Written in 65 minutes.

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Wednesday, October 4, 2024

General Hospital: Roof

Molly tipped her head up to the sky, the mist coating her cheeks, mingling with the tears that had begun to fall even as she’d fled the waiting room. She’d held it together for hours, waiting for news on her older sisters — for Kristina’s surgery to fail, for her to find yet one more way to evade accountability for the mistakes she’d made. Waiting for Sam to be found, battered and bruised, clinging to a branch or washed up on the sides of the creek.

She hadn’t realized how sure she’d been that Kristina would die in surgery, that Sam would survive until she’d been forced to confront the reality: that Kristina would live, and that if Sam were found now, it would almost surely be a recovery and not a rescue effort.

The door behind her opened, the creak of the hinges warning Molly that she wasn’t alone. “I’m not going back down there.”

“I wouldn’t ask it of you.” TJ came to her side, still dressed in his scrubs. He touched her shoulders. “Mols—”

“They’re not going to find her. Not alive, you know that, right? I keep going over it in my head,” Molly interrupted. “Danny said she was trapped. Chase said the car was underwater by the time he made it down the embankment. Even if the car was swept away, she was probably already dead.”

“You can’t think like that—”

“I can. I can think like that because I need to be ready. I need to be ready when they find her—”

“Ready for what?”

“I—” Molly pressed her lips together, looked at him. “I don’t know. For Mom to fall apart. For Kristina to find a way to make this someone else’s fault. She will, you know. She’ll blame Dante and Chase for not confronting her sooner, or for blaming Sam for the call to the court about Danny — she’ll blame Elizabeth or Jason for taking Danny — she’ll find a way to make this someone else’s fault.”

“Probably.”

“And all of those things — maybe they’re true. Maybe it’s everyone’s fault. Maybe it’s mine for not confronting Kristina when she became a suspect. For doing the ethical thing and staying out of it — maybe if Jason had just stayed dead, none of this would be happening—” Molly shook her head, looked back out over the horizon, the view of the city as it began to close down for the nights, the lights gradually dimming or switching off in the buildings around the hospital. “But I’m not going to let her do it. She won’t get away with it this time.”

“This time?” TJ echoed.

“She’s the reason Sam was in that car. She’s the reason everyone turned on Sam—she’s the reason I wasn’t there for Sam—no wonder Sam was acting irrationally — her whole life was falling apart, and I was avoiding her because I didn’t want to deal with Kristina, but if I’d been there—” She moved away from TJ as he began to reach for her. “No. No. If I’d been there. If I hadn’t convinced you to let Kristina be our surrogate, none of this would be happening, and we might have our baby—I’m not going to let Kristina get away with ruining our lives—”

“So you’ll go on another crusade?” TJ interrupted, and Molly stopped, stared at him. “When we lost Irene, you went back to work. You turned Elizabeth’s case into a war that only you could fight. And now that there’s a chance you’ll lose Sam, you’ll — what— hound Kristina until you have justice? Anything you have to do to face what’s happened.”

“How can you say that to me? I am facing it! I am—” Hysteria bubbled up in her throat, and had Molly hugging herself again, closing her mouth until she could force it back down. “You went back to work, too! What did you want me to do, sit around and cry all the time, every day? Do what Kristina did, and make it everyone‘s problem? What was I supposed to do?”

“Deal with the pain, not hide yourself in solving everyone else’s problems. If you hadn’t gone to war with the FBI—”

“Then what? Chase and Dante wouldn’t have realized Kristina was a suspect? Turned up the heat? Are you going to blame me now, too?” Molly demanded. “Do you think I would have started all of this if I thought for one second that the trail would lead back to my family?”

“Do I think you’d have used this to get back at Kristina? Yeah, I do. Because you’re using Sam to get back at her now—”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Molly retorted. “Go to hell.” She stalked past TJ, jerked open the door to the roof and left.

And this time, he didn’t follow.

General Hospital: Chapel

“I don’t know why I’m bothering with this,” Alexis murmured as Sonny sat next to her in the otherwise empty chapel. “God’s not listening, and even if he was, he’s not going to listen to either of us.”

“Alexis—”

“I started to go after Molly, and I stopped myself — because what would I even say?” she asked him. She got to her feet, went to the altar, staring at the candles eternally burning. “Does someone come in and light these every day? What happens when the candle burns down to the wick?”

“I don’t know. Does it matter?”

Alexis picked up a long wooden stick that lay next to the candles and used it to light another candle. “Nothing but a fire hazard,” she muttered. “What would I even ask God to do? Turn back time? To when? This is why religion is stupid.”

“She doesn’t mean that,” Sonny said, casting his eyes to the ceiling, then crossing himself as if that would help. He rose, joined her at the altar. “Elizabeth let loose on me and Diane after you left. Seems to think all of this is our fault.”

Alexis rubbed her chest. “I didn’t suspect Kristina of having anything to do with Cates — I had only begun to think she was involved with the bail hearing today—” She looked at him. “How long did Diane know? Or suspect?”

“A while. She kept making excuses to keep Jason and Elizabeth in the dark, and maybe they’re good excuses. But they’re still excuses. If the FBI had suspected Kristina was involved — ”

“They’ve have jumped on it,” Alexis murmured. “A case that was connected to you, clean of the mess Cates made of Kristina’s charges. Maybe they might have still clung to Elizabeth to get to Jason, but it’s just as likely they would have used Kristina to get at you. To tie you to this. And you’re the bigger fish. It would have saved their reputations after Pikeman blew up.”

“I think part of me knew,” Sonny confessed, and she looked at him, met his gaze. “I knew the gun probably came from me almost as soon as it happened. But I talked myself out of it. I told myself that it wasn’t my gun.”

“You never told them it was missing?”

“I told Spinelli. Could have told Jason. He’d have made the connection. Kristina was at Elizabeth’s house the day after the murder. They knew that almost immediately. But I didn’t tell him.”

“Sonny—”

“I didn’t want it to be true,” Sonny said slowly. “For the same reasons Diane kept quiet. Why Dante and Molly took themselves off the case. They’ll tell themselves it was because of me. Because I’d have gotten Kristina out of the country, and maybe that’s true. Maybe I would have. I trust Diane. She’d get Elizabeth free of all of this. Cates deserved to die. He deserved it, Alexis. I’m not sorry he’s dead.”

“Sonny—”

“I didn’t want it to be Kristina. So I ignored all the signs that she was involved. Just like you did. And if Jason is honest with himself, they ignored it, too. We all knew she was at the house. We knew she had the window of opportunity to plant that gun. That she had a reason to want John Cates dead. We all knew those facts, Alexis. But none of us did anything about it.”

Alexis was quiet for a moment, absorbing Sonny’s words, weighing the truth. She stared at the candle she’d lit. What was she even praying for? What was the purpose? For her daughters? For their lives, for their souls, for the world to turn back time, for a second chance —

“I had the chance to believe Sam,” she said softly. “She looked at me, devastated, betrayed, begged me to believe her. And I didn’t. I assumed if Kristina was involved, it was a support role. That she’d given Sam the idea. Or that they worked together. I never once dreamed Kristina had done it on her own. Sam had to call Spinelli without Kristina knowing — she wanted someone else to hear Kristina confess because she knew we’d never believe her. What kind of—” Alexis’s voice broke. “What kind of mother does that make me? That I was so blind to how selfish and destructive Kristina was — that I put all of it on Sam — if she doesn’t come out of this, Sonny, if we don’t find her alive — that’s how it ends. That’s the last memory my daughter has — that I didn’t believe her when it mattered most.”

Quartermaine Mansion: Living Room

Brook Lynn was still shaking rain drops from her dark hair when she came into the room, the fire crackling and warming the room. “I thought you’d be asleep by now,” she said. She accepted the tumbler of whiskey that her father handed her.

“I wanted to wait for news,” Drew said, getting to his feet. “But I guess you don’t have anything else to tell us.”

“No.” Brook looked towards the double doors, past them to the stairs. “Scout is asleep?”

“Olivia’s sitting with her,” Drew said. “I don’t want her to hear about this until—” He rubbed his forehead. “Until we know something.”

“When are they going to start looking again?” Tracy wanted to know.

“Dawn, I think. The storm’s mostly cleared out, so there’s some things they can do tonight, but Chase said the bulk of it’s done until it’s light out. He went back out to Belle Forest to sit with Dante and Michael.” Brook sat in an armchair, clutching the tumbler in her hands. “I know you’re not Sam’s biggest fan, Granny—”

“I’m not going to pop the champagne until I know for sure,” Tracy replied dryly, and Brook rolled her eyes. “Whether I liked the gutternsnipe or not, she’s the mother of Monica’s grandchildren, and Monica liked her. Probably realized they both had gold digging in common.”

“You’re such a comforting presence, Mother,” Ned said with a half-smirk. “But Monica’s right. The possibility of Sam’s…death is an impact on this family, and the people we care about. We all want to be able to tell Scout, Danny — and Rocco — that everything that could be done — that we did it.”

Just outside the double doors, lurking in the foyer, Rocco leaned against a wall, and pulled out his phone. An empty text message blinked back at him, just as it had for several hours. He hadn’t spoken to Danny since they’d been suspended. What would he even say to him that would make a difference right now?

Nothing. So he slid the phone back in his pocket, and slunk back towards the backstairs like the coward he knew that he was.

Webber House: Living Room

The room was dark and empty when Jason finally made it home around midnight — it was quieter than he’d expected, given the events of the evening. He didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved that he wasn’t immediately faced with his son and Danny’s questions.

He heard some dishes clinking in the kitchen and looked over to find Elizabeth putting dishes away in the cabinet. “Hey.”

“Hey.” She set down the plate in her hand, then crossed to meet in the middle of the kitchen, wrapping her arms around his neck, holding him tight, his damp clothes pressed against her warm body. “Hey,” she repeated in soft whisper, her fingers lightly brushing the nape of his neck as she pulled away, letting her hands slide down his chest. “You should change into something dry.”

“I will. The boys—they’re not asleep are they?”

“No. No. But I think Danny was tired of being stared at, so he said he was going upstairs. And I think Jake and Aiden just didn’t know what to say.” Elizabeth bit her lip, dipped her head low for a moment, then raised them back. “I don’t know what to say to him either. To any of them. Danny had…Danny had her on speakerphone, so they all…” Her voice trembled. “God, Jason. It’s horrible to think about. That Danny heard her last words—”

He pressed his lips against her forehead, needing the comfort as much as she did. “I don’t know what to feel. What to think. I was so angry at her —”

“So was I.”

“But this isn’t what I wanted. Not like this. Not when Danny—” Jason rubbed Elizabeth’s arms, stepped back slightly. “I don’t know what to do. What to say to him. He knows how angry we were. I’ve done nothing but argue with Sam for months. Anything I can think to say will feel like a lie to him.”

“I know. Jake’s struggling with it, too. Danny knows that we didn’t like her very much. But wanting her out of my life — not like this, Jason. I didn’t want this.” She sighed, bit her lip. “There’s no—I mean, is there any hope? Really?”

“I don’t know. They wouldn’t say much to me. But I got the sense that they’re not expecting much. Kristina made it out of the car, and Sam didn’t. Instead of calling for help, she called Danny. So she didn’t think there was hope either. Maybe the car was swept away and she was able to move and we’ll find her clinging to wreckage or something, but—”

“But it’s just as likely she was trapped in the car and drowned before the car was swept away.” Elizabeth exhaled slowly. “I feel awful. I—I blew up on Sonny and Diane at the hospital. If they’d just told us something weeks ago, how much of this would have been different? I kept thinking that they were so busy protecting Kristina  and not caring about anyone else—I know they didn’t mean for tonight to happen, but—”

“I don’t know what Sonny knew. Or when he knew it.” Jason grimaced, rubbed his face. “But maybe that’s no different than how they played this. None of us want to believe Kristina would do something like this. And I don’t want to think that Sonny would have let you go through all of this if he had something that could stop it. He knew—” He paused. “He knew I thought about confessing. And he was pissed at me. Did he know it was possible then? Did he let me think about leaving you and the boys while he knew what really happened? I don’t want to think he did.”

“I’m not sorry I lost my temper, I just wish I hadn’t done it tonight. I just—I just want to do what’s right for Danny and for you. And God, for poor Scout, who’s been almost forgotten in all of this. No matter how I felt about Sam, this wasn’t how it should have ended.”