July 26, 2003

General Hospital

Sonny and Carly emerged from the elevators to find Jason pacing outside of Elizabeth’s hospital room. “Hey, any news?” Sonny asked.

Jason shook his head. “We were in the emergency room for about a half hour and she still—she still couldn’t catch her breath. Dr. Meadows had her admitted and they’ve been in there for twenty minutes and no one’s telling me anything.”

“Well, what the hell happened? You said something about a social worker?” Carly asked. She crossed her arms. “What did she say?”

“The social worker told us that in addition to not recommending me for adoption, she’s going to make a note that Elizabeth should be investigated for her fitness as a mother.” Jason shook his head. “Elizabeth just exploded.”

“Well, of course. She defends you to everyone, even me.” Carly sighed. “People just don’t know any better. Never argue with a pregnant woman.”

“We can get it pushed through,” Sonny told him quietly. “Cut through the red tape so to speak.”

“That’s fine. Whatever gets this over with and causes her the least amount of stress.”

Elizabeth’s door slid open and Dr. Meadows stepped out. “Mr. Morgan?”

“How is she?” Jason asked immediately. “Is she okay?”

“Her blood pressure sky rocketed which concerns me because we only just got it back under control. She cannot have stress,” Dr. Meadows said firmly. “She’s stabilized now and the baby’s all right. I want to keep her overnight for observation but she can go home in the morning.”

“Well, that’s good news,” Carly nodded.

“She needs to avoid stress at all costs,” Dr. Meadows reminded Jason. “No arguments, no fighting, nothing. I don’t want her to develop hypertension.”

“She won’t have any more stress,” Jason promised. “Can I see her?”

“Sure. Oh, Mr. Morgan, Elizabeth mentioned that you weren’t planning on attending her next doctor’s appointment and I just wanted to let you know that I’m performing the first ultrasound in case that changes your mind.” She patted his arm and walked away.

“Why don’t you guys go home?” Jason said before Sonny could once again tell him to talk to Elizabeth about custody. “There’s really nothing you can do here.”

“Okay, look I’ll get started on the adoption. Let Elizabeth know about it in case she has issues or whatever.” Sonny patted him on the shoulder and Carly kissed him goodbye.

When they were on the elevator, Jason turned and entered Elizabeth’s hospital room. Though it was still day light outside, the shades were drawn and the room was dark.

Elizabeth was lying on the bed, her arms wrapped around herself, her face pale. “I’m sorry.”

“What for?” he asked, taking a seat next to the bed.

“You told me to calm down and I didn’t. I just kept going…” she shook her head.

“Hey, that woman was attacking you, questioning your ability to be a mother purely because you married me.” He pushed her hair off her forehead, rubbing his thumb over the skin. “It’s not your fault.”

“What if I’d lost the baby?” Elizabeth whispered. Tears slid silently down her cheeks.

“You didn’t. Your blood pressure just went up too high and I’m going to do anything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen anymore. Sonny’s going to pull some strings and cut through the red tape so you don’t want to worry about the petition or the adoption anymore, okay?”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. All he has to do is make a few calls and it’ll be over in a matter of weeks,” Jason promised her. “Dr. Meadows told you she’s keeping overnight for observation, right?”

“Yeah.” She shifted. “When are you going down to the island?” Elizabeth asked.

Jason hesitated. He couldn’t leave her right now. Not while Sonny was pulling strings to get the adoption to go through and with Elizabeth’s health so precarious. But how much longer could he put off telling Courtney the changes to the plan? He’d wanted to discuss with her the possibility of him really adopting the baby—to get her view on it before he broached the subject to Elizabeth. He had to know if she’d support him.

Finally, he sighed. “I’m not going. I’ll call her instead.”

“Jason—you have to go down there. You can’t tell her this over the phone,” Elizabeth protested.

He shook his head. “She won’t react well whether I tell her in person or on the phone. I’ll save time this way. And I can’t leave you alone right now.”

“I’m not an obligation,” she told him softly. “I’ll be fine for a few days.”

“I know. There are guards and we’ve taken every security precaution we can think of. But—” Jason hesitated. “You’re not an obligation, Elizabeth. I just—I’d feel better if I were here with you instead of trusting someone else.”

She stared at him for a long moment before looking away. “Okay,” she said finally.

He stood and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll be back in a little while.”

She nodded, fully expecting not to see him again until the next morning.

Quartermaine Mansion: Emily’s Bedroom

“Is she okay?” Emily asked softly, twining the phone cord in her fingers.

On the other end of the line, Zander sighed. “Yeah. As far as Lucky said. He got it second hand from Bobbie who heard it from Elizabeth’s doctor. They were in a meeting with the social worker and the woman said something to Liz and she started arguing. Bobbie thought it might have been about Jason, you know she’s always defending him—”

“Why were they meeting with a social worker?” Emily asked curiously.

“Oh. You don’t know. Jason—he’s adopting the baby,” Zander informed her. “Now, don’t get angry—”

Emily closed her eyes. “Why is he doing that?” she asked carefully.

“Because the families threatened Elizabeth again. Once the kid’s born, since it’s not Jason’s biological child, and therefore not under his protection, it’s open season. Jason’s going to adopt the baby so that it can be protected.”

“So it’s not like he’s going to play daddy?” Emily asked. “I mean—Elizabeth is not Carly, I know that much. But I also know that Jason is going to feel responsible—”

“Emily, why can’t you just respect that what goes on between them is their own business?” Zander asked. “Elizabeth cares about him. She’s not going to do anything to hurt him and if you knew her at all, you’d know that. She’s in the hospital overnight for observation. Dr. Meadows is worried about the blood pressure. It’s twice now that’s it’s spiked so high. You should go visit her.”

Emily opened her mouth to reply but was left with the sound of a dial tone in her ear. She gently placed it on the receiver and sighed. It was unfair for her to be holding the night with Zander against Elizabeth without even telling her so. And maybe Elizabeth had an explanation.

And Zander was right. Elizabeth wouldn’t set out to hurt Jason. But she’d do it without meaning to, Emily knew that, too. Because Jason still had a soft spot for her. More than soft spot. If Emily didn’t know any better, she’d say her brother was still in love with her and that was all the more dangerous. Because Elizabeth would leave him again and Jason would be crushed.

How did she protect her brother from being hurt without losing her best friend?

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Jason set the overnight bag on the desk and stared at the phone. The sooner he got this over with, the better off they would all be.

He picked it up and dialed the number for Courtney’s cottage.

“Hello?” a slightly-out-of-breath voice answered.

“Hey, it’s me,” Jason said hesitantly.

“Jason!” Courtney exclaimed. “Hey, I thought you were coming down this week, Sonny called and told me—”

“There’s been a change in plans. I can’t come right now.” He exhaled slowly. “Elizabeth’s in the hospital and I can’t leave her.”

“Oh.” In a small voice, she asked, “Why haven’t you called before now?”

“A lot’s been happening,” Jason told her. “Listen—there’s some things I need to tell you—and something I have to ask you about.”

“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “What’s going on?”

“The day of the wedding, the families threatened the baby after it’s born and in order to ensure protection until Ric and Faith are found…I’m adopting the baby so it’ll have my name.”

There was complete silence on the other end of the phone for a long while. But he could hear her breathing.

Finally, “Adopting?” Courtney echoed. “That’s—that’s impossible, Jason. You can’t do it. I won’t let you.”

“It’s already done,” he informed her. “Courtney—”

“No,” she interrupted. “For once, you’re going to let me talk. I think I’ve been very supportive. I barely batted an eyelash when you told me you had to marry Elizabeth. Even though she’s an old girlfriend—even though I think you might be still in love with her a little. I trusted you, I let it go. But I have to draw the line now, Jason. You cannot adopt that baby. Even if it’s name only. Because it won’t always be that way. You aren’t the kind of person who does things in name only. And I think part of you wanted all of this.”

He blinked. “Excuse me?” he demanded. “What the hell does that mean?”

“I think you were looking for an excuse to get her back and now that you’ve got her, you’re thinking of ways to keep her in your life. Well, damn it, Jason, wake up. She doesn’t want you anymore. She walked out on you. And as soon as this is all over, she’ll walk out again. And if you want to adopt her baby, then fine. But I won’t be waiting for you come back. If you do this, we are through.”

He only hesitated a moment. “I’m sorry, Courtney.”

Jason hung up the phone quietly and picked up the bag to return to the hospital.

July 27, 2003

General Hospital: Elizabeth’s Room

Elizabeth blinked her eyes blearily and looked over at the nurse who was taking her vitals. “What time is it?” she asked.

“It’s seven,” the nurse whispered. She finished taking her blood pressure. “Will you be wanting breakfast?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “No. How soon can I be discharged? I need to call my husband and let him know.”

The nurse frowned. “Well—your husband is here. He returned around nine last night, but you were already asleep. Around two, we finally convinced him to let us bring in a cot.”

She gestured towards the other end of the room and Elizabeth turned to see Jason was, indeed, sleeping on a cot. “He stayed all night?” she asked, surprised.

“He’s a very devoted husband,” the nurse smiled. “I’ll see if Dr. Meadows in yet and she’ll be able to discharge you.”

The click of the door when she left woke Jason and he sat up. “Hey—what time is it?”

“It’s seven.” Elizabeth sat up and ran her hands through her hair. “You didn’t have to stay.”

“Yeah…yeah, I did.” Jason stood and crossed to the chair next to her bed. “You feel better?”

She nodded. “I’ll probably feel better once I’m in my own bed,” she laughed. “Was there any news about the petition or anything?”

Jason shook his head. “Not yet.”

Dr. Meadows entered the room, Elizabeth’s file in her hand. “Good morning, Elizabeth, Mr. Morgan. I’ve just taken a look at your recent vitals and I’m pleased to let you know that everything looks normal again.”

“Thank God,” Elizabeth replied, exhaling in relief. “The baby’s okay?”

“Baby’s perfect,” Dr. Meadows assured her with a smile. “However…you need to take it easy. I’m ordering you to take two weeks bed rest. You can move around—you don’t have to stay in bed all the time but the majority of the time, I’d like you to take it easy.” She looked at Jason. “Mr. Morgan, I know you haven’t taken an active role in the pregnancy but I’m depending on you to make sure Elizabeth doesn’t exert herself for a while.”

Jason nodded. “You have my word.”

“Did you give any more thought about attending the ultrasound next month?” Dr. Meadows asked. “A lot of first time fathers find it one of the most exciting moments in the pregnancy. It’s the first time you can actually visualize the idea of the baby.”

Elizabeth looked at her doctor curiously. “I thought I already told you Jason wouldn’t be able to come.”

“I just think it’s a shame,” Dr. Meadows sighed. “Well it’s up to you—”

“I’ll be there,” Jason blurted out. He looked at Elizabeth. “If that’s okay with you.”

She stared at him. “If—if that’s what you want. Okay, sure.”

“Great,” Dr. Meadows said, smiling brightly. “Well, I’ll just sign your discharge papers and you can be out of here.”

Quartermaine Estate: Pool House

Emily slid the door open hesitantly and stepped inside the cavernous room. “I’m here.”

A woman stepped out of the corner and smiled coldly. “Well, it’s about time, Emmie,” she cooed. “The accommodations are less than stellar.”

“I want you out of town by the end of the day,” Emily said firmly. “I’ve done my part and I want you out of here and not to come back or I’ll tell my brother—”

“Oh, you’ll tell no one, sweet pea. You wouldn’t want anyone to know you were involved.” Faith Roscoe slid a long red fingernail down Emily’s cheek. “You just remember our deal, brat.”

“Oh, I’ll remember,” Emily said coolly. “But you remember your end of it, too. Elizabeth and Jason are not to be harmed, do you understand? I don’t care what you have to do to separate them but I don’t want them hurt.”

“Whatever you say, baby.” Faith smiled again. “I think this is the beginning of a very beautiful friendship.”

August 15, 2003

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

“What time is your appointment?” Laura asked handing Elizabeth a cup of herbal tea.

“In an hour. You didn’t have to make this,” Elizabeth protested.

“Nonsense. You’re not supposed to exert yourself. I’m surprised Jason let me in this morning,” Laura laughed as she sat in the arm chair. “Have you even left this penthouse in the last three weeks?”

“I’ve been to the park. Under heavy guard, of course,” Elizabeth told her. “In the last week, I’ve been going on daily walks but no, not other than that. Jason’s trying to keep me from anyone and anything that might give me stress.”

“Smart man. If I ever see that social worker, I’ll skin her alive,” Laura muttered into her glass of iced tea. She set the glass down on the coffee table. “So, Sonny told Luke that Courtney called, complaining that Jason had broken up with her.”

“Yeah—Carly told me that, too. Seems she wasn’t too keen on the idea of Jason adopting the baby and told him it was over if he did.” She sighed. “I wish he’d have told me about it. We could have come up with another option—”

“If there had been another option, you would have taken it before agreeing on adoption. Courtney is a spoiled selfish little brat who thinks everything should revolve around her. She’s getting what she deserves.”

Elizabeth rested her hands on the bulge in her abdomen. “I can’t believe how big I’ve gotten. Once second I was tiny and the next—boom.”

“Fifth month does that. You start to notice in the fourth month that you’re getting fatter but the fifth month, the baby is just there.” Laura smiled. “You’ll be sure to get ultrasound photos right? And bring home the video so I can see my honorary granddaughter?”

“Yes.” Elizabeth sighed. “Gram still hasn’t called since that last time. And Jason has pretty much done everything except flat out forbid me to call her again. I guess he’s right—every time we talked, I just got angry and with that last scare, I don’t need it.”

“Just wait until she sees her great-granddaughter. She’ll change her mind, I promise. You can’t resist a baby.” Laura shifted. “Have you talked to Jason about a custody arrangement?”

“There are times when I start to bring it up but I don’t. I don’t know how to broach it, you know? How do you ask someone if they want to be the father of your child? I mean—I don’t want to be a Carly in his life. It almost destroyed him to lose Michael.”

“You wouldn’t be a Carly simply because you wouldn’t take a child from him. You love him too much to do that.”

“Laura—” Elizabeth sighed and sat up, setting her tea cup on the table. “It’s not that simple.”

“I know it’s not. Have you started on the mural for the nursery?”

“No, I decided against doing one. There’s no way of knowing if I’ll be here for the baby’s birth and I don’t want to do all that work only to have to do it somewhere else.” Elizabeth rubbed her eyes.

Laura nodded and dropped the subject. “Have you talked to Emily?”

“No,” Elizabeth said flatly. “She hasn’t called and I’m not calling her. I don’t know why she’s so angry at me but—it’s like she’s completely certain that I’ll hurt Jason. It’s like she doesn’t even know me.”

“I’m sorry, honey.” Laura sighed. “I wish there was something I could do.”

“You’re doing it,” Elizabeth said. “You’re supporting me and being there for me and I don’t think I could ask for more.”

General Hospital: Dr. Meadow’s Office

“She’ll be with you in a just a moment,” the nurse told them before walking away.

“You don’t have to be here, you know,” Elizabeth told Jason as she slid her purse strap higher on her shoulder. “I mean—”

“Do you want me to leave?” Jason asked.

“Well, no, but—”

“Then I’m staying.”

“Mr. Morgan, so glad to see you here,” Dr. Meadows said with a big smile. “Elizabeth, how are we feeling today?”

“Fine, completely calm and collected,” Elizabeth answered.

“Great. Step into my office and we’ll get this started.”

After the routine checkup and weigh in, Dr. Meadows led her into the ultrasound room. “You’re coming right along, honey. I think we’ll be able to see the baby’s gender this month.”

Jason helped Elizabeth into the chair and watched as Dr. Meadows pushed her gown up to reveal the bulging bump. He’d noticed her getting bigger but she’d been wearing baggy clothes and until this moment, he didn’t realize just how big she was.

“It’s hard to imagine that there’s a baby in there,” he said softly.

Elizabeth looked up and smiled at him. “Yeah, I know. How small she must be—” she hesitated and looked back at Dr. Meadows, “I want a girl,” she admitted.

Dr. Meadows smiled and spread the cold jelly on the side of Elizabeth’s abdomen, causing Elizabeth to shiver a little and tighten her hand around Jason’s. “Well, if you give me a moment or two…”

An image appeared on the screen and Elizabeth leaned forward a little, a large smile spreading across her face. “There’s my baby,” she said in a hushed voice.

Jason couldn’t see anything but some colors on the screen but he could appreciate that she’d see a baby in all of that. He squinted, trying to see it himself.

Almost as if she could sense his slight frustration, Elizabeth pointed with her free hand. “Look, Jason, there’s her head—oh and her little hands and her feet…”

“And there are her genitals,” Dr. Meadows remarked. “And boy, I hope you have a name picked out for your daughter.”

“She’s really a girl?” Elizabeth asked. “Are you sure?”

“Well, if she’s not, we’re going to have some issues if you want grandchildren,” Dr. Meadows laughed. “You want pictures and a video, right?”

“Right.”

“I’ll be right back.” Dr. Meadows left the room.

“Can you see her, Jason?” Elizabeth asked hopefully.

“Yeah, I can see her when you point her out,” Jason admitted. “She’s so small, though.”

“Laura. That’s what her name is.” Elizabeth swiped at her eyes, a few tears streaking down her cheeks. “Look how beautiful she is. I can’t wait to feel her kicking and I can’t wait to hold her.”

He instinctively leaned down and kissed her forehead. “You’re going to make an incredible mother,” Jason said softly.

Elizabeth wrapped her free hand around their joined ones. “Be her father,” she blurted.

“What?” Jason asked, stunned.

“She needs a father a-and I know it’s not fair to ask but if I sat down and thought of the best father I could give my little girl, you’d be the top of every list, Jason—I know it’s the worst thing I could ask you after everything you’ve given up for me but I’ve been thinking about it constantly and even Carly said I should ask you—”

“Yes,” Jason interrupted. “Yes,” he repeated.

“Really?” she replied, surprised by his quick agreement.

“Sonny—he brought it up a few weeks ago and Laura even said something about to me and I’ve been thinking about it too,” Jason admitted. “I just—I couldn’t think of a way to bring it up. I mean, you didn’t even want me to adopt her—how could I ask you to let me…” he shook his head. “I’d be honored, Elizabeth.”

“Okay, I have your video ready,” Dr. Meadows said, re-entering the room. “And your pictures. We’ll make another appointment for next month—I assume you’ll be coming again?” she asked Jason.

“I’ll be coming to all of her appointments,” Jason informed Dr. Meadows.

The doctor laughed. “It’s the ultrasound—works every time.”
Harborview Towers: Hallway

“We can get Dara to draw up a custody agreement if you want,'” Elizabeth was saying as she and Jason stepped off the elevator.

He opened his mouth to reply but found himself face to face with Sonny. “Hey—is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure. We need to talk.”

Elizabeth hesitated. “Well—I’ll just go call Laura—”

“No, Elizabeth, this concerns you, too. Why don’t you both come over to my place and I’ll let you know what’s going on.”

They followed Sonny into the penthouse to find a pensive Carly sitting on the sofa. She stood and smiled weakly. “Did you tell them?”

“Tell us what?” Jason asked suspiciously. “Sonny—”

“We had a call from Spain,” Sonny interrupted. “There was a farmhouse there registered to one of Faith’s aliases. There were some bodies inside and we’re just waiting for confirmation.”

Elizabeth blinked. “C-confirmation?” she repeated. “You mean you think Faith and Ric were inside?”

Sonny nodded. “They were identified by one of my men but I contacted Johnny and Francis. They were in France, following up another lead. I’m just waiting to hear from them.”

“Bodies…meaning that they were dead,” Jason said slowly. “Any word on how?”

“Not yet but we’re looking into it.”

“So—this is—this is almost over,” Carly said softly. “We can get back to our normal lives.”

“How soon will you know?” Elizabeth asked.

“We heard this an hour ago—I don’t know how quick they’ll get there. But they’ve got my plane. It could—it could be any second now.”

“Uh…so, how did the ultrasound go?” Carly asked. She crossed to Elizabeth. “Did you find out the gender?”

“Girl,” Elizabeth said faintly. “Everything’s healthy and my blood pressure is right where it should be.”

“Well, that’s great news,” Sonny said, smiling warmly. “Are you hungry?”

“No, I—”

The phone rang and Elizabeth snapped her mouth shut. She stared down at her left hand—at the wedding ring that would be taken from her fingers in a matter of days if this phone call gave them the news they thought it would.

It rang again and finally Sonny leaned over to retrieve it. “Corinthos.”

A moment passed—all eyes were locked on Sonny. He closed his eyes and nodded. “You’re sure? Okay…okay, well then—yeah, stay there. Look into it. Call me when you know more.” Sonny set the phone down softly and met Elizabeth’s eyes first. “Positive confirmation. Ric and Faith are dead.”

Elizabeth’s shoulders sagged and she closed her eyes, relief mixed with bitter sorrow. “They’re positive?” she asked.

“Johnny saw them himself. They’re gonna stick around the area for a while and figure out what’s up and how they died but—well, as soon as the families give me the word—you’re officially safe.”

Carly touched Elizabeth’s shoulder. “You okay? You’re—you’re not as happy as I thought you’d be.”

“It’s hard to be happy about something like this—I mean I thought I’d be ecstatic but…” Elizabeth sighed and avoided Jason’s eyes. Surely he’d withdraw his agreement to be Laura’s father. Now that this was over—there was no reason for the adoption to go through, no reason for their marriage to continue. She’d be out of his life. “I guess I feel numb—it’ll take some time to sink in.”

Jason cleared his throat and slid his hands in his pockets. “I’ll call Dara tomorrow and tell her to start the annulment process.”

“Yeah.” Sonny frowned—surprised that Jason had been the one to bring it up. “She called while you were at the appointment. The adoption papers are ready to be signed but I guess there’s no point in doing that now, huh?”

“Well—” Jason hesitated and glanced at Elizabeth. Would she still want him even though the danger was passed? Or would she relish the opportunity to get out of this life for good?

Deciding that Jason’s hedging answer and his hurry to get their marriage annulled confirmed her suspicions, Elizabeth nodded. “I guess not.” She stared at her wedding ring again and slowly slid it off her finger. She set it on Sonny’s desk. “I’m—I’m gonna go to the Spencers. Give Luke and Laura the good news.”

Sonny nodded. “Take Andrew with you. The families don’t know about Ric yet—and we just want to be careful.”

Elizabeth nodded and left the penthouse as quickly as possible not even sparing a glance at Jason.

When the door had clicked shut, Carly exhaled slowly. “I—well, I’m sure you have things to talk about so I’ll grab Marco and go see my mother at the hospital. Michael’s upstairs watching cartoons in his room.” She kissed her husband’s cheek and gave Jason a supporting hug before leaving the room.

“When you came off the elevator, Elizabeth was saying something about a custody arrangement,” Sonny said slowly. “What was that about?”

“She asked me to be Laura’s father,” Jason said softly. He picked Elizabeth’s ring off the desk and held it between his thumb and index fingers. It was so tiny it probably wouldn’t fit over his pinky. “But—I guess that doesn’t matter anymore.”

Sonny frowned. “Why wouldn’t it?”

“You heard her. No point in finalizing the adoption. She’s free and she gets to leave this life behind—for good this time.”

“You shouldn’t assume—Jason, there is no guarantee that she’s safe right now. Until the families formally call off the hit on Ric—”

“Which they will as soon as they find out he’s dead. It’s over Sonny, why are you trying to tell me it’s not?” Jason demanded. “We all knew this was a temporary solution. Elizabeth needed to be protected and I was in a position to do it. It’s over.”

August 16, 2003

Quartermaine Estate: Emily’s Bedroom

“It’s done, sweet pea. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were filing for divorce right now.”

Emily picked at her bedspread. “You’ll leave them alone from now on right?” she demanded. “It’s over isn’t it?”

Faith laughed. “Oh, honey—that wasn’t part of the deal. You said I couldn’t hurt them while trying to separate them. And in return—you fill me in on anything I needed to know. Silly little girl. You should know better.”

“Wait a second—you said—”

“I kept my end of it. They think we’re dead. Ingenious really. Now Sonny and Jason won’t even see us coming.” She laughed again. “And the beauty is you’re the only one who knows differently. You won’t be saying a word or your precious brother finds out who betrayed him.”

Emily’s protest was heard only by a dial tone. She stared at the receiver in naked horror. What had she done?

August 16, 2003

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

“Hey—where’s Elizabeth? We’re supposed to go shopping this morning,” Carly said, entering without knocking as usual.

Jason stood up from the couch and rubbed his eyes. “She’s at the Spencers. She called last night to let me know she was staying the night. I don’t think she plans on coming back here.”

“At all?” Carly frowned. “Well—that seems a bit odd. I could have sworn…” she trailed off. “Did you call Dara?”

“Not yet.”

“Courtney?”

Jason glanced up. “No—that—I didn’t even think about that. We haven’t talked since—since I told her about the adoption.”

“Uh huh.” Carly leaned against his desk and watched him cross the room, not missing the way he reached into his pocket and withdrew the wedding ring Elizabeth had taken off. “She’d probably forgive you, you know.”

He turned and looked at her strangely. “Forgive me for what?”

Carly smirked. “Yeah—you didn’t do anything wrong. Except—you know, marry an ex-girlfriend that you weren’t completely over but that’s neither here nor there. I’m just saying she’d want to get back together.”

Jason frowned, unsure which part to address first. He settled for the easiest one. “I don’t want to get back together with Courtney. She—she and I wouldn’t have worked in the long run.”

“Right, because you were still in love with Elizabeth, but, hey those are the breaks.” She shrugged. “Too bad this whole thing didn’t last a little longer considering Liz was my dealer.”

“Dealer?” Jason questioned, deciding to ignore the other remark.

“Junk food,” Carly replied. “So is she going to be at the Spencers indefinitely? Is she going back to the studio or what?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t ironed out all the details.”

“How long are you going to keep that ring in your pocket?” Carly asked.

“What ring?” Jason asked with a frown, sliding his hand in his front pocket—wondering how she’d known.

“Okay, we’ll play dumb. If she calls, tell her to call me because she and I got a few things to iron out ourselves. I knew she was a wussy.”

“A wussy?” Jason questioned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well—I mean, she had what she wanted right in her grasp. I thought she—you know—loved you or whatever. She certainly acted like it. She was married to you, in the perfect position to convince you to stay married to her—what with your breakup with Courtney and her pregnancy.”

Jason stared at her for a moment. “Elizabeth would never try to trap me with the baby. She knows I wanted to be Laura’s father. She’s the one who changed her mind.”

“Whoa, whoa—I didn’t think you guys had actually discussed that. When did you tell her that?”

“Yesterday, at the ultrasound,” he mumbled. He leaned against the pool table and sighed. “We were looking at the picture on the screen and I guess the whole thing just really sank into her and she looked at me and just blurted it out. Just asked me to be the father and she no sooner got through asking me than I agreed.”

“Well—that’s great—how did she change her—” Carly stopped and nodded. “Right. When Sonny mentioned the adoption papers, she said there was no need. Well—to be fair, she might have thought you agreed because you were already married and would be for the foreseeable future. You two should talk about this—”

“I can’t make her do anything she doesn’t want to do—”

Carly narrowed her eyes. “Listen here—”

Whatever she was about to rant about was cut off by the sound of the door opening. Elizabeth stepped in and closed it behind her. “Hey.”

“Good. You’re here. Let me tell you something, Miss Elizabeth,” Carly began hotly. Jason stepped up behind her and clamped his hand over her mouth.

Elizabeth frowned. “What’s wrong, Carly? I thought we were supposed to go shopping—I just need to shower—”

Carly bit hard on Jason’s fingers and he hissed in pain. “Tell Jase you want him to be Laura’s father so he can stop moping already.”

“Carly,” Jason muttered, closing his eyes.

Elizabeth looked at him sharply. “You—you still want her?” she asked softly.

Carly rolled her eyes. “Good God, the two of you are enough to give me a headache. I’m going to leave before I get a full blown migraine.” She pushed past Elizabeth and left.

“You’re the one who said that the adoption wasn’t necessary anymore,” Jason pointed out.

“Well, you brought up the annulment five seconds after we found out Ric and Faith were dead,” Elizabeth protested.

“What does us being married have to do with Laura?” Jason asked, confused.

“I—you didn’t answer Sonny when he said the adoption wasn’t necessary,” Elizabeth argued.

He sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Elizabeth—do you want me to be her father or not?”

“Of course—I asked you remember?” Elizabeth asked. She sighed and looked away. “I meant what I said yesterday. That if I sat down and thought of the best father I could give her, you’d be first choice all the way. I just didn’t feel comfortable asking you—I mean, we were barely friends before all this started and I don’t feel like we’ve made a lot of progress since.”

“If you don’t think we’re friends, why would you ask me to be the father of your daughter?” Jason asked a little baffled. “Why would you want that kind of tie to me? To this life?”

“Because there aren’t many men who wouldn’t think about her real father. If she’d been a boy…everyone who knows the paternity—they’d look at him differently and I think she might still get that kind of treatment and certainly any other man would hold it against her.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “But I know—that when you look at her, you won’t see Ric Lansing’s genes in her. You won’t see Ric Lansing’s daughter. You’ll see Laura.”

“And that’s important to you,” Jason said simply. “That no one sees Ric in her.”

“No—I’m not saying that they’ll see him in her—I’m saying that no one would see anything but who she is—who her father is. But you wouldn’t care about that—you’d love her for who she is but I know that it’s too much to ask of you—and now that this is over, you’ll probably want to forget it ever happened—”

“Elizabeth, I’d be honored if you’d allow me to be in her life—as her father or anything else,” Jason assured her. “I just didn’t think you’d still want it. You walked away from this life once and this is your chance to leave it behind completely.”

“I didn’t walk away from this life,” Elizabeth said firmly. “I walked away from you.”

“And this is my life—walking away from me was walking away from the life—”

“No—it was walking away from you—it was never about your job or those things—it was about trust. You trusted Carly with this plan—but not me. Carly—who I will admit has her good points and pulled it off perfectly—but since when did she become more worthy of your trust than me?” Elizabeth asked pointedly. “I would have told you this a long time ago but I didn’t think you cared anymore.”

“I always cared, Elizabeth…I just didn’t think you’d want me to come after you.”

A long silence followed his statement and she cleared her throat. “I guess you’d better call Dara and tell her we’re ready to sign the adoption papers.”

He nodded. “Yeah—we can sign the annulment papers after the adoption’s finalized so that nothing is called into question.”

“So—where do I go?” Elizabeth asked. “Laura offered me a room at the Spencers but that’s not a good long term plan and I had to give up my studio and with the way things are with my grandmother, I can’t live with her and I can’t go back to work—Bobbie won’t let me until after Laura’s born.”

“There’s an apartment on the floor below us—Sonny owns the floor under and above this one for security reasons and those apartments are empty,” Jason replied. “So there’d be no rent or anything and—anything you’d need—I hope you’d let me take care of it—think of it as me providing for Laura. I know you hate taking things from people but I really don’t see an alternative.”

“I do hate charity and having to be in this position where I’m depending on you and Sonny for everything but…” Elizabeth smiled at him weakly and shrugged. “I love my baby more and truth be told, I’d rather live in an apartment with an actual bedroom and bathroom than my studio.”

“All right—I’ll talk to Sonny and get started on it.” He pulled her wedding ring out of his pocket and held it out to her. “I thought you might like this back.”

She stared at it for a moment before raising her eyes to his. “Why?” she asked faintly. She belatedly realized that he was still wearing his and her heart leapt into her throat.

“It’s yours.” He extended his hand out further. “It’ll just sit in my desk gathering dust—why should it?”

“Right.” Elizabeth took it from her hands and glanced it at briefly before closing her fist around it. “Thanks—I’ll—I’ll start packing then.”

August 20, 2003

Elizabeth’s New Apartment

Carly held up a package of curtains. “I couldn’t decide which color I liked so I got four of them.”

Elizabeth smirked and reached for another package. “Well—the cream would go okay in here and the pink would work in the nursery, I guess.”

“This place isn’t so bad…” Carly moved to the windows. “You have the same view we do upstairs so I guess that means you’re under us, huh?”

“Yeah.” Elizabeth twisted her wedding ring around her finger. Once she’d put it back on, she hadn’t had the heart to take it back off. Maybe she’d be able to after the annulment was signed and she’d become Elizabeth Webber again.

“Did you sign the adoption papers yet?” Carly asked curiously.

“Yeah, on Monday. It’s finalized so Dara filed the annulment papers yesterday,” Elizabeth said softly.

“I thought so—Courtney’s flying back from the island next week—just an FYI.” Carly ripped open the cream-colored curtain package and tossed the plastic on the couch. “You didn’t take too long to unpack here.”

“Nope, didn’t have more than some clothes and a few other things. I lived in a one-room studio so I didn’t exactly have the room to collect anything more.” She sighed. “She’s coming back, huh?”

“Yeah—she’s staying with us at first. I think she’s hoping Jason will come to his senses—well actually, what she told me was—I know Jason will understand that I was just upset and I’m sure we can work out a compromise.” Carly shook her head. “Her idea of a compromise is that Jason does whatever she wants and what she wants is you out of their lives.”

“Well—the adoption’s final—there’s not much Courtney can do to change that. I mean, if Jason wants to pull out, I’ll deal with it, but—”

“He’s not going to pull out and as soon as Courtney realizes that, all hell will really break loose so the next few weeks ought to be interesting.” Carly tossed the curtains aside. “I think I’m in the mood for ice cream.”

“How are you going to get that past the guards?” Elizabeth asked pointedly. “You know Andrew will just tell Sonny.”

“Ah—so much I have to teach you about the art of being guarded and getting away with things. C’mon, let’s go.”

Quartermaine Estate: Emily’s Bedroom

Emily toyed with the hem of her tank top. “Zander—did you ever do something you wished you could take back?”

Zander glanced up from his magazine with a smirk. “Constantly. Why?”

“I—” Emily hesitated. She shook her head. “Never mind.”

Harborview Towers: Hallway

Carly frowned when she and Elizabeth returned to Elizabeth’s apartment after getting some ice cream at Kelly’s. Andrew’s shift had been over and he’d been assured that Marco was on Elizabeth’s door, waiting for them.

But there was no one. “I wonder where Marco is,” Carly murmured.

“Probably got some wires crossed. I’ll call Jason when I get inside.” She held up her sundae. “You’d better finish yours on the elevator.”

“Yeah—and stuff the trash in my purse. Not that Andrew won’t tell Sonny. Oh well—too late for him to stop me.” Carly ate another bite with a mischievous grin. “I’ll call you tomorrow about finishing up the nursery.”

“Okay.” She waited until Carly was safe on the elevator before unlocking her apartment door and stepping inside. She closed the door and reached over to flick the light switch on.

When the overheard light failed to come on, Elizabeth frowned and flicked the switch again. A second later an arm shot out in the inky darkness and clamped over her mouth. Startled, Elizabeth tried to cry out but no sound was heard.

Her attacker swung her around so that her back was pressed into his front. He placed his mouth near her ear—his heavy breathe echoing loudly. “Hello, Beautiful.”

August 20, 2003

Harborview Towers: Hallway

Carly stepped off the elevator and moved towards Jason’s penthouse. As soon as she told her best friend that Elizabeth’s guard hadn’t shown up, there’d be hell to pay and she quite frankly preferred Jason spend his evening dealing with it while Sonny made her dinner.

Besides, Jason was still Elizabeth’s husband—therefore this was his area.

She opened the door—not caring what she walked in on. “Jase!” she called.

Jason stepped in from the balcony. “Hey—what’s up?”

“Marco wasn’t on Elizabeth’s door when we got back—did she call up here yet to ask you about it?”

He frowned and stepped towards the phone. “No—and he’s supposed to be there by now. Andrew’s shift is over.” He picked up the receiver and started dialing. “Is he still with her?”

“Well—no—he went home already.”

Jason’s frown deepened. “She’s down there alone?” Someone on the other end picked up. “It’s Morgan—anything odd showing up on the security tapes for my wife’s apartment?” he said briskly.

The blood drained from his face and he dropped the receiver—bolting for the door.

Alarmed, Carly put the phone to her ear. “This is Mrs. Corinthos—repeat to me what you just told Jason.”

“Mrs. Morgan is struggling in her apartment with someone,” the man repeated. “Wait—Oh, Jesus—the door just shot open and Mrs. Morgan has run out—he’s following her!”

“Get men to that floor now!” Carly ordered. She dropped the phone and rushed out of the apartment. “Sonny!” she bellowed. “Sonny!”

Her husband was in the hallway a split second later. “What? Is it the baby?”

“No—Elizabeth—someone was in her apartment—she’s running from them—”

The door to the stairs flew open and Elizabeth stumbled out. She went sprawling and would have ended up on her face but Sonny acted quickly and kept her on her feet. “What’s going on?”

“Ric!” she choked out. “He was in my apartment!”

“What?” Sonny asked, incredulously. “Are you sure?”

“He—he said Hello Beautiful in my ear,” Elizabeth cried, nearly hysterical. Her eyes darted to Jason’s open door. “W-Where’s Jason?”

“He was told that your apartment was black—he went to check on you.”

“No—” Elizabeth gripped Sonny’s shirt. “Ric will kill him—he had a gun—a-and a knife. You have to get him—”

The door to the stairwell swung open again and Jason stepped out, tucking his gun into his back pocket. “Whoever it was—I couldn’t catch up with them. Men are searching the building and Petersen’s sending up the security tapes.” He turned to Elizabeth who was still breathing heavily from her flight up the stairs. “You need to sit down—catch your breath.”

She shook her head. “Jason—it was Ric.”

“Ric?” Jason repeated. “Are you sure?”

“I saw him—I talked to him,” Elizabeth said. She gripped Sonny’s shirt tightly. “I need—I need some water.”

Jason moved to her side and wrapped an arm her waist. “Okay, okay, let’s get you inside. Sonny—maybe Carly should get back in the other penthouse.”

Carly narrowed her eyes. “Listen here—”

“Go, Carly,” Elizabeth said softly. “You need to take care of yourself and make sure Michael doesn’t hear anything that’s going on.”

Carly hesitated and nodded. “Fine. But—I think I deserve to know what’s going on when you know.”

“Yeah, yeah—just go.”

Morgan Penthouse

It took twenty minutes and a glass of water before Elizabeth’s breathing had returned to normal and the color had returned to her face.

“Carly and I came back and noticed that Marco wasn’t by the door,” Elizabeth began. “We thought it was odd since Andrew had called him right before we came up on the elevator to be sure he was at the door. When he got confirmation of that fact, he went home for the night.”

“So when you saw he wasn’t outside, what did you do?”

“I told Carly to go home—that I’d call Jason when I got into the apartment and see what was up,” Elizabeth said. “I went in and tried to turn on the light—but it didn’t turn on—a-and then he grabbed me.”

“Did he saying anything?” Sonny asked.

“He—he held a knife to my stomach.” Elizabeth’s hands curled protectively over her baby. “And he said if I struggled…he’d kill my baby.”

Jason covered her hands with his own—not surprised to find them icy to the touch. “Laura’s safe,” he told her quietly. “She’s safe.”

“He wrapped his around my neck and kept the other hand on the knife—” Elizabeth closed her eyes. “He said some things—but the important things were that they’d faked their deaths. They’d had help from the inside.”

Sonny pressed his lips together and looked away. “What else?” he said quietly.

“He was only going to keep me alive until he had the baby.” Elizabeth looked from Jason to Sonny. “He only wants the baby.”

“He’s not going to get her,” Jason promised. “He won’t.”

“How’d you get away?” Sonny asked.

“I kneed him,” she admitted. “And when he was caught off guard, I smashed a vase over his head. I ran into the stairwell a-and he followed me. He nearly tripped me but I kept my balance. The next thing I knew, I was up here,” Elizabeth finished.

There was a knock on the door then and a man walked in, carrying some video tapes. “Here are the tapes from the security room,” he said. “We found Marco unconscious in Mrs. Morgan’s apartment. He’d been hit over the head, tied and gagged.”

“Then he didn’t let Ric in.” Sonny nodded. “Thanks, Petersen. Get back to the security room. Are the men finished searching the building?”

“Not yet, sir. You’ll be the first to know.” He handed the tapes to Sonny and left.

Sonny opened one and stood to fiddle with the VCR. “We’ll watch them in order,” he murmured. “Hallway, apartment, stairwell.”

“Apartment?” Elizabeth repeated. Her eyes widened. “There’s a camera in there?”

“Security reasons. It’s only in the living room,” Jason told her. “We didn’t want to take any chances.”

Sonny grabbed the remote and stood next to the couch. He pressed play and the tape began playing.

Elizabeth watched as Marco stepped off the elevators—he was on his cell phone. He stood in front of the apartment door. A few moments later, the door opened and before Marco could pull his weapon, a baseball cracked into his head.

“He was already in the apartment,” Jason remarked. “How long were you and Carly gone?”

“An hour. He wasn’t there before—I know it. Carly was helping me unpack and we were in and out of all the rooms. We would have seen something,” Elizabeth informed him.

Sonny rewound the tape until he found the part where Ric walked off the elevator and picked the lock on the apartment door. He’d entered the apartment ten minutes after Carly and Elizabeth had left.

“He just waltzed right the fuck in,” Sonny snarled. He shut the tape off and moved to put the next one in. “Son of bitch.”

“S-Sonny, do we have to watch this?” Elizabeth asked softly.

Sonny slid the tape in. “I want to make sure we’ve got it all. Are you okay?”

Her cheeks were flushed and she stared at the floor. “Yeah…yeah, I’m fine.”

He pressed play.

Elizabeth walked into the dark apartment. Her arm fumbled for the light switch. Something in the shadows moved and an arm shot out, covering her startled cry.

Ric pressed his mouth to his ear—they could see it moving but did not hear the words.

“He said Hello Beautiful,” Elizabeth whispered. “He used—he used to call me that.”

Ric pressed the dull edge of the knife into her abdomen. “One move and you have a miscarriage,” he snarled.

“Ric—please let me go—” his other hand clamped around her neck.

“You know—if you’d just listened that day in my apartment…” Ric shook his head, his tone almost amused. “We wouldn’t be in this situation, would we Elizabeth? No—you have to go running to my brother and your ever-present white knight.” He snorted. “You wouldn’t believe how easy it is to fool those idiots. A couple of bodies and a few insiders to help…almost too easy.”

“Just go—I won’t tell anyone you were here,” Elizabeth choked out.

“Right, sweetheart. No, you’ll go running to Jason just like you always do.” He pressed the knife a little harder. “I could almost forgive that, Beautiful. Almost forgive you for marrying him, letting him claim what’s mine—”

“The adoption’s not final,” Elizabeth lied desperately.

“I’m not talking about the baby,” Ric snarled. “You’re mine, you little bitch. And you let him put his hands on you.”

“No—”

“Well—maybe not now. You’re packing on a little extra weight, there aren’t you?” He stepped closer to her and the let the knife slide up her torso, shifting his grip on it so he could cup her right breast.. “No man’s going to want to touch that, not even your precious Jason.” Ric leaned even closer and pressed his lips against his ear. But he did not whisper. “When I’m through with you, you’re going to wish you’d stayed in those bushes that night. But that’ll have to wait until you deliver the child—you see, that’s all I want from you now. And after that—you’ll hold no use for me.”

That’s when she kneed him. Startled, Ric moved away from her enough that she grabbed a coral vase from the table and smashed it over his head. Then she ran.

Sonny switched off the video and set the remote down, not surprised to find his hands shaking. “Elizabeth…if I’d known what was on that tape—”

“It d-doesn’t matter.” She closed her eyes. “It’s over. I got away and Laura’s safe.”

He nodded and moved to put in the last tape. This one was the stairwell. They watched as Elizabeth stumbled into the stairwell and screamed Jason’s name. Then Sonny’s. She moved towards the steps and was halfway up them when Ric barreled after her. She screamed when he caught her foot and kicked at him—knocking him right in the head.

She screamed Jason’s name again and continued up the stairs. Ric took off towards the bottom levels.

“I’m sorry—I took the elevator.” Jason sighed and rubbed his eyes. “When the doors opened on your floor, the door to the stairwell was swinging open. I didn’t know what was going on but I heard the door upstairs open and went after that.”

“If I’d taken the stairs, I could have gotten him.” He exhaled slowly. “I’m so sorry, Elizabeth.”

She shook her head. “I’m okay. We couldn’t have known—we thought they were dead.”

“This inside help had to be close,” Sonny murmured. “Your security is top priority, Elizabeth. Not everyone knows your apartment, that Andrew is your guard. Ric had to know you were out of the building and your door was unguarded. This person had to know your schedule. The truth is, almost no one in this organization knows we’ve filed the annulment papers.”

“We’ll have to stop the annulment,” Jason said. “And inform the Families that Ric and Faith are still alive. We need to do the first one before the second though. I don’t want them thinking for one second Elizabeth’s open for attack.”

“I’ll call Dara in the morning and get it started. Elizabeth, you’ll have to move back in here.”

“I don’t want to ever go back to that apartment again,” she murmured. “I’d—I’d like to go to sleep now, if that’s okay.”

“It’s fine. Jason—I’ll take care of things from this end. Ric’s out of the building or we would have found him already.”

Sonny kissed Elizabeth’s forehead. “I’m sorry,” he said softly.

“I don’t blame you.”

Sonny sighed and left the penthouse. Elizabeth glanced at Jason before fixing her gaze on her hands.

“I’ll get you something to sleep in,” Jason told her. He stood from the couch and held out his hand.

She let him pull her to her feet and noticed he, too, still wore his wedding ring. “You still have this on.”

He looked down at the gold band and shrugged a little. “Didn’t feel right to take it off—we are still married after all.”

“Right.”

He put an arm around her waist to support her to the stairs. She might have shaken it off under other circumstances—but tonight she did not pretend she didn’t need his support.

“I’m going to have someone come by and see you tomorrow,” Jason told her. “Just a doctor who works for Sonny. To take your blood pressure—and just make sure the baby’s okay.”

Elizabeth nodded. “I don’t know how I’d explain tonight to Dr. Meadows anyway.” She closed her eyes. “We should have known it was too easy—that they couldn’t be dead.”

“We wanted it to be over. But now that we know it’s not—security will be tripled. He won’t get to you again, Elizabeth,” Jason vowed.

“I really wish I could believe that,” she sighed.

August 21, 2003

Quartermaine Mansion: Emily’s Bedroom

Zander threw open the window to Emily’s bedroom and climbed through. His girlfriend was still sleeping but he didn’t care. He crossed the room and shook her shoulders. “Wake up, damn it!”

Emily sat straight up. “What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Elizabeth was attacked last night—Ric Lansing and Faith Roscoe aren’t dead,” Zander informed her.

Emily stared at him. “What do you mean attacked?” she asked softly. She climbed out of bed and gripped his shirt. “Is she hurt?”

“Emily—”

“Because she can’t be hurt—they promised!” Emily cried. “They’re not supposed to hurt her, they’re supposed to leave her alone—he wasn’t supposed to attack her!”

Zander stared at her for a moment before slowly taking her hands and pulling them away from him. “What do you mean by that, Emily?” he asked slowly.

“I-I wanted this to be over,” Emily stammered. “They weren’t going to go after them—Sonny and Jason, I mean. They were just going to wait it out. While my brother and Elizabeth stayed married and Jason was forced to watch Elizabeth raise her child—it was never going to end!”

“Emily—what did you do?” Zander asked quietly forcing himself to quell the rising panic.

“I guess my fight with Elizabeth was pretty—pretty well-known. I got a call late last month a-and she offered to separate them. No harm to them—just find a way to end the marriage. All I had to do was tell her a few things—”

“You sold them out to Faith?” Zander demanded. He jerked away from her and shook his head. “Damn it, Emily, what the hell were you thinking?”

“I didn’t sell them out!” Emily shrieked. “I just—she wanted to know who guarded Elizabeth and Carly. A-and the name of all the guards I knew. I didn’t see the harm—”

“They sold Elizabeth out!” Zander yelled. “Ric cut the power in her apartment and threatened her life—he told her that he would take her baby and then kill her—because you couldn’t stand to see your brother married to her. He got to her, Emily, and she’s holed up in the guest room at Jason’s. She refuses to come out, refuses to talk to anyone.”

“I didn’t think—”

“Lucky says she acted this way after the rape,” Zander said softly. “That’s what you’ve done to her. You gave Ric Lansing a clear path to her and now he’s terrorizing her again. How could you do this to her?”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen this way!” Emily cried. “I just wanted to get Jason away from her. I was scared he’d fall in love with her again and she’d turn him away again! I was afraid she’d turn back to you!”

Zander stared at her for a moment. “Back to me.” He closed his eyes. “We slept together once, Emily. Last summer. She was trapped in a stairwell and so scared—she wanted to feel something other than that fear and I wanted to feel something other than isolation. We slept together and we tried to make something of it because she’s not the one night stand type and you know it. She loved your brother and he turned her away for making a mistake. And by the time he forgave her, she’d fallen off the pedestal he’d always put her on. He didn’t trust her anymore—Jason hurt Elizabeth far more than she hurt him.”

“Gia said that Elizabeth went from Lucky to Jason to you to Jason to Ric and I was scared she’d keep doing it—I wanted to stop the cycle,” Emily tried to explain. She started forward.

“And now a man she trusted enough to sleep with is threatening the life of her child and the only thing you can think of is yourself. You weren’t trying to protect Jason. You were trying to protect yourself. Because you thought maybe Elizabeth might turn to me and apparently, you don’t trust me either.”

“No, Zander—”

“We’re done, Emily.” He shook his head. “We are completely done. You’re going to get dressed and you’re going to Jason’s. You’re going to tell your brother what you did and if he lets you, you’re going to tell Elizabeth.”

“No—there’s no reason they have to know—Zander, I love you—”

“I’m not sure I love you,” Zander interrupted. “I know that I love the Emily who left two years ago—the Emily I first knew. She was a little selfish but she had a good heart and would have done anything, sacrificed anything for her friends. This girl standing in front of me?” he shook his head again. “I don’t know her. Get dressed.”

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

“Did she at least let the doctor in?” Sonny asked Jason softly glancing towards the stairs.

“Yeah.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Her blood pressure’s up but some rest will take care of that. She sprained her ankle—but with the shock and everything, she didn’t even realize that until this morning.”

“But the baby’s okay?”

“As far as the doctor said, yeah.” Jason glanced towards the couch where Luke and Nikolas were engaged in a bitter debate—over what, he wasn’t sure.

Lucky trudged down the stairs and sighed. “She’s not opening the door. Did Zander call?”

“Not yet. Do you think he’ll convince Emily to come over?” Jason asked. “I know Elizabeth would appreciate her support.”

Luke rose from the couch and glared at his stepson before joining the trio by the stairs. “Laura’s at home and I vote we take the door down and at least get a woman in there to stay with her.”

“I’m not forcing Elizabeth to do anything she’s not ready for,” Jason said firmly. “If she wants Laura, fine. But she says she wants to be alone.”

“Did you find out who the leak was?” Nikolas demanded. “Because if you can’t keep her safe, I’m packing her off to Greece if I have to tape into a box and ship her there.”

Jason stepped towards the Cassadine prince. “She’s not going anywhere.” He looked at Sonny. “Dara took care of those annulment papers right?”

“It’s been called off. The families want a meeting and they want Elizabeth there. I don’t know why—but she needs to be there.”

Luke snorted. “If she’s going, I’m going—”

“There’s no need for you to go or for anyone other than the three of us,” Sonny said firmly.

The penthouse door swung open and Zander entered, practically dragging Emily behind him. She dug in her heels and refused to cross the threshold so he lifted her and set her inside. “Tell them.”

“Zander, what the hell is going on?” Jason demanded.

“Your sister will explain.” Zander shut the door and glared at his ex-girlfriend.

“I—” Emily shook her head and folded her hands to look at the ground.

“Maybe seeing Elizabeth will make your filthy mouth work,” Zander said angrily. “Maybe if she tells you what that slime did to her—”

“Zander, you must have a death wish,” Lucky snarled, pushing past Sonny and Jason. Nikolas held his brother back.

“Emily, what is Zander talking about?” Nikolas asked carefully.

“Tell them,” Zander spat.

“Faith Roscoe contacted me last month,” Emily said softly. “She’d heard about the fight Elizabeth and I were having and she offered her help.”

Jason stared at his sister—his face unreadable. “What kind of help?”

“In exchange for information, she would find a way to end the marriage,” Emily admitted. She darted her eyes up to Jason’s before closing them. “When she and Ric faked their deaths…I thought it was over. I made her promise not to hurt you or Elizabeth—”

The room was eerily silent as the men in Elizabeth’s life watched her own best friend tell them how she inadvertently set Elizabeth up to be ambushed.

“What information did you give her?” Sonny asked calmly.

Emily met no one’s eyes full on now. She stared at the floor. “The guards protecting Elizabeth and Carly and any other men I knew working for you.” She dug her hands into the sides of her jeans. “I know for a fact that she turned Francis against you—because he was the one who identified the bodies in France.”

Sonny bit off a vehement curse. He wanted to throttle the young woman for not only putting Elizabeth in danger but his own wife. But this was Jason’s little sister and for once—Sonny would follow Jason’s lead rather than his own.

The fight drained out of Lucky’s body and Nikolas released him. They stared at the girl they’d known most of their lives—the fourth member of the Musketeers.

“Zander says I should be the one to tell her,” Emily said softly. Tears were streaming down her cheeks but no one felt sympathy—no one felt pity. She’d brought it on herself.

“He’s right but I can’t let you do that,” Jason said coldly. “I don’t want you anywhere near her. Zander, take her home. Don’t let her out your sight.”

“But Jason—” Emily began to protest but Zander had already wrapped his hand around her arm and was dragging her out. “Jason, wait!”

He ignored her and ignored the looks from the other men in the room. “I’ll go and tell Elizabeth about the meeting but I’m not telling her about Emily. I want to wait until she’s stronger.”

“I’ll go home and give Laura the update,” Luke sighed. “Cowboy, you and the dark prince might as well come with me. There’s nothing we can do here right now.”

The trio filed out and Sonny turned back to Jason. “What do you want to do?”

“Keep Emily under lock and key for now,” Jason murmured. “I know what should be done about her but…”

“We can’t,” Sonny finished. “I understand. I don’t know how she justified this in her mind but…” he trailed off and shook his head.

“I’ll go upstairs and make sure Elizabeth is ready for the meeting,” Jason told him. “I’ll meet you in the parking garage.”

Morgan Penthouse: Elizabeth’s Bedroom

Jason knocked on the door before testing the doorknob. He was surprised when it twisted freely, indicating the door was open. He pushed it inward. Elizabeth was curled up in a large armchair near the window, staring out over the harbor.

“Elizabeth?” he said softly.

She glanced over at him. “Did you need something?”

“The Families called a meeting—and they want you there.” He crossed the room and kneeled next to her. “Your things are back from the apartment and Dara has cancelled the annulment.”

Elizabeth laughed bitterly. “So I guess you’re stuck with me, huh?”

He took her hand in his—rubbing his finger over the simple gold band of her wedding ring. “You’re stuck with me, too,” he pointed out.

“I wish…” she trailed off and sighed.

“What?” Jason pressed.

“I wish that this were real,” she breathed. She met his eyes. “I wish that we were married because we loved each other, that Laura was your daughter…I wish that you loved me.”

He stared at her for a moment, seemingly stunned at her words and part of him wanted to admit that he’d wished for the same as well. She dropped her chin into her chest and sighed.

With his free hand he tipped her face back up and traced the smooth line of her jaw. “What if I told you that I did?” Jason asked quietly.

She met his eyes—her gaze hesitant and a little bewildered. “Jason…”

He leaned forward and brushed his lips over hers. When he pulled back, she was still staring at him, her eyes wide with surprise. Before he could pull back any further, she caught his mouth again and kissed him hard, taking advantage of the moment.

He gripped her hips and pulled her off the chair and into his lap, thrusting his tongue past her willing lips. The kiss was wild and carnal, each only too aware that it’d been too long since they’d touched one another like this.

She raked her nails down the fabric of his blue t-shirt and he buried his hands in her long dark hair. He used the position to yank her head back so he could trail his lips down her neck, occasionally nipping at the soft skin.

Elizabeth yanked his shirt up and almost had it over his head when his cell phone rang. They broke apart abruptly and Elizabeth blinked, her chest heaving from the exertion of the passionate encounter. “Jason…”

He took a moment to calm his breathing before yanking his phone out of his back pocket. “Yeah?” He closed his eyes. Sonny. Jesus, he’d forgotten all about meeting him downstairs—forgotten all about the meeting with the Families.

“We’ll be right down.” Jason hung up and put the phone back in his pocket. “We have to get to the meeting.”

Elizabeth nodded and bit her lip. “What just happened here?” she asked quietly.

“Something I think we’ve both been thinking about for a while,” Jason admitted. He stood and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s talk about it when we get home, okay?”

“Okay.” She found a pair of sneakers and slid her feet into them. “Let’s get this over with then.”

No Name

The representatives were seated around the table, looking grim and disappointed. Ric Lansing’s death had been the best news they’d received all year and if they hadn’t seen the security tapes of Elizabeth Morgan being attacked, they might have thought Sonny had faked the deaths himself.

Sonny entered the room first and pulled out the chair so Elizabeth could sit down. She was limping a little on her sprained ankle and Jason had an arm around her waist, bracing her weight against him.

He helped into her chair and kept his hand tightly wrapped around one of hers.

Sammy Tagliatti cleared his throat. “First of all, I’d like to extend my apologies to Mrs. Morgan. We have viewed the tape and we are all very grateful that you are safe.”

Elizabeth did not acknowledge the words but kept her eyes trained on the table. Sonny clasped his hands together. “We launched a search but were unable to locate him. We have already made great strides in finding out who betrayed us.”

John O’Reilly nodded. “Ric Lansing is lower than scum,” he declared. “To treat any woman like that, especially a pregnant one—we have decided Elizabeth Morgan is no longer a threat to the organization.”

Her shoulders slumped and she closed her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.

Sammy nodded. “Yes—we are satisfied that she is willing to go to any lengths in which to protect herself from Lansing and the adoption has also satisfied us. However—we think it’s for the best you remain married.”

Michael Hernandez nodded in agreement. “It’s for security reasons. We will concentrate on finding Lansing and Faith,” he told Sonny. “Lansing has made it clear that retrieving Elizabeth is his primary goal. He will go for her again and you need to concentrate on keeping her safe.”

“I agree,” Sonny said. “Our lawyer has already stopped the annulment and Elizabeth has moved back into the penthouse. We appreciate your help in this situation.”

“Mrs. Morgan?” Sammy said.

She reluctantly met the mobster’s eyes and was surprised to find them kind and compassionate. “I would like to apologize for the way we have treated you and your unborn child. We are told that it is a girl?”

“Yes,” Elizabeth said softly. She glanced up at Jason, who squeezed her hand in response. “We’re naming her Laura.”

Thomas Caracas nodded. “Good, strong fine name. You and your daughter are under our protection as well, Mrs. Morgan and we will do our best to keep you both safe.”

“That is why we asked for you especially to be present this afternoon,” Sammy continued. “We thought an apology made face-to-face would mean more than one passed through Corinthos and Morgan.”

“Is that all?” Sonny asked. “We want to keep Elizabeth out of sight as much as possible. We’re installing a new security system at the Towers and she will have new guards.”

“We would like to hear more about the strides you have made in finding out the traitors in your organization,” Daniel Vega remarked. “Do you have names?”

“We know that Francis Corelli is one of them. He identified the bodies in France.” Sonny hesitated and looked to Jason.

“We know that someone close to the situation informed Faith Roscoe of the names of the guards working for us,” Jason admitted. “Faith knew Carly’s guards, Elizabeth’s guards and most of the ones who work at the building. We are already shuffling them out and moving new ones in.”

“Who is this person?” Hernandez asked. “Can you give us a name?”

Jason put his other hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder and sighed. “Emily Quartermaine.”

Elizabeth gasped and twisted in her chair. “No! It can’t be Emily!”

“Zander Smith discovered her involvement and brought her to us where she informed us.”

“Quartermaine…” Caracas frowned. “Isn’t that your sister, Morgan?”

“Yes,” Jason admitted.

“No, she’s covering for someone,” Elizabeth denied. “Emily’s my best friend—she wouldn’t do this to me.”

“What exactly did Faith Roscoe offer her in return?” O’Reilly asked.

“In return for the names of the guards, Emily was promised that the marriage between Elizabeth and Jason would come to an end without harm being done to either one of them. Unfortunately, Faith kept her word. With the annulment filed, she was free to do what she wanted to do. She got some guards to turn on us and they informed Ric of the security at the Towers,” Sonny revealed.

“I knew she was upset about the marriage…” Elizabeth blinked, her hands starting to tremble. “How could she do this?” She glared at Jason. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to wait until you were stronger,” Jason admitted. “We didn’t intend to say anything about it at this meeting but…”

“I’m sorry you had to find out like this,” Sammy told her. “A friend’s betrayal is one of the worst things that can ever happen.”

“I want to—I want to go home,” Elizabeth whispered. She stood. “Please—can we go?”

“Of course.” The men stood up as Jason helped Elizabeth from the room. Once they were out of earshot, Sammy looked at Sonny. “I’m sorry to hear about Ms. Quartermaine and I hope Mrs. Morgan can learn to accept the truth about her.”

“I sincerely hope we’re finished fighting this situation amongst us,” Sonny said quietly. “And that we can finally concentrate on the real villains. Ric Lansing and Faith Roscoe must be stopped.”

August 21, 2003

Morgan Penthouse

Sonny followed Jason and Elizabeth into the penthouse and cleared his throat. “Elizabeth, about Emily—”

“I’ll handle it,” Jason said quietly. He nodded towards the door. “Can we…have a minute?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Sonny nodded in agreement. “I’ll be across the hall with Carly if you need anything.” He didn’t wait for them to reply but just left.

Jason took a deep breath before turning around to find Elizabeth standing at the window near the pool table. “I wasn’t going to keep it from you,” he said immediately. “If I’d known the families were going to press for information, I would have let you know before we left.”

“I’m not made of cotton, I’m not made of glass.” She turned to meet his eyes. “Don’t treat me like I’m fragile. If my best friend in the world betrays me, I have a right to know.”

“I was going to tell you—”

“And it’s not fair that you can decide when I’m ready for that information.” Elizabeth crossed her arms tightly. “When did you find out?”

“Five minutes before I came upstairs.” Jason cleared his throat and looked away. “She told Zander and he brought her over here. She told Faith the names of all the guards she knew, including Andrew and Marco.”

“Why?” Elizabeth asked softly. “What could she possible think Faith could do for her?”

“Exactly what she almost did,” Jason remarked. “Emily wants this marriage over. Faith and Ric faked their deaths. They bought the guards who identified the fake bodies and if Ric had waited a month rather than a few days, he’d have you right now and the marriage would be annulled.”

Elizabeth tilted her head to the side. “What makes a month different from now? I mean—I still would have had the same security…”

Jason shook his head. “We were talking about moving you somewhere else,” he admitted. “I didn’t—I thought you might want to be away from this life so we were talking about suggesting you go to the island—after Courtney came home.”

She didn’t say anything at first—just turned back to the window to peer out across the harbor. A few moments later, she sighed heavily. “Are you lonely, Jason?” she asked softly.

Confused by the question and change in topic, Jason shrugged. “I never thought about it before.”

“I bet you miss Courtney,” Elizabeth said. She moved her eyes to the building that had held her studio and she found herself longing for that one-room escape. “When she comes home—I’ll try to keep out your way.”

Jason approached her than. “We’re not getting back together—Elizabeth, what happened earlier was—”

“A mistake,” Elizabeth said, turning to face him. “I was feeling sorry for myself. I’m sorry that I threw myself at you but I promise it won’t happen again.”

“No, it was not a mistake,” Jason replied firmly. “And don’t insult me by thinking you can lie to me. It’s been a long time since I could tell what you’re thinking but it’s coming across very clearly. You think because Sonny and I considered sending you to the island after Courtney came back here that I was just exchanging you for her and that says a lot of your opinion about me, doesn’t it?”

“Jason—” Elizabeth began.

“The truth is that you deserve better than this life. I’ve always felt that way and for a long time, I thought you had decided that too. That’s why I didn’t press the matter last fall. You had a right to leave this life before it was too late and I thought that’s what you had done.” He shook his head. “It never occurred to me that you were leaving me and not the life.”

“The life—it doesn’t bother me. It never has. Do I like being in danger all the time? I’m not thrilled about it but I know that you’re in ten times more danger than I am. I know that every time you step out that door, you might not come back—” she broke off and closed her eyes. “I don’t want to go over the same ground again.”

“We never went over this before. You never said anything about how it made you feel. You just told me that you couldn’t handle it and you walked out,” Jason accused. “Maybe if you had stayed and we talked about this, none of this would have happened.”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault that I’m pregnant with the psycho’s baby,” Elizabeth sarcastically. “Like it was my fault that you ignored me for a month, left me here night after night wondering if you were alive or dead.”

“Elizabeth—”

“Because for all I knew Sonny was dead and you were in charge again. And I thought you might go after who killed Sonny and I was terrified that I’d never see you again.” She clenched her hands into fists. “But you never came home except to change and avoid me and every time I saw you—every single time—you were with Courtney.” She arched an eyebrow. “You know—when did you start seeing her? Before or after I left?”

“I’m not even going to answer that because I know you don’t believe I’d do that to you and if you do, then we’ve got bigger problems then you pulling away from me,” he replied quickly.

Elizabeth shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t even care anymore.” She started past him towards the stairs but he grabbed her arm and turned back to face him.

“We’re not finished here, Elizabeth. For one thing—what happened upstairs was not a mistake, it was not about you feeling sorry for yourself or me missing Courtney. We both wanted it and if Sonny hadn’t called, then it would have gone a lot further and you know it.” He took a deep breath. “Secondly, Emily may be your friend but she’s my sister and she betrayed me just as much as she betrayed you so no, I didn’t tell you right away because I was having enough trouble believing it and I heard it right from her mouth. She’s my sister, Elizabeth, and she decided she knew what was best for me.”

Once he’d begun talking, she’d stopped struggling and she instantly felt contrite for having turned the whole conversation into a fight. She could see that he hadn’t wanted her to find out that way and truthfully, how else could he have done it? How do you tell someone the girl they thought of as a sister had turned them both over to a pair of psychopaths.

“You’re right,” Elizabeth said softly. “I didn’t—I was so caught up in thinking about what Emily did to me—I’m so sorry, Jason. I know how much you love her.”

Her submission surprised him and he took a step back, releasing her arm. “It doesn’t matter—”

“It does,” Elizabeth protested. “Jason—you don’t want me to shut you out, right? You want me to talk to you, to be honest?”

“Yeah,” he said, knowing where she was going and resenting like hell that she was using his words against him.

“I want the same from you. Talk to me.” She braced her hands on his forearms and looked up him. “Please.”

He exhaled slowly. Until he’d started talking, he hadn’t realized that he was upset about what Emily had done. Angry, yes. Betrayed, yes. Devastated was something he didn’t think he’d felt.

“When Robin told AJ about Michael—I could understand why,” he began. He looked away. “I knew how much she hated the lie and how much it hurt her for everyone to believe I’d cheated on her with Carly to conceive Michael. She was doing what she was thought was right. I never saw it coming, but I understood it.”

“And even Sonny and Carly—I hated it but I know them. I know what made them both do it and I’ve learned to live with it.” He took a deep breath. “But Emily—even knowing that she did it…I still have a hard time believing it. She decided that I couldn’t be married to you and not get hurt. She decided she had to get me out of this situation and in doing so, she nearly got you kidnapped and almost killed. I don’t think she meant to hurt you—but I can’t believe she’d willingly turn over that kind of information without thinking Ric would use it to get to you.”

“She loves you, Jason,” Elizabeth said softly. “More than anything. But I don’t think it was entirely about you. I think—” she bit her lip. “Gia told me that Emily was really upset when she found out about last summer—about Zander. Gia told Emily that I’d been dating Zander before going on to you. She had basically summed it up by saying that I’d gone from Lucky to you to Zander to you to Ric and I guess Emily was afraid I’d hurt you again.” She shrugged. “It doesn’t make what she did right but it wasn’t about not trusting you or making the decision for you. Even Emily knows better than to do that.”

He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, Elizabeth. She could have come to me. She could have told me what she was thinking. Emily knows she can come to me. I could have told her that what happened with Zander was none of my business and if I’d just—been more open with you, that it wouldn’t have happened in the first place. I think—if I’d told you I came home to Port Charles because I knew you’d broken up with Lucky…things would have been different, wouldn’t they?” Jason asked.

Elizabeth blinked. “Wait—you knew before you came home…” The implication sunk in and she took a step back. “You came home because I wasn’t with Lucky anymore. Jason…”

“But if I’d told you that that night in the studio, it would have been different, right?” Jason insisted.

“Yes,” Elizabeth said. “Yes, they would have—but—”

“So Emily could have come to me and I could have talked her out of this. But she chose to do something she knew could hurt you and I’m not sure if I can forgive her for that.” Jason pulled away from her and moved to the pool table. He exhaled slowly. “You wanted to know how I felt and that’s it. I’m angry because she took my trust in her and obliterated it. And she nearly got you killed. How do I let go of that?”

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth admitted. “I don’t know if you can but I’m not you, Jason. Things aren’t black and white for me. I guess—I was so awful to you in the past, Jason. I really was and I think—” she looked away. “I’m not surprised her loyalty to you is stronger than hers to me.”

“How can you say she has loyalty towards me when she went to Faith?” Jason bit out angrily.

“Because she didn’t go to Faith to hurt you. She didn’t go, intending to hurt either of one of us. She did it, thinking she would protect you and I’m sorry, Jason, but it’s hard for me not to sympathize with that because I’d do anything to protect the people I love.” Elizabeth sat on the arm of the couch. “Her methods were shit, I’ll be the first to admit it and I don’t plan on forgiving her for at least a year but her intent was good.”

“So because she had my best interests in heart, I should forgive her?” Jason asked skeptically.

“I remember once that Carly was scared of what was going to happen to her family and turned Sonny into the Feds, hoping he’d take a deal and take immunity. She, in essence, betrayed Sonny. Her methods were wrong but in the end, she was only trying to protect her family. You wrote that off because she’s Carly and always doing things that make no sense, right?” Elizabeth remarked. “Emily’s out of your life because she did the same thing?”

He stared at her for a moment before shaking her head. “I don’t like that you’re making sense.”

She smirked. “I’m not saying forgive her, Jason. I just—I want you to look at this from all sides. You know Emily almost better than she knows herself. She would never willing to set out to hurt anyone.”

She rubbed the small of her back. “I think I’m going to take a nap—I’m a little tired.” She slowly moved towards the stairs, stepping gingerly on her sprained ankle.

“Elizabeth—” Jason called after her. She glanced over her shoulder. “We’re not finished here. And I’m going to want to finish this eventually.”

Accepting the inevitable, Elizabeth sighed and nodded before heading up the stairs to take her nap.

August 21, 2003

Corinthos Penthouse

Carly held the cookie over her head. “You’ll have to kill me to get this,” she threatened, shooting her husband a dark look.

“Carly—”

“You try carrying thirty pounds on top of your bladder, have your feet swell and face the thought of squeezing a baby out of something the size of a lemon. Lay off the cookie if you want to live.”

“One cookie,” Sonny warned. “And I’m hiding the package.”

Carly snorted. “Yeah, like that’s gonna stop me.”

Jason pushed the door open and cleared his throat. Sonny looked towards his friend, relaxing his guard and Carly reached out and yanked the package of Oreos out of his hands. She was halfway up the stairs before Sonny even noticed.

“Haha, you’ll never find them!” Carly taunted. She moved the rest of the way upstairs a little more slowly.

Sonny shook his head. “She doesn’t understand the concept of nutrition,” he muttered. “I don’t even know where those Oreos came from.”

Jason knew Elizabeth had smuggled the package in three days ago but he kept mum and crossed his arms. “Elizabeth is taking a nap.”

“She okay? About Emily?”

Jason hesitated and moved across the room. “I think she is. She was trying to reason in her head Emily’s motives and comparing it to when Carly did the things with the Feds.”

“She wants to believe Emily’s still got some good in her,” Sonny deduced. “I wouldn’t argue with her—not right now. She may have a point and even if she doesn’t, it’ll probably help her get through it.” He cleared his throat and picked up his glass of iced tea from the table. “I met with Andrew while you were over there.”

Jason’s eyes hardened. “And?”

“He’s clean. He’s genuinely upset with himself for letting the girls go upstairs by themselves but in his defense, they had called upstairs and Marco was there and even if Andrew had gone upstairs with them, Ric had a gun and a knife. He may have gotten killed and it could have been a lot of worse. He sends his apologies and understands if we remove him from Elizabeth’s security team.”

“We are, right?” Jason remarked. “I mean, keeping Johnny on Carly is one thing but Andrew is too new—”

“But he’s protective of Elizabeth. If he’d been up there last night, he would have died to protect her. I’m sure of that and at this point, too many of our most trusted guards have been compromised. If we move Andrew, we’ll be forced to bring in someone new.”

“You’re sure he’s clean?” Jason asked dubiously. “Elizabeth’s safety is the most important thing right—she’s right in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy and—”

“Jason, Jason, you’re not telling me anything I didn’t already know.” Sonny shrugged. “Andrew’s clean. He’s loyal to us but more importantly, he’s loyal to Elizabeth. Anyway—I think it would make more sense that if Elizabeth leaves the penthouse, you’re with her every step of the way.”

Jason nodded. “That goes without saying. Did you take care of Francis?”

“Yeah. There’s no word on Faith or Ric yet and I’m agreeable for letting the families look for them rather than us waste our resources,” Sonny admitted. “I’m just grateful Elizabeth came out of it.”

Jason hesitated a moment before speaking. “Sonny—what would you think of us…not getting an annulment?”

Though Sonny knew exactly what Jason was saying, he played dumb. “Well, you’re not getting one. Not with Ric and Faith still out there. Maybe in a few more months—”

“No, I mean…at all,” Jason said uncomfortably. “I—I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I don’t—I don’t think I want one.”

“How long is a while?” Sonny asked curiously. “Since the wedding? Since you agreed to adopt the baby?”

“Since agreeing to the plan in the first place,” Jason admitted. “I like…I like being married to her and I’d really like to stay with her.”

Sonny nodded slowly. “Well—it’s not really up to me. It’s up the two of you except—” he closed his eyes. “I forgot to call Courtney.”

“What’s that?”

“Courtney,” Sonny repeated. “Her plane was due in today and I completely forgot with everything that’s been going on. She’s going to be coming back here. Today.” He glanced at a clock on his desk. “Now, in fact.”

Morgan Penthouse

Elizabeth started back down the stairs when she heard Jason leave. She wanted something to eat and drink and if she got it now, she could be back upstairs and pretending to nap before he got back.

She wanted to finish the conversation between them because she was beginning to think it wouldn’t be a bad one. But she still didn’t feel ready to do so.

She was halfway to the kitchen when the door opened and a hesitant Courtney walked in. “Jas—” she stopped her call for him abruptly at the sight of a sweat-clad Elizabeth in the living room. Her eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?”

“Ah…” Elizabeth blinked. “Courtney—”

The blonde’s eyes zeroed in on the wedding band and pressed her lips together. “How pathetic can you be? You’re still living here, wearing that ring like you have a right to it?” Courtney snorted. “What the hell are you still doing here?”

“Courtney—” Elizabeth began again.

“Carly told me that the adoption wasn’t going to happen anymore and that you were getting this farce of a marriage annulled so you know, you can just drop the act,” Courtney said scornfully. “Now that this is all over, Jason and I are going to get back together—”

“It’s not over,” Elizabeth blurted out. “We’re not getting an annulment.” Out of spite, she kept mum on the fact that it was out of necessity and not love.

Courtney’s nostrils flared and she took a step towards the brunette. “What the hell are you talking about, Elizabeth? What lie are you telling now?”

“I’m not the one who lies,” Elizabeth shot back.

“The hell you don’t. You know—I bet you’ve been in on this all along,” Courtney remarked. “You knew Ric was Sonny’s half-brother and you probably concocted this whole plan to trap Jason into marriage. You’ve got my brother and Jason so snowed by your little innocent act that they’re probably not even going to see the knife in their backs—”

“What are you doing in here?” Jason demanded sharply.

Courtney whirled around. “Jason—I just got home—Carly told me the adoption off so—that just solves our problems—so I thought we could—”

“Didn’t you tell her?” Jason interrupted, looking at Elizabeth who just shrugged as if to say—I tried. He sighed heavily and looked back at Courtney. “The adoption is on. It’s already been finalized and the annulment is what’s off. Elizabeth and I are staying married. We’re over, Courtney.”

“No—Jason, look—please, just listen to me—okay, so you’re going to adopt the baby.” Courtney’s lower lip trembled. “You can just have joint custody. You don’t need to be married to her—”

“Yes, I do,” Jason interrupted. “Courtney, I’m not trying to hurt you—”

“I was right, wasn’t I?” Courtney accused. “You were just looking for a reason to get back together with her and this little—pregnancy—this little bastard she’s going to pass off as yours—”

“Wait just a damn minute,” Elizabeth interrupted. She crossed the room to face the blonde. “You leave my daughter out of this. You’re angry because you gave Jason an ultimatum and he didn’t perform the way you wanted him too so now you’re jumping down his throat. Get over yourself, Courtney, the world doesn’t revolve around you.”

“And you can’t have Jason,” Courtney retorted. “You threw him away and now you think you can get him back but—”

“Courtney, you’re leaving now.” He took her arm and steered her towards the doorway. “Goodbye.”

He closed the door on her outraged face and looked back at Elizabeth. “I’m sorry. Sonny didn’t remember that she was coming home today until her plane had already landed.”

“It’s fine,” Elizabeth said stiffly. She looked away. “How did it go with Sonny?”

“Fine,” Jason said simply. “Andrew’s going to remain your guard for now. There’s one else that we can really trust and he seems to have convinced Sonny of his loyalty.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Good. I like Andrew.”

Jason rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. “I thought you were taking a nap.”

She shrugged. “I felt hungry.”

“You want something to eat?” Jason offered. “I can make something—or send someone if you want something specific.”

Elizabeth hesitated. “Actually—I was hoping to make a peanut butter and pickle sandwich,” she admitted with an embarrassed smile. “I’ve had a craving for it all day.”

Jason grimaced. “Are you sure?”

“It’s weird,” Elizabeth sighed, “but I can’t help it, I guess.” She twisted her hands together. “Jason…about earlier…”

“We don’t have to talk about it until you’re ready,” Jason assured her. “You’ve been through a rough night and day. This is no time to be making major life decisions.”

Elizabeth tilted her head to side. “Just for conversation’s sake—what life decisions would they be?”

“Whether or not we stay married,” Jason stated as though it was the obvious choice. “I can understand if you’re not ready for that and that you’d want to keep your distance, but—”

“We’re not just talking about staying married through Ric and Faith are we?” Elizabeth interrupted. Her face drained of color as Jason’s words and intent sunk in. She’d never dreamed that remaining married to Jason would be a viable option.

Jason shook his head slowly, unsure if the shock written across her features was a good sign or a bad one. “No, I’m not.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth exhaled a shaky breath. “And to make it clear—you’re Laura’s father. You don’t need to be married to me to have that.”

“I know that,” Jason said simply.

“Oh,” she repeated. She shifted from one foot to the other as she thought about her next move. Jason had put himself on the line big time by just admitting he wanted to be married. There was no reason to push him for more right now. He wasn’t ready to say more and she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear it. “You’re right. This isn’t a time to be making major life decisions,” she said softly. “But just so it’s out there…it’s definitely something I want to think about.”

Somewhere In Port Charles

Ric slammed his fist down on the table. “Damn it.”

Faith leaned back in her chair and examined her blood-red nails. “Oh hell, I’ve chipped a nail,” she murmured.

“They’re going to triple her security,” Ric seethed. “I won’t be able to get near her.”

“So forget the little bunny so we can focus on something more profitable,” Faith sighed. She eyed him. “What would we do with a kid anyway?”

“It’s my kid,” Ric said coldly. “I won’t abandon him because his mother has no spine. I won’t do that.”

“Listen up, Sparky. He is a she,” Faith snarled. “It won’t be a boy, it’s a girl. And she certainly had enough spine to marry Jason Morgan.” Her lips curved into a smile. “I imagine he must be something else in bed.”

He leveled a withering glare in her direction. “Spare me, Faith. I don’t care if the kid’s a hermaphrodite. Jason Morgan is not raising my child, do you understand me?”

“Fine,” Faith huffed. “But you’ve got to step it up a notch. Take the gloves off, so to speak. You made a mistake trying to snatch her last night and I’ll tell you where you went wrong.”

Ric sank into a chair across from her. “Enlighten me, oh Great One,” he said with mocking reverence.

Faith ignored the tone and smiled in that way of hers when even the coldest man would feel shivers rolling down his spine.

“You can’t kidnap a woman like Elizabeth,” Faith informed him. “She’s under Sonny and Jason’s protection. Sonny feels guilty because you—his brother—has emotionally tormented her for months and Jason is in love with her. You’ll never get her through kidnapping.”

“Well, what the hell do you suggest?” Ric snapped.

“She has to come to you willingly. She has to surrender,” Faith said simply. “And the only way to do that is to prey on her vulnerabilities. Hit her where she hurts. Her family, her friends.” The smirk deepened. “Her baby.” She examined her nails again. “When she feels like the only way to save the people she loves is to come to you, then you’ll win and there won’t be anything Sonny or Jason can do.”

Ric nodded. “Sometimes, Faith—you surprise me.”

Faith snorted. “Men. You always underestimate me.” Her eyes hardened. “You need me, Lansing. Don’t ever cross me or you won’t live to regret it.”

September 9, 2003

Morgan Penthouse

Elizabeth was upstairs in her makeshift studio when she heard the downstairs door open and close.

She stood and immediately crossed the small hallway the connected her studio and the bathroom Jason had finished for her last week. In the hallway, there was a small door—a safety measure he’d insisted on. She pulled it open as quietly as possible and crouched to get inside.

Someone was inside the penthouse that should not be there. She’d spoken to Jason only moments ago and he had not been on his way home. The guards had been instructed to announce all visitors—no matter whether they were Laura Spencer or Sonny himself.

Just one of the many security measures that Jason had insisted on when Elizabeth moved back in a few weeks ago.

She reached for the cell phone that was on a shelf in the room—along with some different sorts of food and a blanket and a pillow on the ground. He couldn’t make it much more comfortable than that and Elizabeth was grateful for the consideration he’d shown her.

“Morgan.”

“Jason—someone’s downstairs,” she said softly. “The door opened and none of the guards called out.”

“Are you in the room?” Jason asked immediately.

Before she could answer, she heard footsteps in her studio. Heavy footsteps. “They’re in the studio,” she breathed—terrified.

Jason, who’d been at the warehouse, was already out the office door and halfway to the parking lot. “Elizabeth, I need you to hang up and call Sonny—”

“No, please don’t—” she broke off as the steps came closer to her little hallway.

“Elizabeth!” Jason nearly shouted in her ear.

“He’s coming closer,” she said almost inaudibly.

“Elizabeth…” it was his voice. She closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing so that he couldn’t hear her. “Come out, come out, wherever you are…”

“Elizabeth—” Jason tried to get her attention.

There was another sound from downstairs. The door open and closed again, “Elizabeth?” Emily called out.

The footsteps in the hallway paused. “Elizabeth, are you? We need to talk!” Emily called out. “There’s no guards on your door but—Elizabeth?”

The footsteps moved rapidly now and exited her studio. She heard them going down the stairs. “Elizabeth?” Emily called out again. There was a scream and then a loud crash and there was nothing.

“Emily,” she breathed, terrified.

“Elizabeth, what the hell is going on?” Jason demanded.

“He was here but Emily came in downstairs. I don’t know what happened—I need to go look—”

“You need to stay right where you are.” He fished his keys from his pocket. “Hang up and call Sonny. I’m on my way home now.”

“Jason, Emily—”

“Stay where you are damn it and don’t come out until Sonny opens the door,” he ordered.

He hung up then and started his bike, praying that she would be safe when he got home.

Elizabeth had no sooner dialed Sonny’s number than the small door was yanked open and Sonny was there. “I heard the crash—where are your guards? What happened?”

Elizabeth launched herself into his arms. “Ric was here. I heard his voice and he kept coming closer and then Emily came in. She screamed and there was this crash—”

“Emily’s not here,” Sonny told her. He sighed. “I guess he got her. Come over to my place—”

“Jason told me to stay where I am,” Elizabeth said softly. Her hands were shaking. “What do you mean he’s got her? What does he want with her? How are we going to get her back?”

“Slow down and take deep breaths. There’s no point in getting yourself upset,” Sonny said. “Jason would want you out of here until we can secure the place and figure out what the hell happened.”

“Okay, okay,” Elizabeth took his arm and he led her out of the room and back down the hall way into the studio. “He knew I was here. He knew I was hiding up here. Sonny—no one is supposed to know about this room.”‘

“I know, I know. We’ll figure it out.”

They were in the hallway when the elevator doors opened. Jason lunged out and breathed the first easy breath since she’d called. “Elizabeth.”

“Jason.” She pulled away from Sonny and went into his arms. “I’m okay.”
He smoothed a hand over the back of her head. “Are you sure? Maybe we should take your blood pressure or take you to the hospital?”

“I’m okay,” Elizabeth repeated. “But I think he’s got Emily.”

“I’ve already got men searching the building,” Sonny interjected. “No one saw him come in or go out but her guards are gone and we’re going to call Zander when we get into the penthouse. He’s supposed to be on her at all times.”

But Jason wouldn’t take his arms from around Elizabeth and even after they were in Sonny’s penthouse and seated on the couch, he still kept his hands on her as if reassuring himself that she was there and she was safe.

They hadn’t announced it or even spoken of it, but the decision to remain married had been an easy one to make even if they hadn’t really made it yet but Jason had called Dara and told her that the annulment was off permanently.

Carly was at her mother’s and it was just as well since her friendship with Elizabeth had come under a lot of strain since Courtney’s return home a few weeks ago.

Sonny called Zander first who had been locked in a closet when Emily snuck out. “He reported that Emily has been talking about clearing the air with Elizabeth for a few days but he’s kept her from doing that because we ordered him to do that.”

“Emily got tired of waiting,” Jason murmured.

The cell phone Elizabeth had used was still clutched in her hand and it jarred her when it rang. No one had that number except for Sonny and Jason so she stared at it for a moment before answering it.

“Don’t listen to him!” she heard Emily shriek in the background.

“Emily!” Elizabeth cried.

“If you want her back, you’ll come to the docks on Friday night,” Ric said smoothly. “Eight sharp, beautiful.” He hung up and Elizabeth started to tremble.

“What happened?” Jason asked immediately. “What did he say? Elizabeth?”

“He’s got her and he wants me to come to the docks at eight on Friday,” Elizabeth whispered. She looked at him. “I have to go.”

“No—you’re not going near him,” Jason said sharply. He stood. “I almost lost you to him twice. I won’t lose you again.”

“Jason, we can set up a trap,” Sonny suggested.

“No—not using her as bait.”

“Jason, I get to make my own decisions,” Elizabeth argued.

“Yes, yes, you do but I get to make some for Laura, don’t I?” Jason remarked. “And I’m not putting our daughter in danger. End of story. No.”

“I can’t argue with that, Elizabeth,” Sonny said with some regret. “We will have to come up with another solution.”

“There is no other solution,” Elizabeth began to protest. But Jason shot her a look and she immediately quieted. She’d work on him later.

“We’ll put men on the dock. They’ll grab Ric—” Jason began.

Elizabeth sighed impatiently and stood. “And he’ll have men waiting in case that happens and if you grab him, they’ll kill Emily. Jason, you’re not thinking clearly and you know it.”

He stared at her for a moment and swallowed hard, looking away. “I won’t hand you over to him, Elizabeth.”

She shook her head slowly. “Jason—Emily may have done something you can’t forgive but she’s your sister. And she loves you. She’s like a sister to me. I can’t ignore that because she hurt me. She needs me to come through for her. She needs to know that I still love her.”

“We’ll find another way,” Jason said stubbornly. “We’ll find where Ric and Faith are and we’ll rescue Emily.”

“And if I don’t show up on Friday, he’ll kill her,” Elizabeth protested. “You can’t find them before that.”

“If I have to lock you inside the penthouse until then, you’re not going,” Jason said bluntly. Sonny coughed loudly to get his attention.

“I think you’re being too rash—”

“You wouldn’t let Carly within a hundred feet of Ric, would you?” Jason challenged.

“No,” Sonny admitted. “But—”

“But nothing. Elizabeth is my wife just as much Carly is yours. She’s pregnant with our child and I am not putting either of them in danger.”

Sonny sighed and shook his head. “Elizabeth, I’m going to have to agree with Jason. I can’t expect him to do something I wouldn’t do in his place.”

Elizabeth closed her eyes. “Jason, this isn’t just about me or Laura, it’s about Emily and—”

“I will find Emily,” Jason told her. “You told me that you didn’t leave me because of my job. That you understood it. Well, trust that I know what I’m doing. That I can handle this. You either trust me, Elizabeth or you don’t.”

“I do trust you,” Elizabeth whispered. “But I know that you believe you will find her and I believe you will try. But this isn’t just about that. Ric and Faith are not your normal enemies. They’re desperate. Ric broke into this building twice and I trusted you to protect me from him. And I believe that you did everything you could stop him. But he made it past the guards and he knew about the room in the hallway and he knew the number no one else is supposed to. Ric is not just any other person, okay? Jason—I’m afraid of what will happen if I don’t go on Friday. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t do something.”

Jason sighed heavily. “I don’t know how Ric got in here. I know that the penthouses aren’t safe anymore.”

“If this place isn’t safe, no place is,” Sonny said quietly. “The safe houses are too isolated. And we can’t take her out of the country. Too many eyes watching.”

“Then I’m putting a guard inside the penthouse and he’ll go everywhere with you,” Jason said stubbornly. “He’ll stand outside the bathroom if he has to. I will do anything to protect you, Elizabeth and I don’t care if you hate me for it.”

She shook her head. “No! I could never hate you. I told you both at the beginning of this that I will do whatever it takes to keep my baby safe. But I can’t ignore my part in this. You warned me about Ric, Jason. And I didn’t listen. Now everyone around me is paying—”

“None of this is your fault,” Jason cut in sharply. “None of it.”

“Jason—”

“We’ll figure out something else,” he told her. He looked at Sonny. “Right?”

“I’m sorry, Elizabeth. You told us that you trusted us to take care of you.” Sonny shrugged and looked at his feet. “You’re staying home Friday night.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell them she’d never forgive them both if something happened to Emily but she knew it would be said out of anger and that she wouldn’t mean it.

For the first time, she bit down and didn’t say the first thing that came to mind. She nodded and looked away. “Fine,” she whispered. “I’m kind of tired,” she told Jason. “Can we go home now?”

He kissed her forehead. “I’m sorry,” Jason said quietly. “I know you’re angry.”

“I’m not angry,” Elizabeth remarked. She looked away. “I’m just tired.”

And guilty.

Unbelievably guilty.

 

September 9, 2003

Somewhere In Port Charles
Emily glared defiantly at Ric. “This is never going to work. Jason hates me. Elizabeth hates me. They won’t come for me.”

Ric smirked. “You underestimate your friend’s loyalty.” He took a seat across from her and started to slice some vegetables. “I hope you’re hungry,” he said.

She just stared at him now—not even struggling with the ropes that bound her. “You are insane.”

“We’re having company for dinner,” Ric continued. “Someone you know very well.” He smiled and there was charm in the expression. “We really couldn’t have done this without their help.”

Someone else had betrayed Elizabeth and Jason, Emily thought as a tight ball of tension formed in her gut. Someone else they loved and they trusted. She closed her eyes. What she wouldn’t do to take it back.

Who was it? A guard? Someone at the warehouse? Someone even closer?

When the person in question stepped into the kitchen twenty minutes later, Emily realized how obvious the choice was.

Courtney.

“Hey, Em,” Courtney greeted warmly. She took a seat at the table and smiled at her. Like Emily wasn’t tied to the chair having just been kidnapped from her brother’s home.

And it made sense. Courtney had been the one to call and suggest they talk to Elizabeth. She’d take care of the guards, Courtney had said. No one would bother them and Elizabeth would have to listen to their apologies.

Ric’s intention had never been to kidnap Elizabeth at the penthouse. It had been to gain leverage.

Please, Emily prayed fervently, let Elizabeth hate me and want me dead. Don’t let her come after me.

“You know I’ve just got Jason’s best interests at heart,” Courtney remarked. “Elizabeth is trying to trap him. And she has no right to keep Ric’s child from him.”

Zander had made Emily watch a tape of that night in Elizabeth’s apartment and she’d watched in horror at what she’d been to blame for. Elizabeth had been emotionally brutalized because of her insecurities and her betrayal.

She’d finally understood her best friend’s terror.

“Elizabeth doesn’t need to trap Jason into anything,” Emily said flatly. “He loves her. And Ric’s a psycho. I’d say she has every right in the world.” She smiled at Ric. “You’ve been stripped of parental rights, by the way.”

Ric glanced up at her sharply. “In the States, that means something. I bring Elizabeth somewhere else, I make her sign Laura over to me—”

“She’ll never do that,” Emily said sharply. “Never. I made the mistake of trusting you once, now I know better. The second you have your hands on Laura, you’ll kill Elizabeth.”

Ric shrugged. “No use for her.” He looked at Courtney. “Chicken stir-fry all right with you?”

“Fine.”

“And if you do that, you’d better pray it’s Sonny who finds you and not Jason.” Emily pressed her lips together and narrowed her eyes. “My brother protects the people he loves and he loves his wife and his baby.”

Courtney narrowed her eyes. “She’s trapped him. He loves children. She knows that. She’s using that baby—”

“Elizabeth doesn’t have to trap him. He loves her. He will do anything for her,” Emily said coldly. “He already wanted you dead, Ric, but God help him if he finds you now. After what you did to her last month in her apartment…”

Ric shrugged. “I got impatient. This will work. Elizabeth feels guilty. I know her, Emily, and I know she feels guilty that you betrayed your brother because of her. She’ll want to fix it. She’ll come Friday night.” His lips curved into a cruel smile. “And I’ll make her understand she can’t run from me.”

Morgan Penthouse

Elizabeth rubbed her arms and stared out the window. “I’m not angry,” she repeated.

Jason sighed and rested his hands on her shoulders. “I’m just not ready to lose you. You mean so much to me.”

“I know what Emily did was wrong,” she said slowly, “but I know why she did it. People do crazy things to protect people they love.”

“I will find her,” Jason pledged. “But I won’t risk losing you and Laura.”

Elizabeth turned and met his eyes with a sober look in hers. “Jason—”

“I’m tightening security.” He moved away from her and picked up the phone at the desk. “I don’t want you leaving the penthouse without me and I’m putting a guard in here at all times. He’ll go everywhere with you.”

She frowned. “Jason—”

“I don’t want you alone.”

“You don’t want me to have an opportunity to sneak out.” Elizabeth tried to find some indignant anger but failed. “You know me very well.”

His smile was humorless. “You love Emily. I know you’d go to bat for her.”

“I’m going, Jason.”

“No you’re not,” he said quickly. “If I have to tie you to your bed, you’re not leaving this penthouse. Damn it, Elizabeth, do I have to lock you in here?”

“Jason.” She closed her eyes. “Jason, please try to understand—”

“You’re my wife,” he bit out. “And you’re pregnant—”

“And the only reason you married me was because there was no other choice,” Elizabeth said coldly. “For all your grand talk about wanting to stay married and caring about me and not wanting to lose me, if this hadn’t happened, you’d still be with her.”

He stared at her for a moment before looking away. “Why do you have to think like that?” he asked softly. “What good does it to do to think what if?”

“It’s not a what if. It’s a fact.” Suddenly, she felt so tired and worn out. She leaned against the pool table. “Maybe in twenty years, I’ll be able reconcile myself to that. That we’ll be married because there was no other choice and it was just easier to stay together.”

“That’s—it’s not like that.” Jason moved towards her. “Elizabeth, I want—”

“You’ve had a year to tell me what you want.” She looked up at him and her eyes were empty. Cold. “All you had to that night was tell me you were sorry. That you’d hurt me. That you’d lied.”

“I am sorry—”

“But you let me walk out. And you never once told me you cared. Never once said you missed me. And I let Ric make me believe he was better than you because I was just so desperate to believe someone could love me.”

“Elizabeth, I want to be married to you,” Jason told her again. “I want a life with you—”

“I want that, too.” She felt so empty. “I want that enough that I’m going to try really hard to not remember why we got married. That at our wedding, you came close to drinking yourself into oblivion and if Sammy Tagliatti hadn’t pulled that stunt, you would have.”

“Elizabeth—”

“You didn’t want to marry me, Jason. And that’s okay. I can learn to accept that.” She rubbed her forehead. “I didn’t want to marry you either.”

That bothered him somehow. “Why?” he asked, regretting the question almost as soon as he’d asked it.

“Because I knew that. I knew that you only married because Carly came up with the idea and Sonny suggested you. Because you would do anything he asked you to.” She closed her eyes. “And I knew that I loved you.”

“Elizabeth,” Jason began but he stopped. He didn’t know what to say to that—didn’t know what he could say.

“I’m going on Friday, Jason. Because I will never be able to live with myself if I don’t. I know I’ve asked you for a lot since we met but I have to do this.” She met his eyes. “Jason, please.”

For the first time since they’d met—he shook his head. “I can’t let you. You told me that you were upset that I let you go once. That I let you walk out and that I never told you I cared. I’m not making that mistake again.”

She nodded slowly. “All right. I won’t lie to you, Jason. I’m going to find a way to go on Friday. You can try to stop me. You can put guards on me. You can do whatever you think you have to do. But Emily is my best friend. And she would do this for me.”

“She almost got you killed!” Jason exploded. “God damn it, Elizabeth, you’re too forgiving!”

“Maybe,” Elizabeth allowed. “But no one seemed to bat an eye when Carly turned Sonny into the police because it’s just something right up her alley. And even when they were apart, Sonny would have done anything for her. But because this is Emily, because this isn’t something she would do—I’m supposed to just hate her forever. To let her die for something I did—”

“You didn’t do anything!” Jason retorted.

“I knew something was wrong with Ric. That he didn’t add up. But I thought he loved me. And that seemed more important.” She straightened and started for the stairs. “I’m going to bed.”

“Elizabeth—” he called but she ignored him. A few minutes later, her bedroom door clicked shut and he exhaled slowly.

Corinthos Penthouse

Jason sat downstairs in the penthouse alone for about fifteen minutes before he realized Elizabeth wasn’t coming back down.

It was time to start discussing action, he decided. He left the penthouse—but not before leaving a scrawled note that he was at Sonny’s. He didn’t want her to worry.

Carly was on the couch, eating a plate of strawberries and listening to Michael reading out loud in his halting voice. “It’s free-dum, not free-dome,” she murmured, correcting him.

“Where’s Sonny?” Jason asked. “I have to talk to him.”

“He’s in the kitchen. I threatened something about Oreos and he disappeared in there to sulk.” Carly sighed. “The man just does not change.”

Jason nodded shortly before offering Michael a smile. “Sounds like the reading’s going okay.”

Michael shrugged. “It doesn’t suck.”

Jason ruffled the little boy’s red hair before going into the kitchen where Sonny was chopping some cucumbers and muttering something about vegetables. “Ric and Faith are in the city,” he said shortly.

Sonny glanced up. “Can’t know that for sure. Ric grabbed Emily hours ago and honestly—” He sighed heavily. “We can’t be sure that Emily didn’t set this up with them.”

Jason sank onto one of the high wooden stools. “I know. But Elizabeth seems to believe otherwise.”

“I will say that this would be something that would directly hurt Elizabeth,” Sonny considered, “and Emily seemed to just want you to be safe. She didn’t arrange for Elizabeth to be on her own or lose her guards. She handed information that Faith wanted in exchange for the ending of the marriage.”

“She was being naïve if she thought Faith wouldn’t use that information for her benefit,” Jason scowled. “And Elizabeth is just being so damn stubborn—she’s insisting that she’s going on Friday and nothing I can say will change her mind.”

“She’s loyal, Jason. The two of you have that in common.” Sonny dumped the cucumber slices into a bowl and pulled out some carrots to start dicing them. “I still don’t see why—”

“And she thinks we’re only married because of Ric,” Jason muttered. He stared at his hands.

“Well…you are,” Sonny reminded him.

“We got married because of him, we’re staying married because…” Jason stopped and shook his head. “She’s just upset right now. She’ll be fine. We’ll be fine.”

“Why are you staying married?” Sonny asked. “Because it’s easier than finding the woman you really want to be with forever? Because you want to be Laura’s father?”

“Why does everyone think being married to Elizabeth is easy?” Jason replied sharply. “She thinks I’m taking the easy way out by staying. You think I’m just tired of looking for the right woman. Well to hell with you both.”

He stormed out of the kitchen and when Sonny heard the front door slam shut, he smiled faintly.

Spencer House

Jason raised his hand to knock on the door but faltered. Laura Spencer knew Elizabeth almost better than anyone else. She was the mother Elizabeth had never known and her only real confidante now that Carly had pulled away from her, Audrey had disowned her and Emily had betrayed her.

If anyone could tell him to how to make Elizabeth see the truth, it would be Laura.

But he wasn’t sure he wanted anyone to tell him anything. If Elizabeth couldn’t understand—couldn’t see what he felt for her, why did he want to kill himself trying to prove it to her? That he was married to her because he wanted to be—that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

“The door doesn’t bite,” Luke drawled and Jason turned. “Something wrong with Lizzie?”

Jason sighed. “Ric was at the penthouse today. He got past the guards.”

Luke climbed the remaining steps and grabbed Jason’s arm tightly. “Where is she? Why the hell weren’t we called?”

“She’s fine. Emily came over and Ric grabbed her instead. We need to meet with Sonny later to figure out what to do now.”

Luke nodded. “We’ll get the pipsqueak back,” he told Jason. “She ain’t done answering for her actions and I’ll be damned if I don’t get a chance to yell at her.” He pulled his keys out of his pocket but before he inserted the key into the lock, he frowned. “Why were you just standing here?”

“I came to talk to Laura,” Jason admitted.

“Laura, huh?” Luke smirked and let his hand fall to his side. “You have a fight with the wife?”

Jason looked away. “No,” he said sourly.

“Uh huh.” Luke studied him. “What’d she say to you, Morgan? You look more miserable than usual.”

Jason shook his head. “It doesn’t matter—”

“Saying crap like that is a sure way to lose her for good.” Luke shifted. “I ain’t good with advice—that’s my woman’s department but I do know Lizzie. She’s like a daughter to me and I’ve watched her grow up. Survive things no girl her age needs to have gone through. I want to see her happy and settled.”

“She will be,” Jason stated. “If she just stops waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

It dawned on Luke then and he nodded. “She’s thinking about why you two got married and trying to work it out in her head why you’d want to stay that way.” He pressed his lips together and continued to nod. “She won’t let herself even think of the most obvious reason.”

“She thinks I’m taking the easy way out,” Jason said, irritation bleeding through his words. “She’s made her mind up.”

“Then you just got to swallow your pride and tell her you love her.” Luke tilted his head to the side. “Which you do, you know. Even if you’re trying to deny it. You love her and she loves you. Doesn’t matter why you’re married or how it happened. Only matters where you go from here.”

Jason hesitated. “But—”

“It’s time you two stop doing this god damn tango. If you hadn’t been afraid of your own shadow a year ago, none of this would be happening,” Luke scowled. “Go home and tell your wife you love her. Me and the posse will be at the Corinthos joint in about an hour.”

He slid the key into the lock, opened the door and was inside all in the second it took Jason to realize he was actually contemplating taking the other man’s advice.

September 9, 2003

Morgan Penthouse

Elizabeth slipping her feet into a pair of sandals when Jason came home twenty minutes later. She looked at him, slightly guilty. “I was only going to Sonny’s,” she told him.

“I know. We’re all meeting there in about a half hour.” He took her hand and led her back to the couch. “We need to talk.”

“We really said it all before—” Elizabeth began but he shook his head.

“Maybe you did, but I didn’t.” She sat down and he sat on the edge on the coffee table. “Part of what you said is right. The reason we got married was because you were in danger. But that’s how I justified it to myself.”

She furrowed her brow and shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

“When Carly came up with this plan…my first instinct was to volunteer because…” he hesitated. “I wanted to. Even before we got into the details of who to marry because of their standing in the organization. I wanted to be the one who married you.”

“But—”

“I told myself that I was just protecting you—that I had promised you once to always look after you but the day of the wedding…when you walked down the aisle—part of me wished that you wanted it, too.”

“I did,” she said softly. Elizabeth stared at their joined hands, his gold wedding ring resting next to her matching ring. “I do.”

“Before I met you, I didn’t understand people who had regrets—who didn’t do or say the things they wished they had because I thought it just made life easier if you told the truth all the time every time.” He shifted and struggled to put this into words. “But I understand that the truth can be…it can be scary because you’re not just being honest with the other person, but with yourself and I wasn’t ready to face how I felt about you.”

“Why not?” Elizabeth asked, her voice catching. “What was so wrong with me?”

“Nothing,” Jason replied instantly. “It wasn’t…it’s not you. The way you make me feel—it’s not like anything I’ve ever felt before. For anyone. There were times when you lived here last year that I would come home in the middle of the night and you would have fallen asleep on the couch—waiting for me, I guess, and I would just think—I don’t deserve someone who waits for me like this.”

“You do,” Elizabeth said fiercely. “But—”

“I wanted to keep you in this penthouse for the rest of our lives, to keep you away from anything that could hurt you,” Jason confessed. “I didn’t want my life to touch you, to change you.”

“You can’t protect me all of the time,” she murmured.

“No—but I can try. And that’s why the thought of you going to meet Ric terrifies me. Because you’ll be stepping into a situation that I can only control to a certain extent.”

“Jason…”

“I went to Laura, hoping she could tell me what I could say to you but I found Luke instead,” Jason admitted.

“Luke gave you advice?” Elizabeth asked with a wry smile.

“He told me that he loved you like a daughter—that he just wanted to see you safe and settled. And happy.” Jason hesitated. “And I realize that you need more than just an agreement to stay married.”

“Staying married was the easiest decision I ever made,” Elizabeth told him. “I don’t need more—”

“But if I had just told you everything, maybe it wouldn’t have had to be a decision,” Jason interrupted.

“I don’t understand.”

“I love you, Elizabeth.” He said this to her hands but the words still knocked the breath out of her and she just stared at his bowed head for a moment. He raised his head and met her eyes and repeated it. “I love you.”

She blinked and tried to open her mouth to reply. She closed it after a few moments and swallowed hard. “I told you that I loved you today but—I didn’t do it right.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “I love you, Jason. I love you so much.”

He exhaled in a quick breath as if he’d just been holding it in—waiting for her to return the words. “In twenty years, when we look back on our marriage, I don’t want you to think that we stayed together because it was easier than being apart.”

“I won’t,” Elizabeth promised.

“Because if you love me and I love you, then this is a real marriage,” he continued, “and neither of us can walk away from that.”

“I agree.”

“If you need us to get married again—or just renew our vows, I can do that—”

“Jason—” Elizabeth pressed two fingers to his lips. “I don’t need anything but you.” She replaced her fingers with her mouth and kissed him long and deep, trying to convince him that by saying the words—he’d healed whatever wounds had been ripped open again.

Corinthos Penthouse

Carly tapped her fingers against her water glass impatiently before tossing a glare at her husband for finding her cookie stash and confiscating it.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t see any other solution,” Nikolas said. “We can take all the precautions necessary but Elizabeth has to go on Friday.”

Elizabeth nodded but Jason resolutely shook his head. “No,” he repeated.

“Jason, it’s not like he’ll have much of a chance to hurt her,” Carly tried to assure him. “I mean—you’ll be like four feet away behind a bush.”

“Elizabeth is too far along in a very difficult pregnancy to put herself through something like this,” Laura argued. “I have to agree with Jason.”

“I think having Elizabeth go is the best solution—” at a dark look from his wife, Luke hastened to continue, “but I can’t tell her to do it. Not when she’s pregnant.”

Lucky nodded. “I love Emily and I want her home safely but not at the risk of Elizabeth and the baby. I think even Em wouldn’t want you to do this.”

Nikolas snorted. “Emily lost her rights to have a say when she turned Elizabeth over to the wolves,” he muttered.

“She had her reasons,” Lucky shot back.

“I can’t ask Jason to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do,” Sonny said. “And you wouldn’t send Laura either, Luke.”

“I would respect my wife and allow her to make up her own mind,” Luke said diplomatically.

Carly rolled her eyes. “You mean Laura would tell you she was going and that would be the end of it. It must be nice to have some control in your marriage.” She shot another look at Sonny.

“You’re not getting the Oreos,” Sonny retorted. “Sending Elizabeth is the best solution—we’re all in agreement. But it’s not a solution that’s viable. The purpose of tonight is come up with another one.”

“It’s clear that someone else was working with them on the inside,” Luke said. “Someone who knew the guards and could get past them. Who had knowledge of all the security improvements we made in the penthouse. Is there anyone who knew?”

“No. We only told those who had to know. The only people who had that cell phone number were myself, Elizabeth and Jason.”

“Well, that’s not true.” Carly sat up. “I knew it.”

Sonny swung to look at her. “How?”

“When you got the phone in, you wrote the number on a piece of paper on the desk over there and left it sitting there for a few days until you had it committed to memory.” Carly shrugged. “Anyone who came in during that time would have seen it if they looked. You didn’t label it but it was a cell number and it’s not a huge thing to drop some money to the cell company you use to find out whose number it is.”

She looked to Elizabeth. “Did you ever get any hang ups? Or missed calls?”

“Once,” Elizabeth admitted. “Not long after I got the phone. I said hello and they hung up.” She sighed. “I thought it was just a wrong number.”

“What about the secret room?” Sonny asked pointedly.

“Well, anyone could have asked the construction workers. Especially if it’s someone who works for you.” Carly sighed. “You’re very naïve, Sonny, if you think just telling people not to talk about it works.”

“It can’t be just one of the guards. There’s no one we trusted except for Andrew and he’s loyal,” Jason said slowly. “He’d lay his life down for you,” he told Elizabeth.

“It really can’t be Andrew,” Elizabeth agreed. “Well—Emily showing up here like she did can’t just be a coincidence. Maybe someone called her over here as a distraction.”

Lucky frowned. “No. She was the intended victim all along,” he realized. He looked to his dad. “Emily was here and Ric only grabbed her. He could have knocked Em out and still gone for Elizabeth but he only grabbed Emily.”

“He’s right,” Laura nodded. “They know grabbing Elizabeth would never work—not after failing so many times. The only way to do it is to get Elizabeth to come to him.”

“Which I would never do without a reason. And Emily’s the reason.” Elizabeth looked to Jason. “I have go on Friday, Jason.”

“Elizabeth, I thought we settled this.”

“I trust you,” she told him. She looked around the room. “I trust all of you to keep me safe and take all the necessary precautions. We have to buy some time to figure out who betrayed us. I have to go on Friday and find out what terms Ric wants to set.”

Luke sighed. “I don’t like it, kid. I don’t like it at all.”

“Elizabeth—” Jason began.

“I know you won’t let anything happen to me.” She took his hand in hers. “I have to do this. Can you support me?”

After a long moment, Jason finally nodded. “I can support you. But you have to promise you’ll do it our way. What we say goes. If we tell you to get out of there, you have to promise you’ll listen.” He hesitantly rested a hand on her protruding abdomen. “We’re risking so much.”

“I promise,” Elizabeth pledged.