The Murder of Edward Quartermaine
Chapter 4

The Outback

“That’s the tenth time in the last five minutes that you
checked your watch Mac,” Felicia said patiently from behind
the bar where she was checking inventory. “Relax. It’s only
6:15.”

“How do you expect me to relax?” Mac’s voice was low
and intense. “I’m still in shock. I’m still angry. In my mind
Robin is still sitting in a classroom in Yale studying to be a
doctor. Then, out of the blue and without a word of warning,
she shows up at ELQ flashing a WSB agent and barking
orders.”

“I’m sure she didn’t bark”

“She barked. God, you should have seen her jump over
Emily Quartermaine. Not that Emily didn’t deserve it, but it was
like watching a stranger in action. What the hell happened to my
Robin?”

“She’s still your Robin,” Felicia said. She knew her
lines. They had been having this conversation in one form or
another for the last two hours. “But she’s also Robert and
Anna’s daughter. Considering how they lived their lives, maybe
you should be wondering why she didn’t join the WSB years
ago. The WSB has been a huge influence in her life.”

“Right and that influence included getting both her
parents killed,” Mac said flatly. “Please don’t tell me you
approve of this career choice.”

“I don’t know. I’m just not as ready as you are to
condemn it outright either. I want to know why she’s doing
this. If this is her way of getting even with Jason....”

“Damn Morgan,” Mac swore not so softly. “ And what
the hell is she doing working with Frisco of all people. I swear
to you that if he’s responsible for her joining the WSB I’ll.....”

“Do what, Scorpio? Challenge me to a duel? Ten yards
or twenty paces? I hate to disappoint you but I left my dueling
pistols hanging next to my swords in LA. We could clear one of
these tables and arm wrestle if it will make you feel better.”
Frisco’s cool voice broke into Mac and Felicia’s conversation as
he and Robin approached.

Robin could have killed him. She had spent the entire
ride over from the hotel lecturing Frisco on not aggravating her
uncle and this is the result. She groaned inwardly and resisted
the urge to turn and run, threat to national security or not.
Maybe national security was an overrated concept. This was
2003, how secure could a nation hope to be?


Instead, Robin gently touched Frisco on the arm and
whispered “Down boy!” just loud enough for him to hear her.
She knew she should have packed the muzzle.

Frisco drew back away from Mac, glanced at Robin,
mouthed a not very sincere “sorry”, and grinned like a little boy.
Robin shook her head and sent him a look that clearly said they
would discuss his behavior later.

Frisco smiled. He loved how he and Robin “discussed”
things.

“Uncle Mac! Felicia!,” Robin moved past Frisco to hug
her surrogate parents. “It’s so good to see you again. You look
great.”

Mac Scorpio looked at his niece. She looked good.
There was an air of confidence and strength about her that he
hadn’t seen in a long time. When was the last time he had seen a
sparkle like that in her eyes?

Frisco look at his Felicia. His ex-wife. The mother of his
two daughters. He felt...nothing? Polite curiosity? Friendship?
Not the passion that he once had. His eyes rested on Robin and
he felt it again. The rush of adrenaline. The racing of his heart.
The passion. He turned again to Felicia. She looked happy and
content. He reached over to shake her hand and then shrugged
and gave her a hug. “How are you ?”he asked.

“I’m fine,” Felicia said gently disengaging from his hug.
He was as handsome as ever she thought but the pull of
attraction between them was gone. “The girls will be excited to
see you.”

Frisco smiled somewhat sadly. “Thanks for trying, but
we both know that I’ll be lucky if either girl even recognizes
me. But I would still like to see them as much as I can while we
are in town.” His eyes smiled into Robin’s, unnoticed by either
her aunt or her uncle. “ I’ve learned a lot lately about building
bridges.”

Felicia nodded, not understanding what brought about
this change but accepting it none the less. “I’m sure Maxie and
Georgie will like that. How long do you plan on staying in
town?”

Robin intervened. “Why don’t we wait until we are
seated and then I can fill you in on our plans.”

Frisco’s eyebrow rose. “Our” plans. They should have
bet on which one of them would slip first and reveal their love.
He had a feeling that if they were having dinner with anyone
other than Mac and Felicia their “coupleness” would have been
noticed by now. He knew that he wasn’t being subtle, he had
been feasting on her with his eyes since they had walked into
the place.


When Frisco moved to escort Robin to her seat, Mac
stopped him. “This is a private family dinner Jones. Maybe
Robin can meet up with you later?”

Frisco’s eyes flared briefly before he smiled
determinedly. “ I go where my partner goes. It’s a WSB
regulation. You wouldn’t want me to get fired?”

“Make a bet?” Mac muttered under his breath as the
men followed the women to the table.

“Talking to yourself old man?” Frisco mocked. “Isn’t
that one of the seven signs of aging.”

“It’s better than being Peter Pan my whole life long.”

Robin and Felicia exchanged looks and Robin began to
mentally calculate how she could get combat pay for having to
sit through this dinner.


With Lark’s help, Emily hadn’t found in that difficult to
lose Lucky. She had had Lark distract him with supposedly new
information on the Bolivia operation while she took off. Now
she standing in the hallway, she forces herself to take a deep
breath and relax while she checked her hair and lipstick. At
5’10, Emily carried herself with a grace and elegance at 19 she
would not have believed possible at 15. She had grown past her
obsession with her appearance but she knew that tonight she
wanted to look beautiful. She needed a suit of armor tonight.
All she had was make up and lipstick. It would have to do. She
wasn’t going to lose everything she had worked for because
Lucky Spencer came back and stirred up old memories. She
wasn’t going to go there. She wasn’tt going to remember. Not
tonight.

Tonight she was going to have fun. Dance a little. Flirt a
little. Okay, maybe flirt a lot. And after dinner, with any luck,
she would not be going home to her own loft.

That thought bolstering her spirits, she moved to knock
on the door but it opened in front of her.

She smiled. “Hi!”

“Hi yourself.” Her smile was returned. “You okay?”

“I am now,” she said simply as she crossed the
threshold. “I am now.”

Neither one of them noticed the figure that had followed
Emily since she left ELQ.


The Outback

Mac had made what he considered a superhuman effort
and waited until the waitress had taken their orders before
unleashing his fury.

“So I hear the weather in Connecticut is nice this time of
the year,” Mac said his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Of course
you may not know that since it seems like you haven’t been
there in quite a while.”

Underneath the table, Frisco’s hand tightens its hold on
Robin’s.

Robin is calm and assured. She knows that Mac is
entitled to some anger and hurt feelings, she lied to him
repeatedly for years even going so far as to have the WSB
forward her calls home through Yale, but she will not allow him
or anyone else to make her decisions for her. She’s 23. That’s
old enough to live her own life.

“I never went back to Yale after I left Port Charles.”

“Would you care to explain to me why you through
away Yale and Medical School to play cops and robbers?”

Robin’s voice sharpens. “I don’t play at anything. I’m
good at my work. One of the best agents the WSB has. I have a
box full of commendations back in LA that I can show you. My
scores at the academy were high in all subject areas. I can
handle any weapon you give me. I can read any forensics report
you want to show me. I’m even learning how to profile
although I still prefer to leave that to the experts. I’m sorry that
I lied to you, but I am damn proud of the work I do. Just like
you are proud of the work you do for the PCPD.”

Robin’s voice softens. “When I left here, I felt like I had
lost everything. I had lost the man I loved. I lost my home. I
know, I could have stayed but I couldn’t. I would have
suffocated to watch Jason and Carly. Especially after they got
married. When I arrived in Paris, I thought my life was over.
And in a way it was. I realized that I had not only lost Jason,
more importantly I lost myself. I wasn’t me. I was some
desperate creature doing everything I could to hold onto a man
who said he loved me with words while his actions said
something else. I know I did the right thing telling AJ. If I
regret anything its letting that lie go on for so long. I kept a man
from his son. A man who I thought of as a friend. And I did it
because I decided that the Jason would be a better father.
Because I was afraid that if I told Jason it was wrong I would
lose him. Neither Jason nor Carly nor I had the right to keep a
father and a son apart. We can tell ourselves over and over that
we did it for the right reasons. But doing something wrong for
the right reasons is still wrong.”

Frisco’s fingers trace a path up her lower arm. He
clamps his own jar tight for fear of expressing his own feelings
on the subject of Jason Morgan. Talk of Jason brings out the
anger in him at Jason’s treatment of Robin. He had once
suggested, half serious, that he could help Robin make the rest
of Jason’s life miserable. Robin had laughed and replied that
that was Carly’s job now.

“I don’t want to rehash old memories. As far as I’m
concerned, Jason is someone I once knew and cared about.
That’s it. I just want you to understand that when I returned
Paris I couldn’t just walk into my old life. It was impossible.
The WSB offered me a chance to recreate my life. To start
over. To be myself again.”

Robin grinned at her uncle. “And even you have to
admit that it’s pretty apparent that law enforcement runs in the
family.”

“You could get shot.”

“Been there, done that.” Robin lets the words out
without thinking and then pales.

Mac sputters and the soda he is drinking hits the air.
“What? You were shot? When? Where?”

Okay, I could have handled that better, Robin thought
to herself. God, she’d been hanging around Frisco too much.
Where was her sense of diplomacy and tact? “It’s okay Uncle
Mac. It was a flesh wound. It happened a while ago when we
were checking a warehouse for contraband.”

Mac rounds on Frisco. “Where the hell were you? You
are supposed to be her partner. Some partner. You let her get
shot.”

Frisco is up and leaning across the table before Robin
can stop him, his hand reaches out to grab Mac’s collar. “Listen
you sanctimonous bastard. I would give my life to protect
Robin. I..”

“Frisco. Frisco. Jones,” Robin’s voice is authoritative
and cuts into Frisco’s rage. “Let my uncle go. You can both
kiss and make up later. We’ve got problems. Big problems.
Quartermaine type problems.”

The haze of red disappearing, Frisco turns in the
direction Robin is looking.

“Damn,” he whispers. “Double damn. Where the hell is
Junior? Or her local tag?”

“I don’t know,” Robin whispers furiously. What kind of
game did Emily think they were playing. Lives were at stake.
Emily’s life was at stake. Robin didn’t have the time to deal
with post adolescent rebellion. “Call Lucky. Now. Tell him to
get over her with a damn good explanation and maybe I’ll
forgive him for this slip up in 20 years or so. In the meantime,
you better pull up two more chairs Uncle Mac. Because Miss.
Quartermaine and her companion are not leaving my sight.
Well, her companion can jump off the pier but Emily is going to
be glued to our side till Lucky gets here.”

Mac watches his niece. She’s right. She is good at her
job. He watches her approach Emily and her companion and
finds himself feeling sorry for them both. He relaxes and leans
back in his chair after motioning to the waitress to pull up two
more chairs. He looks again at Emily’s companion. This is
going to be fun.

Frisco isn’t amused. He knows as well as Robin the
danger they are all in at the moment. His eyes automatically
scan for the crowded restaurant for possible threats as he pulls
out his cell phone and punches a familiar number.

“Spencer.” Frisco almost smiles. Junior sounds
aggravated.

“You lose something Lucky.”
“Yeah. Something tall, brown haired, with the
temperament of a brat.” Lucky sighs. “I take it you found her.”
“She’s at the Outback. Robin says to get over here
now.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Spencer.”
“Yeah. It’s hard to hurry when you keep me on the
phone Jones.”
“Just thought you’d like to know she’s not alone.”
“Who is she with? AJ? Ned?”
“Try Sonny Corinthos”
The other end of the line goes dead.