Tracy: Are you really blaming this bender on me?

Luke: We were at a crossroads. This thing could have gone either way, and then you took up my challenge. You said you'd travel the world with me. We'd just go out there in the wind together, and maybe we'd find a whole new direction.

Tracy: New bars, new floozies, new direction?

Luke: Yeah, well, we were out there for one week, and you split and took all my cash.

Tracy: I don't like pub crawls.

Luke: There was the whole world there in front of us, all those possibilities, and then you quit on me.

Tracy: I don't -- I don't like being the ball-and-chain around your neck.

Luke: When did I ever say that?

Tracy: You didn't have to say it. I could see you wanted to be free.

Luke: Don't you get it? I'll never be free of you, and that's the way I like it.

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Lulu: I mean, I know it sounds crazy to say that it's a good thing that I'm getting threatening notes, but it means that I might not actually be crazy.

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Trevor: Look, I can't answer your questions right now. I'm leaving the courthouse, so I'll talk to you soon.

Spinelli: The Jackal shall follow Darth Lansing like a second shadow until he determines what the evil one is up to.

Maxie: Not so fast.

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Nikolas: Carly, it's not that hard to figure out. He brought that woman here just to make you jealous.

Carly: No, I play those games. Jax doesn't. This is about something else.

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Jax: I have a good feeling about you. You're quick, and you're ruthless.

Lawyer: But you like that in a woman?

Jax: I like it in a lawyer. Did you get a chance to look over the papers I sent you?

Lawyer: It's ambitious and risky, but if you want to buy Spoon Island out from under Mr. Cassadine, more power to you.

Jax: Yeah, couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Lawyer: What did he do to you?

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Carly: Jax's body language is a dead giveaway. See, when he flirts, he leans in for more intimacy, or he leans back so he can draw you in. He's not doing either. This is all business.

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Olivia: I know, Dante. Yeah, what mother wouldn't love a son who calls his mother all the time, but you're going overboard, okay? I'm in the hospital with your cousin Connie. I'm not out skydiving. Yes, I know. I don't take candy from strangers, and I stay away from the bad guys. Yes, especially Sonny Corinthos. Yeah. Dante says hi.

Kate: Hi, Dante.

Olivia: She says hi. He's looking forward to meeting you very soon. So is she. Okay, sweetie, I love you too. Good night.

Kate: That's amazing.

Olivia: What? The way he calls me all the time?

Kate: No, how you never even once hinted that Sonny is his father.

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Claudia: Daddy offered to turn over the entire organization to Sonny. All he wants is a guarantee of Sonny's loyalty.

Jason: Just get to the point.

Claudia: My father wants Sonny to marry me so we all become family.

Jason: It's not going to happen.

Claudia: Well, think about it this way. Sonny's addicted to power, and you won't give it to him. He needs it bad. He needs it to pay Karpov back for humiliating him. He needs it to show himself and everyone who crosses him that he's untouchable. He needs the power. He needs the influence. He needs the money, and most importantly, he needs the fear in his enemy's faces. So if that's the only way to get his fix, he may hate being married to me, but sooner or later he'll agree, and you know it.

Jason: Then why are you here?

Claudia: Because there's one way to stop this deal from happening and to stop the war that it will bring, and that is to make me unavailable to marry Sonny. Marry me yourself.

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Spinelli: Maximista is most confusing. You wish me to follow Darth Lansing, but at my first opportunity, you delayed me.

Maxie: Well, because the last time you helped Lulu you ended up in a straitjacket, and this time you could end up wearing cement shoes. I'm just not going to have you risk your life until we have a real reason Trevor would be messing with Lulu.

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Lulu: The whole time that I imagined you awake, guiding me through everything, I was relying on you to be my strength, and now I realize that I have to depend on myself, which is what you tried to teach me, even if you were only in my head. But what I do know is, I'm getting out of Shadybrook. I would give anything to take you with me.

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Tracy: Thank you. I'm supposed to believe you're crying in your beer because you missed me?

Luke: Yeah, and I'm supposed to believe that you're just here because Lulu needs me?

Tracy: If you missed me so much, you could have emailed, phoned, or sent me one of those cute little shrunken heads.

Luke: Have you checked your messages lately? Maybe your old man has tried to contact us while we were in the slammer. Maybe he's got me free to come back across the border.

Tracy: No calls.

Luke: Oh, hell.

Tracy: And I don't believe your sudden rush of romance. I think you're just covering because I caught up with you.

Luke: Pumpkin. Popsicle. Poopsie, come on. You think that I'm just taking advantage of you because of your undying devotion?

Tracy: Actually, I think you're an opportunist without conscience and that I was a fool to ever express anything but contempt.

Luke: Well, that's just your guilt talking.

Tracy: My guilt? I'm not the one sitting south of the border, swilling tequila and flirting with floozies.

Luke: I had a great adventure planned for us, and you bailed on me, wife.

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Jax: My wife and I are going through a divorce. Cassadine is using that to buy into this hotel.

Lawyer: Does your soon-to-be ex-wife care that she's being used?

Jax: Dangling this hotel in front of Cassadine is her way of getting my attention.

Lawyer: I can see this might get complicated.

Jax: I don't like Cassadine using Carly as leverage, and this puts the advantage back in my court.

Lawyer: I'll draw up the papers for your offer on the property. It'll be ready for your signature within the hour.

Jax: Thank you.

Lawyer: This is probably out of line, but as a divorcee, I can tell you that things would be so much better for you if you tried running the hotel with Carly instead of her life.

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Nikolas: Now, this is just an observation, but if you can tell yourself that Jax is up to something nefarious, at least you can believe you still have the potential.

Carly: If we're going to have a successful business relationship, you need to trust my instincts.

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Jax: Thank you very much.

Lawyer: Certainly.

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Nikolas: And what do your instincts tell you right now?

Carly: That Jax is up to no good, and it's aimed at us.

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Sonny: Feeling better?

Kate: I am now.

Sonny: Did I interrupt something, or --

Olivia: No, it's just -- just some family stuff. I'll leave you guys alone. Connie, they're coming to take you for tests for a minute, okay, so don't get all connied up about stuff that doesn't matter, okay?

Sonny: Is something going on that I don't know about?

Kate: Well, you know Olivia.

Sonny: Yeah?

Kate: She and I handle things differently, as do you and I. So, speaking of --

Sonny: She's right. You know what? Let's not get you all connied up, get you all stressed out --

Kate: I know about you two. I know about how you used to take bets to see who could set me off first. We could save a whole lot of time if you would just tell me what I want to hear.

Sonny: Yeah, we could, but it's -- I wouldn't be telling you the truth, and we can keep going over this conversation, but you know what? I'm going to make whoever did this to you pay. That's -- that's it, okay?

Kate: I am the one who got shot. Why don't I get a say in this?

Sonny: Okay, what do you want?

Kate: I want us. I want the life that we planned together.

Orderly: It's time for your tests.

Sonny: Hey. Okay?

Olivia: You know, she's got herself convinced that, given the choice between her and the mob, that you chose her. I know different.

Sonny: You think so?

Olivia: Oh, yeah, I do.

Sonny: Mm-hmm.

Olivia: I heard you talking to your old man, Sonny. You're going to marry Claudia Zacchara.

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Claudia: If I become the 25th Mrs. Sonny Corinthos and Sonny Corinthos takes over the Zacchara organization, you are headed for a war with your former best friend. The only way to stop that is to blow this deal between my father and Sonny. The only way to do that is for you to marry me yourself.

Jason: You want to get married? Let's do it, let's go.

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Lulu: Hey.

Maxie: Hi, sorry, we need to talk to you.

Spinelli: Yeah, new suspicions have arisen surrounding the devious note-writer.

Lulu: Really? Come in, come in, guys.

Maxie: No, no, no, let's just go to your room.

Lulu: Why? Do you guys feel weird around my mom?

Maxie: Yes.

Spinelli: Not at all.

Lulu: It's -- it's okay. I mean, it's not -- she's -- it's kind of like she's sleeping. Just come in. It's fine. So, Mom, Spinelli's here. He's the friend that I told you about. He's -- we've been friends since the day we met.

Spinelli: Greetings, mater of the fair one.

Maxie: She's not deaf.

Spinelli: Oh.

Maxie: Not that she could understand you if she could hear you, because she can't. Can she?

Lulu: No one knows for sure. Mom, Maxie is also here. She's the last person I ever imagined calling my friend.

Maxie: Hi, Mrs. Spencer, it's me, Maxie Jones. You would remember me if you could remember anything. Okay, well, we really just wanted to talk to you, Lulu, so Spinelli, tell her.

Spinelli: Um, would Trevor be so dastardly as to gaslight you?

Lulu: Trevor? Well, he always hated the idea of me and Johnny. He told Johnny that I was a liability.

Spinelli: Okay, then we must hasten to pick up the dark one's trail and secure proof.

Lulu: What proof?

Spinelli: I'll know when I see it.

Lulu: See? Look at all the help I have.

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Tracy: Two days on the road, and I was done. I require indoor plumbing and edible food. Room service, even. I'm more high-maintenance than you, so I came home, where the plumbing works and the food is in fact edible. No hidden agenda.

Luke: Well, I just wanted us to find something out on the road there together that was about us.

Tracy: I don't know what you see when you look in the mirror. I'm a realist.

Luke: That's why we're a doomed pair. What a great team. What a great team.

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Sonny: So what, now you're listening at keyholes like your great Aunt Theresa?

Olivia: What? Listen, you're talking out in the hallway.

Sonny: Well, I mean --

Olivia: I hear the words "marry Claudia Zacchara." What, I pay attention. And I did get an earful. Let me see if I get this. You want revenge on this Karpov guy for getting Connie shot. You can't do it on your own. This Zacchara is happy to lend you some muscle, but you got to slip a ring on the daughter's finger. How's that?

Sonny: Mm-hmm.

Olivia: I've met this girl, Sonny. She is a bitch, and she is a certifiable wacko, and those are the good qualities.

Sonny: Mm-hmm.

Olivia: So you just be real sure that this power you're going after is worth what you got to do to get it.

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Claudia: You realize this is going to cost you, right? I mean, if we're getting married, you're going to actually have to talk to me sometimes. Eye contact, that's progress, but I want -- I want actual conversation.

Jason: Why?

Claudia: Because we're getting married. That means for the foreseeable future, we're going to be spending a lot of time together.

Jason: No.

Claudia: I see. So you're going to marry me so that Sonny can't, and then you're going to send me back to my apartment to live, or wherever else I want to go, even Italy if I want?

Jason: It's your life. You get to live where you want to live.

Claudia: As long as it's not with you. I spent most of my life as a commodity. Anthony Zacchara's only daughter, a useful bargaining chip, sent away until I was needed. Well, husband to be, guess what? I'm needed now. I'm needed by my father. I'm needed by Sonny. I'm sure as hell needed by you. So if we're going to do this, you're going to have to work with me. You're going to have to change your attitude and work with me instead of against me. And why don't you use this time to convince me why I should be marrying you instead of Sonny?

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Sonny: Please tell me you didn't spill your guts to Kate about what you just heard.

Olivia: Would you give me some credit? Sonny, please, like I'm going to tell my cousin who's recovering from a gunshot wound, "oh, by the way, they guy you were about to marry, he's going to marry some crazy mob witch instead." Please.

Sonny: I turned Zacchara down. Marrying Claudia is ridiculous, too high a price to pay. Besides, there's only one person that I love, one person that I want to marry, and that's your cousin Kate.

Olivia: Bull, Sonny.

Sonny: Bull, why?

Olivia: You don't give up that easy, or maybe -- maybe you forgot about Tommy Trombini. You remember him? I was supposed to go out with you on New Year's Eve.

Sonny: Right.

Olivia: Tommy Trombini asked me out. He saw you walking down the street; he clipped you in the ribs. Remember what you did?

Sonny: Trombini was a thug.

Olivia: You remember what you did?

Sonny: So what, who cares?

Olivia: You waited outside his house. You left me freezing my ass off outside the rialto. You waited outside his house so you could jump him and knock his front teeth out.

Sonny: What has that got to do with anything?

Olivia: Because no one gets away with hurting you, Sonny. Okay, maybe you're still going to church on Sunday, but payback is your true religion. Okay, I get it. Maybe you want to avenge my cousin getting shot. But what you really want -- you want to be the guy that's in charge. You want to be the guy that everyone respects and everyone fears, and if you got to marry this Claudia to get that, I got no doubt that's what you're going to do.

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Claudia: You know, so far I'm not -- I'm not hearing any of the reasons why I should be your wife. In fact, I'm not hearing anything at all from you except for silence, and I think -- I think I made it clear that I'm not -- I don't have any intention of marrying somebody who refuses to even speak to me.

Jason: You're the one who wanted to get married. Do you want to get married?

Claudia: I'm considering my options. Look, Daddy doesn't trust Sonny, but he needs him for something, obviously, or he never would have offered Sonny control of the entire Zacchara organization. And Sonny -- he wants Karpov dead, right? But I think you and I can both agree that's just an excuse, because Sonny made a huge mistake when he turned over power of his entire organization to you. He wants to run the Zacchara organization so bad that he can taste it. But fine, what happens when he's in charge? What's to stop him from taking over completely? Nothing, except family loyalty, of course. If he's married to me, Sonny becomes a Zacchara. Our interests become his, and then you're the odd man out. Which is why you should really be telling me why I'm better off being married to you than Sonny.

Jason: Who says you have to marry anyone?

Claudia: That's an excellent point. I could -- I could run away. I could change my name, dye my hair, start over someplace totally new as somebody completely different. Maybe everybody would be better off if I did.

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