June 2, 2006

ICU: Hallway

Code Blue, Room 314. Code Blue, Room 314

Patrick halted, the blood draining from his face. “Robin.”

Lulu grabbed Dillon’s sleeve and tugged. “Robin’s in room 314?” she demanded. “What does code blue mean?”

For someone who grew up during the era of ER and Chicago Hope, Dillon just swallowed. “It’s a code, it means Robin’s heart has stopped, basically.”

Lulu’s eyes bulged and she turned to look at Patrick, but he had already taken off, covering the short distance between their position by the elevators and Robin’s room at the end of the hall. The waiting room door spilled open and Robin’s various relatives flooded out. A movement caught Lulu’s attention and she turned to see someone slipping into the emergency stairwell.

“Someone just went into that stairwell,” Lulu hissed. She tugged his sleeve again. “Come on!”

“What about Robin–” Dillon began.

“I’ve got a bad feeling that whoever just snuck away has something to do with Robin’s current condition,” Lulu remarked.

“Oh, your Spencer senses are tingling?” Dillon retorted. “Well, gee, because that’s never got us into trouble before!”

“You really have to stop pretending you’re not enjoying this,” Lulu rolled her eyes. “I’m going after the strange person in the stairwell, why don’t you decide if you’re a man or a mouse.” She slipped into the stairwell and left Dillon to glare after her.

“You totally ruined that movie quote,” he muttered more to himself than to her and then followed her into the stairwell. He’d followed Spencers into worse situations before.

ICU: Robin’s Room

He’d learned this procedure during the summer he’d worked as lifeguard at the community pool in Long Island. He remembered standing with his friends and laughing as the instructor fumbled with life sized dolls for them to practice on.

He’d been lucky that he’d never had the chance to use this, never had someone’s life in his hands like this. He was cool and confident working on a stranger as long as he had a scalpel in his hands but standing here, in this ICU, pressing down hard on the chest a woman that he’d just begun to…

There was nothing cool and confident about Patrick Drake in this moment as he frantically tried to keep Robin Scorpio from slipping away.

He heard the door swing open behind him and realized that the crash team had arrived. He knew that he had to cease his ministrations and step back so that they could do what they were trained to do but in the back of his mind, he honestly felt that if he stepped away, if he stopped for even a moment, Robin would be gone forever.

“Dr. Drake!” Megan Jennings’ sharp voice finally broke through the haze that panic had created and Patrick stepped aside, stepping back and watching with an almost detached curiosity as a nurse handed Megan the paddles and the doctor placed them on Robin’s chest.

“What’s going on?” a panicked voice demanded as Megan gave orders to bump it up. Robin’s body jerked and moved slightly into the air.

“Again!” Megan ordered. She looked at Patrick. “Get them out of here!”

It was then that Patrick realized that Robin’s aunt and cousins had flooded the doorway. And just like that, he was in control again. He led Felicia, Maxie, Georgie and Brenda in the hallway. “Let them do their work–” he began.

“She was fine!” Maxie cried. “She was awake, she was talking! What happened?”

Patrick swallowed roughly. “I don’t know.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

“Make this quick,” Mac remarked, taking a seat behind his desk. “I’ve got a full plate today–”

Jax shifted in his chair and glanced at Robert and Anna Scorpio as they hovered behind Mac. This was, without a doubt, one of the most difficult moments of his life. “I thought you should know that there is a link between Robin and Carly.”

“Besides the fact that they despise each other and were both shot at the Metro Court?” Anna demanded. “Because we already knew–”

“They are among the handful of people who are aware that my son, John, is actually Nikolas Cassadine’s son,” Jax said painfully. “I–I wanted to protect him from Helena Cassadine so I lied and I covered up his paternity.”

Robert’s back stiffened. “Robin would have said something–”

“She did,” Jax sighed. “She’s known for about a week and has been trying to convince me to come clean to Nikolas. I refused and then finally yesterday, she reached the end of her patience. She told me that if I didn’t tell Nikolas, she would.”

“That sounds like excellent motive,” Anna mused. “Are you here to confess?”

“No,” Jax said, irritated. “I didn’t even think one had anything to do with the other until Carly was shot as well and it was the only link between the two that I could come up with.”

“The Cassadine family would do anything to protect its own,” Robert said. He looked at his brother and then his ex-wife as the three reached a similar conclusion. “And they’ve killed in the past.”

Jax frowned. “But Nikolas knows nothing of this, Helena couldn’t possibly and Alexis–”

“Stefan Cassadine was spotted on the grounds of the hotel shortly before Carly was wounded,” Mac reluctantly said. “That shot was designed to wound, not kill and Lucky Spencer’s statement says that the man in the room admitted he hadn’t intended on killing Robin, only wounding her but she moved at the last second.”

“Stefan–” Jax shook his head. “No, he’s supposed to be dead–”

“So am I,” Robert said dryly. “Death, in Port Charles, is usually exaggerated.” He sighed. “If Stefan Cassadine thought he was avenging his nephew by causing great pains to those who kept Nikolas’s son from him, I think that would push him over the edge–if a Cassadine needs an actual motive to go over the edge.”

Anna arched an eyebrow and smirked at Jax. “Which makes me wonder what he has in store for you.”

“He’s not going to get a chance,” Mac stood. “We’ll put protection on you and we’ll drag Nikolas Cassadine in here to find out exactly what he knows about the latest Cassadine to rise from the grave.”

Anna’s cell chirped and she tugged it out. “Devane.” Her face paled and she hung up after a moment. “That was Felicia–Robin crashed again.”

General Hospital: Nurse’s Station

Elizabeth tapped her pen nervously. “I wish I’d been assigned to the ICU today,” she remarked, waiting for her phone to ring and for her grandmother to give her an update on Robin’s condition. Since the code blue five minutes ago, there’d been no word.

“What I can’t figure out is why she’d code at all,” Emily remarked. “She was stable–no signs of infection. She was up, she was alert.” She set a medical text down on the counter. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Very little has made sense for the past forty-eight hours,” Elizabeth replied.

“Ain’t that the truth,” Emily sighed. “First Robin gets shot, and they suspect Lucky–who’s disappeared with Cameron. Then Sam wakes up, has lost all her memory, Carly gets shot, Lucky reappears and was the witness to Robin’s shooting, thought you were dead–” she shook her head. “Life was a lot less dramatic when I lived with my biological mother.” She glanced at Elizabeth. “Have you been to see Lucky since he’s been in the hospital?”

“No,” Elizabeth said softly. “I have my son back, that’s all I’m worried about right now. I mean…I’m not angry with Lucky for taking Cameron, because I know he was just trying to protect him but I’m just not sure I can get past the fact that Lucky was in that room in the first place because he thought I would be there. I mean, I would never sleep with Patrick–I’m married and he’s crazy about Robin and even if I weren’t married, it would still be wrong because…” she wrinkled her nose. “I just don’t see him that way.”

“And when you factor in the drugs, the fact that he had Nikolas hire someone to follow you around…the trust is gone,” Emily replied. She flipped her text open. “Well, then it’s a good thing you and Jason are friends again because between your marriage falling apart and Sam losing her memory, you’re going to need each other.”

“Don’t I know it…” The phone rang and Elizabeth snatched up the receiver. “Gram?” Her shoulders sagged and she closed her eyes. “Thank God.” She hung up the phone and turned back to Emily. “They were able to get Robin’s heart started again, she’s going to be okay.”

General Hospital: Sub-Basement 3

After third time Dillon saw the sign indicating that they were, indeed, in the third sub-basement of General Hospital, he stopped in the middle of the hall and sat down. Lulu didn’t realize he’d stopped moving and was a few feet way before she stopped to look back. “What are you doing?”

“I’m staying right here,” Dillon said with a firm nod. “Someone will eventually come by and they will lead me back to civilization.”

Lulu rolled her eyes and slid to the floor next to him. “You’re such a pain in the ass,” she sighed dramatically. “I wish you could admit to yourself that you’re enjoying this.”

“If I were having fun,” Dillon drawled, “I would admit it. I am not having fun.”

“Please,” Lulu scoffed. “You refuse to admit it because if you do, you’ll have to admit that you love our adventures, that you enjoy our little capers and if you admit that, you’ll have to admit that the reason you keep–” she used air quotes for her next words “–giving them up is because Georgie dislikes you being focused on anything but her.”

“That’s…” Dillon shook his head. “That’s just a false theory, right there.” He snorted and looked away.

“Right.” Lulu folded her arms across her chest. “So you’ve never had fun with me or my father. Then what are you doing here right now?”

“I’m keeping you out of trouble,” Dillon muttered. “Though my technique could use some work.” He shifted, wishing he’d worn something thicker than his khaki shorts that day. The cement floor was awfully chilly. “The next time your Spencer senses tingle, just say no.”

Lulu gasped and smacked him. “You say that like I’m a drug! I am not a drug–” she broke off and grinned. “I mean, if you’re saying I’m addictive, well then I can’t argue with that.”

“That–I never–that’s not even close to what I was inferring,” Dillon sputtered. “You’ve gone off the deep end entirely.”

Lulu ignored that. “Anyway, in ten years, I am totally going to outshine my father. My Spencer senses, as you term them, are fabulous and I’m just–” she shrugged. “I’m having an off day. I know I saw someone go through that door, they’re probably just–” her eyes lit up and her back straightened.

“Oh, God, I know that look.”

“Helena Cassadine! Of course, she wants to shut Robin up because Robin will tell everyone that Helena shot her. So she injected something into Robin’s IV to make her heart stop and then she escaped through one of those tunnels–you know back when she brought Stavros Cassadine back from the dead, there were all these tunnels that connected Wyndemere and the hospital–”

“See, I know where this is going and now I’m scared.”

Lulu lunged to her feet and Dillon reluctantly stood. “So I bet she escaped and went back to Wyndemere, so you know what we gotta do right?”

“Find a way out of here and never do this again?” Dillon asked hopefully.

“We gotta find those tunnels!”

Dillon sighed. “I was afraid of that.”

ICU: Hallway

Megan stepped out of the room and rubbed the side of her face, a little started that the small group had grown into a much larger one. Patrick, Felicia, Brenda, Maxie and Georgie had been joined by Noah, Audrey, Robert, Anna, Mac and Jax.

She cleared her throat. “Robin’s stable, again. We’re not sure what happened but this was a close one. If Dr. Drake hadn’t been so close and kept her going until my team arrived…” she coughed. “Well, anyway, it was a close call but Robin’s stable and it shouldn’t affect her recovery all that much.”

The group broke up as Felicia, Brenda and the girls crowded into Robin’s room and Audrey returned to her post at the nurse’s station.

“Has Nikolas Cassadine been back to the hospital?” Mac asked Patrick.

“Not that I’ve seen,” Patrick answered. “Why?”

“Because we think he might know where his psychotic uncle is,” Robert snarled. “He’s the one who shot Robin–”

“We think he might be responsible for the shooting,” Mac clarified. “It seems that Robin was aware that John wasn’t Jax’s son–”

“She knew about the paternity, yeah, but why would any of the Cassadines go after Robin?” Patrick asked, confused. “She wanted Jax to tell the truth–”

“Stefan Cassadine was obsessively protective of his nephew,” Jax sighed. “He might want to take revenge on anyone he thought kept John away from Nikolas.”

Patrick’s eyes narrowed. “Let me get this straight–Carly gets a little scratch, you don’t get hurt at all and Robin–the only person who wanted to come clean about this entire situation–has almost died because you kidnapped the Cassadine baby?”

While everyone was somewhat surprised, no one really blamed Patrick when he lunged for Jax’s throat.

Wyndemere: Nikolas’s Study

Nikolas rubbed his eyes and sifted through the last of his mail, hoping to get the paperwork out of the way so he could go to the hospital and sort out the drama there. He had to visit with Lucky, patch things up with Elizabeth and of course, stop in to visit with Robin. He had been relieved to find out she’d been upgraded to stable condition and that his brother had been cleared of the crime though he’d been unable to find out what the current theory of said crime was.

He heard footsteps in the corridor by the study and his head snapped up just in time to see his uncle step into the room.

His dead uncle.

Nikolas shot up. “What the–”

“We have a few situations that we need to correct immediately,” Stefan said, striding forward. “Yes, I am still in the land of the living, can we please table the shock, the anger and the accusations until after we see to these problems?”

There weren’t words, Nikolas realized. He’d watched his uncle rise from the dead before and after no body had been found, he really should have known better but he’d grieved anyway. He just stared as Stefan pulled out a slim folder and opened it.

“First order of business, we have to bring John Jacks into this family.” Stefan sniffed. “A Cassadine heir does not use a commoner’s name so he will have to be rechristened–” His lips curved into almost a chilling smile. “He is your son, by the way. I have punished those who kept him from you. Except Jasper Jacks. I have something special in mind for him.”

The shock was beginning to pass and Nikolas was beginning to understand what his uncle was telling him. He had shot Carly–and Robin? “Did you–why would you shoot Robin?” he demanded.

“That is no longer important,” Stefan said, glancing at him over his glasses the way he had done since Nikolas was a small child. “What is important is bringing your son into this family and cleaning up Alexis’s mess.”

“Alexis’s–” Nikolas shook his head. “I don’t understand–”

“Nor do I. I cannot believe my sister has not had a blood test performed. I will not allow that street urchin to pass herself off as a Cassadine relation,” Stefan sniffed.

“Wait–” Nikolas held up a hand. “You shot Robin and Carly and now you’re saying that Sam isn’t Alexis’s daughter?”

“Precisely.” Stefan sighed. “Please try to keep up, Nikolas.”

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