Brenda stared at Jax, incredulous over what he had just asked her. She looked so stunned by his question that he assumed she hadn’t heard him. And so he asked her again.

“I only want to know why you left me that summer, Brenda,” he said. “I’ve already decided I will forgive you anything - anything, I mean that. But I have to tell you…you… devastated me by what you did. And so… I just really need to understand why you would ever have done that to me. I need to understand why this happened.”

Brenda took a deep breath. “You have decided to forgive me?” she demanded in disbelief.

Jax’s thumb brushed gently across her chin. “Yes,” he said, thinking that advance knowledge would please her and calm her. He was wrong on both counts.

“For what?!” Brenda erupted like a little volcano. “For doing what you asked me to do, Jax? You’re going to forgive me for that?!”

Jax was once again taken aback by the depth of her fury. What was going on here?

“Brenda, I feel compelled to remind you that you are the one who left me,” he pointed out, feeling rather bloody upset about all of this himself.

“Well, of course I did! Did you really think I would stay after I got your phone calls? After what you said to me and asked of me? Jax, did you really think I would stay after that?” she asked defensively, as tears stung her eyes. She was outraged that he was trying to somehow lay the blame at her feet.

Suddenly Jax realized that something was very wrong here. More wrong than he ever could have imagined. The phone calls he and Brenda had shared before he had disappeared into the South American jungle for three months had made their love deeper, not done anything to shatter it into oblivion. Certainly not anything to make her pack up, pregnant and all, and leave him without a word… without a trace.

“What phone calls?” he asked quietly, gazing at her carefully.

Brenda stared at him in disbelief. “No. I refuse to have this conversation with you, Jax. I refuse to subject myself to this,” she said, trying to get up and get away from him. Jax, however, was not about to let go of her, and he slid his hands to her waist to keep her seated on the chair. “Jax, let go of me,” she said, doing all she could to contain her growing anger.

“What phone calls, Brenda?” he repeated calmly, but with that Jax determination once again.

“You know what phone calls! Why are you doing this?” she demanded. “Just leave me alone, Jax. I have no intention of reliving this with you. I don’t know what kind of emotional game you’re playing with me, but I’m not interested.” She tried to pry his hands away from her body, but he had become the immovable object and she could tell by the look in his deep blue eyes that he was not about to back down. She knew that look well. His hands were on her waist; his chest was blocking her knees, trapping her in front of him.

“Jax, let me go.”

“I only want to talk to you.” He didn’t let her go.

“If you don’t let me go, I’m going to scream,” she informed him.

Jax infuriated her by shrugging. “All right, if you must,” he invited her, knowing her well enough to know that his Brenda, although quite capable of making a scene, was not the type to make an unnecessary scene if she didn’t have to. That was far more that drama-queen sister of hers - Carly’s - style.

Brenda had not expected that nonchalant response from him, he could tell. Her beautiful eyes sparked with fury as she was trying to formulate a furious retort when she felt Jax apply gentle, and disturbingly pleasing, pressure at her waist to get her attention. It worked, as she looked up at him with a start.

“What phone calls are you referring to, Brenda?” he asked once again.

She realized the easiest way to be rid of him and of this distressing subject was to answer his ridiculous and insulting question.

“How is it,” she began, beautiful brown eyes flashing with fury, “that I never knew this about you? That in the year-and-a-half that I knew you and trusted you and fell madly in love with you with everything I had in me, I never even saw a glimmer that you could be so sadistic?”

Jax took immediate offense to that unfair and grossly inaccurate characterization. Hell, it was slanderous!

“Sadistic?” he echoed in disbelief. “Excuse me?”

“It means cruel. Heartless. Unkind. Inflicting pain…”

Jax suppressed a groan at her impromptu vocabulary lesson. “Yes, I know what it means, Brenda. I just don’t know what the hell it has to do with me.”

“What else would you call what you did to me?” she accused, getting good and riled up now.

“I would probably call it nothing, since I didn’t do anything to you, Brenda. I don’t even know what you mean by this - you may as well be speaking bloody Latin to me. I don’t under-”

“And what else would you call what you’re doing to me now?” she went on, cutting him off. “Serving me with court papers and forcing me to leave Europe and come back here at the drop of a hat? And demanding that I give you answers to something I would very much like to obliterate from my memory for all eternity. Something, I might add, that you already know the answer to. Yet you sadistically want me to relive it by talking about it with you now. And for what damned purpose, I’d like to know?”

Sadistic? Jax couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Brenda, what phone conversations have we ever had that would give you this opinion of me?” he asked, now sounding as ticked off as she did.

Her eyes glazed over with a cool, protective detachment that bothered him far more than her previous passionate anger.

“All right, Jax, I’ll play,” she began. “July 27th. You called me from South America…”

“What?” he interrupted her. “Time out - I never called you from South America.”

She gave him a look that said ‘liar’ and then continued on as if he had not spoken: “You told me you had found her. Miranda. You called me to deliver this news to me and to do so in a manner of such indifference for my feelings that my heart split in two. But I, fool that I was then, tried to excuse it as you just being so excited because you had loved her and you thought she had died and that you were to blame, and now you had found her alive. And so you were relieved and happy, and surely that was why you seemed so oblivious to the way you were hurting me. To the things you were saying to me.”

Jax stopped her. What the bloody hell was she talking about?! “You really think I would have told you something like that over the phone in some jungle? And you really think I would have forgotten such a thing if I did? Brenda, this never happened. I was in the jungle, okay? The jungle, sweetheart. There were no phones there. NONE. I told you that.”

She bristled at the endearment, thinking he was being sarcastic. “What you told me,” she said, the protective detachment giving way to the return of her passionate anger, “was that upon seeing your dear risen-from-the-dead Miranda, you discovered that all your old feelings for her came flooding back to you - feelings that, according to you, you had never felt with anyone else. The inference that I was included in that ‘anyone else’ was very clear, Jax. You did at least have the decency to apologize for blurting that out to me, only to then tell me in the next breath how fragile Miranda was and how you thought it would not be a good idea to tell her about us. And how you didn’t want to be apart from her right now - that she needed you and you needed to be with her right now. In fact, you thought it would not be a good idea for me to be at the penthouse at all when you brought her back - no, not back - you said home. Yes, you did call it her home. Never mind that I was the only one who had ever lived there with you. Never mind that it was our home. We may not have been married yet, but it was still our home, Jax. We had lived there - together for the past two months. But you called it her home. And you told me that when you brought her ‘home’ I should not be there.” Her eyes were brimming with tears and were blazing hatefully at him.

Jax was torn between stunned disbelief and raging anger.

“You can’t honestly believe that I would ever have willingly asked you to leave me! And over the damned phone from another country, no less? Is that what you’re trying to tell me you believe?” he asked her, more angry with her for believing anything so utterly preposterous as that right now than he was with whomever had obviously impersonated him on the phone and gotten her to believe it.

“You did not ask me!” she shouted back at him. “No, Jax, I believe you told me to leave! ‘I’m so sorry, but I think you know what I’m saying, Brenda,’ you said. ‘I just want to be honest with you,’ you said,” she added, trying to mimic his voice. “You couldn’t have made me feel any less wanted if you tried!” Her voice shook with anger and the tears spilled. She was so upset to be displaying how much he had hurt her and how much he could still hurt her.

She was fueled by enough anger and pride that she finally shoved his hands away from her waist, as if his touch were poison. “And then you told me to please stop crying - that you were very sorry you had to hurt me but it wasn’t going to change anything,” she said with a sarcastic laugh as she realized that, once again, here she was crying and feeling miserable. It may as well have been that very same day four years ago. She felt just as empty and desolate. “You said that it was better that we found out now before we had gone through with our wedding,” she said. “Well, you were at least right about that! I am so thankful I found out who you really are before I ever made a mistake as horrible as marrying you!” She stood up, putting more distance between them and swiping angrily at her tears, mumbling something about how they were wasted on him.

Jax thought his head might literally explode. Where had this utter madness - these cruel, decimating lies - where had they come from? It was obvious that she believed them - that she actually believed he was capable of doing these things to her, saying these things to her. Ripping her heart out with no regrets. That infuriated him, to be quite honest. That she, knowing him as well as she did, would believe any of this. But then again, whoever had wanted her to believe it must have gone to extraordinary lengths to make absolutely certain she had. Who had done this to her? Who had done this to him?

Brenda went to the door of the conference room, her tears stopped, yet her eyes still shimmering with more tears which she refused to allow to fall. “And believe me, Jax,” she said in a soft emotional voice, as she made a conscious effort to still her volatile emotions, “if I didn’t get the hint from your first phone call, the one I got two days later made everything crystal clear. But at least, I, Jax, no matter how much you had hurt me, at least I never said that what I felt for you was a lie!” The tears spilled down her lovely face again. Jax couldn’t even speak; he just wanted to kill somebody. “At least I didn’t say that it wasn’t love, that it wasn’t real, that you were just some sub…substitute! And then try to sugarcoat that by telling me I deserved better! I couldn’t believe that you could ever do that to me,” she whispered on a sob devoid of rage now and filled with nothing but sorrow. “ - make me love you so much and then just throw me away like I never mattered to you at all. ”

Jax could not stand this any longer. Her pain was his own, and tears stung at his own eyes at the mere thought of her believing he had ever held her love so cheaply, when the truth was he had cherished it - and her - and still did. And always would. “Damn it, I never said that! I never said any of that!” he said, wanting only to do anything to make her stop crying, to rid her eyes of that betrayal and hatred and that wounded pain that was ripping his own heart to shreds right now. He wanted to do or say anything to make her know that none of this was true. That the whole thing was some damned monstrous lie! And a part of him was so angry with her for not instinctively knowing that none of this could ever, ever, ever be true.

Brenda shook her head, hiccuping, and swiping angrily at her tears and once again fighting for control over her emotions. “And for whose benefit is this performance, Jax?” she asked, glancing around the empty conference room. “Why are you doing this? I - I don’t understand you. Is it for my benefit? Do you think I may change my mind about this custody arrangement, so you think by trying to play with my mind and get me to believe your lies that it will be conducive to your getting what you want? In this case, Justin. Am I right? Is that it, Jax? Is this your manipulation of Brenda for the day? Is your family of vipers waiting out in the hallway to help make sure that you get exactly what you want, no matter what means you have to use to get it?”

The bleak pain in her eyes made Jax want to die and to completely destroy whomever had done this to her… to them. “Brenda,” he said, instinctively reaching for her, just as she instinctively pulled away, as if she would rather fling herself off the roof of the building than have him touch her. “You have to listen to me now,” he said slowly. “Think about this, Brenda. You know me. Damn it, you know me better than anyone has ever known me. You know how much I loved you. Brenda, you were everything to me - everything - and I would have given my very last breath for you. You know that,” he said calmly, trying to get through to her. “Now, knowing that, do you really think it makes any sense whatsoever that I would ever have said those things to you? That I would ever have done or said anything that would ever cause me to lose you?”

She shook her head to fight off the sweet lure of the sincerity in his eyes, the sweetness in his voice, the heady rush of his impassioned words, the magic of love she felt, warm and compelling in the air. He was lying again, of course. Although why he was even bothering was beyond her. But he was obviously lying. He had wanted Miranda back then and his being engaged to marry her now was all the poof Brenda needed - as if Jax’s voice on the phone breaking her heart all those years ago wasn’t enough proof as it was.

“You said them,” she said, wiping away the last of her tears as she vowed never to shed a single one for him again. “I was the person on the receiving end of those phone calls, remember? I heard every single word you said to me, Jax. You can’t con your way out of this one. And I’m not sure why you’d even want to. You got what you wanted. Which reminds me, I never did congratulate you on your upcoming wedding, did I? I - I really don’t want to be bitter about this. The past is the past,” she said coolly, the tears drying in her eyes. “So I want to tell you that I hope you are very… happy… together - you and Miranda. You probably think I don’t mean that, but I…I do…I…”

“Stop it, Brenda.” His voice was soft and soothing, as he strove to calm her so she would listen to him. “Stop.” Jax stood in front of her now, close enough to touch her, but he knew she would not be receptive to that, so he kept his hands at his sides. “How can you believe this?” he whispered, and she was confused to see the hurt in his eyes, hear it in his voice. “All right, I don’t dispute that you must have somehow heard these words you say I said to you, perhaps even in a voice that sounded exactly like mine. But, Brenda, you cannot believe the person saying those things to you was actually me. God, please tell me you don’t really believe that.”

She knew she was a second away from believing his sweet lies. A second away from falling into his arms and believing any lie he would tell her just as long as he would hold her like he used to and tell her he still loved her. The realization of how affected she still was by him, even after these four-and-a-half years of being away from him and the realization and fear that she might still be as madly in love with him as she ever was, even after he had cast her away like a boy’s plaything, bolstered her resolve.

“It was you, Jax!” she insisted, getting upset again. “Why would I think it wasn’t? Why should I? And why would you even want me to? I don’t understand you, and I don’t particularly want to understand you. So I’m asking you to please just stop this. Stop these ridiculous lies and mind games because I’m not playing anymore. We have to get along - to try to get along - for the sake of our son. But if you keep playing these cruel games with me, getting along with you is going to be impossible for me.”

Jax didn’t know how to get through to her. It was a frustrating thing. He took a chance and touched her, cradling her face. She did not move or push him away. It gave him hope.

“I have always loved you,” he said in a low, intense voice, refusing to allow her to look away from him. “Always. It was real. It was the most real thing my life has ever known. And I… Brenda, I still love you. Right now, right this second. I still love you,” he blurted out. He realized immediately that it was the wrong thing to say to her right now with the things she believed, but it was the way he felt, damn it. And then he made things worse by adding, “And you - you still love me, too. I know you do. And so you have to give me the opportunity to prove to you that what you believed I wanted four years ago was a lie. An absolute lie that someone made you believe.”

Brenda pulled his hands from her face and backed away from him, as if her very survival depended on it.

“I - I do - do not love you anymore,” she stammered, although her voice was barely audible and not at all steady when she said it. And her eyes were lowered so she did not see the stricken look that flickered briefly across Jax’s eyes and then disappeared. “And please don’t insult my intelligence by saying you love me, or that you ever did love me. You don’t,” she continued, looking at him now. “You never did. I accept that now, Jax. I’ve accepted it for a long time now. Really, it doesn’t make the least bit of difference to me any longer,” she lied. “And I don’t have to give you the opportunity to make a fool out of me again.”

Alexis Davis and Michael Baldwin stood in the doorway, unsure of what to do as they walked in on the tension and emotions flying around the conference room. Alexis cleared her throat. “Ah…what’s going on here, you guys? Do we need to renegotiate this agreement?” Then she turned to Jax. “By the way, Miranda called my office looking for you. Doesn’t she have the number to your cell phone?”

Brenda didn’t say a word. She merely took the visitation agreement from her attorney’s hands, scribbled her signature on it and quickly left the office, her confused lawyer following her.

“I’ll mail you your copy!” Alexis called after them. Then she turned back to Jax, who was staring at the elevator doors as they closed with Brenda and her lawyer inside. “What on earth happened?” Alexis asked Jax, handing him the agreement for his signature.

Jax just continued to stare at the closed elevator, as Brenda’s words echoed in his head: I do not love you anymore.

“You know, Jax, as your attorney, I have to tell you that you can’t exactly afford to antagonize or alienate the mother of your child. Seeing your son depends on your keeping a decent relationship with her. She’s the custodial parent and could make things very difficult for you.”

Yes, Jax realized. She could have. But even after all that. Even after everything she wrongly believed he had done to her, she had not denied him his son. She had signed the agreement.

“She was lying. She does still love me,” he murmured to himself. “Why else would she do this?”

“Of course, she loves you, Jax; that’s why she’s so angry,” Alexis explained, as if it were all quite logical.

Jax just shook his head in confusion and quickly put his signature to the document and then murmured an absent “Thank you” to Alexis. Then he left her office, as Alexis stared after him, baffled.

“Jax? Are you all right? Hey, what exactly happened between you two in here?”

But he’d gotten into the elevator and was gone.

“All right, all right. Hold your bloody horses!” Jerry said in response to the insistent pounding on his door. He opened it to find Jax there. “Hey, little brother. What, did you run all the way here?” he asked, noting that Jax was out of breath.

“Is Bobbie here?” Jax asked, looking around.

“No, she’s at GH. What the hell’s wrong? Did Brenda refuse your visitation requests? Are you going to have to sue for custody after all?” Jerry asked, concerned about what all of this might be doing to Jax’s state of mind.

“No. I need to talk to you,” Jax said, and Jerry took immediate note of the seriousness in Jax’s tone and in his eyes.

“Has… something happened?” Jerry asked quietly, feeling the need to sit down for some reason. It was the seriousness in Jax’s eyes, he realized. Something was wrong. “Is Brenda all right?”

“No, she’s not all right. I spoke to Brenda today,” Jax said. “I know why she left me that summer, Jerry.”

Jerry did sit down. “What did she tell you?”

Jax sat down opposite his brother. “It’s unbelievable!” Jax erupted. “While you and I were away in South America, some bastard actually called her, pretending to be me. And they must have done a bloody good job, too, because Brenda actually believed it was me. She still does. And this person - they filled her head full of horrible lies, Jerry, and fueled her insecurities and they… Jerry, they orchestrated this whole thing so that Brenda would actually think I didn’t love her, that I wanted Miranda over her, and so subsequently Brenda would leave me. Someone waited until you and I were gone and then set this whole thing up to deliberately ruin my life that summer, by taking away from me the thing I loved the most. And they succeeded.”

It was difficult for Jerry to hear due to the sound of the blood pounding in his ears. He was stunned by what Jax was telling him. Stunned and furious that anyone would do that to his brother. “Who the bloody hell would ever do that, Jax?” he demanded. “Does she have any idea? Did she tell you… who?”

“No, she didn’t tell me who. Jerry, are you not listening to me? She actually thinks it was me! But I know it was somebody else, and I swear to god I’m going to find out who it was and they’re going to be sorry they were ever born. I need your help on this, Jer, that’s why I’m here.”

Jerry nodded. “Well, you know I’ll do anything to help you, Jax. Damn, I’ll help you kill the person once we get our hands on them. You have some ideas then? Of who might be responsible for this treachery?” he asked.

“Off the top of my head, I think it might have been anyone of my adversaries in the corporate raiding world. Anyone who knew me, knew that Brenda was everything to me and that to lose her would wreck me. I mean it did wreck me. I was completely out of the game for a year after she left. So if somebody wanted me neutralized and easily manipulated and basically ineffective for that period of time, it worked. So it could have been done for that purpose, to screw me up so badly - emotionally - that I wouldn’t be remotely effective at what I do. And yet… I don’t know… something about this seems very personal, Jerry,” Jax murmured. “Because they hurt her. They really hurt her and made her think I was the one hurting her, which is tantamount to driving a sword through my own heart. I swear I could kill this person with my bare hands for doing that to her. For doing it to me, too, but mostly for doing it to Brenda. Nobody hurts her.”

A wave of angry bile washed inside Jerry. “I am so bloody furious right now,” he said, unable to comprehend anyone being quite so diabolical as to go to such lengths to neutralize Jax just for some bloody business deal one-upmanship. “And you sound awfully calm for someone who’s suddenly homicidal,” Jerry added, trying to make a joke to lighten the heavy mood in the room, but finding he could not laugh about this. The fury Jax felt at anyone hurting Brenda was the same fury Jerry felt at anyone hurting Jax.

Jax shrugged. “I’m relatively calm only because I have no doubt I’m going to find whomever did this. I won’t be calm then, I can guarantee you that.”

Jerry glanced over at Jax. “And when you find the guilty party…then what?”

“What do you think? This person took away my love, my happiness, my future, nearly caused me to lose my mind. They caused unnecessary pain to the person I love more than anybody. They took her away from me, Jerry. And inadvertently they also took my son away from me, too. This person or people robbed me of nearly four years of his life and four years that I would have been married to his mother. They wrecked my bloody life and stole from me the person I loved the most in the world. So, once I find out who did this, what do you think I’m going to do about it?”

“Total destruction,” Jerry guessed.

“Try complete annihilation,” Jax said.

“Just tell me what I can do to help you. I’ll do anything. You know that.”

“I need you to help me make up a list of all the deals we were doing that year. The really big ones that might have gotten someone desperate enough to try to distract me in a way as insane as this.” Just then Jax’s cell phone rang. “Damn,” he said annoyed by the interruption. “Just a second,” he said to Jerry and then spoke into his phone, “Jax, here.”

“Jax, it’s Alexis. You ran out of here so fast that I didn’t get the chance to point out to you that the visitation agreement goes into affect immediately. That means you get your little boy tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Jax said, in a voice that sounded like a little boy himself. “Tomorrow, as in the day after today?”

Alexis chuckled. “Yes, that tomorrow, Jax. 10 a.m. As per the agreement, you’re to pick him up from the Quartermaines until Brenda gets her own house, since we know you and Sonny Corinthos don’t get along and it wouldn’t be a good idea for you to pick Justin up from Carly and Sonny’s place. So, client, if I were you, I’d go out and buy some toys, some kids’ movies, some food that kids like because I don’t think he’ll really be into your exotic taste in foods at his young age. And prepare yourself because you’re going to have your son all day tomorrow. You bring him back to the Quartermaines at 7:30 p.m.”

“I’m really getting him tomorrow?” Jax repeated, his excitement mixed with terror that he would do things all wrong and Justin would have a miserable day and never want to be with him again. God, that terrified him.

“You’ll be fine,” Alexis said, sensing his anxiety over the phone. “Just relax and have fun with him. Not that I know anything about kids,” she added. “But I’d love to meet him, incidentally. So swing by my office with him one of these days and let me meet your little offspring. Oh, and don’t forget, his birthday is in two weeks. The agreement does allow for you to be with him for all holidays and birthdays, so you’ll have to coordinate that with Brenda. I think her attorney mentioned to me that there will be a birthday party at Disney World.”

“Disney World?” Jax repeated with a grin. That was just like Brenda.

“Yeah, so say hi to Mickey and Donald for me. And, for god’s sake, don’t get into it with Sonny when you’re there. I’ll see you later.”

She hung up and Jax did, too.

Jerry gazed in confusion at the change in Jax’s mood. The serious, steely-eyed determination was replaced with an endearing uncertainty.

“Everything okay?” Jerry asked.

“I get my son tomorrow,” Jax said, getting up from the couch and heading for the door. “Tomorrow, Jerry. At ten in the morning. It’s going to be tomorrow in twelve hours.”

A smile danced across Jerry’s lips. “You’re a bit of a nervous nelly there, aren’t you, daddy?”

Jax gave Jerry a scowl. “You’re just jealous because I beat you to fatherhood. Just like I’ve beaten you to everything else,” Jax bragged, shooting a competitive grin at his brother.

“Well, I was a stepfather before you,” Jerry pointed out, reminding Jax of Bobbie’s ten-year-old son, Lucas, who lived with Bobbie’s ex-husband, Dr. Tony Jones. “And I was born before you and you can’t change that,” Jerry said.

“Oh, yeah, so you’ll beat me to old age. You can have that victory,” Jax said, laughing as he opened the door. “Look, Jerry, if you could start putting that list together of the deals that were going down that summer, I’d really appreciate it. You’re really going to have to help me out with this because I’m going to have my hands full with getting to know my son and…”

“Winning back his mother,” Jerry supplied.

“If I can,” Jax said.

“And what if you can’t?”

“Well, I’ll tell you, Jerry, that’s not really an option for me.”

Jerry sighed. “Jax, I love you, kid. And I won’t have you setting yourself up for a fall.”

“I choose to look at it as setting myself up not to fail.”

“Jax,” Jerry said, “how do you know Brenda’s not just lying to you about that summer? You know, to put the guilt on you or to cover up why she really left you?”

“She has never lied to me,” Jax responded. Well, she had today though, when she told him she didn’t love him. That was a lie. Her first ever to him. But he understood that lie. That was a lie for self-preservation and Jax understood that, especially given what he now knew she had believed for four years.

“She didn’t tell you about your son,” Jerry reminded him gently. “What’s his name, anyway?”

“Justin,” Jax said.

Jerry smiled. “Justin Jacks. I like it. I like it a lot.”

“It’s Justin Barrett, actually,” Jax said. “At least right now.”

“Justin is a case in point of her being less than truthful with you, Jax. She never told you about him,” Jerry said.

“I know, but under the circumstances, believing what she believed, I could never fault her for that, Jerry. And it wasn’t an outright lie, just a lie of omission, really. Under normal circumstances she would not ever deliberately lie to me.”

“I hope your unwavering faith in her isn’t misplaced.”

“It isn’t.”

Jax’s confidence in that was good enough for Jerry. “Okay,” Jerry said with a nod. “But one last piece of advice that I do think you may want to consider, Jax: Don’t pressure Brenda about the past. Don’t try to force her to talk about it or to give you details if she’s unwilling. It’s only going to make her angry and think you’re a heartless SOB to keep bringing it up, when all she wants to do is forget it all. Obviously she’s not remotely ready to believe your side of things, so why bring it all up until you have the proof that will sway her?”

Jax thought about that for a moment. It made sense to him. “Yeah, she did already tell me I was sadistic for making her talk about it,” Jax muttered.

“I don’t like to think of what it will do to you if you lose her again, Jax. So I’m trying to help you avoid all the possible pitfalls, and pushing her in her current frame of mind might be one of them. Let’s gather our proof first and then force the issue.”

Jax nodded slowly. “That advice I will take, Jerry - more or less,” he said with a flash of a smile. “I’ll talk to you later,” he said as he left.

Alone, Jerry stewed over what had been done to Jax, and he prayed that Brenda had not just made it all up or he’d have to bloody strangle the girl for this latest number she’d pulled on his kid brother. Truthfully though, he could not imagine her making up something as insane and diabolical as this, and her fury at Jax - at the whole Jacks family, in fact - had been very real that night in Paris. Yes, she must believe the things she had told Jax. Now all that was left was for Jax and Jerry to find out who had caused her to believe such devastating lies… and why.

Jerry grabbed his car keys and left his house.

“Oh, what the devil are you doing here, you thieving pirate!” Edward growled.

“Good morning to you, too, Edward,” Jax said. “I believe I’m expected.”

“Don’t you own a watch, you Australian cutthroat? It’s only 9:30. You’re not expected for another thirty minutes,” Edward muttered.

“I wanted to speak with you,” Jax explained, stepping inside the mansion. “Alone.”

“Tea?” Reginald offered.

“Why, you turncoat! Don’t you dare offer him even a drop of water! How many times do I have to explain to you that this man is the enemy?!” Edward said, shoving Reginald out of the den and then shutting the doors. Then he turned to Jax. “As for you, save your breath, young man. I have nothing to say to you,” Edward grumbled.

“Oh, no? Well, all right. I just wanted to be courteous and inform you that I’m going to sell off the shipping division of ELQ tomorrow.”

“You’re what?!” Edward bellowed, clutching his heart.

“Yes, that’s my intention. Manga Fleet has made me a very lucrative offer. However, I came here to tell you that I believe I can be persuaded to reconsider. Would you like me to tell you how?”

“No!” Edward roared irritably.

Jax shrugged. “Okay.” He turned to exit the den, when Edward hissed his teeth and took hold of Jax’s arm to stop him.

“All right, all right tell me, damn it. Tell me what would change your mind.”

“I could be persuaded to reconsider selling off the shipping division if Brenda and Justin were to be living in this house,” Jax said.

Edward smirked. “It just really gets your goat that your son is living under the roof of that crime lord, Sonny Corinthos, doesn’t it? And that due to his marriage to Carly, Corinthos knew about the existence of your son years before you did. Gets your goat, eh, Jax?”

Jax smirked, too. “Does it get your goat that Magna Fleet is going to own ELQ’s entire shipping division in twenty-four hours?”

“I’ll do it,” Edward muttered, shooting Jax a scowl.

“Today, correct?”

“Yes, yes, you miserable pirate! Today!”

“And my name never comes up as to whose idea this was,” Jax added.

“Fine!” Edward conceded in a huff.

“Always a pleasure doing business with you, Edward,” Jax said, winking at him as he let himself out of the den to wait for Brenda and Justin in the living room.

Justin slid the metal seat-belt buckle into the lock, as Brenda backed the white BMW out of the parking space of the CVS. Justin played with the radio until he found a song he liked and then he gazed at his mother, who was stuck driving behind a very slow moving Honda.

“Floor it, Mommy,” he said, causing Brenda to stare at him in surprise and laugh.

“Floor it?” she said, raising a dark brow.

“I heard Aunt Carly say that to you yesterday.”

“Oh, yeah, your Aunt Carly. The poster girl for lunatic drivers. Do you even know what ‘floor it’ means?”

“It means go fast,” Justin said with a shrug. “I like how fast Aunt Carly goes,” he admitted with a grin. “Uncle Sonny says she gives him gray hairs.”

Brenda laughed.

“Does that mean she bugs him, Mom?”

Brenda stammered. “Ahhh… well…”

“’Cause if that’s what it means, then Becky gives me gray hairs, too. Do we have to stay there? o we have to live there?”

“No, sweetheart, we’re going to get our own place to live,” Brenda assured him.

“When?”

“Soon. I have to start looking.”

Justin became impatient with how slowly they were going once again. “Come on, Mommy, floor it. That car’s soooo slow. We’re gonna be late. What if he doesn’t wait?” he lamented.

“Your dad will wait, Justin. He’d wait all day if he had to. He’s as excited about this as you are. Trust me.”

“He told you that?” Justin asked.

“He didn’t have to. Mommies just know these things.” Brenda sped up and passed the slow moving vehicle. “Happy now?” she said, poking Justin in the ribs.

“Go faster!” Justin said, his blue eyes sparkling.

“You know, you like speed, you like heights, you don’t toss your cookies on roller coasters like other kids do. I don’t know where you get that fearless gene from.” But of course she did know. He was just like his father.

“Is he coming to my birthday party?” Justin asked, changing the radio station again.

“Who, sweetie?”

“My daddy,” he responded.

Brenda nodded. “Yes, he is. That’s why I stopped at the CVS, to get him this invitation,” Brenda said, slipping the white envelope into her son’s small hands. “You give it to him, all right? But not until you get to his house.”

“So don’t give it to him at Aunt Lila’s house?”

“Right.”

“ ‘Kay,” he said, fingering the invitation. “How come you were writing in this card?”

“Oh, well, you know… I had to give him the date and the time and the address - all those things that were in the invitations we sent out already,” Brenda answered, making the turn onto the Quartermaine’s street.

“You wrote a lot,” Justin mentioned.

“You, Justin Christopher, are entirely too observant for your own good.”

Justin grinned at her. “You wrote him a note in here?”

“All right, yes. But just a little one. No big deal.”

“About me?”

Well, that was true enough. “Yes, about you.”

Justin played around with the radio dial and asked quietly, “Will I like him, Mommy?”

“I think you…”

“’Cause you don’t,” he pointed out, looking at her.

“No… no, that’s not true, sweetheart. I… your father and I…” she sighed. “I was just very upset with him about something. That doesn’t mean I don’t like him, and it doesn’t mean that you can’t like him. Do you understand that?”

Justin nodded. “I don’t want you to be mad at me if I like him though.”

Brenda smiled. “I won’t.”

“’Cause I think I will like him,” he warned her.

She smiled at him. “I hope you do,” Brenda said sincerely. “I want you to.”

“What did he do to make you so mad at him, Mommy? Maybe I can tell him not to do it anymore?” Justin offered.

Brenda gazed into his gorgeous aquamarine eyes and leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “Your daddy and I will work things out, baby. Don’t you worry about it, okay?” For Justin’s sake, Brenda was determined to put aside her hostile feelings and her deep feelings of pain and rejection. She didn’t want any of that to spill over to her son. Brenda patted her hand on Justin’s X-Men backpack. “Hey, got everything?”

Justin nodded.

Brenda noticed a book poking out of the backpack, too big for the backpack to close properly. “What’s that?” she asked. “Is that your dinosaur book, Justin? Why are you taking that?”

Justin pulled it out. “Uncle Sonny told me I should take it and make my daddy read it to me,” Justin explained.

“Let me see that,” Brenda said, as she pulled up into the Quartermaine driveway and parked the car. She took the book from her son and opened it to see the big inscription that read: ‘FOR MY MAIN MAN JUSTIN, FROM YOUR UNCLE SONNY’. “Oh, no, no, no, no. Not a good idea,” Brenda murmured, as she tossed the book in the back seat of the car.

Justin gave his mother a cute little laugh and a very Jax-like grin. “My daddy doesn’t like Uncle Sonny?”

Oh, this kid was way too savvy, Brenda thought with a smile. “They umm…they just don’t get along that well sometimes, Justin, that’s all,” Brenda said diplomatically. “Ready for this, sweetheart?”

“Ready!” Justin said, undoing his seat belt and grabbing his backpack, as Brenda let them out of the car. They went up to the front door of the Quartermaine mansion, Justin running all the way.

It made Brenda’s heart feel very good to see how excited Justin was about spending the day with Jax. It made her know for sure that she had done the right thing by allowing this. Justin had every right to know his father. And Jax had as much right to love and cherish their son as she did.

Justin stood up on his tiptoes to try to reach the doorbell. Reginald let them in, sharing a high-five with Justin, who was a favorite of his.

“Lookin’ sharp, kiddo,” Reginald said, admiring Justin’s Nike sneakers, which lit up in the back whenever he took a step. “Get a haircut?”

Justin nodded. “Uncle Sonny did it. He took me in the loo, and I had to stand on the cover of the toilet the whole time so I could see the mirror.”

Brenda clamped her hand over her son’s lips, knowing he was laughing. “Do me a favor and don’t mention that to your father, all right, you little trouble maker?” Then she turned to a grinning Reginald. “Hi there, Reggie.”

“Hi, Brenda,” Reginald said. “Jax is in the living room.”

“Okay, thank you,” Brenda said, taking a deep breath and then taking Justin’s hand. “Let’s go, Justin.”

Justin halted, staring at the living room entry uncertainly, clutching the birthday invitation in his little hands. “Mommy, is he going to like me?” he asked.

Brenda knelt down in front of him and kissed his cheek. “Oh, baby, he is going to love you. Don’t worry about this; don’t be scared. Your daddy is going to be crazy about you. He already is. You can believe your mommy on this one, okay? I know your daddy loves you. And he wants you to be with him. He wants to spend a lot of time with you and get to know everything about you. Okay?”

He nodded. “Okay.”

“Ready now?”

“Mmm hmmm,” he said, nodding again.

They walked into the living room, where Jax was chatting with AJ. Jax and AJ had become quite the good pals ever since Jax’s takeover of ELQ two years ago. Brenda had learned that bit of information from Carly.

Jax’s attention was immediately drawn to the new arrivals in the room. He gazed at Brenda, uncertain how she would respond to him after their encounter yesterday.

Jax took a chance and gave her a smile. “Hi,” he said, his eyes drinking her in. He was still getting used to the fact that he had found her. That, after years of looking for her and going crazy not knowing where she was or why she had left, she was now back in his life, back in Port Charles. He knew that every time he saw her he stared at her, as if trying to commit every single thing about her to memory. Which was a ridiculous notion because it wasn’t as if he could ever forget anything about her anyway. He could sculpt her blindfolded.

“Hello, Jax,” Brenda said, and he was relieved not to hear any hostility in her voice. She waved at AJ, and then she brought Justin towards Jax. “I’d like to properly introduce you to your son; this is Justin. Justin, this is your father.”

Justin gazed up into aquamarine eyes identical to his own and stuck out his hand. “Hi,” he said bravely, trying to squelch the remnants of his little hidden fear that his daddy would not like him.

Jax grinned down at him, at his proper little handshake greeting. Jax squatted down in front of him and took his offered little hand. “You know, I haven’t seen you since you were born. The first time I ever saw you was in Paris in that ballroom. And ever since then, and all day today, I was thinking that one of the two things I want most in the world is to get a hug from my little boy. If that’s okay with you.”

Justin’s smile was hesitant and uncertain at first, but then it let loose and made Jax’s heart contract powerfully. There was such relief in that smile and in those eyes, as if Justin had been harboring thoughts of being rejected by his father - just like his mother mistakenly believed she had been rejected by his father. An intense wave of love and protectiveness went through Jax as Justin moved forward and hugged Jax, who held him close, cherishing the moment, feeling deep emotions coursing through his blood. It was indescribable - to finally hold his child like this.

“What’s the other thing you want most in the world then?” Justin whispered in his ear curiously.

Jax’s eyes rose to rest on Brenda, who had been watching them, moved by the scene before her and how wonderfully Jax had put to rest all of Justin’s fears of not being wanted by his father. Now Brenda met Jax’s gaze, and she was immediately disconcerted by the way he was looking at her.

“If I tell you, can you keep it a secret?” Jax whispered back to his son, all the while his eyes never leaving Brenda, who began to gaze around the room, thrown and feeling strangely nervous by the gaze Jax was bestowing upon her.

“I can keep a secret!” Justin promised, thinking it was too cool that his daddy already was willing to trust him with a secret!

“The other thing I want most in the world,” Jax said, “…is your mother.”

“Oh, the girl is obviously making it all up,” John said, as he sliced into his omelet, while Jane poured some coffee and Jerry sat across from them at the breakfast table, his head buried in his hands as if he had a massive migraine. He had relayed the latest events to his parents and they were not reacting the way he had expected at all.

“I agree, what utter nonsense her little tale is,” Jane said. “I’m shocked that Jax bought into that farce. And you as well, Jerry. You should be trying to make your brother see the light that the girl is lying, not agreeing to help him find the so-called culprits, who impersonated his voice. What poppycock!”

“Oh, for god’s sake, she isn’t lying! Jax doesn’t believe she is, and frankly, neither do I. Her anger towards Jax - her fury with him - that was no act. It was real, and it has to be based on something. And now we know what it is.”

“We know no such thing,” John said. “We only know that the girl is clearly an accomplished and imaginative liar. And Jax - he’s still in shock and is extremely vulnerable to anything she says. What other excuse could there be for his believing such utter garbage? But you, Jerry… what exactly is your excuse?” John asked dryly.

Jerry felt himself grinding his teeth. “I see. So, should Jax and I have called it utter garbage when you and Mum said Miranda had survived that explosion? Because, let me tell you, Dad, that was a lot harder to swallow than anything Brenda told Jax today. You don’t think I don’t know that Jax is vulnerable to Brenda? I know it, damn it. He’s in love with her. Do you hear me? He’s as in love with her as he ever was. And because of that I know he may overlook things he shouldn’t. So I’m the one looking at all the angles here. And I did, in fact, mention to Jax that she might be making this all up to cover up why she really left that summer. Jax dismissed that immediately, and the more I thought about it and Brenda’s actions, the more I agreed with him. She is not lying. Someone out there deliberately and calculatingly knocked the ground right out from under Jax that summer, and I would think that, as his parents, this would make you as bloody furious as it has made me!”

“Jerry, the reason we aren’t full of this avenging fury that you are is because we know Brenda is lying. And why you can’t see that is beyond your father and me!” Jane said. “Now, if you’re going to persist in pushing Jax into buying into that girl’s lies, then your father and I are going to have to be the ones who’re going to have to fight to show Jax the truth. And that’s going to put you and us on opposing sides, Jerry. Now, that’s silly, isn’t it? When we all love Jax so dearly? We should be on the same side here. So stop this nonsense and come to your senses and have a chat with your brother and convince him that he is being played for a fool,” Jane ordered. “He should not be obsessing over Brenda Barrett and her tall tales. He should be concentrating on his upcoming wedding.”

“I highly doubt there will be any wedding,” Jerry said.

“Of course, there will be a wedding!” John snapped. “Why wouldn’t there be?”

“Because Jax doesn’t love her!” Jerry snapped back.

“He loved her once…”

Jerry looked at his father incredulously. “Am I hearing correctly? You and Mum were the very ones insisting it wasn’t love the first time around. Good God, I feel like I’m in the twilight zone with you two lately! Jax was a nineteen-year-old kid. He’d known Miranda for one bloody week and got himself engaged to her the next bloody week. That explosion prevented a marriage from ever happening, but honestly, would it have ever happened? Would Jax really have gone through with it?”

“Of course, he would have,” Jane said. “And your father and I were wrong back then. We realize now that it was always love. And it’s love now.”

“I don’t know what Jax’s feelings were then, but he does not love her now,” Jerry said, growing impatient with their bizarre obstinacy. “And is that what you want for him? A life without love? Do the two of you ever listen to yourselves anymore?”

“Do you listen to yourself?” John said irritably. “You would push your brother back into the arms of the woman who destroyed him in a way no woman ever has? What kind of a brother are you to do that to him?” John accused.

“Don’t go against us on this, Jerry,” Jane said. “We must remain a family and not be torn apart by Brenda’s reappearance.”

“I’m not against you,” Jerry said. “I’m just for Jax. And I’m starting to feel like I’m the only bloody one who is,” Jerry muttered, as he left his parents’ Port Charles Hotel suite.

The moment he was gone, John stood up and paced the room. “Things are unraveling,” he said, pulling at his collar. “She’s been back barely a week and things are unraveling!”

“We need to get Jerry in line somehow,” Jane said. “Or get him distracted. Too distracted to help Jax pursue the truth.”

“You know why things are unraveling, don’t you? It’s because her being back has changed him. He cares now. Things matter to him besides business. He’s focused again and sharp. He can’t be manipulated any longer. It might behoove us to change plans; dump Miranda and make the pretense of mending fences with Brenda, embracing a reconciliation and…”

“No. We’ve been over all this before. We can’t control Brenda Barrett, and we need to be able to control the mother of Jax’s firstborn. It’s one of the reasons why we had to get rid of her in the first place,” Jane said, gulping down some juice.

“Well, if it had somehow escaped your observation, Brenda is the mother of Jax’s firstborn son, and as you pointed out, we have no control over that girl.”

Jane dismissed that. “She won’t raise the child. Jax and Miranda will. Miranda we can control easily. She owes us plenty, and she’s not nearly as stubborn and hard to knock down as Brenda is. Miranda we can keep in line. Brenda is a loose cannon in our midst. Besides, as long as Jax has this connection to Brenda and this desire to win her back, he is going to pursue the truth to the ends of the earth. And once he finds out…”

“Yes, I know,” John said, “All hell will break loose.”

“Yes, and we will lose our advantage over the others. We’ll lose everything. So we’re agreed then? We find something to keep Jerry in line and neutralize his interference?”

John nodded. “I’ll ferret out some information on him - something we can use to keep him in line - when I’m in Greece.”

“Yes. And then we have to move heaven and earth to get Jax and Miranda married. Brenda, and Jax’s love for her, is what is going to bring down this house of cards crashing on our heads if we’re not careful. The closer they get, the more they let go of their anger and hurt, the more she will tell him.”

“Yes,” John agreed, “Jax and Miranda must marry. And as soon as possible.”

Brenda gave Justin a big hug and then looked on as Jax lifted him into the front passenger seat of the black SUV (which Justin had dubbed as “a wicked-cool looking jeep!”) and strapped him in securing the seatbelt. Justin immediately gazed at the impressive lighted dashboard, which looked almost space-aged and then he began to fiddle around with the radio.

Jax turned to Brenda. “So, where can I reach you if I need you?”

Brenda took out a pen and paper from her bag and then looked around for something outside to lean on. Jax took both of her hands and guided them to his chest. Brenda looked at him and bit her lip, trying to fight off the electricity dancing between them. When she and Jax had been together, she used to always travel with paper and pen in her bag, in case she got a call about a modeling assignment and would have to write the information down in a hurry. And when those calls would come in when they were at the beach or on a hike or by the docks or ice skating by the pond and she would, therefore, have nothing to lean on, Jax would always tease her that he needed to buy her a checkbook size clipboard, and Brenda would end up using him - his back or his chest - as her clipboard instead, as she jotted down location shoots or flight information. The memories of how happy and crazy they were warmed her heart and made her so sad she wanted to just bolt back into the house right now.

Instead she took a deep breath and said “Thank you” and then leaned the paper against Jax’s chest, her hands shaking a bit as they came into contact with his body. She made sure to keep her eyes averted from his as she wrote. Jax was fascinated, watching her fingers gently grip the pen, her other hand holding the paper to his chest. He had always thought she had the most beautiful hands. Her hands were trembling a little, he noticed. And his heart was racing - and not just a little - he noticed that, too.

“That’s my cell phone number. You can reach me there anytime. So can Justin; he knows the number by heart,” Brenda said, as she started to move her hands away and hand Jax the piece of paper. Both of his hands covered hers, holding them against his body. She felt her breathing quicken; she didn’t dare look at him. Their magic began to spin its charms, weave its spell over them. Brenda felt it. Felt it so intensely that is scared her to death. Was it going to haunt her forever, this magic? Remind her of all she had lost? All Jax had thrown away? It was ridiculous to feel such a magical, powerful connection to a man who had never truly loved her, who didn’t want her, who had hurt her so much, and a man who was marrying someone else at that.

She prayed he could not see how his touch was affecting her - it was humiliating to imagine that he might know that she still melted at his touch. “I didn’t know what you had planned for today, so I packed 2 changes of clothes for him,” she said, gazing at his chest and not his eyes. “And it’s a warm day today, so I thought you might take him swimming. He loves the water. Um - just like you. So I have his swim trunks in there and a towel, sunscreen…” she said, nodding in the direction of the Nike duffel bag that Jax had placed in the back of the SUV. “Ah, and no… um…”

She blanked out for a minute, forgetting what she was about to say, as she wasn’t careful enough and met his eyes and was caught spellbound. She was distracted by the song playing on the radio that Justin had turned it to, the feel of Jax’s hands still over hers, her hands still touching his chest, his gaze holding her prisoner at the moment. All at once her thoughts were not here in the moment, but transported to the past, drifting back to the night Jax had asked her to marry him. He had looked at her like this that night. Her thoughts were there as the music drifting from Jax’s SUV, with Justin humming along softly, also filtered into her thoughts.

When the visions around you
Bring tears to your eyes
And all that surround you
Are secrets and lies
I’ll be your strength
I’ll give you hope
Keeping your faith when it’s gone
The one you should call
Was standing here all along

Brenda recalled it with crystal clarity in her mind and her heart. There they were, she and Jax sharing a relaxing, midnight bubble bath in the penthouse after she had come back from a particularly hectic shoot that had taken place in Manhattan earlier that day. She had moved into Jax’s penthouse two months prior to that night, and so separations really got to them since they were so used to being together. Jax, missing her like crazy, had flown his jet out to Manhattan to take her home, so she didn’t have to wait until the next morning to fly back on the commercial flight Deception’s then-owner, Lucy Coe, had booked. She was snugly encased in Jax’s arms, her back resting against his chest, her legs stretched out, ankles crossed, his legs hugging hers, one knee raised casually, her head resting against his chest, her eyes closed as his fingers, which were entwined with hers, skimmed along her thighs disturbing the stillness of the water.

And I will hold you in my arms
And keep you right where you belong
‘Til the day my life is through
This I promise you
This I promise you

It was a peaceful and calm, sensual time. Neither of them said anything, just relaxed in the warm water, feeling that sense of complete belonging, wondering how they possibly had a right to be this happy. Then Brenda had broken the sensual tranquillity by flipping over in the water suddenly, splashing water everywhere and making Jax laugh.

“Sorry, I just wanted to see your beautiful face,” Brenda explained with a smile, as Jax brushed some bubbles from the side of her face and traced his fingers along the delicate contours of her face.

“Oh, yeah?” he said.

“Yeah. And I wanted to kiss those beautiful lips, too,” she added, pressing her soft lips down on his. Just the memory of the way Jax had kissed her then made butterflies dance around inside of Brenda’s stomach now.

After kissing her deeply and leaving her quite breathless, Jax had cradled her face in his hands and gazed into her eyes deeply for a seemingly endless moment. “Marry me, Brenda,” he had said. Just like that. No hesitation, no fancy preludes, just the request of his heart spoken out loud. And they had both known that it was so right. That a playful encounter in this very penthouse on a snowy Valentine’s Day and a pinball machine lighting up with ‘Jackpot,’ when they had first laid eyes on each other, would ultimately lead to this.

I’ve loved you forever
In lifetimes before
And I promise you never
Will you hurt any more
I give you my word
I give you my heart
This is a battle we’ve won
And with this vow
Forever has now begun

Brenda would never forget the excitement that had stolen her breath at that moment as she grabbed his arms and excitedly asked softly, “Jax, are you sure?” They had known each other for seventeen months at that time. Seventeen amazing, wild, wonderful, perfect months, in which they had become the closest of friends and had in the process fallen madly in love with each other. Certainly time enough for them to be sure, she knew, but she had to hear him say it.

“I wanted to ask you a year ago,” he confessed, “but we had only known each other for five months then, and I thought it might be too soon - more to the point I thought you might think it was too soon and that I was rushing you into something you weren’t ready for. So I didn’t broach the subject, because I didn’t want to risk pushing you away or losing you. But I was sure then, Brenda, and I could not possibly be more sure now. What about you?”

“Ha! I’m even more sure than you are!” she had said, kissing him enthusiastically. “And if you had asked me a year ago, I think - I really do think, Jax - that I would have given you the same answer.”

Jax laughed softly against her lips. “That answer being…?”

“YES!” she said.

“Yes?” he said, kissing her.

“Yes!” she repeated.

“Yes, what?” he had teased her. “Indulge me please, sweetheart, I really need to hear you say it,” he explained with a wildly attractive grin.

She had then grown quite serious. “Yes, Jax, I will marry you,” she responded, her fingers stroking his face.

“Thank you,” he had murmured against her lips, closing his eyes. “God, I love you madly, Brenda Barrett.”

“I love you madly, too,” she had whispered back with a gleeful smile just before his kiss silenced her again.

Just close your eyes
Each lovin’ day
And know this feeling won’t go away>br> ‘Til the day my life is through
This I promise you
Just close your eyes
Each lovin’ day
And know this feeling won’t go away
Every word I say is true
This I promise you
I promise you

“Brenda? No what?” Jax asked, interrupting her bittersweet memories. She was unaware that he had been there with her, in those same memories and had just come out of them himself.

“Ummm… hotdogs,” Brenda said, grateful that she could remember what she had been about to say to him before the memory had taken her away. “No hotdogs,” she repeated, as she detached her hands from Jax’s and felt her sense of balance returning. She smiled with sheer relief.

“Aw, Mom,” Justin groaned.

“What’s wrong with hotdogs?” Jax asked, glancing between mother and son.

“Mommy thinks they’re yucky,” Justin responded.

“Not yucky, just bad for you,” Brenda corrected.

Jax nodded. “Oh… mommy thinks they’re bad for you,” he repeated, glancing over at Brenda, whose cheeks were turning a fetching shade of rose. “Yeah, and yet your mom’s idea of a nutritious Thanksgiving dinner is a plate of S’mores and a bottle of champagne,” he told Justin, who giggled.

“That is not true, Jax. You know I tried to make a turkey for us!” Brenda blurted out.

“Yes. In the microwave,” Jax recalled, winking at her.

Justin laughed out loud. “Hey, Mom, that’s something Aunt Carly would do!”

Brenda groaned when she saw Jax grin and nod in total agreement with his son.

“Guess what,” Justin was saying to Jax now, “my mom says that lobsters are just big cockroaches of the sea.”

Jax laughed. “And yet she didn’t have a problem eating fish eggs at a certain New Year’s Eve party we attended at the Quartermaines once.”

Justin’s eyes widened in disbelief and a child’s fascinated gross-out. “Fish eggs? What kinda fish?”

“I believe it was the purple three-eyed frog fish,” Jax responded, watching in delight at the expression that played across his son’s face. “They’re very rare. Only your mom eats them.”

Brenda was laughing and Jax looked at her, falling in love with her again every second she stood before him. He was thrilled that he’d made her laugh.

“Purple three-eyed frog fish?” Justin repeated slowly. “What’s that?” he asked in horrified wonder. He watched The Discovery Channel all the time and had never heard of this fish. He wondered if it was anything like a giant squid that he had seen on TV once?

“That is a figment of your father’s twisted imagination, honey. Did you know, by the way, that your dad happens to enjoy eating moose burgers?” Brenda retaliated. “Oh, yeah, he grew up on those things.”

”Okay, but how much difference is there really between a moose and a cow?” Jax asked.

“Plenty,” Brenda insisted, “I have yet to see a cow with antlers, Jax. And even if I give you that, how do you explain your eating the occasional eel?”

Justin made a face of adorable horror. “Eel?” he squeaked adorably, looking at his father with eyes wide with disbelief. “A real eel?” he said, looking even more grossed out.

“Extremely real,” Brenda assured her son.

“Hey, it was only one time, and I got your mother to try that eel, too,” Jax said. “And she asked for seconds,” he whispered to Justin, but loud enough for Brenda to hear.

Justin laughed, and so did Brenda. “I did not! Okay, I tried it, but I did not ask for seconds!” Brenda grinned, and before she could stop herself, gave Jax a playful shove towards the vehicle. “You guys have fun,” she said. “I’ll see you when you get back. Oh, and, Jax, please remember what I said about not leaving him alone with your parents. Not for any reason,” she added quietly.

Jax stared at her, stunned and delighted by the impetuous, playful push and the apparent cease-fire of hostilities. But Brenda, already regretting her playful impulse, was carefully averting her eyes from his and projecting an air of cool detachment.

“Bye, Mommy,” Justin said, once again turning his attention to playing around with the radio.

“He has a habit of liking to play DJ in the car,” Brenda warned Jax. “And his musical tastes are very varied.”

“So I see,” Jax murmured in surprise, as Justin had tuned into a classical station and seemed fascinated by the “Etude in G Minor” being played. “We’ll see you at 7:30,” Jax said, having to stop himself from automatically kissing her goodbye, the instinct was so strong. Why was she avoiding making eye contact with him? He wanted to look into her eyes. He wanted her to see what was in his - how much he loved her.

“Okay, 7:30.” Brenda blew a kiss at Justin, who returned the gesture, and then, not trusting herself to look at Jax a second longer, fearing she would end up bursting into tears, hurtling herself into his arms and humiliatingly begging him to love her again, Brenda went back inside the Quartermaine mansion; such a sense of loss hitting her with every step she took away from him that she wanted to have a good cry and get it out of her system. Things were not supposed to be like this! They were supposed to be a family, all three of them together, living in that house she and Jax had looked at the day after he had proposed. “Oh, Brenda, just get over it! He doesn’t want you, he never really did, remember that. Substitute - you were a substitute, that’s what he said,” she snapped at herself, just as Edward walked into the entry and saw her leaning against the door.

“That pirate from down under giving you a hard time?” Edward guessed.

Brenda shook her head, composing herself. “No, Edward. Everything’s fine. Thank you for allowing Jax to pick up Justin here, by the way. I know he’s not your favorite person since the ELQ takeover. But he is Justin’s father, and you could tell, even today, that they bonded instantly. I don’t want to get in the way of their relationship, and I’m grateful to you for helping facilitate that.”

“I’d do anything for you, my dear, even suffer the presence of that entirely too brilliant young shark who stole my company. Won’t you stay and have some brunch with Lila and me? You know we miss you terribly, Brenda. We were just talking about how wonderful it would be if you and Justin were living here with us, instead of at your sister’s. It must be a bit cramped over at that penthouse, my dear - mmm?” Edward said, as he lead her to the dining room, beginning to put his plan to get Brenda to move into the mansion in motion.

“Are your blinker lights really blue?” Justin asked, as Jax drove the short distance to the Port Charles Hotel.

“They’re really blue. I’ll show you when we get out.”

“So, where are we going?” Justin asked Jax, as he played with his hand held electronic hockey game in the car. “To your house?”

“Yep,” Jax said. “We’ll stay there for a little while, and then I want you to help me get something.”

Justin put down the game and gazed expectantly at his father. “Get what?” he asked, brimming with curiosity.

“You’ll see,” Jax said. “Justin, I’m just so, so, so happy to have you here with me. I want you to know that.”

“I’m happy, too,” Justin said.

“Really? Because I was a little scared you might not like me,” Jax said.

Justin’s eyes lit up with surprise. “Me, too!” he said. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t like me.”

“I do like you. Very, very much. And I love you, too. So, no worries, kiddo, okay? Why don’t you tell me if you’re doing okay living where you are right now?” Jax asked, as they stopped at a red light.

Justin shrugged. “You mean with Aunt Carly and Uncle Sonny? It’s okay. But I don’t want to stay there. Becky’s giving me gray hairs.”

Jax bristled. “You call him Uncle Sonny?”

Justin recalled his mom telling him his dad didn’t get along with Uncle Sonny. “Well, yeah, but only ‘cause he’s married to my Aunt Carly,” Justin explained.

That made his father smile. “Yeah, that’s usually how it works with the aunt and uncle thing, isn’t it…?”

Justin’s simple utterance of the truth and his adorable need to explain it to Jax was like a magic cure-all for Jax, and suddenly all was well with the world and his annoyance over Sonny knowing his son before he did and being called his uncle vanished for the moment.

“Uncle Sonny has two sons, you know. Do you have just me?” Justin asked him.

Jax stroked his hair. “Yes, you are my one and only.”

“Aunt Carly is my mommy’s sister - that’s how come she’s my aunt,” Justin mentioned, as if he thought his father might not know that. Then he glanced up at Jax. “Do you have a brother or a sister?”

“A brother. An older brother,” Jax said, thoroughly delighted at how well they were getting along. He adored this kid.

“I wish I had a brother or a sister sometimes. Mostly a sister, so I could put spiders in her bed and let my dog play fetch with her Barbie dolls.”

Jax was laughing. “Oh, you have a dog?”

“Yes. Cooper,” Justin grinned proudly. “He’s a wolf!”

Jax just grinned, knowing how kids loved to exaggerate, and his kid was obviously no exception.

“He’s still in London with my Aunt Julia, but she’s gonna send him here this weekend for me. Mommy and me will have to pick him up at the airport. Do you think a dog gets a plane ticket?” And then, before Jax could answer that, Justin asked him another question: “What’s your brother’s name?”

Jax was still laughing over Justin’s reasons for wanting a baby sister and the image of a dog carrying a plane ticket in his mouth, when he answered: “His name is Jerry.”

“Oh. My mom told me about him a little,” Justin said. “He’s the man with the black hair, right?”

“Right. Although, technically, his hair is dark brown, I think.”

“He doesn’t look like you.”

“No, that’s true. But family doesn’t always necessarily look alike,” Jax explained.

“I look like you,” Justin pointed out.

Jax’s hand reached out and brushed through the golden softness of his son’s curly hair - the color was his; the curls were Brenda’s. “Yes,” he said in a hoarse voice.

“Daddy, you would never let anybody hurt me, right? Or my mom?”

Jax felt the lump in his throat at the emotion that stirred in him when Justin called him ‘daddy’ for the first time. “Never,” Jax promised. “I love you - the both of you. And I don’t let anyone hurt the people that I love.”

Justin nodded, satisfied that his father was not going to make his mom upset anymore. They arrived at the PC Hotel, and Jax took out Justin’s things and then took his hand, leading him inside.

“You live here? In a hotel?” Justin asked, making a face that indicated he thought that was pretty weird.

“For the time being,” Jax said. “I’m thinking of making some moving plans,” he added, leaning against the elevator.

Justin mimicked his father’s stance and said, “Me, too.”

Jax grinned, “Oh yeah? Where are you planning to move to?”

Justin shifted his eyes up to his father. “Where are you planning to move to?”

Jax laughed. “Does that matter?”

“Yes.”

Jax laughed again and folded his arms. “Why?” he asked, genuinely curious. “Do you want to live with me?”

Justin gave an assertive nod. “And with Mommy. Just like you do,” the child responded, again mimicking Jax’s stance by now crossing his arms, too.

Jax raised a blonde eyebrow and then knelt down in front of the little boy. “Wow, you don’t beat around the bush, do you?”

Justin shook his head. “Not usually.”

Jax grinned. “You are so definitely my son,” Jax said, holding up his hand for Justin to high-five him, which the child did, grinning.

They rode up to the penthouse, with Justin gazing around the elevator. “When Mommy took me to Budapest we were in a hotel, and the lift there was the biggest one I ever saw!”

“Brenda took you to Budapest? As in Hungary?” Jax asked, amazed.

Justin nodded. “She took me a lot of places. She takes pictures, you know. Really wicked-cool ones.”

Jax nodded. Since finding Brenda again he had discovered that she had made a living as a freelance photographer - and a damn good one - having ditched her modeling career when she had left him, apparently. “So when mommy goes to take her pictures, you go with her?” Jax asked, as they got off the elevator and Jax reached into his pocket for his keys.

“Yes.”

“All the time?”

“Yes. But I’m going to go to school when I’m four, so maybe I won’t be able to go all the time anymore.”

“Where else have you gone?” Jax asked him.

“Ummm…” he concentrated on recalling all the places and pronouncing them correctly, “France - that’s where I saw you, daddy - Israel, Swizzer - ummm Switzerland, Hawaii, New Zealand once…”

“Oh, yeah? New Zealand is really close to Australia, you know. Have you been there yet?”

“Australia? Nope. That’s where you come from, you told me, right? Maybe you can take me there?”

“Yeah, maybe I can. I’d love to. I’d love to take you and your mom there. You’d love it, Justin. It’s a beautiful place - almost like another world. And the beaches are incredible. Hey, I could even teach you how to surf.”

“Really?” The child’s eyes lit up. “I can swim already, you know. I’m really good! I can go all the way to the end of Aunt Julia’s pool and back again ten times.”

“Can you? That’s bloody fantastic. Yeah, you know I do think your mother did tell me how good you are. If I’m going to teach you how to surf, we’re probably going to have to tie your mom up though. I think she would kill me for getting you anywhere near a surfboard at your age. ”

“I’m old enough,” Justin insisted.

“I think so, too. But I also think your mom will disagree with us.”

“What do you do for a job, Daddy?” Justin queried.

“I am what is known as a corporate raider.”

“Corporate radar?”

Jax laughed when he saw Justin grinning and knew the child was deliberately playing on the words. What a sharp and witty kid he had here.

“So you do what Uncle Edward does?” Justin asked.

“Sort of. Except that I do it better. Much better,” Jax winked.

Justin laughed. A thoroughly adorable sound.

“Does your job make you go to a lot of places, too? Like my mom?”

“Oh, yeah. I’ve been everywhere,” Jax said, getting a kick out of the awe that inspired in his son’s blue-green eyes.

“All the places I’ve been to?”

“Mmm hmmm.”

“Okay, so then what’s the most wicked-awesome thing you ever saw someplace?”

"What’s the most wicked-awesome thing you ever saw someplace?” Jax asked, tickling him behind the ear.

Justin laughed. “A big, big, big, big, huge, gigantical lizard when I was in Hawaii. Now you.”

“Your mother walking through this door for the first time on a snowy afternoon, right here in Port Charles,” Jax said, as he opened the penthouse door.

“SURPRISE!!”

Jax and Justin were both startled to find the penthouse full of balloons, a cake and presents. Miranda, Jane and John were there, all smiling and clapping their hands at pulling off the surprise.

“Hi, guys! Surprise!” Miranda said, smiling. Jax just looked at her.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Well, hello, my little love!” Jane said, making a beeline for her grandson to give him a hug. Justin immediately shifted behind his father and away from the approaching woman.

Miranda frowned in worry at the reaction of both Jax and Justin. Neither of them seemed too thrilled with this surprise.

“Oh, don’t be frightened, dear boy, we’re all your family here,” John said, his eyes glowing with a bizarre reverence as they were pinned on the little boy. “I’m your father’s father, your grandpa! And this is your grandmother Jane right here. And this beautiful young lady here is your father’s…”

“Dad,” Jax interjected, his tone very cool. “What are you doing here? What are all of you doing here?” Jax walked in; Justin, holding tight to his hand, observing the other adults in silence. “And what - what is all this?” Jax demanded, knocking the balloons out of his way and gesturing towards the pile of gifts.

Song: “This I Promise You” written by Richard Marx, from the CD entitled: No Strings Attached. Artist: N*SYNC.