Outside-

"Did you just see Courtney turn around the corner?" Maxie asked.

"I think so, why?"

"Because Sonny doesn't want Damian to be alone," Maxie informed her sister. "He's afraid that if nobody is watching Damian someone is going to take him away from the hospital."

"Maxie, nobody would be able to do that..."

"People do it all the time," Maxie said. "How many times has Luke Spencer managed to smuggle someone out of the hospital?"

Georgie bit her lip. Luke was really good at it, and people who weren't as good as Luke when it came to sneaking people out were still good enough to get it done. "He's probably got someone in there with him..."

"Who? Jason's with Sonny, Bobbie went home to get some rest and Mike's gone, too."

"Maybe Dillon's in there..."

"What if it's Carly?"

"Is there a problem with Carly being in there alone with him?" Georgie inquired.

"Yes!" Maxie got her point across rather well. "Georgie, Carly hates him!"

"Maxie... nobody could hate him..."

"She does," Maxie said. "She's so heartless towards him. She doesn't think that he deserves to be a member of the family that he was born into because he wasn't always around. I hope it isn't her..."

"She has a right to be with him, she is his step-mother..."

"She should start acting like a step-parent, then! Look at Mac, he's our step-dad, but he loves us like we were his own children. Carly doesn't do that for Damian. She would never accept him as a member of her family." Maxie went for the door, poking it open and seeing that Carly was there. She looked at Georgie, "I'm not going to let her be in there..."

"Maxie, don't do anything stupid..."

"I'm going to protect Damian from that woman, what's stupid about that?" Maxie pushed the door open. "You shouldn't be in here."

Carly looked over, "Excuse me?"

"You heard me," Maxie began, "you're not here to help him, you're just here to bask in the fact that he's hurt."

"Okay, Maxie, I understand that you're a little stressed out due to everything that has happened, but don't you dare even begin to think that you understand how I feel about your boyfriend, because you don't understand anything." Carly didn't like the implications that Maxie was making. She wasn't happy at all that Damian was hurt.

"Save it for someone who cares, Carly," Maxie stood up to the woman that had managed to tame Sonny Corinthos. With a resume like that, she could easily hurt Maxie. "I want you out of this room."

"You think you can just ask me to leave? I'm family..."

"You don't act like it," Maxie countered. "I'm more his family than you are, Georgie is, too."

"Maxie... that's enough," Georgie came in. "I'm sorry, Carly..."

Carly didn't want a fight. She wanted to help Sonny find out who had ordered the driver to go after Michael. "You know what, fine. You stay with him until Courtney gets back, Maxie. But you had better actually think about what you just did. Regardless of how little you may think about me and my relationship with Damian, you couldn't even begin to understand everything that we've gone through."

"I understand plenty," Maxie replied.

"No, you don't understand anything," Carly walked out.

Maxie felt accomplished as she saw the door close behind Carly. It was evident by the grin on her face. "Good riddance," She quipped.

Georgie, on the other hand, was not in the least bit amused or pleased with the way her sister acted. "Maxie, what's wrong with you?"

"What do you mean?" Maxie didn't think that she had done anything wrong. She was defending the interests of the man that she loved. She was being virtuous.

"You had no right to act like that towards her!" Georgie almost yelled, but she managed to keep her voice down as she dragged her sister out of the room and closed the door, hoping that the door would block out any of the unpleasant sounds. "She was just trying to be there for him!"

"No she wasn't!" Maxie shouted. "Carly's never been there for him when he wanted her around or needed her! She's way too selfish to even think about something like that!"

"That's not your call to make!" Georgie pointed out. "Besides, do you realize what you've done?"

"No."

"What do you think Sonny is going to think of you when he finds out that you just pushed his wife out of his son's bedroom?"

"I don't care what Sonny thinks!" Maxie said, and in that moment it was true. She stood by her convictions, if anyone had a problem with it then she was ready to stick up for herself. It didn't matter to her if it was Sonny Corinthos or not.

"What if Damian is upset with you?" Georgie asked, in a much lighter tone.

"Why would he be upset with me?" Maxie wondered. "I was protecting him."

"Were you?" Georgie turned the question back on Maxie. "What if he and Carly were trying to work things out? What if they were already at a point in their relationship where they weren't hostile towards one another? Didn't he tell you that things were getting a little better between them?"

"Only a little better," Maxie mumbled.

"And you might have just set everything back with your outburst," Georgie said.

"I was only trying to help," Maxie began to realize that maybe she didn't make the right choice in that instance.

"I know you were only trying to help, Maxie, but you might not have helped. If anything, you might have ended up being his worst enemy."

"I didn't want that," Maxie thought about apologizing to Carly, but she still didn't feel that she had truly done anything wrong. She could tell that Carly didn't like him on some level, she was only trying to hide it from everyone and maybe they were falling for it, but Maxie refused to be ignorant.

"I thought Carly was with him..." Courtney came up, but she had seen Carly out of the corner of her eye as she was walking back to the room. "What happened?"

"Maxie got a little overzealous..."

"Oh, really?" Courtney cocked an eyebrow.

"I told Carly that she needed to leave," Maxie said softly. "I didn't think that Damian was safe with her around him."

While Courtney wasn't exactly thrilled with Maxie's decision to shoo Carly away, she couldn't hide the fact that she actually mirrored Maxie's feelings about Carly and Damian's relationship. It wasn't as hostile as it once was, but they weren't about to hold hands and sing Disney tunes, either. "You shouldn't have made that call, Maxie," Courtney said. "Carly has every right to be with him, she's family."

"She's not his family..."

"Maxie, you know how he views family, marriage is enough," Courtney opened the door. "Did you wake him up?"

"No, we went out in the hall when we started to shout..."

"You know, I don't think that you did anything wrong, but you could have put him in a state of mind that would only end up hurting him some more in the end," Courtney pushed the door open further. "Maybe you two should just go home and get some rest."

"Can't I say goodbye?"

"I think he knows that you were here, Maxie," Courtney replied, closing the door.

"Courtney's right, you know," Georgie said. "We shouldn't have been yelling at each other, and you shouldn't have been so mean to Carly."

"I won't think that I was the bad person in that, Georgie... but maybe I was a little too forceful."

"Come on, let's go put our stuff away and we'll walk home," Georgie grabbed Maxie's shoulder and walked her down the hall.

Waiting Area-

"You ready?" Carly asked Dillon, trying to show her face as blank as possible, trying not to show that she was hurt by what Maxie had said, but the truth was that she was hurt. Did she come off as the person that she once was towards Damian? She didn't want to appear to be that mean anymore, because she didn't think like that about him anymore. She actually cared about Damian, and she cared about him before he saved Michael's life.

Dillon thought that something was wrong with Carly, but he wasn't going to say anything because he knew that she wouldn't tell him, "Michael's still asleep."

"Courtney talked to you though, right?" Carly asked.

"Yeah, she said that I was going to go back to the penthouse with you."

"Which is what you're doing right now," Carly said. She shook Michael softly so he woke up. "Hey, Mr. Man, we have to go back home now."

"Is Damian coming with us?" Michael asked, still groggy.

"Honey, you know that he's going to be in the hospital for a little while longer, but he'll be coming home eventually."

"Can't I say goodbye?" Michael asked.

Normally, Carly would have caved under the pressure of such a simple request, but she didn't want to see Maxie again for awhile, not until they both had time to let themselves cool down. "Honey, he's sleeping. I said goodbye for you." It was a white lie, one that wouldn't hurt anyone. "If you go in there and wake him up he might have trouble going back to bed which will only keep him in the hospital longer. You don't want that, do you?"

"No, mommy, I don't. I want him to come home as soon as possible."

"We all do, sweetie," Carly hugged Michael and picked him up. "Now, come on, we'll put you in bed and we'll come back and see him tomorrow when you're back from school."

Dillon was awed by the compassion that Carly showed Michael. It was nothing like the stories that the Quatermaine's had told him about her time being in their family turned out. She wasn't a cold viper... not all the time at least. He pushed the button to open the elevator doors and followed Carly into the elevator, pushing it again when they were all in.

Outside the Penthouse-

Carly had been silent the entire ride home. Michael had fallen back asleep in the back seat of the car, slouching on Dillon. Dillon didn't mind, he thought it was kind of cute, something that he might have done with Ned if they were closer. Maybe that was what it was like to have a little brother. He always wondered about what it would be like. When they arrived at their destination, Carly turned around. "Could I ask you a really big favor?"

"Sure," Dillon said. He didn't want to deny Carly any favors since if he did she might go and tell Courtney and Jason and he would find himself on the streets again. Damian seemed to be enthusiastic about their being neighbors when he finally came home. Dillon was looking forward to it as well.

"Could you take him back to the penthouse?"

"What? Why?"

"Because there's something that I have to do and it's really important. I just wanted to get the two of you back here so you could get some decent rest in your beds."

"Carly..."

"Dillon, don't worry about it. They'll see you carrying Michael and they'll know not to shoot you."

"Oh, that's comforting."

"I was joking anyway," She replied. "Courtney told them that you were living with her and they know that you're allowed to be around now. The door is almost never locked and even if it is one of the guards always has the keys. Just take him to his room."

"I don't even know where his room is!" Dillon said. "I've never been in your house before." He didn't think he would ever actually go into the Corinthos home, he just thought he's stay on the other side.

"Ask someone, they know everything. Dillon, please."

"Okay..." Dillon muttered. He unbuckled his seatbelt and then Michael's, picking the boy up in his arms before dragging himself out of the car and carrying Michael. Michael stirred and looked around, not exactly being fond of being in someone else's arms, but Carly was already on her way out.

"Where's my mommy?" Michael asked.

"She told me to take you up to your room," Dillon replied.

"Why couldn't she come with us?"

"I don't know, Michael," Dillon said because he honestly didn't have a clue what was going on.

Minutes Later, Lorenzo Alcazar's Home-

Carly rushed up to the door and started to knock. Lorenzo opened the door in a hurry. Carly looked him in the eyes and asked a question, "What did you do?"

Lorenzo looked at her and gave his emotionless answer, "Exactly what you told me to."