Chapter 9

After running home and packing a quick overnight bag, Anna informed Robin and Olin that she had to go out of town on a business trip with Robert and Sean and that they would all be back the next afternoon. She wasn't supposed to meet Robert at the station for another hour, so she decided to stop by Delafield's to have a little chat with Katherine. She'd told herself that if Robert was too stubborn to fix his relationship then she would just have to do it for him.

Walking into the restaurant formally owned by her now late husband, Anna immediately spotted Kate behind the bar "Hello" she greeted "Am I interrupting?" she asked

Kate looked up at the sound of Anna's voice "Not at all" she replied flatly

Anna took a seat at the bar, in front of Kate "I came to talk to you about Robert"

Kate laughed, "Oh this is rich. You want to talk to me and Robert? What more do you want, you've won already" she said

Anna looked at her confused "What do you mean 'I've won'?" She recalled their last conversation at the hospital, Kate had been convinced that Robert still had lingering feelings for her but Anna had insisted the opposite.

"Robert and I are over. The two of you are free to be together"

Her words shocked Anna, she knew Kate was having some insecurities, but she hadn't realized they were strong enough the illicit a break up over "Oh Kate, you didn't break up with Robert over what we talked about last did you?"

Kate walked away from the bar shaking her head "Are you going to try to convince me that the two of you aren't in love too? Robert already tried that Anna it didn't work"

"What? Robert knows this is your reason?" She asked, Robert had told her he didn't know why Kate ended their relationship, why had he lied? she thought to herself

"Of course he knows"

"but Kate that simply isn't true" Anna tried telling her but Kate wouldn't listen

"I don't wanna hear this" she said "I have given the both of you the benefit of the doubt for a long time now. And now I find out that the same man that broke up your marriage is the one Robert is chasing after now? What am I supposed to think?" she asked incredulously

Anna shook her head "You are to know that he is a lot more responsible for than that"

"Like what?" Kate said, when Anna didn't answer just like Kate thought she wouldn't she continued "Oh that's right, the secrets. Big big secrets"

Anna didn't have a better answer for her "Yeah they are" she said sadly

"Well it doesn't matter how many secrets you and Robert keep, but I'll let you in on one of my own" Kate said "Robert's all yours Anna; I'll just try and get out of your way"


Jacques entered Faison's office with a knock on his door, he had just got some information Faison was waiting for about Scorpio

Faison looked up from his desk "Any news?" he asked

Jacques shook his head yes "My sources tell me that Scorpio has just made a reservation for a shuttle, he will be in Washington by the night" he informed his boss

Faison smiled knowingly, he'd suspected Anna stole his lighter and given it to Scorpio. No doubt they ran a fingerprinting test on it and when they got the results Harry Steinfeld was the man who had been holding the lighter

"Any idea why boss?" Jacques asked, he could tell by the look on his face that he knew something

"He is going to visit Bradley Memorial Cemetery"

Jacques look confused "I won't even ask how you knew" he said "but what about your bargain with Scorpio, isn't this another violation?"

Faison lit one of his signature cigars and took a pull before answering "This certainly is a beautiful town" at Jacques confused face he continued "Port Charles, and Wyndemere is beginning to feel a bit ... confining"

"What you need is to go out more" Jacques replied

"What I need and what I want are too different things" He took another pull before he continued "I think we need to expand, there's a whole city here we virtually have ignored"

"That's how you planned it" Jacques replied, reminding the man of their plan to keep a low profile and stay on Spoon Island

"I'm changing my plan" Faison said with a small smile "I can't afford to bury myself on this little Island anymore"


"Oh Kate, you don't mean that" Anna said, getting up from her spot at the bar and moving towards the other woman

"Yes I do" she said seriously

Anna sighed "How did it get to this point?" she asked rhetorically

Kate answered her anyway "Maybe it was just meant to be, maybe from the very beginning Robert and I were just fooling ourselves, maybe it was because you were unavailable, maybe I was a damsel in distress and Robert being Robert" she threw her hands up "I don't know I don't care anymore"

"Robert is with you Katherine, not me. I've been available for a long time, Robert could have come back to me anytime he wanted but he hasn't" she tried telling her

Kate shook her head "This isn't doing us any good"

"But you've got to listen"

"Look Anna, you and I have been friends for a while now. Let's just leave it like that shall we?"

"I can't leave it like this" Anna responded "You have to understand that there are things Robert and I cannot tell you about"

"I can tell you something" Kate said sadly "You're still in love with Robert and you won't admit it, and if you would it would make things a lot easier for the rest of us"

"That isn't true" Anna insisted

"If it's not true then why do you lean on him for every single thing? Why do you turn to Robert for help with every single problem not matter how small? Even when your husband returned, the man you loved, you turned to Robert for help" She went on, ignoring Anna's hurt flinch "And because of that…" she trailed off not wanting to continue

"Your wedding was postponed" Anna finished for her

"That was the beginning of the end" Kate said holding back tears, she was determined to stay strong during this conversation. She would not cry in front of the woman who knowingly or unknowingly broke up her relationship "Don't you see, any time Anna runs into a little problem its Robert she turns to, it's Robert whose shoulder she cry's on"

Anna didn't know what to say, everything Katherine had just said was right, she did depend on Robert for everything. But he depended on her too, they depended on each other. She didn't have an explanation as to why they were like that, it just sort of became a normal thing over the years, she hadn't even known how serious it was until she heard Katherine explain it to her just now.

"Robert and I broke up a long time ago Kate" Anna tried once again to convince her "He's never truly forgiven me for breaking his heart, and he doesn't ever have to. The way we broke up it was really hard on the both of us. But it is in the past, we've managed to become friends now after all those years apart and I assure you that's all it is"

"You two are the only people who seem to be denying this" She said simply before shaking her head and leaving Anna to go to the back of the restaurant


That night Anna found herself in the middle of a cemetery with her ex-husband and Sean, the two men had recruited workers in need of extra cash to help dig out Harry Steinfeld grave, Anna was thankful for that, after the day she had she was not in the mood to dig up a grave. The entire ride to Washington she thought about her conversation with Kate, she hadn't known the reason for their breakup and wondered why Robert kept it from her. Robert caught her staring a few times during the ride, but each time she'd just smiled and pretended to be daydreaming. If she was honest with herself she knew why Katherine would think she and Robert were still in love with one another, hell almost every citizen of Port Charles believed so as well. They were always together, always laughing or bickering or both, but she knew they were just friends, although since Sean's betrayal she couldn't help thinking about what it would be like if they weren't just friends.

Anna was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of the men struggling to lift the coffin fully out of the grave "Can you all handle it?" she asked

Sean smirked "Not like you were going to offer to help"

"Hey that's not fair, you and Robert told me to stand back"

"That's okay we've got it" Robert said and they pushed the coffin onto the ground "Pass the crowbar"

Anna handed him the crowbar and he opened the coffin quickly. All five people standing over the coffin were shocked

Sean was the first to speak "My god Robert, his corpse has no hands"

"Severed above the wrist" Robert continued for him, he reached down into the coffin and pulled at something shiny

"What are you doing" Anna asked

"It's a cigar case" Sean observed

Robert nodded in agreement "With the initials, C. F"

"Guess who huh" Sean said dryly

Robert threw the case down on the floor "I've had this!" he exclaimed "I have had enough of this! This man he's, he's screwing with all of us. He's screwing with my family!"

"Robert calm down" Anna said reaching out to touch his arm

"What do we do now?" Sean asked

"We go to war." Robert replied, steam might as well have been coming out of his ears. Anna rubbed his arm, he had to admit that did make him calm a little, Anna was the only person who could calm him down when he was angry "All out unequivocal bloody war" he said slamming the coffin shut "And I'm gonna win this one" he added before storming off


Later that night Anna and Robert sat up talking and going over everything they had so far. They had found a motel and gotten two adjoining rooms, one for Robert and Sean and one for Anna. Sean had went straight to bed, Anna was concerned that digging up the grave was too much strain on his body after being shot so recently.

"Looks like we have to come up with a new plan" Robert said, referring to Anna's previous plan for Faison

"Robert no" Anna insisted

"Anna" Robert warned

"No, Robert. My plan is best" she explained "Faison he, he thinks he's in love with me. So by playing his game and getting closer to him all he'll think is that I'm falling for him too and he won't suspect a thing"

"Anna I have told you already I do not want you near that man. He is too dangerous" Robert slammed the piece of paper he was holding down on the coffee table and got up from his seat to pace the small room

Anna sighed "I can protect myself Robert; I was trained in the field by the best. Just like you were"

"I didn't say you weren't"

"So then can we please stop arguing about this? The plan is simple, I will pretend to fall for Faison, while giving you all the information I find"

"You're gonna be a double agent. That's your plan" Robert said looking at her, immediately regretting his choice of words

"If that's what you want to call it" she replied, her tone was low, sullen

"I didn't mean it like that" Robert said coming back to the table and taking his seat again next to her "I just mean, I don't know Anna all I know is I don't want him near you"

"Neither do I Robert, but it's the best way"

"Ole boy Donnelly sure did pull one over on us didn't he" Robert said, changing the subject slightly, they never did get a chance to discuss Sean's confession, he suspected Anna was avoiding the topic, he suspected he was avoiding it too himself.

Anna sighed and rubbed her temples "Don't blame him Robert, yes he did play a hand in our break up that we just found out about, but he didn't make me betray you or the WSB"

Robert looked at Anna, they had this conversation a millions times when they first gotten back into each other's lives, he'd hated her then for everything she'd done but slowly learned to trust her again and he was grateful to have her in his life no matter what their relationship was or wasn't

Anna was staring at her hands now in her lap "I used to dream about us you know, what it would be like if we'd stayed together we could've been so happy" Robert was silent, Anna continued "But then I met duke and I fell in love with him and those dreams they became less frequent, but now I can't help myself thinking about it" she admitted, refusing to look at him

"I know what you mean, I've thought about it to, where we'd live, if we would have had more kids"

"Do you think we would have stayed together?" she asked him, finally looking up at him

Robert swallowed, when he finally responded his voice was thick "I do, I was so in love you Anna, in such a short time you'd become the center of my world"

There was a long silence, both of them not knowing what to say next

Anna was the first to speak "Why didn't you tell me the real reason you and Katherine broke up?" she asked him

"You spoke to her" he said, not questioning

"She says you're still in love with me and we're both too blind to see it" Anna sighed

"I didn't want to tell you because I knew you'd go trying to make everything right and I figured you already had enough on your plate" Robert explained, although he admitted to himself he should have known Anna was going to try to fix things anyway

Anna gave him a small laugh "Look how that turned out for you"

Robert laughed "Stupid move on my part"

Anna leaned her head on Roberts shoulder "She says I depend on you for everything" she said, then realizing how ironic it was that she was leaning on him, moved away again

"I know, but we're a family no matter how screwed up it might be, you're supposed to depend on me" Robert said wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer playfully "It's like I'm the non-live in man of the house"

"I will have you know Mr. Scorpio, that I am the only man of my house… and woman. You are just very irritating backup" she said smiling

Robert feigned a hurt expression

They both laughed.