Wounded after Sonny shoots him, Alcazar stumbles his way out of Carly's new house and flees into the woods. Back at the house, an emotion-filled Sonny delivers his and Carly's son, Morgan. Jason arrives to learn that Sonny accidentally shot Carly, who is then rushed to GH.

Marcella encounters a seriously hurt Alcazar in the forest, helps him back to the house and calls for an ambulance. Back at the hospital, Sonny is given the difficult choice of authorizing surgery that could kill Carly, or making her go without it, which will certainly lead to her death. Doctors give Morgan a clean bill of health.

Luke has a hard time accepting "no" as Skye's answer when he asks for help in tracking down the rest of Dead Man's Hand. Forced to tackle it alone for the time being, Luke searches Jax's penthouse but is caught in the act. At the same time, Skye walks in on Sam snooping in Dillon's bedroom.

Sonny gives the doctors permission to remove the bullet lodged in Carly's brain. Holding Morgan for the first time since the accident, Sonny breaks down in tears then is further devastated when Michael blasts him for hurting his mother. Realizing that Sonny is no state of mind to be taking care of Michael and Morgan, Courtney suggests that she and Jason step in as their guardians until Carly is out of medical danger.

Believing himself somewhat responsible for Carly's state, Alcazar refuses to press charges against Sonny. Sonny, meanwhile, finds out that Carly not only is in a coma, but that she may have sustained permanent brain damage. Ric finds a way to stick it to Sonny and arrests him for attempted murder.

Jax and Luke bicker over Skye, with each accusing the other of using and abusing her. Later, Sam slips Jax a mickey, giving her the perfect opportunity to steal the two cards from Dead Man's Hand that he holds. At the same time, Skye knocks Lucky out just as he is about to arrest Luke for Stefan's murder.

At Mac's Place, Dillon is shocked when Georgie confides that she is hiding the cards from the Dead Man's Hand in Georgie's Diary. Although Dillon remains unconvinced the cards are safe, Dillon finally leaves, while Georgie waits for a math tutor Mac hired to help Georgie ace the college entrance exams. Unknown to Georgie and Dillon, Samantha is spying on them through Georgie's bedroom window. Jax catches Sam with her ladder against Mac's house and warns Sam that she is peeping at the house of the Police Commissioner himself! Jax offers to pay Samantha $1 million each for the cards that Sam has and Sam agrees to think about Jax's proposition. Later, Jax meets with Dillon and offers Dillon $1 million for each of the cards that Dillon has in his possession. Dillon doesn't exactly admit that he has the cards, but promises to bring to cards to Jax if Dillon ever finds them. Meanwhile, Samantha arrives in Georgie's room and, passing herself off as the expected tutor, Samantha finds a way to send Georgie out of the room for some ice water ~ and Samantha grabs the cards while Georgie is gone. Later, Dillon rushes home with the news that the cards are worth $1 million each. But, when Dillon and Georgie go to get the cards, they are stunned when they discover the cards are missing! Dillon calls Jax and alerts Jax that Samantha now has Dillon's cards. When Jax finally tracks Samantha down, Jax finds Sam at Kelly's, with a pile of ashes in an ash tray on the table. Samantha announces that she burned the cards because of the pain the cards had brought to her family. Jax warns Sam that IF Jax's father dies, John's death WILL be on Samantha's head. Then Jax storms away!

At the Port Charles Police Department, Sonny protests Ric's attempt to arrest him, but Ric points out that Sonny shot Alcazar in the back and they do not yet have a statement from Sponny's OTHER victim ~ Carly! Jason reminds Ric that Alcazar has already said he will NOT be pressing charges. Scott arrives and announces that Sonny is released, but the charges are still pending. After Sonny and Jason leave, Scott informs Ric that Scott wants Ric to devote his full attention to taking Sonny down for the shooting. Scott is stunned when Ric refuses! As Scott fusses at Ric, Ric argues that a first-year-law-student could get Sonny off ~ so long as Alcazar refuses to press charges and Carly would never say anything to incriminate here husband! Ric assures Scott that Ric shares Scott's opinion that Sonny BELONGS in jail ~ but Ric needs a case he can WIN before going into court in an attempt to nail Sonny! Liz comes around the corner at that moment and, leaping to the conclusion that Ric is continuing his vendetta against Sonny, Liz runs out. Ric follows Liz to the docks and begs her to listen to him. When Liz accuses Ric of only joining the District Attorney's office to legally be able to continue Ric's vendetta against Sonny, Ric counters with the argument that Liz heard only part of Ric's conversation with Scott. Ric then reminds Liz that it was Liz who WANTED Ric to take the job with the D.A.'s office and that, since Sonny is a criminal, part of Ric's job will ALWAYS be prosecuting Sonny so long as Sonny remains a criminal and continues to exercise control as the town's MAJOR Mob Boss! Ric surprises Liz when Ric demands to know WHAT Liz really wants from Ric and WHY she keeps Ric jumping through hoops of fire with hints of a possible reconciliation! Liz hesitantly admits that Ric DOES give her hope that he COULD become the man Liz once believed that Ric was! Liz then admits that she was at the Port Charles Police Department because her grandmother gave her two tickets to the Halloween Costume Ball and Liz thought Ric might want to go with her! Ric admits that he had already made plans to attend the annual ball and asks Liz to go with him! Ric promises Liz that he ONLY needs ONE chance to prove himself to her. When Liz agrees to go with Ric, Ric suddenly kisses her and Liz responds!

At the Hospital, Courtney and Bobbie take Morgan to Carly's room and assure a comatose Carly that her baby is in fine shape and eager for Carly to join him at home. As Bobbie confides to Courtney that Bobbie believes Carly would be better off with ANY one else except Sonny, Lorenzo walks by and overhears Bobbie's comments. After Bobbie and Courtney leave, Lorenzo goes into Carly's room and assures Carly that she will soon be waking up to a wonderful life. After Lorenzo leaves, Carly dreams that she just arrived in town and met Lorenzo BEFORE Carly began her destructive plan to punish Bobbie for giving Carly up for adoption when Carly was born. Later, at Sonny's Penthouse, Courtney becomes flustered when Morgan begins to fuss. After Jason takes over and quiets the baby, Courtney confesses that she is afraid she would NEVER be able to become a good mother. But Jason assures Courtney that she WILL be a fabulous mother when the time is right! Later, when Sonny returns to the Hospital to visit Carly, Sonny is surprised to find Alcazar once again in Carly's room! Sonny accuses Lorenzo of trying to get Sonny in his debt by choosing NOT to press charges against Sonny for the shooting. But Lorenzo argues that Lorenzo is only taking responsibility for his actions and challenges Sonny to do the same. Alcazar declares that Carly was alone in the house and fell BECAUSE Sonny DROVE Carly away! After Alcazar leaves, Sonny admits to his comatose wife that Alcazar is right and that Sonny made his own nightmare come true. Sonny promises Carly that she WILL have the life she always wanted, as soon as Carly comes out of her coma. Later, Tony shares with Sonny the information that Carly's tests show that there IS brain activity, which IS a good sign! Later, Marcella visits Lorenzo and suggests that Lorenzo should leave town. But Lorenzo insists that, WHEN Carly recovers, there IS hope that Carly will CHOOSE to be with Lorenzo! Meanwhile, Sonny returns home to his Penthouse. Holding his new son in his arms, Sonny promises Morgan that his mother will soon be home with them and that BOTH Morgan AND Carly WILL soon be safe!

Skye comes by to see Jax at his penthouse. He is packing a travel bag. She asks him if he can take her as just a friend as her date to the masquerade ball that evening. He tells her he can't do that since he is heading off to Texas to see his father and try to explain that he no longer can give him the cards. Skye asks him why not. He explains to her that Sam stole them and burned them to ashes. Skye asks him if he is positive she burned them. He tells her he saw an ashtray full of ashes. She tells him that she doesn't believe that Sam would burn the cards like that without trying to use them herself first. Meanwhile, Sam plays poker with a bunch of guys who are working on the Versailles room for the party that night. She beats them all at poker and gets a huge amount of money. She keeps touching a pouch she brought with her as a purse. Luke, using a fake southern accent acts like he is o.k. with her beating them at poker and packs up to leave. He goes over to her first at the table and is charming to her and thanks her. He leaves. Sam starts playing a new game of poker with the men. Jax comes over and grabs her playing cards out of her hands and shows the men her hand and tells her the game is over and she is coming with him. She starts to protest but he grabs her and throws her over his shoulder. She grabs her large stack of money while she is yelling at him to let her go. He carries her back to the penthouse. He accuses her of lying to him about burning the cards. She tells him she was just playing poker because she was good at it and needed to make some money. She reminds him that he sank her boat and that he owes her $50,000. He grabs her pouch and starts to pull out some cards. She grabs the pouch from him when she sees him just pulling out pieces of white paper. He asks her where the cards are. She sees that she has been scamed and tells him there are gone. Jax guesses that Luke stole the cards from her. When Sam realizes she has to start over again to get the cards back she acts like she and Jax are partners again. He tells her that he can't trust her to be his partner after what she pulled. She tells him that she is going to get the cards back and wants his help. He tells her that she is on her own and that he can't be partners with someone who he can't trust and who has no integrity or loyalty. She vows to him that she will find the cards and that he will regret not helping her later. She is upset by what he says but keeps the tears at bay. She walks out. Meanwhile, Dillon and Georgie talk at Kelly's. Georgie feels stupid for falling for Sam's pretending to be her new tutor and allowing her to steal the cards from her diary. Dillon tells her that her mother wasn't too happy with him and with his luck, his mother will probably send him to military school herself. Dillon tells her that the cards are gone and there is nothing they can do now. Dillon asks her to go with him to the masquerade ball later that night. She is surprised he has tickets to that. He tells her that his grandmother is the honorary chairperson in charge of the masquerade ball and wants him to go. Georgie agrees to go with him as his date. At the masquerade ball, AJ shows up dressed in costume. Edward is concerned about why he is at the party when he should be back in the office working as the CEO instead. He tells Edward that he has a vested interest in tonight's activities. Skye receives a note by some messenger. She reads it and it says that there is going to be a private auction later that night at the ball. Jax shows up and tells her about what happened and how he believes Luke has the cards now. Dillon and Georgie show up dressed like Robin Hood and a flapper. Later, the room's lights are dimmed and the stage lights up with a magician in a mask. He holds out a scarf and then magically a playing card appears in his hand and one after another is displayed until all the playing cards are in his hands. Jax recognizes the playing cards as the "dead man's hands" playing cards. Dillon, and AJ as well as Sam, who shows up all dressed up notices what they are as well. Sam had told Jax at the party that she knows what she is doing and how to handle herself as well.

Emily runs into Zander outside of Kelly's. She explains that the big bag she is carrying contains food that is going to be donated for the charity they are funding for the masquerade ball that night. Zander asks her to be his date that night. She tells him she can't go with him because she agreed to go with Lucky tonight. She promises to save him a dance later that night though. She goes to the Port Charles Hotel to help Skye and Monica with the decorations. Nikolas shows up to volunteer to help. He helps Emily with the decorations and asks her to be his date for the night. She turns him down and explains that she is going with Lucky to the ball. Later, Zander runs into Monica and Alan. They tell him Emily isn't there yet. He tells them he knows and that Emily is coming with Lucky to the ball. Nikolas shows up dressed like a pirate and says hi to Monica and Alan. Monica mentions how he was a hero during the storm when he saved a woman from drowning. Nikolas acts modest and tells them anyone would have done the same in his shoes. Zander just rolls his eyes at Nikolas' modesty. Emily and Lucky show up. Emily goes over and hugs her parents. Lucky advises Zander and Nikolas to give Emily her space and that is why she agreed to go with him tonight instead of one of them because he is a mutual friend who can be more objective. He tells them to back off of Emily.

At G.H. Alcazar waits around hoping for Sonny to leave Carly's bedside so he can see her. Marcella tells him that Sonny probably won't leave Carly's side anytime soon and that Alcazar should go back to his room and rest. Alcazar refuses to rest until he sees Carly alone. Sonny sits by Carly's bedside. Carly continues to dream about what her life would have been like if she hadn't ever been involved with Sonny and married him. She dreams that she is working at Kelly's and is dating Alcazar, who is a history professor and not a drug and arms dealer. She has a friendly chat with "Lily" and meets Sonny as an objective observer. Lorenzo Alcazar shows up at Kelly's with flowers in her dream and tells her he got tenure at Port Charles University. She is very happy and tells "Lily" about her "new boyfriend" and that he is the most popular professor at PCU and that he now reached tenure which means they can never fire him. She had dinner with Alcazar in her dream at his new place and they make love afterwards. Tony keeps checking on her brain activity and informs Sonny that she is still showing some brain activity with her dreaming but is concerned about her still being in a coma. Sonny asks him if she will wake up soon. Tony tells him that the longer Carly remains unconscious the bigger the risk that she won't ever wake up. Meanwhile, Jason and Courtney try to explain to Michael why Carly is still not awake yet. Later at G.H. Jason gets a call on his cellphone from Sammy Tagliati announcing that there is going to be a meeting of the five families later and that they would like Sonny to show up even though Carly is in the hospital. Jason thanks him for calling. He goes to the hospital to tell Sonny about the meeting. Sonny tells him he has no interest in doing business right now and that he can go in place of him tonight and do what he has to. Faith shows up at the hospital and asks Sonny and Jason about the meeting with the five families and what the agenda for the meeting is going to be. Jason and Sonny refuse to tell her anything and Sonny warns her to stay away from him and not to go near Carly's room ever again. Faith tells him she got the message and leaves. She goes and finds Alcazar to ask him to let her go to that meeting with the five families and represent his interests tonight. He tells her that he doesn't trust her since she went to Sonny and helped him against him and that she needs to stay away from him before he decides to get rid of her himself. Faith storms off. Jason goes home and tells Courtney that he has to attend a meeting tonight. Courtney notices that he is carrying his gun and worries for his safety. He kisses her goodbye and leaves. He gets to the meeting and explains to them that Sonny refuses to leave his wife's side right now and that he came to represent Sonny's interests. They tell him they are concerned about Sonny's rivalry with Alcazar and how the police and FBI are interested and that worries them. Faith shows up without being invited. They tell her she isn't welcome there and has their men escort her out of the warehouse. She is approached by some men outside. She nods her head at them as signal to follow her plan. They get their guns out and ready. They enter the warehouse and open fire on the leaders of the five families. Jason ducks down under the table when he sees them enter the warehouse. Sonny leaves Carly's side and heads over to the chapel to pray for her. He tells God Carly's life is in his hands now and that there is nothing he can do for her. He prays for her and lights some candles. Faith shows up at the chapel and sits behind Sonny. She tells him that the leaders of the five families are all dead including Jason and that now she runs the territories. Sonny doesn't respond. Jason gets shot and lays on the floor of the warehouse after getting a few shots in himself. Meanwhile, Alcazar visits Carly in her room when he sees that Sonny isn't there. He sits and holds her hands and asks her to wake up for her boys so she can raise and protect them. He also tells her he needs her and that he wants the chance to have a life with her if he can. Carly still dreams about Alcazar and then surprises him when she squeezes his hand.

Emily ends up dancing with Zander at the masquerade ball. Nikolas watches them dance. Lydia comes over and tells Nikolas to give it up and realize that Emily is in love with Zander. Nikolas cuts in on the dance. Monica senses there may be trouble and asks Ned what they should do. Ned agrees to keep an eye on things and intervene if necessary. Later, Nikolas and Emily end up leaving the room to be alone and kiss. Emily tells him she can't lie to herself and him anymore and admits that she is in love with him. He tells her he loves her too. She takes off though. He finds her later at the cottage. He tells her that he is now free to love her because his divorce was finalized today and takes off his wedding ring. Meanwhile, Zander is dismayed to find that both Emily and Nikolas disappeared together from the party. Monica doesn't know where she went. Meanwhile, Jax, Sam, Dillon, Georgie, AJ, and Skye watch while the magician reveals the "dead man's hands" to all of them and then makes himself disappear in a cloud of smoke. Jax tells Skye he needs her help to find the magician. Sam goes off to look to see where the magician disappeared to. Dillon learns that Luke stole the cards from Sam. Skye runs into Ned and tells him she is looking for the magician that was at the party. They see a man with a magician costume on with his back to them on the terrace. Jax grabs him thinking he is Luke. It turns out to be the messenger who sent them the invitations to the private auction. He hands them cards that say for them all to meet at Luke's Club. They all go there to find Luke waiting for them. He invites them all in for his private auction of the cards. He asks someone to start the bidding war. Dillon starts it by yelling out $1 million. AJ continues it. Jax reluctantly adds on another money wager and he ends up in a bidding war with AJ and Sam. Jax reminds Sam that she doesn't have any money. She tells him that she can raise $5 million by playing poker any time and win that kind of money. Jax continues on. Dillon tries to add on. AJ asks him where he is getting that kind of money. Dillon tells him his mother Tracy will pay for it. However, as the bidding gets more into the multi-million dollar range, Dillon puts his stick down and stops wagering. Jax keeps upping the wager until it gets to $10 million. AJ wants to continue but Skye interrupts and reminds AJ that he needs Edward's approval to spend all that kind of money and makes a plea for Jax's father, who really needs the cards and he shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to get what belongs to his father anyway. Luke tells her to stop interfering and tells her to sit down. Jax gets the cards for $10 million. Jax pockets the cards. Sam saddles up to him and starts to act like nothing happened with their partnership. Jax tells her he has no interest in conducting business with her and tells her to go away. Suddenly, some gas comes out of the vent and everyone starts to fall to the floor, unconscious. A man in what looks like an astronaut suit comes in and takes the cards and leaves them all there.

Courtney gets the baby to sleep and accidentally hits the remote control for the TV. when she sits on the chair where the remote is resting. The TV. turns on because of it and Courtney hears about some shooting incident at the warehouse and how it looks like a massacre. Courtney starts to really worry about Jason. Faith's men continue to shoot up the warehouse. They are about to make sure that Jason is finished off when they hear sirens coming closer and take off before they are caught. Courtney shows up to the warehouse and sees all these bodies covered in white sheets. She peaks at one of them to see if it is Jason but it isn't. A cop comes in and tells her she can't be there since it is a crime scene. Courtney argues with the cop that she is looking for her husband and needs to find out if he is dead. The cop feels bad for her but wants her to leave the warehouse. She gets hysterical and starts to get past him to check any of the bodies. Lucky comes in with his police uniform and takes over for the cop. He tells her that Jason could be dead and may have started this shooting to begin with. Courtney tells him that Jason wasn't suppose to be at the meeting and that Sonny was. She ends up going home. Meanwhile, Faith finds Sonny in the chapel. She tells him that she got rid of the leaders of the five families and even had Jason killed and that now she runs his territory too. Sonny gets up and warns her to watch it. Her two goons grab Sonny so he can't go after Faith. Faith tells him that he better start showing her more respect or he will be dead just like his enforcer, Jason. She threatens to make his family disappear if he doesn't agree to cooperate with her and work for her now. Sonny feels helpless to stop her right now and soon leaves the chapel. He tries to reach Jason but can't. He decides to use the phone at the nurses' station. He is about to call and find out about the shootings. He hears Jason's voice. He turns around. Jason explains that he was wearing his bullet-proof vest tonight and wasn't hurt. Sonny fills him in on Faith being behind the shooting. Alcazar comes out and tells the nurse that he thinks Carly is starting to come back from her coma. Sonny overhears him and he and Jason enquire about what he is doing in her hospital room. Tony comes over and checks out Carly. He tells Sonny that she may or may not be dreaming and that when she squeezed Alcazar's hand, it was just a reflex. Tony takes Carly's hand and asks her to squeeze it if she can hear him. He gets no response. He warns them that Carly may have more brain damage than they think and won't know the extent of the damage to her brain until she wakes up, which she may never do. Sonny tells Jason that he needs to get rid of that "bitch" meaning Faith now. Sonny tells Alcazar to stay away from his wife's room. Alcazar tells him that he would never hurt Carly and that he should be stopping him from being near her after what he did. Sonny takes off to deal with Faith. Jason returns home. Courtney is upset and crying, thinking that Jason could be dead or seriously wounded. Jason calls out her name when he gets home. Courtney flies into his arms. She tells him she was worried he was dead and had to go there to see if he was killed. Jason asks her not to do things like that again and assures her that he was wearing his bullet-proof vest. Courtney tells him she now knows why Sonny was so against them getting together at one time because he was afraid she would end up being alone and he would get himself killed. Jason looks at her in concern and grabs and holds her. Faith shows up at the masquerade ball, dressed as Medusa. Ned sees her and makes a comment about how she looks happy about something and asks her if she turned any men into stone recently. She smiles and says she kind of did that tonight. She stands on the terrace near the balcony and drinks. Sonny grabs her from behind. He puts a gun to her neck and tells her that she and her men messed things up and that she was overconfident. He tells her that she only managed to kill the leaders of the five families but failed to kill him or Jason, who he informs her is very much alive. Faith tells him that she never wanted Jason or him dead and was only trying to scare him. She offers to help him as a partner and run the territories while he stays with Carly and his children. Sonny can't shoot her and lets her go. He returns home and tells Jason that he couldn't shoot Faith when he had the perfect opportunity to do it. He tells Jason that he is out of the organization right now. Meanwhile, Carly continues to dream about having a life with Alcazar and marrying him. A tear comes down her face after she dreams about marrying Alcazar.