Detective Alex Garcia opened the door to Kelly's Diner with a yawn. "Remember the coffee is on me," he said as he stepped back and allowed his partner to enter first.

Detective Allison Jordan turned back to face him. "I believe your earlier offer was for breakfast, and I think you're getting off easy with that," she said.

Alex chuckled and then smiled. "Entendido!" he said as he pulled out a chair at a table in the middle of the diner, waited for Allison to sit, and then sat down beside her.

At quarter to six on a Saturday morning the diner was largely deserted. Only disgraced former Port Charles Herald reporter, Mark Carlin, was sitting at the counter drinking his usual cup of black coffee. By the time Alex had arrived in Port Charles in 1991, Carlin had pretty much destroyed any possible opportunities for employment in the field of journalism and was largely skulking around the PCPD, and Kelly's Diner looking for any inside information he could hand over to local ambulance chasing attorney, David Gleeb. Recently he had come into some family money, or something, and launched his own tabloid publication, the Port Charles Intruder. His first issue, in August, had focused on the newest Mafia Princess, Brenda Barrett, soon to be Corinthos, with an uncensored and, more importantly, unauthorized expose. After the Corinthos wedding was called off it seemed that his second issue never made it to new stands in September. Somehow Alex was hard pressed to consider that a great loss.

As PCU student, Tina Harding, poured them both coffee, Allison sent him a look he knew all too well. Their conversation would have to wait until after certain annoying bottom feeders loitering over a cup of coffee had left. He understood her frustration. Somewhat surprisingly, Tiffany Perkins had identified her assailant by name. It was just one of the last names either of them had expected to hear in the context. So, as they sat waiting for ADA Dara Jensen to obtain an arrest warrant and home and office search warrants for an alleged rapist, he was struggling a bit to wrap his head around how it had all unfolded. He was sure his partner was as well, perhaps even more so. Their alleged perpetrator happened to be her father in law's law partner. She had to be struggling to hold onto her objectivity.

Or perhaps she wasn't struggling as much as he was. In the six months he had known Allison, Alex had come to accept that not only was she a step up over his former partner, but she truly excelled in the area of professional ethics as well. Somehow, she had cultivated enough professional detachment that it was never personal, and she could follow the evidence without editorializing or rationalizing. He was still working on that.

XXXXXXXX

In a hospital bed in Pine Valley, PA, Liza Colby Chandler felt like a heartless, hypocritical, heathen, as she prayed to a God she had never accepted as her personal savior not to take her child. It was a bit surreal how much life could change. Four months earlier she had struggled to view the pregnancy as anything less than a disaster. She was in an anything but stable marriage, and she had no idea whether the child growing inside her was her husband's or her lover's. She had considered an abortion, but somehow the reality that there was an actual child growing inside her had been too much to terminate.

In late June, chorionic villus sampling had revealed that the baby was at least chromosomally normal, a boy, and indeed the progeny of Adam Chandler Sr.. The last part had been added on after her husband had left the room hurriedly to return to Chandler Incorporated. Ironically her secrecy had been needless as she ended up throwing those same clandestine test results in her husband's face only a few weeks later when he questioned if he was really the baby's father.

Adam had been contrite and much more invested after that fight. That had added another layer of reality to the situation and their relationship. They were going to be parents! Their bliss was short lived. They had planned to announce their pregnancy at the Chandler 4th of July Party but Erica Kane stole their moment when she was arrested for kidnapping at the party. Then Adam was preoccupied assisting his ex-wife with her defense. To make up for that Adam planned a romantic evening for just the two of them and all had been going well until Adam's daughter, Skye, got arrested again for DUI. Adam had dispatched the family attorney to handle that but then his other daughter, Hayley, called to report that her little brother, who didn't exactly have a license, had stolen her husband's car, and crashed it. That had sent Adam rushing off to Pine Valley Hospital where JR had been taken. Eventually, Liza had given up and gone to bed.

The months that followed hadn't been any less chaotic. Some justice had been served when Erica Kane went off to prison for kidnapping. Tragedy had followed when the Transglobal Jet bound for Philadelphia had crashed killing many, including Dr. Maria Santos-Grey. It had been at the memorial service that she had first begun to realize the sanctity of motherhood as she reflected on the sad reality that Sam and Maddie Grey would grow up without their mother. Now she lay in bed and prayed that she would not grow old without her son.

XXXXXXXX

Dr. Eve Lambert covered a yawn as she scrolled down through her patients' lab results on the computer. After her date with Scott, morning had come way too early. A long shower and a second mug of coffee hadn't done much to improve the situation and she was fervently hoping that attending rounds might go swiftly and smoothly so she could escape the hospital and catch up on some sleep before she spent her Sunday on call. Sunday calls were always the worst.

"Well, don't you look positively chipper this morning?" Dr. Chris Ramsey asked as he pulled three charts from the rack behind her.

Eve rolled her eyes and shook her head. "If you must know, Ramsey, my morning was actually starting to look up until you stepped off the elevator."

Chris sat down beside her and opened a chart. "Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. Admit it, Lambert, you find my presence scintillating and exhilarating." he said.

In spite of her frustration, Eve chuckled at Chris's retort. "Just make sure you don't carry your delusions over into your orders. I don't see that going over very well with Dr. Ingstrom," she said. Then she stood quickly and darted off to see her first patient before Chris could get the last word.

Eve paused for a moment outside of Mrs. Reese's room and smiled. She supposed that her morning spar session with Chris had woken her up. Exhilarated would be pushing it, but she was alert, which was always preferable. She would almost thank Chris, except she knew that, with his ego, then he would only be even more insufferable.

XXXXXXXX

As early morning light peeked in through the window, Ned Ashton awoke with an overwhelming urge to drink a gallon of water. He sighed, sat up in bed, and then gasped at the sight of the sleeping woman lying next to him. As he caught his breath, he reminded himself of the reality that Carly was his wife. He got out of bed carefully, trying not to disturb her. He might only barely know his new wife, but it was very clear that she was not a morning person.

Ned padded downstairs and then into the kitchen. He poured himself a large glass of water and shook his head as he reflected on how much everything had changed in two short weeks. His mind replayed his conversation with Jason that, he supposed, had put the whole plan into motion.

September 22, 1997

Ned Ashton turned the final page in the contract and yawned. It was definitely feeling like a Monday. Or like Mondays used to feel back when he had a family to spend the weekend with. It had been over a year since he had seen his daughter. She had turned three a month ago and she had blown out all the candles without his help, or her mother's for that matter, as Brenda had informed him afterward. She had gone from a daddy's girl to an independent young lady at three in a year. She had looked so grown up in the pictures Brenda had shared. She was her own little person and he didn't know her at all. That hurt.

The buzzing of his intercom system intercom interrupted his thoughts. Ned took one more longing glance at the picture of Brooke Lynn he had on his desk and depressed the intercom button. "Yes, Staci."

"Your cousin is here to see you, Mr. Ashton. I know you said you didn't want to be disturbed until you had gotten through the contract renewals for the Jakarta Division," Staci said.

Ned was sure he hadn't said that, or not exactly that because Harver Shipping and Exports, while based in Jakarta, was technically an ELQ subsidiary not a division. Of course, perhaps Staci just didn't understand that. He sighed with frustration, he didn't really feel like dealing with AJ, especially not if he had come with his concerned girlfriend who seemed determined to put all her social work courses to good use and become his self-appointed grief counselor. Somehow Keesha had been much easier to take when she had been in love with a different cousin. "Is he alone?" he finally asked.

"Yes," Staci said quickly.

Ned noted the discomfort in her voice and wondered what exactly AJ had told her. Contrary to his family's belief, he really wasn't moments away from having a nervous breakdown. Yes, he had been disturbed when his cousin's limousine had been blown up outside Luke's Club on Friday night. Any sane and rational person should be. Yes, it reminded him of the night that Lily Corinthos had died fifteen months earlier but that wasn't really a stretch. He sighed again. "Ok, just show him in, I'm just about done with these contracts anyway," he said.

When the door to his office opened Ned saw blue eyes instead of brown, as a man clad in jeans and a leather jacket, not khakis and a polo shirt, crossed his threshold. "Jason?"

Jason stood in front of his desk, shoved his hands in his pockets, and blinked twice for good measure. "I can come back later if this is a bad time?" he offered.

"No, no, please have a seat. If it makes you feel any better, I thought you were someone else. I'm glad you're here. How is Robin?" he asked.

Jason shrugged his shoulders and dropped down into one of the chairs behind him. "I brought her back to medical school yesterday. We aren't together anymore," he said.

"I'm sorry."

Jason gave another shrug. "That isn't why I came. I need a favor, Ned, one I have no right to ask. But, no matter what you decide, I need this to stay between us."

"I hope you know you can trust me. We're family, Jase, we always will be," Ned said. Yet, as he said those words he realized he wasn't just playing back his grandmother's lamentations but truly speaking from his heart. "So, what do you need?"

"I need a way out. I'm going to have a child, but I can't bring them into my life as it is," Jason said.

"Are you asking for help to leave the mob?" Ned asked. He wasn't sure exactly how he could help.

"That isn't an option. I'm asking you to raise my child."

Ned gasped. "You want me to raise your child with Robin?"

"No, with Caroline Benson," Jason said.

"Who is Caroline Benson?"

"Carly Roberts but you should marry her under her legal name."

Ned supposed he should understand stage names, he had once performed as Eddie Maine. However, somehow, he was afraid that that Carly's performances were a bit more illicit. So much for Sonny's vow that he had closed the Paradise Lounge and he had never been in favor of prostitution. The name sounded familiar though, and then it hit him. She was the nurse's aide or whatever at PCGH that had ended up in bed with Dr. Jones. Was Jason the father of her child? "I thought she was engaged to Dr. Jones," he finally said.

"She was. That didn't work out, and now Dr. Jones wants to take her baby away."

"So, she wants to say you are the father?"

"I am the father, Ned. I was going to let her raise the baby with Dr. Jones but now that won't work."

"Ok, so how does that lead into me marrying a woman I don't even know?"

"It was Carly's idea. She figured that the Morgan and Ashton bloodlines would come through enough to make the paternity test believable."

Ned laughed. Jason was a Morgan and he was an Ashton, but they were more closely related than it might appear. Jason's mother and his father had apparently been second cousins. His mother and Jason's father were first cousins but when Harold Morgan Jr. and his wife had died in a 1961 fire his eleven-year-old son had come to live with his sister's family. Apparently, his grandfather had respected that Harold Morgan III should remain a Morgan heir even if Ned had often heard him assert how he had really been raised Quartermaine. By that logic Edward could consider himself Jason's grandfather even if he was truly his Great Uncle, a relationship he also shared with Ned's other Morgan cousins, Chloe and Amy Morgan.

The idea was absurd! However, in spite of the absurdity, he supposed perhaps Carly was smarter than he had thought because he could imagine it might work. But at what cost? "Jase, please don't ask me to help you miss out on your child. It isn't what you want, trust me.!"

"You don't understand, Ned. It isn't that I don't want my baby, it's just that my life isn't safe so perhaps the best thing I can do for my baby is just get out of the way. You said you hoped I trusted you before. I do trust you to raise my child."

Ned just shook his head. Jason's words were just too much. Lois didn't trust him with his own child, but Jason was willing to let him raise his child no questions asked. "I can't do this, Jase, I can't," he said. He dropped his head into his hands and when he had gained enough composure to raise it Jason was gone.

Jason had accepted his declination. Carly had been more persistent, or perhaps more desperate, so she had shown up at ELQ two days later to plead her own case. She had been cunning and persuasive, but it had been much less her words and much more his own nightmares that had ultimately guided his final acceptance of her plan. So, they had married and now he was preparing to raise his cousin's unborn child as if it was his own. He wasn't sure if that was selfless, selfish, or just insane. The only thing he really knew was that he couldn't handle ever picking out a tiny coffin again and he couldn't imagine putting anyone else he loved through that.