*A/N: I know the whole car bomb storyline happened a wicked long time ago, but what can I say, writer's ADD gets the best of me sometimes. The story was half done, then it was finished but I never posted it...whatever. I hope you can forgive me and enjoy it anyway! Please let me know what you think!
Damien Spinelli burst into the penthouse apartment he shared with Jason Morgan and was quite taken aback to see the penthouse's main owner standing on the other side of the room near the fireplace, staring at him, or rather in the same direction of where he was in front of the door. Jason's piercing blue eyes seemed to be staring at the laptop, which Spinelli recognized as belonging to Samantha McCall, his partner in their private investigation agency, and Jason's longtime girlfriend. Thinking of Sam brought a pang to Spinelli's chest. He and Sam were great friends as well as partners and Spinelli hated how one of his most trusted friends was currently in the hospital-deemed expendable by Theo Hoffmann AKA the Balkan, who had sacrificed Sam to the car bomb he had planted as a diversion, allowing him to kidnap Brenda Barrett to get information on his son, whom Brenda had accidentally killed years ago.
Sam had miraculously survived the car bomb, suffering no more than a loss of hearing, which could possibly only be temporary, and Brenda was still missing but Spinelli was still nervous and upset over Sam. Sure he was nervous about Brenda, whom he still harbored a slight crush on, but he had known Sam for far longer. Sam had been one of the first people he had befriended upon coming to Port Charles and ever since had been one of the people Spinelli knew he could depend on if he needed anything, whom he could go to for advice. She was so many things to him; partner, friend, surrogate older sister, Spinelli felt sick every time he thought about how close he had come to losing that and how close he still was. Even if she never regained her hearing and though he would be forever grateful he hadn't lost his friend completely, he knew that it was possible that Sam, always so strong and could fight anything, might never completely be Sam again, shattered mentally and physically by the bomb. The beautiful woman who exuded confidence and strength, who faced any threat seemingly without any worry, who stood up for him when he got wound up and began to annoy the level Jason Morgan, and was the only person in the world to whom the stoic mob enforcer was putty in her hands. Any danger that came up she insisted on facing together, no matter how hard he argued and eventually he gave in. He always did.
Spinelli looked at Jason now. He had barely seen his roommate at all in the last few days since he had spent every minute since the car bomb had went off and Sam had been pulled from the wreckage at the hospital and in all honestly, so Spinelli was surprised to see Jason at the penthouse now. But Spinelli was distracted briefly from that thought as he studied the older man that was his mentor, confidant and friend. Jason's face looked haunted, his eyes still had that faraway look as they had never left the laptop on the desk, his face was pale, his eyebrows furrowed together in what was unmistakably worry and he seemed to have lost weight. Far too much emotion for the man whom Spinelli had nicknamed 'Stone Cold'. But while Jason probably could shoot himself repeatedly without even blinking, could face down any number of bad guys without breaking a sweat, could kill a man without any sort of remorse, and could find and kill a target without even trying hard, Spinelli knew the one exception to that was Sam. A threat to himself was barely worth acknowledgment. A threat to Sam meant war. War with whomever was threatening her and war with himself for allowing himself to let her get that close to danger in the first place. For though it was rare when Jason could effectively talk her down from facing danger with him, rarer she did so without arguing and rarest he tried to talk her down at all as he had long ago given up attempting to completely shield from harm and had even been known to admit that she could take care of herself, Spinelli knew that didn't make it any easier for Jason. If he felt sick at the thought of losing Sam, Spinelli couldn't help thinking as he looked at Jason once more, he could not even begin to imagine what it must be like for Jason.
"Gracious greetings, Stone Cold" Spinelli greeted his mentor quickly "Might I say how surprised I am to see you here. This actually gives the Jackal much needed hope for if you have given up your steadfast vigil at your Fair Samantha's bedside, does this mean that she is getting better and the block that has stilted her hearing is no longer there?"
"No she kicked me out. She's still deaf," muttered Jason, his eyes narrowing even more than they already were, expressing his disgust, which he never did and only served to worry Spinelli further. Jason's eyes also didn't leave the laptop, which didn't make sense. Perhaps he wasn't really looking at it and it just seemed that way because of the angle? A visual thinker, Spinelli quickly calculated the angles and decided that Jason was indeed looking at the laptop. Perhaps the sight of the laptop offended Jason because it reminded him of his fallen beloved? Probably not since Jason wasn't the type to associate feelings with anything really but especially physical things, but still Spinelli made a mental note to put it somewhere for safekeeping just in case and hope the old saying 'Out of sight, out of mind' rang true. Something on the laptop perhaps? But Jason almost never used the computer. Not to say he was technologically challenged, he just preferred to leave that sort of stuff to Spinelli and Sam. And why was it out anyway, since its owner wasn't here to use it? But something about that theory stuck with Spinelli and, almost hypnotized by the thought, the young computer genius made his way toward Sam's laptop.
"Spinelli!" Jason said quickly and used his long legs to stride across the penthouse. This reaction, which was undoubtedly heightened by the un-used to emotion of having his longtime girlfriend seriously injured only served to confirm Spinelli's theory for Jason never said his name in that tone unless he had gone off on a tangent or had done something of a similar nature to annoy his mentor and the only reason he would get so agitated over something on the computer would be if it were something he didn't want anybody, least of all his protégé, to see.
Spinelli quickly quickened his pace at the risk of harm to his own body (which in retrospect may not have been wise as Jason made his living killing people), angled it to block Jason and gave him time to push the lid of the laptop up and place his right index finger over the mousepad to clear the dark screensaver away. Spinelli was surprised at what came up. A lump formed in his throat "Stone Cold" he said quickly "Were you…researching how to do American Sign Language? Does…" Spinelli cleared his throat nervously; pretending he merely had a tickle in his throat and wasn't in fact trying to control the tears that threatened to fall "Does this mean that Fair Samantha's…er…loss of hearing is not as temporary as we hoped?"
"No. Patrick and Robin are still waiting on the specialist. I just thought that…" Never good with words and preferring it that way, Jason stopped and stared at Spinelli. Years of living with Jason came in handy for Spinelli could read the enforcer easily.
"Say no more, Stone Cold!" cried Spinelli, which was all right with Jason considering he hadn't been planning on saying anything more anyway "Your plan to learn to communicate with your newly and possibly permanently deafened beloved is probably one of the most romantic the Jackal has ever seen and I would be honored to assist you. In fact, today happens to be your lucky day; you have come to the right place! As it just so happens, one of the workers on my dear old granny's ranch happened to be hard of hearing and used American Sign Language as his primary method of communication. I learned a great deal growing up" Spinelli glanced down at the monitor again "I am afraid I must admit to being a tad rusty, but between myself and this website, the Jackal will help you conquer your goal!"
"Give it a rest, Spinelli" Jason snapped an hour later "My fingers just don't move that way" Jason glared hatefully down at his thick, clumsy fingers that had struggled to mimic every sign that Spinelli had tried to show him. "It's not like it matters. This is a waste of time. Sam doesn't even know Sign Language"
"Ah true, Stone Cold, but be that as it may…." Spinelli started, his already unruly brown hair practically standing up on end from the countless amount of times the computer genius had run his own fingers through it; the only way he had allowed himself to communicate his increasing dismay at Jason's lacking ability to pick up American Sign Language as well as Jason's increasingly cold and frustrated looks at being unable to pick up the skill. "Unlike the majority of deaf people, Fair Samantha has the advantage of having been able to hear for her whole life thus far. She knows how to create the sounds that form words having heard them for the majority of her life, so she will still be able to communicate with you that way, albeit perhaps a bit softer or louder than the situation demands since she will be unable to ear the situation. It is merely you who will need it to communicate with her, not the other way around"
"Great" grumbled Jason. He had never considered himself a bad learner, hell, in fact he had liked to think he was a good learner considering the plethora of skills he had picked up since the day long ago he had woken up with no memory of who he was, how he had gotten to where he was, who anyone else was, and how to do most things and had to essentially start life from his 20s. Robin had taught him basic social skills, Sonny had taught him how to be a pro in a business that seemed more his speed than the life of a businessman that he had been told was his by the Quartermaines, Michael had taught him how easy it was to love a kid who wasn't technically yours, Spinelli had taught him patience and as much as Jason liked and appreciated him, a lot of it was needed to deal with the computer genius, Carly had taught him…well, there wasn't quite enough time in the world to figure out just exactly what the loose cannon Carly had taught him, and Sam had taught him how to feel again. Sure he had had other girlfriends from the time he had woken up to the present. There had been Robin, Courtney, Elizabeth to name a few and he had loved them all too but with Sam it was different. With Sam, he felt like he didn't have to be somebody he wasn't. How to act like yourself in a relationship; that was what Sam had taught him. Sure his job was dangerous, it was violent and hell it technically wasn't even legal, but in spite of all that, Jason liked it and he was damn good at it too. And Sam had been the first girl that he had ever dated that didn't make him feel bad about killing people for a living or like he shouldn't be doing it; like he needed to give it up to gain her approval. And he had picked up all those skills easily, yet Jason Morgan, the big, bad enforcer for the Corinthos empire, couldn't master something as easy as American Sign Language. And to make matters worse, he was also wasting his time with this and Jason never allowed himself to waste time. Life was too short and there was always something to do, some matter to handle, he didn't have time to sit down and learn stupid American Sign Language. He shouldn't even be here, he should be at the hospital right now, even though he was technically banished for another hour. He should be sleeping which was technically what he'd promised Sam he'd do. At the very least, he should be checking in with Sonny, getting an update on any new leads they had in finding Brenda and the Balkan. Jason did feel a bit guilty for not being involved even though Sonny himself had ordered him to keep his focus on Sam, not that he particularly cared much about Sonny's orders because though he was grateful for Sonny's concern, it was the friend in him as well as it was technically his job to see if Sonny needed any help in finding Brenda and the part of him that considered Brenda a friend (okay, a very small part), was worried, and wanted them to find Brenda knew that, if he wanted to, he could defy Sonny's orders and get involved in the search for Brenda easily. And as second-in-command of the Corinthos empire, Jason probably should. But that was the thing. Jason didn't want to; not one bit. In his mind, Jason Morgan, Sonny Corinthos' second in command wasn't who he wanted to be even a little bit. He wanted to be Jason Morgan, Samantha McCall's boyfriend. That was what was most important to him out of everything right now. He wanted to go see Sam. If he called Sonny, he'd undoubtedly get sucked into the search and lose track of time and forget to get back to Sam and Jason didn't like that idea one bit. Even though he felt like he should call Sonny, Jason didn't want to in the slightest. Loyalty to Sonny, skill at his job, friendship with Brenda all paled in comparison to his love for Sam.
"Oh Stone Cold" Spinelli sang, snapping Jason from his thoughts "I found the next sign I'm going to…er… attempt to teach you"
Jason fixed him with a look "I said no, Spinelli. All done"
Spinelli looked up from the laptop and grinned at him "On the contrary, Stone Cold," he turned the laptop so it was facing Jason "I do not believe that even you could mess this one up"
30 minutes later, Jason entered Sam's room at General Hospital. She was sitting up in bed reading some sort of magazine. She looked up as he came in and Jason was thrilled to watch Sam's face light up when she saw him "Hi" she mouthed at him, smiling.
"Hi" he mouthed back. Jason dragged a chair from the corner of the hospital room over to Sam's bedside. As he sat, almost instantly, Sam slipped her hand into his and squeezed. Jason squeezed back, smiling at his girlfriend. Remembering what he meant to do, Jason suddenly felt nervous which was completely unlike him. Nothing ever bothered him, there was nothing that was worth the time, but Sam was the only exception to that. He felt like he should say something, but just as he glanced towards the white board that sat at the end of Sam's bed, he suddenly heard the echo of her voice from a couple of days ago, right after she had woken up and he had started to reach for the board saying "You never talk. I've gotten good at knowing what you're thinking". And ever since then they had never used the board. Sam talked a bit and they mouthed anything important or private, but they had mostly just sat in silence, enjoying each other's company like they always had. They had never needed words before this. Not to mention, Jason wouldn't know what to say right now anyway, so he did what he did best. He communicated through his actions. He gently detached Sam's small hand from his larger one and held his up. He bent his middle and his ring finger down so their tips rested on his palm, leaving his index and pinky finger and his thumb up. Sam looked at him questioningly. Realizing he would in fact need the dry erase board for this, he reached for it and wrote simply "This is sign language for 'I love you'" When he was done, Jason turned the board around so Sam could see. As she reached the end of the sentence, Jason made the sign with his hand once more and this time partnered it with a mouthed "I love you"
Tears sprung to Sam's eyes. She held up her own hand in a reflection of Jason's and she pressed it to Jason's as she mouthed "I love you too"