I wrote the idea of this story a while ago, put it away because it didn't speak to me saying it wanted posted. Then during the Olympics a little boy in Manchester England got onto a jet plane without a ticket or a passport. The jet was flying to awakened the muse in me, so I took what happened in Manchester and the comments that were under the article to combine that idea with my original story.

Ripped from the Headlines
Free Flying

Jason saw his almost biggest mistake walking his way as he escorted a pregnant Sam towards Kelly's. The mother of Sonny's child had been asking him how to deal with her husband and all he wanted to do was tell her that Lucky Spencer was an ass, but instead he just said for her to talk to both Sonny and Lucky and come to a compromise.

Grimacing when Courtney Cassadine stopped them and made a point of insulting him, then turning to Sam and greeting her, he was about to leave when he heard his sister calling out his name. "Jason!"
Thankfully escaping the two women who were now discussing Laura Webber's sons, he greeted his sister with a hug and said "Thank you for the rescue."

"I wouldn't need to save you if you stopped letting Sonny make you deal with his own personal problems, since the day you came back from the dead, you have been the one stuck dealing with his messes." she scowled as she looked over at the the blond and the short brunette.

"Its more that I feel sorry for Sam." he said with a shrug. Sonny had gotten together with the woman after yet another fight with Carly. It had ended in a disaster because of Courtney's ex-husband Ric Lansing. He had found out that Sam was pregnant with Sonny's child and Carly had in a fit of rage had demanded that Sonny kill the woman.

Now, Carly had moved to South America with her latest husband, Lorenzo Alcazar after Michael had refused to go and from the sounds of it, other than missing Michael was happy. Michael himself was happy, he had ended up with the Quartermaines and now at sixteen was a normal teenager.

Unfortunately, while Sonny had been dealing with Sam, he had found out he had a son back in Bensonhurst and with the loss of Michael had somehow reconnected to his ex-lover and was now living on his island most of the year.

Except when he came to town to see his two daughters, Kristina who following in her mother's footsteps, ignored the former mobster and Danielle, Sam's kid. The problems began when he was gone and demanded to be allowed to see the young child and didn't seem to accept that Sam had primary custody.

When she had begun to date Lucky Spencer, it had gotten even worse. Jason had gotten an earful at that time of things he had should have been told years before regarding the way Lucky had acted when he had returned after being brainwashed and the real reason that Elizabeth Webber had fled town and never came back.

Jason had even gone so far as to go to confront Carly, only to realize that the blond felt no sense of guilt for her lies, no sense of having been at fault for why Elizabeth had fled town back in 2001. Sonny had been embarrassed but then had admitted to Jason that he had had more important things on his mind then Lucky Spencer's girl friend.

Except that Sonny was the one person who knew that Elizabeth HADN'T been Lucky's girlfriend at that point other than Jason, who had known about the relationship that had begun between the beautiful young artist and the former enforcer.

And when it had been pretty convenient to Sonny to recall the abuse she had taken at the hands of the idiot Spencer boy, he had brought it up in court while trying to gain sole custody of his daughter.

The judge had rejected his bid, pointing out that Spencer had gotten treatment for his damaged brain when his family had forced him into therapy. Jason wasn't positive he believed that but so far Spencer had never acted out again.

What had been left out was that that had only happened after he had attacked Elizabeth who had fled that May. Jason still felt sick at having learned the truth. To him that had been the perfect winter and spring. He had come to town to find out who the inside men were that Sonny's enemy had at their warehouses and had been using Elizabeth's studio as a hiding place.

No one but Sonny had known he was there, that Elizabeth and he had grown close as she had softly explained to her more than friend that Lucky had come back distant and that they were barely close in spite of what her ex and his family believed.

Elizabeth had been working with Dr. Keven Collins to deprogram Lucky who was being controlled by Helena and had needed to escape. Jason had been happy to be the person she had trusted to do that to.

It had all come to a head on Valentine's night, Elizabeth and Kevin Collins had staged an intervention with the Spencers and others who were close to Lucky. All had denied there was something wrong with the young man, until he had walked in, seen what he had believed was his family turning against him and had pulled a knife.

Like usual the Spencers had been in denial, but Audrey Hardy and several of the others including Mac Scorpio had seen the truth. Lucky had been hauled away by force to get treatment. Elizabeth had returned home to her studio to the smell of burnt coffee and the Port Charles fire department checking for any smolder fires as they made sure that the warehouse would do no more damage.

She had been frantic about Jason, and his guard had been relaxed by exhaustion as he had returned, aching and filthy to the studio, not expecting Elizabeth to be there. She had thrown herself into his arms, then seeing him wince, had insisted on helping take care of him in spite of his protests.

That night, after a large bout of honesty, they had admitted that they loved one another. They had celebrated that love by coming together for the first time. Over the next two months, things had been kept quiet out of fear of the danger from Sonny's enemies, but in that small studio the truth about their feelings had given them a sense of intimacy that had Elizabeth feeling like she was walking on air... but that was only in private because meanwhile she was dealing with the mess created by Helena and the Spencers.

In the middle of April, when they had found out who had been after Sonny, Jason had reluctantly gone to deal with things, meanwhile they had had no idea the danger lurking as Helena had unexpectedly helped the Spencers get Lucky out of the hospital.

While most of the town was caught up in the danger from Helena, Lucky had come looking for Liz to her surprise at Kellys with the letter she had written and not sent to him, having blamed her for his time stuck in Roselawn. After Lucky had trashed the diner, Liz had escaped and believed she was safe after a call to Luke, but Lucky had seen her at the pharmacy mere hours later and had followed her home.

What had happened next had several different variations, depending on which side of the mess you were on. Jason heard all of them, but not the truthful one, if he had, he would have killed Lucky Spencer and too many people had a vested interested in his not doing so, so they all for their own reasons, either wanted to believe the lie or blatantly lied to Jason.

The Spencers version that Jason had heard said that Helena had forced Lucky to attack Elizabeth who had been hurt but not badly. When she had refused treatment at General Hospital and had insisted on going to Mercy, no one had any idea why. At least at the time, the very next day, she had gone missing; everyone had believed that either Helena or Lucky had killed her. Only when she had called her grams and told her that she had gone into hiding had those charges been dropped.

Mac told Jason he had wanted to press charges for the assault and had Elizabeth's backing, but Alexis Davis had plea bargained Lucky down on mental defect and he had spent little more than a few months in Roselawn again.

Then had come the calls from the Spencers to Audrey Hardy explaining how Lucky needing Elizabeth and how she had owed him to help him. After Lucky had been released it had been how Lucky still loved Liz and how he regretted what had happened. Mrs. Hardy had stayed firm and had avoided contact with her granddaughter to protect her from the dangers she still felt Lucky posed. Then she herself had gone away.

For most of the town, they were still very wary of Lucky until Jason had came home. All had believed that he had been the one to help Elizabeth escape, after all Luke had believed it to be true. Nik had been publicly claiming so for almost three years and since the late Audrey Hardy had never said any differently more than a few people believed it to be true.

When Jason had seemed to be forgiving of Lucky, when he had been seen being if not friendly at least polite, all had been forgiven. What none had known was that until the day in court that Sonny's attorney had brought up what had happened, Jason had been in the dark about Lucky's beating of Elizabeth.

When he had confronted his family about it, AJ had been the one to tell him what was believed. "And none of you had thought to ask me about Elizabeth?"

With eyes that hadn't met his, Emily had explained that Sonny and Carly had believed it too and that Carly had been the one to tell her that things between her former friend and Jason had ended badly and that it might be kinder not to mention Elizabeth to him.

"Since when do you believe a word Carly says?" he had asked his brother.

AJ had swallowed hard then gave him what he hadn't known until then. "Jason, uh, I am sorry but when you came back and were suddenly around Sonny's sister all the time, well, uh, she said that you told her that you never loved Elizabeth and that she had betrayed you by falling in love with another man."

Jason who had always had a cordial relationship with Courtney, other than lapse that had resulted in a one night stand had been shocked and had left his family and gone to confront the blond who had bewilderingly told him that that was what Carly had told her. When he had harshly told her the truth, she had burst into tears then had called him several foul names, saying that she knew their night together had meant more to him then that.

Carly hadn't denied it when confronted, had openly admitted that that was what she had believed to be true, that she had always known that Elizabeth Webber was trouble and that Jason was much better off with Courtney, and that if he had only opened his eyes back then, all of them would have been happy.

When Jason had demanded if that was all of her lies, he had not been surprised to realize that there was something else, he could see it in her eyes, but she had denied knowing what he was talking about and he had gotten nothing else from her.

Sonny however out of guilt, had admitted that Elizabeth had contacted him a few times looking for Jason after he had left to take down Moreno, but that he had told her Jason would contact her when he was ready.

"I swear, Jason, I had no idea that Carly was telling lies like that. When you came back, and things just seemed to settle down like they did, uh, I just figured that things hadn't worked out between the two of you and that you were moving on." said the Cuban conveniently forgetting that he had told her Jason was dead.

Jason had gone out with a few women, nothing serious but looking back, he began to wonder about the letter Elizabeth had left him in the studio and why she had contacted Sonny.

"Jase, hey, Jason where are you?" chuckled Emily when he seemed to be lost in his own mind.

Seeing him mentally returning, she rubbed his arm, things with Jason had been off for the last few years, he had come and gone from town with a frequency that had all of the family worried. Here he was, an almost forty year old man and his only serious relationship had been with Robin Scorpio right when he had woken up.

"I was...it was nothing. Emily, I have to go." he said and quickly left to drive to his house. None in town knew that he had bought Audrey Hardy's place when the elderly woman had passed and the last of that family had sold the house.

He had bought it, wanting one last connection to Elizabeth. He had tried to date, had tried to move on, but since learning the truth about what Lucky had done to her five years before had been searching for her, certain she had never sent him the letter in spite of the best forgers in the world telling him it was her writing and that it was written in her sen text.

Until he heard the words directly from her lips, some part of him would never accept that she didn't love him anymore. In the house, resting his head against the fireplace, Jason kept thinking of how she had written that she didn't know him anymore and how she felt it was for the best for him to move on. That she had fallen in love with someone else.

The letter had been unsigned, his name was no place on it, but he HAD found it sealed in an envelope in his African travel guide at her studio when he had returned. A studio that had looked no differently than the day he had left, minus the beautiful brunette who had left him.

Elizabeth looked around her studio, amused to realize that her son was right and that they needed to go to town. Sometimes Cameron reminded her so much of his father that she found herself aching at the pain still buried in her heart.

"Mom, are you ready yet?" he asked as he entered the sun room, a gangly ten year old with curly dark hair and eyes that were dancing with mischief as she picked up her purse.

"Yes, okay now what are the rules?" she asked as they traveled to the Land Rover in the driveway.

"No taking off and if we get separated go to the coffee shop." he said with a roll of his eyes and a sense of guilt in his heart at what he had had planned. Thanks to the letters his mom had shown him, he now had half the answers to his questions, but he still needed to do this, still needed to find out why they had lied to him.

In town, Elizabeth watched in the bookstore as Cam looked at the travel guides, picking out a new one to read and then quickly paying for it while she watched diligently from the entryway. Next up was the small general store and then finally they were on their way to Rome where she would pick up her art supplies and drop off the four paintings to her art dealer.

Hearing her phone ringing, she hit the button to answer it and heard her brother asking if she was going to come to Russia for Christmas that year. "No, Steven. I promised Cam that we would do what he wanted this year."

"And just what is that?" he asked amused, his nephew had come up with some doozy ideas of how to celebrate the holidays, including a few years ago at the age of seven when he had wanted to go to the North Pole.

"I don' t know, but he said it would be at what should be our home." she said looking into the back seat where her son was wearing headphones and listening to some sort of CD. "Anyhow, tell Sarah I said hello and I will be sending out my presents early."

"If you change your mind, let me know, after all it is only the middle of October, I can always get you tickets." he stated then hung up.

Elizabeth wanted to remind her brother that she was doing well enough that she didn't need anyone's help but just let it go, knowing that to Steven she was still that broken and bruised girl he had help escape from the Spencers and Port Charles.

Looking back at her son, Elizabeth felt sick that his father had died before he had gotten to know him. That his family had denied Cam had made things even worse as far as she was concerned. Her sweet innocent little boy had grown up without his dad and she only had a few mementos of him to pass on.

When his eyes came up to meet hers in the rear view mirror, Elizabeth smiled at the concern on his face and swallowed her pain and released her anger, knowing that really all Cam needed was her.

Delivering her paintings, she was in the back of the art store, ordering the supplies that were to be delivered when she realized that Artuero and she had been discussing them for almost a half hour.

"Artuero, I have to go, Cam is going to be getting antsy."

"He is fine." lied the handsome Italian, "I had my assistant take him to get a gelato."

That surprised Elizabeth but when she went to the front of the store, he and the other man was gone, so returning, she just told him to ask her first from now on before going back to discussing what she needed for the next few months.

Artero was in heaven, he had been trying to gain the attention of the bella American, but she had always brought her young son in with her. He knew that most artists considered their children an inconvenience, after all he had been more than happy to leave his behind with his wife when he had claimed that the country air was better for them.

When he asked her to lunch as she paid for her supplies, Elizabeth politely turned him down, frowning when his assistant returned without her son. "Where is Cameron?"

"Who?" asked the assistant as he took in the frown on the woman's face.

"My son, the boy you took to get geleto?" she asked as she began to realize that the dark haired man behind the counter was looking annoyed.

"You must be mistaken, Ms. Hardy, I did no such thing." he said as he looked at his co-worker with a frown. "I just went to the plaza to meet with my family."

"But Artero said..." Elizabeth looked at the store owner and saw his reaction and realized he had lied to her. "Why, why would you tell me that he took my son to get ice cream?"

"Artero, you lied to Ms. Hardy?" asked the other man who as a father himself knew the fear she was feeling. "I will help you look, bella."

"I uh, I have to find my son. Its been almost two hours." she said her hands shaking as she went to their meeting place and was handed a note by their favorite waitress. Reading it, she felt her knees give way. All it said was he was sorry but he had to find out the answers to his questions.

Artero's assistant Paulo called the police even as Elizabeth realized she had no idea what questions and that she had no idea where her son was. The gardo arrived and within minutes had taken a copy of her photo on her phone of her son. "What about his father, Ms?"

"Cam's father is deceased." she said her heart beating wildly. "Cam knows that."

"Where would he go, little boys are often adventurous." stated the Italian police officer who sent another of his coworkers to go and question this art store owner. He had heard of this man and his extra martial games.

It was another four hours, during which Elizabeth called Steven who said he would be on the first flight out of Russia before the police put out the Italian version of an amber alert.

The officer sat with the beautiful young mother who was frantically trying to figure out where her son was. He had checked into her background, had learned that she had moved to Rome several years before with her brother. That there was a good chance that the father of her little boy had been abusive.

The art store owner had been told off by the captain of the guard himself for lying to the young woman about her son's whereabouts and informed that they would be keeping a close eye on him. The assistant had gone home to his family, Paulo having had his wife bring a small meal for the frantic mother.

"Miss, does your son have a favorite place?" asked the officer as he wrote down everything she was telling him.

"No, yes, he reads travel books, he wants to go all over." she tried to explain.

"Maybe he went to the airport to look at jets, or the train station to see the trains?" he asked hopefully as he ordered his minions to head out to look for the young man.

"Cam has already flown before, same with train travel. I have taken him all over the place." Elizabeth was growing frantic, what if it was Lucky, what if he had found them and was going to do what he swore to do all those years ago. What if he had made her son write that letter?

That gave the man an idea and said "Would he have access to enough money to travel to his favorite spot somehow?"

"No, he is only ten." she cried out just as Steven arrived looking bedraggled as he had come straight from the airport. "Where is Cam, why would he do this and what answers?"

"Elizabeth, calm down." said Steven sitting down with her. "Tell me about your day. What did you and Cam do today? Or rather yesterday?"

That had Elizabeth sobbing as she realized her son had almost been missing fourteen hours.

Regaining control as she went through her day, Steven stopped her and said "This travel guide you bought at the American book store, where was it for. Maybe it was for here in Rome?"

"No, it was for New York City." she said with a slight sob still to her voice. "He wanted to begin reading about the states. I have his passport, how could he go there?"

The gardo captain agreed as his men began to report from the various spots she had given him around town. "Sir, no one has seen this little boy here in Rome."

After several discouraging reports, he got a call from the main train station in Rome. "Sir, I think I saw your boy. Was he wearing a dark gray hooded sweatshirt and jeans?"

Turning to the boys mother, he asked if the boy could have a sweatshirt like that since she had described him as having worn a dark green long sleeve shirt. "Yes, it was in the SUV. We keep it there in case of an emergency and he gets cold."

Talking to the train station maven, he kept nodding then asked what train the boy had gotten on. With a sigh of relief he said "Thank you."

"Ms Hardy, he went on the train west to the Fiumicino Airport. They are faxing me a photo of him being seen on camera." he said just as his men brought the picture in. Elizabeth confirmed it was Cam then was told that they have him on the train all the way to the airport.

"We will head out to the airport, Ms. Hardy." he said leading her to his his unmarked car along with her brother. "He can't get far now that he is there without a passport or money for a ticket." he stated confidently.

Cam was careful to stay close to the other children as the flight attendant passed by. With a smile, she offered him some peanuts and a blanket then asked if it was the first time he and his siblings had flown.

When he lied and said yes, she brought him back a soda wondering how it was possible that it was the youngest of the children was the only one who spoke English, but he hadn't been screaming about being kidnapped, had in fact been playing with the other children and had been sharing his game system with his slightly older brother.

Shrugging it off when she asked her coworker to check the passports and was informed that all was in order and had been scanned and verified, she just went back to her duties as they got close to landing in New York City's JFK airport.

In Rome, the guard captain had led the way to the security room and overrode their protests about having civilians in there by telling them about her missing son. All had begun to work the computers until a dark haired woman announced. "I have him, at the International terminal. It was difficult
because he took that sweatshirt off."

Elizabeth saw her son on camera and saw that he looked fine then saw the time stamp. "Wait, this was almost twelve hours ago."

"Yes, but now we can track him." promised the woman as she followed the boy through the terminal on her computer screen. Soon finding him at the International hub for United, they were all stunned as they watched Cameron after getting checked at security get on a jet bound for the states.

"How could that happen?" asked the man in charge of the airport as he spoke to the head of United Airlines in Europe. "A ten year old boy got on one of your jets without a ticket, without a passport.
How did this happen?"

"I don't know." said the man in shock as he looked at the footage sent to him. "Why would he just get on a jet?"

Elizabeth felt her knees give way as she watched her son just walk into the jet by himself after smiling at the gate attendant.

"Wait, I might have something." said the man in Geneva. Taking the paperwork, he looked at it then said "It appears that a flight attendant was concerned it might have been a kidnapping when the young man in question spoke such excellent English but there is a family on board, with seven children. Somehow this young man was believed to have been part of that."

There was some muttering about incompetence but Elizabeth was now blaming herself in spite of what was being said.

"We will make sure that he remains on the jet and will have him back in Rome in nine hours..." The man covered the phone when his second in command entered the room looking white. "What is it?"

"The jet landed two hours ago, according to the American TSA, this boy got out of the airport. They have no idea where he is." he replied.

Elizabeth was given the news that her young son was now someplace in New York City and felt her heart stop. Steven held his sister as the tears began to flow. "Ms. Hardy, we will put you on the next flight to the city. Mr. Webber, can you go with her?"

"Yes, Elizabeth where at the house are your passports?" he asked his sister. Getting the information and handing her off to the police captain who said he would stay with her until her brother got back.

"Do you want me to call my old contacts, get the news out?"

"Oh god, no. What if Lucky were to find out. Steven, I told you what he threatened." she said now terrified that her son was so far away and that she would be unable to speak to anyone who could help.

"What about the Quartermaines?" Steven asked almost desperate for a way to get them help.

"You know that they reacted when I told them I was pregnant." she said sobbing. "There is no one in Port Charles I can trust."

"What about Corinthos?" Steven asked now reaching for anything and anyone.

"No, do you really think that if Carly knew she wouldn't tell Lucky or that Sonny might not accidentally mention it to Luke?" she said her hands wringing.

"Elizabeth that nurse that gram's taught, the one who helped you escape, her son?" he asked.

"Stan? He works for Sonny." she stated but with a bit of hopefulness.

"Call her, I will find her number, he might be able to track Cameron in the states while we are flying there." he suggested.

"She did send a card when Gram's passed." she murmured while her mind raced. "If she is still a nurse... wait."

Calling information, she soon had the number for Epiphany Johnson. Making the call, her voice shaky as she spoke to the older woman, she said "I am so sorry but I have no one else that can protect my son. Would you please, please ask Stan to see if he can track my son down."

Trying to calm down the young artist, Epiphany was already sending her son a text then saw the news flash across the bottom of the screen. "Elizabeth, there is already an amber alert for Cameron Hardy. They are announcing a photo on the late night news."

"Oh god, I hope that Lucky doesn't realize..." she said moaning in horror as her mind flashbacked to the beating he had given her when he had found out she was pregnant. "Oh god, what am I going to do if he is heading to Port Charles."

Steven took the phone, then listened to what Epiphany had to say and gave her his cell phone number as they began to board the first class passengers.

TBC