Prologue:
A Dark Night
Stepping through the threshold of the local hospital, Sonny Corinthos swallows past the lump in his throat, needing to keep himself together as he searches out his best friend's room. From what the men said over the phone, it had taken all of Sonny's strength that he possessed to make it this far, knowing that anything from this point on is solely in the hands of fate.
"I'm here for Jason Morgan." Sonny finds it in himself to voice as he stands before the desk nurse. "Where is he?"
"Right this way," the woman voices, stepping around the desk to escort him to the room. "The man's quite fortunate. Dr. Edwards believes that if he were any closer to the blast he'd be dead."
Soaking in that bit of information, trying his best to keep his composure, Sonny takes in a deep breath to steady his nerves. From what his men reported, the young Webber girl had been as close to the blast as one could get; other than actually holding the bomb, of course. With all the facts settling into place, he fears that the only innocent one in all of this is the one that will face the most consequences.
"We're only supposed to allow family in to see him at this point…" the nurse begins to say, waiting long enough for Sonny to look at her before continuing. "…but I know enough about the two of you to know that your presence could do him a lot of good. Especially with the condition of his girlfriend…no one deserves to hear that alone."
"She's not his girlfriend," he mutters offhandedly, not entirely sure why he had to make that clarification, especially with their lives hanging in the balance. "Can I ask how she is? You know, so I can be the one to tell him."
"She definitely took the worst of it," the nurse sadly conveys, knowing from the look on Sonny's face that he needed her to tell him, regardless of the rules in play. "She's in a coma. The doctors are convinced that it'll be a long time before she regains consciousness…if she ever does."
Without another word, Sonny slides his hand into the crevice of the handle before pushing the door open and stepping inside. The moment Jason comes into full view everything inside of him breaks apart, physically pained to see him in this shape yet again. If it were up to him, Sonny would ship Jason off to the island for a month to recuperate while devising a plan to get him out of the business for good. But, as everyone knows it in abundance, it isn't up to Sonny. As hard as it was to swallow, it was and always will be Jason's choice.
Days will go by, nearly a week, before Jason regains consciousness. A few times, however, Sonny had believed he'd wake up with the sole purpose of telling Carly to shut her mouth. Having had to listen to the woman blame every living person on this earth for Jason's condition, tearing him to pieces for ultimately being the one responsible, at least in her eyes, Sonny was ready to shoot the woman himself. Fortunately for Carly, he already made one mistake too many where she's concerned and he's hell-bent on not making another for fear of losing Jason forever.
"I want to see her." Jason's words tore through him as the news of the Webber girl's condition sets in, the pain on his best friend's face almost too much to bear. "Take me now."
"Jason, please." Carly begins to beg, not wanting to see Jason further injure himself for the sake of seeing the girl that stole his heart from her. "You barely survived the explosion. You need to give yourself time to…"
"Now, Sonny!" Jason snaps, turning his gaze away from the teary-eyed blonde. "I want to see her."
Convincing Jason to stay put long enough to check if the girl is by herself had been a difficult feat, but amazingly he was able to pull it off. One phone call later, however, much to Carly's dismay, Jason is put into a wheelchair and carted off by Francis, one of the guards, having refused to be taken by Sonny or Carly.
"Tell me everything." Jason states as he sits by her bedside, Francis standing merely a few feet from him, unable to move any closer or further from that spot.
"She was in the storage closet when the EMTs arrived. From what I could gather, she was looking for something when the bomb exploded." Francis forces himself to speak without emotion, afraid to allow the sadness to take hold of him again. "Most of her wounds had been superficial, making it out of the blast with a few broken ribs and a fractured clavicle, with the exception of her head. The explosion had propelled her forward, slamming her head against the shelving unit before pushing her body further into the closet."
As Francis spoke of the explosion, Jason's hand instinctively reaches for Elizabeth's, unable to break the connection as Francis gives him a blow by blow of what happened, physically pained by the fact that he wasn't able to get to her in time. If only he had gotten to her a minute sooner, she wouldn't be in this hospital bed. Just one minute and everything would be different. Just one minute.
"There's just no telling when or if she'll ever regain consciousness." Francis finally spits out the last bit of information, unable to look away as Jason's eyes find his, the pain almost too much to bear. "As far as the doctors believe, it'll take nothing short of a miracle."