Journeylove- I did not expect Kelly to lose, and again, I didn't watch it, but, they did clearly state, apparently, that she was the winner of the first season, so it's not like she had her crown taken away, John just 'proved' that the audience liked him more. Or something. Thanks for the information on the CRNA test, and I hope that, should you take it, you pass. Best of luck to you. As far as Durant goes, you're supposed to hate him, that's the point of the character, and the fact that you do hate him as much as you do shows that the people at GH are doing their job. I, for one, love Durant, not because I think he's a nice guy, but because they need some guy like Durant on GH. I want to keep on going with that type of Durant in this story, making him a central villain of the piece, though not the only one, of course. As far as Jason goes, I'm enjoying the storyline a lot. I want Jason to stay away from Sonny, I really do. I want the story on the show to divert away from the Sonny hour. But, as far as the story goes, look for Jason to remain the Jason that you know and love.

Story-

Harbor View Towers-

If any of the many tall tales about what a person went through when someone was thinking about them, be it sneezing, ears wiggling, or anything in between, Damian likely would have never gone through an hour in Port Charles without having whatever malady that was supposed to strike an individual during that time strike him. The boy would remain blissfully unaware of the question of motives that anyone, even his own Uncle, was bringing into question for a small amount of time. If there was a single person who would make him suffer because of constant bewilderment it was Mac. Damian wasn't sure what he needed to do in order to fully gain Mac's trust, he wasn't even sure that it was possible. Yes, he had screwed up plenty of times in the past, and yes, Maxie would find herself in a state of constant danger just for being near him, but none of that was his fault. He couldn't help who he was, he couldn't change who his father was, he couldn't change what Sonny did, and he tried to find some way to change it, to distance himself from that world, from that man, when he realized that nothing was going to change. But Damian couldn't do it. Sonny Corinthos was his father, and, once Damian stopped seeing him as a mobster and started seeing him as a father he saw that Sonny was a loving man, just as, if not more so, than his own mother.

It was her words that constantly rang through his head, almost every day. Ana-Maria had given him a parting piece of advice: not to let people judge him based on who they thought he was, to let them judge him on who he really was. She knew. Damian didn't understand it then, but he understood it now… his mother knew that he was going to find his father, she knew that everything was going to happen. Ana-Maria had never forgotten what Sonny Corinthos did, who he was. She may have even kept track of him as he rose from a common thug under Scully's rule to become the most prominent organized crime lord on the east coast. With Alcazar dead, by Damian's hand, Sonny was the head honcho of the business. That was something that fell into Sonny's lap, though. Nobody anticipated Alcazar's death, and nobody thought that it would be the innocent college student who just came to Port Charles looking for love and acceptance who would bring an end to a man who had caused prolonged suffering for just about everyone in the family, but that was exactly how it went.

The elevator ride to the penthouses where his family, immediate and a sizable chunk of his extended family, made their residence seemed longer than normal. He wished that he could relax, but he knew that he couldn't. There were still classes to take. He may have had an early internship, but that didn't mean that he was completely finished with his schooling. Far from it. He had only started his third year when he arrived to Port Charles, now he was barely beginning the second half of that year, and the workload wasn't getting any easier. His grades weren't as high as they could have been. Damian was entirely capable of straight A's, and at times he had gotten them, but with everything that had happened to him it was a miracle that he pulled the grades that he did. The time that he spent recovering from the accident that almost ended his life took him out of the equation for some time, and while the teachers didn't drop him out of their courses entirely they also couldn't grant him class participation points, because he wasn't there. It was in that section that his grades took the biggest hit, in that section which he lost the edge that he had. It didn't matter, solid B's were respectable, especially for someone who was going through so much, and he would try harder, bring his grade point average back up.

Sonny, of course, had nothing but pride in the boy. For Sonny it was like seeing the potential that he had to throw away finally being fulfilled. Michael was a good student, excellent in fact, but Michael wasn't Sonny's blood… he didn't get any inherent traits from Sonny, Damian did. People had often said that Sonny would have made one hell of an 'enter profession here' had he not dropped out of high school before he graduated, and Damian was one of them. Sonny was bright, incredibly bright. It was sad to know that Sonny let his personal demons make him run away from a potential future. One that wouldn't require him to hide his family in a penthouse that was dozens of stories in the air, where he wouldn't need every vehicle that he owned, and even the ones that other people owned, to have bulletproof windows and frames… but if that were to happen, Damian wouldn't have been born, Jason would have never found the happiness that he did find, happiness that had truly eluded him while he was still calling himself Jason Quartermaine and a multitude of other seemingly random events that all had Sonny Corinthos involved in them at some point or another. The hand that Sonny had been dealt was his destiny, and the destiny of the people who he touched was in that hand as well. Still, as often as people looked at Damian and asked 'what would he be like if he were more like his father,' Damian had probably asked himself when he looked at Sonny, 'what would he be like if he were more like me?'

Finally, the doors of the elevator opened up, giving Damian the familiar view of the all too empty hallway that connected both penthouses. The doors were closed, as they frequently were, and Max was right there, standing watch and getting paid to do it. Of all Sonny's employers, Max was the one who felt the most like family, outside of Leticia, who was employed in a different field. Max was like an unofficial Uncle to Michael and Morgan, at times even being referred to as 'Uncle Max' when he was handling Morgan. Damian would never forget that it was Max who helped him considerably when he needed to come to terms with his father, the person that he really was, and the person who he appeared to be to other people. Max was instrumental in that aspect of Damian's life, and he would always be indebted.

"Save anyone?" Max asked, a genuine smile coming from him as he looked at the boy, who obviously needed some time to himself. In Damian, Max saw a lot of hope for the future, a generation of people not forced to live the life that those who had come before them lived. It wasn't like that for Max… he was born into the family and he was expected to stay in the family. With a last name like DiMaggio, what else was he supposed to do? Perhaps make pizza, but Max couldn't provide for people doing something like that, although he did make some rather wonderful garlic bread. Not like Sonny, of course, but decent nonetheless. There was a time when Max wondered if it was possible for him to have a child who wouldn't have to do the same things that he did. A child who could be anything that he or she wanted to be. At first he wasn't sure that it was possible, and then Damian came into their lives, all of their lives. People thought that only those in the family were impacted by Damian's arrival. It wasn't true. Damian was a symbol for almost everyone in Sonny's regime, a beacon… a doctor, someone who was going to help the people who they might end up hurting. Maybe nobody else was aware of it, but people were trying to have children again, trying to let their future rest in the hands of fate instead of believing in something that was predestined.

"I saved myself," Damian replied, returning the warm smile. "I saved myself from getting some strange cafeteria disease…"

"You tried to eat something that they make at GH?"

"I purchased something that they make at GH… I don't know if you would consider that trying to eat it. I stared at it for awhile, tried to get my girlfriend to take a bite before I sunk my teeth into it."

"Did Maxie break up with you?"

"Max!"

"Well what do you expect me to think, Damian?" Max replied coyly, shrugging as the grin widened. "You try to possibly poison your girlfriend, it isn't like that's something that people don't break up over…"

"I didn't try to poison my girlfriend…"

"You attempted to persuade your girlfriend into ingesting possibly hazardous materials, how is that not a poisoning plan gone awry?"

"You know, I could have my father terminate your employment due to constant belittlement of my motives…"

"But you wouldn't do that, would you?"

"No, Max, never to you," he liked Max too much, and Max was, despite his job, something of a voice of reason. Much like Max saw hope in Damian, Damian saw hope in Max, a person who might be able to break free of the shackles in a way that his father and Jason had never been able to do. Max just needed to give it a try, but it wasn't Damian's call to make. "Anyone else home?"

"Just about everyone, I think. I took a dinner break myself… got something to eat from Kelly's…"

"They really must get half of their business from us…"

"Sonny's the son-in-law of the owner, that pretty much means that we have to give him the money that he gives us back to her. Plus, Bobbie's great."

"That she is," he said softly. Bobbie was the first member of 'the family' who didn't try to push him away, aside from Michael. Even before Courtney, Bobbie was there for him, probably because she could somewhat understand what he was going through. She was the one who gave away a child, only to have the child, Carly, come back, but the similarities gave her a unique spin of the situation, and, since at the time he wasn't very thrilled with Sonny, Bobbie was just the person with enough distance from the problem to get through to him. "See you later, Max."

"Don't eat too much," Max responded dryly, his back turned as he heard the door open and then shut behind him. The grin returned. Yeah, he gave everyone hope.

Across the hall, Jason was busy doing one of the only things that allowed him to get his mind off of anything that was bothering him: he was playing pool. Technically it was a game that was meant to be played with another person, but Jason found solace in the fact that he could play the game at any time, by himself, at his own pace. Besides, people liked to play for money, and Jason didn't like taking people's money. They figured that, since he was brain dead, it somehow did something to his pool playing abilities. Faulty logic… incredibly faulty, but, on the right days, Jason would use it to his advantage.

Even with the distraction that was granted by the pool table, Jason couldn't shake his mind off of the feeling that he had in the back of his mind. He was worried about Sonny. That wasn't very odd, since Jason frequently worried about Sonny, some would say that he worried about Sonny too often, and Jason would agree with them at times, but Jason thought that worrying about Sonny at that particular moment was actually worth the effort.

Sonny was the type of person who took everything to heart. Jason couldn't be like that. He brushed as much of life off as he could, it was how he managed to survive as often as he did, how he was able to keep himself from allowing his guilt to drive him crazy, like Damian was doing with Alcazar's murder. Jason's accident had made him almost perfect for what he was expected to do. It wasn't a pleasant thought at times, but it was true. The accident had made him an almost completely emotionless killing machine. But anyone who thought that Jason Morgan didn't care about people was completely missing that which was right there in front of him. Jason cared about people, a lot. That was why he was worrying about Sonny, because Sonny was his best friend. It had very little to do with the fact that Sonny was his business partner. The fact was, Sonny was his friend. He looked up to Sonny like a big brother, and, at times, an odd father-figure.

The problem with knowing Sonny so well was that Jason knew when Sonny was going to do something that Sonny shouldn't have done. He'd seen Sonny do things that were stupid and reckless. When Sonny gave up hope that was when he was the most dangerous… not to other people, but to himself, and to the people that he cared about the most. What was the worst that could happen? Jason had asked himself that question many times in his head, and the answer was always something bad. Sonny could end up dead, or worse, one of the children could end up dead, and even worse, Damian could revert back to the person that he used to be, running away from Sonny, distancing himself from his father. It was an unlikely chance, but that didn't mean that it wasn't there. That last option was the one that would hurt the most. Sonny couldn't take his son thinking that he was some sort of monster, not again.

"Hey, Jason, what are you up to?" Dillon Quartermaine, Jason's first cousin, half-cousin, whatever, walked down from his room. Living with Jason and Courtney was, at times, a trying experience. Jason wasn't a talkative person. Anyone could say what they wanted about the Quartermaine's, and they frequently did, but that family did a lot of talking. Screaming mostly, but nonetheless, they worked things out… in their own extremely dysfunctional way.

And, as expected, Jason was giving Dillon the silent treatment. Eyes never once glancing over as he lined up his shot and released his hold on the cue, sending the cue ball racing towards one of the pockets, hitting it and sending it inside with masterful ease. Dillon was impressed. He sucked a pool… even tried to get Jason to teach him once, that didn't go very well. Dillon wasn't athletically inclined, it was why he was blacklisted at the high school, even with his social status and his money, he was still 'Dillon, who can't make a free throw shot for the life of him.' It didn't really matter. After a year of gym he was able to get out of it and never had to worry about making a fool of himself in that particular way again… didn't stop the stigma from following him. People just liked to knock him and his family down a few pegs. Dillon couldn't blame them, he was rather fond of it, too.

"Dillon…" Jason finally looked up. Was he desperate enough to actually ask Dillon, an outsider, for advice?

"Yeah?"

"Never mind…" apparently not. Jason wouldn't deny the fact that, after spending so much time with Dillon, he had become somewhat fond of the boy, even if he was still mystified by Dillon's choice of hair styling, dumbfounded even. Jason had gone through some bad hair choices in his time, but nothing was quite that… odd. No matter how much Jason liked Dillon, though, it didn't change the fact that Dillon wasn't one of them. Dillon was something else, something innocent, something that wasn't supposed to be tainted.

Dillon's eyebrow went up, curious as to what had almost happened, and why it didn't. But, he knew better than to ask questions. If Jason were a telepath, Dillon would probably be dead even for thinking about it. "All right…" at times Dillon felt like he was becoming part of the melting pot, and then there were times when he wondered just how much of an outsider he was.