Chapter 7

Liz woke the next morning to a knock on the door. More precisely she woke when Michael ran in and told her that she needed to answer it. She was groggy and she didn't understand what he meant, or why he didn't answer it himself. That was until she went into the living room and saw who was standing outside the glass door.

"AJ? What are you doing here at 8am?"

"I'm here to pick up Kristina for Ned. He said that you would be expecting someone." He frowned slightly. "I'm sorry, I just thought that with three babies, you would be up by now."

Liz yawned. "More like five babies, a preteen and Georgie. I think the kids were just exhausted. Not a peep from any of them all night, not even Molly."

"So that was Michael that ran out of here?" he asked with an almost hopeful glint in his eyes. He rarely caught a glimpse of his son these days. He had mostly given up the idea of getting him back, but he loved to see him, even from afar.

"Yeah, he came to get me. I think Carly told him to never be alone in a room with you." She was sympathetic to his plight with the little boy, but it wasn't her place to get in the middle of it.

"Makes sense." He said with a hint of dark humor. "I can come back later if you want. Give you time to get things more settled."

Liz shook her head. "No, it's ok. Like I said, everyone but me and Michael are asleep, and Krissy's things are already packed up and waiting. You have a car seat right?"

He nodded. "I got Ned's car. Jamie's seat Isn't big enough."

His heart swelled at the thought of his small son. Not that long ago the thought of someone leaving a child in his care had been ludicrous, and rightfully so. He had been in a downward spin for so long that it seemed like he'd never see daylight again. But now he was finally whole. He had turned the money that he had stolen from the family into an enormous fortune. Enough to repay it with interest and still have over three times that much remaining. He had put his drinking behind him, leaving him now two full years sober. He had even been able to stay sober and calm when his grasping, greedy, cold, wife Lydia had tried to bleed him dry and leverage custody of their tiny son for money. Luckily the courts of the tropic paradise where they were living had a more archaic view of women who flaunted their lovers publicly to their husbands and offered to sell their child for a cut of his money. In the end she hadn't come away with anything more than her own inheritance and the gifts he'd given her over the years.

Liz smiled as she turned to lead him to Krissy's room. "How is little Alan James the third?" She had seen the little boy at the hospital daycare quite a few times in the last 6 month. He was a sweet tempered baby and the ladies loved him.

AJ laughed. "He's got Alice wrapped around his little finger so tightly that I think she's ready to switch jobs and be his nanny. It's rather tempting actually; she'd be a babysitter and bodyguard in one."

He stopped as he saw Michael loitering in the hall. Michael's expression was unreadable.

"You have a little boy?" Michael asked.

"Yeah, Jamie, he's 8 months old."

Michael hesitated. "Where is his mommy?"

AJ wasn't sure what to say to that. He didn't know what Michael had been told about him and the situation with his custody. He knew it hadn't been nice.

"Lydia lives in Switzerland."

"Did you steal him like you tried to do to me?"

AJ sighed. "No, the court said that Jamie was better off with me then her, and she hasn't tried to see him since."

He didn't respond directly to Michael's accusation about him. There was no point. At least Michael would never be able to accuse him of not wanting him.

Michael just nodded, his mind following generally the same thread. He knew that AJ wanted him, if nothing else and he didn't understand a mom just leaving her kid and never looking back. He looked up at Liz and said, "Cam's awake.", and went into the living room to watch cartoons.

AJ and Liz moved down the hall to the bedrooms. Liz picked up Cameron from Ric's room and knocked on Georgie's door.

Within seconds Georgie pulled open the door with a sleepy smile. "Hi AJ." She said with a bit of shock at seeing him.

"Morning cousin." He said with a smile back at her.

"Hey Georgie, sorry to wake you, but could you take Cam and check on the kids in Molly's room while I go get Krissy for AJ?"

"How about I get them breakfast? There is a big box of Cheerio's in the kitchen." Georgie asked as she took Cam from his mother's arms.

"Thank you so much." Elizabeth responded with mild relief. "Get Michael to help. He's watching cartoons."

In the few minutes it took to get Kristina up, dressed, and her things together, Georgie got Lila, Morgan and Cam settled with bowls of dry cereal and sippy cups of juice and was settled with a bottle for Molly. Michael was eating a bowl of instant oatmeal that he had made for himself before helping with cereal.

Liz marveled at her efficiency. She didn't think she could have done nearly as well straight out of bed.

She was handing all of Krissy's things over to AJ when Emily came barging in the door, with an irate Carly hot on her heels.

"Look here little girl. You aren't taking my sons anywhere. I don't give a flying fuck what Sonny says." Carly was about to grab Emily's arm when she saw AJ standing there.

"AJ." She said in a much warmer tone than anyone had expected. "What are you doing here?"

Carly was trying very hard to be a more adult and reasonable person these days. Her stay in Roselawn had taught her several things about herself, including that her unreasonable and combative nature had brought on a lot of her problems. She wouldn't be a doormat, but she wasn't going to pick fights where there didn't need to be any.

AJ had sobered up, become a good father to his young son and had stopped trying to get between her and Michael. If he took her leaving Sonny again as some kind of opportunity to try and take her son, then they would throw down, but she wasn't going to be a bitch for no reason. At least not in front of a room full of kids. She felt bad enough for what they had just heard.

AJ smiled at her. "Good morning Carly. I was just picking up Kristina for her dad. He's getting Brooke out of the hospital right now and wanted everyone together for breakfast." He turned to Liz. "And you know that we would be more than happy to have Molly at the house too, until Ric gets out of the hospital. This can't be easy on you, and I know you would probably like to take Cameron home."

Liz shook her head. "it's fine really, we'll stay with Molly for a few days and she can go to the hospital daycare or with Gram while I'm at work." She turned to Carly, taking advantage of her more pleasant than usual attitude. "What about Jason, how is he?"

A flash of little Lizzie cozying up to her best friend while he mourned his wife went through Carly's mind before she shoved it aside. She had seen the way the nurse was getting close to Ric Lansing, the scuzball, again. "He's not that good actually. He doesn't want to go home because it reminds him of Sam. I haven't actually spoken to him since just after you left with the kids last night. I don't know hiw he's going to deal with it. I think I might have him and Lila stay with me and the boys for a while, when we're settled."

Emily stood there and listened as the room at large ignored her presence. These three people, including her brother and her best friend, were casually discussing where Sonny's children would be living, and they weren't even considering him. Lila and Kristina were his daughters, and he barely knew them. He had given up Lila for Carly, and she wasn't even grateful for it. She shook her head and left without a word.

Liz watched her go with a frown. What had happened to her friend?

"So it's all true? You're leaving dad again?" Michael's voice wobbled slightly. His mom was standing here being nice to AJ, and she was leaving his dad. What was going on? He knew his mom had been different after her breakdown, and he knew about his dad and Emily, but he thought that they would just snap out of it and go back to the way things were before.

"Yeah, Mr. Man, it's all true. Me and your dad have told a lot of lies and made a lot of compromises to stay together over the years, but… we just can't forgive and forget this time." She didn't go into details, but she was fairly sure that Michael was aware of the issues. He'd spent a lot of time lurking in the hallway outside of Sonny and Ric's hospital room the last couple of days. She knelt down in front of the couch where he was sitting. "Are you ok about the girls being your sisters now?"

Michael shrugged and maintained his frown. "Doesn't matter, they're my cousins anyway. Besides, they already have dads."

Everyone smiled at him. He was taking things much better than anyone could have anticipated.

AJ cleared his throat. "We'll be going now. I hope to see everyone later." He left Carly with a nod and kissed Liz and Georgie on the cheek.

Liz frowned, hating what she had to do next. "I'm going to make some coffee. Carly, will you join me? I need to talk to you for a moment." Georgie shot her a sympathetic look, knowing what she had to tell the short tempered woman.

Carly just nodded slightly, kissed her oldest son on the cheek, and followed. When they reached the kitchen she started. "Look, if this is about Emily – "

"No", Liz cut her off, "I don't know what her deal is; this is about Michael and some questions he asked last night. He asked me why Sam and I forgave Ric for the bad things he did. I tried to explain how complicated it is, and I think he sort of gets the concept that forgiveness is a personal thing, but then he asked if he was allowed to forgive Ric, since Sam did."

Carly got a fierce look on her face. She still had nightmares about her experience in the panic room, of the chain on her ankle and the fear.

"Now, before you get upset." Liz said, feeling the wrath building. "I told Michael that, while forgiving people is a personal thing, that he had to decide on his own, his parents get to make the decisions about who he's aloud to be around and when. I wouldn't undermine you by encouraging him to go against your wishes. He was asking AJ a few questions about his son this morning too, so I just though you needed to know what was on his mind."

Carly took a deep breath. While she would have preferred none of this to come up… ever, she was grateful that it was handled by someone who respected her position as Micheal's mother, even if they didn't like her. "Ok, thanks for telling me. And, thank you for letting the kids stay here last night. I had to get all of our stuff out of that house before Sonny was released and I didn't know where we would be staying."

"If you need for the boys to stay here…"

Carly shook her head. It was weird having a polite conversation with Little Lizzie Webber, and she knew that it wasn't going to be a common thing. "No, we're staying at the brownstone with Mama. I came to pick the boys up and to see if you had heard from Jason. I tried to call him, but he has his phone turned off. I was sort of hoping that he came to get Lila already."

Liz nodded. She was also worried about her friend. "When he comes to get her, or calls, I'll let him know you are looking for him. He needs everyone he can get right now." She hesitated. "How are you… about Courtney? I know you and Sam weren't really friendly, but Courtney…"

Carly cleared her throat and wiped away a tear. "I'll be fine. I have way too much on my plate to be able to break down. I… I saw Mathew in the NICU earlier. Nikolas was there. He said that he'll probably be out in a week. He asked me to be a part of his life, to be his aunt, even though Sonny and I are over. He even offered to help me, weird as that was."

There was a long, tense, silence, until the sound of a knock on the door drew them out of the kitchen. Jason stood there looking broken and sad. Carly, of course, ran right to him and pulled him into a fierce hug. Liz caught Georgie's eye and they took Cameron and Molly to get changed.

Carly and the boys were waiting to say goodbye by the time that they came back out. Carly gave a stilted thanks, while Morgan waved and Michael gave her a hug. When they left Georgie led Cameron to the back yard to play on Krissy's swing set.

"Elizabeth…" Jason trailed off, not sure what to say to his friend. Things had been better between them for a year or so, but there was still strain there from their break up, her hit and run by Courtney, her marriage to Ric, and her continued friendship with the man. Standing in his house with his daughter on her shoulder, he didn't know what to think about how close the two were now that Alexis had died.

Liz broke the silence for him. "I talked to Carly earlier. We both think that you need to move out of the penthouse, at least for a while." She looked over to Lila, who was sitting in front of the TV watching some inane show on Noggin and was totally oblivious to what was going on around her. "You and Lila need to be together right now, and I don't think you can do that there. You'd be too wrapped up in your grief."

Jason swallowed hard and nodded. "I know, she told me earlier. She wants me to stay with her and the boys at the brownstone for a while. Taggert's old apartment is still empty. Carly thinks it would be better for us to be there at least until she and the boys move out of Bobbie's."

Liz sighed. "She probably wants you there so you can be a buffer when Sonny comes after her and the kids."

"Probably."

"Normally I would say that uprooting Lila and breaking her familiar routines and schedules is the wrong thing to do right now. But, Lila's routines are already broken right now. She has spent a week without seeing Sam or very much of you, most of that in a room at the hospital with her cousins. I think that setting a new routine would be just as easy as getting back to the old one at this point, but you need to be there. That is the important thing. You can't shut her out."

Jason just nodded. He knew that she had a point. He had shut her out completely and it led to her leaving. But he had learned from that, and he wouldn't do that now. Lila was his priority. Grieving for Sam would have to be on his own time. "Can Lila stay for a few more hours? I need to talk to some people, arrange things."

"Yeah, no problem, I'm going to be here with Molly for at least the rest of today, even if Ric does get released." Liz shifted Molly and took a deep breath before she spoke again, not sure how he'd take it. "You can't take Lila from Ric."

Jason was caught off guard by that. "What?"

"I know that you hate Ric, and it would be so easy to cut him out of Lila's life now that Sam is gone."

"I wouldn't." Jason said, surprising even himself. "I… I hate Ric." He glanced to be sure that Lila wasn't listening. "I can't even begin to explain how much. And you know why."

"Because of Carly." Liz chose her words carefully, mindful as well of the little girl.

"And you. I know you think that I didn't care about you then, but I did. My point is… Yeah, I don't get along with Ric, and I can safely say that I never will, but Sam loved him." He took a shaky breath. "He's a part of Lila's family, a big part, and he made sure that no one could ever take her from me. He didn't have to do that. He's why Sonny can't take her from me. And Lila loves him. I don't think I could take that from her, not after losing her grandmother and her mother so close together. And I promised Sam that she could make the choice about Ric, I wouldn't disrespect her that way."

Liz nodded again. "I'm glad. Ric and the girls have lost a lot too. Sam was very important to him and Krissy. Plus Viola was almost as much of a parent to the girls as anyone. I don't know how they are going to go on. God, it feels like Alexis just died and now this."

"I know you'll help them." Jason said with a half-smile. He didn't like her being so close with Lansing, but he knew her well enough to know that she wouldn't abandon the man.

Without another word Jason walked over and kissed his little girl goodbye before striding out of the door.