Disclaimer: If I owned GH, I would so not be sitting in my room working on this- I would be hanging out with all of my GH friends!

A/N: Things are kind of going crazy around here, so I may not get all of the chapters I have written out typed up as quickly as I would like, but I will update daily- I need the time it takes to type the chapter and upload it and read a few stories on FF; it's like air. It calms me down from my crazy, crazy life, LOL…

--Chapter 8--

--Jason and Elizabeth's Penthouse Apartment--

Great, Jason thought- his psychotic ex-wife was back in town. Oh, boy, he thought, thinking about Carly and Jax's engagement. He had the sudden urge to bang his head on a wall, repeatedly. "She doesn't know about Jax and Carly, does she?" It was a rhetorical question, really, and Liz knew it- if Brenda knew about it, she would have already been to see Carly and, if that had happened, he would know about it.

Elizabeth watched Jason carefully, knowing he was mentally preparing himself for another huge Brenda/Carly battle. He had never cared for Brenda, though he… tolerated her… to an extent, at least, for Sonny and Robin. Two people that meant so much to him, Elizabeth thought as she waited for Jason to finish processing. Brenda and Robin were best friends- he knew that and he accepted it because, in the past few year, he and Robin had managed to repair their broken friendship; it was the same reason Robin had stopped telling him to watch out because Carly was nothing but trouble. He knew she hated Carly, but as long as Carly and Robin left each other alone, things were generally alright. Sure, he got caught in the crossfire every now and then when the two did cross paths, but he was thankful to have found a recent ally in Carly/Robin feuds- when Carly and Robin started bickering, Patrick had a tendency to just pick Robin up and carry her away, or at least drag her away. Elizabeth thought about the first time Jason had witnessed a furious Patrick throwing Robin over his shoulder and carting her off to keep her from getting into a cat-fight with Carly- he'd been absolutely astonished, but there had been this little tiny smile on his face that he hadn't been able to hide- he'd known then and there that Robin Scorpio's heart was in some serious trouble. He'd also realized that he trusted Patrick not to hurt his friend.

"Brenda and Carly are going to kill each other," Jason mumbled under his breath, the sentence coming out in the same tone someone would utter a string off curses.

Elizabeth chuckled softly, thinking he probably wasn't too far from the truth- those two really hated each other. "Maybe- but Robin and Carly hate each other, and they've managed to restrain themselves from committing acts of homicide so far," she pointed out.

"And all of Port Charles knows why," Jason told her, his head still thrown resting on the back of the couch. The fact that both women knew how much he valued both of them was the only thing that kept them as civil as they had ever been to one another- of course, Sonny's soft-spot for Robin, helped, too.

Liz nodded, unable to argue that point- after all, she herself had just been thinking along the same lines. "True…" she admitted, albeit hesitantly. She didn't want Jason to worry about another fight between Carly and Brenda- she knew he would get drawn into the fight, no matter how hard he fought to stay out of it. They'd drag him into it.

"And who do you think Carly hates more?" Jason posed the question, knowing that his best friend despised both Brenda and Robin- but he was pretty sure he knew who she disliked more…

"Brenda," Elizabeth answered, knowing that the fact that, in addition to everything with Sonny and Jax, Jason didn't like her only made Carly hate the other woman more. It was like it gave Carly the justification she sought to go after her- she wouldn't let Sonny's feelings stand in her way, not with the way she'd been going on and on about asserting her independence from him lately, and she was pretty sure she wouldn't let Jax's stand in her way, either- though, Jax might be able to keep Carly from actually physically harming Brenda.

Jason shook his head once more, trying to clear the thoughts from his mind- he knew he was going to be working overtime trying to put out fires between the three women since he was pretty sure Robin would get involved, too. She might hold back some when it was just her and Carly, but if Carly went after Brenda… Jason knew how close Robin and Brenda were, though he'd never understand it. They considered themselves to be sisters, and they'd always back each other up. Trying to put the impeding future aside for the time being, he raised his head and looked Elizabeth in the eyes.

"So, are we doing something with Patrick and Noah tomorrow?" he asked, thinking about how she'd asked Cam if the little boy wanted to meet her father and brother.

Elizabeth nodded, sensing that he no longer wanted to talk about- or even think about- Carly and Brenda. "Dinner at MetroCourt," she told him, catching the slight wince he gave- MetroCourt meant he was thinking about Carly, which led to thoughts of Brenda, which led to thoughts of screaming women pulling each other's hair. "You don't have to go, hon," she told him sincerely- there would be plenty of other opportunities for them all to do things together.

Jason shook his head- he knew what Liz was thinking; he'd always been able to read her like a book, but he knew this was important to her. "Your dad and brother want to announce it to the world that you're a part of their family, and this is their way of doing that- and I know you're looking forward to having your whole family together for the occasion," he said, his voice reverent. "I'll be there- after all, I am part of your family, aren't I?" The question was posed as a joke because he knew that she loved him and that he was just as much her family as Cam or Noah or Patrick.

Elizabeth smiled- it was a special smile, one she rarely gave. It was the smile that had first made his heart stop so many years ago at Jake's and the one that she reserved for only him. She knew that he'd meant it to be a joke, to lighten the mood, but she wanted him to know how much he'd taught her over the years about family. "When my family cast me aside- you were there. When Lucky traded me in for Sarah- you were there. You were there when I found him with Maxie. You've been there for me every time I've needed a shoulder to cry on or a sympathetic ear. When I thought I was unlovable, you proved me wrong. When I thought no one wanted me, you showed me that you always would. That's what family does, Jason- you showed me that. That's what friends and family do- and that's the type of family I want for our children," she told him, her voice barely more than a whisper. Her gaze had locked with his at the beginning of her little speech and had not wavered through it.

Jason nodded- it was the only way he knew to tell her that she had shown him the same things. He thought of the rebellious teenager he'd met years ago, the heartbroken young girl she'd been, and smiled at the thought of how much she'd changed- and yet, through it all, the essence of who she was had remained the same. She was Elizabeth- sometimes quirky, sometimes temperamental, always willing to lend a hand, smart, beautiful both inside and out, caring, generous, and so much more- and, for whatever reason, she loved him. She'd forgiven him just as he'd forgiven her, and they'd made peace with their past and learned from their mistakes.

No more words were spoken as Jason and Elizabeth sat together on the couch- Elizabeth still sitting on Jason's lap, one of her arms around his neck and her hand softly playing with the hair at the nape of his neck, while her other hand had become linked with one of Jason's and was now resting on her stomach, over the child they'd created together. Jason's arms were wrapped protectively around the woman he'd shared so much with already; the woman he knew he'd share his life with.