Do your memories haunt your dreams
Do they simply seem to have a mind of their own
Tell me what the emptiness brings
When everything you know is everything but gone
Tell me who will save you
– When It’s Over, 3 Doors Down

---

Friday, March 6, 2004

Morgan Penthouse: Nursery

Elizabeth adjusted the mobile over the crib one last time, squinting at it. Was it perfectly centered? Maybe a little more to the left—

“Hey.” Jason’s arm encircled her from behind, and she smiled again as he pulled her against his chest, kissing her cheek. “You should get more rest. Just because I have to go out early—”

“Can’t sleep. Nervous,” she said. “We’ll get to meet him today, and you’ll be able to hold him first,” she added. “Since I’ll be in recovery.”

“Just for a few days,” he reminded her. “I’ll bring pictures—”

“I know. I know it has to be this way, and I’m okay with it. He’ll have you, and that’s important. Plus, at the baby shower, Monica reminded me there are things I’ll be able to do once I’m not pregnant. New medications to manage my blood pressure until the surgery.” She sighed. “I wish I could sleep. I feel like I’m dragging already.”

Jason hesitated. “Maybe I should reschedule. I can talk to Tommy later, and Justus can come here—”

She opened her mouth to argue with him, but then her lungs tightened. She winced, pressing a hand to her chest. He ushered her into their room.

He helped her sit and fit the oxygen mask over her face. She sighed as he handed her the control, and she switched it on. After a few moments, the pressure eased and she could expand her lungs again.

“I should stay home,” Jason said again. “I’ll call Justus—”

She reached out to grab his hand as he turned. “No. No. You need—” Elizabeth shook her head, took a deeper breath, and felt the dizziness clear. “No,” she repeated, tugging him to sit. “We talked about this. I should have done my oxygen therapy when I got out of bed, but I felt fine, so I waited. I know better.”

“Elizabeth—”

“I can’t check in until three—they don’t have a room for me in the ICU until then. And you have a thousand things you need to make sure are done before you come to the hospital. If you don’t do them now, you might have to later.”

“Right.” He sighed, took her hand in his, tracing his fingers over her palm. “And I want to be with you at the hospital. With Cameron.”

“Exactly. He needs one of us in the room as much as possible.” Elizabeth touched his face.

“I’ll wait until Nikolas gets here,” Jason said.

“What if Sonny gets released before you can go, and then you don’t get it done? We don’t know what time he’s getting out. You’ll carry me downstairs,” Elizabeth said. Even though she could mostly handle stairs once a day, today of all days, she wasn’t taking any chances. “You’ll put my bags at the door, and then you’ll go to work. Nikolas said he’d be here by ten.”

“I’ll call someone else—”

“Everyone else is busy,” Elizabeth said patiently. She knew how much Jason hated leaving her alone—especially when she wasn’t feeling well. He’d never forgive himself for leaving that day last summer when she’d nearly died. “Emily is at work. So are Monica and Alan. Your grandmother can’t travel anymore, and your grandfather won’t leave her.”

“And Carly can’t come to the Towers—not today. Bobbie and Lucas are sticking close to home because of Sonny.” He looked deep in thought. “We could have the meeting here—” he said again.

“Not when Sonny is coming home and might run into Justus. Jason—”

“I just—”

“Nikolas is the only option, and with the launch and weather on the lake, he can’t come until ten.”

When he still looked hesitant, she said, ” Cody will come in and sit with me. It’s only for—” She looked at her watch. “Three hours. And if you don’t leave now, you’ll be late to meet Tommy. You know you wanted this meeting before Sonny gets released.” Neither of them wanted to discuss why Jason needed to talk to Tommy about.

“All right,” Jason said reluctantly. He got to his feet and pulled Elizabeth up. “I don’t want to take any chances.”

“We’re not,” Elizabeth told him. “We made it. Our son is going to be born today.”

“I love you,” he murmured as he kissed her.

“I love you, too.”

Joe’s Bar: Alley

Taggert ducked out of the back door of the dive bar a few blocks away from Courtland Street, and scanned the dim alley. The weak winter sunlight offered scant lighting, but he found his quarry near the rusted, green dumpster a few feet away.

“You left me a message.”

There was a scuffle of steps as the tall, dark-skinned officer who had been on duty that day at Dispatch came more into view. “Yeah.”

Taggert arched a brow, spread his hands out at the side. “I’m here. What do you want?”

“I want a transfer,” Murphy said. He lifted his chin. “I need to be better than I have been, and if I do this, there’s nowhere for me to go where I am now.”

“You get me what I need,” Tagger told him, “and I’ll see what I can do. That’ll have to be enough.”

The younger man exhaled slowly, closed his eyes, then nodded. “Okay. Yeah. The day after you came in, O’Rourke gave us a verbal warning. No cooperation with Major Crimes on this case, and that we were to say nothing about the audio.”

“I knew that—”

“I pulled everything,” Murphy interrupted. He shoved his hands into his pockets. “Before he gave the order. And I was on duty when the Code 8 came in.”

“You were on duty,” Taggert repeated, his heartbeat picking up. “Did you take the call from Unit 84?”

“Yes, sir.” Murphy’s eyes found him. “And I put out an all call to surrounding units. Unit 81 responded that they were unable to comply.”

Unit 81 had been two blocks away. Capelli’s guys, on the stakeout. “The electronic record says it was a 10-97.”

“When I came back on duty the next night, before you came in, I pulled the call records  because I figured you’d be there. I wanted to be ready. The record wasn’t what I’d heard or written down. I told O’Rourke and he said he’d gone back to prep the records for you. He said I’d gotten it wrong.” Murphy’s eyes burned into Taggert’s. “Told me that it was his fault for letting a boy like me on the radio.”

A boy. Taggert bristled, knowing the word had not been meant due to Murphy’s age. “You would be willing to make a statement to this?”

“I can do better. I have the calls. The original recordings. I nodded and apologized to O’Rourke, said maybe I needed more training. He seemed satisfied and went on break. And I started to make copies. I can get them to you,” Murphy continued, “but he’ll know it was me.”

“Yeah, he will.”

“I can live with that,” Murphy said. “But I won’t be any better off than Falconieri or Spencer if you leave me in Dispatch. I want back on the street—”

“I will talk to the commissioner.” Taggert stepped forward. “It’s Byron, isn’t? That’s your first name?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Men like O’Rourke, like Capelli—they make this job harder for you and me. For my team,” Taggert added. “We need to stop them. Capelli isn’t going to be the only head that rolls. You get me what I need, and I promise you, I will take care of you.”

Kelly’s: Dining Room

Olivia stirred sugar into her coffee, keeping her eyes on the doorway to the upstairs. “Maybe I should just camp here.”

“He’ll just go out the window.” Lois reached across the table and put a hand over Olivia’s. “I know you’re still worried, but maybe you shouldn’t be. Dante’s always had a good head on his shoulders.”

“I know.” Olivia bit her lip. “But I still—he’s hurting so bad and not coming out—I know he says it’s about the press—but whenever he starts going around again, they’ll still be there—” She sighed. “And he’s a grown man who doesn’t need his mother nipping at his feet, trying to take care of him forever. Maybe I should have found a way to stay in Bensonhurst.”

“Where you’ll just be reminded that the only reason this is happening is that your mother told Dante about his father?” Lois challenged. “You stayed in Port Charles to stick close to Dante. You were worried this might happen—”

“I should have told him when he decided to take the job at the PCPD,” Olivia fretted. “I should have known. But I thought—well, it was just me and Frankie and Ma who knew. And we’d never tell no one. Sonny stopped thinking about me even before I left to have the baby.” She growled. “I’m glad Connie stomped all over his heart. Asshole.”

“And I suspected who his daddy was his whole life and never said a thing, Liv. I should have, but I wanted to protect him, too.” Lois exhaled slowly. “You have all that mama bear energy, and it needs to go somewhere. I know. I—” She stared down at her barely touched breakfast. “When we were working on the hearing and Elizabeth was preparing to testify, I got—I got involved. Too involved, maybe.”

“Lois—”

“She’s just a little older than my baby, you know? And she put herself through so much to make sure Brooke got justice. She put herself on the line, made Vinnie go after her again.” She sighed. “Ned had to pull me back, had to remind me that Elizabeth isn’t my daughter. It’s hard, Liv, knowing that I’ll never be a mother again. I messed up my chance to protect my baby. I’m just glad Elizabeth didn’t realize how attached I was—”

“She probably didn’t mind,” Olivia told her. “Her own ma’s not around, is she? Why not you?”

“Because she doesn’t know me. And I don’t really know her. All we share is this terrible trauma. I will never look at her and not think of my daughter, and she’ll never look at me and never not think of Vinnie and Brooke. But I’m glad I could be there in whatever way I was, and she was kind to me. I’m just saying — you’re like me. We’re overprotective and smothering. Don’t try to run from that part of you, Liv. I did—last summer, when I sent Brooke away, I did it because I knew if I kept trying to control her, I’d lose her.”

Her eyes burned. “But I lost her anyway. If I’d let her stay—she’d still be here.”

Olivia opened her mouth, then scowled when the bell jangled over the door, and Anna Devane came in. “How dare she—” She jerked out of her seat.

“Liv—”

“You gotta lot of nerve showing up here,” she spat at Anna, who blinked at her. “What, you coming to make Dante feel guilty about leaving? You should be crawling on your knees—you’ve had months to clean up that department, and you’ve done nothing! It instead, you put my boy in danger and—”

“I came,” Anna said, in her quiet, unbothered voice, “for some tea and breakfast. Just like you.” She paused. “I’m very sorry—”

“You should be. This whole town should be. You got Brooke killed, and you’ve ruined my baby—”

“Liv, Anna wasn’t even here,” Lois reminded her, coming up and putting a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Last summer, that wasn’t her.”

“It was the people she works for. It was her department. Her detectives that butchered the case and didn’t—”

“And it was your nephew who attacked her,” Anna reminded her, “but I don’t hold you responsible for that either.”

Olivia’s eyes lit with incandescent rage. “How dare you—”

Lois stepped between the two women before Olivia could do anything that might get her arrested. “Liv, Liv, come on. She’s just pointing out that we can’t blame each other for things that aren’t our fault.”

“I apologize,” Anna said, regret flashing in her eyes. “I do feel responsible for Dante’s resignation. I’m limited by the system, and it moves slowly, if at all. I never wanted Dante or Lucky to get hurt. I promise you, we are working as hard as we can to hold someone accountable for what happened.”

Olivia swallowed hard, fighting for control. “No, I’m sorry. Lois is right. This didn’t happen because of you. It’s just—” Her voice faltered. “My boy wanted to be a cop his whole life, and he’s a damn good one. It hurts to see his dream torn away from him.”

“And it hurts that it was my officers who did it. I will find a way to prove it,” Anna replied. “We need more officers like him in the department. We are much poorer for his loss. You raised a fine son, Ms. Falconieri. I’m only sorry the PCPD wasn’t worthy of him.”

Blue Moon: Tommy’s Office

Tommy scowled, lunging to his feet. “What the hell are you accusing me of?” he demanded. He rounded the desk, but before he could reach Jason, Justus stepped between them.

“You heard me,” Jason said flatly. “Vinnie Esposito was a source for years. What did you cover up to keep him feeding you information?”

“You think I knew about your woman’s attack and let him get away with it—”

“She wasn’t connected to me at the time,” Jason said, his blood already boiling. “You don’t get to hide behind that, Tommy. This was years before Elizabeth and I met—”

“And she was a kid! A baby! You think I’d cover up for an animal going after a girl that way?” Tommy demanded. “Only sixteen—if I’d known it was him, I’d have killed him myself—”

“Sonny told us back in October,” Bernie said, “that you’d cleaned up some messes for Vinnie back before he left town in 2000. And there were one or two under Moreno and Sorel. Sonny said he didn’t press you on it. He was afraid you’d tell him that you’d known about the rapes.”

“Then Sonny is a fucking moron. That’s not how this works. You don’t cover for a man like that, for a crime like that—” Tommy cleared his throat, then sat down. “But Sonny wouldn’t know that. He did worse in his day.”

“Tommy—”

“Everyone knows the shit he pulled when he was running the Paradise. Even Frank knew, and he was in prison.” Tommy snorted. “Sonny was gonna be a liability, and that’s why he went after Frank. Had to take power before someone took it from him.” He focused on Jason. “You know how he is about that. If he thinks he’s under attack, he lashes out. And sometimes he don’t clean up well after himself.”

“We’re not talking about Sonny—”

“No, we’re not.” Tommy paused. “If you know about Vinnie, then you know about the girls. I don’t want to hear any bullshit about it.” He growled. “I took over Sonny’s girls when he moved up and turned over the clubs to me.  It wasn’t part of his image anymore. He wanted people to respect him. Can’t be respected if you run drugs and girls. But he never told me to shut it down, and he’s always known where some of the profits come from.”

“Sonny—” Jason paused. He hadn’t been around when Sonny seized power, and Tommy wasn’t wrong. Sonny was obsessed with self-image and had worked hard to become a certain type of man. He’d known about the Paradise but hadn’t thought much about the man Sonny had been before they met.

Maybe he should have.

“What about drugs—”

“That’s never been my business, and they cause too many problems. That’s where the violence comes from. The drug war,” Tommy added. “But I don’t screw with the Escobars. They’re your source in this town. Sonny told me to let them take Courtland Street. They stay in their area and run their business. They stay out of the schools and away from the waterfront and my clubs. That’s the deal.”

How could Jason have missed all of this? How had he not known about all of this underneath the surface? Sonny had known and deliberately left him in the dark when he’d split town all those years ago.

“Then what did you clean up?” Jason demanded. “Did Vinnie rough up the women working for you?”

“Yeah. Twice.” Tommy scrubbed a hand over his face. “And Vinnie’s the reason we don’t tolerate that bullshit anymore. It kills me, Jason, knowing that I let him get away with pushing some of our whores around and he was out there hurting innocents—”

“How bad did he hurt them?”

“I don’t know,” Tommy admitted. “The first girl just said he slapped her around when she didn’t act fast enough, and the other said he punched her. But maybe they weren’t comfortable telling me the rest. I listened to your girl at the press conference, Jason. I know it’s hard to report, and I doubt they’d tell me all the details.”

“Tommy—”

“We put a new policy in place after Vinnie got arrested. No one touches the girls. You lay a hand on them, and you’re done. Even whores deserve that much—”

Jason tensed. “Why—”

“Fine, fine. The women,” Tommy said, with nearly a sneer. “How you gonna be in this business if you can’t even admit the truth—”

“How are you going to stand there and pretend you give a shit about me or my family, Tommy, when you and I both know you’re working against me.” Jason fisted his hands at his side. “Acting concerned when you found out Elizabeth was sick—you just needed more time to work against me—”

“I wouldn’t have needed to if you’d do what you should have months ago,” Tommy shot back. “Sonny’s been useless since Lansing disappeared. Everyone knows it. The only reason you’re still in power is because I didn’t pick up that phone and call Zacchara or Tagliatti—”

“And the only reason you’re still alive,” Jason interrupted, “is because I don’t have time to get rid of the body. Are you behind the Lansing sightings?”

“The—” Tommy frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“The sightings,” Jason repeated. “In South America. Puerto Rico. Miami, Baltimore—”

“Why the fuck—no! Every time Sonny thinks he sees that little fucker, he goes wild, and he’s had the PCPD after at us—why the hell do you think I’d want that? I was just gonna take Sonny on a long drive and dump his ass in a hole in the Pine Barrens. Why am I gonna fake months of sightings when I can just shoot him and be done with it?”

Lucky & Kelsey’s Apartment: Living Room

“Shouldn’t you be in bed?” Lulu demanded, planting her hands on her hips. “If Mom were here—”

“But she’s not. She went to work and back to her life,” Lucky said. “The doctors have cleared me. I’ll be back on duty next week.” He eyed Dante. “I’ll be the only one.”

Dante shoved his hands into his pockets. “I guess you heard.”

“Not from you.” Lucky shifted, wincing at the tightness in his chest. “What the hell is this bullshit about quitting?”

“You know what happened because of me—”

“Because of Capelli—”

“Because of me—”

“And Dad,” Lulu interjected. “You both have shady ass fathers—sperm donors,” she corrected when Dante glared at her. “Hard to say which one of them was the reason Capelli screwed you over.”

“Lu, go get me some water. Please,” he added when Lulu just raised a brow.

“Fine, but I’ll just be over there. Either of you start being dumb, I’ll come over here and kick your asses.”

“She’s not kidding,” Lucky muttered. “Sit down, man. I’m not mad at you, so if you try to apologize, I’ll let her kick your ass.”

“She’s been doing that for two weeks.” But Dante sat next to him. “It’s not just that you got shot, Lucky. I know that’s not really my fault. It felt like it in the minute, and maybe I do feel some guilt. But I know that I’m not the one that refused to back up a fellow officer.”

“Okay—then—”

“He’s still there. I know Taggert says they’re close, but I just—” Dante shook his head. “Maybe he’s right. Maybe they can get rid of him. I’m not saying I can’t ever come back, but right now, I’d be a liability to all of you. My head’s not in it. It hasn’t been since Vinnie. I’ve been working through it, but now with this Sonny stuff—”

“Have you even talked to him?” Lucky asked. “I realize now that’s why you were so weird when we went to see him, and we got called to the Brownstone. Don’t you think you’ll feel better if you talk to him—”

“I have zero interest,” Dante said. “He’s nothing to me. I’ve always known my father left my mother. She never named him, but it felt like the neighborhood always knew something. He’s not someone I want in my life, Lucky.  There’s nothing he has that I want.”

“Okay.”

“But he’s the reason people are looking at me sideways. They don’t trust that I just ended up in Port Charles and didn’t know he was my father. We already had issues at the department after last summer. I just—I can’t go to work and pretend it’s the same.”

Lucky nodded. “Fair enough. But you belong here with me. All three of us. We came here to do the job. So get yourself together, and then come back. We can’t do this alone.”

Port Charles Municipal Building: Mayor’s Office

Ned ushered for Alexis and Lois to enter the office with one hand while the other was wrapped around the plastic receiver. “All right, Anna. I want to see a copy of the report as soon as possible. And the calls. When you’ve heard them. Thank you.”

He set the phone down. “Taggert is putting together his final report on Lucky’s shooting, and Anna wanted to warn us in case it leaks before she makes a move.”

Lois braced herself and traded a trouble glance with Alexis. “What is it? How bad?”

“Taggert got his hands on the original calls from that night,” Ned said. “Dispatch was running circles around them on the paperwork for the audio and the records of the other units.”

“Idiots,” Alexis muttered, sitting down. “They had to do know we’d be able to get the calls—”

“Arrogance,” Lois murmured, her eyes locked on her ex-husband’s. “They thought they’d get away with it. They’ve been doing it for years, haven’t they?”

“Yeah.” Ned shoved himself to his feet. “Taggert’s got the calls and he’s got the officer who took the backup call. A witness who says Dante called for backup and that a responding officer refused.”

Lois closed her eyes, exhaled in a rush. “Christ Almighty. How do they live with themselves? How can they—” She dragged her hands over her face. “Is that all she knows?”

“She hasn’t listened to the audio yet, but Taggert gave her the heads up. We need to get ahead of this—”

“But we need to be careful,” Alexis added.

“Right. Right.” Lois nodded. “We don’t want to be seen spinning the PCPD’s mess into hiding a scandal of our own, but there’s a way—there’s always a way. Capelli worked with the press before,” she reminded Ned. “I wasn’t here for any of that, but you were. So when this hits, we remind them.” She nodded. “That’s our spin. It’s just more evidence of the corruption and disregard for the people of Port Charles.”

“Will this be enough?” Alexis wanted to know. “I mean, will it finally be enough to get rid of Capelli?”

“Anna won’t know for sure until the audio is authenticated, but it if it’s as bad as she says—” Ned’s smile held no humor, only malice. “He won’t be the only one to go. This is the break we needed. We’re finally digging into the rot in the department—”

“I wish I could be as optimistic, but I worry we’ve only scratched the surface,” Alexis murmured, but rose. “I’ll start putting together some legal notes. Lois?”

“I’ll get to work on the statement.” Lois turned to Ned. “It won’t ever be enough.”

“No, but we have to start somewhere.”

PCPD: Squad Room

Sonny stopped by the front desk, snapping his fingers. “Where’s my phone?” he demanded.

The officer on duty looked behind Sonny and his new lawyer, Jordan, to look at Cruz, who sighed and nodded. “Yeah, give him back his personal stuff.”

“You don’t need permission,” Jordan said. “He’s been fitted with the ankle bracelet, and he’s been officially released. Return his things.”

The officer shrugged, then set down the manila envelope. Sonny tore it open and dumped it out. He slid his wedding ring on his finger, then shoved his wallet in the back pocket of the rumpled suit he’d been wearing the night he’d been arrested.

He flipped open his phone to turn it on.  He started to click through—it looked like he was sorting through voicemails. He pressed a button, then raised it to his ear to listen. He growled, and stalked out of the PCPD, slapping a hand against the double doors so hard that they bounced back against the walls.

Jordan blanched, hurrying after her client.

Cruz watched Sonny storm out, then went over to Taggert who’d been watching the scene quietly from his desk, hoping to stay out of it. He had enough going on. “You want me to follow him?”

“No.” Taggert looked at the younger man. “But make sure that ankle monitor is activated. I have a guy sitting on the Brownstone. If Sonny shows up there, we’ll be ready. I want to know if he heads anywhere else.”

“He must have gotten something on his phone,” Cruz said. “He looked angry—”

“I’ll give Bobbie and Carly the heads up. We can’t mess this case up, Cruz. Sonny’s on bail. We let him dig his own grave. He’s good at that.” Taggert saw Anna motioning towards him. “I have to go deal with something else.”

Corinthos & Morgan Coffee House: Office

“With Tommy off the board,” Bernie said, “I don’t know what to say any more about these sightings. It doesn’t add up.”

“Are we sure that Tommy’s on the level?” Francis Corelli, their head of security, asked doubtfully. “I know he’s got a point, but—”

“He could be throwing us off,” Jason admitted, “but it didn’t feel that way.”

“I agree,” Justus offered. “Tommy’s been fed up with Sonny for months. He doesn’t really seem like the type to try psychological torture—”

“Maybe he didn’t think it’d take this long,” Bernie suggested. “Maybe he thought Sonny would fly off to South America himself, and Tommy could arrange for an assassination that way—”

Jason scrubbed his hands over his face, then checked his messages. Sonny could be to be released any minute, and he wanted to be at the Towers before Sonny got there. He did not want Elizabeth alone in the building with him.

“We’re running in circles,” he began.

“Are you sure that it’s not Lansing screwing with us?” Francis asked. “I know the reasons we said it couldn’t be, but—”

“But Lansing couldn’t be working alone. He wouldn’t have the connections in Baltimore or Atlanta. Or Philly,” Jason said.

“He could have pulled off Miami and South America,” Justus continued. “He worked for Alcazar after all, and Alcazar was close to the Ruiz family. He could have called in favors, but yeah, I don’t see anyone in Philly helping him out. And I don’t know how to explain the Babe getting involved in this kind of nonsense. He’s never had an issue with Sonny. We don’t deal with Baltimore.”

“Not since the Jerome days,” Bernie said. “Baltimore’s barely in the game since the shipping died out down at the docks. ” He shook his head. “Nah, the only guy they would help out is Zacchara.”

“Are we thinking about this too hard? Maybe you’re right, Francis. Lansing is in all these places, but it’s Zacchara pulling the strings.” Which Jason did not need right now. “It’s the only way to explain all of it.”

“Then we need to bring Sonny in on this,” Justus said reluctantly. “If we can tell him what we know—that we know something is wrong—he might get back under control.” He met Jason’s eyes. “Which we need while he’s on house arrest. The island isn’t going to happen. Not right now. He can’t leave the country. ”

“I know—”

“And you don’t have time for any of this,” Justus cut in. “Johnny will be here in the morning to take point on this, but he and Sonny are like oil and water. Maybe we hold off on that—”

“No, I need someone here that can handle Sonny. Johnny’s the best bet. He’s been here as long as I have, and he knows Sonny almost as well.”  Jason paused. “After today, I can’t be dealing with any of this for at least a week.”

“You won’t be,” Bernie promised. “Until Elizabeth is up and moving around, and the baby’s in the clear. We promise. I’ll talk to Sonny. Me and Francis. We haven’t pissed him off yet,” he added when Francis looked doubtful. “And if we make him think it’s new information you haven’t dealt with, then that’s good. We leave Tommy out of it, though. He doesn’t need to know Tommy was planning to get rid of him.”

“All right.” Jason checked his messages. Nothing yet. “Okay. Let’s get everything else done. I want to be home before Sonny is.”

PCPD: Anna’s Office

Anna pressed play on the tape recorder, then looked up at Taggert as the call from dispatch rolled in.

“Unit 84, Code 8 at Courtland and Van Ess. Repeat, Code 8, Courtland and Van Ess.”

“There’s Dante,” Anna murmured. “Clear as day.”

“And then—” Taggert nodded as a new voice came on.

“Copy that, 84. Code 8, Code 8. Unit 84 requesting back up at the corner of Van Ess and Courtland. Code 8. Officers requesting backup.”

“The all-call—” Anna dropped her head in her hands. “You have the officer who made this call?”

“It’s worse, Anna.”

“Unit 81?” Murphy’s voice crackled out over the tape, and Anna blinked at it, confused. “Unit 81, are you stationed at 308 Holloway?”

“Unit 81 responding, yes.”

“You’re closest to the Code 84—”

“Fuck that shit.”

Anna’s eyes widened as a new voice came in. Faint. Dim. As if who ever was speaking wasn’t near the radio, but sitting nearby. Perhaps in the backseat.

“Fuck that traitor.”

There was a pause, then the original Unit 81 voice came back over the radio. “Cannot comply at this time.”

The tape stopped and Anna looked back at Taggert, grimly. “We might not be able to prove that was his voice—”

“That’s him on that tape, and you damn well know it.”

“Yes, I know it,” Anna said, leaning back, her face pale but her eyes steady. “But if we’re going to nail him this time, we need to be careful. We’re only going to get one chance at this. If the union doesn’t back it—”

“Damn it—”

“Taggert.” Anna got to her feet and he closed his mouth. “We will get him this time. I promise you.”

“I had to sit back last summer and watch this piece of shit waltz back into work after he nearly got Elizabeth Webber killed—” Taggert fisted his hands. “And now I know I got him dead to rights, refusing to back up a fellow officer. Capelli is going to pay for this, even if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth tossed her magazine aside and sighed. “I’m sorry, Cody. Nikolas should be here any minute—” It was nearly one, and Nikolas still hadn’t shown up. He’d sent a message about the launch being late, but at this rate, Jason would get home first.

And she was so tired. She should try to take a nap. Maybe when she woke, Jason would be home, and she could go to the hospital.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Morgan,” her guard told her as he brought out another glass of water. “It’s windy out. I know how the lake can be on days like these.”

“Nikolas should live in town and not on a goddamn island,” she muttered. “I’m tired—” Her fingers fumbled with the plastic tubing. “And sick of this thing.” She reached for the oxygen mask at her side.

“What’s that?” her guard wanted to know. “What’s wrong?”  Then he frowned, turning back towards the door as he heard voices.

“Oh, no—” Elizabeth got to her feet, then gasped—her arm shot out to brace herself on the air chair, her head spinning. She’d moved too quickly.

“Mrs. Morgan—” Cody turned back to grab her arm. “Sit back down. I’ll call Jason—”

The door shoved open, and Sonny pushed Max out of his way. “Where the hell is Jason?” He glared at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth closed her eyes, tried to take a full breath. “Not here,” she said. Cody held her arm as she moved backward, away from Sonny. Behind him, she saw Max with his phone out.

She had to get Sonny out of the penthouse. If Jason walked through the door right now, everything would be so much worse. Sonny would just get angrier, and Jason would be furious. There’d be arguments and screaming—and she didn’t want it. Any of it.

“Did you—” Her chest ached. “Cody, I need—”

“Sit down,” he told her gently, helping her back to the sofa. “Let me help, okay?” He fit the mask over her face, and she managed a deeper breath, though not quite a full one. “Let me call Jason.”

“What the hell is wrong with you now?” Sonny demanded.

“Mr. C,” Max said, grabbing Sonny’s arm. “Let’s go—let’s go home, and we’ll figure out what’s going on—”

“No, she needs to know—Ric is back in New York,” he snarled. “You happy? I got out of jail, no thanks to your husband, and the first thing I hear is that Lansing is in New York—”

“What?” Elizabeth gasped, then her lungs seized. She clutched at Cody’s arms. Then—finally, the oxygen did what it was supposed to, and she could take a deeper breath. Her lungs relaxed. Her head was still buzzing, but she could breathe. Mostly.

“What do you mean Ric is in New York?” She asked. She stood again, but Cody braced her as she did. “How do you know? How long ago?”

Taken aback, Sonny blinked at her. “I got a message in lock up.”

Why had—why was someone giving Sonny messages in lock-up about Ric Lansing? How could they have known he’d get his phone back today? “Sonny, did you—Oh, God, did you go to Carly’s?”

Sonny ignored the question and narrowed his eyes. “This is your fault,” he said, his teeth clenched. “If you’d just let me kill that piece of shit months ago, none of this would be happening—my wife left me because of you!”

“Mr. C,” Max said firmly. “Let’s go—”

“Get your hands off me—”

“My family is in danger because of you!”

“Cody,” Elizabeth said with a grimace. “He—I can’t—”

“Yeah, okay, Mrs. Morgan. Sit down—”

“Can’t—hurts—” She pressed a hand to her chest. “Hurts too much.”

“Christ. Don’t—don’t move—” Cody released her and traded a look with Max. “Mr. C, you gotta go. She’s not feeling well, and we need to get her to the hospital—”

“No one tells me what to do! You work for me! I’ll fire you! I’ll end you!” Sonny thundered. He threw a punch when Cody reached for him, but then two more guards came in, and between the four of them, they managed to get Sonny out of the penthouse and across the hall, screaming.

Back in her living room. Elizabeth’s lungs seized again, and her throat tightened, felt so thick she could barely breathe. She coughed, trying to force air out. Then she couldn’t stop coughing—couldn’t take in a breath at all—her throat was on fire—

She looked down at her hands—still coughing—Her vision dimmed at the edges.

“Mrs. Morgan, we need—” Cody came back to the doorway, with a new guard behind him, his eyes bulging. “Elizabeth—” He ran across the room, hurling himself at her feet, taking her hands in hers, examining the streaks of red. “Where did the blood come from? Where are you hurt?”

She continued to cough, her knees buckling. “Can’t stop—”

“She’s coughing up blood,” Cody told the other guard. He lifted her in his arms. “Get the elevator, call Jason—we’re going to GH now!”

This time
I’ll have no fear
I’ll be standing strong and tall
Turn my back towards them all
And I’ll be awful sometimes
Weakened to my knees
But I’ll learn to get by
Yeah I’ll learn to get by
On the little victories
– Little Victories, Matt Nathanson

---

Thursday, March 5, 2004

Kelly’s: Courtyard

“What makes you think he’ll talk to us today?” Lois asked as she followed Olivia in from the parking lot. “Liv, he hasn’t returned one of my calls—he hates me—”

“He isn’t talkingto me either,” Olivia reminded her best friend as she stopped and looked at her. “But his roommate said he’s been at Kelly’s since the news broke. He wanted to give Cruz a break from the press—”

“And since the shooting and his resignation, it’s only gotten worse.” Lois closed her eyes, nodded. “I know. I’m so worried about him. This is my fault—”

“We’ve been over this,” Olivia snapped, worry threading into her impatient tone. “He knows you love him—”

“But I fed him to the wolves—”

“You had a weak moment—”

“In public—I know better—”

Olivia gritted her teeth. She knew Lois was struggling, that the last few weeks had been horrible for her—Brooke’s death had been splashed all over the papers again, and the Sun had even revealed that their source was, in fact, Lois’s argument with Ned. He’d been blamed in the papers for his daughter’s suicide — protecting a mobster’s kid instead of his own.

If Olivia could get just get Lois and Dante into a room together—she knew things would get better for both of them. She was just going to break some heads to get it done and play the only card she had left.

The guilt trip.

“The only person he even talks to is that Spencer girl,” Olivia said, jerking the door open, the jangling bell riding her last nerve. “She’s too pushy to be ignored.” She scanned the crowded tables, then growled. “I don’t see her, do you?”

“No, but I see someone who might be able to help.” Lois tugged Olivia towards the counter and the cluster of younger people around it. “Maxie—”

Felicia’s daughter turned and blinked at her in surprise. “Oh, hey, Ms. Cerullo, Ms. Falconieri,” Maxie chirped, her eyes too wide, her voice a bit too high. Olivia narrowed her eyes. Had the kids been talking about her? Or her baby—

“Are you looking for Dante?” the sister asked, her voice quieter, her eyes kinder.

“We were looking for Lulu Spencer,” Lois clarified, “but only because we thought she’d get Dante to talk to us.”

Olivia glared at her—she didn’t want people knowing that her own son wouldn’t return her calls. “Is he upstairs?”

“Um, maybe?” Maxie said. “I don’t know. Lulu isn’t on shift until later, and usually, I see her sneaking some food upstairs. Dante, like, never shows his face. I don’t blame him. Some bitch told the Sun he was staying here.” She scowled. “There was a whole thing yesterday, but then Luke came by and yelled at them—”

“Oh, God. He’s not safe anywhere.” Olivia closed her eyes then took a deep breath. “So he’s probably upstairs.”

“I’m not sure if we’re supposed to say,” Georgie said with regret. “Lulu said Dante doesn’t want to see anyone, and, like, he’s been through so much, you know? I feel bad, and he worked so hard to make sure Brooke had justice and then all—” She swallowed. “You know all of that, I mean. Of course you do, you’re his mom and aunt, but I just mean—”

“Dante gets to decide who he wants to see,” Maxie cut in, lifting her chin. “And if he wanted to see anyone, he’d see them. I tried to cheer him up, but he wouldn’t let me in, either—”

“To hell with all of this,” Olivia snarled. She stalked towards the stairs. She’d respected Dante’s boundaries enough, but she was done waiting—

“Thank you for trying, we’ll tell Dante you had his back,” Lois called as she hurried after Olivia, who had already charged up the stairwell. “Liv, we don’t even know—”

“Dante Angelo Falconieri,” Olivia announced at the top of the landing, “if you don’t open one of these doors right now, I will stand in this hallway telling embarrassing stories until you do, and I will start with Cheryl—”

“Ma—” A door was tugged open, and Dante stepped out, his scowl matching his mother’s. “What the hell—”

Olivia brushed past him to enter his room. Lois was a lot more quiet, sliding gently past her godson. Dante closed the door, facing them. “You didn’t return one of my phone calls—”

“I didn’t want to see anyone—”

“You have no problem letting Twiggy feed you, and the Doublemint twins downstairs know you’re here—why do they get to see you and your own mother doesn’t?” Olivia demanded.

“Liv—” Lois put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “You’re not really angry, you’re just worried. We’re in now.” She focused on Dante. “I’m sorry we forced our way in, but I just—”

Dante held up a hand to cut her off, and she immediately closed her mouth. “You’re here to say you didn’t mean for that to get into the papers, Aunt Lois, and I know that. Okay? I know.”

“But—”

He gestured at the small table, cluttered with editions of the Sun and the Herald. “I’ve read the coverage. You and the mayor were having a fight because he’d lied about Kristina. Someone overheard.”

Lois cleared her throat. “It doesn’t change the fact that I could have talked to Ned like an adult instead of letting things boil over like this. That’s on me—”

“It’d be easier if I could blame you, but I can’t. I leaked the serial rapist case to the press back after Brooke got hurt,” Dante told them. “I didn’t say her name, just that the PCPD and the mayor knew there was a threat—”

“And Floyd leaked Brooke’s name to get the attention back on the Quartermaines,” Lois murmured. “Ned suspected, but he wouldn’t tell me who the original source was. Dante—”

“If I had kept my mouth shut, Brooke wouldn’t have been in the papers, Aunt Lois. I know it’s still Floyd’s fault, but I tried to make it right.” Dante shook his head. “There’s no bringing her back, so I can’t ever make up for that. And the whole world knows who my father is now. I’m done in the department.”

Dante held up a hand when Olivia opened her mouth to protest. “It’s not your fault, Ma. Or yours, Aunt Lo. It’s just this world. It’s the PCPD. It’s all of it. I got my partner shot just by being the one who called for backup. The next time, the guy bleeding in the alley might be me. I’m not gonna let it happen. It’s over. I’ll never be a cop again. It’s done. We all just gotta live with it.”

PCPD: Squad Room

“This is some absolute fucking bullshit—” Taggert launched out of his chair, his blood boiling. “What hell do you mean, the calls aren’t available?”

“Lieutenant—”

“I got a cop shot and you can’t get me a record of the calls? What kind of circus are you running over there?”

“I already sent the physical record for the calls on Unit 84,” the supervisor retorted. “You’re asking for calls that are outside your purview—”

“I’m not asking for—” Taggert gripped the phone more tightly, took a deep breath. “I’m not asking,” he said. “I’m telling you. You get me the physical calls for all units within a one mile radius by the end of today, or I’m taking this to the commissioner.”

“Go ahead and try it. My union rep will back me up—”

“Yeah, we’ll fucking see about that—” Taggert slammed the phone down and sat back down, staring blindly at his desk.

He hadn’t wanted to believe it. Even as he’d stood in Anna’s office and watched Dante quit, a small kernel had held out hope there was a mistake. That Dante had called in the 10-97 on location and just remembered it wrong.

Dispatch should have jumped at the opportunity to make Dante look like an idiot. No physical records of a backup call would just make the statement fall apart.

But refusing to even turn over the calls meant—

Taggert exhaled slowly. That meant there was something to bury.

They’d left Lucky and Dante out to dry, not giving a shit if they lived or died. Now Lucky was recovering in the hospital and Dante had quit the force.

There was no way in hell he was going to let anyone get away with that.

Quartermaine Mansion: Foyer

“I’m so glad we were able to steal you away,” Tamika said as she handed their coats to Alice. “Lila wanted to get together one more time before you went in tomorrow.”

Elizabeth rubbed her belly, feeling Cameron’s tiny foot pressing against her hand. “I’m glad. One of my big regrets about Cam being in the NICU is that it’ll take longer for everyone to meet him. I want Lila to know him.”

“She will.” Tamika squeezed Elizabeth’s shoulder as they walked towards the front family room. “I was worried about taking Kimi away from my family, but Justus was worried that she wouldn’t know his side—that she wouldn’t get any time with Lila.” She paused. “And it’s strange when you think of how Justus entered the family as the grandson of another woman—she’s not even his blood relative.”

“Family is what matters to her. I’ve always wanted to be Lila when I grow up.”

Tamika opened her mouth to respond, then the doors to the front room were thrown open.

“Surprise!”

Elizabeth blinked at the large cry from the crowd gathered inside the room, then took in the decorations, the streamers and signs, and the women inside. Emily, Bobbie, Gail, Lila, Monica, Carly, Tamika’s sister Portia—and women from her support group. Elizabeth saw Renee and Dana—

It was a baby shower.

She pressed her hands to her mouth as tears streamed silently down her cheeks. How had they known? How could—

Emily came forward and wrapped her arms around Elizabeth. “Jason told us,” she murmured in her ear. Drawing back, she continued. “Mom and I were planning it for after you came home,” she revealed, “but Jason made us realize that we shouldn’t wait. You should get to have everything you want right now.”

“Thank you.” Elizabeth hugged her again, then turned to face the others, keeping Emily’s hand in hers, squeezing it. “Thank you.”

Port Charles County Jail: Conference Room

“In preparation for your release tomorrow,” Scott began, setting down an agreement in front of Justus and Sonny, “I want to review the bail terms—”

“I got it,” Sonny said sourly. “I go home and don’t talk to anyone. Whatever.”

Scott said down and arched a brow at Justus. “Justus?”

“Don’t bother with him,” Sonny interjected. “He’s only my lawyer until tomorrow.” He sneered. “Can’t handle the pressure.”

“Don’t want to,” Justus said. “Jordan Baines has filed a notice of appearance, I’m sure you saw it on the docket.”

“I did—I assumed she was joining the team, not replacing you.” Scott sat back. “Trouble in paradise?”

“The court has ordered that you wear an ankle monitor,” Justus said to Sonny, ignoring the DA. “That’s the only reason you were granted bail, Sonny. You need to go straight to the Towers. It’s not an unconditional bail release—”

“This is bullshit—”

“You committed violent assault, breaking and entering, and Ned was pushing to file terroristic threat charges since you barged into a public building,” Justus reminded him impatiently. “This was the best anyone could do—”

“Maybe that you could do—”

“If you go anywhere but your apartment building,” Scott interrupted, “the department will be notified, and you’ll be arrested for violating the bail. And Albany won’t help you the next time, Corinthos.”

Sonny glared at him. “You’ve been waiting for this for years, Baldwin. Don’t pretend you give a damn—”

“Yeah, I really wanted you to go after your traumatized wife who was only kidnapped and tortured because of you,” Scott retorted. “It’s my dream to sit back and wait for you to go after more defenseless women whose only mistakes were to trust you.” He leaned forward. “I played this by the book, Corinthos. Your lawyer can tell you that. I’ve barely thought about you in months. You have no one to blame but yourself.” He shoved himself to his feet.

“You should have recused yourself,” Sonny snarled.

“If you really felt like I was biased,” Scott said with a pleasant smile, “you should have had your attorney file a motion.”

Sonny glared at Justus who just stared at the table.

“Oh, you already tried that? Let me guess.” Scott flattened his hands against the table. “In order for you to get me removed, Corinthos, you’d have to tell the court why I’d have a bias.” Scott placed his hands flat against the table and leaned in. “You’d have to tell them about Karen.”

Sonny’s eyes burned into him. “I’m not that man anymore.”

“Really? I bet your wife doesn’t agree. Go ahead. Tell the court that I hate you because you fed my barely legal daughters drugs so you could rape her.”

“That’s not—”

“Sonny—” Justus put a hand up. “That’s what I meant. To get Scott of the case, you’d have to prove bias. He’s right. He’s done everything by the book. Even if he should absolutely recuse himself, ethically,” he added, glaring at Scott, “it won’t matter. We need to prove a conflict of interest. You would have to tell them about Karen. Even if the statute of limitations ran out—”

“I’ll beat this case like I always do,” Sonny retorted. “You can’t bring me down.”

“Maybe not for the smuggling or the gambling or the drugs—but I always knew you’d dig your own grave. The trash you were back then—” Scott leveled a malevolent glare at Sonny. “He’s always been there underneath the suit, the charm, and the dimples. You’re a violent, ugly, disgusting piece of shit. And the rest of this town is finally learning what some of us have always known.”

Kelly’s: Diner

Cruz watched as Lulu climbed the back stairs to the second floor, a tray in her hands, and didn’t notice as he was joined at the counter until a textbook hit it with a thud, making the mug and saucer rattle.

He blinked and looked at Maxie. “Where did you come from?”

“Statistics,” the blonde muttered. She craned her neck to see where Cruz had been looking. “He’ll come around. I mean, he talked to his mother earlier.”

“Lu said his mom just walked in. I don’t think I get to do that.” Cruz shifted his attention back to his dinner. He pushed the pot roast around. “It’s fine—”

“It’s not, but I get why you don’t wanna say anything. He’s shutting everyone out except Lulu, and that’s only because he needs to eat.” Maxie’s lips thinned. “And you barely know anyone else, so it must really suck with Lucky stuck in the hospital and Dante shutting down.”

Cruz stared at his dinner, letting Maxie’s words sink in. He’d come to Port Charles to go to the academy and because getting hired at the PCPD was a slam dunk, but she was right. He didn’t have a whole lot going on otherwise.

He couldn’t go home again. Abuela had made that much clear, and his parents hadn’t disagreed. He cleared his throat, forced a smile. “You’re right. He’ll come around—”

“Yeah, Lu will force him. It’s hard to be down around her.” Maxie went around the corner to pour her own soda. “But that’s Dante. We’re talking about you.”

“I don’t like talking about myself—”

“No—” Maxie planted a hand against her chest, widening her eyes in mock surprise. “Really!”

Cruz smiled again, and this time it was a bit more genuine. “I’m good, Maxie. Really.”

“And you can be even better. Lucas and I are gonna hang out at Club 101 Saturday night. It’s their under 21 night, and I’m solo since Kyle’s at school. Come with me, so I don’t have to third wheel with Felix and Lucas.”

“I—”

“Please. You’ll be doing me a huge favor.” Maxie clasped her hands under her chin and fluttered her lashes. “Pretty please.”

He knew she was asking a little bit out of pity, but Cruz needed to branch out and make friends who weren’t in the department. He nodded. “Okay. You convinced me. I’ll keep you company.”

Kelly’s: Dante’s Room

Lulu dropped Dante’s dinner tray on the table, frowning at the newspapers she had to shove out of the way to make room. “You shouldn’t read this trash.”

“When my name disappears, when they stop reporting on all of this—” Dante sat down. “I can figure out the next step—”

“The next step,” Lulu declared, sitting across from him and reaching for his fries which he wouldn’t eat anyway, “is to go to Anna and ask for your badge back.”

“Lu—”

“Or go see my brother in the hospital.”

Dante listlessly pushed his spoon around the bowl of chili. “I can’t do either of those things. And if you keep this up—”

“What? You’ll starve? Please.” Lulu snorted. “Try it. You’d come crawling back in a week.” She broke a fry in half and ate one piece. “Maxie said you had some visitors—”

“Does Maxie have a life of her own?” Dante wanted to know. “It seems like she has nothing better to do than worry about mine—”

“Maxie knows everything about everyone. It’s why I keep her around,” Lulu told him. “She said your mom and aunt forced their way upstairs. If it makes you feel better, Georgie and Maxie tried not to confirm you were here—”

“Sure—”

“Hey—” Lulu scowled at him. “You can be in a bad mood. You can get mad at me, I don’t care. I can take it. But Maxie and Georgie have been nothing but kind to you. Maxie is the one that called my dad to get the press out of here. I know you’re having a shitty time, Dante, and I let you take swings at me, but I’m not gonna let you go after my friends. They’re your friends, too.”

Dante dipped his head, then shoved the tray of food away. “I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I’m not good to be around right now.”

“Dante—”

“And I should—” He looked around the room, this place that had been his home for two weeks. His prison. “I should just leave Port Charles. Maybe head out west. Idaho or something. They might not call the department or find out about Sonny.”

“Eventually, someone will find out, Dante. You can’t run from it forever.” Lu tipped her head to the side. “Don’t hide. And you know you’re not the only reason this happened to Lucky.”

“Don’t start—”

“It wasn’t just you calling for backup — it was you and Lucky. And don’t forget — Capelli hates all three of you. Cruz got all the accolades for the kidnapping case last year because he was the only good cop on that case, then my brother cracked the rapist case, and you put the bastard away. Capelli and the others — they’re jealous.” Lulu waited for Dante to look at her. “Taggert respects you guys, doesn’t he? And you said your old training officer wasn’t a complete dick. Just lazy.”

“No, I guess not.”

“You guys knew the PCPD was trash last summer, but you stuck it out because you wanted to do better. And you have. They found the guy that shot Lucky by the end of the day,” Lulu reminded him. “Change doesn’t happen overnight.”

“Do you really want me to go back to the PCPD?” Dante demanded. “Knowing that the next time I call for backup and get screwed over, I could die—”

“You being a cop scares me to death,” Lulu told him quietly, and he stopped. “Because Lucky got shot in the line of duty, and I’ve already buried him once. You know that I care about you. Do you think I wanted to? After nearly losing my mother, my brother, what happened to my grandmother—the violence that’s surrounded me my whole life? Do you really think that I wanted to sign up for someone who invites that?”

“Lu—”

“But the reason I care about you,” Lulu continued, “is the same thing that scares me. You knew that turning that tape over would be hard. For your family, for you with the department, but you did it anyway. Because it was the right thing to do. You went to the sentencing to make sure Vinnie got what he deserved for all the damage he did.”

He exhaled slowly. “I know all of that, but—”

“You did what had to be done because that was the job. You made sure the public knew about the attacks because that was the job. You followed through. Do I want you to be a cop? That doesn’t matter. It matters what you want. Can you honestly tell me you don’t want to be a cop anymore?” she demanded.

He was quiet for a long moment, then shook his head. “No. I’ve wanted to be a cop my whole life, Lu. And even as hard as the Lansing case was—as hard as all that Vinnie stuff was—at the center, I knew we were doing good. I knew we were trying to make a change. But wanting to be a cop doesn’t mean I can be. Or that I should be. My head’s not in the game anymore, Lu. And maybe I’ll end up distracted. Hurting someone. I couldn’t live with myself.”

“Okay.” She nodded. She pushed the chili back towards him. “Then that’s a reason not to go back.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Now, eat. You’re gonna need to keep up your strength. As soon as the papers stop harassing you, you’re taking me out to that movie,” she told him. “We had plans the night my brother got hurt.”

He lifted his brows. “We did, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, plus, tomorrow, Lucky’s getting out of the hospital, and you’re going with me to see him.”

“Lu—” He paused. Then lifted his spoon. “Yeah, okay. Maybe it’s time.”

Portia’s Closet: Office

Taggert leaned in the doorway of Portia’s office, watching her lean over a large drawing, scribbling at something that looked like a lot of lines right now, but that he knew with a bit more work, it would turn into some sort of incredible outfit.

She glanced up and smiled at him, a bit distractedly. “Hey,” Portia straightened and rubbed her back, wincing. “I thought you were coming later.”

“Needed to see your face.”

“Hey,” she murmured against his lips. “Not that I mind the afternoon sugar, but something’s wrong. You’re smiling here…” She touched his lips. “But not here—” She tapped just underneath his left eye. “You ready to tell me what’s going on yet?”

He sighed, dipped his head. “This shooting—it’s making me question everything.” He told her about the backup call and trouble with the dispatch supervisor. She listened, nodding at the right moments, then waited a long moment before replying.

“You know, until I met you, I didn’t know if there really was such a thing as good cops,” Portia said. She crossed to her mini-fridge and offered him water. “You’re doing everything you can, Marcus. You know that, don’t you?”

“Maybe. I just—these kids—the rookies—they came to us looking to do something good. But it’s just been one disaster after another. First Elizabeth Webber’s case—that one broke Cruz. He’s working hard, but his first week on the job, he saw a cop sacrifice a woman for his own case. Lucky had to go on calls with Vinnie—he tried to tell me that Vinnie was terrorizing his rape victims,” Taggert admitted.

Portia frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I didn’t know—I didn’t know it was him, but Lucky—he saw that Vinnie’s interviews of the victims were offensive, even traumatizing. And I brushed him off.”

“Did you? So Vinnie got to keep doing the interviews?” Portia pursed her lips. “No, I don’t believe that.”

“I took sex crimes away from him—and the cases,” Taggert admitted. “But I could have done more.”

“Maybe, but you’re just one man.”

“Yeah, well, then Dante found out his own cousin was raping women. You know, they were all thinking about quitting after Elizabeth’s case. I talked them into staying. Into giving me a chance to turn things around. And then this happened.”

“Marcus.” She touched his chest, waiting for him to meet her eyes. “You’re giving that supervisor one last chance, aren’t you? And when he doesn’t cough up the calls, you’re gonna get them another way. I know you. You won’t give up.”

“Shouldn’t be this hard,” he murmured. “Shouldn’t have to keep wondering if I’m even making a difference.”

“Well, what about that rapist case?” Portia asked. “I read the newspaper articles. I know you all broke that case at the same time. You followed the leads, you got the job done. And now he can’t hurt any one else. No more Brookes or Elizabeths.”

“Yeah, I finally got Elizabeth some justice. Five years later, and she nearly lost her life for it.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come over and ruin your day.”

“You’re not. Hey—” She turned his face back to her when he looked away. “I don’t know how you grew up, but I never met a cop that deserved an ounce of respect. But here—I’ve got you. I know how hard you work. You’re going to get to the bottom of this. You’re going to find out who screwed your officers, and then you’ll be closer to getting rid of them. You’re a good cop, Marcus.”

“Maybe. I just—I wanted to have a little bit of power,” Taggert admitted. “I didn’t want to be afraid anymore. I don’t know if I joined up for the right reasons.”

Portia nodded, her expression grave. “What about now? You get up every day and go to work. You doing that because you don’t know what else to do?”

“No, I—” Taggert’s smile was faint. “No, I transferred to Major Crimes because I didn’t ever want another Elizabeth Webber on my conscience. I wanted to do better.”

“That’s what I thought. It’s just gonna take the world a little longer to catch up,” she murmured. She leaned up and kissed him again. “You’ll have to show them the way.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth turned back to Cody, still standing on the threshold. “Thanks. I appreciate you helping me in with some of this.” She’d brought up some of the smaller gifts, leaving the bigger stuff for Jason. “I thought Jason was supposed to be here—” She turned back to scan the living room. “But—oh, there you are!”

“Sorry—” Jason jogged down the stairs and joined them at the door, taking Elizabeth’s hand. “Cody, we’re good for the night.”

“Sure thing. You need me at the usual time tomorrow?” the guard asked.

“No, earlier,” Jason replied. “I have things to do before we check into the hospital,” he told Elizabeth. “The appeal got decided today. Sonny’s coming home tomorrow.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Really? I thought with punching the mayor—”

“He’ll be on house arrest,” Jason reported. “If he goes anywhere but here, they’ll arrest him and put him back in lockup.” He winced. “I was hoping he’d be gone longer—”

“We’ll figure things out.”

Jason turned to Cody. “I need you early, around seven. I’ll be gone most of the morning, so I don’t want to leave Elizabeth alone in case Sonny gets released before I get back.”

“I’ll call Nikolas,” Elizabeth offered. “He can come over and sit with me for a while. Or maybe Bobbie.”

“But I’ll be here on the door until Mr. Morgan gets back,” Cody promised. “Good night.”

Jason closed the door, then turned to Elizabeth with a sigh. “I’m sorry about this. I really thought the appeal would fail, and he’d stay in lockup longer.”

Elizabeth took off her coat. “You can’t help when things happen—”

“But this is the last thing I needed.” He hung up her coat in the closet. “He’ll be on house arrest. If he disappears, the PCPD will climb down our throats—”

“Which isn’t what we want with a baby in the NICU.” She wrinkled her nose. “So, what’s the plan?”

“I’m meeting with Bernie and Tommy at the club first,” he said lightly, and Elizabeth knew that was probably about the Vinnie situation. She’d asked Jason not to tell her anything else, and he’d listened, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t know what was going on. “Then we’re going to the coffeehouse. I want to make sure Justus and Bernie have everything they need to run things without me for at least a week. If not more. And now I need to figure out how to keep Sonny in check—”

“The house arrest thing could help us,” Elizabeth reminded him. “If he leaves the Towers, then he’ll be arrested. I won’t be here for him to harass since I’ll be in the hospital for a few days.” She leaned up to kiss him. “This will be okay, I promise.”

“I wish I could believe that.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “But—”

“Tomorrow, we’re going to meet our son. Nothing is going to ruin that.” She cupped his face with her hands again, lingering. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Thank you for today.” She drew back. “Emily said it was your idea.”

He ran his fingers down her arms, from her shoulders until his hands linked with hers. “I knew they were planning something after. I think Monica was worried that if she threw you a baby shower, it would be like pressuring you to deliver early when you didn’t want to. But—”

“I wanted just one thing to feel normal. Getting to have the celebration while I’m still pregnant—it meant so much to me. And so many people were there—” She sighed as they walked towards the stairs. “Monica had some of the members from my support group there. I want to go back after Cameron comes home. I miss it. I think I still need it, and seeing them reminded me how good I felt while I was working with them.”

He swung her into his arms to start up the stairs. “You’re back on board with PCU in the fall, then?”

“Yeah, I think so. I could defer for a year,” she admitted, “but Gail pointed out that I don’t need to take a lot of classes the first semester. I could do one or two. So as long as I’m healthy, I’m gonna do it.”

He set her on her feet in front of their room. “I just want you to have everything I can give you,” Jason told her. Then pushed open the door across the hall — the room that had been empty two weeks ago.

Elizabeth blinked, then her eyes widened. “You—how—”

It was painted in the soft ocean blue that she’d picked out. It had reminded her of Jason’s eyes, the color she hoped their little boy would inherit. And it had furniture. The set she’d circled in a magazine—but she hadn’t—

And the rocking chair from her grandmother’s house that had been in storage. The mobile that Emily had given her that day at the baby shower. There were other things from the shower as well—

“How—” She turned back to Jason, her eyes wet. “How did you do this—”

He slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You left your magazines around, and I saw the sketches. I figured if there was anything you didn’t like, we have time before Cameron comes home. Carly came over last week to go through it while you were at lunch with Emily. She’s better at this than I am.”

“Oh—”

“And then we had people to do it while you were at the shower. The painting actually happened two days ago,” he added as she wandered around the room. “When Bobbie took you out to go shopping and lunch after your doctor’s appointment?”

She touched the mobile over the crib, smiling at the soft blue motorcycle that Emily had attached. “I thought we’d do it while Cameron was in the hospital—”

“I thought about what you said a few weeks ago. All the things you didn’t get to do because you’re sick. We’d have more time for all of this, Elizabeth. The shower, the nursery—” He took her hands in his again. “I made you a promise when we decided to keep the baby. I promised you we wouldn’t live in fear the whole time.”

“Jason—”

“We didn’t do a good job of keeping that promise,” he admitted, “and I’m sorry—”

“I made it so much worse—”

“We both did,” he corrected gently. “But this part? We should get to do this right. You should have a baby shower before you have the baby. And you should get to decorate his nursery before you go into the hospital. We can change anything you want, but—”

“It’s perfect. It’s exactly what I wanted, and it means more that you did it for us.” She leaned her head against his chest, looking at the crib. “I’ll have to call Carly in the morning. To thank her. I made sketches and notes, but she turned it into reality.”

“She didn’t really get to enjoy being pregnant with Morgan either,” Jason reminded her. “So she knew exactly how you felt. And she wanted to do this for  both of us.” He led her over to their room. “But I also know that Cameron will be with in our room at first—”

In the corner of the room that had remained empty, there was now a plush chair that would be perfect for cuddling up with their son. Next to the chair was a cradle where Cameron would sleep for a few months. “We’re ready for him. Whenever he gets to come home.”

“This is why I can believe everything will be okay.” She leaned up to kiss him. “Because I have you, and we’ll have our son. That’s all I need.”

Miami, Florida

The Setai Miami Beach Hotel: Grand Suite

Claudia sauntered out onto the terrace, where Ric was lounging in the hot tub. “I need to fly home tomorrow,” she told him.

He arched a brow. “Really?”

“I just received the most delightful update.” She waggled her cell phone at him. “The stars are aligning for the final step. We’re ready for Manhattan.”

“Really?” he climbed out of the tub, reaching for the towel to drape around his naked waist. “I thought we were holding onto that one for the right moment. You’re sure?”

“Definitely. My father has played his part excellently.” Claudia smirked. “Won’t he be surprised when we finish the job—you’ll let me be the one to take him out, won’t you?”

“As long as you leave my father for me,” Ric said coolly. “But not until we’re sure. We need the Zacchara contacts. We need them to play patsy—”

“Oh, believe me. They’ve already done it. Their contact inside the Corinthos organization just got in touch, and Enzo ran right to tell me.” She slid her tongue over her teeth. “Enzo was a great investment and quite the animal in the sack.” She danced her fingers down his bare chest. “We could all have so much fun together—”

“Not interested,” he said. “What did he learn?”

“He overheard my father and Trevor talking about Manhattan. Sonny’s being released tomorrow,” Claudia told him. “And Elizabeth’s going into the hospital for delivery.”

He frowned. “Already? She can’t be due yet—”

Claudia waved away his concern. “Something to do with the baby or something. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It means Jason will be distracted with his family while Sonny is let loose on the world. What will he do without Jason to hold him back?”

Claudia snorted. “My father thinks he’s so smart, fooling Jason and Sonny into searching desperately for a man he killed months ago.”

“Now it’s our turn to have the last laugh.”

Even if the sky is fallin’
And the sun don’t wanna shine
If the stars we used to wish on disappear into the night
Well, I can move a mountain
But only by your side
Just say you’ll always be there
I know you’ll always be there
And so will I
– So Will I, Ben Platt

---

Saturday, February 21, 2004

General Hospital: Vending Machines

Kelsey slapped at the machine, refusing to just let her have her damn candy. “All I want,” she said through clenched teeth, “is a fucking Three Musketeers!” She slapped it again, hard. “Damn it—”

“You know—” Kelsey whirled around when she heard someone behind her. Cruz put up his hands. “I come in peace.”

“Sorry.” Kelsey sighed and looked back at the machine. She pressed the button again, and this time—her candy bar slid to the bottom, where she scooped it out. “It’s so stupid, isn’t it?” she muttered.

“Trying to kill a vending machine?” Cruz said dryly as she wandered over to the bench. “Well, it’s easier than punching a wall. I should know—I had to figure out how to patch the walls at our place, or I was gonna lose my security deposit.” When Kelsey frowned, he clarified, “Dante had a lot of feelings after Vinnie was arrested.”

“Have you seen him?” Kelsey asked. She unwrapped the bar—then just stared at it, her appetite all but gone.

“I thought he was supposed to come here, but maybe he went to the station instead.” Cruz tilted his head. “How you holding up?”

“Fine. Lucky’s—the doctor said he’ll be fine. We’re just waiting for him to be moved from recovery to his own room.” Kelsey said. She offered him the candy bar, but he shook his head. “I had to get out of the waiting room. His entire family is in there, and you know, they’ve been through this. I mean—the dying part. They buried him once. He told me about it—”

“Yeah, the kidnapping and brainwashing. Our boy has lived a wild life.” Cruz grinned faintly, stretched his legs out. “So are they doom and gloom or optimistic—”

“I don’t know. They just—they just have this experience, I guess, of a world where they think he’s gone, and they keep looking at each other—” Kelsey re-wrapped the candy and shoved it in her purse. “I can’t. I don’t have it. I wasn’t supposed to—” She dug her hands in her hair and squeezed her eyes shut. “I wasn’t looking for someone who’d matter like this.”

“Kelse—”

“I was just—I’m just starting my job, and then he was—a cute guy with a great smile, and he’s—he worked so hard to take care of his sister—and then I saw him on the job—”

“He’s a good guy. Which you deserve. You came in and whipped the DA’s office into shape. And you keep Lucky on his toes. You’re good together.” Cruz put an arm around her shoulder. “This sucks, but he’ll be okay.”

“Yeah, but he’s—he’s a cop. He’s a cop in Port Charles.” Kelsey swallowed a lump in her throat. “This might not be the only time I’m waiting for him to come out of surgery—”

“Hey, you’re an ADA, and he had to wait on you,” he reminded her. “Just a few months ago, you got cracked over the head. He had the same thoughts—but he dealt with it. And so will you.”

“And if it happens again?” Kelsey bit her lip. “What if the next time—”

“And what if he ends up being one of those cops that never has to pull his gun? He and I are both taking the detective’s exam this summer. We’ll be off the street this time next year. Don’t be dumb, Kelse.”

She laughed then—her laughter breaking into sobs. Cruz hugged her more tightly to his side. “I’m sorry, I was just—I was sleeping, and then the phone rang, and it was Bobbie—and she said he was shot—and I can’t seem to get out of that—I can’t make that moment stop—”

“I know. I got the call on the scanner at home. I know his unit number. I heard him, Kelse. He called in his own damn shooting. He’s too tough to go out like this.” He pulled up. “C’mon, let’s go get you cleaned up. When Lucky comes out of surgery, you don’t wanna look like you were plannin’ his funeral.”

“I know, I know.” She dragged her hand through her hair. “I called my mom, and she refused to come to Port Charles. Even now. Can you believe that?”

“I’m sorry. Family can be—” Cruz’s smile was tight. “Maybe she’ll change her mind.”

“Yeah, well, I screamed at her, so maybe.” Kelsey rolled her shoulders. “After all this time, she says Port Charles still brings back bad memories of my dad. That’s insane—oof—” She turned a corner, slamming into someone else. “Oh, sorry, Mr. Spencer.”

“That’s okay.” Lucky’s dad gently put hi hands on her shoulder, then stepped back. “I was coming down to get you. Cowboy is in his own room.” He furrowed his brows. “Did I hear you say your mom wasn’t coming?”

“Yeah. She hates Port Charles.” Kelsey offered him a half smile. “She can’t get over my dad.”

“Sure, sure. Well, let’s go up. You, too, Cruz,” Luke told the other cop. “He’ll want to see you both.”

Corinthos & Morgan Warehouse: Jason’s Office

“Jordan is going to start in about a week,” Justus told Jason as he tossed some paperwork onto his desk. “She’s taking Sonny on as a favor to me, but she’s wrapping up a trial—”

“That’s fine. Where are we on the criminal charges?” Jason asked, glancing over the retainer agreement. “I know Ned isn’t backing down—”

“No, and neither is Baldwin. No one wanted this kind of case to be the reason Sonny gets brought down,” his cousin added, “but I think Baldwin will take what he can get.”

“What about bail?” Bernie asked.

“It’s a nonstarter right now. I filed the appeal, but right now, I don’t have anything to work with as long as he refuses an evaluation.”

Jason grimaced. “Carly said he looked bad when she saw him. Mostly lucid, but still having trouble staying in the present. He didn’t always make sense.” He leaned back. “Will we win on appeal?”

“Maybe. They don’t like to keep people locked up for anything short of murder,” Justus said. “I’m hoping that a few more days in lockup will make Sonny change his mind about an evaluation, but I won’t hold my breath.”  He paused. “I’ll defend you,” he clarified to Jason. “But I think it’s best if Jordan takes point on anything to do with Sonny—”

“I can live with that,” Jason promised.

“Uh, I guess that’s my cue to mention that the rumblings are getting worse, and you were right—Tommy’s behind the issues.” Bernie cleared his throat. “He feels that he and Sonny are pretty equal, you know. They sort of came up—well, not together because Tommy’s been around longer—”

“But they came up through the clubs,” Jason finished. “Tommy started with the Jeromes, but Sonny came to Port Charles through Joe Scully’s connections to Frank Smith. Tommy’s always kind of looked down on Sonny because of it.”

“He let Sonny take control after Frank fell because Tommy didn’t want the headaches or the pressure of power,” Bernie said. “Benny used to worry about him, but Tommy didn’t seem to be much of a threat because things ran smoothly. Even when you transferred things over to Moreno—”

“The clubs were stable,” Justus finished. “And that’s where Tommy’s money is. But that’s not happening now. Since the PCPD started to put more of their resources into Major Crimes, they left Capelli in charge of Organized Crimes.”

Jason clenched his teeth at the mention of the cop that had splashed Elizabeth’s name all over the papers and led to everything blowing up that day. “He’s why we’ve had more club raids—”

“Say what you want about Taggert and his tunnel vision,” Justus offered, “but he didn’t screw up nearly as much as Capelli. Capelli’s been spamming the court with search warrants, most of which are trash but—”

“But just enough have come through to disrupt profits.” Jason dragged his hands down his face. “And Sonny’s not around to handle things. Who are our people inside the department? What do we know?”

Bernie paused, flashed a look at Justus who made a face.

Jason frowned. “What’s going on? We still have sources, don’t we?”

“Sonny was actually taking point on this,” Justus told Bernie quietly. “It was one of the few things he didn’t want Jason in on, and I decided—well, I agreed at a time.” He focused on Jason, who scowled. “We have a guy in the OCU who does what he can, but our main source in the PCPD used to be Vinnie Esposito.”

Jason stared at him as the name sank in. “What?”

“He was a low-level contact back in his patrol days,” Justus said. “Gave Sonny heads up a few times but was never that useful, but Sonny kept him on the payroll because he’d lost a big source, I think, around that same time. He never gave tips directly to Sonny. He gave them to Tommy or—”

“Sometimes he gave them to Luke through the club,” Bernie added. “Uh, when he moved back from Buffalo, he called Tommy to make new arrangements. He was a detective now with more access. Tommy handled him until the Alcazar case. Then Sonny started to use him as a source.”

“Sonny always meant to loop you in, but there never seemed to be time, or it didn’t come up. That’s what he told me in October when he said we needed to get new sources. But yeah, some of Vinnie’s bankroll and cover came from us.”

“Cover,” Jason repeated. “What kind of cover?”

“Christ, Jason, do you really want to get into this?”

“Yeah.  I really want to know what kind of cover Tommy and Sonny gave the man who raped my wife and tried to kill her in our home,” Jason bit out. “Did they cover up any of the rapes?”

Justus looked pained. “Jason—”

“It’s not—” Bernie said at the same time.

“Did they cover before 1998? Before this summer? How many times did they let him off the hook—”

“Jason.” Justus got to his feet, holding his hands up. “I wasn’t here for any of this—and by the time I knew, I agreed with Sonny. I didn’t think there was a point in telling you. But now that we’re talking about needing a new source—”

“I want to know every single goddamn time this organization covered for Vinnie Esposito,” Jason said. “Did Sonny know? We have two rules in this territory. We don’t run drugs and women. We don’t have pimps on the payroll—”

“You’re not that clueless, are you?” Justus demanded. “You think because you and Sonny said it, everyone listened? Christ, Jase—one of Tommy’s strip clubs is a glorified brothel. How the hell do I know that, and you don’t?”

“Tommy runs a prostitution ring?” The blood in Jason’s veins iced over. What the hell else didn’t Jason know about his own organization? “What exactly did he cover up for Vinnie?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t know if Sonny ever knew the details,” Justus told him. “You have to know, on his worst day, Sonny never would have covered up what happened to those girls—”

“No, but Tommy might. He pretends to be an old school guy, and he thinks he’s being generous giving me time with Elizabeth and the baby—but he’s not also not ready to go after me yet. Elizabeth gives him cover with the people pushing at him.” He looked at Bernie. “You agree, don’t you?”

“He doesn’t have enough people to go at you,” Bernie continued, “and he’ll need more to avoid the kind of civil war we saw ten years ago with Smith and Sonny. He needs you to really fuck something up.”

“Like letting Sonny get arrested repeatedly and covering for him,” Justus said. “If Capelli gets something through the system because we’re distracted dealing with Sonny, and one of the clubs gets hits hard—Tommy would point to that as evidence of weakness, and people would listen. People respect you, Jason, but they’re losing patience.”

“I know what everyone wants me to do,” Jason bit out. “I know that if I eliminated Sonny, everyone would shut up, and my problems on that front would disappear.”

“Sonny’s a liability, Jason. He’s not the man he was once—” Bernie began.

“He’s in jail right now, and nothing is getting screwed up while he’s there. When he gets out, I will make things clear to him.” His chest tightened. “He needs to step down and go to the island where he gets a psychiatric evaluation and treatment. It’s his only chance to get to be with his kids one day and avoid someone going after him on the streets.”

“He’s not going to agree—” Justus began, but Jason shot him a look. “Oh.”

“He’s not getting a choice. Elizabeth lied to me about her health because she didn’t want to create issues. Because I’m distracted by Sonny, and there are people who depend on me here. That doesn’t get to happen again. I gave him months of choices, and he chose wrong every time.”

“Sonny isn’t the issue anymore. Justus—” He looked at his cousin. “You’re going to find out about every single person who reported a sighting of Lansing. I want to know who they know and who they owe. I want to find out who the hell was feeding this info to Sonny from the inside. As soon as we know that, I’m going to stop it. I can’t focus on finding Lansing if I keep getting pelted with lies.”

Then he focused on Bernie. “And you are going to find out everything about Vinnie Esposito’s relationship with this organization. When did it start, what did we cover up, and when? I want to know if anyone in this organization knew about the rapes—”

“Jason, do you really want to know that?” Justus pressed quietly. “If you find that out—God, what if they covered up the original rapes? What if someone knew about Elizabeth back when she was a kid—you’d have to tell her that—”

“I would.” And that was the last thing in the world he wanted, but there wasn’t a choice. “I think it’s more likely Vinnie went after prostitutes working for Tommy, and that got covered up. I want to know what blood is on our hands. I’ll deal with the consequences.”

General Hospital: ICU

Kelsey sniffled as she sat down next to Lucky and took his limp hand in hers. He’d been sleeping for a few hours, so his parents had gone home briefly to change and get something to eat. This was the first time she’d been alone since he’d been moved here.

She traced the inside of his palm. “I just—I wasn’t expecting to get that call, you know? And it’s stupid. I knew you were a cop—”

He stirred in the bed, and his face turned towards her. His eyes opened, and she could see just a sliver of the blue beneath the lids. “Kelse? Is that you?”

“Yeah, baby, it’s me.” She kissed his hand.

“Don’t cry…” His voice slid over the words and then faded at the end of it. He forced his eyes open a bit more. “Love you.”

“I love you, too.”  She exhaled slowly, forced a smile on her face. “Can I get you anything?”

“Don’t think I can have a beer,” he mumbled.

She laughed, but a sob bubbled up. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know you’re okay, I just can’t keep myself from thinking—”

“S’okay,” he told her. “Cried, too.”

“W-what?” Kelsey swiped at her eyes. “When?”

“When you…” Lucky forced his eyes open again as his voice drifted. “In the head. Scott…couldn’t punch him. So…”

She laughed again, and this time she could keep herself together. “So you cried instead.”

“Lil bit,” he slurred. His eyes closed again. “Don’t leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she promised him. She tightened her grip on his hand. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

PCPD: Squad Room

Portia craned her neck to peer over the bustling room and the cluster of officers. She sighed in relief when she spied Marcus exiting a hallway and heading towards a desk.

“Excuse me,” she murmured, brushing past another detective. “Marcus—”

“Portia—” Marcus snapped back to his feet, his shoulders straightening. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you get my message?”

“I did, but I wanted to drop off some food. I knew you wouldn’t bother grabbing much, and those vending machines—” She dropped the bag on the desk and fought the urge to reach for his hand. To touch him. To give him comfort. She knew he’d take this too hard. “They said on the news that the cop who was shot—that he’s okay.”

“Yeah. Yeah, he’s in recovery. At least for now.” Marcus scrubbed a hand over his face.

There was something terribly wrong. More than just a cop down. She could see it in the set of his shoulders, the lines on his face. “Marcus?”

“I can’t get into it right now,” he murmured, but he reached for her hand. “We’ll talk later?”

“Of course. Stop by tonight. Or whenever you’re done. It doesn’t matter what time,” Portia added. She jerked a key out of her pocket and closed it into his hand. “Okay?” They’d exchanged words about love, but giving someone a key to the apartment—that felt like a big step. Was he okay with it? Was it too fast—

He brushed his mouth over her knuckles, and she smiled. His eyes had warmed, and she could almost see the smile in them. “Best invitation I’ve ever heard.”

“Good. Take care of yourself, okay? I’ll see you later.”  She lowered her voice. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Emily perked up at the reading from the pulse oximeter. “That’s really good—” She handed the meter to Bobbie, who leaned over. “It’s staying above 95.”

“Yeah, Monica was happy. The extra oxygen therapy is doing what I need it to,” Elizabeth said. “I’m back in the normal range, and I’m feeling better, too. Still tired, but not the same way.”

“What I’m wondering,” Bobbie said, “is whether or not this improvement means you’re going to backtrack on early delivery.” She lifted her brows. “Since it was what made you change your mind—”

“That wasn’t—” Elizabeth shook her head. “It wasn’t what changed my mind, and no, I’m still checking in around March 6 as long as these levels stay stable. Monica feels a lot better about waiting, and everyone always agreed that as long as my vitals were good, it was okay to wait.” She paused. “But I’ve listened to Emily and Jason, and I’ve toured the NICU. Gail and I also talked about why I was pushing so hard for Cameron to avoid the NICU.”

She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “I know things have been crazy for everyone. There’s tension for Jason at work, all this worry about Sonny and what he’s going through—then the Ric sightings. I didn’t want Jason to feel like he’d have to make a choice—”

“A choice?” Emily repeated. “What kind of choice?”

“If Cameron’s in the NICU, I know Jason will want to be with him as often as possible. But if things are insane here—” Elizabeth bit her lip. “It was never that I didn’t believe how much he loved us—it was knowing how much he does. People depend on Jason to keep things safe.”

“Elizabeth—”

“Lucky used to talk about his dad being in the business when he was a kid, and how bad things got when Sonny and Luke went after Frank Smith.” Elizabeth sipped her tea. “People went missing—some of them have never been found. There were explosions and shootings—Laura had to defend her home with a shotgun when men broke in—”

“You’re a bit too young to remember,” Bobbie said to Emily. Then she squinted. “Or maybe it was before you moved here. Lucky was shot back then, too.”

“He told me. It was before I lived here, but I’ve lived here through Moreno and Sorel, Elizabeth—”

“Frank Smith wasn’t anything like them,” Bobbie cut in before Elizabeth could. “And you didn’t know Sonny and Luke back then. The only way Luke could be sure that Laura and the kids were safe was to eliminate Smith. They’d been running from him for almost a decade by that point. And Frank Smith wanted to hold onto power at all costs. Sonny took advantage of that and ended up in charge. Elizabeth’s right—Sorel and Moreno were smaller threats, but Frank and Sonny? That was an all-out civil war, and everyone got caught in the cross fire.”

Bobbie focused on Elizabeth. “So, you know how bad things are.”

“I didn’t know some of it until Jason and I talked last night, but I knew enough that I didn’t want Jason to have any distractions.”

“But that can’t be your problem—”

“It has to be,” Elizabeth insisted. “He’s my husband, and this is his life. I chose this, Emily. I know who Jason is—”

“Elizabeth—”

“And it is my responsibility not to create problems for him. I think about the stunts Carly pulled—nearly getting Sonny arrested when she tried to help Mike, the feds—I don’t want to ever be a liability for Jason.”

“You couldn’t be—”

“If Cameron had been born at twenty-weeks, Jason and I would have spent all our time in the NICU. What if someone took advantage of his distraction to go after Sonny and the business—” Elizabeth pressed her lips together. “I was healthy enough to keep going and give him the space to get closer to a resolution. We both won, Emily. I wanted to give Cam extra time, and Jason needed the space. Can you imagine if I’d listened to Monica weeks ago, and these sightings and the paternity scandal had hit with Cam in the hospital?”

She fisted a hand and pressed it against her chest. “I didn’t do it just for Jason. Please don’t think I’m insane, okay? But when Gail asked me why it was so important that Cameron’s time in the NICU was limited, I couldn’t just say it was the complications. It’s part of it, and I’m still afraid. But, yeah, I want to protect Jason from having to make that choice. Because I know he’d choose me, and look what happened when he did that for our honeymoon? Sonny became wildly unstable and even angrier—”

Emily exhaled slowly. “I still want to say that’s not your problem. That’s Jason’s business, and you know he doesn’t want you to be part of it—”

“And I don’t plan to get involved. But that is not the same as being unaware and in the dark. I love him, Emily. I want to support him. I didn’t even know how much of it was about not wanting him in the middle of that until I talked to Gail, but maybe I would have known if Jason and I had talked to each other. We weren’t really talking at all.”

“Because he didn’t want to push you on the baby,” Bobbie said. “So you both shut down.”

“Exactly. I’m not planning to do that again. Jason and I understand each other better now. I toured the NICU, and we’re going to talk to a doctor who specializes in everything else. I will feel guilty about losing that baby last year for the rest of my life, and I may never truly accept there was nothing I could do to save her.” She paused. “But I can try my best to protect Cameron and Jason.”

“So you are still checking into the hospital,” Emily said.

“I talked to Monica, too. We’re all agreed. As long as my vitals are stable, making it to week thirty-two gives Cameron a much better outlook and lessens long-term complications.”

Luke’s: Back Office

Luke had planned to stop by the club to check on things, make sure Claude hadn’t burned the place down, and then head back to the hospital. No more than ten minutes. When Jason stalked through the office door, Luke had a feeling his night was going to take a different turn.

“At some point,” Jason said, flatly, “were you planning on telling me that Vinnie Esposito was a source for you and Sonny?”

Luke absorbed those words, trying to make sense of them. It was a curveball he hadn’t seen coming, and had to take a minute. “I didn’t—I didn’t make the connection. Don’t give me that look—I wasn’t home when this case blew up. I saw the papers, and Lucky mentioned his name, but I didn’t make the connection. This was years ago—”

Jason stalked towards the desk. “When did he start turning tips over to you? And why did he turn to you and not Tommy?”

“I don’t—” Luke’s head buzzed. “Oh, Christ. It was after. After the attack on Elizabeth. He came to me after he’d gone after her.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “The cop showed up at the club here. He said he needed to pass something on to Tommy, but he couldn’t get in touch. He didn’t know you much yet—you were still handling things then—” he reminded Jason. “So, uh, he knew I was in the loop.”

Luke got to his feet and went over to the bar, his fingers trembling. He’d taken information from the monster who’d raped Elizabeth. Her face with those large, haunted eyes, flashed in Luke’s head.

“How long after her rape did he come to you?”

“I—” Luke frowned. When exactly had that meeting happened? How soon after Lucky had left? Christ.  He didn’t want to think about this. “I think it might have been April. Or even late March. Why?”

“Because Lucky went with Elizabeth to make the report in mid March,” Jason said. “Which is why he started giving you the info. He knew Lucky was involved in the case.”

“And he might have hoped to run into her a time or two. God, I wonder—” Luke rubbed a fist against his chest. “They were caught trespassing here. Elizabeth ran away from Audrey’s, and they were coming here to wash up and use the kitchens. Security caught them and called the cops, not me. I wouldn’t have called that in. He’s my kid.” He sat down. “Vinnie was one of the officers that took them in.  He mentioned it later when he slipped me some info.”

And then Luke looked at Jason.  “The thing is the security wasn’t tripped from the codes. Lucky knew those codes. Company said they’d had a call that someone witnessed a break in.”

“Vinnie called it in so he could respond.”

“He stalked her,” Luke murmured. “Looking to get her alone again, you think?” His hand was still shaking as he lifted the whiskey to his lips. “If I’d thought for a minute— but he didn’t give off that air. I thought he was just a dirty cop—”

He looked at Jason. “He liked the club, he said, so if it was okay, he’d give me the info for a while. Then you sold off to Moreno, and I told him that I wasn’t gonna pass on info anymore. Wasn’t interesting in helping Moreno.”

“But the info you fed me that spring and summer—when the cops were gonna raid the clubs—”

“Came from Vinnie.”

Jason sank into a chair and put his head in his hands. “Oh, man.”

“I never dealt with him again after you sold out. I cut ties with you and Sonny after that fire—but Vinnie was still a regular at the club—”

“He ever cause any trouble?”

“No. No. Came in, drank some beers. Listened to the music. Until I read his name in the papers, I wouldn’t have figured him for this. He faded in the background. You didn’t notice him.”

“Yeah, I know. Elizabeth waited on him in Kelly’s and never got a weird feeling.” Jason looked at him. “I didn’t know. I never asked where you got the information. I should have.”

“Why would you? You trusted me, and dirty cops are a dime a dozen.” Luke hesitated, because it was more than that. Jason had been able to stay one step ahead of the police because of the man who’d raped Elizabeth. It was horrifying. “We didn’t know. We couldn’t have. You can’t blame yourself.”

“I know,” Jason repeated. “I just—I found out he was a source for us back then. And he kept on being a source. Until October.” While he was terrifying and raping all those other girls—

“Jase—”

“You’ve known Tommy longer than me.” Jason met Luke’s eyes. “If Vinnie worked over one of Tommy’s girls—I mean if he—”

“Would Tommy have covered up Vinnie abusing his girls to protect the source?” Luke asked. He sat back. “Yeah. Yeah, he would have. He’s old school.”

“Old school—” Jason snorted. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Old school in that he separates women into categories. Madonnas and whores,” Luke clarified. “Sonny knew Tommy ran girls under the table. He’s always known that, Jase. As long as it stayed that way, he let it go. You remember that Sonny came up through the strip clubs. He used girls a time or two himself.”

“I—”

“Sure he’s changed, but not that much. Tommy would have seen the girls as whores good for nothing but making him money. He wouldn’t have covered up any other kind of attack. Not those other rapes. But if Vinnie went after a hooker?” Luke nodded. “It wouldn’t have been an issue for him.”

“How do I—” Jason exhaled slowly. “Elizabeth knows who I am and what I do. She’s always known. But I have to tell her about this. She should know.”

“Jase—”

“How do I tell her that my business—my partners—men she invited to our wedding—protected the animal who raped her?”

Kelsey’s Apartment: Living Room

The knock at her door jerked Kelsey out of a restless sleep. She’d come home from the hospital just to grab a shower and a few hours of rest but had no sooner dozed off on the sofa when there was a hesitant knock.

She reached for her phone, worried that she’d slept longer than she thought and had missed some news about Lucky. He’d come out of surgery, but people got infections—

“Stop it,” she reminded herself, shuffling towards the door. “You’re insane.” She peered through the peephole, then hurriedly unlocked the door.

“Mom?” Kelsey said, opening the door to reveal Angela Joyce standing in front of her, looking hesitant. “Mom!” She threw her arms around the other woman. “What are you doing here?”

“I felt awful after we hung up the phone earlier.” Angela gently steered Kelsey back into the apartment. “I never meant to hurt you or make you feel like I didn’t care—”

“Mom—” Kelsey sighed. “I know you don’t want to bring back memories of Dad, and I get it, I do, but—” She led her mother into the kitchen area and started to put together a pot of coffee. “I live here now, and I like it. I’m dating someone who’s tied to this city. This is where my life is.”

“And I wish you’d gone anywhere else after law school.” Angela set her coat over the counter. “But Scott offered you the job, and I don’t blame you for snapping it up. I’m allowed to worry about you. You’ve been here six months, and look what’s happened.”

“Mom—”

“And when you said Lucky had been shot—” Angela closed her eyes. “It just brought back that moment. That terrible moment when the officer called to tell me they’d found your father, that he was dead—” Her voice broke.

Kelsey set down the coffee mugs then frowned at her mother. “Found Dad?” she said. “You mean, they called from the accident scene. You said Dad died in the hospital.”

“What?” Angela stared at her, then shook her head. “Oh. Oh, course.” She cleared her throat. “I think I’m just pushing the memories together. The hospital and the phone call. It all seems like a blur.” She smiled weakly at Kelsey. “You understand.”

“Right. Yeah.” Kelsey shook her head as if trying to clear it. “I got the call this morning, and it feels like a fog—” She waited a moment. “Mom, it’s been almost ten years since Dad died, and you’ve been back to Port Charles twice. Don’t you think it’s time that you put it behind you?”

“I told you if you came to Port Charles, it would be a cold day in hell before I followed.”

“Mom—Dad died in a car accident—”

“I know that! Why are you saying it like that?” Angela scowled. “You don’t understand. You’ve been with this boy for all of twelve seconds. I loved your father!”

“I know you did, Mom, but—”

“But what? I came here because you said you needed me.” Angela shoved off the stool. “But if you’re just going to judge me for the way I’ve lived my life—”

Kelsey reached for her. “No, Mom, please. Please. Stay the night. Come to the hospital and meet Lucky and his family. I told you they knew Dad, right? Laura was Scott’s ex-wife. She has so many stories about him. Please.”

Angela tensed. “I don’t want to meet his father. I know all about Luke Spencer—”

“Mom—”

“I’ll stay here. We’ll meet at another time.” She squared her shoulders. “Now, where is the bathroom? It was a long drive.”

Baffled, Kelsey gestured towards the door, and Angela disappeared behind it.

Morgan Penthouse: Hallway

Jason  found Elizabeth across the hall from their bedroom, in one of the empty rooms. She had a sketch pad in her hands and was looking around. “Hey.”

“Oh. Hey.” She flashed him a bright smile. “I came in here to take measurements. We haven’t even really talked about where Cameron is going to sleep — I mean, at first, he’ll be with us, but I don’t want him that far, you know?”

He leaned against the door frame. Should he even bother to bring this up tonight? She was in such a good mood and feeling so well that she’d taken the stairs herself. The last thing Jason wanted to do was bring back any of those memories she’d worked so hard to resolve.

“We have time,” he reminded her. “Cameron will be in the hospital for at least six weeks after he’s born.”

“No, I know. But I read that if he gains weight quickly enough and passes certain tests, he can come home as soon as a month after he’s born—” Elizabeth sighed happily. “Wouldn’t that be great? The sooner he’s home, the sooner I can start prepping for surgery. I think maybe the summer. I want to wait until Cam doesn’t need one of us all the time.”

“I thought you’d want the surgery as soon as possible.” Jason folded his arms. “I saw the manila envelope downstairs from PCU. If you have the surgery this spring, you’ll be all set for classes in the fall.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth turned to face him fully. “That came today. Um, I wasn’t—I mean, I feel like we planned that in another lifetime—”

“Nothing’s changed. You want to get your license for counseling. We were always planning to work around that schedule—”

“But Cameron might need so much more than—” Elizabeth paused. “It feels weird to think about it now.”

“You can defer admission for a year,” Jason told her as he straightened and approached her. “Do you not want to be a counselor anymore?”

“No, I do—I just—I don’t know. I looked at the acceptance letter, and I just—” Elizabeth frowned. “I just felt strange. I’d forgotten that I applied with everything else going on. It feels odd to plan for the future. We were avoiding that—”

“But we’re not now. Your health is better than it’s been in weeks, and you’ll be even better after the surgery.” Jason rubbed her shoulders. “You should get to have everything you wanted.”

“Yeah.” Wistfully, she turned to look around the room. He drew her against him, an arm hooked around her chest. “I never had a baby shower,” she murmured. “I feel stupid saying that, but—”

“It’s not stupid.” He kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry. I know a lot of this hasn’t gone the way you planned.”

“Well, maybe not, but I’m not too mad at how things ended up.” She turned in his arms and leaned up to kiss him. “I ordered pizza for dinner. Cam craved pepperoni. There’s some left.”

“Cam did, huh?” Jason leaned down to kiss her again. “I’m not that hungry, but thanks.”

“Hmmm…” Elizabeth pulled back slightly and frowned at him. “What’s wrong? And don’t tell me nothing. I know that face.”

“I just—” Jason slid his fingers down her arms until he was clasping her hands. “I found out something today that I know I have to tell you, I just…don’t want to.”

“Jason—”

“You know that in order for things to go right at work, we need sources,” Jason told her. “Inside the PCPD.”

“Is this is about Ric? Did they—”

“No, no—it’s not. I found out that the source we’ve been using the most over the last few years was Vinnie.”

Elizabeth stilled as she met his eyes. “Vinnie.”

“He passed tips about search warrants and cases to Tommy and to Luke for a little while before I sold out to Moreno.”

She stepped out of his arms, then folded her own. “I don’t—Luke?”

“He went to the club after you reported your attack to the PCPD. I don’t know a lot about any of it—I never handled any of that, even after I took over. I never asked where Luke got his information,” Jason told her. “The sources reported to someone else under Sonny, and he dealt with it. And he found out after we—he didn’t want to tell me. Or you. He thought it would be too much to deal with. I don’t know. Justus told me today.”

“He went to Luke after Lucky took me to the PCPD to file a report.” She closed her eyes. “God, how many times did I walk past him? How many times did he arrange it—” Her face paled. “Oh my God. He arrested me and Lucky at Luke’s.”

“I know, I talked to Luke. He doesn’t know much else. He only dealt with Vinnie for a few months, and then all of this happened while he was gone—” He paused. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s—” Elizabeth paused. “It’s okay. You didn’t know, and I think Sonny meant well. I really do. I don’t know how I would have felt in October when this was fresh. Or when we were preparing for the hearing. God, my skin is crawling just thinking about it now. And if Sonny had said something, you would have told me. You need sources in the PCPD who are willing to break the law.He fits that profile.”

“I wish that was the end of it,” Jason said. “But there are rumors that he got some cover from Tommy and his guys. Maybe for roughing up a prostitute or two—I’m looking into it—”

“I don’t want to know,” Elizabeth cut in sharply. “I understand if you need to know, and that’s fine. Okay? But I can’t—” She held up a hand, then curled it into a fist. “I thought you didn’t deal with that kind of thing—”

“I don’t,” Jason said, knowing exactly what she was going into. “But Sonny ran things up until six months ago, and there are pockets of the business that I never knew about. Even when I was in charge all those years ago. I think Tommy kept a lot from me. I’m dealing with that, but—”

“I just—I can handle what you do, Jason, and I do a pretty good job,” she added.

“I know—”

“But if you find out that someone in the organization covered up one of the rapes—I don’t want to know that, okay? Please. I get why you might need to know, but I don’t. I don’t want to know.”

“All right.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry—”

Elizabeth sighed, then tilted her head to the ceiling for a long moment. Then she focused on him. “I’m fine. It just—it hit me harder than I was expecting, but I appreciate that you told me. I know that was hard for you, and thank you for not protecting me. I just—I think anything past this—I don’t need to be in on it.”

“All right,” he repeated.

She kissed him again. “I love you.”

Relieved that the strange tension in the air had faded, Jason kissed her back. “I love you, too.”

“And since you’re not hungry, I’m gonna go finish the pizza.”

Wish I was too dead to care
If indeed I cared at all
Never had a voice to protest
So you fed me shit to digest
I wish I had a reason
My flaws are open season
For this, I gave up trying
One good turn deserves my dying
– Bother, Stone Sour

---

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Courtland Street: Alley

“Falconieri.”

Dante stared at the back of the ambulance as his partner and best friend was lifted up into the vehicle. The doors closed, and they sped off, the sirens clamoring loudly as the world woke up around them.

“Falconieri. Dante!”

Dante turned and blinked at his commanding officer, Taggert, who had lifted his brows and begun to scowl. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah, well—I’m tired, too. We got an officer down, so tell me what the hell is going on. Why were you in this alley?”

Dante dragged a hand through his hair. “We got a report of a drug deal going down. Lucky and I decided to split up — I covered him, and he went down the alley—but I don’t—”

He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t—I looked away for a second—and then there were footsteps—someone was running—and the shots—” He looked at Taggert. “It happened fast. And the backup—it never showed.”

“There was no—” Taggert hissed, then stalked back to his car. “Dispatch, this is Unit 23, Lieutenant Taggert. What calls came from Courtland and Van Ess?”

There was a crackle, then a pause before the dispatcher came back on the line. “Dispatched a suspicious activity report. Unit 84 radioed in that they were in the area, then a Code 30—”

“Bullshit! Bullshit—” Dante lunged forward. “I called in a Code 8—”

“Check records again,” Taggert told the dispatch, then he put the radio back in. “Falconieri—”

“Bullshit,” Dante repeated, his eyes flashing. “I called for fucking backup, and no one came!”

“There’s no record—I checked before I came—”

“They’re fucking lying—” He stopped abruptly at the sound an engine. He scowled when Capelli emerged from the car and sauntered towards them. “What the hell is he doing here?”

“Taking up oxygen,” Taggert muttered. “Capelli, what the fuck you want? This isn’t your case—”

“Courtland Street, drugs—” Capelli shrugged. “Organized Crime—”

“No, drugs are Major Crime. You have gambling and smuggling. So turn your ass right around—”

“Shove it, Tag. Fuckin’ traitor.” Capelli sneered at him. “Everyone knows you’re a dirty cop, just like this baby piece of shit—”

“What the hell—”

“You gonna protect your new best friend’s bastard?” Capelli growled. “No wonder this asshole had the fast track—he’s related to all the fucking criminals—” He gestured at Dante. “How much is Corinthos paying you to keep him out of trouble?”

“What the fuck did you just say—” Dante launched forward, but Taggert held him back.

“Go to the hospital,” he ordered. Taggert turned his back on Capelli, shoved the officer back. “Falconieri, God damn it, head to the hospital, and get me a report on Spencer—”

“He’s in there because of you,” Capelli called over Taggert’s shoulder. “You’re a fucking dirty cop, and everyone knows it! He was just dumb enough to cover your ass—”

“What the hell—”

“Get out of here,” Taggert ordered, slapping at Dante’s chest. “Now!”

Dante’s chest was heaving, his nostrils flared, but he stalked back towards the paramedics and climbed into the ambulance, which roared off into the night.

“I bet you didn’t even talk to Morgan or Corinthos yet—”

“Why the hell—”

“Drugs on Courtland Street?” Capelli pushed. “It’s the fucking Escobars. How do you know Morgan and Corinthos weren’t here sending a message to them?”

“That is the dumbest shit I’ve heard—You’re pissed because you got your ass kicked over the Lansing case. I got the promotion, you didn’t. Suck it up, and go back to do your job. Drugs are Major Crimes. The Escobars have nothing to do with Morgan and Corinthos. You got the waterfront, asshole. The rest of Port Charles is mine.”

General Hospital: Emergency Room

When Luke and Laura rushed into the emergency room just after six that morning, they found Kelsey huddled in one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs. Her eyes were rimmed with red, her cheeks puffy, and her hair was disheveled. Next to her, Anna Devane was holding her hand and talking to her gently.

Luke ignored Scott Baldwin leaning against the emergency room desk, and led Laura over to their son’s girlfriend.

“We came as soon as could,” Laura said, sitting on the other side of Kelsey and engulfing the younger woman in a hug.

Kelsey hugged Laura back, then took a deep breath. She shoved her hair out of her face. “He’s in—” She paused, trying to gather her thoughts. “He’s in surgery—they had to take him right in because the bullet—”

She shook her head, and the tears started again.

“We don’t know very much yet,” Anna clarified.

Luke scowled and walked over to Scott. “Baldwin, what’re you doing here?”

“Officer injured in the line of duty,” Scott said, but his face was pale as he looked over at Kelsey again. “And I wanted to be here if Bobbie or Kelsey needed anything.” He hesitated. “The bullet perforated his lung, Spencer. They couldn’t wait to operate.”

“Shit.” Luke turned away from his nemesis and returned to the ladies. “Where’s Barbara?” he asked Anna.

“She went up to surgery with Lucky to observe. Monica is operating. She’s the best—” Anna pressed his lips together. “I’m so very sorry. I don’t know what happened.”

“He’s a cop, that’s what happened,” Luke muttered as he put an arm around his wife’s shoulders, not liking the paleness of her skin. She had only just recovered from a traumatic breakdown, so it was up to him to stay strong. “Angel, why don’t we go call Lu and Nikolas? They’ll want to know.”

“Right.” Laura nodded. She closed her eyes, squared her shoulders, then opened them again. She took Kelsey’s hand. “You know how stubborn Lucky is, don’t you? He’s been through so much worse. He’s not going to let a little bullet get in his way.”

“I just—”  Kelsey inhaled sharply. “I want him to be okay. I just want—”

“I know, sweetheart. Should we call anyone for you? A friend? Family?”

On a shaky breath, Kelsey shoved her hair out of her eyes again. “I’m okay.”

“All right.” Laura squeezed her hand again, then offered Anna a tight smile before turning back to Luke. “Let’s go make those calls.”

When Luke and Laura had left the area, Scott returned to Kelsey and Anna. “Where’s Falconieri?” he asked roughly. “Do we have any leads?”

“Not as of yet, but Taggert pulled in Cruz, and we’re doing our best.” Anna’s tone was tight as she continued, “I’m having a manpower issue, Scott. We don’t have nearly as many detectives as we ought to. And the ones I do have are practically useless.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Scott muttered. He scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay, okay—”

He glanced up as a doctor he recognized exited the elevator. “Drake, right? Were you in surgery?”

“Yeah, I was asked to bring you guys upstairs to the surgical waiting room. It’s going to be a while,” Patrick Drake offered.

“How’s the surgery going?” Anna asked as she got to her feet. “Has his condition changed?”

“He’s stable,” Patrick told them. “Right now. They were able to repair the damage to the lung, or at least most of it. The bullet hit the liver, too, so they’re making sure they’ve taken care of the internal bleeding.”

“But he’s stable,” Kelsey repeated as Luke and Laura rejoined them. Laura hugged Kelsey to her side. “That’s good.”

“Healthy, strong guy — yeah, for now, stable. But he’ll be in surgery for a while, so come on upstairs.”

As they followed Patrick to the elevators, Laura hung back to catch Anna’s arm. “My other children are on their way, but I want to know if you know anything about what happened.”

“Nothing yet,” Anna said with a sigh. “I should know something when the scene is wrapped up. I promise to keep you in the loop.” When Laura didn’t look convinced, Anna arched an eyebrow. “Do you think I won’t?”

“I don’t have a lot of faith in the PCPD,” Laura admitted.

“After what happened to you,” Anna said slowly, “neither do I. That’s part of the reason I was asked to come to Port Charles and take over.” She touched Laura’s arm. “Let’s go upstairs and wait for more news.”

PCPD: Squad Room

Taggert shoved the cuffed man into the interrogation room, secured him at the table, and jabbed a finger at him. “I’ll be back when your lawyer gets here—”

“Whatever,” the man muttered, but his eyes were jittery and he was practically vibrating. He knew he’d been caught—there was no mistaking the preliminary ballistics report. Or the gun he’d been tossing in the dumpster when Taggert and Cruz had located the bastard.

“Taggert—” Anna caught his arm as Taggert slammed the door closed. “You’ve made an arrest?”

“Yeah—” He dragged a hand over his face. “Not watertight yet, but this moron will roll, and ballistics should back us up with the final report. How’s Spencer?”

“In surgery.” Anna followed him to the desk. “The bullet hit the lung and the liver, so the surgery will take much longer to control the internal blooding.”

“Damn it—”

“But it was looking good by the time I left. They got the bullet out and I’ve already arranged for it to go to the lab.”

“If it’s not too damaged, it’ll match the rest of the report, and I’ll lock this asshole up.” Taggert made another note before handing over his notes. “I need to clean it up, but ballistics made a preliminary match to a robbery a while back. Santiago Escobar is already waiting trial on those charges.”

“Ah, so we know the gun belongs to him.” Anna crossed over to the interrogation room, folding her arms. “I’m not familiar with the Escobars. Are they a gang? Are they organized?”

“Organized is a strong description for that pack of morons,” Taggert said. “It’s mostly petty crime and drugs in the Courtland Street neighborhood. His lawyer will get here and beg for a deal.” Taggert’s mouth twisted. “I don’t think he meant to shoot a cop.”

“You think he got spooked—” Anna frowned at the preliminary report, which included Dante’s statement from the scene. “What’s this? Dante says he called for back up? Where was it?”

“That’s a damn good question,” Taggert muttered. “And I’m gonna find out.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

“I’m sorry to mess up your morning,” Carly said as she passed by Cody at the door and flashed a regretful smile at Elizabeth, sipping tea on the sofa. “I wasn’t sure if you’d heard yet about Lucky.”

“Emily left me a message,” Elizabeth told her. She looked at Jason, who was frowning. “You were getting breakfast, and I didn’t get a chance to tell you. Lucky was shot while he was on patrol last night. He was in surgery when I checked last.”

“Yeah, he is still is. Mama went to the hospital. She’s been there since early this morning,” Carly sat down. “But then she came home and told me that there’s an investigation at the PCPD—and it involves Dante.”

“Dante?” Jason repeated. He sat next to Elizabeth. “What about him?”

“They were on patrol together—and I don’t know if we’re keeping tabs on Dante or not.” Carly twisted her fingers together. “Um, you know, since—”

“Since he’s probably Sonny’s biological son.” Jason exhaled slowly. “I haven’t really thought about him much. I mean, other than what happened because of the papers.”

“Right. We went into crisis mode because Sonny couldn’t handle it, and now we’re—well, I don’t know where we are on that either,” Carly said. “Mama said there might be something about him having issues. Uncle Luke said that he didn’t think Dante would be very popular with the rest of the department.”

“But he didn’t even know Sonny was his father, did he?” Elizabeth asked. “At least—”

“I don’t know. I don’t even know if this is something we need to pay attention to, I just know that we’ve had a weird relationship with the cops this last year,” Carly said to Jason. “With Lansing and the park case—”

“I’ll keep my eyes open,” Jason promised.

“I’ll be right back,” Elizabeth told him. He frowned and started to rise, but she shook her head. “I’m fine. I just need to use the bathroom.”

“Things seem all right,” Carly said cautiously when Elizabeth had disappeared down the hall to the downstairs bathroom.

“Uh, yeah. Her oxygen level is back in the normal range,” Jason assured her.

“Oh, good. I was worried, but I didn’t really know how to ask.” Carly bit her lip. “I feel terrible that you’ve been shouldering so much of the Sonny situation since you came home. I didn’t want it this way, Jason—”

“There’s nothing that’s happened since we got back that you could have dealt with, Carly. It wasn’t the divorce that set him off, but the newspapers and some business issues.” Jason winced. “You haven’t even served him with the divorce or custody papers—”

“I told Alexis we’re not filing until after Elizabeth delivers the baby. I got the balling rolling, and Sonny knows it’s coming, but he’s going to hit the roof when he finds out about AJ.”

“Carly—”

“You’ve done so much in the last six months—longer,” she added. “The least I can do is slow this down. It doesn’t feel as urgent as it did before, not with Sonny in all the trouble he’s in right now.” She paused. “I’m also going down to the PCPD to see if he’ll agree to a psychiatric evaluation.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I know, but I feel like I need to do something.” Carly got to her feet as Elizabeth returned. “Hey, Jason said your levels were back to normal. That’s great news.”

Surprised, Elizabeth looked at Jason, who winced. “Oh, yeah. It’s definitely a step in the right direction, but I’m going to be checking into the hospital around March 6 to induce labor.” She rested her hand on her belly. “It’s not as long as I hoped for, but we all agreed that it’s a good compromise.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” Carly touched Jason’s shoulder. “I’ll let you know how things go with Sonny.”

“You really don’t have to do this—” Jason followed Carly to the door. “I don’t think he’s going to listen—”

“But at least we’ll be able to say we tried everything, Jason.” Carly turned back to him, opening the door and standing on the threshold. “We need to do something. I’m afraid the next person he hurts might be himself. Or someone who can’t punch back, you know?”

“We’ll take care of it,” Jason promised her. He nodded to Cody, who had arrived on duty during Carly’s visit. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I will,” Carly promised.

He closed the door behind her and looked back at Elizabeth. “I’m sorry—I told her that your levels—”

“It’s fine,” Elizabeth said. She crossed to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “She’s your best friend, Jason. You can tell her anything you want about all of this. None of this has been easy, and I’m glad I’ve had Emily to talk to. I know you have her, too, but Carly’s yours. You deserve someone who’s just there for you.”

“Carly likes you,” Jason said, furrowing her brow.

Elizabeth laughed. “Like is a strong word. We respect and accept each other. That’s enough for me.” She kissed him lightly. “I’m gonna go leave Bobbie a message in case she needs anything.”

General Hospital: Vending Machines

Lulu screwed up her face at the row of vending machines. She didn’t want anything, but she also didn’t want to keep sitting in the waiting room, hoping that Lucky would be out of surgery.

How many times was a girl supposed to worry that her brother was going to die? Why did this dink have to go into law enforcement?

“Lu.”

She turned, startled, to find Dante just around the corner. His hair was disheveled with shadowed eyes, and his uniform shirt rumpled. “Dante!” She rushed forward and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. “I’ve been so worried!”

He hugged her back, dropping his head into the crook of her neck for a moment before clearing this throat and stepping back. “I came to check on Lucky. Is he—”

“Still in surgery—” Lulu swiped at her eyes. “Um, the doctor said it was looking good, but Mom’s all worried, and Dad’s tense because he’s worried about Mom, and you know, one time Lucky actually died, so they’re a little sensitive—” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ramble. We don’t know anything yet. Not for sure. And we need to be sure. Mom needs it. I’m still babbling on, and you’re upset, too, I know you are—”

“It’s okay.” He smoothed his hands down her arms, from her shoulders to her elbows, then back. “I’m sorry. This is my fault—”

“What? Why?” Lulu frowned. “No. You were his partner, and, oh God, it could be you up there, and that wouldn’t be better—” Her throat tightened at that. “You did your job, and this is part of the package, I know that—”

“No, I mean—” Dante hissed and looked away. “The guy got away because we didn’t have backup. That’s where I’ve been—”

“What are you talking about—”

“I called before we went into that alley—” His fingers tightened around her shoulders, his eyes burning with anguished misery and fury. “But no one ever came, and dispatch said I never called—”

“I don’t understand—”

“The two units nearby—they were a fucking block away—they could have caught the asshole dead to rights with the gun still on him—” Dante paused. “They’re Capelli’s guys. From his unit.”

“Capelli? The guy who screwed up the kidnapping and nearly got Elizabeth killed? What does—”

“He thinks I’m a dirty cop.” Dante released her. “They all do—”

“No, that’s not possible. Dante—”

“They think I snitched on Vinnie and that I’m working for Sonny—”

“But—” Lulu closed her mouth. “You’re saying they ignored the call. That they left you and my brother out to dry.”

“Lucky might die, and it’s my fault.”

PCPD: Interrogation Room

Carly paced the room as she waited for Sonny to be brought in. She’d felt so sure that this was the right decision a few hours ago with Jason. Jason had nearly missed a crisis in his own family because he was busy cleaning up after Sonny.

Carly couldn’t do much to help with the business—and she didn’t really want to—but there had to be something she could do to take some of the weight from Jason. She owed him this much.

“You have ten minutes,” the guard said as he pushed open the door, almost shoving Sonny through.

“What do you want?” Sonny demanded. Carly looked back nervously at the door. They hadn’t cuffed Sonny to the table—and she’d thought they’d stay with her—

She hadn’t anticipated being left alone with him.

“I wanted to check on you,” Carly said finally, taking in the dark circles under his eyes, the sullen cast to his skin, and the greasy, messy curls that spilled over his forehead. She hated seeing him like this—hated knowing how much he was suffering.

“To wallow in victory?” Sonny sneered. He stalked around the room, then seemed to focus on something just past Carly. “That’s right. That’s all she’s good for.”

Carly frowned. “Sonny—”

He snapped back to meet her eyes. “What? What’s the point?”

“I know Justus quit,” Carly said gently, “but Jason convinced him to stay on for a little longer to help. He’s trying to get you bail—”

“He should try harder—”

“You were arrested for assaulting the mayor, Sonny. That’s really bad—”

“He got in my way!” Sonny whirled around, stabbing a finger at her. Carly forced herself not to take a step back. “I wanted to choke that bitch—”

“Sonny, they’re recording,” Carly hissed. “You can’t say things like that—”

“You knew, didn’t you?” Sonny demanded. “That’s why Alexis is your lawyer. You blackmailed her—”

“I didn’t know for sure,” Carly admitted, hoping that some honesty would get her somewhere. “When I told you before Kristina was born that Alexis was pregnant and that you might be the father—I told you what I knew. You went to see Alexis and came back satisfied that it wasn’t your baby.” She shrugged, hoping it looked casual and not tense. “I just never really believed it. I figured I’d done what I was supposed to do and let it go.”

“Until you needed something.”

“Yes.” Carly swallowed hard. “I needed a lawyer who wouldn’t be scared of you, Sonny, and one that would be invested in fighting hard for my boys—”

“You’re stealing my boys from me just like she stole my daughter!” Sonny roared. “Just like that other bitch stole my son—”

“I don’t want it this way, Sonny—”

“Then don’t do it. Go home to the penthouse and make the boys safe—” Sonny lunged at her suddenly, and Carly stumbled back, hitting the door jamb. “I wasn’t—” He stared at her, stunned. “I wasn’t going to hurt you.”

“I—” Her hands were trembling. “I don’t know that, Sonny. After that night—you locked me in that penthouse—”

“That was months ago—”

“It was barely two months ago, Sonny, and you—” Carly closed her eyes. “I can’t keep going over this, Sonny. I can’t—”

“I told you I was sorry!” Sonny said. He dragged his hands through his hair, squeezing his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I say it all the time, but no one believes me. It’s never enough. Won’t ever be enough. The blood. Always on my hands—”

“Sonny—”

When he turned back, some of the manic anger had faded from his eyes. “I’m sorry for it. I wanted you to be safe, but you wouldn’t do what I needed—”

“And you weren’t doing what I needed,” Carly said gently, “so that’s why I left. But you still matter to me, Sonny, and I can’t stand seeing you in here. It’s making everything worse—”

“Then get me out!”

“I can’t without your help!” Carly stepped towards him. “The judge will let you out if you just get the evaluation—”

“I’m not fucking crazy!” Sonny roared. He slapped a hand against his chest. “I’m Sonny fucking Corinthos! This is my town! My family! No one is taking it from me—”

“What is all this yelling—” Anna stopped in the door, a scowl etched into her expression as she took in the scene before turning back to the squad room. “Where are the guards who brought him from lockup?” She turned back to Carly and Sonny. “Why aren’t you cuffed to the table?” she demanded.

“I was leaving anyway,” Carly said, folding her arms. “Maybe the guard who brought him up just forgot. It’s fine. It’s all fine.” She looked over at Sonny again, but his eyes were just burning with fury. “I’ve got nothing left to say to him.”

PCPD: Dispatch Center

The moment Taggert pushed open the double doors to the Dispatch Center, he knew that something wasn’t right. The volume dimmed, and there were some awkward stares.

He gritted his teeth, then stepped up to the counter. A tall, lanky young man stepped out from behind a cubicle. He pushed a pair of wire rim glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Lieutenant, what can I do for you?”

“I need a record of calls from Unit 84 and any other units within a mile radius for the third watch. I got some of that verbally this morning, but I need something more for my report,” Taggert said, watching the man’s eyes carefully. He dipped his eyes to the uniform shirt. “How fast can you get me that, Officer Murphy?”

Murphy slid his eyes to a man standing a few feet away. Likely the supervisor on this shift, Taggert noted. And the officer was unsure about answering questions.

“Uh, it shouldn’t take too long, I think.” Murphy stepped over to the computer, tapped a few buttons. “I can print you a copy of the electronic records now, and if you want—”

“We’re going to need the physical calls for the record,” Taggert interrupted. “We’ve made an arrest, and we want to make sure the timeline sticks.”

“Right, right. That’ll take a few more days, but here’s the list—” He set down a printout. “Not much action. There’s a call, dispatching Unit 84 to the alley, then a reply from Unit 84 registering the call. They called in again on arrival — a 10-97. And then Officer Spencer called in the shooting—”

“You’re sure that’s a 10-97?” Taggert said, pointing. “My guys say it should have been a Code 8 for back up.”

“If it had been a Code 8, there’d be an all-call.” Murphy slid the copy over. “There’s none. And we had a few units in the area—”

“I’ll take it from here,” the supervisor said, ambling over. Murphy grimaced. “You have a problem with our records?”

“No,” Taggert drawled, “just checking all the boxes. We’ll know for sure when we get the tapes of the calls, won’t we?” He folded the print out. “I’ll take print outs for all the units now. Unless that’s an issue?”

“No,” the supervisor said, smiling thinly. “Let me get right on that. Cops gotta stick together, don’t we?”

“You’d think,” Taggert muttered, but beneath his breath as the supervisor went over to the printer. Dante wasn’t crazy. He’d called for backup, and now Dispatch was pretending he hadn’t.

First, he needed to nail Santiago Escobar to the wall. Then he’d turn his attention to finding out what the hell was going on in his department.

General Hospital: Bathroom

Kelsey splashed some water on her face, then stared at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were still red and swollen from crying, her hair disheveled from running her fingers through it so many times—

Her eyes felt like sandpaper, but every time she tried to close her eyes, she heard the phone ringing again. She heard Scott’s voice—

She cupped her hands under the cold water once again, then splashed herself again. Lucky was in surgery, but things looked okay. She just had to keep remembering that.

He would be okay. He would wake up and everything would be okay—

She reached into her jeans and tugged out her cell phone. The hospital had terrible reception in most areas to discourage the use, but she just—

She wanted to hear her mother’s voice. Someone who belonged just to her.

“Kelsey?” Angela Joyce’s voice crackled over the terrible connection.

“Mom—” Kelsey swallowed a sob. “Mom, can you hear me?”

“Baby, you’re breaking up—are you crying? What’s going on?”

“Mom. I’m okay. I—Lucky was shot.”

“Oh—sweetheart. I’m so sorry. Will he be all right?”

“They think so, but he’s still in surgery.” With one hand clutching at the phone, the other in her hair, Kelsey squeezed her eyes shut. “Mom, I need you.”

There was such a long silence that Kelsey worried the connection had been broken. “Mom?”

“I heard you. Sweetheart, you know how I feel—”

“Mom—”

“You said he’d be all right, didn’t you?”

“I know—”

“When he’s feeling better, you can both come to Buffalo and maybe spend a few days.”

Kelsey pulled the phone away, staring at it as if that would change the conversation. “Mom, can’t you come to the hospital?”

“Oh, Port Charles is so far away—”

Two and a half hours. A long drive, but—

“Mom, I need you—” Her voice cracked and she slid down. “I know Port Charles is hard for you because of Daddy, but you’ve been here before. You came when I got hurt—”

“Kelsey. Please. Don’t make this harder for me.”

“Harder for you?” She bit out. “Never mind. Just never mind.” She snapped the phone shut and nearly threw it across the room. She stopped at the last minute, then let her head fall back against the cool bathroom tile.

She just needed a minute. Just a minute. She’d get herself back together and go back to his family.

But was it so much to ask for someone to take care of her for one single minute?

Port Charles Police Department: Commissioner’s Office

 

By the time night fell, Taggert felt like he had been awake for a decade. He set the plea deal down in front of Anna. “Escobar got spooked and shot wildly before taking off. Didn’t even know they were cops.””

He looked behind him as Ned strode him. “You here about the arrest?”

Ned sat down and took the report Anna offered him. ” Yeah. Pretty quick turn around. Less than twenty-four hours.”

“Wasn’t a difficult case. The Escobars are a small time group of idiots who wouldn’t mind taking on more territory,” Taggert told him. “The guy we think is in charge is Mateo Escobar — he owns a strip club. He used to run drugs under Frank Smith, then Moreno and Sorel.”

“But not Sonny and Jason?”

“No, they’ve mostly stuck to the waterfront. When Corinthos took over, he brought in  connections from Puerto Rico.” Taggert wrinkled his nose. “And he doesn’t run drugs himself. Not that we’ve been able to prove anyway.”

“Honor among thieves,” Anna said with a sniff. “Keeps his reputation respectable.”

“What’s the evidence?” Ned asked as he skimmed the report. “Are we going to be able to assure the media that it’s a solid case?”

“Casings matched a liquor store robbery last summer. Escobar was waiting on a trial,” Taggert said. “It’s been in limbo because some of the witnesses at the store haven’t really been much help—” he exhaled. “Esposito handled that case.”

Ned tensed, then forced himself to relax. “As I remember, he wasn’t so good at witness statements,” he said, doing an admirable job of pretending they weren’t discussing the man that had raped Ned’s daughter and driven her to suicide.

“No, but after the report came back, we went to track down Escobar. He didn’t know he’d shot a cop, so once he realized it—” He shook his head. “We caught him tossing the gun in the dumpster. His lawyer couldn’t wait to make a deal. One of the new ADAs is waiting for Scott to sign off.”

“Wait, what’s this notation?” Ned asked. “Dante’s statement—he called for backup but it never showed?”

“Yeah, we need to talk about that,” Taggert said finally. “Dante says he made the call. Dispatch records don’t back that up. At least not the electronic ones.”

“That doesn’t—” Ned closed his mouth. “Why would they say that? Dante wouldn’t make that kind of a mistake.”

“Taggert?” Anna asked. “What do you mean the electronic records don’t back it up? Do you have a serious reason to suspect differently?”

Taggert handed her a copy of the records he’d pulled earlier. “That 10-97 isn’t in Falconieri’s report. He was on the radio, not Spencer. They got to the alley and immediately called for back up.”

“10-97?” Ned questioned. “What’s the difference?”

“Officer on scene. It’s just to keep dispatch in the loop, but they wouldn’t send additional cars,” Anna murmured. “Is Dante quite sure?”

“I wasn’t convinced at first,” Taggert admitted. “I thought I’d look into it, and the 10-97 did make me pause. Maybe Dante remembered it as back up but used the wrong code. It’s possible, I guess. But the supervisor was acting pretty shifty, and isn’t giving a time frame on when I can get the calls.”

“But why?” Ned demanded. “Why refuse to acknowledge backup? Why the hell would they—”

“Because it was Dante,” Anna murmured. She tipped her head. “And I wonder if Lucky’s history played into it as well.”

“That’s my guess,” Taggert said. “Falconieri and Spencer. They both got family ties that make some of the other cops nervous. Turns out there’s a few guys who remember Luke Spencer and his, uh, connections to Corinthos. When you put him together with the gossip about Dante—”

“They deliberately left two rookie officers without backup because of their fathers?” Ned demanded.

“They don’t mind Spencer much,” Taggert continued, “but he’s not all that popular either after he went after a cop—”

“Jesus Christ, they’re holding the Esposito case against them? Lucky for breaking the case open and Dante for testifying—” Ned’s eyes bulged. “How is that—” He took a deep breath. “Can we prove it?”

“I’m working on it. I don’t think it started at dispatch. I think it went the way it was supposed to,” Taggert said. “Dante called for backup and the all-call went out. Capelli was with a unit a few blocks away on a stake out.”

“Capelli,” Ned muttered, tilting his eyes to the ceiling. “Of course.”

“If he ignores the call, that’s a big deal. Maybe he didn’t think it was serious. Maybe he didn’t think there’d be a shooting. I don’t know. I just—” Taggert looked at Anna. “He showed up at the scene, even though he didn’t have a reason. It’s not a Organized Crime case. But he came anyway.”

Anna grimaced. “I know we’ve been having issues with Capelli, but this would be a new low—”

“Major Crimes has gotten nothing but shit from the other departments since everything went down,” Taggert interrupted. “I got a lot of flack for how closely I worked with Morgan on the Lansing and Esposito cases. I didn’t have a choice,” he reminded Anna. “Elizabeth was the star witness in both—and she’s a package deal. If I don’t play nice with Morgan, we’d be out in the cold—Baker might not have opened up and, then we’re not back in time—”

“No one is saying—” Anna sighed. “No one in this office—” They both paused as someone knocked on the door. “Come in.”

Dante stepped over the threshold, blinking at the mayor and Taggert. “Uh, I can come back—”

“No, no. Come in—”

“This won’t take long.”

Taggert frowned as Dante stepped forward, walking towards Anna’s desk. He reached into his holster and set his sidearm on the desk. “What the hell are you—”

“Dante, this isn’t—”

Dante ignored them both and unpinned his badge. He stared at it for a long moment, then set it down next to the gun. Then he raised his eyes to look at Anna. “My partner and best friend is in the hospital because of who my father is—”

“Dante—”

“The department doesn’t trust me to have their back, and now I can’t trust them to have mine. I’m sorry—”

“Dante—”

“I can’t do this anymore.” He looked at Taggert. “We tried, but there’s no point. It’s just rotten from the inside out, and it’s not worth losing my life over.”

“Listen—” Ned took Dante by the arm. “We’ll prove the dispatch records are falsified—Lucky will wake up—”

“And then the next time I call for backup?” Dante asked. He shook his head. “If it were just mine—maybe. But this time, it was Lucky. Next time it might be Cruz or you,” he said to Taggert. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry.” Dante left then, closing the door quietly behind him.

Ned turned back to Anna and Taggert. “We are going to get him back, and we are going to rip the fucking rotting heart out of this department for good.”

Where’d you wanna go?
How much you wanna risk?
I’m not lookin’ for somebody
With some superhuman gifts
Some superhero
Some fairy-tale bliss
Just something I can turn to
Somebody I can kiss
I want something just like this
– Something Just This, Coldplay and The Chainsmokers

---

Friday, February 20, 2004

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

As soon as the words left his mouth, Jason wanted to take them back. Elizabeth just stared at him, her eyes wide with stunned hurt. He hadn’t wanted to snap—hadn’t meant to say anything to her just yet. He’d only come home because he’d felt guilty about the stairs and not returning her messages.

That didn’t mean he was ready to talk about any of this.

“I told you I didn’t want to talk about it,” Jason said. “So let me take you upstairs so I can get work done—”

“I just—”

“You might be ready to talk about it, but I’m not. Not that it matters to you. Nothing does, does it?” he continued, more ruthlessly than he’d meant to, but he was so damn tired, and he did not want to do this. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. What difference was it going to make if he told her he understood why she’d lied?

It wouldn’t change anything.

“I don’t—” Her voice faltered, and she stepped back. “I’m sorry. Okay. Okay. I’ll—I’ll go upstairs—”

“Hold on,” Justus said, putting out a hand and stepping between them. “Stay right there, Elizabeth. Give me a second—”

“It’s fine. You have more important—”

Jason closed his eyes in frustration. “That’s not what I meant—”

“You—” Justus put a hand on Jason’s shoulder and stabbed a finger at him. “Stop talking right now. Moron.”

“Justus, it’s okay—” Elizabeth began.

“It’s not,” he told her. He glared at Jason. “You dragged me over here to talk about things that can wait. I’m not your goddamn shield or cover, I’m your lawyer.”

“That’s not—” Jason grimaced. That’s exactly why Justus was there. “Look—”

“No, you look. You have given her exactly eight seconds to explain what the hell is going on, and you and I both know she deserves more than that. Especially since the only reason she lied was because she walked in on Sonny trying to choke me.” Justus released Jason’s shoulder almost with a shove.

“I still shouldn’t have,” Elizabeth said quietly. “I’m sorry—”

“I know why you did it—that’s not why I’m—” Jason closed his eyes. “That’s not why I’m angry.” He exhaled slowly and met Justus’s irritated gaze. “Go home. I’ll take care of this.”

“Really? You’re not going to scream at her again about wanting to die? Because I’ll kick the shit out of you—”

“I didn’t mean that,” Jason said. He focused on Elizabeth, who was staring at the floor. “I didn’t—”

“Good night,” Justus told them. “Don’t call me before nine. I’m going home to my girls.”

He slammed the door behind him. Jason dragged a hand over his face, turning to look back at the doorway. As his gaze returned to Elizabeth, his eyes swept over the desk, and he caught sight of the frame on the desk.

He walked over to it, then looked at the shelf next to the door, then back at the photo—with its one remaining jagged shard of glass.

“It fell last night,” Elizabeth said. She hadn’t moved from the other side of the room, standing in front of the sofa, her arms still protectively wrapped around her middle. “It’s okay. Cody said he’d go out and get me a new frame tomorrow. I just forgot about it today.” She cleared her throat. “Monica came by earlier and checked my levels. They’re at 95. Um, normal, I mean.”

Wordlessly, Jason removed the photo from the broken frame and set it back on the desk, leaving the photo in his hands. “That’s good.”

“We still have the portable oximeter if you want to check for yourself.”

“I don’t need to do that.” He looked up, met her eyes. The six feet that separated them might as well be an ocean. “I said I wasn’t angry you lied. I know why you did it.”

“I still shouldn’t have. You have enough to worry about, you know, and I shouldn’t make things worse.” She bit at her thumbnail. “Um, I guess I’ll go upstairs. So you can get back to work.”

He nearly let her go. She had already put her foot on the bottom step before he spoke again. “Now I’m the one lying.”

Elizabeth blinked, looked back at him, one hand propped on the banister. “What?”

“I am angry.”

“Oh.” She bit her lip. “Okay. Well, I deserve that—”

“It’s just not the reason I left last night.” He stared down at the photo. Had it only been three weeks ago?

He’d lived a lifetime in those three weeks.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Jason said. He put the photo down and turned fully towards her. “I can’t tiptoe around any of this and not say the things I want to say because I don’t want to hurt you.”

Elizabeth said nothing, only rested a hand protectively over her belly. “I never asked you to do that.”

“No, but you made it clear that you weren’t going to change your mind, which isn’t that different, is it?”

“No. I guess it isn’t when you put it that way.” She stepped off the stair and turned fully towards him. “All right. So what haven’t you said to me?”

Kelly’s: Dante’s Room

Lulu knocked on the slightly open door, lifting her brows as she caught Dante pulling on his uniform shirt over an undershirt. “Don’t you have a locker room for that?”

“I wanted to get in and get out. Easier if I’m already suited up,” Dante said, turning towards her as he buttoned the shirt.

“Are things that bad?” She leaned against the door jamb. Dante didn’t answer her, and she wrinkled her nose. “I can go away if you want—”

“No, it’s not—” He went over to the closet and pulled down a lockbox with his clutch piece and main sidearm. “It’s not you, Lu.”

“I don’t want to poke and prod. I’m just—I don’t know.” She sighed. “I’m worried. You’re staying here, so you don’t have Cruz with you. You’re alone—”

“I’m fine—”

“Are you, though—” Lulu stepped in front of him, and Dante was finally forced to meet her eyes. “You don’t have to answer me on that either, I mean. I just—” She rolled her eyes. “God, this is so high school. Look, let me be blunt, okay?”

“Do you have any other mode?” he asked dryly.

“Apparently, I do, but—” She scowled. “I care about you. I know you’re not an idiot. You’ve checked out my ass, I’ve seen you do it—”

“Lu—”

“And your ass is good, too.”

“Why do conversations with you never go the way I expect them to?” he wondered but found himself smiling for the first time in forty-eight hours.

“Part of my charm. I bring up the mutual ass admiring to point out that if all I wanted to do was bite your ass—”

“That’s interesting—”

“I could have had you weeks ago.”

He wanted to deny it just to be contrary, but she wasn’t entirely wrong. Dante folded his arms. “Is that you suggesting it now?” he asked. “Because I have to be on duty in twenty minutes. I mean, I can be creative, but—”

Lulu gripped the sides of his shirt and dragged his head down, fastening her mouth over his, scattering his brain, his attention, and practically every cell in his body. He wrapped his arms around her, dragging her closer. They stumbled back, and he had a fleeting thought about tugging her onto the bed—but then Lulu stepped back, breathing hard. “I wasn’t going to do that.”

“I’m not complaining,” he murmured, pressing his lips to the side of her mouth.

“Don’t distract me—hey, watch the hands—” Lulu took another step back. “I’m sorry. You said you could be creative, and I lost my mind.” She cleared her throat. “Um, anyway. What I wanted to say was that I care about you, and it’s not just because I want to jump you. I mean, I want that, too, and we should definitely see each other naked.”

“Lulu—”

“I just—I needed you to know that, okay? That I care about you. And I want you to be okay. It matters to me. So if me not bringing any of this up is what you need, I can do that. Talking about it—I can do that, too. Whatever works.”

Overwhelmed, undone, Dante stepped towards her and put his hands on her shoulders, then leaned his forehead against hers. “I know. You’ve been doing that for months, Lu. Thank you.”

“Okay.”

“Things at work—they’re not great,” he admitted. “I had the one shift yesterday, and it was awkward. My patrol partner called out sick tonight.” His lips flattened into an unhappy line. “Suddenly has the flu.”

Lulu frowned. “But—”

“Lucky’s covering for him, but I don’t know if I can be a cop and stay in Port Charles,” he admitted. “I don’t know if I can be a cop anywhere. Not with this hanging over my head.”

She sighed, dropping her head against his chest. “Well, you’re an amazing cop, so that would be our loss. The world’s loss, really. I’m sorry, Dante. This sucks.”

“Yeah. It does.” He tipped her chin up and kissed her again. “But thanks for listening. I need to get to work.”

“I do, too. I’m on break, but Penny’s still salty about the long one I took the other day.” She laced her fingers through his as they went towards his door. “You should take me to a movie on your next day off, and then we can come back here and see each other naked.” She twirled at the doorway just as he winced. “And yes, the movie is required.”

“I wasn’t going to ask,” he muttered but grinned as he followed her out the door.

Lucky & Kelsey’s Apartment: Living Room

“I thought you were off tonight,” Kelsey said as she watched Lucky pack his duffel bag. “What happened?”

“Dante’s partner is out with the flu,” Lucky said. He wrinkled his nose. “I’m sorry. I know we had plans.”

“Ugh, I hate the flu,” Kelsey muttered. She dumped her bag on the table. “Where are you assigned tonight?”

“Dante and I have the Courtland Street beat, so you know, should be quiet.” He offered her another grin, but Kelsey just frowned at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“What?” Lucky reached for his coat and put it on. “Nothing—”

“I know your face, Spencer.” She stopped him from zipping up. “What’s wrong?”

Lucky exhaled slowly, then rested his forehead against hers. “Can’t get anything past you, can I?” he murmured.

“No. You can take five minutes to talk to me. You had dinner with your mom. She’s going back to work, isn’t she?”

“It’s not—it’s nothing really. Mom was excited about starting at GH, but we were talking about Carly and Elizabeth—and that led to Sonny, which just leads back to Dante.”

“Oh.” Kelsey stepped back. “Is his partner actually out sick?” she asked. “Or is it the blue flu?”

“I don’t know,” Lucky admitted. “Dante already had problems after he testified, but it was starting to fade away. He’s had some looks, there have been some snickers. But this was the first sign that maybe things aren’t okay.”

“He’s a good cop,” Kelsey said. “I know that doesn’t always mean anything to the rest of those morons, but you and Cruz—you have his back. What about Taggert?”

“Taggert and Anna are on board, but there’s a lot of resentment after all the crap that happened last summer. Cruz got all that press for the kidnapping case, then me and Dante with the Vinnie case—Taggert’s not all that popular these days. They think he’s in Sonny’s pocket.” He zipped up his jacket. “I keep waiting for things to change,” he told her. “But it’s still the same department that railroaded my mom into a breakdown.”

“I’m sorry,” Kelsey murmured. “I wish we could fix it by just keeping our heads down and doing the job, but it feels like we never get a break.”

“Yeah, well, when Dante lost his patrol partner, I figured—he needs someone to have his back out there.”

“He couldn’t ask for better.” She leaned up her toes to kiss him. “I love you. See you tomorrow.”

“Love you, too.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Jason led her over to the sofa. “Sit down. You’ve—I know you’ve had to use the stairs and I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for—”

He sat next to her, but still kept a bit of distance from her, staring away from her, towards the coffee table. She felt so cold. He was here. He was listening.

But he wasn’t really here. Was it too late?

“When you first got pregnant, I knew you were going to have the baby the minute you got even a hint that you could,” Jason began and she tensed. “But I—” He met her eyes. “I wanted you to have an abortion. I just didn’t know how to say it.”

“You—” She fisted her hands in her lap.

“I wanted the baby. I want him even more now. Cameron,” he said, and part of her eased hearing their son’s name. “Please don’t think that I don’t love him, and that I didn’t want him.”

“I-I don’t—”

“Part of you has thought it for months,” he said gently, and she closed her eyes, nodding. “Because I brought it up first. I made it part of the conversation.”

“I don’t blame you for it—”

“But you also haven’t forgiven me for it, either. I know that. Every step of the way, when you’ve had a health issue with this pregnancy, you’ve worried that I’ll do something that puts the baby at risk because he doesn’t matter to me—”

“No—no!” She shook her head. “No, that’s not it. Please. No, I promise you—” Elizabeth reached for his hands. “I promise you that I never once thought that. I’ve always understood where you stand on this. Jason—I was terrified when Monica told me I was pregnant because part of me immediately assumed that it wasn’t possible. And even when it was—” She cleared her throat. “I thought about it, you know. About having the abortion. Because I’d nearly died, and I’d worked so hard to get healthy again. I knew I wasn’t all the way there. And I felt guilty because we’d just talked about having kids—”

“Elizabeth—”

“I was ashamed,” she said softly. “Because I was angry when I found out. I wasn’t ready for it. I didn’t—I didn’t—I mean, I wanted the baby. I want our child, but I also didn’t. You know?”

“I do.” He shifted towards her, closer, and she almost wept from the relief. Because Jason was finally here. Looking at her the way she’d needed him to. “I wanted it a year from now. Two years. Not then.”

“I wanted us to have a minute,” she whispered. “Just some time. We never get to have any time. I know that sounds stupid, but we just seem to lurch from crisis to crisis, and we never even got to date.” Her voice broke. “I’m sorry. That’s insane to say—”

“Hey—”

“And I got pregnant, so everyone started looking at us to get married—and I love being married to you. I love you, I do—”

“You wanted more time,” Jason said. He touched her face, cupping her cheek and using the pad of his thumb to swipe at her tears. “We didn’t plan it this way.”

“No.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not happy with how things turned out. I love you. I love being your wife, and most of our wedding day was absolutely perfect. Outside maybe an hour of it, you know? And I love our baby.” She pulled his hand over her belly and smiled as Cameron kicked. “I love him. And I know you love him, too.”

“I do,” Jason told her. “None of this is his fault, and I don’t resent him. I don’t want him to struggle in the NICU either. I don’t want any of those complications. Which is why when Monica said your vitals were stable enough to wait, I was relieved. And I was grateful that you wanted to wait.”

“You were?” Elizabeth blinked at him. “But—”

“But I was…” He paused. “I was terrified,” he said finally. “I am scared every minute that I will walk out that door, and that will be it. I left you in that house, Elizabeth, and you—you died.”

“I know.”

“I left you to go with Taggert to the prison, and that bastard broke in—” Jason shook his head.

“It’s been months of this,” Elizabeth said. She covered his hand cupping her cheek with her own and pulled it away so she could snuggle into his side, and for the first time in days—in weeks, really—feel like they were back in sync. “Since the day I overdosed at the studio, Jason. You’ve been scared I’ll die this time, and I’ve been afraid you’re right. I do care if I die—”

“I never should have said that—” he said. He pressed his lips to the top of her head. “I’m so sorry—”

“I’ve been pushing you away, making it hard for you to talk to me. I just—I know how much you’re taking on. How much worse it made things for us to go away as long as we did, but you did that for me. I just wanted to protect you. I didn’t do it right—”

“I need you to understand something—” Jason drew away from her briefly to frame her face in his hands. “You need to listen to me when I say this because I need you to believe me. You are not an item on my list—”

“I know that—”

“No, I don’t think you do. Everything else—everyone else—they don’t matter.”

“Jason—”

“If something happens to you or Cameron—” His eyes burned into hers. “All of it can go to hell. You are the goddamn list. You are the center of it. But you have to let me put you first. I can’t do it alone.”

Elizabeth wrapped her arms around his neck and held him tight. “That’s why I lied,” she murmured. “Because I was trying to put you first. I’m terrible at it, but I’ll do better, okay? I just—I couldn’t hit you with this. I couldn’t. I love you so much and I didn’t want that look in your eyes. I know I did it wrong, but I did it because I know this is how you feel. I know how much you love me. I just need you to believe that I love you that much, too.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “I do.” Their lips found each other, and Elizabeth could have sobbed from the relief of feeling him against her, his mouth on her skin—this was home, and this was all she’d ever wanted.

Ward House: Master Bedroom

Tamika set aside the book she’d been reading as Justus came in that night. “Baby, you look so tired—” She started to push the covers aside, but he stopped her by sitting down next to her, perched on the edge of the bed. “I’ve been worried about you.”

“I’m sorry. I called—”

“I know. But I feel better when you’re here.” Tamika rubbed his arm, her fingers sliding over the fabric of his suit. “Did you look in on Kimi?”

“Yeah. I tucked her in and kissed her. I’ll be home tomorrow to make up for being gone—”

“It’s all right. Get out of that suit and come to bed. I’ll give you a massage,” she said with a wicked smile. His answering smile was more sober. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing. I just—” He leaned over to kiss her forehead. “It just strikes me sometimes how lucky I am to have you, Mikki. I’ve been watching Jason worry over Elizabeth and both of them worrying over that baby—if anything happened to you or Kimi, I’d be lost.”

“Same goes for me.” She squeezed his arm. “Get in bed, and we’ll talk about it.”

“If I get in bed, we’re not going to talk.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” she laughed, and he grinned, leaning over to dance his fingers over her ribcage. Tamika exploded into giggles until he swallowed her laughter with his lips.

Morgan Penthouse: Master Bedroom

Elizabeth’s eyes drifted open, then she snuggled more firmly into Jason’s arms, tightening her arm over his waist, and pillowing her head on his chest. Then frowned, realizing that his breathing had changed.

Elizabeth leaned up on her elbow, frowning at him in the darkness. “Are you still awake?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Jason gently pulled so she’d lay back down, but she was already reaching for the light on the table next to her. The room brightened to a soft glow.

“What’s wrong? Did you get a call—”

“No—” Jason sighed and sat up. “I just haven’t been able to sleep, but you—”

“I’m fine. I mean, I’m always tired, and I’ll take a nap later—” She hitched the sheet under her arms. “You said you hadn’t slept in days—”

“I’m sorry—”

“Don’t apologize—” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I’m making it sound like you’re doing something wrong. I know you don’t usually need a lot of sleep, but it’s—” She reached over to the table and squinted at the clock. “It’s barely four.”

Jason laid back, clasping his hands under his head and staring up the ceiling. “I was thinking about Sonny.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth pursed her lips. “I didn’t—I saw on the news that he didn’t make bail.” She turned, laying on her side as she faced him. “It must be hard for him to be locked up.”

“I didn’t want him in there. I got him bail the first time.”

“Then he punched the mayor.”

“Yeah.”

Elizabeth was quiet for a long moment. “You said that I haven’t made it easy for you to talk to me—”

“Elizabeth—”

“I know that’s true. But you haven’t talked to me either,” she pointed out. He turned his head to meet her eyes. “I’m glad Justus is there for you, but he’s also—he’s in the middle of this. And he doesn’t know Sonny the way I do. I wouldn’t ask about the business, but this isn’t the same thing. Things got worse after we came home, didn’t they?”

“Yeah.” He looked back at the ceiling. “The only reason things are holding together is that you’re pregnant,” he admitted. “Tommy—you remember Tommy, right?” he asked.

“Yeah, from the wedding. He runs the clubs.”

“He’s been around a long time. Before Sonny. He worked for the Jeromes, then Frank Smith—” Jason paused. “He has a lot of power, and the only reason he didn’t take over instead of Sonny was he didn’t want the pressure. It’s hard being at the top.”

“I know. I’ve seen how it’s changed Sonny.”

“Tommy told me before the wedding that there are people who are tired of waiting for Sonny to get his act together. There hasn’t been a grab for power because I asked him for time.”

“Because of me,” Elizabeth said softly. “Because of the baby.”

“I had to tell him you weren’t okay,” he admitted in a low, pained voice. “I hated using you that way—using Cameron—”

“It’s not using me, Jason. It’s being honest.”

“I don’t like it,” he said stubbornly, and she decided not to press the point.

“Are you running out of time? Did this Sonny stuff yesterday make things worse?”

“I don’t know.”

“What—I mean, what do they want you to do that you’re not already doing? I mean, aren’t things still running fine—I don’t know anything, but it feels like things are fine—”

“They are. And they’re not.” Jason sat up, drawing his legs up and wrapping his arms around them. “All those Ric sightings, Elizabeth—I don’t think they’re real.”

“You’ve said that before. How do you know? What does that mean?” She pulled herself up, then sat back against the headboard.

“I don’t know if any of the sightings were ever real,” Jason admitted. “Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Colombia—no one outside of the business has ever seen him.”

Elizabeth absorbed that information. “Which means Ric vanished the night he went missing, and you still don’t know where he is. That’s…not comforting.”

“No. I mean, some of it could be real,” he admitted. “But it’s always coming through us. Through someone who works in the business.” He twisted to look at her. “Interpol, the FBI, the PCPD—the police in Crimson Pointe—no one else but us. That’s not right.”

“When you put it that way, I guess it’s not.” Troubled, Elizabeth twisted her wedding ring on her finger. “What does it mean, then, for all these people to be passing fake information?”

“I wasn’t sure until this last one. Baltimore,” he clarified. “That’s pretty close. The one while we were gone? In Atlanta? Both times someone reached out and called Sonny personally.”

Elizabeth furrowed her brow. “Wait. That’s—that’s not how this is done.”

“No. No, it isn’t. You can’t call the heads of the organization personally. That’s the whole point of having people like me and Bernie and Justus—Johnny and Tommy and Francis. It makes it harder to tie one person to another.” Jason dragged a hand down his face. “But Sonny is getting the call, and he’s getting it first now.”

“God, that’s why he went to the Brownstone.” The ramifications of that hit Elizabeth like a freight truck. “They must know that you kept those other ones from him. The ones from the wedding, right? What was it, Miami and—”

“Puerto Rico. I didn’t mean to keep Puerto Rico from him,” he added. “It just—it slipped through the cracks. The news came in while we were dealing with the tests—” he shook his head. “I was going to tell him about Miami, but I wanted to wait until we were out of town.”

“But that means—”

“It means someone inside is working with Lansing. Or whoever is putting this together,” Jason added. “It could be the Zaccharas. It could be the Gambinos or Big Bobby—anyone of them wouldn’t mind seeing Sonny crash and burn.”

“Someone knows that you and Sonny are arguing about handling all of this and then using Sonny’s instability to make that wedge worse,” Elizabeth murmured. A traitor. Someone Jason trusted. “Are there so many people who could do that?”

“There’s enough. Sonny’s issues aren’t exactly a well-kept secret,” Jason admitted. “And everyone knows there’s been division over handling Ric.”

“I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “I never—I should have seen that letting him live—”

“No one could have,” Jason assured her. He laid back down, propping himself up on his elbow. “Neither you nor Carly could have predicted how bad this could get—”

“But Sonny knew letting him live would make him weak—”

“No. That’s not what did it. Don’t blame yourself for this—”

“I’m not. I just—” She sighed. “I’m thinking of all the ways you’ve put me first since all of this started, and letting Ric live is at the top of the list—you did that for me—and for Carly—and it’s given all of us nothing but grief.”

“It was what you needed to be okay, and I stand by that decision. Sonny decided to make this an issue. At every step of the way,” Jason told her, “Sonny made sure everyone knew he was angry about this. This is on Sonny. Not you and Carly.”

“All right.” Elizabeth accepted that. “What happens next? I mean, with Sonny in lockup and all these sightings? Can I ask that?”

“I don’t know. I know what Tommy and the others want. The only way to keep him from causing a war—” Jason laid back down and looked at the ceiling again. He didn’t finish his statement. He didn’t have to.

Tommy wanted Sonny gone. And that wasn’t something Jason was going to be able to deliver. It was out of the question. Even Elizabeth could see that.

She couldn’t fix any of this—couldn’t do anything other than be a sounding board for him, and she hoped that would be enough.

But there was something she could do. Something that could give him some peace, at least in one area.

“I talked to Gail today—well, yesterday now.”

Jason blinked, then twisted his head to look at her. “Right. I’m sorry—I didn’t—”

“It’s okay.” She slid closer to him, and he put an arm around her shoulders to curl her into his side. “We talked about why I was waiting and how scared I’ve been. I just—it’s not difficult, you know. I’m not really okay after the miscarriage. I’m not sure it’s ever something I’ll be able to forgive myself for.”

“Elizabeth—”

“But that baby is gone.” She cleared her throat even as the pain jabbed again, slicing through her. “I never got the chance to do more than dream about her. I think she would have been a girl, and I would have loved her no matter what.”

“I know you would have.”

“But she’s gone. And Cameron is here. He needs to be the child I think about. And he deserves to have us both. I don’t want you to raise him alone.”

“I’m sorry. I never should have—”

“My oxygen levels are normal again, but we’re going to keep a close eye on them. I’ll hit thirty-two weeks on March 3. As long as my vitals stay stable, I’ll check in that Friday. Monica’s already cleared the schedule.”

Jason’s hand tightened for a moment around her shoulder. “And she says it’s okay to wait that long?”

“Yes. As long as my levels don’t dip,” she reminded him. “She’s still checking daily, and if they drop even a point, I’m inducing.”

“Are you sure—”

“This is a good compromise. It’s not what I wanted, but I’ve done my best, and I have to be realistic,” she said, smiling slightly. “I know if anything happens, we’ll be able to face it together.” She rested her chin on his chest so that she could look at him. “I had a really big day today. I went and toured the NICU and met the nurse there that will probably work on Cameron’s case. She was really nice, and I made an appointment with a neonatologist so we could talk to him. Did you know that we can hold him in the NICU?”

“I didn’t.”

“Yeah. There’s something called kangaroo care. Preemies do really well with skin touching, and you can do that, too. Plus, we can wash him and care for him. We can be together doing that and maybe even stay overnight. He won’t be at home, but—”

“You were going to tell me that when I got home,” Jason interrupted. “Weren’t you?”

“Yeah, but—”

“I’m sorry—”

“You don’t have to apologize—”

“I do.” He sat up again, taking her by the shoulders. “I should have talked to you. I shouldn’t have lost my temper—”

“I am the one person in the world you should be able to lose your temper with,” she told him. “Did you think we were never going to fight?”

“I don’t like to fight with you.” He leaned forward to brush his lips against hers.

“Me either, but I’m glad we did. We’ve talked more about what’s going on tonight than we have in weeks. Maybe months. I feel like we’ve just been trying so hard to protect each other we’re doing the opposite.” Elizabeth laid a hand on his cheek. “I plan to spend the rest of my life with you. Tonight wasn’t the first fight, and it won’t be the last. I just want you to remember that I love you, and I’ll remember that you love me, and we’ll get through whatever else life throws at us.”

Courtland Street: Alley

The night was crawling towards dawn when Lucky pulled the patrol car to a stop. He grimaced as he switched off the engine and peered down the dark alley. “Do you see anything?”

“No.” Dante craned his neck, then rolled down the window slightly. “No. But we should check it out.” He sighed. “Another day, another drug dealer.”

“Yeah, well, what are you going to do? There are too many Escobars to arrest them all,” Lucky muttered as he checked his gun. “Call for backup. Just in case,” he said.

“Okay.” Dante raised his radio and called in. “Unit 84, Code 8 at Courtland and Van Ess. Repeat, Code 8, Courtland and Van Ess.”

They got out of the car, and both of them pulled their guns, holding them low. They waited a minute, hoping to hear back from the radio that backup was being radioed for. Finally, they heard the dispatcher put up the call.

“Okay, let’s head in.”

“Cover me,” Lucky muttered as they approached the mouth of the alley. “I’ll do a sweep. He glanced back to make sure Dante was behind him, then started down the alley carefully.

He was maybe halfway when Lucky heard footsteps—he turned slightly—

“Watch out—”

Gunshots ripped through the air as fire dug into Lucky’s shoulder. He grunted and slid to the ground. Footsteps rushed away, clattering down the alley. He heard Dante give chase as Lucky tried to haul himself to a sitting position.

“Dispatch, Unit—” He swallowed hard as ice spread through his chest. “Unit 84. Code 30. Officer down. Emergency—”

“Spencer, Spencer—” Dante came back and dropped to his knees. “Where the hell is the backup? Shit, shit, you got hit—”

“You think?”

Then Lucky’s head lolled to the side, and he passed out.

I find the answers aren’t so clear
Wish I could find a way to disappear
All these thoughts they make no sense
I find bliss in ignorance
Nothing seems to go away
Over and over again
Just like before
– One Step Closer, Linkin Park

---

Friday, February 20, 2004

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth gingerly stepped off the stairs, wincing at the tightness in her chest. She hadn’t really tackled steps in several weeks, and in the last twelve hours, she’d had to deal with them twice. Jason hadn’t been there. Monica had stayed until she’d gone to sleep, had walked with her up the stairs, but Elizabeth hadn’t wanted to ask the guard on duty to carry her. She’d wanted Jason.

The fact that she’d driven him away so hard that he hadn’t returned last night even to take her up the stairs had shaken her. Somehow, in the last six or seven months, she’d taken Jason’s presence for granted. She’d barely been able to sleep last night, listening for the familiar sound of his boots on the steps, the warmth of his body next to hers.

Her fingers shaking, Elizabeth reached out to take her cell phone from the charger and flipped it open to find two voicemails. One from Gail and the other from Jason. Cowardly, she clicked Gail’s first.

“Hello, Elizabeth. I got Monica’s message last night, and I wanted to let you know I made room in my schedule today. I hope ten will be all right. Please let me know if it isn’t. Otherwise, I’ll see you then.”

Elizabeth didn’t know if she was up to return to therapy, but maybe she’d left it too early. Maybe she should have stayed in the support group after all. It seemed almost arrogant now for her to have assumed she’d worked through her issues and could handle it on her own.

She could barely walk down the stairs.

For Jason, though, she knew she needed to do better. She needed to fix what was wrong with her so she could stop hurting him.

With that thought rattling in her brain, Elizabeth pressed his message.

“I’m sorry I didn’t call sooner. I’ve been at the warehouse all night. I’ll call if I won’t be home tonight.”

That was it. The entire message. She stared at her phone, blinking at it. He hadn’t asked about her or the baby. Hadn’t even acknowledged the message she’d left him.

He hadn’t told her he loved her. The first time since…

Since the hospital. In July.

Elizabeth tightened her fingers around her phone, squeezed her eyes shut. She’d hurt him so much, and it was her turn to reach out. To make it better. So she dialed his number and tried not to flinch when the phone rang three times—and went to voicemail.

He’d declined her call. It was five rings before voicemail came on automatically. Anything less than that meant he’d seen her name and hadn’t taken her call.

“Hey,” Elizabeth said, forcing a lightness to her tone. “I got your message. Thank you for letting me know. I—I was worried,” she admitted. “Um, I have—I’m going to see Gail today, but I’m okay. I mean, I tested myself this morning. I used the portable thing Monica gave us, and my levels are still at 94. That’s good. I wish it were higher, but you know—” She paused. “Please, if you can, come home. I’m sorry. I just—I’m sorry. I love you.”

She closed her phone, set it on the desk, then went over to the door. As she expected, Cody was on duty.

“Good morning, Mrs. Morgan.” He straightened immediately. “What can I get you?”

“Um, I have to be at the hospital at ten, but I want to stop on the way for some breakfast, so around nine?” she asked. “If that’s okay.”

“I’ll make sure the car is ready.” Cody paused, squinting. “Uh, Mr. Morgan isn’t here? I mean, the night guard said—”

“No, Sonny’s keeping him pretty busy right now,” Elizabeth said, laughing uneasily. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

She closed the door, leaned her forehead against the wood. Her eyes felt heavy, and it was a struggle to hold back the tears. She didn’t have the right to cry. She deserved this. She’d done nothing but push Jason away, and now he’d gone. It would serve her right if he didn’t bother coming back.

PCPD: Squad Room

Jason felt his phone vibrate. Elizabeth. His throat burned as he thought of her at home, alone. He knew Monica had gone home the night before—his mother had called him to say her condition was stable and that he was an idiot for not coming home.

Elizabeth alone in the penthouse meant she’d gone up the stairs last night herself and probably down them this morning. And he’d even warned he might not come home tonight. He slid his finger over her name again. Was she angry? Would she be upset if he listened to her message? Would she—

“Morgan.”

Jason’s head snapped up, and he saw Scott Baldwin outside the open door of the interrogation room. He slid the phone into his pocket and went to deal with something that he could actually handle.

“You got ten minutes, and then he’s back in lock-up,” Scott warned him. He sneered, and Jason felt almost comforted. Here was something that was normal. Baldwin had come to his wedding for Elizabeth, but with Ric long gone, and the rapist case wrapped up, the district attorney was back to loathing Sonny with Jason as collateral damage.

Jason liked when things were predictable, and the PCPD as an enemy felt right.

“Got it,” he said, then went into the room where Justus was standing, his arms folded. Sonny was handcuffed to the table, dressed in the familiar blue jumpsuit. There were deep circles under his eyes, purple gouges that stood in stark contrast to the red, bloodshot eyes. His disheveled curls hung limply over his forehead.

“Why am I still in here?” Sonny bit out. “What the hell are you assholes doing?”

Jason gritted his teeth, then glanced over at Justus, who looked as tired as Jason felt. They’d spent the entire time at the warehouse, going over every single Lansing sighting since the bastard had jumped bail and dissecting the people who had reported to them.

The only thing they were sure of was that someone inside the organization was screwing with them because they knew how out of control Sonny was. The last few sightings had been reported to Sonny directly.

It couldn’t be Lansing — or at least it wasn’t Lansing working alone — and the thought that they had a traitor working against them from within the organization was just one more thing Jason had to juggle.

“Sonny,” Justus said with his jaw clenched, “has refused to participate in a psychiatric evaluation and has refused to allow me to petition for it. I can’t do it without his consent. I can’t even ask the DA to do it for me—”

“I’m not fucking crazy—” Sonny tried to lung to his feet, but his hands and feet were chained to table and chair. He scowled. “You need to be calling the goddamn judge to get me out of here—”

“Even if you could convince a judge to sign off on the request,” Justus told Jason, ignoring Sonny, “it wouldn’t hold up if Sonny doesn’t want it. I’m out of options here.”

“The hell you are—”

Justus’s head whipped around, his eyes flashing. “Watch it, Sonny! I haven’t seen my family in more than thirty-six hours. Jason hasn’t been home for more than ten minutes with a sick, pregnant wife waiting for him—”

Jason flinched at that reminder.

“You are charged with four counts of assault—do you even remember the security guards you decked to get up to Alexis? Ned is throwing every single charge he can find at you—you broke into the mayor’s offices and attacked him—you’re facing at least six or seven felonies—what the hell do you think I’m going to be able to do when you already violated your bail by getting arrested within two hours of being released?”

Sonny seethed. “You don’t get to talk to me like that—”

“I’m not going to talk to you at all,” Justus shot back. “I’ve already filed notice that I’m withdrawing from your case. Find someone else to clean up this mess. I’m done.” He yanked open the interrogation room door and slammed it behind him.

“You need to get me another lawyer—”

“You need to shut the hell up,” Jason cut in sharply, and Sonny blinked at him. “Another lawyer isn’t going to get you out. I already called in favors to get you out on bail last night, Sonny! I tried to keep you out of lock up! And because of you—”

Because of Sonny, Elizabeth had gone to that damned appointment alone. None of this would be happening if Jason had been there. Maybe he could have even convinced her to check in—maybe she’d be in delivery right now and on the road to recovery—their son would be in the world—

But Sonny had lost control and had taken Jason’s life with it.

Because Jason had let it happen.

“I can’t do anything else for you,” Jason said roughly. “I’ll make some calls, I’ll get another lawyer, but no one is giving you bail. Not right now.”

Sonny stared at him, his eyes dark and burning. “I can’t go into lock-up—I can’t spend another night like that—”

“Then let Justus file for an evaluation,” Jason said, his tone all but begging. “We need to end this, Sonny. We need to make it over, all right? If we can get a doctor to tell the court—”

“You want me to admit I’m weak?” Sonny roared. “That I can’t control myself? To hell with you! I’m not weak—”

“You’ve been weak for months!” Jason slapped a hand on the table. “And you’ve made me weak, too, because I won’t do what everyone wants me to do!”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“I’ll get you another lawyer,” he bit out. “But you’re on your own after that, Sonny. I can’t do this anymore.”

Quartermaine Estate: Foyer

“Ned—”

He turned, pausing in the act of shrugging into his coat to find his mother stepping off the bottom stair. He hadn’t spoken to her since the terrible scene a few days earlier after the news had broken and she’d ripped into him.

“Mother. Can I help you?”

Tracy exhaled slowly. “I’d like a moment of your time. Please.”

Ned narrowed his eyes. He was unsure the last time he’d heard his mother utter that particular word, so just out of pure curiosity— “All right.”

Tracy stepped towards him. “After you left on Wednesday, Mother and I had a long talk. She was—” His mother shifted her eyes away. “A bit disappointed in the way I had reacted.”

That would put it mildly. Lila didn’t have to raise her voice to express disapproval, a skill Ned hoped he’d learn one day. “So was I—”

“Alexis dropped off a copy of the press statement for Father—” Tracy crossed over to a table and picked up a folder. “She also wanted to apologize—”

“She has nothing to apologize for—” Ned snapped, but his mother held up a hand.

“I know. And neither do you.” Tracy pressed her lips together, then looked down at the statement. “The family is putting out a statement of its own. I thought you might want to run it past Alexis and Lois to make sure it dovetails with your messaging.” She held it out.

Ned grimaced, then opened the folder. He skimmed the statement, then raised his eyes to his mother. “You wrote this?”

“Father and I drafted it together.”

“‘The Quartermaine family is deeply ashamed,” Ned began, “of any media publication that would capitalize on the grief of parents whose only crime is the loss of their child. The blood of Brooke Lynn Ashton stains their hands. They chose to publish the name of a rape victim, rejecting compassion to sell more papers. It is disappointing, but not surprising, to learn that the Port Charles Sun and Port Charles Herald continues to victimize the innocent by speculating on the paternity of a child, publishing her name and opening her parents to more grief and pain. The Quartermaine family, therefore, would like to remind Port Charles that we protect our own. Kristina Davis-Ashton is, and will always be, ours.” His throat tightened and he looked at his mother.

“I was terrified,” Tracy murmured as she took the statement back, “that it meant I’d lose another grandchild. I didn’t do enough for Brooke. I was—I was in a meeting with lawyers. Prepping our suit against the city and the media. That’s what I was doing when she took those pills.” She met her son’s eyes. “I never did enough for her. Or you. Or Dillon. Kristina—I thought she’d be another chance.”

“I know.” Ned cleared his throat. “I know. Mother—”

“What these papers did to you and Lois, what they did to Brooke—” Tracy shook her head. “We can’t let them get away with it, Ned. I understand why your statement was restrained, but we don’t have to be. Brooke was ours, too. Let us help you protect Kristina.”

“Thank you, Mother.” He drew her into a tentative embrace. “I’ll give this to Lois, but I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

General Hospital: Hallway

Elizabeth blinked when she saw Emily waiting outside of Gail’s office, pacing. “Em—”

“Oh. Hey.” Emily’s expression was relieved as she came forward and hugged Elizabeth. “I talked to Mom earlier, and she said Jason never came home last night. I’m sorry—I didn’t think—”

“Don’t apologize.” Elizabeth managed a rueful smile. “We were both right. I shouldn’t have lied, and Jason really couldn’t take one more hit.”

“If Sonny hadn’t gone insane—again,” Emily muttered darkly, “then it wouldn’t be like this. He would have come home—”

“Maybe. But I made a choice to lie, Em, and I made a choice to make Jason feel like he didn’t get a say in what happens to me or the baby. I have to live with that—”

“He’ll come around. He will,” Emily insisted. “He loves you. You know that—”

“I do. And I’ve taken him for granted. Repeatedly. I’m not innocent, not even a little. He’s put up with a lot from me—” Elizabeth shook her head. “And I still don’t even know if I’m ready to change my mind.”

Emily pursed her lips. “Okay, but—just in case—” She handed Elizabeth a piece of paper with a name and time scrawled on it. “I called in a favor with a nurse I know in the NICU. She’s going to give you a tour.”

Elizabeth’s froze as she reached for the paper. “The NICU?”

“You need to see where Cameron might be, even if it’s for a few days. You need to see it, meet some of the people who will be there to care for him.” Emily opened Elizabeth’s hand, put the paper in her palm, then closed Elizabeth’s fingers around it. “Promise me you’ll go.”

Elizabeth exhaled slowly. “What if it makes it worse?” she asked softly.

“Trust me,” Emily said. “This will help. I love you. I want you and my nephew to have the world.” She hugged Elizabeth. “Call me when it’s done.”

Elizabeth sighed and watched as Emily left, then went into Gail’s office for her appointment.

Brownstone: Living Room

The last person Jason wanted to see when he got to the Brownstone after the PCPD was Luke, sitting next to Bobbie on the sofa while Carly stood pensively at the front window.

He did not need one more person who was going to give him crap about not taking action on Sonny sooner.

“What happened to your legendary security?” Luke demanded, getting to his feet. “Corinthos got past them and the security system—”

“Luke, I told you not to start—” Bobbie said, reaching for his elbow. “I told you—”

“It’s hard for them,” Carly said wearily, turning towards Jason. “It’s one thing to say you’ll go against Sonny, but another for them to do it. And maybe they didn’t realize he was going to break in until he did it.”

“That was their story,” Jason told her. “I’ve reassigned them, and—” He hesitated. “For now, with Sonny in lock up, the security system is enough. I let Francis choose the last set of guys, but I want to do it personally. I didn’t have time before,” he snapped as Luke opened his mouth. “I didn’t think it was necessary until the wedding—”

“It’s okay,” Carly told him. “You let Justus call Taggert, and he was here. Lucas and Felix were here. I was even grateful for Maxie. She kept Michael calm. He knew Sonny was here, but she distracted him.” She rubbed her arms. “How did it happen? Last night, I mean. You said you’d keep an eye on him.”

“How’d he get past you?” Luke put his hands at his waist. “What was the point of letting him out of lock up if you were just going to let him wander around—”

“I didn’t—” Jason stopped. He had meant to keep a closer eye on Sonny, make sure he was behind the doors of his own penthouse with guards. He’d brought Sonny over while they waited for Max to come on duty.

Then Elizabeth had looked at him and told him she lied, that her oxygen levels had dropped, and he’d simply snapped.

He hadn’t wanted to yell at her, hadn’t wanted to take the anger out on her. He’d simply left, and he hadn’t thought about Sonny again until Justus’s call.

“I didn’t ask you to blame you,” Carly told him softly. “I was just worried. I knew you’d meant to take care of things, which meant if you didn’t, something was wrong. That’s all.” Her eyes searched hers. “What’s going on? Something isn’t right.”

“Is it Elizabeth?” Bobbie asked sharply. “Is she okay?”

“She’s—” Jason paused. “She’s fine. Something came up, and I wasn’t—I didn’t—it just happened. Okay? Everyone is fine,” he said more sharply than he’d meant to, and Carly just stared at him. “It’s fine,” he repeated.

“I wish you trusted me,” Carly said in that same soft tone that felt more like a slap than anything Luke had said to him. “Things aren’t fine, Jason. You don’t want to talk about it, that’s one thing. But don’t lie to me. Don’t you ever lie to me when all I’m doing is making sure you’re okay. I didn’t ask you to take care of Sonny last night. I told you to leave him in jail even as hard as it was. You decided to take that on, so when it went wrong, I was legitimately worried about you.”

Jason exhaled slowly. He barely noticed as Bobbie put a hand on Luke’s arm and gestured for them to leave Jason and Carly alone. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. Things aren’t fine,” he added. “But it’s not anything you need to worry about.”

“I worry about everything, Jason. You just never let me help. You come in here to take care of me and my boys, and I’m grateful for it. I am. But I’m done being something on your list.” Carly folded her arms, her glare deepening. “We’re either friends, or we’re not, and right now, it doesn’t feel much like friendship. I am not your responsibility. I can handle my own security. I’ll hire private guards.”

“Carly—”

“You have enough to worry about with Sonny not taking anyone’s advice and with Elizabeth and the baby. I’m not interested in being one more thing on the list.”

Why was everyone talking to him about being on a list? There wasn’t any goddamn list, Jason thought bitterly. He didn’t have people numbered, and if he did, he sure as hell wouldn’t put his own wife at the end of it—

“Fine. You want to handle your own security, then do it. I have enough to worry about—”

“That’s exactly my point,” Carly said, stopping Jason as he turned to go. He tensed. “You walk around, trying to handle everyone, and then you get angry at anyone who tries to do the same to you. You want to handle my life, Elizabeth’s life, Sonny’s life—when the hell are you going handle your own?”

“You have a lot of nerve—” Jason snapped, then stopped, appalled at himself. “I’m sorry—”

“Don’t apologize when it’s the first honest piece of emotion you’ve shown,” Carly said. “You’re right. I have a lot of nerve telling you how to live your life when all I’ve ever done is mess up yours. Make things harder. Get mad at me, Jason. At least I’ll know you’re letting yourself feel something—”

“I can’t—” Jason paused, trying to gather himself. “I don’t have the time for that—”

“Then make the damn time. What happened last night? And why is it so hard for you just to say it—”

“Because I can’t,” Jason shot back. “Okay? What do you want me to say, Carly? I went home last night, and Elizabeth told me her oxygen levels are dropping, and the only reason I didn’t know it about twenty-four hours earlier is that we had a bomb drop on us with Kristina—why the hell didn’t you tell me about Kristina being Sonny’s kid?” he demanded. “I get not telling Sonny—but why would you let me be blindsided like that?”

“I didn’t—” Carly rubbed the side of her face. “I had no idea it would hit the papers. I still don’t know how—and it was just a suspicion, Jason. I said I was sorry—”

“I am sick of people lying to me about things I damn well should know!” Jason growled. “You knew Sonny was making threats to get the boys back in the penthouse, knowing he came here to take them himself—what did you think would happen when he found out about Kristina?”

“I honestly didn’t—”

“No, you didn’t think, Carly. That’s the problem. You never think further than ten feet in front of your own damn face—” Jason stopped abruptly, staring at his hands.

They were shaking.

“Jason—” Carly came forward and put her hands over his, stilling them. “Why aren’t you home with Elizabeth? What the hell is going on?”

“I think—” He closed his eyes. “She lied to me. She told me the appointment was fine, but it wasn’t, and the only reason she did that was that Sonny and Justus had just had a fight. A physical one,” he added. “She lied because she didn’t want to make things worse. She told me last night.”

“That’s why Sonny wasn’t being watched,” Carly murmured. “I’m so sorry. But that doesn’t answer my question. Why aren’t you home with her? Why aren’t you with her right now?”

“Because I can’t. I can’t look at her. I just want to shake her—” He couldn’t force any other words out. Couldn’t make himself speak. “She’s going to die, and I don’t know how to stop it, and I don’t want to be angry with her. It’s not her fault. It’s not. It’s just—”

“We’re all doing the best we can.” She squeezed his hands. “Why aren’t you with her right now?” she repeated for the third time. “Why are you dealing with Sonny and me and all this other stuff that doesn’t matter?”

“It does—”

“Not if Elizabeth doesn’t get through this.” Carly tipped her head. “Be selfish, Jason. I’m begging you. Let Sonny deal with this latest crap on his own—”

“I can’t.” Jason stepped back. “Not yet. I can’t handle it. Not anymore. Not without snapping.” He dragged a hand down his face. “She doesn’t need that from me. Okay? So—so, you can look into security, but I’ll still get someone, okay? I’ll do a better job this time—”

“You didn’t do a bad job last time—” Carly grimaced. “Jason—”

“I have to go.”

She watched him go, then went into the kitchen, where Luke and Bobbie were not doing a very good job at not pretending to listen.

“Should I call Elizabeth?” Bobbie wanted to know.

“No, Jason will have to go home sometime.” Carly sighed. “I hope he does snap. He needs to, and I think Elizabeth is the person who actually needs to hear it.”  She looked at Luke. “Can you drive me over to your place? I appreciate Laura looking after the boys, but I need my babies. Thinking about what Jason’s going through—what he and Elizabeth are facing—”

“I’ll get the keys,” Luke said, getting to his feet. “You did good, Caroline,” he assured her. “The best you could.”

“Just wish it was enough,” she murmured.

General Hospital NICU: Hallway

Elizabeth hesitated at the entrance to the NICU—the ward was behind a set of locked doors that could only be entered with a member of the staff, and she was early for her meeting. She looked at Cody. “Do you mind waiting back here?”

“Not a problem.” Cody gestured to the waiting room. “I’ll be here when you need me.”

A bright, perky blonde stepped out of the NICU doors and smiled. “Elizabeth Morgan?”

“Yes. Are you the neonatal nurse?”

“Yeah, hi! I’m Nadine Crowell.” She extended her hand, and Elizabeth shook it. “Come on back! I’ll give you a quick tour of what I can and answer any questions you have.”

Elizabeth followed the nurse behind the doors and folded her arms over her belly as they approached the first room. “It’s smaller than I thought it’d be,” she admitted. She stepped to the side as a few people brushed past her. “And busier.”

“Yeah, we don’t have a lot of NICU babies,” Nadine said, “but we have a lot of specialists in and out. Emily said you have CTEPH, which means you’ll be inducing early to avoid complications?” she asked. She stopped at a sink and washed her hands. “You need to wash your hands every time you come in,” she told her. “We’re obsessed with it here.”

“Of course.” Elizabeth washed her hands and accepted the towel Nadine handed her. Then Nadine helped her to put on a gown similar to the one she wore. “Yeah, I’m at thirty weeks. I was hoping to wait until thirty-five, but—” She sighed. “It’ll probably be more like thirty-two.”

“Oh, that’s good. Thirty-two is a good time,” Nadine told her. She stopped in front of a room where an empty incubator sat. “This is where your baby would spend probably about two months,” she told Elizabeth. “At thirty-two weeks, depending on the baby’s own weight and development, they’re in the NICU for six-eight weeks.”

“And my husband and I— we can visit?” Elizabeth murmured. “Dr. Lee said we could.”

“Yes. One of you can be in here twenty-four-seven, and a lot of the time you can be here together, which is good for building the family bond. A lot of parents like that—they can help us wash and change the babies as they get older, and we really encourage skin-to-skin as often as possible—”

Elizabeth blinked, looked at her. “I can hold—we can hold him?”

“Oh, yeah! Babies who get skin-to-skin do just amazing with it. We have a lot of specialists to make sure he gets the best care.” Nadine tipped her head. “It’s not often we get a mom in here before the delivery.”

“Don’t do a lot of tours?”

“Honestly, no, but you’re the chief of staff’s daughter-in-law,” Nadine told her. “And most of the time, parents don’t know they’re going to be in the NICU until it happens.”

“I’m—I’m trying to be okay with inducing early,” Elizabeth admitted. “I’m not sure I’m there yet.”

“It’s scary,” Nadine said. “For parents and sometimes for us. But we’ve come a long way, and there’s a lot we can do to make sure your little guy goes home safe and sound. But at thirty-two weeks, you know—he won’t look like what you’re expecting. His skin might be thinner, he’ll be much smaller—”

“Kelly showed me some pictures.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “I’m not sure if I can do this,” she murmured. She looked at the incubator, tried to picture herself sitting near it.

“It’s scary,” Nadine repeated. “GH has one of the best staff in the country—and they’ve really invested in the NICU. I know it might be terrifying to think of your son in there, with all the wires and tubes, but Mrs. Morgan?”

Elizabeth looked at her, at the kindness and understanding. “Yeah?”

“He’ll be in good hands here. We’ll love him, take care of him, and I promise you, we will do everything we can to make sure you have a healthy boy to take home.” She paused. “I can schedule an appointment for you to meet with a neonatologist if that might help. He can walk you through the treatment and even talk to you about some complications.”

Elizabeth felt Cameron kick her and smiled. “Yeah, let’s—I’d like to get a better idea of what Cameron will be going through. Can I call you? I want to check with my husband and make sure he can go.” If he was even speaking to her after all of this.

Elizabeth looked around the ward again, seeing it with new eyes. It didn’t seem too small or too busy now. There were so many people here who knew exactly how to help her son. She looked at Nadine again. “Thank you for taking some time to show me one of the rooms and answer my questions. I know it’s special treatment, but I still appreciate it.”

“Honestly, I’d give every parent a tour if we knew in advance,” Nadine said as they walked back towards the ward’s doors. “You’re lucky to be able to plan it, to get the chance to learn to everything.”

Elizabeth smiled at her again and took the card Nadine gave her. “Thanks. I’ll call for that appointment.”

Port Charles Municipal Building: Mayor’s Office

“Well—” Lois set that day’s papers on his desk with a wry smile. “At least Dante and Kristina are out of the headlines.”

Ned grimaced as he read over the Herald and Sun‘s take on the assault and arrest the day before. “For now.”

She sobered and sat across from him. “Your mother’s press statement from the family will help. It meant a lot that she mentioned Brooke. That she connected it.” Lois pressed a fist to her chest. “She said what we couldn’t.”

“I know.”

She cleared her throat. “We could still hold a press conference. Have you reconsidered taking questions?”

“No. I’d have to talk about Alexis and Kristina, and it would get into her representation of Sonny.” Ned shook his head. “I’m trying to avoid it. Let’s see how the statements shake out.” He set the papers aside. “Have you been able to talk to Dante?”

“Not yet. He’s not talking to anyone,” Lois admitted. “He’s left his apartment, and his roommate won’t tell us where he is. Liv thinks he’s at Kelly’s—he’s been sort of seeing Lulu Spencer, and there are rooms there.”

“He’ll understand, Lois—”

“Will he?” Lois sighed. “It’s a miracle that Liv and Alexis are forgiving me. But they get it. They’re mothers. Dante—he’s been through so much, Ned. With Brooke and Vinnie—now this—”

“I talked to Anna and Taggert. They’re looking after him the best they can,” Ned assured her. “And he’s met the right kind of friends here. Lucky and Lulu—they’re loyal. He’s got people who care about him. Even if he’s angry now—”

“It’s just—I hung up on Brooke, and I never had the chance to make up for it. Dante—he’s just a little bit mine. All I have left,” Lois murmured, “and I’ve hurt him so much—”

“You didn’t hurt him,” Ned retorted. “That damn reporter did—”

“We never should have had that argument at the office—”

“I should have left it alone. If he wants to blame anyone, it should be me—”

“But I’m the one who had hate in my heart. I hated you so much for still having Kristina when I had no one, and now I’ve taken that from you—I never wanted that—”

“Alexis has made it clear that I’m still Kristina’s father, and she hasn’t changed her mind about Sonny. Especially after this.” Ned rose from his desk. “Dante will forgive you, Lois. He’s a good kid. He might need time, but I know he will.”

“I hope you’re right.” Lois stood and reached for the papers. “I’ll toss these in the shredder and get back to work. I don’t want to look at them anymore.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth closed her eyes in relief when she finally heard voices outside, in the hallway — quiet, muffled ones which told her that Jason had finally come. It was nearly nine, and she was exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before and the long day, but she’d been determined to wait for him. He hadn’t called to say he wouldn’t be home there, and she didn’t want to miss his call again.

But he wasn’t alone. Justus filed in behind him, his eyes flashing regret when they met hers. She swallowed hard, realizing that Jason hadn’t wanted to be alone with her.

Would she be able to fix any of this? Even if she agreed to check in tomorrow if that’s what he wanted from her—would Jason ever be able to truly forgive her?

“I didn’t think you’d be up,” Jason said as their eyes met for a brief minute. He closed the door behind him. “Justus and I have work to do, but I’ll take you upstairs first—”

“I know you’ve got a lot on your plate,” Elizabeth began, “but I really need to talk to you first—”

“I’ll go,” Justus offered.

“Can it wait until tomorrow?” Jason asked. “I haven’t slept in nearly two days, and I don’t want to deal with this right now. I came home because I need to sleep.”

Elizabeth flinched, and he grimaced. “I didn’t mean it that way, I just—”

“You’re angry with me—”

“I’m going,” Justus interrupted. “I don’t—”

“No,” Jason told him. “We need to go over a few more things, and—”

“I just need to apologize, okay? Didn’t you get any of my messages?” Elizabeth cut in, her voice faltering. “You didn’t—you didn’t call.”

“I got the messages, but—” Jason scrubbed his hands over his face, then let them fall to his side. “Fine, let’s get this over with. You went to Gail, she didn’t change your mind. You’re really sorry, but you’re going to wait until the last minute to induce labor, and you don’t care if you die and leave me alone to raise Cameron. Anything else?” he snapped.

God, keep my head above water
Don’t let me drown, it gets harder
I’ll meet you there at the altar
As I fall down to my knees
Don’t let me drown, drown, drown
Don’t let me, don’t let me, don’t let me drown
– Head Above Water, Avril Lavigne

---

Thursday, February 19, 2004

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

The room was deadly silent after Jason had stormed out. Elizabeth stared at the frame on the floor, the jagged shards of glass scattered. Her hands were trembling as she moved slowly across the room—

“Let me,” Sonny said, roughly but his touch was gentle as he held up a hand. He knelt down and picked up the frame, kicking the glass into a pile. He got to his feet and looked at her, his eyes still red.

“I’ll get a broom.” Justus went towards the kitchen.

Elizabeth didn’t really hear either of them. She just looked at the glass on the floor, then the frame Sonny was holding out to her, a long, jagged piece of glass still tucked in the frame.

“He’s upset,” Sonny told her. “Not about you—”

“It’s me,” she said softly. “He was handling things until I lied—” Her voice broke. “I lied to him.”

Sonny set the frame on the desk. “I can’t make it stop. Can’t make it over. It just needs to be done.” His eyes found hers, the desperation and fear evident. “It all needs to be over. You know that, you get that, don’t you?”

“I do.” She curled her hand into a fist and held it against her chest as a hot tear slid down her cheek. Another followed. “I wish I’d let you kill him months ago. You were right. Better that it’s over. It should have been. It’s my fault. All of it.”

“I wish—” Sonny looked past her, shook his head. “No, she’s wrong.”

Elizabeth blinked at him. “She? What—Carly?”

“No, no. Not her fault. Not all of it. You can’t say it. It’s not mine, either. It’s hers. It’s theirs.”

“Sonny—” Elizabeth began, but Justus returned then with a broom and a dustpan. “I can do that—”

“Don’t,” Justus said with a shake of his head. “I dumped a lot of crap on Jason earlier today,” he told her. “You couldn’t have known that. And—”

“I got arrested,” Sonny muttered. “If Carly would just listen to me—”

“If you’d listen to her—” Justus began heatedly.

“If we just listened to each other,” Elizabeth murmured, but neither man heard her. She turned back to wander towards the sofa, letting them argue. She was so tired. So exhausted of all from all of it.

Why did it have to be so hard? Why did every day feel worse than the one before it?

Why couldn’t it ever just…stop?

“I don’t need to hear this shit from you,” Sonny bit out. “I have things to do, and they know you’re nothing, too!”

“They who?” Justus demanded, but Sonny pushed past the lawyer, yanking the door open and stalking out.

He left the door hanging open, so Cody hesitantly stepped to the threshold. “Uh, do you need anything, Mrs. Morgan?” he asked. He reached out grasped the doorknob. “Can I—”

“I know you’re usually off shift by now,” Justus said, setting the broom aside, the dustpan of glass in his hand. “We’ll need someone on the door tonight. Just to be safe.”

“I can stay—” Cody began.

“No,” Elizabeth said softly. “No. You’ve been here for so long, Cody.” She finally looked over at him. “Thank you. But you need to rest.”

“All right,” the guard said doubtfully. “I’ll call down for a replacement.” He closed the door, leaving Justus alone with Elizabeth.

“I never should have lied to him,” Elizabeth said. She stared down at her hand, then twisted her wedding ring around her finger. “He didn’t deserve that.”

“Neither of you deserves what’s going on,” Justus told her. He sat in the armchair. “You came home last night, Elizabeth, to chaos. And in that moment, you made a mistake. Because you just wanted to make things better. He’ll remember that. He just—he couldn’t absorb one more hit today. And this is the one that hurts.”

“I—”

“That’s not blaming you,” he added. “It’s just acknowledging the truth. Nothing about this is fair. For any of us. He needs some time. He can hold it together when it’s Sonny or Carly or the business.” He waited for Elizabeth to look at him. “But not with you. You know that. You know why.”

“I guess.”

“Elizabeth.”

“No, I—” A sob crawled up her throat, but she swallowed it. “I know. I just can’t stand to hurt him, and it’s all I do.”

“It’s not. I’ll stay until he comes back—”

“You don’t have to do that—”

“I do. He’s my cousin and my family. I came here to be closer to my family,” Justus reminded. “Not just so Mikki and Kimi could know Lila and Edward, but so that I could be here for Jason—and you. We’ll get through this. One day at a time. I’ll call Mikki and let her know I won’t be home for a while.”

Elm Street Pier

Jason was nearly at Bannister’s Wharf and the warehouse parking lot when he heard someone calling his name. If it had been anyone else, he would have ignored it.

But it was his sister.

Jason turned back to see Emily jogging down the steps, a parka pulled over her scrubs. “I thought you were working—”

“I am, and I have to go back, but I got someone to cover for me.” Emily folded her arms. “I was going to head over to the warehouse. Elizabeth called.”

Jason shook his head, turning back towards the wharf. “I don’t want to do this—”

Emily reached out to his elbow. “Hey, just let me talk for a minute, okay?”

“She told you what was going on and not me?” Jason demanded, betrayal washing over him as if someone had dumped a pot of scalding water over his head. “What the hell—”

“Can you blame her?”

Jason’s mouth nearly dropped open at that. “What the hell are you talking about? Of course I can blame her! She lied about her health! Again! How many times does she have to put herself at risk before I get to be angry—”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t be pissed,” Emily snapped. “I asked if you could blame her. You should have been at that appointment! She’s high-risk, facing fatal complications, and you were babysitting your boss again. Sonny’s a fucking adult.”

Jason fisted his hands at his side, but he had nothing to say to that. Emily was absolutely right. If he’d been at the appointment, supporting Elizabeth, then she wouldn’t have been able to lie to him. Wouldn’t haven’t felt the need to.

“She still shouldn’t—”

“No, she shouldn’t have. But what did she come home to, huh? In what world would Elizabeth have told you what was going on? And have you even been home today for her to talk to?”

“No, but—”

“She absolutely should have told you the truth, and she knows it. But she didn’t want to hurt you, Jason. She made a mistake.” Emily folded her arms. “I made her tell you, you know. I didn’t expect you to walk out on her, making her feel even more like shit.”

“I—” His throat closed, and he couldn’t say a word. He’d left her. He hadn’t even asked her if she was okay or what was going on. What was next.

He’d just left. She’d told him the oxygen levels were still bad, and his brain had simply shut down.

“You need to tell her how scared you are,” Emily said, her tone softer now. More gentle. “You’re trying to make her feel okay with the decision she’s making, and that’s not working anymore. Because you aren’t talking to her about how you really feel, and she’s just trying to make things easier for you. She thinks she’s one more thing on the list of shit making your life difficult.”

“I’ve told her she’s the most important—”

“I know. And part of her knows that, Jase. But—” Emily looked away, out over the dark, swirling waters of Lake Ontario. “Last year, neither of us could convince her to leave that house. She risked her life to help find Carly. I think it’s because she didn’t really think her life was worth saving. Not that she’s suicidal,” she added hastily, “but I just—that miscarriage last year. It broke her, and I don’t think she’s all the way back. Even without what happened in that panic room with Ric—” She shrugged a shoulder. “I just think that maybe we’re not giving enough room for any of that. She wasn’t in a good place for a long time, and we both know that this pregnancy was not the plan.”

“Em—”

“We all love this baby, and we all want him to be healthy,” Emily said, cutting off his protest. “But there’s no shame in admitting that it would have been better if Elizabeth had never gotten pregnant. She probably should have had an abortion.”

Emily had said one thing that Jason never would have said out loud. Could never have admitted. He swallowed hard. “I can’t say that to her.”

“No, and I can’t either. But we can say it to each other. Because we love her, and we both know that if she hadn’t had that miscarriage, she probably would have terminated,” Emily told him. “But she thinks it’s her fault that the first baby didn’t make it, and I don’t know if we will ever be able to convince her it wasn’t. It does not make either of us a bad person to say Elizabeth is not healthy enough to bring a baby into this world full-term. It’s just honesty. She literally can’t make it to forty weeks.”

Jason dragged his hands through his hair, moving from his forehead to the nape of his neck. “How does saying it change anything?”

“It doesn’t. I just think you and I will handle this better if we’re honest with each other. We are both terrified that she won’t survive this pregnancy. That she will kill herself to bring this baby into the world. I love that little boy.” Emily’s voice broke. “I’ve felt him kick, I’ve seen him on that ultrasound, and I want him to be here with us. He’s real to me now, and we can’t go back. You and I would give our lives to protect him, so when we try to convince Elizabeth that she shouldn’t do the same—can you blame her for not believing us?”

“No.” He hesitated. “I didn’t—she didn’t tell me anything other than the levels dropped. What’s—what did Monica say? How bad is that?”

“She’s okay for now. Mom’s going to be sticking to her like white on rice,” Emily told him. “She’s increasing the oxygen, and if they’re not back to 95 when Mom comes to check on her tomorrow, then Elizabeth promised to induce.”

Jason exhaled in a whoosh, some of the tension and tightness in his chest dissipating. “I can’t keep doing this.”

“You need to talk to her,” Emily said again. “She knows you love her, but I think sometimes…I don’t know. It’s like she can’t believe she could possibly be more important than Sonny. Or the business. Or Carly and the kids. She keeps putting herself at the end of the list.”

Because Jason had put her there the year before, and she’d never fully believed it was different now. He’d known she was in danger from Ric, and he’d let her stay in that damn house. If he’d forced her out—if he’d made her leave, would she believe him now that she came first?

Was he ever going to be able to undo all the damage he’d done with Courtney? Or that her own family had done? That Lucky and the Spencers had done by guilting her into fighting the Cassadines and risking her own life to fix Lucky?

Jason didn’t know the answer to that. Was he supposed to spend the rest of his life apologizing for a mistake he’d made almost two years ago and had repeatedly tried to make amends for?

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out, wincing when he saw Justus’s name.

“What?” he asked. “Is Elizabeth—”

“She’s fine. I was going to stick until you came back, but Max just came over—Sonny’s gone. We thought he went to the penthouse, but he was gone by the time Max came on duty. I don’t know where the hell he is.”

Municipal Building: City Attorney’s Office

“You’re going to want to avoid my mother for a while,” Ned told Alexis with an air of exhaustion as he slumped into a chair.

“Of course the news would break while she was in Port Charles,” Alexis muttered. She folded her arms, leaned against her desk. “She never liked me.”

“I’m not her favorite person either.” Ned cleared his throat. “The thing is—finding out Kristina isn’t my daughter—”

“Ned—”

“It’s hit the family hard,” he forced out. “Because we lost…”

Because they’d lost Brooke barely six months earlier, and the Quartermaines loved fiercely. They rivaled only the Cassadines in their devotion to protecting each other from outsiders—or destroying themselves from within.

“I can understand if with all the press—” Alexis bit her lip. “The scandal, I mean, if you want to pull back from her. If you want me to resign—”

Ned’s head snapped up, and he rose quickly. “Absolutely not. What kind of hypocrite would I be? I knew she wasn’t mine. And if it hadn’t been for you, for Jax—” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t accept Lois’s resignation, and I’m not interested in yours. And—” He paused. “I love Kristina. I don’t—” He looked past her to the window overlooking the streets. “I always knew one day the truth would come out, but I thought it would be years. I thought I would have more time.”

“Ned, I don’t—” Alexis reached for his hand. “I don’t want Kristina to lose you. I asked you to be her father. I never meant it just for the lie, to keep her safe. I meant it forever. You’ll just have to adopt her or something. I don’t know. Legally, you’re on her birth certificate, so Sonny will have to—”

Her words were cut off when Ned dragged her into a tight hug. She drew back, then laid a hand on his cheek. “If you still want her, then we’re in this together. No one has to lose anything.”

“Thank you. I didn’t know how I was going to ask, but—thank you.” He stepped back.

“Now, if we’re done with the dramatics,” she said briskly, “we need to talk about the press statement I’m planning.” She handed him a draft. “Lois will want the final say, but I wanted to take a crack at it.”

“It’s hard to admit it,” Ned said, as he skimmed it, “but Sonny getting arrested again might actually help swing this back our way.” He set the statement down. “Thank you, by the way, for forgiving Lois—”

“She didn’t do it on purpose,” Alexis interrupted with a shake of her head. “And I meant what I said. She had a bad moment, and some damned vulture was right there. When we get through with the Herald and the Sun, they’re going to regret ever running those stories—”

They both turned as they heard shouts and something crashed outside her office. “The whole world has gone mad,” Ned muttered, but the blood iced over in her veins as she heard someone demanding access to that bitch.

She knew that voice.

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said, wrinkling her nose as her mother-in-law came in. “Justus didn’t want me to be alone, and—”

“And Sonny’s off making a nuisance of himself again,” Monica muttered. She set down her black doctor bag. “Well, I wanted to come over tomorrow and check your levels, so—”

“I can’t—I can’t do anything until Jason comes home,” Elizabeth said, her heartbeat increasing as Monica took out the pulse oximeter. “If they’re not where you want them—” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I never told him. Not until tonight.”

Monica paused, then sat down on the sofa next to him. “You didn’t?” she repeated.

“I was going to, I promise. But I came home, and things were just—” She twisted her fingers in her lap. “It was bad. Sonny and Justus were arguing, and I couldn’t—I couldn’t tell him. I couldn’t. So lied. Then I told him tonight, and he walked out.”

Monica absorbed that, then nodded. “All right.” She reached for Elizabeth’s hand to start the reading, but Elizabeth frowned at her, fisting her hand in her lap.

“Is that all you’re going to say?”

“About Jason? Yes. I’m not surprised,” Monica told her. “Disappointed, but not surprised. You’ve always struggled to tell Jason about your health, and he’s always been too protective of you.” She paused. “You’re not seeing Gail anymore, are you?”

“No. I—we were pretty regular for a few months, but we tapered off after Vinnie was arrested. Um, I was doing those support groups, and I don’t know. Gail was in Arizona over the winter with Lee. Is—is she back?”

“She and Lee got home while you were gone.” Monica tipped her head. “You’ve got a lot of people who love you, Elizabeth. I think that’s hard for you to accept because the people who should love you the most aren’t here.”

Elizabeth shook her head. “I don’t care about that—”

“I used to be married to your father,” Monica reminded her. “He’s a great doctor, but he was a terrible husband. Not that I was all that much better at being his wife,” she admitted. “I’ve met your mother a time or two, you know. They’re together because they’re both obsessed with their careers. Steve and Sarah made sense to them, your grandfather used to tell me. But you never did. It was easier for them to stop trying.”

“I was a pain in the ass—”

“I wasn’t some great mother either,” Monica said. “Jason doesn’t remember just how terrible Alan and I were when they were growing up, but AJ does. We’ve done better with Emily. We learned so much, but the damage we did to our boys—it’s part of the reason Jason felt like he had to get in that car to stop AJ from hurting himself. He decided long ago he was the only one who could save AJ, and we let him. Because it was easier.”

“Monica—”

“Jason loves too hard,” Monica cut in, and Elizabeth fell silent. “And so do you. You want so badly to protect him that you’ve hurt him to do it. And I’ve seen him do the same to you.” She took Elizabeth’s hand, wrapping it between both of hers. “You matter, Elizabeth. I’m sorry that Jeff and Carolyn don’t want to take the time to love you. That has nothing to do with you and everything to do with them. I want you to stop thinking about them as anyone who should matter in your life, and remember the people right in front of you who love you.”

“I know that I’m not doing any of this right,” Elizabeth said, “but—”

“There is no right, and there is no wrong. There’s only the way that works for you. I think you should talk to Gail,” Monica said. “You’ll feel better if you can talk it out with someone who doesn’t have power over you, who isn’t someone who you want to protect and take care of. Or someone whose love and respect you’re trying to keep.”

Elizabeth’s vision blurred with tears. “That’s not….”

Monica brushed a piece of hair out of Elizabeth’s eyes. “I love you so very much. Not just because somehow you’ve brought Jason closer to us, but because of who you are. I want you to be okay. Will you think about it?”

“Yes.” Elizabeth nodded. “I’ll—I’ll call Gail in the morning.”

“Good. Now—” Monica reached for her hand. “Let’s see how you’re doing after some extra oxygen.”

Elizabeth watched Monica’s eyes very carefully as the doctor focused on the meter. “Is it better?”

“You’re not at 95,” Monica said, and Elizabeth’s heart sank. “But you’ve gone up to 94. That’s good. I wasn’t going to check until tomorrow, so we’ll do it again and see if we’re back at 95.” She smiled at Elizabeth, squeezing her hand. “We both deserved a little bit of good news. Why don’t you call Jason?”

“He’s dealing with Sonny—” Elizabeth wrinkled her nose when Monica just raised a brow. “Yeah, okay.” She reached for her phone, then got his voicemail. She sighed. “Hey. I just wanted to tell you Monica came over to sit with me, and she checked my levels. I’m not at 95, but it’s back to 94. If you don’t believe me—and I don’t blame you—you can call her. I’m sorry,” she added softly. “I just—I’m sorry. I love you.”

Municipal Building: City Attorney’s Office

Sonny stalked in, charging in her direction with Alexis’s secretary and two security guards behind him. Ned managed to step in front of Alexis just as Sonny reached her, his face so flushed Alexis thought he might actually pass out from anger.

Could someone be so angry they died?

“Get him out of here!” Ned snarled to the security guards, who tried to grab Sonny under the arms and drag him back.

“You lying bitch! You stole my daughter! I’ll make you pay!” Sonny screamed, and her eyes bulged—she’d never, ever seen him like this—

Alexis had heard what happened at the Brownstone, had seen Sonny angry before—but this was a level of furious that she just—

She was terrified.

“Call 911!” Ned told the secretary, who rushed away. He shoved Sonny back when the other man broke loose of the security guards and grabbed his jacket to shake him.

“You stole my daughter! You piece of shit!” Sonny swung at Ned, and Ned didn’t duck—he let Sonny’s punch land, sending him flying backward into Alexis. They both stumbled back, and Alexis tripped over her desk chair.

“The police are coming!” the secretary cried, wringing her hands. More security guards flooded into the room, and Sonny was finally dragged away.

Alexis pulled herself to her feet, swallowing hard as her heart pounded in her ears. She’d always known that if the truth came out, Sonny would lose his mind—but she couldn’t quite make herself accept this was actually happening.

“About fucking time,” Ned snarled as two officers came in. “Did you crawl across the fucking street?” he demanded. “I want him arrested for trespassing and assault—”

“Let me go!” Sonny shoved the security guards forward, but one of the officers managed to get the cuffs on him. Between the guards and the cops, he was dragged out of the office and towards the elevators.

Alexis closed her eyes and put her hands on her face, struggling to find her breath. “Oh my God,” she moaned.

“Are you okay?”

“I—” She looked at him. “I don’t know—” She swallowed hard. “You’re bleeding.”

Ned touched his lip, then scowled. “Figures. Let’s go across the street and sign our statements. They won’t let him out of lockup again. Not after his second assault in a matter of hours. He’s lost his fucking mind.”

Brownstone: Kitchen

Carly slowly placed the phone back on the receiver, then sat down at the table and put her head in her hands.

“Carly?” Bobbie’s hand dropped on her shoulder. “What’s wrong? Who was that?”

“I spent the last eight hours,” Carly murmured, “down at the PCPD making statements, talking to the ADA, talking to Jason and Justus, talking to Michael—Sonny has occupied every waking thought and moment of my life for months.”

“Carly—”

“I just want a single minute when it’s just me. Is that so hard to ask? Just me and the boys.”

“Of course not. What happened? Who was—”

“Taggert. He was calling from the station.” Carly leaned back. “Jason was supposed to take Sonny home and keep him under wraps until he was completely calmed down, but he got away. He went to Alexis’s office and attacked Ned.”

Bobbie sat down, her eyes wide. “Sonny attacked Ned? What? How? Is—”

“He’s fine. Sonny got in a punch, so that’s another assault charge—” Carly put her head down, folding her arms underneath it. “They’re not going to let him out.”

“No, they won’t.”

“He’ll be locked up. In the dark. No windows. A small space.” Carly raised her head, tears streaming down her face. “He’ll be so scared, and it’ll be worse. Oh, God, Mama. He hates the dark. He hates it so much. I know how much he hates it.”

“Baby—”

“I don’t know how to make this stop. Why can’t I make him get help? Why aren’t the boys and I enough to make it happen? He said he loves me, but—”

“Mental illness,” Bobbie said, “is a terrible thing to suffer from. Your own mind is your enemy, and you can’t trust your own thoughts. While I believe that some of what Sonny has done these last few months is completely under his control, I can also accept that even when he appears lucid to all of us, he might be fighting a war inside his own mind he can’t win.”

“He’s such a good man. Such a good father and it kills me to see this, you know?” Carly swiped at her tears. “He’d hate himself for what he’s doing to us. To Jason. But he can’t see it, and I’m so afraid that if none of this has been enough—Mama—”

“The only way we’re ever going to be able to force him to get help is if he hurts someone,” Bobbie told her. “And I don’t know if Taggert and Ned are enough to convince anyone that Sonny needs help. I hope so.” She paused. “You said Sonny got past Jason?”

“Oh, God.” Carly got to her feet and crossed back to the phone. “I hope everything’s okay.”

PCPD: Squad Room

Jason had spent way too much time in this room today and in the last eight months. He entered the room just as he finished reassuring Carly he was fine. When he ended the call, he saw a missed call and voicemail from Elizabeth. His finger slid over it, but he finally just closed the phone and put it in his pocket.

Justus was waiting for him, leaving Taggert at the desk and striding over to meet him. “Hey. Sonny’s being booked—”

“I already know that we can’t get him out tonight,” Jason said. “I just wanted to know how bad—”

“Bad,” Justus said grimly. “Scott’s taking point on the case since it involves the mayor. Sonny got past security by decking a few people downstairs and made it all the way into Alexis’s office before security was able to stop him. He’s being charged with assault on public officials and all the kind of crap that comes with it.”

“Christ.”

“It’s bad,” Justus repeated. “And Scott made it clear — he’s not in the mood to negotiate. Ned’s got a PR mess on his hands with the Kristina stuff, and Sonny doing this makes him look better, but I also think—”

“Scott’s been talking to Bobbie,” Jason said. “He already hates Sonny, so he’s not going to do us any favors.”

“We can’t do anything tonight. Sonny’s stuck in here, and I don’t think he’s going to be allowed out on bail.” Justus paused. “I want to push for a psychiatric evaluation. I think this is our best chance to make it happen.”

Jason looked towards the interrogation room. How many hours had passed since he’d been here over another assault charge? “Find out which judge is overseeing the hearing,” he said finally.

“Got it.” Justus paused. “About earlier—”

“I don’t want to talk about it—”

“Then don’t say anything. You should go home,” Justus told him. “Because Elizabeth needs you—”

“And I need to not be angry when I see her,” Jason bit out. “I understand what she did and why she did it. That doesn’t mean I’m not still—” He paused. “I can only deal with one thing at a time, and I just—I can’t right now. You said on the phone Monica was with her, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. She will call if anything happens.”

Justus opened his mouth but then shook his head. “All right. Let me go see if they’re ready to finish this.”

Jason watched Justus return to Taggert, then reached for his phone. He looked at the voicemail again, and this time he let it play.

“…it’s back to 94. If you don’t believe me—and I don’t blame you—you can call her. I’m sorry. I just—I’m sorry. I love you.”

He let the words wash over him, the relief that she’d improved a little, and the shame that he did want to call Monica and confirm. Then he put the phone back in his pocket and waited for Justus.

He knew what he could handle right now and what he couldn’t—and going home to Elizabeth, to have that conversation that he knew needed to happen—

He wasn’t ready for it, and he didn’t think Elizabeth was either. Maybe in the morning.

But I’m a fire and I’ll keep your brittle heart warm
If your cascade ocean wave blues come
All these people think love’s for show
But I would die for you in secret
The devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in me
Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?
– peace, Taylor Swift

---

Thursday, February 19, 2004

PCPD: Locker Room

One step in front of the other. That was how he was going to handle this. He was back at work, starting a shift just like nothing had changed.

And he was going to ignore every other cop in the room staring at him with side eyes—so what if they thought he was a dirty cop? They were lazy pieces of shit—

“Hey—”

Dante jerked away at the hand on his shoulder and nearly slammed into the lockers, his heart racing. Then he realized it was just Lucky and caught his breath. “Sorry—”

“I’m sorry—” Lucky began at the same time, then cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was just—I was worried.” He set a duffel bag on the bench. “Cruz said you were staying somewhere else to get the press off your trail—”

“Yeah. They were outside our building, too,” Dante slammed his locker door shut. “They’re still at my ma’s. Trying to get to Lois or Alexis, I think. Ma’s not really rating any interviews. She’s just the teenager that Sonny knocked—” He stopped. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Lucky said after a moment. “I just—I wanted you to know if you need anything, I’m here.”

“I don’t—I just need everyone to pretend they don’t know.” Dante grunted as he fastened the last button on his shirt. “That’s not happening.”

“No, I guess not.” Lucky tipped his head. “Do they know how it leaked?”

He grimaced. “No. Not yet. No one was supposed to know. Me, my ma, and some family back in Bensonhurst. That was it.” He paused. “I told Lu the other day, but she didn’t say anything.”

“You told my sister.” Lucky squinted. “Uh, so I guess you cleared things up there.”

“Doesn’t really matter anymore, but yeah. I don’t know how the papers found out, but someone decided to destroy my life.” Dante stared at his badge for a long moment before pinning to his shirt. He wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to keep doing this job. Some were already looking at him weird after he’d testified against Vinnie, now—

It was just a matter of time before the job he loved was taken from him, just like everything else in his life. Brooke, his family—

The job was all he had left, and now the clock was ticking on that. Who the hell hated him that much?

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

“Grandfather hit the roof when the papers were published,” Emily said as she handed Elizabeth a glass of water and sat next to her. “He’s threatening to sue the Herald and the Sun for putting Kristina in danger—”

“Maybe we should do a class action suit,” Elizabeth muttered. She rubbed her forehead. “It’s crazy. Jason spent most of yesterday trying to keep Sonny from flipping out—and he’s at the warehouse now because I think Sonny is trying to get a lawyer to go after visitation—”

“Christ. He doesn’t wait long.” Emily shuddered. “Justus won’t do it?”

“Justus—” Elizabeth paused. “He quit last night. Sonny was flipping out, and he—” She sipped her water, the guilt swimming in her stomach. “Justus doesn’t want to deal with it,” she said finally, uncomfortable telling Emily about the violent scene she’d witnessed the night before.

“Can’t blame him, but it sucks for you and Jason. Justus is a great lawyer.” Emily twirled her fork in her pasta salad. “How did your appointment go?”

Elizabeth opened her mouth to tell Emily the same thing she’d told Jason but then closed it. “Not well,” she said finally. “The glucose test went fine,” she said, “but…my oxygen levels aren’t getting better.”

Emily set down the fork and stared at Elizabeth. “Are they getting worse?”

“They dropped another point. I’m still a few points above where we need to worry, but—”

“But it could change at any minute.” Emily’s shoulders were tense as she leaned forward. “What did Mom say?”

“The same thing she did last month. And last week. She wants me to check in as soon as possible. Yesterday, even.” Elizabeth’s fingers suddenly felt limp, and she set down the glass on the coffee table with a thud. “But I’m—there’s still—there’s time—”

“Elizabeth.”

“There’s not as much as I wanted, but every day I can make it—it gives Cameron a better chance. I can’t stand the idea of him struggling in the NICU, Em, or ending up with a long-term complication. I mean, we’re talking about the difference between some vision issues and something like cerebral palsy or severe learning problems—”

“We’re talking about your life!”

Elizabeth closed her eyes. “Em—”

“You have the best medical care that money can buy. Between your husband and our family, Elizabeth, any complication Cameron has—we can handle it. We can get him tutors and doctors and treatments—”

“I know that—”

“But we can’t get another you.”

Elizabeth looked at her best friend, her sister-in-law, and tried to speak. The words refused to form as she processed Emily’s statement. “Em—”

“What happens if there’s a crisis and you deliver tomorrow?” Emily demanded. “If you have something happen at home and we have to rush you in, and by the time we get there—there’s no chance for you, just for Cameron? You want Jason to have to deal with that?”

“No, but—”

“You want us to raise this little boy without you?”

“No!”

“Then why are you refusing to remember that you come first?” Emily continued, almost ruthlessly. “Your body has to come first. You can’t help Cameron if you don’t help yourself.”

“I can’t—” Her throat closed, and Elizabeth’s chest tightened. Her lungs started to burn, the familiarity of the sensation so fucking frustrating—

She wanted to breathe. Why was it so hard to just breathe?

Without another word, Emily leaned down to the side table. She removed the oxygen tank they kept there and helped Elizabeth fit the mask over her face. She sat next to her, holding Elizabeth’s hand as the cool, sweet air flooded into her nose and mouth, and gradually, her chest eased.

“I’m sorry,” Emily said. “But I told you that we’d have this argument when your health started to change.”

Elizabeth kept her eyes closed as she pulled the mask down, letting it rest on her belly. “Do you think I want it this way?” she murmured.

“No, of course not—”

“I didn’t want to spend my pregnancy being scared all the time. I didn’t want to spend my life this way. I’ve spent too much time being afraid of taking chances. Of reaching for what I really want. I couldn’t get out of my own way long enough to be happy.”

“Elizabeth—”

“I understand that what I’ve—that the way I’ve handled things so far is unreasonable. Do you think I don’t?” she demanded.

“No, but—”

“And it’s so easy for everyone to tell me to put myself first.” Elizabeth shoved the mask aside and pushed herself to her feet, her body protesting the movement. “So easy for you and Jason and Monica to look at me like I’m insane—”

“No one thinks that—”

“What was I supposed to do?” Elizabeth demanded. “Deliver my baby at twenty-eight weeks and give him the worst possible start to life when my vitals were relatively healthy?”

“Of course not—”

“My oxygen levels dropped two points to 92. I’ve read the stupid papers Monica gave me. Below 90 is a concern, not at 92.”

“Yeah—”

“Every single day I manage to stay pregnant is one more chance for Cameron to be healthy.” She rubbed her belly, feeling her son press his tiny feet against her hand, reminding her why she was struggling so hard. “You know better than anyone what it’s like to lay in a hospital bed, gasping for breath. After your accident—”

“I never said I didn’t—”

“I’ve spent six months not being able to trust my body. Not being able to trust that I’ll be able to breathe without oxygen nearby. I don’t want my son to spend a single day in the NICU longer than he has to. That’s what I’m fighting for.”

“I understand all of that.” Emily got to her feet. “And I’m on your side. We all are—this isn’t a battle. We’re not at war, Elizabeth. You’re at thirty weeks. It’s so much safer now—”

“And it’ll be even safer if I get to thirty-two—”

“Elizabeth—your condition could change overnight. You know that! You could—you could go to sleep tonight and not wake up—” She scowled. “What did Jason say? I know he’s not happy about any of this, not that he’ll say so.”

Elizabeth bristled. “What does that mean?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know that Jason has spent the last two months biting his tongue,” Emily retorted. “We all decided not to argue about this until we have to. Since he clearly didn’t get you to check in yesterday, I guess he didn’t win—”

“He didn’t—” Elizabeth paused. “He doesn’t know.”

“He doesn’t—” Emily’s eyes widened. “What do you mean he doesn’t know?”

“I mean, that the papers hit right before we were supposed to leave,” Elizabeth said. “So Jason stayed to deal with Sonny. When I got home from the appointment—” She fisted her hand and rubbed it against her chest. “Sonny was here screaming at Jason, and Justus was angry. Sonny shoved Justus into the wall—”

“What—”

“And Justus quit. After everything going on with Ric and Sonny and Carly—and there are other problems I’m not supposed to know about—the last thing Jason needed was for me to dump one more thing on him—”

“You are not one more thing, Elizabeth. You are his wife—”

Elizabeth shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. He didn’t need this last night—”

“And when is it going to be a good time?” Emily demanded. “Before or after your vitals crash and Mom has to explain to Jason what the hell is going on—”

“I—”

“Look, I’m sorry for Carly and everyone dealing with Sonny. I am. And I know that’s Jason’s problem, too. But at the end of the day, do you think Jason is going to be happy you didn’t tell him this then? What did you tell him about the appointment?”

Elizabeth shifted her eyes. “That everything was fine, which is technically true, but I know he thought I meant my oxygen levels were better, or at least the same. Don’t look at me that way, Em. You didn’t see him. He needed someone to give him a break, okay? He needed me not to be something he has to worry about—”

“And that’d be great if it weren’t a lie.” Emily turned and went towards her purse on the desk. “I’m calling him—”

“Emily—”

“If you’re not going to tell him there’s a problem with his family—”

“Don’t—”

“Then you tell him the next time you see him.” Emily arched a brow. “Or I will.”

Warehouse: Jason’s Office

“I’m sorry, Jason, I really am. Mikki and I talked it over,” Justus continued, “and I just can’t keep doing this—”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck, then looked out the window that overlooked the waterfront. “I know.” How could he ask his cousin for one more thing after the man had uprooted his entire family to move to Port Charles only to be attacked?

Jason had known Sonny was on the edge of the darkness he’d spent most of his life fighting. He slipped over it a few times, but Jason had always been able to drag him back. But since December, since that terrible night in the penthouse, Jason just hadn’t been able to reach him. Was it too late? Had Sonny slipped too far?

He turned back to Justus. “I can’t ask you to stay on. I knew you were only sticking because of Elizabeth and the baby—”

“And you,” Justus cut in. “I didn’t want to leave you with all of this going on.” He paused. “I still don’t. There’s something really weird going on with all this Ric stuff. I know you’re overloaded between the crap Sonny is pulling, the problems Tommy and Luke are warning you about—and all of that has nothing on what’s happening with Elizabeth and the baby.” He grimaced. “I just can’t pretend I can represent Sonny anymore. Especially after yesterday.”

“I know,” Jason repeated. He put his hands at his waist, dipped his head, and took a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. What if I get Sonny another lawyer? You won’t have to deal with him anymore.”

Justus squinted. “Jason—”

“I can explain that to him,” Jason said. “You’re needed here. At the warehouse. Concentrating on Ric. Sonny should have someone who can just focus on his family.”

“Do you really want him to have a lawyer that does nothing but focus on Carly and the kids? On Alexis?” Justus asked doubtfully. “You can probably convince him to leave the Falconieri kid alone because he’s a cop, but—”

“I want it all to go away,” Jason said flatly. “But that’s not an option on the table, so we’re going to go with what we have. Bernie can’t handle everything, and your biggest problem is dealing with Sonny. I can’t—” He shook his head. “If you really need to go, if you really can’t stay, then okay. I can handle that. But I’m asking you for more time. Just a few more weeks. I need someone I can trust. Bernie’s been good for us these last six months, it’s not the same. I know you,” he told Justus. “I trust you.”

Justus exhaled slowly, scrubbed a hand over his face, then remained silent for a long moment. “You’re not dealing with this, Jason. You’re just making Sonny someone else’s problem—”

“He’ll snap out of this—”

“He won’t.” Justus got to his feet. “Since the day I came to Port Charles to help you last summer, Sonny hasn’t been someone I reported to. He’s a figurehead, Jason. You’ve done your job and his—you’ve been taking care of his family and yours. You can’t do it all. I’d stay if I thought this was temporary, but it’s not. If Elizabeth delivers in a few weeks, you’ll have a premature baby in the NICU to worry about. You’ll be distracted even more than you are now.”

Jason swallowed hard. “What you’re asking me to do, I can’t—”

“I’m not asking you to do anything. The time is past for that. You’re weak, Jason,” Justus said, his tone gentle. “Because you’re not doing what needs to be done. You’re sticking your head in the sand, and you’re putting all of us—including Elizabeth—in more danger. The other reason I can’t stay on as Sonny’s lawyer is that I agree with Carly. She’s taking her boys and making a run for it.”

Jason said nothing. What could he say? Justus was right, after all. So were Luke and Tommy and everyone else.

But what the hell were they asking him to do? Exile him to the island and hope he didn’t come back—

What did they expect from him? To kill Sonny?

“The very thing that makes you the best right-hand man in the game,” Justus continued, “is what is making everything worse. Your loyalty to Sonny is admirable, and it’s what’s giving you the time you’ve been given. Tommy has a lot of power, and if he wanted it, he could have taken things months ago. But he respects you too much to do it now. You know he’s the threat he’s talking about. He didn’t go after Sonny when Smith went down, and he didn’t go to Moreno or Sorel because he thought Sonny was the right guy to follow. He doesn’t think so anymore.”

Jason sat down, stared hard at the surface of the desk. “I know all of this,” he admitted. “I just don’t see a way out of it. Not right now.”

The room was quiet as Jason’s words hung in the air. Finally, Justus sighed. “I’ll stay on,” he said. “Because I love and respect you, Jason. And if Mikki was going through what Elizabeth is, I’m not sure I’d be able to handle it either. Kimi is my whole world, and I want you to have that. I don’t want to deal with Sonny unless I have to, but we’re not going to maintain the status quo. Something is going to have to change.”

“I know,” Jason said again, but before he could continue, Bernie shoved the door open. His face was flushed, and he was breathing hard.

“We got a problem. Just got a call from our contact in Baltimore.”

Jason closed his eyes. “Ric?” he asked.

“Yeah.” Bernie scowled. “It gets worse. Big Bobby said he called Sonny—”

“What—” Jason’s eyes flew open as he gaped at his adviser. “What the hell—”

“And I called the Towers—Sonny took off. They called him ten minutes before us—”

“Damn it,” Jason swore. He looked at Justus, who was pulling out his phone. “Who are—”

“I’m calling the Brownstone—” He paused and met Jason’s eyes. “And I’m calling Taggert. We might already be too late.”

Port Charles Municipal Building: Mayor’s Office

“Edward wants to sue,” Alexis told Ned as Lois slipped into the office, “and I’m almost tempted. What the hell was the Herald thinking? I understand the Sun, but—”

“It’s the connection to the PCPD,” Ned said. He rubbed the side of his face, the weariness bleeding through every word. He sat behind his desk, then dragged his hands through his hair. “They couldn’t resist it. Local godfather has connections to the mayor’s office and the PCPD—all the scandals this last year—”

“But Dante’s a good cop,” Olivia said, her eyes flashing. “He’s clean! They torpedoed him—”

“It’s my fault.”

Alexis and Olivia looked at Lois while Ned just sighed. “What do you mean?” Alexis asked. “How is this—”

“You didn’t even know,” Olivia said at the same time.

“I did,” Lois said miserably. “I overheard you and Ned a few days ago talking about Dante and Kristina, and I just—” She stopped, her hands shaking, her entire body shivering and tingling. She didn’t quite feel like she was even in the room. Everything was happening around her, and she was floating.

“I was so angry,” she forced out. “I thought—if Ned wasn’t—” She pressed a fist to her mouth, wrapping her other arm around her waist.

Olivia was still blinking at her in confusion, but Alexis exhaled in a rush. “You thought if Ned hadn’t been lying about Kristina, he would have had more time for Brooke.”

Lois squeezed her eyes closed, nodding. She couldn’t bear to look at them, couldn’t bear to say anything.

“I don’t understand. I don’t—” Olivia’s voice sounded far away. “Did you call the papers?”

“Of course not,” Ned snapped. “Lois would never—” He cleared his throat. “We argued after hours,” he admitted. “But it was—at the office. Someone could have overheard.”

“I never wanted—” Lois’s breath caught on a sob. “I would never hurt your babies. I would never—” Her knees felt weak. “I just—I want my daughter back, and I can’t have it. I can’t ever have it, and it keeps hitting me over and over again—I’m so sorry.”

She pressed the heels of her palms into her eyes so hard that she saw stars. Still not able to look at them, keeping her eyes closed, Lois said, “I’ll resign.”

“I won’t accept it,” Ned bit out. “This is my fault—”

Lois snapped her eyes open to glare at her ex-husband. “It’s mine! I did this! I made this about me and I—”

“I didn’t do enough for Brooke. It’s my fault she’s gone.”

“It’s not—I asked him to lie,” Alexis said, quickly stepping in front of Ned, who just scowled at her. “Lois—”

“No, I won’t let you—” Ned put a hand on Alexis’s arm. “Yes, it was your idea, but I agreed. But that’s not what happened last summer. You had custody of Kristina. I was—it wasn’t Kristina distracting me.” He focused on Lois. “It wasn’t. I couldn’t reach Brooke. I couldn’t make her listen. I couldn’t make her see, and so I didn’t—I didn’t try enough.”

“Ned—” Lois shook her head. “I sent her away—”  She looked at Olivia, who had said nothing so far. “I never—in my life— would have hurt Dante. I love him like my own. You know that, Livvie. You have to know that.”

“I—” Olivia cleared her throat. “I do know that. You were there when he was a baby. We raised our babies together. They were—” She closed her eyes, struggling for the words. “I just—he’s been hit over and over again. Vinnie, my ma and her bullshit—she told him about Sonny, and that’s been bad—but this—everyone knowing—”

“I’m sorry—” The guilt and shame flooded Lois with a hot flush that crawled up her neck and into her cheeks. “I’m so goddamn sorry, Liv—”

“But I get to wake up every day and have my kid. If I lost him, I’d be a wild woman. Losing Brooke almost broke me, and she wasn’t even mine.” Olivia went to her best friend, took her hands in hers, her dark eyes damp with tears. “I love you. I forgive you.”

“What—”

“You lost a child,” Alexis interrupted, her voice soft. “When my sister died, I—well, we know what I did,” she muttered. “And then that man nearly cost me my baby. I made him pay. Lois, Brooke was a beautiful young woman who deserved better from all of us.”

“Alexis—”

“You didn’t do this,” she continued. “You had a weak moment, and someone saw it. They took your grief and used it. They made a profit off it.” Her tone grew more confident as she turned to Ned. “And that’s how we’re going to come back from this. This is seen as corruption? As a scandal? To hell with that! We’re mothers, and we were protecting our kids. Lois lost her daughter because of that corruption! You both lost her,” she added, “but—”

“But if we stand together as mothers,” Olivia cut in, “who were protecting their kids—just like Carly is doing now, then we can make the public understand. This doesn’t have to be a scandal. We can’t—we can’t really do much for Dante at the PCPD,” she admitted painfully. She squeezed Lois, smiling at her through her tears. “But I’m not letting the papers take your grieving and use it to hurt you. Or Ned. Or our kids. What can I do to help?” she asked Alexis.

“I love you,” Lois said, her voice faltering. “Both of you. All of you,” she corrected as she reached out her other hand to Alexis. “And I will do whatever I can to protect your kids. You’re right. The press wants to pretend those secrets were kept to get you into office? Bull-fucking shit. Let’s remind everyone that they knew about the serial rapist, and they held the story, too. They want to say that you did something wrong?” she said to Ned. “Let’s remind them that everyone has blood on their hands.”

Brownstone: Foyer

Taggert sprinted down the steps and grimaced as he saw the double doors to Bobbie’s apartment open. In the living room, he could see Michael sprawled out on his stomach, his head propped up on his chin watching video games. Behind him, Lucas and Felix had controllers in their hands. On the opposite sofa, Maxie Jones was talking on a cell phone.

“Hey.” He stopped in the doorway. “Bobbie or Carly around?”

“Nah, Carly’s at the Cellar, and Mom’s at work.” Lucas paused the game, frowning at him. “What’s up?”

“Maxie, can you do me a favor?” he said. The blonde looked up, furrowing her brow. “Can you take Michael to his room? Just for a few minutes.”

“Uh, okay.” Maxie got to her feet. “Kyle, I’ll call you back, okay? No, things are fine, I just need to do something.” To Michael, she said. “Come on, kid. Let’s check on Morgan. See if he’s awake from his nap yet.”

Michael looked at Taggert for a long moment before climbing to his feet. “Is my daddy coming?” he asked in a small voice.

“I don’t know,” Taggert said, not wanting to lie. “But maybe. And I think it’d be better if you were in your room.”

“Yeah, come on. We’ll steal Lucas’s Game Boy, and you can play on that, okay?” Maxie put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Lucas?”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Lucas saved the game and turned it off. He grabbed his Game Boy from the nearby table and tossed it to Maxie. “You call my sister?” he asked Taggert when Michael and Maxie were out of earshot.

“No, I didn’t want to worry her. If he shows up, then we’ll call. But I just wanted you to be on your toes. Justus Ward called me—”

“Why would Sonny’s lawyer call you?” Felix asked with a frown. “Isn’t that against the law?”

“Not if Justus thinks his client is about to commit a crime,” Lucas said, his eyes on Taggert. “Right? If he has knowledge of a future crime?”

“Violent crime, yeah. And considering what happened here earlier this week—” Taggert held up a hand. “Let me back up. Justus said that Sonny got news that Ric Lansing might be in Baltimore.”

“Damn,” Lucas muttered. To Felix, he said, “That’s a lot fucking closer than Atlanta.”

They heard a car squeal to a stop in front of the house. Felix leaned over to peer out the window. “Yep, that’s him. Hey, he’s driving himself. That’s new—”

“Probably couldn’t convince anyone to come with him,” Lucas muttered. He closed the doors that separated the living room from the kitchen. “I’m so over this shit, I’m calling Carly—”

He had just connected with her when Sonny banged on the door. “Carly—”

“Is Michael okay?” Carly asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Sonny’s here. Taggert got a call from Justus—I—” Lucas hesitated. “You know what? Stay put for right now, okay? I don’t want you walking into the middle of this—”

“Carly! Let me in!” Sonny thundered as the banging continued. “Let me in right now! Those are my kids!”

“Lucas—”

“Tell her to stay at the club,” Taggert said. He pulled out his phone. “I’m gonna have a patrol car head over. If he leaves here, I don’t want him going straight there. Tell her it’s under control.”

“Lucas—” Carly said again. “I’m getting my coat—”

“No, Taggert is sending you a patrol car. Sonny sounds—” Lucas blinked at something crashed through the glass window — a rock maybe.

Taggert winced. “Damn it, I’m gonna have to arrest him this time. Stay back—”

Sonny’s hand came through the window, brushing the glass aside, fumbling for the locks. Taggert growled as he stood in the foyer, his handcuffs in his hands. He’d wanted to arrest Sonny Corinthos for years, but this hadn’t been the way he’d planned it with a terrified little boy down the hall and a crazy ass mobster trying to break into his wife’s home—

“You idiot,” Taggert muttered as Sonny shoved the door open. “Sonny Corinthos, you’re under arrest for breaking and entering—”

“Where are my kids?” Sonny demanded, shoving Taggert back, moving past him into the living room where Lucas and Felix were blocking the way.

“I’m pressing charges,” Lucas told Taggert, who had already called for backup. “I can do that. I’m babysitting, and he didn’t have my permission—”

“I got all that, thanks —” Taggert grabbed Sonny’s arm and clapped a handcuff on him. “No, no, don’t help—” he ordered Lucas and Felix when they started forward. “You’ll make it worse—” He grunted as Sonny shifted and struggled.

“I have to keep them safe!” Sonny shouted as he twisted, trying to get away from Taggert. “They’re not safe here!”

“He’s gone crazy,” Lucas murmured, watching his sister’s husband fight Taggert, trying to stop him from snapping the other hand into the cuffs. The usually slick mobster was a mess—his dark curls disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, face red. “Damn it—”

“Stop resisting,” Taggert ordered. “Or I—” He fell back as Sonny managed to free himself and punched him in the jaw with his one free hand. “Goddamn it!”

Behind him, Cruz and Lucky came through the door. Lucky sighed as he came onto the scene, and Sonny barreled right into him, the handcuff dangling from one of his wrists. Lucky pushed him back, and Cruz managed to get the other cuff on him. Sonny twisted and shoved, trying to get away from them.

“Just stop!” Lucky said. “Sonny!”

“What do we do?” Lucas asked. “Taggert—”

Taggert waved them off as he strode forward. “Get him into the car,” he told the officers. “I’ll be there in a second.” He turned back to them. “Make sure Maxie is okay with the kids, and then you two can come down to sign statements. I’m not doing this shit anymore. He’s being booked for breaking and entering, for resisting, and for fucking assault on an officer—” He rubbed his jaw. “Damn it.”

Between the three of them, they dragged Sonny down the steps and into the car, Sonny fighting every step of the way.

Taggert picked up his phone and dialed. When Justus picked up, he said, “You better get down to the PCPD and if you can get in touch with Morgan—”

He heard Justus sigh. “Yeah, okay. I’ll take care of it. Was Carly there—”

“No, and Michael didn’t see anything.”

“Good. Thanks.”

PCPD: Squad Room

Jason strode through the double doors of the department, Justus and Bernie on his heels. How the hell could this day get any worse, he wondered, as he found Taggert by a desk, an ice pack against his jaw.

Sonny had literally broken into the Brownstone while Michael was home, assaulted Taggert of all people—

Near Taggert, Lucas and his boyfriend were talking with Lucky. The boyfriend—Felix—bent down and scribbled something. Jason closed his eyes. A statement. Charges were being pressed.

“This might be for the best,” Justus murmured. “If he’s in lock-up, we get a chance to breathe, Jase—”

“And then we got cops looking at us even harder,” Jason muttered. “We don’t need this.” He didn’t believe for a second that organizations in other cities were helping them by reporting Ric Lansing sightings. More likely, the rumors were going around that Sonny was unstable, and that every mention of his psycho half-brother made things worse.

Someone out there was trying to destroy them by making them focus entirely on Sonny—and Jason didn’t even know where to start with that prospect. And what if some of the sightings were real? Where the hell was Lansing?

“I don’t think we’re getting Sonny out of this,” Justus said. “But—”

“Justus.”

Taggert had noticed them and was striding forward. “Thanks for the heads up,” he told him. “We got Michael out of the room just in time.”

“Thank you,” Jason found himself telling the lieutenant. “He didn’t see anything?”

“No. Carly’s on her way down,” Taggert continued, “but the charges are going to stick. Lucas and Felix are pressing them, even if Carly and Bobbie don’t want to.” He paused. “And we’re adding resisting and assault.”

“I figured.” Justus grimaced. “I guess I need to talk to my client.”

“He’s in the room, waiting.”

Justus shook his head and went past them, heading for the interrogation room. Taggert turned back to Jason. “You’re not going in?”

Jason really wanted to go back to a world where he didn’t have conversations with the PCPD, but at the moment, Taggert had been more of an ally in recent months than Jason’s own business partner. “No. I’m here if Carly needs me, but—” He paused. “Sonny got a warning the last time. He knew what might happen if he did this again.”

“Yeah, I didn’t—” Taggert looked towards the room, through the window with the blinds down. “This definitely wasn’t the way I wanted this to go down,” he muttered. “I tried to get away from all of this.” He shifted the ice pack, wincing. “I don’t want those kids in the middle of this.”

“None of us do.” Jason left Taggert then, walking towards Lucas and Felix. “You guys okay?”

“Yeah, Taggert got nailed this time,” Lucas said. “It’s bad, Jason.” He exchanged a glance with his boyfriend. “He’s completely lost it. He broke a window. And your guys didn’t even stop him.”

“No.” And that burned at his gut like acid. He’d picked men who were supposed to be loyal to him, but it hadn’t worked. “No, they didn’t. We need—we need to do something else. Carly and the kids are supposed—they need to be safe.”

“If they lock him up this time, they will be,” Felix pointed out, echoing Justus’s earlier statement.

Locking Sonny up in a cell with no windows, no control over his own freedom? If Sonny was already teetering on the edge of lucidity, that might shove him over. Could Jason let that happen just so he could give himself a bit of space?

What if Sonny hurt himself to get free—he’d injured himself in those dark moments before and others. How could Jason live with himself if Sonny got hurt? He had to believe there was still a chance for Sonny.

Justus was right. So were Luke and Tommy. Jason needed to make a decision about Sonny and the business—but this wasn’t just business.

This was real life, and it was personal. Sonny was broken inside, and Jason was the only one left who could—or would—help him.

“I know,” Jason said finally, “but lock up is the last retort.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes. “Maybe you need to see what the hell he did to my mother’s home or talk to Michael about how scared he was—”

“I know all of that,” Jason snapped, and the younger man fell silent, his lips forming a stubborn line. “I know,” he repeated, his tone gentler.. “And I’m going to change the security. I’ll fix it. But I know Sonny better than anyone, and lock-up will only make all of this worse. We need to make sure that can’t happen.”

“It can get worse?” Felix asked doubtfully. Jason met his eyes. “I mean, I’m new here, but this is pretty bad.”

“I know,” Jason admitted, hating that he had to do this. That he had to have this conversation with anyone, but it was necessary. He didn’t know Felix DuBois, but the man had stood in front of Michael more than once, and he’d been there for Carly and Elizabeth. “So when I say it can get worse, I need you to believe me.”

“All right,” Lucas said. “You do what you gotta do. But I’m still pressing charges, and if one more thing happens to my nephew—” His expression was pained. “Or my sister,” he muttered, “that’s the last straw. Sonny doesn’t get another chance to terrorize them.”

“He won’t,” Jason said, wishing he felt as confident as his words sounded. He had to make this stop. At any cost.

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

The sun had sunk behind the buildings of the Port Charles skyline while Elizabeth waited in the penthouse. Jason had called to tell her he was handling the Sonny situation and that he didn’t know when he’d be home.

She was relieved—shamefully—that she had a respite from having to tell Jason the truth, and if Jason didn’t come home until after she’d gone to bed, then maybe she’d just…not have to tell him. Monica was supposed to come over the next day, and just maybe her oxygen levels would improve.

Maybe Elizabeth would never have to tell him that she’d lied to him.

Then around five, Elizabeth got a tense voicemail from her best friend.

I went on break and heard what happened with Sonny. This sucks hard, and I know you don’t want to make things worse for Jason. But if God forbid something happened overnight, and he doesn’t know what’s going on, he would never forgive himself. I don’t want to be that person, but someone has to. I love you. I love my brother. I love my nephew. Please tell him. Sonny and his bullshit are not more important than you. I haven’t changed my mind. If you don’t tell him tonight, I will call him in the morning.

Elizabeth had listened to the message three times, trying to find the argument, the loophole that would release her from having to tell Jason one more piece of bad news. He was juggling so many things, and Elizabeth was just trying to protect him from worrying about something else he couldn’t fix—

But Emily wasn’t bluffing, and Elizabeth knew it would be so much worse if he heard it from someone else. Jason didn’t deserve that, and there were so many ways she wasn’t being fair to him.

Emily was right. Jason had been biting his tongue for weeks over all of this, and it was time that it stopped.

Around eight, Cody knocked on the door to let her know that the limo had just pulled into the parking garage downstairs. The limo. Which meant that, against all odds, Jason had managed to get Sonny released.

Elizabeth picked up the phone and called Emily. When her best friend picked up, Elizabeth blinked in surprise. “Oh, I thought I’d get your voicemail.”

“I’m on dinner break. What’s up? Did you—”

“He’s on his way up from the parking garage. Em—Sonny’s with him. I’m just—”

“Yeah, I know. The timing sucks.” Emily paused. “You need to tell him. There will never, ever be a good time. And you will always find a reason not to. I know you’re trying to protect him. Did you like it when he made decisions for you? When he tried to protect you?”

Elizabeth scowled. “I really hate you,” she muttered. She sighed. “No. It was terrible, but—”

“You are not one more thing to him or to anyone. Sonny is his friend, and he’s important, but you are his wife, and that is his child, too. I love you all, but you know I’m right.”

“I know. I just—” Elizabeth closed her eyes. “I hate this. I hate all of this so much, and I just want it to stop. Why can’t we get a break?”

“I don’t know, and I’m sorry. If I thought you were right, I’d be on your side. I just want you to be okay. I feel like shit that I’m doing this, but—”

“But you’re right,” Elizabeth managed. “You’re right, and I know you’re right. I guess—I don’t want to look at him and do this. It’s bad enough I have to live with it, but I can’t stand hurting him, and it’s going to hurt him—”

“Then you’ll hurt together. Until you’re honest that can’t happen. I love you,” Emily repeated. “Let him be there for you, and you can be there for him.”

The door opened then, and Jason strode in, his eyes exhausted, and mouth pinched. Justus came in after him, then Sonny stormed in. His hair was disheveled, his eyes bloodshot, and his skin mottled with splotches of red.

“You’re right,” Elizabeth said. “I love you, and I’ll call you later.”

“Okay.”

“Hey,” Jason said as Elizabeth closed her phone and set it on the table. “I’ll take you to bed, but I still need to deal with some things—”

“You need to get them all out of here!” Sonny ordered. He stabbed a finger at Jason, his finger shaking. “Ric will come for them, too!”

Jason ignored him, looking back at Elizabeth, extending his hand to help her get to her feet. “I’m sorry,” he told her. “But I don’t know when I’ll be back tonight—”

Elizabeth nearly agreed. Nearly let it go, but remembered Emily’s words and their arguments. And the look on Jason’s face more than six months ago when she hadn’t told him about the oxygen tank, and she’d had an attack the first time they’d made love.

He’d watched her struggle for air and die twice. He deserved better from her.

Emily was right. There would never be a good time.

“I lied,” she blurted out in a rush. “About my doctor’s appointment.”

Jason stared at her, his expression blank. His hand, still touching her elbow as he’d helped her to stand, fell to his side. “What do you mean?”

“My glucose test was fine,” she said in a rush, “but my oxygen levels—they’re not normal. Or stable. They dropped two points.”

“They—” Jason just stared at her. “They dropped.”

“What the hell is going on?” Sonny demanded.

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth began, taking a step towards him, but then Jason did something she didn’t see coming.

Jason stalked towards the door, yanked it open, revealing Cody’s confused and startled face.

Then he left, slamming it behind him so hard that the framed picture from their wedding next to the door fell and shattered.

And you took me to hell and back
My mind’s like a one way track
And you tell me just one more time
And you’re lying like you always do
Yeah I know it well
– Hell and Back, Airborne Toxic Event

---

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Alexis’s Apartment: Living Room

Alexis nearly ignored the ringing of the landline on her desk as she rushed around the apartment, gathering Kristina’s belongings for daycare, looking for the medical reports for Carly’s file—

She really should have hired a personal assistant to organize her everyday life.

The phone rang for the fifth time just as she passed her desk again. She snagged the receiver, shoved it against her ear, and continued to flip through folders on her desk. “Yeah?”

“Have you seen the papers yet?”

Jax’s voice was clipped, tense, and caught her attention. “No, why? I usually grab them from the front desk on my way out of the building—”

“Don’t leave the building.”

Alexis wrapped her fingers around the plastic receiver and straightened. “What’s going on?”

“I’m coming over. Don’t come into the office. Don’t pick up the phone — screen your calls—”

“Damn it, Jax—”

“The Port Charles Sun just lobbed a grenade — they know.”

Her chest tightened, and Alexis turned to look at Kristina in her playpen. Sensing her mother’s eyes on her, the little girl looked up and smiled. She didn’t even need to ask what he was talking about.

“How—”

“That’s not the only headline. Don’t leave, Alexis. Wait for me.”

Lois’s Apartment: Living Room

A few floors above Alexis, Lois stared at her inbox on the laptop in her lap and contemplated canceling all her meetings.

After that terrible scene with Ned, she’d gone home, hoping a few glasses of wine would help her sleep. Instead, she’d tossed and turned and only slept in fits and starts. Now, just when she should be dressing for the office, she felt gritty-eyed and exhausted.

The last place she should be was the communications department in the mayor’s office. She could barely grunt her own name, much less provide any sort of support for Ned right now.

She reached for her coffee. Maybe it would be a good day just to curl up on the sofa and watch old movies. Shut out the entire world.

Or would it be better to get a shower and fight through the day? She’d been doing better these last few weeks—she didn’t think about Brooke every waking minute, and she’d loved working in politics more than she thought she would.

She’d wanted to be part of something, to help Ned rebuild the broken pieces of this city that had stolen her baby from her — and most of the time, Lois could point to something she’d done as proof that progress was being made. That she was going to be okay.

Then days like yesterday would come along, and she’d lose the thread. She’d go back to the beginning and feel it all like it was happening now.

Brooke had been gone for more than six months, but right now, it felt like yesterday.

The landline in her kitchen began to ring, and Lois ignored it, hoping the machine would pick it up. Then the cell phone plugged in next to her on the desk started to vibrate. She narrowed her eyes, then reached for it. That couldn’t be a coincidence—

She barely had time to see Ned’s name scroll across the identification screen before she heard a pounding on her door.

“Lois!”

She ignored both phones and headed for the door, for the panicked knocking and hysterical cries of her best friend. “Liv, what’s—” She jerked open the door to find Olivia, her cheeks tear-stained and her eyes bloodshot. Clutched against her chest was the Port Charles Sun, Olivia’s fingers digging into the thin newsprint.

Lois could barely make out the headline over Olivia’s hands—but two words stood out in stark, tall, print —

SECRET SON

“Olivia,” Lois said, a sinking, swirling feeling in her stomach. “What’s going on? Why—”

“They know, oh, God, they know, they know, and I don’t—” Olivia shoved the paper at her, and Lois straightened it out.

GODFATHER’S SECRET SON AND DAUGHTER! TIES TO THE MAYOR’S OFFICE & PCPD!

“How could they know?” Olivia cried. “You didn’t even know! How could they know about my boy and Kristina?”

She pressed her hands to her face, her breath ragged from the sobs. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, how did this happen?”

Lois folded Olivia into her arms, waves of guilt and shame sliding over her like a wave.

This was her fault. It had to be. Oh, God. She’d ruined everything.

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth sipped her tea, flipping through a magazine. Jason emerged from the kitchen, a cup of coffee in his hands. “After your appointment, we’ll go to Kelly’s,” he reminded her, “since you have to fast—”

“For the glucose test I couldn’t take because we were away.” She forced herself to keep her tone even. “I know.”

He winced. “I’m sorry. I know you remember all that—”

“It’s okay,” she murmured, setting her tea aside. “I’ll be in the mood for a huge bowl of chili, and Cam will just have to deal.” She started to stand, grateful when Jason pulled her the last bit. “If I were taller,” she began—but then she heard something outside their door.

Sonny was shouting.

“I thought you said he was doing better,” Elizabeth said. Jason was already heading for the door when his phone rang. He pulled it out and grimaced.

“It’s Carly. That can’t be good—” He answered the phone, but then their door flew open, and Sonny strode in—slapping papers in Jason’s face. Cody and Max followed, both of them red-faced and irritated.

“What the hell—” Jason began. “Carly, I’ll call you back—yeah, it’s too late. Whatever it is, he knows,” he said. He hung up the phone. “Sonny—”

“That bitch knew!” Sonny roared. “She had to—”

Elizabeth reached for the papers in Jason’s hands—wrinkling her nose when she recognized the Sun‘s familiar square shape. “We should have sued them,” she muttered—then gaped at the headline. “Oh my God—”

Jason was scanning the Herald‘s more sedate cover story before swallowing hard. “Sonny—”

“You’re going to tell me that Alexis is Carly’s fucking divorce lawyer, and she didn’t know about this?” Sonny demanded. “She stole my kid! Everyone is stealing my kids—”

Elizabeth opened the tabloid and skimmed the story, processing the stunning claims. Not only were the papers claiming that Kristina Davis-Ashton was actually Sonny’s biological child—but so was the PCPD rookie, Dante Falconieri. “How could they know—”

“Sonny—”

“You get Justus over here now, and you tell him I want custody—I want visitation—” Sonny yanked the paper away from Elizabeth, then shoved it in Jason’s face. “Alexis thinks she’s going to steal my daughter and then help Carly steal the boys? Not a chance in hell!”

Elizabeth glanced at her watch, then bit her lip. “I should get going,” she said to him softly. “I’ll call you—”

Jason looked at her. “No—I should go—”

“What the hell do you need him for now?” Sonny demanded, switching his attention to Elizabeth, who silently counted to five. She couldn’t even be that angry with Sonny — he’d just had his world rocked, and Elizabeth had to agree — Carly must have known or suspected, and she hadn’t warned Jason.

“We were getting ready for a doctor’s appointment, but it’s okay,” she told Sonny. “I’ve got Cody, and I’ll go alone—”

“But—”

“Sonny needs you more than I do,” Elizabeth said to Jason, and Sonny seemed mollified by that.

“Call me if—”

“I will.” She kissed his cheek. “Sonny, uh, good luck.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Sonny waved her away, and Elizabeth went for her purse. Jason still looked unconvinced even as she and Cody closed the door behind them.

Quartermaine Mansion: Family Room

Ned skimmed his planner, wincing at the list of meetings. It wasn’t much different than running ELQ, he reminded himself, even if most of these meetings could be an email or a memo.

He heard shouting from the foyer and sighed. Maybe he could just sneak out the terrace door. He’d only come to the mansion to grab breakfast—

“Father, are you—” Tracy paused at the doorway, a newspaper clutched in her hand, and her eyes narrowed. “You,” she spat.

Ned eyed his mother warily, spied his brother over her shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“Have you seen the papers today?” Dillon wanted to know, carefully sliding past the irate Tracy, another newspaper in his hand. Ned scowled as he recognized the shape of the tabloid.

“Why the hell are we still subscribed to this trash—” Ned broke off as he read the headline, his throat closing.

Oh, God.

“How could you do this to the family?” Tracy demanded. “How could you lie to everyone—”

Ned couldn’t hear his mother, was only dimly aware that others had begun to fill the room. Dillon was defending him to Tracy—Edward was blustering—and Alan was starting to raise his voice.

But Ned could only see the words that revealed the lie. Everyone would know.

“Ned?”

He blinked at the soft, gentle voice of his grandmother and looked at Lila, her kind and worried eyes. “Grandmother.”

“Are you all right, my darling?”

“I—” He shook his head. “N-No. I’m not.”

The world knew that Kristina was Sonny’s child, and Ned had lost another daughter.

Kelly’s: Kitchen

“He’s not returning any calls?” Maxie demanded as she paced the small area. “What the hell? How are we supposed to fix this if he doesn’t let us!”

“I can’t make him—” Lulu’s fingers slipped as she tried to redial Dante’s number. “I can’t make him pick up—” A sob bubbled up in her throat. How had the papers known? Was she bugged? Was she the reason—

“Lu—” Maxie reached for her hand. “Hey. It’s okay—”

“No, no, it’s not! He just got over me being stupid and nearly torching everything, and now this—”

“But it’s not like you knew—” Maxie blinked at her. “Oh, bitch, you did know? How long? When? Why—”

“J-just since yesterday, but—” She took a deep breath. “I didn’t tell anyone. I’m not even telling you—”

“There’s no telling me. I read the paper—” Maxie reached for the Herald on the counter. “And if they’re printing it, you know it must be true. Poor Dante!”

“Hey, Lu, you thinking of taking your shift at any point?” Penny asked, peeking over the counter. “Or are you having another crisis?”

“Hey, Penny, do you want to wear that plate of eggs you’re carrying?” Maxie asked sweetly. “Go away and remember that Lu covered for you last week when you wanted to follow David to the club. That’s what I thought,” she said as Penny glared at her, then flounced off. “Bitch.”

“I should get to work,” Lulu said with a sigh. “He’s not going to return my calls—”

“Hey, Lu.” Cruz poked his head in the doorway. “You got a minute?”

“Cruz!” Maxie grabbed his arm and dragged him into the kitchen. “Where’s Dante? Is he okay? Who do we have to set on fire? I’m ready. I’ve got the matches, Lu’s got the gasoline, and Lucas is ready for the getaway—”

“Still a cop, Maxie,” Cruz said, then turned to Lu. “In the alley,” he told her. “He needs a place. Can you get him upstairs without anyone knowing?”

Lulu widened her eyes. “Of course! Is he okay? How did this happen?”

“He doesn’t know. The press was waiting outside of our place, and they’re mobbing his mother’s building—which is probably because Alexis and Lois live there, too.” Cruz grimaced. “It’s been hell. Taggert didn’t want him coming in—”

Maxie’s eyes were bulging. “Oh, God, I didn’t even think about the PCPD—how are they gonna handle Dante being Sonny’s kid—”

Lulu ignored them both and headed for the door to the back alley, jerking it open and rushing into the cold.

“Dante?”

He melted out from behind the dumpster, weary and stumbling a bit. “Hey, Lu. I thought—I don’t know. Maybe the press wouldn’t look for me here.”

“Come in, come in—” She reached for his hand. “There’s a back staircase. Maxie is in the kitchen, so we should go in the other way—” Lulu headed down to another door and reached into her pocket. “She wants to help.”

“Her help could get me arrested,” Dante said with a thin smile. “Yours, too, probably.”

“She’s got a plan that involves gasoline and a getaway car. Cruz will talk her down, or I’ll call in Lucas.”

She stopped at the bottom of the staircase, swallowing hard. “I promise I didn’t say anything.”

He frowned at her, one foot on the bottom step. “What are you talking about?”

“You told me about Sonny, and now the whole world knows. I swear I didn’t—”

“Hey.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I know you didn’t, Lu. You wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, but—” She bit her lip. “How did they know? I thought you said no one knew—”

“Whoever it was—they knew about Kristina, too. I don’t know anyone who knew about both of us. I didn’t even know about Kristina, how could you?”

“No, I guess so. I just—I’m sorry. You just wanted this to go away, and it’s not—” She shook her head. “Let me get you upstairs. I don’t want anyone seeing you go upstairs and calling the press. We’ll find out who did this to you, Dante, and we’ll make them pay—”

“There’s no point.” With a heavy sigh, he started up the stairs. “It’s too late.”

General Hospital: Kelly’s Office

Elizabeth closed her eyes. “I don’t understand. I’m feeling better—” She opened her eyes to see that Kelly and Monica were wearing identical expressions of worry. “I really am. I’ve been able to take more deep breaths—well, deep for me, and I don’t get as tired as much—”

“Because the oxygen therapy is keeping you stable,” Monica told her. She sat next to Elizabeth and took her hands in her own. “But your levels have dropped another point. Your blood isn’t doing the job of keeping your heart and lungs fully oxygenated.”

Elizabeth’s throat tightened as she opened her mouth, then closed it. She turned to Kelly. “Cameron. The baby—”

“So far, so good. Your body is diverting its resources to him, compensating where it can. But I’m afraid we’re running out of time.” Kelly paused. “I could get into the technical explanation, and I’m sure Monica has more information about what’s going on in your lungs and your heart—”

“Elizabeth, your body is going to prioritize your heart and lungs by shutting down other organs. It might start with your kidneys or your liver. Or even your digestive system—”

“Oh, God—” Elizabeth bowed her head, her chest tightening and her lungs starting to burn. “Stop. Please stop—”

“Let me call Jason. I know that things hit the fan this morning with Sonny and the papers,” Monica said. “I saw them, too—”

“It won’t change—” Her voice broke. “Having him here won’t make it better. It won’t change—” She couldn’t think. She couldn’t take it in. Her body was failing her, refusing to do the only thing she’d ever asked of it— “Is—this is happening now? You can tell now—”

“Yes,” Monica said gently. “You’re in the early stages of pulmonary hypertension. Your blood pressure has been high for months, and today’s readings tell me that you’re going to tip over. You’re just barely in the normal range, but combined with the oxygen levels, the results of your lung tests—”

“If we don’t make some decisions now, Elizabeth,” Kelly said softly, “Cameron will be affected within a week. Maybe less. Every day matters in fetal development.”

“We also run the risk of the damage not being reversible,” Monica continued.

“Just—” Elizabeth forced herself to her feet, ignoring the burning in her lungs, the squeeze of her chest. “No. Just—I need a minute.”

“Give us some time,” Monica murmured to Kelly, who left the office and went into the adjoining suite. She put a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder. “Let me call Jason. Not because it’ll change anything—”

“I feel okay today,” Elizabeth managed. “I took the stairs, and I could breathe. You said—” She stopped. “I’m thirty weeks. It’s still—it’s too early—”

“You made it another week,” Monica said. “You’ve given him all the time you can, sweetheart. At thirty weeks, babies born at this stage have a greater than ninety-five percent chance of survival. Yes, he will likely need help breathing. He’ll need medications to help the rest of his organs finish developing—”

“Ninety-five is high. I know that. I know all of that—” Elizabeth closed her eyes. “But I should be able to do this. I should be able to keep my son safe until he’s ready to be born.”

“Every day you give him is time you steal from yourself.”

“I—”

“And I know you’re going to tell me that you’re at peace with that,” Monica cut in. “Maybe you are. But I’m not. I’ve watched you fight too hard to give up now—”

“I can’t make it to thirty-five weeks,” Elizabeth said softly. “I can accept that.”

“Elizabeth—”

“I can do more oxygen therapy.” Feeling better now, stronger, Elizabeth focused on Monica. “We’re only doing it at night. I can do it more often. In the mornings, too. Can’t I try that?”

“Elizabeth. Have you heard a single thing we’ve told you? Your heart and your lungs are weaker than they were a week ago. Increased oxygen might help, but it is not the solution—”

“No, but it’ll give me time,” Elizabeth repeated. “Two more weeks. Please. Give him two more weeks.” She took Monica’s hand and pressed it against her belly, and her mother-in-law sighed as Cameron kicked in response. “I can feel him getting stronger every day. Will two more weeks really cause irreversible damage to my organs?”

Monica hesitated, then took her hand back. “I could not love you more if you were my own daughter,” she told Elizabeth. “I love that baby. I want him to have his best chance, but I do not want my son raising him alone. Cameron deserves both of you.”

“You didn’t answer my question—”

“With increased therapy,” Monica said, her jaw slightly clenched, “morning and afternoon in addition to the evening, we might be able to get your level back to 95. Might,” she stressed. “We’ll give it two days. I’ll be over daily to check on you. If you’re not at 95 by then, you’ll check into the hospital, and we’ll induce.”

“I—” Elizabeth wanted to argue, but she just rubbed her throat. “I know I must seem insane to you. I’ve read all the brochures you gave me, and I’ve listened, I promise. I know that the extra time I’ve given Cam since you told us what was going on—I know he’ll probably be okay. I just—” She paused. “I can’t make myself accept there’s nothing else I can do.”

“You don’t seem insane,” Monica said. “You’re a mother, trying to do her best with the bad luck you’ve been given. Will you let me call Jason now—”

“No. Um, you can write the script, and I’ll get it picked up. Jason’s dealing with a crisis. I know you’re going to tell me I’m more important—but the thing is—” Elizabeth smiled wryly. “If Jason doesn’t get Sonny dealt with before I get home, I’ll be in the middle of it. I’d rather he get things sorted at home than be here.”

“All right. I’ll go write the prescription, and I’ll check in tonight.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

Ned stared out the window, over the skyline of Port Charles, then turned back to Anna. “I’m sorry. I never meant for any of this to come out and hurt the city. Or the department—”

“Of course not,” Anna said briskly. “You may hate the PCPD, but this damages you as well, Ned. And so many others…have you been able to speak to Dante?” she asked him.

“Not yet. Taggert—”

The lieutenant put up his hands. “No. I got Cruz on the line this morning and Dante to take the day. We’d cover.” He paused. “We need to talk about what this means for him here—”

Anna bristled. “Why would it mean anything? I was married to Duke while working as the commissioner. Dante is an accomplished officer—”

“You and I both know the kid probably had no idea, but—” Pained, Taggert hesitated. “He’s the son of Sonny Corinthos and the cousin to Vinnie Esposito—”

“They’re going to think he’s corrupt,” Ned said roughly. “Christ.”

“Or that he can’t be trusted. He snitched on a cop—” When Ned’s nostrils flared, Taggert held up his hands in protest. “Hey. You know that’s not what I think, but there are plenty who think you never cross the blue line, even for scum like Vinnie. It’s been hard for Dante since he testified, and this isn’t going to make it easier.”

“What about Kristina?” Anna asked Ned. “I can see someone wanting to sabotage Dante or take another shot at you. Maybe Floyd or one of his allies, looking to back someone else in two years when the next election is up, but Kristina is just a child—”

“I think—” Ned paused. “Lois found out,” he said softly. “About Kristina. And it—she didn’t handle it well. I should have told her—” He stopped. “I don’t know for sure how the papers found out, but Lois broke down, and we had an argument outside her office last night after everyone else had left. Someone could have overheard it.”

“You spoke about Dante and Kristina in this argument?” Anna demanded.

“I wanted to blame anyone else,” Ned murmured. “Carly knows about Kristina. And I’m sure Dante’s told someone. Olivia knows. It can’t be a coincidence—If I had told her earlier—” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I wish I could say someone wanted to hurt me, but it was just an opportunity to sell papers, and I handed it to them. We were—we were arguing about Brooke—”

He sat down, unable to continue speaking.

Anna exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry, Ned. I’ve lost a child. Leora wasn’t—” Her voice faltered. “I signed the papers, you see, for the surgery, and she died. I blamed myself. David and I lost—we couldn’t help each other. We argued, and we pushed each other away.” Ned looked at her, his eyes red. “I know how grieving can push and pull at you. And I’m sure when this calms down, Dante won’t blame you either.”

“Maybe.” Ned cleared his throat. “I’ll probably end up in court with Sonny over this, but Dante—” He looked at Taggert, who had remained quiet while Anna spoke. “Can you help him? Can we find—is there a way to minimize the damage?”

“We can try,” Taggert said. “But I can’t promise anything.”

“That’s all I ask.” Ned pushed himself to his feet. “I need to head over and see Alexis. Be with Kristina.”

He paused at the doorway and looked back at Anna. “Thank you,” he told her. “For sharing what happened to your daughter. It just—it just hits you when you least expect it. You’re having a good day, and then bam, it’s right in your face. Your little girl is gone, and there’s nothing you can do to bring her back. I don’t know why I have to keep learning that.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose, the other hand clutching the phone tightly, almost wishing he could wrap it around Carly’s neck. She’d known. “You didn’t think to warn me?” he said. “Do you have any idea what’s been going on here today?”

“I’m sorry, Jason. I honestly—no one saw this coming. Alexis was as blindsided as I was—” Carly paused. “And no, I couldn’t warn you. No one was supposed to know—”

“A lot of good that’s doing me today,” Jason muttered. “Sonny’s meeting with Justus right now, and he’s going to find a way to use this against you—” And that was just the first thing on Sonny’s list. There wasn’t much to do about Dante Falconieri—the kid was an adult with a mother who couldn’t be intimidated.

Kristina was still an infant that Sonny could go to court over—

“Jason—”

For the second time that day, Jason’s door flew open, and he made a mental note to put a goddamn deadbolt on the thing.

“You need to get me another lawyer!” Sonny charged. He saw Jason on the phone. “Is that the bitch? Give me that—”

Jason held the phone away from the furious man, but Sonny managed to rip it out of Jason’s hand as Justus came in, weary.

“Listen to me, you fucking bitch—I will destroy you, I will ruin—” Sonny hissed, then threw Jason’s phone across the room.

It shattered.

Jason swung his head back around to face his partner and one-time best friend, stunned. “What if Elizabeth tries to call me?”

“You’ve got a landline—”

“I’m sorry,” Justus interrupted. “He’s firing me. Again. I told him I’m not filing for custody of Kristina—”

“That’s my daughter—”

“And it was all I could do to keep him off the elevator to go after Alexis—and Ned.” Justus grimaced. “The last thing we need is you go after the mayor and city attorney—”

“And that’s why you’re fired—”

Jason scrubbed his hands over his face. Justus was absolutely correct, but he needed Sonny under control and out of his penthouse before—

“Um, should I go upstairs?”

His eyes flew open as he saw Elizabeth stepping over the threshold, a wary expression etched into her features. Behind her, Cody swept his eyes over the penthouse, looking irritated to find Sonny still there.

“Yes—” Sonny began.

“No,” Jason retorted. “You can go—”

“Not until you find me another lawyer! How the hell am I supposed to protect my kids if their mothers won’t let me—”

“If you didn’t impregnate every goddamn woman you looked at twice—” Justus began, all patience lost now.

“What the hell did you say to me?” Sonny demanded as Jason groaned.

“You heard me. I am done listening to this crap from you—”

“You can’t talk to me that way! You do what I say! You’re my lawyer! Mine! No one tells me no!” Sonny charged towards him, and Justus—alarmed now—put his hands up to ward him off.

Cody grabbed Elizabeth’s arm and tugged her back, pulling her out of the way as Sonny shoved Justus into the wall. Jason didn’t even have time to move— “I’m Sonny fucking Corinthos!”

“You’ve lost it, Sonny,” Justus grunted. His eyes hardened. “I don’t belong to anyone. I quit.” He shoved Sonny back, hard enough that the other man flew into Jason, who nearly lost his balance. “Sorry, Jase.” He stormed out, and a minute later, they heard the service door slam.

“Get me another lawyer,” Sonny ordered Jason. “I will have my daughter.”

Then he stalked across the hall and slammed his own door.

“You okay, Mrs. Morgan?” Cody asked.

Jason came forward to take her arm. “Thank you,” he told Cody. “Elizabeth—”

“I’m fine. Are you okay? Should you go after him—” She craned her neck around to look where Justus had disappeared.

“I’ll deal with it later,” Jason said, weary. He nodded to Cody, then closed the door and reached for her jacket. “I’m sorry. I thought I’d have this under control by the time—” He stopped, took a deep breath. “I’m sorry,” he repeated.

“It’s okay,” she assured him. She finished removing her coat, then dumped it over the desk chair. “You’re not a miracle worker, Jason, and Sonny got punched hard today. Did Carly really know?” she asked.

“It’s how she got Alexis to be her attorney,” Jason muttered. “She doesn’t know how it leaked, but it wasn’t her—” He rubbed his hands up and down his face as if he could scrub away the irritations and insanity of it all. “It’s not great. I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do without Justus—and I can’t ask him to come back. Not after that—” Not after Sonny had physically assaulted him—God damn it—

He shoved it to the back of his head. “I’ll deal with it later,” he repeated. “How was the appointment? You didn’t call—” He looked around the room, found the pieces of his phone, and went over to pick them up. “What about your oxygen levels? Are they better?”

Elizabeth frowned. “What happened to your phone—”

“Elizabeth,” Jason nearly snapped. “What did they say?”

She blinked at him, likely taken aback by the harsh tone he hadn’t used with her in months, if ever. “Things are fine,” she said softly, “but Monica’s coming over in a few days to check again.” She absently ran a hand over her belly. “Everything—it looks good.”

The first piece of good news he’d had all day. He visibly relaxed, his shoulders slumping. “I’m sorry. It’s just—it’s been a long morning.”

“I know.” She leaned up to kiss him. “I’ll let you get back to it, but can you take me upstairs? I’m feeling a bit tired.”

He nodded. “Absolutely. Did you get to Kelly’s—”

“Oh, no. I forgot—” Her stomach rumbled, and she winced. “Sorry. I knew I was hungry, but I was worried about you here—”

“I’ll get you settled in and call in for some lunch.” He kissed her forehead. “I’m glad the oxygen therapy is working. We needed a break.”

“Yeah.” She touched his jaw, sliding her fingers along his chin. “We did.”

All day starin’ at the ceilin’ makin’
Friends with shadows on my wall
All night hearing voices tellin’ me
That I should get some sleep
Because tomorrow might be good for somethin’
Hold on, feelin’ like I’m headed for a breakdown
And I don’t know why
– Unwell, Matchbox Twenty

---

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

 Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth really wasn’t looking forward to this conversation, but she’d worried the people in her life long enough. Everyone knew she’d had tests six weeks ago and hadn’t revealed the results. By now, her breathing issues at the wedding would be just as well-known.

She’d tried so hard to pretend that this wasn’t happening to her but after that appointment—

“Thank you for coming over,” Elizabeth said, kissing Bobbie’s cheek and squeezing Nikolas’s hand. “I hope it wasn’t too much trouble—”

“No, no, I’ve reduced my hours at GH,” Bobbie reminded her, “with the boys living with me full-time, and—”

“I run my own empire,” Nikolas said with a casual, if forced, smile. “I don’t have a schedule.”

She knew that was only partially true and that Nikolas had shoved way too many things around this last year to help his mother. “Still, thanks.”

He placed his hand just her elbow, helping Elizabeth as she sat on the sofa. “I’m hoping you’re finally going to tell us what’s going on.”

“Nikolas,” Bobbie muttered, but he just shrugged.

“It’s all right. I know it’s been hard on Emily, not being able to tell saying anything to you, Nikolas. Jason is telling Carly today,” Elizabeth assured Bobbie, “so you don’t have to worry about that.” She took a quick, shallow breath, wincing at the tightness in her chest. “I’ve been having some breathing issues off and on since the hearing,” she told them. “At first, I really did just think they were anxiety attacks that were complicated by the embolism.”

“But that changed,” Bobbie murmured. “Around Christmas?”

“I was feeling run down and tired, and we were hoping it would get better once the hearing was over. You know, I’d been living in pretty much constant stress since I got out of the hospital in July.”

Bobbie’s face tightened. “But things with Sonny—”

“That happened the night of the hearing,” Elizabeth reminded her gently. “After that, things really were calm. I rested more, but it didn’t change anything. I was getting more and more tired. And then, at the Quartermaines, I had a really bad breathing attack without any clear stressors. Monica and Kelly were already going to order some tests,” she told them, “but based on what happened at Christmas, Monica ordered some extra ones.”

“How bad is it?” Nikolas asked, his hands tightening into fists. “Elizabeth—”

“At some point last fall, I had more clots in the blood vessels in my lungs,” Elizabeth said. “They dissolved on their own, but they left—well, basically, they left scar tissue.”

“Scar tissue,” Bobbie echoed. “In the vessels. That would explain the problem with breathing—”

“Yeah. My lungs can’t quite expand all the way, and my blood isn’t pumping as well as it should. It means—”

“It means oxygen isn’t getting everywhere it needs to,” Nikolas finished grimly. “Your lungs. Your heart. Your brain?”

“So far, there’s no organ damage, and my oxygen levels have remained mostly stable,” Elizabeth assured him. She rested a hand on her belly. “The baby and I are as healthy as we can be under the circumstances.”

“This is—” Bobbie closed her eyes, took a deep breath, bracing herself. “Okay. You’re all right today. But you still have months to go—the baby will put more stress on your body—What’s—how do we fix this? Can we?”

“I can get doctors from anywhere in the world—I have connections on every continent—”

“Thank you—” Elizabeth reached over and squeezed his hands. “Thank you,” she repeated. “What I have — it’s a condition that doctors know about. It’s called CTEPH, and it’s a rare complication that can follow pulmonary embolisms. It’s so rare,” she said with a wrinkle of her nose, “that there’s very little understanding of how to treat a pregnant woman with the condition. The few cases Monica and Kelly could find—well, most of them were diagnosed early and terminated. But we didn’t find out until I was too far along.”

Bobbie pursed her lips and gratefully remained silent. As a nurse, she likely knew that Elizabeth still could have terminated her pregnancy at twenty-three weeks for medical reasons.

“There’s a surgery I can have after the baby is here,” Elizabeth continued, “and it’s the closest thing to a cure. I should be a good candidate, and Monica and Alan are already working on getting General Hospital certified to perform the procedure so that I won’t have to travel.”

“Whatever money they need—whatever resources—”

“I know. I’m sure we’ll be okay, but I appreciate it.”

“Okay, so if things are under control and we’re just waiting on the baby—” Bobbie frowned. “What aren’t you telling us?”

Elizabeth braced herself, knowing that the next part of the conversation would be the hard part. Another person to answer to, another person who demanded Elizabeth put herself and not her child first.

“I’m all right today,” Elizabeth said slowly, “but my oxygen levels dropped at the last appointment. We have to be very careful that they don’t drop below a certain level, or  it could trigger long-term organ damage.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “There’s a risk of heart or lung failure, which would mean that I would no longer be a candidate for the surgery.”

“Because of the baby,” Nikolas said. “How far along are you? Six months?”

“Thirty weeks,” Elizabeth said, “so a little more than that.”

“You could deliver now,” Bobbie said. “Couldn’t you? I haven’t read much on premature births, but I remember Alexis last year. She was about this far along with Kristina—”

“I know. And Kristina nearly died. She needed surgery after surgery—Monica wanted me to deliver two weeks ago. I’ve read everything,” she said when Nikolas blinked, and Bobbie scowled. “Babies born at thirty weeks have an eighty to ninety percent survival rate, and there aren’t many complications.”

“If you know that—”

“Would you?” Elizabeth asked softly, and Bobbie closed her mouth. “Eighty percent survival still means that two in ten babies die. And the eight that live—complications could follow him for years. His entire life. Every day I give him is one more chance for a normal, healthy life—”

“I—” Bobbie exhaled slowly. “What does Jason think about this?”

“He’s not happy about it. No one is,” she clarified. “But as long as my vitals stay where they are, and my organs aren’t damaged, I’m determined to wait. Monica is monitoring me very closely,” she assured them. “I promise you. I just—I can’t risk it. I want my son—Cameron—” she corrected. “We’re naming him Cameron—I want him to have every chance. It’s my job as his mother to keep him safe. As long as my body can manage it, that’s what I’m going to do.”

The Cellar: Carly’s Office

When Jason told her he needed to talk to her about Elizabeth and the baby, Carly knew he was finally going to reveal the mysterious test results that had been hanging over all of them like an ax.

And still, knowing it was terrible news, Carly was horrified when Jason finished explaining the condition.

“There’s nothing else they can do until the surgery?” Carly asked. Jason pushed himself to his feet and started to pace the room. “Nothing except inducing labor now?”

“The only thing that will make a difference,” Jason muttered. He dragged his hands over his face. “Sorry I didn’t say anything earlier—”

“Jason—”

“Elizabeth said I could, but I was worried if you knew, but we didn’t tell Bobbie—”

“Jason.” Carly got to her feet and went over to him, taking his hands in his. “It’s okay. You both handled this however worked for you. You never have to apologize for that.” When he just arched a brow, she forced a smile for him. “Okay, a year or two ago, I would have thrown a tantrum, but I’ve come a long way.”

“Yeah. You have.”

“I guess I just—this sucks so bad. Everything else you’ve both been through—the baby seemed like such a blessing.” Carly folded her arms. “I remember when you found out Elizabeth was healthy enough to go through with the pregnancy. What changed? How did it go wrong?”

“Blood clots were always a possibility,” Jason reminded her. “And they dissolved on their own before Monica could detect them in a scan. Nothing changed. We just—we ended up with a rare complication.”

“Which is the last thing you need,” she murmured. She’d known they were dealing with something heavy, but this— “I’ll tell Alexis to stall the divorce.”

“No, Carly—”

“I’ll—I’ll find a way to make it okay for a few more weeks or months,” Carly told him. “Maybe hold back on the adoption—”

“Carly, you told me you need this—”

“And I do,” she assured him. “But you need Sonny to give you a break over the next few weeks. He’s fighting with Justus already, he’s already come at you once. If he thinks you’re supporting me, it’ll make it worse. I’ve waited this long,” Carly said. “I’ll talk to AJ.”

“I wouldn’t ask—”

“No, you never would, and that’s why I love you. You have repeatedly sacrificed for me and my boys. It’s my turn to do the same for you.”

“It would be easier,” Jason admitted, somewhat painfully, “if this was one less thing to worry about with Sonny across the hall.”

“It’s just a few more weeks, anyway. You said Elizabeth is checking in at thirty-five weeks, right? I can handle that—” She stopped because something in his face changed, and she hadn’t noticed it the first time when he’d told her about the condition. “What?”

“It might—I don’t know. It might be sooner.” Jason exhaled slowly. “Her oxygen levels were low at the last appointment. If they don’t stabilize—”

“Then she has to deliver early. Oh, man, I’m sorry. But technology has come so far,” Carly said. “I mean, I had to deliver my son at twenty-four weeks, and there was no chance for him. That was just four years ago. Thirty weeks is such a difference—”

“Kelly said it was like eighty to ninety percent survival, and the long-term complications aren’t…there’s less of a chance.”

“It must be so scary.” Carly pressed a hand to her chest. “But Dr. Lee is a great doctor, right? Monica said she was the best in the state for high-risk.”

“Yeah.”

Carly hesitated. “Is there—” She tried to catch Jason’s eye, but he kept looking away. “Jason. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“No. You know everything—”

“Is it—is Monica saying Elizabeth should deliver even earlier?” Carly asked. When Jason tensed, but refused to look at her, she knew she had it. “She wants her to deliver now?”

“She wanted it two weeks ago,” Jason said finally. “Every day she’s pregnant, the baby puts stress on her heart and her lungs. There’s no damage yet—”

“But that could change tomorrow,” Carly murmured. “And if there’s organ damage—”

“She’s not a candidate for the surgery anymore—” He sat down and stared at his hands. “And that would be the good news.”

She slowly sat next to him. “Then the bad news would be Elizabeth might die.” Jason didn’t answer her. “I’m so sorry,” Carly murmured. “I can understand Elizabeth wanting to wait, but I’m sure it’s hard for both of you. It couldn’t have been an easy decision.”

“There was no decision,” Jason said, his tone clipped. “Elizabeth never considered it. Thirty-five weeks was her compromise.”

Her compromise. Elizabeth never considered it. “Someone is missing from that equation, Jason. Did you—do you want her to deliver?”

“It’s not—” Jason got to his feet, restless. “It’s not my choice. It’s not my body—”

“No, but it is your family. And it will be your decision if she ends up unconscious.” Jason blinked at her. “She’s having these oxygen issues. She could pass out. A doctor is going to ask you who you want to save,” she pointed out. “Any doctor would. They asked Sonny. He had to choose. He chose me, and even though I knew it was the right decision, I hated him. There was almost no chance our son would survive, but I thought he should have taken it. Even a one percent chance was better than none.”

Jason closed his eyes. “Carly—”

“I get Elizabeth’s choice. I understand it, and I’d be making it, too. I’m just—” She spread out her hands. “If you’re not on board with it, she needs to know that. Because if it comes down to it, if you’re asked to make a choice — can you honestly tell me you won’t do exactly what Sonny did?”

“I can’t—I can’t have this conversation—”

“You’d choose Elizabeth, and she’d wake up without that little boy.” Carly’s voice broke at the thought of it, of the memory of that horror. “Everyone will tell her she can have another baby, that at least she’s alive to try again—”

Jason closed his eyes. “Carly—”

“I’m sorry if you don’t want to hear this. But I’m your family, too, and someone needs to say this to you. You know more than anyone else how much she wants this baby. But I know you, don’t I? You’d choose Elizabeth.”

“I would,” he finally said. “Thirty seconds.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “They lost her for thirty seconds.”

“Last summer, you mean.”

“The paramedics didn’t think she’d make it to the hospital. They didn’t even think—she was dead for thirty seconds.”

“She’s been through hell. I might have my own mental and emotional scars from Ric, but she’ll have to live with what he did to her physically for a very long time. You’ve had a front row seat to all of it—”

“I’m not going to do what Sonny did,” Jason snapped, making Carly widen her eyes. “He took what happened to you and made it about him—”

“Yes,” she said softly. “He did. And everything I needed to recover from what happened to me, he took it as a personal attack. It made it a lot harder to get through it. But we’re not talking about Sonny, Jason. We’re talking about you. You haven’t just been supporting Elizabeth through this, you’ve been there for me. You didn’t rest until I was home, and while I know you backed down on Ric because Elizabeth asked you to, you did it for me, too. At great personal and, I’m sure, business cost.”

“I did what had to be done. What you and Elizabeth needed,” Jason said. “It’s not complicated—”

“No, it’s not. You’ve always been there for me, even when I didn’t deserve it. That’s why I’m telling you, Jase, that I know how hard it’s been for you, and I think you need to give Elizabeth a chance to be there for you, too. You need to talk to her about this, and make sure she understands the position she’d be putting you in if the worst happens.”

“I can’t think about it—”

“You have to,” she insisted. “I hope it doesn’t. And I absolutely think, at the end of the day, it’s Elizabeth’s risk to take. But it’s your family, too, and what you think matters. What you’re dealing with matters. Sonny and I didn’t talk about the things that mattered. Not when we should have. Don’t make our mistakes, Jason. You deserve so much better.”

Port Charles Municipal Building: Conference Room

Ned squinted, trying to focus on Jax’s summary of his meeting with the police union, but he couldn’t help but keep one eye on his ex-wife.

Lois sat across from him at the long table, her eyes trained on the yellow pad in front of her, her fingers tapping a pencil rapidly against the table.

He’d known her long enough to be sure that something had pissed her off.

“I think we’re in good shape on the next round of contracts,” Jax said. Ned blinked at him, and his chief of staff arched a brow. “With the union,” he repeated. “We’re opening negotiations at the end of this next year, but—”

“They’re not going to draw out negotiations,” Alexis said with a shake of her head. “They’re still digging out of the bad press from last summer and—” She grimaced, glancing at Lois. “The union leaders know they don’t have the city behind them—”

“We couldn’t get Capelli fired,” Ned muttered. He cleared his throat. “And we couldn’t even keep Esposito off duty after Floyd suspended him—”

“Because, at the time Floyd suspended him,” Jax reminded him gently, “it was clearly a way to get the heat off himself. We didn’t have the evidence against him, and Capelli could argue that he had Mac’s approval to plant that story about Elizabeth. But Alexis is right—popular opinion is even more against the PCPD. They haven’t had a single success in a year. They didn’t even figure out it was Esposito until he’d already—”

“We don’t need to revisit history,” Lois said flatly, finally raising her head. “The PCPD is barely able to do the basics, and hiring Anna Devane was just a plaster job over the whole rotten lot of them. When the only officers worth a damn are the goddamn rookies—” She broke off. “They’re lucky we’re not dissolving the contract and going county. You make sure they know that, Jax. Ned and I could have sued the pants off this city, and Elizabeth Webber let that entire department off with a goddamn warning—”

“I know,” Jax said, his tone still quiet and even. Understanding. “This is why we’re already talking about contracts. The union leaders are putting out feelers to sign a deal early. They’re worried another scandal will put them even deeper in the hole.”

“Have them draw up the contract,” Ned said, “but I want concessions on suspensions and terminations. It needs to be easier to get rid of bad cops. Capelli shouldn’t be wearing the badge.”

Jax collected his paperwork and got to his feet. “You wanna be able to swing that? We might need another scandal.”

As Jax, Alexis, and some of the others filed out of the room, Ned snagged Lois by the elbow. She clenched her jaw and glared at him. “I have a meeting—”

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” she said before he had even finished his question. “I don’t like talking about the PCPD. Do you?”

“No, but—”

“And I didn’t even get the satisfaction of firing Mac Scorpio to help me sleep at night. Must be nice.”

Ned blinked at the harsh words. “Are you—did I do something?”

“I don’t have time for this.” Lois stacked her papers on top of the legal pad. “I’m not your babysitter or your mother, and I don’t have to tell you everything—”

“No, you don’t—”

“Then just leave me alone.”

She stalked out before he could catch his breath. He nearly went after her, but he knew that look in her eyes. Better to let Lois just calm down. He’d catch up to her later.

Luke’s: Office

Luke dropped his feet from the desk to the floor when Jason appeared in the doorway. “Wondered when I’d see you,” he said. “Figured it’d be sooner.”

“I only got back yesterday.” Jason closed the door behind him, then folded his arms. “What are you doing down at the Blue Moon asking Tommy questions?”

Luke snorted. He reached across his desk and picked out a cigar. Jason clenched his jaw waiting for the other man to light the cigar, then take a long puff. Luke leaned back in his desk chair. “Because I can.”

“Damn it, Luke—”

“You asked me to keep an eye on the situation,” Luke replied. “I checked the security at the Brownstone, gave Barbara and Caroline some advice, then dropped in on Sonny. What I heard there worried me, so I used some contacts.”

“Well, you can stop now. I’m back—”

“Uh huh.” Luke tapped the ash into a ceramic tray on the desk. “And you got a plan for the mutiny on your hands?”

“There’s no mutiny!”

“Today, no.” Luke tilted his head. “And maybe Tommy’s not lying. Maybe he can keep things quiet for a few more months. But that depends on whether or not Sonny stays under control. You get one more strange Lansing sighting, and Sonny will lose his damn mind—”

Jason scowled. “I don’t have time for this—”

“Then you better make it.” Luke got to his feet. “Don’t walk out on me, kid. You might be in charge now, and I might be rusty, but I’ve been in this life longer than you’ve been alive. I know how to keep me and mine breathing. You might want to listen.”

Jason turned back from the door with a hot, angry glare at Sonny’s former partner. “You wanted out of this—”

“You know better. There is no out. There’s no such thing as retired. You tried it, didn’t you? You almost made it. Maybe you would have. But Sonny came home and dragged you back, and now it’s too late. The men don’t follow Sonny. They follow you. You’re not thick or stupid, Morgan. You know that’s true.”

Jason pressed his lips together. “What do you expect me to do?” he bit out. “Take the business from Sonny?”

“You’ve already done that in everything but name. You were the right-hand man. You gave the orders to the men below you, but those orders used to come from Sonny.” Luke arched a brow. “When was the last time you got an order from Sonny you could actually follow?” Jason said nothing. “That’s what I thought. You need to make Sonny back down.”

“And that’s so easy,” the younger man replied caustically.

“Don’t act like I don’t know what I’m talking about—”

“I don’t have the time for this,” Jason repeated. “Elizabeth—” He curled his hand into a fist. “She could—things could go wrong in an hour. Tomorrow. At any minute. I don’t have time to fight a war with Sonny.”

“Does he know how bad it is with her?” Luke asked. “Does he know how sick she is? How fatal this condition is?”

Jason hesitated, looked away. “No,” he admitted. “I told you what was going on because I had to leave town. We only started telling people today.”

“Then you need to tell Sonny today,” Luke said. “And I know you told Tommy that Elizabeth wasn’t well. You need to clarify with him. He’s old school, and he’s going to work harder to keep a lid on his end until Elizabeth’s out of the woods. No one wants this to blow up.”

“I—” Jason exhaled slowly. “I was planning to tell him—” He cleared his throat. “I just—I don’t know if it will actually change anything.”

Luke took that in, then nodded. “Then you need to know that,” he said gently. “You need to know what you’re dealing with. If Sonny hears that you’re struggling, that you need him to step up so you can focus on your family, and he doesn’t do a damn thing to make it better for you—”

“And what am I supposed to do if that happens?” Jason retorted. “What if it changes nothing?”

“Then you’ll know, and we’ll go from there. I’m not leaving you to deal with this bullshit by yourself,” Luke added. “Bernie told me that this Lansing crap is off the walls. The only people who’ve seen this asshole are on the inside? That doesn’t wash for me.”

“No, me either,” Jason admitted. “But it doesn’t mean Ric isn’t out there.”

“It doesn’t mean he is. If you got someone trying to play mind games with you—” Luke arched a brow. “That’s not good.”

“Why the hell would they want to?”

“Because they can. Someone out there knows that Sonny has lost his mind since Lansing jumped bail, and that you’re distracted. Why wouldn’t someone try to take advantage of that? You and Sonny have made a lot of enemies in the last decade. Any one of them could be coming for you through the Lansing stuff. We need to get Sonny under control, get Elizabeth through this baby business, and then we can deal with whatever else is coming.”

Kelly’s: Kitchen

The bell over the door jangled, and Lulu glanced out the cut-through window to see her brother and his partner walking in. They headed for a table where Cruz and Nikolas were already sitting, so Lu put them out of her mind. That was Penny’s section, not hers.

She returned to loading the dishwasher, and wiping down the counters. It was all hands on deck during the lunch rush, and with it winding down, she was happy to have a reason to avoid the dining room.

“Do you have a minute?”

Lulu gritted her teeth when she heard Dante’s voice in the doorway, but didn’t look up. “Why? So you can just be an asshole again? No thanks, I’m not taking applications for that right now. Check back in the next life.”

She grabbed the last tub of dirty dishes and started to load them in the nearly full dishwater, the ceramic plates jostling against each other, drowning out whatever response he was going to make.

It didn’t matter if he had a right be angry with her, she reminded herself. She’d tried to apologize, and he didn’t want to hear it. Fine. That didn’t mean she had to listen while he screamed at her all the things she already knew about herself—

“Lu—” Dante’s larger hand settled over one of hers, and she stilled, finally meeting his gaze. “Let me apologize.”

His eyes were dark with regret and concern, and she nearly broke then, her throat burning. “No. I don’t want to hear it. I did what I did and it was awful, but I did it because I wanted to help, but you wanted to hurt me, and I can’t have that in my life, okay—”

“I know. I’m sorry—”

“No!” Lulu repeated. She jerked her hand back, and the plate went flying, crashing into the sink and shattering. She stared at it blindly, then glanced up to find a few people in the dining room staring at her, including both of her brothers and Cruz.

Lulu hissed, spun on her heel, and headed for the back door.

Kelly’s: Dining Room

Nikolas heard a plate crash not long after Dante had disappeared into the kitchen and half-rose out of his seat. “Should I—”

“No, either she’ll forgive him or she’ll slug him.” Lucky grimaced. “Either way, it’s not our business. Not yet.”

Nikolas sat back down, still ruffled. “I don’t know him,” he muttered. “Is he good enough for Lu? I know he’s your partner—”

“Dante’s as good as they come,” Lucky assured him. “But you know—”

“The Vinnie stuff really messed him up,” the other man at their table—the second of Lucky’s new group of friends, Cruz Rodriguez—spoke up. “I think more than he realized. Or wants to admit.”

“Well,” Nikolas said, “since most of my family are homicidal maniacs, I can understand that.” He cleared his throat and looked at his brother. “Anyway, I need to talk to you about Elizabeth. Do you remember the test results Emily mentioned a few weeks ago?”

“Oh, man.” Lucky stilled. “How bad is it?”

“Right now, she’s all right, but she’s got this condition that puts extra stress on her heart and lungs. The longer she’s pregnant, the worse that’ll get. She has to deliver the baby before the due date.”

“It doesn’t seem fair,” Cruz muttered, drawing both their attention. He colored slightly. “I just mean—I know how sick she was last summer.”

“You were there during the kidnapping,” Nikolas remembered. That day had been such a blur—but now Nikolas remembered the cop being there the day they’d found Carly and Elizabeth had nearly died.

“Yeah, Cruz took point on that case because he was shadowing Taggert.” Lucky picked up a napkin and started shredding it. “This sucks. She’s been through so much this year.”

“I know we’ve grown distant from her—and from each other,” he added, “over the last year or so. Since—”

“The wedding, the accident, Mom—” Lucky sat back. “Yeah, I know. A lot of things put us on separate paths. But it doesn’t mean I don’t care about her.”

“I know that. That’s why I’m keeping you in the loop.”

“This condition—does it, um, track back to what Lansing did to her? With the pills?” Cruz wanted to know.

“Yeah. It’s a complication of the embolism. Why?”

“Just—I know this doesn’t matter,” Cruz continued, “but it just feels like everything going wrong with Elizabeth Webber—Morgan—” he corrected, “—can be blamed on us. The PCPD, I mean. We screwed up the rape case, the kidnapping, and she had to clean up after all of it. How much worse was her health because of Capelli and after what Vinnie did to her?”

“You can’t take that on,” Lucky told Cruz. “Not you, me, or Dante. We didn’t do any of it—”

“But we carry the badge, don’t we? Capelli’s still at the PCPD, and if Vinnie didn’t get caught—” Cruz paused. “All I ever wanted to be was a cop so I could help people and protect them. Now it just feels like I’m part of the problem.” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. This—this isn’t about me. Or the PCPD—”

“No—” Nikolas studied the other man with new respect, and nodded. “You’re right. A lot of what Elizabeth is dealing with can be laid at the PCPD’s feet, and they let Lansing slip out of their fingers. It’s still happening because of them. I can’t fix Elizabeth or make her better. None of us can.”

“We’re trying to do better,” Lucky reminded Cruz. “Elizabeth knows that. She doesn’t blame you or me. Or Dante—”

“I blame me. I was there that night,” Cruz argued. “When Carly went missing, and I saw that Elizabeth was under the influence of something.” He swallowed hard. “Taggert and Capelli—they left me with Jason and Sonny to go search the house. Emily—she tried to tell me that Jason was gonna take Elizabeth away, but I made them stay.”

Nikolas exhaled slowly as that sank in. If Elizabeth had left the house that first night, she couldn’t have gone back. She wouldn’t have ingested the Valium that nearly killed her the next morning or the birth control in the ice—

“And Ric probably would have killed Carly that first night,” Lucky broke into Nikolas’s thoughts. He looked at his brother, at Lucky’s grim face. “Elizabeth might have been safe, but Ric would have had no reason to keep Carly. He wanted to give that baby to Elizabeth. If there’s no Elizabeth, he doesn’t need Carly. He could have called his father, and Carly would be dead.”

“Maybe—”

“You kept Jason and Sonny there because Taggert would just have hunted them down, and Jason was free the next day to find Elizabeth before she overdosed. We can’t do everything perfectly, Cruz. You think I don’t beat myself up all the time? I didn’t remember Vinnie was a regular at Kelly’s. Even after I knew that Elizabeth was the first attack. I knew we were looking for a strange guy in her past, and I didn’t remember.”

“Lucky—” Nikolas put a hand out.

“The what ifs nearly broke me,” Lucky continued, keeping his eyes on Cruz. “If I’d gone looking for Elizabeth sooner that night, if I hadn’t broken the date, if I’d heard the guy in the park—you did the best you could on your first day on the job. What’s happening to Elizabeth now sucks. It sucks hard, and I wish like hell it wasn’t happening. She deserves the best.” He took a deep breath. “But if I know Jason—and his family—and you—” Lucky said, looking at Nikolas, “the hospital is ready with whatever she might need. That’s all we can do now.”

“I know. Sorry,” Cruz added. “It’s not about me,” he repeated. “Or even the PCPD—”

“But it is,” Nikolas said simply. “The PCPD is responsible. Both of you need to remember that. You need to do better than the assholes that came before. But, that’s it. There’s nothing else you can do.”

Harborview Towers: Hallway

“How is he today?” Jason asked Max as he approached the door.

“Uh, better than yesterday, I think. He was up and around this morning. Didn’t hear much yelling,” Max continued. “Might be a good day if you wanna talk to him.” He paused. “Do you want to?”

“Yeah.”

“All right.” The guard knocked lightly. “Yo, Boss, it’s Jason.”

The door swung open and Sonny stood there, dressed in a dark dress shirt and pants, his curls disheveled and falling on his face. “Sonny.”

“Did I know you were coming?” Sonny asked. But before Jason could answer, Sonny wandered away, towards the window. His attention seemed to be slightly unfocused, his demeanor was shaky. Jason exhaled slowly, not sure what version of his partner he was dealing with. He went inside, and Max pulled the door shut, leaving them alone.

“You here about Carly?” Sonny demanded, though there was no real harshness in his voice. More of a resigned tone.

“No—”

“Because I know—I know it’s gotten off track. All of it,” Sonny added as if Jason had asked a question. “I’m trying— it’s just—I just need everyone to be safe,” he muttered. He gripped the back of a chair, his fingers digging into the leather. “I need my family to be safe. Couldn’t make them safe before. I failed them.”

“I know that’s what it feels like,” Jason said slowly, “but—”

“Failed Lily,” Sonny muttered. “She’s dead. So’s my son. And Carly. Carly could have died. I should have dealt with Ric when we had the chance. Before the kidnapping. I was weak.” He looked at Jason, the whites of his eye stark against his olive-toned skin. “I can’t be weak.”

“Sonny—” Jason hesitated.

Sonny closed his eyes, took a deep breath. “I’m okay,” he said, his voice a bit more even. A bit more normal. “I’m okay,” he repeated. “I’m just not sleeping well. I’ll be fine if I can sleep.”

“Okay,” Jason said. “Look, I just came by—” He sighed, rubbed the back of his neck. “I should have maybe told you before we left. The reason I was insisting on the wedding, on going away for two weeks—Elizabeth—” He clenched his jaw. It didn’t matter how many times he said this.

It never got easier.

“Jason?”

“She has this…condition,” Jason told him. “It’s—it’s serious. It could be fatal. We needed—” His chest was tight. “I needed her to be away from everything. To rest.”

“Fatal,” Sonny repeated. He looked around as if just realizing where they were. “Uh, sit down, sit down. Let’s—let’s talk about this. Tell me everything.”

Kelly’s: Alley

Dante charged after Lulu, not even entirely sure what he’d say, only that he had to say something.

“Lu—”

“No!” She whirled around and jabbed a finger at him. “This is where I leave you? I’m sorry for what I did. I took advantage of our friendship, and I shouldn’t have. But I’m not interested in—” Her voice broke slightly. “I can’t do this again, okay? I can’t be around someone who pretends they like the things that make me who I am, and then use them later as a reason to hate me.”

“That’s not—” Dante swallowed hard. “I don’t hate you.”

“Give it time. Everyone usually manages it.” She scrubbed at her face, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes. “I told you, didn’t I? Dillon said he liked my no bullshit, no filter approach, and then later, he said it made me a bitch—he said I didn’t have any problems and you don’t think I do either—and maybe I don’t compared to you—”

“Stop—” Dante wrapped his fingers around her wrists, pulling her hands away from her face, startled to see the dark circles under her eyes. “Lu. I’m sorry.”

She closed her eyes. “Fine. You’re sorry. Whatever. Go away.”

“No. I want things to be like they were before—”

“They can’t. Because I did what I did, and now you know who I am, okay? You saw what everyone else always sees, and—”

“You saw that I was in pain, that my mother was hurting, and you wanted to make it better,” Dante interrupted, and she stumbled to a stop, blinking at him. “You knew I was holding something back from her, and she knew it, too. But I couldn’t say anything. I wouldn’t have. Maybe ever, and it would have just eaten me up inside. You saw it, Lu, and you wanted to help. No, you shouldn’t have done it, but I’m glad you did.”

“You—” She cleared her throat, stared at him as if he were an alien, her eyes wide. “What did you say?”

“I needed to talk to my mom. I needed to tell her—” Dante looked around the alley, and when he was satisfied that they were alone, he stepped closer. “The day of the hearing, my grandmother told me that I was just like my father. Just like Sonny Corinthos.”

“Sonny—” Lulu’s face drained of color. “Oh, God. Dante. That’s—”

“I can’t—I can’t go into everything,” he continued. “I’m still working it through in my head, but I couldn’t say anything to my mom. Until you made me. Thank you.”

“You’re—” She shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“You have absolutely no filter or patience for people who lie,” Dante said. “And you’re too impulsive for your own good.” When she flinched, he hurried to continue. “But you’re also kind and you care about people. You listen,” he added. “And you hear more than people say. You heard more than I told you. I need you in my life, Lu. I need you to forgive me.”

“You—” Her eyes searched his. “After what I did, you’re actually begging me for my forgiveness? Did you hit your head?”

“No. You were right. I said what I did to hurt you, and I hate myself for it.”

“You’ve been through a lot—”

“It’s not an excuse—”

“No, but you need to shut up and let me accept your apology,” Lulu said with a roll of her eyes. “Because I really am sorry about what I did. Even if you’re glad it happened, it doesn’t change the fact that I messed up. I won’t tell anyone about Sonny. I promise.”

“I know you won’t.” He reached out and rubbed his hands up and down her arms, her skin nearly frozen through the thin shirt she wore. “We’re good?”

“Yeah. We’re good.” She smiled up at him, and the tightness in his chest finally eased. “Let’s go in before I turn into an icicle.”

Morgan Penthouse: Master Bedroom

Jason furrowed his brow as he reached the doorway. “Who carried you up?” he wanted to know.

Elizabeth reached for the remote at her side and muted the television. “Cody. You weren’t sure when you’d be home, and I was feeling tired.” She rested a hand on her belly. “I can’t exactly sleep on the sofa anymore. I’m afraid I’ll roll off.”

He smiled faintly as he crossed the room to sit next to her, reaching for her wrist without thinking. “It feels normal,” he said after a moment, then winced. “Sorry—”

Elizabeth covered his hand with hers and waited for him to look up. “It’s the blood pressure and oxygen mask I don’t want you to decide for me. This? Never bothered me, and I know it makes you feel better.” She curled her hand in his shirt and drew him in for a long, lingering kiss. “And that makes me feel better, so we’re even.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “Me, too.”

“Double win.” She kissed him again. “Long day?”

“Yeah.” He sighed, then drew away. “Did you eat?”

“Mmm, ordered pizza. And a side salad,” she called as he went to the dresser to retrieve a pair of sweats to change. “So covered all the bases.” Elizabeth paused. “I told Bobbie and Nikolas. It went okay.”

“Good. Good.” He crawled into bed next to her, helped her sit up, then sat behind her to massage her back and shoulders. “I told Carly. And Luke already knew.” He waited a beat. “I told Sonny.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Elizabeth asked when he didn’t continue.

“Not much to say. He was having a good day, I guess, so he listened. Said all the right things.”

It broke her heart to hear the doubt in his words, the worry. Because Sonny had known for months that she wasn’t well, and it hadn’t stopped him. Would knowing how potentially dangerous her condition was change anything? For Jason’s sake, she prayed it would.

“Carly told me she’s going to stall the divorce. Until the baby is born.”

“She doesn’t have to—”

“I told her, but she insisted. She’s got a restraining order right now, so—”

Restraining orders were only good if they were obeyed, but neither mentioned it. What was the point? Elizabeth exhaled slowly. “But didn’t she ask AJ to help her? Is he going to want to wait for the adoption to be revoked?”

“I don’t know—”

“I can have Monica talk to him if you think it would help—”

“I don’t want you to worry about it—”

She reached behind her to snag one of his hands, stilling it. “Jason. I’m going to worry about it because Carly’s your family.” Grimacing, bracing one hand on her belly, she turned slightly to see him. “And this is about Sonny. He lives across the hall. You said you wanted things to be as calm as possible until the baby is born. Sonny not finding out AJ is involved helps with that, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, but—”

“There’s a chance AJ might not want to wait. If there’s anyone who could do it, it would be Lila, but you and I agreed we’re not going to tell her, so Monica is our best option. Or Emily.” She stroked his arm, leaning against his chest. “We might not have to worry. AJ might agree to wait. Or Alexis might come up with a really good reason for him to be okay with it. I’m just saying—it’s there if we need it.”

She waited a long moment, but he said nothing. “I know this is more your decision than mine,” she forced out painfully. “And you’re supporting it even though you don’t really want to—”

“That’s not—”

“Let me do what I can to make this okay. Please.”

“All right.” He sighed, his breath warm against her temples. “All right. If we need it.”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Port Charles Municipal Building: Lobby

Ned managed to corner his ex-wife picking up a late cappuccino. “Hey.” He slid into the chair across from her and saw her face carefully blank. “See—that’s why I had to chase you down. What gives?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lois murmured. She got to her feet and started out of the shop. Ned rolled his eyes and followed her as she moved towards the elevator. She jabbed at the button.

“You were upset this morning, and you sent your assistant to our meeting this afternoon—”

“I’ve been busy—”

“Lois—”

“Leave it alone, Ned,” Lois warned him as the elevator doors opened. She stepped into the car and growled as he followed her. “I’m serious—”

“So, there is something—”

Lois glared at him from the corner of her eye. “You really don’t want to do this with me.”

“I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t—”

“I heard you and Olivia.” When Ned blinked at her, Lois continued. “Last night.”

“Heard us?” Ned shook his head. They stepped off the elevator on the floor where his offices were located. Lois started for her office, but he stopped her just before she was able to storm inside. The floor was mostly deserted at this time of the day, particularly in her department. “What do you mean you heard us?”

“I heard her tell you about Dante’s father,” Lois said through gritted teeth. “And I know!”

“You know,” Ned repeated.  “Lois—”

“You know, I tried not to blame you—I convinced myself that it really wasn’t your fault—but I was wrong.” Lois’s fingers clenched hard around her cappuccino, until the top burst off and the hot liquid spilled out over her fingers. She cried out, and Ned grabbed a napkin from a nearby table to take it from her.

The tears were rushing down her face as she continued—the dam had been broken. “You were so worried about Dante, so worried about everyone else—you cared more about protecting Sonny’s kids—what about ours? What about our little girl?”

“Lois—” Ned spread his hands at his side. “What are you talking about? Everything I’m doing—I’m working hard for her—I’m worried about Dante because of what he did for Brooke—not because he’s Sonny’s son—”

“What about Kristina, then?” Lois shot back. “You’re lying about her, aren’t you? Protecting Alexis from Sonny—why couldn’t you care that much about our daughter?” She shoved at him, her sobs ripping from her chest, from soul. He grabbed her hands to stop her— to just—

“Lois, it’s not like that—I loved Brooke—”

“Not—as much—” Lois’s breaths were heaving sobs as she forced the words out— “Oh, God. Not enough. You didn’t love her enough.”

“Lois—” He didn’t have the words—didn’t have a defense. He’d adored his daughter, had loved every inch of her—but he hadn’t been there.

He hadn’t done enough.

Ned squeezed her hands. “I will take those regrets to my grave,” he said quietly. “I wasn’t there for her. I didn’t do enough. I thought I’d have more time to get it right, Lois. I thought—”

“I hung up on her.” The rush of tears had ended and now Lois was looking at him blankly. “The last time we talked before the attack. I was in a hurry, and I rushed her off the phone. I think I—I think I hung up before she even said goodbye.”

“Baby—”

“It’s been months. Months. And I thought—” Lois closed her eyes. “I thought I was over it. I was past it, but every morning, I wake up, and I have to remember all over again that she’s gone. I’m not a mother anymore. You get to keep being a father, but there’s nothing left for me—and now—”

“Now you find out that the only daughter I have left is one I stole from another man,” Ned said roughly. “I should have told you, but there was never a good time, and I told Liv because—”

“A secret for a secret.” Lois exhaled, her breath shaky and still sounded as if it was on the edge of a sob. She leaned her head against his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ve been so jealous of you, I’ve hated you for Kristina, and Olivia for having Dante, and I have nothing—”

He kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not. It’s not—”

“It’s okay,” he repeated. He stepped back, cradling her jaw in his hands. “There’s no right way to do any of this, Lois. We take every day as it comes. Some days I can breathe. And some days, I have to force it. You can scream at me any time. I’ve earned it. Twice over. Maybe a hundred times.”

“I’ll remember that.” She managed a shaky smile. “I won’t say anything. I mean, I’ll tell Liv I know, and you can tell Alexis, but I won’t—I don’t want to do anything to hurt you. Or Liv. And Kristina’s just a baby. And God, if the world knew Dante was Sonny’s son—if they knew about Kristina—”

“His career would be over. The boy that did so much for our daughter deserves better from us,” Ned told her. “We need to protect him.”

“It’s what Brooke would have wanted. What she would have done.”

Ned helped Lois into her office, and neither of them saw the man who had ducked behind the planter when the mayor and his ex-wife had stormed off the elevators.

But he’d seen them, and he’d heard everything. He waited to make sure they were gone, then hurried to the service stairs.

He needed a phone. He could think of a dozen people who’d pay for this story.