Ric had been dreading this particular meeting, but with all that was going on in the aftermath of the kidnapping, he was beginning to doubt his wife would ever go back to New York. She was the first on the scene and that gave her an advantage over the other television stations. She had been able to interview the witnesses first; anyone after her would be inconveniencing them. He used to admire what she did; now it was really starting to interfere with his life. Why had she come here? Wasn't there enough crime in The City? This was his home now, not hers. It had taken a very long time for him to find something that was just his, but he had found it and he wasn't willing to share. He was going to set things straight right now! She was clearly confused; she wouldn't be once he left.

"Kate, I know you're in there. Open the door." Ric ordered pounding on her hotel room door.

"Just a second. Let me get some clothes on." Kate called back.

Ric cringed inwardly. Why was she doing this to him? Had she gotten wind that he was actually happy? "Open the door Katie." He tried again.

"Patience Richard."

"I'll be patient when I'm dead. What the hell are you still doing in Port Charles?"

Kate opened the door and leaned her lean frame against the door. "It's called my job. Something you used to be familiar with."

"You have a job waiting for you in New York. Shouldn't you be hurrying back?"

"My producers think this story has more legs. They think I need to concentrate on some human interest pieces or something." Kate dismissed the explanation with a wave of her manicured hand. "There is way more going on than the little local police want the public to know." She moved further into the hotel room functioning as her temporary home and waved him to enter. "You may as well come in and make yourself comfortable."

"Since when do you do what people tell you to do?" Ric followed her in and shut the door.

"Since I actually agree with them." Kate shrugged. "I don't know what it is about this story but I want to see this one through."

"That's new. You usually hate being around people long enough to get to know them. Weren't you the one who said that taints the story?"

"People change Ric. I've changed a lot since you've been gone."

"I'd like to believe that, Katie, but you have to understand why I can't."

"No. I really don't." Leaning back on the couch, Kate crossed her arms and resisted the temptation to call him by his full name when he used her childhood nickname. "Why don't you explain it to me?"

"This is my town and you have no business being here, let alone visiting." Ric answered.

"Your town? You want me out of your town?" Kate arched her eyebrow and tried to keep the laughter out of her voice. "Did we suddenly become part of the mob and I was not aware of it?"

"I mean it. You're staying for reasons that have nothing to do with your job." Ric accused sharply.

"And what reasons could those possibly be?"

"That's what I'm here to find out." Ric folded his arms in front of his chest. "And I'm not leaving until you tell me."

"I came here to do a job and I intended to make sure it's done right. End of story. It's what I do. You know this Ric."

"You're lying, Katie. You're here to make me miserable."

"Richard why would I do that? I've always said I want what is best for you." Kate stood up and made her way to the small desk where she kept the water pitcher and poured herself a glass. "Drink?"

"What's best for me? I'm sorry, have you forgotten the last time we saw each other before you came to town? Or rather how I found you?" Ric sneered. She might have the rest of the world fooled, but he knew she only played to win, bending the rules to her liking. She found weaknesses and strummed her victims like a harp.

Kate looked at him coolly over the rim of her glass. "I know you aren't claiming innocence here Richard. Need I remind you about your nurse?"

"And here I thought nothing could get to you." Ric scoffed.

"Well I guess for once in his life, the great Ric Lansing was wrong." She managed quietly.

"I don't need you here, screwing up what I've accomplished." Ric told her.

"That is the last thing on my mind. Believe it or not Ric I do want us to be friends." Kate smiled softly. "I've been paying attention to your career. You've done very well for yourself out here. I'm thrilled for you."

"We can't be friends." Ric countered staring down at his hands. "It's too hard."

"But we don't have to be enemies." She countered, reaching out to touch his shoulder. "And we can work up to friends."

"No. We can't." Ric pushed himself to his feet.

"Ric. I'm not leaving until I'm satisfied the story's done. Port Charles isn't that big of a town. Do you really want to leave it like this?"

"I'm sure you'll put a nice spin on it for our old friends when you go back to New York. You're good at that." Ric headed for the door.

Kate followed him to the door and pulled at his arm, preventing him from fully walking down the hallway. "I hate this. We used to be better than this Ric."

"We used to be a lot of things Katie." Ric whispered solemnly.

"It wasn't always bad. We had some good times you and me."

Ric had the strangest urge to bend down and kiss her. It was inappropriate and he would never be able to come back from it he knew. She obviously wanted to patch things up, but he couldn't forget what had ended them so abruptly and he wasn't in the business of forgiving. "Let me know when you're heading back."

"Only if you promise that it doesn't include a firing squad or a slamming door in my face."

"I promise." Ric touched his lips to her forehead and then left her there, never looking back.

"Am I early?" Lulu asked stepping off the elevator.

"No. No. Just is time." Kate plastered on her best professional smile and tried to keep her eyes on her interview subject, not her husband's retreating back. There would be time enough to break down over that Kate, she told herself sharply. Now is time to do your job. "Why don't you come in Miss Spencer?"

"Thank you for coming. We'll see you next week." Elizabeth called out after the speech therapist as she headed to her car. It was starting to feel almost routine: the constant parade of therapists in and out of the house to work with her grandmother. Grams still had a long way to go, but all the therapists swore she was making wonderful progress. It was the older woman's independent stubborn nature, Elizabeth knew. There was no way her grandmother wanted to have other people care for her the rest of her life.

Closing the door she made her way through the living room, listening for the sounds of Cameron playing in the basement. Glancing at her watch, she tried to hold back her sigh as she realized once again, it was nearing six and there was no sign or word from Lucky about when he was coming home. Ever since Lulu and the kids returned home, he had buried himself in work, running late to every appointment, even the pre-natal ones. He claimed it was just a busy time at L&B but Elizabeth had her doubts. Lucky was hiding from her; she could feel it in her bones.

The knock on the door startled her out of her thoughts. A puzzled look passed over her features as she tried to work out who it could be. There were no other therapies scheduled. The press knew better than to try to ask Lucky for an interview about the kidnappings. Robin had been off playing Super Mom and ignoring everyone for weeks now. "Coming." She called out as she made her way slowly to the door.

Opening the door, all she could see at first was the bags. The front porch was covered in bags from local department stores. Looking up, she caught Luke's blue eyes with her own. "What in the world?"

"Laura." Luke sighed, picking up as many of the bags as he could manage. He'd leave the rest for his son to get. It would be good exercise for the boy. "She's convinced you need all this right now."

"She does realize I'm not due for a few months right?" Elizabeth stood aside to make room for Luke to enter.

"I learned a long time ago not to argue with my wife." Luke dropped the first load with a ceremonial thump and fell back onto the couch with a dramatic sigh. "Where's the father-to-be? He can help with this."

Elizabeth held back a sigh at Luke's innocent question. That was the question of the minute, wasn't it? Where was Lucky? Was he really at work or was he off hiding somewhere from whatever it was that was bothering him? Was he holed up in Jake's? Wandering in the park? Being one of the unimaginative masses in this town that escaped to the docks when they wanted to be alone? "If I knew that, I'd make him help you."

"He left you alone?" Luke did a glance around the room, half expecting to find his son hiding behind a chair, trying to avoid work. "I thought that was outlawed."

"Well supposedly he has to work late, but there's no new release he's super invested in right now, so..." Elizabeth shrugged. "I'm not one hundred percent sure right now." She tried not to let the concern creep into her voice but she realized it was probably too late.

Luke pushed the boxes into the house with his feet and let himself into the house. Damn these kids for picking him to be the one to mend their broken hearts. With a gargled sigh, he led Elizabeth to the couch. "You want to talk about it?" His eyes surely expressed how much he didn't want to, but Laura would never let him live it down if he abandoned his pregnant, probably soon-to-be-daughter-in-law in her time of need.

Managing a small smile, Elizabeth lowered herself onto the couch. "That's sweet but I'm sure I'm just reading way too much into everything. Hormones and all. Lucky's been under a lot of stress lately and I'm sure he's just recovering." Fleeting she wondered who she was trying to convince more, herself or Luke.

"Why don't you tell me what he's been doing and we'll go from there?"

"That's just it. I'm not sure what he's been doing. Except not sleeping, but other than that I have no idea." She started with a sigh. "When I ask him what's going on all I get is the work excuse but I don't know maybe that's true but it just doesn't feel like it is."

"He's probably just a little spooked. It's only been two weeks since we got the kids back." Luke assumed.

"Yeah I know. It just, it just feels like it's been going on longer than that. Maybe even back when Kristina was grabbed."

Luke's eyes fell to his hands. Shit. Did his son ever keep his girlfriend informed? He only knew about the Daphne girl and the miscommunication about Jess from his wife. How she knew...who knew? "It probably just brought back bad memories or something. You know men. We don't like to express ourselves."

Bad memories? Elizabeth furrowed her brows trying to remember anything Lucky had told her that might possibly trigger bad memories for him. The closest she could come was Jess's car accident and Maxie getting hit by a car. But why wouldn't he share that with her? She knew about Jess. "Bad memories about what?" she asked.

"When Lucky was fourteen he was kidnapped by an enemy of mine." Luke said quietly.

She couldn't breathe. Staring at Luke, Elizabeth looked for any hint this was one of those inappropriate jokes Lucky had warned her about, the kind his father liked to play on non-family members. It would be a sick joke, but he still delighted in calling his own sister Mrs. Robinson. Seeing nothing but a mixture of concern, sadness, and guilt on the man's face, she began to realize this wasn't a joke. Blinking rapidly, she tried to come up with what might possibly construe as an intelligent response but instead settled for stunned. "Oh my God."

"It doesn't surprise me that he didn't tell you. He's been trying to get over it since it happened. I guess he just didn't." Luke mused.

"Apparently. What happened to the kidnapper? Did Lucky ever talk to someone about it?"

"His name was Faison and he fell from a two-story window in the struggle. Lucky's never been convinced that he was actually dead even though I burned the body to...well there was ash involved. He talked to Kevin Collins about it and we thought he was over it."

"I guess he's better at hiding it than you suspected." Elizabeth chewed on her bottom lip. What should be her next move? Confront him about something he obviously didn't want to talk about? Or let him keep on avoiding it but obviously struggling to keep everything together? Did she try to support him without letting on that she knew? Did she risk alienating him by letting on that she did know?

"I know that look. Leave it alone." Luke cautioned.

"What look?"

"The good intentions look." Luke clarified.

"Would it be so awful to let him know I understood? Or let him talk about it?"

"He doesn't want to talk about it. If you push him now, he'll retract into himself. Do you want that?"

"No." She admitted with a sigh. "But he's already pulled away from me."

"The best thing you can do is let him come to you. He doesn't want to be anyone's charity case."

"But what if he doesn't?" Before she could stop herself, the question slipped out. It was far too telling of her self doubt and fears. That was the last thing she wanted to reveal to anyone, let alone someone that intimidated her as much as Luke Spencer did. Even though he had been nothing but nice to her since she had first met him, he was still a virtual stranger to her.

"Please don't cry okay?" Luke begged, patting her shoulder carefully. "If you can't get him to come to you, you're going to have to trick him somehow. Maybe play that game where you tell the other person to blurt out what they're thinking?"

Nodding quickly, she bit her lip to keep from crying. If there was one thing she had figured out about Luke it was he was clueless as Patrick was when it came to dealing with crying women. "Maybe."

"Trust me. Laura does it to my a—butt all the time."

Robin walked down the droll white walls with only one thought in her mind: What had happened could never happen again. Morgan and the rest of the children needed to be protected. Wasn't that why she was here, to force Sonny back into his children's lives so that she could sleep at night, or at all? She was still interviewing gynecologists and so far none of them were willing to help her or give her a different prognosis than Ric Lansing had. She hadn't told Patrick because she didn't want to reinforce his idea that they should get rid of their baby. Reaching out to steady herself, she closed her eyes and prayed for the right words. Showing up here made her feel like a failure. She shouldn't have to come to him at all. When he had signed over custody, he had trusted her to take care of his sons, so how was she supposed to tell him that she had failed? AJ was terrified to bring Michael back to Port Charles.

Robin stopped at the end of the corridor and handed over her wallet to the guy behind the bulletproof glass. He slid a pen and clipboard through the space provided and waited for her to sign in. "Thank you." She barely acknowledged that she said anything; she didn't notice that a guard was escorting her until they got to Sonny's cell.

Pacing back and forth, she drummed her fingers against the glass. She had never felt like more a failure than she did right now. How was she going to face him? He would instantly know that he had made a mistake. He would know instantly that he had made a mistake, if he didn't know already. Would he try to take Morgan away from her? God knows Courtney had gone to extraordinary lengths to obtain him. A sharp pain had her grasping for the seat provided and falling down into it. Her hands slid down to her belly and she pressed her palms softly into the soft skin, hoping that it was just nerves. There was of course no way to know until she got checked out. She would do so once this God awful meeting was over. One hand slid into her hair and she massaged her scalp. All she had to do was relax.

"Excuse me?" Robin nodded toward the guard. "What's taking so long, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I don't know. In case you didn't notice, I wasn't the one to go get him. I'm sure he'll be here in a minute." The guard snapped at her.

"I'm just trying to make small talk." He defended himself.

"Well who the hell asked you to?" Robin shouted, squeezing her eyes shut as another pain assaulted her.

"Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. Let's just get this over with." Robin panted.

The rest of the trip was done in silence. Above them, the lights had started to flicker. As they rounded the final corner, Robin braced herself. She had been expecting hoots and hollers from the cellmates around her, but they had been forced into an awed silence. "Oh Jesus." She heard the guard choke out.

"What?" He was standing in front of her so that she didn't have a clear view of Sonny's cell.

"Miss, let's get you back to the main office—" The guard suggested.

"The hell I will!" Robin retorted pushing his shoulders even though he refused to budge.

"Look, I have to take care of this and I can't waste time worrying about you—" He motioned his hands expressively in case she might be a little slow. His movements allowed her to see what he was trying to hide from her.

"Oh—my God. My God. Sonny! Sonny, no!" Robin lunged forward, kicking out her feet until the guard released her. "SONNY!" His face was an inhuman shade of blue and wrapped around his neck was a short, thick white sheet.

"Miss Scorpio, come on." A second guard had joined them in the midst of all of the confusion. "We'll get this taken care of."

"Taken care of?" Robin shrieked. "He's a person! You can't just shove him into a corner and say he's taken care of. You fucking coward! You callous son of a bitch!"

It took both of them, but the men managed to get the frightened, pregnant woman out of the dark hallway and into a brighter, fresher area. She had gone purple at the scent of Sonny's decaying body. He must have been dead about twelve hours.

"Would you like us to call someone?" The second, unfamiliar guard offered as he crouched down in front of her. They weren't sure how they had gotten her into a chair, but at least she was sitting.

Robin met his eyes, tears in her eyes, "I think I need to go to the hospital and I can't drive myself. Please. I'm pregnant."