General Hospital recap for Tuesday, March 25: Ava's pleas for cash break Sonny's heart

Ava tracked Lucas down at GH to beg him for money. "Your father must have left you some kind of inheritance," she surmised. But Lucas said that Julian hadn't left him anything. Ava wondered if Julian had any money in an off-shore account. "Even if there was, you couldn't pay me to touch that money," Lucas said.

"It's not for me, Lucas. I need to be able to pay off my debts so I can support my daughter," Ava said. Lucas still claimed that there was nothing he could do for his "favorite aunt".

Kristina stopped by Sonny's place to tell her dad that Ava was flat broke. Sonny was surprised to learn that Ava went to Alexis begging for money. "Dad, Ava showed her hand. She is desperate. Now is your chance. You have to fight to get custody of Avery," Kristina insisted.

Sonny didn't seem keen on going to court again, which Kristina claimed to understand. Sonny mainly just humored Kristina and said he would think about what she had just told him. When Sonny mentioned that Donna was there, Kristina went to play with her little sister. Once Sonny was alone in the living room, he opened the door to find Ava standing there.

Ava got straight to the point and asked for more child support. "How much does Avery need? About as much as you need to pay your debt to the IRS?" Sonny wondered. "If you want to ask for money for yourself, just have the guts to ask me instead of hiding behind our daughter," he added.

Sonny could only chuckle when Ava asked him for $2 million. Ava promised to pay back every penny, plus interest. Sonny agreed to lend Ava the money on one condition — they revisit the custody arrangement. Ava thought they had just settled all that. Sonny suggested that Ava only have Avery two weekends a month. "Over my dead body," Ava simply said.

The two began to argue and snipe at one another, with Ava accusing Sonny of being a bad father for not visiting Michael in a German burn clinic. The argument devolved into a shouting match, with Sonny bringing up Morgan and Connie's deaths. Suddenly, Sonny had chest pains and collapsed to the floor.

Ava was immediately alarmed until she saw the bottle of pills fall from Sonny's pocket. "My, my, my lookie here," she said with a small grin. "You need those?"

Liz popped into Carly's room to find her packing her bags for her release. Carly was ready to check herself out AMA, so Liz wanted to get Lucas to sign the paperwork. Carly asked her not to so she wouldn't get another lecture about Jack. However, Liz also thought that Carly needed to be careful.

"Being poisoned really sucked, but all this well-intentioned advice might be worse. How I move forward is up to me, no one else," Carly said. Liz finally gave up and let Carly go.

Carly's first stop was Jack's office. He immediately told her that she should be recuperating in the hospital. Jack wouldn't even let Carly get a word in edgewise, saying, "I know already why you came here. I know you want to end things. You almost died because of me. I don't blame you for it, but please just give me a second to tell me something."

Carly interrupted him. "Instead of telling me why I'm here, let me tell you," she said. Carly warned Jack that Jason was after him. "He's decided that from here on out, whatever happens to me is going to happen to you too," Carly said. Jack shrugged it off because he wasn't scared of Jason. Carly claimed that he should be.

"I don't care about Jason. All I care about is you. I care about you and what happened to me because of you," he said, before explaining the hard and lonely life of being a WSB agent. He then added, "I need you, Carly."

Carly told Jack that she had no plans to walk away. "I want to know whatever this...us...is," Carly said. "I don't want to overthink things. I want dive in and explore every minute with you. I need you, too," she added. They then sealed things with a kiss.

After Vaughn punched her in the face as part of her WSB training, Josslyn slowly got off the floor and announced she had no plans to quit. "Sorry to disappoint," she said before kicking Vaughn in the chest and falling to the floor again with ankle pain.

As Vaughn looked at Joss' ankle, she admitted that it had been bothering her for several days. Joss claimed she never said anything about it because she wasn't in the mood to be called a "whining baby." Vaughn advised Joss to ask for help the next time she was hurt.

Ric approached Liz at the nurses' station. She had summoned him, and he wanted to know why. Liz pulled Ric aside and said she was worried about Portia. Ric wondered why Liz was coming to him with her concerns about her friend. "Well, because the other day, you went to see Portia. And since the two of you aren't friends, I assumed you were wearing your attorney hat.

"Portia hired me. Portia has seen me in action and knows what a fantastic lawyer I am," Ric bragged, but he refused to tell Liz what Portia hired him for. That made Liz more nervous than ever. "How much trouble is she in?" Elizabeth asked. Ric wouldn't give specifics. "Let's just say my experience helping you with the board might help Portia if certain...details come to light," he said.

Liz said she understood what it was like to defend yourself against accusations when you're innocent. "Who says she's innocent?" Ric said under his breath before once again getting cryptic with Elizabeth. Ric then asked Liz for a favor. He wanted her to find out any patient lab records Portia might have had access to.

"I am her friend. I want to help, but tell me, how bad is this situation?" she asked "Bad enough to ruin her life," Ric replied.

Lulu stormed into Jack's office, demanding that he swear to her that Valentin was really on his way to Steinmauer. Jack swore that he had escorted Valentin on the plane himself. "If it were up to the WSB, he'd be dead," Jack said. Lulu wanted peace of mind that Valentin wouldn't show up and take Charlotte, but she still worried.

"What if the people who want Valentin dead use Charlotte as leverage? How do I protect my daughter?" she asked. Jack once again assured Lulu that she could relax.

Brook Lynn, Tracy, and Maxie met up in the Deception office. Brook Lynn was furious that Lulu was late for work. Maxie was annoyed because a spot had opened up on Home and Heart, but their TV spokeswoman was MIA. "Typical. Every time I pray that woman leaves our house, and when she finally does, it creates a problem," Tracy remarked before asking Brook Lynn how long her mother would be gone.

Brook Lynn told Tracy that Lois would be in Bensonhurst for at least a few days, but Tracy wasn't satisfied with that answer. "What's gotten into your mother?" she asked. Brook Lynn explained that Lois just wanted to spend more time with Gloria.

When Maxie left for a meeting, Tracy dug in. "It's not like your mother to take off without saying goodbye," Tracy pointed out. Brook Lynn shrugged it off, but Tracy knew (part of) the truth. "You had a fight. Your mother makes a production about going to the dentist, much less going home to her beloved Bensonhurst," she said.

Brook Lynn told Tracy it was just a disagreement. She didn't want to talk about it and asked Tracy to drop the subject. Tracy got the hint and backed down before walking out of the office. When Lulu showed up, Brook Lynn was relieved to see her assistant, but Lulu had an announcement. "I quit," she said.

Lulu claimed she had been thinking about quitting, but the visit from Chase sealed the deal. "He said everything you wanted him to when you sicced him on me," Lulu said. Brook Lynn defended herself, saying she had no idea that Chase planned to talk to Lulu.

Emma and Gio found Ned in the Q solarium and told him they had a plan to save the crypt. "What if you gave the city a different patch of land from a different part of the property in exchange for keeping the crypt exactly where it is?" Emma proposed.

Ned liked the plan but thought he had a better, yet similar, idea. He didn't reveal his idea, so Emma and Gio left the room. When Tracy arrived home, she told Ned that the two college students looked crushed, but she was more focused on other family matters.

"Lois and Brook Lynn had a bad dust-up," Tracy announced. Ned was curious as to the reason. Tracy said she was determined to find out what was behind it all. Ned hadn't even known that Lois was back in Brooklyn. He had sensed something off between Lois and Brook Lynn, but he was determined to respect his daughter's privacy. Tracy could only laugh at such an idea.

Ned then told Tracy his idea on how to deal with Drew. "Deploy the bombshell that he's been keeping from Willow," Ned said. "Ahh, that he's been sleeping with her mother," Tracy deduced. Still, Tracy felt that they needed to save that leverage as they might one day need to use it against Nina and not Drew. "We just have to wait for the right moment," Tracy said.