark to Alan’s. Lila confirmed that the odd shaped mark was a Quartermaine trait. Shocked, Monica arranged to have blood tests taken and learned to her dismay that AJ was Alan’s biological son. A rare medical phenomenon known as Bombay Phenotype Syndrome explained AJ’s abhorrent blood type. Desperate, Monica kept the paternity a secret and manipulated Alan into confessing his attempted murder on tape then forced Alan to agree to a divorce.

The victory was short lived. Even though she paid off the hematologist and arranged for him to have a job offer across the country, the doctor informed Alan of the test before he left town. Alan plotted how best to use the knowledge to destroy Rick and Monica. He arranged to be the keynote speaker at a fund raiser being held the day before their divorce was final and announced to all of Port Charles that AJ was his son. Stunned, Rick rejected Monica and left town while Alan refused to go through with the divorce. Defeated, Monica moved back in to the mansion with Alan and their son. The Battling Quartermaine’s had come to a temporary impasse, but they were just getting started.  

Monica was still not able to let go of her desire to be with Rick Webber. Her own feelings for her husband could not balance out the huge weight of regret and yearning that holding on to her failed love represented to her. She was alternating between her abject horror of being unloved, her refusal to move on from a relationship that was never going to be right and her chance to have that love but with Alan and not Rick. Coupled with Alan's deep seated longing for his family's approval and his own almost Freudian need to be loved these two were in for the long haul on a very long and winding road.