A/N: Hello readers! As many of you may know I've had a poll up for a while to see which story my readers would prefer when "Eyes Wide Shut" is finished but so far there have been very little votes and surprisingly an even number for the Jasam and Phick fics so I've decided to put the beginning of each story up so hopefully you readers will decide which one you want to read next. For those of you reading "Right To Be Wrong" that story will not be affected by these, my muse for that one is going strong. Anyways, hope this helps you to vote.

Disclaimer: I so never remember to put this up but you guys know, I do not own General Hospital or it's characters, etc... blah, blah, blah.

Also some dialogue is taken directly from the show in this to set the timeline up... enjoy!

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Prologue

Sam leaned against the wall, eyes closed as she listened intently to the sound of the footsteps making their way away from her. Once she was sure he was gone she allowed herself a moment of reprieve. She'd hoped he'd leave soon; it was the only way she'd get a chance to figure out how to escape this boat or at least escape Jerry's smug ranting about leaving her dead body or whatever would be left of it after the explosion to take the fall for his getaway. Either way, she was pleased that he was gone, at least for now. With a quick scan of her surroundings she began to get to work, maneuvering her body so she'd be able to reach the safety pin that was in place of the usual button on her pants so she could use it to dismantle the handcuffs placed snugly around her wrist. She was suddenly happy Jason had popped the button earlier. Jason. She sighed inwardly as the memories of what happened between them in the penthouse washed over her.

Sam took one last look at her leg to make sure the bleeding had stopped. "Hey," she glanced up at him quickly before pulling down her pant leg, adjusting it over her wound. "Why did you happen to be in the alley tonight?"

"I just went for a walk to get some fresh air," he returns a quick glance before staring straight ahead. "You know, I was at..." he stumbled over his words momentarily, "I was at Robin's wedding, and she went into labor at the altar, and they had to rush her to the E.R."

"Yeah," Sam paused briefly as she reached up, idly playing with the chain around her neck. "I heard about that. I think that's a pretty dramatic entrance for a kid to make." She hears him sigh heavily but continues with her original thought. "Hey, did she have a boy or a girl?"

For a moment she's unsure if he's going to answer but then when he does, she realizes what the pause was for. "She's having a girl. There were complications," his blue eyes flick to meet her brown and she knows he's thinking about the little girl they lost years ago. "When I left they were deciding whether or not to do an emergency C-section."

Sam takes a quick breath in, not wanting him to see the effect this news is having on her internally. "Wow; that must have been intense for you." She bites on her bottom lip awkwardly before his eyes meet hers in an intense gaze and suddenly she's speaking before she can think about it. "I still miss her everyday, one day she was safe inside of me and the next…" her eyes flicker to the floor as she's unable to finish. "That kind of pain never really goes away does it," she's not really asking him and is surprised when she hears him answering.

"No," he shakes his head. "It doesn't." He pauses for a moment as he allows himself to remember the baby that had captured both of their hearts and lead them to each other. "I still miss our little girl too."

Her head jerks up to look at him and she can tell he's as surprised he said it as she is hearing it. "You still think of her as our…" Sam shakes her head before suddenly springing up, no longer sure she wants to hear the answer. "I'm… nevermind, I have to go." She quickly moves around the back of the couch, "Thanks for the assist and again, sorry for pointing a gun at you."

"Sam…" he grabs her arm firmly before she makes it to the door, pulling her around to face him.

She timidly looks up at him and is overwhelmed by the amount of emotion in his eyes. She's unsure if it's because this thing with Robin's pregnancy has happened so close to the anniversary of their own baby's death coupled with the fact that they were almost just blown up but Sam suddenly feels like she's stepped back in time as his lips come crashing down on hers. The kiss is frenzied; filled with passion, adrenaline, and pain; and before Sam can get her bearings clothing is being discarded and Jason is suddenly thrusting into her on top of the desk.

Sam shook her head of the memory, focusing on the task at hand. She awkwardly lies as far on her back as she can with the cuffs placed behind her and attached through one of the bed posts, working her hands down as she bends her legs. She works her way to the side slightly, bringing her feet through the loop one at a time to get her arms in front of her and can finally reach for the safety pin. She uses the cuff to bend the end a few millimeters before inserting it into the lock between the notches and ratchet teeth, flexing her wrist with just the right finesse to shimmy the lock open. She smiles to herself before she hears the echo of footsteps making their way towards her before quickly getting back into position, hiding the open cuff behind her back. Sam's still a bit weak from whatever drug Jerry injected her with earlier and doesn't want to risk the chance of having to struggle with him and possibly losing.

"Hello," Jerry smiles upon entering. "I trust you weren't too bored in my absence."

"The peace and quiet has been kind of nice," she quips.

He nods, his tone as if it's just two old friends getting together to have a friendly conversation. "Oh, yes, a last moment of solitude to take stock of your life."

"Take me with you," she suddenly enjoys the lax banter now that she knows she'll be getting out of here soon, "please."

"Very tempting," he chuckles in his good natured way before giving a nonchalant shrug. "But, you know, self-preservation is a priority. You see, now I am going to start positioning the charges. You can watch me set up the timer." He begins to walk around the room and Sam's breath hitches in her throat, afraid he'll see her cuffs are loose. "You see, I have to be very precise because once the countdown is initiated, you can't stop it. Any attempt will trigger detonation, in case you are tempted to try."

Sam returns the laugh. "Well maybe I will, because at least I'll be able to take you with me." She offers him a small smile.

Jerry laughs again. "That's funny. You know, it would have been a terrible waste to have gone through all this trouble and die in my own explosion," Jerry pauses briefly. "It all worked out so beautifully. You know, I even had the foresight to leave several thousand dollars and a large shipment of drugs onboard to make it appear as if we were making our getaway."

Sam rolls her eyes. "You really think that people are going to believe that you're dead when there's no body? "

"Well, I'm relying on your lovely corpse to be convincing enough," he says as he walks out with one more charge. "But if you'll excuse me, I have a ship to explode. Thank you. Bye-bye." Jerry offers her one more smile before quickly shutting the door behind him with a thud.

The minute he was gone Sam was at the door, yanking on it forcefully on the off chance that he hadn't locked it. "Damn it," she yelled in frustration before bending her trusty safety pin back and forth to break it into two pieces so she'd be able to pick the lock. She huffed as she crouched down, the mechanism of this lock much trickier than the handcuffs and a broken safety pin wasn't exactly the ideal tool to use. Sam McCall had been in a lot of life and death situations but this time felt different. She knew this time Jason Morgan would not be coming to her rescue, especially after the way she'd kicked him out of her apartment when he'd come to check on her.

Sam stood there, trying to think of how to get him to leave so Jerry wouldn't shoot him. Her mind was running through ideas so rapidly since he'd shown up at her door in concern mode, she barely made out him talking about the phone cutting off. "No, Jason," she paused briefly. "I hung up on you."

"Why?" the confusion was written in his eyes.

"Because I didn't like how you were acting so interested all of the sudden out of nowhere," her voice rose slightly, thinking the best defense was an offense.

"Well, the way you hung up the phone," Jason's eyes peered into hers carefully, wondering where all the hostility had come from when not much more than an hour ago they were making love, "I was concerned."

"Why would you be concerned? So what? You saved me in an explosion in the alley," she breathed out haughtily. "Thank you; and what happened after just happened..."

"Sam…" he started to say but was cut off.

"Look," she halted briefly, "I appreciate your effort on the save, but I know you would have done it for anyone in this situation."

"Then why not say that on the phone?" Jason asked, his voice beginning to carry its own agitation.

"Gosh. Do you really not get it that maybe tonight could have been just a little bit painful for me?" Sam closed her eyes for a moment; letting all the feelings from the past come to the surface along with her confusion about this afternoon's events. "That, maybe for two and a half years, I think that you are the love of my life and we have a future together, and then you dump me. And here you are."

His voice softened. "I didn't mean to…"

She carried on as if she hadn't heard him. "You're calling, and you're checking up on me, and we're reminiscing about Lila and then…" she shakes her head, "and I don't know Jason, maybe a part of me was a little bit happy that you cared. I know. It is so pathetic." She waves her hands in the air, hoping to emphasize the point. "Well, you've got to listen to me Jason, okay, because I am done being pathetic. I will never let another man tear my life up again, okay, especially not you so just go, go home Jason. Go back and save your halo wearing damsel because I can save myself all by myself!" She watched the hurt flash through his eyes before he left silently and Jerry stepped out of the shadows clapping.

Still she had left a calling card, a piece of the material used from the explosion in the alley, hoping against all hope that he'd somehow seen through her and would come to rescue her. Finally with another firm wiggle she heard the mechanisms inside the door click and it finally opened. Sam had a lot less time than she'd anticipated and now she had less than a minute to make it all the way to the dock to jump off.

She ran with everything she had, pushing past the residual lethargy from the drugs and the pain from her injured leg and breathing in the salty air, knowing from experience that a storm was coming and the faster she made it out of the water, the better. She wasn't sure if she would make it but she certainly wasn't going to give up; if there's one thing Sam knew she was, it was a fighter and she was going to fight like hell to survive this and if not she was going down fighting. A brief thought crossed her mind that it would be almost poetic for her to die at sea amongst the waves, the only other place she'd felt at home besides Jason's penthouse. She finally made it on deck and jumped off, hearing the sound of the explosion behind her and the crack of thunder as her body slammed against the ocean and her world faded to black.