"Is this Patrick Drake?" A gravelly voice asked the moment Patrick answered the phone. Ever since his conversation with Morgan, he had been trying his hardest to get in touch with Robin. So far, he hadn't had any luck. This was just another failure. At least he had gotten someone to answer. Something told him he should hang up now, but he didn't know why.

"Yes." Patrick replied slowly.

"The same Patrick Drake who is the reason Robin is in tears twenty-four-seven?" Then he heard it. Faint, but the accent caught his attention. Of course, Robert Scorpio. After the initial shock, he wondered why he was still allowing this conversation to go on. The man obviously knew the situation. Robin couldn't exactly hide her condition any longer and the man was a spy for Christ's sake. She must have told him something, but what? How much did he know? Right now he just sounded like an overprotective father stepping up to defend his wounded offspring.

"Yes." Patrick finally said. "Would it be possible to talk to her?" Even before he asked the question, he knew the answer he would receive. Robert Scorpio would sooner sleep on hot coals than let him talk to Robin.

"I don't think that's going to be possible." Robert told him in a no-nonsense tone.

"Tell me why." The words tumbled out before he thought better of them. Shit. He had heard horror stories about this man's reputation from Uncle Luke and wouldn't be surprised if there was a trained assassin at his door this very minute. "I have every right."

"You have no right as far as I'm concerned. So you thought you'd ring my daughter and push her over the emotional cliff she's been dangling off of since she got here? I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that a man with no respect for my daughter--" Robert mused.

"I have the utmost respect for your daughter!" Patrick shouted.

"If you had given my daughter a second thought, well ever, you wouldn't have her masquerading as your fake fiancé. You would take responsibility for your own actions. Hell, you would at least let her relish in the existence of her baby with her family." Robert scoffed, rubbing the earpiece across his forehead in frustration.

"I'm trying to protect her." Patrick insisted.

"You're trying to protect yourself. Your own family doesn't know. I wouldn't even know if I hadn't seen her with my own eyes."

"We're telling them when she gets back. In case you missed it, you guilted her into coming there at a time when we could have told everyone."

"Don't blame me for your lousy time. Last time I checked, she was almost six months along."

Patrick wanted to slam down the phone in incredulity. He had half-expected Robert to not care at all. After all, the man didn't exactly make his daughter a priority. Maybe it was easier to blame Patrick than to admit he was the one who was wrong. "Have her call me." He was stopping this fight before it came even more ridiculous. He didn't care what Robert Scorpio thought of him, but if he didn't talk to Robin soon, he wasn't sure they had a future.

"I can't say I'm surprised you're running away from a fight." Robert patronized.

"When I see that there isn't going to be any real outcome, I don't waste my time." Patrick threw back.

"Were you missing on the day God handed out brains or are you just unfamiliar on how to use it?"

"I'm not going to be intimidated by an over-the-hill spy with trust issues." Patrick explained through gritted teeth.

"When I meet you, it won't matter if you're standing in the middle of a police station. I'm going to kick your ass." Robert declared.

"Bring it on old man. Or should I call you Dad?" Patrick taunted.

"You sorry sack of—" Robert broke off and Patrick heard movement. "We'll get to this later."

"Let me talk to her!" Patrick demanded even though Robert had already ended the call. "SON OF A BITCH!" He chunked the phone into the wall.

*****

Seeing his husband come through the door, Dillon crossed his arms as Lucas neared him. Just have some random guy call the house who can't be bothered to leave anything more than a name? And Lucas had the nerve to think there was something going on between him and Georgie? HA! "Who the hell is Gary?"

"Did he call?" Lucas countered instead.

"Did he call?" Dillon repeated incredulously. "Did he call is all you can say to me?"

"Did you take down the message or are you going on your memory? I only ask because it's kind of important." Lucas stressed.

"A message? A message? No he claimed he had to talk to just you and it was too personal to leave with a stranger. Since when am I a stranger Lucas?"

"You're not a stranger. I know you very intimately." Lucas grinned, moving toward his office where he assumed he would find a handwritten note of scribbles and pictures.

"Oh don't think you are getting out of this trouble with sweet talk mister!" Dillon followed directly behind Lucas, almost kicking his heel directly.

"Are we fighting?" Lucas asked casually, shaking his head at the pile of sticky notes. He had tried hiring a secretary, but Dillon had thrown a fit.

"No you are explaining why strange men are calling here looking for you and refusing to speak to me. And just so you know if you are seeing this Gary, I will go Fatal Attraction on you."

"Seeing? Seeing? Dillon, really." Lucas patronized, finding something that resembled the note he was looking for.

"Well I'm not hearing a better explanation."

"Give me a second and maybe I'll come up with one." Lucas started to dial, but Dillon disconnected the call. "What do you think you're doing? This is important!"

"Not as important as you telling me what is going on." Dillon moved the phone further behind him and sat on Lucas's desk. "You've never kept me out of the loop like this."

"I don't want to get your hopes up in case it doesn't work out." Lucas explained briefly.

"In case what doesn't work out?"

Lucas gripped the phone tighter as he put it in its cradle. Slowly, he met Dillon's eyes. "I've been trying to find Sage."

Dillon blinked, looking for any hint of a joke in Lucas's eyes. Seeing the same serious expression Lucas always wore, Dillon put his hand on the desk to steady himself. "Sage." He stated his voice barely above a whisper.

"Yes, Sage. As I said, I didn't want to get your hopes up in case..."

"In case she's still Sage." Dillon finished. He had never pretended to understand his old friend's decision to never have contact with Lance. It just didn't make sense to him. How could you not want to know your own child?

"In case she's not a match." Lucas clarified quietly.

"A match? Lucas, you heard Dr. Wexler say that could be years away for Lance."

"I don't care what she said. Aspirin and medication aren't enough. I was feeling desperate."

"Lucas." Dillon reached out to grab his husband's shoulder. "You aren't a doctor. You hate math."

"You said it yourself: once a detective, always a detective."

"Actually I think I said once a pain in the ass, always a pain in the ass."

"I like the paraphrased version better." Lucas chuckled. "Anyway, I may have a lead. That's what the call was about."

"And you couldn't tell me you were doing this because? We both know I am a model of a calm, cool collected James Dean type."

"Yeah. That's why you were accusing me of having an affair. Real cool."

Dillon rolled his eyes. "Excuse me why do you hate your cousin Georgie again?"

"I don't hate Georgie. I just wish she'd move on from you so I could sleep a little better at night. That's not a crime."

"Oh yeah and me wondering who about Gary was completely irrational."

"Yes it was. You and Georgie have history."

"Ancient history. Like Elizabeth Taylor's career. Let go and move on. And you still are going to tell me who Gary is."

"I put out a few feelers and one of them paid off. That's all."

"What are we going to do if you find her?"

"Bound and gag her, naturally."

"Well that is the more civilized option."

"What would you suggest?"

"My upbringing says bribery."

"If it comes to that. Let's try my family's approach: guilt and obligation."

"Oh sure if you want to play nice."

*****

The knock on the door startled him. Tearing his concentration away from the file he had snuck from the squad room Harper stared quizzically at the door. It wasn't impossible to continue his mission while camping out at Kimes's shitty bachelor pad but this was the first time in days he had to look more closely at the next drug dealer on the list. Standing up he wondered who would come here. As far as he could tell, Kimes had no life outside the station. And the only person who knew he was here had sworn multiple times she wouldn't be by.

Opening the door, he couldn't contain the shock that coursed through his veins as he took in her shaking small frame. "Samantha?"

"I wasn't in the neighborhood or anything." Sam told him once she regained the ability to speak. He looked so good, she thought numbly. And maybe if he hadn't called her Samantha, she would have been able to keep the tremor out of her voice.

"Sure. I know you always just knock on strange doors." He put out his hand and pulled her inside. What had happened to her?

"Yeah." Sam answered, taking in the shabby hole in the wall and noticing how much Harper stood out.

"Sit down." He gestured towards the only comfortable spot to sit, the leather sofa he had just vacated. "I'll make you some coffee."

"No, no that's okay. I think if I have another cup I probably won't sleep." Sam chattered uneasily.

"Samantha, sit down." He said gently. "Sit down."

"Fine, okay. I'll sit. Sure." Sam lowered herself onto the edge of the couch, her eyes darting from one corner of the room to the next as if she expected the furniture to attack her.

Perching himself on the coffee table in front of her, he pushed the file off and onto the floor. Reaching out he gently took her hands in his own, rubbing his thumbs over her knuckles. "Talk to me."

"Well, okay, so I may have found a lead on my mother." She was rambling, she noticed. She never rambled.

"Good. That's good right? It's what you wanted right?" He kept his voice steady and low, an effort to keep her calm.

What she wanted? She had wanted to find out why her mother had left her life before she had even obtained a single memory of her, but she had never thought...Well she had brought this on herself. Startled, she realized she had said the last part aloud.

"Brought what on yourself Samantha?"

"I was stupid to go looking for her. What did I expect to find?" Sam asked in a harsh whisper. "I painted up this impossible picture of who she was, why she gave me up..."

"You expected to find answers. No fault in that."

"I wanted to know why and now I do." Sam bit down hard on her lip to keep from losing it in front of him. Why had she even come here?

"What is it you know Samantha?" He felt the powerful urge to pull her close to him and never let her out of his arms, but he knew better. She'd relent for a second and then run for the hills. He kept his hands on her and offered a gentle squeeze. "What did you find?"

"Apparently I was too needy for a woman on the run."

"On the run?"

"Yeah. She killed a man." Sam informed him, starting to shake. "And gave birth to me halfway through her way out of town."

"Are you sure?" It was a hell of a bombshell to digest. How had she found out and what was her information?

"I checked the records for a woman in Port Charles, since I know that she was from here, and there she was. There wasn't a picture and no name. She changed her identity."

"Maybe she just missed school picture day."

Sam's head jerked toward him. "This isn't a joke!"

"I'm sorry. It's not. But if this woman has no name and no picture, how are you sure she's your mother?"

"Because she gave birth the day I was born and it kind of makes sense I would have a mother like that." In the back of her mind, she had always wondered what kind of person she had come from. Her father was no picnic and she hadn't been all that sad when he died. She had been passed down from one foster home to the next, waiting and hoping that her biological mother would rescue her. She never had.

"Why would that make sense?" He placed his finger underneath her chin and pushed her face up, forcing her to look at him. "Why would you think possibly having a mother who was wanted for a crime would make sense for you?"

"I'm just feeling sorry for myself. I shouldn't have come here."

"No." Ignoring the voice that told him this would just lead to trouble, Harper pulled her towards him, causing her to rest on his lap. "No. Just stay."

When his arms swooped down around her she told herself she would just rest against him for a minute. "I don't mean to keep making this your problem."

"Hey, I told you I wanted to help you with this."

"I bet you're regretting that."

"Never." Harper snuck a hand up and pushed her hair off her face. "You're not a girl to regret."

*****

"Don't get up. I'll get it." Steven assured his grandmother as the phone continued to disturb their movie, his personal favorite, Rear Window. "Hardy Residence."

"Hi Steven." Georgie smiled into the phone.

He smirked in response. "Hi."

"So, am I busting up any hot dates?"

"You certainly are. Grams and I were just getting into Rear Window." Steven lightly teased.

"Oh well I guess you don't want to go on a date with me then." She teased right back.

"I didn't say that. What did you have in mind?"

"Dinner. Say Friday? Just you, me, some wine, my father."

"That dinner?" Steven asked breathlessly.

"Yeah. That dinner. You wouldn't by chance be interested would you?"

"I would be very interested. Where?"

"The Outback. Seven? Alexis and I think it will help if he's in a familiar setting."

"Sure. Yeah. I think so too." A part of him hadn't expected this moment to ever come. Now that it was here, he was a little overwhelmed. It was breathe in, breathe...what?

"Good." She could feel the butterflies that were going to rest in her stomach from now until Steven sat down next to her on Friday take flight in the pit of her stomach. There was not turning back now. They were really going to do this. Finally they could actually be husband and wife. "You're not going to be late right? You'll be on time?"

Steven laughed. "Well I was thinking I would show up about closing time...you know, just to keep the anticipation going."

"You wouldn't dare."

"Of course not. I'll be there."

"I love you. You know that right?"

"Ditto."

"OK I gotta go. I'll see you soon ok?"

"Before Friday I hope."

"I do too."

Previews:

He bent down in front of her. "If I didn't have you, I couldn't get over it and move on. No one could ever compare to you and I could never love anyone the way I love you."

"Mac, please…" Alexis begged, tears immediately springing to her eyes.