Chapter Eleven

Mac arrived the next morning, watching as Sonny was transferred from Mercy hospital to a police car. Back at the station, he was told"Alexis Davis and Nicolas Cassadine are in your office."

"Taggert, please be careful and escort Mr. Corinthos to a cell." he said then asked "Was Spencer taken to Pentonville."

"Yes, this morning." said the lead detective as Mac went into his office.

"Well you screwed up, didn't you Cassadine?" he said as an opening statement.

"I-I didn't know, I swear, I had no idea what Sonny was going to do. I just..." Alexis stopped him from speaking.

Mac looked at Nik and said "I believe you. I have been doing some looking into this, what to do with you. We have all talked, we are going to keep your part in this quiet, you however are going to leave the country. I wasn't aware that you had never chosen US citizenship exclusively. Go home to Greece."

"I will. Emily has already made it clear that we were done. I swear I never meant... well it doesn't matter. What I did, was dangerous I just wanted to keep my promise to my mother to protect my brother."he said stiffly. "There can be no excuses."

Standing, Mac held out his hand to shake the princes. "Cassadine, you have that right. The records will show that you gave up US citizenship and were deported for overstaying your visa."

"How long?" he asked quietly.

"Seventy-two hours." Mac replied. "The WSB will be watching to make sure you do as ordered."

Nik left and went to the hospital with Alexis who joined him in his office. "I can hear you yelling at me in your head."

"Nik, I thought you were done giving your life over to the Spencers."Alexis couldn't believe he had done this, have lost so much for people who would never be grateful. She was losing him, her last link to her family over their stupidity.

"I was, this was to get him far away from here unable to return." he said then heard Emily's voice. When she came in, they just stared at one another, no words coming out as Alexis left, knowing that they had to talk.

"Nik... I don't know what to say." she said bleakly. "Why?"

"I know what you are thinking, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. I have to leave, Emily, I can't come back. W-will you explain to Elizabeth for me."

"She was here this morning, dad gave her the day off. She and I already spoke, she figured it out, Nik. She knew you would never do that to her." she told the man she loved. "I love you, but honestly Nik, if she had been hurt or if Cam had been hurt, I would have never forgiven you, nor myself."

"So this is goodbye." he said reaching out and pulling her into his arms, "I will never forget you, Emily Bowen Quartermaine."

Resting her head on his shoulder, she said "I wish I could forget you, Nik."

With that, she went to leave, lingering at the doorway for a moment, she said "You know, Jason won't let this go."

"He shouldn't." said Nik bleakly. "But ask him to give me time to get my businesses in order and to find out what is going on with SC. He nor I want to have some loose cannon controlling my money."

"I will." she said then left, never looking back or she would lose her nerve. Jason had assured her that Nik would live, but he didn't deserve to know that.

Jason thought back on the long night holding Elizabeth, watching their son sleeping in the bed with them. "Morgan?"

Turning to see Dr. Winters, he asked what he could do for her.

"Ms McCall, she has been skipping our appointments." said the other woman. "I was hoping you could explain to her that she really needs help."

"Sometimes, the best way to get over things is to deal with them yourself. I will speak to the at home nurse, see if she will talk to her but like Dr. Meadows has surely told you, we are curtailing the time I spend with her." he said having too much to deal with. Sam seemed fine when he had stopped into the penthouse, other than her constant need to throw herself at him.

Lainey let it go, knowing she would get no place, but she had to try. Arriving at her office, she took out her notes then went to speak to her boss. "Sir, I am a bit concerned, she is not getting help and is clearly delusional. I feel if she doesn't get help, she will do something dangerous to herself or to someone else."

Alan listened as she complained that Jason wasn't taking this serious enough and that she really wished he would help her. "Lainey, my son is trying to prevent the same sort of mistake that has created the mess with Carly Benson still in his life. Now, if Ms. McCall doesn't come into the hospital for therapy, all we can do is keep an eye on her, we have no other options."

Lainey didn't agree, during what few sessions she had had with the woman, it was clear she was suffering from some very deep delusions, if it took getting one of those delusions to bring her in to get treatment, as far as she was concerned, that was a perfectly acceptable risk. She could deal with that delusion after getting her medical help.

The day before Thanksgiving, Jason was not happy to be called into the station. "Morgan, Corinthos has been refusing to see anyone but his lawyer. I have to admit, probably a good idea because I am sure you know there are rumors that the Ruiz family have taken out a hit. They aren't being discreet about it either. No decent defense attorney will touch him, the man he has is little more than a bottom feeder. Today, however Corinthos demanded to speak to Carly."

"Let him speak to her." he said knowing that Carly had no leverage left, "Why does it matter?"

"Carly, her husband and the boys left the country two days ago after school. She has no legal right to leave the country with those boys. The courts gave Bobbie Jones custody." Mac was giving him a heads up more for the sake of Bobbie who could be in trouble for letting her take the boys.

Getting that this might be trouble, he went to make a few calls. "Carly, what are you doing. You can't take the boys out of the county, let alone the state. Mac was kind enough to give me a warning, but you need to get back here."

"No."she said stubbornly. "If you are so worried, come down and join us for the holidays. What will you do otherwise, sit around watching Sam McCall. When will you realize she is nothing but trouble."

"Carly, I won't let you manipulate me. Get back here or face the consequences." Hanging up, Jason went looking for Elizabeth at the hospital. "We have to make plans for tomorrow."

"I thought we were having dinner at my place." she said as they stood in the supply closet. "What other plans do we need to make?"

"I was thinking, maybe we could start letting out our secret." he said with a kiss. His arms encircled her waist as he bent down to kiss her neck. "Starting with Emily, I think she needs a pick me up."

Their lips met again, then Jason pulled back and asked "What do you think?"

"I will invite her to stop over around six tomorrow night." she said with a shy smile as she thought of her surprise for him, then asked "Are you okay with this, I mean, with everything going on?"

"I want the world to know." he said as seriously as he could. "I know we agreed to wait until things had calmed down. The Ruiz family has gone back to Miami, Lorenzo is up to something, but it doesn't seem to involve us. Sonny will be going to prison. There is no out for him, not this time. My only worry is Carly and Sam."

Elizabeth didn't know but she was also a bit worried about Courtney who had been hanging around a lot at the diner. Every time she had gone there with Cam, the blond had been there, hanging around clearly waiting for someone. Courtney seemed to be at loose ends, she had seen her eyes on Jason, a look of longing yet despair. The blond had been acting strangely lately.

Seeing how happy Elizabeth was, he warned "Carly is not going to go away, quietly. I told you what she said during our meeting. I am worried because I don't know how much longer she can be held off. As for Sam, I have seen how restless she is, I am hoping she decides to move on soon."

Elizabeth doubted that would happen, first because she had seen Sam, had seen the way her eyes were constantly scanning the hallways when she was at the hospital, looking for Jason. As for Carly, she knew it was going to take something huge to finally get through to the blond who was as bad as her ex-husband when it came to Jason, if not worse.

Sam was going no where, she had made a plan and was now putting it into action. First up, pretending to be medically worse off than she was. Next up was using the money that Sonny to her surprise had actually given her to get another baby.

She had seen how Jason was with Michael, with kids in town and knew that the way to win the man she had come to decide was her soul mate was to get a child. She would prefer a girl, but would take a boy if that were the only option.

She was going to take a chance, reach out to old contacts, find a child that was already out there so that she could claim an old friend had asked her to take care of it. She was certain Jason would step up, after all he had already done so once.

Carly looked at the phone, then dialed the number again. Courtney had been avoiding her calls for some reason and she was getting the feeling that the blond had decided she wanted Jason after all, well that wasn't acceptable to Carly. Carly was deciding what to do about Courtney when she began to daydream of her perfect life with Jason.

Hearing her name being called, she hid her annoyance and joined her husband on the terrace of his hacienda. "So, I think that the boys had a good time today."

"Yes, they did." Carly had to admit, it had surprised her. Michael who had been most resistant to Lorenzo, had spent the day with him, riding out onto the estate while the nanny had kept Morgan.

Her son had been upset since the article in the newspaper, the lies that they had told. The idea that Sonny would kidnap Elizabeth was laughable, while he might help Lucky...

Carly fell into a chair with a thunk, why had Sonny helped Lucky? He had repeatedly said that Luke's son was on his own, that his obligations had died with the old man. Now, weeks later, why would he stage a breakout. Carly knew it wouldn't have been for Elizabeth, he loathed her even more than Carly did. So why would he do it...

"Carly?"asked Lorenzo handing her a glass of the estate's red wine. "What is going on in that pretty little head of yours?"

"Sonny and why he did what he did." she said truly puzzled.

Lorenzo knew the answer, but also knew that if he wanted his freedom,he couldn't tell her. Freedom, that was an elusive dream, he knew that... With a sigh, he thought about what Michael had told him today.

Getting the horse saddled up for his annual ride around the estate, Lorenzo was shocked when the preteen came up to him and asked if he could ride along. "Have you ever ridden on a horse?"

"A few times, usually at camp." admitted the kid. "Look, I need to talk to you, but without my mother hearing, and she is afraid of horses."

Assessing the kid who looked torn between his dislike of him and whatever was on his mind, Lorenzo turned to one of the caballeros and asked. Them to saddle a gentle horse. Seeing Michael scowling, he realized the boy spoke enough Spanish to understand what he said.

"Maybe if you prove yourself capable, I will have him saddle up a more spirited horse, but for now I think comfort is more important." he stated.

Michael nodded in agreement, telling Lorenzo just how serious whatever was going through his head was. Once in the saddle, they rode out a ways on the old dirt trail towards the waterfall.

There, Lorenzo dismounted, watched the boy dismount then tied both sets of reins to a tree. "Shall we sit?"

Seeing the rocks that looked just like chairs, Michael said "Did your staff bring those all the way out here?"

"No, mother nature and erosion did this." he replied, then using his hand brushed off the leaves and sat down. "What is on your mind Michael?"

With a deep breath, Michael just confessed. "I heard my dad, he had Uncle Jason kidnapped, then I heard him talking. He was making a deal, with Lucky after breaking him out of jail. Lucky wanted Elizabeth Webber's son dead. D-dad was going to do it."

Lorenzo looked down, clearly Michael had discovered his father wasn't quite the hero he had always thought he was. "How do you feel about that?"

Frowning a bit, Michael said "Well, in the case of Elizabeth, I really don't care. But her baby, they could have gotten rid of it other ways."

"Michael, why is that so acceptable to you, their kidnapping her, forcing her to go with Lucky Spencer when she didn't want to? I mean, you would be furious if someone did that to your mother. If someone got rid of your brother like that." he chided gently.

"But Elizabeth doesn't mean anything to me. I don't know her son." he answered honestly.

"But she does to her family, to her loved ones. Your Aunt Emily, to your grandmother, to lots of people you know, including your Uncle Jason who owes his very life to her." he said. "They would be upset."

"They would get over it, I mean, Mom doesn't like her, Aunt Courtney doesn't like her."

"Is there anyone at school you don't like?" he asked. When Michael nodded, he said "So because you don't like them, it is okay if say... well you know about predators, right?"

"You mean the sicko's they are always warning us about?" he asked."Yeah."

"Would it be okay if they grabbed that person?" he asked. When Michael quickly nodded no, he said "Then why is it okay that just because your mom and aunt don't like Elizabeth for her to be kidnapped by someone who would hurt her in the same way those sickos would hurt your classmate."

"But it isn't the same thing." he insisted. "Lucky wouldn't do that."

"Michael, he wanted an innocent little boy dead. Why do you think he wouldn't go that far."

Sighing, Michael thought about what the paper had been reporting about Lucky's dad, then about how small Elizabeth Webber was and said "Do you really think he would?"

"I do." said Lorenzo solemnly. "Michael, no one deserves that. You know that I kidnapped your mom, right. What you don't know was that at the time, well I thought I was saving her. I was wrong. No matter what I thought, there were others ways of doing things."

"Why did my dad go after Uncle Jason though, have him kidnapped." he asked plaintively. "Uncle Jason, always, always takes care of us."

"Because your Uncle Jason, well he is very protective of Elizabeth Webber and your dad knew what he was doing was wrong. He knew your Uncle would search for her, would never let the kidnapping go and he thought he could make it look like Elizabeth just ran off if your Uncle was out of the way."

"But why? Why did dad help?" asked Michael.

Lorenzo knew but also knew that the concept of power and the idea of how selfish Sonny was could do nothing but hurt this little boy."Michael, only your dad knows that, what I can say is, Elizabeth protected herself and her son."

"Mom says it is all her fault." Lorenzo really wanted to say that his mom was a selfish bitch who hated Elizabeth because she knew Jason had feelings for her, but he didn't, instead he just lamely tried to find a palpable explanation.

"Mom said Uncle Jason is going to make her pay, but she doesn't know what I overheard." he confessed. "I want to tell her, but she gets all upset if I bring it up."

"Then we will keep it a secret, between the two of us until such a time as you want to tell her." he knew that would be never, he had heard Carly shouting and knew that she had frightened both her sons. It was why he had suggested the trip to Venezuela. What he hadn't expected was her to bring the boys along instead of leaving them with her mother like she was required.

"Where are you?" with that, Lorenzo came back to the present and saw his wife had drained her glass while he had been daydreaming. "What is going on with everyone. Courtney, er, Jason, both of them are acting funny."

His phone ringing, Lorenzo was grateful for the interruption. Grimacing at the news, he said "Okay, I will deal with it."

"Carly, I have to go to Bolivia." he said reentering the room and lying to his wife. In truth, he was going to Miami for a meeting with the Ruiz family, then on to Port Charles,"After that, I am to have a meeting with a colleague. Do you want me to send you home?"

Smiling inwardly while pretending to be upset, she said "No, I will, we will wait for you and got home together."

"I might send the plane back for you, if I end up in the states." he warned.

Thinking on it, Carly decided that this was perfect, she could go home, convince Jason to spend the holidays with Michael, Morgan and her. Maybe if she played it just right, Sam would be out on her ass and Carly along with Michael would be right back where they belonged. At home with Jason.

Elizabeth woke up to the feel of Jason's lips trailing down her neck and moaned softly. "Don't stop."

"I have no intention of stopping." he said while kissing his way down her chest, his hands leading the way. Hearing his son calling out in his crib, he said "Cam has the worst timing."

Elizabeth gave a small secretive smile, her hand resting on his head, brushing his hair back as she reminds him. "Jason, it is almost eight o'clock."

Resting his head against her stomach, feeling that it seemed a little hard, he was about to get up but before doing so, he dropped a kiss on her belly, deciding to blow her little secret out of the water. "Morning baby Morgan."

Stiffing, then with a pout to her lips, Elizabeth lifted his head so she could look into his eyes. "How did you...?"

Maneuvering around so that he was able to kiss her lips, he said with a smirk. "I saw the box in the trash when I emptied it the night Cam stunk up his diaper so bad, then I saw you coming out of Dr. Lee's office when I came looking for you yesterday. You looked rather happy."

"Thwarted by my own son." she said. "I had it all planned, I was going to surprise you tonight. I guess that means I can take back your present."

Jason had never really liked presents, at least those given on special occasions, but this time, well he was more than happy to accept a present and asked where it was. "Hallway closet."

Getting up, pulling on his sweats, Jason went to get Cam who began to babble at him then stopped, opened the closet doors and found the plainly wrapped box. "Lets go join mommy back in bed, okay?"

Only part of the sentence Cam heard was Mommy and was already trying to get to the doors he knew would lead to his mother. When he had been handed over, Jason sat down on top of the covers and carefully opened the box.

Inside he found the rattle and the small booties in the gift box then looked at her with tears in his eyes as he leaned over to kiss her. Cam reached out for the nose right in front of him then began to giggle as his dad lifted him up high in the air. "You are going to have a baby brother or sister."

Bounding back up, Jason looked at Elizabeth and asked if she was feeling okay."Yes, I just noticed I was a little tired mid afternoon and wanted to take a nap. I had Kelly run the test quietly just in case."

"So no one but us knows?" he asked a bit intensely. Seeing her nod, he replied. "We need to spread the news a little faster now, I don't want to miss out any thing. I am only sorry that with Cam, I didn't figure out the truth in time."

"Me too." she said regretfully as she watched his carrying their son down the stairs, talking to him about their plans for the day. Standing, she stretched, then went to call Emily. "Emily are you going to be able to come over tonight?"

"I will be there with bells on. Maybe we can go shopping tomorrow. I could spend the night and we could head out early." she suggested eagerly. "We could ask Georgie to babysit."

"Georgie is working her new job tomorrow." Elizabeth pointed out. "Besides, you hate shopping on Black Friday. How about instead we have lunch at Kelly's and go to the museum. Cam loves it."

TBC