The man slammed his hand against the cool walls of the poorly lit stone cottage. “I’m losing track of time,” he said in frustration. “I don’t know what bloody day it is. I… I can only hazard a guess at what bloody time it is.”

“The sun is going down,” the woman replied. “It’ll be night soon.”

“The damned days… they just melt into each other. Like meaningless drivel,” the man’s voice was hoarse with his emotions - frustration, helplessness, fury.

The woman wrapped her hands around her knees, pushing the plate of tasteless food away. “Why do they keep us here? Why do they keep us alive? What do they want? They must want something, for the love of God!”

The man sat down, placing an arm about the woman. “Jax,” he said in a tight, angry voice. “They want Jax.”

“But why?” the woman demanded. “Why?”

The man’s voice was choked with the staggering pain of utter helplessness when he answered her: “I don’t know. Dear God, I just don’t know…”

“Come on, shutterbug, we’re going out.”

Brenda’s portfolio flew across the room as her half-sister, Carly Corinthos, playfully yanked it from her hands.

Brenda gave Carly a glare and then laughed, “Out?”

“To a party,” Carly clarified, tugging Brenda to her feet.

“A party? Carly, I can’t go to a party.” Brenda answered, gesturing to the piles of photographs she had just developed a few hours ago and was now sitting in the midst of.

“Brenda, this is exactly why you have to go to this party. Every time I come to visit you, you’re buried in work. And you’ve been working on the shots for this band forever. I mean, who are they - the next Aerosmith?”

Brenda laughed. “You never know. Anyway, I’m being paid to take photos that will make the record sell. And I can’t decide among these for the life of me.” She took one of the photos and tossed it across the room. “Unfortunately, they’re not very photogenic. I may have to just draw them and take artistic license.”

“But you can’t draw.”

“Yes, this is my point. My stick figures would be preferable.”

Carly laughed. “Well, why don’t you just put together a bunch of the best pictures and let their manager decide? Or let the damn record company decide? This is taking up way too much of your time. You’ve been working on this thing forever,” Carly repeated.

“Carly, it’s only been two weeks,” Brenda said, shaking her head in amusement at Carly’s penchant for shameless exaggeration.

“Well, it seems like forever,” Carly insisted. “Brenda, I left Sonny home alone with the boys and came all the way here to Paris to visit you, and you’re being a lousy hostess, working all the time.”

Brenda laughed and tossed a roll of discarded film over Carly’s head. “Well, go back to glamorous Port Charles then,” she said. “Nobody’s stopping you.”

“Hey, I still have a week left, and I came here, Brenda Barrett, to make sure that you were getting back into life, and it appears to me that you’re not. You’re too young to live like a nun, who also happens to be a hermit, okay? Therefore, I’ve decided I’m gonna push you back into life myself. So get dressed, hon-eee, cause you’re coming with me to this party,” Carly informed her. “It’s time for you to get back into circulation, and this party is the perfect place to do that.”

“Carly - you just never know when to quit.”

“True.”

“I really can’t go with you,” Brenda insisted. “What about Justin?”

“Justin can come, too.”

Brenda quirked a suspicious eyebrow. “He can?”

“Absolutely.”

“Uh…what kind of party is this exactly?” Brenda asked suspiciously.

“The fun kind. Now, no more stalling. Let’s go, girl!” And without allowing any further argument from her sister, Carly dragged Brenda out of the living room and off to get dressed to the nines.

Jasper Jacks had no idea what he was doing here in Paris at the opening of the Beau Monde Resort. His parents stood in front of him, jabbering away about something, his brother, Jerry, and Jerry’s wife, Bobbie, were behind him, admiring the indoor waterfall, and Jax’s fiancée, Miranda, was clinging to his hand, bubbling over with excitement at the prospect of being married here. Jax wished he could share everyone’s high spirits, but all he had was a pounding headache and a desire to get back home to Port Charles and raid the hell out of some unsuspecting company.

He had become quite the corporate menace over the last four years. He even had ELQ in his pocket now, much to the fury of Edward Quartermaine and the wary admiration of Jax’s best friend and Edward's grandson, Ned Ashton. It was Jax’s one true solace to lose himself to his corporate brilliance. It was the only thing that kept the memories at bay. Memories that warmed him like nothing else on earth and tortured him in the same way. And all the questions. Questions unanswered. Questions that haunted him… and infuriated him… and just made him crazy, if he let himself think about them too long.

His mother was saying something ridiculous to him about flying the wedding guests into Paris on a fleet of hired jets, but suggesting Greece would be more romantic for the wedding. Jax was barely listening to her, as the music was being struck up and everyone in the hotel ballroom either sat down at their tables or headed towards the stage to get a better view.

The singer, Emily Quartermaine, stepped onstage to the applause. Brenda, who had just entered the crowded room, with Carly right behind her, grinned in surprise.

“Emily?” she said, swirling to face Carly. “You knew Emily was here?”

Carly nodded, smiling. “Yeah, it’s the brat’s big debut or something. She wanted to surprise you, so I didn’t tell you she was here.”

Emily spotted Carly and Brenda and beamed at them, giving Brenda an excited wave.

On the other side of the room, Jax glanced at Emily and then into the crowd to see to whom she was waving so animatedly, but couldn’t see over the crowd of people.

“Is Ned here?” Jax asked Jerry.

Jerry shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

Miranda looped her arm through Jax’s then. “Why would he be here, darling?” He wondered why it grated on his nerves when she called him that? Maybe it was just him, he thought. Good moods were a rarity for him ever since… Well, they were a rarity. “Let’s try to get closer so your friend Emily can see us and we can surprise her," Miranda said, pulling Jax through the crowd, as his family followed them.

Emily turned to the crowd again. “Bon soir. Hi, everyone and welcome to the opening of the Beau Monde Resort. The owners and Management are delighted to have you all here with us to celebrate this. I’m going to sing a song for you all now, and I’d like to dedicate this to a guy, who no one on earth can possibly compare to.”

“Oh, she must have spotted you,” Miranda said to Jax, as they continued to move closer towards the other side of the room.

Jax smiled somewhat emptily at the compliment. “She’s not even looking in our direction at all. I think she still has no clue we’re even here, Miranda.”

Emily began to sing

You never remind me of Paris in spring
Or Rembrandt, I find to my mind you don’t bring
Cause no work of art could start to compare

You never remind me of pricey French wine
Or tuexedoed gents who have dinner at nine
Every other man is that ordinaire

The Jacks clan noticed Emily pointing and winking at the object of her dedication, whom they couldn’t see.

“You mean she’s not talking about my son?” Jane said with mock offense. “Well, we’ve got to see who this man is.”

Jerry laughed. “Jax has competition as the most unforgettable man in the universe? Oh, what’s the world coming to? The apocalypse must be just around the corner.”

Jax shot his brother a ‘give-me-a-break’ look.

You’re so unique I find
So well-designed
That every single thing about you
Reminds me of only you

You never remind me of summers in Spain
The sun when it’s setting, the sound of the rain
New Year’s with Dick Clark
Or park avenue

You never remind me of Sir Lancelot
My memory of him is now totally shot
King Midas' touch - not much next to you

Emily blew a kiss to the man she was singing the song to, and Jax heard the sound of everyone’s amused laughter, but one particular laugh seemed to make all the others pale in comparison, until they were muted out in Jax’s mind and sounded like so much dead air. He froze, causing Miranda to misstep.

“Jax? What is it?” she asked, gazing at his face, trying to read him. As usual it was impossible, and she became frustrated. She never knew what he was feeling; she never knew what he was thinking. His stunning blue eyes were fixated on the other side of the room, and he began to cut through the crowd like a maniac, with Miranda following him in alarm, and his family, concerned with Jax’s odd behavior, trailing quickly after him as well.

“Jax, what the hell is the matter with you?” Jerry called to him.

Jax didn’t say a word. He was scanning the crowd somewhat wildly, almost desperately; his ears attuned to that pretty, feminine, and hauntingly familiar laughter, which he heard again. He walked towards the direction of the sound. Getting closer. Hearing it more clearly.

“Jax, you’re scaring me,” Miranda whispered to him, grabbing ahold of his hand.

“What on earth is wrong, boy?” John demanded.

It was as if Jax could not hear any of them, however - although he did vaguely wonder when his father had switched from calling him ‘son’ to ‘boy’? Jax neither answered nor acknowledged them as he made his way through the crowd, his heart accelerating as he heard the sound of the laughter again, so close now. He began turning his head right and left, seeking her out. She was here. She had to be. No one else laughed like that. No one else’s laughter made his heart involuntarily react this way.

Cause if the truth be known
When we’re alone
Then every single thing about you
Reminds me of only you

You never remind me of gods that are Greek, my dear
And though I may hang on each word that you speak it’s clear
Ahead and behind me I lose track of all events
And as a consequence, you are my present tense

“Jax, now you are terrifying us all!” his mother said, breathing hard from their efforts to keep pace with him. “Now, will you please just tell us what is happening? What is it?”

He vaguely wondered why his mother sounded so irritated. It was as if she had no patience any longer. He had been noticing this more and more each time his parents visited over the past four years. He and Jerry attributed it to their parents getting crankier in their advancing years.

Jax watched Emily; she waved and grinned at someone just to his right, behind a grouping of six men. Jax murmured an ‘excuse me’ to the group of men, who parted to let him pass.

And there she was.

“Oh, my God,” Jerry murmured and shot a stunned look to his father, whose eyes hardened and entire physique stiffened, as did that of Jane. They looked like two menacing, stone statues.

You never remind me of anyone who
Reminds me of anyone other than you
Compare though I will, they still can’t equate

Jax stared in disbelief.

He blinked, but she was still there.

And there could be no mistaking it. It was really her.

He had looked for her for two years and couldn’t find her, and now here she stood mere feet from him, yet oblivious to his presence as she laughed at something the woman next to her was saying. Then Jax’s eyes narrowed into cool slits of blue-gray. The woman next to her was her sister, Carly. Carly, whom he had asked - no, begged to tell him where Brenda had gone. Why she had gone. Why she hadn’t waited for him as he had asked her to - as she had promised to. Carly, who had told him to go to hell and had not helped him in the least. Carly, who had lied to his face and insisted that she had no idea where Brenda was and gloated that she wouldn’t tell him even if she had known. Well, she had known. Carly, the obvious liar.

‘Cause when I’m here with you, and you’re with me
You raise the heat repeatedly
So if I forget to recall
Remind me again, that’s all

Emily finished the song and everyone applauded loudly. Jax was deaf to the noise and was looking at no one but the beautiful, petite brunette in the slinky, midnight blue dress, whose profile was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Whose laughter was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. Whose abandonment four years ago without a word of explanation made the blood run as cold in his veins as it would run equally hot when he remembered the way she used to kiss him and whisper his name so softly when they made love. The earth moved when they made love. He remembered that. He remembered everything about her… about them.

The color drained from Miranda’s face as she watched Jax stare intently at the beautiful brunette, who now had her back fully to them as she had an animated conversation with a woman Miranda immediately recognized as Sonny’s wife, Carly. What the hell was she doing here in Paris?

Jane took hold of Miranda’s arm. “This is nothing, my dear. Don’t you dare look so worried,” Jane said sharply.

“That’s her, isn’t it?” Miranda said. “That’s Brenda.”

“It doesn’t matter!” John snapped, glaring daggers at the unsuspecting Brenda.

“You never told me she was so… beautiful,” Miranda said, a hard edge to her voice.

“What are you talking about? You’ve seen pictures of her. Jax had them all over the penthouse,” Jerry reminded her, and that earned him three hostile glares. He felt as if he were looking at three glaciers. He still could not fathom the bond that had suddenly developed between Miranda and his parents ever since she’d been found four years ago. They were as thick as thieves, the three of them.

“She’s only beautiful if you like that type,” John said with a dismissive wave and a look of distaste.

“Jax obviously did,” Miranda reminded him with a glare.

“That was a long time ago. She’s nothing to him now. She left him without a word of explanation, and he’s never going to forgive her for that. Who’s the one wearing his engagement ring?” Jane reminded her. “Who’s the one he loves and is going to spend the rest of his life with? You, Miranda. Not her.”

Jax was completely oblivious to their conversation and to the conspiratorial looks being exchanged between his fiancée and his parents.

He gazed at Brenda, willing her to turn around. Willing her to know he was there. His possessive gaze caressed her. God, she was so beautiful! That distracting thought bothered him. This was hardly the time for him to be panting after her like a love-struck boy. She had an infinite amount of explaining to do, and she was damn well going to do it! He grabbed onto the anger, needing it to anchor him against the wave of tender and powerful emotions that seized his heart as he looked at her.

He watched curiously as Brenda bent down as if to converse with a very short person standing between her and Carly.

“John, we have to get him out of here! We can’t let them be alone - we can’t allow them to talk, to figure things out, to connect…” Jane stopped and then grabbed a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and drank it in one gulp to steady her frazzled nerves. “We’ve come too far to let it come to this. How could you have not known the she was here in Paris, John?!” she demanded.

“She was supposed to be in London,” John responded. “For godsakes, Jerry, don’t just stand there, boy! Go on and get your brother out of here!” John hissed.

“He’s not going to leave,” Jerry predicted. “He’s looked for her for two years and waited for her for one - you think he’s just going to leave?”

“Make him leave,” John ordered. “He’s not ready to deal with this now, you know that. Think of your brother’s emotional well being, for crying out loud! I’ll deal with Brenda.”

Jerry walked up behind Jax and placed his hand on Jax’s shoulder. “Jax, do you really want to do this? Here? Now? This is a terrible twist of fate that you’d run into her here, after the way she left you. But don’t let this ruin our night. Miranda’s getting upset, Jax. And so is Mum. God, I’ve never seen her drink like that,” Jerry muttered. “I’ll find out where Brenda’s staying and get the address for you, and you can speak with her tomorrow. But for now let’s just go.”

At that moment Brenda stood up again and moved enough to the right that Jax - and everyone else - could see the person Emily had dedicated her song to: a little boy of about three or four years old, who was holding onto Brenda’s hand while Carly ruffled his hair - his golden blonde hair - and said something to Brenda that made her smile. The child, as if aware of the sudden scrutiny, turned his eyes towards Jax and his family. His emerald-blue eyes.

The breath vanished from Jax’s body, and he heard his heart pounding in his ears as he stared at the tiny replica of himself. The likeness was so remarkable that Jax felt as if he could have sculpted the child with his own hands. Miranda’s hand flew to her mouth in shock, as her eyes absorbed the vision of the child standing next to the woman she now knew was Brenda.

“Mommy,” Justin said to Brenda, tugging her hand as he gazed at Jax in fascination. “There’s a man over there who looks like me.”

Jane, who, like the rest of her family, had been staring at the little child in disbelief, dropped her champagne glass and mouthed the words “Dear God - it can’t be” just as Brenda turned around to see about whom her son was talking.

The crashing sound of Jane’s glass smashing against the marble floor of the resort ballroom drowned out Brenda’s gasp of absolute shock.

Her brown-eyed gaze held Jax’s emerald blue one. A myriad of emotions raced through his eyes: amazement, confusion, joy, and accusation. And in Brenda’s eyes he saw similar glimmers of amazement, confusion, joy and then a cold hostility that rocked him to his core - he would have never believed she could look at him that way if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. Her beautiful brown eyes raked over his family with that same coldness, and her hands were shaking, as if rage was building within her.

Jax had no idea what the hell she had the right to be so angry about. The rights to anger all belonged to him, as far as he was concerned. She was the one who left him without a trace that summer. The summer he had asked her to marry him. And then just one day after their official engagement, he’d gotten the shocking call from Jerry that their parents thought Miranda - the fiancée Jax had thought had died six years ago in an explosion - might be alive. Brenda was the one who had promised to wait for him - after he had explained to her that he had to go - that he had to do this. That if there was anything he could do to help Miranda, he had to do it. Brenda was the one who swore to him that she understood that and told him to go and find Miranda. “And you promise you’ll be here when I get back Brenda?” he recalled asking her. “You promise me?” Yes, she had said. She had promised him.

“Even if you don’t hear from me for a while? These are the jungles of South America Jerry and I will have to go into, sweetie. I may not be able to talk to you for days, Brenda. Months, if it takes that long. You won’t go anywhere, will you?” Again she had promised him she wouldn’t. “Finding Miranda won’t change the way I feel about you,” Jax had promised her. “Please don’t be scared of that and take off on me, Brenda Barrett. Swear to me that you won’t do that.” And she had sworn she wouldn’t.

She had confessed to being a little scared of what Miranda being alive might mean for them, but Jax told her to just trust him and she did. “Jax, I love you. I would never leave you. Go do what you have to do and don’t worry about me not being here when you get back. You don’t need to worry about that, honey,” she had said in that sweet, soft voice of hers. “You go find her. And I’ll be right here when you come home.” That was what she said. And then when he did come home three months later, she was gone. She was the one who’d broken their vow.

Jax waited for her to say something. To bloody well explain herself. She glared at him; her eyes taking on an even deeper beauty as they glassed over with unshed tears. But tears of anger, Jax realized, puzzled. Not tears of contrition, or of sorrow at what she had put him through - what she had done to him, to them.

With one last scathing look at him and his family, she stunned Jax by not saying a single word to him and just taking the little duplicate of himself and turning to leave.

“You stop right there, young lady!” John Jacks’ voice boomed out in the room, as everyone’s attentions began to focus on what was going on. John had been shocked to see the little boy with Brenda, a little boy who was so obviously Jax's son. Well, well, this certainly changed everything now. The entire focus would change. To think that the girl had been pregnant that summer they had chased her away… How could they not have known this? She had to be three months along already by then. John shot a furious glare to Jane, who as the woman should have known, in his opinion, and then turned the fury back on Brenda, who stared at him defiantly, hatred in her eyes.

“You go to hell,” Brenda said to him, her voice soft with barely concealed fury.

“Yeah, all of you,” Carly chimed in. She was incredulous that the Jacks family - and Jax himself, of all people - were here in Paris on the one night she had convinced Brenda to go out. What rotten luck! And then Jax had the nerve to have his fiancée with him, too. And now they all knew about Justin - Brenda’s biggest fear. Of course, Brenda could try to bluff that someone else was the father - but it was really an exercise in futility. They’d have to be blind not to realize that he was Jax’s child in every way.

“Don’t you dare take that tone with my husband, Brenda,” Jane said, leveling a warning glare at Brenda.

“Or what?” Brenda asked, looking at Jane with disgust. “What will you all do to me that you haven’t already done? God, I’m sorry I ever even met you!” she said, looking directly at Jax, who could simply not be any more stunned if he tried. She was angry with him? No, not angry. Furious. Why? None of this was making any sense, and he began to get as furious as she was.

“You’re sorry you ever met me, Brenda? Don’t you think that maybe I should be the one full of regrets about now?!” he demanded, feeling as if he were in a madhouse. She was the one who had left him, for godsakes! Had the entire world gone crazy?!

“You?” she nearly shouted. “You, Jasper Jacks, have nothing to regret! You have exactly what you want. And actually, so do I. I have all of you out of my life, do you hear me? And it’s going to stay that way!”

“Not anymore, it isn’t,” John said gazing at his grandson with a greedy look that made Brenda grip Justin’s hand tighter. “Unless you’re going to have the unmitigated gall to deny that little tyke belongs to Jax. And therefore to this family. Why, he’s the very image of Jax, right down to the little cleft in his chin. But if you insist on denying the obvious, we can easily have blood tests conducted that will prove that Jax fathered this child.”

“Are you threatening me, Mr. Jacks? Because you may as well just accustom yourself to the reality that you will never come near my son!” Brenda said, and Jax swore that if looks could kill, his father would be dead on the floor from the look that Brenda was giving him. Then again, his father’s look back to her froze the blood in Jax’s veins. He had never seen his father look this way. For a split second, it was almost like looking at a stranger.

And yet he at least understood John’s anger and where it came from. Jax’s whole family had watched Jax go through hell thinking something had happened to Brenda, and then watched him fall apart - a very uncharacteristic thing for Jax - when it dawned on him that she’d left him of her own volition and wasn’t coming back. So Jax understood the hostility his family might now have towards Brenda; it was Brenda’s hostility towards them - and him, in particular - that Jax simply could not comprehend.

“You will not keep me from that child,” John growled menacingly.

Jax had been so baffled and infuriated by Brenda’s anger at him that he’d momentarily forgotten about the little boy, who was holding her hand and watching the furious exchange between the adults in fascination. Jax’s eyes shot to the beautiful little boy, who changed his look of innocent fascination to a scowl when his eyes encountered Jax’s.

“How come you’re making my Mommy mad?” he demanded. And then in the next breath his curiosity came back. “How come you look like me?” he asked with a grin, and Jax saw the tiny dimple appear in his left cheek - something definitely inherited from his mother. But he has my smile, Jax realized, and felt his heart contract with love for this exquisite little child that he and Brenda had created.

Jax wanted to touch the soft blonde hair, to kiss the soft, little cheek, to hold his little boy - the little boy he had never even known existed. Jax didn’t even realize he was breathing as if he’d run ten miles. His eyes moved away from his son over to Brenda “What’s… his name?” he asked, when what he really wanted to do was shake her and shout at her: Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you trust me? Why did you leave me? Why did you stop loving me? And why are you so angry with me? Why do you act as if you hate me? As if I’m the one who has wronged you, when we both know it’s the other way around? Is it because, after spending two years of my life scouring the face of the earth looking for you, not knowing if you were dead or alive, and another year-and-a-half spent hoping you’d come back to me and brooding because you obviously weren’t, I finally gave into my parents’ badgering and decided to make some sort of attempt to have a life again without you?

Brenda swiped furiously at a tear that had managed to escape her eyes. She refused to answer him.

“Brenda,” he said, his voice a cross between pleading and impatient confusion.

“Leave her alone, Jax - I am warning you,” Carly said.

Jax shot Carly an ice cold look. “You lied to me,” he said in a low, ominous voice. “You told me you didn’t know where Brenda was.”

Carly just smirked at him. And then Emily was jumping off the stage and was now there, too, standing beside Brenda.

“Look, you all need to leave Brenda alone,” Emily said.

“We only came here to surprise you, Emily,” Miranda said. “And to look at the resort… Jax and I were thinking of having the wedding here. We didn’t know that…”

“Oh - you know what, Miranda? Just shut your mouth,” Carly said.

“Carly!” Bobbie said sternly. “What’s the matter with you? Can’t you see Miranda is obviously in shock?”

Carly’s mouth fell open in astonishment “She’s in shock? Why? Oh, let me guess, Mr. Wonderful here never even bothered to mention Brenda to his current wife-to-be, right?” she said, gesturing towards Jax. “You’re a real prince,” she said, shooting Jax a look of disgust.

John looked over at Jane and raised an eyebrow.

Jax was about to respond that, of course, he had told Miranda all about Brenda, that Miranda had had to watch him tune out on life as he did nothing but look for Brenda for two years, wallow in his misery over being without her for another year, and then finally force himself to get on with whatever was left of his life. But then Jax realized he certainly didn’t owe Carly Roberts Quartermaine Corinthos, of all people - who had never married for love in her ridiculous life - any explanations.

“You’re the one who’d better keep your trap shut, Mrs. Corinthos,” John advised in a snarl.

“John!” Bobbie said, giving her father-in-law a stunned glance.

“Oh, don’t bother, Mama. Your hubby’s pop is just showing his true colors,” Carly said. “Now, I know you all think you’re the high and mighty Jackses of Alaska, but let me tell you something: you mess with my sister, and you’re taking on the Corinthos family, too,” she said and then glanced at Miranda. “And that goes for you, too, girlfriend.”

“And you’ll be taking on the Quartermaine family, too,” Emily added.

“Are you forgetting who now owns your granddaddy’s precious ELQ?” John boasted, thinking the family could use Jax’s ownership of the company as a bargaining chip to get the Quartermaines not to back Brenda in any kind of custody case. They had to get that child!

“You knew about this?” Jax asked Emily, hurt springing into his eyes. “You knew where Brenda was all this time? You knew about the baby?”

Emily swallowed and averted her eyes from Jax.

“I asked you…” Jax said quietly. “I asked you if you had heard from her, if you knew where she was, if you knew why she…” Jax stopped himself, furious at all these people for lying to him. Furious at Brenda for obviously instructing them to. Furious at the damn pain she could still cause in his heart. God, he just wanted to be immune to her.

And then Jax just stared at the three women across from him, baffled by their apparent hatred of his family. What had Brenda told Emily and Carly had happened that summer that had them so firmly in her corner and ready to pull out all the big guns against him and his family? Didn’t they realize that Jax was the injured party here, not Brenda? It was her decision to leave him. To disappear from his life and break his heart into a billion pieces and then have the nerve to give birth to his beautiful son and not bother to tell him that either. The more Jax thought about the injustices played upon him, the angrier he got.

“Brenda, I think you and I need to speak in private,” Jax said.

Panic streaked through John and Jane, and also through Miranda, but they were all relieved when Brenda stubbornly and adamantly shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I have nothing to say to you, Jax.” Her voice was soft but remained frigid with hostility.

Carly heard Brenda’s voice tremble and knew her sister could not endure much more of this. Seeing Jax after all this time, especially with Miranda, was killing her. And she had to be terrified about what the Jacks family would do now that they knew they had a grandson. They would want to be a part of his life, and Brenda was absolutely against that notion.

“You have nothing to say to me?” Jax asked incredulously. Nevermind the fact that he wanted to know every conceivable thing about his son, including his name, damn it! He also wanted to know why in god's name she had left him four years ago! Not even a good-bye. He had just come home to an empty penthouse, the engagement ring on the coffee table, and no sign of Brenda anywhere. And yet she now said she had nothing to say to him?! He suddenly wanted to strangle her! And that desire was only outweighed by his greater desire to hold her in his arms and feel her against him and make sure she was real - that he had truly found her at last.

“Let’s go, Brenda,” Carly said, pulling her away and towards the exit.

“I’d advise you not to try anything foolish with regards to my grandson, Brenda,” John’s booming voice followed her, a hint of menace in his tone.

Jax went to go after Brenda, whom he could not believe really intended to simply walk away from him. This was insane! Christ, he had to talk to her! He had only just found her; he sure as hell was not about to let her go! But Jerry grabbed him before he could get too far.

“No, little brother. Not tonight, all right? Look, Brenda’s in a totally unreasonable frame of mind apparently, you look like you’ve had the shock of your life, and Miranda is falling apart here. We’ve all had a bit of a shock tonight. But this is not the time to tackle this, Jax. You know you need to calm down. And so does Brenda. You can't go after her now. We’ll find out where she is tomorrow. I promise you. She won’t slip away.”

“She can’t, Jerry.” His voice dipped to barely a whisper. “I couldn’t take it.”

“She won’t,” Jerry promised again, giving his shoulder a squeeze. “She won’t.”

Jax turned to gaze at Miranda, who didn’t look at all as if she were falling apart to him. She looked more bloody furious than anything else, as she stood whispering with Jane.

“I have a son,” Jax whispered to Jerry, as the stunning development sank into his reality.

“Yeah. Hell of a good lookin’ kid, too,” Jerry said with a grin. Then his face sobered. “Jax, why is Brenda so bloody angry with you?”

Jax shook his head. “I don’t know. It makes no sense. I’m the one who should be that angry.”

“Damn straight.”

“Something’s really wrong about all of this, Jerry.”

Jerry nodded in agreement. “It looks like Brenda intends to keep you away from your son,” Jerry said next. “You’re probably gonna have to fight her for him,” he sighed, patting his brother on the back.

Jax said nothing. He didn’t want to think about that now. He didn’t want to think about fighting for custody of his son. He didn’t want to think about his spirited, beautiful Brenda hating him, treating him like a stranger. Acting like a stranger. What in god’s name had made her stop loving him? He felt a lump in his throat and once again cursed the hold she continued to have on his heart and the pain that paralyzed him each time he was hit with the reality that she was no longer his. No longer wanted to be. He grimly thought that any torture on earth was preferable to losing her love like this. With no explanations, no second chances. Just a cold, cruel finality precipitated by absolutely nothing to warn him of its approach.

Jane rubbed Miranda’s arms. “It’s going to be fine, dear,” Jane said. “John and I will take care of everything. We always do.” Yet even as she spoke the words she wondered why she bothered. They didn’t need Miranda any longer. Not really. And yet it would be far preferable to have someone as beholden to them as Miranda as the mother to the child than Brenda Barrett.

“She gave him a son first,” Miranda said. “I feel like it was a contest and I lost.”

“Yes, but it barely signifies that she gave birth to him, as long as Jax fathered him. He belongs to us - I mean to our family, you understand. And you’re going to be his stepmother,” Jane reminded her. “And if we have anything to say about it, that little boy will be raised by you and Jax, not with that devious mother of his. Can you believe she tried to hide the boy’s very existence from all of us?! Why, no judge on earth would look upon that kindly.”

“Did you see the way Jax looked at her?” Miranda asked.

“I’m sure whatever you thought you saw, you were just imagining things. It’s the stress of the wedding plans, and then this unpleasantness tonight, and…”

Miranda was shaking her head. “He looked at her as if she was this stolen treasure that belonged to him, that somebody took away from him, and that he then found again tonight. That was how he looked, Jane. Like he had found his stolen treasure and nobody was ever going to take it from him again. And don’t patronize me; I know you saw it, too.”

“He loves you now, Miranda,” Jane insisted. “We’ve seen to that.”

“Does he? Because if he does, it’s certainly the most passionless love I’ve ever known.”

“Passion is irrelevant,” Jane snapped impatiently.

“Well, I want it,” Miranda snapped back. “I want him to look at me the way he looks at her. I want that!”

“It’s these foolish desires of yours that are going to ruin everything,” Jane warned her in an icy tone.

“You should have told me,” Miranda said. “You should’ve been truthful with me about how much Jax loved her, damn it.”

“He only thought he loved her,” Jane repeated, the monotonous mantra she’d been saying over the past four years rolling off of her tongue like lines she’d studied for a play. “The entire relationship was meaningless because she was merely a replacement for you. John and I have been telling Jax that over and over,” Jane assured her. “He must be starting to believe it by now.

Miranda was silent for a few moments, and then she said, “Well, obviously Jax isn’t listening to you, because I’m the one who feels like the damned replacement.”

“Oh, stop this! You sound pathetic!” Jane said in disgust.

Fire lit up the Miranda’s eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she said smoothly. “I know what I’m up against now, that’s all. But you still should have been honest with me. You and John left me totally unprepared for this, Jane,” she said angrily, pulling away from Jane and going over to slip into Jax’s arms.

Jane watched, disturbed at how Jax automatically slipped his arms around Miranda in a mechanical way, devoid of warmth or thought. And he had that faraway look on his face and that lost look in his eyes. The look that told the world that, as valiantly as he tried to fight it, Brenda Barrett was still the one and only holder of the key that unlocked all the treasures of his heart.

The Barrett girl. She was clearly going to be a problem.

Song Credit: “You Never Remind Me,” written by Frank Wildhorn & Jack Murphy, from the CD entitled: It’s No Secret Anymore. Artist: Linda Eder.