Note: I have vowed to finish writing this story by the end of the week! I might be able to finish it today, provided I work my behind off! Wish me luck!

Story-

Outside the Quatermaine Mansion-

"Are you sure you want to do this, Dillon?" Jason asked, shifting his shoulders a bit uneasily. Even though the mansion housed two people that he loved very much it was also the place where so much in his life had gone wrong, the place where Carly was pushed down the stairs that caused Carly and Sonny to lose a child among other things.

"Jason, I don't have anything of my own right now outside of the clothes on my back, and I sure as hell don't want to be wearing those for the rest of my life," Dillon quipped, being as sarcastic as he could to try and lighten the mood. It wasn't that he didn't know how much Jason hated the mansion, he did, but they needed to do this. Besides, Jason had insisted on coming along.

"I've got more than enough money to buy you everything that you'd need," Jason realized just how much like a parent he was already sounding, and he didn't like it very much.

"I don't want you to be supporting me," Dillon responded, taking a few steps forward towards the side entrance of the house. "I just need to grab some clothes and things for school and I should be set."

"And what are you going to do if they try and stop you?"

"Well, that's why I'm actually kind of happy that you came along," Dillon smirked. "Pull a gun on them, or something."

Jason wasn't amused, but he wasn't amused by much to begin with. "You know as much as I'd like to do it, I won't."

"I was kidding... although the thought was nice." Dillon turned the knob of the side door, which was almost never actually locked. If a criminal tried to break in, they would find themselves introduced to Alice, and that would be a haunting time for anyone. Alice was intimidating, even to the people who knew her. Dillon silently wondered if Jason was afraid of Alice on some level.

Tracy was eating the buffet breakfast that Cook had prepared for them as Cook often did. She'd had better food in Europe, but she'd also had worse food, so it was acceptable by her rigid standards. She was waiting in the room for a specific reason. She knew that her son would come back to her. Dillon loved his mother and Tracy knew that the love her son had for her was going to be more than enough to bring him back to her whenever he went astray. There was also the fact that Dillon couldn't survive on his own. Tracy had taught her young son many things in his life, but she was the survivor of the family, not him. When she saw the door open and recognized the hairstyle, she knew that she had been right on the money. "I was expecting you to come back, darling."

Dillon didn't think that she would be waiting for him, but he should have known better. "Mother..."

"However, Dillon, I meant what I said," Tracy began, "you are no longer a welcome member of this family. If you choose to associate yourself with the hooligans that you claim to have an affinity towards, then maybe you should just remain with them for the rest of your life."

"That's what he's doing," Jason walked up, standing behind Dillon. "You kicked your son out, Tracy, and I took him in."

Tracy had to fight to hold the plate that she was holding in her hand, since the shock of her son living with Jason Morgan of all people wasn't a very pleasant thought. "Dillon, you know that mother was just kidding about the exile, right? You don't have to stay with Jason... you can come back. Look, you're already back." Tracy grabbed Dillon and pulled him away from Jason, "Thank you for bringing my son back, now I'm sure that you've got a contract killing that is going to expire soon, so I won't keep you from doing your job."

"There's nothing that I have to do right now," Jason replied.

"Mom," Dillon broke free from Tracy's grasp, "I've had enough of you and of this family. You tried to stomp out the one thing that I didn't want to give up, you tried to make me stop caring for people that I consider part of my life because they don't meet your standards."

"Would it make you feel any better if I said that you could go see that little tart and the comatose Prince of Crime whenever you wanted?" Tracy asked.

"See... you try and do something to make it all better, but the only thing that you really manage is to mess everything up," Dillon sighed. "You're never going to understand what it's like to be me, or to even be like me. I'm also never going to understand what it's like to be you. That's why I can't be here anymore. I can't live my life by anyone's standards but my own."

"So you're going to live with the murderer?" Tracy asked, her voice ringing through the room. "What do you think he's going to do with you, Dillon? He's going to teach you how to be a killer and god only knows how many other horrible things that he does on a daily basis!"

Jason grabbed himself some food, he was actually partly enjoying the fact that he was watching Tracy squirm. It didn't happen very often, so when it did happen it was something of a spectacle. "I won't try and shape Dillon like you did, Tracy."

"Put that down!" Tracy ordered. "The family gets to eat the food in here, not the mentally impaired."

"My son is as much a member of this family as you are!" Alan walked in, hearing the commotion from the other side of the house. Tracy's voice carried, that had been a fact that was obvious since she was old enough to talk. "I won't have you treating him like he isn't a Quatermaine."

"He doesn't want to be a Quatermaine, Alan!" Tracy reminded her brother, completely devoid of emotion and tact. "Get it through your head!"

"Why are you here, Jason?" Alan asked.

Jason finished the piece of bacon that he was eating before he answered, "Dillon and I came to get his stuff so that he could take it back to the penthouse."

"The penthouse?" Alan was even less sure of himself than he was when he walked in the room. "Why would Dillon need to be going to the penthouse?"

"When he has a perfectly good home right here with us, the family. Isn't that right, my loving brother?" Tracy was laying it on thick. She needed an ally, and she was desperate enough to go to Alan for support.

"That's not what you said last night," Dillon replied. "You were here, Alan. You heard her tell me that I wasn't welcome in this house if I walked out that door. Well, I walked out, and Jason's letting me live with him until I can finish school and go to college."

"I think it's an excellent idea," Alan remarked.

"You do?" Jason asked.

"What are you on?" Tracy inquired. "Did you sneak some pills from the hospital again?!"

"Jason, we may not always agree on a lot of things, but I know that you have a fine moral character..."

"Fine moral characters don't constitute a rising body count, Alan!" Tracy screamed.

"You can be a good role model for Dillon."

"Allow me to give you a demonstration of how Jason would be a role model for my son." Tracy put a cloth over her hand and put her thumb up and her index finger out, "I'm sure that you know what this is supposed to be. After all, guns are one of the few things that you can keep in that memory of yours. See? Gun? Bang Bang. Dead." Tracy took the napkin off. "Now, explain to me how such examples can even be considered for positive role modeling?"

"If nothing else," Alan began, "Jason can teach Dillon how to ignore you and your constant rambling. In fact, he's already started to learn."

Tracy wasn't sure what Alan was implying, but when she looked around, she noticed that her son was gone. "Dillon?"

"For someone who supposedly cares about her son so much, you can't even notice when he leaves if he's two feet away from you," Jason forced himself to smile. Tracy was doing one thing quite well, she was burying herself even deeper into the hole that she had dug.

"You can't just take my son away from me, Jason!" Tracy declared. "If you try it, I will see to it that I get him back and get you thrown in jail for kidnapping."

"Dillon is coming with me willingly. This wasn't even my idea, but I know what it's like to have you people put your hands around our throats and suck us dry. I won't let someone else go through that."

Alan lowered his head. He knew that Jason had a degree of displeasure for the family, but he was seeing that Jason flat out hated the Quatermaine's, and Alan knew that he had a part in souring his son's opinion of the family. There wasn't anything that he could do about it, though. What was done was done. On some level Jason was right. If Dillon stayed around there was no telling what would happen to the poor boy. What his mother would do to him in order to secure herself a seat of power within the family. Tracy had already twisted Ned into something that Ned didn't want to be. Edward had a hand in that as well, but Alan didn't want to see it repeated on Dillon. "Tracy, let it go. You lost."

"I never lose, Alan," Tracy said spitefully. "I never lose."

"Neither do I," Jason quipped. "If you try and fight this, Tracy, I won't let you win. You think I don't know how to work the legal system better than you do? You think I don't know how to pull strings like you?"

"The only thing you are better at than me is being a certified lunatic!" Tracy was trying to hide her fear. She didn't want to push Dillon away. She didn't really think that he was going to take her threat as an actual threat. But he had. She had to admit that he went to one of the few people that would set Tracy off. She could have found out that he was living with that girlfriend of his, she expected that. But he ran to the black sheep of the clan, something that she hadn't even thought about. Worse, the sheep was accepting him into the fold. Jason wanted to cut all ties to the family, why would he be taking one of them in? Maybe that was the ammunition that she was looking for... "You sure you want to have a Quatermaine living with you?"

"I can manage," Jason replied.

"This isn't over," Tracy left the room, fuming.

"I think it is," Jason muttered to himself.

"But you're wrong, son," Alan mused. "She's not going to stop fighting for her son. In her own way, she loves him."

"She can do whatever she wants," Jason said. "If Dillon wants to come back to the mansion, I won't stop him, but if he wants to stay with me, I won't stop him either."

"This was Courtney's idea, wasn't it?"

Jason turned his head. He didn't want to drag her into the conversation. She had enough on her mind, dealing with her blood family, there was no reason why Jason should have her involved with his blood relatives more than she already was.

"I knew I liked that girl," Alan smiled. "She's got a level head on her shoulders. She's the right person for you. Much better for you than with AJ."

Dillon came barreling down the stairs with several bags filled with clothes, books, and, of course, movies. The weight alone almost caused him to take a tumble down the stairs. He had just started grabbing things and putting them in anything that he had which could carry his belongings. He saw Tracy waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. "You're not going to try and stop me, are you?"

"Of course I am," Tracy said. "You and I both know that we have our differences, Dillon. I don't know how you managed to get it, but you've got compassion and all it does is make you weak and able to be manipulated by other people."

"You'd know all about manipulating me, wouldn't you?" Dillon asked.

"What makes you say that?"

"Mom, my entire life you've used me in some way to get what you wanted, haven't you? Even when I was old enough to make my own decisions you still made me work for you. Why was I here? Why did I come to Port Charles? So that you would have a way back into the family when you finally stopped gallivanting around Europe. I was the seed that you planted in this house so that you could get back."

"That's not true..."

"Stop lying to me!"

"I'm not lying to you, Dillon!" Tracy, as hard as she tried, couldn't keep a single tear from falling down her face.

Dillon was shocked. He had only seen his mother cry a handful of times in his life. Tracy felt that crying was the worst show of weakness that the human body could give. "Mom..."

"I don't want to lose you," Tracy said. "I don't..."

Dillon shook his head, "Prove it to me. Let me be the person that I want to be."

"Fine... if that's what it will take..."

"I want to get out of this house, I'm going to live with Jason. If you don't try and fight it, maybe I'll come back."

"If... that's what you want," Tracy was forcing herself to accept things.

Dillon walked past her, "No matter what happens, mom, you know that I still love you. You're my mother, and I will always care about you, but that doesn't mean that I have to be at your beck and call. I might be your son, but I'm also my own person."

Tracy sat on the bottom step and wiped her eyes. She watched her son, her baby, walk out of the room. He didn't even look back.

"You ready?" Jason asked as he saw Dillon coming in. Something was bothering Dillon, Jason could see it in his face.

"Yeah, let's get out of here..." Dillon thought about looking back, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. No amount of apologizing would make up for what Tracy had done to him in his life.

"Dillon," Alan spoke, "if you think that you're doing the right thing, I won't stop you, but if you ever feel that you need to come back..."

"Thanks, I'll keep it in mind." Dillon walked out the door.

"Take care of him, Jason," Alan requested.

"I'll do what I can," Jason closed the door behind him. Dillon had stopped himself. Jason came up, "She got to you again, didn't she?"

"Yeah..." Dillon picked up a bag, "just like I knew that she would. She tries to think that I don't know what she's going to do, that I don't know her as well as I do. She's wrong. Let's go..."