A/N – Thanks for the comments! I know everyone hates Sam, but she has done nothing at this point that deserve revenge like Maxie and Lucky (unless being annoying counts or breathing)…..give her time and then ask for her head on a platter. Lol

The drama is not going to lessen for a long while, so you'll just have to trust me and see a therapist to cope or eat lots of chocolate. Also, re: Emily, don't forget Liz slept with Zander and had a baby and now she cheated with Jason. They haven't been that close for a while, hence her reaction (not an excuse – I'll be elaborating on that a little later).

Chapter 5

Carly put down her glass of wine down when she saw Jason enter the room. "Hey. Sonny isn't here. You look like shit."

He plopped into a chair. "When will he be back?"

"I think in an hour or so. What's wrong, Jason? You can talk to me."

He wondered how she refined her lying skills. Was it something she learned or did it just come natural? "I can't talk to you about this."

"Why?"

"Because you hate her."

Carly took a deep breath. "I'm your best friend. I promise I won't say anything bad about Elizabeth. You look miserable, Jason. Let me be there for you."

He sat forward and leaned his elbows on his thighs. "Elizabeth told me that it would be better if the baby was Lucky's. I think she's scared of my reputation hurting her and she pushed me away."

"I'm sorry. I know that must have hurt. What are you going to do?" It was hard hiding her elation.

"I don't know."

"Just give her some space. She's under a lot of pressure right now."

"I'm surprised that you're being so understanding."

"I can't imagine if Michael were taken away from me like that. I would be going crazy. I may not like her, but I can sympathize. Do you want this baby to yours?" She did mean what she said, but didn't regret the blackmail. It was for his own good.

"Maybe at first, but now…" he purposely let the thought die as Carly tried not to smile. This was working out better than she had planned. Muffin had out done herself and because she had been so convincing, Carly was going to make sure she cried while giving her testimony, further hammering home Maxie's sins.

"You'll have to trust that it will work out the way it's meant to."

"I know."

"Are you going to stay away?"

"For now, but if the DNA results show that I'm the father, if she tries to take the baby away from me, I'll fight her."

"And I'll be right there by your side. What about Sam?"

"She found out that she can't kids because of the scarring from the gunshot wound."

Carly was surprised. "Does she know about Elizabeth?"

"Yes."

"That must have been a big blow."

"It was."

"If the baby is yours, is she going to be willing to co-parent?"

Jason's stomach did a flip. There was no way that scenario would happen. "We haven't gotten that far yet."

"Are you feeling guilty?" She had mistaken his mortification for something else.

"A little bit, but she did know what she was getting into."

"That is a hard lesson to learn. I hope you really get that I love you and I will protect you at all costs. I have your back, Jase."

Jason sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. With friends like Carly, who needs enemies? "I've got to go. Tell Sonny that I stopped by."

She stood and gave him a hug and then Jason went to his truck.

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Johnny slipped into a seat across from Jason at a mostly desolate diner off the interstate.

"How is she?"

"She's sleeping. Francis won't let anyone get near her."

"I hate having to stay away when I know she's so fragile."

"I'll be around her as much as I can. She's tough." He had insisted on being her main guard after seeing firsthand the damage Lucky had done. He had met Liz several times and she had always been nice to him.

"We need to find Maxie Jones. She's probably going to lie low. Lucky won't be far behind. Maybe we should put a tail out on Luke too."

Johnny nodded. "Done. What else?'

"Have Enzo follow Sam. She's pissed and I want to make sure she doesn't do anything stupid."

"Alright. What are you going to tell Sonny?"

"Nothing. He knows about Elizabeth. I'm having all the guards except you, Francis, and Milo replaced with outside mercs. They'll be here in two days. I'll tell him that I put you and Milo on Elizabeth's detail to protect my child and Francis will be guarding me because I'm distracted. He won't argue with that."

"I'll keep you in the loop as much as possible, so make sure that you check your phone."

Jason smirked. "Are you implying that I don't normally?"

Johnny rolled his eyes. "You hate that thing."

"True."

"Where are you going now?"

"Back to the penthouse. Hopefully, Sam is sleeping."

"Good luck with that. You know, if you ever need to just talk, I'm here and I wouldn't repeat anything."

"I know. Thanks."

Johnny grabbed some coffee to go and left Jason to his thoughts.

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An hour earlier

Luke strode into a hotel room after coming back from Brazil. "Cowboy, you are in a lot of trouble."

"I know."

Luke took in his son's appearance. He is clearly using. "We need to leave here now. Jason is going to come after you. Maxie told me about the plan. If you stay here, you're going to jail or even worse."

"Where can we go?"

"I have a little cabin that no one knows about. You can dry out there. I called in some favors and got some meds to help you along. In a couple of days they'll be out of your system and then we just have to work on getting you to look a little healthier."

"Fine." All he cared about was punishing Elizabeth for possibly being pregnant with another man's child.

They quickly packed up their things and Luke hustled Lucky and Maxie into the car and headed for the mountains.

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Sam threw back another drink and then stumbled towards the bathroom. It was bad enough that she couldn't have Jason's child, but adding Elizabeth into the mix had totally plunged her into a depression. She didn't want to feel anything and it hurt that Jason had been so cold.

Jason had been alerted to her condition and made his way to Jake's. He didn't want his enemies to know about Elizabeth and the baby yet and he didn't trust her not to blab in her drunken condition. His enemies could use it to their advantage and it would make it harder to protect her, so he needed to keep Sam contained.

As she made her way back to the bar, she saw him in the doorway and her eyes filled with tears. "Jason!"

He strode to her and caught her as she wobbled and then picked her up. "Do I owe you anything?" he asked Coleman as the man looked at him apologetically.

"Don't worry about it man. Just get her home."

Jason nodded and took Sam to his truck and buckled her in. When he started to drive, she finally spoke.

"I hurt everywhere."

"I'm sorry."

She let out a harsh breath. "I can never have a baby for you. I wanted to eventually. You're so good with kids. Maybe we can raise the baby together. Elizabeth is in a lot of trouble and I'm willing to help."

Jason felt the bile rise in his stomach.

"I don't know how to get over this. Every time I think about her, I get so mad. It's not fair."

Jason thought she was the ugliest crier he had ever seen. Thankfully, the light turned green and he pressed the pedal down harder. The faster they got home, the faster she would hopefully pass out.

"Are you going to leave me?"

"We need time to deal with this."

"It hasn't been right since Ric. I wish I could take it back, but I can't. Just know that I love you so much. You're everything to me."

He pulled into his assigned parking spot and killed the engine.

"Just do me a favor and avoid Elizabeth if you see her."

Sam sighed, wishing he had returned the sentiment. "Fine."

"I just—if we can all get along—I just don't want to fight."

That got Sam's attention. "You mean that?"

"Yes. It's just going to take time for us to deal with what happened."

"I'll try to be nicer."

"Thanks."

He got out and then helped her as she stumbled along beside him, clinging to his shirt as Jason kept telling himself that he could do this because Elizabeth's freedom depended on it. When he finally got upstairs and tucked her in, he looked at his phone and smiled. Milo had sent him a picture of Cam sleeping and he looked so peaceful. He sent it to Johnny so he'd show Elizabeth when she wakes up, hoping it would give her some comfort.

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The next morning, Elizabeth went to lift her arm and her eyes snapped open as she called out Cam's name.

Mac saw her from the hallway and walked inside. "Hi."

"Hi. Are you here to take me away?"

Mac languidly swallowed. He felt like he had failed Elizabeth because he had given Lucky so many chances to screw up and Cam almost paid with his life. "I wanted to talk to you."

She nodded. "Have a seat."

"First, are you doing any better?"

"I'm exhausted, but my blood pressure is down."

"Good. I wouldn't want anything to happen to your baby."

"What if it's Jason's?"

He sighed thinking that maybe she already knew. "Then I would feel the same way. You are a good person and I'm sorry this happened to you." He removed the cuffs as a sign of faith.

She rubbed her wrist. "Did you find Lucky?"

"Not yet. He, Maxie, and Luke are still missing. Daycare confirmed that he picked up Cameron which helps give credence to your story that he was at the apartment. Your blood work did not show signs of drugs and for the record, none of us thought you were using."

"It doesn't surprise me that Luke would take him away. It's what he does—damn the consequences. What does this mean for me?"

Mac ran his hand through his hair. "I'm not going to lie. This isn't good, but we got a call from Carly Benson."

Liz groaned. "She hates me."

"Well, this time, you're in luck. She says she has evidence to help you and is bringing it in this morning. I believe Diane is accompanying her."

Liz gave him her best shocked look. "Wow. I didn't see that coming."

"I'm afraid it won't get you Cam back, but it will at least get them to drop the drug stealing charges."

"It's that much evidence?"

"I'm not sure what she has, but we also received an anonymous email with a video of Maxie stealing drugs from the hospital."

Liz could tell that Mac was devastated. "I'm so sorry, Mac."

"Thank you for being so gracious, especially after what she did to you."

"You love her and sometimes the people we love disappoint us."

"True. I came here because I want to apologize."

"For what?"

"I'm sorry that I protected Lucky because maybe if I had made him get help earlier, Cam wouldn't have been in danger."

Liz's eyes brimmed with tears. "Thank you. It's not an easy thing to force someone to do the right thing and I understand why you tried to help him. What are you going to do about Maxie?"

"My job. It will hurt, but I can't excuse her behavior. I think she needs mental help and I can't enable her anymore."

"I think we have the same issues with different people."

Mac met her gaze. "I want you to know that Cam is with a good family. I made sure of it. They've helped us out on special cases before."

"Thank you so much. That means a lot to me. I miss him so badly."

She starts to cry and Mac feels like shit that Elizabeth has to deal with all of this. Hearing her sob, Johnny rushed into the room.

"Hey….hey. It's okay." He hugged her as Liz gripped his shirt.

"I have to go meet Diane. I'll keep you updated," Mac said as he somberly left the room.

"Thanks."

Johnny grabbed some tissues and handed it to her. "You have to hang in there. Jason is doing all he can. Okay?"

"I know. I just miss him."

Johnny held out his phone and her eyes grew big as she stared at her son's picture.

"He looks so peaceful."

"He's a cute kid."

Elizabeth sighed. Thankfully, Cam is in good hands and hopefully,Diane can help make everything alright again.

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Sam walked into the studio looking worse for wear.

"You look like shit," Amelia quipped. "We're going to need a lot of makeup."

"I need coffee."

"Coming up."

Sam plopped into a chair. Work is the last place she wants to be. While she loved Everyday Heroes, she was still mourning the fact that she will be childless and that her relationship with Jason is crumbling.

"You can confide in me if you want."

"I'm just not ready to talk about it, but thank you."

Amelia handed her a cup and then walked into an office and whipped out her phone. "Hey, I think I'm going to pull the trigger in the next few days. She's a mess and it will just make her suffer more. Meet me here at 11:00 p.m., everyone will be gone and we can start filming the piece. When this gets out, Sam McCall will be ruined in this town and I will finally have my revenge."

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Mac sat across from Carly as he and several other officers listen to the recording. He is so ashamed of Maxie and can't believe that she would do this. After it stopped there was silence for a few moments before Mac began to speak.

"Carly, you're willing to testify that you witnessed this conversation?"

"Yes. I can't condone ripping a child out of the arms of its mother. I might not be the biggest Elizabeth fan, but she didn't deserve all of this. Lucky has serious issues." She wiped a tear away. This is going to be the performance of a lifetime.

Ric cleared his throat. "Carly, in the meantime, I need you to sign a statement which will sum up what you've told us today and what's on the video. Are you willing to do that?"

Carly nodded. "Yes."

Diane stood. "Well, I think that ends this farce. Are you willing to drop the charges for the stolen drugs? This and the video of Maxie smuggling drugs out of the hospital should be ample enough evidence that Elizabeth is innocent."

They all agreed.

"We'll drop those charges, but for now the child endangerment stands. There's nothing I can do about that one and when she's released today, she'll have to come in and get fingerprinted," Mac said.

Diane sighed. "Fine. Once Lucky is found, I'm sure we can clear up this mess."

They left. Carly was feeling mighty proud of herself and the fact that she had just saved Jason from the likes of Elizabeth Webber. At the same time, she helped Princess Purity get out of trouble and hopefully, get her kid back which made her feel even better because she didn't think it was right that Cam was taken in the first place. That was all on Lucky. Besides, in a way some government worker could make a case to take Michael and Morgan away because Carly was putting them in a dangerous situation because of Sonny and she would be devastated, so she understood Liz's position. She would have found a way to give the information to the PCPD even if Elizabeth hadn't agreed because losing Cam was stressing Liz out which could put Jason's possible child in danger. It was just the right thing to do, but she never looked a gift horse in the mouth and decided to use the situation to her advantage.

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Audrey strode into the Mayor's office. "Garret."

He smiled. "Well Audrey Hardy. How are you and more importantly, how is Elizabeth?"

"Well, you can only imagine what a tragedy this is and I need your help."

"I don't think that I can undo the child protection."

"What if I agree to take guardianship of him until this is finished? He needs to be with family and I'm perfectly capable."

Garret tapped his pencil against the desk. "I can try and put out a good word for you. If Elizabeth signs a document stating as much and agrees to no contact, we might be able to make that happen. On second thought, maybe I can get her some supervised visits."

Audrey smiled. "I don't know how to thank you for this."

"Just vote for me at reelection time and maybe invite me over for pot roast?"

"You've got a deal."

"Alright, I'll get right on it." He was always fond of Audrey and she had helped him get elected by volunteering on his campaign which is when he became aware of her cooking skills.

"If you make this happen before Sunday, you can bring your girlfriend over for dinner."

"It's a date." His mouth was already watering.

She smiled as she left. Now, she just had to convince Elizabeth that this is for the best.