"Georgie..." Dillon Quartermaine groaned and rolled onto his side. His mother turned her eyes on the young girl standing in the middle of the room and glared. It was bad enough that the sympathetic, pathetic adopted waif kept wandering in and out of the room to check on Lansing. It was even worse that Cassadine kept coming in to gauge Lansing's nearness to death's door. Hell, it was bad enouh that Dillon was even forced to share a hospital room at all. But, if that damned Georgie Jones didn't stop her incessant whimpering, Tracy Quartermaine was going to explode.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be? Isn't that wretched Alcazar boy in this hospital somewhere? Go annoy his father and leave me a lone."

Georgie looked to Tracy and sighed. "I'm not bothering you. I'm not even talking to you unless you talk to me first. I'm here for Dillon."

"Well, Dillon doesn't need you. He has his mother, and that's all he needs."

Tracy took Dillon's hand and clutched it tightly. His skin was burning, and there was nothing anyone seemed able to do that would bring his fever down. He grew worse and worse, and his groaning moans mingled with Lansing's. The Quartermaines were a family of doctors, and not a single one knew what they were doing? None of them could find a way to save her baby boy?

Tracy had been careless with her son, she knew that. She had dumped him on the family's doorstep. She had found him countless fathers that were unworthy. She'd done things to control his life that he had found to be unbearable and disgusting. But, he was still her son. He was still her little boy, and she loved him.

It was just in her own way that she loved him. Tracy didn't know how to be nurturing. She left all of those saccharine displays of affection for people who were better suited for them. People like Monica, who would cry at the drop of a hat. Or people like her mother—

Lila Quartermaine had been a gem. People called her the glue that held the family together, but she was more than that. She was the only person who had ever seemed to give a damn about Tracy. And yet, even her own mother had banished her from the house in the past. Tracy had been raised to do the very same things that her brother had done, but she was born a girl and Alan got the distinction of being Edward's boy. So, while he and all the rest of those idiot men were praised for the things they did, Tracy was banished and called a witch. Was it any wonder that she didn't know how to "properly" love her son?

"Oh, now he needs you. Why is it always that you don't really care what he does half the time, but when it's something like this, oh, he's your son and nobody else can be around him. I love him, too, ya know."

Tracy groaned and turned towards Georgie. "I really don't care about anything you have to say to me. If you're going to stand there, stand silently and get out of my hair."

This was all Luke Spencer's fault. Luke and that daughter of his. Who brought a child a chimp, anyway? Didn't he know that girls liked jewels? But, no, not Luke. He had to be that cool father, instead of a respectable one. He had to bring in the newest things, the so-called hippest things. The man was a complete and utter idiot.

And yet, he was her husband. Why was she still married to him? It couldn't have just been because of the money. Tracy had plenty of opportunities to get him out of her life and would have never had to give him a penny. She could have been rid of him and that petulant girl that made home a living hell. As if it weren't already a wretched place to live. She had to make it even worse. But, still, she was married to him, and would stay that way. Why?

Tracy sighed. Because Luke Spencer made life fun. He was a pain in the ass. He made her head throb with all of his schemes and his random escapades into nowhere. He spent her money as though he actually deserved any of it. Tracy would definitely say different about that. Yet, still, life was an adventure with him. As much as Tracy had been married in her lifetime, she couldn't say that she had ever married anyone quite like Luke. Businessmen. Mob bosses. Hell, at one time, Tracy had even been a mob boss herself. But, none of that had ever been as exciting and thrilling as being Mrs. Luke Spencer.

"I could probably use this as a way to get rid of him, though," she muttered. A sound behind her made her turn. Georgie stared at her in shock and Tracy rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up."

Luke had caused this epidemic. It would be a very plausible reason to want a divorce. And if she guilted him enough with Dillon's illness, she could probably get him to just sign the damn papers and get the hell out of her life for good. But, she was still back to the same point she'd just been considering two seconds prior. In all of its disgusting glory, she still enjoyed being married to Luke Spencer.

"I'm going for some air. As much air as one could possibly get when being held hostage in a hospital full of imbeciles." She looked at Georgie and sighed. "If you want to be useful, hold his hand. But, if he wakes up, you let him know that his mother has been here. If I come back in this room to find that you've further poisoned my son against me, you'll wish that you had never met me, little girl."

Tracy stormed from the room, heels clicking against the floor. If Georgie expected her to pull a Cassadine, then she was sadly mistaken. Tracy had overheard Emily talking to Ric, telling him that Cassadine allowed her to stay in the room with Nikolas without much grief. Well, Cassadines were a different breed, anyway. They obviously didn't have what it takes to stand firm in their beliefs. Tracy may not have been able to forcibly remove Georgie from the room, seeing as how Alan and Monica liked her, but she could make her stay there very uncomfortable. She wasn't going to have Dillon without a fight, and that was that.

"Mother?" Tracy shook her head, cleared her vision.

"Ned." Tracy sighed. Were her eldest son more of a compassionate soul where she were concerned, Tracy might have hugged him. As it were… "So, you've finally decided to make your way towards your brother. How loving of you."

"I realize that this is how you deal, but don't, Mother. Now is not the time."

"Then, when is the time, Ned? Dillon has been here for hours, and I haven't seen you in his room once. I've seen Cassadine more than I've seen you, and let me tell you, that was not my idea of fun."

Ned sighed. "I thought that maybe you'd like time alone with Dillon."

"Alone! Ha!" Tracy rolled her eyes. "With the Princess of Perfection standing over me and that man in the bed across the room—You'd think that Alan or Monica would be able to get him into a private room!"

"There are no private rooms. There are too many sick people, and they're going where they can. The only person in a private room is Luke, and that's only because he's getting better and they don't know why." Tracy's head popped up. As much as she'd been thinking about Luke, she had yet to actually see him. "They're running tests and don't want to run the chance that he might get sick again."

"So, Luke managed to survive. Of course. He's Luke." She rolled her eyes. "Figures that he'd start this whole mess and then be the last one standing. The only one standing! Where is he! I should go and—" She shook her head. "No. I'm not leaving this hallway. Luke just has to suffer on his own, because I'm not leaving that girl in the room with Dillon for too long."

"Georgie loves Dillon, Mother."

"And I don't? I am really tired of hearing about their young love and how wonderful they are together. So, if that's all you have to say, you can turn right back down that hall and go somewhere else. I'm not listening to it!"

And she didn't. Tracy didn't stick her fingers in her ears. She didn't start making loud noises to drown him out. That was uncouth and childish. Tracy may have been brash and careless at times, but she was most definitely not childish. Instead, she merely turned around and went back to the room. Because Georgie Jones had been left alone with her son for far too long.