A/N: Hi, guys! Been working on this one and I decided I had to rearrange some things from the original airing of this story: the first being Robert and Sean making up. The conversation as it aired just didn't feel as poignant as it deserved and occurs a bit later on in the show. I felt it made more sense for them to make up before they went gravedigging lol. And the second, you'll see some obvious changes in Katherine and Anna's discussion, for what I hope are obvious reasons—being that I'm not setting up for a Robert/Katherine reunion. Even in the show, it was a pointless reunion that kind of just put the couple on life-support for a few months. Anyway, thank you to saint2sinner, BoandNora-ItsOneWord, ShanRB, HavenSM, and Guest for your reviews! Reading them is always enormously helpful to my writing, so thank you!

Chapter 12

Tiffany was shocked to open the door to the penthouse and find Robert standing on the other side of it. "Tiff," he greeted, back straight and hands clasped. "The old man in?"

"I—" she wasn't sure what to say. She knew that Robert and Sean had been having issues and didn't want them fighting when she would have to sleep in bed next to one of them tonight. Sean was a brooder, after all.

She needn't have worried. As soon as he heard Robert's voice, Sean had materialized behind her. "Robert."

"Guess so," Robert answered his own question. He was looking at Tiffany still, and having known Robert all these years, she could tell that he was uncomfortable and trying not to show it. Whatever it was that got him here, it must have been bad.

Sean sighed and Tiffany decided to be the adult and usher Robert in. "Well, come on, don't just stand there, get in here and—" she elbowed Sean roughly and he groaned in surprise. "Talk to him," she hissed, pushing her husband towards his friend's back.

"Everything alright?" Sean asked, hands in his pockets. "Look like you just lost your best friend."

"Maybe," Robert said in that cool way of his. But Sean had already lost patience. In fact, he had been more than ready to have this out for a while. If they didn't, Robert would never settle things.

With Anna, wrongs eventually drifted away to forgiveness and understanding. With Robert, as soon as he found out he was betrayed, he constructed a wall that could stay up for years, or forever.

"Alright, alright, will you just cut this crap?!" Sean exploded. "You know, I am sick and tired of you being around me, trying to make me feel guilty about something that happened YEARS AGO!"

"What the hell am I meant to feel here?" Robert asked, honestly searching Sean's face for a response. "Huh!?"

Robert had been freezing Sean out since he told him the whole business with Faison… and Sean honestly didn't know what or how Robert felt, besides cold and angry. This…this secret was teeming with more than perhaps Sean even knew. He was Robert and Anna's friend both. But what had gone on between them was something that he had interfered with, unaware of how deep and consuming it had become. And the very fallout had been constructed with a lie—a lie that they had lived with every day of their lives.

Sean knew what he was asking of Robert. But he was incapable of changing the past.

"Look, I've been trying to help. I've been trying every step of the way to do anything I can to make this go away, in the present, which is all that I can do! But you know what I don't need is your smug, self-righteous ATTITUDE towards me!"

"Good, because I didn't come here for any of that." No matter how heated Sean got, Robert was composed.

"The why DID you come here?" Sean demanded.

Robert was already pushing past Sean, fed-up and not as composed at all as Sean had assumed. "To apologize."

"To apologize?" Tiff squeaked, already lifting her arms to brace Robert backwards.

"Yeah, but the deal's off!"

Tiffany was pushed towards the door and she slammed her hand against it and shoved Robert with the other, now frustrated past the point of silence. "No! Will you just stop—stop it right there! Now, come on."

Robert laid off and listened because Tiffany was gearing up and there was usually no stopping it.

"You guys are just so stupid sometimes, it makes me nauseous! You know, you would do anything, than admit! That you would rather lose your best friend in the entire world than sit there and say how miserable you both have been since everything happened."

Neither of them looked at her, or each other. Sean scratched between his eyes and took a breath, chastened.

"Wouldn't you? Well, I think it's absolutely stupid, I think it's childish, I think you should stay here," she looked pointedly at Robert, "talk it out until everything gets done and if you don't, I will tie you up and make sure you stay here." She leaned into the Police Commissioner's face. "Do you understand that?"

Robert grunted something like an assent, or at least that was what Tiffany took it for. She proceeded to demand that they each respond to her in turn and then with a serious, threatening "good", she flounced back up the stairs to leave the silent men to obey.

"I don't hear any talking!" she called when they didn't oblige her quickly enough.

Sean huffed a sarcastic laugh when she was out of earshot. "Easy for her to say, isn't it." There was no question in his voice, and Robert didn't respond.

His eyes were fixed on the floor for a long moment, and Sean could tell he was warring with himself for even being here at all. Then he finally met his friend's gaze and the bitterness and hurt came back to the surface.

"I trusted you."

"I know," Sean said. "I get it. But I'm not about to apologize again. We have to work together now, Robert! What happened then… I can't change it. But things are different now." He stepped closer and lowered his voice, aware of Tiffany just upstairs. "Faison is breathing down our necks, but this time… this time, we can bring him down. We have to, and we'll be doing it, all three of us, together." He straightened and his intensity was replaced by a wary appraisal. "That is, if you can actually forgive me. Because if not…"

"If not…" Robert agreed, unspoken outcomes in the space between them, hanging perilously. Robert, finally, was listening to him. And Sean didn't waste opportunities.

"I know you think you understand what's going on with this guy," Sean said. "I know you've read the things that Anna and I gave you… but the reality, working with him, letting him get close…" Sean breathed, a shudder coming out with it and he came very close to his friend's face, willing him to pick up on his every word. "He's a monster, Robert. But he also knows how to suck people right in. I've seen it. And if we don't get it together… Anna is in trouble."

What he just said, he would never repeat again—especially not to Anna. But since this whole thing had begun, Sean had known, if just by instinct, that this would all come down to Anna. Robert shook his head, a haunted, daring smile on his lips. "She will never be," he pronounced quietly. "Not while I'm alive."

Sean stared at him as the pain of his old betrayal hit him again. Robert had said things like this before, sworn oaths to Anna, vowing mightily to crawl to the ends of the earth. He wasn't even sure if Robert would ever utter those things in her presence, but Sean saw the permanent devotion that Robert had affixed to his first love. It made what he had done to them feel that much worse.

"I'm with you on this, Robert," he said. "Anna knows that and now I just need you. Either you trust me, or you don't."

"Well, I want to."

"Good," Sean said. "It's just not good enough. All in. Or nothing."

There was a second when they were both holding their breath, when the whole room was held in stasis. And then sharp blue eyes looked into his with a settled resolve.

"All in." Robert answered. "And… I know you know how hard this is, so I'm gonna say it. I forgive you…and I do."

A tan hand outstretched and Sean clasped it readily. They traded smirks and Sean had a lighter feeling, like the sun was coming out and that maybe, with all of this put to rest, they could do it.

"That's all I needed, old buddy." And Sean meant it.

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"And I'm not saying this to defend myself…it's just that… Okay, I don't mind what you think of me, as Class President. I just want you to know that my mom is the most honest, true, and loyal person I know. I just think you should know that."

Robin dropped her hands on the podium with an innocent humility that couldn't be practiced and her classmates clapped for her, while her teacher shook her hand and gave her a certificate. Anna's eyes burned with a cruel irony.

Honest. Loyal. True.

Anna felt every word of Robin's speech like a physical blow, the earnestness of the words made the entire auditorium fall away and she wasn't herself, sitting there, anymore. She was Agent Devane, White Rose, Faison's informant, Sean's protégé. She was, all of those things and her daughter didn't know it. Just as Robin had once believed in Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, so did she also believe in a mother that didn't exist.

Robin's dark, open eyes searched the audience in the midst of the applause, resting on her for a moment with love and Anna's mouth went dry. She forced a smile, just for her girl. And then those eyes travelled further, behind Anna, and widened in happy surprise.

Anna followed her daughter's line of sight, turning in her seat to catch what it was that brightened her.

Faison stood in the back, his hands lifted to join in the praise of her little girl, smirking with all signs of genuine affection.

Anna blinked in cold horror, tearing her eyes away. He was here. Of course he was here! Why did she keep expecting him to remain hidden away, to leave town, to leave her life, when he had given clear indication that he would do the opposite? Everything he did had meaning. Every word he spoke was meant to throw her mind into an unsettled storm. And every time he showed up, she only proved more and more that he was able to do it.

When Robin's assembly came to an end, she bee-lined for her mother's open arms and Anna squeezed tight, told her how proud she was. But it didn't take long for her daughter to show those practiced manners, wanting to greet Faison as he had likely come to the school only for her.

Robin's face glowed when Faison admitted that he didn't know any of her classmates and he had only come to hear her speech. Anna stroked her daughter's hair and stood there, only intervening when Robin asked if she could introduce Faison to her teacher. Blessedly, Faison played nice.

He made a brisk departure once he saw Jacques enter the auditorium and Anna couldn't help but stare after them, her mind taken with concern for Robert and Sean. He would know, of course he would know, that they were gone to investigate him.

Anna consumed herself with making her daughter happy, for a few hours. Because Robin felt like the one port in the storm right now. There was no one else.

Her friends didn't know, thank God, they didn't know what she had been back then. The only people she could depend on were Robert and Sean, and they felt no safer than anyone else when it came to the emotional destruction that this mission was wreaking on her.

Sean because even if she could forgive him (and she had), what he had revealed was going to take time in order to completely heal. Anna wasn't as hard as Robert, but she couldn't pretend the betrayal didn't still feel a bit fresh.

And then there was Robert.

Robert, who was her first love. Robert, who was the father of her child and would never give either of them a moment's peace if it meant their safety. Robert, who had kissed her in a fit of passion not long ago.

Anna knew how to compartmentalize as well as the best of agents. And when that all came crashing down on her regarding Robert, she hoped it was after Faison was out of their lives and everything didn't seem quite so confused. But Robert was becoming another piece of the storm, rather than a port.

But maybe she could change that?

It was impulsivity that caused her to leave Robin with Olin after hot fudge sundaes and find herself at Katherine's club. Mary beat a hasty escape at Anna's presence and left the two women alone… though Kate certainly look as if she would have preferred just about anything else.

The blonde turned away from her, still gathering work and looking as busy as possible when Anna laid down her purse and began. "This won't take long."

Katherine looked up. "I know what you're going to say, so I'll just save you the trouble."

If Katherine wanted her out, she was going to have to pick her up and throw her out. "I want you to know, that you are misconceiving everything about my relationship with Robert. And you are letting that just destroy what you both have."

Anna wasn't sure if that was the truth or not, but if she willed herself to believe it, perhaps she could make it true. And perhaps she could do this… for Robert.

"You're hurting yourselves. And me… in the process. I want you to understand that."

Kate closed whatever it was she was holding and strode past Anna. "I don't want to hear this. I have given the both of you the benefit of the doubt for a long time now!" She spun around and faced Anna. "And now, I find out that the man Robert has been chasing is the same one that broke you and him up. What am I supposed to think?"

Anna looked Kate dead in the eye. "You're to know… that he is responsible for a lot more than that."

"Like what?" Kate snapped back, ready and having had this discussion too many times now. She knew Anna wouldn't be able to answer. "Oh, that's right, that's right, I forgot! The secrets. Big, big secrets…"

Anna paused, but she didn't plead and she didn't make excuses. Kate wasn't crazy. And she wasn't wrong. "Yeah. They are."

Kate sighed. "Well, it doesn't matter how many secrets you and Robert have, but I will let you in on one of my own… Robert's all yours, Anna." The anger she had been feeling all of these months seemed to be pouring out of her. "I'll just try and get out of your way."

Anna chased her as she began to walk off. "Katherine, do you mean that?"

"Oh, yes," she said seriously. The relief of admitting it had her taking an exhale as Anna scrutinized her face for any sign of a lie.

"How in the hell did it ever get to this point?" she finally muttered. She wandered a few steps away from Robert's ex, looking lost. Kate, however, wasn't.

"Maybe it was just meant to be, maybe…" she dropped her hands to her sides, "maybe Robert and I were fooling ourselves, maybe… it was because you were unavailable…"

Duke. Anna blinked, feeling suddenly so far removed from her life with him.

"Maybe I was just a damsel in distress—and Robert being Robert…" She threw her hands up. "I don't know, I don't care anymore." She gestured towards Anna, "but this isn't doing us any good."

"But you've gotta think about it though. You've got to."

"Look, Anna. You and I are friends, we've been friends for a while now. Let's just stay that way."

"I can't leave it like this!" Anna exclaimed. She hardly believed they could even remain friends with this problem of Robert between them. "You have to understand that there are things that Robert and I cannot tell you about."

"I can tell you some things," Katherine said. "You're still in love with Robert, and you won't admit it. And if you just would, it would make things a lot easier for the rest of us... Anna, he loves you and because he thinks he can't have you, he gets involved with women who have no idea that they can't ever have him."

This had played already with Cheryl. And even Holly. Anna felt like she spent a lot of time convincing the women in Robert's life that he loved them, and not her. Why was that?

"That's not true."

"If it's not true… then why do you lean on him so much? Even when your own husband, the man who you thought was dead, the supposed love of your life... you turned to Robert... to help the two of you." Kate's face changed now, to something more wounded and tender. "And because of that…"

"Your wedding was postponed," Anna finished quietly.

Kate's eyes filled with tears. "It was the beginning of the end—don't you see?! Don't you see, Anna? Anytime something isn't going quite right, it's Robert. It's Robert that you turn to, it's Robert… whose shoulder you cry on." Katherine leaned in with the conviction of the truth in her eyes, without hatred or malice. The simple, unvarnished truth. "And it's Robert who will drop everything to do it. For you."

Anna nodded. She knew it. "Yes." The women watched each other and Anna also knew that the discussion was coming to an end. "But you love Robert."

Kate smiled one of the saddest smiles that Anna had ever seen and whispered, "But I love Robert…"

As gracefully as she could, Anna took her purse and left. As she did, she hoped that Kate would remain her friend, despite everything. She hoped that Kate could get out from under all of this and recover a new life full of happiness… and no secrets.

And she also knew then, that Robert was not going to be her port in the storm. But that was something she could live with. What terrified her was that she could and would never be his…

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"How much longer?" Faison asked his manservant, smoke curling in the air all around him.

Jacques glanced at his watch. "A few more minutes, the boat will be here." Once Faison was right next to him, he bent his head. "What's more, I finally got news, from Washington. I finally got through."

"And?"

Jacques cast a glance at the lone passerby and waited a spell before answering, to be safe. "Scorpio and Donely were spotted—"

"I know where," Faison smirked, folding his glasses in his hands. "Bradley Memorial Cemetary."

Jacques didn't roll his eyes, but he wanted to. "I won't even ask how you knew. But what about," his voice dropped lower as a few other people passed, "your bargain with Scorpio?"

Faison continued to look straight ahead, taking in another puff.

"Isn't this another violation?" Jacques pressed.

Faison smiled slightly and walked past him, nodding. "It certainly is. A beautiful town."

Jacques stared at him.

"Port Charles," he clarified.

Jacques shrugged, raising his eyebrows. "It's not Paris…"

"But it has its own charms and Wyndamere is beginning to feel a little… confining."

"What you need is to go out more," Jacques agreed guilelessly.

"What I need and what I want are two different things," Faison amended, staring at his cigarillo. "I think… it's time to expand. This whole city we virtually have ignored."

"That's how you planned it!"

"I'm changing my plans… I can't afford to bury myself in that little island anymore." Faison's smile carried a whole other conversation with it as they fell silent and continued to wait for the boat.

A/N: Just a feeling that the next few chapters will be more dramatic for Robert and Anna… Hopefully, this chapter helped a little more with explaining Anna's feelings. And she bears enormous, crushing guilt about…well, everything, which is clear to anyone who watched the show back then. Let me know what you thought of this chapter if you're so inclined! It definitely helps!