June 1, 2006

ICU: Waiting Room 1

“I don’t know about you,” Robert began, looking at his brother, “but I need to do something more than sit around waiting for Robin to wake up.” He cracked his knuckles and flexed his neck. “She’s going to be okay. I think it’s time we started to digging into this.”

Anna nodded. “Yes, I think we should go to the police station with you, Mac. I need to feel like I’m doing something. Monica said it could be hours until Robin wakes up–”

“Okay,” Mac agreed. “But neither one of you is getting anywhere near Lucky Spencer, not during interrogation and not in the squad room. I will not hesitate to shoot you.” That he directed to his brother.

Robert narrowed his eyes. “Still haven’t forgiven me for the last fifteen years then, I imagine.”

“Gee…you think?” Anna remarked dryly. She turned to Patrick. “Since I don’t think you’ll be moving much until our daughter wakes up, would you call us soon as she does?”

“Ah…” Patrick glanced over at the more qualified members of Robin’s family but Brenda, Maxie and Georgie were conversing with Felicia across the room. “Sure. I guess. I mean, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good.” Anna patted his shoulder. “That’s good to know.”

“Felicia, we’re going to head down the station,” Mac told Felicia.

“That’s a good idea,” Felicia replied. “The three of you are going crazy in here and you need to get to the bottom of what happened to our Robin.” She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Georgie’s going to head to Kelly’s for some food, Maxie’s going to take the first shift with Robin and then Brenda and I are going to go the house and get changes of clothing for everyone.”

“I’ll call you if anything comes up,” Mac promised.

After they had left the room, Patrick sat alone for the first time in nearly twenty four hours. In fact…he checked his watch. At this time the night before, Robin had just been arriving at his hotel room. She’d been less than cheerful when he’d called her to make plans but considering the fight they’d had that morning, he couldn’t blame her.

Robin had been upset for days about the news her cousin had sprung on her after her return from the Maarkam Islands and she stressed about whether to keep the secret or tell Nikolas and as a result, it had driven Patrick up the wall because he’d wanted to her to be concentrating on him. God, he was such a selfish bastard sometimes.

Yesterday morning, it had blown up in their faces. He’d spent the night with her at her place and was already off kilter by that fact and she’d seen a picture of Nikolas in the paper for some hospital function and the guilty expression on her face had pissed him off because she should have been thinking about him–he was beginning to notice a pattern.

He’d been angry, Patrick remembered now. And he’d told her that she should just stay the hell out of people’s business and concentrate on her own life or there’d be nothing to concentrate on. And he’d left.

He’d apologized to her at the hospital later and she’d said she accepted but Patrick hadn’t felt like it was really solved so he’d asked Elizabeth to help him set up the romantic evening. He was really going to prove to her that he cared about her and wanted to give her all the things she wanted.

Robin had come to the door and she’d told him that he was right–she should concentrate on her own life instead of getting wrapped up in things she didn’t understand. Before he could ask her what that meant, she’d kissed him.

They never did manage to eat dinner when they were together.

The door to the waiting room opened and Patrick looked up, hoping it was Maxie to announce that Robin had woken early though the surgeon in him knew that was not possible.

But instead it was his father. Noah was still pulling off his operating scrubs when he sat next to him. “I’m sorry, I was in surgery all day–I heard Robin was upgraded to stable.”

Patrick exhaled slowly and took the first easy breath in nearly twenty-four hours. “She was. We’re just waiting for her to wake up now.”

“Thank God,” Noah replied. “I was so worried…” he shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now. She’s going to be okay.”

General Hospital: Emergency Room

Elizabeth pulled away from Jason and swiped at her eyes. “I’m sorry…you shouldn’t–you shouldn’t have to deal with this.” She sniffled. “You have your own problems to deal with and I can’t keep expecting you to drop everything when I need you–”

“Hey…we’re friends aren’t we?” Jason said quietly. He took her hand in his. “Elizabeth, I am always going to be here if you need me. That’s never changed, no matter what we’ve been through. And I know that I can count on you the same way. You put your career on the line to do that operation on Sam–”

“For all the good it did,” Elizabeth huffed. She folded her arms tightly. “I mean, I know why Alexis is doing what she’s doing but I just wish…I wish that for once, you’d get the happy ending.”

“I’m going to find Alexis and Sam,” Jason told her. “And I know that Sam is being cared for, that despite how Alexis feels about me, she’d make sure Sam had the best care.”

“I’m sure that must help,” Elizabeth murmured, “but you would rather be there with her.”

“Yes, but–Elizabeth, you don’t have to worry about any of this right now–”

“I get to worry,” she cut in with a weak smile. “We’re friends aren’t we?”

Jason accepted that and nodded. “Fair enough. Do you need a ride to the PCPD to pick up Cameron or is Audrey going to take you?”

She shook her head. “Gram’s staying on shift–she’s insisted that I pick up Cam and go back to her house for some rest. If you wouldn’t mind giving me a ride–”

Jason’s cell began to chirp and he held up a hand to indicate for her to hold that that thought. He opened his phone. “Morgan.”

“Jason?” Alexis’s voice was shaky. “Jason…it’s me.”

“Alexis?” he asked, in disbelief. “Why–why are you calling me?”

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. Alexis? she mouthed. That would be a miracle–if she were calling to tell Jason that she’d changed her mind and would be bringing Sam back to GH or even better…if she were telling Jason that Sam was awake.

“Jason, you need–Sam is awake. You need to come immediately.” Alexis paused for a long moment. “We’re at the Petersen Clinic in Manhattan. I’ve registered her under Kristin Nilsson. I’ll leave your name at the front desk.”

She hung up without waiting for him to answer. He slid the phone back in his pocket and blinked. “Sam’s awake. Alexis needs me to go see her in Manhattan.” Jason exhaled slowly. “I’ll take you to the station and drop you off at Audrey’s–”

“Absolutely not,” Elizabeth interrupted. “You’ve been waiting three weeks for this news. I can get a ride with someone. You should leave for Manhattan right now.” She reached up and hugged him tightly. “It would make me feel a lot better if you were to go to Sam right now. She’ll need you.”

“Are you sure?” Jason asked. “Because I can–”

“I’m positive.” Elizabeth drew back and smiled up at him. “It’s a good night for us, you know? I’ve got Cameron, Sam’s awake and Robin’s going to live. It’s good to concentrate those things right now. The rest…it can wait.”

Kelly’s: Courtyard

“Mmm…this burger tastes so good,” Lulu mumbled biting into the sandwich. “I feel like I haven’t eaten in days.”

Dillon glanced over at her from where he was booting his laptop. He’d briefly thought about conducting this in the room upstairs but it felt weird to invite Lulu into the room he shared with Georgie after the extremely uncomfortable conversation from the records room.

“You were the one that insisted we stop off at the hospital cafeteria to grab a snack before we committed a series of felonies right?”

Lulu bit into her burger again with great relish and swallowed before speaking. “I have a healthy appetite and adrenaline seems to fuel it. Let me connect to my email account–” she reached for the laptop but he smacked her fingers.

“Uh uh. No one touches Sophie but me,” he told her. He reached for a French fry from her plate and tossed it in his mouth. “You just tell me how to get in–”

“Sophie?” Lulu repeated. She snickered. “I suppose that’s for Sophia Loren or something.” She sipped her milkshake but paused when she saw him staring at her. “What? Do I got ketchup on my face or something?”

“No, no…you’re right,” Dillon coughed. “It’s for Sophia Loren. Ah…no one’s got that connection before, that’s all.” He coughed again and slid the laptop towards her. “Log into your email and we’ll see if the results are there yet.”

“You’re not all weirded out about the records room, right?” Lulu asked, wiping her fingers before using Dillon’s precious Sophie.

“What?” Dillon laughed, but it was kind high and sounded extremely nervous. “Me? I don’t get weirded out. I’m cool. I’m always cool.” He coughed and took her milkshake, taking a long sip.

“Okay, because I wouldn’t want things to change–” Lulu began.

“I knew it.”

The disgusted outburst came from the doorway where Georgie stood, hands planted on her hips. “I cannot believe this–my cousin–no, my sister–is lying in a hospital bed fighting for her life and you are here with her instead of with me–”

“Georgie, we’re trying to help–” Lulu began.

“I don’t want to hear from you, Lesley Lu,” Georgie snarled. “I don’t give a damn about you. You’re nothing but a little piece of trash–”

“Hey,” Dillon stood. “I know you’re upset and that you’re worried about Robin and mad at me, but you don’t get to say things like that to her. Lulu hasn’t done anything wrong, okay? Be mad at me. I’m the one that went to the Islands and I’m the one who chose to help Lu clear her brother’s name, okay? Be mad at me, Georgie.”

“Of course you defend her Dillon!” Georgie retorted. “Are you actually sleeping with her or has she just–”

“Whoa, sweetheart.” Lulu stood. “You’ve been watching way too much television. I am not sleeping with Dillon and I don’t intend to. For one thing, he’s married,” she rolled her eyes, “and secondly, I’m a virgin so clearly I’m not going to waste it on a guy who’s in love with his wife. I’m seventeen and I don’t live in the O.C.”

“I don’t hear any denials about not wanting to,” Georgie growled.

Dillon frowned and then looked at Lulu before looking at Georgie. “Georgie, this is all a big misunderstanding–”

“Oh for the love of…” Lulu rolled her eyes. “You are completely delusional–why does it matter what I want? What? Dillon can’t say no?”

“Apparently not where you’re concerned,” Georgie said though clenched teeth.

“Now, wait a second–” Dillon began, really angry for the first time. Before he could finish, Diego Alcazar emerged from Kelly’s.

“Is there a problem out here?” he asked. He looked from Georgie to where Dillon and Lulu were clustered by the table. “Do you need–”

“No, we don’t need anything–why don’t you just go back inside–”

“Diego is my friend and I want him stay out here,” Georgie said stubbornly, crossing her arms and lifting her chin.

“Oh and you’re mad at me for Lulu?” Dillon demanded incredulously. “At least she’s not a felon!”

“Only because she’s never been charged!” Georgie retorted.

“Hey!” Lulu cried, insulted.

A bell chimed on Dillon’s computer, indicating new mail but the four teens were too busy arguing to hear it.

ICU: Robin’s Room

“You look better,” Maxie finally managed to say. She shifted uncomfortably in the chair and peered towards the doorway, hoping that someone would come in and take over sitting with Robin. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to sit with her, but she was nervous about everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

She had last spoken to her cousin the night before, shortly before Robin had left for Patrick’s hotel room. Robin had called and told Maxie that she had checked the hospital records and that there was a third paternity test that didn’t have either Jax or Nikolas listed as the father and that before they made any decisions, they would have to find out what was going on.

But Maxie had had enough of the entire affair and had called Nikolas to meet with her at the hospital. She’d wanted to take this entire situation out of Robin’s sphere and just tell Nikolas that there was some question to the paternity.

But Maxie had had an emergency call from Georgie about Dillon and she’d reluctantly canceled the meeting with Nikolas–after all the news could always wait, right? If she’d known Georgie’s emergency was all about ranting about Dillon’s involvement with Lulu, she would have thought twice.

“You have more color,” Maxie offered, deciding to pretend that she would talk to Robin as if she were really there instead of…wherever she actually was. “Um, so your parents were getting along for at least a good two hours so I suppose that’s something right? And I think your father’s finally warming up to Dr. Drake.” She bit her lip. “Brenda’s here and she wants all the dish on the doctor, by the way, so if that’s not reason enough to wake up, I don’t know what is.”

She cleared her throat and picked some more at her already chipped nail polish. “Speaking of Dr. Drake…I wanted to tell you that I was sorry. I know that I’ve got you involved in this whole mess and that it’s the last thing you wanted or needed and that it’s been causing problems with you and Patrick. I’m sorry for that because I know how much you like him and how much you hate the position I put you in.”

Maxie sniffled. “I knew about the dinner last night. I was at the nurse’s station when he asked Liz to help him set it up and I knew it was for an apology for a fight and I’m scared that the fight was about the paternity stuff and then it makes it my fault that you were there last night instead of at your apartment or whatever. I don’t believe it was Lucky Spencer but it still doesn’t change the fact that you were shot in a hotel room that you wouldn’t have been in it hadn’t been for me dragging you into this whole paternity mess.”

There was a sound of a throat being cleared and Maxie whirled around to find her mother staring at her with an arched brow.

“What paternity mess would that be, exactly?” Felicia asked.

PCPD: Squad Room

“Wait in my office,” Mac instructed Robert and Anna as they entered the PCPD squad room. Before the duo could obey that order (or argue as it looked like Robert was preparing to do), the door to the primary interrogation room swung open and Rodriguez walked out, dragging a hand through his dark hair. He hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours and the drive to and from Canada hadn’t helped his mood much.

“Have you gotten anything useful out of Spencer?” Mac asked, momentarily forgetting his brother and his sister-in-law standing behind him.

“No,” Rodriguez said, disgusted. “He’s too high on his pain medication. It does appear that he was a witness at the very least. I managed to piece some stuff together. Apparently, Spencer showed up to talk to Elizabeth–so he says–and he saw her in the bed, with the blood. He thought she was dead so my guess is that he showed up after Robin made the 911 call. He goes on to ramble about if Lucky tells what he saw, he’ll be killed and so will Cameron.” Rodriguez shrugged. “But I can’t really tell at this time if he’s telling the truth or has come up with something in his head to absolve himself of shooting his wife or at least attempting to.”

“We’ll have to get him admitted to the hospital, to the detox center if we’re going to get anything useful out of him,” Mac sighed. “Look, I haven’t checked my messages yet but I think the ESU called. Why don’t you head down there, find out if they’ve got anything and then take the rest of the night off?”

“Thanks,” Rodriguez sighed. “I already called for a car to take Spencer to the hospital. They’ll be taking him down momentarily.” He rubbed his face. “Do I look as tired as I feel?”

“More.”

The detective left the squad room and Mac turned back to Robert and Anna to escort them into his office.

Elizabeth entered the room then with Emily on her tails. “Mac…I want Cameron released to me.”

“Of course.” Mac snapped his fingers to the one of the patrol officers. “Lewis, can you please show Mrs. Spencer to the office where the social worker has Cameron Webber?” He looked back to Elizabeth. “You might want to think about admitting him to the hospital, at least over night for observation.”

The door to the interrogation room opened and an officer started to lead Lucky Spencer out to escort him to a car that would take him to the hospital.

Before Elizabeth could even process the sight of her husband standing before her, his eyes unfocused and rimmed with red, Robert Scorpio had launched himself across the room and attacked Lucky.

Kelly’s Courtyard

“You know what?” Georgie said. “I think we should get an annulment!”

“Best news I’ve had all night,” Dillon shot back. “This was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.”

Georgie huffed and looked to Diego. “Can you give me a ride to the hospital?” she asked deliberately glancing at Dillon to get his reaction.

“Uh…sure,” Diego drawled out, uncomfortable now. “Let me just tell Mike I’m leaving.”

“Oh, that’s real mature,” Dillon rolled his eyes when Diego had gone back inside. “Go out with the convicted felon who drugged women to make a point. You know, Georgie, right now…you’re acting exactly your age. Clearly, you weren’t ready to be married.”

“Well, you were going to die,” Georgie muttered and Dillon paled.

“That…” he shook his head. “No…I asked you to marry me because I loved you and I thought we were going to be together. I wanted to spend my life with you. That’s why I asked. Are you telling me you only said yes because I was sick?” he demanded.

“Oh come on,” Georgie stomped her foot. “You’re being stupid about this, Dillon. Of course you asked me because you were sick and I thought you were going to die and–”

“Wow…” Dillon looked away. “Wow. So why didn’t you just get an annulment to begin with? Why make this big deal about making our marriage work?”

Georgie cleared her throat, feeling somewhat embarrassed now. “Because we were going to be together anyway, might as well stay as married.”

Lulu wisely kept her mouth shut and sat back at the table to finish her dinner. They were obviously going to implode without her help. Her eyes widened she saw that the test results had finally come in. She turned to tell Dillon.

“Might as well stay married,” Dillon repeated. “Well, you don’t have to bother making that sacrifice for me anymore, okay? We’re done.”

Diego exited the diner. “You ready?” he asked Georgie.

“More than,” Georgie muttered. She stomped away and Diego followed.

“I cannot believe her,” Dillon took a napkin and started to shred it into tiny little pieces. “Might as well stay married, can you imagine?”

Lulu huffed. “Okay, I don’t want to change the subject and I promise you that we’ll get back to this in a second but the results are in!”

“No, I don’t want to talk about Georgie or my marriage anymore,” Dillon shook his head. “Let’s concentrate on this. What do the results say?”

She opened them and scrolled to the bottom where the list of possible matches were listed. “Okay, it looks like it was only able to narrow it down to the family–” she broke off. “Wow.”

“So it might be Nikolas’s child after all,” Dillon said, perking up a little at seeing the list of Cassadine male relatives that had been treated at General Hospital in the past. “It lists Nikolas, Stefan, Stavros, Mikkos or…” he frowned. “Since when is he a Cassadine?”

“The last I checked, he wasn’t,” Lulu muttered. She tapped her fingers against the table. “Okay, out of the only two people alive at the time of conception on this list, Nikolas is the only one who has a possibility of being the father because he was actually with Courtney.”

“Well, we don’t know that he wasn’t,” Dillon gestured towards the second name. “I mean, I doubt it but would we really want to rule something like this out?”

“Oh come on,” Lulu rolled her eyes. “For one thing, he’s not a Cassadine and secondly, it’s Jesse. Why would he have slept with Courtney?”

“Okay, so John is Nikolas’s child,” Dillon remarked. “But it still makes me wonder why exactly Jesse Beaudry is showing up as a member of the Cassadine family.”

PCPD: Squad Room

Robert had his hands wrapped around Lucky’s throat, Lucky was gasping for air, Mac and Anna were both trying to pull them apart and the dozen or so officers were just standing around watching because clearly this was not business as usual.

“I’ll kill you!” Robert bellowed as Mac finally managed to pull him off the shaken former police office. “You bloody son of bitch–”

“Get in my office,” Mac snarled. He shoved his brother in the general direction and of course completely missed Anna grabbing Lucky by the collar.

“Why did you try to kill my daughter?” she snarled.

“I d-don’t–” Lucky started to struggle and Anna lost her grip, Robert grabbed her to keep her from falling. “I didn’t try to kill your daughter!” he finally managed to get out.

“Okay, then why did you try to kill your wife?” Robert growled.

Lucky’s eyes widened. “I didn’t–I didn’t kill her–” and then he saw Elizabeth standing there, her face ashen and her eyes large in her face. “No! You’re not here! You’re not supposed–” he stumbled back and started gasping for air. “You’re dead, he killed you, he’s going to kill me–”

Emily wrapped an arm around a trembling Elizabeth. “Lucky–” she began in a calm and patient tone.

“You’re dead!” Lucky cried again, struggling against the hold that an officer had on him. “You’re dead!” he kept repeating.

“Take him down to the car!” Mac yelled. “Elizabeth…” He took her elbow. “Let’s go into my office. We need to get you out of his sight.”

She followed him wordlessly and the officer led Lucky out of the squad room even as he was still mumbling to himself, “He killed her, he killed her.”

PCPD: Electronics and Surveillance Department

Rodriguez strolled into the small room that housed PCPD’s very tiny ESU department. So tiny, that it was made up completely of Detectives Catherine Sullivan and Melanie Horowitz.

He approached the latter and touched her shoulder. “Hey–the Commissioner thought you might have tried to get in touch with him.”

Melanie glanced up at him. “Hey, Carlos. Have you slept at all since you got the call last night?” she asked softly, keeping an eye on her partner Cathy who was currently trying to remember where she’d put her backup package of Tim Tams.

“Well, no,” Rodriguez said, but he grinned. “But Scorpio’s ordered me to go home after this so maybe I can rustle up some company.” He arched an brow at her. “Know anyone who’d be interested?”

“Carlos!” Melanie hissed.

Cathy snorted. “Please, like the entire department doesn’t know you two are banging each other. Rodriguez, she gets off in an hour.” She fished out her Tim Tams and set them next to her work station. “Are we going to get down to business or what?”

“So you do have something for me,” Rodriguez remarked, taking the empty seat next to Melanie. “I’m going to need you guys to go further on the Scorpio footage from last night. We think there was a second person in the room.”

“Sure…but first…” Melanie punched a few buttons. “We have your shooter from the Corinthos shooting. It looks like some guy dressed as tourist. He literally strolled up to the window, shot her and walked away. We don’t have clear shot of him but Cathy was able to zoom real close up on his profile, so we’ve got a partial photo for you.” She cleared her throat. “But the real surprise on that tape came about ten minutes before the shooting.”

She keyed up the footage and started to play it. Rodriguez leaned forward and watched as the familiar man walked past Carly Corinthos’ office window. The man paused for only an brief moment but it was long enough for the camera to get a full view of his face. “That can’t be…”

“Oh…we double checked,” Cathy remarked. “We pulled some photos from the system and it’s him. A little older, but it’s him.”

“Even if it is him,” Rodriguez began slowly, “I can’t imagine why he’d have anything to do with this.”

“Since when did his family never need a reason?” Melanie pointed out. “You’re not from PC, Carlos. My mother still tells stories about the Cassadines trying to freeze the world, okay?”

“Okay,” Rodriguez allowed, “but he’s not like the rest of his family. Or at least he wasn’t. And I can’t think of one reason why Stefan Cassadine would want Carly Corinthos dead.”

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