One minute the room was in a total hush with everyone locked in place as though in a photo like the one they all gaped at on the screen, as still as the focus of that photo, some with hands clasped tightly over their mouths, others with mouths wide open in shock. Then in the next instant the room was transformed into complete chaos as tears flowed and sobs echoed and explanations were sought.
"Spinelli, is this real?" Carly was first to break the shocked silence and address Spinelli as he turned to look at every one's reaction, followed up by Sonny's "What're you trying to pull?"
Monica was looking at Jake in total disbelief and hope, tears rolling down her face with her hands over her mouth as she begged God to let it be true. Tracy was next to her not buying it as she also looked at the man too, "Hah! As if!"
Everyone was looking at Jake as though trying to see through the stranger's face to find some hint of Jason there, to find any trace of the man they'd known and loved so very much, and Jake…he was staring at Sam.
He knew it. Somehow, somewhere in him was the knowledge that he knew her. His soul knew her, even as his mind had fought and won with reason and common sense that it wasn't possible, deep down in his soul he'd known it. The shock of finding out that he was her dead husband was very much there and it defied every bit of logic in the situation, but in that same moment he knew that any proof sought to make them believe it would turn out accurate. He was Jason Morgan.
Sam was mired to the floor where she stood. Her eyes had travelled from the screen showing the face that spanned her dreams at night as much as her waking hours, to the man by the kitchen doorway who was equally frozen in place with eyes locked on her too. She had seen similarities in this man, had actively pushed them away because she knew she was creating them where they didn't exist, had felt so much in so short a time for a complete stranger who had never felt to her like a stranger, not once! She had spent years crying herself to sleep, wailing at the loss of her love. Had watched him in her baby's smile and loved him in his eyes. Had resigned herself to missing him forever.
"Is it really you? Jason?" The short distance between them seemed like the Sahara and feet that wanted to run to him were stuck in cement as the sobs came, her hand outstretched, yearning to grab hold, "Jason?"
He didn't even notice running to her, just that the next instant he was holding her up as she sagged towards the floor, her legs seeming to give way to the weight of the news that buckled her over. He held her to him and squeezed. "Sam." He breathed her in as his mind raced to make sense of what was happening. His visions! His visions had been memories! He was Jason Morgan, back from the dead Jason Morgan, and he was holding his…WIFE! Sam was his wife! He allowed the sobs to run through her as she clung to him as tightly as he clung to her. He would give her a minute to let it sink in, to let it sink in for all of them.
The room started to come back into focus with the sounds of his name being repeated over and over, the questions whirling in search of answers that would start to make sense. Jason looked down at Sam's face as she pulled away from his chest but he would never let her out of his arms again, not that she appeared to be interested in moving that way either. She was shaking her head, searching his eyes and asking, "But how? How, Jake?"
"I'm not sure, Sam, but I think Spinelli is right. I think I-I'm really Jason Morgan."
"The hell you are!" Sonny was angry and sick of this game! "You will not speak his name and you sure as hell will not con his family into believing this load of bull for one more minute!"
Spinelli jumped up hesitantly, "I assure you, Mr. Sir, the footage is legitimate and from a most credible source." He was more than a little afraid of Sonny and well versed on the man's dislike for him, but his best friend was returned to his loved ones and no one would sully the occasion, not even the feared Godfather himself. "Jake Doe is most definitely Stonecold." He looked at his friend as he said this, his hands moving up to cover his humongous smile as he drunk in the picture of the loves of each others lives in the arms of the one they belonged in. Fair Samantha and Stonecold have been reunited, praise the heavens!
Jake ignored Sonny's outbursts. Apart from the fact that he didn't care very much for the man, his focus was taking care of Sam and making sure that she understood. "Sam, I haven't told you but I've been having memories."
He shook his head as though to clear it of cobwebs as he continued, "At first I didn't know what they were - they seemed like visions - little snippets of moments here and there that made no sense, so I ignored them…until they kept on happening and…" He moved his hands down her arms to grab hold of her hands as she looked at his face inquiringly, prodding him to continue. "You were in them."
At her confused look he hurried to continue, "Sam, they were of you! I've had several visions - or memories…of you!"
"Me? When, what memories?" Sam was praying for it to be true - please God, let it be true!
"I started to think that maybe I had known you years ago or something, I just didn't know what to make of any of it." Jake looked down at their joined hands before he looked back up into her eyes, "That night on the balcony, under the stars? I saw us…we were there before. You wore a white dress and your hair hung down to your shoulders to frame your beautiful face." He reached an hand up to softly brush her cheek before going back to grasping her hand in his.
"Are you talking about the night she was shot in Jason's arms?" Jake was her friend but Carly couldn't believe him without proof. There was so much about Jake that reminded her of Jason, but she'd never thought that they were the same person, and if her best friend in the entire world had returned to them, had come back to make their broken world whole again, she'd know it! Wouldn't she?
"That shooting was in the papers - everybody knows about the night Sam was shot in Jason's arms - just what the hell are you trying to pull?" It couldn't be true. Sonny knew it couldn't be true because if it was, he almost murdered his best friend, his brother! If any of this were true, he had sent Sean to put a bullet in his brother's head, his brother who had fought the odds and won to make it back to his family. He could have killed his friend and not even known he had returned to them. How could he ever live with such a sin?
But Jason wasn't concerned with Sonny's outbursts and Carly barely registered then. Sam was still in shock, her eyes not leaving his as she drew the strength that he sent her from his own. She said, "That night, on the balcony - it was just you and me. You said something to me…what did you say to me that night?" She held her breath as she waited for the answer that would fill or break her heart - she knew exactly which night he meant and it wasn't the night she got shot.
"Run to me, Sam!" When it came it was as though the heavens opened and angels' trumpets sounded through cloudless skies on high for Sam. "I told you to run to me."
One giant sob and a leap later and Sam was in his arms, squeezing the new life out of him as she whispered the name that was sweetest to hear in that miraculous moment, "Jaaaason!" The feel of him was so glorious in her arms she would never let him go ever again. The muscled magnificence at her fingertips was that of the love of her life and the man she now loved all wrapped up into one. Jason had been home and no one knew, no one had a clue, but still her heart had given itself to him without knowing. Jason was alive! Her husband, her soulmate, her lifeline, her son's father…she sprang back in his arms to look at his face, "Oh, My God Jason! Danny!"
They both turned to scan the room to find Danny, and Sam's heart broke a little when she noticed that her poor little man had been sitting on the sofa looking at all the grown ups in the room losing their minds, yelling and crying and fighting over his friend Jake. Sam ran over to her son and swept him into her arms, "Come here, baby!" She rained kisses on his face and when he started to giggle Sam breathed then, knowing that they hadn't just scarred him for life.
"Danny, I have something wonderful and unbelievable to tell you!" His little face lit up instantly as he looked at his mother's smile. Danny loved a good story. "Do you remember how I showed you pictures of Daddy and told you all about him, all about how much he loved you?"
Danny nodded his little head. "And remember how I said that the angels missed Daddy so much that they took him to live with them in heaven?" Sam was walking Danny over to an obviously nervous Jason as she continued her story, "Well, Mommy was mistaken baby. Daddy didn't go to heaven after all. Daddy got hurt and we didn't know but he's been back home with us now." She kissed her son's cheek again as she said, "Danny, Jake is your Daddy, baby."
His little face looked so confused as he looked at his friend Jake. "But Momma, Jake don't look like Daddy - see?" He pointed right at the photo of him, Jason and Sam on the mantel.
Jason found his voice finally. Clearing the lump that had taken root in his throat he took over from Sam, moving to touch his smart little boy's tiny arm. "Remember how we told you that I got hurt in a very bad accident and couldn't remember?" He watched Danny nod again and said, "Well, my head as well as my face were hurt in my accident, and when I got better I didn't look the same because the doctors had to change my face to fix me. That's why your mommy didn't know who I was. Nobody knew me because the doctor's had to make me look different, and then I couldn't remember so I couldn't come home."
They watched their little boy carefully for any sign that they were confusing or scaring him, but he only looked curious when he looked up at Jason and asked, "So my friend Jake is really my daddy?" Sam replied, "Yes, he is baby."
Jason was as enamored as he was awed. Not only had Sam, the incredible woman he'd fallen so completely in love with turned out to be his wife, but Danny was his son! This perfect, vital, intriguing little boy whom he'd hoped against hope that Sam would've allowed him to share in their lives, turned out to be a part of him, created by the love that he had with Sam. Danny was his son! Jason was floored with the strength of the emotions that ran through him at the realization. The sheer pride and elation rendered him speechless as a new surge of love slammed his heart into his chest once again, bursting it wide open to the two most beautiful people in the world for the taking.
