A/N: Thanks, as always, for all your reviews. Please bear with me for the first few chapters – there are a bunch of threads to this story that I have to set up, with several characters and situations I have to establish before we can get to the Liason stuff. I promise I'll get there as soon as I can …
The usual disclaimer applies: I don't own the characters, except the ones I may invent.
Chapter 1 (Present day)
West Palm Beach, Florida
Samantha McCall watched the minutes tick by, using every ounce of her self-control to avoid looking at the pregnancy test.
It was making her crazy, but the only thing that would seem longer than staring at the clock would be staring at the test, willing it to be positive. This was her fifth attempt to get pregnant using an in vitro procedure, since the doctor had told her there was too much scarring in her fallopian tubes to make a natural pregnancy a realistic option. Out of her four previous attempts in the past year, she had actually conceived twice, but had miscarried both times. The subsequent delay each time before it was safe to try again had been nerve-wracking. What if he broke up with her before the next attempt?
Plus, they implanted four embryos each time, meaning that this attempt finished the last of the original twenty she had purchased. So if the procedure hadn't worked this time, she would have to buy more samples. She made a mental note to check the sperm bank's website to determine how many samples were still available. If she needed to find a new donor, she wanted to get moving on it right away.
It was getting both more important that she have a successful pregnancy, and more difficult to keep Jax in the dark about her efforts to make that happen. He had told her from the beginning of their relationship that he was not interested in marriage and that he definitely did not want kids. Sam, however, had other ideas. After all, it wasn't every day that a handsome multi-millionaire with a sexy Australian accent fell under her spell, and if she played it right, she would be set for life. So she had assured him that she knew the score, and was fine with a casual relationship plus hot sex for as long as they were both into it.
She had figured that she could con him into changing his mind about marrying her, because she had studied him for months before she "accidentally" met him at the Palm Beach country club. She had then proceeded to put to use what she had learned about him, and had turned herself into his idea of the perfect woman. She was smart enough to be able to converse with his business associates, but not so smart as to make them feel stupid by comparison. She was vivacious and bubbly, and never expected him to entertain her. She had a sixth sense about when he wanted her to challenge him in an intellectual discussion, and when it was time to gracefully concede that, of course, she hadn't thought of it like that, and he was probably right after all. She dressed in provocative clothing that was frankly too expensive to ever be called trashy. She was enthusiastic and adventurous in the bedroom. And, perhaps most importantly, every now and then, at unpredictable intervals, she would grow just a little bit distant, and not be as available as he was used to. When he would ask about it, she would say she just needed a little space to decide if their relationship was still working for her. And then she would let him talk her back into his bed.
She was certain he was thisclose to proposing, when it all went wrong. Six months after that first "accidental" meeting, his brother Jerry had returned from a long stint out of the country. Unfortunately, Jerry was as conniving and manipulative as Sam was. He had taken one look at her and recognized a kindred spirit, which would have been fine if she had been trying to con anyone other than the one person on the planet that he actually loved. So he had immediately started to work Jax, hinting that maybe she wasn't who she seemed to be and maybe Jax should be careful. So far, Jax had laughed off Jerry's concern, pointing out that they were just "friends with benefits," not thinking they were in love or planning any kind of future. But Sam figured that eventually, Jerry's suspicions would win out over their casual bond, and Jax would show her the door.
Unless she took major action to prevent it.
And that's when Sam had realized that she would have to have Jax's baby. Never mind that she wasn't cut out to be a mother -- had never had any inclination to do so. The one thing she knew for certain was that the unbreakable bond of a child would ensure that Jerry could never cut her out of Jax's life – or his millions. She had immediately begun sabotaging their condoms, and had figured she would "accidentally" get pregnant quickly, but after more than six months of near-daily sex, she had realized the "accident" wasn't going to happen. So she had taken the next logical step, consulting a fertility clinic. She had told the doctor that she wasn't involved with anyone, and didn't see that changing anytime soon, but said she had always wanted to be a mother and just couldn't wait another minute. She figured this story would avoid any problem in case she somehow found the only doctor in Florida that cared about ethics.
The fertility clinic had helped her find an appropriate donor from a California clinic – one with the blond hair and blue eyes that she told them reminded her of her beloved fiancé, who had been killed in a car accident just days before their planned wedding. Of course, she had never actually been engaged, but they didn't know that, and it gave her a good excuse for limiting her potential donors to men who resembled Jax at least a little.
The first time she had conceived, she had been ecstatic. Fortunately, she had waited to tell Jax about the pregnancy because the doctor had advised that there was a high risk of miscarriage until she passed the first trimester. She knew if he had realized she was pregnant before she was past the danger point, she would never have been able to convince him that their birth control had failed a second time.
But the longer it took to do it, the harder it was to convince him that she needed yet another trip to the spa when it was time for another implantation. Worse yet, she feared that Jerry would get tired of waiting for Jax to come to his senses, and would put a detective on her, which would undoubtedly blow the whole scheme out of the water. Then she would have wasted almost two years on Jax, and would have to move somewhere new and start over with a new multi-millionaire. She had no intention of doing that, so she needed to be pregnant, and soon.
Sam continued to stare at the clock until it was finally time to read the test. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and held it for a moment. She opened her eyes, and exhaled a single word as she picked up the stick: "Please."
Bloomington, Indiana
Joanna Walker stared at the doctor as though she were speaking a foreign language. She turned to look at her husband, to see if he had heard the same thing she had. Mark looked at her, then turned back to Dr. Anderson and asked quietly, "So you're saying she needs a bone marrow transplant, or she'll …" He trailed off, unable to finish the thought.
"I'm saying her best chance of beating this is a bone marrow transplant. We can put her on the registry, but the chances of a match with someone unrelated are extremely slim. Therefore, it would be best to look among her blood relatives, preferably a sibling, or failing that, a parent or member of her extended family."
Joanna tuned out the rest of what the doctor was saying. She knew Mark would be listening intently, so he would be able to tell her later. She couldn't believe this was happening. Her beautiful little Isabella, just four years old, had leukemia that hadn't responded to first-line treatments. Tears welled in her eyes as she realized that she didn't even know who all of her daughter's blood relatives were, or whether she had any chance of finding out. And even if she did, she didn't know if they would care about a little girl they had never met, whose only connection to them was an anonymous donation of DNA five years ago.
But she had to try. She would do anything to save her beautiful little girl -- anything at all. So she and Mark and their two-year-old son Alex would be tested, and certainly her parents and her sister would, too. But in the meantime, she would start figuring out a way to track down the anonymous sperm donor who had given her miracle daughter to her in the first place.
Seattle, Washington
Elizabeth Webber Spencer stared at her phone, willing it to ring. She wondered where he was this time, and whether he would put any effort into soothing her irritation with him for being so late. He had to know she'd be worrying, especially since he had promised, sworn, that he would be home on time and would have dinner with her tonight no matter what. She had told him she had something important to talk with him about, had thought he understood how much this dinner meant to her. More than that, she had thought this would give them a chance to reconnect, to get their relationship back on the right track.
She sat on the couch, wondering how they had arrived at a place in their lives where he thought it was okay to leave her alone, pregnant, and worried, without even a phone call. Well, to be entirely fair (which she really didn't feel like being at the moment), he didn't actually know she was pregnant. She had planned to tell him tonight. Although you'd think, she thought disdainfully, that he would guess on his own, considering that the timing of the "important conversation" was so soon after their second attempt at artificial insemination.
She wondered again where he could be, growing more irritated as the minute hand dragged its way around the clock face, nearing 10 pm. It had been his idea to try for a donor pregnancy in the first place, when the doctor had told them that Lucky was sterile. She had had her doubts about having a baby in general, and about using this approach in particular, at least right now. She didn't understand Lucky's rush to start a family right away, especially since they were barely making ends meet as it was. And they had only been married a little over a year, so she had been pretty surprised when he insisted that they see a fertility doctor when they didn't get pregnant during that year. What's the rush anyway, she couldn't help wondering.
Now, here she sat, three weeks before Christmas, alone on her couch, in her tiny apartment in the questionable part of town. It was currently lit only by the lights on the sad little Christmas tree in the corner, which was decorated with the bland, store-bought ornaments that Lucky insisted were nicer than the cheerful paper chains she would have preferred. She thought about her life, feeling lonely and trapped, listening to the faint sound of the typical December drizzle outside. When she finally heard his key in the lock, she wasn't sure if the sigh she released was born of relief or regret.
She squared her shoulders and noted the guilty expression on his face as she said sarcastically, "I'm so glad you could make it home on time, like you promised. It would be such a shame if you broke yet another promise to me." She glared at him, getting to her feet as she spoke, and without giving him a chance to respond, she went into their bedroom, locking the door behind her.