Written in 61 minutes.

Jason closed the door behind Mac and Scott, but he didn’t turn around right away. He stood there another moment, both hands flat against the door, his head bowed for a long moment, absorbing everything the commissioner and district attorney had thrown at him, trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together.

It was too much, too convoluted, to horrifying to be true, and everything inside of him was rejecting the idea that Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar had switched places a year earlier because a vengeful brother was something Jason could almost understand, but a psychotic obsessed lunatic was harder to grasp—

And the last thing he wanted to do was turn around and listen to Elizabeth ask him to take her back to her grandmother’s, to watch her walk away. Again.

So he stood there, his back to the rest of the room for just another moment, hoping that somehow, with the extra time, he’d find the words that he’d never found before.

How to make her stay.

She hadn’t the day in the park, when he’d all but begged her to see what was in front of them or a year earlier when he’d mishandled everything about Sonny’s fake death—

And it didn’t seem as if he was going to find those words again today. He had nothing left to give. Not after seeing Sonny, the confrontation with Mike, the awful scene with Elizabeth before Scott and Mac had dumped more on his shoulders.

He’d just have to take her to Audrey’s and hope the next time—

Jason jolted when her slim arm curled around his waist and he felt her lean against his back. He reached for her hand, then slowly turned, drawing his brows together. “What?”

“I’m sorry.” She lifted her eyes to his, and he was relieved to see that swirl of anxiety and panic had faded, though the shadows beneath them seemed to have deepened. “You’re so steady, so certain, and I take it for granted. That you’ll always be that way. No matter what gets thrown at you.”

Mystified, he looked down at the hand he held, and then at the one resting at her side, still out of the brace. He lifted it, placing it on top of her other hand, then clasped both his hands around them. “I don’t understand.”

“I think I lost sight of just how awful things were before this happened. You were so unhappy, Jason. So worried about everyone, and then this happens, and it all gets so much worse. I didn’t even think it was possible,” she managed, her throat tight. “But all of those things happened to you, too. And if I’m pushed to the edge of my sanity, it’s not fair to expect you to hold on to my crazy and keep yourself together, too.”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not. It’s really not.” Tears clung to her lashes, but they didn’t fall. Her lips curved up at the corners, but there was no humor in her features. “Sonny’s like your brother, and I know how much Mike means to you. A-nd Scott and Mac think Luis Alcazar is back? Brenda must be terrified—”

“She doesn’t—” Jason furrowed his brow, considering now if part of Brenda had worried. “She didn’t know that. She thought—thinks—it’s Lorenzo Alcazar. And we still don’t know.”

“No. Just one more awful question. Too many of those and not nearly enough answers.” Elizabeth exhaled in a long, slow, but shaky breath. “I’m okay now. I think maybe I just needed to flip out and let all that awfulness out. I came in here, and God, it looks like the night I left, and I think I broke a little inside. Because what if I hadn’t left? What if I’d stayed?”

Jason looked up, looked around, and really took in the stark surroundings. “I—Mike wanted to get Courtney’s things. I told him there was no hurry. I asked—I asked the guys who’d helped her last spring when she moved in. I don’t know if—maybe they thought I wanted to get rid of everything.”

“It’s fine—”

“It’s—I don’t want to pretend it didn’t happen. We can’t do that.”

“And that wasn’t fair of me to say.” She started to move backwards, and her hands fell from his grasp. She turned in a slow circle, her eyes drinking in the emptiness, the way their voices bounced off the walls. “It’s me, you know. That wishes it hadn’t happened. Listening to Mike—”

“He was wrong—”

“Was he? About Courtney, yeah. I don’t blame him. It’s an awful thing to face, and if it gives him comfort to think it’s a mistake, that I’m a villain, I can live with it. But he wasn’t wrong about the way I took Ric’s side. Over and over again.” Her eyes found his again. “I wish I could say I did it because I truly loved him. Or believed him.  I told myself I did, but I think deep down I didn’t. And because I didn’t, I dug in harder. Just like I did with Lucky. I ignored everything that didn’t fit in my fantasy, and when it all blew up anyway, the fall was so much harder. Because if I hadn’t been so scared, so stupid, none of this would be happening.”

“I know it upsets you to think of that,” Jason said carefully, and she just sighed. “And I was angry with you. For a long time. Especially when you married Ric even after everything you knew. When Sonny told me, I thought—” He grimaced, looked away.

“What?” she asked softly. “What did you think?”

“That I wasn’t going to waste my breath talking you out of it. That I’d done it over and over again, and there was no point. Whatever happened next would be your fault, not mine.”

He didn’t know what reaction he expected, but then she smiled, a full one, with a crinkling of her eyes. “Oh, no. How terrible. What a jerk. How can I even look at you now?”

Jason tipped his head. “That doesn’t make you mad?”

“It’s actually—” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s actually a relief, which sounds insane. I’ve been over here, wracking myself with guilt because of the things I said to you, and you’d never given up on me. But you did. Even if I didn’t know it. I don’t know why that comforts me.” She leaned against the arm of the sofa. “Jason, you had every right to be angry with me. And if you’d held that against me for the rest of our lives, I’d never be able to blame you.”

“What’s the point of doing that?” He came closer, feeling oddly reassured. Maybe they really should have talked about all of this before. And maybe they would have — if there’d been time. If the world hadn’t crashed down around them. “Do you think I felt any pleasure in being right? That he hurt you and that you ended up regretting it? I don’t.”

“I know.” She bit her lip. “When we found out I was pregnant, the original plan was to keep things quiet and let things happen. To let things cool off with you and Courtney. To give you time and space to figure out Sonny and Carly so you’d be able to worry less about Michael. To give us space. Because we can’t just jump into what happens next. I’ve spent too much of this last year lurching wildly from point to point, and just never taking the time to breathe.”

Jason made a face, looked away. “I know. And that was a good plan, but—”

“But it’s not on the table anymore. I don’t know how we fix this. I don’t know what to do except keep moving forward. Doing what feels right in the moment, and just being honest. I’m scared, Jason. Not of Alcazar. Because you’re going to tell me what to do and I’m going to do it. If that means being locked up here in the penthouse until you have answers, then we’ll do that.”

“It—it might,” Jason admitted with a grimace. “If Alcazar doesn’t scare you—”

“That we’re going to mess this up. That I’m going to get too freaked out and run or that you’ll shut down, and I just—don’t know. I lost it today. I mean, I really lost my entire mind, and if Scott and Mac hadn’t shown up—” Elizabeth sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe I would have made you take me home, and that would have been the end of it.”

“I don’t want you to feel obligated to be here because of that. Because all of that will be going on whether you’re here or not,” Jason told her. “If you feel sorry for me—”

“I don’t feel sorry—oh, that came out all wrong, but it’s how I made it sound, didn’t it? No. No.” She straightened, standing up. “No,” she said for a third time. “It’s not that I felt sorry for everything you’ve got on your shoulders. I just got some perspective, that’s all. And a reminder that it’s not fair to look at you for the answers. Too many people do that, Jason, and I refuse to be one more person you have to take care of. I don’t know what tomorrow looks like, what we look like, but I want to be with you. Mac and Scott just dropped this enormous problem on your lap.” She lifted her chin. “What do we next?”

Vannes, France

The brunette had taken the cottage near the harbor some months ago, but mostly kept to herself. There were whispers that she looked familiar, but no one could quite place her. Her accent, the few times she’d ventured out, was obviously American though her French wasn’t too terrible. Boarding school French, to be sure.

If anyone in Vannes suspected that the mysterious woman was the former supermodel Brenda Barrett, whose mysterious return from the death remained cloaked in rumors and scandal, no one breathed a whisper of it. They might gossip around their own, but anyone who had one fake death on their resume had enough trouble without adding to it.

So she lived her life, wondering if this was the day he found her. If this was the last day of her life — or if she’d ever really get her own life back.

The answer came late one night, just after ten. The phone rang in the kitchen and she stared at it for a long time, letting it ring once. Twice. Then a third time. She nearly didn’t pick it up.

But she had her own promises to keep. “Has he found me?”

“No, but it’s time to come home.”

“It’s—” She closed her eyes, tears pricking the corners of her throat. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you’ve run long enough, Brenda. We’re going to deal with this, once and for all. I promised you that I’d keep your safe. But I need your help to do it. Will you come?”

“I—” No. No. The words screamed in her head, but the louder the voices grew, the angrier she became.

How many years was she going to let that man steal? How many more nights would she wake, listening to the dark, waiting for him to emerge from the shadows?

“I’ll come.”

General Hospital: Hallway

Bobbie saw Scott coming down the hallway, narrowed her eyes and turned her back on the irritating man. “I don’t have time for you.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m scum of the Earth, you can get back to hating me when I’m done.” Scott took her elbow, gently pulled her back to face him. “I need to talk to Carly. We need to find out everything she knows about Lorenzo Alcazar. About Venezuela. And the panic room.”

Bobbie scowled. “You think I’m going to let you talk to her after you threw away her case—” Scott handed her a file and she closed her mouth. “What’s this?”

“When we went to Morgan, we told him our theory. Elizabeth was there and told us Alcazar was there at her house the night Ric brought Carly there.”

“What? What does that mean?” Bobbie frowned. “We knew Alcazar knew about the panic room—”

“We thought Alcazar was looking for Elizabeth. Because Jason’s hiding Brenda. I’ll come back to that—but maybe we had it backwards. Maybe there’s something none of us knows. Because I have some questions about Ric Lansing.”

Bobbie opened the file, frowned. “This police report, it’s in Spanish, and—is this his medical file?”

“That police report is for Ricardo Lansing who was thrown in a Caracas jail about a year ago. For stealing from Luis Alcazar.”

Bobbie opened her mouth, then closed it. Looked at the medical report again. “And this?”

“Look at that blood type, Bobbie. Do you happen to know Sonny’s blood type?”

“That’s—that’s not—” Bobbie lifted her stunned eyes to his. “He and Sonny aren’t related. They’re not brothers.”

+28

General Hospital: Carly’s Room

It was difficult to keep her eyes open, to force herself to stop drifting, not to give in to the fatigue pulling at every muscle, but Carly was determined to find out what was going on.

Because something was going on—something that was somehow more terrible than the prospect that Sonny was part of what had happened to her. Had he shot her, thinking to protect her from Ric? It was too awful to be true, and yet—

Her mother returned from the hallway, after another phone call she’d left the room to take, that fake smile stretched across her face. “Are you up for some dinner? I thought maybe Leticia could come by and bring Michael—”

“I want that, yes, but—” Carly stopped, searching for the right question, the right turn of phrase, the magical words that would keep her mother from shutting down, from telling her there was time for that later, after she’d rested, after she’d recovered—

Bobbie straightened the sheets at the bottom of the bed, flicked at some imaginary lint. “He’s such a resilient little boy, you know. Rolls with the punches.”

“That’s…Jason’s…influence.” Carly pressed her lips together. “He hasn’t been to see me.”

Bobbie stopped, looked at her with wide eyes. “Oh. But he has. He just keeps missing you with tests and, oh, he’s had so much on his plate, Carly, you can’t begin to understand—”

“Let…me try. Elizabeth…she was there that. She was hurt, wasn’t she?”

“Y-yes,” Bobbie said, a bit hesitantly. She sat in the chair next to the bed, perched on the edge as if ready to take flight. “But not as badly. A bullet to the shoulder. She was released a few days ago.”

“I—I know about them. Jason and Elizabeth. You don’t have…to protect…me. I know. Jason—Jason told me. I mean, he…” She heard the word slur and squeezed her eyes shut. No. No, have to stay awake. Have to know. “He didn’t have…a choice. I…heard. I heard her. And Ric. I know. I know that. You…don’t…have to protect…me.”

“Sweetheart—”

Carly rolled her head to the side, pressing her cheek against the pillow, looked at her mother. “Courtney. Not my friend. Maybe not ever.”

“I can’t speak to that—”

“She hasn’t been here either. She knows. That I know.”

“I—I don’t know if she did—” Bobbie closed her eyes, and the expression that crossed her mother’s face—the panic-tinged regret managed to get through the fog creeping in.

“Mama. Where…where is she? Did Ric…”

“I don’t know. We don’t know much. But, honey—” Bobbie reached for Carly’s hand, squeezed it. “She’s gone. She died.”

Carly looked up at the ceiling, swallowed hard. “Dead. Someone…Sonny? Was this him? Is what you’re trying so hard not to say? Did he hurt me? Did he hurt Courtney?”

Bobbie exhaled slowly. “We don’t know what happened to Courtney. But yes, we think this was Sonny.”

Kelly’s: Courtyard

He taken Mike at his word that Courtney’s father would keep things civil, that whatever anger and resentment he had about the end of Jason’s relationship with his daughter, he’d keep it to himself for now.

But Mike had just been playing games, Jason realized, standing between the older man and Elizabeth. Playing with words. He’d held in his anger at Jason because Mike still needed access to Sonny—

But Elizabeth, apparently, was fair game.

Mike clenched a fist at his side. “Jason, I told you, I don’t want to do this with you—”

“But you’ll do it to Elizabeth,” Jason said. “You forgot to tell me that when you were reassuring me.” He turned his back, looked at her, at her stricken expression, the guilt swirling in her eyes. “Let’s go—”

“But—” she began.

“Jason—”

“I get that it would help you deal with all of this if you can find someone to blame. And that’s fine. You blame me,” Jason told him, flattening a hand against his chest. “I’m the one that proposed, I’m the one that broke his promises. And I’m the one who made sure that when it was done, Courtney hated me. Elizabeth did nothing—”

“Except let everyone think that my daughter conspired with a psychotic kidnapper. What’s more likely, Jason?” Mike challenged. “Courtney turning her back on everything she knew about that man or Elizabeth lying to cover up for him like she has for months?”

“Shut up—”

“No, no, please—” Elizabeth flew between them, holding her hand up, her fingers trembling. “Please don’t. Don’t do this. Okay? Jason, don’t.” Tears spilled down her cheeks when she turned to Mike, his face florid. “If I thought for one minute I could make this easier for you by lying, by letting you think that it was true, I’d do it, Mike. Because the truth is awful for everyone who loved her.”

“It can’t be true, okay? You misunderstood. You had to—I just need you to think, to go back and see if maybe you just didn’t understand—” Mike’s voice faltered. “You have to be wrong.”

“I wish I was. I wish—” Elizabeth closed her eyes, touched the arm still tucked into the brace. “I wish I could take it all back. To go back in time and stop it somehow. I regret every minute I ever spent with Ric Lansing. I need you to know that I don’t blame you for doubting me—”

“Elizabeth, you don’t have to do this,” Jason told her. He laid a hand on her shoulder, tried to propel her back but she shook her head. “You don’t owe him anything—”

“Don’t I? Don’t I owe a debt for the way I kept Ric in this town? I trusted him, and he broke me into pieces—” Her lips trembled, and she looked to the ground. “And I can’t ever undo that. But I left him. I wanted to be done with it. You know that, Mike. You know that Ric was bothering me. I wasn’t going to say anything, but Nikolas forced me to—”

“I—”

“He knew her schedule, Mike,” Jason said tightly, and Mike looked away. “Did you give it to him?”

“Of course not—”

“Courtney didn’t just tell me to my face. She was still working with Ric. That’s why Carly was here that night. To tell Elizabeth what she’d overheard. Carly heard her. It’s not just Elizabeth’s story. Are you telling me Carly’s lying, too?”

Mike dragged his hands down his face. “I can’t—it just can’t be the way it happened. There’s something missing. He forced her. Like before. Like this spring. Blackmail or something. She knew what he was. She knew.”

And because the horror in Mike’s voice was sincere, and because Jason had his own guilt, he swallowed his irritation. “She knew, and she hated me enough that it didn’t matter. She went to the cops and tried to frame me, Mac. Why do you think she wouldn’t hate me enough to do worse?”

“I can’t—I can’t do this. I don’t want to—” Mike turned and left the courtyard without another word.

Elizabeth turned to face Jason, tears glinting on her cheeks. “I’ll never be able to make up for  what I did, will I? For all the months I defended Ric. No wonder he hates me. I just don’t understand why you don’t hate me, too.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

Scott paced from the door to the desk, then back again, waiting with little patience as Mac finished his conversation on the phone. He made a little circle in the air with his index finger, indicating it was time to wrap it up.

Mac shot him the finger and Scott just scowled at him. “Yeah, Robin, I appreciate it. Okay. I’ll take it from here. No, don’t come home. I’ll keep you in the loop, but right now, the last thing we need is someone else on the ground that we have to worry about. Keep that up, and I’ll have your mother pull strings to get your passport revoked. Stay in Paris.” He dropped the phone back on the base, then sat behind the desk with a sigh.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Brenda spent some time in Paris with Robin, and was just putting together plans to find a new agent and get back to modeling—but then Lorenzo Alcazar showed up. He found them in Paris, wanted to let Brenda know there weren’t any hard feelings.”

Scott stilled. “And no one bothered to tell you? Or anyone? What about Morgan and Corinthos?”

“Brenda called Jason. He arranged for her to get off the grid. She left Robin in early June, and Robin hasn’t had much from her since. A few phone calls, but nothing that would give us a location. I don’t know what, if anything, Sonny knows.”

“Alcazar goes to see her personally, and Brenda disappears? That might explain why Alcazar came here, focused on Sonny again. He thinks he’s hiding her—”

“Actually.” Mac tipped his head. “I think that might explain why he started with Ric. Because Jason’s hiding Brenda. Jason’s the one that married her to protect her from Luis, remember? And who do Ric and Jason have in common?”

“Ah. Well.” Scott sighed. “Well, if we’re going to ask Morgan for help again, it probably should be you. I think he might be a little mad at me.”

“A little?”

“Yeah, yeah, you were right and I was wrong. You don’t have to rub it in, okay?”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

She hadn’t been in a hurry to return to the penthouse, not after learning of Courtney’s death and being here looking at what remained of a life the woman had planned with Jason. She’d avoided the conversation of where she was going to stay, knowing that the studio was out of the question and that, security wise, her grandmother’s house wasn’t exactly ideal.

But Elizabeth almost wished she’d spoken up so that she’d have some warning for what confronted her after Jason pushed the door open and stood aside to allow her in.

It was like a time warp. Nearly every item of furniture was gone, save the pool table, a single photo of Michael, and a familiar brown leather sofa. “W-What—”

Jason blinked, looked around, then rubbed the back of his head. He dropped his keys on the desk. “I forgot. Mike said he wanted to get Courtney’s things, and I wanted—I wanted to make it easier on him, so I had some guys —”

Remove every evidence that she’d ever existed. Elizabeth braced a hand against her abdomen, almost protectively splaying her hand over the baby she couldn’t feel yet. It was all so impossible suddenly, and she didn’t really understand why the stark emptiness of the room should make her feel that way—

“This is—this is too much. I can’t do this. I can’t—” She fumbled with the clasp on the brace, dragged it over her head, then cradled her damaged, weakened arm, her shoulder aching.

Jason came forward, a hand outstretched. “Hey—careful—”

“I can’t do this. I can’t—” She stepped back from him. “It’s too much. It’s just too much. This isn’t what it’s supposed to be like. We’re not supposed to be doing this.”

“Doing what?” Jason said carefully, holding his hands up, almost as if he was trying to ward off the levels of crazy she felt sure were radiating from her trembling body.

“Any of this. All of it. It’s just so fast, and out of control, and I don’t know how to make any of it stop, I don’t know how to do this. What am I supposed to do? We’re acting like all of this never happened, like we weren’t basically at each other throat’s throats for a year, and I told you I wish you were the one who was shot—”

“Okay, maybe you need to take a breath,” Jason said, taking a step towards her, but she backed up.

“No, no. I just need to—” She let her arm fall to the side, the useless dead weight of an arm she could barely lift, much less use to create. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I need. I just know it’s not this.”

“This,” Jason repeated. He stiffened. “Me?”

“No. I mean, yes, no—” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. We had that night, and then we walked away, and we were barely even scraping together an idea of what might happen in the future, and then I’m pregnant, and shot, and almost lose the baby, and Carly’s in a coma, you get arrested—and now courtney’s dead, and you just erased her like she didn’t happen, but she happened, okay? It all happened.”

Her chest was heaving when she finished, and Jason just looked at her a little wide-eyed, startled, because he hadn’t expected any of that. Neither had she. But something about seeing the penthouse look exactly as it had a year ago.

A year ago when she’d stormed out and it had all gone insane.

“Do you want me to take you to your grandmother’s?” Jason asked finally. He lowered his hands to his side. His tone was careful, his expression blank.

“I don’t know what I want, and I just—” Her head hurt, and so did everything else. She sat on the sofa, stared at the blank wall straight ahead. “I don’t know anything. I feel like I’ve been walking in a stupor since I woke up and you got arrested, and I don’t know how to make it stop.”

“Okay—” Jason drew out the word uncertainly, but a knock at the door kept him from continuing if he even knew what to do with her insane meltdown. He looked at her again, then went to the door. He grimaced, then pulled it open. “If you’re here to arrest me again—”

Mac put a hand against the door frame, blocking Scott partially from view. “Ignore Baldwin. He’s just here because I didn’t lock the car door fast enough.”

“Look, I dropped the charges. Don’t I get credit for that?” Scott demanded.

Mac ignored him, focused on Jason. “We have a problem. You’re hiding Brenda Barrett.”

Jason blinked, thrown by the commissioner’s statement. “What?”

“Brenda. Robin said she called you when Alcazar showed up in Paris. It seems like you arranged for Brenda to go missing, and then a few weeks later Lorenzo Alcazar showed up here in Port Charles. At Ric’s, where he found Carly in a panic room. But we don’t think he was looking for her.”

Jason’s hand fell slowly from the door. “What do you mean, he was at Ric’s?”

“He was there that night.”

Jason turned, looked at Elizabeth whose expression had gone still, the whirl of emotion faded entirely. “What?”

“The night Carly was kidnapped. He called the cops when he found me passed out on the sofa. He knew Carly was in the panic room. Ric got the cops to leave, but he never knew why they were there. But it was Alcazar.” Elizabeth came forward, her eyes on Mac. “You think he came looking for me.”

“Yeah. I do. But how did you know that?”

“Ric told me when he came back from Venezuela. He was trying to make me think he was forced into kidnapping Carly, but it was a lie, and he dropped it. I would have told you. If you’d ever followed up on my original statement.”

Jason pressed his lips together, looked from Elizabeth back to Mac. “You think Lorenzo Alcazar is looking for Brenda for revenge on his brother? I didn’t understand why Brenda was afraid — she’s not the one who killed him.”

“No, but she is the reason Luis came to Port Charles, why he went after Sonny in the first place,” Mac reminded him. “You ever ask yourself, Jason, why if Lorenzo Alcazar wanted revenge, he was playing games? Kidnapping Carly, then releasing her? Hanging around to make Sonny crazy?”

“I—” Jason was missing something, and he didn’t know what to think. “I don’t know, but it sounds like you have a theory.”

“I do. I think Lorenzo Alcazar is the brother who went over the balcony, and Luis Alcazar is back in town, finishing what he started.”

+30

Written in 63 minutes. Had to double check some earlier Mike scenes and it took some time.

Lake Onatario: The Deck of La Revanche

The city skyline was a pinprick in the horizon, suggesting they were closer to Canada than New York. Ric stood at the railing, watching the sun hover the cursed city, pondering the mess he’d made this last year.

Kidnapping Carly had probably been the the turning point, he thought grimly. He’d managed to get Sonny to swallow the story about their supposed paternity and bought himself some breathing room. Then Elizabeth had told him about the baby and had, for some godforsaken reason, decided to give him a second chance.

Maybe they weren’t related, Ric mused, but he and Sonny certainly shared the same tendency to let women destroy their common senses.

“Considering a swim?”

Luis appeared at his side, but Ric said nothing, hoping the other man would take the opportunity to fill the silence. What did he want with Ric? What the hell was his plan and why had he let them all, including Ric, think he was Lorenzo all this time?

“I’m trying to stay alive,” Ric said when Luis only remained silent. “What are you going to do with me? I’m just a witness—”

“That was before Courtney’s body was discovered too soon,” Luis muttered, his hands gripping the railing. “Morgan had a solid alibi. Now, you’re not much more than a loose end.”

“Who knows a great deal about the men you’re trying to destroy,” Ric reminded him. “You hired me to destroy Sonny, remember? I’m closer than you were ever able to be—”

“Oh, I don’t doubt you have some value. It’s why you still breathe.” Luis turned to him, keeping one hand on the railing. “Sonny’s locked up in a private mental hospital, but Morgan’s still out there, the dragon at the gate as always.”

“And he hates me,” Ric said, helpfully. “I can get under his skin—”

“Hate might be too weak a word to describe the loathing.” Luis scrutinized Ric, his eyes squinting. “What might he trade for a chance to end your life personally?”

Ric pressed his lips together, looked back out over the water. Nearly anything, he thought, but said nothing. “Jason’s not one for revenge. Not when he got what he wanted. My wife. The child she promised me.”

“Ah, yes, the lovely Elizabeth Webber, our Helen of Troy. I’ve been thinking of the question I posed to you a few nights ago. How to tell Sonny what he nearly did to his own sister. I must confess, since then, I thought of little else. It’s the missing piece to my own plan. The final twist of the knife to break Sonny so badly he’ll be begging me to kill him.” Luis sighed. “But I worry she’s too well guarded to get to, and well, where’s the fun of telling Sonny if I can’t see the horror on both their faces?”

Ric arched a brow, sensing his opening. “After everything else you’ve done, are you saying you’re not up to the challenge?”

Luis just arched that brow again, then left him standing at the railing pondering just how Ric could use Luis’s obsession into gaining his own freedom. If Luis believed the lies Ric had hoped to use against Sonny without bothering to verify any of it for himself, well, then he might be desperate enough to do anything.

Which was exactly the way Ric liked it.

Kelly’s: Courtyard

Elizabeth stared at Mike for a long moment, her free hand fluttering up to her chest. “You—you startled me.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Mike gestured to the diner. “Did you want to come in? I don’t—I don’t know who’s on shift. Penny’s handling that.” He moved past her, looked inside the diner, took a deep breath, then looked back at her. “I haven’t been back here since that night.”

“Neither have I.” She cleared her throat, but there were no words that followed. She didn’t know what to say to him. At the hospital, after Jason’s arrest, and in the few days that had followed, there’d been a strain, a horrible awkwardness in every interaction. They’d never spoken of her pregnancy or what it meant for Courtney.

But then Courtney had died, and Elizabeth had grappled with the terrible guilt of not really feeling guilty at all. She was sorry Courtney was dead, mostly because Mike cared about her, and he was a good man. Sorry for Michael who loved his aunt, and for Carly because that would only complicate her recovery. Sorry for Jason who had loved her once.

But there was no guilt, no sense that Elizabeth had anything to do with how Courtney’s life had ended. She’d played a role in the end of Courtney’s relationship with Jason, but those weren’t related, and not feeling guilty had only made her feel worse about all of it.

Was Mike angry at her? Was he holding back his anger with Jason because of Sonny? Would he do the same with her because of her injuries, because of the baby?

“I just wanted to stand here,” Elizabeth said finally, and their eyes met. “I hoped if I could just do that I could remember better what happened that night.”

“I, uh, thought Jason said Michael confessed.” Mike folded his arms. “Unless he’s changed his mind and thinks Lorenzo did it after all.”

“No, he, um, he  hasn’t said differently for me. Sonny remembered being here. And well, it makes the most sense, I guess. But I just—” Elizabeth turned slightly, facing the courtyard the way she had that night. “I thought if I just stood where I did that night, if maybe it might jar something.”

“Well, talk me through it. How did it happen?”

Elizabeth flicked her eyes to Mike, but his expression didn’t change, didn’t seem unfriendly. She nodded, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “Um, well, I was closing that night. I told DJ to go home. I thought Carly’s guards were out here. And—”

“And Jason was on his way,” Mike said. The words were offered without emotion, but his posture changed slightly, just a slight tensing of his muscles. “He was worried about you after the night before. Wasn’t he?”

“Y-yes.” She licked her lips. “Carly didn’t want to wait for him. She knew he’d be angry—so she came out into the courtyard, and I followed. I wanted her to wait. To come back inside, so we could lock the door. But she just wanted to go home. She was upset—”

“Why?”

“W-what?” Elizabeth blinked at him, confused. “Why what?”

“Why was she upset? What so important that she came to see you that night? Waited for you to close and be alone?”

“Mike—” Elizabeth hesitated. “I don’t—that’s not important—”

“Maybe it is. Maybe you shouldn’t decide what’s important without considering everything,” he interrupted. “Courtney said Carly was here to confront you. She was upset about you and Jason, wasn’t she?”

“I—” Her throat was tight. “No—”

“No? Courtney was her best friend—”

“That’s why she was upset,” Elizabeth said softly. “Mike. You know what happened. Why—”

“I know what Jason’s told me. But I think maybe you need to say it. To my face.” Mike lifted his chin. “Tell me that my daughter was conspiring with the psycho who went after Carly.”

“You—you don’t believe—”

“Courtney knew from the first day what Ric did. She knew what he was before you did. She tried to tell you, remember?” Mike said, and Elizabeth’s eyes burned. She looked away, her vision blurred as the hot spiral of shame swirled up into her throat. “She didn’t have to sit by and be poisoned by him, to live in the same house while Carly was trapped in the walls. You’re telling me with everything she knew about Ric and what he did to Carly, she went to him because of what you did to her. I’m supposed to believe that she was that spiteful and vindictive.” He shook his head. “No. I don’t believe it. You need her to be the villain. You need it to be that way so Jason isn’t sorry she’s dead. But there’s no proof—”

“Mike.”

They both turned back towards the back entrance, and Jason was there, coming forward and standing between them.

“This has nothing to do with you,” Mike told Jason. “This is between me and Elizabeth and the lies she wants to tell about my little girl to make herself feel better—”

“The truth that she said to my face,” Jason retorted. “Go ahead. Call me a liar, too.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

“No. No. Because this is all twisted and convoluted enough without adding another damned layer.” Scott jerked out of his side, dragged his hand through his hair leaving it standing wildly on end. He turned back to Mac. “What the hell are you trying to tell me?”

“I don’t know anything for sure,” Mac said, holding up his hands. “I just think  there’s a pretty good possibility that maybe Luis Alcazar is still alive—”

“No. I rebuke this. This was supposed to be a simple case of Sonny Corinthos going loco and shooting up a courtyard, okay?” Scott slapped his hand against his open palm. “I force Morgan to give up the ghost, and then we get our guy. And if we’re lucky, I get to make things right and take down Lansing so maybe Bobbie won’t plot my demise. That was the plan, Mac! Not whatever cockamamie twisted story you got cooking in your head—”

“That plan went out the window the second Courtney turned up with a bullet in her head and Lansing went AWOL. We still don’t know if he disappeared himself or is floating somewhere.  But Lorenzo Alcazar? Carly remembers hearing his voice that night. And he’s the only one who’d want to frame Morgan for all this.”

“But it didn’t work, okay? How do you figure that—see—see—this all falls apart—maybe Lorenzo Alcazar is being framed by all of them—”

“Scott.”

Scott collapsed into the chair, his head in his hands, letting out a low moan. “I just want one normal case, Mac. Just the one. Is that too much to ask?”

“I know you think this makes it more convoluted,” Mac told him, “but it actually streamlines it.”

“Uh, how do you figure?”

“Alcazar’s got too much heat on him. He had to know his days were numbered. He calls his brother — tosses him over the balcony—”

“That was Alexis Davis—”

“Okay, so maybe Luis just set Lorenzo up to be killed, and went underground to regroup. He comes back out, and decides to pick up where he left off. Remember? He started by wanting to get rid of Sonny. But now, he’s angrier. More obsessive. He’s lost Brenda. Sonny—and now Jason—are the ones protecting her. Keeping her away. Ric’s in town, going after Sonny, so now Luis — as Lorenzo — can come in, get under Sonny’s skin. He rescues Carly, treats her well in captivity knowing it’ll send Sonny through the roof—”

“But it doesn’t just make Sonny reckless and angry—” Scott straightened, his eyes sharpening. “It makes him go actually crazy. Alcazar’s got eyes on Sonny and Carly. He’s gotta know something isn’t right. Either he’s following Carly or Sonny that night, it doesn’t matter. He sees Sonny shoot up the courtyard, and figures this is his time—”

“Except Courtney and Ric get in the way trying to frame Jason. Alcazar tries to make that work for him, but it goes south again because Sonny gets himself committed. He’s under lock and key. And Jason’s not taking the hit for Courtney because we’re his alibi.”

“Okay. Okay.” Scott got to his feet, started pacing, then he whirled around, looked at Mac. “You know what we gotta do? We gotta throw him off course. We gotta mess with him. We got leverage. He doesn’t know what we know.”

“I know exactly how to do that. What does Luis Alcazar want more than anything in the world?” Mac leaned against his desk, smirked. “I think it’s time Brenda Barrett comes home for a visit.”

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