Laura held Mikkos's guards at gunpoint, Luke confronted Mikkos which resulted with Mikkos freezing to death in his own ice chamber and Luke frantically trying to guess the code to unfreeze Port Charles. Luke succeeded, and they all returned to Port Charles as heroes, with Tiffany joining them. Luke and Robert agreed the formula and the ice machine needed to be destroyed to avoid the risk of falling into the wrong hands. Robert left the W.S.B. over disagreements over destroying the ice machine and formula, and for a while dated Tiffany, but the spark that had captured them on the island fizzled after a while. Robert was Luke's best man when he married Laura in a big ceremony in November 1981. At the wedding, Robert was reacquainted with Mikkos's vengeful widow, Helena Cassadine, who came to town to make a huge donation to General Hospital but secretly put a curse on Luke and Laura. In early 1982, Robert took up with feisty reporter Jackie Templeton (Demi Moore) who had come to town searching for her missing sister. Robert was helping Luke search for the missing Laura, and Jackie was searching for her own sister, Laura Templeton, a model whom Laura Spencer resembled. Robert and Luke were thrust into another episode of world intrigue when David Gray, the rightful heir to the throne of a fictional kingdom of Malkuth, was revealed to have arranged for Laura Spencer's disappearance in exchange for Helena's financing his coup. David Gray was killed in a sword fight with Luke, and Robert was left to console his friend when it was believed Laura had drowned at sea. Luke and Robert next became involved in an oil scam orchestrated by Holly Sutton's crime family, the Durbans, but they managed to stop them as well from succeeding in their scheme to fleece the residents of Port Charles. Robert and Holly Sutton married under strange circumstances. Holly was pregnant with the presumed dead Luke Spencer's baby and was about to be deported, so Robert stepped in and married her. She ended up miscarrying the baby, but she and Robert eventually fell in love. Jackie Templeton was upset by this turn of events and turned vindictive against Robert for jilting her. Robert had a bad relationship with his brother Mac Scorpio when he first came to town because he blamed Mac for the death of their parents. Eventually, the brothers