Written in 48 minutes. Absolutely exhausted, so glad I managed as much as I did.

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Elizabeth pulled her car into the driveway along side a sleek BMW she didn’t quite recognize — but she did know the man striding away from her front door. She honked the horn to get his attention, then switched off the ignition.

“Hey.” Michael met her at the hood of her car with a relieved expression. “I’m glad I caught you. I was gonna leave a voicemail, but I really wanted to talk to you in person.”

“I actually was going to call you, too,” Elizabeth said. She let herself into the house, ushered Michael in, and wondered how to broach the conversation. “What brought you over?”

“Well, first, I really was serious about getting together for dinner one night.” Michael followed her into the kitchen, watched her start a pot of coffee. “I’ve been kind of wrapped up with my own thing for a while, and I feel like I haven’t spent enough time with Jake—”

“Michael.” Elizabeth faced him, tipped her head, then smiled. “Sometimes you remind me so much of your uncle. You have your own family, and Jake’s been doing really well—” She bit her lip, made a face. “Well, until the last few days. But you’ve got your own family, and ELQ—and Willow was so sick—” She saw the shadow cross his face, and paused. “That’s part of the reason I was going to call you. I don’t feel right knowing what I do and not telling you.”

Michael tensed, met her eyes, and must have seen something that hinted at what she meant to say. “You’ve talked to my uncle, haven’t you? Did he say something—”

“Not until I asked him. I saw Willow at the hospital with Drew. Just talking—” Elizabeth added quickly when Michael grimaced. “But it connected a few dots for me. I know Jason and Drew are at odds, and you seemed so sad the other day—not—” she winced. “Not that it wasn’t a sad occasion, but—”

“Yeah, I know.” Michael let out a slow exhale. “Just talking, and you guessed?” he muttered. He dragged a hand down his cheek. “There’s no way to stop this. It’s just going to explode, isn’t it?”

“Well, I’m not saying anything,” Elizabeth told him. “And Jason didn’t even want to confirm what I’d already  guessed, but I know he’s angry about the whole thing, and, well, he told me…about the video. About the location. And suddenly I think maybe he didn’t do enough damage.”

“Nanny cam,” Michael muttered. “Motion sensor so we can see if the kids are up from their nap or out of their crib, and it catches—” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to do with any of it, and if it’s all the same—”

“I’m saying nothing. This is your life, Michael. But I just wanted you to know…well, to know  that if you need anything, even just someone to vent to, I’m here. I’m so sorry.”

“I know ignoring it and pretending it’s not real isn’t really the best way to handle it, but it’s all I have right now.” With a quick shake of his head, Michael sighed. “I actually came over here to apologize to you about my dad. I got some of it from Jason ripping into my dad, and then Jake filled me in on the rest—”

Elizabeth straightened. “You’ve spoken to Jake?”

“Yeah. I’m glad I ran into him. I have a little experience learning the hard way your parents existed as people who make mistakes before you’re born. And sometimes you feature in their mistakes. Not that anything you did is like Mom or Sonny—”

“I don’t know, I’m not that far off sometimes when you make the full list. But I’m glad Jake ran into you. I hope—I don’t want you to tell me anything. And you wouldn’t. But I hope it helped.”

“So do I. I hate that it came out that way — I hate that it—” Michael hesitated. “When AJ told me about  the way my parents screwed around with custody of me, when I think of the way they villanized him, made him into a monster — it’s nothing like what happened with you and my uncle. I don’t even have to know the details—”

“I wasn’t the one doing the drugging if that’s what you mean,” Elizabeth said. She poured Michael a cup of coffee, slid across the counter. “But I lied. And I pushed Jason out of Jake’s life—”

“But you didn’t raise Jake to think Jason was a monster. When Jason came home after the coma, he and Jake were able to build their own thing. I’m not saying you did the right thing or a good thing. But perspective, you know, it helps. I know you, Elizabeth. The way you’ve always stood by my uncle, by my dad—AJ—when he didn’t always deserve it—Jake’s gonna remember all of that. That’s why I wanted to come over.” Michael waited for their eyes to meet. “Before, you were his mom and even if he knew you weren’t perfect, there was still this idea of being untouchable. You’re his mom. You didn’t really exist outside of that bubble. Now you’re a person, who made mistakes. It’s going to color how he looks at you — but he’ll adjust. He’ll fit this piece into the lifetime of love you’ve given him, and he’ll be okay. You just—you just have to let him get through this part. You know? Don’t push. Don’t try to influence how he sees things.”

“It’s hard,” Elizabeth admitted. She sighed, stirred sugar into her own cup. “Jake is still reeling from everything with Jason, and now this has been dumped on him. All I want to do is explain myself, to make him understand—but you’re right. I have to let him to handle this. However he chooses.”

—

Jason might have enjoyed the look of horror spreading across Lucky’s face if his son and Aiden weren’t standing between the two of them — Aiden still looking perplexed and Jake’s mixture of disgust and irritation.

“What do you mean?” Aiden asked, furrowing his brow. “No, Jake, you’ve got it wrong. I only asked Maxie because she’s Aunt Lu’s best friend. They were, like, my age—”

Jake raised his brows at his former father with a smile on his face that made Jason think of Elizabeth in the middle of a fight. She’d smirk and he knew that nothing civil was coming next. She’d always had a way of setting off Carly — and Courtney. And Sam—

“No, not your age,” Jake said, and then the smirk deepened. “More like somewhere between Cam and me.”

Aiden wrinkled his nose. “Ew, Dad, tell me you didn’t cheat on my mother with a teenager. That’s, like, so nasty—”

“I did not cheat on her with a teenager,” Lucky shot back, his face flushed. “Just like Jason to get it all twisted—”

“My father is the only one keeping his mouth shut. He’s good at that,” Jake said, throwing Jason a dark look that reminded him he wasn’t entirely off the hook, though he’d apparently moved a few notches down on Jake’s shit list. “You’re the idiot who practically forced me to listen to your side, chased me and Aiden out of the diner, and gave up your own dirty secrets.”

“Dirty secrets? You want to talk to about dirty secrets? You think your mother is so goddamned perfect—let’s talk about what she did to me—her and my—”

“Time to go home,” Jason said, cutting Lucky off and stepping between the boys and the furious man. He sent Jake a look. “Now. Go.”

“No, it’s just getting good,” Jake said. “And you’re not in charge of me—”

“I still don’t understand what’s going on—”

“Go home now, and I’ll talk to you later. Now. This isn’t a conversation you or your brother need to hear.”

“More secrets?” Jake demanded. “What the hell—”

“Don’t you ever stop protecting her?” Lucky wanted to know. “She lied to you, to me—”

Jason’s fist itched to plant itself in Lucky’s jaw, but it was the thing this situation needed. “Yeah, okay, eighteen years ago, she did a terrible thing. You want to drag up things that happened back then, Lucky? Things you did? Or maybe we talk about last week when you came to see me.”

Lucky pressed his lips together, looked past him to the boys. “Go home—”

“Oh, not a chance—” Jake said, folding his arms, then hesitated when Jason looked at him again. He swallowed hard. “Aiden, we’ll have to find out the rest later.”

“Okay, but you’re explaining this when we get in the car,” Aiden muttered. “And Dad, you better stop avoiding my calls.”

Jason waited until the duo had disappeared into the parking lot before turning his attention back on Lucky. “Unless you want Aiden to know you took money from me to split town again, I suggest you shut your mouth about what happened with Elizabeth and Nikolas—”

“She’s not even here to enjoy your white knight routine—”

“You see what Jake’s dealing with finding out what happened when he was a baby?” Jason retorted. “You want Aiden to go through that? To find out his mother had a paternity test, that Helena faked the results? Is that what he needs right now? Jake and Cam don’t remember any of that.”

“I would have been fine with leaving all of that in the past,” Lucky hissed. “But you dragged up my life—”

“Do you think I wanted any of this, Lucky? We’d put it away, you and me. You and Elizabeth. All of us. It was dead, and it was buried, and neither of those boys needed to know anything.” Jason scrubbed his hands down his face. “Look, I’m sorry I told Jake anything about you. He was furious, ready to take off in the car, and Elizabeth was a mess — Sonny threw a grenade into her life, into Jake’s life when he’s still angry at me. All I wanted to do was—”

“Protect her,” Lucky said sourly. “You didn’t give a shit about me—”

“No.” Jason grimaced. “No. And I guess I should have expected Jake to tell Aiden, even though I told him not to. I told him that it was something you should get to share, but I guess Jake wasn’t in the mood to do me favors. I just—I didn’t want Jake to be angry with the only parent who’s never left him. Elizabeth made mistakes, Lucky. But we all did. She didn’t deserve to have it thrown in her face by someone who wasn’t even part of it.”

“You think I’m proud of anything that happened back then?”

“Do you think any of us are? But you’re the only one threatening to make it worse. You say one word to either of them about Nikolas, about Aiden’s paternity mess—” Jason stopped, not entirely sure if he wanted to finish the threat.

But Lucky never did know when to back down. He lifted his chin. “What are you going to do?”

“I won’t use your kid to get back at you, that’s for damn sure.” And he really didn’t have much else — Elizabeth would never let Jason drop this idiot into the harbor. “But you keep your mouth shut and I won’t tell Elizabeth you came begging me for money to pay for your ticket out of town.”

Lucky scowled. “Go to hell—”

“I mean it, Lucky,” Jason said as the other man strode towards the diner entrance. “You dig up ancient history just to hurt Elizabeth, I’ll make you regret it.”

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