A/N: Sorry it's been a while, writer's block! I finally knuckled through it, though. So here you go! Thanks to sammy11357, Pound68 (I think Kate is a pretty sympathetic figure too, actually, whatever her flaws. And lots more of Frisco and Faison in this chapter, so enjoy!), Sassydew Thank you so much! That means a lot and I hope you enjoy this chapter!), 4gcrazyme (Anna'll be "back" more in a chapter or two, but you get a tiny glimpse of her here lol), Bostie (Thank you so much for the kind words, and especially the observations! I love hearing what people pick out when they're reading haha), and Spinnerets (so glad you found it! You're very welcome!). Warning: Faison scene in the beginning is rather creepy. Mostly because he IS creepy.

Chapter 16:

"He searched the shadows…for her…and listened for her in the silence. Hearing nothing, but the sound of his own…breathing…"

Anna was there, at the bars of his cell… dressed like Davnee. How she could have gotten the key? He didn't know, but she easily unlocked his cell door and came to him. He didn't need to turn around, he could feel her, his wanting able to pick it up from the moment she stepped foot into the room.

Absurdly delicate hands stretched around his shoulders. "Anna?" he asked hopefully.

She shushed him and his hand wrapped around hers. "How did you get in here?" He rose from his chair, refusing to release her hand, nor did she pull away. "You shouldn't be here…" The hand he wasn't holding passed over his lips and her smile was beatific as she looked at him, his dangerous angel. "You're putting yourself in danger."

"Good," she quipped. He was amazed by her. She was so lovely, all his, every cell of her body was his, calling to him like a siren. He couldn't be near her and not draw in, even if she had the power to destroy him. He, after all, had taught her to destroy… His hands surrounded her face so gently, listening to her breathless explanation.

"See, I couldn't stand it… Robert had locked you up in here, so I… I just had to come…"

"Anna," he whispered, squeezing her dark, silken hair too hard. "Robert can't hurt me. No one can…" He lifted her hair out from under the cloak so he could see all of it. He wanted to see all of her, put his hands on all of her so badly that he could taste the pain of not-having. "Only you," he told her.

She gazed at him with listless eyes, that curious wonder she had when she looked at him and they were always on the fringes of understanding each other. He wanted her to understand everything, the depths and the lengths he would go…

"You mean… it means, you mean everything to me… Anna." He leaned in, kissing her, just barely tasting before he drew back and looked into her eyes. "Right?"

"Yeah," she murmured, tossing her head back lightly, playfully, as if she was drunk. She was still lost to him. She couldn't possibly understand what he meant. He ripped her head back towards him, unable to gentle his harshness completely. He wanted to hear it…

"You gotta know…"

"What?" she breathed.

"Do you belong to me?" She seemed confused, still airy, and he persisted. "Do you? And only me?" His hands shook with the effort of being gentle. "Do you?"

"Yes," she said quickly. He was almost scared, scared that she didn't mean it, and then she composed herself, nodding. "Mhmm, yes…"

He believed her. He always wanted to believe her.

"You don't know how long I've waited… to hear that…" He stroked her face with all the love that he could and mouthed it to her… 'I love you.'

She smiled and sighed and he kissed her again, this time deeply. He drank her in so she couldn't keep up, and she didn't match his ardor because she loved to tease him. She did it to make him crazy, to make him prove it, over and over. But he could show her, even if it meant the whole world bled... He would. He moved to her neck, over the pulse there, the blood running in her veins and he knew that he would spill it all in the world, except hers…

"SINCLAIR."

Faison shifted in his chair to look up at Scorpio's henchwoman, startled out of his fantasy. It was… disconcerting. "What do you want?"

The blonde woman had clearly noticed something, because she paused. "Pardon me, I didn't notice you were napping."

"I'm not napping, I'm trying to concentrate on my work," he said impatiently. These people were truly tedious.

"Whatever," she said. "I have a message for you, from your assistant? Something about… a visitor at your house?"

"Why bother me with that?! He knows what to do with…visitors…" He turned back to his computer, intent on blocking them all out.

"Would you like me to get a message—"

"NO."

"—back to him?"

He pinned the woman with a stare, once more. He knew full-well, what she was doing; hired to harass him for Scorpio's pleasure. She was nothing to him. She was nothing, even to Scorpio, who was sending her to do this for Anna, darling Anna. But Robert was powerless to stop him, because Anna already belonged to him, and Robert just hadn't figured that out yet.

"I have other, more important things on my mind, please," he said, for all the world like an artist who had been interrupted in his craft and didn't have time for lower things. But he kept the veneer of manners on the words, because no one like her deserved to know that he was bothered by anything.

It seemed that the vacant henchwoman finally received the message, because she finally left him in peace with an indignant "well, excuse me!"

Alone again, he didn't care. The fantasy could return just as quickly. He shifted in his chair again, and relaxed back into it.

Davnee, he called her… Davnee…

{}{}{}{}{}{}

In the rental car, Robin was chattering away in the backseat with Olin as Sean drove. He glanced sideways toward the passenger seat where Anna was staring out the window, her face occasionally illuminated by the passing street lights. She was so motionless that Sean had thought she was asleep, so he was surprised at her wide, glassy-eyed stare.

He bit the inside of his cheek and looked away.

{}{}{}{}{}{}

When Frisco strode back into Robert's office (without knocking), Robert was still sitting where Frisco had left him. It slowed Frisco down a bit… had Robert not moved since he had last seen him? Frowning, Frisco closed the door behind him.

"I'm back."

"Coulda guessed that when you just barged in," Robert said, his hands still folded over his chest as he watched the screen. The younger agent's frown deepened, tempted to snap his fingers in front of Robert's face so he could join the rest of them in the real world.

"I got 'em," he said confidently, hoping this would provoke some sort of response. But Robert just sighed and gestured with one hand toward the monitor.

"Go ahead and run them…"

"Geez, will ya stop sounding like you're doing me a favor, Robert?" Frisco complained, before bending over the keyboard and doing exactly that. Frisco got that Robert had more experience with this guy, but the know-it-all attitude was annoying.

Robert was silent.

"It should be coming up any minute now…"

"I wouldn't bet on it," Robert said, relaxing back as Frisco leaned over impatiently. He was more than ready to prove Robert wrong. And he was right: it didn't take long for the screen to go black, indicating that they would have their answer in a moment.

"Here it is."

NO MATCH FOUND…

Frisco gaped at the words, then looked back at Robert, whose expression hadn't moved in the slightest. He had been fully expecting this. Frisco straightened and dropped his arms, unable to understand what was happening here.

"This is impossible." Robert clicked off the results and Frisco started pacing. "All the prints I took, none of them are Faison's? What the hell is going on here, Robert?!"

"I told you not to underestimate this guy," Robert said grimly.

He had been right… what the hell?

Frisco was walking the floor, expending the energy of his confusion situation by talking through it out loud… a guy who had no discernible fingerprints? "Well how are you ever gonna make a—a make on him if you don't have any prints? You can't book the guy, you got no ID!"

"How should I know?!" Robert yelled, finally standing up from the damn chair. It was obvious that he didn't like Frisco going over again what he had already known for a while—the frustration and anger were clear in his voice. Frisco supposed that his old friend hadn't slept and had spent all of his time thinking about this case. He knew very well how Robert could get when he was under it. The Commissioner jammed his hands in his pockets. "On top of all that, I have to appear at this wretched carnival!"

Frisco threw up a hand, tossing that particular irritation away. They had bigger problems. "Well, go to the carnival. I'll watch things over here!"

"No. This is too important."

Frisco turned around at that, the movement practically being instinctive from his time at the WSB. He observed the affected carelessness and the rigidity of Robert's entire body without even realizing that he had put him under examination. How he was acting… it actually couldn't be compared to anything he had seen from Robert before. This was a little more… distilled and intense, even for Robert.

"Man, this is really personal for you, isn't it?" he said aloud. He hadn't meant to; Frisco had promised himself that he wouldn't pry too much or push too hard about what was riding on this case for his friends. It just… surprised him so much to see Robert fighting so hard with an enemy, and still looking like he was losing.

Predictably, the question didn't appear to do much for Robert's mood. "What?" he snapped, almost before Sam walked through the door.

"Mr. Sinclair insists on seeing you." Frisco's former partner explained right away. "He said… that his crimes… are insignificant compared to those committed by others you know. His exact words." The message was armed with ominous threat and innuendo, which didn't appear to be lost on Sam.

Nor on Frisco. He stiffened slightly, a hunch coming fast to him at those words.

"Bring him in," Robert acquiesced without even a huff. Frisco stared at him, and Robert stared right back, his eyes alarmingly forbidding, before breaking his gaze and crossing the room to his desk. Frisco was not to ask, not at all. They didn't speak, and Frisco wasn't about to cause Robert any more difficulty and aggravation than he was already swimming through. But Frisco had a hunch.

Anna and Sean, what have you done?

Whatever it was, it was dark and destructive enough that Robert Scorpio was responding to subtle threats from the likes of Cesar Faison, a former DVX head, and one of the most infamous at that. In all his reckoning, he wasn't even sure that he would want to guess.

Then… Frisco wouldn't want most of his friends to know what he had been like in the WSB… Felicia, who loved him most, could hardly handle what he had become by the time he had returned. He had been changed, and not just because he was imprisoned…it was hard to explain, if you hadn't been there the way he…and Anna, Sean, and Robert had.

Anna, Robert, and Sean had supported him through all of it—beginning, middle, and end. Whenever he let them in, they were there. Even when he hadn't wanted them to be.

Frisco moved to pour himself some coffee, closer to Robert's desk. Before he lifted the carafe, he stopped and glanced back at Robert. "Don't worry." Then he continued on as if he hadn't spoken, not waiting for Robert's reaction. He just needed to make sure that Robert was clear on it. Frisco owed them that. Robert didn't say anything, but Frisco did feel a lessening of the tension in the room, if he wasn't imagining it…

Sam was back already, opening the door for Faison and Baldwin, the difference in their outfits comical: Faison still in his tux and Baldwin in a polo shirt fit for a picnic. "Thank you for seeing me, Commissioner," Faison said as an opening, as if he hadn't spent the night in lock-up at the personal whim of said Police Commissioner, or just sent a thinly-veiled threat to the man, courtesy of Sam.

The first thing Faison did was drop the information that Frisco had ventured to Spoon Island, and he did so as plainly as he could. Frisco said nothing, positioning himself at Robert's side so he wouldn't miss anything in their exchange. After some vague parrying and nothing else much, Faison made a show of signing the lease with his bare hand. Frisco knew the intentionality behind the gesture, but watching him touch that pen, he couldn't believe that it wouldn't carry the man's prints.

Robert also watched Faison go through the motions, with a bored expression on his face. When all was said and done, Robert instructed Sam to keep Faison for some last-minute details and Frisco got the impression that he had something else up his sleeve. Faison was irritated, but hid it well.

"I'm just an unbiased party wanting to see justice done," Faison said of Robert's excuses. Frisco had to give it to the man, he wasn't easy to crack.

As he and the lawyer disappeared, Frisco already had a cloth out.

"He used the pen."

"Yeah," Robert said dryly. "Made a big deal out of making sure we noticed, wonder what this latest scam is…"

"I'll take it to the lab," Frisco said, unwilling to lose hope.

"I think you're wasting your time, but do it anyway," Robert brushed off, straightening his jacket. "I'm gonna put in an appearance at the carnival…"

So Robert did have an idea. Frisco hoped that Robert would clue him in after he got the prints. He lifted the pen carefully, thinking about what he had seen between Robert and Faison in the office.

There was palpable tension there, history of some sort, Frisco was sure. But what?

Sean or Anna, it had to be.

Frisco's first instinct was that it involved Sean and Faison, for the simple reason that they were the respective heads of the WSB and the DVX at the same time. It would have made sense if there had been some sort of dirty-dealing… Frisco held no illusions about the kind of things Sean was capable of getting up to—he wasn't a bad guy (in fact, he was pretty great), but Sean was also, as Tiffany liked to say, "slippery". He was almost too smart and incisive… his moral relativity had made him more versatile to the WSB, which meant that along the way, anything could have gone down…and come back to bite him.

But then… why was Anna out of town?

Sean was with Anna and Robin, Frisco got the feeling that Robert had sent them out of town all together. Back during the Lumina Crystal case, Sean had gotten shot by Desiree, Anna had been on Spoon Island (presumably, with Faison), Robert had joined them on the island… what were the chances that they hadn't met up with Faison? What would Anna had to do with a guy like that?

Robert was in protective mode over Anna too, that was apparent to Frisco. It had ruined his relationship with Kate. But for what reason?

If Sean had history with Faison… was it possible that Anna did too? He didn't and couldn't know, either way. He knew very little about Anna's time at the WSB, beyond what was whispered at Headquarters, and just from what he heard himself over there and knowing Anna personally, he had heard enough things that were patently untrue to carry a lot of disbelief over rumors of her time there…

"Sir, I—"

Frisco almost jumped out of his skin, but played it off valiantly, running his free hand through his hair. "Hey, Sam."

Her slight smirk indicated that she knew she'd scared him. "Hey." She observed he was alone. "Is the Commissioner out?"

"Yeah, he… dropped over by the carnival. You know, he had to at least stop in, I guess…" Weirdly enough, he felt like she had caught him out at something and couldn't help overcompensating with a grin.

"Oh…alright, well I'll try to catch up with him there," she said slowly. "Are you alright?"

"Fine!" Frisco said. "Yeah, just doing some grunt work. I'm sure I'll see you later!"

"Okay… see ya," she said

Frisco realized that he had been standing in Robert's office for a good fifteen minutes, holding this pen and thinking about why his friends were in this mess. He had to make a decision here. He could continue to get lost in WSB history and the hows and whys, or he could just suit-up and help out. He knew what the right choice was, but he was seeing now that it would take some conditioning to tamp down on his curiosity. He had to do it. With resolve, his hand closed over the cloth and he headed for the lab.

{}{}{}{}{}{}

Shep seemed to have a thing for the women in his life, Robert observed as he entered Delafield's. But he was an annoying bugger, wasn't he? That thought was the only attention he spared for seeing Shep and Kate together. After today's time at the police station, he needed to put his plan into action now, and Shep was just the proper amount of annoying to do it for him.

"Can I have a word with you?" Robert yelled over the din of the gambling.

"Does it have to be now?" Shep shouted back. His interactions with the Commissioner had never been pleasant, so it was unsurprising that he would be reluctant to head off with him instead of enjoying a good time.

"Now," Robert insisted. He patted the man's shoulder. "You're gonna like this, trust me…"

Curious, Shep followed him away with Kate staring after them, boring holes into Robert's back. The back area was ten times quieter, and Shep folded his arms over his chest as Robert turned around to face him.

"Hey, if this is about Katherine and—"

"This is nothing to do with that," Robert cut across him, irritated that Shep thought he would bother taking him aside over a woman. Shep must have seen him talking to Kate, even if it had seemed like he didn't notice. Nosy reporter was Shep's state in life, after all. That's why Robert needed him.

"So then, it's about your ex-wife? Because that's usually the way that this goes," Shep said, pointing between them. "You don't have much use for me otherwise…"

Robert refused to acknowledge that in some way, he was taking Shep aside over a woman. Huh.

He grinned, putting up his hands. "Didn't I say you were gonna like this?"

Shep squinted a little, and then conceded the point suspiciously. "Okay… shoot."

"So… what if I were to tell you that P.K. Sinclair was not only in Port Charles, but also that he's at the police station as we speak?"

"P.K. Sinclair, the author. I'd say that it's one hell of a scoop," Shep said blandly. "If it were true."

"Would I lie to you, Shep?"

"Oh no, you?! The upstanding Police Commissioner of Port Charles' finest? The man who cannot tell a lie, inheriting the moral legacy of dead Presidents? I can't imagine the kind of falsehood you would tell." Shep's words were saturated with sarcasm.

Today, unfortunately… those words burned him more than they normally would, because it suddenly felt that there was more truth to Shep's perspective on him than ever before. The guy was pretty easy to hate. "Look. I'm trying to do you a favor, but if you're too up your own ass to see that, then—"

"Exactly. You're trying to do me a favor? On what planet, Commissioner?"

"On this planet!"

"You must think I'm a real sucker."

"What's it gonna hurt to just check?" Robert said incredulously. Somehow, he didn't think the reporter was going to make it this difficult for him. "I mean, if I am pulling your stupid leg, then you trot right back over here and go back to your game. Why would I even bother?"

Shep cast a significant look towards the dining room, where people were still screaming and cheering at the tables. Where Kate was still managing things.

"I don't know if you're completely daft or just hard-of-hearing, but I've already told you that this has nothing to do with Katherine Delafield." Robert swore, irritation and frustration coming over him in waves. "I know you don't think much of me, but I hardly think I could give anyone the impression that I would resort to such… such antics to screw-up a good time for an ex!"

The truth was, he didn't have time for this! Faison couldn't remain at the police station forever, and Sean and Anna and Robin wouldn't remain on vacation forever, and if Robert was going to end this, he had to do it before anyone left where they were. He could handle this. He could, if everyone would just cooperate. He didn't care about the rest… after this was over, they could haul him out with the trash, but he was going to take this guy down if it was the last thing that he ever did! Robert took a breath and forced himself to calm down.

Shep scoffed at first, but then he seemed to take in Robert's tense posture. "You know, I might just believe you… which begs the question, Commissioner. What's in it for you?"

"What?"

Shep tapped his cheek with his finger speculatively. "You come over here to tell me that a famous, recluse author has been arrested, and for what? What do you have to gain by invading this guy's privacy?"

"That's well above your paygrade, Shep," Robert smiled, but Shep's face smoothed out and Robert knew that he had picked up the darker bass in his tone and the threat it implied. "Suffice it to say that he's a person of interest and I don't need him skulking around my town, without the public being aware that he's in their midst… and if you get to benefit from it, well… why not just let it come up aces for you?"

"Maybe I'm not as mercenary as you believe me to be." Why, Robert did detect a bit of regret in the reporter's tone… that was different.

"Nor am I as self-interested as you believe me to be," the former agent countered. "I'm not gonna pretend to know you, alright? And I'm not interested in a fight. Let's just work together on this. I've already spoken to your boss and she's clear—"

"Yeah, the dear wife of Sean Donely, one of your other spy cohorts—"

"—so get your cameraman together and meet me at the station," Robert said, ignoring the remark with cheer. He winked. "I'll even time it for ya."

Shep fell silent, considered it for only a moment, and then he smirked and tipped the hat he wasn't wearing. "You got it, Commish. I'll be over in an hour." As he was leaving, he stopped for a moment and his gaze met Robert's. "But don't think this means that I won't try to find out what agenda you're carrying. You're fair game, just like anyone else…"

Robert stared after him as he left, feeling the shadow of a million secrets. He was more than aware of that.

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

Almost exactly an hour later, Frisco was wading through a mess of reporters, including Shep Casey who was loudly proclaiming the identity of "P.K. Sinclair", to reach Robert's office. Scorpio was already outside his door, watching the circus.

"This that 'little something' you were telling me about?" Frisco asked him once he made it past them all.

"You like it?"

"I love it, actually," Frisco said brightly. Considering how well the last set of fingerprints had gone, this was pretty perfect. He wondered if this had been Robert's idea all along, especially knowing that you couldn't get prints off the spook.

Faison was smoothly attempting to bat them off, but Shep was running the show, even insinuating that the author had been arrested. Baldwin all too quickly cut in at that point.

"No, he was not!" he stated emphatically, grabbing Shep's mic. "He was not arrested. Commissioner. Commissioner! Will you back me, here? My client was not arrested!"

"Mr. Sinclair was not arrested," Robert parroted coolly. He gave no indication that he was getting any sort of enjoyment out of this at all, his face a professional mask. Frisco watched Faison's eyes fix on Robert, raising his eyebrows with an almost-challenging look. Nobody else was watching him at the moment, but Frisco could see all the layers there—the game-playing quietly going on.

"Sir, did he break the law?"

"Minor violation, all being taken care of," the Commissioner shrugged.

"What minor violation?"

Robert strode forward. "Listen, that will be all for today! Now that you know where Mr. Sinclair lives, you can pursue this on your own time!" He pointed at a few officers standing in the back, starting to pull the media back. "They'll show you out!"

Mission accomplished, the din wound away as the crews were pushed out of the station and Robert retreated back towards his office, Faison and Scott Baldwin in tow. Frisco stood back a bit and watched.

"That was very smooth, Commissioner… very smooth."

"I'm a practiced hand at dealing with the press," Robert said.

"Well, how did they get in here in the first place?" Scott demanded.

Robert's mouth was a grim line, the picture of serious dismay. "You got me..."

"No," Faison replied. "As a matter of fact, you got me."

Frisco could tell—the former DVX was furious, seething… but very, very controlled about it. Looking between them, Frisco felt as if he was watching two masters of espionage at work. He knew that the conversation between them would tell him nothing except crumbs, but that they would know everything they were saying.

"But of course, I can't be responsible for what happens next…" Faison continued, cold eyes never looking away from Robert.

"Any hints, or should I just be surprised?"

Faison smiled, and there was menace there. He shook his head. "No… I'm referring to my fans," he said lightly. Then his face change, like it was hewn in stone. "They'll be upset that my privacy has been invaded, my identity revealed…"

"Come on…" Robert cajoled. "Look on the positive side, you'll sell more books."

Faison looked away, and Scott blustered about writing a letter to Albany to give Robert a good reaming. And when Faison returned his gaze to Robert, there was new, painful promise in his expression. If Frisco had been less experienced with these exchanges, he would have swallowed hard at the chill that had seem to come over the former DVX head. Robert didn't blink.

"I think I can handle the flak."

"Yeah, we will see, Commissioner. We will see…" Frisco caught a slight smirk tipping Faison's mouth as he changed direction. "At any rate, this will be an amusing story to tell Anna when she gets back from her… vacation." He raised his eyebrows and Frisco felt his stomach drop.

It was Anna. It had to be Anna.

Baldwin looked dumbly between the men. "Anna's out of town again? I thought she just got back from a vacation? So what?" he said when Robert's eyes transferred to him, "you looking at me like that because it's none of my business?"

"You're getting smarter every day, Scott."

Faison's huge manservant appeared at that moment and Faison put his sunglasses back on. "About time, get me out of here."

"Yeah," Baldwin agreed. "Probably the back door, is that okay with you?" he asked Robert.

Robert nodded. "Take a uniform with you."

Faison inclined his head politely and moved in the direction Robert gestured. "Until we meet again, Commissioner."

The men left, and Robert looked at Frisco, his features looking slightly more drawn and tired. "I've got to make some calls… I'll meet up with you later."

"Right," Frisco said. "I've… got to go anyway."

Robert returned to his office, but Frisco found himself frozen to the spot for a little longer. He told himself to forget it, to remember that there was no point in the hows or the whys. But there was an insistent horror in the new, certain knowledge that Faison and Robert's veiled confrontation had brought.

It's Anna. He's protecting Anna.

A/N: Frisco actually doesn't seem to be present for the latter half of the last scene, but it made more sense to me if he was there, especially since they're slowly bringing him into the fold of the case. Plus, I think it brings nice build-up to the scene that Frisco and Anna have later in this story, which is a fantastic scene, in my opinion. Please review and let me know what you thought!