Quatermaine Mansion, Interior-
He had been looking around at the people in the mansion. All of them were his family, all of them, on some level loved him and he returned that love in a strange way. Nobody would ever call the Quatermaine's a model family. Even if they were more average in the wealth sense, something that wouldn't work out very well for most of the people in the family, they would still be quirky and spiteful and all the problems that they had would still be there, aside from the financial greed.
They had finally stopped looking at him, and that was something that he was grateful for. Even his mother had finally managed to lessen her death grip on his sternum, breathing was still something that wasn't very easy for him. Dillon looked at the clock, wondering how long he had been inside the mansion. It seemed like it was an eternity, and yet it wasn't even half an hour.
"Do you need to be somewhere?"
"What?" Dillon spun around, looking at Emily and grinning meekly, trying to cover up the fact that he was counting down the moments until he could be free. He knew that if he tried to get out of the mansion now, Damian would stop him. But maybe he could club his best friend over the head with something blunt and heavy. His eyes continued to dart around while he looked for an object that would fit the bill.
"Are you okay?" Emily wasn't sure how to take Dillon's apparent scatterbrained methods. He'd always been a little odd, and that was putting it mildly, but he had never been so unfocused. He marched to the beat of his own drum, but that drum was constantly in tune, or so she believed. Maybe she was wrong.
"Huh?" Dillon really wasn't paying attention to Emily, something that he felt remorse for, but his mind was occupied on other things, and Emily didn't appear to be dying in front of him, so surely she could have been pushed aside, if only for a few moments.
"Are you on drugs?" Emily finally asked. "Because if you are, Dillon, and if Jason finds out… he won't be happy. Assuming he doesn't throw you out of his house in a matter of seconds he'll at least insist that you get some help, and if you are doing something, Dillon, you should get help."
"Emily…" Dillon heard the word drugs and was able to piece together the rest. "I'm sorry, this is just strange for me. Give me some adjustment time, please."
"Dillon, you lived here for years. This was your home long before Jason's penthouse became your home. You should always feel comfortable here. We all want you to feel like you're a part of this family, because you are." Emily loved her brother, dearly, and she was glad that Jason took Dillon in when he didn't have to, or probably want to, but the fact remained, Dillon should have been comfortable inside the mansion. It was as much his home as it was anyone else's. While the home may have belonged to Monica on the deed, it belonged to the family in spirit.
"I'm not on drugs," Dillon firmly stated. "Nor did I inhale the fumes from my hairspray on a dangerous level. I promise you, Emily, I'm fine. I was just thinking about how I'm going to get out of here."
"We're your family, you've been away from us, you shouldn't want to leave so soon," Emily was hurt by the fact that Dillon seemed to wish for distance so quickly. She knew the family could be a handful, but for him to just want to get away from them all, on Christmas Eve, was a slap in the face.
"I know you're my family, but I have other people that I enjoy spending time with. People who mean just as much to me as the Quatermaine's do. Is it wrong of me to want to spend some time with them, too?"
Emily was silenced. Who was she to prosecute him when, in truth, she wanted to be away from the mansion and in the loving arms of Nikolas more than anything else? If Dillon wanted to spend time with people that weren't Quartermaine's, then it was his right. "I'm sorry I jumped on you like that, it was wrong of me. But I miss having you around. I mean, who else in this family can appreciate foreign films with me better than you?"
"We had some good times watching those movies, didn't we?" Dillon found, of all the Quatermaines, sans Lila, Emily was the easiest to get along with, the easiest to talk to, the one that had accepted him into the family quickest when he arrived out of the blue. For that he was indebted, and the fact that they had a few things in common only helped make that bond even stronger. He looked at her straight in the eyes, "Tell you what, Emily, sometime… maybe after New Year, hopefully before I get off of Winter Break, we'll spend the day together, watching movies again. What do you say?"
"I'd like that," Emily hugged her dear cousin. "Whatever you do, don't let people push you away from us, even if we're the ones who are trying to do the pushing. You mean more to us than you think you do, try and remember that."
"Miss Emily," Alice walked in. Despite the fact that it was Christmas Eve, she was spending her time with the Quatermaine's. They were family to her, and she loved them all individually… except Tracy. Tracy she would love nothing more than to strangle. "Mister Cassadine is on the phone for you."
"Oh, I hope that he isn't calling to tell me that Luke shoved him out of the Spencer House and he's waiting alone in the cold without a jacket," Emily walked passed Dillon, her eyes showing the apologetic nature that she felt for leaving him so soon. "Thank you, Alice."
Dillon watched Emily go. He did take her words to heart, but he still didn't regret his decision. He needed to break away from his family, everyone needed to do that at some point or another. He was determined to make sure that he could do the same thing. Never mind the fact that he was living with his cousin, at least Jason let him live his own life.
Edward felt lonely, even surrounded by the many loved ones who were around him. None of them could replace Lila in his heart, not a single one of them, and they all knew that. Nobody could compare to Lila Quatermaine. His first Christmas without her, and it wasn't going well at all. Still, he was the Patriarch of the Quatermaine family, and he was expected to be strong and stable, he couldn't and wouldn't allow himself to break down, even when it seemed like it was the best thing to do.
"I kept my distance from you while you were being mobbed and then crushed to death by your mother," Edward walked up to Dillon, "but now, I think you can afford to humor this old man and give him a moment of your time, can't you?"
"I've got nothing better to do," Dillon sighed in defeat. He was going to get a lecture about how he needed to come back into the house, and cut his hair, and stop seeing Georgie. Maybe he did have something better to do, there had to be some drying paint on the walls.
"If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to hold it over my head?"
"That depends on the secret…"
"Wise answer," Edward said with a chuckle. "I can assure you that it isn't something that you can use against me, at least on any sort of professional level. But, as much as it pains me to admit this, Dillon… I missed you."
"Did someone spike your eggnog?"
"Nonsense, young man," Edward slapped Dillon on the back forcefully. "You added a degree of spunk to the house that has never been replicated by anyone else. I think it had something to do with your hair, maybe I was wrong to judge it so harshly."
"Monica!" Dillon looked over at Monica, "I think Grandfather's having a stroke! He's paying me compliments and not trying to come at me with the hair shaver…"
"Now look here, Dillon," Edward's voice got stern, as it often did with Dillon. He figured that it was intimidating to his grandson. Poor Edward was extremely misguided. "We've had our differences, but that's because we're two different people, it doesn't mean that I'm not fond of you, nor does it mean that I don't miss seeing you around."
"How much is my mom paying you to say this?"
"Stop that," Edward pleaded, something he never did, especially with Dillon. "You're making this moment very difficult for me, Dillon, and right now the last thing that any of us need is for someone to be causing problems. Please, just stay around… I'm not even asking you to stay for that long, but try and enjoy yourself, you look like you're searching for an escape route."
"Did you cover up that crawl space that leads outside?" Dillon grimaced, he'd just given up the information that he often used to sneak out of the house when he was under surveillance.
"Lila would want you to enjoy yourself," Edward noted softly and somberly. "It tore at her heart when you left… when you left without saying goodbye."
"I apologized for that," Dillon knew how much it hurt his grandmother when he left without saying anything at all. The first thing he did when he went to visit his mother after he had been 'exiled' was go up to her room and spend a few moments with her. "I just needed to get out of here as fast as I could."
"And when you heard what happened you came running. You didn't have to."
"Yes I did. She was my grandmother."
"Now it's my turn to thank you for something, Dillon," Edward smiled. "That tape that you made… the one that you spliced together using home movies that we took with Lila in them, it's become one of my most cherished possessions."
Blushing slightly at the compliment, knowing that it came from Edward's heart, something that rarely happened, Dillon gave a warm smile, "You're welcome. I thought that it was something that you deserved. Sometimes people question your motives, Grandfather. Sometimes they demonize you for no good reason other than the fact that you appear to be some callous heartless creature… I know I did a few times, but nobody would ever think that for a moment when they saw you with Grandmother. She brought out the best in you."
"She brought out the best in all of us." Edward agreed with Dillon's summarization of himself and his questionable motives. No matter what, Edward wanted people to know that he loved Lila with all his heart and soul, and he knew that people did indeed know that very fact. "Many times, when I think about your grandmother, when I feel lonely, I come downstairs and watch that movie you made. I had to have Emily teach me how to use that confounded DVD player that you seemed to treat like the Holy Grail. But it helps me more than you could ever know. I know I used to mock your love of movies, your dream to become a director… but seeing what you did with simple home movies, Dillon, I know that you can make a name for yourself, I know that you know how to touch the hearts of people around the world."
"Grandfather…" Dillon was stunned. He didn't know how to take all of the praise. He did the only thing that he knew was going to work, "Thank you… that means a lot to me."
Edward's gaze was sidetracked by another that was walking into the room. He returned his glance to Dillon, if only momentarily, "It appears that Justus has decided to join us, excuse me while I speak with him about some legal documents concerning ELQ's latest merger…"
"Grandfather, it's Christmas Eve…"
"Hence why it's the best time to strike a deal, Dillon," Edward's eye got that shine in it that happened ever so rarely, "people are in such a giving mood around this time of year. Please, don't go anywhere, at least stay for dinner."
"Sure," Dillon nodded before giving a shallow wave to Justus.
"Everyone's having such a wonderful time with you around them, darling, but I want to spend the most time with you."
"They all seem like they miss me so much…"
"We do miss you, Dillon," Tracy knew that she missed her son most of all. "What, did you think that we would all be celebrating when you left? We're a family, when someone abandons the family, it hurts us."
"And when someone in the family decides that they want to throw me out of the family, it hurts me," Dillon countered, somewhat snidely.
"How many times do I have to apologize for that? I told you, I was angry… it was an empty threat."
"And yet I still don't believe you," Dillon knew that his mother meant business when she tossed him out into the streets that day. He knew when Tracy was serious and when she wasn't, on that day, she was very serious.
"You can't seriously believe that we think you enjoy spending more time living with Jason than you do living here with your family… you can't even expect me to believe that Jason enjoys having you there!"
Another voice sounded from behind Tracy, "I've gotten used to it. I adjust quickly."
Tracy jumped at the sound of her nephew's voice, spinning around in a hurry, "Leave it to you… getting in so quickly and silently. If I didn't know better I'd assume that you were here to take one of us out."
"Not tonight." Jason's cold blue eyes looked at the gathered crowd. They were all standing there, looking at him like he was some sort of ghost. Probably because the ghost of Jason Quatermaine always lingered when he was around. That was one of the main reasons why he avoided being around his family as much as possible, but he had made the plunge, and he could only hope that he didn't regret it.