General Hospital-

"I really should leave…"

Maxie grinned as she, now dressed in her uniform, walked behind the desk of the nurses' station. "What makes you think that you need to leave?"

"The fact that, technically, at this very moment, I'm a civilian, and not an off duty intern, but, I'm still an off duty intern, and, in being an off duty intern, I can then be called on by any of the doctors here, including, but not limited to, Alan, Monica and your Uncle Tony. I get scant few days off a week, Maxie, sometimes only one, maybe two, and those days I have to spend studying my ass off to keep on getting further in this career that I foolishly allowed myself to believe that I could handle…"

"I think you can handle it just fine," she'd never seen a person nearly as dedicated to doing something that would help people, but, truth be told, she didn't really look. Before Damian came around, Maxie was a different person, a girl who didn't pay attention to most of the people around her. Not because she felt that she was better than them, at least not necessarily, just, because she hadn't really yet had her eyes opened. And then she met him, a boy who had been through so much, but didn't let it shape him into a bad person, instead, he let it shape him into a person who would do good for the world, better than she could ever hope to be. Maxie admired that, it was one of the reasons why she was attracted to him.

"You and my dad always say that," he smiled softly, "I just don't want to let either of you down, or anyone else."

"Then don't. Keep on doing what you're doing, Damian, because what you're doing is being the best doctor that you can be, and, I've looked at what you've been doing, even talked about you with my uncle, he's impressed. He hasn't said that you're the best he's ever seen, because that would mean that he would have to give up the claim himself, something that he's just not willing to do, but he has said that you have a lot of potential."

"Nice to know that I've got the faith of the man who was shot by my step-mother in open court…"

"Uncle Tony isn't going to judge you based on your relationship to Carly," Maxie noted. She didn't like Carly. She didn't like Carly for a lot of reasons, the big one being the way that she treated Damian when he first came in to Port Charles. The way that she tried to eschew him out of town before he had a chance to make any connection with anyone, and it wasn't even the connection that he had made with Maxie that she was upset about, it was the fact that Carly didn't want him around. But, there were other reasons why she didn't like Carly, the whole shooting her uncle thing was just one of the many. "If anything, the fact that you pissed her off as much as you did when you first came into town probably endeared you to him."

"I really should go…"

"I'm not keeping you here," Maxie replied. She was sad that he was going to leave, but she knew that he had things that he needed to do, a family that he wanted to get back to. Damian was hit so hard by the fact that he wasn't able to spend nearly as much time with them as he would have liked after he got the internship that every moment that he could he tried to spend it with the people that he cared about. Since he cared about so many people, however, it was really hard for him. He was being pulled in so many directions, spending time with her, spending time with Dillon, spending time with Ric and Elizabeth, and spending time with the family that he lived with… there were times when Maxie thought about letting him go, just a little, but she was afraid that, if she let go, he would never come back to her. Stupid, she realized that, but her mind always worried about losing the best thing that had happened to her in some time. "But, if you leave without a kiss, I'm going to be very upset with you."

"I would never dream of leaving my girlfriend without a kiss, that's just plain wrong." Damian leaned over the counter and gently pecked her on the lips, not wanting to make a show in front of patients, and colleagues. Although Maxie was the one on duty, they could still both have their reputations sullied by the act. "Love you, Maxie."

"I love you, too." Maxie watched as he headed towards the elevator, but also saw as he stopped, his cell phone ringing.

Damian dug into his pocket and pulled the phone out. The caller identification showed that it was someone at the house. Normally, having a phone inside the hospital was something that was frowned upon, but, for someone like Damian, someone who needed to know in case something happened to someone that he cared about, which could happen at any moment, he needed to have his phone on as much as he could. He'd turned it off once… and then his baby brother almost died. That was the only proof that he needed. Flipping the clamshell top up, Damian spoke into the phone, "Hello?"

Sonny, on the other end of the line, was silent for a moment. There were things that Damian needed to know, but there were also things that were more important. Though the decision took a moment, it was easy for Sonny to make a choice. "Where are you at?"

"I'm at the hospital right now, dad. I just walked Maxie over from the campus, she has a shift right now." He could hear the tension in Sonny's voice, which was almost always there, but it sounded somewhat different at that moment, like he was afraid or something. "Why? What's up?"

"Michael isn't home yet."

"What do you mean he isn't home yet? I thought he was going somewhere with Grandpa today…" although Sonny and Mike had a strained relationship, Sonny fully supported Mike's involvement with his children, all three of them, it was a show of good faith, and also, presumably, a test that Sonny gave his father. If Mike screwed up with his children the same way that Mike screwed up with Sonny himself, then there was no hope for Mike and Sonny to even have something that resembled an actual relationship.

"He was, but I thought he would be home by now." Sonny grumbled. Since it was Mike, Sonny didn't have anyone following them, thinking, apparently in error, that his father could handle himself and his nine year old grandson. "I tried calling the phone, but nobody is answering, and they didn't say where they were going to go."

"Grandpa said that he was going to let Michael decide. You know that boy, he doesn't make up his mind until the last minute."

"I just…"

"What? Dad… what aren't you telling me?"

There was something about the meeting that Sonny had with Armando that had unnerved him. Yes, the man said that they came in good faith, but there were plenty of times when such things were said and they were just empty words. Sonny hated it when he was played, and hated it even more when it meant that his family was in danger. "I'm just worried about my son, is that so wrong?"

"What do you want me to do?"

"Could you… could you check the hospital records for me? Make sure that someone isn't in there that fits Michael's description?"

"Dad…"

"I know how it sounds, Damian! Just do it, please. I need to know for sure that my son is safe."

Damian turned and looked at the station. He could still go back there, and, while he thought that his father was acting completely irrational, he also understood that, in Sonny's world, the things that seemed the most irrational ended up being the things that rang true. "All right, dad, just give me a second to go inside the computer and look up who has been checked in during the day."

Maxie couldn't hear Damian talking, but the fact that the conversation wasn't over in a few seconds made her wonder just who it could be. And then he started to come back towards the station, which made her wonder even more. "Damian? What's wrong?" She spoke to him, but he didn't really pay her any attention, he was more focused on the computer.

"Nobody's been checked in that fits Michael's description today, dad."

"Then where the hell is he?"

"I don't know," Damian sighed, closing the window. "Look, I'll check around town for them, stop by Kelly's, stop by Grandpa's place, the park, anywhere that Michael might be, but if you find him…"

"I'll call you."

"Thanks." Damian closed the phone and sighed, feeling the touch of Maxie's hand on his shoulder. "Sorry…"

"What's wrong?"

"Dad's freaking out because Grandpa and Michael haven't checked in with him. I don't know why he's so worried, but he is… and the fact that he is so worried is making me a little worried, too."

"I'm sure Michael's fine…"

"It's not Michael I'm worried about," Damian grabbed her hand and patted it lightly. "I mean, I am worried about Michael, because something could be wrong with him, but, at the same time, I know that the odds are higher that dad is just being dad."

"Where are you going now?"

"To look for them," Damian walked towards the elevator, "I just hope that they're okay."

Morgan Household-

Dillon walked into the house and saw that it was empty. Such things were quite frequent in his new home. It was pleasant. The Quartermaine household always had someone, someone who he probably didn't want to see at any given moment, most of the time it was his mother.

"Dillon?"

"Yeah, it's me," Dillon heard Courtney's voice and realized that he wasn't nearly as alone as he thought he was a moment before. "I thought I was all alone…"

"So did I, until I heard you come in." Courtney liked having Dillon around, it meant that there was less time suffering through choking silence. "How was school today?"

"I thought I told you not to ask that question, ever."

"Well, I haven't asked it since you started the year…"

"It's the same as it's always been, Courtney. Stupid, trite and pointless. I just want to be over with it, I want to be done with school. I want to go to college…"

"Do you really want to go that badly?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Dillon… I know you didn't want to come to Port Charles when your mother came and dropped you off here, but… can you honestly say that the things that have happened to you here weren't worth a thing? Think about all the people you met. You fell in love for the first time here, Dillon. That changes a person."

"I'm not saying that everything that happened here is bad, Courtney. I just… I don't want to be here anymore. I'm tired of being stuck in a place that doesn't feed my creativity. High school just keeps on pulling me down, and then I can't do anything about it. I can't leave…"

"Because a part of you doesn't want to…"

"Is that really it?"

"You might hate it here, but it's still become a part of you. Port Charles shaped you into the person that you are now, you can't just leave it."

"Damian did…"

"And how much of Los Angeles still stays with him? Remember when we went to look for your Christmas tree? Remember the way that he couldn't handle the cold? We weren't complaining, were we?"

Dillon chuckled, that event was one of the most amusing events of his year. "It's funny, you know? Los Angeles is where I want to head, and he came here, to Port Charles, Port Charles, which has nothing…"

"It had his father… and, in the end, it had a lot more, too. Like his best friend."

"You're just trying to make me stay here, aren't you?"

Courtney shook her head, "I'm just trying to make you see that things aren't nearly as bad as you want to believe they are. Nobody is doing anything to hold you against your will. If you want to leave, Dillon, we'll support you. All of us. Me, Jason, Damian, even Georgie, but it doesn't mean that we won't miss you."

Dillon thought about Courtney's words. Maybe there were some reasons to stay in Port Charles, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to keep himself in a place that made him feel so unhappy. "You know… Georgie's making me go to the formal, which I wouldn't have to do…"

"Oh, you're going to look so good in a tuxedo!"

Dillon rolled his brown eyes. He shouldn't have said anything. Instead, he was forced to listen to Courtney ramble just like Georgie did. What was it about women and getting to dress up? If he knew, then maybe he could make a name for himself… maybe.