Note: Daytime Emmy Nominations have been announced! Constant characters or semi-constant, for this story are: Steve Burton, Rick Hearst, Adrienne Leon and beloved Scott Clifton. Best of luck to all the GH nominees and everyone else, too.

Story-

Corinthos Household-

Completely aware of the fact that her nephew was going to be safe and returning home, Courtney found no reason to head over to the hospital, and for that she was thankful. She realized just how much time she spent there. It always seemed like there was something wrong with someone in her family, and she hated that. Even if it wasn't her family, it could be one of her friends. The people around her weren't ever as safe as she wanted to believe. It was a reality check that Courtney Morgan would have much rather gone on without.

But, if there was one thing that was positive about everything, it was the knowledge that they would be happy again. They rallied together after something bad happened, it was the way they were. They even rallied together when the horrid was happening right in front of them. Courtney was thankful that she had a family that was so supportive. They even tried to help her through her troubled times, despite the fact that they knew it would have little to no impact. Just the fact that they cared enough made Courtney thankful that she had stayed in Port Charles even after the brief moments in her life where she thought about leaving.

"Shouldn't we have balloons or something?" Michael wondered, excited as ever at the prospect of his baby brother coming home. Though he would never admit it, Michael was hurt by the fact that he could do nothing for Morgan. Even though they were both so young, Michael felt that it was his job to do something to protect his younger sibling, and while he may not have failed in the eyes of his parents or the rest of his family, Michael had failed in his own eyes.

"I'm sure the last thing that Morgan needs right now is a bunch of people crowding around him." Courtney had seen Morgan, something that Michael and even Jason couldn't claim. She'd never seen the boy look so pale. She was scared that he wasn't going to make it, even after the transplant went through. "He needs to recover from the ordeal that his body is going through."

"So I won't be able to play with him?"

Jason was proud of Michael, more than he could ever admit. "Buddy, I know how you want to do everything with Morgan that you used to do, but the truth is that right now he's still too tired to do any of it. You know how you feel after you've gotten over the flu? Even though you're all better, you still feel kind of tired?"

"Daddy makes his chicken soup… does Morgan need some of that?"

"He's still too young for the soup right now. But what I meant was that Morgan's better, he's going to be all right, we all know this, but he's still a very tired little boy. He needs his rest more than anything else."

"So how can I help?"

"Well… you can be quiet when he's trying to sleep, even more than you normally do. You can read to him and help him go to sleep, you can watch him and make sure that he's not coughing or doing anything that people do when they're sick." The list that Jason was making in his head had been cleared. There weren't many things that Michael, or any of them, could have done, but giving the boy something was much better than giving him nothing at all. "Those are the best things for Morgan right now."

"I'll do my best!" Michael proclaimed proudly. "I won't say anything when Morgan's asleep, I'll just read my comics or play my game boy with the sound off."

"See?" Courtney smiled at the boy and his efforts to be a good big brother, something that he had already proven himself to be time and time again. "Those are the types of things that you should do for people that you care about, especially after they're sick." Courtney looked at the clock. It was nearing the afternoon. Michael was dressed in regular clothes, but that didn't mean that everything was taken care of. "Michael, did you eat breakfast?" She knew that Jason wouldn't have dared attempt cooking.

"Yeah…"

"It was something somewhat healthy, right?" She cast a wary eye on Jason. He could be the gruff uncle, but more often than not, especially with Michael, he would cave. "Jason didn't just hand you a box of cookies, did he?"

"Why would I do that?" Jason asked.

"You've done it before," she countered.

"That one time…"

She giggled, "You only need to make a mistake one time for it to be remembered, Jason. What did he have for breakfast?"

"Damian made him scrambled eggs and toast."

"I don't smell any lingering scent of burning eggs or metal… so I'm going to assume that if he almost burned the house down, you took care of it."

"Uncle Jason thought that he wouldn't be able to cook, because nobody but daddy can make anything in the kitchen without a lot of smoke coming from the room, but Damian said that he could… and he did. It was really good."

Courtney walked over to her husband, whispering in his ear, "Jason, you made sure that he didn't burn any of Sonny's cooking ware, right? Just because he made something edible doesn't mean that the pan made it through the trial…"

"Everything is fine, Courtney. I was right there watching the whole time. He said he couldn't cook many things, but he knew how to make enough to feed Michael… which is more than I can say."

"You could always take lessons from Sonny," she grinned. "I wouldn't mind trying some of your own chicken pot pie one of these days."

"I wouldn't want to risk poisoning you with my cooking, so that's out of the question…"

Their private comedic moment was halted when they heard the door open. Carly walked in first, Sonny closely following behind before he shut the door. He moved the blanket that was covering Morgan out of the way, "Look, Morgan, we're home…"

Carly could see that her son was sleeping, and he had no intentions of waking up. It didn't matter to her. She just felt complete holding him in her arms. "Courtney, could you hold him for a second?"

"Of course," Courtney took the baby from her best friend's arms. She looked down at the innocent nephew who she had almost lost. Her Godson. Courtney said a silent prayer hoping that Morgan would never have to go through something like that again.

"Mommy… are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay, Mister Man!" Carly got on her knees, "I just couldn't give my brave big boy a hug while I was holding Morgan." She wrapped her arms around her firstborn child, taking great comfort in the knowledge that both of her children were safe. "I'm sorry about what happened yesterday, Michael. I know you must have been scared and I wish that I could have done something to help you with that…"

"It's okay," he said quietly, trying not to wake Morgan up because that was what big brothers did. "I know that you were afraid for Morgan, and he's just a baby so he can't tell you what was wrong with him. You had to go and take him to the hospital so the doctors could make him all better."

Carly was amazed at the maturity that Michael was showing. It was completely forgotten that only a day before he was busy giving the cold shoulder to everyone but her. When Michael needed to act strong he would do it without hesitation. That was something that Carly knew she could be proud of. "I don't think I've ever been happier to know that you're my son than right now…"

Courtney was once more touched by the moment that Carly and Michael were having. The feelings that were swelling inside of her were constantly telling her that she would never have such a moment with her own children, but she ignored them as best she could. "You know, I think Morgan would have a much better time getting some sleep if he was in his crib."

"You want to help us put your brother in his crib?" Carly asked.

"Okay," Michael held his mother's hand as they walked up, Courtney behind them with the baby safely bundled up.

Jason and Sonny were left alone. Jason could see that Sonny was stressed out and tired, and why wouldn't he be? "How you doing?"

"Better than I was twelve hours ago," Sonny admitted as he poured a glass of water for himself. "I always forget that no matter how much money I spend to make sure that my children are kept safe I can't keep them safe from everything…"

"Sonny, you didn't fail Morgan," Jason knew that his words would fall on deaf ears, especially to the man that he was speaking to. Sonny always thought that when something bad happened to his children it was somehow his fault. Michael could sprain his ankle playing soccer and it would be Sonny's fault. The curse that Sonny placed on himself was often his greatest weakness. "He got sick, nobody could have done that to him… it just happened."

"I don't know what I would do without you and Courtney," he admitted. "You're really here for both me and Carly when we need you. I know I don't say it very often, but thank you."

"You don't need to thank me or Courtney. We love Michael and Morgan and we would do anything for them."

"Is Damian sleeping?" Sonny wouldn't be surprised if he was. It took everything that Sonny had to not be knocked out on the couch, it looked so inviting.

Jason could not lie to Sonny. He had spent a good portion of his life being lied to and he knew that he didn't want to be the type of person who did the same thing to other people. "He's not here right now, Sonny. He woke up this morning and spent a little time with Michael before he left…"

"Where did he go?"

"I… I don't know."

Sonny didn't like it when Jason didn't know things. It usually meant that something bad was going to happen. "Did you try and find out?"

"He said that he needed to go somewhere, by himself," Jason could already see the conversation exploding, all that was left for him to do was brace for the impact. "He told me that he would be safe, that he was going somewhere that wouldn't put him in any danger."

"He's alone, in Port Charles, and my enemies know that he's my son… how can he not be in any danger?"

"Sonny… calm down, you're going through a lot right now, and you don't want to wake up Morgan."

"Why did you let him go, Jason?" Sonny asked. "I trust you to protect my children from danger… is Damian not good enough for you to protect?"

"Sonny…"

"I'm sorry," Sonny knew how heated his words could get. He needed to find some way to channel his anger in a way that didn't destroy his relationships with his friends, but when it came to his children… Sonny lost all logic, as would any parent. But he knew that Jason did care about Damian, maybe not as much as Michael and Morgan… but enough to protect him.

"You weren't here, you didn't see his eyes. You should know better than anyone else how people have things that only they can do by themselves. Sonny, that's practically the biggest part of your life. He's a twenty-one year old man… he was going to go out that door even if I tried to stop him."

"You have no idea about what he wanted to do? Nothing?"

"It was important to him, but he wouldn't tell me anything, and I didn't feel that it was my right to ask after he said he needed to do it alone. He told me to try and get you to leave him be. He said he'd be home later tonight, he even promised it."

"Three hours," Sonny muttered. "I'm giving him three hours to at least call someone… after that, I'm going to look for him. Are you going to help?"

"I'll do what I can…"

Elsewhere-

He looked at the closed doors and froze for a moment. Why did it seem like it always ended up coming back to the one place he didn't want to go? Instead of facing his inner demons, he only turned and walked away, but he wasn't going to give up. Not today. He just needed time to find the part of himself that would be comfortable with what he needed to do.