Courtney: Hey, Max.
Max: Hey. Sonny's got company right now. It could be a while.
Courtney: Actually, I'm -- I'm here to see Emily. I know that she's staying here.
Max: Look, the boss asked me not to let you or Nikolas see her.
Courtney: Well, I don't really think it's up to Sonny. This is private.
Emily: It's all right, Max. I'd like to hear what Courtney has to say.
Nikolas walks up to Kelly's as Jax is walking out.
Nikolas: Jax.
Jax punches Nikolas.
Nikolas:Oh!
Nikolas: Okay. I see you're still under the impression that I slept with your wife.
Jax: Shut up.
Nikolas: I didn't. I kissed Courtney. I freely admit that. Most of all, we just talked about you.
Jax: Well, whatever turns you on, Cassadine.
Nikolas: We talked about fate, we talked about kismet, how it brings two people together --
Jax: What's it going to take to shut you up?
Nikolas: Creates soul mates. For me, that soul mate is Emily. For Courtney, it's you. She doesn't want to lose you, Jax.
Jax: She put you up to this? Try for a little damage control? Or is this your lame attempt at trying to save your own marriage?
Nikolas: Yes, I definitely intend to save my marriage.
Jax: Well, maybe your wife will buy it. Maybe she'll take you back. It'd be perfect. You can have Courtney on the side, and I can get on with my life.
Nikolas: You're not listening to me. Courtney loves you.
Jax: What? I don't want her.
Nikolas: You don't -- wait, you're having a baby with her.
Jax: Hey, that is none of your business.
Nikolas: Why don't you just get over yourself, or you'll lose the best thing that ever happened to you.
Courtney: It's a safe bet you told Sonny that I'm sleeping with Nikolas. I mean, I don't know why else he would bar me from seeing you. I also don't know why you're taking refuge in Sonny's home.
Emily: I came here to look for my brother, but he's out of town.
Courtney: And you found my brother instead.
Emily: Sonny's been very kind, Courtney. He offered to let me stay in his guesthouse while I put the pieces of my life back together, sort things out.
Courtney: It looks a lot more like you're hiding from Nikolas than fixing your life.
Emily: Oh, that would be convenient -- take any blame off of yourself by making it all my fault.
Courtney: I want you to think really hard about what you're doing, Emily.
Emily: All I've done is think about it.
Courtney: Nikolas loves you. I mean, you should hear the way he talks about you.
Emily: Oh. You know, that really warms my heart, Courtney. The thought of you and my husband discussing me at length. Where, in bed? Were you all sympathy and soft shoulder?
Courtney: I listened, yes.
Emily: Oh, no, you did a lot more than that. You make it sound so innocent and sweet. Yeah, Nikolas must have told you how understanding I am, how kind and forgiving and accepting. What a shock this must come to you all. But I'm fresh out, the minute you two joined the mile-high club on your way to the Bahamas.
Courtney: That trip was -- it was just a coincidence, okay? Jax and I were supposed to go together. He got held up.
Emily: Why are you here, Courtney?
Courtney: Because I want you to fight for your marriage, Emily.
Emily: Worry about your own marriage.
Courtney: I will. But you need to know that Nikolas and I never slept together. He adores you. Emily, you're breaking his heart.
Emily: Don't talk to me about heartbreak, Courtney. My husband was in your room, wearing nothing but a robe. It is not hard to fill in the blanks, okay? Nikolas had just left your bed, right, where he was kissing you, groping you, pulling off your robe. How am I doing, Courtney? Because what happened in that hotel room -- that's not faithful. That's the opposite of faithful.
Courtney: I am not going to defend myself. I know that you're angry, and I don't blame you.
Emily: You don't blame me? I don't need your permission to be angry, Courtney. You know, the funny thing is, even though Nikolas and I are breaking up over what happened, he's not the one I blame. I blame you. My marriage was in terrible trouble. We were dealing with some very difficult, very private stuff. I'm sure you heard all about it.
Courtney: Nikolas loves you and respects you.
Emily: Right, but when he needed someone to confide in -- oh, you were happy to lend an ear or a shoulder or anything else he wasn't getting at home.
Courtney: I was not after your husband.
Emily: Oh, you mean it just happened? What, sneaking around, hiding in corners, talking about how life dealt you a really lousy hand. Oh, poor Courtney. Her handsome, adoring, richer-than-croesus husband was so distracted because he was getting her exactly what she wanted -- a baby. Ah, gee. Could life get any tougher? You had to spit in Jax's face and then come after my husband.
Courtney: You act like we planned this.
Emily: Oh, don't insult me by saying it was an accident, Courtney. We make choices in this life, okay? At some point, you must have thought to yourself, "this man is married." And then you had to decide, so what? To hell with his wife and with your own marriage.
Courtney: Okay, look, maybe it is easier for you to believe that I am just some cold-hearted tramp who went after your poor husband, but you know the reality is a lot more complicated than that.
Emily: Shut up! Courtney, you do not get to analyze what is wrong with my marriage after you've helped to destroy it!
Courtney: I just want you to think real hard before you use me as your excuse to leave Nikolas forever.
Emily: Yeah, I saw the look on your face. Total guilt. How does it feel, Courtney, being held up as a home wrecker? Hope you're proud of yourself.
Nikolas: Courtney's taken your disrespect, been called a liar, amongst other things, I'm sure, all for one reason -- she wants to save her marriage with you.
Jax: You know, if you paid as much attention to what your own wife wants, we could have avoided this.
Nikolas: We can still avoid it, Jax. You have no idea how much you've hurt Courtney with this -- this baby debacle. Yet she's still willing to walk through fire to preserve what you have.
Jax: This baby debacle was half her idea. Then she got scared, and then she got -- she got selfish.
Nikolas: I -- I just -- I find it really hard to believe that. It'd be tough to find a more -- a more caring, understanding person than Courtney, but you'd know that if you paid closer attention to her.
Jax: Oh, you know, for a man who's trying to convince me that he's not having an affair with my wife, you're not making a very good case for yourself. Singing her praises as if you know her better than I do.
Nikolas: You know, Courtney told me that you were a shallow, arrogant jerk when she first met you. But then she told me that you grew on her. Said she -- she saw something more going on with you, so she invested in it. But if you ask me, she had you nailed since day one.
Jax: Well, you know what, Cassadine? I really don't care what you think or what she thinks. Okay?
Nikolas: I swear, I thought once I had a chance to explain things to Emily, she'd realize how everything got blown out of proportion. What? You don't believe me, either?
Lucky: You said you were attracted to Courtney. You said you were tempted.
Nikolas: I know, but I did. But then we both realized it wasn't worth risking our marriages.
Lucky: Okay, if you're telling me you didn't sleep with Courtney, I believe you. But you're going to have a hard time convincing jax. He wants a divorce, and I don't think there's anyone that's going to talk him out of it.
Nikolas: That's crazy. He's making a huge mistake, Lucky.
Lucky: Well, it gets worse. Once Elizabeth gives birth to this child, Jax wants to raise it on his own. He won't even consider joint custody.
Nikolas: What have we done?
Lucky: Elizabeth is dead set against Jax raising this baby without a mother. So we -- we've decided that we're going to fight for this child.
Nikolas: Oh -- okay. Well, I can't believe that it's come to this. I mean, everyone gets hurt, even an innocent child.
Ric: Sonny, obviously, Reese had the guts to come over here and face you head-on. Why don't you just show her a little respect?
Reese: Don't worry about it, Ric. Sonny isn't interested.
Ric: That's good.
Sonny: That was a passionate defense of your partner.
Ric: Well, somebody needed to save you from yourself.
Sonny: This is between me and Reese. Why do you feel like, you know, it has something to do with you?
Ric: I don't know, maybe because you were trying to use me before to punish her.
Sonny: Well, what's your stake in this? I don't understand why you're defending her.
Ric: Sonny, she's my law partner, okay, and she happens to be my friend. I wasn't going to sit by and watch you bully her. Sonny, don't you understand? Don't you understand, by -- by trying to hurt Reese, you only hurt yourself?
Sonny: I can't get over somebody who betrays me, okay? It's my thing.
Ric: Well, then how did you forgive me?
Sonny: I didn't. I mean, look, you and I are a work in progress, and I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to, you know, 100% --
Ric: Oh --
Sonny: Trust you.
Ric: Well, that's -- that's a hell of a way to live, isn't it, Sonny?
Sonny: Well, I guess.
Ric: What? That's it? End of story, no matter what happens? I'm never going to get past that imaginary line drawn in the sand, and she's never going to be able to be forgiven? Sonny, you are not that shortsighted of a man.
Emily: Don't you dare criticize Sonny, Ric. You're all about secrets. Especially the ones you keep from your brother.
Emily: Don't you dare preach to Sonny about forgiveness, Ric. Do you have any idea what he's been through?
Sonny: Emily, Emily, we're all dealing with a lot. I appreciate what you're trying to do here, but --
Emily: I just don't think Ric has a clue how it feels to find out that what you thought was trust was an illusion, that the one person you think is incapable of lying had you fooled. That's unforgivable.
Ric: No, I do understand, Emily. I do. People in your life, people in Sonny's life obviously made mistakes. That's part of being human. All right, I'm sorry. I'm very sorry that you're in pain and I'm very sorry that you had trouble in your marriage and that Sonny can't seem to get past Reese not being who she is. But, Emily, even when the person closest to you doesn't tell you the whole truth, that doesn't have to be a betrayal. Sometimes -- sometimes they just need to cling to something or somebody so that they don't drown in their own pain.
Emily: Why commit to a relationship if you turn to someone else when it starts to fall apart?
Ric: It's -- it's in all of us, Emily, to make that mistake. It should be in all of us to forgive it. But obviously not with you or Sonny, so I'll just leave the two of you to commiserate about what you've lost and how everyone's done you wrong and what it's cost you.
Emily: He has no idea.
Sonny: Nah. Ric's -- he's dead-on about me. But he doesn't have to be right about you.
Lucky: God, you know what? I love Elizabeth. I love kids, you know, and then I promised that I would support her through this pregnancy. Now, if that means raising this child together -- hey, you know what? We're just excited about it.
Nikolas: I'm happy for you. You and Elizabeth figured out what it takes to make your relationship work. You stuck together and now you get the payoff, and no one deserves it more than you two.
Lucky: It's not easy.
Nikolas: I know.
Lucky: You both have to want it badly enough.
Nikolas: You spoke with Emily, Lucky, and you know her as well as anyone. What do you think the chances are that she gets past this?
Lucky: I'd like to think she could. I don't -- I don't think there's any two people who have earned that right to be happy more than you two.
Nikolas: But -- but what?
Lucky: There's just this look in Emily's eyes -- something is broken. And I don't know -- maybe it happened when Connor raped her and I just didn't notice.
Nikolas: I can't figure out where the rape ends and where the rest of her life begins, you know? And I think that's our whole problem, this thing inside her that's broken or whatever. I'm beginning to think that it can't be fixed.
Sonny: My mother used to say that forgiveness is a gift you give yourself.
Emily: Then why don't you try it? Hmm.
Sonny: Because, you know, something always gets in the way. I remember the first time I was lied to. My father came home and he told me he was going to stay this time and it lasted about a week, broke my heart because I couldn't understand why somebody that I loved so much couldn't love me enough to stick around. I mean, that's how -- you know, that's how a little boy thinks.
Emily: Mike loves you as much as he knows how, right? You two get along fine.
Sonny: Yeah, we get along, you know. It's just that I just only let him -- I don't let him get in too close, you know?
Emily: Yeah.
Sonny: I just keep him --
Emily: I know the feeling.
Sonny: You know, I've been forgiven so much in my lifetime that I just wonder how come I can't return the favor. You don't want to be like me, Emily. I mean, it's -- you don't want to be trapped inside your pain, your pride, your anger because all you do is end up alone in there.
Courtney: Don't even tell me this is another stupid accident of fate.
Nikolas: I didn't know that you were going to be here, okay? I don't want see you, I don't want to be seen with you. This whole thing was just a huge mistake that's ruining both of our lives, obviously.
Courtney: Yeah, well, you should've thought of that before you kissed me. You set this whole thing into motion from day one, Nikolas.
Nikolas: Excuse me? What?
Courtney: You started this. Why won't you just admit it? I mean, come on, think about it. I'm the one taking all the blame here when it's really your fault.
Courtney: I was upset and emotional that first night, or didn't you notice?
Nikolas: Well, and I was a little preoccupied and drunk, if you didn't notice. My marriage was going --
Courtney: That is no excuse.
Nikolas: Why are you putting this on me, Courtney?
Courtney: Why didn't you just leave me alone, Nikolas? Why didn't you just leave me in my car on the side of the road in the hurricane? I would've been better off.
Nikolas: Because I didn't want to, and you needed help.
Courtney: Why me? Why me? Why couldn't you just leave me alone? Why are you making me feel --
Nikolas: I never denied that I didn't want to be with you.
Courtney: I hate you!
Nikolas: Stop. Courtney --
Courtney: I'll never forgive you.
Nikolas: Stop. Shh, shh.
Nikolas kisses Courtney.