Brenda stood for a split second wondering if she should answer the phone this late at night in Jax's apartment. There was no way of knowing if it was Miranda or someone that could use it against them. No one knew that Brenda was still staying with Jax except for Ned and Lois. Just as quickly, she decided she would answer it and they'd come up with a reason later if the need arose. The phone began its second ring and she saw Jax stir slightly. She dashed to answer it before it could awaken him.

"Hello?"

"Brenda?"

"Ned? Why are you calling this late?"

"Why are you answering the phone this late? Don't you realize I could have been Miranda?"

"But you're not. Ned, it's 11:30 at night. Why are you calling this late?"

"I really didn't realize it was that late, so I do apologize. Is Jax there?" Ned was being purposely evasive of her questions.

"Yes, he is," she looked down at Jax where he looked like had settled back into sleep and smiled. "But he's asleep right now."

"No, he's not," came Jax's sleepy voice from the pillow. "Who is it?" he sighed. He didn't open his eyes because of the bedside light that was blinding his eyes from behind the lids, nor did he move from the position he was in.

"Is that him, Brenda? Is he awake?" Ned asked anxiously when he heard a slight noise on the other end.

Brenda could tell something was wrong, but Ned wasn't about to tell her for some reason. "No, he's not awake, Ned." She said it with emphasis so that both Jax and Ned knew that Jax was not answering the phone right now. Jax turned his head to the other side of the bed and this time really did settle back into sleep knowing it was Ned who was on the phone and that Brenda could probably handle it.

"Ned, what is this about? Is something wrong?" Brenda was beginning to get worried now.

Ned hesitated for a few moments before finally answering. "It's nothing you need to be concerned about right now, Brenda. I am calling to let you know I am going back to Port Charles right now, so I will not be returning with you on Monday."

She could tell there was something more to all of this. Ned was being way too cryptic. "Will you please tell me what's wrong? Why are you going back so suddenly? Did something happen?" Her voice was beginning to rise in panic.

Jax was roused from sleep again by the urgent tone of Brenda's voice. He turned back to face her again and opened his eyes. He squinted against the light on the table until he reached up and turned it off. In the now dark room, he could hear Brenda waiting for Ned's response. "Brenda?" he sat up and reached in the general direction he had seen her when he turned off the light. He connected with her left hand and he pulled her to sit next to him on the bed. "Brenda, what's wrong?"

She didn't answer his question. Ned still wasn't telling her anything. In fact, he was talking to someone at his door, apparently the person sent to get his bags for him. "Ned," she repeated, "will you tell me what is wrong, please?"

"Brenda," he finally responded, "don't worry about it. Everything is fine."

"No, it's not, I can hear it in your voice. You wouldn't be going back to Port Charles this suddenly if everything was fine."

"Brenda, give me the phone," Jax said as he reached for it. He took it from her ear and said, "Ned, it's me. What's going on?"

"Jax? Brenda told me you were asleep."

"I was," he sighed. "What's going on?" He wasn't going to let Ned duck the questions anymore.

"I'm sorry I woke you, and I would have called in the morning, but…"

"Ned!" Jax broke in.

"All right, Jax, all right. I'm going back to Port Charles for a family emergency."

"Why? What's happened? And to who?" Jax's questions made Brenda turn to him with fear in her eyes. His eyes had adjusted to the moonlit room and he could see her next to him on the bed. Her hands both gripped the one at his side not holding the phone.

"Jax, I want you to promise me something first. I do not want you and Brenda coming back for this right now. I know she'll want to, but do not let her. There is nothing either of you can do right. The only reason I'm going now is because it's family. Promise me, Jax, I do not want you changing your plans to come home for this."

"If you're sure it won't do any good, then fine, I won't. Now, what happened?"

"It's Grandmother, Jax. She's had a stroke."

"What?!" Jax exclaimed. He tried to keep the anxiety out of his voice for Brenda's sake, but her hands tightened around his anyway.

"Now, wait a minute, calm down. She is fine, she is going to be fine. It was a minor stroke and they don't think it did any damage whatsoever. There is absolutely nothing for you to worry about and there is nothing you can do right now. The doctors, and especially Grandfather, are not going to let anyone except family see her in the hospital, so no one else will be able to visit her until she is home. That's going to be in a few days. They want to keep her for a few days to run some tests and make sure no harm was done." Ned took a breath. "Like I said, there is nothing you and Brenda would be able to do if you came home, so I do not want you leaving because of this. By the time you come back Monday, we'll know more and Brenda may be able to see her." Ned knew that Brenda was going to be extremely worried over this. Ned's family was like family to all of them, Brenda, Lois, and sometimes even Jax, when he let them.

Jax didn't say anything for a few minutes, adding to Brenda's suspense. She was practically going nuts.

"Jax? Okay? Do not come home for this, all right? Take tomorrow and distract Brenda or something, but enjoy your last day together. You won't get the time once you both come back here, you know that," Ned continued to stress his point.

"Yes, Ned, all right. We won't do anything," Jax finally agreed.

"What? What won't we do, Jax?" Brenda whispered urgently. Jax held up his hand to quiet her.

"Now, I have to go catch a plane, Jax. I have to go. I will talk to you soon," Ned said.

"Okay, Ned, you know how to reach us. Thanks," he paused for a second. "Bye, Ned." Jax put the phone back in the cradle before saying anything to Brenda. He wasn't sure how to tell her without her immediately insisting that they go home.

"Jax, what's wrong? What did Ned say?" Her hand was continually tightening the grip around his.

"I think you're going to break my fingers if you keep doing that, Brenda." He winced and gently extricated his hand from hers. He rubbed his palm, feeling the marks her nails had left in it.

"I'm sorry, Jax. What did Ned say?" she persisted.

"First, I'm going to tell you what he told me. There is absolutely nothing we can do about the situation and he does not want us to go home because of it. I want you to promise me that, Brenda. You are not going to insist we go home. Because regardless of whether you promise or not, I'm not going to let you go."

"Jax, you're scaring me. Will you just tell me, please?"

"Promise me," he insisted.

"All right, all right, I promise. We won't go home."

"Okay, now listen to me carefully." He took her hands in his again and pulled her closer to him, between his legs. "Lila has had a stroke." Tears sprang to her eyes immediately and she gasped, but he put a finger to her mouth before she could say anything. "I said listen to me. It is only a minor stroke and they don't think there was any damage caused by it. She is in the hospital, but they are only running a few tests on her. Now, no one except family is allowed to see her, including you, so there is no reason for us to cut this short and go home right away. When we go back Monday, they will know more and Ned said you might be able to see her by then. Okay?" He removed his finger from her lips when he finished.

Immediately, she barraged him with questions. "What do you mean they don't think any damage was done? Don't they know for sure? Why can't we see her? What tests do they have to run? Why can't we go home? What caused it to happen? Jax, I have to see her. We have to go home!" It all came out in one panicked breath. Her eyes were wide as she pleaded with him. She was beginning to cry in earnest now.

Jax gently shook his head and pulled her against his chest, trying to comfort her. He was surprised she was handling it this well. She wasn't jumping up to start packing. "Brenda, sweetie, I told you everything I know. Everything that Ned told me. There is nothing we can do right now. We would just be in the way and two extra bodies they don't need to worry about right now. I know you care about her and love her as if she were your own grandmother. But truly, Brenda, there is nothing we can do."

She was quiet for a few moments. Her voice was shaky when she said, "I can't lose her, Jax. She can't die now. She's like my own grandmother, I can't lose her. I never knew my grandmother, you know. You know that, don't you, Jax?"

Jax silenced her by pulling her deeper into his embrace. "Shh, Brenda, I know, I know," he soothed. He gently stroked his hand over her hair. "She is not going to die. She is going to be fine, perfectly fine. She's fine now, even. They're only keeping her in the hospital to run tests for the future. It's going to be all right, I promise."

He continued to comfort her until she fell asleep in his arms, having exhausted herself with crying. She was so afraid of losing Lila, but he continually reassured her it was not going to happen. After she drifted off, Jax realized how tired he was, as well. He shifted on the bed and moved to lay down completely with Brenda nearly on top of him. Her even breaths were warm on his bare chest and he could feel her heart beating against him. When he moved, she adjusted to lay more comfortably with her head across his chest and her legs entwined with his. As he closed his eyes, he was sure he wouldn't be able to fall asleep right away, but as soon as he relaxed completely, Jax was indeed asleep.

Jax was the first to awaken the next morning, their last day before they went back to the real world where they wouldn't be able to see each other every minute of every day as they had for the last week. Brenda's head was still resting on his chest and she was sleeping soundly. When he noticed the time on the clock, Jax realized he was slowly getting back into his regular schedule of waking early in the day. It was barely seven-thirty when he gently lifted Brenda from him, kissed the top of her head, and eased himself out of bed.

He walked into the kitchen, still wearing only his pajama bottoms and his feet bare, limping only slightly. The kitchen tile was cool beneath his feet as he made some coffee and watched the last of the sun rising over the buildings to the east of his apartment. Carrying his coffee, the first thing he did when he went into his office was turn on his computer, determined to finally catch up on some of the work that had piled up in the past four days. He knew Brenda wouldn't be up for at least another hour or two, so he sat down to answer e-mails and sort through the regular mail.

Jax felt waist-deep in paperwork when he finally looked at the clock again. It was nearly ten o'clock and he still hadn't heard a sound from Brenda, but he also realized that he'd been so buried in his work that she could have paraded by him with a marching band and he wouldn't have noticed. Breaking quickly, he picked up the phone and called Ned on his cell phone. When Ned assured him that the doctors had been right the night before and Lila was, in fact, going to be perfectly fine, Jax hung up and went back to work on the computer.

He was frantically searching his hard drive for an important file when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Whirling around quickly in surprise, he immediately smiled at Brenda who had finally gotten up.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," she apologized quietly.

Jax turned his chair to her and pulled her down into his lap. He looked deeply into her eyes and saw nothing but concern in them. "You didn't scare me, I was just surprised. I didn't hear you come in." He kissed her lips gently, but only got a minimal response from her. "Sweetie, I know you're worried about Lila, but, listen, I called Ned not too long ago." Her eyes grew interested. "He said exactly what he said last night, except now they have officially confirmed it. She is going to be just fine. They've run every test they could possibly run and everything came back with really good results. She'll be in the hospital with no visitors until Tuesday morning." Finally, he was rewarded with a smile breaking out onto Brenda's face.

She hugged him happily, "That is so great! Thank you for calling. I was so worried, you know." Jax only nodded. This time, she kissed him and didn't let him get away with just a quick kiss. She pulled him to her with every intent of showing her appreciation to the fullest extent.

Jax reluctantly broke the kiss after several long, wonderful minutes. Brenda knew immediately that he needed to get back to work if he was going to finish. She kissed him once more, quickly, and got up off his lap.

"Don't work too long," she smiled.

"I won't," he said distractedly as he turned his attention back to his computer screen to try and find the file he needed.

Brenda went to take a shower and get dressed. She put on a pair of slim black pants and a dark blue fitted button-down shirt with comfortable, stylish black shoes. Then, she decided to walk down to the deli on the corner and get them something to eat. She told Jax where she was going and he barely responded as he swore harshly at the computer. She figured he'd lost the file he'd been looking for and she left before he got too upset.

Jax had indeed lost the file he needed, but he knew Ned had a copy of it on his computer, so he gave up looking for it. He vaguely remembered Brenda saying she was going somewhere when he finally turned away from the computer. He leaned back in his chair, forgetting about work for a few moments. He wanted to come up with something spectacular to do that evening since it was their last night in New York and together for who knew how long. After a few minutes, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He got up and closed the office door, lest Brenda come back early and hear his plans.

Brenda returned half an hour later and noticed Jax's office door was closed. She knew that meant that she was not supposed to interrupt what he was doing right then. She listened carefully and heard him talking periodically, meaning he was on the phone with someone. She figured it was work-related, probably Addie, his secretary, so she went into the kitchen to fix the food she'd bought for lunch.

A full hour later, Jax appeared in the kitchen doorway, watching as Brenda attempted to cook something that he couldn't identify just yet. He was able to watch her quietly for almost ten minutes when she finally noticed him.

"Are you going to get dressed today?" she teased as she saw him still in his silk pajamas. "Not that I would mind if you didn't. What would your colleagues think if they knew you were conducting business wearing only that this morning?"

Jax looked down at his lack of apparel and grinned. Then, he turned and went to take a shower and dress. He returned wearing a pair of olive-colored pants and a white long-sleeved button-down shirt. Judging from the pile of dishes in the sink, Brenda had given up on making something edible for lunch and resorted to what she had bought at the deli. They sat down to lunch in the kitchen, overlooking a beautiful near-winter day with a bright blue, perfectly clear sky.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Jax asked, "How cold is it today?"

"It's not too bad, considering it snowed last night. It's actually kind of warm in the sun. Why?" Brenda responded curiously.

"Just wondering," he replied enigmatically. He smiled and went back to eating.

Brenda wondered what he had planned that she didn't know about. She had kind of figured he would do something that night since it would be their last night in the city together. Even though she didn't really want to wait and be surprised, she kept her mouth closed on all the questions that were wanting to burst forth.

When they had finished eating and had cleaned up the kitchen, Jax took Brenda's hand and led her to the front door. He handed her her long, black leather coat and helped her put it on. Then, he put on his own brown bomber jacket, picked up his keys, and opened the apartment door. He never said one word about where they were going or what they were going to do once they were there. As they left the apartment building, he took hold of her now-gloved hand, threading his fingers through hers, and they began to walk in the direction of Central Park. The bright sun did feel good as it beat down on their leather coats and warmed them inside of them.

Finally, Brenda broke the silence, "Jax, where are we going?"

"Nowhere," he responded.

"What do you mean nowhere?"

"Just exactly that. I have absolutely no plans of where we are headed right now. If you want to go somewhere just say the words, but right now, all I know is that we're headed toward Central Park." He smiled down at her and pulled her close under his arm.

Brenda slipped her arm under his coat and around his waist. "Is there a reason for this?"

"Nope, not really. It's a beautiful day. I'm with a beautiful woman. And I really didn't want to spend the day in the apartment again."

"So that's what this is about," she commented.

"What is?"

"You, your foot, the fact that you don't have to stay inside anymore and you're free to move about wherever you'd like to go," she said, smiling. She actually thought it was incredibly telling of his stubborn nature. She did only detect a slight limp in his walk as they strolled along the avenue.

Jax only smiled in response. He knew she was partially right, but it was more about just spending time with her. In less than twenty-four hours, he wouldn't be able to see her on a whim. They would have to be very careful about who saw them together and what they did in public. There was no way they could be this free on the streets of Port Charles. Basically, he just wanted to be able to walk freely through a city and not worry about what everyone was thinking, as they did in the smaller town. In New York City, nobody cared who was with who or what they were doing when they were with them. Jax just wanted to relish in the feeling of being with Brenda in public. He could kiss her, he could hug her, or he could just walk, as he was, down the street with his arm around her.

They ended up walking along the paths of Central Park. After awhile, Brenda insisted they sit down on a bench in the sun. She said that it was because her shoes were pinching her feet and she just wanted to rest, but Jax knew better. He knew she was trying to do it for his benefit so that he wouldn't overwork himself. And actually, he was grateful for it. He didn't want to put too much strain on his foot before the night he had planned for them. They sat on the bench for a long time, just people watching. Brenda told him how she used to sit in parks and watch the people walk by. She would make up stories about who they were in her mind, usually her stories were far more interesting than anyone's could have really been. And they began to do the same thing. The sat on a bench near a fountain and made up stories to each other of who the people passing by were and what they were doing or where they were headed.

Eventually, Jax said it was time to go back to the apartment. He only hinted at the fact that they did have plans that evening, but he was determined not to tell her what they were. They started to walk back to the building with Brenda asking questions that Jax didn't answer about once every two minutes. He wanted her to be genuinely surprised at what he had planned for the evening. It would definitely be a night she wasn't going to forget.