Written in 20 minutes. No time for edits.
Smoke seared her lungs as Elizabeth struggled to think, struggled to make sense of what was going—the smell of gasoline seeped into her nostrils, and thne she became aware of arms dragging her away, dragging her across the grass lawn.
“No, no, no!” she slapped at the hands, tried to crawl towards the car. “Jason! Where—”
“We have to get out of here!” her brother’s voice filtered in through her panic, her terror. Not again. Not another bomb. Not another explosion to blow apart her life—
“Not without Jason!”
“I’m—” She heard his voice—heard Jason’s coughing as he limped towards them—he’d been blown clear of the car—the force of explosion had sent him away from Steven or Elizabeth, on the other side of the lawn—
“We have to get out of here before they realize you’re alive!” Steven hissed at her. With Jason in her sight, this time, she let her brother drag her to her feet and half-carry her back to the bushes—around the house, and to a back driveway where an ashen Kelly Lee was already in the driver’s seat of the SUV.
“Jason—where—”
“I’m right behind you,” he assured her, his voice barely audible through the rasp. Steven shoved her into the back seat, and barely allowed for time to Jason to climb in after her before he was screaming at Kelly to go.
Kelly backed out of the driveway just as fire engines and sirens rolled down her street—they sped past curious and panicked neighbors, past the broken hulk of the SUV they’d driven to the house only minutes before—
“What the hell is going on?” Elizabeth demanded. “Steven, where have you been? Who—how—”
“I’ll explain everything as soon as Kelly gets us out of town—” He glanced over at the doctor who nodded, and without question, took a turn that put them on the highway out of residential Port Charles and the town entirely.
—
Ten minutes later, Kelly took an exit that brought them into a heavily wooded area—down a back road where they pulled up in front of cabin. Elizabeth was shaky as she got out of the car, holding a piece of her jacket to Jason’s arm, bleeding heavily. He’d been more injured than he’d let on, and was struggling to keep alert.
“Just a few more minutes,” she told him. “Steven—STeven, you need to—”
“I got him, Bits. Go in with Kelly. Don’t worry—no one can find us here.”
“How—” Elizabeth swallowed her protests, then nodded. It could wait. It had to wait.
Kelly seemed to know where everything was—which made Elizabeth wonder what the hell was going on with the doctor and Elizabeth’s brother. She grabbed a first aid kit, and was already unpacking it when Steven laid Jason out on the sofa.
“You’re okay?” Jason asked, grabbing Elizabeth’s arms. He swallowed hard, his eyes drifting closed—then he jerked them open. “You didn’t get—”
“I’m fine,” she promised, looking over as Kelly started to clean the wound on Jason’s arm. Steven winced at the mess of Jason’s leg. “I’m fine. We’re okay. Just—just relax, okay? It can wait—”
“It can’t,” Steven said grimly. He looked at his sister. “You’re on to them. They’re probably already moving her.”
“Her.” Elizabeth’s heart felt like it was flipping in her chest. “You mean—”
“Lily.”
Elizabeth closed her eyes. “She’s—she’s really—”
“She’s alive,” Steven said grimly. “I didn’t—I had my suspicions from the beginning, but I couldn’t prove it. I still can’t. But I know it.”
“How—” Elizabeth looked at Kelly.
“I didn’t—I didn’t know. I thought both babies—” Kelly cleared her throat, focused on cleaning Jason’s arm, then searched the kit for the needle kit so she could stitch the gash. “I thought they’d both died. That wasn’t a lie. I didn’t know for months that you’d been told she was still born.”
“That was Devlin,” Steven bit out. Elizabeth blinked, shook her head.
“Ian? Ian told you—”
“He was on duty in the ER,” Steven said. “He took you in—he created the electronic records. He must have made the switch.”
“This—I can’t follow any of this. How do I get my daughter back?” Elizabeth demanded.
“I don’t know,” Steven admitted. He met her eyes, and she could see the anguish in them. “I should have told you—I was trying to protect you. I knew someone was trying to kill Jason—I didn’t want—”
Jason propped himself up on one elbow, and with all the energy he could muster. “You were out of town when I got shot in Cairo,” he managed. “Where—”
“I was trying to find you,” Steven admitted. “I caught up to you, but I think—I think I led them right to you. I’m sorry. I didn’t—” He looked at his sister. “It’s all my fault.”
“No.” Elizabeth shook her head. “No. Of course not—”
“Steven, let’s get him to one of the bedrooms,” Kelly murmured. “You can finish stitching that leg with more room and you can start at the beginning. We’ve pieced enough together.”
“Yeah.” Steven exhaled slowly. “Yeah. Jason, can you—”
“I can make it.” Jason grunted as Steven helped him to stand, then slowly the four of them went down a hallway to a bedroom.
“What is this place?” Elizabeth asked, frowning as she looked around.
“I bought it two years ago,” Steven told her. “Kelly and I have been using to compare notes and plan. They don’t know about it—”
“You keep saying they,” Jason cut in. “Who is they?”
“Ric,” Steven said. He cut away the bottom half of Jason’s jeans. “He was behind the car bomb. He meant to kill Jason. He wanted to leave Elizabeth alone.” He looked at his sister. “But then you decided to take the SUV to the appointment. And Ric must have scrambled. He couldn’t kill Jason, but you’d survived. So he—”
“He took our daughter,” Elizabeth said faintly.
“He hoped that would drive you apart until he could take another shot,” Steven continued. “I think. I don’t know for sure. He keeps everything close to his chest, but he set up Sonny and Carly to take the fall. Sonny ordered the explosives, and Carly—” He closed his eyes.
“Steven, what happened the night Carly died?”
Steven looked at her, tears in his eyes. “He caught us. In bed. We were having an affair. I heard footsteps, so I tried to get away. I didn’t—I left by the back stairs, I thought we got away with it—but then they found her the next morning—her neck was broken—”
“Oh, God.” Elizabeth pressed her fist to mouth. “Steven—”
“Sonny must have killed her, because then he tried to kill me. In my apartment.”
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