Pictures of you, pictures of me
Hung upon your wall for the world to see
Pictures of you, pictures of me
Remind us all of what we used to be
Confess to me, every secret moment
Every stolen promise you believed
Confess to me, all that lies between us
All that lies between you and me
– Pictures of You, The Last Goodnight

---

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Kiremit House: Study

It was peculiar how quickly the world could shift, Nikolas thought, waiting for Luke to unfold the map across the desk for one last review of the plans for the evening. Only a few days ago, he’d been despairing that they’d ever have a true lead — that there would one day be a light at the end of the tunnel —

That he could go home.

But then Luke had brought home the stunning news that Stefan was alive. Stefan, his uncle and for so long, his moral compass. The center of Nikolas’s world. Stefan had controlled his universe for the first sixteen years of his life — personally overseeing every facet of his education and setting the physical limits of his world. The island just off the coast of Mykonos with just his uncle, Alexis, and the occasional visit from Helena —

It hadn’t prepared him well for his first years in Port Charles, and there were times Nikolas wished they’d never come at all. His uncle had lost some of that sheen during those years in America, some of that moral fiber that had set him apart from the rest of the Cassadines. And by the time, he’d thrown himself from the cliffs in an attempt to once again bring some damage to Luke, Uncle had become the very Cassadine he’d warned Nikolas about.

But now Nikolas had learned that fatal plunge from the cliffs had not been the end of his uncle’s tragic story. Like so many other Cassadines before him, death had only been the beginning.

Had Stefan been lingering in a coma since those days? Or had Helena nursed him back to help and found a place for him? Had his uncle turned to the dark side? What manner of man would Nikolas find when they met face to face again?

Would Stefan be proud of the man Nikolas had grown into? Would Stefan understand the choices he’d made? Or would Nikolas be condemned?

“The timing is tight,” Luke said, and Nikolas tuned back into the older man. Luke rubbed his mouth, considering the map. “And it all hinges on whether Cowboy can sell the brothers Morgan into skedaddling out of Turkey tonight. Our best bet to get away clean is to be sure they take the fall for it—” He stopped when he heard something behind him — and of course, it was Britt, making her discontent clear.

It chafed a bit at Nikolas, as well, to assume that Valentin wouldn’t inflict real damage on those Nikolas still held dear. Would he go directly for Jason or Drew? He’d gone straight for Nikolas once upon a time, or so they’d thought. Or would Valentin want to make an example of them—would he take his rage out on someone else?

But he had to trust that Drew and Jason had secured their family before they’d left the country. Jason had always pushed to keep Elizabeth and the boys safe. And Nikolas knew Elizabeth would insist that Laura and Spencer be protected as well.

It was an uncomfortable feeling to know so much rested on a belief in Jason Morgan and his brother.

“If Little Obrecht doesn’t have anything useful to add—” Luke said, his tone low and irritated as it often was when Britt reminded him of her existence. “I’ll continue. I’ll monitor the lab as closely as I can today, but I don’t know if the brothers will come back. At seven, there’s a shift change at the clinic, with a clear path from Stefan’s room to the exit in the back of the building. We’ll have two identical vans parked. I’ll take the one with Stefan directly to the airport, and Cowboy will drive the other. If it works out the way I think, I’ll be able to get maybe a minute head start —” He looked at Lucky. “And you’ll head out a minute later in the opposite direction.”

“Hoping that anyone who comes out will catch sight of me and not you, yeah.” Lucky folded his arms. “I’ll take them on a bit of a ride through Maslak and get into the warehouse where Britt will be waiting with the Etox. She’ll have it running. I abandon the van, get in the car, and we’ll head for the airport.”

“I still don’t like you driving — and not for the usual reasons,” Luke added when Britt opened her mouth. “You don’t have the background in defensive driving. What if it’s not a clean get away?”

“We thought about having it running with me in the passenger seat, but it’s an extra ten, maybe twenty seconds for Lucky to get behind the wheel. He can slide in the passenger side more easily. We need every second.” Britt folded her arms. “And if he does his job right, maybe we’ll have the time. But why take the chance?”

“I’ll be right in the car. If she needs to do a chase, I can handle it from my side. I know every alley in the area. Unless you have a better plan—” Lucky shrugged. “I gotta head out to meet Jason and Drew and convince them to leave, so if there’s nothing else?”

“We’ll all meet at the airport. As soon as we’re together, we’ll leave. Once we get where we’re going,” Nikolas said, “you can both head out. Britt will remain behind to wake my uncle.”

“Seems like we should at least wait that out,” Lucky said. “If Stefan wakes up and has information we need, no point in me being in Russia or Eastern Europe. Easier if I’m right there. Dad?”

Luke considered Lucky carefully, before flicking his eyes to Nikolas. “He’s got a point. We still got those files to go through. Might as well see what the zombie has to say before we split up.”

Shish Bar & Roof: Roof Terrace

The rooftop restaurant didn’t boast much of a view, Drew thought, but it wasn’t half bad all things considered. The Sea of Marmara was in the distance, the water a dark blue-gray during the winter months. The Blue Mosque on the other side, and a scattering of brightly colored roofs surrounding the area.

“I think I liked to travel,” Drew decided, sipping his coffee. Jason dug into the menemen dish he’d ordered, scooping the eggs and peppers onto a fork. “I mean, up until now, I thought I did but I didn’t know if it was because I remembered you traveling or because—”

“Did you always talk this much?” Jason asked. Drew just shot him a finger as it echoed their conversation from the night before. He glanced at the phone next to his plate. “He’s late.”

“He could be seeing how far he can push us. But—” Drew glanced over at the staircase leading to the elevator. “Why would he want to do that? What else could he be lying about?”

“Their location, for one thing. And his relationship with Britt.”

“Could be we’re overthinking that part,” Drew considered. “Objectively speaking, Britt’s a gorgeous woman, and he’s an idiot. He’s done stupider things for women before.”

“That’s for sure,” Jason muttered, remembering Lucky and Sam’s botched attempt to investigate the Russians, leading them directly to Elizabeth and the boys.

“I think it’s more interesting that Lucky has turned on Luke. You weren’t around when they brought Jake back,” Drew said, “but they seemed like a team. Which I don’t understand. Up until that summer, Luke was to blame for Jake’s accident. And, uh, I don’t know about you, but finding out Jake was alive didn’t exactly fix that for me.”

“Me either.”

“How could Lucky just let it go enough to work with him over these last few years? But now he’s turning on him? That’s more suspicious to me than Lucky being an idiot for a pretty girl.”

“Unless he was using Luke all along,” Jason said.

“There’s a good point.” Drew furrowed his brow. “But are we supposed to believe Lucky managed to fool his father? I don’t remember him being that quick.” He grimaced. “This would be easier if we could get Luke in the room and get a better sense of their relationship.”

“I’m not surprised Luke won’t meet with us. Think about what he’s been lying about — all we’ve wanted is a hint about Valentin’s location here, and he’s known for days. He’d never be able to carry that story. He was never much good at lying to my face.”

“No?” Drew shook his head. “I don’t really know Luke that well. He wasn’t around much, and then he left town entirely.”

Jason hesitated, his fork stopping just above his plate. “You don’t know Luke that well? What about my memories?”

“What about them?”

“Luke and I were friendly enough until the garage fire. And even after that, he and I didn’t have any issues. Not until—” Jason’s face tightened. “Not until Jake’s accident. You don’t remember that?”

Drew frowned, searched his—Jason’s—memory. “No,” he said, with a touch of confusion. “Not really. I don’t remember a time you and Luke were close. That’s—” He stopped. Set down his coffee mug. “Actually, that’s strange. I used to remember the time after the accident more clearly.”

“But now?”

“Now if I try to pull out a specific memory—” Drew rubbed the side of his face. “It’s like a fog has settled over a lot of it. You know, I had amnesia when I came to Port Charles for more than a year. It wasn’t until May of 2016 that I started to remember more than a handle of things. Almost two years ago.”

“Maddox said he did the procedure again.”

“Maybe it’s not permanent.” Drew considered this. “Yesterday, I remembered something from my own past. Maybe all I needed was to be around a place that you weren’t. Huh. Wonder if Maddox knows that. Might be a good way to get the WSB to let us talk to him. Anyway. You were saying you’re a Spencer lie detector.”

Jason made a face. “Not exactly. But I used to work closely with Luke. At the club and when Sonny left town. Luke’s not a genius, but he’s…” He paused, clearly searching for the right word. “He’s practical. Realistic.”

“Yeah—” Drew stopped when he saw Lucky winding his way through the tables. “You’re late.”

“Sorry.” Lucky dropped into the third seat, stifled a yawn. “Dad dragged me out of bed to meet with a guy at the airport.” He grimaced. “Valentin’s gone. He left Turkey yesterday morning, around the time you landed. Maybe a bit before.”

Jason and Drew traded a look, then Jason looked back at Lucky. “We know.”

“You—” Lucky’s eyes widened. “You know.”

“Yeah. Caught a break, I guess. Nina complained to Maxie which led to Spinelli. We couldn’t find out how he got out under the radar—”

“Oh. Okay, well that’s something I can help with.  He disguised the flight path and chartered the flight under a different holding company. We didn’t have this one on the radar,” Lucky added. “I think it’s interesting that he didn’t bother to hide his arrival here, but he was more careful to hide his exit. Up until this trip, he’d kept himself pretty much out of it. We didn’t even know for sure he was involved beyond a gut feeling.”

“And the only reason why Valentin would want to keep himself hidden on the way back—” Drew said, stopping as he considered the question.

“He knows someone is here looking for him. Whether that’s me or you guys—” Lucky shrugged. “We don’t know. But he went to a lot of trouble to make sure we didn’t know he was gone.”

“Where are you going next?” Drew asked. “Are you sticking around town?”

“I think we’re heading to St. Petersburg to look into the clinic again. Britt’s on board this time, and like she said, she worked there, so we might get some insight.” Lucky tipped his head to Jason. “You’re welcome to tag along since you were a patient there. You might be able to help,”

“I told you everything I knew,” Jason said in a clipped tone. “No thanks.”

“Fair enough. What about you? You going to stick around, try to get into the lab now that he’s gone?”

“Maybe the rest of today,” Jason said after a minute. “Valentin’s been back for twenty-four hours and nothing’s happened.”

“I don’t have to ask if you’ve got someone on Elizabeth and the boys,” Lucky said, and Jason eyed him, a bit intrigued by the tension in the tone. For someone who had appeared to wash his hands of his family back in Port Charles, it was an interesting question.

“Yeah. Spinelli’s upgraded all the security everywhere the boys go. And they never go anywhere without an adult.” Jason paused. “Other than the bus stop to the garage or to the house, but I’ve got a guard trailing them.”

“I didn’t know that,” Drew said, surprised.

“I don’t want them to feel like Michael and Kristina did—trapped by the security,” Jason said. “We also have someone on Laura’s place.”

“Good. Good. Mom’s pretty handy with a shotgun, but I don’t know if her reflexes are as good as they used to be.” Lucky sighed. “I’ll be in touch if I find anything. Something big has to break soon.” He got to his feet. “We’re working too many angles for something not to shift loose. I’ll be in touch.” He loped back towards the staircase, and Drew watched him.

“I’m gonna follow him,” he told Jason. “Catch up with him and take the elevator down. “Then when—”

“Don’t explain, just go.”

Drew rolled his eyes but followed after Lucky. Jason dumped some lira on the table to pay for breakfast, waited about five minutes, then headed back to their hotel.

Kennedy Avenue: Street

Drew followed Lucky as the younger man wove his way through the tight streets in the Fatih district and managed to keep up with him through the first few alleys, but as the roads curved towards the Sea of Marmara, he lost him.

“Little bastard,” Drew muttered, scanning the street around him, checking to his left, then to the right. Whatever truths they’d been told the day before, there were clearly more secrets being kept. Otherwise, why the wild goose chase? Lucky had clearly known he was being followed and instead of confronting Drew, he’d chosen to shake him loose. He was clearly protecting their base of operations, wherever it was.

He exhaled slowly, scanned the area one more time, but had to admit that he’d lost the moron. By now Jason would be on his way back to the hotel, but Drew wasn’t quite yet ready to admit defeat.

The breeze by the coast was strong, and the sun overhead glinted on the water. Drew walked down the avenue, wondering if maybe Lucky had ducked into one of the small cafes or shops that lined the street.  He passed a stone wall covered in grass and other greenery, and then just past it—

There was an outdoor cafe with a courtyard lines with tables shaded by umbrellas. Semaver Cafe. Drew stood there for a long moment, then went inside to the counter. He didn’t even look at the menu.

When the cashier asked for his order, Drew didn’t hesitate. “Ben isterim Patlıcan Kebap ve…” Now he did look at the menu, considering Jason’s tastes. “Ve Altı Ezmeli.”

He paid for the order, and when they handed him a brown paper bag, Drew headed for the street, a wave of something that nearly felt like dizziness swept through him, though he didn’t think he was in danger of losing his balance. He was sure that wasn’t the only time he’d ordered an eggplant kebab from this place, and he was even more certain that beef and lamb special he’d ordered for Jason had been another one of his favorites.

He walked back out on the street, looked at it with new eyes. He’d definitely been to Istanbul before. He’d walked these streets. Drank coffee in Maslak, ordered kebabs from Semaver—

Drew exhaled slowly, thought about the day before. Jason relating that the first time he’d felt any real sort of connection to who he’d been before the accident had been wielding a knife to save Nikolas Cassadine’s life in Luke’s parking lot.

Today, Drew felt certain that he’d been the man who’d raised Oscar. Who’d been married twice before. Had served in the military. Today, he knew he’d been Andrew Cain.

And maybe tomorrow, he’d start to remember what that meant. Who he really was, and not just who he was trying to be.

Akbıyık Caddesi: Street

Jason walked past their hotel, just a few steps away from where they’d eaten breakfast, and continued up the quiet street towards the louder and more crowded intersection.

He needed to think, and the small hotel room would only feel more confining. He hadn’t really known what to expect on this trip, only that it had to be done. They hadn’t learned much, but what they knew changed things. The Spencers had located Valentin, told no one, and were keeping even more secrets.

Jason believed that Lucky had broken with Luke to a certain extent, but he was still protecting someone or something. Otherwise, what was the point in holding back anything? If Luke wanted to chase the Cassadines, Jason wasn’t going to get in his way. They were only looking for evidence that connected Valentin to the experiments. The memory experiments were part of the Cassadine legacy. Their goals weren’t that different at all.

And if Lucky was telling the truth about what he knew, why did Jason still feel like there was an air of deception around him? The story about Lucky going to the airport that morning — it didn’t sound right. And the invitation to tag along in St. Petersburg felt calculated—

Jason heard a familiar roar of an engine and turned to see a motorcycle whipping past with a couple on its back. Not for the first time, he thought about what a mistake it had been to leave Elizabeth at home. She knew Cassadines better than he did — and she might have been able to force Lucky into bringing Luke to a meeting.  It had made sense for her to stay, but what if Valentin already knew they were gone? And why did it matter if he knew? They could have kept the boys safe somehow.

She’d been so angry and hurt not to even be considered. He knew they’d needed to have that argument for all the times he’d shut her out before, but Jason was going to have to get used to how things were now. This wasn’t Manny Ruiz or the Russians looking for Jason’s Achilles heel to break him into pieces. Elizabeth was part of this, and he wouldn’t forget it again.

With that in mind, he headed back to the hotel, frowning when he saw Drew coming from the other direction — a paper bag in his hand.

“I got lunch,” the other man said. He stared down at the bag. “Uh, they’re pretty good cold. At least from what I remember.”

Jason blinked at that statement. “What you remember?”

“Yeah.” Drew cleared his throat, raised his eyes to Jason. “It was like the coffee place yesterday. I knew what to order. So, yeah. I remembered it.” He exhaled slowly. “Maybe this trip was a bust when it comes to Valentin, and knowing I like eggplant kebabs and Turkish coffee isn’t that important, but it’s something. It’s…” He shook his head. “It’s the only thing I know about me.”

“Spinelli can get your military records,” Jason said after a minute. “So you can see where else you’ve been. Maybe it would help to go to San Diego.”

“Yeah, maybe.” They went towards the hotel entrance. “Lucky knew he was being followed and I lost him after the third or fourth alley he dragged me through. So either he was just being an asshole—which we can’t rule out—or he’s still not telling us everything.”

God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be
The tomb won’t close, stained glass windows in my mind
I regret you all the time
I can’t let this go, I fight with you in my sleep
The wound won’t close, I keep on waiting for a sign
I regret you all the time
– Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, Taylor Swift

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

General Hospital: Elevator

The shrill alarm of the emergency alarm echoed in Elizabeth’s ears, but she made no move to step forward, to try to shove him away and press the button to begin the elevator’s descent.

“Talk?” Elizabeth repeated. “We have nothing to talk about—”

“You sure about that?” Franco leaned against the doors, his hands in his pockets, casually posing as if they were having a normal conversation and she wasn’t being held hostage. “I hear you and Jason are back together. I guess I was right back in the police station. A brother for each of you.” He tipped his head. “Then again, I heard the fake Jason already left Sam, so maybe your time is already running out and Jason will scamper back to her shortly.”

Elizabeth tensed, but kept her mouth closed.

“Fine.” He shrugged. “Then I’ll do the talking. Do you and lover boy ever talk about me?”

Elizabeth pressed her lips together. Said nothing.

“Thought not.” Franco sighed. “You know, it’s probably for the best if you pretend it never happened. You don’t want him thinking too hard about it. Has he been in your bed yet? You know—” He leaned forward, and Elizabeth’s throat tightened. “The one we shared? You wonder if he thinks about it? About us?”

She wasn’t going to respond to him. Wasn’t going to think about it.

“You know, he and I — we’re not brothers, but we are cousins. You sure do like to keep it in the family, don’t you? Lucky and Nikolas were brothers. Jason and Drew, brothers. Wasn’t there something with AJ? I’m their cousin. And Zander? Well, he was your best friend’s husband—”

“Just shut up—”

“Ah, I see I’ve hit a nerve. You know, I wonder if Jason thinks about my hands on you.” Franco leaned in, dropping his voice to a whisper, his eyes locked on Elizabeth’s. “Following in my footsteps, if you will. Maybe he doesn’t think about it now, but he will. I can make sure—”

“Shut up,” Elizabeth repeated. “You don’t know anything—”

“And when it sinks in, when he really understands that you didn’t just date me, you were in love with me—we were planning a future together—” Franco tilted his head. “Do you think that he’ll stick around? Maybe he’ll head over to commiserate with Sam since she’s single now. How long do you think he’ll stay this time?”

His words crawled over her like spiders, her stomach lurched, and bile scorched her throat. “I think you had better hope Jason forgets you existed,” Elizabeth said softly. “Just like I did.”

He gritted his teeth. “Don’t you—”

“I haven’t thought about you in weeks,” Elizabeth said. “And that’s why you’re in my face. I woke up and I realized you were nothing more than the punishment I thought I deserved. I haven’t thought about you,” she repeated. “Not even to hate you.”

“You said you loved me—”

“And I was wrong. You can’t love someone who doesn’t exist. You’re nothing to me.” Elizabeth reached around him, and pressed the emergency button with trembling fingers, desperate for this to be done. “Just a bad memory.”

Franco’s eyes flashed, and just when she thought he’d unleash his temper, his expression cleared, and he stepped back. “Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep at night. You never answered my question—has Jason slept in the bed you and I shared?”

The doors slid open, and Laura was there with a maintenance worker. Her eyes widened when she saw Franco standing just behind Elizabeth. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Elizabeth stepped out of the car. “Don’t worry. It’s fine.”

Kelly’s: Dining Room

Maxie dug through her purse, searching for her wallet, keeping one eye on her daughter sitting across the table in a booster seat so that she could reach the table. Georgie scribbled across a playmat, the corner of her tongue sticking out as she concentrated on staying in the lines.

“I know I tossed it in here—how do I get so much—” She finally found it underneath the pair of emergency clothes she kept for Georgie. “Finally—”

“Maxie. Hey.” Nina dropped into the chair. “I’m so glad you’re here. I need someone to rant to.”

Maxie lifted her brows. On Sunday, Nina had stormed off in a huff, but today, Maxie was her best friend? Maybe her screws were loose again. Then again, if Nina wanted to pretend they were besties today, maybe there was something to be gained.

“Is everything okay? Valentin still not returning calls?” Maxie asked, congratulating herself on helping. She’d get some intel, slip it off to Spinelli, and come out the hero.

“No, he came home,” Nina said, her jaw clenched. Maxie went still, but her sister-in-law continued. “And he acted as though nothing was wrong. Can you even imagine?” She tossed her red hair over her shoulder, smiled at Georgie. “Hey, baby, what are you drawing?”

“Dog. Mommy said not enough room because Daddy’s on the sofa, but I want one. So I draw one every day, so she knows—”

“Yeah, yeah, Georgie. I get it. Evil Wicked Witch of the West.” Maxie licked her lips. “Uh, so he came home? I mean, without warning you? When? And that’s totally rude. He didn’t even bring a gift? Nothing sparkly?”

“Nothing but a smile,” Nina muttered. “Just waltzed in this morning like he’d been gone an hour instead of more than a week.”

“This needs an emergency milkshake. No, no, don’t even mention the calories. My treat. Let me go up to the counter,” Maxie said. “Keep Georgie busy.”

“All right. Thank you.” Nina squeezed Maxie’s hand. “I can always count on you.”

Maxie darted over to the counter to order the milkshake—then, keeping her back to the table, she quickly shot a text off to Spinelli.

Alert, alert! 911! Valentin is back! He came home this morning!

Morgan’s Auto: Lobby

Elizabeth held open the door for the parade of children she’d managed to acquire. “Hey, Spinelli,” she called to the tech behind the counter. “Jason said you’d know what to do with these guys?” she gestured at the group, which included her three boys, Spencer, and Trina who was tagging along until her shift started at Kelly’s.

“Yes, of course,” Spinelli said. “Uh, Cameron, Jason said you were good to go on the car. He said he left something for you.”

Cameron rubbed his hands together. “I get to check the lines for leaks,” he told his mother. “And inventory sorting for Jake and Aiden?”

“Yeah, you know where everything is.” Spinelli watched as Elizabeth’s boys disappeared.

“I’m reading files,” Spencer said. “Are they still in the office?”

“Uh—” Spinelli looked at Elizabeth.

“I double checked. Laura is okay with it. Trina, why don’t you go help Spencer? That way you can stay clean for your shift,” Elizabeth suggested. “I’ll go get you guys set up in the office.”

After digging out a stack that seemed innocuous and boring, she left Spencer and Trina at the table in the staff room and came back out to join Spinelli at the counter. She took one of the extra seats. “So, I had a question for you. About file names.”

“I’m all ears.” Spinelli twisted on his chair so that they were facing each other, only the tops of their heads visible behind the high counter that faced the front door. “What’s up?”

“Can you—” Elizabeth took out the folders from the bag she’d dragged from work. “File 03050407. Is this all there is, or—”

“All that’s in print—” Spinelli stopped, then closed his eyes. “I didn’t think when I printed and sorted. That’s Stone Cold the Sequel’s birthday. Patient 3. May 4, 2007.”

“Yeah. Yeah, um, these are his files. At least from Helena’s side of it. And she seemed to be relatively current. Andre’s notes were in this batch.” She glanced at his ever present laptop, set up next to the desktop Spinelli was using for the garage. “Were there videos for this file prefix?”

“Let me check.” Spinelli rolled the chair over a few inches, then tapped a few keys. “Uh. Yes. There are…ten.”

“Ten.” Elizabeth sighed. “Are there any from the fall of 2011?” she asked quietly.

Spinelli didn’t respond. He brought over the laptop and set it down so that it rested between them. He had a file ready to go. “There’s one. Do you want to…”

“Yes. I want to watch it.” He clicked play. The video was in black and white, but relatively clear. After all, it wasn’t even that old. Barely seven years.

Elizabeth watched with dry eyes as Ewen Keenan carried her limp body into the lab, laid her out. She watched herself wake up, and then Helena came into the room. Ewen and Helena exchanged some remarks—

It took far longer than I thought it would to fetch her.

Then Helena turned away, gestured for something.

Dr. Obrecht?

Elizabeth pressed two fingers to her lips. Of course. Liesl. She’d worked Lucky’s case, and for Robin. But here she was. On Spoon Island, walking through a doorway with—

“That’s Jake,” Spinelli murmured, his eyes wide. “Looking just like—”

“A little taller, but he looks like the day of the accident.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. She watched Jake call for her—and the video Elizabeth rushing at him, holding him.

Just the way she’d always known. Jake begging to go home.

And then—they took him from her. A man took Jake, and Elizabeth tried to go after him—

She closed the laptop, looked away. “Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, we’ll—I’m going to go through this with Jason. Jake’s files, I mean. I think having both our—” She stumbled to her feet. “I need some air.”

She rushed outside, grateful when the bitter January wind slapped at her face. Oh, God. It had been real. She’d held her baby. She’d known it for weeks — Andre had told her —

But to see it — to see her son screaming for her— to watch Helena smile in amusement as Elizabeth fought to get him back—

“He’s always been a little bit of miracle.”

She looked up, saw Spinelli had followed her outside. “Jake, I mean. Everything he’s been through. Before he was born, at the hotel. Then being kidnapped. Twice. Then taken away for years. You’d never know it.”

“No.” She folded her arms around herself. “No, you wouldn’t,” she murmured. “But I know it.  I will never not know. Those years when I couldn’t touch him. Couldn’t see him. When I thought he was in the ground—” She closed her eyes. “It still comes back. Even now. He’s only been home for two years.” She took a deep breath. “I’m okay. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“You can’t stop me,” Spinelli said. “Do you want to go over the files?”

“No. No.” She scrubbed her cheeks. “No. I’ll wait for Jason. We should do this together. Thanks. We should get back inside.”

Spinelli held the door open for her. “Anytime.”

She smiled faintly, followed him back to the desk. “How’s Maddox’s decryption going?”

“No progress. Maximista offered to try with her father,” Spinelli reported, booting his laptop up, and getting rid of the offending video. “Perhaps a daughter’s guilt will sway him into letting us talk to the Dastardly Doctor.”

“That’s nice of her. Maybe—”

“Speaking of which—” Spinelli picked up his vibrating phone. “She’s texting me—oh, you’ve got to be kidding.” He tossed the phone side, then went to the laptop, his fingers flying over the keys.

“Spinelli?”

“Valentin is back. He came home this morning. Not a single sign of that—” Spinelli scowled, searching the lists of flights. “He didn’t bother to hide the first flight. But this one—there’s nothing arriving from Turkey. Nothing on the record.”

“We need to tell Jason.”

Greystone: Kitchen

“Hey,” Carly said, flipping through another set of tile samples. Joss grunted at her as she went to the fridge to pull out a soda. “How was school?”

“Fine.” Joss sat across from her. “What’s that?” She leaned over.

“Options for the floor at Jason’s garage. In the lobby.” Carly turned it around. “I’m looking for muted color schemes. Something he’ll be comfortable with, you know? Like earth tones. But not too muted. He needs color in his life.”

“That’s for sure. All he ever wears is black, brown and gray. Very boring. We should get him some blues. And maroons.” Joss propped her head against her fist. “Mom, do you think there’s something wrong with me?”

Carly knitted her brow together. “I need more information.”

“Like, maybe there’s something broken in my head. I was, like, super excited for Emma to move home because she’d get to see me, and Trina are friends now. And she always said no one would like me because I’m a spoiled brat.” Joss sipped her soda. “I thought well now Emma’s gonna find out how much it sucks to be on the outside because Cam is with Trina now, and he’s not gonna be interested in her.”

“That doesn’t make you a bad person—”

“I’m getting to that. Today. They were talking at lunch, and there was this whole drama about Spencer helping with those stupid files. He and Cam, like, butted heads, and were dumb boys about it. And then it spilled over into Aunt Laura being mad, and then Uncle Jason got mad, and Cam’s mom got involved. Whole huge drama, you know? But now it’s fixed. Because Cam talked to Emma and got advice on how to talk to his mom who talked Aunt Laura, and Trina looked a little annoyed by it, and I teased them because it’s funny—”

“Wait. You lost me.” Carly held up her hands. “Cameron and Spencer were having a fight, but now they’re not because Cameron and Emma talked about it. And you think you’re a bad person because…Trina was annoyed by it.”

“Yes. Like, I find happiness in chaos, and that’s probably not a good thing, right? Cam’s my best friend. I should want him to be happy, and I think he’s happy with Trina, but it’s also funny that Trina had a date with him this weekend, and they probably talked about it, but Cam doesn’t credit her with coming up with the way to fix it. He thanked Emma. Oh, oh, and it gets better because Trina actually talked to Spencer about the whole thing, and apparently her advice worked on him. So now instead of a triangle, I think it’s a quadrangle. And that shouldn’t entertain me, should it? This is what they mean by me being a brat, isn’t it?”

Carly rubbed her temple. “My head hurts. What does Oscar think about all of this?”

“Oh, he’s staying out of it. He doesn’t want to take sides, which is smart. That’s why he’s good for me, you know. He like—flicks me or pinches me when I’m starting to get on a roll. Like at lunch, I was gonna keep teasing Cam about the Emma thing, and he kicked me under the table, so I knew to stop.” Joss straightened. “I wish I could help him, too. But he never wants to talk about anything that’s going on. You know, like, with his dad. And his stepmom.”

Carly closed her tile samples. “I thought they were spending time together. Weren’t they at the party at Christmas?”

“Yeah, it all looked good. Like systems go, all steam ahead, but then Oscar canceled dinner with him last week, and he wouldn’t tell me why. I was thinking about setting them up, but maybe that would make things worse. Maybe you could get Drew over here, and then I’d get Oscar—”

“Honey, do you know when I used to get into the most trouble?” Carly asked. “When I tried to help someone who didn’t ask for it. Give Oscar some space. He’ll come to you when he’s ready.”

“But what if he doesn’t?”

“Then you can ask him about it. But take it from me, Joss, trying to fix problems when you haven’t been asked to? Never leads anywhere good.”

Morgan’s Auto: Lobby

“Yeah. Yeah, Spinelli still can’t find the flight—” Elizabeth paused to glance over at Spinelli. “He’s still trying to find out, but if Maxie’s right, and he got home this morning, it sounds like he left last night.”

“This doesn’t make any sense,” Jason muttered, his voice thin and a bit hard to hear due to the connection. “Lucky said they found Valentin in the lab. How the hell did they not know he was gone?”

“Maybe Luke didn’t tell Lucky. I mean, the way you talked about it earlier — Lucky’s lying to Luke. Why not the reverse?”

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. Damn it,” Jason muttered. “I don’t like him being there while I’m here. And all of you—”

“I’d like it even less if I’d gone with you to Turkey. Don’t worry about us. Spinelli said the security system at the house is solid, and there’s no reason to think Valentin is going to do anything. We don’t even know if he knew you guys were there.”

“Yeah. I just—Drew’s on his way back from taking a walk. Let me update him. I’ll call you in the morning,” he said. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Elizabeth smiled faintly as she set her phone down, looked at Spinelli. “This just keeps getting stranger—”

“And it’s probably not going to get any better,” Spinelli said, gesturing towards the parking lot where she could see a car pull in. Max got out of the driver’s side and went to open the back door for Sonny.

She looked back at Spinelli. “It’s just Sonny. He said he might stop by to help make it look like Jason was here.”

“Yeah. Uh, I’m going to go check on the inventory sorting.” Spinelli had just slid through the door to the bay when Sonny came in.

“Hey.” Sonny glanced around, nodding. “It’s better in here.”

“Yeah, especially since they figured out what was dead in the corner over there.” Elizabeth said. “Good timing, actually. We just found out Valentin is back in Port Charles. He got in this morning.”

Sonny scowled. “How did that get past us?”

“Same way you probably hid Jason and Drew’s flight to Turkey.” Elizabeth got to her feet, started to organize the papers together. “Lucky for us, Nina wanted to complain to Maxie who passed it on to Spinelli.”

“Gossip to the rescue. What did Jason say? Did you call him?”

“Yeah, just got off the phone. He’s going to update Drew. I know they were going to stay another day at the most, so that’s probably still the plan.” Elizabeth sighed. “He’s irritated. Doesn’t really like the idea of us being here with Valentin and him being in Turkey, but I told him we got everything covered.”

“Yeah, and I’ll toss some guys at the house overnight if you want. Just to be on the safe side. Have somebody watching the place.”

“That’d be great.” Elizabeth came around the counter to peer into the bay. She could see Spinelli in the back with Jake and Aiden, and Cameron’s jeans sticking out from underneath his car.

“Jason said they come every day now,” Sonny said, over her shoulder. “That’s good. Keeps Jason busy.”

“And keeps them from fighting over video games,” Elizabeth said, with a smile.

“And it goes without saying that I’m a fan of anything that gets Jason more time with Jake. I really think it’s why he’s handling any of this okay,” Sonny continued. “Just knowing that he’s got his son in his life. Especially with all the crap Sam’s putting him through.”

Elizabeth frowned. “You mean the divorce?”

“Yeah, yeah. Diane wishes Jason would let her off the leash,” he continued, “but you know, Jason. He’ll probably give Sam whatever she wants to keep her happy. I just wish she wasn’t holding back on Danny.”

Elizabeth folded her arms again. “So you’ve talked to Jason about it?”

“Yeah, yeah. You know, doing whatever I can. Jason doesn’t like confrontations. Especially with Sam. He’s barely seen her since he got back. Twice, I think,” Sonny clarified. “Outside of those meetings at the PCPD.” He turned to her. “Hey. I don’t want you to worry about Jason having second thoughts about all of this.”

“I—” Elizabeth stared at him. “I wasn’t.”

“Good, good.” Sonny absently brushed her shoulder, then looked back through the glass window to the bay. He smiled, watching the boys, oblivious to Elizabeth’s growing sense of unease. “It’s normal, you know. When you start the actual divorce process to have those kinds of thoughts. God knows, I did with Carly. And we got back together which was a mistake, but sometimes you gotta make those. But Jason’s not going to do that to you.”

“No. I know that.”

“Not when he’s got so much at stake. You know, you’ve been so important to all of this. I’m sorry about the other day,” Sonny said, turning back to her. “On Sunday. Spinelli got mad at us—I mean, I didn’t say anything, but I’m sure it doesn’t surprise you that I wasn’t in favor of you going to Turkey.”

“No, it doesn’t. It’s fine. Jason and I settled everything, Sonny. We’re fine.”

“I’m glad. That kind of thing, ten years ago, you’d still be walking away, you know? You and Jason always fought over stuff like this.” Sonny shoved his hands in his pockets. “But you’re not this time, and that’s good. I’m glad you’re giving him a break on this round.”

Giving him a break. Elizabeth opened her mouth, a bit mystified by the entire conversation. Then closed it.

“Anyway, you’re good for him. I always thought that. And I’m sure he’ll sort through whatever’s going through his mind with this divorce. Really. I don’t want you to worry.”

“You keep—” Elizabeth took a breath. “You keep saying that, Sonny. I don’t have to worry. Does that mean—I mean—”

“No, no. Of course not. Jason hasn’t said a word about going back to Sam. I mean, he was knocked down by that divorce filing. And you know, he was upset when she went home with Drew. I think maybe he thought she’d come around once the truth was out, but she didn’t. And Sam always knew just how to hurt him. It’s natural, I mean, for some doubts to creep in as you go through it. You know. You got divorced from Lucky.”

“Yeah, I know.” Her stomach swirled. Had Jason talked to Sonny about doubts? She bit her lip. “Um, you know, now that you mention Lucky. I should update you on what Jason found out from Lucky earlier today.” And maybe Sonny would stop talking about Jason’s divorce from Sam, a subject which Sonny had clearly discussed with Jason and that she hadn’t.

How long do you think he’ll stay this time?

She pushed that out of her head and cleared her throat. “You’d better sit down for this.”

You know I question every motive, everythin’ you say
Thought with you maybe my heart wasn’t meant to break
Can’t believe I let you in, I can’t believe I stayed
As long as I stayed, yeah
I hope one day someone will take your heart and hold it tight
Make you feel like you’re invincible deep inside
And right when you think that it’s perfect, they cross a line
And steal your shine like you did mine
– Mine, Kelly Clarkson

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

General Hospital: Staff Room

“Every time I see you,” Griffin said, “you’re reading again.” He dropped into a chair across from Elizabeth, popped open his soda. “What’s that about?”

“Research,” Elizabeth murmured, not looking up. “How’s things with Ava?”

“Over.” Griffin made a face. “It turns out there’s not much there but vanity and scheming. But at least I know now.” He knitted his brows together. “Research for what?”

Elizabeth bit her lip. She hadn’t wanted to talk to him about Lucky’s files, because well—they’d been Lucky’s medical records, and Griffin had never met her ex-husband. “Files we found on a thumb drive Helena Cassadine sent to Laura.” She set the report aside, then reached for the next folder. “I’m mostly skimming anything related to medical, putting things aside for Patrick and Robin.”

“Ah. For the better neurosurgeon.”

Elizabeth looked at him over the tip of her folder. “No. Saving them for the daughter of WSB agents and her husband. I haven’t needed to consult a neurosurgeon specifically. Robin worked on some of this when she was being held captive by Helena a few years ago with Drew.”

His cheeks flushed. “Sorry. I guess—well, you know, everyone talks about this Drake guy like he’s a god, and it’s hard to hold up to that, you know?”

“He’s going to be running the department, Griffin. You’ll have all the surgeries you want.” Elizabeth reached for a different one, considered the file name on the label, her fingers drifting over the numbers. “03050407.”

“What’s that?”

“A file name with Jake’s birth date.” Elizabeth looked at the rest of the folders in the stack she’d pulled out. Two more folders with the same label name, different dates. “Jake’s records from the kidnapping.” Would there be videos? God, she hoped not. She exhaled, put aside the first two, opting for the most recent files. What would she find?

“Elizabeth, you okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah. It’s just—” She pressed her lips together. “I want to know what they did. If there’s anything left in his head. But I’m also a little scared,” she admitted. “Helena wanted to use my son to kill everyone she hated. It’s a miracle we’re still here.”

She opened the file, picked it up, and began to skim it. “Andre’s first visit to Greece. He talks about meeting Jake.” She closed her eyes. “I can’t—I can’t—” She shoved it aside, toward Griffin. “Can you—”

“Yeah. Sure.” Griffin picked up the paper. “Patient 3 is a healthy six-year-old who shows above average intelligence and remarkably well-adjusted considering his circumstances. Madame has ordered that Patient 3’s memories be mapped so that evidence of his time on the island may be erased, and suggestions be implanted. Would he be considered a candidate for a chip along the lines implanted into Patient 5? Or would different suggestions be useful? Madame has recommended a review of Patient 2’s records for more help.” Griffin paused. “Do you want me—”

“Yes. Yes. Um, keep going.”

“Upon meeting Patient 3, he reported that his name was Jake. He remembers little of his time before Greece, but notes that he thinks his old bedroom had trucks, cars, and motorcycles. He remembers his mother—”

Elizabeth’s head snapped back up, and Griffin continued. “His recollections are hazy, but he knows she had shiny brown hair and a nice smile. He remembers loving her and being loved by her. This is very interesting — memory storage is understudied in young children, and it would be beneficial to continue quizzing Patient 3 in this area. His only vivid memory of his mother is that she was crying, and she tried to take him home, but that someone stopped her. The nanny told the boy it was a dream, but my records indicate that Patient 3 is referring to an incident on Spoon Island in the fall of 2011.”

Elizabeth broke, a sob slipping past her lips as she covered her face.

Griffin set the paper down. “Elizabeth—hey—”

“He remembered me,” she murmured, brushing gently at the tears on her cheeks. “They told him it wasn’t real. But we saw each other. Did I tell you that, Griffin? Helena had me drugged and induced a fever, brought me to the lab, let me hold my son, and then stole him away again—because she knew no one would believe me.” She closed her eyes. “But Jake remembered me. He knew that I loved him.”

“I’m sorry. It must hurt to read these kinds of things. About what was done to your son. I know he’s back now, but—” Griffin looked at the scattering of papers. “There’s a little more. Andre talks about what he’s been asked to do — ‘Madame has ordered that Jake be given specific commands to follow a set of orders with no room for failure. Once the command sequence is triggered, there is no going back. I have told Madame this is a risky order and have requested permission to implement a failsafe. Madame has refused.”

The same concern that Faison had had during Lucky’s conditioning, Elizabeth realized. Helena still hadn’t learned her lesson. “But we stopped Jake, so he must have—”

“After my conversation with Patient 3 today,” Griffin continued, “it seems necessary to create a failsafe nonetheless. Knowing the plan is meant to target the patient’s mother, and his connection to her, it might be possible to use that. It feels right that Patient 3’s mother has the opportunity to stop Madame’s plan, though I doubt she will appreciate the irony.” Griffin frowned. “What does that mean?”

“The reason Helena hated me so much that she went after the man I loved and our son,” Elizabeth murmured. “She holds me responsible for what happened a lifetime ago. I helped break the conditioning on Lucky, and I helped Nikolas trick her into believing he was on her side.” She started to gather the papers together again. “Andre knew a lot of the history, it looks like. He knew about Chimera. He knew about Endgame.”

“And he built in a failsafe that stopped Jake. That has to count for something–”

“Jake was six years old when Andre started to experiment on him. He’d been stolen from me just before he turned four. And I didn’t get him back until he’d turned seven. That’s nearly a third of his life, Griffin. Andre came to Port Charles that same year. He knew Jake had a trigger in his head. He thought he was safe because Helena was dead. He said nothing. For years. What does that count for?”

She got to her feet, put the files back in her bag. “Thanks. I needed—I don’t know if I could have made it through without someone reading it.”

“Anytime. I mean that,” Griffin said as she went to the door that connected the staff room to the locker room where she wanted to return the files to her locker. “I’m sorry. For what you went through.”

“Not as sorry as Andre will be if I ever see him again.”

Port Charles High: Cafeteria

Joss peered closely at Trina’s lunch tray, then poked the vegetables with her plastic fork. “Are you sure that’s edible?”

“Hey, quit it—” Trina flicked her arm. “It’s fine—”

“If you say so.” Joss shrugged, then turned her attention to the boys, who had just sat down. “We need to make plans for Friday night,” she declared. “I want to go to the movies.”

Spencer dug his spoon into his yogurt. “Yeah? You that into Paddington 2? Never would have thought—” He ducked as Joss threw a piece of carrot at him. “Geez, don’t be so sensitive.”

“No, she wants to see Pitch Perfect,” Trina said, “which we already vetoed over the holidays, so—”

“There’s nothing else playing that I wanna see, and—”

“Yeah, good luck. You’re not getting me anywhere near that.” Spencer dismissed Joss’s dirty look. “Hey, Cam, do you think your mom would be cool with me tagging along today to the garage? And maybe drop me off when you’re done?”

“I thought you were banned,” Trina said, frowning. “Didn’t you cause World War 3 the last time you went?”

“Yeah, I was, but Grandma talked to me today and said I would go back and do the files under supervision. And yes, your mom can double check,” Spencer said when Cameron opened his mouth. “She said you talked to your mom who ran defense, so thanks.”

“Can’t believe it worked,” Cameron said. “Grandma seemed pretty peeved about the whole thing.” He folded his arms on the table. “But you should really thank Emma—” He nodded in the brunette’s direction where she was sitting across the table next to Trina. “I just used her words.”

“Oh.” Emma bit her lip. “Well, then I’m glad it worked. What did you say?”

“Just that part about me and Spence being different. I’m normal, and he’s a jackass—” Spencer elbowed Cameron who elbowed him back.

“Morons,” Trina said with a roll of her eyes. “What did you actually say?” she asked Emma.

“Well, I just pointed out that Spencer likes to act first and never ask questions, and Cameron’s the laidback type who cleans up after the first guy. We need both, you know?”

“Wait.” Spencer stopped trying to jab Cameron and gaped at Emma. “I’m sorry, I act first and never ask questions? And Cam cleans up after me? I’m back to being insulted.”

“Oh, don’t complain. It’s the exact same thing I said to you,” Trina reminded Spencer. “Not the same words, but the same gist, you know. You guys are different — both idiots, because, hey boys—sorry Oscar—but you have different approaches.”

“Exactly,” Emma said. “And it worked because now Spencer gets to help, and Cameron doesn’t have to listen to him complain anymore.”

“Can I just say, it’s nice how well we all know each other,” Joss said, leaning forward, and her eyes sparkling with a bit of mischief Trina didn’t trust for a minute. “I mean, Em and Cam haven’t really seen each other for two years, but she knew exactly what to say — and it was the same thing Trina knew to say to Spencer. Who she doesn’t even know that well.” She looked at Oscar. “Isn’t that nice?”

“I feel like my answer will somehow incriminate me,” Oscar said. “So I’m pleading the fifth.”

“Yeah, I don’t know what Entitled Barbie is talking about.” Trina stabbed her fork into her questionable vegetables. “It was just common sense.” It absolutely was nothing more than that. She’d known how to talk to Spencer because she knew Cameron so well, and—

She eyed Emma who seemed very interested in the slice of pizza on her lunch tray. Well, it went without saying that Emma knew Cameron better than anyone. She felt an itch between her shoulders. “You know what, I think we should go to the movies, but I wanna see something with blood.” She was suddenly feeling very violent.

GH: Cafeteria

Kristina scanned the large room, then darted around a few groups of doctors until she found Valerie sitting in the back. “Hey!” She dropped down across from her. “What’s up?”

“How’s the internship?” Valerie asked.

“Boring and mind-numbing. Why did you want to have lunch?”

Valerie reached into her bag and took a few manila folders. “Don’t be mad at me. After we talked about Sam the other day, I, um, couldn’t stop myself. I pulled a few files. ”

“Why?”

“I know she’s your sister, and I’m not trying to mess with that. But once you told me about what she did to that kid, I guess…part of me wondered what else she got away with.”

Kristina exhaled slowly. “And you found something.”

“Maybe. I started with the one you know about. The first one is the kidnapping from 2007. I already went through it, but I thought you might want to look at it.”  Valerie flipped the file open and handed a statement to Kristina. “Careful with that, I have to take it back.”

“Can you get in trouble for showing me this?”

“No. It’s public records now but I didn’t make copies.” Valerie paused. “It reads the way you remembered. Maureen was a guest on a television show Amelia was producing, Everyday Heroes. It was a limited run series. Your sister was the host.”

“I sort of remember this,” Kristina said. “It didn’t last long, and Sam said it wasn’t her thing.  Amelia’s statement said she was calling about getting Maureen to sign a release to air her segment. She heard crying in the background, thought it was odd. She and Jason went to Maureen—” She hesitated. “Weird. Amelia went right to Jason?”

“No. I think Jason was already looking into it. I don’t know the story behind all of that, but I gather Jason knew Jake’s paternity, and was probably frantic. Anyway, that’s the part of the story we knew. I was interested in Amelia Joffee. She came up with the idea for the show and sought your sister out. I thought that was strange.”

“Yeah, I guess when you think about it—”

“Amelia Joffee was the daughter of Bill Monroe. Her father was murdered by his much younger second wife, Angela.” Valerie pulled out a newspaper article, and the bottom dropped out of Kristina’s world.

Angela Monroe was Sam.

“She killed—”

“Yeah. She was put on trial for it but acquitted. Self-defense. I put in a request to get those files—” Valerie stopped. “I’m sorry. Should I stop?”

Kristina picked up the printout. “I knew—I think I always knew Sam had a rough past, and she told me she’d been a con artist. But you know, it’s different when you see it in print. It’s real. When you hear the story. She was—if she was acquitted, then—”

“Then she got every dime of her inheritance, yeah, and vanished. Angela Monroe disappears from all the records. Then pops up about six months later as Samantha McCall. Amelia Joffee tracked her down, and then seemed to just…let her go.”

“Or maybe Jason made her leave,” Kristina murmured. “I don’t know.” She set the file down. “Is there—is there more? What are those other files?”

“Angela Monroe had several known aliases. Sam’s name isn’t one of them, so that means no one in law enforcement ever connected Angela to Sam. I started at the beginning.” She set one file down — it was thin. “Sandra McIntire. She was married to Douglas McIntire, who was murdered about three months after they married. All of Douglas’s money disappeared, and so did his wife. The wife had an alibi, rock solid, so they didn’t pursue it. It’s not technically stealing,” Valerie continued when Kristina swallowed hard. “Those are newspaper articles, and the basic police report I pulled from the system.”

“Did they find out who did it?”

“They suspected a guy named Nico Dane.” Valerie set a new folder down. “He showed up here about eight months after your sister did. He’d just gotten out of jail. He plead guilty to stealing cars — he’s linked to the murder investigations and was found with Douglas’s car. Couldn’t make the case, so he went to jail. Your sister? She plead guilty and testified against him. They were apparently dating while he was leading this auto theft ring. Nico got out of jail, found Sam, and tried to kill her. Jason ended up killing Dane to save Sam. They got lucky. With Nico gone, no one could ever connect Sam to Sandra. Or to any of the other aliases that were connected.”

“There were others?”

“After Sandra McIntyre, the next alias was Susan Curtis. She married Sullivan Curtis, cleaned out his accounts, and skipped town. Sullivan, by the way? Never got a divorce and reported the money stolen. There was a warrant, but it expired, and Sullivan died about three years ago of natural causes. There’s Linda Black — she married Leland Powell. He’s still alive and probably still pretty pissed, so she’s legally still married to him. I guess. Linda skipped town with his money, too. Still married to him. And the last one is Cheryl Richards, who married Henry Archer. Same thing. Cheryl married Henry, skipped town with his money, but it ended up bankrupting him and he had to close his business, which put about ten people out of a job. Henry killed himself.”

Kristina’s stomach swirled, and she took a deep breath. “There’s more, isn’t there?”

“Yeah. Charges of solicitation in Texas, the suspicion that she killed her mother in a fire—her adoptive mother, though that got dropped when they decided the brother started it accidentally. She was investigated a few times for assault, suspected of stealing files from the PCPD to cover up for Jason who’d been arrested and had to be released—”

“Okay. Okay. Stop.” Kristina rubbed the side of her head.

“Krissy, I’m sorry. But you can use some of this if you want to. There’s at least two guys out there that she tricked into marrying her and stole their money who wouldn’t mind knowing where she is to get it back.”

“Oh, what, I’m supposed to threaten my sister?” Kristina asked sarcastically. “Tell her, hey, back off this crazy divorce stuff or I’ll tell—” She picked a file. “Leland Powell—I’ll tell old Leland where to find you.”

“I wasn’t going to tell you any of this, but once I started looking, I couldn’t stop.” Valerie bit her lip. “There’s no evidence she didn’t know what her boyfriend was doing—this Nico Dane guy—his name was linked to several murder investigations. Krissy, that’s what I found in an afternoon by using a few databases. If I start making calls—”

“Stop. Stop. Just—” Kristina pushed her hands through her hair, dipping her face down. “I didn’t ask you to do any of this.”

“I’m sorry.”

She rubbed her mouth. “People can change. You know Sam. You know that’s not who she is anymore.”

“I know that Sam ended up in the basement of a house that exploded — a home where she was technically trespassing—”

“That was—” Kristina bit her lip. “No. Okay, yeah. But she’s never used another name. She’s been Sam for the last fifteen years—”

“Because she came to Port Charles and within a few months, she was pregnant by your father. And she hooked up with Jason, who has been willing to bankroll her since the start. She didn’t need to change identities anymore. She’s got Jason’s money, and that faucet’s never been turned off for long.”

Kristina folded her arms, sat back. “So, what? You want me to accept that my sister is a terrible person, and maybe we should call these places to tell them about her? Maybe she shouldn’t even be a mother—”

“Kristina. You can love your sister. That’s fine. No one’s arguing that. But this divorce she’s going through? This is the first time she’s been seriously threatened with losing all the money she’s had access to since 2004.”

“She signed those divorces papers before,” Kristina charged. “She was going to take nothing from Jason—”

“That’s true,” Valerie admitted. “And that has to be considered. But that was then. And this is now. And my research says that any time your sister has felt like her security has been threatened, she’s gone nuclear. At least this time? No one’s dead.”

Not yet anyway.

General Hospital: Hallway

Elizabeth left the locker room and slung the purse over her shoulder. The one good thing about starting her day early was getting to finish in time to be home when the boys were done school. She was going to take them by the garage so that they could keep working while Jason was gone—

And she hoped he’d listen to her and call again, no matter what the time was. They’d spent so many evenings together over the last few months that it was a bit lonely to finish the day without him at the house, all of them crowded around the dinner table like a family.

She was glad she’d taken Felix’s advice and gone to see him, even though they’d had those terrible fights. Sometimes you needed to rip open old wounds so that this time, they would heal properly. They wouldn’t linger, waiting for the next explosion.

And when he came home, she’d talk to him about Jake’s files. They would read them together, sort through all the different pieces to understand what their son had been through and to figure what, if anything, was still lingering in Jake’s mind. Had Helena left any other damage? Did they have anything to worry about?

She was lost in thought, stepping on to the elevator without thinking much about it. As she went in, a few people stepped off—

And the doors had closed, and the elevator had begun to descend towards the lobby before Elizabeth realized she wasn’t alone.

Franco was there. In the corner by the control panel. His lips curved into a smile, and he stepped forward—

Instinctively, Elizabeth stepped back—and he just pressed the bright red emergency stop button. The car lurched and shuddered to a stop.

“Now that I have you to myself,” Franco said, “let’s talk.”

Hey, you know they’re all the same
You know you’re doing better on your own
So don’t buy in
Live right now
Yeah, just be yourself
It doesn’t matter if it’s good enough
For someone else
– The Middle, Jimmy Eat World

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Istanbul: Maslak District

“There’s something—” Drew stopped at the corner, and Jason hesitated, just a few steps ahead of him. He turned in a circle, then squinted at the cafe across the street. “There’s something about this place. You know about déjà vu, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Jason shoved his hands in his pockets. “The sensation of experiencing something twice. What about it?”

“You’ve never—you’ve never been here, right? I’m not remembering something about you.”

“No.” Jason shook his head. “Istanbul was on my list a long time ago, but then Carly was in a car accident. I came home, and—”

“Elizabeth was single,” Drew finished, and Jason’s mouth pressed into a thin line. “Sorry. Probably didn’t need to say that part out loud.” And it wasn’t fair for Drew to dip into his brother’s memories to state the obvious. Jason had been in and out of Port Charles for a few years until Elizabeth had broken up with Lucky, then he’d stayed to see if anything would happen. “Right, so—”

“You said you knew Turkish, right?” Jason interrupted. “And Arabic. You were in the SEALs, maybe you’re the one that’s been here before.”

“Yeah—maybe.” Drew nodded. “I’m gonna go get coffee. You want one?” Without waiting for Jason to answer, he crossed the street and went inside the cafe. At the counter, he ordered in flawless Turkish, then seeing that Jason was behind him, doubled the order. He went over to the window and sat at a table. Jason followed

“Do I get to ask?”

“Uh, no. I just—I knew this place had the best coffee in the district.” He stared down at the dark liquid. “And I take it black. I do. Not because of you. But Drew Cain. I always drink it black.” His throat felt oddly thick, and he couldn’t look up. There was a moment of silence

“It was after the shooting at Luke’s for me. The first time I felt connected to who I’d been before.”

Drew looked up, blinked at Jason. “What?”

“Nikolas was shot in the throat. Choking on his own blood. I knew he needed an airway. I knew how to do it. Later I found out I’d seen it in medical school. It was the first time I really felt like Jason Quartermaine and Jason Morgan were the same person. And that I was him.”

“Yeah. Everything has mostly been…I figure it’s been you. I eat pastrami on rye from Kelly’s because I remembered ordering it. But this—” Drew looked around the cafe. “I must have been stationed here or something. Because I know for a fact that I’ve sat at this table before, drinking coffee.”

“Maddox said he mapped and transferred memories,” Jason said. “But he never said anything about removing what was already there.”

“Maybe mine are just underneath yours like a layer cake. And—I wouldn’t have known that,” Drew realized. “Because everywhere I go in Port Charles — that’s yours. I don’t think I’d ever been there before. But this place? This isn’t yours. It’s mine.” He laughed, a bit in disbelief. “This is mine,” he repeated. Then lifted his coffee. “Let’s head over to the lab and see what we’re dealing with.”

Maslak: Sumer Sokağı

Luke slammed the door on the white van he’d rented, and stepped around the hood, doing his usual quick scan of the street before going about his business. His heart skipped a beat, and he whipped around, flattening himself against the van, staring hard at the building in front of him.

Strolling out of an alley connecting this street to the larger one on the next block were the damn brothers, walking like they didn’t have a damn care in the world.

Why the hell were they there? Lucky had been so sure—

Luke pulled the cap lower on his forehead, then slid inside the white van again so that he could get a better look at them from behind tinted windows.

They stood shoulder to shoulder, scanning the street. Exchanging a few brief remarks that Luke obviously couldn’t hear over the passing cars and distance. Drew gestured, pointing at the building that enclosed the lab. Jason nodded, continued to say something.

Fucking disaster. His damn kid had had one job and he’d failed. Luke shoved the key into the ignition, switched it on, shifted gears, and got the hell out of Dodge.

——

“Ten bucks that’s Luke peeling away like a bat out of hell,” Drew said, as they watched the white van disappear into traffic.

“He’s losing his touch,” Jason said. The old man had stopped dead across the street, then whirled around and gotten into his car. “He used to be better when his cover got blown.” He furrowed his brow. “But that answers one question.”

“Yeah, no way Luke knew Lucky was gonna tell us about this place. Unless that’s an act, but I doubt it. Luke would have to wait around all day, hoping we’d come by.” Drew folded his arms. “So Lucky’s going against his father, and Luke doesn’t know it. Wish I could say I felt sorry for him, but—”

“Not a chance in hell.” Luke Spencer was a long way from the man who’d given Jason a break and a job parking cars all those years ago. He’d once been a confidante, but he’d lost his way somehow. Now all Jason felt for the man was a simmering rage. “What do we do now?”

“Not really sure. I think I half-expected Lucky to be lying. There’s no way in hell either one of us gets inside. We’re risking enough just standing here with these faces.” And with that reminder, they started walking back towards the main road and the public transportation routes. “Valentin being here confirms he’s working with Klein. That’s the connection we were waiting for.”

“Could be Klein relocated after I escaped, and Valentin just continued his work,” Jason said. Drew shot him a look. “No, I agree that Valentin is part of it. I don’t think Robert or Anna will be able to use this to get more help from them. And without the WSB backing us—” he grimaced. “I’m not sure what we can do. If this were the Caribbean or even South America, I’d have connections. We could storm the damn building.”

They emerged back out on the main road and headed for the streetcar stop. “But this is Turkey, and we’re flying blind.” Drew paused. “I’m thinking we turn the lab address over to Robert anyway. Have the WSB watch it. And maybe once he hears that Luke kept his mouth shut and ran from us when he realized we were here—” He scowled. “Sons of bitches. The one time we actually need something from the damn Spencers and they’re running their own game—”

“Luke coming back here over and over again means he’s either still trying to get in or he’s trying to get something out.” Jason paused. “Lucky told us the lab is moving back to Port Charles this week. I think, given that he was playing it straight about this place, we have to believe that.”

“Yeah. Which means if Luke gets what he wants, he’s the one who has it. We can lean on Lucky, maybe, to get more information. If he fails—”

“Whatever it is ends up back in Port Charles—on our turf. The lab is probably at Wyndemere. Maybe where Elizabeth was taken the night she saw Jake.”

“And in Port Charles, we’ll have the upper hand. Especially if Valentin doesn’t know we’re on to him. Maybe he knows we came to Turkey. Hell, maybe he even sees us on security footage if that’s how it goes. But what are the odds he finds out we know he’s moving his operations back home? No. This works for us.”

“So what now?” Jason wanted to know. “Do we go home? We just got here.”

“Well, we weren’t counting on Lucky handing us everything we needed in the first time conversation.” Drew grimaced. “That’s a shame. I was really hoping I’d get to throw a punch. And don’t say you weren’t hoping for the same.”

Jason focused on the bus as it came towards them. “Wouldn’t have ruined my day if it happened, no. We still have some unanswered questions, though. Let’s head back to the hotel. I’ll call Spinelli and see if we can get something more on this lab.”

Kiremit House: Study

Luke paced the room, tossed another dirty look at his son who sat slouched in the chair. “You were so damned confident—”

“Always a risk that they wouldn’t believe anything I said and just start at the top,” Lucky said. He looked at Nikolas. “It’s not my fault.”

Nikolas opened his mouth, but Luke interrupted. “It doesn’t matter. They’re too damn close—”

“Too close to what? A building?” Britt rolled her eyes. “You know, they say women are the dramatic gender but—”

“You—” Luke stabbed a finger in her direction. “You shut up. I don’t need to hear from you.”

“I’m sorry.” Britt held up her hands in mock surrender. “Continue to overreact and play the blame game. When you’re done, we’ll move on.”

Luke squinted at her. Little smug bitch. And he just knew she was twisting his boy’s mind, just like she’d done to everyone back in Port Charles. “How do you know they didn’t follow either of you back to this place? They get one look at Nikolas, and we’re all screwed—”

“Don’t say it,” Lucky said as Britt opened her mouth, and she grimaced, folded her arms. “They didn’t follow us. We didn’t come directly back here, and they checked into their hotel. We talked about splitting the list, but there wasn’t much I could do, Dad. If I had insisted on going on with them, they’d be more suspicious. Britt’s got a point. All they have is a building. They can’t go inside because they’d be recognized. Do you think you got away without them seeing you?”

“They were looking at the building, so I think I’m good.” Luke looked at Nikolas. “You got anything to offer, or you gonna just sit there?”

“It’s time to put the next part of the plan into motion. We need Jason and Drew out of Turkey as soon as possible. They’re here because Valentin is. Or they think he is.” Nikolas focused on Lucky. “Valentin left last night. He’s probably already in Port Charles. I imagine that he’s keeping his return low-key, so maybe it takes some time for that to filter back to the troops.”

“He’s gone?” Britt asked, alert. “When did you know that?”

“Guy from the airport called me after you left for the mosque meeting.” Luke folded his arms. “So, Cowboy, you’re gonna set up another meet with the brothers. Tell them Valentin is gone. I’d be shocked if they hung around much longer. They’ll look through the addresses, but that can be done in a day. That’s how we’ll get them out. And we’ll set the lab break for tomorrow evening. That’s the last day, anyway.”

“And when Stefan disappears the same day Jason and Drew leave, you don’t think Valentin is going to make that connection?” Lucky asked carefully. He rose to his feet. “You don’t think that puts people we love in danger back home?”

“Nikolas and I discussed that. We’re pretty sure that it’s a risk worth taking. Jason likely has the boys secured, and Elizabeth is pretty hard to shake.”

Lucky stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

Luke squinted. “Okay?”

“Okay. This looks like it’s the plan. So let’s see where it takes us.”

A bit confused at how quickly Lucky had dropped his opposition, Luke stared after him as his son went towards the door and opened it. “You’re okay with it?”

“Does it matter?” Lucky asked coolly. “You’re throwing my kids under the bus again. At least it’s not literally this time.”

And then he walked out, Britt on his heels, leaving Luke speechless.

Sultanamet District: Grand Ambiance Hotel

“The next time we do this, we’re getting two rooms,” Drew muttered as he squeezed between the double beds on his way to the bedroom. “Or I’m making the reservations.”

Jason fought the urge to roll his eyes. He sat at the tiny table where they’d dumped their electronics and other materials and dug through the bag for a copy of some of the files he’d not yet read.

“Seriously, who found this place and thought one room would be—”

“Do you always complain this much?” Jason asked, not looking up from the records. “How did anyone ever think you were me?”

“Yeah, it boggles the mind since only one of us has an actual personality.” Drew disappeared into the bathroom, and moment later, Jason heard the shower.

It was easier than he thought it would be, Jason reflected. Drew’s dislike of the accommodations aside, they’d been able to talk and exchange theories easily. Maybe there’d been a shift on the plane when they’d talked about the past.  When Drew had told Jason there was a chance Monica had played a role in separating them and putting Drew into the system.

Jason had put it out of his head after they’d talked about it, hoping that by ignoring it, it would somehow go away. But it was harder now after spending the entire day with Drew. With his brother.

They weren’t identical anymore, but they were the same height. The same build. They’d both gone into professions that required similar skills, though their careers were very different. And family was important to them. By all accounts, Drew had been a great father. And certainly a better husband than Jason had been.

What would it have been like to have had a twin all his life? After the accident, if he’d seen someone with his face instead of AJ, who’d only looked like him a little bit? Would it have been easier on the Quartermaines if Drew had been there when Jason had walked out? Would Jason have walked away at all?

Jason rubbed his eyes, put the WSB records aside. The last thing he wanted right now was to think about the past. To think about the mistakes that had been made by and around him. He reached for another folder — the one Drew had given him. He opened it and saw the first record — Robert Scorpio’s summary of the night Susan Moore had been murdered.

Absorbed in the reading, he didn’t hear the shower switch off or Drew opening the door. But eventually, he looked up and saw him sitting on the bed, scrolling through his phone, his hair damp.

“Robert keeps referring to me as Jason Baldwin,” Jason said, and Drew glanced up. “I didn’t have Alan’s name then.”

“No. I guess not.” Drew put the phone aside. “You’re reading the file.”

“Yeah. I guess I just wanted—I never thought much about Susan,” Jason admitted. “I knew I was adopted, that Monica wasn’t my birth mother, but it seemed like a forgotten fact. She only brought it up after the accident to make a point about blood not making a family. No one ever talks about Susan.” He exhaled slowly. “When you told me that they thought I went missing that night, it didn’t really hit. But it’s different reading it in Robert’s words. Alan was upset. He wanted to know where I was.”

Drew said nothing, and Jason set it aside. “I remember that feeling,” he murmured, more to himself than to the other man. “When I went into the interrogation room, Elizabeth was already in there. She told me Jake was missing. The world stopped. And I couldn’t breathe—” Jason cleared his throat. He closed the folder, set it aside. “Sam didn’t care that Jake was gone.”

“No. She didn’t.” The simple, bitter truth of it hung between them.

“And Monica didn’t care about me.” Hell of a parallel to draw. He’d wanted to believe his mother was innocent of what Drew suspected — but he’d loved Sam. He’d wanted to marry her. They’d planned a family. And Sam had been just fine with an unstable woman taking his son and walking away. Monica hadn’t cared that Alan’s son was missing either. What could she have been able of?

“I don’t know if I want to know the truth,” Jason said finally.

“Yeah, I’m with you on that.” Drew flattened his hand against the mattress on either side. “But once it was in my head, I didn’t know how to put it away.”

“What if I say no?” Jason asked. “What if I don’t want you to look into it more?”

Drew tipped his head. “Could you put it away? Let go of the suspicion?”

“Maybe.” He’d done it for Sam, and he’d known the worst of it, hadn’t he? “Monica’s lost a lot in her life. Three kids. She’s had cancer. Buried a husband.”

“Curtis mentioned it. Like it was karma. The universe holding her accountable all long.” Drew nodded. “Yeah, there’s something to that. Are you saying no?”

“I’m saying I don’t know what I want. But this didn’t happen to me. Monica—she’s not the reason I was missing that night. And I was safe. She didn’t care where I was, but she didn’t hurt me.” His chest tight. “But if she did this, you’re the one she hurt. I don’t know if I have the right to say no.”

Drew sighed. “Maybe we both need to sit with it. It’s barely been a day since I told you. I’ve had almost a month to think about it. If we find out she was part of it, Jason, we don’t get to unring that bell.” ”

“I just—” Jason’s brows knitted together. “I don’t understand why you’d stop if I said so—I mean, I know what you said on the plane—”

“I don’t know if we’re ever going to look at each other as family,” Drew interrupted, and Jason fell silent. “I don’t know if you’re ever going to consider me a brother the way you do Spinelli or Sonny. But I know that if I do this, if we find out Monica and maybe Tracy,  if they were part of why I got put into the system, if I do this, and you’re not on board? I don’t think we ever get the chance to find out if we could be brothers. And maybe that’s more important to me.”

So sacrifice yourself and let me have what’s left
I know that I can find the fire in your eyes
I’m going all the way, get away, please
You take the breath right out of me
You left a hole where my heart should be
You got to fight just to make it through
‘Cause I will be the death of you
– Breath, Breaking Benjamin

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

General Hospital: Staff Room

“That’s—” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “I can’t believe they found Valentin and said nothing. I mean, I know you suspected it, but—”

“I’m sorry—”

“No, don’t apologize.” She closed her locker, leaned her forehead against the cool metal. “The next time you tell me you don’t trust someone, I’m not going to doubt you. Okay. So what do you think about it now that you’ve talked to Lucky?”

“I don’t know. I think he’s mostly telling the truth, but there’s something else we’re missing. We’re going to stick around, look at that lab. See if we can find where they’re staying in the city. ”

“Okay. I’ll pass this on to Laura and Spinelli. Do you want me to call Robert or Anna?”

“Let’s hold off on that until we get back. I want to make sure there’s nothing else first.”

“Sounds good. I have to go. I’m due in surgery. I’ll talk to you later?”

“Yeah. I’ll call you tonight my time.” There was a long pause, but he didn’t disconnect. “I wished you’d been here today,” he finally said. “I missed you.”

She smiled, warmth spreading. “Next time. You won’t be able to keep me home. I miss you, too.” This time they hung up, and she tucked the phone away in her locker. She was glad she’d taken Felix’s advice and gone to Jason that weekend, that she’d pushed to re-balance their relationship.

For the first time since that terrible day when he’d broken their engagement all those years ago, Elizabeth had a good feeling about where they were heading. And was sure that no matter what else happened, they’d face it together.

Spencer House: Kitchen

It felt like a Corn Pops kind of day, Spencer thought, perusing the collection of sugary cereals in the cabinet above the sink. Or maybe Fruit Loops. What would they taste like mixed together?

Curious, Spencer took down both boxes and filled a bowl to experiment. He was just sitting down at the table after adding milk when his grandmother strolled in.

“Good morning—” Laura paused. “What are you eating?”

“Fruity Pops. Or Corn Loops—” Spencer shoved a spoonful in his mouth. As suspected, it was delicious. “Still workshopping.”

“Right.” Laura eyed him, uncertain what to do with that answer. “Well, enjoy that.” She went to the coffee machine. “I thought we might talk about what happened last week.”

Spencer twisted in his seat, furrowed his brows. “Is the part where I apologize again, because I can do that—”

“No, it’s the part where I apologize.”

Spencer blinked. “Wait. What?” Adults didn’t apologize.

While the coffee percolated, Laura sat at the table. “Elizabeth came to talk to me yesterday. Cameron reminded her of something very important. Something that I don’t like to remember and would prefer not to be true.” Laura covered his hand with her own. “As much as I want to keep you out of this, Spencer, you’re already in it. And it’s not fair for me to ask you to be a normal teenager. I’m sorry. For not understanding that.”

“It’s—” Suspicious, Spencer tipped his head. He knew Cameron had talked to his mother, but he really hadn’t expected his grandmother to do anything with that. “Really?”

“Yes. And while I might wish that you were more like him because you’d be safer, that doesn’t mean I don’t love you just the way you are. You worry me,” Laura admitted. “Because I’m not sure you’ll be satisfied with just reading some files.”

“I just…I have a lot of questions. And I don’t know how to answer any of them. You won’t talk about it. And there’s no one else. Even if you do talk about it, you might not be able to answer.” Spencer stared at the pieces of his cereal, becoming soggy as they rested in the milk. “I’m sorry, though. For getting mad at you. And for putting Jason in the middle. That really bothered Cam, and he didn’t deserve that. And I’m really sorry for calling you crazy. You know I never meant—”

“I know, honey. I know. And I forgive you. I’m still not thrilled with the idea,” Laura said after a moment, “but I’m lifting the ban. You can go back to the garage. Elizabeth is taking the boys there today so that it looks like Jason is still in town. And—” Laura grimaced. “You can read files. But—” She held up a finger as Spencer straightened, his eyes wide. “But you can’t take them out of the office. You only read them at the garage. Nothing else. That’s the deal.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I can do that. Thank you. I appreciate this.”

Laura sighed. She left the table to fix a cup of coffee. “Don’t thank me, thank Elizabeth and Cameron. I still think this is a mistake, but, well, we’ll see.”

Nero House: Kitchen

Oscar shoved his books in his bag, then shoved a piece of toast in his mouth. “I’m going to be late,” he said.

“Chew first, talk second,” Kim admonished, barely glancing up from her tablet as she scrolled through the headlines. “We’ve only been working on that since you were eight.”

He swallowed, then shot her a grin. “And one day, I will remember. But it is not this day—”

“Very funny.” Kim glanced up. “Did you call your father and reschedule dinner?”

“Uh.” Oscar pressed his lips together. “Not yet. And before you jump on me,” he said as his stepmother sighed. “He’s out of town on some business thing. He left me a message, and Cam said something about his mom’s boyfriend going, too. So I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

Kim propped her chin on her clasped hands, her elbows on the counter. “And do you want to?”

“Kim—” Oscar made a face.

“Oscar,” she said, mimicking his tone. “We talked about this. You were completely fine with having dinner with him until you thought it hurt me. You getting time with your dad, Oscar? It’s the best part of this.”

“I just—” Oscar sighed, sat across from her at the island. “I don’t know. I don’t like the way he’s treating you—” When she sighed, he added, “You might not have been my mom from birth, but you’re my mom now. And that matters. I mean, now that I think about it, did he even try to find out if you guys could work it out—”

Kim tipped her head. “He was never interested in coming back to me, honey. But I put your dad away a long time ago. Until last November, I thought he’d died. It’s been five years for me. I will always love him, but that doesn’t mean I wanted him to work on our marriage. I had a bad week, Oscar, that’s all.”

“You say that now, but maybe—”

“What could have been isn’t important. We can only focus on what is. Drew has every right to handle this terrible, awful thing the best way he knows how. I can’t imagine what he’s going through. Not knowing who he was for an entire year, then being given this identity—those memories—and now to be told all over again that it’s not his life. He’s doing the best he can, Oscar. And so am I. So are you. And so is everyone else involved.” Kim leaned forward. “Promise me, Oscar. When he comes home, you’re going to see him.”

“I’ll call him,” Oscar said, finally. “But it’s hard. He doesn’t look like my dad. Sometimes—” He made a face. “It’s harder to be around the other guy. He looks like Dad. They don’t have the same voice or anything, but—”

“I get that. I’ve seen Jason Morgan around the hospital a few times,” Kim admitted. She poured herself another cup of coffee. “And it always takes me a minute. And Elizabeth’s son — the middle one, I think. He looks like your father. In some of the pictures Drew has from his childhood.” Kim smiled. “You always looked more like your mother, your dad said.”

“Yeah. I know. I see it in her pictures.” Oscar picked up his orange juice. “It must be so strange for Dad and Jason. To be brothers who didn’t know about each other, and Dad’s got Jason’s memories. It’s seriously whacked.”

“You’re not kidding. Drew always wanted to have a family,” Kim said wistfully. “He looked for his birth family, you know. Before he came to San Diego. But he said it always ended in dead ends.”

“Yeah, he said it was okay though. Because he made a new family. He had Mom, then me. And you.” Oscar hesitated. “Maybe it’s why it bothers me so much, you know? Because it was just us for a while after Mom died, and I don’t really remember her. But I remember what it was like for it to be just the two of us. And then he brought you home. And it was like, this is how it’s supposed to be. And we were gonna get a new house, and Dad was gonna retire, and—now we don’t get to have any of it. It’s just you and me now.”

“Saying goodbye to the life you’d thought you’d have is hard, Oscar. And you have to do it more than once. Every step forward means leaving something behind. You know, I thought maybe I’d be a ballet dancer before I went to medical school.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Kim smiled. “But I didn’t have what it took, so I left it behind. I miss it, though. And there were other guys. One I nearly married. And every time I closed a door, it was hard. But that’s growing up. I wanted the life your dad and I planned, and maybe it’ll always hurt that someone stole it from us. But you know, it helps to remember Drew didn’t do this to us. He didn’t want to hurt us. Someone hurt him and destroyed his life. Remember that, Oscar, and don’t think so much about how it worked out. Your dad loved us.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“And he’ll love you again. You’re easy to love.” She raised her brows. “Now, you better get going or you’ll miss your bus.”

Penthouse: Living Room

Sam thanked the messenger, then closed the door. She cut the manila envelope open and slid out the paperwork from Martina, requesting that Sam review and call her with her final choice when she was ready.

She leaned against the desk and read the opening paragraphs, her stomach rolling, her pulse jittery. It was the first time she’d seen the claims in print — she knew what she’d asked Martina to do, of course, but this—

Samantha Morgan requests sole physical and legal custody of Emily Scout Morgan and Daniel Edward Morgan, and seeks to terminate the parental rights of Jason Morgan with respect to Daniel. A custody hearing to determine the legal paternity of Emily is requested along with a court order for paternity testing.

Beneath that was the petition for Drew that read almost the same — with his name substituted for Jason’s, and Danny omitted.

She could file these petitions in family court, kicking off a complicated custody battle that would force Jason and Drew to take paternity tests, landing them in court. Or she could have Martina work with Diane to come up with a joint petition that would dispose of the Scout situation, and simplified custody with Drew.

You’re the one who isn’t walking away. All this is going to do is keep you tied up.

Her mother’s words echoed in her head like a drumbeat, and Sam wanted to ignore them. Wanted to erase them from existence.

She wanted them not to be true.

Sam sat on the sofa, staring at the custody petition, wondering how it had gone so wrong. That night at the PCPD? She’d stood in that room, and she’d looked at Jason, and she’d looked at the man who was her husband, and she’d had to confront the reality that they weren’t the same person, after all.

Maybe it had been when she’d gone home, and continued to call her husband Jason, even though she knew, deep down, that wasn’t his name. Or when she’d pushed and pushed Drew until he’d walked right out the door, proving that he wasn’t going to put her first. That he was no different than his brother —

She dropped the paperwork on the table, pressed her palms into her eyes until she saw stars. It was all such a damn tangle, and it was too late to really fix anything. Wasn’t it? She’d told Drew that terrible awful truth she’d always kept hidden — that she didn’t want Jake in their lives at all — and that they’d all be better off if Jason had stayed in Russia—

Now he’d never look at her the same way again. He wasn’t like Jason. Not really. He knew how to cut people out. Hadn’t he turned his back on Elizabeth? And Sonny? Jason was the one who could forgive something like that. Could he understand her misery and confusion when he’d crashed back into their lives?

Did she want him to understand, to forgive her for not rushing to his side? What if she’d done that? What if she’d brought him home that night, or gone with him?

Sam rubbed her mouth. It was too late for any of that. Too late. Jason had done what he always did and circled back to Elizabeth. Sam didn’t know anymore who Jason really wanted or who he had settled for. He could have had Elizabeth in his life — and Jake — but he’d left them both before. He had come back to Sam while Jake was alive. And maybe he hadn’t been particularly interested in having kids with Sam, but he’d supported the surgery—

She rose to her feet, crossed to the terrace to look out over the city. Sonny had asked her what it would take to drop all her demands, to let Jason walk away from their marriage. From the life he’d promised her.

The truth of course was that Sam didn’t want him to walk away. She’d wanted him to fight for her. To choose her.  And he hadn’t.

And neither had Drew. They’d decided what they wanted was more important, and that really wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. Sam mattered. What she needed and wanted was important.

But what did she want? What did she need?

Unsure, Sam combed her hands through her hair, and went back to the paperwork she’d left on the coffee table. She picked it up, looked it over again.

What she needed was more time.

She reached for her cell phone and dialed. “Martina? Hey. I got the delivery. I still need to think about it more. I’m sorry. I don’t know what I want to do, and I can’t…. I don’t want to mess this up more than I already have. Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”

Wyndemere: Foyer

Valentin was smiling as he greeted the butler at the front door. “Benjamin,” he said. “It’s great to see you. The ladies at home?”

Benjamin, the stodgy, traditional servant, did not crack so much as a smile as he took Valentin’s coat and snapped a finger for one of the footmen to take Valentin’s bags up to his room. This was the life he was working so hard to protect, Valentin thought. An army of servants to take care of his every whim — he’d earned this life of luxury, and no one had any right to come in and threaten it.

“Madam is in the parlor,” Benjamin said. “And so is Miss Charlotte.”

“Excellent. Excellent.” Valentin rubbed his hands together, eager to move on with the next step of his plan. In just a matter of days. Klein would have transported Stefan to the lab beneath the mansion, and Valentin would hand over the protocol files so that they could work on extracting Stefan’s memories.

“My girls!” Valentin said, throwing his hands out with a wide smile. Charlotte, his beloved golden child, leapt to her feet and ran into his arms. He swept her arm in a tight hug, kissing her head. He loved this sweet girl, and it was her he was fighting for, too. She had a right to the life he’d given her. To be known as a Cassadine princess.

“Papa! We missed you!”

Valentin looked past his daughter’s head to find Nina rising slowly to her feet, one slim red brow arched. “I missed you, too. Both of you.”

“Really,” Nina murmured, those blue eyes flashing with a warning that she wouldn’t be as easily charmed. Valentin kept the smile fixed on his face, inwardly wincing. He ought to have spent more time on a cover story. Should have taken a few minutes to make her happy—

Ah, well, the damage was done. He’d have time to clean it up before Klein arrived, and after all, the strain on his family was the reason Valentin had found it necessary to move the work back to Wyndemere. He’d prove himself with what came next.

“Yes, really, and I hope you’ll give me a chance to make it up to you.” He set Charlotte on her feet then crossed to his wife. Valentin kissed her cheek, nuzzling at her ear. “I know I’ve been a bad boy,” he murmured, and he felt her tense body soften just a little. “Do you promise to punish me?”

“Valentin—”

“I promise.” He drew back, smiled at her. “I’ll explain everything later when we’re alone. For now, let’s just enjoy being back together.”

“All right. But I reserve the right to remain angry.” Nina accepted the kiss he brushed against her mouth this time, and he knew he had her. She was a soft touch, his wife. His wife and daughter would forgive his hasty departure and lack of contact, the last Cassadine secrets would soon be in his hands—

It was all falling into place.

Cut my tongue or bury me alive
Couldn’t see disaster through the lies
Pawned my reputation for a dime
Drag my name, got nothing left to hide
I sold my soul, I just wanted everything
As I fold, send love to my enemies
Watch me burn, but soon you’ll get your turn
You’ll see, you and me, we’ll be together for centuries
– Trouble, Gabbie Hanna

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Sultanamet District: Sultan Ahmet Park

The Sultan Amet Camii was a mosque that towered over the plaza, with its six minarets. Lucky had chosen a tourist district nearly a forty minute walk away from Kiremit Fatih, and far away from the Maslak lab, hoping that would also dissuade his father—or Nikolas—from bothering with them. But still, Lucky’s shoulders itched as he ambled along the plaza, towards the park and the crop of benches in the center of the park. His arm was casually slung over Britt’s shoulders, her arm around his waist. They looked like any other tourist couple, enjoying the historic scenery of a mosque built four centuries earlier.

He’d tossed on a baseball cap and had given Britt a matching one — if anyone had stolen their wallet or purse, they’d find identification for Devon and Paula Richardson of Houston, Texas with season tickets to the Houston Astros.

The shoulders his arm rested on were tight with tension, slightly hunched. Lucky sighed, dropped his arm and reached for her hand, lacing their fingers together. He pulled her towards a bench.

“Sit. Take out the guide book I gave you,” he said to her, his tone low. “You’re going to read from it. Pitch your voice just a bit too loud. I’ll keep my tone lower.”

“The nagging annoying wife?” Britt asked, irritation flashing. “Next time, I’m coming up with the cover.” She muttered this but followed his direction. She dug into the oversize, paisley flowered bag, retrieved the guide to Istanbul. The irritation was better than the nerves. He didn’t mind pissing her off.

“Talk to me about this place,” Lucky told her, and she complied, opening to the spread about the Blue Mosque.

“The Blue Mosque—” Britt wrinkled her nose. “Why do American tourist guides always change the names? It’s not like this is hard to pronounce—”

“Criticize later.”

She rolled her eyes, and he grinned at her, hoping it did look like a couple bickering as they relaxed on a bench. “The Blue Mosque was constructed between 1609 and 1616 and was the first mosque outside of Mecca to have six minarets, due to an architectural misunderstanding.” Britt glanced up. “What do the minarets do? Why does that matter?”

“They’re towers used to call Muslims to prayer. Five times a day,” Lucky said. “You want to talk about that scene with Nikolas back at the house?”

“Not really,” Britt murmured. Then she raised her voice. “It wasn’t funded from the spoils of war as previous mosques had been, but from the Treasury. How do you know about the minarets?”

“I like to read. It sounded like you were looking for your own way out,” Lucky reminded her, his jaw clenched slightly. “I thought we had a deal.”

Britt sighed, set the book down in her lap, and looked across the plaza to the mosque. “You know, when I read in the papers that Nikolas had died, I was devastated. I still loved him. Then he showed up, and he asked me for help. He said he needed me, and I just—I wanted to believe that meant something.” She shook her head. “But he just knew he could blackmail me. He knew that I was on the run, that even if I went home and got free of the charges he’d put on my head, then I’d still be in trouble for being with my father.  I’m just another pawn on the chessboard to him. Maybe I needed to hear him admit it before I could go through with all this.”

She picked up the travel guide again. “The mosque was damaged by fire in 1912, but much of it has been restored—”

He put two fingers in the center of the book, pushing it down so that she’d look at him. “That’s how he sees all of us, Britt. Did you really need him to spell it out? Did you think he’d let you go before he was ready?”

“He never said it before. Maybe I knew, but I could let myself believe—” She sighed. “Even if we get Jason and Drew to buy our story — if they find out Nikolas is alive, it won’t make this okay. You know that. Maybe even unmasking Valentin won’t be enough.”

“I know that—”

“Nikolas doesn’t. He’s waiting for something that will magically make all of this okay. He’ll never find it. There will always be a reason to keep pretending.  All of us acting like there’s a smoking gun that will let this end. That I can just go home. None of us can. I know from experience—” Her lip curved into a half-smirk. “You’ll just keep lying because deep down you know what you did is so bad that you don’t have the right to forgiveness. To redemption. Some lies, some crimes—they’re beyond any of that.”

“Like what you did to my sister?”

She flicked those brown eyes at him again, then looked at the guide book. “Yes.”

“And what I’ve done to my sons. What Nikolas is doing to Spencer.”

“Yes.” Her voice wobbled, then steadied. “And what’s worse is that we all know it. We know what we’ve done. And we keep trying to protect ourselves from the fallout. More lies. More secrets. It’s better to just stop. Even if it hurts. Because at least it’s the pain you chose Better you than someone else to bring it crashing down. I’ve had enough of that.”

“Yeah.” Lucky stretched out his legs, folded his arms. “Yeah. Well, that’s what we’re doing today. The first step to making it stop.” He met her gaze. “And that’s why they’ll believe us. Or at least investigate the lead. Because we both want it to stop.”

“If we really wanted it to stop, we’d tell them everything,” she murmured. She looked at him. “But we’re not doing that either. Because, like I said, we both believe there’s a piece of the truth that will let us off the hook. And until we can accept there’s not, we’ll just keep lying.”

———————

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Drew stopped. “Do you see that?”

Jason paused at the corner of the plaza, scanned the rows of benches arranged near the mosque’s entrance. The benches were backless, made from white stone with slats of wood across the surface. The weather was balmy, in the low sixties, a stark change from New York, but despite that, there weren’t many tourists in the immediate area.

In the second row, there were a pair of Americans, sitting close to one another, their heads brushing close, each sporting an identical black baseball cap with an orange star and white letter H logo. The caps were pulled low over their faces, but Jason had known Lucky Spencer since he was a kid, but the woman was a stranger to him.

“You were right about Lucky,” Drew continued, “but that’s not Luke.”

“No. It’s not.” Jason considered the scene. “Well, I guess we don’t have to confront him about Britt anymore.”

“This should be interesting.”

They didn’t walk straight to the pair — instead, Jason reached into his back pocket for a folded up map of the city he’d grabbed at the airport, and made a show of looking at it, looking up at the mosque, then around the square, as if he was getting his bearings.

Drew pointed at the benches, then they walked over, a row away from Lucky and Britt, who were looking at a guide book of their own.

“Excuse me,” Drew said, his voice a bit louder than normal. “Are you American? Do you speak English?”

Lucky looked up, then nodded. “Yeah—” And Jason blinked at the slight twang in his tone. “We are. You lost?”

“Looking for the quickest way back to our hotel,” Drew said. “My brother got us turned around and now, we don’t remember—” Jason shot him a dirty look, and Drew just grinned at him. Jason hadn’t agreed to be thrown under the bus, but he supposed a bit of sibling banter would help if anyone was listening.

Not that anyone would be fooled — if there were any Cassadines watching, they damn well knew who all four of them were. But there was no point in taking chances. No point in being arrogant that they knew all of their enemies. Anyone could be following them. No reason not to play it safe.

“Let me see your map.” Lucky held out a hand, and Jason gave it to him. He sat across from the pair, perching on the edge of the bench. Drew sat at the other end. “You, uh, made good time,” the other man said, looking at the map, his tone lower now.

“Came straight from the airport,” Drew said, his tone clipped. He glanced at Britt, her fingers curled tightly around the edge of her book, but her face blank. “Britt. Funny to see you here. I don’t think you’ve met my brother.”

“No. Um, no. Not while he was awake anyway.” Britt glanced at Jason. “But I’ve heard about you.”

“You said you were coming to help us with the list of properties that Spinelli gave us,” Lucky said. “But Dad said you were unhappy with how slow we’ve been working. The lack of progress.”

“That’s why we came. To make it go faster.”

“I thought maybe you were starting to doubt asking for help, so I wanted to give you a sign of good faith.” He gestured at Britt. “We found Britt like we said last month. She’s been helping us since.”

“Helping?” Drew raised his brow. “The way you helped yourself to Lulu’s embryo?”

Britt winced. “No, I’ve been—I want my life back,” she said after a minute. “And I can’t really make up for what I did. There’s nothing that makes that okay. But this—I can be useful. My parents were part of this. My mother—” She looked at Jason, then at Drew before dropping her eyes to her lap. “My mother ran the lab where they kept Lucky. She held Robin hostage. And that’s probably just the tip of the iceberg. That’s before we even talk about my father’s crimes. I just—I want a chance to stop it. To make sure they can’t do it again.”

“So when I found out you were coming, I told Dad I’d handle it. Told him we had stuff to discuss about the files. The thing is—” Lucky grimaced.  “You’re right not to trust me and my dad. Or at least, not entirely. We’ve been looking for Cassadines since Jake showed up.” His mouth tightened, and he kept staring at the map. “Haven’t had much success.”

“Funny you didn’t mention that when you were home last month,” Drew bit out.

“Dad didn’t want to let anyone know. I wanted to tell you when you got home,” Lucky said to Jason, “but Dad didn’t want you to be part of it. Thought you’d derail it.”

“Derail,” Jason bit out. “Luke has no right—”

“Your priority is the memory experiments,” Lucky said, and Jason closed his mouth. “To get Drew’s memory back. To get answers. Mine and Dad’s—it’s to get rid of every damned Cassadine left that isn’t Spencer. Or Alexis and her kids,” he added almost as an afterthought. “To make sure Helena’s gone, and so are all her loose ends.”

“That doesn’t mean we can’t share information,” Drew said. “Or make it okay you’ve been lying to all of us—”

“No, it doesn’t,” Britt said softly. “So we’re stopping. Right, Lucky?”

“I’m stopping. I can’t tell you what my dad is going to do. He was working from a different list — one we put together from things we’d picked up. But once Spinelli told him about Maslak and the connection to Klein, he headed straight there.”

Drew tipped his head. “Has he found anything?”

“Yeah. It’s one of Helena’s research facilities. I’ve been tracking them down over the last few years to see if there are any other Cassadines on ice. I’m not having another Stavros show up to kidnap my sister again,” Lucky said tightly. “I’ve already found some abandoned ones in South America, one in Siberia. I can get you the others I’ve checked off if you want to look into them.  But Spinelli was right on the money about Maslak. Dad saw Valentin there Saturday morning, and after some recon, he found out they’re closing up shop. Moving it. We think it’s back to Spoon Island. Valentin doesn’t want to be away much longer.”

“He found Valentin and the lab and said nothing,” Drew said. “Are you fucking kidding? We had to fly all the way here—”

“I knew you’d want to see the place in person. I know you don’t trust me or my father. And Dad— ever since I brought Britt in on this, he’s been pissed at me. He doesn’t trust her.”

“Finally something Luke and I agree about,” Drew snapped.

“Look, you don’t know me,” Britt said. “Neither of you do. But I am the only connection anyone has to my parents. I know where my mother traveled — where we lived. I worked at the lab in Russia before I came to Port Charles. I worked with Klein. I know the experiments. I’ve worked with the protocol. You don’t have to trust me. But I’m the reason you’re even awake,” she snapped at Jason.

Jason scowled. “You think that I should be grateful—”

“My mother threatened me. She threatened me Spencer if I woke you up. But I did it anyway.”

Jason sat up, straightened. “What?”

“My father wanted me to wake you up. I don’t know why. He wanted me to do it, and he said if I did, I’d be free. He’d make the charges go away, and I could go somewhere that wasn’t Port Charles and start my life over.” She paused. “So I went to Russia, and I started to work.”

She twisted her hands in her lap. “But my mother showed up. She wanted me to stop. She said that waking you up was a terrible idea. And that if I did, she’d make me regret it. She said she’d wipe out the entire line, and I just—I couldn’t be responsible for that. So I told her I wouldn’t do it. I left the lab. And I went back into hiding— from my father this time. I don’t know why they were on separate sides of this,” Britt continued, “and I wasn’t interested in finding out. But I left the protocol for someone else to finish. You were two treatments away,” she said to Jason. “I disguised the treatment as the normal medications you were supposed to receive for your health, and I hoped that it would be enough. Because I knew if you woke up, you’d go home and you’d go after who did this to you. And maybe then I could really be free.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell us that up front?” Drew demanded. “Don’t you see this makes it harder for us to trust you?”

“I’m putting my life in your hands,” Britt said. “If my father found out what I did, if my mother knew that I woke Jason up anyway, if either of them knew where I was, I’d be dead. And so would Spencer. And I don’t know if they’d stop there. And that’s not even counting Valentin. It would have been easier for me to keep lying to you. I want my life back.”

Drew raised his brows to Lucky. “And you?”

“I want the Cassadines gone,” he said tightly. “I’ve lost too much to them. My life — Jake — and you saw that video from Helena. She went after Elizabeth, and she’s got a plan for my mother. I don’t know if Chimera was that plan or if there’s something else. I can’t afford to take that risk. You want to get to the bottom of the memory experiments, and I need the Cassadines wiped from the face of the planet.” He grimaced. “Except for Spencer. He’s still an innocent.”

“Let me get this straight,” Drew said. “Both of Britt’s parents were involved in Jason being in Russia, Luke found Valentin and his lab and kept his mouth shut, and now it’s being moved back to Port Charles?”

“What else are you keeping from us?” Jason demanded. “That can’t be it. I want the other labs. Anything you’ve looked into.”

“I can get you that. I’ll tell you everywhere I’ve been. You can go through and eliminate anything I’ve already done. But if my dad has more secrets, that’s not on me. You can do with this information what you want.”

Drew exhaled slowly, exchanged a look with his brother. “You gonna tell Luke you rolled on him?”

“No. He didn’t want you involved. He thinks I’m sending you to Siberia, but you can tell him. I won’t stop you.”

“We need to talk about this,” Jason said before Drew could say anything else. “Because I don’t know you,” he told Britt. “And I don’t trust you,” he threw at Lucky who grimaced. “We’ll be in touch.” Jason got to his feet, looked at Drew. “You ready?”

“Yeah. Let’s go find our hotel. Thanks,” Drew said to Lucky and Britt, raising his voice again. “We can take it from here.”

Kiremit House: Study

“It’s a tight schedule,” Luke admitted, “but I think we can pull it off.” He set the map down in front of Nikolas. “The lab pretty much clears out around five and it’s a skeleton crew anyway. There’s not much in the way of security.”

“Too much security makes it look like there’s something to hide,” Nikolas murmured. “Uncle used to say that.” He glanced up at Luke. “What about security guards?”

“Just the cameras and motion sensors, which I can handle. There’s a guy in the lobby over night, but they do a shift change at seven. The desk is empty for about ten, maybe fifteen minutes. We get two vans that are identical — I’ll drive the one with Stefan to the airport and Lucky will take the other. He’ll head out first, to draw the attention of anyone trying to follow. He’ll lead them on a wild goose chase, then head to this warehouse—” Luke tapped the map. “Little Obrecht will be waiting with a car running. They’ll head to the airport from there, hoping that we’ve lost anyone tailing us.”

Nikolas shook his head. “This—it’s risky—”

“Maybe. I, uh, had a thought.” Luke took a seat. “The brothers are here, and it’s a pain in the ass to be sure. But we might be able to use that to our advantage. They don’t know Stefan exists. But Valentin sure as hell does. He’ll need someone to blame.”

Nikolas was a quiet for a moment. “That’s true. Are you having second thoughts?”

“Do I think it’ll cause issues back home? Maybe. But it’ll shake Val up. We might get him to make a mistake. Maybe he goes after someone. He hasn’t hit a kid yet, like the old bat.” Luke paused. “The thing is if he doesn’t target one of the kids, he could still go after someone Jason or Drew cares about.”

Nikolas rose, paced the small room. “That sounds like you’re putting Elizabeth in the cross hairs. She’s the only one they have in common—or Sam.”

“They’re both resilient women. Elizabeth’s gone toe to toe with a Cassadine or two in her time, and she can hold her own. Sam? Maybe. But he risks activating Natasha. It’s a risk, but if Stefan disappears without someone to blame, Valentin will know someone else is involved. If you really want to stay under the radar, then maybe we should try to time this rescue to make sure they’re the suspects.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with framing them outright,” Nikolas said, though he was tempted. Luke had a good point — if Valentin stayed focused on Jason and Drew—

“We need to make a decision soon. Lucky’s hoping we can get the brothers out of here tomorrow.”

“They just got here.”

“To locate Valentin. But he—” Luke lit a cigar and looked at the tip. “Left the city late last night. He’ll be home sometime today. The boys will get that news from back home, and I’ll send Lucky over tomorrow with the information. I know Jason Morgan — he’s not staying here a minute longer if he knows his family is in the same city as Valentin. He’ll pull up stakes. After that, it’s just a matter of making a few calls, tweaking a few things to make sure the plane doesn’t leave until we’ve got Stefan in our hands.”

Nikolas nodded. It made sense in a cold, rational way. The universe had provided them with a clear set of suspects, and it would allow Nikolas to operate in peace.

“He also might suspect the WSB which could keep him from doing anything that blow his cover,” Luke said. He exhaled his cigar smoke in a ring. “You want me to get your uncle out of that lab, I’m telling how we can get away with it.”

“I want my uncle.” Nikolas hesitated, looked towards the window. “And I don’t want to leave any possibility he might find out it was me. Make the calls. Make sure Jason and Drew don’t leave before we have him.”

“And everyone back home?”

“You’re right. Elizabeth always said she can handle herself. Jason will have the boys protected. It’s a risk, but it’s a necessary one. Let me know what else you need for the plan.”

Sultanamet District: Grand Ambiance Hotel

“You know, I think I knew Turkish.” Drew shoved open the door to the room. He dumped a white plastic bag with a Styrofoam container inside on the sliver of a desk by the window. He eyed the twin beds skeptically. “Those are way too close together,” he decided.

Jason ignored him, tossing his duffel bag on one of them. He didn’t care where he slept or if he got any rest. It was—he grimaced. Still the middle of the night back in New York, and he wasn’t going to drag Spinelli or Elizabeth out of bed for this story.

“Figure we can’t call home until around or two here. Probably the earliest.” Drew unwrapped his kebab. “What do you think about the story?”

“Most of it is true,” Jason said. He dragged out the laptop, then glared at it. He didn’t know what to do with it. Should he just type Liesl Obrecht into a search engine? Damn it. Why had Valentin chosen a location with a nine hour time difference—

“Most of it?”

“Lucky played it straight today.” Jason considered the conversation, replayed it back in his head. “He was good at computers once. I wouldn’t be surprised if he picked that habit back up. Spinelli planted trackers on those files. Maybe Lucky found them.”

“Ah, so maybe he knew we were watching and came clean before we could accuse him. That’s pretty smart.” Drew frowned. “So he came clean on Maslak and Britt. That fits.”

“He told us things we found out through the trace,” Jason pointed out. “Britt? The lab? But we never asked about the network. Or where they were staying.”

“And he didn’t volunteer it.” Drew nodded. “I see your point. He told us as much as he needed before we could confront him. Do we push him on the location next time?”

“Maybe. But it also might be useful for Lucky to think he’s one step ahead of us for now. After we go see this lab—” Jason shrugged. “We’ll see what happens.”

“You think the rest of it is true? About Britt’s parents?”

“I don’t know. I never knew either of them. Did you?”

“Oh, yeah. I knew Liesl Obrecht. She decided to hate me from the moment I came into her hospital without insurance.” He tossed Jason his food and took out his tablet. He tapped a few times, then showed Jason the article he’d pulled up, detailing the appointment of Liesl Obrecht to Chief of Staff of General Hospital. “How much did Elizabeth tell you about her?”

“Not much.” Jason skimmed the article. “She was involved with Robin’s kidnapping. And, like you said, she worked at GH for a while—”

“Until late last year. Even managed to keep her job after she held Elizabeth hostage for a few days.” Drew sank his teeth into his beef kebab, and only belatedly noticed Jason’s stare. “Oh, she didn’t tell you that?”

“No.”

“This was a few months before I showed up. You know about Britt and the stolen embryo—no, I guess not from the look on your face.”

“You brought that up earlier,” Jason said. “Is that why Elizabeth doesn’t trust Britt?”

“Oh, yeah. Britt was Lulu’s OB, and Maxie was supposed to be a surrogate for Lulu and Dante. Britt implanted herself with one of the fertilized embryos, tricked Patrick into thinking it was his kid, and the whole thing finally got unraveled about a year later.” Drew furrowed his brow. “Elizabeth found out and blew up Nikolas and Britt’s engagement party. Then the baby and Liesl went missing. Turns out she was hiding out at Elizabeth’s, holding her hostage. Elizabeth got shot in the shoulder before it was all over.”

“Shot,” Jason repeated, mystified. “She never said—and this Obrecht woman kept her job?”

“She definitely had something on the board. We never found out what. I came along that fall, and like I said, Obrecht hated me.” Drew tipped his head. “Of course now, that makes me wonder what she knew. Did she know I was supposed to be you and wanted me out in the world so Helena could corner me? Activate the chip? Or so Maddox could get his hands on me.”

“You’re leaning towards believing Lucky and Britt, then.”

“We already knew Liesl was in on the experiments, so it doesn’t surprise me she pops up in Russia. And Britt backing off from waking you up—” Drew cleaned his fingers. “Yeah, something in that makes sense. I think it’s true enough that Liesl Obrecht should go on the list of people to find. Right next to Cesar Faison.” He hesitated. “But Lucky’s part in it makes less sense. He never knew Britt. If you believe him, he only met her last week. But he clearly trusts her. Considering what she did to his sister, you’d think he’d be more reluctant. That’s not how it came across today. They seemed like a team.”

“He’s always liked playing hero.” Jason hesitated. “At least once he grew up. He was angry after Manny kidnapped Elizabeth, and he hadn’t been the one to save her. He was obsessed with trying to catch me in the act of committing a crime so he could, I don’t know, prove to her that he was the real hero.”

“And he certainly didn’t mind all the celebration he got after getting the credit for tossing Ruiz off the roof.” Drew winced. “Sorry—that’s your memory—”

“No, but it’s true enough. He tried to get into the Metro Court during the hostage crisis—and that Irish girl—” Jason shook his head. “Maybe. I’d buy Lucky protecting someone for that, but there’s something else missing here. Luke and Lucky being at odds enough that Lucky looks like he’s flipping on Luke? I don’t know. I don’t like it.”

“Me, either.” Drew checked his watch. “You could try Elizabeth now, you know. She might be up.”

“Yeah.” Jason got to his feet. “I’m gonna take a walk, look at the neighborhood a little more. I’ll call her while I’m out. I don’t like the idea of calling her in a room—”

“Yeah, you never know who’s watching or listening. Out in the open is better.”

Jason left and found a street cafe next to the hotel. He ordered a drink, then took out his phone. He needed to fill her in, that much was true. But he also just wanted to hear her voice.

She answered on the first ring. “Jason? Hey!”

“Hey.” He smiled. “Sorry to call so early—”

“No, it’s fine. I had an early shift. What’s up? What’s going on there?”

Jason took a deep breath and told her everything.

Fatih District: Portafari Balat

Concerned that Jason and Drew would be following them, Lucky took Britt on a walking tour of the city and stayed as far away from the house on Kiremit street as possible. She tried to start a conversation with him several times, wanting to talk about what had happened, but he continued to avoid it. Not until he was sure they weren’t being followed. Finally, he was satisfied they were alone, and decided it was time for lunch.

Tourists were common enough that Lucky and Britt’s American accents went mostly unnoticed. Britt slid into a seat by the window overlooking the cobblestone streets and reached for the menu.

“What do you think they’re doing right now?”

“Probably calling Port Charles. They couldn’t have done that until this afternoon with the time difference. And then they’ll decide on a game plane with what they’ve learned.”

“When Elizabeth finds out I’m here, she’ll tell Jason to ignore everything. She doesn’t trust me.”

Lucky glanced at her over the top of the menu. “Does that surprise you?”

Britt grimaced and looked like she wanted to argue. “No,” she said finally. “But I didn’t do anything to Elizabeth directly.” She paused. “That she knew about—

“She would have forgiven you faster if you had.” When Britt frowned at him, Lucky continued, “Elizabeth finds it harder to let go of her anger when you hurt someone she loves. You tricked Patrick into believing it was his baby, you lied to my brother, and you kept Lulu’s son from her. These are all people she cares about.”

“Still—”

“I had an affair,” Lucky said bluntly. “And while I had that affair, I repeatedly accused her, publicly, of having an affair with a colleague. And then I had another affair a year later. And long before that, I slept with her sister and lied about it. Elizabeth kept forgiving me. She didn’t—” He pressed his lips together, tossed the menu aside. “She didn’t write me off until my actions hurt the kids. So, no, I don’t think the fact that you’re helping is going to make her happy.”

“So why—”

“Because they might not trust you, but they’re not stupid. Your story makes sense. It’s mostly true. They just don’t know that you gave Nikolas’s role to Faison. And your mother was involved before you told them about Russia. They know she worked on my case. What we told them fits. They’ll be interested enough to look into it. And from there—”

“From there, I guess we’ll see.” Britt exhaled slowly.

“Nice touch, by the way, coming up with that story about Russia. It looks like you got pissed off enough to come clean—”

“I did.”

“Exactly. It worked out.” He tipped his head. “But I find it interesting that you cast Faison in Nikolas’s role instead of dropping some hints. I’m not the only one protecting him.”

Britt leaned back. “You said you weren’t ready. We had an agreement.”

“Yeah. We did. But just in the interest of fairness—now that Jason and Drew know you’re actively involved, they’re going to dig into your past.”  He met her eyes. “If you’re keeping any other secrets from me, you need to come clean now. If Jason or Drew come back with something you’ve lied to me about, I will throw you under the bus—”

“I thought we’d agreed to trust each other—”

“We did.” He waited. “But I’m not stupid, and my father raised me never to play all my cards at once. Did yours?”

“My father didn’t raise me at all,” Britt said coolly, “and the only lesson I ever learned from my mother was to go after what you want and damn the collateral damage. Does that mean you still have secrets from me?”

“This isn’t about me—”

“You could go back to the house right now and tell Nikolas about Valentin. About who he really is.” Britt lifted her chin. “That’s all the leverage I had left. You tell him that, and that I knew all this time, there’s nowhere I can hide. It’s the one thing Nikolas needed to break this open, and I kept my mouth shut.” She closed her hand into a fist. “I didn’t know if my mother was telling the truth. I still don’t.”

“And I don’t know what my brother would do with that information, or you if he thought you were lying. If I’m right—” Lucky smiled grimly, “He kept Jake’s survival a secret.  I don’t know what else he’s capable of.” He met Britt’s gaze again, held it. “You really don’t have any other secrets?”

“No.” She arched a brow. “You?”

“Beyond Nikolas knowing about Jake and being part of all of this, no. Nothing I can prove. But I have—” He paused, considered his words. “I have my suspicions that my father might know more than he’s saying. Most of my life, he’d never have given Nikolas the time of day. He’d never have worked with him like this before. So there’s something they both know and they’re not telling me. I’m tired of sacrificing my life for other people’s problems. I never asked to be part of the Cassadine-Spencer blood feud, and I’ll be damned if my sons are next to be sacrificed.”

I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve felt so long
Erase all the pain ’til it’s gone
I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong
– Somewhere I Belong, Linkin Park

---

Tuesday, January 9, 2018

 Plane: Main Cabin

Once they reached cruising altitude, Jason went to the galley kitchen in the back of the jet while Drew flipped through work he’d brought from Aurora. He liked it more than he’d thought he would, and it hadn’t taken much to get the hang of it. As he sorted through the papers, he saw the file Curtis had left in his office.

Jason returned from the kitchen, two bottles of beer in his hand. He offered one to Drew who took it, and said, “You know, I don’t know if I drank Rolling Rock before I was you,” he mused.

Jason twisted the cap off, took a seat on the sofa attached to the other side of the plane. “No?”

“No. Maybe I should ask.” Drew took a sip, then set the bottle to the side. “When we, uh, first started looking into all of this, we both wondered how Victor knew I existed. How did he find a twin that no one else had ever heard of—except for Heather,” he added.

“You said there was something about the birth certificate,” Jason said. “Did you find something more than that?”

“Maybe. Victor worked for DVX — Anna did some time as a double agent for them. And she said that one of the basic steps in learning about your mark was to start at the beginning. If we’re right, and you were targeted because of Elizabeth, Victor would have looked for leverage against you. He’d have started with records. Maybe looking for a family member to exploit or turn. Our original birth certificates were filed with us as twins. So Susan—our biological mother—knew about me. I was born alive.”

“Yeah, you told me that. And from there, Victor traced you into the system.” Jason furrowed his brow. “Do you know how?”

“Not really. We have some guesses. If he looked for a kid my age in the system, the paperwork is there. The timing of Susan’s death, how I ended up in the system—I was dumped at a fire station in Poughkeepsie with some forms. A fake birth certificate and a surrender form. It was six weeks after Susan was murdered, but the surrender form was supposedly signed by my biological mother, Susan Cain. Poughkeepsie is on the other side of the state.”

Jason frowned. “It was that close to her murder? The story Elizabeth got from—” He grimaced. “Franco,” he muttered.

“I know he’s not a reliable narrator, but most of the story he shared with Elizabeth rings true enough. Betsy probably lied to him to stop the questions,” Drew said. “Saying that I was older. He was having some strange memories, and he painted something with two boys. Elizabeth said he was obsessed with it and that’s why he went to Betsy. She told him a few stories before he finally nailed her down on me. But Betsy told him I died.” He paused. “There’s a lot about this that doesn’t make any sense. The only people who were there were Heather and Betsy — and neither one of them is all that credible.”

“That’s putting it mildly. You think you getting put in the system was connected to Susan?” Jason shook his head. “I don’t see how. The guy who killed her died not long after, didn’t he? And confessed.”

“Yeah. And that’s all you ever knew—which means it’s all I knew. Curtis didn’t like how it fit together, so he started asking questions. Robert got involved — he was the original investigator on Susan.” Drew held up the folder. “And they started putting together questions that weren’t answered back then. This is a case summary, with everything they knew then and what we know now.”

Jason took the folder, but left it closed. “There’s a reason you’re telling me this now.”

“Yeah. Yeah. The surrender form is what creates most of suspicion. I was taken from Betsy who could be traced back to Heather. I was dumped on the other side of the state. And I wasn’t just abandoned — that would have sent up red flags. Maybe got some media.”

“And maybe Alan or one of the Quartermaines would have seen it. We were identical,” Jason said. “But surrendering you to the state—”

“Stops all of that. There’s no reason to go any further. They just drop you in the system and move on. No search. No publicity. And keeping me as Andrew means I answer to a name I recognize. No one’s asking questions.”

Jason exhaled slowly. He set the bottle of beer on the table next to him, held the folder with both hands. “Which means you think someone deliberately put you in the system to make you disappear.”

“Yeah.” Drew paused. “It’s an angle we’ve been looking into for a few weeks, but I didn’t want to say anything to you unless I had to. Because the only people who would have wanted me to disappear—” He stopped when Jason looked at him. “I don’t know for sure. But right now, everything points to Monica.”

Jason’s jaw clenched. “Monica. You think—” He stopped. Actually considered what Drew was saying. “She always told me it was different back then,” he murmured. “After the accident. When she wanted me to know that blood didn’t have to matter. That you could learn to love someone and make them your family. She’d done that for me.”

“There were those stories about you not exactly being welcome back then,” Drew said. “Not inheriting, not getting the Quartermaine name. I know you knew about them because I did, too. But I don’t know if either of us ever knew just how much Monica and the rest of the family didn’t want you around and would have exploded if there were two of us.”

Jason hesitated, then shook his head. “No. It’s—it’s one thing to resent a kid born from an affair. But you’re talking about dumping you in the system—”

“Alan almost lost custody of you to the state.” Drew gestured at the file. “It’s in there. The state investigated him for neglect. After Susan’s murder, he left you at the gatehouse with a nanny. No parent living with you full-time, so they threatened to take you away. Alan brought you up to the house, and Monica left him. She took AJ and walked out. She didn’t care about you then. The investigation was closed when Alan moved you into the house. But Monica gave him that ultimatum. It was her or you. And he chose you.”

“I didn’t—” Jason pushed himself to his feet, restless. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah. Until I heard that story — Scott told Elizabeth about it, and Curtis went digging for the files. She’s probably forgotten all about that,” Drew added when Jason frowned at him. “But once I heard that, it changed things. You were here, a kid Alan knew and loved. But Monica didn’t give a damn. Why would she care about one she never met, and Alan didn’t know about?”

“Okay. I get that, but—”

“I asked her.” Drew rose. “On New Year’s Eve. I went to the house, and I asked her if she ever regretted it. I didn’t ask if she did it—just if she was ever sorry. If she ever looked for me. And she knew what I was saying, Jason, but she didn’t deny it. All she told me is that if Alan had known about me — if they could have brought me home, they would have. And I do believe that.”

Jason grimaced, looked towards the front of the plane. “I don’t know why it’s hard for me to accept Monica might have done this. After the accident, I always thought the worst of them, and they usually proved me right. But—but not her. I always thought—” He looked back at Drew. “Is there anything else tying her to it?”

“Not specifically. Not yet. Just more evidence that Monica wasn’t thinking about you as Alan’s son. The night Susan died, she’d called Monica, Edward, and Alan to the house. They thought it was about the blackmail about Grandmother’s first marriage. Susan also called for a reporter to be there. The reporter was there first. She found the body — and the family who’d arrived while she was upstairs — they came up. The police were called, and Alan went to find you. He didn’t know Susan had sent you away with the housekeeper. He wanted Robert to start looking for you, but Robert remembers that Monica and Edward weren’t that interested. They didn’t care if you were gone. They were more concerned with covering themselves about the murder.”

Drew winced when he saw Jason’s expression tighten, and he stopped. “I’m sorry. I know that sucks to hear. I know—”

“It’s the truth, isn’t it?” Jason rubbed his mouth. “All that proves is what I already knew. What Monica always said. She didn’t love me at first. She didn’t think of me as family. Then she did and never stopped. So—”

“The day after I asked her, after Robert confronted her, Tracy flew in from Amsterdam. Unannounced.”

Jason frowned. “Tracy?”

“Yeah. Tracy had her own run-ins with Susan — an affair with Tracy’s husband, Mitch Williams. The thing is, Jason, we think Susan knew about me at the end. Before she died. We think it’s why she changed her blackmail demands, and it’s why Tolliver killed her.”

Jason fisted his hands at his side. “What—”

“Tolliver always said Susan was backing down from the blackmail and that’s why he killed her. Robert said it never made sense to him. Why call a reporter and the family over if she was backing out? But you might do that if you were threatening to go public with a second son. Another trust fund. Eighteen years of financial demands in front of them. Susan changed her will to leave her estate to her descendants. It wasn’t plural before that. It was only you.”

“It’s—there’s no facts in that,” Jason said. “You just think you have the story—”

“I know. But in order to get facts, to do anything else, I needed you to know.” Drew sighed. “I don’t like thinking this anymore than you do. I may not be you, but Monica’s been my mother for the last two years. And I don’t want to think she had anything to do with this. I just don’t know how to put it away. Someone dumped me in the system. They threw me away. I think I deserve to know who.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” Jason cleared his throat. “You do. I’m sorry. This happened to you—”

“It happened to us both,” Drew cut in, and Jason looked at him, reluctantly. “It’s not easy to accept it, but we were brothers. And maybe Susan wasn’t a good person, but no one has ever said she was a terrible mother. I don’t know if someone lied about me being dead, but that part of Heather’s story always made sense. You know what kind of grief that brings, Jason. We both do. Losing a child at birth after you’ve carried them for nine months.”

Jason looked away, and Drew knew they were both thinking of Sam. He continued, “They murdered your mother, Jason. You don’t even know her. Even when you had your memories of before the accident, you didn’t remember her. This happened to both of us. You don’t have to want the answers, but I’m tired of pretending I’m not angry about how this happened. We both had our entire lives stolen twice, and damn it, I want to know why. I want to know by who. But I can’t do it without you.”

“Why?” Jason asked, his voice low, his eyes still on the carpet below.

“Because you’re my brother. Monica is our mother. If I go forward, and I find out she did this, that affects us both. I don’t want to hurt you. Is that so hard to understand?”

“No.” Jason hesitated. “No. It’s not. Can I—” He looked at the sofa where he’d left the file. “I need some time. I want to read what you found. To—to just let it sit.”

“Yeah. That’s fine.” Drew returned to his seat. “Take what you need. We’ve got other things to think about.”

Kiremit House: Lucky’s Bedroom

“Come in,” Lucky said, grabbing a t-shirt from the dresser drawer. Britt stopped just inside, her eyes wide. “What?”

“I didn’t—” She paused, gestured. “You should have told me you were still getting dressed—”

Lucky glanced down at his bare chest, then back at her. “You haven’t seen a chest before?” He pulled the shirt over his head. “How’d you get through medical school?”

“You know, you can be a real bastard sometimes,” she muttered, but closed her door. “I don’t want people walking in on me when I’m half-dressed—”

“Little different,” he said, edging around her and the bed to get to his desk. “If you were half-naked, it’d stop traffic.” He booted up his laptop, glanced over his shoulder to see her frowning. “What?”

“I can’t decide if that was a compliment or an insult.”

“A fact.” He straightened. “What did you need?”

“What?” Britt said, then shook her head. “Right. Sorry. Distracted.” She folded her arms. “What are we telling the others? Which cover story did you want to go with so I’m ready?”

“We’re going to lie to them. Dad always liked the Siberia lead. And you put yourself on the record saying you hated it, so he’ll like it even better if he thinks we’re going against your recommendation.” Lucky sat at his desk. “I’ll give them the intel we got about Helena having a research location up there. It’s true enough, but they don’t have to know that I spent a month finding it only to learn she’d abandoned it ten years ago.”

“And you think that’ll work?”

“Would it work on Jason and Drew?” Lucky shook his head. “No. It wouldn’t. But will Dad and Nikolas buy that it’s good enough? Absolutely. They trust me.”

“And it doesn’t bother you to lie to them? They’re your family.”

Lucky twisted on his chair. “Did you miss the part where Nikolas knew my son was alive and lied about it? Or that my dad is the reason Helena was able to get her hands on Jake in the first place?”

“No. No, but—”

“I thought we had a deal, but if you’re having second thoughts—if you don’t want to do this, if you don’t want to be part of it,” he said, “then don’t go with me today. Go help my dad, stay here and read files. I don’t know. I won’t tell Nikolas what we talked about. But I’m doing it, Britt. So the question is — what do you want to do?”

Britt sighed, sat down on the bed. “I want to go back to my life. I want to practice medicine again. It’s just—I don’t know. How can you be so sure this will work?”

“If my dad knew what I knew about Jake, he wouldn’t be helping Nikolas do anything. And I know Dad doesn’t know because I’m the one in charge of getting files from back home. Dad only knows what I tell him. Nikolas can’t touch the files. He figured Spinelli would know. ”

“And he would have,” Britt said. “So I guess he was smart not to download them.”

“I don’t know if this is going to work, Britt. I just know we have to do something different. If it ends up leading them to Nikolas, then that will be his problem. He’s the one that got in with Helena. Again.”

“But what if Nikolas was just working with Helena to get Jake home? What—”

“Let me show you something.” Lucky tapped a few keys on the computer and brought up a video file. “This is the first file they found on the drive Helena left for my mother. I didn’t show it to Dad or Nikolas. So if they find out—”

“This is another secret you’re giving me,” Britt murmured. Their eyes met. “How do you know you can trust me?”

“Leap of faith.” Lucky tapped play, and Helena’s voice filled the room.

“Ah, my dear Laura. I see you’ve found my little secret. I do wonder how long it will take your simple faculties to locate it, but you were always smarter than your husband. Women generally are, darling. And if you’re watching this, then you know that you have loved and lost Nikolas. Is he with you? Wouldn’t that be delicious?”

Lucky pressed pause. “When Helena died, she told my mother that the wild goose chase she sent her own would lead her to something she’d loved and lost. Nikolas was still alive when Helena died. He was working with her.”

“But Helena might have just believed he was on her side—”

“I don’t care,” Lucky said flatly. “That wasn’t his choice to make, damn it. That was mine. It was Elizabeth’s—we raised Jake. He was our son—” He pressed his lips together. “He’s not mine now. Not in any way that counts, but he was mine until the accident, and I loved him. Nikolas decided to play God, Britt. I don’t care why.”

He pressed play again, and Helena continued.

“If he is, you should take great pleasure in knowing that I never forgave him for betraying me. He thinks I don’t know. He thinks that I don’t know he’s plotting against me. He thinks he is going to outsmart me and win. But I am always one step ahead. Even in death.”

Brit swallowed hard, her eyes wide. “She knew. She knew Nikolas was working against her.”

“He’d done it before, and we’d won. But Helena learned her lesson. Nikolas was so damn smug. He still is. He still thinks he can control everything. It gets worse.”

“Ask him about dear little Jake and how helpful he was in in my plans for him. I do hope you enjoy the boy for as long as possible. Perhaps Elizabeth will think again before she takes on the Cassadines. “

Britt exhaled. “When you said you suspected Jason and his brother were targeted because of Elizabeth—”

“Helena told us as much. There’s no way Nikolas didn’t know that. And instead of warning Elizabeth, he played games. Dragged her into the Jake Doe mess.” Lucky’s finger hovered over the button. “Let’s finish it.”

“My grandson is a disappointment to the bloodline.” She paused. “But I suppose even a disappointment would be better than the animal I unleashed on the world. I am sending you these files, Laura, in hopes that you will ensure Nikolas keeps his inheritance. That whatever Valentin has done can be undone. Without me here to stop him, I fear the worst. I am not a woman of many regrets, but in my desire for revenge, in my desire to bring pain, I turned to the wrong ally. You and I, Laura Spencer—we’re not quite finished with one another, and I have many enemies that cannot be left unpunished. Until we meet again.”

“She knew Nikolas was working against her, but she still tried to protect him.” Britt tipped her head. “It’s strange. She didn’t say the one thing that might have changed everything.”

Lucky frowned, looked at her. “What?”

“A secret for a secret?” Britt asked, and he nodded. “My mother told me a story last year in Russia. I didn’t know whether to believe her or not. She lies so much. And even when she’s telling the truth, it’s shaded with a lie. But listening to Helena—if it were the truth, why wouldn’t she have said so? So it must have been a lie.”

“Britt—”

“I couldn’t understand why Mother cared about what I was doing in Russia. Why my father would intervene. With Helena and Victor gone, my parents should have been out of the Cassadine family business altogether. But Mother didn’t want Nikolas’s plans to succeed. She wanted Jason in that coma. I asked her why, and her answer doesn’t make sense anymore.” She flicked her eyes back to Lucky. “She told me that Faison—that my father—is Valentin’s biological father. That Valentin is the child of Faison and Helena.”

Lucky stilled. “What?”

“It didn’t make sense. Because if they knew I was in Russia, wouldn’t my father know about Nikolas? And if they were helping Valentin, wouldn’t that mean Valentin knew Nikolas was alive?” Britt exhaled. “And now Helena—she’s talking about the wrong ally, but she could have just told the truth. But she says nothing. So is it a lie? Is it something else that my mother made up to make me stop asking questions?”

“You never told Nikolas any of that. Even if it meant Valentin knew about him.”

Britt licked her lips, then bit down. “No. I was afraid he’d think I was lying. That I was working with my mother. You see how little it takes for him to think I’m keeping secrets. If I’d told him this, he’d think it was an excuse for my failures.” She smiled faintly. “As if I was trying to hand him the Holy Grail and distract him. Because it’s what he needs. All he has to do is prove Valentin isn’t Mikkos’s son. But I didn’t trust my mother. If I’d told Nikolas, and it wasn’t true? He’d have blamed me. So I stayed quiet.”

“This is…” Lucky looked back at the screen, at the frozen image of Helena. “This is wild. I never thought—that’s a hell of a secret, Britt, to trust me with.”

“Yeah, well. If we do this today—” Britt rubbed her arm. “Then there’s no turning back.”

“No”

“And this video — if they knew about Nikolas—they know he was part of the plan. They know he was working with Helena and knew about Jake. If they find out he’s alive, it’s going to blow back on all of us.” Britt paused. “Have they talked to you about it?”

“I already made sure they suspected him before this video came out. I told Elizabeth Nikolas sent me to Greece.” Lucky closed his laptop. “I don’t know if I believe your mother. Why wouldn’t Helena tell the truth then? If she was so worried about Valentin, you’re right—why wouldn’t she just give my mother the ammunition she needed to protect Nikolas.” He tapped his fingers against the desktop. “We need more before we do anything with that story.” He looked at her. “But if we could confirm it — that’s the smoking gun. I could go home with that, and I’d get you cleared. We could both be done with all of this.”

“We can’t just tell them it might be true. Elizabeth will hear that it’s coming from me, and she’ll never believe it. She’d right not to,” Britt admitted. “So we need to know if it’s true.”

“But first—we need put Jason and Drew on Nikolas’s trail, without Nikolas finding out. That’s our first priority.”

Plane: Main Cabin

Jason strapped himself into the chair and Drew sat next to them, reaching for his own seatbelt. “So who do we think is going to show up at the meeting?” Drew asked. “Luke or Lucky?”

“Lucky,” Jason said without hesitation. “Luke doesn’t want to be in the same room with me, not alone. And I doubt you count as an extra person since you know why Luke and I don’t get along now.”

Drew nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. But Lucky hasn’t handled any of the contacts about the property search—he’s only handled the files.”

“That’s true. But Luke thinks he’s smarter than everyone else in the room.  Which was never true and always got him into trouble.” Jason shifted, glanced out the window. They were flying lower now, and land was visible. “If he’s handling the property search, then he’s going to keep doing his own thing. He’ll send Lucky to distract us.”

“That makes sense. But we’re agreed — nothing they say is the truth without evidence.” Drew winced as they hit a pocket of turbulence. “I hate flying,” he muttered. “Even on a private jet.”

“We need to search the addresses Spinelli gave us and find out where Luke and Lucky are staying. I want to see this Britt Westbourne in person,” Jason said.

“And we don’t want to confront them too soon. It would be much more satisfying if we could catch them in a lie.” Drew paused. “I don’t like that it’s all been one-sided. They’re using us for the files.” He leaned forward. “Think about it. We asked them to find Faison. Nothing. They were asked to look for Valentin. And nothing. We’ve given them everything we have.”

“You want to cut them off?” Jason asked. “I can get behind that, but Elizabeth and Laura aren’t going to like it.”

“Yeah, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I’m done letting the Spencers run the show. We asked them for help. If they want to play their own game, they can do that without us.”

Kiremit House: Kitchen

“How’s the lab work going?” Lucky asked, leaning against the counter and taking a bite of his sandwich. Seated at the table and reviewing blue prints, Luke grunted. “Sounds like fun. You sure you don’t want to take a break and come with us?”

“No, I want to make sure we’ve got everything handled — and you’d better remind the Dark Prince we need a new hideout. We can’t stay in the city once we get the stiff out of the lab.” Luke frowned, the rest of Lucky’s words registering. “Us? Who’s us?”

“Britt.” Lucky sat across from him at the small round table. “She’s going to the meeting.” Luke scowled, and his son added, “Look, the last thing Elizabeth knew, I was heading out to meet with Britt on a lead. We got the call supposedly while I was doing that. I bring her with me, it’s a sign of good faith that I’m being open about it. The last thing I need is them finding out she’s part of the team—”

“She’s not. You and me, Cowboy, we’re the team. Nikolas has the resources, and Little Obrecht is the fly in the ointment.” He set down his pencil, scowled. “You’re not thinking about trusting her, are you?”

“I don’t trust anyone,” Lucky said. “But Britt’s also part of the cover story. I’m sending them to Siberia and sweetening the deal by saying the last time Britt saw Liesl, she mentioned Siberia. We’ll give them everything that sent me there last summer, and that should take care of them—”

“What about the list?” Luke said. “How you gonna keep them from Maslak?”

“Reverse psychology.” Lucky swiped crumbs from his jeans. “I’ll split the list in two and offer them the top half which includes Maslak. They don’t trust me, so they’ll insist on taking the bottom half. Easy peasy.”

“You’re awfully confident—”

Lucky considered his father’s complaint, then nodded. “Yeah, I got a little leverage. Elizabeth’s call last week. The Patient 2 files. I know she’s showed them to Jason. They bothered her, and Jason’s always deferred to her when it comes to me. And well, maybe it gave him a reason to give me a break. He and I, we kind of went through the same thing. The Cassadines stole our lives, played with our heads. At the end of the day, the only issue he and I ever had was Elizabeth.”

“And the fact that you were a cop.”

“I’m not anymore.” Lucky leaned back against the chair. “There’s no need for me to be pissed at Jason anymore. I’m not trying to save my marriage or convince myself that Elizabeth is in love with me. I’ve moved on. Or at least I’ve accepted how things are now. Jason and I got along fine before the fire. No reason I can’t try to find that again. Besides—” he got to his feet. “We got something else in common.”

Luke’s eyes followed him to the sink. “Oh, yeah, what’s that?”

“We both hate you.” Lucky poured a glass of water and missed the way his father flinched. “You’re the reason Helena got her hands on Jake. He’s never forgiven you, I’m sure. And all he has to think is that I’m not that fond of you either. See? I got it handled.”

“Lucky—”

“I don’t hate you, Dad,” he said.  “It’s just a useful role to play. Makes him think we’re on the same team. We are, we just have different goals. Besides, you know where I stand on this. You knew where I stood two months ago when we found out about Jason and the twin thing. Which Nikolas didn’t tell us by the way.”

“I know, but Valentin—”

“—is a threat, yeah, yeah. I heard the argument.” Lucky took a long swig of water. “Doesn’t change that it makes more sense for us to bring them in and turn over the lab. But Nikolas said no, and you think Valentin is dangerous because Helena was scared of him. I got out voted, and after Chimera last year, after Jake nearly killed everyone because of what she did, I’m not interested in risking it. So I bowed to the majority. Don’t worry about today. I got it handled,” he repeated.

“Yeah, okay. And you’re sure you need Britt? Because I could use an extra body on the lab project—”

“You wouldn’t trust her with any of it, anyway. She helps my story look better. I’m gonna head up, do some reading before we have to head out.”

Luke watched his son leave, a bit discomforted. Lucky seemed like he was on top of everything, and Luke didn’t have a reason to doubt him. But things had shifted since Jason Morgan had returned home and blown the whole thing open, and Luke wasn’t sure how much longer this was going to last.

Until then, he had a job to do.

Kiremit House: Living Room

Britt scrutinized the map again, then frowned when she saw Nikolas stroll into the room. “I thought you’d agreed to stay on the upper levels. You’d visible from the street here.”

“I don’t think Jason or Drew have located us. Not yet.” Nikolas stayed towards the back of the room, and Britt went to pull the shades. “Luke tells me you’re going with Lucky today to meet Jason and Drew.”

“Yeah. Lucky wants to make sure they’ll check out the Siberia lead.” Britt turned back to him. “And my mother’s high on their list of people to find since she’s the only living doctor other than Klein and Maddox who worked on the project.” She folded her arms. “So we’re putting her in the lab. She probably worked there at some point. She worked pretty much everywhere over the years.” She returned to her travel guide, studying the street map tucked inside.

“Yeah.” Nikolas paused. “If Luke gets my uncle out of the lab, if we can get him away—you’re coming with us.”

Britt frowned, looked up. “What?”

“If he’s in the same coma as Jason — you’ll be able to finish the job. You’ll have more time. And you have your notes from before. You could wake him up.”

“I could—” She hadn’t really thought past getting Stefan out of the lab. Lucky was planning to put Jason and Drew on the road to the truth about Nikolas — was he also planning to go with Nikolas and his uncle? “I could try. But maybe Lucky’s right. Robin would really be better — she wrote the protocol.”

“She’s not an option. You’re the only medical doctor we have.”

So much for trust.  “Okay, uh, where are we going? Marseilles or Greece?”

“Don’t worry about that. You just need to be on the plane when we leave.”

“And then what?” Britt pushed. “Nikolas, I’ve done everything you’ve asked. More. It’s been over a year since you promised those charges would go away. But it feels like you keep moving the goal post. You wanted me to wake up Jason, you wanted me to come here and read medical files, now you want me to wake up your uncle—how do I know there’s not one more thing you want from me after I do that?”

“You said you wanted to help with Valentin. Now you’re changing your mind—”

“No, no, of course not. But—” She shook her head. “It’d be nice if I weren’t a fugitive. Can’t you make some calls—”

“I’m supposed to be dead, Britt. How do you want me to do that?”

“Then have Luke or Lucky — someone—”

“This is so typical of you—” He headed for the doorway, then turned back. “I’m on the verge of getting everything I need to get back to my life, and you want me to stop and worry about you. Do you ever get tired of being selfish?”

Her throat felt tight. She opened her mouth to protest, then saw Lucky descending the stairs, slowly, his brow furrowed. “I’m sorry,” Britt said. “You’re right. You’re right. Now’s not the time. We’ll talk about it later.”

“No, we’ll talk about it now because I don’t want to have this conversation again,” Nikolas snapped. He strode forward, grabbed her arm and yanked her forward.

“Let go of me—” Britt shoved him back.

“What’s going on?” Lucky stepped into the room, his jaw clenched.  “Britt?”

“Nothing. I just—Nikolas wants me to go with him and his uncle — to wake him up. And I just—I asked about the charges. That’s all.”

Lucky frowned, looked at his brother. “She’s supposed to go back to Geneva when we’re done here. I’m supposed to head to Bosnia. You can take Stefan wherever you want—”

“You and Luke can do whatever the hell you want when I have my uncle back, but I need someone to wake him from that damn coma. Britt’s better than nothing.”

She flinched, swallowed hard. Took the hit. “I told him I’d help. I just—”

“I’m not making any promises until I can go back to my life, Britt. You want to be done with this? There’s the door. You have, what? Another two or three years before the statute runs out on what you did with Spencer—and what medical board would let you keep your license after that?”

“Okay. Okay. You never—” She paused. “You never said it that way before, Nikolas. You never tied it together. I can’t go home until you do. Message received.”

“Good.” Nikolas passed his brother and started up the stairs. They heard a door slam a moment later.

Lucky looked back at her. “You ready to go?”

“I’m ready to get the hell out of here,” Britt muttered and hurried for the door, yanking it open.

Dive and disappear without a trace
I just wanna be someone
Well, doesn’t everyone?
And if you feel the great dividing
I wanna be the one you’re guiding
‘Cause I believe that you could lead the way
– Someone To You, BANNERS

---

Monday, January 8, 2018

General Hospital: Hallway

Elizabeth set a chart back into the slot outside the patient’s room and closed the door — and then ran straight into Jason. “Oh. Hey.” She stepped back, confused. “What are you doing here?”

“I knew you were working, and I didn’t want to leave a text.” Jason brushed his hands down her upper arms, stopping when they cupped her elbows, then he dipped his head to kiss her briefly. “Hey,” he murmured.

He’d remembered, Elizabeth thought and smiled. “Hey,” she repeated. “Not that I’m complaining, but you hate the hospital—”

“Not like I used to—do you have a minute?”

“Sure.” She led him down the hallway to a supply closet. “Did you get your flight information?”

“Yeah.” Jason leaned against the closed door. “Today at five, so I’m on my way to the airport now.”

“Okay. So—”

“We’ll land in Turkey in the middle of the night your time,” he continued, “but—”

“Call me anyway.” Elizabeth gripped the edges of his leather jacket. “I’d rather get a voice mail than to wake up in the middle night and worry.”

Jason covered her hands with his own. “We’re okay, aren’t we?”

“You mean after this weekend when I drove you absolutely insane?” She made a face. “Yeah, we’re okay. I’m sorry—”

“I don’t want you to be sorry,” he said, with a quick shake of his head. “I just wanted to be sure. Yesterday—” Jason paused. “Yesterday, I think we both said a lot of things—”

“Yesterday, you said the word danger, and my head exploded. And I poured out everything I should have said you to a million times a decade ago,” Elizabeth said. “And I’m sorry for that. You don’t deserve to have all my baggage shoved at you with both barrels every time you open your mouth—”

“Yesterday, I treated you like Carly,” Jason cut in, and she sighed. “You’re right. And it’s not fair. You’ve never done anything to deserve that.”

“Well, maybe a few things. I think we can both agree that pretty much the entire Zander debacle was a bad idea.”

“Except for Cameron, the only reason to be grateful Zander existed,” Jason replied, and she grinned. “I just assumed it would be me and Drew if we went to Turkey, and that was wrong. We’ve been in this together every step of the way, since the day I came home. You probably should be going with us today—”

“It’s just a trip to smack Luke and Lucky around. You don’t need me for that. You’ve always been able to handle them both.” She tugged him down so that their lips met again. “I just don’t want to sit home every time. Not when I can help.”

“You won’t.” Jason kissed her forehead, his mouth lingering for a moment, holding her tight against him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too. Kick some Spencer ass over there, and I’ll see when you get home.”

Port Charles Airport: Parking Lot

Franco switched off the engine, having parked several cars down from Jason and across the aisle. In his rearview mirror, he watched Jason retrieve his duffel from the back of the SUV. When Jason had driven in the direction of the airport, Franco had wondered if he was picking someone up.

But no — it looked like Jason was heading out of town — and if he was traveling by plane, it was at least for a few days. That is an interesting development. Maybe this would be a good time to dip back into Elizabeth’s life and take stock of how she felt about Franco after a few weeks of silence.

Maybe with some time to cool down and reflect, she’d remember how he’d been the one to stand by her, taken care of her, been her friend when she needed one. No harm in making sure she knew he was still around — and if he could plant a few seeds of doubt about Jason…

Well, that would just be the cherry on top.

General Hospital: Hospital Administrator’s Suite

 Elizabeth knocked on Laura’s open office door. “Hey, do you have a minute?”

“For you, always.” Laura smiled. “What’s up?”

Elizabeth closed the door. “Well, Jason and Drew are off to the airport. Jason sent Lucky a message that he and Drew were going to help with the list of addresses, but nothing else. He didn’t want to tip them off or anything.”

“Is it wrong to hope that they get all the way to Turkey and find out that Luke and Lucky have a perfectly adequate explanation?” Laura asked. “Or am I just being naive?”

“I don’t know why Lucky and Luke would be working with Britt Westbourne and not telling us,” Elizabeth said. “What innocent explanation could there be for that?”

Laura wrinkled her nose. “I hate the idea that they’re lying to us. Why would they do that?”

“Why did Luke ever lie about anything?” Elizabeth asked. She sat back. “Because he knew better. Because he was protecting you or someone else. And I feel stupid because Jason and Drew both said to be more suspicious. We should be on the same side. What do we need to be protected from that’s worse than what we’ve already been through?”

“How can there be something worse than having your children kidnapped and brainwashed. Worse than a forced marriage?” Laura’s mouth pinched. “I’m so disappointed in them. So angry.” She paused. “I’m sorry about yesterday.”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s really not. I’m glad that you’ve sorted things out with Jason—you have, haven’t you?”

“We did. But—”

“Spinelli was very unhappy with how we handled it, and he made an excellent point.” Laura tipped her head. “You’ve changed your entire life for this. You made room for Jason in your life. Welcoming him into the boys’ life before you even had proof of who he was. And you’ve been reading those files, dealing with all the little bits and pieces that I don’t get to see—I really didn’t get involved until we found the thumb drive.”

“Laura—”

“And I know you’ll tell me that it’s not a big deal. That you did what had to be done. And that’s true. You’ve always been that way. You don’t complain much about how things are — you just roll up your sleeves and get to work. Which makes how I handled yesterday even worse. I expect that kind of thing from Sonny — and maybe from Drew and Jason. They’re protective of you. But I should have realized it sounded like we were telling you what was going to happen. And that’s not fair.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Jason and I talked about it, and we’re okay now. It’s hard for him to shift into seeing me as a partner. I was never involved in anything like this with him before. You know, I hid him in my studio, I kept secrets. But that’s not the same thing as actually playing a role. It’s an adjustment for both of us. I’m used to sitting back and letting him set the tone. I don’t want that this time.” She paused. “And everyone had perfectly good reasons why I should stay home. Which I agreed with when I talked to Jason about it. I just want this to be a discussion.”

“And I promise you, I’ll do better.”

“And that brings me to the reason I stopped by.” Elizabeth paused. “Last week, when you and Jason clashed over Spencer reading those files, I stayed out of it. Mostly because I was on your side,” she added.

“Spencer is still a little frosty with me,” Laura murmured. “But I know I’m making the right decision—”

“And I still agree that the safest place for the kids is away from all of this, but Cameron reminded me last night that…” Elizabeth spread her hands out. “They’re already in this. Spencer’s lost his family, his inheritance. And my boys — Cameron had to mourn Jake, and then he had to take a backseat when Jake came home and demanded so much of my attention. Then last year —” She pressed her lips together, forming a thin line. “I want them out of this, Laura, but it’s too late. They’re already living with the reality of what’s happened.”

Laura sighed, looked to the side, where a window overlooked the city. “I still think they should be kept out. If you want Cameron to be involved—”

“It’s not a question of what I want, Laura. It’s thinking about who the boys are. Cameron doesn’t need revenge. Jake came home. But Spencer… he doesn’t get to have his family back. Nikolas isn’t coming home.”

Laura exhaled slowly. “Elizabeth—”

“I’m not telling you what to do. I’m really not. I’m just—I promised Cam I’d talk to you. Lucky and I got into so much trouble at that age, and Jason reminded me that there’s nothing you could have said to me to stop looking for Emily’s blackmailer or helping her after that rave — or any of the thousand things that I got dragged into to help a friend. And Lucky? He never turned his back on Emily. If Spencer wants to be involved, Laura, he’s going to find a way. He’s like you. Like Lucky. And he’s like his father. Relentless when he believes he’s right.”

Laura smiled thinly, set down the pen she’d been toying with. “Well, you’re not wrong. Spencer has never given up when he really wants something.”

“If Spencer thinks he’s helping by sitting in a room and reading files, Laura, isn’t that so much better than him going out and finding out another way to help? Something that might be more dangerous?”

Laura sighed. “I suppose there’s some merit to that. And you’re right. Lucky and Nikolas always jumped in feet first to help a friend. I just—Lucky might be alive, but he’s not the boy he would have been. And I keep thinking about those videos — I can’t watch them. The description is enough. I imagine him screaming for us, begging us to rescue him, but we didn’t. We couldn’t. And Jake—” She shook her head. “You’re right. I wanted my grandchildren out of this fight, but it’s too late for that. I’ll talk to Spencer.”

Nero House: Kitchen

Kim tossed a stapled set of papers at Oscar as she passed him on the way to the fridge. “That’s really good for a first draft,” she said. She opened the door, pulled out a container of red spaghetti sauce. “I marked a few typos. Underlined some places where it felt unclear, but it’s good.”

“Thanks.” Oscar flipped through, searching for her red marks. “I’ll be glad when this semester is over with. I’m not looking forward to midterms.”

“You’ll ace them just like you always do. Pasta all right for dinner?”

“Yeah, it’s cool.” Oscar reached for his phone, scrolled through some text messages, grinning at a group chat where Joss and Trina were snarking at each other. He was glad some things were still normal.

Kim set some water on the stove to boil, then cleared her throat. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. You were supposed to have dinner with your father Friday, weren’t you?”

Oscar’s fingers stilled, and he glanced up. “Uh, yeah. Something came up.”

“Mmmm,” she murmured. She sat next to him at the island. “For you or for him?”

He avoided her eyes. “Why does it matter?”

“I don’t want you to avoid your dad because I was upset the other night.” Kim rubbed his shoulder. “I’m an adult, and I can handle it.”

“I know. I just—” Oscar hunched his shoulders. “Felt weird going to dinner with him when I knew you’d be here alone. We used to do dinners together.”

“We did,” Kim said wistfully. “But that was a long time ago, baby. Drew’s been gone for five years—”

“You were crying.” Oscar straightened. “I saw you.”

“It’s been a lot to take in,” Kim told him. “And sometimes I’ll have bad moments. But I also know how much your dad loved you. And how much you loved him. I want you both to have that again, is that so bad?”

“No, but it’s—” Oscar sighed. “I don’t know. It’s like, I get it, Dad didn’t want to leave. And I believe that. But then we come here, and he’s here. He doesn’t know us. He got married again. And he had another kid. Cam knows him better than I do, you know that? Cam and Joss. He knows them better than he knows me, and he’s supposed to be my dad.” He shook his head. “I’m trying not to be mad about it, because it’s not his fault, but maybe it shouldn’t be so easy to forget your kid.”

“He didn’t forget you, honey. Not on purpose—”

“I know. I know. I know,” he said for a third time. “But just because you know something doesn’t make it true. Or—” Oscar grimaced. “I don’t know. I just—I thought maybe we could get things back the way they were if we just tried, but then I got reminded that he had a whole life here, and it didn’t include me.” He met his stepmother’s concerned gaze. “And you’re doing everything you can to make this easier for him. You could have gotten mad. You could have made it harder for him.”

“I could have. But that’s never been my style. I knew—” Kim rose, went to the stove to put pasta into the boiling water. “I knew from the moment they told us Drew went missing that my husband wouldn’t come home. He never would have deserted. He wouldn’t have left you. I’ve had a long time to come to terms with Drew being gone.”

“But he’s not gone—”

“He is.” Kim smiled faintly, turned back around and leaned against the counter next to the stove. “He’s gone, baby. Even if he gets his memory back, he’ll always have these years in Port Charles. He’ll always have started a new life. He’ll always have loved someone after me. My husband is gone, Oscar.” Her voice faltered. “And it hurts to say that. It’s hard to know he’s walking around but he’s not mine anymore. But he can be your dad again. He can get those memories back, you can make new ones — that’s a different relationship, baby. And one I want you to have.”

“But maybe I don’t get to have it,” Oscar muttered. “Maybe I don’t want it, either.”

“If you need more time, that’s fine.” Kim came around the counter, kissed the top of his head. “That works for me. Just don’t do it on my account, okay? I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Port Charles Airport: Departures Gate

 Jason watched as Sonny’s jet slowly rolled towards the airport. In a few more minutes, it would stop, the flight tunnel would attach, and boarding would begin.

He’d be on his way to Turkey. A ten hour, maybe more, plane flight with no one but Drew Cain.

He glanced at the man in question, still seated by the counter, scrolling through something on his tablet. They were easier around one another than they’d been before — Drew seemed more comfortable with who he was — and who he wasn’t.

And Jason was better, too. Not thinking so much about rebuilding his life, but actually living it. But He wished Elizabeth had come after all. She knew Drew. She could make conversation with anyone — but there was no buffer. Nothing to ease the way. It was just the two of them.

He sat by Drew, leaving a chair between them. “Uh, I told you about the message I left Lucky, right?”

“Yeah. Yeah. It’s a good idea. Telling them we just want to help. It’ll be interesting,” Drew said, setting the tablet in his lap. “What do they do? Do they give us a run around? Do they let us near Maslak?”

“Will they tell us about Britt Westbourne or where they’re staying?” Jason nodded. “Yeah. They might think something is up, but they don’t have any proof.”

“And I was thinking about that — they’re not going to want to push too hard or piss us off.” Drew shifted slightly so they were looking at each other. “Because Spinelli says every time he puts a batch of files on the drive—”

“Lucky downloads it immediately. And he’s been sending back questions and theories.”

“They need us more than we need them, to be honest.” Drew nodded. “Yeah, I think going in under the cover of just giving them a hand with the search is the best option. Pretending things are normal.” He rubbed his chin. “Uh, things okay with Elizabeth?”

Jason hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. We—it’s fine.”

“Good. Good. Spinelli kind of gave us a kick in the ass after you guys left. Elizabeth really didn’t deserve the way that went down.” Drew made a face. “And maybe it’s just because I got you still stuck in my head, but the second she wanted to go to Turkey, I just—” He waved his head. “I don’t know. My mind went blank and all I could think was hell, no. I didn’t want her anywhere near Lucky or Luke.”

“I don’t want her near Valentin,” Jason muttered. He shook his head. “But this isn’t business like usual. If this was Manny Ruiz or Karpov, it wouldn’t be a conversation. She wouldn’t have asked.”

“Spinelli pointed that out, too. Which didn’t make Sonny happy,” Drew added. “I don’t know what his deal is — I thought he liked Elizabeth.”

Jason frowned, straightened. “What do you mean?”

“Just that he said she always wanted more than you wanted to give — which is bullshit, because she never asked for a damn thing to do with the job,” Drew muttered, and Jason scowled because he knew Drew was dipping into his memories again for that. But while it was annoying — it was also a relief. Because Jason wouldn’t have to explain anything, Drew just knew.  “Anyway, I don’t know if something crawled up Sonny’s ass on the whole thing, but I just wanted you to know.”

“Thanks.”

The flight attendant at the counter opened the flight tunnel door, and Drew shoved the tablet into his carry-on. “All right. I guess it’s time to get the show on the road.”

‘Cause I don’t know where you’re going,
But do you got room for one more troubled soul
I don’t know where I’m going, but I don’t think I’m coming home
And I said, I’ll check in tomorrow if I don’t wake up dead
This is the road to ruin and we’re starting at the end
– Alone Together, Fall Out Boy

---

Aurora Media: Drew’s Office

“Hey, man.” Curtis tossed a file on the conference table, frowning when he saw a suitcase by the desk. “You heading out of town?”

“Yeah, uh, and I need you to keep that to yourself. Jason and I are going to Turkey.” Drew handed him a glass of water. “The Spencers aren’t telling us everything, so we’re see what’s going on, but we’re trying to keep it under the radar.”

“Yeah, sure. Anything I can do. How’s things going with Sam?” Curtis pushed his hands in his pocket. “She still breathing fire?”

“I’m taking your advice and giving her space. I’ll touch base with her when we get back.” Drew combed a hand through hair. “You make any progress with the Susan thing?”

“A bit. Robert and I met, started to flesh out the investigation. He pulled his old notes, and we went through that night.” Curtis tapped the folder. “I put together what we have in case you want to hand it over to Jason at some point. We’re trying to narrow down when, if at all, Susan would have known about you. Right now all we have is the original birth certificate and the will. She could have thought you were dead — that was Heather’s original story back when the twin was Franco. The will makes that a bit more sticky, but it could also be her planning for the future. Thinking about more kids.”

“That’s true. I’ve had to update some things, and Diane’s encouraged me to make certain things vague, and other things specific. If you name your children, and don’t update it, it could cut someone out. Then they have to fight for it and spend money. Any idea on the timeline?”

“We don’t think she knew when she was awarded Jason’s trust fund. That would have been the fall before she died,” Curtis said. “She started the blackmail threats in January, a month before she died. We’re looking at that time frame. And I talked to Robert — Tracy was connected to Susan.”

“Really? I didn’t think Tracy was living in town at the time—”

“She wasn’t. She’d moved down to Albany with her husband, Mitch Williams. Who was the married guy Susan Moore was seeing before she hooked up with Alan. And she hooked up with Scotty while he was in a relationship with Heather. It was Heather’s original motive.”

Drew made a face. “She liked unavailable men?”

“Looks that way. Doesn’t tell us much, but it’s an interesting piece of puzzle. And Tracy knew about the affair, according to the gossip Robert dug up. She donated two million to Mitch’s campaign, and then they moved. Not saying it gives Tracy a motive for murder, but it does make it more likely that she wouldn’t be happy Susan Moore was linked to the family permanently.” He folded his arms. “Right now, the confession from Tolliver seems solid. It didn’t tick off all the boxes for Robert, but it covered most of them. And hell, a confession, what are you going to do?”

“But?”

“But Robert’s asking more questions. Susan invited a reporter over that night when she was meeting with the Quartermaines. That doesn’t sound like she was backing down. And Robert never got a good answer for how Tolliver knew she was backing down when no one else did.” Curtis paused. “We’re thinking, though, if Susan was backing down it was because she had a much better story to sell. And she was going to make her pitch. Give in to her demands, or she tells Jackie about a second Quartermaine bastard.”

Drew leaned against his desk. “That would be a bigger payday,” he said. “And Susan could have kept coming back until Alan terminated his parental rights. The way it’s been told to me—and to Jason—that was never on the table. Alan was involved—or as involved as he could be with Monica still in the picture.”

“Yeah. Now, that would explain why Tolliver killed her. He’d have no stake in that fight — she didn’t need him anymore. Again, this is speculation, Drew. At the end of the day, the only thing we have solid proof of is that someone knew you existed and dumped you across the state six weeks after her murder. Whether that was Tracy or Monica — we still don’t know.”

“But Tracy knew Susan and had a financial reason to want her gone. There was some old talk about a trust fund. It was supposed to be AJ’s,” Drew said. “I don’t know whatever happened to it. Maybe he had it and it went to Michael, or maybe he spent it while he was on the run. But it doesn’t matter. Tracy’s always been antsy about anyone who isn’t a Quartermaine getting money from the family. And sometimes, she felt like she was in charge of who got to be a Quartermaine. And she still complains about ELQ stock.”

“Yeah, that’s how Robert saw it. Tracy showed up in Port Charles right after Monica got confronted by you and by him. I think maybe we need to talk about bringing Jason in on this,” Curtis said. Drew sighed. “You said you didn’t want to go much further without him. And at this point, we need to dig more into Tracy and Monica’s past. No guarantee we keep it quiet. You don’t want him finding out from someone else.”

“Yeah.” Drew sighed. “Yeah, okay. I’ll talk to him while we’re in Turkey.” He picked up the file. “What’s in here?”

“A summary of what we have. Witness statements from that night — copies of some of the reports. I know you like facts — I figured your brother might be the same.”

Jones-West Apartment: Living Room

“You should get a pool.”

“I’m not getting a pool,” Spinelli said absently as he set up another keystroke program to crack the encryption. “The house is fine just the way it is—”

“But it has a really big backyard,” Maxie said. “You need a pool.”

“It’s January.”

“I’m talking about the future.” Maxie shifted, winced.  “Okay. I’m not enjoying pregnancy as much as I did the first time.”

Spinelli frowned at her, finally distracted. “What part of the last pregnancy did you enjoy?”

Maxie made a face. “Oh, well almost none of it, actually. There was all that lying — that wasn’t great. And then there was the vomiting. And my feet—” She raised her foot in the air to consider it. “I went up half a size and it never went back down. But—” Using her hands, she framed her breasts. “But these got bigger. And stayed big. So win for all of us.”

Spinelli dipped his head, prayed for patience. He loved Maxie, he really did. And co-parenting with her was mostly fun. He couldn’t have picked a better mother for Georgie — but sometimes — “Okay. Don’t you have a job—”

“I’m going in later. Nina has been the most annoying bitch for the last week—” She bit her lip. “It’s a good thing Nathan isn’t here. He hates when I rant about his sister. We’re getting along better than we used to, but she still doesn’t believe in my creative abilities. She keeps giving Nelle all the opportunities—I miss Kate. She appreciated me—”

“Maxie.” Spinelli took a deep breath, twisted on the sofa to face her. “I’ll be closing on the house in a few weeks. But I have to work, too—”

“Oh, what are you working on today? Which Cassadine supervillain are we tracking? I can ask about that, you know. I’m a member of the family—”

“By marriage, and Nathan never even knew Victor,” Spinelli muttered.

“Come on, talk to me. You know it helps you sometimes. And I’m useful. Don’t I pass you all the inside deets on Nina? And we still didn’t come up with a nickname for Drew. Since we’re not going with Banging Bodacious Business Dude.”

Spinelli flexed his fingers. “I’m doing the same thing I always am. Decrypting Maddox’s thumb drive. But no matter what I try, it’s not good enough.”

“Well, that’s stupid. Why did he bother to give it to Anna if she couldn’t open it? And why worry about it? Aren’t his files the same as Helena’s?”

“No. Nothing past the last two years could be. Helena put her files in that law book before she died. Maddox would have the full records. Including how the twins got switched, who sent Jason to Russia—maybe who was paying for it all this time since Helena and Victor were dead—and most importantly—”

“Drew’s memories,” Maxie finished.

“Yes.” Spinelli took a deep breath. “Robin can reverse the comas the Cassadines used, so that’s something we know how to do. But Maddox mapped Stone Cold’s memories, stole them, and made Drew have to live with them. And if we can find the protocol, the formulas and procedures — Drew can get his life back. And all I have to do is—” Spinelli hissed when the latest keystroke coding returned a denial. “Damn it. All I have to do is crack the code.”

“This would be easier if Andre Maddox just told you everything wouldn’t it?”

“Not in the cards, Maximista,” Spinelli muttered, setting up a new keystroke. “The WSB has hidden him away. I can find no way of getting to him.”

“But my dad might know.”

Spinelli frowned, looked at her. “Yeah. But he’s not talking.”

Maxie made a face and got to her feet, wandering over to the mantel where she picked up a photo of Mac holding Georgie the day Maxie had been granted visitation. “I grew up on stories of my dad. How brave he was, how much he loved my mother—and when he came home a few years ago, I thought he meant it. You know, about regretting not being around. About missing Georgie’s funeral, and—God, her entire life. Mom meant it. She’s home. She fixed her mistakes.”

“Maxie.”

“It just sucks. Dad has all this power. He could get you into see Andre. He could make Andre talk. And I know Anna has tried, right? I can see from your face. But he doesn’t want to help. And I don’t know why. The WSB did these experiments. Why aren’t they trying to fix it?”

“I don’t know. Something about politics. It’s not right.”

“What’s the point of the WSB if they’re not going to actually protect people?” Maxie sighed. “I can make some calls. See if my dad will talk to me. He can say no to Anna, I guess, because it’s business. But you know.” She forced one of her smiles. “I am a master of manipulation. I can guilt trip like no one else.”

“It is one of your many, many talents. But you don’t have to—”

“Sure, I do. Like I said, this concerns me, too. Nina’s married to Valentin, the big bad. Nathan’s been worried about her since the beginning, but she’s never believed anything bad about him. And Victor—he’s dead,” Maxie allowed, “but his blood runs in Nathan’s veins. So does that crazy bitch Liesl. They’re his parents. So let me see if I can help.”

General Hospital: Staff Room

Elizabeth closed her locker as Felix and Griffin came around the corner. “Hey! I didn’t know you were both on the schedule—”

“Davidson has the stomach flu, so I’m scrubbing in on his craniotomy,” Griffin said. He opened his locker. “Uh, have you heard anything more about Patrick Drake coming back? I mean, I know it’s happening, but you know, sometimes, these new chiefs come around—”

“Patrick’s not new,” Elizabeth said, folding her arms, leaning against the bank of lockers. “He worked here for ten years. And he’s not the kind of guy to fire perfectly good doctors just to show off.”

“I keep telling him Patrick’s a good guy—” Felix tugged his scrub top over his head. “But he won’t stop worrying—”

“Everyone says you were Drake’s go-to scrub nurse. I figure you’d know him best.”

“We made a great team. And now he’s coming back to run the department.” Elizabeth smiled wistfully. “I can’t wait for him to be here. It’s just a better place with Patrick and Robin around. You’ll see.”

“Let’s hope. I’m gonna go check on the patient. I’ll see you in surgery.” Griffin disappeared around the corner, then the door swung closed.

“He worries too much.” Felix pinned on his security badge. “So you look like you’re in a better mood than the last time I saw you. You have a good weekend?”

Elizabeth put her arm through Felix’s as they walked into the hallway. “Well, I took your advice.”

“And?” Felix wiggled his brows.

“We had a really—” Elizabeth searched for a right word. “We had a really good weekend. We had some fights that we needed to have, said a lot of things we should have said years ago—”

“This doesn’t sound like taking my advice,” he grumbled.

“And then I raced him up the stairs and he threw me on the bed. We almost forgot to eat dinner.”

“Much better.” Felix turned, eyed her critically. “And you look bouncier, too. So, just like always, I was right.”

“You were absolutely right.”

“Be nice if I could give the same good advice to myself. My love life is as barren as the Sahara.”

Morgan House: Street

Franco stifled a yawn, irritated that Morgan wasn’t leaving the house. He’d tracked Elizabeth to the hospital, and he knew she’d be there for at least eight hours. Now he wanted to know more about what Jason did all day. Maybe he’d catch the asshole around Sam, that would give him some leverage—

He finally got a break around three that afternoon when the door opened, and Jason stepped out, a duffel bag in his hand. He locked the door, then went to the SUV.

A duffel bag? Franco gritted his teeth. Was he taking it to Elizabeth’s house? Was he already moving in? It had barely been two months since he’d come home—

He flexed his fingers on the wheel, then prepared to follow Jason as the SUV pulled out of the driveway.

I’m talking to myself in public
and dodging glances on the train
And I know, I know they’ve all been talking about me
I can hear them whisper
And it makes me think there must be something wrong with me
Out of all the hours thinking
Somehow I’ve lost my mind
– Unwell, Matchbox Twenty

---

Monday, January 8, 2018

Penthouse: Living Room

“I’m so glad that you decided to consider my case,” Sam said, handing the coffee to the dark-haired woman seated at the table. “After everything that happened last spring—”

Martina Morales managed a thin smile, stirring sugar into her coffee. “Yes, well, perhaps it would be better not to discuss my previous clients. I know you’re friendly with Carly and Sonny—”

“Not anymore.” Sam took a seat, congratulating herself on quickly finding a new attorney who not only had no ties or loyalties, but actively disliked the people she did know in Port Charles. Martina had briefly represented Carly and had unknowingly slept with Sonny. “I told you on the phone that I had a difficult legal situation.”

“Yes. I read over the previous filings. You were very nearly legally divorced in 2012, but Jason disappeared before the it was finalized,” Martina said. “Then, through some quirks of fate, you married a man who you believed to be Jason—but now you find yourself married to two men.”

“Yes. It certainly wasn’t the plan,” Sam said.

“No, but this isn’t as strange or uncommon as you’d think. The memory experimentation—” Martina picked up a pen. “That’s not something I’ve seen before. But people have gone missing and returned later to spouses and families who have moved on. I see your last attorney drew up divorce settlements for both men, but there’s no custody paperwork on your, ah, current husband. Andrew Cain.”

“Yes. My first husband,” Sam said, though the lie stuck in her throat as Jason was hardly her first husband—just the first under the identity of Sam McCall, “had dangerous ties to organized crime. And he has other, nearly as dangerous connections, to the Cassadines. He continues to be connected to them. There’s also some more upsetting history. We thought Danny was the product of—” Her throat tightened. “Sexual assault. Jason wanted me to have an abortion. He didn’t want Danny.”

“And according to the notes, he’s never been in Danny’s life, so it’s not as though you’re depriving either of them of a relationship.” Martina made a note. “And your younger child? Emily Scout?”

“I…Drew’s a good father.” Sam hadn’t thought that far ahead, and now when pressed, there was really only one route. “He’s a good father. Joint custody. I want him to keep Danny in his life.”

“Well, that would be up to you once we’ve reached a settlement with Jason Morgan. He’s the biological father—and the legal father.” Martina paused, looked at Sam. “Did your mother tell you about your daughter’s birth certificate and the problems it presents?”

“She said something about Jason being the legal father, but that it was just a matter of paperwork. Why?”

“Well, Drew Cain will have to file for paternity and Jason will have to terminate his legal rights. It’s a formality, but a necessary one.” She shuffled some of the paperwork. “I bring it up only to suggest that it can give us some leverage in some other aspects of the case. The financial demands you’ve made of your first husband.”

“I told you—that wasn’t negotiable, so if you’re not going to file against him—”

“It’s not my job to refuse or allow. I represent you. If you tell me you want sole custody of your kids, then I’ll find a way to make it work. I will be honest about our chances, but I won’t refuse to file.” Martina tapped a petition. “For example, the financial demands—we might find it difficult to get a judge to agree to most of them. But Drew might be able to pressure Jason into making a fair settlement to make that case go away so that he can get custody of his daughter.”

Sam frowned. “I don’t understand. They’re not related—”

“You could oppose Jason’s termination of parental rights. Insist on a paternity test that would give us two months at least.”

“But…I don’t need a paternity test. Everyone knows Jason didn’t come home until a few months ago. Drew is her father.” Sam shifted uncomfortably, folding her arms.

“I’m not saying it’s a sure thing, but you did say you wanted to get the best settlement from Jason that you could,” Martina reminded her. “A judge is not going to award you half with all the circumstances we have here. But if Jason wants this to go away, and to make things smoother for his brother to have custody…it’s up to you, of course, Sam.”

Sam wanted to make this painful for Jason, but she didn’t really want to drag Drew through all of this. Then again, if Drew knew Jason could make this go away and was refusing in order to protect the coffee business—would that drive a wedge between them? Or would they both just blame her?

“Why don’t I draw up two versions of the petition?” Martina suggested. “Give you some time to think it over. Divorce can be painful, Sam. Particularly a contested one. It’s a terrible situation you’ve got on your hands, through no fault of your own. No one would blame you if you took the original divorce settlement with a fair addition for your son.”

“Draw up both sets,” Sam said finally. “I… can’t just walk away from Jason. I mean, I can’t let him walk away like this. It’s not right. It’s not fair. I just…Drew doesn’t deserve this. I don’t know if I could do this to him. I need to be sure. Even if it gets me what I want in the end. I need to think about it.”

“I’ll be in touch.”

Port Charles High: Library

Cameron dropped into a chair next to his cousin and pulled out his laptop. “Hey.”

Spencer frowned. “You’re talking to me? Why?” He ignored the librarian glaring at them but lowered his voice as he continued to speak. “You were pissed at me on Friday.”

“I still am, and when you decide to apologize, I’ll let you off the hook. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about—”

“What makes you think I’m going to apologize?” Spencer folded his arms, looking like the sulking kid he’d been once. “Maybe you need to apologize.”

“Oh, when I’m done telling you what I did this weekend, you’ll change your mind.” Cameron flicked through his computer screens until he brought up his English paper to check it one more time. “I talked to my mom last night.”

Spencer frowned. “So?”

“I can’t guarantee results, but Mom said she’d talk to Grandma about the files. She’s on your side now.”

His cousin straightened, his eyes wide. “What? Wait. What?”

“I talked about it with Emma on Saturday. You’re still an asshole,” Cameron added, “and a selfish idiot, but you have a right to want to be involved. So I talked to my mom. Like I said, I can’t guarantee it’ll work, but it’s the best I can do.” Spencer fell silent, and Cameron fixed a missing word in a paragraph.

“Um, thanks.” Spencer cleared his throat. “I—I am sorry. By the way. About the other day. And I’m not just saying that. You can check with Trina. She kind of talked some sense into me. This isn’t your fight, and it’s not fair to make you feel bad about that. Or insult you for not doing what I want.”

“It is my fight,” Cameron said quietly. Their eyes met. “But you and I don’t have to agree on how to do win it. You want to read the files? I can try to help with that. But my only skin in this game is making sure there’s nothing left in my little brother’s head that can hurt him. I don’t need revenge, Spence, but I get why you do. So I’ll do what I can to help you get it.”

“Thank you,” Spencer repeated. “I mean that. And I’ll try not to be an ass the next time.”

“”Good luck with that.” Cameron said with a snort. “It’s such a natural part of your personality.”

ELQ: Michael’s Office

Ned knocked on the ajar door and held up a file. “Bad news. First round of construction permits were rejected—”

Michael rose quickly from his desk, his brow furrowed. “Which ones? For Central Avenue or—”

“The new development on the west side.” Ned frowned when Michael yanked the file out of his hands. “The city wasn’t satisfied that we’d fulfilled the environmental requirements. It’s not a big deal, just a setback for a few weeks—”

“We can’t afford a setback like that. We’re supposed to break ground on the water front in March. A delay on the west side—” Michael went to his desk, started to flip through his papers. “It’ll hold up everything else unless we get another crew, and the overages on that will—”

“Michael, relax. I’m making a few calls. We’ll have the environmental guys out there—” Ned came towards him. “I think you might want to think about delegating these kinds of projects — we have a development arm of the company—”

“I can handle it,” Michael cut in. “All right. Okay. I think we can make it work. If we can find a way to get the Courtland Street project back on schedule, that crew can start on the west side, and keep the hotel on track—”

“See? Problem solved—”

“Only if we can get Courtland Street under control.” Michael jabbed the intercom button. “Sarah, can you get me Jack Pohler on the phone. Thanks.” He looked back at Ned. “You know better. Your mother is looking over my shoulder. The last thing I need is her accusing me of screwing up these projects—”

“Mother has barely said a word about ELQ since she arrived—”

“That’s what concerns me.” Michael sat down, started to search through the folders on his desk. “Has she even said anything to you about why she’s still here? She came here to yell at me, and then nothing else beyond some snide remarks over breakfast.”

“I don’t know.” And that did worry Ned. A quiet Tracy was never good. “Besides, these kinds of things happen. We’ll move some things around. You should relax.”

“I will when Tracy goes back to Amsterdam.” Michael yanked up the phone. “Jack, yeah, we need to talk about Courtland Street.”

PCPD: Squad Room

Valerie tossed aside one set of reports and glanced at the clock. She’d been working hard for the last three hours — there was nothing wrong with taking a quick break.  And there was something that had been buzzing in her head since brunch with Kristina.

She turned to her work computer and booted up the criminal history database. She typed in Samantha McCall, waited for the computer to spit back what she needed —

Then her eyes were wide as she skimmed the different files that mentioned Sam’s name. Grand theft auto, solicitation, petty theft, fraud, suspected arson, witness in child abduction—

She selected the kidnapping report first, refreshing herself on the details. It was interesting to see the background, to understand some of the pieces Kristina couldn’t have known. And there was something about the whole thing that felt off to Valerie.

Amelia Joffe.

Valerie switched to the public records database and fed in the name, wondering why a television producer would see out Sam McCall to host a local television show.

Amelia’s father, Bill Monroe, had been married to Angela Monroe. And Angela Monroe had been acquitted of murdering him, having claimed self-defense. Something about that story sounded off to Valerie, so she pulled up a newspaper database and did a further search.

She clicked around the results until she found the relevant articles — and the picture attached. Well, hell. Valerie’s eyes widened as she took in a much younger Samantha McCall.

She ran Angela Monroe’s criminal history and found a list of aliases, none of which included Samantha McCall. No one had connected them, at least not officially. But there were four more names.

Cheryl Richards. Sandra McIntire, Susan Curtis, Linda Powell.

Valerie scribbled each name down, and wondered if Kristina knew what exactly lurked in her sister’s past, because it seemed like standing by while an infant was kidnapped was just the tip of the iceberg.