Chapter Four
Evening May 3rd
Metro Court
"Elizabeth?" Dianne's quiet enquiry snapped Elizabeth back to reality. She raised her eyes to Dianne and noted Dianne's frown. Elizabeth attempted a smile and gestured for her to sit down. She signaled for the waiter who took their orders. Through the entire 3 or so minutes it took for Dianne to seat herself, call the waiter and give their order, Dianne continued to frown at Elizabeth's obvious distress. When the waiter left she took no time in questioning Elizabeth as to her current predicament.
"You look like hell Elizabeth what on earth is wrong?" Dianne asked.
Elizabeth attempted another smile and she gazed unblinking at Dianne.
"I'm in trouble." she allowed that to sink in and then continued. "and despite all my claims that Jason and his lifestyle are a danger to my children it turns out I'm more of a danger than he could ever be" she gave a distressed laugh "except unlike Jason I have no ability to protect my boys" her voice had slowly faded to a quiet terrified whisper.
"YOU! How could you be a danger to your boys?" Dianne asked incredulously at the idea that the tiny beautiful woman could be a danger to any one or any thing.
"My family connections, the decisions I made and actions I took when I was younger. The people I've gone up against. All make me more of a danger to the boys than Jason could ever be." she insisted.
"Elizabeth I don't understand." Dianne exclaimed shaking her head.
Elizabeth closed her eyes nodding, and proceeded to inform Dianne of her past with Helena and Tom. Some time later an amazed Dianne found her voice through her shock to ask.
"Helena Cassadine? Is this the same psychotic woman who slit Alexis's mother's throat in front of her?" Dianne frowned with distaste. When Alexis had told her the story, Dianne had shuddered feeling as though she'd just stepped in to a Bram Stoker novel. .
"The very same one" Elizabeth replied.
"Elizabeth you say you faked your death to help trap Helena?" Dianne found it all so fascinating yet all so unbelievable.
"Yes! She's always after the Spencer's and even though I'm not one of them any more my past involvement makes me a target and the fact that legally Jake is a Spencer makes him one too" Elizabeth replied wearily.
"What about this Tom Baker? Are you sure he'll be looking for you?" Dianne was trying to wrap her mind around exactly what Elizabeth was facing.
"Tom was never convicted of my rape, he went to jail for stalking Emily. But he threatened me before, during and after that trial. They believe he was responsible for many rapes and murders in Florida before he came to Port Charles. But no hard or even circumstantial evidence was obtained that could prove it. They believe when he was stalking Emily that she was going to be another victim. He always blamed me for getting caught and put away. He had this strange attitude or obsession about me that alternated between him claiming I belonged to him and this desire to kill me by torture. He once said to me 'if I'd just finished you off like the rest of them you never would have been able to help put me away'. He will come after me" Elizabeth's tone was lifeless.
"Okay well I think I have all the background. Now what exactly is the legal advice you need?" Dianne asked.
"I need your advice on three things. The first being a will and making arrangements for my boys if anything happens to me." she paused.
"Certainly, we can make an appointment to do that" Dianne replied.
"Soon please!" Elizabeth begged as Dianne nodded in agreement. "Okay well the second thing I need is" she paused to clear her throat "advice on how to give Jason back his son. I'm not sure how to go about it, but I want to change Jakes' birth certificate and name Jason as his father. Which of course means outing the paternity. But I don't care anymore, I'm hoping if Helena knows he's not a Spencer he'll be safe, but if not then Jason will be able to protect him. Anyway, I'm rambling. I wanted your advice on how best to go about that changing the certificate, outing the paternity is a separate issue."
Dianne was shocked, she knew the arrangement between Jason and Elizabeth, she knew that Jason felt his enemies would consider Jake and or Elizabeth his weakness and target them to get to him. Jason was adamant he didn't want that kind of life for his son.
"Have you spoken to Jason about this?" Dianne frowned.
Elizabeth decided to ignore the question and continued "I'm not asking you to act on my behalf, I realize there would be a conflict of interest and you would need to be Jason's attorney. I just want your take on the best way to go about it? I mean, you know all the facts." Elizabeth gulped. "I know there is still the threat of perjury charges, so should I pretend that I think the paternity test was faulty and demand a new paternity test? Do I do it publicly? Maybe I should go to the papers" she had started to voice her thoughts, not caring that Dianne was looking at her with a worried expression. "Jason hates the media, but if Jason's enemies thought there was an acrimonious relationship between us they wouldn't think it would be worthwhile going after me as leverage and Jason wouldn't feel the need to give me or Cam any guards." she finished in a rush.
Dianne stared at Elizabeth in horror.
"Well that is one way to go about it I guess. But honestly I don't think it needs to be that complicated. After Jason was exonerated in Alcazar's alleged murder, Alexis and I had a brief "hypothetical" discussion. She agreed that pursuing perjury charges would be a waste of time and energy, because 'a' your testimony was a personal issue and was not relevant to the trial at all and 'b' your testimony was not the reason Jason was exonerated, Carly's 'evidence' was." Dianne informed her.
"So what do I do to fix this?" Elizabeth begged.
"Well I need to look in to it but I believe, we just simply petition the court to change the name on the birth certificate. Easy. Now what was the third thing you wanted advice on?" Dianne smiled as she sipped her martini.
"I want to sue Jason for joint custody of Jake" she stated quietly.
