Part One

Anthony Zacchara had often wondered if he had feline DNA in his family… he'd had enough lives to warrant the question.

This was yet another example of his ability to come close to death and come back with a vengeance. Then again, as he knew Port Charles believed him dead, he had an opportunity. Locked away in his self-imposed exile, he had time to poke around in people's lives. What he'd found had been most instructive… most instructive indeed.

Searching through the cellulose mess covering the floor of his hotel room he found the paper he was looking for. Elizabeth Webber's birth certificate. He lifted the paper to his nose, breathing in the scent of copier toner. Again, he looked over the words printed out in black and white and smiled. The clerk had been most difficult to deal with, even when confronted with a wad of cash, it had taken some pretty straight-forward threats to get the man to find the 'original' records.

Pushing himself to his feet, Anthony stepped over his pile of paperwork and sat heavily on the edge of the bed as he reached out for the phone on the nightstand. He dialed out, giving a few choice words to the hotel desk clerk that reminded him about the surcharge for International calls, and then he waited for the man on the other end to pick up.

"Alonso? Yes, yes, I know what time it is… is it ready? Hmm… well, get it ready, we're going to have a guest."

Elizabeth Webber was wiped… whipped… pretty much anything that sounded like she'd be on the floor in a minute applied. She was dead on her feet and pretty much everyone knew it. They could see it in the way she moved, the dark circles under her eyes and no one seemed to be able to help.

Epiphany Jones fought the urge to toss the younger woman over her shoulder and take her home to feed her and tuck her in bed for a few uninterrupted hours of sleep. "You sure you won't bring the boys by for dinner at my place?"

The comment shocked Elizabeth, bringing her bolt-upright at the nurse's station. "No, no… really, but thanks." She gave her supervisor a warm smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "The boys are usually jazzed after daycare and just want to run around the house… I couldn't do that to you."

Epiphany shook her head. "Then let me come by some night and sit with them while you sleep."

Tears sprung onto Elizabeth's lashes as she suddenly understood the underlying offer. "Thanks, really… I just… I can't… I need to make this work… on my own two feet." She looked around the room, hoping no one was close enough to hear her. "I've been so overwhelmed lately," she confided, "with Lucky spending so much time with Sam and Grams ready to disown for the whole breakup, again, that I need to prove that I can do this… that my life isn't a total fu- er… mess up."

Epiphany nodded and touched her young friend on the shoulder. "You don't have to do it alone to prove you can raise those boys… there are friends that care about you a great deal and we'd be happy to help you."

Shoulders sagging from relief, Elizabeth bit into her lip to keep from crying outloud at the nurse's station. "Sure… sure… but not tonight."

Epiphany wanted to argue with the young woman. It had been the same answer over and over and it wasn't the last time if she knew Elizabeth Webber as well as she thought she did. "Fine, but why don't you leave a few minutes early and pick up your boys. I'll clock out for you."

Relief was a beautiful thing on Elizabeth's face and she gave Epiphany a sudden hug with her free arm. She set her charts down and moved toward the elevators.

Just as the doors started to close Epiphany caught site of Elizabeth's purse on a shelf under the counter. "Hey, you forgot-" she shook her head and sighed, "She'll come back for it."

Elizabeth had no sooner stepped out of the elevator when a volunteer she didn't recognize stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Excuse me, Nurse Webber?"

"Yes?"

The young woman motioned down the hallway in the opposite direction of day-care. "There's a call for you on the hospital phone."

With a longing look at the direction of Day-care Elizabeth was loathe to change her direction. "Look, I really want to get my boys and go home and-"

"He said to tell you his name was Jason and that he'd changed his mind."

"Jason," she repeated the name before she could stop herself. Changed his mind? About… about what? She wanted to demand an answer from the girl, but she had already turned around and headed down the hallway. Changed his mind… she didn't want to hope, but hope she did. She was so busy worrying over the message that it took her a few moments to realize that this hallway was a maintenance hallway… there were no courtesy phones there.

Before she could stop and turn around the world went black.

Jason looked up from his desk at the warehouse and shook himself. He was more than half-asleep and bored out of his mind. The barista in the coffee shop was about to close up shop when a delivery van pulled up outside. Jason was on his feet.

There was something odd.

No deliveries were expected.

Nothing they'd ordered.

Matt, the barista, moved around the counter and opened the door for the delivery man and his handcart. Jason stood in the doorway watching the action, his hand at his side, but the back of his jacket was pulled up over the grip of his handgun where it rested in the waistband of his pants.

"Go ahead and sign there, please."

Matt signed for the driver and watched the man leave as quickly as he'd come. "Whoa… that's a lot of packages, late delivery too." The young man looked up and saw the curious look on Jason's face. "Is there something wrong?"

Jason stepped up and looked at the packages, there were nearly a score of packages, all the same size. The package on the top had an envelope taped to it. "No address anywhere… no postage… or stamps."

Nodding, Matt reached around to workspace of his counter and picked up a wand. It was pretty much procedure around the shop to wave the metal detector over anything and everything that came in the door as a delivery.

Watching the barista wand the whole stack of boxes with no change on the meter didn't do anything to settle the odd feeling in the pit of his stomach. Stepping closer, he pulled the envelope free of the packaging and opened it up.

He read the message once, twice and then a third time even though the words on it were few and the hand easily legible. He read it hoping that the words would change before his eyes. When they didn't, Jason called over to Matt. "Call Sonny, we need a crew to secure the packages."

"Secure?" Matt's eyes widened a bit and he reached for the phone to make the hurried call.

Jason stayed where he was, reading the words one more time before allowing the fear to crawl completely over his skin.

SOMETHING MISSING? – A.Z.