EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOTE: Go back and read the chapter before this. I made a mistake and cut it off too early, so I had to edit it in order to get the cliffhanger I wanted plus, if you don't read that, then this part will make NO sense at all. Please go back... unless you're reading this after 4-22- 04, in which case, ignore...

Story-

Michael didn't know what was going on. He just remembered freezing when he saw something coming towards him and then being pushed away. Michael could feel the scrapes that lined on his arms from hitting the pavement. Who pushed him? Why? What was going on?

Ric and Elizabeth watched in horror from the other side of the street as they saw what was likely going to be Michael getting hit by a car. They were too far away to do anything, although they both wanted to yell for him to get out of the way. Neither of them had to yell, though. Michael was safe, but that didn't mean that everything was fine. They knew that Damian had taken the blow for Michael. They saw his body get flung several yards away by the force of the impact alone.

"Elizabeth, go to the payphone and dial 9-1-1!" Ric started towards the other side. All the other cars that were in the vicinity had stopped as they saw what was happening. The truck that had attempted to take Michael out had already sped off. Ric was in such a state of shock over what happened that he didn't even bother to check out the perquisite things such as model and color. All he knew was that his nephew, the one that he had spent a week fighting for, was laying on the road in a puddle of his own blood.

Elizabeth, shaking with tension, found the nearest payphone and dialed the number. "Hello? We need an ambulance as fast as possible!" She gave the location and hung up, tears streaming down her eyes. "Please... don't be dead."

Michael was still stunned, but he had managed to get up to his knees. He was afraid, he wanted his parents. He wanted someone that he knew.

"Michael!"

Michael heard his name and looked up. He was relieved that someone knew who he was. But when he saw that it was the bad man he backed away, "Get away from me!" He shouted. "I won't let you hurt me!"

"Michael, I don't want to hurt you... I just want to make sure you're okay!" Ric knew that he was wasting his time trying to reason with Michael. The hatred that Sonny had bred in his son's heart towards Ric was deeper than the situation. He had more important things to do, anyway. He saw that Michael was fine, aside from a scratch on his face that was bleeding slightly. "Elizabeth!" Ric yelled as he saw her coming down the street. "Stay with him!"

Elizabeth nodded as she walked up and stood next to Michael, "You okay, sweetie?" She didn't let her panic show, knowing that Michael would feed off of it if he sensed it. All children looked to the adults for how they should act in a situation.

Michael gazed at Elizabeth. She was in love with the bad man, but she was such a nice lady. His dad never said anything mean about her, and his Uncle Jason once loved her like he loved Aunt Courtney. He was so scared, and she looked like she wanted to help. "What happened?"

"Someone tried to hit you..." Elizabeth said. "Do you remember the car coming towards you?"

Michael nodded, "Why didn't it hit me?"

Elizabeth was silent... how was she going to tell the boy that his brother had sacrificed himself? "Damian... pushed you out of the way. That's why you fell down."

"Is he okay?" Michael looked around, he didn't see Damian anywhere. That made him very afraid. "Where is he?!"

Elizabeth looked over at Ric, who was kneeling over Damian. She couldn't tell what he was doing, she was too far away. "Michael, I don't know."

"Damian!" Michael wailed, trying to run around and look for his older brother. Elizabeth grabbed him, not violently but she didn't want to him to see what was going on. She didn't want to see it, either, but she could accept it better than a young boy like Michael could. "Let go of me!" He tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let him. "I need to make sure that he's okay!" Michael gave up and started crying. Elizabeth, making no effort to mask her own tears, knelt down and hugged him.

"Damian!" Ric felt his nephew's blood seeping into his pants, but that didn't matter. He could see that Damian's head was busted open. He couldn't tell how big the gash was, but there was still an alarming amount of blood coming from that cut and various other places around his body. "Come on!" Ric pleaded. "Don't be dead, please don't be dead!" He wasn't sure if Damian had a broken neck, so he didn't care attempt to move him, but he checked for a pulse, grabbing Damian's arm and placing his fingers on the vein. The following seconds seemed to be at a standstill, but there was a slight ease as he felt the slight throbbing of a heartbeat. Damian was alive. "Thank God," Ric said softly. He was so afraid. More afraid than he had ever been before in his life. He cared if Damian lived or died, he didn't want him to die. "Where the hell is that ambulance?!" Ric asked aloud, to no one in particular. He looked at Elizabeth, who he could clearly see was busy trying to console Michael. Damian had done this to save his little brother, someone that he wasn't even really related to. Not that it mattered. He was going to protect Michael at any cost, even if it meant his life. Ric wanted to be with Elizabeth, but he didn't dare leave Damian alone on the cold pavement of the Port Charles street. If it weren't for that damned accident that took out the service in the area he would be on the phone with Sonny right now. He wanted to call the phone at the penthouse, but he couldn't pull himself away. Did Damian even know that he was there? Would it even matter? Ric pushed those thoughts out of his head as he heard the blare of the ambulance. Relief washed over him as he knew that Damian was going to get some of the help that he needed.

Less than a minute later the paramedics were strapping the young man to a gurney. His face and hair stained with the fast drying blood that came from his own body. Ric grabbed one of the paramedic's shoulder and asked, "Is he going to be all right?" Ric had to know for certain.

"I don't know, sir," The paramedic replied. "He's lost a lot of blood and there's no telling what kind of internal injuries he may have gotten until we get him to GH."

"I'll be there as soon as I can," Ric said.

"Are you family?"

"Yes," Ric shot out. "I'm his Uncle!"

"I'm sorry," The paramedic said in his defense. There was no way of telling that they were related. "We need to get him to the hospital as soon as we can. Every second counts."

"I understand. Hurry, please."

"We'll do everything we can... but..."

"No!" Ric shouted. "Don't... he can't..."

"I hope not," The paramedic got into the vehicle and closed the door. The sirens blared as the ambulance made its way towards the hospital.

"You can't be dead, Damian. You can't." Ric felt a part of himself go numb. He needed to check on Elizabeth and Michael. He knew he was walking, but he couldn't feel his legs. His entire body felt like it had gone numb.

Michael was still crying in Elizabeth's arms. She was trying her best to comfort him, but she didn't feel like she was doing a good job. That wasn't surprising, since the poor boy had just seen his brother get nailed by a car. There was no telling what had happened to Damian. She wouldn't even lie and say that everything was going to be okay, because she wasn't sure that everything was going to be okay herself. She saw Ric walking up and wiped away her tears. "What... what happened?"

"Michael..." Ric ignored Elizabeth for the moment, focusing on the young boy. "Please tell me if you're hurt in any way. I need to know for sure."

"Go away!" Michael backed away. "Leave us alone! If you had something to do with this, I'm going to make sure that my daddy hurts you!"

"Michael, I had nothing to do with this. I'm only trying to help," Ric didn't know how far he was going to get in inspiring Michael's trust. "Please, Damian's already on his way to the hospital where the doctors are going to look at him and hopefully see if they can help him get better, but do you have any broken bones or deep cuts?"

"No," Michael murmured. "I want to go with Damian! Take me to Damian!"

"Ric... you can't let him go..."

"I know," Ric said. "Elizabeth, could you walk him to the penthouse? I'm going to head over to the hospital and make sure that everything is okay. I don't want him to be alone."

"Yeah, of course," Elizabeth took Michael's hand. "Come on, Michael. We'll take you to your home..." She hated sounding so uncompassionate, but there wasn't anything further that she could do.

Michael, for some reason, decided that he should listen to Elizabeth. He went with her without putting up a fight. He did look at Ric one last time, his eyes not filled with hate, but with questions. Was he trying to help? He had went over to that place... Michael had seen it. Was that where Damian was?

Ric waited until they were around the corner before he sprinted towards the Hospital. He'd make it as fast as he could possibly run.

General Hospital-

Maxie was looking at the time. She didn't have that much time left before her shift ended. Maybe she could call Damian and tell him that she was sorry for the way she acted. She was being insensitive to him. She knew how much he cared about his father. She knew that he would want to protect Sonny at just about any cost. How could she be so insensitive? He was never like that with her. Even when he didn't agree with her and how she thought he was never mean to her. Had she learned nothing while she was with him? She thought that he had made him a better person, but was she just lying to herself?

She noticed that Monica was in a hurry, but that she had stopped in front of the Nurses' Station, a worried look on her face. "Monica... what is it?"

"We just got the notice that someone was being brought in, a young man just got hit by a truck."

"Is he okay?"

Monica had no actual answer, so she wouldn't try to make one up. "I don't know, Maxie. They weren't even able to give us a name, but they said that he looked like he took a bad hit."

"I can stay if you need me to," Maxie said. "If it's something bad, I want to help."

"Thank you, but I don't think that will be necessary."

The doors burst open on the other side of the hallway. Maxie and Monica looked, with Maxie staying behind the station as Monica walked over and looked at the unconscious young man.

"We need to get him a transfusion as fast as possible," One of the medics said. "He's lost too much blood."

Maxie saw the faint and familiar glimmer of a face that she knew. Something about the hair. She couldn't see his face because his head was turned to the other side. Maybe it was someone that she knew from school. One of Kyle's old friends, possibly.

"I've paged Bobbie, but she hasn't gotten down here yet," Monica told them.

"I'm right here," Bobbie came up from around the corner. She got a look at the boy and gasped, "Oh, my God... no."

Maxie's interest was peaked even more. Bobbie didn't know any of Kyle's friends. And even if she did... she wouldn't be... crying? Maxie wanted to know why Bobbie was crying. It had to be someone that Bobbie knew, someone that Bobbie cared about. The hair... she had felt that hair before. No... Maxie, in disbelief, had to be certain. It couldn't be him. She ran from behind the station and looked at the unconscious man's face. There was no doubt that it was Damian. "No!" Maxie broke down almost instantly. "Damian!" She grabbed him in a panic, "Damian, speak to me! Come on, talk to me! Please!"

"Maxie, stop!" Monica ordered. "You need to let go of him, we don't know if he's got any damaged nerves!"

Maxie forced herself to let go, but she didn't want to. It couldn't be him. It just couldn't be. But it was.

"Maxie... someone has to let Sonny know," Bobbie said. "I have to be with him."

"I want to be with him, too! Please!"

Bobbie shook her head, "I'm going to make sure that he doesn't die. I need you to be of as much help to me as you can, and for that to happen you need to let his family know! Please, Maxie, do this for me."

"I... can't." She couldn't lie. "I can't tell Sonny that his son is in the hospital, please don't make me..."

"He'll be informed shortly, if he doesn't already know," Ric walked up from the elevator and looked at Damian. "Why isn't he in an observation room yet?"

Monica looked at Ric, "He's right, as much as I hate to admit it. We can't spend anymore time just standing here."

Bobbie eyed Ric. She thought he had something to do with it as well. Having no proof, and knowing that she needed to spend her time on better things, Bobbie walked away. "Please be all right."

Maxie, watching them wheel away her boyfriend, sank her head onto the station's counter and sobbed. Ric watched her, sorrow on his face.