Written in 55 minutes.

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General Hospital: Lab

This couldn’t be happening. In fact, Robin decided that it wasn’t happening. The first time she ran the test, she was sure it was false. She’d made a mistake. She’d used the wrong calculations — she’d fed the information into the system incorrectly — she hadn’t drawn enough blood. Whatever it was, it had been wrong.

So she drew another vial of her blood and ran the test again. When it was still positive, Robin  went up to the locker room, snuck into Kelly’s locker and stole one of the emergency tests that her roommate kept, arguing to herself that Kelly would both understand and support this crime.

She returned to the lab, went into the bathroom, then waited five minutes for the results.

And despite the fact she’d run more scientific test twice first, it was the test Kelly had bought over the counter in a convenience store that convinced Robin.

She sat hard on her stool, the little white slab of plastic in her hands with a plus sign. There could be no mistake. Her hormone levels had been elevated in her blood, and then she’d peed on a stick.

She was pregnant. With Patrick’s baby.

Oh, God.

General Hospital: Parking Garage

“An orderly found the body,” Cruz told Lucky as they jogged down the aisle towards the site. “He didn’t do anything but see the legs sticking out from the car. Called it in right away.”

“He didn’t look?” Lucky demanded, his heart pounding as they rounded the last corner. “He didn’t try to identify it?”

“No—got spooked—”

Lucky stopped when he saw the cluster of uniforms standing at the end of a row. They were crowded around a red sedan.

A red sedan Lucky recognized. A terrible, hollow feeling swirled in the pit of his stomach and raced through his lungs, into his throat, and he just stood there, frozen. He couldn’t move a single step closer.

There was a set of legs just barely visible by the wheel. The toes were painted a cotton-candy pink, laced into a pair of strappy sandals.

“Spencer?”

The car had frozen him to the spot, but recognizing the shoes — oddly, they broke the paralysis and Lucky was able to move. He closed the distance and the uniforms stepped back, revealing the full scene.

Two bodies, tossed between the cars like broken dolls. Toward the back, by the wall, a woman lay on her side, her dark, almost black hair hanging over her face. A hand was extended, disappearing under the car. She wore a green tank top and a pair of black pants — the legs were obscured by the second body.

She lay on her back, her light brown hair tangled beneath her. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slack. Her arms were limply hanging by her body, likely where they had landed when she’d been thrown away like garbage. When her killer had completed the job —

Around her neck was a thin cord that Lucky recognized as the same that had been looped around Chelsea Rae’s. And he knew, even though he couldn’t see the neck of the first woman, he knew she would have the same dark, strangulation marks as Georgie Jones.

The same killer. The same victim profile. The same murder weapon.

“Spencer?” Cruz said again, but his voice was subdued. They all knew the identity of the second woman, but no one wanted to say it out loud.

But Lucky had a job to do. And she deserved the best he had to give.

“We’ll need family members to make the official identification, but someone needs—” He took another deep breath, and knelt down to look more closely at the bodies. “Victim number one is a young woman, likely in her early to mid twenties. Victim number one is in her late twenties and is tentatively identified as Emily Quartermaine.”

General Hospital: Operating Suite

Patrick tossed the remains of his mask into the garbage along with the protective yellow gauze gown he’d worn. He washed his hands, then removed the surgical cap with racing cars from his head. “I’ll be up to check his post-op in the morning,” he told Epiphany as they emerged from the operating room into the hallway. “You know the drill.”

“That I do—” Epiphany squinted. “What’s going on down there?” She gestured at the check-in desk where a cluster of doctors and nurses were talking.

“Don’t know.” Patrick made his way to the group. “What’s going on?”

Regina Johnson, one of the surgical student nurses, turned to him, her eyes wide. “Dr. Drake. Oh my god. They found a body in the parking garage—”

“Two!” Another nurse corrected. “They said it was two women—”

Two women. Christ. Patrick’s heart leapt into his throat. Robin was working tonight. What was her schedule? When was she done? “Do they know who?”

“Not yet. PCPD just sealed off the garage,” Andy Archer, an anesthesiologist said with a shudder. “Damn. I hope they didn’t work here—”

Patrick went for the elevators, jabbing the buttons rapidly. Damn it, damn it. He needed to get to the lab. He needed to know. When the elevator didn’t open fast enough, he raced for the stairs.

Morgan Penthouse: Master Bedroom

Elizabeth snuggled into Jason’s embrace, her left hand laying across his chest. She wiggled it so that the diamond glinted in the moon light slithering through one of the windows. “It still doesn’t seem real,” she murmured.

He stroked her hair lazily, sifting through the chestnut strands as they cascaded over her bare back, shoulder, and onto his own skin. “I wasn’t sure if it was too soon—”

“I don’t care.” She tilted her head up. “You and I both know it wasn’t. We’ve been dancing around each other for so many years. I wish I’d said yes last year.”

“Which time?”

She grinned. “Any of them. All of them.” Then her smile faded slightly, though her eyes stayed bright. “You asked before you even took the paternity test. I always wondered if you meant it.”

“I did. And I was disappointed when you said no. Both times,” he admitted. “I should have probably thought about that more than I did.”

“I wanted to say yes. I just—” She sighed, closed her eyes and laid her head back down. “But I’m also glad it was this way. Just us. No guilt. No lies. We had such a great time with the boys, and then you asked me when we weren’t trapped in an elevator. It was so normal.”

“Normal,” Jason repeated. “That’s a good thing?”

“It’s a great thing. So much of our lives can’t be normal, and I accept that. You’ll start working more, and I know what comes with it. But I like this this little piece of it—you, me, the boys—”

“—Spinelli—”

“We’re just a normal little family. Mom, Dad, two kids, and Spinelli.”

“I like it, too. Even Spinelli,” he admitted, and she laughed. “When do you want to start decorating a room for him?”

“We’ll have to make sure it’s just right so he doesn’t find out too soon—” Elizabeth paused when a phone rang in the distance. She sat up. “That’s the land line. Who would be calling it this late?”

“If it’s the front desk,” Jason said, also sitting, looking at the night table for his phone. “Wally will call my cell—”

The line downstairs rang twice more before falling a silent. A moment later, Jason’s phone lit up. He frowned. “It’s Sonny—”

“Guess it’s time for that normal to end,” Elizabeth said with a knowing smile. “I’ll go check on the boys.”

“Okay.” Jason watched her slid into a satin robe, then leave the room before flipping his phone open. “Sonny? What’s up?”

There was a heavy sigh on the other end that made Jason’s hair stand on end. “Jase. Listen. We just had a call from our guy at the PCPD.”

General Hospital: Lab

Patrick didn’t realize how convinced he was that Robin was one of the bodies in the parking lot until he shoved open the door to the lab and saw her at her workstation. The relief that flooded him was almost dizzying and he had to brace himself on the wall to keep his balance.

“Patrick?” Robin slid off the stool, her dark eyes creased with anxiety. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“They found—” Patrick took a deep breath, dragged both his hands through his dark hair, leaving it disheveled. “They found—in the parking garage. They found two bodies. Two women.”

“Two—” She took a step towards him, and he lost it. He had to touch her, had to know she was real — Patrick yanked her into his arms, burying his face in her neck.

“It’s not you. I thought it would be you. Oh, God, I thought it was you.”

Robin patted his back a bit awkwardly. “You—okay, that’s too tight, Patrick.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry—” He stepped back, but didn’t release her—he couldn’t. What if  this was a dream? A hallucination? What if he let her go and she faded away, and she was really—

“I’m okay,” she told him, her dark eyes searching his. “I’m okay. I’m right here. They—they don’t know who it is? Were they visitors or—how could it happen in the parking garage?”

“They didn’t say anything else.” Patrick forced himself to take a deep breath. She was here. She was making conversation. This was real. “I don’t think they know who it is yet. I just—I knew you were working, and you were done about now—”

“Oh, God—” Robin covered her mouth, the sharp cry echoing in the empty room. “Oh, God!”

“Robin?”

“It’s—” She looked around frantically, her eyes fastening on the clock on the wall. “It’s—it’s ten. When—when did they find them—”

“Robin—”

“Emily. Emily.” She lurched away from Patrick, back towards her workstation and scooped up her phone, her fingers trembling. “She’s not picking up her phone. She’s not—”

Realization dawned and Patrick swallowed hard. “Emily was working tonight?”

“We were supposed to go to the bar. Girl’s Night. She was meeting—She’s not answering because she’s driving. Or she’s dancing with someone.” Robin’s hand jerked as she dialed another number. “Kelly? Kelly! Did Emily get there yet?”

Patrick watched Robin’s expression, and he knew the minute it sunk in. Her eyes widened, found his, and then horror crept in. “She never showed up,” Robin said. The phone clattered to the ground. “Oh, God. Is it Emily? Oh, God.”

He strode forward and jerked her back into her his arms. “We’ll find out, okay? We’ll go—”

The lab door opened again, and Patrick turned to find Mac there. His face was grave. “I came to tell you—but I guess the rumors are already flying.”

“Mac?” Patrick asked, roughly. “What—who?”

Mac’s hands weren’t quite steady as he stepped inside and closed the door to the lab. “Emily was found in the parking garage,” he said quietly. “We’re still doing the notifications, but we can’t identify the other woman. Her hair is covering her face and the CSU—”

“Leyla Mir.” Robin’s cheeks were tear-stained, her voice trembled. “They were going to Jake’s together. I asked Leyla to go. Instead of me. Oh, God, it was supposed to be me.”

Morgan Penthouse: Bedroom

Elizabeth tucked Cameron in a little more tightly, brushing his curls back. Then she went over to Jake in the crib. He lay on his back, his arms stretched out his sides, his little hands curled in fists. She spent an extra minute staring at him, then stroked the silky blonde hair that was coming in more thickly. It was white-blond now, but she thought it would darken as he grew older. Would it be Sarah’s shade or Jason’s?

It almost seemed like a dream, she thought. A few months ago, they’d had their own rooms in a house that had never felt like their own. Now, they shared a room but she liked that. She wanted them to grow up and be close, to love one another the way she, Sarah, and Steven never had.

She touched the night light as she passed it, wondering again where Spinelli had found the motorcycle whose headlight emitted the soft light that kept the monsters away. He really was the sweetest kid.

She closed the door, then went down the hall, hoping it had been enough time for Jason to complete his business with Sonny. Oh, she hoped he didn’t have to leave. She had told him she could accept the less than normal nature of his job, and she really meant that, but tonight — when he’d just asked her to marry him — when it was nearly her birthday — oh she hoped he could stay. Just to stay in their bubble a few hours more.

Elizabeth had closed the door when she’d left, wanting to give Jason full privacy. She knocked lightly, but heard nothing in response. Worried, she pushed it open. He’d turned on the lamp at the side of the bed, and she could see Jason on the edge of the bed, the phone still flipped open in his hand but he was staring at it.

“Jason?” She tipped her head. “Is everything okay? Do you need to go?”

His shoulders tensed, and he took a deep breath before looking at her. His eyes were still shadowed, and she couldn’t see them clearly.

But she knew him. She knew every line of his body, his face— “Jason?” she asked again, but her voice was quiet.

Whatever he said next, she knew, oh, she knew it was going to be devastating.

And even though she had braced herself for the worst, oh God, nothing could have prepared her for it.

“Emily,” Jason managed. “It’s Emily.”

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