A cascade of long, dark hair fanned her face as she peered at her reflection in the dingy bathroom mirror at the Port Charles Police Department. With a force made up almost entirely of women, it shouldn't be a big surprise that little attention was paid to the cleanliness of the ladies' room. Overhead, a naked bulb flickered between light and dark as she pushed curly tendrils away from her sunken cheeks. Leaning down, she splashed cold water on her skin. She barely recognized her own image staring back at her, raccoon eyes and all.

A soft knock tapped against the door. Sam sighed heavily as she padded the short distance across the room. Resting her forehead on the faded wooden surface, she reached for the knob tiredly. "How are you doing in there?" Lucky's voice called.

"I'm fine," she answered before swinging the door open. The muscular cop leaned against the door jamb casually and studied her for a moment. She knew that he could see right through the visage she'd created since the incident on the roof. He had seen too much of her, and now, Sam was desperate to do anything that would put some distance between them. "What are you looking at?"

Lucky didn't say anything for a moment. It was frustrating to want to help someone so much when it's obvious they don't want anything to do with you. "If you'd like to follow me back to the interrogation room, we could probably have a little privacy," he offered. "I know that you probably don't feel like talking, but I could at least use someone to listen to me. We've both been through a lot in the past few months, and I want to try to figure out how I got her."

"Fine," Sam agreed. "I'll listen to you, but I'm not going to do anymore of the talking. I've already told you way too much, and I don't feel like reliving it all over again. For once in this situation, it'd be nice for it to not be all about me."

He nodded gingerly before leading toward the room where they'd both spent countless hours. Sliding into the familiar chrome chair, Sam remembered all the times she had come here to visit Jason. This was almost like a second home for people in the Corinthos organization, and he was their favorite target. Only a few days ago, she had come here to see him after learning he had been arrested for murder. Now, it seemed likely that she would never visit him here again. She lifted her eyes to meet Lucky's. "Well, what happened?"

Cocking his head, he couldn't help but grin. "Get right to the point, why don't you?" he taunted before turning serious. "I guess there isn't really much point to beating around the proverbial bush anyhow, so I'll just get to it. I found out this afternoon when I was at home, spending a few hours with Cam."

"Elizabeth finally told you?" Sam asked, clearly surprised. She knew how desperate his wife had been to keep the secret for fear that he'd revert back to his pills. Sam also knew that Liz was afraid of Jason's lifestyle. Having Jason as a father instantly put Jake at risk.

Lucky shook his head. "She actually showed up with Sonny. Apparently, Jason asked Sonny to protect my wife and Jake while he was in Pentonville," he explained. "Elizabeth went to Sonny after Jason was arrested. She wanted to apologize for the fact that I was actually doing my job. Anyway, he came barging in, shouting orders at me, telling me not to interfere while she packed. My own wife wouldn't even look at me. I followed her upstairs to our bedroom, but she kept her head bent down the entire time. She was crying and kept telling me how sorry she was."

"Where was Jake?"

"Audrey had him," he answered. "Elizabeth told me that she needed to talk to me about some things. She told me that she loved Jason and that she had been in love with him since even before the blackout. She told me that they slept together the night she caught me with Maxie and that the condom had been faulty. She told me that she had lied about the paternity to protect both Jake and me. And then, she told me that she was taking our children and moving out. She couldn't keep living a lie, and it wasn't fair to anyone to go on pretending that we were a family."

"Wow," she breathed, letting a long breath of air escape from her lungs. "What did you do?"

"What could I do? I felt like someone had punched me in the stomach. I couldn't breathe. I kept asking her questions, but she wouldn't say anything else. She just pleaded with me not to fight her on this. She knows that I don't have any legal rights in this situation. Neither Jake nor Cameron are biologically mine."

"You never adopted Cameron?"

"We were in the process of doing all the paperwork. I dedicated to making this marriage work. I had no idea how many lies Elizabeth had told me. At first, I thought maybe I deserved it after all the lies I told last year, but then I realized that I came clean about everything then. I told her that I didn't want to be with her if she couldn't forgive me. When I said my vows to her, I meant them and I thought that she did, too. But now I know that it was all a lie."

"Jason and I haven't even gotten married yet," she added. "We've been engaged for two years, and we've never gone through with it. We haven't even planned our wedding. Carly has been married three times since Jason asked me, and we couldn't even manage to do it once."

"When did you find out?"

Sam grew silent as she stood up. She started to pace around the room, covering every square inch with her clicking stilettos. She suddenly felt ridiculously overdressed given the situation. "Right after Elizabeth woke up from the coma," she retorted. "I was going to visit her. I just wanted to make sure she was okay. I felt some kind of strange connection to her after the hostage situation. I guess a part of me might have already known on some level. Anyways, when I came around the corner, I could hear Jason's voice. In a moment of understandable weakness, I listened to their conversation. They didn't even have to tell me. I just found out."

"You knew that they had slept together though, didn't you?" he questioned, shaking his head to himself. "I think I might be the only one who didn't know. I had to be blind or stupid not to know."

"Jason told me a long time ago," Sam confessed. "The night of the blackout, he caught me in bed with Ric. We were broken up at the time, but he told me that it still killed him. He went back to his penthouse and was drinking when Elizabeth showed up. Jason said that she just went there to talk. She had just found you with Maxie again. One thing led to another, and they ended up having sex. I guess they used the same batch of faulty Enduro condoms that led to Lulu's pregnancy."

Lucky moved his eyes upward and stared at her steadily. Samantha McCall was the exact opposite of him in nearly every way. While he was surrounded with a family of people who would love him no matter what, she didn't seem to have a friend in the world. While he worked on the good side of the law to protect the good citizens of Port Charles, she lived on the wrong side of the tracks. While he was barely scraping to get by sometimes on his policeman wages, she was a famous television host. Still, there was one common thread holding both their lives together. They had both lost the loves of their lives, the people they thought they could trust most in this world. They were the ones left on the outside looking in.

Running his thick fingers through his hair, he was the one to start pacing this time. "I have to get out of here," he said. "I can't go home. Elizabeth took the boys there. Even if I'm angry at her, I don't think they should be ripped out of their house. They need the space more than I do. Maybe I'm too nice, but they don't deserve to suffer because their parents – whoever they are – made some mistakes."

"I have to move out of the penthouse," she realized aloud. "I hadn't even thought about it yet. It's not like I haven't been homeless before. I spent most of my life on the run, going from one con to the next. This may be the only time I've had my world torn apart that I actually have some money in the bank. Despite how much I hate Amelia and doing

Everyday Heroes, I'm thankful that I have my own money to take care of myself."

"The only thing I can think about are my sons. I know that Cameron and Jake aren't mine, but I still feel like they are. I love them like they're my boys. I hate knowing that I lost Elizabeth. I mean, I still love her. But even more than that, it's hard to lose them."

"When I first found out, a part of me fantasized that we would all be able to do this together and we'd be this unconventional family," she daydreamed. "It almost seemed possible. You and Elizabeth could stay married with Cam and Jake. Jason and I could have him on the weekends. I even thought what it would be like if we could all be friends."

"You had to know that wasn't going to happen," Lucky snorted. "I'm sorry. Your little fantasy is a nice idea, but it's just not at all realistic. I'm not sure how I feel about anything right now, especially Elizabeth and Jason. I just know that I am going to try to do what is best for the boys, and if that means stepping back without putting up a fight, I'm going to do it."

Sam couldn't believe how much Lucky seemed to mean it. "So, what are you going to do now? What's the next step?"

Lucky took a long sip of coffee and leaned against the table. "I'm going to get over Elizabeth somehow. I did it once, and I'll do it again. I'll find a way to get along with her so I can be in Cam's life because whether she likes it or not, I am his father. With Jason around, I won't be able to argue for visitation rights with Jake. I don't even think I'd feel right about it. But I won't let her take away everything from me, including the person I love most in the world."

"Are you going to tell your family?"

"They'll find out soon enough," he answered. "Emily is Elizabeth's best friend. Nikolas is my brother. Em is my best friend. Our lives are so intertwined. If Elizabeth is going to be with Jason, they'll be the first ones to know."

"I don't even know if Jason wants to be with her," Sam told him. "Honestly, she wasn't the last one there before he went to prison. It was Carly who showed up. Carly hates your wife, and no one is more important to Jason than her. She has always come first in his life, even before me. I know he'll put Jake first, but Carly and her boys are a close second. Could Elizabeth put up with being in third place?"

Lucky almost felt sorry for Elizabeth because he knew that Sam was right. He'd seen the aftermath of Hurricane Carly firsthand. Jason would stop his life if she needed him. Somehow, Carly had managed to raise Michael and Morgan in the midst of a mob lifestyle. It was likely that Jason would look to her for support as he went through the same process on his own. Elizabeth, a longtime fan of Jason but not his lifestyle, would undoubtedly be jealous of the impenetrable bond. "What are you going to do?" he asked without answering her previous question. "What does life look like without Jason?"

"I'm not sure," she murmured. "I'm just not sure."