This is the best thing that could have happened
Any longer and I wouldn’t have made it
It’s not a war, no, it’s not a rapture
I’m just a person, but you can’t take it
The same tricks that, that once fooled me
They won’t get you anywhere
I’m not the same kid from your memory
Well, now I can fend for myself
– Ignorance, Paramore

---

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Kelly’s: Parking Lot

Elizabeth handed the helmet to Jason to stow on the back of the bike, then she looked towards the diner. “You ever think about how much time we spent here?” she asked wistfully. “When I still worked here, and you’d come by for coffee?” She folded her arms. “You and Sonny. Always tipped too much.”

“I figured I owed you like six weeks of rent,” he said, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling back against his chest. “You wouldn’t take the money any other way.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Still wouldn’t. You need to go grocery shopping if you expect me to spend more time at your place. You might not need to eat—”

“I eat,” Jason said, kissing the top of her head. “When I want to. And we’ll get food for next week.” He paused. “And yeah, I think about it sometimes. I used to come here near closing on purpose.”

“Yeah?” Elizabeth turned in his arms. “After that night at Jake’s?”

“I liked talking to you.” He kissed her, and she smiled against his lips. “And you were always up for taking the long way home. The cliff roads were always more fun with you.”

“I used to wish I’d jumped on your bike and never looked back. Until Cameron. After him, I didn’t regret so many of my choices anymore.  He was worth all the bad moments. All the regrets. I wouldn’t change anything if it meant losing him.” She closed her eyes. “But every once in a while, I used to wonder where we’d be if I’d gone with you that day.”

“I used to think about that, too. Would it have been just Italy? Or maybe we’d go somewhere else. France was good. I liked the mountains. And the beaches.” He stroked her arms. “And Greece. Egypt.”

“I’ve never seen any of those places.” Elizabeth sighed, stepped back. “I don’t even know what made me think about any of it. I didn’t go with you, and we never made it to Italy.” She frowned. “What do you think Spinelli has on Luke?”

“I don’t know. Maybe about those addresses Luke was supposed to check out. We’ll find out when we talk to him.”

Elizabeth hesitated, her fingers on the door handle. “I’ve spent years trusting the Spencers where the Cassadines are concerned. All the way back to Lucky getting involved with Helena before the fire. He was angry with Luke,” she said when Jason blinked. “And Endgame — it was Luke and Laura always setting the tone, you know? And Laura still…I still feel like I’m deferring to her. And Luke. Because it feels like we should have the same goal. But you’re telling me you don’t trust that, and you’re usually right when you tell me I’m trusting someone I shouldn’t. And Spinelli wouldn’t be dragging us together on a Sunday if he hadn’t found something that worries him.”

“I know you don’t want it to be like this.”

“‘I always pretended Luke and Laura were my family. It’s one of the reasons it was so hard to let go of Lucky. I didn’t want to lose everyone I had because of him. But if Spinelli is right—and he’s like you, he usually is—that means Luke is lying about something. And if he’s lying, so is Lucky. And I just—” Elizabeth sighed. “I hate it. And I feel like an idiot.”

“You shouldn’t. You were right, too,” Jason pointed out. “Me not liking Luke? It was personal. Because of Jake. And Lucky—well, that’s just—history. I was never sure how much I hated him because I had a reason to, or because you’d chosen him.”

“Well, my terrible taste in men, present company excluded, is known worldwide,” she muttered. She cleared her throat. “I brought it up, and now I’m putting it away again. Let’s have breakfast and enjoy what’s left of the morning.”

Quartermaine Estate: Foyer

On the other side of town, another woman was thinking about Luke Spencer—and cursing his existence.

“Damn it, Luke, where are you?” Tracy muttered, flipping through her text messages as if she could magically produce a response from her ex-husband through sheer willpower. It’d been days since she’d asked him to use his contacts to see how much trouble Tracy was in, and there had been radio silence.

“I thought I smelled sulfur,” Ned quipped as his mother strode into the family room and made her way to the breakfast buffet set up by the terrace windows. “Having a bad day?”

Tracy glared at her son. “Don’t you have a house?”

“Oh, good, I was wondering if there’d be entertainment at breakfast.” Olivia sat at the table, plucked a croissant from the table in the middle. “Don’t mind me, carry on.”

Delighted to have an outlet for her frustrations, Tracy sat down and prepared to make sure everyone was as unhappy as she was.

Kelly’s: Dining Room

Kristina made a face. “I made things worse.”

“You usually do.” Valerie broke a piece of bacon in half, popped one piece in her mouth.

“Because things were fine with my mom and Sam until I stuck my nose in it, and Sam literally said I helped her clear her head.” Her eyes pleaded with Valerie. “Help me fix it.”

“I don’t know what you think you or I can do about it. Your mom’s right. There’s always some unethical bastard out there waiting to drain a client dry. Sam will find someone else to take her case.”

“I was thinking…” Kristina bit her lip. “There’s got to be a way to get Sam to back down. I really hate the idea of her going after Jason like this. He’s not just Sam’s ex to me, you know? He really looked out for me when I was growing up. And my dad is so happy he’s home. That’s his best friend. And Danny’s in the middle of this. I know Scout is young, but Danny’s old enough to know things are bad. And he knows about Drew and Jason.”

“You’re not responsible for any of this, Kris—”

“That doesn’t mean I want my sister running around like a one-woman wrecking crew. I don’t know. I dragged up everything about the trial and what was going on during that period—I just—am I crazy for wanting her to stop? To want to help?”

“No, of course not.” Valerie picked up her cappuccino. “I know you see you and Molly in Scout and Danny, but why can you get Sam to back down when your mom can’t?”

“Well.” Kristina paused. “What’s the statute on kidnapping?”

Valerie lifted her brows. “Blackmail? Is that where we’re going?”

“Just answer the question.”

“Five years, so you’re out of luck. It’s a miracle it wasn’t found out back then. A good lawyer would have gotten Maureen to flip.” Her brow furrowed. “I wonder whatever happened with that case.”

Kristina made a face. “Figures. I guess maybe we could still use it. I mean—”

“Jason should be the one using it. Or Drew,” Valerie interrupted. “Because it proves your sister doesn’t give a shit about kids. And Jason would have a great case based on what happened to Jake and his mom’s house because of your sister. But if he wanted to go that way—”

“He’d already have done it. I don’t get it, but—” Kristina flopped back in her seat. She watched as the door to Kelly’s opened and Jason came in, followed by Elizabeth. They were laughing and smiling at each other, clearly intimate. They took a seat at a table near the jukebox.

Valerie twisted in her chair to look at them. “He really married the woman who watched his son get kidnapped. You think Elizabeth Webber knows?”

“I don’t know, but I hope so.” Kristina’s smile was wistful. “He looks happy.”

“Yeah, doesn’t really look like someone who’s yelling at his lawyer on a Sunday morning.” Valerie turned back to face Kristina. “Your mom’s right. Sam’s obsessing, trying to keep Jason in her life. He probably hasn’t thought about her since the papers got filed.”

Kristina exhaled slowly. “I just wish there was something I could do. But if the kidnapping thing is a no go—” she made a face. “My mom and Molly are right. I guess I need to just let it go and hope she comes to her senses on her own. Without doing more damage.”

“All you can do is sit back and hope for the best. It sucks, and I’m sorry, but you’re not a miracle worker.”

Metro Court: Restaurant

Maxie was bored out of her mind, but she was a good wife who went to brunch with her sister-in-law, even if she and Nina didn’t like each other very much. She picked at the remains of her omelet, only half listening to Nathan and Nina talk about something in New York, blah, blah — trust Nina to make New York City sound boring.

“I’m sorry you didn’t bring Georgie today,” Nina said, picking up her mimosa. “We should really try to get her and Charlotte together more.”

Not in this lifetime, Maxie thought, all too aware of what an asshole Charlotte was. Lulu could barely handle the little demon child, and Maxie didn’t want to spend any time with kids who weren’t her own. Not even her best friend’s daughter.

“She’s enjoying some time with my mom and Mac,” Maxie said. “But, sure, I’ll call Lu and set something up next weekend when she has Charlotte again.” She smiled sweetly at the other woman, Nina clenching her jaw at the mention of Charlotte’s biological mother. “Maybe you’ll want some alone time next week. Isn’t Valentin supposed to be back from his trip by then?”

Nina flinched, took a deep breath. “I’m not sure,” she said.

Nathan frowned. “Still? He’s been gone almost a week, Nina—”

“Don’t start with me, James.” Nina sighed, looked away, and something flashed across her face. It was easy to forget sometimes how tragic her life had been, Maxie thought. Her youth stolen from her by her greedy mother, a baby given up for adoption and still not yet located, an adulterous husband—

But just when Maxie was tempted to feel sorry for her, Nina opened her mouth and ruined it. “And if I need alone time with my husband, we’ll handle childcare. Lulu doesn’t need more time with Charlotte—”

“I think Lulu should be the judge of that.” Maxie winced when Nathan kicked her under the table. She ignored the warning. “It’s not my fault Valentin left you—”

“He did not leave me.” Nina threw her napkin on the table, incensed. “How dare you? Just because I haven’t talked to him in a few days—”

“Six but who’s counting?” Maxie said.

Nina looked like she would erupt, but instead she jerked to her feet and stalked out. Maxie smiled after her, then returned her focus to her husband. Nathan just looked at her. “Oh, what? You should thank me for getting rid of her. She’s unpleasant.”

“Maxie—”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll text her and apologize. I’ll tell her my hormones were going wild—and you can follow-up by telling her I’m pregnant—unless you think that might trigger her into stealing my baby—”

“Maxie.”

“You want me to be sorry, and I’m just not.” Maxie retrieved her phone, wiggled it. “Look, I’m texting now.”

“And try to sound sincere,” Nathan said, reaching for the check in the middle of the table.

“I am always sincere.”

But it wasn’t Nina’s number Maxie brought up, but Spinelli’s. She shot him a quick note that Valentin was still incommunicado with no ETA.

Then she composed a short apology to her husband’s sister. It wasn’t Nathan’s fault his sister was a certifiable bitch, but Maxie needed to tread a fine line between getting information for Spinelli and pissing off her husband.

Morgan House: Living Room

“Robert and Anna looked into the list Luke talked about,” Spinelli began. “You know, the addresses the WSB supposedly gave him.” He set his laptop on the table and opened it. “I wanted to see what parameters were used to construct it. I looked at all the locations — and none of them were in my files.”

Elizabeth winced. “I don’t like where this is going.”

“How did you come up with your list?” Drew wanted to know, folding his arms, and leaning against the back of the sofa. “I never asked.”

“I compiled a list of any employees on record I could find from St. Petersburg,” Spinelli said. “And I ran their backgrounds. I put any address in Istanbul connected to the lab on that list. I thought it made sense to start there.”

“And the WSB list doesn’t?” Elizabeth asked.

“The WSB list doesn’t exist.”

Jason frowned at that statement, then traded a look with Drew. “That doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t Luke be worried Robert and Anna would call him on it?”

“Luke’s not used to being questioned, and Robert and Anna didn’t have a reason to doubt Luke until then. But they were curious, too, like I said. Anna can’t find any record of it, and neither can her contact in that office. I hacked the mainframe,” Spinelli continued. “If Luke’s list came from them, there’s no record of it. None of the addresses he’s been to are on the WSB’s radar.”

“So Luke had two WSB agents who didn’t report to anyone but him. And he claims he wasn’t using Spinelli’s list until Friday. So where was he getting his information if it wasn’t from the WSB?” Sonny shook his head. “This doesn’t make sense. He was searching for something, wasn’t he?”

“Why would Luke or Lucky lie about that? Do we think they’re not trying to find Valentin?” Laura scowled. “There has to be another explanation.”

Jason exhaled slowly. “We know he had a second list. One that came from a source he trusted more than Spinelli. Whoever this source is, he doesn’t want us to know. That’s what we should focus on.”

“The first address I gave the Spencers,” Spinelli said, “is a is the Maslak I talked about on Friday.” Spinelli tapped some keys. “I put a virus into the drive. It attaches to anyone who opens the files, and I can mirror any device they use. So far, there are two laptops, two tablets, and three phones.”

“There’s a third person,” Drew realized.

“That’s where I’m leaning, yeah,” Spinelli said.  “One of the phones has been to the Maslak address three times since Friday morning.” He showed them the access log. “Three times. They didn’t use my list before then. Why wasn’t this lab on the list Luke was using? Wouldn’t they have Klein on their radar, too? And why does he keep going back to the same place? And none of the others.”

“That is…” Drew dipped his chin down to his chest. “That’s an excellent list of questions. What can you tell from the devices? Who owns what?”

“One of the phones belongs to Luke. It went to the Maslak address and other places around the city. He doesn’t have any other electronics, or so I can tell. One set of devices — a phone, laptop, and tablet — belongs to Lucky. I found evidence of your call to him,” Spinelli told Elizabeth. “And there’s photos of the boys. Videos. It’s definitely his. The second set of devices belongs to Britt Westbourne.”

“Britt—” Elizabeth’s hands fell to her side and her mouth opened. “Spinelli, are you—how can you tell? Are you sure?”

“She’s not trying to hide it. It’s her personal laptop. She logs into bank accounts, she saves documents with her name attached. It’s her.”

“Lucky said he was going to Bosnia because of a lead she’d given him,” Elizabeth said. “He told us that he’d spoken to her. I just—why wouldn’t he tell us she was in Istanbul with them? Why wouldn’t we know that she was working on this? Why hide it?”

“And why would either of them work with Britt? She has access to our files, doesn’t she?” Laura said.

“She has copies of all the records on the drive, but I see no evidence that she accessed the drive itself, which means—”

“Lucky gave her copies.” Elizabeth sank onto the sofa. “Why would he do that? She’s connected to Faison and Obrecht. And she can’t be trusted—”

“She’s supposed to have woken you up back in Russia,” Drew said to Jason. “On her father’s orders. Now she shows up in Turkey with our files and the idiots we trusted to run that leg of the operation.” He grimaced. “There’s no reason for Luke or Lucky to lie to us about Britt. Not a good one anyway.”

“I just—I don’t understand. I could see having her as a resource, but you’re suggesting she’s had her hands on the files themselves—”

“And her devices are in the same place as Lucky’s. She’s with them.” Spinelli closed his laptop. “The Maslak address being visited over and over suggests to me they found something on Friday.  And what else troubles me — I can tell when these devices are together, sharing the same network, but I can’t find that network. Lucky’s cloaked everything. I don’t know where they’re staying in the city. But they’re only hiding their location at the home base. Everywhere else? I can track them.”

“I don’t like that,” Jason said. “Why would they hide where they’re staying, but not where they’re looking?”

“Maybe they’re staying with the source of that list,” Elizabeth asked, and they looked at her. “Luke and Lucky are protecting that source. It makes sense to protect the location. And any devices that source uses.”

Laura sighed, rubbed her temples. “I want to pretend this is all a mistake. A misunderstanding. I don’t understand why they’d hold back on this. What do they have to gain? We’re all working towards the same thing.”

“We thought we were,” Drew said. “Elizabeth’s right. Whatever’s going on—someone is being protected. And if it’s not Britt Westbourne, it’s someone else Luke and Lucky don’t want us to know about.” He looked at Jason, troubled. “You know what’s next, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Jason said grimly.

“What?” Laura asked. “What’s next?”

“It’s time to go to Turkey,” Drew said. “I can clear my schedule.”

“Yeah, we don’t have a choice.” Jason looked at Sonny. “Can you get us set up with transport?”

“Yeah, sure.” Sonny rose to his feet. “I can get the airfield on the line. Hide the flight plan and all that. I’ll tell them you expect you and Drew as soon as they can get the plane ready.”

“Good—” Jason started.

“Wait, just the two of you?” Elizabeth asked, and everyone looked at her. “If we’re just going to ask questions, it should be me. Or Laura. One of us, anyway. We know Luke and Lucky better—”

“Maybe that’s why it shouldn’t be us,” Laura said gently, and she swung her eyes back to the other woman. “We’re too close—”

“I spent a lot of time being manipulated by Lucky, that’s what you’re saying. You think he’ll feed me another story and I’ll buy it,” Elizabeth said. She met Jason’s eyes, but then he looked away. “That’s not fair. It’s been years—I can handle myself.”

“You can,” Drew said, tossing Jason an irritated glare. “But we also have to think logistically. Jason and I can drop out of sight for a few days. You can’t. You don’t show up for work, the boys go to stay with someone—people might notice. We don’t know who’s watching—”

“Oh, okay. Because I’m a mother, I can’t go,” Elizabeth said. “I’m a weak, fragile little girl Lucky can play like a violin who has to stay at home with the kids—”

“No one is saying that—” Sonny started.

“Elizabeth—” Drew protested.

“That’s not—” Laura began.

Disgusted, she got to her feet, yanked her purse and coat from the post by the door. “Fine. Go to Turkey. Have a great time.” She slammed the door behind her.

Drew turned to Jason with a scowl. “Why the hell didn’t you say anything?”

Jason got to his feet and went to grab his jacket. “Because I agree with all of you,” he said shortly. “I’ll handle it. Sonny, get things set up and call me when it’s done.”

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