Chapter One:
Portend – to indicate in advance; to foreshadow or presage, as an omen does; a warning; prediction.

"I'm going to give you some time with him…" She said while slowly starting to back herself out of the room.

"I'm so sorry, Patrick," Robin told her husband. "His brain was deprived of oxygen for so long due to the smoke inhalation and the monoxide poisoning."

"But he was regained consciousness!" His handed rubbed his younger brother's shoulder as the other cupped his mouth temporarily blocking the tears falling down his face.

"He wasn't conscious. His body was reacting to the monoxide poisoning by vomiting. His eyes opened, but there's no sign of brain activity. I'm so sorry. Matt's dead." She leaned in to her husband who quickly pulled away from her and bolted for the other side of the room.

"This is all my fault. He didn't even want to go!"

"This is not your fault."

"I should have gotten the damn banister off him first!" he yelled startling the nurses in the hallway.

"I'm going to give you some time with him…" She said while slowly starting to back herself out of the room making sure to clean up her face and putting her professional mask back on. She grabbed the chart hanging on the next door and walking in.

"What's wrong?" demanded the newlywed.

"Dante has a lot of internal bleeding which is severely effecting his liver. He's going to need a transplant."

"Then get him one!" exasperated her friend who was also the father of the groom.

"We'll search all the donor registries, and the first available liver will go to Dante," she asserted before leaving the room without giving anyone a chance to get a word in. Her thoughts gnawed away at her gut. With every step she took towards the center nurses station she took a deep breath. She gathered the necessary paper work and headed for the box containing her grieving husband. "Patrick, we have to talk."

"He's not even cold yet, Robin! You can't expect me to…" His throat was raw and his cheeks completely soaked though.

"We have to. We have to do this and we have to do this now. I'm so sorry, but this is necessary." She lovely stroked his arm until he gave her the go-ahead by nodding. "As Matt's next of kin you have to decide if he would want to donate his organs…"

"How do I decide something like that?"

"It's actually pretty simple." She cleared her throat while trying desperately not to look at this incredulous expression. "Matt was a doctor. His life was about saving lives, that's what our lives are about, why we're doctors, and donating his organs would his absolute last opportunity to save a life."

"You're right." Even though he said the words he still shook his head. He bushed his burning eyes shut and looked as if he tasted something sour. "Do you have the papers?"

"Yeah." As she handed them out to him when he reached his arms out something light pink and white attached to his arms. "Are those burns? Why didn't you say anything?"

"They're fine, Robin. They're just minor burns."

"You must be in pain. Why don't…"

"Just leave it, Robin," he yelled. "Just leave."

"Listen," Jason said between gritted teeth. "They're taking me to the other room to treat this burn, but I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

"I can assure you we'll be just fine. I'm just going to wait here for my Mom," The little girl was chipper in order to hide her worries which were insurmountable for her age.

"Yeah, I'm just going to call Sam again and see if she's heard anything about Kristina. If they've made it to Mercy Hospital yet."

"Alright, but Michael…don't let Molly out of your sight. With all the people hanging around…."

"I got it." The new adult wasn't actually paying attention while he dialed the number into his phone. He didn't the notice the larger man leave.

A nearly inaudible interruption came across the intercoms that coincided with a systematic and incessant beep. A warning. From her peripheral vision Molly could see people taking a slow jog to full on run down the corridor yelling out orders. Her feet pulled her after them slowly at first. She looked up to see the destination of the rushing medical staff and burst out into a full sprint. "Mom! Mom!" she screamed. "Mom, no!" The doctors ignored her presence until the last round of drugs had been given without response. "What are you doing? Save her!" The nurse administering pumping her hands to her mother's chest slowly flexed her fingers and backed away. "Help her!"

Something passed through Molly that started at the top of her chest went clear through to her back. Her legs carried her over to the gurney and she began to climb until she was straddling her mother. She positioned her fists the way she had witness the nurse earlier and began trying to pump the heart herself. "Mom! Mom! You have to wake up!" She yelled in panic while pumping furiously. "Mom! No! Please help me!"

Two arms locked themselves around the small girls waste and slowly began to pull her off the bed. "No! No!" Screaming each one slowly. Her legs started to flail around as she kept kicking before she completely hit the floor. "My mom! That's my mom," she sobbed. "Michael, that's my mom. We have to save my mom."

"So far all the labs look good and it seems like the liver is taking, but we're going to be monitoring your progress during recovery." The doctor tired to smile. It was the first bit of good news she was allowed to give all day, but the sinking feeling of the day was still wearing down on her.

"Thank you, Robin. Is there any way I can talk to Patrick? I really want to thank him for all he's done for me today. It cost him."

"I appreciate that, Dante, but I don't think he's really up for it."

"I completely understand. Thank you for everything."

"Hey," his wife interrupted them walking into the room with a massive cup of coffee.

"Don't let him have any of that," Robin quipped on her way out.

"You're looking good." Lulu smiled at him and sat in the chair next to the bed. "This day has been hell." Earlier in the day she was getting married, there was an explosion at her wedding reception, and the rest of the day was spent wondering if her new husband would die. The aches of her body, exhaustion, and relief were catching up playing across her face.

"Says the woman wearing a wedding press and an overcoat."

"It's cold," she rebutted in a meek pouty tone. "Plus…today has been…a lot." She turned his wedding band on his finger.

"Yeah, but it was our wedding." He exaggerated the 'our.' "Why we would expect any less…."

"Right. Well…"

"Look at you! You're practically falling over. You should go home."

"I wasn't really planning to go home alone tonight."

"Hey, I'm more than willing to get out of this bed and take you there myself!"

"Don't you dare! I'm your wife now. I have the right to kick your ass for being stupid."

"Alright, then to keep you from kicking my ass and further jeopardizing my life…on our wedding day…go home. Get some sleep and then you can come fulfill your wifely duties by nagging me tomorrow."

"Now that you've given me permission," she teased. "Alright, I'll go home, but you are soo… making it up to me." She leaned in for a quick kiss.

"If that's not an incentive I don't know what is." Another drawn out kiss and she was out the door. His face turned to anguish. It had taken everything he had to not show the signs of pain, but the soreness of his body had been tormenting him.

"You didn't have to stay with me?" Johnny scoffed as he watched Maxie paste around the room.

"No. I was just going to leave my friend trapped under a firey chuck of wood. You couldn't even move!"

"I do appreciate it. Thank you for putting the fire out….even though it was incredibly stupid. You shouldn't have been in there. Especially with your heart…"

"Oh shut up!" she yelled before sticking the oxygen mask back on her face.

"Why did you stay with me anyway?"

"I told you. You're my friend."

"Oh, is that it?"

"Yes! Of course!" She wouldn't look at him and instead turned her attention to the outside of the door. She watched people walk back and forth in the overcrowded hall. "Spinelli!" she screeched out in surprise. "Spinelli! What are you doing here?"

"I had some burns they wanted to look at on my thighs." His tone was void as she simply pointed out the bandage poking out of his shorts.

"Does it hurt? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine! I have to go!" He attempted to storm off, but he hadn't taken a wide enough birth when turning the corning. He bumped directly in a bride. "Lulu, I'm sorry."

"Lulu? You're calling me Lulu? Am I in trouble?"

"No. You're not in trouble or I'm not mad at you."

"Where's the quips, the vocabulary, the…Jackal?"

"I don't really have the energy." He sounded glum and he looked like a puppy that had been kicked one too many times. Lulu hooked her arm through his.

"Tell me about it while you're walking me out. What's wrong?"

"It's more of nothing being right for a really long time now. The stunt I pulled with Caroline, losing Maxie, and… I think maybe I don't belong in Port Charles."

"What! Why?"

"I believe I may have past my use by date."

"Nope. I don't accept that. You're just going to have to come home with me. I wasn't really looking forward to my first night as a married woman completely alone anyway."

"What are you doing here? You guys just left," Robin told him holding the phone receiver away from her mouth. She was talking at what could have arguably been the three most exhausted faces in the whole hospital. "Is it the burns?" The three of them nodded.

"Lulu's having some mild chest pain, but her burn goes from the back of her shoulder to her chest," her mother-in-law spoke up for her.

"Did you even get that burn treated earlier?" The doctor questioned but all Lulu could do was shake her head in response. She had a fear that if she were to open her mouth she'd start screaming. "And you Olivia?"

"I got treated earlier. I just had a small burn on my angle. It's really nothing to worry about."

"Alright. We're short on room right now, so why don't you guys go wait in Dante's room. Last time I checked he was arguing was in a heated debate with an orderly about baseball." Just then the other end of the line came to life. "Dr. Potts! Hi, I'm Dr. Robin Scorpio from General Hospital in Port Charles. There was an incident here that left a number of people with some minor burns." Pause. "I understand and of course I wouldn't expect you to take time out of your busy schedule to come here." Pause. "If I were to arrange transportation would you be able to see them in New York at your clinic? Thank you so much! I'll get that all arranged." The giddiness made her nearly miss hanging up the phone. Her fingers were already dialing. "Jax? It's Robin. You still fly, right?"

"How's Molly?" The bedridden man asked unable to adjust himself up a little further. It was difficult to maintain conversations why completely strode on his back.

"She's destroyed. Even worse is that she's here on her own. Kristina and Sam don't even…" His brother was interrupted by a knock on the door. "…know yet."

"Come in." Dante's face lit up upon laying eyes on his wife, but at a moment's notice went to completely worry. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"We're fine. My burn just hurts a little. What are you doing still awake? You promised me you'd be good," she talked only to him as if everyone else in the room had suddenly dissipated.

"My best man here was just telling me about how everyone else has been doing," he informed her causing her to turn around and notice her brother-in-law/cousin.

"Hey Michael. I didn't see you there slouching down in the corner," she teased. He rose to his feet and enveloped her into a deep hug causing her to flinch. As they pulled away she saw the fear in eyes the same way she had many times before. "It's not you. It's my shoulder. This burn hurts like hell. I promise…you're great." She watched him drift his gaze to his feet. "I'm serious," she continued ignoring the sound of the door opening next to them. "You did nothing wrong."

"What's going on?" Carly was quick to interrupt them. Jason had followed right behind her after finally escaping his treatment for the burn that covered his lower back. His distaste for hospitals had never subsided. "Robin told us to come in here. Is something going on?"

The door swung open yet again revealing an overly exuberant doctor. She held it open her for glumly faced husband and Jax. "I have some great news for all of you," she spoke up loudly concentrating on beating Dante to the bunch. It was obvious he was itching at the seams to speak to the man who gave his permission to save his life. That happened to be the same man who hadn't talked to anyone since. "Dr. Potts is a burn specialist in New York. He runs the Burn Unit and Support Clinic in the City. He's agreed to see 5 people right away, but he can't come here. Which is just as well he has all the necessary and better equipment at his clinic than we have here. So Jax, has graciously offered to fly over there. Based on the criteria Dr. Potts laid out the people I think should go are Olivia, Lulu, Spinelli, Jason, and Patrick. All of your burns were basically right off the page and if they don't get treated properly could leave minor permanent damage."

"Well, I don't think I should go, so maybe you can give that spot to someone else?" It had taken a moment, but Lulu was the first to speak up.

"What do you mean you don't want to go?" Dante questioned from behind her.

"Well…my husband just got out of major surgery. Dante…you had an organ transplant. And all these people got hurt at our wedding reception. I just…"

"You're going!" She gave him a look of 'oh really!' he had seen before. "I mean, you're hurt Lulu. You're shoulder is obviously bad enough. You hardly made it home for an hour before you turned around because it hurt so bad. And I'm fine. I've made it out of surgery and I'm completely awake. I'll probably be asleep the entire time, and it won't take days will it…?" He trailed off addressing the doctor.

"No. It should only take a few hours for everyone to get there, get treated, and get back."

"See. I'll be asleep the entire time and you'll be back by the time I wake up."

"Okay. But Spinelli and Olivia have to come to." Leaving the two people who brought her to the hospital no room to argue.

"I'll go," Patrick said the first words anyone had heard from him in hours. He wasn't particularly excited about staying in the place where he had just let his brother die and the idea of being miles away for any point in time nearly satisfied him.

"No," Jason stated to the point.

"Oh, you are so going!"

"Carly…" His voice either warned or was too warned out to argue. He couldn't tell the difference himself. On his mental to do list he still had to tell Sam that her mother was dead. Then he'd have to sit back and watch helplessly has Sam singlehanded tried to pull everything together herself. Taking care of her sisters, putting together a funeral, and refusing any help from him. He felt like he had already done it all when it hadn't even started yet.

"Look, I'll look after Molly. Sam is still trying to get Kristina taken care of at Mercy. You'll probably be back before anyone can really get a hold of her anyway. And at least that way you're one less thing she has to worry about. You can be taken care of and you can help her with this hell storm that is about to take over her life. And…"

"Okay," he brought her speech to an abrupt stop if not for anything because he knew she never would unless he agreed.

"Great. Well, we should get you guys on your way."

The nurses were pulling off the bandages as if they were moving in slow motion. The teenage girl under their painful grasps had just spent most of the day laying on a gurney in the emergency room of a strange place waiting to be scene. Now that she was finally being taken care of she could have sworn she was being tortured. Her older sister sitting on the edge of the bed to her right tried to sooth her by rubbing her free arm, but she could feel her skin being ripped away the bandages.

In her mind she tried to be strong and breathe her way through it, but with each breath a sob escaped her. A tear would roll down her cheek and fall on to the exposed damage which hurt even more. She looked from face to face as they all confused on her left shoulder and chest. "I know it hurts, Kristina, but you're doing great."

"Hear that, Krissy? You're being really brave and it's almost over."

"What's wrong? Why is everyone looking at me like that?"

"No one is looking at you like anything. Everything will be okay."

"He is. Why is he looking at me like that? What's wrong? Is it terrible?" She had pointed out the male nurse in the corner who looked like he was about to be sick to his stomach mixed with general horror. "I want to see it!" She demanded passionately.

"Krissy…"

"I want to see, Sam!" The nurse reluctantly handed her a mirror. "Oh my god. Oh my god," she repeated. From the reflection she saw something out of her health book that couldn't possibly be her skin. Splotches of red, white, and pink where her skin should be that were nearly indented into her body. "Oh my god!" she cried.

"You have some full thickness burns. That means that it's gone through all the layers of skin, and they won't heal themselves. I know it looks intense right now, but with the technology we have available you'll be able to get skin grafts and plastic surgery," the nurse tried to explain. If her intention had been to sound sympathetic she was failing on every level.

"Skin grafts?" She was fully aware of what they were, but never once in her life considered that she would need them. Her eyes were still focused on the mirror still overwhelmed by the sight of her flesh.

"The red areas are just superficial burns and those will heal nicely."

"Oh my god, Sam…"

"Shhh… Krissy," her older sister tried to comfort her helplessly.

"So can you please explain to me in your own words the best you can what happened?" The Officer asked almost so quickly Robin didn't hear the question. "We just need to take a statement," he clarified.

"Well…It was Dante and Lulu Falconeri's wedding reception. They were bringing out the cake which had sparklers on it." She could visualize it in her head. All the smiles, laughter, how beautiful everyone looked in their formal get up.

"Why were their sparklers on the cake?"

"The bride's brother, Ethan Lovett, had done it. He said something about Australia, and tradition, and missing out on most of her life. Wanting to share that with her and do something special. Anyway, apparently there was a gas leak. We had all been inhaling carbon monoxide all evening, and the second the gas got too close to there was this explosion right in front of us. Everyone just feel to the floor, because the air had caught on fire. Or it seemed that way. There were people laying everywhere. Rafters had started to fall from the sealing and one of them actually landed on my brother-in-law. They just kept falling. Eventually Jason Morgan, Lucky Spencer, Ethan Lovett, Sonny Corinthos, Nikolas Cassadine, and Jasper Jax had pulled most of everyone out on to the lawn behind the building. Johnny Zacchara was pulling people out, but then he also gut stuck under a falling rafter that had actually caught fire."

"And where was this exactly?"

"Jake's Bar. Should you already know that?"

"Just wanted to verify. We heard there was an accident down at the docks tonight."

"Do you think they're somehow connected?"

"There seems not reason to drawl that conclusion. Now, in your opinion do you believe that that the gas leak was intentional?"

"I'm not sure. It seemed like everyone was having a great time, and the only people who were there were friends and family of Dante and Lulu's."

"You didn't see anyone suspicious?"

"No."

"Mr. Lovett, the one who put the sparkers on the cake therefore igniting the explosion, do you think he could have had malicious intent?"

"No. He loves his sister."

"Alright, thank you for your time Dr. Scorpio. If you could please just sign her at the bottom we're all done here." She smiled at the officer and quickly sprawled her sloppy signature over the necessary line. Just then the phone began to ring for the millionth time since she had unceremoniously returned to work that afternoon.

"General Hospital, Dr. Scorpio speaking," she answered. "Yes, Dr. Robin Scorpio." The words pouring out the phone could have been in a foreign language. Her mind wasn't ready or willing to process what she was being told. "I don't understand. They should have been there a couple hours ago. It's only a 20 minute flight." She paused to listen again. "If the flight had taken any longer than that they wouldn't have left on a helicopter." Another moment. "Yes! I'm sure! Are you saying they haven't gotten there at all? They haven't called or anything?" She hung up the phone waiting to exhale the breath that caught itself in middle of her throat.

"What's going on?" The Chief of the hospital asked without noticing his friend's contorted face.

"The helicopter never made it."

Author's Note:
Based on episodes 4212, 4213, 4214, and 4215 of Home and Away.
So this chapter was probably the longest thing I've ever written...ever. 3,822 words. I wrote it in two separate settings. So, I hope it's all coherent and interesting. I think I've found ways to check up on my writing for the next chapter. This one was definitely a learning experience for me.
I would expect this story to be updated like once a week. Which is perfectly fine because it will probably take you about a week to finish every chapter to begin with.
I really hope you like it and please don't forget to comment. Reviews would be your part in my experiment.