"Are you serious!" Even as she stalked down the hallway, arms swinging at her sides and ending in tightly clenched fists, Emily could keep the conversation going. "I can't believe you'd let them do this to him, Elizabeth. I mean, yeah, I realize that you're worried about Cameron and Alcazar, but—with him!"

"Em, I'm sorry! I wasn't even there." Elizabeth tried her best to keep up with Emily. It probably would have been easier if she weren't so tired. "God, running back and forth between Luis and Cameron-- If I could get them in the same room, I probably would, but with Diego sick, too, Lorenzo made sure that his son and his brother were put in the same room."

"But—Sonny!" Emily had always done her best to tolerate Sonny. In the beginning, when Jason first had his accident, she was even nice to him. After all, he'd taken Jason in when he couldn't stand to be around the majority of the family. When Jason needed someone, Sonny had been there for him. But that was before everything went to hell in a handbasket.

Maybe she could have forgiven him if he'd at least played fair. Of course, she didn't know why she had expected him to do that. She'd heard how bad he was for so long, but for Jason's sake, she'd believed the best of him. If Jason trusted him, then she guessed she could trust him, too. But after the meat locker—

A lot of time had passed since Sonny Corinthos had locked AJ away in a meat locker with an ultimatum. Sign the papers and give me Michael. Or drink the vodka, end up drunk and I get him anyway. That was pretty much the way the cookie crumbled, and AJ wouldn't have taken the drink. Emily knew he'd do anything to stop himself from becoming the worst that he could be.

It still angered her that she was the only one who believed him. Jason siding against him was one thing. Emily was used to that, and as much as she tried to convince him that AJ wasn't as bad as Carly and Sonny wanted him to believe, there was no getting through to him. She was lucky that they'd managed to be somewhat civil in the past year or so, and even that was just because of her. But the rest of the family—

They didn't believe him. They just figured that he was drunk again. He'd gone on another bender, and this time, it had lost him his son. No, it had lost Alan and Monica their grandson. It had lost Edward his new heir. Ned wasn't good enough. AJ wasn't good enough. He always had to have someone younger and stronger, someone else who he could train to be exactly like him. It almost made Emily glad that Michael wasn't living with them. But it was an almost that was pretty damn far away from certain.

"Em, I know it's not the best place for him, but would you rather he be out in the hallway?"

"Yes! No! I don't know!" She sighed and came to a halt. Emily swept to the side and hit the wall with a thud. Her head dipped, and long dark hair fell into her face. She swept it back and looked at Elizabeth, hands still at the sides of her head. "I wish these rooms were bigger, ya know? Then I could have Nikolas and AJ in the same room where I could look after 'em. If they were bigger, I could talk Stefan into it, as long as Alexis and Nikolas were together, but—I can't because the rooms aren't big enough."

"I know, honey." Elizabeth put a gentle hand on her shoulder. Emily looked at her with a pout, and a slight bit of amazement. With everything she had going on right now, she was still able to comfort. She could take the time out to come and tell her personally about AJ and take her to him. "If there were anywhere else we could have put him, we would have. Ric was already put in with Dillon, so that was out. The other rooms were filling up so fast—" She shook her head. "This was the only spot open when he came in, and Robin knew it wouldn't be easy."

"Easy." Emily snorted a harsh laugh. "Easy is me in the same room with Stefan Cassadine compared to this." She pushed herself from the wall and continued down the hall. "There's no telling what's going on in that room."

"They're both so sick, Em, they probably don't have the strength to fight."

"Oh, you don't know AJ." Emily sighed. "Nobody knows AJ but me, I think sometimes. He's stronger than a lot of people give him credit for. He's strong enough not to drink, and I know that sometimes he does it for me, but he also does it for himself. Drinking got him into all of this, and he doesn't want it to go that way again."

Emily knew they were drawing nearer to the room because she heard voices. They were strained, but still loud enough to be a commotion. It was like listening to two hoarse people go at it full tilt, which is probably exactly what was going on.

She walked quicker, leaving Elizabeth behind to reach the room. There were so many people that she needed to see, but none sooner than AJ. Emily had visited briefly with Cameron and, at one point, had even peeked into the room of Alcazars on Elizabeth's request. They were sick, but they were alive, which was a good enough report for the moment. She still had yet to see Sam and her brother, Danny, and hadn't been back to the room yet to check in on Nikolas. But, right now, even he would have to wait until she got to AJ.

"Stop it!" Emily shouted loud enough to hurt her throat as she stormed into the room. "Stop it, right now!" She turned to Sonny and glared. "You have no right to say anything to him!"

"Emily—"

"No! I give you the benefit of the doubt because of Jason. He trusts you, though I don't know why, and you helped him when he needed it. Fine. But you've also done a lot to hurt him. You've hurt my entire family, and you have no right to yell at AJ!"

"Emily, please." AJ's voice was weak and as she turned to him, Emily gasped and her hands went to her mouth. His face was pale, his lips gray and eyes sunken in, red around the edges. His face and arms were covered in a thin sheen of sweat. "Not now, okay? Just—let it go."

Her hands dropped slowly. "Oh, AJ." She rushed to him and grabbed his hand. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there. I heard about what happened, and believe me, when I see Ned, he's gonna hear about it. I'm so tired of his garbage."

"Not like I haven't given him reason to be like that."

"He should still be a little bit smarter than this." His hand was burning up, just like Nikolas had been, and she wondered if they were on the same level with the sickness or if AJ might have been worse. At least she'd been there to take Nikolas to the hospital. AJ had been forced to wait. "And you shouldn't have to be in here with him. Not alone. But, Nikolas is here, and I can't just leave him."

Emily bit her lip and shook her head. This was too hard. AJ and Nikolas were on different floors, and with all the people in the halls, it would take at least five to ten minutes to get between them at any time. She couldn't stay with both of them, but she didn't want to leave either of them alone. Granted, Nikolas wasn't alone, but she wasn't with him, so it amounted to the same thing to her.

"Go back to Nikolas," AJ told her. "I'll be fine."

"Don't play the martyr on my account, AJ. You need somebody with you. Somebody to protect you from him."

"I started it," he said weakly. "I think I started it. I was halluncinating. Back in that meat locker—" AJ shook his head. "I thought he was standing there, and I yelled, but I started it."

"Don't you dare blame yourself!" She whirled around. "And don't you stay anything to him, again! You're both stuck in this room, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let you hurt him, anymore. You've taken his son, isn't that enough?"

"I didn't take Michael. Carly gave him to me."

"Yeah, and now she's taking him away from you. It's the only smart thing that woman has done in her life. I swear to God, Sonny, if I hear that you've done anything to AJ, I'll make you pay. Do you hear me? I'll make you pay, and you'll see just how much Cassadine has rubbed off on me. And trust me, that's a side of me that you never EVER want to see."