A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. I was unexpectedly out of town this weekend …

You may hate me by a little ways into this chapter … I am the Princess of All That Is Evil! Hehe. If you do, just keep saying the mantra: "Lin has a plan … lin has a plan … lin has a plan" … because I really do!!

And BTW: They finally meet … in chapter 10! Heehee!

Feedback! Feedback! I need feedback! Hehe!

Chapter 9

Port Charles

A few days later, Brenda looked up from her magazine as Sonny stormed into the penthouse.

"Where's Jason?" he demanded.

Brenda bristled at his abrupt tone. "Hi, honey, nice to see you, too," she said sarcastically. "My day was fine -- thanks so much for asking! How was yours?"

"Brenda, where the hell is Jason?"

"How should I know? I'm not his keeper."

"Don't give me that. You know where he is, and I need to see him now, so just tell me."

"Jason had some personal business to take care of. He's out of town."

"Without tellin' me? What kind of business?"

"I told you, it's personal. If he wants you to know, he'll tell you himself. What's your problem, anyway?" At his look, she added, "And don't tell me it's business because things have been quiet lately."

He was prevented from responding by a knock on the door. Without waiting for a response, Max opened the door and announced, "Miss Matthews is here, Mr. C." Courtney rushed over to Sonny before he finished speaking, so Max shrugged at Brenda and withdrew, closing the door behind him. Brenda mentally rolled her eyes.

"Sonny," Courtney said pleadingly, "Just give me a chance to talk to him myself before you start giving him a hard time. I'm sure he'll do the right thing. He loves me, and he'll love our baby."

Brenda could only stare at Courtney, her eyes wide with shock. What the hell?! Jason tells her flat out that he's never going to love her or want a future with her, and she suddenly turns up pregnant?! Brenda's eyes narrowed suspiciously as she considered the timing, listening with half an ear to Sonny as she considered what to do. He told Courtney, "You didn't have to follow me back here. I told you I was gonna take care of it, and I will. You and Jason will be married before you know it."

Brenda gasped. "Excuse me?! What the hell gives you the right to make promises for Jason?" She turned to Courtney. "And the timing of this seems awfully convenient. Are you sure you're even pregnant?"

"Cut it out, Brenda," Sonny said sharply. "Courtney doesn't need this right now."

Brenda rolled her eyes again as Courtney turned red and said defensively, "I wouldn't lie about something like this. Of course I'm pregnant. And Jason will be thrilled once he realizes how good we are together."

Brenda shook her head. "You are delusional, Courtney. Jason doesn't love you - he's told you that in every way it can be said, and you still don't get it." She narrowed her eyes at Courtney. "Is this supposed baby even his? 'Cause I don't remember you guys seeing much of each other in the last couple of months."

"Brenda -" Sonny started, but she cut him off.

"Well, didn't it occur to you that she might be trying to trap him?"

Courtney interjected, "I know you don't like me, Brenda, but really, I wouldn't lie about this."

Brenda laughed and said mockingly, "After that stunt you pulled on the plane, I think you'd do whatever it took to trap Jason. It won't work, you know. He'll just resent the hell out of you for trying to make him marry you, and he won't do it anyway. Jason doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do." If Brenda was sure of anything, it was that.

Courtney looked furious, and opened her mouth to yell at Brenda, but before she could get a word out, it was Sonny who said menacingly, "He'll marry her if he knows what's good for him."

Brenda glared at him. "He's your best friend, who has been loyal to you for years, and you're willing to make him hate you over this? Remember what happened when the Quartermaines tried to make him do what they wanted? Not only did he not do it, but he dropped every last person involved from his life. And they're related by blood." She swung her narrowed gaze from Sonny to Courtney, who suddenly looked pale and nervous. "And you can bet he's gonna get a paternity test, so if there's any chance you aren't being 100 percent truthful, or aren't 100 percent sure, you might want to rethink things now, before you go any further." She turned back to Sonny. "You're both fools if you think there's any possible way you can win this fight."

She walked to the stairs, saying coldly. "I'm taking my daughter to the park. I suggest you think very carefully before you create problems you can't fix."

West Palm Beach

Late that afternoon, Jerry Jax frowned at his investigator. What's this peon's name again? Joe? John? he wondered absently, then dismissed the question as unimportant and returned to the issue at hand. "What do you mean, someone else is looking into her background? Who? And why?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Jax, all we know is that someone is looking, but we haven't been able to trace the inquiry to its source. Until we do, there's no way to determine why." The man smiled nervously.

Jerry's frown deepened. "Why haven't you traced the source?"

"Whoever is investigating Ms. McCall is very discreet and very good at covering their tracks. We would never have known at all if we hadn't tagged every bit of electronic information we found on her with code that automatically notifies us of any hint of activity. And whoever is doing it is making it look like it's a random nerd just hacking because he can."

"But you think it's more than that. Why?"

The investigator smiled proudly. "They're digging as deep as we did. They cracked the false resume in the first two hours, and they've already got four of her aliases as well as the salvage history. They're really good."

Jerry raised an eyebrow. "You need to be better. Otherwise, I'll be forced to find someone else who is."

Shifting nervously, the investigator hurried to reassure his very lucrative client. "No need for that, Mr. Jax. We're working on it, and eventually we'll get there, but it's gonna take some time."

Jerry said nothing for a moment. Then he nodded once and got to his feet, straightening his trousers and tugging his cuffs back into their proper place. He walked to the door; with a hand on the knob he turned back to pin the investigator with a laser glance. "Don't take too long. I'm not known for my patience." The investigator sighed with relief when the door closed behind him.

Los Angeles

Jason's cell phone rang as he and Spinelli stepped off the plane. He glanced at the caller ID, sighing when he saw who it was. This was the fifth time Brenda had called him today. He had also had two tearful messages from Courtney and six increasingly agitated voicemails from Sonny. What is with these people that they can't leave me alone for five minutes?

Realizing Brenda wouldn't give up until she reached him, he told Spinelli to take care of the car rental, then flipped the phone open and barked, "What do you want, Brenda?"

There was a pause, then she snapped back, "Nice phone manners, Morgan. I'm trying to do you a favor and you're gonna take that attitude? Forget it. Deal with it yourself." She hung up.

Sighing, he called her back. She let it ring so long that he thought she wouldn't answer at all, but just before it switched over to voicemail, she came back on the line and snapped, "What?"

"Look, I'm sorry I was rude. It's just - I've got a lot going on, and between you, Sonny, and Courtney, I've gotten thirteen messages in the last three hours. What's so important that it can't wait until I get back?" She didn't respond right away, and he could almost hear her trying to decide what to say. "Just spit it out, Brenda."

She took a deep breath. "Courtney told Sonny she's pregnant. She's claiming the baby is yours. He's royally pissed and I haven't been able to calm him down."

"That's impossible," Jason said flatly. "There's no way she's pregnant - at least, not with my kid."

"Are you sure? 'Cause she's really insistent about it." He could hear Brenda's distaste for the other woman in her voice.

"Brenda, I haven't touched her in almost two months, and we always used condoms, even though she said she was on the pill. There's no way." God, he hoped not. All he needed now was to be tied to that obtuse idiot for the rest of his life.

"Well, nothing's a hundred percent, and even if it's not true, Sonny believes her."

"Shit." Jason rubbed his forehead. He was getting a headache just thinking about dealing with Sonny in one of his moods. "Like I need this on top of everything else."

Brenda responded by changing the topic. "You sound stressed. Is the trip going okay? Where are you anyway?"

"Yeah, it's fine. We're in LA." He saw Spinelli coming out of the car rental agency and walked over to meet him.

"Oh. Did you get what you needed in Florida and Indiana?"

"There was a change of plans. After Florida, we came straight to LA. We'll hit Indiana on the way home." He followed Spinelli into the lot. When they found the right SUV, he stowed his bag in the back and climbed into the passenger seat, motioning for Spinelli to drive.

"Why? What happened in Florida?" Brenda's tone grew more alert, and Jason could almost see her sit up straighter. His lip quirked up slightly at the concern in her voice.

"Nothing we can't deal with. Don't worry. I just - well, the information I got there made the trip to LA the highest priority right now." Spinelli had finished adjusting the seat and mirrors to his satisfaction. He turned on the GPS and looked at Jason inquiringly. Jason realized he was waiting to be told where he was supposed to go.

"Why? What happened?"

He sighed. "Look, I don't want to get into it on the phone." He cut off her protest. "I'll tell you everything when I get home. Now I have to go before Spinelli gets us lost." He shook his head once at Spinelli, glaring at the hacker to silence his sputtered objection.

"Fine," Brenda said, but he could tell that, as usual, she wasn't happy about having to wait. Still, she promised to keep trying to calm Sonny down, and said she would try to find out if Courtney was really pregnant. He started to ask how she planned to do that, but quickly decided he really didn't want to know. He told her he'd call her later and disconnected.

"Where does Stone Cold wish to begin in the City of Angels?"

"Let's find a place to stay, somewhere near the target. We'll get set up first, and then take it from there." Spinelli nodded, mercifully silent for once, and headed out of the lot.

XXXXXXXX

It turned out to be relatively simple to get into the sperm bank. After two days of watching the place, it had become clear that whoever was in charge was unconcerned with the possibility of a break-in: there was never a guard anywhere in the building; there were no security cameras on the premises; and neither the locks nor the alarm system were any harder to crack than the cybersecurity Spinelli had called "primitive" weeks ago.

They went in at 3 am, because even the busiest parts of LA were somewhat quieter at that hour.

By three-ten, they were inside the offices and, armed with the information Spinelli had found in his initial foray into the computer records, they had located the fourteen unsold vials of Jason Quartermaine's sperm. Jason put these into the bag he had brought along for this purpose, while Spinelli used the computer to alter records. When he was done, the inventory, shipping, and accounts receivable records all showed that the sperm had been sold and shipped five weeks previously to General Hospital in Port Charles, New York. Jason told him not to bother changing GH's records to show receipt of the package, as there was little chance that anyone would dig deep enough for it to matter.

By three-thirty, they were safely back in their rooms at the motel.

By four am, Spinelli was sound asleep; the vials had been emptied, washed thoroughly (just to be sure), and tossed in the dumpster behind the motel; and Jason had returned to his room to nurse a beer while he planned their next move.

By eight am, Jason had woken a very disgruntled Spinelli and told him to arrange the next leg of their journey on the earliest available flight.

By eleven, they had returned the rented SUV and boarded a plane bound for Seattle.

And by 4 pm, they had checked into a discreet little motel near the Seattle fertility clinic, and had begun researching the best and safest ways to get into the office.