Journeylove- Congrats on being the first reviewer, I hope that you remain as steadfast with this story as you have in the past. Actually, I left you hanging for about four months, but we won't mention that. Besides, I was just doing what the prime time shows do, leave the summer with questions. Evil, I know. But, yeah, I'm back, so you can bask in the knowledge that you have something to do for a few minutes a day, reading one of these. Interesting that you mention Jesse, because… back when I was talking to my friend about the story, he asked me if I ever thought about naming Damian anything else, and I said that if I did name him anything else, it probably would have been Jesse. And then, like, two weeks later, I read online that they were casting for a character named 'Jesse' and that he was going to be involved with Maxie. Originally, I believe, he was supposed to be ethnic as well, but, as we've seen, Matt Marraccini is not. Not that there is anything wrong with it, I like Matt. Still, my friend and I joke around that the people at GH have me bugged and steal my ideas. Personal aside notwithstanding, there will be couple related drama for several of the couples, a lot of them, in fact. Characters that add to this drama shall come, one of them is shown here, too. Again, glad you're back. Hope you enjoy.

Story-

General Hospital-

He was going to gain weight by having his grandfather just randomly pop in with food from Kelly's every time he had a break, but that was a small price to pay for avoiding that which they attempted to pass off as food at General Hospital. Unfortunately for Damian he was all too well aware of the fact that his constant requests for Mike to leave the restaurant and bring him something to eat was having a negative impact on the job that Mike was supposed to be doing. It would take a lot for Bobbie to relieve Mike of his duties at Kelly's, but Damian wasn't ready to let that guilt be on his head. There was already far too much guilt that he had to contend with, adding any more would make him into a person that was too much like Sonny for his tastes. Damian loved Sonny as much as he possibly could, and he respected his father as well, but Damian didn't want to 'be' Sonny, that was the last thing that he wanted, and the last thing that Sonny wanted for him.

The avoidance of possible grief all culminated to him attempting to decipher what exactly it was that the hospital was giving him. He'd ordered a sandwich, a turkey sandwich. The hospital had managed to give him the bread without much of a problem, and the lettuce, but the meat… it didn't look very much like turkey.

She watched him from the other end of the cafeteria, wondering what it was that he was looking so intently upon. Maxie Jones slowly crept up, dressed in her general hospital uniform, the teal top that seemed to make her eyes stand out even more than usual. It didn't matter how they made her eyes look, though, because Damian would love her regardless of if her eyes looked great, or if they looked bad. He would love her no matter what. Maxie wrapped her arms around his neck, "Guess who?"

"I've got a one guessing game per hour limit, and I've already used this one up on the meat that's in this sandwich, can I at least have a hint?"

Maxie understood what was so perplexing the moment he explained about the sandwich, did he really expect the food to be edible? She tried to tell everyone that she had to give food to that they should just order a pizza or something, from an outside source. "Your ideal woman…"

"Lynda Carter? What are you doing here?"

Maxie scoffed, slapping his shoulder, "You know, that's the kind of thing that would drive a formerly perfectly content young, beautiful girlfriend to leave her perfectly handsome, young, doctor boyfriend."

"I see… and what would this handsome, young, doctor boyfriend have to do in order to keep his perfectly content young, beautiful girlfriend from leaving him?"

"You should know what that is…"

Damian looked up from the sandwich, Maxie grinned as their eyes met before he kissed her on the cheek, the angle permitting him from kissing her on the lips. "How's that?"

"A good start."

"Well, if this aforementioned, disgruntled, quite possibly soon to be ex-girlfriend would let the unassuming doctor boyfriend go, he might be able to give his girlfriend a little more incentive to stay with him."

Maxie did as requested, letting Damian go from her vice grip. Freed, he could move the chair out of the way and, in doing so, wrapped his arms around her waist as she wrapped hers around his neck once again, but their faces were facing each other. The glare from the bracelet that he got her for Christmas blinded him only for the slightest moment before he tilted his head down and kissed her on the lips. Damian wasn't big on the public display of emotion, especially in a place where such emotions could be seen as insulting, so, rather than let the passion that made him Sonny Corinthos's son run rampant, he pulled himself away just in time. He smiled at her, "Now, what do you have to say about that?"

"Much better…"

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, something else. Why the hell are you in love with Lynda Carter?"

"Have you seen Lynda Carter?" He said sarcastically. "Actually, my mom had a Wonder Woman fetish. Not so much that she decided to go and get the costume or anything, but she had a lot of merchandise. Pictures of the old show with Lynda Carter. I used to stare at those pictures for hours. She said that I was in love with Lynda Carter and I would do that little kid thing where I said I didn't like girls because they had cooties and then I would run away."

"You must have been the cutest kid ever."

"I'm sure that you were much cuter than I could ever hope to be. After all, you're much cuter than I am right now."

"That depends on who you ask…"

He smirked, letting go of Maxie and sitting back down. "You know how much I appreciate you making sure that you schedule a day where you're here volunteering while I'm on shift… but I know that must be hard on you with your class schedule. Are you sure about this?"

"I know that I don't want you to have to be alone…"

"I'm never alone, Maxie," Damian informed her. "I've almost always got Bobbie here, or Alan, or Monica, and someone from my family is almost always stopping in to check up on me, or Dillon… it's getting to the point where they should just give a waiting room to the people who are trying to look out for me."

"Come on, it can't be that bad."

"Really? It's gotten better, since I've been doing this for a few weeks, but the first few days…"

"How does that make you feel?"

"I don't know," he shrugged his shoulders. "I think it's great that so many people are concerned about my progress here, and if I can do what they want me to do. They're all telling me that they think I'll make a great doctor."

"Because we do think you will."

"But at the same time doesn't it belittle the faith that everyone, yourself included, has in me if you guys are constantly here to make sure I'm handling things? None of the other interns have family and friends that pull them away from their job continuously."

"I…" Maxie stopped herself. She hadn't taken into consideration what Damian may have thought about them coming in at such a constant rate. "I can stop working here when you're on shifts, if that's what you want."

"No, it isn't you, Maxie. It isn't you and it isn't your sister, you've been here longer than me, and this is a part of who you are. You enjoy doing this, it's why you've kept on doing it for so long… I'm just talking about everyone else. I mean, when Uncle Jason came in to see how I was doing I realized that something was up." It was a red flag. After all, Jason Morgan had a very publicly expressed contempt for the doctors of any hospital, after everything that they had done to him following his accident. Jason was the type of person who never came into the hospital unless it was an emergency. And for his job to be considered an emergency to Jason, that was something that made him curious.

"Why don't you talk to them?"

"I don't know, because I don't want to hurt them, I guess. My family loves me, and I love them… I just wish they wouldn't smother me so much. I realize that they're trying to make up for lost time, especially my father, but it's starting to feel like… like I can't get away from them, even when I want to."

"I still think you should talk to Sonny." Maxie still felt somewhat odd using his first name like that, but it was at his request. "He loves you, he'll understand. He's just overprotective of all his children. I've seen him with Michael, before you came around. He makes Mac look like he gives me and my sister space."

"Maxie…"

"No, really," she said with a grin, "He makes Mac, my Mac, Mac Scorpio, the former King of the Overprotective father kingdom, look like nothing. If you want me to be honest, Damian, Sonny's giving you more space than he normally would, especially after the accident…"

"I had to talk him into not keeping me under constant watch." Damian understood Sonny's motivation for doing what he did. After all, the boy almost died because of what Lorenzo Alcazar did to him, and what he could have done to Michael. Carly's involvement in the ordeal was still a closely guarded secret between Carly and Damian, something that kept their relationship on good terms. Damian could destroy Carly's life with such a simple statement, but he wouldn't do that. Even when he didn't care for Carly, he didn't want her life to be torn apart like that. "Believe me, the battle, it wasn't easy. I probably still have the scars."

"Well, as long as you're happy with the situation…"

"I'm as happy as I can be," Damian grabbed her hands, "and you make me happier than I could hope to be alone. But you know what would make me really, really happy?"

"What's that?"

"If you took a bite of this sandwich." He winked. "Come on, I'll know it's safe to eat if you don't start shaking on the floor after a few seconds… and I'm a doctor, so if you do, I'll be able to help you. It's a win, win!"

"I have a weak heart, remember? I don't think I should be taking such horrible risks with my health…"

"Fine, I'll eat it, but if I pass out, you have to get help."

"Why don't you just throw it away and get something out of the vending machines? The hospital just receives them, it doesn't touch the preparation. They have chips."

"You drive a hard bargain, Miss Jones… but I'll have to take you up on it. I don't have very many options…" a glance at the sandwich spurred another comment, "at least ones that aren't hazardous."

Port Charles Police Department-

Ric Lansing knew that the crime in Port Charles would never stop. And he also knew that there would never be a time when someone, quite possibly himself, would blame Sonny Corinthos, his brother, for the very crimes that were being committed. But Ric was getting better at it. Not every crime was automatically placed in the camp of 'reasons to bring Sonny down.' In fact, Sonny had really started to clean up his act, ever since he had a child who was old enough to be truly aware of what was going on around him. Michael could still be dealt with by the simple little white lies. Damian wasn't like that, he was a lot smarter, he knew what was going on and he wouldn't stand for it. That boy was responsible for so much change in his life, in Sonny's life, and in so many other people's lives.

Ric reached over and touched the picture that he had framed of him and Elizabeth on their honeymoon. They had spent it on the Caribbean, as far away from Sonny's own private island as possible, but they still had a lot of fun. Decent weather when New York was still suffering from the bitter chill of winter. What more could a person ask for?

"Ric?"

"Lucky… come in, please…"

Lucky Spencer did as he was instructed. Mac may have been his direct boss, but Ric was the DA, he had a certain amount of power himself. "I hope you don't mind me coming in like this."

"Not at all, is something the matter?"

"I just wanted to see how things were going with Elizabeth…"

"In other words, you were checking up on me." Ric snickered, somewhat hurt. "Making sure that I wasn't doing anything that was going to hurt Elizabeth again."

"Ric…"

"No, I understand why you're doing it, Lucky. Believe me, I do. I screwed up with Elizabeth so much the first time… it's a miracle that she's even giving me a second chance, and I realize that. I also realize that it's a miracle that you're trusting me to not hurt her this time around, but I want to make sure that you realize that we're not the same people that we were the first time. I'm not the same person. I'm different, better… more suitable for her. I promise you, Lucky…"

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything…"

Ric heard a somewhat familiar voice, one that he couldn't put a name to, but when he looked up and saw the man's face he realized who it was. "What are you doing here?"

"A simple hello would have sufficed."

"Answer the question," Ric said, standing up from his chair. "What would John Durant come to Port Charles for?" Maybe it wasn't an answer that he wanted.