The late afternoon sun beat down on the cornfields of southern Illinois, as Father John Patrick O’Brien looked out his office window at the Abbey of St. Laurence. Father O’Brien served as Abbot of monastery, which was home to fifteen priests and brothers, and occasional visitors. Visitors like the young man who now walked across the courtyard below.

The young man also seemed to have a definite talent for working on vehicles. And he was willing to do any odd job that needed to be done, in exchange for room and board.

Alexis Davis headed up the street to her office. It was a warm, humid August morning in Port Charles--the kind of day when you knew no matter how well your suit was pressed and cleaned, it would feel ready for the dry cleaner within hours.

As she neared the door of her downtown office building, Alexis found her thoughts interrupted by the noise of a passing motorcycle. Motorcycles always made her think of Jason Morgan--the man she thought of as her phantom client.

He had left town in the dead of winter--sometime in mid-January. Jason hadn’t said good-bye to very many people--just Lila, Monica, and Emily Quartermaine, Sonny Corinthos, and that girl who used to work at Kelly’s Diner, Liz Webber.

Liz hadn’t stayed around town much longer than Jason, Alexis recalled. She had moved to Colorado, where her brother was a doctor--and was now attending college out there.

Unlike Liz, who told people where she was going, Jason simply rode away on his motorcycle. But not before leaving his financial matters--bank and property records, tax information, everything--in the hands of his attorney.

Alexis had only heard from Jason once since then. She found an E-mail message on her computer one morning, a short time after her client left town.

The return E-mail address still made her smile: angerboy@, followed by a popular "freemail" domain. And people thought Jason Morgan had no sense of humor!

The entire message consisted of five words: "How is he?", followed by "Income taxes?"

Her answer was equally brief: “Michael is fine. They’re paid.”

A couple of weeks later, she had tried to contact Jason through that same E-mail address--but there was no answer. A check with the E-mail provider revealed no recent activity on the account, other than her own urgent message. Jason had apparently never bothered to check his messages again. Since it was not E-mail that came through an Internet service provider, no money changed hands, and there was really no way to trace him through the account unless he used it.

Tracing Jason was exactly what Alexis had attempted to do. There was something he needed to know--something that probably would have brought him back to Port Charles immediately, if she had been able to communicate with him. But she wasn’t.

Alexis hired a private detective to attempt to track Jason down--but he didn’t want to be found, and he was good at it. Jason had not used a credit card or an ATM; his cell phone account was closed; and no one riding a motorcycle with his license plates had been in any accidents, or gotten any traffic tickets. The trail had apparently gone cold very quickly.

Now, months later, Alexis wondered again where Jason was--and if anyone in Port Charles would ever see him again.

***

Emily Quartermaine smiled at the little boy on the swing in front of her. It was going to be another warm day, so Emily had taken Michael to the park early--before it got too hot. Michael loved to swing--and whenever she could, Emily took him out. Her nephew and godson was almost like a little brother.

He would be turning three years old in December. And in that brief lifetime, Michael had seen more changes than many children experienced through the end of their school years.

He had spent the first year of his life with Emily’s brother, Jason--the man Emily still believed was Michael’s real father, no matter whose DNA the little boy carried. Then there was the whole series of events that started when Jason’s former girlfriend, Robin, told AJ that he was Michael’s biological father. Carly, the child’s mother, brought Michael to the Quartermaine mansion, married AJ, and fought Jason for custody.

Jason got what he wanted--the right to have Michael several days a week, while Carly and AJ had him the rest of the time. But despite the court’s ruling, Jason eventually gave up all claims to Michael. He barely saw the little boy at all in the last few months before he left town.

But as Emily knew, Michael never forgot Jason. And he needed him now, more than ever.

***

Lila Quartermaine sat in the family room overlooking the terrace and gardens of the Quartermaine estate. She loved being out in her garden, but on hot days like today, she limited her time to early morning or twilight. She had already been out to cut fresh flowers--her own attempt to brighten what was increasingly a dark and sad place.

The family had experienced many troubles over the years--numerous divorces, Monica’s cancer, AJ's alcoholism, Emily’s and Alan’s drug addiction, Jason’s brain damage and rejection of his family. They had managed to keep things together despite it all.

But now there was a sadness that permeated the house--a sadness that moved in months ago, and couldn’t be dispersed. As she arranged her flowers, Lila wondered what it would take to change that.

***

Ned Ashton was having another busy morning. There was no other kind, when a man had a job like CEO of his family company.

Ned reflected again on all the changes that had taken place in his own life, and his family’s, over the past year. He had vowed never to come back to ELQ--yet, here he was, power brokering like the old days.

He thought wistfully of the time when L&B Records and Chloe Morgan Designs had dominated his business life. He still loved L&B, and still owned it--but he now had no time to run it.

Thankfully, he had been able to convince V Ardanowski to take over. No one could handle things the way V did. Even though she spent much of her time on the road--making deals for the company, and visiting her lover, Simon--V was always in control.

And Ned had to admit he himself loved doing what he did. ELQ was a challenge that he wanted to take on.

He just would have preferred to assume that challenge under different circumstances. Ned shook his head, remembering everything that led up to his return to ELQ.

Well, he had done the best he could for his family. He hoped it was enough.

***

Carly Spencer opened the door of Kelly’s Diner, and began heading home to Bobbie’s brownstone. It had been a busy breakfast crowd, and Carly still got tired easily--so she probably wouldn’t be going back to work until early evening.

She thought of herself as Carly Spencer now--even though she was technically still Carly Quartermaine. She wondered if most of the patrons of Kelly’s knew their waitress had belonged to the town’s most prominent family, just months ago.

She found it hard to believe, herself. She had gone from being photographed for the society pages, to taking over Liz Webber’s old job waiting tables in her mother’s diner.

She didn’t regret it. At least her life was her own now. And she still had Michael--some of the time, anyway. Her child’s love, and her mother’s love and support, meant the world to her.

But sometimes, Carly still felt a loneliness and emptiness that even Michael and Bobbie could not completely fill. Today was one of those times.

Back home now, she headed for her bedroom to change shirts. Hers was soaked with sweat from her morning at the diner.

She paused, as always, to glance at the picture on her nightstand. She saw her own smiling face, along with Jason and a much younger Michael. It was a picture of the family she always wanted.

In a happier moment, she might have told herself it was still possible. But today, the thought of the life she once had with Jason seemed even more remote than her life as a Quartermaine.

Carly lay down on the bed for a brief nap--closing her eyes, and wondering for the millionth time where Jason was, and if he was ever coming back.