Note: Yeah, let's just say that in this, a very jealous Lucky has his own theories as to why Jason's the "Golden Boy". ;) Dirty.
A Synonym For Acquiesce
He heard them before he saw them; they were fighting, which surprised them. When Elizabeth had left him not two weeks ago and walked away from his offer to run away to Italy together, he had thought that she would have put all of her effort into making her relationship with the psychotic punk work. Permanent lock and that unique brand of bullshit.
At first, he didn't know what to do. They were all in the park, in broad daylight, but then again, it would have been pretty easy to duck behind a tree and wait for them to pass. After all, he had his pride to consider, something he had pretty much forgotten about during the past couple weeks. He had been rejected by her and like a lost dog, he had barely made it away from Port Charles for two weeks before that uncontrollable longing pulled him back home again, the unquenchable need to see her, to watch her even from afar, just to make sure she was safe and happy. At the back of his mind, he couldn't help but wonder what leaving for good, or at least a couple years, would have accomplished. And that inevitably led him to wonder what would have happened if he hadn't left the first time; if he hadn't kissed her on the forehead and told her that he was going away for a while.
But Jason tarried in indecision a split second too long because before he knew it, the bickering couple rounded the corner and the brunette that had dominated his thoughts almost collided with him.
For a moment, all of them were speechless.
But thanks to Lucky Spencer, that didn't last.
"Jason," he ground out, his light blue eyes glittering dangerously. The enforcer supposed the boy was trying to be threatening, not amusing. "What the hell are you doing here?"
Elizabeth was a bit more tactful. His eyes locked with hers as she nibbled her bottom lip, peering up at him with wide, doe-like eyes that belied her unease. "You're back." He detected what he hoped was relief in her voice, tinged with guilt, but he was soon chiding himself for reading too much into it. She had, after all, made it very clear where he stood with her. "I-I thought you left."
"I didn't leave," he answered quietly, stuffing his hands into his pockets and ignoring the way Lucky glared at him. "I just went away for a little while."
Lucky saw the meaningful look exchanged between the two of them, and he didn't like it one bit. "Well, we think you should have extended your vacation – you're not needed or wanted here."
"Lucky…" Elizabeth nudged him with her elbow as Jason turned and looked at him for the first time, leveling a hard, lethal, patented enforcer-glare at him. To his credit – either out of bravery or sheer, suicidal stupidity – the boy stood his ground and stared back.
Jason's eyes flickered to Elizabeth's and she blushed lightly, still taken aback with the way he looked at her. It had been a long time since Lucky had looked at her like that, and even though she couldn't qualify the look, she couldn't deny how it made her feel. Lucky tensed next to her and she could hear him grinding his teeth.
"You know, Jason, you should just tuck your tail between your legs and get lost," the boy ground out, failing not for the first time to realize his limitations. "Elizabeth told you she didn't want you but you just can't take the hint, can you?"
The brunette's face flamed, but for a different reason this time. Daring to glance at Jason, she could read the pain that flickered across his intense eyes but he masked it instantly and expertly, breaking her heart in the process. It was never about not wanting Jason. Truth be told, she had wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything in her life; she wanted everything he had to offer her – the freedom, the wind, the life free from expectations – and she just wanted him. It was never about not wanting him; it was about being forced to give him up.
And in the end, she was left with strong doubts that she made the right decision. Lucky had been impossible to deal with even after she went back to him, and even after she managed to convince him that she loved him and was going to stay with him. He had been incensed that she had even considered Jason as more than a friend and was convinced that the only reason Jason cared for her was because he wanted to get her into bed. When she had tried, in a moment of stupidity, to explain that she and Jason had helped each other through a difficult time in both their lives, he had dismissed it all and refused to hear it. They had done little except fight since the two weeks that she walked away from one of the best things to ever happen to her, and she knew it wasn't going to work. Though there was a part of her that was relieved, there was another, stronger part that was in a state of disbelief and denial, mostly because she had given up everything she wanted for a lemon, and she'd never get another chance to fix that.
Until she almost collided with that chance on a fall morning in the park.
"No, but here you are," Lucky continued, unaware of the fact that she had pulled away and backed up a step. "Back for seconds. Let me put it to you in a way that even you can understand, Jason."
The enforcer clenched his jaw and glanced at Elizabeth, and the furious look on her face told him everything he wanted to know. It was taking a lot out of him not to smash the little punk's face in, but he did not need for his welcome back party to be thrown by Taggert outside a little holding cell at the PCPD.
"Elizabeth doesn't want you. She doesn't care about you. She loves me." Lucky was standing toe to toe with the enforcer now, searching his stone-cold eyes for any sign of pain. "We're together and we're happier than ever."
He couldn't help it; he smirked. Clearly, they must have been 'happier than ever' if Elizabeth was standing a yard away from him and looking as if she were about to wrap her hands around his throat.
Lucky's confidence was shaken a little by the smirk, and he narrowed his eyes as he backed up a step. He hated always having the feeling that when it came to Elizabeth, Jason always knew something he didn't. "And you know," he continued, "I think it's really pathetic how you decided to come back just to mess with me."
Out of the corner of his eyes, Jason saw Elizabeth's hands curl into fists. Quirking an eyebrow at the boy, he widened his stance and looked him dead in the eyes, an amused smirk playing on his lips once more. "And I think it's really egotistic how you think I only came back just to mess with you."
Lucky scowled and ground his teeth. "Fine. Why did you come back then?"
Jason's eyes glittered. "To mess with you."
The joke threw Lucky, who was in full pissing-contest mode, off balance and when he quickly glanced at his girlfriend, he was further incensed to catch the tail end of a smirk curling her lips as she looked at Jason.
Letting out a huff, he stepped toward her and wrapped a hand around her elbow, pleased when Jason's eyes instantly hardened. "What the fuck ever, Jason. Just stay out of our way. Come on."
Jason watched as Elizabeth resisted his pull, digging her heels into the ground. "Lucky, wait."
"I said, come on."
He would have jumped in right then, Taggert be damned, to show the little punk the correct way to treat a woman, but Elizabeth was more than capable of handling it herself. Her sapphire eyes cold and hard, she yanked her elbow forcibly from his grasp and glared at him when he turned around, fuming.
"You go ahead. I'm going to talk to Jason for a minute."
As soon as he recovered from the shock of his girlfriend actually saying that to his face, Lucky's eyes flashed and he moved toward her. "I think we've said all we need to say. We're going back to Kelly's."
"You might be, but I'm not," she answered stubbornly. "I need to talk to Jason. Alone." She was baiting him and she knew it, but at the moment she couldn't have cared less.
The young blonde made quite a picture – with his face flushed an angry red and his blue eyes flashing dangerously, he looked as if he didn't know what to do except stand there and posture furiously. But Elizabeth looked bored with him, not the least bit threatened, leading Jason to wonder about what had transpired in the two short weeks he had been gone.
Seething inwardly, Lucky turned his cold eyes on an equally bored Jason. "I'm warning you, Morgan, don't you fucking try anything. Elizabeth is mine; she doesn't care about you and she never will, no matter how many times you try to get her to sleep with you."
Elizabeth gasped but Jason knew better than to give the boy the satisfaction of a reaction. Widening his stance, he pretended to stifle a yawn and stretched his shoulders. The brunette, however, wasn't a fan of the nonchalant approach.
"Lucky, that's enough," she all but growled fiercely at the boy. "You need to leave."
"Elizabeth-"
"Now." There was no room for argument in her voice. "You need to go."
With an angry huff of disbelief, Lucky stuffed his hands into the pockets of his denim jacket and walked away, but not before glaring lethally at Jason once more as if he felt it would do him some good.
When he had gone, Elizabeth let out a slow breath and wrung her hands together before turning to face Jason. He was just standing there, watching her, and she felt incredibly uneasy under his gaze.
A timid smile played upon her lips as she peeked up at him, still wringing her hands. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're back." He nodded once, his eyes softening. "I mean, I'm glad you didn't leave," she amended, fidgeting slightly. "Otherwise, Sonny would have been due for another batch of brownies."
Jason's brows furrowed as he tilted his head at the petite brunette, not following. "What?"
She bit her mangled lower lip, still wringing her hands together. "Oh, that's right, you don't know. It's kind of funny, really. Remember the first time you left?" She rushed on without even waiting for confirmation, and the familiar rambling brought a smirk to his lips. "Well, I was so sure that I had chased you away that I went to Sonny to apologize for the whole mess – the bomb in the studio, you and Roy, everything. I made him some brownies." Elizabeth glanced at him and saw the surprise written on his face. "In retrospect, I get that brownies weren't the best choice. He probably didn't even eat them. Well, maybe he gave them to Johnny or Francis, but I figure it's the thought that counts."
As usual, Jason's quiet voice cut through her disoriented babbling. "You thought I chased you away?"
Feeling absolutely ridiculous when she felt tears prick her eyes, Elizabeth tried to avert her gaze from his powerful cerulean orbs but soon found that quest futile. "Don't I always?"
His boots creaked as he took a small step closer, letting out a long sigh. "No, you don't." She nodded jerkily, abruptly tucking her dark hair behind the delicate shell of her ear, and Jason's eyes softened as he watched her. "But, hey – so Sonny's the one that gets a plate of your brownies when I leave town? How is that fair?"
She grinned despite herself, relieved and grateful to him for attempting to dispel the tension that shrouded them. "Careful, Jason – two jokes in one day? NBC might give you a late-night talk show."
He smirked and she watched his eyes twinkle as the wind lovingly rustled through his wild hair. Crossing her arms over her chest, she tilted her head and just looked at him for a long moment before finding her voice. "So, Jason?...Why did you come back? I mean, really."
The question threw him off-guard even though he had been anticipating it. Awkwardly shifting his weight from one scuffed boot to the other, he ducked his head and rolled his shoulders before looking up. "I just…did."
For some unexplainable reason, that simple answer brought tears to pool in her eyes again and Elizabeth just nodded. She had to swallow past the lump in her throat and just nodded, backing away a step. "G-Good."
Jason looked at her, surprised both by her answer and the fact that she was drawing further away. "How is it good?" he asked cautiously as she took another step away. After all, he only caused problems for her and her psychotic boyfriend; two weeks ago he damn near broke that fucking permanent lock.
Elizabeth's lips curved gently with a soft, watery smile, and this time it reached her eyes. "It just is."
His brow crinkled as he took a small step forward. "But how?"
Her smile grew despite the obvious tears in her eyes as Elizabeth gave him one look over her shoulder before turning around the corner. "You'll see."
The End.