Written in 58 minutes.

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General Hospital: Hub

“I can’t decide if I’m happy with the way Emma handled it,” Robin said, “or if I think I didn’t do it right.” She pursed her lips. “What do you think?”

Elizabeth hesitated. “I don’t know. Maybe she just feels like it’s outside of her. I mean, when you were her age, did you think anything truly terrible was going to happen to you? Before you lost your parents,” she added.

“No, I guess not. I mean, I knew people died and I’d lost Duke at that point. And other people. But even losing my parents—or thinking I did—it wasn’t the same thing as when Stone told me he had AIDs or when Alan told me I was HIV positive.” Robin reached for a chart. “I couldn’t believe it when the results came back. Even after knowing about Stone, I still thought somehow, I’d be spared.”

“Emma’s been around loss and devastation her whole life, just like my boys. She and Cameron have been through a lot. And for him, it was knowing it happened to me. I think Emma just has this…distance from the whole thing. And you’ve raised her to be smart and cautious.”

“It broke my heart listening to her list all the things she did to protect herself from people, and for me to think—well, that’s good and all, but it doesn’t always help. I couldn’t tell her that. I wanted to believe, too,” Robin murmured.

“There’s a type of arrogance that comes with being a teenager—bad things are for other people. Not you. They happen to family and friends. Not you.” Elizabeth tapped a pen. “Still, we should keep our eye on her. And Cameron.”

Morgan House: Living Room

“I don’t know why I have to be here,” Trina complained as Cameron practically towed her across the room towards the back yard. “You can tell him.”

“He’ll want to know exactly what was said, and if I have to do this, someone else has to be uncomfortable, too.” Cameron grimaced. “I am definitely not doing this alone.”

“Yeah, but your dad isn’t going to want to talk about this with me!” Trina complained but clearly Cameron was not interested in listening. He shoved open the back door and found his father on the back porch, one eye on the grill and the other on Jake and Aiden as they played soccer.

Jason turned at their arrival. “Hey, Cam. Trina.” He looked past them. “No one else?”

“Uh, no. I needed to talk to you,” Cameron said. He released Trina’s arm but sent her a glare. “You make a run for it, I’ll drag you back.”

“Ha, that’s if you can catch me.” She huffed and folded her arms.

Jason furrowed his brow, his eyes going back and forth between them. “Is everything okay? Should I call your mother—”

“Oh, no. No. I’m fine. Trina’s fine,” Cameron added. “It’s just — she heard something that she told me and I guess you need to know, but she wasn’t going to do it alone so I’m here to make sure—”

“Whoa, whoa, I never agreed to tell him anything. You’re going to tell him and then I’m here for, like, clarification—” Trina glared at Cameron who growled. “Don’t try it. I’ll just tell Emma on you.”

“Fine. Okay.” Cameron looked back at his father. “I one hundred percent do not want to have this conversation. In fact, no one here wants to do this—”

“Cameron—” Jason began.

“But if I don’t say anything and something happens, then it’s my fault, and Mom’s pregnant. I don’t really need another brother, by the way. I now how genetics work but the ones I have are fine, so if you could—” Cameron huffed. “Never mind. Look, Trina was at her house and overheard her mom arguing with the commissioner about you.”

His father’s face shuttered, taking on that strange blank look at Cameron rarely saw—usually when someone brought up Lucky Spencer, his father, or anyone else associated with the Cassadines.

“Cameron,” Jason said, flicking his eyes at Trina who was staring at the sky as if it held all the answers to the universe. “This isn’t—”

“Yeah, I know. Believe me. But she heard it, and I don’t wanna mess it up, so we’ll just tell you, and then you’ll know and then it won’t be our problem anymore. I very much need this not to be my problem, Dad.” Cameron jabbed a finger at him. “You’re the adult, I’m the kid. I make the problems, you fix it. This is how it’s supposed to be. So here’s a problem. The commissioner said she was gonna be watching you and Uncle Sonny because of Tom Baker. I looked him up, and that’s the guy—” Cameron swallowed hard. “That’s the guy. Trina’s mom was mad about it and yelled at her, but the Commissioner seemed pretty adamant. So, I just—I don’t know. There you go.”

Jason exhaled slowly, some of the tension bleeding from his shoulders. He looked at Trina. “Do you have anything to add?”

“Um, no, that mostly covers it. Like he said, Mom was pretty steamed and threatened her against dragging my dad into this which I didn’t understand, but, uh, that really is it. Unless you want word for word—”

“No, that’s fine,” Jason said. He turned back to the grill, and flipped the burgers, setting them on a plate. “Thanks. Now forget all of it.”

“Absolutely, one hundred percent. Erased from the brain.” Cameron snapped his fingers. “Gone.”

“Okay,” Jason repeated. “You staying for dinner, Trina?”

“Uh, no, I’m only supposed to go do homework with Emma in the park, then straight home. Dr. Rob gets cranky when I don’t get home by five. I’m still on house arrest after the hair thing.” Trina glared at Cameron. “And how come you’re not in more trouble? You actually put the dye in the bottle! Why was I the only one—”

Cameron winced. “He didn’t know that, Treen. I had plausible deniability—” He flashed a weak grin at his father who had just arched a brow and crossed his arms. “Joss’s hair looks fine now—her hair person was able to match her natural color—”

“I’ll talk about it with your mom.”

“And that’s what you get,” Trina said with a bright smile. “For making me do this. Bye!” She waved and went inside. Cameron scowled after her.

He turned back to his father. “I’m sorry, Dad. I just—I thought you should know. And if you wanted to know more—”

“It’s fine.” Jason hesitated. “Cameron—”

“And I’m sorry if it messes things up for you. I mean, I don’t want to know anything, but I know that guy didn’t just hurt Mom, but he went after Aunt Emily.” Cameron’s heart lurched at the dim memory of his laughing, smiling aunt who had loved him and his mother.   “They never should have let him out of jail. I don’t care what happens to him. I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“It won’t,” Jason promised. He crossed the deck to his son and put a hand on his shoulder. “I wasn’t going to do anything, anyway. Your mother wanted it left alone, so that’s what we’re doing. And that really is the end of it.”

“Great.” Cameron grinned, relieved. “So I’m gonna go make fun of Jake for letting Aiden score on him, and we’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”

Jason watched his son jog down the steps and over to his brother, where he said something to Jake, and Aiden cackled like a maniac. Most of the time, the boys could ignore who Jason was and what he’d done in his past. The business had slowed over the years, and he and Sonny were mostly legit these days with the odd shipment or business deal. Or idiot who thought he could come disrupt the peace Jason and Sonny had worked so hard for.

But memories were long in Port Charles, and it didn’t matter how inactive Jason had been for the last few years — the PCPD was never going to stop hunting him.

Port Charles Park

Emma frowned when Joss dropped down next to her at the picnic table and dragged open her backpack. “What are you doing here?”

“I know you hang out and do homework here after school,” Joss told her. “And Cameron will call you first about the whole thing. I wanted to know when it happens. I figure, if I’m sitting here, you’ll tell me.”

Emma scowled but went back to her algebra homework, ignoring the blonde sitting across from her. It was so strange to be friends with Joss Jacks without actually being friends with her. She blamed Cameron for this. And Spencer. They’d forced Joss on her for so many years that Emma had given up the good fight.

But now that Joss was here—

“I was thinking that maybe with all this going on,” Emma began and Joss looked up, “that maybe we all try a truce. I mean, other than the blue hair dye—” Joss narrowed her eyes. “Which I wasn’t involved in—”

“I doubt it,” Joss muttered. “Do you know how long it took to fix?”

“Other than that, and the stunt you pulled with Oscar Nero—we’ve mostly been getting along this year. I just—we might not like each other much, Joss, but we’ve always agreed on one thing.”

“Yeah.” Joss made a face. “And I blame Cameron for this.”

“So do I. But his mom has thing going on, and now the police are looking at his dad—and you know if they come for his dad, they might come for your brother’s dad. Which means your mom is in the middle—”

“Yeah, though I don’t think it’ll take Mom that long to be involved.” Joss flipped her hair over her shoulder. “So, what, we don’t play pranks or something?”

“You could just not say things to Trina,” Emma suggested. “Because, like, I don’t like you, but I don’t think you’re a bad person. Sometimes you’re even funny to be around. But you don’t think and you say stuff that isn’t okay. And it makes Trina mad. And it hurts her.”

Joss exhaled slowly. “Yeah, I know,” she admitted. “It’s just hard. She’s never liked me, and I never liked her, and sometimes I just want her to be quiet, and I say stuff — like I did about her hair, and then I’m sorry later.”

“Well, you need to be sorry earlier. And you need to stop. My mom said that’s what always got your mom in trouble. Being impulsive and not thinking about others.”

Joss narrowed her eyes. “And my mom said that your mother’s desperate need to always be right and set standards for everyone else gets her in trouble. So, like, I guess we’re just like them and now we hate each other.”

“Oh, you just insist on always taking the bad stuff—” Emma retorted. They were interrupted as Trina emerged from the path, a dark look cross her face when she saw Joss.

“What is she doing here?” Trina demanded.

“We’re negotiating a truce,” Joss volunteered. “Emma and I were just discussing how much you’ll have to beg me—ow—” She rubbed her leg and glared at Emma. “Fine. Okay. I wanted to know how things went with Cam and his dad, and Emma brought up a truce because we all like Cameron even though everyone hates me, and maybe we don’t fight in front of him.”

Trina sat down across from the other girls with a suspicious expression. “Yeah, okay. Things were fine. It was uncomfortable, but his dad didn’t ask questions and it was over in like five minutes. I didn’t even need to be there, but it’s done now.”

“Good.” Pleased, Emma sat back. “Now we don’t have to worry about it. We did the right thing—”

Joss opened her mouth, then shook her head. “Nope. Not even doing it. That’s me being a truce-keeper.”

“This is not how a truce works—” Trina began, but then there was a rustle and they all turned towards the sound. “What was that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe some kids—” Emma began, but Joss wasn’t going to speculate. She shot up from the bench and went over to look.

“There’s nothing here. Maybe it was a bird or an animal.” She shrugged and returned to the table, where they proceed to snark and bicker for another hour before going home.

Morgan Home: Kitchen

Sonny leaned over to kiss Elizabeth’s cheek. “Hey, kid. How are you feeling?”

“Tired mostly,” Elizabeth said, pouring herself a glass of water. “Jason’s outside with boys, cleaning up dinner. I didn’t know you were stopping by.”

“Yeah, Jason had something he wanted to run by me in person.” Sonny put up his hands when she just frowned at him. “Hey, you probably know more than I did. I’m a legit coffee exporter these days.”

“Yeah, I know. Jason said things have been quiet since things with Julian and Ava Jerome calmed down.” She shook her head, wiping down the counter. “Wild that he’s alive, and that he’s Sam’s father.”

“Yeah, well, we sent her running back to New York, and he’s down there harassing Sam in Llanview for as long as McBain will let him.” Sonny folded his arms. “I spent my whole life looking over my shoulder. It’s strange I don’t have to do it like I did once.”

“I’m certainly not complaining,” Elizabeth said dryly. “Moreno, Sorel, Alcazar, the Ruizes, the Zaccharas, the Russians—” she shuddered. “I’ve been happy for this break.”

“Considering you brought the Cassadines with you,” Sonny said with a grin, and she rolled her eyes. “I guess we’re about even.”

“Yeah, sure. Can you send the boys in when you go out? They need to do their homework.”

Sonny did as she asked, leaving him alone on the deck with Jason as he cleaned up the grill and finished packing up the leftovers from dinner.

“Thanks for coming by tonight,” Jason said. “I could have—”

“But I don’t still have little kids at home,” Sonny pointed out. “And you spent years coming to me.” He sat at the table. “What’s up?”

Jason explained what Trina had overheard and Sonny’s face darkened. “Are they seriously going to use this bullshit with you? Jordan knows what that asshole did—”

“Yeah, I know.” Jason sat across from him. “The thing is, I think the kids probably undersold it. Or maybe they don’t know. If the PCPD is going to be watching, then they’re going to be watching the hospital and Baker, too. If I send any of our guys in, it’ll just convince Jordan’s she’s right. I can’t have our guys on this.”

“Yeah, they’ll be treating Baker like a goddamn protected witness instead of a raping asshole—” Sonny dragged his hand through his hair. “All right, I guess we’ll have to think outside the box. Maybe get Spinelli to come up with some surveillance that isn’t so obvious. Christ, most of the kids work at the hospital, not just Cam. And Elizabeth.”

“I don’t want him near anyone, but Elizabeth wants it left alone and with this PCPD—” Jason grimaced. “I’ll talk to her about it. Whatever she wants, it’s what we’ll do. But Cameron has been through enough. I don’t want him to worry about this. It was…painful…knowing he felt like he had to tell me.”

“First time I had that conversation with Michael, then with Morgan, it was like torture. At least Dante was brought up knowing what I was,” Sonny muttered. “And Kristina, I guess, it was in the air. But Michael and Morgan knew things, you know? They saw things.”

“Michael lived through the worst years. Cameron—I just want him—and the others—not to know a little longer. But he already knew who I was. One day—” Jason stared down at his hands. “One day they’ll know more.”

“Hey, my kid was working undercover to take me down and forgave me for shooting him,” Sonny reminded him. “Don’t worry so much. At least you can say you didn’t nearly kill any of them.”

Baker’s House: Dark Room

Baker hummed to himself as he clipped another photo of his pretty girl in the park to the drying rack. It was almost like magic seeing her face emerge from the whiteness of the paper, with her lovely eyes worried as she spoke to the blonde who had sat with her.

His pretty Emma had so many lovely friends, and it was worth looking at them twice, but there was something about her.

Baker slid the photo a bit closer to another that he’d developed, one of his sweet Elizabeth from the day before as she’d stood in her backyard with a cup of coffee with one of her children. Pretty Emma looked just like her, with her dark hair and sweet smile. They could have been mother and daughter.

It was a shame sweet Elizabeth didn’t have daughters of her own, but Baker had watched and heard enough to know that Emma was practically family to her. Maybe that was why he’d been drawn to her over the others.

One day, he’d find out how deep the similarities were, and if he’d have the same fond memories of Emma as he did of Elizabeth.

One day.

Written in 60 minutes.

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General Hospital: Hallway

“Hey—” Elizabeth caught Patrick by the elbow as he left a patient’s room. “Do you have a minute?”

“For you, Webber, always.” Patrick returned the chart to the door, and then joined her. “What’s up?”

“It’s about Emma,” Elizabeth said, gesturing for them to head into an empty room for some privacy. “She, uh, found out about what happened to me when I was a kid.”

Patrick stared at her, then grimaced. “Eavesdropping at the door again, huh?” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Did she come to talk to you?”

“No, but she told Cameron, and I’ve talked to him.” Elizabeth put a hand out. “I’m not angry with her. I couldn’t be. Cameron had a lot of questions and I know he’s struggling with. I was worried about Emma. I thought you might want to talk to her. Or Robin. Or I can if you want me to.”

Patrick sat on the bed, exhaling slowly. “I know I pretend not to notice that our kids are dating,” he told her, “but you know, secretly, I was thrilled.”

Frowning, Elizabeth sat next to him. “What do you mean?”

“I know Cameron. Hell, I half-raised him. And I know you and Jason. I know he treat Emma well, and that he’d never hurt her. Even though I don’t think she should stay with the same kid she liked at fourteen, part of me just wants her to never date anyone else.” He looked at her. “It’s terrifying. I mean, for all parents, you know that. But there’s something extra terrifying about letting a young woman out into this world.”

“I know.” Elizabeth pressed a hand to her still flat belly. “I worry about my boys, but I’ll always worry about Emma. And Joss and Trina, and all the other girls who’ve come through my house.”

“I’ll talk to Robin. She’ll probably want to say something to Emma, or maybe she’ll want you to. I don’t know,” he admitted. He looked at Elizabeth. “I’ve never been able to protect Emma from most of the bad stuff. She grew up around Lisa Niles and the Cassadines. Her uncle is still in prison—” He looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes. “But this feels different.”

He met her eyes. “What do I even say to her?” he asked softly. “How can you ever talk to your daughter about something like this? What would you say if Emma was  yours?”

“Sometimes she does feel a little bit mine,” Elizabeth confessed. “And I don’t know. You want to give her a list of all the things she shouldn’t do to protect herself, and it sucks. Because why does she have to worry about walking alone in a park or what boy she dates. She should never have to be scared.” She looked at the wall in front of them. “The rape took over my entire existence for almost a year. It was was my every waking thought, and I couldn’t imagine a time when it wouldn’t be the first thing I thought about when I woke up or my last thought before I went to sleep. On the nights I could sleep.”

She bit her lip. “And it was worse because for so long, I blamed myself. If I hadn’t lied, if I hadn’t gone in that park, if I hadn’t sat down at that bench—if, if, if—” Her voice faltered. “And sometimes I blamed Lucky, even though I wouldn’t have told him that. If he hadn’t liked my sister. If he hadn’t taken so long to notice I wasn’t there—why didn’t anyone even notice I was gone?” She rubbed her chest. “God. I was just a stupid kid with too much pride to admit I’d lied about having a date.”

“Elizabeth—”

“I didn’t deserve what happened to me,” she continued softly. “But it too so long to believe that. To understand that there was nothing I could have done to change what happened that night.”

She looked at him. “What I would tell my own daughter, what I’ve told Cameron and will tell his siblings—the world can be a dark and cruel place filled with people who want to do nothing but hurt you. And sometimes, they’ll win. Sometimes you’ll get hurt and it will feel like the end of the world. But it’s also a world filled with good. With people like your uncle Patrick and your aunt Robin, and Trina and Spencer and Joss, and Laura, and the people who love you. It’s filled with such light and beauty that if you let yourself be open to it, the dark can’t win.”

Patrick managed a smile. “And that works?”

“Most of the time.” She paused. “I  almost let the rape drown me and become the only thing that mattered about my life. I thought I’d never have a family. That I’d never find a man who loved me because I couldn’t imagine being touched.” She swiped at her tears. “I’d cry myself to sleep at night because I thought my life was over at sixteen and I didn’t even know I’d had any real dreams for myself until I thought they’d been shattered.”

She took a deep breath. “But Lucky kept me anchored to the future, and no matter what he’s done in the years since, I will always be grateful for that. I fought back, but he stood next to me while I did it. And then, later Laura was there for me. Emily and Nikolas. Jason. I pieced my life back together, painfully, like a shattered window. But I always felt a bit fragile. A bit jagged, like the pieces hadn’t been put together all the way or I’d done something wrong.”

“Do you still feel that way?”

“Sometimes,” Elizabeth admitted. “I had that panic attack when I saw Baker, and I just—it shouldn’t be like this all these years later, Patrick. It shouldn’t be this thing that can rise up and choke me from all this time later.” She got to her feet. “I keep telling everyone I’m fine, even Jason. I think they believe me.”

“But you’re not fine.”

“I’m—” Elizabeth looked at him. “Patrick, we don’t have to do this. I’m okay—”

“Hey.” He got to his feet. “You know you can tell me anything, babe. That’s how this works. You’ll tell me, and it’ll be easier to tell Jason. Because you have to. You know that.”

“I don’t want anyone to worry about me. I’m stronger than I look—” She pressed her lips together. “But the dreams are back.”

“The dreams?” Patrick echoed.

“The nightmares,” she corrected softly. “Jason probably knows about them. He hasn’t said anything, but I know he probably knows.”

She closed her eyes. “Before—before it was just reliving that night. I’m still sixteen, I’m still in that red dress, sitting on the bench—”

He took her hand, squeezed it. “Go on. If you can.”

“A-and he grabs me—” Her voice broke. “I fought so hard, you know? I tried to cling to the bench—I tried to bite down on his hand, but I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t fight back. I couldn’t stop it.” She pressed her hands to her eyes. “The nightmares when they’ve come have always been the same. I’ve always been sixteen.”

“But you’re not sixteen in the new ones,” Patrick said softly and Elizabeth shook her head. “It’s now. And you see Baker. The way he is now.”

“There should just be a point where it ends,” Elizabeth bit out. “Where I get to put it in a box and move on, and I don’t know why I can’t—”

Patrick enfolded her into a tight embrace, kissing the top of her head. “You do put it in a box, honey. You close the flaps and you put it in the attic for months and years at a time. When was the last time you even thought about it before Baker showed up?”

“Oh, God—” Elizabeth sighed in a rush of air. “Maybe last year? When Cameron took Emma to that dance at the middle school. Emma—I mean she looks like you and Robin, but she’s a brunette, and her dress—it just—I flashed to it. But before then, years maybe.”

“I think the fact that you can put it away for so long is the real victory. Because it happened, Elizabeth. It won’t ever be something you an erase. But you didn’t let it define you. You’re an amazing nurse, the world’s best adopted sister, the most generous and forgiving of women because you married Jason Morgan after all the crap he put you through, and the world’s second best mother because I’m contractually obligated to put my wife first.”

Elizabeth laughed, then dropped her head against Patrick’s chest. “I love you, you know.”

“I love you, too. Promise me you’ll go home and talk to your husband, okay? Despite all the reasons I shouldn’t, I actually like him most of the time. Thanks for giving me some thoughts for how to talk to Emma. We might still pull you in, Aunt Liz, so be on deck.”

Port Charles High School: Cafeteria

“Why are you telling me this?” Cameron demanded, setting his milk carton down with a thud so hard some of the liquid slopped out over the edge. He glared at Trina, one of his oldest friends. “What am I going to do with this?”

“Uh, I don’t know, keep your dad out of prison?” Trina retorted. She looked at Spencer for some backup. “Can you explain the facts of life to this fool?”

“I’ve been trying most of my life,” Spencer said, flashing her a grin that she only narrowed her eyes at.

“I think Trina’s right,” Joss said, which put the rest of the table into complete silence as everyone stared at her. “What?”

“I’m just waiting for the ground to shake,” Spencer said. He actually reached down to touch the floor of the cafeteria. “Hmmm, can’t tell if the linoleum is always that temperature or if hell is frozen over.”

“Ha,” Joss muttered. “Just because Trina and I hate each other—”

“Every day—”

“It doesn’t mean I can’t admit when she’s right. I mean, I know it’s crazy since it hasn’t happened ever before—”

“You wouldn’t know what being right would look like if your daddy bought it for you,” Trina shot back.

Emma put her head in her hands. “Don’t you guys ever get bored of this?”

“Not of watching it.” Spencer unwrapped a lollipop. “The real question is—” He aimed the pop at Cameron. “What is he doing to do?”

“You overheard the commissioner of police telling your mom that she’s gonna be on my dad like white on rice because she thinks this is going to be her big shot at finally taking down my dad and Sonny.” Cameron grimaced. “And this being my mother’s rape.”

That took some of the fun out of the conversation as even Spencer sat back, a bit white-faced. “No one said that this was a good thing,” he told his cousin quietly. “And I’m really sorry about what your mom is going through. What she went through. She’s always been good to me, even when I didn’t deserve it.”

“Which you almost never did,” Joss muttered, and Spencer glared at her.

“I almost got us to Greece,” he reminded her. “It was your crazy mother tracking you that got us caught—”

“Oh, let’s not re-litigate that,” Emma said, waving at the two of them. “Honestly. Focus.”

“Anyway,” Spencer bit out, tossing Joss another dirty look. “My point is that like it or not, Trina overhearing the conversation is a good thing. Yeah, it sucks you’re going to have say something to your dad because I know we all like to pretend we don’t know who Sonny and Jason are.”

“But this is more important,” Emma said to Cameron. “The police are gonna be watching your dad even more, and if anything happens to this guy, they’re gonna go after him. You know your mom doesn’t need that. Not with, um, everything else.”

“What’s everything else? What’s going on?” Joss demanded. “What don’t I know?”

“Call in the military, Joss Jacks is out of the loop,” Trina said with a roll of her eyes. “Ow—” she glared at Spencer. “Like you weren’t thinking the same thing.”

“My mom is pregnant,” Cameron told them with a heavy sigh. “She just found out, and, like, I know my dad is worried because she had some miscarriages before. One before I was born, and one after me. And I think she’s had other health issues. I don’t know. They don’t talk near the vent a lot anymore.”

Emma squeezed his hand. “So it’s even more important that your dad has all the information he needs to protect your mom. Even if your dad doesn’t do anything, the PCPD doesn’t always play fair.”

“Yeah, I know. Man, I really don’t want to have this conversation,” he muttered.

Scorpio-Drake House: Emma’s Bedroom

Later that night, Emma was seated at her vanity, brushing out her hair and keeping an eye on her phone. She was hoping Cameron would talk to his father tonight, but she knew he’d probably procrastinate.

She’d have to push him on it, otherwise it was going to eat her alive.

She turned at the knock on her door, finding her mother standing there. “Hey, Mom. What’s up?”

“Uh, nothing. I just—” Robin wrinkled her nose as she came in and sat down. “Listen, we need to have a conversation about something, and I don’t really know how to start it. Um, Cameron and his mother talked about this, and she was worried about you—so, I guess—I just wanted to know if you had any questions about what happened.”

“You mean about Cameron’s mom getting raped when she was a little older than us?” Emma said, and Robin’s cheeks flushed. “Mom, not saying the word doesn’t make it any less horrible. I’m okay. I’m sad for Aunt Liz. After everything else she’s been through with Jake and all that, this seems really terrible.”

“Yeah, yeah, it is. Um, so you don’t—” Robin tipped her head. “You don’t have any questions?”

“You mean, like about what happened to her specifically or like, rape in general.” Emma bit her lip. “I don’t know. Not really. It seems really scary, but I try to do all the things I’m supposed to. You and Dad don’t let me out on school nights, so that’s good. And I get rides to everything. I don’t walk home alone. I don’t do any super sketchy on social media, and I don’t talk to strangers unless I’m at the hospital.” She looked at her mother. “Am I supposed to have questions?”

“No, no. I just—um, if you did, you could talk to me. Or Aunt Liz said you can say something to her. She just—she loves you, baby.”

“I know. I love her, too.” Emma paused. “Are you okay, Mom?” she asked softly. “You look upset?”

“Oh, just—” Robin sighed. “I knew Elizabeth back when this happened. Not well, but I was aware of it at the time. And I just, I look at you—she wasn’t much older than you. It’s scary, I guess. But you’re right. You’re responsible and you’ve done everything we’ve told you.” She got to her feet. “But please. If you need anything or you want to talk about anything—”

“I know.” Emma got to her feet and went over to hug her mother. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Morgan House: Master Bedroom

Elizabeth twisted her wedding ring around her finger as she went into their room that night after lights were out for the boys. Jason was sitting on the bed, kicking off his boots. “Hey.”

“Hey.” He got up and came over to kiss her lightly. “You okay? You looked a little nauseous at dinner.”

“Yeah. I hate that they call it morning sickness,” she muttered. “It feels like it happens all the damn time.”

Jason smoothed his hands up and down her arm. “You should have said something,” he told her. “I’ll get you ginger ale or something—”

“I got it, I’m okay—” She stopped. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I should have. I’m just—” Elizabeth hesitated. “I’ve never been with anyone at this stage of pregnancy. Or really at any stage,” she admitted. “Ric was barely there with Cameron, and Lucky was in rehab, then were separated, and well—” She met his eyes. “Even after all this time, it’s still hard for me to turn to you. I’m sorry.”

“I know.” He kissed her again, lingering. “And we’re not going to fix that overnight or even in three years,” Jason said. “It’s okay.”

“Thank you for feeling that way. Um, there’s something else.” She looked down at her hands. “I’ve…been having nightmares.”

From the way his body tensed, Elizabeth knew her suspicions had been correct. “But you knew that.”

“I’m not a heavy sleeper,” he reminded her gently. “So yeah, I knew. I also knew you’d talk about it when you were ready.” Jason brushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ears. “Are you ready?”

“Not really. But I just—tonight, can you hold me? I mean, you normally do,” she added, “but when I wake up, um, can I—can I wake you, too? Or—”

“Anything you need.” He kissed her forehead, then drew her into his arms, and she closed her eyes, feeling safe there but knowing that it wouldn’t last forever.