Reality is all about Perception

Disclaimer: Characters and settings are the property of ABC/Disney and the writers/producers of General Hospital. No copyright infringement is intended.

AN: Waring… warning… I'm a die hard Jarly fan. AND I haven't liked Liz since the whole dancing in Kelly's thing. So it goes way the hell back.

"Agh!" grumbles Jason as he pinches the bridge of his nose, vainly temping to hold back the oncoming headache. He takes a deep breath and listens to the person speaking on the phone. "And just what do you want me to do about it?"

"Take care of your responsibility," the voice snaps.

"Fine, I'll have Diane draw up the papers and take full custody of my son," Jason coldly states.

"Now wait Jason, that isn't what….." the voice was cut off when Jason snapped the cell phone closed. Grinding his teeth together, Jason reaches for his leather jacket.

"I heard only a fragment of that conversation, but it sounds to me like you need me to finagle custody of Jake away from Lucky?" Diane questioned as she looked up for the papers on her lap.

"Yes," Jason answered.

"On what grounds do you want to pursue this?" Diane inquired. Watching Jason slide the jacket over his muscular arms, Diane thought it was a shame that the loose fitting jacket covered such a body.

"Apparently, Liz has gone 'temporally' insane and Lucky can't handle both children," Jason stated. "Use that angle. Call me at Carly's when I can go pick up my son." Jason left the room before Diane could rattle off any more questions.

"Do you want temporary or permanent custody?" Diane questioned the empty room. "What am I talking about, if he's going to see Carly, it will be permanent custody." Shaking her head Diane gets to work on filing for permanent custody of Jake. Privately she was glad that Jason would be taking over care of his child. Not that there was anything wrong with Lucky, Diane just never thought that she would ever agree with Carly, but after seeing the way Liz acted and treated Jason like he was a toy to be played with. Diane knew that Jake would be better off raised by Jason.

BEEP…..BEEP…..BEEEP

Growling Jason heard the ringtone that the standard for any of the guards that are placed around either Alexis or Carly's house. Snapping open the phone, Jason lifted it to his ear.

"What?" he tersely demanded.

"Boss we have a problem," the guard answered. "Jerry Jax came back in town and his brother hid him at the house."

"I'm headed that way now. Eta in five minutes," Jason questioned feeling his blood start to run cold.

"Situation is controlled at this time, boss. But it's bad," the guard replied. "I broke in as soon as I could." The guard added hoping that tidbit would spare him his life.

"We'll see," Jason stated coldly before hanging up the phone. 'Please be alright. Just be alright.' Pushing down on the accelerator Jason was pulling into Carly's driveway in under a minute and a half. Surveying no less than five body guards on the lawn with their guns drawn, tension coils within Jason's stomach.

"What happened?" Jason snapped.

"Carly was….", "Jerry, he …" , "Jax came home…." "

"MAX!" Jason shouted his blue eyes like ice diamonds.

"Carly came home to change for some event that the Metro court is holding. We think that's when Jerry assaulted her. Jax…"

"Where were the guards?" Jason hissed, cutting Max off. Jason watched in detached fascination that Max became paler.

"We had to shoot Jax to get into the house, he's dead," one of the guards stated, "We got to her as soon as we could."

"Is Jerry dead also?" Jason asked softly.

"He wasn't at first," Max replied, squaring his shoulders like he was preparing for a blow.

Quirking an eyebrow, Jason released the breath he didn't know he was holding. "Carly?"

"Yes sir," all the guards replied.

"How bad is she?"

"Real bad, we think you're about the only person she'll willing let near her. She keeps saying that Jerry did something to her daughter. She's demanding that we find her. Carly forgot that Michael has both Josslyn and Morgan with him. She thinks that Jerry has taken her daughter, but Milo has confirmed that all three were together tonight and are currently heading towards the safe house," Max stated as he moved out of Jason's way. "We are afraid that she might do something in the state that she's in."

"Good call," Jason stressed. "Call Francis, I want a lockdown, on everything. Put a call into Bobbie at GH and tell her that she needs to get enough samples of Josslyn's blood to have it tested for everything known to God. Get a hold of Spinelli; we're going to need to him to create some false tracks. Let's leaving Sonny out of this, he has enough to worry about with the trail."

"What about Sam?" Max asked as he followed Jason into the house. "She has been calling for you?"

"Here?" Jason stopped dead and looked at Max. "Why?"

"Don't know. But she did call preciously at the time of the attack," Max answered. "Which is why…"

"Carly suffered because of Sam?" Jason growled as he cut off Max. "Have Spinelli do an extremely through background check on Sam. I want everything on her from birth to now."

"Yes, boss," Max agreed as he pulled out his cell phone to start the list of calls he knew he was going to have to make. "Do you want her contained?"

"Yes," Jason coldly replied as he entered Carly's house. 'Sam called Carly's main guard when she knew where I was and while Carly was being attacked? That is slightly more than a coincidence.' His noise was assaulted with the metallic sent of blood, on the ground a few feet away from him, laid Jax. Jason could see a riddle of bullet holes in him. Looking around Jason sees two more guards; one was stationed outside the downstairs bathroom and the other was standing in the hallway.

"House salvageable?" Jason asked as he approached the guards.

"No sir," the guards answered.

"Look for any critical documents and safes, then stage the bodies and burn it to the ground, wait for three hours after we leave," Jason ordered as he approached the bathroom door.

"Sir," the guard stopped him by holding up an overnight bad. "Fresh clothes, toiletries, and remember sir, he's dead."

"That bad?" Jason inquired.

"Worse," the guard replied as he opened the door. "She's close to another breakdown."

Peering inside Jason fought back his intrinsic reaction of reaching for his gun. 'She looks worse than when Ric kidnapped her.' Slowly Jason made his way over to where Carly was sitting fully clothed in the tube. He watched as she rocked herself backwards and forwards.

"Carly?" Jason whispered warmly.

"Jason," Carly whimpered softly as she turned her bruised, bloody and blocky face his way. " My babies…"

"Are at the safe house waiting for us," Jason reassured her.

Until Next Time