“Oh, god… I’m responsible for this!” Brenda choked out as she collapsed into Jax’s arms. She was pale, and her body was shaking with the force of her sobs, and she clung onto Jax for dear life.

“Shh…” Jax soothed, holding her tightly against him and rubbing her back rhythmically. “This is NOT your fault – none of it! Sometimes things just happen, and you and I both know it.”

“But if he hadn’t found me…” Brenda cried.

“Don’t go there, Brenda. I don’t ever want you to go there again,” Jax warned. “I want you to stop blaming yourself for things that are beyond your control – or anyone’s for that matter! Sometimes things just happen – like your accident. And this is one of those things.”

He pulled her to the couch and gave her a stern but loving look. “Brenda, you have to realize that sometimes there are things beyond any of our control, and what has happened in the past few weeks are a few of those things. But there are things you and I can control, and one of those things is the amount of stress that you are subjected to. You almost lost this baby just a couple of days ago, and Dr. Meadows warned that it could still happen if we aren’t careful. I know that you’re worried about Tom, but you can’t let yourself get this upset over what’s happened to him. If anything happened to you or this baby because you were worrying about him, Tom could never forgive himself, and you and I both know that.” He pulled her to him and hugged her gently for several minutes, as her crying lessened and her breathing evened out.

Brenda took a deep breath and pulled slowly out of Jax’s embrace. “You’re right. I need to get a grip here. This baby – and you – are the most important things in my life, and I’m the only one who can keep this baby safe right now… Dr. Meadows warned me that I have to relax and let things go.” She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up into Jax’s. “She would have fits if she saw me this morning, wouldn’t she?”

“Yes, she would,” Jax smiled gently at her. “And if she had any idea what had been happening around here the past couple days, she would have you back in the hospital and away from this madness in a heartbeat. And I don’t think I could stand another night away from you right now, so you have to work with me here, Brenda…You have to calm down, or both you and the baby could be in real trouble.”

Brenda nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “I’m okay – really, I am,” she said, as Jerry, who had been listening from the stairs, came over and handed her the box of tissues.

“How about we go into the kitchen a brew a pot of tea while Jax returns Kennedy’s call?” Jerry offered, as he extended his hand to Brenda, as she wiped the remaining tears from her eyes and blew her nose.

Brenda looked from Jerry to Jax, who nodded in agreement with Jerry’s suggestion, and then she took Jerry’s hand, allowing him to help her off the couch. She gave Jerry’s still mud-covered body the quick once over, and then said, “Why don’t you go on up and get your shower? I don’t want you back in my kitchen until you’re clean, Jer.” She saw the look of hesitation on Jerry’s face, as he looked to Jax for approval. “Listen, guys, I’m under control now, and I’ll be fine alone in the kitchen. Besides, I think I can manage to boil water without supervision.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay alone in there?” Jax asked hesitantly, remembering how shattered she had been just a few minutes ago. “I mean, I know this has to be hard on you… as close as you and Tom are…”

Brenda swallowed hard, once again blinking back tears. “I’ll be okay – I promise. This is hard, but I *can* control my emotions, despite how I’ve been acting lately.” She took another deep breath and tried to force a smile. “I promise to stay calm – and I promise not to eavesdrop… Call Mr. Kennedy to find out what you can about Tom, and I’ll wait quietly in the kitchen.” She saw Jax’s doubtful look. “Jax, I’m fine – really, I am.”

Jax looked at her skeptically, uncertain whether or not to believe the brave front she was displaying now. “Brenda, why don’t we get breakfast, and then I’ll call Kennedy after we eat?”

“*No!*” Brenda exclaimed loudly, startling both Jax and Jerry. “I’m sorry… I guess I’m not as fine as I was pretending to be,” she said as she sank back down on the couch beside Jax, putting her head in her hands, as Jax hugged her supportively. After a few seconds, she looked up at Jax and smiled wanly, “I’m not going to get hysterical again or anything – It’s just that I know I won’t be able to eat until I know exactly how Tom is. I need for you to call now to find out… Please, Jax,” she added, her eyes pleading with him to understand her need to know Tom’s condition as soon as possible.

Jax studied her face for several seconds and then nodded slowly. “Okay, Brenda, I’ll call Kennedy now, but on one condition: I don’t want you here beside me when I do it.” He saw Brenda immediately begin to protest, so he quickly added, “I promise I’ll tell you about my conversation with Kennedy *after* I’m finished with the call. But I don’t want to have you sitting here, misunderstanding an expression on my face or misinterpreting my half of the conversation with the man, which is why I need for you to either go upstairs with Jerry or go back into the kitchen until I’m done on the phone.”

He put his hands on either side of her face, and looked directly into her eyes. “This isn’t negotiable, Brenda. I’ve never demanded anything of you before, but I have to stand firm on this. I love you and I love this baby,” He moved his right hand to lovingly caress Brenda’s abdomen, “and I won’t do anything to hurt the chances of this baby arriving safely – and I won’t allow you to do anything that could jeopardize that either! You know stress is bad for you now, and all I’m trying to do is help you avoid it. Please understand that and cooperate with me here. Otherwise, I’ll call Dr. Meadows, and we’ll get her expert opinion.”

Brenda knew Jax was right: she had to avoid stress and this was definitely stressful for her. She also knew that he wouldn’t hesitate to call to get Dr. Meadows’ opinion on this whole situation, and Brenda was more than a little afraid that Dr. Meadows might put her back in the hospital with phone and visitor restrictions if he did that. She really had no choice. Her priority here was the baby, and so she had no choice but to leave while Jax called Daniel Kennedy to check on the details about Tom’s assault.

“All right,” Brenda relented, standing to leave the living room. “I’ll go upstairs with Jerry while you call Mr. Kennedy. It’s a little chilly in here, and I need to get a warmer pair of socks anyway,” she reasoned, giving Jax a quick kiss. “Please let Mr. Kennedy know that we are *very* concerned about Tom and that we want around-the-clock protection for him until he’s cleared completely of these ridiculous charges and released from custody!”

Jax smiled warmly at her, as he kissed her back. “I will. I’ll come up to get you as soon as I’m finished with the call, and then we can whip up that French toast together. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds like a plan, little brother! We’ll *both* be waiting for you upstairs,” Jerry interrupted, grinning as he grabbed Brenda’s hand and started toward the stairs. “You know, Brenda, you could give me a little assist in the shower,” he said loudly enough for Jax to overhear as they climbed the stairs. “You know… make sure I get all this mud off all those hard-to-reach areas…” he grinned, giving Brenda an exaggerated, lascivious wink.

“Hard-to-reach areas, huh, Jer? You mean like your brain?” Jax heard Brenda shoot back at his brother, which made him laugh.

“Oh, you wound me! Both you and Jax are just downright cruel to me sometimes!” Jax heard Jerry protest, as both Brenda and Jerry rounded the bend in the stairs, finally putting them out of earshot. Jax shook his head and smiled, grateful that Jerry was here to playfully distract Brenda at this particular moment, then he picked up the phone to call Daniel Kennedy, bracing himself for the news that Kennedy would have for him about Tom Langan and what had really happened to him.

David Sikes grimaced as he looked at himself in the bathroom mirror, startled by the haunted, hollow face that reflected back at him. He knew that he hadn’t been eating right or getting enough sleep recently, but he’d never really taken the time to look at the effects these past few months had taken on him physically. His face was drawn and his complexion gray; his eyes were constantly bloodshot. He’d lost at least fifteen pounds over the past two months, and he knew that his appearance had a lot of people concerned about his health – including Gwen, and that was the last thing he wanted her to worry about at this point.

He had once again been able to corner Dr. Fields at the hospital the previous evening and the doctor had told him that Gwen’s own marrow had been effectively destroyed and that they would start the infusion of the new marrow early this morning. He had assured him that everything looked good at this point and that as long as Gwen’s body accepted the donated marrow and they prevented infection that things should turn out fine, with a successful transplant and, hopefully, Gwen’s complete recovery. David tried telling himself over and over that things *would* turn out for him and Gwen because they deserved it after all their sacrifices. In fact, that had become his mantra over the past several weeks. But so much had gone horribly wrong in the past few hours that he was almost afraid to hope anymore.

He had just called the hospital and there had been no change in Tom Langan’s condition. He was still listed in serious condition and remained unconscious, and they had given him no indication of when – if ever – Langan might improve. And John Michaels was under a suicide watch in lock-up at this very moment. These were two fine men and dedicated agents, whose lives had been inexorably altered and most likely destroyed because of his own selfish needs and devious machinations. He had never meant for this to happen to either of them.

He had woven a tight frame around Tom Langan. One that was tight enough to make Langan appear culpable for the moment, but not tight enough to withstand months of intense scrutiny that would certainly be the hallmark of this investigation, as both the government and Langan’s lawyers dug into the evidence. He had only hoped to use Tom as a shield to deflect suspicion from him until after he and Gwen were safely ensconced in their paradise hideaway, far from the reach of U.S. extradition. He had not meant to permanently alter his future like this – or Michaels’ future as well. He had not foreseen the possibility that something like this could happen.

He had factored in the tangibles – the physical evidence and the possible speed at which it could be thoroughly dissected; but he had neglected to factor in the intangibles, such as the intense emotional reactions of both Langan and Michaels. Now his precise plan, which was meant to be only a minor setback for Langan, had suddenly escalated and had effectively destroyed not only Langan’s and Michaels’ careers, but possibly their entire lives as well. He had sold his soul to Marco Leone in exchange for the means by which he could save Gwen’s life, but in the process he had sacrificed Langan and Michaels’ souls as well.

He looked at the stranger in the mirror and then averted his eyes, as an intense feeling of self-loathing threatened to overtake him. He had this incredible urge to go back into the living room and crawl into another bottle of whiskey in order to drown these loathsome feelings, but he knew that he couldn’t. Today was Gwen’s bone marrow transplant, and he had to be sober and clearheaded to support her. No matter how unsettled his state of mind was at the moment, her state of mind was what was important.

He needed to be able to function today without a drink for Gwen’s sake. Despite her weakened physical state, she would instantly notice if he’d had even one drink this morning. He might be able to blame his ghastly appearance on anxiety over her infusion today, but if she smelled alcohol or saw the effects of it in his movements, she’d be upset.

His father had been an alcoholic, and Gwen had always worried that he could become one, too. David knew he wasn’t an alcoholic; he had just needed something to help him make it through a few rough nights recently. But Gwen wouldn’t believe that, and she would worry about him when her full concentration was needed on herself right now.

He could make it through the next several hours without a drink. He would simply clear his head of all negative thoughts today, and concentrate solely on the positive: this transplant would be successful and Gwen would recover fully and be cancer-free and they would fly off to a long and glorious future together in their tropical paradise. All thoughts of Langan and Michaels and what he had done to them would simply be banished from his mind today.

As he turned to leave the bathroom, he once again glanced at himself in the mirror and winced. He hoped he didn’t have to see his reflection anywhere today because he knew he was no longer strong enough to stand to look at himself for any length of time unless it was through the haze of amber at the bottom of a bottle…

Jax carefully dialed the number that Daniel Kennedy had left with his messages on the answering machine and waited anxiously for someone to answer on the other end.

“Kennedy residence,” a pleasant female voice answered on the second ring.

“This is Jasper Jacks. I’m returning Mr. Kennedy’s call from last night,” Jax explained, lowering his voice slightly, as he looked toward the stairs to make sure that Brenda was nowhere around to overhear any of this.

“Yes, Mr. Jacks!” Donita Harpster, Daniel Kennedy’s housekeeper, replied excitedly as she immediately recognized Jax’s name from her previous conversation with Daniel. “Mr. Kennedy has been expecting your call… Just a moment please, while I get him,” she said, as she laid the kitchen phone down and hurried off to the master bedroom, where Daniel was dressing for the office.

Donita knocked softly on Daniel’s closed bedroom door. “Daniel, Mr. Jacks is on the phone,” she informed him, waiting just long enough to hear him answer: “Thanks, Don, I’ve got it!” before she returned to the kitchen to hang up the phone there.

“Kennedy here,” Daniel said, as he picked up the phone.

“Mr. Kennedy, this is Jasper Jacks. I got your message about Tom Langan… How is he?” Jax asked, hoping that Tom’s condition had been upgraded from serious since Daniel had left the messages on the machine last night.

“He’s in the intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Hospital in Queens, with a fractured skull, multiple contusions, a badly bruised throat, and a dislocated shoulder. I just called the hospital a couple of hours ago, and there has been no change in his condition. He’s still unconscious and remains in serious condition,” Daniel answered solemnly, unconsciously wincing as he remembered the sight of Tom Langan’s battered body just hours ago, as they wheeled him up to ICU from the ER.

“How did this happen?” Jax demanded angrily. “I thought he was to be kept separate from the general population to protect him from the other prisoners.”

“He *was* separated from the other prisoners, but, unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to keep him safe… He was beaten by a fellow agent,” Daniel replied, knowing that Jax would be as outraged by this as he had been when he’d learned of it.

“*What?!*” Jax exclaimed loudly, then immediately lowered his voice, hoping that Brenda hadn’t heard his outraged cry.

“It’s my understanding that the agent was immediately arrested and is in lock-up now under a suicide watch,” Daniel continued, although purposely hiding the identity Tom’s assailant.

“Who did it?” Jax asked, trying to understand what would motivate a person trained to uphold the law to viciously take it into his own hands like that.

Daniel hesitated momentarily before he answered Jax, since he knew that Jax had met Agent John Michaels. “It was Tom’s partner, John Michaels,” Daniel finally offered.

There was an audible gasp from Jax as he tried to comprehend the true scope of the horror of this situation. Not only had Tom Langan been savaged while in custody but the perpetrator was a fellow agent – and his best friend and partner, no less!

“John Michaels did this to Tom? But how – and why?” Jax asked incredulously, wondering how the level-headed man he had met when Brenda was kidnapped and the cool professional who had arrested Tom right here in the cottage just yesterday afternoon could suddenly change into a madman capable of such savagery?

“The ‘how’ I can answer,” Daniel replied, as he recounted the incident as it had been reported to him. “According to the other agents I’ve talked with, Tom had asked to see John all evening, but John refused to see him. He finally relented and went to Tom’s cell. No one but Tom and John know exactly what happened next because the guard that should have remained outside decided that since John and Tom were both agents and friends, he would give them a little privacy. A few minutes later he heard John frantically screaming for someone to call 9-1-1, and when he opened the door, he saw blood everywhere and John bent over Tom’s limp, badly beaten body, frantically searching for a pulse.”

He paused momentarily as he pondered whether or not to confide his speculations to Jax, and decided that Jax deserved to know what he thought happened. “My speculation as to the ‘why’ John did what he did, based on the account of the guard who found them, is that John simply ‘lost it’ while he was in with Tom. He most likely felt betrayed by Tom, after reading all the documentation against him. Even Tom admitted that he would think himself guilty, based on the evidence they’ve manufactured against him… This must have all been too much for John. It’s my understanding, from what I was able to gather from Tom’s family early this morning at the hospital, that John and Tom have been best friends since their early days at Quantico.”

“Yeah, I got that impression yesterday when Tom was pleading with John to remember their long history together,” Jax answered, remembering the way Tom kept pulling up incidents from their past to try to sway John from arresting him.

“And how did John react?” Daniel asked, trying to piece together a possible scenario based on John’s state of mind.

“He was totally unmoved – almost cold and methodical in his speech and movements,” Jax recalled. “And now that I think about it, he seemed to have this glazed over look in his eyes, like he was in a trance or something.”

“That’s interesting…” Daniel mused, as Jax continued.

“I didn’t think much about it,” Jax went on, so caught up in the memory of what happened the day before that he was unaware that Daniel had even said anything, “because that’s how we all felt here yesterday because none of us could believe what was happening! …Well, none of us, except my brother, Jerry, who hasn’t liked Tom from the start and has been spinning his own conspiracy theories where Tom is concerned.”

“Really? Why is that?” Daniel asked, wondering if Jax’s brother, whom he knew had been involved in laundering money for Marco Leone, might actually have some inside information or some insight into Tom’s possible involvement with Leone.

“Jerry seems to think that Tom is the devil incarnate,” Jax elaborated, “and it really has nothing to do with Tom possibly being linked to Leone because Jerry has nothing concrete there to base his opinion on. Besides, Jerry and Dad were linked to Leone for more years than Tom could ever possibly have been… But what Jerry does hold against Tom is that Tom is in love with my fiancée – Tom admitted that yesterday when he was in the midst of being arrested. And being my big brother, Jerry has this mistaken notion that he has to protect Brenda and me from any outside forces, and that now makes Tom the enemy in his book. He even tried to use some garbage that The National Inquisitor printed about Brenda and Tom as justification of his theories.”

“I’m familiar with the story,” Daniel replied, as he moved to his dresser and picked up the copy of the paper that Donita had handed him just minutes before in the kitchen. “But I’m not sure I understand what this story has to do with your brother’s mistrust of Tom. There’s nothing in here that would lead one to believe that he was connected with Leone, while it does impugn your reputation and the solidity of your relationship with Ms. Barrett.”

“Exactly!” Jax agreed, then went on to try to explain Jerry’s convoluted, though somewhat plausible, theory. “Jerry thinks that Tom sold this story to The Inquisitor to make me look bad and to make him look good and to get a little extra money to help finance his scheme to skip the country with Brenda. Jerry’s theory is that Tom had a deal with Leone concerning the kidnapping, too. He seems to think that Tom helped Leone’s men snatch Brenda, and they were going to make all of us think that she had been killed. According to Jerry’s scenario, Tom planned to *save* Brenda from Leone’s men and take off with her out of the country, where he’d tell her that I’d been killed and that his running off with her was the only way to protect her from Leone’s reach.”

“Your brother has quite the vivid imagination,” Daniel interjected, “although that is a plausible theory…”

“Are you saying you think Tom *is* guilty of these charges?” Jax asked, surprised by what Daniel seemed to be implying.

“No, I don’t for a minute think he’s guilty of anything – other than falling in love with Ms. Barrett,” Daniel replied evenly. He paused briefly, then broached that possibly prickly subject: “Just exactly how do you feel about that?”

“What do you mean?” Jax sputtered, unsure as to where this was leading.

“I mean exactly what I asked: how do you feel about Tom Langan, especially since he’s admitted openly that he’s in love with your fiancée and in light of the fact that – thanks to the article in The Inquisitor – many across the country will assume that she returns his affections?” Daniel asked matter-of-factly, using the same tone that he used to cross-examine witnesses.

Jax exhaled slowly, carefully examining what Kennedy had asked him, finally answering truthfully: “When I first realized how he felt about Brenda, I was angry and jealous – after all, she’d spent a couple of weeks alone with him… And he’s good-looking man and personable, so it wouldn’t be hard to imagine Brenda being attracted to him, especially when she had no idea who she was or that I even existed. And knowing how Tom felt about her… In fact, I actually knew that Tom was in love with her before she did – even though I had no idea at the time that it was Brenda that Tom was in love with.”

“What do you mean?” Daniel asked, curious as to how Jax had known about Tom and the woman he loved and yet not known that it was Brenda whom Tom loved.

“Well, I explained to you last evening about Brenda’s accident and how she came to know Tom, and then how she came back to me. But I neglected to tell you that I had met him purely by accident before either of us was aware of our common connection – Brenda…” Jax went on to explain to Daniel about his road trip a few days after Brenda’s memorial service, and the series of fateful events that brought Jax and Tom together and eventually led Jax to the very cabin where Brenda had been staying while she had been presumed dead.

“Lots of ironic twists there,” Daniel remarked, as he contemplated the fantastic story that Jax had just related. “Almost makes me believe in fate – or miracles.”

“Yes, miracles… that’s exactly what this whole thing has felt like for both Brenda and me – a miracle… a miracle of a lifetime actually. She’s alive and pregnant with our baby and we’re together again. And Tom Langan played a major part in pulling off that miracle for Brenda and me – which is why we want to do whatever we can to help him now,” Jax said.

“Despite how he feels about your fiancée?” Daniel cross-examined.

Jax laughed slightly as he answered: “This probably sounds crazy, but maybe *because* of the way he feels about Brenda… Hey, I can’t fault the man for having good taste!” He heard Daniel chuckle at that. “Besides, since the moment that he learned the truth about Brenda’s identity, he’s done nothing but try to protect her. First from me and my family, when he thought that we were Leone’s cronies and she’d be hurt by us; and then from Leone himself, when we all realized that Brenda could be a target of Leone’s revenge against my family for cooperating with the feds.”

“You seem to think pretty highly of Tom, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s innocent of the charges against him,” Daniel countered, testing to see how deep Jax’s loyalty to Tom truly ran.

“No, but Brenda believes in his innocence, and I trust her judgment here. And I’m paying *you* to prove that fact, Mr. Kennedy,” Jax answered smoothly.

Daniel Kennedy laughed openly now. “Don’t worry, Mr. Jacks, I plan to work nearly every minute of every waking hour over the next several weeks to do just that. My associates have agreed to take over pending cases for me and handle any new cases that might come into the firm. I’ve made proving Tom Langan’s innocence my highest priority, and I plan to leave no stone unturned in finding who *is* guilty, even if I have to take apart the bureau agent by agent to find him.”

“So you think someone in the FBI framed Tom to cover their own tracks?” Jax asked; that thought had occurred to him, too. “… That brings me back to Tom’s current condition and his future health and welfare… Brenda was very upset when she overheard your phone message about Tom, and stress of any kind at this point isn’t good for her. She nearly lost the baby after the kidnapping, and her doctor told us that a miscarriage is still a possibility unless Brenda is kept as stress-free as possible for the next few weeks. I know that Tom’s safety is going to be a big worry for her now, so I’d like to do my best to eliminate that worry… I think that both Brenda and I would feel more secure if I hired private security to watch over Tom while he’s in the hospital.”

“I think that might be a wise move,” Daniel answered. “You can do that by using hospital security or requesting that your own be allowed on the premises.”

“I think I’d prefer my own people,” Jax interjected.

“I figured you would,” Daniel replied. Everything he’d read and heard about Jasper Jacks had told him that he liked to take charge of any given situation, so it didn’t surprise him in the least that he wanted his own security on the scene to protect Langan. “And you shouldn’t have any problem doing that at St. Mary’s, but once he’s well enough to leave the ICU there, it’s my bet that the government will press to have him transferred to the prison hospital at the Queens facility where he was being held in the first place. You can’t have your people watching him there. But I plan to petition the court to have him remain in St. Mary’s, under guard of course – both yours and the bureau’s – until he’s recovered sufficiently to face arraignment.

“At arraignment, the government will probably ask that bail be denied, claiming he’s a flight risk, and pointing out that he was on his way to the Caymans when he was apprehended. But I’ll counter with the continued concern for his safety while in custody, and given what happened last night, I think we have a good case for getting bail set –although I’m sure it will be astronomical, given the seriousness of the charges against Tom.”

“I’ll pay whatever is needed to get him out of there, both for his sake and Brenda’s peace of mind!” Jax pointed out.

“I figured that’s what you’d say, but I thought I’d still better warn you in advance,” Daniel replied.

“Presuming that bail is set and he’s released, will he have to remain in the city until the trial?” Jax asked, wondering what kind of disability, either short-term or long-term, Tom might have resulting from the assault on him, and what, if any, continued care he might need. Jax would gladly provide round-the-clock nursing care if that were needed, but he knew that would not be enough to satisfy Brenda. She would insist on visiting Tom at least several times a week, and the stress of that many trips to New York, even in a limo or the jet – assuming Brenda got over her fear of flying – wouldn’t be good for her and would probably be overruled by Dr. Meadows anyway.

“That’s the usual procedure,” Daniel answered, knowing that Jax knew that as well and wondering where this was leading. “But of course, you already knew that.” He heard Jax’s soft chuckle. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, I’m not sure that this would be possible but I thought I’d throw it out anyway…” Jax began, hoping that Kennedy could actually pull this off.

“I’m listening,” Daniel said, his interest piqued now.

“I was wondering if there could be any way that Tom – assuming he’s well enough to travel and that he’s released on bail – could be placed here in Port Charles in my custody until trial?” Jax asked, hoping for Brenda’s sake that Kennedy would at least consider this option.

There were several seconds of silence on the line and then Daniel finally answered, “It’s a bit unusual, but not altogether unheard of, although I’m not sure we can get the judge to agree to it, considering the seriousness of the charges against Tom. But I’ll do my research on precedents and do my best to get the judge to see it our way. If he does agree, the judge would most likely order an ankle monitor so that the court could check on his whereabouts at any given time. But I think that would be a small inconvenience for Tom, considering his current situation… I hope that things progress to a point where that is even a consideration… Tom’s in pretty bad shape at the moment, and he may never recover. When I left him last night, the doctors were giving him less than even chances of regaining consciousness, but even if he does regain consciousness, there are no guarantees as to his full recovery,” Daniel said quietly.

Jax listened quietly. Tom Langan couldn’t die; Brenda would blame herself if he did. And Jax couldn’t risk the emotional toll that would take on both her and the baby. It appeared that Tom might need a miracle to pull him through this, and if anyone deserved one at this point it was Tom, who had helped to orchestrate a miracle for him and Brenda.

“Was there anything else?” Daniel asked, when Jax had remained silent for several seconds. “I was just getting ready to go to the office when you called and I’d like to stop by St. Mary’s on the way…” Daniel said, not trying to be rude, but knowing that he had a very full day ahead of him and every moment needed to be used wisely if he planned to help Tom Langan out of the mess in which he was now mired.

“No, thanks… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to keep you this long,” Jax apologized.

“No need to apologize. You were just returning my call and this was all information that we needed to discuss anyway,” Daniel replied. “In fact, I was wondering when you and I might be able to meet in person? I find it easier to work when I’ve actually had the chance to shake hands with the person signing my paycheck.”

“Well, I like to look a man in the eye when I’m discussing important matters, too,” Jax answered, understanding completely Kennedy’s request. “I plan to get to New York soon, but when I come, I’d like to visit Tom and I imagine they’re restricting his visitors to family – and you – for the moment. Assuming that he will steadily improve, I think I’ll wait a few days before flying there. Besides, the next couple of days I want to stay close to Brenda. She’s only been out of the hospital a couple of days and her activities are still being restricted, so I really don’t want to leave her for the time it would take to come there – at least not right now. But if you’d like – and you have the time – I could send my jet to bring you here to Port Charles in the next day or two.”

“That’s very generous of you, Mr. Jacks. Let me get back to you on that after I see what’s happening with Tom and how much legal mess I need to wade through in the next 48 hours.” There was a slight pause and then Daniel spoke again, “You’re doing all of this for your fiancée, aren’t you? Believing in Tom, paying his legal fees…”

There was another moment of silence, as Jax wondered where Daniel was going with this. Before he could answer, Daniel continued: “I don’t mean to intrude on your personal life here. Your reasons for hiring me really are none of my business… It just seems to me that you must love Ms. Barrett very much to do all of this for the man accused of kidnapping her and a man who’s admitted his love for her.”

Jax smiled, as he answered, “It’s not a personal intrusion at all… I love Brenda more than I thought it was possible to love someone, and I’d do anything to make her happy. She’s a part of me, and that part of me would died if it weren’t for Tom. So I’m not just helping Tom for her, I’m helping him *because* of her – and what he did for her *and* me.”

“That’s nice…” Daniel murmured. “It’s not often that I see or feel that kind of love among those who hire me – or even in society at large. I’d begun to wonder if that kind of love even existed anymore,” he added softly, remembering the love that he and Paige had shared all too briefly. He quickly caught himself before he became maudlin, but he remained silent.

“Well, I’ll let you go then,” Jax finally said. “I’d appreciate it if you could continue to keep me informed about Tom’s condition and his case. In fact, if you could call me as soon as you see Tom, I’d really appreciate it. Let me give you the number of my cell phone so you can reach me day or night.” If Tom’s condition stagnated or worsened, he wanted to be able to filter that information to Brenda. He didn’t want to risk the possibility of her hearing such a stark truth from an answering machine message again.

“I apologize for the messages I left on your machine last night. I never thought about what effect it would have on Ms. Barrett, should she overhear. But given the seriousness of what had happened, I thought you should know immediately,” Daniel apologized.

“I understand. No apologies needed. We’ll just avoid that possibility in the future this way… My cell number is 716-555-5299. Like I said, call anytime. I rarely turn it off, but when I do my voice mail picks up.”

“And that way Ms. Barrett won’t hear anything that might unnecessarily upset her,” Daniel supplied what Jax had left out.

Jax’s laughed guiltily. “Something like that…”

“I understand completely. How about we leave it like this: I’ll call you as soon as I’ve seen Tom at the hospital, but I’ll call your cell phone if there’s no improvement or if his condition has worsened, but I’ll call the house number if he’s definitely on the mend? That way if the phone rings, you won’t have to worry about beating her to it or the machine,” Daniel suggested.

“Sounds like a plan,” Jax smiled.

As he and Daniel Kennedy said their good-byes and hung up, he realized that he genuinely liked this man. Daniel Kennedy, the lawyer, had a reputation for being sharp, cold, and unfeeling. But in the few minutes that they had spent talking this morning, Jax had perceived that Daniel Kennedy, the man, was warm and caring and empathetic. From the almost wistful tone in Daniel’s voice when he had commented on the love that Brenda and Jax shared, Jax had gotten the distinct impression that Daniel Kennedy had known and lost just such a love at some time in his life. Jax recognized and understood that wistfulness because he had felt it in the hours and the days and the weeks after he thought he’d lost Brenda and the baby. But, through some miracle, he’d been fortunate to get them back.

Now his goal was to keep them both safe, come hell or high water – or bad news, such as Kennedy had just given him concerning Tom. He had promised Brenda to tell her what Kennedy said. Their pledge had been to always be honest with one another. But the whole truth and nothing but the truth at this precarious point in her pregnancy could be too much, so in this instance and for her sake, he decided that honesty would come in degrees. He just hoped that when Brenda did find out the whole truth later that she’d understand why he’d chosen to be ambiguous with her now…

Marco Leone poured himself another cup of coffee and sat back in his chair in his suite, contemplating his agenda for the day. Corinthos was his first order of business. Sal, his faithful bodyguard whom he had entrusted to keep an eye on Corinthos, had just informed him that Corinthos had spent a restless night, pacing the length of his suite, and had spent the past couple hours on his balcony, staring out at the ocean.

“Lovesick fool!” Marco laughed scornfully, thinking about Corinthos’s reaction to hearing that the lovely Brenda Barrett was alive and well – and back living with her fiancé, Jasper Jacks. He knew that Corinthos wanted to storm into Port Charles as soon as possible to try to once again win Ms. Barrett away from young Jacks, and he was most likely up all night scheming as to how he could escape him to get there. But Corinthos would soon learn that in Marco’s world there was only one timetable and that was his.

He had much work to do with Corinthos in order to get him ready for his return to Port Charles, and then – and only then – would he allow Corinthos anywhere near the Jacks family. He knew that Corinthos would do anything, including murder, to get Ms. Barrett away from young Jacks – in fact, Marco was counting on that fact. He just needed a little more time in which to instruct Corinthos in some of the finer points of taking out one’s enemies.

Revenge and murder really were art forms, in Marco’s book, and only a true artist could pull them off in such a way as to appear totally blameless. And Marco was indeed an artist, which is why he had managed to successfully take out so many enemies – as well as a few friends along the way – and never had a single indictment in all these years in “the business” – that was until now and until the Jacks family. But they would pay for their complicity and their duplicity, and they would pay dearly. And in the end, their total destruction and the demise of all those whom they held dear would be a magnificent sight to behold and another true work of art to add to his burgeoning collection. He smiled as he sipped his coffee, savoring both the sweetness of the rich, aromatic brew and that of the revenge that he was about to unleash…

Brenda sat on the futon that perched just below the wall of sound equipment in her upstairs office, staring out the window at the rain that continued to fall outside the cottage. She’d retrieved a warm pair of socks from the bedroom to slip on her feet and then had gone into her office to wait for Jerry to shower and dress and for Jax to finish with his phone call to Daniel Kennedy. She had hoped to keep her mind off the situation at hand by reading over some L&B paperwork, but the rhythmic sound of the rain as it hit the window panes distracted her, reminding her of the sound of the continuous rain at Tom’s cabin on those first few days after he’d rescued her.

She wrapped her arms around herself, shuddering as she realized that both she and her baby would be dead now if it hadn’t been for Tom Langan. He was like a guardian angel for them both. He had literally saved her life and then nursed her back to health, opening both his home and his heart to her. He had been kind and gentle and patient with her, and how had she repaid him? By completely disrupting his life. He had saved her life, and she had destroyed his in return.

The tears began to fall as she imagined the pain that Tom must be going through now, and all because of her. The emotional pain that he experienced when he’d been falsely arrested had to have been hard enough – taken into custody here in front of her and Jax; stripped of his badge and his dignity by his own partner and best friend, no less; then taken to a federal facility in Queens, staffed by men and women who had once been his peers and who were now his jailers, and populated by felons he had helped to apprehend. And now one of those felons, possibly with a personal score to settle against Tom, had beaten him so severely that he was in some hospital intensive care unit, fighting for his very life. That pain must be horrendous – and it was all because of her!

She felt the weight of another person sitting down beside her, and then a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, and she instinctively drew herself to a broad chest, burying her head there. “It’s not your fault, Brenda – none of it,” Jerry soothed, recognizing the look of guilt and remorse that Brenda was wearing. “Like Jax said, sometimes things just happen, and sometimes those things are bad…”

Brenda suddenly looked up at him, surprised that it was he and not Jax who was comforting her. She had smelled the cologne and caught a glimpse of the clothes, momentarily forgetting that Jerry planned to shower and then put on Jax’s clothes since his were dirty, and she had assumed it was Jax holding her. She pulled away, embarrassed that Jerry had caught her doing exactly what Jax had asked her not to do – wallowing in guilt about all of this. “I know what he said, Jer… It’s just hard not to connect the dots between Tom’s finding me and the complete disintegration of his life.”

Jerry tipped her chin up and handed her a tissue from the box on the nearby desk. “Let’s just hold off on connecting those dots for now, until we find out exactly what’s at the root of all of Tom’s troubles…”

She wiped her eyes and then blew her nose. “Jerry, it’s pretty clear that he’d still be enjoying his vacation instead of lying in a hospital bed if I hadn’t literally washed up on his doorstep weeks ago! His life was orderly and clean before I came along, and now it’s messy and turned completely upside down.”

Jerry ran a hand through his damp hair and sighed, debating whether or not to lay out his theory about Langan for her as he had done earlier for Jax, knowing the type of resistance to it that he would get from her. He studied her face for a few seconds and decided that now was as good a time as any to be honest with her about his continued distrust of Langan. “Personally, I don’t think Tom’s life was all that orderly or clean before you came into. I know you and Jax don’t want to hear my speculation, but I still think Tom was up to his neck with Leone long before you ever landed in his life. I think he’d been on the dole from Leone for months – maybe even years – before he found you.

“But when he found you and realized who you were, I think he saw an opportunity to get in even better with Leone and to make a fortune on the side, as well. I think that you were just the icing on the cake that he’d been both having and eating for a long time, and that kind of self-indulgence finally caught up with him. It wasn’t your fault, it was his – plain and simple.”

Brenda narrowed her eyes as she looked at Jerry, steeling her voice as she answered: “What makes you such an authority on Tom Langan – a man you barely know? I spent weeks with the man, and I got to know him pretty well in that length of time… He’s a sweet and gentle man, and he’s also a very honorable man, Jerry. He could never do what he’s been accused of.”

She paused as she reflected about everything she’d learned about Tom in the weeks they were together. “Do you know that the vacation that I interrupted was his first in years? His job – and Charlie – are his life. He’s been divorced for years, and he rarely socializes, and when he does, it’s with his family or with his partner, John. He lives a very simple life, Jer. He lives in a small, one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, and he drives a government- issued Ford, for heaven’s sake! Does that sound like a man who has been on the take from the mob?”

“He could have been very careful and stashed his money offshore, where it wouldn’t attract the attention of anyone,” Jerry argued, completely unmoved by her observations. “He *was* on his way to the Cayman Islands yesterday afternoon when he dropped off your bag. My bet is that he knew that they were closing in on him and he was heading there to collect his blood money, and he wasn’t planning to come back here at all!”

“No, Jerry!” Brenda shook her head vehemently at his speculations. “I know in my heart that Tom could *never,* *ever* do any of the things he’s accused of doing. It isn’t in his nature, Jer. I don’t care about your wild speculations or how damning the evidence against him is, I know he’s innocent!”

She looked at Jerry and saw that he still had no sympathy for Tom or his current plight, so she went on the offensive against Jerry. “Even if he had been on Marco Leone’s payroll, how does that make him all that different than you and your dad? You asked for – and got – Jax’s forgiveness and understanding after nearly destroying him both personally and professionally with your ties to Leone. If Tom *is* mixed up with the mob – as you and the government seem to think – why wouldn’t he be entitled to some understanding from his friends and family as well? You seem to want to be judge, jury, and executioner as far as Tom is concerned. Why is that? Why do you hate him so much?” she asked pointedly, trying to understand his continued animosity for this man, who had saved her life and who had become so important to both Jax and her.

“Because he would like nothing better than to snatch you away from Jax – baby or no baby! He loves you, Brenda!” Jerry exploded, wondering why neither she nor Jax could seem to grasp the seriousness of that fact.

“And I love him, Jer,” she shot back, her candid admission shocking Jerry. “Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here… I don’t mean that I love him the way that I love Jax, but I *do* love him, in much the same way that I love Ned – and the way I love you, Jerry,” she explained, taking Jerry’s hand in hers as she spoke. “He’s been more than a good friend to me – and to Jax, too – and I think you could see that if you could just get past this macho role you see yourself in as Jax’s protector. Jax doesn’t need protecting, especially from Tom – and neither do I. Tom is no threat to the love that Jax and I feel for one another. That’s untouchable. If anything, *Tom* needs *our* protection. Someone – probably someone in the FBI, no less – is using him as a scapegoat to cover their own tracks where Marco Leone is concerned, and we have to help discover who that is!”

“You and Daniel Kennedy seem to be on the same wavelength,” Jax said, as he walked into the office, startling both Jerry and Brenda, neither of whom had heard him come upstairs. He’d walked up just in time to hear Brenda’s theory about Tom being framed.

Brenda jumped off the futon immediately and ran to Jax, who held his arms open for her. “What did he have to say about Tom?” she asked anxiously, as Jax wrapped his arms around her and kissed her on the head.

“He says he thinks Tom has been set up as the fall guy in all of this, and he intends to ferret out the person or persons who are the real links to Leone and clear Tom’s name as quickly as possible,” Jax answered, knowing that Brenda wanted information about Tom’s medical prognosis now, not his legal prognosis.

“Then he’s a very bright man indeed if he’s already come to that obvious conclusion,” Brenda answered dryly, as she raised her eyebrows and gave Jerry a pointed look, before she looked back at Jax, her tone more serious. “Who did this to Tom? And how is Tom now?” she asked, the anxiety evident in her eyes and in her voice.

Jax hesitated slightly, wondering if this was the kind of news Brenda should be hearing, but then he remembered that he had promised to tell her the truth once he spoke with Kennedy, and promises were something that he always kept – especially with Brenda. But there were degrees of truth, and he had already decided that this was one of those times when he would choose to tell her only as much truth as he felt she could handle at the moment.

“He said he’d called the hospital about an hour ago, and Tom’s still listed in serious, but stable condition. He’s still unconscious, but that’s not unusual in these circumstances,” he answered, completely ignoring her question about who the assailant was and hoping that she wouldn’t press for details about that or about his specific injuries. He saw Brenda’s eyes begin to mist again, so he pulled her to him and kissed her gently on the head.

“What *are* his injuries?” she asked, looking up at him through her tears.

Jax sighed. He should have known she wouldn’t be satisfied with his partial report, but even telling her of the extent of his injuries, he didn’t have to tell her everything. He was at least glad she hadn’t again asked who had done this to Tom; Jax knew how upset that information would make Brenda. “Okay, now I don’t want you to get upset by this. The injuries sound worse than they probably are,” Jax began, hoping that Tom’s condition had improved since Kennedy had last heard. “He has a dislocated shoulder… and a fractured skull,” he added quietly. At Brenda’s gasp, he held her closer, trying to think of a way to soothe away her fears. “It sounds bad, but Tom’s a fighter – you know that better than anyone. He fought to save you – not once, but twice – and I predict that he’ll fight to stay alive himself – if only to look into your beautiful eyes again,” he continued, hoping that this was the ray of hope she needed.

“But what if that isn’t enough, Jax?” Brenda asked, gazing up into Jax’s eyes, her own eyes once again damp with fresh tears. “What if he’s so badly injured that even his inner strength isn’t enough to bring him through this?” She gasped sharply as another sickening thought occurred to her. “Or what if he lives, but he’s so badly injured that he’s alive, but he really has no life? I mean, what if he’s left severely brain damaged from this?”

“And what if he recovers and doesn’t have a lick of problems from this afterwards?” Jerry piped up, in response to Brenda’s worst case scenario. He had picked up on Jax’s ambivalent tone and had seen the brief look of uncertainty in Jax’s eyes when he’d told Brenda about Tom’s condition. He knew that Jax was hiding the true seriousness of Tom’s condition and most likely also the identity of Tom’s assailant, and he knew he was doing it to protect Brenda.

“I don’t say this often, but Jerry’s right,” Jax said, pulling away from Brenda slightly so that he could look fully into her anxious eyes. “Modern medicine works wonders everyday! … Besides, I think we need to think only positive thoughts this morning… The power of positive thinking, Mum always called it. I tried to stay positive when you were kidnapped and then again when we almost lost the baby, and it worked. I think we need to do the same now with Tom… Besides, worrying won’t do Tom any good, but that stress could hurt you and the baby…”

“That’s right! And you know what Dr. Meadows would do if she knew about all of this, so don’t force me to call her,” Jerry piped in again.

Jerry’s meddling made Brenda smile through her tears, despite the seriousness of all of this. “*You’d* be forced to call her, Jer? Since when is this baby your business?”

“Well, I assume I’ll be the little bugger’s godfather when he’s born, so I figure that responsibility to keep him safe extends retroactively, even into the womb,” he grinned, as he rubbed his hand across the small bulge of Brenda’s lower abdomen; his unexpectedly bold move eliciting a startled gasp from Brenda.

Jax smiled, realizing that Jerry was intentionally trying to distract Brenda and lighten her mood and he was thankful for that. Another time he might have thought his brother obnoxious, but he knew his intentions here and he knew he was being a loving brother and uncle as best as Jerry knew how. Jerry was just being Jerry, trying to protect all of those he loved: Jax, Brenda, and their baby. And at this moment Jax had never loved and appreciated him more.

“Hey! Get your hands off my-soon-to-be wife!” Jax smacked at Jerry with mock outrage.

“Despite how it may appear, I am *not* feeling her up, dear brother; I’m merely bonding with my godchild,” Jerry grinned, raising his eyebrows in exaggerated salaciousness, as Jax pulled his brother’s hand off Brenda. Just then Brenda’s stomach grumbled loudly. “And my godchild is telling me that it’s about time that his mother fed him that French toast he was promised hours ago!”

Brenda smiled, shaking her head as she, too, realized and was grateful for Jerry’s antics. As much as she had wanted to put her hands around Jerry’s throat and strangle him just minutes earlier when he was being so hardheaded about Tom, now she wanted nothing more than to throw her arms around his neck and hug him for being so soft-hearted. He could drive her crazy most of the time, but there were times like this when she was just plain crazy about him. Jerry was a walking enigma: gruff and bristly one minute; soft and tender, the next. And he phased from one persona to the other at the most unexpected, yet fortunate, times – like this time.

She knew that Jax was holding back telling her everything about Tom; she sensed it. And she knew that Jerry sensed it, too, which was most likely the reason for his bold tactics just now. The brothers were working in tandem to distract her from Tom’s situation.

Lady Jane had once told her that sometimes the depth of a love is revealed as much in what is left unsaid as what is said. Brenda had always assumed she meant in the wordless glances and silent caresses that lovers often share, but she now realized that Lady Jane wasn’t referring to romantic love at all. She meant the love within families that shades the truth at times to protect the innocent…

For the first time since she’d learned of John and Jerry’s longtime involvement with Leone, she understood why the family had shielded Jax from it. Their explanation that they loved him and wanted to keep him above that ugliness wasn’t an excuse at all, but rather the truth. She still didn’t condone the actions that led to their original agreement with Leone, but at least now she better understood why they had chosen to keep Jax in the dark about it.

And now Jax was trying to do the same to her concerning Tom… But unlike the family’s plan to never tell Jax the truth, she had no doubt that Jax would tell her everything once he felt she could handle it. She had told him just the day before that she trusted his judgment and that she knew that he would always tell her everything when he felt the time was right. He evidently thought the time wasn’t right now.

So she had two choices: she could let them know she was onto them and that she knew that Jax was withholding information from her; or she could say nothing and allow them their little ruse, which would most likely come to an end soon enough. A few weeks ago her childhood insecurities about love and trust would probably have surfaced and she would have immediately confronted Jax about her suspicions. And after her life with Sonny Corinthos, she had every reason to wonder when her suspicions were aroused. But Jax wasn’t Sonny; she knew that. He wasn’t trying to control her with his half-truths, as Sonny always had; he was merely controlling the situation as best he could until she could handle whatever it was that he was holding back. Sonny had never intended to tell her everything.

Besides, a lot had happened in her life since her time with Sonny, including the fact that she had briefly lost her life and then miraculously was allowed to live again. She saw the world differently now; sweated the small stuff less; appreciated everything about her life more. Perhaps experiencing something as major as death, no matter how briefly, did that to a person. Life now had perspective for her. Now she seemed able to put those insecurities in the past, where they belonged, and see the love and concern that surrounded her now, so the choice was easy: she chose the latter.

“I think Jerry’s right,” Brenda finally said, looking from Jax to Jerry, both of whom seemed surprised she was switching gears this easily. “This little one is saying that he’s extremely hungry and tired of waiting for breakfast, so I think that needs to be the immediate order of business for all of us.”

Jax tried to hide his surprise at her change of attitude, but assumed it must be the hormones that were thankfully kicking in, momentarily distracting Brenda from her concerns about Tom. “Well, I agree with our baby. And I’m eager to see you whip up this French toast you promised us all earlier,” Jax said, as he and Brenda headed out of the room and down the hall toward the steps leading downstairs.

“Well, I’m in complete agreement with the little bugger, too; I’m starved! Let’s eat!” Jerry said, following a few steps behind Jax and Brenda.

Suddenly Brenda stopped in her tracks, putting both her hands across her lower abdomen.

“Brenda, are you all right? Is it the baby?” Jax asked, panicked that Brenda was miscarrying.

“No, I didn’t mean to scare you like that,” Brenda quickly apologized. “It’s just that the baby had something more he wanted to say to his Uncle Jerry.”

“Yeah,” Jerry grinned, reaching to once again lay his hand on Brenda’s abdomen, but quickly withdrawing it when he saw Jax prepared to swat it away. “So what’s the little bugger saying to his favorite uncle?”

“He’s saying…” Brenda began, a slow smile spreading across her face and a mischievous twinkle in her eye. “… that Uncle Jerry had better stop calling him a little bugger or his mommy will be forced to beat Uncle Jerry senseless!” she finished, giggling as she playfully chucked Jerry beneath the chin, then turned to run down the stairs ahead of Jax and Jerry.

Jax and Jerry exchanged bewildered looks and then they both burst out laughing.

“She sure is an unpredictable little thing!” Jerry said, shaking his head as he and Jax stood staring after her. “One minute she’s near hysteria and the next she’s joking. Those hormones certainly do come in handy at times!”

“Yeah, well, I’m not so sure we can chalk up this mood change entirely to the pregnancy,” Jax said, as neither he nor Jerry made a move to follow Brenda downstairs.

“I think Brenda knows – or at least suspects – that I’m not telling her everything, but she’s letting it go for now, trusting me to tell her when I’m ready.”

“So what exactly *is* it that you aren’t telling Brenda?” Jerry asked pointedly.

Jax continued to look toward the stairs, making certain that Brenda was not coming back up to see what was taking them so long. “Kennedy says that Tom is in really bad shape. It’s touch-and-go whether he’ll even live, let alone recover.” Jerry let out a low whistle. “He also said that Tom’s partner, John Michaels, is the one who landed Tom in the hospital.”

Jerry closed his eyes momentarily, shocked by that news. “His own partner? … Langan certainly isn’t my favorite person in the world – and I’m still not convinced that he hasn’t been in cahoots with Leone all along – but I’d never in a million years wish this on the man… I understand now why you didn’t tell Brenda everything. It would be way too much for her to handle.”

Jax nodded. “Kennedy is on his way to the hospital now to check on Tom, and he promised to call and update us immediately after that,” Jax explained, moving down the hall and toward the stairs, with Jerry right behind him.

“Then we’d better make sure that Brenda doesn’t answer the phone – just in case,” Jerry said, as they reached the stairs.

“That’s not a problem,” Jax smiled, remembering Kennedy’s calling suggestion. “Kennedy and I have an agreement: he’ll call the house phone if Tom has shown improvement; otherwise, he’ll call my cell number, so Brenda won’t accidentally intercept the message.”

“I should have known you’d come up with something,” Jerry grinned, slapping his brother on the back.. “Actually, it was Kennedy’s idea,” Jax revealed. “I told him how the message he’d left last night had upset Brenda, and he wanted to avoid a repeat of that, so he suggested this.”

“I can’t wait to meet this guy in person. That particular stratagem is sharp enough to qualify for the Jacks’ book of maneuvers. We could call it Jacks’ Move # 35… Maybe he’s related to us somewhere along the line!” Jerry laughed.

“Could be,” Jax smiled. “I do know that his distinguished reputation is well-deserved. After talking with him this morning, I got a better feel for the man, and I understand now why this man is virtually unstoppable in the courtroom. I’m certain that he can help Tom survive the charges against him.” But both he and Jerry quickly sobered as Jax quietly added: “But first Tom just has to survive…”

Tom Langan struggled to open his eyes. He could faintly hear someone talking to him… A woman’s voice… Was it his Angel? Where was she? “Angel…” he tried to say, but his throat hurt. In fact, his whole body hurt from head to toe. He felt someone jostling him, and his eyes flew open, despite the pain that surged through his head at even that slight movement. “Angel?” he repeated, and this time he could hear himself, although his voice sounded strangely strangled and hoarse. He tried to focus his eyes to see where he was and where “she” was, but despite the muted lights and shadows that filled the room, the brightness hurt his eyes and his head, so he closed them once again.

“Mr. Langan?” he heard a female voice softly call his name. He didn’t recognize the voice, but he knew it wasn’t Angel. Who was this woman, and where was he, and why did he hurt so much? He forced himself to once again open his eyes, this time spotting the woman who had been calling to him. She was petite, with short, dark hair, and she was wearing a pale blue uniform and fussing excitedly over him.

“Mr. Langan,” she repeated, as she touched his right arm gently, focusing his attention on her. “Do you remember what happened?”

Tom stared at her for a few seconds, trying to focus on any memories of what had happened to him and where he was now. He closed his eyes again and flashes of recent events raced through his head: the storm and the cabin; finding and falling in love with Angel; finding out that she was really Brenda Barrett and that she was pregnant and very much in love with her fiancé, Jasper Jacks; reluctantly returning her to Jax’s arms and then helping to hide her from Marco Leone and the rest of the world, while the Jacks family ironed out a deal with the government; her kidnapping from the cabin; her rescue and then near-miscarriage; her happy return to the bosom of her family once again; his trip to visit her before he left for vacation and his subsequent arrest. And the last thing he remembered was John, his partner and best friend, coming to visit him in his cell…

He tried to nod his head ‘yes,’ but that simple movement sent a wave of excruciating pain shooting through his head, so he tried once again to talk, even though that was a painful experience as well. “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “Where am I?” he asked, realizing he had to be in a hospital and this woman was either a doctor or a nurse.

“Try not to talk, Mr. Langan. Your throat and vocal chords are swollen, so it’s best if you wait to talk until the swelling goes down… You’re in the intensive care unit of St. Mary’s Hospital in Queens, Mr. Langan, and I’m Cari Ferguson, charge nurse here,” the attractive, dark-haired woman explained. “I’ll be back in just a moment,” she said, as she headed toward the door that led from his room out into the area of the main nurses’ station. “Dr. Paulson is the head of neurology here, and he wanted to be notified if there was any change in your condition. He’ll be glad to know that you’ve regained consciousness.”

The door had just closed behind her when Tom heard a deep, male voice from the shadows in the corner say: “You had us all pretty worried.”

Tom tried to turn his head in the direction of the voice, but grimaced as another wave of agonizing pain shot through his head at that movement.

“Don’t try to move, Tom,” the voice said as it moved closer. “It’s me – Bill Blakemore,” the voice continued as its owner emerged from the shadows to stand by Tom’s bed so that Tom could see him without moving his head.

“Bill,” Tom answered, his voice raspy. He remembered Bill well. He was an eager, young agent, who had helped him on a couple of cases. He was smart and dedicated, and a real asset to the agency, and Tom both liked and respected the man. He tried to offer his right hand to Bill for a handshake, but it wouldn’t move. He glanced down to see an IV in his right arm and his right wrist handcuffed to the bedrail and his left hand immobilized by a sling that held his left arm firmly across his chest.

“Sorry about that, Tom,” Bill apologized, sincere regret in his eyes as he pulled up a chair to sit at eye level with Tom. “You know – agency policy.”

“Yeah,” Tom answered softly, his voice somewhat stronger than it was before. He knew all too well about agency policy, especially concerning agents who go bad – or appear to go bad. His mind suddenly shot from his own situation to that of the man who had landed him here in this hospital. “Where’s John?” he asked, suddenly wondering what had happened to his best friend and partner and the man who had nearly killed him just hours before.

“He’s in lock-up…” Bill answered solemnly, then turned his head away from Tom as he quietly added: “…under a suicide watch.”

But Tom heard him anyway, and he felt a pain in his soul that nearly matched the pain in his body. How had the world gone so terribly awry in the past few days? It was bad enough that his credibility as an FBI agent had been effectively destroyed by these phony charges of complicity with the likes of Marco Leone, but now John’s had been as well. Tom knew that even if he were able to finally get to the bottom of these manufactured charges and prove his innocence and return to the Bureau, John would never again be able to serve as an agent. While the charges against him were trumped up, those against John were indisputable. John had lost his professional edge and beaten a prisoner, and that was an unpardonable sin in the Bureau, no matter what the impetus for that beating might be. And John knew that, too, and that knowledge, as well as the remorse that Tom was sure that John had felt once he had regained control of himself, is what had necessitated the suicide watch. John had destroyed his future when he’d landed his first punch on Tom.

But Tom harbored no resentment toward John for doing this to him. In fact, he understood John’s loss of control today because he had done nearly the same thing to John the night of Brenda’s kidnapping, when he had suspected that John had been behind her disappearance. If it hadn’t been for Sheriff Paully’s intervention that night, he might very well have beaten John just as thoroughly as John had beaten him tonight. They had each allowed their emotions to override their good judgment in those situations, but in the cell John had had no one to restrain him, as Sheriff Paully had restrained Tom that night at the cabin.

“Does he have a lawyer?” Tom struggled to ask, his concern for his friend more important than the pain that he felt with each word that he uttered.

“Last I heard he used his one phone call, but no one knows who he called because no attorney ever showed up,” Bill explained, wondering what was going through Tom’s head.

“He needs an attorney,” Tom croaked, his voice somewhat clearer and louder than it was, but the struggle to speak was just as painful as it had been when he’d first regained consciousness.

“And you need your rest, Mr. Langan,” Cari interrupted as she returned to the room once again. She turned her attention to Agent Blakemore then. “I may have to allow you to remain in the room with the patient because he’s your prisoner, but I can’t allow you to do anything that could jeopardize his health and recovery, such as you’re doing now. He needs to rest his vocal chords; he shouldn’t be carrying on lengthy conversations with anyone, let alone with you.”

“Please!” Tom pleaded, his voice raspy and weak. “I need to talk to Agent Blakemore.”

“You need to rest, Mr. Langan. Your body has been through an incredible ordeal and your vocal chords have been badly bruised. You need to rest in order to heal properly, and if you don’t, you could do permanent damage to your voice!” Cari countered, her stern tone conveying the seriousness of Tom’s condition.

“Ms. Ferguson is right, Tom,” Bill agreed, standing and pushing his chair back away from the bed. “You need to rest now. I’m here until 4 this afternoon, so we’ll still have time later to talk if you want—”

“No!” Tom yelled, straining his voice and wincing at the pain that coursed through his body as he struggled against the restraints that kept him tied to his bed. “No, I need for you to do something for me now…” he grimaced, settling back against his pillow once again.

“Mr. Langan!” Cari scolded, as she checked to make sure that his shoulder was still positioned correctly and that he hadn’t dislodged the IV needle with his sudden movements. “You have to lie still!”

“Just let me talk to him, and I promise I’ll cooperate then,” Tom rasped, his breathing growing harder with each word he uttered.

Cari Ferguson eyed her charge carefully, weighing her options in this situation. If she followed Dr. Paulson’s instructions to the letter and didn’t allow Tom to talk, then he’d most likely become agitated again. But if she allowed him to continue talking as he was doing now, then he could do permanent damage to his vocal chords. There had to be some way to satisfy Tom, while still not jeopardizing his health. She thought for a moment and then took a deep breath and answered Tom. “I really can’t let you do much more talking at this time, Mr. Langan,” she began, and as she saw him start to protest, she held up her hand. “Let me finish, Mr. Langan! I think I can find a compromise that we can both live with – that is, if I can get Agent Blakemore to cooperate as well…”

Bill Blakemore looked skeptically at Cari, wondering why she needed his cooperation in this. “Why do you need my help?”

“Are you right or left-handed, Mr. Langan?” Cari asked Tom, appearing to ignore Bill’s question. “Answer by moving the appropriate hand, Mr. Langan.”

Tom raised his right hand as far as the restraints of the handcuffs would allow. He was about to ask why that mattered when Cari gave him a look that indicated that he needed to remain silent, and then continued, “I suspected that, which is why we will need for Agent Blakemore to uncuff you so that you can write down your urgent request for him.”

“That’s against policy,” Agent Blakemore began, but Cari interrupted him before he could say another word.

“I hardly think that uncuffing Mr. Langan for the few minutes that it will take for him to write down exactly what he wants you to handle for him will matter,” Cari shot back. “I don’t think he’s going to attempt to escape when he can barely breathe without causing himself severe pain!”

Agent Blakemore looked first at Cari, who stood at the side of Tom’s bed, hands on her hips, waiting for a response, and then at Tom, who winced in pain as he tried to move his head on the pillow. Grumbling under his breath, he pulled the key from his pocket and unlocked the handcuff, freeing Tom’s right hand. He looked at Tom. “Don’t make me regret this! … And we both better hope that Sikes doesn’t decide to make an early morning visit here!”

Tom nodded his understanding, grimacing when even that small movement brought shooting pains through his head.

“I’ll be right back with a notepad and a pen. Try not to make your *great escape* before I get back, Mr. Langan,” she added sarcastically, speaking to Tom but looking directly at Bill Blakemore as she spoke.

Bill’s face reddened at her pointed barb. His reticence to uncuff Tom appeared ludicrous on the surface, given Tom’s current condition, but he had just been trying to follow bureau SOP. But it was pointless to argue that with her, since she was most likely well aware that he didn’t make the rules; he merely followed them.

Her verbal jab at Bill made Tom smile for the first time since he’d awakened. He liked the spunky Ms. Ferguson. She stood her ground no matter what, and she wasn’t afraid to take on someone as intimidating as the hulking Agent Blakemore in defense of her patient. And, despite Bill’s grumbling, he sensed that Bill liked her even more than Tom did. There seemed to be a definite spark between those two, and it wasn’t merely the professional friction of his duty concerning a prisoner conflicting with hers to her patient.

There was something more… something in the way that Bill looked at Ms. Ferguson. Tom was well aware what that look meant; it was the same look he gave Angel – or rather, the look he *used* to give her, before he learned she was really Brenda Barrett, happily pregnant fiancée of billionaire Jasper Jacks… The smile quickly faded from his face as he thought of Brenda and realized what news of his condition could do to her.

“Bill, I need you to make a call for me,” he forced out hoarsely, despite the pain that the effort sent through both his throat and his head.

Cari Ferguson came back in just in time to hear Tom straining to speak once again. “Mr. Langan! You promised! I didn’t ask Agent Blakemore to put his career at risk simply for the sake of throwing my weight around!” she said, racing to his bedside with a note pad and pen in her hands. “You *cannot* try to talk anymore – at least not for a few more hours. All the communication that you’re allowed to do until then will be either with your eyes, hand movements, or using these!” she said, placing the note pad down on the bed and putting the pen firmly in Tom’s hand. She watched as Tom slowly raised pen to paper and unsteadily began to write. “Do you need me to help steady your hand?”

Tom almost opened his mouth to say ‘no,’ but caught himself. ‘NO,’ he wrote, with less than stellar penmanship, but the message was still clear.

Cari Ferguson cocked an eyebrow and set her jaw as she looked firmly at Tom, her hands once again on her hips, as she gave him her final instructions before returning to her station to work on shift report. “Okay, Mr. Langan, I’m going to leave you and Agent Blakemore alone in here, but if I hear more than his voice coming from this room while I’m gone, I’ll be back in here so fast it’ll make your head spin faster and harder than it already is! And then I’ll personally put those handcuffs back on you – and I’ll add a gag to that ensemble for good measure!” Cari moved down so that her face was just inches from Tom’s and added: “Do you understand, Mr. Langan?”

Tom couldn’t help but smile, not only at Cari’s feistiness, but also at the fact that, out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Bill seemed to be admiring far more than Nurse Ferguson’s tough bedside manner, as she stood bent forward over the bed. Bill was definitely admiring the view from his vantagepoint at the foot of Tom’s bed.

‘OK,’ Tom wrote on the pad, and Cari nodded and stood to leave, noticing that Agent Blakemore immediately averted his eyes the minute she turned to look toward him and the door. “As for you, Agent Blakemore, if I so much as hear you allowing a peep out of Mr. Langan, I will arrange for you to join Mr. Langan as his roommate here in ICU, and I’ll have a have a battery of procedures ordered for you ordered for around the clock, starting with an endoscopy and ending with a sigmoidoscopy!” She breezed past him, and out the door, trying not to think about how extremely handsome he looked and the kind of procedures she’d *really* like to do on him.

Bill Blakemore tried not to smile after she’d left, but it was impossible, especially after Tom held up the notepad on which he’d written: ‘MET YOUR MATCH!’

“Well, she *has* gotten my attention, that’s for sure!” Bill laughed, as he moved the chair back by Tom’s bed and settled into it. But his voice grew more serious as he added: “But let’s get back to that conversation that got both of us into such hot water with the lovely Ms. Ferguson… Who did you want me to call for you?”

‘MY LAWYER…DANIEL KENNEDY,’ Tom wrote shakily.

Bill let out a low whistle. “I’d heard through the grapevine that you’d hired him. When I relieved Patterson this morning, he said that Kennedy was here last night within an hour after you were brought in. Looks like you’re getting your money’s worth there – and a good thing, since I bet a heavy-hitter like Kennedy doesn’t come cheap!”

Tom raised an eyebrow at Bill, understanding the implication that there was speculation that the charges against Tom must be true, since someone living merely on an agent’s meager salary could never afford talent as high-priced as Daniel Kennedy. It took him a several seconds, but he finally scrawled: ‘CAN’T AFFORD HIM; DIDN’T HIRE HIM; JASPER JACKS DID.’

“Jasper Jacks – the billionaire who was mixed up with Leone?” Bill asked, raising his eyebrows now.

Tom sighed; he wanted to say: “No, his family was mixed up with them, but he was completely cleared of all charges.” But instead he painstakingly wrote: ‘FAMILY WAS DIRTY – NOT JAX.’

Bill nodded; he did recall that the government had dropped the charges against the younger son and then worked a deal with the older son and father to get information to use against Leone. Then something else occurred to him, and he crinkled his brow, as he asked, “Isn’t he the fiancé of the woman you’re accused of kidnapping?” When Tom nodded, Bill shook his head. “I figured those charges against you were trumped up, too. And the fact that he hired someone of Kennedy’s caliber to defend you shows that he certainly must believe in your innocence, too.”

Tom nodded again, but he was growing frustrated. This was taking too long, and it felt more like that parlor game, Twenty Questions, than a true means of communication. But he believed Nurse Ferguson when she’d warned that he could do permanent damage to his vocal chords by trying to talk too much too soon, so he knew he couldn’t risk opening his mouth to say what was really on his mind. He wanted to say to Agent Blakemore that he was worried about the fact that his partner had sealed his fate as an agent and now was languishing in lock-up, facing arraignment without benefit of a good lawyer. And he wanted to say to Agent Blakemore that that he was equally worried that Brenda would hear about this incident and his condition, and it would be too stressful her. He wanted to say to Agent Blakemore that he needed to see Daniel Kennedy immediately to take control here, both to recommend a good attorney for John and to call Jax to make sure that Brenda was protected from news of all of this.

That’s what he wanted to say, but instead he could merely write, ‘GET KENNEDY NOW! PLEASE! IMPORTANT!’

By the time Jax and Jerry reached the kitchen, they had once again plastered smiles on their faces. They walked in to find the table covered with a fresh tablecloth and neatly set for their breakfast and Brenda standing in front of the electric griddle, sliding the first thick slices of dipped bread onto the hot griddle.

“Did you two happen to get lost on the way down?” she asked, smiling as she looked up briefly when the two swung open the kitchen door.

“Well, Jax had to box my ears to make sure I behave myself during breakfast,” Jerry smoothly fibbed. “He said that you wouldn’t be the only one slapping me senseless if I didn’t keep my hands off your anatomy… Luckily, he made no mention of my lips,” Jerry grinned, as he kissed Brenda lightly on the cheek, before grabbing a mug and pouring himself a cup of coffee.

“Looks like I’ll need to be a little more specific when laying down the law from now on,” Jax quipped, wrapping his arms around Brenda’s waist and kissing her neck.

She smiled as she listened to Jax and Jerry’s easy bantering. She knew that as soon as she had left them alone upstairs that they had no doubt discussed everything that Kennedy had told Jax. And now they were intentionally trying to keep the mood light for her benefit. She loved them both for that.

“Mmm… you smell so good,” Jax said kissing her again on the neck and then moving beside her to get a better look at the French toast, as Brenda turned the slices on the griddle to brown the other side. “And so does breakfast!” he added, kissing her again, this time on the cheek. “I should never have doubted your culinary skills.”

“Yes – and not a fire in sight!” Jerry teased, deftly ducking to avoid the wet dishcloth that Brenda suddenly hurled his way. “Hey! What was that for?” he asked innocently, as she arched an eyebrow at him and waved in his direction the serrated knife she’d used to slice the bread.

“I suggest you not press your luck here, Jerry,” Jax grinned. “Especially when Brenda has a knife in her hand,” Jax laughed. “She looks like she’s become very adept at slicing and dicing!” He nodded toward the neatly sliced stack of bread, waiting to be dipped and fried.

“Ouch!” Jerry instinctively recoiled, knowing exactly which part of his anatomy that Brenda would most likely cut off, if given the chance. “Well, since I don’t want Mum and Dad to rely solely on you, little brother, to replenish the Jacks gene pool, I will shield my tongue – among other things – when I’m in Brenda’s presence.”

“We’d both appreciate that, Jerry,” Jax said, holding the platter for Brenda as she removed the first perfectly browned slices of French toast from the griddle, and dipped the last few pieces of bread into the egg-milk mixture before sliding them onto the griddle.

“See, Jax; I told you that under the right circumstances, Jerry can learn as well as anyone,” Brenda grinned, looking from Jax and to Jerry and then to Charlie, who lay on the rug in front of the door, as she added: “In fact, I think he’s *nearly* as smart as Charlie!”

“Hey! Don’t compare me to a dumb animal!” Jerry bellowed good-naturedly, pointing to Charlie, which made Charlie jump up, barking at Jerry.

Both Jax and Brenda laughed, as Jerry immediately jumped behind his chair in response to Charlie’s moves. “Keep that beast away from me!”

“Oh, for heavens’ sake, Jerry! Charlie’s not about to attack you. I think he’s just upset that you called him a dumb animal,” Jax laughed, setting the platter filled with French toast down on the table, then kneeling down and patting Charlie on the head. The attention immediately quieted the dog, and he wagged his tail happily as Jax stroked his golden fur. “What’s the matter, boy? Did he just insult you? I don’t blame you, especially since, coming from Jerry, calling you a dumb animal is rather like the pot calling the kettle black!” Jax snickered, watching Jerry’s blustering at his comments out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey! I think I resemble that remark!” Jerry slurred, in his best Curly impression, as he tried not to laugh at the exasperated look Brenda was giving both him and Jax now.

“Sheesh! Okay, Abbott and Costello, do you think we could drop the vaudeville routine long enough to enjoy breakfast? Baby Jacks is starving and so is his mommy,” Brenda scolded, her hands on her hips, as she looked from Jax to Jerry, before shaking her head and sliding into the chair across from Jerry.

Jax laughed as he sat down on the chair beside Brenda. He knew that Brenda’s remarks were sure to set Jerry off on another crazy tangent. It had been a long time since he’d seen his brother having this much fun, and he thought about the irony of the situation that brought it on. Just moments ago they were all upset about Tom’s situation and now they were laughing as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Leave it to Jerry to know how to refocus their attention and bring them all out of their blue funk.

“Abbott and Costello?” Jerry exclaimed, as he settled back onto his chair and began heaping several slices of French toast onto his plate. “You thought I was doing Abbott and Costello? That wasn’t Abbott and Costello; that was a classic line from the Three Stooges! I’m insulted! I’m beginning to feel unwanted and unappreciated around here. First I’m assailed by wet, flying cloths, then threatened with gelding by Sweeney Todd in-training there,” he said, gesturing with a forkful of maple syrup-covered French toast at Brenda, “then she compares me unfavorably to a –” He stopped just short of saying “dumb animal” again, as Charlie raised his head from the rug and eyed him suspiciously, appearing – at least to Jerry's wary eye – to be ready to pounce at any moment. “— A *dog*,” he whispered loudly, and Charlie closed his eyes and laid his head back down. “To which, I might add, my own brother adds insult to my almost injury by sympathizing with the dog! Then, to top it all off, she mistakes my perfect imitation of Curly of the Three Stooges as a line from an Abbott and Costello routine!”

“Oh, simmer down!” Brenda scolded, pretending to be annoyed with him, but the twinkle in her eyes contradicted her stern voice. “I never thought the line was *from* an Abbott and Costello routine. I simply meant that you two reminded me *of * an Abbott and Costello routine – a bad one at that!”

“Ah, but there are no bad Abbott and Costello routines,” Jerry pointed out, winking at Jax as he slathered more maple syrup across his French toast.

“Only bad imitations,” Jax deadpanned, to which Jerry gave an exaggerated look of horror, making Brenda laugh.

“Bad imitations?” Jerry huffed. “You two just have no ear for the subtleties of my impersonations. I need a more refined audience to appreciate my gifts,” he grinned, getting up from his chair and walking to the coffeemaker to refill his cup.

“Well, I’d put your so-called gift in the white elephant category myself!” Jax retorted, handing his empty mug to Jerry for a refill and laughing at the face Jerry made in return. He hadn’t seen Jerry make that face since they were kids.

“Speaking of white elephant gifts…What would you two like for a wedding present?” Jerry grinned, filling Jax’s mug with hot coffee, then handing it back to him. “The big day’s less than three weeks away, which means that I don’t have all that many shopping days left to get you some godawful monstrosity that I’ll insist that you keep in the front room for all to see! And every time you look at it you can remember that you got it as payback for the shameful way I’ve been treated today and because you didn’t truly appreciate me and my innate gifts,” he retorted, sitting back down at the table to finish his French toast and his second cup of coffee.

“Did you say *inane* gifts, Jer?” Jax shot back, grinning at his brother over the top of the coffee mug that he held in his hand. “Because I’m pretty sure that *both* Brenda and I are well aware of those, isn’t that right, sweetie?” Jax asked, looking over at Brenda, who had suddenly grown very quiet. Just minutes before she’d been laughing right along with him and Jerry, but now her face was solemn, as if she were contemplating the fate of the world.

Jax immediately set his mug down and grabbed Brenda’s hand, which was trembling as she gripped her half-empty glass of milk. “Brenda, what’s wrong?” he asked, tilting her face up toward him so that he could see her eyes, which were misting over.

“Nothing… Everything… Oh, Jax, I don’t know!” she began, embarrassed that she was once again on the verge of tears when Jax and Jerry had worked so hard to cheer her up. “I’d like to blame it on the hormones, but it’s more than that… The wedding… When Jerry mentioned the wedding, it made me think about what I wanted for this, our final wedding. I mean, we *have* done this before…”

“A few times,” Jerry muttered under his breath, but both Jax and Brenda heard him and shot him withering looks, to which he merely shrugged and continued eating.

“Anyway…” Brenda continued, “I wanted this wedding to be perfect for us – small, but perfect – with our loved ones there to share with us…”

“And that’s what we’ll have – I promise,” Jax said, lifting her hand to his lips and kissing it. “Listen, I don’t want you worrying about anything right now – and that includes our wedding – so why don’t I take over the arrangements for it? I’ll take care of everything – the place, the minister, the flowers, the food, the guests… You just concentrate on relaxing and keeping our baby safe – and your dress, of course… Is that okay with you?… I mean, I took care of everything for the first one, didn’t I?”

“And Corinthos took care of the second one,” Jerry muttered, again under his breath, but immediately shut up when Jax shot him another withering look.

“I think you had a hand in ruining that one, Jer,” Jax replied tersely, and Jerry blushed and quickly began sipping his coffee.

“Jax, those two weddings are in the past, and what happened, happened – or didn’t…” Brenda said, turning Jax’s face back from Jerry to her. “The first one was so beautiful and so wonderful –despite the little fact that we weren’t legally married afterwards. And the second one… well, the less said about it, the better!” she added, glancing briefly at Jerry and then back to Jax. “But this one is our last try for the altar and I want it to be perfect, and perfect to me includes having the ones we love there with us…”

“Agreed,” Jax nodded, waiting for Brenda to continue.

“Well, how can it be perfect if Julia isn’t there? I mean, she doesn’t even know I’m alive, let alone that the wedding is back on!” Brenda sighed.

“I’ve been trying to get in touch with Julia for the past few days and I’ve left several messages for her to call me, but her service says she hasn’t been picking up her messages,” Jax said, and at Brenda’s anxious look, he added: “Julia was really in bad shape after your memorial service – we all were – and she told me that she was taking some time off from running Barrett Industries to go away for a few weeks to rest and remember…” He kissed Brenda softly on the forehead before continuing: “I’m sure that Julia’s okay, Brenda – sad, but safe. She’ll call me as soon as she’s ready, but if it’ll make you feel any better, I can try her service again right after breakfast.”

“Would you?” Brenda said, a small smile gracing her lips.

“You know I’d do anything for you,” Jax smiled in return, kissing her sweetly on the lips. “Now, is there anything else?” He had the feeling that there was more bothering Brenda.

She hesitated slightly before answering him. “I want Tom to be there for our wedding, too,” she said, and when she saw Jax realize where she was headed and start to protest, she quickly continued: “If it weren’t for Tom, I’d be completely out of the picture now, and barely a memory anymore to you... And you’d probably be consorting with some brain-dead blonde bimbo Barbie doll clone, who could barely walk and talk at the same time and wouldn’t have enough sense to keep her shoes on!” she added, pouting.

Jax smiled gently, pulling Brenda into his arms and kissing her on the top of her head. “You could never be barely a memory to me, Brenda. You’re completely ingrained in me; you’re a part of me. Forgetting about you would be like forgetting to breathe: it would be impossible for me to do it… You are my heart and my soul, and if you hadn’t returned to me, I’d have gone on, because that’s expected of those who are left behind… And I may have even eventually found someone to be with again, but she could NEVER replace you in my heart or my soul, no matter what. *You* will always be the one great love of my life.” He moved his lips to hers and kissed her sweetly and gently, a kiss imbued with the promise of forever.

Then he pulled away from her, and grinned, his blue eyes twinkling. “Besides, that Barbie doll doesn’t sound like my type at all – despite how delightfully alliterate that description was!” He tweaked Brenda’s nose. “We all know that I like my women sentient. And I prefer someone small, dark, unbelievably beautiful – and at times, totally frustrating – and luckily for me, I have her!” He kissed Brenda again, and she smiled, but Jax could see that something more was bothering her.

“But that’s thanks to Tom,” Brenda answered, hesitating slightly before adding: “which is why I really want him there with us when we get married.”

“Don’t tell me you want to postpone this wedding until Langan is well enough to attend?” Jerry erupted. He’d been sitting quietly since the last look Jax had given him warning him to stifle himself, but the thought that Brenda might actually put off the wedding for this interloper Langan was more than Jerry could bear!

“Jerry, keep out of this!” Jax glared at his brother.

“It’s not like I don’t want to marry you, Jax, because I do…” Brenda continued, rushing her words as she tried to explain her reasons to Jax. “In fact, I already feel married to you in my heart, and I have ever since our first wedding on the Isabella… So this upcoming ceremony is just a formality for me… But when we do finally have that one legal ceremony, I want *all* the people that I love there to witness it, and that *includes* Tom Langan.” She could see the disappointment in Jax’s eyes, and a hint of uncertainty there also. “Jax, this has nothing to do with Tom’s declaration of love for me yesterday… I love him, sure – but it’s the kind of love I have for Jerry and Ned; it’s nothing like the love I feel for you…

“You’re my life, Jax; I can’t even imagine a future without you… Even when I couldn’t remember anything else – not even who I was – a part of me remembered you and your love. I could still feel you deep inside me, calling to me. I was sure of your love for me even when I had no idea who you were, and I was just as sure that I loved you in return… And now, with this little one on the way,” she added, taking his hands in hers to lay them across her abdomen, “my love and my need for you has grown beyond anything I ever dreamed possible… So don’t *ever* doubt that I love you and want to spend the rest of my life with you, and only you.”

“I understand,” Jax said, smiling as he pulled away from her slightly to look her in the eyes. He heard Jerry’s disgusted “Hmmph!” and added: “But I don’t think we need to scrap our plans to be married on November 5th. How about if we proceed with the plans for the wedding, keeping everything right on schedule for that date? And if Tom can’t make it to the wedding, we’ll take the wedding to him!”

“Would that really be possible?” Brenda asked, biting her lip skeptically.

“Have I ever promised you something that I couldn’t deliver?” Jax asked, once again tweaking her nose playfully. She shook her head ‘no.’ “Well, then it’s settled! … I’ll handle all the details, so you’ll have nothing to worry about, but showing up when the time comes. But I promise that there *will* be a wedding and Tom Langan *will* be there!”

“You are so wonderful!” Brenda squealed, hugging Jax to her. “I should know by now that you can accomplish anything!”

Over Brenda’s shoulder, Jax could see Jerry mouthing the words: “Do you know what you’re doing?”

“Trust me!” Jax mouthed back, to which Jerry just rolled his eyes and shrugged. Brenda might have unconditional faith in Jax, but given what he knew about the seriousness of Tom’s condition and the seriousness of the charges against him, Jerry wasn’t so sure that Jax could deliver on this particular promise to Brenda.

Just then the phone rang, and Brenda immediately extricated herself from Jax’s embrace, and raced to the phone. “Hello,” she answered, a lilt of excitement in her voice. But there was no answer. “Hello, is someone there?” she repeated, wondering if this was a bad connection, but then she heard the breathing…

Julia Barrett could feel the anger rising in her as she continued to stare at the unsolicited newspaper she had found among her stack of unopened mail that had accumulated over the past couple of weeks. This was the last thing she needed after spending weeks mourning her sister’s untimely death.

The past few weeks had been horrendous for her. She had just returned to her London flat after having spent the past two weeks isolated from the rest of the world, trying to heal after Brenda’s death. She had finally worked through her own guilt over not having spent more time with Brenda over their lifetime – and especially over the past couple of years, when she and Brenda had finally resolved so many of the conflicts that had plagued them since their rocky childhood together in Harlan Barrett’s less-than-happy household and had actually become friends.

She had slowly and painfully come to terms with Brenda’s death, and she had even managed to go to Switzerland to the Guenther Clinic, to see her stepmother, Veronica Wilding Barrett, Brenda’s mother and the woman responsible for Brenda’s death. She went, not because she cared a whit about the woman – because as far as she was concerned, the woman could rot alone forever for having killed Brenda – but simply out of respect for Brenda. Knowing that someone was looking in on her mother would have made Brenda happy, which is the only reason she had taken time from her grieving to visit the woman who was responsible for the grief in the first place.

It had been a grueling few weeks, and when she had returned home, bone-weary – both physically and spiritually – one of the first things she had found in her unopened mail was this rag of an American newspaper, The National Inquisitor, touting the sensational headline that Brenda was alive and pregnant and hiding from Jax! She couldn’t believe how cruel and inhuman these tabloids could be, especially at a time like this! She knew that Jax must be beside himself with grief and anger, after reading this so soon after Brenda’s death. Having this fabricated story splashed all over the front page of this rag was like dredging up all the painful memories of her death all over again and mixing them with a new and even more painful blend of concocted lies and scathing innuendo.

She could feel the anger permeating every part of her body as she threw the trashy tabloid back onto the table, knocking her stack of mail helter-skelter onto the floor. The spreading mess on her marble living room floor was the least of her worries at the moment. There was a far greater mess that need to be handled, and it needed to be handled now.

Her crystal blue eyes blazing, she tossed back her shoulder-length, blonde locks and reached for the phone. Since the story about Brenda surviving was blatantly false and its contents defamed Brenda’s memory, Julia felt that she and Jax should take legal action immediately. It was the least they could do to preserve Brenda’s memory, as well as their own dignity. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was just past 1:00 p.m., which meant it was just past 8:00 a.m. in Port Charles, and Jax was still most likely at the cottage, rather than at work yet. He had told her at Brenda’s memorial service that he planned to live in the cottage for awhile, and she had no doubt that Jax was there now and would remain there for the foreseeable future, because it was the one place that he could feel truly close to Brenda.

Brenda had stamped the place with her own unique, effervescent charm. The quaint, little house overflowed with her essence, as she had painstakingly overseen every brushstroke of paint on the walls and every piece of furniture and accessory that went into making that house into her home. Julia was sure that surrounding himself with Brenda’s things comforted Jax. He loved Brenda so much, and he deserved to cherish their memories and mourn her in peace, there in the house that was to have been their home, without the public speculation and private consternation that this article of trash would bring him.

She grabbed her organizer from her purse, found the number, and quickly punched in the numbers to access the U.S. and Brenda’s cottage. She tried to organize her thoughts and regain her composure, as she waited for Jax to answer. She knew that as upset as she was by this ridiculous article, then Jax would be devastated by it, so she knew that she couldn’t immediately launch into a diatribe about suing The National Inquisitor and everyone associated with it for all they were worth. She’d feel him out, have a little small talk first, and then she’d suggest they attack the paper so mercilessly that it might finally be shut down and prevented from printing any further lies that could hurt another person, as this article had hurt her and Jax and Brenda’s memory.

She mentally rehearsed how she would begin the conversation and how she would ease into the article and what they should jointly do about it. She wanted to be fully prepared when Jax answered the phone. But she was taken aback when the phone at the cottage was finally answered by a female, whose voice sounded eerily like Brenda’s...