Sam sat on the couch in the penthouse rubbing her now ever visible belly. It was Thanksgiving and they were due to her mother's house soon. When her mom told her that she was going to be hosting Thanksgiving dinner and asked that Sam and Jason come with Danny, a part of Sam wanted to tell her that they were going to Monica's. Sam knew that her mother was lying to her about her drinking. Sam wanted to be supportive of her considering everything that she had been put through but it was getting to a point where she just couldn't. Sam knew her mother very well and she knew when she was lying. She had been drinking while she was watching Danny and Sam wasn't going to have that happen again. She hadn't told Jason yet but when she went to pick Danny up one of her mom's neighbors had stopped her and asked if her mother was alright because of all the smoke that had been coming from her place. Alexis told her the cookies had burned but apparently, she had down played it. And if that wasn't bad enough, Danny had been having nightmares about smoke for the past few days.

Sam sighed deeply and shook her head. "What was that for?" She looked up and saw her husband, the love of her life, coming out of the kitchen. "Are you okay? Is the baby moving a lot again?" he went on, sitting down next to her.

Sam smiled and said "No, baby is fine. I was just thinking about my mom."

Jason scooted closer to her and put his arm around her "What is the matter?"

"She is lying to me. I know she is. She had been drinking. To be honest, I don't think she stopped."

"What makes you say that?" he asked. "When I went to pick up Danny the other day before Morgan's funeral, I saw that there was a glass and bottle of wine out She said that Laura had stopped by and after the whole Valintine thing, she offered her a glass but she had none."

"Ok so what makes you think that that isn't true?" he asked.

"I know my mom, Jason. I know when she is lying. Danny said that when the cookies were done, he tried to wake her up but she wouldn't move. He said he shook her an everything. My mother has never fallen asleep when she is watching Danny. She said that she caught it in time and that there was only minimal smoke but after we left, her neighbor asked if she was ok because of all the smoke she saw coming from the house."

Jason looked down at his wife's worried face and placed his hand over hers on her belly "Your mom has been going through a lot…"

"I know she has. And I want to give her the benefit of the doubt but not at the expense of our son. He could have been seriously hurt and he has been having nightmares because of it."

Jason nodded his head in agreement "So maybe you should just talk to her."

"Oh I am" Sam said "and I am pretty sure I know how it is going to go." Sam said.

Sam and Jason got to her mom's house with Danny and Sam could tell that her mother had already had a few drinks. She looked to her sisters who seemed oblivious to it but Sam knew the signs all too well. Danny ran over and sat between his aunts. Carly and Joss were there also. Alexis had decided to invite them to try and take their minds off what was going on. Jax had flew back to Australia to be with his mom. Max and Diane were there as well. Sam offered to help but her mom said she had had it all catered so there wasn't anything to do but put the food on the table. Sam walked over to Carly who was sitting on the couch with a glass of wine in her hand. She sat down next to her and Carly laid her head on her shoulder "How are you doing today?" Sam asked leaning her head against Carly's.

"Ok. Having Joss with me makes it easier. We are going to stop by Monica's after this. Are you guys going?" Sam nodded her head and said "We are going to pick up Jake and then head over. Carly laid her hand against Sam's belly and asked "How is baby?" "Baby is doing great." Sam said.

"Are you going to find out what you're having?" she asked. "We decided to wait until the baby shower. We are having it on New Year's Day so we wanted our guest to be in on it as well."

Carly lifted her head and said "That is an awesome idea. Very creative." "Thank you." Sam said proudly "I had to talk Jason into it though. He wanted to know as soon as we could. Impatient bastard that he is."

Carly laughed and Sam smiled. Hearing her laugh again was nice. "How are you going to do it?"

"We haven't decided yet. I have been looking up some gender reveal ideas and there are a lot of good ones. It's so hard to choose." "Is your mom going to throw it here?" Carly asked.

Sam shook her head "No, we are just going to have it at the penthouse. With everything going on with my mom right now…"

"Sam, you can't throw yourself a baby shower." Carly cut in. "Why not?" Sam asked. "Because you can't. That is not the way it's done. Oh!" Carly jerked up and grabbed her hand "Please let me throw it for you. we can do it at my place. Joss would love that and so would I."

Sam's heart swelled at her eagerness to be a good friend. "Carly, are you sure that you…"

"Yes, I am. This will be the most perfect baby shower in history." She said with I bright, genuine smile.

"What are you two talking about?" they both looked up and saw Jason coming toward them. Carly jumped up and gave him a hug "I am throwing you guys your baby shower." She said excitedly. "I need to go and tell Joss. She is going to be super excited."

Sam smiled as she took off in search of her daughter. Jason sat next to her and said "How did that happen?"

Sam laughed and shook her head "Apparently, you are not allowed to throw yourself a baby shower. As soon as I said it she asked if she could do it. Well, she asked in her own way." Sam explained.

"Which means she just took it over." Jason shook his head and chuckled. He looked at her and asked "Are you ok with that?"

Sam smiled up at him and said "Absolutely. When the idea dawned on her she got happy. That was the first time I have seen her smile since Morgan died. And I know she will do a great job so I don't have to worry about that." Jason kissed the top of her head. "Thank you. I think this is going to really help her." He said.

"Ok everyone, the food is set. Time to eat." Her mother announced.

Jason helped Sam up from the couch as everyone went into the dining room to eat. They all sat down and said grace and then dug into the food. For the next hour, they all ate and talked. Sam kept any eye on her mom during dinner. She couldn't tell what was in the cup that her mom was drinking out of but she had a feeling she knew. Sam didn't know what she would do without her mom I her life. They had been through so much together. So many hard times but such beautiful ones as well. But she couldn't continue to let her mother think her behavior was ok. she needed a wake-up call and if Sam had to be the one to give it to her then so be it.

After dinner was over, Diane and Max said their goodbyes. They were going over to Milo and Epiphany's to have desert with them. Carly and Joss headed out to the Quartermaine's to visit with Michael. Molly had plans with TJ so she headed out to see his and Krissy was going to stop by the PCPD to see her dad. Danny sat on the couch leaning into his dad as Sam saw her mom go through the sliding glass doors that lead to the back yard. She still had her cup in her hands. Sam looked to Jason on the couch and said "Go talk to her. Danny is half asleep so I will go and buckle him in his chair and wait outside for you." Sam leaned down and kissed him before heading out to talk to her mother.

Sam walked through the doors as she watched her mom down the remains of her glass. She shook her head and walked over to the railing. "Mom we have to talk." "Ok honey. Just let me go and get some more water." Alexis said as she started for the door.

"Mom, stop." Sam said. Alexis turned around and looked at her daughter "I know that you have been lying to me. I know that you have still been drinking."

Alarm flashed into Alexis's eyes but she quickly masked it with annoyance as she said "What are you talking about? Sam, we have been over this time and time again and I am getting sick of defending myself."

Sam shook her head as her emotions started to rise "And I am getting sick and tired of you lying right to my face." She grabbed the cup from her mother's hand and lifted it to her nose "Looks like you were in a Sangria kind of mood today."

Alexis knew there was no point of denying it so she went into defense mode "Sam, in the past year I have been through more than anyone should have to. Your father tried to kill me. I am an adult and if this is the way that I want to deal with it all then I get to. You need to back off and leave me alone with it." She said angrily.

Sam looked at her and had no idea who she was seeing. This woman was not her mother. Sam held back her tear as she walked over to her and held the cup out to her. Alexis looked at it before snatching it away and heading inside. Sam fought off the sob she felt in her throat and took a deep breath before heading inside. She watched as her mom poured the cup full and took a long drink. "I have tried to be as understanding as I could. You are right. You have been through so much more that any one person should." Sam said to her mom. "But the day that you put my son in danger because drinking was so much more important, was the day I stopped." She said in a low voice.

Alexis looked at her daughter and opened her mouth but Sam stopped her "I do not want to hear another word from you. My son is having nightmares because of you. You put my son in danger. You were passed out drunk while watching my 5-year-old son. There is NO excuse for that." Sam said. She took a deep breath and looked her mother dead in the eye "You are no longer allowed around my son." Sam ignored the pain she saw in her mom's eyes and continued "You will not be allowed near this baby either." She said pointing to her stomach "If this is the life you want, if Julian is worth so much more to you that your children and your grandchildren, then you got it. So, I really hope having that drink was worth it to you." Sam finished. She walked over to the door and, without looking back, shut it leaving her mother behind.

Sam sat next to Monica on the couch as she watched Danny and Jake play. They had picked up Jake from his mom's house where they were having dinner with Franco. Sam shook her head at the thought of his still being around. Sam had heard what had been going on in her life and the fact that she was still with him made her stomach turn. She knew that their situations were different but the way she still defended Franco at every turn made Sam angry. While they were picking up Jake, Liz tired everything she could to get Jason to feel bad for her about it but it wasn't working "You being a victim yourself but defending him after what he did to Sam is despicable, Elizabeth. It may not be the same but it was still sexual assault. You say he is a changed man just as the parole board says your assaulter is. To me, I see no difference. If all of society is to give Franco another chance, why can't they do the same for Tom?"

Elizabeth had looked horrified at Jason defending her rapist and Franco said to him "How could you say something like that to her?"

Jason looked right at Liz and said "The same way she can defend you to your victim. This may be a little harsh but I am done caring about that. What goes on in your life, Elizabeth is none of my concern unless it affects my son. You have a fear that you rapist is going to come back to Port Charles, go to the police. I am done riding to your rescue so I don't know what the point of letting me know all of this is. Now if you will excuse us, we need to get to my mom's."

Sam knew a part of Jason must feel bad for what he said to her but his anger and her defending Franco won out. Sam understood that what she was going through must be scary but she didn't understand how she could not see Franco as the same. But then again Sam was the victim and Elizabeth had made no secret of her hate for her. She watched Michael join the boys down on the floor and she smiled. This was a nice distraction from reliving the conversation she had with her mother an hour ago. When she got into the car, Jason held her as she broke down in quiet sobs. She could not believe that it had come to this. She had no idea what she was going to tell her son about not being allowed at Grandma Alexis's anymore.

Sam felt a hand on hers as she looked over to her mother-in-law "Honey are you ok?" she asked.

Sam smiled sadly at her and said "No, not really." Sam told her what had happened earlier and Monica shook her head "Thank God Danny is ok." Monica had an idea of what Alexis was going through. After losing her husband and her daughter in the same year, she herself had turned to alcohol to numb he pain but in the end in did nothing to help her. Her husband as still dead and so was her daughter. After finding out she had been responsible for Sam's hit and run accident, it was a wake-up call she desperately needed. Seeing Sam like this and knowing that she was losing her family would hopefully do the same for Alexis.

Joss came over and hugger Sam "Thank you for letting mom and I plan you shower! I can't wait to get started on planning it."

Sam laughed and hugged her back "You're welcome. I wanted to ask a special favor from you though. I want you to be the one to come up with the most creative baby gender reveal ever, ok?" Sam told Joss. Joss beamed up at her and pulled her phone out to start looking for some ideas.

"Carly is throwing you your baby shower?" Monica asked.

Sam nodded "We were just going to do it ourselves at the penthouse but Carly wasn't having it." She laughed.

"But isn't your mom…?"

Sam shook her head "She hasn't ever offered to. Besides I think having this to focus on will be good for Carly and so does Jason."

Monica nodded "Yes it will. Having something that takes you focus is the best way to start to heal." The two women looked on at their family as they all came together a one.

Sam opened the door as Jason carried a sleeping Danny in his arms. Jake looked ready to pass out anytime too. He walked over to the couch and flopped onto it face first, making Sam and Jason chuckle. "I'm going to go put him down." Jason said to his wife as she took her shoes off and nodded. "Ok, I'll bring this one up soon." She motioned to Jake. Jason disappeared upstairs with their son as Sam walked over to the couch and sat down next to Jake "Did you have a good Thanksgiving, buddy?" she asked her step-son.

Jake sluggishly sat up and moved to snuggle against Sam "Mm-hmm. Best ever." He said on a yawn.

Sam laughed and said "Good. Come on, let's get upstairs so that you can go to bed." They headed up the stairs and into the boys' room. Jason had just gotten Danny into his PJ's and into bed. Jake put his on and with another yawn crawled into bed. Sam sat on the side of his bed and tucked him in "Comfy?" she asked.

"Yep" he said tiredly. Sam leaned forward and kissed his head "Sleep tight. Love you." "Love you too, Sammy." Sam walked over to her sleeping son as Jason walked to Jake. She kissed her baby goodnight and the two walked out of their room to theirs.

Sam and Jason got ready for bed. Sam plugged her phone in and realized she hadn't looked at it since he had left her mom's. She had about 10 texts from her mom but she just wasn't in the mood to read them tonight. It was all still to fresh. She slipped into bed and cuddled up next to Jason "She call?" he asked.

Sam shook her head against his chest and said "But she sent a bunch of texts. But I don't want to read them tonight. I have been enough of a downer today as it is." She explained.

Jason looked down at her confused "What are you talking about?"

"I have been sulking all day about my mom. It's Thanksgiving and hear I am acting like a big baby." She sighed.

"Sam, stop. You have every right to feel this way. You mom has been lying to you and she put our boy in danger. It doesn't matter what day today is. If she had kept her promise to you none of this would be happening."

Sam took a deep breath and nodded her head "I just hope that want I said registered for her. I don't want to keep her out of our kids' lives but I can't have her being this irresponsible either. But I guess a should focus on the fact that Danny is ok. Hopefully his nightmares will stop soon too." She said.

"Despite what we have going on around us and how crazy it has been, all that matters is you and me and our family. And our family is the greatest blessing that I could have ever asked for." He says giving her a soft look.

Sam smiled at him and said "Me too. Last year at this time I didn't think we would ever find our way back. But somehow we did and I am very thankful for that." Jason kissed her and said against her lips "Thankful doesn't cover it."