The Scorpio Brothers Bond
At Finger Lakes, the feuding brothers have a showdown, both drawing their guns.  However, before Robert can fire, he's shot in his shoulder and falls.  It appeared like Mac shot him as Robert falls, but behind Robert is the hitman, Rory, who Mac had shot at instead.  Rory was trying to kill both brothers, and dies refusing to tell them who he worked for.  Mac carries his bleeding brother to the nearby clinic where a blood transfusion between the two is needed because Robert's lost so much blood.  Since he has Robert as a captive audience while they're hooked up together for the transfusion, Mac finally explains to his big brother that the plane crash as an accident and he had actually gone for help.  He hadn't abandoned their family, but when he got back, Robert had already left, thinking Mac had left him for dead.  Later, as Mac's trying to leave and Robert won't let me, they're both caught by the sheriff and put into jail.  Both he and Robert are listed as wanted criminals, thanks to the Cartel.  As children, they were very close, and here in the prison, the brothers, who are in side by side cells, slowly begin to mend their wounds. 

Robert: "What a mess.  What a whole bloody mess."  (he walks over to his cot, next to the bars adjoining Mac's cell, cradling his hurt shoulder)

Mac (walking over and sitting on his cot, which is next to the bars separating the two cells): "Robbie, right again.  I detect a new trend here.  Big brother, on the right track."

Robert (grimacing from his wound, he slowly sits down on the cot): "Yeah.  Yeah.  You know I've always been a believer things can change..... Even you.  But it's gotta start out with something, and it's gotta start out in this particular instance with trust."  (He and Mac stare at one another)

Mac (referring to Robert cradling his arm): "Is that any better?"

Robert (grunts): "Uh."

Mac: "Uh, trust is fine, Robbie, but I haven't seen traffic moving both ways in a long time."

Robert: "It's worth a try."

Mac:"I'm game if you are."

Robert: "Okay.  Let's start out with a little game of question and answer." (He looks up at Mac)  "You were paid that money for the sabatoge, yes, no?

Mac (taking a moment to answer, then smiles briefly): "Yes.  Yeah, but I didn't uh, blow up the ship, you know.  I didn't rip her guts out or let out her waterline.  I'm not into plastique."

Robert: "That was your partner's job, Rory."

Mac: "Rory.  Rory was never my partner.  I work alone.  I can handle myself."

Robert: "Well, if he wasn't your partner, who were you working for?"

Mac (clamming up, looks down at the floor): "It's my business."

Robert (angry): "Dammit it, it's your business!  You're being hung out to dry here.   Can't you see that?"

Mac: "Look, I told you, I can take care of myself."  (He gets up and walks away)

Robert (gets up too): "Well pardon my skepticism, but it doesn't look that way from where I'm standing."

Mac: "Spare me any lectures right now, will you?  Now, I've done a few things in my days, but believe it or not, I'm not the hardened criminal you make me out to be."

Robert (giving him a stern look): "That is encouraging, brother, that is encouraging.  But the bottom line is whether we like it or not, brother, we're related, by 'blood'."

Mac (taken aback): "What?  You're the knight in shiny armour and I'm the black sheep of the family, huh?"

Robert: "For your sake, the past should remain in the past."

Mac: "That's not so easy to do.  I mean, how do you chisel out an image in stone?"

Robert (surprised): "Well, you start by starting.  You start by building a bridge of trust.  You may as well start by telling me who you work for."  (There's silence between the brothers)

Mac: "Once a cop, always a cop."  (They stare at each other in silence)   "Alright."  (He walks back to the bars near Robert)   "Alright, I'll give it a shot."  (He takes a deep breath and looks down at the floor)  "I was working for a dirty rotten dog...."  (He then looks back up at Robert)  "... aka Paul Hornsby."  (Robert stares off, lost in thought)

The scene fades to commercial, then back...

Mac (in the process of telling Robert his past): "Finally I took the ELQ Tracy job.  But then you were tracking me all the time.  I mean, I saw the list in your puzzle box."  

Robert (nodding his head): "I knew that (referring to Mac stealing the list from Robert's box).   But I wanted to hear it from you.  This Hornsby person, he's in Port Charles at the behest of one friend of mine, Sean Donely.  Uh... it doesn't all fit."

Mac: "All I can say is I worked for him once before.  But you're right about that, something's definately out of sync.  And I plan to find out exactly what it is."

Robert: "Not if Ballard (referring to the sheriff holding them) has anything to say about it."

Mac: "You know, it's funny, Robbie.  You and I connected after all this time.   They had to lock us up to make it work."

Robert: "I just wonder if you can change your spots."

Mac: "Why not?  I mean, where has it gotten me so far?"  (Silence)   "Robbie, I envy you.  I mean, you've got someone to miss.  Someone who misses you, worries about you."

Roert (thoughtfully): "Well, Anna and I have only recently reconnected.  Even now..."  (he looks around at the cell)  ".. in a flea pit like this, I can.. I can feel her presence if I want... I can see her, I can see Robin.  I can, I can sense and I know the feeling I'm gonna get when I'm with them.  The happiness."

Mac: "You're a lucky man.  I'd like to know that feeling myself."

Robert: "I don't want to be hypercritical of your lifestyle, but it really doesn't lend itself to marriage."

Mac: "My lifestyle hasn't much of a life, you know.  It definatley lacks style."   (He points to Robert)  "Listen, I don't want this to go to your head, but all past anger aside, uh, I admire who you are, what you've become, what you've accomplished."

Robert: "This isn't the end of the world.  If you want to turn your lifestyle around, you've got to do it.  You get out and do it.  I mean, no one's stopping you."

Mac: "Who's gonna help me?"

Robert: "You've got to do it yourself!  However... I might be disposed towards lending you some assistance."

Mac: "Look, if we get through all this, and we will, why would you want to help me?"

Robert: "For myself.  And, for someone else."

Mac: "I believe you."  (He smiles)

Robert: "Well, since we're being so pathetically open here.  Um, I, uh, I felt that, when I saw you disappear into the water and thought you'd drowned, a bit of me went with you.  I thought, I'm never gonna have a chance to reconcil with my brother."

Mac (surprised): "You honestly felt that?"

Robert (nodding his head): "Um.  All the time that we've wasted."  (He doesn't notice that Mac's trying not to smile)  "All the years, but I thought one day we'd reconnect...."  (Mac can't stifle his laugh and it confuses Robert)   "What's wrong?"

Mac: "Nothing.  No.  No, nothing."  (Robert's staring hard at him now)  "I'm really touched, Robbie.  I'm really touched."

Robert: "Why?"

Mac: "Well, I don't know if I should tell you this but, uh, when you opened yourself up for me like that.  I faked it."

Robert (confused): "Faked it?" 

Mac: "When you thought you'd knocked me for a loop, I was faking it."   (He's referring to when he let Robert punch him during their showdown on the ship, after which Mac fell into the water and Robert thought he'd killed his brother)

Robert: "You what?!"

Mac: "Check it out.  You had the whole docks blocked off tighter than a drum.   The only way for me to get out was to, uh, make sure you and the Port Charles police department think I'm dead."  (He laughs)

Robert (glares at him angrily in silence): "You illegitimate...." 

Mac: "Hey, now wait a minute, don't bring mom and dad into this.  And besides, I'm sure it's a trick you would've tried."

Robert (trying hard not to, but unable to stop the smile coming over his face): "I guess we are brothers after all."

Mac: "Definately.  Meanwhile, we're behind bars."

Robert (looking over his shoulder): "You had to bring it up."

Mac: "Look, I want to get out of here as much as you do, but, I mean, I've got a score to settle with Paul Hornsby."

Robert: "Hey, you listen to me.  You want to turn your life around, that's fine.   But start doing it within the law.  We'll bust Hornsby's chops big, but we'll do it when we get back to Port Charles, by using the book."

Mac (sarcastically): "Great, whatever you say, big brother.  But it's tough to do right here, you know."

Robert: "Yeah, you got that right.  For the first time in your life."  (He rubs his chin)  "There might be a scam or two we can pull yet."

Mac: "Wait a minute, wait a minute now.  Are you thinking what I'm thinking?   Now didn't you just say by the book?"

Robert (leaning close): "We go by the book when we get back to Port Charles!  Meanwhile anything goes!"

Mac: "Oh, great."

Robert: "Now, that would mean... would mean us working together.  You game?"

Mac (putting his hand through the bars, his id bracelet gleaming in the dim cell): "Absolutely."

Robert (taking his hand, he focuses on Mac's bracelet): "I must find mine when I get back in town."

Mac: "For dad?"

Robert (looking at Mac): "For the family."

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