Written in 61 minutes.

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Wednesday, October 1, 2024

General Hospital: Waiting Room

The only reason I want Kristina to survive is to find out what the hell did she to Sam. After that, she can rot in hell for all I care.

Molly’s outburst seemed to freeze everyone in their place for a beat, unsure what to say, where to look, how to even breathe.

TJ broke the paralysis first, charging after his partner and he was barely out the door before Alexis followed on his heels. Sonny scrubbed a hand over his face, every year he’d lived etched into his face, his disheveled graying hair falling into his face.

He looked at Danny, sitting in a chair between Elizabeth and Jake, the teenager slumped down, his arms folded, his eyes trained on the floor. He’d said nothing, not even looking up during Molly’s breakdown, but Jake could practically see his body vibrating, the trembling impossible to hide. His mother, on Danny’s other side, was sitting half turned towards Danny, perched on the edge of the seat, a hand in the air—poised to do something if Danny gave the slightest hint of what he might need.

Sonny cleared his throat looked over to Chase, Brooke, and Michael. “I don’t—” He stopped, took a deep breath. “I doubt Dante’s leaving the area tonight. Am I right that search and rescue will set up camp there?”

“They’ll leave a light team in place until sunrise, yeah.” Chase straightened. “I’m heading out there—”

“You’re headed home to rest like the doctor ordered,” Brooke interrupted, then looked at her cousin. “Michael—”

“I’m on it.” He touched Brooke’s shoulder lightly, then moved towards the door, stopping for just a moment by Danny. He opened his mouth, but words failed him. He met Elizabeth’s eyes for a moment, then left the room.

“I’m gonna stay here. With Alexis. Until we know more,” Sonny told Elizabeth. “I don’t know if Jason’s planning to stay out there, too—”

“I haven’t heard from him in a while,” Elizabeth said. She bit her lip, looked at the boys, then back at Sonny, then at Brooke and Chase behind him. “Someone…someone should talk to Rocco.”

“Yeah, he’s got Drew at home, and well—that’s not comforting. And God, poor Scout—” Brooke closed her eyes, shook her head slightly. “I hope he’s not stupid and kept her from the news. She shouldn’t hear like this—”

“Don’t talk about her like she’s dead.”

The words were quiet, but imbued with fury, and attention moved to the speaker — to Danny, who had finally lifted his head to glare at his father’s cousin across the room. “There’s nothing to tell Scout because my mother isn’t dead. They didn’t find her.”

“Right, I know,” Brooke offered awkwardly. “But I—” She stopped, unsure how to continue.

“Danny, we’re just trying to—” Sonny started to say, but Danny lunged to his feet and bolted for the door.

“Jake—” Elizabeth got to her feet, and Jake nodded.

“I won’t let him get far.”

When Jake had left the room in his brother’s wake, Elizabeth wrapped her arms tightly around her torso, chilled even though she’d changed hours ago.

“Elizabeth—”

“What were you doing out there?” she asked, softly. She lifted her gaze to Sonny’s, tilted her head. “You were with Alexis on your way out to her house. Molly said Chase and Dante were following Kristina, so I get them. Why you?”

“I could ask you the same,” Sonny said, and Elizabeth looked at Aiden briefly, then sighed, rubbed her forehead.

“Spinelli got a call from Sam. She was in the car with Kristina, asking her questions. Trying to get her to admit over the line that Kristina was the one to email the court, not Sam.”

“Whoa, Danny’s mom didn’t do it?” Aiden wanted to know, his eyes widening. “She framed her sister?”

“We don’t know that,” Sonny snapped, and Elizabeth scowled.

“Yes. Yes, we do. Because the suspect pool is limited, Sonny. The boys sure as hell didn’t tell anyone. Jason and I didn’t. That left Dante, Sam, and the arresting officers. And apparently, Kristina. Now that I know all the pieces Spinelli and Diane were holding back — ”

“What?” Sonny demanded. “What did they know?” He whipped his head around to glare at Diane who had remained when Alexis left, though she’d kept quiet.

“Looking to circle the wagons?” Elizabeth asked coolly, and Sonny simply looked at her. “Because I can think of a few reasons you’d be rushing out to talk to your daughter. How long did you know it was her?”

Sonny exhaled slowly, looked at Chase, then back at Elizabeth. “I’m not talking about this here—”

“You’re not going anywhere until you answer my question.” Elizabeth stepped in front of the door, blocking his exit. “How long did you know it was her? Don’t lie to me, Sonny. I deserve better than that. My boys deserve better than that. Jason damn well deserves better than that from you.”

At that reminder, some of Sonny’s bravado disappeared, and he had to look away. He pressed his lips together, then faced her again. “I still don’t know. Not for sure. You can’t think I would have allowed it to get out of hand—”

“Out of hand—” Elizabeth had to stop before the rage bubbling up inside nearly exploded. She turned away, fisting her hands in her hair, and saw her son standing there, looking shaken, bewildered—

What he’d been through these last few weeks — the arrest, her week in jail, getting caught with Danny and Rocco, trying to choose where he’d end up if she were gone — how much of it could have been avoided?

How much time had all these people wasted—

She turned back, and this time when she spoke, she wasn’t directing it just to Sonny — but to Chase behind her. “You were following her today. You knew. And Spinelli and Diane. They knew. You all knew there was a good chance that Kristina started all of us, and you kept quiet.” She closed her trembling hand into a fist. “You kept quiet. You knew.”

“We didn’t know for sure,” Diane said softly.

“Don’t—don’t—” Elizabeth pointed at her. “I trusted you. Jason trusted you. To put my freedom first. And you didn’t. You didn’t want to say her name because you knew what it meant. That Sonny’s daughter, that Alexis’s daughter did this—” She looked at Dante. “And Dante’s sister, right? Sam’s sister? You knew what it would mean to accuse her. You decided you needed a smoking gun—”

“Elizabeth—”

“And you know why they needed one, Sonny—” Elizabeth whirled back to face Sonny. “Do you know why? Because they knew what you’d do if you found out. You and Alexis. You were rushing out to find out what Sam knew. Planning how to get her out of this. What did you tell yourself, Sonny, that Diane was a good lawyer who could get me out of this? Isn’t that what you’ve been telling me for weeks?” she bit out to her lawyer. “That if we got in front of a jury, it’d be fine?”

“What did you want her to do, Elizabeth? Accuse someone without a good reason—” Sonny started, but Elizabeth silenced him with a fulminating glare.

“Don’t—don’t you dare—” She stabbed a finger at Diane. “One word to the FBI that Sonny’s daughter did this and they’d be running towards her so fast, you’d see smoke. Maybe not when you first suspected—but you knew within days Kristina was at my house the day after the murder—” She shook her head. “You protected her. You wanted a smoking gun so Sonny wouldn’t send her out of the country.”

“I didn’t have enough,” Chase said, trying to defend himself. “We just needed a few pieces to come together—”

“She’s right,” Diane said quietly, and Chase stopped, looked at her. “I told myself it was to protect the case, to make sure that when I made the accusation, that it would hold. But I knew what it would do to Alexis. To her family. I saw what it was doing to your family,” she confessed. “And I didn’t want that for my friend. Not unless I was sure.”

“And you knew if Jason or I knew, we’d turn her name over immediately. So you kept us out until you had no other choice.” Elizabeth nodded, folding her arms again. “And let Kristina think she got away with it. So she got greedy. And arrogant. She thought she could get Danny back for her sister, and throw me in jail to make it harder for me to fight, for Jason and my boys to concentrate with me gone — you gave her every opportunity.”

“That’s not fair,” Sonny protested.

“You protected Kristina just like you always have. You protected her right into that hospital bed, and Sam into her grave. Was it worth it?”  She didn’t wait for their answer, only held out her hand to Aiden. “Let’s get your brothers and get the hell out of here.”

Belle Forest Drive

The thunder and the lightening had passed, leaving nothing more than a mist falling from the sky. The road was still closed with three police cars and a fire truck still blocking traffic coming directly from downtown Port Charles, a few tents set up as a command center for the search and rescue team left behind when the bulk of first responders had gone.

Dante remained there, huddled under one of those tents, his clothes still soaked against his skin, studying a hydro graphic map of the creek, noting where the twists and turns, the culverts and bridges were as it wound its toward open water. All the places a car could get stuck before it washed out into Lake Ontario.

He grunted when he heard someone call his name, but then looked up when they called it again and found Michael there, holding out a coffee. “Thought you could use this.”

His stomach rolled at the thought of putting anything into it, but the caffeine was necessary — he could feel the crash approaching, the adrenaline fading. “You didn’t have to come out here. There’s nothing anyone can do. They’re barely letting me be involved.” He sipped the coffee.

“I know. I talked to Jason on my way here — ” Michael set down a brown paper bag. “I would have been here sooner but I had to go all the way around—”

“Yeah, they said they can’t open the road until—” Dante stopped, shook his head. “How is—I mean, what’s going on there?”

“Most everyone was at the hospital. Including Danny,” Michael added, and Dante stared at him. “Sam called him from her car.”

“Why didn’t you tell us—we could use that to pinpoint where she is—” Dante started past him, but Michael caught his arm.

“Dante. She called within minutes of the accident. I checked his phone, and I talked to Spinelli. She told him she couldn’t get out. That she was trapped.” Michael’s voice faltered. “I think she was calling to say goodbye.”

“What? No. No. She’s—she was just scared. But the car—it got swept away — so if she was trapped, if she was trapped, they—she could get out then. She’s—” Dante shook his head. “She got out. That’s all. The creek dislodged the car and she got out. She’s waiting for us to find her.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t say it that way,” Dante snapped, but Michael didn’t flinch or look away. “She’s tough. She’s out there, and we’ll find her. I’m not going anywhere until we do.”

“Then I’ll keep you company until we do.”

General Hospital: Stairwell

Danny had only made it to the third floor before dropping down and leaning against the wall, his legs stretched out. Jake had found him there only minutes later, but said nothing and sat at the bottom of the steps.

And waited.

“She called me.”

“I know—”

“I ignored the call,” Danny said, speaking over Jake who frowned, looked at him. “Sent her to voicemail. I knew if they found out she was calling me, contacting me, she’d get in trouble, and it would make it all worse. So I sent it to voicemail.” He looked at his brother, his eyes red, puffy. “She wasted time. She had to call me again. She should have called Dad or 911 or —”

“You didn’t know—”

“I should have—”

“You didn’t know,” Jake repeated, and Danny just shook his head. “You were trying to keep things from getting worse, Danny. You didn’t know she was in trouble.”

“She should have called for help—”

Jake didn’t want to say what he was thinking — the horrible realization that Sam would have called for help if she’d believed there was a chance it would arrive in time. She’d used what she thought were her lost moments to call her son.

Jake had disliked her for most of his life, and actively hated her for the past few years — the intensity only growing as Sam had grown more and more irrational, but the prospect that she’d been so sure that she was going to die that she’d used that time to call Danny —

“You told her you loved her, I heard you,” Jake said and he heard a muffled sob from his brother. “You told her. She knew you loved her, Danny. Maybe you missed a few extra seconds with her, but a lot of people never get a chance to say that one more time to the people they love, right?”

“D-doesn’t really help r-right now.”

“No. Probably not.” Jake got to his feet, then sat next to Danny, keeping a few inches between them so that he wouldn’t feel crowded. “But one day it might.”

“Y-you h-hated her.” Danny sniffled, swiping his sleeve across his face.

“I did,” Jake admitted. “But you loved her.”

Danny didn’t respond, and they remained in the quiet, the silence suffocating around them. His phone vibrated in his pocket, and Jake leaned to one to slide it out.

I think it’s time we head home. Dad’s meeting us there. Where are you?

Jake looked at his brother. “Hey. Dad’s gonna meet us at home, okay? Why don’t we go?”

Danny sighed, then dragged himself to his feet. “Yeah, whatever.”

Jake stood next to him, stopped him from heading down the next flight of stairs. “Look, I know you’re going to beat yourself up about missing that call, and I would be doing the same thing, so I’m not gonna tell you to stop. Whatever happens next, I’m not going anywhere.”

Danny jerked a shoulder in response, then headed down to the next landing. Jake sighed, looked back at his phone.

Meet you in the lobby.

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