Samsonlove- I hated Ned with Skye, in fact, in the beginning, when I was watching GH, they were together and it made me hate Skye, too. I don't know why it changed, but it did, and Skye is probably my favorite female on the show right now, I love her and I love Robin Christopher. The plot that is springing forth from Maxie's misinterpreted view on the actions that were taken by Damian and Brook will spread out into a lot of smaller little sub-plots. Very much the snowball effect. Yes, Bobbie is understandably worried about how this will impact her family, and yes, eventually, Carly and Durant will realize their connection to one another, and, when that happens, look for another snowball effect.

General Hospital-

The door to Lois's room opened as quietly as possible. She knew that it was never a good thing to wake up a patient in the early hours of the morning, but, as it turned out, she didn't even need to worry about waking Lois up, because she already was up. "Only you could make it out of a car accident and still look just as lovely as ever…"

Lois smiled, "You're just trying to make me feel better, Monica."

"Maybe…"

"Well, keep going, please. I need something to keep me happy."

Monica laughed softly, "I'm sorry, I would have come in to see if you were all right earlier, but I had some of my own patients that I needed to take care of, and you know how much the hospital frowns upon the doctors looking in on their family."

Lois turned her eyes away for a moment. The word stung her harshly. 'Family.' The way that Monica said it made it sound like she was a part of their family still, but, the way that most of the people in the mansion acted around her it seemed more like she was just tolerated because of the connection that they had with her. If she wouldn't have brought Brook Lynn with her, they would have never let her in the house. They didn't really treat her like family. Especially Ned.

Lois could see the dramatic and quick shift in Lois's mood. It was always hard to see someone like Lois, someone who was so bright and vibrant just turn her head away and look so solemn. Monica walked over to the head of the bed and stood by her side. "I'm sure that you've got a thousand questions right now, Lois. I've got the time to answer almost all of them, if you want me to."

"When can I be released?"

That was always the first question that people tended to ask, unless it was something serious, then it was 'am I going to live.' In most cases, the answer was a positive one, but sometimes it wasn't. Sometimes Monica just didn't know when they would be able to leave, or if they would even make it to the next month. She was a doctor, and sometimes miracles happened, but she wasn't a miracle worker. In Lois's case, however, the news was good. "I'm sure once the doctor comes in and sees you and sees that you don't have any problems going on you'll be able to get out of here and come back to the mansion."

The mansion… no, she wouldn't be returning to the mansion. At least not yet. Maybe eventually, but, for the time being she didn't want to be around those people. Monica and Alan weren't on the list, but Ned and Tracy and even Edward on some small scale… they were. Rather than being entirely selfish in her questions, Lois knew that there were more important things to worry about. "What time did Brook Lynn leave?"

"Pretty late. You must have already been asleep, after everything that they had given you while they ran their tests. You should know that you're pretty fortunate to get away with just a few bumps and scratches, Lois. Your car… it didn't make it out nearly as well as you did."

"I've got insurance, they'll handle it." She hated herself for being so stupid that she almost cost herself her own life, that she almost ended up killing herself and taking herself away from her daughter, her world, simply because of the way that one idiotic man acted. She thought she was over the way that Ned treated her, the way that he pushed her aside whenever the family called him. But, apparently she wasn't.

"Ned took her home…"

"I'm glad."

"You know… he was really worried about you, Lois."

She would have scoffed, but it would have been rude, and she didn't want Monica going and telling the family how upset she was at Ned. No, their problem was their problem, not the family problem, although she knew it would be impossible to keep it a secret from the Quartermaine's for long, especially someone like Tracy, she would take as much time as she had and use it to her advantage. Quickly changing the subject, Lois grinned, "You know what's funny?"

"What's that?"

"The fact that you're one of the people in the Quartermaine family that I get along with the most, now that Lila's gone, you might be that person completely."

"And why is that so funny? I like to think that I can be a pretty reasonable person from time to time, it stems from not having any Quartermaine blood inside of me, I'm able to fight it off, at least a little bit."

"I mean… think about it, you had a thing for Ned when you first met him… you had the hots for my husband, Monica!"

Monica blushed. It was true. The first time she met Ned Ashton she thought he was an incredibly handsome individual, and he was, but, at the time she had no idea that he was her nephew by marriage. Good thing they found out before it was too late. "I had no idea who he was when I thought about starting a relationship with him."

The grin found itself being subdued within moments. Lois looked down at the ground again. Monica didn't know who he was when he was when she first met him, and neither did Lois. It was a different kind of person, in the end at least, but at the core of the problem was the same. Ned had fooled both of them, at least for a little while, into thinking that he was someone else, someone who was better than the person that he truly was. For Lois, it was Eddie Maine, charismatic, with a voice to die for and a heart that never seemed to stop beating for her. How foolish she was. And he was able to fool her into thinking that Ned Ashton would be just as exciting for her. She fell for that ruse. Never again.

"Lois, I don't know what happened, I don't know how you got into that car accident. The police came around and they were basically told that you were still too out of it, that you wouldn't be able to tell them much until you recovered a little more. So, before you check out, or even after, you might be asked to give your statement. Regardless, know that I'm grateful that you're all right. If not for myself then for your daughter. She was so worried about you."

"I didn't mean to worry her." And there was no statement to make. She would say that the accident was entirely her fault, because it was. There wasn't even another car on the road when she crashed. She was just acting completely irrational, like a woman scorned. So then maybe it wasn't her fault, maybe it was Ned's fault, but that would never stick on an insurance claim.

"Once she found out that you were all right, she managed to act a lot better about it." Monica began to walk away, "If you need anything from me, just feel free to have one of the nurses page me and I'll be here as soon as possible."

"Thanks, Monica," Lois replied as the woman walked out the door. Yes, Monica was a good person at heart. Too bad the rest of the people around her weren't nearly as good, or even had hearts. With Monica gone, Lois threw her head against the pillow, hoping to catch some much needed sleep, but, she had been asleep for so long after the accident, and her mind was just running with too many thoughts. It made sleep almost impossible.

Corinthos Household-

While Damian may have retreated back into his room looking for some more shut eye time, Sonny didn't. He couldn't. Once Sonny was up he tended to stay up, and, given his nature and frequent bouts of insomnia, it wasn't exactly something that he enjoyed doing. Sadly, it also wasn't something that he could really hope to counteract. Yes, there were sleeping pills that he could get, but the last thing he wanted to do was get dependant upon some of them, because he didn't want to become that kind of person. Not him. Not ever. He'd seen the way that the pills and the drugs managed to screw up people's lives, he would never through himself into the same mistakes, the same choices.

Jason walked in to the house a moment later, seeing Sonny sitting at his desk, by the phone. "You wanted to see me?"

"You said that you were going to have Stan look in to John Durant's past, Jason. Did he find anything that can help us make sure that the bastard doesn't come attacking us or our family?"

Sadly, Jason had to do something that he rarely ever did, he had to admit that he wasn't able to do something that Sonny wanted him to do, though it was no fault of his own. Nonetheless, Jason felt responsible. "Sonny, Durant's good… I mean, real good. On paper he seems like he's a candidate for being a Pope."

"Everyone has some skeletons in their closet…"

"But Durant's closet has a lock that even we can't hope to break open."

Angry at the failure of the operation, Sonny slammed his fist down on the desk. "Dammit! I hate this, Jason. I hate that I have to worry about something, someone, like John Durant coming in and trying to take me apart. Why did this have to happen right now? I've got so much on my shoulders…"

Upon hearing the loud sound that came from the living room, Damian, who wasn't even able to get much sleep after the conversation that he had with his father, walked out of the room, dressed and ready for school. His last day of school before he had to spend another three days at the hospital. It was a slippery slope. Jason was there as well, and he heard the last part of Sonny's statement. "Dad… is… is there anything that I can do to help?"

Sonny turned around in his chair, looking at the boy who just offered help, and something inside of him just snapped. It wasn't about Damian, though. It was about Durant. "I can't believe that he thinks that you're involved in my business…"

"People are always going to think that about me, dad." As much as he hated to admit that it was true, it was. People were always going to think that he was just another mobster, from the same mold as his father and his uncle. They didn't even have to know that he had killed a man in order to think that he had already killed at least one person. Some days it was harder than others, the guilt, but it was always there. "But as long as we both know that it isn't true… then who cares, right?"

"I care…" Sonny mumbled. "I don't want you to get taken down simply because you're my child."

"Dad, everything's going to be fine." The boy looked over to Jason, staring into his azure eyes and begging for some sort of support. There were times when Sonny would listen to Damian, but they were few and far between. However, Sonny almost always listened to Jason, his right hand man.

"He can handle himself, Sonny," Jason commented. "He's older than Michael and Morgan, he knows how to take care of himself."

"I swear… if John Durant does anything to hurt my family, I'm going to find a way to take him down, permanently."

Damian felt his blood run cold. His father was talking about killing Durant, that much was obvious. What wasn't obvious to anyone but Damian himself was that Sonny was also speaking about killing Carly's father. How he yearned to say something, to inform the two people in the room with him of the truth, but he couldn't. It wasn't his secret to tell.

"I want you to tell Stan to keep on looking, Jason."

"Sonny, even if I tell Stan…"

"I don't care what you tell Stan, I don't care what Stan says! I pay him for his services, even when they're not worth it, so if I want something done, it gets done!"

There was that rage inside of Sonny that scared both Jason and Damian, the boy more than the man, because Jason had seen it before, many times. Damian, on the other hand, had only seen hints of what lurked beneath Sonny's small frame, the rage that could tear a person apart without even a second thought. It really was something that was extremely scary, and he was supposed to be old enough to handle those things.

"All right, Sonny. I'll make sure to contact Stan first thing. I don't know what he can do, but I'll tell him to keep on checking every possible angle until he finds some sort of tangible evidence against the man."

"Thanks… and, sorry…"

"Don't be, you're worried about the safety of your family. Nobody can fault you for wanting to keep the safe, no matter the cost. I certainly can't."

Sonny nodded. His anger had cooled quickly, as it frequently did, but it was still there. He looked at his son and saw that there was that brief hint of fear in his eyes, fear not for his father, but fear of his father. Sonny got up and walked passed Damian, "Everything's going to be all right, son. Trust me."

"I do…"

"Don't you have class soon?"

"Yeah… I do… I should get my stuff and go…" he didn't have class for another hour and a half, but, as much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to get out of the house, just for a little while. He needed stability, he needed to get away from all the anger. Damian had seen what people had always said about his father, about all that unchecked frustration, and he was afraid.