Author's Note: The following is a product of my imagination and in no way is intended to infringe upon the rights of those who hold sway over the world of General Hospital and the denizens who dwell therein.
The Night Before
"Stone Cold?" Spinelli stood in the doorway of Jason's bedroom, shivering uncontrollably. His hands and feet all felt like blocks of ice. Yet, he knew instinctively that the process of getting them warmed up would be a painful one. Still, the alternative of losing digits or indeed appendages was not a viable option.
He tried again, taking a tentative step into the darkened room, his teeth rattling and his tongue feeling thick as he again said, "Stone Cold?" He waited, his breath rasping in and out of his lungs, melting snow dripping off of his coat and forming a damp spot on the carpet where he stood.
"Mmmh," came a sleep aroused moan from the direction of the bed, "Spinelli?" An unseen hand fumbled for the switch to the lamp on the bedside table. A warm glow spread through the room and Jason sat up yawning and rubbing his eyes. He looked over at the bedraggled and shivering boy standing just inside his bedroom door and suddenly he was up and running across the carpet to him. "What the hell happened to you?" He said reaching for his roommate and pulling him further into the room.
"Wa…lk…ed h…ome." If anything the shivering and teeth chattering were even more pronounced.
"You did what?" Jason demanded incredulously. Even as he spoke he was urging Spinelli toward his bathroom. He wrapped his arm around the hacker's waist to help support him and guide his stumbling steps as he clumsily attempted to walk on thoroughly numbed feet. "Where was your car?"
"It w…as s…to..len." Spinelli kept his eyes on the carpet as he monitored their agonizingly slow progress.
"Stolen!" Jason's voice sharpened as his fear ratcheted up several levels of intensity. "You didn't get hurt did you?" He inquired anxiously, pausing as he tilted up his roommate's face in order to keenly scrutinize it for any sign of injury.
Spinelli stood next to him trembling as he met Jason's worried gaze, he shook his head. "No, I c..ame out of J…akes and f…ound the car m..iss..ing." He wrapped his arms around his torso in a useless attempt to warm himself.
"C'mon," Jason said roughly, he was angry with himself for getting sidetracked. The only priority right now was to get Spinelli out of these soaking clothes and warmed up. "Why didn't you call me?" He couldn't help prodding the boy as he reached across him and turned on the light in the bathroom.
Spinelli's complexion was gray under the bright lights. His mouth was a thin white line and his green eyes which resembled enormous dazed orbs, were starkly etched in his strained pale face. Continuous tremors shook his slight frame accompanied by a monotonous dripping sound as water droplets trickled to the tile floor.
"I…d...id but th…ere wa…sn't any an..swer." Spinelli shuffled toward the sink and looked at his reflection with morbid fascination. "I w…ould ha…ve ca…lled a cab but w…ith the st…orm." He met Jason's eyes in the mirror giving an apologetic shrug.
Jason walked over to stand next to him, his face grim. "I'm sorry, Spinelli. I forgot to charge my phone."
He couldn't believe his carelessness. He, whose own life and the lives of others depended on always getting every detail right, was the one responsible for making his protégé walk through a fierce snowstorm in plummeting temperatures. Spinelli could have collapsed and died of hypothermia. Even now he might have a case of frostbite.
Jason turned toward Spinelli intent on divesting him of every article of clothing. First he peeled off his coat cursing when he realized it was only a pea jacket. As many coats as Spinelli possessed and, tonight of all nights, instead of being warmly ensconced in down, he was dressed instead in sodden wool. Then he remembered with a pang that Spinelli had only thought he needed a coat to make it from the shelter of the bar to the snug interior of his hybrid. One thing was for sure, whoever stole his roommate's car was going to pay for this. If the cops couldn't find them then Jason would.
"Spinelli," he called his name loudly as he realized he hadn't said a word for several moments. He was just standing there swaying slightly as Jason struggled to remove his sopping wet hoodie. "Say something," he commanded, gratified as the hoodie finally came free along with the undershirt it was covering.
"I'm ssoo c…old," he said stuttering over the words as his half naked body shook uncontrollably with chills.
"I know, I know," Jason was frantic to get the rest of his clothes off so that he could start getting Spinelli warmed up.
He fumbled with the button on his jeans knowing that his roommate's hands would lack the manual dexterity needed to manipulate the stubborn closure. The jeans pulled down easily over his slender hips but Jason hadn't thought about the problem of getting the pants off over his shoes.
"Sorry," Jason muttered, furious all over again at himself as he viewed the obvious evidence that he wasn't being his usual calm rational self in a crisis.
Gently he guided Spinelli over to the toilet and had him sit down on the closed lid. Crouching down before him he tugged and pulled ineffectually at the sodden mess of shoelaces and knots on the hacker's tennis shoes. Finally, in a burst of frustration, he grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer in the counter and cut the entangled laces off of both shoes. He tugged and yanked until one after the other each made a sucking pop of a sound as the sopping wet shoes broke free. Quickly he worked each sock off and winced as he felt how cold Spinelli's feet felt against the palm of his hands.
"Almost there," he said encouragingly, stealing a quick glance up at the boy's face to gauge his condition.
Spinelli was sitting passively on the toilet, his head slumped forward and his eyes closed in exhaustion. His hands rested interly on his thighs with the palms turned up. His fingers were partially curled making them appear like frozen claws. They were just as unhealthily pallid in color as his feet were. Jason knew he had to act quickly to get the blood circulating in his most distant extremities.
"Doing all right?" He asked anxiously knowing it was a pointless question but he couldn't bear the smothering silence encasing the room.
This wasn't Spinelli, this deathly silent spectral figure, it was some incarnation of him that should never have been allowed to exist and Jason blamed himself entirely for the unwelcome transformation. From forgetting about charging his phone, to not even being aware that Spinelli was out in the storm, to his clumsy actions in trying to help him, he was wholly culpable for this dire situation. Yet, it was Spinelli who was suffering because of it.
The bottom third of Spinelli's jeans were totally saturated from plowing his way through the ferocious spring snowstorm. Soggy and clinging, they pooled around his feet. Jason pulled the clammy pants away from Spinelli's legs and threw them into a corner where the thick waterlogged denim subsided with a wet sigh. He stood up and looked worriedly down at Spinelli as he sat dispiritedly on the toilet seat. He was now nude except for a black pair of briefs which had somehow managed to remain dry.
Jason grabbed a towel and began carefully patting dry all the wet areas of Spinelli's body. Then he returned to his bedroom and pulled out a thick cotton navy blue robe which Carly had given him several Christmas's ago. He came back into the bathroom and shook Spinelli's shoulder lightly getting only a muffled groan in response. He eased the boy forward and delicately turned and twisted his motionless limbs until they were encased in the warm softness of the robe.
Using another towel, Jason rubbed Spinelli's head gently until his hair was no longer dripping wet but only damp to the touch. Jason sighed, he had procrastinated long enough. It was now time to tackle what was both the most important and difficult part of the complex process involved in getting Spinelli warmed up.
"Spinelli!" He said the boy's name loudly and tapped his cheek in an attempt to break through his stupor. "C'mon, Spinelli," he urged, "I need you with me for a while longer."
"Want to sleep." The hacker half raised his left hand in protest against the intrusion into his semi-comatose state but lacking the energy to complete the fending off motion let the hand drop limply back into his lap.
Jason was gratified to see that at least the boy wasn't shivering any longer which meant that that the combined effects of drying him off and the warmth of the robe were causing his core body temperature to rise. Yet, when he reached down and grasped the hand closest to him it still felt stiff and icy. The body was an evolutionary machine programmed to survive at all costs. When faced with extreme cold it deliberately cut off blood flow to the extremities so as not to lose precious body heat which it conserved for the more valuable brain and organs of the torso. Jason knew he needed to get blood flow into Spinelli's feet and hands or he might be faced with losing fingers, toes or even a foot or a hand.
For a brief moment he considered trying to get Spinelli to a hospital where they would be better equipped to deal with his condition. Yet, he dismissed the thought almost instantaneously. The storm had matured into a full blown blizzard with gale force winds. Jason quailed at the thought of Spinelli trapped in his SUV if they got stranded on the way to General Hospital. No, he would have to do the best he could here at the penthouse.
"Let's move you into the bedroom," he said as he pulled his roommate up from the toilet. Spinelli sagged against him, every muscle in his body flaccid with fatigue. Jason moved Spinelli's right arm so it was draped over his shoulders and wrapped his own left arm securely around the hacker's waist. The boy was for all intents and purposes a dead weight. Together, with Jason practically carrying his roommate, they made their slow hobbling way toward the bed.
"Uh huh," Jason chided softly as Spinelli tried to fall back across the bed. "You can't lie down yet, Spinelli, I'm sorry." He propped the younger man against the headboard almost wedging him between it and the nightstand so that he was forced to remain semi-upright. "Be right back," he promised as he dashed for the stairs.
Jason ransacked the kitchen cupboards for a large mixing bowl and then grabbed a plastic bucket the maid used to mop the floor. He ran up the stairs not liking having Spinelli out of his sight for even a few minutes. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw Spinelli still awkwardly sitting in his constrained position. He was worried that in his current condition that he might have tried to lie down on the bed and Jason wouldn't want to face the battle of getting him back up even though it was vitally necessary.
The next hour was painful for Spinelli and distressing for Jason. Using the bathtub, he filled both the bowl and the bucket with lukewarm water. Bringing them out back to the bedroom he solicitously placed Spinelli's feet into the bucket making sure the water covered them up to the ankles. He then repeated the process with the hacker's hands.
It took two changes of water before there was any overt change. Spinelli sat passively on the bed, his hands and feet in the tepid water, while Jason sat next to him apprehensively scanning his dull eyes for some spark of animation. He periodically checked the water temperature and when it began to chill he took the containers back to the bathroom and refilled them.
It wasn't until the third refill that there was a perceptible change in Spinelli's demeanor. He began to move restlessly and tried to take his hands out of the mixing bowl. Jason reached over and gently but firmly restrained him. "You have to keep them in," he explained patiently, "It's the only way to get your blood circulating again."
Spinelli frowned and this time when he looked at Jason his eyes were clearer than they had been since he had come home. "I don't like it," He said a complaining edge to his tone.
"I know it's hard," Jason hated the accusing look in Spinelli's eyes knowing that his increased awareness was a direct result of his discomfort. "There isn't any way around it, Spinelli. Enduring some pain now will be worth it when your hands and feet are back to normal." He wished futilely that he could bear the boy's pain for him.
By the fifth water change, Spinelli was actively rebellious as he squirmed and fought against Jason's attempts to keep both his hands and feet in the warm water. It appeared the treatment was successful. Jason was elated to see that both sets of appendages were turning pink as the blood flowed back through the smaller vessels leading into the toes and fingers.
"Stop it, Spinelli!" Jason said fiercely as he almost succeeded in overturning the bucket.
"It hurts!" Spinelli whimpered tears running down his face as his hands and feet felt like they were being immersed in red hot coals rather than lukewarm tap water.
"That means it's working." Jason tried to appeal to the rational part of Spinelli's brain but it was currently inaccessible. All Spinelli could feel was pain and the sensation of being trapped. "Look, after the water cools this time, I'll check your hands and feet and maybe we won't have to do it again."
Jason regretted intimating they were done because when he felt Spinelli's fingers they still seemed too cold to him. He erred on the side of caution and filled the bucket and the bowl another time. Spinelli didn't fight him this final time. He kept his hands and feet submerged but the tears still flowed and he bit his lip until it bled. Jason was wracked with guilt at watching the younger's man agony, he dabbed a Kleenex against his lower lip to catch the blood welling up from the self-inflicted wound.
"I'm so sorry, Spinelli," he whispered his arm wrapped around the hacker's quivering shoulders as his own eyes filled with empathetic tears. "I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't absolutely necessary."
"I know," it was a tired exhalation from the boy sitting next to him as he leaned into Jason's embrace and lay his head on the older man's shoulder. They sat like that for several more minutes while the water in the containers slowly cooled down.
Jason patted Spinelli's left foot dry. He felt along the inside of his ankle and gave a great sigh of relief when he felt the steady, rhythmic beat of blood through the vessel feeding into the foot. He grinned up at his roommate, giddy with exaltation. "That's the last one!" He said with excitement, happy once more to have found a vibrant pulse point. "Both hands and feet are back in business."
He looked down at delicate arch of Spinelli's foot as he held it tenderly in his hand. He was unable to believe that he ever before thought the boy's skin was pale when compared to the stark white absence of all color which had heralded the terrifying possibility of tissue death. Jason didn't know what he would have done if Spinelli had lost any part of either his hands or feet due to his negligence.
"Can I go to sleep now?" The question was accomplished by a jaw cracking yawn. Spinelli pulled his foot out of Jason's loose grasp and levering himself up off the bed stood unsteadily on the carpet.
Jason was up off the floor in a flash. "Whoa, where do you think you're going?" He asked wrapped his arm around Spinelli's waist for the third or fourth time that night.
"To bed as previously stated," Spinelli gave him a puzzled look, "The Jackal is beyond tired after this night's eventful activities."
Jason half smiled at the welcome return of the hacker's speech patterns. He was obviously feeling more like himself. "Nope," he said with mock sternness, "Not going to happen. You're staying with me tonight."
"You?" Spinelli echoed looking slightly dazed as he stared at Jason. "Why would Stone Cold want the Jackal intruding upon his well earned slumbers?"
"You have that backwards, Spinelli," Jason responded steering him toward the bed. "You're the one who needs to get some sleep but if you go return to your room, I'll just have to keep getting up and checking on you." He drew back the covers and carefully sat his roommate back down on the edge of the bed. "This way we'll hopefully both get some much needed shut eye." Jason picked Spinelli's legs up and placed them on the bed. The hacker lay quiescently on his side while he gently pulled the blanket and quilt up over him.
Yawning again, Spinelli closed his eyes, his head burrowing deep into the pillow. "You have a salient point." He muttered already drifting off to sleep.
Jason just stood by the bed for a moment staring intently at Spinelli, watching the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, noting the bruised darkness under his eyes which acted as a poignant reminder of all he he had suffered this night. He reached a trembling hand out and stroked the thick softness of the hacker's hair. "It could have been so much worse," he said, his voice vibrating with emotion.
Jason moved over to his bureau and opening a drawer removed a pair of sleep pants and a t-shirt. He changed all the while watching Spinelli alert for any sign or indication of distress. He walked to the other side of the bed and being careful not to disturb the sleeping boy climbed into bed. He reached for the bedside lamp and switched it off abruptly plunging the room into darkness. Jason rolled onto his side and reached for Spinelli. He wrapped his arms around him and pulled him into the curve of his body. Spinelli responded unconsciously by moving backwards into Jason's embrace. He molded himself to the enforcer's body as he sought the warmth he so craved which radiated from the other man in waves. Jason tucked Spinelli's head under his chin and as their breathing slowly modulated to become indistinguishable one from the other, he slowly relaxed letting his eyes drift closed as sleep overtook him.