Try Again
By: LaTrabrasera and Blondie Boots
Summary: What should have, could have and could still happen.
Disclaimer: We don't get paid, unfortunately, because we think we do a pretty kick as job with the GH universe.
A/N: Everything's self explanatory from the summary. If you have questions, feel free to ask. There's a whole arc happening here, so get ready.
Nikolas woke up. He blinked, eyes adjusting to the light in the room. He turned his head slightly, and a wave of nausea hit him. He stopped trying to move his head and continued to try to focus his eyes.
Then he heard voices.
"How is he today?" a familiar feminine voice asked.
"Awake, mostly," another familiar woman's voice replied.
Nikolas' eyes focused just in time to see a woman lean over him, smiling sweetly.
"Nikolas, sweetie, can you see me?"
"Yes," he rasped, throat dry and aching from recent lack of use. "But I know your dead now."
He closed his eyes again and drifted into unconsciousness.
"Did you hear?" Leyla asked Epiphany. "Liz passed her boards. She is officially a midwife. Well, she has yet to be employed by the hospital as a midwife, but I have it on good authority that Kelly is going to offer her a job."
"That so?" Epiphany replied, not looking up from her chart.
"Yeah, and guess who's planning to fill her spot in the surgical nurse rotation?"
Epiphany looked up, slightly rolling her eyes.
"If you say Nadine Crowell, I will quit this second."
Leyla looked at her quizzically, then replied.
"No! Me. I get to be the new surgical nurse. I'm very excited."
Just then, Nadine made an appearance at the nurse's station.
"Excited about what?" she asked.
Epiphany returned to her chart, not acknowledging the woman.
Leyla took that in and answered her.
"I'm moving to the surgical rotation."
"Really," Nadine said, face falling. "I applied for that… Didn't hear anything back."
"Could be they ask your supervising nurse for their recommendation," Epiphany said, still not looking up.
Nadine's face went red.
"I don't know you've got against me, bu-"
Epiphany closed her chart and silenced the woman with a glance.
"You are unfocused and insubordinate. You bring your personal issues to work. You're spending most of your time stalking Dr. Hunter to prove he's some kind of criminal or psychopath, and not enough on your patient care. Three different CMA's called for me because they couldn't find you. That would be my problem with you, Nurse Crowell."
She paused a beat.
"And I need your notes on last nights discharges before you leave today."
With that, Epiphany picked up a stack of charts and left the nurse's station.
"Can you believe her?" Nadine asked Leyla.
"I really can," the woman replied, walking away as well.
Nadine stood there, embarrassed and shame-faced.
"What are you doing here?" Johnny asked as his sister sat in the chair opposite him. "You said you were working-"
"Johnny," she said, "when have I ever failed you?"
He sighed.
"Your father won't be a problem from now on."
"So, what are you going to do?"
She gave a 'don't be stupid' look.
"We're sitting in an interview room in the police station."
"And?" Johnny asked.
"Yeah, you're right," Claudia shrugged, "I set something into motion when you and Lulu went on the run. It should be winding up within the week or so."
"You're not sure?"
"Can't push it, Johnny. Have to let it take it's course. But soon. Everything will happen and I'll explain it."
"So, it'll get Dad out of the way?"
"Oh, Anthony Zacchara will be fully out of the way."
"He's your father, too."
"That remains to be seen," Claudia said and stood up to go. "Just hang on, little brother, I'll have you out of here soon."
Jason was standing by the door of Elizabeth's studio as she rounded the corner.
"Jason, what is the-"
"Can we please go inside?" he asked.
She looked at him a moment.
"Yeah, sure."
Once inside, Liz threw her purse on a chair and turned to face him.
"I need to tell you something."
She quirked an eyebrow at him.
"Seems like one of us is always starting a conversation with something along those lines."
Jason didn't smile.
"Maybe you should sit down."
Liz became alarmed.
"Why? What is it?"
"Just sit, please."
Liz pushed her purse to the floor and sat. Jason began to pace, hands going to his hair.
"This is… This is going to… This is going to shock you."
Liz tried to joke.
"What? You're suddenly gay and you and Sonny are running away together?"
Jason turned to face her, stony-eyed.
"I work for an agency called the OCTF- the Organized Crime Task Force. I have been since the middle of 1999."
Liz sat in shock.
"Bull shit."
"No. I was picked up by the Task Force then, that's why I left. I was given two options. Train and become an agent, or be sent back to Port Charles and face charges with Sonny."
"They… So, you… What the…"
"Part of my agreement with them was that I feed them information, mark shipments and remove certain players from the field. For my help, Sonny and I stayed in the clear."
Liz opened her mouth and closed it. Then she spoke.
"Does Sonny know?"
"Hell no!" Jason said. "Part of getting Sonny out, most recently, was explaining his condition and him becoming a coffee entrepreneur."
"Why are you telling me this now?" she asked, disturbed.
"It's starting to wrap up. There's enough information on the five families and with the Russians moving in, the OCTF wanted to shut it down. We're going to start making mass arrests and seizing property."
"Okay, so you're a secret agent? And now you're going to start arresting the bad guys? And you're telling me this now? Just now?"
"I couldn't tell you while the investigation was ongoing."
"If Michael hadn't been shot and we continued with our plans to get married, would you have told me? Would you?" she asked, standing and walking to him.
They stood face to face.
"And does it bother you at all that you've been lying to me about who you are since I met you?"
Jason tried to put a hand on her arm, but she shook it off. She squared her stance and waited for a reply.
"No, I was not planning to tell you I was an agent. And I'm telling you now, because it's going to be common knowledge fairly soon." He sighed. "And I never lied to you about how I feel for you. I'm who I am when I'm with you, the lie is when I'm pretending to be a mobster."
Liz shook her head and went back to her chair. Head in hands, she tried to wrap her mind around what she thought she knew and all of this sudden information. She thought a while and then her head whipped up.
"What about all those people you," she paused, "killed."
"There's a reason I've never been convicted of anything. Not just my OCTF connections and the fact that I've never killed anyone."
"What about Alcazar, Faith, Joseph Sorel, Manny Ruiz and God knows who else?"
"Those people are either in prison or the witness protection program and I can't say who. Except for Manny, I did accidentally kill him, but all fairness, he was asking for it."
Liz sat in silence.
"Why right now? Today? Why are you telling me this today?"
Jason moved to kneel in front of her.
"Next week the OCTF are taking down the mob in Port Charles. It's probably going to get hairy. I don't know how it's going to play out. And if, for some reason, I don't come back. You can tell my son I was a good guy, not a mobster."
"Come on, Jason, you said your status would be public knowledge next week. Why are we here right now?"
Jason lightly touched her face, brought her eyes to his and ran his fingers through her hair. Once tangled there, he brought her closer to him and pressed his lips to hers. His other arm wrapped around her, hand running up and down her back.
Liz broke the kiss but didn't pull away.
"I'm angry, Jason."
"I know," he replied, "And you have every right."
Liz put her hands on Jason's shoulders and slid to the floor with him.
"Don't you dare die."
"Not in my plan."
Their kiss resumed with a passion reserved for the soon to be deployed and those who expect imminent danger. In her mind, Liz wanted to scream and rail at Jason. Intellectually, she knew she'd been deceived, no matter how good intentioned it had been.
But they were there, together, alone for the first time in so long. He admitted he was going into a situation he may not return from. And most of all, she loved him, more than anything. If he wasn't meant to come back to her, she didn't want her last words to him to be angry.
If he came back unscathed… Now, that was another story entirely.
Nikolas' eyes opened again.
"Mr. Cassadine," he heard. This from an unfamiliar female voice.
"You're not Emily."
"No, I'm Nadine, your nurse."
He could hardly move a muscle.
"But I saw her. She was here with Liz."
"Okay, I'm sure she was. She's been here everyday since you came through the ER."
"What?"
His mind was sluggish, he couldn't put it together.
"What is going on?"
Nadine pulled a chair up to Nikolas' bed and sat down.
"Dr. Drake said you'd have some memory loss after surgery."
"I had surgery," he rasped.
Nadine got up and poured a cup of water from a pitcher on the counter, she pulled a straw from her scrubs and put it to his lips.
"Small sips," she said, "You've been on IV fluids and tube feeding for a while. Your stomach might rebel."
Nikolas took a few tiny sips and Nadine put the cup on his over-bed table.
"What happened?"
"From what I understand, Dr. Quartermaine brought you in when you collapsed. Subsequent tests showed a good sized brain tumor. Dr. Drake did emergency surgery and removed the entire tumor. However, you fell into semi-lucid coma-like state."
"How long?"
"Almost a year, Mr. Cassadine."
Nikolas couldn't take the shock. He passed out.
To Be Continued