Written in 60 minutes.

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TJ leaned against the doorway to the kitchen, tilted his head. “I guess we get our dining table back.”

Molly paused, a legal pad in her hand, with nearly every page scrawled on, littered with notes on all the depositions that never happened. “Yeah, I’m putting all of this in storage. My short foray into family law is over.” She stowed the legal pad in the box, on top of some of the legal papers she’d printed out and other law books. “Robert said I can start back as soon as I want, but, I—” She took a breath, looked at him. “I asked him to take some more time. The holidays, and maybe—maybe after Ava’s trial.”

He crossed to her, tugged her back against him with one arm around her shoulders, then kissed the side of her head. “I know what happened to Danny and Scout was awful, but this is the best possible ending, Mols. You and your mom aren’t going after each other, the kids are together in the home they both wanted to be in — you did what you set out to do.”

“I know.” Molly pressed her lips together. “I offered to fight for Jason on the principle, you know. Because I was so mad at my mother, at Kristina, at the world, for what we’d gone through—for what they wanted to put us through if we hadn’t lost Irene—” She turned in his arms. “But I believe now, in a way I didn’t before, that Danny and Scout are exactly where they should be. You’re right. This is the best ending.” She rubbed his arms, then stepped out of his embrace, and lifting the box.

“Then why do you look so sad?” he murmured.

Molly opened the door to the apartment, intending to head to the storage room in the basement, looked back at him. “Because my sister is still gone. I think—I think as long as I had something or someone to fight—I could hold on to her. But she’s gone. She’s buried, and it’s just—she’s gone. Just like Irene. And there’s nothing that changes that.”

—

Elizabeth slowed to a stop behind Jason’s SUV in the Quartermaine driveway, put the car in park, then hurried up to the front entrance where Jason was waiting for her. “Sorry, it was impossible to get out of the hospital on time, and then traffic—”

He reached for her hand to pull her in for a long, lingering kiss, cutting off her apology. “I just got here,” Jason said, drawing back slightly. “I thought about picking up Danny first to tell them together, but…” He stopped. “There’s a few things I thought you and I should talk to her about one-on-one, and I don’t want her to feel like she has to do what her brother wants.”

“Is this about the visitation Alexis wrote into the petition?” Elizabeth asked, following him inside where the foyer was, surprisingly deserted. “You think she might want Drew to come see her?”

“Maybe. I don’t like it, but I also—” Jason considered his words. “If Drew abides by the agreement, Scout’s ours. Not just Danny’s sisters. But ours. I thought maybe if we always talked to her with Danny or the other boys—”

“She’d always feel like we did this to make Danny happy. Like she doesn’t really belong.” Elizabeth leaned up to kiss him again, laying her hands at his collar. “You’re right. If we’re doing this, she deserves to feel like we’re listening to her, and what she wants is important.”

“I thought I heard voices—” They both turned, hearing both the voice and the whirring of a wheelchair. Monica came from the back hallway, trailed by Brook Lynn. “I’m hoping that seeing the two of you means this is over?” she asked hopefully.

“Yeah, tell me that Drew’s been tossed out on his ass,” Brook Lynn added. “I just know he’s slimy enough to pick his career over that little girl.”

“He agreed,” Jason told them, and Monica smiled. “He’s leaving for DC as soon as it can be arranged, and he’s signed over guardianship of Scout. I don’t know if he’ll stay gone, but for now—it’s over.”

“We came to tell her,” Elizabeth said, shedding her coat and purse. “Is she upstairs in the nursery?”

“She is. Oh, I’m so grateful that this has worked out this way,” Monica said. She reached for Elizabeth’s hand. “So grateful that you’ll be part of this family. Officially. It’s taken long enough.”

“Long enough that Jason didn’t even make a face when you said that, Aunt Monica,” Brook Lynn teased, and now Jason wrinkle his nose, realizing the younger woman was right.

“Well, you’re not wrong. It’s taken long enough.” Jason reached for Elizabeth’s hand. “You ready?”

“Always.”

—

Willow extracted Amelia from her winter coat, smiling as the toddler skipped over to the play area next to the Christmas tree — still undecorated. They’d brought it days ago, intending to spend the weekend decking it out.

“Today went a little…crazier than we planned,” Michael said, closing the door behind her. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?” Willow forced a smile, folding her arms. “We got what we wanted. Drew’s gone, I don’t have to go public with what happened, which makes this easier for you and kids. I mean, for me, too, but—” She lifted her chin. “And more importantly, Danny and Scout are safe.”

Michael flexed his hand, still a little sore from slugging Drew. “Yeah, but I didn’t really expect him to throw you under the bus that way. It must have been hard to hear—”

“It was good to hear it. To know what he thought of me. I have a way of repressing the awful things people do and say.” She smiled wryly, looked over at Amelia. “Only way to survive living with Harmony and the Dawn of Day.” She returned her gaze to Michael. “I think we should separate. I mean, if you want to…file for divorce, I’d understand. But I was hoping we could just…take some time. To just take time.”

“I’m not in any hurry, Willow, to end our marriage. Maybe I should be, but—” He hesitated. “There’s a lot of good here. We both…we both slept with other people—”

“What I did was so much worse, Michael. Don’t—” Willow bit her lip, looked at her hands. “I think I should talk to someone. I mean we could try counseling, but I think I should — myself — talk to someone. Maybe Drew’s not wrong. Maybe there’s more screwed up in my head than I thought.”

“He was just trying to save himself—”

“I loved our life, Michael. Our family, our little world down here, the future we were building—” Her voice thickened. “And I threw it away. I can’t undo that. And I need to understand why I did that to myself. To us.”

“All right.” Michael stroked her arms, and her chest eased. He was always so kind — too kind. “You’re right. Separation — it’s the right way. But I don’t—I want to make this as easy as we can for the kids. So…I don’t want them to have to go back and forth.”

“No, me either.” Willow brushed the tears away. “I think I should stay with my mother and maybe we could take turns. You know, we’re the ones that switch and the kids stay here.”

“We can try that.”

“Good. Good. I, um, I’ll pack a few things—” He caught her arm when she started for the stairs. “Michael—”

“It can wait until after the holidays.  If we can’t—if we can’t fix this — then I want them to have one more holiday with the both of us. Can we do that?” Michael asked.

“It’s more than I deserve. Thank you.” She squeezed his hand. “Why don’t you go pick up Wiley at the main house? I’ll make dinner.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

—

Jason knocked lightly at Scout’s bedroom door, already slightly open. “Scout?”

“Uncle Jason?” Scout climbed to her feet from where she was playing with her doll house. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Can we come in?” Jason asked, stepping aside to reveal Elizabeth with him.

“Okay.” Scout worried her bottom lip, her dark eyes wide. “You’re here to tell me I have stay. That I can’t come with you, aren’t you?”

“We’re here to tell you that we talked to your dad, and he agreed that you should stay with us and Danny while he’s in DC,” Jason said carefully. He waited for Elizabeth to sit down in one of the armchairs before sitting on the window seat. “So you can come live with us.”

“Oh.” Scout was quiet for a moment, absorbing that. “He didn’t want me?”

“He did,” Elizabeth said. “But we all agreed that it was better for you to stay here with your school and your friends and your brother. We thought that was what you wanted.” She looked at Jason, and he could tell she was worried.

Scout sat down, kneeling on the carpet, and picking up one of her dolls. “I guess. You went away,” she said to Jason. “For a long time, and Danny was really sad. Did you miss Danny? And Jake?”

“More than anything. I thought about them every day I was gone, and they were the first people I wanted to see when it was possible.” And safe, Jason finished silently.

“I don’t think my daddy misses me when I’m not there,” Scout said. “Before Grandma made him leave, we lived here for days and days and days, and he only saw me sometimes. He said he was really busy. Do all daddies go away? And mommies? Did you ever go away?” she asked Elizabeth. “For years and months and days?”

“I went to stay at a hospital for a few weeks,” Elizabeth told her. “And Rocco’s grandmother took care of my boys and kept them safe until I could come home.”

Scout considered that. “But my mommy can’t come home. She went to heaven. Do you think she thinks about me?”

“I’m sure she does. She loved you a whole lot,” Jason told her. “Scout, if you want us to make sure you can still see your dad, we can do that. We can take you to DC or —” He hesitated, then forced the words out. “We can do something here. This is up to you. Whatever you want.”

Scout turned the doll over her in her hands and was quiet so long Jason worried they’d made a mistake. Maybe she’d felt like she’d had to agree with what her brother wanted.  Finally, she looked up at him. “We’ll all live together in ‘Lizabeth’s house?”

“That’s the plan. You’ll have your own room there,” Elizabeth said.

“And we’ll see each other every day? Do I have to stay in my room all day?” Scout wanted to know. “Will the boys be mean to me? Sometimes Danny was mean to me. Not since….not since. But maybe he’ll forget and be mean again.”

“Well, if Danny’s mean to you again, you come and tell me, and I’ll handle it, but you already know Jake and Elizabeth’s other two boys are really great kids. Cameron lives in California most of the time, but he’s always been a pretty good older brother. And Aiden likes to bake.”

Scout brightened. “Bake? Like cookies?”

“Oh, absolutely,” Elizabeth said.  “And you know, he always needs an assistant in the kitchen. Jake and Cam were away at school, and I just know he’d love having someone to test all his cookies and everything else he makes.”

“That might be fun. Is he making Christmas cookies? I could help.”

“I’m sure he is. So you still want to come with us?” Elizabeth asked.

Scout took a deep breath. “Daddy was really mad at me. Maybe when he stops being so mad, he might love me again, and I can stay with him. But it was scary when he was mad. Is it okay if I stay with you until he stops being mad at me?”

Not really sure how he’d be able keep that particularly promise, Jason looked at Elizabeth, a bit helpless.

She slid off the chair and knelt next to Scout, stroking back her hair. “I think that we should check in with your Daddy once in a while, and see how you feel. And when you’re ready, we can make changes. But until then, I would love if you lived with us.”

Scout looked at her. “Okay. When can I have cookies?”

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