It was nearly a month before Jason could get away from Port Charles and get back to Spain. He’d wanted to wait until Michael was on spring vacation from school because nearly every third sentence out of the boy’s mouth was when could he see Liz again?

Truth was–Jason would be relieved to get time away from this city. Things had been tense between he and Sonny since Jason had been given custody of Michael. And those were on the good days.

Carly stopped by nearly every night with something she claimed Michael had left at her house. A lot of the clothing and toys still had price tags attached to it but she was almost in tears every time so Jason said nothing. It had never been his intention to separate Michael from Carly or Sonny.

Courtney had indeed filed for divorce and that would be final in a matter of weeks. He’d expected to feel something–sadness, anger, unhappiness—but all he felt was numb.

The investigation into Zander’s murder had become stalled. Elizabeth’s involvement hadn’t been discovered but the case hadn’t been closed so it wasn’t safe for her to return home. Jason could time Ric’s phone calls to the exact minute. He’d call at 9 AM every morning to tell Jason to bring Elizabeth home. Jason would refuse and hang up.

Lately Ric had taken to threatening Jason–demanding to know where Elizabeth was staying. Jason refused to tell him and the lawyer was beginning to get irate.

Getting away from all this would be a blessing. Even if he felt like he was walking into a trap regarding Elizabeth.

Michael spoke to her three or four times a week and he always asked his new guardian if he wanted to talk to her as well. Jason could never turn Michael down so he’d had more contact with Elizabeth in the past month than he’d had all year.

Elizabeth was entering her seventh month and the doctor Jason had arranged for had gone to see her twice. Everything was healthy and progressing nicely.

“Michael!” Jason called, setting his duffle bag next to his desk. “Are you almost ready?”

“I don’t know what to take!” Michael called. He appeared at the top of the steps, lugging two big duffle bags. “I want to show Liz all the stuff I did in school including the bookshelf I made her.”

“Well, take some of it now and some of it the next time.” Jason took one of the bags from him.

“But I’ll have more stuff next time,” Michael complained. “Ooh, I forgot my swimming goggles.” He ran back upstairs and Jason rubbed his forehead before checking the side of his duffle bag for the letters he was taking to her. There was at least ten from Emily, two from Audrey, one from Ric–which Jason was kind of surprised about–and then one from each Lucky and Nikolas.

“Okay, I got everything now.” Michael set his bag down and grinned widely. “She’s probably a lot fatter than she was last month, huh?”

“Probably,” Jason absently.

“Hey, maybe the next time we go, we could take Mommy and Morgan. I bet they’d like a vacation,” Michael suggested.

“I told you…Elizabeth’s vacation is a secret,” Jason reminded him, sliding their passports into his back pocket.

“Mommy wouldn’t say anything if I told her not to,” Michael boasted. “Could you ask Liz about it?”

“I’ll talk to her. Come on, if we go now, we can take off sooner than we’d planned.”

—

It was 10 PM that night when their flight arrived in Spain. With all of the time differences, it was eleven hours since they’d left Port Charles.

Michael was asleep by the time they pulled up to the house. Jason parked the car in the driveway and pulled Michael into his arms, intending to put him to bed before getting the bags from the car.

Elizabeth must have been waiting for them because she had the front door open for him. “Hey.”

“Hey.”

She followed him the room where Michael had stayed before and stopped him as he went to tuck him in. “Let me do it. You can get his bags from the car and put him in some pajamas.” Elizabeth touched his arm. “You look tired, too.”

He shrugged. “It was a long flight.” He exited the room and Elizabeth sighed. She gingerly sat down–it was getting harder and harder to move around these days. She tugged Michael’s sneakers off and then his socks.

By the time she had done that, Jason had returned and was digging his plaid pajamas from the duffle bag Michael had packed. “Here,” he said, handing her the shirt. “I’ll get the bottoms.”

Together, they changed him and then Elizabeth pulled the thin sheet over him. The nights were cool but not cold enough for anything heavier than that. She kissed his forehead and switched the night light off.

“Thanks–that’s the first time he hasn’t woken up when I changed him for bed,” Jason told her. “He’s always falling asleep downstairs.”

“I used to baby-sit back in Colorado,” Elizabeth replied as she shut the door. “It’s almost like second nature.”

Jason nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. “How have your doctor appointments been going?”

“I’ve only had the two but the doctor says everything’s good. Um–I wasn’t sure if I should mention this but–he calls me Mrs. Morgan,” Elizabeth informed him. “I didn’t correct him because I didn’t know what you’d told him or whatever.”

“Yeah–yeah, he probably does that because I’m the one who arranged the rental on the place and for him to come here. He probably assumed.” Jason cleared his throat. “Probably better that way.”

“Okay–well I didn’t want you to wonder when–well, I’ve got another appointment this week. Dr. Miller arranged to rent an ultrasound machine and transport it here. And if he called me that–I didn’t want you to think that I’d told him that was my name.”

“It’s fine,” Jason assured her. “It was a logical mistake for him to make.” He exhaled slowly. “I’m gonna go–go to sleep. Unless you want your letters now…?”

“No, it can wait.” Elizabeth hesitated. “Night.”

“Night,” Jason echoed.

They stood in the hallway for another awkward moment before he turned and headed into the next bedroom.

—

Michael was up before either of them the next morning and he jarred Elizabeth from her sleep by jumping on her bed. “Wake up!” he shouted.

Elizabeth struggled to sit up and blinked at him blearily. “Michael? Is something wrong?”

“Yes,” Michael said firmly. “I’m awake, it’s almost noon and you and Jase are still asleep. That is very wrong.”

“Well, Jason had a long flight and he didn’t sleep through part of it,” Elizabeth reminded him. “I’m sleeping for two, so I’m sorry I wasn’t up earlier.”

“It’s okay,” Michael shrugged. His eyes lit up. “I have to show you the stuff I brought.” He dashed out of the room and Elizabeth tossed the covers back and slid her feet to the wooden floor. She pulled one of her maternity robes from the chair next to her bed and was tying the sash around her waist when she heard someone clear their throat.

She turned and smiled at Jason. “Morning–or as Michael informed me, Afternoon,” she laughed. She moved towards the doorway.

“Sorry he woke you up,” Jason moved out of the doorway. “He’s just been looking forward to this for days.”

“I have, too,” Elizabeth admitted. “It’s–it’s been kind of lonely here.” She hesitated in the doorway and looked up at him. “You look like hell,” she said plainly.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s been a tough month,” Jason confessed. “You hungry? I could make some breakfast.”

“Famished,” Elizabeth told him. “That would be great.”

Michael was in the kitchen, struggling to remove the wooden bookshelf he’d made in class. Jason lifted it out of the duffle bag and set it on the table before moving to the fridge to remove some eggs and bacon.

“This is for you,” Michael told her. “I also got more.” He kneeled down and took out a picture frame. “We got to make this in Art, our very own picture frames. I asked to make three. I made one for Mommy, one for Jase and one for you.” He set it in front of her. “See, I put paintbrushes on the edge.”

“It’s beautiful,” Elizabeth declared, touching it gingerly. Every time the picture frame moved, a shower of glitter fell from it.

“And that’s a picture of me and Jason so’s you don’t get lonely.”

“You guys both have such big smiles on your face,” Elizabeth said, never having seen Jason smile quite like that. She glanced at the man in question who was busy cooking at the stove. “Where were you?”

“Um…” Michael studied the picture. “Okay, we was at the park and Aunt Em took that. There was a thing there…some kind of carnival and I had just shoved a big wad of cotton candy down Jase’s throat,” he informed her.”

“Hmm…he must have loved that.”

“Oh…and I made something for the baby.” Michael dug into the back again and took out a rolled up poster. “You never told me what her name was gonna be so I just had to say girl.” He yanked the rubber band off and unrolled it.

He’d drawn several stick figures sitting on the beach. Elizabeth knew she was in the picture because a stick figure with brown hair was holding a baby but she couldn’t tell much else. Across the top, in glittery letters, said: Welcome Baby Girl. In smaller letters underneath, it said, From Your Cousin Michael.

“Cousin?” Elizabeth echoed uncertainly, her blue eyes finding the little’s boys in confusion.

Jason turned at the word cousin and joined them. “What do you got there, Michael?”

“A poster I made for Liz’s baby. Which is gonna be my cousin since you is married to Sonny’s brother and Sonny’s kind of my dad only not anymore.” Michael frowned and looked at them, worried. “She is gonna be my cousin right?”

“Well…it’s all right with me if you want to call her that,” Elizabeth said hesitantly. She glanced at Jason.

“If that’s what you want and Elizabeth says it’s okay, it’s okay with me, too,” Jason finally agreed. He returned to the stove.

“So tell me about the rest of the picture,” Elizabeth said, changing the subject.

“Well, this is you and your baby,” Michael pointed. “And next to you is Jason and me. And then that’s Mommy and baby Morgan. Oh, and Aunt Em and Almost Uncle Nik.” He smiled brightly. “Do you like it?”

“I love it.”

“So what are you naming your baby?” Michael asked. He rolled the poster back up and climbed into one of the seats next to Elizabeth at the table.

“Alexandria Audrey,” Elizabeth replied. “Alexandria for my friend Zander Smith who died and Audrey for my grandmother.”

Michael nodded sagely. “Naming babies after people is a way of saying you love them. Who’s gonna be the godparents? Like Grandpa and Aunt Em are mine.”

Elizabeth frowned. “You know–I hadn’t really thought about it.”

“Jason, how did you choose my god parents?” Michael asked as Jason placed a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast in front of Elizabeth.

“Well, Emily told me that you needed them and I should choose people that I would trust with you. Mike and Emily seemed to make the most sense.”

“Okay, then you should choose people you would trust Alexandria with,” Michael told Elizabeth. “How about my mommy and Jason?”

Elizabeth laughed. “Oh, sweetheart…I don’t know your mom well enough for to be my baby’s godmother. I’ll probably choose Emily.”

“And what about Jason?” Michael hesitated. “Well…wait, that might not work.”

Elizabeth frowned. “Why not?”

Michael looked up at Jason who was putting down his breakfast. “Well, Aunt Em told me that he makes a good daddy so he couldn’t be the godfather, right?”

Elizabeth blanched. “Michael–”

Jason shook his head. “Michael–”

Michael pursed his lips. “Oh, I forgot about Ric. I guess Aunt Em was wrong, huh?”

“Yes,” Elizabeth said immediately. “But–you were right about one thing.”

“He was?” Jason questioned curiously.

“I was?” Michael repeated, happily. “What?”

Elizabeth glanced at Jason hesitantly before looking back at Michael. “I think Jason would be a great godfather–if that’s okay with him.”

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