I loved the Dec. 11 scenes between AJ and Elizabeth and think there's lots of great story there. This is a take off of GH from Dec. 12. The only change? A slightly SORAS-ed Emma and Cameron are the driving force behind the Nurses Ball.

AJ stared at the list in front of him. No matter how he crunched the numbers, as long as Carly was in charge of Michael's shares he didn't see how he could wrest control of ELQ away from Tracy. Even with Sam. And Sam wasn't a given.

"Uh, Mr. AJ?" Alice asked as she poked her head around the library door.

"Alice, please just call me AJ."

"Um, okay. There's some visitors here to see you...AJ." He had to hide his smile.

Maybe Michael? AJ wondered hopefully. With Starr? "Okay, send them in."

Two rather weather tossed tweens walked into the library. "Well...hello," AJ said, completely unsure who these children were or why they had come to see him.

"Hi, Mr. Quartermaine. I'm Emma Drake and this is my friend, Cameron. Cameron Webber." The little brunette brushed her hair back off her face and stared right at him with determined brown eyes.

Now AJ was even more perplexed. "Cameron Webber? Elizabeth's son?"

"You know my mom?" the boy answered back.

AJ smiled at him. He could see Elizabeth, a little. He remembered she'd had a baby just before...just before he'd went away. Emily had been as excited as if she was the one having the baby. "My sister and your mom were best friends. I think Elizabeth spent as much time in this house as she did at her own when they were in high school." The boy shuffled his feet and looked around. "I don't think I know you, Emma."

"I think you know, you knew," her voice grew husky as she corrected the verb tense, "my mom too. Robin. Robin Scorpio."

The small stature, the brown hair, that penetrating stare. Of course Emma was Robin's daughter. AJ sat back down again. Robin Scorpio married and dead. "I heard about Robin. I'm so sorry, Emma. Your mom...your mom was one of the strongest people I've ever known."

"Well, we need your help," Cameron chimed him when he saw the look on his best friend's face. "When our moms were young the hospital had a Nurse's Ball to raise money for HIV and AIDS."

"The Nurses Ball? Of course! It was always one of the most..." think of a kid appropriate adjective, Quartermaine, he reminded himself, "interesting times of the year. My whole family used to perform. Even I performed!"

Emma nodded, steadying herself again. "You know my mom was HIV positive?"

AJ nodded again.

"Well, we want to bring the ball back. To...honor my mom." Emma started talking faster. "But it's really expensive, and General Hospital has had a cutbacks because of the recession, you've heard about the recession? And so we have to ask people and so...we thought we'd ask you."

These two were what, eleven? Did eleven year olds plan huge fundraising events that used to end with Lucy Coe naked on stage?

"How OLD are you?" AJ finally asked.

"Cameron's eleven and I just turned ten," Emma answered. "But we know what we're doing. Its important. And we need your help."

"Emma's smart," Cameron interjected. "She's good at stuff like this. She can always think of things to make my little brother happy, and she can even do my homework, even though I'm in another grade."

Did Michael do things like this when he was eleven? He didn't know. But he looked at them and saw a very young Emily and Lucky plotting their latest escapade, he saw Robin steeling herself to tell him the truth about Michael...and he saw Elizabeth Webber's eyes as she told him to stay away from Sonny.

"Okay, tell me your plans."

An hour passed by the time Cameron and Emma finished telling him their plans for the Nurses Ball. Parts of the telling required them to act out their plans. He never laughed. Really, their plans weren't bad. They'd need tweaking and bringing down to reality, but they weren't bad.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Emma and Cameron asked together.

"Okay, I'll give you the start-up money. And I'll help you find other people to help you." AJ realized it was getting darker. "Do your parents know where you are?" A guilty look passed between the kids. "Oh God. Come with me, I'll drive you home." He tossed Emma his cell phone. "And call them, please, before I get arrested for kidnapping.

Neither Elizabeth nor Dr. Drake answered their phones. Great, AJ thought, what he needed was to be driving around with other people's kids when their parents didn't know where they were.

They pulled up to a pretty Colonial right behind a slightly older car. Elizabeth got out. "Elizabeth..."

"AJ?" she said, stunned. Her mind reeled. Why was AJ Quartermaine standing in her driveway next to a giant SUV? Did he want the picture back?

Cameron and Emma clambered out from the back seat. "What? Why?"

"We rode our bikes, Elizabeth. It was my idea. Don't be mad at Cameron. We told Alyssa we were going to the library..."

"YOU RODE YOUR BIKES ALL THE WAY TO THE QUARTERMAINES?"

Every intersection, busy road, dangerous crossing flashed through her mind. They were good bike riders, yes, but it was so far to the mansion. Elizabeth fell against her car a little bit. They could've been hit so many times. No one knew where they had gone. They could've been laying in a ditch and no one would've even known where to look for them. That sinking feeling hit her, like the world was slowly closing in on her and the air was be squeezed from her lungs.

"I'm not Jake, Mom. I know now not to run out in the street just because no ones watching me," Cameron told her with a sneer AJ could hear.

"Cameron!" Emma cried. "Don't be mad, Aunt Lizzie. We did it for the Nurses Ball. We thought Dr. Quartermaine would help us, but she wasn't there. So we talked with AJ and he said he'd help us. I didn't think about scaring you."

"Emma, Cameron, why don't you guys get your bikes out of the back of the truck and I'm going to help Elizabeth in the house." He put his hand under her elbow and led her towards the house. The color literally drained from her face when Cameron taunted her about Jake. He reconsidered his opinion of the boy.

Elizabeth let herself be led into the house. "He hates me. He blames me. For Jake."

"Who is Jake?" AJ asked gently.

Elizabeth looked up at him, horrified. She'd never dreamed he didn't know. Hadn't Monica filled him on her horribleness?

"He was your nephew and it's my fault he's dead."