A Christmas of Beginnings

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own the characters of General Hospital. If I did, Liz wouldn't even be a blip of a blip on the radar of Jasam.

A/N: I know, I know, I have a few stories already started. I've just been so busy with school and thoughts of college that I haven't had any time to write. But since I'm on break and I got an idea, I decided to run with it.

But good news on the college front! I've been accepted to my top choice! Unless my plans change, I will be a freshman at Oklahoma Panhandle State University, or OPSU, in the fall. Now I don't have to worry so much about my senior year. Now I just have to worry about my mom's reaction to her only child moving several states away from Virginia to go to college in the middle of the country.

"Jason, I'm back. Go ahead and put away all of the Manny stuff!" Dropping her keys onto the desk and draping her scarf and coat over the back of the desk chair, she went to the bottom of the stairs and listened for sounds of movement. When she didn't hear anything, she went up and looked around. Not finding him, she went back downstairs and saw something she had missed before. Under their tree was a small pile of gifts. As she walked over to it, she was suddenly grabbed from behind. She was surprised, but relaxed instantly when she realized the grip was familiar.

When he had heard her key in the lock, he had quickly placed the last of his gifts under the tree and hid in the alcove. When she came in and started looking for him, it was all he could do not to laugh and give away his hiding place. As soon as she came back downstairs, he knew she noticed the new gifts when he heard her pause before coming closer to his spot. As soon as she passed him, he grabbed her. He felt her tense and then immediately relax. His heart melted even more at the realization that she still knew his touch and trusted him with her life. "Welcome home Sam. As you can see, I decided to make use of your time at GH. Why don't you open them?"

Turning around in his embrace, she looked into his eyes, trying to see what he was up to, before kissing him quickly before leaving his arms and going to the tree. "Fine, I'll open them. Are all of them for me, or are we taking some to the boys?"

"All of them are for you. Go on, open them," he said, coming behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist as he rested his chin on top of her head.

As she opened the first one, she felt her eyes start to water. It was a picture that had been taken before the virus outbreak. It was of her and Jason sleeping on the couch. Right by their heads, was Danny's head. He had obviously been playing with their camera and had tried to get into the picture as he took it. His goofy smile was on his face and he had gently placed his prize cap onto her head in the picture. She gave Jason a watery smile as she gently placed it down and reached for the next gift.

This one was a picture of her and Jason out on a boat. As she looked closer, she realized it was from when they had taken Kristina out for a ride. She remembered the moment. She and Jason had been bringing the ship into the port and their fingers had touched for a moment and their eyes had locked. Kristina must have used the camera Jason had given her, that Sam hadn't even realized was their camera, to take the picture without either one of them noticing. In the picture, you could see the love in both of their eyes and it was a reminder that they would love each other no matter how much pain they went through. If their eyes showed that much love after all of the things that had happened between them since they had broken up, then they would always love each other. The tears were falling freely down her face as she reached for the last gift.

Smaller than the previous two had been, she made quick work of the wrapping and found herself holding a small box. Inside it, she found keys with a star shaped keychain. Turning to look questioningly at Jason, he took the box from her and placed it on the pool table as he put the keys in her hands. "Jason, what are the keys for?"

"Well, I thought about what you said this morning and made a decision after I went to have a talk with Kelly. I asked her if it was safe for you to get pregnant. She said only if you were careful and did everything she told you to do. After hearing that, I decided that I want you to be the mother of my children. But I also decided that I didn't want you to be forced to do something you didn't like just so you could feel independent. So I got you a state-of-the-art salvage boat with a trustworthy crew. This way, you could still do whatever job you decide to do, but you can still have your salvage work. You don't have to do the diving, but you can go out with the boat if you want to. You can keep part of the profits and you can plan all of the jobs. If you want, you can pay me back what you think you owe me. The crew works for you. I handpicked them from the best Stan could find me, but they only answer to you. I figured you could still have a job here in town if you wanted, but you could also have the comfort of being able to dive for your hidden treasures," he said, gently reaching out to brush a strand of hair back behind her ear.

"Thank you! Thank you so much! This is one of the best Christmas presents I have ever gotten! I love you," she said as she pulled his head down to hers and pressed her lips to his in a gentle kiss before she pulled away. "That reminds me! I got the job. She didn't want to give it to me, but then Alan interrupted and told me it was mine! I think he might be up to something, but still, I got the job. And this is perfect! Now we can really try to have kids and I can have my safe job at General Hospital and my job on my boat. This is the best Christmas ever! Oh, and I have a present for you too. Here," she said as she handed him a small package from her coat pocket by the door.

He unwrapped it gently and nearly dropped it when he saw what it was. Inside was a small tin with a pile of cookies in it. They looked like the ones from Kelly's but they all had a small resemblance to the design on the boxes of food they always ordered. "Sam, did you make these?" He glanced up at her and noticed her look of apprehension so he took a bite out of one. "These are really good. Who made them?"

"I'm glad you like them. I can now bake one thing. I kept bugging Mike to teach me how to cook, so he finally relented. After he realized that I burn almost everything I try to cook, he decided to try teaching me to make his cookies. It took awhile, but I could eventually bake them from scratch without burning them to a crisp. He even tried them out with customers and they didn't even notice a difference.

From now on, you can make meals, and I can bake us cookies. And when we have kids, they can't say their mom can't cook anything. I can't cook much, but I can bake Kelly's cookies," she explained with a smile. As he studied her, he realized that her smile glowed with pride and love. Silently, he mused that it wouldn't be so bad living with a woman whose only talent in the kitchen was baking cookies.

"Thank you Sam. I'm so proud of you. So, how many fire extinguishers did Mike go through before you got them perfect?" He laughed at the scowl she gave him as she slapped his arm and took a cookie from the tin. Together, they walked over to the couch and settled in for a quiet day together on Christmas.

A/N: I'm not sure, but I might do another part to this. I had a really great idea when I started writing this, but it wound up going in a completely different direction. I had wanted to do something with Liz, but I decided I liked how this went, so I left it alone. If I get a chance, I'll probably put my idea for Liz into a sequel to this. Happy New Year!!!!