Ric shoved his hand through his hair as he waited impatiently for his plane to reach its destination. Kate had taken the flight before his which meant she was already there which just made him feel like a jerk. He should have gone immediately, but it had felt wrong to do so without telling anyone. He had a life in Port Charles. He couldn't just leave it to ruins when his father decided to remind him he was a stubborn jerk who had probably caused himself to have a heart attack to remind Ric that he would never quite reach his ideal son.

It was unfair to have these thoughts, but he figured as long as he didn't say them aloud, they couldn't hurt anyone. He could never mention such a thing to Charlotte. She was their father's favorite, had always been. She was the apple of her father's eyes, and really Ric couldn't blame the Colonel for choosing her over him. She took his advice when he gave it to her and she was married to a man that the Colonel had practically picked out for her. He wished he could get a hold of his sister, had spent the entire plane ride trying to get her to answer her cell, her house, or even her office phone, but it was to no avail. If he was a better brother, he would have the husband's number programmed in his phone. Gritting his teeth as the plane started to ascend he grabbed the right arm of his seat.

Only one person knew about his fear of flying and that was Kate. His thoughts flew to her without his permission. He couldn't forget the sheer panic in her tone when she had told him about the Colonel's heart attack. It was as the old saying went, "You could divorce a person, but it was a lot harder to divorce their family." She had always been kind to his father and kept up her friendship with Charlotte even when their marriage began to crumble. Her insistence to come along when she was no longer legally bound to him just went to prove that she still cared about what happened in their lives. It was his appreciation that had forced him to keep his mouth shut when he had given Maxie the details. He didn't think anything good would come from her knowing that Kate would be joining him in Tucson.

The wheels of the plane hit the pavement with an unsettling jerk and he closed his eyes, praying they wouldn't go skidding into the airport or another plane. He often entertained thoughts such as these when he traveled which was why he tended to drive. It didn't matter how many statistics compared the two modes of transportation, he still trusted his own abilities behind the wheel than that of a faceless captain. His phone buzzed to life as they came around toward the gate and the plane came to a slow stop.

"Ric Lansing." He said noncommittally into the phone.

"You're still breathing. The flight must have gone ok." Kate's voice, laced with laughter, hit his ear.

"Are you there? At the hospital? Is Charlotte with you?"

"I'm at the hospital. Charlotte is in the room with the Colonel right now." Kate confirmed. "Everything's going as well as it could be right now."

"Did the doctor say what caused the heart attack?" Ric asked, helping an old woman with stark-white hair pull down her twenty-pound handbag from the overhead compartment.

"Not for sure but it's probably a combination of his temper, his stubbornness, and bad diet."

"I told Charlotte his diet of greasy hamburgers would kill him." Ric groaned.

"And Charlotte told him the same thing. You know how well he listens when it comes to change."

Ric smiled in spite of himself. "You shouldn't encourage him to be so stubborn."

"In this case, his being stubborn is probably going to help him recover." Kate mentioned gently.

"Are they keeping him?"

"For now. Give him a few more days and I'm sure the staff will be ready to toss him out on his butt."

"I'm almost out of the plane. I should be there in about twenty minutes." He wanted to add in how thankful he was that she had come, but that was a slippery slope.

"I'll meet you in the lobby." Kate decided. "This place is only kindly described as a maze. I was looking for the Colonel and ended up on the pediatrics ward."

Nodding, forgetting she couldn't see him, Ric continued to make his way through the slow moving hoards of fellow travelers. "I'll be there soon."

"I'll be waiting. And Ric?"

"What?"

"You're welcome."

*****

All she needed was a minute or two to collect herself and then she would be able to return to the hospital and meet up with her brother and best friend. Doctor Wozniac had suggested she go home and rest, but she couldn't close her eyes without seeing her father's frail form swallowed up in a hospital gown. He was a fit man, Charlotte Lansing mused to herself, but no less nearing seventy years old. The hospital was the last place he wanted to be, he had told her so, but the hospital staff discouraged her from moving him. There was no one cause for his heart attack and, so far, all that they could recommend was bed rest. She wanted to take their suggestions and shove them up their asses for all the good it was doing her father tonight.

Kate had left her a message, or twenty, but she hadn't the nerve to check them yet. When her old friend had told her that Ric was flying out the second he realized what was going on, she had laughed, actually laughed. It had been three years since she had seen her brother and only a natural disaster could get him to Tucson, Arizona. Perhaps that was why she let the messages collect on her cell and home phones: No news was good news.

Her hair was pulled up tightly into a white towel; her face was hidden behind two layers of a green tea mask; and her nails were drying from their latest manicure. What had been the purpose of getting a spa set for Christmas if she wasn't going to use it? Her Yoga instructor had warned her about unnecessary stress and she had listened. It was his remedy for her once-hectic schedule that had probably saved her life. Now, if she could just get Daddy to see that, there was hope. Maybe she could show him how to limit stress and anxiety by simply copying her system and altering it for his needs. It was definitely worth trying.

She flipped off the muted television and flipped on the stereo. Alec had bought her a CD of soothing jungle sounds, most of which included bird calls and rivers running, and now seemed like the time to revel in it. Her green eyes closed and she told herself to let the music roll over her. She needed to be calm, to relax, and to realize that there was nothing more she could do tonight. She had an urge every five minutes to say to hell with everyone's advice she was spending the night in her father's hospital room. She didn't care about miniscule things like visiting hours or rest between visits. Daddy had been so weak during their conversation; she had almost burst into tears.

Enough of that thinking, she told herself. She was about to be in the presence of her two favorite people and had every intention of getting them to talk. Charlotte wasn't sure what their talk would lead to, and she forced herself not to care. It was their issue, their marriage, none of her business. If she was the one to get them back together, Kate would convince Ric to move back to Arizona. It was a win-win. They obviously still loved each other. Some tart in Port Charles of all places could not erase years of marriage.

The doorbell chimed and she moved closer to the front door. She glanced through the sheer living room curtains and smiled. "Come in, come in."

"Peanut!" Kate called as she crossed the threshold, her heels tapping on the marble surface. "How are you holding up?"

"Blossom!" Charlotte leaned into hug her friend before remembering about her nails and her mask. "Let me get cleaned up." She gave a nervous glance toward her brother.

"Char..." Ric began, his voice choking on her childhood nickname. It had been years since they had been in the same room without the Colonel ordering it. He barely remembered her current husband's name, much less what he looked liked. They shouldn't be like this.

"Just a second Ric." Charlotte called from the bathroom. It was just easier to not be in the same room with him until she had her bearings. "Make yourself at home." Once the mask was off and her face was replenished, she headed toward the kitchen. "I bet you're both exhausted. Would you like some tea?" She jumped a foot in the air when Ric caught her by the wrist.

"Slow down Char. Tell us what's going on." Ric commanded gently.

"Nothing. I'm fine. Just fine." Charlotte promised, ducking Kate's worried gaze, trying to get away from her brother.

"Peanut." Kate kept her voice gentle. "This is us. Just say it."

"The doctors don't know what caused the heart attack. They're keeping him for observation. He could barely stay awake when I talked to him." Charlotte said it all very fast, needing it out in the open for someone else to deal with.

"Are they running tests?" Ric could feel his medical training kicking in. Facts and tests he could deal with. That he could handle. "What's his doctor's name?"

"Dr. Wozniac. I don't know what kinds of tests...I couldn't make sense of them." Charlotte sighed, making herself a long glass of tea.

"I'll talk with him first thing." Ric nodded.

"Now what about you? Do you need anything? Food? Have you slept?" Kate pressed.

Charlotte smiled at her friend's concern. "Last time I checked, it was my job to take care of you. I haven't eaten dinner yet. I wanted to wait for you two to get here."

"Why don't you ladies go take a seat in the living room and I'll whip us up some dinner?" Ric suggested.

"Yes make yourself useful." Kate teased gently.

*****

"I haven't been here." Sam informed the headstone. "As if you don't know. I'm sorry Vincent." It was growing more and more difficult to visit. With each one, she felt herself being pushed back a hundred steps past progress. Still, this is the only place she felt close to her son. "You would be proud of me. I've finally got a purpose." She reached out to knock the crinkled leaves off the top of the headstone and traced the letters in his name with the tips of her fingers.

Tears clouded her vision and she hurried to brush them away. "Jason Morgan is dead. I don't feel good about it. I should...I thought I would. And maybe that makes me selfish." Pausing to take a breath, she admitted to herself the level of joy she had reached after putting a few bullets in that son of a bitch. She wasn't about to tell her six-year-old son about how good it felt to know that that man would never hurt another child again. No use to give him nightmares. She had plenty on her own.

A little research had led her to asking questions and that led her to the outside world once she realized that all of her questions could not be questioned by the computer alone. She began washing her hair and her clothes again, knowing that one would answer her questions if she looked like a bum. It had been astonishing to realize that she was still a woman, still beautiful, when all she had felt like over the last year and half was bruised, broken, and useless. She was a failure. She hadn't saved her son...but she could save others.

It would be several years before she made the mistake of trusting Jason Morgan, and a handful more before she happened upon one Detective Harper. Joe Ciento had made a short career of pushing drugs onto middle school and high school kids. It had been his eyes, she remembered, that called out to her. Those brown, almost black, eyes had screamed evil. It was actually kind of funny that Harper had called himself Batman when they had taken Donnelly in, because that's how she had addressed him when he snuck into Ciento's home—where she just happened to be snooping—and grabbed her from behind.

She hadn't trusted him in the beginning. He was a treasure-seeker, a man who made the best for his life out of the worst of someone else's. He had actually had the nerve to advise her to stop whining over what couldn't be changed. It had been his coldness toward her so early in their knowing each other that had convinced her he was the partner she needed, since she obviously needed one. Without him, there were too many obstacles. By the time she figured out who was being targeted, she would encounter a thin blue line. It just so happened that Harper was very good at impersonating a police officer. She had gone back several years to try and out him, but he had taken care of all of that. His identity was fool-proof.

That didn't give her the right to mess things up and kiss him. For God's sake, what was the matter with her? She always thought everything through…until last night. Last night, she had simply been a woman in need of a man, even if only for a few moments. She had let herself be completely vulnerable to a man who had no first name.

This wasn't the place to be thinking about some stupid kiss! She should be talking with Vincent, not worrying about something that never should have happened. "I trusted a man before when I shouldn't have." Sam whispered. "And it was you who paid for it. Who will pay this time?"

Previews: Waving her finger in warning under Lindsay's and Ronnie's faces, Georgie chewed her lower lip nervously. "Remember not a word about Steven. Nothing."

Offering up a mock salute Lindsay smiled a lop-sided grin. "We've never met him. He's a ghost. Vapor. Nothing."