Elizabeth's eyes fluttered open when she heard someone turning the knob on the front door. That was a lesson she learned when she moved in with Sonny. Never sleep soundly.

She looked around and her eyes found the digital cable box with the time displaying shortly after nine a.m. She was wondering who was at her door so early. She started to sit up and was stopped when the empty tumbler fell to the floor.

Another fight with Jason, one that ended with liquor.

Damn it.

She picked up the glass and placed in on the table, looking down at herself in disgust. Less than a week ago she had a firm grip on her life, now she was reduced to sleeping on the couch with bourbon as a comfort.

Sonny was probably rolling over in his grave.

Shaking her head, Elizabeth made her way to the door, intent on finding who was on the other side. She was a few steps away when it was pushed open and Jason came in pulling something behind him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," he said.

Elizabeth looked at him, wondering what time he woke up and how he got out of the house without her noticing it. Then her eyes wandered down to what his hand was resting on.

"Oh Jason…"

It was a Hardly Davidson bike made by Power Wheels. One that was tiny enough for little JJ to ride on. It was completely detailed to look like a Harley Davidson with exhaust pipes to hide two additional wheels in the back that would keep JJ safe and secure on the tiny machine.

Jason even purchased a child's size leather Harley Davidson jacket.

She wondered if he realized this would mean the world to their son.

"He is going to love it," Elizabeth said softly as she ran her fingers down the little control panel and was rewarded with a reviving sound of an engine. She laughed softly and looked at Jason, "He's going to go crazy. I have to wake him."

"I wasn't sure what time he got up," Jason said positioning the bike so it would be the first thing JJ saw when he came down the stairs, "I wanted to get out early enough and have it back for him. I was surprised to see you on the couch."

"I'm having a hard time sleeping," Elizabeth mumbled, "Let me go grab, JJ. Don't move."

She skipped up the stairs before he had any more questions. He needed some time to adjust and she wasn't going to hinder that with talk of her missing Sonny.

Jason turned around in time to see Johnny come stumbling in with the empty box the Harley Davidson came in. He tried to hide a smile as he remember the guards surprise when he pulled into the Harborview Towers parking lot and told him and Francis they had to help him assemble the bike.

They certainly earned their pay today.

"They love boxes," Johnny said as he laid it against the penthouse wall, "Sometimes more so than the toys. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Jason said looking at the couch quickly, "When was the last time you checked on Elizabeth and found her in her own bed."

Johnny cleared his throat as he clasped his hands together in front of him, "The night before Sonny…"

"Wait till you see what Daddy got you," Elizabeth smiled as she started down the stairs with JJ on one hip.

"Thanks Johnny," Jason nodded.

Johnny gave his own nod in return and closed the door behind him on the way back to his post.

"Oh…" JJ said as Elizabeth placed him on his own feet at the bottom of the stairs. His eyes were wide as he looked at the motorcycle that rested next to Jason, "Oh…"

"JJ…" Jason said moving forward and kneeling down before his son. JJ looked a little pale and shaky. The next thing Jason knew he was on his back with JJ bouncing on top of him.

"Thank you! Oh thank you! I always wanted one! Last year, Santa said I was too little!" then he was off Jason and on the bike, pressing whatever buttons he could find and reviving the mechanical engine repeating the phrase, 'Oh boy, oh boy' over and over.

Jason laughed as he looked up at the ceiling. Seven days ago he was traveling around New Orleans without a care in the world. Now he was on his back, on the floor of Sonny's penthouse, thinking that his life might not get any better than this. He had a son that was crazy about him, he finally had a son.

JJ's image hovered above his face.

"Can we take it out, Daddy, please!" he pleaded as he knelt down besides his father's face. He then brushed some of Jason's spiky hair away from his forehead and placed a kiss there.

Jason Morgan the enforcer was having a hard time fighting back tears. No one could describe the emotion a man felt when someone called him 'Daddy'.

"Thank you Daddy," he smiled. "Can we puh-lease take it out!"

Jason laughed again as he sat up and pulled JJ into his lap.

"Honey, I don't know, Daddy might have to…"

"I'm ok," Jason said as he tickled his son, "Whatever I had planned can wait. But you have to get dressed, and you can wear your new coat too."

"Alright!" JJ said scrambling out of Jason's lap. "Are you coming Mama?"

Elizabeth smiled as she knelt down in front of her son, leaning over and placing a kiss on his hair. She wanted to, she wanted to watch him drive around on his little motorcycle with Jason following, wanted to watch them bond together. But she knew she couldn't. Jason needed time with his son, time alone, and she was going to give it to him.

"I have to take that test, the one I missed, remember?" Elizabeth said tugging on her son's pajamas, "Mama's going to study while you're out with Daddy. Don't eat too much junk food."

"I won't Mama," JJ said. "Will you help me get dress, Daddy?"

"I'll be up in a minute," Jason said, "Pick out the clothes you want to wear."

JJ looked over his father and nodded before hurrying up the stairs, trying to take them two at a time.

Jason watched his son disappear, watched his little brown head turn and smile before finding his room. He looked at Elizabeth, watched as she folded the blanket on the couch and laid it on the chair, wondered how he could hate a woman that gave him such a beautiful child.

It was still there though, the hate, he just hoped it wouldn't always be.

"I wanted to thank you…"

"Don't thank me," Elizabeth said holding up her hand, "He is your son and you two need each other right now. I need to thank you, for allowing JJ to stay with me. You have ever right…"

"I was angry," he said and then shrugged his shoulders a little, "I still am but I would never take my son away from his mother."

Elizabeth nodded and fiddled with her shirt, "Do you want me to make you some coffee before you go?"

Jason shook his head, "I was going to take him to Kelly's, get him some breakfast before I take him to the park and let him run wild with the bike."

"He loves their pancakes," she smiled softly, "If Bobbie's there she tries to do Mickey Mouse ones for him."

Jason nodded, "I'll remember that. I'm going to help him."

"Ok," Elizabeth said, "I'll go make myself some breakfast, see if Johnny wants anything."

Jason nodded and then slowly walked upstairs, after his son.

That was that, Elizabeth though. One tiny step, one little bit of progress.

They might not ever be what they once were to each other but she felt that maybe, just maybe they could find some way to be a family.

"Hey," Jason laughed as he looked down at JJ.

His son had become very familiar with the controls on the powered bike and he looked up at his father with an impish grin when he reversed right back into Jason's motorcycle boot.

"Sorry Daddy," JJ grinned as he pressed another button and the vehicle started to move forward again.

Jason wasn't sure if he was ever going to get use to that word; Daddy. This little child called him that, looked at him as if he was the most wonderful thing in the entire world. It frightened Jason a little, scared him like it did so many years ago when Michael was placed into his arms and he had to take care of him. He missed all of the things he knew how to do, the diapers, the feeding, the holding, he was aware of all that but this toddler, this was something he wasn't prepared for.

Sure, the instincts were still there. One look at his room and that little toy he still carried around and Jason knew that his son needed to have his own motorcycle. So he got up early this morning, even before the birds, and went out on a hunt to find one. Assembling it was more difficult.

By the way his son's face light up, the way he tackled him to the floor and thanked him over and over, Jason didn't want that warm feeling in the pit of his stomach to go away. In that moment he vowed that he would do whatever it took to make his son happy, to keep that smile on his face.

If that meant staying with Elizabeth longer than intended, if that meant trying to rebuild a relationship, a friendship with his son's mother than that's what he was going to do.

He wouldn't allow the hatred to come between him and his son. He just wished he knew how to make it go away.

"Daddy."

Jason looked down to see JJ stopped in front of him, looking up at him with his own blue eyes.

"What's up, buddy?" Jason asked kneeling down beside his child.

"Can I ask you something?" JJ asked looking at his hands.

Jason gave him a small smile as he rubbed his back. His son could ask him anything and be rewarded with the truth, "Sure, what would you like to know?"

JJ looked at his father, his eyes filled with tears as his tiny lip trembled, "Was I the reason you left?"

Jason remembered the reason for the hate, remembered why it still burned and right now, as two fat tears rolled down his son's tiny cheeks, he wanted to hurt Elizabeth like his son was hurting.

"No, no JJ," Jason said pulling him off of the bike and into his arms, "JJ you weren't the…"

JJ sniffled and buried his head into his father's coat, "Mama said she was the reason you left, and then Uncle Sonny said he was the reason, then Mama said they both were the reason."

If Jason knew about Elizabeth and Sonny, they would've both been the reason. Apparently the two of them were feeling guilty about keeping Jason from his son that they felt the need to blame themselves for his disappearance.

When he pulled his son out of his arms and placed him in front of him, for the first time he could remember Jason wasn't sure what to say. Of course he could easily throw all of this on JJ's mother, tell his son he had no idea that he was alive and that Elizabeth was to blame.

But he wouldn't do that, couldn't do it. He wasn't going to turn JJ against the only person that had been a permanent in his life for the past three years.

He hated it, his gut was twisting at the thought, but he had to lie to his son or at least hinder the truth.

"I had to go away for a little while," Jason said as he wiped the tears away from JJ's eyes, "I needed to take a trip and then I started doing some work for Uncle Sonny. I didn't…I didn't realize you needed me. I'm sorry I was away so long."

"Are you going to go away again?" JJ asked as he wiped his nose with the backside of his hand.

"No, never," Jason said fiercely.

That was the truth. That was something that would never have to happen again.

He never really knew why he ran so many times, he just simply took off when he felt like he was suffocating and the cliff roads weren't enough. Leaving was simple because he knew he could come back.

He would never walk away again, not unless his son was walking with him.

Jason pulled his son into another hug and kissed his hair, "I have an idea. Why don't you get back on your bike and we go visit someone? We can show them your new bike."

"Ok," JJ nodded as he climbed back on his bike, "Stay beside me."

Jason nodded and kept up with his son's power wheels pace, knowing there wasn't anywhere else in the world he'd rather be.

Elizabeth didn't know why she was here. She just felt her head pounding from the legal terms she had already memorized and decided that she needed to get out of the house, go to the one place that brought her peace in Port Charles.

She stood in Lila Quartermaine's rose garden and smiled.

It had to be one of the most beautiful gardens she had ever seen. The birds seemed happy, the plants were growing nicely and everything was serene.

Who wouldn't want to escape there?

She had showed up without notice and Reginald waved away her apologizes stating that Lila was in the rose garden. He asked if she wanted to be announced, she told him that was silly and here she was looking around for the elderly woman that knew how to make her day a little brighter.

Walking down one of the path's Elizabeth came up short when she heard voices, one belonging to Lila and the other belonging to Jason.

"He looks just like you," Lila smiled as she watched JJ move around on the grass as best as he could with his bike, "I don't know why I didn't see it before. I should have known though, the way Elizabeth was in love with you…"

"I wanted you to hear it from me," Jason said as he sat down in an iron wrought chair next to his grandmother, "Elizabeth says that people just started to assume things…"

"They did," Lila said, "Elizabeth started coming to see me about two months after you left town. That poor girl, her heart was broken," she patted her grandson's hand and moved on, "Then Mr. Corinthos' started helping her out and it seems like everyone turned against her. Poor Emily, she wanted to help her friend but she kept insisting that Elizabeth pushed you away."

Jason sighed and ran his hand over his face, "We kept pushing each other."

"Well now, love has a way of helping people find their way back to each other," Lila smiled.

"Grandmother, it's not…"

"Would JJ like some cookies?" Lila asked, interrupting Jason, "Cook just made some wonderful sugar cookies this morning."

Jason smiled at her. If his grandmother wanted to think things were there that weren't he would let her. He didn't have the heart to disappoint the woman.

Elizabeth disappeared amongst the bushes, deciding this moment was too private. Let Lila spend sometime with her grandson and great-grandson. She didn't want to ruin it by entering the scene and making things awkward.

With the things Lila was saying and implying, it would have definitely been awkward.

She nearly stumbled into Reginald coming out onto the patio with a tray full of cookies and some juice. She forced a smile and excused herself.

"Did you find Mrs. Quartermaine?"

"Would you mind not mentioning that I was here?" Elizabeth asked, "She's busy and I don't want to disturb her."

Reginald frowned, "She's here with Jason."

"I know," she said quietly, "Please don't say anything."

Then she walked away, heading where she didn't know, but away from something that she very badly wanted to be a part of. She hated the feeling of being on the outside looking in. She also hated that she felt like she was getting what she deserved.

"Do you want to hold the fudge for Mommy?" Jason asked as he held out the bag for JJ.

JJ held out his hand and took the paper bag from Jason, placing it delicately in front of him on his motorcycle. He was gong to guard it with his life.

Even after spending the entire day with his son, listening to him call him Daddy, referring to Elizabeth as Mommy, having it roll of his tongue was still something that he was adjusting to.

Four years ago it was something that Elizabeth made him dream about.

He pushed aside some of the chairs in the front of Kelly's so JJ could maneuver his bike and make his way towards him. He was so intent on his son that he missed what was right in front of him and wound up slamming into a body, a cup of soda going all over the other person and his shoes as well.

JJ giggled in front of him as he stopped his bike, "Oops Daddy."

"I'm sorry," Jason said brushing himself off and looking up, no down, at the person who he walked into.

"That's ok," she smiled, "I'm fine. Nothing some Tide won't fix. I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off of him either," she said looking down at JJ. "Hi."

"Hi!" JJ exclaimed, "I'm JJ, that's my Daddy."

The woman looked up at Jason with a smile.

"I'm Jason," he said holding out his hand, "Jason Morgan."

She took it and stood up in front of him, "I'm Sam McCall."