Threats

This will have a second part. It's set a few months ago... just never got around to finishing it... GH isn't mine. Enjoy.

Part 1

"If you hurt them… I'll kill you." He hadn't said the words lightly. They had been a threat and he meant every word of them. When it came to the people he cared about, his family, they knew he'd fight to the death to keep them safe. Though he'd been talking to Sam when he said it, it applied to anyone and everyone.

So, when he returned home to find Spinelli missing in action, he started to worry. He shrugged it off at first, figuring he'd probably just gone to hang out with Lulu or Georgie or someone else his own age. But, when three a.m. came and went, he knew something was wrong.

He checked the rooms one more time to be sure, and he'd just poked his head in their room when there was a loud pouncing on the door.

Okay, that wasn't Spinelli. He had a key.

He drew his gun and went back downstairs. "Who's there?" He demanded, and upon hearing no response, he flung the door open. He saw no one in the hallway, except Spinelli. The younger man was lying on the floor, a bloodied mess, and he also looked to be unconscious.

Jason cleared the hallway completely before he put away the firearm and leaned over his friend. "Hey… Hey, Spinelli!" He gently shook the injured man, realizing that it wasn't going to have any effect. "Damn it!" He cursed, moving inside long enough to grab his cell phone and a jacket, dialing a familiar number, and demanding Max to bring the car around -now-.

The younger man groaned in protest when Jason lifted him easily into his arms, carrying him onto the elevator. He mashed the button to the ground floor impatiently, glad it wasn't as testy as the one at the hospital and the elevator sputtered to life, taking them down.

"Spin…" He said loudly, hoping to wake the younger, but it was pointless. The second the doors slid open he was out of them, crossing the buildings lobby to the doors where Max was waiting.

"What happened?" The loyal guard questioned, opening the back door for his employer before climbing in himself.

"Hospital. Now." Jason offered, slamming the door shut as the car peeled out. Spinelli's head rested in his lap, the sandy brown hair caked with blood and dirt. He stared down at the blackened eye, bloodied lip, and finally began to take in the amount of damage done to his friend, his lover.

From what he could see, the boy was bruised on just about very inch of exposed skin, an arm was bent awkwardly to an extreme angle, and he stopped looking after that.

The car skidded to a stop a moment later, in front of the emergency room entrance to General Hospital, and Jason was carrying Spinelli toward the doors before the car was even in park.

"I need some help!" He yelled, trying to get someone's attention in the busy room.

Robin approached quickly, having spotted him as she stepped off the elevator. "Jason?" Her eyes fell to the figure lying in his arms and she was off. "I need a gurney over here!"

One of the student nurses brought a bed over and Jason cautiously laid the younger upon it, watching helplessly, as it was wheeled away.

He tried to follow, but another nurse stopped him. Then he tried to protest, but she threatened to have him removed from the hospital if he tried anything. So he backed off, forcing himself to go sit in the waiting area, his eyes on the doors they'd taken Spinelli through.

Jason was fuming, his mind going over everything that had happened so far. Was it Logan? Or Sam? Or Zacchara? Which one had been responsible for this? He didn't know. He doubted Logan would do this much damage just to keep Lulu to himself. Sam seemed to have listened to his threat for the moment. But, Zacchara couldn't know how close he was to Spinelli.

The ringing of his cell phone told him that Max had informed Sonny of what had happened. "Hello?" He snapped into the receiver, not in the mood to deal with his friend at the moment.

"What's going on? Max told me you took Spinelli to the hospital. Did Zacchara make a move?"

"I don't know," Was Jason's simple reply. He recounted what he knew so far to his friend, explaining what had happened. "I'll call you when I know something." He promised, and ended the call before Sonny could reply.

He slumped further down into the chair he'd been occupying, running a hand over his face in exasperation. It had only been a few moments, but it felt like decades to him. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back.

When he opened them again, Robin was standing over him. "Oh, you're awake." She observed.

"I fell asleep?" He had no idea how he'd managed to get any rest knowing that Spinelli was hurt. He glanced at his watch; it had been over an hour. "Is…?"

"He's good." She assured him. "Still out though."

Jason nodded. "How bad is he?"

"Broken arm. Broken ribs, he's lucky he didn't collapse a lung. He's bruised up pretty badly, a few scratches. We had to pump his stomach, too. It looks like he was drugged." She explained, motioning for him to follow her.

Robin led him down a series of hallways and turns, finally stopping at a door marked '108'. "Can I stay?"

"I'll make sure the staff knows you're not to be asked to leave. I've already cleared it."

"Thanks." He nodded, gripping the door handle.

"Can I ask what happened?"

"I honestly don't know. Someone left him out in the hall like that… He didn't come home. I was worried." He admitted, as he moved into the room, situating himself in the chair beside the bed.

Robin smiled softly; glancing at the vitals quickly before turning toward the door, knowing Jason wanted to be alone. "Oh!" She stopped. "I forgot to tell you… one of the nurses… called the police before I could stop her. So, you might be getting a visit from them soon."

"Fantastic." He groaned in response, eyes falling on the injured figure lying in the bed. He needed to talk to Spinelli before anyone else did. "How long will he be out?"

"Another hour or so, maybe. I'm sorry."

He shook his head, letting her know he didn't think she was to blame. Once she was gone, he took Spinelli's hand in his, shifting closer to the bed, taking in the damage again. The blood was gone now, leaving bruises and scrapes in its wake. His bottom lip was swollen from the gash on it, and his left eye was swollen shut as well. A plaster cast wrapped in blue tape was fitted around Spinelli's right arm.

"You're not going to be able to type for a while…" Jason observed aloud. The blanket hid the rest of the injuries and he was rather glad for that fact. There was nothing he could do until his friend was awake, so he pulled out his cell phone to call Sonny.

After three rings, Sonny's voice reached his ears. "He okay?"

"Pretty beaten up, still asleep, but out of the woods. When I find whoever did this…" He growled into the device.

"Hey, not so fast. If it was Zacchara we need a plan of action before you go off half cocked on me." Sonny scolded him. "Call me when you have something."

And with that phone call ended, he was out of things to do until Spinelli woke up. He leaned back in the chair again, his hand still covering the others as he waited.

It was another forty minutes before Spinelli did wake up, and Jason had fallen asleep again. The younger man's good eye fluttered open, coupled with a groan of pain when he realized where he was. He looked down, spotting the cast immediately. "No…" He gasped in shock. He tried to move his other arm, but it seemed to be stuck in place. 'Oh no, I'm paralyzed!' His mind screamed at him, but when he focused enough to actually look at it, he realized he couldn't move it because Jason was holding onto it. "Stone Cold?"

The familiar voice he'd been listening for all morning finally reached his ears and he quickly pulled himself back into consciousness. "You're awake."

"Yeah. How'd I get here?"

"Found you outside the Penthouse." Jason explained, moving to sit on the edge of the bed. "Who did this?"

Spinelli tried to take a deep breath, but ended up cringing in pain. "Why does it hurt to breathe?" He managed, forcing himself to sit up straighter, despite the pain. "Correction: why does everything hurt?"

Robin and Patrick stepped into the room, then, having been passing by the room and hearing voices. "You're awake." Patrick noted, again checking the charts and vitals. "And doing well."

"Yeah… " Spinelli replied, repeating his question, and Robin again explained his injuries.

"The police will be by soon. They'll want to know what happened." Patrick informed the computer hacker, who was still absorbing the list of injuries.

Jason shrugged at that. He needed to talk to Spinelli and find out what happened before the cops did. "How long does he have to stay?"

"He's not showing signs of a concussion or any internal injuries, but we need to watch him a while longer to be sure. Maybe tonight." Robin told them, following Patrick as they left the room.

"I need to know what happened." Jason said, reclaiming his spot beside Spinelli.

Spinelli bit his lip, then let up, deciding that wasn't the best of ideas. "I… I don't know."

Jason covered the other's hand with his own. "Nothing? Nothing at all?" Spinelli shook his head. "if it was Logan, or one of Sam's goons, or Zacchara… you need to tell me." Normally, his personality would have allowed the person on the receiving end of this conversation to tell the story when he felt up to it. But this was too important. Whoever had done this had gone after Spinelli. And Jason was not going to just sit around and…

"The Jackal has become rather tuned in to Stone cold's facial expressions… and… you're doing it again."

"Doing what?" He looked up, confused.

"That… that thing. Where your plotting someone's demise without knowing all the facts or thinking it through." Spinelli replied, forcing himself to sit up a little straighter.

Jason couldn't exactly deny that. Because that was exactly what he'd been doing. He let out a sign, running a hand over his face and through his hair. "You're right." He admitted, finally, after a moment of silence. "Except, by process of elimination, I have a pretty good guess on who did this. Logan wouldn't go this far, it wouldn't benefit him. And Sam wouldn't pull this after the warning I gave her. Which leaves…"

"The Denizen of Darkness." Spinelli finished, employing his new nickname for the other mob boss.