"I should be sitting right next to you."
The man who spoke from the screen was in his mid-seventies and would've looked like death warmed over to everyone except his wife, who was simply grateful she had returned from a less than triumphant trip to England to find her husband still among the living.
"Sean," Tiffany Donely sighed, "I want that more than anything in this world, honey, you know I do, but we've had this conversation a million times."
"And I heard you."
"If by heard you mean everything I said went in one ear and out the other, then yes, my darling, you certainly did. Don't think for a second that Anna didn't tell me about how she and the groundskeepers had to force you back into bed after Luke and Holly finally left."
"I really should be angry with her for blabbing," Sean mused, "but I guess any product of the two of us was doomed to get the stubborn gene."
"And lucky for you that she has it because you're in no condition to go traipsing halfway around the world to Port Charles. I'm thrilled you and Luke made this deal, and I promise that when he gives me the name of the doctor who made the antidote, I'll find a little something to show him just how thankful we are. Maybe you could overnight him a nice Irish whiskey."
Sean gave a weak laugh that warmed Tiffany's heart nonetheless.
"They recommend that the poisoned stay off the sauce, but then again since when has Luke Spencer done what he's supposed to do? Either way, this isn't just about Spencer, Tiffany."
"Well then, who else is involved?"
"It's a long story."
"Darling, I am on an eight-hour flight with no other company than a very shy pilot from the WSB, I've got nothing but time."
"All right you know that Spencer gave us the tip about Jerry Jacks' lab in Corinth?"
"I also know that Jacks had abandoned the place by the time anybody got there."
"Not exactly, an accomplice of his was still on the premises, Frau Doktor Liesl Obrecht."
"That's the mad woman who put Robert in a coma?"
"The very same."
"Well, that's just marvelous, isn't it? Now we have two loons on the loose!"
Sean nodded. "Only the mad genius wasn't genius enough to engineer a cure, so our sources say she found—kidnapped—a very capable doctor. They say she went underground, but not far enough to escape Anna's radar."
Tiffany had had to give up her job in Boston when trouble with The Balkan had forced the family to relocate, but her reporting instincts were alive and well and they were telling her that Sean's attempt at sounding detached was falling flat.
"Tell me more about the other doctor," she coaxed, dropping her voice to the low purr Sean never could resist for long, "do we happen to know this brilliant earth angel?"
"It's Robin, Tiff, she's alive!"