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– 4 –

In The Black Dog
When someone plays The Starting Line and you jump up
But she’s too young to know this song

—

Though she loved being a mother and could spend hours just watching her son sleep, it came as a relief when her grandmother offered to keep the baby monitor close so that Elizabeth could take a drive and spend a little time on her own.  Maybe she should call Emily or Lucky, Audrey had suggested. Just get her bearings.

She didn’t call anyone, driving a little aimlessly for a while, knowing what she should do, what her grandmother would never suggest — Audrey had been disappointed by Elizabeth’s decision to come home, even after being told the reason. Co-parenting could be done on opposite coasts. Money transferred. Plane tickets booked.

But Elizabeth didn’t want three thousand miles between her son and his father. She knew what distance did to families. The physical separation between her and her parents had broken what tenuous family connections they’d held, and there was no rebuilding those bonds now. No way to recover those years. No, she wanted Cameron to start his life surrounded by his family.

She wanted him to have his father.  If Jason wanted to be there.  But first she had to tell him.

She’d started to in the park — probably. She thought she might have gone through with it, but she also might have lost her courage. What if he didn’t believe that she hadn’t known? What if he thought she’d intended to let Ric, of all people, raise his son?

She didn’t intend to go to the bridge, but after a few turns, realizing that it was nearby, she gave in to the urge. He’d taken her there once, when their friendship had still been sweetness and light. When the feelings between them had remained unspoken, buried beneath their genuine affection.

Elizabeth slid her fingers along the rough stone, remembering that night. Her frustration at Lucky’s hot and cold routine, her desire to lash out, to hit something. Jason hadn’t tried to change her mind, hadn’t tried to talk her out of finding a fight though they both knew she wasn’t really serious about getting into a bar fight. He’d just offered to teach her to hold her own. To throw a punch without hurting herself.  He’d always done that — found a way to calm her down, ease her worries, and even to make her laugh.

Not much sweetness or light between them these days, she thought. And it was her fault, of course. It almost always was. She knew Jason wouldn’t see Cameron as a mistake or regret his existence. He’d worry about the consequences of the truth, the people that would be hurt, but he’d never hold it against their son.

But would he hold it against her?

She thought she was imagining the dull roar of a motorcycle engine, but when it only drew closer and abruptly switched off, Elizabeth realized she wasn’t the only one taking a walk down the memory lane.

Jason appeared in the clearing, hesitating only briefly when he realized the bridge wasn’t deserted. They stared at one another for a long moment, then his mouth curved into a half smile, one that she felt her own mouth mirroring.

“Twice in one day,” Elizabeth said, turning to face him. “That hasn’t happened in a long time.”

“No, it hasn’t.” He closed the distance between them, then turned out to look over the edge of the bridge. “I don’t think I’ve been up here since I came home.”

She said nothing in response, and the silence that followed didn’t feel awkward, but almost comforting. They’d been able to do this once, she thought, to be in each other’s company and not fill the air with conversation.  All the way back at the beginning, when he’d been staying in her studio, recovering from the gunshot.

“I, uh, wanted to apologize. For earlier,” he added when she frowned. “Carly.  I know that’s why you left the park. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay—”

“It’s not,” he cut in and she sighed. “And you need to know that I know it’s not. I just—” Jason shook his head slightly, looked straight again. “I just don’t know what to say to her anymore. It’s a…mess.”

Elizabeth traced one of the stones beneath her fingers. “I know how that feels. I feel like I keep making the wrong choices, you know? Sometimes it feels like all the years since coming here from Colorado are some kind of fever dream. It was easier before I moved here.” She laughed, a bit derisively. “Then again, I was a teenager, so of course it wasn’t as complicated.”

“No, I—” Jason paused, furrowed his brow slightly as if searching for the right words. “I remember after the accident,” he continued, “it was just…simpler. I only worried about myself. I had to relearn that other people mattered, you know?”

“I guess that makes sense. I was a pretty selfish kid.” Elizabeth tipped her head. “Sometimes I think I’ve gone too far in that direction. Letting other people matter so much that I’m…disappearing.”

He looked at her sharply, then exhaled slowly. “Yeah.” The word was barely audible, but she heard it all the same. “Yeah, well, I made choices that make anything else impossible.”

She bit her lip, unsure of her footing now. He seemed so sad, so lost. Was this really the time to bring yet another complication to his life? As wonderful as her son was, and as much as she knew Jason would never consider him a burden, it was also true that Cameron had been conceived while Jason was engaged to another woman.  And Elizabeth wasn’t even the only woman Jason had been with while committed to Courtney, though…

She tiled her head slightly. “I can maybe understand how upset Carly is by everything. It hasn’t been the easiest year. But I suppose I’m surprised…I mean, it’s not really my business, but you were such a wonderful father to Michael.” He looked at her again but remained silent. Somehow she found the courage to continue. “Aren’t you looking forward to that again? To having a child?”

He grimaced, his mouth tightening, and looked down at the bridge. “Yeah, sure.”

And that kernel of curiosity that had taken root all those weeks ago when Emily had told her the news stirred. Because what if…

“It’s been a long time since we could just talk to each other,” Elizabeth said, and he looked slightly relieved to be on a different topic. “We got close to it again last year for a little while.”

“Closer,” Jason said, and they looked at one another again, and she just knew he was thinking of that night in the chapel, and how he’d taken her home to the studio…

And how he hadn’t left until the sun had risen over the harbor the next morning.

“You can tell me anything. Anything at all. I would never betray you,” Elizabeth told him, and hoped he wouldn’t scoff at that, that he wouldn’t remember all the ways she’d hurt him with Lucky, with Zander, with Ric. But she’d never divulged a single secret, even when Ric had poked and prodded all her bruises and scars.

“I know.” His eyes held hers, and she saw that he was telling the truth. That despite the sea of hurt between them, mostly her fault, the trust they’d forged all those years ago had never been tarnished, only singed. “But sometimes…it’s not just my secrets I’m protecting. I don’t ever want to lie to you again. I made that mistake once.  I won’t make it again.”

“I never want to make the mistake of not listening to you again,” Elizabeth said. “I appreciate that you never take the opportunity to say I told you so, though you’ve earned it more than once.”

His lips twitched again, and he started to say something, but a familiar sound broke in —

The ringing of his phone.

Jason retrieved it from the pocket of his jeans, slowly flipping it open, and there was no mistaking the irritation that flashed across his features. “Yeah? I’m out. No, I don’t know when I’m coming home. No.” He flipped it shut, then closed his fist around it, tension radiating from his frame.

“Is everything—”

The phone rang again, but Jason didn’t answer it. Instead, he hurled the phone over the edge of the bridge. She leaned over the side, but it was already disappearing into the space below them, swallowed up by the river that rushed beneath it.

She gripped the stone tightly, looking at him with what must have been wide eyes. “You threw your phone into your river.”

“Probably should have just turned it off,” he muttered, then dragged a hand down his face.

“Yeah, but—” Elizabeth looked again over the edge, not believing the evidence of her own eyes. “I’ve never known you to be that impulsive—or irresponsible.”

“You’d be surprised.” Jason sighed, laced both hands at the nape of his neck. “I’m sorry.”

“For what—” She closed her mouth, looked over the bridge again, then at him. “Jason, Sonny’s the father of that baby, isn’t he?”

He let out a low sigh, dipped his head to his chest and was silent for so long that she thought he might not answer her at all. But then he raised his eyes to hers, nodded once. “I wouldn’t have told you, but you asked. And I’m not going to lie to you. It’s not my secret to tell, so you can’t—”

“But it is—” She stepped forward, lifted her hand, but then let it fall back to her side. “Jason, it’s your life. You’re the one that has to let people think this is your child. I don’t understand—” She swallowed the protest, the anger that bubbled up. How could he let this happen to himself again? Didn’t he remember what it had been like before? When he’d loved Michael and had him ripped away? “Aren’t you afraid it’ll happen again? That you’ll go through all of this just to end up the way you did before?”

Alone, laying in the snow, waiting for death.

“It was my idea this time,” Jason said. “I knew what I was doing. I changed the tests so that even—” He sighed. “Even Sonny didn’t know the truth.”

That stunned, and Elizabeth stared at him for another beat. “You did all of that, and you clearly hate yourself for it. You’re so unhappy. Why would you put yourself through this?”

“Why do I do anything?” he asked, staring sullenly at the ground. “For Michael.”

Her throat burned and tears stung her eyes. “For Michael?”

“To stop Sonny and Carly from destroying him. They hate each other, and they’re dragging him into court, forcing him to say who he wants to live with, and he just wants it to stop.” Jason exhaled again, and this time it was a little unsteady. “I just want it to stop.”

“And you thought this was the best idea?” she asked skeptically.

“No, I just didn’t…know if there was another choice. I thought if I could—” He sighed, stroked his chin, and closed his eyes. “If I could just give everyone a chance to breathe, that Sonny and Carly would just stop. And Carly could find a way to be okay with all of this—”

“And if she never accepted it, you’d end up raising a child Sonny could take from you at any point? How—” She closed her mouth, swallowing the protest that wouldn’t do any good. Her head was spinning — she didn’t know how to process any of this, how to make it fit into her own plans, her own truths. Jason’s entire world was a chaotic mess that would never get better—

“I didn’t think that far ahead,” Jason said the mutter sounding nearly embarrassed. “And now it’s too late to change anything. There’s nothing I can do now that won’t make everything explode all over again. Carly will move out, she’ll put Michael through it again, I can’t do it to him. I can’t break his world like that.”

Her irritation faded and she stepped closer to him. “Jason….”

“I know he’s not my son.” Jason looked at her, and the first tears slid down her cheeks at the pain reflected back—pain he’d hidden for all these years, since those days when they’d first met, and he’d spoken briefly of the boy he’d walked away from. “I know he’s not. But I don’t know how to stop loving him like he is. I want him to have the best life he can. To put him first. That’s what parents are supposed to do? They bring a life into the world, and they have an obligation, a duty to keep their worlds safe and happy. I can’t—” He grimaced, then shook his head. “I know it’s a mistake. I just don’t know how to undo it without hurting Michael.”

She laid a hand on his forearm, curling her fingers around the tense muscles. “I understand that, I do. I’m a mother now, you know. And Cameron is my entire world. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect him. I…I felt like such a failure in the beginning. He didn’t exactly have the best beginning.”

Jason tilted his head. “What? I don’t—”

“There was an accident.” She licked her lips and realized that she was going to do this. Because Jason was right. It was a parent’s responsibility to give their child the best world possible. And to put them first. “In California. I was in a cab in San Francisco, and there was an accident. When I woke up, I was so scared because I could tell he was gone—” She closed her eyes, remembering the terror of that moment. “He wasn’t with me anymore—”

“Elizabeth—”

“I’d had an emergency surgery, and he was in the NICU, the nurses told me. And I was terrified, because it was too early, you know?”

“Emily never said—”

“She didn’t know. Not at first,” Elizabeth assured him. “By the time they got my medical information, I was awake, and we knew I’d be okay. Emily was so overwhelmed here with Nikolas, so she didn’t come out, and I understood that.”

“She should have told me,” Jason muttered. “I’d have—”

“Done what?” Elizabeth asked gently.  “You had responsibilities here. Obligations. All I could focus on was my little boy. The doctors wouldn’t tell me anything at first, just that he was okay. Baby Boy Webber. I was so in and out of consciousness, I couldn’t even name him for a few days.” Jason’s grimace darkened, but she continued. “Finally, they let me go see him in the NICU, and I was preparing for the worst. It was early, only six months.”

Jason’s lips parted and he tilted his head again, this time in confusion. Because of course, he’d seen Cameron earlier that day.  “I don’t—”

Elizabeth tore her eyes from his, stared straight ahead. “I couldn’t understand it when I got into his room, when I saw him for the first time. I thought they’d brought me to the wrong room. The nurse told me that it was okay. He looked just like any other baby born at thirty-five weeks. He had a little emphysema that kept him in the hospital, but otherwise—”

“Thirty-five—” Jason stopped. “When he was he born?” he asked, though there was something in his voice that told Elizabeth that if he hadn’t already guessed the truth, he was teetering on the edge of realization.

“The first week of May.” She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t watch him do the math. “I knew standing in that room that I needed to do what was best for him, but I just didn’t know how to do it. I still don’t, I suppose. But the one thing I knew, the one thing I’ve been gathering the courage to do is to come home. Because—” She looked at him now, and the intensity in his eyes, the tension beneath the arm she was still touching hadn’t eased. “Because the one thing I did know is that Cameron needs his father. He needs you.”

– 5 –
That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming
Old habits die screaming

—

He needs you.

Even as the truth had begun to creep up on him with every word she spoke, there was a piece of him that still didn’t believe. Still did not accept the picture she was painting was real.  Even now, standing in front of her, with those words hanging between them —

Cameron needs his father.

He needs you.

Still, he couldn’t process it. Couldn’t absorb their meaning, much less their consequences.

He needs you, his father you, his father, he needs—

Jason laid a hand on the stone bridge, the heated surface burning beneath his palm, the impact of what she’d told him whirling. He had a son. He had a son? One born thousands of miles away, had lain in the NICU for days with no name as his mother recovered from an accident that might have killed them both—

And where had he been? What had he been doing? Blowing up his life, taking care of the pieces of Sonny’s fractured family—protecting the son that was no longer his, hadn’t been his in years—had never been his—

He didn’t realize that Elizabeth had continued to speak until she’d stopped, and he noticed the absence of her voice. He looked at her, focused on her worried eyes, her pinched mouth. Was she angry at him? Was she disappointed? He hadn’t reacted, hadn’t said anything—

“I’m sorry,” she said, and it was clear from her tone that it was not the first time that she had uttered those words. “For not—I should have called from California—I did—” Her fingers trembled as she slid a lock of her chestnut hair behind her ear. “It’s just, Emily told me about Sam, and I thought well, you had your hands full, and maybe this would just make everything worse—and that’s selfish, okay, just like telling you right now when you were upset about what Michael was going through—”

“It’s okay,” Jason said, taking just the slightest of steps towards her. “It’s okay—”

“But it’s not. It’s not, and you need to know that it’s not. It’s just—” She drew her lower lip between her teeth and looked at him, those beautiful eyes wide with misery and shame. “You were just speaking so passionately about what it means to be a father, and I wanted that for my son—our son,” she corrected, and he smiled without thinking, just liking the way those words sounded coming from her — our son because that night, that night which they’d never spoken about again — that night had created a person. Their son.

“There are no apologies needed,” he told her, and she sighed, looked away. “I mean that. For not telling me sooner or for telling me right now. I wondered when I found out you were pregnant, but then…you never said anything. And I know you would have. You would have,” he repeated. “You wouldn’t have chosen to name Zander—”

“And I never would have let Ric near your child. Not when you both—” Elizabeth smiled faintly. “Thank you. For believing about that. But I still knew two months ago—”

“And you put your recovery first. You and Cameron. I hate—” He looked away, grimacing. “I hate the thought of you so far away, hurt. Emily should have been there—I should have—”

“If I’m not allowed to apologize, then neither are you,” she told him, and he reluctantly nodded. “But I am sure — the doctor said Cam was around thirty-five weeks, give or take a week in either direction, but that’s still—” Her cheeks flushed. “That still only leaves you.”

“I don’t doubt you. Especially after this morning. No sane person would want to invite any of that,” he muttered.

“Well, no, I guess not—” She bit her lip again. “Um, I guess with all of that going on, you probably don’t…I mean, I guess we can handle this any way you want.”

He furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…my grandmother knows. I told her. I think she was actually disappointed. At least if it was Zander, he was dead—which is an awful way to talk about him—” She paused. “I just— I know this complicates things for you. Cameron, I mean—”

“Cameron doesn’t complicate anything,” Jason said. “I made a mess of my own life. That’s my problem to resolve. Not yours, and not yours.”

She released a burst of short, nervous laughter. “Well, I guess it has to be a little bit mine, right? We’re, um—” She flashed a smile, just a quick glimpse of her teeth as she ducked her head and looked away. “We’re parents now.”

We’re parents now. His mouth curved into a matching smile. “Yeah. I, uh—” He squinted, looked over the gorge, to the rushing water below with a sigh. “I wish I hadn’t thrown the cellphone now.”

It should have been more difficult, more stressful to learn that night he’d shared with Elizabeth in what felt like another lifetime ago had created a life. He’d have to somehow explain the reality of that to everyone who already thought he’d had an affair while in a committed relationship with Courtney, who already thought he had a child on the way.

But as he and Elizabeth made plans to meet the next morning — early — before the summer heat had a chance to make the park unbearable. She didn’t want their first meeting to be with a disapproving Audrey looking on, and Jason could understand that. He didn’t want her at the penthouse, either. The one run-in with Carly’s vitriol had been bad enough, and he’d have to figure that situation out. Cameron couldn’t—shouldn’t—be around any of that.

After leaving Elizabeth at the bridge, he’d stayed out, wanting to avoid the horror show he’d created in his home a little longer. But staying out of contact this long was never a good idea, and Jason had to arrange for another phone to be put on his plan. He didn’t particularly care if Sonny or Carly or Sam could reach him — but what if Elizabeth needed him? Or Emily?

He stopped by the front desk on his way upstairs, made the request, then headed upstairs, hoping that the night would pass quickly.

He had somewhere to be in the morning.

He was going to meet his son.

– 6 –
I move through the world with the heartbroken
My longings stay unspoken
And I may never open up the way I did for you
And all of those best laid plans

—

“Jason! JASON! Let me in, you worthless gutter trash—JASON—”

 

Jason jerked awake at the blood curdling screaming, Carly’s voice pounding in his head — or at his door, he realized, sitting up just as the sobbing, hysterical blonde pushed through the door, Sam hot on her heels, snarling at her.

“You have no right to come in here like this! You don’t live here, you don’t own him! Okay? You have to—”

Carly grabbed a chunk of Sam’s hair and pulled hard, whirling the brunette into the nearest door with a nasty thud. “Shut up you whore! Michael—” She turned to Jason who just managed to duck between Sam who had a curled fist raised. “Michael—”

“What’s wrong?” Jason demanded, easily holding the much smaller woman behind him with one arm. “Ow—”

“She put her hands on me, I’ll put her through the goddamn window—”

“Try it!” Carly snarled, slapping at Sam’s hand, escaping from underneath Jason’s grasp. “Try it, you—”

“Just stop it, both of you. What the hell is going on?” Jason demanded, taking Sam by the upper arm as gently as he could — she was pregnant after all — and shoving her back over the threshold. He slammed his bedroom door and held it shut. “What—”

“Michael! He’s missing!”

—

Elizabeth curled up in the rocking chair by her window, Cameron cuddled in the crook of his elbow, enjoying his breakfast, the bottle bobbing up and down as he suckled. His eyes watched her as they did every morning, and she smiled at him.

“We have such a big day planned,” she told him, keeping her voice pitched low. She’d told her grandmother about making contact with Jason — about telling him the truth — and Audrey wasn’t all that pleased to hear Jason intended to be involved.

“Well, you’ll do as you please,” her grandmother had said with that puckered expression of disappointment with which Elizabeth was so acutely aware of. “But he won’t be coming and going in my house, I hope that’s clear.”

“Your daddy was so happy to find out he has you, and he can’t wait to meet you,” Elizabeth continued. “I know I was a little worried, but I didn’t need to be. It won’t be easy, not when everyone finds out.” She knew it would be terrible with Courtney, and it would likely put a crimp in any plans to ask Mike for her job back after a few more weeks at home with Cam. Sonny might not be an issue — but Carly would be the major obstacle. None of which she’d relate to her son.

No, all that should matter to Cameron was how loved he would be. “He was so worried when I told him we were in the hospital after you were born, but that’s because he wished he were there. Maybe I should have called him. I just wasn’t ready. And how do you do that over the phone, you know? But we’ll be okay now. The hardest part is over. He knows.” Elizabeth sighed, remembering the night before. “He knows, and he was happy. That’s all that matters today.”

—

“I don’t understand how the hell he gets out of the penthouse without anyone knowing,” Jason bit out, pacing the living room as Carly sobbed on the sofa and Sam watched her from the terrace doors, a malevolent glare etched into her features. She hadn’t liked being shoved out of the room — or that Carly had shoved her into the door.

“What about the baby?” she’d wailed, and Jason had rolled his eyes. She’d hit the wall with her shoulder and bounced back. But he’d told her to go call the desk and get someone to take her to the hospital if she was that worried. She’d shut up then, but she was probably plotting her next change to take revenge on Carly.

“I d-don’t know! Leticia said he w-was there—” Carly sobbed, plucking another tissue from the box he’d shoved her. “W-When she checked before she left for the night. A-and no one heard anything. He just—he was just gone—”

Jason scowled, then turned to the door when it burst open, hitting the wall and bouncing back.  “Well?” he demanded when Sonny strode in.  “Did you look at the security footage from the hallway?”

“Still reviewing,” Sonny spat with derision. “Eight hours, even fast forwarding takes time, but I already sent guys to find out what the hell Alcazar is up to—”

“You can’t blame Lorenzo for everything,” Carly cut in, leaping from the sofa, a tissue clenched in her hand. “He would never hurt Michael—”

“He’d do anything if he thought it would get a rise out of me,” Sonny argued. “He’s been playing games since he came to Port Charles—”

Jason turned away from the argument as Carly leapt into another defense of Lorenzo Alcazar and headed for the door. He’d get more answers from the security room, and maybe if he was lucky, Carly, Sonny, and Sam would kill each other while he was gone.

—

Elizabeth closed the trunk, then unfolded the stroller. It was so silly, she thought, for her heart to be pounding and her pulse racing. What did she think would happen when Jason met his son for the first time? He’d take one look and reject him?

“Mommy is just so nervous,” she confided to Cameron, lifting him from the car seat and settling him into the stroller. She buckled him into place. “But I just know your daddy is going to feel the same way I did when I saw your face. Instant love and adoration.” She stroked the back of his cheek with her knuckle, and Cameron grinned, batting his fists at her. “You’ll see. We’ve got nothing to worry about.”

—

Jason could tell his presence in the small security room wasn’t exactly welcomed from the furtive and irritated looks the men on duty traded, but he didn’t give a damn. He loomed over their shoulders, his arms folded, and attention trained on the small screens racing through the footage of the hallway on the fifteenth floor.

There were no security guards on duty between midnight and six on nights when Sonny and Jason were both home — no one could access the floor without a security key. Which meant this was an inside job—

“There—” A guard paused, gestured at the screen. Just after one in the morning, the door had opened, and Michael had crept out.

On his own.

“Get me the lobby and elevator for this time. Did he leave the building?” Jason demanded. Where had he gone? And why had he gone on his own?

—

They’d agreed to meet near the playground at eight. It was early, Elizabeth knew, but only for her. Cameron seemed to rise with the sun, and it wasn’t too hot yet. She didn’t want to keep Cam cooped up all summer, waiting for the summer sun to cool down.

At least, Elizabeth thought they’d agreed to meet at eight. She glanced at her watch, then tugged her phone from her purse. Jason had planned to get another phone immediately and would call her if he couldn’t get the same number. But he hadn’t yet.

And there was no way she’d call the penthouse to find out if he’d managed to secure a phone. She didn’t know Sam McCall, and with the way Carly had acted the day before, the way Jason had reacted to the situation, she didn’t want to do anything to make it worse for him.

No, he was probably on his way, and any minute now, he’d walk around the corner of the path to meet their son.

—

He should have taken the stairs and avoided this excruciating elevator ride with Sonny and Carly ripping each other to shreds behind him. Jason did everything he could to tune them out, focusing on what mattered.

Michael was safe. He’d gone no further than the lobby, curling up on one of the sofas, and gone to sleep. Out of sight, enjoying the peace and quiet.

The doors opened and Carly shoved past Jason, taking off to find her son, sitting up on the same sofa, rubbing his eyes and standing next to one of the security guards. “Michael! You scared us! What were you thinking?”

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” Sonny bit out as he and Jason reached the sofa. “You know the rules! What the hell were you thinking—”

Michael looked up at his parents, and his face crumpled. “I’m sorry,” he sobbed, his little chest heaving, the tears mixing with hiccups. Jason scowled at both of them, and pushed past, picking the little boy up. Michael immediately burrowed into his embrace, wrapping his legs around Jason like a spider monkey and clinging.

“Both of you shut up right now,” Jason said in a low, tight voice. “Let’s get you back upstairs,” he said, his tone softening. Without waiting for Sonny and Carly to agree or protest, he headed back for the elevators, not caring if they caught up at all.

—

Elizabeth shifted Cameron back into his stroller, the infant batting at her hands as she fastened the safety buckles. Her fingers trembled slightly as she attempted the task, and it took longer than usual.

A few more minutes, she thought, checking the watch on her slim wrist, though Jason was nearly forty minutes late. It was so unlike him, she knew something must have happened, and she hated even thinking about it. To worry that maybe he was hurt, and no one would think to tell her.

“He was so excited to meet you,” she murmured to Cameron, stroking the back of her knuckle down his soft cheek. “I know when I talk to him, he’ll explain everything. You’ll see.”

But how to talk to him? Should she show up at the Towers, and demand information? No. No, hadn’t he told her how fragile the situation was? How upset Michael was with all the chaos and anger? The last thing Jason needed was for her to show up on his doorstep with a blond, blue-eyed baby in her arms. There was only one choice, one thing she could think of doing now.

“We’ll just go home and wait for Daddy to call us.”

—

Jason carried Michael through the penthouse door and went to the stairs. He’d managed to get into the elevator before Sonny and Carly did, and knew they’d be even more angry that he’d left without them, but all that mattered right now was Michael.

Leticia was pacing the length of Michael’s room and looked up at their entrance, tears shimmering when she realized Jason had her charge with him. “Oh, Michael! You’re safe! Oh, gracias a Dios,” she murmured, sinking to the bed where Jason sat the little boy down.

“I d-didn’t m-mean to make everyone mad,” Michael sniffled. Jason plucked a tissue from the nearby night stand, handed it to Leticia who helped the little boy blow his nose. “Everyone’s so mad.”

“We were scared because we couldn’t find you,” Jason told him gently. “You know the rules, Michael. You can’t leave the penthouse without an adult. I know—I know things are difficult right now. I’m sorry. I can’t fix any of it. But you have to promise you won’t run away again.”

“I wasn’t running away,” Michael muttered. He sniffled again, crumbling the tissue in his hand. “Mommy and Daddy were arguing again last night and it was so loud I couldn’t sleep.” He looked at his uncle. “I just wanted to sleep.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Jason kissed the top of his head, ruffling his hair. “I’m doing what I can to make that better, but you have to do your part, and follow the rules so you stay safe, okay?”

“Okay.”

Jason left Michael with Leticia, intending to handle the coming storm with Sonny and Carly. Whatever their issues, they had to do something to fix this. To make them see the damage they were doing to their son—

And they were waiting downstairs, Sonny already with a tumbler of liquor in his hand at the mini bar, and Carly pacing the living room.

“You have a lot of nerve taking my son like that,” Sonny snarled, setting the bourbon down with thud of glass hitting the desk. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

Jason opened his mouth, then shook his head. “I’m not doing this with you,” he said with an irritated sigh. “Because the problem isn’t me—”

“You didn’t answer your phone,” Carly said dully. He blinked, looked at her. “I called and called and called. Because I didn’t want to go over there. I didn’t want to start a fight. I was trying, but you didn’t answer your phone—”

Jason’s hand went to the back pocket of his jeans, and then he froze. Remembering what he’d done, remembering where he was supposed to be—he looked at the clock on the mantel. Nearly nine.

Shit.

← The Black Dog – Begin |