All right, the messiness begins. We are now changing my original pick up date for the show and moving it back to September, so ignore pretty much everything. My version is how it really is.

Written in about 62 minutes and this sucker is loooong for one scene. No editing, so excuse the typos.

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Webber House: Living Room

It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes before she heard a familiar roar of a motorcycle approaching. She darted towards the door, threw back the dead bolt and pulled the door open just as Jason pulled to a stop behind her battered Honda Accord in the driveway.

“Is he gone?” Jason asked, swinging a leg over the bike and moving towards her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She exhaled slowly as he walked up the path between the driveway and her front step. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you, I just…I thought he might…not want to deal with you. I threatened with the cops first but—”

“It’s okay.” Jason gestured towards the front door and they went inside. “I asked Sonny who we’re using for locks now, and he said he’d send someone over.” He grimaced. “I didn’t even…”

She closed the door behind them and waited until he’d handed her his jacket to hang up. “It must be so hard,” she murmured. “So much has changed. I’m sure there’s so many people working for Sonny now that you don’t know.”

“It’s…” Jason hesitated. “I don’t know. It’s fine.” He waited a moment. “I’m going to wait here until they change the locks. Are you sure you’re okay? What did he do?”

Elizabeth frowned, folded her arms. “Look, if you don’t want to talk about it, it’s your life. But don’t do that. Don’t brush me off and then ask me about my problems. I’m not doing that again.”

He squinted and followed her into the kitchen. “Elizabeth—”

“Because we don’t have to be friends to co-parent Jake. And I don’t blame you—” She paused. “The last time I saw you before you were shot…was the day I told you I had lied about Danny’s DNA test.”

She put a kettle on the stove to boil and took a mug from the cabinet. “That was worse than losing you. Knowing that you were angry with me when it happened—”

“I wasn’t.”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Of course you were. I was angry with me. It was such a stupid, petty thing to do. I just—I knew it even when I did it.” She grimaced. “I do a lot of stupid things.”

“Elizabeth.” He waited until she looked at him. “Was I angry the day you told me? Yeah. Of course I was. Sam was grieving for her son, and I—I was blaming myself. But I know you have issues with Sam. That—it’s more complicated than that.”

“I just put off the inevitable,” she murmured as she busied herself selecting a bag of tea from a variety box as if it were an important decision. “You were always going to go back to Sam. I knew that. I guess…I don’t know. Part of me wanted some payback.”

Jason exhaled slowly. “For Jake.”

“Three weeks, five days, six hours, and fifteen minutes. That’s how long I was without my son.” Elizabeth closed her eyes. “And for every minute I was terrified, when people were accusing me of hurting my son—when my own husband, my friends…thought I had done something…Sam knew where Jake was.”

“I know—”

“She could have told us at any time, but instead, you broke your bail conditions. You ended up going to jail for months—” She shook her head. “I didn’t know Heather was involved. I just thought Danny was with Tea—I never would have done that if I’d thought he was in danger. It kills me that it’s my fault—”

“It worked out—”

“But I kept your son from you. I didn’t know I was doing that, but that’s what it was. That was weeks you didn’t get with Danny—”

“Elizabeth—” Jason waited a moment. “It’s not your fault. What Heather Webber did—that wasn’t on you. No one knew she was involved. You didn’t switch—” he stopped. “Wait—what did happen?”

“Oh.” Elizabeth shrugged, scratched her head. “God. Um. Todd Manning, do you remember him?”

“Yeah. Did he—”

“Yeah. He switched the babies…I guess he wanted to help Tea or something. I don’t know. He also switched the paternity test. Or at least that’s what we think. I don’t know. I wasn’t involved. I think—Spinelli told me that a copy of it was slipped under Sam’s door. And it makes sense, I guess. Danny looks like you did at that age. Like Jake.” The pot whistled and Elizabeth poured her tea.

“Anyway, it all came out after you…were shot. And Todd moved about six months later. Out of nowhere, really. Michael was dating his daughter, Starr. God, I wish she’d been around when everything happened with AJ. He only had Kiki, and she turned out to be lying to him, too—” She paused. “You….know about AJ.”

“Monica told me he was alive, and then Carly gave me her version,” Jason said. He lifted an eyebrow. “Which means it was probably a lot worse.”

“Morgan and Kiki found out that Sonny…” Elizabeth shook her head. “That Sonny had killed AJ. And they kept it from Michael for months. Kiki only came clean after Michael already knew—” She grimaced. “Anyway. Michael’s been through a lot.”

The doorbell rang, and Elizabeth went to answer it. Two guys entered with tool boxes, and she set them up at her front door first to change that lock.

“I was thinking about the memory mapping yesterday,” Elizabeth said as she rejoined Jason in the kitchen. “Do you know when Drew got your memories?”

“Before he came to Port Charles,” Jason said. “According to Robin, he knew her in the lab, and she brought him to Port Charles. He was going to see Sonny when he got hit by the car. Why?”

“Well, it’s just…weird. The car accident messed up his face so he had to have cosmetic surgery, and then no memories. Which…defeated the purpose of giving him your memories. What were they doing that first year until he got them back?”

Jason hesitated. “I haven’t really talked to Drew or Sam about that year—Sonny said he didn’t really know Drew that well—” He tilted his head. “But you did. Nikolas told you he was supposed to be me months later—”

“The Nurse’s Ball that May, yeah. After they found a chip in his head that Helena was using to control him. I guess they’ve upgraded the technology since brainwashing Lucky and screwing with his memories. That’s what makes me think that the Cassadines are more involved—they’ve been experimenting with memories for decades.”

“I didn’t think about Lucky—”

“That’s why I knew Drew wasn’t really guilty when he was accused of helping Faison escape and setting a bomb on the Haunted Star. I knew something wasn’t right. And Helena Cassadine was lurking around—” She shrugged. “Anyway. He had some memory flashes, but really—that first nine months or so—he really only—” Elizabeth bit her lip. “He remembered Jake’s name. And me.”

Jason frowned. “What?”

“Yeah. When he woke up from the coma, he said he felt like he knew me. And he said the name Jake felt familiar, so he chose that. I thought it was because of the emergency room—I was the nurse on duty when he came in.” Elizabeth sipped her cooling tea. “But for a long time, even though he was surrounded by pictures of you and the people from your life—nothing clicked. In fact, he didn’t get along with almost anyone from your life. Just me, Michael, and Carly.”

“I guess I didn’t really think about why they would let him go for a year without the memories,” Jason admitted. “When did the doctor show up?”

“Not until Jake came home. Around—” Elizabeth furrowed her brow. “Around the time the flashes really started coming. Drew started to remember Sam more. And everything hit the fan with what we thought was Drew’s real identity.” She sighed, rubbed her forehead. “I’m…I was kind of out of loop after that. Drew didn’t really talk to me again…for months. Which is…understandable.”

“Elizabeth—”

“Anyway, I don’t know if any of that is even important.” She shrugged. “I was just thinking about the timeline and then I was thinking about the Cassadines. Victor was involved with the WSB so he could have been funding the research. It just—I never bought the reason Helena said Victor kidnapped you.” When Jason gestured for her to go on, she did. “Helena told Drew it was to act as a personal bodyguard. Someone with your skills—but that never felt right. The Cassadines never had problems finding henchmen. Why you? And…”

She chewed on her lip. “Helena kidnapped Jake. But Drew said she never talked about him. The first time she told him the truth, she just threatened me. And then she made him forget the conversation ever happened. He remembered later. She told him he was Jason Morgan, that he had to do things for her. But she never once used Jake as leverage. Drew knew who Jake was.”

“There was never any hint that Helena had Jake?” Jason said with a scowl. “I don’t understand how any of that—”

“Lucky found him—and he and Luke brought him home. They just said they’d picked up his trail, but I don’t know. I mean, he’s Jake. The story was that Helena thought he was Lucky’s son—she’d planned to raise him to hate the Spencers and do vengeance or something.” She sighed. “But it…it’s just weird. Helena kidnaps Jake, and then Victor takes you a year later?”

“Could they have known Jake was my son?” Jason said. “I thought we were careful—”

“Jason—” Elizabeth said with a wry smile. “No one believed he was Lucky’s. Not after Ric made me admit in open court that we’d slept together and I’d had a paternity test. The test was on file at General Hospital. The truth was there if anyone wanted to look for it. So, yeah, she could have known. And since she had to take him from the hospital the night of accident—”

“There would be no way she wouldn’t know. She would have been in his files.” Jason scowled. “Damn it. Every time I think I’ve wrapped my mind around all of this, there’s something else.”

“Ms. Webber?”

One of the men stepped up to the doorway, a shoebox in his hands. “This was by the door—it fell over when we were taking out the old lock—and I stepped on one of the ornaments.”

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose and came around the island to take the box from him. “Franco had this with him when he came in this morning,” she murmured. “He must have left it. Thanks.”

“Ornaments?” Jason said. “For Christmas? It’s February—” He stopped, looked at the open box in her hands. “Can I—Can I see that?”

“Sure—” She handed him the box and he set it on the kitchen table. He sorted out the broken pieces, and then lifted up a round ornament shaped like a disco ball. “That’s not one of ours. What—”

Jason swallowed hard and then twisted the top. The ball split into two in his hands, revealing a USB drive hidden within. “Franco had this with him?”

“Yeah. He put it down when he got back, and he was in a hurry when he left. I guess he—” Elizabeth shook her head. “What is it?”

“Andre destroyed all his records when he left town,” Jason said quietly. “But he gave something to Anna Devane. A disco ball with a USB drive.”

They both stored at the small electronic device nestled within the ornament. “With his files?” Elizabeth said faintly.

“And Drew’s memories.” Jason exhaled slowly. “Do you know what else happened between the time we lost Jake and I was shot?”

“Yeah.” Elizabeth pressed her fingers to her lips and forced herself to continue. “You shot Franco and left him for dead.”

“And then he showed up when?”

“Maybe…eight months after the pier—”

“And when did you start…” Jason hesitated. “When did you change your mind about him?”

“After…Andre came to town. After the truth—” Elizabeth folded her arms tightly across her chest, her throat tight. “Right about the time everyone in the town decided I was the worst person alive for lying. But after Andre came back. Around the time Drew started to remember more.” She nodded at the drive. “Those are Drew’s memories. And Franco had them.”

“Yeah.” He put the top back on the ornament. “The boys are at school?”

“Yes.” Elizabeth forced herself to breathe. “And no, Franco is not…he’s not allowed to take them out—only I’m authorized. Well, me and you. Well, technically, Drew—but we thought he—Never mind. That’s not important. Jason, how long do you think we have until Franco realizes he left that here?”

And oh, God, how much of her life over the last two years had been a lie? Had she been manipulated, lied to…even more than she feared?

“Not long enough. They’ll be done with your locks soon. We’ll change your security codes. And then we should probably go see Drew.” Jason looked at her. “We’ll get the boys from school—they can’t go on the bus. And we’ll make sure they’re somewhere safe. What did you tell Franco about breaking the engagement?”

“I—” Her throat was dry. “I told him it—I said the boys weren’t…Oh, God.” She closed her eyes. “He favors Jake. The signs were all there. He’s always been obsessed with you. Of course, he singled out your son—Oh, my God, what have I done?”

“Hey.” Jason put one hand on her shoulder, gripped it. “Hey. We don’t know how this all fits together yet. But we’ll find out, okay?”

“Okay.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s…get my locks changed and then go see Drew. Maybe there’ll be answers on the drive.”

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