Note- This is for the prompt thread entitled "Write That Couple" at Love Happens. I prefer Jarly to this paring but the challenge was to write this couple. I thought I would share it here to see if there are any fans of this pairing.

I've been reading a lot of Harlequin romances lately so that is the inspiration for this storyline.

Baby Did A Bad, Bad Thing (For A Good Cause)

Carly and AJ from GH

February 2004

Part One

Kidnaping your ex-wife was definitely a bad idea, which meant it was right up his alley.

Just ask any of his relatives. Most of them couldn't go a day without reminding him of what a loser he was. Though it hadn't always been that way. There had been a time when Alan James Quartermaine Jr.- better known as A.J- wasn't the screw up of his rich, powerful family, a time when he was just as adored as his younger brother, the golden boy of the clan, Jason.

Jason. Brain damaged and a hit man but the whole family believed him to be a better guy, with a bigger heart and a sharper intellect than AJ.

Just thinking of his brother set AJ's teeth on edge. Once they had been the best of friends- sharing secrets, covering for each other, playing tennis and volleyball for hours on end- but now they were bitter enemies.

And it was mainly the fault of the woman who was coughing, shivering and dripping blood on the expensive leather seats of his sports car next to AJ right now, as AJ drove away from the hotel that his family owned. Flames were still shooting out of the building and people were still trapped inside- even people that AJ loved- but the firefighters were there to handle that. He had to handle his Carly problem before he could worry about anything or anyone else.

When AJ had stumbled along his ex- wife, and the mother of his only child ( a five year old ginger haired boy named Michael), in the stairwell of the burning hotel, he had thought that God was trying to punish him by slowing him down on his escape from the building.

There she had lain, sprawled on the stairs, unconscious, bleeding from a head wound and AJ had known that no matter how much of a bastard everyone constantly told him that he was he couldn't leave her that way. So he had scooped her up and began to carry her down the stairs.

After a couple of flights she had woken up, coughing and struggling to get a deep breath, and gave him a quizzical look "Where am I?"

"Just shut up," he had gritted out, struggling to carry her when the air was so thin that he could barely catch his breath.

"Who are you?" she asked, groggily.

"What? You know who I am. You really must have bumped your head good."

"Owwww. Damn, it hurts." She coughed some more, lifted her head and sniffed. "Oh my god! We're in a fire!"

The stairwell had been blocked by debris so AJ had pried open the door on the third floor, hurried through the smoke into a hotel room and made it to the bathroom, to get wet rags for their faces.

"We're gonna die!" Carly had cried.

"I'm not gonna let that happen. The whole family would say I did it on purpose just because I hate you! Here, put this over your mouth."

She coughed some more. "Why can't I remember anything? How do I know you?"

"Honey, you don't just know me. You married and divorced me. And if you forgot that then lucky you! Now come on!"

He hauled her back into his arms, went to find a different stairwell, slipped past the firemen who were making their way up and carried Carly outside. After getting checked by paramedics he promised to take her on the hospital but he had no intention of doing that.

With her memory on the fritz this was a good time for them to have a little chat. One that was very long overdue.

Usually she had her mobster husband, Sonny Corinthos, to keep AJ away from Carly and Michael and also Sonny's second in command, Jason, to run interference and be Carly's best friend and hero. For the first year of Michael's life Jason had even played Daddy to the boy, before AJ learned he was the true biological father and took his lying brother and scheming ex-friend (who he had a one night stand with) to court.

After that Carly decided to marry AJ in order to get some leverage on him and take Michael away for good. He had known what she was up to from the start but in the end that hadn't stopped AJ from doing destructive things that made him lose his wife and son anyway.

There had been a time he had thought that they could be a real family, all be happy together, that he could run ELQ and be everything that Michael and Carly wanted and needed, make the rest of the family see he deserved respect.

Now he knew that was hopeless. He'd always be useless in the eyes of his relatives. But there was only one relative he cared about anymore- his little boy Michael. Michael was still young enough to forget the past and bond with AJ, if only Carly would let that happen.

Tonight AJ would try to explain to her exactly why she should.

Pulling his car up to the cottage in the woods, he said "We're here."

"This isn't the hospital. Where are we?"

"The hospital is gonna be packed right now. Let me take care of you here."

She rubbed her forehead. "My head really hurts and I still can't remember anything. What's wrong with me?"

"You just got a little bump. Even the paramedic said your memory loss is probably just temporary. What you need is to get cleaned up, get some rest and tommorow morning I'll take you to a doctor, if you still can't remember anything, okay?"

Not waiting for an answer he climbed out of the sports car, walked around it and opened her door. "Come on."

She slowly got up but was a little wobbly on her feet. Carly reached for his arm for support. Their eyes met and held in the moonlight.

A shiver whipped through his body, an unbidden reaction to her beauty.

There had been time when he found himself undeniably attracted to her. Back when they first met she had seemed sweet and understanding, fun loving and quirky. Now he knew she was none of those things. Carly was a great schemer who had worked him and most of the other people she met in Port Charles in the years since she had rolled in like a late summer tornado, wrecking havoc and leaving destruction in her wake. Before she graced them with her presence here she had been born and raised in the swamps of northern Florida, growing up in a double wide trailer, dreaming of becoming a modern day Cinderella story- the poor girl in rags who turns into a princess because she caught the eye of a rich guy.

AJ grew up in a wealthy family and had a trust fund and he had been willing to share everything he had- even his heart- with her if she would only share their child with him but he hadn't been the prince in Carly's grown up fantasies. That had been his brother, Jason.

And even after Jason dumped Carly she ran off to marry a mob boss rather than come back to AJ.

He ranked lower than scum in her eyes.

Not that he cared anymore. He was over thinking they could ever fall in love with each other. All he wanted was for her to listen to him and hear how much he loved his son and how much he missed Michael.

If Carly had her memories right now she'd never give AJ five minutes of her time. Luckily she didn't. He needed to take advantage of that fact- for the sake of his son.

And if Carly died from her injuries...well then that would be one less person out of the way of keeping AJ from his child.

Hey, she had decided to play dirty first. He was just trying to keep up with her.