Disclaimer: I own nothing, I merely abuse.

Distribution: Ask first I'll probably say yes.

Cast: Focuses heavily on Jason, Elizabeth, Sonny, Francis, Nikolas, Stavros, several new characters, and a few more from Port Charles that I can't mention yet, or I'll give the story away.

Author's Notes: This story was inspired by a challenge, well actually three challenges on another board. A kidnapping, the island, and a letter, I've combined them all in this fic. It's set when Elizabeth left Port Charles after taking the poison and it is a total new creation since then.

This fic is a lot of fun, with lots of action, and cliffhangers. Sort of Indiana Jones, with a few surprises. Let me know if you like it or not.

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One of Those Days

Part I

~Island~

Elizabeth Webber blinked hard trying to clear the fogginess from her vision. She may be alive but that 'safe poison' that Nikolas had given her was wreaking havoc on her system. Her head had felt like it was going to fall off, ever since she had woken up a few hours ago, but in a perverse way, she had gotten used to that. This new side effect of the drug however, was very unnerving to her, because now she was seeing things.

She had to be seeing things, because less then 20 feet from where she sat on the beach was Jason Morgan. She'd heard a motorcycle approach and hadn't given it much thought. Well her heart had sped up and she had trouble breathing, but other then that she'd never even thought it could really be him.

Curious because the motorcycle was the first sign of life she'd seen in the area since she'd woken up, she had turned to look, and to her surprise a familiar sight greeted her. A familiar black leather jacket, well-worn jeans, and a blue T-shirt, confirmed his identity even before he pulled off the seldom-used helmet, exposing his short spiked hair. It was blonder then the last time she had seen him, so he must have been out in the sun. He was also tan and that showed off the blue of his eyes, so clearly when his eyes met hers, that she lost her breath.

She closed her eyes and began to count in her head. One, two, he couldn't be here. Three, four, he was as far away from her as he could get. Five, six, and she didn't blame him.

"Elizabeth."

Seven, eight, that was so not his voice calling her name. Why would he say her name when he'd left without a word to her after that fateful night in the park?

"Elizabeth."

Nine, ten, damn he smelled good though. Of course he always smelled good. It was always so hard to be around him, because his closeness made her think those thoughts that she wasn't supposed to be thinking about. Thoughts about him and her.

"Are you okay Elizabeth?"

"Just a minor breakdown," she muttered. Damn now she'd lost count. She felt him sit beside her, but kept her eyes closed. She didn't want to see the coldness in his eyes. A coldness that she knew had to be there when he looked at her.

"Will you look at me?"

The request was soft, of course his voice was always soft when he spoke to her. She frowned, or at least it had been until she'd started frustrating him every chance she got.

"Please."

She opened her eyes, and turned to look at him, and confirmed what she had always suspected, that he was one of those men that got better looking every time you saw them. "Happy?" She asked before closing her eyes and turning away.

Jason sighed heavily and shifted on the sand beside her. "What are you doing here?"

"I don't even know where here is." She couldn't help but feel stung by the coldness in his voice. "I just woke up there," she gestured behind her. "In that house."

"In that house?" Jason questioned. "Open your eyes and look."

She did as he asked and looked at the house he was pointing at. "Yes that's the one." She turned back to face the water, doing her best to ignore the proximity of the man beside her.

"Goddamnit Sonny." Jason got to his feet.

Elizabeth stared at him in surprise, he normally didn't talk like that when he was around her. She watched him pace and realized that he wasn't angry at her, but because of her. He was angry because she was here, where he obviously didn't want her to be. She felt chilled at the realization, but she couldn't blame him. How could she blame him for not wanting to see her? After all she had been a bitch to him the last several times she had seen him.

Jason rubbed at the back of his neck and stared at the crashing waves. The last person he had expected to find here was Elizabeth. Sonny had asked him to come here to help keep someone safe for a few weeks, and he'd agreed. He didn't know that person would be Elizabeth. If he had known he probably wouldn't have agreed, he shook his head at that thought. No he still would have come but he would have been prepared to see her.

Not much surprised him, in his line of work he had to be prepared for the unexpected. But when he had pulled off his helmet and saw her sitting on the beach watching him, he had been stunned. He smiled ruefully, he had been feeling edgy all day, and now he knew why. As crazy as it sounded some part of him had known that she was near.

"I take it you didn't know I was coming?" Elizabeth asked when she couldn't stand the silence between them anymore.

"No I didn't know it was you that Sonny wanted me to keep an eye on. If I had known…" he trailed off.

He wouldn't have come. She finished the thought for him. She didn't blame him in fact she understood it. She had wrecked his life once. So why should he want to get near her again? Feeling chilled she rubbed her hands over her arms, and kept her eyes on the turbulent ocean. "You don't have to stay." Her voice remained steady as she offered him an out. "I'll be fine here alone, Sonny was just being cautious."

"I doubt that." He turned back to look at her and let out a sigh. "The mere fact that you're here tells me that something serious has happened."

"You don't know? Oh that's right I'm a surprise." She pulled her sunglasses from her hair and slipped them on, grateful for their dark lenses to shield her eyes from his probing gaze. "I'm dead."

"What?"

Elizabeth regretted her bluntness and tried to joke it off. "What? Don't I make a good corpse?" She posed for him, but he just continued to look at her. "Well I was a believable enough corpse that Helena believed, that Nikolas had followed her instructions and poisoned me," she sighed. "So I guess that's all that matters."

"Nikolas poisoned you?" Jason scrubbed a hand over his face.

"Yes and no, he gave me a drug that made me look dead and gave me a hellacious headache to boot. But the important thing though, Helena thought I was dead." She kept talking hoping he wouldn't ask, but of course he did.

"Why?"

"Why?" She stalled for time and looked over at him. The sun was cresting at his back causing bright highlights to shoot through his hair. With his hands on his hips, and his chiseled good looks, he looked like a very displeased Greek god. She knew her answer would upset and probably hurt him. And she was tired of hurting him, she wanted to make things up to him but she didn't know how, or if he would let her.

"Yes why?" He repeated and almost immediately he knew why. The realization caused a mask to descend over his features.

Elizabeth saw the mask arrive and hid the flinch when she saw it. She felt tears prick the back of her eyes, and blinked hard to force them back. She had finally become one of them to him. One of those people that he didn't like, that he hid from, one of the ones he detested. She had never dreamed that she could feel any worse, then she already did, but she was wrong.

The loss and hurt caused the words to spill out of her. "Why? Surely you can guess Jason. Why would I fake my death? Drink something when I'm not sure what it would do to me? Why do I wake up in the morning? Why do I exist? Why have I dropped out of school, dropped all my friends but one? Why don't I paint anymore?" She asked bitterly. "Why did I give you up to turn into a prop for someone I used to love?" She got slowly to her feet. "So in answer to your question. Lucky is why I'm here."

Jason couldn't help but be surprised by her outburst. She had always told him things that she never told anyone else, but she normally didn't let that much out at once. At the mention of Lucky though, everything he was feeling shut off. He rubbed at the back of his neck, he didn't want to hear about Lucky. He didn't want to hear how much she loved him, he had been trying to block that out of his head for months now. "I see."

The cool disinterest was evident in his eyes and it cut her deep, but she brazened it out. "I doubt that, but we'll let it go." She bent over and picked up the blanket. "I'll make it easy on you Jason. I won't try to talk to you, I won't bother you, in fact I'll even leave the room when you come in. That way you don't have to revert to your block of concrete trick." She turned to face him. "Does that sound fair?"

"Elizabeth don't be like this, I don't expect you to avoid me while were here, it's just," he spoke quickly before she could walk away. But now the only words left to say were the ones that would hurt her. "But you are right, I don't want to hear about Lucky and your life."

Sunglasses were a marvelous invention. They could protect someone from seeing when words drove a stake through a heart.

"I don't want to be free, I want to be with Lucky."

What goes around comes around, she realized. She didn't try the fake smile that she had been wearing for over a year now, knowing he would see through it in a heartbeat. Instead she kept her face impassive and nodded her head. "That sounds fair Jason." Her voice sounded normal to her ears and for that she was eternally grateful. "I'm going to head inside now. I'm pretty thirsty."

"Okay." He couldn't quite keep the relief from his voice. He needed a few minutes to adjust to being around her again.

She heard the relief and smiled wryly, he couldn't wait to be rid of her. She turned and headed for the house. "For what its worth Jason its nice to see you again." She called from the door. She closed the door before he had the opportunity to reply. That was if he even wanted too.

Jason shrugged out of his jacket and walked towards his motorcycle that was parked on the drive. He needed to call Sonny and find out why Elizabeth had been drugged. Her rambling explanation left a lot of blanks that he needed filled in. He didn't want to question her, because she would try to explain her reasoning and that was the last thing he wanted to hear.

He pulled the phone out of his pocket and looked at it for a long minute before looking at the house. He'd hurt her. She had tried to hide it, but he'd seen the hurt that he had caused her. He shouldn't feel guilty about it but he did. After all she'd made all the decisions in their relationship, not him. No. He corrected himself and set the phone on the ledge that ran along the drive. They didn't have a relationship, not really, Elizabeth wouldn't let one develop between them.

He wanted to go inside and check on her, old habits died hard he guessed, but instead he crouched by the bike. He had been meaning to change the oil on the bike, and now was as good of a time as any to do that. But he couldn't seem to stop himself from looking at the house every now and then. Christ he'd only been around her for 15 minutes, and it already felt like he was right back in the same place he had been for the past few months in Port Charles. He didn't like that. He didn't know how he was going to survive a few weeks of this.

~Inside~

Elizabeth pulled on a long sleeved lightweight sweater and moved to the window. He was still there, working on his bike, just like he had been when she had went in to take a shower, when she had gotten out of the shower, while she got dressed, and when… ah the hell with it, she knew he would never leave her alone as long as he thought she was in danger. But she'd much rather have him here because he wanted to be here, instead of having to be here.

"Wishful thinking Webber." She grumbled as she moved to the bed to pull on her hiking boots. "Kind of like you getting dressed for a motorcycle ride that is never going to happen."

It didn't hurt being prepared though. She knew better then almost anyone how much he loved to ride his bike, and she doubted he would leave her alone while he did ride. A part of her hoped that if they did go for a ride like they used too, things might get easier between them. Judging from the awkwardness that had happened on the beach an hour ago, it couldn't get much worse.

All of those times that she had told him she couldn't see him anymore, they had still managed to connect, with their eyes if nothing else. She couldn't help but remember the night of the first Deception launch party, when her and Lucky had returned to Kelly's.

Emily had been nervous and a little scared, Zander had been on edge and Jason had been tense and a little frustrated. She had seen that as soon as she had walked in and she had wanted to find out what had happened. But when Lucky had walked by Jason like he wasn't even there, she had followed him like the obediently trained dog that she was rapidly being turned into. She couldn't help but look back at him though, and when their eyes had met, she'd felt such a sense of longing to hold him that it had shocked her.

Elizabeth frowned at her reflection in the mirror and pulled a brush through her hair. For someone who had vowed never to be a fawning girlfriend whose main goal in life was to make their man happy, she had sure changed her tune awfully quick. At that awful memory she dropped her brush and tried to pinch some color in her too pale cheeks. Even with the makeup she had put on, she was still too white.

"Face it no one would ever believe you were once in the hunt for a modeling contract." She grumbled before heading back to the window.

Jason was still by his bike, but it was all put together again. So he must have finished whatever he had been doing to it. He stretched then and her eyes couldn't help but lock on his chest, and shoulders when the thin cloth of his T-shirt stretched tight over his muscles.

Ogling him from a second story window wasn't very mature. But she had missed seeing him so much that she couldn't work up enough embarrassment at her behavior to walk away from the window. He dropped the rag he was wiping his hands with on the ground and pulled on his jacket, before turning away from the house and towards the street.

Elizabeth focused on the street as well when she saw the tense way Jason was standing. She became tense herself when she saw the redhead. The woman was tall probably 5'9" with long red hair that was cascading over her shoulders. Her curvy figure seemed to overflow the sundress she was wearing. Hell if she breathed too hard she might pop one of those thin straps that were holding the dress up.

The faint sound of her laughter drifted up to her open window and Elizabeth felt the jealousy burn inside her, as Jason talked to a woman, who looked like sacrifices should be made to her. If that little bitch touched his arm one more time she was going to rip her hair out from her dyed roots, she thought darkly, when the redhead took Jason's hand. Maybe it was time to go outside.

Jason began to follow the woman down the drive and Elizabeth almost screamed in disbelief, he was leaving? Just like that? Her curse trailed off when Jason suddenly jerked and he staggered back, turning slightly towards the house before collapsing on his back on the driveway. Elizabeth could barely make out a red spot that had suddenly appeared on his blue shirt.

The redhead stepped back, and pulled the red thing from his shirt and tossed it away, then stepped back as a black four-door sedan came screeching to a halt next to her and a prone Jason. Two men got out of the car and quickly moved over to them, they nodded while the redhead spoke.

Elizabeth covered her mouth and watched wide-eyed from the second story window, she needed to get some help. She had to help Jason. The bigger of the two men, bent over Jason, and picked him up in a fireman's carry, while the other opened the trunk of the car. She winced for Jason as the man dropped him in the trunk, the thud as he hit the bottom reverberated in her ears.

The thud broke the paralysis she was under and she began to move, no actually she began to run, she tore down the stairs and headed for the door. She had no idea what she was going to do she just knew that she couldn't let them take him. That she would do whatever she had too, to get him back. She spotted the handle of a decorative cane that was in a pot by the front door and pulled it out and pulled open the door. She flew down the stairs just in time to see the car pull out of the drive.

"Hey." She screamed at the car and hurried down the drive, but the occupants of the car gave no sign that they heard her, and kept driving away. "I got to get help. I need to call Sonny."

She turned back towards the house, when her eye fell on the motorcycle. If she took the time to call Sonny Jason would be gone, and he'd have to waste all of this time finding him. But if she could follow them to wherever they took Jason, and then call Sonny, they would have a head start. She hurried to his bike, after taking a look at the car that was traveling at a slow pace, on the long straight road running parallel to the beach.

Elizabeth was about to climb on when a glint of metal caught her eye. On the ground in front of the rock ledge, was Jason's gun. Without even thinking about it, she crossed to it and picked it up. It felt heavy in her hand. A nervous giggle escaped her lips when she looked at her hands. She had a gun in one hand, and what turned out to be a large umbrella in the other hand. Lara Croft, she definitely wasn't. She dropped the umbrella, then peered at the gun. She saw the safety and saw it was still engaged so she tucked it in the back waistband of her pants. The metal was cool against her skin, and it was unnerving to think about. She saw a sleek silver phone on the ledge and picked it up, hooking it on her waistband, with a final look at the dim taillights on the car, she climbed on the bike.

"God Jason I hope you were only teasing about the wind thing and my weight." She muttered as she levered the bike up and tried to free the kickstand. The bike leaned precariously and she battled it upright. "Christ it is heavy." She put her hand on the key. All of those times she had been riding with Jason and he had let her drive, he had always started the bike for her. "Please." She turned the key and nothing happened.

Her eyes whipped to the car that was nearing an intersection at the edge of her sight, if it turned she would lose the car. She couldn't lose the car. If she lost the car, she would lose Jason, and that wasn't acceptable to her. She closed her eyes and let herself remember how Jason had started the bike all those times. She kept her eyes closed and turned the key the same time she worked the clutch, and it caught.

The engine roared to life and her eyes flew open, the car was making a left turn. "Here goes everything." She muttered before putting the bike in gear and sending herself forward into the wind.