Journeylove- There's a lot wrong with the show right now, we all know it, but, what can we do? At least they brought Faith back, if only in ghost form and only for a little while. I take the victories that I can get.

Story-

Scorpio Household-

"Hello?" Georgie picked up the phone that was next to the couch in the living room, leaving her Advanced Placement Calculus book on her lap.

"Hey," Dillon, on the other end, with his trig book in hand, sat on the couch in Jason's living room. Jason had long since finished playing pool, although the stoic 'don't talk to Dillon about anything' attitude that Jason had still remained intact. It was nice to have things to depend on. "I tried calling your cell phone, but you didn't pick up."

"Sorry, I left it upstairs. I'm in the living room, I can't hear my phone." Georgie smiled, hearing her boyfriend's voice always made her smile. And she was glad that Mac had yet to bring Dillon down with Damian. Most of the time the two ended up going hand in hand, which wasn't fair to either of them. "What's up?"

"Can you do my homework for me?"

"Dillon!"

"Come on, Georgie, it's just a few pages of math. You know how much I hate math."

"I also know how good you are at math, but that you just hate it so much that you refuse to actually do something about it." It was true. Like so many others, Dillon was one of those students who was exceptionally bright in just about everything, he just lacked the focus that he needed to pull the grades that he could get.

"I fail to see how knowing any of the formulas that I've learned this year in trigonometry will help me when I go off to film school."

"Think of it this way, you could end up doing a movie about trig, and then you'll need to give your actors a little insight, and you'll have it."

"Why the hell would I do a movie about trig?"

"I don't know… because you're weird like that."

"Should I take offense to your comment, Georgie?"

"No," she replied. "You know I love it when you're weird, you're quirky and fun and you make life worth living. You certainly don't make it boring."

"Fine… I'll do my homework by myself, but, as payment, I want five minutes on the phone with you."

"All right…"

"Put the textbook away, Georgie."

"What are you talking about, I don't have a textbook out!"

"Georgie," Dillon sighed. He knew his girlfriend too well. "Put the Government book away, I know you have it on your lap, you're probably trying to finish reading the chapter as you're talking to me, just stop it, put it away. Now."

"Actually, it's the calculus book, but fine," Georgie closed the book, leaving a pencil to help her keep her place. "Listen, this is me slamming the book on the table," Georgie let the book drop, the echo being carried through the phone, "Are you happy now?"

"I could be happier…"

"I'm not doing your homework."

"Then I guess I couldn't be happier." Dillon put his own book away. He'd do the homework, eventually. "Are you all right?"

"What makes you ask that?"

"Because you sound a little tense."

"I do not!"

"Yes you do, you weren't even all happy to hear my voice. Usually you sound like my voice is the one thing that makes you happiest."

"Because it is…"

"Well, thank you for that, but you don't sound very happy right now. What's wrong, Georgie, is everything all right?"

Georgie didn't want to tell him, but she couldn't lie to him. "Everything is never all right here, Dillon, you know that as well as I do. It's my dad, he's being… well, he's being himself again. This guy came into the office today, John Durant. He's some bigwig over in New York, the district attorney there. So he came to Port Charles because he wanted to clean up the mean streets of Port Charles from the taint of Corinthos and Morgan."

"They're not that bad." Dillon had spent time with both Sonny and Jason. Much more Jason than Sonny, but time had been spent with both of them, and while they did seem incredibly intense at times, even a little scary, they weren't bad people. Sonny was actually one of the more caring individuals that Dillon had ever met. It was like Sonny was the opposite of his mother in every way, including the whole caring thing. "But now this guy has Mac all worried about what could happen to Maxie again?"

"I wish it was that simple." Everyone worried about what could happen to Maxie because of her connection to Sonny, through Damian. Georgie liked Damian and thought that he was good for her sister, but she wasn't going to blind herself to the fact that Damian's status made him dangerous. "This guy, Durant, he made it seem like Damian's been fooling all of us since day one, that he's Sonny's plant in the system, used to gain accolade and trust."

Dillon chuckled, "And what kind of idiot would fall for that."

"Mac Scorpio…"

The laughter stopped, and instead Dillon groaned. "And now he's trying to destroy Damian and Maxie's relationship again? I swear, I thought he was bad with us, but he's doing a lot more with the two of them."

"Can you blame him?"

"No, I guess not," Dillon stopped talking to think about it for a moment. "Wait, are you saying that you believe this Durant guy? Do you actually think that Damian has been lying to all of us since the beginning? That the person that we know, that we trust, is just some sort of mask?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore, Dillon." Georgie knew that it was a bad idea to talk about Damian with Dillon. Damian had been one of the only friends that Dillon had ever had, and Dillon would defend that friend with everything that he had. "I want to believe that the person that we know is the real Damian. The person that my sister fell in love with, the person that is your best friend…"

"It is him, Georgie," Dillon quickly interrupted her. Nobody was going to tell him that his best friend was some sort of two-faced weasel. "If you don't believe Damian, then believe me. I know him, I know who he is, I know what he's capable of, and he wouldn't lie about something like this."

"I hope you're right."

"I know I'm right." He wanted to change the subject to something that wasn't slenderizing, "How's Maxie taking this?"

"You know Maxie, she's upset, I don't even think she's come out of her room yet. She wants people to trust him. We all do. Dillon… do me a favor… don't talk to him about this. I don't think he knows, and I don't want him to know. It'll hurt him, I know it will."

"This will stay between the two of us," Dillon agreed. Damian had worked so hard to get where he was, something like that could break him and make him start all over. Dillon didn't want that. "You'd better get back to studying."

"Are you mad at me?"

"Of course not," mad wasn't the right word. Maybe disappointed, but certainly not mad. Georgie was entitled to her own opinion, he just didn't expect her to be so blind. "I just want you to get your work done. You're not going to get into a good school if you somehow manage to fail AP Calculus, and I won't have that guilt on my head."

Georgie smiled and laughed, "Thanks. I love you, Dillon."

"Yeah, I love you, too. Bye." Dillon quickly hung up the phone and tossed it on the table, throwing his head back and letting it hang over the back of the couch. Once again Mac had allowed himself to be polluted by other people, and once again it had done just what it shouldn't have done, it hurt his daughter. Why couldn't Mac just stop being so easily fooled? Why couldn't he stop being so fearful of everything?

Kelly's-

"I don't see why you have to pay for this," Brook said as they walked inside. Damian held the door open for her. "I mean, I'm the one who dragged you away from whatever you were doing to come and help me deal with my problems, the least I could do is…"

"Why don't you handle the tip and we'll call it even?"

Brook smiled, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"I don't know… you go out of your way to help everyone who needs your help, and then you don't expect anything from them, you just keep on helping. I don't think I've ever met a person like that before."

"Blame it on my mother," Damian replied as they sat at a table. "She taught me everything that I knew about being selfless. She didn't have much, Brook. Her reputation had been destroyed because of having me out of wedlock, and some of the people that she thought were her friends had abandoned her because of her supposed impurities, but she would still help people, even when she didn't have much to offer. Now, look at me, I've got more money than I'll ever need and I have a new life here. Why shouldn't I keep on helping people?"

"I wish I could have met her. She sounds like a really good person."

"She was." He looked away, eyes filled with sadness that reflected in his voice. "I wish you could have met her, too. I wish everyone that I've met here, everyone that I care about in Port Charles, could have met her."

Brook realized that she had messed up, "I'm sorry, Damian, I didn't mean for you to…"

He looked at her and smiled, "It isn't your fault, Brook. You were paying my mother a compliment, it was nice of you."

Maxie looked up from her menu, which had been placed in front of her face for a good five minutes. She leaned against the wall to make sure that he couldn't see the back of her head or anything else that would possibly make it obvious that she was watching him. She heard them, too. Stupid Brook, saying something like that.

Elizabeth had also heard, but, unlike Maxie, she didn't hold it against Brook. Elizabeth also wished that she could have met the woman that gave birth to Damian. Nearly everyone, sans Carly, probably did. Elizabeth's blue eyes turned to look at Maxie, trying not to look suspicious. Finally grabbing the pad of paper to take an order, she walked over, "Hey, guys. You've been here enough to know the menu by heart, so… do you know what you want?"

"A cheeseburger, fries, and a coke," Brook said. Mike made some really good burgers.

"Just a chef salad for me, thousand island," he wasn't in the mood for any meat, not after the debacle with the sandwich earlier that day. "Thanks, Elizabeth."

"No problem," she walked away to get the orders ready, another cautionary eye given towards Maxie.

Maxie didn't bother to put much weight into Elizabeth's glares. Elizabeth wouldn't understand. Nobody was after Ric. Why would anyone want to be after Ric? It wasn't like he was a catch or anything. Ric was, at best, a wildcard, not like Damian. Damian was a sure thing. She kept on watching them as they talked and laughed, ever mindful of everything that could have happened. Brook kept her distance, not touching him or anything. It was good, because Brook should have known better.