A/N: I only see two more chapters. We're so close to the end of this story. However, I already see on the horizon, the sequel. There's still so much more story to tell. With that said...on to the story. Oh and ibb1234..ask and you shall receive? I was just going back to proof this when you sent the msg. :-)

Chapter 19

Sneaking into the back doors, the double French doors he'd come through so many times before, Jason smiled. Most memorably, the time he came through on his brand new motorcycle to stuff his new life, behavior and attitude in his pompous Grandfather's face. Looking around, he noticed first that the room had changed drastically.

Not just aesthetically. Sure the room was different. Colors warmer, shelves held less books and more photographs and memories. The furniture different, more welcoming and comfortable. But the glaring difference was the emptiness and the silence.

When he first woke up so many years ago and finally went home to the Quartermaine mansion, no less than eight people lived in the house. And that didn't count the servants that lived in the servants wing of the house behind the kitchen. Then, of course, Ned lived just at the front of the property at the Gate House.

Now there were only two. Maybe three or four if Tracy was still here and still married to Luke.

He looked around the room and his eye instantly landed on the picture that for so long he hated. Jason Quartermaine and AJ behind their parents. All happy and smiling. Suddenly, he wanted to remember that day. Being a father and loving a woman who treats his children as her own made him realize how truly happy that family in the picture was. Hell, even knowing how much he loved Cameron while sharing no blood bond caused him to smile and turn his head to the picture just above it with him and Monica. A picture taken not long before he left town.

A request he granted her when he came to visit her after her stint in alcohol rehab.

He looked up and saw the painting of Lila, a portrait drawn by Elizabeth when she was still in high school. It was so good and she'd made it just for the family matriarch for Lila's eightieth birthday. Jason fingered the small "EW" in the corner.

"Oh my GOD!" Exclaimed Monica as she covered her mouth with her hand standing in the doorway that led to the foyer.

Surprised at how rusty he was, he turned and ducked his head. "Monica, I'm sorry I scared you."

He shook his head. He was so deep in thought he never even heard his mother coming in the room. He pulled the picture of them off the shelf and moved toward her still form. She was shocked and hadn't moved from her spot at the door.

Once Jason was standing in front of her he pulled the older woman into his arms. Suddenly she started shaking with sobs and wrapped her tiny arms around his waist, her nails making a clicking noise on the barrel of his gun before she quickly moved her hands up and away from it, stiffening when she felt the cold steel at her son's back.

She pulled back and looked up at him with worried eyes. "What are you doing here?"

He turned his head to look away from her. He was never good at lying so he simply would omit the real reason he was in town. "I came to see you. But you cannot tell anyone you saw me."

"Are you in trouble?" She asked moving around him and tugging on his hand to follow her to the couch.

"No, I...I'm fine."

"Are the boys okay?"

"They're wonderful."

"Bobbie said you looked good when she went to visit you." Monica's face took on a sad overtone that Jason couldn't miss, even in the dimly lit room.

"I'm sorry you couldn't have been there." he responded, not knowing what he should say.

"You didn't choose me." She said simply, having long ago given up her hope that one day her youngest son would actually want her in his life as more than a passing pleasantry or for a secret medical need. They'd made their peace and she couldn't fault him that he was happy with the relationship as it stood.

"I couldn't. I didn't want to risk your safety."

"So you said." she sighed. She knew he meant what he said but it still hurt.

"But now, two years later, it's so hard." he hesitated. He didn't really know why he was here or why he was risking anyone knowing he was in town. Yet, as soon as he crossed the city's border, his heart tugged him in several directions. One was here.

"I don't know what you mean." she replied looking up into the brilliant blue of his eyes.

She gasped lightly remembering so many past memories of looking into the eyes of his father and grandmother. When he was a baby and she loathed his presence as the reminder of her husbands infidelity. Then the little boy who took to her at the loss of his own mother and learned quickly how to tug at her heartstrings. The time that he and AJ found them in the attic where they had been trapped only to find out that the boys would sneak away to play there often. Then the little boy she and Alan sent off to boarding school with his older brother. A happy teenager glad to be back with the family and the struggle that wonderful, loving boy had trying to keep the peace in a house that rarely had any.

Tears sprang to her eyes when she remembered his unknowing look when he first woke up from his coma. The hate he held onto so strongly because it was the only emotion he could feel that wasn't fear. His ire that shone in those same loving blue eyes toward her when she approached him on the docks when working for the loading company.

If she'd only listened to him then and kept her distance. Maybe he would have been happy there and never gone to work for Sonny.

"I know what you're thinking. Nothing would have changed back then. I still would have left and I still would have found Sonny and gone to work for him."

"You don't know that."

"I do know that. Nothing you did caused me to take the path I did. I did that on my own. I am responsible for how my life turned out, no one else. Especially not you."

"I didn't know what I was doing." she shook her head.

"Neither did I."

She looked up at him and gave another timid smile. "Well, you've obviously come to see me for something. You've never been one to do anything without having a purpose. Even as a little child, there was always a purpose to everything you did and said. Is it Michael? Have you heard that your nephew is awake and thriving?"

"I've also heard that he's just as angry as me."

"Well, at least HE isn't pushing away Edward and me. He's been here quite a few times and Carly has even talked to me about him staying here until after that baby is born and maybe a few months longer until she can build up her strength."

"Does she think Michael will hurt her or the baby?"

"She doesn't but Jax does. He's had to physically restrain Michael a few times and he's thrown things at Carly. It's all so very reminiscent of another angry young man who I know that woke up from a coma. Yet this time, he's not running away from me. His blue eyes are seeking me out."

"Good...good. You and the old man will be good for him. Safe. Love him. Love him like you wanted to love me."

"I already do. And I will. Your Grandfather is so excited he's already spoiling him. Carly and Edward have already had a fight because Edward bought Michael a convertible Mercedes sports car. I tried to talk him out of it. The boy doesn't even have his license yet. The doctors haven't fully released him to get it. But your Grandfather insisted he needed it. He promised to teach him how to drive on the property and by the time he can get his license, he'll be an excellent driver."

"Sound's like the old man."

"He'll never change." she looked and saw the hesitant look in his eyes. "but he doesn't have the drive any longer to make Michael nuts like he did you. Sure he thinks of Michael as the head of ELQ already but he doesn't have the energy to fight or to push. It's okay. I promise. I won't let Edward drive Michael away."

"It's okay. I hope he and Michael can...can...be close. Actually, I'd love to see that Michael was running ELQ someday. Much better than running the mob. But thats not why I was here." he changed the subject.

"So what is it?"

"I wanted to give you this." He pulled a micro disk out of his pocket. "It has pictures of the boys and...and me and Maxie. I wanted...I wanted you to have pictures of my family...your family."

"Oh thank you" she took the disk and held it so tightly fearing it would disappear in her hands.

"And I...I wanted you to know that I love you."

"Oh Jason" she reached around his neck and pulled him to her. The tears freely flowed from her face and she held onto Jason tight as he wrapped his own strong arms around her and squeezed.

His whispered words would stick in her mind for many days and weeks and months to come. "I'm sorry I didn't realize until now how much you and the Quartermaines mean to me and how much I truly need you in my life."

With that, he pulled back, placed a chaste kiss to her cheek, breathing in her unique scent. Chanel, just like Maxie liked to wear and the scent he remembered overhearing his father once say was his favorite. Ironically, it was Jason's favorite too.

He stood without words and left, out the back doors, just the way he always did and Monica's soft voice, "I will always love you son" was the last words he heard that night.

~%~%~%~%~%~

Jason had been waiting for the perfect time to exact his revenge. However, he knew that going to see Monica the night before meant he needed to get out of town soon. She would look at the disk with all the digital pictures and the videos of Christmas and birthdays and t-ball games and if she thought Jason was in town she would look for him. Especially after his words.

He watched through the window to see Monica's reaction and he knew she was as touched and affected by his final words to her as hers had affected him. She took the picture he had left where he was sitting on the couch and placed it back on the shelf. Then moved the picture of Alan, AJ and Jason when Jason was in med school and carried it with her to bed. Only a headline, the headline he planned to be responsible for, would let her know he was truly gone from the sleepy little port.

He was on the docks. A place he was surprised to find he didn't miss at all. He was hidden by a few crates, gun drawn, waiting for the evil black haired vixen with the penchant for red shoes to finish with her instructions to two men who apparently worked for Johnny but were ready to help Claudia stage the coup to take over the Zacharra family business.

Jason shook his head as his stomach clenched as the bile rolled. She was willing to go against her own brother for power. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath when he heard her say 'even it it takes his death to get me there'.

She was pure evil.

She set into motion so many things that changed his life. Taken away so many people.

Not that he didn't love his life now. He had the two greatest boys in the world and the most wonderful woman to share his life with. He lifted his leather jacket to stick his nose near the inner breast pocket where a scarf of Maxie's was delicately folded and tucked away. It smelled of her and that was why he picked it up and packed it at the last minute. He remembered her saying the night before that she needed to hand wash it because it had perfume stains from when Cameron wanted to help her get ready for their date and sprayed her in the face with the perfume.

Chanel.

His eyes popped open quickly when he heard a familiar voice. It was all he could do to keep calm and wait for the right time when he saw the new person Claudia was talking to.

Mr. Craig. Jerry Jax. Alive.

Suddenly the rage started to take over Jason's body and this time he'd be able to fulfill his promise to a little boy and also exact his revenge against a man who took his father from him.

"Claudia my dear, I see you've finally resigned yourself to the fact that you need me."

"No, the blackmail resigned me to that fact."

"Well, see, I don't stand to lose as much as you do if I hand over the proof that you were the one to hire me and in turn Ian Devlin to kill Sonny. And now that little boy, my nephew, Michael is up and walking. It's really quite the miracle wouldn't you say?"

"Your nephew." she spit with disdain. "You don't care about Michael Corinthos any more than I do. He was just a casualty of war. Innocent blood spilled in the quest for power. Well, I'm not backing down now. You and I will take the business from my brother and run it but don't mistake the fact that I am working with you to mean I work for you. It's the other way around."

Jason listened to the two bickering back and forth and no less than five times did he cringe at their complete disregard for innocent lives, family and such, that had been lost or would be lost to achieve their goal. A goal they'd never be able to achieve without putting one or the other to death.

Well, he would be sure they both achieved the latter part of that goal. And Johnny, Michael, Jax and Port Charles would be the better for it.

He aimed his gun carefully, deciding that Claudia being shot first would be best. Jerry's instinct would be to catch her falling and he'd be able to take the second shot to end his life as well. Then thirty quick yards behind the warehouse and through the alley and he'd be in the car and on his way to Detroit where he'd get the flight to take him to Orlando and then to Sacramento and then drive to Yuma, Arizona where he would take a final flight to Tampa. He'd be home and have Maxie in his arms within forty eight hours.

His aim steady, some things you just didn't lose, he closed one eye to focus with the other.

Suddenly two shots rang out. He pulled his gun back, knowing they didn't come from him and looked around. Suddenly he heard Johnny Zacharra's voice booming.

"Get a clean up crew here. Make sure they're both dead. Put Jerry Jax at the bottom of the harbor near where everyone assumed he died two years ago in the boat explosion. Take my sister...and....send her...send...send her ashes to Spain to be buried with our Uncle."

Jason looked back around and over the crate to see Johnny standing over his sister with disgust on his face. "Rest in peace, you BITCH!"

Jason turned to leave, no longer feeling a sense of urgency and was shocked at the two brown eyes staring at him from behind a dumpster.

Samantha McCall, armed and dressed in all black, just like him, was staring at him just as shocked to see him as he was to see her.

~%~%~%~%~%~

"Jacob that's high enough." Maxie yelled as she looked up at the boy who was at least twenty feet up in a big old oak tree.

"I can go higher Maxie, watch." He yelled down to her and she rolled her eyes knowing that he would no matter what she said.

She looked around her and spotted Cameron, Matthew and Rashawn on the baseball field, just yards away playing three way catch with their balls and gloves. All three were on the Little League, Matthew on the older team and showing the two younger boys some tricks he'd learned. Cookie and Melanie had Ling-Mei and Monte on the swings and were pushing them.

Sally O'Rourke had a biopsy that morning and her husband Danny was taking her. So Maxie offered to keep the kids from daycare that morning, since it was a teachers planning day, and then Sally's niece would pull the afternoon shift once she got out of class. All Maxie had to do was survive the morning with seven kids. The park was the easiest way to do that. Then she'd take them to McDonalds for lunch and to play at the restaurants playground. By the time she got back to the house, everyone would be ready to lay on the floor and watch movies and sleep until Rachel got there.

Maxie had also agreed all the kids would stay at their house that day so that when Danny and Sally got home, they didn't have kids to deal with.

It was Monday. Jason had been gone for over two weeks and she hadn't heard a word from him. Robin had told her what she told Jason after Maxie threatened to call Mac and tell where she was. She quizzed her cousin and discovered that she had suffered Post Pardum Depression after the birth of Emma and had recently decided, against doctors orders, to go off of her medications, citing as a doctor, she was able to tell she no longer suffered from the disease. However, after Robin left for home that day, Maxie called her father back and discovered that Robin was indeed back home to the relief of Patrick and Mac and that what Robin failed to tell her was that she had become pregnant again and miscarried in her fourth month and was suffering from a whole other ailment and had been displaying signs that she was emotionally reverting back and wanting her life from before.

And Maxie concluded from Mac's words that the life from before that she wanted apparently included Jason.

Why else would she come here to tell Jason everything that would make him want to go back to Port Charles?

The life Robin missed was the life in the cottage for the year when she and Jason were raising Michael. She came looking for that man and found a variation of him.

And that just pissed Maxie off!!!

Her first instinct was to pack up the boys and hop a plane to Port Charles. She'd confront Jason head on and make him choose. His old life or his new one. He couldn't have both.

But she knew she could never go back to Port Charles. The mafia thought she was dead and that was how it needed to stay. And whatever Jason was doing and no matter what changed with regard to what he wanted out of life, she knew he wouldn't leave the boys behind. Even if he was done with her.

So she waited...and waited...and waited. After two weeks, she had gone through all of the emotions. Anger, hurt, loneliness. Fear, bitterness and sorrow. Finally she'd settled on resignation.

There was nothing she could do but wait. Yet the longer she waited, the anger crept back in. Whatever he was doing, he'd left her to do it. He'd left them. Without a word, without a call. Without any indication of when he'd be back or where he was going. She only knew because of what Robin had told her.

Michael was awake.

He left her to care for his kids. Not that she wouldn't have done it anyway. She loved those boys and after two and a half years together, she thought of the two boys as her own. She could not have loved them more if they really were her nephews. She couldn't imagine loving anything more, even a child of her own.

But the fact remained, he left.

And of all the fears Maxie ever held in her life, through everything, fear of being left was the worst.

She'd already suffered that fate too many times in her twenty five years. Her father, her mother...then Robin for a while. Jessie, Lucky, Coop then Georgie.

She knew she could handle this, she would survive but each time a little piece of her died. Now she felt, with the loss of Jason, that it was pointless to put herself out there again. She never gave up. She hoped he'd return to her and tell her he loved her and wanted her. But at this point, she wasn't sure she'd be able to accept that as her fate.

Could she simply forgive him?

She'd worked so hard. She'd changed for him. Change she wanted and change she was ready for. Maturing and stopping the schemes and lies but changed for him was still the end result. Change to be worthy of his love.

And he left.

The sound of cracking wood pulled her from her thoughts as she looked up to see the limb that Jacob was climbing. It all happened in slow motion and she could do nothing but watch it all play out.

At least twenty five feet up in the tree the limb Jake had his foot on gave way and broke off of the trunk, Jake was holding on for dear life to the branch above him but it wasn't strong enough to hold his entire weight. It was bending and soon would break off too. Maxie let out a scream and panic set in when suddenly, two strong arms pushed her away from the tree as the lower limb fell to the ground in the very spot she was standing. Maxie watched as Jake fell, straight into those same two strong arms.

Safe.