"What in the world are we doing here of all places?"

When Spinelli glanced at him he shook his head and said, "I know why we're here...but here? This is the middle of nowhere."

The younger man continued to look at him uncertainly and Jason sighed and looked away. The younger man was...eccentric, and could sometimes be annoying, but he wasn't entirely bad to be around. Jason had stopped him from being mugged one night in an alley near a waterfront diner, and the kid had been so eternally grateful that he followed Jason around the rest of the night. At first, he'd been annoyed, but some time during the night as he listened to the younger man ramble on about anything and everything, Jason found himself coming to soften towards the guy. He was smart, if a bit socially inept, but considering Jason had woken up from a coma a year ago and didn't know who he was and had to relearn everything, he was considered a bit inept himself.

People looked at him and saw brain-damaged ex-doctor who threw his life away to become a Private Investigator. Jason decided that being a private investigator wasn't such a bad way to make a living because it meant a lot of time spent in solitude, even if he had to follow people around. Sometimes he felt like a Peeping Tom since a lot of his work consisted of following a cheating spouse and getting documentation of it, but he wasn't entirely bothered by it. He wasn't a prude, he had a healthy sexual appetite and he didn't see why people should be monogamous and tie themselves down to just one person. Sometimes, he wondered if he thought that way just because it was the complete opposite of everything he was told about Jason Quartermaine.

Jason Quartermaine was a successful doctor, volunteered at local clinics, dated good and respectable girls, and while apparently he wasn't a virgin, he was probably a boring Missionary Position man who never dreamed of doing half the things Jason Morgan had done. Jason Morgan met some of Jason Quartermaine's ex-girlfriends, but the women were bland and boring and certainly didn't appeal to him now. The fact that nobody had seen Quartermaine date anybody for a year or better before the accident convinced him that his previous self had been just as bored with the women as he was now. Or maybe he was just a chump who was so dedicated to his work and the noble profession of healing that he didn't care about having a social life. The Quartermaines didn't understand why Jason would want to throw away such a promising career to hang out with a cyber geek, but they were at least happy he hadn't fallen in with a degenerate like Sonny Corinthos.

Jason Morgan didn't know how and didn't really care that the mobster was raising his brother's only child. The Latino had offered him a job back when Jason was sleeping in an abandoned railroad car and parking cars at the local blues club while his cousin Ned fought the family to get Jason's money released back to his power, but Jason had turned the mobster down. The man's estranged wife, some shrieking harpy named Carly, had come into his room at the hospital before he was released and tried to seduce him in his bed. While Jason had been confused about his body's reaction and near-constant state of arousal, he had sent her away. Her claims that she knew his former self had left him turned off, and he certainly didn't believe her claims that Jason Quartermaine had carried on an affair with her while she'd been briefly married to A.J. From everything he heard about the other man, that was definitely not something the guy would have done. He wouldn't cheat on his girlfriend, and he certainly wouldn't mess around with someone else's wife.

How he'd ended up falling into the private investigating business with Spinelli he wasn't entirely sure, but he felt he had to look out for the kid and save the geek from his own ineptitude. The younger man going into business with some tramped up con-artist would not have been good a thing, especially when Sam McCall was arrested for prostitution and her entire business was shut down, even though she claimed she was working on a case. Taxes hadn't been filed, paperwork was in disarray and permits hadn't been properly attained. She was facing jail time on more than just the prostitution charges, and Spinelli would have been tainted by his association with her.

But the younger man was sometimes scared of Jason, or at least didn't know how to handle some comments he made that referenced back to his injuries or inability to read a social situation. Or that possibly sounded as if Jason was forgetting things again and had wound up with amnesia all over again. Asking why they were in Jamestown, North Dakota when they had come here on a case was apparently one of those moments.

"Alright," he said gruffly. "Let's find Elizabeth Webber and her son and get out of here."

"Right," Spinelli said, no doubt grateful that they were talking about the case again. "Detective Spencer will be happy to have his wife back."

"She's not his wife," Jason corrected, even as unease pricked him about the case. "Didn't you read any of the paperwork? They got divorced. He just wants to know where his kid is since he's afraid she won't give him his two weeks in the summer. You got her address?"

"Yes," his partner nodded.

"Then let's go," he said.

"We...we can't just drive up to her house, Stone Cold," the younger man protested. "We need to come at this with finesse."

He smiled proudly and Jason knew that he was going to not like the other man's suggestion. "We need to be tourists."

"Tourists?" he asked, lifting a dubious brow. "What exactly is there to be a tourist about around here?"

"Many things," Spinelli exclaimed. "Jamestown is the birthplace of Louis L'Amour, famed western writer. You can see his house, the Franklin School where he attended and which is the oldest surviving school in town. There is the St. James Basilica, one of only fifty-six basilicas in the United States and designated as such by the Holy See. There is Frontier Village where you can take a stagecoach ride, see the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot that was built in 1880 and was the very first railroad depot in Jamestown, and see the world's largest buffalo and see a buffalo herd with three rare white buffalo."

Jason looked at the younger man and it was clear that he'd done his research. He just had one question. "The world's largest what?"

"It's a giant concrete buffalo statue," his partner grinned in unadulterated bliss. "Largest in the world. Looks awesome in the pictures online. I want to stand under it and have my picture taken. And I want to see the herd. The local Indian tribes consider the first white one, a pure albino, to be sacred and the other ones are sacred and lucky as well. We can't pass up this opportunity to see this, Stone Cold."

"Look, Spinelli," Jason shook his head. "We need to go to the address, see if we can get pictures of Elizabeth Webber and her kid before we let know Detective Spencer she's here. So let's go."

"Why would he ask us to look for her if he's a cop?" Spinelli wondered aloud as the car drove down the hill and turned left onto Main Street. "He should know about her family, since she's living in the same town as her mother's parents, and as a cop he has access to a wider network of search engines than we do. At least legally he does. I had to skirt a few blocks and bend a few laws to finally find her information."

The older man frowned as he pondered the question. It was odd that the cop had come to them instead of looking for his ex-wife himself. Something had always bugged Jason about the cop, but he could never put his finger on it. There was something about the cop's demeanor as he spoke of his ex and kid that seemed right on the surface, but had just been slightly off. He hadn't said anything, though, because he had no way of proving his bad feeling about the guy, and he hadn't wanted to get on the bad side of law enforcement since sometimes they needed their assistance. But his partner was right...why hadn't the cop just looked for her himself?

"Were there any court records about the divorce that we didn't look at?" he asked as the GPS told him where to turn. This whole dividing addresses into grids was confusing. He would have ended up going to 3rd Ave NW instead of 3rd Ave NE if it hadn't been for the device. "Any custody records that indicate the guy doesn't have visitation rights, or there's a restraining order or something?"

He parked on the street, several houses away from the one Elizabeth Webber supposedly lived at and threw the car into park. Turning to look at his partner who was speedily typing away on his ever-present laptop, he glanced at the house briefly before turning back to focus on Spinelli. The younger man began mumbling to himself as he read through files and then he paled.

"What?" Jason demanded.

"There's a restraining order on Detective Spencer," he gulped out. "He is to stay five hundred feet away from Elizabeth Imogene Webber, Cameron Steven Webber and Jacob Quinton Spencer at all times. She has full physical and legal custody of both children and Detective Spencer has no visitation rights at all."

"Two kids?" Jason wondered. "He only mentioned the one. How come you didn't find this before instead of spending all your time researching places to be a tourist?"

"Stone Cold," Spinelli suddenly hissed as he slid down on the seat. "They're walking out of the house."

Jason automatically turned to look, forgetting his irritation with his partner's lack of research, and saw a petite brunette with two little boys turn onto the sidewalk and walk towards their car. He vaguely registered there was a school or a park behind them and she was carrying a large canvas tote bag which probably held toys. She was beautiful with her creamy skin and her chocolate locks; her oldest son had dark curls and scampered ahead of her, but she walked slower as she held the hand of a blond haired little boy who looked as if he hadn't been walking long. As they neared the car he couldn't look away from them.

"Stone Cold," Spinelli hissed, torn between fearing they would blow their cover, but also in awe over the sight before them. "Stone Cold...why does Jacob Quinton Spencer look nothing like Detective Lucky Spencer...and everything like you?"

Elizabeth sighed as she sat down on the bench near the playground and watched her sons head off to play. Today was her day off from the hospital and she didn't want to spend it inside doing laundry or cleaning the house like she should. She and her boys spent so much time indoors that they all needed to escape. It had been a hard winter, and then a wet spring, and she was eager to take advantage of the sunshine while they had it. Laundry could be done tonight and she could always do the cleaning while the boys were down for their naps. She'd much rather enjoy their laughter and youth.

Besides, the park would distract Cameron. Her oldest son was a model of the resiliency of children and had adjusted well to all the changes in his young life, but every once in a while he would remember times past and ask about their changes. Today he'd asked about Lucky and how come they no longer lived with Daddy. Elizabeth had done her best to reassure him that he wasn't the reason mother and sons had moved to a different state, and then just said that sometimes grownups realized that they made mistakes and their lives would be different now.

After that, she was anxious to hustle him outside and let him shriek and laugh to his heart's delight as he went up the stairs, down the slide and repeated the process on an endless loop. Perhaps if he found some interesting bugs to put in his bug jar, they could spend their time at home looking up what specimens he'd found and read about them before releasing the bugs back outside. She wanted him nice and tired and distracted so that hopefully he would forget his questions about Daddy.

For while Elizabeth had done her best to never speak ill of him in front of the boys, it was still hard for her to talk about Lucky. While he might have been the only father the boys had known, she had finally realized that he wasn't a good father. Heck, he wasn't even a decent father. She'd only been fooling herself when she'd declared to everyone in Port Charles that Lucky was a good man and that he loved her boys.

A good man wouldn't have seduced a teenage girl to get him pills for his drug addiction, a good man wouldn't have called her a whore at work and claimed she was having an affair in order to cover up his own infidelity, and a good man wouldn't have demanded that she send her child elsewhere in order to help him recover from his little problem but then rush off to rehab the moment he thought she was pregnant with his child. A good man wouldn't have called her a slut in front of her children and labeled her oldest child a bastard. A good man wouldn't have told her she and Cameron could go to Hell for all he cared but he wasn't going to give up his Spencer child. A good man wouldn't have tried to plant false evidence in her house to make her look like a bad mother all so that he would get sole custody of Jake. A good man wouldn't have told her he was going to go out and sleep with another woman and then come home and brag about it afterwards and declare she deserved his infidelity again simply because he was tired that she was putting the needs of two little children ahead of his.

No, Elizabeth no longer had any delusions about Lucky Spencer, or the rest of his worthless family. Not about his sister who felt it was fine to walk into Elizabeth's house and offer to babysit Jake while Cameron was over at a friend's house, but in reality had been trying to steal her little boy so Lucky could whisk him out of the country during the divorce and custody proceedings. Not about his father whom she overheard offer to find someone to create an accident for her that would then guarantee Lucky got custody of his child. Not about his cousin Carly who said that her husband and Luke's good friend Sonny Corinthos might just decide to step in if she didn't start being reasonable and allow Lucky visitation rights. Not about her ex-boss Bobbie who told her she was no longer welcome at Kelly's so long as she was going to be petty towards Lucky. As if deciding that a father who hid his drugs in Cameron's toy chest and then slapped the little boy when he found them didn't deserve to be around her children was a totally unreasonable thing to do.

It was why she had cashed in her 401k, sold whatever she could and now still owed the lawyer who had gone up against the denizens of town to fight for her and her children. Elizabeth would never complain about the money, or the fact that she didn't have much now, because she had her children. She had her boys and Lucky was banned from having any contact with them.

Not that she expected Lucky or the rest of his family to give up easily. After the divorce was finalized and she was awarded sole custody, she still had to fight against the Spencer family and those in town who were blinded to the ridiculous ideal that Luke Spencer and his children were somehow celebrities. Luke and Lulu were nasty and insulting any time they ran into each her, and they didn't care what they said in front of her boys. Nikolas may have refrained from actively supporting Lucky during the trial, but he still proved that blood will win in the end when he went out of his way at the hospital to point out her flaws to her superiors and told his fiancée Emily Quartermaine that she was no longer allowed to have anything to do with Elizabeth.

Emily had proven that she was truly a Quartermaine and nobody ordered her around. She ended her engagement to Nikolas, encouraged her family to raise the resources to force the Cassadines off the board at the hospital by no longer needing their money to keep it solvent, and then she asked her new boyfriend Jasper Jacks to use his full corporate skills to go after the Cassadine empire and bring her worthless ex and his pathetic family to their knees. While Emily had once loved the idea of the Four Musketeers growing up and being together as adults, she finally gave up the notion as nothing more than childish fantasy. She truly opened her eyes and saw the men that Lucky and Nikolas had become, and she completely washed her hands of them and stood by Elizabeth's side in total solidarity.

Although her friend never confirmed it, Elizabeth was fairly certain that Jason had played a part in opening his younger sister's eyes. He had done his best to support her in her battles against the Spencers, and had offered to aid her financially, but Elizabeth had turned the latter down, while accepting all she could of the former. It had been hard for them to meet when Lucky had asked his current bed-buddy Sam McCall, Private Investigator, to follow her around. He was just certain that she was having an affair with Patrick Drake, or his brother Matt...or maybe even her good friend Dr. Jason Quartermaine. He wanted to catch her with someone in order to vindicate his accusations and somehow force her to relent on the custody fight.

The fact that Elizabeth had been having an affair with Jason had made her desperate to keep it quiet. The fact that he was the father of her youngest son Jake had made keeping their meetings secret imperative. She feared what Lucky would do if he'd found out the truth, considering what he'd done to Cameron and the times he'd threatened her while she was pregnant. The PCPD had proven that they firmly believed in the blue line, and when she tried to press charges against Lucky, or ask for an order of protection, she was met with disbelief by his fellow officers, and then had to endure them coming to her and telling her that she needed to stop being a drama queen and ruining Lucky's name at work. She needed to stand by her husband and support him and address his needs, instead of creating trouble for him. Each and every man in the department had hated that in the end, the judge had granted the divorce and granted her request for a restraining order against Lucky and his partners.

It was also why she and Jason were going to wait until the divorce was finalized before they acted. Jason had been checking into positions at other hospitals, both in the U.S. and abroad, and once he had a new job, the four of them were going to leave. They'd get married, Elizabeth would petition for Jake's birth certificate to be changed, and Jason would adopt Cameron. They would be settled in and away from Port Charles when the inevitable blow-up and fallout occurred in reaction to their news.

Except their plan hadn't worked, because tragedy struck.

Elizabeth closed her eyes as she thought back to that horrific night. A drunk driver had crashed head-on into Jason's car and then fled the scene in the car. It had taken hours for someone to finally come across him, and by the time he was found, his head trauma was the least of their worries. The doctors were more worried that he wouldn't survive due to the internal injuries and the exposure to the cold weather. Jason had endured hours of grueling surgery, and when it ended, all they could do was wait, hope and pray. Elizabeth hadn't been part of the surgical team, but nobody was surprised that she was in the waiting room. After all, she and Jason were colleagues and friends and had worked together often on cases; in addition she was his sister's best friend.

There were times that she wondered if Emily knew, or at least suspected, the truth about Jake, but it was a hard subject to broach. Especially as they waited for Jason to wake from the coma he'd slipped into after the surgery. Once they realized he would physically survive, they began to worry about his mental health. Their fears proved accurate when he woke with no knowledge of who he was or the people around him.

Elizabeth had been shattered. The man she loved, the father of her youngest child, the person she had been planning a life with, was gone. A physical doppelganger remained in place, but that was little comfort. And that was when Elizabeth fled. The pain was too raw, the fear of the Spencers too large and looming, especially when Emily came across Lucky lurking outside Jason's hospital room moments before alarms sounded inside. Elizabeth feared Lucky might have somehow gotten wind of their plans and gone after Jason, and then she feared he would come after her and the boys. One day, she knew she'd have to reach out to Jason Morgan and tell him about his former life, and the son he didn't know he had, but she hadn't done so yet. Fear kept her hiding, hoping for obscurity in a small Mid-Western town.

"Jason!"

Her eyes snapped open when she heard Cameron's shout and she looked around frantically, rushing over to him and his brother. She barely managed to get an arm around her oldest son to prevent him from charging into the trees on the edge of the park when he turned to look at her in pure and utter excitement. "Mommy, I saw Jason!"

Standing behind a large tree that surrounded the park, Jason watched Elizabeth Webber and her children, noting the way she spent equal times looking at her oldest son and scanning the trees and edge of the park as if looking for something. Someone. He had gotten too close and the oldest boy had spotted him as he came down the slides and turned to run back to the stairs to start the circuit all over again. He thought he was safe because the mother wouldn't be able to see him from where she was sitting; he had no idea that the boy might know him.

He was torn as to what he should do. Or even feel.

In the time since his accident and recovery, he couldn't remember Elizabeth Webber. As he'd studied her picture, trying to discern the image that was nearly impossible due to his accident, he thought she might look vaguely familiar. As Spinelli had dug into her background and discovered that she was a nurse who had worked at the hospital with his former self, he decided that the feeling he had in regards to her was simply because he'd seen her at the hospital after he woke up. She must have been one of the numerous nurses in and out of his room in those confusing days.

She certainly hadn't sat at his bedside like his family had. She hadn't pushed her way into his room claiming a connection to him like Carly Corinthos had. She didn't accidentally run into him like some doctor named Robin tried several times until he rebuffed her, and she didn't show up at his apartment and claim to be a former girlfriend like Keisha Ward had. If Elizabeth Webber had merely been a nurse assigned to his floor, then it was no wonder he'd dismissed her from his memory.

Now, though, he didn't know what to think. Her oldest son had stared right at him, shocked at first until excitement overtook his entire frame and he shouted as if he'd seen the most amazing sight in the world. The boy had shouted his name and would have run straight towards him if Elizabeth hadn't gotten to him first. While she was holding him back and trying to calm him, it was also clear that a definite tension had settled over her and the times when she would look up, scanning the area, she seemed to half-fear/half-want her son's cries to be true. Could it be that she was actually looking for him?

"Stone Cold?" Spinelli whispered softly and in clear confusion.

He shook his head roughly, signaling for the younger man to be quiet. Jason was too confused right now to think, let alone deal with whatever his partner might say to him. Things were washing over him so fast he felt like he could hardly breathe. The oldest boy - Cameron, according to the records Spinelli found - knew him. The youngest son, Jacob, looked like him. Not like his dark-haired father Lucky Spencer, but him. That shock of blonde hair could have been the result of a recessive gene from his brunette parents...or there was another explanation. Combined with the startling blue eyes he saw the little boy had, even from a distance, it was enough to make Jason wonder. Spinelli said the little boy looked like Jason, and he was familiar with his eye color since he looked in the mirror every morning to shave and brush his teeth. The fact that Jake Spencer had his eyes was unsettling.

And it caused a lot of questions to pop into Jason's mind. He thought he knew all there was to know about Jason Quartermaine, but now he wasn't so sure. Could it be possible that the straight-laced doctor had a secret child? How was Jason supposed to react to that? He had no memory from before he woke up; how could he be blamed for not knowing about a possible child? What about Elizabeth Webber?

Closing his eyes, he pinched the bridge of his nose hard between his thumb and forefinger and wondered what he was supposed to do now. He was already torn about this case because of the general feeling of unease he had towards Lucky Spencer. Then to find out the man had lied to him and Spinelli about the number of children and the fact that he had a restraining order against him preventing him from any contact with his ex and child and he wasn't in any hurry to call Port Charles and tell his client what he'd found. Add into it the possible complication of his own involvement and there was no way Jason was going to be checking in with Detective Spencer any time soon.

"Let's go," he brusquely ordered Spinelli while looking over his shoulder to assess whether Elizabeth and Cameron Webber were still looking for him. She had managed to get her son back to playing on the slides, but she was still tense, her arms wrapped around her middle, and she kept looking his way. "We need to get out of here."

"Stone Cold?" his partner wondered. "We're leaving? Don't you want to find out..."

"No," Jason shook his head roughly. "No. I-I...I can't think right now, Spinelli. We need to get out of here, find a place to stay and just...I need to think. Try to figure out what's going on."

"Of course," the younger man agreed. "Let's go. I reserved us a hotel room; give me the keys and I'll drive."

Jason was silent as they made their way to the hotel, checked in and went to their room. Only once they were inside did he show anything beside a stoic, blank demeanor. He tossed his bag onto a bed and scrubbed his hands in agitation over face while letting a string of curses fly.

Spinelli let him rage until he was silent, and then cautiously broached the topic that had been plaguing him since they left Elizabeth Webber and her children behind. "Stone Cold," he hesitantly began. "Do...do you think it's possible that Elizabeth's son actually knows you? Or...your former self?"

His friend and business partner turned and looked at him, a completely baffled look on his face and then shrugged. "Anything's possible, Spinelli. I...I mean she's a nurse, right?"

He nodded confirmation to the answer and the older man continued. "You did research on her; she used to work at General Hospital."

"Right," he nodded once again. "And then had a very public, very nasty divorce with Lucky Spencer and then quit her job and left town. I remember seeing some stuff about it in the paper or hearing people talking about it, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to it. You and I were starting up Jackal and Morgan, P.I. and after finding out that Lulu Spencer was just stringing me along I sort-of just avoided anything that was remotely connected to her."

"So...so she could have known Jason Quartermaine," Jason Morgan stated. "Maybe they had lunch together at the hospital like other colleagues do."

His eyebrows rose as he said, "And she...introduced her kid to him?"

"Maybe some company gathering?" Spinelli suggested.

"But," his friend breathed out softly. "It...it was..."

"It was more than that," the younger man gave voice to what Jason was either unable to say, or unwilling to actually voice out loud. "He seemed excited to see you, which suggests there was more than just a casual or occasional meeting. And Elizabeth Webber looked torn between not believing what he was saying, and wishing it were true. But it was more...it was almost like she was afraid to believe it."

"And her son...Jake," the older man said, somewhat uneasily.

"He...he looks like you, Stone Cold," Spinelli told him. "Your...your sister gave you pictures one time, and I know that you can't see them very well...and I probably shouldn't have...but I looked at them. She...she included a few younger pictures of you."

His partner looked at him anxiously, asking without words what Spinelli was hinting at. With a slight shake of his head he said, "I gotta say, Jason. The pictures I saw of you when you were little...I could be looking at pictures of Jake Spencer."

In agitation, his friend spun around and stalked across the length of room until he was stopped by the window looking out over the parking lot. "You think he's..."

"I think he's your son," the younger man said slowly and softly. "Which means that Jason Quartermaine slept with his mother...but that still makes him your son."

Jason swore again and turned. "How...how is it even possible?"

Spinelli lifted his brow and the other man shook his head. "I don't mean biology, Spinelli. I mean...everything I found out about Jason Q. says that there is no way he was the kind of person to have an affair. He just wouldn't do it. He was too much of a goody-two-shoe. And then to have a kid? The kid's old enough that he was born before the accident...so Jason Q. might have known about him."

He gave a rough, almost desperate shake of his head. "No. No way."

"Why are you so insistent, Jason?" he wondered. "Is it because you fought so hard to put Jason Quartermaine, and therefore all the Quartermaines, behind you, and now you're forced to dig into a past you walked away from? Or is it because there might be a child? Do you want nothing to do with him? Or is that you're afraid of what happens if it turns out to be the truth? You've made a lot of assumptions about Jason Quartermaine, and they've all been pretty derogatory because you hate the Quartermaines and you think he's a chump who had too much loyalty to a messed-up, manipulative family. They couldn't accept you didn't remember them, so you walked away and pretty much cut all ties with them. If Jason Quartermaine fathered a child with a married nurse and her oldest son knew him and seemed to know him well...then it blows your antipathy and animosity towards him and the Quartermaines apart."

Pointing a finger at him, Jason barked out, "Don't psychoanalyze me."

He hated shrinks. Hated the way they'd talked down to him at the hospital, hated the way they regarded him now if they ever crossed paths. Hated the label brain damaged and the pitying looks his family had received. Hated that nobody had ever tried to understand or get to know him after he woke up.

Holding up his hands, Spinelli said, "I'm not, Jason. I'm just trying to get you to be honest."

"Honest?" he demanded. "I don't know, honestly, how I feel right now and I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay," the younger man conceded. "Then let's talk about the case. Let's talk about Lucky Spencer and what we're going to do about him."

Jason let out a breath and eyed him warily, but the younger man forged on, determined to show that he wasn't going to press his friend to confront questions about his past. Walking over to the bed and picking up his messenger bag he said, "It's obvious Lucky Spencer lied to us. I always thought it was odd that a cop came to us and wanted us to track down his ex-wife and kid. Turns out, he had a restraining order on him."

Sitting down at the small table in the room, he opened his laptop and turned it on. "Jason," he swore, "I want you to know, that I did a thorough background check on this case. I checked out both Elizabeth Webber and Lucky Spencer. The restraining order wasn't there when I first looked. I still thought it was odd he hired us, but thought maybe it was just a case of a cop not wanting to use department resources because he didn't want his buddies to know his ex-wife skipped out on him with his son. If the restraining order had been there, and my search should have found it...I would have said something and I wouldn't have agreed to take the case. I didn't really want to take it in the first place 'cause it was for Lulu's brother, but..."

"But we needed the money 'cause we'd gotten stiffed on a couple of payments," Jason finished for him.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"So the restraining order was...what?" the other man wondered. "Temporarily hidden so that even you couldn't find it?"

"Maybe," he admitted, "but why?"

"Well, the obvious answer is that Lucky Spencer knew he wasn't supposed to have contact with his ex and her kids and so figured he'd use non-departmental resources to find them. Hiding the restraining order got us to take the case," Jason stated, a dark look crossing his face. "Which means we got played."

He paused for a moment and then said, "Does it say why Spencer had the restraining order issued against him?"

Spinelli's fingers flew over the keyboard as he sought to once again pull up the copy of the restraining order. "What are you thinking, Jason?"

"I'm thinking that I've never liked Lucky Spencer," he stated. "He's a punk who hides behind a badge thinking it gives him power and prestige, but meanwhile he can bully people around. He can terrorize his wife and kid, cheat on her, end up with a drug habit and somehow make it all her fault and so if he came to us, hiding facts about the case and claimed he was only looking for Jake Spencer..."

He trailed off, thinking and Spinelli just stared at him. Did the other man have any idea what he'd said? How would Jason Morgan know so much about what Lucky Spencer had done to his wife Elizabeth?

"Spinelli," the older man snapped impatiently.

He startled and blinked at his friend. "Wh-what?"

"Did you find anything?" he asked, motioning with his hand towards the computer.

"Uh...just a moment," he said and bent back to his task.

"We didn't fly into Jamestown because there's not a major airport that national carriers fly into. So we flew to Fargo and rented a car. But we used a credit card to check into the hotel so if he's tracking us it wouldn't take him that long to find out we came here." Jason's brows furrowed together. "Although you said she had family here, so why didn't he search here in the first place?"

"Restraining order," Spinelli stated. "Issued because there were charges of domestic violence, child endangerment and abuse and Elizabeth said she feared for her safety and her children's safety against her ex-husband and his entire family."

"And we just led him straight to her," his friend said, a tinge of horror and regret coloring his words.

When Elizabeth was a girl and her mother could no longer deny the obligation of visiting family, she had dreaded the first trip to North Dakota. Her mother's displeasure and disgruntlement had rubbed off on her and like her mother she sulked her way into town. The young girl's attitude hadn't lasted, though. For while her mother had barely let the pomp and circumstance of her high school graduation fade before she was hightailing it out of town to go to a prestigious university and leave her small time life behind, Elizabeth grew to love the place.

The pace was slower, the town was small and everybody seemed to know everybody or be related in some way. At first it was a little disconcerting, but then she grew to like it. Here the Midwest attitude of friendliness and helpfulness prevailed. People actually waved at each other as they drove by on the street. People stopped to help their neighbor and never expected anything in return. Hard work and honesty were valued, and in the all-too-short time she spent with her grandparents, Elizabeth no longer felt like the odd child out in the family.

Sure, her grandparents didn't know a Picasso from a Rembrandt, but they never belittled her passion for art. There wasn't the heritage of the Hardy-Webber family that her father carried and her mother touted as if it meant they were royalty. Her grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins didn't care if she didn't have the entire skeletal system of the body memorized like Sarah or that she wasn't volunteering at a hospital like Steven. They didn't care if they got a little charcoal transferred to their hands from hers; her grandparents often had dirt on their hands from working in their garden and making sure they had another plentiful harvest.

As Elizabeth grew, she kept in touch with her mother's family, even when her mother stopped writing them. There were times she wished she'd headed to Jamestown instead of Port Charles after her parents had abandoned her in Colorado, but she'd foolishly thought that maybe if both she and Sarah were in Port Charles, her parents would come back to the States and go to work at General Hospital and they would all be together again. When that had foolishly fallen apart, she'd been ready to accept her grandparents' offer to join them, until Emily Quartermaine had refused to ask one of her brothers to drive her to the bus station and then begged her not to leave.

The younger teenager, still feeling awkward and uncertain in the Quartermaine family even though they'd welcomed her warmly and adopted her, had begged her new friend not to leave. Emily didn't like Sarah - in large measure because her crush Prince Nikolas Cassadine was crushing on Elizabeth's sister - and Emily didn't want to be the only girl in the group who was sane. For whatever reason, Elizabeth had set aside her plans of making her way west and joining her grandparents, believing she could always go later if things didn't work out.

Years later, when her life was closing in on her and she knew she needed to escape Port Charles, it was Emily who suggested that Elizabeth go to North Dakota. Her friend rightly reasoned that because she'd kept her correspondence with her Midwestern relatives quiet, many would never think to look for her there. Lucky knew that her mom was from the Dakotas somewhere, but even her ex-husband didn't know the depth of her attachment to her family that still lived there. Aside from when her grandparents had died and she'd mourned them, he hadn't even really thought that her mom had any family that was alive.

And with her grandparents being dead, he probably wouldn't think that she'd move to their former town. Which was why Elizabeth had agreed with Emily that it was the perfect place to hide. With the restraining order preventing Lucky from looking for her and the boys, Emily's assistance in renting a place and Jax giving her a glowing letter of recommendation as a member of the hospital board and then setting out to destroy the Spencer relations to distract them in their potential search of her, she'd said her good-byes and started in on her new life. Of course, she was careful and didn't have any contact with her former associates in Port Charles so that they couldn't potentially slip up and mention something in front of Lucky. She knew her neighbor down the street was a cop and she'd shared her history with Lucky with the older man so that if her ex should ever happen to show up, there would be someone who would believe her and help her.

It was sometimes hard thinking about all that she'd left behind in Port Charles, for she really had come to enjoy being a nurse and working at the hospital her grandfather helped found. But she knew that it was more important to be safe and away from the terrifying behavior of Lucky and his family. Plus, she'd had to protect her heart from the overwhelming sorrow of occasionally seeing her former lover and father of her youngest son and knowing that he had no memory of them and their plans to escape the toxicity of the port town.

Which was why Cameron calling his name and being adamant that he'd seen the older man had shaken her. More than she could show to her children. She knew that Jason had become a private investigator, opening up a business with a quirky young man by the name of Damien Spinelli. While her heart really wanted to believe that Cameron had been mistaken about what he saw, there was a part of her that just couldn't dismiss it easily. Her son adored Jason, but didn't go around calling every man he saw 'Jason'. For her little boy to be insisten that he'd seen Elizabeth's former lover, then she tended to believe him. However much she didn't want to.

If he was in Jamestown of all places, and just happened to be at the same park she and the boys were at, then she just couldn't dismiss it as a coincidence. He was there for a reason, and she had a very sick feeling as to what that reason would be. Her ex-husband would be perverse enough to hire a man he'd always loathed to look for her and the boys, and he'd take advantage of the fact that Jason had no memories of the animosity that had been between Jason Quartermaine and Lucky. To Jason Morgan, P.I., this was probably just another case. Elizabeth knew it was so much more than that, though.

Even before she'd begun an affair with Jason Quartermaine, Lucky had never liked Elizabeth's colleague. Lucky was an insecure man, and it was perfectly fine for him to flirt with every waitress, female bartender, hooker on the street, and pretty woman in a grocery store, but if a man so much as looked sideways at Elizabeth he would come unhinged. Back when Patrick Drake first came to town with his playboy reputation, Lucky had created a spectacle at her work by accusing her of having an affair with the doctor in front of administrators, doctors, nurses and patients. Elizabeth and Patrick had been called in and questioned and while they eventually seemed to convince everyone that it was just the crazy ramblings of Luke and Laura Spencer's son, Lucky had never given up on his accusations.

If it wasn't Patrick, then it was surely someone else at work that she was being unfaithful with. Elizabeth now understood that his accusations stemmed from his drug use and the fact that he was trying to cover up his own affair, but every time he accused her of screwing another guy, it made it harder for her to want to sleep with him. He accused her of being cold, of not wanting him because she was with someone else, but refused to see the truth that she didn't want him because of his actions.

During that time Jason had only been a friend to Elizabeth. Emily had been her support system as well, but the intern had been a little too caught up in the Four Musketeer fantasy she carried around to really admit and acknowledge how Lucky was treating Elizabeth. That was when she began talking more to Emily's big brother, and eventually stopped talking to the brunette all together. When Elizabeth found proof of Lucky's drug addiction and his affair, she went to Jason for advice on what to do, but she didn't go there with the intention of sleeping with him.

It was only after she slept with her co-worker and friend and felt guilty about it, that she'd slept with Lucky when he began pressuring her one night, despite her disgust over his denial of his affair. And when Elizabeth discovered she was pregnant, Lucky believed the child was his, even though they'd used a condom and in spite of his less-than-stellar performance because of the drugs. Elizabeth suspected, and so did Jason after he found out she was pregnant, that Jason was the father and they had an paternity test run by an independent lab and a doctor from an out-of-town clinic.

But Lucky's suspicions were never fully put to rest and when she wouldn't give up on him going into rehab, and then declared that she was done with their marriage and wanted a divorce, his accusations resurfaced. This time, though, he began to wonder if she was having an affair with Jason Quartermaine, her friend who always seemed to be around. While Jason and Elizabeth never slept together again until her divorce was finalized, she had fallen in love with him and was having an affair with him in all aspects except physical.

For him to show up now, being a private investigator, Elizabeth hoped she was wrong, but strongly suspected Lucky had hired him. Was it because her ex suspected involvement between Jason Quartermaine and Elizabeth and thought that it would be ironic for Jason Morgan to track down his alter-ego's former lover? Or was it because Jason Morgan's loss of memory made him the one person who didn't know about the contentious history between the ex-spouses and that would make him more likely to take the case? Whatever the reason, Elizabeth knew that her good luck had run out in Jamestown and it was time to leave. If Jason had found her, then she didn't have much time until Lucky showed up.

The boys had fallen asleep after their outing to the park, and Elizabeth was grateful for it. Never fully trusting that Lucky would just give up, Elizabeth had always kept getaway bags at the ready. Those were now in the car, along with her hidden cash, and a box of food and other essentials. She'd crammed everything she possibly could into the trunk, and all she had to do now was retrieve her sleeping children and leave.

The phone rang as she walked back inside and she jumped and stared at it, her hand over her pounding heart and willed for it to stop. She didn't know if it was work calling and wanting her to come in, Emily finally getting her message while on her vacation with Jax and calling her back, or something more sinister like her ex-husband taunting her by saying he knew where she was and he was coming for his boy. Once the phone fell silent, she opened the boys' door and picked up Cameron. Her oldest son was like her and once he fell asleep, he was out. Even if he woke up briefly when she put him in the car, he'd settle down easier than Jake would once she explained to him that they were going on an adventure and it was okay to go back to sleep.

She had just returned to the house and was hanging her purse on the doorknob so she could grab it easily once she had Jake in her arms when her cell phone began to ring. She swallowed and refused to look at the display screen. She was tempted to turn it off, but wouldn't do so until they were on the road. She was going to have to stop and pick up a pre-paid phone, call and give Emily the new number and then ditch her current phone. She didn't trust that Lucky wouldn't be able to get her number, and then contact her service provider to ping her phone or triangulate her coordinates based on cell phone towers.

Her heart was in her throat as she walked back into the main room holding Jake. She reached for her purse, opened the door and ended up biting her lip to keep from screaming when she came face to face with the body of her former lover. Jason Morgan stood in front of her, his hair shorter than Dr. Quartermaine's, his face harder than the man she'd loved, and he stared at her with such an intensity that she clutched Jake tighter to her and only let up when her little boy whimpered in his sleep.

The sound seemed to draw Jason's attention to the child, and a strange look crossed his face before he looked back at her and curtly asked, "You were leaving?"

She could only barely nod and then was surprised when he said, "Good. Makes it easier; I was coming to tell you to leave. Your ex-husband hired me to find you, but he hid the restraining order when my partner first did his search. I think you have the right idea, you need to get out of here."

She was so stunned to actually see him, to be talking to him, that she barely noticed he took hold of her elbow and guided her out of the house to the car. His partner was standing by their car, scanning the area and his nervousness only made her rise. She didn't put up resistance when Jason took Jake from her arms and buckled him into his seat, taking a moment to look at the little boy before standing abruptly and telling her to get into the car. It wasn't until a few minutes later as she pulled out of the neighborhood and turned onto the street that would start getting them out of town that she realized Jason was in the car with her, and obviously meant to come along while his partner followed.

He was in a car with a child that was most likely his son and the woman who had given birth to him, and Jason Morgan had no real memories of her. He'd read her file, he'd watched her today and he knew enough about her ex-husband and his worthless family to suspect things, but the woman sitting behind the wheel of the car was really just a stranger to him. And she was silent.

Her hands gripped the steering wheel tightly, her shoulders were tense and she looked straight ahead at the road as she maneuvered through town and out onto a road that took them north. She checked the mirrors with precision to make a driving instructor proud, she checked her speed to make sure she wouldn't draw attention to the car by excessively exceeding the speed limit, and she would every-so-often look back at her boys to ensure they were still asleep. The one thing she didn't do was look at him or even attempt to speak to him.

Which left it to Jason to breach the silence and begin speaking. "So...where are we going?"

"I wasn't aware there was a we," she said, glancing over at him briefly. "I had a plan and was on my way out; you...you just somehow ended up in my car."

"I want to make sure you're safe," he answered. "I saw the restraining order you have against your ex-husband; Spinelli's done a search on you and uncovered a lot of newspaper articles and he remembers some stuff Lulu Spencer said to him when your trial was going on. He kinda dismissed her and all her talk and didn't really pay much attention to it because he didn't want anything to do with her, but he's remembered things. The Spencers are rabid dogs who should all be put down and your ex hired us to find you and your son."

He paused for a moment, glancing back at the sleeping children and then said, "Your youngest son. He didn't mention the older boy."

"Yeah," she scoffed quietly. "I can imagine. Cameron was always an afterthought to Lucky...especially once Jake came along. A Spencer."

Jason cast another glance back at the sleeping children and then asked, "Is he? Your son...is he a Spencer?"

She clenched her hands around the steering wheel and then Elizabeth let out a slow breath and said, "No. He's not."

Looking at him briefly she said, "He's...he's Jason Quartermaine's son. So...so I guess that also makes him your son."

He tensed his jaw, looked at her and then his son and swore harshly as he turned back around in his seat and stared out the front window. She'd just confirmed it. The boy in the backseat was his son, and he'd never known about it.

"Bad words," a sleepy voice mumbled from the back.

Elizabeth gasped softly and her hands convulsed on the wheel. She looked in the mirror at the child buckled in behind her and Jason turned his head to see her oldest son slowly waking up and rubbing at his eyes. "Cam," she whispered.

"Bad words, Mommy," he repeated. "Like Daddy..."

The boy trailed off, his eyes widening and he looked up and Jason forgot about everything as he saw the fear cross the child's face. It made him hate Spencer all the more, because the boy was clearly frightened of the thought that his ex-stepfather might be in the car with him. Instead, Cameron's eyes widened with delight when they saw Jason in the seat and he squealed out in joy, "Jason!"

He gave a bounce in his seat and said, "Mommy, it's Jason. I told you it was Jason I saw at the park. I told you."

"Yes, Cam," she agreed, her voice a mix of emotions. "You did."

"Jason, you came for us," he continued on. "Everything's going to be okay now because Daddy Jason is here."

"Daddy Jason?" the man in question asked harshly, his head whipping around to look at Elizabeth who seemed to have pure misery etched on her face. "What the- What are you telling these kids?"

"Ja-Jason?"

He looked back at the boy in the seat and saw that the child was now pushed back against car seat, his shoulders rolled down and his eyes wide with fear. "Did you not want us anymore? Is that why you stopped coming by?"

Elizabeth swallowed audibly and suddenly the speed of the car dropped as she turned on her blinker and moved onto the shoulder of the state route. The car stopped and she roughly put the car into gear before undoing her belt and turning around to face her son. "Cameron, no. No, sweetheart, that wasn't..."

She let out a breath and leaned her forehead on the leather headrest of her seat then looked back up again. "Remember, Cam, how I told you that Doctor Jason got hurt? He was in a car accident and he was sick for a long time."

The little boy looked only at his mother and solemnly nodded his head. Elizabeth reached around the seat and stretched out her hand; Cameron immediately grabbed onto it. "And then remember how I told you that even though he physically got better there was something wrong with his mind...that his brain got hurt and he couldn't remember the things he knew before?"

"Like us," the child said sadly.

"Yes," she confirmed, sadness in her voice as well. "Like us. So it wasn't that he didn't like you, Cameron, or thought that you were bad...he just didn't know you. And we...we had to leave because of Daddy Lucky."

After thinking for a minute he looked at Jason and asked earnestly, "Did you just forget us? You weren't mad at us...you didn't change your mind?"

"No," he found himself answering. "I-I didn't know you."

"Oh," the little boy said softly.

"Cam, sweetie," Elizabeth broke into the moment. "I need to talk to Jason for a minute so I need you to be good here, okay? If Jake wakes up, just talk to him and Mommy will just be outside the car."

She reached into a bag and retrieved a plastic cup with a lid on it and handed it to the boy, and then looked at Jason with such a fierceness that when she then reached for her door handle and climbed out of the car, he found himself opening his own door and exiting the vehicle as well. With a calm precision she closed the door and then walked around the front of the car, looking back in through the window and flashing a smile at her son. Then she walked off the side of the asphalt, onto the grass near the side until she almost reached the fence that separated the roadway from the surrounding farmland. Jason followed behind her, even though she'd said nothing. As Spinelli pulled his car off the road, Jason just held up his hand and motioned for the younger man to stay there and not follow them. When he looked back, Elizabeth Webber's eyes flashed dark and angry.

"Don't you ever do that again," she hissed at him.

His head went back slightly in the face of her attack and he asked, "Do what?"

"Take whatever you're feeling out on my son," she clarified angrily. "I get that this has to be confusing for you, but you do not take that out on my children."

"One of them is my son," he pointed out roughly, responding to her emotions. "Something I had no clue about."

"And how exactly do you think I should have told you?" she asked him, placing a hand on her hip.

"I had an affair with my co-worker while I was married to a detective on the police force. It's not exactly something I'm proud of," she said, "but there was a lot going on in my life. My husband was addicted to painkillers and hiding it from everyone; he was sleeping with his boss's barely legal teenage daughter in exchange for her stealing drugs from the hospital for him. He was trying to cover his drug usage and infidelity by accusing me of having an affair with a different co-worker and he never liked the relationship I had with Dr. Quartermaine. One night...one night when I caught my husband once again cheating on me in the apartment I was working double shifts to pay for, I went to my friend because I didn't know where else to turn. I didn't go there planning on sleeping with him, but I never regretted that it happened it. We'd been friends, there was always a little attraction there but I was faithful to my husband and Dr. Quartermaine respected that. But after we slept together...there was no longer any denying how we felt."

She turned and rubbed her hand against her forehead. "But we didn't sleep together again until my divorce was finalized and that took a while because Lucky fought it and his family kept harassing me telling me I was being horrible for abandoning Lucky when he finally went to rehab and if I just stood by him and supported him everything would be just fine."

"It wasn't your job to fix him," Jason shook his head.

She turned and looked back at him, a wistful expression on her face. "That's exactly what he said. By that time I knew I was pregnant, we suspected it was his, and we began to make plans. He began looking at possibly moving to another city and a different hospital. We were going to leave together, we were going to declare that Jake was his son, we...we were talking about getting married and he was going to adopt Cameron."

Swallowing roughly she said, "And then..."

"And then the accident happened," he finished for her.

"Yeah," she nodded, her eyes bright with unshed tears. "He was in a coma and then...and then he woke up as you. Lucky was harassing me...stepping it up, he began...he began to frighten me and the boys and I didn't know if the man I loved was going to die and then...and then he woke up as someone else. How exactly was I supposed to come to you and tell you everything at that moment in time? I was afraid because things with Lucky were getting worse and I knew from Emily that you were angry and unsettled and I just wasn't sure what to do. You had no memories from before and I was just supposed to walk into your hospital room, or to your apartment later and say 'Hey, you have a son'?"

A few tears slipped down her cheeks and she hastily wiped them away while she paced before him. "And then...and then things got really bad with Lucky and telling you about Jake was the last thing on my mind. Emily was helping me...hiding me at times, and then she helped me find this place in Jamestown. I settled down some, but for weeks, months...I looked over my shoulder all the time. I keep a bag packed for each of us at all times because I never let my guard down in regards to Lucky. I...I just never expected him to send you."

"You were leaving when I showed up," Jason said. "I'd done enough research to piece things together and I suspected that your youngest son was mine...or Jason Quartermaine's. I had never liked Spencer, but could never put my finger exactly why, but when we were doing another search because we saw you had two children instead of just the one he mentioned, my partner found the restraining order. It wasn't there when we first took the case which means he probably hid it."

"Yeah," she nodded shakily. "Lucky was always good with computers."

"And he was always good at hiding the way he treated you," Jason said. "He never hit you, and the couple of times he grabbed you, it was always high on your arms where any marks he might have left would be covered by sleeves."

Elizabeth stared at him, her eyes wide, but Jason continued on. "I knew as soon as I saw the restraining order that I'd been set up. He hired me to find you because he couldn't look for you himself. So I knew I had to get you out of town. I assume we're heading towards Canada?"

She nodded, "Yeah. Emily...Emily and Jax set up a place in Manitoba, listed under a small holding company Jax has. They wanted me to have a place to escape to if I felt I had to, or just a place to go on vacation if I wanted. I've tried calling her, but she and Jax are out of town I guess and I've left messages. I'm hoping that once I get there I'll hear from her and we'll arrange something. Head west, maybe, or even east since Lucky will probably suspect I'll run west, and then they'll get me and the boys and I'll go someplace else."

"Won't Lucky suspect you'll go to Canada?" Jason asked.

"Maybe," she conceded, "but the holding company that owns the place, it's solely for safe properties for me. It's nothing that can easily be traced back to Jax and the minute that Emily and Jax know I'm running from Lucky, they'll set some things in motion. They have no like for the Spencers anymore and Jax has been causing problems for them and for Nikolas Cassadine and I...I think that Emily's even gotten some members of her family with ELQ to cause some problems for the Spencers. I...it's not perfect, but it's the best that I can do. Emily and Jax and I have been planning and preparing for the day that Lucky might discover me."

"I'm glad my sister could help you," he said, feeling slightly disconcerted to know all that Emily had done for Elizabeth and his son, but had never told him anything about it. He was going to have to talk to her and ask her why she never told him. "But until they're able to help you, I'm not just going to leave you and your boys alone."

She crossed her arms over her chest and said stubbornly, "I appreciate that you want to help, but really there's no need."

"No need?" he countered back. "Forget for a moment that Jake is my son and you're his mother and there is no way I'm just going to send the three of you off alone, there's a reason you're running from your ex. You're frightened of him, your children are frightened of him, he's a weak, pathetic man who hides his inadequacies behind a badge and thinks he can bully the people around him. He's hurt you, emotionally and physically, and I am not going to say 'good luck' and send you off by yourself. I wouldn't do that to anyone, not just because Jake is my child. Lucky Spencer is dangerous and I played right into his hands and because of me he may now know where you are. That means I'm responsible for the fact that you're running and I'm not going to walk away."

"It's not necessary," Elizabeth shook her head. "I...I don't even know that it's a good idea. You don't remember us, but you know that Cameron does. Are you going to be able to handle being around us? Because I will not have my boys affected by this."

"Look," he said. "I'm sorry for before. I might have suspected about Jake after seeing him, but hearing you confirm it...it's a lot to take in. But I'll be fine. I'm going to protect you, Elizabeth. You and your boys. So let's stop wasting time here by the side of the road and get to Canada."

"Em, where are you?"

Standing outside of the cabin, Elizabeth wrapped her arms around herself and looked up at the stars. She'd left numerous messages for Emily and Jax, but hadn't heard back from either one of them yet. It was too risky to call Monica, because nobody was supposed to know that the two young women had kept in contact with each other after Elizabeth and the boys left town. And they'd deemed it too risky for Jason to suddenly call asking about his sister because it wasn't something he would normally do. He was away on a case and while he might talk to his sister, he wouldn't track her down with urgency if she didn't return his phone call right away.

The door opened behind her, and she closed her eyes, bracing herself for the coming conversation. She really hoped it would be one of the boys, but knew that it wouldn't be. After they arrived, Elizabeth had taken the boys on a long walk, followed by some time in the pool. It helped burn off all the energy that had built up during the drive and it would also tire them out so they would go to sleep. It's what they did every time they arrived at the little cabin, and Elizabeth wanted to stay with tradition.

Plus, it helped her avoid Jason.

While he helped her with the boys, put away the groceries that they'd stopped to pick up, and helped them cook dinner, she still wasn't sure what to make of his presence. And now that the boys were asleep, she had escaped outside in an attempt to avoid him. Her mind was still too jumbled up to be able to sit in a room with him and not be affected.

"Any luck?" he asked, standing on the other side of the entrance to the porch and looking at the cell phone on the railing in front of her.

She shook her head and let out a sigh. "No."

"I'm sure she'll check her messages soon. Jax doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would be away from his business for too long," Jason said. "Even if he's on vacation and dedicating his time to my sister, he's still going to check his e-mails and messages at least once a day or so. So they'll get the messages you left."

"Yeah," she nodded, licking her lips before drawing the lower one in between her teeth. "I just...I'll feel better once I talk to them. We had a plan set up for if this ever happened and...and until I know that they know what's happening...it just leaves me unsettled."

"Do you really worry that much about Lucky?" he asked.

Elizabeth looked over at him and bluntly said, "Yes. I know you don't remember what he was like back then, and then after you accident you didn't know everything that was happening, but...but yeah. I worry about Lucky that much."

"You were prepared," he said pensively. "The cash, never using your credit or debit cards; the passports in the bags; the bags themselves...you were ready to run at a moment's notice. The pre-paid cell phones you had, telling me not to use mine so it couldn't be traced. The boys know this place so you've been here before and they're not scared, but it's well stocked with canned goods and the car's hidden in the garage...it's a classic hiding place."

She merely lifted her brow as he ticked off all the things they'd done, all the planning Jax had insisted on. She didn't know whether Jason was impressed with all the planning, or surprised they'd actually thought through everything and hadn't overlooked any details. Did he think it was all ridiculous or unnecessary, or had the memory flash he'd had - even if he wasn't aware of it - make him as uneasy and unsettled as she was and so he was trying to convince himself that they'd prepared all they could?

"That's why Jax did it this way," she told him. "After your accident and given how erratic Lucky became...we weren't going to take any chances."

They both fell silent for a long time, listening to the insects and frogs that were down at the pond. Finally she asked, "Do you think that Spinelli will be okay?"

The young man hadn't crossed the Canadian border with them, instead deciding to head off on his own and use his computer skills to create a false trail for Lucky. Elizabeth had given him her credit card numbers, and he said that he would create hotel check-ins and gas purchases on a route leading away from Canada and hopefully keep her ex-husband from finding where they'd gone. The border crossing had been quick because it wasn't a highly traveled route, and they did nothing to draw suspicion to themselves. Merely said that they were taking a little family vacation and the agents waved them through.

"Yeah," he said thoughtfully. "He seems a bit...odd, but Spinelli's good at what he does. He didn't find the restraining order because Lucky was hiding it. Which means he's good at computers, too...but Spinelli's smart. He'll hole up somewhere and send out false trails to confuse Lucky and keep him away from where you're really at. And as soon as Emily and Jax come, then I'll call him on the disposable cell phones we got and he'll stop the trail. Then Lucky will be left not knowing where you're at."

It all sounded so good, and Elizabeth wanted to believe it. But unfortunately, she'd been in this place before. Thinking that she would finally get away from her ex-husband, away from his terror, and it had all been cruelly ripped away from her. She'd never told anybody, but there was a part of her that wondered if Lucky had somehow been behind with Jason's accident. If he'd suspected that she was involved with her co-worker after the divorce and was planning to leave with the boys. While Luke Spencer wasn't pleased that his son had become a cop, there was still enough of the old man in his son that made Lucky dangerous. He knew the tricks his dad had used while they were on the run from the mob and the Cassadines, and Lucky was tricky and resourceful.

She shivered as she recalled those days after the accident and the remarks he'd made that she'd pieced together later and been frightened by their implication. If he'd possibly arranged one accident for someone he perceived as a threat to his control over her and the boys, what would he do to someone he'd hired to find her but now was helping her? Lucky didn't like betrayals, and those seemed to bring out his truly cruel side.

"Are you cold?" Jason asked. "Maybe we should go inside."

"No," she shook her head, tightening her arms around her. "I just...I'm just worried for Spinelli. Lucky doesn't take betrayals well, and you guys were supposed to find me, not help me escape. He...I just don't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

"He may look bumbling, but I worked with him," he tried to assure her. "I felt that I needed to teach him how to protect himself because of the work we do, and I have faith in him."

"O-okay," she said, suddenly caught in a memory from the past. Of the assured way that Jason Quartermaine had spoken at work, but also in their plans to leave. He vowed to protect her, to keep her and their boys safe, and that once they got away from Port Charles and the influence the Spencers held, they would be safe. They would begin their lives together. It was the first time Jason Morgan had sounded like the man she'd been in love with and she wasn't prepared for it.

"I, uh...I'm going to go check on the boys," Elizabeth said, taking a step back and stumbling slightly. Jason turned and reached a hand out, even though he was too far away to help her. She flinched back, even though there was no contact and cleared her throat.

"Are you okay?" he asked, taking a step towards her.

"Ye-yeah," she said, trying to infuse confidence into her voice. She was amazed at how unnerved she suddenly became, but this was just another reason why she wanted to reach Emily and Jax. Because then they could help her and she would not be with Jason. She wasn't entirely prepared to be around him constantly.

"What's wrong?" he asked, "what did I do that made you suddenly so jumpy? This has to do with you and him, doesn't it?"

He'd moved in between her and the door and she didn't know if that was deliberate, or if it just happened as he moved towards her. He was frowning at her, but she couldn't tell if he was angry or just concerned. She didn't know Jason Morgan, and couldn't just assign Jason Quartermaine's responses to him.

"I...I was just caught off guard," she said, and hoped he would let it go. When he didn't move and just kept looking at her, she found herself suddenly rambling out, "When you were talking about Spinelli and how you trust him...it just brought something to mind. And I wasn't prepared for it."

"What?" he asked, his voice soft. He definitely was not angry at her; he sounded curious, perhaps, certainly concerned.

"He...he was certain that things would be fine once we left Port Charles. I was a nervous wreck," she said with a strained laugh, pushing her hands through her hair. "Lucky just wasn't letting up, and I was anticipating leaving and being with Jason and starting our family but I knew that it wasn't going to be easy, but then he would talk to me. And he would be calm and reassuring and maybe he was just as nervous as I was, but when he would talk to me and tell me that everything was going to be fine and he had faith in our plan...it always helped me."

She let out a breath and continued, "So when you talked about your partner and how you'd trained him and how you had faith in him, I began to calm down and let go of some of my worries for him. And it...it was so like the moments that I had with Jason Quartermaine and it just caught me off-guard. I needed to get some space."

Jason was quiet for a moment and then nodded. "I understand. I...this is probably hard for you. My family acted the same way...I look like who I used to be, but I'm not him. And I'd do something and it would be like something he did and they'd get all strange. Sometimes they took as proof that he'd come back, and sometimes they'd just get this funny look in their eye and they'd go quiet for a moment. I kinda got used to it with them, even if it still makes me uncomfortable sometimes. I guess it's the same with you. You knew him very well."

"Yeah," she nodded.

"You had a child together, and you were in love," he continued on. "You were making plans to leave and start a life together. I...I noticed the boys watching me...your oldest son, especially."

"I've tried to explain to him," Elizabeth said. "But I know it will be hard for him, because it's hard to understand. I'm a nurse, and I have training and I've talked with Emily...but all Cameron knows is that one day Jason was there and telling him how much he loved Cam and wanted to adopt him. And then there was the accident and you didn't die, but you were hurt. So he sees you now, and he sees the man you used to be and it's hard to separate that."

Jason let out a heavy sigh and brought his hand up to rub the back of his neck. "Yeah. That's how my family described it. I...I got mad at them because I didn't remember who I was and I thought couldn't they see that I wasn't him? But I'm walking around looking like him...that has to be really confusing for a child."

She nodded. "Yeah. I tried to explain it to him, and when we weren't around you in Port Charles and then when we left...I guess I thought he'd accepted it. But maybe it was just because we weren't interacting. When he said he saw you in the park, I thought maybe it was just his imagination and I wondered what that meant. We hadn't talked about Jason Quartermaine in a while and I wondered why he brought him up now. I think it's going to confuse him a bit...so please..."

"I'll try to be patient with him," Jason told her gently. "And with Jake. I...in the car, I was just caught off guard as well. I may not remember Jason Quartermaine, but..."

"But you share the same DNA, the same blood, the same body," Elizabeth filled in. "And Jake was created because of that DNA. So you may not remember him..."

"But he's my son," he said softly. "And I don't know what that all means. I...I have a child...he carries a part of me in him. I feel responsible for him, even though I've only known about him for a few hours. And it's not fair to your other son to say that I'm responsible for Jake only, because Cameron remembers who I was and probably more than Jake ever knew Jason Q."

"Yeah," she confirmed. "But, Jason...I'm not expecting anything from you. Emily...Emily's helped me out. Because she's my friend and also because she knows how her brother felt about me and the boys. She believes that Jason Quartermaine would want her to help, and so she is. I know that this is so messed up and confusing and it doesn't feel like there's anything logical in anything we're saying...but I'm not demanding anything from you. There's a lot to figure out, I guess, about Jake...but...but not tonight. There's too much to try to figure it all out tonight."

"Da..." Cameron stopped himself and looked hastily away from Jason and then softly said, "Jason, it's your turn."

Numbly, Jason pulled a card out of the pile and unseeingly placed it down in front of him. He was playing horribly, he knew that, but his mind was on the back room where Elizabeth was, finally talking to Emily who had called this morning as they finished up breakfast. She grabbed the phone frantically, and relief crossed her face when she heard his sister's voice through the line. She asked him to keep an eye on the boys and then she disappeared into the back. That had been quite some time ago.

"Hisssss," Cameron said as he pulled out another card. He matched his selection with a snake already in progress, and completed it with the rainbow-colored tail, a wild card, that Jason had put down without even giving it any thought and contemplation. As interesting as the game was, creating snakes by matching vivid colors and being lucky enough to find a card that linked two in progress snakes together, he could not concentrate on any aspect of it.

For as much as Jason's thoughts were on Elizabeth, he'd also been numb because of the obvious way Cameron stopped himself from calling him Dad. The young boy was clearly uncomfortable around Jason, yet infinitely patient. He explained the game they were playing, Hiss, clearly, helped Jake play his cards and at times didn't snatch up a completed snake but let his brother have the honor simply so the younger boy could feel good about making a match. He was such a caring and loving big brother that it was easy to see Elizabeth's mannerisms in him.

The two boys adored each other, and their mother, and she was doing an amazing job in trying circumstances to raise them to be happy, well-adjusted children. Jason was impressed by her strength and resiliency, he admired the efficient attitude she displayed without being overbearing, and he definitely felt like an outsider as he watched the family share little looks or laughs over inside jokes. As Cameron did his best to treat Jason politely and respectfully like he was just another adult or even a babysitter, it was clear that he knew Jason wasn't just such a person. He was finding it hard to not call him Daddy Jason or curl up against him as he must have done before the accident.

It made Jason uncomfortable, but not in the way he ever felt around the Quartermaines. He felt, for the first time, just how much he might have lost. These were children who had known who he was before, Jake was his son, and they loved him, even if he didn't remember them. Jason had loved them, had loved their mother and had made plans to leave Port Charles and make a family with them. This scene could have played out one weekends or in the evenings and he could be a more proficient player of the matching game; these could be his sons, this could be his family and the his heart would fill with joy each time Cameron called him Daddy instead of clenching in pain for the little boy who stopped himself from uttering the words he wanted to and looking down in embarrassment or hurt and then trying to pretend that he had not nearly said the wrong thing.

These little boys shouldn't have to feel that way around him. It was one of the first times that Jason had truly cursed the accident that had changed his life. While he didn't miss medicine because he didn't remember it, or miss the Quartermaines because all he saw was their loud, overbearing manners, sitting in a cabin in Canada with children that looked at him with hope, and yet resignation, he wished his accident hadn't happened. In just the brief time he'd come to know Elizabeth Webber and her children, he could see why his former self had tried to build a life with them. They were an amazing family; kind, caring, strong and something so intangible he couldn't name it but it filled him utterly and completely that he felt as though he'd found something he hadn't even known he'd lost.

"Jason."

He was drawn from his thoughts by the appearance of Elizabeth who stood by the door, her hand over the phone receiver and looked at him expectantly. "Emily would like to talk to you."

He nodded, unfolding himself from the floor as he stood, careful not to disturb the cards laid out on the floor or bump either of the boys, and then made his way across the room. She held out the phone to him, her face looking haunted, but refusing to meet his eye. After he took the cell phone, she glanced at him only long enough to say softly, "I'm going to start putting things in the car. Jax wants us to leave, head to another house he's got set up."

Not getting a chance to respond, he watched Elizabeth briefly as she walked towards the boys, and then he looked down at the device in his hand. Walking into the back room, Jason lifted the phone to his ear and said, "Emily?"

"How in the world did you end up taking a case for Lucky Spencer?" she demanded of him harshly. "You've always said you don't like him, you know that I stopped being friends with him and I told you he was a man I didn't want in my life anymore and I told you why and you agreed with me. What suddenly changed that you actually accepted a case from him?"

"We needed the money," he defended himself. "We'd gotten stiffed on a couple of payments and just because our clients don't pay doesn't mean Spinelli and I don't have rent to pay or electric bills. We didn't like it, but we needed the money."

The sound she made clearly conveyed her disgust with his answer, but his sister apparently decided to move on from that line of questioning because she then asked, "You've met Jake?"

"Yes," Jason replied succinctly. "How come I find out you were doing all these things for Elizabeth when you knew that Jason Q. had been involved with her but you never told me?"

"Because you didn't remember anything," she replied back just as short and succinctly. "How exactly was I supposed to come to you and say 'Jason, you have a son with a woman you don't know and you really need to step up and help her because her ex-husband is terrorizing her'?"

"You knew he was my son?" he demanded. "Elizabeth didn't say anything about that?"

"Because she doesn't know," Emily answered. "Or if she suspects, she doesn't say anything. He told me before the accident. I found out he was applying to other hospitals out of state and I confronted him, wondering why, if he loved Elizabeth so much he would take her away from where her grandmother lived, and he said that he had to do what was best for her and their children. It was a long conversation, but he told me that Jake was his son. It wasn't long after that that the accident happened and then I never felt it was the right time to talk to Elizabeth about it because of everything that happened."

"You should have told me, Emily," he said. "I had a right to know I had a child."

"Perhaps," she conceded. "But honestly, Jason, the most important thing was protecting Elizabeth and those boys."

"That's why you have the safe houses and she has access to Jax's resources, doesn't she? You helped out because you were helping my son."

"I was helping my friend, as well," she added. "When the divorce was happening, Jason Q. took me aside and made me take a look at what the Spencers and Nikolas were really doing. I finally saw what Elizabeth had been trying to say and I didn't like it. I realized I was being foolish and blind and even if I hadn't found out Jake was your son, I still would have helped Elizabeth because Lucky is out of control."

"So what happens now?" Jason asked. "Elizabeth said Jax wants her to move to a different house."

"We're being safe," his sister replied. "She explained what you're having Spinelli do to try to distract Lucky, but we don't want her sitting there in that house she's been to before, because we don't know exactly where Lucky is. Jax is on the other phone calling his people, getting them working on finding out where Lucky is. He's implementing a plan against the Cassadines and Spencers that is going to cripple them and hopefully that will slow Lucky down. But until we know for sure, we don't want Elizabeth sitting in one spot. She's got enough cash to keep moving, and in that safe house is an ATM card that is to an account that has never been used by Elizabeth before, and can't easily be linked back to Jax and she can withdraw money and move throughout Canada until we get to her."

"So what do I need to do?" he asked, glad that his sister and her boyfriend were doing so much to help Elizabeth, but also feeling like they had everything planned out and didn't need him.

"You have a gun, don't you?" she asked.

"Emily," he said in shock when he realized that was all she intended to say.

"Jason," she countered bluntly. "Lucky Spencer is not someone you can take chances with. I...I think he either knows, or he suspects, that Jake isn't his son. It was bad enough that Elizabeth had a child with another man and he was helping raise Cameron; he was willing to overlook that because he and Elizabeth weren't together during that time. But let's not forget how Luke treats Nikolas; for as much as he tries to deny it, Lucky is exactly like his father. Lucky is all about the Spencers and Jake is supposed to be his child. If anyone were to find out that he wasn't, Lucky couldn't deal with the humiliation."

His sister let out a breath and then said softly, hesitantly, "It's why...it's why I think he did something to cause Jason Q.'s accident. I also think he tried to kill you while you were in the hospital afterwards."

"What?" he breathed out.

"Listen, Jason," Emily said, "It's a long story and you're right, I probably should have told you what I suspected. But we don't have time for that right now. What matters most is getting you and Elizabeth and the boys out of there. Jax told her which house to go to, there are maps, there's money, there's stuff she's going to collect. You need to help her, Jason. You need to help those boys. She's trying to be strong and she's trying to put on a brave face for Cam and Jake, but she's terrified. And she's confused. It's not exactly easy to be hanging out with the guy who looks like her former lover and fiancé but can't remember her. She's worried about the impact this will have on the boys and as much as she knows that she needs you there, she was ready to send you away because it's hard on her and she already sees how it's affecting the boys. So you need to be strong, and you need to be careful around them and most of all...you have got to treat those boys with understanding and gentleness because nobody knows what's going to happen next and they've already had you drop out of their lives once. Even if it wasn't your fault, they are all extremely nervous and on edge."

"Yeah...yeah," he managed to say, stunned by the ferocity in his little sister's voice. She was instructing him and chiding him and he wasn't used to it. Plus he didn't know how anyone was supposed to react to this situation but she seemed to think that it would all be his fault if it was screwed up. "I...I will, Em. I'll do my best."

"I need more than your best, Jason," she told him. "I love you and I know this isn't easy for you and maybe I'm not being fair, but you didn't see that family after your accident and learning that you had no memories of your past. You didn't see them terrorized by Lucky and you have no idea how distraught they all were when they moved. I need you to do more than just try, Jason. I need you to do. Otherwise, I'm going to tell you leave."

"Leave?" he said in shock with a shake of his head. "I am not leaving them."

"Then step it up, big brother," she commanded him. "Because right now, you have got to do everything right and there is no margin for error."

This has once been her dream. The boys asleep in the backseat of the car, Jason driving, and them heading off to start a new adventure together. However, this wasn't leaving Port Charles behind together, this wasn't a family vacation with the man she loved, this was Elizabeth Webber sitting in a car with a stranger who wore her ex-lover's face. That he was technically the father of her youngest son was a strange concept she was still trying to adjust to. That he sometimes had the same mannerisms as the man she'd loved, that he sounded the same, looked the same was beginning to wreak havoc on her heart.

When he was a patient in the hospital or when he was walking around Port Charles as a P.I. in a leather jacket, it was easier to remind herself that he wasn't the man he once was. But now, in the middle of the night as she watched him, his face occasionally illuminated by the headlights of a passing car, it was far too intimate, and too much like the times when they would sneak away all too infrequently to be together after her divorce.

He'd helped her carry Cameron and Jake to the car, buckled the little boys in and then quietly stepped forward and took the bags out of her hands when she walked out of the cabin. He packed them away in the trunk of the car that was stored there so she could leave her old car behind, asked if they had the boys' toys, enough snacks and drinks and ran back inside himself to get something he'd reminded her she forgot. It was like they were a couple, it was like old times, but it wasn't. No matter how much it seemed like it, it was only just an illusion.

"Did he go with you on vacation?" Jason asked unexpectedly, breaking the silence that had descended on the car after the boys fell asleep.

She licked her lips and then swallowed. "Once. I didn't tell the boys where we were going; but we ended up at the same place. Then he stayed with us and we were...we were like a family. I-I hated telling the boys that they couldn't tell Lucky what happened, but they were already pulling away from him. They were already frightened of him and...and Jason Quartermaine was so tender with them, so patient that my boys just fell in love with him. They really saw the difference in how he and Lucky treated them and it was really Cameron who knew they couldn't tell Daddy about Daddy Jason."

"Did you see him more often?"

Looking out the window and letting out a deep sigh she confirmed, "Yeah. It was hard because I couldn't leave them with my grandmother all the time or with Emily...because if Lucky suspected that I wasn't with them, he wanted them himself and I..."

"You weren't going to let your sons be around him," Jason filled in. "It was before you finally got the restraining order; he didn't seem to care about seeing them unless he thought you weren't going to be there. It...it was like he was keeping tabs on you; making sure you weren't seeing someone else."

Elizabeth gasped and looked at him, her mouth open. "How-how do you know that? This...this is the second time you've said something that he knew but was never in a document you could have read it in."

His head snapped to the side to look at her and he seemed just as surprised as her. "What? What do you mean? I said...I don't have my memories."

Then he fell silent and she said, "But you've said things that he knew. Back when we were in North Dakota and you were talking about Lucky grabbing me and making sure the bruises were hidden under the sleeves of my shirt. Only...only Jason Quartermaine knew that because...because he saw me without my shirt on."

Jason cleared his throat and said, "It wasn't at the hospital was it?"

"No," she shook her head, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. Then she quickly moved on from that particular moment. "And now...with the boys. I only told him that it felt like Lucky was keeping tabs on me, and making sure that I wasn't meeting someone else."

The only sound for a while was the hum of the engine and the tires rolling over the road. She could tell by the set of Jason's jaw that he was thinking, puzzling through all that had been said. His brain injury was so severe it was a miracle he was alive; nobody had hope of him ever recovering any of his memories.

"I-I don't know," he finally said, his voice low as he gave a shake of his head. "But...but I just say something and it's not like I'm remembering it, it's just...it's there and I don't know how it got there."

"You should talk to a doctor," she told him, unable to separate herself from the nurse she was.

"Doctor Jones said I'd never remember anything," Jason said, bitterness and disgust tingeing his voice. "He said I shouldn't be alive, and even though I was, I wasn't going to feel anything. He told Monica and Alan they should institutionalize me."

Elizabeth tossed her head scornfully and huffed. "Doctor Jones is an idiot. He's an arrogant, pompous old man who clings to the old ways of medicine and refuses to embrace or accept anything new that develops in the field. He operated on you because Patrick Drake was already in surgery and your condition was too critical; you couldn't wait for Patrick to finish."

She twisted her mouth to the side as she said softly, "Plus, he's Lucky's uncle."

She could feel Jason looking at her, probably frowning in confusion, but she didn't look at him. It was the first time she'd ever given voice to even the hint of her suspicions. She wasn't sure how much farther she could go with them.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked. "What does it matter if my doctor was Lucky's uncle?"

When she stayed silent and didn't speak, he cleared his throat and said, "Emily...Emily said something to me when we were on the phone. She-she said she wondered if Lucky was responsible for my accident."

Elizabeth looked over at him as her eyes widened. Jason looked at her, his own eyes wide with earnestness and asked, "Do you think that? Emily said that Lucky was near my room when suddenly I crashed and alarms sounded. She made it sound...she made it sound like he did something to me."

Licking her lips she said, "I...I have my suspicions. There were things that Lucky said during that time that I didn't put together until after Emily had helped me flee town. Things about the accident that he might have known from the police report, but things felt...off. And he got really threatening and possessive of me. Started saying things like my biggest protector wasn't around and wouldn't be able to stop him from seeing his boys. Jason Quartermaine didn't put up with Lucky and when Lucky would come to the hospital, Jason would call security and the cops. He would say that Lucky was disrupting the work environment, creating potentially dangerous situations because everyone was focusing on him instead of the patients. He tried to make it all benign and not like it was because we were involved, but..."

"Do you think Lucky was suspicious?"

"It's hard to know what was suspicion and what was paranoia," she shrugged. "If any man looked at me, I must have led him on, I must have been sending out some tramp signal. It wasn't just Jason Q., but Lucky was a little more suspicious of him. Especially towards the end when we were making plans to leave."

"So with Doctor Jones being Lucky's uncle?" he asked.

"I don't know how much Tony would have helped Lucky, if he would have actually done something to harm you, but Tony also didn't like Jason Quartermaine. He acted like Monica and Alan's friend, and acted like he accepted their son getting a job at the hospital, but...but sometimes it seemed like Tony resented him. He also resented when Patrick finished his surgery and came in to assist Tony because Monica and Alan asked him to. I-I don't know if Tony messed anything up with the surgery," she said with a shrug. "But his bedside manner was horrible with you. And I overheard Monica and Alan talking sometimes and wondering why Tony was saying things that he did, or acting the way he was."

She let out a breath and rubbed her forehead tiredly. "Just because he said certain things about your recovery...I don't know that I'd necessarily believe him. He said you wouldn't feel emotions, but Emily says that's not true. And it's not just anger that you feel. The fact that things have come to you...I..."

She shrugged and looked at him self-deprecatingly, "It's the nurse in me. I think you should talk to someone. Maybe there's no explanation for it. But you've remembered things."

"But I've only remembered things about you," Jason said, looking straight ahead and clenching his fingers around the steering wheel. "Maybe it was the heightened emotions involved with you. He loved you, you had a son, and you were planning to leave together. Maybe being around you is just making things come to the surface."

Elizabeth blushed slightly and said, "Maybe."

He surprised her when he then asked, "Do you want me to remember?"

Turning to look at him she tried to speak, but then closed her mouth. She was surprised by the question and wasn't sure what to say. He glanced at her before returning his focus to the road, but she saw volumes in his eyes and knew he needed her to answer the question. However best she could, but honesty would be the way to go.

"I don't know," she forced herself to speak. "I never really thought about it, especially not recently. When you were in the coma...all of us hoped that you'd wake up and that things would be okay. We knew there was a risk of brain injury and that there might be some memory loss, but I'm not sure anybody was quite prepared for the full extent of it."

"You never came to my room," Jason said. His voice was flat, certainly not accusatory, but perhaps questioning.

"I wasn't family. To everyone around us, we were just colleagues," she said, looking out the window at the dark night as they ate up miles on the road. "Nobody knew we were involved, that he'd asked me to marry him, or that Jake was his son and we were planning to leave."

"You were engaged?" he asked in surprise.

"Not formally," Elizabeth shook her head. "I didn't have a ring and he hadn't formally proposed, but we knew. We knew that we would get married, we talked about when we were married, and we talked about being together as a family. Maybe he was waiting for us to finally be gone from Port Charles so he could ask properly with a ring that I could actually wear. I don't know; it didn't matter to me. I knew what our plans were."

"But nobody else did."

Her voice was soft as she confirmed, "No. And so I couldn't go to his room at first because they were keeping everyone but family away. And then there were the problems with Lucky and I couldn't figure out how to go to your room without raising his suspicion. And then what was I supposed to say to you? 'Hi, you don't remember me but we were in love and we have a son and what am I supposed to do now that you don't remember us?' I was dealing with your injuries and your memory loss and I had to do it in private and..."

She trailed off and shrugged. She didn't want to sound like she pitied herself. The situation happened, it wasn't ideal, she was hurt, but had tried to deal with it as best she could. Leaving Port Charles had helped push so many of her emotions to the background, and now she had to relive those days and confront things she had pushed aside.

"So when you first woke up, I won't lie," she confessed. "I used to pray and hope that you'd regain your memories, that it was all just temporary and you'd prove the doctors wrong. Not to protect me and make it easier on me for Lucky, but...but because I loved him. I love our son. I had been planning this life with him, and then suddenly it was gone. And it was like he'd died, but there you were. You weren't dead. And it was confusing, and it hurt, and I used to get angry, and I'd get sad, and I think in my own way I mourned Jason Quartermaine's death.

"So I'm not sure," she said honestly, because confusion was all she really had at the moment. "I'm not sure if I want you to regain your memories. You've lived your life for over a year now as a different person. Just because you remember some things, or might remember all things, what would that really mean? I...I did my best to come to terms with things. It's hard enough now that you know Jake is your son. There's so much we have to figure out in regards to him."

"What about us?" he wondered.

"What about us, what?" Elizabeth parroted back.

"Am I always going to be the guy who replaced the man you loved? Will you resent me? Will you try to fall in love with me? Will you get mad at me if I don't feel the same?"

"I don't know," she said honestly with a shake of your head. "I...I know I may get confused at times, but I'm not expecting you to be him. I don't even really know you; I don't expect to suddenly fall in love with you just because you look like him and technically you're Jake's father. That's a whole lot of what if that I can't even think about, and I'm surprised you're even asking. Emily said you don't do 'what if'. You don't think ahead and wonder about things like that."

"I don't," Jason confirmed. "But I also didn't remember things until I saw you. And now I have a little boy who shares my DNA, and I found out that the man I thought I was before wasn't really who everyone thought he was. Maybe I'm just as confused as you are. But I can't help wondering what you expect of me, Elizabeth."

"I just want to be safe," she told him. "Right now, I can't really think about anything beyond keeping safe from Lucky. Everything else...frankly it's too much, Jason. So let's just...let's not talk about what's going to happen later. There's too much uncertainty, there's too much what if to contend with; let's just keep our interaction to making sure the boys are safe and we're polite to one another."

From the time Jason woke up from his coma, he was used to feeling on the outside. Unable to remember the Quartermaines, he'd stared at them in detached horror that grew to frustration whenever they barged into his room and claimed to love him while noisily and unfeelingly demanding he remember them. After he left the hospital, he grew used to encountering people who stared at him because he was different than he used to be. People spoke loudly like he was deaf, or slowly like he was dumb and couldn't understand what they were saying, or never got too close in case he suddenly lashed out and hurt them.

In time, he grew a thick skin in regards to other people's behavior. If they didn't want to see that he was a perfectly functional human being, even if he had no memory of anything before he woke up in the hospital, then it wasn't his fault. If they couldn't handle his differences and were uncomfortable, then that was their choice. He wasn't making anyone act a certain way around them and he wasn't going to apologize for who he was. He simply went on with his life, lived it without regard to others and didn't care that people might still occasionally look at him as if he was some circus side show freak.

However, as he sat in the same room with Elizabeth, his sister Emily and Jasper Jacks, he felt distinctly out of place and for the first time, it bothered him. After several days of travel, stopping at different places for the night but always continuing on, they reached their penultimate destination. As Jason pulled the car into the garage behind the house, Elizabeth smiled brightly and turned in her seat to look at her sons in the back. She giggled as she said, "Who wants to see Auntie Em and Uncle Jax?"

The boys cheered and Elizabeth told Jason to forget bringing in their stuff until later, just help her get the boys out of the car. When he set Jake down and the little boy took off as fast as his little legs would take him towards the door where Emily had stepped out of and onto the porch he asked Elizabeth, "How did you know they were here?"

She pointed at the car beside theirs and her fingers reached out to brush against mouse ears on the antenna. "It was our signal. Mickey Mouse ears. Why do you think I put them on our antenna this morning?"

He looked over and realized that there were mouse ears, but with a red and white bow, attached to their antenna. He'd seen her do something to it this morning, but he hadn't really paid attention or asked.

Now, Jason sat inside the house, watching as his son clamored all over Emily's lap and Cameron giggled while Jax told him something. The boys were completely at ease with his sister and her boyfriend, making it obvious that they'd spent much time with the pair. Elizabeth was smiling and relaxed as she sat in a chair and merely watched the scene. They were at ease and comfortable with one another, and Jason knew he shouldn't feel that way, but he couldn't stop a pang of jealousy that hit him as he compared the family's interaction with him to the way they responded to Emily and Jax.

It was only natural that they were more comfortable around the couple and were still uncertain of him. They didn't know him as Jason Morgan, and they only knew that Jason Quartermaine was gone. They were doing their best to accept and adjust to that fact, but it was clear that they missed the man he used to be. They weren't like the Quartermaines though in expecting him to be who he was, but there was a definite sadness around them when they looked at him. It was like they knew that the person they loved was gone and was never coming back and they were trying to accept it.

It bothered him as he sat in the room, listening to Jax tell the boys about the beach he and Emily had been at, or watching as Jake curled up against Emily and let her brush her fingers through the little boy's hair. Jason knew he was as uncomfortable with the children as they were with him, but watching just how at ease with others they were, it showed what had been taken from his life. He'd always gone on, not looking back to the time before the accident as if he'd lost something, but that was because he didn't know he had. He'd seen the Quartermaines, seen their behavior, and while he cared for Emily, he truly didn't feel like he'd lost anything with them by not remembering. Nor did he care that he wasn't a doctor anymore. He could ride a motorcycle, he could get into a bar fight and not worry about his hands, and he could come and go as he pleased and never have to answer to anyone.

He hadn't known about Jake, though. And he hadn't known about Elizabeth and Cameron and the plans they'd all had. He hadn't known that two little boys loved him and called him daddy or that a beautiful woman wanted to make a life with him. Knowing all that now, it affected him. And after a week with it just being the four of them, he didn't like that Emily and Jax were here now and the Australian was clearly in charge and Elizabeth looked to him to answer her questions.

Once the boys had settled down, a light dinner was eaten and Cameron and Jake were tucked into bed like it was just another day of their great adventure, the adults met back out in the living room. Elizabeth sat in an overstuffed arm chair, kicking her legs over the side and Jax and Emily sat on the couch. Jason was too restless to sit and paced the perimeter of the seating area and they watched him for a moment, but then Jax got down to business.

"Okay," he said, looking at Elizabeth. "Time to figure out our next move. Lucky did seem to have been following Jason and Spinelli, and had left Port Charles. But when I started things in motion back in Port Charles, he quickly turned around and headed back."

"What did you do?" Jason asked, wondering what the businessman could have done to the Spencers and Cassadines that would truly cripple them. They had the support of Sonny Corinthos behind them; it seemed like anything the other man did, the mobster would be able to counterbalance.

"A plan that I've been building and formulating since the day Elizabeth left Port Charles," Jax answered. He wasn't angry, he wasn't posturing, but it was also clear in his tone that he knew what he was doing and Jason was coming in late to the party.

"The Cassadines have run into a bit of a financial bind," he said with a careless shrug. "Their overseas companies have been hit hard by the financial instability in Europe and their Greek assets are in jeopardy. Combine that with some inquiries by Interpol and some hefty fines they've suddenly been hit with and they're having to liquidate some money."

He gestured to Emily and said, "Enter the Quartermaines. They're more than happy to help out by buying the Cassadines out of their shares at General Hospital. Of course, during the preliminary stages of looking into the stocks and the hospital, there are going to be...problems found with the running of the hospital. Government agencies are going to be called in."

"Well, actually, the agencies are already there," Emily clarified. "They're now just going to widen their investigation. See, Luke Spencer is being investigated for smuggling, illegal gambling and racketeering. Bobbie's diner is going to be investigated on charges of money laundering. The Spencer family connection to Sonny Corinthos is going to be looked into, and the partnership between Luke and Sonny, which is still in effect and very valid, is going to expose Sonny to the possibility of RICO charges. Lulu is looking at some old charges from her time at boarding school and Mac found it very suspicious that one of his detectives took off just when his family went under investigation. He was ordered to return home and he's been put on administrative leave while this whole mess gets sorted out."

"The investigations could take months," her boyfriend said unapologetically.

"He's not allowed to leave Port Charles," Jax continued. "He's been ordered not to contact anyone on the force because they don't want it to appear that he's trying to get information on the investigation into his family. Mac doesn't know that Lucky was looking for Elizabeth in violation of the restraining order, but if we have to leak that information to Mac, then we will. Right now, Lucky's being watched by some cops from IA, some who don't particularly care for Detective Spencer, and the FBI."

"All the same, Jason," Emily said, "we don't think you should return to Port Charles."

The Australian nodded, "Right. You and your partner should stay out of town for a while. Lucky can't come looking for Elizabeth, but he's not going to be happy with either of you and since Emily's shared her concerns about the possibility of Lucky's involvement in your accident..."

"You should lay low for a while," his sister finished.

"What makes you think I was planning to go back to Port Charles?" Jason asked them.

Elizabeth turned in her chair and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"I started this mess by coming to look for you," he said. "Jake is my son. Did you really think I was just going to walk away like I didn't care and go back to Port Charles and wish you the best?"

"You were planning to go with them?" Jax asked dubiously.

"I wanted to at least discuss it instead of being dismissed from my son's life," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Look, I get why nobody told me about Jake before. At least I can understand Elizabeth's reasons a whole lot more than I can understand yours, Emily. Elizabeth wasn't in town, she was protecting her boys, but you knew about Jake and you were doing all this to protect her and the boys and you never once thought about coming to me and telling me about Jake?"

"Jason," Emily began softly.

"No," he shook his head. "I don't want to hear it right now, because I don't want to fight. What's important right now is protecting Elizabeth and the boys. But you're all acting like I'm just going to take off and not care what happens to them."

"Do you really want to go with them?" Jax wondered. "It might confuse the boys."

"It might," he agreed. "And if it seems like it's hurting them, then we'll talk. But we've spent time together and I think they're wonderful boys. I...I want the chance to know them. I may not remember them, but that doesn't mean I don't care about Jake or his brother."

Elizabeth stood up and walked across the room and he watched her. The tense set of her shoulders, the way she wrapped her arms around her. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable, but he didn't like the feeling that he was being dismissed. Walking closer to her he said, "Look, I'm not trying to pressure you. I just...Jake is my son. You're his mother. Cameron's his brother. I'm not going to just walk away and leave your protection to someone else. You're my family, and I'm going to take care of you. Right now, that means keeping you guys safe."

He let out a breath and then said, "The rest, we'll figure out as we go along."

"You don't have to do this."

Jason looked up at his sister as she found him outside, away from the house, staring out across the landscape and then looked away. He didn't say anything, knew that if he told her to go away she wouldn't; she was apparently determined to talk to him. Interesting how things seemed to be on her wants and schedules.

She sat down on the ground beside him and he could feel her eyes on him, but he didn't look over at her. She sought him out, she decided to once again interfere into his life and decide what was best for him, and so she was going to have to speak. He wasn't going to make this easy on her. He loved his sister, but she was an adult and he didn't feel like going along with her games and ploys.

"Jason," she said softly, probably trying to get him to look over at her. Where she would undoubtedly tilt her head to the side, make her eyes wide and soft as she looked at him and play on his feelings for her. "You don't have to do this."

"Yes," he said softly, but firmly, still not looking at her. "I do."

"No," she argued, "you don't. Elizabeth and the boys are safe now. They're here, Jax and I are here, we'll get them to the airplane, they'll get out of the country and as long as you don't go back to Port Charles right away, things should be fine."

He looked over at her finally, but his gaze wasn't soft and kind, and it wasn't that of a loving brother. It was hard and firm and she widened her eyes slightly and leaned back. He swallowed tightly and said, "You're not going to talk me out of this, Emily. Elizabeth and her boys may be safe, but do you honestly believe I'm just going to turn them over to you, brush my hands together and say I'm done? Jake is my son. He, his mother and his brother are all in trouble. Do you really believe I'm going to just walk away?"

"Jason," she said on a soft sigh.

"No," he cut her off with a harsh shake of his head. "No, Emily. Do not come over here and tell me I shouldn't go with them. Do not come over here and try to shove me out of my family's life again."

"Again?" she asked, her voice reaching a higher pitch in surprise and hurt. "When did I shove you out of your family's life, Jason?"

"When you knew I had a son and didn't tell me," he answered bluntly and looked away from her. "I can understand Elizabeth not saying anything to me. In the time she was in Port Charles after my accident and everything that was happening with Lucky; I can understand why she didn't come to me and tell me about our relationship and about Jake. I...I am somewhat hurt and upset about it, but I can understand."

He let out a breath and told himself to calm down. He didn't fully understand all this anger towards Emily, but they had always done their best to be honest with each other, and her keeping this knowledge from him hurt. And it hurt deeply and he wasn't sure how soon he'd be able to forgive her for it.

"I was so confused when I woke up," he began once again. "I lashed out at the family, I was pushing so many people away, and I was learning things all over again. Elizabeth was in danger and she was frightened because Lucky was acting erratically and I'm glad..."

He turned to look at his sister so she would know he was being sincere, "I am so grateful that you were there to help her, Emily. I am. She didn't know how to come to me, didn't know what my reaction would be, and I don't know what it would have been like at that time."

Putting his hand on his chest he said, "But I'm not that guy anymore. I haven't been him in a while. And you should have known that. You've known about Jake since before my accident; I told you about him just before the accident so you would understand why Elizabeth and I were leaving with the boys."

She gasped and brought her hand up to cover her mouth, but he kept going. "You've known about my son for a long time now, Em, and you never told me. Not once in all the time we've been together, that we've talked about things, and you've share little bits of history from before the accident did you ever once come to me and tell me that I had a son. You were doing all these plans and preparations to help my son and his family and you never said anything. You were keeping this huge secret from me and I just...I don't know how to look at you and believe anything you tell me. What if you're lying to me again? What if you've convinced yourself it's okay simply because you think you're doing the right thing? What if you really aren't different from the Quartermaines and you think you're smarter than I am because I'm brain damaged and stupid?"

"No, Jason," she said as firm as her tear-filled voice would allow her. Tears were making silent tracks down her cheeks and she grabbed his arm and squeezed it hard. "No. I don't think you're stupid and I didn't do this because I thought I was smarter or knew better than you."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" he demanded.

"I just didn't know how," she said. "You had no knowledge of Elizabeth and she wasn't in town. How was I supposed to come to you and say that you had a son, but he and his mother weren't in town any longer? You'd want to know how I knew and I'd have to tell you what you'd told me before your accident. I just didn't know how to do that, Jason."

He looked at her for a long moment and she twisted her fingers in the grass underneath her, looking at him nervously. Finally he said, "It may have been hard, Emily, and I may have reacted in confusion, or maybe even anger at first, but I'll never know. Because you never tried. You never once, in all the time that Elizabeth has been gone and we've been building a relationship together as brother and sister and friends...never once did you even try to tell me the truth. You knew I had a son. You knew Jason Quartermaine was engaged and was planning to leave town, that the person everyone was describing wasn't really him. You knew that my son and his mother and brother were in danger and you never said anything to me. Nothing. And I'm trying to figure out why."

Blowing out a breath and looking away he said, "Maybe it doesn't really even matter. Nothing's going to be solved by looking back, wondering why or what if. What matters is now. And the fact is, that now, Jake and Elizabeth and Cameron are in danger. And it's partly because of me. Because I took on a case that I shouldn't have because I didn't know any better. I led Elizabeth's ex-husband to her and the kids. They're on the run because of that."

"So you're helping them because you feel guilty?" she wondered.

"I'm helping them because it is the right thing to do. Not just because I brought this trouble to them, but because it's my responsibility." Turning his head he looked at his sister and said, "Jake is my son. I may not know him, I may not remember anything about him or Elizabeth, but he is my son. This isn't some territorial thing about claiming him so Lucky Spencer can't. This is the fact that he...he's my son. And I have a responsibility to him and Elizabeth."

He swallowed and once again looked away, his throat feeling raw. "I've only spent a few days with them, but Elizabeth is a good mother. I've seen other women with their children and I see Elizabeth with her boys. She's done her best to raise them right. She's teaching them manners, respect, how to do things...she's doing her best to help them not be afraid with suddenly leaving their home. It's clear how much she loves them, and it's clear how much they love her.

"She's been raising her boys on her own and she hasn't complained about it." He closed his eyes and said, "I would have been helping her if I hadn't had the accident. I would have been helping with the house and with money and with raising the boys and I didn't do that because I didn't know. Well...I know now and there is no way I'm walking away from that. They're my family, even if I don't remember them. And I'm not going to just turn it all over to you and Jax and act like I can leave with a clear conscience just because someone else is here now. A man doesn't walk away from his family."

"You walked away from the Quartermaines," she said softly.

"Yeah," he said on a slow breath with a nod of his head. "I did. But that was because they refused to accept me for who I am. They wanted me to be who I used to be and I'm not him. I don't remember medicine, I don't remember them and they pushed and they pushed and they tried to force me to be who they wanted by messing with my money and I made the choice to walk away because they made me angry and they didn't respect me. Jake and Cameron are little boys and parents are responsible for their childrens' safety. I'm responsible for them."

"But what about you respecting what Elizabeth wants?" his sister asked. Her voice wasn't angry or accusatory; instead it was probing him with questions. "What if Elizabeth wants you to leave? What if she doesn't want you around the boys? What if she thinks it's going to confuse and hurt them?"

It would kill him. It would kill him to just find out about his son and then have to let him walk away. He didn't want it to happen, and he would fight against it. But if it was truly what Elizabeth wanted because she thought it was best for the boys...then he would have to consider it.

"I don't know," he said. "If Elizabeth and I talked about it and we decided that it was really hurting the boys, then...then I guess I'd put my wants aside. But you're just giving a bunch of 'what ifs', Emily, and...and it's almost like you don't want me to know my family. To not be with my son. You act like I should just be content to walk away and not know what's happening with him. That somehow it will be fine if I sit hiding out in a hotel somewhere, worrying about whether all these things you and Jax have put into place are really working and Lucky's not coming after them. That I should just be content to not wonder what my sons are doing today or how their mother is and if she needs any help but I'm sitting on my butt doing nothing because nobody really knows me so I should just stay away."

He stood up, pacing away before he turned to look back at her and demand, "How are they going to get to know me if I'm not there? How will they know that they can rely on me to take care of them and help them and be there for them if I walk away simply because they don't know me?"

"You want them to know you?" she asked him.

"Yes," he answered immediately. "I...I don't know how to explain it, Emily. But the minute I found out that Jake was my son, it changed everything for me. And I...I've been remembering things. I remember that Elizabeth's husband hurt her, and he scared her. I remember that I loved Cameron and Jake so much and I couldn't wait to be a family with them. It didn't matter that Cameron wasn't my son like Jake was biologically; he's Elizabeth's son and he's Jake's brother and that makes him my son. Even before I told Elizabeth I wanted to adopt him, he was my son. And now you tell me that I'm just supposed to walk away from that and pretend like none of that matters?"

Emily stood slowly, unfolding herself and lightly brushing off her shorts. Looking at him curiously she softly asked, "Do you want to stay with them because you're remembering things? Are you using them?"

"No," he immediately shook his head. "I don't try to consciously remember things. I just suddenly find myself saying something and I don't know where it came from but I...I know it's true. And it's not that I even remember the event, I just know that what I've said is true."

"Like when you said you told me before your accident that you were leaving with Elizabeth and Jake was your son," she said.

He looked at her, closing his eyes and trying to see if he remembered that moment, but there was nothing there. He couldn't recall the conversation, when it took place or where, but he knew. He knew he'd told her.

"Yeah," he nodded his head as he opened his eyes. "I can't tell you when I told you, but I know I did. I know that you knew Jake was my son."

"You told me one day at the hospital," she said softly. "A letter came for you and some mail clerk gave it to me instead of you and I wondered why you were getting a letter from a hospital out of state and I asked you. You said you were looking into other hospitals, to get out from under Mom and Dad's shadows, but I knew...I knew that it wasn't true. And I pushed you and I was...I was a bit of a brat about it and you finally pulled me aside and quickly told me the truth just to get me to shut up because a few people were looking at our conversation."

Suddenly she brought her hand up to her mouth and her eyes were wide and she gasped. "What?" he demanded. "What's wrong?"

"Lucky was at the hospital," she said. "I ran into him after we talked, he claimed he was looking for Elizabeth. What if...what if he heard, Jason?"

She was quiet for a moment and then said, "Elizabeth told me that you guys wonder if he was behind your accident and if Tony was messing with your recovery some way. I remember I saw him outside your ICU room right before you suddenly coded and I thought it was odd because I called to him but he just walked away, acted like he didn't hear me. I...I used to think he was such a great guy. He was my first friend after I moved in with the family and we played together all the time. I didn't want to believe things at first, but I remembered you told me about Lucky hurting Elizabeth and I started watching and I listened to him and Nikolas and that's when I broke things off with him and I helped Elizabeth."

She paced away from him for a moment and then said, "We need to look at Tony's files for you and we need to figure out if Lucky was behind your accident."

Then she paused and stepped closer to him and said, "And...and you're right. I...I think that you should go with Elizabeth and the boys. But, Jason? Don't push her. She's very uncomfortable. She loved Jason Quartermaine very much and you look like him but you aren't him and she's trying to deal with that. You being with her and the boys...it's stirring up a lot of memories...so just...be careful with her, okay?"

Elizabeth had always wondered what it would be like to truly live with Jason Quartermaine. Not merely an accidental run-in while on vacation with the boys and they just happened to end up in adjoining rooms and they made use of the connecting door after the boys were asleep. Not sharing an afternoon, or the occasional evening when her grandmother took the boys overnight; no, she'd wanted it all.

His toothbrush in the holder next to hers. His one bottle of shampoo in the shower next to her two different kinds she liked to alternate. His clothes in the closet next to hers and his socks mingled in with hers in the wash. She wanted to know what it would be like to go shopping for four and have someone she could ask to take the trash out instead of having to slip on her shoes and do it herself. She'd wanted to wake up in the morning and find him beside her and know that the boys were asleep down the hall and on the rare day when they both were off from the hospital, she wondered what it would be like to go to the zoo, or take a drive and spend the whole day together as a family.

Well, now she was living with Jason Morgan, and it was nothing like she'd ever envisioned. He shared the hall bathroom with the boys and while he left his shampoo in the shower, he still took his bathroom bag back and forth to his room each morning and evening. He let the boys have all the space they wanted, and continued to confine his existence into a small black bag. When she asked about groceries, Jason told her that he didn't care what she bought; he would eat whatever she fixed for her and the boys. He'd even suggested buying a small refrigerator to keep his beer in so that it didn't take up space in the kitchen refrigerator that could be used for juice boxes and milk cartons.

He had talked to her, after talking to Emily, and said that he wanted to come with them; that he just didn't like the idea of walking away now that he knew he had a son and family to take care of. He didn't want to make her and the boys uncomfortable, but he wanted the opportunity to get to know Jake and Cameron, to help them adjust and become as much a part of their lives as they would allow him to become. And yet, he seemed to go out of his way to not intrude on their lives. He was living with them, but he was still keeping himself separate.

It was all really confusing.

She didn't know what he wanted from them, or what she wanted, but she knew it wasn't this. The boys loved playing with him, but sometimes she found them playing together, giving furtive glances at Jason, but walking away because they felt like they shouldn't bother him. Elizabeth didn't know if that was residual fear from the way Lucky would shoo them away and tell them to stop pestering him for constant attention, or if they were still just uncertain about him, or if they weren't sure about his level of commitment to them and therefore were holding themselves back.

And that didn't even come close to helping her figure out what she thought about this whole situation. Even though Jason looked like the man she once loved, she really didn't consider them the same person. They were two completely different men, who just happen to bear a resemblance to each other. Jason Morgan was quiet, economical with his words and his movements, and sometimes he seemed to flit through the house like a silent ghost. While Jason Quartermaine hadn't been a loud, outgoing man, he sometimes talked under his breath, just little reminders to himself or as he talked through a patient's condition searching for something that might help. He hummed tunes and whenever he passed her, he'd wrap his arm around her waist, pull her close for a kiss and then continue on his way.

It wasn't that she wanted Jason to kiss her, but sometimes she searched for some kind of acknowledgment. She would see him watching Jake and she'd listened when he told her about how he remembered loving Jake and Cameron and he considered both boys his son. Biology didn't matter to him; it was the simple fact that they were brothers, they were her sons, therefore they were his sons. He talked about wanting to do the right thing for Jake, and the rest of them, but he didn't specifically mention her. Except to say that he would keep her safe from Lucky and wouldn't let her be terrified of her ex-husband as he remembered her being.

It seemed that all he remembered of their past was her terror over Lucky, but he remembered the love he'd had for the boys. It was wonderful that he remembered that, and she knew she should be thankful for it; and she was. But there was a part of her that she couldn't silence, the part that wondered why he didn't remember loving her. Or anything beyond the fear that Lucky had cast over their lives.

And would she even want him to remember that?

She wasn't looking to make Jason into who he was before, or change who he was now. She had mourned him and moved on. She did her best to deal with her feelings about Jake's father, and really had made peace with the situation. But having him suddenly back in their lives, hearing that he was remembering things, and having his constant presence in a house with them was really reeking havoc on her sanity. She didn't know which way was up and didn't know what to do half the time.

Deciding that she wasn't going to come to any answers by pretending to read a book, and declaring that she was done hiding out in her bedroom every night after the boys went to bed, Elizabeth snapped the book shut and tossed it down on the rumpled bedspread and stood. She let out a breath and rolled her shoulders before drawing her palms across her thighs in an attempt to draw away some of the nervous moisture that had suddenly collected there. It really shouldn't be suddenly terrifying to think about going and talking to Jason...and yet it was.

Cracking open the door quietly, she stepped cautiously out into the hall, and then suddenly felt ridiculous. She felt as if she was sneaking out of her room so her parents couldn't catch her. She really shouldn't be this nervous, and so she drew on all of her strength and squared her shoulders to start down the hall. The living room was empty, the TV mercifully silent after the constant drone in the background during the day. The kitchen was quiet and unoccupied as well, along with the family/dining room on the other side. The bathroom had been empty and dark when she walked down the hall from the master bedroom Jason had insisted she take, and his bedroom door had stood open as well. She knew he wasn't asleep, but she didn't know where he was.

She had never really been out in the house after the boys were in bed since they arrived over a week ago, and tingles went up her spine as she adjusted to the new situation. It wasn't really that she was afraid of the place, just unsettled because she didn't know the sounds the house made at night and didn't really know what was out there beyond the reflective sheen on the windows from the lights being on. She didn't want to seem that she was looking for Jason to keep tabs on him, and didn't want to spook him by suddenly showing up and demanding to talk; she'd hoped just to encounter him and ease into the topic she'd determined to broach.

However, that didn't seem to be the case for tonight. Jason was nowhere in sight and while she knew that he hadn't left them, she didn't know where he was. What he did after she hid out in her room; what he thought about. With nothing really else to do, Elizabeth wandered back to the kitchen and decided to wash and clean some fruit she'd purchased earlier in the day. If she cut up the melons and washed the grapes tonight, then that would be less time she had to spend on it tomorrow when Jake and Cameron would be hungry and impatient to wait for her.

The grapes were cleaned and cut into smaller bunches that could easily be put onto a plate at lunch time or doled out as a snack and she was quickly cutting a cantaloupe into bite size pieces when she heard a noise outside. She paused, ticked her head to the side to listen and then felt her breath catch in her throat when something bumped into the chair on the back porch just outside the kitchen door. Telling herself that it was probably just Jason, or maybe even the cat that the boys had seen wandering around, she nevertheless stood still, her ears strained. It was a reflexive instinct, that momentary bit of panic whenever she heard a sound and her imagination suddenly leaped to fearfully wonder if Lucky was lurking outside.

Elizabeth let out a breath and gave herself a firm mental shake, telling herself to relax and stop imagining things. Jax would have called and given the warning if Lucky had managed to slip out of Port Charles. Jason was somewhere around here and it was him, more than likely, that was outside. Maybe he'd been out in the detached garage, or taking out the trash. She set the knife down on the cutting board and turned, wiping her hands on the towel she'd picked up from the counter. Peering at the door and trying to discern if she could see anything through the glass inset, she couldn't stop the small squeak that escaped when the door suddenly swung open and Jason walked in.

He jerked to a stop when he saw her, surprise washing over his face at her presence and then it morphed into concern. "Are you all right?"

She nodded, her throat tight as she suddenly couldn't speak. Jason hadn't been out in the garage and he hadn't been taking the trash out, unless he'd done so before going for an evening swim. His long swim trunks hung low on his hips and his chest was still damp even though he'd obviously dried off with the striped terrycloth towel that hung over his shoulders.

"Elizabeth?" he asked, taking a step towards her. Then his face shifted, and a look of regret passed over his face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I didn't know anyone was in here and I just walked up here in the dark and you probably heard me bump the chair and were frightened."

She had been a little shaken, but to hear Jason explain it that way made it sound so pathetic. As if she was some frightened little girl hiding in the corner waiting for the boogey man to suddenly jump out and get her. It made her feel weak and she hated feeling weak, especially about Lucky. She had been frightened of him for so long and she was tired of it; even though she knew there was good reason for the way she felt.

"No," she managed to say. "I figured it was you out there, it was just the sudden appearance. I-I didn't know you went swimming in the evenings."

He shifted slightly and then said, "Sometimes. I...I try to do it when I'm sure the boys are asleep so I don't disturb them or make it hard for them to settle down."

Jason sounded as if he had to defend his actions and she suddenly felt bad. "No, no, that's fine. That was considerate of you, but you don't have to feel like you can't do anything."

She abruptly closed her mouth, suddenly feeling very foolish and took a deep breath. "I hope I didn't make it sound like you couldn't go swimming. I came out of my room and I didn't see you and wondered where you were and I didn't realize you were swimming. So the sound on the porch just startled me for a moment as I was cutting up the fruit."

Her face flushed with embarrassment over the ridiculousness of her words and she wished they weren't so awkward with each other. If they were going to be living together for who knew how long, they couldn't keep going on like this. It was part of why she'd finally emerged from her room and wanted to talk to him. But instead, she was stammering over her words and feeling like an idiot who kept talking and wasn't making any sense.

"Okay," Jason said, taking a step back now and drawing the towel off his shoulders. "I-I'm going to go take a shower."

"Okay," she nodded. "Um...Jason?"

He stopped his shuffle towards the doorway and looked at her. "Yes?"

"Afterwards...could we talk?" she asked him. His eyebrows drifted up slightly and she twisted the kitchen towel in her fingers, inwardly grimacing at the sticky juice that was drying on her fingers and sticking to the fabric. "If you're not tired."

"No," he shook his head. "I'm usually up for a while after my swim. We...we can talk."

"Okay," she nodded, letting out a soft breath of relief. "Okay...thank you."

Jason looked at her for a moment, and then nodded his head and silently left the kitchen. Elizabeth watched the empty doorway before turning around and letting out a breath as she reached for the knife on the cutting board. Her hand shook slightly, until she clenched it and told herself to stop.

This was the first step. The first step in getting to know Jason Morgan and sorting out the uncertain future that lay ahead of them. And after his shower, he would be dry and dressed and she wouldn't be confronted with his naked chest that was similar to her former lover's, but was broader and more defined. Clearly Jason now had a different workout regime than Jason Quartermaine had. It was just another difference between the two men, but it didn't mean that he was any less attractive, or that the sight of him half-dressed didn't affect her.

She closed her eyes before opening them with a shake of her head and reaching for the knife. "Get it together, Webber," she told herself. "He loves the boys and that's enough. Do not forget that all he remembers is your fear; he doesn't need to suddenly start worrying you're going to throw yourself at him. You're parents together...but nothing else. Find a way to make peace and get along. That's all this is about."

A/N: This wasn't where I had been thinking of heading after finishing the last section, but when I randomly clicked on this for the prompt, this sprang to mind and there was no denying the muse. So...prepare for a little twist.

Jason stepped into the shower and let out a slight groan as he bowed his head to let the warm water beat down on his tense shoulders. Elizabeth had emerged from her room and wanted to talk. He knew they needed to, they couldn't continue to live in the same house and avoid each other, but did she have to want to talk now? He wasn't prepared to talk to her tonight.

He'd taken to swimming laps in the evening after the boys were in bed and he was sure they were asleep because he needed something to do. With Elizabeth disappearing into her room once the boys were in theirs and not appearing until morning, he was left with a lot of time on his hands. Time to be bored, time to think, time to look for anything to do to break up the monotony of the time. He'd never really realized that he pretty much used his apartment as a place to store his stuff and sleep for a few hours. If he wasn't working, he'd be out riding for hours into the night, or spending his time down at Jake's where he could have a few beers and play some pool. He liked to read, but for some reason he didn't like to just sit around in his place for hours on end and do nothing. It wasn't that he was claustrophobic, he just needed something to do. Something to do besides sitting around. He didn't need to burn off frenetic energy like Spinelli, but he seemed to be constantly in motion.

So swimming laps was a good way to spend his evenings. He was close in case he was needed - which he never seemed to be, and out of the house once it was still and quiet. Tonight, though, he hadn't really felt like laps. He went the length of the pool a few times, but then spent a fair amount of time floating on his back, looking up at the sky.

And thinking.

Thinking about the boys. Wondering how he could breach the divide between him and his sons and help them feel more comfortable with his presence. Feeling overwhelmed at the thought of helping raise two boys when he knew nothing about children and how to be a father. Questioning whether he was doing the right thing in insisting on being here with them and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth.

She was another person Jason thought about while floating in the pool. He knew that they were tense and uncomfortable around each other. He didn't know how to act around her sometimes, and sensed she felt the same. She had loved Jason Quartermaine, had a child with him, had been planning a future with him, and despite her statements that she knew they were two different people, he wondered whether she really thought that, or if, like the Quartermaines, she would expect him to be who he used to be. Perhaps it was unfair to wonder, but he didn't know her, and he couldn't seem to get comfortable enough around her to talk to her. It was as if there was a barrier between them and he wasn't sure how to get over it.

Yet, that had not been what occupied his thoughts towards the end. As he lay on his back in the water, he began to wonder if Elizabeth still had her little red bikini, or if that was only something she wore when she was away from the boys. He remembered a pool, a dark night with only the lights underwater illuminating their surroundings as he gazed up towards her while she walked towards him as he treaded water. She dropped the towel she held in front of her, and Jason had felt his body react instantly. What surprised him tonight, was that his body had reacted to the memory of Elizabeth in the bikini.

When he'd encountered her in the kitchen, wearing soft green pants that were faded from many washings and a pink tank top with some odd little cartoon bunny on it with the phrase It's cute how you think I'm listening stretched across her chest, he hadn't known what to do. He'd remembered seeing her in some scrap of a bikini, her skin shining like alabaster in the light and making him long to kiss it and taste it, and then suddenly she was before him. Jason was amazed he was able to speak to her and sound coherent. And now she wanted to talk to him?

He wanted to talk, but he wasn't sure that tonight was a good idea. Not when he was still trying to put the memory, and the feelings it had brought up, behind him. Is this how Elizabeth felt when she looked at him sometimes? Did she remember their past, times when they were alone together, loving each other, and did she look at him and remember him naked? As soon as the thought went through him, an image came to his mind.

Her, in a shower, her form muted behind the frosted glass door. He was half-afraid of the memory continuing, and half-desirous for it to go on. Because he knew what came next. He'd climbed into the shower behind her, took the shampoo from her hand, and they were very late to the hospital fundraiser they were supposed to be attending that night. His shoulders knotted as he braced his arms against the wall. Opening his eyes and shaking his head, he stopped the memory before it had a chance to go on.

But more came.

Elizabeth, in her scrubs, putting in an IV and giving him a smile reserved for him alone while still tending to her patient and calming the frightened young girl. Elizabeth wearing faded jeans and tennis shoes as she chased the boys around in the park. Elizabeth wearing a leather jacket and smoky make-up as she ended up at The Recovery Room near the hospital with the girls from work and then casually joined him for a game of pool. Elizabeth wearing a little black dress with high heels that showed off her shapely legs. Elizabeth in a hotel room in New York City wrapped in the sheet from the bed as she stood on the balcony overlooking the city. Elizabeth underneath him gazing up at him with such pure love that his heart clenched.

In the shower, Jason brought his hand over his heart as it echoed with the memory. It hurt...it physically hurt as he was suddenly assailed with these snatches and glimpses of his former life. He didn't remember all that had happened on these times and occasions, he closed his eyes and concentrated and couldn't force any more to come, but what he'd remembered was enough. It was more than enough.

He'd remembered loving her. He'd remembered watching her as a colleague and a friend and then the pure awe that flowed through him when she was his lover. She wasn't just the mother of his child, she was the woman who held his heart and he wanted to be with her. He'd wanted to protect her from her ex-husband; he wanted to love her the way she deserved to be loved. Show her that a woman like her should be cherished, desired, admired and treated like an equal instead of being belittled and subjugated. He'd wanted so much with her...and it had been ripped away from him.

Anger unlike any he'd known since he first woke up in the hospital and everyone had pushed and pushed and wouldn't give him a moment's peace bubbled up inside him and he pulled back and punched the shower wall. It echoed in the room, stung his hand and he did it again, and then again until he heard the tile crack under the force.

Suddenly there was pounding on the bathroom door and Elizabeth's voice called out, "Jason? Jason! What's going on?"

He wrenched the water off and he heard a child's cry fill in the space where the sound of the shower used to be. He heard her footsteps dash away and then the cries began to lessen and he knew she was there, comforting her sons, assuring them that everything was okay even when she had no idea if it was. Jason was sorry that he'd scared them, sorry that he'd lost control of his temper, but he still struggled with wanting to lash out. His life, his family, his plans had been stolen from him and he burned with fury.

Even though it was tempting to consider hiding in the bathroom until Elizabeth gave up and went to bed, he knew he couldn't do it. He grabbed his towel and dried off, and then looked at his hand. The skin was split and bleeding and the knuckles were throbbing and already beginning to swell. He wiggled his fingers and was fairly certain he hadn't broken anything, but he really should order an x-ray to make sure. And the one cut might need stitches just to ensure that it closed and healed properly.

He was dressed and in the process of searching the cabinet below the sink for first aid supplies when he heard a soft knock on the door. Surprised because he really thought he'd have more time while she was in with the boys, Jason took a deep breath and then reached out to twist the handle, letting the door swing open. Elizabeth stood in the hall, looking uneasy, until her gaze was drawn down to his hand.

"What happened?" she immediately asked, taking a step towards him. "What happened in here, Jason?"

He let out a breath and said, "I'm sorry I scared the boys. I-I didn't mean to."

"What happened?" she repeated as instinct took over and she reached for his hand, bumping him with her hip to get him to step to the side so she had more room to work.

"I..." Trailing off he swallowed hard and decided honesty was the best approach. Whatever happened between them, they needed to start by being honest with each other. "I got angry."

Her eyes darted up towards him, confusion and fear in them that sliced at him before she quickly looked away. He closed his and felt awful. How many times had Lucky punched a wall or thrown a dish before he'd turned that anger on Elizabeth? He hated that he'd brought that fear to her again.

"I'm sorry," he repeated. This time his voice was lower and he touched her shoulder gently and said, "I didn't mean to frighten you, Elizabeth. I..."

Letting out a strangled groan he brought his free hand up to scrub over his face and push through his damp hair. "I...I remembered some things tonight."

That caused her to look at him and she asked, "You did?"

He nodded, his throat tight and managed to say. "About us."

"Us?" Her brows drew down as she said the one word.

"Us," he repeated. "Uh...us...together. I...I don't know the context of some of the memories, like when they happened...but I...uh, I remembered...us. Together."

Her cheeks instantly flushed and it spread, shooting up towards her hair and traveling down her neck to her chest just above her tank top. "U-us?"

He licked his lips and said, "As...as lovers. I...I remembered a pool and this red bikini you wore and this black dress that I knew was silk and then...then a hotel in New York City."

She was deep red now and her eyes had dropped.

"I-I remembered how much I loved you and how I couldn't believe that my friend had become the woman I loved and that we were going to be a family together. There was...there was so much feeling there," he admitted. "And then I got angry. Angry that I didn't have it. That it had been denied me. That my accident had ripped that all away from me and I'd forgotten. I had the love of a wonderful woman, two little boys who I loved and called me Daddy when we were together, a life I was planning to make with them...and it didn't happen. It made me angry."

Elizabeth chanced a quick look at him and he could sense she was overwhelmed by the moment. He was as well. He let out a breath and confessed, "It made me angry that I'd lost that, Elizabeth. That I'd lost you."

"Are you okay?"

Elizabeth looked down at her hands, avoiding Jason's gaze, but couldn't seem to speak past the lump in her throat. She felt the couch dip beside her and then he gently touched her arm, but still she couldn't bring herself to look at him.

Bending forward, she covered her face with her hands and groaned. "I'm going to be sick."

Instantly he was off the couch and then the trashcan from the corner appeared at her feet. Jason touched her back lightly, lifting her hair off her neck and his voice was filled with concern. "What's the matter? Do you feel feverish? Do you think it's food poisoning? How can I help you?"

His kindness only made it worse and she shook her head. "It's not food poisoning and it's not the flu. I...I hate myself."

His hand stilled for a moment and then there was confusion tingeing his words as he asked, "What? Wh-why do you hate yourself?"

Forcing herself to sit up, Elizabeth looked at him miserably and said, "How can you even ask me that? Your...your question...you're right."

"What?" he asked, a frown forming on his face. "What do you mean? What question?"

"When you asked me why didn't I talk to you," she said pitifully. "If we were engaged, why didn't I talk to you after you woke up? You...you asked if I would have turned my back on you if we were married."

Another low groan ripped out of her throat and she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and burying her face in her hands. The room was silent and she felt Jason shift, and then knew - even without looking - that he'd settled on the coffee table in front of her. But he didn't touch her.

"It's a knife to my heart," she whispered in admittance. "I...I'd never thought of it that way. If we'd been married, nothing would have kept me from your side. Even if you'd fought against me like you fought against the Quartermaines, I would have dug my heels in, refusing to give up until I was certain, absolutely certain that you wanted nothing to do with me as your wife. But because I was just your fiancée I just gave up and walked away."

She stood and paced away from the couch, needing distance between her and Jason. She wrapped her arms around her waist and hugged herself tightly, as if she'd somehow be able to squeeze the pain out of her. "How can you not hate me?" she wondered.

"Because I love you," he said. "I-I mean, I remember that I loved you. I..."

He trailed off and she turned, watching him cautiously. "I don't remember everything, Elizabeth, and it's not all chronologically. But I remember your fear. I remember how erratic Lucky was acting, how he was harassing you, practically stalking you and the boys and the cops wouldn't do anything because Lucky was a detective. You were trying to cover how bothered you were, but I was worried, Elizabeth. It's why I..."

He trailed off and she frowned at him. "What?"

"It's why I was out on the road that night." He squeezed his eyes and said, "I don't know exactly why...if I was coming back from somewhere, if I'd met someone...or what...but I know that's why I was on the road. I remember driving back into town and I..."

His hand drifted up, pressing lightly against his chest, "I can feel my heart racing faster just thinking about it. So if I can remember that...then I can imagine how terrified you were."

"I was," she admitted, then shook her head. "But that still doesn't excuse what I did. I should have talked to you. I should have told you about Jake. I...I shouldn't have kept the truth from you."

"You've always been so hard on yourself," Jason said softly as he slowly let out a breath. "Whenever you do something...even if it's not wrong but if it just hurts someone or disappoints them...you beat yourself up for it worse than anything anyone could say to you. Lucky always capitalized on that."

It was so weird to hear him talk about things that he remembered, to have him look at her with such understanding. It was how it used to be, before the accident; for so long it had been gone. She'd gotten used to Jason Morgan these past weeks, to accepting that he was a different man than the person she'd known and loved...and then suddenly he was spouting off all these memories. Even if she wasn't upset at herself, she'd still be unsettled. Their talk in the living room as they'd started trying to come to terms with his memories and her filling in bits and pieces had not been an easy one. It was made even worse by the bomb that exploded at her feet when he asked why she'd given up so easily. Wondering if she would have just walked away from him if they'd been married?

He took a step towards her and said, "So stop beating yourself up now. I'm not mad."

"But you asked the question," she said, her voice high with nerves.

"Yes," he admitted. "It just came out. I wondered it, I asked it. I don't always filter things anymore. But...but that doesn't mean I'm angry with you, Elizabeth."

"Why not?"

"Do you want me to be angry with you?" he asked with a frown as his head tilted to the side.

"I kept your son from you," she said, almost desperately. "How can you not hate me for that? I hate me for that sometimes."

Especially after he showed up in her life again and immediately wanted to be involved in Jake's life and insisted on helping her with the boys. Would he have acted that way if she'd told him back in Port Charles? She couldn't help thinking of all that had been denied him. All she had denied him.

A look of calm understanding crossed his face and he stepped towards her, not stopping until he was directly in front of her. Then he reached out and took her hands in his, pressing them together to stop her from frantically waving them around. "I understand now."

Elizabeth frowned up at him and tried to tug her hands back, but he wouldn't let go. "What do you mean? What do you understand?"

"You struggled with telling me about Jake after my accident," he said. "Even with Lucky causing you problems, you being scared for me but not being able to see me because nobody knew we were engaged, and all the things you were shouldering by yourself...you want me to castigate you for your choice."

She opened her mouth, but he shook his head and kept talking. "You do this, Elizabeth. You feel bad and you accept other people being angry at you; it's almost like you expect it and it makes it okay to feel guilty and feel bad because everyone's angry at you. I'm not going to do that. You had a very difficult decision to make and you made the best one you could at the time."

He paused for a moment and then said, "I won't deny that there's a part of me that feels a little angry. But the larger part of me understands how hard it must have been for you. I'm madder at Emily for keeping this from me because she saw me after you left, she got to know me. You didn't know me, you'd only seen my reactions to the Quartermaines in the hospital; you had Lucky coming after you; you were frightened and you had to make a choice as a mother to protect your children and hide from your ex-husband. My sister saw me and knew...knew I had a child, knew where he was and didn't say anything."

Elizabeth felt like she should defend her friend and took in a breath in preparation and Jason once again shook his head, this time holding up his hand. "No. I...I'm not going to focus on the past. And I'm really not angry. I am certainly not angry with you now and I'm not going to start yelling; so stop beating yourself up about this. There's...there's too much else to focus on."

Else.

Yes, there were so many other things to focus on.

Jason looked at her and shifted on his feet before he nervously tucked his hands into the pockets of the sweatpants he was wearing, then quickly yanked them out again and scowled down at the bandage wrapped around his hand. He focused on it for a moment and then asked, "What do we tell the boys? I...I don't want them to be frightened. We can't hide the cracked tile in the shower; they woke up crying; they know something happened. I...I don't know how much they might remember about Lucky and...and the way he behaved, but I don't want them to be frightened of me."

Elizabeth let out a weighted breath and rubbed her upper arms, then hastily dropped her hands when Jason followed her movement. Lucky had put bruises on her arms that Jason Quartermaine had seen...something Jason Morgan remembered. Now that he'd remembered more, it was probably where his mind immediately went. It was, after all, where hers had immediately gone.

"I think we just have to tell them the truth," she said slowly. "What they can understand. They know about your accident and that you got hurt and that you can't remember who you were before. Now we tell them that..."

Tell them what? That he was regaining memories? That he'd remembered things about the boys? About Elizabeth? How would they react, what would they think? Would they immediately think that it would be as it used to be before the accident? That they'd be a family, that Elizabeth and Jason would get married and everything was all fixed and better?

"Yeah," he breathed out, leaning against the back of the couch and crossing his feet at the ankle. "If we tell them I'm remembering things and I was confused and angry, they'll wonder if I remember them and if that suddenly means it's back how it was before."

"Yeah," she said, nodding her head in agreement.

"And we obviously don't know what it means, yet," he said, glancing at her uneasily.

"No," she mused, her head nodding slower.

What did it mean? He said he remembered the love he had for her and the boys. He remembered moments of passion and tenderness between them. But...so much had changed in the years since then. He had lived a different life. She had lived a different life. She had never forgotten Jason; but she had put him in a corner of her mind and tried to forge on without him. He hadn't known about her and the boys until recently. Even though he was getting Jason Quartermaine's memories back...what did it really mean? Were they just going to pick up where they left off? While she still loved Jason Quartermaine, the man before wasn't completely her Jason. She didn't really know Jason Morgan; and Jason Morgan certainly didn't know her, even if he was getting his memories back.

"But we need to tell them something," he said.

"We tell them that...we tell them that there are some things that have come up with your injuries. You...you're having some memory flashes...not fully understanding all that you're remembering and it confused you and you reacted badly last night." Elizabeth drew her lip in between her teeth and wondered if she was lying to her children, but knowing that until they got Jason seen by a doctor, until they figured out how Tony Jones might have misdiagnosed Jason, and until the two of them sorted through things, they really couldn't fully explain things to Cameron and Jake.

"It was unexpected, but now that I know that I might have flashes, I'll be better prepared," he continued, picking up her train of thought. "We just have to assure them that even though I might have gotten upset last night, it's not how I'm always going to behave. And it's certainly not how I'm going to behave with them. I'm still getting used to having them around and I forgot that I can't do things because I have to think of them."

The tender pitch of his voice, the soft look in his eyes and the clear desperation he exuded because he wanted Jake and Cameron to be comfortable and hated the thought that they might be afraid of him was abundantly clear. She closed her eyes as emotion surged through her. He had been so wonderful with the boys before the accident; so patient and loving and not just to be a contrast to the way Lucky behaved, but because it truly was his nature. After he found them in North Dakota and insisted on coming with them to protect them, there had been an uncertainty about him, but there still had been infinite patience and tenderness about him. Now...now that he was regaining more of his old memories, that natural love and caring was coming back. It was why she was thrilled when Jake turned out to be his, it was why she'd accepted his proposal because she knew he would love her and the boys and be a wonderful father to them, and it was why it had hurt so much when he'd had his accident and forgot it all.

Tears burned her eyes and couldn't be held back and she tried very hard to control herself, but she couldn't. The first sob was a mere whimper, but Jason immediately stopped talking. The second sob was strangled as she tried to hold it back, but when she felt his arms come up around her, the third one ripped straight from her soul and she buried her face in his shirt and let him hold her up as emotion came pouring out. This was what she'd missed. This was what she'd longed for. Someone to support her and love her and help her and be there beside her so she didn't have to go through everything all alone. She'd missed Jason.

He spoke softly to her as he gently rubbed her back, holding her and letting her cry. Gradually her sobs turned to sniffles and he continued to hold her even as fine tremors shook her frame. Then there was silence, but he stilled kept his arms around her.

"I'm sorry," she finally whispered against the soft cotton of his shirt. "I didn't mean to cry like that."

"I think if anyone deserved it, it was you," he said, and she could hear just the hint of a smile in his voice. "A lot has happened tonight."

"Hearing you talk," she said. "It's like how it was before. When we'd sneak away and make our plans and I'd fuss and fret and work myself up about all that the boys would face, and you'd be so calm and patient and straight forward with clear reasoning. I think that even if the boys are a little confused at first, we'll help them understand that it's okay and it's not like how things were with Lucky."

"Good," he said and she felt him nod his head.

He let out a breath and let her go, stepping back and looking at her intently. "I need to find a doctor to talk to...to see what's going on with me."

"Yes," she instantly agreed as she wiped her face. "Maybe we can even get Emily to get a copy of your file from Central Records so that we can see Doctor Jones' notes and your test results and figure out what he might have done."

Jason nodded, and then swallowed. "And...and I know it's hard to figure it all out tonight...but...but we do need to talk about us. I...I know that we're different because time has passed, but I remember you, Elizabeth, and the feelings I had for you."

"I know," she said softly. "I remember the feelings I had. And...and we are different...but we weren't apart because we fell out of love with each other. There were circumstances that happened."

He was looking at her so intently she wanted to squirm, but somehow managed to keep his gaze, even as a blush crept up over her cheeks. "So much has changed...and yet some things are still the same. We...we need to figure out what that means for us...and where we want to go from here."

Lucky lay on his cot and scowled up at the ceiling of the jail, the dingy tiles colored with water stains blurring under the fierce anger cooking inside him. His lawyer was due to come later today, but the man was an idiot and every time he came it was more of the same excuses. He couldn't get a judge to agree to bail. He thought that the prosecution had a rather solid case and perhaps if the cop was agreeable and cooperative they might work out a plea. The man was a sniveling idiot and Lucky couldn't believe he was stuck with the pathetic lawyer.

But he was the man the public defender's office sent over after he'd fired his first one. The entire public defender's office was incompetent and stupid, but that's who he was stuck with because the Spencer family had no money they could access to pay for a decent lawyer for him. Nikolas was battling the IRS, Homeland Security because of problems with his visa and immigration status, and the Greek government over back taxes issues and the prince couldn't seem to be bothered to spare a thought, or a few dollars, for his brother. With Luke and Bobbie under investigation and his mother in an asylum in France, there was no way to access the hidden cash that hadn't already been found. And his grandmother Leslie wouldn't help him out.

She claimed she couldn't risk Lulu's future and her ability to take care of the youngest sibling by putting items, such as her house, up for collateral. He should have known better than to ask her for help, she was as weak-minded as his mother, but Lucky had been desperate. He wanted out of jail; he wanted the case against him dropped, but things hadn't swung his way quite yet.

He knew they would, though; they always did. He was the son of Luke Spencer and his old man had told him that he needed to play his cards rights and luck would smile on him. And sometimes he needed to make his own luck. He was more than willing to do that, but he couldn't do that while stuck in jail.

He needed to get out if he was going to track down Elizabeth and his son.

They were somewhere in North Dakota, and as soon as he got out of jail he was going to get his son back. Elizabeth may have disappeared briefly, but she hadn't been raised by Luke Spencer, and there was no way she could hide from him forever. He would get Jake back.

It had been the ultimate twist in irony that he'd sent Jason Morgan to hunt down Elizabeth and Jake. Elizabeth's former lover who had absolutely no memories of her had gone out on Lucky's behalf to find his son. Jason Quartermaine had been a good doctor, and Jason Morgan had become a good private investigator. He applied his instincts and skill and several of the cops in the department had developed a grudging respect for the man. That was why when Lucky wasn't able to utilize the department resources to find his wayward ex-wife, he had turned to the man who Lucky hated the most.

Jason and his idiot partner had been easy to fool; a well-timed request after a night of wining and dining a secretary in the records department, and the restraining order against Lucky hadn't been seen. After that, all Lucky had to do was sit back and wait for them to track down Elizabeth. He'd flagged their credit cards and knew that they flew into Bismarck and then rented a car. Requesting time off, he'd started west, ready to be in place to arrive shortly after they called with her address.

It all had gone wrong, though. Horribly wrong.

He'd been stopped in Wisconsin on his way to North Dakota and arrested, and then federal agents swooped into town and carted him back to Port Charles where he'd been thrown into a holding cell. Then the news about his family drifted in and Lucky was not only suspended from his job, but he was facing numerous charges of being an accessory to his father's charges. The IRS was threatening to send him to prison for tax evasion and even RICO charges due to Luke's association with Sonny Corinthos. None of his superiors would help him out; they were actually rather gleeful over the prospect that he would most likely be off the force for good, and none of his fellow detectives could scrape together enough money to help him out. Even the union was telling him they couldn't help him, due to the nature of his charges.

This was entirely Elizabeth's fault.

She was the reason he'd pushed himself so hard to go back to work after he'd been injured. He'd seen her in the hospital, talking with the doctors, nodding at what they'd said, smiling at the patients and staff. She'd been rubbing it in his face that she was working, that she was supporting the family and it was no problem, Lucky if she needed to work a double shift. She understood that he couldn't help out with Cameron because of his back, so it was no problem if her grandmother watched the boy or he spent extra time in daycare. Except that everyone looked at him and wondered why he was putting such a sweet girl through so much work and not letting her spend any time with her kid.

While Elizabeth didn't complain, he'd seen her disappointment in him. He'd heard the wistfulness in her voice when she talked about the other nurses going out for a night on the town once a month. He'd heard the longing in her voice when she talked to the doctors. The rich doctors. The doctors that looked at her like she was a centerfold pin-up instead of a married mother. The doctors who would laugh and joke with her and tell her she was working too hard and she deserved to sit down and actually take her break instead of pushing herself too hard. The doctors who would be able to provide for her and give her everything she wanted instead of making her work.

He'd seen the way she responded to them. Especially to Jason Quartermaine. If there was one thing Lucky regretted in his life, it was ever introducing Elizabeth to Emily. He thought it would be great if the cute new girl in town met his oldest friend. He never expected that one day he and Elizabeth would get married. He'd always planned on following in his father's footsteps, but learning his father had cheated on his mother and fathered another child after Lucky was born had brought about a change. He was going to prove to Luke Spencer that he was nothing like the man. That's why he became a cop and settled for the good girl.

Except she wasn't so good, and with her bastard brat constantly wanting her attention, Lucky began to understand why his father had strayed. Who wants to be home every day dealing with diapers and baths and bedtime routines? So Lucky worked his way onto the night shift as a beat cop so that he had an excuse to leave. And then when he made detective, he could always claim that he needed to meet his partner to work on a case. He just didn't expect to get hurt so soon into his new position and have to watch his wife flirt with everyone at the hospital while treating him like a child.

How would she know what he was feeling? How could she know that he wasn't in pain all the time? And who was she to tell him that he was taking too much pain medication and get the doctors to change his dosage and delivery method? He was the person with the injured back. Not her, not the doctors, and he got tired of everyone telling him that he was taking too much medication. Tired of them treating him like he was an addict. Tired of them looking at him suspiciously.

That was why Maxie had been such a blessing. She helped him get the medication that he needed. And she also passed along the hospital gossip she picked up while volunteering as a candy striper. She told him what he'd suspected all along. His wife was having an affair with Emily's brother. The entire hospital knew it. The entire hospital approved of it. The entire hospital thought she was completely justified because of the way that Lucky treated her.

That was when Lucky began his affair. After the first time he slept with Maxie, Lucky had intended to treat her like all of the other girls who'd thrown themselves at Lucky while he was working, but this time he didn't feel like he had to. He'd only slept with a couple of women, and had never slept with the same one more than once, but Elizabeth was sleeping with her colleague and flaunting it around the hospital so that it was common knowledge.

Oh, she'd denied it each time he confronted her, and she'd acted horrified and hurt when she found out that Lucky was sleeping with Maxie and getting pills from her, but he knew it was all just an act. Elizabeth had no justification to be mad at him. Not when she had been unfaithful to him. And then for her to file for a divorce and threaten to keep his child away from him after she became pregnant, and then file for a restraining order and get him in trouble with his superiors...it had angered Lucky so much. Who did she think she was, acting all high and mighty when he had proof from Maxie that Elizabeth had been carrying on a long-term affair?

That was why Lucky had vowed to never let her go. More importantly, to never let his son go. There was no way that Elizabeth was going to keep him from his child and take him somewhere to let another man play daddy.

He fought for what was his. Jason Quartermaine had a little accident and woke up unable to remember anything about his former life. He became a different man, and never knew that he'd been Elizabeth's biggest protector and defender. He wasn't there to save Elizabeth because he was lying in a hospital bed, and Lucky knew that without Jason there, his ex-wife would crumble and she'd never be able to stand up against him and his family and keep custody of Jake. His whole plan had worked, until the day that he discovered Elizabeth had fled.

One day she was there, angry and foolishly thinking that a restraining order would actually keep him away, and the next day she was gone. Lucky got out of jail on bail and headed straight for his ex-wife's house, only to discover it was empty. Elizabeth's bank account was closed and she had vanished. Nobody at the hospital would say if they'd heard from her or where she was, and Emily had proved that she wasn't the person he thought she was when he was kind enough to befriend her after she moved in with the Quartermaines.

Lucky was certain that Emily was behind Elizabeth's disappearance. Her and her boyfriend Jax. Emily had broken up with Nikolas because he stood beside Lucky, and then started hanging around Jasper Jacks. And then suddenly, Elizabeth and Jake disappeared. But Emily didn't seem upset by it.

He had done all he could to find Elizabeth, having his fellow detectives do the digging that he wasn't supposed to do, but none of them could find anything. He dug into Emily and Jax's finances, business dealings and even where they traveled, but he could never find anything connecting them to Elizabeth. He knew they were helping her, but he just hadn't found the connection. While he may have been temporarily stymied, that didn't mean Lucky was going to give up. He was a Spencer, after all.

That was when Lucky came up with the wonderful idea of sending Jason to find Elizabeth. Because Jason had no memory of his past, he wouldn't know that he was searching for the woman he used to protect from Lucky. He wouldn't know that he was searching for the woman he'd had an affair with. He would report to Lucky and wind up betraying the woman he'd once claimed to be in love with.

Except that the man had disappeared off the map. He'd gone to North Dakota, and never called Lucky. He hadn't come back to Port Charles. He hadn't contacted anyone, and neither had his squirrely little partner.

He had to have found Elizabeth, but what happened? Surely he hadn't fallen for her wounded bird act like he used to. Jason Morgan was supposed to be a smarter man than that, despite the brain damage everyone thought he'd sustained in the accident. He refused to have anything to do with the Quartermaine family because they wanted him to be the man he used to be; son, good doctor, total schmuck. Elizabeth would want that man as well. She wanted the money and the prestige of the doctor's wife, and she certainly wouldn't have that with Jason Morgan, P.I.

So where was he, and why hadn't he contacted Lucky to tell the detective where his son was?

It was why Lucky had to get out of jail. He had to track Jason Morgan down. He had to get the answers he'd sent the man to find. He had to; because Lucky Spencer was not a man who would ever accept defeat.

"What are you thinking?"

Jason looked over at Elizabeth as she sat down in the chair beside his before returning his attention back to the two boys running around the yard, laughing and shrieking. Well, Cameron ran; Jake toddled after his brother. But simply in watching the two children play together, he could see Elizabeth's influence. Cam didn't run off and leave his brother, he was considerate of him and would wait for his younger sibling, making sure to point things out to him and include him. Perhaps it was because they were so close in age and with the divorce, the move and then being on the run, they had learned to rely on each other instead of making other friends.

"I'm just watching them," he said. "Watching how they play. A lot of kids would want all kinds of outside toys to play with, or those toy jeeps they could ride around in, but they've got buckets, shovels and balls and they're happy."

"Yeah," she sighed. "They are. I used to think I wasn't doing enough because I wasn't giving them things. I thought I needed to have this or that to stimulate their brain and help them, or that they'd think they didn't have enough, but with the divorce and the move I didn't have a lot of extra money to spare. And then I watched them. And they'd get a stick and play with it and that stick became so many different things and I realized that they were using their imaginations and were happy. It was hard at first, because I felt so inadequate because I was by myself."

He looked at her and wondered how someone as wonderful as her could ever feel inadequate, but knew that she was human and had doubts just like everyone else did. He could remember coming into the staff room and finding her alone and realize she'd been worrying or crying but had been trying to hide it from everyone else. He hated that the accident had taken away his ability to comfort her or help her.

"When I first became a P.I. with Spinelli, I didn't know what I was doing," he admitted. "I wondered what I'd gotten into with this kid, but I figured it out. I was determined to make it, to prove that I wasn't damaged like everyone said, and that my family was wrong. I didn't want my trust fun to subsidize the business, so Spinelli and I agreed that the firm needed to be self-sustaining. That's why we ended up taking Lucky's case."

He looked at her and said, "Even though things were unsettled there and you were frightened, I'm glad it worked out the way it did. If I hadn't taken that case, I never would have found you again. I wouldn't have known about Jake."

"You wouldn't have found a doctor who realized Tony Jones was wrong in his diagnosis," she interjected softly.

Jason looked down and nodded. "Yeah. He screwed up the surgery, didn't he?"

"Yeah," she whispered. Then Elizabeth cleared her throat and continued, "I don't know if it was on purpose or if he'd made a mistake and was trying to cover it up instead of admitting what he'd done. He was never terribly fond of Luke Spencer, and with all the stuff that happened with Bobbie's daughter Carly and then with stuff that happened with his son Lucas that Lucky caused, I don't know why he would have helped Lucky out by deliberately screwing up your surgery. But he and Jason Quartermaine had also clashed a couple of times and they were never particularly fond of each other as colleagues. I don't know what happened or why, but yeah...he screwed things up."

"It's probably why he wanted Alan and Monica to send me away," he said. "Get rid of the evidence, so to speak."

"I don't know," she said. "I don't even know what we're supposed to do with this evidence. Emily took a huge risk breaking into his office and going through his private files. But we've got proof that he forged your file that went to Central Records. I know Patrick was suspicious, but there was never anything concrete. It was a tricky surgery that carried a lot of inherent risks. It was nearly impossible to say what was a result of the accident and what had been an error in the procedure."

"There's a part of me that wants him to pay for what happened," Jason said, his fists curling into loose fists as they rested on his thighs before he forced himself to relax. "But right now, I won't do anything. Just because Lucky is locked up doesn't negate the risk to you and the boys. The Cassadines and Spencers are facing a lot of legal and financial problems, but I've learned that you can't count them out. Even though Sonny Corinthos has problems as well doesn't mean he still doesn't have resources. It's why I worry about Emily and Jax."

She stood and paced away to the end of the porch and said. "I know. The boys and I are hiding and Jax is doing so much...but I worry about them back there. I worry about the boys, about you... I feel a little more secure here, but I feel like I'm back in those first days in North Dakota; jumping at every little sound, unable to completely relax, worried that the call with come and we've got to run or someone's just going to show up."

"Hey," he said softly as he walked towards her and touched her shoulder gently. "You'll go crazy if you keep on that way."

"I know," she admitted, turning partially to look at him. "It's what I did when we first got to Jamestown. My shift supervisor was about to write me up and demand I go talk to someone because I was so on edge."

She looked away for a moment and then back at him, looking slightly nervous as she admitted. "It's been nice having you here to talk to. You keep me sane; just like you always did."

"You always told me I did so much for you," he said softly with a shake of his head. "And sometimes I'd wonder what you were talking about. What was I doing for you? I made your life so complicated. You...you gave me a child. You are so beautiful and so kind and a man would be lucky to have your love...why did I have it? What made me so special? I was just Emily's brother."

Elizabeth looked at him and shook her head. "You were so much more than that," she told him. "You were so smart, so kind-hearted and you were someone I could talk to. I didn't have to be perfect; I could simply be me. I could voice my frustrations, my fears, my doubts and know that you weren't going to judge me for them, or think less of me and even though your natural instinct was to try and go fix things for me, you were the one person I could just talk to and get all the pressure out that was bottled up inside me and then I could be sane for a little while longer and able to face everything that was going on.

"Even now," she continued on. "You are still that person. You're different, though. I know that it's been...strange to remember things and not all of your past. To remember things, but not always the context. It's strange to see that, to hear you say something and know that that you're not Jason Quartermaine. You are Jason Morgan; you're just remembering a few things about the past. But even though you're Jason Morgan now, you're still someone I can talk to. You help me when I don't know what I'm supposed to do, or how I can find the strength to continue. I know it's strange considering all that happened in our past, but you've become my friend, just like it was in the beginning."

"Really?" Jason asked her. "Is it strange for you?"

"What do you mean?" she asked him thoughtfully, turning to face him directly and leaning back against the railing of the porch.

"I don't remember everything about our past," he said. "Or all that I felt about you and the boys. But I can remember being with you, loving you, wanting to marry you. I look at you, but those memories are towards the back of my mind and I see the person you are now. Back when I wondered if Jake was my son and then finding out he was and finding out we had a past, I could understand how Jason Q. had fallen in love with you. You're pretty, you're smart and you're so kind. I'd watch you with your sons and how you were trying so hard to be patient and comforting. You'd hide your own fears and uncertainties and do your best to make things right for them. It showed such this strength, this quiet, inner strength that amazed me. And now that I remember more things I realize I was so wrong...even though I told you that you were the strongest person I knew, I...I simply had no idea how strong you really were. Even now...what could I give you in your life?"

"Are you kidding me?" she asked, looking up at him in disbelief. "Jason..."

She shook her head and said, "You'd always do this. You'd always underestimate yourself. You'd wonder why people would praise you or congratulate you because there were always doctors and surgeons smarter than you. You wondered why I'd want someone like you. You weren't flashy or interesting and I'd tell you that I didn't need someone like Patrick Drake who flirted with everything in a skirt or someone like Jax who decides that the perfect date is to fly someone to Paris to have croissants and coffee overlooking the Seine at sunrise. You were the man I knew I could count on to tuck our children into bed on the nights you didn't have to work late. That you would help clean the house and not leave it all to me because I'm the woman and housework is women's work. You'd teach the boys how to ride their bikes and build a tree house in the backyard if they wanted it. And even now..."

Letting out a breath, she said, "And even now...you're turning into someone that the boys can trust. I know they're still a little unsure around you, but I hear them. They'll come inside and talk about having to take you out to show you something. I can tell them and tell them to pick up their toys and go put their pajamas on and all you have to do is walk into the room and quietly say 'Boys, your mom asked you to put your toys away and get ready for bed' and they jump to it. Not because they're afraid of you, but because you're Dad who's supporting Mom and you're a different voice. You offer me such support and can answer questions when I falter and simply having your presence here in the house, I feel safe and I secure and I know that there's someone I can talk to when I have no idea which way is up anymore."

Jason swallowed thickly and said, "I...I've felt that, too. But..."

"But what?" Elizabeth asked softly.

"I don't want it to go away," he told her honestly. "And yet our situation...we're living together right now because it's convenient. Because we're keeping you safe from Lucky. But...but in the back of my mind I know that if Jax called tomorrow and said that you were safe and that Lucky and his family was completely neutralized that it would be all over. What we have...it would be gone."

She looked at him, her face showing regret, confusion and a touch of hurt. Then she surprised him by asking, "Would you want it to be gone?"

"No," he immediately answered. "I wouldn't. I don't. I...I love those boys. I can't remember all my time with them, but just being around them now, and the feelings that well up inside every time I look at them. I don't want to walk away from them. It's no longer me having to provide for the son I didn't know about and his brother, it's that these are my sons and I'm their father and fathers don't walk away from their children. I don't want to leave them. I want to tuck them into bed and read them stories and teach them how to ride a bike and drive a car and listen to them when they're confused or when they're happy or when they just want to talk."

He looked at Elizabeth and her eyes shimmered with tears and his voice dropped as he said, "And I don't want to walk away from you, either. I don't know if it's just the feelings that returned, or if it's because I got to know you, or a combination of both of them. But you said it, Elizabeth. We may not have been together, but it wasn't because we didn't love each other...it was circumstances. Now that I know about you, now that I remember things about you...I can't imagine walking away from you, finding someone else that I'd want to have a family with. I have a family. It's you and the boys. And I don't know what's going to happen but I know what I want to happen."

"What's that?" she asked, looking at him searchingly.

"I want to know what it's like to kiss you again. I want to know what it's like to take you on a date. I want to know what it's like, great as the boys are, to just be with you and talk to you and hold your hand and see whether these feelings are really real and strong and that we can build on them."

Her hand covered her mouth and liquid emotion escaped her eyes to trace down her cheeks. She cleared her throat and said, "I...I want to know that, too, Jason. I really do."

Having children made him feel like an idiot. It wasn't the brain damage; he'd learned how to drive a car, pass a P.I. license, get a gun permit and he could read something once in a book and seem to lock it away. But children did not come with owner's manuals and just when he thought he figured something out, everything changed.

As he slowly got to know Cameron and Jake, in his process of getting to know Elizabeth once again and grow closer to all of them, he began doing more things with the boys. And he was working hard to figure out what made them happy, which one liked certain things to show that he truly did care about them. That it wasn't just because he was Jake's biological father, or because he wanted to impress Elizabeth; he loved those little boys for who they were. But who they were was as elusive and shifting as the clouds at sunset. Constantly changing and never the same.

For a week Cameron ate nothing but chicken. He wanted chicken nuggets every night, but Elizabeth had done her best to vary things. Jake seemed to follow whatever his brother did, and suddenly loving chicken was no exception. When Cameron wore a red shirt, then Jake wanted to wear a red shirt. When Cameron fell down and scraped his knee, Jake cried until they put a bandage on his knee as well. And when Cameron declared that he wanted to wear one of Jason's shirts to bed, then his younger brother insisted on having one as well, even though his feet tripped up in the hem.

Tonight...that all had changed.

Cameron had suddenly declared that chicken was yucky and only babies ate chicken nuggets. He wanted a hamburger. But the first hamburger Jason had bought at the restaurant had onions on it and Cameron refused to eat it. Jason tried to scrape them off, but he ended up eating it in two bites on his way back up to the counter to order two hamburgers with no onions. Cameron ate his down happily, but Jake cried and refused because he wanted chicken. So Jason was left finishing his hamburger, while ordering chicken. By the time they left the restaurant, both boys were unhappy, he was feeling slightly ill from all the cold food he'd ended up eating, and all he wanted to do was take the boys home, give them their baths and settle them in for the night.

He should have known it wouldn't go that easy. Cameron refused to share his bath with Jake, and then he pushed his younger brother down when Jake had gotten away from Jason because he didn't want to put on the same pajamas as Cameron. The boys refused to share story time, but neither wanted to wait to let the other one go first.

Finally Jason had simply had to be firm with both boys and tell Cameron that because Jake was younger he needed to go to sleep and therefore he got story time first. Even though the older boy thought it was neat he got to stay up later, he wasn't happy when Jason came into his room because Jason had read Jake the story that Cameron had really wanted and now the overly tired boy didn't want it anymore, but he wanted a story. Just not anything that Jason had ever read to Jake before.

By the time both boys were asleep, Jason was ready to fall asleep on the couch, in spite of his determination to stay up and wait for Elizabeth. The woman he was falling in love with again was currently visiting with his sister. Emily had flown the ELQ jet into a neighboring town for a meeting at a clinic the family and Jax were sponsoring for a grant. Jason thought it was a little reckless to draw potential Spencer attention to where he and Elizabeth were hiding with the boys, but Emily had insisted it was the perfect cover. And Elizabeth had been so excited at the prospect of seeing her friend that Jason's arguments had died.

He knew she wasn't trying to avoid him or get away from him; he understood her well enough to believe she enjoyed their time together and their growing closeness once again. There was simply no denying that the months of being apart from her friend, of not having a female friend to talk to, made her eager to get together with Emily. He could remember the late night conversations the two women used to have when they were younger; before Lucky Spencer's behavior and Emily's blindness to it had driven them apart. So Jason had told Elizabeth to go meet his sister for dinner, even go to the spa at the hotel Emily was staying at. And if she wanted to stay the night, that was fine. He and the boys would hang out, get some dinner, play together, it would be fine. Although he'd secretly hoped she would return tonight and determined to wait up for her.

Right now, Jason was just glad to have survived the night with no major meltdowns or blood drawn. He was exhausted, and Elizabeth hadn't even been gone the entire day. It was moments like this that he once again hated that his accident had robbed him of the opportunity to get to know his children, and to help Elizabeth instead of leaving her on her own to struggle as a single mother.

He heard a key slide into the lock and sat up as it turned. Elizabeth stepped through the front door and closed it behind her, turning to smile when she heard him behind her.

"Hey," she smiled softly. "Are the boys in bed?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I finally got them settled down."

Her eyes ran over him appraisingly and she asked, "Rough night?"

"Cameron is over chicken," he stated, "and Jake no longer wants to do everything his brother does. And they don't want to share. It was a bit of a struggle to get them settled in."

"Ah," she nodded, setting her purse and keys down and walking towards him where he stood by the couch. "Everything got turned on its ear and you were left scrambling to figure out the new rules."

"Pretty much," he confirmed as he put his arms around her to accept the hug she gave him. He closed his eyes and rested his cheek on the top of her head.

"Sorry about that," she murmured against his chest, not letting him go. "Those moments are tough. Just when you think you've got their routines all figured out, they go and change it on you."

"Yeah," he agreed softly, relishing the feel of her in his arms. "It made me appreciate all you've been through and how you handle them so well."

Elizabeth laughed softly. "Sometimes I'm just as clueless as you're feeling, Jason. I struggled a lot trying to figure out how to juggle both of their needs and schedules, especially because Lucky wasn't that helpful. But I always considered it a success when they were fed and in bed and there had been no major trauma. So the fact that you got the boys dinner, gave them a bath and put them to bed...you're a success, Dad."

He smiled against her hair and hugged her tighter to him. Her arms tightened around his waist and she rubbed his back lightly. "Tomorrow is a whole new day and their attitude will probably be a complete reversal from tonight. So don't think of the difficulties...think about what you enjoyed. Did you have a good time with them?"

"I did," Jason told her. "Taking my sons out, being with them, listening to them...it was a good night. What about you? Did you have fun?"

"I did," she told him, disengaging so that she could sit on the couch. He immediately sat beside her and was thrilled when she draped her legs across his lap and drew close to him. "It was great to see Emily again and to eat in a restaurant and not have to tell the boys to lower their voices. Then we went to the spa and had facials and it was so relaxing."

"I'm surprised you're home as early as you are," he told her. While he was happy to see her, he knew it was important that she have the opportunity for time to herself. "I expected Emily to keep you locked up in her hotel room while you ordered every chocolate dessert you could find from room service."

Her light laughter joined his teasing chuckle and she rested her head against the back of the couch as she gazed at him. "I think that was definitely her plan," she said. "But then Jax called and they got talking and she was trying to wrap up the conversation but I could see how much she wanted to talk to him. And I got thinking about you and the boys and how I knew I'd miss bedtime but that I wanted to be able to kiss them goodnight. And I wanted to see you before you went to bed."

Jason's heart paused for a moment before beginning to thunder in his chest. Elizabeth looked down and picked up his hand, running her fingertips over his skin before twining their fingers together. When she lifted her eyes to his, he was struck by the strength behind her gaze.

"I missed you," she confessed softly. "I knew that you needed time with the boys and I had a lot of fun with Emily and I could have stayed up half the night talking to her. But I was struck with the thought that if I was going to stay up half the night talking to someone, I wanted it to be you. Emily is wonderful and I love her...but I love you more. I wanted to be with my family."

He could hardly breathe; overwhelmed at her confession, at the powerful simplicity of it, Jason half felt that he was dreaming this moment. But he could feel the slight tremor in her fingers and see the uncertainty behind her resolve and knew that even though she had been the courageous one and spoke of loving him in the present tense, she needed to know she wasn't alone in her feelings. Tugging on her arm he easily pulled her into his lap so that she was closer and brought his hand up to caress her cheek, tucking her hair gently behind her ear.

"I love you, too, Elizabeth," he said, his voice husky and low with his emotions. "I love you so much. You and the boys, and even though I still feel unsettled about the memories I have, I'm so glad I have them because I have my family back. I didn't know you were missing when I woke up from my coma, but now that I've found you, my life is truly fulfilled. It's better and it's because of you; you and the boys and how much I love you."

Catching a tear that escaped the corner of her eye, he pulled her closer and kissed her. Her arms wound around his neck as they moved closer, reveling in the admission of their feelings. His life truly was filled, but he knew it would not be complete until he married the woman in his arms. With tonight's declarations, Jason knew they were getting closer to that moment.

She had been surprised when the confession of love tumbled from her lips those few short weeks ago, but never had anything felt so right to Elizabeth. Gone were her doubts of was this real, was it too soon, was she just in love with the man Jason used to be; in its place was an absolute sure sense of rightness that she knew the impromptu confession had been the correct thing to do and at the perfect time. She was in love with Jason Morgan. Not just because he'd regain memories of his past, but because she saw the man he had become. He was strong and tender and loving and kind and she felt it within every fiber of her being that he loved her in return. Not merely because he'd discovered they'd shared a past and a child together, but because he loved her as she was now.

Since that night when she'd left Emily's hotel room to return home because she wanted to see her children, but most especially Jason, things had progressed beyond her fondest hopes. They had truly become a family. Not merely living together in uncertainty, but united in love and purpose. She knew, without him even saying anything, that Jason would ask her to marry him one day. And she knew equally, that when that day came - even if it was tomorrow - that she would accept him without hesitation. He would adopt Cameron, they would change Jake's birth certificate, and one day, if they ever had more children, they would all be equally loved and wanted.

It was an amazing feeling to have after the years of uncertainty and fear she'd felt because of Lucky Spencer. Jason loved her, he would protect her to the best of his ability, he would love her and treasure her and she could trust him with her heart. Which was why she knew she could trust him now with the conversation she didn't want to have, but felt that she should.

She wandered slowly through the house, cleaning up a few toys that were strewn about before making her way towards the bedrooms. Jason had all but replaced her on the nighttime routine and she loved her boys, but sometimes didn't miss the endless hassle. Cameron was sometimes stubborn to get into his pajamas and get ready for bed, and sometimes she tired of reading the same story over and over and over. She always made sure to give them kisses before they headed off with Jason, and she could never go to bed without one last check on them to give them another kiss while ensuring they were covered. But she'd learned to enjoy her time alone in the evening to unwind and decompress from the day.

She knew Jason would be finishing story time, and she cautiously stopped outside Jake's room where the reading had taken place. The book was done, but Jason was quietly talking with the boys and she didn't want to interrupt their time together. Eventually though she heard Jason declare it was time for Cameron to go to his room and for Jake's light to go out. She smiled as she entered the room and gave Jake another kiss, then followed behind Cam and helped tuck him under his covers before ruffling his hair and smoothing another kiss over his brow.

"Goodnight, Momma," he said, his arm tucked around her toy dinosaur. She'd have to remember to set it on his nightstand before she went to bed so he didn't roll over on the hard plastic toy and end up with the tail jabbed into his side. "Goodnight, Daddy."

"Goodnight, Cam," Jason said softly, but she could hear the pleasure in his voice at being called Daddy.

They stepped out into the hallway, leaving the door partially open and she looked at Jason and offered him her hand. He willingly slipped his into hers, twining their fingers together, and she led him to her bedroom and over to the chairs near the bay window.

"What's wrong?" he asked as they sat down, his brow furrowing together. "You're quiet and you're pensive. Did something happen?"

"No," she shook her head. "I just wanted to talk to you."

"About what?" he asked, taking her hand and rubbing it lightly as he held it between his own.

"I've been thinking," she began. "About a lot of things, actually, but I started thinking about your family."

"The Quartermaines?" he asked, working to keep a scowl off his face.

Elizabeth nodded. "Yeah. I've been thinking about some things Emily said when she was down here. They know you're not in Port Charles and they're starting to get a little worried. I know that they were overbearing when you woke up, and I know you put distance between them and you, but they're still your family. And Emily's starting to feel bad listening to them worry while she knows where you are."

"But we're doing this to keep you safe from Lucky," Jason immediately said.

"I know," she nodded. "But that's another thing I've been thinking about. Lucky's in jail. Sure they were some trumped up charges, but he's in jail. His family is trouble. He doesn't have the power and connections that he once had, plus part of the reason I was hiding was because I didn't know what to do about you and not having your memories and Jake being yours and not Lucky's. Things have changed now."

"So what do you want to do?" he asked her, his head tilting to the side in question.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," she answered. "I wanted this to be something we talked about and decided together. Jake is your son and I want him to know that. I want everyone to know that. I don't want to hide anymore. I don't want to have to spend the rest of my life...of our life hiding. Maybe it's time to face things head on. But this doesn't just affect me and it doesn't just affect you...it affects all of us and as the parents, I wanted us to discuss this together."

"So what do you want to do?" he asked her softly. "Do you want to go back to Port Charles?"

"Do I want to?" she asked, lifting her brow. "No. But I think we need to. To stay here, as wonderful as it is...we will always have Port Charles lurking behind us. Lucky and the rest of the Spencer family. Tony Jones and what he did after your accident. The truth about Jake and us."

She sighed and said, "We can't just make it go away by hiding from it and pretending it isn't there. It's like the time I broke a lamp on my parents' end table and I hid it in the closet thinking that if they couldn't see that it was broken, then they wouldn't know. Of course, they noticed that it was gone and they asked question and I still had to confront the truth of what I'd done."

Elizabeth ran her fingertip over Jason's knee, the nail catching slightly on the denim fabric, and then quietly said. "I don't doubt your love for me, Jason. And I don't doubt your love for the boys. I think that we could be perfectly happy together living as we are now. But I also think that eventually this will start to weigh on us."

"The feeling that we have to hide, that we can't see family or friends, and what that will do to the boys?" he asked, voicing her thoughts perfectly. When she looked at him and nodded, he agreed with a slow nod of his own. "I think you're right.

"I...I hadn't thought about the Quartermaines," he admitted. "I was just so focused on getting you and the boys to safety and making sure that Lucky couldn't find us, that I didn't think how they would react. Emily knows where we are, but Lila, Monica...the rest. I'm sure they're concerned."

"They are," she told him. "And Emily doesn't say anything, but I think sometimes it's hard for her, to not be able to say where you are or that you're alright."

Jason was quiet for a few moments, his lips rolled between his teeth as he was clearly thinking. Slowly he raised his eyes to meet her gaze and asked, "Are you sure about dealing with Lucky?"

"Yes," she answered. "It needs to be done. He needs to be cut from our lives completely, and that means we need to deal with him. We need to change Jake's birth certificate and we need to deal with the fact that he hired you to find me and Jake. And...and I think we need to deal with what happened after your accident, and what might have even caused it."

Elizabeth shook her head slowly and said, "I don't have any illusions that it will be pretty or easy. But I think we need to face it. And knowing that we're going to be facing it together...it gives me the strength I need to bear the thought of it and get through it. Hiding from him still gives him power over my life, over the boys' lives, and I'm tired of living like that."

"I think you're right," Jason eventually agreed, his voice even and measured. "And if you're ready to face this, then we'll face it together. I think we need to talk to a lawyer first, find out what we need to do."

He was thoughtful for a moment and then said, "I know the Quartermaines will try to use the knowledge of Jake as some means of getting me to quit the P.I. business and come to ELQ or go back to being a doctor, especially when they hear I have memories back."

"You have to decide what you want to do for you," she told him, placing her hand against his cheek. "You loved being a doctor, but your life is different now. Just because you have some memories now, that doesn't mean you have to go back to that. Unless you want to. If you enjoy being a P.I., then do that."

A grateful smile crossed his face and he turned his head to kiss her palm. "Thank you. I think that Lila would respond the same way, but I don't know what the old man would do. I...I know he would help against Lucky because of Jake, but I don't want to feel like we'd owe him."

A corner of her mouth turned up and she asked, "Do you honestly think your grandmother would let Edward get away with that? There are times I wondered if she knew, if she guessed or you'd told her before the accident, because a couple of times I encountered her in the hallway at the hospital she was always kind to me and asked after my boys and it...it just felt like it was more than me just being her granddaughter's friend. From everything I've heard about her, she was a strong, formidable woman. She will support you no matter what you decide, and she's the only person who can keep your grandfather in line...and I think that she would fight anybody for our boys."

"I think she would," he agreed, a wistful look on his face as he obviously thought of Lila. "And in time, we'll tell the family. Maybe even before we return to Port Charles. But first I think we should just talk to a lawyer quietly. Maybe someone from New York who knows the statutes there and what we have to do to get Lucky out of your life and the boys' lives, but who isn't from Port Charles and can tip off people to what we're planning to do before we have it ready."

"That sounds good to me," Elizabeth nodded. "But I have no idea who to talk to."

"I'll call Emily," he answered. "Jax can find someone, maybe from New York City, or maybe even Albany, and then we can talk to them."

Jason took her hand and gently rubbed it between his. "We'll figure this out. Get the process started for my name to be listed on Jake's birth certificate, maybe...maybe even start the process to adopt Cameron at the same time. That way it shows that we're committed as a family. Lucky never adopted Cameron in all the time you were married, even when he thought you were pregnant with his child. It wasn't just the finances of it; he simply didn't care enough. This shows that I'm committed to you and the boys and that I'm claiming my sons."

She swallowed roughly as she felt her eyes well up with tears. He was right, Lucky had never cared enough to adopt Cameron, and here Jason was eager to make her oldest a part of the family. He smiled tenderly at her as he brushed his thumb across her cheek, catching her tears before they fell.

"I want the whole world to know they're mine, Elizabeth," he told her. "Just like I want the whole world to know how much I love you. This isn't just about claiming Jake or adopting Cameron to show that I'm better than Lucky. It's about making us all a family. And a big part of making us all a family is marrying you. I asked you to marry me before my accident and you couldn't wear my ring because we were keeping it quiet.

"Some people may think that we only got married to fight Lucky, or they'll question if we could really fall in love again after I lost my memories, but we...we know the truth," he said, rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand. "We know what's happened between us. What happened between us before my accident, and since I found you again. I love you and I want to marry you. I want us all to be a family."

"Yes," she said softly, her voice breaking with emotion. She beamed as she nodded her head. "Yes, yes, yes, Jason, I want to marry you. I will marry you. Whenever you want."

"Then I guess when I call Emily to tell her we need a lawyer to get started on Jake's birth certificate and Cameron's adoption, I need to tell her that she and Jax need to come down here for our wedding." He pulled her close, kissing her deeply and then said, "Tomorrow we'll tell the boys everything. Starting with the fact that Mommy and Daddy are going to get married."

A/N: I apologize for the lack of a wedding in this chapter. When I randomly clicked on the prompt for this section, this scene and chapter immediately came to mind and I try to stick with the spirit of FlashFics instead of forcing the prompts to fit my outline or intended chapters. I will try to have a description of the wedding in later chapters, or a flashback or two, but for now, we jump into the Quartermaine living room.

"How dare you not tell this family?"

Edward's voice broke through the cacophony of the other Quartermaines who began clamoring in shock and disbelief when Jason announced that he and Elizabeth had gotten married. Along with the information that he was the father of Elizabeth's youngest son, had fathered Jake while Elizabeth was married to Lucky before Jason's accident, and that he'd been hiding with her to protect her from Lucky and the rest of the man's family after inadvertently leading the now-disgraced cop to her. They hadn't even gotten to the fact that he and Elizabeth suspected Lucky had caused Jason's accident in the first place, and that the medical records Emily had copied from Tony Jones' office suggested that the neurologist had deliberately mishandled his treatment to prevent Jason from recovering.

"Edward." Though soft, Lila's voice always seemed to carry through the bickering of the family. And it always chagrinned her husband. "Jason and Elizabeth are here now."

"But they should have told us the minute Jason began to remember things," he declared. "We're his family and we have a right to know. We should have been at his wedding. And what do you mean," the old man said, turning towards Jason, "of not bringing your son with you to meet your grandmother?"

Jason glared at the silver-haired man and clenched his jaw so tightly it was hard to speak. "There was no way that Elizabeth and I were going to expose Jake or Cameron to...this."

He flung his hand out and said, "Do you have any idea why I walked away from this family? It wasn't just that I couldn't remember you...I couldn't remember Elizabeth either at first, but I felt a connection to her. The only thing I felt around you was like I was being smothered and couldn't breathe. You didn't like the fact that I couldn't remember who you were, that I wasn't your perfect little Golden Boy being a doctor and carrying on the family name.

"You," he pointed a finger at Edward, "thought that if I couldn't remember my medical training...well, it was no great loss. Then I should just come to work for you at ELQ and run the company like you'd wanted me to in the first place."

With an angry shake of his head he said, "None of you gave me any space. Every time you came to my room you looked at me with these searching eyes, hoping to see a spark of recognition and then there was always disappointment and sometimes even disgust over the way I was acting. And why wouldn't I act any different?" he demanded. "None of you were willing to see that I was a different person. None of you were willing to get to know the person I'd become. It was all your way or nothing else."

Looking back at Edward he snapped, "You cut off my trust fund, hoping to make me desperate and dependent on you so I would come crawling back to the fold and do exactly what you wanted. What it could have made me do was become a criminal. Maybe not with Sonny Corinthos, although he did come around, but I could have stolen something, mugged someone...who knows what. All because none of you wanted to see what was before you."

He let out a breath, striving to keep calm, but then said, "You were like that even before my accident, but it just wasn't so bad. Or maybe I was more willing to tolerate it. But you were constantly telling me I was wasting my talents by being a doctor, Edward. As if making someone better, performing a surgery that saved someone's life or improved their quality of living was worthless. And Alan, you were so proud to have your son at the hospital to stick it to your father that medicine wasn't worthless. But you also wanted me to follow in your footsteps and were constantly telling me not to accept certain positions, or try certain procedures because it might derail my fast track to being the youngest Chief of Staff at the hospital. Is it any wonder that I was planning to leave town with Elizabeth?"

"What?" Monica breathed out in question her hand drifting up towards her throat. "Jason, what do you mean?"

"I mean," he said, "that Elizabeth and I were engaged before my accident. But we hadn't told anyone. Lucky was erratic and he was threatening and scaring Elizabeth. We knew for her safety, and for the boys, we had to get away from Port Charles. Even disclosing that we were engaged and I was Jake's father wasn't going to be enough. We also wanted to leave to start over. She wanted to put distance between her and Lucky, and I wanted space from this family. I wanted to stand on my own and support my family and get a position at a hospital based on my merit and not just because my family sat on the board of directors."

"Of course that's what you would want to do, Jason," Lila said softly, but encouragingly. "You are very much like your grandfather that way, even if neither of you wants to acknowledge that. It is very unfortunate, then, that you had your accident just before you left."

Jason couldn't help looking over at Elizabeth and Edward must have caught the look that passed between them because he then demanded, "What? What aren't you saying?"

"We're not entirely convinced anymore that Jason's accident was an accident," Elizabeth said. "Lucky was...erratic, increasingly violent and he was always jealous of my relationship with Jason. Even when it was strictly professional and just a friendship. When Lucky and I divorced and he thought Jake was his, he became even more possessive and territorial and there were comments he made regarding me and Jason that left us wary."

"I don't remember all the details," he admitted, still frustrated that these memories hadn't surfaced. "But I know that the reason I was out that night had something to do with Lucky and finding a way to be free of him. I...it's hard to explain exactly why, but it's very suspicious that just days before Elizabeth and I were planning to leave town, with the boys, that I had my accident."

"Then you add in the fact that I saw Lucky outside of Jason's room moments before the alarms went off and Jason coded and almost died," Emily picked up the tale, "and then the information I found in Tony's office-"

"What information?" Alan demanded sharply. "Tony is our friend. He knew how devastated Monica and I were by Jason's accident. He was doing everything he could to save Jason."

"But he's also Lucky's uncle," the young intern continued. "And he did suggest to you and Mom that you send Jason away. He wasn't really that encouraging about Jason's prognosis or recovery."

"Are you saying that Tony did something to Jason?" Monica asked, absolutely horrified at the thought.

"There are things in the notes in Tony's office that are different from Jason's file in Central Records," her daughter stated. "Things that if they're correct, then Jason's condition wasn't as bad as he was saying in the beginning, and with a different course of treatment or different medications, he might have recovered some memories. He might have responded better and improved differently."

"That-that...you mean to say that doctor deliberately hurt my grandson all for his worthless nephew?" Edward demanded angrily. "That he didn't want Jason to recover because it would mess up Lucky's plans?"

It was amazing how quickly the tide of the room had turned. Gone was the shock over Jason's announcement, and even Edward's anger towards him, and now they were banding together against an outside force who had hurt a family member. Emily and Elizabeth had predicted this. That for all the grief and frustration he'd experienced with the Quartermaines after waking up and not being able to remember them, they would become his staunchest supporters. It was why Jax had insisted that their first stop after arriving in Port Charles had to be Jason's family. They needed to get the Quartermaines on their side before Lucky and the rest of his supporters found out they were in Port Charles.

"It appears that way, Grandfather," Emily answered.

"Let me see the files," Alan commanded, adopting his hospital demeanor. Emily quickly reached into a bag and pulled out several files. One was thick and Jason knew that was the one from Central Records. The other was the one from Tony's office. Once the chief of staff had them, he slipped on his reading glasses and began reading them, Monica right by his side, reading over his shoulder.

"It must have been so hard for you, dear," Lila said softly to Elizabeth. "To have your fiancé in an accident, to know he didn't remember anything, meaning he didn't remember about you or your boys. Being so worried and frightened about your ex-husband."

Elizabeth swallowed thickly and said. "I was. I...I'm sorry I didn't say anything to your family."

"You were in an impossible situation," the older woman shook her head sympathetically. "But obviously you had help. Emily and Jax stepped in and took care of you."

"I didn't know it at the time, but Emily knew Jake was Jason's," his wife said, looking over at her friend. "Jason had told her before his accident. I just thought it was because she was my friend and Nikolas' ex."

"It was a big portion of that," Jason's sister stated. "But also because I knew it was what Jason would want me to do if he could remember."

"But why didn't you just tell Jason?" Ned asked from his position on the couch. The older cousin had remained silent until this time, but leaned forward and clasped his hands together while resting his elbows on his knees.

All eyes in the room swiveled to Emily and she said, "Jason was in those difficult days of being angry and not wanting to have anything to do with the family. I really didn't know how he'd react if I went into his room and told him he had a son. I was more focused on getting Elizabeth to safety and setting up everything."

"And when the two of you began to forge a relationship?" Ned pressed.

"I didn't know how to tell him," she admitted honestly. "I was a coward. I didn't know how to tell Jason Morgan that Jason Quartermaine had a son. Elizabeth was safe, Lucky didn't know where she and the boys were...and after a while, I didn't really think of Jason as the brother he used to be. What happened with Jason Quartermaine wasn't part of Jason Morgan. But mostly, it was just cowardice."

"In Emily's defense," Elizabeth interjected. "I reacted the same way. Jason was my fiancé, even if nobody else knew. I knew. But I didn't go to his room after he woke up; I didn't tell him about Jake. I didn't know if I could take him looking at me the way he looked at you. What if he told me he didn't care about Jake and I was on my own with Lucky? If I didn't say anything, then I didn't have to deal with the possibility of his rejection."

Jason squeezed her hand in support and reassurance; they had long ago talked about it and settled it and it was behind them. But he could understand why the family asked; he was just a bit surprised it was Ned. Ned was the one who helped him get his trust fund from the family, but the two had never been really close. He just appreciated Ned's decency in getting him the money that was rightfully his, but never wanted a relationship with his cousin. Perhaps Ned's decency thought that Jason should have known regardless of how he might react.

"It doesn't matter what happened in the past," Edward spoke up decidedly. "What matters now is the fact that Jason and Elizabeth are here and married. They have begun the process of changing Jake's birth certificate and Jason is adopting Cameron. They are our family and that worthless Spencer family, regardless of the fact that Luke and Lucky are in jail, will come after Elizabeth and Jake."

He looked around at everyone and declared, "So we as a family need to decide what we're going to do. What we're going to do to help them. It sounds like we can start at the PCPD. From what Elizabeth has said, they never enforced the restraining order against Lucky because he was one of them. I always thought Mac had more integrity than that, but perhaps I was wrong. It's time, then, to wage war against the Port Charles Police Department, and luckily I happen to own a newspaper in which I can do that. Articles, editorials...they're all at our disposal. We will expose the blatant corruption in the police department, which will bring federal investigation down on them. With that kind of pressure, it will make it harder for Lucky and Luke to do anything from jail."

"And their legal troubles are far from over," Jax said. He'd been content to sit back in support of his girlfriend and let her family hash it out, but he was still a part of the original plan. He had helped generate a lot of trouble for the Spencer and Cassadine families to keep them from being able to go after Elizabeth. He wasn't about to let that go now just because Jason and Elizabeth got married.

"With Nikolas' assets frozen and his legal immigration status in question, he doesn't have the resources to assist Lucky or deal with Luke's troubles with the IRS," the businessman continued. "I've kept in contact with my friends in the Treasury Department and the Justice Department...they are moving full force against the Spencers and adding anything new they find to their charges."

"Well, we can certainly widen that to cause problems for Bobbie and her diner," Edward declared. "Add into the fact that she's Tony's wife and it's hard to believe that her medical training missed what Tony was doing."

"That is definitely something we will be looking into," Alan declared, closing the medical files in his hands. "As well as taking these files to the state medical board. I think there are sufficient grounds here to prosecute Tony and guarantee that he'll be charged with malpractice and lose his license. I'm sure Bobbie will come under suspicion and investigation as well. They'll have to be suspended from the hospital."

"What about the fact that Carly Corinthos is Bobbie's daughter and married to Sonny Corinthos?" Ned asked. "Known crime boss of Port Charles. Don't you think he might get involved if his mother-in-law faces criminal charges?"

"Oh," Lila spoke up, her voice sweet, but full of firm determination. "You leave Mr. Corinthos to me. I know a thing or two, and with my contacts at the country club and the Ladies' Guild, I can rob him and his wife of things they so desperately desire. Prestige to pass themselves off as just a simple, wealthy businessman and his wife. If they choose to fight against our family, they will find themselves out in the cold very soon and nobody will let them back in...even if he is Sonny Corinthos."

Jason looked at his grandmother in surprise. Normally she was the one urging the family to not go forward with some scheme. She was willing to give the other person the benefit of the doubt, or not seek revenge. Apparently even she had been pushed beyond her limit of tolerance this time. He couldn't help feeling a little overwhelmed by it all. He'd often avoided his family after leaving the hospital and starting his P.I. firm because they could never seem to accept who he was. To have them no longer fighting with him, but instead gearing up to fight on his behalf showed that in spite of their brash and overbearing demeanors, they really did care about family.

He looked over when he felt Elizabeth squeeze his hand and place her other one gently on his arm. Somehow she must have sensed his mood, and was seeking to reassure him

"See," she smiled slightly at him, leaning in to speak softly. "Emily was right. They're your family and though they may have fought with you in the past, they are going to take on anyone who comes against you. You're their son, you're their grandson...it doesn't matter to them what your last name is now, to them, you're a Quartermaine and they are ready to take the power of the Quartermaines against the world. Even your grandmother is ready to go to battle on your behalf."

"I know," he said with a slight shake of his head. "Just when I thought I knew them, they went and changed on me."

"Well," his wife grinned. "Who said family was boring?"

He looked out at his family was still making plans and saw his grandmother give him a loving smile and a wink before turning her attention back to Emily. He let out a sigh and said, "Certainly not this family."

When the Quartermaine family rallied, they rallied.

Perhaps it was the lessons learned by Edward and Lila having grown up during World War II and watching military and world leaders marshal and command troops that brought about a destructive campaign against the citizens of Port Charles that would have impressed today's military leaders with precision strikes and always getting their man. Elizabeth had always heard the rumors of the Quartermaines and how they attacked with deadly accuracy against someone they decided to go after, but seeing it in action was truly impressive. And a little scary. And a little overwhelming to know that it was on her family's behalf.

While Jax had already set in motion a plan that caused problems for the Spencer family, his attack now seemed like a child's pop gun compared to the full frontal assault the Spencers, and anyone connected to them, had faced. Nikolas Cassadine was no longer being held for questioning on his immigration status and irregularities in the family business and holdings, he was indicted on a barrage of charges. His princely title could do nothing to save him now. The United States government was working in cooperation with the Greek government and since they were one of the first countries to nearly collapse under the global economic meltdown, they salivated like Pavlov's dogs to go after one of their citizens for tax evasion, fraud, bribery and a laundry list of other charges. Imposing fines were levied against the noble blood of the Cassadine house and their private island, numerous houses, cars, paintings, antiquities and stocks were seized to pay their debts to the Greek government. That didn't even begin to cover the charges the United States government brought against the businesses held in majority by the family.

In one fell swoop, Nikolas became a prince without a home. He was deported from the U.S. and told that if he ever tried to come back he would be tossed into a hole and the key would be lost. The government of Greece put a warrant out for him and his grandmother Helena, and then the final swoop came when the Russian government brought their own charges against the royal descendants. Their normal hiding places were effectively shut down, their money was gone, and their associates who had once cooperated with them out of fear for their power, or greed for their money, turned their backs on them and Prince Nikolas was left without two dimes to his name. Edward's men had tracked the man as he fled to South America trying to find someone to assist him, but Jax's brother, a somewhat shady character in his own right, had effectively slammed that door with a few well-placed comments in the right ears.

One Spencer relation decimated...many more to go.

Lila had proved herself correct when she said she could bring about her own form of revenge against Sonny Corinthos and his wife. While Edward and Jax worked their power in pulling strings with the federal government and Jax's brother delivered a few documents that was the beginning of unraveling Sonny Corinthos' empire, Jason's grandmother set about bringing their social destruction, which was just as felling a blow to the ego of the kids from the wrong side of the track who wanted to pretend like they'd scraped their way to the top and were now accepted by all.

In a move that would have been more in place in Regency England, Lila Quartermaine brought about the couple's demise by giving them a very public cut, and then whispering a few choice comments to just the right people. Her removal of her tacit approval of Sonny Corinthos, of no longer finding him a charming man and being grateful for his social generosity, caused others to no longer tolerate the thinly-disguised mobster. Old Money stood together, closing ranks against the grasping nouveau riche, and casting them in the role of social pariahs. With Sonny's legal troubles mounting, he could not strike out against those who were insulting him, because he was trying to keep his house, his business and his freedom. But when he was arrested and dragged off to jail, his wife Carly Corinthos found herself ejected from the country club, her charities she joined only to present the right image and she couldn't get a reservation at any of her former haunts.

She was once again the poor girl from the trailer park and in desperation she came to the Quartermaines asking them to help her because her son Michael was actually their grandson. The family expressed their false sympathy over her demise, and promised their help for the right price. A.J. got his son back, and Carly got a one way ticket out of town. She kicked and screamed and fought them, but Edward had a family judge in his pocket and Sonny Corinthos put whatever money he had into his criminal defense, effectively abandoning his wife and her son. Bobbie Spencer's daughter proved she was all about herself when she took the Quartermaine's payoff, desperate to maintain the illusion of wealth and belonging as she fled the country to become a rich socialite in a locale where she hoped nobody had heard of her before.

But even the battles against Nikolas and Sonny and Carly were mild compared to what happened with the Spencers themselves.

Lucky was arrogant enough to believe that his connections as a cop would get him out of jail soon. Or that his father would be able to pull something off as he had always done in the past. But he was still sitting in jail, along with Luke, and the charges against them were mounting every day.

It was no longer just Lucky's past with Elizabeth that was keeping him in jail, although Edward was determined to keep that in the forefront. Luke's troubled past had finally caught up with him and RICO charges, smuggling, illegal contraband and numerous other accusations were added each day. Lucky was included on those deals because Luke had forged his son's signature on a bank loan and paperwork to make it look like they were partners in the Haunted Star and the old blues' club. Former colleagues of Lucky's were speaking out against him in an desperate attempt to keep their jobs after it was revealed that they had stood back and done nothing to stop his harassment and abuse of Elizabeth. But it wasn't remorse for the former detective's actions towards her that they spoke on, it was their moral outrage that Lucky had never arrested his father, and had sometimes actively participated in illegal activities along with Luke that prompted their sudden confessions.

While Edward Quartermaine was pleased that the case kept mounting against Lucky, he was not going to let the Port Charles Police Department off the hook. The special prosecutor that was brought in to ensure a fair and impartial trial, was actually the son of an old friend of the family, and he was determined to go after the cops who had permitted, and sometimes even participated, in the terrorization of Elizabeth and her children, just as much as he was determined to go after the Spencer family. A large number of officers were placed on administrative leave, and the outraged citizens of the port town were calling for the resignation of the police commissioner, the D.A. and the mayor. A political bloodbath was about to happen, and Edward and Jax were working behind the scenes to ensure that their preferred candidates would be poised to take over the town.

Alan and Monica had not been idle either while Edward and Lila were working their brand of social justice. The doctors had taken Jason's medical files and built a case against Tony Jones and his wife at the time of Jason's accident, Lucky's aunt Bobbie Spencer. The loss of her diner because of her partnership with Luke was nothing compared to the loss of her medical license and the charges brought against her for malpractice. She and Tony Jones were exposed for their conspiracy to mistreat Jason's injuries in the hopes of him dying, or at least being incapacitated and placed in a facility.

The hospital was outraged at the former couple. Once the truth was exposed and charges were brought against them and they were arrested at the hospital, their former co-workers turned their backs on the doctor and nurse. People lined up to testify against them, the new doctor treating Jason explained what each misdiagnosis and erroneous treatment had done to him, and Tony Jones was charged not only with malpractice, but with attempted murder.

The fallout for the revelations was huge and the Quartermaine family was working hard, as board members, to keep the hospital afloat and solvent. But even Tracy Quartermaine didn't complain about the lawsuits, real and threatened, that they faced, or the large amounts of money that were being invested into the hospital. She was standing with the family, after Lila had a rather heated discussion with her one day behind closed doors, and was using her position of CEO of ELQ to keep the hospital running as well.

There were only two people still in Port Charles who had not faced any repercussions over their connection to the Spencer family, but Elizabeth intended for that to end today. One person she really didn't dislike, and she hated what she was about to do, but she knew that the only person who would finally be able to get through to Lulu Spencer was her grandmother Lesley Webber. While Elizabeth didn't like confrontation, she had come to the conclusion that this one was unavoidable. Especially after Lulu had come after Elizabeth and the boys in the park.

There was a guard in a car across the street and she looked at him briefly as she climbed the porch stairs and rang the doorbell. Edward had suggested that Jason look into private security, even offered corporate security officers from ELQ, for her and the boys during this whole time period and her husband had instantly agreed with his grandfather. He was not going to leave anyone vulnerable to a possible attack by the Spencer family after knowing they had caused his accident and medical condition; she had been very grateful for them just the other day and was glad Jason hadn't agreed with her when she suggested that perhaps they were no longer needed.

"Hello?" Lesley's voice went from curious to forced pleasant when she recognized the person standing on her porch. Elizabeth hated what was to come because Lucky's grandmother had always been kind; certainly nothing like the unhinged, rabid dogs her daughter had married into. "Elizabeth, this is a surprise. What brings you here?"

"Can I come in, Lesley?" she asked, slipping her sunglasses off and tucking them into her purse. "I was hoping we could talk."

"Yes," the older woman agreed, stepping back to let her in. "What's going on?"

"We need to talk about Lulu," the young mother said as the door was closed behind her. "And what you're going to do to get your granddaughter under control."

"Elizabeth," Lesley said as they walked into the room. "I don't understand."

"Lesley," she sighed softly. "I don't want to do this. You haven't done anything against me. I don't want to create problems for you, but I can't let this go."

"Let what go?" the older woman asked.

"Have you seen Lulu since two days ago?" she asked. "Have you heard from her? Have you heard from the police?"

"There was a detective's card tucked into the door yesterday when I got home from some errands, but I haven't called him back," the grandmother admitted. "I wasn't up to dealing with more stuff about Lucky and Luke right now. I was going to call him maybe later today, possibly tomorrow."

Her eyebrows furrowed and she asked, "Is this about Lulu? What happened?"

"She attacked me and the boys the other afternoon in the park," Elizabeth told her former in-law. "She came at us, blaming me for everything the family is going through, telling me I was selfish for what I was doing to Lucky, screaming at me, in front of my children, how I should die. How Jason should have died. How it's the Quartermaine's fault, it's my fault...and then she looked at Jake and Cameron and said that...that she can't believe her brother is still upset over not having my bastards."

She smiled wistfully and shook her head and said, "Cameron stood up and told her she was mean and to stop yelling at his mommy. That's when..."

Letting out a shaky breath she twisted her fingers together and looked down. "Elizabeth?" Lesley asked when the silence stretched.

"That's when Lulu pushed him. Hit him, actually, and told him to get away from her. She came after me, but our security guards stepped in."

"Was she arrested?" the grandmother asked. "Is that why the detective stopped by? Why didn't Lulu just use her one phone call?"

Looking at the other woman sadly the young mother said, "Because she wasn't arrested. She got away from the guards when I called for them to help me. When Lulu pushed Cameron...he fell and hit his head on the bench we were beside."

The former doctor covered her mouth and the wrinkles around her eyes deepened with horror and concern. "Oh, Elizabeth," she breathed out. "I'm so sorry. Is he alright?"

"No," the brunette shook her head. "He's in the hospital. It was a pretty severe blow...he caught it right on the corner of the bench and on the side of his head. He got stitches, but he's unconscious right now. Jason sent me home from the hospital; told me to get some rest because I've been there since they brought him in. But I..."

She stood and paced away from the older woman and said, "But I needed to come here, Lesley. I needed to talk to you."

"What can I do?" she asked. "If I hear from her, of course I'll tell the police."

Elizabeth looked at the older woman and said, "I hope you do. You need to talk her, Lesley. Get her some help."

The grandmother shook her head and asked, "Help? What can I do? Lulu doesn't listen to me. She doesn't listen to anyone. She's upset about her father and brothers; she's upset about her cousin and aunt."

Her grandparents' colleague paused for just a moment and then said, "She's seen her family systematically destroyed...and believes it is your new family that did that. Surely you can understand that she might be a little upset."

"Lesley," she said, lifting her brows. "Do you think that the Quartermaines fabricated evidence against anyone? I was married to Lucky...I was in this family. I know what he and his dad have done in the past. I don't think this comes as a surprise to anybody, especially you, that they were charged with these crimes or that Nikolas and Sonny and Carly were as well. So how is it my fault that Lulu's family finally got caught in their mistakes and charged?"

"It's not really," the older woman shook her head. "But Lulu won't see it that way. She's Luke's daughter, you know that."

"What she is, is a spoiled child who has had everyone make excuses for her because she was sick when she was little and then she grew up to be the daughter of Luke and Laura," she countered. "I'm not trying to be mean here, but I've known her since she was younger. If she did something, Luke never punished her because he was so proud of his girl for being a chip off the old block. Laura, unfortunately, was not here and you did your best to help her but it's hard to go up against Luke when he's being the fun one."

Leaning forward, Elizabeth asked, "But do you really think you're doing her any favors if you don't make her face what she's done? If she doesn't see that there are consequences to her actions? If everyone makes excuses for her because she was just upset, then frankly that diminishes what she did to Cameron. My son is in the hospital because Lulu was upset. She's an adult...it's time she started acting like one. So I'm asking you, please, Lesley...if you hear from Lulu...don't help her. Tell the cops where she's at."

She swallowed and then said, "The special prosecutor has declared this incident is just another example of the Spencer family selfishness and he's told the police that they are to find her, do not let her escape and bring her in. I would hate for some new rookie who's recently been promoted because of all the corruption in the police department to see this as his opportunity to shine and get a little over-zealous in apprehending her."

Perhaps she wasn't being fair towards the now obviously worried grandmother, but the young mother knew that she had to get through to Lesley somehow. If it took making her think that Lulu could be in potential danger to get her to cooperate with the police instead of thinking she was protecting her granddaughter, then that's what it took. Until Lulu pushed Cameron, Elizabeth had only wanted the blonde to leave Port Charles and never come back. Lulu was annoying, yelling at Elizabeth as she left court and telling her that it was her fault Lucky was in jail, but she'd learned to tune out the younger woman. For the most part, Lulu stayed away, having once been on the receiving end of Jason's wrath when she harassed them one day. But as her family members went to jail, or had more and more charges brought against them and it was clear they wouldn't beat them, she was becoming increasingly bothersome.

But the incident two days ago had gone too far. No longer was it acceptable for Lulu to just leave town and start over somewhere else. Now Elizabeth wanted the younger woman found, and she wanted her to understand that being upset, or being a Spencer didn't give her a free pass to do whatever she wanted. The nurse's patience and tolerance expired the moment Cameron hit the ground. Her good will and hope for her former sister-in-law to leave was replaced by a desire to see her get what she deserved. While she had grown tired of the taunts and harassment and had simply intended to eventually come to Lesley and persuade her to convince Lulu to leave Port Charles, now she was appealing to the woman to not assist her granddaughter with whatever money hadn't been taken by the government when they seized the Spencer family assets.

She honestly didn't think it would make any difference. Lulu was too hot-headed and too stubborn like her father to probably listen to her grandmother, but Elizabeth felt she had to make this one effort for the little girl she used to watch sometimes after school. Now that she had made it, she could leave this house with a clear conscience and let the chips fall where they may concerning Lulu Spencer.

"Hey, Jason," Emily said softly as she slipped into Cameron's room and closed the door behind her. The sounds of the hospital were once again muffled and the steady beep of Cameron's monitors filled the air.

Walking closer to her brother she rubbed his shoulder comfortingly, and then touched her nephew's hand. "How is he doing?"

"The same," the former doctor replied dispiritedly. "No worse than before, but unfortunately, no better than before."

"We just have to give it some time," she said, trying to be encouraging. "I know it's so hard, though."

"The doctors are really good," he admitted. "Mom and Dad speak really highly of Patrick Drake and he's been really good. Sometimes when he's talking to us I understand everything he's telling us, and sometimes I have to have Elizabeth explain it. I guess it's actually what I remember from before my accident and it's the stuff that's new since then that I don't fully get."

He looked up at her and his eyes held such worry and concern that Emily felt it in her knees and she sat down beside him. "I think about my accident and what the family went through and what I went through and I just..."

"You worry," the resident nodded. "That's understandable. I'm sure that Elizabeth is remembering that as well. But, Jason...this is so different from that time."

"You mean Dr. Drake isn't trying to sabotage Cameron's recovery like Tony did to me?" he asked wryly.

Letting out a breath she said, "Yeah. It seems like small comfort, but you have to hold onto it."

"We are," her brother confessed. "It's what Elizabeth and I keep telling ourselves."

"We're all praying for him," Emily continued. "There is so much love and support for him."

"I know," he said, his voice thick and husky with emotion.

"He's going to be fine," she said, and prayed that she was correct. "And when he wakes up, you know he's going to ask about the party."

Jason huffed, and she was sure he was wondering why she was bringing up the wedding reception their grandmother had insisted on organizing for them, but she knew that she needed to get her brother talking about something else. Something to distract him so that he didn't go crazy watching over his son and wondering when he would wake up. And if the little boy did wake up, would there be brain damage like he'd experienced?

"Come on," she teased slightly. "You know that was why Cam was one of Grandmother's biggest supporters. He wants a party with more cake. What little boy doesn't?"

The worried father smiled slightly, looking wistfully at the small figure lying on the bed and nodded. "He insisted we have a cake at the wedding. Elizabeth and I just wanted to take the boys out somewhere nice to eat after we left the church, but Cam insisted we had to have a cake. And then Jake started chanting for one as well. So while Elizabeth was getting the boys fitted for their suits, I ran down the street and found a bakery."

He rubbed his hands together and looked down at them. With a shake of his head he continued on, "It wasn't anything fancy. I just asked for a cake they already had made, something simple that didn't look like it was obviously for a birthday party. I asked them to write on it Just Married and then the lady in the shop insisted on writing our names on it as well and I asked them to put Cam and Jake's names too... There wasn't time to take it to the restaurant before we went to the church so I was hoping it wouldn't melt, but the ceremony wasn't long. Elizabeth walked down the aisle with the boys, and the minster's wife and son were our witnesses."

Emily wrapped her slender arms around her brother's muscular one and rested her head on his shoulder as he again told the story she heard before when he and Elizabeth announced their marriage and they were bombarded with questions. This time...she could feel the love so much stronger that he had for his family. His joy in that day and the pride he felt at becoming Elizabeth's husband and the boys' father. Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes but she made no move to wipe them away.

"When we went to the restaurant, Cameron told everyone we passed by that his mommy and daddy had just gotten married," Jason chuckled. "His joy was infectious. The staff took the cake and put in the refrigerator. The other diners clapped for us and some of them came up to our table to congratulate us. One of them even paid our bill on his way out and we never even knew about it until we finished our meal. It was simple and wonderful...but I understand why Grandmother wants to hold a reception for us. Elizabeth should have flowers and a beautiful cake."

"I'm sure she's perfectly happy with what you had," the younger sister said. In fact, she knew her best friend was. Elizabeth said that their wedding may not have been fancy, but she'd done fancy before and she wouldn't have changed anything about her wedding to Jason.

"I know," her brother nodded. "But now...it's hard to think about the party. We just want Cam to wake up and to be okay. And if we have to have a party...then I want it to be for him."

"It will be for all of you," Emily told him, squeezing his arm. "All of you to celebrate your family."

"It won't be until he wakes up," the insistent father stated.

"Of course not," she immediately agreed as her attention was caught by the change of beeping in one of the machines. She looked over at the monitors by her nephew's bed and tilted her head as she studied them intently, then looked down at the little boy. "And that might just be sooner than we thought."

"I knew I shouldn't have left," Elizabeth said with frantic breathlessness as she rushed into Cameron's private room. Jason stood as she looked around frantically as she continued, "What kind of mother isn't here when her son wakes up?"

"Elizabeth," he tried to soothe her as he placed his hands on her upper arms.

"I wasn't here, Jason," she castigated herself.

"You went home to rest," he told her reassuringly. "You're allowed to do that. You've been here at his side since he was admitted. You weren't sleeping because with every beep that indicated a change on the machines you were up and inspecting him. You needed to get some rest."

"But I didn't," she refuted, her voice reaching a desperate pitch. "I was at Lesley's house, telling her what Lulu had done and asking her...almost badgering her into not helping Lulu if she contacts her grandmother. I didn't even make it back to see Jake. He's got to be so worried."

Pulling his wife close, Jason stilled her movements by wrapping his arms tight around her and pressing her head into his chest. He rubbed her back gently and spoke softly in her ear. "Elizabeth, take a deep breath. Come on," he coaxed when she still resisted. "Take a deep breath."

He felt her chest push against his and then her breath puff across his neck as she exhaled. Silently he willed her to do it again and was grateful when the motions repeated. "That's it," he said tenderly. "It's okay. You are not a bad mother. You going to Lesley's house proves that. You were still fighting for your son; only this time it wasn't in the hospital, you were pushing for justice for him."

She pushed against his hold, but he didn't release her. He knew she was still too tense and wound up and if he let her go now she would just work herself back up into a frantic agitation again. "No," he denied her. "You need to just calm down. I'm not going to let you blame yourself because you weren't here. And Jake is with Alice and my parents; he's being looked after and you know he's okay."

"I just can't believe I wasn't here," she said, but her voice was more regulated. She was still dismayed, but she wasn't frantic. Her head tilted back and she looked up at him. "How was he?"

"What little I saw of him, he seemed okay," he tried to reassure his wife. "I was talking with Emily and she noticed a change in his vitals. She immediately rang for the nurse and when she came in, she immediately paged his doctor. I could see Cameron's eyes fluttering and I held his hand and the doctor was looking him over."

He felt Elizabeth's breath catch in her throat and tears formed in the corners of her eyes. "Then he opened his eyes and he looked around. He was confused and the doctors and nurses were talking to him and he was fighting against the breathing tube, but I held his hand and I squeezed it and I told him I was there and that he would be okay. They took him away for tests right after that. So even if you had been here, you wouldn't have seen him very long."

"But I could have gone with him," she tried to protest. "I'm a nurse."

"But you don't work at General Hospital anymore," Jason told her. "You know that they would have let you go with him only so far and then they would have had you wait outside. Emily is with him. She says she won't leave his side until they bring him back to the room. I called the house after I called you and my dad is going to come down. Monica's staying with Jake."

Leaning back into him the worried mother let out a breath and said, "I know. I know everything you're saying...it's just-"

"Hard," he finished for her. "I know. I feel the same way. There are things I can understand that the doctors are saying, because they were terms I used before my accident. But the new tests, the new procedures...I don't understand. Even when I read the medical journals my parents gave me...maybe it's because I need to see the machines, or the techniques. Maybe I'll never fully understand it because of the accident. But it's so hard for me to watch my son here in the hospital and not understand all that they're doing for him."

Her small hands pressed tightly against his back and her voice caught as she said. "I know. I used to work in this hospital. I know some of the nurses still. I want to be a part of his care, but I know that I'm the parent this time."

She let out a shuddery breath and said, "I'm so glad you're here with me. I can't imagine going through this alone...or with anyone else. I'm so glad you found us and you're here now."

Gently placing his fingers under her jaw he tipped her head up until she was looking at him. Tears burned his eyes as he said, "Me too. He's my son and I just...I'm glad I was able to help you."

"And him," she smiled slightly at him. "I know that if I couldn't be here, there was nobody else better for Cameron to see when he woke up. He knew his parents were there for him."

Jason dipped his head and brushed his lips across Elizabeth's. Then he settled her head back against his shoulder and he held her while they waited. It had to be soon; it seemed so long ago that they took Cameron for the tests. His legs were growing tired and he was certain his wife's were.

"Do you want to sit down?" he asked softly, almost as if he didn't want to end the quiet in the room.

Her answer was drowned out by the door opening and the squeak of a wheel as their son's bed was brought into the room. The couple turned and watched as the hospital staff brought Cameron in and situated the bed, locking the wheels into place. Emily was by his side, holding his hand until they stepped closer.

"Cam," Elizabeth breathed out softly, leaning over their son's bed as she smiled brightly at him. "Hello, sweet baby."

"Mommy," he replied weakly, but the hint of a smile he was able to muster was simply beautiful and Jason felt tears flood his eyes.

She peppered him with kisses and then pulled back to sit on the bed and lean down to give him a gentle hug. "Hello, Cam. I'm so happy to see you."

"How is he?" the concerned father asked his sister while his wife continued to talk to their son.

"He's doing really well," she told him with a relieved smile. "He did fine with the tests. Doctor Drake will be here in a few minutes to talk to you about the results. He just wanted to go over them with Robin."

"Emily," Elizabeth called to her friend and when the intern approached, she was enveloped in a hug. "Thank you so much for being with him."

"You're welcome," she replied softly, her voice thick with emotion. "I'm glad I was here when he started to wake up."

"So am I," Jason told her, wrapping his arm around her as well. "It helped comfort us to know Cam had a family member with him. And I'm sure it helped him as well."

"Oh, stop it, you two," she said with a laugh. "I'm already late starting my shift but my attending understood. However, I need to get started and I don't want to go there with mascara streaks."

Elizabeth laughed as she stood up and hugged her sister-in-law once again. "Thanks, Em. Now...better get going before your attending forgets his good mood. You know how those doctors can be."

"I'll stop in when I get a break," she promised them. Turning to the little boy in the bed she smiled, "I'll be back in a little bit, Cam. You take it easy, okay?"

He just smiled briefly, but it was clear he was still tired. Jason could remember those days when he woke up from his coma; even after all those weeks he would still tire very easily and fall asleep after it felt like he'd only woken up. Medically, the former doctor knew it was to be expected, even if as a parent it worried him. The one thing that eased his fears was that Cameron seemed to recognize them; he'd called Elizabeth mommy and didn't seem confused by his surroundings.

His wife held out her hand to him and he gratefully took it, standing beside her as she perched back on the side of their son's bed. Gently she reached out and smoothed the little boy's hair back that wasn't covered by the bandage wrapped around his head. They'd have to cut his hair when he was released to deal with the portion that was shaved for the stitches, but it would be a small sacrifice. In time, his curls would grow back; if they decided to let it get long enough for curls again.

"How are you feeling, Cam?" Elizabeth asked softly.

"Tired," he replied, his eyelids drooping.

"That's okay," she assured him. "You can close your eyes. Mommy and Daddy will be here."

"We will," Jason added in his own promise. "You just rest if you want."

Then he placed his hand on the little boy's shoulder and they stood there silently until he drifted off to sleep. Patrick would be in shortly with an update, but for now, they were simply happy to have their son back.

"Go see if they're up for a visit," Lila told Reginald as he brought her wheelchair close to Cameron's hospital room. "I'll be fine here."

Her butler and friend stepped inside the room briefly and then was quickly back out in the hall with a large smile on his face. "They're definitely up for a visit," he told her. "Cameron's awake."

"Oh," she breathed out. "How delightful."

Her grandson was then there holding open the door while Reginald helped her inside the room. Elizabeth was moving a chair away from the bed and stood back out of the way while Jason took over and brought her up beside Cameron's bed.

"Grandma Lila," Cameron greeted her. His voice was quiet and he was not the little bundle of energy she'd grown used to seeing, but it was so beautiful to see his deep brown eyes looking at her. She knew that his recovery would still take time, but now the family could breathe a sigh of relief and hold onto hope now that he'd woken up.

"Hello, Cameron," she smiled at him, reaching out her hand to rest over his. "How wonderful to see you again. I brought you something."

Reginald stepped up beside her and handed her a bag which she showed to Cameron. He smiled at the bright colors of the bag and tissue paper. Then it was beside him and she continued on. "Your brother was very happy to hear you were awake now after your long sleep. He helped me get a few things from your room that he thought you'd want."

A motorcycle was the first thing out of the bag followed by a train. Both were plastic and didn't have any motorized sounds; they'd be perfect for the little boy who would probably be sensitive to sounds and lights for a bit. Then a soft, obviously loved teddy bear came out of the bag and she was glad to see that the little boy wasn't going to pretend that he was too old for such a toy. The other toys were left to fall on the bedding while he hugged the fuzzy bear close.

"Thank you, Lila," Elizabeth said with a sniff as she came towards the bed. She took the bag and put the tissue paper back inside it, then set it on the floor. "That's his favorite bear."

"That's what I gathered from Jake," she smiled up at the young mother. "He didn't want Cameron to be alone."

Her grandson's wife turned her head as her hand came up to cover her mouth. Jason wrapped his arm around her and pressed a kiss against her temple then whispered something in her ear. She nodded and firmed her shoulders, wiping slightly at her eyes.

"I think I'm going to go get a drink," she said. "Can I get you anything, Lila?"

"No thank you, my dear," she shook her head. "I actually brought some things from Cook for you and Jason. Perhaps you'd like to go with her, Jason, and have a little bite to eat. Or stretch your legs."

She smiled over at her great-grandson and said, "I can sit with Cameron for a little bit. Reginald will be here."

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth asked. "I was just going to go to the vending machine."

"Vending machine," Lila said with a sniff. "Now why would you do that when I made sure Cook put some hot chocolate in a thermos for you? Go on, dears," she encouraged them. "Take a few moments to sit outside and have something to eat."

Jason looked at her for a long moment, studying her, but then nodded his head as he wrapped his arm around his wife's waste. "If you need anything, you have my cell phone number, right? We can be back in just a few minutes."

"Go," she laughed at him.

"We'll be back in just a few minutes, Cam," Elizabeth promised her son as she smoothed her hand over his brow and pressed a kiss against his forehead.

"We will," the little boy's father echoed.

Once they were assured he was fine with them going, they stepped out of the room and Lila turned more fully to face the little boy lying on the bed. "Now," she said softly with just the hint of a smile. "You didn't think that I'd bring something for your mom and dad and not bring you anything, did you?"

The corners of his mouth turned up and his eyes brightened. "I made sure with your grandparents that you could have this."

The ever-present and ever-helpful butler produced another bag and took out a bowl and a small thermos filled with hot water. He set to mixing one of her great-grandson's favorite treats, the smell of cinnamon filling the air. "I made sure Cook got the brand you like, and your grandmother said that oatmeal would be soft and easy for you to eat."

"Thank you, Grandma Lila," he whispered, watching Reginald finish mixing the cereal. "I miss you."

"I miss you, too, my sweet boy," she told him, her soft blue eyes misting with tears.

"I miss home," he confessed. "I want my room."

She laughed softly and sighed. "You are so much like your father. It's only been a day since you woke up and already you want to go home."

Brushing her hand gently over his leg she assured him, "I am sure you'll get to come home soon."

With his mother being a nurse, and his grandparents being doctors, and with her to convince Jason and Elizabeth to move into the mansion while Cameron recovered, Lila was certain that they'd be able to celebrate his home-coming very soon.

Lucky couldn't believe it when the guard came to him and told him that he had a visitor. While he cringed at the name, he knew that eventually she'd come to him. It was inescapable. He only wished that he didn't have to see her on the other side of reinforced Plexiglas, but instead they could have met where the other prisoners got to meet their families.

He shuffled to the cubicle that the guard directed him to; ignoring the way the police academy washout pushed him into his seat and instead focused on the woman across from him. Picking up the phone and mentally cursing the guard for not unlocking his handcuffs, he smiled as he said, "I knew you'd come to see me, Elizabeth."

Her brow arched up, that tell-tale sign that she was about to say something she thought was clever. He used to find it cute how she telegraphed her mood; it used to give him a chance to muster up the appropriate reaction when sometimes all he wanted to do was smack it right off. "Really?" she questioned. "You were expecting me to come visit you in prison?"

She laughed a bitter, scornful laugh and shook her head. "You always were delusional, Lucky."

It was the barrier that was making her talk this way. She always felt braver when she had perceived safety on her side. It's why she thought she could get away with her affair with Jason Quartermaine. He was sure his ex-wife was just certain that the Quartermaine name, the power of Edward and ELQ and the prestige of her lover's doctor parents would protect her. He'd proved her wrong.

"You're here, aren't you?" he asked, lifting his own brow smugly.

She was quiet for a moment and he knew he had her. The power and pull of their connection was too much. And being stuck with a brain-damaged idiot like Jason Morgan was too much. She'd wanted the doctor and nurse scenario, someone with money who could cater to her and treat her to trips and jewelry like Nikolas had been lavishing on her best friend Emily. Now that the guy was a leather-jacket wearing private investigator she'd tire of him.

"Yes," she finally conceded. "I'm here. But not for any reason you've probably dreamed up in your delusional mind. I'm not here to beg for your forgiveness or ask for help to divorce Jason. I'm here to tell you what I couldn't say on the stand during your trial."

"You're going to admit you were lying?" Lucky asked with an interested smirk. "You do know that they record these conversations, Elizabeth. I'll alert the guards; they'll go through this. You'll go to jail for perjury. Who's going to look after the boys then? Because you know that the Quartermaine family will toss you away like the trash you are."

She just smiled and shook her head. "Really? Is that what you think? It's been interesting to discover what you'd kept hidden inside you all these years, Lucky. All your rage and anger, all your disdain and contempt for me. I have to wonder why you fought so hard for us to be together when you think I'm nothing more than a worthless slut who can be tossed away by anyone."

His hand tightened around the phone and he was about to speak when she kept going. "See, unlike with you, I don't have to wonder what Jason is feeling. No, he wasn't happy to realize that I didn't tell him about Jake when he woke up from his coma. He was shocked, he was hurt...but he was an adult about it. He wasn't an overgrown child acting out and determined that nobody else was going to get his toy. That's all I was to you, wasn't I? I was just a status symbol. I was the girl you met and dated in high school. Sure, we drifted away from each other for a time, as evidenced by my child with another man that you so magnanimously were willing to help me raise. But you were also so quick to toss that up in my face. That here you were, being such a man and accepting another man's child into your home. You went on and on and on about it to your family, to your friends, to your co-workers...but you never said what it was that led to our break-up and sent me into the arms of another man."

He narrowed his eyes at her and she merely lifted that annoying brow once again. "Yes, Lucky...it's a lot harder to gain sympathy for your noble sacrifice if your buddies were to find out that I'd caught you with a hooker working out your Mommy issues and I dumped you. And then you just couldn't accept that so you kept coming around and harassing me, following me when I went to college until I begged a friend to pretend to be my boyfriend and threaten to beat you up if you didn't back off. Now, I ended up with something good from that because I got Cameron, but you never gave up the hookers, did you?"

The man across from her spluttered and she knew his indignation was rising. This wasn't how this meeting was supposed to go. She was supposed to ask for his forgiveness for all her many sins, tell him she wanted him back and would wait for him. That she'd divorce Jason and she and the boys would once again be his. Instead, she called him on his past instead of just sweeping it under the rug like she'd done so many times.

"Oh, I think that once I was stupid enough to believe that you'd changed, that you did stop paying for sex, but you just couldn't remain faithful, could you?" she scoffed at him. "That's why you started having an affair not long after we got married. There I was, working, raising Cameron and you just couldn't really accept the reality of the situation. There was a child in your home but he wasn't yours. He wasn't a Spencer; he wasn't blood. It's why it was so easy for you to ignore him, to leave all the care to me, and for you to never adopt him. Oh, you liked it at first when he called you Daddy, but then it would begin to eat you, wouldn't it? The little boy calling you Daddy wasn't really your son."

She leaned back and looked at Lucky through the scratched and dirty barrier. "And you really think I'm going to leave Jason for you? Jason doesn't distinguish between our boys. He adopted Cameron, he gave Cameron his name, and he loves him and calls him son. There is absolutely no difference between those children. Can you say the same?"

"I just wanted a child of my own," he said with a shake of his head. "One that would prove..."

"Prove what?" she questioned when he trailed off. "Prove that I loved you? That I loved you more than Cameron's father?"

She saw by the defiant look on his face that she was close to the mark. With a sigh she said, "Lucky, I forgave you for cheating on me. I forgave you for harassing me. I married you and I meant my vows when I made them. I let you into my son's life and was ready to raise a family with you. What about any of that makes you think I didn't love you?"

"You could have just been looking for some poor schmuck to help you raise your bastard," her ex-husband sneered at you.

"Wow," she shook her head. "Just...wow. So that's what you thought? I was pathetic and helpless and I needed a man to take care of me and my illegitimate child. I was a nurse, Lucky. I had graduated, I had a job, I moved back home where my grandmother could help...I wasn't living on the streets eating out of cans. I took it slow because I wanted to get to know you again, to see if you were sincere."

Tilting her head to the side Elizabeth said, "I've got to give you credit. You fooled me. You definitely fooled me. And I paid the price for my foolishness and so did my children."

"Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" he asked mockingly. "Apologize for hurting your feelings?"

"No," she told him. "I know that won't happen. And I'm not asking for it. I came here to tell you goodbye. I'm not going to be haunted by our past anymore. I'm not going to feel bad for sleeping with Jason and getting pregnant with Jake. I'm not going to wonder what I could have done differently. First...it won't get me anywhere. More than that, it would be an insult to my husband. I love him, I love the life we have, and I love our children. One day...I hope to have more children with him. I can't imagine a day without him in my life."

"That's a pretty convenient thing to say since I hear he's remembering things," the man across from her scoffed. "Do you think he would want you if he didn't remember being Jason Quartermaine?"

"I do," she answered simply. "I think that if I had gone into his hospital room and told him that we were engaged-"

When Lucky flinched she smirked, "Didn't know that? In all your spying on me, in all your using your police buddies to keep tabs on my life, you didn't know that Jason and I were engaged and were planning to leave town?"

"I knew you were leaving town," he sneered. "It's why I stopped it."

Anger and hurt boiled up inside her and she pushed it back, choosing not to dwell on all the hateful things he did during that time. "Yes," she agreed. "You did stop it then. But in the end...you ultimately are the reason Jason and I are back together. You thought it would be ironic sending him after to us, but in the end, it led him to remembering us and we're together. And if I had just told him the truth and told him about his son, I think we would have been together much sooner."

Leaning forward she said, "You see, Lucky, it doesn't matter. You tried to keep Jason and I apart because you just couldn't stand the thought of losing. I was supposed to be yours and when we fell apart, I wasn't supposed to be with anyone else. Let alone Jason. You couldn't stand our friendship, you couldn't stand that he was a better man than you and still is. It wasn't because he was a doctor or rich; it was because at the heart of him, he's ten times the man you can ever hope to be. And that is why I didn't stay in town when Jason woke up and didn't remember anything. I left because of you. And now, I'm going to forget you. I'm going to go back to my family, to my husband and we're going celebrate our son coming home and we're going to celebrate our wedding and you...you will be the nothing stuck in prison."

Jason paced anxiously outside the car, ignoring the armed men who flicked their eyes towards him repeatedly. He hadn't liked Elizabeth's plan, but he also understood the desire to confront the past. This was something that she needed to put behind her. Testifying at her ex-husband's trial and simply answering the lawyer's questions wasn't the same as telling him in no uncertain terms that she was putting him behind her. He heard a buzz and metal scraping against metal and looked up wondering if this time she would be part of the group exiting the prison.

He strained, looking for a glimpse of his wife and felt his shoulders drop and his breath rush out when he saw her petite form walking through the corridor between chain link fences. Staring at her until she finally looked up and caught his eye, he watched for some indication of how the meeting had gone. But all he saw was pure delight shining in her eyes when she saw him and her gait increased until she was finally out of the prison fencing and into his arms.

"Thank you so much for coming with me," she breathed out as she flew into his arms. "I thought I wanted to do this on my own. See Lucky, say what I came to say and then leave. But to come out and see you there, to know that you were waiting for me, that I didn't have to wait until I got home to see you...that was exactly what I needed."

Pulling back slightly to look at her, his brow furrowed softly with concern as he asked, "What happened with Lucky? How did your visit go?"

"About what I expected," she said with a shake of her head. "He probably thought I was coming there to beg for forgiveness and when he realized I wasn't...he got nasty. But...it's not just that he's in prison and I know he can't touch me because his family is powerless now that I wasn't scared to face him. It's that I finally realized that being scared gives him power. Yes, it helps that he's in jail. But it's also that you're at my side. We found each other, we're married, we're raising our boys...he's lost."

She pushed her hand through her hair, dislodging the hair band holding the tresses back in a loose ponytail, and said, "I realized that his power and control over my life is over. When I was in Jamestown, I always slept with one eye open, I looked over my shoulder, I had grab and go bags ready and I jumped at bumps in the night. Now...I have peace. I have your love. I've decided that even if Lucky were to get out tomorrow I'm not going to be afraid. I'm going to stand and fight. I'm going to stand up to him. And I just did it. I told him he's nothing to me anymore. He has no more power in my life."

"I can only imagine how that made him feel," Jason said. The ex-cop had to be seething, and yet also not sure what to do.

"I know," his wife nodded. "I understood what you and your grandfather were saying. Lucky wanted that power. He liked knowing I was afraid. Now that I'm not...it's going to anger him. He's going to feel weaker. But that's not why I did it. I did it to put him behind me. And now he is."

She looked up at him and said, "So now I'd really like to go home."

He pressed a kiss to her mouth and then stepped back and took her hand. Together they walked towards the car and he opened the door for her, closing it behind her once she was inside. As he got into the car and started it he looked over at her and asked, "Are you ready for this?"

"Your family's party?" she questioned with an adorable lift of her brow. "Meeting your grandmother's friends who she assures will adore us? Or do you mean meeting your grandfather's associates?"

With a laugh that helped ease the bands of tension around his chest she said, "Jason, I just entered a prison. I just faced down my ex-husband who tormented me and my children, who tried to kill you, and I walked out with my head held high. He's no longer a blip on my radar screen. I don't care about whoever comes to the party."

Reaching over she placed her hand on his arm and gave it a comforting squeeze. "I know it's still difficult for you to get along with your family sometimes."

"It's not really the family," he shook his head. "It's meeting people that I don't really care about. Who are going to be looking at me as the lost son who disgraced the family by going into the P.I. business."

"Who cares what they think," she quipped. "Did you care when you were running your business?"

"No," he answered. "But I also really didn't care what my family thought. Now..."

"You don't want to hurt them," she said in understanding. "You won't. Your grandmother and your parents won't care. They're just thrilled to be talking to you again. That you allowed them to be part of your life again and meet our children. And after all they did to help us with Cam..."

"I know. It's why I'm going to this party." Jason looked over at her and lifted a brow. "Well, that, and I know you'll be at my side in a dress you went shopping for with Emily. I heard her comments. And I'm looking forward to seeing it."

His wife smiled at him and said, "That's not for the party tonight. That's for our honeymoon. I have a different dress for tonight. But maybe afterwards...I'll give you a sneak peek."

"Mommy."

The whispered voice tickled at her brain and she slowly tried to open one eye.

"Mommy."

"Cam?" she managed to say when she finally focused. "What's wrong?"

"The room's too big," her son answered, his voice rising now that he realized she was awake. Beside her, Jason stirred and rolled closer, his hand automatically reaching for her.

"Can we sleep in here?" the older boy continued.

"We?" she asked, leaning up on her elbow and looking around. From behind Cam she saw her younger son, hiding behind his brother.

"What's going on?" Jason asked, now having been woken by the nighttime conversation.

"Daddy," Cam greeted him, coming closer. "The room's too big; Jake and I don't want to sleep there."

He ignored Elizabeth and asked, "Can we sleep with you and Mommy?"

"Sure," her husband automatically answered.

"For a little bit," she immediately clarified. "You know the rules, Cam. You can cuddle for a bit, then we'll make a bed up for you and Jake on the floor."

In the dim light that their eyes were now adjusting to, Jason looked at her curiously, but she gave him a look that spoke volumes. Trust her on this one, and she wasn't going to back down. Cameron clambered up beside her, his elbow landing in her stomach as he maneuvered his way onto the bed, and Jason leaned over her legs, his heavy weight trapping them while he lifted Jake so the younger boy wasn't left behind. With just a little effort, the family was arranged on the bed, Cameron and Jake snuggled between their parents, and the covers pulled up.

"Now what was wrong with the room, boys?" she asked softly.

"Too big," Jake stated, his voice partially muffled by the bear he'd dragged along with him.

"It's really not any bigger than the room you and Cam were staying in at Grandma and Grandpa's," she clarified. "I know it may be different, and it's your first night there...tomorrow we'll explore it together and you'll see that it's really not so bad."

"We missed you," Cameron said, and Elizabeth felt that might have been the real reason for the midnight visit.

"Missed you," Jake echoed softly. She suspected that he would soon fall asleep, and with luck they'd be able to use that to get Cameron back to sleep as well.

"We missed you, too," their mother answered, pulling Cam close for a hug.

"Why couldn't we come with you from the start?" her oldest asked, his voice slightly petulant.

"Because Mommies and Daddies sometimes need time alone," she told them honestly. "They love each other and like to be together. And it's tradition for them to take a trip after they get married."

"But Daddy married all of us," he countered, a pout on his face that was made comical by the sleepy way he was fighting to keep his eyes open.

"Yes, I did," Jason finally joined the conversation. "But your mom's right. This was time for Mommy and Daddy to be together. Just like I take you and Jake to do special things alone, or Mommy takes you to do special things alone, this was Mommy and Daddy's time to be alone together."

"Besides," Elizabeth smiled, brushing her hand over his curls. "You had fun with Grandma and Grandpa. Aunt Emily told me all the fun things you boys did with them, and the time you spent with Grandma Lila out in her garden. And Aunt Emily and Uncle Jax took you boys to the zoo and the science museum, and then you stopped at Disney World on your way here. Aunt Emily rode Dumbo with you over and over until both of you were nearly sick."

A sleepy smile crossed the little boy's face at the memory and she knew he was thinking about that instead of how much he'd missed his parents. His eyes drifted shut and he snuggled against the pillow. Jake's soft breaths singled he'd fallen back asleep and she sensed Cameron was well on his way.

"Can you get their blanket from their bed and their pillows?" she asked Jason quietly. He nodded and slipped out of bed, pausing when Jake stirred, and then got them.

Elizabeth watched over Cameron and knew he was falling asleep, probably lost in the memories of the indulgent time Emily and Jax lavished on them. The trip hadn't been planned, but when Lulu Spencer was finally found on the lam and taken into custody and the news began once again rehashing the sins of the Spencer family and reporters had come after the boys one day in the park, the newly engaged pair had decided the boys needed to leave Port Charles before they were scheduled to join Elizabeth and Jason on their honeymoon turned family vacation. When Jason came back into the room she slipped out of bed and quietly helped him fashion a place on the floor for the boys to sleep. Then they transferred their sons and covered them up, pressing a kiss to each of them before going back to their bed.

"I nearly got played, didn't I?" he asked, gathering her into his arms. "Cam knew to ask me if he could sleep with us."

He was quiet for a minute and then asked, "Did Lucky get mad at him if he came into your room? Is...is that why they have to have a bed on the floor?"

"No," she immediately said, shaking her head on the pillow they were sharing. "No, that became my rule after we fled."

Her husband was silent, waiting for her to tell the story and she let out a soft breath and firmed her shoulders, knowing she could share this without drifting fully back in time. "When we first left," she said, "we were all scared. And I let the boys stay with me, sometimes because we got a hotel room with only one bed. I wanted them close, and if they were close then they were less likely to cry which meant that people wouldn't be bothered, or remember us. But after a while..."

She let out a small laugh and said, "After a while, waking up to a kick in the side, or a foot in the face was really no fun. Once we settled in Jamestown and I got a job, I was exhausted all the time because they were in bed and...and they're restless sleepers. You see how they've kicked all the covers off themselves by the morning."

"Yeah," he said softly.

"They constantly rolled into me, or kicked me, or kicked each other and none of us were really getting any rest. I knew I had to change it, but they'd gotten into the habit and they didn't want to sleep in their beds. I don't remember how it came up one day at work, but two of the older nurses were talking about their kids and their sleep and nightmares and one mentioned that her kids were allowed to come into her room, but they had to sleep on the floor. That way they all got sleep, and the kids weren't in Mom and Dad's bed. I...I was so exhausted I knew I had to try it. So I got their sleeping bags and told them that we were going to do something new. They gradually moved to the floor, and then pretty soon, they were in their own rooms. So now when they come into my room, they get cuddles for a few minutes and then we make a bed on the floor."

"Ah," he said. "Very smart. He knows that, but he thought I'd let him."

"Yeah," she nodded. "Tomorrow, we'll play in the room with them; let them get used to it. They got here late, they're tired from the traveling and Disney...they missed us. I should have expected them to show up here tonight."

"At least you were able to know what to do," he said, a hint of regret in his voice.

"You'll learn," she told him. "You are learning. And you're developing your own pattern with them. Just because I did things one way doesn't mean that's how we have to stay. Maybe we'll come up with a new way together."

She reached out and caressed his brow, feeling the slight tension. "Don't blame yourself for not being there, Jason. I could have come to your room. I should have come to your room."

His fingertips came to rest over her lips and he stopped her. "Don't. If you won't let me take the blame for not being there, then I won't let you take the blame, either. You were scared and alone and you were dealing with Lucky. You were doing the best you could. We could sit here all night debating our choices, but it won't do any good."

"I know," she said as she let out a soft breath.

"Whatever happened in the past, it's led us to this place. We're together now," he said, and she could see the delight in his eyes as he looked at her. "We're a family, in every sense of the word. Maybe not conventional or traditional, but we're a family."

"We are," Elizabeth confirmed with a slight nod as she felt tears gather in her eyes. "We are."

"And that's what matters," her husband continued. "I love you and the boys so much. I...I've come to understand the Quartermaines a bit more. Lucky, Lulu...the rest of them...they're facing the consequences of their actions. They didn't win, they didn't keep us apart and they can't hurt us anymore."

He drew her towards him and kissed her. Light and reassuring, but still holding all the depth of his love for her. She shifted and rested her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes at the feel of lying in his arms. Of having the ease and the time to rest against him, instead of only having fleeting moments together.

"Thank you," she told him. "For stopping me before I got swamped in guilt, for your help with the boys tonight...for a wonderful honeymoon so far. It's been all I ever hoped I would have with you, Jason. Being able to call you my husband, knowing you will help raise our boys, that we don't have to hide what we feel. It may have been complicated getting here, but I'm so glad we arrived."

Brushing his hand over her hair he pressed a kiss to the side of her head and she heard him clear his throat. "I know; I'm so glad we've had this time together. But I'm also glad we decided to have the boys join us."

He settled against his pillow and said, "Now, we better sleep before Cam and Jake decide to wake up with the sun. We'll have a full day ahead of us, Mrs. Morgan, but I fully intend to show you that this is still our honeymoon once we get the boys settled into their room. So I'm warning you now...get your rest."

She pressed her face against his chest to muffle the threatening laugh, but couldn't suppress the shiver of delight. She really hoped the boys adjusted their room easily, because she wasn't entirely ready to give up her honeymoon, either. Not after finally marrying the man she loved.

The End