Chapter 1

"I'm ba-aa-ck! Oh my god, Jase, Fiji was amazing! The water was so clear, and the flowers were incredible. I brought Michael a shark tooth necklace and of course Morgan was jealous because he got a big shell and it wasn't "cool"… they were so excited… hey, wow, you look exhausted. What's going on?"

"A lot has happened since you left…" Jason tried to find the words to explain the situation he had found himself in.

A commotion in the hallway interrupted him, he closed his eyes in acceptance. He knew the confrontation would be coming, he just had hoped to be alone when it happened.

"WHERE IS HE? MORGAN!!!"

Lucky Spencer burst through the door, an angry Milo trying to hold him back.

"It's ok Milo, let him in." Jason sighed and then regained his composure.

"What the hell, Lucky? You can't just barge into Jason's…" Carly whirled on her cousin ready to defend her best friend.

"Shut up! Just shut up Carly! This is none of your business." Lucky snarled as he stalked toward Jason.

"Excuse me, Jason is my best friend… it is my business…" Carly tried to step between the angry man and Jason who was standing quietly by her side.

Jason sensed that Carly was getting into something she wasn't prepared to deal with so he pulled her aside and ordered her to stay put with a sharp look.

"Did your best friend tell you that he slept with my wife?"

"She was your Ex-wife at the time… and yes, he did. But, your perfect wife took advantage…" Carly snarled ready to jump back into the fray.

"Carly stop!" Jason ordered firmly, "Just stop, maybe you should come back later."

"Why should she leave, huh Morgan? Or am I the only person in Port Charles that didn't know Elizabeth was pregnant with your child?" Lucky spat angrily.

Jason focused on Carly's face, her tan from Fiji quickly fading into a deathly pallor. Her eyes begging him to tell her it wasn't true, her body beginning to shake, all signs of fight quickly leaving her.

So intent upon each other, neither noticed the gun Lucky pulled from his jacket.

"Carly…" Jason reached for her hand, but in her shock she flinched and yanked her hand from his grasp.

A familiar clicking sound snapped his head around and his eyes focused on the gun in Lucky's hand.

His eyes met Lucky's crazed and full of anger. The next few minutes happened in slow motion.

"You can't have my family! I won't let you…" Lucky roared as he pulled the trigger.

A scream filled the air and Jason recognized it as Carly's. He didn't think to dodge the bullet, hell, realistically he hadn't expected Lucky to actually pull the trigger, but he was vaguely aware of trying to push Carly out of harm's way…

Closing his eyes he waited to feel the burning pain that usually followed, but it never came.

The room was eerily silent until Lucky moaned, "Oh god, what have I done?"

Jason opened his eyes and for the first time his mind registered a heavy weight in his arms.

"No… no… Carly?" Jason started panicking. Slowly he lowered the dead weight of her body to the ground.

"I didn't mean… I didn't mean for it to be her…"Lucky babbled as he rushed over to Carly's side.

"Come on baby… come on Carly… open your eyes."

"Here Mr. Morgan, put this against her wound." Milo handed Jason something to stop the blood flow.

When had Milo come in the room?

"Jase?" a weak whisper focused his attention back on the woman lying beside him.

"Hey you… everything is going to be ok…" He quickly tried to reassure her.

"It's hurts." She moaned softly.

"I know baby… just lie still." Trying to hold her still he looked up a Milo and read the same sense of dread in the younger man's eyes. She was losing too much blood.

"No… not bullet… baby." She muttered as Carly felt herself start to feel the pull of the darkness.

Jason knew what she meant and it tore at his heart. She was telling him that it hurt more to find out that Elizabeth had his child than to be shot.

"Carly… Carly, it's Lucky. You have to know I didn't mean it…" Lucky cried as he watched the life slowly draining away from his cousin.

"I know… Shhh, I know Luc-cky. It was an accident… Jase, it was an accid—,"Carly let the blackness win. In the dark it didn't hurt so bad, in the dark she didn't have to remember that Elizabeth had given birth to Jason's child.

Jason began to panic, "Damn it Carly! You hold on… you can't leave me and if you do I swear to everything holy I will never forgive you!"

Seeing the EMT's come through the door Jason had never been so thankful.

"What happened?" One of the men asked as he bent down to look at the wound.

"Officer Spencer was showing Carly how to work the safety on his weapon… it was an accident." Jason shot Milo and Lucky both a glance to get them to stay quiet. If Carly said she wanted it to be an accident then that is what it was.

Jason never knew how what exactly he happened or how he ended up in the back of the ambulance, but that was where he found himself when the crisis hit.

"She's going into de-fib. Get the paddles…" The same EMT from in the penthouse tore open Carly's blouse and cut off her bra. There was so much blood… Jason's heart clenched painfully.

"Come on baby! Stay with me… stay with me… He held her hand tight in his and looking down at them he wouldn't have known where her hand ended and where his began except for the blood covering his hands. Carly's blood…

"Please baby… you can't leave me, you promised you never would… I can't be a father without you… I'll screw everything up… I won't let him eat junk food… I'll make him stay clean all of the time… If you die I'll marry Liz…" Jason feverishly kissed Carly's limp hand holding it tight in his grasp. He was so distraught that he didn't even realize he was crying, tears streaming down his face.

"We've got a pulse… she's lost a lot of blood and its weak, but its there." The EMT who had been using the paddles breathed a sigh of relief, "She must not you want you to marry this Elizabeth chick.

Jason chuckled in relief, leave it to that threat to be the one to keep Carly with him.

"Alright, you win. But, I swear I will if you don't get your shit together. I can't live without you." Jason felt his heart skip a beat, surely Carly had just squeezed his hand and it wasn't his imagination.

General Hospital finally came into view and Jason ran a hand threw his hair hoping they had gotten here in time.

"She's a fighter." One of the EMTs commented.

"You have no idea." Jason leaned forward and whispered in Carly's ear, "Don't make a liar out of me Carly… you better fight to stay with me… one more time, and I promise you'll never want to leave me again."