  The purpose of this paper is to study geometrically simply-connected homotopy
4-spheres by analyzing $n$-component links with a Dehn surgery realizing
$\#^n(S^1\times S^2)$. We call such links $n$R-links. Our main result is that a
homotopy 4-sphere that can be built without 1-handles and with only two
2-handles is diffeomorphic to the standard 4-sphere in the special case that
one of the 2-handles is attached along a knot of the form $Q_{p,q} =
T_{p,q}\#T_{-p,q}$, which we call a generalized square knot. This theorem
subsumes prior results of Akbulut and Gompf.
  Along the way, we use thin position techniques from Heegaard theory to give a
characterization of 2R-links in which one component is a fibered knot, showing
that the second component can be converted via trivial handle additions and
handleslides to a derivative link contained in the fiber surface. We invoke a
theorem of Casson and Gordon and the Equivariant Loop Theorem to classify
handlebody-extensions for the closed monodromy of a generalized square knot
$Q_{p,q}$. As a consequence, we produce large families, for all even $n$, of
$n$R-links that are potential counterexamples to the Generalized Property R
Conjecture. We also obtain related classification statements for fibered,
homotopy-ribbon disks bounded by generalized square knots.
