Written in 62 minutes.

Thursday, October 3, 2024

Miller & Davis: Lobby

The sun had just begun to peek over horizon when Maxie knocked on the glass door of the law offices. The security guard on the night shift sat behind a desk, scrolling lazily on his phone, glancing up when he saw her there. He made a face, then got to his feet, lumbered over. “Not open until nine,” he told her, the words muffled behind the glass door.

Maxie flicked through her phone, then held up a photo of herself and Spinelli. “He’s here, isn’t he? Let me in. I’m his—” She grimaced. “Partner.” Because girlfriend seemed too silly. And honestly, how could he work here and not know who she was?

The guard rolled his eyes, but then punched something into the pad beside the door, then unlocked and pulled it open. “He’s in the back. Next time, have him tell me you’re coming.”

“He doesn’t know,” Maxie said, sliding her phone back in her tote, then started down the hallway leading to the support offices. She knew exactly where to find Spinelli, and would have even if the app on the phone hadn’t told her.

The office he’d been assigned was towards the back, near Diane’s office, the door open just enough for a sliver of light to fall onto the carpet. Maxie pushed it open and found her target scrunched over a desk, skimming through papers, then looking at his computer screen. “Spinelli.”

He jolted at her words — which meant he hadn’t heard her approach or noticed her standing in the doorway. When he lifted his gaze to meet hers, his disheveled hair standing on end from running his hands through it over and over, his eyes rimmed with red, exhaustion etched into every line of his beloved face.

“Maximista—” He blinked, looked around. “What—” He licked his lips. “What time is it?”

“Almost six-thirty.” She reached inside her tote, removed the large insulted jug of coffee and set it on the desk, then followed it with a wrapped sandwich. “Because I doubt you’ve bothered to eat since last night or that I could talk you into going home to sleep.”

Spinelli blinked again, then rubbed his hands over his face. “I didn’t—I should have called—”

“You did. A text just before midnight.” Maxie tipped her head to the side. “And Mac came by after they shut down the search for the night. He thought I might need to leave, so he and my mom are with the kids. I guess I was surprised to see you here and not at the hospital or out…” She pressed her lips together. “What’s going on? Why are you here?”

“I don’t—” Spinelli stared blankly at the papers, then at her. “What do you already know?”

“Drink some coffee, take two bites, and then I’ll tell you.”

He grimaced, but followed directions and accepted the water she also fished from her bag. “Well?”

“I know that Sam and Kristina were an accident last night. That Kristina was found, that Sam is still…” Maxie shifted with a sigh. “That she’s still missing, and that her car was caught in the flash floods out by her mother’s place. I also know that the police are investigating one or both of them for something because Mac was talking about Chase being out on scene because he was following someone.” She paused. “I also think it’s related to the case because Jason was there last night, too. And seeing you here — I know it now. What’s going on?”

“It’s a long story—”

“Sum it up, and we can talk details later. What has you pouring over the investigation files all night? You can trust me, Spinelli. You know that.”

Spinelli slid a piece of paper across the desk at her. “You see this? The line I highlighted?”

“Looks like gibberish to me,” Maxie told him with a wrinkle of her nose. “But I think it says something about something on September 3.”

“That’s the records from Elizabeth’s car the day after John Cates was murdered. Her trunk was opened with her remote key fob at 1:13 in the afternoon on September 3.” Spinelli turned the computer screen, tapped a key, then gestured at the bottom. “That time stamp —”

“Matches this time and date—” Maxie stopped, taking in the still image of a car parked on a curb in a neighborhood she knew very well. She’d grown up nearby, had played with her cousin hundreds of times. “That’s Elizabeth’s house. That’s—” She looked at Spinelli. “That’s Kristina.”

“Footage from her neighbor’s Ring Camera. Kristina opens the trunk, places a metal box inside, then closes it. She goes towards Elizabeth’s house — crouches down by the door, then leaves. We think she was dropping the fob in front of the house, hoping they’d think it fell off Elizabeth’s keys or something.”

Tears stung Maxie’s eyes — she didn’t know why. She hadn’t known the murder victim, didn’t know Kristina that well. And she certainly didn’t care much about Elizabeth. But she knew Spinelli had been working tirelessly for weeks to find evidence exonerating Elizabeth, to prove her innocence. And now he had.

“This is connected to last night, isn’t it? That’s why you came here and spent all this time going through files that could have waited until we knew about Sam.” Maxie looked at him again, her throat tight. “What happened, Spinelli?”

“Kristina framed Elizabeth for the murder, or was trying to set up Stone Cold. I don’t know. And she emailed the prosecution for the case to get Elizabeth’s bail revoked. We all thought—” Spinelli rubbed his face. “We thought it was Sam. Trying to get rid of Elizabeth, or help her custody case. But it was Kristina. Sam found out and she was in the car last night. She called me.”

He held out his phone, stared at it. “I don’t talk on the phone much anymore. The calls I’ve made recently have been about the case, so I installed an app to automatically record them.”

He pressed play.

“…I just don’t…why…her bail…important…”

“…told you…I…to help…you said…no one…know.”

“We’ve been over this, Sam. And if Mom can’t make this go away, I’m not admitting to anything.”

“You have to tell them, Kristina. You have to tell them I didn’t know. Danny believes I did this to him—do you really think your feelings are more important?”

“He’ll get over it. He’s done worse to you.”

“I just wish you’d tell me why you did this. Why you really did this. You had to know there was a chance people would think it was me—why did you take the risk? Why not try to get Mom to use it in the custody papers? Why go to the same lawyers who tried to put you in jail?”

“You needed Elizabeth out of the picture—”

“No, no! I didn’t—not like that! Damn it, Krissy, it wouldn’t have solved anything! She’d be a goddamn martyr and everyone would be trying to get her out—you really think it would make Danny’s life better that way?”

“But Jason wouldn’t be able to say he’s got a stable home—”

“No, no, I still think there’s another reason. You were ready to blame me and gaslight everyone else into blaming me, too, until I asked you why you wanted Elizabeth’s bail revoked.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“Don’t play stupid, Kristina. You’ve never had a negative thing to say about Elizabeth in all these years, and now suddenly you’re trying to help by putting her in jail. I don’t believe you. Just tell me what you did, and we can talk to Mom. We’ll fix it. But you have to tell me what you did.”

“What do you want me to say? That I finally see Elizabeth as a manipulative bitch like you always said—”

“But you’re doing it now not when it would have made a difference. I mean, when she lied about Jake Doe, you weren’t talking like this, but she’s accused of murder, and you want her in jail over it. Kristina, did you put that gun in her trunk?”

“Why are you asking me that? How can you even—”

“What is that? Is that your phone?”

“Damn it—let go—”

The recording stopped, and Maxie lifted her gaze to Spinelli’s. “Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my god. Kristina — she caused the accident. Sam was driving, and Kristina must have tried to get the phone—she heard that beep — what was it?”

“Flash Flood advisory. Came through her phone, and all the phones around mine.” Spinelli exhaled slowly. “Sam called Danny from her car. She was trapped, terrified, couldn’t get out.”

Maxie pressed a fist to her mouth. “Oh, God. Spinelli. She killed her own sister. She killed—” The horror of it silenced her, and she couldn’t form another word. She’d lost her own sister to unspeakable violence. Georgie’s murder had broken Maxie’s world in ways that couldn’t be articulated, and for twenty years, she’d tried so hard to push it down. But to listen to the sisters argue on the phone, to know where they’d ended up — Tears spilled down her cheeks. “She caused the accident.”

“I couldn’t do anything to help. Couldn’t look for Sam. Couldn’t do anything for her kids, for Stone Cold — but this—” Spinelli  stared at the mess of paperwork. “I could do this. Find the answers. So I came here.” He scrubbed his face over his hands. “I knew she did it. I knew it, somewhere deep inside. But I’m watching her plant that gun, Maximista. And now I know everything that happens because of it.”

They both looked at the frozen image of Kristina at Elizabeth’s car, trunk still open, a box in her hands. “She did it in broad daylight,” Maxie murmured. “There’s something obscene about that, isn’t there? Almost evil.”

Belle Forest Drive: Accident Scene

The blood coursing through his veins must be pure caffeine by now, but Dante tossed back the last of the coffee Michael had delivered. They’d stayed out by command center all night, listening for any sign of news — good or bad. But there’d been nothing.

Now, with the sun rising in the sky, the dusky reds and pinks fading into a soft blue, the quiet scene began to pick up. More trucks arrived, specialized in rescue and recovery. Dante watched them from the car Chase had abandoned by the side of the road. There’d been no sight of the car or of Sam almost from the moment Chase had lost sight of the headlights in the floods. They were attempting to ping her phone, knowing she’d had it to call Danny, but they hadn’t been able to locate it beyond a general area which meant it was probably dead.

A sedan pulled up from the direction of Port Charles, the road having been reopened. Anna stepped out, her face bare of makeup, her hair pulled back into a tail at the nape of her neck. She didn’t look she had slept much either.

“They’re beginning the search again,” she told Dante when she reached him. “They’re starting closer to the lake, hoping that nothing has been swept out with the current—”

“Don’t talk to me like I don’t know what they’re planning,” Dante bit out. He met her cool eyes. “I’m not a moron. I’ve done these before. They’ll check the culverts, the bends, anywhere the car could have been caught. You know I know that, so why are you even here?”

Anna opened her mouth, then closed it when Michael approached, another tray of coffee and a brown paper bag in his hands. “I’m sorry. Am I interrupting?” he asked.

“No. I was just telling Dante that we should know something in a few hours. I also—” Anna paused. “I’d like to offer you another chance to tell me why you and Detective Chase were so quick on the scene. If you know why half of your family seemed to find themselves at the accident scene—”

“Sure. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know as soon as you tell me how Valentin was able to escape custody,” Dante said, lifting his brows.

“Dante—”

“You stopped me. Five minutes. Do you know what would have happened if I’d been just five minutes quicker?” Dante demanded. “I’d have been across the creek, I’d have been here when the accident happened. Chase and I could have gotten them both out of the damn car. But you decided you knew best. You decided you came first. Just like you did this summer.”

Anna folded her arms, took a moment to collect herself. “I know you’re upset—”

“The FBI wanted Pikeman. You knew who Pikeman was. You and Jason made sure Cates didn’t have that information in time to do anything about it. Jason’s a criminal who has his own priorities. I don’t expect better from him. But you, Anna? You had a responsibility to this city. To your officers. Valentin is the reason I was shot on those docks,” he bit out. “I nearly died because he ordered Sonny’s murder, and sent a team of mercenaries to carry it out. But you didn’t think about that, did you? Whatever happens here today, Anna, I can’t change it. I can promise you this — no one in your department will ever respect you again. I’m not the only one who knows what happened.”

He snatched a coffee from Michael, then walked away.

Webber House: Kitchen

No one had really slept in the house, though they’d tried. Elizabeth had come downstairs around three to make herself a cup of a tea and found all three boys in the living room — Aiden in the arm chair, Danny stretched on the sofa and Jake on the floor, the television screen autoplaying YouTube videos quietly. She’d thought they were asleep, but Aiden had looked at her, and she’d realized they just didn’t want to be alone or cooped up in their rooms.

Now, day had broken across the city, and she was making another pot of coffee, listening to Jason talking on the phone to Michael, and the plans for the search. There was no question of sending the boys to school, and she’d already sent emails indicating they wouldn’t be back for the rest of the week. But she’d insisted they go upstairs, shower, and change if only to give she and Jason some time to figure out what they were going to do — if that were even possible.

The shower above their heads clicked off, and Elizabeth looked at Jason, lifting a brow. “What does he say? Are they letting volunteers help or—”

“No, uh—” Jason set the phone down carefully, stared at the counter for a beat, then met her eyes. “They’re not saying anything, but Michael doesn’t think they expect to find…they’re not expecting much. But the longer she’s missing—” He shook his head, looked towards the window overlooking Elm Street. “No body means something, I know. They didn’t find Sonny’s. He came back. And in Greece—”

“And if it weren’t for that phone call, I think we could all hold on to that,” Elizabeth said. Jason sighed. “But—”

“But it changes something that she was trapped or pinned in the car. There’s no guarantee that she didn’t—before the car was moved—” He shook his head. “I don’t know what to do. But they don’t want family members out there. Especially not her son. Michael says they can’t make Dante or him leave, but I think maybe he’s right. I don’t want—Sam wouldn’t want Danny to see her—” He stopped. He didn’t need to finish the thought, and she didn’t follow up or respond. There wasn’t a need to.

His phone vibrated and Jason reached for it. “It’s Spinelli—” he told her, pressing the accept button. “Yeah?” He straightened, looking at Elizabeth. “Okay. Yeah. I’ll tell her, and I’ll let you know what—I’ll let you know.”

“What’s going on?” Elizabeth demanded as Jason set the phone down. “What did Spinelli say?”

“He, uh—” Jason shook his head slightly, then looked at her again. “He said they found something, but he doesn’t want to say it over the phone. Just that he’s meeting with the FBI later today to turn it over, and he and Diane want to show it to us first.”

+33

Written in 58 minutes.

Thursday, October 4, 2024

Webber House: Jake’s Bedroom

The call connected before even a single ring had been completed, Cameron’s worried voice answering. “What’s wrong?”

Jake stretched out on his bed, staring at the ceiling, leaving the phone laying on the pillow next to him, his brother’s voice filling the room, a pale imitation of what it would be like if Cameron were right here with him.

“Why does something have to be wrong?”

“It’s almost one in the morning, dumbass.”

Jake exhaled slowly. “Yeah. Forgot about that part. Uh—” Unexpectedly, his throat tightened, and the words felt impossible. “First, I’m okay. So’s Mom and Aiden. But there was an accident tonight. Danny’s mom.”

There was silence for a beat, then Cameron replied, “What happened?”

“I don’t really know. Just that Danny’s mom and her sister, Kristina, they were in a car, and then it was in the creek. The one out by their mom’s. Kristina got out, but they haven’t…they haven’t found a body yet.” The ceiling above him blurred. “His mom called him, Cam. She was trapped in the car. Said she couldn’t get out.”

He didn’t have to be looking at his brother or living inside Cameron’s head to know what was running through it — Cameron was likely sitting in his dorm room in Berkeley, cursing himself for getting on the plane nearly twenty-four hours ago. “When are they gonna know?”

“I don’t know. Dad was out there, I think he got home a little while ago, but he hasn’t come up here yet. You don’t have to be a genius to figure he doesn’t know what to say. I don’t know what to say, Cam. Tell me what to say.”

“Jake.”

“I hated her, Cam. You know? We both did. Aiden doesn’t really remember enough to hate her, but we do. And Dad was so angry with her. Danny was picking fights all the time. Anything I say is gonna sound fake and stupid and it’ll make it worse—”

“There’s nothing you can say, man. You know that. Nothing is gonna make this okay. Or hurt less—”

“Tell me what you’d say to me.”

“Jake.” This time when his brother said his name, it was with exasperation. “It’s not comparable—”

“I know—” Jake started to say, but stopped and sat up when the door opened and Danny appeared at the threshold, his eyes rimmed with red.  “Just tell me. Tell me what you’d say to me and Aiden,” he said to Cameron, keeping his eyes on Danny. His brother perched on the edge of the bed, staring hard at the ground.

The line was quiet, and Jake thought Cameron would avoid the question again. But then — “There’s nothing I can do or say to make this go away. To stop you from hurting. From feeling like the world is going to end. Because the world ended. The worst thing that could ever happen to us—it’s here. To pretend that your life didn’t just split into two would be stupid. You will always remember before tonight and after. I know you’ve been through it before with your dad, and yeah, that sucked. A lot. But Mom’s different. It’s different. She’s been there every step of our lives, and she’s supposed to be here until we’re men. This isn’t fair, and I’m not doing you any favors pretending it is.”

“What—” Danny began, but had to stop when his voice faltered. He swallowed hard. “What do I do? I have to be there for Scout. How do you…how do you do it? How am I gonna make it okay for her?”

“Danny, man—” There was a long sigh, then Cameron continued. “You’re not. You can’t. You know that. You want to and Jake wants to, and I wish like hell I was there with you. But you can’t. So you’re gonna hug her, and you’re gonna let her cry. You gotta feel it, man. It’s too big, it’s too much to bury. To pretend it’s not happening. And…you know, maybe it’s not. It’s…Jake said…”

“I-I know. But I-I h-heard her—I h-heard her—” Danny’s face crumbled, and he wrapped his arms around his middle, his body trembling.

Jake climbed over the bed, the phone clutched in one hand, his other going around Danny’s shoulder. “Cam—”

“Yeah, call me back later. Danny, I’m—I’m sorry.”

Jake tossed the phone aside, glancing up when he heard another set of footsteps climbing the steps. “Hey, that’s Dad—”

Danny sat up, immediately scrubbing away the evidence of his tears, lifting his chin, getting to his feet just as Jason appeared in the doorway.

Their father just stood there for a long moment, weighed down by an invisible anchor that kept his shoulders slumped the corners of his mouth curved down. Danny’s lower lip began to tremble again. “You don’t have any news, do you?”

“No,” Jason admitted. “We won’t know anything until morning. Danny—”

“I s-should be with Scout—” Danny started towards him, towards the door. “Maybe you can take me—”

“I just talked to Brook Lynn,” Jason said, holding out a hand to stop him. “Scout’s asleep. She doesn’t know anything yet. I think we should leave her that way.”

“Oh.” Danny folded his arms around himself. “I guess that makes sense. I just—” He jerked a shoulder.

“Need something to do,” Jake finished, getting to his feet. “I get it. Do you want to try to get some sleep?” he asked.

“Sleep?” Danny stared at his brother, furrowed his brow. “I can’t sleep. We should be out there looking for her—”

“I would be if there was anything I could do,” Jason told him. He put a hand on Jake’s shoulder. “Dante is staying out there tonight, and he’ll call us as soon as we can do something to help. But right now, we’d be in the way of people who know what they’re doing and who are going to make finding your mom their top priority.”

“We’ll watch a movie,” Jake said instead. “That’ll make it go faster. Or maybe one of those—” But Danny had already left the room, and the door across the hall closed a beat later. He grimaced, met his father’s eyes. “I don’t know what to say to him. I tried to call Cam. Cam always has the words—”

“There’s nothing you and I or anyone can say,” Jason said with a firmness that felt oddly reassuring. Because of course Jake knew that — you couldn’t talk someone out of grief, especially when it was so fresh. “We just—we have to make sure we’re here when Danny needs us.”

“I tried—” Jake stopped, then continued. “I thought I could get Cam to tell me what he’d tell us if Mom—and he tried, and I kept thinking what if it were Mom, what I would be doing, or thinking. I thought Cam would have the answers. He always knows what to do or to say, and I should know how to fix this—he’s my little brother—”

“It’s not going to happen tonight, tomorrow, or even in the next few weeks,” Jason said. “There’s no timeline on what Danny is feeling. Or what you’re feeling.”

“Me?” Jake shook his head. “You’re—I don’t count. Danny and Scout, and Rocco—”

“You think you don’t know how to help him because you didn’t like his mother,” Jason interrupted, “but even if you had been Sam’s number one fan, Jake, you still wouldn’t know how to help him. Because Danny doesn’t need anything we can give him right now.” He let out a slow breath. “And I’m telling you this because I need to hear it, too. We can’t take this burden from him, no matter how much we want to.”

“Oh.” Jake pressed his lips together, considered his father’s words. “Okay, but there has to be something we can do. Right? Everyone was so angry at the hospital, and I only sort of understood what was happening. Everyone seemed so angry at Kristina. Why?”

“That’s something we can talk about tomorrow,” Jason told him. “You should try to get some sleep. It’s going to be long day.”

Webber House: Living Room

Elizabeth wrapped the ends of her sweater more tightly around her body, pulling the door open to reveal a damp Diane. “It’s the middle of the night, Diane-”

“I saw your light was on, and I—I took the chance. Please.” The normally well-coiffed lawyer was disheveled, her cheeks tear-stained. “Is Jason back?”

“He’s with the boys. Diane—” Elizabeth closed the door after letting Diane inside.

“I’ll talk to him another time. I couldn’t—” Diane bit her lip, turning to face Elizabeth. “I couldn’t go home, and not try to make things right—that’s stupid,” she said even as Elizabeth opened her mouth. “I can’t make things right—”

“I came down on you and Sonny pretty hard—”

“You were right. Partially. Yes, the suspicions I had, that Spinelli had, we probably could have said something to you or Jason sooner. We had nothing we could use in court, not yet. But there was enough—” Diane hesitated. “I don’t know what Sonny knew or when he knew it, and I can’t speak for his intentions, but I always intended to turn Kristina over to the authorities if and when we had the ability—”

“Diane—”

“You and your family have been through so much. You have to know that my number one goal was to end that suffering—”

“Diane.” Elizabeth held up a hand and this time Diane did stop. “I was angry earlier tonight. Overwhelmed. By everything that had happened, everything that I felt like was happening behind our backs, but I’ve had some time to let things sit. To take a deep breath. I know what it’s like to have a friend as close as Alexis is to you. You’ve watched her girls grow up. You know what Jason’s sacrificed to look after Sonny’s children. After Carly’s. Alexis buried that precious angel a month ago.   I can put myself in your shoes and understand why you wanted to wait until you had to tell us.”

Diane’s eyes watered and she looked away briefly, swallowed again. “As always, your ability to forgive puts the rest of us to shame.” She gathered herself, then focused on Elizabeth again. “Sonny and Alexis are now aware of what Kristina has likely done, and believe me, Alexis has already begun to focus on the reality of Kristina’s actions. To know that that while Sam was being accused by all of us of sending that email and hurting Danny, Kristina did nothing to exonerate Sam. Whether it was selfishness or arrogance or self-preservation, she left her sister to twist in the wind. For all Sam’s faults, she looked after her sisters. Always. Particularly Kristina.” Diane looked past her, and Elizabeth turned to see Jason stepping from the bottom step. “The PCPD have named her as the suspect, and as far as I know, they’ve sent that information to the FBI.”

“It won’t enough for them,” Jason said with some reluctance. “They want someone’s blood—”

“I know. And you can’t make this your priority. Neither of you can. Danny and his sister — they need to be your focus. So I am, once gain, asking for you to leave this in my hands,” Diane said. “Focus on your family. Because I assure you — I will not let Kristina manipulate her mother into getting away with this. Will you give me your trust, just one more time?”

+36

Written in 65 minutes.

Wednesday, October 4, 2024

General Hospital: Roof

Molly tipped her head up to the sky, the mist coating her cheeks, mingling with the tears that had begun to fall even as she’d fled the waiting room. She’d held it together for hours, waiting for news on her older sisters — for Kristina’s surgery to fail, for her to find yet one more way to evade accountability for the mistakes she’d made. Waiting for Sam to be found, battered and bruised, clinging to a branch or washed up on the sides of the creek.

She hadn’t realized how sure she’d been that Kristina would die in surgery, that Sam would survive until she’d been forced to confront the reality: that Kristina would live, and that if Sam were found now, it would almost surely be a recovery and not a rescue effort.

The door behind her opened, the creak of the hinges warning Molly that she wasn’t alone. “I’m not going back down there.”

“I wouldn’t ask it of you.” TJ came to her side, still dressed in his scrubs. He touched her shoulders. “Mols—”

“They’re not going to find her. Not alive, you know that, right? I keep going over it in my head,” Molly interrupted. “Danny said she was trapped. Chase said the car was underwater by the time he made it down the embankment. Even if the car was swept away, she was probably already dead.”

“You can’t think like that—”

“I can. I can think like that because I need to be ready. I need to be ready when they find her—”

“Ready for what?”

“I—” Molly pressed her lips together, looked at him. “I don’t know. For Mom to fall apart. For Kristina to find a way to make this someone else’s fault. She will, you know. She’ll blame Dante and Chase for not confronting her sooner, or for blaming Sam for the call to the court about Danny — she’ll blame Elizabeth or Jason for taking Danny — she’ll find a way to make this someone else’s fault.”

“Probably.”

“And all of those things — maybe they’re true. Maybe it’s everyone’s fault. Maybe it’s mine for not confronting Kristina when she became a suspect. For doing the ethical thing and staying out of it — maybe if Jason had just stayed dead, none of this would be happening—” Molly shook her head, looked back out over the horizon, the view of the city as it began to close down for the nights, the lights gradually dimming or switching off in the buildings around the hospital. “But I’m not going to let her do it. She won’t get away with it this time.”

“This time?” TJ echoed.

“She’s the reason Sam was in that car. She’s the reason everyone turned on Sam—she’s the reason I wasn’t there for Sam—no wonder Sam was acting irrationally — her whole life was falling apart, and I was avoiding her because I didn’t want to deal with Kristina, but if I’d been there—” She moved away from TJ as he began to reach for her. “No. No. If I’d been there. If I hadn’t convinced you to let Kristina be our surrogate, none of this would be happening, and we might have our baby—I’m not going to let Kristina get away with ruining our lives—”

“So you’ll go on another crusade?” TJ interrupted, and Molly stopped, stared at him. “When we lost Irene, you went back to work. You turned Elizabeth’s case into a war that only you could fight. And now that there’s a chance you’ll lose Sam, you’ll — what— hound Kristina until you have justice? Anything you have to do to face what’s happened.”

“How can you say that to me? I am facing it! I am—” Hysteria bubbled up in her throat, and had Molly hugging herself again, closing her mouth until she could force it back down. “You went back to work, too! What did you want me to do, sit around and cry all the time, every day? Do what Kristina did, and make it everyone‘s problem? What was I supposed to do?”

“Deal with the pain, not hide yourself in solving everyone else’s problems. If you hadn’t gone to war with the FBI—”

“Then what? Chase and Dante wouldn’t have realized Kristina was a suspect? Turned up the heat? Are you going to blame me now, too?” Molly demanded. “Do you think I would have started all of this if I thought for one second that the trail would lead back to my family?”

“Do I think you’d have used this to get back at Kristina? Yeah, I do. Because you’re using Sam to get back at her now—”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Molly retorted. “Go to hell.” She stalked past TJ, jerked open the door to the roof and left.

And this time, he didn’t follow.

General Hospital: Chapel

“I don’t know why I’m bothering with this,” Alexis murmured as Sonny sat next to her in the otherwise empty chapel. “God’s not listening, and even if he was, he’s not going to listen to either of us.”

“Alexis—”

“I started to go after Molly, and I stopped myself — because what would I even say?” she asked him. She got to her feet, went to the altar, staring at the candles eternally burning. “Does someone come in and light these every day? What happens when the candle burns down to the wick?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

Alexis picked up a long wooden stick that lay next to the candles and used it to light another candle. “Nothing but a fire hazard,” she muttered. “What would I even ask God to do? Turn back time? To when? This is why religion is stupid.”

“She doesn’t mean that,” Sonny said, casting his eyes to the ceiling, then crossing himself as if that would help. He rose, joined her at the altar. “Elizabeth let loose on me and Diane after you left. Seems to think all of this is our fault.”

Alexis rubbed her chest. “I didn’t suspect Kristina of having anything to do with Cates — I had only begun to think she was involved with the bail hearing today—” She looked at him. “How long did Diane know? Or suspect?”

“A while. She kept making excuses to keep Jason and Elizabeth in the dark, and maybe they’re good excuses. But they’re still excuses. If the FBI had suspected Kristina was involved — ”

“They’ve have jumped on it,” Alexis murmured. “A case that was connected to you, clean of the mess Cates made of Kristina’s charges. Maybe they might have still clung to Elizabeth to get to Jason, but it’s just as likely they would have used Kristina to get at you. To tie you to this. And you’re the bigger fish. It would have saved their reputations after Pikeman blew up.”

“I think part of me knew,” Sonny confessed, and she looked at him, met his gaze. “I knew the gun probably came from me almost as soon as it happened. But I talked myself out of it. I told myself that it wasn’t my gun.”

“You never told them it was missing?”

“I told Spinelli. Could have told Jason. He’d have made the connection. Kristina was at Elizabeth’s house the day after the murder. They knew that almost immediately. But I didn’t tell him.”

“Sonny—”

“I didn’t want it to be true,” Sonny said slowly. “For the same reasons Diane kept quiet. Why Dante and Molly took themselves off the case. They’ll tell themselves it was because of me. Because I’d have gotten Kristina out of the country, and maybe that’s true. Maybe I would have. I trust Diane. She’d get Elizabeth free of all of this. Cates deserved to die. He deserved it, Alexis. I’m not sorry he’s dead.”

“Sonny—”

“I didn’t want it to be Kristina. So I ignored all the signs that she was involved. Just like you did. And if Jason is honest with himself, they ignored it, too. We all knew she was at the house. We knew she had the window of opportunity to plant that gun. That she had a reason to want John Cates dead. We all knew those facts, Alexis. But none of us did anything about it.”

Alexis was quiet for a moment, absorbing Sonny’s words, weighing the truth. She stared at the candle she’d lit. What was she even praying for? What was the purpose? For her daughters? For their lives, for their souls, for the world to turn back time, for a second chance —

“I had the chance to believe Sam,” she said softly. “She looked at me, devastated, betrayed, begged me to believe her. And I didn’t. I assumed if Kristina was involved, it was a support role. That she’d given Sam the idea. Or that they worked together. I never once dreamed Kristina had done it on her own. Sam had to call Spinelli without Kristina knowing — she wanted someone else to hear Kristina confess because she knew we’d never believe her. What kind of—” Alexis’s voice broke. “What kind of mother does that make me? That I was so blind to how selfish and destructive Kristina was — that I put all of it on Sam — if she doesn’t come out of this, Sonny, if we don’t find her alive — that’s how it ends. That’s the last memory my daughter has — that I didn’t believe her when it mattered most.”

Quartermaine Mansion: Living Room

Brook Lynn was still shaking rain drops from her dark hair when she came into the room, the fire crackling and warming the room. “I thought you’d be asleep by now,” she said. She accepted the tumbler of whiskey that her father handed her.

“I wanted to wait for news,” Drew said, getting to his feet. “But I guess you don’t have anything else to tell us.”

“No.” Brook looked towards the double doors, past them to the stairs. “Scout is asleep?”

“Olivia’s sitting with her,” Drew said. “I don’t want her to hear about this until—” He rubbed his forehead. “Until we know something.”

“When are they going to start looking again?” Tracy wanted to know.

“Dawn, I think. The storm’s mostly cleared out, so there’s some things they can do tonight, but Chase said the bulk of it’s done until it’s light out. He went back out to Belle Forest to sit with Dante and Michael.” Brook sat in an armchair, clutching the tumbler in her hands. “I know you’re not Sam’s biggest fan, Granny—”

“I’m not going to pop the champagne until I know for sure,” Tracy replied dryly, and Brook rolled her eyes. “Whether I liked the gutternsnipe or not, she’s the mother of Monica’s grandchildren, and Monica liked her. Probably realized they both had gold digging in common.”

“You’re such a comforting presence, Mother,” Ned said with a half-smirk. “But Monica’s right. The possibility of Sam’s…death is an impact on this family, and the people we care about. We all want to be able to tell Scout, Danny — and Rocco — that everything that could be done — that we did it.”

Just outside the double doors, lurking in the foyer, Rocco leaned against a wall, and pulled out his phone. An empty text message blinked back at him, just as it had for several hours. He hadn’t spoken to Danny since they’d been suspended. What would he even say to him that would make a difference right now?

Nothing. So he slid the phone back in his pocket, and slunk back towards the backstairs like the coward he knew that he was.

Webber House: Living Room

The room was dark and empty when Jason finally made it home around midnight — it was quieter than he’d expected, given the events of the evening. He didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved that he wasn’t immediately faced with his son and Danny’s questions.

He heard some dishes clinking in the kitchen and looked over to find Elizabeth putting dishes away in the cabinet. “Hey.”

“Hey.” She set down the plate in her hand, then crossed to meet in the middle of the kitchen, wrapping her arms around his neck, holding him tight, his damp clothes pressed against her warm body. “Hey,” she repeated in soft whisper, her fingers lightly brushing the nape of his neck as she pulled away, letting her hands slide down his chest. “You should change into something dry.”

“I will. The boys—they’re not asleep are they?”

“No. No. But I think Danny was tired of being stared at, so he said he was going upstairs. And I think Jake and Aiden just didn’t know what to say.” Elizabeth bit her lip, dipped her head low for a moment, then raised them back. “I don’t know what to say to him either. To any of them. Danny had…Danny had her on speakerphone, so they all…” Her voice trembled. “God, Jason. It’s horrible to think about. That Danny heard her last words—”

He pressed his lips against her forehead, needing the comfort as much as she did. “I don’t know what to feel. What to think. I was so angry at her —”

“So was I.”

“But this isn’t what I wanted. Not like this. Not when Danny—” Jason rubbed Elizabeth’s arms, stepped back slightly. “I don’t know what to do. What to say to him. He knows how angry we were. I’ve done nothing but argue with Sam for months. Anything I can think to say will feel like a lie to him.”

“I know. Jake’s struggling with it, too. Danny knows that we didn’t like her very much. But wanting her out of my life — not like this, Jason. I didn’t want this.” She sighed, bit her lip. “There’s no—I mean, is there any hope? Really?”

“I don’t know. They wouldn’t say much to me. But I got the sense that they’re not expecting much. Kristina made it out of the car, and Sam didn’t. Instead of calling for help, she called Danny. So she didn’t think there was hope either. Maybe the car was swept away and she was able to move and we’ll find her clinging to wreckage or something, but—”

“But it’s just as likely she was trapped in the car and drowned before the car was swept away.” Elizabeth exhaled slowly. “I feel awful. I—I blew up on Sonny and Diane at the hospital. If they’d just told us something weeks ago, how much of this would have been different? I kept thinking that they were so busy protecting Kristina  and not caring about anyone else—I know they didn’t mean for tonight to happen, but—”

“I don’t know what Sonny knew. Or when he knew it.” Jason grimaced, rubbed his face. “But maybe that’s no different than how they played this. None of us want to believe Kristina would do something like this. And I don’t want to think that Sonny would have let you go through all of this if he had something that could stop it. He knew—” He paused. “He knew I thought about confessing. And he was pissed at me. Did he know it was possible then? Did he let me think about leaving you and the boys while he knew what really happened? I don’t want to think he did.”

“I’m not sorry I lost my temper, I just wish I hadn’t done it tonight. I just—I just want to do what’s right for Danny and for you. And God, for poor Scout, who’s been almost forgotten in all of this. No matter how I felt about Sam, this wasn’t how it should have ended.”

+41

Written in 61 minutes.

Wednesday, October 1, 2024

General Hospital: Waiting Room

The only reason I want Kristina to survive is to find out what the hell did she to Sam. After that, she can rot in hell for all I care.

Molly’s outburst seemed to freeze everyone in their place for a beat, unsure what to say, where to look, how to even breathe.

TJ broke the paralysis first, charging after his partner and he was barely out the door before Alexis followed on his heels. Sonny scrubbed a hand over his face, every year he’d lived etched into his face, his disheveled graying hair falling into his face.

He looked at Danny, sitting in a chair between Elizabeth and Jake, the teenager slumped down, his arms folded, his eyes trained on the floor. He’d said nothing, not even looking up during Molly’s breakdown, but Jake could practically see his body vibrating, the trembling impossible to hide. His mother, on Danny’s other side, was sitting half turned towards Danny, perched on the edge of the seat, a hand in the air—poised to do something if Danny gave the slightest hint of what he might need.

Sonny cleared his throat looked over to Chase, Brooke, and Michael. “I don’t—” He stopped, took a deep breath. “I doubt Dante’s leaving the area tonight. Am I right that search and rescue will set up camp there?”

“They’ll leave a light team in place until sunrise, yeah.” Chase straightened. “I’m heading out there—”

“You’re headed home to rest like the doctor ordered,” Brooke interrupted, then looked at her cousin. “Michael—”

“I’m on it.” He touched Brooke’s shoulder lightly, then moved towards the door, stopping for just a moment by Danny. He opened his mouth, but words failed him. He met Elizabeth’s eyes for a moment, then left the room.

“I’m gonna stay here. With Alexis. Until we know more,” Sonny told Elizabeth. “I don’t know if Jason’s planning to stay out there, too—”

“I haven’t heard from him in a while,” Elizabeth said. She bit her lip, looked at the boys, then back at Sonny, then at Brooke and Chase behind him. “Someone…someone should talk to Rocco.”

“Yeah, he’s got Drew at home, and well—that’s not comforting. And God, poor Scout—” Brooke closed her eyes, shook her head slightly. “I hope he’s not stupid and kept her from the news. She shouldn’t hear like this—”

“Don’t talk about her like she’s dead.”

The words were quiet, but imbued with fury, and attention moved to the speaker — to Danny, who had finally lifted his head to glare at his father’s cousin across the room. “There’s nothing to tell Scout because my mother isn’t dead. They didn’t find her.”

“Right, I know,” Brooke offered awkwardly. “But I—” She stopped, unsure how to continue.

“Danny, we’re just trying to—” Sonny started to say, but Danny lunged to his feet and bolted for the door.

“Jake—” Elizabeth got to her feet, and Jake nodded.

“I won’t let him get far.”

When Jake had left the room in his brother’s wake, Elizabeth wrapped her arms tightly around her torso, chilled even though she’d changed hours ago.

“Elizabeth—”

“What were you doing out there?” she asked, softly. She lifted her gaze to Sonny’s, tilted her head. “You were with Alexis on your way out to her house. Molly said Chase and Dante were following Kristina, so I get them. Why you?”

“I could ask you the same,” Sonny said, and Elizabeth looked at Aiden briefly, then sighed, rubbed her forehead.

“Spinelli got a call from Sam. She was in the car with Kristina, asking her questions. Trying to get her to admit over the line that Kristina was the one to email the court, not Sam.”

“Whoa, Danny’s mom didn’t do it?” Aiden wanted to know, his eyes widening. “She framed her sister?”

“We don’t know that,” Sonny snapped, and Elizabeth scowled.

“Yes. Yes, we do. Because the suspect pool is limited, Sonny. The boys sure as hell didn’t tell anyone. Jason and I didn’t. That left Dante, Sam, and the arresting officers. And apparently, Kristina. Now that I know all the pieces Spinelli and Diane were holding back — ”

“What?” Sonny demanded. “What did they know?” He whipped his head around to glare at Diane who had remained when Alexis left, though she’d kept quiet.

“Looking to circle the wagons?” Elizabeth asked coolly, and Sonny simply looked at her. “Because I can think of a few reasons you’d be rushing out to talk to your daughter. How long did you know it was her?”

Sonny exhaled slowly, looked at Chase, then back at Elizabeth. “I’m not talking about this here—”

“You’re not going anywhere until you answer my question.” Elizabeth stepped in front of the door, blocking his exit. “How long did you know it was her? Don’t lie to me, Sonny. I deserve better than that. My boys deserve better than that. Jason damn well deserves better than that from you.”

At that reminder, some of Sonny’s bravado disappeared, and he had to look away. He pressed his lips together, then faced her again. “I still don’t know. Not for sure. You can’t think I would have allowed it to get out of hand—”

“Out of hand—” Elizabeth had to stop before the rage bubbling up inside nearly exploded. She turned away, fisting her hands in her hair, and saw her son standing there, looking shaken, bewildered—

What he’d been through these last few weeks — the arrest, her week in jail, getting caught with Danny and Rocco, trying to choose where he’d end up if she were gone — how much of it could have been avoided?

How much time had all these people wasted—

She turned back, and this time when she spoke, she wasn’t directing it just to Sonny — but to Chase behind her. “You were following her today. You knew. And Spinelli and Diane. They knew. You all knew there was a good chance that Kristina started all of us, and you kept quiet.” She closed her trembling hand into a fist. “You kept quiet. You knew.”

“We didn’t know for sure,” Diane said softly.

“Don’t—don’t—” Elizabeth pointed at her. “I trusted you. Jason trusted you. To put my freedom first. And you didn’t. You didn’t want to say her name because you knew what it meant. That Sonny’s daughter, that Alexis’s daughter did this—” She looked at Dante. “And Dante’s sister, right? Sam’s sister? You knew what it would mean to accuse her. You decided you needed a smoking gun—”

“Elizabeth—”

“And you know why they needed one, Sonny—” Elizabeth whirled back to face Sonny. “Do you know why? Because they knew what you’d do if you found out. You and Alexis. You were rushing out to find out what Sam knew. Planning how to get her out of this. What did you tell yourself, Sonny, that Diane was a good lawyer who could get me out of this? Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me for weeks?” she bit out to her lawyer. “That if we got in front of a jury, it’d be fine?”

“What did you want her to do, Elizabeth? Accuse someone without a good reason—” Sonny started, but Elizabeth silenced him with a fulminating glare.

“Don’t—don’t you dare—” She stabbed a finger at Diane. “One word to the FBI that Sonny’s daughter did this and they’d be running towards her so fast, you’d see smoke. Maybe not when you first suspected—but you knew within days Kristina was at my house the day after the murder—” She shook her head. “You protected her. You wanted a smoking gun so Sonny wouldn’t send her out of the country.”

“I didn’t have enough,” Chase said, trying to defend himself. “We just needed a few pieces to come together—”

“She’s right,” Diane said quietly, and Chase stopped, looked at her. “I told myself it was to protect the case, to make sure that when I made the accusation, that it would hold. But I knew what it would do to Alexis. To her family. I saw what it was doing to your family,” she confessed. “And I didn’t want that for my friend. Not unless I was sure.”

“And you knew if Jason or I knew, we’d turn her name over immediately. So you kept us out until you had no other choice.” Elizabeth nodded, folding her arms again. “And let Kristina think she got away with it. So she got greedy. And arrogant. She thought she could get Danny back for her sister, and throw me in jail to make it harder for me to fight, for Jason and my boys to concentrate with me gone — you gave her every opportunity.”

“That’s not fair,” Sonny protested.

“You protected Kristina just like you always have. You protected her right into that hospital bed, and Sam into her grave. Was it worth it?”  She didn’t wait for their answer, only held out her hand to Aiden. “Let’s get your brothers and get the hell out of here.”

Belle Forest Drive

The thunder and the lightening had passed, leaving nothing more than a mist falling from the sky. The road was still closed with three police cars and a fire truck still blocking traffic coming directly from downtown Port Charles, a few tents set up as a command center for the search and rescue team left behind when the bulk of first responders had gone.

Dante remained there, huddled under one of those tents, his clothes still soaked against his skin, studying a hydro graphic map of the creek, noting where the twists and turns, the culverts and bridges were as it wound its toward open water. All the places a car could get stuck before it washed out into Lake Ontario.

He grunted when he heard someone call his name, but then looked up when they called it again and found Michael there, holding out a coffee. “Thought you could use this.”

His stomach rolled at the thought of putting anything into it, but the caffeine was necessary — he could feel the crash approaching, the adrenaline fading. “You didn’t have to come out here. There’s nothing anyone can do. They’re barely letting me be involved.” He sipped the coffee.

“I know. I talked to Jason on my way here — ” Michael set down a brown paper bag. “I would have been here sooner but I had to go all the way around—”

“Yeah, they said they can’t open the road until—” Dante stopped, shook his head. “How is—I mean, what’s going on there?”

“Most everyone was at the hospital. Including Danny,” Michael added, and Dante stared at him. “Sam called him from her car.”

“Why didn’t you tell us—we could use that to pinpoint where she is—” Dante started past him, but Michael caught his arm.

“Dante. She called within minutes of the accident. I checked his phone, and I talked to Spinelli. She told him she couldn’t get out. That she was trapped.” Michael’s voice faltered. “I think she was calling to say goodbye.”

“What? No. No. She’s—she was just scared. But the car—it got swept away — so if she was trapped, if she was trapped, they—she could get out then. She’s—” Dante shook his head. “She got out. That’s all. The creek dislodged the car and she got out. She’s waiting for us to find her.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t say it that way,” Dante snapped, but Michael didn’t flinch or look away. “She’s tough. She’s out there, and we’ll find her. I’m not going anywhere until we do.”

“Then I’ll keep you company until we do.”

General Hospital: Stairwell

Danny had only made it to the third floor before dropping down and leaning against the wall, his legs stretched out. Jake had found him there only minutes later, but said nothing and sat at the bottom of the steps.

And waited.

“She called me.”

“I know—”

“I ignored the call,” Danny said, speaking over Jake who frowned, looked at him. “Sent her to voicemail. I knew if they found out she was calling me, contacting me, she’d get in trouble, and it would make it all worse. So I sent it to voicemail.” He looked at his brother, his eyes red, puffy. “She wasted time. She had to call me again. She should have called Dad or 911 or —”

“You didn’t know—”

“I should have—”

“You didn’t know,” Jake repeated, and Danny just shook his head. “You were trying to keep things from getting worse, Danny. You didn’t know she was in trouble.”

“She should have called for help—”

Jake didn’t want to say what he was thinking — the horrible realization that Sam would have called for help if she’d believed there was a chance it would arrive in time. She’d used what she thought were her lost moments to call her son.

Jake had disliked her for most of his life, and actively hated her for the past few years — the intensity only growing as Sam had grown more and more irrational, but the prospect that she’d been so sure that she was going to die that she’d used that time to call Danny —

“You told her you loved her, I heard you,” Jake said and he heard a muffled sob from his brother. “You told her. She knew you loved her, Danny. Maybe you missed a few extra seconds with her, but a lot of people never get a chance to say that one more time to the people they love, right?”

“D-doesn’t really help r-right now.”

“No. Probably not.” Jake got to his feet, then sat next to Danny, keeping a few inches between them so that he wouldn’t feel crowded. “But one day it might.”

“Y-you h-hated her.” Danny sniffled, swiping his sleeve across his face.

“I did,” Jake admitted. “But you loved her.”

Danny didn’t respond, and they remained in the quiet, the silence suffocating around them. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and Jake leaned to one to slide it out.

I think it’s time we head home. Dad’s meeting us there. Where are you?

Jake looked at his brother. “Hey. Dad’s gonna meet us at home, okay? Why don’t we go?”

Danny sighed, then dragged himself to his feet. “Yeah, whatever.”

Jake stood next to him, stopped him from heading down the next flight of stairs. “Look, I know you’re going to beat yourself up about missing that call, and I would be doing the same thing, so I’m not gonna tell you to stop. Whatever happens next, I’m not going anywhere.”

Danny jerked a shoulder in response, then headed down to the next landing. Jake sighed, looked back at his phone.

Meet you in the lobby.

+42

Written in 58 minutes.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

General Hospital: Waiting Room

There were too many choices.

Jake stared blankly at the line of vending machines, flicking back and forth from sandwiches, coffee, junk food, soda, then back again. Why was he even bothering to bring anything? No one would eat. No one would drink.

They were waiting for information. From the crash site where they were still looking for Danny’s mother, from the hospital team working on Kristina who had been taken up to surgery almost an hour ago, and they knew nothing more than “everything is going fine” or “it’s going as expected.” Why did they even bother updating the family when there was nothing to learn?

“You’ve been here a while.”

Jake heard his mother, turned to look at her. She’d tied back her damp hair into a tail that had started to dry, curling up into half waves. Her eyes looked puffy, tired, with purple shadows blooming beneath them. He turned his attention back to the lined row of vending machines. “Did Dad call yet?”

“No, not yet. The rain stopped, so maybe soon.” She came up beside him, rubbed his back. “Why don’t you come back and sit down?”

“Can’t.” Jake shook his head swiftly. “I’ll go crazy if there’s nothing. Or Danny will and I don’t know if I can stop him. And I should be able to stop him because his grandmother shouldn’t have to worry. Neither should his aunt.”

“Jake—”

“I can’t stop him,” Jake repeated, looking at her again. “Because I keep thinking maybe his mom is dead and that’s the worst thing that could happen. I know she was a terrible person, I know she hated me and I mostly hated her, but that’s his mom—” His voice cracked and he shook his head, stared at the vending machine again. “That’s his mom. How do you come back from that? How do you breathe? I thought I knew—I mean, we lost Dad didn’t we? We both did. But I got up and I got over it.”

“Did you?” Elizabeth asked softly. She stroked his back lightly. “Because I noticed you spent more time with Danny after. You’d always been close, but you really started to see yourself as his older brother. Responsible for him.”

“I had to. His mom was building the new life, moving in with Dante and Rocco, and Drew was back with Scout — no one was looking out for him.” Jake curled his hand in a first, rested it against the machine. “I know Dad and I are — I know it was weird and bad, but it’s better now. We’re better now, and maybe Danny’s mom was going to be better. She didn’t send that email, right? So maybe it’s supposed to be better now.”

“Jake.”

“But it’s not because no one’s saying it, but she’s missing, and she sounded scared, so maybe the water got to her, and she couldn’t get out. She couldn’t—” Jake pressed his lips together. “I listened to her on that call. I heard her, Mom. I don’t think she’s coming back. I always thought—I always thought if she were gone, things would be better—I didn’t want—”

“Of course not. Hey, of course not—look at me baby—” Elizabeth touched his cheek, turning his face gently until he was looking at her again. “You think I didn’t have my moments with her, too? How much easier my life would be if she were gone? You’re human, honey. And she was a difficult person to know. Wanting her to be out of your life? That does not mean you wanted your brother’s mother to die. For him to lose her this way. Or any other.”

“I just—I don’t know what to do. How to help him. How do I help him?” Jake wanted to know. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to take it one step at a time,” Elizabeth said. She rubbed his arm. “We’ll sit with him until we know something. And then when we do—we’ll handle it. Okay? There’s no manual, no instructions. Just one step at a time.”

Belle Forest Drive

The rain had stopped. For the first time in a days, the sky was quiet. The normally quiet, two lane road that connected the Belle Forest development to the rest of Port Charles was awashed in emergency lights, flashes of red and blue from fire engines, from police cars.

Jason stood by the SUV, watching Dante with some of the other first responders, grimacing when Anna moved away from him, from whatever tense conversation they were having, then approached Jason.

“I would have thought you’d be on your way by now,” Anna said, folding her arms as she came to a stop. “Don’t you think you’d do more good at the hospital with your son?”

“My son would want to know what we’re doing to find his mother,” Jason bit out. “That’s why you and Dante are arguing, isn’t it? You’re calling off the search.”

“Until daylight, yes—it’s dark and the terrain isn’t stable,” Anna replied. “It’s also not my call, Jason. That’s on search and rescue, and they’re not putting their men in danger to find someone who is likely already dead.” She paused. “You understand that, don’t you? If she was trapped in the car, she likely drowned before the creek swept the vehicle—”

Jason shook his head, left her in midsentence, then went to find Dante who’d gone over to the side of the road. Spinelli stood a few feet away, both of them staring down the hillside where the creek could be heard, but barely seen.

“I should have been faster,” Spinelli said, and Jason shook his head. “If I had been faster, we might have had the trace on that email sooner, and—” His voice shook just a little. “We believed it was her. I know we had reasons, but to know, in the final moments, that I failed her so utterly—”

“Spinelli.” Dante’s voice broke into the younger man’s ruminations. “You weren’t the only one. We all thought—we all thought it.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I knew weeks ago Kristina was a suspect. I should have known it was her. She’d framed Elizabeth once—”

“You knew she was a suspect?” Jason said. “Did everyone know except Elizabeth and me?”

Dante exhaled on a low breath. “I didn’t really believe it. We couldn’t eliminate her from the list. Her or Alexis. That didn’t mean we thought—I still couldn’t—” He looked at Jason. “Molly and I recused ourselves. We let the investigation play out. That’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s the rule.”

“The rules—” Jason bit out. The rules that had kept him on the sideline for weeks, the rules that had let Kristina walk free, committing more harm. “You should have told me. What did you think I was going to do? Let her go?”

“Did I think you might protect Sonny or one of his children instead of taking care of your own responsibilities?” Dante demanded. “Yeah. I did. You had Jake, didn’t you? You still confessed and went to jail for Michael. You had Jake and Danny, and you still sacrificed your life for Carly’s freedom. Don’t pretend we didn’t have a damn good reason to keep this to ourselves.”

He wanted to argue. He wanted to deny the truth. But he’d left his sons to take of Sonny and Carly and their children. He’d sacrificed over and over for them —

“Once she put that gun in Elizabeth’s trunk,” Jason said roughly, “she stopped being someone I was interested in protecting. Elizabeth spent a week in jail, away from her kids because of Kristina. If she’d framed me, put the gun in my room — it’d be different. I don’t know.” He stopped, looked at Dante. “Sam knew. Somehow she knew. Because the last question she ever asked her sister was if she put the gun in her trunk. Kristina found out Sam had the phone, that she’d called someone — and she tried to grab the phone. She caused the accident, Dante.”

“Jesus Christ.” Dante paced a few steps away, then came back. “You’re telling me that Kristina—that Kristina did this? That she put her sister in that creek? That—I can’t believe it. I don’t—she loves Sam—”

“She loves herself more. We raised her to believe someone would always protect her. Clean up after her. It stops. It stops now.”

General Hospital: Waiting Room

When the phone call ended, Chase slowly slipped the phone into his pocket, then looked at Michael and Brooke who had come to the hospital to wait with him. His wife saw his expression first, touched her cousins’s arm.

“What is it?” Michael asked. “Did they—did they find her?”

“They’re calling off the search. It’s too dark, too dangerous. The creek — it’s not expected to subside for several more hours.” Chase grimaced, looked over at the family clustered by the sofas and chairs. “Anna said the search and rescue — that they didn’t expect to find her alive at this point.”

“Oh, man.” Michael made a face. “I should have said something to my uncle. Dante wanted me to wait, to give him time, before I told him Kristina knew about the whole Aiden and Elizabeth connection.”

“We thought we could – we wanted to force her to make another mistake,” Chase said. The medication Willow had given him when he’d gone to get stitches were beginning to wear off, and his head felt like it was on fire. “Dante wanted to push to talk to Sonny, but she went to her mother instead. And now we might never be able to prove Elizabeth’s innocence—”

“No one thought there’d be this kind of accident, come on,” Brooke said. She wound an arm through Chase. “Do you really think anyone’s going to blame you for this? It sounds like Sam knew her sister was the bad guy, too, and what did she do? Confronted her. She didn’t have to do that — I’m not blaming her,” she added when Michael grimaced. “I’m just — it sounds like a lot of people thought Kristina knew something or was part of it. And you all did exactly what she expected. You played hands off and talked around it, hoping for a smoking gun that was never gonna come. Because her kind? They never admit to anything. Not if there’s someone else they can point a finger at.”

Across the room, a doctor in scrubs had emerged from the double doors leading back to the surgical rooms. Alexis was on her feet immediately, Molly following a bit less eagerly.

“Is she okay? Will she be okay?”

“We were able to stop the bleed in her brain,” the doctor told Alexis. “But we won’t know what we’re dealing with until she wakes up. There could be some memory loss—”

“Of course. She’ll pretend she doesn’t remember anything, and you’ll both believe her,” Molly said, almost disgustedly. She stalked away a few paces, staring blankly at the wall.

“Molly—” Alexis started, but Sonny touched her arm, shook his head lightly, before looking back at the doctor.

“When can we see her?” Sonny wanted to know. “When do you expect her to wake up?”

“Sometime tomorrow morning, maybe six to twelve hours for now. Best case scenario,” the doctor added. “This is good news—”

“Speak for yourself,” Molly retorted. “The wrong sister made it out—the wrong—” She pressed her hands to her mouth as Alexis went white. “The wrong sister. If Sam were alive, they’d have found her by now—”

“That’s not true—” Alexis began.

“Molly, we can’t talk like this,” Sonny said at the same time with meaningful looks towards Danny who was on his feet, his cheeks tear-stained. “We have to believe Sam found a way—”

“I’ll talk anyway I want, damn it—no!” Molly shook off TJ’s arm. “No! The only reason I want Kristina to survive is to find out what the hell did she to Sam. After that, she can rot in hell for all I care.”

“Mols,” TJ said, reaching for her, but she’d already stalked off, storming out of the waiting room, the door swinging closed behind her.

+39

Written in 66 minutes.

Wednesday, October 1, 2024

General Hospital: Emergency Room Waiting Area

There were twenty-seven rows of linoleum tiles  between the elevator and the nurse’s station. Molly had paced the length so often in the last few months that she’d had more than one opportunity to check her work.

In April, waiting with Sam for news about Dante.

In August, waiting for news about Kristina and the baby. She’d been with her mother that night, with Sam, and with TJ. Surrounded by people who loved and cared about her.

Tonight, on a rainy night in October, Molly stood alone in the emergency room, waiting once again for news about a loved one — waiting to learn if the accident victim being flown to the hospital was her sister.

Twenty-seven rows of linoleum. The seventeenth one had a large crack in it, and Molly had nearly miscounted it every time but there were only twenty-seven.

Walking back and forth, her eyes trained to the floor, counting in her head though she knew the answer by heart, her arms wrapped tightly around her upper torso. Eleven, twelve—

She was careful not to step on the cracks — she wasn’t superstitious by nature, not anymore, but there enough of that romantic streak she’d had as a teenager writing stories about love in her room, to hold a little room in her mind for the strange patterns of the universe. Could stepping on a crack really break your mother’s back? Was it really bad luck?

Maybe she’d stepped on that crack in August and not known. Maybe it was somehow her fault that night had ended in tragedy, a horror that had rippled out until her life was scarcely recognizable — it was a silly thought, but Molly wasn’t just a closet superstitious romantic — she was also a control freak, and it brought a strange sense of calm to think she had any power to change what had happened miles away, far outside her view.

It was on the thirteenth trip that Molly’s attention was dragged from counting tiles and trips and avoiding cracks — she saw a familiar figure weaving in and out of a crowd of people by the emergency room doors — shaggy brown hair, lanky figure and panic etched into his young features.

She had told him to stay at home, to wait for her call.

“Is my mom here?” Danny demanded of the woman behind the counter. “Sam McCall. That’s my mom. Is she here—”

“I told you to hold on—” Jake said, finding Danny at the counter just as Molly reached him. Beside Danny’s older brother, Aiden, soaked and out of breath, leaned over, resting his hands on his thighs, trying to catch their breath.

“Danny—” Molly locked eyes with the nurse, shook her head slightly. She took her nephew’s shoulder, the t-shirt soaked to the skin. “Danny, I told you to wait for me—”

“I couldn’t. Aunt Molly—” Danny shook his head. “I couldn’t. Where is she? Where’s Mom?”

“I don’t kn0w,” Molly told him. “All I know is there was an accident near Grandmom’s house, and that they were bringing someone in. Danny, it might not even be her—”

The elevator behind her dinged, and she cut off abruptly, twisting to see a doctor and an orderly coming out — both pulling a gurney with a dark haired woman stretched out. Then TJ was there, his hands flying, talking animatedly with Elizabeth, also soaked to the bone, responding his questions. Bringing up the end of the group was Chase, holding a gauze pad, already bloodied, to his forehead.

“Elizabeth!” Danny rushed forward.

“Mom!” Jake called at the same time.

Elizabeth turned away from TJ, her eyes wide with panic, the ends of her hair whipping around her face, the tips still so soaked that drops of water were flung in every direction — one hitting Molly in the face at the same time she realized the woman on the gurney was not Sam.

But a different sister.

Kristina.

Molly swallowed the bubble of panic that rose in her throat, looking up to TJ who were still moving with the gurney, not looking back at her. Because he was so focused on his patient? Or because he couldn’t look at her? Because he knew something Molly didn’t?

Where was Sam?

“What are you doing here?” Elizabeth demanded. “What happened? Are you hurt?” She took Jake by the arm, started to scan him for injuries. “You were supposed to be at home—”

“Where’s my mother?” Danny demanded. “What happened to Aunt Kristina?”

“We’re fine, Mom, stop—” Jake shook off Elizabeth’s grasp. “Mom. Danny got a call from his mother—”

“What? You did?” Now Elizabeth’s attention was on Danny. “When? What did she say?”

“S-She—” Danny’s voice faltered. He was young, but not stupid. “She was scared. She said she couldn’t get. But she got out, didn’t she? You got her out, or Dad—where’s Dad? Where’s my dad?”

“Your dad is fine,” Elizabeth said, taking Danny by the shoulders. “He’s—he’ll be here when he can. We don’t—” She looked at Molly briefly, and the sorrow in them made Molly break the contact first. She wrapped her arms around her torso again, tightly, as if she could create a barrier around her to block out what was happening.

What reality was beginning to form.

“We don’t know where your mother is,” Elizabeth said finally, but Danny was already shaking his head.

“No, no, no, you have to know! Make someone find her phone! She called me! She said she couldn’t get out, so you have to go find  her! Call Dad and tell him to find her!”

“He and Dante are doing everything they can,” Elizabeth promised. She reached for Jake’s hand, squeezed it. “I need you to stay with your brother, okay? I need you all to stay right here. Chase is hurt, and I have to get him help—”

“I’m fine—”

“You need stitches,” Elizabeth started to say, but Willow came up behind them, some towels in her arms.

“Hey,” she said, a little breathless. “I can take Chase to get stitches. Why don’t you take the boys to the locker room, get dry?”

“I don’t—” Elizabeth started.

“I’m right here,” Molly said finally, taking a deep breath. “I’ll stay right here and wait for an update. You should—” Her voice broke, but she pushed through. “You shouldn’t sit around in those clothes. I’ll stay—I’ll stay right here.”

And keep counting tiles while her life fell apart around her.

Again.

Quartermaine Estate: Foyer

 “I should be there,” Drew said following Michael to the coat closet where the younger man rummaged for an umbrella. “I should be—”

“There’s nothing to do there,” Michael told his uncle, turning back to face him, a little impatient now. “I told you. We don’t know anything more than my father told us. We don’t—” He stopped. “They didn’t even confirm who was taken to the hospital. All we know is there was an accident, that Sam and Kristina were involved. You should stay here with Scout.”

“I just—” Drew stopped, collected himself. “Sam has to get out of this. She has to—I know you disagree with how I handled the custody situation—”

“Do I think snatching Scout out of her home just to look good in the press was a good idea?” Michael interrupted. “No. She wasn’t in any danger. Not from Sam. As soon as you found out Rocco and Dante moved out—as soon as they came to stay here, you should have dropped it. But it was more important to have the voters see you as someone who matters. And now you’re having regrets because if Sam doesn’t live, you’re the reason she didn’t get to see her daughter.”

General Hospital: Locker Room

As soon as his mother stepped out of the shower area, changed into a clean, dry pair of scrubs from her locker, Jake took her elbow and pulled her over towards the door, away from where Danny and Aiden were changing into their own borrowed scrubs.

“Mom, tell me straight. Did his mom get out?”

Elizabeth exhaled slowly, weighing the choice to keep Jake in the dark a little longer. “What did Sam tell Danny? Do you know?”

“He put her on speaker phone so he could hear her better. She sounded scared, Mom. I’ve never heard her like that. She said she couldn’t get out. She needed to tell Danny she loved him.”  Jake paused. “She was saying goodbye, wasn’t she?”

“I—I don’t know exactly. Maybe. The car went over the embankment—” Elizabeth stopped when Danny approached.

“Tell me,” the younger boy demanded. “Tell me what happened to my mom. Please.”

“We don’t know,” Elizabeth repeated. She reached for Danny’s hand. “I can tell you what I do know. Your mother and Kristina were in Sam’s car, Chase was behind them—”

“Why? Was he following them?” Jake wanted to know.

“That’s not—I’m not sure why,” Elizabeth said, then looked back to Danny. “There was an accident. The car went over the side, and the part of the road drops down towards the creek. We don’t know where it landed for sure, only that Chase could see headlights. But the hillside was muddy, and it was dark, and he couldn’t get down there right away. The creek was rising.”

“She said she couldn’t get out,” Danny said, his voice sounding small. Impossibly young. “But Aunt Kristina did.”

“I don’t know. She was unconscious when they found her.  Your dad and Dante went down when we got there. I don’t know much more than that. I’m sorry, Danny. I wish I had something more to tell you, something more definite.” She stroked his shoulder lightly. “But we’ll go back to wait with Molly. And your grandmother and Sonny are on their way. I know they could use your support.”

“And I’ll be right here,” Jake told his brother, who looked at him, his dark brown eyes swimming with tears. “I’m not going anywhere. We’ll deal with this together.”

General Hospital: ER Waiting Room

Alexis practically flew through the double doors and was halfway to the nurse’s station before she spied Molly by the elevators. “Molly? How did you get here so fast?” she demanded.

“I was already—” Molly furrowed her brow, looked at Sonny and Diane who had come in after her mother. “I was already here with TJ. We got a call from Danny—how did you know to be here? You didn’t answer any of my calls?”

“I—” Mystified, Alexis looked at Diane. “I don’t know where my phone is. I don’t—” She stopped. “What do you mean, you got a call from Danny?”

“Did the helicopter get here?” Sonny wanted to know. “The last we heard they were on their way to the hospital.”

“I—” Molly started to answer, then saw TJ exiting the trauma room, subdued. Her lip started to tremble. “TJ? What’s going on?”

“Hey. You—” TJ saw Alexis and Sonny, angled himself so that he was facing all of them. “Kristina is still unconscious. She has some superficial scratches and bumps, and we’re sending her up for a CT scan  and X-rays— we don’t think there’s any internal bleeding right now, but we don’t know anything for sure. They said that she hasn’t been conscious since they found her, so that’s our first priority.”

“She’s not awake—what did Elizabeth say when they got here? What did Chase say? Where’s Sam?” Molly demanded.

“They didn’t get Sam out?” Alexis broke in, her voice climbing an extra pitch. “What does that mean? Where is my daughter?”

“All I know is that by the time Chase reached the area where he’d seen headlights, the creek waters had risen too high to go further, and he found Kristina on the ground. He never—he never saw Sam.”

“Oh, God—” Alexis closed her eyes, brought her hands to her mouth. “Oh, God.”

“Danny talked to Sam,” Molly said faintly, and her mother looked at her, desperate hope reflecting back. “She was scared. She couldn’t get out.

“Oh, God,” Alexis repeated, the final words coming out as a low moan. She reached for Sonny’s hand, and he took it, his other arm around her shoulder, holding her up.

“I don’t understand. I don’t understand,” Molly said. “Why were all of you—” She looked at her mother, at Chase who was returning with a freshly stitched forehead, at Elizabeth and her boys. “Why were you all out there tonight? Why was Chase following my sisters at all?”

“This isn’t really the time,” Chase said, a bit pained. “We should wait—”

“No. No, there’s no point in waiting. Kristina’s unconscious, she can’t tell us what happened. And Sam—” Molly stopped, took a deep breath. “The only person who talked to Sam said she couldn’t get out. She’s probably dead. They both might be dead. So damn it, tell me why they were out there!” Her voice rose as she spoke, panic lacing the words until they climbed to almost a shrill cry, breaking on the final word, and she turned away, looked away, pressing her fist to her mouth.

“Mom said she was going to prove she didn’t tell everyone about me.”

Molly turned back at Danny’s words, confused at first. “What?”

“Mom. We saw her today—” Danny had to stop, his voice cracking.

“You saw her?” Elizabeth said, stepping towards him. She looked at Jake. “What happened?”

“She was in the parking lot after school,” Jake said, subdued. “Pretty upset. Desperate. Wanted Danny to know she’d never hurt him like this. And she said—she said she’d find out who did this if it was—” He closed his mouth, his own eyes watering slightly. “If it was the last thing she ever did.”

Molly raised her fingers to her lips, looked at her mother. “Kristina. Kristina did this. She told Reynolds about Danny, didn’t she?”

“I—” Alexis just shook her head. “I don’t—Maybe. I don’t know. We don’t know for sure—we don’t—”

“Aunt Kristina did it?” Danny asked, his voice thin, tears thick in his throat. “Why? Why would she do that to me? To Elizabeth?”

“Is that why you were you out there?” Molly demanded of Chase. “Why you and Dante and Jason and the entire damn world was following my sister around? Because you thought she did this?”

“Mols,” TJ said, taking her by the shoulder.

“No! No! I can’t do this again! I can’t sit in a room waiting to find out someone else I love is dead because of Kristina! She killed my daughter, and now she’s killed—” Molly stopped, she couldn’t articulate the words, couldn’t put the words out there. She’s killed my sister.

“We don’t know anything yet,” Elizabeth said carefully. She stepped up to Molly, took her hand, waited for the younger woman to look at her. “We just don’t. And I think maybe we’ve speculated enough for right now.”

Molly wanted to argue, but she saw Elizabeth look at Danny, and swallowed her argument. Elizabeth was right. Whatever Kristina’s crimes, whatever Molly wanted to say about it all — Danny didn’t need this, and if Sam was—if the worst had happened — then he’d need someone to look after him. To look for justice.

And to make sure that this time Kristina didn’t get away with destroying more lives.

+42

Written in 53 minutes. Not super happy with this being this short, the logistics of it all were more difficult than I thought, lol. See you tomorrow 🙂

Wednesday, October 1, 2024

Belle Forest Drive

Elizabeth paced back and forth along the small stretch of road, stopping every few seconds to peer down the embankment. She could only see a few feet in front of her face, and the crushed shrubbery where the car had broken through before the trees and bushes made it impossible. She could hear the water of the creek, angrier and more rapid than where they’d crossed the road a few miles away.

She turned back to Spinelli who’d remained at Chase’s car, his hand clutching the police radio like a lifeline. She couldn’t make out the static from here —

Elizabeth turned back to the view down the embankment. “Come on, come on,” she muttered. How long had they been there? Was the creek still rising? Did they need more help? With two people to pull from the car, maybe three wasn’t enough—

The cord tied to the car tightened — as if someone was pulling on it, and Elizabeth turned to call to Spinelli. “They’re coming up! How much longer until help gets here?”

“Chopper has an ETA of maybe five minutes—” Spinelli’s voice lifted to be heard over the rain. “Vehicles another twenty — they had to come from another town—can you see them? Is anyone hurt?”

“I don’t—” Elizabeth stepped off the road, onto the grass, but it was difficult to keep her balance with the broken and crushed bushes, and she nearly went down — but then she was able to see some movement—

Chase came first, stumbling, barely able to keep his grip, blood on his face — when he’d reached Elizabeth, she took his arm and pulled him onto solid ground, handing him over to Spinelli who had rushed over.

Jason and Dante were a few feet behind him, both of them coming up backwards, taking turns dragging someone—Kristina, Elizabeth realized, who was on the ground, being tugged up.

When they’d reached the same solid ground, Jason lifted Kristina into his arms to carry her a few more feet, then laid her out on the road — letting her arms fall limply to her side not so gently.

Elizabeth looked back, expecting to see Sam coming up behind them — but there was no one else, and now the cord had gone slack, laying against the ground.

“Where’s—” she started to say, but caught Jason’s expression, and swallowed the rest of her question. She looked back to the crash path, then went back at Kristina, laying pale and seemingly lifeless in the street.

What is that? Is that your phone?

Damn it—let go—

Elizabeth swallowed hard, then let her training kick in. It didn’t matter what Kristina had done — she was a nurse, and her job was to heal.

And if Kristina died here, the truth might die with her.

Webber House: Living Room

For what felt like the thousandth time, Jake dragged Danny away from the door. “You heard your aunt. Stay here—”

“She said there was an accident!” Danny shrugged Jake off. “If you won’t drive me, I’ll walk!”

“In the rain? With the whole city flooding? Sure. And then my parents will kill me for letting you drown,” Jake shot back. “We’re staying right here until we hear something—”

“We should go.”

Jake stopped, turned to Aiden with confusion. “What?”

“To the hospital.” Aiden seemed a bit surprised at first that he’d spoken, but kept going. “You’d have to tie us down if it was our mom, Jake. You know it. We can at least try.”

Danny seemed surprised by Aiden’s support, then turned back to Jake. “You know he’s right. You’d never stay here if this was you.”

Jake grimaced, scrubbed his hands down his face. “Damn it. Damn it.” Because of course he’d have already been halfway to the hospital. And even Cameron wouldn’t have argued that.

But he’d heard Sam’s side of the conversation, he’d heard the terror in her voice, the shaking —

Maybe he just wanted to stay here a little longer, to stay inside the bubble where his brother’s mother wasn’t in mortal, maybe fatal danger. To keep hope alive. Wasn’t that his job? To protect his little brother from anything that could hurt him?

But he couldn’t stop this, could he? Couldn’t go back in time and stop any of it.

“All right. All right.” Jake scooped up the key. “But if Dad or my mom asks, make it clear that I tried to stop you.”

Belle Forest Drive

Jason crouched next to Elizabeth as she knelt by Kristina, carefully assessing the younger woman’s injuries — checking her arms and legs for broken bones.

“I’m not seeing anything obvious,” Elizabeth told him, “but the head injury looks serious, and she’s been unconscious for at least ten minutes.”

“Chopper’s incoming!” Spinelli called from the car, but by the time he’d completed the statement, they could hear the blades rotating as it started a descent twenty feet from them. Chase and Dante barely acknowledged, still arguing at the foot of the car.

“I’m going with her to the hospital,” Elizabeth told Jason. She reached for his hand, and he brought it to his mouth. “The only thing keeping Dante from going back down there is Chase right now, and he needs to go with me.  He needs stitches on that cut. You have to stop him. Because if there was a chance — you’d have already taken it.”

“I know. I wanted to stay, to look—but the car—” Jason stopped, collected himself. “I’m telling myself that the car is in the creek, and she’s…she’s with it somehow. Maybe on the roof. Maybe Kristina was ejected as they rolled down the hill—”

They both knew that wasn’t likely. That Kristina’s injuries would be more visible if she’d been forced out of the car. But the alternative? The prospect of telling Danny what might have happened to his mother?

Better to cling to any hope, no matter how small.

“Get him in the car, get to the hospital when you can,” Elizabeth said, as he pulled her to the feet. She squeezed his hand one more time, then went to talk to the paramedic that had come with the chopper.

Several miles away, down the road and across the creek, Sonny, Alexis, and Diane were in Sonny’s car, desperate for any kind of update.  The radio in Sonny’s hand crackled, and Alexis leaned forward, nearly snatching it out his hand.

“I’m here. Did you find them? Did you find the girls?” Sonny demanded.

Spinelli’s voice was broken up but most of the words were still audible. “Came up — chopper here—going to GH—”

“Hospital. They’ve got them,” Diane told Alexis. “See? I told you. We’ll meet them there. Tell him we’ll meet them at the hospital,” she told Sonny.

“Both of them?” Alexis demanded. “Tell me they have both—” she reached for the radio as Sonny put the car in reverse and began to turn the car around. “Spinelli! Do you have both of them?”

“….chopper only took three…we’re on our way back…”

Alexis relaxed slightly, leaned back against the passenger seat, holding the radio against her chest. “They’ve got them. Okay. Okay. Thank God.”

General Hospital: Emergency Room

Molly paced the waiting area, bitting at her nail as she waited for TJ to come back with news — any kind of news. How badly hurt was Sam? Had Danny been overreacting? Maybe it wasn’t that serious—

A door opened, and TJ appeared. She rushed over to him. “Well? Was it them—”

“All I know is that a chopper is bringing in three people from Belle Forest Drive,” TJ told her. He touched her arm. “They radioed in that two are injured, one seriously. Elizabeth is with them.”

“Elizabeth?” Molly frowned, shook her head. “No, that doesn’t—Elizabeth wouldn’t be with Sam. But—” Who was the other injury? “When we will know?”

“I’m going up to the roof now,” TJ said. “They should be here in ten minutes. We’ll know by then.”

+37

Written in 58 minutes.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Belle Forest Drive

Alexis clutched Sonny’s coat jacket, her heart in her throat as the SUV moved across the partially submerged bridge.

“Come on, come on, come on,” Sonny muttered under his breath. “Make it, make it—”

If the SUV lost traction, if it was swept away by the creek which now looked more like a raging river spilling past its banks, all but erasing any evidence of the roadway that had comfortable sat above it. How many times had she taken this drive and not even considered the water that ran beneath it, rolling past her housing development and emptying into the lake—

The initial propulsion had the SUV halfway across the bridge and it continued to move, much more slowly through the flood waters. All around them, the rain continued to pound down, feeding the flood—

And across the road, somewhere out of her sight, her babies, her precious girls were trapped somewhere and Alexis couldn’t get to them, couldn’t fight for them, couldn’t do anything—

The SUV stalled for a beat — likely no more than a handful of seconds, but, oh, they felt like a lifetime as Alexis watched the back tires start to slide across the roadway. Sonny released her, took a step forward—because, of course, his son and the man he’d loved as a brother were in that vehicle risking everything to get to her girls.

But at the last minute, the SUV cleared the bridge, picked up speed, and the headlights disappeared where the road curved into the trees.

“He made it, the crazy of a bitch—” Sonny let out a bark of bewildered, terrified laughter, his gray streaked hair stuck to his temples.

“Emergency services are on their way,” Diane said, panting slightly as she joined them underneath the umbrella. “And they’re going to get a chopper on the other side of the creek.”

Alexis couldn’t stop shaking. She just wanted her girls, she wanted them safe in her arms — where she could yell at them. What were they thinking being out on a night like this?

“Let’s get in the car,” Diane said, touching her shoulder. “No need for us to stand out here where we can’t do anything but wait.”

Webber House: Living Room

“Mom? Mom!”

Jake tried to tune out the pitch of Danny’s panicked voice, climbing with every attempt he made to reconnected with his mother. The call had dropped, and Danny couldn’t get her back on the phone.

And their father wasn’t answering either—Jake dialed his mother’s number next, waiting, and waiting, and waiting—

But nothing.

“What do we do?” Aiden wanted to know. “What do we do?”

“I don’t know!” Jake snapped, and Aiden stepped back a beat, swallowing hard, his eyes too big for his face. Jake took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just—” Wished Cameron was here. Cameron would know what to do.

What would Cameron would do?

“Okay. Okay. We can track them. We can—” Jake hung up his phone, and with shaky fingers navigated to the app that he’d protested when his mother had put it on the phone. Why did she need to know where he was all the time? Didn’t she trust him?

You? Yes. The world? No. And look, I’ll put myself on here. You can track me, too.

“She’s—she’s out by Sam’s mom’s house,” Jake said, confused as his mother’s little blue dot traveled. “And she’s with Dad.”

“They must be going to see your mother,” Aiden told Danny. “See? Your dad’s already on the way. Call your grandmother—”

“Right, right.” Danny fumbled with his phone, found Alexis’s contact information, and pressed send.

But there was nothing. No answer.

“What about your aunts? Kristina or Molly? They have to know where your mom is, right?” Jake said, coming over to Danny’s phone.

“I don’t know, I don’t know. Mom sounded so scared, and she wouldn’t tell me—why wouldn’t she tell me—” Danny gripped Jake’s shirt, his eyes tear stained. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

“We’ll call Molly, okay? She’s in the DA’s office, right? She’ll know about accidents, okay? We’ll call, and we’ll keep calling—”

“No. No, we have to go out and start looking—” Danny made a break for the door, and Jake dropped the phone, reaching his brother just as Danny started to open it.

“Are you kidding? There’s flooding, and you hear that rain? And even if it wasn’t, we don’t know where to go. Let’s not play Noah’s Ark until we know something.” Because that’s what Cameron would do. Collect the facts. Make informed decisions.

Except that one time he’d nearly shot Jake’s dad who was trying to escape from jail—

Because he didn’t have the facts, Cameron had told Jake later, with some real regret. He’d been stupid. Acting on impulse. All the things he’d yell at Jake about.

“Here—” Aiden held out the phone, Molly’s contact information on the screen. “Let’s start with her, and then we’ll make a list if she doesn’t know anything. We won’t stop until we figure it out, okay, Danny? We’ll find your mom.”

Belle Forest Drive

There’d been one moment — just one — when he could feel the weight of the SUV change slightly, becoming almost weightless as the back of the vehicle had lifted, caught up in the rushing creek waters, and if they’d been even a foot further from the other side—

Elizabeth had never doubted Jason for a moment — or Dante. She knew that neither of them would have let she or Spinelli anywhere near the SUV if they’d been truly worried that they might not make it across—

But there’d been that moment when she’d seen Jason go stark white, and his fingers clench on the wheel, the roar of the engine as he pressed down on the gas pedal —

When they’d felt the water fall away, when the SUV had picked up speed, and they were back on firm, albeit, slick ground, she could breathe again.

But then the reality of what they might be speeding towards sank in — would they make in time? How many minutes had elapsed between Chase’s first frantic radio call to Dante and getting in the car —

How fast were the waters rising?

They came around another bend, where the trees broke open and the first houses could be seen — where the sides of the road sloped down, the incline steep on the left side as it led down to the creek. A car was parked haphazardly across the road, the headlights on, doors open and trunk popped.

Jason brought the SUV to a stop, but Dante was already out of the car the second he started to slow, running towards the abandoned car, slipping as he reached it.

“Where’s Chase?” Elizabeth demanded, all but falling out of the car and sprinting towards Dante. Jason reached him first, Spinelli just behind Elizabeth.

“Which side—” Spinelli went to one side, while Jason went to the other — and found that a bungee cord had been tied to the trunk of the car and was over the side of the embankment — until it disappeared into the inky night.

“The damn fool went down there on his own,” Dante bit out, limping slightly as he squinted down. “I can’t see anything. Or anyone.” No headlights. Had Chase been able to see the car? He couldn’t remember.

“Okay. Okay.” Dante turned to the others, swept his soaked hair from his face. “Spinelli and Elizabeth, you’ll wait up here—I don’t want to hear any arguments,” he said when he saw Elizabeth open her mouth. “Spinelli, there’s a radio in Chase’s car. Get it. You’ll keep it up here. Jason and I’ll follow Chase’s trail, and we’ll radio up if we need medical help. I know the basics, and you can talk us through anything else,” he told her.

Elizabeth grimaced, then nodded reluctantly. Spinelli returned with the radio and with a flashlight.

“Here, take this. We can’t see anything — be careful. The weather service expects the creek to crest at nearly nine feet above its usual levels,” Spinelli told them. “You need to get down there, get them out, and get back.”

“Let’s go.” Jason took just a moment, to squeeze’s Elizabeth’s hand, then gestured for Dante to start down in front of him. He gripped the rope tightly and he and Dante started to make their way down the mud slick embankment.

General Hospital: Nurse’s Station

Molly wound her arm through TJ’s as they strolled towards the station where they would have to part ways as he got back on shift. “We should really do this more often,” she told him, leaning her head against his shoulder. “Why don’t we meet in the on-call room next time?”

“I told you,” TJ said, offering her a half grin, turning to face her. “It’s not like what you see on television. I don’t have time to be getting lucky between patients.”

“Well, I should hope not since I’m not here,” Molly returned with a grin. She leaned up to his kiss him on more time. “The holidays. This Christmas. Can you take a few days? We’ll go down to New York, see my dad or something. I think we both need a break.”

“Agreed.” He kissed her again. “Love you.”

“Love you, too.” She started towards the elevator, leisurely plucking her phone from her purse when she felt it began to ring. A call from Danny? At this time of night? Curious, Molly accepted the call.

“Hey, kiddo, what’s up—”

“Please tell me you know where my mom is,” Danny cut in, his voice rising until it cracked. “Aunt Molly, please.”

“I—I don’t know.” Molly turned back to find TJ watching her. Something in his expression must have caught his attention because he came towards her. “Danny, what’s wrong?”

“Mom—Mom, she called and she was scared, and she was telling me she loved me and that she couldn’t get out, and Grandmom isn’t answering and neither is my dad or Elizabeth, and I don’t know where she is, Aunt Molly, you gotta find my mother—”

“Okay, okay slow down—” Molly reached out, gripped TJ’s scrub shirt. “Your mother called you and said she couldn’t get out, that she was scared—and no one was answering? Not your dad either?”

“N-N0, he and Liz were s-supposed to be at the lawyer’s, but they’re not. They’re out by Grandmom’s house, but they’re not answering—”

Grandmom’s house. The flash flood advisory. Molly’s heart sank. She couldn’t get out, she said she couldn’t get out, that she couldn’t get out—

She closed her eyes, forced herself to speak evenly. “Danny, I want you to listen to me very carefully. I am at the hospital. TJ is going to find out if there’s been any accidents or anything else in the ER. I am going to start calling people and I will find out what’s going on, okay? I will find out what’s going on.” She gestured for TJ who jogged over to the nurse’s station, started talking to the nurse behind the counter. “Where are you right now?”

“I-I’m home.”

“Are you alone?”

“N-No. Jake and Aiden are here.”

“Good. Can I talk to Jake? Just a minute, honey.”

Molly heard some rustling, and then Jake spoke. “Uh, hello?”

“Jake. Hey. I need you to promise me you’ll keep Danny at home with you until you  hear from me. You know him, you might have to tackle him. But don’t let him leave, okay?”

“I won’t—but, um, do you know anything? What’s going on?”

“I don’t—” Molly’s throat tightened for just a moment, and then she was able to speak again. “I don’t know. But I’m on it, and I’ll get answers. I’m going to call some people, find out if anything has been called in. I know people, Jake. I will find—I will find out what’s going on. You stay with Danny. Don’t move from that house until you hear from me or your parents.”

Belle Forest Drive

The cord was slick and difficult to keep a good grip on, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as trying to stay up right on the mud slick hill, and more than once, Dante or Jason had had to reach out to the other to keep them from falling—

The rain had only gotten worse, the drops more like little pellets that were being shot at him —  and he imagined if he could feel the cold on his skin, he’d be freezing. He could hear the creek waters getting louder as they moved down the hill —

But still no sign of a car or anyone who had been in it.

Though the descent couldn’t have taken more than five minutes, maybe a few more — Jason heard Dante shout — and they could see the end of the cord where it was still fastened around Chase’s middle.

The younger man was on his knees next to a crumbled form, dark hair spilling out onto the mud and leaves. Jason moved closer, and his heart sank when he realized it was Kristina, with a nasty gash on her head.

“Where’s Sam?” Dante demanded. “Where’s the—” He looked over and saw the creek ten feet away — rushing past them, faster than he’d ever seen it. It was usually nothing more than a rolling creek that was usually good for wading or maybe a little bit of fishing in one of the deeper spots —

Now it was a rushing, roaring flow of water that had swallowed half the hillside.

“I couldn’t—” Chase’s voice was hoarse, and he had his own forehead gash that was oozing when he lifted his face to Jason. “I couldn’t get to the car—I tried, I tried ,but the water it just — I couldn’t—

“Where’s the car?” Dante demanded. “Where—” He looked over where Chase had been looking, and Jason followed his gaze.

The car was gone. Maybe it was still somewhere, beneath the waters. Or maybe it had been carried away by the furious waters that had crept towards them even closer than it had been when they’d arrived.

“Sam!” Dante cried. He started towards the water’s edge. “Sam!” He stumbled, and Jason caught his arm as the man looked like he might try to jump into the flood.

“You can’t do that! You’ll be dead before you—” Jason’s words stumbled to a horrified stop as he realized what he was telling Dante. What was he was admitting.

What he would have to tell Danny.

That any attempt to find Sam now would be suicide. There was no way of locating the car, not like this, not with the storm still raging around them, with the waters still rising and expected to come up another two feet—

“You can’t help her now,” Jason said, squeezing Dante’s arm tight. “You can’t help her now. We have to get Kristina, and we have to get out of here before it’s too late for us, too. We can’t—” He took one minute to look back at the creek, his stomach rolling at the thought of Sam somewhere in it. Was she trapped? Was she still alive somehow?

There was no way to answer that question without killing himself, and he wasn’t willing to do that. He’d risked enough to get down here, to try to save her. It would have to be enough. He hoped it would feel like enough when he faced their son.

“We have to get out of here,” he repeated to Dante. “Now.”

+44

Written in 54 minutes.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Belle Forest Drive

The car rolled and rolled and rolled, the screams from the women inside swallowed by the swollen waters of the creek rushing towards Port Charles and Lake Ontario and the relentless thunderstorm.

Chase reached the side of the road just as the car landed near the bank of the creek — or what was now the bank of the creek — it had already risen almost a foot past its typical height. It was difficult to see what was going on through the rain, so Chase tried to hesitantly start down the embankment, but immediately, his foot caught in the mud and he nearly lost his balance, tumbling after the car.

“Damn it, damn it—” He scrambled back to safety, then cupped his mouth to yell down to the car below him. “You have to get out! You have to—fuck—” They wouldn’t be able to hear him —

He rushed back to his car, reached for his radio. ““Central, 3-12—signal 10-50, rollover, vehicle in the creek. Be advised, flash flooding, water rising—requesting FD and EMS, priority. Hurry!”

And then he found his cell phone, using the lights of the dashboard to find Dante’s contact information. Please let Dante be nearly here and not on the other side of the damn creek—

Below him, Sam’s sedan was upside down, the top side crushed down, windshield and windows shattered from the rollover.

Kristina could barely breathe, her fingers fumbled to unbelt her seat belt which she immediately regretted the decision when her body dropped hard out of the seat and hit the roof, a sliver of something stabbing her side. “Shit, shit, shit—”

She looked over to see Sam, still belted in but her side of the car was more crumpled, the dashboard crushed in. Her sister was moaning, blood coming from a cut on her scalp.

Kristina fumbled for Sam’s seat belt as Sam became more and more conscious. “Hold on, hold on—” she sobbed. “I’ll get us out of here. I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry—”

But when she released the belt — Sam didn’t drop. The steering wheel was pinning her to the seat. “Help—” Sam swallowed hard, then tried again. “Help me—you—you have to…you have to—”

“Okay, okay—” Kristina’s eyes widened as she felt something wet beneath her knees as she knelt next to her sister. Water. The water was inside the car. “We have to get out, we have to get out—the water—it’s coming in the car—”

“Pull—” Sam held out a hand, trying to get a grip on something. “You have to pull me—”

Kristina took her  by the shoulders and try to yank Sam backwards, out of her seat, but Sam just screamed, and Kristina lost her grip.

“I can’t—I can’t get you—I have to get help—I’ll get help—” Kristina crawled towards the window. “I’ll get help—”

“Don’t leave me! Kristina! Kristina—”

But Kristina had already crawled through the window, and Sam’s cries were swallowed by the storm.

Davis & Miller: Parking Lot

Though every muscle in Jason’s body was screaming to go faster, he carefully backed out of the parking spot and pulled the SUV onto the road. The storm was getting worse, and the last thing any of them needed was to get in accident themselves.

“Spinelli, where are they?” Jason demanded to the tech that had hastily followed them to the car and was tapping keys furiously on his laptop. “Where did that call come from?”

“He’s going as fast as he can,” Elizabeth reminded, dialing her own phone. “I’ll get 911 on the phone, Diane—”

“I’m going to start with Alexis—” the lawyer next to Spinelli said.

“Belle Forest Drive,” Spinelli interrupted. His voice was a bit strangled as he continued. “Just near Cobb Creek.”

A possible accident just where they’d closed the road for a flash flood?

Jason pressed his foot down on the gas pedal — just a little bit faster.

Belle Forest Drive

Dante gripped the phone one more time. “You can’t—” His throat tightened and he had to force himself to continue. “You can’t get down there?”

“I’m getting cord from the trunk—” Chase’s voice was barely audible. “Tie it to my car and to my waist—but it’s all a mud slick—”

Dante looked out over the bridge — Cobb Creek traveled a low bridge and he’d stopped where water was already flooding over the surface, making travel by car dangerous — the car could easily be swept away.   Belle Forest Drive continued over the other side of the river and then curled out of sight into a copse of trees. “How far away are you?” he demanded. “From the bridge?”

“Maybe half a mile—”

“Dante, what’s going on?” Alexis demanded, coming up from his father’s car, still somewhat dry beneath the umbrella his father had in his hand, though Sonny was fighting against the wind to keep it above them. “When can we get past the bridge?”

“Chase, I’m going to try to get to you, okay? Don’t be stupid. Don’t try that on your own. I’m going—I’m going to get there—” Dante said, looking back over the flooded water. “I’ll be on foot, so it will take some time.”

“Dante—”

“I’ll be there.” Dante hung up the phone and turned back to his father and Alexis. “Sam and Kristina were in an accident on the other side of the creek.”

“Oh my God—” Alexis grabbed Sonny’s arm. “How bad?”

“We don’t—Chase doesn’t know. The car went over the embankment and it’s down by the creek—”

“No!” Alexis cried. She lunged forward, as if she was going to run through the floodwaters with nothing powering her but maternal terror —

“Chase is getting down there, I’m going to get there to help him. It’s all—” Dante looked at his father, saw the worry and terror he knew must be in his own expression.

“You can’t go alone—” Sonny shoved the umbrella at Alexis. “You stay  with the car—” They turned back to the road as another pair of headlights appeared.

“Please let that be emergency vehicles,” Dante prayed.

But it was a familiar SUV, and Jason jogged up to them, followed almost immediately by Elizabeth, Diane, and Spinelli.

“We have to get to the other side of the creek,” Jason said, lifting his voice to be heard over the rain. “There’s been an accident—”

“Sam was on the phone when it happened—” Elizabeth said almost at the same time.

Diane came up to Alexis, put an arm around her. “But you already know that, don’t you?”

“They went over the road, they’re by the creek, and I can’t wait to catch you up, I have to go—Chase is on his own trying to reach them—” Dante shoved a radio at his father.

“How the hell are you going to get over that creek?” Sonny demanded, gesturing wildly towards the bridge that couldn’t even be seen — the water was rushing so fast and had risen several inches while they’d been standing there.

Dante couldn’t think, couldn’t articulate a response. “I don’t know. I can’t just stand here and do nothing!”

“The SUV might be able to get across,” Jason said. “It’s higher off the ground,” he told Dante. “Let’s go—”

Elizabeth started to follow them, but Jason turned and stopped her. “No, stay here—”

“Shut up,” she retorted. “And don’t waste time trying to argue with me.”

Cobb Creek

Kristina was still crawling up the side of the hill, sliding back every few minutes. She just had to get to the top. She’d get Sam help, she’d get some to help, someone stronger who could get Sam out of the car.

She’d get help—

Then she slipped, lost her balance, and tumbled down, the world rolling rapidly until pain exploded in her head and everything went black.

A hundred yards away, the water had risen high enough that Sam’s legs were soaked, and her voice was hoarse from screaming for help, and every piece of her body was screaming in pain as she kept trying to wrench herself free.

She had to get out, had to get to her kids, had to—

Her fingers brushed a familiar object, and Sam lifted her phone from where it had fallen next to the console. It was wet, but it still lit up. She choked back a sob, and had started to dial 911—but then she felt the cold water by her waist.

There wasn’t enough time. Not for emergency to reach her.

There wasn’t enough time.

Her fingers trembled, and she dialed the only number that mattered now.

Webber House: Dining Room

Danny stretched his legs out underneath the coffee table and scowled at the computer screen with the algebra problem mocking him. “I don’t know why being normal has to include homework,” he muttered, tapping some keys, trying to think of the first step.

But it was hard to think straight about anything. It was easier for Jake and Aiden, whom he could hear in the kitchen bickering over dinner. Their mom might be in trouble, but at least their mom didn’t make everything impossible on a daily basis.

His cell phone buzzed on the table by the computer, and Danny picked it up. His mother’s name flashed on the screen, and he swallowed hard. He wasn’t supposed to talk to her. He knew that. And if he kept helping her break the rules, it would make it harder for her to get better. For them to ever have a chance to be normal again.

He hit ignore on the call, and then went back to his algebra.

Belle Forest Drive

Sonny and Alexis had both argued vociferously for maybe thirty seconds to be allowed to go with them, but it was obvious they couldn’t all go, and Sonny was given the radio to stay in touch.

The only way across the bridge that had any hope of working with the water already three feet over the road was to go fast. If the engine got flooded, hopefully the spurt of gas would get them to higher ground.

Cars could be replaced. His son’s mother couldn’t.  And Elizabeth’s only chance at freedom was trapped in the car, too.

“Ready,” Dante said. “Leave the belts off. If we need to get out of the car—” He swallowed hard, looked at Jason. “Go.”

Jason pressed the gas pedal, slowly at first to get the car moving — and then as they approached the bridge, hit it all the way to the floor — and the SUV sped up as they approached the flood waters.

Webber House: Living Room

The phone was silent for a moment and then it lit up again — his mother was calling again. Danny grimaced, then finally picked it up — “Mom, you know—”

“D-danny? Thank God. You need to listen to me.”

Danny jolted at the hoarseness of his mother, at the sounds from her side of the call — the rain sounded like it was right on top of her. “Mom?”

“Did I just hear you say Mom?” Jake said, coming from the kitchen, Aiden trailing behind him.  Danny shook him off and then put her voice on speakerphone so he could put the volume all the way up.

“Mom, where are you? You sound awful.”

“I—I’m in trouble. And I-I c-can’t get out. It’s cold—and there’s water—but just listen—”

Danny gripped the phone tightly. “What do you mean?” He looked at Jake, who was already pulling out his phone. “Where are you?”

“An accident, I don’t have a lot of time—the water—just listen to me. Please.”

He’d never heard his mom sound like this — so scared and hurt and awful — and what did she mean there was water? “I’m listening, Mom, but tell me where you are—”

“I love you. I have loved you from the moment I knew you existed. I love you. You need to know that. I know I didn’t do a lot of things right, and I—I hurt you, and I’m sorry. But I love you.”

“I l-love you, t-too. Mom, you’re scaring me. Tell me where you are—”

“You’re—you’re going to be okay, I know it. I can feel it—” There was a pause, and his mother gasped. “You have your brothers, and you’ll take care of Scout. You’re—you’re the best thing I ever did in my life. I love you so much. I wish—”

And then the call disconnected.

+41

Written in 65 minutes.

Wednesday, October 1, 2024

Davis House: Living Room

Kristina took a deep breath. “Okay, listen. Listen. I think—” She closed her eyes, put up her hands, took another breath. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, okay? I didn’t want this to turn into another Kristina screw-up, okay?”

Sam  shook her head. “No, that’s not good enough. Not for what you were just trying to pull.” And why was she backing off it now? “What the hell did you do, Kristina?”

“Nothing! I mean, I sent the email because Mom told me bail was a problem and I just thought—” Kristina stopped. “I just thought if I got Elizabeth out of the house for a little while, the judge would give Danny back to you, and you guys would be okay—”

“You wanted her to go to jail—”

“So did you! Why am I the bad guy for trying to do the same thing?” Kristina demanded. “You were right! If Elizabeth weren’t around manipulating Danny or Jason, everything would be better!”

She wanted to believe her. Wanted to believe her little sister had just screwed up again — but it didn’t feel right. “All right, fine. You wanted to help. You didn’t. Now you have to tell everyone what you did so that Jason doesn’t use this to keep custody of Danny permanently. I could lose even my visitation rights. You have to tell everyone—”

“So I can hear another round of what a screw up I am? No. No. Let’s just wait it out, okay, Sam? No one knows for sure. You and me, we’ll just stick together—” Kristina came forward, clasped her hands together, holding them in a beggar’s pose. “We’ll tell everyone we don’t know anything! Please, Sam! Let’s just tell them we don’t know anything!”

“That won’t work. It won’t. Danny believes this, Kristina. He believes it. Mom and Jason and Diane and all of them — even Dante. They think I did this! There are no other suspects!” Sam shook her head. “No. You have to tell them what you did. You have to. For everything I’ve ever done for you.”

“Please, Sam! You can’t tell them! You can’t!”

Because they’d ask the same question Sam had? Kristina hadn’t tried this woes me crap until Sam had started questioning her motives — God, why did Kristina need Elizabeth out of the picture? Why had she done this?

She needed help. She needed someone else to figure this out — she needed someone else to know. Someone who wouldn’t be snowed by Kristina’s damsel in distress act — someone who would dig—

Sam looked at Kristina. “I can and I will. Come with me, and we’ll talk to Mom. She’ll understand, Krissy. She will, okay? She knows what you’ve been though. She’ll know how to handle this.”

“Just Mom?” Kristina asked. “No one else has to know?”

“No. No one else will know. Come with me and we’ll fix everything.”

Pozzulo’s Restaurant: Street

Dante wasn’t going to wait for Anna to move her car — time was running out before the cover up started. He reversed his car into the parking lot, then shifted gears and drove over the curb to get in front of Anna’s car.

He slapped a few buttons on the dashboard, commanding it to put a call through to Chase, then nearly skidded off the road when  he tried to come to a stop at a red light. The rain was pooling on the the sides of the roads, deep enough that his tires were splashing up a ton of water.

“Dante, where the hell are you?” came Chase’s first words. “Sam and Kristina just left — they’re in Sam’s car, heading back towards town.”

“Damn it. Damn it. You’re following?” Dante demanded, making another turn. “There’s only one road out of Belle Forest down to the rest of town. I’ll cut them off near the Cob Creek bridge. I’m not letting them get to Alexis or my dad. Kristina isn’t getting away with this. Not this time.”

Davis & Miller: Diane’s Office

“Well, there really isn’t much that either of you can do,” Diane told Jason and Elizabeth. “Spinelli needs to get that trunk pop and footage to match, and we need to continue gathering evidence. Whether she did it or not—and I’m leaning towards guilty for the record — she’s an excellent alternative suspect for the jury trial.”

“So you don’t have enough to get the charges dismissed.” Elizabeth folded her arms, feeling chilled. The prospect that Kristina of all people had carried out this scheme seemed so strange and unlikely — but there had been that strange visit the day after—and Kristina would know Jason’s protective instinct might have led him to confess to protect her—

“I just can’t stop thinking—” Elizabeth stopped, looked at Jason who’d gone to the window. He’d need a minute to adjust to this — not that it would help, she thought. He’d sacrificed so much for the sake of Sonny and Carly’s children — for Sam’s sister. Because Kristina was family to him.

No wonder Diane and Spinelli had kept this from them. Even as alternative suspect  for the purposes of trial, the idea that Kristina had purposely framed Elizabeth —

“We’re really saying that Kristina — the same woman who was gullible enough to be brainwashed into a cult — we’re saying that she pulled off framing me?” Elizabeth wanted to know. “It just sounds so impossible to me. I know—you’ve made a good case. I just can’t wrap my mind around it.”

“Well, she didn’t pull off anything—” Diane said. “It’s actually a pretty terrible frame job. You have an alibi, which is why the FBI initially didn’t pursue you or Jason. She managed to get the gun into your trunk, but she can’t put it in your hands. She tried to use the tipline to get the FBI into your car, but she wanted to pretend to be smart about it, so she used a notorious gossiping nurse who works with you — but she doesn’t know your work schedule or that you and this nurse wouldn’t have been near each other. And she doesn’t know enough about the technology to know we can prove it’s false. It’s not smart, Elizabeth. She’s literally on your security camera returning the key she probably dropped on your front step. Otherwise, why is she back at your front door after you’ve left, kneeling down and then leaving?”

“But I never lost my key—”

“You didn’t have them that day,” Jason said quietly, and Elizabeth stopped, looked at him. He turned to look at her. “You left your purse at the house when I picked you up. When we were up at Vista Point, you realized you hadn’t put your house keys in your pocket, and you couldn’t get back in the house.”

Elizabeth’s lips parted, and she turned to Diane. “He’s right. I’d forgotten — we made a joke about — I locked myself out of Kelly’s once — you promised not to break the glass this time,” she said to Jason. She put a hand against her chest. “But I got home, and Aiden and Jake were home. And my keys were in my purse. They were already home—”

“She’s benefiting from luck, Elizabeth. Not intelligence. You didn’t know your key was gone because you didn’t take them. The boys don’t mention finding it because it’s probably not a big deal and no one even thinks of it for days, and by then,” Diane said, “they’re upset and stressed by your arrest, then Danny and Aiden are in trouble — and no one ever goes back to that day and asks questions. Because why would we? She’s Sonny’s daughter. Her visit that day was strange, but so what?”

“She’s Sonny’s daughter, why would we think—” Elizabeth pressed two trembling fingers to her mouth. “She took advantage of that, didn’t she? It’s not just luck. It’s the blind spot we’d all have.”

“I didn’t even think twice at her first story. It made sense to me, didn’t it? No one thought anything of it until we went back and checked alibis. And having access to a gun that matches the murder weapon — it’s not a slam dunk in court, but I think, in this office, it’s enough—”

Spinell’s phone rang as Diane spoke, and he turned away to answer it. “Hello?” His brow furrowed. “Diane—”

“What is it?”

“I don’t—” He tapped the speaker phone button and they could hear rain — and voices. Muffled. “It’s Sam, but I don’t know if she meant to call me—”

“Wait—” Jason came forward, his hand held out. “Can you turn up the volume?”

Spinelli obeyed, and the voices became more distinct — Sam…and was that Kristina?

“…I just don’t…why…her bail…important…”

Jason’s mouth pinched, and Elizabeth’s stomach dropped. Oh, God, had Sam known about the email? Had it been her idea?

“…told you…” Kristina’s voice came through, but it was hard to make out her words. “I…to help…you said…no one…know.”

There was a shift in the voices, and now they were coming in more clearly — the phone had moved maybe.

“We’ve been over this, Sam,” Kristina said, sounding annoyed. “And if Mom can’t make this go away, I’m not admitting to anything.”

“You have to tell them, Kristina. You have to tell them I didn’t know. Danny believes I did this to him—do you really think your feelings are more important?”

“He’ll get over it. He’s done worse to you.”

“She sounds so cold,” Elizabeth murmured, and the first pangs of sympathy for Sam bled through. No matter what they’d done to one another, Elizabeth had always believed Sam loved her son. What would it be like for your son to believe the worst about you?

“I just wish you’d tell me why you did this. Why you really did this. You had to know there was a chance people would think it was me—why did you take the risk? Why not try to get Mom to use it in the custody papers? Why go to the same lawyers who tried to put you in jail?”

“You needed Elizabeth out of the picture—”

“No, no! I didn’t—not like that! Damn it, Krissy, it wouldn’t have solved anything! She’d be a goddamn martyr and everyone would be trying to get her out—you really think it would make Danny’s life better that way?”

Diane rolled her eyes. “Never changes,” she muttered under her breath, but Elizabeth almost smiled because that actually made sense. Sam would never have put Elizabeth into the position of being even more of a victim.

“But Jason wouldn’t be able to say he’s got a stable home—”

“No, no, I still think there’s another reason. You were ready to blame me and gaslight everyone else into blaming me, too, until I asked you why you wanted Elizabeth’s bail revoked.”

Diane went still. “Is she—”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“Don’t play stupid, Kristina. You’ve never had a negative thing to say about Elizabeth in all these years, and now suddenly you’re trying to help by putting her in jail. I don’t believe you. Just tell me what you did, and we can talk to Mom. We’ll fix it. But you have to tell me what you did.”

She knew, Elizabeth realized. Sam knew what Kristina had done. Had she called Spinelli on purpose? Was she trying to…help?

“What do you want me to say? That I finally see Elizabeth as a manipulative bitch like you always said—”

“But you’re doing it now not when it would have made a difference. I mean, when she lied about Jake Doe, you weren’t talking like this, but she’s accused of murder, and you want her in jail over it.” There was a pause. “Kristina, did you put that gun in her trunk?”

“Why are you asking me that? How can you even—”

Just then, the phone emitted a loud, angry beep — and so did the other phones in the office — Jason’s muffled in his pocket, Elizabeth’s in her purse, Diane’s on the desk — and Sam’s —

“What is that?” Kristina’s voice came through, upset and shrill. There was a scuffle. “Is that your phone?”

“Damn it—let go—”

And then the line went dead.

Belle Forest Drive

“You’re driving too slow,” Alexis muttered, watching the windshield wipers work furiously to keep the view clear.

“It’s basically a  hurricane, Alexis—Sam and Kristina aren’t going anywhere in this weather—check your damned phone,” Sonny retorted.

Alexis threw him a dirty look, then but rummaged in her phone, intending to check the location of her eldest daughters — which, ten minutes ago, had shown them at her home.

While she was squinting in the dark car without her reading glasses, Sonny saw a pair of taillights ahead that were stopped, the car angled across the road. “What the hell is—” He brought the car to a stop. “Is that Dante?”

“They left the house,” Alexis said at the same time. “They’re—they’re on the same road as us—”

And then the phone alerted with an angry warning —

“Flash Flood advisory,” Alexis said. “Cobb Creek is rising—they’re closing—” She looked at Sonny but he was leaning forward, confused as to why his eldest son was walking towards their car. “Sonny, they closed Belle Forest up by me. The girls are going to be stuck on the road in this—”

“Great. I knew we should have waited,” Sonny said with a sigh. He shoved open the door, and got out. “Dante, what the hell are you doing blocking the road like this?”

“Let me guess,” his son retorted. “You’re on your way to clean up after Kristina. Damn it, Dad, I told you stay out of this—”

Alexis ignored both of them, and scrolled through her contacts to bring up Sam’s number.

Belle Forest Drive: Road

Sam shoved Kristina back with one hand, keeping the other on the road. “Damn it, Kristina—knock it off—” but her sister was enraged, trying to find the phone that Sam had wedged between her thighs. The last thing Sam needed was Kristina to find that her phone had connected to Spinelli — had they heard enough? Had they heard anything?

“Give it to me—” Kristina drove for her again, and this time, Sam lost control of the steering wheel, sending the car into a careening skid — both women screaming—

Behind them, Chase had already slowed his car, watching their car wave back and forth on the lanes. He’d reached for his radio, intending to call for backup —

But then the car went skidding off the road—

Chase hit his brakes, his own car sliding slightly as he came to a stop, and got out of the car just in time to see Sam’s car go off the road — and flip down the embankment towards the creek.

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