Written in 59 minutes.

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Molly peered through the peephole, then rested her forehead against the door, wishing she were anywhere else today. Or that TJ wasn’t working so that she’d have someone else in the room for this conversation.

“I can see the shadow on the ground, Molly. I know you’re in there,” came her father’s muffled voice.

She made a face, then reluctantly slid back the bolt and flicked off the chain before twisting the knob. She pulled the door open just a little, and lifted her brows. “This is as far as you get, Dad.”

Ric sighed, then nodded. “That’s fair. I just—I needed you to know that I’ve resigned from Drew’s case. Officially. You’ll be getting the notice tomorrow.”

“You took the case—”

“And you took Jason’s. Because we both thought your mother was out of line filing in the first place,” Ric interrupted, and she looked away. “My only mistake was trying to make a deal with Alexis to make Drew’s case go away—”

“You were with him in the station yesterday, Dad. You left with him—Even after you saw what he did to Danny—”

“I tried to get him to back down—sweetheart, please, can we just—” He gestured to the door, but Molly didn’t budge. “I wanted to make this go away—”

“You didn’t care about Danny or Scout or Drew, Dad. Don’t pretend that this wasn’t personal. Especially when you saw Elizabeth on Jason’s side. You’ve always hated him, and resented her for not marrying you again. Even though you were lying. Again.” Molly’s eyes burned. “You always do this. You make me think you’re here for me, but you never are. You take Ava’s case because it’s a poke at Sonny, and you take Drew’s case to stick it to Jason, but it’s never about me.”

“Molly—”

“I’m done. I’m just—I am so done.” And then she closed the door.

—

“Um—” Willow folded her arms nervously as Michael locked the front door to the gatehouse. “Thank you. For inviting me to dinner. It—it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. With…everything knowing. And for…not letting the kids know things are weird right now. It was good to be with them for bedtime.”

“Remind me to tell you some stories about my grandparents sometime, and you’ll understand,” Michael said dryly. He leaned against the door. “And I asked you to come home not because this is okay. Or that we’re okay. I don’t even know if I want it to be okay.”

“I get that. And…well, after what you said this morning, I don’t know if I want that either.” She exhaled, looked away. “Which sounds insane, I guess. To be angry that you cheated, too.   But I am.”

“I know.” Michael waited, but she didn’t say anything else, just looked awkwardly at the floor. “I’ll sleep in the guest room tonight, and we’ll figure out something. But first — ”

“First we deal with Drew.” Willow nodded. “Let’s go over the plan again.”

—

Cam wrinkled his nose at the double bed in Jake’s room. “You know, I’m the guest. I should get the bed, you should get the floor.”

“It’s share or the floor.” Jake sat on the bed cross-legged. “If you play your cards right, maybe we can get my dad’s credit card and not Mom’s, and we can actually do something with that place he bought that isn’t card tables and folding chairs.”

“Yeah, what’s all that about?” Cameron grunted, kicking off his sneakers. “How come Jason bought a house in the first place?”

“Before they decided to get married, me, Dad, and Danny were gonna live there.” Jake made a face. “Feels like forever ago we decided that, but it was really just, like a month. Back when Sonny dumped all that on me and Aiden, and Dad went nuclear on him.”

“Sorry I couldn’t tell you guys more.” Cameron twisted slightly to look at him. “Mom was really good about keeping most of that from me. And I was always at Gram’s back in the day anyway. When she had overnights, and Lucky, I guess, didn’t want to deal with me. So I couldn’t tell you when we moved out or back in. And I sort of remember living altogether at the big house, but that was like…five seconds. And I think I only remember from pictures. Mostly, I just remember the old house and Gram’s. Lucky wasn’t around much anyway. I don’t even remember calling him Dad.”

“Me either.” Jake waited as Cameron disappeared behind the closet door, then came back with his jeans and sweatshirt balled up, wearing basketball shorts and a t-shirt. “You didn’t say much about Mom getting married. I figured you’d have questions.”

“Not really. I mean, I guess the one thing I do remember from that time was Jason. He came around a lot. Or Mom ran into him a lot, too. More after you came along. And when you were…gone,” Cameron added, “before he got snatched, too, he was around. And you know whenever one of us had a problem, Mom was calling Jason.”

“Yeah, like when Cyrus kidnapped you that time, I don’t even think she called the police.”

“Nope.” Cameron crawled into the bed. “I guess maybe I’m surprised because Mom seemed pretty done with all of that after Franco died. Finn was obviously not the guy.” He wrinkled his nose. “I never liked him.”

“I tolerated him, but man, if Mom had wanted to marry him—” Jake wiggled his shoulders. “No, thanks. Especially since he turned out to be a drunk. Mom was right to drop kick him. And—Dad gave her backup for that.”

“See? Feels like it was kind of inevitable.” Cam shoved a pillow against the headboard, then sat back. “The real question is, how do we feel about our merry band of three becoming a quintet. Danny and Scout coming to live here full time?”

“It’s what needs to happen,” Jake said firmly. “Danny needs to be with Dad, and Scout deserves better than her asshole dad.”

“Crazy how all that’s played out,” Cameron mused. “There was a time Drew was solid, you know? When he was Jake Doe, when he was supposed to be Jason, and then even when he found out he was Drew — he was always there. But the way you’ve been telling it—”

“He said it was prison. That he took the heat for Joss’s mom, and figured out no one was ever gonna put him first. Maybe that’s true, but I also think he got his brains scrambled a few times too many and lost his damn mind. He almost went after Mom, Cam. I thought Dad was gonna put him through the wall. Or the harbor.”

“Yeah, Jason doesn’t fuck around when it comes to Mom.” Cameron looked at him. “You know, Jason and Drew are twins. And they were identical twins before Drew’s face got screwed up. So even though you and Scout are, like, cousins, you’re biologically siblings.”

“Yeah, so?”

“So you know how Mom tells us that half doesn’t mean anything, and the only time she ever got really mad at me as when I said something about Aiden only being half my brother, so I didn’t have to play with him — ” Cameron shook his head. “Feared for my life that day. You were still dead,” he added. “Anyway,” he continued when Jake rolled his eyes. “I just mean that Scout’s basically your sister anyway. And any sibling of yours — they’re mine, too. And Aiden’s. Plus, this whole thing gets me a house of my own—”

“Which we’re supposed to share after I go back to school and come home on break,” Jake reminded him, whacking him with a pillow. “It’ll be cool for Mom, you know, to have a girl around. She’s always been so outnumbered, and the only girly thing any of us have ever liked was baking—ow—” He winced when Cameron whipped the pillow at him. “Hey!”

“Baking’s not girly, and you don’t say that shit where Aiden can hear you,” Cameron threatened. “And you like watercolors, so who’s the girl now asshole?” He ducked the first return throw from Jake, but couldn’t escape the second. And then it was war.

—

Elizabeth stood in the doorway of her room for another minute, listening to thuds and whacks coming from down the hall, and closed her eyes, savoring it.

“You’re not worried they’re going to kill each other?”

She turned to find Jason sitting on the bed — perched on the edge, as if ready to take flight, and her smile deepened. She closed the door, leaned against it. “Do you know how many times I’ve dreamed about this moment?”

“Listening to your kids attempt murder?” he asked, but there was a line of amusement threading through the words.

“Well, yeah, a little bit of that, but—” she opened her eyes, tipped her head. “Having all my boys under one roof — and you in the same house. Danny’s a new addition to the dream, but I’m already adjusting to it.”

“You’re sure it’s a good idea for me to be in here tonight?” he rose to his feet and crossed to her. “I could have done the sofa again—”

She laid her hands on his shoulders, across the thin fabric of the t-shirt he’d changed into. “I think it’s important that we begin on the right note. This is Danny’s first night here, and I want him to feel at home. He was so uncomfortable taking Cam’s room with Cam here — I don’t him to feel like his dad is a guest here, too.”

“You’re right, and I want to be here—” He touched her chin, stroking the soft skin with his thumb. “I just—this is all happening so fast—”

“Well, this being the first night we’ve ever spent under the same roof together with our seventeen-year-old son, some might suggest it’s not  fast enough,” she teased, and she was rewarded with his smile. “And hey, we shared our first apartment four months after we met—”

“Is that how we’re describing recovering from a gunshot in your studio with no heat in December?” he asked dryly.

“It was cozy, and you loved it. Until Bobbie guilted you into leaving.” She leaned up to press her lips briefly to his, but he slid his hands up to cup her jaw and held her against him longer, deepening the embrace until her senses spun, and she gripped his shoulders to stay up right.

“One of my favorite places to be was that firetrap,” he murmured against her mouth, and she laughed, and he kissed her forehead when she started to pull back. “I just don’t want the boys to be uncomfortable with it.”

“And if they were younger, maybe we’d have a different conversation. But they’ll get used to it. Don’t worry,” she said, kissing his chin, “all I have in mind tonight is sleep. I’m not planning to seduce you.”

“You wouldn’t have try very hard.” He kissed the inside of her palm, then held her hand a little longer. “But—”

“But the timing isn’t right,” she said and he nodded. “We do suck at that most of the time. But I think our luck is beginning to change.”

“I hope so. We’ve…made a lot of promises to the boys. To Scout.” Some of the amusement faded. “I know we told them it might not work, but I don’t think they’re prepared for any outcome where we lose.”

“We’re going to do everything we can, and if Michael’s plan works—by Christmas, this will all be over.”

—

It had a been a long, excruciating, and irritating day — that had begun with just a little bit of promise but had ended with a tense meeting with her boss.

Robert Scorpio had not been happy with her trip to family court this morning.

Still smarting from his rebuke—and from the judge’s attitude, Justine Turner closed the door to her condo, kicked off her heels, and mentally began to pour herself a drink.

And then the light switched on. She hissed, whirled around and stopped in her tracks.

Sitting on her sofa sat Sonny Corinthos, his hand still on the lamp he’d turned on.

“ADA Turner. I was wondering when you’d get home. You work very late,” he said with a lift of his brows. “It’s hard work building a prosecution against a teenager, I suppose.”

Justine fished in her purse. “You are insane — out of your mind — you and your partner. I’ll have you arrested—”

“Oh. I wouldn’t do that. Not if you want Mommy Dearest to remain in that five star nursing home you’ve mortgaged your condo to pay for. And how are those student loans doing, Justine? Struggling to make ends meet?”

Her fingers stilled on the phone, and then she lifted her eyes to the mobster. “What?”

“You and I should do each other a favor. I’ll make your life easier, and in exchange, you drop the charges against Danny Morgan.” Sonny’s lips curved into a smile, the dimples winking. “And then we pretend this never happened.”

Her hand tightened around the phone, and for a long beat, they just considered each other. Then she sighed, the sound escaping with an exasperated huff. She tossed the phone on the sofa. “I don’t like family court anyway. Pour me a drink, and let’s make a deal.”

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