In the darkness of the Quartermine second level hallway, just outside of Brenda’s empty room, Dimitrius Cassadine cried out in pain, a sound of agony loud enough to raise the entire household. As he desperately tried to shake the snarling, attacking white wolf off of him, he heard doors opening, voices raised in alarm, as they realized that the electricity and the phones were dead. But he was not concerned with discovery. He knew how far the other rooms were from this area of the house. Only Brenda or that girl Emily could have gotten here quickly, and neither was here.

“What the devil is going on?” Alan said, as he and Monica began the trek down towards his father and mother’s room.

“Is that Cooper carrying on like that?” Monica gasped, feeling a shiver go though her at the savage sounds the dog was making. She was reminded quite clearly that this cute little white dog with the huge green eyes was half wild wolf. “Oh, my God, Alan. You don’t think the dog has gone crazy and is attacking Justin, do you?” she asked as they both quickened their steps.

“I feel he’s more likely attacking an intruder, Monica. The lights and phones are out - that appears to be deliberate to me. Where the hell is my cell phone? We have to call the police. Damn it, I can’t see a thing!”

Tossing on his robe and walking out of his room, Edward, too, heard the vicious snarling of Cooper.

“I knew that dog would show its true colors, one day,” he muttered, even as his heart pounded in alarm for Justin’s safety. “Justin!” he called out, as he grabbed a fire poker from the bedroom and headed down the hallway, flipping light switches as he went along and disturbed to find that none of them were working.

Meanwhile, down the hall, Cooper savagely bit into the intruder’s shoulder. Dimitrius screamed in agony and in desperation managed to kick the dog hard enough to dislodge it and send it crashing into the wall. He then tried to quickly reach for the child again, only to have the dog shake off the collision with the wall, let out a chilling howl, and come racing back to attack him anew.

Tossing his hands up in a feeble attempt to ward off the incensed dog’s sharp teeth, Dimitrius cursed his miscalculations. With an effort that nearly zapped his energy, he once again sent the dog crashing into the wall and then got up, limping and made a hasty retreat down the stairs as quickly as his bloodied, torn limbs would let him. He heard the dog getting back on its feet and barking loud enough to wake the dead. “Dear God, no more!” he grunted at the anticipation of another attack. Forcing himself to go faster, he flung open the front door and disappeared into the darkness of the night, furious that he’d had to leave behind the little prince. He heard the barking following him and heard the scrambling sound of the dog picking up speed. Damn it to hell, the feral beast was pursuing him! Dimitrius forced himself to run, the pain excruciating. The next time, he swore viciously, he was going to take pleasure in murdering that dog before abducting the child!

Mere seconds later, Jax and Brenda were getting out of Jax’s limo and walking up the walkway of the Quartermaine mansion.

“Edward will be fit to be tied when he realizes I’ve spent the night here,” Jax said, running a finger along Brenda’s ear.

“Husbands sleep with their wives,” she said with a shrug and a smile. Then she laughed, “So, what were you telling me in the car? Justin thinks your parents are aliens?”

Jax laughed, too. “So I gather.”

“Well, that would definitely explain their presto-changeo behavior the second you left town,” Brenda murmured.

Jax gazed at her. “Are you talking about that summer?”

“Yes.”

“What happened, Brenda? Tell me what they…” Jax cut himself off, as he saw the door to the Q residence wide open and the house plunged into what appeared to be a very pronounced darkness. “Wait… something’s wrong,” Jax said quietly, sliding her behind him as they approached.

When he heard a car screech to a halt in front of the house and saw his brother leaping out, Jax knew something was wrong.

“Jax! Brenda! Thank God you’re home. Your son scared the bloody hell out of me. Is he all right?”

“Justin?” Brenda breathed, and Jax heard the prelude to panic in her voice.

He held onto her. “Brenda, wait, just…”

“Justin!” she screamed, wrenching away from Jax and racing into the dark house.

“Brenda!” Jax raced after her, fearful that if there were intruders in the house, they may still be inside. But his desperation to get to their child and make sure he - and everyone else - was all right, was as deep as hers was.

Jerry was right behind Jax as they went inside, turning on light switches to no avail.

“Electricity’s dead,” Jax said, feeling slivers of panic creep up on him. “Brenda!” he called out, unsure as to where she had gone, although she’d probably made a beeline to Justin’s room. Damn, it was so dark in here.

“Phones are dead, too,” Jerry said, fumbling around in the darkness. “Keep the front door open - at least we can get some light from the street. I think I have a flashlight in my car; I’ll go get it,” he said.

Suddenly Reginald appeared; a bat held in his hand. He sighed with relief to find Jax and Jerry there; able to identify them, thanks to the light coming in from the open front door. “What the hell is going on?” Reginald demanded.

“You tell us,” Jerry said. “We just got here.”

“How did you know to come here, Jerry,” Jax asked urgently. “What happened?”

“Justin called me at two in the bloody morning,” Jerry explained hastily. “Bobbie said he sounded…”

“JAAAXXX!” Brenda screamed.

Jax and Jerry both bolted up the stairs, Reginald following, and bumping into Alan and Monica.

“Reginald, what’s happening!” Alan said, grabbing him. “Who screamed?!”

“Brenda,” Reginald said, as he went in the other direction to gather some flashlights.

Jax slipped in something as he ran up the stairs, but just got back up and kept on going, his heart pounding with panic as he rounded the corner where the sound of Brenda’s voice had come from. He slipped again on some wet substance on the floor, got up and nearly tripped over Brenda, who was kneeling in front of her bedroom door, Justin cradled in her arms.

“He’s not moving, he’s not moving, he’s not moving,” Brenda hyperventilated.

Jax scrambled down to the floor and listened for his son’s heartbeat and then a pulse.

At the same time, Reginald came running up the stairs with the flashlights, tossing one to Jerry, who shone it down upon Justin. By this time the rest of the Quartermaines had gathered around, too, murmuring “Are you all right?” to each other.

“Dear God in heaven,” Edward gasped, when the flashlight illuminated the darkness and they could clearly see. There was blood everywhere.

Brenda screamed when she saw the blood that was on the floor surrounding her little boy.

“Oh, my god! Oh, my god!” she said, shaking hysterically.

“Baby, it’s okay. It’s not his blood,” Jax said, as he had frantically checked their son for any wounds. “It’s not his,” Jax said, letting out a shaken breath. “And he’s breathing. He is breathing,” Jax assured her and then looked to Alan and Monica, who were immediately at his side checking on Justin.

“Yes, he’s breathing, just unconscious,” Alan said. They tried to rouse the child to no avail. “We’d better get him to the hospital,” Alan whispered to Jax.

Jax lifted his son up into his arms, and Jerry helped Brenda to her feet. “Can I get your car keys?” Jax said to his brother, even as Jerry was already sliding them into Jax’s hand. “Call the hospital,” Jax said to Jerry. “Tell them he’s unconscious and we’re on our way.” Reginald shone a flashlight in front of Jax, as Jax quickly made his way down the stairs, careful to avoid the blood, which he could clearly see now and which he’d apparently slipped on on the way up. Brenda was right behind him, trying to get ahold of herself.

“I’ll come with you,” Alan said to Jax and Brenda.

“We can’t wait for you, Alan,” Jax said, noticing all the Quartermaines were in their nightclothes. “You can meet us there if you want to, but we have to go now.”

As they hit the bottom of the stairs, Cooper came barreling in, a black piece of cloth in his mouth, which apparently was someone’s clothing.

Everyone stared at the dog, which looked like it had been through hell. “I think it’s safe to say that the blood belongs to whomever broke in here,” Alan murmured.

Jerry had just hung up with General Hospital, having told them that his brother was on the way with an unconscious four-year-old and then putting Alan on the phone so he could instruct them what to do when the child arrived. That call ended, Jerry immediately dialed the police next. He knelt down and gingerly picked up the piece of blood-soaked clothing that Cooper had just dropped on the floor, knowing it could very well be evidence. The dog was exhausted, breathing violently and limping. His white fur caked with mud and blood.

“Take care of him, Jerry, ” Jax said, indicating Cooper, as he and Brenda hurried through the front door towards Jerry’s jeep. “And then meet me at the hospital if you can, okay?”

“Okay,” Jerry called out to him.

“Jax, please call us and let us know what’s happening at the hospital,” Edward called to him. “The phones may be dead, but you know Ned’s cell phone number.” Speaking of Ned, Edward realized they had to rouse him from the gatehouse and let him know what the hell was going on. But the police sirens were already in the distance, and once Ned saw the flashing lights and heard the sirens getting closer to the property, he’d undoubtedly make a beeline to the main house.

Jax just nodded at Edward’s request and then gently slid his son into Brenda’s arms in the back seat and then jumped behind the wheel and took off for the hospital.

Dimitrius staggered into the sleazy hotel room, bloodied, limping, exhausted, and in terrible pain.

“What happened?” his wife demanded, looking at him in alarm and noticing he did not have the little prince with him.

“Damned wolf!” he raged in Russian, smashing a cheap vase off of the shabby coffee table. Then he howled in pain and fell onto the couch. “G*ddamned wolf!”

“What about the wolf?” she demanded, glaring down at him and not making any move to tend to his injuries.

“Are you blind, woman?” he hollered at her. “The little beast attacked me!”

“You said you were prepared for every eventuality!” she accused. “You said you had all the bases covered, and yet you forget about the damned wolf?!”

His glare matched her own. After the night he’d had, he had no patience for her. “Are you going to tend to my wounds or stand there shrieking like an old shrew!” he erupted.

“I should let you bleed to death!” she hissed. “You are an idiot, Dimitrius!”

He laughed. “Go ahead. You can’t possibly see this plan through without me.”

Knowing he was right, she stalked angrily into the bathroom to see about tending to his wounds.

“He’ll be all right,” Tony assured Jax and Brenda, as he finished examining the still unconscious Justin. “It appears he’s been exposed to chloroform, so it might take him a little while to come out of it, and he’s got a tiny bump on his forehead here, from where he must have fallen when the chloroform kicked in. It’ll be bruised for a couple of days, but other than that, he’s perfectly fine. You can both stop worrying.”

“Chloroform?” Jax said, gazing down at his son, who looked as if he were merely in angelic slumber, save for the fact that he was in a hospital room.

Tony nodded. “Yep. Knocks you right out. Knocks kids out longer than it would adults. If you want my opinion, Jax, I would say someone was trying to kidnap your son.”

Jax had been thinking the very same thing.

“You might want to see about having hospital security stay by this room until you’re ready to leave,” Tony suggested.

“When can we take him home?” Brenda asked, stroking her son’s warm little cheek. “Because we’re not leaving him here alone. If he has to stay, Jax and I are staying, too.”

Tony nodded, understanding. “I see no problem with Justin being released by the morning. I’ll have his pediatrician - Dr. Huxtable, correct, Brenda?”

Brenda nodded.

“I’ll have Dr. Huxtable give Justin a final check in the morning, and then you can take him home. There’s a cot in the closet there. I’ll have one of the nurses bring in another one for you.”

“No, that’s fine. We’ll only need one. Thank you, Tony,” Jax said as Tony left.

“Do you think he’s right, Jax?” Brenda asked when they were alone. “Do you think someone was trying to kidnap Justin tonight?”

“Yes,” Jax said quietly.

Brenda let out a shaky breath at what might have been. “F… for ransom, do you think?” she asked. Jax was, after all, a very rich man. And he was in the papers all the time; more so ever since Brenda had come back to Port Charles.

“I would assume as much,” Jax said, lifting her up out of the seat she was sitting in and then sitting in it himself and pulling her down onto his lap. “But I won’t let anybody hurt him. Or hurt you, Brenda. Not ever.”

“We would never let anyone hurt you either,” Brenda told him, then sank her head against his shoulder, as Jax gently massaged her back with one hand. “Jax, why was Jerry at the house?” she asked him.

“Justin called him,” Jax filled her in. “At 2 a.m. Jerry was very concerned and came over.”

“Did Justin say what was the matter?”

“No. Jerry said the phone went dead.”

Jax felt Brenda shiver in his arms. “He must have been so scared,” she said. “And nothing scares him, you know? But he had to be so scared. Do you think he was calling for us?” Brenda asked in a tremulous voice. “And we weren’t there…”

“Shhh,” Jax said, kissing the side of her face. “Don’t think about any of that now, sweetheart. He’s fine. He’s right here with us. We’re all together. Everything is okay. Why don’t you,” he said, lifting her up and and placing her at the foot of Justin’s bed, “relax and try to get a little bit of sleep?” he suggested, as he slid off her shoes.

“I don’t think I can,” she confessed.

“Baby, it’s after three in the morning now. We had a long flight; we came home to this drama. I want you to get some rest, all right? Here you go,” he said, lifting her and placing her into the bed next to their son.

Brenda curled up in the bed, taking Justin into her arms.

“Close your yes,” Jax said, smiling down at her.

She managed a smile, too. “I love you, Jax.”

“I love you, too. Go to sleep.”

“Kiss first?” she requested, tapping her lips.

Jax bent down and brushed his lips slowly across hers, then kissed Justin’s cheek. “Now, go to sleep, Mrs. Jacks,” he whispered, stroking her face.

Soon Brenda had indeed fallen asleep, their son cradled protectively in her arms. The picture of the two of them like that was heartbreakingly beautiful to Jax, who saw before him his whole world, his whole life, his reason for joy wrapped up in those two beautiful people asleep in that bed. He vowed that no one would hurt them; nothing would hurt them. Not while he lived and breathed.

Nothing’s gonna harm you
Not while I’m around
Nothing’s gonna harm you
Not while I’m around

Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays
But I’ll send them howling
I don’t care; I’ve got ways

No one’s gonna hurt you
No one’s gonna dare
Others may desert you
Not to worry, I will always be there

Demons may charm you with smile
For a while, but in time
Nothing can harm you
Not while I’m around

Jax took out his cell phone and placed a call to arrange for security on his son’s room until they were ready to leave, and then he turned around when he heard a gentle rap on the door.

“Jax, it’s me,” Jerry announced softly.

“Come on in, Jer,” Jax said.

Jerry came inside quietly, observing the sleeping Brenda with Justin enfolded in her arms. “Quite a picture,” he said.

Jax nodded in agreement.

“Your kid okay?” Jerry asked.

“Yeah, Tony said he’s going to be fine, thank God. He was chloroformed, Jerry. Whoever was in the Q’s house tonight, they wanted him rendered unconscious.”

“I kind of suspected that. The police are going to be coming here to talk to you,” Jerry informed him. “They think it was a kidnap attempt and Justin was the target.”

Jax nodded again, raking his hand through his golden hair in a bit of frustration. “That seems to be the consensus opinion.”

“It’s all right, kid,” Jerry said. “No one’s gonna get another chance at this.”

“You’re damn right they won’t!” Jax said, gazing down at his sleeping family. Then he turned back to his brother. “How’s Cooper, Jerry?”

“Black and blue - looks like he got a couple of hard kicks in the ribs. And he’s bloody exhausted - he drank a whole bowl of water - must’ve been running for miles. He allowed me to give him a warm bath, was too damned tired to kick up a fuss about it, apparently. Then he limped up the stairs right to Justin’s room and was knocked out sleeping. But other than that, he appears to be all right. He wasn’t whimpering in pain or anything. Reginald’s going to take him to the vet first thing in the morning to see about that limp.”

Jax nodded slowly. “That dog saved my son from being kidnapped tonight. You know that, don’t you?”

“I do,” Jerry concurred.

“If it weren’t for Cooper, Justin would be… he’d be gone, Jerry,” Jax said, swallowing hard as that truth shook him. “He’d be gone.”

“We don’t have to dwell on any of those ‘what ifs’, Jax. The fact is that Cooper was there. And Justin is right here,” Jerry said softly, turning his brother’s face in the direction of the little boy in question. “Right here, safe and sound.”

Jax nodded, running his hand through his hair again and expelling a deep breath. His brother was always this rock there for him, as he was for Jerry in return. It had been that way their whole lives. It was something neither one of them ever took for granted either. And thinking of Jerry’s importance in his life led Jax to thoughts of their parents.

“How was your conversation with Mum and Dad, Jerry?” Jax asked him. “Didn’t you have some kind of lunch meeting with them on Friday? I got a message on my machine from Dad that they were going home, so I take it you convinced them to do that?”

Now it was Jerry who ran a hand through his dark hair. “Oh, little brother, where do I begin with this one?” he murmured, taking a seat, as they continued their conversation in hushed tones so as not to waken Jax’s sleeping family.

When Jerry finished telling Jax about the things John had said, Jax was flabbergasted.

“So you see what I mean?” Jerry said, getting a load of Jax’s expression. “Something is bloody wrong, Jax. Now, I don’t care what they say, I think as their children we have to insist that Dad go to the doctor. We’ll drag him there if we have to. I’m really getting scared that maybe something is really wrong with him.”

Jax was nodding, but he was thinking back to Brenda mentioning how his parents had changed so much after he’d gone to look for Miranda that summer. She had not told him the specifics of how they’d changed because the crisis with Justin had come up. But now Jax was dying to know. This was scary as hell. His father attributing a past to Jerry that did not even exist? Oh, God, what was wrong with his dad?

“I’ve already tried calling them, but I keep getting the answering machine,” Jerry added.

“At the hotel? Or at the ranch?” Jax asked.

“At the ranch. They’ve already checked out of the hotel,” he said. “If we don’t get an answer by tomorrow, I’m flying out there, Jax.”

Another rap on the door announced the arrival of the security team. Jax spoke to them for a few moments, and then they went outside to stay by the front door of Justin’s room.

“Where the hell is Mac?” Jax grumbled, pacing the room.

“He’s probably still at the Q’s place. That is the crime scene, after all. Jax, why don’t you get a bit of rest? I’ll wake you up as soon as Scorpio gets here.”

Jax shook his head. “No, I can’t,” he said. And he realized he was scared to close his eyes and go to sleep after the events of this day. He wanted to have his eyes open. To be able to see that Justin and Brenda were there with him and were safe.

“You’re gonna fall on your feet, kid,” Jerry warned him. “You need a few Z’s, just like everybody else, you know.”

“I’m fine,” Jax said. Then he went to the door. “I’m going to go look for Mac,” he said impatiently. “Stay with them, all right, Jer? Do not leave them.”

But at the moment Jax heard the sweetest sound. It was the sound of his son’s voice. Justin was thrashing about a bit in the bed saying, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”

Jax was immediately over at the side of the bed, and Brenda, too, had awakened at her son’s cries.

She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, trying to focus on what was happening, if Justin was in trouble, and where Jax was. Then she saw Jax gently waking their son from a nightmare.

“Hey, Justin. Hey, it’s okay. Wake up now. Mommy and Daddy are right here,” Jax said. “Listen to Daddy, all right? Open your eyes.”

The little boy obediently opened his eyes, and Jax’s heart broke at the wetness he saw on Justin’s face, indicating the child had been crying in his sleep.

Justin looked about the room, saw his daddy there, kneeling down right in front of him, his uncle behind his daddy, his mommy right next to him in the bed. He bit his lip to try to be brave and not cry like a baby, but he lost that battle and just started to cry, as he sat up in the bed, sobbing and tossing his arms around his daddy’s neck, soaking Jax’s shirt with his tears.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Jax said, holding him tightly until the little boy’s sobbing began to subside into quiet hiccups. Then Justin slowly eased out of his father’s arms and curled up against his mommy, hiccupping softly and holding her tightly, as Brenda soothed him with soft words and soft kisses to his wet, little cheeks.

“You want anything, sport?” Jerry asked the hiccupping child. “Something to drink? How about a nice, cold grape juice?”

Justin shifted his big blue eyes over to his uncle and nodded.

“All right. I’ll be right back.”

“Thank you, Jerry,” Brenda mouthed, as Jerry smiled at her and nodded and left the room.

“Feeling better?” Jax asked their son, stroking his back soothingly.

Justin nodded; a cute look of self-disgust on his face. “Only babies cry like that,” he said.

“Only babies? No, I don’t think so,” Jax said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. “You should have seen me. I thought something might have happened to you, and I was crying like crazy. Your mom even had to go fetch a couple of buckets to catch all those tears,” Jax teased him.

Justin laughed. “Really?”

“Really. And I’m not a baby, am I?”

“Nooo,” Justin drawled. Then his eyes grew serious, “Daddy,” he said, “Your daddy is an alien. I’m kinda not too sure about your mommy yet, but I bet she’s one, too. But your daddy is … I know for sure, even,” Justin said gravely.

“That’s not nice to say things like that, honey,” Brenda gently chided him, feeling a little guilty that her own feelings for Jax’s parents were spilling through to Justin.

“But, Mommy, it’s true. It’s really, really true!” he insisted.

“How do you know?” Jax asked.

“I got all kinds of proof,” Justin announced. “‘Member when we went to the supermarket, me and you?”

Jax nodded.

“Your daddy was there and I kinda tricked him into touching my yellow submarine, and so now I got his fingerprints!” he said.

“You… you let him be with your father, Jax? After I asked you never to leave him alone with them?” Brenda asked, looking at Jax with hurt in her eyes.

“No, I didn’t,” Jax said, looking back at Justin. “Justin…”

“You never saw me, Daddy.” He looked at his mom. “Don’t be mad at Daddy; it wasn’t his fault even. I just only tricked him a little bit. He was lookin’ for my juice and I was talkin’ to him and pretending I was right there, and then I ran to ‘nother aisle, where the alien grandpa was and then I ran back.”

“Justin Barrett, you are not to ever do that again!” Brenda said, having a heart attack. “You are never to leave your daddy like that or trick him like that, do you understand?”

Justin nodded contritely. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “But I got his fingerprints!” he added with a big smile. “AND” he continued, “I asked him about that song he always used to sing to you, Daddy. And guess what - he didn’t even know it!” Justin revealed. “He said it was the ‘Popeye, the Sailorman’ song! He gave the wrong answer!”

Jax cocked an eyebrow, thinking about his and Jerry’s conversation about their father earlier. If John was forgetting the past and inventing a past that did not exist, then whatever was wrong with him clearly affected the brain. Jax closed his eyes. God, he didn’t want anything to be wrong with his father, but it was appearing more and more like that was the case. “What else?” Jax asked his son.

“This is the bestest part,” Justin said, just as Jerry came back in with the grape juice and Justin accepted the beverage with a ‘Thank you, Uncle Jerry’. The child took a long sip of the juice through the straw and then let out a satisfied “Ahhhh!” that had the adults chuckling. “’Kay, so this is the bestest part,” Justin repeated. “I got a picture of the alien grandpa and what he really looks like!” he revealed.

All three adults looked at him in confusion.

“Alien grandpa?” Jerry murmured to Jax.

“Your daddy. He’s an alien, Uncle Jerry, ” Justin explained.

“I see,” Jerry said.

“What picture?” Brenda asked, gazing at her son intently, having a bad feeling he was about to give her yet another heart attack.

“The one I took yesterday,” he announced.

“Yesterday?!” all three adults said in unison.

“Jerry, you took him to see Mum and Dad?!” Jax demanded.

“I did not!” Jerry said.

“Don’t be mad at Uncle Jerry, ‘kay, ‘cause he didn’t even know,” Justin said.

Jax and Brenda groaned in stereo.

“All right, kiddo, spill it,” Jax ordered. “What did you do now?”

“I love you,” he said first.

Brenda groaned. “That means it was bad.”

“Not really so bad,” Justin said, chewing on his lip and twisting his fingers together. “I was just tryin’ to help Daddy.”

“Tell us what you did, JC,” Jax said again. “I told you I will never be angry with you for telling me the truth, remember?”

He nodded. “Okay. ‘Member when I told you I left my Gameboy at your house and you told me Uncle Jerry could get it for me?”

Jax and Jerry both nodded.

“So, when Uncle Jerry took me to your house, we went inside and Uncle Jerry said he’d look for my Gameboy upstairs and I could look downstairs, ‘cept I couldn’t go near the kitchen and I had to be careful not to knock over anything on your desk ‘cause you’re a neat-freak.”

Jax shot Jerry a look.

“Bit of a neat-freak, I said,” Jerry said.

“Anyways, I knew my Gameboy was up in your den by the computer, Daddy. I just kinda pretended I didn’t know, so Uncle Jerry would have to go up there and check all the rooms. Then, when he went upstairs, I opened up the door and went out in the hall…”

Brenda had to clutch the side of the bed in her agitation at hearing of her son’s shenanigans.

“…And down into the staircase,” he continued. “So’s I could go to 22C and find the aliens. I was gonna spray them with my Alien Expose. It makes their skin come off,” he explained.

“How did you know they were in 22C?” Jerry demanded.

Justin shrugged. “I asked Rick. I pretended I just only wanted to say hi to him and then I asked him.”

But Brenda had hopped out of the bed, looking ready to pass out. “You went in… in…in a staircase in a hotel? Alone?!” she shrieked.

Jax was now fully beginning to understand why Brenda was unhappy with Justin’s fearless nature. Any other barely-four-year-old would have been too scared to do anything like this. And, indeed, their fear would have kept them safe. Justin’s lack of it placed him right into danger.

Just like Jax, Jerry was thinking. Jax’s own fearless nature had given Jerry and their parents fits while Jax was growing up. It now appeared that Justin would give Jax and Brenda much the same kind of fits.

“Yeah, but, Mommy, that’s not even the bestest part!”

Brenda thought if she heard ‘the bestest part’ that she would drop dead on the spot.

Jax got up, thinking Brenda looked awfully strange. Her breathing was funny, too. Panic attack? Aftershocks of realizing just what kinds of danger their son had been in this weekend while they were away?

“Honey? You okay?” he asked, making his way over to her slowly.

“I can’t believe… staircase… alone… I can’t believe he…” And then her eyes were rolling back and she was falling, and Jax was racing over to catch her before she hit the floor.

Justin looked at his mother, his lip quivering, tears pooling in his eyes. “Did I do that?” he asked.

Yes, Jax thought wryly. “No,” he said out loud. “Mommy’s just really tired. She’s barely gotten any sleep. Jerry, will you stay with Justin? I’m going to have one of the doctors take a look at Brenda.”

“Sure,” Jerry said. “Funny, I never thought of Brenda as faint-hearted. Not after all the crazy shenanigans the two of you used to get into,” Jerry murmured.

“Maybe it’s different when it’s one’s child?” Jax offered, scooping Brenda up into his arms and heading for the door.

“Let me get that for you,” Jerry offered, but just then there was a knock on the door and Amy Vining came in. “Hi there, Jax. Mac Scorpio is here to… Oh… what happened?” she asked, looking at Brenda.

“I’m not sure, Amy. She fainted, I think. It could be lack of sleep and also a bit too much drama for one evening. Do you think you could get a doctor in here to take a look at my wife?”

Amy’s eyes popped open. “Your wife?”

“Your wife?” Jerry echoed.

“Your wife!!!” Justin grinned, getting up in the bed and jumping up and down letting out his Indian chief holler at 4 o’clock in the morning. “Whoooo hooooo!!!!”

“So you never saw the person who grabbed you, Justin?” Mac was asking. Jax had just come back into the room, where Mac and Jerry were with Justin. Brenda had come out of her faint, but was still with the doctor, just getting some routine tests. Jax had left her grumbling about the pointlessness of it all, that she was fine, and demanding that he wait for her before Justin finished telling them how he’d gotten his ‘alien photos.’ Jax promised that he’d make Justin wait until she was there to finish telling them and that Justin was just talking to Mac now. Which was exactly what was happening when Jax slipped back into his son’s hospital room.

“It was a man,” Justin said. “He said a bad word when I bit him, so I know it was a man ‘cause I heard his voice.”

“Very good,” Mac said, smiling at the adorable child. “Anything else you noticed? Was he big or little?”

“Pretty big. Kind of muscley. But not as muscley as my daddy. His tummy was kinda sticking out. Not so tall as my dad, neither.”

“Great memory on this kid,” Mac murmured to Jerry. “You never saw his face though, Justin?”

“Nope,” Justin said. “But he had a funny kinda accent when he was saying the bad words. Not like mine, and not like my daddy’s and Uncle Jerry’s. Kinda different. Kinda like this,” Justin said, imitating it.

“Russian?” Jax and Jerry both said at the same time, gazing at one another.

“Or maybe German,” Mac said, jotting it down. “Man, it’s too bad Justin never got a good look at his face. He’s smart and observant enough to have given us a killer description to go on,” he sighed, jotting down some more notes.

Justin was tugging on his father’s arm and pulling him down to him to whisper, “I know who it was, Daddy. It was your daddy.” Jax thought his heart stopped cold in his chest at his son’s words. “Except your daddy’s not really your daddy. He’s an alien, like I told you. I saw him in the hotel. His face came off and everything, Daddy. I saw it - I promise I’m not even lying. He’s an alien. And he prob’ly is mad at me ‘cause he knows I know now. And so it was him who was in the house. He’s tryin’ to get me.”

Jax was jarred. His child’s words were fanciful, but hadn’t Jax also disbelieved Justin when he’d insisted Cooper was a wolf?

“His… face came off?” Jax repeated in a whisper to his son.

“Yep. Right off. The old lady pulled it off.”

“What old lady?”

“The old blonde lady.” Justin concentrated to remember the name she had called herself when she’d spoken to the alien grandparents. “Eleanor Cast the wine, she said that’s what her name was when she was talking to them.”

“Ele… Helena? Helena Cassadine?” Jax asked incredulously. Why would she ever go to see his parents?

“Yeah!” Justin nodded, thinking that sounded more right than Eleanor Cast the wine. “She pulled his face right off him, Daddy. It was soooo gross!! I kinda almost puked, even. But I didn’t run away, and so I got a picture of it! You can see it, and then you can believe me,” he implored.

Jax felt sick to his stomach because he already did believe him. No child could make up anything like this.

“Jerry…” Jax said.

Just then Amy Vining burst into the room.

“Knocking might be nice, Amy,” Jerry said with a sigh.

“Sorry!” she said, her gossipy glint in her eye. “I just thought Jax would like to know that we found out what’s wrong with Brenda.”

Jax got up, a bewildered look on his face. “Something’s wrong with her? I thought it was just exhaustion? That’s what the doctor said.” Oh God, he could not take this, he could not take anything else today - especially anything bad happening to Brenda.

“Well, they just ran some tests, since she sorta had these symptoms, see…”Amy drawled.

“Symptoms of what?” Jax demanded, thinking if the damned woman didn’t spit it out, he was going to choke the bloody daylights out of her. All sorts of horrible things were flying through his head.

“Symptoms of pregnancy,” Amy revealed, loving to be the one to dish. “Jax, your wife is going to have a baby. Looks like you’re going to be a father… again.”

“Your wife?” “Mac said, scratching his head.

“A baby?” Jerry said.

“A baby!!! Mommy’s havin’ my baby sister!” Justin screamed, popping up in the bed. And at 5: 10 a.m., another loud Indian Chief holler erupted from room 320. “Whooooo hoooooo!!!”

Helena Cassadine just finished getting a report from her man, who’d been keeping an eye on the Quartermaine house for her while awaiting the return of Jasper Jacks and Brenda Barrett.

“Have they any clue who tried to abduct the child?”

“No, Mrs. Cassadine. But I have my source on the PCPD trying to obtain information for me.”

“And they are now at the hospital, you say?” she asked.

“Yes, Mrs. Cassadine. But the child is all right.”

“Pity,” she said. “Have there been any sightings of Dimitrius or that wife of his? My gut tells me they are involved in this somehow.”

“No, Mrs. Cassadine, but we are now searching out the bowels of Port Charles. You say they would never go there because they are very materialistic people, but, in retrospect, going there would be the perfect means of eluding your detection.”

“Sound point,” Helena conceded. “I don’t care where you look. I merely want them found and brought to me. They know where Maximus is, and I must find that man. As soon as I get what I need from them, they will be disposed of. So I want them FOUND! In the meantime, I think I shall take a stroll to the hospital,” she murmured, hanging up the telephone.

“The hospital?” Stefan repeated, as the bug he’d placed in his mother’s phone transmitted her conversation clear as a bell to him at Wyndemere. “Because Jax is there? What the devil is the importance of Jax?” he said, frustrated at his inability to figure this out. “He’s merely another Cassadine of many - the firstborn son of a second-born son; he holds no power; he is no threat. So why is Helena obsessed over him? And why is my Uncle Dimitrius apparently obsessed over Jax’s son? And where in the world is my elusive Uncle Maximus, who, I dare say, has all the answers I seek?”

Stefan threw off his robe and began to get dressed. If Helena was going to the hospital, he was going to be right behind her.

Song credit: “Not While I’m Around” written by Stephen Sondheim. Artist: Vanessa Williams and Donny Osmond