GH Timeline – What Stays The Same
January 1999-November 1999
- Jason and Elizabeth had connected at Jake’s in August 1999 and built a quiet friendship that most people were unaware of as she grieved Lucky’s death in a garage fire in April 1999. At the time of the fire, Lucky’s father Luke, as well as most of Port Charles, blamed Jason and Sonny and their connections to the mob. Lucky’s death devastated his entire family, driving Luke and Laura–who had separated in August 1998 after Luke learned that Stefan was Nikolas’s biological father.
- Jason was also going through a transitional period. During 1998, he had raised Carly Benson’s son, Michael, as his own. After his relationship with Robin came to an end in the fall of 1998, he was prepared to continue raising Michael. He and Carly also grew closer. Robin and Jason’s breakup led Robin to decide that Jason needed to protected from Carly’s manipulations. She told AJ the truth about Michael’s paternity, which blew up everything.
- Jason and Carly initially planned to leave Port Charles with Michael, but she panicked and ran to the Quartermaines, telling them that Jason forced her into lying and basically kidnapped Michael. She convinced AJ to marry her, sure that she could scheme to drive him back to drinking and get away with Michael free and clear. While she was married to AJ, Jason appeared to develop deeper feelings for her, going so far as to tell her that he loved her in December 1999.
December 1999
- Carly became angry after seeing Jason’s growing friendship with Elizabeth. She caught them dancing together (not knowing Elizabeth had wanted to pretend Jason was Lucky and that it was basically innocent). She went to Sonny, hoping to get more information, but he taunted her instead. They ended up sleeping together.
- While that was happening, Jason was at a meeting and got ambushed. He was shot and nearly killed by Joseph Sorel (who also took the opportunity to kill his own boss, Anthony Moreno, at the time). He ended up seeing Carly in Sonny’s shirt and left, not telling them he was shot. He went to the boxcar and collapsed in the snow.
- Elizabeth found him there, nearly frozen to death. She went to get Sonny and then got Bobbie involved. Jason didn’t want anything to do with Sonny, so Elizabeth convinced him to let her help him. She hid him in her art studio for nearly a month, though his presence became known to literally everyone – including Carly, who refused to give up on getting Jason back and Elizabeth’s grandmother, Audrey, who was really upset at her young granddaughter possibly dating Jason. (Elizabeth turned 18 on the show on Nov 1, Jason was probably around 27 at that time, but in his defense – the man only had four years of memories).
- Worse, Nikolas Cassadine discovered him there and was immediately jealous. He’d been grief-stricken after Lucky’s death, and the hits kept coming when Katherine, his uncle’s former fiancée and Nikolas’s much older lover, died, and he learned that she’d been faking her pregnancy. He revealed his feelings for Elizabeth, and she was forced to reject him. Elizabeth was desperate to protect Jason from Nikolas, and told him that she and Jason were lovers, hoping it would throw him off the scent.
- It worked too well because Nikolas picked a fight with Jason that hospital Christmas party and announced to the world that Jason and Elizabeth were sleeping together, which meant Jason’s enemies knew where to find him. Bobbie gently pushed Jason to leave, worried about the impact on Elizabeth.
- Jason moved out, but he and Elizabeth remained close as Jason prepared to figure out what was next for him. He’d spent the month avoiding Sonny and Carly — now he had to find out if he could continue doing the job.
- On New Year’s Eve, Sorel and his men prepared to kill Jason, believing he would be at the studio the night. They planted a bomb, which Jason learned about just in time.
January 2000
- Elizabeth and her studio emerged from the whole debacle unscathed, but it scared Jason that his enemies had nearly killed her. He told her that they had to stop seeing each other. She tried to argue with him about it, but he shut her down and she was angry at him for taking away her choices.
Changes
- After Lucky’s death in 1999, Luke embarked on a relationship and storyline with Felicia while Laura continued to grow closer to Stefan. Roy DiLucca returned to Port Charles in the fall of 1999, and was close to Bobbie. I’ve decided to jettison these stories.
- In Counting Stars, Roy doesn’t exist, so Bobbie remains single. Luke left town after Lucky’s funeral and has been mostly absent. Laura and Stefan’s fledgling relationship did not survive Lucky’s death and she devoted herself to raising Lulu instead.