Written in 69 minutes. Went way over, but I was at 58 minutes before I got to the last Liason scene, and well, I figure you won’t mind.

---

Drew sauntered up to the entrance of the mansion, flipping through his keys to locate the correct one. Though he’d been hoping for Jason to actually take a swing in the squad room earlier, having both boys try to attack him was a decent second place. A few more pushes, Jason would lose control, and he’d be in a position to make a deal with Alexis that would benefit them both.

It couldn’t have gone better if he’d planned it.

Just as he found the correct key to fit into the lock, the door swung open and Tracy stood there, one hand wrapped around the edge of the door, and the other holding a martini. “Oh, did you think you still lived here?” she asked with an arch of her brow.

Drew smiled thinly. “You can’t evict me without notice, Tracy—”

“You know what, you’re right.” Tracy turned to someone who wasn’t visible, traded her martini for legal petition. “I have something better. Well, I have a two for one special.”

He ripped the petition from her hand, then scowled, as he skimmed the action. “An order of protection—” Drew whipped his gaze up to hers. “What the hell?”

“That has been in the works for several days. Since you put your hands on Monica’s granddaughter.” Tracy reached out, and her martini reappeared in her hand. “Your things were already packed and they’re waiting for you at the Cosmopolitan Hotel. In the lobby. You’ll also have to get your own room. I can’t do everything for you.”

“This—” Drew clenched his jaw. “You can’t file on behalf of my daughter—”

“See—that’s where you’re wrong. Not a very bright boy, are you? It makes me nostalgic for AJ, honestly. At least he was quicker.” She sipped her martini. “Monica, as her grandmother, can do whatever she wants.”

“You can’t keep me from my daughter, Tracy—” Drew took a step forward, but then Tracy stepped away, and Drew saw who had been just out sight.

Dante stood just to the left the door, his arms crossed, and his jaw clenched. “Take one step over that threshold, I’m begging you,” he said. “Do me a favor and violate that order. I can’t wait to arrest you.”

Drew crumpled the petition in his hands. “I barely touched her—”

“Saturday, maybe. But that’s for a judge to decide. And we have more evidence of your violence against children. You see—” Tracy smiled, though the glint in her eyes was anything but humorous. “You punched a child today, and dragged Scout bodily out of a house, kicking and screaming. There were witnesses. A very helpful police report you insisted on so you could charge Danny with assault.”

Drew cleared his throat. “Tracy, there are things going on you don’t understand—”

“No, you don’t seem to understand.” Dante stepped up next to Tracy. “You might have won for the night, Drew. And maybe for a few days. But you’re not going against one man and his kid. Danny’s got a family who loves him.”

“And like it or not, Jason is a member of this family, and given the choice between the two of you?” Tracy shrugged. “I choose him. Now, will you leave willingly or you know what—Dante,” she said, looking at him. “I think I’d like him to try to come inside. Maybe he’ll resist arrest.” Her smile had disappeared when she focused on Drew again. “I’d like to see you with the same damage to your face.”

“This isn’t over, Tracy. I’ll be back for my daughter—”

“Please, make more threats, Drew. In front of the lovely detective.”

Drew hissed, then turned, stalking off towards the driveway, his footsteps crunching on the gravel.

Tracy swung the door closed, then turned to beam at Dante. “You played your part marvelously. It might be the first time I’m grateful that my son married your mother.”

Dante’s lips twitched, but then he went to the window, watched Drew’s headlights disappear down the drive. “He’s not wrong, Tracy. This isn’t over by a long shot.”

“Of course not. Our fun has just begun.” Tracy sipped her martini. “Shame he didn’t give you a reason to punch him.”

—

Elizabeth didn’t answer Jake right away, instead choosing to shed her coat and hang her purse on the hooks by the door. She held her hand out for Jason’s coat, and he reluctantly stripped it off, handed it over.

“Mom—” Jake made a face. “It’s not that I’m mad if it’s all a ploy to get Danny out, it’s just—”

“It’s not a ploy,” Elizabeth said, turning to face him, and her son fell silent, looked at his father, then back at her. “I told you at the station. It’s not the way we wanted any of you to know, especially you and Danny. But if it helps him home faster, I guess it’s worth whatever reaction you both have.”

Jake opened his mouth, then closed it, and looked at Aiden who looked down at the paper in his hands. “Okay, so I guess it’s my turn.” He squinted. “I can’t read your writing, so I’ll choose one of mine,” he told Jake. “Where are we going to live?” he said, lifting his eyes to his mother. “You bought a house and stuff. And Jake said it had three bedrooms, so it’s not big enough for all of us. Which I guess is related to another question — will we have to share rooms?”

“That’s your first question?” Jake demanded.

“I’ve never shared before, so it’s important—I have a lot of stuff, man! And so do you and Cam, where does it go?”

“Ridiculous—” Jake snatched the list from Aiden’s hand. “You’re not in charge of any of this anymore. So it’s real,” he said to his mother. “Fine. Let’s just say that’s true—”

“Jake,” Jason said, his voice low and a bit tense. “Pick another tone. Right now.” Elizabeth looked at him, startled, but then Jake swallowed hard.

“Okay, yeah, I know. I’m—I’m just—come on, this is all insane, right? You have to admit this wasn’t on the radar. At least not for me or for Aiden, and definitely not Danny—like, the timing of this—” Jake closed his mouth, furrowed his brow. “Is it for the custody case? Because—”

“It might feel like it came out of nowhere, and maybe for you, I guess that’s not wrong,” Elizabeth said. She folded her arms. “And okay, maybe the custody case is why it became a topic—” She stopped when Jason held up a hand.

“I don’t think it’s that much of a surprise,” Jason said. “Not to me. And if you think about some of the things we’ve talked about, Jake, it’s probably not to you. Yes, the custody case has sped up something that would have happened later. But I want to make it very clear that it’s not why.”

Jake didn’t seem to know what to say to that, and honestly, neither did Elizabeth. Aiden seized the opportunity to snatch back the list. “Okay, but I still didn’t get my turn. About the room situation—”

“We don’t have any of that worked out right now. Not longterm, I guess.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “And we’d planned, I guess, we’d thought we’d have more time to make those decisions. But right now, Aiden, Danny will probably use Cam’s room. Because all that matters tonight, and tomorrow is getting him out of there.”

“Yeah, okay, I can get on board with that,” Jake said. “And obviously, Danny’s the priority. But—but there’s Scout. I don’t—Drew’s got her.”

“Not tonight he doesn’t,” Jason said. “We called after we left you, and Tracy said they’d pulled some strings. There’s an order of protection keeping Drew from taking Scout out of Monica’s custody. He’ll probably contest that, and it might not hold. But tonight, she’s safe.”

Jake visibly relaxed, nodded. “Okay. Good. Good. And Danny—”

“He’s okay for tonight. Not an ideal situation.” Elizabeth approached him, and was relieved when he let her slid an arm around his shoulders. “We’re going to fix this, Jake. No one is going to let Danny or Scout get hurt anymore than they already have.”

—

Willow paced in front of the window, her phone clutched in her hand. She looked at her mother. “He’s not answering my texts.”

Nina took the phone from her, replaced it with a glass of water. “Take a deep breath, and drink that. Of course he’s not answering tonight. You both need to take a minute. To take stock of what’s happened.”

Willow’s hands were trembling too hard, and she sat the glass down with a thud on the table, water sloshing over the edges. “What’s happened?” she demanded, her voicing climbing to a pitch that had her mother wincing. “What’s happening is I set my marriage on fire, okay? I had a man—a perfectly good man, a wonderful—” Her voice broke, and she pressed her hands to her mouth. “A wonderful father. And he loved me. I know he did.”

“He still does, honey. Or he would have said something weeks ago.” Nina put an arm around Willow’s shoulders, guided her to the sofa. “And you love him, or you would have left him.”

“He doesn’t love me now. Not after what he saw — after tonight—” She closed her eyes, squeezed her hands into fists in her lap. “I was still telling him Drew was a good man—I still wanted to believe it—” Her voice faltered again. “But he’s not, is he?”

“No.” Nina’s voice was heavy. “He’s not.”

“If…he put his hands on a child. Danny’s just a boy, really. You’ve—you’ve seen him. And Drew is—oh, God, he punched Danny, claiming Danny hit him first! Have you ever heard anything more vile?”

“Very little.”

“Danny’s fist would have felt like a fly—a-and—” Willow squeezed her eyes shut. “And they said Drew was dragging Scout out of her grandmother’s, as she was kicking and screaming, crying. This is the man I threw away my marriage for? How could I do that?” Tears streamed down her face, and she looked at her mother, begging her to find a way to explain the inexplicable. “How could I think we had a connection?”

“Oh, it’s my fault, baby. It’s my—” Nina turned away from her, pressing her fist to her mouth. “I should have told you ages ago, the moment you told me about the Fourth of July.”

Willow furrowed her brow. “I don’t understand.”

“I was so furious when you told me—” Her mother looked at her again, misery etched in every line of her face. “So humiliated. Because I’d just learned that the man I’d been sleeping with for months preferred my daughter.”

—

TJ winced when he saw Molly rip the top from another energy drink and reached to take it away before she could take a sip. Since they’d left the hospital and returned home, Molly had dove into her computer, into legal research, taking page after page of notes, the table by the window littered with yellow legal pages torn from the pad.

“Mols, you need some sleep. You have to let some of this wear off. You need to be your best self tomorrow,” he added when she started to protest. “Danny’s counting on you.”

“That’s not—that’s not fair. I just—I have to make sure I account for everything, a-and I know Tracy was able to get that order of protection, but Drew will contest it—”

“The Quartermaines have lawyers on retainer and will probably find the best family court attorneys in the state.” He plucked the pencil from her fingers. “Baby. Scout is safe. Danny will be safe tomorrow. And no one is served if you kill yourself trying to fix something you didn’t break.”

“I—”

“You took Jason’s case because it was the right thing to do. That’s it. Your mother—no doubt egged on by your sister,” he added with an edge to his tone that had her frowning. “Your mother started this. And for whatever reason, Drew has decided to escalate it. Creating that scene with Scout over the weekend, going after Jake and Danny today—it’s like he wants Jason to live up to his reputation—” He closed his mouth, looked at her as the realization dawned in her expression, too.

“He said he wanted to be on my mother’s side. My dad—my dad said Drew was willing to do whatever he had to do in order to get Danny away from Jason. Oh, God, is this what he meant?”

Trying to wrap her head around that possibility, she missed the first knock on the door, but TJ heard the second one, and left the table to open the door.

Where her mother stood, her cheeks tear-stained. Molly got to her feet, wary. “Mom.”

“Molly. We need—we need to talk. We—” Alexis closed her eyes. “I need to fix this.”

—

Danny pressed the ice pack to his face, wincing as the chill hit his skin. “You don’t have to keep apologizing,” he said through the bars to Chase as the older man set up his own cot. “You didn’t punch me.”

“No, but I feel like we should have been able to come up with a better solution,” Chase muttered. He nodded at the tablet on Danny’s cot. “But you’ve got whatever streaming services you want. A-And I bet Mac could get a TV or something rolled in for a video game—”

“I just want my sister to be okay.” Danny dropped the ice pack to his lap, stared at it. “I don’t care about anything else.”

“Hey—” Chase’s voice was closer, and when Danny looked up, he found the detective perched on the edge of his cot. “I talked to Brooklyn. Scout’s okay. Brook calmed her down, and she had dinner. Wiley and Amelia are hanging out with her tonight, and you know she loves that.”

Danny’s lips curved into a tiny smile. “She gets to be the oldest.”

“Exactly. Everyone is on your side, Danny. You and Scout are the top priority. Your dad and Elizabeth are working with Molly to get you out of here tomorrow, and Tracy and your grandmother are working to keep Scout safe, too. We’re going to make this okay.”

He nodded. “Yeah, I— I know what everyone is trying to do, and I—I’m not trying to be, like, ungrateful, you know?” He sniffled, then dragged his forearm across his face to wipe his nose. “But everyone said my mom would be okay. They said it was okay, that they had it handled, and so I left. I took Scout and I—I never saw her again. I c-can’t ever talk to her a-again and maybe Drew won’t let me talk to Scout ever again either—”

He heard movement from Chase’s side, and the sliding of the bars a moment before a weight settled next to him. “I won’t promise you everything will turn out the way you want it to,” Chase said, and Danny looked at him. “You’re right. There’s a lot that could go wrong, and you know that more than anyone. But you’ve got people on your side, Danny. People who love you and that are going to fight for you. What would your mom say if she was here?”

“She’d say—” Danny paused, considered it, trying to bring his mother’s voice to his mind. “She’d tell me to take things one at a time. To not be like her and rush into everything without thinking.” He grimaced. “She’d probably be mad I ended up in here. She always worried I’d end up going to jail like my dad.” He paused. “Or like she did. She didn’t want me in here.”

“No parent would. But you stood up for your sister, and that’s what the family court is going to understand. But your mom would be right. We’re going to take this one thing at a time. First, sleep. And then, tomorrow—”

“Tomorrow, I should get to go home.” Danny exhaled. “Yeah, okay. Okay.”

—

Elizabeth dropped a folded blanket on the sofa next to Jason, the lights around the room dimmed. “I don’t know why I’m bothering with these,” she said, sitting on the sofa next to him. “You won’t use them.”

“My son’s in jail,” Jason muttered, though she knew the tone wasn’t directed at her. “I’m not going to sleep while he’s in a cell.”

“Fair enough.” Elizabeth kicked off her shoes, drew her legs up on the cushion. “I’ll keep you company.”

Jason looked at her, his eyes a bit softer now. “You don’t have to do that. One of us should get some sleep.”

“Oh, okay, I’ll skip up the stairs, and lay down in my bed, knowing you’re down here worrying.” She arched a brow. “Would you if the situation was reversed?”

“No.” Jason shook his head. “No. Of course not.” He reached for her hand, twisting the ring he’d placed on it a back and forth on her finger. “I’m sorry. That it’s…it’s like this again.”

“What, you mean, the second we get engaged, the phone rings and world falls apart?” She sighed, slid closer to him until she was curled into his side. He let his head tip to the side so that it touched hers. “It’s not the same at all. The situation is different, and…so are we. We made a deal, didn’t we? We’re in this together. Tonight, Danny needed us. If it had been Aiden or Cam, you’d have felt the same way, and we’d be on this sofa for them.”

He acknowledged that with a nod, bring her palm to his lips, pressing them against the soft skin. “How do you think Cam’s going to take this?”

“Oh. No way to tell with him.” She smiled, thinking of it. “He’ll either just go with the flow, or he’ll be like Aiden, making a list of questions. Just depends on we tell him.”

“We could call him. Tomorrow. After court. If—if it goes well.”

“That sounds like a great idea.” She sighed, then eased her head into the cradle of his shoulder, closing her eyes. “Four boys. God help us.” He laughed, and she could feel it rumble through his body. She smiled, and somehow slid into sleep.

Jason shifted her weight slightly, wrapped an arm around her shoulders so she was more comfortable, then sat back to wait for morning.

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