Chapter Six: Monica's Cancer

Port Charles long and mutually dysfunctional love affair with the Q's swept into its second decade with all of the Quartermaine bells and whistles. We were further regaled with plots aplenty as the glorious, glamorous and damaged family continued to weave us into their spiders web of deceit, much to our delight.

ELQ hadn’t seen the last of their troubles yet. Ned turned into Eddie Maine on a business trip to buffalo where he met fire cracker Lois Cerullo who signed him to a recording contract. Ned began his double life; singing star/ELQ CEO. He allowed Lois to back his recording career while moving full steam ahead with his Damien/Lucy drama. Edward was not happy; maybe because Ned definitely was. Lucy tried to call off the bet when she saw that Damien’s seduction of Bobbie was going well. Lucy didn’t want to hurt her ex-husband Tony by having Damien seduce Tony’s wife, so Lucy agreed to vote her stock to the incinerator proposal and begged him to leave Bobbie alone. He took the stock but seduced Bobbie anyway. To the Quartermaines this meant that Katherine Bells’ .5% of stock was crucial to the incinerator projects going through, Ned seduced her out of it. He was falling in love with Lois on his secret trips to Buffalo.

Lucky Spencer’s dog Foster fell in love with Lila’s pedigree Annabelle causing Edward to wax ridiculous about the canine “love”. Lila was happy that Annabelle had found her soul mate. Edward attended Bradley Ward’s funeral. Later when Annabelle and Foster decided to have puppies Lucky and Lila bonded over their desire to protect the precious puppies fro a querulous Edward who swore to drowned the mongrel pups as soon as they were born.

Bradley Ward had been missing for years and was found buried in a shallow grave in Laura Spencer’s garden. Bradley’s mother, lounge singer Mary Mae Ward had lived in Port Charles running a home for troubled children that Laura had started working with. Her grandchildren Justus and Keisha also came home for the funeral. Mary Mae recalled that Edward and his cronies (Frank Smith & Jack Boland) had bitterly fought Bradley over their business projects before Bradley disappeared. Keisha and Jason began a very sweet romance which caused Edward and Mary Mae what seemed like unnecessary tension.

Edward bonded with AJ against the incinerator project and Edward promised AJ that if they could beat Ned and Damien that AJ would run ELQ. AJ beamed and gloried in his grandfather’s attention. AJ hatched a plan to make his grandfather believe that he; not Ned or anyone else, was Edwards only choice as a successor. He plotted to buy the land on which the incinerator would be built using a dummy corporation name; before it was public knowledge that the land was valuable and sell it back to Ned and ELQ at ridiculously enhanced prices, so that even if the lost the fight to prevent the incinerator ELQ would still make a huge profit. The Ward House and Laura Spencer’s beloved home were located on the land that AJ needed to buy to make the incinerator project a win/win situation for his grandfather. Ned found out about the proof that Alan had killed Ray Conway and exacted an ELQ share from each family member forced AJ to quit the Port Charles Hotel and the voting rights in ELQ for 5 years. He married Lois illegally, and wed Katherine legally. Katherine turned the incriminating evidence over to Alan who destroyed it. Lois moved into the gate house. Ned & Lois’s good friend Brenda Barrett begged Ned to come clean with Lois. Laura Spencer led the community protest against Ned’s Charles Street incinerator and Edwards partner Jack Boland ordered his men to frighten Laura into selling.

Monica found a lump on her breast, but avoided having tests taken for a long time. By the time she was diagnosed with breast cancer, it had progressed to the stage where she needed an operation and faced a mastectomy. Lois found out about Katherine and Ned’s double life and arranged to be inside the giant birthday cake delivered for Katherine Ashton’s lavish party where she said happy birthday from the other Mrs. Ned Ashton. It looked like yet another Quartermaine who “dunnit” when some one poisoned Katherine Bell, she lived and come to find out the butler did it. Luke Spencer proved that Damien bought his ELQ stock with mob money and Damien was forced to sell it back at a big loss.

Alan was a rock for Monica and their tender love making the night before the cancer surgery is etched into the hearts of their fans even to this day. When Monica woke up, she was bereft and refused to fight to recover, but Alan and Bobbie forced her to begin chemotherapy. Monica began to feel better when she and Sean Donely shared a flirtatious interaction as Sean investigated Bradley Ward’s murder. Justus joined Luke in investigating his father’s murder. Edward was indicted for Bradley’s murder but Mary Mae testified Edward could not have killed Bradley because Edward knew that Bradley was his son. Their touching love story even charmed romantic Lila who, although hurt; forgave Edward his wartime love affair with the sultry soul singer.

Justus had a hard time accepting that his grandfather was a white man. He ran for city counsel and developed feelings for Dr Simone Hardy, who was committed to her long absent, white husband Tom Baldwin! Audrey feared for her son’s troubled marriage when she saw Justus and Simone together. Ned promised Lois he would take time off ELQ to record music for her. Meanwhile Edward tried to win favor with his African-American grandson by forming the Charles Street Foundation Board to encourage new business and economic growth. Justus was not sure about being on the board with AJ but he liked Jason Immediately. Ned became increasingly uneasy being partners in L&B Records with Sonny Corinthos and asked Mac Scorpio to investigate Sonny and make sure he was not a gangster.

At Monica’s last check up after chemo, they found another lump and Monica reeled from the thought of more treatments. Alan was at a loss to comfort Monica because she had been very impatient with him and his attentions over the course of her treatments had seemed to do nothing but irritate her. Alan and Bobbie’s friendship began to deepen as they consoled each other.

Monica decided to go to a treatment center in Arizona for her next round of treatments and gave Alan the cold shoulder right up to her departure. His friendship with Bobbie helped him through. Monica bonded with her group who were all fighting cancer and formed a special bond with a woman named Paige Bowen. After Monica rebuffed Paige’s help, Paige asked her why she would not let anyone help her and thinking about that called Alan. Alan flew to her side immediately. She was very self conscious when alone with Alan and avoided any alone time with him, including Paige and her 11 year old daughter in everything, until Alan talked to her about needing to be near her. They came together in frustration and made love but they were both saddened and felt very alone even in the same bed. When Monica received a good prognosis and returned to Port Charles, she brought Paige and Emily home with her. Paige was not going to recover from her cancer and said that Emily had no other living family. Alan and Monica offered to adopt Emily.

After Paige’s death, AJ and Jason both rallied to help make their adopted sister feel loved and welcome even as they were at odds over AJ’s interest in Jason’s girl friend Keisha Ward. Monica was jealous that Emily seemed closer to Alan than to her but was pleased that Emily felt comfortable. Monica threw herself in to creating a wellness group at General Hospital but held Alan at arm’s length. Meantime Bobbie began to think of Alan as more than a friend.

Jason was jealous of his new lover Keisha when she went to work for his brother AJ at The Charles Street Foundation. Ned worked hard to win Lois back by trying to win over her large Italian, middle class family. The Quartermaines planned a lavish wedding for Ned and Emily dared to get excited about being in the wedding. Simone tried to divorce Tom for Justus but wound up falling back in love with Tom. Justus was uncomfortably angry at her. Edward tried to force Ned to concentrate on ELQ by stealing L&B Records from him. Lois brought in jasper jacks to help them keep their company. When Ned finally did return to his CEO position at ELQ Lois knew she would never be the kind of people the Quartermaines were and took their infant daughter Brook Lynn away, divorcing Ned.

Monica struggled to get more than her strength back. She had no libido either until she began a flirtation with Dr. Pierce Dorman. The subsequent affair with the young doctor was just what the doctor ordered and seemed to help Monica get back to some semblance of normalcy. Dorman sued when Monica stopped the affair, wanting to put her marriage back together and hired Alexis Davis to defend her. Ned and Alexis became close and she helped him through his divorce from Lois. It was always rocky from the start. First Ned accused Alexis of working to steal ELQ Jakara but he found out that wasn’t true and they tried again. They pretended to be broken up so that she could get the job as General Counsel for ELQ then almost were finished off when Alexis let Helena bully her into defending Tony Jones on his charge of kidnapping Alan & Monica’s grandson Michael and Robin Scorpio.  

The stage was set for the next great General Hospital peak moment. At this point Ryan Chamberlain was killing his therapist Connie Cooper and stalking Felicia, The Nurses' Ball became a annual fan favorite, Luke was gunning down Frank Smith on a Puerto Rican waterfront and Stone Cates was dying of HIV-AIDS. The Quartermaines were now pivotal to a lion's share of the stories playing out in 1995.