A/N: This is an old couple but in my opinion, the best General Hospital has to offer. They had absolutely everything that you would want in two characters and I'm so happy that Tristan Rogers is coming back! I've always had this idea for a story… picking up during Sean's betrayal in the Faison storyline. Lots of the dialogue will be similar for a little bit but the characters do not move in the same direction that they did back then! Robertannafan is AMAZING and it is because of all of that time put into that channel that I could even watch any of Robert and Anna in action! If you haven't seen the first Faison story just look it up, it's a masterpiece. Anyway, first chapter is told first in Robert's POV and then Anna's in 1992. But the bulk of the chapter is in Sean's POV and will take us back to 1990 when Faison first appeared in Port Charles. Enjoy!

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

"Robert!"

"Scorpio."

Two greetings—one voice loved, the other…far from it. Robert almost marveled at how far this monster had pushed him…to feel something so terrible that it was nearly beyond all control.

Faison sparse lips curved up into that expectant, smooth smile that Robert had come to loathe. His pulse jumped murderously at it. This devil that had plagued their lives for the better part of two years was never unprepared, never missing a trick. Even now, when the wolves were closing in and the vultures to pick at them after their imminent deaths'…there he was, his bearing calm, as if it was all part of the plan.

Robert had never hated a man more.

And then something warmer and more urgent cut into that cold rage—there was Anna…his wife, his partner. Still beautiful even when she was desperate and sleepless and ragged as she looked now. He met eyes with her and he knew—he knew that it was all a lie. Whatever had transpired, Anna had never gone willingly. He saw the love in her eyes, the pained sweetness of it. And that total and complete trust. Could she truly trust him with her life now?

It had never been like this before. He had always considered himself very handy where she was concerned, as he once told her as she lay unconscious in a hospital bed, with raging fever. There had never been a scrape he couldn't pull her out of…anything and all of her problems.

And now, there was one thought prevailing in his mind at the sight of her, as one perfect, pale hand covered her stomach protectively and Faison tried to pull her nearer: Get Anna out alive. No matter the cost.

He had to save this woman—not even for their daughter, but for himself. Otherwise, what had his life meant? It whittled down to seconds.

The agent inside him fought up to the surface as he tamped down the panic of the situation—WSB and DVX closing in—Faison with his hands on her—the warning rumble of the sky.

But he would always be Bob with the Nine Lives. Though he had lost count of how many lives were left a long time ago.

Robert gave his nemesis his own half-smile, a practiced coolness he didn't feel. "Surely, you expected me? You knew your…distractions…made no difference. You were never going to stop me, Faison."

A flick of the wrist, and Faison released Anna just as she became more violent to get out of his grasp, anticipating her volatility. But she stilled mid-stumble between them, her body inarguably tense. Robert longed to bridge the gap and pull her into his arms, but he shuttered the impulse and the three of them were held in stasis. There was no time for it. Faison lit a cigarillo, eyeing Anna with that ever-present fascination.

"Are you going to run off with him now, darling?" Faison mocked her. It was clear to them all—it was too late, futile.

Anna stared at him and didn't give him the satisfaction of a response, she watched him bring his bad habit to his lips and allowed whatever unfriendly, foreign thing it was to pass between them. Robert had no patience for it. He shifted abruptly, drawing his gun and with it, Anna's dark eyes.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Anna wasn't surprised that Robert held Faison at gunpoint. He knew it was already pointless, but he had to do something. Robert with his reckless and stupid plans, his masterful charm, his quick mind, his brutal love and protectiveness. She swallowed convulsively as she looked between them, Robert cold and hard…Faison cruelly amused by him.

There was so much she wanted to tell Robert, but it wasn't the time. Perhaps there would never be time. Her mind simply wouldn't cooperate. It was all rushing to some horrible conclusion and she was helpless to stop it.

"There are men everywhere, Scorpio," Faison said. He was honest—Anna well knew that there were guards crawling all over the tanker, trained on this final exchange with intent to kill if provoked. Faison's eyes gleamed, shreds of sanity falling into nothing, just as Anna had witnessed over these months. "You couldn't leave it alone, could you? You couldn't let me have her." He dropped the cigarillo and Anna could hear it dully hit the deck before Faison ground it under his sole. "And now we three will end here. In fire."

"Not a chance," Robert gritted out and before Anna knew it, she was flying backward, a hand clamped firmly on her arm. It didn't take long for her adrenaline to kick in, those senses well-honed from even her youth to be ready for anything. She righted herself and ran just behind Robert to an escape that he had prepared, but one that would likely do no use.

"Robert!"

"The WSB was right on my tail!" Robert shouted, his voice deafening in her right ear. She cast a glance to the side and saw that he was correct—in the distance, there they were, like ants sitting on the water. Lethal ants. There was so much more noise now, but she didn't know from where. No one on deck was shooting. Faison must have called them off. "We've gotta get outta here!"

There was her heart pounding, there was her breath heaving in rhythm with her husband. There was the small emergency boat he had dropped, his hands rough on her waist as he propelled her ahead of him. The sky trembled.

And she thought of him, and of the best piece of them both—Robin, her beautiful girl. The extraordinary woman she would become. Oh God, please let her see it. Robin, 5 years old, unkempt hair flying back and her childish weight in Anna's arms. That breathless and complete love in the face of absolutely anything.

I'm so sorry, my darling girl.

Robin's father, Robert, the man beside her, the man who had always risked everything to save her, even those most precious parts of himself.

I love you! She screamed it, but she was sure it got lost in the rushing wind. Robert's impossibly blue eyes, his mouth forming lost words too. He clasped her to himself and never, never let go.

Then there was everything. And then there was nothing.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

TWO YEARS BEFORE

Sean could hear them outside his hospital room—Monica Quartermaine defending herself against Robert and Anna's interrogation… defending herself quite well actually.

"Look," Robert's voice echoed through the door. "I don't mean to jump down your throat here, but the point is—"

"Obviously," Monica interrupted shrewdly, "there is something going on with the three of you. And I'm not asking any questions, I just hope it's resolved."

"We're going to do that now," Anna said.

"Well, good. And don't tire him out, he's very weak."

Monica's steps faded down the hall as Sean's two best friends filed through the door. His vision filled with Robert's chiseled face and Anna's flashing eyes. Some things had never changed throughout the years…

"Welcome," Sean said simply as they came to his side, unsmiling. This was the moment of reckoning.

"Good to hear you've got your voice back," Robert said in greeting, his normal no-nonsense tone sharper than ever.

"Ah, heard yours loud and clear in the hall," Sean said. He was already tired, but he knew that there would be no rest now…that he would have to carry this confrontation through to the end. His right hand clenched harder against what was within it as these two people—the two best friends of his life, converged on his bedside. A cynical, ironic part of him noted that they both wore black today…without knowing how much they had to mourn.

"Alright, what little game are we up to now?" Robert said.

Sean sighed and buckled down on his resolve. "No more games, my friends. No more games." He lifted the pouch from his side and dropped it into his lap, the coins spilling out from within.

"The thirty pieces," Anna said.

"Right."

Robert could hide a brief look of disgust, the symbol from their shared past clearly riling him further. This wasn't going to be easy. "What's all this?"

"You know what it is," Sean answered. "The WSB symbol of betrayal."

"That was all over in Bay-C!" Robert exclaimed, recalling their emotionally-fraught meeting five years ago when everything was laid on the line.

"No…"

"Yes it was." Anna said, and Sean recognized the trepidation in her voice. Whatever was coming, she was bracing for it carefully, her mind moving a few steps ahead like he had seen her do many times before. He felt an odd thrill of pride for her in that moment, and affirmation…he had fought so hard to get her back and sometimes she unwittingly reminded him why. "We each took responsibility for what we'd done."

"Right. It's time we set the record straight, though." Sean fingered the coins delicately, lifting them up so they shined, cold and cruel. "Because this time, all the pieces…belong to me."

They both stared from the silver to Sean, wariness creeping into their expressions and simmering plain on the surface.

They shifted positions, Robert to the forefront and Anna slipping behind him, a support to his confrontation. It would have looked planned, but Sean knew better. They had always been seamless, playing their parts without having to say a word to each other. Sean felt the heat beneath Robert's stare. "I assume this refers to your current relationship with Faison."

"Partially," Sean responded, feeling a twinge of pain that had nothing to do with their discussion. He wasn't as young as he used to be.

"Why didn't you tell us you had a deal going with him?" Anna asked.

"This isn't just about the Wellington Collection." That expensive set of pieces that Faison and Sean had competed over—the set that had brought the past in like a vicious storm and tossed Anna, Robin and Robert (by consequence) right into Faison's path.

"But you knew the last part of the crystal was in that dog!" Robert was falling into commissioner-mode, and it was going to be all the more difficult for Sean to get Robert to hear him out without both of them wanting to put their heads through the wall. Anna glanced at Robert, recognizing that unforgiving note in his voice, but she didn't get between them. Sean felt breathless.

"No. No, I didn't. All I knew—"

"Why him?!" Robert demanded.

"I just knew…that Faison wanted it…"

Sean tried to counteract Robert's rising temper, but Robert only got louder. "Why him—why him, why would you make an…an ally of yourself with HIM of all people?!"

This time, Anna got in the middle, likely realizing that Robert was losing control and wouldn't stop unless they set them back on track. "You knew what he had on me and because of what you were doing, you risked my daughter's life, Sean!"

At the mention of Robin, Sean's guilt doubled. "I didn't think it would get this far," was his only defense. Neither of them knew that this whole thing had been thirteen years in the works. He couldn't have anticipated their having a child. He couldn't have anticipated any of it, as smart as he thought he was. "And Robin is my godchild. I love her very much!"

"Obviously not enough to walk away from whatever Faison had to offer," Anna said plainly. Her maternal instinct was flaring, and when turned on him, Sean found it difficult to combat.

"That's not true," he protested. "I was trying to protect all of you."

"By working with him," Robert stated sarcastically.

This wasn't going well at all and he could see their tentative benefit of the doubt, born of a long and war-torn friendship, fleeing by the moment.

"I didn't have a choice…"

"Oh…I thought I was the only one that compromised myself around here, I didn't expect it from you," Anna shook her head, moving back in on Sean's bedside, right alongside Robert.

"I wanted you to know the truth."

"So why not just tell us?"

"I was hoping that I could pull it off myself."

"But you saw what it was doing to us, Sean, and you just stood by and let it happen!" Anna cried, a hand to her chest. It broke Sean all the more, knowing that what was coming next would likely make looking her in the eye unbearable.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you…you had to go through what you had to…went through. Don't you realize …what Robert and you mean to me? You're my friends."

"Friends trust each other," Robert said, turning away from the bed.

"Sometimes too much," Sean returned quietly.

"Aw, come—let's get to the point, here, alright?! These three people have gone through enough secrets together in the past!" He gestured between them all, honest to the core. Lies and secrecy had threatened to drown them before, but here they still stood. That had to count for something.

"And it's about time you knew the truth about my secrets," Sean said, shaking his head. "There are things that I…" Sean swallowed hard. "That I didn't tell you in Bay-C."

Anna was looking intently at Sean, very still in contrast to Robert's agitated fidgeting. "What do you mean?"

"When you two came to me and admitted that you were the double agent and not Swede…I acted surprised, didn't I? But I wasn't."

Robert shifted behind Anna. "What are you saying?"

"What do you think I'm saying?"

"You knew all along I was the double agent?" Anna said, her voice just above a whisper.

"Yes." Anna turned away to absorb that, looking shell-shocked. Sean didn't wait for her to recover. "There's more. I also knew that you and Robert were married."

After that revelation, there was a silence so absolute you could have heard a pin drop. Sean waited it out.

"What?" Robert breathed after a moment.

Sean's gaze didn't waver on his former agent's. "It couldn't stay that way." He shook his head minutely. "It was against the rules. So I needed a plan…that's where Faison came into the picture."

"How?" Anna said.

"You both think that my…my alliance with Faison started here in Port Charles… you're wrong. I made an alliance with him thirteen years ago. That's when I didn't tell you all the truth."

Robert looked back at Anna, bearing more of his weight on the bed like he was keeping his knees from buckling under the confession. Sean felt the shift in pressure. And Anna came to stand in front of her old boss, trying to remain composed, to take over for the both of them.

"Okay, Sean. So you knew that we were married."

"Yeah, agent I was running in Italy at the time—"

"You knew the rules!" Robert burst out, unable to stop himself. "You knew that agents didn't marry. Why didn't you say something?!"

"Yeah, I knew the rules. I didn't care. You were my best two agents and I needed you. But before I say anything else, you have to remember that we were different back then. Especially me. I didn't understand…what a commitment, a real commitment…meant to a woman… How you could love one woman!" He blinked away tears at Anna's dawning comprehension, the beginnings of heartbreak on her face. "AllI loved was the WSB!"

"What does this have to do with us?" Robert demanded impatiently.

"I broke up your marriage," Sean choked out.

Anna leaned into him, desperate. "No you didn't. No, you didn't! It was when he found out I was a double agent. It wasn't you!"

Sean shook his head at her words, reading the fear in her words, that was he was saying was true…that he would have been able to do this to them. "No," he said. "I set Robert up. I set him up to find out." The tears were now escaping down his cheeks. "I set you both up."

Anna drew back, her hand over her stomach as Robert pressed in behind her. "What?" he growled as she gasped the same thing.

"I needed you," Sean repeated firmly. "You were my best agents. I couldn't afford to lose you."

"What happened?" Robert said darkly. Sean had gotten his full attention now.

"I found out that Anna…was playing both sides of the fence. Working for me and Faison."

"Wait a minute," Robert said, trying to come to grips with the level of betrayal he was hearing. "Now you sent me out…to find a double agent. A double agent. And you knew all along…that it was Anna?"

"Right."

"You knew that would destroy us, didn't you?" Anna said dully.

"Yes," Sean muttered. "I didn't care! I wanted you back."

He looked only at Anna when he said that, trying to make her see how important she was to him, how valuable. All those years ago, he was a man that had bargained with the devil to get her back. And he had stripped her of everything that she loved to do it.

The tear tracks burned on his face as he saw them standing next to each other, staring at him in disbelief. "I needed you both together. So I was willing to do just about anything to accomplish that. That's where…Faison…and I, we made a deal."

"You made a deal with him, for me?"

"Yeah. In exchange for you…I arranged for his faked death certificate. And there's something else too…I agreed to get him a file. The same file he used…for his research on the Lumina crystal."

"The missing Air Force file," Robert supplied, all the pieces falling together.

"Yup."

"Oh god," Anna muttered pensively, a hand on her face. "Sean…I thought I knew you."

"The Swede…" Robert insisted, as everything connected. He looked nauseous as he recalled his deepest shame. "The Swede. I accused him of being a double agent to save Anna."

"You knew that we were lying," Anna put in, and supportive hand on Robert's arm. "You let an innocent man die…because of us?"

"He didn't die."

Anna raised an eyebrow. "He's alive somewhere?"

"Yeah…I got him a new identity."

"All these years!" Robert exploded. "All these years you let us think… How—how could you do that?! How. Could. You. Do. That?!"

Sean closed his eyes briefly against the pain and the fury in Robert's eyes. Anna was still gripping Robert's arm.

The darkest thing that had ever been between them was the death of a man that never occured… For thirteen years, they had lived with that, a stain on their consciences. Robert, that he had taken innocent life. Anna, that it had been done in her name.

"I told you… in those days, I didn't know what true or romantic love really was. I…I didn't know…that real love could change a person." He struggled to formulate the proper words, remembering how he had been so long ago. "I…I didn't realize that you two… were really meant to be together."

Robert dropped his eyes now and it was clear to Sean that the wall that Robert had always built up when the conversation went here was fighting to erect itself. But Anna was right there, up against him, locked completely on Sean and drowning in guilt. He saw Robert take a deep breath at her insistent presence, remaining solid and unmoving, as if any shift at all would cause him to crumble.

"But you didn't give us that chance," Anna said despairingly, oblivious to her ex-husband's own torment. "Sean, you let me think that it was my fault, all these years, that I destroyed our marriage! You let me think that! All these years!"

Sean's eyes were still burning. "I…I couldn't lose you both…I couldn't…"

"Eight years…" Robert muttered, looking sick as something else occurred to him. "Eight years, I had a daughter…and I didn't even know about it. Eight years."

"I not only destroyed your marriage, but I destroyed your family," Sean pronounced. "I don't know…what I can ever do to make that up to you…"

Robert let in a breath, his features hard. "Neither do I!" Anna looked a little taken aback as Robert turned away again and walked away from both of them. "As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing you can do!" he snarled. He leaned his head against the dresser by the door, his hands up in surrender. Anna looked from him to Robert, still reeling. And they stood there in silence for a long moment, until Sean was unable to bear it any longer.

"Let me ask you something…both of you," Sean said, eyes darting between them. His two best friends, his two best agents.

"If you were in my place, what would you have done?"

Robert didn't answer that. He didn't have to. And Anna…Anna paused, before shifting away and to the foot of the bed, shaking her head. "I can't answer that," she finally said softly, a sardonic smile on her face.

They couldn't look at each other. And Sean couldn't look at them either.

"You probably both would have stayed together," Sean muttered, his eyes fixed on the hospital bedspread. "You lost thirteen years because of me." He couldn't stop now—he had to lay out what he did to them—the whole horror of it, the unburdening of his darkest secret, what he had done to his friends who had been guilty of nothing but loving each other.

"You know, you two…really had something special. Something that only comes along once…in a lifetime." There was devastation plain on Anna's face, shining eyes, pain like new all around her trembling lips. Sean watched Robert chance a look at his first love and then turn away, unable to bear her naked expression and unable to bear the truth.

And Sean fed off of it—he was getting through to them, making them see what he had done and what he had taken. He wanted to be free of it, finally.

"I took it away from you, didn't I?" he prompted.

And yes, they were realizing it. He could hear it in Robert's hoarse and pained "I don't know, I guess it worked out…" In his wince after he said the words… Because even if he couldn't see it, Sean knew that Robert didn't even believe himself.

"No. Because of me…it really didn't, did it? Everything went haywire."

It was Anna's turn for reassurance, but her choked reply left Sean feeling raw and unworthy of any forgiveness.

"Who knows…maybe the—" Her voice broke, and she stopped herself and ended in muted whisper that circled the drain. "Maybe the marriage wouldn't have worked out anyway…"

"I don't know, there's a pretty good chance it would have worked…" Sean was feeling tired and out-of-focus now, but he persisted. The words were coming to him easily, his conviction landing powerful blows. He had thought about this for thirteen years, it had haunted him for not much less. "But you know, it's funny…everything that's happened with the three of us…all these years…but with the two of you it…it stayed, it stayed on there. No matter what went on…there is nothing that could break you two apart. Nothing. And if it wasn't for my…obsessive….attention…to duty, you two would have spent your lives together."

Oh, Robert and Anna were looking at each other now, Sean thought, a perverse kind of victory. But they were quieter than he had ever seen them. They only watched each other, like they had forgotten what the other looked like and the world had changed around them. And perhaps it really had.

Only a person who knew Robert could see that terrified glimmer in his eyes. Sean was sure that Anna could see it too, but she wouldn't dare call it for what it was. And it was Anna who tore her gaze away from Robert, moving away once more to the foot of the bed, collapsing inward and covering her face. Robert didn't move…and stared at nothing.

And they all remained like that, companionably broken, until Monica swept in with a large bouquet of flowers. "Sean, uh, these flowers came for you from the writer, P.K. Sinclair." The doctor, her back to the visitors, completely missed the look that passed between Robert and Anna at the name. The thing that was there between them during Sean's confession now dissipated in favor of a mutual danger, their spy training kicking in. As Monica briefly adjusted some of his tubes, Sean shook his head. "What are you doing now, playing candy-striper?"

"No, I'm not, I'm playing concerned doctor." Monica leveled a look at the other two, the real reason for her entrance clear. "He really needs to get his rest."

They both hurried to assure her that they were leaving momentarily, and the moment she was out the door, Sean handed off the message card from the bouquet. "Read it."

"With every confidence there will be no unforeseen obstacles on your path to recovery, from one who's been to death's door and beyond," Robert recited.

"It means it's not over," Anna said grimly. "We gotta get something on this man."

"Oh, we will," Robert swore back. They were directing their words only to each other, and Sean sensed the tension falling down back around them all like a curtain. But Sean was nothing if not a survivor…and he wasn't about to go down without a fight, exhausted as he was.

"If it means anything to either one of you, as soon as I'm up and around, I'll do anything I can to help you get rid of—"

"Let's go." Robert cut across his words, ignoring him completely. Anna went for her purse, in a similar mind. Sean almost had to smile at the fluidity with which they moved together. And he thought, not for the first time, how magnificent they would have been as an agent team if they just hadn't fallen in love, if they just hadn't gotten married and flouted the rules. He should have known better from the beginning, and yet, he couldn't have done anything else.

He watched their backs as they began to retreat from him. And he realized that he had never really said the simplest words. "I'm sorry," he said. He meant it. They had no idea how much… But Anna couldn't bring herself to offer anything back. And Robert, cold as ice, didn't even look back once.

And when the door closed on their figures, Sean was left all alone. With the dark… and with thirty pieces of silver.