From: Riley <LMT94002@uconnvm.uconn.edu>

Friday, January 10, 1997
The City--Update

Storyline:  And Baby Makes, uh...Five?

Angie and Jacob's apartment.  Jacob is walking around, upset.  She asks
if he is okay.  She says that today may not have been a good day to go to
the fertility specialist.  He says they had to go sometime.  She tells
him that he wasn't in the mood to go today.  His mood was just fine when
they got there, he tells her.  The more she talked about their baby
being carried by someone else, the less he could picture it.  It sounds
to her as if he has already made up his mind.  He doesn't want to have
this child.

The bar.  Nick walks up to Lorraine.  He brought her something.  It looks
like a brownie.  It was the closest thing he could get to an olive branch
He's sorry.  He knows that it sounded like he didn't have faith in her.
He was preaching, she says.  Do like the good book says:  don't do
anything for a year.  That wasn't what he was doing.  She knows exactly
what he was doing.

Jacob says he wants to have a baby with her, but he wants to consider
adoption.  Angie wants to have their own baby.  She says that there is
nothing wrong with adoption, but they can have their own baby.  He is
still against it.  They take his sperm and her egg and put it inside
some unknown entity.  It's like they are making an alien or something.
It's something done everyt day.  Why risk it?  There are tons of kids
in this city that are dying to be adopted every day.  Because it would be
THEIRS.  AFter everything they have gone through, everything she has
gone through to be able to conceive, she wants to give it a chance.
That's all it is anyway.  Having a baby in vitro, or using a surrogate
is only a chance.  It may not work, but she wants to try it.  He just
wants to weight the pros and cons.  He thinks she hasn't?  He just thinks
she's stacking the scales.  Maybe he's right.  She can't stop dreaming
about what their child might be like if he had Jacob's sense of humor,
his talent for music... he finishes, "my stubborn streak."  She says
maybe he'd have her interest in medicine.  She knows he'd have his killer
eyes and lips.  He?, Jacob asks.  Couldn't it be a 'she'?  Angie doesn't
care whether it is a boy or a girl.  It would be a part of both of them
though.  He has the same dreams.  She asks him to tell her what is really
bothering him about a surrogate.

Lorraine knows why Nick doesn't want her to have Jacob and Angie's baby
and she admits her motives are not entirely unselfish.  She does want to
have the baby for herself, not just for them.  Nick is glad she realizes
that.  She just hopes that he realizes why he's against it.  He comes
back from the doctor's all excited because the doctor gave him the go
ahead on the European tour.  Nick was happy, was that a problem?  He
made it one.  What?  She says that she cant go with him because she
might be pregnant and he gets all bent out of shape.  He didn't get bent
out of shape.  He didn't get bent out of shape because of that.  It was
because she decided without talking to him that she was going to carry
someone's baby.  Not just anyone's baby at that--Jacob's baby.

Lorraine says Nick is jealous...of Jacob.  Nick pulls her aside and says
that maybe in a way, she is right.  Jealous isn't the word he would use,
but he is a little thrown that she wants to carry his baby.  Angie and
Jacob are married.  It's THEIR baby.  He reminds her that she sent to bed
with Jacob.  Lorraine tells him that it was once, a long time ago, in
Corinth.  He asks her why she came to New York.  He tells her that she
came to NY for one reason, to break up Jacob and Angie.  She has always
felt inferior and this is her way of compensating.  Angie can't have
Jacob's baby, so she'll have it for them.  Lorraine gets up and starts to
walk away.  Nick says he must of come a little too close to the truth.
Lorraine has nothing to prove to Angie or Jacob and if that's what he
thinks of her, he doesn't really know her.  Maybe that's true, because
the woman he knows was thrilled that he got a liver transplant.  She
wasn't just happy for him, she was happy for both of them.  She still is.
This was supposed to be their time.  Their time?  And when was that
supposed to start?  He's been obsessed with finding who was supposed to
get that liver transplant.  he put that on hold.  For how long?  A few
days, a week?  Indefinitely.  As long as it takes.  He did it for her,
for both of them.  Maybe that doesn't matter to her anymore, he says.

Jacob just can't get past someone walking around for nine months with
their baby inside of them.  Angie says she would be counseled, prepared.
How do you prepare for something like that?  All of the women are
screened carefully.  Well, they can screen all they want, it doesn't
change the fact that they are inviting a complete stranger into their
lives.  Everytime he thinks about it, he tenses up and gets a bad feeling
That's the difference between them.  She gets a very good feeling.  It's
a miracle.  It's a chance to create a child and all he can think about is
what can go wrong.  He's just being realistic.  He has to have a little
faith.  Maybe she's right, but he asks her to chill on the topic right
now.  He's had enough for one day.  He has to go down and check on the
bar.  Angie will go with him.  They go into the hallway and she stops
him.  Whatever they decide, she loves him.  He's glad there is one thing
they agree on because he loves her too.  They kiss.

How can Nick even suggest that Nick doesn't matter to her?  Did he matter
to her when she decided to have someone's baby?  She decided to become a
surrogate.  It's a job.  Having a baby is hardly nine to five.  He's not
even trying to hear her reasons.  Angie and Jacob are good friends of
hers and this is larger than friendship.  Lorraine believes it's the will
of God.  He has always been there.  He brought Nick through surgery and
now is payback time.  She got a candygram from heaven saying that God
expected this from her?  He can mock her, but she believes that she owes
him.  What about them?  Don't they deserve a second chance?  What second
chance?  Ever since he got out of the hospital what has he done?  Lived.
He's been on the phone too much to live.  He gave all that up, but admits
that he may have gone a little overbord and that may have caused a rift.
But, if she gets pregnant, it's not going to be a rift, it's going to be
the Grand Canyon, understand?  Jacob walks up and Lorraine walks away.
Did Jacob just walk in on something?  He could say that.  It looked
pretty big.  Jacob wouldn't guess in a million years.

Lorraine goes up to Angie and asks how the appointment went.  Not great.
Lorraine can see that something is wrong.  Jacob can't imagine having a
stranger carry their child.  Well, what if it isn't?  Isn't what?  A
stranger.  "I can do it," Lorraine says.  She means it.  Lorraine would
love to carry her baby.  Nick and Jacob overhear them and look as shocked
as Angie does.


Storyline:  Strange Bedfellows

Carla is pacing in her hotel room.  Danny arrives.  She asks him what his
big idea is as he helps himself to a drink.  He reminds her that her
clock is ticking and she needs to get pregnant pronto.  She admits that
her attempt at seducing Tony wasn't exactly the last tango in Paris.  She
broke into the apartment the other night and slept on the couch.  In the
morning, he kicked her out.  She asks him not to recount her failures and
tells him to get to the point.  She is looking intot he face of her
guardian angel.  He hands her a flier for the sperm bank, open 24-hours.
She knows.  She went there the other day.  The friendly neighborhood
sperm bank doesn't allow for quickie withdrawals.  She couldn't even get
an order to go?  Remind her to laugh later.  "We're screwed," he says.
She wishes.  Any more bright ideas?

Carla blew it and now she is trying to blame him.  She didn't blow it.
This sperm bank has more rules than the U.S. Senate.  You have to be
tested and counseled, then they make you wait a month before they break
out the turkey baster.  Why didn't Carla think of this 3 weeks ago, then?
Because she didn't know about the sperm police then.  Why doesn't she
make them an offer they can't refuse.  She did.  They are probably the
only business in town that doesn't take bribes.  They are talking sperm
here, not diamonds, he says.  Diamonds she doesn't need.  He tells her
to try again.  It's not exactly Fort Knox.  She tells him not to call
her ineffectual.  He's not.  If he had used his charm on Ally like he
should have, they wouldn't be in this mess, she says.  No, if she was
really pregnant, they wouldn't be in this mess, he says.  He was all
alone with ally, in her bedroom, on New Years' Eve and all he did was
kiss her on the forehead and leave.  He says that was smart.  Carla says
Ally was vulnerable.  Danny wasn't going to climb all over her like a
caveman.  Why not?  It would have been a step up from the Neanderthal
that he is now.  "Me...drink...beer."  He should have made a move on her.
He says he would have been booted out the door in two minutes.  Well,
he's going to be booted out the door anyway when they find out she's not
really pregnant.  They'll just have to come up with another plan.  Carla
shakes her head and says this game is over.

So that's it?  That's the ball same, she says.  So, what now?  She'll
fake a miscarriage?  She's certainly not going to tell the truth.  She'll
call him up after it happens and cry and cry and be inconsolable.  He'll
come over and comfort me and then he'll return to Ally.  Ally, Danny says
sadly.  Carla is sorry.  If everthing would have worked out as they have
planned, how would he see his life.  He would be editor of the magazine
and Ally would be his foremost photographer.  Then, at night, he would
come home to Ally and they would share the same bed.  He says they really
are good together.  He could really make her happy.  Carla always thought
she and Anthony had chemistry too.  The truth is, she has been in love
with him all her life.  She was so sure they would be married, really
married.  When she was younger, she could have any man she wanted, but
not the one she wanted.  And what Carla wants, Carla gets.  At least in
the past, Carla says, maybe she's losing her touch.  When boys would
come to take her out, Papa used to come check them out.  Was he armed?,
Danny asks.  Probably, Carla laughs.  When she got home, he'd be waiting.
Even if he liked the guy, he'd always say, "He's not Anthony."  She just
always thought one day he would figure out what she always knew, that
they really do belong together.  It was a wonderful dream while it lasted
Danny says it's going to be a hard one to give up.  They both sit on the
bed and commiserate.

Carla brings Danny a drink.  It's a drag.  Is Carla absolutely positive
about this fertility thing?  Carla is about as regular as the electric
bill.  It's all charted out.  It's called the Rhythm method.  She has
about 6 prime time baby making hours left.  They guess it's really over.
They take a drink simultaneously and look at each other.  If she gets
pregnant tonight, all their dreams come true, right?  Right.  They both
smile, although Danny is smiling a bit more.  Then, maybe there is an
option they haven't discussed yet.

Have a good week!  Deb Swanson and I are trading Wednesday for Friday for this
coming week, so I'll see you Wednesday night.  :)

##################################################
"THE CHEAPNESS OF WRITING PAPER IS, OF COURSE, THE
REASON WHY WOMEN HAVE SUCCEEDED AS WRITERS BEFORE
THEY HAVE SUCCEEDED IN THE OTHER PROFESSIONS."
                         -VIRGINIA WOOLF,
                          PROFESSIONS FOR WOMEN

LISA MARIE TURCOTTE (RILEY)
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
STORRS, CT 06269
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