First off, thank you all for your encouraging reviews. I appreciate it very much.

As you can probably guess, I am a huge Liason fan. This is really the first time I've tried to pair Elizabeth with anyone else. I knew though, to make it believable, I had to incorporate the history of both Elizabeth and Sonny where Jason was involved. They are in a sense bonded because of him.

I also wanted Elizabeth and Michael to interact. They too had a bond a long time ago.

Enjoy

Elizabeth walked into the hub, her eyes showing her fatigue from the long shift. She had scrubbed in on two surgeries, had two of her patient's code, and had one of her patients try to grope her. She slipped some charts into place and turned toward the computer to start inputting when she saw Michael coming up to the desk.

"Hi, Michael. How are you?" She always had a smile for the young man. Despite everything he had gone through in his young life, he was a good person, through and through. She knew he got that from his uncle.

He leaned against the counter, sliding his hands in his jeans, looking worried.

"Elizabeth, hi. I just wanted to apologize for my mother and AJ. I know that you guys were getting close and-"

"Michael Corinthos III, you do not have anything to be sorry for. You are not responsible for your parents."

"I know that, but I also know that they both are very self-absorbed people, and I wanted to make sure you knew that I am not speaking to either of them right now. I don't like how they did this, and I especially don't like how you got hurt because of their selfishness."

She looked up at him and smiled, "You know, I appreciate that. You don't know what it means to me that you would take up for me that way. But I don't want you to put distance between you and your parents. They love you."

Michael nodded, "I know, but they can't keep doing this. In a lot of ways, I think I should have seen this coming. They are both so much alike. They both just jump into things, and really don't think of the consequences and how it will affect others. I mean, you were so selfless with helping Jocelyn. How can my mom forget that?"

"Michael, I don't think Carly forgot at all. I think they realized that what they felt for each other wasn't the contempt they thought. When you think about it, they've always been passionate about each other. Maybe what they thought was hatred, was love."

Michael shook his head and smiled at her, "How do you do that? They hurt you, yet here you are defending them."

"Believe me, I'm not saying what happened and how it happened didn't hurt. I thought what AJ and I had was good, and that it could grow into something more. But, I've learned the hard way that you can't help who you fall in love with, or the timing. "

"I know. I think I'm just weirded out by it. I mean, come on. This is AJ and Carly. They've been at each other's throats since before I remember. Now, to have them together. Kind of freaks me out."

She laughed softly, "Yeah it is kind of weird. How is Sonny dealing?" She knew he said he was fine about it, but she also knew that Sonny and Carly had history and AJ and he were far from friends.

Michael shrugged, "Dad says he's fine. Says that he's disappointed that Mom could forget about everything AJ has done. I know that he's not in love with my mom anymore, but I think it stings."

She leaned over and placed her hand over his on the counter, "He's not still worried about losing you to AJ, is he?"

Michael shook his head, "I don't know. I think he felt secure that I wasn't going anywhere, but now, with this, his doubts might be creeping up again."

"Well, just be there for him. He needs his kids."

Michael smiled, "I didn't think you liked my dad at all."

She shook her head, "Your dad and I have had our problems, but a long time ago we were friends. And we both decided that we would like that again."

He smiled at her, "Well that's great. I know a lot of people don't think all that highly of him because of what he does."

"Michael, we both did and said things to each other that were ugly. But the bottom line is that Sonny was there for me and helped me through a lot of tough times. I forgot that for a while. He recently reminded me of that."

"Well, I want to thank you, for being so understanding about everything. I gotta get to the office. I'll talk to you soon." He smiled at her, squeezing her hand softly and turning toward the elevator.

She watched him get on the elevator and leaned on the counter. She could not believe he would take the time out of his day just to apologize for his parents. Like it was his fault they were screwed up. She thanked heaven that that boy had Jason in his life, as well as Sonny. The man was dangerous and had a lot of issues, but he was a good father.

Thinking about how Sonny was, and knowing he was alone, she picked up her phone. She nibbled on her bottom lip for a moment, wondering if she was overstepping the whole "friends again" thing.

Deciding to go for it, she dialed the number, tapping her nails against the counter while hearing it ring. She stood up straight when she heard the other side pick up.

"Hello."

"Sonny, hi. It's Elizabeth. Is this a bad time?"

"Hey, no no, not at all. I just got out of a meeting. What's on your mind?"

"Well I was wondering…you see Laura has the boys tonight and well…are you free for dinner?"

There was a pause, and she closed her eyes, thinking he would come up with an excuse to get out of it.

"That sounds nice. How about you meet me at the MetroCourt?"

She smiled and nodded, "Sounds good. I get off in an hour. Say 7:30?"

"Perfect. I'll see you then."

"Bye."

She placed her phone down and smiled, looking forward to her evening. She knew he would try to brush off what he was feeling, but she was determined to be a real friend to him. She wanted him to feel like he can trust her again.

That determined, she went back to her computer screen.