You’ve got to get yourself together
You’ve got stuck in a moment
And now you can’t get out of it
Oh love, look at you now
You’ve got yourself stuck in a moment
And now you can’t get out of it
– Stuck in a Moment, U2

---

April 2012

Crichton Clark Labs: Office

Victor took a seat across from Andre and flipped open his portfolio. “How are you settling in?”

“As well as can be expected,” Andre said as he reached for a folder. “I’m getting up to speed with some of the projects you’ve implemented using my protocol.” He paused. “There are a few patients that I’ve been told are outside of my purview. I thought that all of the patients here were part of the program—”

“We have some long-term residents,” Victor said smoothly. “The daughter of an old friend has been in a coma for some time, and I’m…” His lips twitched. “I’m holding on to someone for a family member. You know how family can be.”

Andre knew enough about the Cassadine family to understand that whatever favor Victor was doing was likely illegal and possibly downright evil, so he put that aside. “Fair enough, I’ll take my lead from you on that. I noticed your numbering system — you have a Patient Four. That suggests there were three other patients before him? Are they in another location?”

“The experiments with memory,” Victor said, carefully, “predate your protocol. Patient 1 was a set of twins a few decades ago—part of another organization.  We’ve been using our records and what we learned from them—I’ll see that you get a copy of their files.” He hesitated. “Patient 2 was a teenaged boy brought to us some time ago. He’s also not part of the experiment at the moment, but I imagine that might change.”

“And Patient 3?”

“Patient 3 is part of the overall experiment, but he will not be someone you are involved with. He’s under Dr. Obrecht’s care.”

“Ah.” Andre’s lips thinned, then he sat back. “Dr. Obrecht.”

“You’ve met her?”

“We’ve come into contact over the years. She’s, ah, interesting.” He scratched his cheek. “I saw her name on Patient 4’s files. That’s why I wanted to meet with you.”

“Are you displeased with Patient Four?”

“Not displeased. Concerned.” Andre opened the folder and slid something across the table. “This is an MRI scan taken on him last week. He’s been in the program since when, January?”

“Hmm, yes, he was brought to us January 15, and we implemented your protocol to map his memories in February.” Victor squinted at the scan. “What precisely am I looking at?”

“Here is the MRI scan from late in January shortly after his arrival.” Andre slid another scan. Victor picked it up, and even an untrained eye could see the difference.

“Ah, well, that mass in the frontal lobe is quite different.”

“It’s a tumor. I’m ordering a biopsy so we can learn whether or not it’s malignant or benign. Still, a tumor of this size—I think it was caused by how Dr. Obrecht handled the mapping. That concerns me because you’ve told me you’ve arranged for my first test subjects.”

“Yes, yes. A pair of twins. Male. Age—” Victor checked the portfolio. “Aged thirty-seven, though they may be thirty-eight by the time we arrange delivery. We’re hoping to get them in July, but we must extract them from their everyday lives without being noticed. Or at least without their disappearance being traced back to us.”

“You said one was a Navy Seal from San Diego, and the other—” Andre squinted at the profile. “A mob enforcer,” he said slowly. “Really?” He tilted his head. “What makes them suitable for this project?”

“They’re twins who were separated at birth. To the best of my knowledge, they don’t know the other exists. They live entirely separate lives,” Victor said, “but there are some extraordinary personality similarities based on my research. Despite our mob enforcer’s the life of crime, he is apparently a well-respected member of his community, known for his loyalty and honesty.”

“That—” Andre blinked. “How is that possible?” He shook his head. “Never mind. I’ll do better if we just keep the personal stuff out of it. So Patient Five—the Navy Seal—and Patient Six—the gangster—I’m concerned that my protocol might create brain tumors. If I can’t learn what happened—”

“Well,” Victor sighed, “I’ll admit that we began with your protocol, but we had a different goal for Patient Four, so Liesl had to…improvise.”

“How? What was the goal? Victor, you told me that I was in charge—”

“And you are. As of today, Patient Four is entirely under your control.” He was quiet for a moment. “I told you we were interested in using your protocol as a witness interrogation technique, so we mapped his memories so that we could explore them—but we attempted to remove those memories from Patient Four so that he could not tell anyone what we were looking for.”

“Erase them? Why does it matter—”

“He had knowledge of Patient Five as a child,” Victor explained. “I intend to release him back into the wild at some point, but I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t tell anyone. He didn’t the last time he had the opportunity, but these types of sociopaths—you can never tell.”

“What kind of knowledge?” Andre asked. “How could it be a problem—”

“He and Five were foster brothers for a time before they were separated,” Victor said. “He tracked down Six thinking that it was his long-lost brother. When he realized it was a twin, he…was quite angry and set about destroying Six’s life. I thought it best if we just—removed any memory of why he became obsessed with Jas—With Six,” he corrected smoothly. “Are you determined to continue with this number nonsense?”

“What you want me to do, Victor,” Andre told him, “is outside of medical ethics. You and I both know what we’re planning with these twins—it’s wrong. It’s for the greater good, but I know what I’m doing. And I know there’s a possibility we will fail. If I treat these patients like numbers, I can keep myself away from it. You might not need that barrier, but I do.”

“Fair enough. A conscience can be terribly inconvenient.” Victor closed his portfolio and got to his feet. “What do you intend to do with Four?”

“I’ll keep running tests, look at the files—see if we can reverse the tumor.” Andre sighed. “But I think it might be best if Liesl Obrecht was taken off this project.”

“Not a problem. I have some other things she can do, and she may be needed back in Greece to work with Three.” He put up a hand. “Three is part of the program, but not the experiment. I promise, if that changes, I shall make you privy to it.”

Unsure and unsettled, but with little choice, Andre nodded. “You do that. And let me know when Five and Six are en route. I’m eager to get started.”

Friday, October 27, 2017

Metro Court Hotel: Ball Room

Valentin sipped his champagne, trying to keep his teeth from baring as Nina talked with Nelle Benson, her assistant. He kept one ear on their conversation and another on the crowd.

Andre Maddox had warned him that little Jake Webber had seen someone in the park that was probably the missing Russian patient, and Valentin was sure that once Jason Morgan learned of the man walking around town with his face, he’d come looking for him.

Valentin intended to find Jason first, to return him to Russia where he could be put back to sleep until Valentin needed him—if that day ever came. If Jason Morgan came face to face with Drew Cain—

How long would Valentin be able to hide his own involvement in the whole scheme?

“Valentin,” Nina began with a wide smile on her face. “Nelle was just saying—”

He never did learn what Nelle had been saying. Instead, as Valentin turned to look at his wife and the other woman, he caught sight of someone in the crowd who should have been meeting him at his office in the morning.

Dr. Joseph Klein.

He growled, startling Nina who stopped speaking in mid-sentence.

“What is your issue tonight?” she demanded, planting a hand on her hip as Nelle grimaced and melted into the crowd, away from them.

Before Valentin could go after the doctor and find out why he was at the hotel, the doors to the ballroom burst open and two men rolled through, grappling and attacking one another each other, each fighting to choke the life from the other—

Someone screamed and glass shattered. One of the men was wearing a baseball cap that came loose, and Valentin swore.

“Oh my God!” Carly Corinthos yelped as she shoved forward. Other men pushed past her—Sonny Corinthos, Dante Falconieri, and Nathan West—they waded into the fight, dragging the men apart.

Sonny grabbed Jason by the elbow while Dante and Nathan jerked Franco off the ground as Valentin’s heart pounded erratically. He swept his eyes over the crowd, taking in the shocked and stunned expressions of people as they looked at the face of a man who wasn’t supposed to exist.

Near the podium, where Drew Cain and Sam had been about to begin the evening, Valentin saw Drew staring across the room, his jaw clenched while Sam’s face had lost all its color.

“I want to press charges!” Franco was saying to the officers who held him back. “He attacked me!”

“Jason?” Carly whispered, touching the shoulder of the man Sonny was holding back. Near her, Michael had joined them and by Sonny, Valentin saw his mother’s old enemy, Elizabeth Webber. whose face was carefully blank.

She was more intelligent than his mother had ever given her credit for, Valentin knew, and it was likely she was already reaching the conclusion that her son had seen Jason in the park.

“Arrest him!”

“What the hell is going on here?” Drew said, finally finding his voice and pushing through the crowd. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded of the man who wore his old face. Valentin hissed, seeing Klein slip out of the crowd, towards the door.

He took off after him, leaving Nina without a second thought.

Webber House: Living Room

“Okay, so then when she’s not looking,” Trina said to Aiden patiently, “you put the blue hair dye in her shampoo—”

“But how do I get to her shampoo?” Aiden asked, furrowing his brows.

“Is that how you did it?” Joss demanded. “In my shampoo?” She wrinkled her face and picked up her phone to swipe through her Instagram feed. “I wondered. I thought you’d put it in my hair spray.”

Trina smirked. “Well, yeah, I put it there, too. Just to be sure.” She turned back to Aiden. “The next time you get dragged over for a party—”

“Whoa—” Joss turned towards Cameron, her eyes wide with shock. “Something just happened at the hotel—”

“What—” Cameron began leaning towards her even as he reached for his own phone. “Oscar—”

“Loading Twitter now—”

“I’ll check Facebook,” Trina volunteered. “That’s where all the old people post—”

“Yo, someone punched your mom’s boyfriend,” Oscar reported. “Look at #serialkillerdown, there are pictures—”

“No, I found a Facebook Live,” Trina said. Then she frowned. “Wait a second—” They all crowded around Trina’s phone while Joss tried to pull up the same feed on her iPad. “Dude—”

“I know that face,” Cameron said. He exchanged a look with Joss. “How—”

“That’s the guy I saw today!” Jake said, pointing at the screen. “Wait, what are they saying?”

Oscar was staring at his phone, his face oddly still. “You guys know him?”

“Um, I don’t know if we know him,” Joss said, “but—”

“Shh—” Trina said, waving her hand. “They’re saying stuff—”

“How is this possible?” Carly demanded.

“Who the hell are you?” came the voice of someone off screen, someone Cam recognized as Jason—the one who had lived with them as Jake Doe, but—

That was also Jason right there. Next to Joss’s stepdad and his mom. His mom was staring at the new guy with the old face like she’d seen a ghost. Thinking about Jake—maybe she had.

“I want him arrested!”

“There he is,” Aiden muttered. “I was hoping he’d been knocked out.” Jake sent him a sour look, but his younger brother put his face in his hand, glumly. “Maybe if Mr. Sonny lets the guy with Jake’s dad’s old face go—”

“There’s the commissioner,” Joss said, making a face. “And oh—damn—” Just like that, the feed went dead as Jordan Ashford took the phone from whoever was streaming the event. “I guess they’re going to the PCPD.” She looked at Oscar. “You okay?”

“Uh, yeah—” He shook his head. “No. No, actually, I’m not sure because the guy that you guys seem to know—” Oscar looked at his girlfriend. “Did Aiden say he has Jake’s dad’s face?”

“Yeah, before Jason came home officially, he was here for a year as Jake Doe,” Joss explained. “He’d had an accident that screwed up his face and made him lose his memories. That guy with my Uncle Sonny—he looks just like Jason used to. And Jake saw him in the park earlier, right?” she said to the middle Webber boy.

“It’s just—” Oscar took a deep breath. “It’s just that he looks like my dad.”

Trina frowned. “Come again?”

“My dad. He disappeared while on a mission in Afghanistan. They, uh,” Oscar dragged a hand through his hair, his voice trembling slightly. “They tried to tell me and my stepmom that he was AWOL, but she knew it was bullshit.”

Cameron leaned forward. “When did your dad go missing?”

“July 2012,” Oscar said. “Why?”

“Because Jason—our Jason—” he said, “went missing in October of 2012.” Cameron looked down at a Twitter photo that had been posted of the scene at the hotel. “There’s two men who had that face. One of them is Jake’s dad—”

“The other must be yours,” Trina said to Oscar. “But which one?”

“Well, one of them tried to kill Franco on sight,” Joss offered, “and the other one let him live these last couple of years, so maybe that’s our answer.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

When the crowd had first arrived at the PCPD, the commissioner had initially denied access to anyone who wasn’t claiming to be Jason Morgan, but Franco had refused to stop screaming about pressing charges, Carly had loudly proclaimed that no one was keeping her away from Jason, and Sonny was calling lawyers —

So Jordan finally admitted both Jasons, Sam, Carly, Sonny, and because Franco wouldn’t shut up—she brought him and Elizabeth back because, as she’d told Elizabeth, Jordan hoped Elizabeth might be able to control him.

But Elizabeth didn’t really know what to think, or how to process what was happening in front of her — the man she’d been told was Jason Morgan for the last two years, whom she’d known for the last three — was furiously refusing to be in the same room as an impostor while the other man—the man with the face and eyes she’d loved since she was a teenager —

He just stood there next to Sonny, saying nothing except glaring daggers at Franco.

Though later Elizabeth would admit to herself that she’d known he was Jason from the moment she’d seen his face— it was that difference, the way they held themselves while Jordan tried to get control of the chaos — that tipped the scales.

“Why isn’t he in handcuffs?” Franco demanded, raising his voice over the man who wasn’t Jason. He touched his throat. “He tried to kill me—”

“That just shows good sense,” Sonny muttered.

“I want to know what the hell is going on,” Not-Jason demanded. He turned to Jason, his eyes burning. “Who the hell are you? Why the hell do you look like that?”

“I’m pressing charges—”

“Franco, shut up!” Elizabeth finally exploded, throwing her hands up in the air, the other voices dimming. She focused on him with a glare. “How can you possibly think anyone in this room gives a damn about you right now? Of course Jason tried to kill you! The last time he saw you—” She closed her mouth, caught Not-Jason’s eyes, which held of a mixture of bewilderment, anger, and confusion that melted into stunned betrayal as they both realized what she’d said.

She’d accepted the obvious truth in front of her. As had Sonny and Carly, who were standing with Jason, apart from Sam and the other man.

“He is not Jason,” he growled. “I am—”

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said softly.

“Oh, great, two of them,” Franco said with a glower. “Just what the world needs—” He gestured at Sam. “One for each of you—”

Elizabeth’s cheeks flamed, and she hissed at him. “Shut up. For just five minutes. Shut up—”

“Are you going to arrest him?” Franco demanded of Jordan, who just stared at him blandly. “He tried to kill me. There were witnesses—”

“I highly doubt,” Jordan said idly, “that anyone in that room would be willing to swear to that, Mr. Baldwin. And while I’ll need to check with the DA to be sure, I can tell you that right now, no, I don’t intend to arrest this man—” She cast her eyes over Jason. “Whoever he is.”

Franco pressed his lips together, looked at Elizabeth. “And I suppose you’re staying here?” he demanded.

“Yes,” Elizabeth said, lifting her chin. “So you should go.”

“Message received.” Franco stalked from the room, and Elizabeth turned back to the others, catching Jason’s eyes. He was frowning at her, and she knew that explaining why Robert Frank was now Franco Baldwin, a legally free, living man she was dating and Carly had nearly married —

That would have to wait.

“Now that Mr. Baldwin has left,” Jordan said, leaning against her desk, folding her arms. “Perhaps our new Mr. Morgan—” she ignored Not-Jason’s growl, “might explain who the hell he is and what’s going on.”

Webber House: Living Room

Cameron stepped back from the door to let Michael and Nelle in. “Hey, have fun at the party?” he said with a wry smile.

“Uh—” Michael scratched his temple and looked over the cluster of teenagers and kids he found in front of him. “I was just going to pick up Joss and the others, but I guess you already heard that something weird is going on.”

“Oh, it gets weirder,” Joss assured her brother. She sat on the arm of the sofa. “Because one of those guys is probably Oscar’s dad who went missing in Afghanistan in July 2012.”

Michael blinked, then stared at his sister’s boyfriend, sitting next to Jake on the sofa, both of them staring at the photos of the event on Facebook. “What?”

“I thought Oscar was from California,” Nelle said, squinting in confusion.

“I don’t understand,” Jake said. “How can they have the same face? Dad grew up here. And he knows us. He knows me.” He looked at Michael. “That’s my dad. He has a new face, but he’s my dad. Isn’t he?”

Michael glanced at Nelle, who put up her hands as if to say this was all on him to fix. He turned back to his cousin. “Listen—”

“But then why would the other guy attack Franco?” Trina asked. “He seemed really angry. And we know Jason has lots of reasons to hate that creepy bastard.” She folded her arms. “This is really weird. Even for Port Charles.”

“Where’s my mommy?” Aiden asked. “Mommy will know. She always knows everything.”

“She went to the PCPD,” Michael said. “With my parents, with Sam, and, um—” He looked at Oscar. “What’s your dad’s name?”

“What?” Oscar blinked, then got to his feet. “Oh. His name is Andrew. Andrew Cain, but no one ever called him anything other than Drew.”

“This has to be him, right?” Joss said. “One of them is Jason, and the other is Drew, right?”

“I mean, it’d be weird if someone else with Jason’s face went missing at the same time, so yeah—”

“You were in the room,” Cameron said to Michael, cutting him off. He searched Michael’s eyes. “Could—I mean, we can see from pictures, but—you saw them. You heard them talk—”

“I think—” Michael hesitated. “I think that I’m leaning one way,” he admitted, “but I don’t know.”

“What about my mom?”

“He looked at me real weird,” Jake said before Michael could answer. His voice was small as he stared at the photo. “In the park. Like he was really surprised to see me.”

“Because he didn’t know you were alive,” Cameron realized. “He must have been listening to us and heard Mom call you Jake.” He folded his arms. “But—”

“It might explain why the guy living here,” Joss began, “just bought a media company. I mean, we all thought that was seriously weird. How much more evidence do we need?” She scrunched up her face. “We’re going to need another word. Weird isn’t covering it.”

“We have evidence,” Jake insisted. “Mom said there were tests. DNA tests—”

“But if they were twins,” Michael said, “those tests would match. Jake—” He passed through the others to sit next to his cousin. “Whatever the truth is, you know your dad loves you. So do your brothers. And your mom. This is going to be okay.”

“People keep saying that,” Jake said, rubbing his eyes. “But I don’t think so. Everyone thought I was crazy again, but I knew I wasn’t.” His voice faltered as he swallowed hard. “I wish I was. I don’t wanna lose my dad.”

“You won’t—” Michael put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Hey. You’re okay. That’s the most important thing. This other stuff—the adults will figure it out. There’s no point in all of us freaking out until we know for sure what’s going on.”

“Michael’s right,” Cameron said. “You know Mom will come home, and she’ll tell us everything she knows. We’ll get to the bottom of all of this.”

Trina pursed her lips as a text came over her phone. “Mom wants me to come home right now,” she said. She looked at Michael. “I’m sorry, but when Dr. Rob—”

“No, I get it.” Michael looked at Cameron. “I was gonna hang until your mom came home, but will you guys be okay?”

“Yeah.” Cameron picked up his phone. “I found an Instagram Live of Franco getting punched, so I saved it on my phone. That’ll keep us occupied until then.”

“Really?” Michael raised his brows. “Why don’t you send me that?”

“Copy me on it, too,” Joss said.

“Hey, I still like Franco—” Jake was saying as Michael ushered Joss, Trina, Oscar, and Nelle out the door, closing the door as Aiden shot back, “That’s because you lived with the Cassadines too long!”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

This wasn’t the way any of this was supposed to happen, and Jason didn’t even know where to start. He hadn’t expected to see Franco alive again, much less be allowed to walk out of the PCPD without being arrested and thrown in a jail cell—and what the hell was his relationship with Elizabeth? Why had—

He had made a mistake. He should have laid low, should have stayed at the safe house, and waited for Sonny to bring Elizabeth to him tomorrow. Instead, he was in the middle of all of this, watching Sam stand on the other side of the room, her hand resting on the arm of the man who was pretending to be him, not even looking at him.

But maybe Sonny was right. Maybe this other guy wasn’t behind all of this. He’d seen the way Elizabeth had looked at him with regret even as she’d let it slip that she’d taken a side—had seen the other man’s expression when Sonny and Carly had stood with him.

“I don’t know a lot of what’s going on,” Jason said finally. “Because starting at the beginning for me isn’t the beginning for anyone else,” he added when the commissioner narrowed her eyes. “I was at the pier. I went to meet with Bernie, but he’d been—” His mouth tightened. “He’d been shot. And then—then someone shot me. I don’t—I just—” He dipped his head. “I remember going in the water. And then I didn’t wake up until six months ago.”

Next to him, Carly gasped. “You were asleep for five years?” she demanded. “That can’t be right—”

“I don’t know,” Jason repeated, meeting her horrified eyes for a minute before focusing on the commissioner again, ignoring the others in the room. “I just know that I woke up in a room in Russia. These doctors were drugging me, and I had to figure out how to fight off the medicine. I was able to escape a few weeks ago, but it took time to get into the US without identification. When I got here—” He took a breath. “I learned that there was someone else here saying he was me—”

“I am Jason Morgan—”

“I don’t know who you are,” Jason said, his quiet but resolute voice breaking into the other man’s angry growl. “I just know who I am. I’m Jason Morgan. I woke from the accident in 1996 without any memories. They told me I was Jason Quartermaine, but that didn’t feel right. So I dropped my last name and used my middle name,” he repeated. “And for the next sixteen years, that’s who I was. I am Jason Morgan.”

The other man’s glare only turned more bitter, his nostrils flaring. “That’s impossible. I’m Jason Morgan. I remember every single moment of my life after the accident. I remember waking up. I remember my grandmother and Michael—” he looked at Carly. “I remember Michael—”

“I don’t know how this is happening,” Carly said, wincing, “but—”

“And Jake.” The other man strode towards Elizabeth, took her by the shoulders, shook her slightly. Jason tensed and started to step forward, but Sonny stopped him. “I remember the night we lost him—”

“I—” Elizabeth stared at him, then stepped back, sliding his hands from her shoulders. She looked at Jason, then back at the other man. “I know you do. But I can’t—” She cleared her throat.

“You think because he has my old face, because he sounds the way I used to—” he raged. He whirled on Sam, who had said nothing since all of this had started. “Sam, you believe me. You know you do. You said you knew I was Jason. You came to me, you said that you felt it—”

“I did—I do,” Sam said hastily. She took the man by the hands, looked away from Jason, and focused on the man who was her husband now. “I do. I still feel it,” she added. “I don’t—” She looked at Jordan. “I don’t know what’s going on—”

“Jason’s been arrested a lot,” Carly volunteered, cutting Sam off. “We never compared fingerprints because there was that weird system error that erased them, but you have to have the older files,” she said to Jordan. She looked at Jason. “When was the first time you were arrested?”

“Train surfing,” both men said in unison, then scowled at each other. “I was arrested in March 1996,” Jason said when the other man fell silent. “The PCPD wasn’t really on computers yet.”

“They’d be in storage,” Jordan said slowly. “But we could dig them out. What about blood tests?”

“I think,” Elizabeth said carefully, looking at her feet, “you’ll find that they’re identical.” She bit her lip, then looked up when all eyes were on her. “I mean, we did the DNA test back then,” she reminded them. “When Carly first told everyone about the facial reconstruction. The tests were identical. And they weren’t tampered with.”

“No,” Sonny murmured, stroking his chin. “No, we were careful. After everything else Helena had pulled—” He looked at Jason. “The DNA will match. You must be twins.”

“The story Heather fed Sam about Franco being Jason’s brother,” Carly recalled. “We thought it ended up being a lie, but maybe she only lied about the identity of the brother—”

“Then he’s the missing twin,” the other man said, desperately. “Not me. I’m Jason—” He shook his head. “No—”

“We’ll get fingerprints—” Jordan said again. “It might take a few days—”

“Not good enough. I want this resolved now,” the other man snarled. “I am not going home with anyone thinking he’s me—”

“Scars,” Sonny offered.

“Jason has scars,” Sam shot back. “Exactly where they’re supposed to be. I’ve seen them—” She looked at Elizabeth. “Tell them. You’ve seen them, too—”

“I wasn’t—” Elizabeth exhaled slowly. “I wasn’t really looking at the scars,” she managed, her cheeks flushing. She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I mean—” She glanced at Jason, and he knew she was thinking about the scars she’d taken care of both times he’d been shot and stayed in her studio. On his chest, and his thigh.

“I think we can save the strip search,” Jordan said dryly. “We’ll run a DNA test on Monday at the hospital, take the fingerprints to get comparisons, and pull the old ones from the files.” She folded her arms. “I’m sorry, Mr. Morgan—both Mr. Morgans,” she added, “but that’s really all the PCPD can offer you tonight. It’s Friday, and I’m not doing overtime for something that can wait.”

“This isn’t over—” the other man growled, then stalked out of the office. Sam looked at Jason for a long moment, but he could see nothing in her eyes that gave him any hope that she believed any differently than she’d said in here. Then she walked out.

“She’s insane,” Carly snapped. “I always knew she was an idiot, but to think—” She looked at Jason, her eyes filled with tears. “Jason—I knew it was you. The minute I saw you.”

“Carly,” Elizabeth said softly, drawing the other woman’s eyes. “Cameron just texted me. He and the others—they saw the party on social media. They know. All of them.”

Carly winced. “Michael went to pick Joss up.” She dragged out her phone, then saw she had several 911s from Joss and Michael. “She says Jake is freaking out.”

“I need to get home,” Elizabeth said, “and try to explain this to Jake.”

“I—I saw Jake at the park,” Jason told her.  “I’m sorry. I think he saw me—”

“He did. We’ll—” Elizabeth pressed her hand to her chest. “We’ll talk about it. There’s—” She glanced at Jordan, who wasn’t even pretending not to listen to the conversation. “There’s a lot.”

“If you keep Jason from Jake this time,” Carly began, but Sonny tugged on her arm, and she stopped talking.

“He’s alive,” Elizabeth said to Jason. “And he’s perfect. He’s—” She smiled at him. “He’s going to love you.”

“You believe me,” Jason said. He exhaled slowly. He hadn’t realized how much he’d needed that. He wasn’t surprised by Carly, not after Sonny had made his position clear. She’d followed his lead. But once Sam had stayed with the other man — Jason had known that not everyone would believe him, but he’d never thought Sam wouldn’t know him when they came face to face.

But Elizabeth did.

“Of course I do,” Elizabeth said. “Sam—” She sighed. “She’ll come around. She always does,” she added with a mutter.

“We should go,” Sonny said, pushing gently on Carly. They left the commissioner’s office, to Jordan’s disappointment. Once they were outside the PCPD, he told Carly, “Let’s get the kids and figure out what’s next.” He focused on Elizabeth. “Elizabeth—we still should talk tomorrow.”

“Is this—” She looked at Jason. “This is what you wanted to run past me?”

“I think the Cassadines are up to their old bullshit,” Sonny said. “Jason—come back with us tonight. We’ll figure it all out tomorrow.”

“Come home—” Carly began, reaching for his sleeve.

“In a minute,” Jason told them. “I’ll meet you at the car.”

“But—” Carly began, but Sonny dragged her away, the blonde still pouting. Elizabeth stared after them, a faint smile on her lips.

“Elizabeth,” Jason began, and she closed her eyes, taking a sharp breath. “What?” he asked.

“Nothing. Nothing.” Elizabeth opened her eyes, and a tear slid down her cheek. “You just—no one says my name like you do, and I didn’t—” She bit her lip. “I’m so glad it’s you. And that you’re home. That Jake gets to have you.” She shrugged a shoulder. “I got a miracle with him. I’m so glad you get to share it.”

“He’s beautiful,” Jason said, taking a step towards her. “I listened to them in the park. To all of you. He’s so happy. It’s what I wanted for him.” He wanted to ask her about Franco, but this wasn’t the time. “You should get home to them. They’re probably worried.”

“Yeah, he’s been through a lot. But it’s going to be okay. God, for the first time in years, I think I actually believe that.” She nodded towards the limo parked at the curb where Carly was standing, her arms folded, her foot tapping. “Now, go back to Greystone before Carly tackles you and drags you away.”

Webber Home: Living Room

The beautiful thing about social media, Cameron reflected, restarting the video for the fifth—possibly eighth time—was that someone always had a camera. The original Facebook Live had just given them the tail end of the fight—

But someone on Instagram—some fantastic, perfect person—had been filming something else and swung towards the doors when they first heard the shouts, and this person knew how to use the zoom button.

Cameron wanted to watch Franco Baldwin get choked up close every day for the rest of his life. The guy with Jason’s face had shoved the asshole through the double doors so hard that Franco had skidded across the ballroom, and you could see the panic and fear in his expression as he tried to get up—

And then the new Jason had launched himself at him—choking him with one hand and punching him with the other—

It was glorious, and everything Cameron Hardy Webber wanted in this world.

“I really love it,” Aiden sighed.

“I didn’t know you guys hated him this much,” Jake admitted, but even he leaned in. “How come?”

“He’s mean to Mom,” Aiden said. “Like Charlotte is, you know? Like he says things, then smiles like it’s a joke. But it’s not a joke.”

“Oh.” Jake furrowed his brow, looked at Cameron. “Does he?”

“Yeah, he does.”

And because Cameron’s word was good as gold as far as Jake was concerned, his middle brother nodded. “Okay, then we don’t like him. Play it again. Can you slow it down?”

“Can we put it on the computer and play with it? Like—put it on a loop?” Aiden asked eagerly.

“I’ll ask Spinelli,” Cameron murmured. “But I bet someone already made it a gif—” He snorted as Franco tried to crawl away from the new Jason, and new Jason just grabbed Franco by the back of the neck and dragged him back. “I like this guy.” He winced. “Sorry, Jake.”

“It’s okay—I mean, we don’t know anything yet.” But Jake looked troubled, and Cameron reminded himself to keep his newfound feelings of hero worship to himself. Plus, if this guy was Jason Morgan—that complicated a whole lot of other things Cameron didn’t want to deal with just yet.

Aiden giggled as Franco’s yelp of pain came clear across the iPad screen. “That’s the best part! I like when he cries! Play it again!”

“We should see if there are any other videos of Franco getting his face beat in,” Cameron said, minimizing the video and returning to Instagram to check for other feeds—but then he realized the room felt a bit cold. He looked over from their position on the sofa—he was sitting in the center, Jake hanging on one side, and Aiden cuddled up close to him, giggling.

The giggling stopped as Aiden saw what Cameron was looking at. His face fell, and Jake slowly sat back, his blue eyes wary and a bit scared.

They hadn’t even heard the door open.

Franco was standing in the entrance, one hand on the door and the other in the pocket of his jacket. One of his eyes was swollen shut, but the look in the other eye was unmistakable hatred.

“Go ahead,” Franco said quietly. He closed the door and started forward. “Play it again.”

Pier 52

Valentin finally caught up with Klein just as the little weasel was trying to slide down another alley. To get away from him. He grabbed him by his neck and shoved him against the wall.

“When we spoke earlier,” he began almost conversationally, “and I learned you’d been lying to me for months about Patient Six, I told you to get to town as soon as possible.” He tightened his grasp around Klein’s neck, leaving the doctor just enough space in his windpipe to breathe. “You neglected to mention you were already in Port Charles.”

“I was trying—” Klein dug at Valentin’s hands. “I was trying to get Six back before—”

“You failed,” Valentin said pleasantly. “You’re fortunate, however, that Patient Six isn’t the only project on which we were collaborating.” He released Klein and the man fell to the ground with a thud. “Get back to St. Petersburg,” he said flatly. “Get me those files. Find the lab that my mother was hiding from me and whatever else she neglected to tell me. Or I’ll slit your throat in your sleep.”

Klein scrambled to his feet and disappeared down the alley. Valentin glared after him, wishing like hell he didn’t need the bastard, but alas — he’d made a tragic mistake when he’d killed his mother. He should have known that Helena’s backup plan would include planning for Valentin’s downfall.

“Mother always did have trust issues,” he murmured.

Webber Home: Living Room

Cameron stood up and put himself between Franco and his brothers, still clutching the iPad tightly. He could use it as a weapon if he needed to. “Mom said you weren’t coming back tonight.”

“Yeah, well, your mom is a liar. You should know that by now,” Franco said.

“Shut up!” Jake roared, lunging to his feet.  He would have launched himself at the older man, but Cameron blocked him, his heart pounding fast.

“You shouldn’t be here right now,” Cameron said. “Not without Mom.”

“This is my house—”

“It’s not,” Cameron said slowly, “but you know that already. Look, we weren’t doing anything wrong, and you’re not supposed to be here. So just go to the studio, okay?”

“Give me the iPad,” Franco said. He stepped towards them.

“Jake, Aiden, go upstairs—”

“No.” Jake shook his head, his voice wavering. “Not leaving you alone.”

“Give me the iPad,” Franco repeated, his voice louder. “Now.”

“No. Get out.”

“You know the problem with you little brats?” Franco demanded. “Your mom has been so busy looking for the next father to drag through this door that she’s never taught you any damn manners. Give me the goddamn iPad!”

Cameron didn’t know why he refused or why Franco was pushing so hard, but something inside him told him that if Franco had the iPad—if he saw the video they’d been laughing at—

Everything would be worse.

He had to find a way to make him leave, but how did you reason with a serial killer?

“Mom will be home—”

“Your mother is chasing after the next contestant in the Jason Morgan circus,” Franco snarled. “So it’ll be up to me to knock some sense into you—”

And, then, like a flash of lightning, Franco had closed the distance between them, lunging at Cameron and the iPad. Aiden screamed, and Jake had to shove himself aside when Cameron grunted and pushed Franco back.

The psycho had a grip on the iPad, and the two of them yanked back and forth—Cameron determined to keep it out of his hands. No way in hell could he watch that video—not when his brothers weren’t safe—

“Give it to me, you little piece of—” Then Franco let go of it with one hand abruptly, fisting his hand in Cameron’s shirt, dragging the teen closer to his face. “Give it to me now,” he hissed. “Or you might not live to regret it—”

Cameron’s eyes bulged, and his heart was pounding so fast—he could hear his brothers screaming and crying and pleading in the background—and he didn’t know what to do—how to fix it—he didn’t know how to make it stop—

And then it did.

With a flat, angry growl that he’d never heard from his mother before—

“Get your hands off my son, or I will kill you!”

Franco hissed and turned, Cameron managing to focus on the petite woman with a furious expression and a baseball bat gripped in her hands—the bat she’d kept in the umbrella stand for years—

“Let him go,” Elizabeth said, her eyes stony. “Now.”

Clutching my cure
I tightly lock the door
I try to catch my breath again
I hurt much more than any time before
I have no options left again
I don’t want to be the one the battles always choose
‘Cause inside I realize that I’m the one confused
– Breaking the Habit, Linkin Park

---

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Queen’s Point, Port Charles

Elizabeth furrowed her brows as Jason pulled the SUV into the driveway of a house that was half a mile from where she and the boys lived on Lexington Avenue. He’d picked her up from the house, asking her to come to see something.

It was a just house, not all that different from her own with a slightly larger yard.

“I feel like I’m missing something,” she murmured, looking at him. Unless—a few days ago, they’d turned a corner in their relationship and seemed to be on their way back to where they’d been that spring—when he’d asked her to marry him, and for five entire minutes, her world had been perfect.

And then it had shattered with a bullet and a phone call.

Was Jason trying to plan for a new future? Did he want them to live here together?

“When we come back from Italy,” he said—she grinned at him, loving the way that sounded. They were finally going to Italy! “I wanted to put some new security into place.”

“Okay,” she drawled. “And this house is part of it?”

“It’s a start,” he told her. He stepped out of the car. “Come on—”

“I guess we’re not even pretending we don’t know each other anymore,” she said as he came around the side of the SUV to take her hand and draw her towards the stairs leading up to a wrap-around porch.

“People might not know about Jake,” Jason replied, “but they probably have some thoughts about us.”

“Oh, yeah?” Elizabeth arched a brow, watching him slide a key into the lock of the front door. “Even after all those tabloid reports about you and Claudia Zacchara?”

He winced. “Don’t remind me.”

“Mmm-hmm.” She smirked and strolled past him in the living room. The stairwell was against the far wall, curling around a landing to the second floor. A door to the kitchen was on the far right. “It’s…furnished.”

“For now. I told Spinelli to put stuff in here.” He scratched his temple, watching her turn in a circle. “You don’t like it.”

“I don’t—” She hesitated. “What’s it for? I have a house. One I like.”

“I know. And I like it, too,” he added. “But I wanted a safe house that wasn’t too far away. If you needed to leave quickly—there’d be a place to go in the neighborhood.”

“I thought most of your safe houses were outside of town.” She folded her arms. “Why—”

“Harborview is almost thirty minutes away,” Jason said. “You—you moved into this neighborhood before—” He winced. “Not that you can’t do what you want—but if I just—I need you and the boys to have somewhere safe to go if I can’t get to you.”

“And a place in the neighborhood makes you feel better,” she said slowly. So it wasn’t something he’d wanted for them to start a new life together. She turned away, stared at the fireplace next to the stairs. When they came home from Italy—

“Elizabeth?”

“No, it’s a good idea. And you know more about this stuff than I do,” she added. She forced a smile on her face and turned back to look at him. “Do you need me to do anything?”

“No.” Jason paused. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

He took her hand. “No, I can see something is wrong.”

She pressed her lips together, considered whether it was even worth bringing it up. Not when Italy was so close. What if he backed out—

“I thought…when I saw it was a house…” Elizabeth sighed, dipped her head down. “I thought maybe you’d changed your mind. That we weren’t just going to keep going the way we were before. I know—” she added, putting up her hand when she opened her mouth. “I know I said that’s what I wanted. And I do. But it would be a lie if I told you it was all I wanted.” Her eyes stung with tears, so she kept her head down, not wanting him to see that she wasn’t really satisfied with what he was willing to give. She took a deep breath. “I told you that this was better than what we had before. Which was nothing. And it is—”

“But it isn’t what you want.”

“I do want it—” She folded her arms. “It’s just…I don’t know. What if you’re unhappy? What if it’s not enough for you? And how can it be enough?” Elizabeth demanded, her throat tightening, fastening her eyes on him. “How can these little small moments be enough? How can you be okay with going home without me, without seeing Jake, without—” She broke off, turned away.

“It’s not enough,” he said, his voice almost rough, and she looked back. “Elizabeth, you know it’s not enough—but—”

“It’s better than nothing.” She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry—”

“Don’t apologize. You deserve so much more than I can give you—”

“But that’s just the thing—you can. You just won’t. And I’m trying to be okay with that because I tried living without you, and that makes me miserable, so I’d rather have these small moments than nothing at all.” A tear slid down her cheek. “I’d just wish you’d trust me when I say I’m willing to take the risk. That it’s better to have you and be in your life—”

Jason exhaled slowly, and she closed her mouth, angry at herself for starting the same old argument. He looked away, and she could see him swallow, his throat working to take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “Please don’t  change your mind about Italy. About the safe house. Please—”

“Don’t do that—” Jason’s head snapped back. “Don’t—” His arm shot out, curling against her waist and yanking her against him. He kissed her, almost angrily, his hand closing over her throat. “Don’t do that,” he murmured against her mouth. “Don’t cry. It kills me.” He brushed his lips against her cheek, erasing the evidence of the tears she hadn’t wanted to shed.

“Then don’t push me away. Don’t close me out.” She clung to him, afraid to let him go, terrified that they’d lose all the progress, and go back to that terrible day six months ago. “Let me share your life. Let me make the choice to love you openly, proudly. To let my boys know you. To let our son love you.”

His breath was almost shaky. “Okay.”

“Okay—” Elizabeth stepped back just enough so that she see his face. “Okay? Does that mean—”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “When we get back from Italy, we can—we can talk about what we’d need to do to make sure it’s as safe as possible.”

“Safe,” she echoed, warily. She didn’t trust that statement, didn’t want that word anywhere near this conversation. “What does that mean?”

“I made a lot of mistakes when I was raising Michael, and there are choices Sonny and Carly made that I don’t—” he paused. “We need to make these choices together. But you’re right. This is your life, and your choice. And you’re making it.” She must have still looked skeptical, because he continued. “I’ve always wanted you and the boys with me. Sometimes it’s all I can think about.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t—it’s not that I’m doubting you or that you love us, but—”

“You have reasons not to trust me. I asked you to marry me,” he said quietly, “promised I wouldn’t take it back or change my mind, and then I did.”

“I understood,” she murmured.

“I know. But it doesn’t change the fact that I made a mistake.” He tucked her hair behind her ear, his fingers drifting down her cheek. “From now on, we’ll make these kinds of security decisions together. They affect you, Jake, and Cam. Like this house. We’d still need it even when we’re living together. I might not always be with you, so you need to know how to keep them safe.”

“Right.” She leaned up to press her mouth to his, sinking in, thinking of the brightness of their future, the promise in it. “So, did you buy it?”

“I did,” he murmured against her lips, his breath tingling on her skin. “Why?”

“Well, you know I like to test the shower pressure at the safe houses.” She grinned as he lifted her in his arms. “And hey, at least Carly doesn’t know where we are.”

“Oh, man,” Jason groaned as he carried her towards the stairs. “Don’t bring up Carly right now.” Elizabeth just laughed, then tightened her arms around his neck. When they came back from Italy—everything would be different.

Friday, October 27, 2017

Safe House: Living Room

Only Jason, Elizabeth, Spinelli, and Sonny knew about this house and had the security code to get in. Jason trusted that Spinelli would still be monitoring it, even though it had been nearly ten years since they’d installed it.

Spinelli was reliable that way.

He was so damn glad that Sonny had come alone. That maybe he’d remembered that no one outside the people Jason trusted most in the world would know it existed or how to get in.

Sonny stood across the room, his gun clutched in his hands, the barrel lowered slightly as his eyes widened, and he took a step towards Jason. “What—” His voice faltered as he took another step. “What’s going on—”

“It’s me,” Jason said roughly, his hands at his side, careful to keep them in Sonny’s view. “I know it doesn’t make sense—”

“No, it—” Sonny swallowed hard, closed his eyes. “It can’t be.”

“I don’t know how it happened,” Jason said quickly. “Or what’s going on—who’s behind it—but I swear, Sonny—it’s me. It’s Jason—”

“Shut—” Sonny set the gun aside on a table, dragged his hands through his hair. “You don’t—You don’t have to—” And then he was striding forward, catching Jason in a tight hug. “You think I don’t know you?”

Jason hugged Sonny back, relaxing for the first time in days. He was okay. He could believe that now. His son was alive, and he didn’t understand how another man was pretending to be him—but Sonny believed him. Sonny knew him.

“Where—What—” Sonny took a deep breath, stepped back, exhaled in a rush. “I can’t—I can’t wrap my head around this,” he admitted. He sat down on the sofa, staring at Jason. “Let’s just—let’s start at the beginning. Where have you been for the last five years?”

“I don’t know about all of the years,” Jason said. He perched on the arm of a chair. “I just know that I woke up maybe six months ago at a clinic in Russia. I couldn’t—I couldn’t move at first. I was drugged, and it took some time to get—” He paused, thinking of those long weeks, those dark days when he’d fought just to lift his finger from the wheelchair. He’d been trapped, locked inside his body, screaming to get out—

“When I could finally move, I didn’t have a way out,” Jason continued. “Until an American woman came to the clinic. She—she’s from Port Charles—”

“Wait—” Sonny got to his feet, holding a hand up. “Russia? Ava Jerome? Is that the name of the woman?”

“Yes,” Jason said with a nod. “Ava. She was there to get her scars fixed. She helped me escape.”

“I’ll bet she couldn’t wait to help you,” Sonny muttered. “As soon as you told her who you were—”

“I never told her my name,” Jason said, frowning. Ava hadn’t been kidding when she’d mentioned Sonny wasn’t her biggest fan.. “She helped me escape, and I got out of Russia. Sonny—”

“Then she saw a picture of you here, realized who you must have been,” Sonny bit out. “Ava doesn’t do anything without a reason.”

Jason pressed his lips together but nodded. He knew what Ava had risked to help him, but it could wait. There were other questions to answer. “Okay. Well, I don’t know. I just—I came home. Or tried to,” he said quietly. “I went to the penthouse. But I saw—Sam with—”

“Oh, shit—” Sonny dragged the back of his hand over his mouth. “There’s—this guy—who showed up with amnesia a few years ago. A car accident messed up his face, killed his memories.” He squinted. “But then we did DNA tests. And they—they said it was you.”

Jason spread his hands out at his side. “He’s not. He’s pretending—”

“I—” Sonny paused. “I don’t know about that. He’s not—” He shook his head. “I don’t know how he fits in. But I don’t know if he’s the bad guy. You escaped from the clinic. Was anyone following you?”

“I think I lost them after New York City, but they have to know I’m coming here,” Jason told him. He waited a minute, but he couldn’t stop himself. He had to know. It was really the only thing that mattered. “Sonny, I saw Elizabeth in the park. With—” His chest squeezed. “With her boys. All three of them.”

“Oh, man—” Sonny dipped his head. Jake. He’s—he’s alive,” he confirmed. “Been back about two years. It’s—it’s been rough, and Elizabeth’s been through a lot with him. Did she see you?”

“No.  Jake did, but I—” Jason was still trying to process past Sonny’s statement.

He’s alive.

Jason hadn’t been able to believe the evidence of his own eyes in the park or at the cemetery, but, hearing it from Sonny—it made it real. “What happened? Ava said—” Sonny’s mouth twisted at her name. “I went to the cemetery to see—she was there—Never mind her.” He couldn’t bring himself to say it. “She said the Cassadines were involved.”

“Yeah, Helena said it was some kind of revenge against Luke,” Sonny said. “I don’t know. It never made much sense to me, but Elizabeth got him back and that was what mattered.” He hesitated. “You said Ava was at the cemetery?”

“She was there visiting Morgan,” Jason confessed, and Sonny exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“A whole year,” Sonny murmured, “and it still cuts like a knife.” He closed his eyes, and Jason waited for his friend to gather himself. “There’ll be time for all of that. For getting caught up. For finding out what the hell happened, but, right now—” He met Jason’s eyes. “We need to get you back to your life, to your family, but if you are being tracked from Russia—it might not be safe for you just to pop up. We need—” He rubbed the back of his neck. “We need information,” he muttered. “We need Spinelli. I have to—I have to get him here.”

“Sonny—”

“You’re safe,” Sonny told him. “You were right to come here. Only you and I—and Spinelli—know about this place. Did you ever tell Elizabeth?”

“Yes,” Jason said. “But—”

“That’s okay. She can be trusted. Good, good. You can stay here. Rest. I’ll get you supplies. We’ll get Spinelli into town, put him to work. We don’t know who we can trust,” Sonny said. “But as soon as it’s safe, we’ll—” He sat back down. “I don’t know,” he said. “Do I just—tell Carly? Take you home to her? To Michael?” He looked at Jason. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t want anyone coming after the people I care about,” Jason said after a minute. “They might know I’m here already. We need a way to know. Like you said, we need information.” And that meant waiting on Spinelli, who was apparently not in town anymore. So much had happened. “Ava said there was a party tonight at the hotel. That—that the other me and Sam were throwing it.”

“Yeah, he bought a media company,” Sonny said with a twist in his expression. “And Carly hit the roof. He wanted to sell out his part of the warehouse, leave the business. Carly thought he was acting insane—” He grinned. “She wants to call Luke to see if Helena put the whammy on you or something since—” The humor vanished from his face.

“Sonny?”

“Because Helena was involved in your disappearance. Or at least involved with the other guy. The Cassadines,” he muttered. He shoved himself to his feet. “Tomorrow, I’ll call Luke. And—” He looked at Jason. “We should call Elizabeth.”

Confused, Jason stood. “Sonny?”

“The Cassadines were involved with your disappearance,” Sonny repeated, “and with Jake. Not to mention Robin.”

“Robin?” Jason asked blankly. “She died in an explosion—”

“She’s not—” Sonny paused. “She’s not dead.”

Stunned—not sure how much more he could take in today, Jason just stared at Sonny. Jake and Robin, neither of them were dead? How—

“And there’s more—with Jake and the Cassadines. Luke would know the current state of that crap. And Elizabeth—you’re gonna want to get the Jake stuff from her.” Sonny nodded. “She knew. She and Carly both knew this was wrong,” he murmured. “Should have listened.”

“Okay,” Jason said. He put the Robin information away for the minute. He’d sort it out. It was good news. Nearly as good as Jake’s survival. And Sonny’s plan did make sense. Lay low for the night, figure things out—and maybe—maybe Elizabeth would believe him the way Sonny had. And she could talk to him about Jake. He wanted to know everything. “But this party—”

“I need to be there. I have to meet Carly,” Sonny told him. “And we need—we need to pretend everything is normal,” he added. “Stay here. I’ll come by after the party or in the morning.” He stared at Jason, then hugged him again. “Thank God you’re alive. That you’re home.” He drew back, held Jason’s face in his hands, his dark eyes intense. “We’re going to find out who stole the last five years from you, and we’re gonna make them pay.”

Morgan Penthouse: Nursery

Sam gently laid her daughter in her crib and smiled down at her sweet face. Sometimes when she looked at Scout, she wondered if this is how her first child would have looked if she’d had the chance to take a breath. If she would have looked like Sam or Sonny, or someone else in the family entirely.

Danny had been her miracle, but Scout was her second chance to do everything right from the beginning. She and Jason had learned about the pregnancy together, her father had never been in doubt, and even though her birth hadn’t been ideal—Scout had been healthy every day of her life.

And Scout was proof that Jason loved Sam, that Jason wanted a family with her. Everything she’d always feared had been erased. He’d chosen her and Danny when Jake and Elizabeth had been an option. She’d always worried—

“Sam?”

She looked up to see her husband leaning against the doorway. “Hey. Where’s Danny?”

“I left him downstairs with your mother,” Jason told her, crossing the room to join her at the crib. “Danny has his iPad, and I think he’s trying to talk her into making his Christmas list early.”

“Mom’s a pushover,” Sam murmured. “I’ll have to make sure she doesn’t go overboard.” She pressed a hand against her stomach. “I’m nervous about tonight,” she admitted. She met his eyes. “I know we’re doing the right thing, but I keep thinking that Carly—I mean, she’s right.” She sighed, folded her arms. “What do we know about running a company?”

“Nothing,” Jason admitted with a chagrined smile. “But we’ll hire a really good CFO, and we’ll learn. Julian’s been in prison for almost a year already, and it ran without him. We don’t have to have all the answers the first day.”

“I guess.” Sam smiled. “You’re right. This is our chance to start over. It’s scary,” she continued, “but it’s the right kind of scary.” She laced her fingers through his. “And we’ll be doing it together. That’s all that really matters.”

Webber House: Master Bedroom

Elizabeth fastened a bracelet around her wrist and checked her makeup in the mirror one more time, wincing when she realized her eyeliner had smudged. She sat back down at the vanity and reached for a cotton swab.

The phone on her night table rang just as Elizabeth finished fixing it. She answered without checking the identification screen. “Hello?”

“I thought you would have called me by now.”

She grimaced at the sound of Franco’s voice—which probably wasn’t the right reaction—then sighed. “Why? You left me a message that you’d be at the studio tonight. What else did we need to talk about?”

“Well,” Franco said after a minute, “I thought you’d want to apologize.”

She stared at herself in the mirror, letting his words sink in, reverberate in her brain.

And in them, she heard of the echoes of another man.

Of Lucky Spencer who had always demanded apologies, insisting she admit that she’d been in the wrong, and that she was the problem in their relationship—

“I would,” Elizabeth said, “if I had anything to apologize for. You might consider apologizing to me.”

“Elizabeth—”

“I really don’t want to get into this over the phone,” she said, scowling at her own reflection.

“If this is about what I said about needing to have Jason in reserve, I just—I lost my temper for a minute and said something stupid. I don’t know why you have to hold it over my head like I meant to hurt you—”

She sighed, rubbed the side of her cheek. “No, I don’t think you meant to hurt me.” And if she’d felt stung by an offhand remark like that, imagine what Franco could do if he really wanted to hurt her. “Look, I don’t even know why you got an attitude earlier. Cameron wanted to have friends over, and if I’m not home, some of the parents are uncomfortable when you’re here. I didn’t know that’s why he wanted you to stay away tonight, but I think, under the circumstances—”

“So you’re not even going to stand up for me?” Franco demanded. “What about believing in me?”

“It’s not my job to convince other people,” she snapped, her temples beginning to throb.

“How about making sure your kids can’t be little jerks—” He broke off in mid-sentence. “I didn’t mean that—”

“You’re saying a lot of things you don’t mean today,” she retorted, glaring at herself in the mirror. How the hell had this become her life? And was she really going to let him keep getting away with it? “You know, if you’re trying to punish me for wanting to tell Jason about his brother, then insulting me and my kids is a good place to start. I’m starting to remember why I didn’t like you even after the tumor was out.”

“Elizabeth—”

“I’m going to the party. Don’t call me again tonight. And in fact, maybe you should just lose my number. Your father can pick up your things. I don’t want to see you again.”

Safe House: Living Room

Jason switched on the television. Sonny had said the party tonight would be on the news, and he wanted to get an idea of what was going on.

He didn’t like the idea of just sitting still, even though it made the most sense. Even now, he was pacing in front of the television, the local station barely audible in the background.

Sonny might think the guy running around with Jason’s identity wasn’t the bad guy, but he had to be, didn’t he? He was living Jason’s life, raising his son, married to Jason’s wife under his name. And if he was in the middle of all this, wouldn’t the doctors in the clinic have told the impostor that Jason had escaped?

What if someone got hurt—

Jason saw the party coverage begin, recognizing the entrance to the lobby set up with a red carpet. One of the hosts said something about usually pulling this out for the Nurse’s Ball, and Jason just scowled at the television. He wanted to see the man who was pretending to be him—wanted to see how anyone could have believed for a minute—

He watched as people he didn’t know were interviewed on the carpet, then smiled faintly when Maxie sauntered in on the arm of a tall, dark-haired man. He’d never liked Maxie much, but she’d been one of Spinelli’s people.

He’d never thought he’d miss Spinelli, but he wouldn’t mind seeing the hacker sitting next to him, slurping orange soda and speaking gibberish, calling him Stone Cold.

He saw Elizabeth walk in a dark red dress, with her brown hair piled on the top of her head, pieces falling down her neck. She’d changed since he’d seen her earlier in the park and put on makeup. Elizabeth ducked around the correspondent and disappeared almost as quickly as she’d arrived. He couldn’t wait to talk to her about Jake—to learn everything he’d missed—

Then Sam walked in with the man Jason had seen that day at the penthouse. She was glowing with happiness, practically bouncing towards the reporter. Her hair hung loose down her back, her eyes heavily lined—Jason could see them sparkling as she looked towards the man at her side. The blonde-haired man with blue eyes and a quick smile.

He didn’t even look like Jason.

“The couple of the hour!” the reporter exclaimed. “Jason Morgan! I know how much you hate the media, but maybe you’d give us something to look forward to. A hint of the rebranding?”

The man she called Jason turned towards her, then his smile deepened. “This is a chance for a new start,” he told her, then made contact with the camera—with the viewer at home. “For me and Sam, our family—our children.  The old Jason Morgan is gone for good.”

Jason scowled, then stalked over to his jacket. He took out the white card Ava had given him earlier. She was going to the party, wasn’t she? Sonny would never help him get in, but Ava might.

He couldn’t sit home and wait. Not when his family was in danger.

Greystone: Living Room

“You know, at some point,” Sonny called up the stairs with a scowl, “you’re just being petty!”

“I am not petty!” Carly’s voice floated down the steps. “And if you leave for this party without me, Sonny Corinthos—”

Joss tied her sneakers, then looked over at Sonny standing at the bottom of the steps, his scowl only deepening. “Hey, Uncle Sonny?”

“What’s up?” he asked, crossing to the sofa. “You sure you’ll be okay at Cameron’s?”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s fine. Cam made sure Franco won’t be there, so Oscar and Trina are allowed over. I’m, like, the only friend the Webber boys can have over with him there,” Joss explained to Michael who was frowning. “Mostly because Mom almost married him—”

“We try really hard not to speak of that time,” Carly muttered, overhearing the last part of her daughter’s statement. “I had a year long psychotic break.”

“Only way to explain it,” Michael said easily. “Especially since you didn’t even break up with him. He left you.”

Carly made a face at her son. “You’re really in a mood today, aren’t you?”

Joss bit her lip. “This is probably a bad time to bring this up, but something weird happened in the park earlier. I mean, to Cameron and his brothers,” she added when Carly straightened, her brow creasing in concern. “They were with his mom, and Jake went off on his own for a minute and said he saw a guy who looked like Uncle Jason. Before the car accident.”

Carly stared at Joss for a long moment before turning to Sonny, her eyes widening. Sonny dipped his head.

“Cam said his mom took Jake to the hospital to see Dr. Maddox, and they all agreed that Jake just saw someone he thought looked like him,” Joss said, “but Cam said his mom was acting weird, and he thinks maybe Jake might be sick again.” She twisted her fingers together. “I thought—I don’t know—I figured it was something we should all know since—”

“Since we had to be evacuated last year when the Chimera was activated,” Michael said. He exhaled slowly. “Well, it sounds like Elizabeth has it under control, but Dad—”

“I’ll talk to her tonight at the party,” Sonny said quickly. “Make sure she’s got what she needs. I’m sure she’ll—” He paused. “She’ll probably wait until tomorrow to tell Jason.”

Joss frowned at him because something in Sonny’s voice sounded weird, but her mother was folding her arms.

“That’s Jason’s son,” Carly snapped. “She shouldn’t hold stuff back—”

“Elizabeth might not understand this whole—” Sonny waved his hand. “New leaf thing Jason is doing, but she’s not going to actively sabotage him either. It can wait, Carly. Don’t bring it up.”

“If she tries to shut him out of Jake’s life,” Carly threatened.

“Oh my God, is everything a fight with you?” Joss demanded. “I know you don’t like her, but this is so annoying, Mom! I just thought you guys should know. Next time I’ll keep my mouth shut—”

She grabbed her purse and stalked out of the room. Michael winced when the front door slammed. “I better go grab her before she walks all the way to Cam’s house,” he told his parents. “Look—Mom—”

“Fine, I won’t say anything!” Carly said, throwing up her hands. “Why am I always the bad guy?”

“I’ll see you at the party,” Michael told them before leaving. Sonny turned to Carly, his brows lifted.

“I said I wouldn’t say anything,” Carly repeated, her teeth clenched.

“I’ll talk to Elizabeth,” Sonny said. “And offer to help. It’s probably nothing.”

“But if it’s something—”

“I promise I will make sure Jason is a part of it.”

Metro Court: Service Stairwell

Jason turned to Ava at the top of the stairs. “So, how do I get to the roof from here?” he asked.

“You have to take the elevator on this floor,” Ava told him, folding her arms. “It’s the only roof access. There’s a skylight that looks over the ballroom.” She paused. “I told you I’m happy to help, but at some point, you’re going to have to tell me your name.”

Jason frowned at her— “You don’t recognize me?” he said finally, unsure what to think about Sonny’s suspicions. Was he right? Had Ava known who Jason was all along?

“Should I?” Ava said with a sour tone. She scrunched up her face, peering at him. “I mean, now that you’re forcing me to think about it, I guess you look sort of familiar, but I don’t know why—” She arched her brows skeptically. “Are you going to tell me or not?”

“Not tonight,” Jason told her. “But it’s not because—” He paused. “The men from the clinic—they might still be following me. I probably shouldn’t have called you, but—”

“No, no, I understand.” Ava touched her face. “I was fortunate to get out of the clinic myself, so—” She shrugged. “Keep your secrets, Patient Six.”

She turned to go the way they’d come, and Jason grabbed her elbow. “I thought you said you were going to the party tonight.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “It’s on this floor, isn’t it?”

“I—” Ava sighed, looked down the stairs. “It turns out my invitation was issued in error,” she murmured. “I used to be a shareholder in Wells Publishing.” Her smile was thin. “I’m not very popular in town these days.” She gestured at her face. “And it’s for the best. I’m not particularly camera ready. Good luck, Six.”

With a wave of her hand, she went back down the stairs, and Jason went into the hotel proper, tugging his baseball cap back over his head to head straight for the elevators. Just as he reached them, they slid open—

Jason started to turn away, to block his face from the man who stepped out—and then he caught a glimpse of the man as he strode towards the ballroom doors.

The profile of his face—

No. It couldn’t—it wasn’t possible—

Rage coursed through Jason’s body as he watched the man reach for the handle — “Franco,” he said, flatly, his voice carrying in the empty area.

The man turned around, and Jason saw his full face.

Robert Frank. Franco. The man who had terrorized Sam and Michael, who’d nearly killed Lulu and Maxie, kidnapped Elizabeth’s son—

“Who the—” Franco’s eyes bulged as Jason leaped forward, wrapped his hands around Franco’s throat, determined to choke the life from this monster for good this time.

Metro Court: Ballroom

Sonny joined Elizabeth at the bar, lifting his tumbler of bourbon to her in a half-hearted salute. “What are you drinking tonight?”

“Chardonnay,” Elizabeth said with a sigh, “but I don’t think it’s strong enough.” She turned towards the front of the room, where the stage had been set up, and a podium was waiting. “I keep thinking this is a joke,” she murmured.

“You and Carly are on the same page,” Sonny told her, and Elizabeth grimaced. “Yeah, she’s not wild about it either, but at the end of the day, we know Jason best. And this—” He cast his dark eyes over the stage. “Doesn’t fit the man we used to know.”

“No.” Elizabeth leaned against the bar and watched as Jason leaned over to kiss Monica’s cheek and shake the hand of someone else. “He’s so…friendly,” she said, almost with some distaste. “In a crowd.”

Sonny smirked, sipped his bourbon. “It is a sight to see,” he said. He paused. “Uh, Joss mentioned something about the park—”

Elizabeth winced. “Oh, man, I guess I’m not surprised—” She stared down into her wine. “I’m sure Cam and Joss are worried that Jake is—that it’s like last year.”

“You’re not?” Sonny asked, his brows lifting in curiosity. “Jake sees someone who looks like the man we used to know, and you’re not concerned?”

“Not about Jake. I—” Elizabeth sighed. “I think I know who it might have been,” she confessed. “I promised someone I wouldn’t say anything,” she continued, “but I’m not in the mood to keep that promise.”

Sonny turned to face her more fully, engaged now. “Really? What do you know?”

“I—” She hesitated. “I don’t think we should get into it here,” she said.

“No, no—” Sonny rubbed his temple. “You—you busy tomorrow? I have something I needed to run by you anyway. Can we—”

They were distracted by the sounds of shouting from outside the ballroom. “What—” Elizabeth began.

Then the doors were shoved open, and two men all but threw themselves through them—one of the men shoving the other to the ground and wrapping his hands around the man’s neck—the man on the ground knocked the man’s baseball cap off, revealing dark blonde spikes that looked eerily familiar.

The room exploded in chaos, but the world around Elizabeth disappeared as she watched a man who sure as hell looked like Jason Morgan try to kill Franco Baldwin.

As you turn to your mind,
And your thoughts they rewind,
To old happenings and things that are done,
You can’t find what’s passed,
Make that happiness last,
Seeing from those eyes what you become,
What you become
– Haunt, Bastille

---

Early 2011 in St. Petersburg, Russia

Cathedral of St. Andrew the First-Called

Victor sat next to the veiled woman in the last row of pews. “At least we’re not blaspheming this time with Catholics and candles.”

“You always set too much store in such things,” Helena murmured. “Religion is only useful when you can wield it against someone. It’s for the weak-minded.”

“Right.” Never one to take chances, Victor slid just a few inches away from her in case lightning struck — but Helena Cassadine seemed to be outside the purview of even God himself. “You said you had some thoughts as to how we could begin our partnership?”

“Jason Morgan,” Helena said. “Are you familiar with him?”

“Not entirely, no,” Victor admitted. “We don’t deal with the mob often in the research department, but I know the name. He was a Quartermaine once, was he not?”

“Yes. He’s also the father of Elizabeth’s middle son.” Helena’s lips curved. “The one everyone is pretending belongs to Lucky. There’s a paternity test on file, and I’ve made it my business to know everything about her.”

“And what this has what to do with me?”

“I want to know everything about him, and no one goes after the details like you do, my dearest.” Helena paused. “Didn’t your brother have something to do with the Quartermaines?”

“Tony was having an affair with one of the nieces,” Victor said. “Alexandra, I believe. She died with him.”

“And?”

“You do remember that she and both my brothers died just around the time I was arrested and thrown into prison for years? You expect me to remember conversations I had more than decades ago?”

“You never forget anything,” Helena said flatly.

“Helena, I’m happy to investigate Jason Morgan, but to what purpose?”

“I thought about simply killing him,” Helena said. “Taking him and one or two of the boys along with him. The eldest can be quite annoying, and I know she favors the middle child—Jason’s son. But I want her to suffer, Victor.”

“Yes, well, I’m aware of that—”

“I want to know everything. Where he came from, where his mother came from. I want to know all his secrets,” Helena snapped, her voice growing fervent. “I want to know how to break him so that I can destroy her. You said you would help me.”

“And I will,” Victor said smoothly, “but the time will come when I ask for you something in return, darling, and you would do best to remember that I am not a man whom you want to cross.”

Friday, October 27, 2017

Kelly’s: Courtyard

Cameron set a soda down in front of his brother and looked at Joss with worry etched into his light blue eyes. “It was weird, Joss. Things were super normal, and then, BAM! Jake sees his dad’s old face.”

Joss wrinkled her nose. “And no one else saw this guy?”

“Is Jake sick again?” Aiden asked. “Is that why Mommy took him to the hospital?”

Cameron hesitated, studied his youngest brother, and considered lying. They’d been able to get away with not telling Aiden a lot last spring when Jake had nearly killed their entire family at the Nurse’s Ball under the influence of Helena Cassadine’s mind control, but he was almost a year older now. He was seven.

Cameron had known a lot about the world when he was seven—and he’d always known when adults were lying to him.

“We don’t know,” Cameron said finally. “Mom is going to take care of things. She always does.” He looked at Joss.

She nodded. “That’s right, Aiden. Don’t worry about Jake. Your mom’s got this handled, and if she needs any help, Uncle Jason will be there. We all will.”

“Trina, too?” Aiden asked with a sweet smile. “I like Trina. She gave me extra chocolate in my milkshake.”

Joss made a face, but then Cameron shot her a dirty look. “Yeah, yeah, and Trina.” She checked the clock on her phone. “Speaking of Oscar, his mom finally agreed to let him come over tonight. She’s so weird.”

“Protective,” Cameron corrected. He glanced back when the front door to the diner swung open, and Trina Robinson sauntered out, a tray in her hands. “You got it?”

“I can do this in my sleep,” Trina said. She set Aiden’s burger and fries down, then gave Cameron his pastrami on rye with a disgusted look. “I hate the smell of that—”

“You’re missing out—”

“And a side of fries for you,” Trina muttered as she set Joss’s plate down with a clunk. “Anything else?”

“Nah, you coming tonight?” Cameron asked before Joss could say something rude. “Oscar finally got the okay—”

“Depends. My mom wants to know if your mom’s creepy ass boyfriend is gonna be hanging around.” Trina cocked out a hip. “Mom says that Elizabeth Webber has god awful taste in men, but this one takes the whole cake—”

“We get it, Trina,” Joss cut in with a roll of her eyes.

“Was anyone talking to you?”

“Are you going to fight again?” Aiden asked, interested. “Because I need someone to teach me how to hit a girl without actually hitting a girl.”

The two mortal enemies switched their attention to the youngest Webber boy. “Why do you need to know how to hit a girl?” Trina asked. She made a face. “Is Charlotte messing with you again?”

“Cam says I gotta suck it up because maybe one day we won’t be in the same town,” Aiden said, “but I’m seven. That might take a while.”

“Truer words were never spoken,” Joss said, sending Trina a glare out of the side of her eyes. “We can declare a truce long enough to tell him about that time I tripped you and got away with it—”

“Or when I accidentally dyed your hair blue,” Trina said sweetly.

Cameron furrowed his brow. “This doesn’t sound like a good way to keep the peace. Anyway, I don’t know about Franco, Trina. Mom said she’d ask him to go somewhere else, but he didn’t seem to commit one way or the other.”

Trina sighed. “Well, I can try to lie to Mom, but if she catches me, I’m blaming you.” She nodded at Aiden. “Keep your head up, babe. Me and Joss have been torturing each other since kindergarten, and we get away with a lot of accidents.” She flashed Joss a rare grin, and the blonde shot one back at her. “Keeps life interesting.” She leaned over to kiss Cam’s cheek. “I’ll see you later.”

Cemetery

He had visited this spot so many times after Jake died that Jason thought he’d created a path in the grass from the stone path to his grave.

One of the few acts he and Elizabeth had performed together as parents was watch the stone be installed, nearly two months after that terrible day in March. He could remember the way her hands had trembled, the way her skin had looked like marble.

She had stared at the words inscribed on the stone and had just closed her eyes. She hadn’t cried, hadn’t fallen to the ground. Had only closed her eyes.

Jacob Martin Webber
May 4, 2007 – March 21, 2011
Beloved son and brother

The stone had been delivered the day after Jake would have turned four, and it had a little inset picture of Jake — a smiling photo of him during his last Christmas, with a wide grin that matched his mother’s. Elizabeth had set Jake’s favorite toy on the ground —a little yellow motorcycle Jason had given Cameron the year he and Elizabeth had been together. Cameron had handed it down to his younger brother.

Until that night in October 2012, Jason had gone to the cemetery every few weeks just to remind himself of what he’d lost—the son he’d been too afraid to love and to hold close. With Jake’s death, Jason had given up any dream of ever really being a father again.

He could have walked to this grave in his sleep.

But now the stone was gone.

It was a punch to the gut, and Jason stood there for a long moment, not sure how to process it. If he could believe his own eyes. He knew what he had seen in the park — knew that Elizabeth had called the boy Jake, but his brain had refused to accept it.

He didn’t deserve to have that miracle. His son would never turn four. It was a fact, a deep scar on Jason’s soul that would never fade —

But the boy in the park had looked like Jake. Had his name. Had spoken to his brothers like he was part of them. And Elizabeth had said—she’d said she wished he was quiet like his father.

Like Jason.

Jason exhaled slowly. He’d been there the night the machines had been turned off. He had seen Lucky tell Elizabeth it was over—he’d watched over Joss after that night, feeling like a part of his son was still in the world—that keeping her alive and safe would be like finally taking care of Jake—

How was this possible?

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to call you.”

Jason blinked at the vaguely familiar voice and turned to look at the familiar slim blonde who had stepped up to him, a hesitant smile, and the half-mask still covering her face. The woman who had distracted the doctors and helped him escape from the clinic. He was glad to see that she’d been able to get away, too. He’d worried about her since then—had she been punished for helping him?

“You never told me your name at the clinic,” the woman said. “My name is Ava. Ava Jerome.” She waited, then frowned when he said nothing. “You don’t know it?”

“Yours? No.” And Jason wasn’t going to tell her his. Not yet. Not when he didn’t know what was going on or who he could trust.

“Oh. Well, I’m so glad you’re all right. I didn’t think you’d come to Port Charles. I mean, I knew you were from here—”

“I have…” He looked back at the space, swallowing hard. “I have family here. Do you…do you know what happened to the stone that was here?”

Ava nodded. Stepped up beside him. “You must not have been in touch with anyone here for a long time if you didn’t know about Jake Webber. He’s been back for just over two years now, I think.

“Back,” Jason repeated. He focused on Ava. “So—he’s alive? How? There was an accident—”

“I’m not close to the family.” Her lips pursed. “Not really. But I did know Nikolas Cassadine a little. He died last year,” she added as an afterthought. “His grandmother kidnapped Jake, thinking he was Lucky Spencer’s son. I can only imagine the relief Elizabeth felt when Luke and Lucky brought him home.”

“He’s alive,” Jason repeated, letting it sink in. Alive. “He’s okay.”

Ava furrowed her brow. “So you did know him?”

“I—” He paused, then nodded. “Yes.” Jason rubbed his chest. “His mother and I—”

“You were friends?”

Friends. It was the best word to describe it, so Jason nodded. “Yeah. Friends. For a long time.”

“If you didn’t know little Jake came home—” Ava sighed, “and you know Elizabeth, then you probably know Sonny and Carly.”

Jason’s head whipped back to face her. “What about them? Are they okay?”

“Alive, yes,” Ava told him. “But they had a loss of their own.” She gestured at a nearby stone. “Their son died last year.”

Their son—Michael? Morgan? Jason’s heart was pounding so hard he could hear it in his ears. He strode across the patch of grass, away from the empty plot where Jake had never rested until he found it—

In Loving Memory 
Morgan Stone Corinthos
October 24, 1994 – October 7, 2016

 It was like a nightmare seeing that name on a stone. Jason had held Morgan as a baby, had watched him grow up — and now he was dead. Gone forever.

“How?” Jason choked out.

“A car bomb,” Ava murmured, staring at the grave. “He stole a car meant for someone else. He and my daughter were dating. It’s—” She pressed two fingers to her lips. “It shouldn’t have happened. He needed a little help, but he was a sweet boy. I’m so sorry—” She blinked at him. “You never did tell me your name.”

Jason knelt down, ignoring the question. “He needed help?” he echoed.

“He had bipolar disorder, like Sonny,” Ava said. “He was trying to handle it, but he needed more help than Kiki could give him. More than anyone could. We—we all made mistakes in handling it, and then before we could—” Her voice faltered. “Before we could fix it, he was gone.”

Jason bowed his head. God, Carly must have nearly lost her mind, and Sonny—how had they been able to get through it?

“I’m sure it was a comfort that Jason Morgan came home. That his memories were back by then,” Ava continued. “I’m not sure Carly could have managed without him.”

Jason stared at her, squinting. Jason Morgan came home. The words slipped and slid around his mind, but they didn’t make sense. Unless—

“Jason Morgan,” Jason repeated as he got to his feet and met Ava’s eyes. “Got his memories back?”

“Oh, my, you really have been gone for a while. Jason was thought dead after he went off a pier in—” Ava tapped her fingers. “I’m not sure — it was almost a year before I moved here, and that was in the spring of 2013. Anyway, there was this mysterious stranger in the ER about three years ago. He’d been hit by a car and had to have surgery on his face. He looked completely different, and with amnesia—” Ava shrugged. “He called himself Jake Doe for a while, and I guess that makes sense,” she continued. “He must have remembered part of his past because he grew quite close to Elizabeth, in fact, even before they knew the truth. They nearly married. But the truth came out, so he left her and went back to Sam.”

Jason stared at her. “Jason Morgan was living here for a year with no identity,” he said slowly, “then remembered?”

“No, I think there was more to it—there were DNA tests and whatnot—” She laughed, slightly nervously. “Listen to me go on like this. All this gossip!”

Jason stared down again at the grave, unsure what to think, how to process. Sam had married a man calling himself Jason Morgan. Elizabeth had nearly married the same man. The man at the penthouse—he wasn’t someone Sam had moved on with.

He was someone she thought was him. And if Ava was telling the truth, everyone thought this other man was Jason. Sonny, Carly, Elizabeth.

“I can understand if you don’t want to tell me who you are,” Ava continued. “Particularly if you’re a friend to Sonny or Carly. They are not my biggest fans,” she admitted. “They have…some good reasons for that,” she added, “but I wish we got along better. Sonny and I share a daughter—” She pressed her lips together, then reached into her pocket for her wallet. She pulled out a card. “If you need anything—”

Jason blinked at her then reached for the card slowly. Ava Jerome, Jerome Galleries, with a number and an address. “Thank you.”

“Well—” Ava cleared her throat. “I need to be going. I have a party at the hotel tonight. Actually, it’s for Jason and Sam. They just bought her father’s media company and renamed it. They’re doing a relaunch—” She hesitated. “Is there anything I can do for you?”

“No,” Jason said, faintly. “But thank you.” He listened to her footsteps as she returned to the pathway and walked away.

He needed to get to Sonny and find out what the hell was going on. And if someone was here, living his life, pretending to be him—if everyone had accepted it—

Jason would need to find a way to prove to Sonny who he was. His face, his voice, his memories might not be enough. He needed something that would prove that he was the real Jason Morgan. Something that no one but he and Sonny knew.

General Hospital: Andre Maddox’s Office

Andre stared at the three missed calls from Valentin Cassadine’s personal number, then exhaled slowly and set his phone on his desk.

Valentin hadn’t contacted him since the Chimera incident, and Andre had hoped that they’d all moved on. The experiment was over. Jason Morgan would rot away in a medically induced coma until his body simply gave out, and Drew Cain would continue to thrive in his new life, never knowing he’d ever had another one.

Memories could be mapped and transferred. Some semblance of the old life could be resurrected. The research was completed. Andre could take the information and figure out the next step.

Valentin contacting him — that was not a good sign.

“Andre?”

A hesitant voice and light knock on his open door broke into his thoughts. Andre looked up and stared blindly for a moment at Elizabeth Webber and her son, Jake.

Jake. Another reminder he wanted to forget.

He pasted a smile on his face and rose to his feet. “Elizabeth, Jake. I wasn’t expecting you today—”

“Mom thinks I’m going crazy again,” the blond said darkly. He twisted his head to look at his mother, a scowl etched into his features. “I’m not crazy. I saw him.”

“I know, baby.” Elizabeth tucked a piece of his hair out of his eyes. She looked at Andre. “Jake had…”

“I saw someone who looked like my dad, and everyone freaked out,” Jake said. He shrugged off his mother’s hands and stalked towards the chair, sitting down. He dropped his backpack on the ground. “It’s not like before, Mom. I heard voices before. I felt like….urges to do stuff. I don’t have any of that.”

With a sour taste in his mouth, Andre sat down. “Why don’t we start at the beginning?” he asked, his mind racing, trying to piece things together. He’d seen a man who looked like his dad? That wouldn’t make sense — Drew Cain had had facial reconstruction surgery. No one should look like him —

“We were in the park,” Jake said, flatly. “Aiden had this baseball from school, and he was playing with it while we were talking. It rolled away, and I went to get it. It was behind a hedge, and there was this guy. He was just standing there.”

“He was already there?” Elizabeth repeated. “Like waiting for you?”

“I don’t know, maybe he was listening, or maybe he was walking past.” Jake jerked a shoulder, then stared at his shoes. “I looked at him. He looked at me. And he—he looked like Dad. But not Dad now.”

A chill slivered down Andre’s spine as he swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”

“Like before. Like the pictures. And kind of how I remember him. I do remember him a little,” Jake told his mother when she blinked at him. “Sort of. There are pictures at Grandma Monica’s, and you’ve got pictures. With me and Cam. Aunt Emily. There are lots of pictures—”

Elizabeth dug through her purse and took out her wallet. She drew out a photograph and handed it to Andre, who reluctantly accepted it. It was an old photo—small and clearly from a traditional camera, not a phone. Elizabeth and Jason were posed with a bride and groom, Elizabeth in a deep red dress, smiling next to a man Andre knew was Nikolas Cassadine, and Jason Morgan next to the bride.

“That’s his sister’s wedding. I caught the bouquet,” Elizabeth said quietly. “Jason caught the garter. It’s—it’s really old,” she admitted. “From 2004. But—”

“Is this the man you saw?” Andre said, handing the photo to Jake, his heart pounding as he awaited the answer. Elizabeth had aged gracefully—barely any lines had been added in the thirteen years since, but Jason was older than her, and he hoped that it was different enough—

“I don’t know,” Jake said after a moment. “Dad looks really young here. The guy in the park was wearing a hat. But I saw his eyes. They’re like mine, Mom. You always said—”

“But maybe it was just someone who looked like your dad did then,” Elizabeth said. She rummaged in her wallet. “I used to have another one,” she muttered. “A newer one. From—” She tugged out another photo. “Here—” She handed it directly to Jake. “That’s a picture of you and Cameron with Jason. You were about fifteen months old.”

“Yeah, this looks more like the guy,” Jake said. “His hair was darker like this one,” he continued, looking at Andre. “Mom, I know it’s weird. I know it doesn’t sound right, but I think it really was someone who looked like Dad did before the accident.”

Elizabeth scrubbed her hand over her face, took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay, Jake.” She paused. “You know, I saw Felix at the nurse’s station. Can you go sit with him a minute?”

“So you and Dr. Maddox can talk about how I’m crazy again? Forget it.” Jake tossed both pictures on the desk, and Andre slid them closer, looking at the second photograph.

It was easy for him to forget that Jason Morgan had been someone before the night Cesar Faison had shot him and shoved his body into the water. He’d been unconscious from the moment Andre had met him. When he’d come to Port Charles the year before and come face to face with Drew Cain—it still hadn’t fazed him. Drew was an experiment—a shell whose memories weren’t his own.

But there was something about looking at these photographs of Jason Morgan before it had all started. At photos of Jason with his son. Was the man in the park Jason Morgan? Coming face to face with the son he’d thought to be dead?

Had Jason Morgan escaped from wherever Valentin had been holding him? Was that why the phone calls were happening?

“Jake—” Elizabeth began. “You know—”

“I know, I know. You’ll tell me what you can when you can. Same answer you always do.” Jake shoved himself to his feet and walked out of the room, kicking at the floor as he did so. When Elizabeth checked the hallway to make sure he’d gone to the nurse’s station and wasn’t listening, she turned back to Andre.

“There’s something I need to tell you—” she stopped, frowning. “Andre?”

“Hmm—” He blinked, then focused on her. “Sorry. I just—I don’t come across photos of Jason from before. It’s—it took me a minute. He looks so different.”

“I know.” Elizabeth picked up the photo from the wedding. “I think it’s what made it a little easier to lie two years ago,” she admitted. “It wasn’t Jason’s face, and it didn’t really feel like him.” She sighed. “If Emily had been alive, I don’t think I would have done it. I wouldn’t have kept him from his sister.” She tucked the photos back into her wallet. “I’m worried, Andre, because I think I know who the man in the park was.”

Andre stared at her. She couldn’t know. If she had any idea what was going on—what Andre had done to Jason and his brother, to Elizabeth and her son— “Who?” he asked finally.

“Franco,” Elizabeth said. She nodded at the painting behind him, one of the two boys that Andre had purchased. “Hasn’t he told you yet? Betsy saw that painting and told him that there had been a brother. A twin named Drew. She said he fell down and died. I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe her, but it makes a terrible kind of sense, doesn’t it?”

His mouth was dry, but Andre forced himself to speak. “It does,” he admitted. “If Betsy was lying about the boy dying, then the man in the park might be the twin. He would have Jason’s original face.”

“Franco didn’t want me to say anything to Jason or Monica, and I agreed. Because I thought the little boy—” Elizabeth sighed and sat back down. “I thought he was dead. What was the point of dredging that all up only to hurt them? But if the brother found out—”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” Andre said, hoping he looked calmer than he felt. “If this man does make contact, Monica and Jason will understand your instinct to keep it a secret—”

“But shouldn’t I tell Jason—” Elizabeth began, frowning. “I mean, this man—Jake saw him—”

“Right,” Andre said. “Right.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “All right. But Jason’s relaunch party is tonight,” he said, nearly desperate to keep her from saying anything to Drew. Not before Andre could wrap his mind around what was happening.

If Jason Morgan had escaped and was already back in Port Charles—how safe was Andre? How safe were his secrets?

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose. “I still can’t believe he’s leaving Sonny and opening a media company.” She got to her feet. “It seems so far from the man I knew, but maybe it’s just jealousy,” she admitted. “Leaving the business—it was never an option before. Maybe Sam was right all along. She’s the one he really wanted.” She pasted a smile on her face. “I’ll leave it for now, Andre. I don’t want to hurt anyone, especially tonight. Thanks.”

“No problem.” Andre walked her to the door, then closed it as quickly as he could. He hurried to his desk and snatched up his phone.

“It’s about damn time,” the Cassadine growled in his ear.

“Shut up. Jason Morgan is in Port Charles, isn’t he?”

There was silence on the other end of the line, and Andre’s stomach sank.

Damn it.

Greystone Manor: Living Room

“You look like you ate something sour,” Sonny said as Carly came through the doors around five that evening. His wife made a face at him and crossed over to the minibar, where she poured herself a glass of water.

“I was finalizing the party tonight, and because I’m not already having a crappy day, Michael was dropping her off at work,” Carly muttered.

Sonny didn’t need to ask who Michael was dropping off—their son’s relationship with Nelle Benson, the woman who had sworn revenge on Carly for reasons that no one really understood, was a sore spot for all of them. Even when Nelle’s connection to Carly’s adoptive father, Frank Benson, had been revealed, it hadn’t explained Nelle’s desire for vengeance. She’d drugged Sonny, pretended to have slept with him—and it had brought their already fragile marriage to the breaking point.

They’d only barely emerged from that without a fourth divorce under their belt—or would it have been their fifth? He’d lost count.

Sonny had wanted Nelle to slink out of town, but instead, she’d just wormed her way into Michael’s life and set up shop with Nina Cassadine at Crimson Magazine. His mouth twisted, and he joined Carly at the minibar, pouring himself a bourbon. He didn’t like to think of Crimson existing without Kate.

“Did you get into a fight with him?”

“That would depend on your definition of a fight,” Carly said. When Sonny just lifted his brows, she made a face. “No. I overheard them talking about something happening on that Morocco trip they just got back from. Something about a missing necklace that was miraculously found. I told him to keep her away from me, and then I left.”

“Good. If we just ignore the Nelle thing, he’ll figure out the truth sooner. If we make this a big deal—” Sonny waited for his wife to meet his eyes. “Carly, if we make this a thing, he’ll just dig his heels in more.”

“He’s not a toddler, Sonny. He’s an adult who spent a lot of his childhood watching Jason save one idiot woman after another, and Michael thinks Nelle can be saved.”

“Well,” Sonny said slowly, “maybe she can.”

Carly whipped her head around, her blue eyes lit with fury. “No. Not by Michael. Not in this family. Let her go find someone else to trap.”

“Carly—”

“I’m not talking about this anymore. I have to go upstairs and get ready for this party that I don’t even want to go to—” Carly closed her eyes. “I just—I keep thinking it’s going to stop,” she said softly. “Ever since Jason went off that pier, I feel like everything has just been spinning out of control, and I don’t know how to make it stop. And he’s home now, but it’s like he hates us. Or me,” she clarified. “He hates me.”

“Because you don’t even pretend to respect the women in his life—”

“I respected Courtney,” Carly pointed out.

“Yeah, well, she was my sister, and she was a pushover. You never liked anyone else Jason dated.”

“Because none of them ever liked me—”

“That—” Sonny wagged his finger at her, “—is also not true. You and Elizabeth get along sometimes.”

“Sometimes she’s not a complete idiot. She was here yesterday with Cam, and we were talking about this. This isn’t Jason, Sonny. Leaving the job? Leaving the warehouse? This wasn’t an option—”

“Carly—”

“Listen to me,” Carly insisted, and he fell silent. “It was not an option. Elizabeth said Jason never suggested it. Not once before Jake’s accident. You’re telling me if leaving was an option back when Jake was a baby, Jason wouldn’t have taken it?”

“Ten years ago,” Sonny said slowly, “things were different—”

“Sonny.”

“Jason could have walked away,” Sonny said. “It would have meant leaving Port Charles, probably disappearing with Elizabeth and the boys for a while to really be out. Neither one of them would have liked that—”

“I wouldn’t have either, but I would have understood. I knew—” Carly pressed her lips together. “I knew it was killing him not to be with Jake,” she said softly. “And maybe her, too. He was angry and irritated all the time. But it wasn’t an option. Because he wouldn’t have asked her to do it. And he wouldn’t have left us. I know the business has changed but has it changed enough that Jason could leave now?”

“Carly—”

“Something isn’t right, and it’s not just leaving the business. He bought a media company,” Carly reminded him. “He’s doing a launch party. Has Jason Morgan ever said the word launch without talking about, I don’t know, bombs?”

“Not even then,” Sonny muttered, wiping a hand over his mouth. “What are you saying?”

She stalked over to the terrace doors and stared out gloomily over the grounds. “He would have gnawed his arm off rather than go into corporate life.”

“He always liked doing the paperwork at the warehouse,” Sonny mused, and she shot him a nasty look over her shoulder.

“He liked doing the books,” she corrected. “The numbers. They—” Carly closed her eyes, hating the way tears stung her eyes. “He said they were predictable. Comforting. They never changed. He used to do the books at Kelly’s for Mama when she was managing the place. You know, he barely even uses the bike anymore,” Carly muttered. “Helena Cassadine must have fried his brains just like she did to Lucky and Jake, and it’s taken us years to figure it out—”

“He wants a safer life for his family,” Sonny said. “After Jason got shot in August—”

“Because Sam got involved like she always did—” Carly huffed and sat down. “You know, the one good thing I can say about Elizabeth is she let him do his damn job.”

“What do you want me to say, Carly? I don’t like this any more than you do—”

“I’m gonna call Uncle Luke,” Carly decided. “He’ll be able to come to town and look at Jason and see if Helena put the whammy on him or something—”

Sonny rolled his eyes and pulled his vibrating phone from his pocket. “People are allowed to change their minds—” He frowned at the message. Breach at the Queen’s Point house.

“Sonny?” When he didn’t answer right away, she called his name again, and this time he looked up at her, blinking. “What’s wrong?”

Normally he wouldn’t say anything, but he was surprised enough by the content of the text that he told her the truth. “Back when Elizabeth moved out to Queen’s Point,” he began, “Jason wanted a safe house in that neighborhood, close to theirs, so they’d have a quick escape route where we could extract them if we needed. I knew he was worried about Jake. About all of them, so he bought the place, but only Jason and I ever knew about it. And Spinelli. Maybe Elizabeth. Jason bought the house and buried the deed. No one ever knew it was connected to us.”

“So?”

“We never used it. It was Jason’s thing, for his family, and—” Sonny pausd. “I forgot about it. But this—” He held up his phone. “Spinelli sent me a text from Portland. Someone just disengaged the alarm.”

Carly rubbed a hand up her arm. “Why would anyone care? Elizabeth doesn’t even live in that neighborhood anymore—”

“I know,” Sonny murmured. “I’m gonna go check it out—”

“Oh—” Carly winced as her husband walked past her. “Don’t go alone—”

“Don’t worry. It’s probably nothing.” He kissed her cheek. “If I run late, I’ll just meet you at the hotel.”

Webber House: Living Room

Elizabeth walked into the living room where Cameron was trying very hard not to beat Aiden at a video game. Judging from the growling of her youngest son, he wasn’t doing a good job.

“Hey, Franco said he’s spending the night at his studio, so Cam, you’re keeping the boys alive. Trina should be able to help with that. Is she still coming?” she asked, leaning a hip against the sofa.

“Yeah.” Cameron frowned at the screen. “Her mom might call yours to double-check on the Franco situation.”

Elizabeth furrowed her brow. “Excuse me?”

“Dr. Rob does not like your current mistake,” Cameron continued absently, almost as if he wasn’t really paying attention. “So Trina can’t come over if he’s here.”

“You—” Elizabeth bit her lip. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“Didn’t come up before now. Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll be in college in a couple of years—”

“Three,” Elizabeth muttered, not liking how close her baby was to being eighteen and leaving her. What if he never came home? What if he went far away and never talked to her again like she had with her parents? “Cameron—”

“Joey’s mom doesn’t let him over here either,” Aiden volunteered. “Ever since Joey told her that Franco moved in before the Nurse’s Ball.” He shrugged. “Joey doesn’t have any brothers, so we never gotta fight for the video games.”

Why hadn’t she known that Franco’s presence in her life caused problems for her boys?

“I’m sorry, Mom—” Cameron said. “I didn’t mean—” He scowled when his car went off the track. “I wasn’t paying attention. I shouldn’t have said anything—” He shifted, turned towards her. “It’s not a big deal—”

“Is this happening to Jake, too?” Elizabeth asked. She hesitated when Jake stepped off the stairs, his arms clutched around one of Elizabeth’s photo albums from her room. “Jake, are your friends allowed to come over?”

“Not when Franco’s the only adult,” Jake said easily. He set the album on the table and opened it. “Mom, I don’t care what you and Dr. Maddox said. I don’t think the guy just sort of looked like Dad did. I think he looked exactly like him—”

“Jake—” She could only handle so many crises at a time. She exhaled on a low breath. She’d deal with Franco and the boys later. “I told you—”

“See—I knew it—” He handed her a photograph. “I knew we had a picture of Dad in a hat.”

“Really? Jason in a hat?” Cameron leaned over. “He does not look comfortable—hey, Aunt Em looks really young!”

Elizabeth sighed. Jake had grabbed an album from nearly two decades ago. She and Lucky had gone to the Canadian border looking for Emily when she’d been kidnapped by Zander. Jason had rescued her, and they’d returned to Port Charles. She remembered Emily and Jason saying goodbye at Kelly’s, and Emily finding a hat in Jason’s bag as he’d packed the bike up in the parking lot. He’d bought it at a store at the border to blend in.

Emily insisted he put it on for her, and Elizabeth had snapped a picture of them. She’d given one copy to Emily—and kept the other for herself.

What a different man he’d been once.

“Jake—” Elizabeth looked at her middle, miracle boy. “I believe you. I just—I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it. People can look alike.” Her stomach twisted. She hated lying to her boys, but she didn’t want Jake to worry. She’d fix this. She’d find a way to make this okay.

“But—”

“I told you I’d make some calls and see if Spinelli could look into it, but we’re not going to solve this tonight.” She kissed Jake’s head and handed the photo back to him. “I’m going upstairs to get ready for the party. Try not to kill each other.”

Safe House: Porch

The house, six blocks away from ruins of the house on Lexington Avenue where Elizabeth had raised the boys until the year before, looked like it had the last time Sonny had seen it.

He’d understood Jason’s worries about Elizabeth and the boys living in what had been a new development—so far from the center of town, from the Towers where Jason was. It would take Jason almost a half hour to get to her if anything went wrong—he’d wanted something closer if she needed to run.

Now, Sonny realized he didn’t know if Elizabeth had ever known about the house. They’d never spoken about it. In fact, Sonny couldn’t remember the last time he’d talked to Jake’s mother except in passing.

He punched in the security code, noting that it had been armed when he’d arrived. Maybe it was a vagrant who tripped it—maybe the security code had failed after all these years—

And maybe it had been a technical glitch on Spinelli’s end.

But the hairs on the back of Sonny’s neck lifted as he pushed the door open and found the light on by the sofa, a duffel bag next to the table.

Someone was here—someone who knew about this house and how to get in.

Something that less than five people on the planet should have known.

Sonny closed the door behind him, then walked over to the kitchen. It was dark and empty. He turned back at the creak of the stairs. He slid the gun from the holster inside his jacket and held it low.

“Who’s there?” he demanded.

Then a man turned the corner of the stairwell and came down to the first landing, where it wrapped around to meet the first floor. As he came into the light of the living room, Sonny stared into the eyes of a ghost.