Thank you to all the story followers! :) I love the feed back! More reviews please. It helps a lot! I had a little trouble deciding which direction to take this chapter in part of me wanted to go with Elizabeth's perspective but I realized I need to go with AJ one more time. So thanks Guys Keep reading and reviewing! Special shout outs to Lizbeth2003, MackenzieH, and angelbg. SashaHailie as always you give me some of the best ideas :)

If anyone thought coming back from the dead was easy they were dead wrong. AJ thought as he slammed into his apartment. His day had not gone well at all. Michael was still resisting his presence in his life. No matter how hard AJ tried to show him that he loved him, Michael still held back. The two had gone for lunch at Kelly's after another endless board meeting. AJ had tried to talk about ELQ thinking it was common ground. Michael then accused him of trying to use him to get his way with the board. AJ assured him that wasn't true, and switched the topic asking instead about Starr, Michael's girlfriend. Michael told him to leave Starr out of it. And sullenly looked back at his plate. Something had changed. He and Michael had started to build a fragile relationship but it was beginning to crack. Not wanting to push Michael, AJ suggested that they head back to ELQ offering to pay for lunch. Michael had accused him of trying to buy him off. AJ told him it was just lunch, not a car and that he wasn't out to buy his son back. Michael had been angry and stormed off.

The day had taken an unexpected turn for the worse when AJ grabbed his coat to leave Kelly's, and saw Alexis Davis and standing in the doorway with a young woman and a large man by her side. She froze in the doorway staring at him in disbelief. They had already crossed paths once since he returned. She had done her damnedest to get him sent to prison, but the lawyer that Monica had hired still had gotten him off. All it took was to be seen by two different psychiatrists to both say that he had been indeed suffering from Post traumatic stress from having his son taken away from him and the repeated attempted murders by Sonny. Hanging on a meat hook had scarred him and caused a temporary disruption in his rational thought process.

Alexis stared at him in shock. The man at her side glared at AJ and leaned into Alexis' side and said something to her. Alexis shook her head. AJ walked over to where they stood, his heart racing the entire way.

"Alexis I-"

"Why are you here?" She asked. "Why did you have to come back here? We were all fine. We have all moved on with our lives"

"Alexis," He began again. "I'm sorry. I don't know what else I could possibly do or say. But I am so sorry for everything I put you and your family through."

"I don't believe you!" Alexis was pissed. "I don't believe you anymore than I believe your trussed up shrinks. I think you are still the same spoiled little boy who will do anything to get his way" She shook off Shawn's restraining hand. "Molly, go sit down." She turned back to AJ. "You stay away from me and away from my family is that understood?"

AJ felt like he had been yelled at by his own mother. He deeply regretted hurting Alexis and her children. She hadn't deserved what he had done and neither had Kristina. AJ looked back at her, the regret in his eyes genuine. "Understood. I'll leave you alone." with that he nodded to Shawn and walked out the door.

AJ had gone back to work determined to have a better day. He picked up expense reports and was going over the new transportation division. When he heard his assistant yelling from outside his office, "I am sorry, sir, you just can't-" She broke off as the door flung open and Jason stood there.

"It's alright Marcie." AJ said standing up. "Thank you" He said by way of dismissal. He gestured to the chair opposite his desk. "Have a seat, brother"

"I want you to stay away from Alexis Davis and her family" Jason said his face expressionless. "and we are not brothers"

That was fast, thought AJ. "Last time I checked, Alan was both of our father"

"That doesn't make you my brother." Jason said stone faced. "Don't you think it's time you packed up and left Port Charles?"

"No I don't." AJ came around the desk and stood toe to toe with his "brother". "I came home for my son. I came home to get my life back. You and Sonny ran me off but I am back. And this time I intend to get everything that was taken from me. I may have made mistakes. I hurt people. I will make amends to those people. But you, you're my own brother and you sold me out for a harlot and a mobster. You stole my son and claimed him as your own. And I had done nothing wrong but have a one night stand with a home-wrecking bitch."

"Don't talk about-"

"Oh I'll say what I want about the woman who lied about Michael being my son. The woman who did her damnedest to keep me out of his life because I was not what she wanted. Who used my son to break up her own mother's marriage, And then married a mobster to keep him away from me. A mobster who got him shot in the head and put in a coma for years. Yeah I know everything. So just get out of my office and don't come back. You've hurt enough people don't you think."

"And you haven't?" Jason said with a slight sneer.

"Oh I have. And I intend to make up for what mistakes I can. You however continue to hurt people and you think you are in the right. Self righteous Jason-too good-to-be-a-Quatermaine-Morgan. You think that you can get away with throwing people away like trash and it's okay because you warned them ahead of time it makes it okay. You who wouldn't even speak to our mother for years because she was beneath you. You who didn't even let our mother know she had a grandson until after he was killed. And then you let her take out her hurt on Elizabeth. You, Brother, are no one's hero. So get out of my office." AJ said the last as he walked over and held open the door.

Jason stormed past him pausing only once to look him in the eye, "This isn't over"

"It never is with us" AJ replied and shut the door in his face. AJ walked over to his window. He rested his head against the cold of the glass letting it cool his temper off. It was the first time he had held his ground with Jason and won. He thought it would have felt better. And it did but it didn't ease the ache of knowing that they used to be friends and that it was his fault that they weren't anymore. AJ knew that all the damage that he had caused, all the hurt he had done to others, the worst of his offenses was getting behind that wheel drunk and causing the accident that had taken his brother away from him. His real brother. What no one knew was that AJ felt responsible for every life Jason took, every person he hurt and every law he bent or outright broke. It all came down to that day. AJ decided enough was enough. He closed his office and went home. On his way to the parking garage his cell rang.

Monica was still irritated with him for moving out of the mansion. She couldn't understand that there were just too many memories there. He needed to prove he could stand on his own. There were power struggles all over ELQ with the passing of his Grandfather last week. Things were looking grim indeed. Monica was lonely he knew that with just her Tracey and the new cook living there, well it was a huge mansion. AJ still needed to get away. His apartment was nice. He had it decorated the way he wanted. He was making his own way rebuilding his life from the ashes of the past.

AJ needed to get out and blow off some steam. he grabbed his bag out of the closet and headed down to the gym down the street. He had signed up when he first came back but had yet to actually go preferring to do his exercises at home. His back may have healed but he the doctors said he needed to follow a daily workout regimen that included specific exercises. He walked out of the locker room and the first thing he saw was her. She was on a stair master her hair swept back in a pony tail. AJ grinned, maybe his day wouldn't be so bad after all.