The Way It Should Be

Epilogue

Summer 2010

Elizabeth picks the fussy baby up from her crib and cradles her against her shoulder.

"Shhhh, baby girl. It's okay," she whispers to her daughter.

She grabs a blanket and goes downstairs.

"I know, Daddy normally feeds you this time of the night, but he's not here right now," she says, glancing at the clock.

1:30 am

He had been gone since 10. She hated when he got called away for "work".

This was the toughest part of being married to him.

She goes into the kitchen and gets the bottle, makes sure it's at the right temperature before going into the living room.

She sits down and adjusts Abigail in her arms. Abby knows she's going to be fed so she starts to get restless and grabs for the bottle. Once settled, she stares up at Elizabeth with her big blue eyes. Eyes so much like Jake and Jason's.

The quiet noise of Abby drinking from her bottle, almost lulls Elizabeth asleep. She blinks a few times to keep her eyes open.

Trying to keep her mind occupied, she thinks back to the first time she waited on this couch for Jason to come home.

Elizabeth pinches the bridge of her nose to help stay awake. She'd been waiting for Jason for hours and it was nearly 3:30 am now.

He told her not to worry.

He told her not to wait up.

He didn't know when he'd be back tonight.

But she couldn't help it.

It was the first time since they had been married that he left in the middle of the night on business.

She knew better than to ask, but her stomach turned when he got the box out of the entry closet to get out his gun.

The boys had been in bed for a couple of hours when he got the call.

She rests her cheek against her hand and chews on her bottom lip.

"He's okay, Elizabeth. You know he is. You'd feel it if something happened to him," she whispers.

Finally, she lays her head against the throw pillows on the couch and nods off to sleep.

When Jason arrived back at the Penthouse, he tried to be as quiet as possible. He didn't want to wake anyone upstairs, especially Elizabeth.

He worried about her all night. He knew tonight would be difficult for her.

He was actually surprised when the "job" went off without a hitch because he had been so distracted, worrying about his family.

When he shut the closet door, Elizabeth sat up on the couch, startling him.

"Oh. Hey," he says, walking over to her.

"Hey," she says, groggily, wiping her eye. "What time is it?"

"Late….or early, depending on how you look at it," he says, gently nudging her over so he could sit next to her. She rests against his side as he wraps his arm around her. He kisses the top of her head.

"Everything okay?" she asks.

"Yeah. Come on, we should get to bed. The boys will be up in a couple of hours."

She moans and wraps her free arm around his stomach.

"I don't feel like moving," she mumbles against his chest.

"Come on," he says, putting his arms under her and lifting her up as he stands up.

She laughs and holds on tight.

"Okay, okay, I can walk. You don't have to carry me up the stairs."

"It's the least I can do," he smiles.

"Your Daddy came back that night and he'll come back tonight, too," Elizabeth says softly.

She removes the baby's hand that is grabbing her hair. She lets Abby wrap her small fingers around one of hers.

Elizabeth studies the features of her daughter. Her eyes are like Jason's but she can tell already that her nose and mouth are going to be like hers. Her hair is a light brown, with just a slight curl at the ends.

"You're such a beautiful little girl," Elizabeth whispers to her.

Abby keeps staring at her while drinking her bottle.

"You are," Elizabeth smiles and nods.

"Both of my girls are," Jason says from the doorway, startling Elizabeth.

"Oh God," she gasps, trying to slow her heart down. "I need to get my hearing check, I didn't hear you come in," she smiles at him as he walks over to the couch.

"It's my job to be quiet," he says, sitting next to her. He leans over and kisses her temple before kissing Abby's forehead.

Abby, keeping the bottle in her mouth, reaches out for Jason to hold her. He can't resist his little girl so he carefully takes her from Elizabeth.

"Time for your late night feeding, huh?" Jason asks, settling her in his arms.

Elizabeth pulls her feet up close to her body and leans against Jason's side, resting her chin on his shoulder.

"You know, she should have been out of this habit awhile ago…" Elizabeth teases.

Jason's eyes shift toward Elizabeth.

"What are you trying to say?"

"That you spoil her. The slightest noise coming from her room and you jump out of bed and feed her."

"I can't help it," he says before placing a kiss on the top of Abby's head. "And why did you get her up tonight?"

"She was screaming," she says, rolling her eyes. "I didn't want her waking the boys."

"Screaming?" he asks in a worried tone. "She feel okay? Maybe she's sick…"

"Jason, she's fine. She just wanted her Daddy," she says before kissing his cheek.

He removes the bottle from Abby's mouth and starts to pat her back, trying to burp her.

"And Mommy?"

She smiles and rubs his back. "Mommy wants Daddy, too," she whispers in his ear.

"Jason," Elizabeth gasps as she comes down from her peak.

Jason rolls over, pulling Elizabeth with him. He kisses her temple.

"We didn't get any sleep tonight," he says, wiping a sweaty strand of hair away from her forehead.

She giggles into his shoulder. "It's okay. I don't have to work until the afternoon shift tomorrow. Once the boys are at daycare, I can take a nap," she says, running her hand across his bare chest.

"A nap?" he asks, nudging her hip. "What time?"

She chuckles and throws her leg across his so she can get even closer to him. "I'm not telling you or I won't get the nap."

"Hmmm, no fair," he mumbles as he starts to drift off to sleep.

"Jason?" Elizabeth whispers.

"Hmm?"

"I love you so much," she says.

The tone of her voice makes him open his eyes to look at her. "I love you, too."

He studies her face.

"You okay?"

She nods and tries to keep the unshed tears in her eyes from falling.

"No, you're not. What's wrong?"

"I was just so scared tonight. I didn't want to be. I wanted to be the strong wife, but I couldn't help it," she sniffles.

"I told you I'd come back," he says against her forehead.

"Jason, you're not invincible. Anything could have happened to you and I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't stop thinking about you…"

He rubs his hand up and down her bare back. "Hey hey, I'm here, I'm fine."

"I know…but still…."

"I have everything to live for, Elizabeth…"

"I think she's asleep now," Elizabeth whispers.

"I wanted to make sure that when I move, she wouldn't wake," he says, studying his daughter's eyelashes.

"Uh huh," Elizabeth teases. "You're so cute with her."

"Cute?" he asks as he carefully stands up.

"Yes. Jason Morgan, big mob guy, is a mush when it comes to his little girl," she smiles as she follows Jason up the stairs.

He smiles and shakes his head, knowing full well that she's right.

"You know why I'm like that with her, right?" Jason asks when he joins Elizabeth in bed ten minutes later.

"Because she's your baby girl," she shrugs. "Daddy's are different with daughters than sons…"

"Well, it's that, but it's also because I'm experiencing this whole thing with her," he says, rubbing her leg after he sits down next to her. Both of them are sitting up against pillows leaning on the headboard. "From the moment we found out you were pregnant, to getting to stay up late to help feed her…."

She knows that wasn't meant to make her feel guilty, but she can't help it.

"You know that's not what I meant," he says, leaning his head so he can try to look her in the eye.

"I know," she says, glancing at him. "But you should have been able to be there for Jake…"

"I am now and for the rest of my life, that's what matters, right?" he asks, as they scoot down into bed.

"Jake, give this to Daddy," Elizabeth says, handing Jake a small plate.

Jake takes the plate in both hands and looks over at Jason.

"Go on," Elizabeth urges as she removes more dishes from the dishwasher.

She knew that Jake was still getting used to thinking of Jason as "daddy" so she made sure she called him that around the boys as much as possible. She didn't expect Cameron to call Jason Daddy, but she wanted him to feel comfortable around Jason. Enough to think of him as a father figure.

"Thanks, Buddy," Jason says when Jake slowly walks over to him. He's rewarded with a big smile.

"You're such a big helper," Elizabeth says.

Jake babbles something and walks back over to Elizabeth, he holds his hands out for another plate.

"Okay, one more," she says, handing him another small plate.

He walks back over to Jason and holds the plate out to him.

"Dahdah," he says.

Elizabeth freezes in the middle of putting a glass away. She slowly turns around to face Jason and Jake. She tilts her head and smiles through watery eyes at Jason's reaction. He's biting his lower lip, trying to fight back tears himself.

"I was going to take Cameron to the park tomorrow, is that still okay?" Jason asks.

Elizabeth turns in bed so that's she's facing him.

"Yes. What are you guys going to do?"

He brushes her hair away from her shoulder and let's his hand rest there.

"I don't know. Maybe just play on the playground," he shrugs.

"You can do that here," she smiles at him, thinking about their huge backyard with every toy and piece of playground equipment you can think of.

"Yeah, but Jake would want to play. This is just me and Cam time."

"He's going to love that," she says.

"Cameron, Mommy has to go to work, so you be good for Jason, okay?" Elizabeth asks before heading out to work one day.

"Mommy?" he asks, stopping her before she reaches the door.

"What baby?"

"Why do you have Jake call Jason, Daddy?" he asks softly.

She sets her purse back down and squats down so she's eye level with him.

"It's hard to explain," she sighs. "But Jason is Jake's Daddy."

"What about Daddy, though?"

"He's still your Daddy and he still loves Jake, but he's not Jake's real Daddy. One day you'll understand….but hey," she says, tugging on his sleeve, "Jason loves you like he is your real Daddy."

Cameron looks down at the floor. "Do I call him Daddy or Jason?"

"You can call him either one….or you can call him Dad if you'd rather call Daddy, Daddy," she says, looking up at Jason who just walked into the room.

Jason stops behind Cameron so he doesn't interrupt.

"Okay," Cameron says.

"Do whatever you feel comfortable with. He just wants you to be happy and if you call him Jason for awhile, that would be fine," she smiles at him.

Cameron nods.

"You can call me anything you want," Jason teases. "Just don't call me….what's that word you use now?"

He sits down on the desk chair and leans over to look at Cameron.

"Dork-o," Cameron giggles.

"Yeah, dork-o, just don't call me that," he says, grabbing Cameron and tickling him.

"Okay you two…now I am really running late and I have to go. You okay?" Elizabeth asks, standing up and looking down at the guys.

"Yes," both Cameron and Jason respond.

"Good," she smiles.

"I think we should take a vacation," Jason says, right before Elizabeth slips off to sleep.

"A vacation?" she yawns. "Sounds nice."

She stretches out and ends up draped over his body.

"Yeah, a family vacation."

"Just tell me when and where," she smiles against his shoulder.