"Nikolas."

The single word spoke from her chapped lips was the single most beautiful sound he had heard in recent memories, second perhaps only to the cries of his son when he was born. They had been sitting like this for awhile now, him holding her and trying to avoid the difficult conversation that they needed to have but wouldn't be able to say aloud. Brook Lynn had been given a white board so that she could write things down in an attempt to save her voice. The specialists were looking over her latest tests, and in just a few hours, they would scrub in with Patrick to do an exploratory surgery of her throat. For now, Nikolas was just happy that her eyes were open and that she was going to be okay.

"I need water," she scribbled on the board, tapping its surface to draw Nikolas' attention away from her face. He smiled as he slipped from her bed to pour a cup of water for her. She mouthed her thanks and sighed in appreciation once she got a long drink of the cool liquid before starting to write again. "I'm fine, quit staring."

"I can't help it," he replied. "I missed those beautiful eyes of yours." The line oozed of all the cheesiness of a slime ball in a Vegas casino, but upon the lips of a true prince, it sounded like prose. Brook fluttered her long dark eyelashes when Nikolas returned to her bedside. "Even a day without you was far too long, Songbird. Although, I will say it gave me some time to think."

A questioning look danced in her eyes as she moved the marker over the board. "Any good thoughts?"

Nikolas tapped the side of his nose secretly before breaking out into a wide grin. He rarely kept anything from her these days. She was more than his sounding board; he truly respected her opinion and looked forward to getting her advice. "I am just thinking that we need to firm up some plans I have for the future. We should probably consider making some things a little more permanent, if you are up for it," he suggested casually, as if they were talking about something as trivial as where to go for dinner.

"Sounds good," was her quickly written reply before she dropped the marker on the tray and patted the mattress next to her. Nikolas was careful to arrange her wires appropriately before he climbed onto the bed next to her. Wrapping his arm around her, he allowed Brook to turn into him slightly so that she could rest her head on his chest. "Love you."

Another two whispered words that couldn't have been more perfect. She was peering up at him with these Disney cartoon eyes, looking every bit the fairytale princess worth of his royal love. Everything else told him that they should work together – the way her family didn't exactly approve of their arrangement, her often brash approach in dealing with situations, his barely sane grandmother and about everything else in the world. However, he fit with her in a way that he had never fit with anyone before.

It wasn't this storybook romance like it had been with Emily. They hadn't been built up over years. It wasn't exactly a forbidden romance like it had been when he had cheated with Courtney. There wasn't the Florence Nightingale effect that he had found with Nadine or the second-chance feeling he had felt with Rebecca. There wasn't even a need for comfort and connection like there was with Elizabeth. This was something completely new, a feeling all of their own. It was hard to define, but Nikolas knew that the feeling was deep and it was real.

After their business agreement had gone to the wayside and their connection had become strictly personal, the relationship had taken on a life of its own. The thing that made it different, Nikolas suspected, was that they were true equals. She didn't need anything from him, and he wasn't looking for anything from her. They were together because they wanted to be. She was making a career of her own. Nikolas was comfortable enough to go to business events alone when she couldn't come along. She didn't need for him to save her, and he wasn't looking for redemption in her. She wasn't this experiment in being common or a way for her to be a social climber.

"I love you, too," he finally whispered. "I think that I should probably tell you that Patrick didn't tell you everything. They were waiting for me so that I could tell you. I wish that I didn't have to be the one to break the news, but there isn't anyone else who I'd want to help you get through this." She was looking up at him questioningly, and Nikolas could only kiss her forehead chastely and press on. "Your throat isn't just sore from the tube." He took her hand and guided it up to feel the bandages that lined the column of her neck. "There are some pretty significant cuts there from the windshield. One of them in particular sliced you fairly deeply, and the doctors are concerned about your vocal chords and your voice box."

"Oh, God." The words were a loud, harsh whisper. Nikolas felt her entire body trembling in his arms, and it broke his heart into a million pieces. "I can't sing."

"They don't know much yet, Brook," he tried to remind her, but she was restless now. He knew that she was probably angry at him for keeping this for this long, but he wasn't going to let her pull away. "I have brought in the world's two foremost experts in the field. They are going to go into your surgery with Patrick this afternoon to take a look at everything. We'll know a lot more after that. I have already spoken with your vocal coach about finding the top speech therapist that we can. He also recommended a few people that he knows that specialize specifically with these kinds of injuries for vocalists. Every tool is at your fingertips. I won't stop until you get to sing again."

Even with that, he knew what these kinds of injuries did to singers. "It's bad, isn't it?" she managed to get out. Tears were streaming freely down her face now, rolling over her cheeks and dripping onto her hospital gown. Nikolas could only nod. He wouldn't lie to her now. "Scared."

"Me too," he confessed. "But I have faith in you, Brook. You're more determined than anyone I've ever known to get what you want, except for maybe Luke." His joke earned a gaspy chuckle. "We just have to wait for this surgery and see what they find out."

As Nikolas and Brook waited for surgery, Sonny Corinthos was headed down the hospital hallway to visit his own daughter. She had been awake for most of the day now, visiting with limbs from all branches of her family tree. Now that he had a few business dealings handled, he was ready to focus solely on his daughter and her recovery.

"Sweetheart, you look like you're feeling better."

Kristina looked up from the front page of the Port Charles Herald to find her father leaning in the doorway. He didn't look so much like a mob boss then but more like a concerned father who was clearly relieved after hours of worrying. He wore a weary smile these days, cautiously happy after his wedding to Brenda earlier this year. While they had a rough go of it at first thanks to the Balkan, they were slowly building a happy life together. It was no secret that Kristina adored her stepmother, but it had taken a lot more than that for her to repair her relationship with a father. It was still a day-to-day struggle, and she knew that a significant part of their future hinged on his reaction to her spending time with Ethan.

"Well, I'm awake, so that's a start," she said with a smile. "I don't know if you heard yet or not, but Brook Lynn woke up a bit ago. Dr. Hunter just said that she is going to have an exploratory procedure this afternoon on her throat. I guess Nikolas is in breaking the news right now."

Darkness washed over Sonny's face. His heart went out to the songstress, the only daughter of one his oldest friends. "Well, hopefully they will find out what they need to so that they can start to get to work on her voice," he offered up. What else was there to say in such a situation? "For now, I'm just glad that my daughter is awake. Is there anything we can get you?"

"I think Mom has that pretty well covered," she replied, gesturing toward the cabinets that were now overflowing with various things from home. He also noticed flowers and balloons scattered around the room since she had been moved out of ICU. His bouquet of lilies and daffodils was the largest by far. "I will tell you one thing that you can do for me, though."

Sonny slipped into the chair next to her bed. "Anything, you just name it."

"Well, you know that I had feelings for Ethan last year, and I thought that they went away after everything that I went through with Keifer, right?" Kristina asked, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear nervously. "Well, I think I more repressed the feelings temporarily than got over them. I know that you're not going to like it and Ethan is older than me. But I hope that you will really spend some time getting to know him. It's not just a crush, Dad, I'm sure of it. I know you and Mom will say that I'm too young to know how I feel, but Ethan and I love each other."

It wasn't that he didn't like the young man. It was simply that no one was ever going to be good enough for his daughter. That aside, there were some glaring issues here that he couldn't ignore and that she shouldn't either. "Kristina, honey, you realize that Ethan is still a married man, right?" he reminded her. "All my other feelings aside, he has a wife."

"Like I told Mom, temporary circumstances. He's just helping her out so that they can get the money from Edward," she explained. "Maya needs it to pay for school and to take care of her sister. He told me straight up that he loves me and not her. Maya knows all about this, I guess."

Sonny sincerely doubted it was as easy and simple as his daughter portrayed. "Alright, well, what about what he does for a living? You can't tell me that he makes all his money working at a casino that is rarely open," he countered. "The very things that you hate about me are a very real part of what Ethan does. You know as well as I do that he works for Johnny. He's in the middle of some very dangerous dealings."

Kristina arched her eyebrow at her father. "Are you really going to lecture me on that?"

"No, I don't necessarily have the right, even though I am your father. I just know how angry you have been at me in the past because of the violence and choices in my life," he reminded her. "I am just saying that you didn't like those situations when they were at my hands, and it won't be any different with Ethan." He was trying to be calm, even though he wanted to scream and demand that she stay away from him. "I wanted better for you and your brothers. I've made no secret that I don't want you to follow in my footsteps. If Ethan is the man you choose, eventually you will think about having a family. Your kids will inherit the dangers."

"I hear you, okay?" she retorted. "Anything else?"

"His age has been brought up, and I will say it again. You are young. I'm not saying that you're too young to understand what this all means. You know your heart. I just want you to remember that the choices you make now will impact the rest of your life. Do you really think Ethan will be around to see his commitments through?"

An Australian voice echoed from the doorway. "Do you think I can answer that for myself?"