Pulling her long hair into a messy bun on top of her head, Robin was thrilled to be back at General Hospital as a doctor rather than a patient. It had been almost two weeks since the incident at the Metrocourt, but she felt like it had been an eternity. The laboratory was the one place where she still felt normal, where she could pretend that nothing had changed. Safe to hide behind her numbers and charts and graphs, she could focus her brain on anything but the horrific flashbacks and excruciating nightmares she had had to endure.

Patrick had argued with her for a half-hour two days ago when she was released, pleading that she take it easy. She was frustrated by the confines of her hospital room, preferring to be hovered over at Mac's house. At least there she could feel like she was at home. A nurse came by every afternoon to check on her, and Patrick spent all of his free time by her side. In between, there was always someone to watch over her between the girls and Mac. Her daily rehabilitation sessions also had her surrounded by a medical team, so she couldn't have pushed herself too hard if she tried.

When one of her patients had come down ill again, she had called Robin to ask for a consultation. Patrick attempted to insist that she stay home, but she felt up for a couple hours at the hospital. She just needed to find the one place where everything still made sense.

"You only have twenty more minutes before I kick you out," Monica announced from the doorway, leaning gingerly against the doorframe. The maternal doctor looked worn and tired, as if life had caught up with her all at once. Her blonde hair, usually so meticulously kept, was hanging loose from her bun. "You're not even really supposed to be here, but I know how important this is to you. I just don't want to put your health at risk because of it."

Robin smiled fondly. "I know, and I appreciate it. I just felt like I needed to be here."

"I understand," she said, and Robin knew that she did. "I've been holing myself up in Alan's office almost every evening this week, going through the files he has kept for the past 30 years. I'll finish a drawer and then move onto another. I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of things to organize."

"That's exactly how I feel. I keep thinking that if I just stay busy, I won't remember all the things that have changed," Robin replied, twisting her wedding band nervously. "I mean, I'm happy with Patrick. For the first time in so long, my personal life is exactly where I want it to be. But I still feel restless. I can't seem to forget."

Monica came into the room and sat down in the empty chair next to Robin. "Alan was so worried about you when he came here. He kept asking me about how you were, telling me how well Emily had done. He wasn't thinking about his own health or about the fact that he was dying. He just cared about you two girls."

"Alan was a wonderful doctor and an even more amazing man. He not only inspired Emily to become a doctor, he also inspired me. When Stone was dying, Alan treated me like an adult, explaining every step as though I was an equal. And then, when I was diagnosed, he was the one who made me believe that I could live through this. Here we are, a decade later, and he was right."

"No matter what happened in life, I could always count on the fact that Alan was the best doctor I had ever seen. It's funny. I broke his heart so many times…" Tears slipped down her cheek as she buried her face in her hands. Her voice was thick with emotion, with regret. "I broke his heart so many times, but we would always put it back together. This time, his heart was beyond repair, and I couldn't make him better."

"Your husband loved you," Robin assured her. "And you know what, he's not the only one. You have Emily, the apple of the Quartermaine eye, and you have Edward, in all his frustrating glory. When it counts, you know that Tracey will be there for the family, and Ned is always dependable. And you have Jason, in his own quiet, strained, ever-present way."

"I still wish he had married you instead of getting wrapped up with Carly."

"I won't pretend that I'm glad about the Carly thing, but I think everything turned out the way it was supposed to," Robin retorted. "Jason has the life he wants, on his own terms and all. He gets to be in Michael and Morgan's lives, and he is in love with Carly. And I'm married to Patrick. This is exactly what we both needed life to be."

Emily reached up and timidly knocked on the door, hesitant to interrupt the seemingly private moment. "Sorry, Mom, I hate to interrupt you."

"It's fine, Em," Robin proclaimed. "I need to get going anyhow. I'm not supposed to even be here, I've overstayed my very kind welcome. Thanks again, Monica. I promise you won't see me again unless it's for rehab for at least a few more weeks."

"Thank you, we appreciate that," Monica teased lightly before hugging the petite doctor warmly. "And thank you for the talk, it really helped."

Nodding, Robin wheeled herself out of the room, leaving the mother and daughter alone. Emily smiled widely at her mom and raked her fingers through her long hair. Sitting on the stool across the table from Monica, she studied her mother's hands. She had seen those same long, slender fingers a thousand times, held them every single time when life got too hard…in the days after Paige's death, during her addiction, through Lucky's death, after the bus accident, through her own bout with breast cancer, after the rape. The moments were far too numerous for their short lifetime together.

"Your nails, they're a mess," Emily observed, taking her mother's hand in hers. "We both have this afternoon off, what do you say to a little mother/daughter time? We could go get manicures, have our hair done, get a facial, the whole works."

"Don't you have plans with Lucky later?" Monica protested.

"Not until tonight," Emily said. "We're going to have dinner over at Wyndamere. Nikolas asked that the four of us get together. Lucky didn't want to go, but I convinced him to at least try."

"How's that all going? Have you spoken to either of them?"

"I only spoke to Nikolas for a few minutes last night," Emily answered. "I'm not ready to talk to Elizabeth. I didn't really want to talk to Nik, but Lucky refused. So much has happened between the four of us, but we have to figure out a way to make this work. Lucky and Elizabeth have a child together, we're forever going to be entwined."

Monica considered her daughter carefully, sure that something else was going on beneath the surface. Emily wanted desperately to tell her mother what happened, but she had obliged Jason's request to keep it a secret for the time being. He wanted to be the one to tell Monica, but he needed to figure out what he was going to do first. They both knew Monica would be ecstatic about being a grandmother again, but if he wasn't going to be in the baby's life, there was no need to break her heart again. He'd already done it once with Michael, he couldn't see his mother go through that again. Then again, now that he was with Carly, maybe she would be a part of her first grandson's life. As always, life was up in the air.

"The spa sounds like a great idea," Monica decided, folding Emily's hand lovingly in hers. "I'll just go get my things together and meet you in the lobby."

Emily nodded as her mother left the room. Pulling her cell phone from her pocket, she pressed the first speed dial button. "Hello, beautiful."

"I miss you," she cooed, languishing in the desire so apparent in his voice.

"I was just thinking about all the things I want to do to you tonight when we get home from that dinner at Wyndamere," he revealed.

"Well, we'll just have to eat really fast."

"If you're that anxious, we could skip it all together. We could just go back to our room above Kelly's and spend the entire night in bed together. In fact, I wouldn't be opposed to spend the next few days in bed with you. We live above a diner, we'd have all the sustenance we need."

"Nice try, Spencer, but I don't think so. Your cheap ploys won't work with me," she laughed. "You're going to dress up in a suit, you're going to pick me up in your car, and you are going to take me to dinner. We'll eat, the whole thing will only take a few hours. And then, we can go home, and I promise I will make it more than worth your while."

"No way, not going to happen."

"Lucky," she warned.

"You drive a Jaguar," he reminded her. "You can pick me up."

She giggled. "How about we compromise, and I let you drive my car?"

"A woman after my own heart."

"I don't think I need to chase after your heart, I already have it."

"That you do," he agreed. "So, I'll see you tonight in our room?"

"I'm going to go to the spa with my mom this afternoon, but I'll be home right afterward."

"Home."

"Yes, home," she repeated, slightly confused.

"We have a home together."

"It's not much but it's ours."

"Your grandfather must hate the fact that his granddaughter is living over a diner not even worth of his patronage," Lucky teased. "Then again, it probably kills him that you're with a man not worthy of your heart."

"He doesn't know how wrong he is about either. I love our little room, and I love you," she professed. "Besides, it's only temporary. I'll find something new eventually."

"Thanks," he said in mock horror.

"Ha ha," she retorted dryly. "We can look for something else."

"What if I already have something else?"

"What is going on in that Spencer mind of yours?"

"There's always my parents house. We could redo it a little, make it our own. There's enough room for you, Cameron and me. We could convert one of the bedrooms into an office for you to study and redo another room for Cam. The backyard is huge, it'd be perfect for a swing set. My mom would love the thought of us there."

"Plus, it's cheap. We wouldn't have to use anyone else's money. It's something we could actually afford on my paltry income as a medical intern and your lavish lifestyle as a cop."

"I think it's about time that we make a name of our own," he told her. "For so long, you have been Emily Quartermaine, and I have been Lucky Spencer. Our lives were predetermined by our last names, overshadowed by those who came before us."

"I love how completely you know me. I don't have to explain everything, you just get me. Sometimes it scares me how easy it has been for me to fall in love with you."

"Me too," he remarked, and she could feel his smile over the line. "Sorry to cut this short, but I really need to finish some paperwork if I'm going to get out of here on time."

"I love you, Lucky."

"I love you, Emily."

Trading goodbyes, Lucky grinned to himself as he replaced the phone on the cradle at his desk. Just as he was about to return to the large stack of paper sitting on his blotter, Jason came into the precinct. As with most of the mobsters in Port Charles, you could always tell if they were present even before you saw them in person. A buzz would fill the station, putting everyone immediately on guard. He watched the tall man look around the room for a few moments before spotting Lucky.

"Lucky, I need to talk to you."

"Jason, I can't. I have a lot of work to do."

"I've made my choice. I wanted you to be the first one to know."