Ending is a little bit awkward, but as I was writing it, I started to doubt my own memory of that storyline on GH, so I wanted to hold off on making it worse, lol. I didn’t realize I was going to need this nugget of information, so I never looked it up, and I couldn’t find the answer in time to finish the scene properly. Off to research 😛

Written in 56 minutes.

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Monday, October 22, 2000

Luke’s: Office

He’d already been annoyed when he’d talked to Elizabeth, and then to Emily — both of whom had repeated more than once that they felt trapped into attending whatever bullshit Lucky Spencer had dreamed up. After weeks of dealing with the consequences of a plan thought up by Lucky and Nikolas, Jason wasn’t interested in finding out whatever brilliant idea they’d cooked up this time.

Luke being present didn’t bother him much — but learning he’d gone to Sonny — who hadn’t picked up the phone to talk to Jason before showing up here tonight?

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Elizabeth said, stepping out from behind him and going to Emily’s side. The two of them remained close to the door and to him, unintentionally creating a divide between them and the others.

Sonny had gone to Luke’s desk — of course, straight to the position of power. He was perusing Luke’s cigar collection, Nikolas watching him with some suspicion (maybe he wasn’t completely useless) while Lucky had planted himself in front of the desk, his arms crossed, chin lifted.

“Nothing’s going on yet,” Luke said, slapping his cigar case shut. “Corinthos showed up without an invitation as far as I know. Told me you’d set it up,” he said to his son. “Thought you didn’t need me.”

“I don’t. But your office is secure. You sweep for bugs,” Lucky said, with a careless lift of one of his shoulders. “Emily said Dara Jenson is suspicious. I figure she’s got to be watching us.”

“She’s not,” Jason said. He closed the door, but didn’t come any closer. “I know someone in her office. She thinks Zander’s full of shit trying to beat the charges. He’s been trying to sell that story to anyone who will listen. Even if his own lawyer doesn’t believe him.”

Emily released an exhale of breath, pressing a fist to her chest. “Seriously? We’re—we’re okay?”

“I said no one in that office believes it,” Jason said, gentling his tone as he shifted slightly to look at his sister. “But Dara’s just an assistant. Her boss is pushing her to use Zander to hook a bigger fish. He wants headlines before the election next month. He’s running for re-election.”

“Politicians,” Luke muttered.

Sonny scratched the corner of his mouth. “That was my read on it — Garrett Floyd. Wants to move up to mayor in a few years. Building a profile for himself to keep climbing. So if they want a big fish, I figure we give them one—”

“If Zander could give her Sorel, he’d have done it already,” Jason interrupted, and Sonny’s eyes darkened. He didn’t like being interrupted. “Dara was pushing Emily about me. No one believes the story Zander’s trying to sell — that it was Emily who put the body in his car. But they think it was us.”

Nikolas frowned. “I don’t understand—does that—does that mean the ADA isn’t looking at the rest of us?”

“They don’t seem to think Emily would have gone to anyone else with this kind of problem,” Jason said dryly and Emily dropped her eyes, looked away. “So, no, other than being her friends and possible witnesses, no one thinks you hid the body of a dead cop for weeks.” He looked at Lucky, at Sonny just behind him. “So you don’t need to get involved. I’m handling it—”

“Actually—I’m handling it,” Sonny said, and Jason grimaced. “Talked to Lucky here, and made some calls. I confirmed what you heard,” he said. “Which means it’s not just your sister’s problem. And that I need to be involved. I already put some things in motion—”

“What? I thought we were—” Elizabeth glared at Nikolas. “You told me we were coming here to talk about what to do—”

“I thought we were, so don’t get pissed at me, okay?” Nikolas retorted. “Lucky, you agreed—”

“Don’t blame him,” Sonny said with a wave of his hand. “He brought the problem to me — the way you all should have months ago. We need Zander’s case to go away. It was on the track to plea agreement before they started talking about dropping the murder charges. We make sure we can tie Zander to the cop before he was dead, and he won’t have a choice.”

Jason exhaled, slowly, trying to gather his temper. “And how do you plan to do that?”

“A witness is going to come forward in a few days,” Sonny said. He started to walk towards the door, stopping in the center of the room, in front of Jason. “He’ll tell Dara he saw the photos in the paper and remembers seeing them at the rave the night the cop went missing.”

“You’re paying a witness?” Luke said with a lift of his brows. “That seems risky.”

“I’m not worried. The guy was known to go to raves, no reason anyone could doubt him.” Sonny lifted his brows. “If he goes to trial, we’ll deal with a jury—” He reached past Jason, to grasp the doorknob and Jason reluctantly moved out of the way. “So everyone can relax. It’s out of your hands now.”

He left then, closing the door behind himself. Jason shot Luke a look, then went after his partner.

“You just couldn’t leave it alone, could you?” Emily demanded. “I told you it was being handled—”

“And now I know it is,” Lucky interrupted. “You wanted me to hand it off to your brother who hates me guts and doesn’t think much of Nikolas, and then keep me in the dark. Well, that’s bullshit, Em. I was good enough to help you when your saintly brother wasn’t around—”

“I let myself believe we could handle this! I was stupid and we were completely out of our depths. Damn it, Lucky, all it would take is for Gia to decide to come clean, and we’re all dead—”

“She won’t be doing that,” Nikolas said, and Emily shot him a malevolent look. “I handled the rest of her tuition to Columbia. She’s already back in the city. Taggert was happy to see her go, thinks she got a scholarship.”

“Until she wants more money, Nikolas. I hope you’re prepared to pay her off for the rest of her life,” Emily snapped. She squeezed her eyes shut, fisted her hands at her sides. “This happened to me. You had no right to go behind my back like this, Lucky.” She looked at him, at her oldest friend. “I was already having trouble even looking at you after last week, but you’ve just made sure I know I can never  trust you again. Liz, let’s get out of here. I have things to do.”

“Wait—” Lucky stepped towards Elizabeth, but she hurried out, down the hall towards the back entrance, with Emily hot on her heels. She slammed the door behind them.

Elizabeth stumbled to a stop when she heard angry, raised voices near the back door. She held up a hand for Emily to be quiet.

“You should have called me. The second Spencer talked to you. You knew I was handling this—” Elizabeth couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard Jason so angry. Maybe that day on the docks when Sorel had stopped her.

“How would I know that?” Sonny said, with sulky note in his voice. “You don’t talk to me. I don’t know what’s going on—”

“Sorel was mine to handle, remember? Because it was about my sister. That was the agreement, Sonny. Are you telling me I can’t trust your word?”

“You don’t trust me, you made that very clear when you told me you didn’t forgive me about Carly.” Sonny’s voice shifted, becoming more resentful and scorned. “Admit it. You’re just waiting for me to screw up with her so you can rescue her. That’s what you do, isn’t it? That’s why you’re pissed. You were going to save the day, and I took it away from you.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Jason demanded.

“I’m talking about you keeping me in the dark. Not telling me that Smith’s case might get dismissed. I told you how I wanted it handled, but it’s not enough for you. You gotta play the hero, right? I hear you already got a start last week in Kelly’s.”

“You’re not making any sense—”

“Don’t play stupid. I know exactly what’s going on. You want to be the one to make Zander Smith pay for what he did to Elizabeth—”

“For what he did to Emily,” Jason corrected, the words sounding like they’d been passed through a clenched jaw. “To my sister—”

“So your guy didn’t show you the file, huh? You didn’t read about Zander’s statement? Why he thinks he was targeted for the frame job! He admitted it! He drugged Elizabeth at one of those damn raves!”

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