Written in 20 minutes. No time for edits or typos.

A few weeks later, Elizabeth was sitting at the table, struggling to wrap the last gift that needed to go under the tree. She usually did a pretty decent job of not shopping until the last minute but despite eight years of being a mother—she’d never managed to finish wrapping before Christmas Eve.

Now it was nearly midnight, and she still had to put the boxes under the tree. She wrinkled her nose as she stared at the closet where she had hid the gifts while the boys were in school that day — she hadn’t been able to hide them at home since Cameron had learned to climb.

The door opened then, and a rush of swirling ice and wind came through as Jason entered, closing the door softly behind him. “Hey.” He joined her at the table, brushing a light against her lips. “Sorry, I’m late. It took longer than I thought to put together the bike.”

“But it’s in the garage?” Elizabeth asked, wrinkling her eyebrows. “It’s the only thing Cameron really asked for—”

“It’s in the garage,” he confirmed. He stripped off his jacket and tossed it on the hook. “What else can I do?”

“I just need to finish wrapping this last one, then I can start putting things under the tree—” She nodded at the closet door. “Everything is in there if you want to start, and I’ll be over in a second—” She handed him the key to the closet, and he went to unlock it.

He stared at it for a long moment, then turned to her with raised eyebrows. “Did you leave anything in the stores?”

“Listen. At this age, it’s about quantity. When they’re teenagers or grown adults, I can start cutting back.” The last box in her hands, she went to the tree and set it down. “Let’s do Cameron’s on this side, and then Aiden on the other—”

Jason handed her boxes, and she arranged them—they worked in silence, hoping to get everything done quickly and quietly so that boys wouldn’t wake up — it had been incredibly hard to get Cameron to sleep that night, and Aiden always fed off his brother’s energy.

Halfway through the closet, Jason hesitated with a box in his hand. He looked at her, then looked back at the tag. “This is, uh, it says Jake—”

“Oh.” Elizabeth took the brightly colored gift, smoothing her thumb over his name. “I should have—I—” She cleared her throat. “Last year—it was the first year—” She paused. “I had ordered something for his birthday, and it came after he died. It was the first time I saw him—I saw him riding the little bike I’d bought for him—and I—”

Jason put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her close. “I’m sorry.”

“Last year, when I went shopping, I didn’t mean to—but I bought something for him. I got home from Wyndham’s and I just—I wrapped it, and I put his name on it. And I felt good about it. Because if I don’t buy presents for all of them, it’ll be like I don’t have three boys anymore. And I guess—” A tear slid down her cheek. “It’s silly.”

“It’s not. I know how much you love Christmas.”

“Jake did, too. More than Cameron. He loved the magic of it—that last year—when he was just three—it was the first year he didn’t cry sitting on Santa’s lap—he was so excited, and he babbled on for ten minutes about everything he wanted—”

Elizabeth sat on the sofa. “I know it gets easier to live with it,” she told him as he sat next to her. “And it has—I mean, I don’t think about him every day. But someone will ask me how many kids I have—and it’s wrong to say two. I have three beautiful boys. I had—” She put the gift on the coffee table. “I’m okay. Christmas is hard. But I don’t want Cameron to know it. I don’t want him to think about this as being a sad time.”

“He won’t. And one day, he and Aiden will be grateful you kept Jake’s memory alive for them. For all of us.” He kissed her, pressing his forehead against hers. “I don’t have enough memories of him,” Jason told her, his voice a bit rough. “That’s my fault.”

“Well, I’ll share all mine. You gave me that beautiful boy and kept him safe for me all those years. You always brought him back to me.” She touched his face. “It’s okay. We’ll put this upstairs with last year’s gift. And the birthday gifts I bought.”

Elizabeth scrubbed her hands over her cheeks. “I forgot to ask—you were supposed to meet with Diane to finalize the ELQ stuff today. Did Tracy sign over her shares?”

“Yeah, Diane has it ready for you after Christmas. She was kind of curious why Tracy was giving you another ten percent—”

“I still wish you’d take it—you’re the Quartermaine—” She grinned when he scowled at her. “I’m kidding. It’s okay. I’ll hold on to the extra fifteen percent, and then divide it among the boys when they’re old enough so they have equal shares.”

“Diane also told me that Sam has a hearing after Christmas about custody,” Jason went on as Elizabeth started to put away the trash and supplies she’d used for wrapping. “Tea is fighting her on custody—”

“Hard to blame her. I think, even if I knew the truth, I’d want to keep my baby. Six months is a long time.” Elizabeth sighed. “But she’ll get her baby back.” She looked at the Christmas tree, smiling at the paper chains that decorated it. “It looks a lot like that first tree, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Jason stood her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to draw her back against him. “With an angel to watch over things.”

“It helps,” Elizabeth murmured. “To think of Jake being safe with Emily, you know? She’ll take care of him until we’re together again.” She took a deep breath, looked at him and smiled. “We’re going to have a great Christmas. I can’t wait until the boys get up tomorrow.”

“Me either.” He kissed her again. “Let’s get cleaned up and get some sleep before they get up at dawn.”

——

Meanwhile, in Greece…

Nikolas Cassadine sighed and pushed open the door to the cottage on his estate. It was a small and modest set of rooms, tucked away from any visitors.

“Hello? Anyone here?”

“Uncle Nikolas!”

A little boy with blonde hair and blue eyes dashed out of the back room, followed by his nanny and another man with dark hair and dark eyes.

“Hey—” Nikolas lifted the boy into his arms and smiled at him. He looked at the older man. “Father.”

“Nikolas. Jake and I were just getting ready to have dinner. Will you join us?”

“Sure. Yeah.” Nikolas looked at Jake, flincing slightly as he smiled. He looked so much like Elizabeth.

Soon. Soon, he’d be able to bring her son back to her.

THE END

+14

Written in 20 minutes. No time for typos.

“Miss Tracy is in the library,” Alice told Jason and Elizabeth as she let them into the mansion a few days later. She frowned. “Are you sure you want to see her? Because Dr. Q is at the hospital—”

“It’s definitely Tracy,” Elizabeth told her. “But, um, Jason isn’t going in with me. He’s going to wait outside. Is…can you not tell her that he’s here?”

Alice sighed. “Miss Tracy is up to something again? All right. I’ll go let her know just you’re here, Miss Webber.”

Elizabeth handed her coat to Alice, keeping hold of the paperwork in her hand. “You’re the best, Alice. Thanks.”

In the library, Elizabeth found Tracy scowling at a newspaper and holding a glass of orange juice. “What do you want?” the older woman demanded.

“It’s December, Tracy,” Elizabeth said blandly. “You know that what means.”

“Oh—right.” She sighed, set down the juice and newspaper. “Time to sign over the proxy for another year—” She peered at her. “Have you reconsidered my offer to buy you out? Neither of you are DNA relatives—”

“No, but Jake was, and I inherited his stock—we’ve been over this, Tracy,” Elizabeth said with a roll of her eyes. “Emily left this stock to my boys. They—” Her voice tightened and Tracy looked away. “Cameron can do whatever he wants when he’s eighteen.”

“I’m sorry. I—” Tracy pursed her lips. “Of course. Then maybe sign the proxy until he’s 18? There’s no reason—”

“Actually, I wanted to let you know that I’m planning to sell my shares,” she told Tracy. “I know that Emily’s stock should have passed to her children, and she should be raising Spencer—”

“Elizabeth—”

“I spoke Nikolas in Greece,” Elizabeth continued, watching as Tracy’s face paled. “I’m not a Quartermaine, and my little boy is gone. Emily is gone. I think these shares should go to the other little boy she loved. So Nikolas is going to buy them in Spencer’s name—”

“You’re selling part of my company to Nikolas Cassadine?” Tracy hissed. “You—you can’t do that—we—we had an agreement!”

“We did. Every year, I re-authorize the proxy. And we’ll continue doing that for Cameron—because Emily left those to him. But Emily loved Spencer like her own. This wasn’t my idea,” Elizabeth assured her. “Nikolas approached me. He’s been working on this for a while, I guess. I think he said Jason sold his stock to him as well—”

“That reprobate! It was all we could do to wrestle his back from Sonny, then my bloody mother had to leave him stock all over again—”

“And you know, Skye adored Emily—she wouldn’t sell all of it—”

“You—” Tracy jabbed a finger at her. “You’re not—you’re not serious! No, no—there’s no way you’ve orchestrated the sale of almost twenty-five percent—”

“No, it’s more like forty percent,” Elizabeth said. “Because Jason talked to Carly, and you know Michael has fifteen percent from Lila and AJ—”

“I—” Tracy stumbled over to the sofa, sat down. “How could you do this—how—” Suddenly, she focused on her, squinted her eyes. “You know, don’t you? You know what I did?”

“I do,” Elizabeth said coolly.

“I never knew about Jake!” Tracy lunged back up. “You have to understand—when I changed that will—I never knew about Jake!”

Elizabeth put her hands up, took a step back. “Wait—wait—what will?”

“Alan’s—” Tracy’s eyes bulged. “Oh—you don’t—”

“No, we don’t know,” Jason said, stepping in from the hallway, his tone like ice. “But maybe you should tell us.” He stepped up next to Elizabeth. “What did you do to my son?”

“I—I—” Tracy scowled. “I didn’t know about Jake! Alan left his stock to your children! And your children were going to be from that lying, gold digging con artist! I was never going to let Sam get a single piece of this company!” She hesitated. “Wait, if you didn’t know about the will—”

“We know about the the DNA test,” Elizabeth said, slightly shaken. “What you did to Sam and her child—all so you could keep her out of the company?”

“You—” Tracy stabbed her finger at Jason. “This is your fault! If you knew that child was Sam’s, that bitch would have gotten her claws back into you, and my father would have given him shares!”

“So, instead you let Sam think her son was dead. That is—” Elizabeth shook her head. “I would think that’s the worst thing you could do, but Emily told me enough stories. I know you’re capable of cruelty.”

Tracy lifted her chin. “I wanted to protect my family—” Then she exhaled slowly. “What are you going to do?”

“I could report you to the police,” Elizabeth said. “You participated in kidnapping an infant—” Tracy’s eyes bulged, “—bribery, extortion—falsification of medical records—”

“I—I—”

“But I’ll settle for Alan’s shares,” Jason said. “You’ll sign them over to Elizabeth. Now. They belonged to my son. They should be hers—”

“Jason—”

“You can split them between Cam and Aiden, I don’t care,” Jason told her. “But she’s not keeping them.”

“I—” Tracy shook her head. “How would I ever explain that?”

“I don’t care,” Jason told her. “You stole from my father. If I had known the contents of his will—Jake would have had his inheritance—I might—” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. They belonged to him. And you’re not keeping them.”

“Okay, okay—but you’re not selling to Nikolas?” Tracy asked, worried. “And Jason isn’t—”

“Michael’s thinking about business school,” Jason said, with a shrug. “He might want ELQ one day. And Cam and Aiden might want to go to college.” He paused. “Diane will be in touch with the paperwork.”

—

“You don’t think we let her off easy?” Elizabeth asked as they got into the car. “I mean, she’s losing shares—but she’ll probably inherit from Edward—” Jason’s mouth tightened at the mention of his grandfather—they knew he was ill and would pass soon. “She’s not going to learn anything.”

“I’ll talk to Monica about the will. Tracy didn’t do this alone. And I know who’d she ask to help.” Jason looked at her. “Who do you think Tracy would go to? Five years ago?”

“Luke.” Elizabeth stared straight ahead. “Well, at least you know he feels guilty enough to tell the truth. After what he did.”

+15

Written in 20 minutes. No time for edits.

Elizabeth watched the news wash over Sam’s the face — the shock—the flash of denial—the desperate hope—

What she wouldn’t give for just the briefest glimpse of that same hope her little boy would come home—

Sam took the results from Elizabeth’s hands, ripped open the results—her hand was shaking so bad that she couldn’t get the paper out of the envelope. At her side, an ashen John McBain helped her—

“How could this have happened?” Sam demanded as she looked over the results. SHe shook her head. “What—these are just—initials—”

“Tracy had Brad run two DNA tests,” Jason told her. “The baby with your DNA, Franco’s, and mine—”

Sam’s eyes flew to meet Jason as she flinched. “Why? We—we already knew—”

“I guess Tracy wanted independent confirmation,” Elizabeth said softly.

“And Franco—” Sam closed her eyes. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” she said softly. “I knew it. I can—I can live with it. John—”

John took the results from her, scanned them for himself. “And the second test?” he asked. “Is—”

“There’s no blood relationship between Franco and me,” Jason reported. “I guess—Tracy figured while she was at it—”

“I will kill her for doing this to me—” Sam pressed her hands to her face. “Okay, okay, what do I do? What do I do? Tea—” She looked at John. “She wouldn’t—this isn’t something—”

“Tea wouldn’t do this,” John said slowly. “Not willingly or knowingly.” His face screwed up in distaste. “Todd,” he muttered. “He delivered Victor—and this isn’t even the first time he would have done this—I told you what he did to Blair and Jack—”

“How—” Sam took a deep breath. “How do I tell her it’s—her baby is gone—how do I tell her that—” She hesitated. “What do I do?” she repeated to John, and Elizabeth was surprised — Sam hadn’t even spared much more than a glance for Jason.

“Well, first things first, I need talk to Tea,” John said. He folded the results, tucked them into his coat pocket. “I think—I think I can talk her into getting Victor tested. If that doesn’t work, we can try a court—” He looked at Jason and Elizabeth. “Was this test—was it done—”

“It was all above board. Jason gave me the samples, and Patrick wrote the test order for me. We put it through the lab,” Elizabeth explained. She folded her arms. “Brad gave me a false set of paper results, but the original test is in the General Hospital computers, and Spinelli told me he and his girlfriend have already put a lock on the file to keep it from getting corrupted.”

“Thank you.” Sam looked at Jason, finally, meeting his eyes briefly before looking at Elizabeth. “Thank for doing this. For—for thinking it was a possibility, and then not giving up. I just—I think—I think John and I can handle it. I mean, he knows Tea, so—” She paused. “What do we do about Tracy?”

“Leave Tracy to me,” Jason said. “I’ll take care of that. Good luck, Sam.”

“Thank you. Oh, God, my son—” Sam’s eyes were shining with tears and joy as she turned to John. “Danny—”

“Let’s go, talk to your mother,” John told her. He put an arm around her shoulders and they left.

Elizabeth hadn’t known what to expect, but to see Sam walk away—to not even ask Jason for help getting Danny back—

“So what are you going to do to Tracy?” Elizabeth said, finally. Jason tugged lightly on her elbow as they walked in the opposite direction, walking back towards the parking lot.

“I don’t know,” Jason admitted. “I doubt she’ll be sorry. She never liked Sam, and she knew that if—” He winced. “If Sam and I had been together—not divorced—Danny legally would have been mine and then—”

“Entitled to ELQ shares when Edward passes away.” Elizabeth put her hand on the car door, then looked up at him. “She did this because Danny might have inherited stock? She lied about this baby just to—”

“There’s not a lot Tracy wouldn’t do to protect ELQ from anyone she thinks might hurt it.”

Inside the car, he rubbed his face. “This is why I left the Quartermaines,” he muttered. “Because this is what they do. This is what they always do—”

“Not Quartermaines. Tracy. And maybe—” Elizabeth leaned back against the seat with a smirk. “Maybe we should give her a taste of her own medicine.

Jason eyed her out of the corner of his eye. “What are you thinking?” he asked, a mixture of nerves and curiosity in his eyes.

“When Emily turned eighteen,” Elizabeth said, looking at him, “she inherited stock. Like you and AJ did. And when she passed away—she left it to Cameron and Jake.”

“She—” Jason stared straight ahead. “I didn’t know that.”

“No, and Tracy was very annoyed by that,” she told him. “She wanted to buy it back from me, but it’s all my boys would ever have from Emily, so I told her that I would agree to let her vote their proxy. Because I knew she’d protect ELQ, and that was fine. But I think maybe it’s time I tell her I want to sell to someone else.”

Jason frowned. “Who? She’d never believe you’d sell it to Sam—”

“No, but she’d believe me if I said I wanted to give it to Nikolas. You know, since he and Emily were engaged at the time, and he might have inherited it otherwise through their kids.”

“Letting Tracy think Cassadine Industries might get a foothold in ELQ—” Jason squinted. “Let me make a few calls. I think we can get a few other people on board.”

+14