Ghoz - all good points and answers.

My guess is Ric dies or somehow leaves and then Jason will return. Since Jason died, all of his enemies have come back and all tried to get romantic with Elizabeth - Nik, AJ, Ric.

None of them succeeded romantically since Elizabeth's heart beats for Jason. She cannot give herself fully to them. Jason's heart beats for Elizabeth. When he was with Courtney and Ho he said that he could not be their whole world. Yet when he was seeing Elizabeth he wanted to be her whole world and put Mob business on the back burner to the point of walking out in the middle of a conversation with Sonny to go see Elizabeth.

thanks GQfan4E for the avatar