Written in 62 minutes.

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Harborview Towers: Lobby

“We should have just gone straight to the hospital,” Capelli muttered, stepping away from the guard at the desk. “They’re not going to let us upstairs.”

“No, not without a warrant.” Mac squinted at the elevators. “But it’s interesting, don’t you think—Sonny’s here. They said as much. Why isn’t he at the hospital already? Pregnant wife shot in the head after being kidnapped this summer? Something’s not right.”

“Do you think he’s the shooter?”

Mac hesitated, then gestured for the other man to follow him towards the lobby’s doors. When they were outside, back on Harborview Road, he turned back to look at the building, at the top floors. “I don’t know what I think. Ric Lansing is a pile a garbage that Scott decided was worth the risk of keeping around. I can think of ten people who might have a reason to shoot him. I can also think of a few people who might not be sorry to see Carly Corinthos go down, though not as many as it used to be.”

“But both of them and Elizabeth Webber?” Capelli shook his head. “That’s where I keep getting tripped up. Maybe we’ve got two shooters. Ric shoots Liz and Carly, and someone else shoots him—”

“Maybe. Maybe.” Mac scratched his jaw. “Ric’s got reason to hate Carly. And Elizabeth. But who shoots him and flees? No calls to 911 other than Bobbie’s.”

“Do we know where the sister is? Sonny’s,” Capelli added. “You heard Morgan when he got in the ambulance. Elizabeth is pregnant. They’re clearly sleeping together. Maybe Carly knew?”

“I’ve met the sister. She’s a ditz who can barely tie her shoes.” Mac grunted. “But yeah, maybe we snip off that end. Wonder if she knew about the baby.”

“Only one way to find out.”

General Hospital: Surgical Waiting Room

Scott hesitated at the entrance to the room, watched as Jason Morgan paced the room, the restless energy radiating even on the other side of the room. Bobbie sat slumped in one of the chairs, her eyes staring ahead blankly, puffy and red from crying. Beside her, Audrey Hardy sat stiffly, her eyes watching Morgan suspiciously, darting back and forth.

But then she saw him, and got to her feet. “Scotty! Oh, thank heavens. Tell me—” The older woman came across the room, and Scott reached for her outstretched hands, squeezed them, and kissed her cheek. “Tell me you know something.”

“They’re still gathering evidence at the scene,” Scott said, reassuring his parents’ oldest friend. “I’m so sorry about this, Audrey. Bobbie. This is—this is awful.”

“One more tragedy for my daughter to live through,” Bobbie said, her tone clipped. She slowly rose to her face. “I don’t know what happened, but it starts and ends with Ric Lansing. Somehow, he’s at the root of this. And if you’d done your goddamn job, you worthless coward, he’d be in jail and those girls would be on their feet—”

“What is she talking about?” Audrey demanded, whipping her head back to look at Scott.

Scott grimaced, averted his eyes but unfortunately looked straight at Jason Morgan whose malevolent gaze could probably felt in China. “Carly’s disappearance this summer—there were many rumors, and we couldn’t prove them—”

“Elizabeth gave a statement,” Jason said, flatly. “You found the damn panic room—”

“And Carly was still gone. Elizabeth left Ric. The word of an angry estranged wife with no corroboration?” Scott rubbed his chest. “We couldn’t do anything with the statement. Not then.”

“Panic room—” Audrey pressed a hand to her cheek, took a step back. “Will someone tell me what happened to my granddaughter?”

“Elizabeth found Carly in the damn panic room right before she had the pulmonary embolism,” Bobbie told her friend, and the older woman’s lips parted, almost as if to form a denial. “She saw her, Audrey. Carly was screaming for help, but Elizabeth collapsed first. And Lorenzo Alcazar swooped in to kidnap Carly again—”

“That wasn’t corroborated either—”

“Oh, evidence is important to you? Really?” Bobbie snorted, stalked away. Took a deep breath, looked at Audrey. “You think I don’t know what you’ve been thinking since I called you? What did you say when I told you—”

“Bobbie—”

“You said I thought she was done with all that. I thought she’d come to her senses about what a danger Jason Morgan is.” Bobbie stabbed a finger at the man in question. “Well, that man is the one standing here and the one you wanted for her kidnapped my daughter and hid her in a panic room in his own home for weeks! Don’t stand there and pretend that you had no idea what a monster he was—”

Audrey pressed her trembling lips together. “Bobbie, we’re both upset—”

“No, no, you don’t get to do that. You’ve looked down on Jason from the beginning, from the moment he came into Elizabeth’s life, and he’s the only one who’s never hurt her! Ric Lansing is the kind of man you wanted for her, don’t pretend you didn’t encourage her!”

“She never told me—”

“She shouldn’t have had to,” Jason said, and both women looked at him, started. “But that’s not important right now. It’s not.” He dragged hands over his face. “What happened this summer, what Baldwin didn’t do—none of it matters right now.” He sat down, exhaled slowly. “There’s nothing they know?” he asked, his voice quiet. “No leads?”

“No. We’re waiting on the crime scene techs to come back.” Scott shifted again. “But they’re thinking there were ricochets. Maybe one of them wasn’t the target. We think maybe Carly—”

“What?” Bobbie looked at him blankly. “Why?”

“Initial intake report—” Scott slid his hands in his pockets. “I read them before coming up. Ric was shot twice. One of those wounds still has a bullet, but the other has an exit wound. Went in the back, out his chest. I asked them to run the bullet they take from Elizabeth—I think she was hit with the same bullet. You heard more than one gunshot,” he said. “You don’t know how many, but it was more than one.”

“Felt it wouldn’t stop,” Bobbie murmured, pressing both hands to her face, closing her eyes.

“Three,” Jason said, and Scott nodded. “I only heard three. Unless they shot before we got there—”

“Two for Ric, and a nick in the brick suggests that at least one shot ricocheted.  I’m just—it narrows it down. Ric being the target, Elizabeth and Carly being bystanders.” He hesitated. “The DA’s office is recusing itself from this case. We can’t prosecute an crime done to one of our employees. We have a conflict. The state’s going to send a special prosecutor.”

“So you do have some ethics,” Bobbie said bitterly. “Nice to know—”

“I only—” Scott cleared his throat. “I only meant that I’m not here—I mean, I’m here to help the investigation. But it’s not official. It’s not. I think maybe—” He forced the words from somewhere inside. “I know you’re right, Bobbie. If I’d pushed harder this summer, if I hadn’t—maybe the blame for this comes back to me. You get blinded sometimes by the rage, by the frustration of someone always getting away without consequences—” He stared down at his hands. “But Carly and Elizabeth shouldn’t be here right now.”

“No, they shouldn’t. You’ll have to live with that,” Bobbie said tightly. “And if my daughter dies, if something happens to my grandson, to Elizabeth and her child—”

Audrey gasped, but Bobbie kept going. “If anything happens to any of them, the blood will be on your hands. I hope you choke on that rage, Scott. I hope it keeps you warm at night because no one else ever will. Get out. And don’t come back unless we have an attorney present.”

Harborview Towers: Lobby

She’d forgotten her suitcase.

In the mad flight from her brother’s penthouse, Courtney had forgotten to grab the suitcase she’d left at the elevator, and had had to go back for it.

Now, as she lugged it towards the doors, Wally, the front desk guard, called her over. “What? Do I have to turn in my key or something?” she demanded.

“Uh—” The man looked baffled. “I don’t know. Jason didn’t—I mean, that’s not why—you’re staying with Mrs. C, aren’t you?”

And then Courtney remembered the cover story that explained her absence. So Jason hadn’t told anyone about their breakup. “Why does it matter?”

“I can’t get a hold of Jason, and Mr. C isn’t taking calls. At all.” Wally hesitated. “But the cops were here. I thought maybe Mrs. C or you could let Jason know. We didn’t let them up.”

“Didn’t you try to call her?”

“Yeah, but she’s not picking up either.”

I killed her. I killed her. Oh, God. I killed her.

Courtney took a step back, took a deep breath. “Yeah, okay. I’ll let Carly know. She’s…she’s probably asleep or something. Thanks, Wally.”

“Sure thing, Miss Matthews. Have a great night.”

General Hospital: Surgical Waiting Room

Audrey Hardy looked five years older than she had when she’d arrived after Bobbie’s diatribe — or maybe it was the news that Elizabeth was pregnant, Jason thought, glancing over at the elderly woman. He hadn’t known Audrey had encouraged Elizabeth to stay with Ric, though it made sense. Harvard educated lawyer who dressed in suits—

He looked back out the window, saw himself reflected back. On paper, Ric Lansing had been everything Jason wasn’t. Hard to blame Audrey for wanting better for her granddaughter than a coffee importer with ties to the mob who rode a motorcycle and had been responsible for Elizabeth’s kidnapping. And a bomb in her studio. And being shot at—

Maybe Jason wasn’t what every grandmother wanted, and that was fine. But one look at Elizabeth, and Audrey would have seen that she was unhappy. She’d never looked deeper than that. Maybe it wasn’t fair to be angry at her for pushing Elizabeth towards Ric, but he was tired of being angry with himself or frustrated with Elizabeth for it.

The minutes ticked by, the clock on the wall taunting them with every spin of the second hand, the longer minute hand crawling towards one in the morning. He sat for a while, then paced again.

Thought about who had done this—though as soon as Scott had related the medical reports, Jason knew. Who would want Ric dead and be crazy enough to shoot wildly around two innocent bystanders, one of whom was his pregnant wife?

It had to be Sonny.

Despite that conviction, the certainty, Jason did nothing with the suspicion. He didn’t tell Mac or Capelli when they’d come knocking, had sent them away with nothing more than he didn’t know. But he also didn’t call Max to check on Sonny, to start making arrangements to get Sonny out of the country—

He’d spent his entire life protecting Sonny from the world, from rivals, and from himself, and now because Jason hadn’t acted quickly enough, hadn’t forced Sonny to get help years ago—because Jason had been paralyzed by the decision, Elizabeth was in surgery and might lose their baby, and Carly might die.

There was a snick of the door when the handle turned and a whoosh when it was pushed open. Tony came in, dressed in green surgical scrubs, a matching cap on his head, the mask pulled down around his neck.

Bobbie half-rose from her chair and Jason turned to face him. “Is it—”

“Carly’s still in surgery. That will likely take all night,” he told Bobbie. “I’m scrubbing in shortly. But Elizabeth was my priority. The bullet was near a nerve in her arm—” He stopped, looked at Audrey, then at Jason. “She’s in recovery. We think we were able to repair any damage to the nerve, though she might have some loss of strength and movement in that arm. In her hand.”

“Her hand—” Jason swallowed hard. Flexed his own in response. “She’s an artist.”

Audrey simply closed her eyes, pressed a fist against her lips. “Tony—”

“We just won’t know,” Tony said. He touched Audrey’s shoulder, then hesitated, looked at Jason. “Does…does she know—”

“Yes. And Elizabeth will ask as soon as she wakes up—” If they lost the baby, and Elizabeth lost her art all at once—he couldn’t finish his question. Couldn’t put the words into the world.

“So far, so good. We monitored the fetal heartbeat, and there were no signs of miscarriage. She’s not out of the woods. The risk remains high, especially if she develops an infection or there are any complications,” Tony warned. “Dr. Meadows will be in with more, but right now, the news is good. Someone will be in to let you know when we move her into her own room. I’m going in to handle Carly’s case now—”

“Tony—” Bobbie came forward. “Thank you, thank you for—”

“Don’t thank me yet, Bobbie.” But he squeezed her hand, and left.

Audrey looked at Jason, her eyes damp. “The baby…are you—”

“Yes.” Jason lifted his chin. “It’s mine. And I love your granddaughter.”

“You should—” Audrey took a seat, took a long careful breath. “You should be in with her. She should see you when she wakes. You’re right. The first she’ll want to know is if the baby is—she should see you first.”

Grateful that it wasn’t an argument, Jason nodded. “Thank you.”

“Bobbie, I’ll stay with you until we know about Carly. I’m—I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry for all of it.”

General Hospital: ICU

When Ric Lansing was moved from post-op to his own room in the ICU wing, there were no tearful family members. Just a reluctant Scott Baldwin who wished he’d been anywhere else.

“He’ll be groggy if he wakes from the surgery,” the nurse said as she walked Scott into the room. “Press the call button.”

“I’m probably not—” Scott stopped when he realized the nurse had already walked away. He headed towards the bed, wondered what the hell he was supposed to do.

Ric’s head turned slightly, and his eyes opened. Scott sighed. Of course, he’d wake up. He had shit for luck, didn’t he?

“W-hat—where am I?”

“Hospital,” Scott said gruffly. “You got shot. You know who did it?”

Ric’s brown eyes were bleary, glazed over. “Lizbeth.”

“Fine.” Scott shoved his hands in his pockets. “So is that a no?”

Ric licked his lips. “She’s okay?”

“Fine, fine. Shot to the shoulder, concussion, but fine. Just answer the question.”

“Concussion.” Ric closed his eyes, turned his head away, was quiet for so long, Scott thought he’d drifted to sleep. But then he looked back, lifted his gaze. “He didn’t mean to hurt her.”

“He? Who?”

“Shots…must have gone wild. He’d never—he’d never hurt them.”

“Listen—”

“Thought he was smarter than that.” Ric closed his eyes. “Thought Jason knew how to handle a gun. Guess I was wrong.”

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