A/N: Thanks again for reading and reviewing everybody. I really appreciate it. And I like to think of it as an author Q+A. I really enjoy hearing your thoughts and questions and getting to share some of my own, so you have some kind of understanding as to why I've made the choices in my writing that I have.

So please continue to send your thoughts and questions and reviews. If you have any ideas, send them along too!

And now for the chapter most of you have probably been waiting for. Time for AJ's introduction to the story!

Elizabeth was in tears as she watched him walk out of the house. She had known that it was over then and that he wasn't coming back. And it killed her and she blamed only herself. Because had she not lied to him, none of it would have happened.

She continued to cry thinking about him when she heard a knock on the door to their apartment. For a moment her face lit up as she allowed herself to believe the best.

"I'm so glad you came back so we can," Elizabeth stopped midsentence, the smile immediately wiped off of her face when she saw it wasn't him but his brother.

"Oh AJ," she said softly, quickly turning around and wiping tears from her eyes. "Come, come in. I didn't expect to see you."

"Yeah, I just got done some ELQ stuff so I figured I would stop by and see how you and the boys were doing," AJ paused as he remembered the glimpse he got of her when he first arrived at the door.

"Lizzy, are you crying?" he asked as he sat down next to her. "Did Jason, Elizabeth did he hurt you?"

"No," Elizabeth sighed, "He would never do anything to hurt me, but I, I hurt him."

"What happened?" AJ asked concerned as he wrapped his arm around her.

Normally she would settle right in but much to AJ's surprise, she immediately pushed his arm away and began to walk away from him as well.

"What's wrong, did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"You want to know what happened between Jason and I?" Elizabeth questioned sarcastically. "This happened. You and I happened. You putting your arm around me and consoling me and becoming the person I went to for everything, that happened. AJ, I know you and I were friends before I met Jason but it never should have turned out this way. When I started dating him, he should have been the one I always went to, but instead it was you. And that is when it started. I confided in you, he confided in Sam."

"Oh," AJ said softly starting to realize why she was upset. "This is about Sam. Did he, did Jason do something with her?"

"He never would," Elizabeth sighed as the tears began to fill her eyes again. "But that's the problem. He was willing to fight for us the way I never did. He even told Sam that he couldn't see her anymore. He wanted to work on us."

"I don't get it then," AJ said starting to get confused at the situation. "If you and Jason were going to work on things, why are you so upset?"

"Because Jason left and it is all my fault," Elizabeth sobbed.

AJ once again went to put his arm around her but she again pulled away.

It was then that she looked him in the eyes. She saw his lack of understanding, his wonder at why she was pulling away. And she wished there was an easy way to tell him, but there wasn't. It wasn't going to be easy, it wasn't going to make him feel any better and it certainly wasn't going to bring Jason back.

But she owed him the truth. She had always owed him the truth.

"AJ," Elizabeth said as she tried her best not to cry. "I, I have to tell you something."

"You know you can tell me anything," he smiled, glad she was finally opening up to him again.

"There is no easy or right way to do this but since Jason already knows, it is just, I was so wrong to keep this from you but I can't anymore," Elizabeth replied, struggling to find her words. "AJ, I'm so sorry but, but Cameron, he isn't Zander's. He's yours."

"That doesn't, I mean, it can't, I," AJ was stunned.

He couldn't figure it out. His head was spinning. He had a son, another son, or so she said. But how could Cameron be his? The timeline it didn't work out. But then he remembered their one night. It all came back to him. The 10-year-old boy upstairs very well could be his.

"How, how could you do this to me?" AJ asked her coldly, anger starting to take over, now that he was pretty sure he had figured it out. "Cameron is my son? He is 10 years old. Why, why didn't you tell me? 10 years- I've missed 10 years because what Elizabeth?"

"AJ, I'm so sorry but when I found out, you were still very much struggling with your drinking and I was young and scared and Zander had just died and I didn't know what to do," Elizabeth continued. "I, I didn't know right away but when I found out, Lucky, Lucky had already taken Cameron in as his own. He had done so since he was a little baby and Cameron knew him as his dad. I couldn't take that away from either of them."

"Wow," AJ finally said stunned, after a brief but noticeable silence. "That is your excuse. You kept him from me because what, because you were afraid of Lucky's mental state? That was such a BS excuse. Damn it Elizabeth. You, more than anyone else knew just how badly it hurt when Carly and Sonny and Jason stole Michael away from me. You knew, yet you did exactly the same thing. And I trusted you. We were friends or so I thought."

"We can still be friends," Elizabeth tried to convince him. "I still, I still want you in my life, in Cameron's life."

"I want to see him," AJ demanded.

"I'll get him," Elizabeth said softly.

A few minutes later she returned with her, their, 10-year-old son.

"Hey buddy," AJ smiled when he saw his son, a rush of emotions taking over.

"Uncle AJ, hi," Cameron beamed back, unknowingly crushing AJ in the process. His gaze then returned to his mother as he asked, "Mom, when is dad going to be back home? He promised to take Jake and I out on the motorcycle."

"Your dad, he uh, he'll be back later I'm sure," Elizabeth said, offering a weak smile at her son.

"Okay," Cameron smiled with childlike innocence. "Just come get me when dad is home. Bye Uncle AJ."

"Bye Cam," AJ said as he watched his son, the boy that would never really be his, run back up the stairs.

"AJ, I," Elizabeth started before she was interrupted.

"He calls Jason dad," AJ replied before she could finish her thought. "Why shouldn't he? My brother has been the one to raise him. Again. It's like Michael all over again."

"He'll come around once we talk to him," Elizabeth suggested.

"And how long is that going to take?" AJ screamed, fed up with the lies and the fact that Jason had now raised two of his sons. "Michael didn't even start talking to me again until he was 18. 18, Elizabeth. Cameron is 10. And I can't, I won't wait around for that to happen. It is too painful. Besides Cam already has a father, the one you probably wanted all along."

"So what, what are you saying?" Elizabeth asked confused.

"I'm saying that all I am ever going to be to Cameron is an uncle and maybe, maybe it is best for everybody involved if I just stayed that way," AJ said slowly, knowing the decision he was making was probably going to be the toughest of his life and the biggest mistake he could ever make. Yet for some reason, he felt he had to make it.

Asleep on a chair in the middle of the room, Elizabeth was jolted awake from her dream, which really was just a memory of the past.

A/N: So what did you think? This is a little insight into AJ's character, how he felt and why he left. Not that it is a justification, but let's just say it sets the table for AJ's story going forward. So I hope you keep reading and reviewing and hope you're enjoying it.