Chapter 8
Almost two years after Jason had left for South America, he was back.
As he exited the terminal and headed for the baggage claim, he saw Emily.
She ran at him full tilt and he braced for impact.
"Jason!" she yelled as she wrapped him in a bear hug. He swung her around for a moment much to the consternation of the people around them.
"It's good to see you too, Emily," he said, setting her back on the floor.
He retrieved his bags and Emily chatted animatedly all the way to the car.
"…and he says, 'Ma', and 'juice', except it sounds like 'joosh'. And, good Lord, Jase is he all over the place or what. I mean, Liz has gates everywhere, but he's like a little baby ninja, he creeps."
Emily noticed the grim look on her brother's face.
"I thought you would want to hear about how Cameron is doing…" she said, unlocking the car.
Jason stowed his things in the back seat and looked at her.
"I do. I really…" he paused, "I've missed so much. What if I can't make it up?"
"He's fifteen months old, Jason. I think you have time to make it up to him."
"Then, what if he doesn't like me, what if he won't let me hold him, what if I hold him and I drop him?"
They got into the car and Emily put the keys in the ignition.
"As worried as you are, Jase. You wouldn't drop him if he were dressed in vinyl and covered in grease."
Jason smiled and looked wickedly at his sister.
"Is there something I need to know about your personal life?"
Emily kept her eyes on the road and stuck out her tongue.
"I'm serious, Em," he said, plaintively, "What if I'm no good as a father. What if Liz…"
Emily abruptly pulled the car to the side of the road.
"You need to stop freaking yourself out. Is this what you did on the plane? Imagine worst case scenarios?"
"No, actually. It didn't become a reality to me until I got off the plane. Then I started imagining the worst case scenarios."
"Well, stop it. If Cameron senses all this anxiety, he will freak out and you won't get the visit that all of you need." She took a deep breath. "Liz made sure he would be just getting up from his nap as you got off the plane. So, he'll be rested and she'll give him some food and drink… It'll be fine. You just need to get yourself under control."
"Emily, I know absolutely nothing about kids. What do I say to him? What do I do?"
Em took her brother's hand in hers.
"Just be yourself, bro. I know he'll love you." She let go of his hand and put the car in gear. "Now quit your worrying and let me get you to the house."
"Okay," he said, beginning to settle himself down.
Liz paced the living room. Cameron looked at her from his highchair, mouthing a teething cookie. Scenarios ran through her head. Jason not showing. Jason not wanting Cameron. Jason being uncomfortable with them, and not wanting to come back. Jason telling her he never meant to make Cameron and…
She stopped before she worked herself into a full blown panic attack.
And she'd had a few in the weeks leading up to Jason's return.
When she heard the car pull into the driveway, her heart leapt into her throat.
She opened the door before they had a chance to knock.
"Wow, Liz, going somewhere?" Emily said mischieviously. She and Jason entered the house.
"Of course not… I just heard the car and I wanted to make you welcome…"
"Hi, Elizabeth," Jason said, locking eyes with her.
They stared for a minute before she could respond.
"Jason," she said, "How are you?"
"I'm fine. A little nervous."
"Don't worry, things will be fine," she said, sweeping her hair from her eyes.
"Ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma," Cameron started calling from his seat.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"Looks like Cameron wants to be part of the conversation," Emily said, chuckling.
"He just got up, he's been in a really good mood all day," Liz said, walking over to the boy and removing him from the chair. She walked back to Jason, holding the boy close and pressing a kiss to his forehead. "Do you want to hold him?"
"Maybe later," he said, shying back.
"Of course he does," Emily said, taking the boy and putting him in Jason's arms.
The man held the boy awkwardly. Jason and Cameron looked at each other for a long moment. Jason could see himself, and Liz, in the boy's face and… Yes, his smile. Cameron appeared to be sizing the man up, looking from hair, to face, to neck, pulling on the fabric of Jason's t-shirt, then reaching up to grab his nose. Jason smiled and let the boy explore.
They relaxed and Jason drew his son closer. They regarded each other more comfortably and Jason adjusted the boy in his arms.
Cameron laid his head on the man's chest, saying, "Joosh."
Jason looked to Liz. She pointed to the highchair across the room. Jason carried Cameron to the chair and offered him his sippy cup.
The boy drank his juice contentedly and cuddled closer to his father.
"Psssh," Emily breathed, "And you were worried he wouldn't like you."
Liz looked at Jason, some of her fears melting away.
Emily caught the look and said, "Um, I need to go and do some stuff somewhere, so you guys call me later and… Bye." She was out the door before either of them could say good bye.
"Your sister is about as subtle as a brick to the head."
Jason sighed, "What she lacks in subtlety she makes up for in deviousness."
They stood there for an awkward moment.
"So, how are you doing? Did you… Well, did you come to some conclusion? Figure out anything?"
"It's amazing how easy it was once I threw myself into the work. I could be who I felt. Not who I thought someone wanted me to be. But how's it been here, in Port Charles? Besides the whole motherhood thing, what have you been doing?"
Liz sat on the couch and motioned Jason over. He sat, with Cameron on his lap, next to her.
"Well, after eight weeks off, I started working at PCH. I've got freshmen and seniors for History and I'm the drama coach for the theatre group. I enjoy it very much. What are you going to do now that you're back? I mean, not to rush… I just mean, do you have any plans?"
He talked about starting his own construction company. He seemed to just stop, set Cameron carefully on the floor, and sweep Elizabeth into his arms. The second their mouths touched, Liz felt a jolt of electricity run through her entire body. She wrapped her arms around him, deepening the kiss, pressing against his chest. He tangled his hands in her hair and continued to kiss her passionately.
"Liz? Liz?" Jason said, waving a hand in front of her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine…" she said, pulling herself from the fantasy, "I'm just tired. You know, busy toddler, working… I'm okay."
"Well, if you're tired…"
"I can't do anything about it until bed time, so…"
"You could take a cat nap. I could sit here with Cameron. You'd just have to point out diapers and…"
"I can't ask you to sit with him."
"Why not?"
She sat with her mouth open a second.
"Well, have you changed a diaper?"
"No. But you could give me a crash course. I'm a quick study."
"I don't know…"
"Come on Elizabeth, show me once, I'll know how to do it forever."
She took Cameron from his arms and Jason followed her to the boy's room.
"Just watch, and then you try.
She deftly removed the old diaper. "Make sure you grab the new diaper and wipe before you open the dirty one," she said and cleaned the boy with a wipe, "And make sure you keep his front covered or you might get a surprise," she covered his nethers with the new diaper, lifted his butt, placed the new one, "Make sure you put the tabs on the bottom so you can see them," and then she pulled the tabs and secured the diaper.
"See, easy as pie. Think you can do it?"
"I built houses in South America, I think I can handle a dirty diaper," he said, with a playful glint in his eye.
"Well, then I'll thank you in advance. His snack is still on the highchair. So, give him that if he's hungry. I'm just going to fall onto the bed for a half an hour. Wake me then okay?"
"Sure thing," he said, "I'll just hang out with Cameron. It'll be fine."
She kissed Cameron and handed him to his father.
"Wake me if you need me."
"We'll be fine," he said and then looked at his son, "Right, Cam?"
The boy let out a squeak and smacked his dad in the face.
"I think that means yes."
Jason settled onto the floor, sitting beside his son. They, and by they he meant Cameron, had decided on brightly colored building blocks, or 'bocks' as Cameron so adorably called them.
The man was noticing that the boy took more relish in knocking the blocks down than stacking them up. It became most evident, the higher Jason stacked them. Cameron would swing his arm, knock the blocks down and giggle madly. They played in near silence, the only sounds Cameron's squeals of glee. Jason just stacked the blocks high and enjoyed being with his son.
Then, Jason felt the urge to get some things off his chest. As he stacked another soon to be destroyed tower, he began speaking to his son.
"I know you won't get all this, because you're so young. But I think there are things I need to tell you. I would have told you when you were born, but your Mom and I had differing opinions on… Well, that doesn't matter."
He finished a particularly high group of blocks and Cameron took an absurd amount of joy in knocking them down, giggling all the while. Jason starting stacking again.
"There are things we're going to do, things I'll show you, teach you. How to work with your hands, build things. But not just that, I want you to know how to be your own man, no matter what anyone, even family, says."
Block tower built, Cameron bounced animatedly as he swung his chubby arm and demolished it. Jason picked up the blocks, stretching to get one that had flown under the couch, and began building again.
"I was in South America the whole time you were hanging out in your Mom, and for a while after. I was with a group called Habitat for Humanity, and they build houses for people who can't afford it themselves. It was good working, building, being on my own for a while." He paused a minute. "But if your Mom had said she wanted me to come back, I would have been on the first plane home."
They followed the pattern, Jason built the tower and talked, pausing once it was built, watching Cameron knock the it down, then building it back up once again.
After a few more rounds of 'smash the blocks', Jason was beginning to get hungry. So, he started wrapping it up.
"One more time, buddy, then it's time for food."
Jason quickly stacked the blocks and paused, saying, "Oh yeah, knock over the blocks if you want me to marry your mom."
In a move that could only be coincidental, Cameron paused and looked up at his father. Jason tensed for a second, then the boy smiled a huge, juicy, teething smile, laughed and then knocked the blocks down ferociously. Jason scooped the boy up, deposited him in the high chair. He then cleared up blocks and set up the snack.
A half an hour later or so, Cameron was snoozing lightly, when Jason heard an unusually loud, arm rumbling, gaseous projection from the boys diaper area. Cam woke with a start, looking crossly at his Dad, as if to say, 'You gonna take care of that?'
"I think we can do this, right? Two strong, able-bodied men. Sure, what's one little diaper?"
By the time he grabbed the new diaper and laid Cameron on the changing table, he was beginning to change his mind. A smell he'd not encountered in the foulest ghetto of Caracas was emanating from his sons diaper.
"Why couldn't you have saved this for your mother? Is this some weird initiation? Like, you're not really a parent until you've cleaned the poop?"
Jason braced the squirming toddler with one hand and grabbed the wipes with the other. Once he pulled the tabs on the diaper and uncovered his son's nethers, he was immediately assaulted by a smell that would make the hardest man cry. The boy began wiggle, smearing things around.
"Thanks, Cameron. I appreciate it."
He lifted the toddler by the legs, wiping the offending area. Jason, however, forgot to cover the young boy's front with the new diaper. So, when he placed the boys bottom on the new diaper and let go of his legs, he got a surprise of the wet and yellow variety, square in the face.
Jason gasped, slightly, his face coloring. Cameron just laid there serenely, smiling up at his Daddy. Jason grabbed a extra wipe and cleaned his face, making sure the diaper was on securely first.
Once done he picked Cameron up and gave him a hard look.
"I'm giving you the first one free, but the next time you pee on me, it's gonna cost you," he said, then smiled and pulled the boy close, tickled him. "Come on, let's go wake up your Mom."