Six days later, six tired souls padded off a privately chartered airplane and straight onto a sandy beach promised to chase away all their worries. With the warm sun surrounding them like an old friend, Jason and Carly led their boys along with Maxie and Spinelli to a private cove where a preacher was waiting to unite them all in marriage. Carly understood that when she accepted Jason into her life, she was also taking Spinelli and Maxie under her wing. Jason knew that loving Carly meant loving both Michael and Morgan. They both welcomed the challenge happily, thankful that this was the new form their family had taken. And as the sun slipped below the horizon, Jason leaned his new bride back slightly and captured her mouth in a kiss filled with so much promise and hope that he could barely breathe. They were finally married.

Afterward, they found themselves sitting around a fire, marshmallows roasting as they laughed about old memories and dreamed about the new ones they would create together. Carly caught Maxie's eyes across the dancing flames as she leaned back against her best friend. She knew that they would be back here some day again, celebrating the marriage between Spinelli and the lively blonde. Even if it meant having Robin as an in-law, she wanted Spinelli to find his in Maxie. They had found a way to love each other beyond all convention, and that was something that didn't just come along every day. Carly should know; she had spent the last twelve years looking for it only to find it exactly where she had begun. She just hoped that they didn't waste all that time searching when everything they had ever wanted was right there in front of them.

“Mommy, you looked really pretty today,” Morgan murmured as he shifted in her lap, resting his head tiredly on her shoulder. It had been a long day, a long week and a pretty long year. When Carly and Jason had told him that they were getting married, he had been confused. He had insisted that they were already married because they loved each other. Needless to say, it hadn't been very hard to convince the little boy that this was a good thing. He was excited that Jason was going to be around more but was mostly just happy that they were going to the beach. “Do you think that we can get up early tomorrow and ride in the boat? Daddy said he would let me drive next time we go down to the island like Michael gets too. Jason promised that he would give me lessons!”

Carly looked at her husband – she still loved thinking and saying that – and shook her head with a faux sense of disapproval. “Well, I'm not sure that you are old enough to drive the boat, but I guess there isn't much harm in trying it out. What do you say, Michael? Feel like going out on the boat tomorrow?”

Michael looked up from where he was shoving a marshmallow on a roasting stick and shrugged. He had pretty quiet since the wedding. He had been happy for Jason and Carly. Jason had always been the center of the boy's universe, even more than his own parents. A part of him had always known that Jason would end up being his stepfather, and their marriage was just a formality. “That sounds like fun,” he decided before returning to his snack. Carly could see how tired he was. The doctors had assured her that a few days away with family would be fine as long as they were closed to a hospital in case of an emergency. He would return to GH upon their arrival in Port Charles and start another stringent round of physical therapy. It was difficult but not impossible. This was something that Jason reminded her every time she watched their little boy struggle to take a step or stop to catch his breath.

Morgan yawned deeply, something not lost on Maxie as she looked over at the little boy. “Starting to get sleepy there, Morgan?” Maxie called out before briefly smiling up at Carly. “Why don't you two come back to the house with Spinelli and me? He brought his new video game. We could play it for awhile until you're ready to go to bed.”

The youngest Corinthos boy was on his feet in an instant, toddling over excitedly toward Spinelli, who lifted him easily into his arms. Michael shrugged apathetically again, but Jason could see the excitement in his eyes. Their oldest boy was struggling a little bit in finding himself in this new version of his world, but Jason knew that he would find his footing. He would figure out a way to deal with the kid he was and the young man he was starting to become. “I guess that would be okay,” Michael told Maxie before stopping to kiss his mother chastely on the cheek. “Good night, Mom.”

“We'll be back to the house before too long,” Jason promised the pair of young adults before leaning up to hug Morgan. “It won't be too late.”

“Take all the time that you need,” Maxie assured him with a wink. Jason was still uncomfortable by the blonde's boldness, but he appreciated everything that she had done over the past month. No one had been a bigger fan of their reunion than Maxie. Even when Jason would come home from the hospital after watching Michael struggle through physical therapy, a part of him had worried that his lifestyle would sent Carly or the boys back there again. Surprisingly, it had been Maxie that reminded him that he would never make the same mistakes that Sonny had. She knew firsthand; she trusted him every day to not only keep her safe but also Spinelli. “We'll get Morgan into bed, and I'm sure that Michael can find his way.”

“Yeah, I can,” Michael agreed almost happily, ducking his head when the pretty blonde reached out to ruffle his red hair. Jason knew that Michael had the slightest crush on Maxie, especially since she fawned all over him and paid him sweet compliments. “Night, Jason.”

“Good night, Buddy,” he called after them. Carly and Jason watched as the four shadowy figures made their way up to the house, a pair of guards trailing far behind as to not disrupt the happy family portrait. When he was sure that they were both out of earshot, he turned and looked at his wife lovingly. “Man, I am a lucky guy.”

“And see, I thought that I was the lucky one,” she murmured before leaning in to kiss him long and deep. She pressed her forehead to his when he pulled apart and smiled against his lips. “You know that you made all my dreams come true today, right?”

His hands threaded through her hair, finding their rightful home in the tangle of the golden locks. If this night was all they ever had, Jason knew he had lived a better life than most people could ever imagine just to have her look at him like she was looking at him now. “I think that you might just be the best thing that ever happened to me, Caroline Benson,” he smiled. It had been a long time since anyone called her that. “I get to spend the rest of my life with you.”

“It's Carly Morgan,” she reminded him happily, loving the sound of it as it rolled off her tongue. She had used the name many times in the span of her life, mostly when she was trying to hide something. However, now his surname was rightfully hers, and she vowed in that moment to never let anything change that. “I want to talk to Diane when we get back to Port Charles, get your name on paperwork for the boys. You can't adopt them because of Sonny, but I want to make sure that you have rights.”

“Let's not talk about anything else but us right now,” he told her. “Tonight is about us.”

“It's always been about us,” she corrected him. She knew that there would be a lot to deal with when they came back to New York. They had only managed to sneak off to Florida without any further familial interference when she had promised to let the Quartermaines throw a reception for them at the mansion when they got home. Bobbie had been a little bit more understanding but equally disappointed when she realized that she wouldn't be there to see her daughter get married for what she knew would be the last time. Lucas had been mostly quiet but promised to save his sister a dance at the grand affair Monica and Edward would undoubtedly plan and Jason would definitely hate. The way that she saw it, it was a very small price to pay if it meant getting to have this day, this night, him.

“Love you, Carly,” he muttered as he kissed her neck and then the hollow of her collarbone. She tilted her head to give him greater access before looking over at him with hooded blue eyes. “You are still so beautiful.”

“I have a surprise.”

He looked at her and raised an eyebrow. Carly reached for her straw bag and handed him a sealed envelope. “What is this?”

“Just open it,” she prodded him with a smile. He slid his index finger beneath the flap and started to tear before leaning forward to kiss her again. He had no clue what was waiting him inside the envelope, but he could sense how important it was to her. To them.

He dropped the envelope to the sand before pulling out a single folded sheet of paper. He started to read the typed words on the piece of letterhead from General Hospital, his eyes darting over Dr. Kelly Lee's careful signature on the bottom. It was a document confirming that not only could Carly get pregnant but that she already was. They had slept together exactly once, the night that they finally decided that they were really going to be together after she got out of the hospital. It was against doctor's orders, but she had needed to possess him and he had needed to give himself to her.

“That's impossible.”

“No,” Carly shook her head. “It's a miracle.”

The sharpest hint of tears welled in Jason's eyes and he dropped to his knees and placed his lips on Carly's flat stomach. Her hands cradled his head in his lap as he nearly worshiped her womb. The faint breath of his whisper tickled her skin as she listened to him make promise after promise to a child that was barely more than a kidney bean at this point.

“I...” he stammered. “How?”

“Kelly said that she doesn't know how it happened but that it definitely did,” she smiled radiantly, her blue eyes shining in the pale moonlight. “After I got yelled at for doing something that we shouldn't have, Kelly did a full assessment of my health and the baby's. Everything looks good, Jase. You're going to be a father.”

And eight months later, when Jason held his perfect little girl for the first time, he remembered that moment on the beach as just yet another that changed the entire course of their lives. Emily Jean Morgan, named for the aunt that would have adored her and the grandmother that did, was the perfect meshing of mother and father that they had always dreamed of. With her father's icy blue eyes and her mother's impressive set of lungs, Emily made her presence known from her first moment on earth. Morgan and Michael were the perfect older brothers, doting on her incessantly as they sat next to their mother and gazed down at her. Lulu and Spinelli were chosen as the godparents, with Lucas and Maxie serving in very honorary roles.

That evening, after Spinelli and Maxie had taken the boys back to their new house for the evening and Emily was asleep in her bassinet in the corner of the hospital room, Jason crawled into the bed next to his wife and held her in his arms. They had been there three times now, three beautiful children to show for it. One son had been his brother's and the other his best friend's. This little girl was his, but really, all three children had always been Jason's in every way that mattered. He would love them all equally for the rest of his life and then long after in the memory of his children and grandchildren. \

Nearly a year ago, Jason Morgan hadn't wanted to find himself back here again, sitting in a hospital room while he watched Carly sleep. He had watched her struggle for life with Michael and Morgan and all the other children she had lost along the way before they had finally found their perfect little Emily. He had known the darkness of a life without her, what it was like to make decisions that changed lives. He had done that more than once, including the night he had chosen to save his best friend at any cost. He had once promised himself that he would never be back here again, but he was glad that this was the one promise he hadn't been able to keep. There was only one reason he would ever want to break a promise to anyone, and his reason was asleep, where she belonged for as long as she would stay there, safely wrapped in his arms.

Fin.

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who has read this story and enjoyed its very long journey. I especially want to thank Sara for her continued encouragement and the high standard of writing that she sets. It always gives me something else to aspire to.