"Morgan, honey, take a breath." Robin coaxed her son as he put another spoonful of Cocoa Pebbles into his tiny mouth. He smiled at his accomplishment and slowly started to chew.
"Leave the boy alone." Robert reached across the table and ruffled Morgan's bed head hair. "He just likes his cereal."
"Why aren't you eating your cereal Papa Robert?" Robin teased with a mischievous smile.
His eyes slowly moved to his daughter's. "We're going to have to work on my new name. And I like my coffee."
"I would kill for coffee." Robin nodded, stirring her tea silently with a tiny spoon.
"No can do." Robert told her. "Any other pregnancy cravings?"
"That's not a pregnancy craving. It's a life craving." Robin laughed. "And no. Nothing unusual, much to Patrick's disappointment. I guess he thought he'd get to be the dad who goes out in the middle of the night for the anchovies and ice cream." By the end of her statement, she had wrinkled her face in disgust.
"Who cares about him?" Robert snorted in disgust.
"Now Dad." Robin warned sternly.
"You can't force me to like him."
"No, I can't." Robin agreed and then added, "But, wow, is it going to be hard to explain to your newest grandson why you don't like his father."
"That's low." Robert shook his head. "Grandson?"
"Did I forget to mention that?" Robin asked innocently.
"How long have you known?"
"Just since this morning. I got a call from my doctor and she confirmed it. She called Patrick too." Robin didn't go on to say how much it hurt to not share the experience with Patrick at the same time.
"Have you thought of any names?"
Robin could already see the wheels turning in her father's mind. "No. Nothing."
"If you find yourself struggling for one, I happen to know—"
"Morgan, do you want some more cereal?" She interrupted her father when she noticed
Morgan's bowl was empty.
"No. I'm done." Morgan answered.
"Then will you take your bowl the sink please? Thank you." She said as he carried the dish to the sink.
"Are we going to do anything fun?" Morgan probed once he returned, again halting the conversation of baby names.
Robert smiled. "I thought a trip to Disney Land would be fun."
"Disney Land?" Morgan's eyes lit up.
"Did you know there was one in Paris?" Robin was trying very hard to keep a straight face.
"No!" Morgan shook his head, opened his mouth to speak, and then hurried out of the dining room.
"Where are you going?" Robin asked.
"To get dressed." Morgan explained.
*****
Sitting in the relative darkness of Charlotte's guest room, Ric kicked off his shoes, taking satisfaction in the thump they made as they hit the oak floors. As always dealing with his father was nothing short of exhausting. If the Colonel wasn't trying to fire an intern for looking "too young," he was trying to get that same intern back when he disagreed with Dr. Wozniak's recommendations. Whoever said doctors made the worst patients had clearly never met one Colonel Lansing.
He needed to calm down before he went back there today. Charlotte and Kate were currently sitting with the old man, keeping him calmer than Ric had been able to. Charlotte had insisted he go back to her house to at least get some sleep since, as she so charmingly put it, he looked like he was on the losing end of a gang war on a mob adjacent dock. Shrugging out of his blue stripped shirt, he collapsed back on the bed, wondering what in the world he had been thinking by coming here. Clearly he was no help to anyone right now.
Fumbling in his pocket, he pulled out his cell phone, the need to talk to someone overwhelming. Alright, he admitted to himself, not someone. The need to talk to her was overwhelming. Right now she was the only person he wanted to even see and she was thousands of miles away; the phone would have to do. Punching in the familiar numbers, he waited, hoping she wasn't working and ignoring her calls. Voicemail might be the end of him today.
"Somebody better be dead." Maxie grumbled into the phone, having made it halfway up the stairs to her room. Mike had made her keep her promise about double shifts and she was starting to wonder when the man had become such a sadist.
"Well hello to you too Blondie," Ric couldn't help but chuckle at the exhaustion in her voice.
"Ric?" Maxie's voice lifted immediately as did her spirits. She hurried to her room, not wanting to deal with lurkers in the dark hallway.
"You have other guys calling you Blondie?"
"Just a handful or so. How's your dad?"
"Same as ever which means he'll probably be fine, but not before I tear my hair out."
"You sound grumpy Doctor." Maxie teased. "Anything I can do?"
"Distract me. What's been going on with you?"
"Work. Nonstop. My dad and Alexis aren't speaking to each other, but they won't tell me why."
"But what about the dress? Lucy has approved it finally right?"
"Oh, don't get me started on that woman. She loved my design, but has been calling me about adjustments and changes since you left."
"She's a flake." Ric stated dismissively, leaning back on the bed, kicking at the satin comforter he just knew his sister had special ordered for this room. "In the end it will all be worth it."
"Did I ever tell you just how annoying your optimism is when I want to be cynical?" Maxie grumbled, pushing her door closed and kicking off her shoes.
"But that is part of our charm."
"And here I thought it was the foreplay. Silly me."
"No the foreplay is part of the reason we keep coming back." Ric corrected her.
Maxie fell dramatically onto her bed and slowly reached for the phone, hoping she hadn't missed anything. She doubted it. Ric lived for her responses. "I miss seeing you."
"Same here." Ric managed. "Where are you by the way? Working?"
"I just got home. I'm in my room."
"You mean I'm finally allowed in your room?" Ric couldn't help but taunt her.
"Well if you gave a girl any kind of notice, you could have been in my room before you ran off and left me."
"But I'm here now. That has to count for something."
"You're here huh? What color shirt are you wearing?"
"I'm not actually."
Maxie paused for a second and then said, "That makes two of us."
Ric sat up a little straighter. That was not the answer he was expecting out of her and his mind raced a little just thinking about what else she was or wasn't wearing right now. "Really?" he drawled out, more calmly than he felt. "Did I interrupt something?"
"I just wanted to get out of these work clothes."
"I understand. You were hot and sweaty."
"Will you hold on just a second? I've got to hang up my skirt."
"Baby, talk like that and I'll wait for anything." Ric assured her.
"Somehow I doubt that." Maxie purred. She unbuttoned her blouse and tossed it onto the floor next to her skirt.
"Why would you doubt that?" Ric questioned. "When have I ever been able to leave you like that?"
"I didn't say you'd leave me Dr. Lansing." Maxie explained quietly. "I said I doubt you'd be able to wait."
"Well now that is the truth. It's probably for the best I'm on the other side of the country right now then right?"
"Oh? Didn't you just say you were in my room?"
"Clever girl. Distracting me with all your talk and made me forget that point. But of course now that I remember I am in your room..." He let his voice trail off suggestively, wanting to see how far she would push this new game of theirs.
"Now what?" Maxie challenged lightly.
"Do you want the real answer to that?"
"I'm not scared of the truth Ric." Maxie assured him. "If you want something from me, tell me."
"What I want right now is to be there with you, hearing you moan my name." Ric almost growled. "It's all I've been thinking about since you told me where you were."
"Great minds think alike. How do you suppose we accomplish that?"
"I have a few suggestions."
*****
He was thankful they had cut Logan Drake out of the equation. At least now their money was theirs and didn't need to be divided with that hoodlum. The gambling aside, the man was unstable and unpredictable. AJ had never thought he would go as far as he had to teach Robin a lesson or he never would have let that animal out of his cage. After all, he didn't hate Robin; he was simply annoyed by her. At first, she had been such an easy target. She was the one who had called him to tell him about acquiring the children and made it possible to get one of them all to himself. However, she was also the one who took the remaining child out of the country thus cramping his plans severely.
The staged fight between him and his parents had gone exactly the way his father had predicted, but that loan had been the last he would accept. From what Courtney had told him, Sonnybucks had left both boys a mighty nice inheritance that would take care of their colleges. The remaining expenses he could take of himself. He couldn't help but pace the room in frustration at the little tidbit his fiancé had brought him with his morning coffee. Not only was Robin a fit mother, she was about to solidify her relationship with Patrick Drake thus giving Morgan the kind of security the courts would approve of. He had thought, for sure, she would come running to him. After all, it wasn't like she was an experienced mother. She had no children of her own before Morgan and that was why AJ had left the boy in her care, to show everyone how awful she would be at it.
To his and Courtney's disappointment, she was a terrific parent and managed to get all of the support a single mother usually lacked from her family while he was struggling to keep Courtney from flying off the hinges half the time. He had all but cut off his immediate family and, while the idea of marrying Courtney and giving Morgan a better environment than he currently lived in, it was nothing more than an idea. They barely got along on a good day and this engagement business had put her in one of the sourest moods he had ever seen her in. How was he supposed to convince anyone that she would be a good mother when they found out what she had done to her own "nephew?"
AJ took some enjoyment in her momentary absence because it gave him time to think about the facts, facts that his darling fiancé knew nothing about. For starters, despite Emily, Courtney, and Jason's motivations for wanting Morgan, he had an even bigger agenda. How shocked would they have been to discover that they were no more related to Morgan than Robin was? It was times like this when he had to reflect and thank Carly for being such a slut. Though her perfect Sonny would never believe it, the only child he had been paternally linked to was Kristina.
It hadn't been easy to discover that little tidbit of information, but everyone could be bought, especially lowly lab technicians. Twenty bucks and he had been given the gift of a lifetime. Since then, he had been plotting to take both children from their mother. As fate would have it, Carly just happened to cross the wrong street on the wrong day and gotten herself killed. That left only Sonny to get rid of and that had been even easier than getting his hands on the paternity results.
The door opened and closed, with it his current thinking, and he smiled at Courtney. Her arms were full of shopping bags and he hurried to relieve her of them. "Put a new dent in the credit card?" He asked teasingly.
"Just a small one." Courtney smiled.
"Did you at least get me something?" AJ pretended to look in one of the larger pink bags.
"I think something in there would qualify as something for you. Although I'll more than likely be wearing it." Courtney slipped her arms around AJ's neck and moved in closer to him. It seemed trite and cliché to say the only way she felt close to her own fiancé was planning to seduce him, but there it was. Ever since she had stupidly agreed to Emily's insane plan, her life was nothing but a casualty list of clichés.
"I've been thinking about a custody hearing." AJ told her without preamble. "There's a good chance we could win it."
"Really? I always enjoy good news."
"You sound surprised." AJ couldn't help but notice.
"I thought with the announcement in the paper..." Courtney let her voice trail off. She was no stranger to how the custody decisions went down in a small town like Port Charles. The person who looked the most stable won. No muss no fuss.
"I don't think we have to worry about what the PCPD thinks they have on us." AJ said without considering her obsession over Patrick and Robin's upcoming nuptials.
"And just how did you come to this conclusion?"
"We may have to make one last trip to Port Charles to tie up a loose end. The only one who remembers seeing us is Lulu." AJ knew he was the brains of the operation when he was the only one who suggested they drug the children. Their memories had been robbed of any specifics, such as the four of them being responsible.
Courtney arched her eyebrow skyward. "I hope you aren't suggesting what I think you are suggesting. That plan didn't work out so well the first time. All Logan succeeded in doing is making Lulu more like her father than she already is."
"As long as she forgets before the trial, we're home free. They only have evidence on Logan and I'm not afflicted with the idea of leaving him holding the bag. If the PCPD tries to make a case about you or Emily, we can argue that they were desperate to make a case because of Kristina. None of them know about my connection and you didn't exactly keep your disgust of Logan a secret. The two of you working together? Think about how ridiculous they'll sound."
"True." Courtney moved to sit down on the couch. "There is always that. And making Robin sound crazy by trusting that story over the word of her oldest friend in the world?"
"Will be easy as pie." AJ finished for her.
Previews:
"God you smell good." He murmured against her hair. "What took you so long to get here?"
"I missed you so much. When I saw you in Kelly's, I thought about running in and jumping right into your arms." She admitted nuzzling her nose into his neck.