Written in 56 minutes. Didn’t get as far as I wanted, but we’re okay. See you tomorrow!

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

General Hospital: Parking Garage

“Diane knows she can call if they find something, right?” Elizabeth asked, rummaging through her purse for her ID. “Willow’s already offered to cover any time if I have to run out early, and—”

“Diane knows.” Jason reached for her hand, squeezed it. “You’re her first call. But—”

“But she told us not to expect a miracle today.” Elizabeth closed her eyes, leaned back against the car seat. “But we deserve one, don’t we? Why can’t Spinelli just open a file and the first thing he sees is my trunk opening when I’m nowhere my car? Why can’t the first video show someone planting the gun—” She broke off, took another deep breath, then looked at him. “I just want this over. I know that’s not brand new information. I know you feel the same. But I’m just—I’m tired of putting Cameron on a plane. I’m tired of going to Syracuse every damn week for a drug test. I’m tired of the ankle monitor. I’m just tired of all of it.” She bit her lip. “And none of that is your fault, so I’m sorry—”

“Don’t apologize,” Jason said with a quick shake of his head. He leaned over, kissed her, intending the embrace to brief, reassuring, but she threaded her fingers through his hair to draw him in closer. When he pulled back finally, slightly breathless, he leaned his forehead against hers. “I want the rest of our lives to begin,” he said softly. “But until it does, you don’t need to apologize for being angry. For telling me how you feel.”

“I just—” She smiled weakly, her fingertips brushing his temple. “I guess I’m just used to you blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. I know they’re coming after me because of you, because of Pikeman, but I don’t hold that against you. I would never blame you for this.”

“This is happening because of me,” Jason said slowly, and she wrinkled her nose, “but you’re right, that doesn’t make it my fault. It’s not easy to separate that in my head. Not when I think I should be able to fix it.”

“Sitting around, doing nothing, it’s hard for you, I know. We keep talking about it, but…” She stroked his hair. “I just needed you to know that I know it’s different this time. I can feel it. I can feel that it’s not just getting me out of trouble fast that matters. It’s making this over in a way that keeps us together. That keeps you with me, with the boys—”

“I love you,” Jason said. He kissed her again. “I’ve wasted too many chances with you. I’m not wasting another.”

“I’ll see you after work. I love you, too.”

Hanley Federal Building: U.S. Attorney’s Offices

Gia gestured for Noah to wait another minute as he stood near his desk, a folder in his hand and an irritated expression on his face, then turned her attention back to the phone in her hand. “No, I understand. I’m just hoping to get the analysis back sooner than that — is there anything we can to hurry it along — we’re really only interested in location data and the use of her trunk—okay. Okay. I’ll wait for your call.”

She set the phone back on the base, then twisted in her chair to face the other man. “The techstream data from the car is already with the expert you contracted, but he really can’t promise anything sooner than three to four weeks. The videos — we might get more information back sooner—”

She stopped when Noah dropped the folder on the her desk, furrowed her brow. “What? What’s this?

“Open it,” he said tightly. “And then you tell me.”

With dread in her stomach, Gia picked up the folder — it was thin — nothing more than a few sheets of paper at best. She lifted her gaze to his. “Noah—”

“Open it.”

She flipped it, then exhaled with some relief. It wasn’t some surveillance or tip report about her trips to Chase’s apartment —

It was an article about the Face of Deception contest more than twenty years earlier — with Gia and Elizabeth’s photos side by side, and a headline announcing Elizabeth taking the title.

“I told you, I lived in Port Charles. I’ve never hidden my time modeling.” She closed it, tossed it aside. “I knew Elizabeth briefly, but we haven’t talked in years. Not since I went to law school—”

“If it doesn’t matter, then why didn’t you say anything?” he demanded. “This is a massive ethics violation—and damn it, it’s more than just a modeling run-in. Carly Spencer recognized you. I knew there was something to it when she gave you a dirty look yesterday. I had no idea you had a history with our defendant—”

“A history that Elizabeth Webber knows very well, and if she had an issue with it, I’m sure her lawyer would bring it up.” Careful to keep her expression bland and uninterested, she offered a careless shrug. “I haven’t thought about any of that in years. Carly was running Deception at the time with the former mayor—Elizabeth won the title and resigned within a weeks. I took over and had a very short, successful career. There’s no bad blood there. Don’t you think Diane Miller would have mentioned it?”

“She doesn’t have the duty to the court—”

“Noah—” Gia sighed, rubbed her temple. “There’s no conflict here. I never represented her, we knew each other briefly in an ancient, closed chapter of both of our lives. Neither us are models now, are we?”

“Did Jason Morgan get to you?” Noah demanded. “Did he pay you to offer a second chair?”

Gia scowled. “No! Of course not! You can check my books — check anything you want! Are you crazy?”

“I’m crazy?” Noah repeated, his voice raising, pulling the attention of others around him. Her cheeks heated. “You’re cozy with the defendants in my murder trial, the same defendants that screwed us on Pikeman—”

“Knowing Elizabeth Webber twenty-four years ago has nothing to do with Pikeman, and I spoke to Jason Morgan maybe twice the entire time I lived in Port Charles — in fact, he wasn’t even living there at the same time! How dare you suggest—and he isn’t even a defendant in this case. That’s your goddamn bias, not mine! He’s not charged with this murder, Elizabeth is!”

“They’re the same person—”

“Not in the eyes of the law they’re not, and you damn well know it. You can’t prove these charges against her, not at trial. You only let her out on bail to catch Morgan in a cover up, but you have nothing! And you’re panicking—”

“You’re fired,” Noah cut in. “Clean out your desk.”

“You can’t fire me, I don’t work for you!” Gia shot back. “Go ahead. Report me. I can’t wait to tell Freedman everything I know. Do you really want her looking at your cases? At your tactics?”

Noah’s scowl deepened. “You’re off this case—”

“You’re wasting time and resources prosecuting someone you know didn’t commit the damn crime! Good luck getting anyone to help you.  Anyone who looks at it will know it’s a pile of shit.”

Bobbie’s Diner: Courtyard

Kristina sailed through the double doors, then stopped cold when she saw Dante near her car in the parking lot. She wanted to turn around, go back inside, to claim that she hadn’t seen him — but their eyes had already met, and she knew he wasn’t going away.

She didn’t know what to think the fact that she hadn’t heard from her mother or Sam all morning — she’d assumed if Alexis had thought about Kristina’s connection, that Sam obviously would.  But maybe she’d talked her mother down the day before — and maybe Sam didn’t think Kristina had anything to do with it.

But Dante had a look in his eye —

“Everything okay?” Kristina said, slowly approaching him. She shifted her coffee to the other hand so she could fish her keys from her coat pocket. “You look like hell.”

“Well, I got suspended, so we can start there.”

“Sus—” The keys fell to the ground with a plink of metal as she blinked at her brother with surprise. “What?”

“Yeah. Anna thinks I abused my authority to get Dex to cover up evidence.” Dante folded his arms. “So I’m under investigation until she can decide I’m clean.”

“I—” Kristina pressed her lips together. This was crazy! Everyone was getting in trouble — except for Elizabeth. What the hell was going on? “That’s stupid. Anna should know better—”

“She’s not the only one.” Dante lifted his brows. “Did you tell the feds about that night?”

“Are you kidding me?” Kristina rolled her eyes, then put her coffee on the hood of her car. “That’s so stupid. Why would I do that?”

“To help Sam get Danny back.”

“I—I didn’t have anything to do with it—”

“I don’t believe you,” Dante said flatly, and Kristina felt her heartbeat begin to pick up. He sounded so unshakeable. “You’re impulsive, Kristina. You don’t think—” He rapped his head with a fist. “You think — let me get rid of Elizabeth for Sam, but it doesn’t occur to you that there are consequences, that your one stupid little action ripples out to everyone else! Danny was in court yesterday, and now he thinks his mother has turned him in to the Feds for drinking and doing drugs—”

“Whose fault is it that he was there?” Kristina demanded. “That’s Jason, not giving a damn about anyone but  himself. This is exactly why Danny belongs with Sam! Jason and Drew are selfish bastards—”

“What about Rocco?” Dante demanded, and Kristina stopped, stared at him. “He’s in those reports, too. Did you even think about your other nephew? About me? About Aiden Webber? None of us asked for any of this.  We were all just trying to protect our sons — Elizabeth and Jason, too. Do you think Danny and Rocco having to testify and tell everyone Elizabeth never knew a damn thing — did you think that was a good idea?”

“I—” She licked her lips. “I didn’t do this—” But her protestation was weak. “I didn’t do this—”

“No one else knew,” Dante said. “No one else knew about Aiden and Elizabeth. Just you.”

“I—he was arrested. Dex knew—and Dex has betrayed you before—betrayed Dad—”

“Dex talked to Aiden that night. He knew Elizabeth and Aiden were clean. Why would he go after  her this way? He’d go to Anna directly. Someone wanted to hurt Elizabeth.” Dante stepped closer. “And that leaves two people in my book. Sam. And you.”

“I—” Kristina swallowed hard. “Sam was really angry—” She stopped when she saw Dante close his eyes, shake his head again. “She was—”

“All she’s done for you— all she’s sacrificed—and you’re going to stand here and blame her.” He shook his head. “Maybe you really thought this would help. Maybe you didn’t think past any of that. There’s part of me that really wants to believe that. But I can’t.”

“Dante, I didn’t do any of this—I didn’t,” Kristina insisted. “It’s not fair for you to accuse me with no evidence—”

“No evidence? Damn it, Kristina, no one else knew. Just the people involved, Dex and his partner, and you. The only question I have is—is getting Elizabeth away from Danny the only goal?”

She opened her mouth, then closed it, shook her head mutely. What was he insinuating? What could he possibly mean?  “I didn’t do this,” she said again.  “I didn’t—”

“You did. You know it, I know it, and pretty soon, everyone else will know it, too. And don’t think about going to Dad with this,” Dante said when Kristina stooped to pick up her keys. “He can’t save you. He won’t—”

“There’s nothing to save—” Kristina stopped, took a deep breath. “I did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong,” she repeated. “I don’t need Dad to fix things that aren’t broken. You’ll see. You’ll all see. Get away from the car, damn it. Go find out who really did this.”

Dante took a few steps back, said nothing else when Kristina got in her car, then backed out—the container of coffee left on the hood tipping over and going flying as she took off. He took out his phone, lifted to his ear. “She just left. Do you have her? Okay. I’m heading over to my father’s now.”

+33

Written in 55 minutes.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Port Charles Airport: Departures

Cameron turned to face his mother, his bag slung over his shoulder. “I told you Jason didn’t have to stay in the car. I’m not mad at him anymore.”

“He wanted to give us a little privacy.” Elizabeth brushed at an invisible piece of lint, forcing herself to smile. “I hate why you’re coming home so much, but I do love to see you. I like having all my boys at home.”

“I miss it sometimes,” Cameron admitted. “Even sharing with Jake—and don’t apologize for that. Danny needs his own space, and it’s not fair to move him when I’m in and out — and when I’m gonna get my own place when I get back in May,” he told his mother.

“I’ll just be happy to have you back in the same zip code.” Elizabeth lifted herself on her toes and kissed Cameron’s cheek, before hugging him tightly. “I love you, honey. So much.”

“I love you, too.” Cameron didn’t immediately release her, and she saved one more minute with her firstborn. It was so hard saying goodbye to him, even knowing it was temporary.

She watched until he checked in at the desk, then disappeared into the terminal. And then just one minute before leaving the terminal and sending Jason a text to stop circling the terminal and pick her up.

“Everything go okay?” he asked after she’d slid into her seat and buckled herself in. She sighed, leaned back.

“Yeah. I just wish it would stop raining. I hate the idea of them taking off in this weather—” She glanced up uneasily at the gray skies. “I’m not sure I remember what the sun looks like at this point.”

“He’ll be okay.” Jason reached over for her hand, squeezed it. “They won’t take off if it’s not safe.”

“I know.” But Elizabeth would be tracking the flight all the same, unable to rest until her baby boy wasn’t thousands of feet above them in the skies.

Port Charles High: Lobby

Danny hunched his shoulders, his fingers gripping the backpack tightly. “It’s like they all know,” he muttered, looking at the other students with narrowed eyes.

“No one knows anything.” Jake switched off his phone, shoved it back in his pocket. “Stay out of trouble, okay? And both of you -” He jabbed a finger at the school’s trophy case. “Wait right here after school for me.”

Without waiting for an answer, he headed down the senior hall way, and Aiden rolled his eyes. “They’re never going to let us take the bus again, are they?” he complained following Danny towards the freshman wing.

“Not in this life time.” Danny passed the bank of lockers where he’d usually find Rocco and forced himself to look away. Rocco was still suspended until the following Monday, and it was weird being here without him.

It would be even weirder when Rocco came back and was in a different first period class.

The warning bell for homeroom sounded, and Aiden jolted. “Oh man, Devers is gonna make my life miserable if I’m late again. See you at lunch.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

And Danny needed to haul ass too — he couldn’t get in trouble. Not again. There was too much on the line.

Quartermaine Estate: Parlor

“Man, did you  have to get suspended at the same time as me?” Rocco grumbled, flipping open a textbook on the coffee table and opening his school computer. “You’re not gonna sit there all day and watch me, are you?”

“Don’t tempt me,” Dante said with a scowl, then turned at the sound of footsteps. When he saw Chase in the foyer, he turned back to Rocco. “Stay here.”

Without waiting for Rocco’s agreement, Dante hurried to catch his partner. “Chase. Hey. Hey.”

“Oh—” Chase stopped, his hand on the door. “Hey. I was gonna try to set something up with you. We need to have a conversation.” He angled his head around to see Rocco watching the from the sofa. “Without an audience,” he said to Dante in a quieter tone.

“I figured. I guess you talked to Molly,” Dante said.

“Molly?” Chase furrowed his brow. “No, not since she recused herself. Why?”

“I just figured—” Dante stopped, turned to see Rocco at the entrance of the parlor. “Didn’t I tell you to stay there?”

“I am there.” The teen pointed down at the threshold, indicating that technically he was still in the other room. “You guys are acting like you’re talking government secrets. Is this about what Grandma and Ned were yelling about last night?”

“No—wait, what were they saying—” Dante held up a hand. “And why were you listening?”

“Dude, Canada could hear Grandma when she gets on a roll.” Rocco shrugged. “I guess someone is trying to blame Aunt Liz for what we did a few weeks ago or something, right?”

Dante grimaced. “No.”

“Yes,” Chase said, at the same time then winced when Dante sent him a dirty look. “He was there, Dante. And look — we’re trying to track the source — we got reason to believe that whoever tipped off Reynolds has a bigger role to play—”

“I don’t understand.”

“I can’t get into it,” Chase said with a shake of his head. “You know that, not the specifics. But we need to know who else knew all the details. You know, that Elizabeth and Aiden were involved.”

Dante hesitated. It would be so easy to turn this over to Chase, to just tell him about Kristina’s possible involvement. But he didn’t know for sure, did he? Talking about it with Molly was one thing — but bringing it to Chase was something else.

“Well, Aunt Kristina could probably help you.”

Dante whipped his head back to Rocco. “What?”

“Yeah,” Rocco said. “You were gonna pick her up, remember? That’s why me and Danny could just…get out without you checking with Aunt Liz. And she stayed over. I bet Aunt Kristina told someone. She sucks at secrets. Especially good ones.” He looked at Chase. “You should ask her.”

Dante exhaled slowly, then looked at Chase. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “You should probably check with Kristina.”

Miller & Davis: Spinelli’s Office

Diane paced the short length of the office, tapping a pen against her hand. “Sonny Corinthos finally grows a conscience and, of course, the information is unusable.”

“Not in a court of law—” Spinelli ignored Diane’s scoff. “But it closes out a hole in our theory, doesn’t it? Where does Kristina get an unregistered gun? ”

“The real question is why Sonny is handing this information over—” Diane pursed her lips. “Do we think he knows anything?”

“If he knew something, Kristina would already be out of the country,” Spinelli answered immediately. “He’s always regretted not doing more to keep Michael out of jail. If he thinks there’s a good chance you’ll win the case just on the merits—”

“And I will, but I’d rather not put everyone through a damn trial—” Diane nodded. “But I tend to agree with you. Maybe Sonny has a theory, but he doesn’t have any proof. Or maybe he really thinks one of his guys tried to do something and isn’t coming forward because it backfired.”

“Or maybe one of his guys is going after Jason for playing informant,” Spinelli said.

“None of which, again, I can do anything with.” Diane turned to face him, gestured at his desk. “You were expecting a data dump. Where are we?”

Spinelli sat down, flipped open his computer, tapped a few keys. “Car data came in raw, and I’ve already sent it to the analyst you want to use for trial. I’m gonna do my own run through and hope it matches something. I was hoping to find just the trunk pops, but it’s buried in all the data.”

“Can’t ever get a break, can we?” Diane made a face. “Security footage?”

“We got the neighbors on either side and one person across the street. I’m still waiting on two more neighbors to come through. Security company says by Friday, but I’ve got enough to start looking.” Spinelli looked at her.  “I already looked at the time stamps that match Kristina’s trip to Elizabeth’s, and all I have is her car. That doesn’t mean we won’t get more—”

“But it also just might mean she didn’t end up on tape. The neighbors we’re waiting on — any of them worth waiting for?”

“McCormick’s camera looks directly at the spot where Elizabeth’s car was parked that day, or at least where Elizabeth remembers it being parked.” Spinelli checked his notes. “He didn’t get back to his company right away, and it delayed the files a few days. Friday morning.”

“Well, let’s see if we can get those trunk pops. You make that your priority today. Jason and Elizabeth are coming by later today to talk about the bail hearing, and why don’t you let them go through the video? They’ll feel better doing something for a chance.”

“Are we ready to tell them about Kristina?” Spinelli wanted to know.

Diane stopped at the door, looked back at him, and hesitated, tapping her fingers against the door’s edge. “We find a trunk pop for the time she was at the house, yes. I think we tell them what we think is going on. But right now, it’s just theory. And I don’t know if I want to tell Jason that we suspect his son’s aunt, Sonny’s daughter, someone he’s protected for his whole life—well, once we put that thought in his head, I don’t know he puts it away. Let’s get something just a little more solid before we do that.”

Davis House: Front Entrance

Alexis sighed, stepped back to allow Sam entrance. “If you’re here to ask me to fix this for you—”

Sam scowled, whirled around to face her mother. “No, there’s no point in wasting my breath. No one is going to just believe me — not you, Dante, Jason, and probably not Danny. You all think I’m Satan—”

“Sam—”

“Don’t—” Sam pointed at her mother. “The only way to fix this is to find out who the hell did this because it was not me. I had nothing to do with it.”

Alexis didn’t speak for a moment, then nodded. “All right. I had a theory that perhaps Kristina pushed you into this because I know she’s been very supportive of you —”

“You make that sound like a crime. Kristina’s just listened to me, okay? Maybe she gave me bad advice—” Sam held up both hands. “I’m not getting sidetracked, okay? I think you’re on to something with Kristina. Because she was being supportive. And she definitely…well, she was encouraging me to attack Elizabeth in my therapy session. I can believe she might think getting Elizabeth out of the picture might have made a difference. I just don’t understand how she’d know to do—” Sam stopped. “Mom, why do you have that look on your face? What did you do?”

“I might have…in passing…mentioned that Diane was concerned about Elizabeth’s bail,” Alexis said with a wince, and Sam’s scowl deepened. “Well, I’m sorry! I never thought she’d do something like this! This hurts Danny—”

“Oh, but it’s absolutely something I would do, right, Mom?” Sam demanded. “Do you even know how insulting you sound right now?”

Alexis pressed her lips together. “You have been known to become so angry at Elizabeth that you were unable to hear your son in the same room begging you to stop. Let’s not pretend that you’re innocent in this situation, Sam. If Danny  believes you did this, it’s because you have made it very clear to him that what he wants doesn’t matter if it involves Elizabeth. And that is the same message Kristina obviously received if she had anything to do with this. Why do you think it was her in the first place?”

“We’re going to ignore everything else because I can’t—I can’t deal with that right now.  Because I have to find my idiot sister and make sure she didn’t do this — and if she did, then I have to get her to confess to about a thousand people so I can get my son back in my life. I do not have time to litigate my issues with you.”

“Well, you had better find the time, Sam, because maybe it’s natural for your ex-husband to think you did this first, but your current boyfriend, your mother, and your son also thought you were the most natural suspect. That’s not thing something you can overlook.”

Sam jerked the door open and threw her mother one last furious look. “No, it’s not. But believe me, we’ll deal with that after I clear my name.”

+40

Was hoping to cover more ground in this update, but the first scene took me a little bit to get right. Written in 59 minutes. See you Tuesday!

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Webber House: Master Bedroom

The light patter of raindrops was her first conscious thought as Elizabeth woke the next morning. The bedroom was still dark and quiet, and she considered just letting herself drift back into sleep, curled up next to Jason who continued to sleep — one of the rare times he wasn’t already awake.

She closed her eyes, absorbing the comfort of being wrapped up with the man she’d loved since she was eighteen, sometimes with her whole heart, and others with only a piece reserved for him. Last night had felt like some sort of break through, even more than their argument the previous day when she’d learned Jason had considered confessing to free Elizabeth from the charges. She finally felt like they were both committed to being together — not just as parents, but as two people who loved one another.

Jason’s breathing changed, and he shifted in bed, his arm that had been laying beneath her, splayed out along the mattress came up, curling over her shoulders, his fingertips stroking slowly. “You should sleep longer.”

“Thought about it,” she said, keeping her head tucked into the curve of his neck. “But my mind is awake now. Remembering what we have to do today.” Make sure Danny got back to school, put Cameron on a plane, go to work for a few hours because the nursing schedule needed to be handled and then — “Spinelli kept saying today was important, and I just…what if he finds something that gives us a real suspect — what if he finds out who put that gun in my trunk?”

“There’s no guarantee it’ll happen today,” Jason said, his tone cautious. “He said there was a lot of data and video to go through.”

“I know. I know. And he’s working as fast as he can. Just…the thought that the truth is in some file that’s just sitting in an office. That there’s proof someone did this to me. I’ve tried so hard not to think about it, to keep it this academic fact that doesn’t mean anything except making it over.”

“But?” he prompted when she fell silent.

“I can’t stop thinking that it’s someone we know. That knows me. Knows us.” Elizabeth sat up,  bracing herself with a hand lightly on his chest, finding his gaze in the shadows. “I keep going over and over that week in my head, thinking about everyone I came into contact with, who was at the house, who was at the hospital, and I just—I can’t think of a single reason any of them would have targeted me.”

Jason leaned over, switched on the lamp next to the bed, illuminating the room with just a little bit of light. “I don’t think anyone seriously thought the FBI would go after you like this,” he said. “This was to get at me—”

“So that you’d confess and the cops wouldn’t keep looking. I know. I know. But then it’s someone who knows you—”

“But not well enough to know you. Not really. Yes, I considered turning myself in,” Jason said, and she made a face. “But I didn’t. Because I didn’t want to, and because I’m not guilty. And you would never have let me go through with it. Because we’re both innocent. This isn’t like Michael. I confessed to something I did, and it was a loophole that got me out after his release.”

“I just—there’s the fear that we’ll know the truth from what Spinelli gets today — and then a whole other fear that we won’t. That it’s data and footage, and somehow, it won’t have any answers. That Diane will have to go trial with what we know now.” She sighed, swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Maybe I should tell her to do whatever she can to delay things. Until we get something—”

“Let’s get through today,” Jason interrupted. He slid across the bed so that he could be on her side, then sat next to her, pulling her against him. He kissed her temple. “We’ll get through today, and tomorrow, and the next day. Let Spinelli work.”

“I know. I’m just…” She sighed, relaxed against him, feeling comforted by his warmth and arms around her. “We finally have this. But I’m so afraid it’ll be like it always is. We’re strong, you and me, when it’s just us, in this warm little bubble where everything is perfect. And the rest of the world—”

“Not this time,” Jason promised. “This time will be different.”

“I almost believe it when you say it.” She smiled at him, touched his cheek, kissed him, then touched her forehead to his. “I might need you to say it a few more times.”

“Whenever you need it. I love you,” he murmured, and her smile deepened.

“You know, you didn’t say that before last night,” Elizabeth said, tilting her head back slightly so that their eyes could meet. “Neither did I. Strange, isn’t it? But I love you, too.”

He kissed her again, long, lingering, then sighed when they heard a shower switch on above their heads.

“Back to real life,” Elizabeth said with a shake of her head. She slid off the bed and moved towards the master bathroom door on the other side of the room.

“Don’t worry,” Jason said when she’d reached it, and she turned to look back at him. He tapped his temple. “I’ll remember where we left off.” She grinned, then closed the door.

Webber House: Kitchen

Danny’s palms were sweating as he approached the kitchen where he could hear his dad and Elizabeth talking quietly — happy tones, he thought, and wondered if it that’s what it meant to be an adult — being able to be happy even when the world sucked.

He reached the doorway, then nearly doubled back when he caught his dad leaning down to kiss Elizabeth in front of the fridge, and she was laughing. But before he could make a decision, Elizabeth saw him. “Danny. Hey, you’re up early.”

Jason stepped back, reached for his coffee cup. “You’re usually the last one down.”

“Yeah, well, I wanted to, um, talk to you before everyone else. And I know you gotta leave to take Cam—” Danny shoved both hands in his pockets. “We were up talking last night before you got back. About what you said about being normal and just ignoring all of it.” He took a deep breath. “And we decided it was bullshit.” He winced. “I mean—um—”

“It’s wishful thinking,” Elizabeth supplied, with a smile he thought looked a little like a smirk. “A nicer way of saying bullshit,” she added, and he found himself smiling back at her. “And you’re right. We can’t be normal or ignore it.”

“But you’re still going to school and so is Jake and Aiden,” Jason said. “And Cameron’s getting on that plane. Whatever you guys decided—”

“No, that’s not—I mean, yeah, all of that is happening. It has to. I get that part. You need us to be doing all the right stuff for the court,” Danny said. “Cameron explained that to us — that we gotta prove that we’re better with you here. Not in jail. So we have to do the right stuff. And if they wanna use me to make you go back—”

“They’re not using you,” Elizabeth interrupted, then winced. “I’m sorry—I just—I can’t let you blame yourself for any of this, Danny. This isn’t your fault—”

“I was stupid and selfish, and I dragged Aiden into it—” Danny pressed his lips together. “But I gotta prove to the court that I’m doing better or that I’m trying to, so we talked about it, and me and Aiden wanna tell the judge everything. About you not knowing anything, and how you were both so mad at us, and that you’re the one who found me a doctor,” he told Elizabeth, “and that you’re the one that made Mom let me go,” he said to his father. “And that I never even saw you that night. Or any other night we were supposed to be with you. I wanna tell them so they know this isn’t your fault.” He barely made to the end of his prepared speech before his voice broke and he lifted his chin because maybe then he wouldn’t cry.

Jason came around the counter, crossing the kitchen to Danny’s side, and put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” Danny thought about pulling away, but didn’t when his dad pulled him into a half hug, rubbed his shoulder.

“We talked about that before we came home from Syracuse. With Diane, and then we discussed it,” Elizabeth said. She came towards them, but stopped a few feet away. “Yes, there’s a chance you or Aiden might have to talk to the judge. We don’t want to lie to you about that. But your dad and I told Diane to find any other way to keep that from happening. To see if maybe Dante or Dex or someone else can tell the judge what happened.”

“I can do it, though. I’m not a baby you have to protect—”

“You’re my son,” Jason said, and Danny felt something turn in his stomach. “I don’t care if you’re fifty or two months old, I am always going to protect you. I don’t think that the best thing for you is to get up on the stand and let some prosecutor or judge question you about what happened. It’s none of their business.”

“Mom—Mom made it their business—”

“Even if that’s true, that doesn’t mean we have to cooperate,” Elizabeth cut in. “I don’t want Aiden involved either. We don’t want any of this to touch you more than it already has. I’ve testified more than once—and your dad—”

“I’ve spent more time in a court room than I want,” Jason said. “Neither of us want that for any of you. To make you part of the system. You’d be admitting to crimes, Danny. Under oath. Drinking, smoking weed — you put that on the record, and someone can use it against you.” He hesitated. “You’re my son, Danny, and you’ve got my last name. That’s two strikes against you before you even walk out the door—you saw what happened with the FBI. They assumed you were lying, that you and Jake were protecting me. They went after you both once. I’m not in a hurry to let it happen again.”

“I—” Danny closed his mouth. “I didn’t think about that,” he muttered, dropping his gaze. “That really sucked.” He nodded. “And now Aiden’s connected to you, and he’s Elizabeth’s son, and they all think she’s lying to protect you, too. Okay. So you don’t want me to testify. But I’m ready. If you need me.”

“That means a lot to me,” Elizabeth told him. “But don’t think for one minute that there’s a single ounce of blame on you for any of this. You were a stupid teenager, Danny. You did something irresponsible, and so did Aiden. You have every right—” Her voice broke slightly, and Danny felt his dad’s arm around him tense. “You have every right to make those mistakes and not have to pay for it the rest of your lives. No one has any right to hurt you.”

“Elizabeth?” Danny said, when she had turn away, and his dad went to her, took her by the elbows. “I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“It’s not you, it’s not—” Elizabeth closed her eyes, shook her head slightly. “I wasn’t that much older than either of you, and I did something stupid one night, and it—something terrible happened because of it. I blamed myself for a long time.” She looked at Danny. “This isn’t your fault, Danny. And any one who tries to blame you or Aiden or even Rocco — they’re wrong. No one is going to use you or any of my boys to hurt me. I won’t let it happen. I appreciate your offer to testify, but believe me, it will only happen if we have no other choice.”

+42

Written in 59 minutes.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Vista Point: Parking Lot

“I don’t—” Jason stopped, cleared his throat. “I never hated you for any of that—”

“Well, then you’re a better person than me.” Elizabeth leaned her head back against the seat, closed her eyes, rain still dripping from her hair, sliding down past her ears to the collar of her shirt. “Because I hated you for Courtney. For Sam. Not for long, but I won’t pretend I wasn’t jealous or that I didn’t wish you were a little unhappy because of it.” She sighed, a little unsteadily. “But I let it go. I moved past it. Yes, it hurt when you and Sam got back together, when you—” She pressed her lips together. “I wondered what was wrong with me—”

“Nothing—” Jason interrupted immediately and she smiled, looked at him, saw the worry in his eyes. She reached out, touched his cheek.

“I believe that now. I think we both made mistakes and made choices that hurt each other. Unthinkable choices, maybe, but they made sense when we made them, didn’t they? You try to stop, to explain them—” She furrowed her brow, looked out the windshield, letting her hand fall back to her lap. “And it’s like watching a horror movie, screaming at the stupid girl — don’t run up the steps, don’t look back, don’t open that door — but God, in the moment, she’s so afraid — she can’t think. She can’t do anything but feel and react to what’s in front of her.”  She looked at him again. “You don’t watch movies, but think about Carly making all her mistakes, doing everything you told her not to — and understanding that for her, it was the only way she knew how to live. And you accept that about her. You forgive her. You forgave me. Let me forgive you, Jason. Or this never works.”

“I—” Jason hesitated. There was an internal logic that appealed to him — because of course, he’d forgiven Carly so many sins over the years, hadn’t he? “I want to, but—I don’t know.”

“I stopped hating myself for Zander when Cameron was born, you know? I will always regret hurting you, and doubting that we were moving towards something, but if I don’t have that night with him then, then he and I don’t have a history where we create that perfect little boy. Imagine my life without Cameron —” Her smile came back again. “I forgave myself for lying to you about Jake after he came home. Because Lucky doesn’t bring him back if he doesn’t have some sense of paternal responsibility towards him.  I know there are problems with that logic — he never gets kidnapped if Helena doesn’t think Jake is a Spencer, and maybe — maybe Cameron’s your son if we don’t screw things up—”

“But I get it,” Jason said, and she looked at him. “I get it. If I don’t forgive Sam, there’s no Danny. Maybe you and I could have made it work, and we’d have more kids —”

“But they’d never be the boys we have now, would they? Imagine our lives without them? I don’t want to. So I have to forgive myself, Jason. And I have to forgive you. Because all those choices brought us here, didn’t they? You told me once that you didn’t believe in regrets. That you lived with the choices that you made and moved forward.” She reached for his hand, held it between both of hers. “You let yourself forget that, I think, when the choices piled up, and you didn’t like where you were. Let me forgive you,” she repeated, “and then forgive yourself. You did the best you could at the time, and second-guessing choices you made a life time ago is only going to make you—and me—unhappy. You don’t understand why I could love you then, but I did. And I love you now. For the man you are, the man you were, and the one you’re still trying to be. I love all those pieces of you, Jason.”

He looked at his hand, at her fingers curled around his palm, her skin as soft as ever but showing some light signs of age—just the faintest of wrinkles around her knuckles. The only evidence really that she’d changed from the girl he’d met in a bar all those years ago. “I am never going to stop regretting that we’d had more time,” he told her finally, lifting his gaze to hers. “Or wishing I spent more time with Jake and Danny. There are some regrets I can’t let go of. But you’re right. If we keep going around in circles, if I keep doubting that you could really love me, then I’m only going to have more of them. I came home and I knew that I wasn’t going back to the life I’d had before. That I’d left my sons for the last time, and that I’d spent the rest of my life making up for it if they’d let me.”

He brought one of her hands to his mouth, kissed her knuckles, then found the words to continue. “I came home,” he repeated, “and I didn’t know there’d be another chance for us. I thought I’d let go of that a long time ago. That I was okay with just being friends and parents. But you looked at me that first day, and I don’t know. I just remembered the way I felt with you when we first met, when I would run into you on the docks, and it was always the best part of my day. I started going to Kelly’s more just so I could see you,” he confessed, and Elizabeth bit her lip, trying to hide a smile. “I felt safe with you. Then. And now. Even before you dragged me out of the snow and forced me to keep living. I thought the best way to love you, to love our son, was to be away from you. To stop the world I’d chosen from touching you. I wanted to keep you smiling, and I didn’t think I could do that. I thought that it was enough for me that you were in the world, alive and safe. But it’s not.”

He shook his head. “It’s not. The last few weeks — living with you, actually getting to have that dream we’d only talked about, it’s everything. Tonight, I remembered all the reasons I didn’t think you could love me forever, and I almost let it ruin it. I want to promise that I won’t let it happen again, but I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep. But I promise that I will love you for the rest of our lives, if you’ll let me.”

“We’re okay,” she murmured. She leaned forward, brushed her mouth against his,  and he held her close, deepening the embrace. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Webber House: Danny’s Room

Jake twisted the paperclip into the lock, then released a breath of relief when he heard the tumbler in the lock click and the knob twisted easily. Never fails, he thought, opening the door to find his brother stretched out on the bed.

“Go away,” Danny said dully, but didn’t stop staring at the ceiling or move an inch.

Jake slid the paperclip in his pocket, then went to lay next to Danny, folding his hands beneath his head and staring up at the same ceiling. “I’ll say my piece, and then if you want me to go, I’ll give you the paperclip and tell you how to block it next time.”

“Fine. Get it over with.”

“I was pissed at you,” Jake said. “For making today about you. For making what my mother’s going through about you.” His stomach rolled. “I’m still sort of ticked off about it, but I’ve calmed down.”

“Great. Go away.”

“I used to be jealous of you because you got to live with Dad every day for a while when he and your mom were together. That you got to have that, even for a few months. I hated him and you for it.” Jake hesitated. “You and I had different relationships with Dad, and then he was gone. And we were finally in the same place. I felt guilty. I thought maybe it was my fault somehow, because I’d wanted you to have less time with him.”

“That’s stupid.”

Jake decided to take it as a sign of encouragement that he didn’t get told to get out again. “Yeah, well, I was your age at the time, and you know how dumb you are. Anyway. We got him back, and I hated you again for not hating him for leaving us—”

“Is there a point to this or are you just gonna keep telling me how much you  hate me?”

“I was jealous of how much time you got to be with Dad, and I thought it was because he loved you more,” Jake admitted, feeling his muscles tense from the confession. He felt the bed shift as Danny sat up.

“That’s stupid,” Danny repeated. “Dad doesn’t love me more. He hates my mom, he probably wishes I’d never been born. It’s so obvious, dickhead. He loves your mom, and you’re the one he wanted—”

“If Dad didn’t want you, you wouldn’t be here right now,” Jake said, sitting up. “Do you think taking on a custody battle while my mom is being accused of murdering an FBI agent is something he wants to do?”

“No—”

“Anyway. My point to all this was Dad’s screwed up with both of us, and we’ve both had reasons to be disappointed in him, so we’ve got that going for us. But I don’t think Dad did any of this to hurt us. You know? Leaving the way he did. He’s an idiot for that, but I think he thought we’d be okay without him. And my mom — she’s been an idiot, too. About a lot of things. Dating stupid men, making dumbass decisions to help my uncle Nikolas — but nothing she’s ever done was to hurt me. So when I get mad at you for how you acted to day, I forgot what we were talking about. What your mom did.”

Danny’s eyes glittered and he looked away. “So what?”

“It sucks that she went after my mom like this, and that she used you to do it. I’m sorry. I’ve never liked her for a lot of reasons, but screwing with you like this — it sucks. You don’t have to talk about it, because she’s still your mom, so I know it’s weird and complicated. But I just—I don’t know. I wanted you to know you’re not alone. That even if you pissed me off today, you’re my brother, and I love you.”

Danny exhaled slowly, then looked at his brother. “I love my mother,” he said slowly. “But I think I hate her, too. Is this how you felt with Dad last summer?”

“Yeah. A little, I guess.”

Danny scrubbed his hands through his hair. “But you’re right to be pissed about me making this about me. I want to fix it. I want to help make sure my mom can’t get what she wants — that I’m not the reason your mom’s bail gets revoked. I just don’t know what to do.”

“And that’s why I’m here. Come on. Let’s go talk to Cam. We’ve got some ideas.”

+34

Written in 63 minutes.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Vista Point: Parking Lot

Jason was already wrestling with the catch on his seatbelt before Elizabeth’s door had slammed shut, and he almost fell out of his side, slipping on the soaked gravel lot. Why the hell had he pushed her—why hadn’t he just told her what happened and let the whole damn thing die—

By the time he’d got around the side of the SUV, a crack of lightning illuminated the parking lot and he caught sight of her on the steps to the observatory deck. What was her plan? Or maybe she was too upset to even think of one—

He found her at the guardrails, her back to him, her fingers gripping the top railing, long since chipped and flaked from disrepair and disuse, the rain pounding around them, her hood had fallen off and her hair was plastered against her skull and neck. She was just barely visible in the one light post that still worked.

“I’m sorry—” He lifted his voice to be heard over the sluicing drops, slapping into his skin, dripping beneath the collar of his coat, soaking his clothes beneath the open sides. “Elizabeth—”

“For what?” Elizabeth demanded, whirling around, the tips of her hair whipping along with her. “For what? Do you even know?”

“I—” He stepped towards her, wanting to cut the distance, wanting to just touch her, feeling sure if that if he could that, if he could just hold her, this would somehow go away or he would find the words to explain in the explicable—

“You’re sorry I’m upset, okay, fine. Fine. You’re sorry you dragged me out of the house—” Another slap of thunder interrupted her, and she closed her eyes, shook her head. “I don’t want to do this. We aren’t doing this—”

She started past him, and he caught her arm, holding on when she would have shaken him off, careful to keep his grip gentle but firm. Maybe there were no words. No magical phrases that would extricate him from a mess he’d created long ago —

Nothing other than the truth.

“You deserve better.”

She turned more to face him and then stunned him by swinging out with her other hand curled in a fist, arcing towards his face. He caught it, wrapping his hand around her wrist, bringing both her hands to his chest. “You deserve better—” he tried again.

“Stop! Stop! Stop making excuses! You’ve been using that line since I was eighteen goddamn years old and you were too damn afraid to let me make my own choices!” Elizabeth cried. She yanked back and he released his grip on her hands. “You didn’t want me enough, you never want me when there’s another option—”

“That’s not—” Jason scowled when she just shook her head and darted back towards the parking lot. He’d left the SUV running, and he wasn’t entirely sure she wouldn’t just take off without him.

He caught up with her halfway between the parking lot and the SUV but kept going until he overtook her and was able to get in front to stop her. “Why do you ask questions you don’t want the answer to?”

“Because I’m a goddamn idiot—” Elizabeth stopped, slid her hands over her rain slicked hair. “Fine. Fine, tell me about how I deserve better for the one thousandth time in our lives, and how that somehow explains why that means I end up raising our son alone and Sam gets to share your name, home, bed, money, everything and somehow its because I’m just too damn good for you—”

“She’s what I deserve.”

Elizabeth stared at him, another lightning crack flashing the bewilderment in her expression. “What?”

“You deserve better than me. I’ve always known that, but I can’t—” He stopped, then forced himself to continue. “But I can’t stop wanting that to be wrong. Can’t stop wanting you. Wanting that life we almost had, that we could have had if I’d been a better man. So I went out and found someone I thought I deserved. Someone who wasn’t any damn better than me. Sam was what I deserved.”

“That—” Elizabeth shook her head. “What are you saying? Because of Sam’s past, she somehow gets the life that I begged you for? What kind of bullshit answer is that? Why can’t you just tell me the damned truth? Okay, just tell me! Tell me you loved her more, I can take it—”

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Jason bit out. “Even if it’s what you want to hear. You wanted the truth, I’m giving it to you. I don’t deserve you.” He held out his hands. “I’ve killed people with my bare hands, damn it! I’ve taken lives, and you’ve spent your life saving them! You’ve been back in my life for six months and you’re on trial for murdering a fucking an FBI agent because of me—”

“Don’t—” She stabbed a finger at him. “Don’t you dare act like I don’t know exactly who you are. Do you know how stupid you make me feel when you act like this?”

“You’re not stupid—”

“You did this to me once before. You demanded to know why I loved you, why I wanted to be with you, and I am so sick of having to justify my choices, my feelings—” The words were ragged, dragged from somewhere deep, and even if he couldn’t see the tears on her cheeks, he could hear them. “You don’t think you’re good enough for me. And apparently, you wanted some as dirty as you think you are. Great. Glad we figured that out—” Elizabeth held out her hands. “You know what? This was a mistake. You’re right. I do deserve better than someone who thinks I don’t know my own mind, that I can’t possibly love him. I am done having this conversation. Done. You don’t think you deserve love, and there’s a part of you that doesn’t respect me for trying to giving it to you anyway—”

Stunned, Jason couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, and she took that chance to whip open the passenger, but he recovered in time to catch the door before she could get it wide enough. “You think I don’t respect you?” he managed. “Is that—is that what you really think?”

“What do you expect me to think?” Elizabeth asked, turning to him, close enough now so that he could see the tears shimmering in her eyes. “You throw my love in my face every chance you get. Don’t you get that? Every time you tell me I deserve better, you tell me you don’t respect my ability to make my own choices. I know what you’ve done, Jason. I know who you are. You’re the only one who can’t seem to handle that fact. I’ve stood by you with gunshots, bomb threats, kidnappings—I have never flinched. Not first. That’s always been you.”

He released the door and put a hand at the nape of her neck tugging her forward, the pad of his thumb sweeping across her jawline. “I know that—”

“Do you?” she demanded. “Because it doesn’t feel like it from here. We’re fine one minute, and then you go see your ex-wife, and now all of a sudden, you don’t deserve me and she’s the filth you do deserve, and I just don’t understand how we always end up back here—”

He cut her off, dragging her against him roughly, covering his mouth with his, her lips cold beneath his, but as sweet and addictive as they’d been the first time he’d finally managed to taste them all those years ago, when he’d cursed himself for ever hesitating in the first place.

Thunder rolled, and lightning cracked again, and he finally released her, leaning his forehead against hers. “I do love you. I hate that you don’t believe me—”

“Love isn’t the problem, though, is it?” she sighed, then kissed him lightly, sliding her fingers through his short, damp hair. “You just don’t want to let me love you. All these years, and you still don’t trust that I can know every inch of who you are and love you anyway.”

“I want to—” Jason exhaled slowly, then stepped back, letting the door fall open more. “Get in. We’re going to drown out here, and I don’t want to scream at you just so you can hear me.”

She bit her lip, then nodded, and turned, jolting slightly when he boosted her slightly to help her up into the SUV faster.

When he was back in the driver’s side and had switched on the heater, he somehow had found the words he’d needed so desperately earlier. “Sam was already angry when I got there, already on the offensive. I guess she’d talked to Alexis, and she knew Danny was with us today.” He stared straight ahead. “She started in on the greatest hits — I’ve spent more time raising Carly’s kids, that the only way to hurt me is to use someone else since I don’t care about myself —” He looked at Elizabeth. “And before I know it, we’re talking about that summer.”

“Jason—”

“I think—I think I knew that you’d asked her to use that show to look for Jake.” Jason stopped,  took a breath. “When she mentioned it, I didn’t remember because it hadn’t seemed important. Or maybe I didn’t know. I don’t know. But I didn’t realize she’d refused.”

Elizabeth’s lips thinned, pressed into an unhappy line. “I don’t know if we need to re-litigate it—”

“You wanted to know why it was fine one minute, and now we’re back having this conversation,” Jason said, and Elizabeth sighed, nodded. “Because you knew she’d refused. You knew she’d come to your house and, I don’t know, did she try to make you think Jake was dead?”

“I—” Elizabeth’s breath was shaky when she spoke again. “I think so. At the time, I just thought she was drunk, and angry about us, about Jake, and I didn’t think about it again. Not even after you told me what she’d known. What she’d let happen. I guess now — going back — it gives it all another texture, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah. And you knew all of that. You knew that when she and I — you knew that. And you still—”

“You told me she had changed, and I believed you,” Elizabeth said slowly. “And up until these last few months, Jason, I had mostly believed it, too. Plus,” her lips curved in a humorless smile. “We both know I tried my hand at revenge—”

“Less than a day, you held that truth back about Danny. No one knows that but me,” Jason told her, and she closed her eyes. “You came clean. You told me yourself, even though you knew what might happen. Don’t think that doesn’t make a difference, Elizabeth. You and Sam — that’s not a comparison.”

“So she takes you on a journey of the greatest hits, and we’re arguing up at Vista Point—”

“Because the same reason you’re angry with me — it’s the same anger I have. The same disgust. The life I wanted with you — with the boys — I gave it to her, and I don’t have a good reason. I don’t have the words I need to make you understand, because I don’t understand it either.” He met her gaze. “I looked at her tonight, and I saw the woman I’d chose instead of you, and I hated myself. So maybe it’s hard to understand why you don’t hate me, too.”

Elizabeth bit her lip, looked down at her fingers, at nails that she’d bit down to the quick over the last few weeks, he realized.

“Once upon a time, you offered me the world, and I looked at you, and I told you I didn’t want it. I wanted to be with Lucky.” She looked at him, a ghost of a smile curving her lips. “And then I kissed you in my studio, and turned around and slept with Zander. I looked you in the face and told you my face wouldn’t change, and then I left anyway. I forgave and married Ric after he locked Carly in a panic room. I asked you, on the day you buried your father, to let Lucky raise your son. And then, on the days after you buried your sister, I asked you to let the secret continue.  I married Franco, the man who tormented you and Sam for years. I don’t know, Jason. Should you hate me for all those things, too? Or are you the only person who makes life-altering mistakes?”

+38