Prologue

"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?"

Part 1

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 his 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!"

Part 2

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.

Part 3

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.

Part 4

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."

Part 5

"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."

Part 6

"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."

Part 7

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."

Part 8

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 his 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."

Part 9

"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 wasn't feeling 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?"

Part 10

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."