Written in 60 minutes.

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Spencer House: Living Room

Lucky opened the door, then nearly wished he hadn’t when he saw Emily on his porch. “I’m on my way to work—”

“So am I, so this won’t be long.” Emily raised her brows when he didn’t move. “Aren’t you going to let me in?”

He made a face, then stepped back. “I really—”

“Don’t have a lot of time, I heard you.” She remained on the landing. “The hearing is tomorrow. It’s not too late—”

“Em—” Lucky stepped down from the landing and back over to the table where he’d left his coffee cooling. He picked up the mug, sipped it. “I don’t want to have this discussion again.”

“It’s not much of a discussion when you’ve been ignoring everything everyone’s said for months. Lucky, you haven’t seen the boys since the beginning of August—”

“Since Elizabeth testified.” He carefully set down the coffee, turned to face her. “I’m aware of that. I never came home that night. I went to Wyndemere so that I wouldn’t be alone. You know where I went first?” She shook her head. “Courtland Street. My old dealer is still around.”

“Lucky.”

“I nearly broke ten months of sobriety, so I went to stay with Nikolas. And no, I haven’t seen the boys since then. Not for longer than a few minutes. That’s not my fault—”

“You could have petitioned for visitation pending the custody hearing, and you know that.” Emily folded her arms. “Elizabeth moved out in mid-August. It’s two months later. The only time you’ve seen them is in the park. What do you think the judge is going to say tomorrow?”

“I made a mistake.” Lucky exhaled slowly. “One mistake. I let my anger take over, I let it blind me to what really mattered. Elizabeth lied over and over and over again — but she gets a free pass, doesn’t she?” He smirked. “She points to the drugs and Maxie as reason enough for why she lied to me for a year, but I don’t get the benefit of the doubt for a moment?”

“Lucky—”

“I know I’m not going to win.” Lucky took the coffee cup into the kitchen, and Emily followed. He dumped it into the sink. “Even if I had a decent case, which I don’t, Jason would just bribe the judge. You think I’m stupid?”

“Then why—”

“Because as much as Elizabeth wishes she could erase these last few years, she can’t. Because Cameron and Jake are going to grow up and I’m part of their story. I’m in the pictures. Jason isn’t anywhere to be seen. And if the question ever gets asked, I want to be able to say I fought.”

“You’re going to put everyone through this custody hearing tomorrow for that?” Emily scoffed. “Lucky, come on—”

“She humiliated me,” Lucky murmured, though the words lacked the heat he’d felt only weeks ago. “I sat in that court room and listened to her testify that she’d spent the night with Jason, that my son wasn’t mine. And I found out at the same time as the rest of the world. Maybe I deserved that, I don’t know. The addict did, sure. I was brutal last year, and I had the affair, and I did everything wrong.” He turned to face her. “For six months, I treated Elizabeth like garbage. I accused her of affairs that didn’t exist while I was taking so many pills, it’s a miracle I’m alive. Even when I promised to get clean, I didn’t do it. I kept sleeping with Maxie. Do you think I don’t know exactly how we got to this point?”

Emily said nothing, just stared at him, so he looked away, towards the window. “And if she’d divorced me, announced the paternity to the world, and went on her merry way, I wouldn’t blame her. But that’s not what she did.”

“No.”

“She came back to me. She told me she loved me. She married me again. And she let me believe in a family that wasn’t mine to keep. She lied every day she woke up and wished I was someone else.” Lucky met Emily’s gaze. “And then she humiliated me by announcing to the world that I’d been a fool. That’d I been lied to. A month later she moved in with Jason Morgan, and now she wants to give him the family she let me believe was mine.”

“I know Elizabeth made mistakes—”

“But her mistakes are okay because I was addicted to drugs, right?” Lucky cut in, scathingly. “Her mistakes get forgiven because she was scared and stressed and panicked, right? She gets the redemption because, hey, can you blame her for how it happened? But me? I got clean, Emily. I did exactly what I promised her I would do. I got clean, I stayed clean, and right until that day in court, can you tell me one thing I did deserve what’s happened?”

“I don’t think you’re wrong, Lucky,” Emily said carefully. “But—”

“But you’ve chosen sides. That’s fine. But you don’t get to tell me I have to let Elizabeth walk away without a fight. She can go screw your damned brother all she wants, but she had no right to start a new life while mine was still in ruins. She burned it down, Emily. Not me. I didn’t do a damned thing to deserve any of this.”

Lucky took a deep breath. “I’m going to lose tomorrow. I’m trying to make peace with that. I don’t think what I did in the park merits me losing Cameron forever, but she does. And I didn’t adopt him, so I guess I have to live with that. But I love him. I love them both. And I’m going to the hearing tomorrow so I can tell her that. So that she can see that her new, perfect life with Jason has a price. I’m going to that hearing so she has to tell the world what she did. So that she has to explain why the hell she let me believe that little boy was mine and why she married me again when she didn’t love me anymore. When she didn’t even respect me. Is that good enough for you?”

General Hospital: Lab

Robin flipped to a fresh sheet of paper in her notebook and scribbled a few lines — the formula needed some adjusting, but she was pleasantly surprised by the results —

She glanced over at the tap on her cubicle, finding Patrick there. “Oh. Um. Hey.” She’d gone out of her way to avoid him since Georgie’s service, since she’d spent the night with him. Instead, she’d buried herself in the lab, hoping that the monotony of the work would keep her brain occupied.

“Hey. Sorry to interrupt.” Patrick held out a thick case file. “I have a patient with an aneurysm in the subarachnoid. I know you’ve had some success in reducing the size with your drug therapy.”

“Oh.” She pushed back on her stool to give him space to come inside the workspace. He dragged over a chair and handed her the file. She flipped through it, finding the scans. “It’s not a good candidate for a surgery?”

“Not with the size of it. I’m thinking, in combination with your therapy and a WEB device, I can reduce the risk of rupture with an eye towards surgery then.” Patrick rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s probably one of the worst cases I’ve seen, but I don’t want to send this guy home without even trying something.”

“Because if you don’t operate, it’s a death sentence.” Robin skimmed the results of recent blood tests, then looked at the patient’s personal information. “He’s young. Only twenty-five. That’s a point in his favor.”

“Yeah, and pretty healthy. I don’t even know what would cause an aneurysm in a case like this. But—” Patrick caused. “He just got married, and there’s—his wife is pregnant.”

Robin’s eyes flew up. “You know personal details? That’s not like you.”

“He introduced himself that way,” Patrick said with an amused smile. “Hi, I’m David. This is  my wife, Halle. And I need you to keep me alive so I can meet my son.”

Robin’s amused expression faded. “No pressure, huh?”

“What do you think? Can we work on this? I didn’t promise him, but all the same—”

“You want to give him his best shot.” Robin closed the file. “There are other pathologists that can administer the treatment, Patrick. It doesn’t have to be me.”

“You’re the best, and it’s your research,” Patrick told her. “I wouldn’t ask if I thought anyone else could do this.”

“I know.” She paused. “Yeah. I need to do a few more tests and talk to him myself, but he’s a good candidate. Let’s see what we can do to keep him around to meet his kid.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Elizabeth emerged from the laundry room with a basket on her hip. “How can two small children go through so much clothes?” she grunted as she set it on the coffee table. “Spinelli, do you need any laundry? I’m going to toss in one more load for the boys—”

“No thanks, Fair Elizabeth. The Jackal doesn’t want to create more work for you.” The tech’s fingers flew over his keyboard. “Little Dude and Stone Cold the Second have you busy enough.”

“Hmm—” Elizabeth looked over at the playpen tucked under the windows, in the corner. Cameron was standing outside of it, dangling a stuffed rabbit that he’d let Jake grab, then take away, then grab again — “Cam, don’t tease your brother.”

“No tease, Mommy. Play. Jake like it.” Cameron lowered the rabbit again and Jake babbled, his tiny hands reaching for it.

She smiled as she watched them. They’d been at the penthouse for a month now, and every day Cameron seemed to be more and more comfortable. And after tomorrow, after the hearing, Elizabeth was looking forward to nothing more than a boring routine of going to work, coming home to her guys, and watching her boys grow and change.

Behind her the door opened, and she turned, smiling as Jason came in. It was one of the rare days he’d gone into the warehouse since the trial. “Hey. You’re just in time for dinner. I ordered from Eli’s.”

“Sounds good.” He kissed her lightly, curling his arm around her waist. Then he went to the closet to take down his lockbox. She followed him into the kitchen where he removed the gun from the holster at the small of his back, then tucked it inside the metal box.

“Diane called,” she said, leaning against the counter. “She said we’re all set for the hearing tomorrow. She’s only going to call Lulu, you, and me as witnesses.” Elizabeth paused. “Lucky isn’t calling anyone.”

Jason frowned, turned to her. “What? I thought we had his list—”

“He changed it. Nikolas isn’t going to testify for him, and Luke was supposed to be on the list, but apparently, he took off and can’t be located. I think Mac was going to testify—but that was before Georgie.” Elizabeth made a face. “I feel guilty, even though I shouldn’t. I didn’t go looking for Lulu. She came to Diane.”

“Don’t feel guilty.” Jason came to her and drew her into his arms. “You were willing to give him joint custody of Cameron. He’s the one that used him for leverage and pulled that stunt in the park.”

“I know. It’s just—” Elizabeth shook her head, flattened her hands against his chest to look up at him. “No. I won’t do this. I promised you and myself that I was going to stop this. Diane and I talked about something else —” She licked her lips. “When the hearing is over, if it goes the way we expect it to, I was hoping you might want to start the paperwork to adopt Cameron.”

Jason tensed, but his eyes were soft as he searched her expression. “You’re sure? We—we haven’t talked about it since I brought it up—”

“I know. And I wanted to take some time. To let Cameron settle in here, to let us settle,” she added. “But if it’s something you want, too—”

“You know I do.”

Elizabeth smiled, leaned up to kiss him, lingering. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”

“What do you want to tell Cameron?” Jason asked as she slipped away to go to the doorway and check on the scene in the living room. Somehow, Cameron had convinced Spinelli to put down his laptop and come join them. The tech was on his knees with a stuffed brown bear, dangling over Jake so that the infant was reaching for it with his left hand while his right hand was still trying to get the rabbit from Cameron. Jake was babbling excitedly, Cameron was giggling, and Spinelli—

“It’s good to hear Spinelli laughing,” she murmured. “He hasn’t done that much these last few weeks.” She cleared her throat, looked back at him. “I don’t know what to tell Cameron. He doesn’t ask for Lucky anymore, but I also don’t know if we just sit him down and tell him or ask him, or just…let it happen naturally.” Elizabeth rubbed her finger across her lips. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. He’s older than Michael was when he went to live with Sonny.” Jason joined her at the living room. “Cameron’s old enough to know I wasn’t always there.”

“He won’t remember that forever. I don’t remember anything about being three,” Elizabeth said.

“Why don’t we just let it go on like for a little while longer?” Jason suggested, curling his arm around her waist again. He never went that long without touching her in some way, and it was definitely one of her favorite things about their relationship. It was like they’d bottled up years of wanting to touch each other, and it kept spilling out in small ways. He liked to touch her hair, and she was always taking his hand—

“I think that’s a good idea. Oh, I was thinking that the last guest room — what would think about redoing it for Spinelli?” Elizabeth suggested. “He’s been in Brenda’s old room since he’s been here, and while I think he’s used to the pink room, it might be nice for him to have his own space. A workstation with a good computer—” She broke off when he just smiled. “What?”

“A few weeks ago, Spinelli offered to move out. He was worried he was….intruding,” Jason added.

“You told him no. Of course you did. It would be so strange here without him. The boys love him — he’s like a silly uncle who’s not too grown up to play their games—” Elizabeth rested her head against Jason’s shoulder. “And he keeps you from being too serious. Plus, I’d worry about him being on his own right now. He’s still carrying so much weight from Georgie and Chelsea.”

“I told him no,” Jason said. “And I think it’s a good idea. We’ll have to find a way to make it a surprise. I’ll get his class schedule, and they can work around it.”

“I love that. Oh, this will be fun. I’ll get Cameron to help — just like Spinelli set up their room. I’m sure Cam would love to help him, too.” She kissed him, and he held her close for another minute when she would have pulled away.

“Tomorrow will go just the way we planned,” Jason assured her. “And then we can get started on the rest of our lives.”

“That sounds like a great plan.”

PCPD: Commissioner’s Office

Lucky set the most recent case report in front of Mac. “I traced the burner phone that made the hangups to a batch sold from a convenience store, but it was a cash sale last July. And any security footage is long gone.”

Mac sighed. “And the florist?”

“I can’t find a single floral delivery service in the city that had an order delivered to Lewis Hall.” Lucky paused. “I’m leaning towards it being personally delivered by our suspect. But the video footage doesn’t give me more than an estimate of his height and build. Lewis Hall doesn’t have any visitors logged in for that day.”

“That doesn’t tell you anything?” Mac demanded.

“Not having a visitor signed in means our guy even slipped through a crack which isn’t unknown. Emily lived on campus for a while,” Lucky added, “and it wasn’t that hard to get into a dorm room. But I’m also looking into anyone who had access to the campus and wouldn’t need to sign in. It’s a longer list than I’d like, and I don’t have a lot to exclude anyone.” He paused. “I’m hoping that we get a DNA profile back in a week or two.”

“You can do a fishnet search?”

“Yeah. That’s the plan. With a profile, we’ll ask anyone on campus who had access to volunteer a sample for comparison. And then make a list of anyone who refuses.” Lucky paused. “But that’s all I’ve got Mac. I’m sorry. I know you wanted more. I wish there was more.”

“Robert’s been looking over the reports,” Mac murmured. “I worried I wasn’t being objective, that I wasn’t seeing things clearly — but he says you’ve done everything the way he’d have ordered it. So—” Mac slid the report back to him with tired eyes. “I guess we hope for a miracle.”

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