Part One
Gia wished she had left her mothers a few hours ago. It was nearly midnight and she was walking by herself towards the docks of Port Charles. Not exactly the best place to be for a female, helpless or not. She pulled her sweater tighter and descended the stairs to catch the launch. She had called from her mothers explaining she would be there in ten minutes and it should be waiting for her. She cursed a little when she saw it midway in the harbor. She would have to wait another five minutes or so before she could board it to safety of Wyndemere.
She wished Nikolas were there. He could at least calm her nerves a little. But he was in London, visiting his mother. He had called her the day before saying he was thinking of extending his trip for a few more days and even was thinking of visiting Stefan in Milan before coming home. Oh well, she had been without him for a week already. What were a few more days?
"YOU FOOL!"
Gia's head shot up and to the left. Down the pier, in the darkness, Gia could barely make out the figures of two men. She squinted a little and bit her lip. What was that guy's name? Always wearing bad suits…hangs around the docks…come on think, she commanded herself. "Alcazar." She whispered. Not one to be afraid of anything but not one to be stupid either, Gia knew that she was in a bad spot. Stupid launch, why can the damn thing be on time?
"YOU LET HER ESCAPE!"
Oh Lord, Gia thought. This situation went from being bad to worse. She almost wanted to stomp her feet in anticipation as the launch slowly inched closer. She bit her lip again to keep from making any noise. So far, Alcazar and his 'goon' hadn't noticed her.
At first, Gia didn't know that the loud noise she heard was a shot. She jumped and gave a little yelp. Then it hit her…a gun had went off. Immediately, her head turned to the only other occupants on the docks that night. Further down the pier, she saw that Alcazar was the only one standing. He shot the other man!
Gia's instinct was to bolt…and never one to not go with her instincts; she turned on her heels and flew up the stairs. She hoped to all things mighty that he hadn't heard her boots hitting the wood. Now she was running through the warehouse district. Where the hell was she going? She needed to slow down and think…on the other hand, she needed to run like hell just in case he had seen her. Well, you can't do both Gia; she scolded herself as she turned the corner to wedge herself between two buildings.
Alright brain…think. You just saw a man murdered by a psycho in a really bad suit. What do you do? Gia's eyes suddenly flashed with recognition. You go to your big brother…because he's a cop.
She waited a few more moments to catch her breath. Marcus would be at the station right now. She was a few more blocks to go and there was no way she felt comfortable running them. She wanted to be with people…lots of them. She needed to get to a phone. Peeking her head around the corner she surveyed the street. For once, luck was with her. Jake's! It was further along down the street. Now that she was calmed down a little, she realized she could hear the music coming from the bar.
When she was sure she couldn't see anyone, or more specifically Alcazar, she inched out onto the sidewalk. She started a brisk walk towards the bar. She didn't even hear the newcomer sneak up behind her.
An arm wrapped around her waist and before she could scream a hand covered her mouth. Following her instincts yet again, Gia bit down…hard!
"OW!" The hand pulled away but quickly replaced itself. "Look, I'm only trying to help. We need to get off the street quickly. I'll take my hand away if you don't scream."
Gia nodded and the hand moved. She wiggled a little and landed on her feet. Turning she locked eyes with a familiar set of blue ones. "Jason!" She hissed.
"No time to talk." Jason grabbed her hand and pulled her along the street. She tried to protest but for some reason it made him walk faster. He pushed open the door of Jake's and pulled her inside.
Gia stopped short. Jake's seemed to be full of disgusting old men tonight. "Hey!" She cried when Jason gave her a little shove. He pushed across the bar and towards the stairs. "What the hell is going on?"
Jason ignored her and nodded to Jake. A key was tossed through the air, which Jason caught. He started up the stairs and looked back at Gia. "Come on!"
One of the men hooted. "SCORE!"
Gia did her best to ignore it. She crossed her arms, arched her eyebrows and looked at Jason. Her feet were planted to the ground at the bottom of the stairs.
Jason groaned a little, and reached down gently grabbing her arm and pulling her up the stairs.
"What the hell gives you the right to manhandle me?" Gia asked once they were standing outside the same door she had burst through a few years ago.
"I'm saving your life, alright?" Jason opened the door and moved out of the way so she could walk in. She brushed past him and turned to face him as he locked the door and door behind him.
"Do you know that half the men down there think we are up here hitting the sheets?" Gia exploded. "Like I would come to some bar and crawl under the dingy sheets…" She glanced at the grey material covering the single bed. "They probably haven't been changed in months!"
"What people think is not important right now." Jason said. "You saw it all."
Gia turned a little pale. She knew exactly what he was talking about. "I did…" She managed to say. "He shot…"
"I was there too." Jason admitted. "On the other side of them. I'm supposed to follow him. I saw you. He saw you."
"Are you sure?" Gia asked feeling a slight bolt of fear go through her.
"You shouldn't have run." Jason told her. "You're boots sound like a herd of elephants. He looked your way as soon as you turned to run."
"But I couldn't stay there." Gia pointed out. "What if he had looked around to make sure no one saw him?"
"You're lucky I was there." Jason said.
Gia wanted to roll her eyes but didn't think it was the appropriate time. "Do you have a phone?" He pulled out a cell phone. She reached for it but he pulled it away. "Okay if I ask you for a phone, you have to assume it's because I need to use it."
"Who are you calling?" Jason asked.
What are you my father? Gia thought. "Don't worry. It's not long distance. I want to speak to my brother. I was coming here in the first place to call him. I knew he could help. That was before you practically dragged me off the street. You're lucky I don't carry a tazer or something."
"You can't call Taggert."
"And why not?" Gia demanded reaching for the phone again. He held it high above his head and Gia knew she would feel like a child if she began to jump for it.
"Taggert is a cop, and I know you trust him. But there are other cops on the force that work for men like Alcazar. He could find out that you're at the police station like that…" He snapped his fingers. "And then you'd be in heaps of trouble."
"Alright. If I call Marcus and tell him that this needs to stay between us, I'm sure he'll agree. He'll want to keep me safe." Gia pointed out.
"No cops."
"You can't prevent me from calling my own brother. If I can't use your cell phone then I'll use the payphone downstairs." She started towards the door and met with the solid wall of Jason's chest. "Look, this isn't funny anymore."
Before Jason could answer, the cell phone in question ran. He flipped it open and spoke. "Yeah. I know I was supposed to check in but something came up. It's bad, Sonny." He started to explain what had happened. "She saw it all Sonny."
"HELLO!" Gia cried, waving her arms around. "I'm right here. You really don't need to talk about me like I'm not in the room. Tell Sonny I said 'Hi', will you?"
Jason just glared. "The safe house…good idea. Send the car to behind Jake's. We'll be waiting."
"We'll?" Gia repeated after he had hung up. "We'll? I don't think so. I'm going to find my brother. Get the hell out of my way."
"No." Jason said simply.
"I'll scream!" Gia threatened.
Jason just crossed his arms. "Really?" He said. "I would think you wouldn't want the men downstairs to think you're having fun. Wouldn't screaming sound like you were really enjoying yourself?"
Gia's eyes widened. "Look, buddy, I doubt I'd ever *scream* with you."
Jason just ignored her and looked at his watch. Five minutes later, he cracked open the door making sure that no one else was in the hallway. "Come on."
"No."
"Gia!" Jason cried, getting frustrated. "Please just come with me."
Gia followed him out into the hall and back downstairs. He checked to make sure no one from Alcazar's crew was in the bar. Satisfied, he nodded to Gia. She stepped out into the bar.
The same man from before clapped. "Gives new meaning to the word quickie!"
Gia felt her blood boil. "Look you sick son of…"
Jason pulled her towards the back entrance. "Come on!"
"I'm not going anywhere with you." Gia cried pulling her arm away. "Keep your damn hands off me."
Jason thought he was literally going to snap. He reached down and grabbed Gia around the waist, throwing her over his shoulder.
"HEY!" Gia began to beat on his back. "PUT ME DOWN! THIS IS KIDNAPPING!"
He kicked open the back door and was relieved to see the black car waiting for them. Johnny hoped out and opened the back door. He gave a quizzical look when Gia was thrown unceremoniously into the back seat.
Gia tried to pull herself together before the door slammed shut. She crawled off the floor and reached for the handle. It wouldn't open. "Whose idea was it to childproof this damn car?" She screamed in frustration as she kicked the window. Bullet proof so therefore Prada heel proof. She screamed again in frustration. "This is kidnapping. You're both going to jail!"
Either they couldn't hear her or didn't care because the car roared to life, speeding away with its protesting passenger.
****
After awhile Gia had given up. For the first twenty minutes she tried to guess which way the car was going. She figured she had a better chance of finding her way home if she knew what direction she was going in. But the car made so many turns that she lost track. At one point it had come a complete stop and passenger door had slammed shut. She had braced herself, ready to attack but instead the car took off again. Where the hell was she going?
Then she tried to calm herself down. She couldn't get so upset. But between seeing a man murdered and being manhandled by Jason Morgan, all she wanted to do was crawl under the sheets of her bed at Wyndemere.
She could tell that the car was driving over a dirt road now. She could hear the gravel crunching under the tires. A few minutes later the car came to a complete stop. The driver got out and opened the door. He stood next to the door and waited for her to crawl out.
Gia crossed her arms and looked straight ahead. "Johnny is it? Well, Johnny, I think you should know you have just participated in the kidnapping of Deception's signature model. This is probably all over the news now."
Johnny smiled more to himself. He liked her already. She was spunky. He liked spunky. "Would you follow me please?"
She groaned and got out of the car. She knew they were in the middle of woods. He had parked the car directly in front of a stone building. It almost appeared to look like a shed. "You want me to go in there?" He opened the door and let Gia look inside. It was an empty shed. She watched as he lifted the floor up. Her eyes widened when she saw a staircase leading underground. "Where does that lead? Hell?"
Johnny couldn't help it. He laughed. Descending the stairs, he made sure she followed him to door at the bottom. Opening it, he ushered the annoyed model inside.
Gia looked around the room. It had a couch, a table with some chairs and the ugliest green walls she had ever seen. "I was right…this is hell." She turned to Johnny. "Martha Stewart…get a few flower arrangements and pictures and this place would almost be cute. Oh and some new paint!" Suddenly something clicked. "Where's your boss?"
"Sonny is at home with his wife." Johnny said.
"No." Gia reworded her question. "You're other boss. Jason?"
"Jason's not my boss." Johnny told her.
"You know I took Mob 101 at Columbia? Unfortunately, I was sick the day of the hierarchy of command lecture. You want to explain to me why Jason isn't your boss yet you take orders from him?" Gia asked.
"Because I respect him." Johnny answered sitting in the nearby chair.
Gia looked around the tiny room. There were two doors at one end. She pointed to them.
"Bathroom and bedroom." Johnny said.
"Oh good." Gia sighed in relief. "For a moment I thought I was going to have to rough it and go outside to use the bathroom." She screwed her face up. "That would just be gross." She settled herself on the couch. "No TV or stereo huh?"
Johnny just shook his head.
"Well, if I would have known I was going to be kidnapped I would have brought my Cosmo. There is a really good article in there I wanted to read…1001 Ways to Make Your Man Go Cross-eyed." She looked down at her nails, absent mindedly picking away at a few chips in the paint. Groaning a little, she leaned against the couch. It was going to be a long night…
****
Looking at her watch, Gia realized it was close to three in the morning. Johnny was alert as ever and Gia was starting to get annoyed with him. He was playing solitaire on the table. He had invited her to play cards with him but she passed. She had investigated the bathroom and bedroom and decided the living room was a masterpiece compared to the tiny rooms. Now all her mind was on was the fact that she wanted to get to her brother. She knew that in their own screwed up way, Jason and Johnny were just trying to protect her but she would feel a lot more at ease with Marcus. She eyed the door trying to figure out if she needed a key or something to open it. She knew it locked from the inside…so no one invited could come in. Standing up and shaking off the drowsiness, she sat down across from Johnny, who briefly looked up and then went back to playing his game.
"So, you're a bodyguard, huh?" Gia began. "Wow, interesting line of work. I bet you see lots of action. Carry a gun?"
"Yeah." Johnny mumbled.
"Bet you're real good in tense situations. You probably are the best at what you do." Gia said. She was trying to sweet talk him into trusting her but her efforts were going unnoticed. She drummed her fingers on the table. "When you're not watching Sonny's ass what are you doing?"
"Stuff." Johnny shrugged. His life wasn't very exciting to tell the truth.
"Slow down. I'm trying to keep up." Gia remarked, glancing at the door again. Maybe she could hotwire the car…She shook her head. Hotwire a car? She hadn't the sweetest clue where to start and she was beginning to think she couldn't charm Johnny into giving the keys to her.
Johnny stood up. "Be right back." He said disappearing into the bathroom.
"Thank you nature." Gia cried rushing to the door. Her hand found the mechanical lock and she almost giggled in glee when it opened. Up the stairs and out the shed…into the darkness.
She had never been outside in the pitch black. Both Brooklyn and Port Charles were lit. She couldn't even see the stars because of the canopy of tree tops. She felt her way to the car as her eyes adjusted to the dark.
"Gia!" Johnny's voice pierced through the darkness. "Come on!"
She bit her lip and crouched down with the car between Johnny and her.
"Look, I'm not going to hurt you or anything." Johnny announced, his feet crunching on the dead leaves.
"I know that doofus." Gia cried. "I just want to see my brother. Forgive me for not exactly liking the current surroundings. The company is nice but the location is the pits."
"Question: Where are you going to go, Gia?" Johnny asked. "I can tell you right now that this dirt road is 5 miles long. Are you going to walk them?"
"You could just give me the keys to this shiny car." Gia said moving around the car to stay on the opposite side as Johnny.
"No can do." Johnny said, wanting to laugh at the outrageousness of the situation but at the same time respecting that fact that Gia was tired and had been through enough already. A slight chuckle did manage to escape his lips.
Gia froze, crouched down behind the truck. "Are you laughing at me?"
"I can't help it." Johnny admitted. "It's three in the morning. We are in the middle of no where. It's totally dark out and your inching yourself around the bottom of the car. Maybe I'm tired…but that's damn funny!"
Gia stood up whirling around a few times until she could make Johnny out. "I don't find it funny." She huffed. "You really won't help me get out of here."
"No for two reasons. One, I'll get fired. Two, Alcazar is probably just waiting to pounce on you so you're safer here for now." Johnny opened the door to the shed. "You coming back inside?"
"What choice to I have?" Gia asked. "You'd probably chase me if I ran."
"No, I would help you up as soon as you tripped over the nearest branch." Johnny told her as they descended the stairs. "This will all be over soon. Why don't you just sleep?"
"Good idea." Gia went into the bedroom and closed the door. She was about to sit on the bed when she heard a scraping noise. "OH YOU DIDN'T!" She pushed on the door. It wouldn't budge. "Johnny! You put a damn chair in front of the door."
"Forgive me for not trusting you won't try something again." Johnny said settling onto the couch. "Just go to bed."
"Look, Johnny, I got tic tacs. You can have the whole container if you let me out." Gia said.
"No can do."
"Autographs for your kids?" Gia suggested.
"I have none."
"A sexy guy like you…"
"Go to bed…"
"Johnny." Gia said as she sat down on the bed. "You really are a doofus."
