Samsonlove- It is good that you believe that Maxie got what she deserved. I don't know if she did, but I know her motivations better than most, since I'm the one writing this. Plus, I like the story, so I guess I kind of feel bad for someone suffering because of something that makes the storyline better, at least from my perspective. You'll have to wait and see who Durant called, but I can assure you that it is someone familiar, although not someone who has ever been in the story before.

Story-

Kelly's-

Elizabeth could understand why her husband wanted her to quit the job that she was doing. It really wasn't all that exciting. There wasn't much effort to the waiting game. Her passion was still painting, and it probably always would be. And now, with Ric being who he was and having the money that he did she would have the time and the money that she needed to try and be a successful artist. It was like the dream that she had made while she was in love with Lucky was finally coming true, she could finally take the chance on a career that she wanted to take, and maybe not worry about failing. But, maybe that was part of the reason why she didn't want to do it: because it wasn't the dream that she had with Ric, it was the dream that she had with Lucky. They never spoke of it anymore, it was a part of them, it always would be, but they understood that any boat that they had with one another had sailed off, and it would likely never return to the docks of Port Charles again. Elizabeth was unsure of who her true love was, but she would always know that Lucky was her first love… for all she knew, he could have been her true love, but she also knew that she loved Ric and that she was very happy with him. There were bad times in the past, but there were bad times in the past with Lucky and with Jason as well. She couldn't be so focused on the bad times that she forgot the good times that came with them, because the good times usually made the bad times seem kind of obsolete. The happy times that she had with Ric were much more evocative than the bad times that she had with him, and she wanted to put the bad times behind her. After all, Ric had changed from the person that he used to be. It was funny in its own way, Elizabeth always swore that she could be the one to change him, to make him a different person, but it ended up not being something that she could do, but someone else. Someone with a blood connection to him. In that small way she was almost jealous of Damian, because he had done something that she wished she could do for the man that she loved, but she realized that it was better that someone, anyone, do the deed rather than being hung up on the fact that the person who did it was not her. If she continued to think about things like that then there was almost no chance that she would be able to make the relationship that she had with Ric work, and then she might subconsciously blame the boy for giving it everything that he had to repair the broken relationships that his family had when he arrived. The last thing that Elizabeth wanted to do was hate Damian in any way.

Elizabeth leaned against the counter and saw the stool where he had sat the first time that he arrived in Kelly's, when he didn't know who he was, when she didn't know who he was. Just some fresh faced Californian looking to be a doctor. If she had known the things that she now knew when he arrived, what would she have done? Would she have tried to send him back? Send him on his way to avoid the pain that he would undoubtedly feel? Or would she take him under her wing even more than she did, and try and shield him from that pain, but allow him to experience some of it so that he could learn from the lessons that he was taught during that time? If she pushed him away, then he would have never met Maxie, and that happiness that both of them had would have been gone, never once experienced. Elizabeth knew the power of love, especially the first love. To rob someone of that power, no matter who they were, was just wrong. Elizabeth had seen Maxie with Kyle, and she never truly believed that they were into each other nearly as much as Maxie tried to make people believe, or tried to make herself believe. No, the sparks that she saw in Maxie's eyes happened when she saw the girl with Damian, and not with anyone else. If for that reason and that reason alone, Elizabeth knew in her heart that she wouldn't have been able to push him away from the life that he was destined to be a part of. A life that she was once almost involved in as well…

As the door opened, Elizabeth paid little attention to the person who was walking in, still caught up in her own thoughts. Eventually, she looked up and the person who happened to walk in at that particular moment made her smile. It seemed to be somewhat karmic in nature. She was just thinking about him. "Jason, hi."

"Elizabeth," Jason replied with a slight nod. Looking at her, Jason realized that he still cared about her. They weren't any sort of feelings that would intrude on his relationship with Courtney, but Jason still wanted what was best for her, because of what she had done for him, what she had meant to him once upon a time. It was because of those feelings that he would always think that it was a bad idea for her to be involved with Ric. He wasn't good enough for her, Jason knew that for a fact. Ric wasn't good enough for anyone in his eyes. Jason tried not to be too judgmental, but when it came to people like Ric he didn't mind.

"Are you looking for someone?" She asked, still behind the counter. There was always some sort of uneasy feeling that she felt when she was around Jason. Not because she didn't trust him, or think that he would hurt her, but because she wasn't sure what was going on in the world around them, what was going on with Jason. It was that feeling of the unknown, as well as the fear, that made her leave Jason. She just couldn't handle worrying about what could happen to him on a day to day basis. She loved him too much to worry about that, and she still cared about him too much to truly accept what he was doing. She'd probably never be able to do it. Courtney needed to be commended for having the ability to find some way to reach the middle ground and be with him despite her reservations. "Or did you come here to eat."

"I skipped breakfast," Jason replied in his blank manner. Even Jason Morgan, famed hitman and superman, needed to get something in his stomach from time to time. And there really wasn't much that he could get at the penthouse. Despite the fact that Dillon was there and that they now had more food the things that the teenager ingested were not appealing to Jason. Why did Dillon have to have so many bags of chips? "You don't mind, do you?" Jason asked. "If you're uncomfortable with me being here, I can go somewhere else…"

Elizabeth shook her head, "Jason, this is a business, you know that. I can't just turn away customers because I feel like it, and even if I could, I would never do it to you…"

Jason didn't exactly believe what Elizabeth was saying. He could see it in her eyes, the same feeling that he saw when they were together, that hint of nervousness that would never go away no matter how hard they tried. But, Jason did not want to leave her with that feeling. He wanted her to be safe. So, he saw at one of the stools. "How is everything with you?" Jason asked. The man wasn't great at small talk, but that didn't mean that he didn't know how to do it.

"It's great, thank you for asking." Elizabeth smiled as she grabbed the coffee cup. "Do you want some?"

"No, thanks."

She giggled, "The coffee importer doesn't even want some of his own coffee. That's ironic, in a way."

"I guess it is," Jason hadn't really thought about it. The coffee business was just a face that they used to give them some sort of income that was legit. That was all it was to him, another part of the plan. Jason didn't really like coffee.

"I don't want to sound intrusive or anything, Jason, but… have you spoken to Dillon recently?" Elizabeth had not forgotten the way that the young man looked, the sorrow in his words, in his face. And they were emotions that were caused directly because of Jason. Hardly intentional, but still.

"He talked to you about… what he was going through?"

"Are you surprised at that?"

"I guess not," Jason said after a moment of thinking it over. "You always had that air about you, Elizabeth. Where you would be the type of person that anyone could look towards for support…"

She blushed, but she also thought that Jason never looked to her for the support that she wanted to give him, because it would mean involving her in the life that he didn't want her to be in, that she didn't want to be in. She understood why he made the choices that he made, but that didn't mean that she enjoyed them. "Thank you, Jason, that means a lot to me."

"Dillon and I talked last night. Whatever problems he had with me should be gone… or at least out in the open. I hope that we can really get through them. I don't want him to feel like he felt when he was with the Quartermaine's. Courtney took him in because they tossed him out, because she wanted to give him a better chance at happiness than he would have ever had there…"

"And who better to know about what people go through at the mansion than the two of you, right?" Elizabeth asked and then she put her hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, Jason… was that insensitive?"

"No, it wasn't. I stayed with them after the accident for a little while. Staying with them made me realize why I needed to leave so badly, why I couldn't give Dillon a home life that mirrored the one that we had before. So we're going to try and make sure it never happens."

"I'm glad, Jason. Really, I am." Elizabeth leaned over the counter once more. "I wasn't sure what you were thinking when you brought him into the house like that, but, if you can give him something that he needs, and if he can do the same for you, then I really am happy for both of you."

"You always like to think the best about every situation, no matter what, don't you?" Jason asked. Elizabeth's endless optimism was touching and perplexing at the same time.

"It's the only way I know how to be. Why, do you not like it?"

Jason shook his head, "Don't change it, Elizabeth. It's one of your best qualities. It makes you who you are."

Port Charles Police Department-

It was hard to get any work done, even on the Durant side of things, because of what he was thinking about. The way that the boy looked. That look of crushed dreams that seemed to make him crumble. Ric never wanted someone he cared about to feel that way about anything, but, apparently it couldn't be stopped. Damian tried to be so strong, but Ric knew that nobody was that strong. Nobody could truly recover after losing the person that they loved. Ric got lucky, he got a second chance with that person, but he wasn't so sure that fate would be as kind to his nephew. If there was any sort of justice in the cosmic balance, there would be. Damian, of all people, deserved nothing but the best in the world. After everything that he had done, everything that he had gone through, to deny him something so simple as happiness just seemed to go against everything that should have been right.

Where would he have been if it wasn't for his nephew? It was a question that Ric had asked himself many times in the past. His relationship with his brother wouldn't even be as good as it was, which was saying a lot because it wasn't great, but they were able to be in the same room without one of them wanting to kill the other. A vast improvement considering their past encounters. Elizabeth would have never given him a second chance. She would have been afraid to admit that there was a part of her that wanted to be with him again. Damian brought that out of Elizabeth. He told her that she needed to do what made her happy and not worry about anything else. Ric knew that the boy was special, but in thinking about it, he realized just how special the young man was to a lot of people. He wasn't perfect, far from it… but he certainly didn't deserve to be hurt like that. Ric felt helpless, and that was easily his least favorite feeling in the world.

Mac, still in the dark about the breakup that would have probably caused him to do a happy dance around the room, walked into the office. "Do you have a minute?"

Ric turned his eyes up at Mac and felt the anger swell up inside of him. But, Mac couldn't truly be blamed. Or could he? Mac had never, ever, been supportive of the relationship that they had with one another. He always thought that Damian wasn't good enough for Maxie, that he would only break her heart. Surprise, surprise, it turned out to be the other way around. Out of respect for his nephew and what he may have been going through, Ric did not act on his anger. It wasn't his fight, not yet. If he was asked to throw his hat in the ring he would without hesitation. It was the least he could do for someone who had helped him. "What do you need, Mac?"

"I just wanted you to know that, as far as things go, he's calmed down a lot in the past few days. I don't know if this is the calm before the storm, of if he finally got tired of trying to take over…"

Ric snickered, "John won't stop going at full force until he gets what he wants, and that's the end of my brother and Jason."

"You used to want that, once upon a time."

"And it almost swallowed me whole, remember? Look, I know how stupid this sounds considering how I used to feel, but Sonny has never been convicted of a crime before, which means that, as far as the justice system goes, he's an innocent man…"

"You know as well as I do that he should have been found guilty time and time again in those trials. He paid off the judge, the jury, he did everything that he could to make sure that he didn't go to jail."

"The point is that we have this system intact for a reason. It might not be perfect, but it's there, and we need to respect that. If Sonny breaks the rules, if he breaks the law, I'm going to do what I can to take him down and make sure that he doesn't do it again, but I'm not going to let that quest become the entirety of my being again. I almost lost everything the first time I tried that, Mac. I'm not going to make the same mistake twice."

Mac wasn't entirely sure that he believed what Ric was telling him. After all, this was the man that had now found a kindred spirit in his nephew. What would stop Ric from turning the other way when Sonny did do something, just to gain his big brother's favor? "We've got some breathing room right now, Ric. But who knows when that will be taken away from us. Don't lose sight of the goal that we have, Durant needs to go away."

"I know," Ric replied solemnly. He just hoped that Durant didn't go away the way that Sonny would have wanted him to go away. Ric didn't want someone to die, not even someone like Durant.