Well I suppose the standard disclaimer should be posted. I do not own the rights to any General Hospital characters or places used in this story. Actually I'm pretty sure that I don't even own my original characters. If I remember correctly, I sold my mind for a doughnut at some point… Mmmmm, doughnuts… Anyways, enjoy!

June 2010

Sam McCall was tired. The slimy businessman that she had been following had decided to have a marathon day: skipping work, running around town, and stopping at three different hotels throughout the day for illicit affairs. By 10am she had all of the photographic evidence her client needed to prove that her scum-bag of a husband had indeed violated the terms of the pre-nup but she tailed him the whole day anyways so she could give her client the whole story. And now, at 6pm, she had to take a quick shower and be at Jason's by 7:30 for dinner. Someone knocking at the door prevented her from entering her bathroom.

"Yes," She opened the door to reveal a man immaculately dressed in a Marine's dress uniform. The marine, Fitzpatrick his nameplate read, paused a moment before he acknowledged her.

"Ms. McCall," the man greeted her, "I don't know if you remember me but my name is James Fitzpatrick. We met at Captain- sorry Major Orsino's-"

"Funeral," she supplied for him, "Yeah I remember you." She grimaced as she remembered the last time they had met. Both stood waiting for the other to say something.

"Can I come in, miss?" Sam stepped back to let him into her apartment. He removed his hat and stepped into the middle of her living room. She sighed, waiting for him to speak.

"Why are you here?" She asked after a few minutes. The question had come out harsher than she had intended; the marine shifted his feet uncomfortably.

"It's sort of a long story, miss. So if you could save all of your questions until the end," he waited for her to nod before he began, "When Capt- I mean Major Orsino was killed in action, I was his Second in Command. Alex and I had known each other for years. We went through basic training together; he and I were friends.

"I-I was right there when it happened. We were taking hostile fire and one of the assets that we were extracting ran into the building for cover and Alex ran in after him. Alex entered the building five seconds before it was targeted by an air strike. There was no way he could have-" the man back-tracked, "I didn't think there was any way he could have survived the explosion or gotten out of the building."

"Think?" Sam interjected.

"Yes, um.... The building was reduced to rubble. I mean we found his dog tags in the debris that was thrown from the blast. But we could never positively identify any individual sets of remains in the wreckage. We lost two other men in the explosion; it was a war-zone, there was no reason to believe that he survived the blast." He finished awkwardly. Sam took a deep breath to calm herself.

"And why now, after almost nine years, do you think that he wasn't in the building? Do you have evidence that suggests he's still alive?" She asked, trying not to get her hopes up.

"Because I spoke to him just before I came to see you," Sam's sharp intake of breath accenting the end of his sentence.

"Where is he?" She demanded in a strangled cry.

"He's at Bethesda in DC right now. They're running some tests, and he's being debriefed by his commanding officer."

"Where has he been all this time? Is he hurt? Was he kidnapped? Is he al-" Sam had gotten off the couch and was now pacing her living room floor.

"He wants to explain everything to you himself. He left me explicit instructions: I am to assure you that he's fine, the tests are just a routine precaution, and then I am to escort you to DC to see him." She stopped her pacing and rambling instantly.

"I'll go pack a bag." He nodded his assent and then sat down on her couch while she packed.

"How long am I going to be in DC?" She called from her bedroom.

"He didn't say, but I can't imagine you needing to stay for more than a week."

She nodded to herself and began making a mental checklist of the things she needed to do: Leave word with her mother to let her family know that she was going to be out of reach for the next week or so. Call Spinelli and tell him she was going to be gone on personal business for the next week and have him inform the clients that McCall-Jackal PI would not be able to get to their cases until she returned or to refer them to other agencies. Call Jason-

She paused when she got to thoughts of Jason. He had a romantic dinner set for just the two of them. She was just going to start getting ready when Major Fitzpatrick had knocked on her door. She pulled her phone from her pocket.

"Morgan." He answered.

"Hey, it's me."

"I was just about to leave the office to get ready." She winced.

"I know we were both really looking forward to this dinner, but I have to cancel on you tonight. Something came up."

" Is everything okay?" He was worried about her.

"Uh, everything's fine. Just something personal came up and I have to go out of town for a few days, maybe a week."

"Do you need my help? I can go with you." She smiled at his offer.

"No, this is something that I need to deal with myself. I'll explain when I get back."

"If you're sure."

"Yeah, it's fine. Nothing life threatening or anything. Just someone that I need to go see."

"Okay, well call me when you get to wherever you're going."

"I will. Bye Jason."

"Bye Sam. Be safe." Their love was implied.

It was a half hour before she was finished packing her bags and making phone calls to Alexis and Spinelli. She looked around her room to see if she missed anything that she was going to need for her trip when her eyes landed on a photograph on her dresser. Hey eyes welled with tears. It was only in the last few weeks that she had been ready to display pictures of this man again. Alexander Scott Orsino: another one of Cody McCall's bastard children who had been taken away from her too soon.

Jason sighed as he closed his phone. Sam had to take a last minute trip and wasn't telling him where she was going, what she was doing, or who she was seeing. Not that he had pressed for details, but he assumed she would tell him. She usually shared everything with him especially when she had to go out of town unexpectedly. Sam not offering up the information either meant that she wouldn't or couldn't tell him. Either way, Jason was worried.

Things had finally settled down for them. After the the revelation of Dante's paternity and Sonny's murder trial, the business had been left at risk. Rivaling families had started to challenge their authority and the employees had begun to question their leadership. With Sonny too preoccupied to do anything about it, Jason had stepped up to run the business. When the dissenters had been dealt with and the threats neutralized, Sonny and Jason had both decided that Jason would run things and Sonny would be more of a figure-head for the organization. With Jason in charge, things ran much smoother in Port Charles; the mob tensions and the violence were lessened significantly.

And with the calm atmosphere, Jason was able to spend some actual time with the woman he loved, not as much as he liked, of course, but they were happy at least. They were able to spend most nights together, mostly at his apartment and they often saw each other during the day. Their relationship was stronger than ever, and Sam leaving town suddenly, without telling Jason where or why she was going, worried him. A knocking pulled him from his thoughts.

"It's open," he called out.

"Hey, Jase," Cary called from the doorway, "I just came by to let you know that the roof-top is all set-up for you. It's perfect, if I do say so myself," she had a self-satisfied smile on her face. Jason had asked her last week to set up a special evening for him and Sam. He wanted her to decorate the roof-top of the pent house and set up a romantic evening. "Speaking of which, shouldn't you be leaving right about now, not going over those," she indicated the documents that he was filling out.

"Change of plans, Carly. Sam called. She had to leave town suddenly. She'll be gone for a few days."

"She cancelled dinner with you for a case?" The concept was entirely foreign to her. Her best friend was amazing and no sane person would ever choose work over dinner with Jason Morgan. "It couldn't wait until tomorrow?"

"It wasn't a case," he put the forms he was filling out away, he wouldn't be finishing them tonight anyways, "She said something personal came up; she had to go see someone."

"She didn't tell you who she was going to see?" He shook his head.

"I don't even know where she's going. She just said that she was going to be gone for about a week and she'd call me when she got there."

"Well that's kind of weird. She usually tells you that stuff," Jason nodded his head, "Actually she usually tells you pretty much everything. Especially after everything that happened the last time you two were together."

"Which means that whatever is going on is really important. I just don't know who it is or why they're so important to Sam," he slumped in his chair slightly.

"Well I'm sure that Spinelli could-"

"No," he cut her off, "Whatever is going on, Sam will tell me when she's ready to. She and I have had enough problems in the past with not trusting each other. When she's ready to tell me she will. Whatever it was, she sounded kind of dazed, so I don't think she's really processed it yet."

"Well you're being a lot more patient than I would be." She got up from the chair that she had been occupying.

"Infants can be more patient than you, Carly." He rose from his chair too.

"Because you're worried about Sam, I'll let that one slide. And I'll make sure that the roof-top is cleaned up," she hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks, and I want to reschedule after I figure out what's going on."

"No problem," she turned to leave and then stopped and turned back around at the door, "Hey, so you never did tell me, why the special dinner?" Jason had a huge grin on his face, reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a black velvet box.

"I was planning on proposing," Carly gasped.

"I can't believe you didn't tell me!" She took a second to study his face, "You look happy, and I'm happy for you. Night, Jase," she turned and exited the office.

"I am happy," he said to the empty office. He grabbed his leather jacket from the back of his chair and left the office for the night.