Jax’s life wasn’t going well at that moment–Skye had moved him to the couch on a more permanent basis and Brenda was dying–but nothing cheered him up more than the sight of his brother speechless.

Elizabeth was standing in the middle of the room, her hair pulled up out of her face. Her eyebrows were arched, as if she were expecting an answer from Jerry. She had her arms tightly crossed and her mouth was set in tight line.

Jerry’s reaction to her news didn’t seem to be putting her in a good mood.

Jax raised his drink to his brother. “You wanted to be a father,” he said before drinking.

Jerry tossed him a look before returning his attention to Elizabeth. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Why you are men so threatened when another man can provide answers he can’t?”

Jerry frowned. “That’s not why I’m mad.”

“Oh, really? Care to enlighten me?” Elizabeth asked tilting her head to the side in curisority.

“I don’t want you anywhere near Corinthos or Morgan,” Jerry said finally.

Elizabeth let her hands fall to her side. “Oh, for the love of…” She tossed her purse to the side. “At this point, I think I need a drink!”

Jax grinned. “Well, you did just turn twenty-one.”

Jerry glared at his brother. “Don’t encourage her.”

“Look, Jerry, I know this hard for you to understand,” Elizabeth began, “because God knows, you’re not the first person in my life that didn’t get it. Sonny and Jason are my friends and I’m not going to change that because you don’t like it. I didn’t do it for my grandmother, for Nikolas, for Laura, for Lucky, for–”

“All right, all right,” Jerry groaned putting his hands up. “I surrender. I’ll never speak another bad word about them.”

“I’m not that stupid,” Elizabeth retorted.

Jax grinned. “You two really are family,” he said, shaking his head in awe. “So what did Lucifer dig up?”

Elizabeth tossed him a dirty look but sighed. “He knew a lot about my mother.”

Jerry raised his eyebrows. “Why?”

Elizabeth shifted and finally pulled her leather jacket off. She roamed around the room restlessly. “Well…turns out Elizabeth Robinson was Frank Smith’s illegitimate daughter.”

“What in the bloody hell?” Jerry roared.

“Who’s Frank Smith?”

“He was in charge of the territory before Sonny,” Elizabeth murmured. “My mother’s death was a mob hit.” She looked up. “He’s going to get a full report on her and track down Roy.”

“You mean I dated and nearly married the illegitimate daughter of the biggest crime boss in Port Charles?” Jerry yelped. “How in the blue hell did I miss that?”

“You were blinded by love,” Jax suggested helpfully.

“Oh, get more drunk,” Jerry snapped. “Have another on me.”

Jax stood and headed for the bar. “Don’t mind if I do.”

“Does it matter?” Elizabeth asked. “We’re going to find out where Roy is and hopefully, he’ll have answers.”

“He wouldn’t tell me then, why would he tell me now?” Jerry asked, a little more calmly.

Elizabeth smiled sweetly. “He likes me–defused a bomb in my studio once. And you know something I’ve learned from waitressing? You smile the right way and men will do whatever you want.”

Jerry frowned. “I don’t know if I’m comfortable hearing that from my own daughter.”

Elizabeth shrugged. “Deal. And besides, if Roy needs any extra encouragement, I’ll just bring Jason.”

“All right, all right, hold it right there,” Jerry said. “Why would Roy listen to Jason and not me?”

Elizabeth paused thoughtfully. “Jason had a special way of communicating with people.”

“Yes, it’s called say hello to my nine millimeter,” Jax supplied helpfully.

Elizabeth looked at him, concerned. “You’re drunk aren’t you?”

“Just a bit.”

Jerry rolled his eyes. “Pay him no attention–he and Skye had another fight today.”

Elizabeth frowned and sat on the couch next to him. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Can you turn back time?” Jax asked, with the utmost seriousness. “Because that would be most helpful.”

Elizabeth smiled regretfully. “I’m sorry.”

Jax sighed heavily. “Yeah, me, too.” He sat up and swirled the liquor in his shot glass. “So you just going to sit around and wait for Lucifer to call back?”

“No,” Jerry ground out. He pulled his coat on. “I’m heading out on another lead. Elizabeth, do me a favor?”

“Anything as long the words Morgan and Corinthos aren’t included with the phrase stay away because I might have to kill you.”

Jerry frowned. “Okay, a different favor then. Stay with him–make sure he doesn’t drink too much.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Not a problem.” She watched Jerry leave before turning her attention to the increasingly intoxicated man sitting next to her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not right now.” Jax turned his head on the back of the couch to look at her. “How’s your love life? You forgive Spawn yet?”

“Spawn?” Elizabeth raised her eyebrows.

“Morgan,” Jax clarified. “As in Spawn of Satan, as in Lucifer…?”

Elizabeth shook her head, amused. “Yeah, I forgave him.”

Jax looked at the ceiling. “So life is back to normal for you, huh?”

“No,” Elizabeth replied. She turned her body so she was mimicking his position staring at the ceiling. “I’ve decided that a relationship with Jason at this point in our lives where he has a blind loyalty to Sonny is not in my best interest.”

“Yeah.” Jax flicked his eyes over to her without moving his face. “How’s Denial Land doing? Is it nice this time of year?”

“Lovely,” Elizabeth murmured. “Reminds me of Italy.”

“You’ve been to Italy?” Jax asked. “Isn’t it a lovely country?”

“I’ve only been there in my dreams,” Elizabeth said regretfully. “Jason wanted to take me once…but I wasn’t ready.”

“Brenda and I got married in the Mediterranean the first time,” Jax said. “We got married on a yacht if you can believe that.”

“I don’t think she’ll ever think of yachts in the same way again,” Elizabeth replied.

“Probably not. So why weren’t you ready?” Jax asked.

“Because I thought I was still in love with someone else,” Elizabeth replied. “Stupid me–should’ve taken his hand.”

“Yeah, well, we all do things we wish we could take back,” Jax replied quietly. “How do you make someone understand that you don’t mean to do stupid things, but sometimes you can’t help it?”

“You can’t always make someone understand,” Elizabeth replied softly. “It doesn’t work.”

“Yeah. You’re right. So what do you do instead?”

Elizabeth shrugged. “Try to show them what they mean to you, how grateful you are that they’re in your life, and why you don’t regret choosing them.”

“Does that work?”

“Sometimes.”

“Has it worked for you?”

“I haven’t been doing that very well.”

“Pity. You could give me some pointers.”

“You should stop drinking so much when you and Skye fight,” Elizabeth murmured.

“Probably. I always wait until she’s gone. She’s a recovering alcoholic, you know. Damn proud of her,” Jax said.

“You really love her, huh?”

“About as much as you love Spawn.”

“You’re lucky you’re family and you’re drunk.”

“Yeah, well, in this family, the two sort of go hand in hand quite often.”

—-

“Did Roy get in touch yet?” Jason asked, pulling jacket off and putting it in the back of the chair.

Sonny looked up from the file he was reading and shook his head. “Things are in a weird position in Miami–it might be a few days.”

“What are you reading?”

“The file on Elizabeth’s mother,” Sonny replied. He held up a picture. “Beth Robinson, just before she died.”

Jason took it and studied the dark-haired woman in the picture. She was small and petite with blue eyes and porcelain skin–almost the mirror image of Elizabeth now. “She really does look like her.”

“Yeah.” Sonny stood and stretched. “I’m a little worried about this–I think Elizabeth’s being sold does relate to Beth.”

Jason frowned. “How so?”

Sonny looked back down. “Frank Smith met with Roy just after Beth’s death. Shortly after that, Elizabeth was sold or as far as she can tell from Jerry’s story.”

Jason nodded. “So you think Smith had something to do with it?”

Sonny scratched the back of his head. “Yeah. I’ve got a feeling about it. We’ll know for sure when Roy calls in.” He picked the file up and replaced the picture of Beth. “You want to drop this off to her? I promised as soon as Benny got it done. It went a little more quickly than I thought.”

Jason took it. “Sure. I need to talk to her anyway.”

Sonny hesitated before asking the question. “How are things with you and her?”

“She doesn’t hate me anymore.”

“That’s a good start.”

“Yeah, I’d say so.”

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