Written in 84 minutes. Sorry! I wanted to get all these scenes in this update so I can start a new day in the next part 😛 Merry Christmas!

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Tuesday, September 24, 2025

Pozzulo’s Restaurant: Dining Room

Sonny exhaled with relief, then set his phone aside. “Kristina’s case was dismissed.” Across the table, Michael leaned back, grimaced. “That’s good news,” his father added when Michael said nothing.

“Sure. I just—” Michael shifted, then reached for his fork to push his salad around the plate. “I don’t know. Do you know what she and Alexis were planning with the baby?”

Sonny squinted. “Planning? When? What?”

“Before the accident. Before she fell. Alexis drew up custody papers. She was going to sue TJ for custody. She was going to back out of the surrogate agreement.”

Sonny looked away, dropped his eyes, and Michael tilted his head. “You didn’t know, but you also don’t look surprised.”

“The way she’s, ah, handled everything,” Sonny said, with a slight wave of his hand. “She’s been hard on Molly. And I didn’t miss that she’s calling the baby Adela.” He picked up his bourbon. “Never should have let her go through with this. Just a mistake from beginning to end.”

“There’s a reason they don’t recommend first time mothers become surrogates,” Michael said. “Once Kristina started to feel that baby grow—”

“It’s deeper than that,” Sonny insisted. “She’s…she’s like me. Family—we get obsessive. We do everything to hold them close, even when we should be keeping our distance.” He stroked his jaw. “Even if she’d handed that baby over, she’d have never stopped thinking about it. And we’d have gone on for years. Not that I think it’s some kind of blessing what happened to her—”

“No one thinks, Dad.” Michael shook his head. “I just hope she can move on. To start really healing. Molly can’t heal until Kristina does.”

“Well, Molly should have known better than to let Kristina go through with this,” Sonny retorted, and Michael lifted his brows. “I want my daughter to move on, and stop acting like a fool. Getting into messes that the rest of us have to clean up.” He set his drink down. “Acting on impulse, and making everything worse. She needs to grow up.”

Corinthos & Morgan Warehouse: Main Floor

Jason heaved a sack of coffee beans to one side, then caught sight of a familiar figure winding her through through the main floor towards the cargo dock. “Hey,” he said, greeting Elizabeth with a one-armed hug and a brush of his lips against his temple. “Everything okay? I thought you were on shift until eight—”

“I am, but I took a long lunch. Dante asked to meet with both of us,” she said. “And I figured this was probably the best place—and before you ask—he said it’s not about the case, so I didn’t call Diane. She’s got enough on her plate.”

Jason took her hand, and they headed towards his office, tucked in the corner of the warehouse. “She’s definitely earning her retainer and more.” He held the door open for her, then saw Dante coming through the door at the other side. He gestured for the other man to join them.

“We’re going to owe her a shopping trip in Milan by the time this is done,” Elizabeth said. She dropped her bag on the desk, and waited for Dante to join them.

“Sorry about the short notice,” Dante said when Jason closed the door behind him and went to adjust the blinds. “And thanks for agreeing to meet me.”

“You said it’s not about the case?” Jason asked, leaning against the desk, folding his arms. “Then it’s about Danny.”

“I’m…being removed from the investigation,” Dante said, and Elizabeth frowned. “It was always a little dicey having me on it — but it should have been okay. Our investigation eliminated both of you almost immediately, which meant living with Danny wasn’t an issue.” He paused. “But the boys getting into that fight—it just makes it all little…more complicated. I asked to step side, but the request was coming.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Elizabeth said. “Whatever we’ve been dealing with personally, you’re a good cop, Dante, and I felt better knowing you and Chase were on this. Is…is Chase staying on?”

“Yeah. For now. Like I said, we’re confident in eliminating you guys, and we’d been working on our own list. Chase can follow up from there. But I can’t keep sidestepping all of that, and doing right right by Danny and Rocco.”

“No, the boys—they’re a priority, and they should be. How’s…how’s Rocco doing?” Elizabeth asked. “Aiden was disappointed he couldn’t do more.”

“He’s—” Dante took a moment, collecting his thoughts. “Not great. You know, kids—they’re resilient. Or you think they are. I thought Rocco was handling what happened to his mom, and I thought—” He looked away, pressed his lips together and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I’m gonna figure out how to get him through this. I, uh, I was gonna testify tomorrow in Sam’s favor,” he told them. “But…Alexis told me it wouldn’t make a difference. And I’m not sure…” He paced away a few steps. “I’m not sure custody should go back the way it was. Not with Danny.” He looked back to Jason. “I left my family, too, you know. But I didn’t let my kid think I was dead. Sam’s never gonna forgive you for that.”

“I’m not concerned with her forgiveness,” Jason said, his tone almost flat.

“You should be. She was the one raising your kid while you were gone. She went too far, putting Danny in the middle of it. But I heard him crying one more too many nights because his father was dead,” Dante retorted. “Maybe it’s easier for Elizabeth to forgive it—”

“Don’t speak for me,” Elizabeth cut in sharply, and he looked at her. “Because I was angry, too. And so was Jake. That’s not what these last few months have been. Don’t do what everyone has done for Sam her whole life. You’re making excuses for her. You think Jake didn’t mourn his father? You think I didn’t have to deal with that? You think I wasn’t mourning the loss of one of my best friends? Sam wasn’t angry about Jason faking his death and you know it.”

Dante scowled. “Don’t tell me—”

“She was pissed that he did it to protect Sonny and Carly, so she took it out on Danny. Just like she’s punishing Danny because she’s angry with me. I’m sorry she has an inferiority complex, Dante. But if you’re here to ask Jason for mercy tomorrow, you’re in the wrong place. She tried to have me arrested for kidnapping, Dante. Do you know what the FBI would have done with that?”

Dante exhaled slowly. “Revoked your bail.”

“You’re damn right. And you said it yourself — you’ve eliminated me. So Sam was willing to take me away from my kids for months, maybe forever — because I sat in the lobby so her son could extend the olive branch. You said you wanted to meet with us both. Why?”

“I thought if we could just talk—”

“I’d forget what Sam’s done for the last few months?” Jason interrupted. “She insisted that Elizabeth supervise visits with Danny and that I could only see him with Jake, and now she’s angry that Danny sees Elizabeth as someone to trust. Because she wanted to punish me, force Jake into visits he wasn’t ready for — it backfired on her. Jake and Danny want to stay together. Sam’s been creating her own problems since the day I met her. She makes herself the victim and then waits for someone to run to her rescue, then wants to complain about how you do it. I know she loves Danny. I know she’s generally a good mother, and I let her set the terms. But that’s over now.”

“Fine. You’ve both made up your minds.” Dante held up his hands in mock surrender. “But  just so you know — Rocco and I are moving out because Rocco doesn’t want to be there either. So tomorrow, after you win your case, and Drew swoops in like a vulture, Sam’s going to be left without any of her kids. But I guess you think she deserves it. She did all the damn work for both their lives, and then both you assholes think you come in and take over. It’s bullshit.”

He slammed the door when he left so hard the glass rattled.

Hanley Federal Building: U.S Attorney’s Offices

Gia knocked on Reynolds’ office door. “I’m heading to Port Charles tonight so I can supervise the crime scene search tomorrow.” She leaned against the door frame. “I heard your other PC case was dismissed.”

“I dropped the charges,” Reynolds said, getting to his feet. “It was always a weak case meant to bolster Cates’ goal in antagonizing Sonny Corinthos. I’ll be able to focus the rest of my attention on this case—”

“Good. We’re going to need it.” Gia paused. “You know the locals are running a parallel investigation, and one of the detectives — he sent me a file with witness interviews. Said he thought we should be aware of what Diane Miller has.”

“It’s local corruption—Corinthos and Morgan have those cops in their pockets. He’s related to one of the investigators—”

“Harrison Chase? He’s married to Brook Lynn Quartermaine. I don’t know if something has changed in twenty years, Noah, but Jason Morgan didn’t give a damn about most of that family, much less extended cousins he didn’t grow up with. And if I remember right, Brook is almost twenty years younger than him.”

Reynolds squinted. “Is there something in these interviews we should know about?”

“The alibi for Elizabeth—” Gia pursed her lips, looked down at her notes. “It’s tight. Really  tight. She’s got a bunch of teenagers who tell the same story — she goes down to the gardens with Michael Corinthos and the shots are heard within five minutes.”

“It’s enough time—”

“Maybe. But I can’t get over Corinthos being the 911 caller,” Gia continued. “If he doesn’t call right away — it’s harder to pin point that. The gunshot witnesses — why are they giving times that make it so tight? Especially when we’re talking about the son of the defendant? Jake Webber could have said the shots happened with his mother still in eye sight.”

“Gia—”

“Noah. These are witnesses we’re going to have to destroy in a trial. And I’ve watched the Webber kid’s interrogation. He holds up. He held up when Caldwell went to his school, his mother was in jail—”

“He’s Jason Morgan’s son. He’s been coached well—”

“What’s the point of being on this case if you won’t listen to me,” Gia interrupted. “I told you that I knew how things worked in Port Charles. I was there when Jason Morgan and Sonny Corinthos were at their peak of power. I’m telling you this doesn’t smell right.”

Reynolds waited a long moment. “We know Jason Morgan is involved. If you’re right, and Webber isn’t pulling the trigger, then she knows something. The gun was in her car. She was on scene when the Cates died. And Morgan just so happens to be right inside the house so his boys could perfectly alibi him? Cates was making his life difficult. I’ve read the Webber file. She’s been in and out of his life since she was her son’s age. I think she’d lie for him. I think she’d do anything to protect him.”

Gia bit her lip. She couldn’t deny that — she knew that Elizabeth was loyal to Jason above pretty much anything else. Or she had been. She’d hid the man in her studio for weeks, lying to Lucky, hadn’t she? And clearly they were still involved.

“I’m just saying I don’t know if we win at trial. Not without really destroying some of these kids on the stand. So if we’re trying to get to the answers, Noah, we’d better hope we find something at the Quartermaines tomorrow.”

Rice Plaza: Office Towers

Danny climbed into the passenger seat. “Took you long enough.”

Jake shifted the SUV from park into drive, then pulled away from the curb. “Hey, I could be enjoying my one day vacation, and I have to spend it dragging you around town. You should be grateful.”

“If it weren’t for me, you’d be vacationing at work and Dad would have taken the car to work.”

Danny wasn’t wrong, but Jake wasn’t gonna admit it. “How’d it go?”

“How do you think?”

“I don’t know. I never had to talk to a lawyer.” Jake paused at a red light. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

Danny hesitated, then jerked a shoulder. “She’s got her mind made up. She watched the security video from Saturday, and some social worker already wrote a report that said Mom’s house is unstable,” he said, the final words were a bit of a mocking tone. He slid a glare out of the corner of his eye. “You agree, so don’t bother to pretend you don’t.”

“Your mom slugged mine, and then was gonna have her charged with kidnapping, Danny. You met that asshole from the FBI. You think he wouldn’t have my mom back in that jail by night time? So yeah, I think your mom is fucking mental which is what you’ve saying for weeks.”

“I hate it. Scout’s at her dad’s, and he won’t even let her talk to me,” Danny bit out. “Mom’s at home, Rocco’s at his grandmother’s. It’s all fucked up, and it’s my fault—”

“You get like twenty percent of the blame, okay? Mom gets five for being dumb enough to try to help, Dad gets like twenty for leaving for two years and your mom gets what’s ever left.” Jake turned onto Elm Street. “I know it sucks, Danny. She’s your mom, and you love her. But do you wanna go back to how it was before? When you could only see Dad for like two hours? Supervised?”

“It’s how it’s gonna be now. Mom’s gonna get supervised visits, the attorney said.” Danny leaned back against the head rest. “I guess it’s fair, right? She did it to Dad, and now karma’s making it happen to her. I just wish we hadn’t gone to that dumbass party. It wasn’t worth it. Now everything’s ruined.”

Jake pulled up to the house, switched off the ignition. “I get it. I do,” he insisted when Danny rolled his eyes. “You think it’s always been easy at my house? Yeah, Mom’s great. Always has been. But she has shitty taste in men. I get older, and I look back at Franco, and I think she married him because he was nice to me. But he was always getting in trouble, and she spent all her time on him. Then he died, and Finn the asshole came along — all I’m saying is — you deal with the hand you’re dealt. Your mom is getting a wake up call. The same one mine got when she got wrapped up with that stupid Esme shit last year. Mom got her act together, and then we drop kicked Finn into rehab and we never have to think about him again. Your mom will figure it out, you’ll get visits with her, and she’ll get you and your sister back by Christmas. If not sooner. Because you know Dad’s not out for blood.”

“Yeah.” Danny exhaled slowly. “Yeah. Dad didn’t want to do this. I used to be mad he wasn’t fighting back, but now that he is, I get why he didn’t want to do this. I didn’t—” His voice shook slightly. “I didn’t want to tell her all the stuff Mom said about Dad, about Elizabeth. About you, you know? She’s my mom, it’s like—”

“It’s disloyal.”

“Yeah.” Danny looked at his brother. “And she told me to be honest, and I had to like — I had to say I like it at your house. I always did. And I like living with Dad. He’s there when I wake up, and when I go to bed, and I never had that before. I know that’s his fault, you know? But I still like it. And you’re an asshole, but—”

“I like how things are, too,” Jake agreed. “I’m just sorry your mom had to go crazy and mine had to get arrested, but you had to be honest. It’ll be okay. Trust Dad to make it okay.”

Danny smiled slightly. “Remember like three months ago when I was like, Dad’s a good a guy and you punched me? How’s it feel to be wrong?”

“Shut up.”

Corinthos & Morgan Warehouse: Jason’s Office

Elizabeth dropped into the chair by Jason’s desk, crossed one leg, and folded her arms. “I can’t believe he dragged me all the way down here so he could plead Sam’s case. My God. The arrogance—” She met Jason’s gaze as he leaned back against the desk. “But it probably looked familiar to you.”

“Trying to save Sam from a situation she created? Unfortunately.” Jason shook his head. “I didn’t want it to be like this. I really—I tried so hard to keep Jake and Danny from going through any of this. I never wanted them to dragged through the system the way Sonny and Carly did to their boys—”

“You didn’t start this, Jason,” Elizabeth said gently. “You did everything Sam wanted, and it was never enough—”

“I did start this,” he interrupted. “I—” He paused. “I took for granted that Jake and Danny would be okay without him. Because they had mothers who loved them. I convinced myself I couldn’t bring anything to their lives that wasn’t violence. That my life would destroy them if I was around all the time.” He got to his feet, paced to the door, then to the other side of the office. “I told myself it would be enough to be there when you asked for me. I came running any time you did,” he said, looking at Elizabeth. “I looked for reasons to help.”

“I know.” Elizabeth rose, but didn’t come towards him. “You’ve always done that.”

“I told you—when I told you that day that I couldn’t be with you and Jake—and Cam—I never meant to be with anyone else,” he told her. “I didn’t mean to make that a lie.” She sighed, looked away. “I’m sorry—”

“You’re allowed to want something in your life, Jason. And honestly—” Elizabeth tilted her head to the side, smiled faintly. “I’m not surprised it was Sam. She was a lot like Carly, you know? They both create disasters that you have to fix. Over and over again. I watched you repeat that cycle again and again, and I knew that I could never give you want you needed—”

“That’s—”

“I never wanted you to save me,” Elizabeth said softly. “I never needed or wanted it. And I wasn’t ever going to put myself in danger just to get your attention. I watched you do that with Courtney, and then I watched you do it with Sam. You just said it, Jason. You don’t think you have anything else to offer, so you couldn’t be happy with someone who didn’t need you to be the hero.”

He swallowed hard, but it was hard to argue with the way she’d put that together. He looked away. “I’m not proud of that—”

“I don’t think you did it on purpose, Jason. And I didn’t see it then. Not until much later, until after Jake was kidnapped by the Russians, and he nearly died. You blamed yourself. You decided it was your life that had brought him to that point. Not Lucky or Sam who got in over their head. Not me who didn’t listen to you and put myself and the boys in danger because I was so scared. You couldn’t see it logically. Because you decided a long time ago that your legacy was pain and violence.”

“It is—”

“Part of it. You worked for Sonny for a very long time,” she said and now she approached him. “And that will always be part of you. But you forget how long I’ve known you,” she said. “You absolutely have tried to create a balance and put good in this world. You nearly died saving people in the hotel fire, you traveled halfway around the world to get the antidote for the virus—” She laid a hand on his chest. “More than either of his parents, when I see Michael, I see the warmth and compassion that he learned from you. And you’re bringing that to your sons, to Cameron and Aiden. I wish that you could believe that’s enough. That being good father, present and empathetic— that it’s enough.”

“I’m working on it,” he said, covering her hand with his.

“A lifetime ago,” Elizabeth said, meeting his gaze, “a bunch of doctors who thought they had all the answers told you that you were damaged. You’ve spent your entire life trying to prove them wrong. When will it be enough?”

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