The remainder of Michael’s spring break passed in relative peace. Jason arranged for another doctor and released Dr. Vincent from his employ.

Michael gave his solemn promise to call daily and maybe Elizabeth could even help with his spelling during the calls. Elizabeth smiled and told him she’d look forward to that.

“I’ll call too,” Jason promised. He touched Michael’s shoulder. “Go wait in the car.”

“Bye, Liz,” Michael hugged her tightly. “Take care of Andi, okay?”

“Okay.” She ruffled his hair and kissed his forehead. “Take care of your uncle.”

Michael grinned and shot an adoring look at the man in question. “He doesn’t need anyone to take care of him.”

“Sure he does,” Elizabeth said with a teasing smile. “He needs someone to make sure he has enough…soup.”

“Soup,” Michael repeated. He looked at Jason again who was grimacing. “You don’t eat any soup.”

“Well, see, that’s a problem.” Elizabeth’s face turned serious. “I recommend a bowl of chicken noodle soup just as soon as you get home, okay, Michael?”

“I’ll make sure he eats all of it,” Michael promised. He hugged her again before heading to the rental car.

“I’d say thank you but you know how I feel about lying,” Jason murmured, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“I think he needs to think he can take care of you,” Elizabeth said. She touched his upper arm absently as she stood at his side watching Michael climb into the car. “He’ll think he’s stronger then. And he’ll remember that it’s okay not to be strong all the time because well, if you need someone to look after you, then it’s okay for him to need that too.”

“Yeah…but soup?” Jason grimaced. “You couldn’t have suggested coffee?”

She laughed and looked up at him. “Just tell him that for every bowl of soup he makes you eat, he has to have a plate full of his least favorite vegetables.”

“You’re diabolical,” Jason said, unable to keep the smile back this time. “Is there some kind of handbook for mothers?”

“No, it’s just something my mother used to use on us,” Elizabeth replied. “My brother Steven wanted her to quit smoking so she told him for every day she didn’t smoke, he’d have to eat all the vegetables she could feed him.”

“Did she quit?” Jason asked.

“My brother is very stubborn. He ate vegetables by the plateful for almost a year before she told him she no longer craved cigarettes.” Elizabeth glanced back at the car. “He decided to be a doctor then. He figured that if he could make a difference in Mom’s life, he could do it for anyone. He was only eleven.”

“You don’t see him much, do you?”

“I don’t see him at all. He’s in Manhattan and he’s busy a lot.” Elizabeth’s eyes cleared and she smiled at him. “You should get going. Michael needs a full night of sleep before going back to school.”

“I’ll call when we get back to Port Charles,” Jason promised. He hesitated and then kissed her forehead. “Take care of yourself. We’ll be back soon.”

“When?” Elizabeth asked softly. She shook her head. “No–I didn’t… I shouldn’t ask. I never expected to come at all so whenever you get back, it’s fine–”

“Michael gets out for summer vacation at the end of next month,” Jason interrupted easily. “He’s been making noises about spending most of it here. And you’re due about then. You shouldn’t be alone.”

“Well, then I’ll see you next month,” Elizabeth replied, with a smile more genuine this time.

“I’ll see you then,” he told her. He backed up towards the car slowly. “Call if you need anything.”

“I will.”

---

They’d been back in Port Charles a week before Jason wished for the solitude of the house by the ocean.

Sonny dropped by more often than before they’d left, trying to gain back Michael’s love. The boy was having none of it and clung to Jason more tightly than before. Carly was still emotionally wrecked–the divorce proceedings were being strung out as Sonny continued to fight the custody decision.

She was fighting with Sonny, with Lorenzo Alcazar, with her mother, with Courtney and with herself for feeling resentment towards Jason. Jason understood that resentment and encouraged Michael to spend as much time as possible with his mother.

Work was tense–Faith Roscoe was still a problem though Lorenzo’s relationship with Carly had neutralized him, something Jason was grateful for. The less problems with the business, the less contact he had to have with Sonny.

Nothing was really that different than before their vacation. Except that Michael talked to Elizabeth daily and as if somehow sensing his guardian would never actually call on his own, he would dutifully hand the phone to Jason at the end of his conversations with his surrogate aunt. As a result, Jason spoke to Elizabeth daily now.

And it couldn’t go without mentioning that Ric stopped asking questions. Stopped asking to see Elizabeth, to call her, to know where she is. In fact, other than Jason dropping off Elizabeth’s letters to him, one would think the district attorney wasn’t married at all.

Ric’s sudden change was unnerving and Jason knew it would come to a head sooner or later but for now he relished the lack of Lansing in his life.

Until he found out the reason for Ric’s change of heart.

It was early May, just three weeks before the end of the school year. Michael was working on convincing Jason to spend the entire summer in Spain and also to bring along his mother and little brother–at least for a visit.

Jason had to take Michael by the warehouse briefly while he met with Max about something. He spoke in hushed tones a few feet away from the boy and Michael was growing bored waiting for Jason. He wandered towards the dock stairs and when he returned, his face was pensive and a little confused.

“Michael, didn’t I tell you to stay where I could see you?” Jason demanded. He left Max’s side and came towards the boy.

“Jason, when people get married, they’re not supposed to date anyone else anymore right?” Michael asked.

Jason frowned and crouched to be at Michael’s eye level. “Well, no. They’re not supposed to.” Had Michael seen something? Lorenzo and Carly on the docks? Sonny and Sam? He wished they would keep these things discreet.

“Elizabeth doesn’t right?” Michael asked.

“No, Elizabeth stopped when she married Ric,” Jason said carefully. “She’s a good person.”

“Well, then why didn’t Ric?” Michael asked curiously.

Jason stood abruptly and moved towards the dock stairs. He blinked and looked back to Michael. “Michael…”

“Do you think she knows?” Michael asked sadly.

Jason thought of the phone call from the day before when Elizabeth had excitedly told him about how often the baby was kicking now. “No, I don’t think she does.”

“I knew he would hurt her,” Michael sighed heavily. “I told her that but she didn’t believe me.” He frowned and then met Jason’s eyes. “Do you think Sonny knows?”

“I sincerely doubt it,” Jason sighed. He looked back towards the lower level of the docks where Ric Lansing and Sam McCall were sitting on a dock bench, curled up in each other. If Sonny knew his mistress was seeing his half-brother, there’d be no where Ric Lansing could hide.

“We should tell her. She’d want to hear it coming from family,” Michael said after another moment.

“Wait here,” Jason said quietly. He went back over to Max and hurriedly finished their conversation. Max had heard the conversation between Jason and Michael and Jason instructed him to keep it to himself for now until Jason had decided how to handle this.

“You are going to tell her aren’t you?” Michael asked as they were leaving the docks later. “If Elizabeth stopped dating, then her husband should have.”

“Michael…” Jason sighed and picked him up, setting him on a bench so they were eye level. “Some marriages don’t work out. But when it’s good, both people should stop dating other people, okay?”

“Well, yeah.” Michael shrugged. “But she’s so nice and pretty. Why would he hurt her like that?”

“Just because he has something special, it doesn’t mean he knows its value,” Jason said after a moment. Telling Michael that he didn’t suspect Ric Lansing had a soul much less cared what this could do to Elizabeth didn’t really sound good to him. “Some people, they can’t appreciate the good things in their lives. The gifts. They let them go.”

“Why?” Michael asked. “I have this autograph from Michael Jordan and I’m smart enough to know that’s really special.”

Jason smiled faintly. “Adults are funny, Michael. We don’t always realize what we have until it’s gone, and then mostly it’s too late to fix it.”

“I bet if you had Elizabeth, you would never be that stupid,” Michael said confidently. He hopped off the bench. “Right?”

“I wouldn’t bet too much money on that,” Jason said quietly as they made their way to Harborview Towers.

---

Later that night, Michael was preparing to make his nightly phone call to Elizabeth. “We should tell her,” Michael argued. “She should know.”

“Yes, she should,” Jason agreed. “But you’re not telling her.”

Michael pouted. “Liz is my friend, I love her. I think she’d like it better if I told her.”

She’d be mortified if the little boy she adored told her that the husband she’d given too much trust to was sleeping with Sam McCall but Jason couldn’t say it like that. “I’ve been friends with her for a long time,” Jason said instead. “Since you were a baby. There’s no way we can tell her that she’s going to like it. It’s going to hurt her, Michael. A lot. She thought they were a family, she thought she could trust him.”

“I don’t want to hurt her.” Michael hesitated. “Jason, maybe you should tell her.”

“Why don’t you go upstairs and get ready for bed while I call her?” Jason suggested.

“Okay,” Michael agreed reluctantly. “Do it nicely, okay? It’ll be better that way.” The boy ran towards the stairs and Jason sighed as he started towards the phone. There was no way that this would be better.

He dialed her number.

“Hey, Michael,” Elizabeth greeted warmly.

“It’s–” Jason cleared his throat. “It’s me.”

“Oh, Jason–I’m sorry, I’m just used to talking to him first,” Elizabeth replied, her warmth undiminished. “How is everything?”

“It’s–Elizabeth–” Jason hesitated. Ric’s cheating on you. He’s a bastard. You deserve better.

The words were on the tip of his tongue but nothing could force them out. Instead he cleared his throat again. “How’s the baby? Are you feeling all right?”

“I’m feeling fat,” Elizabeth laughed. “How did Michael do on his spelling test? Did he pass?”

“He got an A,” Jason told her. “I took him out for ice cream to celebrate.”

“I knew he had it in him.” She was silent for a moment. “Jason, it sounded like there was something you wanted to say. Is everything okay?”

He hesitated. There’s something you should know about Ric. He could feel the words already formed in his throat. All he had to do was say them.

But he couldn’t give her that knowledge and then leave her alone to deal with it. No, she needed to be told in person. So for the first time, Jason consciously told her a lie. “Everything’s fine.”

He had just hung up the phone when a freshly bathed and pajama clad Michael came back down the stairs. “Is she okay?” Michael asked.

“I didn’t tell her,” Jason admitted. “I’m going to tell her when we go back at the end of the month.”

Michael frowned. “Why wait that long?” He climbed onto the couch next to Jason.

“Because I don’t think this is something she should hear over the phone,” Jason told him. “She shouldn’t have to deal with this alone.”

“She’s gonna need a lot of support,” Michael said after some consideration. “We should go now.”

Jason shook his head and laughed a little. “Elizabeth would be the first to tell you that school is more important.”

“But we’ll go as soon as school’s out?” Michael asked. “And you’ll tell her then?”

“I promise,” Jason assured him.

Michael nodded seriously. “And you’ll make her feel better.”

“I–I don’t know about that,” Jason said. “This isn’t good news, Michael. It won’t make her happy. I don’t know if anything will make her feel better.”

“You’ll make her feel better,” Michael said confidently. “Remember the first time? When we left? She wasn’t smiling and then you talked to her and then she was smiling. So you can make her feel better.”

“Michael–”

“She doesn’t deserve that kind of pain,” Michael told his guardian with a kind of maturity a boy of his age shouldn’t possess. “It’s just like with Mom and Sonny. He knows how much she loves me ‘n Morgan and he used that against her. Mom didn’t deserve to be hurt like that. And Elizabeth doesn’t either. There are people in the world that like…” he hesitated, searching for the right words, “they’re different from everyone else. ‘Cause they got bigger hearts. And they love more. Liz never would have married Ric again if she wasn’t one of them people. And people like that, we gotta protect them.”

Jason smoothed his hand over Michael’s unruly mop of red hair. “Elizabeth is special,” he agreed quietly. “She’s always taking in people that most have given up on. Zander, Ric…me.” He looked away. “She’s got something in her that searches for the good in everyone, no matter what they’ve done.”

“Exactly,” Michael said, pleased Jason had found the words he couldn’t. “And we can’t let Ric ruin that just because he didn’t understand.”

“Understand…?” Jason shook his head. “Understand what?”

“Love shouldn’t be something you toss around, like an old hat,” Michael said fervently. “It’s special and if you love someone, they’re special. Ric doesn’t understand that. He only cares about himself. So you have to make sure Liz knows it’s not her fault. You have to make her feel better.”

“I’ll do the best I can,” Jason pledged. “But until then, don’t let on that something’s wrong. She’ll only worry.”

Michael nodded. “And you know what would help her? If we stayed the whole summer.”

Jason waited a moment. “Well, her due date is early July. I see no reason why we have to leave before the baby’s born.”

“And we can talk about the rest of the summer after Andi’s born?” Michael asked hopefully.

“We can discuss it,” Jason agreed.

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