Scorpio Household-

Eventually, Maxie would find out just what had happened that night, eventually she would see the mistake that she had made in judgment, but, eventually had yet to come, and, at that moment, she was too blind by rage and betrayal. The one person who she thought she could depend on completely had stomped all over her heart. He had done something that she thought he would never do, he had done something that made him seem so much like Kyle, the person who she once thought to be his antithesis. As soon as Maxie walked into the house she felt the wave crash over her. No longer did she need to act like she was doing all right, because she wasn't. Even though she had sworn to herself that she wouldn't cry over the change, she couldn't act upon that promise, because the pain was so much, so great.

She walked up the stairs to her room, stomping as loudly as she could. If anyone was there, it didn't matter, nothing mattered anymore, all that mattered was finding a way to get the gaping feeling of betrayal and nothingness out of her body. When she opened the door she looked over at her mirror, the pictures that they had taken stared at her, the smiles on both their faces. She thought that they were so truthful, but what if they weren't? What if he had been playing her the whole time, secretly finding time to spend with Brook without her knowing, only to be discovered at the end. Yes, that didn't sound like something that he would ever do to anyone, but, at the same time, neither did cheating on her, and it was obvious that it was true. The funny part was that she had once been regretful over the fact that they had only taken a few pictures during their relationship. Now, she was thankful that there were only a handful of them.

Maxie sat down on the chair in front of her mirror and reached over behind her tear stained blue eyes until she touched one of them and grabbed it from the place between the mirror frame and the actual mirror. She looked down at it, the first picture that they took, that Christmas, at the mall. The one that she begged him to take. Immediately she saw the tear fall onto the picture, her tear, falling directly between the two of them. "I hate you…" she whispered as she pulled the picture up to her eye level and tore it in half. "I hate you!" Anger quickly filled in the hole that was once empty from the pain, and, in that anger, Maxie reacted as she often did when she was upset: completely erratically. With great fury she reached over and grabbed each and every one of the pictures that they had taken together and tore them into pieces, big pieces, then small pieces, until they were like small chunks of memory that had been regressed into torn up confetti. When the final picture was rendered useless, she watched as all the pieces lay on the ground, scattered around a small area of the room. She stepped onto them, not caring about the fact that there was still a part of her heart that found the memories to be fond, worth saving.

Maxie plopped herself onto the bed, head first, burying herself into her pillows, or more precisely her problems. As she clasped her hands together she felt it, the cold metal bracelet that surrounded her wrist. Briefly, she pulled her head up and looked at it. She had thought it was so beautiful before, and anyone who had looked at it would think the same, but for Maxie, the bracelet no longer meant what it once did. Now, it was a symbol of betrayal, of a love that no longer had any meaning. The anger came to her again and she ripped it off her wrist so harshly that the clasp that kept it around her wrist caused a thin but still noticeable cut. The blood dripped on the metal, staining the mineral a brownish-red as the blood quickly dried. Not wanting to see it anymore, nor be reminded of the time that he had given it to her, Maxie threw it against the wall, a feeling of satisfaction passing over her as she saw it slide down, and then it was gone, because it was only a little bit of satisfaction, not enough to make the pain go away.

Rather than continue to bury her face into the pillow, Maxie turned around until her back was placed on the comforter, she looked at the ceiling above her. She used to do the same thing when they were going out, even before, when she would think about him and everything that he had done for her so selflessly. She should have believed her father, she should have believed Mac when he said that Damian would only end up hurting her. Why didn't she believe him? He was almost always right in the end. But, he got his wish, didn't he? His little girl finally ended up getting away from someone who could only do bad things to her. Mac would be happy, he would be so happy. It was good to know that her misery was at least causing one person to be happy.

General Hospital-

While it was true that Bobbie wanted to focus her attention solely on Lois and what was going on with her, it was also true that, as a chief nurse, she had to think about the patients who she wasn't quite as connected to. But, if there was one thing that could be said about Bobbie Spencer it was that she spent a lot of time getting to know each and every one of her patients so that they felt like they actually mattered to her instead of just being people that she looked over. Bobbie knew how it felt to think that the people around her didn't care, both inside and outside the hospital. She didn't want that kind of feeling to be something that her patients had to deal with.

"And here we see the wonderful Barbara Jean Spencer at work. A different kind of work, with much less… raunchy décor…"

"And how does your office look, back in New York City, where you belong?" Bobbie asked, not turning around. Why did she need to turn around? She heard the voice of a man who she once loved with all her heart, but now hated with every fiber of her being. "I'm sure that there are plenty of hints as to your love of the loose woman…"

"I only loved one loose woman, you."

Bobbie laughed, "If I could believe that, then you really would be one of the most convincing lawyers on the face of the earth…"

"Who said I wasn't?"

"And there you go with the self-expanding ego. Whenever a person doesn't tell you want you want to hear in order to make yourself feel better you go and say it yourself. It must take a lot of work, keeping up with an act that takes up that much effort. How do you do it?"

"I've had lots of practice…"

"I'm sure you have."

"Come on, Bobbie, we had a lot of good times with one another, didn't we? Remember the way that we were when we were younger?"

"I remember how you were when you still had hair," Bobbie reached up and rubbed the huge bald spot that had managed to kill all the hair that was there. She remembered when John had a nice healthy amount of hair, the way it felt when she rubbed her hands through it. "I'm not sure that you might be able to. I'm sure that you've managed to somehow push out every aspect of your humanity in order to make sure that you're more effective with your job."

"Some people would say that I'm the ultimate humanitarian, Bobbie. Think about all the people that I'm protecting by keeping those bastards off the streets. Think of all the kids and young girls that could get killed in the crossfire, or are used as little more than sex objects…"

"You mean like you did for me?"

John shook his head, "You know what, you can try and play the moral high ground all you want, but we both know that you wanted to do that…"

Bobbie turned around, "I didn't want to do it, John. I didn't think that I had a choice. I was a teenager, I was stupid. I kept on thinking that if I managed to do something for someone that they could keep me safe, keep me secure. That was why I did it, eventually I managed to tell myself that it really was the right thing to do, but don't think that now, now that I'm older, I don't see what I did for exactly what it was. I was a fool for thinking that I needed to conform to anyone's ideals of what I should have been doing. Maybe I wouldn't have been able to do something that made me as much money as working for Ruby did, but at least it would have been something that let me keep my self-respect. I would have easily given up the life that I had to flip burgers at some burger shack if I knew that it was an option."

"That's right, Barbara Jean, the martyr, the person who everyone needs to feel sorry for on one hand, but happy for because she brought herself up from the dregs of society that she was born into. And you say that I'm the one with the ego problem…"

Around the corner, Carly was on the phone with Courtney, unable to hear anything that was going on between her parents, one being a man who she hadn't even met, let alone known was her father. Her mind was on more important things, like the wellbeing of her children, and her husband. "Yeah, I know you wanted me to call you when we found out something about Lois, but we haven't yet. I just wanted to make sure that Michael and Morgan are all right. Especially Michael, he was there when Dillon found out, wasn't he?"

"Michael's doing fine, he went to sleep a little while ago. Thankfully our visit to the zoo couldn't have come at a better time, all that walking made him really tired, so tired that he didn't even really think about what was going on with Lois. He asked a few questions, but he's pretty confident in the hospital and their ability to make her all better."

"I wish we could say something to him that would help him know for sure, but until we realize just what is going on with Lois we can't be certain one way or the other."

"How's Sonny?" Courtney asked, knowing that her brother must have been going through horrible turmoil. Lois was his best friend, there was nothing more important to him than the people that he loved, and he loved Lois in the same way that he loved Courtney, like a sister. In a lot of ways, Lois was closer to Sonny than she could ever hope to be. Lois had seen things that Courtney hadn't, she had seen Sonny grow up, she had seen him as a boy becoming the man that he now was. Was Courtney a little jealous? Yes, but that didn't mean that she wanted Lois to get hurt, far from it…

"You know Sonny, he's trying to find a way to make this all better. I don't even know what he's up to, really. I didn't feel like staying around and watching him brood. I said that I would be here for him if he needed me, he knows how to find me. Besides, I was going to try and see if my mother knew anything that we didn't know, that way I could at least give him something that would make him feel better… or worse."

"And if it's bad news?"

"Sonny would rather know one way or the other about Lois, Courtney," Carly said softly, "I know that."

"You're right," Courtney sat down on the couch, she was using her cell phone now instead of the house phone, but she was still at Sonny's penthouse just in case something happened, just in case someone called, or if Michael needed someone to be there for him. "How's Dillon doing?"

"Dillon? Why?"

"Carly, come on," Courtney scoffed slightly. "Lois is a member of Dillon's family, and even though they don't know each other very well, I know that Dillon likes Lois, he's fond of her. I remember him talking about seeing her when she came with Brook. He kind of looks up to her as a person who managed to get away from the family and start her own life, doing something that didn't have the Quartermaine stamp of approval, but doing it anyway."

"Dillon has Jason to admire for that, Courtney, why does he need Lois for?"

"Maybe because Lois and Dillon have more common interests than Dillon and Jason?" What did Dillon and Jason have in common, interest wise anyway? Yes, when he came to Port Charles at first the boy tried working for Lorenzo, despite his age, and Lorenzo, evil bastard that he was, used Dillon. Even though it was just for the little things, there was still a chance that Dillon could have gotten hurt because of his involvement with Lorenzo, and Alcazar was all right with that. While it was never bad to say that a person's death was a good thing, Courtney didn't really care. She was thankful on so many levels that Lorenzo Alcazar was dead. And not just because he had cost Courtney and Jason their baby, and their chance of ever having another one.

"He seemed fine when we came into the hospital," Carly said, thinking back to the way that Dillon acted. She omitted the part about Sonny attacking him verbally, because Sonny didn't mean it, he was just acting like he always acted when someone that he cared about was in danger, recklessly. "I don't know where he is, last I heard he was trying to get in touch with Ned to tell him what had happened."

"Maybe I should try and call him, just to make sure." Courtney couldn't help but try and be motherly towards Dillon, despite the fact that they weren't exactly that far apart in age. Still, Courtney was responsible, at least on some level, for Dillon's wellbeing, and she wasn't going to fail in that job.

"If you want to call him, call him, you don't have to ask permission from me."

"I wasn't, I was just thinking aloud."

"Oh," Carly said softly. "Listen, I'm going to go and look for my mom now, I'll call you just in case anything happens, and, if anything happens on your end…"

"Yeah, don't worry, you'll be the first one to know." Courtney hung up the phone and placed it on the cushion next to her. Why did it always seem that the drama followed them and soaked them in like a sponge?

"You know, I tried to be nice to you, Bobbie, I really did, but maybe being nice to you was just stupid…"

"You wouldn't know nice if it bit you on the…"

"Careful how you speak to me, Barbara Jean, remember the things that I can do to you…"

Carly heard the threat as she walked towards her mother, surprised that she was so close to Bobbie without even knowing it. "I don't know who you are, but you'd better stay the hell away from my mother!"