Emily Quartermaine

Emily Quartermaine is a fictional character from the ABC soap opera General Hospital. The role was originated on January 20, 1995 by Amber Tamblyn, who portrayed the role until July 11, 2001.^[1] Natalia Livingston subsequently played Emily from April 1, 2003 until May 7, 2008, despite the character's death in November 2007.^[1] Livingston also appeared for two episodes in 2009, last appearing on June 23. Livingston made a surprise return for General Hospital's 50th anniversary, appearing on April 2, 2013. She returned once again on March 18, 2014 & April 2, 2014. In 2005, Livingston won the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of Emily.^[2]

Emily was the biological daughter of Hank and Paige Bowen and the identical twin sister of Rebecca Shaw. After losing her mother from cancer, she is adopted by Alan and Monica Quartermaine. Through adoption she gained four siblings, Dawn Winthrop, Skye Quartermaine, A. J. Quartermaine and Jason Morgan. The character's most significant storylines include; dealing with the death of her mother, adoption into the Quartermaine family, early struggles with substance abuse, friendships with Lucky Spencer and Elizabeth Webber, her own battle with cancer, overcoming rape, and marriages to Zander Smith and Nikolas Cassadine.

Storylines

1995–2001

Dr. Monica Quartermaine meets Emily's mother Paige Bowen while the two women are undergoing treatment for breast cancer. After Paige dies, Monica and her husband, Dr. Alan Quartermaine, become Emily's guardians. Initially resistant to being adopted by the couple, Emily runs away with Lucky Spencer in search of her estranged aunt. The two return. Emily agrees to let the Quartermaines adopt her.

When Monica has an affair with Dr. Pierce Dorman, Emily turns to drugs with her new friend Matt Reynolds. Pierce sues Monica for sexual harassment. Emily's cousin Ned Ashton discovers Emily's addiction. After Matt overdoses, Pierce is revealed to be the drug supplier and is soon murdered. Initially considered a suspect, Emily is eventually cleared and embarks on a new career in modeling. Emily finds herself the subject of a blackmail attempt, when she receives a photograph of her head photoshopped onto the body of a nude model. She enlists the help of Lucky, his half brother Nikolas Cassadine, and their mutual friend Elizabeth Webber, who had previously been raped. They discover the culprit is photographer Tom Baker, also responsible for raping Elizabeth. He is prosecuted for blackmailing Emily. Due to lack of evidence, he cannot be prosecuted for raping Elizabeth.

In June 1999, Emily met Juan Santiago, a teenager from Puerto Rico. Juan believes local mobster Sonny Corinthos is his biological father. The two learn singer Miguel Morez is his father instead. Emily, who had harbored romantic feelings for Nikolas, begins dating Juan, despite disapproval from Monica and Alan. Juan eventually receives permission from his family to stay in Port Charles. Alan and Monica grow to accept the relationship. Wanting to follow in his father's footsteps as a singer, Juan secures a recording contract at L&B Records, run by Ned and his ex-wife Lois Cerullo and her friend Brenda Barrett. Emily's grandfather, Edward Quartermaine, attempts to sabotage a performance by Ned in order to lure Ned back to ELQ, the family business. Emily is overjoyed when Juan is well received as Ned's opening act, a ploy to buy more time while Ned is being located.

While attending a rave with their friends, Juan and Emily get into a fight, leading to Juan kissing socialite Alison Barrington. Emily spies the kiss, and accepts a drugged beer from a stranger. She strikes up a conversation with a man named Ted. She is later stunned when she awakes the next morning to find herself naked in a bed next to Ted, who has been murdered. Elizabeth, Lucky, and Nikolas agree to help, and hide Ted's body in a freezer at Wyndemere, Nikolas' family estate on Spoon Island. Emily is then blackmailed by Gia Campbell who knows Emily was with Ted before he died. Gia claims she is innocent in regards to Emily's blackmail. Emily's guilt grows when she learns Ted was an undercover police officer. She begins to push Juan away, and her friends learn Gia was actually attempting to blackmail Emily over her drug usage at the rave, not Ted's murder. The friends convince Gia to help them track down Ted's killer. She points them in the direction of drug dealer Zander Smith. They place Ted's body in Zander's trunk. Gia's brother Detective Marcus Taggert attempts to arrest Zander.

Zander takes Emily hostage. The two flee from the police. Emily learns Zander had been working for unethical mob boss Joseph Sorel, who placed a hit on Zander for the problems he had created. When she starts to develop romantic feelings for Zander, Emily chooses to stay with him rather than escape. He reveals Sorel is responsible for Ted's murder. Emily and Zander are tracked to the Canada–US border by her brother Jason Morgan, a mafia enforcer who works for Sorel's rival Sonny Corinthos. Emily convinces him to let Zander cross the border without interference.

Emily returns to Port Charles and the Quartermaines, and is stunned when Zander arrives at her window asking her to run away with him. She declines. Over the objections of her family, Emily continues to spend time with him. She also breaks up with Juan, who later leaves town. With the condition he testifies against Sorel, Sonny agrees to pay his bail and hires Nikolas' aunt, Alexis Davis, to represent Zander. When Zander is freed, he and Emily, Sonny, and Alexis find themselves the target of a gunman outside the Port Charles Police Department. Though Zander was wounded attempting to protect Emily, the Quartermaines decide to send her to boarding school to protect her. Zander finds Emily at her school. The two run away together, before returning to Port Charles.

When Edward learns the two have returned, he has Zander arrested. Alexis bails him out and has him move in with her. Emily leaves the Quartermaine mansion and moves into the boarding house above Kelly's Restaurant. Zander successfully testifies against Sorel, but finds himself in trouble with the law again after Edward is mugged and indicates Zander was the culprit. In exchange for Edward dropping the charges, Emily agrees to break up with Zander.

Zander attempts to return to his roots as a drug dealer, but realizes how much he loves Emily. The two reunite, and make love for the first time on her prom night. Emily is then shocked when Skye Chandler arrives in Port Charles and reveals she is Alan's illegitimate daughter from a dalliance with Dr. Rae Cummings, making Skye the eldest Quartermaine child. Due to Sorel's threats, Emily and Zander decide to leave town. Skye, jealous of Alan's relationship with Emily, agrees to give them money. Zander and Emily leave by train, but when the train is involved in an accident, Emily is paralyzed from the waist down. To force Emily to focus on her recovery, Zander breaks up with her, and Emily leaves for a rehabilitation center outside of Port Charles in 2001.

2003–09

Emily Quartermaine and Nikolas Cassadine.

In 2003, Emily, recovered from her injuries, returns to Port Charles hiding she has developed breast cancer. She decides to forgo chemotherapy, believing it killed her mother, and opts for an herbal protocol. To hide her prognosis from Zander, Emily gets a reluctant Nikolas to pretend to fake a romantic relationship with her. Nikolas agrees because his uncle, Stefan Cassadine, had been pressuring him into marrying Lydia Karenin, a wealthy heiress who can save his family from losing their fortune. The duo become engaged, despite protests from a skeptical Zander and Stefan. On the night of their engagement party, a hitman hired by Stefan accidentally throws Summer Holloway, Lucky's girlfriend, over a cliff to her death in an attempt to murder Emily.

Zander begins spending time with Gia Campbell, who previously dated Nikolas. When Gia learns of Emily's prognosis, she reluctantly agrees to keep it from Zander, despite her feelings for him. Nikolas develops true romantic feelings for Emily. Emily decides to tell Zander the truth. They reunite. Emily begins an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. Nikolas marries Lydia. Emily discovers he is in love with her after overhearing a conversation between Nikolas and his wife. Emily and Nikolas confess their feelings for each other, but decide not to act on them because of her illnes.

Monica tells Emily her chemotherapy is destroying her immune system. Emily is forced to stop treatment. She develops meningitis and believes she is going to die. On her deathbed in her hospital room, Emily marries Zander. Shortly after, she lapses into unconsciousness and dreams of kissing Nikolas, who happens to be in the room next door. Buoyed by her dream, Emily recovers and fights her attraction to Nikolas. Attempting to make her marriage work, Emily moves into Brenda's old cottage with Zander. On Halloween night, Emily confesses her love to Nikolas and they make love. She ends things with Zander. A dejected Zander goes to work for mob boss Faith Rosco, and has a one-night stand with Elizabeth, resulting in their son Cameron.

Nikolas divorces Lydia. When he proposes to Emily, her family objects in part because he has lost his family fortune. Alexis attempts to sell Wyndemere. Emily buys it for Nikolas. They meet Sam McCall, a shipwreck salvager who would later be revealed to be the daughter a teenage Alexis gave up for adoption. Sam tells the couple about a treasure on the sunken ship The Courage, belonging to the Cassadines. She salvages the treasure. Emily and Nikolas put it up for auction at the Port Charles Hotel. Mob boss Lorenzo Alcazar is the highest bidder. The treasure is stolen shortly before a fire breaks out at the hotel. When Nikolas gives his seat to Emily on the last helicopter evacuating guests, he is presumed dead, but returns to find Emily recovering in the hospital. Zander is also presumed dead. Elizabeth's ex-husband Ric Lansing believes Nikolas is responsible. Due to a fight about Cameron's custody, Elizabeth believes she is the culprit. When Emily goes to the home she shared with Zander, he reveals he is alive. Zander, who lost his father in the fire, has become mentally unstable and attempts to get Emily to run away with him again, She refuses. He takes her hostage. When the police surround the cottage, Zander leads Emily outside. After pushing her to safety, he reaches into his pocket pretending to have a gun. The police shoot Zander, who dies in Emily's arms.

While driving, Nikolas, who had just purchased an engagement ring for Emily, learns of the hostage situation and has a driving accident leading everyone to believe he is dead. However, an amnesiac Nikolas was being cared for by Mary Bishop, whose husband Connor Bishop, Nikolas' Doppelgänger, was presumed dead in the Iraq War. Emily convinces Lucky to go on a trip to Mexico that Nikolas had planned for them, and is stunned when she spots Nikolas, who there with Mary to renew the vows she had made with Connor. Deciding not to force Nikolas' memory to return, Emily confronts Mary back in Port Charles, but decides to keep the truth from Nikolas, remembering the trauma her brother Jason endured because of his memory loss. When a still amnesiac Nikolas learns his friends and family knew he was and didn't tell him, he rejects them in favor for a life with Mary. Lucky, who had been Emily's support through this ordeal, admits he has romantic feelings for her. She gently rebuffs his advances.

During this time, Emily's beloved grandmother Lila Quartermaine dies, leaving Emily as the sole voice of reason in her dysfunctional family.

While Emily decides to become a doctor like her parents, Nikolas recovers his memory, leading to a distraught Mary going insane. A masked Mary terrorizes the Quartermaine mansion, killing Sage Alcazar and another teenager before Nikolas is able to shoot her. Nikolas and Emily become engaged again. Helena Cassadine, Nikolas' grandmother, attempts to kill Emily. Nikolas throws Helena over a cliff. Emily testifies he was protecting her. Connor Bishop, Mary's husband who had gone AWOL and faked his death, witnessed Helena's supposed death and kidnaps Emily. After a confrontation with Nikolas, Connor and Nikolas struggle with a gun. Connor is shot. Nikolas, Lucky, Elizabeth, and Emily debate about turning Connor in for being AWOL, but agree to help him escape from Canada. When Connor foils their plans, Nikolas turns himself in for Helena's murder. Connor is arrested. Nikolas, after being allowed to marry Emily, is sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole.

Believing Helena is alive, Emily convinces Connor to pretend he is Nikolas, as she instructs him on the finer arts of being a prince. Connor becomes obsessed with Emily, and rapes her. After, Emily manages to kill Connor. Elizabeth and Lucky arrive. While Lucky buries Connor, Elizabeth tries to get Emily to admit Connor raped her. Helena resurfaces and kidnaps Emily, and shoots Lucky, who tries to save Emily. Lucky falls into a coma, and Emily confesses she was raped to her first friend. When Lucky recovers, he moves into Wyndemere with Emily, and attempts to help her recover from the rape. In prison, Nikolas becomes concerned about Emily's reluctance to touch him. She admits Connor raped her. Helena is captured, though Nikolas is devastated Emily cannot be with him because he looks just like her rapist.

Emily tries to make her marriage work, but admits her responses to Nikolas are faked. Nikolas develops a friendship with Courtney Matthews, Sonny's sister and Jason's ex-wife, married to Jasper "Jax" Jacks. Courtney becomes jealous of Jax's relationship with a cash strapped Elizabeth, who has agreed to be their surrogate mother. Courtney and Nikolas kiss. When Elizabeth sees them, Emily learns the truth. Courtney and Nikolas book vacations to The Bahamas separately, and are found by their spouses. Despondent about Elizabeth miscarrying their child, Jax fights Nikolas and decides to divorce Courtney. Emily decides on divorce as well, though she admits her coldness aided in her marriage to Nikolas failing.

Emily tries to contact her brother Jason. Sonny reveals he is on vacation with his girlfriend, Sam McCall. When Sonny learns Nikolas is having an affair with his sister, he offers Emily a place to stay. After another train crash, Sonny's ex-girlfriend Reese Marshall dies after not telling Emily about all her symptoms. Emily questions her decision to be a doctor. Sonny reaffirms her faith in herself. Emily began to develop feelings for Sonny, who told her he did not feel the same, despite his growing romantic interest.

Emily saves Michael Corinthos, Sonny's son, from drowning. Sonny contemplates a relationship with her. The two kiss. Jason is able to convince Emily a relationship with a mob boss would ruin Emily's life. Sonny stages a kiss with his ex-wife Carly Corinthos. When a virus claims the lives of several of their friends, including Courtney, Sonny and Emily decide to secretly be a couple. Despite their attempts at discretion, Emily and Sonny's relationship becomes fodder for tabloids, while Sonny is diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Emily convinces Sonny to go into therapy. He ends their relationship.

Alone again, Emily throws herself into her studies. She reconnects with Nikolas. Jax had pretended the child Courtney had given birth to shortly before her death was his, but Robin Scorpio reveals the newly named Spencer Cassadine is Nikolas' son. Emily became Spencer's godmother, and briefly let Helena take her hostage in order to save the baby. The two decide to rekindle their romance, but are caught in a hostage crisis at the Metro Court Hotel. Jerry Jacks, Jax's brother, going by the name of Mr. Craig, holds the two and several of their friends hostage with a bomb in order to get a package Lorenzo Alcazar had left in the hotel's security vault. When Elizabeth goes into premature labor and her father Alan has a heart attack, Emily is forced to choose which one would be released. With Elizabeth's urging, Alan is released, but his heart attack proves fatal. Jerry goes on to inject Nikolas with a poison requiring a daily antidote. Elizabeth, Robin, and Patrick Drake help Emily develop an antidote that saves Nikolas' life.

Nikolas goes on to experiences periods of rage where he begins to black out. He discovers he has beaten Logan Hayes and stabbed Jerry, while Georgie Jones and several other women are strangled to death by the Text Message Killer. Emily convinces Nikolas to have tests performed. He insists on throwing a ball first to honor their renewed love. Dubbing it a Black and White Ball, he invites all of their friends. The night of the ball, Nikolas proposes to Emily. She happily accepts. Crazed mafia don Anthony Zacchara steals into the ball, stabs Ric Lansing with a sword, and shoots Leyla Mir. During Zacchara's rampage, Nikolas experiences another blackout. Jason ties him to a chair to protect the other guests. Nikolas awakes to find himself untied and sees Emily has been strangled to death.^[3] Nikolas later learns Diego Alcazar, Lorenzo's son, murdered Emily.

Nikolas continues to see Emily. He originally believes she is a ghost. With the help of nurse Nadine Crowell, Nikolas accepts he is suffering from a rare brain tumor allowing him to hallucinate Emily. After debating with his hallucination of Emily, Nikolas opts to remove his tumor. He wakes up holding the engagement ring he gave Emily the night she died.

In 2009, Nikolas is stunned when Emily's unknown twin sister Rebecca Shaw moves to Port Charles. It is later revealed Rebecca found out about Emily and came to get her hands on Emily's money. She moved to Paris in December 2009.

On the show's 50th Anniversary on April 2, 2013, Emily returns as a ghost along with Alan and Rick Webber to help Monica and Tracy quit their feuding.

References

External links

• Emily Quartermaine profile - SoapCentral.com
• Emily Quartermaine profile - ABC.com Retrieved from Internet Archive on March 26, 2008.