This is a direct sequel to the Flash Fiction series, Darkest Before the Dawn.

Written in 55 minutes. Time for a basic spell check but no for typos.

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February 2013

Port Charles Park: Ice Rink

“Are you blind?” Elizabeth Webber shot to her feet, cupped her hands around her mouth — “Hey, Ref! Get your eyes checked!”
“
“That’s crap!” Patrick Drake shouted from her side, dragging his hand through his slightly shaggy dark hair.

Sitting next to them, Jason Morgan just frowned, then looked at the rest of the parents in the stand—who were all on their feet, screaming obscenities that were a lot worse than Patrick and Elizabeth.

“She doesn’t look like she’d be a crazy sports mom, does she?” Laura Spencer mused as she picked up her grandson, two-year-old Aiden Webber, and cuddled him in her lap. “I’ll talk to Spencer about trying to decapitate Cameron. I promise.”

“He’s just mad that Emma made Cameron a nicer card for Valentine’s Day,” Elizabeth muttered as she sat back down. “And he keeps calling Cam a townie—”

“He likes to ignore the fact that he lives in town now, too,” Laura said dryly. “We’re working on it—” She winced as Spencer’s skates slid out from underneath him, and the eight-year-old started to slide across the ice. “Oh, no—”

“He’s back up,” Jason said, reassuring her. He winced as Spencer Cassadine got back to his feet, unsteadily, and started to skate in Cameron’s direction.

“I wear to God if that referee calls one more foul on my kid,” Elizabeth said, her teeth clenched. “And—hey!” She lunged to her feet again as Spencer bypassed Cameron and headed for Emma Scorpio-Drake.

“Oh, I know he’s not going after my kid!” Patrick said with a scowl.

“They know they’re talking about kids, right?” Jason asked Laura a bit dubiously. This was a side of Elizabeth he’d never seen before — but maybe it shouldn’t surprise him. She’d always been fiercely loyal to the people she loved and there was no one she loved more than her boys. It made sense it would translate to supporting them in sports, but this—

He found himself grinning as the referee managed to grab the back of Spencer’s uniform before he was able to finish swiping out with his stick towards Emma. Patrick’s daughter turned, narrowed her eyes, and launched herself at the Cassadine — the two kids hit the ice and started rolling around, shoving each other.

“Just like her mother,” Jason said, with a slow exhale. Robin had never taken shit from anyone, and he knew from experience she could throw a punch.

Elizabeth heard him, then smiled at him. “Yeah, Robin taught Emma how to defend herself. But—”

“There it is,” Laura said with a sigh, as Cameron launched himself on the two of them, dragging Spencer away from Emma, and the irritated umpire ejected all three of them. “I guess we’d better go get them.”

“I’m buying Emma all the ice cream she wants,” Patrick told Elizabeth as they trooped down from the stands and headed over to pick up their kids. It wasn’t the first game that the trio had been thrown out of, and they were used to the routine by now.

It was Jason’s first time making it to one of the games, and while he’d heard about the bitter rivalry, it was something to see the eight-year-olds all trying to kill each other. They could probably hold their own against Carly in her heyday.

“You know, Cameron told me that Joss gave him a Valentine,” Elizabeth said, as if reading Jason’s thoughts. She took Aiden from Laura and grinned at him. “I think that’s going to complicate things.”

Jason winced. “Oh, man. Joss takes after her mother, so—”

“It’s not my fault,” Emma said immediately as the adults reached them. Standing next to them was their beleaguered coach who was not having a great day.

“Mrs. Spencer,” Dustin Phillips said, with a sigh to Laura. “We’ve talked about Spencer’s sportsmanship—”

Spencer gasped. “He attacked me!” He jabbed a finger at Cameron who stuck his tongue out at his cousin. “You—you—you townie!” Spencer launched himself at Cameron all over again and would have reached him if Jason hadn’t waded in and grabbed Laura’s grandson — Elizabeth got her son, and they dragged them apart again.

“We’re working on it,” Laura said. “But in my defense, I told the league not to put them on the same team.”

“One more ejection, and I’m cutting all three of them,” Dustin said. He went back to the kids still playing.

“You’re ruining it for all of us!” Emma screaming, stomping her foot at Spencer. Her cheek was cut. “And you’re the townie, you dink!”

“I am not a townie! I live on an island!”

“You live on Charles Street you—” Emma went after him, intending to deliver a kick to the shins, but Patrick grabbed his daughter.

“Well, this has been fun,” he said dryly. “But I’ll take my kid home before she does anymore damage.”

“It’s not fair, Dad!” Emma complained as the Drakes walked towards their car. “He’s such a brat!”

Spencer glared at Cameron with an utter look of loathing that might have worried Jason if he wasn’t eight. “You turned her against me!”

“All right, all right—that’s enough!” Laura snapped. She grabbed Spencer’s shoulder and shook him slightly. “You went after that girl on the ice, Spencer Cassadine! And you tried to hit your cousin—”

“He is not my cousin!” Spencer wiped his nose, then glared at Cameron. “Uncle Lucky said you’re just a bastard—”

“Shut up!” Cameron roared, and then he was airborne, tackling Spencer to the gravel parking lot, then punched him square in the face before Jason was able to grab him, lifting him in the air, still kicking wildly.

“I’ll kill him! Let me kill him!”

Shaken slightly, Laura pulled her grandson to his feet, looking at Elizabeth with a blank expression. “I—”

“We should go,” Elizabeth said, tightly, sliding a hand down Aiden’s back as the toddler started to cry. Jason put Cameron on the ground, but kept an arm around his shoulders, holding him back.

“I think that’s a good idea. I’ll—I’ll talk to him.” Laura leaned forward to kiss Aiden’s cheek, then tried to hug Cameron, but he turned his face away from her. “I love you, baby,” she murmured, brushing his hair back. “I’ll call you,” she told Elizabeth, before taking Spencer’s hand and dragging him away.

“I want to go home,” Cameron said, flatly. He shrugged away from Jason and stalked towards their car.

Webber Home: Hallway

“Hey.” Jason touched the small of Elizabeth’s back as she left Aiden’s room, switching on the night light and closing the door. “Why don’t you let me put Cameron to bed?”

“I—” Elizabeth sighed, looked down the hallway towards her oldest’s room. “I don’t know. You think that’s a good idea? I mean—God, if Spencer’s right—I can’t believe—” Distressed, she looked away, swiping at her eyes.

“You’re still upset,” Jason told her. “And you know Cameron doesn’t like to see you cry. I’ll talk to him, and see if he’s up to talking tonight. Otherwise, it might be better if we gave him some space.”

“All right.” She clenched her hand in his shirt briefly before releasing it. “I’ll be in the bedroom if you need me.”

He kissed her forehead, and they separated. He waited to hear their bedroom door click shut before he knocked on Cameron’s door.

“I don’t need to be tucked in. Go away.”

“I just wanted to say good night,” Jason said. “Can I come in for a minute?”

“Jason?” There was a sigh. “Fine.”

Jason pushed open the door, then went inside the room to find Cameron sitting up in his bed, already dressed in his Captain America pajamas. He eyed Jason suspiciously. “Why are you here and not my Mom?”

“I can go get her,” Jason offered, closing the door, then leaning against it.”

Cameron shrugged a shoulder, then stared at his blanket. “It’s fine,” he said dully. “Spencer is a doofus. I know that.”

“He doesn’t seem like a nice kid,” Jason agreed.

“And I don’t care what Lucky says about me,” Cameron said in a small voice. “He’s not my dad. I know that. He doesn’t want me. He only calls Aiden. And he never comes to see him either. I don’t care—” His voice trembled slightly.

Jason stepped forward, perched on the edge of the bed. “It’s okay to be hurt,” he said softly. “There’s nothing wrong with admitting it.”

“I don’t need him,” Cameron said. He looked up, his blue eyes burning into Jason’s. “My mom is best mom ever. She’s all I need. I don’t need Lucky. I don’t need you either.”

“Okay.”

Cameron looked away, then a tear slid down his cheek. Then another. “I miss Jake.”

Jason exhaled on a shaky breath. Cameron didn’t often talk about his little brother, and he and Elizabeth were both careful not to reminisce about him often around the boys. “I do, too.”

“You were his real dad, weren’t you?”

“I—I was,” Jason admitted.

Cameron swiped his hand under his nose. “My real dad is dead. Spencer said his dad said my dad was a bad person. Was he? Did you know him?”

“I did know him,” Jason said carefully. “And Zander was…he knew how to get himself into trouble. But I know your mother liked him. And my sister—Aunt Emily—she loved him. She was married to him for a little while. He wasn’t all bad, Cameron. He just didn’t make a lot of good choices.”

“Mom says I have to be nice to Spencer because his dad just dumped on him Grandma Laura, and she didn’t want him stuck in boarding school. His mom is dead. And his dad doesn’t want him. So I guess—I mean—” Cameron sighed. “I’d be really mad at everyone if my mom dumped me on someone.”

“It sounds like a tough situation.”

“But my mom would never do that,” Cameron told Jason. “Never.”

“No, your mom would walk through fire for you. And your brothers.” Had walked through fire, Jason remembered.

“I’m sorry I said I don’t need you,” Cameron muttered. “I like that you live here now. Christmas was more fun this year.” He peeked up at Jason. “Mom smiles a lot now. More than since Jake died. Last year was hard.”

“I’m glad we’re together. I love your mother. And I love you and your brother,” Jason told him.

“You’re not going to leave, are you?” Cameron cleared his throat. “I mean, you and my mom—you’re gonna marry her, right? I don’t want her to cry again.”

“That’s something your mom and I have talked about,” Jason told him. “But I’m not going anywhere. There’s no where I’d rather be.”

“Okay.” Cameron nodded. “Okay. I’m okay,” he said, and this time it sounded like he meant it. “Tell mom I’m okay. She was right. Spencer is awful, but I think—I know what it’s like for a dad to dump you. And if my mom were gone—if I never knew her—man, that would suck.”

Cameron had his mother’s soft heart and kindness — with Zander’s recklessness. God help the world, Jason thought as he helped the eight-year-old climb under the blankets.

“Hey, Jason?” Cameron asked as Jason switched off the lamp on the night stand.

“Yeah, buddy?”

“You promise you’re not leaving?”

“I promise.” Jason ruffled his blonde hair, then Cameron grinned, turned over, and closed his eyes. “Good night, buddy.”

“Night, Jason.”

Elizabeth was pacing when Jason went into their room, biting the nail of her thumb as she walked from the window to the end of the bed, before turning around and starting again. At Jason’s entrance, she whirled around.

“Is he okay? Does he need me?”

“He’s fine. He’s probably already asleep.” Jason rubbed his hands down her arms. “By the time I left, he’d already reminded himself that Spencer has it pretty rough right now — and Cameron says he knows how it feels to have a dad dump him, and how much worse it would be not to have his mom.”

Elizabeth groaned, then let her head drop against his chest. “Oh, God. I tried so hard not to let Cameron feel Lucky’s leaving like this. Lucky was already not doing much with the boys by the time he left the country—but he never calls Cameron—”

“He doesn’t blame you,” Jason assured her. “In fact, you’re the only person in the world he does believe in one hundred percent, so you’re doing something right.”

“Something,” Elizabeth muttered. She sighed, pulled away from him, then sat on the bed. “You’re sure he’s okay?”

“Yeah. He was mad at first, but he’s okay. He’s a good kid, Elizabeth. A good kid who’s asking questions about Zander, by the way. Apparently, Spencer also told him Nikolas said Zander was a bad person—”

“I could really kill the two of them right now,” Elizabeth snarled. “Talking like that in front of Spencer—What were they thinking? I liked it better when they hated each other—” She dragged a hand through her hair. “What did you say?”

“That Zander wasn’t a bad person. He just didn’t make great choices. That you liked him. That Emily loved him.” Jason hesitated. “Cameron seemed worried I might leave.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth blinked at him. “Oh. Well, I guess—I mean, you only moved in a few weeks ago. Maybe we rushed it. Did we rush it?” She chewed on her lip. “I just—I want so bad to be a better mom than I had, but I think I keep messing it up—”

“You’re an amazing mother,” Jason told her. “And Cameron would be the first to tell you that. No, I think he’s just been through a lot. Losing Jake. Then Lucky moving away — me moving in. It’s been a lot.”

“Right.” Elizabeth frowned. “We’re not going to have this fight again, are we?”

“No,” Jason said. “I asked you to marry me. And you wanted time. This was a compromise. And we didn’t fight the last time,” he reminded her. “But I’m in this. For good.”

“Jason—”

“It’s okay that you don’t believe me yet,” Jason said. “But this is what I want. You and the boys. It’s all I ever wanted. When we talked about getting married four years ago, one of the things I wanted to do was adopt Cameron.”

Elizabeth stared at him, her eyes widening. “Jason—”

“I know Aiden—I know Aiden has a relationship with Lucky, and I don’t want to mess that up. And if you think it’s not a good idea—”

“You want to adopt Cameron?”

“I’ve always loved him,” Jason told her. “Because he was yours. And then because he’s Cameron. Lucky had the chance to be his father—he doesn’t want it. I do. I can’t—it’s not about making up for not being there for Jake.”

“I didn’t say it was—”

“It’s about this life we’re building together.”

“I’d—” She hesitated. “I want to talk to Cameron about it. But, Jason—” She leaned forward, kissed him, fisting her hand in his shirt. “I love you. For wanting it.”

“I love you, too.”

Written in 48 minutes.  Basic spell check not did not read for typos.

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Kelly’s: Diner

“First,” Laura said with a sigh as the waitress set down her iced tea and Elizabeth’s soda, “let me apologize.”

“Laura—”

“No.” Laura shook her head and held up her hand. “Absolutely not. You’re going to start apologizing to me again about what happened two years ago and I’m not interested. It’s not my business. This current situation is not about that.”

“Isn’t it?” Elizabeth sighed. “Lucky left town and ignores the boys. Nikolas left—”

“Having issues with the mother of his children does not give my son the excuse to say the things Spencer overheard. And I’m sorry—” Laura lifted her brows. “What exactly does Nikolas have to complain about?”

Elizabeth pressed her lips together. “I—I don’t know—”

“You made a mistake,” Laura said gently. She tilted her head. “You made some poor choices a few years ago when you were hurting, you were confused, and neither of my sons acted well. Before or after any of it. I’m sorry you were all hurt, but at the end of the day, Elizabeth, maybe it was for the best.”

Elizabeth slowly blinked, then focused on her former mother-in-law. “I’m sorry. Come again?”

“If I had known—if I had been here when Lucky had the drug addiction—” Laura sighed. “If I had been here to see how he treated you—you never would have married him again. Because I would have killed him—”

“Laura—”

“No! I spent too many years of my life thinking that I had to sacrifice everything to be Luke’s wife. I won’t watch you apologize over and over again—” Her voice trembled slightly. “You’ve been through enough, Elizabeth. And I’m angry that my sons continue to put you through this. Spencer and I had a very long discussion about what he’s said about Cameron.”

“Cameron is trying not to be angry or hurt,” Elizabeth told Laura. “Jason talked to him last night, and Cameron remembered what I’d told him about Spencer having a tough time and taking it out on him. Not that it makes it right or—”

“But it’s a good lesson for Cameron to learn some empathy,” Laura nodded. “And I’m so glad Jason was there for him. I’m so glad to see you happy again. Jason clearly loves you, and he adores the boys. If my son can’t step up and by a good father—” She tightened her mouth. “Either of them—well, then I don’t want to know them.”

“I’m just surprised Nikolas dropped Spencer on you like that last fall,” Elizabeth said. “He loved Spencer. Loves him. I can almost understand Lucky—almost—” she added when Laura narrowed her eyes. “But Nikolas—”

“He said he was in the middle of something and he wanted Spencer to be with family. He refused to give me more details. And he rarely calls either of us.” Laura grimaced. “I’m worried about him, but short of going to Greece myself and dragging him home—I don’t know what else to do.”

“I wanted to run something by you that Jason suggested,” Elizabeth said. “Um, a few years ago—Jason and I were—we were thinking about getting married. That—that fell through obviously. But he’d planned to…” Her voice tightened. “We were going to raise the boys. Lucky was already spending less time with them, and he wanted to adopt Cameron then.”

“I thought you told me you didn’t think you’d get married again,” Laura said.

“I—I don’t know. Um, Jason knows how I feel about that. We…” Elizabeth sighed, pushed her salad around with her fork. “We argued about it. I know he’d say we didn’t. But we did. He’s…he’s still trying to prove that he’s staying, and I don’t need proof. I just need him to do it. But I don’t think marriage is in the cards for me. I’m—I’m not good at it. But—I could—he was wondering if maybe adopting Cameron was something we could do.”

Laura pursed her lips. “And you’re not sure?”

“I am…” Elizabeth searched for the right words. “Apprehensive. I know Jason wouldn’t suggest it if he didn’t mean it. But I also know—I know that legal ties should mean something. And they don’t always. I mean—I had a legal tie to Lucky twice. And well…” She jerked a shoulder. “And Jason and I have been engaged. I’ve heard these promises before.”

“I’m surprised Jason moved in when you’re still so unsure,” Laura said. “Are you sure that was the right choice?”

“I don’t know.” Elizabeth met Laura’s eyes. “But I don’t know what time was going to change. If he’s staying, then he’s staying. And I wanted him to know that I’m trying hard to trust it. Trust him. And I do most of the time. I think it’s me. He hasn’t done a single thing since—God—since September—and I can’t quite bring myself to go all in.”

“It’s hard, sweetie. I know that. When Luke and I divorced the first time, that was the right choice.” Laura paused. “We had just gone so far down the wrong path and we needed a change. If…If I hadn’t had my breakdown, I think maybe he and I could have made it. But time had changed us too much by the time I recovered. He’d changed too much. But I loved him so much, I wonder if he came to me and asked to take just one more chance—” Laura smiled wistfully. “I wonder if I’d be able to resist.”

“That’s kind of how I feel sometimes,” Elizabeth admitted. “And I start to think this is just another version of what happened with Lucky. I loved him so much for so long, and losing him broke me in so many pieces — I kept trying so hard to get it back. For ten years, Laura. With Jason—it’s—we never had a chance. Not really. We were engaged for a total of ten minutes. Ten minutes of perfection.” She swiped a tear. “Sometimes I think we’re just together because we miss Jake. We feel guilty.”

“Have you talked to Jason about this?” Laura asked softly.

“No. Because it’s…it’s fleeting. And I think it’s me. Because I’m scared so I make up reasons to explain the fear. Because this isn’t like Lucky. We’re not building old dreams — Jason’s—Jason’s all in. I know it. He’d marry me tomorrow if I agreed.”

“It doesn’t matter if Jason’s all in,” Laura told her. “It matters if you are. Do you want to be?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” She cleared her throat. “Because sometimes he looks at me, and I can see how he feels. And I want to trust it. I know that I love him. I just—I don’t know how to get over this.”

“It’s so easy to let fear run your life,” Laura said. “I remember when Nikolas first came to town—it was so difficult. I believed Stefan was his father, and it was difficult enough for Luke to accept him even though he believed he was the result of—” She cast her eyes away, and the words were unsaid. Luke believed Nikolas was the product of marital rape.

“I was terrified he’d learn that I’d have an affair with Stefan,” Laura murmured. “For years, I lived that way. And I kept myself from Nikolas. I can never have that time back.” She focused on Elizabeth. “But then Luke learned the truth — at least the truth as we believed it. And as terrible as it was — I was free. The lies were done. There’s something so liberating about telling the truth even when it destroys everything.”

“I wish I were keeping a secret,” Elizabeth said with a sigh. “I wish this could be as easy as just telling the truth. But I don’t know how to fix it.”

“If you’re afraid of jumping in,” Laura replied, “then the answer is usually to dive in head first. Jason wants to adopt Cameron. He wants to have a permanent role in your son’s life. And after what Cam’s heard about Lucky, that little boy deserves it. If you’re really not ready for your relationship with Jason to change, then go for the shallow end of the pool. What does Cameron want?”

Cassadine Estate: Gardens

Nikolas scrubbed his hands over his face, stared at the missed call from his mother and the voice mails he knew were from her.

He knew he’d never be able to explain this to her — to Spencer — who might never forgive him, but Spencer was safe. He was growing up with his mother who would protect him from the darkness of his own family.

Nikolas had been fighting them his whole life only to learn there was always another battle. He could never win the war. Somehow—the Cassadines always rose from the ashes to continue the onslaught.

He forced a smile as Jake inched his way into the garden, on the hand of the nanny hired to look after him and give him a few lessons. “Uncle Nik!”

Jake let go of the nanny’s hand and hurled himself at his uncle. “I missed you! It’s been days!”

“I know, I know. I tried to get back sooner, but Grandmother keeps me busy.” He settled Jake at his side, waited for the nanny to melt away. “Have you been good for Berta?”

“Yup. Just like Mama said. Always be nice unless people mean. Then you get even.” Jake flashed his bright smile at him—sometimes he looked so much like Elizabeth Nikolas could hardly stand it.

“That sounds like your mother,” Nikolas agreed. He pulled out his phone. “I have new photos for you. From Christmas.”

“Christmas was a long time ago,” Jake said with a sad sigh. “But okay. Can I go home soon? I miss Mommy. I miss Cam. And I don’t even know Aiden.”

“I know.” Nikolas handed him the phone. “This is your mother at the GH Christmas party. She’s holding your little brother. And that’s—” He paused. “That’s your dad. He’s got Cameron. They’re waiting to hear Uncle Patrick tell the story.”

“Daddy’s in a lot of the pictures now,” Jake said, furrowing his little brow. “He didn’t used to be.”

“No,” Nikolas murmured. “But he and your mother miss you so much. They talk about you often.” He didn’t know for sure, but it was an easy guess. Next month, Jake would have been gone from Port Charles two years.

Two years was a long time to keep memories alive, but the moment Nikolas had discovered Jake’s existence here — he’d been determined to bring home. To make sure Jake never forgot the mother who loved him. The brothers who needed him.

Elizabeth had sacrificed too much for him—for his family for Nikolas not to return the favor.

“She’s so pretty,” Jake said. “I miss her,” he repeated. “I wanna go home. Doesn’t Mommy want me home?”

“She thinks about nothing else,” Nikolas said fervently. “And she wants you home every day. I’m trying so hard to make it happen, kiddo. I promise. Soon. I—” When Jake rubbed his eyes and sniffled, Nikolas made a rash promise. “You’ll be with your mother by your birthday. I swear.”

“Birthday?” Jake frowned. “I’m five on May 7,” he told Nikolas. “It’s February. Nanny says that means—” He stared at his hand, then counted. “First comes January, February, March, April, May—that’s still so long! I want to go home now!” He shoved the phone at Nikolas and hurled himself off the bench. “Now! Tell Mommy I don’t wanna wait!”

“She can’t—” Nikolas swallowed hard. “She can’t do anything about it. It’s not her decision.”

“Why? Why can’t I be with my mommy? I wanna be with Daddy. My real daddy. You said my real daddy cried so hard when I left. I want my mommy!” Jake shouted.

“Calm down,” Nikolas said, casting an uneasy look over his shoulder. Last he heard, Helena was irritating Victor in Russia, but his father walked the grounds and Nikolas wasn’t sure about his loyalty on the best of days. “Jake, I told you. We have to be careful. Someone took you from Mommy to hurt her. And it worked. She’s hurting so much without you. But I have to be sure no one else gets hurt when I take you home.”

Jake sniffled, then sat on the ground. “I want my mommy,” he said again, but his voice had subsided. He focused his eyes on Nikolas, and for the first time, Nikolas saw Jason in those eyes. A hard glare. “I will hate you forever if I don’t got my mommy when I turn five.”

“Fair enough.” Nikolas held his hand out. “We should get you home—back to the cottage with Uncle Stavros,” he said grounding out the name.

“Okay.” Jake climbed to his feet. “And I can’t talk about Mommy, I know. Or Daddy or Cam. The next time you come, can you bring me her voice? I don’t remember what she sounds like anymore.”

“I—I can do that.” Nikolas handed Jake back to Berta along with the usual bribe. “I’ll see you in a few weeks,” he murmured before heading back up to the main house and the emptiness of his estate without his son.

If Nikolas couldn’t bring Jake home soon, a lot of people were going to hate him forever.

Rafina, Greece: Bar

Luke Spencer slid onto a bar stool next to his son and removed the fisherman’s cap he wore over his thin hair. “Hey, Cowboy.”

“Dad.” Lucky kept himself crouched over the ouzo he was sipping. “You get eyes on him?”

“I did. First time in weeks,” Luke admitted. “But there’s a lot of guards. I don’t think we’re going to get the kid out without some big guns—”

“No,” Lucky snapped. “My enemy did this. It’s my fault. It’s your fault. We’re going to make this right.” He stared blindly at the dull, aged wood of the bar. “I can’t make it right any other way.”

“I’m the one that caused the accident, Cowboy. You said some harsh words to Elizabeth,” Luke said. “It’s not the same thing—”

“I did this. I did something that made her go to him.” Lucky tossed back the rest of his drink, called for another. “I made her so miserable she wanted to hurt me. I can fix this. I can make her love me if I bring Jake home.”

Luke pursed his lips, signaled for a whiskey. “Uh, Cowboy—”

Lucky turned to look at his father, his blue eyes unfocused and glazed from the alcohol. “I can fix this, Dad. You said you’d help. I can bring Jake home. We just have to get past the guards. And whoever’s in that cottage when Nikolas isn’t..”

He turned back to the new drink set in front of him. He picked it up, studied it. “And when I give Jake back to Elizabeth, I’ll make Nikolas regret the day he ever looked at her. And then I’ll kill him for kidnapping my son.”

Written in 56 minutes. Time for a basic spell check but not a read through.

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Webber Home: Kitchen

It was a few days before Elizabeth could get Cameron on his own long enough to bring up the topic of adoption which was for the best, honestly, because Elizabeth wasn’t sure how she felt it about it herself.

Not that Jason wouldn’t be good for Cameron or that either of them would regret it, but she wondered what it said about her that she was willing to literally give Jason one of her boys — both of them really since Lucky barely managed to call Aiden once a month these days — but was hesitating to make any other kind of commitment.

She’d give him the boys she loved more than herself, but not herself.

And that was such a strange realization that Elizabeth almost let the whole idea drop, knowing Jason wouldn’t bring it up again if she didn’t.

Then Cameron trudged in after school on her day off, dragging his backpack by the strap. He let it go in the foyer, then went into the kitchen without a word to her. Elizabeth frowned, followed him, and watched him take out the gallon of milk, pour himself a glass, and get a box of cookies.

She folded her arms. “Tough day?” Elizabeth asked, leaning against the door frame. Cameron sighed, climbing up on the stool before dunking his first chocolate chunk cookie.

“Can I move to a new class?” he asked dully.

Elizabeth walked over to the counter, put the cap back on the milk, then put it away. “What happened?”

Cameron jerked a shoulder as he crammed the cookie into his mouth. “Emma’s mad at me.”

“She never stays mad—”

She thinks I like Joss.”

Elizabeth furrowed her brow. “Joss? When did that happen?”

“Dunno. Girls are weird. She got mad at me because Trina hates Joss, and Trina is Emma’s girl best friend, and I think that’s supposed to mean something to me, but Trina isn’t in our class so it doesn’t matter if I like Joss—”

Elizabeth tipped her head, trying to follow this logic. “Wait, are Trina and Joss still mortal enemies?”

“Trina swore on blood,” Cameron told his mother very seriously. “Joss’s blood.”

“Oh—” Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut. “Do I want to know?”

“Last year,” Cameron replied. “We were on the playground, and Joss told Trina to brush her hair—”

Elizabeth winced. “She didn’t.”

“She did. Trina made that face, too, but then she punched Joss in the face—” Cameron’s mouth quirked up in a half smile. “That was funny. She hit her really hard, then started, like, hopping up and down, because she hurt her hand. Then everyone got in all kinds of trouble—their moms came to school—but anyway—before the teachers stopped it—Trina had Joss’s blood on her knuckles, and swore on it that she’d hate that—” Cameron hesitated. “Well, there were some words I’m not allowed to say—”

“I get the gist. I guess I missed this,” Elizabeth said with a sigh. She scratched her temple.

“It’s okay. Joss’s mom didn’t know what the big deal was, so Trina’s mom threatened to sue the school for something, and Mrs. Jacks had to take some sort of sensitivity course. So did Joss. She told me that it’s rude and mean to say things about a Black girl’s hair like she did, but that she wasn’t wrong, so she didn’t mean it when she said she was sorry—”

“Oh, Lord—” Elizabeth exhaled. “So wait—”

“Joss gave me that stupid Valentine,” Cameron muttered, “and Spencer told Emma about it, but I’m not supposed to be friends with her anymore, Emma said.”

“Cam—”

“But it was forever ago,” Cameron complained, “and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. Emma said I was supposed to tear it up in front of Joss so she’d know, but that seemed really mean, Mom.”

“It does,” Elizabeth said, making a mental note to talk to Patrick — and possibly pass this on to Jason in case Carly was going to get into more trouble at some point. It didn’t surprise her at all that Joss had a mouth on her like her mother.

I

And they’d only been in fourth grade the year before—Elizabeth couldn’t even bring herself to imagine what they’d do in high school—

“So I told Emma that, and instead of not hurting Joss, Emma and Trina are mad at me, Spencer thought it was hysterical, and Joss is always mad at me because of Emma—” He sighed. “I tried to be nice to Spencer, Mom. Just like I told you and Jason. But it doesn’t work. How come I always got to be the good guy? Everyone else gets to be mean and stupid. It works for them.”

“You never did ask the easy questions.” Elizabeth reached for a cookie, dunked it in Cameron’s milk. “It’s hard to be a good person when it feels like everyone gets rewarded for doing the wrong thing. I get it, I do. But I’ve been on the other side.” She pursed her lips. “Actually, I wasn’t that different from Joss when I was a kid.” Maybe not passively racist, she allowed, but — “I talked back to my parents, I skipped school whenever I could, I smoked—”

Cameron’s eyes were wide. “Mom, smoking is really bad—”

“I know, I know. But I wanted people to look at me. And I didn’t care if it was good or bad. I just wanted attention. I was selfish, and I was mean. A lot.”

“That’s not—” Cameron shook his head. “No. I don’t believe it.”

“I should put you on the phone with my sister one day.” She chewed her cookie. “She’d tell you about the time I stole test answers in English class and planted them on her to get her kicked out of school.”

“Mom!” Cameron was scandalized. “That’s really bad!”

“It is. And it was exhausting being like that all the time. Never having anyone to talk to. The thing this, Cam, when you’re the bad guy — when you’re mean and stupid — you don’t get to have any friends. Not really. I didn’t have a single best friend until I was sixteen.” She sighed, thinking wistfully of those days. Of the Four Musketeers and sharing brownies at Kelly’s.

“My life isn’t always easy, Cam, and I’m not always happy. Sometimes I still want to do the wrong thing because it’s easier. And it might get me what I want in the moment. But at the end of the day — doing the right thing — being a good person — it’s worth it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I turned out okay, right? I’m not perfect,” she said with a smile as Cameron smiled back at her. “But I do okay. And I’ve got great friends. I’ve got Patrick and your uncle Steven. I had Aunt Emily—” Her throat tightened lightly as it always did. “I have the best boys.”

“And you have Jason,” Cameron said. He poked out a chocolate chip. “I like having him around. And you’re happy with him. Did you do the good stuff? And that’s why you got to be happy this time?”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “I did the good stuff. The right stuff. Even though it was hard. Life isn’t easy, Cam. And the right choice is sometimes going to be the worst one. Joss and Trina might be enemies until death.” And since Joss was Carly’s daughter, and Carly still hated Elizabeth because Jason had let Elizabeth help him after being shot, not Carly —

“They probably will,” she corrected. “But how you treat people is up to you. Would it make you feel better to laugh in Joss’s face? Rip up her card?”

“No. I don’t like that Emma’s mad or that Trina got mad. She was really mad last year. And she cried. I don’t like that either.”

“You can’t win all the fights, Cam. Take the hits, get back up, and then live to fight another day.” Elizabeth bit her lip. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to ask you. About Jason.”

“Yeah? Emma said that since I’m the man of the house,” Cameron told her, “that when he wants to marry you, he’s gotta ask me. Is that true?”

“Well…” Elizabeth squinted. “No. Because you’re eight.”

“Almost nine.”

“And being nine won’t give you the ability to grant my hand in marriage either.”

“Okay.” Cameron shrugged. “So what about Jason?”

She cleared her throat. “He loves you and Aiden. And me,” she added. “You know we dated a little a few years ago. You were only about four.”

“I remember. He was around, and then he wasn’t. I thought—” Cameron stared down at the counter. “I thought he was gonna stay. And he didn’t. Why not? He’s Jake’s real dad. Didn’t he love him?”

“He did—he does love Jake. We will always love Jake,” Elizabeth said. She reached across the island counter, squeezed Cameron’s hand. Waited for him to meet her eyes. “And what happened four years ago—Michael got hurt. You remember? He has that scar. And he was asleep for a whole year. Jason got scared you and Jake would get hurt. So he left. But it was a mistake. We know that. I shouldn’t have let him leave, and he shouldn’t have gone.”

“Okay.” Cameron frowned at her. “So are you getting married?”

“No. But back then—Jason was going to adopt you,” Elizabeth said. “So that he would be your father legally. And forever.”

Cameron looked away, looked down at the counter. “Is…do you want him to adopt me?”

“That’s up to you, baby. Because this didn’t come from me. This is something Jason suggested. Something he wants.”

“He—” Cameron swallowed hard. Looked at her again. “He does? Why?”

“Because he loves you.”

“But—if you got married, he’d be my stepfather. I don’t—”

“If you don’t want it—”

“I—I just—” Cameron blinked hard, swiping an hand under his eyes. “I want it,” he said in a small voice. “I don’t need a dad. You’re awesome, Mom. Just you. But it’d be okay. To have a guy. In case I needed one.”

“But?” she prompted softly.

“He…wanted me before, you said. But he left. And I didn’t know him anymore. What—” Cameron shoved cookie crumbs around the counter. “What if he changes his mind again?”

Elizabeth bit her lip. “Cam—”

“Or you guys have another baby. You might want another kid. And what if Jason gets a real one?”

“You would be his real kid—” She paused. “It’s okay to say no, Cameron. It’s important for you to be comfortable.”

“I—don’t wanna say no. I just—” Cameron sniffled. “It’s just scary to say yes.”

“I know. It’s a lot to ask. And you know, Jason would answer these questions if you want to talk to him about it,” Elizabeth told him.

“Can I—can I think about it?” he asked.

“Sure.” Elizabeth forced a smile as her stomach twisted. Her little boy had the same trust issues as she did. Neither of them had a lot of experience with people who wanted to stay.

And she really didn’t know what to do with that realization.

Spencer House: Living Room

Laura scowled as she scanned the note from Spencer’s teacher, then raised her eyes to glare at her grandson. “Spencer Michael Cassadine—”

“It’s really not that serious,” Spencer began as he flashed a smile at her. “It’s one little F—”

“Because you didn’t bother to even start the math test—”

“I don’t need any of that,” Spencer said scornfully. “I’m a prince—”

“Not if I don’t let you live to reach eighteen,” Laura muttered as she stalked away from him, towards her ringing cell phone. She hadn’t really raised Luke or Lulu once they’d hit the teen years, but Lucky hadn’t been this mouthy—

Had he? Luke had always known how to handle him—he’d always been Luke’s son—

“Hello?” Laura demanded, not bothering to check the caller ID. “I have a nine-year-old for sale if you’re interested. Slightly used, bit of a mouth—”

“Well, Darlin’, I don’t think that’s a good idea seeing as he’s the Spawn of the Dark Prince.”

Laura sighed and turned away from Spencer’s eye roll. “Luke?” she said. “What’s going on? I haven’t heard from you in months—”

“I know, I know, I’ve been looking up some things with Cowboy,” her ex-husband said. “That’s why I’m calling. Uh, we—I got myself into something here. And I need you.”

“You need me,” Laura said. She narrowed her eyes. “What did you do?”

“For once,” Luke said carefully, “I feel like I might be on the side of the angels—”

“That has literally never been true a day in your life, Lucas Lorenzo Spencer—”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one getting the full name treatment,” Spencer muttered.

“Now, Laura—”

“Don’t Laura me. Call Robert. Or Ethan,” Laura retorted. “I have things to do—”

“Robert and Ethan can’t take care of these things, Angel,” Luke said. “It’s Cowboy. I can’t—I think he needs you. I—I thought I could help. I thought we do this on our own, but he’s—he’s starting to look wrong. Like he did before.”

Her blood chilled. “Luke—”

“And Helena’s up to no good. Some serious, serious no good. I just—I need you to come to Greece. I need you to help me with our boy. Before we lose him for good.”

“I can’t just come to Greece. You need to tell me more—”

“I—”

Laura heard nothing but his breathing on the phone for a long minute. “He’s threatening to kill Nikolas, Laura. He thinks Nikolas kidnapped his son.”

“What?” Laura demanded, her shrill tone grabbing Spencer’s attention. He furrowed his brow, sitting up from his flip on the couch. “Spencer right here—”

“Not Nikolas’s son. Lucky’s—” Luke paused. “Well, I guess he’s still Lucky’s. On paper.”

Laura closed her eyes. She put her hand against the back of the sofa. “Luke. You need to tell me everything. Now.”

Webber Home: Living Room

Elizabeth frowned as she passed in front of the living room window and saw Laura’s car in her driveway—and Laura and Spencer walking across the front lawn—followed by Patrick and Emma. “Jason,” she murmured.”

Jason looked up from the dinner table where he was coaxing Aiden to eat his vegetables—he always refused to eat them for her—and got to his feet. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Elizabeth said. She went over to the door, reaching it just as Laura raised her hand to knock. “What’s wrong?” she said to her former mother-in-law. Laura’s face was pale, her eyes looked shocky. And Spencer wasn’t even glowering as the four of them stepped inside.

“I’ll explain in a minute. I’m sorry just to show up like this—um—” She pressed a hand to her head.

“She asked me to come over,” Patrick told Elizabeth. “Emma—” He nodded at Cameron. “Cam, Spencer, go upstairs. Don’t kill each other. I mean it.”

Cameron got warily to his feet, pausing his Mario Kart game. “Mom—”

“Go upstairs,” Elizabeth repeated. “Please.” Her palms felt sweaty. God, what if something had happened to Lucky? But why would Laura bring Patrick over—

Cameron start up the stairs, and the bewildered Emma and Spencer followed him. A few minutes later, Elizabeth heard his bedroom door close. She paused, leaned up the stairs.

“I didn’t hear enough steps over my head—”

“How does she always know?” Emma hissed. A few minutes later, they heard the door again—and this time, there were steps over Elizabeth’s head.

“Laura—”

“I asked Patrick to come over because if—if I’m right—if Luke is right—” Laura twisted her hands together. “You’ll want someone to take care of the boys—”

Jason lifted Aiden into his arms and came over to stand next to Elizabeth. “Laura, what’s going on—”

“Luke called me tonight. He needs me to come to Greece because Lucky is there. He’s threatening to kill Nikolas.”

“I—” Elizabeth started to shake her head, exchanging a bewildered look with Jason because what did that have to do with them—

“He says Nikolas kidnapped his son. And Luke said—Luke said—” Laura’s voice almost broke. “He said he saw him.”

“Saw—” Elizabeth’s entire body froze. Her brain simply stumbled to a halt.

“Laura—” Patrick said.

“Elizabeth, Luke said he saw Jake on the grounds of the Cassadine estate,” Laura told her. She reached for Elizabeth’s hand as Elizabeth stared at her blankly. “He saw him. Alive.”

“I can’t—” Elizabeth shook her head. “No—No—”

“Jake is alive,” Laura repeated, more firmly. “But there’s more—”

“More—” Patrick demanded, his face pale, his dark eyes stark against the color. “How can there be more—”

“He saw Jake with Nikolas,” Elizabeth finished faintly.

“Not just Nikolas. Elizabeth—it’s not just Jake who’s alive. It’s Stavros.”

“St-Stavros,” Elizabeth repeated, her pulse skittering. “Stavros. Your—Nikolas’s—”

“Who the hell is Stavros?” Patrick demanded.

Elizabeth looked at him, as her head felt faint. “Can you imagine someone worse than Helena? Because that’s—That’s who has my little boy” She swayed slightly and Jason shoved Aiden at his grandmother, catching Elizabeth before she hit the floor.

Written in 56 minutes. Basic spell check, but not reread for typos.

---

Webber House: Cameron’s Bedroom

Spencer stared at the closed door with a suspicious look. “They’re very quiet down there,” he said.

Cameron wrinkled his nose and went over to the heating vent. He shoved his hockey uniform off and leaned closer. “Shut up, or I can’t hear anything,” he muttered.

“Whoa—I thought your mom found out—” Emma launched herself off the bed and joined Cameron the floor, laying on her stomach.

“What did I just say?” Cameron said to her with narrowed eyes. “Quiet.”

“Luke…Cassadines…”

“Oh, no,” Spencer muttered. “Not again—”

“Shhh—”

Cameron heard his mother’s voice, sharp, upset—but he couldn’t make out the words.

“Nikolas—” That was Grandma Laura this time. “Stavros—”

Spencer straightened, his face paling. “Stavros.”

“Who’s that?”

Cameron cleared his throat. “Uh, I think that’s not a good thing, is it?”

“That’s my grandfather. He died before I was born. A long time ago—”

“…worse than…”

“This is terribly inefficient,” Spencer muttered.

“I can’t just go to Greece!”

That was his mother again, and Cameron scowled. “Why would anyone go to Greece? What the heck—”

“Elizabeth—” Voices faded out again, and then Cameron heard Emma’s dad.

“Why the hell would they take Jake?”

Emma gasped loudly, then clamped her hands over her mouth as the voices in the living room stopped. Cameron shoved the hockey shirt back over the vent, grabbed Spencer and Emma and was dragging them over to his video games when the door opened.

Patrick was there, a brow arched. “Heating vents? Really. I’m disappointed. I would have thought with Spencer’s ingenuity, you would have rigged up a system to dangle one of you outside the window downstairs so you could hear everything.”

“Well, given some time and materials,” Spencer began.

Patrick crooked his finger. “Come with me.”

“We gotta get better that this,” Emma told Cameron as the three of them filed down the hall to Elizabeth’s bedroom.

In the back of the house, with a heating vent that was not at all connected to the living room. “I’m never gonna know anything again,” Cameron muttered. “And what’s this about Jake? Did someone hurt him? Is that why he died?”

Patrick hesitated, then handed them the remote. “Do me a favor, guys, stay young for a while longer. You got the rest of your lives for the crap Port Charles is going to throw at you.”

Then he closed the door.

Spencer glared after him, then turned to Cameron. “If someone hurt your brother, and it was from my family, then I’m honor bound to right this wrong.”

“What did he just say?” Emma said with a furrowed brow. “What’s happening?”

“If someone from your family killed my brother,” Cameron said, darkly, “then you’ll have to get in line.”

“You guys—” Emma began. Then sighed. “We should call Joss.”

The boys blinked at her. “You hate Joss,” Cameron said suspiciously. “A lot. You yelled at me for being nice to her.”

“That’s true,” Emma said. “But Joss has something we don’t. And if you guys think you’re gonna avenge something, it’ll probably be in Greece. I was listening in class the other day, and I think that’s on the other side of the world.”

“And Joss can help us with that?” Spencer said skeptically.

“Joss’s dad has a private plane. And her brother’s dad has a plane, too. Do you either of you dorks have a plane?”

“No,” Cameron said slowly. “But—”

“I’ll call Trina, too. She’s always got plans, and hers usually work.” Satisfied, she went over to the land line on Elizabeth’s night table. “Let’s get started.”

Living Room

 

Elizabeth dragged her hands through her hair. “I don’t understand how any of this is happening,” she said to Laura as Patrick came down the stairs. “How—”

Her little boy. Her precious angel—She looked at Jason whose jaw was clenched. The idea that their baby boy was alive and with the Cassadines—

“We can’t just go to Greece,” he said after a minute. “Not if this is about the Cassadines. We can’t jump into it. I remember when Helena was going after Emily—and I don’t—” He met Elizabeth’s eyes. “I can’t believe Nikolas would have helped anyone take Jake.”

“Luke didn’t explain why Lucky’s convinced of that, either,” Laura said. “The kids are in the back room now?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know what they heard,” Patrick told them. “You might want to do some damage control later.”

“This is—” Elizabeth picked Aiden up from the playpen where Laura had set him, started to pace. “Why would Helena take Jake? To get back at Luke?”

“Maybe, but why keep him? I mean, it came out pretty quick that Lucky wasn’t Jake’s father. That would have mattered,” Laura said. “Blood is everything to her.”

“She hates you,” Patrick reminded Elizabeth. “She lied about Aiden’s paternity to torture everyone, including Nikolas. Do you think she’d do this to go after you?”

“I—” Elizabeth hesitated. “I just—I don’t know. I don’t know anything. Jason—” She pressed her lips to Aiden’s curly hair, closing her eyes. Remembering another little boy that had been just a little bigger than him.

“How sure is Luke?” Jason asked. “If he’s screwing with us and Jake’s not—” He swallowed hard. “He saw him? He actually laid eyes on him—”

“He says he did. He says he and Lucky have both seen Jake, but they can’t get close enough.” Laura shook her head. “Luke might be a lot of things, but I don’t think he’d come to me with this if he didn’t know for sure. And I agree, we can’t just run off to Greece. Not right this second. But I’m worried about what else Luke told me—”

“Lucky threatening to kill Nikolas,” Elizabeth remembered. “If he thought Nikolas did this on purpose—but he has to know—I mean, God, everything else aside—Nikolas would never do to that to us.”

“But Luke saw Nikolas with Jake,” Patrick told her. “If that’s what he’s saying, Nikolas knows he’s alive and hasn’t said a word. In fact, he dumped his kid on Laura. Maybe so he could devote his time to whatever his grandmother and father are planning.”

“Stavros,” Elizabeth repeated. “How can this be possible? How many times do we have to kill him?”

“Now, you say he’s worse than Helena—” Patrick looked at Jason. “What do you know about him?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I wasn’t living here the last time he was around. By the time I came home, it was over.”

“Stavros collects things,” Laura murmured. “He saw me when Luke and I went to the Cassadine Island to stop Mikkos from freezing the world. He decided he wanted me. So Helena kidnapped me. Forced me to live there. Marry him.” She sat on the sofa, weary. “For three long years.”

Because Laura was pale and shaky, Elizabeth took up the tale. “The official story was that Laura escaped, and Luke killed Stavros when Stavros came to get her back. That’s what we all believed. Until the garage fire. Helena kidnapped Lucky to brainwash him and turn him against the Spencers. Under her control, Lucky—” She rubbed her chest. God this was supposed to over.

Why didn’t Cassadines ever stay dead?

“Lucky threatened Lucas’s life if Tony Jones didn’t revive Stavros. Helena had all these labs and tunnels under the hospital. So Tony brought Stavros back to life.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “Nikolas pretended to be loyal to Helena in order to get on her side, to get a head of things, but he had to kill me to prove his loyalty.”

“Of course he did,” Patrick muttered. “I don’t like where this is going—”

“You shouldn’t,” Jason said dryly. “She took a poison that made her heart slow down to the point she appeared dead. Sonny sent her to the island.”

Surprised, Elizabeth looked at him, and he smiled wanly. “Carly took a great deal of pleasure in contacting me to tell me you were dead.”

“Oh—” Elizabeth scowled. “Naturally.”

“Sonny got word to me—” He shook his head. “Anyway.”

“We won that time,” Laura said, “and Stavros—I thought he was dead. But no body. I should know better by now.” She got to her feet. “I understand if you can’t come to Greece right away, Elizabeth, but I have to go. I have to make sure Lucky doesn’t hurt Nikolas.”

“Of course, Laura, but just—” Elizabeth rubbed a finger against her bottom lip. “I want to go. I can—I can try to explain things at work—”

“You have more vacation time coming than most people get in a life time,” Patrick told her. “And you know I’ll take care of the boys. I might have to tie them up—” he said with a wince, “but I got this.”

Elizabeth looked at Jason. “Can—”

“I’ll call Sonny,” Jason told her. “And Spinelli. I’ll get the jet ready and he’ll meet us there. Whatever we need to know, we can figure out on the way there.”

“What are we going to tell the kids?” Laura said. “We can’t tell the truth—”

“Actually—” Elizabeth paused. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Jason & Elizabeth’s Bedroom

Elizabeth was unsurprised to find Emma on the phone while Spencer and Cameron were furiously writing things down, using the notepad she kept in her nightstand and a fuzzy pink pen from her vanity table.

“So who’s plane are you trying to commandeer?” she asked.

Cameron dropped the pen, scowling as Emma’s eyes widened. “Joss, I’ll call you back later.” She slammed the phone down, and smiled at Elizabeth. “Hi, Aunt Elizabeth. Everything okay?”

“Joss, huh? I know how you feel about her, so that’s real loyalty. Too bad for Joss that her father’s plane is out of town,” Elizabeth said, “and we’re taking Sonny’s. Any other friends with private planes?”

“No,” Spencer muttered. “But I’ll find one. This is Port Charles—”

“Mom, did someone hurt Jake?” Cameron asked, his lip trembling. “Is that why he’s gone?”

“Actually,” Elizabeth said, hoping she wasn’t making a mistake. “It looks like there’s a chance that he’s not—” Oh, God, her little boy—he was alive! Let it be true. Please, please, let it be true.

 

“We heard you guys talking about my family,” Spencer said. “If my family hurt Jake, I have to help fix it. It’s a matter of honor—”

“You are not responsible for your family,” Elizabeth told him. She sat on the bed, ruffled his hair. “As a Cassadine, you need to learn that early. Your father still hasn’t. I think the reason he left you with Grandma Laura was to do exactly that. Grandpa Luke says he’s seen Jake,” she said to Cameron.

“Seen him—” Cameron shook his head. “But—but when you saw him, you had to go away—”

“I was so sad, I dreamed I was seeing him. But Luke says he really—he really did. He’s in Greece with Lucky. They’ve seen Jake. Alive. On the Cassadine estate with Nikolas.”

“With my dad—but—”

“I think your dad found out that your great-grandmother has been keeping a lot of secrets that would hurt people, and he decided to make it right.” Elizabeth saw Jason standing in the doorway. “The jet?”

“Wheels up in an hour,” he said.

“Is it really true?” Cameron asked him. “Is Jake alive?”

“I don’t know,” Jason said. He met Elizabeth’s eyes. “I’m not sure I can trust it,” he admitted. “But whatever is going on, we need to find out.”

“You and Spencer are going to stay with Emma and Patrick,” she told Cameron. “I need you two to promise me—no, the three of you,” she said, crooking a finger at Emma who made a face. “That you are not going to tie Patrick up, steal a plane, and follow us.”

Jason raised his brows, but she just shook her head and continued. “I know you want to help. And I love all of you for it, but this isn’t a game. I’ve been fighting the Cassadines since I was a few years older than you. And I don’t want it for you.”

Emma sat next to her on bed. “But what can we do here? We have to do something. We need bring Jake home. And Spencer’s dad. We need to help.”

“You can help by staying here,” Jason told her. He looked at Cameron. “We’ll bring Jake home.”

“If he’s alive,” the little boy said with a sigh. “I’m afraid it’s not true,” he told his mother. He swiped at his cheek. “But if it is, don’t leave without him, okay? I want my brother back.”

“If Jake’s out there, there’s no way I’m not bringing him home.” Elizabeth pulled her eldest into a tight hug. “There’s nowhere in this world I wouldn’t go for my boys.” She kissed his forehead. “Now, go into your room. Get your things together. Spencer—”

“Grandma Laura brought my things in the car,” he said. He looked oddly vulnerable. “Do you really think my dad is away trying to make things right?”

“That sense of honor you have? The need to make up for your family?” Elizabet smiled at him. “Where do you think it comes from? It’s not Helena. Nikolas loves you. The only reason he’d give you up would be to keep you safe. Trust me — you don’t want to be in the middle of this, Spencer.”

Cameron’s Bedroom

 

Jason followed Cameron into his bedroom and watched the eight-year-old pull a bag from his closet. “Do you want me to help you with anything?” he asked.

“No, I’m okay.” Cameron sat on the edge of his bed, staring down at the carpet for a minute. “Mom told me what you asked her. That you wanted to adopt me.”

Jason hesitated, then sat next to him. “I know. She said you wanted time to think about it.”

“I want Jake to come home,” Cameron said. He sniffled. “I want it a lot. I love my brother. I want Mom to have him back. But mostly because I think if he’s here, we’ll be okay again.” He looked at Jason. “Why do you want me? I’m not a baby. I know I’m not your kid. Not really. Not like Jake.”

“If we decided to do this, you would be my kid. Just like Jake. I’m adopted,” Jason told him. “Monica isn’t my biological mother, either. She adopted me when I was a baby. And after the accident, when I didn’t remember her—she never stopped loving me. Sometimes you’re born in a family, Cam. Sometimes blood does that. But I got to choose a family after my accident. I chose Sonny and Carly. And your mother.”

“Mom told me Aunt Emily was adopted, too.” Cameron’s lip trembled. “And I never knew that because no one never said it. She wasn’t your real sister—”

“What does real mean?” Jason said. “It’s just a word, Cameron. I want to choose you because I love you. I’ve known you all your life. And I want to be part of the rest of it.” He ruffled Cameron’s curls. “But you have to want it, too.”

“Maybe. But I don’t know yet.” Cameron sighed heavily. “But maybe. I want Jake to be alive so much it hurts,” he whispered fiercely. He turned and hurled himself into Jason’s arms. “I miss him. Don’t let nothing else happen to him. Or Mom. Okay?”

“Okay.” Jason hugged him back. “I promise.”

“You scared, too?” Cameron said, his voice muffled. “That it’s not true?”

“Terrified,” Jason admitted. “I’m trying not to think about it. Just putting one foot in front of the other until we know.”

“Mom will be really said if he’s not alive. Don’t let her get too sad because she had to go away last time. I don’t want to lose Mom again.”

“You won’t,” Jason promised. “Let’s get your things together, okay?”

“Okay.”

Front Porch

Elizabeth watched as Laura walked over to Patrick’s house with all the kids, rubbing her arms. “Is this really happening?” she asked Jason as he came to stand next to her. “We’re going to Greece to bring our son home?”

“Maybe,” Jason cautioned. “I know Luke said he was sure—”

“I know you’re not convinced. And maybe I’m wrong to cling to it. But it makes a terrible amount of sense,” Elizabeth said. She looked at him, her eyes shadowed in the setting sunlight. “Helena has always hated me. And she came to taunt me while I was in Shadybrooke. She could have done this, Jason.”

“She didn’t do it alone,” Jason said softly. “If Jake’s alive, someone else had to know. How else did Joss get a kidney?”

Elizabeth pressed her lips together, then stared blindly out to her front lawn. “You think Luke is lying.”

“I don’t know,” Jason said, hesitantly. “I want it to be true,” he said in a low voice. “And if it is—if anyone at the hospital knew—”

“We’ll find out who took our little boy from us.” She lifted her chin. “And we’ll make them all pay.”

Written in 57 minutes. No time for spell check or typos. made a mistake in part 2 — Jake is turning 6 in 2013, not 5

---

Port Charles Airport: Private Hangar

Elizabeth wasn’t expecting both of the men who met them at the steps of Sonny’s private plane, but she was touched to see Sonny Corinthos standing next to Spinelli. Since his botched wedding to Kate a few months ago, Sonny had been laying low, struggling with Kate’s relapse and struggle with her dissociative identity disorder.

“I didn’t know you were coming,” Jason said, echoing Elizabeth’s thoughts as Laura and Spinelli boarded to get started on retcon — Elizabeth knew Spinelli was planning to pull anything Laura remembered from her time on the island to help them put together everything they could before they landed in Mykonos, the closest airport to the Cassadine’s private, unnamed island.

“You tell me there’s a chance your son is alive,” Sonny began, “and I’m not staying home. How many times did you put yourself on the line for my kids?” He set a hand against his chest, his voice a bit rusty.

“Thank you,” Elizabeth told him. She squeezed his other hand. “Did you put Carly on guard to make sure Joss doesn’t find a way to get to Jax’s plane?”

Sonny grinned, his dimple flashing. “Funny thing — Carly was still on the phone with me when she caught Joss trying to sweet talk Jax into coming back from Sydney.”

Jason just shook his head lightly. “They were really planning it,” he said incredulously.

“You mean Robin, Elizabeth, and Carly’s kids were planning to help?” Sonny snorted. “Of course they were.”

“I think that was half compliment, half insult—” Sonny just laughed as he turned and boarded the plane.

Elizabeth looked up the stairs after him. Once she boarded, once the plane took off this — this was real.

“Whatever we find in Greece,” Jason told her, his voice quiet against her ear, “we’ll get through it.”

“The hope hurts more than anything else,” she murmured. “If Luke is lying to us—if he’s wrong—” She looked at Jason. “I’m just barely getting past losing him.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “But if there’s even a small chance he’s out there—”

“We’ll bring him home,” Jason told her.

Inside the airplane, Spinelli had already set up mission control at a large table, his fingers flying over a laptop. He said something to Laura who was peering over her shoulder.

“You need to get belted in for take set off,” Jason told him as he stored his and Elizabeth’s bags in one of the compartments. “We can get back to this—”

“I can’t believe you’re tapping into active satellites,” Laura said, a touch of wonder in her voice. She sat next to Sonny in one of the take off chairs, pulling the seatbelt across her lap. “When I was on the island with Luke back with the Ice Princess, all we had were the crappy maps Robert pilfered from the WSB—”

“Speaking of Sir Robert,” Spinelli said as Jason grabbed him by the shoulder and all but shoved him into his takeoff chair before returning to the table and closing the laptop and securing it for take off. “Have we considered calling in reinforcements?”

“Not until we know more,” Laura said. “Luke—I’m sure there’s more he’s not telling me. How did he and Lucky get on this trail in the first place? Robert will want to call in Anna, and Luke does not want that—”

She sighed, looked at Sonny as if noticing she was next to him for the first time. “Thank you. For the use of the plane.”

“Almost like old times,” Sonny said. “You still handy with a shotgun?”

About twenty minutes later, the plane had taken off and made it to cruising altitude. Spinelli threw off his seatbelt and rushed back over to his computer.

“Can you zoom in with the satellites?” Sonny asked as they crowded him. “Get some eyes on who is where?”

“No so much,” Spinelli said with a frown as he continued typing. “But once we’re on the ground in Greece, and closer, I can use the satellite connection to pick up any security camera feeds. Once I know what I’m looking for, I can hack in and get some better information.”

“Can he really do that?” Elizabeth asked, folding her arms. It had been years since she’d seen Spinelli at work. She bit her lip.

“I used to doubt him, too,” Jason admitted, putting arm around her shoulders. “But he was able to get me inside the Metro Court when it was taken hostage.” They traded a glance, both remembering that because he’d been there, he’d been able to save her life—and she’d told him about Jake.

“I have it!” Spinelli announced. He grinned at Laura. “Does this look familiar?”

“Yes—” Laura gestured at the screen. “That’s the main estate. The house that Mikkos’ father built when they came to Greece after fleeing Russia. It was built into the cliff, and—” She took a deep breath. “It’s where I lived.”

“What about the grounds?” Jason said , and she blinked. “What other buildings?”

“There was a dower house,” Laura continued. “In the gardens. There’s a vineyard, of course. And orchards. And Stavros had elaborate English gardens planted while I was there.” She nodded as Spinelli moved the satellite. “Yes — the dower house was in the English gardens. Mikkos’ mother lived there, but I think she’d died. Just before the Ice Princess, maybe.” She squinted at the screen. “That wasn’t there when we came in 1980,” she said. “And I don’t remember it from my time.”

“But it could have been added since—” Sonny began, but Laura shook her head.

“Stefan never cared much for Greece,” she told him. “He preferred the London house and the estate in Scotland. He raised Nikolas there most of the time to keep him from Helena as much as possible. He never added on. This wouldn’t have been there before 2003.”

“Added in the last decade doesn’t mean much,” Elizabeth said, then she paused. “Spinelli—” She leaned into the screen. “Am I wrong, or does that building look wrong?”

“Wrong?”

“It doesn’t fit,” Laura said with a nod. “If Nikolas had added it, he’d have made it match the rest of the estate. But this is an ugly, square building. A concrete block.”

“Wait—zoom out—” Jason waited as Spinelli obeyed. “And it’s set apart. Not the way the other house is—but—”

“Isolated,” Sonny said.

“We’ll want to start there for camera access,” Laura decided. “It’s probably one of Helena’s labs. She always had a hole to run to. She has something on Spoon Island, I’m sure of it. She’s able to slip in and out too much.”

“All right,” Spinelli said. “I’ll keep mapping the island, and try to get a sense of what kind of activity we can expect. I can probably find out if the coast is heavily guarded. It’s going to be hell getting on and off the island—”

“Luke will have that covered,” Sonny said. “He was always handy with a boat.”

Mykonos, Greece

Luke sat on the terrace of the flat he had arranged for him and Cowboy, lingering over a cigar as he looked out over the Adriatic Sea and the dim lights of the Cassadine estate in the distance.

Behind him, Lucky was pacing and raging—another day with bad tides meant another scuttled rescue plan to the island. Luke glanced down at his phone when it lit up. His chest eased as he saw Laura’s text.

On my way. In the air now. Bringing Jason and Elizabeth. And friends. Don’t go to the island until we get there.

Then another message.

Luke, tell me again that you’re sure. Tell me we’re not doing this to Elizabeth without proof.

Luke exhaled, picked up the phone and opened up the message app. He’d held this back, had waited until he knew Laura was coming. Had worried if he sent this — she might not come, too.

He needed her. Cowboy needed her.

Angel, I’ve never been more sure of anything in my whole life. If that’s not our boy, then he’s got a twin.

He hit send, then attached the photograph. He turned to look at his son as Lucky flipped a coffee table, wincing. He just hoped they had enough time.

Plane

Laura made a face when Luke’s first message came through — if he Angel’d her one more time—

And then the bottom fell out of her world as the photograph loaded. She brushed her fingers on the image, then zoomed in. She looked up to find Elizabeth sitting on one of the sofas, talking quietly to Jason. He said something, and Elizabeth smiled at him.

Laura looked back at the image of the little boy sitting next to Nikolas on a bench in the middle of a garden — at the grinning, blonde boy with his father’s eyes and mother’s smile.

If this wasn’t Jake—

“Elizabeth,” Laura managed. She looked up, tears spilling over her cheeks. “Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth got to her feet, alarm spreading across her expression as she rushed across the plane. “Laura—”

Laura handed her the phone and Elizabeth stared at the photo—Jason was right behind her and they both paled as they took in the little boy.

“He’s—” Elizabeth’s voice faltered. “He’s there.”

“He’s older,” Jason said roughly. “He’s—”

Jake had left them just before he’d turned four. He’d be six in a few months.

“And Nikolas is right there. Jake is smiling at him. He knows him—” Elizabeth squeezed her eyes shut. “Oh, God, oh, God, it’s real—it’s real—he’s real—” She turned to Jason, clutching her hands in his shirt. “You see him, too, don’t you?” she demanded, shrilly. “Tell me you see him, too!”

“I see him.” Jason framed her face in his hands, leaned his forehead against hers as his voice dropped. “I see him. He’s real. He’s alive.”

Spinelli rose from the desk and approached the two of them. “If I could,” he said gently, “if I could see the phone—I could give you reassurances. I can look at the image on my computer and tell you if it’s real. When it was taken. Where.”

With a trembling hand, Elizabeth looked at the phone, shook her head. “N-No—” She clutched it to her chest. “No, I can’t—”

“Come with me,” the younger man said. “You can hold the phone. I’ll put the cord in. I don’t have to touch it. You just—just save it to the camera roll.”

Elizabeth sucked in a shaky breath, the sob rolling through it as she looked down at the photo. Her fingers were shaking so hard she could barely following Spinelli’s instructions so Jason’s larger hand covered hers and he saved the photo so that Spinelli could attach the cord and transfer the photo.

“Luke had that photo the whole time,” Sonny said, his tone tense. “And he held it back.” He traded a troubled look with Laura. “What the hell else is he hiding?”

“I don’t know, but if we can just bring Jake home—” Laura closed her eyes. “I’ll kill my husband later, Sonny. Just—God, I pray Spinelli doesn’t say the photo is fake or altered. I’m not sure she can handle it.”

“She’s stronger than she looks,” Sonny murmured, “but she shouldn’t have to it. If Luke is screwing with them about this for one of his stupid plans—” He shook his head and sat down, putting his head in his hands.

Cassadine Estate: Lab

Nikolas sighed and pushed open the heavy metal door, walking into the square room with its work station and cot. He closed it, then leaned against the door frame. “Hey.”

A woman with dark hair looked up from the desk, the skin beneath her eyes dark purple. “Hey,” she said dully. She cleared her throat. “What time is it?”

“Nearly nine,” Nikolas said. “In the morning,” he added because she was never allowed to leave the lab and there were no windows. “You didn’t sleep again.”

“Couldn’t. If I sleep, I’m wasting time.” She bit her lip, met his eyes. “I think it worked this time. I think the message got out. I just don’t know—God I don’t know if he’ll understand it. Nikolas—” Her voice broke. “I just want this to be over.”

“I promised Jake he’ll be home by his birthday,” Nikolas said with a false smile. “So, let’s hope Patrick can understand what you sent him, and that he gets it to Jason and Elizabeth.”

“Yeah.” Robin Scorpio dragged a hand through her hair. “Yeah, well, when Jason finds out that your family faked Jake’s death—” Her smile was humorless. “Your grandmother is going to wish she’d picked any other enemy. Jason will take her apart.”

“I’m counting on it,” Nikolas admitted. “How soon will you know?”

“I don’t know.” Robin stared at the terminal in front of her. “He just needs to reply to it. C’mon—”

“It’s after midnight there—”

Robin sighed. “You’re right. He’s probably asleep. I guess I should go back to working on Helena’s project. Though why she wants Stefan to wake up when she has Stavros to do her bidding—” She jerked a shoulder.

“It’s best not to expect rational explanations from my grandmother.”

Drake House: Bedroom

Patrick glared at his cell phone as it lit up. He’d just barely managed to break up a fist fight between Cameron and Spencer before Aiden had started to cry, missing his mother — and Emma had started to cry because she wanted to know but her why people came back from the dead but her mother couldn’t —

He just wanted to go to sleep, and nearly ignored the message. But the doctor in him didn’t know how to do that, so Patrick stopped pulling off his shirt to reach for the phone on the table beside his bed.

Then stared at it for a long moment, unable to believe what he was seeing.

race cars. our special code so you know its me. am alive. trapped on cassadine island. world is going to end. need jason and the cavalry. i love you.

Race cars.

The pulse in his temple began to throb as he remembered the night they’d laughed about her parents in the WSB and running operations and having code words— She’d been so beautiful, laughing, and teasing him — telling him that if she were in trouble, she’d send him the words race cars because of their first real date in his hotel room.

He’d laughed at her, but here it was—here it was. Her code. Their code.

His heart pounding, Patrick typed in his code and replied.

pain in the ass. jesus christ. please don’t be a dream please dont be a lie. cavalry already coming. i love you.

He hit send, then dialed his mother-in-law. “Anna? Get Robert on the line. As soon as I find a babysitter, we need to go to Greece. Robin is alive.” Patrick scowled. “No, I’m not on pills again—damn it, Anna—she used our code.”

The other line was silent for a moment.

“I’ll call Mac and Felicia to stay with Emma,” Anna said. “Wheels up in an hour—”

“Great. Oh, and Cameron, Aiden, and Spencer are here, too because Laura, Jason and Elizabeth flew to Greece because Jake is alive, too. See you in an hour—” Patrick hung on Anna’s protestations as he stared at himself in the mirror.

His phone beeped again.

race cars. i can’t believe you really weren’t joking when you said my code name would be pain in the ass. honestly. we’re changing it. can’t wait to see you.

Written in 63 minutes. Went a few minutes over bc I really wanted the ending to be just right. No time for spell check.

---

Plane

By the time Spinelli had transferred the photo to the computer to study the metadata or whatever it was, Laura had sent it to Elizabeth so that she could have it for herself. Elizabeth sat on a sofa and just stared at it, tracing her little boy’s face. She felt Jason’s weight next to her and she looked at him. “It has to be real,” she managed. “It has to be. He’s—this is exactly what he’d look like. He’s just—” A tear slid down her cheek as she looked back at Jake. “He’s lost some of the baby fat in his cheeks, see—”

“Yeah.” He put an arm around her shoulder and Elizabeth curled into his embrace, angling the phone so they could both look at the photo. “He looks like you,” Jason said after a minute.

“Really?” Elizabeth wrinkled her nose. “I always thought he was more like you. The blonde hair, blue eyes—” She closed her eyes. “He had this way of smiling at me, and I just—I let him get away with murder. There was just this—this twinkle he’d get that was so much like you—”

“Twinkle?” Jason raised his brows and she smiled up at him. “Don’t let Sonny hear you say that.”

She laughed. “You know what I mean—that agitating mood you get in when you’re teasing me. Remember the Christmas party? Before Nikolas came in acting like an idiot, and you stole my stupid Santa hat?” When he nodded, she continued, “that’s what I mean. Jake could get the same look.”

She looked over at the table where Spinelli was studying the photo. “Is it real?” Elizabeth asked him, raising her voice so that it carried over to him.

Spinelli blinked, then looked up. “Oh.” He leaned back. “Yeah. Yeah. It’s about—” He squinted. “It’s about a week old. And it was taken in Greece. I can’t get it any closer, but it’s real. It looks like the raw photo an iPhone would take. If it’s faked, I can’t find the evidence.” He stared at them. “And if it’s real—”

“Then Jake either has a twin or that’s him,” Sonny said. He looked at Laura. “You knew Luke was holding something back.”

“And when we land, I am going to punch him so hard,” Laura muttered. “He had an actual photo of Jake and didn’t—” She took a deep breath. “Spinelli, where are you in the rest of it? The island?”

“I’ve got all the aerial footage I can get here, and I’ll be able to put together pretty good maps and keep you out of trouble,” Spinelli said. “There’s not much else I can do until we land. I’ll be able to tap into the local—”

Elizabeth frowned at her phone lighting up with Patrick’s number. “Patrick?” she said, putting him on speaker phone. “What’s wrong? Are the kids okay?”

“The kids are now staying with Lulu and Maxie,” Patrick said. “I’m on my way to the airport with Anna. We’re meeting Robert in Athens.” He paused. “I got a message from Robin.”

“What?” Sonny jerked out of his seat, his eyes wide. “Robin?”

“She sent it through an unnamed number,” Patrick continued, his voice tinny as their connection faded for a minute, “but I know it’s her. We have a code. She used it.” His voice faltered. “She’s alive. And the Cassadines have her and the world was ending. She said I need to bring the cavalry. And she wanted Jason. She must know about Jake.”

“Okay, let me know when you’re landing in Athens,” Elizabeth said. “We’ll—we’ll make sure you get a connection to Mykonos and we’ll regroup there.” She hung up with Patrick, her pulse still racing.

Robin was alive. Jake was alive. The Cassadines had them both. “She wanted the calvary—and Jason. Patrick’s right—she wouldn’t have asked for Jason if she didn’t know about Jake.”

Laura nodded. “The calvary would definitely be Robert and Anna,” she murmured. “Robert would still know the island like the back of his hand, and no one is going to separate them from Robin. Why the hell would Helena want Robin—”

Elizabeth exhaled slowly as Laura’s voice broke off. Their eyes met. “Maybe the same reason she wanted Tony Jones,” Elizabeth said. “Robin’s done some amazing work on brain chemistry. Look at what she did for Jason—” She looked at him. “Your memories in 2005 and then last year—”

“Oh, man—” Sonny’s voice was a low moan as he sat down. “Don’t tell me the Cassadines are raising the dead again.”

“It looks like they already have,” Laura said. “Do you think it was Stavros that Robin brought back?”

“If it was just Stavros,” Elizabeth said slowly as she stood up, “then Helena would have gotten rid of Robin. And Nikolas is part of this, probably playing the same role he did ten years ago during Endgame.” She paused. “Laura—”

“Don’t say it—” Laura shook her head. “Don’t even—”

“Mikkos was frozen to death,” Elizabeth said. “What if—” she swallowed hard. “How sure are we that Helena hasn’t been searching for a way to bring him back—”

“Damn it.” Laura squeezed her eyes shut. “Robin said the world was ending. I think she might mean that literally.”

Jason just stared the both of them wordlessly, unsure how to operate in this world. He looked at Sonny who appeared as lost as he did. They worked in a world of rules—physical rules. You shot someone, they died.

He’d never really appreciated the danger Elizabeth had lived through as a connection to the Spencer family, and watching her and Laura debate the situation while he and Sonny sat on the sidelines —

“What do we know for sure?” Sonny said. “We know Jake and Robin are alive. Nikolas is hopefully a friend, but honestly—” He looked at Laura regretfully who nodded.

“He could be either,” she agreed.

“Luke definitely knows more than he’s saying, and I don’t think the picture is all he’s holding back,” Sonny continued. “He said Lucky threatened to kill Nikolas?”

“The last time Lucky threatened to kill Nikolas,” Elizabeth said, with a light flush, “wasn’t when he found out about the affair. It was when he was being controlled by Helena.” She pressed her lips together. “How did Luke and Lucky find out Jake was alive?”

“Could Helena have wanted this?” Jason said finally. Their eyes turned to him. “I don’t have a lot of experience, but this is a lot of things happening at the same time. Robin finally manages to get a message to Patrick the same night Luke calls us about Jake? We’re all going to Greece at the same time? Stavros Cassadine is alive. You think there’s a chance Mikkos might be, too,” he continued.

“She’s trying to play the game again,” Elizabeth realized. “She never really forgave Nikolas for betraying her, and she blamed me for it.” She hesitated, focused on Laura. “She kidnapped Jake because of me. Not Luke. To hurt me. And, oh, God, she might mean for Lucky to kill Nikolas. As revenge.”

“Well—” Laura took a deep breath, squared her shoulders. “The Cassadines have already aimed at my family more than once. We’ve always won.” She offered Elizabeth a faint smile. “We’ve done this before, Elizabeth, but we didn’t finish it. We thought it was over when Stavros died, but—”

“But this time Helena has to go,” Elizabeth agreed. “We need to cut the head off or it’ll just grow back.”

“I would really like to retire from hunting Cassadines,” Laura said fervently. Her smile broadened, turned a touch mean. “We’ve left it up to the Spencer men a little too long, haven’t we? I think it’s time for the Webber women to do some damage of their own.”

Mykonos, Greece: Airport

Sonny and Laura went to go take care of the customs officials — Sonny had money and Laura knew how to bribe officials in most European countries thanks to her years on the run while Spinelli started working on getting a local connection so he could hack into the Cassadine estate’s cameras.

This left Jason and Elizabeth standing with their luggage, waiting for them to return. Elizabeth frowned at him slightly. “Are you okay? You didn’t say much on the plane.”

“I am—” Jason paused. “Processing,” he admitted. “This time yesterday, Jake and Robin—” He looked out over the hills barely visible through the morning fog. “And now—” He met her eyes. “I’ve gone against some of the most dangerous men in the world, but I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never really had to deal with the Cassadines, and now—” He cleared his throat. “I think about all the times I pushed you away because of the danger—”

“Jason—”

“And I’m sorry,” he continued, “because it’s clear that you’ve faced worse. Because the Cassadines? They’re not like anything or anyone I can predict.”

“It’s scary,” Elizabeth acknowledged, “and they’ve been haunting Laura her entire life. They stole her away from her life—Helena and Stavros forced her to marry him. For years, she endured that abuse. And I wish it could be over for her.”

“I just don’t know how much help I can be in a situation like this,” he continued.

“Can you still shoot?” she asked, dryly. “Pilot a boat if we need it? Keep Spinelli from getting distracted? Move quietly? Jason—Luke and Laura didn’t know anything about them either, and they saved the world. I don’t need to save the world. I just want my son back. And I want my friend to come home.” She leaned up on her toes, pressing her lips against his. He wrapped his arms around her waist, dragging her closer, deepening the kiss.

“We’re going to bring Jake home,” Elizabeth told him when she drew back. “That’s what matters. Jake and Robin. And yeah, I want to make Helena pay for putting us through this. For putting Patrick and you and everyone who loved Jake and Robin through hell these last few years. I need you to be strong in all the ways I can’t be.” She searched his eyes. “Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” Jason said, leaning down to kiss her again. “I can do that.”

“All right, we’re good to go,” Sonny said as he and Laura returned. “The jet is heading over to Athens,” he continued, “where it’ll be waiting for the rest of them. We’re going into the city to meet with Luke?”

“Yeah, I told him I want to meet him in a public place.” Laura paused. “Sonny, you and Spinelli should find somewhere safe to set up. I don’t trust Luke, not if Lucky’s been compromised. Spinelli—”

“Get the security feed—number one priority,” Spinelli agreed with a firm nod. “Mr. Sir?”

“Jason,” Laura said, turning to him. “I think Elizabeth and I should meet Luke alone—” Jason opened his mouth to argue. “You can be nearby. “I’m sure you know how to blend in if you need to.”

“I can manage it, I’ve been to Greece,” Jason replied. “But—”

“If Helena is watching,” Laura said, “she probably already knows we’re here. So we need to throw her off. And if she isn’t—then Luke will never talk to you the way he’ll talk to Elizabeth.” She looked at her former daughter-in-law. “Play him with the guilt. Rub it in. Helena might have kidnapped Jake, but Luke was still driving the car. And he lied to you. Kept the photo back.”

Elizabeth nodded with a clench of her jaw. “Yeah, it’s not hard to find the anger,” she told Laura.

“Exactly. We’ll signal you,” Laura told Jason, “when we’re ready for you to join us, but I want Luke to feel outnumbered. I’ll go after him on Lucky, Elizabeth will kick him with Jake, and we’ll find out what we’s hiding faster.”

“I’m just the muscle,” Jason said. “You obviously know this better. Just tell me where you want me and who to shoot.”

“I like a man who can take directions.” Laura beamed at him. “Let’s get to work.”

Cosmo Cafe: Outdoor

Luke got to his feet when Laura and Elizabeth approached, his hesitant smile fading as the women approached. He cleared his throat. “No Morgan?”

“He went to get set up with Spinelli,” Elizabeth said. She drew out an iron chair and took a seat. Laura sat next to her, then Luke gingerly lowered himself back into his chair across from them. “You’re going to need a good excuse when you see him, by the way.”

Luke grimaced. “Darlin’, I know I held back the photo, but—” he spread out his hands. “I wanted to make sure Laura would come—”

“There wasn’t a chance in hell I would stay at home,” Laura cut in ruthlessly. “Cut the bullshit, Luke.”

“Are there more?” Elizabeth asked, her voice trembling slightly. Laura glanced at her, but Elizabeth didn’t look at her, didn’t even glance at Jason who had taken a table ten feet away, dressed in tourist clothes, complete with a pair of sunglasses and a hat. He really did know how to blend — he was sitting behind Luke, completely out of his eye line.

“More—”

“More photos? Of my little boy? I haven’t seen him—” Elizabeth pressed a finger to her lips. “He’s two years older, and they stole that time from me. And Nikolas—he’s sitting next to him. I need—”

Luke pulled out his phone, started rifling through them, then shoved it across the table. “Here,” he said in a rush. “I know, kid, I know it hurts. When I found out the Cassadines took Cowboy—”

Elizabeth stared at a photo, looked at the date underneath it, then looked up. “You’ve known my son was alive since December. At least.” She clutched the phone tightly. “While I was buying him gifts and hiding them in a closet so no one would think I was crazy—you knew Jake was alive—”

“Luke!” Laura said, her eyes bulging. “How could you—”

“I knew Jake was safe enough,” Luke said. He put up his hands. “Let me—let me explain—”

“How can you possibly explain this?” Laura demanded. She planted her hands on the glass table top and leaned forward. “Three months. Three months! Of all people—you drove the car that started all of this—”

Elizabeth squeezed her eyes closed. “Why? Why call now? What’s changed?” She looked at Laura, saw the other woman adjust her self. Back to the plan. Back on track.

“Lucky,” Luke said slowly. “At first, we were doing recon. You know, trying to find the weak spots. We got that picture just before Christmas. The first—” He sucked in a deep breath. “The first real proof. I wanted—I wanted to call you. Lucky wanted to call you,” he told her. “He’s got this idea he’ll give you Jake, and it’ll be like it was again—Lucky and Liz.”

“That’s over,” Elizabeth said flatly.

“I know it, but he—he couldn’t get it out of his head. And then—” Luke nodded at the phone. “He saw Jake with Nikolas. And it was—” His voice shook then. “It was like a switch in his head. Like before.”

Laura nodded grimly. “Helena.”

“We never broke it,” Luke said with a shake of his head. “It’s always been there. Always in his brain. Like a bomb. Lucky nearly killed Nikolas that day. I’ve spent the last three months trying to fix it, trying to talk him down, trying to find the trigger—” He looked at Elizabeth. “You need—you need to save my boy. Just one more time, darlin’, save my son.”

Elizabeth stared at him for a long time, then shook her head. “It’s not my job to save Lucky,” she said. “You took Jake from me. The night of the accident, you hit my little boy. He didn’t die, but that doesn’t matter, Luke. You put him in that hospital, close to death. And then you stole three months from me. It’s not my job to save Lucky,” she repeated.

“Angel—” Luke switched his attention to Laura. “You gotta see, if we can break the control—”

“We’ve got bigger problems than that,” Laura told him, regretfully. “Because Robin Scorpio is alive and being held by Helena.”

Luke bowed his head, all the fight sinking out of him. “So you know. You know that Mikkos is back.”

“Wait—” Elizabeth jerked up and Laura stared at Luke. “Wait—he’s actually—it’s not something Robin is working on?”

“No—” Luke nodded at the phone. “Go to the last photo. It’s why I called.”

Elizabeth handled Laura the phone and she scrolled to the last one, her face paling. She showed it to Elizabeth.

She’d only seen Mikkos in photographs, but there was no mistaking the people in the picture, clustered around a dining table. Helena and Mikkos. Stavros and Nikolas. Jake. And Stefan Cassadine. Her little boy surrounded by the darkest evil she’d ever known.

“All alive,” Laura breathed. “All four of them.” She raised her eyes to Luke. “All the Cassadines.”

“Yeah, and I got word from a contact—” Luke’s smile was grim. “Valentin is on his way to Greece. The Cassadines are about to have a family reunion, and Jake is in the middle of it all.”

Written in 21 minutes. No rereading.

 

---

Mykonos, Greece: Flat

After Luke had shown them whatever he had on the phone, Elizabeth had gestured for Jason to join them at the table, and Luke didn’t even look that surprised to see him. Jason wanted to throttle the other man for the grief he’d brought to Elizabeth, for the lies he’d told—but a single look at the women told Jason that he was best just standing behind them and taking his cues from them.

So they’d returned to the flat where Sonny had taken Spinelli to get started. When Jason had admitted to Elizabeth that he literally had no idea how useful he’d be during all of this, he knew that Sonny felt even more useless. Sonny didn’t even go into the field anymore—he’d been delegating that to Jason for years. But Sonny knew how to look like he had things together, so putting him with Spinelli who was good at taking orders had been the best plan.

“All of the Cassadines,” Sonny repeated, staring at his former business partner. “Mikkos. Helena. The sons.”

“And Nikolas and Jake,” Laura said faintly. She went over to Spinelli’s computer where he’d downloaded Luke’s photos, looking for any extra information he could find. She stared at the photograph, the sight of Mikkos with both of his sons.

She could scarcely believe Stefan and Nikolas had thrown in with the murderous trio, and if Luke was right, if Valentin Cassadine, the most notorious double agent DVX and the WSB had ever employed, was on his way—

“This is Endgame all over again,” Luke said.

“It’s worse than that,” Elizabeth said. Laura and Luke frowned, looking at her. “Endgame was just Helena and Stavros. They wanted revenge against you, Luke. But Lucky told me stories about Mikkos. Stories that he’d heard from you all his life.”

“He’s the one that wanted to freeze the world,” Sonny said. “He’s insane—”

“He makes insane look normal,” Luke muttered. “How sure are we that the Dark Prince and Stiffin aren’t part of this?”

“I don’t know,” Laura admitted. “But—” She bit her lip. “Luke, the Ice Princess—”

“I broke it into pieces a long time ago,” Luke reminded her. “And it’s not nearly as powerful as anyone ever said. It was just a diamond—”

“And nearly everyone sitting at that table is supposed to be dead,” Elizabeth interrupted. “And if Lucky has been brainwashed again—Helena used the diamond to do that. She used it as a trigger.”

“Let’s just focus on getting eyes on the estate,” Sonny suggested, trading an uneasy look with Jason who felt as out of depth as Sonny looked. Brainwashing, diamonds, weather machines, dead Cassadines —”

“I’m working on the network now,” Spinelli said. “I can’t work any faster or I’ll be caught.”

Elizabeth’s phone vibrated and she glanced down at it. “Patrick, Robert, and Anna have landed in Athens. They’ll be here in another two hours.”

“They’ll know how to deal with Valentin,” Luke said. “Anna trained him at the WSB before he went rogue.”

“I’m going to go call the boys,” Elizabeth told Jason. “Patrick said they’re with Lulu and Maxie.”

But when Elizabeth went to place the call to Lulu’s cell phone, it went to voicemail, and disappointed, Elizabeth left a message for Cameron and Aiden, hoping that she’d be able to keep her promise and see them again.

Scorpio House: Living Room

Dante Falconieri shoved open the door to the house, grimacing as he saw the toys strewn across the living room. He’d gotten his wife’s voice mail at the end of a long overnight shift, and the last thing he’d wanted to do was help babysit anyone’s kids.

He frowned when he didn’t hear any sounds, so he went upstairs to Emma’s room, then just stopped and stared at the two women who were sitting on the floor struggling to free themselves—

They were seated back to back, with a a rope tied around their upper bodies, tying their arms down with their mouths gagged.

Dante dragged the gag from Lulu’s mouth. “What the hell?”

“Those are not children,” she seethed. “Those are demons from hell and we are never having kids—”

He untied them, trying not to snicker. “Where’d they go?”

“By now?” Lulu huffed. “I’m sure they’ve hijacked a plane. Oh, damn, where’s Aiden?” She rushed out of the room.

Maxie sighed, shoved her hair out of her eyes. “They left a letter,” she told Dante. “Spencer said it was a matter of honor, and Cameron said something about older brothers.”

“Did Emma leave a cryptic message?” Dante asked dryly as he picked up his ringing phone, unsurprised when he learned from Carly that somehow, Joss had also disappeared, leaving a letter about how her mom should understand, she’d do it for Jason.

Just another day in Port Charles, Dante thought grimly, as he called the airport and put them on alert for short people trying to get to Greece.

Written in 59 minutes. No time for spell check.

---

Mykonos, Greece: Flat

Luke checked his watch, wincing. “I gotta get back to my place. Lucky will be wondering where I am, and if he starts thinking I’m against him—” He looked at Laura. “What do I do with Cowboy?”

“Bring him here,” Laura said reluctantly, shooting Elizabeth an apologetic look. “If Helena does have him under her control again, seeing Elizabeth might shake him into saying something. And if it doesn’t, well—”

Elizabeth wrinkled her nose at being volunteered to play even a small role in Lucky’s nonsense, but it would be important to learn whether or not Lucky was being his normal jackass self or a new breed of brainwashing had taken hold. She left the Spencers alone to determine the best way to deal with Lucky and went back over to Spinelli’s computer desk where Jason and Sonny were studying some of the prints they’d made.

“Hey, Luke is gonna bring back Lucky,” she warned them. “But Patrick should be here—” she checked her watch. “In about an honor—”

“Spinelli’s getting closer to the security cameras,” Sonny reported. “He’s found the network—” He hesitated, looked at Spinelli. “What did you say?”

“I found the network, but decrypting it might take a while,” the younger man said. “Unless Robert and Anna can do this faster—”

Elizabeth started to reply, but her phone beeped and she picked it up. “It’s Dante,” she said as she pressed play on the speaker. “Dante?”

“Listen, I don’t want you to worry—”

“Where are the kids?” Elizabeth demanded.

“I got to Patrick’s place and found Maxie and Lulu tied up,” Dante said. Sonny scrubbed a hand over his face. “Apparently, Joss hitched a ride to the house—and distracted them—they can’t really explain it—”

Elizabeth hissed. “Are they gone? How long?”

“No more than half an hour,” Dante assured them. “They left Aiden in the living room with a Lunchable and the remote. He’s watching cartoons, so he’s fine—”

A Lunchable and remote. Elizabeth shoved the phone at Jason to put her head in her hands. “They could get into a lot of trouble in thirty minutes—”

“Clearly, but Carly and Michael are on it. Joss thought she turned off the tracker on her phone, but apparently Carly put one on something else Joss carries because, well, she doesn’t trust her. They’re on their way to the airport, and Michael is meeting them there.”

“The airport,” Jason repeated. “What were they planning to do, hijack a plane?—”

“They didn’t give details because, and I’m quoting Cameron here, only dumb villains monologue and give away the plan.”

Sonny snorted and turned away before Elizabeth could set him on fire with a glare. “Ask Carly where she got the tracker because I’m gonna need to lojack my kid when I get home. Thanks, Dante.”

“Honestly, tying Maxie up and gagging her is probably the best thing that’s happened to me,” Dante said easily. “I’ll keep you posted, and we’ll put the kids under closer watch. We underestimated them.”

“You have my permission to use the handcuffs.” Elizabeth took the phone from Jason and hung it up. She looked at Laura who came over now that Luke had left. “Cameron, Emma, and Spencer — with help from Joss — tied up Maxie and Lulu and made a run for it. They’re tracking them to the airport.”

“Oh.” Laura couldn’t fight the giggles. She pressed her hands to her mouth, but the mirth slipped out. “Oh, my. Did Dante take pictures?”

Jason put an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders. “It’s okay. Carly and Michael are on it,” he assured her. “You’ve always wanted to gag Maxie.”

“This is insane. The kids are trying like hell to throw themselve in the middle of the nightmare and you’re all laughing— ” Elizabeth stalked away, storming out onto the terrace. Jason winced, and followed.

“I shouldn’t have laughed,” Laura said, her humor sliding away. “She’s scared for Jake—”

“Jason will take care of it,” Sonny assured her. “Let’s look over these maps. Tell me how much this has changed.”

Port Charles Airport: Drop Off Entrance

Cameron slammed the door on the taxi and shoved a pile of cash at the driver while Spencer lugged their duffles out of the backseat. “Okay,” he said. “We got to the airport. How do we get to Greece?”

“I reserved tickets,” Spencer said. “I used my father’s credit card, and we’re traveling as unaccompanied minors—” He peered at his phone and the email with the information. “We just gotta avoid everyone until the flight to Mykonos—”

“Oh, balls,” Jocelyn Jacks said with a sigh as she saw the tall, blonde man leaning against the glass entrance. “How’d he get here so fast?”

“What?” Cameron turned, his stomach sinking as he recognized Joss’s older brother. “Damn it! Your mom must have put something on you.”

“Going somewhere?” Michael Corinthos asked, sauntering over, his hands in his pockets. “How were you planning to get to Greece?”

“Unaccompanied minors travel all the time,” Spencer said loftily. “And my father never pays attention to credit card bills. I stole one last year and he never noticed. I only use it in emergencies.”

“Passports?”

“I brought mine,” Joss volunteered. “Spencer always has his because he’s a Cassadine. We were at Emma’s house, and—”

“I grabbed mine when we were packing. I never used it before,” Cameron explained, “but one time, my mom was going to take us on a trip and we all got one.” He’d had to slide it out of a drawer where it sat next to Jake’s. Aiden didn’t have one—his mom must have gotten them before Aiden was born.

Michael frowned. “This might have been dumb enough to work.”

“But Mom doesn’t trust me,” Joss complained. “What did she put the tracker on? Oh my God, did she like, open me up while I slept and slap it on my ribs?”

“Yeah, not telling you. Let’s go. We’re going home.” Michael looked at Cameron. “Dante had to call your mother in Greece, Cam. And she was not happy.”

His stomach sank. “He’s my brother,” Cameron said, dully. “I gotta help bring him home. Wouldn’t you try everything to bring Morgan or Joss home?”

“I would,” Michael said, “and part of me is pretty impressed by the four of you.” He met Cameron’s eyes. “But your mom has been through enough, Cam, and you know that. Don’t ask her to worry about you. And Spencer—”

“I’m a Cassadine—this is a matter of honor.” Spencer sniffed. “You have no right to tell me what to do—”

“Really? Because your mom and my mom were best friends,” Michael said. “And my mom wouldn’t want Courtney’s son getting hurt. You’re not just a Cassadine, kid. You’re my cousin, too. And Aunt Courtney took real good care of me.”

“My dad took off with my grandparents,” Emma complained, “and I don’t get to know anything.” She pouted as Michael picked up her duffel bag. “I just wanted to help.”

“I brought the rope,” Joss said when Michael started herding the four of them towards the parking lot. “Would you believe Dr. Patrick didn’t have none?”

“Shocking.”

Mykonos, Greece: Flat

The sun was just starting to set over the Adriatic Sea as Jason joined Elizabeth at the terrace as she looked out at the distant lump of land where the Cassadine estate could be found.

“He’s just across the water,” Elizabeth said. “And he’s sitting in the middle of some of the worst people in the world, Jason. It was one thing when it was just Helena and Stavros. I was scared, but I didn’t think they’d hurt him. But I don’t know Mikkos. And this Valentin—Luke said Helena is terrified of him.” She looked at him. “If we get this close to getting Jake back and lose him—”

“We won’t,” Jason told her. “We’re not going to get this close and go home alone,” he added. “I might not know much about the Cassadines, but I’m a pretty good shot, and I know how to follow orders. Robert and Anna—Luke and Laura—you were right. This is what they do. And you and I—Spinelli and Sonny—we’re smart. We think on our feet.” He tipped her face up to his. “We’re going to get our son back,” he promised her. “And we’re going to stop the Cassadines from coming back.”

Elizabeth leaned forward, her forehead resting against his chin. “And then Dante calls, and Cameron’s trying like hell to get here because he wants to help. Part of me is just so angry and scared—”

“And the rest of you is proud,” Jason said. “Because you’ve raised a really great kid who’d put his life on the line for his little brother without even blinking.”

“He’s just a baby.” Elizabeth swiped tears from her cheeks. “They’re all just babies. He shouldn’t be worried about this. He’s barely eight years old, Jason.”

“Barely eight, and without even taking a minute, he and Spencer put together plan to get to Greece, and Emma and Joss agreed to help because they’re best friends. There are worst in the world than finding out you’ve got a strong, independent kid who could take on the world.”

“I know.” Elizabeth’s mouth twitched. “They left Aiden with a Lunchable and a cartoon.”

“Resourceful,” Jason said and she laughed. Her phone rang and he handed it to her. “It’s Michael. He probably has them.”

Elizabeth took the phone and put it on speaker. “Michael?”

“Mom?”

“Cameron—” Elizabeth closed her eyes, relieved. “Baby. You’re with Michael?”

“He found us at the airport. I—I’m sorry. I just—” There was a pause as Cameron’s voice faltered. “I just want to find Jake. I want to bring him home.”

“I know you do. I’m so proud of you, and I love you so much. Jason and I were just talking about how amazing you and Spencer and the girls are to get that far. Did you have tickets? What about passports?”

There was a pause. “Dante said you didn’t want to reveal your plan,” Jason said, “but I think it’s safe now.”

“I found my passport in your room, Mom. I saw it once when you were getting my birth certificate. It was next to Jake’s. Spencer got tickets on a credit—” There was a scuffle. “Uh, I don’t know how Spencer got them.”

Tickets and passports. If Michael and Carly had been ten more minutes behind the kids, would they have been able to stop them? Elizabeth sighed. “Michael, are you there?”

“Yeah, hey. We’re on our way to Mom’s place. Dante is coming over to hang out. For some reason, Lulu and Maxie are tapping out.”

“Please, I did the world a favor,” Joss said from the background. “They should always be gagged.”

“Anyway, Mom’s got this. She’s always one step ahead of Joss mostly because Mom already did worse than Joss is ever gonna try—”

“I’ll find that tracker!”

“I’ll call you if they break out again,” Michael said.

“Okay, thanks. Cameron, I love you,” Elizabeth said. “But if you decide to tie up Carly and gag her—”

“Make sure you take pictures this time,” Jason offered.

Michael snorted. “We could make a lot of money selling those.”

“Bye, Mom. Bye Jason.”

She hung up the phone, looked at Jason. “We’re going to get our little boy, aren’t we?” she said softly. “We’re going to get Jake and bring him home.” She slid her phone in her pocket, then reached up to kiss him fiercely. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

They stood there for another minute, looking out over the island but then Laura came out on the terrace. “Before you decide to just swim over,” she said, “Luke’s on his way up with Lucky.”

“Well, I guess I’m back in the Saving Lucky business,” Elizabeth muttered, but Laura shook her head.

“No. It’s not like that, sweetheart. If Helena has control again, it’s not on you to take care of it. It’s me. And Luke. We should have finished this a long time ago.” Laura lifted her chin. “But I think seeing you—with Jason—it might shake Lucky enough. If he thinks giving Jake back to you will win you back—”

“You always did piss him off just by breathing,” Elizabeth said even as Jason made a face. She focused on Laura again. “Michael called. They have the kids.”

“Oh, good. How close did they get?”

“Honestly, ten more minutes, and we’ve have a child army ready to go to war,” Elizabeth admitted as they went back inside. “I think they might stay put for a while, but—”

The door opened and Lucky stumbled in, blinking at the crowd of them. Spinelli got to his feet, Sonny angling himself slightly in front of the younger man, unsure what Lucky might do or say.

“What’s—” Lucky looked around. “Mom—” His eyes found Elizabeth. “Why—you came. You came to help. Dad told you? He told you Nikolas stole our boy—”

“No, Nikolas stole my son,” Elizabeth corrected, gently. “Min and Jason’s. We’re here to get him back. To take him home.” She slid her arm through Jason’s, smiled up at him. “Together.”

Lucky shook his head. “No—No, that’s not—” He looked at his father who sighed. “That’s not how this is supposd to happen.”

“Cowboy—”

“She—” Lucky’s hands fisted at his sides. “I’m supposed to—I’m—” He glared at Elizabeth. “You’re doing it again. You’re ruining everything!”

“How am I ruining anything?” Elizabeth said coolly. “You left Port Charles and made it very clear that you didn’t want me or any of my boys in your life.”

“No, no, no—this is wrong.” He took a step towards her, and Jason’s hand tightened around hers, tugging her back slightly. “I’m supposed—you’re supposed to come back to me.”

“According to who?” Elizabeth asked. “I’m telling you how it is—”

“Damn, she said that if I killed Nikolas, I could have Jake back!” Lucky raged. “If I could bring him home, you’d love me again! She promised!” He turned his fury to Jason. “You’re always ruining everything—”

He lunged at Jason, pulling a knife from beneath his jacket. The room exploded in chaos as Jason tried to shove Elizabeth aside just as she pushed him away—over balancing them both—Lucky crashed into them, sending them all to the ground.

“God damn it!” Sonny growled as he waded in. Luke grabbed Lucky by the back of the jacket—just as blood began to pool on the floor. “Who the hell—”

“It’s not me,” Lucky said dully—his face crumpled as Jason rolled over and shoved Elizabeth on to her back—the knife shoved into her gut. Elizabeth stared blankly at the knife, then at Lucky before her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

Written in 58 minutes. Spell checked, but not reread for typos. I’m gonna be honest here, y’all, this is one story where I am flying by the seat of my pants. I have no idea what’s next.

---

Mykonos, Greece: Flat

Jason cradled Elizabeth’s head with one hand while taking in the wound to her abdomen. With gritted teeth, not taking his eyes off the woman bleeding out in front of him. “Get him away from me or this time he’s not coming back from the dead.”

With tears streaming down her face, Laura helped Luke shove a struggling and still bellowing Lucky down the hall. She shoved her son and her ex-husband into the bedroom, turning back to Jason. “How bad is it?”

“Sonny—” Jason looked at his best friend as the older man knelt on Elizabeth’s other side, taking her wrist in his, monitoring her pulse. Spinelli hovered in the background, biting at his nails.

“Pulse is thready, but there—” Sonny exhaled on a hiss. “I didn’t see how long the blade was. If we pull it out—looking at where it is—”

“Where’s Patrick?” Jason demanded. “Laura, call—”

“I’m already on the line—” Her face pale, but her fingers steady, Laura had pressed Robert’s contact information and put the phone on speaker. “Robert?”

“Laura—”

“Where are you? Elizabeth’s been stabbed and we could use a surgeon.”

“What the hell—” came Patrick’s shout from the background. “How the hell—”

Jason ignored that, and focused on Elizabeth. “Elizabeth? Can you hear me?” Not like this. He couldn’t lose her like this—not after everything—not before they could bring Jake home—

On a low, soft moan, her eyelids fluttered, then closed. Her face scrunched. “Hurts.”

“What do you think? It’s not high enough for the liver—”

“But it might be deep enough to hit the kidney—”

“Patrick is five minutes out,” Laura said, coming to them, getting down on her knees. “What can I do? How can I help?”

The bleeding had slowed, and Jason calculated how much had actually pooled beneath her. “She’s not—she’s not bleeding out. At least not that I can see. If I pull out the knife, that could change—” He knew how to compartmentalize. How to put things into pockets in his brain and separate out the now from the fear and the worry.

He just couldn’t manage it for longer than a minute or two before it all came flooding back in, and the terror swamped him. He couldn’t go home without her. Couldn’t look in Cameron’s sober eyes and tell him his mother wasn’t coming back—

“Elizabeth, can you look at me? Just open your eyes—”

Her lashes fluttered again and a sliver of the blue was visible. “Make…it…stop.”

“I will, I promise. Patrick will be here, and he’ll help me stop it. You’re going to be okay. We’re going to get Jake and take him home to his brothers.”

“Jake.” Elizabeth’s head lolled to the side as she drifted again. “Jake. Wanted to…see him…hold him—”

“You will,” Laura promised. She pressed a fist to her mouth as Sonny put a hand around her shoulders. “Elizabeth, we’re going to bring him home—”

“Cam…” Elizabeth forced her eyes open, found Jason’s. “Cam. Don’t…can’t leave him.”

“You’re not going to—”

The door behind them shoved open as Patrick stormed in, followed by Robert Scorpio and Anna Devane.

“What the hell is going on?” Patrick demanded as he skidded across the floor to Jason’s side.

Laura struggled to her feet, with Robert’s help. “Lucky did this,” she said to Robert and Anna in a low voice.

“I guess that’s the shouts and grunting I hear—” Robert said, squinting in the direction of the closed door. “Is that where Spencer is?”

“He could use a hand,” Laura said, her voice calm and steady, unlike her hands which were trembling as she turned back to the crowd on the ground. “Lucky tried to stab Jason, but Elizabeth got in the way.”

“We’ll sort this out,” Anna promised Laura. “Trust Patrick—”

“Okay, okay—it’s—” Patrick took a deep breath. “Spinelli, you need to get me something like looks like a scalpel—sterilize it. I need towels. I need—shit—” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I need to wash my hands. I need something to sew. Needles, thread—”

“We’ve got an emergency kit, Patrick. It has everything.” Anna pulled her son-in-law to his feet and went with him to wash her hands.

“This is my fault,” Laura said, staring down at Elizabeth’s prone figure. Jason looked at her, frowning. “I listened to Luke. She already begged us not to make her do this again. She didn’t come here to take on the Cassadines. I should have told Luke to keep Lucky away.”

“As soon as I know she’s okay, I’m going to the island, I’m getting my son,” Jason said, tightly, “and I’m taking her home. You can save the world without us. She and the boys are all that matters.”

“Jase—” Sonny put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s too stubborn to go out like this—” But his voice faltered because even he knew the universe didn’t give a shit about that kind of thing.

“All right.” Patrick turned away from the sink. “We need to move her to higher ground so I can get a better look at things. Clear that table—” he nodded at the longer table against the wall. Jason, Sonny—at either end. Laura, I need you to make sure that knife doesn’t move a centimeter. Spinelli—” He looked at the pale, oddly quiet tech. “Whatever you were doing to find Robin and Jake, get back to it. When she wakes up, she’ll want to know the plan.”

“Got it,” Spinelli said, swallowing hard.

“I’ve done brain surgery by flashlight at gunpoint,” Patrick said, “and my patient lived—” He met Jason’s eyes. “This is a cake walk. Let’s get to work.”

Cassadine Island: Lab

Nikolas paced the stretch of the room, glaring at Robin as she poured over notes and codes. “This can’t be this hard. I need to get Jake off this island.”

“That’s the goal, Nikolas, but you can’t rush this. And remember—by now my parents and Patrick have to be in Greece. I hope like hell he brought Jason and Elizabeth. We’ll get off this island and they’ll be ready with an escape route home.”

She turned back to her research. “I just don’t know how some of this computer stuff works. I never listened when Spinelli talked. I just made him do everything.”

“We just need to get past security long enough to get down to the docks. Once we’re on one of the boats, I can have us in Mykonos in thirty minutes.” Nikolas closed his eyes. “Valentin is coming, Robin. He’s the last piece of the puzzle.”

“Nikolas—”

“It’s my fault. I kept waiting. I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t say anything when I found my father. I didn’t say a damn word when my grandfather showed up—but Jake.” His terrified eyes found Robin’s. “She sits him at the table like he’s part of the family. I promised him I’d get him home—”

“And we will—”

“I should have told Jason ages ago. I just—” Nikolas sat on the cot where Robin slept. “I wanted to be the hero,” he admitted. “I wanted to be the one who brought the Cassadines down. Permanently. And I wanted to bring Jake home to Elizabeth.”

“You were selfish and stupid—” Robin looked over as another monitor beeped. Her smile spread as she recognized the code.

thinking of changing pain in the ass to phoenix we landed baby and I brought the whole damn army sit tight we’ll get you out of this

“It’s Patrick,” she breathed. “He’s here. Oh, God, he’s here, and we’re going to be okay—” Her breath caught as she typed back in response.

will buy you all the race cars you want. maybe even a real one i love you we’re waiting for instructions

“Robert and Anna are with him, I’m sure.” Nikolas took his first easy breath. “Okay. I hate to leave you—”

“But you need to stick as close to Jake as you can. I’ll get word to you through Stefan when he brings my meals.” Robin got to her feet. “We’re too close to being done with this—”

“We just need to be gone before Valentin lands tomorrow,” Nikolas reminded her. “Tell Patrick we’re on a deadline. Whatever Helena and Mikkos are planning—it starts when Valentin gets here.”

“I’ll tell him.”

Mykonos: Flat

Robert and Luke emerged from the bedroom, grim-faced. Luke had a black eye while Robert’s shirt had a tear in the sleeve

“Where’s Lucky?” Laura demanded.

“Handcuffed, tied up, bound, gagged, and sedated,” Robert said. He examined. “Bastard bit me.” He nodded at the table where Elizabeth was laying, a sheet pulled over her and her head resting on the pillow. “What about Elizabeth?”

“Is she okay?” Luke asked.

Jason glared at him. “No thanks to you. How many times are you going to make Lucky Spencer her problem to fix? He did her one good turn fifteen years ago, Luke. Don’t ask her to do this again.”

“I—” Luke swallowed. “I won’t, but—”

“The knife wasn’t as long as we thought,” Patrick told him, washing his hands. “Missed the organs, just took in the meat.”  He sighed as Laura shuddered. “Sorry.”

“No, better than the alternative,” Laura began as Patrick pulled his phone from his pocket, grimly. “What is it?”

“Robin. She sent me a reply earlier, but I didn’t see it and she just sent another one—” He stared at it. “We need to get them out now. She says whatever is going to happen starts tomorrow. They’re just waiting on Valentin.”

“I hate deadlines,” Robert muttered. “What’s the plan? Spinelli, what does security look like?”

“While Patrick was finishing up, I got the specs on the security cameras and got through the network.” Spinelli twisted on in his chair. “I got eyes on the whole island.”

“Where—” Jason started across the room, but Spinelli put a hand up.

“I got it up on the flat screen—bigger monitor,” he explained as he switched on the screen in the front of the room. “Island has one dock area where boats are kept, but there are a few inlets where I think you could land some people. Particularly if you’re coming in low-tech.” Spinelli brought up a a satellite image that highlighted the areas he talked about. “The building we saw on the plane—”

He flicked the camera to the front entrance as Nikolas emerged. He turned to talk to someone inside, then walked away. “No cameras inside that I can see, but—” He flipped to another one. “This cottage near the maze has cameras in the common space, and in—” Spinelli swallowed hard as he brought the image on screen.

A little boy with light blond hair was surrounded by toy cars and trains, his face lit up with smiles and laughter.

“This is—” Jason swallowed hard as he drank in the image of his son. “This is right now.”

“Right this second, Jake is in the cottage on the edges of the Cassadine estate,” Spinelli said his own voice a bit wobbly. He cleared his throat. “The cottage is less than a thousand feet from one of the landing spots I highlighted.”

“The other building where Nikolas was—” Patrick hesitated. “How far from the cottage?”

“About half a mile. The whole island is maybe a mile long,” Spinelli clarified. “And I agree, the messages the good doctor has been sending you are from that part of the island. Robin is in that building.”

“We’ll land two boats,” Anna decided. “One team to go in after Robin, and the other gets Jake. We get them off the island and we regroup. They’re more important than whatever the Cassadines might be planning.” She paused, looking at Laura. “Unless Nikolas is with one of them—”

“We can’t get him on this trip,” Laura confirmed. “Jason, I’m sure you and Sonny will go for Jake. I’ll go with you. Patrick, Robert, Anna—”

“I have to go.”

The slurred voice came from behind them as they turned to find Elizabeth struggling to sit up, wincing as she propped herself up on her elbows.

“Careful,” Patrick hissed, rushing to her side. “You’ll tear the stitches—”

“You can sew me up later—” Elizabeth swung her legs over the side. “I’m going.”

“Elizabeth,” Jason began but she shook her head.

“No. No. A thousand feet. I can manage that. I can. And Jake—” Her voice shook. “He might not remember you, Jason. He won’t know Sonny or Laura. He knows me. He’ll come with me quietly.” She held Jason’s eyes. “I need to be there. We’ll come home, and Patrick can patch me up on the way back to Port Charles. Once we get Robin and Jake off the island, we need to be in the air as soon as we can.”

“She’s right,” Anna said. “If we have a prayer of pulling this off, we need to be off that island before they even know we’re there. Spinelli—”

“I can loop security cameras and distract any guards. I wish I had more time to know how people move and find a safe time—” Spinelli grimaced. “But we can make it work.

“We can’t take the chance of Jake struggling because he doesn’t know you,” Anna told Jason with regret.

Jason dipped his head. They were right, and he only had himself to blame. Jake had been gone almost two years—there wasn’t even much of guarantee he’d know Elizabeth but— He looked at her. “All right,” he said finally. “Let’s get down to it. We’ll get Robin the details so she can be ready and do what she can on the island to help. Let’s get our son.”

Cassadine Island: Off the Coast

Ignoring the stabbing pain in her side, Elizabeth watched as Laura navigated the boat to a slow stop, floating about fifty feet from the inlet that Spinelli had highlighted on the map. Jason and Sonny got the rubber, motor dinghy into the water.“Laura, I need you to promise me something.”

Laura looked at her and shook her head. “Absolutely not. Don’t you dare say anything stupid like leave you behind if I need to. I’m not going back to my grandsons without you. And if  you think Jason would leave you—”

“He’ll put Jake first, just like I am.” Elizabeth closed her eyes, took another bracing breath. “I’ll get to the cottage. I know I can make it that far. But I don’t know if I can make it back—”

“Elizabeth—”

“I’ll get Jake to Jason, and I’ll make sure he’s safe. I’ll try like hell to get back, but Laura—”

“In the unlikely event that you don’t get back to the boat, I will get Jake off the island—”

“You asked me to save your son a long time ago,” Elizabeth said and Laura blanched. “I’m asking you to make sure you save mine.”

“You don’t fight fair,” Laura whispered fiercely. “But I didn’t either.”

“We’re mothers. We can’t afford to.”

“Ready?” Jason asked, taking Elizabeth’s hand. He squeezed it. “I’m going to lower you into the dinghy—Sonny is waiting—”

“Ready. Let’s get our son.”

Written in 30 minutes. Went a little over. No spell check.

---

Cassadine Island: Inlet

Elizabeth winced as Jason lifted her out of the dingy, but did her best to hide it. Everything was on fire, and she was pretty sure she was going to rip her stitches by the time this was done—

But she couldn’t risk Jake not going with Jason or Sonny, fighting them and drawing attention. She couldn’t take that chance—and from the grim expression on both their faces—she knew that they still agreed.

Even if Jason was probably itching to throw her back in the dingy and send her back to Laura, bobbing along on the small speedboat.

“We wait for Spinelli’s signal,” Jason reminded them both as he took out his phone, waiting for the text. “As soon as they’re in position—” He nodded as Spinelli’s message came in. “Okay, Patick and the others are going in.”

“We’re following you,” Sonny reminded him, before wrapping his hand around Elizabeth’s elbow, firmly. “Let’s go.”

Wordlessly, they set off on the short trek through the dense trees, Elizabeth trying desperately to hide how hard it was to breathe or keep moving. She stumbled over a weed, and Jason started to turn back.

“No, go—” Elizabeth sucked in a sharp, shallow breath. “I’m okay—”

“I got her, Jase. We’re halfway there,” Sonny murmured in her ear as Jason reluctantly moved forward, listening to the directions Spinelli was giving him in the ear piece. “We’re going to get to your boy, and then we’ll go home and laugh about this one day.”

She felt something warm against her skin, then the slow itch of something dribbling down her side. She pressed a hand to her wound, then looked at it—the red staining her fingertips.

Sonny hissed, lifted his head to call out to Jason who was pausing at a stream, getting some more information about where to cross.

“No. We’re not there yet,” Elizabeth said with a shake of her head. “Sonny—”

He grimaced as they caught up to Jason, but he said nothing. Jason turned to them and Elizabeth made sure she was slightly behind Sonny, where part of her body wouldn’t be visible to him.

“The cottage is two hundred feet away. Spinelli says it’s a straight shot. And the others are almost at the bunker with Robin.” Jason hesitated, met Elizabeth’s eyes. “We need to pick up the pace. We can’t let them off the island before us more than a few minutes—”

“Two hundred feet between me and my baby?” Elizabeth clenched her jaw. “I could run that if I had to.”

Jason nodded. “The stream isn’t deep here,” he told them, “not more than a foot. Let’s get moving.”

—

Nikolas checked his watch and looked over at his nephew, playing on the ground with a toy motorcycle. He checked out the window again, then wondered if maybe—

“Uncle Nikolas,” Jake said, pitching his voice low because Stavros was sleeping in the other room and no one interrupted Stavros’s naps. Not even small children who were being groomed to be the perfect Cassadine son. Nikolas gritted his teeth. It was the future Helena had wanted for Spencer once, but Stavros had taken a shining to Elizabeth’s brash, bold son with the big blue eyes and friendly smile.

He’d wanted him, he’d told his mother. Whatever Helena had wanted to for Jake, Stavros said he deserved a chance to raise a child. And why not Laura’s grandson?

Nikolas had been desperate to keep Jake’s paternity from them—his only value—the decent treatment was only because of the Spencer blood ties, but sometimes he saw his father looking at Jake strangely—

“Uncle Nikolas,” Jake repeated, drawing Nikolas’s attention. “We should wait in the garden,” he told him.

“I—”

Then Nikolas saw something out of the corner of his eye—a movement in the trees just beyond the house. He saw a trio coming out of the trees—Jason, Elizabeth, and Sonny. He was going to get out of here. He was going home to his son—

“Nikolas?”

He heard a voice from the back of the cottage. His father was awake. Damn it! He should have given him more—

Nikolas picked Jake up, motorcycle and all, and lunged towards the door. They had one chance to get this right, and he would be damned if Jake didn’t go home today—

“Uncle Nikolas—”

Nikolas burst out of the door and loped across the short field of grass between the cottage and trees.

“What the—” Jason began, confused, pushing Elizabeth behind him. She cried out and fell to the ground. Worried, he turned—

“Mommy? Daddy?” Jake said, brightening. He shoved himself away from Nikolas, almost hurtling to the ground and closing the gap. “Uncle Nik said you were coming!” He threw himself at his father as Jason, in shock, closed his arms around his son.

“Let’s go,” Sonny ordered, hauling Elizabeth to her feet. “Damn it—” he said at the same time Jason saw the bloodstain on her side. Elizabeth swayed.

“Mommy?” Jake whimpered. “Daddy, Mommy’s hurt—”

“Nikolas!” A roar sounded from the cottage, and Nikolas turned to see his father at the door. The fury on Stavros’s face—the other man went back into the cottage, and Nikolas grimaced.

“We have to go—” he began.

“We’ll never make it in time!” Elizabeth said at the same time. “Get Jake out of here!”

“Mommy—”

“I’ll slow him down,” Nikolas said, swallowing hard. His chance to get off the island was done now. He had to stop Stavros from coming back out—and it was him or Elizabeth.

There was no choice at all.

“Nikolas—”

Jason shoved Jake at Sonny, then lifted Elizabeth into his arms. “Stop him,” Jason ordered, and then they disappeared into the trees. Nikolas closed his eyes, thought of his son, then went back to the cottage.

Jake was safe. Wanting anything else had been selfish. He needed to stop his family once and for all.

—

Elizabeth cried out as Jason sloshed through the streams, and his heart was pounding—she was bleeding so much he could feel it against his skin. “We need to stop—we need to rewrap—”

“Can’t—” she panted, closing her eyes. “Jake—he has to be safe—”

“I’ll get Jake back to the boat,” Sonny promised as he held the wide-eyed child against his chest. “Elizabeth—”

“No! No! He needs one of us—” Elizabeth looked at Jason. “Please—”

“Not going to happen,” Jason bit out. “Sonny, get back to the boat.”

“Daddy?” Jake asked.

“I have to take care of Mommy,” he told his son, drinking in very feature of his precious son. “I love you. We both love you.”

“Jason—” Elizabeth sobbed as he lowered onto the ground and Sonny disappeared, taking Jake with him. “No! No! You have to go!”

“Not without you—” Jason tore off his short, tore it into two quick strips, pressing one hard against her wound—she only stopped herself from screaming in excruciating pain by biting her lip so hard as Jason used the other strip to tight it tightly around her waist. “He knew us,” she panted. “I didn’t—” Tears streamed down her cheek. “He knew us. Nikolas must have—”

“We can thank him later,” Jason muttered. He got to his feet, but before he could lift Elizabeth into his arms, he heard the crack of a branch. He whirled around — only to see a furious man with dark hair and eyes aiming a gun at him.

“If you move, I will shoot her in the head,” the man snarled

Jason was face to face with Stavros Cassadine, Elizabeth bleeding out behind him, and his own gun tucked into his waistband — but if Jason moved —

He swallowed hard.

—

Half a mile away, just as Anna was joyously hugging her daughter and Robert was growling at them both to get into the damn boat—Patrick’s head whipped around at the sound of a gunshot echoing over the island.

“Oh, damn it—” he swore. Robert—”

The other man pressed his ear piece. “Spinelli—” His face blanched. “Sonny got off the island. With Jake. But not Jason and Elizabeth.”