No idea how long this took, actually. Started at 6, had to take a break for an allergy attack (super fun, haven’t had one in a few weeks and your brain always tricks you into forgetting how terrible those are). Anyway, it’s done. Enjoy.

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General Hospital: Hallway

“Hey.” Bobbie kissed Jason’s cheek, then squeezed his hand. “What brings you to the hospital?”

“Elizabeth has a follow-up with Tony,” Jason said, folding his arms. “I figured maybe it’s easier if I’m not there considering—”

“Right. Well, if you came to see Carly, I’m afraid you’ve just missed her. They took her in for more tests.”

“Oh.” Jason looked past her to the empty space where Carly’s hospital bed should have been. “How was she? Still—”

“Still the same. In and out. Not staying awake very long, and when she does, she’s just asking for Michael or Sonny.” Bobbie patted his arm. “Take a walk with me so I can stretch my legs. I’ve been sitting most of the morning.”

They headed down the hallway, back towards the nurse’s station. “How’s Elizabeth feeling?”

“Tired and sore.” Jason’s mouth was grim. “Still no feeling in her hand. Not enough anyway. And she feels guilty for even worrying about it with everything else.”

“I can understand that. A lot of people would look at her and think, well you’re out on your own two feet, you didn’t lose your baby, and you just have to learn with your right hand. No big deal. It could have been so much worse.” Bobbie squeezed his arm. “But you and I know what her art means to her.”

“Yeah.” Jason exhaled slowly. “I’m sorry. About all of this.”

Bobbie stopped, looked at him with furrowed brows. “Why are you apologizing to me?” she asked, a bit dumbfounded. “Jason—”

“I could have done more,” he said with a quick shake of his head. “To help Sonny before this all went wrong. Now he’s at Rose Lawn, Carly was in a coma, Courtney’s dead—” he looked away. “Elizabeth might never pick up a paintbrush.”

Bobbie tipped her head, smiled sadly. “Don’t tell me you’re punishing yourself for not having the gift of reading minds. We worried over Sonny, both of us. And when Carly threw in the towel, you made sure she got out. We had no way of knowing—even imagining this might happen. And Courtney? Maybe if she’d made a thousand of other choices, she’d be here with us.”

“I know, it’s just—”

“We all did the best we could, Jason. Carly might not be able to tell us what happened that night. Ever. Elizabeth might not ever remember. All we might ever have is the fragments of what Sonny thinks he might have done. I’m trying to come to terms with that.” She lifted her brows. “Is there any news on Lorenzo Alcazar? Mac said he was their primary suspect in Courtney’s murder and whatever happened to Ric.”

“He’s off the grid, which isn’t great news.” Jason scratched the edge of his brow. “We’re looking for him, too. I don’t like the idea of either of them out there. We don’t even know for sure that Ric hasn’t been working for him all along.”

“And isn’t that a depressing thought?”

“I’m not going to stop looking for him, Bobbie. Maybe you’re right. Maybe we’ll never know what happened that night for sure, but until I find the two of them, the people who matter will never be safe.”

General Hospital: Examining Room

Tony Jones watched as Elizabeth attempted to tighten her fist around a rubber ball, then made a note in his chart. “Range of motion is about where we’d expect it right now.”

Startled, Elizabeth dropped the ball and blinked at the doctor as he went to wash his hands. “But I can’t hold anything with my hand. I can barely hold a fork—”

Tony turned back to her, drying his hands on a towel. “I know it’s frustrating when you can’t do something that came so easily just a few weeks ago. And I know you’re an artist — that fine motor control is essential. The bullet nicked your brachial plaxus—” He gestured to his shoulder. “That controls so much of the movement on that side of your body — a few more centimeters, and we might be discussing the paralysis of the entire arm, not just your fingers.”

Elizabeth dropped her gaze to her hand, to the useless fingers. “You’re right. It could be worse.”

Tony set the chart back down, returned to his stool. “They’ll give you some exercises at the desk when you check out. Take it easy on them for another week or so, really let that injury heal. Right now, all of that area—” He touched his own shoulder. “It’s still angry, still inflamed. Let it relax. Ice, a little bit of stretching, the anti-inflammatory medication — all of that will combine to give us a better sense of where we are when you come back in—” He squinted. “Let’s say three weeks, unless you need something sooner.”

“But you think I might be able to get full range back?”

“Oh, well, I don’t want to make any promises. I can’t tell you a hundred percent of it will come back, not right away. Just try and have some patience.”

Patience, Elizabeth thought as she scheduled the next follow-up and retrieved the exercise and physical therapy regiment. She tried to remind herself that Tony’s job was to be realistic, and not to make promises he couldn’t keep, but she’d really hoped for something a little better.

Jason was outside in the waiting area, studying the view outside the window. “Hey. How did  it go?” he asked, kissing the corner of her mouth and retrieving the paperwork she held.

“Fine, I guess. Did you get to see Carly?”

“More tests.” Jason steered her towards the elevators. “But tomorrow, Bobbie said, she wants me to bring Michael by. Carly should be up to it by then.”

“That’ll be good for both of you guys.” Elizabeth leaned into his side, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Almost done.”

“One more stop, and start thinking about what to have for dinner.”

Port Charles Grille: Restaurant

Scott set the file down in front of Justus, then sat across from him. “That’s the entire investigative file. Everything I had when I  went to trial against Jason and Brenda.”

Justus lifted the file, which was no more than a few inches thick. “Seems a bit light for a murder investigation.”

“There’s a box of evidence back at the station,” Scott said, picking up the menu, flicking to the specials. “But there wasn’t much to go on. Kind of impressive I managed to get a conviction—”

“A wrongful conviction,” Justus said meaningfully. “I wouldn’t be so proud of convicting innocent people—”

“Morgan didn’t push the guy, but I’m not calling him innocent—”

“There’s not much here on the victim. Just his autopsy report,” Justus said, speaking over Scott. “Was there a background check?”

“Didn’t really need one. He was known to our suspects, and had been bothering people for a few months by that point. Besides, don’t Morgan and Corinthos have everything for you to look at—”

“I’m asking you about him. You said you wanted to get to the bottom of this, remember?” Justus said. “We all agreed Lorenzo Alcazar was the best suspect. We’re starting back with his brother’s murder. There are things you can get as the government that I couldn’t get legally—” When Scott opened his mouth, Justus pointed a finger at him. “No. Don’t even say it. Everything has to be by the book. Courtney—her family deserves that much.”

Scott made a face. “Yeah, yeah. Well, all we know about Lorenzo Alcazar right now is he was supposed to be the good brother. I guess maybe identical twins aren’t as different as everyone wants to think they are.”

“Doesn’t look that way, no. Let’s start with full background checks on both brothers and see what we’re dealing with.”

General Hospital: Examining Room

Elizabeth flinched slightly when the technician spread the cool gel across her lower belly. “Oh, that’s so cold.”

“Sorry,” the tech said, flashing a smile, then tapping some keys on the monitor. She picked up the wand. “Let’s see what we can make out. Have you heard the heartbeat yet?”

Elizabeth looked at Jason and he squeezed her hand a bit harder, then kissed her knuckles. “Sort of. But we haven’t—this is our first ultrasound.”

They’d both heard the heartbeat the night she’d been shot, but this—this would be the first time they’d see the baby.

“Your chart says that you conceived around September 2?” the tech asked, moving the wand across Elizabeth’s belly.”

“That—yes. So I should be about seven weeks along.”

The tech turned the monitor towards them — a dark screen with gray specks — and a little pulsating ball in the middle. “There you go—” She pointed. “Around ten millimeters long. Not much to see at this point, guys, but then again — no news is good news. And—” She tapped a few more keys, and a sound began to echo in tandem with the image on the screen.

Elizabeth opened her mouth, but her throat felt too tight for any words. She looked Jason, wondering if he could see what she saw — if it was the same for him.

“I’ll leave you both alone for few minutes. See if Dr. Meadows is ready to see you.” The tech left the room.

“Can you—” Elizabeth bit her lip. “Can you—”

“It—yeah. I can. I wasn’t—” He dipped his head down, took another deep breath, then looked at her, tears in the corner of his eyes. “I didn’t think I’d be able to see anything. Or know what I was looking at it, but that’s—it’s moving at the same time—That’s our baby.”

“That’s our baby,” she echoed, her smile spreading. “It’s the first time—I mean, before, when I heard it, I was just so happy that it was there, that the baby—but it’s still here. We’re really doing this.”

He pressed his lips to her forehead, lingering. “We’re having a baby.” Jason pulled back, brought her hand to his mouth, kissed it again. “We’re going to be okay,” he told her. “Whatever happens.”

She laid back against the headrest, still smiling. “All three of us,” she told him. “We’re going to be just fine.”

A Bedroom

Every move he made, Ric had to bite down hard to avoid crying out. Just walking in laps between the edge of his bed and the dresser caused him to break out in sweat and his arms and legs to tremble—

But if he was ever going to get out of this goddamn mess, he’d need to have his movement back. Damn Sonny for shooting him in the back, though it could have been worse. He could have been paralyzed.

Or shot in the head.

All things considered, Ric had gotten off light, though it didn’t feel that way right now, as he clutched the end of the bed, sweat sliding down his back.

When he could move around, he could stop planning his next move. His escape. It was just his rotten luck that Luis had faked his own death, using his poor dumb bastard of a brother to cover his tracks. Ric should have seen that coming — hadn’t he spent nearly five years trying to stay one step ahead of Luis Alcazar?

He hobbled back to the bed, laid back down, panting. It should have been his ticket to success, he thought bitterly. Taking advantage of Luis’s death to secure his own future, to use all that wonderful research Ric had compiled for Luis’s benefit—

People really were so gullible. It was such a delight to see where you could lead someone if you left the right bread crumbs, or what you could make them believe if you played the right notes.

Ric had secured his continued existence by claiming to be the brother Sonny had never known about, figuring that Sonny wouldn’t try very hard to fact check the story. After all, wouldn’t he find the same details Ric had? Adela Woods had, in fact, worked for the cleaning company Trevor Lansing’s law firm had employed. Surely, they’d known each other, and Trevor had seduced more than his fair share of the help over the years.

And right now, Luis was busy planning a way to use Elizabeth’s relationship to Sonny against him, leaving Ric free to plot his next move. It was perfect, Ric thought, tying one woman to both men. Even better than using Courtney.

Ric would have deployed this sooner, but he’d thought Jason would be too skeptical. Only a few weeks after meeting Jason, he’d known it would never work. Within a few weeks, Jason would have had someone find all the evidence that supported Elizabeth Imogene Webber as the youngest daughter of Jeffrey and Caroline Webber, with zero connection to the state of New York outside of her grandparents.

But Luis? He’d bought the story hook, line, and sinker over a year ago, and had never bothered to verify it. Now he’d been holed up for two days, discarding all kinds of ideas and schemes to use the information.

People wanted to believe the impossible. The improbable. The incredible. Thank God for stupid people. They really did make the world go round.

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