Subject: The Letter, Part Three
From: R J Jamison
Date: Sat Jun 30, 2001 4:03 am

Quentin sat at the Collinwood breakfast table nursing a cup of coffee. While he felt hungry, experience taught him that eating was not yet a prudent action. He needed to wait another hour, consume copious amounts of liquid and get some fresh air. Most of the family had already left the kitchen and had begun their days. Carolyn remained behind with him.

"So what dog bit you last night?" Carolyn coyly asked.

"Several."

"Good morning, Julia." Carolyn's tone remained teasing as Julia slowly entered the room, poured a cup of coffee and sat away from both Carolyn and Quentin.

"Good morning." Julia scanned the remaining breakfast offerings. She selected a few items and slowly began eating. She looked up at Quentin. "Don't imagine you'll be eating for a few hours."

Quentin grinned.

"Just what kept you two out until sunrise this morning?" Carolyn playfully insinuated a night of debauchery.

Quentin and Julia looked at one another and then simultaneously glared at Carolyn. "Carolyn, when have I ever been so impertinent with you?" Julia barked.

Carolyn was startled by Julia's tone. "I was only teasing." She stood and added quietly, ""By the way, there is some mail for you on the foyer table." She then quickly left the room.

Quentin watched her leave. "That was a bit rough."

Julia nodded. "I'm not in the mood for her teasing, things are going to be rough as it is. You know what the mail is."

Quentin changed chairs to be nearer Julia. He reached over and placed his hand over hers. "You have friends here Julia, you have family. Perhaps you should trust us a bit more."

"Trust?"

"I can understand that you may not want to broadcast certain things far and wide but I think those here at Collinwood love you and would want to support you."

"Quentin, I thank you for your understanding and listening last night. But I think telling one person is just what I needed. I don't need to tell everyone."

"But-"

Julia raised her hand to cover Quentin's mouth. "You promised Quentin, you promised to keep what I told you between us, you're not going to break that promise are you?"

"No. I wouldn't break a promise to you Julia, not to you of all people." Quentin stood and went to refill his coffee cup. "I did see the mail this morning. It's a large envelope from the insurance company, nothing else."

"Nothing else?" Julia asked surprised.

"No. It's Wyndcliffe business, nothing else." Quentin sat a cup down in front of her.

After Julia had left Quentin to nurse his headache, he ambled around the house and finally settled in the Library. He attempted to read the day's paper but finally gave up and reclined on the sofa. He relaxed and recalled some of the things Julia had said to him the previous evening.

"How would you describe me? My personality?" Julia asked. Quentin contemplated the question as he stared out at the calm ocean. He and Julia sat along an old pier, their legs hanging over the side.

"I would say you are a caring, compassionate person, patient, giving, headstrong, a little too selfless with some of my family." Quentin winked as he said the last phrase. "Plus you have a wicked sense of humor that is all too rarely used. All in all a good egg. "

Julia held his eyes with her own. "When I came to Collinwood nearly six years ago, I was none of those things, except maybe headstrong."

"Collinwood helped you sprout all these qualities? I don't think so."

"Quentin, when I came to Collinwood, it was for one thing; to secure my own name in history at any cost. I was ambitious and my ambition knew no bounds." Julia turned from Quentin's questioning eyes. "I was always too ambitious until I came here. I cared for no one else but myself. I was possessive, arrogant and some would certainly say without any shame."

Quentin chuckled at this description. "Julia—"

"No. . .you can ask Barnabas. He'll tell you. He said I was a `meddlesome and domineering woman' ". Julia laughed recalling that tense moment in the Old House. She hadn't fallen inlove with him yet but she had felt something inside her changing and it had made her angry and more outrageous in her behavior. "He said then that the `modern man' could have me, he wouldn't tolerate my behavior."

"Tell me what you were doing that he found so meddlesome?"

"I was trying to ensure that he didn't jeopardize my experiments. It was my goal to cure him as you know. But Barnabas for all his world charm and outward façade of calm, he can be rash and presumptive about things. I was only trying to caution him."

"Barnabas doesn't take warnings too well, I have noticed that."

"It wasn't just that I was warning him. I was possessive of him. He was `my experiment' and I wasn't used to having a patient who was so willful. Most of my patients or their families were so grateful to have me treating them, they did whatever I wanted. If not," Julia smiled slyly. "I could give them a big dose of something to ensure they would do as I said."

Quentin laughed. "You still rely on that a bit I think."

"You're right." Julia lay back on the peer and stared above at the starry night. "It wasn't until I came to Collinwood that anyone really ever liked me."

Quentin looked back at her. "I've imagined your youth much differently."

"Really, what did you imagine?"

"Oh. . .parties, spinning the bottle, boys trying to do more than hold your hand."

"Quentin, me? Really, you've been lost in a fog if you thought that was my life." Julia began to laugh hysterically at Quentin's fantasy of her young life. After several moments of laughter, she began to choke down sobs she felt in her throat. The act of holding them down made her throat ache unbearably.

"Julia. . ." Quentin helped her sit up. "What is it?"

"There was only one person who liked me and I. . ." Julia stopped.

"Quentin!" David Collins ran into the Library and jolted Quentin out of his remembrances. "What is up with Carolyn? She's being a total pain."

Quentin sat up and noted the exasperated look in David's eyes. "You weren't peeping in on her again?"

"I didn't do that! Sheez!" David threw up his arms and flopped onto a chair. "How many times do I have to tell you guys, I was looking for something."

"Hiding in Carolyn's closet as she's undressing, come on David, you need a better excuse than that." Quentin had noted David's emergence into puberty with remembered fondness of his own youthful days. He'd had various conversations with David since the infamous `peeping' incident. "Why don't you just ask Julia—"

"I'm not gonna ask Dr Hoffman to undress so I can see!" The horrified look on David's face resulted in great peals of laughter from Quentin.

"I was not suggesting anything like that David. I was merely suggesting you ask Julia for some medical books. Tell her you are interested in some of the bodies systems or something along those lines. She'll bring you a book that will tell you all, and accurately."

David contemplated the idea. He had been caught trying to learn more about women and now there was nothing Carolyn would volunteer. He couldn't ask Aunt Elizabeth anything, she barely watched people kiss in the movies. Dr. Hoffman? She might give him some books. She had even taken him to see M*A*S*H where Sally Kellerman had been nude in the movie. He didn't remember Dr. Hoffman even blinking an eye. She even laughed at the practical joke. "What should I tell her?"

"Tell her you're interested in hematology, that you'd like to learn more about her job. That would be a good start, take her off guard with flattery. Then, ask her for a book which talks about all the bodies major systems and functions. I'm sure you'll find what you are looking for in a book like that."

"Hematology, that the blood specialty she's into right?" David continued to contemplate the plan.

"Yes. She's not a hematologist but a psychologist with an interest in hematology. At least that's what I think. . . I'm not too certain myself. Maybe she's a hematologist with an interest in psychology?" Quentin contemplated that work that Julia had been undertaking for years on Barnabas and the other little duties he'd assigned her. How had she been able to manage so many different types of medicine?

"Thanks Quentin." David jumped up and quickly left the room to see if Julia was around so he could quickly get a book about girls.

Dark Shadows is a Dan Curtis Production.