A/N: Sorry for the hiatus. I lost some inspiration for this story, but I think I'm getting it back. Let me know what you all think of this chapter.

*All main characters are owned by General Hospital. Most of the dialogue as well as the characters thoughts are my own.*


Sam slowly opened her eyes, and turned towards the smell of coffee. Jason sat on their bed with the cup, pushing the hair out of his wife's eyes.

"Good morning."

Sam smiled at her husband, relieved to see him bearing gifts.

"Good morning, thanks for the coffee."

Sam sat up in bed as Jason handed her the coffee, taking a sip.

"I figured you would need it, you haven't been sleeping well the past few weeks."

Sam took another sip of her coffee.

"I keep having nightmares. I keep seeing him. Either I kill him again or he kills me."

Jason moved closer to Sam on the bed.

"He's gone now Sam. You don't have to worry about it anymore."

"I know but I still feel guilty."

"Sam you knew going in there that it was going to be you or him. You weren't going to let him leave and go after your mom and he was going to do whatever it took to be with her. You didn't have a choice."

"What if I did though? What if I did have other choices and I was just blinded by anger and revenge?"

Jason sighed, took the empty cup of from his wife's hands and placed it on the nightstand. Jason grabbed Sam's hands.

"Sam it happened. You can't change it. Julian is dead and you can't keep thinking about if you had any other choices. It's over. You need to focus on your mom, and sisters, and Danny. You need to focus on your job. Eventually you'll learn to live with what happened. I'm not going to let you make yourself crazy about this okay?"

Sam stroked her husbands face with her hand.

"Thank you, Jason. I needed to hear that, unfortunately, I think your going to need to keep reminding me of that."

Sam moved the covers off of her legs, and positioned herself so she was sitting next to Jason.

"Its gonna be okay Sam. We're okay. Danny's okay. Your family is okay."

"Ava isn't okay."

Jason pushed himself off the bed and leaned against their dresser, scratching his head.

"Don't worry about her."

Sam raised her eyebrows at Jason.

"What does that mean?"

"It means she's not going to be a problem."

Sam rolled her eyes at Jason.

"What aren't you telling me? Jason, Ava has been whining around town accusing the both of us of murder. She's made at least 10 complaints to the PCPD about us. Its been a month, it doesn't look like she's going to let this go any time soon."

"Are you worried Ava might do something?"

"Please. Ava might have been ruthless in the past when she shot Olivia and killed Connie, but since she had Avery, she's softened. She wouldn't do anything to implicate herself and risk losing custody. Right now I think she's all bark. But Julian was her brother. She's not going to take this lying down. The Jerome organization is vulnerable right now, and she's going to have to do something to retaliate or the organization will look weak."

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Sam I'm aware. But its being taken care of, you don't have to worry about it."

"This is like déjà vu."

"What?"

"This conversation. Its like we've had this conversation before."

Sam pushed herself off the bed and stood in front of her husband, looking up at him. Jason wanted to chuckle at his wife's height, but decided against it when he saw the glare she was giving him.

"Sam—"

"Are you working for Sonny?"

Jason pinched the bridge of his nose again.

"Sam why would you even think that?"

"Jason, come on. That night leaving Wyndemere, I could tell you were enjoying yourself. And now this conversation. This is how you used to talk to me when you were working for Sonny. You would tell me about things, but you always kept it vague, never wanting to give away too much so I wouldn't be implicated in anything. I know I've been out of it these past weeks, but you don't just go back to your old career and not talk to me about it. I thought we agreed we weren't going to treat each other this way anymore? I thought we were going to talk to each other?"

"Sam I'm not working for Sonny. I'll admit, I, I did enjoy myself that night. It was nice giving orders, being in command. But I'm not working for Sonny, not, not like I used too."

"What do you mean not like you used to? Jason Morgan tell me right now what the hell is going on?!"

Jason grabbed his wife's shoulders and bent down so he was eye level with her.

"I'm not being Sonny's hit man. I'm consulting with him on security."

"What security?"

"His security. I'm working to train his guys to protect him, Carly, the kids. Protecting the coffee warehouses. I'm just basically organizing everything. I'm only working on the legitimate side."

Sam tilted her head at her husband and crossed her arms.

"Okay, maybe not just the legitimate stuff. But Sonny and I are being careful. I'm not going to be involved in name or presence in any of the illegal stuff. I'm not going to go with Sonny to any meetings, I'm not going to be doing any hits for him. I might be involved in, coordination, of certain things, but only in hypotheticals Sam. If anything goes down I wont know the where or when."

"Why didn't you talk with me about this?"

"I didn't know how to tell you, or bring it up. Look nothing is official. Sonny and I have just been hypothetically talking about it. I told him I needed to talk with you first before I gave him a definite answer."

"So you're not involved with what's going on with Ava."

"Oh no. That I'm involved with. Ava is threatening my family I'm not going to sit back and watch her do it. I agree that right now she's just running her mouth, but like you said, she had no problem shooting Olivia or killing Connie. Look. Sonny and I are keeping tabs on her. Sonny has a couple people on his payroll working for Ava. She hasn't made any moves yet, but we'll know before she does, and when that happens, Sonny will have a chat with her."

"What do you mean have a chat?"

"Carly was able to blackmail Ava. She found a recording of Paul and Ava having sex, and apparently the DA does not want his sexual preferences to get out."

Sam looked at Jason questioningly.

"Do I want to know?"

"Lets just say Ava and Paul, uh like it rough."

Sam chuckled.

"What like whips and chains rough?"

Jason nodded his head.

"What? And they recorded themselves sleeping together?"

Sam couldn't stop laughing.

"Yup. Carly found the video on Ava's computer, downloaded it, and confronted Ava about it. When Ava didn't bite at Carly's threats, she sent the video to Paul. He doesn't want his image tarnished, so I'm pretty sure he told Ava to do whatever Carly and Sonny want."

"Why would Ava listen to him though? Does Paul have something on her?"

"I questioned Sonny about that too. We think he might but aren't positive on what he might have. I'm suspecting he has the recording where Ava admitted to killing Connie."

"Hmmmm. That would make sense. There's no proof that Ava killed Connie other than that recording, and if that recording comes out, Ava will go straight to Pentonville. So because of Paul also blackmailing her, Ava just agreed to do whatever Sonny and Carly want?"

"Well, she tried to fight Carly for it, but you know Carly. Anyway, she didn't really have a choice, so she changed the custody agreement, and that's how Sonny got full physical custody of Avery. If Ava steps out of line, she knows Sonny could take away custody altogether."

"Would he do it though?"

"If she doesn't stop threatening us? Of course he will. But he doesn't want to play those cards. He doesn't want to put Avery through what Michael went through, Morgan even, you remember all those times Carly and him were fighting, how messy it got for the kids. He doesn't want to use Avery like that. He will if there isn't another choice, but he doesn't want to."

"What other choices does he have?"

"That's what I've been helping Sonny look into. We can't go after Ava right now—"

"So you're going after Paul?"

"You my wife, are not only extremely beautiful, but also extremely intelligent."

Jason kissed Sam's forehead and walked towards the bathroom.

"Take one more step and I will take you down."

Jason stopped cold and smiled to himself, and then turned towards Sam, who was facing him. She still had her arms crossed and was still glaring at him.

"Sweet talking me isn't going to work Jason. You should have told me all of this sooner."

Jason scratched his head again.

"You're right. I should have, and I'm sorry that I didn't. I could tell you were hurting about what happened and I didn't want to worry you anymore. You've been through enough and I don't want you to hurt anymore. I just want you to be happy."

Sam sighed and walked towards Jason, putting her arms around his waist.

"Thank you. But we can't keep doing the same things over and over Jason. We need to be honest with each other whether it might hurt the other person or not. We have to talk about this stuff if we are going to be a team."

"Okay. I promise I will keep working on it."

"Me too. Now, look if you want to work with Sonny again then I'm not going to stop you. Just please keep it legit Jason, I don't know what I would do if I lost you again. Danny and I need you, so please stay away from the danger."

"I promise you that I will. I need you too Sam. I'm not going to give my family up for anything. I'm going to make sure I stay legitimate okay?"

"Okay. Now I want to help."

"Nope."

"What do you mean nope?"

"You have to go to Wyndmere to meet your mom, Nikolas, and Valentin."

"Crap your right. I forgot, maybe I should reschedule? I could just go there and get Danny and tell them I can't stay?"

"Sam, you have rescheduled twice already. Listen you haven't really left the house this past month and Alexis is worried about you. She texts me every hour for an update. You need to spend time with her and your uncle. Get to know him better. I'm going to meet with Sonny, but I promise I will tell you everything that happens, okay?"

"Fine, but I want a full report. Got it?"

"Yes mam. Now why don't we spend some quality time together in the shower?"

Sam leaned in to kiss her husband. Jason picked her up bridal style and carried her into the bathroom.


Sam got off the launch, and began walking towards Wyndemere. She smirked thinking back to her shower with Jason earlier. She hadn't been feeling like herself since the shooting, and wasn't exactly in the mood to be intimate with Jason. It was nice to feel connected to him again. Sam went to knock on the door, but instead it was swung open by Spencer and Danny.

"MOMMY!"

"Hey buddy! Did you have a fun sleep over with Spencer?"

"Yeah mommy it was awesome!"

Sam pulled her son into a hug and kissed his forehead.

"Daddy and I missed you so much last night, but we're happy you had fun."

Sam let go of Danny, and hugged Spencer.

"Spencer, thank you so much for being such an awesome older cousin to Danny."

"I love Danny Sam. He's like a little brother to me, except I don't have to share him with father."

Sam chuckled and grabbed her sons hand as he led her into the living room. Before Sam walked in she kissed Danny again as he went off to play with Spencer. Opening the door to the living room, Sam saw Nicholas, Alexis and Valentin sitting on the couches. Sam saw a spread of sandwiches laid out on the table.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, you guys didn't have to wait for me though."

"Its okay sweetie, I only just got here a few minutes ago."

Sam walked towards her mother to hug her. She noticed a change in Alexis. She seemed a lot calmer, and the bags beneath her eyes had decreased.

"Hi baby."

"Hi mom. You look great."

"So do you sweetie, come sit down."

Alexis pulled Sam over to the couch, where she greeted Nikolas and Valentin.

"Sam it's so nice to see you. How are you doing?"

"Better. It was a bit traumatic, but I'm feeling a lot better today."

"I'm so happy that you and Jason are okay, but I am sorry about your father though. I am also sorry for you Alexis, I can only imagine how hard of a time this is for the both of you."

"Thank you Valentin. I wish things could have turned out differently with Julian, but it didn't. He lost me as his daughter the minute he tried to kill my mother. I'm just sorry he didn't pay for his crimes."

"You killing him wasn't payment enough."

Sam glared at her cousin.

"Excuse me, but what do you mean by that Nikolas?"

"You know what I mean Sam. I know you killed him, even if that isn't the official story. I mean I'm not sorry or anything, especially because of what that bastard did to Alexis, but you'd rather him rot in jail than be dead?"

Sam stared at her cousin. She didn't know if her mother had told him the truth, or if he just guessed but she wasn't sure what to say. She still wasn't sure if she could trust Nikolas and even though the case against her father was closed, if evidence came to light that proved she killed him, she would be arrested. Sam didn't have to answer though, as she looked to her uncle as he began speaking.

"I agree with you Sam, that going to jail would be a far worse punishment than simply dying. Helena's death did not give my wife justice, but seeing Helena convicted for her crimes may have helped give me some peace."

"Thank you Valentin, thank you for understanding."

"You don't trust me do you?"

Sam looked back towards her cousin.

"I see you got the hint."

"C'mon Sam, I know we've had our differences but I would think you would know I wouldn't turn you into the police for Julian's murder."

"Why would I believe that when I was going to turn you in for attempted murder?"

"Attempted murder?"

"Yeah mom, Nikolas didn't tell you? Shawn didn't shoot Hayden in the head, Nikolas hired someone to shoot her. Never mind the fact that Jason and I were with her when the guy shot at her and could have been injured as well."

"Nikolas?! Why would you do that?"

"Look Alexis, I, I didn't have a choice I—"

"Ya know what. Maybe you three should talk about this. It looks like Nikolas has a lot of explaining to do, and I'm not really interested in hearing this again. Mom would you mind bringing Danny to the penthouse later, I don't want to interrupt his time with Spencer."

"Sam, please I wish you would stay."

"I'm sorry Valentin. We can do this another time, maybe when things are more out in the open."

Sam walked out of the room to find Danny to say goodbye. She agreed to a truce with Nikolas, but still wasn't sure how much she could trust him. Hopefully mom understood I want to talk to her later when she drops Danny off.


"Jason!"

Jason didn't even have the chance to open the door to Sonny's office before it was swung open by Carly.

"Hey, how did you know I was here?"

"I was watching the cameras."

Jason chuckled as Carly pulled him into a hug.

"Is Sonny here?"

"Yeah he just stepped out for a minute. I'm not staying, I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to see my best friend."

Jason chuckled again and leaned back on the edge of Sonny's desk.

"Carly, we just had lunch at the Metro Court yesterday."

"I know but that was yesterday."

Carly's phone started ringing from her purse.

"Ugh that's probably Olivia. Hmph. I better get going. I'll see you later, tell Sonny I said goodbye."

Carly gave Jason another hug and left Jason alone in Sonny's office. Jason looked around. He had been in this office a few times since he got back from Greece, but never alone. He had gotten all of his memories back, but it was strange for him sometimes. He had a lot of different memories in this office, and chuckled when he remembered the time Alexis caught him and Sam in here.

"What's so funny?"

Jason turned to see Sonny at the door looking at him.

"Nothing, I was just remembering something about Sam and I."

Sonny shook his head and smiled as he walked towards Jason to shake his hand. After greeting him Sonny walked behind his desk to sit down and motioned for Jason to sit as well.

"I'm not even going to ask what you were thinkin about. But speaking of Sam, did you get a chance to talk to her?"

"Yeah, it went better than I expected. We have the same concerns. She doesn't want me doing anything too dangerous, but understands that this business is apart of me. We just have to keep me on the legit side."

"Listen you're out of the mob side and I want to keep it that way. We'll just keep it to security of the coffee warehouses, the compound, Perks and the restaurant. No business meetings. You wont be involved at all."

"Do you think people will believe I'm really out though?"

"You're my best friend, my brother, you'll always be associated with me. But when they see you aren't accompanying me to business meetings, they'll know we aren't working together like we used too. And if anyone asks your just consulting on security. They'll believe it. But honestly Jason, just being back from the dead puts you at risk."

"I know. I had a lot of enemies, and me being alive makes me a target again. But at least if I'm working security, I can have a little bit more control over any threats against any of us."

"So we're back in business. Its good to have you back Jason."

Sonny reached across his desk to shake Jason's hand with a smile on his face.

"It's good to be back. So now that it's official. Lets talk about Ava. I ran it by Sam, and she agrees that Paul probably has the recording where Ava admitted to killing Connie. Now how do we get it from Paul? And how do you feel about using it as leverage over Ava?"

Sonny sighed and got up from his chair to pour himself a drink.

"It makes me sick to think that Ava could get away with killing Connie. But whether I like it or not Ava is Avery's mother. I don't want her to grow up with her mother in jail. I also feel like Ava not being punished for Connie is God's punishment against me for killing A.J. A.J didn't get justice for me murdering him and Connie wont get justice for Ava killing her."

"Sonny you can't honestly believe that?"

"I do. I feel like its fair in some sick way. We've never talked about what happened with A.J. before."

"I didn't feel like there was anything to talk about. Sam and Michael told me about him, told me he was trying to change and be different. But in the end A.J. was the same Sonny. He couldn't overcome his drinking, and threatened Connie the night she died. If he wasn't so drunk maybe he could have helped her. I don't know. I didn't know that A.J. I knew the A.J. who kidnapped Michael and tried to kill me. I don't know if I would have been able to forgive him for everything that happened."

"Because of me you don't have that chance though. I would understand if you couldn't forgive me for it."

"We're the same Sonny. We try to make decisions that we believe are the best and sometimes we aren't right. Look what happened with Michael when he killed Claudia. If we had called Diane, she would have told us to just call the police and we wouldn't have had to cover it up. I made the wrong decision and Michael suffered for. I know its not the same but a bad decision is a bad decision."

Sonny nodded at Jason. He understood Sonny's regret at his actions, as he regretted a lot of his own. The truth was he wasn't around when the situation happened and he didn't think he could, or should judge Sonny for it.

"Lets get back to business, so if we have to use the tape as leverage than we have to use the tape as leverage, but now how do we get the tape from Hornsby?"

"Sounds like you need a P.I. boys."

Jason turned to see Sam standing in the doorway of Sonny's office. Sam walked towards them and sat next to Jason.

"Beautiful as always, Sam."

"Thank you Sonny, its good to see you too."

"Not that I'm not happy to see you, but what are you doing here? What happened to lunch with the Cassadines?"

"Ah, you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the name Cassadine."

"Nikolas?"

"Of course. But it's fine. My mom is going to bring Danny home later, he was having a lot of fun with Spencer so I left him. I figured I would meet you here since you were talking with Sonny, and it seems like I walked in at the right time. Let me investigate Paul and dig up dirt on him. I'm sure I could find something we can use against him."

Sam watched as Sonny and Jason exchanged a look.

"Sam—"

"Sonny I don't even want to hear it. I'm doing this whether Jason likes it or not so just tell me what exactly I should be looking for and I'll get started."

Sonny chuckled at Sam.

"What I was going to say was that it would be an honor to have you working as a P.I for me."