A/N: 49 chapters later and you're still reading my little story - thank you! Thank you for reviewing, especially the consistent handful who still review each chapter - love hearing your thoughts and I do appreciate your appreciation of my work - thank you so much! Sooooo...who do you think she is? :::::insert maniacal laugh here::::: LOLOLOLOL!

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"It doesn't make any sense…maybe she believes he's me, like everybody else?"

"That's what I was thinking at first - I mean, she hasn't been around, right? So she shows up and sees this guy with your looks, and she's thrown like everybody was…except, she wasn't exactly having trouble believing her eyes…not from what I could see."

"What do you make of it?"

"We need to look into her - where she's been all this time - what she's been doing."

"We don't usually spy on our friends, Sam."

"Except for when they start cavorting with our enemies, Jason." She walked over from the other end of the cubicle and inclined her head at him, "If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then the friend of my enemy…"

"…is my enemy."

"Exactly! We need answers and she has some, apparently!"

"Funny how we're the investigators, yet we're the only ones in short supply of those these days."

"What do you mean?"

"Everybody else got some…from this phony who knows my whole life, to Sonny, who's known for days he isn't who he's pretending to be, and now…"

"Now she knows who he is and most likely, why he's here!"

"C'mon," he got up from the table and held his hand out for her, "Let's get some of our own!"

They entered the hall to find Sonny and Carly arguing with Elizabeth Webber, who was apparently trying to exert some feeble authority, much to Carly's ire.

"Please - you are NO Epiphany Johnson - just because you occasionally remember that you work here doesn't make you able to tell me which room I can, and cannot visit!"

"Our patients are my responsibility, so if you are uninjured you have no business here. Please leave the premises."

"We have more business here than you do - you're only still employed because the Chief Of Staff feels some ridiculous sense of loyalty to your flaky ass. MOVE!" She'd spotted whom she wanted to see and pushed forcibly past the nurse to go around her. "Jason!" Rushing to him, her worried gaze locked upon her friend. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, and I'll be even better when we finally get to the bottom of this." Keeping past her, he followed Sam's lead back to the room she'd witnessed the quiet reunion.

"Where are you going?" When he didn't bother to answer, both Sonny and Carly took off after them, followed by Elizabeth after the briefest hesitation where she tried to decide between following or actually starting the job she got paid for.

"Good - you're awake!" Sam hadn't bothered knocking, just pushed the door open, startling both occupants of the room who were sharing space on the tiny bed. Shocked at their entrance, the doctor jumped to her feet to face them.

"Sam! Jason!"

Annoyed to the extreme by the entire situation, Sam sauntered to a stop before the doctor, arms folded in front of her body though to prevent them from doing what she really wanted to.

"Oh look, Jason - she acknowledges you're you! Must mean she knows exactly who this phony is, don't you think?" When her face went red, Sam watched the woman realize her instant mistake.

Jason stopped next to Sam, his eyes going from the surprise visitor to the man who'd sat up straighter against the pillows when they arrived, a hand raising to touch his bandaged head that appeared to have him wincing at the movement.

"Robin! It's normally good to see you…but I'm afraid this is going to need some explaining!"

"I'd say!" Carly had followed the couple into the room, her curiosity turning to instant suspicion and reaffirmed distaste when her eyes beheld what they also saw. "How the hell do you two even know each other?"

Sonny was shocked to see the woman who was like a little sister to him, especially in the presence of the man uprooting their lives, but he went immediately on Carly-control, given how she was always ready on the attack when it came to Robin Scorpio-Drake, who was standing before them looking like a deer caught in headlights at that moment. Taking Carly's arm to restrain further movement into the room, he told her calmly, "Let them handle it, Carly."

"Hi Sonny!" It had usually been so good to see her friend, but Robin could see the same surprise turn to distrust that was written on Jason's face, and she knew this meeting was about to be anything but pleasant. "Elizabeth…long time."

Sam was impatient and not in any mood for small talk, cutting in before anyone else could detour the conversation that had past its expiration date. "I'm sure it is, but you can catch up after you explain. Who is this man, Robin?"

Sonny interjected, "Before you start to back his story - we already know he's not Jason."

"Really?" Robin looked at her acquaintance on the bed and back to Sonny, "You sound so sure?"

Just then, Sam's phone beeped with an alert, drawing all attention to her pulling it from her back pocket to read the message, then handing it to Jason as she glared at the man sitting on the bed.

"Everybody, meet Brent Riley, aka, Bruce Reardan, aka Byron Rich and a slew of other aliases throughout the world!" Edging closer to the bed, Sam locked onto the uneasy look creeping into uncertain eyes. "How do you manage to keep them straight?"

"Sam, whatever that is you're reading - you're mistaken. I don't know any of those names. I've never gone by anything other than Jas…"

"Robin?" Jason held Sam's phone up to the woman who was growing increasingly uncomfortable under the scrutiny. "How are you involved in this?"

"Keep reading, Jason." Sam was staring heatedly between the two as she pieced what she'd just read together for the others in the room. "They've both been in the same city for the past year at least - and the jailbreak was nothing but a ruse - he was locked up for exactly three days!"

Carly flashed Sonny off and stepped fully into the circle around the bed. "Okay, wait a damn minute. Somebody needs to explain! Sam, how do you know all this?"

"A search Spinelli ran last night just came through…I sent him a photo of our pal here and he ran it through his facial recognition software, the same one he used to ID Jason, and wouldn't you know, it returned a composite this morning of what Mr. Riley looked like before his surgery to make him look like Jason!"

"Surgery?" Carly was gaping from Sam to the man on the bed who seemed to be growing more confused by Sam's words.

"Yep! Turns out he's a con turned pawn of the Cassadines, which is where it gets interesting, as I'm guessing his path crossed with the good doctor's awhile back, when they had her in captivity - isn't that right doc?"

"Surgery?" Elizabeth's delayed echo of Carly's astonishment sounded out but no-one seemed particularly interested in her voice. "Jason…" she moved closer to the bed, imploring him with her eyes, "…what is she talking about? You're you…". She looked repeatedly between the man on the bed and the one never far from Sam's side, a strangled sound escaping her throat when neither tried to appease her, "…aren't you?"

Sonny joined Carly at the bedside, his gaze fixing on his friend, the words swirling around the room making no sense and certainly not befitting the person he knew her to be.

"Robin, what are they talking about? You were in Africa, right? You left to help…"

Dropping all pretense and laying all cards out in front for all to see, she replied icily, "No, Sonny! Actually, I spent the last year as the captive of a madman, and once again my family, my friends were too busy making a muddle of the pathetic things they call lives, to bother to notice!" One look at the dawning in Brent's eyes and she gave up pretending, eyeing all of them with bitter contempt. "Don't you dare stand here in judgment of me! I was plucked from my life and held prisoner by Helena and Faison for two years, and nobody noticed! Then as soon as I get back to Patrick and Emma, Victor came after me with the one thing he knew could take me away from them again…the chance to help you!" She jerked an angry finger in Jason's direction, her ire lancing him full on. "He knew I'd never be able to live with myself knowing I could've helped you and did nothing, and he was right. I left willingly, saved your life, and got locked up for it because he had a bigger agenda from the start!"

"You know how much I appreciate everything you've done for me, Robin…which is why I don't understand any of this!"

"No?" She took a menacing step towards Jason, who's eyes opened wider in surprise. "I got you home to your family, deposited you safely back in Port Charles…yet when I needed you to return the favor, stayed positive day in, day out just knowing you were coming for me…you were here shacked up with Elizabeth, leaving this one hanging all over my husband!"

"Excuse me?" Sam was taken aback not only by the woman's story but by her accusations that quickly turned on her when she drew the doctor's attention.

"You heard me! I gave up my life with my family, who I'd spent two damn years away from already…two years missing out on my daughter growing up! Two years where my husband went through hell before turning to another woman. I'd just gotten them back, when I left them again to return your husband to you…but you couldn't wait…no, you had to take mine in the meantime and try to replace me in my daughter's life! I was once again locked away by lunatics in their insane bid to rule the world, while you slept in my bed and lived in my house like it belonged to you!"

"Wait a damn minute, Robin! First of all, I didn't ask you and Patrick to keep Jason's presence in that clinic from me - you both chose to lie! I would've gotten him outta there, come hell or high-water…I would've gotten him away from that madman and into the best medical care money could buy! Nobody asked you to be a martyr and go off in silence and secret - you chose to turn your back on your family to go be my husband's hero…"

"Typical - thinks she's the only one who can save Jason - keeps him grateful and indebted to the saintly Dr. Scorpion for eternity, doesn't it Robin?" Carly's snide turned her mouth distastefully, her words drawing attention momentarily before Sam finished her thought.

"…so don't blame us for not knowing what the hell was happening to you!"

"You didn't care less what was happening to me, Sam - or to Jason for that matter - you were much too busy screwing my husband!"

"That is a damn lie! Patrick and I comforted each other through grief and immense loss! He went through hell when Gabriel died, and I knew firsthand what that felt like, so I was there! We were friends long before anything ever happened between us, and I never once tried to take your place with either of them!"

"Did you tell yourself that when you were sleeping in my bed, in my house, using my daughter to replace your dead baby?"

The sound of a pin dropping would've echoed boomingly in the deadly silence that followed. Taking a breath, Sam calmed the anger that flared at the mention of baby Lila, refusing to be taken off task. "Okay, Robin. You win…we should've been able to read minds and tarot cards to know what was really happening…so now what? How about you get to the part where you engineered plastic surgery to make some stranger look like Jason and try to take his life! How about you explain that part to us simpleminded folk?"

"What's to explain? All these years loyal to people who can't show me the same in return…years and years, spent putting people first, and repeatedly getting kicked in the teeth for it…I'd finally had enough and you were the perfect person to start pay back with!"

Sam's head flashed back in surprise as one hand lifted to rest against her chest. "Me? So your sick meltdown is all about me?"

"Who else? Everybody knows that you can't resist Jason, no matter who you claim to love when you're pissed at him! Since the real Jason was too busy sniffing out his old bedpost, I needed a replacement good enough to fill the role without questions. Brent was the guard Victor assigned to keep me captive and we got to know each other…happens when someone sees you at your worst day after day. His bone structure was perfect and my colleague in Brussels needed to do very little to get the results I wanted…but healing and conditioning still took time…time during which you've been busy adding broken hearts to all the injury you've already inflicted upon my family." When Sam looked at her like she'd completely lost her mind, Robin defended, "Patrick and Emma were devastated when you left them, and after spending all that time making them love you…how dare you? Who the hell do you think you are?"

Turning to Jason in momentary awe, Sam's mouth fell open. "Are all of your exes crazy? When one's not trying to run me out of town on rails…," she gestured towards Carly who gave her a girl-don't-go-there look, "…one's falsifying records to say my baby's dead," she pointed blatantly in Elizabeth's direction that time, "…or one's blaming me for world dominating lunatics keeping her self-righteous ass locked up! What the hell's next?"

Jason and Sonny had been struck practically speechless, listening to the words coming from the mouth of someone they would've sworn on a stack of bibles could never utter anything resembling them. Drawing tired hands across an equally tired face, Jason asked for clarification, "So let me get this straight…this is all a scheme to punish Sam for your husband falling in love with her? You want to take my life away from me - the life you just said you tried to give back - just so Sam will hurt?"

"For someone who loves you so deeply don't you think she moved on a little quickly to Patrick? I might've forgiven a fling, but she tried to marry him! She tried to mother my child! As if some biker chick from Hicksville could ever!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Turning away in exasperation, Jason soon turned back to face her, "I'm trying really hard here to understand why you would do this. So Sam fell in love with Drake - so what? They were both single and available and found something in each other we were too busy leaving them alone to give! I chose to leave my family home that night and got shot for being stupid, just like you chose to leave yours without telling anybody what you were really doing? That's on us!"

"Oh, nothing is ever Robin's fault!" Carly was as annoyed as Jason and she had no trouble spitting it out. "She sits atop her perfect little pedestal and preaches to the rest of us about the sins of our ways!" Using a forefinger, she jabbed the doctor's shoulder as she glared her in the eyes, "Instead of your cryptic little quip about how I would fall at your feet if I knew why you were leaving, how about you'd told me the truth so we could've utilized Sonny's resources to get Jason out of that hellhole? How about telling his wife the PI, that he was being held captive somewhere so we could've gone and gotten him? Or even how about not lying to your husband about how dead Jason was when he was laying alive in some vat right there at your fingertips and his wife just downstairs, huh - how about that?" Robin brushing her finger off testily didn't deter her, "For someone who was forever lecturing people about truth and living clean, you sure tell quite a few wallops of your own, don't you? But that's okay, right - lying is fine when it's your agenda at stake, isn't it?"

"Oh, shut up, Carly! Nobody asked you! Brent would've definitely had no trouble whatsoever convincing you who he was - you've always only used Jason to do your dirty work and clean up the god-awful mess you constantly make of your pathetic life! You don't love Jason - you own him! And he's always been too much of a block to see it!" She spun on Jason angrily, "That's right - that's what I said! You cut me out of your life and turned your back so fast my head spun for years, all because I righted a wrong you perpetrated 'cause this skank asked you to!"

"That was so long ago, Robin!"

"It doesn't mean I've forgotten! It doesn't mean it hurts any less when I think about how easy you could cut me off but pledge yourself and your life to this worthless bitch for all eternity! You pick and choose when to be noble and righteous, Jason - just like you pick and choose when to lie! You put Sonny and Carly above everyone and everything else, so I wasn't the least bit surprised you forgot to be grateful after everything I sacrificed for you!"

"You're not making any sense! Neither of us are to blame for what happened to us! Helena and Victor manipulated our lives and took everything away from us, but you're blaming the people in this room?" He looked to the man on the bed, who was looking more and more confused by the minute, his thoughts seemingly driving in and out of the moment, "And just exactly what is your stake in this?"

"My name is Brent…Riley! I'm Brent Riley!" He looked dazed and far away, as if pounding his memory banks for long lost information.

Carly rolled her eyes to the ceiling, "Yes, genius - we covered that part! How about you keep up and fill us in on what you have to gain from this charade."

But it was as if he hadn't heard a word she said, still lost in his own thoughts. "I'm Brent…"

"What did you do to him?" Carly was actually curious when she finally noticed how lost he appeared.

"Brent was hypnotized! During my time with Jason, working on Victor's ridiculous plan to awaken his dead relatives, I stumbled on a new drug that with the help of systematic hypnosis sessions, later perfected during Helena's turn at holding me captive, proved to have long term effects at controlling what was fed to the mind and ultimately believed."

"What?" The echo sounded around the room as each person started with renewed wonder at the seemingly sane doctor, at least on the outside, calm as you please, rolling out the dastardly deeds she'd implemented to control people's lives.

"I was able to use my drug to block Brent's memories, and plant new ones through hypnosis over several weeks. He truly believes he's Jason Morgan. He's not pretending."

"Well aren't you the clever little doctor?" Carly felt like punching the smugness off her damn face, but she knew Jason and Sam wanted answers, and she couldn't wait to hear it all herself.

"Alot more than you'll ever be!" Cutting eyes from the blond to the man and woman she set out to hurt the way they'd hurt her and hers, Robin laid it all out. "I know everything about your life, remember? There was a time when there was nothing you and I didn't talk about," seeing a chance for a jab she took it heartily, "including the fact that you were just sleeping with Carly because I was afraid of giving you HIV…and the minute you found out it bothered me, you cut her ass right off!"

Carly was definitely going to punch her this time and she moved with fist at the ready, but Jason moved his body to block her.

"I never told you any intimate details about my relationship with Sam!"

"That's what you think! You were at my mercy in that lab for over a year…I tried a myriad of drugs and protocols to keep you alive…you spent hours and hours, mumbling between intubations, and it was always about your precious Sam and Danny. All I had to do was listen. When I got you home and you just forgot about me and left me at Helena's mercy, and Patrick in the arms of your wife, I came up with the perfect way to get her away from my family…it's only a bonus it hits you where it hurts too, all with one blow."

Sonny had heard enough, moving Carly aside so he could get closer, shaking his head at someone he thought above petty retaliations, "Robin, you are better than this! You don't deliberately hurt people - it's not your style! You look out for your friends!"

"And what has it ever gotten me, Sonny? Where are my friends when I need them? Where were you when Lisa Niles tried everything to destroy my life and step into my family, like this one?" She nodded in Sam's direction without breaking contact with Sonny's eyes, "Where were you when these people were kidnapping me again and again, huh? What's the point of having your own personal gangsters who call you family, when they're absolutely no use to you in your time of need? Where were you and your guns when I needed you?"

"In the dark, where you left all of us! I would've come blasting for you if I had any idea that you needed me, and you know that! I would never let anybody get away with hurting you…you told me you wanted to handle that Niles situation yourself, remember that? I offered to take care of it!"

"A half-hearted offer at best! You were too wrapped up in your own selfishness, like you always are! Carly is the only person you and Jason give a damn about in this town - the bitch with the saddest, most pathetic life, always in need of bailing out of some ridiculous mess she caused in the first place. You don't have time for me - you never did!"

Covering his heart as if from a stab, Sonny looked at his little sister and felt his eyes well. "Tell me you don't believe that! Tell me you know that I will always have your back!"

"Oh, give it up Sonny! Don't fall for her little Miss Perfect, Woe Is Me routine…she's flawed just like the rest of us and more diabolical than we ever knew." Carly grabbed Sonny's arm to push her way back to the forefront where he was still trying to block her. "If she can do something like this to Jason, of all people, she's capable of just about anything!"

"So what was the endgame, Robin?" Jason's quiet question had been running through his mind, the rest of the drama playing out around him seeming off in the distance. "After he got everyone to believe him, what were you planning to do next?"

"Well, it's not like I thought he could pull it off forever. Eventually one of you would figure it out…DNA is probably the only exact science out there - somebody was bound to demand a test one of these days. I'm surprised one of you didn't already try to test him against Danny."

"You leave my son out of this!" Sam snapped out the command with such venom the woman jumped a little, despite herself. "Like I took this shit serious enough to drag my child through any part of it!"

"No matter. I just needed Brent in place long enough to get you away from Patrick and Emma, especially since I couldn't rely on the real thing to be consistent, always in and out of Elizabeth. After that, he would've conveniently disappeared just as easily as he appeared - after I'd stepped back into my family, of course. I don't give a damn how it affected the rest of you or how you dealt with the fallout! You all deserve to lose everything - you don't know how to look out for anybody not in your tight little inner circle!"

Finally able to move from the corner she'd been ignored in the whole time, with no idea what to believe anymore but realizing she had the perfect ally finally, someone who hated the very air Sam Morgan breathed as much as she did, she took tentative, timid steps towards her very good friend, reminding her sheepishly, "Robin, you could've called me…I would've helped you!"

Slowly turning her head to meet the act being put forth solely for her benefit, she answered truthfully, "Elizabeth, please…everybody in this room knows if there's no chance of needing a paternity test, especially one involving Jason, no-one can rely on you for shit!"

A/N: Was it who you thought?