Parking his car in front of the safe house, Johnny had to admit that this place was a lot better than most of the places they have been forced to take shelter in. Grocery bags in hand, he slowly makes his way inside, knowing that his partner would most likely be locked away in his room, going over their plans for the umpteenth time. Francis is nothing if not thorough.

Where the planning is mostly on his plate, Johnny's responsibilities included cooking and cleaning, ensuring that they had a place inhabitable to put their plans together. After so many years of trying to put together an airtight plan, they couldn't risk everything falling apart when they're this close to putting an end to it all.

"Corelli." Johnny knocks on the door three times. "Grub's done."

"Be right out," Francis replies, staring down at his map. "Give me five."

"Sure thing," he says simply, turning away from the door, knowing that five minutes never really lasted only five minutes for his friend. "You just better not complain if the food ain't hot when you get out here."

"Okay, kid," Francis steps out of his room, shutting the door firmly behind him. "No need to get your panties in a bunch."

Choosing to not argue back, having had that same argument enough times in their lifetimes, Johnny simply takes a seat beside Francis as they put on whatever game's showing on TV. With only each other to rely on these past years, they have sort of grown into a habit of sorts, almost getting to the point where they didn't have to explain themselves anymore.

"Before or after?" Johnny questions, popping off the tops of a couple beers.

"After." Francis says with conviction. "Right now, we have bigger things to worry about."

"I get that, but we already told the others."

"The others aren't as close to Sonny as he is." Francis reminds Johnny, downing half the bottle before setting it back down. "If we're going to do this, he has to stay in the dark."

"I know you're right." Johnny sighs, having fought himself about this part of the plan from the start, knowing that it wasn't fair to his friend. "I hate it, but I know you're right."

"He'll thank us once this is all over." Francis assures him. "For now, we have to focus on what we came here to do. That's it."

"You know, Max is…"

"Not the same way." Francis states. "This is how it has to be."

"Okay, okay." Johnny concedes, knowing that there was no point arguing about it, he's right and that's that. "After."

For a moment, Francis watches him, knowing that it would be the right thing to divulge the whole truth, but sometimes the right thing just isn't the right thing, especially with so many lives on the line. For now it's in everyone's best interest if some secrets remained a secret to a certain friend of theirs. He could only hope that Johnny felt the same way and leaves it alone or they'll have a different kind of hell to deal with once their friend finds out the truth.

Kneeling by Cameron's bedside, Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder what has brought her friend back to Port Charles after all this time. As happy as she had been, she couldn't help but ask why. Why now? What could possibly bring him back now after being gone for so many years?

Placing a soft kiss upon his forehead, she makes her way out of the room, taking soft steps in the direction of her youngest son's room. Standing in the doorway, she can't help the soft smile that touches her lips at the sight that greets her. It was more than a little bittersweet.

As Jason rises to his feet after placing a soft kiss upon Aiden's forehead, he turns around and smiles softly when she comes into view, not having noticed her presence earlier. Without a word spoken, the couple takes hold of each other's hand before making their way to her bedroom, needing the privacy that it would lend them.

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth voices, needing to voice it, regardless of whether or not he feels she needs to or not. "I wanted to tell you about John McBain, but when you showed up at the hospital it completely slipped my mind. I was just so surprised that I couldn't think about anything else but you and…"

"Elizabeth," he cuts her off, knowing that she would keep going if he let her. "It's okay."

"I swear I wasn't trying to keep it from you."

"I know," he says with conviction, taking both her hands in his. "Like I said, it's okay."

"Okay," she lets out a deep breath before meeting his eyes. "I still can't help but wonder what he wanted. It was like he was trying to ask me something without actually asking me."

"Sam's missing." Jason finds himself voicing, watching as understanding fills her eyes, as well as confusion. "He was just doing what cops do."

"In other words, he thinks I had something to do with Sam going missing." Elizabeth couldn't help but find that laughable. "I guess I can see why he'd think I had something to do with it. Sam and I haven't exactly kept our distaste for each other a secret."

"He doesn't know you." Jason says seriously. "If he did, he'd know you weren't capable of something like this."

"You sound confident about that."

"Because I am," Jason says with certainty. "Besides, if you were capable of it, Carly would have gone missing a long time ago."

"Very true," she laughs softly, staring into his blue eyes. "Darn my sensibility."

"Besides, if anyone's capable of it, it's me."

"No, you're not."

"What makes you say that?"

"You mean other than the fact that I know you?" Elizabeth counters with a slight smile. "If you were capable of making Sam disappear, you would have done it a long time ago. We both know she's done enough to warrant it."

Without another word, Jason leans forward, taking claim of her lips in the heat of the moment. For her to have so much faith in him, not even a single doubt in her mind, that he didn't have anything to do with Sam's disappearance, it meant more than words could describe.

As his hand slips over her stomach, talk turns away from Sam being missing to their relationship, from past to present. They talk about all the times that they've tried, how they both want it to be different now, and what they'll have to do to make sure it won't end like every other time.

"I guess it all comes down to trust." Elizabeth voices, thinking about their past. "I need to trust you when the time comes that you can't tell me everything and you have to trust me to be able to handle it when the time comes that I need to know everything."

"After everything I've been through, trusting you is the easiest thing for me to do."

"Same here." Elizabeth assures, smiling softly. "After everything I've been through, trusting you is definitely easy for me to do."

As he grows closer once again, her eyes slide shut in anticipation of the kiss that he was about to give her, sighing softly as their lips connect. She knows that they still had a lot of work to do in regard to their relationship, but as long as the love and trust is there everything else is bound to fall into place.