A few minutes early for our devoted fans!

This town was famous for its treacherous climate changes. The winters were especially harsh and the spring and summer were only ever distinguished by the excessive rain, but this year had definitely been a new experience for him. When it should have been raining, Port Charles had fallen into a twelve-week drought. He remembered the warnings signs the town had put up telling its citizens to be restrictive when it came to the amount of water they used. Then summer had come without warning almost too early and hit the town with a heat wave that had surprised even him and he had lived here his entire life. The summer would bow to fall soon enough, but, at least for today, he was able to enjoy the warmth that his favorite season always provided him.

Robin was talking quietly, but he didn't know what she was saying. He was too focused on the atmosphere to pay her the attention she obviously needed from him. Her hand was cold in his and he squeezed back without meaning to, offering her support, proving that she wasn't alone, that he was here. She smiled at him, but he didn't miss the stress in her features or the uncertainty in her dark eyes. Something was very wrong and she hadn't told him yet. Maybe that explained why they were going to her work today; she was going to explain the situation to him.

They turned the corner and he expelled a breath. The bakery was at the far end of the street and the lights were turned off. No Uncle Lucas today. No Grandma Bobbie. With each step, he felt dread wash over him. He had glanced at the clock before she dragged him across town and knew it was way too early for the shop to be open. They were going to speak alone. If that was supposed to put him at ease…

"Here we are Buddy." Robin explained unnecessarily, stopping in front of the entrance. Morgan gave her a look that spoke volumes. He wasn't fooled. He knew something was the matter. She wanted to reach down and hug him tighter than tight until she felt safe enough to let go, but she couldn't that without scaring him.

"I can take it." Morgan assured her with an affirmative nod of his little dark head.

Robin had to turn her face away from him and she used the opportunity to unlock the bakery and let them inside. She flipped on the lights and led Morgan to the closest table. She wished she could afford booths. Maybe after Brenda and Jasper Jacks wedding of the century, all of her financial problems would be a thing of the past. The last thing she needed was to look bad in the eyes of the court.

"Let's sit down." She took her seat and waited for Morgan to plop down into a chair in front of her. "There was an accident…"

Morgan's eyes filled with tears and Robin's breath caught in her throat. An accident? What kind of accident? An "on purpose" accident like the ones his father had brought about or an accident in which someone he cared about had gotten terribly hurt? He blinked furiously, not wanting Robin to see him cry, but he couldn't keep the raw sound from escaping his trembling lips. "Who got hurt, Robin? Was it Aunt Courtney?" His voice rose slightly as he spoke his aunt's name, his little hands balling into fists as he battled the confusion going on inside him.

"No!" Robin shook her head, reaching for both of his hands. "Aunt Courtney is fine. She's working."

"Then who?" Morgan wondered, looking as if he was ready to assume the fetal position at any given moment.

Robin choked slightly, having not forgotten how Morgan had come to be her son. He had gone through more than any child his age or child period should have to and now, here she was, delivering more bad news. And in so short a matter of time from when she had told him that his mother would not be coming home. She hadn't wanted to tell him the truth about Carly, but Sonny had already been on his way to prison then and Courtney hadn't been able to without breaking down into terrible sobs. Robin had been the obvious choice, she supposed, because she hadn't ever loved Carly. That hadn't made it any easier. How could they have believed her to be so cold? She hadn't wanted anything to happen to Carly, hadn't wanted her children stolen from her, even if sometimes she disregarded Carly's unreliable role in her boys' lives.

"Cameron got hurt at the stables when he was with Lulu." Robin told him, no longer able to justify keeping the truth from him. "He's at General Hospital. He's in a coma." She added, turning her face away again as she fought for composure. When Morgan had whimpered in her arms at the devastating news of his mother's murder, she had cried along with him. She had wanted to shield him from this. Even since she had taken over the role of his guardian, she had also taken the part of his protector. What had happened to Cameron was just a reminder of what could happen to Morgan. She wanted to lock him away until she was sure it was safe for him to come out, but that would have left him as maladjusted as his honorary Uncle Jason.

"What's that mean?" Morgan asked, choking on the question.

It was easier to accept him as a tiny adult than a small child in need of comfort and safety. She hated that she hadn't treated him like a child enough in the short months she had had him. No matter how many promises she had made to herself about how different his life was going to be different with her than it had been with Carly, she figured there were times when she was just as bad if not worse. "It means he's in a very deep sleep."

"Like Sleeping Beauty?" Morgan tried to understand, his little fists rubbing his already-swollen eyes as he stared back at her.

Robin had to grip the edge of the table before she could answer him. The boy's life was far from a fairytale and yet he could only understand things in those terms. He was a growing little boy, but a little boy nonetheless. She had to do whatever she could to see that he wasn't frightened by what had happened to his cousin, that he understood that it had been an accident. There was no telling what Morgan had seen in his short six years of life, but it was enough to keep him from feeling completely safe, around her, around anyone.

She finally understood his temper tantrum. He had started to see her as his mother and it had scared him. His only defense was to resort back to how he believed other little boys his age acted when they were upset. Instead of trying to find a cause, Robin had jumped all over Courtney. She wished her roommate would come home and stay there for a while. Elizabeth had quickly taken over in a lot of areas that used to belong to Robin and Courtney, but the roommates shared a past together that had shaped their lives and Robin doubted Elizabeth would know anything about it.

"Just like that. Only, instead of a kiss, Cameron needs medicine and a set of machines to wake him up." Robin explained.

"Can we go see him?" Morgan wanted to know.

"You sure you're ready for that? He's really beat up." Robin cautioned him.

"Don't care. I have to see him. I want to thank him for showing me how to beat Level 4 on my game." Morgan informed her.

"You are such a brave little boy." Robin commented softly, almost sadly. She didn't mind his being brave, just resented the life that had made him that way. At least she had gotten him out of it before it was too late. At least, that was what she told herself when she lay down to sleep at night.

"Michael used to beat me up." Morgan told her as if that explained it all.

"Well I guess that's that." Robin answered, slightly appalled before remembering that boys did that. She would have to ask Patrick…NO, scratch that. She would not ask Patrick. Maybe Cruz had a brother. She could have asked Lucky, but Lulu was a girl and it would have been different. She figured Lucky and Patrick were about as close as brothers anyway so maybe she should look to them when it came to raising her son. That made her smile.

"Can Cameron eat cookies in his comb?" Morgan wondered, his brown eyes imploring.

"His 'coma?'" Robin corrected him. "No he can't have cookies, but we can make some for the rest of the family. Want to?" She offered, nodding toward the kitchen.

"But Patrick said he's the special ingredient." Morgan shook his head.

Robin gave him an incredulous look. "What do you mean Patrick said…? When did he say this?"

"When we were playing cars at his apartment." Morgan replied quietly as if he hadn't supposed to divulge the information.

"Well he was just being…Patrick." Robin hoped that was explanation enough for the curious six-year-old. She was going to strangle Patrick, even if he had said it in a different way than he had her when he visited the bakery to pick up a bottle of whipped cream.

"So we can still make them without him?" Morgan's eyes lit up.

Robin wanted to bottle up his innocence forever. "Of course. I made cookies before Patrick and I can make them now too."

"Good." Morgan seemed satisfied with her answer and disappeared behind the counter, searching for a chef's hat. "Let's make cookies for Cameron."

"I'd offer you a shot, but I guess you can't indulge in your 'condition.'" Luke told his sister as she climbed up on one of the aging red leather stools and placed her hands on top of the bar.

"Thanks so much for your consideration." Bobbie drawled, dropping her purse on the floor next to her. She looked around the empty club, studiously avoiding the picture of the very young, very naked Helena Cassadine. After all these years, she still couldn't explain why her brother insisted on hanging that thing in the middle of his club for the whole town to see. "Where's Claude?" she wondered as she noticed the bartender's absence. "He didn't take one of your firings seriously did he?"

"He told me that he was taking the day off. Day off. Can you believe that? I told him he could have as many days off as he wanted...but then he'd be living off security checks and no way was I going to let that lazy bastard collect when I had to work for my money." Luke replied a gleam in his eye as he thought of the money his club would bring in at the first sign of winter.

Bobbie rolled her eyes at her brother's speech. He would be lost without Claude and both men knew it. It wasn't until Luke hired Claude that his club began to turn a profit and that was mostly due to Claude's uncanny ability to ignore Luke's more outlandish requests. "So did you really need to get here or were just avoiding Tony Grimes?"

"That guy's a fruitcake." Luke mumbled, pushing a glass of water toward his sister. He was pretty sure it was the only nonalcoholic thing he had in the place other than the lemons.

"He's scared." Bobbie rebuked him. "You do remember what today is, don't you?"

"Why do you think I'm here?" Luke said instead. "Do you think Lucky has caught on yet?"

"No." Bobbie shook her head. "I don't think he's looked at his watch much less a calendar. But I'm sure he'll remember sooner or later."

"He's got a lot on his plate, but he's a Spencer." He doubted he needed to say much more. They both knew what being a Spencer meant. It called for strength and stubbornness. Most importantly, they weren't allowed to express too much without the other changing the subject.

Bobbie stifled a laugh. That was her brother's answer for any troubling situation. They were Spencers. Mattie's death? They were Spencers. Lucky's unexpected fatherhood? They were Spencers. Any of the kids landing in jail for drunk driving? They were Spencers. Bobbie remembered well a joke Lucky had muttered once at his father's back during just such a pep talk, "Nuclear war? End of life on Earth? We're Spencers. We can survive radiation poisoning no problem." "How long do you plan on hiding here?"

"Until my angel calls." Luke told his sister, not meeting her eyes.

"So until you are in trouble then? Sounds about right."

"I'll have you know..." Luke began but deciding it wasn't worth fighting about. "She knows cemeteries give me the heebie-jeebies."

Bobbie did know that. It was one of the reasons Luke rarely visited any of the family grave sites. But she hadn't exactly been referring to that particular trip. "Not what I meant. You know Lucky needs you."

"Lucky needs a lot right now, but I'm probably at the bottom of that list. Laura does this part." Luke insisted.

"You could try selling that bullshit to someone who doesn't know you dear brother." Bobbie looked at him coolly over the rim of her water glass.

"What do I tell him?" Luke wondered, defensive as a grizzly bear. "That Cameron's going to be okay? I don't know that for sure little sister. None of us do. What's the point in filling his head with stuff I can't back up? I did it with Patrick when Mattie...and it didn't make a goddamn difference."

"We all thought Mattie was going to make it. She wouldn't let us think otherwise." Bobbie reminded him gently. "And you're right Lucky doesn't need that. He's doing just fine with the worst case scenarios on his own."

"I want Cameron to wake up." Luke told her. "He needs to wake up so that we can stop expressing our feelings toward each other and focus on his recovery."

"We all want that." Bobbie pointed out. "And he will wake up."

"Can't I mail him a card?" Luke asked helplessly.

"Not if you ever want to sleep in your actual bed again."

"I can't argue with a logical woman." Luke sighed.

"I'm impressed Luke. It seems you have learned something about relationships after all."

"Have not." Luke argued, crossing his arms over the chest.

"You know enough to avoid the couch. That's progress for you brother."

"Crap. Crap. Intelligence insulting crap. Written by seven-year-olds." Lucky muttered under his breath as he flipped the channels randomly on the TV. It wasn't so much as he was desperate for something to watch as for something to kill the silence of the room. Finally stopping on a repeat of the movie the channel showed at three this morning, he dropped the remote on the floor. "Let me tell you buddy, I'll be glad when you are better. Your dad does not do well in silence."

It wasn't until everyone had left that he had realized how much he had been depending on the constant stream of visitors to keep his mind from wandering. Even when faced with Tony Grimes's barely silent accusations, it still was better than just sitting here with nothing but the beeping of machines to keep him company. Now that they were off at work, in the waiting room, getting lunch or wherever the hell they were, and he was all alone, it was harder to pretend he wasn't here.

Noise constantly surrounded Lucky when he was at work. Final approvals of CDs. Phones ringing. The constant clamor of voices vying for attention. He had always found it ironic that in the music business, silence was often the most prized commodity. And now that he had silence, he wanted nothing to do with it.

Cameron had always been a talker. From the moment he started, his boy wouldn't be quiet. To his eternal annoyance Lulu had taken to calling Cameron the Gilmore Boy for a brief few months before he nearly disowned for it. Even sleep wasn't a silent event for Cameron. It was a stage production, complete with sighs, murmurs and whimpers that made it easy to tell when the dream was good or a nightmare. For the briefest of minutes, Lucky wondered if he could handle his son's accident better if he would just make some sort of noise. Logically he understood the coma was the body's way of trying to prevent more damage. Logically he knew that when his son was ready, he'd wake up and probably talk his ear off about Sponge Bob, cookies and whatever happened at school. But right now, logic was in second to his heart. And his heart wanted to hear his son's voice right now.

"You're watching Lifetime?" Lulu teased awkwardly from the doorway. If not for the shattering tone of her voice, she might have been able to play her fear off as something else, something common. She felt as if there was a never-ending black vortex and she worried all of her good intentions and Lucky's understanding were being sucked right in. She, unconsciously, took a step back when she noticed the stoic expression her brother gave her. She had known the joke would do nothing in her favor, but she couldn't figure out anything else to say. Maybe next time she'd go for, "Do you have the time?" Lulu hadn't slept since Cameron had been brought in the night before, had watched the rest of her family fall into dreamless, while still tormented, rest, but every time she closed her eyes, she saw Cameron crumpled up into a little ball. She could hear his scream when it was especially quiet. She could hear his scream now as she awaited her brother's response.

"Don't you have class?" Lucky managed tersely. He'd by lying if he said he knew exactly how he felt about his sister right now. She had been responsible and had sworn to him more times than he could count the stables were safe and nothing would happen to Cameron while he was there. Well fat lot of good that did his son.

Lulu hung her head as if she was preparing to be hanged right here in the doorway. She hoped he would at least break her neck so she wouldn't have to suffer anymore. No, he would watch her wiggle and hear her last gasps of breath; he would make sure she felt everything. While she knew he would never hurt her physical, he had, with little effort, torn away her emotional defenses leaving her a complete mess. When anyone tried to talk to her, she could only respond in broken sobs. "Only twice a week. Yesterday and tomorrow." She clarified though she doubted he'd actually been looking for her to respond. What he probably wanted was to scare her away and it was working. The longer she stood here wringing her hands together she noticed every layer of self-control strip away from her brother's usual good-natured expression.

"Good to know." He couldn't look at her. If he did, he would snap and probably do something that on some level he may regret later. He forced his eyes to concentrate on the current woman in peril on the television. Lulu had never done well when ignored. She would eventually get bored and leave.

"Lucky, please..." Lulu begged, still not quite sure what she wanted him to say. Was he supposed to pull her into his arms and tell her that it wasn't her fault that she'd just have to try harder to break his fragile heart because she hadn't attempted it yet? Blinking back unexpected tears, she wiped them away, feeling cold all over.

"Please what Leslie Lu?"

"I want to make this okay between us--" As soon as she said it, she wanted the words back. How was it going to be okay when Cameron was in a goddamn coma, something she had caused? Sure, she could blame Logan for distracting her, but she had known his tricks and shouldn't have played into his hands that easily. Plus, she had promised Lucky that leaving his only child in her care would be perfectly safe. "I turned away for a second--" Or a few, but she hadn't thought anything like that could happen to Cameron. There was just too much Spencer in her nephew. He was too curious. She should have predicted he would go over to see Storm when he had just been begging to ride him not five minutes earlier.

"A second is all it takes. Didn't you listen the million times Mom told us that?" He was struggling to keep his voice even, but the longer she talked the harder it was becoming to keep the venom out of his voice.

"Yeah, she'd always tell us when we were doing something other kids our age weren't supposed to do, like picking locks or hot-wiring cars." Lulu recalled, realizing her joke had not been appreciated. "I never meant for this to happen." She promised, wanting to move closer, but afraid she'd see her brother break apart for the first time in her entire life.

"That's the problem Leslie Lu. You never do mean for anything to happen, but happen they do."

"I don't know what you want me to say. I'm sorry. God Lucky, I'm so incredibly sorry." She whimpered, turning her face away from his view.

"I can't deal with this right now." Lucky stood up and moved towards the window. His hands were shaking. If his sister didn't leave soon, there was going to be drama worthy of its own Lifetime movie. "I can't deal with this."

Lulu needed her brother's forgiveness. It was holy and sacred and her very life depended on it. Watching him turn his back on her, seeing just how upset he was--not just sad but terrified and furious as well--Lulu took the few steps she needed to reach him, and placed her right hand on his right shoulder, praying he wouldn't push her away. Part of her wanted him to yell at her, because she thought she could handle that. This silence between them, something that had never happened between them, was going to swallow her whole. "What can I do?"

"Leave."

"I'm not going to leave. You need someone--" Lulu knew she was leaving herself open for attack, but it couldn't be worse than this.

"I have people here all the time. What I need is someone who doesn't immediately remind of why my son is in this place in the first place." He pushed her hand off his shoulder in one quick motion.

"Do you hate me?" Lulu asked her voice quivering tremendously as she posed the question. It was not a smart move to make. She could feel her Spencer senses harassing her for not protecting her own heart better.

Hate her? He couldn't look at her without seeing that barely blonde baby his parents had brought home from the hospital or the tomboy who refused to leave her older brother and cousin alone while they were growing up. But right now he couldn't see her without seeing his son crumpled on the stretcher when he first ran into the ER. Right now it was impossible to be near her without wanting to scream at her or strangle her, make her feel as badly as he did or take Cameron's place in the hospital. But hate her? "I don't know. I don't know."

Lulu nodded mutely, wrapping her arms around him and letting go before he even had a chance to slip out of her embrace. "If you need to talk..." She told him between hiccups. "I really wish you'd talk to me."

Lucky carefully removed her arms and took a step back. "I'll think about it."

Lulu couldn't ask him for more than that. If the worst should happen--God, she couldn't even stomach the idea--he would see her as the woman who murderer his son. She would never forgive herself, but, selfishly, she wanted her big brother's approval, just like always. "I love you." She left the room before he could respond, not wanting to have him stare awkwardly at her or wonder if he should say the words back. Her mother said it a lot, but usually it consisted of a threat, "I love you Lulu, but if you don't stop slacking off--" Her father loved her, but she only knew this because she could feel it. He hadn't said the actual words to her since she was a little girl. Lucky was the only one who went out of his way to make sure that she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that he would always love her, no matter what.

He almost answered her back with his customary "Love you too" but he had bit the words back. It was too soon. Far too soon for that. First Cameron needed to get better, and then he could deal with his sister. But not before Cameron opened his eyes.