Kelly's, Afternoon-
Dillon waited patiently at one of the tables in the restaurant. Hours had passed since he had to say goodbye to Bessie, but the pain was still there. He still wanted to have just one more day with her. Maybe he could hide her somewhere, take her away from the place that they dumped her and keep her a secret from everyone, that way nobody would ever be able to steal her away again. The idea showed promise, but he didn't know where he could possibly hope to hide a Christmas tree of that size. Fate was against Dillon Quartermaine, he was certain of that fact.
"You look like someone just kicked your puppy…"
"I never had a puppy."
"Neither did I, but that doesn't mean I would look happy if someone kicked my puppy." Damian sat down across from his younger friend. He knew full well what would happen in a few months. Dillon was going to graduate from high school and, unlike Damian, he wasn't going to stay around the hometown for a few years. Dillon wanted to get the hell away from Port Charles, and while Damian certainly couldn't blame him for having such feelings the young man also couldn't help but worry about losing one of the only real friends that he ever had. The people at med school weren't exactly chum material.
"Thanks for coming…"
"You wanted me to come over and I came, I don't know why you couldn't have just asked me to go over to the penthouse. It's a shorter walk."
"I wasn't there when I called you."
"Dillon… what's wrong?"
The younger man sighed, "Jason took my tree away…"
There was nothing at first. No sound came from Damian's mouth. He just sat there, stunned. Not stunned by the fact that Jason had decided to take the tree out, stunned because Dillon was taking it so hard. A second later and he couldn't help it, he started to chuckle softly.
"What's so funny?"
"You're hurt because Uncle Jason got rid of your Christmas tree?"
"I loved Bessie!"
"You named the tree Bessie?"
"You named the piano at your grandparents' house!" It was one of the stories that Damian had told Dillon of his time in Los Angeles. Fuel to the fire for Dillon at that moment. Why did everyone think that it was so weird that he named the tree?
"I was like nine years old, I wasn't in my late teens…"
"She was good to me."
"You'll get another tree next year," Damian remarked, trying to sound sympathetic, and quite possibly failing miserably. "But you're going to do it by yourself, or at least not with me. I'm not spending another two hours of my life in freezing weather while you go and look for Bessie Junior."
"What if I'm not even here for the next Christmas?" It hadn't really dawned upon Dillon until that moment. He wanted to get out of Port Charles, even though there were things that he loved about the town. But if he left, would he even come back? Dillon wasn't sure that he would.
"Then you really are going by yourself…"
"Come on, I'm being serious here."
"What do you want me to say, Dillon? If you choose to stay away from this place for the rest of your life then that is your choice and nobody can make it but you. I'm not going to try and talk you out of going and doing what you want to do, I'm not even going to try and convince you that you should stick around just a little while longer. I always regretted waiting as long as I did to come here… both to start school and to find my family, but I made that choice because the people I cared about at the time didn't want to see me go."
"I never really gave it much thought, you know?"
"You're a high school senior, you never give anything much thought. You'll make the choice that you think is right."
"Hey you two," Elizabeth walked up, dressed in her uniform and holding the pad of paper that she would use to take their orders. "Everything going good here?"
"Dillon's going through post-Christmas tree departure depression…"
"Announce it to the world, why don't you!"
Elizabeth wasn't sure what Damian meant by the phrase, and she wasn't entirely certain if she wanted to know, but she decided that she could play along for a little while. "What's wrong, Dillon?"
"Jason took my tree away…"
"You managed to get a tree inside of Jason's place for Christmas?" Elizabeth hadn't really heard much about the great story that came with tree hunting and battling Jason Morgan, king of the no celebration. "That's impressive. When Jason and I were together… well, I didn't end up winning that battle, I can tell you that much."
"We still have ours," Damian wasn't sure when Sonny would take the tree away, he didn't really care, either. "You can come and look at it, you can even give it a hug."
"Now you're just mocking me."
"I've been mocking you since you got the damned thing," Damian quickly countered. "Are you going to order something?"
"Cheeseburger and fries…"
"What about you, Damian?"
"Just a salad." He wasn't very hungry, and despite the fact that he could buy enough food for a good section of the town and not bat an eyelash, Damian wasn't the type of person who would buy a bunch of food and then not eat it. "Italian dressing…"
"Call me if you need anything else."
"Hey, Elizabeth," Damian spoke to her as she began to walk away, "Did Uncle Ric leave yet?"
She blushed, remembering how he saw them. "He's been gone for a few hours, why?"
"Just making sure."
Dillon saw the grin that was on Damian's face. "What was that about?"
"Inside joke."
Dillon was still wondering what exactly made the comment so amusing to his friend when he heard the door open. The young man looked over and saw his niece. "Hey, Brook!"
Brook Lynn once again had to find a way to get out of the mansion. They weren't fighting anymore, but they were smothering her with their attempts at being caring parents. She wasn't sure which she hated more, but she was banking on the latter. They didn't care enough to do those things when she was growing up and now they just expected her to be okay with them trying to make up for lost time?
"Why don't you come sit with us?" Dillon asked, being as good of an uncle as he possibly could. He didn't have a lot of training. It wasn't like Alan was the best uncle to him in the world, but he did like Alan.
"Is that okay with you?" Brook asked Damian not wanting to impose on him.
"You know it is," he replied, "there's plenty of room for the three of us right here, unless you just came to grab something to go… but you can hang around all you want, neither of us mind the company."
Brook smiled as she sat down in one of the empty chairs. Knowing how Dillon's night went, she instead focused on the other man, the one that she wasn't related to, "How'd your New Years Eve go?"
"I got stuck in New York City overnight…"
Dillon had to keep himself from spitting out the contents of his soda when he heard Damian's answer. "You and Maxie got stuck overnight in New York City? On New Years Eve?"
"There was too much snow for the pilot to even think about taking off. Believe me, I wanted to get out of there as soon as I could, but we had to go and look for a room. We found one in one of the most expensive hotels… and note that I said one."
"Mac must have been throwing a fit."
Damian shook his head, "Mac doesn't know that we only had one room, but he doesn't blame me for what happened, thankfully."
Brook already had ideas of what happened when they found themselves stuck in New York City alone in a hotel room all to themselves. It wasn't exactly the best thought that she could have had, and she obviously didn't know Damian that well if she was assuming that he would do something like that. "Did you have fun?"
"Not really, no…"
"How could you not have fun in New York?" Dillon asked. "Man, when I think about everything that I would do if I got stuck there. So many movie theaters, so little time."
"I'll let you go instead of me next time and every subsequent time, how's that?"
"Deal!" Dillon was going to hold Damian to that agreement. If it meant free trips to the city why wouldn't he take the offer?
"I'm with you, Damian," Brook chimed in, giving her opinion, not knowing if they gave much weight to it and not caring either way. "I mean, I might be named after one of the parts of New York, but I don't really like it that much. The people there are so rude and self-centered."
"Are you sure you two are related?"
"We find the situation hard to believe at times, too," Dillon agreed. "I mean, I can't sing… at all… and Brook…"
"Dillon!" Brook cut in before he could say anything else.
"What?" Dillon remained oblivious to the fact that his niece might not have wanted her talents displayed for all the world to see. "Brook, you have an awesome voice, really, if I had a voice like that I would want people to know. Okay, I wouldn't because I'm a guy and guys shouldn't be able to hit the notes that you can, but if I had the male equivalent…"
"Would you shut up!"
"I didn't know you could sing, Brook."
"She's really good! She's going to be famous and then she's going to forget all about her Uncle Dillon, unless he becomes a great movie director, then she'll use him to advance her acting career…"
"Didn't I ask you to shut up?"
"You didn't ask," Dillon said, "you sort of demanded."
"And it didn't work, did it?"
"Dillon, if Brook doesn't want people to know about her singing ability… well, I can understand it. I didn't let people know about my piano playing skills, limited though they might be…"
Brook shook her head, "I've heard you play before, remember? You're good."
"You're just trying to make me feel better. But thank you for that. I know what you're feeling, Brook, at least I think I am. You don't want people to know because you don't want them to shower praise on you. You don't want to be the center of attention because you feel like something is wrong when you are."
"How did you…"
He smiled, "I went through the same thing when I started getting decent at the piano. People who would never pay attention to me before would want me to play a song for them and then they would go back to ignoring me until they needed me again. I hated that, I hated feeling like I was one of those people that you pay on the corner of the street to do something."
Dillon, despite lacking musical talent in the least, could relate to the plight of both his friend and his niece. He touched Brook's arm as softly as he could, "I'm sorry that I was trying to show you off. I do think that you have a wonderful voice, but if you don't want people to know…"
"It's cool, just don't do it again." Brook wasn't sure why, but she and Damian had more in common than either of them had ever really realized. Why was he with someone who appeared to have almost nothing in common with him? Why was he with Maxie?