This was not the original title. I've forgotten what it was. Updating all alone is hard so love me in spite of it. LOL!

The smell of the stables was a love it or leave it proposition for most people. Lulu most assuredly fell into the love it category. From the very beginning, when she had experienced her brief career as a Girl Scout, the earthy smell called to her. That day with the troop of giggling prissy princesses, who only wanted the pretty horses, Lulu had pointed to the most stubborn one in the pack and came damn close to throwing a temper tantrum in her quest to ride him. The second she felt herself lifted on top of the ironically named Peaceful, eight-year-old Lulu felt at home, much the way her cousin did behind the camera or her brother when he entered the studio.

Lou's stables had become her home away from home. Every disastrous family dinner had found her here the next day. There wasn't a horse on the ranch she hadn't ridden, petted, fed, or groomed. She drew the line at mucking out the stalls. After all she did have some standards. Lulu adjusted her ponytail and scanned the grounds, looking for any clue where Lou was hiding today. Normally the older woman would come running the second she heard the unmistakable roar of Betsy, Lulu's old beat up Oldsmobile.

"Aunt Lu! I ride Storm?" Cameron jumped up and down hopefully, tugging on the sleeve of her pink and green flannel shirt.

"No Cams. Storm is too big for you remember?" Lulu replied automatically. Her mother had insisted Lulu start taking Cameron to the stables with her in an attempt to keep him away from her father's motorcycle. Luckily her nephew seemed to have inherited her love of horses. Cameron was always excited to come with her and it was their thing, their special activity no one could touch. Not even her brother.

Which was a good thing, since Lucky had been an absolute misery blanket for the past two days. She was still clueless as to what exactly had happened, but it didn't take a rocket science to know something was rotten in the state of Spencer. Lucky was barely talking to anyone, Patrick was refusing to answer his phone, Mom just walked around alternating between worry and excitement and dad just randomly cringed. Even by her family standards, they were weird. Taking comfort in the only normal acting member of her family, she had taken Cameron with her on her daily stable run.

Cameron pouted as he always did. Leave it to his Spencer genes to always want to ride the biggest, meanest horse in the place. Lulu didn't even like to ride Storm. He was an ebony beauty with a nasty temper to match his flashing eyes. For some reason she didn't quite understand, he was bound and determined every time they came to either ride Storm or get near him.

"Cheer up buddy. If you help with the other horses, I happen to know Lou bought a brand new bag of M&Ms for her favorite helper." She wasn't above bribing him for good behavior. Besides she didn't have to live with him after he demolished an entire bag of processed sugar.

Cameron's eyes lit up at the prospect of his favorite treat. He eagerly jumped up and down, nodding his head in agreement. "I help. I help."

"Good man." Lulu held out her hand for a high five, which Cameron readily gave. "I knew there was a reason I liked you the best in the whole family."

"Doesn't say much for me does it little cousin?" Logan Hayes Drake pushed off of the stall wall he had been leaning against, his lips curving into a smirk when he saw that he had succeeded in surprising her. His hair was its usual dirty blonde self, extra dirty today because the hotel hadn't had hot water and he was not about to take a cold shower.

"Logan?" Lulu shook her head in disbelief. She hadn't seen or heard from her cousin since before his divorce from Robin was final. Even Lucas hadn't been able to get a solid lead on his whereabouts for longer than two days. She had almost convinced herself the only way she was ever going to know exactly what happened to him would be the day she opened the paper to read his obituary. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Aunt Lu. You said the H word." Cameron said solemnly, his eyes as wide as saucers.

"Sorry kiddo. He surprised me is all." Lulu turned her attention to her newly returned cousin. "Although the question still remains open for an answer."

"Is that any way to talk to the guy who brought you a present?" He waved the concert tickets in front of her face. When she lunged for them, he held them above her head and laughed, his own head falling back and his eyes twinkling.

"It's probably some crap group anyways." She rationalized, crossing her arms in a huff. "We both know you have no musical taste."

"Smashing Pumpkins. Interested?" He bit back another smile when she snatched the tickets from his grasp.

"What's in this for you?" Logan didn't do presents. He did thoughtful presents even less. He wanted something.

"A little information." Logan replied, letting his gaze roam over to the adjoining stables where he heard the distinct laugh of a beautiful young girl. What was it about a simple giggle that proved the girl was attractive? It was just a sixth sense he had.

"There is no such thing as a little information with you."

"I've been out of the loop for a while. I want details on what I've missed." Logan folded his arms casually and waited for her to oblige him.

"It's called a phone and your brother. Put the two together sometimes and a whole new world may just open up to you." She matched his relaxed gaze with one of her own. He was the one who needed something here, not her. She could wait. The question was, could he?

"In case you haven't noticed, he's not exactly answering his phone these days. That leaves me with you. Come on, there's something going on. I can tell by the smile you're trying to hide." Logan noted her expression and fought to keep himself cool. Pissing Lulu off would not work in his favor.

"It's called life. It goes on without you." Lulu doubted that Logan had even attempted to call Patrick. Yes Patrick wasn't answering his phone these days, but she had no doubt he'd ease his no communication policy for his beloved-only-to-him baby brother.

"God damn it Lulu." Logan grumbled, wanting to slam his hand into something. Keep your composure. Focus. "Would it kill you to acknowledge me as your family?"

"Would it kill you to acknowledge yours at all?" Lulu bristled. "You're the one who wrote us all off here Logan."

"I didn't write anyone off, Leslie Lu. All of you just felt better forgetting I even existed." Logan shot back.

"Poor Logan. He went and screwed up his own life and no one rode in to save him from himself. In case you missed it, you wrote us off years ago. I don't remember seeing you at Patrick and Lucky's graduation. Or Cameron's birth. I remember seeing Robin there for all that but never you."

"You would side with my ex-wife. Why should I be surprised? If it isn't about you, it's not important." Logan accused coldly.

"Pot? This is the kettle calling. I should have sided with you? Newsflash Logan. I know you. I have no doubt you did exactly what Robin said you did and more she doesn't even know about."

"Close friends are you?" Logan sneered.

Lulu smiled as sweetly as she could manage. "It's hard not to be with all the time she's been spending at the house these days."

"You're lying."

Lulu continued as if he hadn't even spoken, causally tossing her hand out in the air. "I mean there's the partnership she has with Aunt Bobbie. Lucas working for her every now and again. Her new best friend is Lucky's girlfriend." She paused and grinned even wider. "Then of course there's all the time she's been spending with Patrick lately."

"What's she doing with Patrick?" Logan asked ignoring the other names his cousin had thrown in to piss him off.

"Well no one can get a straight story out of either of them, but Mom seems to think it's serious. She did the intentions talk with Robin not long ago."

"Give me the tickets. You're full of shit." Logan held out his hand, resisting the urge to smack her upside her pretty little blonde head.

Lulu tucked the tickets safely into her back pocket. "Hey you wanted information cousin. I never said you were going to like what you heard."

"I wanted the truth. If you can't provide me with that, this is a waste of time." Logan countered
sharply.

"Poor baby can't handle..." Lulu's retort died with the sound a loud scream followed by a slam. She glanced to her side, fully expecting to see Cameron standing next to her, with his big brown eyes going back and forth between the two warring grown ups. Her heart started racing when it registered he was gone. Where was Cameron?

Panicked, she looked towards the corrals, hoping to see him standing too close to the fence. She sought out Storm's enclosure, saw the horse bucking wildly, throwing his jet black mane around with a furry she had never seen the animal possess. She began to head towards the wild animal on instinct to calm the horse down and keep him from running out into traffic, when she spotted the source of the scream.

Inside the enclosure, near the fence line, a small body lay crumpled into a twisted pretzel on the ground. He was still, not moving. Lulu began to run as the details of the picture began to register in her mind. The striped t-shirt. The Sponge Bob light up sneakers. The curly brown hair.
"Cameron!" Lulu screamed. "Cameron!"

Georgie had gone along with this as long as she possibly could. No matter how many times Robin had insisted that she was fine, her younger cousin wasn't convinced. A stable person didn't pace the length of a room. A calm person didn't check her cell phone every five minutes. Robin was almost too good at hiding her true emotions in almost every situation so just seeing her this way made Georgie incredibly uneasy. She had come over with the excuse of helping with the checklist since Georgie was due to leave at the end of next month, but the older woman had yet to sit down and focus. "I bought a six-month supply of condoms. Do you think that'll be enough?"

Robin's head shot up. "What?" She asked her eyes glazing over in confusion and shock. "What did you just say?"

"Robin, what's with you today? You come over to discuss my trip and you can't even handle a packing list? And don't tell me you're fine." She warned Robin when she saw that her cousin about to protest.

"I guess I'm just about as transparent as glass huh?" Robin's shoulders sagged and she sat next to her youngest cousin.

"Tell me what's wrong and I'll fix it." Georgie pleaded desperately. She had felt an unsavory spirit enter the house as soon as Robin had. What was wrong and why was her cousin so closemouthed about it?

"Oh Georgie..." Robin squeezed the redhead's left knee in an attempt to ease some of the tension in the room. "I don't want to scare you."

Georgie snorted. "Well then that's the exact wrong thing to say, isn't it? Tell me." She insisted, shutting her leather bound planner and setting it behind them on the mattress.

"I think someone broke into the loft." Robin whispered, hoping this wouldn't be an issue.

"What?!" Georgie responded not a full second later.

"Hey Georgie, think you could tone it down a little bit? Last thing I need is for Mac to find out--"

"You mean you haven't told him yet? Robin, what's the matter with you? He's the commissioner! If you should talk to anyone about this, it's him!" Georgie protested without taking a breath.

"Pretend you don't know everything and keep your voice down please." Robin begged though her tone informed Georgie that it was an order. "I know what he'll say."

"Is that why you're here? You're scared to go home?" Georgie figured this was the reason. She had volunteered to watch Morgan today so it made perfect sense for Robin to consider this a safe place. Besides, this house had always been her hiding place when the rest of the world was after her.

"Yes and no." Robin knew it wouldn't be taken the right way if she told her cousin that she had been forced to come over here. It wasn't that she didn't love or trust her family enough to let them take care of her. She wanted to be taken seriously. She wanted them to understand that she was an adult and was more than capable of fighting her own battles. This was just a fluke.

"Do you think your life is in danger?" Maxie asked from the doorway, not minding that she was interrupting a very serious conversation.

"Maxie, this isn't any of your business." Georgie scolded, falling into her comfortable role of the more mature of the two sisters.

"As far as I can tell, it's not yours either. Besides, if I weren't here, you'd run straight to Mac." Maxie declared, shutting the door behind her.

Robin bit back her smile. They were practically her little sisters and she couldn't help but be amused at their banter. She had been so lonely as a child. At least they'd always had each other. Sometimes she worried the same thing would happen to Morgan: that he'd be cut off from the rest of the family due to her own self-structured lifestyle. At least he had Michael...or he would until A.J. packed up and separated the two brothers. "I don't think my life is in danger, but I didn't want to stick around and see if I could catch me a bad guy." She told her cousins matter-of-factly.

"Is there anything we can do?" Georgie wondered ignoring the goofy face Maxie made behind her. She could see her sister out of the corner of her eye. "Would you grow up?"

The buzzing of her cell phone alerted Robin to an incoming call. She lunged for her phone, praying it was Patrick saying he was close by. She would only start to feel safe again when she
saw him standing in front of her. "Hello?" she answered breathlessly.

"Robin?" Laura's frantic voice filled her ears. "Is Patrick with you?"

"Laura? No, he's not with me. He's on his way here." Robin promised, unconsciously wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue in agitation.

"Oh God. I hoped..." Laura's voice dropped off and Robin vaguely heard the low rumble of another person's voice entering the room. "Yes, he's at General Hospital. No he wasn't with Robin." She spoke to whoever had joined her. Her voice broke as she continued. "He's hurt so badly."

"What? WHAT?!" Robin demanded, the snippets of information making her blood go cold. "Patrick's at General? He's hurt?"

"Robin, I have to go. I'll be at the hospital." Laura hung up, leaving only a dial tone to answer Robin's questions.

"LAURA!" Robin screamed into the phone.