One Shot Flash Fics.

If it hadn't been for the gorgeous blue eyes of the man kind enough to hold the elevator and ask if she was getting on, Elizabeth would have let the car go and waited for the next one, hoping that one would be less crowded. But the man's eyes were gorgeous, along with the rest of him, and she felt it would have been rude to decline the offer when he'd made everyone else wait. So Elizabeth took a deep breath and stepped onto the crowded elevator car and hoped that people exited quickly and that she didn't hyperventilate before she reached her floor. She hated crowded elevator cars.

In fact, she hated all crowded spaces. Hated small, cramped places. Couldn't drive a compact car because, despite her short stature, she felt too trapped inside it. She often took the stairs just to avoid being in an enclosed space where she hung by a steel cable. Couldn't live in shoebox apartments, or pull the covers over her head to keep her warm, because the undeniable fact was that Elizabeth Webber was claustrophobic.

But her apartment was too far up to take the stairs, and she was too tired to even make the attempt today. It was merely bad timing that she'd arrived when there was a nearly full elevator car, after she'd spent several hours at the mall tracking down that one elusive, perfect item that she absolutely wanted to get her grandmother, but unfortunately wasn't available online where she did most of her gift shopping simply so she could avoid the crowded stores.

Clutching her bag in her sweating hands, Elizabeth focused on breathing deeply and not becoming light headed while the car moved upwards. However, the deep breaths in through her nose were making her dizzy in another way. A rather good way. The blond-haired, blue-eyed, gorgeous man who held the elevator for her smelled absolutely breathtaking. He wasn't covered in cologne, he wasn't adorned in manly body wash, he smelled clean and fresh and his leather jacket was creating absolute havoc with her senses. Or maybe it was the fact that she was standing close enough to him that her arm brushed against his chest with every breath he took.

She had seen the Adonis around the building before. He lived on the top floor, used the gym in the basement next to the laundry room late at night - she did her laundry at night because less people were using the washers and the elevators - and he didn't work out to preen for the little gym bunnies who pranced around in their spandex exercise outfits that they wouldn't dare spoil by actually sweating in. He worked out for himself, to tone his already taught muscles and build strength for some job that had him leaving early and arriving late. So to be standing next to him now was a dream come true; aside from all the other people in the elevator.

The car seemed to be going slow tonight, or maybe it was just her panic that was making it feel that way. It also seemed to be stopping every floor or two and letting off only one passenger at a time. The first ones jostled their way through the crowd roughly and she would have been shoved out into the hallway if it hadn't been for her savior once again helping her out. He took hold of her arm gently and pulled her against him, moving her out of the way of the harried man who never even said excuse me when he practically bowled her over. Soon he was able to maneuver her to the side of the car, where she stood beside him as the elevator slowly, blessedly emptied until there were just four of them left.

Two floors below hers, the couple got off, taking their loving, schmoopsy first-Christmas-together-kisses with them, leaving just her and the quiet, blue-eyed stranger. She let out a breath and moved away from him slightly, hoping that she wouldn't offend him by trying to gain some space. She flashed him a slight, innocuous smile one gives to strangers in order not to have to actually speak, and closed her eyes while leaning her head against the paneling of the car.

They flew open moments later when the elevator jerked abruptly to a halt, causing them both to stumble in an effort to regain their balance. Her bag slipped out of her hand and she hoped that the package was cushioned sufficiently inside so that the present didn't break. She didn't want to have to go back to the mall again. She looked over briefly at her companion, and then felt absolute terror go through her when the lights went out.

"Oh, no. No. No, no, no. Please, no."

Jason looked in the direction of the whispered pleadings that were reaching a more desperate and frantic tone and realized that the other elevator's occupant wasn't upset about the power outage because it inconvenienced her; she was absolutely terrified. Being friends with Sonny, Jason knew a few things about phobias and claustrophobia and suspected that the blue-eyed beauty in the elevator with him suffered from the same fear.

"Hey," he said softly, pushing away from the wall of the car. "It's okay."

He held out his hand, not wanting to walk right into her and felt heat sting his cheeks when he first encountered something soft encased in cashmere, and then brushed against her neck after moving upwards only slightly. Great way to meet someone; feel them up in an elevator. He'd be lucky if she didn't slap him for that. However, she was too gripped in her growing panic attack to register complaint that he'd just groped her. Her hands flew up and she clung to his hand tightly, while her voice continued to rise in volume.

"Please, please, please," she continued to chant.

"It will be alright," he tried to assure her. He knew he needed to get her talking and focusing on something else besides the fact that they were stuck in an elevator nineteen and a half floors above the ground. "There's a back-up generator in the building. They'll get it started, and then standard procedure is for the elevators to be brought to the next floor and opened so that anyone inside can get out. Then they'll power down the elevators. The next floor should be yours, right?"

"How...how do you know?"

"That it's your floor?" he asked. "That's the button you pressed."

"About the-the elevators," she clarified.

"Oh," Jason said, keeping his voice calm. "I own part of the building. I know about the different systems and procedures."

There was a faint hum, and then the emergency lights in the elevator flickered on. The woman beside him was looking up at him with large, terrified eyes and he knew he just needed to keep talking. Soon they'd be moving, they'd reach her floor and everything would be fine.

"So is that why you have a penthouse?" she asked him. "'Cause you're an owner."

"How'd you know I live in a penthouse?" he asked.

"That was the other button lit up," she responded, using the same phrase he had. "But I've seen you around here before. I guess that's why you can use the gym after hours, huh? Because you're an owner."

"Yeah," he answered.

"It must be nice to use the place and avoid everyone else," she continued, her voice becoming faster as it turned into a definite ramble. He didn't mind, because it would keep her occupied and thinking about other things. "I liked the gym feature when I decided to rent my apartment here, but I don't use the place."

"Why not?" Jason wondered.

"Have you seen the gym bunnies who hang out down there? They monopolize the elliptical machines and treadmills just to look like they're doing something while they watch the posers. And they hog the free weights and other machines trying to look buff and strong. It's an overblown mating ritual and those of us who actually want to work out can't do it in the evenings or in the mornings before work because everything's occupied and it's too crowded. You don't know how many times I've envied you in there working out with no one else around while all I could do was sit and wait for my laundry to get done."

He was about to say something when the elevator gave a jerk and then began a slow ascent upwards. The woman clung to his hand more tightly, her eyes closed until a soft ding echoed through the room and the doors slid open. The emergency lights were on in the hallway and her face lit up with pure relief at the knowledge that she was no longer stuck inside.

"Here we are," he told her, gently tugging on her hands to get her to move forward. He reached down with his other hand and retrieved the bag she'd dropped earlier, and then followed her out. He had no choice actually since she hadn't let go of his hand yet.

Once they were out of the elevator, she let go of him and braced her hand against the wall, leaning against it while drawing in a deep breath. He stood silently beside her and wondered which way was her apartment. A nervous, shaky laugh floated up towards him and she spoke, "I'm so sorry for that," she gestured with her head towards the now-closed elevator doors. "I just don't like tight spaces or being trapped and I...I freaked out a little. Thank you for being polite enough to help me and not-"

"It's okay," he interrupted her gently. "A friend of mine is claustrophobic as well. I was glad I could help."

"I know you probably just want to go up to your penthouse," she said, tucking her hair nervously behind her ear. "But could I make you a cup of coffee to say thanks?"

He was going to say no. She knew it, he knew it, and they both knew he was just trying to figure out a way to politely decline her invitation. She didn't even know why she'd offered it, and then silently thanked that she had a gas stove instead of electric because she'd have to heat up water to mix with his instant coffee and wouldn't have been able to do that with an electric range. As the silence grew, she forced a smile onto her face and shook her head.

"It's okay," she told. "I understand that you just want to go home. Had enough time with the crazy lady already."

"You're not crazy," he shook his head. "I just was...I'd like a cup of coffee, thank you."

"Really?" she asked as her eyebrows rose towards her hair. "Okay. I'm just down this way."

He followed behind her, carrying her package, and then waited for her to unlock the door. Once inside, he slowly shuffled behind her as she navigated her way through the familiar apartment until she reached the drawer she kept her flashlights and candles in. Switching on a flashlight, she turned it back towards where he was standing so he could walk and not bump into anything.

"Here," she offered it to him. "I'll just light a few candles and then I'll start the water heating. I hope you don't mind instant coffee."

"You don't have to make me any," he shook his head.

"I offered to make some," Elizabeth countered. "I wanted to thank you."

"And you did. You don't need to fix me coffee."

"Then why did you come?" she asked him.

"Because you invited me," he said, setting her package down and slipping his hand into his pocket. "I have nothing waiting for me to do at home, so I came."

She sensed it was a simple as that; no agendas or games being played unlike what other people would do. It made him uncomplicated, but yet also very complex simply because he didn't employ in subterfuge and schemes like everyone else. He was straightforward and honest about why he'd accepted his invitation, even though he had no desire for coffee.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" she offered.

He shook his head. "No, thank you."

Suddenly it all hit her that she'd spent all this time with him in the elevator and invited him to her home and she didn't even know the man's name. He could be the next Charles Manson or a serial rapist and the only thing she had to go on was her gut that said he wouldn't hurt her even though it was clear given their height differences that he could easily overpower her.

"My name is Elizabeth," she said, a slight nervous hitch forcing its way out as the absurdity of the moment was finally given voice to. "Elizabeth Webber."

"Jason," he replied. "Jason Morgan."

She swallowed and was glad that she didn't have a cup of coffee in her hands for she surely would have dropped it in his lap.

"Jason Morgan?" she squeaked. "As in Morgan Towers where we live? Morgan Enterprises? Morgan Pharmaceuticals? Morgan Publishing? You own part of the building? Oh, geez, oh, geez, I invited Jason Morgan into my apartment and offered to serve him instant coffee. No wonder you turned it down."

He sighed and straightened. "It's alright. I didn't turn it down because it was instant; I just wasn't thirsty right now."

Then with another sigh he explained, "Morgan Pharmaceuticals is my sister's company, Morgan Enterprises is my brother's and I run Morgan Publishing. We all own part of the building; I just live here because I don't care about having a penthouse overlooking Park Avenue when I like the one upstairs."

He took a step closer and she saw intensity reflected in the candlelight around the apartment. "And as for why I accepted your invitation...it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get to know you since several late night meetings have kept me from the gym on your laundry night and I haven't been able to run into you in the hallway like I'd been planning to."

Elizabeth Webber was a self-described Christmas freak. She loved Christmas. Loved the lights and the decorations and the simple joy she received from giving a gift to someone else. It was a feeling she tried to implement into her life the other eleven months of the year as well. She would pick up a small, little gift to give to someone just because she saw it and thought they might like it. She'd write a little note and stick it in the mail simply to say she was thinking of the other person. Because sure, e-mail was convenient, but there was something so delightfully nice about opening up the mailbox and seeing something inside besides bills and junk mail. She brought flowers to her gal pals because women should get flowers besides Valentine's Day and their birthdays, and sometimes she'd simply show up with a six pack of beer and a bag of chips for her guy friends and tell 'em to enjoy the game without guilt.

So when the holidays rolled around and it was time for company parties and Secret Santa gifts, she absolutely delighted in it. Except for this year. Because the person she'd received had to be the worst person in the world to shop for. She wondered if the executive secretary had fixed this year's drawing; giving her the impossible person simply because of her exuberant nature.

Because Jason Morgan was a challenge. The man had money, and if he wanted something he simply bought it. But the problem was the man also had very simple tastes. He bought t-shirts from Wal-Mart; he didn't buy a new leather jacket each year simply to keep up with styles; and he didn't have decorations in his office or his home because he couldn't see art and could barely make out photographs. How was she supposed to buy gifts for him?

But let it never be said that Elizabeth Webber backed down from a challenge. If she did, she wouldn't be the Corinthos Organization's doc. Elizabeth had become a nurse instead of a doctor like everyone else in her family. But she'd become a nurse practioner and could write simple scripts for meds which had turned out to be a rather handy thing. She'd literally stumbled over Sonny Corinthos' body one night as she was walking home from the hospital and even though she was scared out of her mind, she'd gotten him to a warm place, called his trusted right-hand man, and then dug the bullet out of Sonny's side, stitched him up and checked in on him during his recovery. It was after that the mobster offered her a job that she wondered truly if she could refuse.

She came to work as the company nurse for the coffee warehouse. Crates had splinters, sometimes coffee beans fell on a worker's foot, and there was a man who had a peanut allergy but was absolutely petrified to give himself a shot with an EpiPen if he ever needed it. It was a glorified cover for her real job as the person who patched up victims of the mob business, and everybody knew it, but as Elizabeth settled into her job, she found herself liking it. She was respected by the people she worked with, paid handsomely, and had time for her real passion of art. Plus, she felt she more than earned her pay and proved her loyalty when she dealt with gunshot victims, knife wounds and even kept the very man she had so much trouble buying Christmas presents for alive when someone very nearly succeeded in finally bringing the infallible Jason Morgan down.

It wasn't easy, but Elizabeth felt like she might just be able to fulfill her Secret Santa duties without resorting to completely kitschy gifts that he would throw away immediately. The first day, she gave Jason his very own Nerf dart gun. The guards in the organization had taken to target practicing with a disk launcher and Nerf darts and she'd discovered Jason on more than one occasion using someone else's gun and actually enjoying himself. This would allow him to target shoot whenever he wanted to and maybe even smile once in a while. The second day, Elizabeth delivered homemade meals to him that she had learned were his favorite. Part of it was that as a nurse, she wanted to make sure he ate because he was prone to simply fueling on coffee and not actually having something of substance. But also she wanted to let him know that there was someone who knew what he liked instead of just tossing a sandwich his way that they no longer wanted. Juevos Rancheros in the morning, fresh deli pastrami - the good stuff, not the cheap packaged stuff from the supermarket - on homemade rye bread with no mayo, plenty of mustard. Homemade chili spicy enough to set off the fire alarm with an extra bottle of hot sauce and her gram's fluffy biscuits that melted in the mouth as a side. People only thought she could cook desserts, so hopefully he wouldn't suspect it was her before the end of the week.

The third day she presented him five t-shirts in actual color instead of black. Hopefully he would appreciate her humor when she teased that she wanted to give him more than one shirt because she'd hate for him to keep washing the same black shirt every night. On the fourth day she gave him a couple of travel books and marked some towns that she had liked when she'd gone there and told him that the next time he went, he should have an adventure and see the place through a different viewpoint. Now, as she sat in her apartment and wrapped the fifth and final gift that would be given at the company party where everyone would discover who their Santas were, she found herself nervously hoping that she hadn't offended him with her gifts or caused him to think she was a foolish person. He hadn't smiled when he received his gifts, he hadn't talked about them like the rest of the office had been buzzing about their gifts, and she would have attributed it to a slight...problem with another organization had Sonny not been walking around laughing like the jolly old elf himself and thoroughly enjoying the Christmas season.

So she could only hope that tomorrow's gift giving went well and then she'd be able to escape for the two weeks' paid vacation Sonny gave to everyone in the warehouse. Of course, she didn't have plans to go away, and had told Sonny to call her if anything arose with any of the men that needed her medical attention, but it would be nice to spend several weeks sleeping in, sitting around under a blanket while watching TV and drinking hot chocolate and working on her paintings.

She'd never figured Jason Morgan for a Scrooge, especially considering that she knew he'd generously donated to the Pediatric Wing at the hospital, donated to AIDS charities every year at the Nurses' Ball, and would often help out a warehouse worker's family if the man was in the hospital for something beyond Elizabeth's purview. But for him to skip out completely on the holiday party? She'd never figured him for it.

Elizabeth sat at the company holiday party growing increasingly nervous, and then agitated when she realized that her Secret Santa recipient had not arrived. And then as each person opened their final gifts and had their anonymous gift giver revealed, she began to get the sneaking suspicion that Jason Morgan might have been her Secret Santa. She honestly thought it was a new hire in the warehouse that didn't know her, or simply didn't have a lot of money to spare despite the generous salary Sonny gave to all his employees. For while she had put some thought and effort into her gifts to Jason, even the more joke type ones, she'd never felt any thought had been put into hers. She'd gotten a box of colored pencils that kids took to school, a pair of ridiculous cartoon slippers too big for her feet, a box of generic, scratchy tissue and yesterday she'd gotten a box of cherry cordials that she'd ended up throwing in the trash. She might like chocolate and she might like cherries, but she had never liked cherry cordials; she'd tried to be polite though and opened the box to have at least one before she was generous and shared her gift with others. But the candy was so old that the chocolate was waxy and the filling inside was hard instead of actually a liquid. She'd seen Jason on her way back from tossing it in the dumpster and he scowled at her when she explained that she'd thrown it in the outside trash to avoid hurting her Secret Santa's feelings by seeing it in the trash in the office. She tried to be bubbly that it was the thought that counted, but it was hard to affect bubbly when she was feeling rather insulted by all she'd received. Apparently he'd decided not to even bother with a gift for her today.

When the party was over and she was back in her office collecting her coat and purse and debating whether to leave Jason's final gift in his office or simply stuff it into the back of her closet at home, Sonny knocked on her doorframe and poked his head into the office. "Hey, Elizabeth. Headed home?"

"That's the plan," she smiled brightly. It wasn't his fault his partner was a jerk.

"Do you have a moment to spare?" the older man asked. "I need your help on something."

Since she had nothing better to do than go home and wallow in unkind feelings towards Jason Morgan, she nodded her head and said, "Sure, Sonny. What did you need?"

He directed her to get her coat and come with him and then ushered her into a waiting limo. He assured her that the driver would bring her back to get her car, but it would be easier if she rode with him instead of trying to follow. When they stopped a while later at a small little bungalow on a quiet street, she turned to look at Sonny in curiosity.

"Let's go inside," was all he said. "And bring your things."

Confused, she complied by grabbing her purse and gift for Jason that she'd carried out and hadn't been able to put into her car. Sonny led them up the walk and into the small home that she realized was quite unlike any normal house on the block. Turning to look at Sonny in question she was further perplexed, and slightly annoyed, when he stood in the doorway and said, "I think I'll let Jason explain."

Then he left and Elizabeth turned in a circle wondering when her bosses had conspired to torment her.

"Elizabeth?"

She whirled to find Jason in a previously empty doorway and stood stock still. She'd been brought here; someone had been start explaining soon.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"This is your Christmas gift," he said, gesturing to the house.

She lifted an eyebrow, "What?"

With a heavy sigh he said, "I should have known better than to ask Carly to help me on your Secret Santa gifts. She gets jealous of any other woman Sonny or I pay attention to and she's never liked the fact that you work for us. Those gifts you got...she picked them out. They weren't what I asked her to get."

"So you were my Secret Santa," she said lamely.

"Yeah," he nodded. Then he requested, "Come with me. Please?"

Feeling like she was giving in way too easily, she nevertheless followed behind him. They moved into a back room filled with lots of windows that she knew were bulletproof and would also give her great light for painting. Sitting in the room were four packages she wondered if he'd actually picked out. There were charcoals and pastel sticks and high quality colored pencils for her to sketch with. Soft, fluffy socks she knew would keep her feet warm even on the coldest days sat on top of a thick, luxurious bathrobe. Apparently he remembered her freezing feet and ratty old bathrobe when she'd nursed him back to health last winter. There were sentimental old movies beside a brand new Blu-Ray player and large supply of Puffs. A box of sinfully decadent chocolates beckoned her with her favorite flavors. These gifts had personality, these gifts showed someone had thought about her presents.

"And this is your last present," Jason said. "I know you often take care of the men from Sonny's organization in your art studio. You say that your constant presence there won't be suspicious and nobody bothers you there, but it's not very comfortable for the men recuperating or for you. Sonny and I bought this place."

"You didn't have to," she shook her head.

"We wanted to," he said. "I wanted to. There's a place for people to recover, and for you to sleep, but there's also a place for you to do your art without being bothered. You can come here any time you want and it's safe and it's secure and it's also available when a patient needs it. But it's for your art, Elizabeth, because I know how much it means to you."

She laughed and shook her head, "I thought you were a jerk today when I realized you were my Secret Santa. Now I see this and I...I feel rather ashamed of the gifts I gave you, 'cause I was your Santa."

"Don't," he shook his head. "I liked them. They were funny, but they also showed you know me. I never knew you could bake more than desserts. I didn't want to tell Sonny, but your bread is better than his. And look," he gestured to the maroon shirt he was wearing, "I went with one of your gifts today."

A smile crept up on her face, "You're not just saying that, are you? You were so hard to figure out something to get."

He shuffled on his feet, "I liked them. I really did. I'm just sorry I missed the party today. When I realized that Carly had messed up the earlier gifts, I had to go out and get the real ones I'd wanted to give you as well as finish up a few things here. That's why I had Sonny bring you here."

"Well then," she declared, "I guess I can give you your final gift."

She looked down at the gift in her hands and then held it out to him. "I know it probably won't make sense, but I'll try to explain."

Unwrapping the paper off the flat package, he looked at the painting she'd done for him and then back at her, "I...I can't-"

"Can't see paintings," she sighed. "I know. But I...I painted this after you gave me a ride home on your motorcycle one time and I...I tried to capture that feeling I had that night. The colors are blurred because we were going so fast and I just thought..."

She huffed and finished in a rush, "I called it The Wind because I just remembered the feeling of the wind rushing past my face and the blur of colors and I...I just wanted to give it to you as a way to...a way to say thanks, I guess."

With an awkward shrug she shuffled on her feet and then said, "It kinda pales in comparison to getting an entire art studio-slash-medical clinic."

"I like it," Jason told her, bringing her gaze back to him. "It's the first painting I understand; thank you for explaining it to me."

Then he grinned and said, "I have my bike outside...and I know Sonny left. Want a ride home?"

"Can we take the long way?" she asked with a blossoming smile.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Anything you want."

It was wet outside. Not snowy wet, or icy wet, but rain dumping from the sky and washing out the roads wet. It was disgusting and it was miserable and for a self-proclaimed Christmas freak, it was hard to feel holly jolly and excited when she was stuck on this miserable piece of dirt in the middle of the miserable ocean in the middle of the most miserable wettest winter on record. There was not one pine tree in sight, there was not one strand of lights or a wreath or a candle. Nobody could get outside to decorate, nobody could get to the main town to buy anything, nobody wanted to do anything but put more sand in bags, stack them around their homes and pray that when the rain finally stopped they hadn't been completely flooded out.

Of course, Elizabeth didn't really have to worry about flooding. Oh, no. Because when Jason and Sonny built this place, they planned for every contingency. From enemies storming the castle to Mother Nature unleashing her fury on them. The house was built on a high section of land; no chance of flooding there. Guards had already filled sandbags to be at the ready just in case and there was a year's supply of food, water, fuel, toiletries and other sundry items stored inside their own mini-compound. The house was checked yearly and the roof was sound, there was no water getting in the place. They were dry, they were safe and completely self-sufficient.

All the preparedness just made Elizabeth more miserable. Because there was no reason for the guards to talk to her. They went about their routines, which definitely did not include interacting with her. The housekeeper had been kept away because of the flooding, so she didn't even have the slightest bit of companionship. Elizabeth offered to cook meals for the guards, but they shook their heads and told her there was a stove down at their place and they'd eat their meals there. Apparently they just didn't understand how perfectly miserable it was to cook for one person which was why she often forced herself to eat something while standing over the sink because a single plate in the dishwasher looked as pathetic and lonely as she did wandering around this great big house.

She wondered sometimes if this was Jason's revenge on her. If he was testing her to see if her claims that she could handle his life were real. What better way to test her than to send her off to the island where she had no interaction with anybody, couldn't call him back in Port Charles, and hadn't seen him in the three months since he'd burst into her studio late one night and told her she had to get out of town now. He hadn't taken her to the airport; he hadn't even waited around for her to pack her bag. He'd merely waited for a guard she'd never met before to show up before he told her he had to go. He didn't kiss her good-bye, he didn't even say good-bye. At least to her. He'd given the guard instructions, and then walked out the door.

She understood he was preoccupied. Michael being threatened at school and the car with him and his guards being forced off the road had to take top priority. But so much so that he couldn't even talk to her beyond barking orders at her to hurry up? He couldn't even pass a message along to her through the guards? What was the situation like back home? Was he safe? Was he hurt? Was Sonny's family safe? What were they going to do for Christmas? Would he not even bother celebrating, or would he join Sonny and his family? Would he even think about her?

Despite the fires going in all the rooms along with the seldom used heat to try to push back the damp and chill that had settled in weeks ago along with the rains, Elizabeth pulled her cardigan tighter around her thinning frame and turned for her bedroom. She didn't turn off any lights since she'd never bothered to turn any on. She closed and locked her bedroom door, wrapped herself up in the blanket from the foot of the bed and laid down, wondering what new excitement tomorrow would bring. Would the rain actually stop for a few hours and tease everybody with false promises, or would it just be another boring, bleak, interminably gray, miserable day like every day that had come before?

The situation down on the island was horrible. And he didn't just mean the weather and the state of the roads. He didn't know what the guards were assigned to guard Elizabeth were thinking, but this was completely unacceptable. Of course, the fact that Jason had sent her down here with people she didn't know and who didn't know her had contributed to this situation as well. Once Francis got things fixed here, he was going to have to apparently fix things inside Jason's head. Maybe he should just save them all the trouble and shoot the enforcer. It might be easier that way.

The young guards were severely and properly chastised by the seasoned man, their eyes going wide as he spoke to them. "This is not a prison," he stated. "You were not supposed to keep her from escaping; you were supposed to keep Miss Webber safe. There is a difference. Being friendly to her would not impede on your ability to protect her. Have any of you actually talked to her?"

"We check in with her at least once a day and see if she needs anything," the leader of the small contingent protested.

"Really?" he asked, arching a brow. "You've spoken to her? Face to face?"

"Well, no," the other man shook his head. "With the rain and all, we've just called."

"I see," Francis nodded sagely before delivering the blow, "Then how do you know she's truly fine? She's depressed. She's lost weight. I doubt she's eaten anything substantial in weeks, possibly months. She certainly hasn't left the bedroom in days and the only time she leaves the bed is to use the toilet. Do you really call that fine?" he demanded. "Do you really think you've done your job and looked out for her like Mr. Morgan asked you to?"

"Mr. Morgan didn't give us any orders," the spokesman countered. "She was brought here by a guard, we were told to keep an eye on her and then the guard left."

Francis pinched his lips shut. Jason, you stupid fool.

"Alright," he ordered. "There are new rules. You don't come to the house unless I call you. I want you prepared to give me updates on the weather and Port Charles at any time during the day whenever I decide to call you. Do you understand?"

They nodded and he let out a breath. "Fine. And one last thing; I don't care what you do, cut down a palm tree and bring me the top, but I was something to pass as a Christmas tree up on the porch of the house by the end of the day."

Then he plodded back up to the house and determined that the first thing he was going to do was get Elizabeth out of that bed and into the shower. She had wallowed for too long and he wasn't going to allow her to do it anymore. Once he had a decent meal in her and some sort of Christmas cheer begun in the house, then Francis was going to call Jason and give the young enforcer a piece of his mind. Whether it was deliberate or unintentional, his neglect of Elizabeth was completely unacceptable.

The task of rousting Elizabeth was harder than Francis ever anticipated. But once he finally had her clean, fed and she listlessly cut paper for paper chains to adorn a potted tree drug up from the guards' quarters, he did his best to keep her from disappearing back into her bedroom until a more acceptable hour for sleep. But all too soon she fell asleep on the couch and he simply didn't have the heart to try to wake her. So he carried her to her room, placed her on the clean linens and made sure she was covered with a warm blanket, and then he stepped out into the hallway.

He then proceeded to march down the study and once inside, he angrily punched in Jason's number on the keypad. On the third ring Jason picked it up and the older guard barely let him get his standard 'Morgan' out before he went on the attack.

"I have one question for you, Jason and I want an answer."

"Francis?"

The confusion in the other man's voice was clear. "Yes. I want to know exactly what your intentions are towards Miss Webber. If you sent her down to the island so you could forget about her, then be man enough to be honest about it. Because right now, I'm about ready to forget you're my boss and come back to Port Charles and beat the crap out of you."

"What are you talking about?" Jason demanded. "Who are you to question me about Elizabeth?"

"I'm the person who's here," he countered. "I'm the person who found her curled up in bed, not eating, not drinking, not doing anything but wasting away to skin and bones from depression. Depression caused by you."

There was a pause and then Jason's voice was practically strangled as he asked, "What-what do you mean, Francis? I sent her down there to be safe."

"She may be safe physically, Jason, but you're about to kill her emotionally. You haven't talked to her once since you sent her off with some guard she didn't even know. Some guard who didn't even stay. The guards down here haven't heard from you. They don't talk to her, she's alone in the house, she's completely isolated and she's been that way for months. She doesn't eat, she lays in bed all the time but I doubt she really sleeps, and she doesn't care at all that Christmas is a few days away. The roads are washed out, she can't go anywhere, and her boyfriend has completely abandoned her."

He took a breath and then said, "So if you're done with Elizabeth, if you'd rather stay there and focus completely on Sonny and his family and forget that you're allowed to have a life and Elizabeth wants to be a part of that, then tell me now. 'Cause I'll take Elizabeth and get her out of here and you won't have to bother yourself with her ever again."

"That's not-"

Francis cut off Jason's protests and did something he never thought he would do; he issued Jason Morgan an ultimatum. "Christmas is in three days. If I haven't gotten some sort of real answer from you by then, then Elizabeth and I will leave."

Then he hung up the phone and wondered if he'd just signed his own death sentence.

Jason knew he should be more concerned for his personal safety and that of the captain, but there had only been one thought going through his head since Francis called him: Get to Elizabeth. First he had to fight his way out of a snowstorm in Port Charles and then he'd spent more than 24 hours on the island waiting for the rains to ease enough to get a boat across the flooded river to the house. With eight hours to go until the end of Christmas, Jason was ready to swim the waterway if need be, but thankfully it hadn't come to that.

Soaked to the skin from the rain, Jason cradled the box to his side as he made his way past the guard house, ignoring the men who came out. He'd deal with them later. Right now, he had someone more important to see. He could only hope she was still there and that she found some way to forgive him.

Sliding on the rain-slicked tile in front of the house, Jason's duffle bag fell into the mud, but he tenaciously held onto the package. The door opened and Francis stood in the doorway, an imposing figure barring his way inside. "You finally made it."

"Nothing could have kept me away," he said. "Not even the weather. Is she...is she okay?"

"No, Jason," he answered honestly. "She's not. But maybe this will help her. If it doesn't, we'll leave."

Jason pushed his wet hair back, and slipped off his sodden boots, then he squelched across the painted concrete floor in his wet socks, heading for the only lit room in the house. Elizabeth was sitting on the couch, a blanket draped over her legs as her head rested on the overstuffed arm. His heart clenched at the thin cheeks and dark-rimmed eyes that marred her formerly flawless face.

"El-Elizabeth?"

She gasped as she twisted on the couch, staring at him in wide-eyed disbelief. "J-Jason?"

He stepped towards her and her hand fisted in the blanket. "It's really you?" she questioned. "You're really here? I'm not dreaming you?"

He reached out to touch her, dismayed that his hand was so cold, but she latched onto it like a lifeline as tears slipped down her face. He fell to his knees beside her and whispered, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner."

"You're all I wanted for Christmas," she shook her head. "You're all I've been praying for."

He started to lean towards her, but then stopped, mindful of not hugging her when he was leaving a puddle on the floor. She didn't care, though, she reached out and hugged him, burying her face in his neck like she always did. He closed his eyes, filled with gratitude that she'd accepted him - at least for now - and that Francis had cared enough about Elizabeth to put her first. Something Jason was definitely going to need to learn.

"I brought you something," he said, pulling back slightly and picking up the box from the floor.

"I don't care about presents," she shook her head. "I just wanted to see you."

That didn't stop her, however, from prying the lid off the box, and then opening the smaller container inside. She furrowed her brow in confusion for a moment, and then smiled, and then laughed, and then looked at him through tear-filled eyes. "Snow?" she breathed out. "You brought me snow?"

"Snow from home," he told her, "because Christmas isn't Christmas without snow. And when you want...we can go back and you can see the snow yourself. You don't have to stay here anymore, Elizabeth. I'm sorry I kept you here so long."

"I don't care about the snow or anything else, Jason. I'm just glad you're finally with me."

She woke when she heard the door open. He was trying to be quiet, he was trying to not disturb her, but Elizabeth had a hard time sleeping lately and she had already been half awake. She rolled over, watching as Jason silently entered the bedroom and placed a small box with a bow on top of it on his dresser and then quietly divested himself of his shoes.

"So just how many new presents are under the tree?" she asked quietly, but he still froze. He was caught and they both knew it.

Moving easier now, he finished pulling off his boots before turning on the bathroom light and disappearing inside. She sighed and rested against her pillow for a moment. He thought he was being cute and sneaky, and for the most part he was. But they'd already planned the gifts out and she had a momentary streak of peevishness that he'd went and messed with her schedule. He didn't seem to understand that the boys were hitting an age where parity was extremely important. At least to Cameron. Her normally happy-go-lucky little boy had suddenly become very insistent that everything be equal and fair. If one gift was bigger, if it seemed like more, he would become very upset. The joint birthday party this year for the little boys had almost become a nightmare when he suddenly reared that very unattractive quality, and she was trying to avoid the same thing with Christmas.

Now becoming more awake and aware of her bladder's demand to be emptied, she pushed back the covers and padded across the thick carpet. As she entered the small room, Jason turned out the light, ready to leave, and gave her a quick kiss on her head before heading back into the bedroom. By the time she was done and as she was drying her hands she could see Jason sitting on the bed in a pair of sweats and holding the small box in his hands.

"What are you doing?" she asked, sitting back down on the bed and covering her legs. "What did you do out by the Christmas tree?"

"Relax, Elizabeth," Jason told her with a reassuring smile. "I was just putting out a few surprises."

When she arched a dubious brow he rolled his eyes slightly. "It's nothing that will upset Cam, or you. Just something that I wanted to do."

"You're going to spoil them," she shook her head, but no longer really angry.

"They won't be spoiled," he countered, his voice softening. "It's just something that I wanted to do, for all of you. You...you don't know how much this year means to me, Elizabeth."

She sighed as her eyes became damp and she leaned forward slightly to rest her hand on his. "I think I do, Jason. Because it means just as much to me."

"I'm not sure it does," he shook his head. "You always had the boys with you."

"We didn't have you," she reminded him. "We wanted you...we wanted you so badly. And last year...last year I was sure it was all over. That our good-bye after we got Jake back...that that was it. There would be no finding our way back this time, there would be run-ins on the docks and stolen moments. I knew you were going to stay away and I...I really felt like I had to as well."

She looked down, sniffling as she said, "Lucky wanted to have the boys for Christmas Eve. Wanted to take them with Sam somewhere and when I asked him what I was supposed to do, I don't think it even occurred to him that I would be alone. That they were my boys. I told him to take his girlfriend and go do something with her, but I was having my boys with me Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning. I thought that's how it would be for the rest of our lives; just the three of us. I tried to be happy for them, to make it a fun celebration but I..."

She looked up at him and was honest, "I was dying inside, Jason. I had no idea how I was going to go on. How I would look at our son every day and not have a piece of me die all over again knowing that you would never be with him, that you would never be with me."

"Shhh," he whispered in distress as he scooted closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry, Elizabeth, I'm sorry. Please don't cry. I didn't mean to make you cry."

He rubbed his hand over her back, focusing on the spots she most enjoyed. Letting out a troubled sigh he said, "I know it hurt. I just wanted to feel numb but I had Sonny and the Zacharras and then the Feds and then...and then they found out about Jake and I..."

She remembered. The federal agent who was willing to go to any length to pressure Jason and dug and dug and then outright broke the law in the name of greater good and found out the truth about Jake. How he blackmailed Jason into turning on Sonny or the truth about their son would come out, and how he was careless when he talked about it and Claudia Zacharra overheard him one day. How Jason rushed to her house and told her that she and the boys had to come with him because someone found out about Jake and within a matter of hours everything they owned was packed up and moved to Jason's house. How they stood before a priest with Diane and Spinelli as witnesses so that Elizabeth couldn't be approached by the Feds and harassed into giving up information on either Jason or Sonny. How she found herself married to the one man she loved more than anything, and yet couldn't trust him anymore.

The marriage was precisely like Sonny's to Claudia Zacharra; a business arrangement. She and the boys were now indelibly linked to Jason and he finally seemed to understand what neither of them had before; they were safer with Jason then they were apart from him. But neither of them were happy. Because too much hurt had passed between them and they both were afraid of opening up and accepting their bond. They put on a united front for Cameron and Jake, for the Feds and for the rest of the town, but they retreated from each other once they were alone. Elizabeth couldn't tolerate the fact that they'd been forced into a marriage of convenience, and Jason was focused on business.

Nothing changed for months until they were driving back from a dinner that they hadn't been able to avoid. Silence had reigned in the car, broken only by the sound of the windshield wipers beating back the rain that quickly turned to icy slush and then to snow. Jason could hardly see, the car was sliding on quickly formed ice patches and even though they weren't back to the penthouse, Elizabeth had been relieved when Jason finally pulled over to the side of the road and stopped the car. There was no way they could continue and she released the armrest on the door she'd been gripping in her terror.

After looking around a few minutes and watching the snow pile up onto the car, Jason got out and told her to come with him. He seemed to know where he was going and Elizabeth was merely trying to keep up with him and keep warm as best she could in her high heel shoes and velvet wrap over her dress. She couldn't believe it when they arrived at the cabin they'd found last year in the rain and just like then, Jason set to work building a fire and she found blankets for them to wrap up in as she wondered how long they'd be stuck together with no place to go.

While they were at the cabin, everything came to a head. With no place to run away to and no one to hide behind, everything got laid out between them. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Anger, hurt, bitterness and resentments were finally spoken, dealt with, and amazingly laid behind them. Hopes, dreams and wishes they had tried to bury and believed would never happen were voiced, and in that small, dingy, dirty cabin their marriage was finally consummated. Jason admitted to wishing he had done more than just kiss her there last year, and in the dark, Elizabeth whispered her wedding vows to Jason once again and told him that this time she actually meant them. This time she actually believed them.

And in that dismal cabin that Jason now owned, their third child had been conceived. Elizabeth admitted to wishing they'd had just a little more time to themselves, to truly help the boys adjust to all the changes that had swirled around them in so short a time, but just like Jake had been conceived that fateful night in August, Elizabeth believed that this child was meant be conceived that night. Jason would be there from the beginning and they would both have the chance to do things right this time. Elizabeth had been pampered and cherished and it was so nice to be able to actually cut back her hours instead of having to pull double shifts. Jason sat down with the boys and told them that they were going to be big brothers and Cameron would have to help Jake since the older boy had been a wonderful big brother the first time around.

"I know the past few years haven't been easy for us," her husband continued softly, "but I'm so glad you've stuck with me through them. I could have lost you, I should have lost you with all the mistakes I made, but I didn't. And that's why I got these extra gifts."

She pulled back to look at Jason and said, "I made my own mistakes. But you taught me that we can't change the past and it doesn't do us any good to keep dwelling on it. We just have to do better for the future."

Jason looked over at the clock and then lifted the box from his lap to place into hers. "It's officially Christmas; I wanted to give you this when it was just us."

Elizabeth grinned with delight over being able to open a gift and eagerly took the black velvet box from him. She lifted the lid and gasped, not at the simple, yet richly elegant, necklace nestled inside the box, but at the sudden and unexpected moisture now spreading on the bed. There had been no warning, no signs, and there was no pain, but she knew quite distinctly that her water had just broken.

"Jason," she looked up at him with wide eyes, "we have to go to the hospital."

He looked at her, and then at the bed and dumbly asked, "What?"

"My water just broke. So we need to call someone to come watch the boys and then we need to go to the hospital," she explained. "Definitely not how I envisioned spending Christmas morning."

He stood and picked up the phone, running his hand through his hair and said, "Are you sure? How can you be so calm?"

"Because you're nervous enough," she laughed, just before her first contraction twinged softly across her abdomen.

"But just so you know," she said as she turned and placed her feet on the floor, "If we have a girl, we are not naming her Noel, or Holly or something like that. She may be our Christmas baby, but that doesn't mean we have to name her after Christmas."

"You want to talk about names?" he asked. "Now?"

She stood and placed her hand on his arm and said, "We're going to have to talk about them sooner, rather than later, so why not now? Plus, I know we said we wanted to wait until the baby was born to find out if it was a boy or a girl and then decide on names, but I have a confession. I peeked at my chart and saw that Kelly made a notation it was a girl."

He laughed and rolled his eyes, "You never could wait to open your Christmas gifts, could you?"

He knew something was wrong when December 15th came and went and he didn't receive a Christmas card from Elizabeth Webber. It wasn't that they were friends; it wasn't that they even really liked each other, but the woman was unfailingly polite. And if she decided to bake brownies and make fudge for everyone else on their apartment building floor, then she felt it was only right that she make some for him as well. So she'd put together a little plate, wrapped festively in red or green plastic wrap, tie it with ribbon and a bow and deliver it, along with a card, on his doorstep as well as every other neighbor.

So when he opened his door on that December day and didn't see a plate of goodies sitting outside, he wondered if this was the year she gave up the pretence and decided to skip him. But when he came home from work that evening and overheard some of the other neighbors commenting on the fact that the petite brunette hadn't been by to deliver their treats, he registered it, but didn't really think about it. She could have been busy, she could have had a looming deadline at work, and she just hadn't had the time to get all her Christmas baking done.

Even as Jason thought it, he wasn't entirely convinced. While she had never smiled at him like she did every other neighbor and only begrudgingly held the elevator for him when he called out, she seemed unflinchingly nice to everybody else that she came in contact with. She one time stayed up all night helping Mrs. Martinez when the overwhelmed new mother couldn't calm her colicky baby and Mr. Martinez was out of town on a business trip. Even though she'd dragged herself off to work the next morning with obvious dark circles under her eyes, she never complained once. She often checked on Mrs. Jennings, the widow who lived in the apartment next to the laundry room. Elizabeth would pick up things at the store, especially during the winter, so the older woman didn't have to make the trek on foot to make sure she and Mr. Fluffy had enough food to eat. And last year, the brownies were still warm when she delivered them to everybody because she said they'd just gotten done baking. She'd had to work late and had stayed up all night baking because she just couldn't disappoint anyone by not having their plates of goodies ready to deliver.

As the fifteenth faded and Christmas drew closer and closer, no plate of goodies yet appeared. And the neighbor's comments became a bit louder. Not because they were disappointed no treats had been delivered, but because they were growing worried. People on the floor began comparing when they last saw the fledgling artist and their worry increased when they realized that the last time someone held an actual conversation with her, the last time one of them could remember actually seeing her, was some time around the beginning of the month. The police were called, the apartment was opened by the super and neighbors stood in their doorways and peered down the hall wondering what would be found.

Mr. Connor, a retired Army sergeant, stood clutching his rosary and praying that she wouldn't be found dead. It would be a terrible tragedy if someone so young and vibrant was taken from the earth too early. Ms. Long, a single schoolteacher, actually had tears rimming her eyes as she worried herself waiting for the news to arrive. Jason normally didn't like getting involved too deeply in the lives of his neighbors, but he found himself unable to go inside and pretend like he wasn't curious, and even a little worried, what had happened to Elizabeth Webber.

It was only when the police officer came out and announced that she wasn't in the apartment, but that it didn't look like anyone had been home for weeks based on the dead plants and the settled dust that Jason felt a new emotion regarding the neighbor he tried not to think about; genuine fear. What could have happened to her? How could she have just disappeared and none of them realized it? The cop promised to look into things, but like the rest of the tenants, Jason didn't have a lot of hope. She was one missing woman and it was nearly Christmas; how much attention would the cops really give to her case? It was in that moment that Jason decided that if he wanted something done, he was going to have to do it himself. He was going to have to find Elizabeth Webber.

The trail hadn't been easy to pick up, but Jason had a few resources the cops didn't have. Namely Jackal P.I. The quirky investigator that Jason sometimes used to dig up dirt about the owners of companies he was competing against or trying to take over was amazing at finding things that people tried to keep hidden. He also wasn't adverse to stretching the law just a little and hacking into sites and systems that normally weren't available. It was because of him that Jason learned Elizabeth Webber owned an art studio in another part of town. A renovated building by the docks had been transformed into an artist's retreat and lots of people used the space. Jason had a few skills of his own from growing up on the streets and after knocking on the door of her studio and receiving no answer, and then checking to make sure that no one was watching him, Jason picked the flimsy lock on the cheap door and stepped inside the room.

Something had obviously happened here. A painting was half-finished, a bold errant stroke marring the landscape the artist had been working on. A paint palette lay paint side down on the floor; a stool was overturned, along with a small table. A glass lay shattered on the floor and there were scuff marks on the floor as if something, or someone, had been dragged towards the door.

With a troubled sigh, Jason left and asked the investigator to see if there were any security cameras in the area and then to search back towards the beginning of the month to see if anything could be found. What the thorough man came back with wasn't good news. Late one night, a black, late model sedan stopped outside the building; two men disappeared inside and not fifteen minutes later returned carrying someone between them. The person definitely seemed like a woman based on the height and weight of the victim, and all Jason could tell from the black and white footage was that the woman had dark hair and it appeared to be long like Elizabeth's. She was struggling as she was shoved into the trunk of the car and then the men drove away. The only good news was that Spinelli managed to get a license plate number off the car.

After breaking into the DMV's site, the younger man was able to provide Jason with the name and address of the vehicle's owner and then did an extensive background check on the man. What that search turned up was extremely disheartening. The man was an employee of Sonny Corinthos the town's mob boss. Jason had not figured on going up against the mob when he set out to discover what had happened to his neighbor.

He nearly gave up at that moment. He thought he could turn the evidence over to the police, let them investigate why men connected to Sonny Corinthos had taken the woman, and he'd bow out. After all, what could he, a smalltime business man really be able to do against Sonny Corinthos? But then Spinelli dug up something else. Well, not so much dug it up as stumbled up on it. Had it dropped right into his lap.

The private investigator had gone down to the police station to visit his girlfriend, the daughter of the police commissioner, and while he was there, Sonny Corinthos came to the station. While the supposed purpose of his visit was to deal with some nuisance ticket he'd received over his warehouse renovation, he later met the cop who had searched Elizabeth apartment outside. He told the officer that he wanted Elizabeth's case buried. He didn't want people poking around, trying to find where she was at. The cop was to avoid getting the FBI involved at all costs, even if that meant he had to falsify evidence or even make it look like the artist was dead. Whatever Officer Spencer needed to do, he was to make sure that people stopped looking into Elizabeth Webber's disappearance.

With that new information in hand, Jason suddenly found himself a part of the biggest sting operation New York State had been involved in for quite some time. The FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office approached him and Spinelli because they'd already been investigating the mobster and the Port Charles Police Department and didn't want the two men to mess up their two year operation that they were weeks away from closing. Spinelli and Jason were forced to give them all the information they had stumbled upon, and then stand back and wait. Jason had asked what the FBI was planning to do about the missing woman and hadn't liked that she didn't seem to be a priority to them. They wanted to bring down the mobster and the corrupt cops that were on the graft and keeping the other man in power. One missing artist just didn't seem to hold as much significance. It was something that absolutely set Jason's teeth on edge, but he'd been told quite bluntly that if he interfered in the FBI's investigation he would find himself behind bars at a federal prison and they might just lose his paperwork.

So every day Jason watched the news and scoured the paper hoping that would be the day the Feds finally moved. And when they did, Jason listened closely, trying to determine what had been done to find Elizabeth. And when he couldn't find out anything and Spinelli couldn't find any record of her when he hacked into the FBI's computer system, Jason had refused to be put off by the agent in charge and demanded answers on what had happened to his neighbor. He was prepared to take her disappearance to the national news media if he had to, and told the other man that.

That was when the man had grumbled under his breath, but made a call and before Jason would even process what was happening, he found himself in the back of a government car headed off to an unknown location. Nobody spoke to him or answered his questions and so he surreptitiously pulled out his phone and called Spinelli to try to alert the investigator about what was happening. He was not going to just disappear without a trace. But his worries proved to be for naught when the FBI delivered him to a small house on a quiet street and Jason was ushered inside to find Elizabeth Webber healthy and safe.

"You have ten minutes," the agent tersely said and then walked out, leaving the two practical strangers alone.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him in bewilderment.

"I was..." he cleared his throat gruffly. "I was worried about you. You disappeared and nobody knew where you were."

"So you were investigating?" she asked dubiously. "Why?"

"Because you're my neighbor," he shrugged.

"But we've never been friends," she shook her head. "Ever since the day I tripped and actually broke a jar of paint on your motorcycle, you have never been friendly towards me."

He tugged his ear and said, "Yeah, I was a little ridiculous there."

"You gave me a bill for the new paintjob," she pointed out.

"Look," Jason shook his head. "I'm sorry about all that. I'm glad that you're safe, though. When I saw the security footage of you being dragged out of your studio building and stuffed into the trunk of a car... I kept asking the FBI about you and making sure that they didn't overlook your safety in their effort to bring down Corinthos."

"That's why the agent brought you here?" she wondered. She tilted her head to the side, "You're just full of surprises."

"So how 'bout one more?" he quickly said, knowing the agent would be back soon. "When you get back to your apartment...I'd like to take you to dinner one night. Clear the air, start over...maybe see if we can become friends."

She hedged and then said, "I uh...I won't be back. I...I found a briefcase left behind at the gallery I work at and when I opened it... Well, let's just say that I'm one who cracked the case for the U.S. Government and so there are going to be a lot of people very unhappy because of that."

"You're going into Witness Protection," he surmised softly.

She nodded. "I'm sorry. I...dinner would have been nice, I'm sure. I...won't be back, though."

She would be gone; disappearing from his life when he'd finally discovered that he was a fool for not getting to know her sooner. He didn't like it and before he could try to find out if she'd be willing to try to work something out to stay in contact, the agent returned and whisked Jason away. He saw a slight look of disappointment on Elizabeth's face and determined in that moment that it was a good thing he knew someone who could hack into the FBI's records without getting caught. He'd have Spinelli figure out where Elizabeth was placed when this was all over, and then somehow, some way...he'd get in contact with her.

People called love a game, but Elizabeth had never treated it that way. She didn't manipulate, she didn't lie, she didn't scheme and she didn't trick men she was interested in. She just couldn't bring herself to do that to someone that she cared about, or wanted to build a relationship with. Because how was a relationship supposed to last when it was built on fabricated lies? How would she ever really know whether the man truly loved her, or just the lies she'd spun? Plus, having grown up in a family that regularly schemed, cheated and stabbed each other in the back all in the name of love, she was determined to live her life better than that.

Which was why she was going to lose her current boyfriend.

It hurt. It hurt something so deep inside her that she sometimes had a hard time breathing, but she knew she couldn't stop the inevitable. It wasn't that she was trying to be noble or the bigger person, she just didn't see the point of fighting something that was going to happen no matter what. She wouldn't fight over Jason like he was some prize at the county fair; he was a human being and deserved better respect than that.

It didn't stop her from hurting, or feeling angry. Angry at Little Miss Perfect Robin Scorpio and every other two-bit hack in this Podunk town who had gone from being her friend to turning on her.

Robin Scorpio was not the perfect little angel that everyone made her out to be. So what that she was the darling child of super spies Anna Devane and Robert Scorpio? So what that her first love had died from AIDS? So what that she had HIV? While Elizabeth felt properly remorseful for the young woman being afflicted with the disease, she didn't believe it gave the other woman a free pass to do whatever she wanted to do. But everyone else in town apparently did.

"Yes, it was a shame what Robin did to Jason, but she was just trying to look out for him. Her whole perspective really changed when she found out she had HIV."

A variation on that theme could be heard ever since Maxie Jones had announced that her cousin was coming back to town. Everyone had looked at Jason, and then at Elizabeth, and she read the writing on the wall. Despite what Robin had done to Jason, despite the hurt and the devastation that she'd caused him, despite nearly getting him killed by sticking her over-judgmental, overly-self righteous nose into his business and then scurrying off to Paris to hide with her tail between her legs, everyone talked about their great love. How it was inevitable that they'd find their way back to each other some day.

Everyone seemed to forget that Robin had been hiding out for years, that Jason was no longer the man just out of a coma that he'd been when they first got together, that he'd grown and developed and moved on with his life. Everyone also seemed to forget that part of that moving on had included Elizabeth. That Jason and Elizabeth had been dating for over a year. That they'd moved in together. That everyone had only a month ago been talking about how Jason was spotted at the jewelry store and they were just so certain he'd been buying an engagement ring for her and how wonderful it would be for them to get married. Everyone had conveniently forgotten that in the wake of the great Robin Scorpio deciding to grace Port Charles with her over-inflated ego and annoying presence.

And really, that was just too bad for Elizabeth. Nobody seemed to care about her or what she might be feeling. She had people, people who had talked about her and Jason as a couple and how wonderful they were together, suddenly coming up to her and talking about how wonderful it would be for Jason to have Robin back. How excited they were for Jason to be reunited with his first love. It wasn't just spiteful Maxie Jones gloating in her face, it was everybody in town talking about the inevitable reunion between Jason and Robin. The only person sympathetic towards Elizabeth was Sonny, but his condolences were tempered by the fact that his wife Brenda was over-the-moon ecstatic at her best friend coming home.

But Elizabeth would have been able to handle all the town's misguided comments if only she'd gotten a sign from Jason that they were, indeed, misguided. If he had given any indication that he didn't agree with the town, then she would have been able to handle all their cutting comments. But every time someone said something, Jason didn't speak up to tell them they were wrong. He didn't defend his relationship with Elizabeth. He would tug his ear, or rub his neck and Elizabeth had been with him long enough to know his tells. He was nervous, he was trying to avoid talking, and that - combined with the fact that he wouldn't hold her hand, or stand as close to her anymore - made her see that the town was right.

As much as it hurt, Elizabeth wasn't that upset at Jason. She knew that Robin had been his first love, she had seen the hurt and loneliness the man had when the aspiring doctor took off to Paris, and because Elizabeth's own first love had died in a fire and she wondered how she would react if he suddenly came back into her life, she was willing to cut Jason some slack. But only so much and only so far. She knew he would never deliberately hurt her, he would try to be honorable, but she felt him pulling away. He didn't go to bed at the same time anymore, instead staying downstairs until long after she fell asleep; he took long rides and avoided the penthouse; and they hadn't made love since Jason found out his ex-girlfriend was coming back to town.

That was why she was waiting here in the dark for Jason to return. If he drove by and saw the lights still on in the penthouse, he'd stay away. So she sat on the couch, her stomach churning and waited for the final step to break her heart. She would tell Jason good-bye and leave for Christmas. He could either pack up her belongings or wait for her to come back for them after the New Year, but she could no longer stay here. It wasn't fair to either of them to continue to live a miserable lie like this any longer.

Christmas in Connecticut sucked. Not the movie. Actually spending Christmas in Connecticut. Although, given that she was heartbroken and heartsick, she was pretty sure that Christmas in Hawaii or Christmas in Italy would have sucked big, fat, hairy toenails as well. She was holed up in some cozy, cheery cabin that she'd managed to secure for a ridiculous price using Sonny's credit card, and she hated it. Hated the snow, hated the rustic lodge look, hated the large, wood-burning fireplaces that kept the place warm, hated the pine trees she could see from every window, hated the fully stocked fridge, hated everything.

She tried not to think about what was happening back in Port Charles. Had the prodigal daughter returned yet? Had the town given her a ticker tape parade? Had the mayor given her the key to the city? Had Jason asked her to move into the penthouse as soon as he got rid of Elizabeth's belongings? Would he give her an engagement ring? He hadn't really been surprised when Elizabeth said she was going to leave, he didn't ask her to stay, didn't deny that he still loved Robin, didn't refute that he was confused and wanted to see his ex-girlfriend and was only staying with Elizabeth because of obligation. He just told her he was sorry for hurting her and not handling the situation very well.

And even as he said it, she believed him. He was torn. He had moved to put Robin behind him, but forgetting first loves wasn't always easy. And Robin had been more than just a high school love like Elizabeth had experienced; Robin had been the first person Jason thought really accepted him for who he was after his accident. While Elizabeth could see the manipulations the other woman pulled on him, Jason only saw the woman who taught him about life and didn't treat him like he was damaged. There was no way she could fight against that without injuring the man she loved or sounding like a major shrew. It was why she couldn't really be angry with him, even in the midst of her pain.

Letting out a breath, Elizabeth scrunched down into the corner of the couch and pulled the thick blanket more tightly around her. She brought a corner up to wipe at the ever-present tears that dampened her face, and settled in for another night of falling asleep on the sofa because she couldn't stand the spaciousness of the king size bed. There were so many things she was going to have to readjust to; sleeping alone, shopping for one, cooking for one. She hadn't quite succeeded in that on this trip, which was why she ate a bowl of oatmeal whenever she was hungry, slept on the couch and in general tried to avoid venturing out into the world. This was her heartbreak trip, and she was going to fully wallow in her misery until she had to go back to Port Charles and face everyone just long enough to pack her belongings and slink away with her tail between her legs.

She was startled by the knock on the door and pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders. The guards that Sonny had insisted she bring with her rarely bothered her. They did their job, they checked in for shift changes, and otherwise respected her privacy enough to simply let her have her space. It wasn't time for a shift change and she wasn't sure she wanted to know what had caused them to disturb her. But the knock sounded again, echoing through the cabin, and Elizabeth couldn't be rude to them and ignore them. Just like she would never badmouth Jason to them, and tried not to let them see her cry. After she was gone, they would still be working for her ex-boyfriend and she didn't want them to feel any ill will towards the man who was ultimately their boss.

Wiping her eyes and hoping that they weren't red and puffy, she stood and crossed the room to the front door, "I'm coming."

Stopping in front of it, she took a deep breath, gave her head a little shake, and then hoped that she put a pleasant smile on her face. These men were standing in the cold to guard her simply on Sonny's orders and she would never treat them with anything but politeness and respect. Undoing the locks, she opened the wooden door and gasped, her ability to speak slipping from her lips.

She said his name, even though there was no sound behind it and Jason's already troubled countenance became full-fledged concern, "E-Elizabeth? Are you-are you okay?"

"What...what are you doing here?" she whispered.

"I came to see you," he told her softly. "Can I...Can I come in?"

She swallowed thickly, praying for strength to get through this, and then nodded her head just a fraction while stepping back. Once she closed the door and turned towards him, she clasped her hands together and looked at him expectantly. He ran his hand over his spiked hair, brushing snowflakes off and shifted nervously in front of her.

"Please come home," he said, and she felt her eyes widen with surprise.

"Wh-what?"

Jason swallowed audibly and then said, "Please, Elizabeth, tell me I haven't messed this up. That I haven't messed us up."

Elizabeth shook her head and said, "I-I don't understand. What...what do you want from me, Jason?"

"I want you," he told her.

"But...but Robin's home. You...I could...I thought you wanted her."

He let out a troubled sigh and hooked his hand around the back of his neck. "I didn't know what I wanted. I love you, Elizabeth...but I...she was the first person I can remember loving. The first person who seemed to understand me; she introduced me to Sonny. And everyone was talking about us and I could remember being with her and..."

He shook his head. "I didn't know what to think or what to feel and I had everyone telling me how wonderful it was that Robin was coming back and I didn't know what I was supposed to say to them or to you and then I came home and you were packed up and you told me that if I wanted Robin I should be with her and you...you left. And then Robin was there, and Brenda was inviting me over for dinners and it felt like it was before."

She pulled her lips in between her teeth and bit hard, willing herself to keep the tears at bay. She would not start crying in front of him and let him know how much this hurt.

"But it wasn't like before," he continued. "Robin acted like nothing had changed, that I hadn't changed. Even Brenda was telling her that I no longer did certain things and Brenda has never really liked me. But she was defending me, telling Robin that I was different now and I realized that she was right. I had changed. I wasn't that man who first met her and needed her to explain things to me."

He took a deep breath and then said, "I love her for who she was to me, but I don't love her now. Does that make sense?"

Elizabeth nodded gently. "It does."

"I knew you'd understand, because you understand me," he told her with just the whisper of a smile. "You don't have to explain things to me, and if you do, you don't make feel bad for not knowing. You support me, you accept me, and I...I missed you. I realized I didn't want to be the man everyone expected me to be with Robin...I wanted to be the man I am with you. You may remind me to pick up my socks and actually put them in the hamper, but you don't nag me. You don't care that I don't like your toothpaste, you just bought me my own."

He stepped towards her, close enough that he could take her hand, but not crowding her. His thumb brushed across her skin and he watched it for a moment, then raised his gaze to meet hers. "That's why I love you, Elizabeth," he said softly. "And that's why I want to be with you. I don't care if Robin stays in Port Charles or not...but I want you to come back.

"Please," he asked her, stepping closer, "Please say you'll come back. Tell me how to fix this."

"I don't need to tell you, Jason," she whispered to him as tears spilled over her eyes. "You figured out how to do that all on your own."

"Mr. Morgan."

Jason looked up with irritation at the man in his office and demanded, "What?"

"Forgive the interruption, Sir. I know that you are most busy with your-"

"Get to the point," he commanded the nerdy IT tech. The man swept his bangs to the side and then smoothed down his rumpled tie.

"You asked me to set up search parameters for...for your family, Sir," the man said hastily and Jason scowled. "See if anyone was trying to find them, see if they were trying to contact anyone and stop it. All their outgoing mail were to come to me first so that you may read it first."

"Yes," he replied impatiently. "I know all this."

"Forgive me, Sir, but today they finally sent something."

He wordlessly held out his hand, already upset that his wife wasn't following the rules he'd established. The tech guy handed over a single sheet of paper and then didn't even wait for Jason's dismissal before he nearly tripped over his feet in his haste to flee from the room. Jason sighed through his nose and rubbed at his temples with his thumb and forefinger, feeling a headache rapidly forming. She knew she wasn't supposed to try to contact anybody; it simply wasn't safe.

Unfolding the paper, Jason was first confused when it wasn't in the standard form of an e-mail. As he looked at it again, he wondered what was going on. She wasn't the type to go online to message boards, in fact, she didn't even log onto the computer in the house. He should know. Spinelli gave him a weekly report, and the only activity on the computer was her son using it for the occasional school projects the first grader received or to play educational games.

The paper was a letter, typed and sent to a site called Letters to Santa. Spinelli had attached a little note explaining that parents were supposed to set up an account for the children, providing an e-mail account where the letter could be sent to so that the parental units then knew what their child had asked for for Christmas. Cameron Webber had set up the account on his own, there was no e-mail account given, and Spinelli had pulled it off the server and brought it to Jason. At first the older man was annoyed that this hadn't just been included in the end of the week report, but as he finally began to read the letter, he understood why the techie had breached protocol and been so nervous while doing so.

Dear Santa:

I don't want anything for Christmas this year. Please don't come to my house.

Jason's eyebrows went up towards his hairline. He didn't know if his wife had started shopping for the little boy yet, he couldn't seem to remember her guards saying she'd gone out, but surely the little boy wanted something for Christmas. All children wanted something.

The only thing I want is your help. If you know God could you talk to him for me? He isn't answering my prayers. Ask him to help my mom. Please. I just want my mommy to be happy again.

A frown pulled the corner of his lips down as he continued reading.

Mommy doesn't like my stepdaddy and he don't like me or Mommy. I want a new family. I want it to be me and mommy again.

Please Santa you can keep Chrismas and my toys if you just get God to make Mommy smile again.

Thank you,
Cameron Webber

Jason put the letter on his desk and tented his fingers together while he leaned back in his leather chair. The plain, innocuous paper sat on his desk and he didn't want to look at it, but he couldn't seem to turn away. It was like seeing a horrible crash on the highway; one simply couldn't help but stare and then be properly horrified.

A feeling of shame welled up inside him. He had reduced a small child to ask Santa not to come to his house. He had made a family so miserable that a little boy was praying to God for help getting away from him. How had that happened? No, he hadn't been happy about being forced into a marriage, but did that give him the right to treat a child this way? To treat anyone this way?

It wasn't Elizabeth Webber's fault that this had happened. She was just as much a victim in all this as he was. Even more so because her entire world, her entire existence had shattered one morning when the hospital her grandfather had founded was suddenly shut down. Insurance fraud, fake drugs, and a litany of other charges had been leveled at the hospital, brought about by corrupt doctors and administrators who were more concerned with the bottom line and lining their pockets than actually following the Hippocratic Oath and helping others.

Elizabeth Webber held a seat on the board, a permanent seat given to members of her family, and because of her legacy and her heritage, she had become the scapegoat in the community. People acted as if she should have somehow single-handedly stopped all this. They filed lawsuits against her, threatened her and her child, and even set fire to her house with her son inside it. That was when Jason's sister had come to him and begged him for help. Surely with Jason's business expertise, she said, he could find some way to help the hospital and stop people from coming after the single mother.

Jason had looked things over, had actually made some recommendations and tried to help out. Things had continued to spiral out of control and he began to fear for his own safety as well as hers. The board was trying to vote her out, and because she was recuperating after cutting her leg on the window while trying to rescue her son from the fire, she wasn't able to make it to important meetings. She asked her lawyer to draw up papers to give Jason temporary power to act on her behalf, but Diane had stated that the only way Jason could legally go to the meetings in her place was if he was a family member. That one small comment had spiraled into this.

Jason married Elizabeth, voted at the meetings, threatened lawsuits of his own, and did all he could to protect the legacy of General Hospital, as well as Elizabeth Webber. It was a strict business arrangement and he spent his days dividing his time between his own business and salvaging the hospital. He didn't come home for dinners since it wasn't like they were a loving, happy family anyways, and he'd told Elizabeth that it was too unstable for her to leave the penthouse he'd moved her and her son into, and he didn't want her to e-mail family or friends because someone could hack into her account and twist things she said around for their own purposes on the lawsuits.

He had made her and her child prisoners in his home. And made them miserable. Jason looked back at the letter; so miserable that a little boy thought he hated him. Would willingly give up his Christmas presents if it meant that he and his mother could be away from him.

Turning away from his desk, he scrubbed his hand over his face and looked out the windows overlooking the city. There were several weeks until Christmas, surely that would give him enough time to fix this mess. He just needed to figure out how to do it.

"Mommy, Mommy, wake up!"

Elizabeth blinked and rolled towards the edge of the bed where Cameron stood, bouncing excitedly on his feet. "Mommy," he shook her shoulder, "wake up! Santa came!"

"He did?" she questioned thickly, still trying to wake up at this inhuman hour.

"Uh-huh," her little boy confirmed. "Come on. Can we go look at our presents?"

"Cam," she began, squinting at the clock. "It's still really early. Jason may not even be awake yet."

Heaven knew she wasn't.

"But he is, Mommy," her son told her. "He was sleeping by the stairs and I couldn't step over him, but he lifted me up to look over the wall and I saw that there are presents downstairs. He said we had to wait for you."

By now Elizabeth was sitting up, trying to process all he was telling her while reaching for her robe. "Come on, Mom."

With no choice but to follow after him, she went out into the hall where she saw Jason blearily rubbing his eyes while stretching his back. Had he really slept on the floor by the stairs? What on earth had he done that for? He couldn't have really taken her joke to heart that Cameron would be up early in the morning and if one of them wasn't guarding the stairs the little boy would have the presents opened before six. Had he? Cameron was too good of a boy to do that and he always came into her room to wake her first. But, she realized, she hadn't told Jason that and the older man had no way of knowing.

"Jason said he slept there to listen for Santa so he could wake me up, but Santa was too tricky," Cameron said with bubbly excitement. "Isn't that cool, Mom?"

She looked at the man in question and all her husband could do was shrug his shoulders in a self-deprecating manner. He had done so much these past weeks to help her little boy enjoy Christmas. They went shopping for a tree and he helped Elizabeth dig her ornaments out of storage instead of sending someone else to do it. Then he diligently sat beside Cameron with a needle and thread and strung cranberries and popcorn to decorate the tree because that's what her little boy liked best. She didn't know what had happened to make him go from Scrooge to Kris Kringle, but it helped make their living situation a lot more tolerable.

He didn't spend all his time at the office anymore; he actually talked to her about more than just the hospital's legal troubles, and had stayed up late with her last night helping assemble Cameron's Santa present. Turns out he was not just a shrewd businessman, but he was rather handy with a wrench and screwdriver as well. Which was a good thing, because Elizabeth was all thumbs around such things. Give her a scalpel or a needle, and she was in her element. But a hammer? Not so much.

When the stockings were filled, and the presents arranged just so, Elizabeth had wearily drug herself up the stairs and off to her bedroom. Jason said he was just going to check the locks and then he'd be up. She was asleep before her head hit the pillow and she never heard him pass by her room. Now, she knew why. Jason hadn't followed her upstairs right away. There were a few extra presents under the tree and she could see a few things in her stocking that she hadn't remembered tucking in there last night.

"Mommy," Cameron ran over to her, handing her a pale blue box with white ribbon. "This is for you from Santa!"

She took Tiffany's box from her son and he was already charging back off to the tree as she looked over at Jason. He quirked the corner of his mouth up and said, "I guess Santa must have forgot a few things and came back a second time."

Then he shuffled towards her son and helped the little boy try out his RC car, sending it zooming across the hardwood floor. As she opened her gift and saw the fire red ruby pendant surrounded by flawless diamonds, Elizabeth covered her mouth and blinked back her tears. She had never expected a gift like this from him. She hadn't even expected to celebrate Christmas this year. The ogre she had married was now kind, considerate, thoughtful and actually had a sense of humor. She wondered which version of her husband would be around in the new year and began to suspect that if the softer, kinder version stuck around, she was going to have a very hard time remembering that this marriage was nothing more than a business arrangement.

The bar was finally quiet and the last patron had been poured into a cab by the ever-capable, often underestimated owner, and the doors closed and locked. As Jake came back into the bar, she looked at Elizabeth and raised a brow. Slowly the blonde swept the floor, inching ever closer to the solitary patron at the counter until she was finally in front of the wanna-be artist. Setting aside the broom, Jake crossed her arms and rested them on the counter.

"You gonna drink that, Elizabeth?" she tipped her head towards the Sprite the young woman had been toying with all night.

With a sad sigh, she shook her head and pushed the drink away. Jake easily cleared it and then turned back, her head tilting to the side.

"Now that it's quiet, you could probably actually go to sleep. I understand why you wanted to sit down here before, but I'm closing up now."

"Yeah," she nodded, the one word weighing heavily on her shoulders. "I...I'll just go up to my room."

As she turned on the stool, she was startled when Jake placed her hand softly on Elizabeth's wrist. Looking back at the bartender what she saw nearly broke her heart.

"Are you okay, Elizabeth?" the older woman asked gently. "You seem...upset tonight."

"Have you ever done something so...so monumental it totally blew your life apart?" she asked.

Jake's brows drew together as the blonde frowned. "What's going on, hon?"

"My gram kicked me out," she confessed shamefully.

"You?" the bartender asked in complete shock. "Why?"

"We...she...disapproved of something I did."

Planting one hand on her hip, Jake demanded incredulously, "And she kicked you out of her house?"

"It's probably for the best," Elizabeth said, trying to put a bright spin on it. Based on the frown on Jake's face, she had failed miserably. "It's probably time I got out on my own, stopped relying on other people. You...you wouldn't happen to have a job opening, would you?"

"What about your job at Kelly's?" the older woman wondered.

She licked her lips and said, "I...it's time for me to move on."

Jake was clearly curious, but she respected the fact that Elizabeth had said all she was going to for tonight. Instead, she nodded and said, "Yeah, I can find something for you to do. Come down tomorrow and we'll get all the paperwork filled out and then I'll start showing you around."

With a watery smile, Elizabeth said, "Thank you, Jake. I...I really appreciate this."

"Listen," the older woman stopped her. "Are you in some kind-of trouble? I know that Jason's out of town, but I'm sure you could go to Sonny..."

She shook her head, "This isn't really something they could help me with."

Then she slid off the stool and headed upstairs. She paused outside Jason's old room, her fingers resting lightly on the faded wood and closed her eyes, wishing with all her might that she could remember. That she could unlock the memories that would give her the answers she so desperately craved. But they were locked away in an alcohol blackout and so shame, humiliation and hurt all rolled through her as she turned away from the empty room and went to her own. Jake had told her that she kept Jason's room empty because sometimes people came looking for him and she didn't want Elizabeth to get harassed on Jason's behalf, even though it certainly wouldn't have been the first time. But the men who sometimes showed up were a lot different than the judgmental people who thought she'd slept with the enforcer that winter three years ago when he'd actually been recovering from a gunshot wound. And right now, with everything else going on in Elizabeth's life, she tended to agree with the older woman. Having someone come after her because of Jason wasn't what she needed to contend with.

Elizabeth Webber was in trouble. Not immediate physical danger, but in trouble none-the-less. In the months following Elizabeth's arrival at the bar, Jake had put her well-honed skills to work and realized that there was something off in regards to the almost-graduated art student. Through rambles and unaware comments, Elizabeth had revealed much of her troubles to Jake, but the younger woman had always held a little bit back. The older woman could never fully understand why and how it was linked to the indelibly low spirits of her employee. Everything changed, though, when Jake overheard a rather heated exchange between the petite brunette and her overly judgmental grandmother.

Once enlightenment had dawned, Jake set to work figuring out how she could fix the problem. She couldn't just go to Elizabeth and tell her what she'd overheard and what she knew. The young woman was fiercely private, but also intensely embarrassed. She would have been mortified to know Jake knew everything, including things even Elizabeth didn't know.

Jake had thought she had time to wait. Surely the one person who would be able to help rectify this situation would return. But as the months passed and things with Elizabeth grew grimmer, Jake realized she didn't have time to wait any longer. Things needed to be nudged a bit. A little assistance was required and this was more than she was able to fix on her own. She needed help from someone who she could only hope would truly step up and do what was needed.

Jason walked into Jake's bar, trail-worn and tired. His months of travel to patch things up and ensure peace for Sonny's organization had finally come to an end. It had been dicey and there had been that moment in South America where Jason wasn't sure he'd make it out of the situation unharmed, but thankfully it was resolved now and he was glad to be home. He knew that Jake always kept his room saved for him, and he was looking forward to a hot shower, a cold beer and a long night's sleep. Maybe if he was lucky, he'd be able to get started on the third one before the bar's business picked up for the night.

He was almost to the stairs when he heard Jake come out of the back room. A case of liquor crashed to the floor, a string of curses colored the air and he'd never heard Jake so angry as when she yelled at him and stopped him in his tracks. "Morgan!"

Pivoting on his feet he turned to look at her and was actually glad he was across the bar. She looked mad enough to hit and he had little doubt she would make him her target. Furrowing his brow he asked, "What's wrong, Jake? Someone come by causing problems for you again?"

"You could say that," she answered. "What took you so long to get home?"

Baffled by the question he was about to respond but didn't get the chance, "I went to Sonny two months ago and told him it was an emergency. This your idea of getting back quickly?"

He hadn't received any messages from Sonny and he didn't know if that was on purpose or simply because of the nature of the work he'd been doing. "Look," he began. "Things were a little complicated. Sonny couldn't get messages to me, and I came home as soon as I finished things."

"Yeah?" she questioned. "Well things were a little complicated here as well."

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Why don't you go ask Elizabeth that," the bartender commanded him. "You don't have to go far, just knock on the door across from yours."

Then she spun on her heel and stalked into the backroom, presumably to get a broom and a mop. Jason frowned at her, and then looked at the stairs behind him. Elizabeth was staying at Jake's? Knowing that the quickest way to get answers for the many questions he now had was to talk to her, he turned and took the stairs two at a time until he reached the second floor. He knocked on the door across from his and was half frightened of what he'd find when he talked to Elizabeth. When she opened the door, nothing could have prepared him for the sight of her.

It wasn't the bags under her eyes, or the obvious weight she'd lost in her face. What made Jason drop the bag in his hands was the unmistakable swell of her stomach that seemed to overwhelm her entire frame. Her face flooded with shame and she turned away from him.

"What are you doing here? Carly tell you all about my fall from grace?"

"I haven't seen Carly," he shook his head. "What's going on?"

"What's going on?" she asked, self-loathing dripping from her words. "I'm pregnant and not married. That enough was cause to make my grandmother kick me out of her house. But the coup de grace is the fact that I don't know who my baby's father is. She doesn't believe me when I tell her that. She's convinced I just don't want to tell her who it is. She would think it was you except for the fact that you haven't been home in almost a year and well..." she gestured towards her stomach, "clearly the time frame doesn't add up. So now I'm just a slut who went on a bender and can't remember the guy she slept with."

"That's enough," he told her, stepping into the room. "You are not a slut. And I'm sorry you can't remember, but I can help you."

She shook her head, turning away from him. "No. No, Jason, I can't ask that of you. I can't ask you to raise my child just because I got myself into trouble."

"You didn't get yourself into trouble; there was someone else there that night," he countered.

"Someone I can't remember. What should I do?" she asked as she whirled around angrily to look at him. "Put out an ad in the paper? Yeah...that'll work out great."

"Or, you could just listen to me," he said gently. "I came back to Port Charles seven months ago, Elizabeth. I thought I was coming back to stay for a while. I came to Jake's and you were here. I knew you'd had a few to drink, but I didn't realize you were that drunk. Sonny called in the middle of the night; the situation we thought was taken care of had just blown apart and he was in danger. I rushed out to help him and once that was taken care of, I was on a plane. I...I didn't realize it was that out of hand. We had a traitor and I had to fix things and I didn't even have time to leave a note for you. I thought I'd be able to come back and talk to you, but that didn't happen. I had no idea what was happening here, that you couldn't remember we slept together, that you were pregnant, that Audrey kicked you out.

"I swear," he told her, taking a step towards her and wanting so much to take her into his arms, "I swear, if I'd known...nothing could have kept me away from you."

"You have to hold on, Dr. Quartermaine," Elizabeth shakily said as she sat beside her child's grandfather and tried to make him comfortable.

Comfort, of course, was a relative term at the moment considering they were all being held hostage by a madman who thought nothing of shooting them, and toying with them and a detonator to strategically placed explosives. She was trying to keep calm and help Alan, but with every cramp that tore across her stomach, she fought her own growing hysteria. It was too soon for the baby to be born. While the others were performing emergency surgery on Robin and Alan hadn't had a full-fledged heart attack and they were trying to help him, she knew that there would be no help for her - or her child - if she went into premature labor.

"I'll be fine," Alan said stoically even though it was clear he was in distress. "You just need to take care of yourself and your child. I'm sure Lucky knows you're in here, the police are aware of what's going on...someone will get us out."

He wheezed and gasped for breath and the only thing Elizabeth could do was helplessly place a cool cloth against his head. "If all else fails, I know that Jason will figure something out. He always does. Sonny and Carly are in here...he won't let them down. Sam's here and they seem to be on their way to reconciliation. Plus there's Emily; Jason will never let Emily down. Robin's here...you're here...there are too many people that Jason cares about to not get involved.

"You're here," she said gently, wiping the perspiration off the doctor's head and reaching for the bottle of water. She slipped her hand behind his head and helped him sit up slightly to take a drink. "I know that things aren't easy between the two of you, but Jason cares about you."

He laughed mirthlessly, "You're very sweet to humor a dying man, Elizabeth, but we both know the truth. If Jason were to come through the door in the next minute, he might hesitate as to who he should get out first, Sonny or Carly, but you and I both know that he would choose them first. Then it would be Sam, then Emily, then you and Robin, and then he'd come back for me along with everyone else."

She closed her eyes, her shoulders slumping slightly under the weight of the truth. Alan was right. Jason would rescue Sonny and Carly first, then his girlfriend, then his sister and maybe then her. It was the simple truth; the depth of Jason's loyalty to the man he considered his brother. She didn't blame him for the fact. She couldn't considering she was keeping an enormous secret from him. Everyone had told her that it was better that Jason wasn't the father of her child, and she'd wavered with disregarding it and telling him the truth. Until she went to his penthouse and before she could even open her mouth he was telling her that it was better he wasn't the father.

While he might have offered to marry her before the paternity test was done, she realized now it was all about obligation and duty. He didn't love her. Their night together hadn't been about love. And now he was trying to work things out with Sam. If he could forgive her for sleeping with Ric, then it was proof of the depth of feelings Jason had for Alexis' daughter. Being the father to her child would impinge on his happy little world.

But when she'd found him lying wet and bleeding on the chapel floor, she hadn't cared about that. She'd said the only thing she could think of to give him a reason to live. She'd told him the baby was his and he'd grabbed her hand and smiled. So it had crushed her when after dragging him back to her studio and digging the bullet out of his leg and he woke up after a good rest which helped fight off infection and fever that the first words out of his mouth had been about Sam. He hadn't remembered her confession to him. He had been solely focused on finding Sam, clearing her name and getting back together with her.

That was why every time she tried to tell him the truth she could never bring herself to do so. She could never bring herself to have him look at her with duty instead of friendship. She could never bring herself to one day see that he was only taking care of her and helping her because of the responsibility he felt to his child, and not out of any deeper feelings. She couldn't bring herself to have her child feel as she had growing up, that she was a burden and wasn't truly, deeply, really wanted by one parent. Her birth had derailed her mother's life, and Elizabeth knew it every second of every day and she feared her child coming to that same realization. That one day her son or daughter would realize that while Jason cared, becoming a father as he had hadn't really been what he'd wanted. At least not with Elizabeth.

So she couldn't blame Jason for the knowledge that she, the mother of his child, would come after other people. She had always come after Sonny and Carly in Jason's life and when they were friends, she understood and accepted it. After all, she'd put him after Lucky so many times. But how could she subject her child to that?

Rubbing her hand across her stomach, she knew that she was merely rationalizing. That she was trying to make excuses for her deception and her lies. It was just that after so much time, after this had all snowballed so greatly out of control, she was afraid. Afraid of Jason looking at her and his face changing when he realized she hadn't told him the truth. Afraid of the town looking down on her. Afraid of what would happen to Lucky when everyone was telling her that it was up to her and this child to save him. Afraid of failing Cameron. Afraid of so many things; all of which had kept her mute.

"Elizabeth?"

She swallowed and looked up, meeting Alan's concerned gaze.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she tried to tell him, even though her voice was weak and thready.

"Are you in pain?" he pressed, pushing himself up on his elbow. "You should be the one on this couch, resting with your feet up."

"No," she shook her head. "I'm okay."

She looked down when pain ripped across her stomach and she hoped that the fresh tears that sprang to her eyes would merely be passed as previous ones. She couldn't have Alan feeling like he had to take care of her.

"No, you're not," he insisted, pushing himself up to sit on the sofa. "Come on, you need to rest."

She was never able to tell him that he needed to lie back down because he gasped, clutching at his chest as his face paled. She pushed him down as she rose up onto her knees, ignoring the screaming pain that gripped her stomach and began to tend to her patient. She massaged his chest, hoping that chest compressions and rescue breathing would not become necessary and once again found herself offering up hope in a confession.

"Alan," she pleaded with him as tears steamed down her face. "Please, you have to be alright. Please. You need to hold on. For Monica, for Emily, for Edward...for...for this baby."

His eyes widened as he looked at her, and she continued, "Everyone thinks this baby is Lucky's but it isn't. This is Jason's baby. I...I've tried to tell him so many times, but my excuses don't matter. This baby is Jason's and I want him to know his grandfather."

"Hi-him?" Alan whispered.

"Or her. Maybe she'll be a girl with your mother's eyes and grace. Please, Alan...please, you can't die on me. You can't die."

"I'm going in to see him," Jason told Monica as she tried to convince him to go shower before seeing Alan. He wasn't leaving the hospital, though. He wasn't going anywhere.

"Please," she pleaded with him. "You're dirty and he's very weak."

"He won't care about the dirt," he countered, hardness entering his voice. "I want to see him."

He swallowed and his voice softened slightly. "I...I want to see my father."

Monica brought her hand up to her mouth and swayed slightly to the side. He capitalized on the motion and pushed his way into the room. Alan was on the bed, pale and still, but Jason knew from the beep of the machines that the older man was still alive. Quietly he crossed the room, sitting down on the stool beside the bed and leaned forward.

"Alan?"

The other man's eyelids fluttered, and then struggled to open. His father turned to look at him and smiled slightly as he mouthed his name, not having enough energy to actually make more beyond the 'J' sound.

"I'm here," he said, taking the older man's hand. "I'm here."

"E-Eliz..."

"Elizabeth is fine," Jason assured him. "And so is the baby. Our baby."

Alan smiled, his eyes closing as he rested his head back on the pillow. "Go...good. To-told me."

"Yeah," he nodded. "She told me that...after she told me about the baby."

"Don...don't be...mad."

"I'm not," he shook his head.

Elizabeth had been so frightened before he revealed himself in the elevator, and then she'd been scared when she told him the truth. She'd rambled about so many things, but the key points he understood was that she didn't want to mess up his life. He himself had told her it was better Lucky was the father and she knew Sam would be jealous and she'd told him in the chapel when he'd been shot, but all Jason was focused on was finding his girlfriend and she didn't want to interfere and she wasn't asking for anything and before she'd paused and clutched as her stomach in pain pushing all other thoughts out of his mind, he knew she was terrified he would hate her.

He couldn't hate her. She was carrying his child. He was going to be a father because of her. He certainly didn't hate her.

Of course, he didn't know what he was going to do. About her, about Sam, about his life and how to do his job anymore. But he didn't hate Elizabeth. Not even when she turned down his proposal telling him that she didn't expect that of him. She knew that he loved Sam and she wasn't asking him to stop seeing the other woman, but she couldn't marry him knowing that he would technically be having an affair with someone else. She couldn't do that to her children by exposing them to the gossip and rumors they might hear one day. If he wanted to be a father to their child, she would never stop him. But he didn't need to give up his happiness and his wants in order to do that.

He'd sat there stunned as he realized that she didn't expect him to be faithful to her. That she honestly thought he could put a ring on her finger and then go sleep with someone else. For a moment he was hurt thinking that she could place him in the same category as Lucky, but as he'd been chasing James Craig through the waterfront and came across Lucky Spencer scoring drugs instead of searching for his ex-wife, he realized that she thought he would be another man who wouldn't put her first.

Somehow he found himself pouring all that out to Alan, trying to make sense of why she would believe he'd still be with Sam after marrying Elizabeth. His father coughed slightly and then said, "You to...took her back. Tried...to...have baby. Eliz...abeth...don't love her."

"Who says?" he demanded without thinking.

"Eliza...beth," his father stunned him with the answer. "Talked...to keep me a...awake. Don't know if...if she was even aware."

"She can ramble sometimes," Jason admitted with a wistful smile.

"She...she loves you," Alan said simply, stunning Jason further. "Be...believes you don't love her. Won't...won't marry just for...just for baby."

Alan squeezed Jason's hand, gasping while the monitors began to blip irregularly. "Don't...don't be afraid to tell her. Be...be a father to your child...a real father...Jason. Have...have your own family. Not Sonny's...or...or because you think you owe Sam...but...but with Elizabeth. Tell her..."

Monica and the other doctors pushed into the room as alarms began to sound, but Alan refused to let go of his hand. "Tell her."

Monica pulled him away from Alan's body and the team began to work. He backed up in shock, until he was outside, watching in through the window as his father's heart gave out and the doctors couldn't revive him. Monica waited until the last doctor left before she slumped over her husband's body, sobs wracking her frame. Jason's eyes burned and his throat was tight and he felt an overwhelming ache open inside him. He had never had a good relationship with his father, but he'd seen the joy in the older man's eyes at the knowledge of his impending grandchild. He'd recognized Jason when the enforcer had helped him outside, trying to get him help, and the younger man now understood the whispered statement that it should have been Elizabeth. He also better understood why, just before Jason had to let him go, sensing his father wouldn't make it across the street but knowing that he couldn't give away his disguise if he had a shot of helping the others, Alan had looked straight at him and commanded him to protect Elizabeth. He knew about the baby and was trying to call on Jason's honor.

And now his father, as he was dying and could have asked for his wife and spent what little energy he had to talk to her, told Jason to be with his child. To tell Elizabeth... To tell her what? Did Alan think Jason loved her as he believed Elizabeth loved him? Was it all a hopeful wish of his dying father...or had there been something more? Something that Alan had seen that Jason hadn't recognized?

He was moving before he was aware of it, but once he realized where he was going, Jason walked with surety and purpose. He needed to see Elizabeth. This wasn't just because he now learned her child was his. It was because he'd just lost something in his life he hadn't even realized he'd wanted, that he'd been missing and the only person he thought could even begin to make this right, to help him understand and accept it and come to terms with all that had happened, wasn't the woman he thought he loved and had been trying to make a life with; it was the woman who had been his friend for years. The woman who had helped him through pain and loss before, who had tried to support him and encourage him, who had always come to him and had always been there whenever he turned to her. The woman, he now realized, was going to have his child.

He needed to see Elizabeth. His sanity, his stability, and most importantly, his heart and his future rested with her.

Really, this had simply gone on long enough. Passing ridiculous and going into the land of the absurd. She knew that she carried some of the blame in this situation - not all of it, but a portion of it - and since she'd waited for it to be rectified and it wasn't happening, she decided that it was going to have to be up to her to make things right. To give everyone a nice little nudge.

Emily took a deep breath and smoothed her hands over her pressed slacks and knocked on the bright blue door. Plastic pumpkins sat on the porch, some adorning the little wooden table she'd helped paint. Of course, it had been for a different house and a different family, but none of that mattered now. What mattered was here in the present there were two people who loved each other, who wanted to be together and for whatever foolish reasons they were staying apart. Enough was enough.

The door opened and Elizabeth's smile grew bright when she cheerfully, yet confusedly, called out, "Em! I didn't expect to see you here. I thought you'd be busy helping Nikolas with the last minute preparations."

"That's what Alfred's for," she said with a smile and a wave of her hand through the air. "I came to talk to you."

"About what?" the single mother laughed, stepping back to let her in. "What could be so important to draw you away from Nikolas' side as you're preparing to host a huge party at your house tomorrow night?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Jake," she began. "And Jason."

Instantly, the other woman's smile dimmed and she began to shut down, going on her guard. "What about them?"

Taking a deep breath and plunging forward, she said, "I want to know why you're not with Jason."

"Em," Elizabeth sighed heavily. "It's not that easy."

"Do you love my brother?"

There was a pause and then Elizabeth's voice was soft but sure, "Yes, Emily, I do."

"And he loves you, and I know he loves Jake, so why are you guys apart and miserable?" she pressed.

"Because people don't know that Jake is his son. And we've both decided that it's safer that way."

Taking her best friend's hand, Emily dragged Elizabeth to the couch and the other woman took the hint and sat down. Looking at her square in the eye so she could see this wasn't meant from malice, she bluntly said, "That's ridiculous, Elizabeth."

Holding up her hand before the nurse could protest, she said, "I know that things are never going to be totally safe in Jason's life. But you and I both know that violence can come from anywhere and anyone. And you and I both know that nobody is guaranteed a long and healthy life. I made a horrible mistake when I married Zander just because I thought I was going to die of cancer. I was in love with Nikolas, but Zander had stood beside me, he loved me and I thought I could give him a parting gift to keep him safe and secure and not self-destruct."

Tilting her head to the side she said, "That's exactly what I pressured you to do with Lucky, and what you've been trying to do by letting him believe that Jake is his son. But I should have remembered that people are responsible for their own lives and Lucky is responsible for his own sobriety. It's not up to you or Jake to keep him clean. And if he dives back into a bottle of pills once he learns the truth, then that's his choice."

Elizabeth looked away and said broken, "Emily..."

"Elizabeth," she pleaded with her friend. "You deserve to be happy. You do. I know that I haven't always listened to you, or really observed what makes you happy but I'm doing it now. Jason makes you happy. You love him; he loves you, and your children. He would make a great father to Cameron and Jake. You know he would."

"I know," the other brunette agreed, her eyes filling with remorseful tears. "But Jason's enemies..."

"You'd be in even more danger if someone found out the truth about Jake and there were absolutely no guards on you," she stated emphatically. "And yes, there will be people who say things and Lucky might be angry, but what are you going to say to your son if he ever finds out the truth?"

She hated doing this to her friend. Absolutely hated it. But all she wanted was for her friend and her brother to be happy, and she knew that meant they needed to be together. Raising their family, loving each other and standing together against whatever the town might throw at them.

"It's not wrong to want to be happy, Elizabeth."

"I am," her friend tried to protest.

"No," Emily shook her head. "You're not. I see it. I see how this secret is weighing you down and killing a part of you. I see how you want to be with Jason but you think you have to pretend like you barely know each other whenever you meet. I see how you look at him, how your heart breaks and I don't want that, Elizabeth. I don't want to see you like that anymore."

Scooting closer to her friend she reached out and hugged her as she said, "I love you, Elizabeth. You're my best friend. And I found my happiness and I grabbed onto it with both hands. I want you to do the same. Please, Elizabeth... Do this for your children, do this for me, but most of all...do this for yourself."

When he heard the knock on the door, Jason groaned wondering who this would be now. It would most likely be Lulu looking for Spinelli to help her out of some mess, or it would be Carly looking for him to help her out of some mess she'd created. Or it would be Sonny wanting him to listen about Kate and Trevor and Anthony Zacharra and all he wanted to do right now was just enjoy the peace of the penthouse since Spinelli was not actually here at the moment.

But with a resigned sigh, he headed over to the door and glanced through the peephole just to prepare himself for whoever was on the other side. Instead, he momentarily frowned in confusion when he saw his sister standing there. Opening the door he smiled slightly at her and invited her in as he gave her a hug.

"Hey, Jase," she smiled at him and then looked around. "Do you have a moment?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "What did you need?"

"I...ah," she shifted. "I was hoping to talk to you. Alone."

"Spinelli's not here," he told her and her shoulders dropped in relief. "What's going on?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Jake and Elizabeth," she began and he immediately felt his heart stutter then begin racing.

"Are they okay?" he asked. "Are they hurt?"

"No," she shook her head. "They're fine. But you shouldn't have to ask me that, Jason. That's why I'm here. Look, I know that you and Elizabeth think she'll be safer if people don't know about the two of you and that Jake will be protected if people think Lucky's his father, but, Jason, you're wrong. You are absolutely wrong."

He frowned and took a step back from her, "Emily. It's better this way."

"No, it's not."

"Elizabeth thinks it's better for Jake and I agree with her," he tried again.

"Do you really?" she pressed him. "Or did you just agree with her because it was her that said it? I know you would do anything for her, Jason, and it just shows how much you love her. But what about you? What do you want?"

"It doesn't matter what I want," Jason shook his head.

She hit him. She actually hit him on the arm with her leather purse and it stung. He stared at her in stunned surprise and she huffed, "You can be so stubbornly stupid sometimes. It does matter what you want. Sonny and Carly have just conditioned you into thinking that you don't matter and you just have to please everybody else."

His frown deepened, but she waved him off and plowed forward. "It's not wrong to actually want things. And it's okay to tell people that you disagree with them. You want to raise Jake as your son. I know you do. I can see it every time you look at Elizabeth, or if you see her and the boys together; I hear it when you talk about him and you would be such an amazing father. It's not wrong to stand up and say that."

"Elizabeth doesn't want to hurt Lucky," he stated, and tried not to have the words be bitter ashes in his mouth.

Emily surprised him when she snorted and said, "Screw Lucky. Since when has he ever cared about Elizabeth's feelings? Was he thinking of her when he was sleeping with Maxie or her sister? Or how about when he called her a whore at work? Or what about when he slept with Sam and then threw it in her face?"

Furrowing his brow he said, "I thought you were friends with Lucky."

"I am, but I have finally realized that Lucky Spencer is responsible for his own life. It is not Elizabeth's responsibility to fix him. And if he completely flips out after finding out Jake isn't his son, then maybe his actual family should step forward and help him out. I'll make Nikolas send him into rehab if I have to, but you and Elizabeth shouldn't be kept apart simply because of Lucky. Not anymore. You've done it too much and too long and it's not fair to you."

This was such a departure from her normal behavior that Jason couldn't help being confused. "Emily..."

"I've finally realized what's important, Jason. I think about Nikolas and I and I wish that I'd married him when I thought I was going to die instead of thinking that I owed Zander. I would have spared myself and so many other people a lot of heartbreak." She stepped towards him and grabbed at his hand entreatingly, "Jason, I just want you and Elizabeth to have the same thing. I want you to be happy. I want you to have a family. You would do your best to keep Elizabeth and her boys safe and it would be better than someone finding out the truth and them having absolutely no protection at all. Do this, Jason. Go talk to Elizabeth, tell her what you really want. Be honest with her, be honest with yourself. Be a family."

He frowned at her near desperate pleading, "Emily, what's going on? Why-"

"I just want you to be happy," she told him. "I just want my brother and my best friend to be as happy as I am. Life is too short to waste it and I want you guys to realize that. Please."

He pulled her to him and hugged her, hoping she would calm down and the tears shimmering in her eyes would ease. He didn't know why this was so important to her now, but he rubbed her back and said, "I...I'll think about it."

"Do you promise?" she pressed him, knowing that she would trap him with the honor of his word. He couldn't disappoint her and they both knew it.

"Yes," he said, even though his stomach clenched with fear and nervousness. "I promise."

She was numb. As Elizabeth stared at the scene around her, she kept thinking this would be some horrible dream that she would wake up from. Like in the aftermath of her rape, when she'd wake up and remember that Tom Baker was in jail, Elizabeth would wake up from this nightmare and discover that Emily wasn't really dead. That she hadn't been murdered at her own engagement party. That her best friend hadn't just been tragically ripped away from her and everyone else.

She listened to the police talking in the background, talking about how they'd chased Logan Hayes across the property, how they saw rope burns on his hands, blood on his shirt and they'd test it to see if it matched the crime scene, but it was all just noise to her. All she could do was stare at Emily's body laid out on a plush, red velvet bench and think about the past twenty-four hours. All she could remember was Emily's encouragement and pleading with her to not waste a single minute of her life by being afraid to be with Jason. Her friend had begged her to grab for happiness with both hands and never let go because they never knew what tomorrow would bring. Emily had just become the tragic embodiment of that.

A hand touched her shoulder hesitantly and she closed her eyes, ever-flowing tears running down her face. She turned into the waiting embrace, holding onto the solace Jason was offering and trying to impart some of her own. She could only cling to him desperately, because she didn't know what she'd do if she lost him as well.

"Come home with me," she whispered.

He pulled back slightly to look at her and asked, "What?"

"Come home with me," she repeated. "Come with me to pick the boys up from my grams'. Stay with us."

She could see the battle in his eyes and then he turned his head away as he sighed, "Elizabeth..."

"Please," she pleaded with him, her hands twisting in his shirt. "Please. Lucky knows the truth about Jake now and I...I...I realize Emily was right."

She felt Jason stiffen and she said, "She wanted us to be happy. She wanted us to be together and be a family with Jake and Cameron. She..."

Elizabeth trailed off and tried to choke down a sob. "She talked about life being too short, of never knowing what was around the corner and not being afraid to grab what's in front of us."

Looking over at Emily as the coroner's team laid out a body bag on the floor beside her, Elizabeth shuddered but then firmed her shoulders, "I can't turn my back on what she said, Jason. She was right. We...we owe it to ourselves to be happy. We owe it to Jake to tell the truth to him and everyone. I don't know what will happen, but I think that tonight proves there are no guarantees. We're given a gift each day we're alive and I don't want to waste it anymore."

Tilting her head back to see Jason's face she said, "I love you and you are my son's father. I'm tired of being afraid and hiding that. I'm ready to tell the truth about everything...I just need to know what you want, Jason."

He pulled her head down to his shoulder and swallowed roughly, his voice cracking as they heard the zipper of the bag echo in the ballroom. "I want to be with you and the boys, Elizabeth. I want to be a family."

Once, years ago, they were friends. Through outside forces and an odd collection of circumstances, they became more than friends. There was attraction, there were moments where they almost gave in and crossed the line, and then, one glorious late summer night they finally did. They went from being friends to being lovers. Seeing each other open, vulnerable...naked, hadn't created any awkwardness between them and hadn't destroyed their friendship. It had only deepened it, and for one wonderful month they spent every spare moment they could together. Their rides were more meaningful, their games of pool were more fun, and each kiss was a beautiful gift, precious to each of them.

Were they in love with each other? They didn't know. Maybe they'd never looked too deeply, whether because there hadn't been enough time or because they hadn't wanted to ruin the moment by being too instrospective was hard to say. They cared for each other. They were loyal to each other. They supported each other and encouraged each other and defended each other fiercely. Perhaps it was love, and they just hadn't been ready for it.

Maybe if things hadn't happened as they did, they could have ridden the tide of their burgeoning relationship until they both arrived at that place and that moment where they could utter those three little words and have their friendship become knit on an even deeper level. But Labor Day had conspired against them. She got food poisoning at the bar-b-que, but as she sat there in the emergency room, his calloused hand gently brushing the hair back from her face as she clutched the plastic bin and heaved the contents of her stomach into it again, the doctor had asked that fateful question. When was the first date of her last period?

Her brain had frozen, thinking back, and then going into a panic when the last time she could remember was back in July. Before they started sleeping together. As they waited for the lab results, their emotions were clear to each other. Both of them were scared...terrified at the thought of being parents, and when the doctor told them that she wasn't...there had been no way either of them could hide their relief. Things should have been fine for them after that. Except they weren't.

In those moments when she sat there in the cubicle, wondering whether she was about to become a mother, something inside her had shifted. Even though she was relieved that the test was negative, she began to think about the day when it wasn't. She began to envision...to want the moment when she learned she was about to become a parent. And she thought about him standing beside her every moment of the way. Of course, she saw that day still several years away, but their problems came when he confessed that he never saw that day at all.

It wasn't because he didn't want her to be the mother of his children, it's that he didn't see himself having children at all. His life was too unsettled, too unpredictable, too dedicated to others to allow him to settle down with a family. It wouldn't be fair to her, a child, or even to himself. He knew his role in life, he knew what he had to do and what was expected of him, and when he wasn't able to change those parameters, he knew that all of them would become unhappy and perhaps even resentful, and he didn't want that to happen.

She'd tried to accept his decision, and they continued on as before, but nothing was ever the same. She didn't try to change him, but he began to feel bad that she was changing herself for him. She shouldn't have to. She shouldn't have to give up her dreams, her desires just for him. He began to wonder if maybe things were really as unchangeable as he'd believed, but she'd told him that just as he didn't expect her to change for him, she didn't expect him to change for her. They needed to face the reality of the situation; their lives would be on different paths now and they could try to stay together or find a way to make it work, but the truth was they would one day become bitter and resentful if they stayed together. It was time for them to make a clean break.

He'd been dismayed when she left town, and for a while they kept in touch with each other. But having once been lovers, it was hard to go back to being merely friends. Phone calls and letters became less frequent, until he was nothing more than a Christmas card she sent out every year. She'd make an innocuous reference to their time as friends, pre lovers, but nothing in regards to their time as more.

He thought that was how it would always be between them. Distant, pleasant...even fond memories, but never anything more. And they probably would have remained that way had they not, once again through an odd set of circumstances, found themselves stranded together at the airport in Fargo in the middle of a fierce blizzard. He felt a bit like Humphrey Bogart in that movie Michael made him watch over and over that summer the young boy broke his leg and couldn't run outside and play and Jason had spent time with him to distract him. Of all the airports in all the world, they ended up at the same one together, with no way to leave.

With nothing else to do, Jason was stranded with the one woman who had always been in his heart, even after she'd left. The universe really did have a perverse set of humor to trap him with Elizabeth Webber again. There was no power outage due to heat and they weren't in his apartment, but just as that hot, sultry August night when they'd become lovers instead of just friends, Jason once again felt the same pull towards her.

It was amazing how well Jason had aged. When they parted ways all those years ago, she'd never thought she'd see him again, unless she pulled out her old photo album. While she'd never seen him in person, she had seen him on occasion. A newspaper article here or there with a picture, and once she'd turned on the news and seen him on TV after some court case. Despite the years that had passed, and the changes she'd made in her life, she couldn't deny the fact that he still held a special place in her life, and her heart. So to run into him again, it honestly took her breath away.

"Hi," she smiled up at him, trying not to get lost in his blue eyes as she always had.

"Hi," he returned simply. "It...it's good to see you again."

"You too," she replied, even as she wondered if they would be stuck in awkward small talk forever. "What..."

She had been about to ask him what he was doing there, but she remembered it was better to not ask questions about things that might come back to his business. So instead she asked, "How have you been?"

"Good," he stated flatly. "You?"

"Oh," she said, looking away. "Good."

It apparently was going to be one of those painful encounters between former friends. She really should just extract herself from the moment, claim to need to go to the bathroom or something, and allow him to go on his way and when she came out they'd just sit on opposite sides of the terminal and pretend that nothing had ever happened.

"I-I've gotten your Christmas cards," he told her, surprising her by bringing up something more than just polite chatter. "But you never put a return address on them."

"I never sent them to make you feel like you had to send one back," she shook her head. "I just...I just wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas...and I guess just let you know that I still remember you even though we're in different places."

He looked at her, and then his gaze drifted downward. She knew that he was looking at her left hand to see if there was a wedding band and she wondered what he thought that there wasn't one. What would he say if he found out that she'd never married, or even dated anyone long enough to get to a place where she thought the man might propose?

"What...what brings you here?" he asked. "M-meeting someone?"

Elizabeth shook her head, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Conference. Medical conference, actually."

The corner of his lip turned up and he asked, "Really? I thought you didn't like medicine?"

"I didn't like my parents pressuring me on it," she answered. "After a year or so, I was looking for something and I found it when I decided to become a nurse."

"Surgical?" Jason wondered, probably remembering that her parents were skilled surgeons and so was her brother.

She bit her lip before replying, "NICU. I actually helped a woman stuck in her apartment during a blizzard deliver her baby and in that moment...in that moment I knew what I wanted to do."

She swallowed and she saw him tighten his jaw. Determined to not get stuck in the topic that had been their breaking point she continued, "When they heard of it, my parents thought I should become a doctor and go into obstetrics...but I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to take care of those smallest, most precious little lives. I could have been a doctor, but I wouldn't have been with the babies as much as I would have as a nurse. Sometimes, with the really small ones, the really sick ones, they get their own nurse. There is something so inherently amazing to help that child grow, to watch him become stronger and every one that gets discharged from the NICU and goes home with their parents...it is so absolutely...it fills my heart each and every time."

He stared at her and in that moment she was transported back to that day in the emergency room when she'd sat there on the paper covered table and was absolutely petrified over the thought that she might be a mother. Not that she would have hated her child if she was, especially because it would have been part of Jason, but she hadn't been ready for it. Now, she got to take care of so many sweet, little babies and share the love that had been growing in her heart since that day but hadn't found an outlet until then.

Silence stretched between the two of them and Jason opened his mouth, but the words seemed to die on his lips. He closed his mouth, cleared his throat and tried once again with the same results. Just as she'd known that he was searching for a wedding ring or any indication that might tell him if she was married or dating someone, she knew that he wanted to ask her if she'd ever had a child. She thought about making him ask, or leaving it unanswered and hanging between them, but she hadn't parted from Jason to be cruel, and she wouldn't start being mean to him now.

"I never had children," she told him softly, the words forcing their way out of her suddenly tight throat. He gently took her elbow and steered them towards some seats out of the way where they could sit and not have others around them.

"Why?" he wondered. "Your face lights up when you talk about being a nurse and I can feel the love that you have for them radiate off you. You know that I can't really imagine things, but in that moment, I knew that you were a wonderful mother."

"I became a wonderful nurse," Elizabeth answered. "I...I never became a mother because I never got married and I never found someone that I thought about having a child with. I knew that I could try to adopt, but I found a way to be the mother I discovered I wanted to be. I help parents by taking care of their children and watching over their precious babies while they are recovering from the birth or taking care of their other children."

She let out a breath and looked away, shifting in her seat as she wrapped her arms around herself. "I always thought I needed to have a child of my own. That the ache that formed in me would only be filled by the feeling of carrying a baby under my heart and then cradling him in my arms. And...and when we decided to go down different paths, I always thought that some day I would end up with that dream. But then it changed for me...and I found that being a nurse, working in the NICU...it filled that part of me."

Hazarding a glance at Jason she admitted, "I only wish I'd figured it out sooner."

The words hung out there between them, but she didn't regret them. She felt that she owed it to both of them to be honest, even if it might hurt a little, or might be the final communication they ever had.

"When you left," he said, not looking at her and clearing his throat gruffly. "I missed you so much. And it took a while for me to realize that I was missing something else. I didn't figure out what it was until I realized that I was always bringing something to Sonny and Carly for their kids because I was always in the baby section. Whatever store I was in, I'd always find myself in the baby area, looking at everything and...and wishing I'd realized sooner just how much I wanted to have a child."

She closed her eyes and forced herself to ask, "Did you?"

"No," he answered, picking up her hand and causing her eyes to fly open and look at him in surprise. "Because I didn't know where you were."

"Where-where is she?"

The room froze at the sound of the rusty voice and they turned to see the teenager on the bed blinking in confusion as he looked around in confusion and a hint of fear. Jason felt something catch in his chest as he saw his nephew wake up, proof that Carly's insistence he have the surgery was the right one. She was the first of the group to recover and she rushed towards the bed.

"Michael," she breathed out, her face immediately moist with tears as her voice shook. "Oh, Michael...you...you're awake."

She probably would have hugged him and smothered him with love had Jax not stepped up to her and touched her elbow gently. Looking down at his stepson he asked, "How are you feeling, Michael?"

"Where is she?" the young man repeated.

"Where is who?" Carly asked, a frown forming on her face.

"The woman who was always here talking to me," Michael insisted, looking and sounding agitated.

Jax pressed the call button for the nurse while Carly looked at Jason in hurt desperation. He could only imagine what was going through her head. Her son woke up after being in a coma for a year and he didn't immediately say 'hi, Mom, it's great to see you.' He was asking for somebody else, and Carly would take that hurt personally instead of being grateful for the miracle they'd received.

Once the nurse understood Michael was awake, she promised to call Dr. Drake and then come check on the patient. Jason stepped forward, hoping to calm Carly; she really didn't need this stress right now. She needed to focus on the fact that Michael was awake, and once the doctor examined him, they could figure out where to go from there. The young man looked over as he stepped from the corner of the room, and his eyes widened.

"Uncle Jason," he said, almost sounding frantic. "Where is she?"

"Where's who?" he asked, just as confused as the other two people in the room.

"The woman who was always here talking to me," he repeated, his agitation returning. "I could always hear her talking to me. She talked to me about you."

Jason rocked back on his feet slightly, but Michael continued on. "She talked about knowing me when I was younger, coloring with me at Grandma's house and playing with me on the swings. She talked about knowing you and Mom and Jax and even Dad."

He paused, his forehead furrowing in concentration as he squeezed his eyes closed. Then he said the fateful words that were an arrow through Jason's heart. "She...she talked about her boys and the things they liked."

Michael's eyes snapped opened and he stared at his uncle. "She talked about your son."

Carly gasped and Jax sighed as he shifted on his feet. Jason, though felt rooted to the spot even as he wanted to turn and flee. "Is she at home?" his nephew asked. "Is she home with your sons? Is that where she is? I want to see her.

"I want to see her," he repeated his demand when nobody seemed to acknowledge him. "She read to me and she talked to me and I could always hear her."

He looked around the room desperately as Patrick hurried into the room along with doctors and nurses. Michael looked at them all, not understanding why they didn't answer him and demanded, "I want to see her. I want to see her now. Stop keeping her from me! Where is she?!"

"Why don't you step out into the hallway," Patrick suggested with all the subtlety of a command. "We need to examine him."

The stunned trio stepped out into the hallway, the steps heavy and weary and they all flinched as the door was closed firmly behind them. Carly turned around and tried to peer into the room through the tiny window, but finally gave up and turned to look at Jason.

"She was visiting my son?" she demanded and Jason closed his eyes. "What was Elizabeth Webber doing visiting Michael? Talking to him and reading him books and telling him about Jake? What is going on, Jason?"

He sighed and scrubbed his hand over his face. "I don't know, Carly."

Licking his lips, he took a step back, grateful for the excuse to leave to get away from her irrational anger, and also for the opportunity to see someone he had forced himself to stay away from ever since Michael was shot. "But I...I'll go find out."

When she opened the door to the quiet knock, the last person she expected to see was Jason standing on her porch. Perhaps it might have been Robin come to talk to her for a few minutes at the end of the day, allowing the two mothers to unwind and feel like simply women for a moment instead of all the demands and pressures that were put on them. Perhaps it would be Lucky, checking in on her - or more likely checking up on her under the pretense of seeing how the boys were doing. She had told him that while she was continually grateful for his presence in the boys' lives, he had no say in anything she did in her life, and she was not going to get back together with him just because he and Sam were no longer together and Lucky was feeling lonely.

She never expected it to be Jason, though. Not since the night he'd come over to her house after Michael's shooting and told her that they couldn't be together, that they wouldn't be getting married and he would not be in her or the boys' lives had he stepped onto her porch again. While they saw each other around town on occasion and at the hospital, they spoke as if they hardly knew each other. As if they didn't love each other, as if they hadn't been engaged, and as if they didn't have a son.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, fear gripping her heart as the thought that the only reason why he had come was become some enemy had found out Jason had a child and he was here to send her and the boys away.

"I wanted to talk to you," he answered. "Can I...can I come in?"

She nodded and stepped back, letting him inside. She was grateful that the boys were already asleep, and realized that he'd probably planned it that way. After closing the door, she turned and found him standing by her fireplace, looking at the pictures on the mantle.

"Jason?" she questioned. "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Michael woke up today," he replied, turning to look at her.

"He did?" Elizabeth was surprised, but also relieved. "That...that's good news. Right? I mean...Carly and Sonny must be so relieved. And you. Is he alright? Are there any affects from the surgery or the coma?"

"I don't know. I left when Patrick was examining him," he shook his head. "But he knew who we were, and he was talking to us."

"Those are really good signs," she said in encouragement. "That's good."

"He wondered where you were," Jason stated bluntly, looking at her somewhat sharply.

She blinked at him. "What?"

"He wondered where you were. He didn't know your name; he just kept asking 'where is she?' But he said enough that we were able to figure it out. Said how you read to him, how you talked to him, how you talked to him about Carly and Jax and Sonny and me...and then he mentioned Jake. He wondered if you were home with my son and I think he wanted me to get you for him."

Elizabeth swallowed and then licked her lips. She wasn't sure what to say to Jason, he was very hard to read at this moment. Was he mad at her? Was Carly mad? Did he want answers...but to what questions? Was she supposed to defend herself or feel guilty for what she'd done? Normally she would have broken into a nervous stream of babble, but her year away from Jason had done more than injure her heart. It had toughened her, made her less trusting of others, made her warrier and quieter, withdrawn in a way. She'd taken verbal lashings from Dr. Ford and Miss Sneed and didn't break down, she'd learned to be judicious in her statements to her friends and co-workers and she was not going to break down into a jabbering idiot to Jason. If he wanted to know something specific, he would need to state it; she was done trying to read him or fill in the blanks in the conversations he didn't say.

"Did you?" he asked. "Did you visit him?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Was it just when he was at the hospital?" he further pressed.

She firmed her shoulders and lifted her chin. She would not hide or act ashamed of her actions. "No. I also visited him when he was at the AfterCare Institute."

"They never told us," he said.

"Steven arranged my visits," she answered. "I didn't sign in specifically to see Michael."

"Why did he do that?" Jason asked, his eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Because I asked him to," she replied.

"Why?"

"Why did I ask my brother to help me?" she sought to clarify. "Or are you asking why I would go and visit Michael? I mean, after all, he's nothing to me, right? And I'm nothing to him or anybody else connected to him."

He shook his head as he said, "That wasn't what I said, Elizabeth."

"Well the tone of your voice sure sounded like it," she stated.

She couldn't have hurt him more if she'd tried. The thing was, Jason honestly didn't believe Elizabeth was trying to hurt him. She was just being honest about her feelings.

"E-Elizabeth," he shook his head. "That wasn't what I meant. I just...I wanted to know why you visited him."

"Because you love him," she said, her voice tremulous though she was fighting to keep the tears from falling. "He was this innocent child who got hurt and I...I remembered how much you loved him. I remembered finding you in the park that one day holding his hat, hurt because you'd seen him and A.J. down on the docks. I..."

She trailed off and turned away, wearily drawing her hand through her hair. "I know what he is to you and how much you care and...this isn't going to sound good on my part, but I'll be honest with you. I was jealous of him."

Jason frowned at her back. "Jealous?"

"I see Jake every day and he...he looks so much like you," she whispered and he stepped closer to her, even though she still refused to turn around. "But sometimes it's so hard to look at him. To see a daily reminder of you and the life we almost had and what you gave up. And it...and it hurt to know that you couldn't be in Jake's life, but you could spend every waking moment at Carly and Michael's side and I wondered...I wondered why him and why not your own son?"

He sucked in a breath, once again feeling pain.

"It started when he was at General Hospital before they moved him to the AfterCare Institute and I talked to him. I'd talk to him while I checked his vitals and when he left I found myself still walking by his room and wishing he was there. He was in a coma and he was just a boy, but he was someone I could talk to. Someone who would understand the aching hole I had inside me that only you could fill because you had left him before. And one day, I found myself halfway down the road to the Institute and I called Steven and made arrangements, and I just sat by Michael's bed and I talked to him. I felt better when I left and I was able to look at Jake and not want to break down in tears and I...I just kept going back. It was a way to be closer to you," she confessed. "I knew you were still visiting him. You wouldn't visit your son, you'd walk by us on the street and barely say a word, but you would visit Michael and you'd talk to him and sometimes when I visited him, I felt closer to you, knowing that you had been there in the last week or so when I hadn't seen you in a month."

Jason closed his eyes as emotion swam through him. The pain and the humiliation rolling off her were like knives to his soul. She was jealous of a child and trying not to feel that way; she was hurt that he'd turned his back on his own son but continued to be around another child, and yet, she was still so generous and caring that she'd spent hours reading to a comatose boy and telling him stories of other people that when Michael woke up she was the person he wanted. Elizabeth had every reason to hate him, to hate Michael and be bitter towards him, but instead she'd visited him.

"When he came back to General Hospital I'd still talk to him," she admitted. "I told him that there were so many people hoping he'd come back to them. I know that they say people in comas can hear, but I never thought...I never thought he heard so much or that I'd told him as much as I had. I'll apologize to Carly and him and tell him that I won't be around anymore. And...and I guess you'll need to tell him that he can't let anyone know about Jake."

She turned and looked at him, pure misery etched on her face as recrimination ate her every word. "I'm really sorry, Jason. I didn't mean to tell all of this to Michael who now has to lie. I...I really screwed up."

"No," he shook his head, taking another step closer to her and then slowly drawing her into his arms. It had been a year since he'd held her and to have her there again overwhelmed him. The ache he'd carried began to ease as a feeling of absolute rightness filled him. Why was it that he'd ever thought he could walk away from her and their son?

"No," he repeated. "You didn't screw anything up, Elizabeth. I...I think you actually fixed things."

If he died at this moment, he would be content. Well...not content to be dead, but he would be content in the knowledge that he was going to be a father. That a piece of him would live on forever and it would live on with Elizabeth Webber. Her hand cradled his as it rested against her stomach, feeling the strong, solid kicks of their child. It was amazing. It was more, but the only word his brain could seem to focus on at the moment was amazing.

He remembered when he'd felt Cameron kick. That day in the courthouse when Elizabeth came to him to thank him for helping her with Zander's death. She'd been frightened that she would be charged with murdering her child's father, and Jason had been more than willing to sign a statement that he, Ric, Emily and Nikolas all knew was false simply to protect her. The joy on her face, the gratitude and relief, it had made up for any misgivings he might have felt over Ric being a party to his lying. But then she'd gasped, grabbed his hand and he felt her child kick. It was such an intimate moment, that it wasn't until he looked over and saw Courtney's devastated face did he realize how it must have looked to the outside world. It could have been a family moment...and now he was getting that once again.

His child was kicking his hand. Right there, under Elizabeth's heart, their child was letting them know that he was alright. Jason raised his face to look at Elizabeth, but instead only saw a curtain of hair as her head was bowed forward. Her shoulders were rolled in and tense, and he suddenly remembered that he hadn't said anything in response to her confession that he, and not Lucky, was the father of her child. The months that had passed since her paternity test were all a lie, and he sensed she feared his reaction to her confession.

Keeping his hand on her stomach, he braced his other hand on the floor and scooted forward. His movement startled her and she looked up swiftly, her eyes wide and uncertain. Once he could see her, he kept his eyes locked onto hers, not allowing his gaze to waver as he continued to steadily move forward. She watched him, her breath catching in her throat; it came rushing out when Jason lifted his hand and brought it up to her cheek. With one hand on her stomach, still feeling their child move, and one hand on her cheek, he created a circle of connection between them. His thumb brushed across the apple of her cheek and the corner of his mouth turned up when Elizabeth closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

"You have given me the most amazing gift, Elizabeth," he whispered to her softly in the elevator.

Opening her eyes, she looked at him hesitantly. "You-you're not mad?"

"Why should I be?"

"I didn't tell you," she insisted. "I didn't correct you when you told me Carly said that Lucky was the father. Even though you said it was for the best that you weren't the father, I should have been stronger and told you the truth. I did tell you when I found you in the chapel on the docks, but you didn't remember and I chickened out again and didn't tell you after that. I've tried to tell you so many times and I always took the easy way out. I let you believe a lie and I shouldn't have."

"Elizabeth," he said gently, but firmly. "You need to calm down. You need to relax and even your breathing. I know you were having contractions and cramps earlier and part of that could have been from the stress. You need to relax."

He found himself breathing with her when she stopped rambling in almost frantic desperation and drew in a deep lungful of air. As she let it out, he caressed his hand on her stomach in an attempt to calm her. He felt their child kick once more and her abdomen relax.

"Are you okay?" he asked. When she nodded he let out another breath. "Good. I'm...I'm not mad at you, Elizabeth. Right now, at this moment, the last thing going through my head is anger at you for not telling me. You came to my house and I was the one who said Lucky was the father and it was better that way. It was better that I wasn't the father of your child."

"But I should have-" she began, but stopped when he brought his thumb to cover her lips.

He shook his head, "It doesn't matter. We're not going to fight about that. What matters is that you told me now."

"How can you be so forgiving?" she asked him, tears clinging to her lashes. "I lie about you being a father and you're sitting here calming me down. You lie about Sonny not really being dead and I walk out on you and refuse to talk to you."

"Don't do this, Elizabeth," he said. "You need to relax."

Her shoulders fell and she sighed. "You're just being forgiving because you don't want anything to happen to the baby. If I wasn't having contractions you would be upset, wouldn't you?"

"I don't do what ifs," Jason told her. "It doesn't solve anything. Elizabeth, I don't want to fight with you and I'm not going to let you beat yourself up about this. You've been dealing with so much already. I know everyone's been pressuring you to take Lucky back because they believe he's the father of this baby. Everyone's telling you that it's your responsibility to keep him from going back on drugs...but it's not. If he's using again because you refuse to marry him again or let Cameron be around him, then that's his fault. It's not your responsibility to fix him."

When she looked up at him in question he tilted his head to the side and said, "Emily's been talking to me."

Elizabeth looked away from him and he caressed her bare shoulder. "She's been telling me how you're not being fair to Lucky in keeping his child away from him and not giving him something to hope for and I told her that Lucky needs to be responsible for himself. Why won't Nikolas or Lulu or Luke help him go to rehab, why does it have to be you? You're pregnant, you have a toddler to take care of...you don't need the pressure they're putting on you and as your friend she should be thinking about you as well."

The mother of his child looked back at him, wonder on her face as more tears trickled down her cheeks. "Always defending me."

"Just like you always defend me," he returned with a smile. "You shredded my PCPD file...that could have gotten you in a lot of trouble, even with Ric being your ex-husband. But you did it for me. Just like you helped me get Sam out of the hospital even though you were pregnant with my child."

At the mention of the other woman Elizabeth broke contact with him. She scooted back, making a show of adjusting her body and resting her back on the elevator wall as if searching for a comfortable position, but Jason knew. Until he said her name himself he'd forgotten about Sam. He didn't like the lack of connection with Elizabeth and he moved forward again, resting his hand gently on her knee, feeling the silk of her dress. Elizabeth wouldn't look at him, instead playing with the hem of her dress on the floor and smoothing her hand over her stomach, emphasizing the swell of their child.

"Marry me," Jason said, breaking the silence between them and surprising them both.

Her head whipped up and she stared at him. "What?"

His hand reached out, resting on their child once again and he repeated. "Marry me."

"Jason," she shook her head sadly. "You...you don't have to say that just because you found out this is your child. Besides...what-what about Sam?"

He leaned back and looked at her and apparently he stayed silent too long because she hesitantly asked, "I...I mean...would you still see her? You...you were trying to have a child with her after you thought this baby wasn't yours so...so now you suddenly want to marry me? Am I supposed to accept that...that Daddy's...friend comes over, or will you find a place for her?"

"Do you think I would marry you and keep seeing Sam?" he asked her. "That I would set her up as my mistress when everyone knows I'm married to you?"

She scooted away from him, breaking contact and then said, "You did with Courtney."

"I won't do that to you or our children, Elizabeth," he vowed to her.

"But Sam-"

"Was there," he said, knowing it would make him look bad. "I thought your child was Lucky's and I didn't want to complicate your life any more than I already had when I slept with you. I knew you were divorced from him, but everyone was putting such pressure on you and I didn't want to make things more difficult for you by being near you."

Elizabeth closed her eyes and confessed, "I tried to be happy for you and Sam. You...you told me it was better if Lucky was the father and then you were trying to have a baby with Sam...I thought that meant you wanted a baby, just not with...with someone like me."

"Someone like you?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "You mean someone who is kind, who is already a wonderful mother, who works hard to provide for herself and her son, who tries not to complain, who rarely asks for help even though she knows her friends could easily pay her rent or help with car repairs so she didn't have to work a double shift while she was pregnant? Or someone who is beautiful, who is talented and smart? Why wouldn't I want to have a child with someone like you?"

Even in the red emergency lighting of the elevator, he could see two dark spots of crimson appear on Elizabeth's cheeks as she looked down and bit her lip.

"I am...honored someone like you is the mother of my child," he told her. He once again moved across the elevator, closing the distance between them and brought his hand up to cup her cheek and lift her face so her gaze met his. "You are so beautiful, Elizabeth. You were beautiful that night you walked into Jake's, but you were young and you were hurt and you were angry. I had no idea that you would become my friend...you were Emily's."

He slowly lowered one hand to rest on her stomach and their child rolled and pressed against his palm. "And I had no idea that one day you would be the mother of my child or that I would love you as much as I do."

Her soft gasp filled the small elevator car and her eyes widened. There was disbelief, fear and hope warring in them and he said, "I love you, Elizabeth. I-I should have told you sooner. I...I should have told you that night in August, but I knew that the timing wasn't right."

"Jason," she said softly, tears once again making their way down her cheeks. "Oh, Jason. I-I love you, too."

"Marry me," he repeated, his voice now pleading with her, yearning for her to agree. "Marry me because you love me and I love you."

She looked uncertain and he said, "We'll figure it out, Elizabeth. I know we will. Just marry me."

"Why...why didn't you say any of this before?" she wondered. "I...I don't want you to feel like you have to marry me just because I'm pregnant. There are other things we can do."

"I want to marry you," he told her. "I...I tried to tell myself that it was for the best that Lucky was the father. Me being the father of your baby will complicate things. People will see you and your children as a way to get to me, there will need to be guards, there will need to be precautions taken and I thought you were happier without the complications I bring to your life. But I never stopped caring about you, Elizabeth, and there were times that I wished I'd been the father simply so that you would have an excuse to tell Lucky and everyone else to go away and stop bothering you. I want to take care of you, to help you, to protect you, to make you happy, to give you and Cameron the life you deserve."

A watery sigh filled the air before she said, "Oh, Jason."

"Hearing you tell me this was my child," he caressed her stomach again, wondering if he would ever tire of the feeling of their child beneath his palm. "It changed something in me, Elizabeth. I don't know how else to describe it, but it changed something in me. I can't deny that. I don't want to deny it. I know people will be hurt, and I know that they'll be upset and they'll tell us that we're wrong and that we don't have to do this...but I can't imagine not having you and my child in my life. I've missed you since you left in August."

"Yes," Elizabeth said softly.

He looked at her, at first wondering what she was telling him, and then a smile formed on his face when he realized she was answering his question. "Yes? You'll marry me?"

She nodded, her ever-present tears now accompanied by a large smile. "Yes."

"There will never be another woman, Elizabeth," he told her. "I know it will hurt her and she'll lash out, but I'll tell Sam the truth."

"I'll tell the Lucky the truth," she promised. "It's not going to be pretty."

"We're in this together," he vowed to her. "I won't let him hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you."

Brushing his thumb across her cheek, he lost himself in the feel of her skin. That night in August when he finally was able to touch all of her, he would always remember the feel of her skin. He thought it was out of his reach forever, but now to know that she loved him, that she was carrying his child and would marry him…he knew that he would have the freedom to touch her again. Her eyes drifted closed and she leaned her face into his hand, her delight and contentment evident on her face.

He used his hand to bring her closer while he leaned towards her. His lips brushed softly across hers, gently and giving her plenty of opportunity to pull back if she wanted. It didn't happen; she followed him when he tried to pull back, seeking to deepen the kiss. It was all the encouragement he needed and he pulled her close, his hand tangling in her long tresses while his hand remained firmly on their child. He loved this child, he loved her, and he was done fighting what he felt for her. This time he was going after what he wanted.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word; Momma's gonna buy you a mockingbird. And if that mockingbird don't sing; Momma's gonna buy you a diamond ring."

Her voice was weak and shaky as she cooed to Jake in a scratchy whisper. Huddled in an alcove barely big enough to cover her if someone should look intently, she swayed back and forth in an attempt to rock her son to sleep. Much like his father, Jake seemed amused by her efforts at singing, but he did quiet when she serenaded him. She needed him to sleep, even if she knew that he would become even heavier once he did. Asleep, he wouldn't fuss; he wouldn't whimper...he wouldn't give away their hiding space.

She didn't know what was going on in the world around her, didn't know where people were or what danger was still out there. All she knew was that she had to hide, she had to keep quiet, and she had to keep her son safe. It just tore her soul into two because while she was here with Jake, Cameron was alone and unattended. She didn't know if he'd been captured, she didn't know if he'd been found, she didn't know anything, except that for now, she and Jake had not been discovered. And she would do everything in her power to keep it that way.

Jake whimpered and she pressed his face to her shoulder to muffle the sound, and then held her breath when a shuffling sound stopped abruptly. She didn't sing, she merely continued to sway side to side in an effort to lull her son into an even deeper sleep. The little boy twitched as he succumbed to her efforts, and Elizabeth slowly released the air that was burning her lungs. Either she'd been discovered, or the unknown person out there decided to continue on, because the shuffling sound recommenced, coming ever closer.

Pressing back as far as she could against the rocky crevice in the cave, Elizabeth's eyes went wide and she bit her lips to keep from gasping out loud as Sam came closer. She didn't have a gun out, she didn't look concerned for being in the tunnel, she looked annoyed. The woman who had had come to her house with Lucky and claimed to speak on behalf of Jason sure didn't look helpless or incapacitated as she did the last time Elizabeth saw her. In fact, she looked quite chummy walking next to the man beside her. The man with a gun that was no longer pointed at Sam as it had been back at the cabin Sam had taken her to.

"Sasha isn't happy," the man chided Sam. "She wants Morgan's kid because it will make it easier to control him. Mr. Karpov wants to move his product through and Sasha has promised to make it possible. You were supposed to be a part of that by distracting Morgan while allowing us to go after his woman and child."

"She's not his woman," Sam muttered, stopping and uselessly swinging the flashlight from side to side. "And Sasha may want Jake alive, but trust me...if you'd just done your job and shot him, the plan would have worked much better. Jason's already a mess because of what happened to Michael. If Jake had died, he'd have pushed Elizabeth away for good if she didn't already leave him. She'd never forgive him if something happened to their son. You were supposed to go in and kill the stupid brats while I distracted Elizabeth, but you had to change the plan."

"How were we supposed to know exactly what room they were in?" the man asked. "We had to make it look believable. You said she was weak and pathetic; she shot and killed Alexi and then grabbed her son and ran. Not exactly weak and pathetic to me."

"Shut up," Sam snapped. "She couldn't have run far. The kid's just dead weight. You've seen her, how would she get far with him holding her back?"

"Mother's have untold reserves when their children are threatened," the man stated with a shrug. "She did shoot a man; she's probably going on adrenaline."

"She'll never last," his companion stated definitively. "And if I have to make sure of it personally, then I will. I'm not sticking around with Lucky and doing all of this because I like him...this is all about getting rid of Elizabeth Webber and her children and getting Jason back."

"You said Morgan doesn't know what's happening," the gunman said, his words causing Elizabeth's heart to sink.

"He doesn't," Sam asserted. "But the longer she and Jake are missing, the more chance he might hear something. Someone could find Cameron and he's old enough that he could tell them what's happening. Once word gets to Jason, he'll come charging after Jake with both guns blazing."

"And the woman?"

"You leave Elizabeth Webber to me," the traitor declared. "I know how to press her buttons."

The pair moved on and Elizabeth closed her eyes. She was such a fool. She'd taken Sam at her word when she arrived with Lucky telling her that Jason wanted her and the boys to get to safety. Lucky brought up a cabin that he and Sam knew about and how it would be safe for them. She'd never once thought that Jason wouldn't agree to it. Elizabeth had let her jealousy and insecurities get the better of her. She knew that Jason was spending time with Sam to track down Jerry Jacks and the Russian mob. He was letting her back into his life while pushing Elizabeth out and she'd somehow believed that Sam was closer and knew what Jason was thinking.

So she'd packed up her boys and went to the remote woods, instead of following her gut and demanding to speak to Jason. Why weren't they going to a safe house? Why were they relying on just Sam, who was investigating the Russian mafia along with Lucky, instead of having guards sent with them? If they were truly in danger, wouldn't it have been better to have men that Jason could rely on? Instead, with Lucky and Sam pressuring her, and her fear of men bursting into her home running through her, she'd gone along with the plan presented.

And walked right into a trap.

Cameron was alone back at the cabin. Jason had no idea what was happening. Sam was working with the Russians to get Jason back, eliminate Jake and Elizabeth from his life, and was planning on dealing with Elizabeth.

No.

Elizabeth was not going to allow it to happen. She was not going to cower in the corner like a frightened child. She had children to protect and she was their mother; they were relying on her to take care of them like she always did. This was her duty; she was a mother. Nobody was going to harm her children while she just stood around and did nothing. If Jason wasn't on his way to find her and Jake, then Elizabeth was going to do this on her own. She was going to protect her children, no matter what she had to do.

Stepping forward quietly, Elizabeth knew that she had to get out of the tunnels. She was not going to be a sitting duck.

Jason was confused as he drove down the rustic road looking for the roadside stop that had been described to him. To say the call confused him would have been an understatement, but there was no way he could sit at home and not come. An older woman called his cell phone and told him that his sister and her two young children had shown up and banged on the door until she and her husband woke up and let them in. The woman was in a poor condition, most likely exhaustion from carrying two little boys while they slept, and needed his help. It was problems with her ex-husband, and she needed her brother.

Emily was dead, and there was only one person he knew who would claim to be her that had two little boys. Something had happened to Elizabeth, but it was bad enough to make her not want to use her own name. It worried Jason, especially since she should have been in town. He'd worried about her and the boys, he'd longed to see them, but he'd stayed away because with everything that was happening with Jerry and the Russians it just wasn't safe. He was not going to be responsible for her or her sons ending up like Michael.

The diner came into view and Jason slowed down, easing his truck off the road and around back to the house while scanning the area looking for traps. He made sure his jacket was loose so that he could easily access his gun if needed as he approached the back door like he'd been instructed. An older man answered the door gruffly when Jason knocked and grumbled about people showing up at all hours of the night, but he led Jason into the house where the woman from the phone greeted him.

"She's in here," the woman said, tipping her head to a closed door. "She won't let go of the boys and she won't let me take care of her; she said she was waiting for you."

"Thank you," Jason replied, clearing his throat that was clenched with worry.

He started towards the room but the woman placed her hand on his arm and stopped him. "I don't know what happened to her, but you need to take care of her and those little boys. Family don't turn their back on family, and if her ex-husband is causing problems for her then you better step up and take care of her."

"I will," he vowed solemnly. That's all he ever wanted to do was take care of Elizabeth and her children. That's why he stayed away from them, even when it broke his heart.

"Then I'll let you two talk," the woman said. "And if she's ready for me to take care of her, just let me know. Or I can give you the supplies. She needs tending to."

Worry began to grip him as Jason knocked on the door. "E-Emily," he said. "It's me."

He didn't hear anything, but turned the knob and slowly pushed the door open. The room was dim and he stepped in, letting his eyes adjust to the light in the closet that filtered out from around the partially closed door. Elizabeth wasn't on the bed, but in a corner of the room, her back pressed against the wall. She could easily see the door and the window from her vantage point. She had one arm around each of the boys, and they were snuggled up to her side, but they weren't on her lap pinning her down. Beside her, easily reachable was a gun that startled Jason when he saw it.

Her body was tense, and her knees were drawn up as if she was ready to pounce at any moment. Despite the obvious pain she had to be in, her feet were flat on the floor, and if they hurt her, she wasn't showing it. He could see what the woman meant; Elizabeth needed her feet tended to. Even though she was wearing socks, they were bloody and the cloth was in tatters. She must have walked over rough ground and a long distance with no shoes on, but Jason had no idea why.

"Elizabeth?" he asked softly as he approached and knelt down in front of her. He swept her gun out of the way and tried to reach for Cameron, but she convulsed her arm around the little boy, refusing to let go of him.

"No," she insisted. "No. I'm not letting go of them. They're my boys, I'm not letting go of them."

"They're asleep, Elizabeth," he told her. "I'm just going to put them on the bed so I can take care of you and so you can tell me what's going on."

"No," she insisted again, shaking her head vigorously and her hand letting go of Jake just long enough to reach to the side where the gun used to be. "No. I'm their mother; I take care of them. There's nobody else we can rely on except for me and I'm not letting go of them. He was alone and he was scared and...and never again."

"Elizabeth," he said firmly, once more reaching for a child. This time he reached for Jake, and moved her arm out of the way. He grabbed a blanket and pillow from the bed and placed the little boy down where Elizabeth could see him. Then he reached for Cameron and it was a harder time, but he got her to let go. She watched his every move and wouldn't look at him when he returned to her.

"What happened?" he asked, placing his hand on her knee and straightening her leg.

"Sam and Lucky showed up and said that the boys and I were in danger from the Russians. We went to a cabin that they knew of. Sam said that you told her to go with me and I...I believed her because I knew you'd been working with her," she whispered in anguish. "Then men came and broke into the cabin. I shot one while another one held Sam. I heard a sound from the back and I rushed in and got Jake and told Cam to hide and then I ran. I left my son in a cabin with a woman who was working with the men who tried to kidnap Jake to get leverage on you. Sam was looking for me and Jake so she could kill us to get us out of your life and get you back and so that you'd be weak for Karpov to go after."

Elizabeth looked up at him with wide eyes and said the words that damned Jason's soul. "After listening to her I knew that you had no idea we'd left town, that it was all a set-up and the boys and I were in danger from her. I was not going to sit around waiting for someone to rescue us, or fall into her hands. I made my way back to the cabin, got Cameron and started walking. I'm their mother and it's my job to protect them and I was not going to sit down and do nothing while I had the strength to fight back."

"You did good, Elizabeth," he told her gently, wincing as he peeled the socks from her bruised and lacerated feet. There were pieces of rock, vegetation and dirt in the cuts, but she never even flinched as he tried to help her. No doubt, there was a part of her still in shock from the whole ordeal of the night.

"You protected them," Jason said. "You kept them safe until you could call for help. I'm glad you called me."

Especially since she had no reason to trust him since he hadn't known what was happening and had let Sam begin to worm her way back into his life. Elizabeth could have been resentful and held it against him, but she called him. On some level, he hoped that meant she still trusted him; he would do everything in his power to show her that it wasn't misplaced.

"I'm going to make sure you and the boys are safe," he told her. "I'm putting guards on you, and the safest place for you is in the penthouse. And then I'm going to do what I should have done long ago as their father...I'm going to eliminate the threats to them and any new ones that come along. You didn't let go of them, Elizabeth, and I'm not going to either."

Sometimes he wondered why exactly he'd survived the accident that fateful winter night.

In a desperate attempt to save his brother who'd been drinking again, he'd climbed in the car as it sped out of the estate. He'd argued with his brother, or so he'd been told, to slow down, to stop, to let him drive, to let him drive A.J. to a rehab facility and get some help. Apparently Jason Quartermaine had been a chump as well as a do-gooder golden boy. He should have known that arguing with someone would just make them more stubborn and determined not to change.

According to the police report, the car had reached speeds in excess of 80 miles an hour on a winding, twisting road that ran along the cliffs. It had been one of his favorite places to drive on his motorcycle and he couldn't believe that his brother had managed to retain control of the car as long as he had while going that fast along those corners. So it wasn't entirely surprising that when A.J. lost control of the car and slid off the road coming to an abrupt halt as the car T-boned into a tree, that utter destruction was inflicted on the Quartermaine family that night.

A.J. had died at the scene. Crushed in the car, he'd bled to death quickly from the puncture to his femoral artery. Jason had been thrown from the car, smashed into a bolder and then laid unconscious for hours. When he was found, he was barely clinging to life. By some miracle he'd survived, and when he woke up from a coma six weeks later, the miracle turned into a nightmare. He didn't remember anybody, and after talking to his family, he was rather glad he hadn't.

The Quartermaines were certifiably crazy. They were loud, obnoxious, demanding and suffocating. They were so happy to still have one of their sons, but refused to accept the fact that he wasn't the man he was before. As soon as he was able to leave the hospital and access the trust fund that was rightfully his, he left their house. It wasn't long after that he left town.

Angry, confused, not knowing the way of the world, he couldn't stand living in a town where everyone looked at him and tisked over the fact that he was no longer Jason Quartermaine. They looked at him like he was damaged, treated him like he was stupid, and when they weren't talking behind his back, they were lying to his face. The only thing he managed to do right was not fall victim to the local crime boss who apparently thought he'd be easy pickings with his whole babe in the woods demeanor.

While Jason Morgan didn't remember Sonny Corinthos and what he'd done to Karen Wexler, there was something about the Latino when he'd approached him at Luke's Club where Jason was parking cars that set off warning bells. There was too much smarm and polish, but a feral danger lurking underneath that couldn't quite be hidden, and Jason had been civil because he knew the man was partners with Luke, but he didn't say more than was necessary. In the end, it was his little sister Emily who helped him understand what he'd sensed about the older man.

She timidly approached him as he sat outside the blues club waiting for his shift to begin and told him that she hoped he continued to avoid Sonny. She explained that the mafia don had run a strip club and gotten Jason Quartermaine's friend hooked on drugs and stripping while she was a teenager. Emily then admitted that one of Sonny's drug runners had hit on her at school and was harassing her because she wouldn't go out on a date with him. Lucky had punched him, told his dad and Luke was currently fighting with Sonny over the man selling drugs in high school. His sister wasn't trying to tell him what do; she just wanted him to have all the facts. That one simple sentence was the only reason Jason had ever talked to her more, and was why she was the only other person beside their grandmother that he kept in contact with after he left Port Charles.

They weren't entirely happy that he left town, and they worried about him, but they didn't try to tell him what to do. He traveled with no particular direction or purpose, and sometimes went to places where rational people wouldn't. Perhaps he did have a bit of a death wish in the beginning. He was still learning and growing and didn't think about the future. When he signed on to work on a merchant marine vessel, he did it because he wanted the hard work and because some man in a bar had insulted him and said he was just a pampered rich boy floating around the world on money he hadn't earned. While on the boat he found a purpose, he found respect, and he found a life to pursue.

He learned, he worked hard, and when he felt he was ready, he purchased his own boat and hired his own crew. Many were older than him, but he soon earned their trust and respect by his attitude and demeanor towards them, and by the fact that even though he owned and captained the boat, he still was willing to pitch in and work hard with the rest of the men. His boat had been called up to assist in war efforts, moving men and cargo where the military needed, and after years of service, they were released to go home.

It was just that Jason wasn't sure where home was anymore. For so long he'd thought of the boat as home; his home port simply happened to be the place where he was at when he purchased the ship. He didn't own much, he didn't need much, and he was content to live in his cabin even when the rest of the crew was on R&R and they were between jobs. But as he made friends with the men who worked for him and watched them go home to parents, girlfriends, wives and children, he began to feel that there was something missing. He hung out in bars and trolled for women in port, but that wasn't home. While his grandmother and sister wrote and he occasionally called them, it no longer was the same. He began to long for more companionship.

So this time when the ship docked, Jason decided that he'd leave the boat for a while. He went to his favorite watering hole, looked around at the women who waited for sailors and mariners to come into town and decided that maybe one of them would do. Maybe he'd only stay at their place for a couple of weeks, or maybe he'd see if they thought something long-term might work. He really didn't care much who he hooked up with...he just wanted to see if he couldn't fill the ache that had formed in his chest every time he thought of his solitary and lonely cabin on board.

"Hey, Mister." A small voice sounded near his ear as a finger poked his shoulder. "Hey, Mister...are you awake?"

Jason tried to open his eyes, but it felt like someone had Superglued them together. His head throbbed and his body ached and he could have easily fallen back asleep if it wasn't for the tiny finger that continued to poke his upper arm.

"Mister?"

"What?!" he growled, turning his head and forcing his eyes open.

He had automatically adopted his angry captain's face, which he regretted when he registered who was standing at his side. A young boy with curly brown hair and the deepest brown eyes gasped and took a step back. His eyes filled with tears and his hand came up to his mouth and Jason didn't know who he was, but the sight of his heartbroken look was almost too much to bear. Trying to soften his face, he could only sigh in defeat when the little boy turned and ran from the room while the first sob broke.

"Cam?" A gentle, yet disembodied voice floated into the room, and he heard footsteps approach. A petite brunette peeked into his room, frowned when she saw he was awake and looked like she wanted to come in, but another wail sounded and she hurried past the open doorway. "Cam?"

A little while later she reappeared with the child on her hip. Her hand rubbed soothingly over the boy's back while he buried his face in her neck. "Cam, honey," she said softly. "There's no reason to be afraid. Remember Mommy told you someone was here."

"Scary," was all the little boy said.

"I think that's my fault," Jason confessed regretfully. "I was a little short when I woke up and I think I scared him."

The woman sighed and he was expecting her to scold him, but instead she said, "He was in here, wasn't he? I'm really sorry about that. When I told him that there was someone sleeping in the guest room he was insistent that you get up and have pancakes with us like his uncle does whenever he comes to visit. I couldn't get him to understand that you needed to sleep because you were sick."

"Where am I?" Jason asked in confusion.

"You're at my house," she told him, as if it answered everything. "I found you outside some ratty bar by the docks and realized you were in pretty bad shape. We've only got a clinic in the area, and I'm a nurse there so I figured I could take care of you at home as easily as I could take care of you at the clinic."

"What happened?"

"My guess?" she shrugged. "I think you ticked off one of the locals. You were fairly beat up; looked like standard fight bruises. I checked your I.D. and realize you own one of the ships that docks here from time to time. Word of advice? Don't go after the women with boyfriends...I would imagine you said something that ticked one of the men off. I've seen this same scenario a few times, and you mariners are all the same; just because you have a boat doesn't mean you get to insult the women or act like they're just ripe for the taking."

Jason was a bit surprised by the frankness of her words, especially in front of her son, but perhaps if she'd grown up and lived here, she was accustomed to people who worked on boats and the docks. Perhaps her husband worked there.

"So I got in a fight last night?" he asked, ready to get up and get his things, yet he could barely move.

"Hey," she chided him gently taking a step towards him. "Don't try to get up yet."

She looked down at the top of the little boy's head as it was still tucked into her shoulder and said gently, "Cam, honey, why don't you go put in one of your movies? Mommy needs to take care of Mister Jason so I need to set you down."

Brown eyes peeked at Jason quickly before they darted away, and then he looked at his mother and nodded. With a brilliant smile she released him and watched him scamper off. Once he was gone, the woman turned back to Jason and was all business.

"I'm Elizabeth," she introduced herself. "And you didn't get in a fight last night, that was several days ago. You were beaten up, but it was your other health issues that made me bring you here. I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you're one of those captains that survives on coffee and nicotine and you eat when your first mate shoves a plate under your nose and forces you to. Even then, I don't imagine that guys on a ship are too big on healthy choices."

Sitting down on a chair beside his bed, she reached for his wrist and felt his pulse. Then she peered at him. "You may be young, and muscularly fit...but you're a young heart attack waiting to happen. You don't eat right you're not going to last long. I'm not here to lecture you; I'm just saying that if you don't want to get an early grave you need to focus on taking better care of yourself."

"You're a bit of a mother hen, aren't you?" he asked. He wasn't being mean, and Elizabeth didn't seem to take offense to it.

"I'm a nurse and a mother," she laughed. "Two of the biggest mother hen professions around; I was like this even before I had Cam, it's why I chose medicine."

"I bet you take good care of your husband," he chuckled, even though he was hit with a sense of unexpected jealousy over the situation.

"Never had a husband," she shook her head and then looked over her shoulder at the open doorway. Lowering her voice she explained, "Cam's father was one of those men who didn't look forward to coming home to port, as soon as he found out I was expecting he took off and never looked back."

He wanted to tell her he was sorry, that he admired her strength...many things suddenly ran through his mind as he looked at her, but he couldn't seem to put any of them into words.

She patted his arm gently and then said, "Now that you're awake, we'll get you fixed up. Then if you want to go trolling for the local flavors again, you'll be healthier. I still just suggest you don't try to go after the ones with jealous boyfriends."

He wanted to tell her that wouldn't be a problem. Because the only one he was now interested in in seeing if something long term could develop didn't have a husband. He just had to apologize to a young boy and make sure that Cam knew he wasn't a scary monster, but actually someone he and his mom might like to have around.

Italy looked beautiful on Elizabeth, just as Jason always knew it would. Her smile was bright and free, the wind blew through her hair giving her a natural, gentle look, and she had updated her simple American wardrobe, to a simple Italian wardrobe that didn't completely consist of T-shirts and jeans. While she still wore those, there was something extra about her that made her look even more beautiful than she already was.

It was amazing to see Elizabeth here in this place. It was also heartbreaking. Because he hadn't been the person to bring her here. Oh, he was responsible for Elizabeth coming to Italy, but it simply wasn't the same.

When he canceled on her after Sonny's wedding, choosing to stay in town and deal with the threat of Anthony Zacharra and once again told Elizabeth he couldn't see her, he lost her. She tried to fight him, she called him, she asked to meet him, she showed up when he refused to come to her, and then one day it all just stopped. When he gave her yet another lecture on the danger instead of kissing her, when he pushed her away instead of holding her closing and making love to her, when he chased after Sonny and Carly's children instead of focusing on his own, Elizabeth finally withdrew.

Cody entered the office one day, looking uncomfortable and as if he'd prefer to be anywhere but where he was, and handed him an envelope. Inside were Elizabeth's ticket and a letter. She asked if he could cash in her ticket and his, and get three new ones in coach; in her name, and Cameron and Jake's. She didn't say anything beyond asking for them to be open-ended because she intended to stay a while with the boys and truly look around. He'd picked up the phone and nearly called her to apologize once again for not meeting her that day at the airport, but then Spinelli burst into the room with information about Zacharra and the latest looming threat of the Russian mob being led by a guy named Karpov, and he set the receiver back in the cradle.

When he finally remembered Elizabeth's request, he told Bernie to get the tickets changed, and to set up a credit card account in her name with unlimited funding, and he wanted them immediately. When Bernie brought them to him, Jason wrote a brief note and asked Elizabeth to accept the credit card because he truly wanted her to enjoy the trip, and asked that she buy something for Jake and Cameron from him because he wished he could be there, even though they both knew it was impossible. Then he had the package messengered to Elizabeth's house and went back to work with a heavy sigh.

He was alerted the day she and the boys flew to Italy, and though she didn't use it often, Bernie told him that she had made several purchases with the credit card. His heart still ached over the thought that he wasn't there with her, but he took solace in the fact that she had finally made it to Italy. That she had finally gotten her dream and that however small his part, he'd been the one to give it to her. He loved her and he wanted the best for her; he just knew that he couldn't be a part of that life with her right now.

It was strange to go to General Hospital and not see her behind the desk in her scrubs and feel the heat of her gaze before she'd quickly look away and act like they barely knew each other. It was odd to not find her at Kelly's having a quick dinner, or just a treat with the boys before they headed off somewhere. It was strange to walk along the docks and not see light in her studio window, and it was disheartening to not feel the warmth radiating from her home simply because she and her sons were inside it. Even though he knew that he couldn't be with them, he was always reassured by the fact that they were safe and happy together with each other. He liked his occasional glimpses of her, even though they pierced him.

But when the days turned into weeks, and Elizabeth and her children hadn't returned, Jason began to feel restless and antsy. He was short-tempered when dealing with Sonny's stupidity, Carly's insensitivity, Spinelli's ineptitude and Sam and Lucky's flaunted relationship. He pressed for the full-court elimination of the Zacharras and didn't listen to Sonny when the man wanted to go after the Russians. The ex-mob boss refused to listen to Jason when he told the older man he'd found information that said Kate's shooting was a set-up; the man was determined to act as he always did. Shoot first and ask questions later.

When the Russians retaliated and killed Sonny for shooting Andre Karpov, Jason faced a double-sided war. Until Claudia Zacharra followed in her father's dead footsteps and Johnny accepted Jason's offer to absorb his territories, things had been dicey and he'd often gone days without sleep. Once Trevor Lansing was eliminated along with the Zacharra lieutenants who refused to give their loyalty to Jason, things began to settle down and Jason could turn his attention to letting the Russians know that Sonny had acted on his own and he wouldn't eliminate them completely so long as they all went back to Russia. If they stayed and continued to make assaults on his organization and his territory, then he would handle them appropriately.

By the time the two-front mob war quieted down, Jason realized that months had passed and Elizabeth had not returned to Port Charles. Full-blown panic hit him and Bernie could only inform him that the last time Elizabeth had used the credit card he'd given her had been over a month ago. Spinelli was ordered to use his full skills to find Elizabeth and Jason was ready to call any and all of his contacts in Europe when the hacker declared that he'd found Elizabeth and her progeny. What he'd found had stunned Jason and made him realize that things had irreparably changed between him and the woman he loved.

She'd given up the lease on her house, quit her job at General Hospital and moved to Italy. Spinelli found a lease in Tuscany, and an application to become accredited to work in Italy as a nurse. She had moved from Port Charles, and hadn't said anything to him. Jason had ordered his employees from the office and sat there in stunned numbness as he realized that he'd lost his family for good. He wondered how she could do something like that and not at least let him know until he discovered the letter on the bottom of all the papers and files on his desk. It had gotten lost in the shuffle, the faded postmark showing it had been mailed nearly two months prior. He closed his eyes and nearly drowned in the guilt and self-recrimination that hit him. She had written, and in the chaos of the war he'd missed it; they'd gotten shuffled to the bottom of the pile and she was probably hurt that he'd never replied.

As he braced his elbows on the desk and buried his face in his hands, he could only wonder what he'd done and if the damage would be permanent. He made up his mind that he was going to go see her, and he didn't let anything stop him this time. He told his men what to do, told them to call him if they had to, but he wasn't going to be in town. He had to go to Italy and he wasn't sure when he'd be back. But after he got to Italy, he wished that he could just get back onto his plane and slink away because what he saw nearly tore him two.

Elizabeth was beautiful and smiling; she was laughing and joyful. She delighted in walking through the marketplace with the boys, and she turned full-kilowatt smiles on the man by her side. He was courteous and respectful; holding the door open for her, pulling out her chair at the table when they sat and had lunch, gently placing his hand on her back as they moved through the crowds. The boys laughed and looked at him with open adoration and Jason felt sick inside. The family he wanted was about to become someone else's, and he had nobody to blame for that but himself. He was just about to turn to leave so he didn't have to watch anymore when he heard a shout across the square.

"Jay-son!"

His head whipped around and he saw Cameron dart away from Elizabeth and the man standing next to her. Elizabeth looked frightened and panicked and she ran after her son while the man picked up Jake and ran after her. Jason moved through the crowd to intercept the little boy who didn't understand the inherent danger of running towards him and caught the tiny bundle of energy when Cameron barreled into his legs.

"Cam," he said, allowing himself the small luxury of hugging the little boy.

"Cameron." Elizabeth's voice was sharp as she reached them.

"Mommy," her son said, turning to look at her. "It's Jason."

Her eyes slowly met his, her smile nowhere in sight, her eyes no longer bright and vibrant but banked and tempered, before she quickly looked away. "Cameron, you can't run off like that. You know you have to stay with me and Franco."

"Sorry," he said contritely. "But I saw Jason and I missed him and he was turning away and I thought he didn't see us."

Jason swallowed thickly and stood, holding the boy in his arms and looked at Franco as he stood behind Elizabeth after passing her Jake. The man's face was blank as he regarded Jason. She still wouldn't look at him, instead keeping her face buried in her son's shoulder, but he saw her shoulder's rising and falling rapidly until with a shudder she lifted her head and spoke.

"Cam, I want you and Jake to go with Franco. Pick out some bread for us to have tonight with dinner, okay?" She handed Jake to the other man, and then reached for Cameron and set him down, not letting go until her son had taken Franco's hand. The crowd jostled them and Jason stepped forward as someone crowded him, a move that caused Elizabeth to immediately step back.

Once the others were gone, she looked at him and asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I had to see you," he said, quickly explaining the wars and the lost letter and how he'd immediately set out to see her once he discovered she moved. "I wasn't ignoring you, Elizabeth; please don't think that."

"Why not?" she asked. "You ignored us when we were living in the same city."

Then she shook her head and said, "I...I don't understand why you're here."

"I wanted to talk to you," he said on a near plea.

She shook her head, drawing her lip in between her teeth and looked over her shoulder at her children and the man she'd been with earlier. "I...I don't know, Jason. I just...I can't do this right now. When you didn't answer my letter I had to make new priorities and I...I just can't do this right now in the middle of the market."

Then she turned and walked away and Jason sighed as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He brushed over a folded piece of paper in what should have been an empty pocket and withdrew his hand and the note, his eyes scanning the area for any clue about who might have placed it. He unfolded it and his brow furrowed together.

Mr. Giambetti would like to meet with you to discuss the guards he's placed on your family. Tonight, 8 PM, your hotel suite.

Jason frowned. Max had placed men to watch Elizabeth and the boys? Then his eyes closed as he remembered his employees' father who had visited from Sicily right around the time that Kate was shot and who Jason once wondered if he'd seen Elizabeth in his office. If it was Maximus Giambetti who had placed guards on Elizabeth and the boys, then that meant everything had changed. If someone who had only been in town a short time had figured things out, then Jason knew he had much to rectify. After meeting with the older man, he was going to see Elizabeth...and he was going to do whatever he had to make this right again.

"What is wrong with you?"

Narrowing her eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest she went to speak but Jason didn't give her the opportunity to. "You made it sound like something was wrong, that I needed to get over here right away and I come here and find that you're fine. That you want to see me whenever you can. You've got paint buckets and tarps and a ladder...what was next, Elizabeth, were you going to ask me to paint with you?"

She had thought about it, but after facing his inscrutable face and the frustration that rolled off him, she certainly wouldn't admit that now. Instead, she stepped back and flicked her arm at the door. "Never mind."

"Elizabeth," he began but she shook her head and he stopped.

"Never mind," she repeated. "Forget it. Obviously you are too busy and you can't be bothered and you're right. It was stupid on my part. I cried wolf and that wasn't fair to you. I know you're dealing with a lot of stuff and you don't need me adding to it. I thought I could give you a chance to just get away from it all for a little while by providing a place for you to come to where there weren't any expectations or demands. This place has always been important to us and you've hidden out here before and just relaxed for a little while, but I..."

She paused and took a breath. "I went about this the wrong way. So never mind. Go. You've got things to do, you're bouncing on the balls of your feet, you're anxious and tense and it's clear you're already thinking of how soon you can get back to your business."

Turning away, she crossed the room and picked up the blue painter's tape and pulled the end, freeing it from the roll. She stepped to the window and bent her head, meticulously lining up the edge of the tape with the window so that she could paint the frame and not get the glass dirty. While the window wasn't that big, it did provide good natural light and she didn't want to mess that up.

Jason let out a heavy sigh and she clenched her fingers around the roll of tape, hating that she'd done anything that was going to cause him to feel worse than he already did. "I'm sorry," he said heavily.

"So am I," she admitted. "But you clearly don't have time to talk about it now. Please stop beating yourself up for my mistakes and just go. I'll be here for a while and if you get done with things and can stop by and talk, then that's okay. If you can't...then you can't. Call me if you get a chance to, but don't worry...I won't pull this little stunt again."

"Elizabeth."

He could say her name so many different ways and it never failed to send shivers across her skin. His voice always softened and nobody else could ever duplicate the effect; not that she wanted them to. But it had been a long time since she'd heard the passion-filled rasp of her name and instead she always was faced with his regret and self-recrimination. She was getting tired of the sound of it and hating herself for making him feel that way. She needed to dismiss him with her blessing and make it okay for him to go do what he needed to, so she swallowed her own disappointments and forced a reassuring smile on her face as she turned around.

"Jason," she said gently. "Please listen to me. Go. This was a dumb idea and I see that now. We're not children and we can't just run away from things. You've got a lot you need to do and I shouldn't take you away from it. So, please, accept my apology and go. You know that you need to."

"It's not what I want," he confessed.

She shrugged and looked away as she said, "We can't always have what we want. Now, you need to go back to your meeting and I need to get busy here before I have to leave and get the boys. My grams has the boys for a few hours and I'm going to take advantage of it. I should have thought better and not just expected you to drop everything when I called."

She put the tape down and walked towards him, reaching behind him to open the door and pushing on him slightly. "Go. I'm a big girl; I've painted plenty of rooms in my day so I'll be fine."

He took a step back, and then another and she refused to meet his eye because she was tired of the guilt she saw that mirrored what she always seemed to carry. Who knew meeting in secret could be so weighty?

"You'll be fine?" Jason asked her.

"I'm a single mother more than used to doing everything on my own," she told him. "I'll lock the door and I'll be just fine."

He let out a sigh and then leaned towards her, brushing his lips quickly across her lips before turning towards the stairs. "Okay...I'll-I'll try to call you later."

"And I'll understand if you can't."

Then she closed the door, flipped the locks and turned her focus back to the process of painting the room while she swallowed her disappointment.

Jason's steps were heavy as he went down the stairs and began crossing the docks back to the coffee warehouse. She was pretending with him, giving him a smile that didn't meet her eyes while acting like it was fine that he needed to leave. He was busy, and he did have meetings with Bernie and Cody and items they needed to discuss. But he hated leaving Elizabeth like this. The things she said...they hurt; even if she wasn't intending them to. She was trying to make it easier for him to leave, but the words still hurt.

"I'm a single mother more than used to doing everything on my own."

He hated that she was alone, and he hated that she was the only parent those boys had in their lives. When Lucky began dating Sam, Elizabeth had told him that he was not allowed to have the boys around the other woman. It wasn't petty jealousy, it was because Sam had stood by and watched Jake get kidnapped and never said anything except to gloat about it to Elizabeth and insuate they were the same now with their babies dead. She'd hired men to hold up Elizabeth and her children in the park with guns, and then walked into the situation with her own gun, and hadn't even cared about the potential danger. Elizabeth stood firm in her resolve that the other woman was not allowed to be around her children for their safety, and when Lucky became petty about it and threatened that he'd walk away from the boys, Elizabeth didn't back down. She called his bluff about outing the truth about Jake, and the detective showed that he was just as selfish and self-serving as his old man. It was more important for Lucky to satisfy himself than to be a father to two little boys that he claimed to love.

So Elizabeth only got a moment to herself now when her grandmother watched the boys for an occasional afternoon or sleepover. Lucky no longer picked up the boys for weekend visits or afternoon outings and Elizabeth didn't complain even when Jason could see she was tired and exhausted from a twelve hour day and then had to go home and make dinner.

After all, it certainly wasn't like Jason was doing anything to help her out. He'd always feel bad and wish that there was something he could do, but he never actually did anything. He told himself that he couldn't, because then the secret might come out, and it wasn't safe to be around her children, but he was around so many other people. There had been times when she had asked him if he wanted to tell the truth and looked like she did, but he would say no and she would shut down.

Today she'd just wanted to spend some time with him, and while maybe she had gone about it the wrong way, could he really fault her motivation? The things she'd said had been innocuous and maybe she hadn't even realized what'd been saying, but he was remembering them. And he was feeling the sting of the unintended accusations.

"You've got things to do, you're bouncing on the balls of your feet, you're anxious and tense and it's clear you're already thinking of how soon you can get back to your business."

As soon as he'd realized she wasn't in danger, he just wanted to leave. Then when she told him he could go, he'd stayed until she shoved him out of the door and told him to go take care of his business.

"But you clearly don't have time to talk about it now."

He'd already canceled his meeting, the men told him they'd return when he called, so it wasn't like he was on his way to a meeting with Sonny and he was going to be late. He was the boss; the men came when he called. While, yes, there were things they needed to handle, he could have stayed a few minutes longer with Elizabeth. But he'd left because he'd sensed her hurt even though she was trying to hide it, and he hadn't known how to address it.

"This was a dumb idea and I see that now."

"Please stop beating yourself up for my mistakes and just go."

She'd tried to take the blame off him and place it on herself and he'd just stood by while she berated herself and her idea. More than that, he stood by and didn't say anything to refute her when she indicated that what he'd left was more important than her.

"I should have thought better and not just expected you to drop everything when I called."

She was the woman that he loved, the mother of his child, and she'd practically stood there begging for a few stolen moments to be with him. And then she let him know that her expectations were too high, but that it wasn't his fault for disappointing her. It was hers for wanting too much.

"We can't always have what we want."

If he didn't return before she left, or didn't get the chance to call her and talk to her, she had given him an exemption. In fact, she probably didn't expect him to stop by, or even try. And if he called her tonight after the boys were in bed, he could almost guarantee that her voice would register surprise before she changed it into delight.

Jason stopped on the docks and looked at the warehouse across the way, and then turned slowly and looked over his shoulder at the building behind him. One held everything that he should be doing, but wasn't what he wanted. The other held his heart and his desires and he was turning his back on it and claiming it just wasn't possible and he was too busy. Too busy to see Elizabeth for days? Too busy to talk to her? Too busy to kiss her except when he'd already turned to leave?

For as much as he was claiming to love Elizabeth, he was leaving a great deal to be desired. He'd planned things for other women that he'd been involved with, told his men to handle things for a few hours so he could be alone with them, taken them places. What had he done for Elizabeth? Left her sitting in an airport and then constantly told her he couldn't see her? Left her to raise their son together with no help from him? Left every decision up to her when her eyes, and sometimes even her words, were begging him to step up and make a decision?

With a shake of his head, Jason turned on his heel and stalked back across the docks. Cody and Bernie weren't expecting him back for a while, why was he rushing back? He'd no doubt get there, have to call everyone and then sit around waiting and doing nothing. Why wasn't he taking the opportunity Elizabeth was providing him? Why was he being a fool and tossing away everything he always wanted? He was creating a self-fulfilling prophecy...and it was time to stop it.

When Jason left, Elizabeth didn't go back and finish taping the window. She couldn't bring herself to watch him walk away from her, so she'd put the tarp down in the corner of the room, set up the ladder - making it stable as best as she could - and then opened the paint and poured some into a pan. She stuck her phone into her pocket so she'd feel it vibrate if her grandmother called, she knew Jason wouldn't call until late if he called at all, and then she turned on some music before climbing the ladder. Then she forced everything out of her mind except for the task before her of doing the cut work near the ceiling in preparation for rolling. If she concentrated, she might be able to get this one wall done today before she had to get Cameron and Jake.

She didn't paint angrily, she didn't bemoan what could have been, she simply stared at the wall and focused on covering it. That was all she was going to allow herself to think about. Quick, efficient strokes. Nothing more.

"Elizabeth?"

She paused when she heard the unexpected voice and grabbed the ladder to look back over her shoulder. Jason was closing the door behind him and twisting the locks and she could only stare in confusion, because she'd never heard him open them. He slipped off his jacket and placed it on the rack near the door and then approached her.

"Where do you want me to start?"

Her fingers clenched on the metal, the paintbrush digging into her skin as she blinked. "What?"

"Where do you want me to start?"

"What are you doing here?"

"You may be used to doing things by yourself, but you shouldn't have to," he stated. "So I'll help."

"Jason," she sighed out while shaking her head. "No. No. I didn't say that to make you feel guilty; I am so tired of making you feel bad. Or feeling like I'm making you feel bad. You don't need that; you have everyone else demanding things of you or expecting things of you and I don't want to be another one of those people. I didn't...I don't want you here because you feel bad. That isn't..."

She trailed off because he'd reached out and his finger was trailing lightly over the skin of her knee where it peeked through the hole in her jeans. It was deliberate, but light. A gentle caress even though it was just a few inches of skin. She honestly had to swallow a moan.

"Elizabeth," he said, looking up at her with determination in his eyes. "Step down off the ladder before I pull you down."

"I am quite capable of doing this," she told him, feeling mildly indignant. "If you want to do something, go paint near the window."

"I'm not talking about painting," he told her, twisting his hand so that several of his fingers slid into the hole and up onto her thigh. He watched her as he shifted his hand once again and this time his fingers touched the back of her knee, his touch warming her instantly. "Come down off the ladder so we don't spill the paint."

"Jason," she breathed out.

He reached up, took the paint brush from her hand and placed it in the pan of paint. Then he settled his hands at her waist and lifted her easily, pulling her towards him and instantly crashing his mouth over hers. It wasn't a rushed kiss good-bye, or a stolen kiss in the halls of the hospital; this was deliberate and sensual and she couldn't swallow her moan. His response when he heard it encouraged her to not hide future ones.

He practically demanded her to wrap her legs around his waist and then he turned and walked to the couch covered with a sheet. He set her down on the back of it, and pulled her closer, settling more intimately in the cradle of her legs.

"Jason." It was ragged and desperate as he kissed a trail of fire down her neck.

One hand tangled in her hair and he pulled back to look at her, his eyes smoky and cloudy with desire.

"This is our sanctuary," he told her, leaning in to nip her lip and then kiss it briefly. "But I can think of better things to do than paint it."

The old radiator by the window had been chugging steadily for hours, but the temperature in the room continued to drop. Thick fog covered the land outside, having rolled in over the harbor as night fell. In the fading twilight, ships and Spoon Island were swallowed up by the fog as it advanced across the water, marching like a wall of soldiers on a field of battle. It didn't stop when it reached the waterfront; it merely continued to progress and soon the entire town of Port Charles was blanketed in its pearly cocoon.

The moisture-laden air was cold and felt like tiny shards of glass to anyone unfortunate enough to have to be outside. From their vantage point on top of the hospital, Elizabeth and her fellow nurses had seen the phenomenon. As it came nearer, they all glanced uneasily at one another, and then by unspoken accord decided to head inside. Their break wasn't over, but they'd rather run the risk of their charge nurse Epiphany spotting them and putting them back to work early than stand outside in what Nadine had only the guts to speak out loud. The fog didn't seem natural.

The part of her that never forgave her high school friends for tormenting her when she declared she didn't like Stephen King, and then had read The Mist just to prove to them that she wasn't a complete chicken, told herself that it was just a story. Monsters did not live in the fog. She was not going to be attacked when she left the hospital and headed home after her shift. All the same, she made sure to leave with a group of co-workers, and none of the women were too proud to turn down the security guard's offer to walk them all to their cars. The fog had chilled the hospital, and a fine mist seemed to hang over everything despite the high-power ventilation system.

Inside the parking garage Elizabeth encountered her first taste of how bad the fog truly was. As they stepped off the elevator, the women could barely see in front of them and some of them were actually frightened about driving home. Two turned back and said they'd rather sleep in the break room and possibly get called in to help, but Elizabeth had been at the hospital for over twenty-four hours and she wanted to go home. She'd come in early yesterday to assist Dr. Drake in surgery; she certainly wasn't going to turn down the opportunity to be part of his team even if Epiphany told her that she'd still have to work her normal shift once the surgery was over. After grabbing a few hours of sleep in the break room, she'd worked part of a shift for a mother who wanted to attend her son's Jazz Band Concert at school. She was tired, she was sore, she was dead on her feet and she wanted to go home.

Unable to see more than a few feet in front of her, Elizabeth slowly made her way out of the parking garage and through the nearly deserted streets. The fog became thicker as she neared the harbor where her loft was located, but she pressed on until she reached her building's parking lot. Gathering all her belongings and having the building key poised and ready, Elizabeth hastily exited her car and sprinted to her building, grateful when she made it inside and no burning tentacles latched onto her ankles and pulled her backwards to be devoured by whatever unearthly mouth was attached to the appendages.

Now inside her loft she couldn't stop thinking about the fog. It was cold inside the converted warehouse, the inadequate heating showing how truly pitiful it was. She refused to give anymore credence to Nadine's decree of the fog being unnatural than she already had. But it seemed to seep into everything that it could, pervading every space despite her best efforts to keep it out. She'd covered the window with a towel, duct taping it tight to the sill and stuffing it into tiny nooks and crannies. She rolled up another towel and stuffed it against the bottom of the door leading to the hallway, and yet she still felt like she was seeing everything through a misty haze.

It was hard to sleep in conditions like this. She'd put on thick socks, flannel pajama bottoms, a fleece sweatshirt and she shivered like she was inside the morgue. Plus, it was quiet...too quiet. There were no water birds sending up a plaintive note, no gentle sounds of water lapping against the pylons of the docks, and no horns from ships or the ding of a buoy. There wasn't even the sound of a fog horn, and there should have been. Sure, they'd probably closed the harbor and all ships were prevented from entering or leaving, but there still should have been some sound from the light house out on the point.

The lack of outside noises made every movement she made sound like cannon fire. Her breathing echoed in the room as if she'd run a marathon and was panting for oxygen. She knew she couldn't paint or sketch because everything would become damp, and so she sat on her couch with the radio on trying to ignore the world but unable to think of anything else.

"Okay, Elizabeth," she softly chided herself. "You've really got to pull it together. If Lainey could see you she'd call you paranoid and want to shrink your head. It's just a bad weather system. Warm, moist air collided with a cold front and fog formed. It's nothing unusual, it's nothing to be frightened of."

But every sound in the hallway sounded like a monster falling against the wall, when all it mostly likely was was her elderly neighbor taking his dog out for a walk and stumbling in the dimly lit hallway made even worse by low visibility. It had to be that, or she was going to turn into the pathetic fool who sat in the corner of the room with the blanket over her head chanting there's no such thing as monsters, there's no such thing as monsters.

Then she heard the scream.

High-pitched, terror-filled, it ripped into her soul and took up residence in her heart which was now beating wildly against her rib cage. She had never heard that sound before, and she'd lived on these docks for years. She'd heard fights, attacks and once had even stood helplessly at her window on the phone with the 911 operator while she watched a man get knifed to death. She'd worked ER rotations and heard cries of pain and fear. Yet, in all her experience, she'd never heard such a sound as the one just moments ago.

Elizabeth stood frozen in the room, frightened and trying to think of what to do. She knew enough not to run blindly outside, and instead picked up the phone intending to call the police. They'd send someone to check it out, and she'd have done her civic duty.

Except the phone line was dead.

She stared at it, wondering what she should do when there was another bump in the hallway. Then there was one from outside. One not far from her third story window; one that shook the entire building.

"An earthquake," she whispered in fright, as she moved towards the closet doorway. Except there was no more shaking. Had she not been such a rational person, she would have believed that something, or even perhaps someone, had been tossed against the side of the building. But she was a rational person and she knew such things were simply not possible.

Another sound echoed in the hallway and she opened the closet, reached inside and using her fingertips searched for the baseball bat she kept tucked away in there. She refused to take her eyes off the main door. Even though she'd chosen this building particularly because of its security features, it would take a cannon to get through the heavy steel door with its three sets of locks, she was frightened and didn't trust it. Given all the implausible, nay even impossible, events of the evening, she half-expected someone to burst through her door at any moment.

When it actually did happen, she gave a yell and rushed forward, ready to swing her bat at the man who had not so much burst through her door, but fallen through in stunned surprise as if he could not believe he'd actually picked the locks. The short, rumpled looking man turned towards the sound of the yell, brought up a paltry bag in self-defense and fell backwards under the force of Elizabeth's charge. She swung, and swung again, yelling, swearing, demanding that he get out of her place or she would bust his head open like a cantaloupe. The savagery of her fright and intention to defend herself pushed the man out into the hallway and just as she was about to take the swing that would knock him unconscious so she could barricade herself inside her loft, a strong hand reached out and stopped the bat's downward momentum as easily as if it was a piece of paper floating towards the ground.

She gasped, her gaze immediately swinging towards the impediment and a frightened squeak died in her throat when she saw two ice blue eyes shining in the pearly luminescence of the hall. The man was dressed in black from head to toe, a heavy duster hanging off his shoulders like a shroud, his hair was dark and worn long...but his eyes glowed as if they were lit from inside him.

"He's not who you want to harm," the man said to her, giving the small man on the floor time to get up.

"Should I fight you?" she wondered. She stood with her legs braced, her arms tingling with tension as she refused to let go of the bat or give any indication of weakness or backing down.

"We should go inside," he commanded, pushing her backwards. Her feet actually slid on the floor, the power flowing from him through the bat that intense. The shorter man followed behind them, closing and locking the door. Once in the room, he let go of the bat and immediately dismissed her, turning to his companion and ordering, "get to work."

She gaped mutely as she watched him turn his back on her, focusing on his companion who instantly whipped out a laptop from his bag and made himself at home on her couch. The only sound was the clicking of the man's fingers over the plastic keyboard and Elizabeth truly felt like she'd fallen into a dream as the man in black leaned over the back of the couch, staring intently at the screen. Eventually, though, she found her sense and her tongue and demanded, "What is going on? Who are you and what are you doing in my house?"

"We needed a room with a vantage point," the man said dismissively as he walked past her and pulled the towel off the window. It instantly felt colder in the room.

"Well, that may be great for you," she said, arching a brow. "But I don't particularly remember inviting you in. In fact, I rather remember shoving him out after he broke in."

"We didn't know anyone was in here," he replied, peering out into the thick wall of fog. It was highly doubtful the man could see two feet in front of him, let alone the docks, so she didn't know what he expected to accomplish.

"Well, there is," she countered. "And now that you know...you can go. I don't know who you are, or what you want, but I'll thank you very kindly to put the towel back up on the window and get out of my house."

"We can't do that," he shook his head.

"Why not?"

"It's not safe," was all the answer he gave her.

She huffed and flopped her arms against her side, and as the bat bounced off her foot, she remembered that she still had it in her hand. She looked at the men who had apparently decided that her loft was headquarters for whatever they were doing, and then made her decision. Reaching out, she grabbed the rumpled man's laptop, ignoring his squeak. The man at the window spun around to look at her, and she held the bat out in front of her to stop their advance, while holding the laptop precariously by its screen and dangling it over the floor.

"I want answers and I want them now. Who are you? Why are you here? Why is it not safe for you to get out of my apartment? Let's start with those and if I think of any others along the way you'll answer them or I'll show you what happens when wood meets computer."

Almost as if he were annoyed by her audacity to question him, the man in black said, "My name is Jason Morgan. That is my associate Damien Spinelli. We're here because of the fog, and it's not safe to go because there are creatures out there that would just as soon kill you as not. We're trying to figure out how to get out onto Spoon Island since we know it's because of the family that lives there that this fog came in, and with it the creatures we have spent our years tracking, fighting and killing."

Her brow went up and she didn't even bother to hide her skepticism as she said, "The Cassadines made the fog? Okay...look, I'll give you that they're weird and they're a bit...unhinged. They apparently tried to freeze the world once upon a time. But you're telling me that they can somehow control the weather? And then you honestly expect me to believe that there are...creatures out there in the fog that you're tracking? That stuff only happens in novels and movies. You're no more a demon hunter than I'm Mother Theresa."

"Shall I take you outside and introduce you?" Jason asked.

There was no need because a dark shape passed by the window and then moments later returned, this time closer to the building. It may have been hard to see outside, but even Elizabeth could no longer pretend that there was a rational explanation for what was happening. There was no bird that she knew of that was at least six feet tall, had a wingspan almost double that length and had red eyes that peered straight inside her loft. She gulped and backed up.

"Believe me?" he asked. When she nodded numbly, he said, "Now give Spinelli back his computer and let us get to work."

Then he paused and continued on, almost sounded as if he was being strangled by his next words. "And if you have any information on the Cassadines...or that island out there in the middle of the harbor...we would appreciate your assistance."

The hypocrisy of this town astounded her sometimes, even when it really shouldn't. Yet there were those moments when she was smacked in the face with it that it just absolutely floored her. She had always tried to brush it off, go on with her life and do the best she could, even when she was hurt by it, but she could no longer do that. Because this time, the hypocrisy and the double-standards had finally opened her eyes and made her realize some cold hard truths. Truths she could no longer sweep under the rug and act like she didn't like them. She hated them, and she hated herself for them.

Elizabeth never claimed to be an angel or a saint. It seemed like it was something that everyone else ascribed to her and she hated being saddled with it, but she put up with it. She wasn't a saint; she did plenty of things that were wrong. She'd lied, she'd cheated, she'd hurt people and she'd made horrible choices. She hadn't liked them, and she'd agonized over them because she hadn't wanted people to think bad of her, and sometimes she made horrible choices or went along with things simply because she didn't want to stand up and say no and have people speak ill about her. But this...this was all so much worse.

She'd turned into someone that she absolutely despised. She'd grown up knowing that her father and uncle didn't get along because of things that had happened in Port Charles. Monica had been married to Elizabeth's father, but carrying on with Rick and in the end pitted brother against brother. Carly had slept with brothers and turned them against each other, although Jason hadn't really needed that much incentive to go against A.J. because of the accident. It became worse though, when he took up with Carly and sided with her in keeping Michael away from A.J. Courtney had slept with both brothers, and furthered their split. Carly had slept with Sonny and split Jason and Sonny, brothers in spirit and word, for a time.

Now she had done the same. She wasn't sleeping with Lucky at the moment, but she was leading him on, letting him believe she would marry him, that she loved him, and all the while she was sleeping with his brother. The truth was that she hadn't given her heart to either man, and Nikolas probably knew that and accepted it better than Lucky, but the fact remained that she wasn't being honest with Lucky and she was too afraid to tell him. Too afraid to hurt him and have him turn on her and go back to all that hurt and anger that they'd been mired in for so long. Everyone thought that Lucky was her true love, that she always returned to and they would never understand that she went back to him because he was safe. She never gave him her heart completely and he never took her to amazing heights. They were friends who tried to fit a mold that didn't work anymore, but she never spoke up because she was the good girl who did what was expected of her.

However, two dangerous people knew what was happening between her and Nikolas, and if she didn't say something soon, they would tell Lucky. She had been so petrified and frightened of the fact that she was ready to bargain, plead and promise anything just for their silence, but then she had her moment of realization. That moment of clarity made her see finally what she was doing and she decided to stop it. It wasn't going to be easy, and she would end up looking bad, and there would be plenty of people who would take great delight in her misery and fall from grace...but she simply couldn't do this any longer.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door and waited. When it opened, Lucky smiled at her, but also furrowed his brow in confusion. "Elizabeth...I gave you a key...it's okay to use it."

"No, it's not, Lucky," she shook her head. "Because I need to talk to you about something important."

He stepped back to let her in and she was barely in the door before he started to talk. "I was thinking about when you and the boys move back in here and what could do to decorate this and make it more our house. Your house is lived in and comfortable and I want this place to feel like that."

"Lucky," she cut in, her voice slightly sharp. "Please."

He stopped and looked slightly chagrinned. "Sorry, you said you wanted to talk. I was talking over you, wasn't I?"

"Yes," she said in exasperation, and he blinked somewhat in surprise at the tone. "You were, just like you always do. I need you to listen to me, and I need you to listen to me in silence. When I'm done, you can yell all you want, but I want to get this all out."

"Why would I yell?" he wondered, but then closed his mouth when she huffed.

"We're not going to get married, Lucky," she started out first. "Because I don't love you enough to marry you. You're my friend, and I'm grateful that we moved beyond the past, but the fact that we didn't talk about it or just tried to forget it doesn't mean it's not there. I love you because you're my friend and my first love, but I'm not in love with you anymore and I was letting myself just get swept along in being with you because I was scared of being alone and I was hurt."

Lucky's eyes narrowed, but thankfully he remained silent. "This is going to be harder," she confessed. "I...I also can't marry you because I'm not faithful to you."

"You're with Jason?" he demanded. "What about Sam? Are you screwing her over again?"

"Lucky!" she snapped. "This isn't about Jason except for the fact that I still love him, but I know that it's over. It hurts, though, and I've been doing stupid things to deal with it. I...I've slept with Nikolas. I've kissed him and I've slept with him and I always say it's the last time and I'm not being fair to you, but...but I've done it. I won't try to make up a bunch of excuses, because nothing will make it right and I'll take responsibility for my actions. But the fact is that I've done it. I knew it was wrong, but I was hiding it because I didn't want to hurt you. But Helena found out, and so has your father, and I could have gone through this whole thing of trying to hide it, and begging with them not to say anything, but I feel it's more important to be honest."

"Honest?" he sneered. "What do you know about honesty? You slept with Jason and lied about Jake. You're sleeping with Nikolas...my brother, and you kept it from me. I gave you my heart, Elizabeth! I was willing to be a father to your boys, and this is how you repay me?!"

She stood from the chair and matched his angry stance, pointing a finger at him. "Don't act so high and mighty, Lucky. You slept with my sister. Remember that? You slept with Sarah and lied to me about it, even when I caught you guys together behind Jake's. You slept with Maxie for drugs and lied about that. You slept with Sam just to hurt me because you found out the truth about Jake. I made a mistake and I hurt you by not speaking up sooner and letting you believe we'd get married and not being honest about Nikolas, but you do not get to act like you are some perfect person here who has never done anything wrong."

Turning away and running her hand through her hair she said, "It's no wonder you and Sam fell in with each other so easily. Everything is always someone else's fault with you. She watched Jake get kidnapped, but it wasn't her fault. You sleep with someone else, but it's not your fault. I make a mistake, often the same one you've made, and you're ready to crucify me for it. You say you don't like what your dad did to your mom, but you're just like him, Lucky. You've cheated on me so many times and I forgave you, but you always made me feel like I had to apologize over and over for what happened with Jason."

She pointed at the door behind him and said, "You walked into this house after sleeping with Sam and threw it in my face; couldn't wait to tell me you'd once again been unfaithful to me and that I deserved it because I'd slept with Jason and had his child. Yes, I slept with Nikolas and he's your brother, but don't you dare forget about Sarah. At least I am apologizing for it and saying I was wrong; you were only sorry you got caught."

"And you're only apologizing because you don't want someone else to tarnish your perfect little halo," he sneered angrily at her. "You're afraid my father will expose you, or Helena will, and then everyone will know what a whore you are."

"Well," she swallowed, "at least we're finally being honest with each other. It's amazing how quick you are to call me a whore when you claim that you love me. In all the times you've cheated on me, I don't think I've ever acted like you have."

She gathered her purse and intended to leave. "I will at least be grateful to Helena for helping me realize what a horrible mistake I was making and stopping me before I went through with it. I'm sure it wasn't her intention, but it happened nonetheless."

"So that's just it?" Lucky asked. "You tell me you're cheating on me and think you can just walk out?"

"Why not?" she responded. "You did the same when you told me you just cheated on me with Sam."

"What are you going to tell Cam and Jake?" he pressed. "When they find out Mommy and Daddy aren't getting married again?"

"That we work better as friends and we'll always be a family, but we'll continue as we have."

"Family," he scoffed and her stomach clenched a bit, suspecting where he was going and sick over the hurt it would bring to her boys. "Funny how you'll throw around family considering how you cheated on me with mine. Maybe they should start calling Uncle Nikolas daddy."

Swallowing and nodding her head, Elizabeth said, "I see. So that's it. I hurt you, and now you're going to once again decide that Cameron and Jake are going to suffer. I told you I didn't want Sam around them, but that didn't matter because you were keeping my secret and it was your way or nothing else. Now that I've told you the truth, you're not going to bother spending time with my boys."

She nodded again, firmer this time. "Fine. Then I know how to act."

"Going to go offer up the boys to Jason?" he taunted her. "He's with Sam now. You really think he's going to dump her just because you're alone and pathetic and looking for a daddy for your kids?"

Elizabeth didn't bother answering as she went out the door. Once she was in her car, she pulled out her phone and placed a call. "I need to meet with you, but nobody can know."

By the time the meeting came, Elizabeth was a nervous wreck. Her palms were sweaty and clammy and she knew Diane was looking at her oddly, although trying to be respectful and not stare. When Jason knocked on the door and stepped inside his lawyer's office, he visibly blanched to see her standing there as well. Immediately he became tense and then asked Diane why she'd called.

"Elizabeth needed to meet with me, and there were aspects that we needed to discuss with you. As your lawyer, it would not be entirely unusual for you to come to my office even though I usually visit you. We needed to ensure privacy and that you were not observed together."

"What's going on?" he asked Elizabeth.

"I needed to let you know a few things," she said. "I'm not going to marry Lucky. I told him the truth about my feelings for him and about my involvement with Nikolas. I realized that my behavior was a mistake. I was..."

She paused and then shook her head. "It doesn't matter why I was doing what I did. What matters is that I realized I was wrong and I won't be doing it again. When I told Lucky that I wasn't going to marry because I didn't love him except as a friend, and I wasn't being faithful to him, he got upset. Very upset."

"What happened?" Jason asked, his voice dropping into a concerned note, but Elizabeth refused to go down that road again.

"His usual," she shrugged, going for indifference. "Called me a whore, implied that I was completely at fault, acted like he'd never done anything wrong. We had it out. I reminded him of the times he cheated on me and threw it in my face, especially when Sam seduced him deliberately to hurt me. When I left, he...he left me with the impression that he wasn't going to be around very much as a father to Cameron and Jake. So I...so I met with Diane to arrange a few things."

"What do you mean?" he pressed.

"I don't know if I can count on Lucky to keep Jake's paternity a secret anymore," she stated bluntly. "He's hurt, and when Lucky's hurt...he's like the rest of the Spencers and he lashes out. I wanted to make sure that he couldn't try to make a bid for custody and I wrote documents with Diane to make it perfectly clear what my wishes were in regards to my children."

He swallowed and passed his hand over his face. "Are...are you asking me to claim Jake as my own? We...we've always agreed that it was safer for him-"

"Jason," she cut him off. "Helena Cassadine is the Spencer family's arch enemy. She killed Alexis' mother in front of her when Alexis was a child. She wanted me dead years ago. When it comes down to it, I don't see a whole lot of difference between her and Anthony Zacharra. Frankly, I was stupid to forget that. And with her back in town and...unhappy about my involvement with Nikolas, she could do something to Jake just to get revenge on me or the Spencers."

"So you're saying it would be safer for Jake to be known as my son?"

"I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying that for a long time I was making really bad choices and Helena's appearance in town finally made me realize that. I'm now taking steps to protect my children the best that I can." Elizabeth took a breath and then said, "I was discussing my options with Diane and she was the one who suggested that perhaps we should change Jake's birth certificate and let the knowledge come out. It would make it harder, if not impossible, for Lucky to try to lay some kind of claim to the boys if he were to try it."

"I...I don't know," Jason stated.

"Yes," she said, lifting her brow. "I can see how this is a big decision for you. After all, you're so busy running around after everyone else's children and allowing them into your home, how could you possibly make time to take care of your son and ensure his safety?"

Diane coughed to cover up her gasp of surprise, but Elizabeth ignored her.

"And yes, now that you're seeing Sam and allowing her back into your life...what would you possibly do about your child?" Elizabeth wondered. "After all, this is the woman who stood by and did nothing when our son was kidnapped, who refused to let me and Lucky make a plea on her TV show and then who came to my house and drunkenly told me that we were even now because we both had dead children. And let's not forget that this is the woman who hired men with guns to stop me and my children in the park and then came on the scene with yet another gun all so that you and I wouldn't end up together."

She tilted her head to the side and said, "I remember when we first met, Jason. You were so upset about losing Michael from your life and you were mad at Robin for telling A.J. the truth. You didn't talk to her for years, and even now, you aren't close to her like you once were. But you've welcomed the woman who deliberately endangered your son back into your life. You're with her in public, you're around other mothers and other children in public, but you pushed me and your son out of your life."

When he went to speak she shook her head, "No. I'm not looking for reasons or explanations; we weren't in each other's lives. I guess the fact that you told me you'd love me forever and you'd be alone rather than be with anyone else was just another bunch of pretty words that didn't mean anything. Look, I made my own mistakes; I'll own that and freely admit that. This isn't about discussing our past or what went wrong or anything else. This is about me protecting my children from whatever threat comes after them. I've changed my will and I wanted you to know...I've named Patrick and Robin guardians of Jake and Cameron."

"You...you don't want me to take the boys?"

Elizabeth lifted her brow and asked, "Would you? And why? If it's too dangerous to be around them now, even though you're around everyone else, why would it suddenly be okay for you to step up if I was gone? Plus, I have to tell you...you may have forgiven Sam for what she did to Jake and Cameron, but I haven't. I haven't forgotten, and I'm not okay with her being around my children. Let her warm your bed if she hasn't started already...it's not for me to judge what you do. But I will put my foot down and say that I will not allow her around my children. Even if the truth comes out about Jake, I still won't allow her to be any part of my children's lives. And if you're allowing her into your life...then I have to seriously think about whether or not you can be around them. It has nothing to do you your danger...it's her."

"I...I don't know what to say," Jason said with a shake of his head.

"Then maybe that's why there's nothing left to say," she told him. "I merely wanted to give you the courtesy of knowing what was happening. I've made some changes and decided to take back my life and I felt you needed to be informed. After this...any further contact...I guess we'll just have to see."

"Do you...do you have a minute?"

To say Alan was shocked at Jason's appearance and the question would be putting it mildly. The older man simply gaped at him for a long moment and then he quickly said, "Jason, yes, of course."

Stepping into the room and closing the door behind him, he fought to not be anxious or tense. Once Alan got over his initial surprise, he was excited for the younger man to be there, and Jason had to fight against every instinct that warred with bad memories and urged him to forget this whole moment and just walk out the door. His father hadn't handled Jason's post-coma behavior very well, and in his anger and rage, Jason had rebelled against everything and everyone who he thought was looking for Jason Quartermaine. He'd walked away and never looked back, and never let anyone close to him except for Emily and Lila, so it was understandable that Alan was shocked at Jason's appearance at the hospital.

As they sat there in silence, Alan softly cleared his throat and asked, "Is everything alright, Jason? Did you need something? Is...is something wrong with one of your employees and you...you need some help but can't bring him to the hospital?"

"No, no," Jason shook his head, surprised himself at the other man's genuine tone. For however weird it sounded, at this moment he honestly believed that if he told Alan that he had a man who was shot and needed to be patched up and the cops couldn't know, that his father would help him. Perhaps it was just because the older man was so desperate to not drive him away that he'd agree to just about anything at this moment.

"I uh..." He trailed off and scratched his neck. "I actually...I actually wanted to talk to you."

The other man tilted his head to the side curiously and asked, "About what?"

"I...there's a chance..." He cleared his throat uneasily and finally just said, "There's a chance that I might be a father. About to become a father."

Dismay quickly flashed through Alan's eyes before he masked it. "Oh," he began cautiously. "I...I hadn't realized you and Sam had gotten back together. I...I knew after her shooting that you'd distanced yourself from her and that she's been living with Alexis now. I...I actually saw her with Alexis the other day when she came in for treatment. I...I guess I should offer my congratulations, then."

"It's not Sam," Jason shook his head, letting out a sigh as he rubbed his fingers over his forehead. "We...we're not back together."

And they never would be. Not after he'd seen her on the floor having sex with Ric. When she came to his penthouse the next day and tried to spin the story, she claimed that he'd forced her, that he'd pinned her down and the only reason she hadn't screamed was because she didn't want to wake Molly. It was in direct contrast to what he'd seen when he went to Alexis' house. Sam hadn't been held down or forced to submit against her will; no, when he'd looked in through the window, he'd seen Sam wearing nothing but a sultry smile as she looked down at Ric. She'd been a willing participant, and based on the conversation he had with Alexis when he took her to the hospital, he realized that Sam and Ric had been going at it for a while because she'd been to the house and left long enough to leave Kristina with Sonny before going back to the house.

When Jason mentioned what he'd seen, Sam's tears had ended and her vitriol was unleashed. She blamed Alexis, she blamed Jason, she somehow even blamed Sonny for what happened, but she never took responsibility. At least not until the end when she said that she did it because she wanted Jason to hurt; that he deserved to pay for tossing her aside like she was nothing after all that she'd done for him. It was then that he knew he could never trust her or let her close again, and so he hadn't said anything about his activities that night. She would have deliberately gone after Elizabeth, and that was something that the single mother didn't need right now.

"Oh," Alan said softly. "I...I don't mean to say I'm keeping tabs on you, but I hadn't thought you were back together. But when you said you might be a father I...she was the one I thought..."

The older man trailed off, his confusion over who could be the mother of his child drowning out the relief that was clear when Jason said it wasn't Sam. It was obvious he was curious, but he was doing his best to try not to pry. It seemed only right, though, that Jason tell him everything. After all, he'd shown up at his father's office unannounced and was the one that brought it up. He couldn't now claim that Alan was getting too intrusive and walk away.

Letting out a breath he said, "It's Elizabeth Webber. Elizabeth may be pregnant with my child."

The older man's eyes widened as he let out a soft, "Oh."

There was a pause and then said in understanding, "Oh. Well, this changes everything, doesn't it? I saw her the other day and she looked very tried and stressed and I thought it was just because Lucky's been fighting the divorce and refusing to go into rehab. I've discovered that pills have been missing from the hospital and I had to conduct an investigation and something I overheard Elizabeth and Lucky fighting about when they didn't know I was around the corner led me to discovering what was happening."

"That's when Maxie and Lucky were arrested," Jason said, now understanding how it had happened. Lucky had gotten angry at Elizabeth, yelling at her and accusing her of telling the cops just to punish him and Maxie, but Elizabeth had denied involvement or knowledge of it. Epiphany had been forced to call hospital security when Lucky had gotten out-of-control and started throwing things at the nurses' station.

While Jason was glad that charges had been filed against Lucky, he also knew that Elizabeth was worried for his recovery. But she hadn't told him about the baby, and insisted on going through with the divorce and told Lucky and his family that he needed to get clean for himself, but she couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't be his excuse or his reason and she couldn't continue to carry him or baby him. It was no wonder she was tired and stressed with everything going on.

"So when you say you might," Alan said, "you mean you don't know yet? Have you taken a test? Is that what you'd like my help with?"

"No," Jason shook his head. "Elizabeth's doctor ordered one. I...I gave my sample. We just have to wait. I just...I wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" the older man wondered.

"About being a father," he admitted. "When...when I took care of Michael it was because I had to. Carly just showed up on my door telling me she'd told everyone I was the father and she needed my help. Then she went into labor early and Michael had complications and he was here and I was doing everything before I even knew it. But now..."

"Now you have time to think about it," Alan surmised. "You have months of waiting, and worrying ahead of you. Will the baby be healthy, will the delivery go okay...will Elizabeth be healthy? What if the baby's sick? But you said the baby might not even be yours."

It was his; he felt it. Or was it just because he wanted the baby to be his. It wasn't about it being easier on Elizabeth, leaving her with no ties to Lucky; because his life had plenty of risks and dangers. If the baby was his he would have to do everything he could to protect her and her children so that nobody could go after them. But he wanted the baby to be his.

"You want it to be, don't you?" Alan softly asked.

Jason couldn't speak, he couldn't nod, but apparently the older man could read the answer on his face. "You want to be a father, don't you? Is it because you lost Michael?"

"No," Jason managed to shake his head and say. "It...it's because it's Elizabeth."

"It would complicate her divorce if the baby was Lucky's," his father stated. "And it would be complicated if the baby was yours."

"I don't care," he said. "I...I want this baby."

The older man leaned back in his chair, his eyebrows raised in surprise and then let out a breath. Staring at nothing in particular he said, "I wasn't the best father or the best husband. I cheated on Monica with Susan, and I had a hard time accepting A.J. because I thought he was Rick Webber's. I loved you...sometimes I loved you more because I knew you were my son, and yet I couldn't completely disregard A.J. Sometimes I wanted him to be mine simply so that Rick wouldn't have won. But you're not like that, Jason...and this isn't the same."

"I know," Jason breathed out. "I just...I don't know what to do. I...I care about Elizabeth," he confessed. "I have for years. I know that things are complicated right now, but if the baby is mine...I want her and the baby and her son to live with me."

He rubbed his thumb over his brow and admitted, "I already offered to marry her."

"Before you knew?" Alan asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. She said let's just take it one step at a time. How...how do I tell her that I want to marry her no matter what? That I can't think of a better person than her to be the mother to my child? She's...she's wonderful with her little boy, Cameron. She works so hard that I just...I want to make things easier for her because she deserves it. She deserves to relax and rest and spend time with her son, playing with him and doing things that they want to do without worrying about bills or getting to daycare so she can go to work."

Rubbing his hands over his jeans he looked around at the decorations in the office and said, "She paints, did you know that?"

"I think I remember her helping out with the sets for the Nurses' Ball," Alan said.

"She became a nurse when she had Cam, and she likes it, but...but she likes painting," he stated. "I know she does. When she talks about art, or about a painting...she gets so excited. She should be able to do that and not have to give that up. I want her to be happy instead of worried."

Jason trailed off and looked over to find the older man studying him intently. "You've loved her for a long time," his father finally said softly. "And you've probably never even told her."

"I..." He trailed off, unable to give voice to the denial that he reflexively felt he should say.

His father waved his hand casually and said, "You don't have to admit it to me, Jason. But if you're wondering what you should do...you should tell her. You should tell her everything that you just told me. When I listened to you, I didn't hear a man who was offering to marry a woman simply out of obligation over a child. I hear a man speak about a woman as if she was the most important thing to him. You know her so well...the real her that she's probably only shown to a select few. Not once was there a mention of providing just because she's pregnant. You look happier when you talk about her, and your happiness increases when you think about making her happy. That...that is a very special thing, Jason."

Looking down at his hands as they rested limply on his legs he swallowed. Then he lifted his gaze to meet the older man's. Alan smiled gently at him and said, "Even if Elizabeth isn't quite ready to accept everything at this moment, you need to tell her. I would suggest doing it even before you get the test results. Don't leave her guessing or wondering about why you're saying it...don't make her think that it's just about the baby. Because this is the only time I've ever heard you talk about her and I can tell that your feelings for her aren't because you think that she's pregnant with your child. You want to be a father...but you want to be a father with Elizabeth as the mother. Would you be this nervous, this wound up if it was Sam...or just some woman from a bar?"

Jason thought for a moment, even though he knew the answer. Then he shook his head and admitted, "No."

"No," his father repeated with a smile. "That's why you need to talk her. You wondered what you should do...well that's what you should do. Be honest with her. Listen to her, reassure her, let her be scared and uncertain...but never give up on her, because...because I can see just how much this means to you, Jason. Go after it...don't let it slip through your fingers."

The two men were silent for a moment, and then he nodded. "Yeah...yeah. I...I know what I need to do now."

"Good," Alan smiled.

"I...I need to go," he said and stood. "Th-thank you...Dad."

His father was silent for a moment, then smiled softly and said, "I'm glad I was here when you stopped by, Jason. Very glad."

For one month, Elizabeth Webber lived a fairytale. It was glorious, it was exhilarating, it was heart-stopping romantic and her toes could still curl thinking about the passion she'd experienced. And then, with an errant bullet, a phone call in the middle of the night, and a tearful good-bye, it was over. Jason walked away and vowed that he'd never intrude on her life again. She would be able to be safe, she would never have to worry about the danger of his life intruding on hers again, and she would never lose someone else because of the choices he'd made before he ever knew her.

At the time, she'd been numb; too numb to fully comprehend or even fight his proclamation. She tried to put one foot in front of the other and get through her life, but it was hard, and it was painful and it was made even worse by the fact that the one person she desperately wanted beside her, that she needed, had made the decision that he couldn't be around her anymore. He was carrying his own pain, she was sure, and had no doubt fled because he thought he had to in order to avoid her anger and lashing out at him.

The fallacy to his logic and decision had been that she never would have lashed out. She wouldn't have blamed him, even if the evidence had proved that he was responsible for the tragic accident. The part that hurt, the part that made her bleed every day was that she didn't blame Jason, she didn't hate him for what happened to her son, and if he'd only just stuck around instead of taking off, he would know that. But when the call came about Cameron and Lucky he'd vowed that they were over. He was going to find whoever had been responsible for the shots fired which struck her son, and he would make that person pay. And when he was done, he would never intrude on Elizabeth's life, because he never wanted her to go through that experience ever again and being around him would increase her chances.

When she left to go to the hospital, she hadn't fully comprehended the meaning behind his words. She was focused on getting to her son's bedside, on finding out his condition, and figuring out what happened with Lucky. When she discovered the truth and reeled from the revelations, her first thought was she had to tell Jason and she needed him. She needed his comfort, she needed his presence beside her when she discovered that her son was injured too gravely for the doctors to save, she needed someone to hold her when she cried. And she needed someone to hold her when her anger bubbled to the surface, cutting through her grief as she faced what had really happened with Cameron and Lucky.

She'd rushed to his penthouse from the hospital, anxious and frantic when she couldn't reach him on his cell phone, only to find out that he'd already disappeared. He'd gone underground searching for the shooters, and none of the guards nor Sonny knew how to reach him. They searched for him, anxious to help her, but as the hours turned into days and she buried her son, and as the days turned into weeks and her despair became something else, she knew that their search was futile. Jason hadn't just gone looking for those who were responsible for what happened, he'd run from Port Charles and everything and everyone in it. Which meant that there was no way they'd find him, and there was no way he'd discover what had truly taken place until he stopped running long enough to find out.

She'd hoped that when he learned that it wasn't because of his business that Lucky and Cameron had been ambushed in the park and her little boy had been hit by a stray bullet, that he'd reach out to her, or at least Sonny, and find out if it was true. But the phone remained silent, and the weeks turned into months. Sonny offered what comfort he could, but he was stuck between three stubborn women and their demands for the children they shared with him, and when he wasn't handling Carly's latest crisis, or Alexis' latest attempts to keep her out of their daughter's life, or Sam's latest efforts to seduce him back into her bed, there wasn't much time left for the woman his friend left behind.

The guards kept an eye on her, and when she decided that she needed to get away from the stares she was getting, they were the ones who arranged for her to rent a house and leave town. Sonny was informed, he offered what help he could, but Elizabeth knew that she was on her own for this. Just as she had been since the night she walked into the hospital and discovered that Lucky and Cameron had been shot by someone seeking revenge on Lucky for putting his brother in jail. The irony that it was because of Lucky being a cop that was responsible for her son's death was crushing for Elizabeth. Everyone had told her she was stupid and irresponsible for getting involved with Jason and he would only end up getting her or Cameron killed; the reality was there would have been guards on her son if Lucky hadn't been stubborn and insisted that he didn't need Jason's men to protect him. He was a cop; he was capable of taking care of him and Cameron. Besides, what could happen to them in the park?

He had been angry when she wouldn't further their relationship with him, instead becoming as petty and spiteful as he had while she'd been a surrogate for Jax and Courtney. When she'd lost the baby, he was relieved, and she would have ended all contact with him except for the fact that Cameron had come to like him and she wouldn't be petty just because their relationship hadn't worked out. When she and Jason began rebuilding their friendship and she became someone who would listen to him as he dealt with the frustrations of Carly trying to ruin Sonny's life just because he'd had a child with Sam, and Sonny telling him to handle more and more of the business because he was too involved in his personal life to bother with the day to day aspects of it, she hadn't expected to fall in love with him again. She also hadn't expected to sleep with him and virtually move in together even though they still had two places.

Lucky thought Elizabeth was throwing her life away and turning their back on all they'd shared, but she finally accepted that their relationship had changed and they couldn't go back to the teenagers they'd been before the fire. They'd grown in different directions and she wasn't going to let someone tell her what to do, and she was tired of the way Lucky treated her and then thought he could simply apologize with white roses. If he couldn't accept that she was free to make her own decisions and choose her own friends, then they had no future together. If only she hadn't agreed to let him still do things with Cameron.

It was that softness of heart that had cost her the future she'd really wanted, and left her alone, even when she was surrounded with love. Elizabeth was guarded, even though she no longer lived in Port Charles. She had friends, she had support...and she had Jason's child. Even though he knew nothing about the son she discovered she was pregnant with after he walked away and she buried Cameron.

There were days that she cursed Jason for what he'd done, and there were days she wept because she still loved him. How could she do anything less when she looked at the mirror image of him every day? She worried for him, hoping he wasn't trapped in his misguided guilt and grief. She prayed that one day he would discover the truth simply so that he could have relief, even if he never reached out to her and their son. There were days she wanted him to return so she could yell at him and there were days when she wanted him to return so she could run to him and once again feel his arms around her.

Yet, every day, she got up, put one foot in front of the other and did her best to care for their child. To tell him about his big brother that he'd never know, and the father that she wished he would one day get the chance to meet. She did her best to make sure he was happy, even if she was dying inside. She did her best to provide a house for him, even if sometimes she had to dip into the account that Sonny set up for her when she left even though she told him not to. She tried to find the joy in each day, to make her little boy see the beauty in the world around him, even if she had lost the ability to see it for herself. It was his smile that brought hers, and she did her best to be content with it.

It was always the nights that were the hardest. Her son was asleep, the activities of the day that kept her distracted and focused on something else besides all that she'd lost were quiet, and in those hours before she fell exhausted into bed her mind was plagued by all that was and all that could have been. Maybe she should have fought Jason harder. Maybe she hadn't searched for him hard enough. Maybe there was something more that she could have done; even though she'd wracked her brain for years and hadn't been able to think of it. She would wonder if he'd ever looked for her, if he'd discovered she'd had their son, if he'd longed to be with them but stuck to his word to never intrude on her life again so she and those around her wouldn't be hurt.

Sometimes she felt like she was drowning in pain, and sometimes she would feel like she was being disloyal to him if she wasn't. Sometimes she wondered if he felt anger or resentment towards her for having his child and he wasn't a part of their lives. Sometimes she felt as if she was going crazy because she felt he was close, that she could smell his aftershave in the hall, and yet she couldn't let herself give into those fantasies. She'd nearly lost herself during Jake's pregnancy, believing that Jason would discover the truth and arrive before she had the baby. When the reality of the situation hit her, she'd struggled against slipping into depression; it was for their son that she forged ahead, and vowed she could never create a fantasy world again. No matter how tempting it would be.

Elizabeth stepped out onto the porch at the back of the house and pulled her light sweater around her shoulders. Looking up at the stars undimmed by light pollution from a city, she took a sip of the one glass of wine she allowed herself and fought against the melancholy that gripped her on nights like this.

"I wish you knew," she whispered to the night. "I wish you knew how much I love you still and that you have a son."

Closing her eyes against the tears, she turned back for the house, leaving the glass of wine on the porch rail.

Long after the door closed and the lights were turned off he stood in the woods and watched the house where his family was. He couldn't get too close or he'd alert the guards to his presence and he'd had too many close calls already over the years. He knew he couldn't stay in the area too much longer; the guards were getting restless, on edge over the fear that someone had found them and was watching them. They were good men who protected Elizabeth and their son, and they were smart, and he was glad that they were there. Even if their vigilance kept him from getting too close or spending more time watching his family.

He longed to be with Elizabeth and their son, but he knew he had to stand by his decision to stay away. The punks who were responsible for Cameron's death had long since been dealt with, and he knew that it was because they were seeking revenge on Lucky that they'd targeted the pair in the park. While he wasn't directly responsible this time, Jason could not take the chance that one day someone would come after him and Elizabeth and their son would be hit in the crossfire or directly targeted as a way to send him a message. It was simply something he couldn't face.

While it hurt to watch them from afar and see his son grow, he knew it had to be this way. They were safer this way. They were guarded and while people would know that they were his family, if he kept their focus on him away from Cameron and Jake, then they had a better chance of surviving. He wanted the best life for them, and that meant being alive. And Jason would sacrifice anything he had to in order to give them that. Even his heart.

Cameron Webber was definitely his mother's son. He was a bubbling, bouncing ball of energy that rarely slowed down and talked nearly as fast as he moved. When Jason Morgan first met his new neighbor, she was standing on his front porch holding a plate of chocolate chip cookies and a sheepish expression. She apologized to him for the white, wooden picket fence that her little boy had crashed into on his little electric toy jeep and toppled it onto the plants in Jason's yard. She promised that she would pay for the cost of materials if he fixed it - and it was probably better that he fix it since she was definitely not blessed with a home improvement thumb - but if he didn't want to, then she would hire someone to do the work. And she would pay for the cost of replacing the plants if they were damaged beyond saving.

He'd been so stunned by her standing there, rambling away a mile a minute that he'd ended up giving her a rather bad impression of himself. He gruffly told her not to worry about it, that he could fix the fence himself and he didn't need her money. And he didn't care about the plants so he wasn't going to replace them. When she insisted that she would pay her share, that it was only right and she was trying to teach her son that there were consequences to actions, he just grunted and told her not.to.worry.about.it. She clamped her mouth shut, looked at him with wide, frightened eyes, and shoved the plate at him before grabbing her son's hand and fleeing off the porch.

When he went out several days later to fix the fence, the little boy was his immediate shadow until she rushed outside and told Cameron not to bother their neighbor since they'd already imposed on him enough and scolded the boy back into the house. When she saw that he was using a vinyl composite fence material instead of wood she'd looked disappointed, and then tried to smile politely when he told her that it would last longer, require less upkeep, and be sturdier and safer in case her son ran into it again. He'd meant to play up the advantages of it, but instead she just pinched her lips together and thanked him in a tight, quiet voice before returning to her house.

It was only later that he found out from her son that this was their first house and his mom had picked it out partly because of the white, picket wood fence. She'd wanted one forever and had looked forward to summers sitting outside with him talking as they painted the fence together. It would be the one time he could paint with Mommy since she didn't let him use her fancy paints and brushes that she kept on a special shelf. While she let him use water colors and finger paints and always praised his art projects he did, he was going to miss the fact that he and his mother wouldn't be painting together, and apparently so was she.

His trying to make things easier on the obviously single mother had only instead hurt and disappointed her. He was trying to prevent splinters and lots of time spent on maintenance, and she saw some cheap, imitation product that would deprive her of a tedious task she'd looked forward to because it went along with the pride of owning her first house and providing a home for her and her son. He'd tried to explain it to her, and apologize again for his gruff behavior when they first met, but he couldn't help noticing that her interaction with him was always cool and polite where it was warm and friendly with the other residents in the neighborhood.

Her son didn't care about their first meeting, though. Cameron Webber declared Jason his friend, and there was no higher compliment the kindergartner could bestow in his mind. Jason was cool, and certainly not icky like Emma Drake who lived across the street. Jason had tools and a workshop in his detached garage and he didn't mind if Cameron came to visit him, so long as the boy understood he wasn't allowed in the garage when Jason wasn't around. He also wasn't allowed to touch the power tools, even if Jason was present.

Elizabeth was mortified the day she learned where her son was constantly disappearing off to and she swore that the little boy wouldn't bother him anymore, but Jason told her that he was fine with the boy's presence. Her son was polite and respectful and obeyed the rules Jason had given him, and he'd come to enjoy the little boy's chatter while he was working on a motorcycle engine. The young mother hadn't looked happy with the idea, but it was clear she'd given in when her son began to plead with her. Jason strongly suspected that for all the work she did to instill good manners and honesty in her son, she just couldn't bear to disappoint him, and so she'd relented.

And so had begun his odd friendship with a young boy, which then led to Jason's inability to get his new friend's mother off his mind. It was clear, though, that Elizabeth allowed the friendship only to appease her son. If it was just the two of them, she would more than likely want nothing to do with him. Apparently his gruff attitude when they first met was an enormous obstacle to overcome; which was a shame, really, because Elizabeth Webber was a beautiful woman.

He didn't think about her in a derogatory, degrading way; not like his employee at the shop who'd called her a MILF and asked if Jason would be willing to babysit the kid so he didn't have to put up with the extra baggage while he totally tried to score. The fact that Logan Hayes ended up unemployed by the end of the week didn't bother Jason at all. The other men at the shop understood the unspoken message; do not ever speak about Elizabeth - or any woman - that way again. That was why Elizabeth got the full service treatment when she brought her car in, even if she only thought she was paying for the basic oil change. The men would spot a need, bring it to Jason's attention simply so he would know where the parts went, and then they'd quietly take care of it.

He knew she was doing her best to provide a comfortable home for her son, and while she was a surgical nurse at the hospital, he had heard enough from Cameron's rambles to know that the family was struggling to get back on their feet after Cameron's ex-stepfather dropped out of their lives, but not before saddling Elizabeth with a massive amount of debt. If Jason could make her life a little easier, then he would do it. So he began with the car repairs, and gradually added a few other things to his list.

The house she bought had been affordable because it needed some work. When Jason mowed his yard, he just went ahead and did hers as well. After all, he had the mower out; it wasn't any extra work for him to cut her grass. And while he was already out in the yard doing things, he trimmed the hedges, pruned the trees, and fixed the leaky hose pipe. When autumn came around, he recruited Cameron to come hold the big black garbage bags open for him after he made quick work of his leaves and hers. And by doing things outside, he had softened her just enough that he was able to get his foot in the door and begin to take care of a few tasks inside.

She always tried to pay him, or insist that he didn't need to do any of the things he was doing, but he would just smile softly, shake his head, and tell her that really she was doing him a favor by giving him something to do. He hated sitting around and doing nothing. When he didn't have things to do he got bored and usually ended up at the bar not too far from the neighborhood and ended up taking over a pool table for a day. The bar owner was nice, but he liked to get customers who would actually order a few more beers while they played taking advantage of the table, so Jason tried not to go there too often. She was actually keeping him out of trouble by giving him projects to work on.

While she always looked skeptically at him, she'd eventually relent and give him a project to work on, and then head off to take care of other chores while he and his helper worked. Cameron would ramble on, telling stories about school, stories about his friends, but Jason's favorites were the stories the little boy told about his mom. It helped the mechanic see a different side of the always reserved - at least with him - young mother, and made him wish that he could find some way for her to see him as something other than the grouchy neighbor she reluctantly let her son hang out with while he took care of home improvement projects.

He'd been working on improving Elizabeth Webber's opinion of him since they moved in at the beginning of the summer last year, and now that they were rapidly approaching Valentine's Day he still hadn't made any real progress. He'd hoped to wear her down with kindness, or at least persistence, but she was a stubborn woman and always seemed to keep him at arm's length. He probably could have just come right out and asked her on a date or something, but he'd hoped to become her friend of sorts before asking her out. He didn't want her to think that the only reason he was helping her was because he wanted to get in her pants. He wanted it to be a natural step in their growing and progressing relationship. Instead, he was still Mr. Morgan, and nothing he did seemed to make a difference with her.

However, Jason was an equally stubborn person and he wasn't going to give up. Which was why he was outside her house with a shovel and a can full of salt, working on the few inches of snow that had fallen over night. They'd had a brute of a winter and Jason had been glad for the snow blower he'd purchased several years back, because clearing feet of snow on his driveway and hers, his sidewalk and hers, was definitely not something he wanted to do with just a shovel. But last night's dusting was easily managed by hand and he wanted to get an early, but quiet, start to it since he'd planned to go in early to work today. He'd hate for her to slip as she was leaving the house later.

He was just finishing clearing her driveway and was about to start on the walk to the front door when a sedan pulled up in front of her house and stopped at the curb. A middle-aged man climbed out, checked the brass numbers next to the door against something written on his clipboard and trudged through the slush on the street up onto the sidewalk. He glanced over at Jason, and then made his way to the front door. Clearly he was a messenger of some sort, given the envelope in his hand, and Jason stared in open curiosity as the man rang the doorbell and waited.

Elizabeth opened the door, spoke quietly to the man, but had a smile beginning on her face as the man left. She didn't close the door, but opened the envelope immediately, pulling papers out and quickly scanning them over. She looked out the storm door and found his gaze immediately and the brilliancy of her smile nearly blinded him because it caught him completely off-guard. She pushed open the door slightly and called out, "Jason."

He'd been trying to get her to call him Jason for months, and to finally hear it startled him, but he managed to respond, "Yes?"

"You must be cold out there; do you want to come inside and have a cup of coffee?"

Her voice was bright, kind and warm, just as it was with the other neighbors, and to have it directed at him was enough to leave him awe-struck. But he gathered himself and nodded, abandoning shovel and can and headed towards the door. She was waiting there for him, her face beaming brilliantly and he smiled as well, even though he had no idea what had inspired it.

When he stepped inside, Cameron was bouncing around the house in his pajamas, having grabbed the papers from Elizabeth's hands and was waving them excitedly. He didn't know what good news the family had received, but whatever it was, he was happy for them. He looked at Elizabeth as he passed by her, but it was Cameron who commanded his full attention, and it wasn't just because the young boy grabbed his hand.

"Jason," he exclaimed excitedly. "They came!"

Jason was about to ask what came, but Cameron continued right on. "Mommy's divorce papers. We're officially Webbers again, though I've always been a Webber. But they came, and that means Mommy can ask you to come in for coffee or over for dinner like she's been wanting to."

Of their own volition, his eyes moved towards Elizabeth and she had a faint blush on her cheeks as she smiled awkwardly at her son's admission. "I'm sorry if I wasn't...very neighborly," she finally said. "I wanted my divorce to go through and didn't think that having dinner with my handsome neighbor would help things since it would probably have just made my ex fight the divorce more than he did."

Things began to click into place for Jason. The cool demeanor, the reserved interaction, even though she let him develop a friendship with her son. And now, on the day her divorce became final, she called him Jason and invited him in for coffee. The first time she had done either.

A grin curved the corner of his mouth and he asked, "Do-do you think you might be able to find a babysitter for Friday night? I'd love to take you out to celebrate your...good news."