Part 34 -

-Elizabeth's Room-

Elizabeth blinked at Cameron, staring at him as if he'd disappear, her hands smoothing down his arms and brushing back his hair. "Oh, baby... I've missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Mommy... you were gone!"

Elizabeth nodded and pressed a kiss to each of his cheeks after his forehead. "I know... I know... but I never... ever... stopped loving you or the ba-" her face flushed and she gasped in a breath, "the baby."

"Is fine." Alan stepped a little closer and gave her a smile. "We brought the baby in but you..."

"I didn't think he was mine." Elizabeth's recount of the moment was spoken in a voice barely above a whisper. "I hoped that was just a nightmare." She looked at Alan with more than a hint of desperation in her eyes. "I AM awake... right?"

Alan nodded. "Very much so... and I believe in the right frame of mind."

"Paging Dr. Quartermaine... Doctor Alan Quartermaine..."

Looking up at the speaker above his head he gave Elizabeth a little grimace. "Looks like they discovered that I ran off with Cameron."

Elizabeth's curious look made him smile. "Where was he?"

Cameron's little face soured and he looked at his mother out of the corner of his eye. "I told Grammy Audrey a fib... just a LITTLE one!"

Alan stepped outside to answer the page.

Elizabeth lifted Cam's chin with her fingers and gave him a little smile. "How little?"

- General Hospital ER Hub -

The phone rang and Monica snapped up the handset. "Alan?" She nodded at Audrey and Jason. "Where is- Yes, but why- Alan, I don't see- Ahhh, okay." She gave Jason a smile. "Take Kevin back to Elizabeth's room. Cameron's with her."

Jason saw the smile on Monica's face and felt his heart begin to beat within his chest. He felt a hand on his arm and turned to Audrey.

"I'll bring Kevin... go."

Jason rounded the hub and ran for Elizabeth's room.

-Elizabeth's Room -

Elizabeth cuddled Cameron at her side, avoiding the tender stitches and her incision. "So we know it's not nice to lie to Grammy Audrey."

"Uh huh." Cameron smoothed the blanket with his hands. "No lying."

"I'm just glad that Dr. Quartermaine brought you to see me." She leaned back against the pillows and ran her fingers through Cam's hair. "I think you were just the person I needed to see."

"Elizabeth?"

At first she could only manage an indrawn breath as she stared at the man filling the doorway.

Jason looked at Cam who was sitting beside Elizabeth. The young boy was grinning ear to ear. "Jason!" He took Elizabeth's hand. "Mommy's back!"

He could barely nod in response, his eyes took in every nuance of her expression and his mind struggled to process it. He hung back in the doorway, watching her.

Elizabeth smiled at him, a soft wistful smile that lit her face. "Hi."

"Hi." He didn't know what else to say. He couldn't say what he wanted to... not until he knew he wasn't going to frighten her into another attack. "Looks like you've got a friend there."

"You mean Cameron?" She lifted their joined hands and kissed Cameron's fingers. "One of my babies." She saw the change in his expression and nodded. "I remember."

He nodded. Wordless. Breathless. As if he were standing on a cliff staring down into nothing, he had no idea what to do next. What to say to make sure that she was really back.

"And I'm hoping," she cuddled Cameron to her side, "that you'll have them bring our baby in."

It took a second. A long heavy click of the clock hands on the wall for Jason's mind to register the reality of her words. 'Our Baby.' The thought was almost too much for him to bear. Turning, he met Audrey and Monica standing in the hallway in conversation with Alan. By their expressions he could tell they'd heard some of what Elizabeth had said.

Alan was the first to recover from the shock of it all. "Why don't we take Cameron for some ice cream in the cafeteria." He looked over at Audrey. "I hear it's just the thing for a tummy ache."

Nodding, Audrey ducked past Jason to enter the room as Monica called up to the Maternity ward. Dr. Lee was happy to bring 'Baby Boy Morgan' to Elizabeth's room.

Cameron was only too happy to go with Grammy Audrey for ice cream but gave his mother a quick kiss on her cheek before he let Grammy lower him to the floor. After that, a quick high-five from Jason was his ticket out the door.

Elizabeth folded her hands once and then a second time as she watched Jason move further into the room. "I can't tell which one of us is more nervous."

He almost smiled as he advanced further. "I know I can't dream," he almost whispered the words, "but part of me is convinced that this is what it must feel like."

Her smile was a bit drawn at the corners. "I felt like I was trapped inside my own head," she sighed, "like those dreams I used to have where I couldn't wake myself up and it just kept on going."

"I've gone through a nightmare since the Metrocourt," he began, "thinking you were dead... hoping you were alive... finding out about the clinic... chasing after that doctor... only to lose you again when you thought," he blew out a breath, "you thought I was there to kill you... to take you away from Ri-"

"I remember parts of it...remember the hurt on your face."

He felt her words like a caress. "When I realized you were in labor... knew how early it was... I was afraid... really afraid." He continued on... talking in a way that Elizabeth wondered if it was possible for Jason Morgan to ramble on. "... and when they brought you into the ICU, I kept thinking about what I'd say to you when you woke up. Tell you that after all the fear and the worry that the only thing I was certain of... was that I want you in my life. I want us to be a family. I want you to ma-"

"Jason," she shook her head, "I wanted to tell you... I was going to tell you... but you don't have to say anything more." She gave him a soft grateful smile. "I would never keep you from this baby if it's what you want, but you don't need... you don't need to sacrifice your happiness like this."

"Elizabeth," he shook his head, a crease between his brows, "it's not like that I lo-"

"Looks like mommy has a visitor!" Kelly Lee's appearance shook them both, but Elizabeth recovered first.

She sat up a little straighter on the bed, her neck arched to see into the bassinette even as her hands clasped together over her heart.

Kelly stopped beside the bed and reached in, carefully lifting the baby and gently setting him in his mother's waiting arms. "He's been such a good boy... the darling of the ward. Every nurse there is totally in love with this little guy."

Elizabeth looked at the soft cap of blond hair and stifled a sob when the baby opened his eyes to show her ice blue eyes. "Oh my... hello, pumpkin."

Kelly touched Elizabeth's arm. "You guys get acquainted, call when you want someone to come get him, okay?"

Laughing and crying at the same time Elizabeth didn't even look up. "That won't be for a long time..." She looked over the baby's face in wonder. "You're perfect."

"All ten fingers and toes." Jason was at her side, his gaze focused on the two people before him. "I must have counted them a hundred times."

"I don't even have a name for you, sweetie," she drew in a breath, "and you've already spent days as Baby Boy... Morgan." She looked up with a smile. "So what about you, Jason?"

"Me?" He was shaken by the question.

" A name... is there something you'd like to call him... call our son?"

Jason sat down on the stool beside the bed, his legs no longer able to hold him up. "A name."

Elizabeth felt the baby turn his head toward her breast, his lips brushing against the soft cotton of her hospital gown. Another flutter of joy beat within her heart as she adjusted the gown so that she could nurse. The heavy fullness in her breasts eased as the baby's lips closed over her nipple and he began to suckle.

When she was able to lift her gaze to Jason she smiled. The look in his eyes was part amazement and part desire. There was something deeper as well. She wanted to believe that he loved her as much as she loved him. She wanted there to be something deeper between them than obligation.

"It's hard to believe," his words were little more than a whisper, "that night... long ago... when I grabbed that guy that was touching you... and you were so angry with me... and now-"

"And now," she reached out a hand to cover his hand on his knee, "and now you're the father of my son... my friend," she bit her lip, "you mean... so much to me."

Jason looked at her hand, so pale and beautiful... long tapered fingers and graceful curves beside the hard calluses and scars. "I knew back then that you were something beautiful... something that I couldn't... shouldn't be near." His lungs screamed for a breath. "Knew even when you pulled me up out of the snow that I should have died instead of bringing you into the life... into my life."

She squeezed his hand and made him look up at her. "I chose to help you, Jason. Chose to keep you in my life. Don't think I don't understand what you're saying... what you've always said, but I need you to know something, Jason." She gave him a heartbreakingly beautiful smile. "I-"

"I love you, Elizabeth." He swallowed his heart down back into his chest. "I love you when I know I shouldn't and I love you every minute of every day. I'm not sacrificing a thing when I tell you that I need you in my life. I need you and the boys... as a family. My family."

Elizabeth was stunned into silence as she wondered if she was now trapped in another kind of dream... one full of hope and love only to come crashing down around her ears. "Oh, Jason-"

"Don't..." he shook his head, "you don't have to say anything... I don't care if you need to think about this for a week... or a month... but just don't say no... not right now." He looked at the baby fixed at her breast and he swiped at a tear that slid down his cheek. "I just need to hope... to believe that you might want the same thing... that you might-"

"You're rambling," she grinned at the shock on his face, "and I can't help but love every rambling word that comes out of your mouth... because I love you, Jason. I love you... and it probably started that night... when you sat there and listened to me say everything that no one else would listen to. You sat there and let me just feel everything that I'd bottled up inside... and now," she took in a gasp of air, "look how far we've come." She nodded. "And maybe we can honor that start... again."

"All I know," Jason managed the squeeze the words out past the lump in his throat, "is that I'm here... with you... and I'm going to make this work."

"We," she corrected, "are going to make this work, Jason." She smiled at him as he lifted her hand to his lips. "Together."