Lucky spent the early morning looking out the window overlooking the parking lot. He was hoping to determine Jerry's latest vehicle. As he kept his eyes peeled Sam received a call from Spinelli. With the information given to him the Jackal was able to put a trace on Jerry's hotel line to listen on to any incoming calls.

"Has he heard anything yet?" Lucky asked several hours later. Unfortunately no movement had been made outside the building. Lucky had decided to keep a notebook. He wrote down all the license plates in the parking lot and crossed them off as the owners were identified. There were still a half dozen that were unidentified, Sam was online trying to run a trace on any of the remaining cars.

"Nothing." The waiting was the hardest part of her job. She liked going under cover and thrived in action, but was bored just sitting. "Should we switch?"

"What do you believe his weakness is?" Lucky asked as he sat by the laptop. "Is there anything he actually cares about?"

"His brother. At least on some level." Sam responded.

Lucky tried to piece together everything he knew about Jerry's recent actions. "That doesn't make any sense."

"What about Jerry Jax has ever made sense?"

"Why would Jerry risk his brother's marriage to tell Carly the truth?" Lucky asked.

He decided to play the copy of the DVD that Spinelli had made for them. He hoped that it might spark something useful. All he heard was a half-hazard apology and excuses as to why he shouldn't be held responsible for the night that shattered his sister-in-law's life.

"Sam, why?" He asked catching something.

"Why what?"

"Why didn't Jerry take the shot? Why would he bring an inexperienced greedy doctor into the job? He has no loyalty to Sonny Corinthos, and he obviously didn't mind him dead."

"And it's not like Jasper Jax cares if Sonny dies." Sam added knowing the animosity between the two.

"Except the role that Sonny plays as the father to his step children." Lucky commented.

Sam stared out the window with the binoculars. She crossed off two more plates. "It's Carly."

"What?"

"Jerry's soft spot is Carly. He didn't want to be the shooter because he knew it would devastate her, and he couldn't be the cause. When it went wrong and Michael was shot he felt guilty and so he decided to play around with Claudia. He came back in April, but when he found out Carly was pregnant he disappeared again."

"And as the baby's due date drew near, and he knew Michael was okay he decided to come back and try to make amends with her." Lucky finished.

"All this time I thought he had a thing for my mother." Sam replied.

"How do we use it?" As Lucky asked the question Sam's phone rang.

"Spinelli, what do you have?" Sam answered.

"The Dastardly Doctor in Disguise has agreed to meet with one Gabriel Saviero at the eleventh hour in a downtown club called the Paradiso." Spinelli relayed the message.

"Great, look up the Paradiso. I need to know who it is run by."

"Already one step ahead of the Goddess."

"Spinelli!" She had on multiple occasions asked him to refrain from calling her that.

"Sorry, fair Samantha. As I was saying the proprietorship of the establishment is a local by the name Miguel Rodriguez. The Jackal has hacked into the MPD database and no illegal activity has been reported."

"Did you run the name past Bernie?"

"The Senior Sir has no recollection of any dealings."

"Thank you, Spinelli." She said before hanging up.

"We're on?" Lucky perked up.

"We're on!"

***********

Lucas was either pacified or knew enough not to push. He went with Carly into the dinning room to join the others gathered around the table. Morgan led the prayer, and then conversation erupted.

"What did you two end up doing?" Lucas asked Lulu and Matt.

People listened as Lulu told about the cruise, and then the dinner in Manhattan, followed by the helicopter ride back. After the good night kiss at her doorstep, Lulu and Maxie stayed up another three hours discussing every detail, including the part where Matt asked her officially to be his girlfriend. She didn't feel like going into that much detail, especially with her ex sitting a couple seats down from her.

"Way to set the bar high." Johnny said impressed.

"Yeah, what do you have planned next?" Olivia commented. "A trip to Disney world?"

"I was going to leave the next date up to Lulu, but she wants to take me to some stupid vampire movie." Matt replied.

"I asked if you would be interested." Lulu countered.

Michael giggled. "I saw that. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought. Some of the werewolf fighting sequences were pretty good."

"See." Both Lulu and Carly said to their respective significant others.

"I have no problem with you and Lulu going." Jax told his wife.

"Fine, we will? Olivia, are you in?" Carly asked.

Olivia looked over to Johnny who quickly nodded no. She wasn't in on the craze, but thought the girl's night out could be fun. "Sure, why not?"

"Girl's night it is, Alexis, Kristina, Molly, Monica, mom?"

"I've already seen it, but yes, I'll go again." Kristina responded. Both Monica and Bobbie opted out. Molly looked over to her mom for approval. Alexis had already bought the books for her daughter to read, she couldn't say no to her watching the movie.

"Edward, thank you again for letting us borrow Cooke." Jax said changing the subject. Cooke had left after dinner had been served.

"Oh no, thank you for inviting us into your home. Too bad Tracy and that ingrate of a husband couldn't be here."

"Luke was busy with the Haunted Star tonight." Bobbie defended her brother.

"You mean that money pit is open again?" Edward asked.

"Edward enough." Monica cautioned. The Spencer family gathering wasn't the place to be complaining about his son-in-law.

"Speaking of missing Spencer's, where is you brother?" Jax asked Lulu. Carly had forgotten to mention that he wasn't going to be there.

"He mentioned something about a last minute out-of-town training convention. Lucky wasn't specific about how long he would be gone." Considering her dad's notoriety for vanishing for weeks to months at a time Lulu learned not to press for details.

Alexis kept her mouth shut. She knew that she needed to tell Jax about the charges that had been brought against Jerry, but he had been through a lot in a short amount of time and she wasn't sure how to do it. She hoped to take suspicion off of Lucky's disappearance by changing the subject. "Is anyone here ready for Christmas?"

Everyone sat silent looking around the room.

"I'm ready." Morgan was the only one to say anything. He was good about saving money and tended to get presents throughout the year.

"I'm almost." Molly added. She was still looking to find something to send to her father.

"Oh, speaking of Christmas. Michael, I have an early gift for you."

"Really? What?"

Edward passed Michael a box, inside was what looked to be a house key.

"I don't get it." Michael replied.

"That is the key to the Quartermaine ski lodge. I thought it might be a fun senior trip if you and your friends wanted to stay there for the New Year." Carly had actually been thinking about asking the Quartermaine's about it prior to needing the excuse as a cover.

Michael's eyes widened in excitement. "You're kidding?" He remembered how paranoid he thought Carly had been acting when he woke up. All he wanted was to be trusted.

Carly shook her head no.

"You're the best!"

"You just remember that the next time you get yelled at for keeping your car out too late." Carly responded. She liked the fact that Monica had run his indiscretions past her.

Dinner finished up. Bobbie and Jax cleared the plates from the table and Carly went back to the corner of the couch. Jason joined her, and set his hand on her shoulders and lightly pressed in a gentle message.

"Thank you." She responded feeling like she'd been doing a lot of that lately.

He wanted to avoid the redundant 'are you okay.' He kept quiet during dinner watching as she enthralled herself in her company, while barely picking at her meal. When the focus was away from her she shut her eyes allowing for momentary lapses in the throbbing.

"Carly?" He started.

"Yeah?"

"You would say something if it was too much?"

"I'm hitting a wall." She confessed. Jason eyed Monica, who was also trying to pay attention to the signs Carly was giving out.

"Edward, I think it's time we should go." Monica urged hoping others would follow the lead. She added that she had an early shift the next morning.

The Davis girl's were going back to school early the next morning so Alexis urged them to get going. They said goodbye to Michael and Morgan before leaving. Carly confirmed the weekend after she got back as the date for the girl's night. Olivia promised to take care of the hotel before her and Johnny took off. Carly wasn't really worried, she had already been doing a great job, she was more afraid she wasn't going to be needed when she did get back.

Lucas examined the clock and realized he had to get going to make it back to NYU at a decent time.

"Make sure you're taking care of yourself." Lucas demanded as he gave his sister a hug.

"Don't be a stranger. Call me anytime." She told him.

"I may just do that." He said goodbye to his mom and nephews before leaving.

Lulu left with Matt. They were going to go back to Matt's place to watch a movie that didn't contain glittering vampires.

"I'm going to check on Britni." Carly excused herself from the room. Michael followed her to the nursery.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Michael asked noticing her lack of energy.

Carly was sitting on the glider with her daughter. "Would you be willing to stay the night and keep Morgan busy?"

"I think I can manage that. Thank you again for the present. I was wondering if I could invite anybody."

"Are you referring to Alyssa?" Carly asked.

He nodded.

"Michael, your grandmother was young when I was born. She didn't have the ability and resources to take care of me…"

"Mom, I know." He cut her birds and bee's talk.

"Okay, then I don't care who you invite, but you have to leave it in the same condition as when you arrived, and no drinking…"

"I know." He repeated.

Carly wanted to be able to loosen the reigns a bit. Michael was almost old enough to be out on his own and she hoped that she did a good enough job where he wouldn't repeat her past mistakes or make all new ones that were worse. "I know you do, and I wouldn't have offered if I didn't trust you."

Something had been bugging him all day. As he was in the room alone with her he finally felt comfortable enough to confess his fear. "Mom, it was fun having people over today, but I can't help feeling like it's your way of saying goodbye, just in case."

"I'm not ready to say goodbye to anybody." Carly insisted.