Written in 59 minutes.

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Port Charles Courthouse: Family Court

“Do you want to tell me what that was about?” his lawyer demanded.

Lucky tore his eyes away from Elizabeth as she and Jason embraced, then she hugged Diane. He focused on his attorney. “I’m sorry. You get paid whether I win or lose—”

“We discussed a strategy—”

“And I decided I didn’t want it—” Lucky turned away, relieved as Elizabeth and the others made their way out of the court room. “Listen, I appreciate everything. But you had to see the writing on the wall—you didn’t even go after Elizabeth in her testimony—”

“I think you should have given yourself a chance to fight, Lucky—”

“For what? The chance to drag Cameron out of his house every other weekend and force him to come see me—” Lucky looked at the empty doorway. “Diane Miller was right. I had a chance to be a good father. I chose to put myself first—”

“Your wife is putting herself first—”

“The custody case is over,” Lucky said flatly. “Make sure the divorce goes away. I want it over.”

He started towards the back of the courtroom, but Nikolas grabbed his arm as he passed. “Lucky—”

“I don’t want to hear it—” He walked over to the back pew where Sam still waited, her eyes hot with fury. “And I don’t want to hear what you have to say, either. No one asked you to be here. It has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me,” Sam spat, rising to her feet. “You just let her off the hook for all of it—”

“I told you that I didn’t want your kind of revenge. I don’t want any of it. I just want to get on with my life. You should try it sometime.”

Sam glared after him as Lucky left, followed by his annoyed lawyer, then she looked at Nikolas. “It’s not fair for her to get away with everything like this. She gets to walk away with her happy ending—”

“Sam—” Nikolas shook his head. “I get that you’re still angry at how things ended with Jason, but that was months ago—”

“Diane humiliated me on that stand—”

“You humiliated yourself. Get over it. Lucky’s right. Maybe it’s not fair how it all came out, but it’s over. Time for everyone to move on.”

He left her standing there, fuming. Well, if those assholes weren’t going to make sure that perfect Elizabeth Webber didn’t get to walk away scot-free, then Sam was going to do it herself.

Hardy House: Living Room

Audrey was on her feet as Elizabeth opened the door, her expression creased in concern. “How was it? Did—did you get a ruling?”

Elizabeth embraced her grandmother. “I’m still a bit shell-shocked. Lucky—he didn’t testify. He told the judge to rule in my favor.”

“What?” Audrey looked past her to Jason, then back to Elizabeth. “He didn’t testify?”

“He dropped the objection to the paternity suit even before we got started. I guess listening to Lulu and me — I don’t know. I guess he decided it wasn’t…that putting himself through it wouldn’t be worth it.” She sighed. “I don’t really know how to feel about it, I guess. I just want to get the boys and go home.”

“They’re upstairs. Cameron’s playing, and Jake was napping.” Audrey touched her arm. “I’m relieved that it’s over, darling. It’s all right to feel a bit unsettled.”

“I don’t know why,” Elizabeth said to Jason as they climbed the stairs to the second floor. “This is what I wanted. Lucky stepped aside. We’ll get divorced and…it’ll be over.” She rubbed her arms. “I still want that—”

“It was a hard testimony to sit through,” Jason said. He stopped her as they approached the bedroom the boys used at Audrey’s house. “I didn’t—” He gritted his teeth for a moment. “I didn’t know he’d put his hands on you.”

“It—it was just that once—Jason, it was just that once. And he didn’t mean to do it. I left that night.” She laid a hand on his cheek. “Look at me. It was once. And I don’t know how much he even remembers.”

“I wish you’d told me.” Jason shook his head. “I would have—I don’t know. I would have—”

“Offered to marry me before the paternity results came back? Offered to marry me again when you did know? Jason. You did everything you could—”

“If that was true, you would have told me the truth about Jake that day you came over,” he broke in, and she closed her mouth. “Because I didn’t think it was for the best, I just wanted you to be okay, and I thought—I thought it was what you wanted.”

“You were trying to protect me. And I was trying to protect you. And neither one of us told the truth that day. There’s a lesson to be learned from that, I think.” She leaned up to kiss him, and he held her against him. “We both did the best we could in the moment. But we’re going to do better now.”

“Much better.”

“Let’s get the boys and go home.”

General Hospital: Locker Room

Robin rested a hand against the row of lockers, and took a minute to catch her breath, squeezing her eyes shut, hoping it would stop the room from spinning.

Vertigo was always such a strange trip, she thought. You stayed still, but the room started to move, and then you were on the floor.

“Hey.” Emily came around the corner, went for her locker. “You okay?”

“Hey. Just—I don’t know. Felt dizzy for a minute.” Robin smiled weakly, then sat on the bench. “Not enough sleep. Or eating. I don’t know.”

Emily studied her for a minute. “You look pale. Robin—”

“It’s fine. I know better. I know I have to keep myself healthy—” She forced a smile. “I’ll make an appointment with my doctor, okay? You don’t have to be so worried.”

“I can’t help but worry. It’s in the DNA.” She sat next to Robin, reached for her hand and laid two fingers on her wrist. A moment later, she nodded. “Pulse is okay. Let me check your pupils—”

“Em—”

“Shut up—” Emily tilted her head. “No dilation.”

“I told you. Just a little run-down. I’m not sleeping well.”

“Still?”

“I know it’s been a month,” Robin murmured. “But sometimes, I get—it just wakes me up. And—” She grimaced, stared at her hands. “Can I tell you something without judging me?”

“Of course.”

“And—you’re like my doctor right now. Confidential—”

“It would be confidential even if I hadn’t taken your pulse. You can tell me anything, Robin. You know that.”

“Right.” Robin bit her lip. “Then night of Georgie’s memorial, I went to Patrick’s. And I stayed with him that night.” She waited. “You don’t look surprised.”

“I’m not.”

“You’re not going to tell me he’s only going to break my heart?”

“Of course not. You already know all there is to know about Patrick Drake,” Emily told her, gently. “He loves you. If you’d told him that getting the moon would make you feel better, he’d give it his best shot.”

“That was the only time since all of this happened that I slept through the night,” Robin confessed. “And I know, God, I know if I called him right now, he’d come over, and he’d just hold me and I’d be able to sleep, and I could close my eyes, and not see her—”

Emily squeezed her hand. “But you won’t.”

“I can’t. I can’t. It hurts so much.” Robin’s voice broke. “And it’s not fair. He started talking about how maybe we could figure out something, and what kind of person would I be if I let him make this change because I’m such a mess?” She swiped at her tears and forced herself to her feet. To open her locker. “And I hate myself because I lay there at night, and I think about calling him because I just want it all to stop, and it won’t.”

“It’s hard to walk away from someone you love,” Emily said. “Especially when you’re doing it for the right reasons. Patrick would probably be an amazing father. I think he’s surprised himself with how much love he’s found in himself over these last few years. But I respect him for not taking the plunge without being more sure. That doesn’t make his choice hurt any less, Robin. It just makes it harder to hate him for it.”

“What about you? I thought you and Nikolas were all but engaged—” When Emily made a face, Robin clasped her hands in front of her. “Please. I’m begging you. Distract me.”

“I just—he took Lucky’s side in all of his, which, okay that’s fine. I took Elizabeth’s. We weren’t going to do that first,” she added. She spun the combination dial. “We were just going  be neutral, but Lucky started to pull all this crap with Cameron, and even though Nikolas knew it was wrong, he got Lucky a lawyer who made all these threats—” She broke off.

“I know it shouldn’t have anything to do with us,” she finally continued, jerking open the locker. “It shouldn’t. But I hear him talk about Elizabeth, and we both knew what she was going through last fall. And it’s like — he expects her to have let it all go because Lucky got clean and stayed that way. Like it’s a switch you can flick on and off. But it’s now how it works. Elizabeth built up this whole system in her head where she was responsible for Lucky’s sobriety, and we fed into that. We all did, and now we’re going to be angry because she didn’t do it perfectly?”

Emily huffed. “Lucky spread those rumors about Patrick and Elizabeth last year, you know that, right? He made such a production about them that Epiphany and Kelly both thought Elizabeth slept with him and that was why they needed a paternity test.”

Robin frowned. “I didn’t know that—”

“Yeah, okay, she went out and she did have an affair eventually. But now when Lucky was screaming at her about it, and not before he had an affair—” Emily gripped her locker. “Maybe it’s that simple for me. Maybe it’s knowing Elizabeth was trying so hard most of last year, and she had one little slip with Jason that she kept to herself, and tried to protect everyone except herself — and it didn’t matter. Because Lucky was screwing around on her first.”

“I thought…the pills—”

“I’ve had a drug addiction,” Emily spat. “I watched my father go through it. I know what addiction looks like. He was dependent on it, but he wasn’t at the point where his personality should have shifted. Not like that. No, he never believed Elizabeth picked him. He always felt like she settled, and he was fucking so insecure about it, that he had to go prove his virility by—” Emily closed her mouth. “I’m sorry. I forgot—”

“I know what Maxie was doing last year. You don’t think Lucky had the affair  because of the pills.”

“I think the pills gave him the excuse. But no, I think Maxie made Lucky feel like a hero. And Elizabeth didn’t. Simple as that. And all of this custody bullshit started when Elizabeth made it clear that she was going to let Jason be Jake’s father. Because Lucky couldn’t stand to come second. Nikolas couldn’t accept that Lucky had any fault in this. He won’t see it, and he couldn’t see it when he did the same thing to me.”

Emily sat on the bench, tears shimmering in her eyes. “It was so hard, Robin. So damned hard to look at him for so long. Connor Bishop looked just like him—do you know what it’s like to be raped by a man who could be your husband’s identical twin? To see his face in your nightmares?”

“No.” Robin sat again, touched Emily’s shoulder again. “I don’t.”

“And maybe I needed more therapy. And maybe we were always going to get divorced. I don’t know. But he didn’t say anything. He promised to my face that we would get through it, and behind my back, he was having an affair. Because that’s what he and Lucky do. They talk a good game, but they will always take the easy way out.” Emily stopped. “So, no, Nikolas and I aren’t going to get back together. I had a glimpse of the man who did that to me with all of this, and I’m not interested in repeating the same mistake.”

General Hospital: Nurse’s Station

Patrick saw Mac Scorpio at the nurse’s station and nearly did an about face to walk the other direction. He and Mac had always had an uneasy relationship, and it likely wasn’t going to get to much better now that he and Robin had broken up.

But Epiphany had already seen him and was gesturing in his direction, so Mac turned and there was no escape.

Especially when it seemed as if Mac had sought him out. Patrick sighed and went forth into battle.

“Patrick. Do you have a minute?”

“Yeah. Yeah.” He handed a chart to Epiphany, then went to the waiting area. “Um, I’d ask how you are but it feels like a stupid question.”

“I’m—” Mac rubbed his chin. “Surviving,” he said finally. “Which is about all I can ask, I guess. Uh, I wanted to stop by—I should have a few weeks ago, but—” He paused. “Thank you. For being there for Robin.”

Patrick blinked. “What? When?”

“The day we found out. You—you were. I remembered. And you came that day. To the house. I remember you were there. And at the church. Robin—she doesn’t let anyone take care of her. I’m sure you know that.”

“You raised an independent woman, that’s for sure,” Patrick said. “But it’s a good thing—”

“Until it’s not. I just—I don’t want you to think it went unnnoticed. Or unappreciated.” Mac waited a moment. “I know you aren’t…that you’re not seeing each other anymore. Robin said it was about the future. About not having the same plans for it.”

“Something—” Patrick shook his head. “She wants kids. And I want her to have everything she deserves. I know she didn’t think they were a possibility, and now they are. She’ll be an amazing mother, and I want it for her.”

“And you don’t want it for yourself?”

Patrick fisted his hand at his side. “Not enough to dive into it. And I think you should be more sure before you bring an entire life into the world, you know? Like maybe it shouldn’t be an afterthought.”

“No, it shouldn’t.” Mac studied him for a long moment. “And they’re not for the faint of heart. I don’t have biological children. Just the—” His voice faltered for just a moment. “Just my girls. Stepdaughters. A niece. Kids that I didn’t plan or ask for—and I wasn’t ready when Robin became my responsibility either.”

“But you stepped up.”

“You would, too. But it’s not enough to just step into the role. You gotta enjoy it. And I did—” Mac grimaced, looked away. “It takes a lot to give someone your heart and then just let them walk around the world with it.”

“You’d still do it again, wouldn’t you?” Patrick wondered, and Mac looked back at him. “Even now. With losing her. You’d do it again.”

“Even knowing that I’d lose my Georgie this way, I’d live every minute again. God, what I wouldn’t do for just one more minute.” Mac bowed his head, took another deep breath. “Anyway. You’ll do what’s right for you. But thank you. For taking care of Robin.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth still felt restless later that evening, even as Spinelli insisted they celebrate with pepperoni pizza for Cameron and orange soda for him. He poured just a little bit into Cameron’s sippy cup when he thought Elizabeth didn’t notice, and Cameron nearly bounced off the walls.

“He’s never going to go to sleep,” Jason said as they watched Spinelli try to explain the finer points of a video game to the toddler. “We probably should have stopped it.”

“It’s one night. It won’t kill him.” She leaned her head against the door frame of the kitchen. “Diane said the adoption won’t take long. With Lucky out of the picture legally, it’s just the six month waiting period.” She glanced back at him. “Do you want to talk to him about it? Or—”

“I think we should just see what happens. He still remembers Lucky, and I don’t want him to get confused or upset.” He hooked an arm around her shoulders, drew her back against him. “For now, I’m happy with the way things are.”

“Me, too.” She leaned into his embrace and told herself to concentrate on the good and to let go the guilt. It was time to move on.

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