Written in 59 minutes. See you next Tuesday!

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Jake stood at the threshold of the kitchen, watching his mother clean up the dishes from the quick breakfast they’d thrown together before Aiden had been picked up by his father for Thanksgiving with the Spencers. Aiden was still on the outs with his father, but he loved his grandmother enough to put it aside for now.

As for Jake, he’d been invited, too, but it felt weird to him right now to be part of the Spencer family, even in an honorary fashion. He’d decided to go to the Quartermaines instead, and his mother had agreed to go, too. There had been a weird tension between his mother and Lucky, so she’d probably been relieved to have a reason to duck out of obligations with Grandma Laura.

Elizabeth turned around and jolted when she saw him there, clutching the dish towel to her chest. “Oh, God, I didn’t even hear you come down the stairs.” She tossed the towel on the counter. “Did you want to head over to your grandmother’s early?”

“Uh, maybe a little but not yet.” Jake slid his hands into the back pockets of his jeans, then crossed his arms for a second before moving them a second time. He didn’t really know what to do with them. Or how to have this conversation.

A conversation they really needed to have.

“Um, I just wanted to say…you know Dad found a place, right?”

“Yeah, he left a message last night,” his mother said, but she was walking past him and he couldn’t see her face, couldn’t make out  her expression. “About a block away, so that’s…that’s nice, I guess. For you. Familiarity.” She kept moving, straightening magazines that didn’t need it, refolding a blanket that had already been neatly laying on the sofa.

“Yeah. And for you. Because I know you don’t really want me to go.”

Elizabeth hesitated, pressing the throw blanket against her chest, then looked at him. “I don’t know what you want me to say to that.”

“I don’t know either. I, um, just…” He paused. “I think maybe I just wanted to make sure you know I didn’t agree to this because of…how things are. I mean, it’s part of it, but it’s not…” He dragged a hand through his hair, then cupped the back of his neck. “And it started that way. But it’s not why I’m going through with it.”

“Jake—”

“Because things have been frosty the last few days, mostly because I didn’t know what to say. To you. Or to Aiden. I, um, I’m sorry. For telling him anything about his dad. Cam would have kicked my ass if he knew what I did.”

She sighed, dropped down to the sofa, the blanket now laying across her lap. “You thought you were doing the right thing—”

Jake sat in the armchair, then shook his head. “Under no circumstances is telling my brother the dad that abandoned him was a drug addict who had an affair — that’s not the right way to handle it. And then Lucky made it worse because he ignored Aiden’s calls, and got in my face about how Dad told the story, and then I started poking at you about anything that might have happened when Aiden was a kid—” He grimaced, looked down at his hands. “I thought it was the right thing. But it wasn’t. And I did it because I was upset. I was angry. And I didn’t really care who I hurt.”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not. You need to know that I know it’s not.” He lifted his gaze to his mother. “I guess Dad told you what we talked about in the car last week. When he brought me home from the Qs. Before I told him about Drew.”

“Your father and I don’t compare notes, Jake. Anything you say to me or to him, we don’t share it. Not as a rule. And no, I think what you said about Drew distracted him enough. He just said he thought things were a little better. Not great, but better.” She bit her lip. “Is not—was he wrong?”

“No. Not really. I still—” Jake stopped, trying to articulate his thoughts. “I’m still angry. I don’t know how you stop being angry about your dad playing dead for two years. But I get that he regrets it, and I guess it helps that as soon as he could, he came to see me. And he’s…he’s trying.” He waited, but his mother said nothing. “The thing is going to see Danny…it just…it just put things in perspective. I thought I was scared last year when we might be split up, but it’s nothing compared to what he and Scout are dealing with.”

“I hate that this happened. They were so happy. Sam, Dante, all three of the kids. It’s…there’s been too much death,” Elizabeth said with a sad sigh. “And unfortunately, I…I can tell you that there’s no miracle here. There’s no Cassadine in the wings to pay off the staff. Helena used the transplant team to cover up kidnapping you, Jason’s body was never found, but…”

“But you were there. When his mom died.”

“Yeah. I…” Elizabeth closed her eyes, took a deep breath. “I pronounced it. And was with her family. With Jason when he found out. It was a terrible day, Jake, and it keeps rippling out. While I’m not happy with how you did it, I am proud of you for coming home. For seeing that your  brother needs you.”

“Even if I can’t go back to school for whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. I need to be here. But seeing Danny, hearing Dad have to explain to him that there’s nothing they can do to keep him with his sister, it was awful. Scout’s upset, and it’s…they never get to see their mother again. And I’ve been horrible to you. You’re my mom. If something—” Jake stopped, shook his head.

“Honey.” Elizabeth left the sofa, came to perch at the edge of the coffee table, in front of her son. “We’re going to fight. Especially now. You’re nearly an adult, making big choices that effect the rest of your life. This is such a crazy time in your life, and mistakes will be made. You’ll hurt people. That’s just how it goes.”

Jake nodded. “Yeah, I get that, it’s just…” He stayed silent for a beat, considering his next words. “Dad said…he said that you were like this when you were younger. That sometimes you got hurt so you…were…I don’t remember how he put it, but that you, like, would try to hurt someone else. Or that person—” He winced. “He didn’t say it to be mean—”

Elizabeth rubbed Jake’s knee, smiling slightly in a way that told Jake she was almost amused, which eased the tightness in his chest. “He said it as someone I’ve hurt. And I did hurt your dad. More than once. We hurt each other, and he’ll tell you he never kept score. Which is probably why he still talks to me.”

“W-Why? Why did you—why am I like this?” Jake wanted to know. “How did you fix it? How did you stop?”

“You’re not going to like this, baby, but time. Time and experience. Maturity. It’s not something you can do overnight. You have to let go of the tiny satisfaction you feel when you know you’ve landed a blow. When you see that other person wince or flinch, and you think—” She pointed a finger. “There. Now you know how I feel. It feels good in the moment to score that point. But you always regret it. Always. Words won’t leave physical wounds, but they cut all the same.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Jake exhaled in a slow breath. “Anyway. I just thought you should know I’m not mad the way I was. But I still…don’t know how I feel about any of it, Mom. I see you and Dad, and you guys get along so well. And you clearly think he’s a good father. You’re always defending him. And Lucky’s awful. He’s been awful to Aiden for years. How could you pick him?”

“Isn’t that the million dollar question?” Elizabeth murmured. She sighed, then rose to her feet. “Jake—”

“And I get it. I get it. It’s not my business. It happened before I was born, and I guess it shouldn’t change things. But it does for me. I know Dad keeps telling me it’s not your fault he wasn’t my dad for the first few years, and I know he believes that. I know he blames himself—”

“I blame us both,” Elizabeth said, folding her arms. “I blame us for being too afraid after Michael’s injury, I blame myself for not pushing harder or finding the right words, and I blame your father for not saying no to me. For believing that a mother had a right to choose who she wanted in her child’s life. We made mistakes, Jake. But it started with me, Jake. If I hadn’t lied, if I hadn’t been too scared to tell him the truth that first day—” She looked away, her eyes slightly unfocused. “So many mistakes,” she murmured, more to herself than to him. Then she looked back, smiled thinly. “If you’re not careful Jake, you can let your regrets, whatifs, and maybes drown you. I made my choices. Your father made his. There’s no time travel to change any of it.”

Jake nodded—his father had said much the same thing, and there was no point in arguing any different. “I just think maybe I need time. To deal with it. That’s why I’m gonna go live with Dad for a while. Not forever, I guess. But he asked, you know? And that matters. He never did before. It was never a question where my home was. But he doesn’t really have one now, and neither does Danny. Maybe it’s okay if we make a new one.”

“I think that’s a lovely idea, and it’s why, when your father asked me—no, when he told me he was going to ask you, I was on board. I love you, and I missed you every day that you were gone. I’ll miss you every day that you live with your father. But…” Elizabeth straightened the collar of Jake’s shirt, then smiled up at him. “You were always going to leave me, you know. Cam, you, and some day Aiden. We can’t stand still, Jake, and we can’t go back. I know that you and your dad will find a way to help Danny move forward.”

—

Alexis grimaced at the phone in her hand, willing Molly to reply to the message that she’d left for her hours ago.

Across the room, at the dining table, Kristina dropped the take out bag from the Chinese restaurant. “I don’t know why you’re looking at that thing like its the Holy Grail, Mom. She’s not going to call.”

“She might.” Alexis rubbed her forehead, trying not to think about the year before. The house had been filled — Molly and TJ, exuberantly planning their surrogacy journey, Kristina bubbling over, trying to help with them.

Sam at the dinner table with her children, rolling her eyes and smiling at her sisters.

The house had been noisy, messy—

Today, there was no one but she and Kristina. Molly and TJ had gone to the Ashfords — it was their turn, Alexis reminded herself, though it didn’t help much. Molly had been alternating holidays for years, and it was just a coincidence that this year, Molly hadn’t even talked about maybe doing dessert.

And Sam—

Sam was dead. Buried six feet under miles away.

Alexis closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then went over to the table. She touched the paper bag. “Noodle Buddha. This…it was your sister’s favorite.”

“I thought it was a way we could have Sam with us today.” Kristina set a container of food on the table. “Next year, when Danny and Scout are here, it’ll be better.”

“Yes. It will.” When Sam’s children were together and with her, it would be better. Molly would see that it was the best place for them. “Let’s eat.”

—

It still felt strange to walk through the front door of the mansion when he’d used the terrace door in the library for years, Jason thought. He closed the door behind him, laid a hand on the wood, thinking of those days. Of the time he now regretted throwing away with the family he’d never made peace with. He’d spent so much time avoiding Alan, Monica, and Edward, sneaking in to see Lila or his sister—

“Already making a run for it?”

The thin, weak voice startled Jason and he turned to find Monica in the doorway, sitting in an electric wheelchair not unlike his grandmother’s, her hand hovering over the control. All that she needed was a devoted family servant like Reginald to wait on her.

She was rarely well enough to come downstairs these days, and Jason did his best to visit once a week in her suite upstairs. But to see her, dressed for the day, smiling at him—

He took a breath. “No, I think I’ve run enough, don’t you?”

“I never blamed you,” Monica said, then winced. “That’s an awful lie. I did blame you, but it’s all right.” She held out her other hand, and Jason reached for it, wrapped it between his own.

He remembered another homecoming, another realization of the time he’d lost. When he’d come home for good twenty years earlier to find that his grandmother had lost some of her spirit. That she’d begun to fade away, that she was nothing more than a mortal human who would be gone one day.

And still, Jason hadn’t prioritized his grandmother or bent at all. He’d buried her, and continued his life, running after Sonny and Carly, then later Sam. His father had died, and then his sister—

“It’s not,” Jason said, and she tilted her head at him. “But that was a long time ago. I’m glad to be home now.”

She smiled, and her eyes sparkled. “Having you around these days—” She stopped when the door opened again, and Jake came through, then held the door for his mother.

“Sorry we’re late,” Jake said. He grinned at his grandmother. “Hey! I didn’t know you were coming downstairs, Grandma. I was gonna smuggle dessert up to you.”

“Well, when I found out all my grandchildren would be here today, how could I stay away?” Monica looked past Jake. “And I hope Elizabeth brought her brownies. We’ll need something when the turkey goes wrong.”

“I can’t wait to see how dinner gets ruined,” Elizabeth said, hanging up her coat and coming up next to Jason. “Maybe this year will be different.” She looked at him, smiled hesitantly. “You never know, right?”