DECEMBER 1976
Dr. Jeff Webber kept his date with hospital aide Heather Grant, following the wedding of Steve Hardy and Audrey Hobart. However, having just had a nasty scene with his wife Monica, in which he refused to give her a divorce, Jeff was unable to live up to Heather's expectations for the evening, which was to culminate in more lovemaking. Jeff apologized the following day, suggesting he and Heather cool it because he still loved Monica, even though she had moved out and had asked for the divorce. Jeff told Heather that he would be there to pick up the pieces when Monica realized his brother Rick didn't love her any more. That day, Monica told Jeff that, if he didn’t agree to a civilized divorce, she would name his girlfriend as co-respondent. Jeff told Heather they would have to stop seeing each other. Monica questioned Jeff's friends and family about who the girl could be. Nobody knew. Rick and Monica were involved while Rick was interning and she was in med school. Monica, insecure and unstable, made such a roller-coaster ride of their relationship that Rick went to Africa to work to get away. While there, he was captured by insurgent forces and held prisoner for nine months. He was reported killed, so Monica married his brother Jeff. Rick's return fanned her never-quite-quenched love for him, and Monica had been plotting and manipulating her way out of her marriage to Jeff. After moving out, Monica persuaded Rick a divorce was imminent, and he gave her a key to his apartment, where they then met. Jeff was unaware of their love affair.
Heather, aware of Monica and Rick's affair, found a way to expose them. Seeing an ad for a night doorman for Rick's apartment building, she called her ex-husband Larry Joe. Heather had been poor all her life. She forged credentials to obtain a mother's helper position with Peter and Diana Taylor, in order to be closer to the life she craved. Learning of Jeff's rocky marriage, Heather conned her way into his affections by being a willing bed-partner. She had told her mother that she intended to get pregnant, feeling Jeff would give up Monica to have his own baby. Heather told Larry Joe that Jeff used her and tossed her aside, so then she wanted to hurt him back by exposing his wife's affair with his brother. Larry Joe agreed to take the job when Heather promised to give their marriage another try.
Meanwhile, Dr. Lesley Faulkner, long a colleague and friend of Rick's, and then in love with him, had discovered the affair. She found Monica in Rick's apartment with his robe on early in the morning. Terri Arnett, aware of Lesley's love for her brother Rick, pressed Lesley about why she had backed off. Finally, Lesley told Terri about the affair, stating her relationship with Rick had naturally been very cool lately. Ironically, the night Lesley and Rick agreed to let bygones be bygones was the night the whole situation began to lead to tragedy.
As Lesley and Rick went to the aid of a patient, while Monica waited in Rick's apartment, Terri confronted Monica. Terri agreed to persuade Jeff to accept a no-fault divorce, if Monica stayed away from Rick, starting immediately. Monica replied that she would stop seeing Rick after Jeff agreed. Larry Joe reported to Heather that Rick and Monica were together. Heather directed Larry Joe to call Jeff and tell him he would find his wife in 18C of the Towers. Jeff couldn't get off duty, so he waited. Monica and Rick were awakened by the doorbell shortly after mid-night. They ignored it. Jeff decided to wait outside all night. He observed Monica leaving, excited because Rick had chosen her to assist in heart surgery, on his and Lesley's emergency patient. Jeff confronted Rick. Rick replied that Jeff didn’t deserve Monica, considering how he had roughed her up recently. During an argument, Jeff had grabbed Monica's arms to hold her to talk to her. She wrenched away, hence the bruises and her claims of physical abuse. Jeff finally got through to Rick that they had both been manipulated by Monica. Jeff told Rick that he had always admired him and would never have believed that Rick could betray him. Jeff knocked Rick down. He recalled a childhood incident in which Rick saved his life, then said he wished Rick had let him drown. Jeff went on, that despite all Monica had done to betray his love, he still loved her. He left the apartment.
Neurosurgeon Mark Dante was upset when Jeff missed surgery. He quickly had another surgeon fill in, then went to see Rick, a friend from Africa, to inquire about Jeff. Rick confided the confrontation to Mark. Rick was afraid Jeff might try suicide. They began to search, to no avail. Before surgery that morning, Monica gloated to Lesley about her affair with Rick. Monica was thus unpleasantly surprised when Rick treated her sharply, abruptly when he arrived. Later Monica asked Rick about his behavior. Rick told her about the confrontation and his fears. Monica glossed over them, saying Jeff was probably just off somewhere getting drunk.
Chief of Staff Steve Hardy, noting the substitution on the surgical roster, called Mark about it. Mark was as evasive as possible. Steve then talked to Terri. She knew nothing, so he talked to Rick, who told him about the morning's events. Terri, alarmed by Steve's visit, went to see Mark, who finally told her.
Ironically, Monica was right about Jeff. He was on a binge with alcohol and drugs. He ended up at a familiar bar, just before closing. The bartender refused to let him leave, fearful he would get in trouble himself. He fixed up a bed for Jeff behind the bar. While the bartender was gone, Jeff stole his gun. He counted the bullets "three for Monica, three for Rick." The following morning, the bartender was alarmed when Jeff didn’t seem to be coming out of it, unaware Jeff was still popping pills. The bartender knew Jeff was a doctor and finally wheedled Mark's name out of him. He called Mark. Jeff, hallucinating, saw Rick and Monica in bed in the room with him. "They" taunted him. Mark arrived. Jeff talked to "Rick" and "Monica," pointing the gun at them. As Mark called to him, the gun went off. Mark and the bartender broke in and find Jeff on the floor, a bullet in his head. Mark rushed him to the hospital.
That morning, distraught to know how her stage-managing worked out, Heather fainted in front of Dr. Adam Streeter, who put her through a check-up. She was pregnant. Later, Larry Joe dropped by with a gift and she told him to buzz-off. Heather rushed to Jeff's side as soon as she learned of his condition. Steve noted her concern, and guessed she was Jeff's enigmatic girlfriend.
X-rays showed the bullet lodged in a precarious spot in Jeff's brain. If it should shift at all, it would mean sure death for Jeff. Monica went to see Rick. He told her that considering what Jeff did, they couldn’t go on. Such a termination hadn't occurred to her. Rick viewed Jeff's situation as "God's personal punishment to me." Monica passed it off as just alcohol and pills, saying it wasn't their fault. Rick, however, took the responsibility. He told Monica he didn’t want her, and turned a deaf ear to her "reasoning."
Monica wouldn’t believe it was all over with Rick "just because Jeff shot himself." She talked to the bartender and found Jeff was threatening to kill Rick and her. She took the information to Rick, who refused to believe her, especially since Lesley told him Monica revealed her presence in his apartment deliberately. Monica tried to blame Jeff's condition on Lesley because Les told Terri about Rick and her. Lesley was talked out of any responsibility by Rick. Lesley found it hard to believe that Monica's concern was in absolving herself of responsibility for Jeff's condition rather than for Jeff's recovery. Following an angiogram, Mark found he had to operate if Jeff was to have any chance of surviving.
Terri told Steve her mother left a letter she was to open with Steve, if Jeff's life should be in danger. She found it was time.
General Hospital
December 1976
Steve and Audrey's honeymoon was interrupted when they learned Tom was alive and back in Port Charles making claim to Tommy. Turned out by Jeff, Heather conned Larry Joe into spying on Monica to prove she's living with Rick. Mike agreed to spend Christmas with the Taylors. Adam is worried about Lesley's condition. Mary Ellen was released for a weekend, determined to encounter Terri on her home grounds. Jeff confronted Rick after receiving an anonymous tip about Rick and Monica. Lesley and Rick made a truce and worked together on a new patient, Amy. Jeff went off the deep end when he learned about Rick and Monica and stole a gun -- intent on killing them. He locked himself in a back room of a bar. Heather thinks she's pregnant. Mike joined the Taylors for the holidays. Christmas for the Webbers was a bummer. Jeff lay near death after he shot himself in the head. But little Mike added cheer to the Taylor household. Everyone chastised Monica as Jeff made slow progress to recovery. Mary Ellen resolved that the coming year would be the best for her and Mark. Tom told Audrey that he asked brother Lee Baldwin, his lawyer, to arrange for a divorce, and that he's not yet ready to tell Tommy the truth. Mike and Martha planned a New Year's Eve party just like the grownups.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
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