Helena Cassadine slid back into consciousness to the urgent calling of “Madam! Madam!”, and opened her eyes to find her manservant, whom she’d left waiting in the car downstairs, kneeling over her.

“Where are they?” she demanded, as he slowly helped her to a sitting position and she winced at the throbbing pain in her head.

“Who madam? Mr. and Mrs. Jacks? Are they the ones who did his to you?” he asked in alarm.

“No. God only knows what has become of Mr. and Mrs. Jacks. Not that it makes any difference to me. I’m talking about Dimitrius. While I’ve had you and others searching the world for him, he and his little toad of a wife were right under my nose, here in Port Charles. They are, in fact, impersonating Mr. and Mrs. Jacks. But I uncovered their little scheme today, and this is the result,” she said, indicating her injury. “I must find that miscreant duo! If they are here, Maximus must be, too. And I must find him. Get me back to the yacht at once!” she commanded. “Those two are still here in Port Charles somewhere, and, by God, I will ferret them out!”

On Helena’s yacht, Stefan Cassadine prowled around through the various rooms in search of anything his mother might be trying to hide. Specifically something pertaining to Jasper Jacks, who must have captured her attentions for some reason - other than his pretty face.

Partaking of his mother’s fine assortment of liquor, Stefan located her safe behind a painting and began to key in the code Helena’s manservant had given to him. Money, Stefan had discovered, could make Andreas loyal to whomever was offering the largest amount at any given time.

Having opened the safe, Stefan poked around inside until he found a collection of files that, not surprisingly, had Jasper Jacks’ name on them.

“Well, now, Mother, let’s see what you have here, shall we?” Stefan murmured, retrieving the files and sitting down, while pouring himself another brandy.

He flipped open the folder and began to sort through it, intrigued yet puzzled by all the detailed information on Jasper Jacks, from when he got his first tooth, to the transcript of his high school valedictory speech to numerous newspaper clippings of his various corporate coups to his romances, including the fiancée juggle he was in the midst of. Well, no longer a juggle, Stefan realized, having seen Jax with Brenda Barrett and observed the little scene at Top of the Sixes. Jax had obviously chosen, and Miss Jameson had come up on the short end of the stick.

Then Stefan spied the birth certificate and blinked. He set the glass of brandy down and stared at the birth certificate in disbelief.

“Jasper Jacks,” he murmured, “is the natural child of my Uncle Maximus and Aunt Ariana?” Well, that certainly threw Stefan for a loop, to discover Jasper Jacks was, by blood, his very own cousin. Especially when the family had been told that Maximus and Ariana’s child had died in childbirth, along with Ariana. Yet, as much of a shock as this little discovery was, Stefan could not figure out why news such as this would have sent his mother into such a death-pallor, as that which he had found her in the other day. “There has to be more to this than the fact that Jasper Jacks is by blood a Cassadine,” he realized. “Much, much more.”

And then, as he heard voices approaching, he returned the papers to the safe and stole out of the yacht before he could be detected.

Justin was sitting in the swiveling, black leather armchair by the desk in his father’s penthouse, drumming his fingers against his leg and trying to calm down, when his Uncle Jerry came back down the stairs.

“Found it,” Jerry said, displaying the Gameboy, as he grinned at how heartbreakingly young and innocent Justin looked, swallowed up in the desk chair like that. “It was in the den, next to the computer in there.”

Justin had known that all along.

“Figures, the last room I check is where it is,” Jerry said, handing the child his game. Jerry’s eyes narrowed a bit, as he noticed Justin’s accelerated breathing. “What were you doing down here, mate? Jumping jacks?” he asked, running a hand playfully through the soft, blonde curls of his nephew’s head.

Justin laughed. And he felt good to laugh; to do something normal and get the image of that alien’s face coming off out of his head for a second.

“Jumping ‘jacks’, I get it,” Justin said, and this time Jerry laughed.

“You ready to go home? Or how about we stop off for an ooey, gooey triple-decker ice cream cone first, eh?”

Justin slipped on his backpack. “That’d be cool, yeah! Ummm…hey, Uncle Jerry, do you know how to make pictures? Like my mom?” he asked, blue eyes gazing up at his uncle.

“Make pictures?” Jerry asked, a tad confused.

“Yeah, you know. Like when you take the film outa the camera and put it in that stuff in a really dark room, and then you make them big, so they look like pictures when you’re done?”

“Oh, you mean develop film? No, sport, not me. Why? Do you have something you want developed?” Jerry asked, thinking that was cute and wondering if Justin was going to follow his mother’s footsteps as a photographer, his father’s footsteps as a corporate genius, or go his own way and be a concert pianist; perhaps a famous symphony orchestra conductor or composer; perhaps an inventor, since the kid took apart everything he could get his hands on to see how it worked; perhaps a major league hockey player, since the kid definitely had skills…

Justin was nodding as they left the penthouse. “But it can wait till my mommy gets back,” he decided, as he felt it was unwise to just let any old body develop the film. You never knew who was working for these aliens. Uncle Jerry might send the film out to be developed for Justin, and it might just never come back. And it was the bestest proof Justin had; he couldn’t let anything happen to it. “Yeah, I’ll wait for my mommy,” he said with a nod.

“Okay.” Jerry said, as they went into the elevator.

“And when my pictures come out, you have to come over to my house, ‘cause you have to see them, too. You and Daddy and Mommy,” Justin insisted. “You have to, ‘kay?”

“I do?” Jerry said with an amused smile.

“Yeah, you do, ‘kay? And Uncle Jerry?”

“Hmm?”

“You’re not gonna… like, go see your mommy and daddy today or tomorrow or the next day, are you?” Justin inquired, wanting to make sure his uncle stayed away from the alien life forms until Justin’s own parents came home and he could show them his proof.

“No,” Jerry said, and if he thought it an odd question for the four-year-old to ask, he didn’t say so. “They’ve actually left town and gone back home to where they live. Alaska.”

More like mars, Justin thought. But he just nodded, relieved that his uncle was not going to see the alien grandparents and would be safe.

“So, what’s it gonna be.” Jerry was saying, as they stepped off into the lobby and headed for the exit, “Baskin Robbins, Carvel, or Ben and Jerry’s?”

“Baskin Robbins!” Justin said, sliding his hand into his uncle’s as they left the hotel. “One day I’m gonna buy all the Basin Robbins in the whole world. I’m gonna have a lot of money ‘cause Daddy says my stocks are gonna go through the roof.”

“Stocks, you say? You own stocks?” Jerry asked incredulously.

“Yeah, my daddy got me some. I picked ‘em myself,” he announced proudly, even as he glanced around as they exited, to make sure no aliens were following them. And as they got into his Uncle Jerry’s car, he wondered if that old blonde lady was maybe the head alien! ‘Cause even though she didn’t have a face that came off like the alien grandpa did, she had somehow scared Justin the most. And Justin was not a child given to fears of any kind. But that lady… she gave him the serious creeps. She could be an alien hunter, he supposed - hunting down all the aliens. But that would make her good, wouldn’t it? And Justin felt, by the chill in his bones, that she was bad.

Very, very bad.

Las Vegas, Nevada - Saturday 12:45 p.m.

Brenda and Jax sat at a table in Kokomo’s, a restaurant situated within a rainforest setting at the Mirage Hotel, laughing over the events of an hour ago over at the Mandalay Beach, where the yacht wedding had been held.

Or had almost been held, as it turned out.

“Well, that was a bust,” Jax said, swirling his iced tea.

“You said it. I can’t believe what a total disaster that was!” Brenda said, laughing.

“Yes, the bride walking out on the groom is never a good thing,” Jax quipped.

Brenda laughed some more. “I’ll bet they’re glad they made us all sign those confidentiality agreements now, huh? I had no idea the groom was going to be Russell Crowe, of all people, did you?”

“Nope. I didn’t have a clue. But I had even less of a clue that the bride would be Pamela Anderson.”

“She has a good left hook,” Brenda murmured reflectively.

“A good throwing arm, too. That crystal vase with the hideously oversized magnolias that she tossed at his skull just barely missed him when he was running for cover behind the altar.”

“It didn’t miss the minister, though.”

“Think he’ll need stitches?” Jax wondered.

“The poor man. He was only trying to prevent a homicide.”

“Oh, she wasn’t going to kill anybody, sweetheart,” Jax said.

“Jax, she came stalking down the aisle with a bridal bouquet in one hand and a butcher knife in the other.”

“Yeah, but it was all for effect. She didn’t actually stick it into anyone’s back. Or any other body part, for that matter.”

“I wonder what he did that got her so mad?” Brenda speculated, with a playful raise of an eyebrow.

Jax smiled at her. “Who cares? You were spectacular. I think you captured every punch, every item hurled, and even the groom tripping over his own feet and falling overboard in his haste to escape the bride’s flying, 5-inch stilettos,” Jax said, raising his glass and clinking it against her strawberry virgin daiquiri.

“Yeah, I did,” she giggled. “And then the security goons captured my film,” she sighed, with a pretty pout, tapping her empty camera.

“It’s all for the best,” Jax said. “You looked far too beautiful to be working anyway,” he murmured, admiring how exquisite she looked in the pretty silver-and-white dress, with the sparkling headband holding her hair back. He loosened the tie of his handsome, charcoal-gray suit and cocked his head at her. “This wedding being busted up is no fault of yours, so they did pay you your full amount, didn’t they?”

Brenda nodded. “I told them I wanted it in advance, since they were making the shoot so difficult to prepare for me, with all their secrecy and everything. And they agreed.”

Jax smiled at her. “Smart girl.”

“I learned from the best,” she said, inclining her head to him and blowing him a very sexy kiss across the table.

He reached across and ran his finger along her hand, deliberately toying with the engagement ring. “Hmm. I really like this mood you’re in. I’m thinking this might be a good time for my daily proposal of marriage.”

“Yes,” she said, her eyes bright, her smile bewitching.

Jax quirked an eyebrow. “Yes, it’s a good time? Or…”

She just smiled at him, her smile growing, gorgeous dimples flashing crazily at him.

His heart began to pound out an excited rhythm inside of his chest. This was it.

He slid his hand fully into hers. “Brenda, will you marry me?” he asked her.

“Yes!” she said, laughing. “Yes, I will!” Then she pounded her fist playfully on the table. “Oh, shoot, I really wanted to wait until tomorrow to tell you, but I can’t! The whole way on the plane over here I wanted to tell you so much!” she laughed again, her laughter filled with so much joy that Jax felt as if he were enfolded in some beautiful dream.

Jax’s smile was now as dazzling as her own. “You wanted to tell me - so you mean you made up your mind before we left Port Charles?”

“Yep,” she nodded. “I just decided I wasn’t going to be scared anymore. I love you and I want you, and we belong together, damn it,” she laughed. “And that’s all that matters,” she concluded softly, smiling proudly at him.

Jax laughed, a very carefree, happy sound, and then he scooted his chair over so that he was right next to her and he grew a bit more serious.

“You were scared?” he asked, sliding an arm around her. “Of what?”

She rested her head on his arm. “Of saying yes to you,” she confessed.

“Why?” he asked, puzzled. He knew how much she loved him, so her response made no sense to him.

“Because of what happened the last time I said yes. I… lost you, Jax.”

“You did not lose me,” he hammered into her head. “What happened to us… well, it was tantamount to your being taken from me, Brenda. But you never, never lost me, understand?” He cradled her face. “Never,” he repeated once more. “And nothing is going to happen now that you’ve finally come to your bloody senses and said yes. I promise you.” He kissed the top of her head, then tipped her chin up with one finger and gave her a sound kiss on the lips as well.

Brenda laughed, a lovely but slightly nervous sound. “Okay, I believe you. I really do. I mean that. But I still think I would feel better if we just kind of got married as soon as possible, all right? I mean like the minute we get back home and just as soon as we can take blood tests and get a license and run down to city hall.”

Jax was gazing at her with a smile of mild amusement on his lips. “City hall?”

She groaned. “Okay, I know I sound totally ridiculous and pathetically unromantic, and I’m sorry, but I don’t think these butterflies of doom are ever going to go away until I am your wife. Until I know that it’s really happening… that you’re really mine.”

“I am already yours, Brenda,” he informed her. “You have my heart under lock and key. Marriage or no marriage, I am already yours.”

“You weren’t in my dreams,” she murmured.

“Care to explain that comment?”

She sighed. “I had this teeny weensy bad dream last night that I was inside of a church at the altar, waiting for you. Then I heard the wedding march playing, only it was coming from across the hall, so I looked out there and Miranda was there in this really gorgeous Vera Wang dress that looked totally horrible on her, by the way. And you were there, too, Jax. With her, not me. You married her instead.”

Jax shook his head. “Okay, hello, that would never happen. I meant to the highest degree of never that you can possibly imagine.”

“Jax, it almost did happen. You were engaged to the woman! Twice!”

“Can we not ever reference that again, please?” he requested. “The fact is it did not happen, sweetie. I did not marry her. Either time. End of story.”

“I know. But I’m just trying to illustrate to you what my subconscious is doing to me. It’s like I’m so happy right now that I expect it to all disappear like it did last time. Because I was just as happy then.”

“It won’t disappear. Brenda, I adore you, and I am going to be your husband. Nothing will stop that. Nothing. Just believe me.”

“I do. I really do. But you know what they say, actions speak louder than words, so you really need to marry me right away, okay? Don’t you see? Because I know me. And I know I’m going to make myself crazy and you crazy with these ridiculous little fears and aggravating dreams until you are legally and forever all mine. And then I bet the Mirandavisions will stop and the butterflies I’ve been waking up feeling in my stomach every morning will all just fly away.”

“Hmmm,” Jax said.

“Hmmm? Does ‘hmmm’ mean we can get married next week?” she asked hopefully.

“I will do you one better than that.” He glanced at this watch. “I will marry you in exactly one hour.”

“What?”

“It is the perfect way to alleviate these silly fears of yours, Miss Barrett, that an engagement between us is doomed never to lead to an actual marriage. I can easily cure you of this fear by marrying you right here. Right now.”

“Just like that?” Brenda said, but it was obvious that she loved the idea.

“Why not? Consider where we are. We could easily be married within the hour. We just have to go down to the Clark County courthouse and get a license, find a quaint little chapel and legally become man and wife.”

“Jax, are you sure about this?” she asked, chewing on her lip, but her eyes were aglow with the obvious appeal this plan held to her.

“I am perfectly sure. You’re the one who’s quaking in your fashionable boots, over there.”

“I am not! Well, not quaking, exactly… just maybe teetering a little bit…”

Jax laughed and kissed her. “We always did intend to go off to some remote tropical island alone and get married, remember? That was our plan. To leave the world behind and find a little private paradise, just the two of us. And get married there. This may not be our island, but we can always get married again on that island.”

“Oh, definitely. We have to do that. I mean, Justin would just kill us for not including him in this. He has to be with us when we get married on our island, Jax.”

“I absolutely agree. And he will be. When we have our island wedding, the three of us will all be there together. But for right now, I am not leaving this city without a Mrs. Jacks accompanying me home. Now, that can be you. Or it can be…” he began to look around at the various show girls walking in and out of the restaurant in their skimpy costumes.

Brenda snatched his face and guided his playfully roving eyes back to her. “It will be me!” she said, laughing. “Jax, I actually love this idea! This is so us - so you and me! It’s wild and spontaneous and romantic, and everybody at home will be shocked!” she giggled with glee.

He grinned. “Well, not everybody. I bet you Jerry won’t be shocked. Trust me, he’s grown very much accustomed to my spontaneity. Edward - now, he will be shocked,” Jax grinned devilishly.

Brenda hugged Jax. “Oh, my God, Jax, so we’re really going to do this?” she asked elatedly.

“You bet,” he said, holding her close and kissing her hair.

“Okay! Let’s go then!” she said, pulling out of the warm embrace. “We look great, right?” she pointed out, indicating the attire they’d worn for the aborted Crowe-Anderson nuptials. “We don’t even have to change, so we can just go straight to this courthouse, get our license, find a chapel and get married.”

“You don’t want a limo? Rose petals carpeting the aisle? A veil? A bouquet, at least? I can arrange for all of that, you know…”

But Brenda was shaking her head. “No, no. All I want is you. All that other stuff you mentioned, we can have that when we have our island wedding. Then I want all that stuff,” she laughed. “But now, all I want is to say ‘I do’ to you.” She kissed him. Then kissed him again. Then again.

“All right,” he said, flashing her a smile. “That works for me. But we do have to make a pit stop at a jeweler and pick up some rings at the very least, all right? There’s no way in hell I’m placing just any old circle of gold on this beautiful hand,” he said, bringing her hand to his lips and kissing it. “I think there was a Cartier shop in the lobby. Do you remember seeing that?”

“No, not really, but we’ll find it. C’mon, let’s go! Oh, do you have the map, honey?” she asked as they stood up. “I want to check out the chapels so we can pick one we like. This way we can call them from the courthouse and make sure they can take us as soon as we get the license. Something small and intimate sound good?”

“Whatever you want,” Jax said, winking at her as he handed her the map, loving her excitement, her enthusiasm, her glowing happiness, and her stubborn determination to conquer her apprehensions of doom and ensure that this time their engagement would end up the way it should have that summer - with them being pronounced husband and wife.

She was walking a mile a minute, but his naturally long strides allowed him to easily keep up with her.

“You know what, Jax, maybe it was fate?” she was saying, as she continued to peruse the map as they walked towards the jeweler in the fabulous hotel lobby. “You know, that my shoot was here in Las Vegas, that I asked you to come with me, that you didn’t have any pressing ELQ business that prevented you from coming…”

“Fate is very fickle, so, no, I don’t think it was that,” Jax disagreed. “I think it was more along the lines of divine intervention.”

Brenda laughed. “Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. We were meant to be together and nothing could prevent it. That’s what I think. Delay it, maybe, but not prevent it. Some higher power was always going to stubbornly put me in your path and you in mine, until we realized the inevitability of this love.”

Brenda sent him a brilliant smile. “That’s what you think?”

“I think,” he said softly, “the fountains mingle with the river, And the rivers with the ocean; The winds of heaven mix forever, With a sweet emotion; Nothing in the world is single; All things by a law divine, In one another's being mingle; Why not I with thine?”

Brenda stopped in her tracks a few feet from the entrance to the jeweler and grabbed him. “What are you crazy?” she whispered. “Do you want me to attack you? You know you can’t say things like that to me in public. You know what it does to me,” she laughed.

“Yes, I do,” he laughed back, and then gave her a sexy wink and pulled her along into the jeweler with him.

In the sleaziest of motels down on Fifth Street, Dimitrius and Kevita Cassadine were going over their abduction plan for later that evening one last time.

“And then I climb out with the little prince the same way I got in,” Dimitrius finished.

“This had better work,” his wife grumbled. “I did not sit under that doctor’s knife to alter my own face and spend four years pretending to be someone else for us to come up empty-handed.”

“It will work,” he said. “I have left no base uncovered.”

“I hope Helena is dead,” Kevita sneered. “You should have killed her while you had the chance,” she snapped.

He shrugged. “She may very well be dead. If not, we shall see it to. After we have the boy.”

“How much do you think she knows?” Kevita asked. “She had a maniacal look in her eye when she demanded to know where your cousin Maximus was.”

“I suspect she knows everything,” he said, “and is desperate to find Max to beat the truth out of him.”

“You think she believes the information she discovered to be false?”

Dimitrius smiled cruelly. “I think that soulless hag is praying with her last breath that it is false.”

“We should come up with a way to convince her it is false. It will buy us time, if she still lives, to keep her from hunting us down and keep her away from the boy.”

“My only concern is the boy. My only focus is getting our hands on him and slowly bending him to our will. We will worry about Helena later.”

Kevita sat down on the lumpy, orange couch, making a face of disgust as a roach scurried by beneath her feet. “Where is Max, Dimitrius?” she asked.

Dimitrius took out a cigar. “I don’t know. You know what he is like; I’ve told you. He’s a globetrotter; never stays in one place. He’s been like that ever since Ariana died. With any luck, he will stay out of the picture. The last thing we need is him getting any wind of any of this. After all, he might take offense to the fact that we shall eventually have to murder his son.”

“I now pronounce you husband and wife.”

Jax and Brenda stood at the altar of the quaint little chapel, with its stained glass windows, fine crafted padded oak pews, and regal looking burgundy carpeting, as the minister pronounced them legally wed.

“And you see that? The sky didn’t even fall,” Jax whispered to her.

Brenda was grinning like a gorgeous lunatic and leaning up towards him, anxious for the kiss that would seal the ceremony.

The minister, noticing her eagerness, smiled and said to her, “You may kiss the groom.”

“Thank you,” Brenda said with a soft laugh, and she did just that. She kissed the groom. And kissed him… and kissed him… and kissed him, until the minister finally politely cleared his throat when he realized that the kiss had no end in sight.

“I wish you every happiness, Mr. and Mrs. Jacks,” he said, as he bid them adieu to leave for a wedding he had to perform in another chapel, two blocks away from this one.

"Mr. and Mrs. Jacks!” Brenda whispered in awe, clutching Jax’s arms. “That’s us!”

Jax laughed, absolutely loving her mood. “Yes, that is us,” he concurred. Then he bent to kiss her again. “At last.”

At last
My love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song

At last
The skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up and over
When I looked at you

I found a dream that I can speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill that I have never known

When you smile
Oh, and then the spell is cast
And here we are in heaven
For you are mine at last

“Okay, Mr. Jacks, what is the first thing we should do as a married couple?” Brenda asked, her gaze lingering between her new husband and the gorgeous rings on her finger that told the world she was a married woman and Jasper Jacks was hers alone.

Jax slid her hand into his and they slowly began strolling towards the chapel exit. “Go out on the town, celebrate this momentous occasion,” he said with a lazy smile. “Pick up that dancing Elvis for Justin. And then go back to our hotel suite, and, ah… take off all of our clothes,” he grinned wickedly as she started to laugh, “and consummate the living daylights out of this marriage in every room in the suite.”

Brenda was still laughing when she kissed him. “I don’t know… That suite you upgraded us to is pretty big.”

Jax just gave her a soft, sexy laugh in response, followed by a breathtakingly sweet kiss that made Brenda feel that the world could not possibly get any more perfect.

Justin sat, Indian-style, in his bedroom, glancing up occasionally at the TV to laugh at the Crocodile Hunter, as he carefully placed his alien evidence in a pile in front of him. He couldn’t wait for his mommy and daddy to get home tomorrow to show them what he had been up to! Plus, he missed them really bad, too.

He got up and carefully put his evidence away safely in a half-empty drawer of his racing car bed.

He was on his way down the hall to Emily’s room to ask her if she could come with him to walk Cooper, when Emily intercepted him.

“Hey there, gorgeous, phone call for you,” Emily said, handing him the portable phone. “It’s your mommy.”

Justin’s blue eyes lit up like dazzling laser beams, as he took the phone. “Hi, Mommy!” he said, walking over to sit down on the top stair.

“Hi, baby!” Brenda said, just as excited to hear his voice as he was to hear hers. “What are you up to?”

“I was gonna ask Em to help me take Cooper for a walk,” Justin replied. “Is Daddy with you?”

“Yes,” Brenda said. “And we have got something to telllll you,” she sang.

He started to laugh. “What?” he asked.

“It’s a surprise! A big, huge, amazing surprise. But Daddy and I are going to tell you the minute we get back.”

“I miss you guys, Mommy,” he said a bit forlornly. “Can you come home now? ‘Cause I got a surprise for you, too. You guys are gonna never even believe this!” he said. “This is gigantical, Mom! Really!”

Brenda laughed. “Oh, we miss you, too, sweetheart. So, so much. But you can wait just one more day, right? Just one more. You’ll see me and Daddy tomorrow afternoon.”

“Okay,” he acquiesced. “Did you get my Elvis?”

“Yep, Daddy got him for you.”

“Can I talk to Daddy?”

“Sure, you can. I love you, honey. Are you being a good boy? You’re not driving anybody over there crazy, are you?” she murmured, knowing that Justin, with all of his energy and adventurous nature, could drive an adult to the brink of insanity sometimes.

“Just Reggie,” Justin said truthfully. “I was driving my jeep in the backyard today and I made him pretend he was a bear I was chasing, and he said he thinks he strained his ankle from running. ‘Cause he tripped over Brook Lynn’s Betty Spaghetti.”

Brenda laughed. That Betty Spaghetti doll was a menace. “Sprained his ankle, baby, not strained,” Brenda corrected. “Okay, here’s your Daddy. I love you.” Brenda blew him a kiss over the phone, and he gave her one right back.

Then Jax took the phone. “Hey, my little man, what’s up?” Jax greeted him.

“Hi, Daddy! Daddy, guess what - when you and Mommy come home you’re never even gonna believe what I have to tell you and show you, even!” Justin said. “You’re never even gonna believe it!”

“Did you lose a tooth?” Jax guessed.

“Nope. This is like way more gigantical than that, Daddy. Like so amazing,” the child bragged, using one of his mother’s favorite words. “I could even maybe get famous for this! And, Daddy, now we know why your mommy and daddy are acting so funny. I figured it out alls by myself. Sorry, I heard you and Uncle Jerry talkin’ about that one day,” he added apologetically for that bit of eavesdropping.

Jax’s curiosity was highly piqued. “Okay, so tell me. What is it?”

“I think I gotta maybe wait until I see you, ‘cause I think aliens can maybe hear through the phone even,” Justin whispered.

Aliens?

And then Jax remembered Brenda telling him all about Justin’s infamous alien spy kit. So, he thought Jax’s parents were aliens? Jax was grinning at his end of the phone. Yeah, it would explain a lot, wouldn’t it?

“Okay, but when we get home you’ve got to tell me,” Jax played along. “Because this sounds huge, JC. We might have to call a press conference.”

“What’s a press conf’rence?”

“It means we tell the TV stations and the newspapers.”

“”Kay, but I think maybe we’re s’posed to tell the FBI people first. They have to catch them first.”

“Oh, right,” Jax agreed. “I see you’ve done this before.”

“Yeah, but this is the first time I really found some!” Justin said excitedly. “But then we gotta find out what really happened to your real mommy and daddy. I’ll help you, Daddy. ‘Cause I got some alien truth pills that’ll make them tell us. They taste kinda like strawberry gummy bears, but I think that’s just to trick the aliens so they think it’s candy and they eat it!”

“Ohhhh. Very clever.”

“I think maybe we better not talk about this anymore on the phone though,” Justin whispered.

“Right, they could be listening, Okay, change of subject then. What’s this about you straining Reginald’s ankle? And how did you manage that? Did Cook lend you her strainer?”

Justin’s peals of laughter floated through the phone lines and filled the Quartermaine hallway.

Several minutes later, after Justin had finished telling his father how Uncle Jerry had gotten him a triple chocolate chip ice cream that was the biggest thing he had ever seen and how he could not finish it, and that Cook had gone chasing Cooper through the house this morning when the wily wolf-dog stole some pancakes from a pile she was making of them in the kitchen, Jax said goodbye to his son and said they couldn’t wait to see him tomorrow.

“I love you, kiddo. Be good,” Jax said and prepared to give the phone back to Brenda, but he was stopped by the words he heard coming back to him on the other end.

“I love you, Daddy,” Justin said softly.

Jax stood for a moment, as if in shock.

“Honey? You okay?” Brenda asked, observing him and wondering why he was hesitating in handing her back the phone.

“He just told me he loves me,” Jax mouthed the words to her, the stunned look on his handsome face infinitely adorable.

Brenda bit her lip and smiled, understanding. Knowing exactly what Jax was experiencing.

Jax put the phone back to his ear. “You do?” he said into it.

“Yeah,” Justin said. “‘Member what you told me how you love me no matter what? Unconditional, you said. Well, me, too. I unconditional love you.”

Jax’s heart was full to bursting. “Well, then I am a very, very lucky man, aren’t I?” he said, feeling his eyes moisten. His son had just told him he loved him. For the very first time. It hit Jax with even more of an emotional jolt than the first time Justin had called him ‘daddy’. “I’ll see you tomorrow, kiddo. Here’s your mom again, okay?”

Jax handed Brenda the phone.

“I’m gonna go get Emily and walk Cooper now, Mommy,” Justin was saying.

“Okay, just make sure you listen to Emily and don’t run away from her because I know how you like to run.”

“I won’t. I love you, Mom. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, sounding a little sad. And Brenda realized just how much her son missed his parents.

“Okay, sweetheart. I love you, too. Bye, honey.”

Having hung up the phone, Brenda and Jax just stood there looking at each other for a moment.

“Want to go home?” they both said at the same time, and then started laughing.

“He really misses us,” Brenda said.

“I really miss him,” Jax said simultaneously.

They laughed again.

“Okay, me first,” Brenda said, covering Jax’s mouth to ensure they did not speak at the same time again. “I think we should go home right now and surprise him.”

“Oh, he’ll be surprised all right.” He glanced at his watch. “We’ll get there like 2.a.m. NY time. I do agree we should leave now, but we are not waking my son up at some ungodly hour - even to tell him something as amazing as the fact that we got married. We’ll just surprise him with that the minute he wakes up. He won’t expect us to be there until the afternoon, so he’ll get two surprises.”

“Three,” Brenda said, holding up the hip swiveling Elvis and laughing.

Jax rolled his eyes. “You know, maybe when Justin takes that ridiculous thing apart and gets bored with it, Cooper can use it as chew toy.”

“You’re so mean,” Brenda laughed. “He didn’t mean that, Mr. King,” she crooned to the animated toy as she tossed it onto the bed. Then she threw her arms around Jax. “So, since we’re leaving, I guess we won’t be able to consummate this marriage in every room in this hotel suite…” she teased him.

“True,” he conceded, brushing his lips against hers. “But there is always the plane, Mrs. Jacks.”

Her gasp and her laughter-filled ranting, that they were not going to consummate this marriage she’d waited all her life for on his jet, were swallowed up by the passion of his kiss.

2 a.m. - The Quartermaine residence

Justin rubbed his eyes and yawned and climbed out of his bed, urgently needing to use the bathroom. Emily had warned him not to drink all that milk with the cookies they’d had as an after-dinner snack.

He walked into the hall and made the quick right turn into the bathroom, not bothering to turn on the light. He never turned on the light when he had to go to the loo at night. He wasn’t scared of the dark, like Carson and Becky were. Even Brook Lynn was scared of the dark, and she was six!

As he was washing his hands, he knocked something off the side of the sink and onto the floor. Bending down to pick it up, he realized it was Emily’s cell phone. She was forever leaving it lying around, and her mommy and daddy were always hollering at her about that. Justin took the phone with him, deciding he’d keep it in his room and give it back to Em in the morning so her parents wouldn’t know she’d left it laying around again.

Back in his room, he noticed right away that the window was open since, his Batman curtains were blowing slightly. A frown settled upon the angelic, young face. He did not leave his window open. Not that he even could have anyway. The windows in the room were too high for him to reach, and they were childproof, on top of that.

As he contemplated this odd happening, he felt the hairs rising on the back of his neck, as a sensation of danger crept up on him. He started breathing a little bit faster and wishing Cooper was here. But sometimes the dog liked to wander about the huge mansion at night. This must be one of those nights, ‘cause otherwise he’d be right here in Justin’s room, glued to his side, as usual.

The house was so dark. Darker than usual, Justin thought, and then he realized that the soft green nightlights plugged into every room were out. That was weird, huh?

He wasn’t one to be afraid of the dark, but he still thought he might feel better if the lights were on. He reached up to turn on the switch, but no lights came on. He flipped it again and again, but still nothing happened.

Justin swallowed; his little hands flexing around Emily’s phone as his nerves began to get a little shaky. What was wrong with all the lights? He thought about maybe jumping into his bed and pulling the covers over his head. It was a real baby thing to do, but he was kinda feeling like a baby right now. But he didn’t go to his bed because he was scared to go back in his bed for some reason. He didn’t even know why. And all the shadows in the room were bothering him; never used to bother him before, but they bothered him tonight a lot. They were so dark.

He really hated to be such a big baby, but he was scared. For the first time he was scared of the dark. He thought he might have to suffer the indignity of running down the hallway to Emily’s room and asking her if he could sleep in her bed, but then he remembered Emily had slept over at her friend Liz’s house and wouldn’t be home until breakfast. He then thought he might like to go to Reginald, but to do that he would have to go all the way downstairs, and, if the lights were all not working, he might fall down the stairs or something. AJ, Edward, Lila, Alan and Monica’s rooms were all on the other side of the house. And Uncle Ned was all the ways outside in the gatehouse.

Justin bit his lip, getting nervous. He would go to Uncle Edward’s room, he decided. He’d just have to walk all the way there, but it was the closest one. As he made his decision to do that, a soft, little gasp passed through his lips, as he thought he saw something move in the shadows of his room. His breathing really accelerated now, as he was entering into the realm of panic. Was somebody here? In the house? In his room even? Was it maybe a bad person?

His fingers shakily started to dial numbers on Emily’s cell phone, as he slowly backed towards the door, intending to get to the hallway and then run.

Bobbie drowsily snatched up Jerry’s ringing cell phone, since it was closer to her side of the bed tonight. “Hello?”

“Can I talk to my Uncle Jerry?” came a whispered, urgent sounding little voice.

“Justin? Honey, is that you? Are you all right? What’s wrong?”

“Can I just please, please talk to him?” he asked again, sounding scared now, as he could have sworn he saw the movement again.

“Who is it?” a sleepy Jerry grumbled.

“It’s Justin,” Bobbie said.

Jerry shot up in the bed, alarmed. “Justin? At this hour? What’s wrong?” Jerry demanded, grabbing for the phone. “Justin? Hello? Justin?”

Jerry heard the thud of the phone hitting the soft carpet.

And then all he heard was dial tone.

Justin felt the soft cloth cover his nose and mouth at the same time a pair of arms grabbed onto him. Instinctively he held his breath as he kicked and kicked, but the person had him held above the floor, and so he was mostly kicking air.

He went to bite the hand holding the cloth over his mouth, but in biting his assailant, he took in a few breaths and crossed his eyes, as he immediately felt jarringly disoriented. Still, he bit down with all his might and heard the person - a man - say a bad word and drop him. Justin ran into the hall, but was so disoriented that he had no idea where he was going.

The feeling of disorientation was terrifying to the child. This child, who feared nothing, was now scared out of his wits. He just knew it was the alien; he knew it. The alien was here.

“Mommy, Mommy, Mommy,” he said, as tears began to fall from his eyes and he was suddenly all 100% scared, little four-year-old boy. He’d just reached his mother’s bedroom door when he collapsed in front of it.

Dimitrius hustled down the dark hallway after his elusive young prey and was relieved to find the child passed out on the floor, the powerful drug having taken effect. He had not expected the child to be awake at this hour. It would have been so much easier had the child been asleep in his bed, dreaming of choo-choo trains and the like. He’d not expected the child to fight so much either, nor to have the presence of mind in his child’s brain to hold his breath when the drug-soaked cloth was placed over his face. But he had obviously had to breathe at some point, as evidenced by his motionless little form on the floor.

“Let us be off, my little blonde prince,” he said in Russian.

And, as he bent to pick up the young boy, a blinding flash of white fur and snarling white teeth and terrifying green eyes came rushing up the stairs at breakneck speed and seemed to leap out of the darkness and pounce on him like a fury, throwing him backwards.

“Mother of God!” Dimitrius cried out in searing pain, as Cooper took a ferocious bite out of his thigh. The wolf! He’d forgotten about the damned wolf!

Song Credit: “At Last” written by Jay Booker/Jack Keller from the album At Last. Artist: Gene Watson.
Poem credit: “Love's Philosophy” by Percy Bysshe Shelley