General Hospital
Written by: Robert & Eileen Mason Pollock
Produced by: Tom Donovan
After having custody of her daughter Laura for nearly two months, Dr. Lesley Faulkner had made the difficult decision to return Laura to the Vinings, the parents Laura had known and loved since birth. Lesley was forced to return Laura despite her fight to gain permanent custody because Laura became extremely ill as she was not emotionally able to cope with the choosing of one mother over another. When Lesley gave birth to her daughter thirteen years ago, she was told that her daughter was stillborn, and the baby was presented to Barbara Vining who with her husband Jason, raised Laura from infancy, with only the knowledge that Laura was their natural child. Recently, Lesley came to find out that Laura was alive and was the child she gave birth to. Lesley pursued Laura's custody, and for two months Laura lived with Lesley and Cameron Faulkner. At the end of this period, Laura herself was to make the decision which parents she would continue to be raised by.
Upon her return, Laura seemed ecstatic to be home. However, within a few days she had an asthmatic attack, and Barbara called Lesley to help her daughter. Once calmed down, Laura confessed that she concealed her true feelings towards Lesley because of Cam's pre-warning to not hurt Lesley by admitting her love for her, and had felt guilty about it ever since. Lesley assured Laura she understood and Laura was not to worry about it anymore. Barbara commended Lesley for her strength in giving up Laura and suggested that Lesley see Laura on a regular basis for the benefit of both of them.
In the meantime, Cam had surprised Lesley with a new penthouse residence at the Top of the Towers and a planned vacation in Europe. All this was to help her heal from her sorrow in giving up Laura. Unknown to Cam who was in New York on business, Lesley had agreed to see Laura regularly and had offered to pay for her complete education.
Cam’s expectations of his future with Lesley were temporarily shattered when he returned home to learn of Lesley's renewed visits with Laura, who once again had taken first priority in Lesley's life.
Cam had planned a large business merger celebration in Hong Kong on May 5, with Lesley as his guest of honor. She asked him to change the date as that was the day that Laura played the lead in her school play and Lesley promised she would be there. Cam refused to change his plans, they had a heated argument and he left for New York in anger. After talking to her friend Terri Arnett about this, Terri made Lesley see the light and realize that her husband and his interests should come first. Lesley called Cam in New York - who was sharing a hotel room with his secretary, unknown to Lesley, to apologize, and told him she would tell Laura that she couldn’t be at the play.
Drs. Jeff and Monica Webber had been accepted for the "Mr. and Mrs. Intern Team" post at General Hospital. Dr. Steve Hardy, recently made Chief-of-Staff, welcomed them to the staff. He expressed his enthusiasm to them both, but could see resentment in Jeff's face whenever Jeff's brother Dr. Rick Webber was praised in the conversation. Rick was an excellent resident at General, however, he was reported killed in a plane crash while on a medical project in Africa. At that time, he was in love with Monica. Since his reported death, Jeff and Monica were married. Unknown to everyone, Rick was alive and had been held prisoner for ten months under the suspicion he was a spy. His plane crashed two miles from the secret staging area of the revolutionaries.
Steve reassured Jeff that he was hired on his own medical credentials and not because he was the younger brother of an excellent doctor. With that hangup solved, Jeff began to accuse the resident superintendent, Dr. Rex Pearson, of making passes at Monica and of her accepting them - which she had not. This disagreement had caused Monica to ignore Jeff for over a week.
Rex was still needling Jeff about his recent medical error in prescribing penicillin to a patient. Jeff defended himself rightfully, but when Rex continued on and on and made a catty remark about Monica, Jeff, pushed to his limit knocked Rex down with a punch in the hospital corridors.
Audrey Hobart, RN, had recovered physically from her recent suicide attempt. She took an overdose of sleeping pills immediately after her third husband Jim left her and accused her of trying to castrate all three of her husbands. Emotionally, however, Audrey still remained in a deep depression. Steve Hardy tried to snap her out of this by ordering her to return to work, but Audrey felt all the staff knew what she had done and felt too humiliated to face them.
Her first day back to work and attempt to adjust to everyday life was ruined when a patient Audrey treated for a slashed wrist blurted out how her husband left her and all she wanted to do was end it all. Audrey, reminded of her own suicide attempt, broke down and the patient grabbed a pair of scissors and threatened to kill herself once again. Steve came in and prevented the accident from occurring. Realizing she truly couldn’t cope with a nurse's responsibilities, Audrey told Steve she needed and would take a leave of absence.
When Tommy, Audrey’s son, returned from school, she told him of her separation with his step-father, Jim, and she would be going out of town by herself. Tommy, unstable because he had known no real father, cried to Audrey "you got rid of my dad, now you're trying to get rid of me." She scolded him and he ran away while she was at the store. His was later found at Steve's office. Steve consoled a panicked Audrey and offered the job as supervisor of nurses. Steve refused to take Jessie Brewer's advice and confess his love for Audrey, fearing she would reject him, mistaking his love for pity, ruining any further chance of getting her back.
Dr. Peter Taylor’s former psychiatric patient, Pat Lambert had taken on a complete change in personality since she had realized there was an opportunity to deliberately destroy his happy marriage to Diana. Once bitter and resentful, she then appeared cheerful to all.
She used Diana’s sister, Beth, as her decoy. Beth was perfect bait since she had just suffered from a jilted love affair and her attitude towards all men was total mistrust. Her plan began as Beth agreed to sit for Pat who was a talented artist and sculpturer. Beth was already suspicious of Pat's interest in Peter because she walked into Peter's office only to see him in close contact and laughing with Pat. She immediately reports this to Diana who brushed it off because of her complete trust in her marital relationship with Peter.
Proceeding with her plan of attack, Pat secretly stole Peter's gold penknife from his office desk — a sentimental anniversary gift from Diana. She then set up Beth who was at her studio for a sculpture sitting. Sending Beth to her desk, Beth saw Peter's initialed penknife and just as Pat predicted, she rushes off with Pat knowing Beth would relay to Diana the suspicious story of the missing penknife.
Diana hearing all of this had her concrete trust in Peter shaken, but refused to admit it to Beth. Diana found a reason to borrow the knife and Peter had to confess he had "lost" it which ignited Diana's anger and completely baffled Peter because of her drastic reaction.
Pat, then assured she had stirred up ill feelings in Diana's marriage, returned the knife to Peter's office, unknown to him. She dropped it on the floor while his back was turned and in the same moment picked it up and announced she had found it. When Peter presented the "found" knife to Diana, she was ecstatic and loving to him once again, until he told her it was Pat's findings. This news immediately upset Diana and she was again cold to Peter —thoroughly confusing and angering him.
After Diana’s explanation of her anger about the knife being seen at Pat's studio, Peter confronted Pat about the knife. He asked if she "borrowed" it since Beth claimed she saw it in her studio. He was playing right into Pat's hands as she bought an identical knife and had the initials "PT" engraved on it. She had her answer all ready for Peter, as planned. She told him it was a knife she had for a special friend, Peter Talbot, and instead of using it for opening her paint tubes, she hysterically announced she should cut her throat with it and ran out of his office.
Peter reacted again according to plan and relayed this story to Diana, belittling her for her lack of trust in his faithfulness to her. As she began to apologize for her foolishness, Pat called him and acted out a sad hysterical threat that she was going to end it all. Peter ignored Diana and rushed to be at Pat's side ... causing more aggravation to Diana.
The grand opening night of "Terri's Place" - new nightclub in Port Charles owned by Terri Arnett, financed by Cameron Faulkner - was filled with great sentiments for all who attended.
Diana met Pat Lambert in the powder room. Diana, already distressed with Pat's invasion on her marriage, could no longer cope with the situation when Pat told her she had returned as Peter's patient. She tearfully told Peter she was going home, Peter did not let her leave without him.
Cam came to the opening direct from New York, elated with Lesley's decision. He presented her with a diamond bracelet to celebrate their happiness and was again dejected when Lesley told him she couldn’t break Laura's heart and would remain in town to attend Laura's play.
The greatest event occurred when Terri received a telegram from Africa — her brother Rick Webber was alive!
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