It seemed like hours since Elizabeth had left Kelly's, but in reality it had been only ten minutes. And in that time, Alexis and Jax had arrived at penthouse 3 to keep Elizabeth company. But the only thing Elizabeth had in mind was pacing. From one side of the bullet-proof picture window to the other, waiting for a glimpse of Sonny's sleek, black limo as it slid into the parking garage.

Alexis, knowing how Elizabeth could get, brought her attaché case with so she could review a few contracts for the Corinthos-Morgan Coffee Warehouse as well as scan her briefs to make sure everything was in order for Monday morning. She looked up when Jax walked in from the kitchen with a tray of chamomile tea. Alexis fixed one cup for herself, then another for Elizabeth.

The hand on Elizabeth's shoulder ceased her pacing, but her eyes remained on the tableau below her. Couples taking leisurely walks through the park. A near accident at the entrance of the parking garage. A young couple walking, their child linking them together. Tears welled up, a lump formed in her throat. She pictured herself and Jason with Abby singing between them, her musical laugh lighting up her bright blue eyes. Elizabeth turned to face Alexis, her eyes shining, her tears subsiding. Her hands took the cup of tea that was offered to her, but she made no move to drink it.

"I can't possibly know what you're going through, but you should drink this anyway. Jax made it, so it's not toxic." The attorney's dimples flashed, which caused Elizabeth to offer up a small grin of her own.

Taking an obligatory sip of the tea, her eyes focused on the young couple as they disappeared under the canopy of trees. "Three years, Alexis. Three years she's been gone and I've had to get used to living without her. For three years she's lived with people who've lied to her. Who knows what they told her? I wonder, did she ever ask for me, cry out at night for me? Wish I was there to kiss her pain away?"

Absently, she placed the cup of tea on the art deco table, a housewarming gift from Sonny back when she moved into the house in Buffalo. Her arms wrapped around her chest and she shivered, her mind racing with all the lies Stryker could've told her daughter.

"She has no idea who I am. No memories, no feelings. Will she be frightened of me? Wary? She certainly won't trust me. Nor love me. What if- oh God, Alexis. What if she cries out for him? What do I tell her? What can I possibly say to her to help her understand? She loved him. His was the only family she ever knew. I can't tell her the truth, she's too young. All she'll know is, we took her from him, from her father."

The tears were falling now, from Elizabeth's eyes as well as Alexis' and Jax's. The young woman turned from the window, her eyes volleying back and forth between the couple. They couldn't give her the answers she so desperately sought, nor take away the pain of three years of emptiness, but they knew they would gladly die a thousand deaths, if only to ease the heartache of seeing her so broken.

A tiny cry from the infant monitor alerted them all to a hungry Isabelle. Wiping away the last of his tears, Jax wordlessly crossed the penthouse to wrap his arms around Elizabeth. Her own arms wrapped around his waist, clenching as tight as she could to let him know how much his presence in her life meant to her. After placing a gentle kiss on her forehead, he left to tend to the waking infant, and to give the two women their own time.

"Every time I imagine Abby coming home, I imagine myself running to her, arms wide open, and scooping her up and never letting go. She blindly accepts that I am who she should be with, that Jason and I are where she belongs." Elizabeth shook her head in disgust. "I can't imagine what she must be thinking right now. I mean, four strange men just come in and take her away? I'd be kicking and screaming all the way, wanting to go back to everything that's familiar to me, all the people who've taken care of me. Loved me."

"She'll know you love her, Elizabeth. There's no way she won't know that you love her. Jason, too." Alexis guided her friend towards the sofa, grabbing a box of Kleenex on the way. "You two are so full of love, for each other as well as Abby. There's no way she won't feel it."

"You're right," Elizabeth agreed. "I'm just… I'm scared. These happy endings are new territory for me, Alexis. I guess if I just imagine the worst things that could happen, whatever does happen will seem better."

Just below the sound of Elizabeth's sniffling came the damped ding of the elevator outside the door. If Elizabeth heard it, she gave no indication. Excusing herself, Alexis retreated to Isabelle's room to retrieve her husband and her goddaughter.

When she returned to the living room, she handed a freshly changed, and raring to go Isabelle to her mother. "I need to discuss something with Jax out in the hall for a minute," she lied. "We'll be right back." Leaning over, she kissed Elizabeth on the temple and Isabelle on the forehead.

"Thank you for being here," Elizabeth offered. "You friendship is sometimes more than I deserve." Without waiting for a reply, Elizabeth headed for the kitchen to get Isabelle a cup of juice. She didn't even notice Alexis gather up her papers and slip quietly out.


~*~



The elevator ride to the top of Harborview Towers was probably the longest of his life. Jason cradled his sleeping daughter in his arms as Sonny stood beside him. Johnny and Francis stood in front of them, as if they were fully expecting trouble. When the elevator finally stopped, the two bodyguards exited quickly.

Jason turned to Sonny and said, "I never said thank you for helping me."

Sonny waved off his friend's speech. "You don't have to, Jason. You'd do the same for me in a heartbeat."

"I would. I still need to say thank you."

The older man's gaze shifted to the now awake child in his partner's arms. "She's up," he said softly. He studied Abby's face as her eyes opened. "She does have your eyes."

"That's what everyone keeps saying." Jason stepped out of the elevator first and Sonny followed. He tipped his head towards Penthouse 3. "You wanna come in?"

"You need to be with Elizabeth, Jason. Be with your family."

"You're part of that family too," Jason told him again.

"I know I am. But right now," he said in a soft voice, "you need your wife and your wife needs you. I'll make some dinner and bring it over…just go to her, Jason."

Jason pivoted to enter the penthouse, and nearly ran into Alexis and Jax walking out. The pair just smiled, understanding that now was not the time nor the place for a re-introduction. Jason watched them, waiting for the elevator doors to close. He could see the mob boss standing where he left him and Jason was sure tears were shining in Sonny's eyes. "Thank you Sonny," he whispered.

The door to the penthouse remained open, and Jason waited a moment, watched Abby as she watched Elizabeth playing with Isabelle on the floor. A pile of blocks surrounded their feet, and the blonde child was giggling incessantly. Jason could tell Elizabeth had been crying not long ago and was grateful that Alexis was there to help comfort his wife.

He looked down when Abby started wriggling in his arms, silently working her way out of his grasp. He carefully closed the door behind them before squatting down, to let her go. He remained crouched when she took two tentative steps towards an oblivious Elizabeth. The curious child pushed back a stubborn lock of her chestnut hair to tuck it behind her ear, and Jason imagined that, much like Elizabeth would do, Abby was chewing on her lower lip, debating whether or not to join the fun.

The blonde child shrieked when her tower of blocks collapsed and she looked up at her mother, her smile a mile wide. Out of the corner of her eye, Isabelle noticed the shadow, and her sparkling eyes focused on Jason first. "Daddy!" she cried before catapulting herself up from the floor and running straight into Jason's waiting embrace.

He hugged her tightly, but his attention remained on Elizabeth. He'd heard her gasp, saw her body tense. She didn't make any indication of turning around, and Jason was about to go to her when he noticed Abby carefully making her way to where Elizabeth was sitting. The toddler stopped just short of touching her mother, and that's when Elizabeth slowly turned around.

Her gasp startled Abby, and the child's eyes widened in a mixture of fear and fascination. And Jason had been right. Her tiny teeth were nibbling on her lower lip in the very same way Elizabeth's did. Abby took stock of Elizabeth, from the color of her hair, to the bare toes that peeked out from the cuffs of her jeans. When her eyes settled back on her mother's face, she frowned, and closed the distance. Her slim finger traced the salt trail left by the fresh tears Elizabeth had shed, from right under her eye, to the point where the drops skydived from her chin to the carpet below.

Elizabeth refused to move, for fear that her daughter would skitter away like a shy fawn. The feeling of her touch, though, was the water that quenched a dying man's thirst. Her eyes slipped shut and two more tears escaped, blessing the child's fingers as it brushed the rogue tears away.

"Don't cry," she whispered, which only caused Elizabeth to cry more. To see her daughter and feel her daughter were one thing. To have this child whom she'd known all her life, yet didn't know at all, comfort her was beyond the scope of understanding.

Feeling tears come to her own eyes, Abby could no more understand what she was feeling than accept it. Yet she felt a compelling need to feel this woman's arms around her, to bury her face in the woman's neck and drink in her scent.

"Can I- can I hug you?" she whispered. Her lower lip, now released from her torturous teeth, trembled. Her arms twitched, not knowing whether to cross over her chest in protection, or wrap around Elizabeth's slender neck, which seemed so instinctual to her.

Elizabeth's eyelids flew open, her arms opening slowly, then folding themselves around the child's tiny body. The emotions came rolling out; relief, sadness, grief, hate, loneliness, despair, joy, heartache. The dam had been broken the second Abby's cool arms wrapped around Elizabeth's neck. Her attention switched from Abby to Jason, and she mouthed a 'thank you' to him before burying her face in the silken hair of her daughter.

Abby remembered back to the times when she woke up in the middle of the night, the remains of a nightmare slowly fading behind her eyes. Her father and Papa always came rushing into the room to calm her, hugging her and smoothing her hair, whispering words of comfort into her tiny shell ears. The words and caresses served their purpose, but Abby always felt empty once they left her room. She knew, even then, that something wasn't right.

Yet here, in the arms of a woman she'd never met, she felt safe and loved and protected. Their bodies rocked back and forth, and Abby felt warmth grow inside of her, filling her with a sense of peace. This woman, with her skin smelling of lavender, did nothing, said nothing, but rock. Her body shook with three years of pain being released, but Abby knew, somehow, that this was where she was meant to be.

"Who's 'at?" a curious and non-emotional Isabelle asked her silently weeping father.

"That's your sis-" Jason had to choke back a fresh wave of tears before looking straight into Isabelle's eyes. "That's your sister."

"Sissy?" she repeated, looking back at her mother holding a strange child.

Jason nodded. "Her name's Abby."

"I go say hi," Isabelle decided. And before Jason could refuse, Isabelle marched over to the pair and tapped Abby on the shoulder. Reluctantly, Abby extricated herself from Elizabeth's embrace and faced the pint-sized blonde. "You Sissy, me Isa."

Both Elizabeth and Jason chuckled at their daughters, and Abby's gaze shifted between the three, and then back to Isabelle. She was about to say something when Isabelle threw her arms around Abby's waist and squeezed tightly. She grunted softly before letting her sister free, and offered Abby a smile.

Now that she felt a little better, Abby took a moment to look around the penthouse. She noticed the pictures on the mantel and walked over to them. When Jason realized what she was after, he stood up and followed her, picking her up when she reached the fireplace. She studied each one thoroughly, especially one of Jason and herself.

Elizabeth had taken it not quite a month after she was born. It had been an especially long night for her with Jason gone, and Abby absolutely refusing to go to sleep. Finally, at three in the morning, Jason crept in. An exhausted Elizabeth nearly collapsed in his arms, and he noticed Abby gurgling away in her swing. After he collected Elizabeth and brought her upstairs to get some much needed sleep, he returned to the first floor and retrieved Abby from her swing.

Her eyes shined with a mixture of glee and exhaustion and she let out a sigh, as if to say, "Finally, Daddy's home. Everything's ok." After a warm bottle of breast milk, Abby's eyes could no longer stay open, and Jason found his eyes playing the same game. Instead of taking his daughter up to her crib to sleep, he stretched out on the sofa, leather jacket, motorcycles boots, and all, and fell asleep, with Abby curled up under his chin.

Creeping down the stairs, Elizabeth felt this urge inside her to capture this moment, as if it would never happen again. The picture, though, had been forgotten about during the abduction of Abby and the aftermath. It wasn't until Isabelle was born and Elizabeth began taking pictures of her that the picture was recovered. Elizabeth's pain resurfaced that night, pain for her lost child, her estranged husband, her hopes and dreams.

Jason took the picture from the mantle so Abby could get a closer look. The child's fingers traced the tiny fist in the picture, continued up Jason's chin to his nose, then his closed eyes, finally fluttering over his hair.

"That's you." It wasn't a question, but a statement.

Jason nodded, "And that baby is you, when you were barely a month old."

Elizabeth spoke next, a rapt Isabelle in her arms. She stood next to Jason and Abby and told the story of how the photograph came to be, and how much it meant to her. As she explained, the family crossed over to the couch and sat down. Abby unconsciously wiggled her way over to her mother's lap where she rested her again against Elizabeth's chest and closed her eyes, focusing more on the sound of her voice and the beat of her heart than on what she was saying.

When Elizabeth was through, Abby took a second to collect her thoughts. Elizabeth's fingers were combing through her hair, lulling her into a moment of quiet reflection. "Mommy?" she questioned, making sure she understood the way that things were going to be.

"Yes honey, this is your mommy."

Abby turned at the sound of Jason's voice, and her tiny hand cupped his angled cheek. "Daddy?" Her eyes were wide, uncertainty darkening the clear blue orbs.

Jason merely nodded, he didn't trust his voice enough to answer her.

Isabelle, impatient for her turn, tugged on Abby's dress. "Sissy!" she cried, making sure Abby wouldn't forget that.

Abby frowned, looked around the penthouse as she tried to think of a word for it. She turned back to Elizabeth when she couldn't, hoping that her mother could help her.

Jason knew exactly the word she was looking for.

Home.