Written in 60 minutes.

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Morgan Penthouse: Master Bedroom

Jason emerged from the bathroom, fastening the last button of his dress shirt, then frowned as he saw an item of clothing fly from behind the open closet door and land at the foot the bed — where there was a cluster of sweaters, dresses, and pants.

“Elizabeth?” He stepped around the door to find Elizabeth basically inside the closet, her robe falling off one shoulder as she sorted through various hangers. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong is that half my clothes don’t fit, and the other half are just wrong—” Elizabeth yanked out a purple dress with thin straps. “Does this look like the responsible mother of two?”

“It looks like a dress.”

She sighed, tossed it over her shoulder. “I don’t fit into almost anything from before Jake, and the only thing thats seem to fit are black dresses I’ve worn to funerals—maybe that’s what I should wear—” She flicked through another set of hangers and pulled out another dress. “Does this make me look reasonable and rational and not like a terrible woman who just lies all the time?”

Jason hesitated. “You look beautiful in everything—”

“I don’t want to look beautiful, I want to look reasonable, rational, and responsible—” She shoved it back in the closet. “My boobs are too big.” She glared at him. “Don’t say anything—”

“I wasn’t—”

“It took almost eight months when Cameron was born, and I was breast feeding him—I couldn’t with Jake. I tried, but I was so stressed, and it never—” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “I’m not crazy.”

“I didn’t say that.” He took her by the elbow, relieved when she let him lead her away from the closet. “I know you’re nervous about today. I know you don’t want to testify—”

“I just—I know that I have to get up there, and Lucky’s lawyer is going to ask me all these questions, and he’s going to make it look like last summer was worse than it was. I didn’t—” Elizabeth dug her fingers to her scalp, then slid her hands back until they were clasped at the nape of her neck. “In hindsight, yes, I think maybe I was stepping over a line with you—emotionally. Not you. I know you weren’t. But he’s going to ask me if I was in love with you, and I’ll have to say yes, and then the judge isn’t going to care that—”

“Hey. Hey.” Jason sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her down with him onto his knee so he could hold her. “Listen. Last summer, we were friends.”

“Jason—”

“Did we have feelings for each other? Yes. But neither one of us acted on anything until the blackout. We’d been managing our feelings for years and neither one of us ever actually stepped over a line physically. That’s going to matter, Elizabeth.”

She chewed on her bottom lip. “It’s just—it’s so hard to explain everything that happened in a way that doesn’t make me look terrible, which is fair because I was terrible—”

“Lucky has to explain things, too,” Jason reminded her. “If last summer is fair game, then what about Lucky accusing you of an affair with Patrick and having you followed? What about Maxie? The lawyer might stay away from a lot of that, because Lucky comes off worse. And you started your lie for a reason that made sense. You thought I didn’t want Jake—”

“I was an idiot—”

“I didn’t help. And you tried to tell me.”

“Don’t let me off the hook—”

“I’m not. I knew you were struggling with something, and I didn’t push enough. Hey. Can you look at me?”

She did, and he brought her hand to his mouth, kissed her knuckles. “We’re going to win today because our case is better. And—” he paused. “I made some calls.”

“You—” Elizabeth frowned. “You did?”

“I didn’t want to take any chances,” Jason admitted. “Jake is a lock, but Cameron might not be. And I don’t want to lose him. Maybe that’s selfish,” he added. “But I couldn’t forget that day in the park, and all the times Cam asked for Lucky back in the beginning. He’s never once tried to see him.”

“So today—”

“Is a formality. It’ll be tough, it’ll be painful, and embarrassing for all of us. But at the end of the day, we’re going to win. We probably would have anyway, but I couldn’t leave it to chance. Cameron’s too important.”

Elizabeth sighed and stood, going back to the closet. Jason rose. “Did I—Should I have talked to you about that first?”

“No. No. It’s just—I don’t know.” She folded her arms. “I’m glad that we know, and you know  how much it means to me that you love Cameron that much. I guess — after today, it all ends and I don’t even know what to do with all of this—” She gestured. “Anxiety. Stress. It’s been having over my head like a sword for all these weeks—months. And today, it’ll be over. Lucky could appeal, but he wouldn’t win, and then we just—” Elizabeth turned back to the closet and pulled out a dark green dress. “We just move on. And you probably think I’m crazy. Because I want to move on. I don’t want to live like this, but—”

“I think you’ve been under so much stress since Manny Ruiz kidnapped you that it’s part of you now,” Jason said gently. “You went from the kidnapping to Lucky’s injuries, then Manny on the run, I got hurt, the drugs, the pregnancy, the affair, the hostage crisis, Jake’s kidnapping, the trial—” He went to her, took her by the shoulders, rubbed them. “I don’t think either of us are going to know what to do with ourselves when we don’t have to think about this.”

“Yeah. Yeah.” She forced a smile. “I just want it over with. That’s all.”

“Today.” He kissed her, and she clung to him another moment. “I’ll get the boys up and make sure they’re ready to go to Audrey’s.”

“Thanks. I’ll finish getting ready. I promise. I won’t keep rummaging in the closet.”

General Hospital: Nurse’s Station

“You’re not going to the custody hearing?” Robin asked, coming up behind Emily at the counter. She leaned around Emily to put away a chart. “I thought you’d be testifying.”

“Elizabeth said she wasn’t comfortable with asking me.” Emily made a face. “I wanted to. Because Lucky told me he was going to refuse custody of Cameron if he didn’t get visitation with Jake, but then the park happened, and Lulu is a better witness.”

“I guess.” Robin paused. “I’ll never understand how Lucky could have raised Cameron for so long and then be okay with walking out of his life.”

“Some douchebags shouldn’t be fathers,” Patrick muttered, and Robin turned, surprised to see him. “What? Look, any guy can show up and call himself a father. It doesn’t make him one.”

“No, that’s true. But—”

“Lucky was with Elizabeth for, what, two years? Cameron’s three.” Patrick scribbled his signature on a chart. “That means the kid only knows him. Doesn’t remember anyone else. Just Lucky. That’s his dad. And he’s going to walk out on that because he wants to throw a tantrum.” He snorted. “Takes a real dick to walk out on a toddler. It’s like kicking a puppy.”

Emily folded her arms. “I think he ended up backing down on that,” she said softly. “After the park. Elizabeth said he changed his petition. He still wants split custody of both boys, but it’s not an ultimatum anymore. But it was too late. Elizabeth was too angry. Too hurt.”

“She’s better off. I don’t know if Jason’s a better father, but he probably won’t screw a teenager—sorry,” he added to Robin because the teenager was, of course, Robin’s cousin. “I should have told her the first time I saw her together.”

“I didn’t believe you,” Robin murmured. “I feel terrible about that now. I talked you out of it.”

“Nah, I didn’t care enough to push. I didn’t know Elizabeth that well yet, but now I do.” He looked at Emily. “I know he’s your friend, too. Must be hard to take sides.”

“You’d think that,” Emily said, “and Lucky’s definitely pissed because I did. I don’t know, I was prepared to be more neutral—and I was trying to—but then he started all of this with Cameron. Even if he has a point — even if I understand how angry he was over how Elizabeth handled this — she’s the only one I see trying to protect the kids from the fallout.”

“And there you go. You can feel sorry for the guy — finding out like that must have been harsh. But how he handles it is on him. She did a shitty thing. Objective speaking, she should be the villain—” Patrick shrugged. “But I can’t find it in me to give a damn about him after how he abused her—”

“Oh, and the way he treated her during the kidnapping—” Robin reminded him. “The whole reason Lainey got involved was because Lucky agreed to it. He thought she’d hurt Jake.”

“She told me,” Emily said, remembering with a pang, “that Jason was doing more to support her from a jail cell than Lucky was while standing in front of her. I remember telling her it was because Jason wasn’t Jake’s father, but it hits different now.”

“See? He’s an asshole, and sometimes the universe hands dicks like him an extra dose of karma that no one even asked for. I hope he rots in hell.”

Patrick sauntered off, and Robin looked after him thoughtfully. “He’s really angry about this. I knew he and Elizabeth were friendly, but—”

“You know Lucky was just an idiot last summer,” Emily said, hurriedly. “It’s not like that with Patrick and Elizabeth—”

“What? Oh.” Robin shook her head. “No. No. I know that. It’s not the vibe I get anyway. He’s just—I don’t know. It just surprised me.” She picked up a chart. “Two years ago, he’d never had a female friend he didn’t try to sleep with, and now—he’s just changed a lot. I have to get on my rounds. Let me know if you get any updates about the custody hearing.”

“Will do.”

Spencer House: Living Room

Lucky stepped up to the mirror over the fireplace and tightened the knot on his tie. Behind him, the door opened and Nikolas came in.

“I thought I was meeting you at the court house.”

“I wanted to stop by and see if you’d changed your mind.” Nikolas remained at the landing, and Lucky went towards him, grabbing his coat as he did. “I can testify—”

“To what?” Lucky picked up his keys and wallet. The brothers left the house, heading down the steps. “My drug addiction? Throwing Elizabeth on the floor?”

“To the lies,” Nikolas said. “I mean, Elizabeth lied to all of us—”

“She’s not going to dispute that.” Lucky stopped, turned towards him. “I appreciate the offer. If I thought you had anything that might actually help, I’d let you do it. But you don’t. And Elizabeth didn’t put Emily on her witness list either.”

“No, it’s just Lulu,” Nikolas said, his mouth tight. “I blame Spinelli. He probably—”

“She called Diane the same day as the park,” Lucky cut in, and his brother fell silent. “She was thinking of herself, and all the times she begged Dad to stay. You and I both know any chance I had with Cameron disappeared when I did that. Even if I own up to it with the judge—I don’t have any legal standing with Cameron. I never adopted him.”

“You didn’t need to—”

“I made my choices. Bad and good. They’re mine to live with. I don’t see the point in dragging you into the middle of it when there’s nothing you can do.” Lucky opened his car door. “Do you want ride over with me?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I will. Lucky—”

“I’m going to fight as hard as I can, but—” Lucky paused. “There’s part of me that thinks maybe this is for the best. Maybe, after what I did last year, how I handled all of this, maybe this is how it’s supposed to be.”

“You can’t—”

“The boys are in good hands. Elizabeth is a good mother, and I remember Jason with Michael. They’ll be okay. They won’t be mine, and that’s hard.” Lucky paused, took a deep breath, forced down the bitterness. “It changed for me, Nikolas. You know that. The day I stood on the PCU campus, and I looked down at those girls.” His throat was tight. “At Georgie, this kid I’d known all her life. She was bruised and broken—and just gone. And it’s my job to find the bastard who did this.”

“Lucky—”

“I went to notify Spinelli,” Lucky continued, “and I couldn’t go inside the penthouse. Cameron was there, and Jason didn’t want me anywhere near him after the park.”

“That’s not his place—”

“No.” Lucky’s smile was sour. “No, it was mine. I was supposed to protect Cameron. And I didn’t. Mac blames himself. For not being there for Georgie, for not knowing something was wrong. Who do I have to blame for what happened but myself, Nikolas? Elizabeth didn’t force me to walk out on her for two weeks without a word. She didn’t force me to tie Cameron’s custody to Jake. She didn’t change her phone number or refuse me visits with Cameron. All of that was me.”

Nikolas was quiet for a moment. “Lucky—”

“My ego and my pride was more important to me than my son. Not just for a moment in the park, but for weeks.” Lucky paused.  “I have to live with that. I can’t change what I did last month. What I did last year. Yesterday. But today, I can go into court, try my best, and walk away when it’s over.  That’s all that’s left.”

Port Charles Courthouse: Family Court

Elizabeth waited tensely as the judge began the hearing and rifled through paperwork. At her side, Jason held her hand tightly. Even with the news that he’d made arrangements behind the scenes, she still couldn’t quite believe it would all be over after today.

“All right, let’s begin.” The judge slid on his reading glasses. “The first matter on the docket is a petition from Jason Morgan to establish paternity of Jacob Martin Spencer. I have the results of the DNA test and an affidavit from Elizabeth Spencer attesting to the facts.” He switched his gaze to Lucky and his lawyer at the next table. “Mr. Frazier, your client has filed an objection to the paternity petition.”

“My client is withdrawing that objection.”

Elizabeth blinked, swung her head to look at her estranged husband. Lucky was dropping his opposition to declaring Jason as Jake’s legal father?”

The judge raised his brows, then looked at Diane. “Ms. Miller?”

“Ah, if the respondent has no objection, then the petition should be granted. Lucas Spencer’s rights should be terminated, and Jason Morgan named as Jacob’s legal father.”

The judge waited for Lincoln Frazier to offer anything else, but the lawyer remained silent. “The plaintiff’s petition is granted.”

Elizabeth exhaled — at least the worst of the wrongs had been righted. She traded a relieved look at Jason, his eyes bright. He was Jake’s father in the eyes of the world and now according to the courts.

“Let’s move on to the next matter. Custody of Cameron Hardy Webber and Jacob Spencer.”

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