Okay- so this is set right after Micheal dies. When Jason is in the back yard and he's remembering the conversation he had with Micheal about heaven. For simplicities sake, Micheal really is dead, and Cameron doesn't exist. I don't hate kids, really, but I have a hard time writing them, and I'm bored with the Jason as a rabid kid needer plotline they've had going for years.

Sorry- I'm pulling us out of the somber mood I want to strike.

Disclaimer: Not mine. Should be, but it isn't.

Pieces Of You

The snow fell around him, and he tried to believe it was Micheal, sending him a sign. He tried to breath, tried to feel the cold he knew must be seeping into his bones, but nothing can break through the pain.

His son.

Maybe not in fact, but in spirit, always. A son in his heart. He reached his hands out so the snow would fall on his skin, and tried to believe Micheal was some place better. That he would be happy forever. But it sounded, even in his mind, like trite platitudes.

He turned and faced the house. He could think of nothing he wanted less then to walk back in. He couldn't face Carly or Sam.

"Jason." He turned and saw Elizabeth, head peaking into the back yard. "Hi." Her voice was whisper soft.

"Elizabeth."

Her eyes widened at the barely contained note of hysteria in his voice, and her heart ached at the sight of him, hovering at the edge. "I brought you something." She waved him over. He cast a glance though the French doors to the living room and followed her around the side of the house to the driveway. Sitting there was his motorcycle. "I had Max bring it over. I…" She paused, "I thought you might want it."

Jason felt some tiny, infinitesimal fraction of the weight on his shoulders ease at this act of kindness. "Thank you."

She shrugged. "I couldn't think of anything else. Go." She smiled, a brief shadow of a smile, as she watched him swing himself onto the bike a ride away.

Almost immediately the back door opened and Sam came running out. "Jason! Wait!" It was a futile thing to do, his bike already disappearing. She turned and stared at Liz. "What did you do that for? He shouldn't be alone."

"Jason likes to be alone." Elizabeth looked at Sam. Her eyes were cold and assessing. She hated this woman. She had tried not to. It was weird, because she liked Sam alright, but at the same time, she just hated her.

"But what if he needs me?" Sam asked rhetorically, worried.

"He wont." Elizabeth ignored the other woman's flinch.

"What is your problem?" Sam demanded.

"I don't have a problem, Sam. You do."

"What? What could possibly be my problem?" Sam was taken aback by the person in front of her. Liz had always seemed like such a passive, nice sort, not this aggressive bitch.

Lizzy Lizzy, Elizabeth cautioned herself. To no avail. "See, your problem is this. You're about to realize that you need Jason a hell of a lot more that he needs you. You'll leave him when you get that."

"And I suppose you'll be there to pick up the pieces?" Sam said sarcastically.

"No." Liz laughed shortly. "You don't get it. There wont be any pieces. He's not going to fall apart over you."

"You bitch." Sam couldn't believe how badly she had misjudged. "He's not cold. You don't get him at all if you think he doesn't need people."

Liz smiled. "I didn't say that. I said he doesn't need you." She walked off.

Sam cursed under her breath, walking back into the house. That stupid twit, what did she know. Walking in and telling her that Jason didn't really love her. That she would leave him.

"What is it? Where is Jason?" Carly asked, looking up from the picture of Micheal she held in her hands, her face aged and twisted.

"He's gone. Elizabeth Webber sent him off of his bike like it was the answer to everything." Sam said bitterly, sitting beside Carly on the couch.

"Oh." Carly looked back at the picture, stroking the glass. "That's probably good."

"But what if he needs-" Sam cut herself off.

"You?" Carly finished the sentence, looking up again.

Sam flushed. "He might. Whatever Elizabeth says, Jason loves me, and he might want me when he gets where ever he's going."

"Maybe." Carly said, noncommittal. Interest sparked in her eyes. "Little Miss Muffet show her claws then, did she?"

Sam nodded, surprised. She knew Liz was widely regarded as an angel in Port Charles. Hell, she had thought it herself.

"Well…" Carly said, interest gone, staring back down at the image of her lost son, her voice trailing off, "…good for her."

Tears burned in Sam's eyes, and she excused herself, grabbed her purse and left.

TBC

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