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General Hospital: Carly’s Room

It was difficult to keep her eyes open, to force herself to stop drifting, not to give in to the fatigue pulling at every muscle, but Carly was determined to find out what was going on.

Because something was going on—something that was somehow more terrible than the prospect that Sonny was part of what had happened to her. Had he shot her, thinking to protect her from Ric? It was too awful to be true, and yet—

Her mother returned from the hallway, after another phone call she’d left the room to take, that fake smile stretched across her face. “Are you up for some dinner? I thought maybe Leticia could come by and bring Michael—”

“I want that, yes, but—” Carly stopped, searching for the right question, the right turn of phrase, the magical words that would keep her mother from shutting down, from telling her there was time for that later, after she’d rested, after she’d recovered—

Bobbie straightened the sheets at the bottom of the bed, flicked at some imaginary lint. “He’s such a resilient little boy, you know. Rolls with the punches.”

“That’s…Jason’s…influence.” Carly pressed her lips together. “He hasn’t been to see me.”

Bobbie stopped, looked at her with wide eyes. “Oh. But he has. He just keeps missing you with tests and, oh, he’s had so much on his plate, Carly, you can’t begin to understand—”

“Let…me try. Elizabeth…she was there that. She was hurt, wasn’t she?”

“Y-yes,” Bobbie said, a bit hesitantly. She sat in the chair next to the bed, perched on the edge as if ready to take flight. “But not as badly. A bullet to the shoulder. She was released a few days ago.”

“I—I know about them. Jason and Elizabeth. You don’t have…to protect…me. I know. Jason—Jason told me. I mean, he…” She heard the word slur and squeezed her eyes shut. No. No, have to stay awake. Have to know. “He didn’t have…a choice. I…heard. I heard her. And Ric. I know. I know that. You…don’t…have to protect…me.”

“Sweetheart—”

Carly rolled her head to the side, pressing her cheek against the pillow, looked at her mother. “Courtney. Not my friend. Maybe not ever.”

“I can’t speak to that—”

“She hasn’t been here either. She knows. That I know.”

“I—I don’t know if she did—” Bobbie closed her eyes, and the expression that crossed her mother’s face—the panic-tinged regret managed to get through the fog creeping in.

“Mama. Where…where is she? Did Ric…”

“I don’t know. We don’t know much. But, honey—” Bobbie reached for Carly’s hand, squeezed it. “She’s gone. She died.”

Carly looked up at the ceiling, swallowed hard. “Dead. Someone…Sonny? Was this him? Is what you’re trying so hard not to say? Did he hurt me? Did he hurt Courtney?”

Bobbie exhaled slowly. “We don’t know what happened to Courtney. But yes, we think this was Sonny.”

Kelly’s: Courtyard

He taken Mike at his word that Courtney’s father would keep things civil, that whatever anger and resentment he had about the end of Jason’s relationship with his daughter, he’d keep it to himself for now.

But Mike had just been playing games, Jason realized, standing between the older man and Elizabeth. Playing with words. He’d held in his anger at Jason because Mike still needed access to Sonny—

But Elizabeth, apparently, was fair game.

Mike clenched a fist at his side. “Jason, I told you, I don’t want to do this with you—”

“But you’ll do it to Elizabeth,” Jason said. “You forgot to tell me that when you were reassuring me.” He turned his back, looked at her, at her stricken expression, the guilt swirling in her eyes. “Let’s go—”

“But—” she began.

“Jason—”

“I get that it would help you deal with all of this if you can find someone to blame. And that’s fine. You blame me,” Jason told him, flattening a hand against his chest. “I’m the one that proposed, I’m the one that broke his promises. And I’m the one who made sure that when it was done, Courtney hated me. Elizabeth did nothing—”

“Except let everyone think that my daughter conspired with a psychotic kidnapper. What’s more likely, Jason?” Mike challenged. “Courtney turning her back on everything she knew about that man or Elizabeth lying to cover up for him like she has for months?”

“Shut up—”

“No, no, please—” Elizabeth flew between them, holding her hand up, her fingers trembling. “Please don’t. Don’t do this. Okay? Jason, don’t.” Tears spilled down her cheeks when she turned to Mike, his face florid. “If I thought for one minute I could make this easier for you by lying, by letting you think that it was true, I’d do it, Mike. Because the truth is awful for everyone who loved her.”

“It can’t be true, okay? You misunderstood. You had to—I just need you to think, to go back and see if maybe you just didn’t understand—” Mike’s voice faltered. “You have to be wrong.”

“I wish I was. I wish—” Elizabeth closed her eyes, touched the arm still tucked into the brace. “I wish I could take it all back. To go back in time and stop it somehow. I regret every minute I ever spent with Ric Lansing. I need you to know that I don’t blame you for doubting me—”

“Elizabeth, you don’t have to do this,” Jason told her. He laid a hand on her shoulder, tried to propel her back but she shook her head. “You don’t owe him anything—”

“Don’t I? Don’t I owe a debt for the way I kept Ric in this town? I trusted him, and he broke me into pieces—” Her lips trembled, and she looked to the ground. “And I can’t ever undo that. But I left him. I wanted to be done with it. You know that, Mike. You know that Ric was bothering me. I wasn’t going to say anything, but Nikolas forced me to—”

“I—”

“He knew her schedule, Mike,” Jason said tightly, and Mike looked away. “Did you give it to him?”

“Of course not—”

“Courtney didn’t just tell me to my face. She was still working with Ric. That’s why Carly was here that night. To tell Elizabeth what she’d overheard. Carly heard her. It’s not just Elizabeth’s story. Are you telling me Carly’s lying, too?”

Mike dragged his hands down his face. “I can’t—it just can’t be the way it happened. There’s something missing. He forced her. Like before. Like this spring. Blackmail or something. She knew what he was. She knew.”

And because the horror in Mike’s voice was sincere, and because Jason had his own guilt, he swallowed his irritation. “She knew, and she hated me enough that it didn’t matter. She went to the cops and tried to frame me, Mac. Why do you think she wouldn’t hate me enough to do worse?”

“I can’t—I can’t do this. I don’t want to—” Mike turned and left the courtyard without another word.

Elizabeth turned to face Jason, tears glinting on her cheeks. “I’ll never be able to make up for  what I did, will I? For all the months I defended Ric. No wonder he hates me. I just don’t understand why you don’t hate me, too.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

Scott paced from the door to the desk, then back again, waiting with little patience as Mac finished his conversation on the phone. He made a little circle in the air with his index finger, indicating it was time to wrap it up.

Mac shot him the finger and Scott just scowled at him. “Yeah, Robin, I appreciate it. Okay. I’ll take it from here. No, don’t come home. I’ll keep you in the loop, but right now, the last thing we need is someone else on the ground that we have to worry about. Keep that up, and I’ll have your mother pull strings to get your passport revoked. Stay in Paris.” He dropped the phone back on the base, then sat behind the desk with a sigh.

“That doesn’t sound good.”

“Brenda spent some time in Paris with Robin, and was just putting together plans to find a new agent and get back to modeling—but then Lorenzo Alcazar showed up. He found them in Paris, wanted to let Brenda know there weren’t any hard feelings.”

Scott stilled. “And no one bothered to tell you? Or anyone? What about Morgan and Corinthos?”

“Brenda called Jason. He arranged for her to get off the grid. She left Robin in early June, and Robin hasn’t had much from her since. A few phone calls, but nothing that would give us a location. I don’t know what, if anything, Sonny knows.”

“Alcazar goes to see her personally, and Brenda disappears? That might explain why Alcazar came here, focused on Sonny again. He thinks he’s hiding her—”

“Actually.” Mac tipped his head. “I think that might explain why he started with Ric. Because Jason’s hiding Brenda. Jason’s the one that married her to protect her from Luis, remember? And who do Ric and Jason have in common?”

“Ah. Well.” Scott sighed. “Well, if we’re going to ask Morgan for help again, it probably should be you. I think he might be a little mad at me.”

“A little?”

“Yeah, yeah, you were right and I was wrong. You don’t have to rub it in, okay?”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

She hadn’t been in a hurry to return to the penthouse, not after learning of Courtney’s death and being here looking at what remained of a life the woman had planned with Jason. She’d avoided the conversation of where she was going to stay, knowing that the studio was out of the question and that, security wise, her grandmother’s house wasn’t exactly ideal.

But Elizabeth almost wished she’d spoken up so that she’d have some warning for what confronted her after Jason pushed the door open and stood aside to allow her in.

It was like a time warp. Nearly every item of furniture was gone, save the pool table, a single photo of Michael, and a familiar brown leather sofa. “W-What—”

Jason blinked, looked around, then rubbed the back of his head. He dropped his keys on the desk. “I forgot. Mike said he wanted to get Courtney’s things, and I wanted—I wanted to make it easier on him, so I had some guys —”

Remove every evidence that she’d ever existed. Elizabeth braced a hand against her abdomen, almost protectively splaying her hand over the baby she couldn’t feel yet. It was all so impossible suddenly, and she didn’t really understand why the stark emptiness of the room should make her feel that way—

“This is—this is too much. I can’t do this. I can’t—” She fumbled with the clasp on the brace, dragged it over her head, then cradled her damaged, weakened arm, her shoulder aching.

Jason came forward, a hand outstretched. “Hey—careful—”

“I can’t do this. I can’t—” She stepped back from him. “It’s too much. It’s just too much. This isn’t what it’s supposed to be like. We’re not supposed to be doing this.”

“Doing what?” Jason said carefully, holding his hands up, almost as if he was trying to ward off the levels of crazy she felt sure were radiating from her trembling body.

“Any of this. All of it. It’s just so fast, and out of control, and I don’t know how to make any of it stop, I don’t know how to do this. What am I supposed to do? We’re acting like all of this never happened, like we weren’t basically at each other throat’s throats for a year, and I told you I wish you were the one who was shot—”

“Okay, maybe you need to take a breath,” Jason said, taking a step towards her, but she backed up.

“No, no. I just need to—” She let her arm fall to the side, the useless dead weight of an arm she could barely lift, much less use to create. “I don’t know. I don’t know what I need. I just know it’s not this.”

“This,” Jason repeated. He stiffened. “Me?”

“No. I mean, yes, no—” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything. We had that night, and then we walked away, and we were barely even scraping together an idea of what might happen in the future, and then I’m pregnant, and shot, and almost lose the baby, and Carly’s in a coma, you get arrested—and now courtney’s dead, and you just erased her like she didn’t happen, but she happened, okay? It all happened.”

Her chest was heaving when she finished, and Jason just looked at her a little wide-eyed, startled, because he hadn’t expected any of that. Neither had she. But something about seeing the penthouse look exactly as it had a year ago.

A year ago when she’d stormed out and it had all gone insane.

“Do you want me to take you to your grandmother’s?” Jason asked finally. He lowered his hands to his side. His tone was careful, his expression blank.

“I don’t know what I want, and I just—” Her head hurt, and so did everything else. She sat on the sofa, stared at the blank wall straight ahead. “I don’t know anything. I feel like I’ve been walking in a stupor since I woke up and you got arrested, and I don’t know how to make it stop.”

“Okay—” Jason drew out the word uncertainly, but a knock at the door kept him from continuing if he even knew what to do with her insane meltdown. He looked at her again, then went to the door. He grimaced, then pulled it open. “If you’re here to arrest me again—”

Mac put a hand against the door frame, blocking Scott partially from view. “Ignore Baldwin. He’s just here because I didn’t lock the car door fast enough.”

“Look, I dropped the charges. Don’t I get credit for that?” Scott demanded.

Mac ignored him, focused on Jason. “We have a problem. You’re hiding Brenda Barrett.”

Jason blinked, thrown by the commissioner’s statement. “What?”

“Brenda. Robin said she called you when Alcazar showed up in Paris. It seems like you arranged for Brenda to go missing, and then a few weeks later Lorenzo Alcazar showed up here in Port Charles. At Ric’s, where he found Carly in a panic room. But we don’t think he was looking for her.”

Jason’s hand fell slowly from the door. “What do you mean, he was at Ric’s?”

“He was there that night.”

Jason turned, looked at Elizabeth whose expression had gone still, the whirl of emotion faded entirely. “What?”

“The night Carly was kidnapped. He called the cops when he found me passed out on the sofa. He knew Carly was in the panic room. Ric got the cops to leave, but he never knew why they were there. But it was Alcazar.” Elizabeth came forward, her eyes on Mac. “You think he came looking for me.”

“Yeah. I do. But how did you know that?”

“Ric told me when he came back from Venezuela. He was trying to make me think he was forced into kidnapping Carly, but it was a lie, and he dropped it. I would have told you. If you’d ever followed up on my original statement.”

Jason pressed his lips together, looked from Elizabeth back to Mac. “You think Lorenzo Alcazar is looking for Brenda for revenge on his brother? I didn’t understand why Brenda was afraid — she’s not the one who killed him.”

“No, but she is the reason Luis came to Port Charles, why he went after Sonny in the first place,” Mac reminded him. “You ever ask yourself, Jason, why if Lorenzo Alcazar wanted revenge, he was playing games? Kidnapping Carly, then releasing her? Hanging around to make Sonny crazy?”

“I—” Jason was missing something, and he didn’t know what to think. “I don’t know, but it sounds like you have a theory.”

“I do. I think Lorenzo Alcazar is the brother who went over the balcony, and Luis Alcazar is back in town, finishing what he started.”

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