Sonny held Brenda against his chest, backing up slowly through the center aisle of the courtroom’s spectator gallery. He had one arm around her waist, and the other hand held a lethal-looking, large pistol to the base of her chin.

Jax stood at the swinging gate gripping the handrail. "Sonny, for God’s sake, let her go! You’re in enough trouble already!"

"You think I care about that, candy boy?" Sonny sneered. "You just wouldn’t listen to me, would you? I warned you before about messing in my business, and look what it got you – one less brother." Jax cringed at his words, but was helpless to do anything. "Maybe if you lose someone else you apparently LOVE," Sonny spat the word, "you’ll learn a lesson."

"Let the woman go, Corinthos," Sean said, still holding his weapon. "Even if you manage to squeeze off a shot, I’ll be right there after you and you’ll never make it out of this courtroom alive."

Sonny smiled and laughed, and it made Sean’s blood run cold. "Now, Donnelly, I don’t think you’re thinking too clearly. See, if that does happen, I figure I’ll still be with my woman in the hereafter, and blondie over there will have his hell here on earth, knowing it’s his fault she died." He saw Jax’s face go white, and he relished his anguish. "Tell your boss to drop the heat, Jax, or your lady gets it!"

Sonny jerked Brenda against him harder, and she screamed in fright. Brenda had never been so frightened in her life, not even when Jax first showed up at her door. From the first time he held her in his arms, she knew instinctively that he would never hurt her. The way Sonny was holding her now scared her in a way she never knew possible. He was cold and calculating, and she realized that he would kill her if needed to without batting an eye.

Jax could see her fear, and it made his heart ache. "Drop your weapon, Sean," Jax said through gritted teeth. "He’s serious. He won’t hesitate to hurt her, and I won’t have that happen now." Sean still didn’t drop his pistol, and Jax turned to him briefly. "I SAID DROP IT, SEAN!!"

Sean finally lay his pistol down on the ground, and motioned to the rest of the court bailiffs to follow his lead. The agents who were guarding Mac and Garcia did likewise. Blue and Kathleen stood off to one side, looking to Sean for a signal when to move.

Sonny smiled. "That’s good – real good. You guys do know how to follow directions. I guess I just wasn’t clear enough before." He pulled Brenda with him a few more steps.

"Sonny, please let me go," Brenda said through her tears. "I promise nobody will hurt you. Please…"

"Awww, baby," Sonny jeered, "you’re breakin’ my heart, here. No, I don’t think I can let you go just yet. You and I have a little travelin’ to do, and once we’re on a jet to a nice South American island, then maybe we’ll talk about our future together."

"Sonny, please!!" Brenda begged, and when she started to struggle a little, she felt the cold steel of the pistol against her temple again.

"It’ll be OK, Brenda!! Don’t fight him!" Jax shouted, but then there was an amazing hush in the courtroom.

"Hey – what’s going on?" Sonny demanded, as he saw astonishment on the faces of everyone in the courtroom. He looked back at Jax, and saw that he had gone almost white as a ghost. "I don’t like this, candy boy," Sonny said nervously. "What kind of naïve kid do you think I am to believe that old "There’s somebody standing behind you!" line?"

But Jax’s face still was pale, and he murmured under his breath, "Oh….my….God."

Sonny was growing agitated, and the gun at Brenda’s temple starting shaking. "Donnelly, if you’ve got one of your agents behind me, call him off! I told you – no funny business."

Sean was smiling serenely. "I don’t have an agent sneaking up behind you, Corinthos."

But Sonny could still see the shocked looks on the faces of everyone in the courtroom. "Then whatever it is – a security guard or a cop – call him off, blondie! I don’t want a living soul between me and that back door of the courtroom!"

To Sonny’s dismay, Jax began to smile too. Brenda was beginning to get hysterical. If this was some kind of WSB trick, she decided there and then she wanted no part of being a spy. But then, she almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a low, accented voice behind Sonny.

At that moment, Sonny felt the cold steel of a pistol barrel placed against his own right temple and heard the voice, too. "That’s good, Corinthos, because I’m not a living soul …."

Brenda heard Sonny swear softly and then felt the pistol held against her begin to tremble violently.

"….I’m a ghost, my friend," the voice said. "Care to join me in hell?"

Brenda felt Sonnys’ grip slacken at that moment and decided it was her only chance. She broke free of his grasp and knocked his arm down with her own as she lunged towards Jax. She heard the sound of a gun shot, she screamed, and then as she fell into Jax’s open arms, her world went black.

#~#~#~#

Brenda could hear the sound of muffled voices, and felt strong arms cradling her. She swam slowly up through the mist towards the voice she loved most.

"Brenda, love, come back to me! Everything’s OK now. You’re safe. I’ve got you."

As she slowly opened her eyes, Brenda saw the deep pools of blue that she had dreamed of for so many nights. Jax’s face broke into a big smile when he saw the deep brown velvet of her eyes again. "Jax?" she said groggily. "What happened? Did I get shot?"

Jax stroked her face lovingly with one finger. "No, love. I think you just fainted from the stress. You didn’t get shot. You’re fine. You’re here with me in my arms again and everything’s going to be wonderful."

"But, Jax, who….I mean, why did Sonny….I mean, how…" As she still tried to make sense of the jumble of the last 3 minutes, she heard a low voice next to them.

"Is she OK, Jax?" Brenda turned in Jax’s arms to face the source of the voice, and looked up to see the same blue eyes as Jax’s. This man, however, had dark hair and was a little shorter than Jax. "Did she come round?" It was HIS voice, she realized. HE was the one who got the drop on Sonny that allowed her to escape.

As Brenda turned back to Jax in confusion, Jax smiled down at her and she saw his eyes mist over. "Brenda, may I present my older brother, Jerry Jacks."

Now Brenda was totally confused. "Jerry?" She looked at him, and as he squatted down to her, she looked back at Jax. "But I thought he was dead! I thought Sonny blew him up!"

"I’m not sure I understand it all yet myself, love," Jax answered gently. "But he’s alive, and thanks to him, you are too and Corinothos..." Jax looked over her head at a group huddled in the aisle further down and snickered, "….shot himself in the foot! Poetic justice, don’t you think?"

Just then, Blue came over to the little group. "How’s she doin’, darlin’?" She squatted down to join them. "Jax, why don’t you do some catching up with Jerry here and I’ll take care of Brenda."

Jax looked hesitant, but Brenda knew he ached to be with his brother. "Go ahead, Jax. You said it yourself. I’ll be fine. In fact…." She sat up and then tried to stand, only to have her knees give way. "Maybe I’ll just sit with Blue here on these chairs for a while," she said, gesturing again for Jax to go to his brother.

After Brenda was settled in a chair, Jax gave her one more kiss and then moved into his brother’s open arms. As Brenda got tears in her eyes, Blue put her arm around her. "You knew, didn’t you?" she said softly to Blue.

Blue nodded. "We couldn’t tell Jax." She looked at Brenda. "So, are you really OK?"

Brenda smiled and wiped a tear with the back of her hand. "I am now." She peered around Jax and Jerry to see Sonny on the floor, with two of the WSB operatives guarding him carefully and EMS people working on his injured foot. She heard a yelp coming from him occasionally. "I hope they use a dull needle when they give him a shot," Brenda muttered, and then her face lit up with another thought. "Or, maybe…do you think they would need to give him an enema for a gunshot wound in the foot?" Blue rubbed her back and laughed along.

Jax, meanwhile, had pulled back to look into Jerry’s eyes. "D*mn, it’s good to see you, bro. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, little brother," Jerry answered, ruffling Jax’s hair.

Suddenly, Jax punched Jerry in the arm. "So, where the hell have you been for the last two years?"

Sean came over to join the group. "I guess we owe you some explanations, Jax."

"We?" Jax said incredulously. He looked back at Blue, and Kathleen, who by now had joined the group, and the dawn broke. "You knew!! You all knew about it!!" He looked back at Sean. "Just how many other people were in on this scam?"

"Just Jerry, Blue and I," Sean replied, "and then Kathleen, for the legal complications involved with declaring Jerry dead. We never actually planned it this way, Jax. Jerry was very badly injured in the explosion. For a long time, we weren’t sure at all that he was going to make it. We thought it was best to just let you and Corinthos think that he had died. It gave you additional incentive, and took some of the heat off you for a while."

"Well, thank you so much for thinking of my best interests," Jax said sarcastically. "Maybe I’ll let you think you’re brother’s dead, just to make you work a little harder!"

"Don’t be bitter, Jax," Jerry interrupted. "Sean did the right thing. I was in a burn unit in a WSB hospital for a long time. There were days when I wished that I HADN’T made it."

"But, when we saw that Jerry WAS going to make it, we decided that it would be best to keep him hidden for a while," Kathleen continued.

Jax looked puzzled. "So where?….." Jerry began to cough self-consciously, and as Jax looked over at Blue, she blushed a fire-engine shade of red. "YOU! You were hiding him all this time, Blue?"

She nodded shyly, and Jerry slapped Jax on the back. "It took a lot of Blue’s famous horse pills to pull me through, Jax," he said with a grin.

"And he hates taking them almost as much as you do!" Blue piped up.

Jerry nodded, and got a serious look on his face. "It was pure hell, Jax, being nursed back to health by our Miss Blue. All those days and days of horse pills." He grinned again and leaned into Jax’s shoulder. "Let me tell you, though ….Blue can have some VERY creative incentives to get a person to take those pills!"

"I think that’s my cue to go see how Corinthos is doing," Sean said diplomatically, and left the group to their own reunion.

Blue blushed again. "That’s why I couldn’t take you back to my place, Brenda," she explained. "We weren’t sure exactly when Jerry would make his grand re-appearance, and he was still there hiding."

"Poor Blue," Kathleen laughed. "We kept making excuses about her furniture and her décor – people were thinking she lived in an empty apartment and slept on the floor!"

"But, Jerry," Jax interrupted, "that’s still a long time for you to be in one place. How did you keep from losing your mind?"

Jerry put his arm around Jax and feigned a pained look. "It wasn’t easy, brother-of-mine. Miss Blue put me through incredible torture every day and called it physical therapy."

"You KNOW I learned those exercises from qualified medical personnel!" Blue exclaimed.

"And then, there were the hours and hours of boredom," Jerry whined. "And Jax," he almost cried real tears, "the woman made me watch the most disgusting videos!"

"Oh, God, here it comes," Blue muttered to herself in pain.

"She tells me she’s got a movie for me to watch about some sheila who moves in with 7 guys," Jerry said lewdly. "I figure – my kind of movie! But when I get to see it, it’s animated, and the guys are all pygmies!"

"Dwarfs, Jerry, they were dwarfs!" Blue said with a giggle.

Jerry continued as tears of laughter were starting to run down Jax’s cheeks. "So then, I send her to the video store to rent a good submarine movie for us to watch together. I even gave her a list to show to the clerk in charge. But she comes back and says they were all out of those, and brings back some kind of movie about a bloke in Oregon with insomnia! It was horrible, Jax!"

Brenda now was laughing out loud and Jax had to bite his cheek. Kathleen came to put her arm around Blue so that she would have some moral support with all of the teasing going on.

"The woman tells me she’s never seen a submarine movie in her life, Jax," Jerry said, shaking his head in pity. "Can you imagine?" He looked at her and winked. "Our poor Miss Blue has led a truly depraved life."

At that, Jax blushed and lost it. "Um…Jerry….I think the word you want is DEPRIVED. Blue has led a DEPRIVED life since she’s never seen a submarine movie."

Jerry looked at Blue again, and when Jax looked from one to the other, he saw the same silly grin on both of their faces. "Nope, Jax," Jerry said, leering at Blue, "depraved IS the right word. I was right the first time. Miss Blue has led a very DEPRAVED life!"

At that point, Sean came up to the happy group and whispered something to Kathleen. She nodded and then turned to them. "Well, folks, Mr. Corinthos is now on his way to a very secure bed at a WSB facility until we get his warrant from Judge Hankins," Kathleen said. She exchanged kisses with Jax and Jerry, and then gave a quick wave to everyone else in the group. "Sorry to miss the end of the party, but I’ve got work to do." She gave Jerry a stern look. "You know, Hot Shot, you could keep one lawyer busy for a lifetime, just filing those "Oops-I-was-just-pretending-to-be-dead-and-now-I’m-not" papers. Remind me to keep carbons next time and save myself a lot of work."

Kathleen got hugs from Brenda and Blue, and then made her way up the aisle following the EMS people with Sonny. Sean turned back to Jax. "In the meantime," he said, "I’ve notified your mother and father about their son’s miraculous recovery, and they’re fueling the jet as we speak to come to Port Charles."

"Great!" Jax exclaimed. "We can have a big family thing and they can meet my lifesaver," he said, putting his arm around Brenda.

"Oh, Jax…I don’t know…meeting your parents," she said timidly. But at that moment, she was rescued when a large group of anxious reporters broke through the aisle where Sonny had once lain. Microphones were thrust at Brenda and bright lights shone on them as they were bombarded with questions.

"Mr. Jacks, is it true Miss Barrett found the evidence that cleared you?"

"Mr. Jacks, will Miss Barrett be joining the WSB now or continuing to model?"

"Miss Barrett, did you secretly know about Jerry Jacks still being alive?"

Jax held up his hand and quieted the group. "Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we will have a formal statement for you later today." He put his arm around Brenda’s waist and pulled her to him, gazing down into her eyes lovingly. "At this point, all I’m willing to say is that this is the woman who has saved my life on so many occasions during the past week that I’ve lost count. This is Miss Brenda Barrett," he took a deep breath and turned her to him, "….who I hope will agree to become Mrs. Brenda Jacks very soon."

Brenda gasped in surprise, but her gasp was swallowed by Jax as he leaned down and kissed her with all the passion he had been holding back ever since he left her cottage. The kiss was slow and methodical, robbing her of any conscious thought or will.

Sean had gone off to confer with the bailiffs once more, so Blue and Jerry slowly motioned for the press to leave the lovers alone and herded them out of the courtroom, leaving Brenda and Jax still kissing in the aisle.

When they finally came up for air, Brenda sighed and looked into his sparkling eyes. "Did you really mean that? You want to marry me?"

"Of course I do," he replied. "I love you, Brenda. I told you that before. Didn’t you believe me?"

She played with a thread on his tie. "Yeah, I did. Because I love you just as much." They kissed again. "But I’m not sure if I’ll be a very good WSB wife," Brenda said when they broke again. "I’ll worry myself sick every time you go out on a mission or something."

Jax slowly began walking her down the aisle of the courtroom towards the door. "Well…" he said slowly, "….I DO have some sick leave coming since I have this serious bullet wound to recover from. And Sean’s been bugging me for some time now about this teaching position within the WSB, training new agents."

At the doorway of the courtroom, Brenda turned to face him. "Teaching? As in, in a classroom?" Jax nodded. "As in, not getting shot at in the field? As in,…safe?" Jax nodded again.

Brenda shrieked with happiness and jumped into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist. "Then YES! I want to marry you more than anything in the world!" They began kissing again, Jax holding her there in his embrace, still suspended in mid-air.

Blue and Jerry stood within earshot at the swinging gate in the aisle, and Blue began to sniffle. "Oh, Lord, not again," Jerry groaned, and pulled out his handkerchief to hand to her and put his arm around her.

"What’s the problem now?" Sean asked as he came up to them.

"No problem, sir. I’m just so happy," Blue cried, as Jerry patted her condescendingly on the head.

"Happy? You’re crying because you’re happy? Happy about what?" Sean asked, still confused.

"They’re getting married," Blue stuttered, and then wiped her eyes again.

"Who’s getting married?" Sean asked.

"Brenda and Jax," Jerry supplied helpfully.

Sean nodded, and then his jaw dropped as it hit him. "Brenda and Jax? Brenda and Jax are getting married? The loudmouth hellcat and the insensitive pig?"

Blue nodded and then burst into an open sob and Jerry cradled her head against his shoulder, patting her all the while.

Meanwhile, Brenda finally had ended her kiss with Jax and put her feet on solid ground again. "There’s just one more problem we need to solve, honey," she began slowly.

"What now, sweetums?" Jax asked suspiciously.

"Well…..it won’t be Brenda Jacks. It will have to be Brenda BARRETT Jacks," she replied. "I’ve always felt that a woman taking the man’s name is a throwback to ancient rituals like cavemen and branding. The woman’s movement may have had its problems, but if it had any good consequences at all, one of them would have to be…."

"HELLCAT!!" Jax finally shouted. Brenda stopped on a dime and looked at him and smiled.

"Gotcha!" she said coyly, and as she started to run from him, he followed and caught Brenda by the arm. Spinning her around while she was still laughing, he put his right shoulder to her waist and threw her over like a sack of potatoes.

"Put me down, you almost-husband pig, you!" she giggled, pounding gently on his back as they went through the halls of the building. Jax was laughing too, and Brenda’s high-pitched squeals of delight could be heard when they were long gone from sight. They were mixed with Jax’s questionable baritone voice, warbling "You are the Wind beneath my Wings" loud enough to be heard back in the courtroom.

Blue sighed and put one arm around Jerry’s waist and one around Sean’s. "Ain’t love grand, boss?" she asked, looking wistfully at Jax and Brenda as they disappeared down the hall.

Sean nodded. "Just grand, Blue. Just grand."

I am so glad that so many of you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing this "different" view of J&B. It also gave me a chance to get to know the angels in supporting roles so much better, and I thank them for letting me use their names and personalities.