"No, sir, I’m sorry. There’s only one vacancy left in the hotel tonight, and it’s a one-bedroom suite with two double beds." He scanned the computer screen again. "Your original reservation must have gotten lost."

Jax ran his fingers through his hair. "Well, this is totally unacceptable." He thought for a moment and then turned to Kimberly. "I’ll just give the speech to the veterans and then return to Port Charles afterwards. Jerry can fly the chopper up here and pick me up. Paul can come back with me, and you can just use the suite and fly back on Guthrie’s jet tomorrow morning."

Kimberly leaned on the reservations desk, balancing on one elbow and causing the front of her blouse to gap just enough to make the desk clerk turn bright red. "That’s not a good idea, Jasper. Remember, Mr. Falstaff said that it would be a good idea for you to address the women’s auxiliary tomorrow morning at their annual pancake breakfast."

Jax’s face was grim. "Have I told you lately how much I HATE pancakes?"

Kimberly’s face mirrored his. "Get OVER it, Jasper. This is all part of campaigning. You know – kissing babies, shaking hands, eating greasy food until you’re sick of it. But it WILL be worth it in a month when you wipe the floor with Carly Morgan in the election." She stood up and readjusted her suit jacket. "Now, I think we can agree that we’re adults, and well past the age of towel-snapping, adolescent, hormonal behavior. There’s no reason why the two of us can’t share the suite."

Paul stepped up next to Jax. "Excuse me, Miss Forsythe, but that’s THREE of us. Mr. Delvecchio was very specific – I’m supposed to keep Mr. Jacks in close surveillance during the entire trip."

Kimberly looked supremely annoyed. "All right, THREE of us." She gave Jax a pitiful look. "You and Paul can take the two beds in the bedroom and I’ll take the couch." She glanced back at the clerk. "The couch DOES make up into a bed, doesn’t it?"

"Yes, ma’am, it does," the clerk nodded.

Jax was shaking his head the whole time. "If my mother ever found out that I made a woman sleep on a couch instead of a bed, she would personally tell the entire voting public not to elect her son, the cretin without manners." He sighed.

Paul cleared his throat. "Uh…I have a suggestion." Two sets of eyes turned to him. "Why don’t you and Miss Forsythe take the beds and I’ll take the couch?"

"Is that close enough to be considered close surveillance?" Kimberly asked, keeping her toes crossed for good luck the entire time.

Paul shrugged. "As long as we haven’t had any specific threats here and you keep the door open, I don’t think it would hurt. With the door open, I can always hear what’s going on and take a glance inside every now and then, just to make sure Miss Forsythe hasn’t murdered you in your sleep."

Jax cracked a smile for the first time in thirty minutes, but Kimberly didn’t look amused. "That is SO not funny," she spat, tapping her foot. She looked down at her wrist. "So, are we decided here? Because if we don’t leave soon, we’re going to be late for the veterans’ meeting."

Jax inhaled a deep breath and finally nodded. "All right." He looked at the desk clerk. "Put us in the suite. We’ll need three keys, and have housekeeping make up the sofa." He glanced down at his watch. "We should be back in about two hours." He turned to leave, but then looked back. "Oh, and if my wife calls, would you give her the suite number and tell her I’ll call her later tonight?" He slapped a ten dollar bill down on the counter.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Jacks. I’ll be happy to give her the message." As the threesome left for the veterans’ meeting, the desk clerk smiled to himself. He had never realized that elections could be so profitable – in tax-free dollars!

James opened the door of the great room cautiously, and stood silently for a few minutes. As he watched, Jo took one of the playing cards from her hand and flipped it, letting it land on the floor. She glanced down at the card, and then gave a big sigh.

James entered the room and closed the door behind him. He walked quietly over to where she sat on the arm of the sofa and sat beside her, looking down at the cards on the floor and then at her. "So, are you ups or downs?" he asked gently.

Jo flipped another card. "I forget." She stuck out her lower lip and looked at him sadly.

"What’s the matter, kiddo?" James asked, stifling a grin at how much she looked like her mother sometimes.

"I miss Ted," Jo said succinctly. When she looked at James, he saw tears in her large blue eyes. "He even left before dinner! Why couldn’t he at least stay with us for dinner?"

James felt the overwhelming urge to put his arm around the little girl, but his strict WSB directives "not to get emotionally involved" with his subjects ruled the day. He settled for patting her on the arm instead.

"I know, Jo. It’s sad when somebody you like a lot has to leave. But didn’t your mom say that he would be back at Christmas for a visit?"

"Yeah, but it’s gonna be FOREVER until Christmas comes!" Jo replied with youthful impatience. She sighed. "I liked having Ted around. It was like having a brother."

James looked puzzled. "Uh…Jo, you DO have a brother. Remember? The little guy with no hair? Likes to stick his finger up my nose?"

"He’s not a brother, Mr. James. He’s just a baby. He can’t play games with me or anything." Jo continued to pout.

James nodded in understanding. "Oh, NOW I get it. You want a brother who’s around your age, or maybe an older brother, huh?"

Jo nodded. "Yeah. Big brothers are fun." She looked at him earnestly. "One time, Ted even told my daddy that it wasn’t my fault that the Candy Land spinner got left on his desk chair. Mr. Paul didn’t know that if he left it there, daddy would sit on it."

James reached up and gently petted Jo’s hair. "I guess big brothers are kind of nice to have sometime, aren’t they?"

Jo nodded a little tearfully. "Do you have a big brother, Mr. James?"

James shook his head. "Nope. No brothers at all." He looked down at the cards on the floor. "Well, why don’t we do something to get our minds off the subject of big brothers. It looks to me like you need to start a new game."

Jo sniffled a little and looked at him hopefully. "Will you play with me?"

"I promised you earlier, and James Delvecchio never breaks a promise, kiddo." He helped her gather up all the cards, and soon James was seated on the couch with Jo standing next to him. They both flipped cards high in the air, watching how they landed on the floor.

Brenda had searched all over the house for Jo and finally heard her high-pitched laughter coming from the great room. When she opened the doors, she saw the two of them, flipping cards with great abandon. She came in and stood watching them, putting her hands on her hips. When they both had flipped their last card and were laughing very heartily, Brenda interrupted the game. "Just what exactly are you two doing?"

"Mr. James is playing my favorite game with me, mommy – 52 card pickup!!" she squealed in delight.

Brenda crossed her arms knowingly. "Hmmm, and let me guess – the object of the game is to throw 52 cards on the floor and get somebody else to pick them up?"

Jo crossed her arms in a mirror pose of her mother. "No, mommy. Me and Mr. James take turns flipping the cards up in the air. Before the game, we pick who’s gonna be "ups" and who’s gonna be "downs". Then at the end after we flip all the cards, we count to see how many landed up and how many landed down. The person who has the most cards wins! Isn’t that a neat game?"

Brenda raised her eyebrows. "Actually, that IS a pretty good game. Did Mr. James make it up?" James had gotten up off the couch and was on the floor, pushing all the "up" cards into a pile.

"No, mommy," Jo answered, crouching down beside him and pulling all the "down" cards into her own pile. "Mr. James taught it to me. He said his daddy taught it to him when he was a little boy."

James looked up at Jo’s words. "Actually," he corrected her, "my mother taught it to me. She learned it from my father and always said it was one of his favorite games."

Brenda smiled. "Well, if it teaches Jo how to count higher than ten, it’s worth its weight in gold." She watched as Jo carefully made stacks of her cards. "What are you doing, sweetie?"

"Making piles, mommy. Mr. James teached me to make piles with five cards in each pile." She looked seriously at Brenda. "And I know just how many five is cause that’s what I’m gonna be on my next birthday!"

Brenda shook her head and smiled. "That’s right, Jo. So then what happens after you make all these piles of five?"

"Mr. James makes piles too and then we count to see who has more piles of cards." She looked at James’s piles and back at hers. "I think I’m gonna win this game, mommy!"

"Are you sure Mr. James isn’t LETTING you win, darling?" Brenda asked gently.

"No, mommy, you can’t cheat at this game! Cheating is wrong!" Jo declared earnestly.

"Yeah, Brenda, didn’t you know cheating is wrong?" James asked playfully. Brenda almost dropped her teeth at his teasing. He had never been that open with her before, and she was a little unsure of how to deal with it.

"Yes, of course I knew!" Brenda answered in embarrassment. She glanced at the grandfather clock. "Jo, I think you’d better gather up all the cards now and put them away. Time to take your bath and get ready for bed."

"OK, mommy." Jo put all the cards into a stack and carefully slid them into a side drawer in one of the end tables. She looked at Brenda for a moment, and then ran to James to give him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Good night, Mr. James. Thanks for playing with me."

Brenda watched in amazement as James blushed. But then her amazement deepened when he leaned down and gave Jo a hug. "Good night, kiddo. Sweet dreams."

Jo skipped over to Brenda and as she leaned down to give her a hug, Jo said enthusiastically, "I like Mr. James, mommy. I like how he smells."

Now it was Brenda’s turn to blush. She caught James’s stifled laugh out of the corner of her eye, and tried to look seriously at her daughter. "That’s nice to say, darling," she said softly, "but I think it would be more polite to say that you like the way his aftershave smells....you know, like the stuff that smells real good that we buy for daddy for his birthday?"

"YEAH!" she answered with a grin, turning to James. "Mr. James, I like the way your shaveafter smells. Will you tell us what it is so we can buy some for my daddy?

James looked puzzled. "I would be happy to, Jo, but I don’t WEAR aftershave." He shot a look at Brenda. "The Bureau frowns on it. A scent might call attention to me, especially when I’m working undercover."

Jo nodded thoughtfully. "That’s OK, Mr. James. Mommy says my daddy never wears anything when he’s under the covers, either." She turned to Brenda, who was still blushing. "See ‘ya later, mommy." As she skipped out of the room, James began to chuckle and Brenda just shook her head.

"Why?" James stopped as he bent to pick up a stray card that Jo had missed beneath an end table.

"Well, we found out something about the mysterious Mr. Delvecchio’s family." She grinned and came to sit on the sofa as he perched on the arm. "You actually had a mother and father!"

James snorted. "Of course! What did you think – that I hatched full-grown from some egg in a science fiction movie?"

"No," Brenda shrugged. "It’s just that you never talk about them, and it was nice to hear." She folded her hands on her lap. "Does the Bureau give you much time off to see your mother and father?"

James grew tight-lipped. "I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this." He looked down for a moment, but then continued. "My father walked out on my mother shortly after I was conceived."

"I’m sorry." Brenda’s voice was barely audible. "That must have been hard for her."

"It just about killed her," James said with cold eyes. "He was everything to her." He sighed. "But then about a year after I was born, she met my step-dad – Gary Delvecchio. He was a great guy." James softened a little. "He was in law enforcement – a state trooper."

Brenda smiled. "So he inspired you to become an agent?"

"Probably." The eyes grew hard again. "He was killed in the line of duty when I was 14." James looked out the window as he spoke, not able to meet Brenda’s gaze. "My mom died about a year later. I think she died of a broken heart."

Tears gathered in Brenda’s eyes involuntarily. "I’m so sorry." There was silence for a few moments as she considered all the sadness this man had seen in his short life. It explained a lot. Finally she spoke gently. "Well, at least you have some memories to carry with you of them……like the card game. That must help a little."

James rose and went to put the card in the end table where Jo had put the others. "Yeah, well I guess everybody has memories of one kind or another of their childhood." He looked at her pointedly. "I’m sure you’ve taught Jo a lot of games that you learned from your mother and father."

"Me?" Brenda shook her head in disbelief. "Not likely." She looked at James frankly. "Believe me, James, I could be the poster child for dysfunctional families if there ever was one."

James perched on the arm of the sofa again. "I find that hard to believe, Brenda. You and Jax are always talking about how close your families are." He glanced towards the hall and staircase leading upstairs. "Jo and Jaz seem to be very well-adjusted children, surrounded by a loving extended family."

Brenda tipped her head and smiled grimly. "My children ARE very lucky, James. They ARE surrounded by a loving family – NOW. And when I say a rotten family, I’m not talking about Jax’s family. They’re wonderful." She sighed. "My relationship with my father hasn’t always been like this."

James looked at her with such puzzlement that she felt compelled to continue. "You don’t have a monopoly on sad childhood memories, James. My mother left shortly after I was born. I never saw her again, and she was killed in an accident when I was four. My father had to raise my older sister and myself alone."

"Ahh….the older sister I read about in your file?"

Brenda nodded. "Julia. She lives in California with her husband, Bill, and her son. He’s about a year younger than Jo." She raised one eyebrow at James. "In a way, you’re lucky being an only child. At least you don’t have to endure a father who gives all of his love to an older child and totally ignores you."

"I hardly think your father ignored you, Brenda," James said quietly.

Brenda folded her arms across her chest. "Oh, yes he did. Julia was his golden child. I was just the chubby baby of the family. And unfortunately, when that baby fat didn’t go away, the only way my father noticed me was when he called me "tubbo" to ridicule my weight problem."

"You’ll have to excuse me if I’m finding all of this hard to believe," James said, shaking his head. "You certainly don’t look as though you ever had a weight problem."

"Well, I did. Until about 8 years ago, when I put my mind to it and lost the weight." Brenda took a deep breath. "Daddy always wanted Julia to follow in his footsteps and be a brilliant business success. She wanted no part of it. Then, when I showed some aptitude for business, daddy finally started paying attention to me, but mostly just to criticize my weight."

James shook his head. "I’m sorry."

"So, as I said, one day I just got fed up with it and put myself on a serious diet and exercise program and the pounds finally came off. Suddenly, I wasn’t such an embarrassment to my father, and he began to include me in his world again. But only as a business associate – not as anything even remotely resembling a daughter."

"Does he still treat you like that today?" James looked confused. "I thought Jo mentioned the other day she was going to her grandpa B’s house to try out a new swingset he bought for her."

"Fortunately, one of the wonderful results of my marriage to Jax has been a change in my relationship with my father. Daddy had already picked out someone for me to marry in order to cement a business deal, but I threw a monkey wrench into his plans by becoming slightly pregnant with Jo and marrying Jax instead."

{Sonny Corinthos. Her father had planned for her to marry Sonny Corinthos!} James made the connection mentally but didn’t indicate to Brenda that he knew more than she was telling him.

"Daddy wasn’t pleased about the marriage, but Jax finally turned him around and when daddy found out I was pregnant, something in him finally seemed to mellow. By the time Jo was born, we were back to speaking terms." Brenda smiled. "Jo is named after Jax’s grandmother and daddy’s mother, Ellen Barrett."

"A beautiful name for a beautiful little girl," James said softly. He shifted uncomfortably on the arm of the sofa. "Well, I certainly didn’t mean to make you go back down painful paths of memory lane this evening."

Brenda smiled. "That’s OK. Sometimes I think it’s a good thing – it makes me appreciate the life I have now even more." Suddenly they both heard peals of laughter from the upstairs. "Will you excuse me? I think poor Louise is probably getting a soaking from that "beautiful little girl" right now and could use some rescuing."

James waved her on with a smile. "Sure. No problem." Brenda left the room, but James just sat on the edge of the couch for a long time, carefully considering all that Brenda had told him.

*~*~*~*

Everything was finally quiet in the Jacks household when Brenda got around to calling the number that Angie had given her for Jax’s hotel suite in Kingston. She glanced at the clock next to the bed and the numbers clicked over to 12:45AM. As she hoped that she hadn’t called too late, a breathless voice answered the phone. "Hello?" The voice was female.

Brenda frowned and pulled the phone away from her ear a little. "Hello? Is this Jasper Jacks’ suite? I must have dialed the wrong number."

"Oh, no, you’ve got the right number," Kimberly answered in a breathy tone. "Hi, Brenda. You should be SO proud of your handsome husband. He did SO well tonight with his speech. Although I wasn’t sure for a while that he was going to finish it on time. We had to spend SO much time working on it together on the plane."

Brenda nodded silently, wondering why Kimberly was answering the phone in Jax’s suite. "Well, I guess the main thing is that it went well." There was silence, only punctuated by the electronic beeps of the telephone connection, until Brenda finally said, "Umm…..could I talk to Jax, please?"

"Oh, of course! Silly me!" Kimberly gushed. Brenda put the receiver of the telephone up to her forehead so Kimberly wouldn’t hear her groan of disgust. "You must be wondering why I’m answering the phone in his suite."

"The thought DID occur to me……"

"Well, you just WOULDN’T believe how the hotel messed up our accommodations! It seems they lost our original reservations, and all they had left in the whole hotel was this one tiny, little suite. So we decided that since we’re all responsible adults, we would share it for tonight." Brenda’s mouth dropped open, but before she could say anything, Kimberly blurted, "Oh, here he is now, all clean and fresh from his shower." Kimberly put her hand halfway over the phone and handed it to Jax. "It’s Brenda."

Brenda was seething as she listened to the phone being passed between them. There were 30 awkward seconds of silence, and then Jax’s voice came over the phone. "Hello, love."

As Brenda was about to answer, she heard Kimberly’s voice in the background again. "Well, I’m going to just pop in and take my shower now, OK, Jax? Just need to grab my nightie out of my bag and then I’ll leave you to speak with your wife in private."

{If she grabs anything else, she’s a dead woman.} Brenda put the phone up to her forehead again, counting mentally to 10……and beyond.

Finally, Jax came back on the line. "Sorry about that, honey. Are you OK?"

"Well, let’s see – I’m clean and fresh from my shower, just like you, but I’m not sure if my nightie is as cute as hers," Brenda returned acidly.

Jax gave an exhausted sigh. "Look, Brenda, it’s been a long day and a frustrating one at that. I’m not in the mood to put up with a jealous tantrum from you."

"And I’M not in the mood to hear a woman with a voice that sounds like she should be working for a 900 telephone service, describing my husband when I call him in the middle of the night, either!" There was the silence and electronic beeping again until Brenda said in a calm voice, "What happened to the reservations?"

"I have NO idea, Bren. I KNOW that Angie would have reserved two suites for us. But the hotel says that the thing got screwed up, and since there’s some kind of convention in town, this is the only vacant room left in the hotel and probably in the whole d*mn town."

Brenda’s voice was soft. "Angie made the reservations? What happened to Kimberly?"

"Kimberly was working with me on my speech yesterday and she got behind, so she asked Angie to help her with a few things."

{Sounds familiar. Kimberly’s real good at delegating work.}

"Anyway, the good news is I just have to speak to some women’s auxiliary in the morning, and then we’ll be leaving on the Guthrie jet around 11:00. I’ll ditch the rest of the day at the office, and I’ll come straight home so we can spend some time together before you have to start getting ready for the invasion of the turkey-snatchers on Thanksgiving."

Brenda smiled. "That sounds great, Jax." She sighed. "I’m sorry about sounding so witchy before. This is just really getting to me."

"I know, sweetie, it’s getting to me, too. But now we’ll have some days together to make it up. I love you, Brenda. Kiss the little ones for me and don’t let them grow until I see them tomorrow."

She smiled again. "I love you, too, Jax. More than you’ll ever know. Good night." She heard the long distance click, and hung up the phone with a long sigh.

Kimberly listened carefully at the bathroom door to make sure she still heard the noises of a man shaving. "Jasper, take your time now. I don’t want you with any nicks on that handsome face. There will probably be lots of photographers there this morning."

She heard the sound of Jax’s low rumble of laughter. "Oh, great. Now there’s a thought to inspire me – the probability of having my picture taken with scores of women." She heard the sounds of him rinsing something – probably the razor. "Maybe you should come in here and make sure I don’t slip and slit my throat in breathless anticipation."

Kimberly had to fan herself with her hands to keep from taking him up on his suggestion. The thought of watching him shave – his bare chest glistening with water droplets – the bathroom steamy from the hot water – her reaching up to guide his hand away from that perfect neck, holding his hand, sliding her hand down his muscled arm……As Kimberly felt herself breathing harder and faster, she hurried over to the breakfast tray that room service had delivered only minutes before. She dipped her hand into the pitcher of ice water and splashed herself in the face. It was then she heard Jax’s voice.

"Kimberly? Are you still out there? Are you OK?"

She tried to gather her composure. "Yes, Jasper, I’m fine." She glanced around in a panic. "Don’t you come out here, now. I’m just fine. Just finish shaving and take your time, like I said."

Jax chuckled. "OK. Just wanted to make sure." Kimberly looked around and found the tube of lipstick she had dropped in her fluster. She ran to the mirror over the dresser and finished what she was writing just as Jax exited the bathroom.

Jax was just finishing doing up the buttons on his dress shirt when he came back into the bedroom area of the suite. He really wasn’t looking up, but when he heard Kimberly’s shuffle at the dresser, he looked up from the buttons and laughed out loud. "What the bloody h*ll have you done?"

She turned to face him with a coy smile. "Oh, just something I thought you might enjoy….for old times’ sake." As she moved from in front of the mirror, Jax came closer to read what she had written on it in lipstick. "Does it bring back any memories?"

Jax looked at the mirror and nodded at her. "Dear Jasper," he read aloud. "Thanks for last night. You were a perfect gentleman. Love, Kimberly." He stared at her awkwardly and blushed. "Thanks really weren’t necessary, Kimberly."

She shuffled her feet a little. "I know, but sometimes things don’t get said as often as they should." She looked up into his azure eyes and could have easily thrown him on the bed and ruined her plan right there and then. But one lesson she had learned over the years was that acting on impulse ruined many a good campaign – and many a good plan of seduction. She took a breath, and then pouted in frustration. "D*mn it."

"What’s the matter?" Jax asked innocently, shrugging into his suit coat.

Kimberly went over to her overnight bag and purse. "Oh, I forgot that these antiquated establishments in small towns don’t have automated checkout systems. I didn’t build extra time in the schedule to do the paperwork at the front desk, and I still have to finish my makeup."

"Not a problem. I’m done. Why don’t I go downstairs and take care of signing us out while you finish up? I’ll just meet you in the lobby." He grinned. "Paul and I will take care of everything." He nodded towards the mirror. "But I think you’d better clean off the mirror before anyone else sees it and somehow gets the wrong impression."

Kimberly let out a breath and tapped the heel of her hand to her forehead. "Of course! Silly me!" She began half-heartedly rubbing at the mirror with a handful of tissues. "I’ll meet you both downstairs!" She watched carefully as Jax exited the room with Paul, and then stopped cleaning the mirror. She stepped back for a moment, and then took the tube of lipstick and began writing on the mirror again. After she had written a few words, she rushed to her overnight bag, pulled out a throw-away camera, and took a few pictures of the mirror, re-adjusting the Kingston Phone Directory on the dresser a few times in between. After re-packing the camera, she grabbed her bag and purse, and gave one look back at the bedroom. "I just love it when a campaign comes together," she whispered slyly.

*~*~*~*

Kimberly never saw the hotel maid that snuck into the suite shortly after she exited. Several minutes after she entered the suite, there were some flashes of light that reflected into the hallway, and then the maid came back to the door. She looked up and down the hall, and seeing nobody nearby, she closed the door. She went to the telephone and dialed quickly.

She spoke in a low voice. "Larry Siebert, please." She looked around and then back at the phone. "Mr. Siebert, it’s me. I think I’ve got something that Mrs. Morgan will like." She nodded. "Yes, sir. I’ll be in Port Charles by 2 this afternoon. I have to stop at a photo developer on the way." She nodded again. "No problem, sir. Glad to be of some assistance."

She hung up the phone, gazing back at the dresser mirror. She pulled out the camera and took one more shot for good measure. She didn’t want the flash to reflect in the mirror and make the writing unreadable.

Dear Jasper,

To be continued……..