In my defense, I have none
For never leaving well enough alone
But it would’ve been fun
If you would’ve been the one
I persist and resist the temptation to ask you
If one thing had been different
Would everything be different today?
– the 1, Taylor Swift

---

May 2015

Mykonos, Greece: Cassadine Estate

Helena set down the tabloids she’d been reading to glare at Valentin. “Why must we have the same argument over and over again?”

“When you came to me,” Valentin said, flicking an imaginary piece of lint from his trousers before meeting her eyes, “you said you had lost faith in the Cassadine blood line. That it was weak. Impotent. You promised me if I helped you get your revenge on the Spencers and Elizabeth Webber, that you would make sure I inherited everything.”

Helena sat back in her chair, arched a brow imperiously. “And you doubt my word?”

“It’s been five years since you started this, Mother,” he said, dryly. “Since you promised that Nikolas would be the first casualty, I suppose I’m wondering—” He leaned forward. “Just how stupid do you think I am?”

“You doubted Nikolas’s loyalty. I have as well,” Helena admitted, “but you must admit that in recent days, he’s proven himself to be capable of great cruelty. Why—” She gestured at the latest tabloid reports from Port Charles. “He’s drawn Elizabeth in beautifully, telling her the truth about Jason Morgan, convincing her to keep the secret, having Hayden Barnes shot in the head—fifteen years ago, he could barely bring himself to bruise Elizabeth Webber. And now he’s leading her personal torment.”

Valentin rubbed his bottom lip. “So you no longer need me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Helena said, with a shake of her head. “Nikolas still has a moral compass. There’s no telling when his mother’s weak blood will show. He might think he’s the Dark Cassadine Prince I’ve always wanted, but I know better. No, he’ll fail me eventually. He always does.”

“Then what is the point in waiting—”

“I intend to finish my revenge,” Helena said coolly. “I’ve already laid the hints for Luke and Lucky. I imagine they’ll be visiting me in a matter of weeks. Little Jake will be home by the end of summer. Elizabeth will be tormented in keeping the secret, but she’ll break. And she’ll despise Nikolas for doing this to her. For telling her the truth. He’ll lose her. And then the Chimera—” Helena tapped a pen. “Dear Valentin, will it not be glorious to break Nikolas before little Jake Webber kills them all?”

“You intend him to be in the room when you trigger the Chimera,” Valentin said. He sat back. “That’s…unexpected.”

“I always said that once my revenge was complete, I would turn over the reins to you,” Helena said with a smile. “My son. My legacy.”

“I wish that I could believe you.” Valentin rose gracefully to his feet and adjusted the line of his suit jacket. “But, alas, Mother, I know something that you don’t think I do.”

Helena smiled at him. “And what is it that?”

“That Nikolas and his son are not the last Cassadines left.” Valentin met his mother’s eyes.

Helena’s smile didn’t change, but she tilted her head. “One should always have a back up plan, Valentin.”

“Cross me on this, Mother,” Valentin said, “and you’ll regret it.”

“We’ll see.”

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Greystone: Kitchen

Jason poured himself a cup of black coffee, then went over to the table and sat down. He stared at the dark liquid.

It was the first cup of Corinthos & Morgan coffee he’d had in—well, apparently, years—but for Jason, it only felt like six months.

He used to drink this coffee three times a day every day. He had since the day they’d delivered the first shipment to Kelly’s—the same place where Sonny had sat down at a table shortly after he’d returned to Port Charles more than twenty years ago and asked Jason to go into the coffee importing business as a new front.

“It’s not poisoned,” Carly said. He looked up to find her watching him. She flashed him a beaming smile. “I just love seeing you here. I woke up this morning, and I thought it was a dream, but then I went past the guest room, and the door was opened—and the bed had been used—” She took a deep breath. “You’re here. And you’re you.”

“I am.” Jason lifted the cup to his lips and took his first sip. The hot, bitter liquid slid down his throat, and for just a minute—

For a single minute, he could close his eyes and pretend that none of this had happened, and he was drinking his coffee to start the day.

“So, where do we start?” Carly said. She sat down with a glass of orange juice. “I thought I’d go over and help you with Sam. She probably just—she was shocked, Jason. And she’ll come around—”

“Don’t—” Jason put up a hand. “Don’t do that, okay?” Carly blinked at him. “Sam went home with—with the other guy, okay? She made her decision—”

“But Danny is your son—”

And that was something else he couldn’t quite wrap his mind around. He’d spent Sam’s entire pregnancy struggling with the idea of being a father again. Of bringing a life into the world when Jake wasn’t there anymore. Danny wasn’t supposed to be his, and knowing that fact—knowing that the tests had shown differently—

Jason couldn’t make it work in his head—and maybe he wouldn’t be able to until he talked to Sam about it. If she’d ever let him get that far. He’d recognized that look in her eye the night before. She’d just dig in her heels if he pushed her now.

“Carly—”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m pushing, I know—” Carly closed her eyes. “I’m just—I want to help. I want to make things okay for you. Getting your life back—I want that for you.”

“I know.”

“All right—” Sonny strolled in, cell phone in hand. “I’ve got someone for you,” he told Jason. “Spinelli—”

“If this is some sort of twisted, sick joke,” Damien Spinelli began, his familiar tones echoing in the kitchen—

“Look for yourself—” Sonny turned the phone, and Jason was suddenly face to face with the hacker he’d taken under his wing more than a decade ago. Spinelli’s eyes blanked for a moment, and he closed his mouth.

“Stone Cold,” he said softly. “Is that really you?”

“That depends,” Jason said roughly, moved by the emotion he saw sweeping over his friend’s face, even three thousand miles away in Portland, Oregon. “Are you still the Jackal?”

Spinelli’s face creased into a vibrant grin. “Until my dying day! Stone Cold! What happened? Where were you? Who’s the other guy?”

“We were hoping you might come and help us find that out,” Sonny said, sliding onto the bench next to Carly, leaning across the table. “You interested in joining the team?”

“I am in,” Spinelli declared. “Sign me up for service, Mr. Sir.” He saluted. “Shoot me over anything you want me to work on — it might take a few days to get to Port Charles. Did Mr. Sir tell you about my Georgie?”

“He did. Congratulations,” Jason said. “I don’t want you to spend too much time away from her—”

“Never, never. The Maximista and I were just talking about making some changes, so I was gonna be heading that way sooner or later. Give me—” he squinted. “A few days, and I’ll be back. Stone Cold and the Jackal, reunited at last!”

With Spinelli on board, Jason hung up the call and slid the phone across the table. “I thought I’d head over to the safe house,” he told Sonny. “Early, I mean. Thanks for asking me over last night, but—”

“What? What’s this? You can’t leave,” Carly said. “No, Sonny. Tell him, he needs to be around family—”

“I—” Sonny hesitated. “I don’t know, Jason. I thought we were talking about keeping the safe house on the down low. Using it for meetings—”

“And that made sense last night,” Jason said, “but I woke up this morning and realized that everyone is going to be asking the same questions we are—”

“But Elizabeth—”

Carly clenched her teeth. “What does she have to do with this? What?  Did you give her the damn house? Does she want you to pay rent?”

Jason frowned at her. “No. It’s my house. I bought it and buried the deed with holding companies tied to the warehouse.”

“I remember that now. Diane signed some paperwork for transfer,” Sonny said. “Carly, don’t start—”

“‘I’m not starting. I just don’t know why she has to be involved in any of this—”

“Jason was shot by Cesar Faison,” Sonny reminded her. “And Faison was involved in—what do we call him? Other Jason?”

“Fine, Faison was involved—”

“So were the Cassadines,” Sonny continued. “Helena and Victor were part of his kidnapping, and they must have been involved with what happened to Jason. Valentin sent Ava to the same clinic where Jason was being held—”

“Ava?” Carly said. Her eyes lit with fury. “That bitch was part of this? I’ll ruin her this time! I won’t let her live—”

“She saved my life and helped me escape,” Jason said flatly. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her. I didn’t know who she was, and I don’t know what your problem with her is, and right now, I’m not interested.” He got to his feet. “I’m heading over, Sonny. I’ll see you later.”

“Get one of the guards to set you up with an SUV, ” Sonny said. “I’ll call you when I’m on my way over.”

“Fine.”

“Wait, Jason—”

But Jason wasn’t interested—he left the room, taking his coffee mug with him. Carly grimaced, then looked back at her husband. “What did I do?”

“Uh, well, you attacked Elizabeth for no reason, and then you put his back up about Ava. Look, at some point, we’ll tell him why Ava can’t be trusted. We will,” he repeated when she scoffed. “But if he’s right—if she really didn’t know who he was and helped him come home—God, Carly, let’s just sit with that for a minute and be grateful.”

“She is the reason Morgan is dead,” Carly spat out. “I will never—”

“Julian and Olivia Jerome are the reason Morgan is dead. Ava loaded the gun, but they pulled the trigger.” Sonny closed his eyes. “Carly—”

“Fine. Fine. I still don’t—”

“You know, I didn’t even want you to go to this thing later,” Sonny said, losing his patience. He got to his feet and went over to the coffee pot. “I wanted to leave you out of it.”

Blindsided by that, Carly stared at her husband’s back, tears stinging her eyes. “What? Why?”

“Because I knew you’d do this. I knew you’d make it about you. About who you hate. About what you think Jason should do. And there’s no room in this for any of that. Not when we don’t know what we’re dealing with.”

Carly opened her mouth but found it difficult to force words out. “But Jason said no. He had my back—”

“It never got that far. Elizabeth wouldn’t hear of leaving you out.”

Her cheeks heated, and rage boiled in her veins. “Oh, so she gets a say?”

“No,” Sonny retorted, turning back to Carly. “I asked her to help because she knows the Cassadines, and with this all happening so close to the Chimera—it seemed wrong to leave her out. And she said you should be there because no one knows how to scheme like you. So remember when you’re bitching, crying, and moaning—Elizabeth had your back. Sam went home with the other guy, and Elizabeth’s here, trying to get to the bottom of things. Don’t be stupid about this, Carly.”

Don’t be stupid about this.

Stupid.

Carly rose to her feet. “Thank you for the invitation,” she said coolly. “And tell Elizabeth I appreciate the support, but I wouldn’t want to distract you with my schemes and selfishness.”

“Carly, don’t—”

“No, I heard you. Loud and clear.” Some things would never, ever change, and she couldn’t take one more hit today. “I have things to do at the hotel.”

Webber House: Kitchen

Felix set the tray down on the kitchen island. “Hot chocolate for you,” he said to Elizabeth. “Chocolate milk for both our young Mr. Webbers—” He handed the drinks to Aiden and Jake, “and, uh, black coffee for Cameron—” He squinted at the tallest Webber son. “When did this start?”

“When I started AP Biology,” Cameron muttered, taking the cup from his mother’s friend and reaching for a donut from the box. “Thanks. I need to go up and get back to my homework—”

“Uh huh—” Felix turned back to Elizabeth with her face set grimly. “Did I miss something? The Webber boys seem quiet this morning,” he said after Jake and Aiden had left the room and gone to play video games. “Jake handling this okay?”

“I’m not sure it’s sinking in for him yet,” Elizabeth said slowly, “because he got distracted by what happened last night.” She picked up her drink and went over to the kitchen table, waiting for Felix to follow. “You probably saw all the videos—”

“I never saw the Port Charles social media community having so much fun—there’s a really great one where the new guy drags Franco—” Felix stopped and coughed. “Not important. Uh, where is Prince Charming?”

“Rotting in hell,” Elizabeth muttered. She sipped her hot chocolate as Felix merely lifted his brows. “He came in while the boys were watching the video. He demanded the iPad, Cameron refused, and—” Her stomach twisted. “He tried to take it. He grabbed Cam by the shirt, and I know there was shoving—”

“Oh, hell, no. He did not put his hands on my Cameron. Uh uh. I will not have it.” Felix clenched his jaw. “Where did you put the body?”

“I got home just as he grabbed his shirt—I got him out of the house,” Elizabeth said finally. She took the top off the hot chocolate and reached for a spoon to stir the rapidly melting whipped cream into the liquid.

“Elizabeth.”

She blinked, then looked up at him. “Cameron refused to go upstairs. He wouldn’t leave me alone with Franco.” She told him about the bat and the gun.  “And when I called Sonny and Michael to help me with changing the security—he came down to thank them. Like he was the adult—Oh, God, what have I done to my little boy? How could I have forced him to grow up so fast?” She pressed a hand to his face. “I was sixteen when I stopped being a child,” she murmured. “I wanted more for him. I wanted him to be innocent for so much longer.”

“The world doesn’t always let babies stay babies as long as they should,” Felix told her. “Cameron loves you. He’d never blame you—”

“Well, he should,” Elizabeth said. “Because if it wasn’t for me, his life would be better. I brought Jake Doe into this house, and then tried to hold him here with a lie. And because of that, I destroyed my entire life. I wasn’t the only one that took that hit, Felix. You know that.” Her mouth thinned. “And then I brought Franco into this house. Franco. I put him in this house with my children.”

“You made a mistake—”

“How many more mistakes do I get?” Elizabeth demanded. “I got Jake back. That was a goddamn miracle. I’m not going to get any more of those. I keep saying my children come first, but have I really been doing that? No. I’ve been thinking about myself.”

Felix sipped his latte. “You done with your pity party?”

She scowled. “Felix—”

“You made a mistake. A few of them,” he added when she made a face. “You’re not perfect which is why we’re friends. Perfect is boring. Let me remind you that right about the time Franco fucking Baldwin slithered his way into your life, you were dealing with Jake almost dying again, that worthless trash whore Sam blowing up your house, Sabrina died, Hayden turned out to be your sister, and Tom Baker got out of jail.  You were low, baby. And he’s a bottom feeder.”

She closed her eyes. “I know. I know. He always said I never would have looked at him if it hadn’t been for that lie.”

“Not just the lie. You’re stronger than that. The lie, the whole world finding out when it was none of their damn business,” Felix retorted. “That was between you and—well, apparently the guy who we don’t think is Jason?”

“He’s not Jason. He might be Oscar Nero’s biological father,” Elizabeth said. “Don’t ask. I’ll explain that part later.” She scrubbed the side of her head. “And then after Tom Baker, Jake was struggling again.”

“Exactly. Jake went through all of that, and your grandmother died—Elizabeth, the world has been slapping you around for years. You tried to be happy. You looked for love. You went down some dark ass alleys,” he added and she laughed. “But you just wanted to be loved. That’s human. You know it. The second you realized your boys were in danger, you stepped up to the bat. Literally.”

“If Cameron had gone upstairs, I would have pulled the trigger. I wish I had. Because then he’d be dead, and I’d just call Sonny to get rid of the body. He’d do it for me.” Elizabeth rubbed her chest. “How do I accept that it’s in me to feel that way? A week ago, Franco was someone I thought I was in love with, and now I can’t even fathom looking at him again without tearing his eyes out.”

“Well, to be honest, that doesn’t surprise me. You’re loyal to a fault until someone comes for your babies. And then you destroy them. That’s just right. Plus—” Felix wiggled his brows. “You know, a girl that hooks up with a hit man like Jason Morgan—you gotta have a little bit of a ruthless streak in ya.”

“Enforcer,” Elizabeth corrected without thinking, then locked eyes with Felix for a minute before they burst out laughing. “How do you do that? Make me feel better?”

“Because I know you. And I love you. You always do your best. Some days, you get it wrong. Last night, you got it right.” He picked up his latte. “So, speaking of the famed enforcer with the double—how are we feeling about that? What’s the deal? Which one is which?”

“The guy who tried to choke Franco is Jason. I know it,” Elizabeth said. “And the other guy—like I said, we think he might be this other guy, Drew Cain. How it all fits together? I don’t know. Sonny asked me to come over and help because of the Cassadine connection.”

“Well, at least you’ll have something to distract yourself from all of this—” Felix leaned back in his chair. “How did you know it was him?”

“I could tell you I knew as soon as he wrapped his hand around Franco’s throat, or when I saw his face—or at the PCPD, the other guy—I’m going to call him Drew because otherwise my brain will explode—he grabbed my shoulders, and Jason almost came forward to stop him.”

“But it wasn’t those moments?”

“It all added up,” Elizabeth said, “but I was still—I was ninety-nine point nine nine percent convinced, but I’ve been through a lot in Port Charles, and you never rule anything out. Then—” She stared down at her hot chocolate. “He said my name.”

“Oh.” Felix put his hand on his chin. “This sounds like a story.”

“It’s not. It’s just—I didn’t even realize it until I heard him say it, but no one else says it the way he does. Lucky always sounded like he was whining or yelling at me,” she said with a wince, “but—anyway. I’m not sure what’s going to happen with any of that. Or how involved I’ll be with the search. Sonny doesn’t really let people in, and Jason usually follows his lead. Right now, they need me because they need Cassadine information, and Laura doesn’t like Sonny.”

“Laura always did had have good taste.”

“The thing is—and this is so stupid—we’re meeting at this safe house later. A safe house that no one else knows about because Jason bought it in my old neighborhood so I could have a place to go if anything happened and he couldn’t get to me.” She paused. “The safe house he wanted me to go nine years ago when Jake got kidnapped by the Russians, but I didn’t listen to him. I went with Sam and Lucky, and Jake got kidnapped. I had to kill a man, and Jason ended up deciding it was too dangerous to be together so we broke up.”

“Oh, man, one day, we’re gonna sit down with some wine, and I’m getting the whole Jason and Elizabeth saga, but let’s go back to this. You been to this safe house before?” Felix asked.

“Once.” Elizabeth exhaled. “Right before Kate Howard was shot, Jason and I were supposed to go to Italy. We’d always dreamed about it, and it was finally going to be our chance. He brought me to the house one day when Lucky had the boys. We spent hours there.”

Felix sighed. “Oh, man.”

“It was the last time we were able to spend the whole day together,” she murmured. “The last really good day before it all fell apart. And it’s so stupid to think it matters now. It doesn’t. It was a lifetime ago. He probably doesn’t even remember.”

“No? He remembered the house. He picked it because he thought it was safe, didn’t he? Because only you and him, and probably Sonny knew about it. And hey, you don’t get to call yourself stupid. Not in front of me.”

“Thanks.” She met his eyes. “I mean it, Felix. I love you.”

“I love you, too, girl, but I wasn’t kidding about that story. It sounds like a good one.”

Morgan Penthouse: Kitchen

“You okay?”

Jason glanced up from his cup of coffee to see his wife entering the kitchen, their daughter perched on her hip. “What?”

“You’re staring into your coffee like it has all the answers,” Sam said. She furrowed her brow. “Jason, it’s going to be okay. Whatever’s going on—we’ll get to the bottom of it. We’ll make sure everyone knows who you are and if this guy—” She closed her eyes. “If he’s your twin, we’ll handle it.”

“I know.” He hesitated. “Last night, when he talked about waking up after the accident—when he talked about being arrested—he sounded convincing.”

“So?” Sam shrugged. She put Scout into her high chair, then crossed over to the cabinet to take down a container of cereal bits. “Take it from a former con artist—you can sound convincing if you believe your own bullshit. And maybe he’s been brainwashed, or his head’s been screwed with like yours, you know? Maybe he believes it.”

“And you don’t.”

Sam paused, her back to him, her hand stretched up, touching the container of formula. She exhaled slowly, put it on the counter, and turned to face him. “I told you I didn’t.”

“I know.” Jason leaned against the fridge. “But you were the only one in the room who didn’t. I think even Franco thinks the other guy is me.”

“Well, that’s because he’s been expecting you to kill him since the day those DNA tests came back,” Sam said. “Of course Sonny, Carly, and Elizabeth took this other guy’s side. You’re pushing them away. They refuse to believe you’d do that.”

He wanted to believe her. She looked like she was telling the truth—

But as she’d just reminded him, she was a former con artist who’d made a living convincing people to believe bullshit.

“When I checked my phone this morning,” Jason said, “I had requests for interviews—this is everywhere.”

“I know, it’s all over social media. My mom left me a message, asking me what we want to do.” She hesitated. “Jason, if Elizabeth is on this other’s guy’s side and it’s everywhere—you know that Jake probably knows about this by now.”

“Yeah, that thought occurred to me.”

“She might have already told him you’re not Jason.”

Would Elizabeth have done that? Maybe. Maybe if she was really convinced— “If she has,” he said carefully, “I’d like to think she’d tell him it wasn’t confirmed. That she might be leaning one way—”

“Do you really think she’s going to be that fair?” Sam demanded. “She’s never wanted Jake around me. You know that. She didn’t even give you custody in her will. The boys were supposed to go Audrey. God knows who they go to now—”

Jason made a face. “She wanted them to stay together—she explained that—”

“Bullshit. We’d take them all if we had to,” Sam retorted. “She didn’t want Jake around me. So, of course, she’s going to take the side of the guy who isn’t with me. If you and I weren’t together, who knows what she would have done.”

There was a logic to Sam’s words, but Jason couldn’t quite bring himself to believe Elizabeth was that cold-blooded. “Sam—”

“Anyway, it’s useless to think about what Elizabeth does with Jake right now. But when the truth comes out,” Sam said, “and you’re proven to be Jason, I think we need to revisit custody. It’s not fair that she gets total control, and you have to ask—”

“I don’t have to ask—” Jason’s mouth tightened. “Jake’s been through a lot this year. He needed stability and his brothers. He’s in therapy, and I see my son whenever I want. She’s never kept him from me. We’re not revisiting custody because Elizabeth believes this other guy. That was last night. Maybe she’s thinking differently this morning. We don’t even know if she’s talked to Jake. I mean, damn it, Sam, you didn’t have a single moment of doubt?”

She lifted her chin. “No—”

“I don’t believe you. He has my face, my voice, and enough knowledge of my life to sound like me. Hell, even I doubted who I was.”

“Jason—”

“Just tell me the truth,” he pressed.

She handed the bottle she’d made to Scout and shook her head. “No, I won’t admit to something that didn’t happen because you want to feel better. I know who you are. You are my husband, the father of my children, and the man I love.”

She didn’t add that she knew he was Jason Morgan, but he didn’t press her on it. He didn’t want to argue about this anymore.

When he said nothing, Sam lifted Scout into her arms. “I’m going to get the kids ready and head over to my mother’s. I want her to start putting together a statement or something. Not that we’ll issue it,” she added, “not unless you want to, but Mom wants to get ahead of things.”

“Fine.”

Sam left the kitchen, and Jason went back to his coffee. It was warm, bordering on chilled, and he scowled. He shoved it into the microwave to heat it up. He heard a knock on the door and Sam’s voice.

A few minutes later, Curtis Ashford strolled into the kitchen. “Hey, man. How’s your morning?”

Jason snorted. “Not as good as yesterday morning,” he muttered. He nodded at the coffee pot. “You want any?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Curtis squinted. “So, uh, Jordan thought it might be better if I stopped by to talk to you about setting up DNA tests or whatever. A friendly face. She’s calling the, um, other guy.”

“Okay.” Jason took a deep breath. “Okay. What’s the plan?”

“She says she wants to get the fingerprints, but the PCPD physical archives are a goddamn mess. Apparently, when they moved into the new building back in ’03 after that fire, they didn’t really worry about getting the physical records organized. It might take a few days to find the fingerprints file from that ’96 arrest. So she’s moving forward with at least establishing you and the other guy are related.”

“We probably are,” Jason admitted. He sat down at the table, gestured for Curtis to sit down. “Did Jordan tell you about the Heather Webber twin story?”

“Sort of. Heather is Franco’s mother? Where the crazy comes from?”

“Hard to say where his brand of insanity comes from,” Jason muttered. “And technically, Franco and I are related. We’re cousins. Heather was pregnant at the same time my biological mother, Susan Moore, was. Susan had me first, and then Heather had Franco. She left Franco with Betsy Frank, and then—”  Jason squinted. “She ended up not being able to go back, or Betsy disappeared with the kid. I can’t remember now. She’s also Steven Webber’s mother. Elizabeth’s half-brother.”

“Oh, man, this lady gets around.”

“She does.” Jason drank his coffee. “Anyway, when we thought Franco was dead back in 2012, Heather told Sam that he was actually my twin brother. That Susan Moore had twins, and Heather gave one of us to Betsy.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s insane? Who knows. That was the situation when I went into the water later that October. By the time I was back and found out who I was in 2015,” Jason continued, “Franco was back, exonerated of all charges and accountability, and was established as the son of Heather and Scott Baldwin—who, by the way, was married to Susan Moore at the time she was murdered. I just figured the twin story was a lie or that everyone had sorted it all out when I wasn’t around.”

“Then this guy shows up with your face, voice, and your life story saying he’s you,” Curtis said. “Which means the twin story doesn’t sound insane anymore.”

“No. It doesn’t. A DNA test is just going to prove that.”

“Well, that’s something to start with anyway. Jordan is arranging it with the hospital and also an outside lab,” he added, “in case you’re worried about tampering. Jordan also wants to do advanced DNA testing on Danny and Jake—it’ll give us paternity—”

“No.” Jason shook his head. “Not Danny. He’s—he’s afraid of needles and doctors after the cancer treatments. And I can’t—” He paused. “I don’t know if Elizabeth will want Jake to go through it after he was in the hospital for the accident and the Chimera—”

“Jordan is contacting her today. I get it, man. I do. No one wants to drag the kids into this, and I wish like hell there was another way, but those DNA tests come back fast these days. We can probably get a turn around by Wednesday. Don’t you want this over?”

“I do,” Jason said. “But not at the expense of my kids. Danny’s been through enough. And I don’t want Jake to know about this—”

“Jason—”

“But I’m sure he already does,” Jason said with a sigh. “It’s all over social media, and I know Cam was watching them last night. I think Joss was supposed to be over there. They know. So, look, he’s ten. If he’s okay with it, and Elizabeth is okay with it—fine.”

Webber Home: Cameron’s Bedroom

Cameron was hunched over his desk, grimacing at his notes on cellular respiration, wishing he could draw like his brother or mother. Every time he tried to draw a cell in his notebook, it looked like insanely stupid squiggles. His childhood talent for origami hadn’t translated well to pencil and paper.

His phone lit up with a text from Emma Scorpio-Drake, and he stared at it for a moment. He’d avoided talking to Joss, Oscar, or Trina that morning. He didn’t know what to say to them. They didn’t know about the scene at his house last night, and Cameron didn’t really want to get into it.

He didn’t even know how he felt about it. He’d been terrified for himself, for his brothers—then for his mother. It had worked out, but he’d had a nightmare last night that she hadn’t made it to the safe, that Franco had taken that bat and—

He squeezed his eyes shut, exhaled carefully. It didn’t happen. She was okay, and Franco was gone. His mom knew she’d been wrong, that she’d made a mistake, and that was what mattered.

Cameron picked up the phone and read Emma’s text.

hey u. mom is freaking out, dad says ur mom isnt calling him. call me. im worried.

Maybe he could tell Emma. She was three thousand miles away in Berkeley — and she wasn’t that close to Joss. She didn’t know Oscar, and if he asked her not to say anything to Trina, she’d listen.

“You actually called!” she said with a beaming smile as their Facetime call connected. “What’s going on? What’s the deal? Why isn’t your mom taking Dad’s calls? You know he worries—”

“Uh—” Cameron pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t know where to start, Em. I guess maybe with the easy stuff. Mom is convinced the new guy is Jason, but you know, there was that Jake Doe stuff, so who knows. She’s gonna help figure things out. Um, there was some other stuff that happened last night. With Franco. That’s probably why she didn’t call your dad back.”

“We watched the videos. Dad enjoyed them, but Mom was worried about your mom and all of that.” Emma hesitated. “What happened?”

“There was…an incident,” Cameron said. “He came back while we were watching it, and Mom wasn’t here. We sort of—um, we got into it, and I don’t know—it was—Mom stopped it—”

“Stopped what?” Her voice sharpened. “Cameron.”

“He wanted the iPad to see the video—but I thought—if he sees the video, it’ll make it worse, and it’s just me and the kids. I don’t know if I can get them out of here or if they’re okay enough to run if I tell them to go—so I just—I stalled. I tried to keep it from him—but he pushed me, and we shoved each other—then he grabbed my shirt—” Cameron leaned back in his chair. “I’m okay, Em. My mom came back. You know that bat she keeps in the umbrella stand.”

“Yeah. Did she bash his brains in?”

“No, but she kept him off guard and got to the safe where she keeps a gun. Jason got it for her back when they were dating, and she got Franco to leave. I’m fine.”

“You keep saying that, but it’s not true. How can you be fine? An evil serial killer that your mother was dating went after you last night, and your mom had to threaten to shoot him. Like, it’s okay to be messed up about it, Cam.”

“I can’t—there’s no time for that,” Cameron said. “Okay? There’s all this crap happening with this Jason stuff. If this guy is Jason, then the other guy isn’t. Jake needs to handle that, so I need to be there. And Aiden’s going through crap with Charlotte, so I gotta handle that. And this other guy might be Oscar’s dad, so I gotta keep Joss under control with that because you know how she is—”

“Cameron.”

“And if I don’t keep it together, Mom will just feel worse, and I don’t want her to feel bad—”

“She should,” Emma snapped. “She’s the one who brought him home. Like, come on, Cam, you know I love Aunt Elizabeth, but she made this happen—”

“No, you don’t get it! You haven’t been here! You don’t know!” Cameron scowled. “It’s easy for you to say that crap. You’re off in California without a damn problem—”

“That’s not fair—”

“You don’t know what my mom’s been dealing with, okay? She needs me to be okay with this—”

“What about what you need, Cam?”

“What I need,” he said, carefully, “is for my family to be okay. If Jake, Aiden, and Mom are okay, I’ll be fine. I know you’re worried about me, but you don’t have to be. Mom handled it. She took my side, she didn’t even let him try to explain except to distract him—and she kicked him right out and got the security changed. It’d be worse if she were thinking about giving him another chance. It’s over. She made it over.”

“Franco might be gone, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. Cameron, please—did you tell Joss or Trina? Tell me you called Trina.”

“No. And I’m not going to. It’s done, Em. We’re moving onto the next crisis.”

“Okay,” Emma said slowly, but he could see she didn’t really believe him. It was more like she was dropping it because she knew she wouldn’t win. “So the next crisis is the Jason stuff.”

“Yeah, Mom thinks the Cassadines are back up to their crap, and she’s worried about Jake. This is too close to all that Nurse’s Ball stuff, you know? To what happened to Jake.”

“When will they know which one is which?”

“Don’t know. Sometime this week, I think. Mom didn’t really get into it.”

“Keep me in the loop, Cam. About it all. And if you need to talk to anyone, I’m always here.”

“I know. I’ll see you later.”

“See you later.”

Safe House: Front Porch

He hadn’t thought much about the house other than the fact it was there, and that almost no one would know about it. He knew it would establish some sort of credibility with Sonny, give him a leg to stand on if Sonny hadn’t believed him.

Jason hadn’t thought about why he’d bought the safe house or the last time he’d been there. Not until Elizabeth’s car pulled up at the curb and she stepped up to the front walk, stopping just before the steps that led up to the porch, and just stared at the house.

Then he did remember. He’d found this house and brought Elizabeth here so they could start making decisions about security together.

He wondered if she’d ever made it to Italy.

Jason pushed open the front door and stepped out to greet her. “Uh, hey.”

“Hey.”  Elizabeth exhaled slowly, staring at him as he came down the steps to stand next to her on the walk and she continued to stare at him. “I’m sorry. I think—I think maybe I had let myself think that I was wrong. Or that I hadn’t—I don’t know.” She put her hands into the pockets of her coat. “But you’re standing in front of me, and it’s so clearly you—God—” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” he asked, frowning slightly. He gestured for her to go up the stairs, but she didn’t move. “Elizabeth—”

“I don’t know. For not knowing you were out there? For not seeing that he wasn’t you? For thinking he was for a minute?” She bit her lip. “For a thousand things, maybe.”

“I don’t blame any of you—”

“You should,” she insisted. “You should blame us for not knowing and for not coming to find you, okay? Because I blame me. And I’m sure Sonny does.” She shook her head. “Never mind. Never mind. That’s not important. Um, I know I’m early. Sonny said we were meeting around one, but—”

“It’s fine. I wanted to talk to you about Jake. I want to know everything. How he came home, how is he, what’s his favorite color—” Every minute of every day of Jake’s life since he’d been home if that was even possible.

“Yeah. Yeah, anything. All of it. I could talk about him for hours, but there’s—” She took a breath. “We should go in, I guess.” She turned back to look at the house. “You kept the house.”

“I—I didn’t think about it,” he admitted as she finally went upstairs, following him to the front door, and over the threshold. “It’s not even in my name, but in one of the holding companies for the warehouse. And since we never—”

He almost said, We never used it, but then she turned to look at him, standing just behind the sofa, looking nearly as she had nine years earlier when she’d stood in this room and they’d talked about what life would be like when they came home from Italy. She’d begged him to let her in, and he’d promised things would be different. Just another of his broken promises.

And then they’d gone upstairs.

They had definitely used the house that day.

“It’s fine. It’s weird,” Elizabeth admitted, “but it’s fine.” She stripped off her coat and tossed it over the back of the sofa. “Um, look, that aside, I don’t want to put anything on your plate that you need to worry about. You’ve got so much going on, and I want to help. I am going to help as much you and Sonny let me—” she added, “which I know won’t be much.  But, first, something happened last night that you need to know about because it concerns Jake, and I want you to be part of his life.”

“Okay.” He put his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “What’s up?”

“God, I hate this,” she muttered. “You just came home, and there’s all this other stuff, and here I am dumping more on you—”

“Elizabeth.”

She stopped and focused on him, their eyes meeting. He held her gaze for a moment before speaking again. “Sonny reminded me last night that it’s been five years since I went off that pier. It doesn’t feel that way to me. It barely feels like six months, even though I’ve been awake at least that long. I know there’s a lot I don’t know. I appreciate that no one wants to push too much at me, but if there’s something bothering you—if something is wrong with Jake—I want to know.” He paused. “I need to know.”

“Right. Well—long story short—I was dating Franco. He was living with me, and he got into a fight last night with Cameron in front of the boys. A physical fight,” Elizabeth added as Jason’s body tensed. “I got home just before—I don’t know. I grabbed a bat, distracted him long enough to get to a gun, and Franco left. But Jake and Aiden—they were there for part of it, they heard me fire a warning shot—then Sonny and Michael came over to change the security.”

“I—” Jason stared at her. Whatever he’d been expecting her to say, it wasn’t that. “Franco went after Cameron.”

“The fight at the Metro Court—it’s all over the internet, and Cameron—they were watching it. I guess Franco tried to take the tablet from him, and Cam didn’t give it to him—it’s—I’m not making excuses, okay, don’t—” she began when Jason narrowed his eyes. “It’s not like it was with Lucky. Or Ewan,” she muttered. “Or Ric.”

“Okay. Then—”

“If Cameron hadn’t been in the room, if the boys hadn’t been in the house, I would have killed him,” Elizabeth told him. “I promise you that much. And we’re not getting into the insanity of me dating him in the first place—”

“No, but I’d like to come back to that at some point so someone can explain to me why he’s alive, much less why he was in your life. Or Carly’s,” he added. He paused. “I have questions.”

“I know. And I’ll answer them. But for now—I just—this happened in front of Jake. Because of the fight last night, and I’m just—I’m trying—”

“Is Cameron okay?” Jason demanded. “Was he hurt?”

“Oh.” She blinked at him. “No, I don’t—he wasn’t. Not physically. I know he was scared, but he’s not ready to talk about it. He’s going to ignore it and pretend all of us matter more. It’s what he always does. He takes care of his brothers. His first thought was for them, to make sure they were okay. He’s home with them now, trying to keep Jake distracted from all of us this until I can figure out how to talk to him about it.”

She paused. “But no, I don’t think he’s okay. And it’s my fault. I know it’s my fault—”

“I didn’t mean—” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I didn’t mean it to sound like that. I just—it’s hard for me to remember Cameron is fifteen now.”

“I’ve been here every day and it’s hard for me, too. Thank you. For asking about him. It makes me sick that I put him through that. I’ll never forgive myself for it.”

“Elizabeth—”

She shook her head. “Don’t. Don’t say something that makes it okay. Felix tried it, and I know he’s right. I know there’s a lot of things that led to last night, and there’s a lot of reasons I was in that situation, but at the end of the day, I am all Cameron has, and it’s on me to protect him. I didn’t do it.”

He wasn’t going to argue with her about it—he didn’t know the situation, but he knew her. She’d blame herself until she was sick from it. It was almost a relief to know there was something he could focus on that wasn’t the insanity of his situation. Elizabeth’s ability to believe the best in literally everyone except herself would never change.

“You fired a warning shot?” he asked. “Have you been practicing?”

“Actually, no,” Elizabeth said with a hesitant smile. “Not since the last time you took me to the range. I didn’t even know if I’d remember. But I got the bat you gave me back when I got kidnapped—I keep it in the umbrella stand by the door,” she added, “but with the boys in the house, I knew it wouldn’t work.”

“No, the bat is just for you take the guy out at the knees and make a run for it.”

“Exactly, but I remembered how to open the safe.” Her eyes lit up. “You made me do it over and over again, remember? I did it faster than you did, though. It had to be, I guess, or maybe it just felt that way. And then when I shot at his feet—”

“Probably shouldn’t do that,” Jason said with wince. “The bullet could have ricocheted.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh, I didn’t think about that. It’s just in my floor now. Sonny said he’d get someone to come over and help take care of it.”

“I knew he was up to something last night,” Jason muttered. “Taking Michael on security calls. I knew that was bullshit.” He paused. “No more warning shots. Just aim for the chest next time.”

“I’m not planning on there being next time,” Elizabeth said, wrinkling her nose, “so maybe I’ll just focus on making better choices.” She sighed. “That’d be a first.”

“Elizabeth—”

“Never mind. We don’t have a lot of time before Sonny and the others get here, and—” She reached for the bag she’d set on the ground when she came in. “I brought photos of Jake. I thought you might want to see them.”

“Yeah.” Jason nodded, relieved to focus on anything else. “I absolutely do.”

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