Stephanie's Notes: This short little fic was inspired by a challenge on another board. It's a light read, and if I make you laugh at least once, my job is complete. This is set right after Jason and Elizabeth shared their first kiss in June. Nothing that has happened on the show since then, has occurred in this story. So come on in and give it a whirl, you may like it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, quite literally nothing. So you can't sue.

Distribution: If you'd like it, ask first I'll more then likely say yes.

Begging: Please leave me a reply.

Bounce

~Hell~

If she were the type of person who believed in past lives, she was now convinced she must have been some crazed killer in a previous life. It was the only explanation that could rationally explain all the truly awful things that had happened to her in her current life.

Elizabeth Webber shook her head banishing the fanciful thoughts. She didn't believe in reincarnation, she did believe in luck, however all of her luck seemed to be bad. The old saying of if you didn't have bad luck you would have none at all definitely seemed to apply in her case.

"Get a grip," she muttered under her breath and had to stifle a scream when the man next to her shifted suddenly, his head coming to rest on her shoulder. Frowning at the intrusion and violation of her personal space she jerked her shoulder trying to move the head. But the man was heavy-headed and oblivious, he merely kept snoring and stayed where he was.

The last thing she wanted to do was wake him. If she woke him she would have to talk to him and that was something she never, ever wanted to do again. But his snoring, not to mention his breath was about to gag her. Making sure to breathe through her nose, she took a deep breath and jerked her shoulder hard. The man jolted, gave a loud snort, and Elizabeth held her breath until he shifted his head in the other direction and kept snoring.

"Now that's attractive," she muttered when drool started coming out of his mouth. Quietly she shifted as far from her dead to the world companion as she could and went back to her brooding. She was determined to figure out why her life sucked. All she had to do was figure out which deity she had pissed off enough that they felt the need to punish her … repeatedly.

Drumming her perfectly manicured and painted fingernails on her hose clad thigh she pondered the question. Looking around the noisy room she realized that she had picked an odd place to have a life altering realization, but this was where she was, and it didn't appear that she would be leaving anytime soon anyway, so she might as well pass the time doing something constructive.

Momentarily distracted by the screams and curses coming from her left, Elizabeth shifted again and crossed her legs, bringing the already too small miniskirt up to a dangerously high level. "You want to put your eyes back in your head?" She asked the drunk sitting across from her.

The man's blood shot eyes never left her legs. "Nope."

Rolling her eyes she shifted again and prepared to rip into the pervert, before she could speak something, or rather someone over the drunk's shoulder caught her eye. "Shit," she squeaked and slumped down in her seat trying to hide behind the drunk. "Please don't let that be him."

Keeping her eyes tightly closed, she wrapped the blanket closer around her and whispered every prayer she knew and a few she made up on the fly, all in an attempt to banish her worst nightmare from the room.

Taking a chance she opened her eyes and peeped over the drunk's shoulder. Groaning she buried her head again, she would know that ass anywhere. It was him. It was now official, she must have been a murderer in a past life.

Elizabeth slouched again trying to make her already petite frame even smaller, all in attempt to avoid detection, from the one person who could turn an already bad night into a truly horrid one. If she was quiet there was no reason that he should even know that she was here. All she had to do was not make any noise.

So she was just going to hide here, until he was gone, nope she wasn't going to say a word…

"Pervert!" Elizabeth screeched suddenly and slapped the drunk across from her when she felt his hand on her leg. "Keep your hands off me."

Belatedly remembering her vow to be quiet, Elizabeth closed her eyes and hunched over her now drawn up knees. She was busted and she knew it. Even with her eyes closed she knew the instant his eyes came to rest on her. And although she knew it was useless Elizabeth couldn't help but whisper a few last ditch prayers, asking for a hole to open in the floor and swallow her whole.

"Elizabeth?"

Unfortunately it seemed she was doomed to disappointment.

"Elizabeth are you hurt?"

From the sound placement of his voice it seemed that he was now crouching in front of her. "Mmm-mmph."

"What?"

"I said I'm fine Jason," Elizabeth's words were muffled because she kept her face firmly in her knees.

"Elizabeth look at me," Jason Morgan spoke after a few seconds of staring at her head. How was he supposed to find out if she was really okay if she wouldn't look at him?

Elizabeth merely shook her head, the scratchy blanket itched her nose, but she refused to lift her head. Not looking into those eyes of his was a good thing at the moment.

Confused Jason glanced around them trying to find an explanation before focusing on the woman in front of him again. "Why not?"

"I can't it's too embarrassing," she muttered finally.

Settling more on the balls of his feet Jason took a breath, he had a feeling this was going to be a long conversation. As such he'd better make himself comfortable. "Looking at me is embarrassing?"

"Yes," a nod of her head. "I mean No," a shake of the head followed by a muffled sneeze. "God Jason just go and pretend you never saw me."

"You know I'm not going to do that," he replied shortly. He was fast getting tired of talking to the top of her head. But it didn't seem like she was willing to look at him.

The man asleep on the bench next to her chose that moment to snort and shift again, this time he crashed heavily on Elizabeth.

Startled her head flew up and turned slightly to look at the man next to her. Before she had the time to retreat into her shell again, Jason moved quickly. He shifted the dead to the world snorer to the end of the bench and took the vacant space next to Elizabeth. The hardwood bench was small, and the left half of his body was pressed firmly against her right half. He couldn't help but notice how nice that felt.

Her eyes met his and for a moment all she could do was stare. She still wasn't used to seeing him, he had been gone so long, it was strange to see him walk in a room like it was the most natural thing in the world. She especially wasn't used to being this close to him. Hell she hadn't even gone riding with him since he had returned. Her eyes dropped to his lips that were pursed in a slight frown. She now knew just how soft and strong those lips of his were. Not to mention how talented. Realizing she was staring and perilously afraid that she would start drooling like her sleeping companion she turned away to bury her face in her knees again.

Jason had tried to read the rush of emotions that had went through Elizabeth's eyes while she looked at him, but her eyes themselves had quickly distracted him. "Do you want to tell me what you're doing here?"

"Not really."

Sighing wearily Jason barely resisted the impulse to force Elizabeth to look at him. "Elizabeth you are sitting in the squad room of the County Jail, wearing, as near as I can tell, a miniskirt and a blanket, I'm not leaving until I know what happened to you."

Sometimes she hated to be right, this was one of those times. Why couldn't he be the monster the whole world seemed to think he was and just walk out and leave her, just this once anyway? But if he did do that he wouldn't be Jason, and she couldn't have him both ways, hell she couldn't seem to have him in any way. Focusing on her feet she tried to figure out how little she could tell him and get away with it. She really needed to take the red off her toenails, it was visible even through the black hose, and that wasn't exactly attractive.

"Please talk to me," Jason requested softly. He knew she had been avoiding him since that night he had found her at Kelly's, the night they had kissed and almost done so much more. But he hated to think that she wouldn't talk to him when she was obviously in trouble.

"It's not my fault," Elizabeth said suddenly.

"What's not your fault?"

Tired of hiding she sat up. "It's Bounce's fault."

Scrubbing at his eyes Jason tried to clear his mind. "Your at the jail because of a fabric softener?"

"No," she rolled her eyes and gestured to her right. "He's Bounce," she pointed to the sleeper beside Jason. "It's his fault I'm here. Wait you do laundry?" Momentarily distracted from her woes her eyes raked over his casual outfit of jeans and a T-shirt. "I guess you would, I mean I doubt you have much use for a dry cleaner. I guess I never really thought about you doing laundry though…"

"Elizabeth," Jason all but growled her name.

"Jeez chill Jason, laundry and you has never occurred to me before, I mean I know I washed your shirts when you stayed with me that winter, but other then that…" she trailed off when she saw his expression. "Not interested in laundry are you?"

"Not really no."

"Okay," Elizabeth shifted carefully and focused on the drunk who was still staring at her legs. She barely restrained herself from sticking her tongue out at him, when he winked at her.

"Elizabeth why are you here?" Jason tried again.

"I told you it's because of Bounce."

Jason decided to go along with her this time. "His name is Bounce?"

"Of course not, that's not his name, it's what he is," Elizabeth explained. "In fact if I break this all the way down to the core, it's your fault that I'm here."

At one time he thought only Carly could give him a headache, but Elizabeth was coming awfully close. "What's my fault?"

"It's true. You were very close to being the Bounce. It's only because I realized that and stopped things, that you weren't the Bounce. So if you think about it this is all your fault." Crossing her arms she shot him a glare. "I don't really appreciate it either." Turning her head she glared at the drunk again. "You touch my leg one more time and I'm going to kick you into next week you hear me?"

"Nope," the drunk shot back.

Moving quickly Jason put a hand on her knee before she could make good on her threat. "Move," he ordered the drunk with a hard look.

The drunk held up his shackled wrist. "Nope."

"Pervert," Elizabeth muttered. Her next words dried up when Jason shifted his glance to her. She hadn't quite seen that expression of his directed at her before. It was very unnerving. "W-what?"

"Bounce, jail, my fault? Answers." He ordered.

Letting go of her mangled bottom lip she realized she had stalled as long as she could. "A Bounce is someone you date after getting out of a really heavy relationship. They're the rebound, the transition guy so to speak. The Bounce. You go out the guy once or twice, maybe more, it's nothing serious, he helps you get past the hurt from the relationship." She could see the confusion in his light eyes and went on. "Most people when it's a bad breakup don't exactly have their head on straight right away. So it can be bad to get involved with someone they really care about right away. It's easier with a Bounce first." At least that was what all the magazines said. Granted this was her first Bounce attempt, and she had a feeling it would be her last one as well.

Jason shook his head trying to make sense of her words. "So you're going out with this guy on the rebound because of Lucky?"

"No," insulted she glared at him. "I mean sort of yes that's true, but Lucky isn't the only reason I needed to go out with him. The real reason is because of you."

"Me? I told you if you changed your mind to call me," Jason reminded her.

"God Jason didn't you hear me?" Infuriated she began to mutter under her breath.

"You just said it was my fault, that I would have been your Bounce guy if you hadn't stopped things. Elizabeth we were close to sleeping together that night." Jason reminded her.

"I know that. Don't you think I realize that?" The more agitated she became the more she said. "That's why I needed to go out with him. I care too much about you to let you be a Bounce. And I'm not in the right frame of mind to start a new relationship yet, and that's what you would be. No lasting relationship ever comes out of a rebound relationship. I couldn't risk losing everything that might one day exist between us, because I jumped you for all the wrong reasons. That's why there needed to be someone in between, someone that I could deal with the hurt that Lucky caused me, and put it behind me before I started something new with anyone."

An awful thought occurred to Jason and his voice and eyes turned ice cold. "So you went out with this guy just so you could sleep with him?"

Elizabeth merely reacted, shoving hard at his chest she pushed him off the bench. "You don't sleep with Bounce's or at least I wouldn't just sleep with him, just because I was messed in the head over ending a relationship. It would take something pretty earth shattering, like a life or death experience for me to just fall in bed with some guy that I had no real relationship with. Jesus I thought you knew that about me."

Blinking angrily at the tears that were stinging the back of her eyes she focused hard at the jail cell to her left. They were beginning to attract a lot of attention and she couldn't care less.

Dropping warily on the bench next to her he could see the anger coming off of her, but more then that he could see the hurt as well. "I'm sorry Elizabeth, I shouldn't have said that."

Sighing tiredly she kept her focus on the cell. "It's okay I guess I should have expected the question. I did a pretty good job of jumping on you the other night, so why wouldn't you think that about me?"

Jason reached over, caught her chin, and gently but forcibly he turned her head until he could see her eyes. "I don't think that about you. I know who you are Elizabeth, and more importantly I know who you aren't."

"Then why…"

"I guess I was jealous," he admitted quietly and saw her eyes widen in disbelief. Shifting his hold on her face his thumb rubbed the soft skin of her jaw line. "I hated to think of you with someone else. It was hard enough when I saw you with Lucky. But I could handle that because you said you loved him, but this guy," his eyes darkened. "I wouldn't handle that very well Elizabeth."

Swallowing hard, she knew she should say something, but she was, for the first time in her life, speechless.

Jason shifted closer still, drawn by the invitation in her eyes. He brought his other hand up to cup her face and tilted her head back slightly. Moving closer he watched her gaze lower to his lips, before her eyes drifted closer. He could feel her soft breath on his face, and touched his lips lightly to hers.

"All right now break it up."

The order came from directly behind them, startled, and surprised at being caught off guard, Jason shifted to look, keeping most of his body in front of Elizabeth shielding her. His guard stayed up when he saw the officer standing there, tapping a nightstick in her oversized hand.

"Move," the officer ordered with her nightstick, shoving it in his shoulder for emphasis. "Now."

Jason shifted slightly and began to figure out in his head where he could find Alexis to come and bail him out. He jolted in surprise when the officer reached past him to Elizabeth.

"I gotta hand it to you, you got some stones there princess," the officer informed Elizabeth while reaching out to unlock the handcuff on her left wrist.

Elizabeth shifted guiltily when she saw Jason's eyes widen in surprise. She had been hoping he wouldn't find out that she was handcuffed or even worse arrested.

"Time to go," the guard yanked her up from the bench, caught off guard the blanket Elizabeth was holding slipped from her grasp, leaving her standing there in a black bra, and a miniskirt.

"Where the hell are you taking her?" Jason demanded shooting to his feet.

"Processing, you want to join her?" The officer looked up at him. Taking him into custody would be a lot more fun then the pipsqueak.

"Jason I'll be fine, just go," Elizabeth spoke up and gestured with her free hand. "This is all a misunderstanding and I'll take care of it." She stumbled when the guard gave a tug on her arm sending her in motion.

"You don't have to do that." Jason snapped. "What the hell is she being arrested for?"

"You oughta know hotshot, from the looks of it she was practicing her trade on you right here in the squad room," the woman officer shot back.

Groaning Elizabeth looked around desperately for that hole to fall into, when she didn't see it she closed her eyes in defeat. They flew open immediately and she let out a screech when she felt a hand on her ass. Pushed past her breaking point Elizabeth merely reacted, whirling around and slugging the drunk just like Jason had taught her a few years before. The officer stumbled at her sudden movement and would have crashed into Elizabeth if Jason hadn't steadied her.

"Well what do you know we have something else to charge the princess with," the officer announced, grabbing Elizabeth's free hand and twisting it behind her back causing Elizabeth to yelp in pain, until she closed the open cuff on Elizabeth's wrist.

Turning her head to look back at Jason, Elizabeth bravely shot him a smile. "Don't worry I'll clear all of this up you go on home."

Shaking his head he began to follow her. "What are you being arrested for?"

"It's nothing. Go on Jason. Leave now." There were some humiliations that were best kept private.

"What's she being arrested for?" This time Jason addressed the officer.

"What? You mean you don't know?" The officer smiled widely. "Solicitation." She saw Jason's eyes widen in disbelief. "Didn't you know your friend is a hooker?"

That was the precise moment that Elizabeth realized that instead of a mere killer in that past life she must have been Hitler. There was no other explanation.