Chapter Four

Ric reached up to touch Elizabeth's face.

"Honey, calm down, everything's okay! The baby is fine!"

"The baby?" Her voice rose to a hysterical pitch, "the baby? Are you kidding me?" Ric's heart thudded with concern, and he surreptitiously pressed the call button to summon a nurse. Her eyes suddenly focused on his face, and her brows drew together ominously. "And what are you doing here? I told you I never wanted to see you again!" Ric flinched and let go of her hand.

"Elizabeth, what's the last thing you remember?"

"Yesterday. I came to your room and told you it was over! What? Did you think I would just, I don't know, forgive you?" Her bottom lip quivered. "I went to sleep and now I'm pregnant. I'm pregnant and you're holding my hand and…" She started to hyperventilate just a nurse came through the door.

"Mrs. Lansing! Calm down and try to breathe normally!" To Ric she said, "Your wife needs to remain calm! How long has she been like this?"

"Since she woke up! And she doesn't remember things!" The nurse turned her attention back to Liz.

"Mrs. Lansing, I understand you are very upset right now, but you need to calm down. I will have a doctor come in and explain everything that you are going through, just calm down." Elizabeth managed to get control of herself and started to take slow, steady breaths. She figured if she concentrated hard enough on her breathing, everything else would fix itself somehow. It was just too bizarre, she would wake up any second, she just knew it. "That's much better!" The nurse added, "I am going to go page Tony Jones, and I will be right back. Just relax and we'll figure all this out. Mr. Lansing, would you mind coming with me for a moment?"

"Uh… Sure…" He followed the nurse out of the room, looking back at Elizabeth with great unhappiness. For her part, she was breathing with intense concentration, all the while looking at her belly with a look of morbid fascination on her face. As soon as the door closed behind them Ric gently grabbed the nurses arm.

"Nurse, what is wrong with my wife? Why does she think it's almost a year ago?" She looked at him with sympathy.

"Mr. Lansing, I am not qualified to give you any kind of diagnosis. You will have to wait until Dr. Jones has had a chance to look at the patient." Ric sighed.

"Of course. I understand. Can you get him here ASAP?"

"Of course." The nurse left, and Ric sank into a conveniently located chair. How could this be happening? It was his worst nightmare really. Elizabeth thought it was last summer, when she hated him. When he had thought he would never be able to get her back. And now she had maybe killed Zander, and confessed to a number of people. God knows what she had told whoever found her in the car. And what if in his need to clear his name, Nikolas told the police what she had said? Ric didn't think she could handle finding out that she had killed one of her closest friends, so far as she would remember, who was also the father of the child she couldn't remember conceiving. Ric's head dropped into his hands as he considered the nightmare would he, and his wife, had been plunged into.

Meanwhile, inside the hospital room, Elizabeth was doing her best to remain sane. It was obvious that she had forgotten any number of things, and, she though wryly, looking at her stomach, one big thing in particular. And while logically she realized she must have forgiven Ric, she couldn't even begin to think how, because all she could think about was how he had kept Carly in that room, and lied to her for all those months and months. She was so confused and devastated and overwrought that she could hardly believe it. It was a happy distraction when she heard Tony's voice in the hall, talking to Ric. A moment later, Tony walked in, alone.

"So, Elizabeth," he said with some attempt at cheer, "I understand we're not in Kansas anymore?"

***

Jason managed to hold out for several hours before he finally broke down and went back to the hospital. He had actually blown off demands from both Sonny and Carly that he come and discuss his role in the custody hearing further. He wished they could just start behaving like adults and put their kids first, but he doubted that it would happen, and he had more important thing to do right then anyway, like checking up on an injured friend.

As he crept down the hall to her room, he wondered for the millionth time why she would have confessed to killing Zander. Was she trying to protect someone? Or had she actually done it? And if so, why? But when he reached her door, and looked in the window, he found that all he was thinking about was that he so hoped she was okay. After everything she had been through, it didn't seem fair that she would be hurt again. Taking a deep breath, he knocked, walking in at her invitation.

A rush of words cut off his inquiry "How are you do-"

"Jason! I swear I didn't know about Carly! I never, never would have done anything like that to her! I'm so sorry, can you ever forgive me for being so blind about Ric?" Jason was rarely shocked, but the stream of words knocked him completely off balance. "I know, I mean, I've been told that that was months ago and everything, but I can't help it, it seems like yesterday," she laughed bitterly, "literally! And I just can't believe that I actually lied for that dirty lying bast-"

"Elizabeth!' It was his turn to interrupt her. "Slow down. You have to explain to me what you're talking about, because I don't understand."

She snorted.

"That makes two of us."

End Chapter Four.

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