Chapter 2:Fact vs. Truth

The fact that many people believe something is no guarantee of it being the truth.

Epiphany went into the small office allotted to her by the hospital and made a quick call. "We have a problem, the boys are missing."

The man on the other end swore then said "I will tell him but he isn't going to like this."

"Really, you think?" she asked sarcastically. "Find those boys. Right now everyone is looking the other way, convinced that your patient is all the things she isn't, but at some point someone in this town is going to grow some brains."

"Not likely." he snorted before hanging up. Stopping the older man, he said "We need to find the boys."

Looking at the man standing outside staring at his patient, the doctor bowed his head, "He is going to go crazy when he hears this."

"We don't have a choice, there are two little boys out there with god knows who and for who knows how long. Spencer that idiot never reported anything to the police."

"And we just sent the one officer in Port Charles with any brains on his own hunt." said the man entering. With a grim expression on his face, he asked "Did you reach him?"

"No, he still isn't answering, just like it has been since August." replied AJ. "I only wish..."

"I know, I just don't know what to do. She needs me." he said looking at the woman alone in a room trying to get her strength up. "But the boys, they need me too."

AJ decided it was time to step up. "She isn't going to trust me, but at least she doesn't loath me with the power of a thousand suns right now. You go find the boys, let me help Elizabeth. It's what Emily would want."

!!*!!

Spinelli smirked inside when Lucky Spencer read the test results proving he was the father of Jacob Martin Spencer. He had no intention of letting Sam lose everything and when the Spencer's had realized that Jason's funds were just sitting there, he knew they would use Jason's son to try and steal them.

Heading back into the hospital room with Lucky's rants still clearly being heard, he knew he had to reassure his goddess and decided to make sure no one ever learned the truth. "Goddess, we have to talk."

When Sam looked up from the bandaged face of his master, he said "I have some regretful news, they ran DNA tests on Jake, he isn't Stone Cold's son."

"That BITCH!" I know that I should have insisted on Jason having another DNA test. She is such a lying little whore. How dare she, she should be glad she is dead. Wait until I tell Carly, I hope she goes after the money that Jason gave the lying slut."

Patrick was outside the hospital room, gathering evidence as he heard the woman hollering. He knew that Jake was Jason's son, the fact that Sam didn't realize something was wrong with the picture told him that she truly was delusional.

Seeing Monica Quartermaine coming his way, he asked if she had a moment. "I have arranged for the plastic surgeon to come and start working on Jason. Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, when he wakes up it will be harder for him to deal with being in the hospital." she said feeling dead tired. Since getting the news about Sam's baby, all she wanted to do was cry. The PI was the last woman she had wanted as the mother of her grandchildren.

Alexis sat down with Lainey and the girls, not sure about this but Sonny was sure that it would help deal with the fallout of what Elizabeth had told her innocent young daughters.

"Okay, you may ask anyone in this room any questions you want." said Lainey who winced when Kristina looked at her mother who was sitting next to Sonny and said "Is it true? Did Sam sleep with Ric while you were married to him?"

Swallowing, Alexis started to deny it only for Kristina to say scornfully, "Don't lie, I saw the transcripts of Jason's trial. I KNOW that it is true, I just wanted to see if you were going to tell the truth."

With that the sixteen year old got up and walked to the door saying "This is just a waste of time if all you are going to do is lie."

Alexis stopped her from leaving and said forlornly "What do you want me to say. I know how close you are to Ric, how can I bear to tell you he seduced your own sister."

Shaking her head with her face to the door, Kristina said softly. "Mom, stop making it all Ric's fault. Sam was just as responsible. No more, I can't take it. I want to move to LA with Ric, Molly does too."

"NO!" said Sonny from the sofa only for Kristina to look at him with scorn. "I don't want my daughter near him."

"Wow, you remembered I am your kid, well until the next time you forget. And you don't get a say. I am sixteen and the courts take my wants into consideration. By the way, you weren't too worried about his being around when you were married to that leech Carly or when you were chasing after Kate or when you were screwing the woman who was behind Michael getting shot. Let me guess you want to get back into Mommy dearest's knickers. Well good luck."

"Kristina get back here this instant." said Alexis only to watch as her daughter kept heading out the door.

"Alexis, you need to tell her..." Sonny stood and went to call one of his guards.

"No, no I don't. She is right, Ric has been a good stepfather to her and if he can help her deal with things, I am going to let her go and if you are any kind of father, you would too." Alexis felt her life spinning out of control and knew that letting Kristina go would also help with whatever else was bothering her little girl.

Lainey sat watching them leave, waiting and wondering when the man from the state board was going to deliver her evaluations. She had been called and informed that at some point today she was to be told if she could keep practicing or not.

Hearing a knock, she looked at her clock and took a deep breath as Patrick entered the room along with the state certification examiner. "Dr. Winters, shall we get started?"

An hour later, Lainey was clearing out her office stunned that her so-called friend Elizabeth Webber had been the catalyst for her losing her medical license. Hearing a knock on her door, she let in the older woman who was taking over her patients at least temporarily.

"Dr. Baldwin, here are the important files." she said handing them over only to see her toss one down. Picking up the Corinthos file, Lainey said "He is bi-polar and needs lithium."

"He will need to find a different doctor. I refuse to treat the man who got my granddaughter addicted to pills and then forced her into stripping." she said before continuing to read. "This one here. Isn't this the reason your license was revoked. Elizabeth's son's kidnapping?"

"I still can't believe she did this to me, we were friends." said Lainey only for Gail to looked up and shake her head.

"She didn't do this to you, I reported you but you were the one who screwed this up. I was talking the the rape crisis therapist, she has been treating Elizabeth for her PTSD since she didn't trust you. You aren't fit to practice medicine. You should have stepped back from that case, but you didn't. Same with Robin Scorpio Drake and you have a major conflict of interest treating Sonny Corinthos at the same time as his children and his ex-wife. You seem to have never heard about the concept of boundaries."

Lainey was shaking when she left the building by the time that Gail had reamed her out.

The older woman went to find Monica and said "Elizabeth Webber has been suffering from PTSD for years, yet she has been capable of living a fairly normal life in spite of the damage your son did and losing your daughter. What is your excuse?"

Looking up in shock, Monica said "What are you talking about?"

"The drinking, then accepting help from the woman who watched your grandson get kidnapped? The woman who did all of that to get back in Jason's bed."

"Once again, I have no idea what you are talking about?" asked Monica as she sat down. "Someone watched as Michael was kidnapped?"

"No Jake. Jason's son with Elizabeth, no matter what those computer results say, I know the truth. Jake is Jason's son and I find it interesting that test results from '06 are in the computer when we can't access files from just before the fire." she said scornfully. "My guess is that a certain Mr. Spinelli I have been hearing about strikes again."

"But Sam..." Monica didn't like Sam but she was carrying her grandchild.

"...is the reason you didn't know about Jake." Gail was about to toss her rules away, she had made a deal and part of that was getting the truth about things out. She then went on to reveal what Elizabeth had told her therapist about both kidnappings and the attack in the park.

"Oh my god, what was Jason thinking?" asked Monica as she left Gail and walked down the hall in time to see Audrey Hardy slapping Lucky Spencer across the face. Getting the elderly woman away from the gathering crowd, she said "I am on your side. I know the truth about Jake."

Once Gail and Audrey had left, Monica thought about things and knew that she couldn't fight Sam in regards to Jason's health care just yet, but she was going to make sure that when her baby was born it wasn't raised in the cess pool that was the life of her son and his so called friends.

Robin went to the records, wishing she could recall Jason's blood type. Finding them, she then went to see Rebecca Shaw. "Those test results I asked for earlier, are they ready yet?"

"Just finished." she said handing them over.

When she located Patrick, she showed her husband what she had found. "There is something wrong here. Either when we transferred back from Mercy our records were screwed up or someone deliberately changed Jason's blood type."

"One moment." said Patrick then went to his fax machine grateful he had already done some research. Comparing the files he said "No, according to the boarding school that Monica sent the boys, what we have on file is correct. So the better question would be did Jason spontaneously change blood types or who is that man lying in the hospital bed claiming to be Jason Morgan?"

"We need to tell Sam." said Robin urgently worried about the pregnant woman.

Stopping her from leaving, Patrick said "No we don't. Not without proof. This goes no further than the two of us. I need you to let go this sudden idea that Jason and Sam belong together and help me find out what the hell is going on in this town."

Thinking on the letter from her Uncle Mac where he told her he had to chase something down and not to trust anyone but Patrick. Not even Maxie, she started to wonder if maybe just maybe whatever Uncle Mac was doing was connected to this mess.

!!*!!

Lucky was determined to track down his son now that he knew the truth. Going over to Elizabeth's house he found it empty and the realtor couldn't tell him where the stuff was. Sure that Audrey had arranged it, he went over to confront the woman only to get into an argument with Steven who reminded him who he worked for.

"I need to find my son." he insisted. "And I need to access those funds in order to do it."

Steven just glared at the Spencer creep and said "Elizabeth's money? She had about five thousand dollars in the bank, that's it. Now get out here and stay away from this investigation. The FBI is going to look for my nephews, I contacted someone who owes me a favor."

Slamming his way out, he never saw Steven make a phone call. "Have you found my nephews?"

"No, are you sure that their stepfather didn't grab them?" asked the agent. Then he added. "There are tests that prove Spencer is the father."

"They were falsified, I personally ran tests for my grandmother a few years ago, Jason Morgan is the father of my nephew. Someone here is trying to cover up that fact."

"We already have a suspect. He has popped up a few other times." said the agent in charge before hanging up to go back to trying to track down two children.

Lucky went straight to Spinelli, "I need to access the money that Jason gave to Elizabeth. I need to find out who grabbed my son."

"I will get it for you." he said quietly. It was the least he could do since Sam was pressuring him to retrieve the money she thought that Elizabeth had gotten wrongfully. He was beginning to get the idea his plan was wrong.

When he finally got past the firewall, he blinked the stuttered saying "It's gone. There is nothing there. A few thousand dollars, that's it." Less than a week before there had been over five million dollars in that account.

"I need that money, just wire it to my account." said Lucky. When the transaction was done, he left never seeing the shock on Spinelli's face. When Maxie showed up, he told her what was going on.

"Did Elizabeth fake her death?" she asked only for Spinelli to poo-poo that idea.

"This is Elizabeth Webber, she is too scared of her own shadow to do something like that." he said then recalled the day she had visited the warehouse and went to talk to the doctor who operated on Elizabeth.

Instead he overheard Epiphany comforting another nurse. "I have to believe that she is in a better place. There was so much here that caused her pain."

Realizing he was overreacting, Spinelli just figured that somehow the Webber family had cleared out the account thinking that someone was going to want the money back. Stopping in to see Sam, he went to the Scorpio residence with Maxie who was worried about her father.

!!*!!

Mac had arrived in Boston and was trying to figure out the clue he had been sent. Checking into the bed and breakfast, he pretended to be just another tourist for the day. Smoots, what the hell was a smoot and how was he going to find out why they sent him the picture from the sixties to him.

Arriving on the MTA he went to the bookstore like ordered and soon had the travel guide purchased. Stopping at the Quincy Market he bought some lunch and read the guide front to back with no more answers than he had started with.

Exploring Harvard, he stood on the bridge, his mind on Georgie more than the clue. If they had had the money this was the law school he had hoped to send her to. His poor little girl, he found himself tearing up as he walked off campus and back to his room.

Sitting there he hoped that Robin had the sense to keep her head down and that Maxie would finally do something to end the one-sided mess of a relationship with Spinelli so they were out of the line of fire.

Thinking about the e-mail, he took it out and read it again. "At four smoots, yee shall find the answers to the age old question of is there life after death. The chase begins from the moment you opened this e-mail. Start in the home town of Ben Franklin, and who knows lightning may strike twice."

It was signed only with a small motorcycle. He had tracked down the brand and had been shocked to find it was the symbol for Morgan cycles. He didn't know what it meant but he knew that with Jason down, someone was coming after Port Charles and his daughter was in the middle of the mess. His only hope was that he could track this message down and maybe, just maybe save her.

!!*!!

John arranged for a babysitter, hating to leave them with a stranger but then wasn't that what he was. At the time it been spontaneous. He had been leaving the warehouse after planting the listening devices to find proof that Morgan had killed his sister.

He had seen the building explode and then his car as well. Seeing the minivan parked a little ways away, he had only intended to steal it in order to get away. But he had seen the suitcases and the car seats followed by the picture of Jake and Cameron on the visor.

When he had overheard Alexis Davis saying something about Elizabeth, he had realized that she was the woman with Jason, the woman he had kept saying all those strange words to. He had known something was wrong, but when he heard them saying at GH she wasn't going to make it, he had just acted without thinking.

Distracting the woman with the kids, he had promised to deliver them to their father, telling the woman about Elizabeth's death. He couldn't imagine a worse fate for a child, then ending up where he himself had and had decided that instead of avenging his sister's death, he would instead save those two boys from ending up in the same life when Jason woke up.

Talking to Claudia's uncle, he informed him of what he believed to have happened then asked for his help getting passports for the boys. "You will need more papers that that."

Nodding that he understood, Johnny said "My father can never know."

"Understood, I tried to talk my sister out of marrying him, but she was determined. Claudia was very much like Dominica. You do know that eventually someone will come looking."

With a sad expression, Johnny said "I doubt it, Morgan threw his son away, as for the other little boy, his father is dead. Someone needs to give them a chance to live a normal life."

"May the soul of your dead mother guide you." said the mobster as he arranged for what he needed. "Go with my blessing."

"Thank you." with that Johnny was quickly back at the hotel and soon was on his way promising the little boys he would find their mommy but that for now, they had to pretend he was their dad.

"Why?" asked Cameron.

"To protect you both, I swear no one will ever harm you two again." he said solemnly.

!!*!!

Once the other man had left AJ called the doctor. "I want you to let me talk to her. Maybe I can get through to her."

"She doesn't remember you. She doesn't remember Port Charles."

"I don't understand, she had those memories the other day when she woke up. You saw what she did." Elizabeth had attacked using the plastic butter knife with her lunch to stab him in the arm.

"But she did what I suggested, tried to find a safe place. She is locked in that safe place. She has gone back to when she was a little girl, playing hide and seek with her dad at his office. Until she is ready to face things, she will not come out."

"But how will she be ready if she doesn't come out?"

With a sad expression the doctor said "I don't know if she will ever be able to overcome all the repeated traumas of her past. You need to find those little boys, they are your best hope of helping her."

AJ gave a heavy sigh and said "We should have stepped in and dealt with things in September, but no one had any idea how bad things were. But we should have known this is Port Charles we are talking about."

The blond was on the phone using his contacts to track down Elizabeth's sons. When he crashed with his last available contact, he considered using one he swore he wouldn't until he was sure about them. Just as he was ready to press send on the phone to call Spinelli, his phone rang.

"John Zachara has gone underground." The blond closed his eyes in pain before hanging up. At least he knew the kid wouldn't kill the boys, at least until the man in the hospital woke up. Shaking he called the one contact he still definitely trusted. "See what you can find out about John Zachara."

"Fine." said the woman's voice. "I think you should consider telling one more person."

As he listened to her reasoning he said "No, it is too risky. I regret even dragging you into this mess."

"You had no choice." she said before hanging up. Heading down the hospital corridors, the spy got close enough to listen and knew that soon things would start clearing out. Sure enough, the very next morning, Luke Spencer was brought into GH with acute heart failure.

As the Spencer family gathered around, she listened and soon realized no one had any idea about what was really going on. They were completely in the dark and she only hoped it would stay that way.

When she saw Lulu walk off to a quiet corner with her latest boy toy,, Epiphany heard them discussing his being a police officer and the blond being worried about her ex-boyfriend who was missing.

Shaking her head that the blond wasn't worried about her supposed nephews who were missing, the head nurse was going to call her contact when she saw Alexis talking to two men in the doorway. As soon as the news that Luke Spencer was going to be fine was announced, she gave a small smile when the two men informed the Spencer family that the Haunted Star's gambling license had been revoked by state law.

Four hours later when she saw the fireman coming in with smoke inhalation mentioned fighting a fire at the old Deception building, she got that the first shots had been fired in a war that only she realized was coming.

TBC