"Spinelli, this job-- this life," Jason says slowly, obviously struggling with his word choice. "I'm not sure if it's what you need anymore."
Spinelli looks up from his laptop and shakes his head in a failure to understand. "Stone Cold?"
"Everything with Sonny's escalating," he explains tiredly. "I might not be able to keep you safe. I've offered you an out before, and you've never taken it. This time, I'm urging you. I don't like forcing people to do things, you know this." He rarely looks people in the eye while in the middle of semi-emotional speeches, his gaze locking on the nearest surface. This time he's staring at the desk between them, but even so, the Jackal can see the unhappiness in his eyes. "I don't want what happened to Michael to happen to you. With the Russians, and the Zaccharas, and Sonny himself, I just don't have enough time to focus on every angle anymore--"
"Stone Cold, the Jackal understands, but--"
"But nothing," Jason insists. "I need you to find another place to live-- another job."
Spinelli looks unhappy at this and fidgets nervously, his want to make Jason happy warring with what makes the Jackal happy. "But the Jackal is fine at the Penthouse-- he's pleased to be Stone Cold's number one Cyber assassin," he disagrees, frowning. "It makes him feel needed--"
"But you can be
needed elsewhere," Jason says. "You deserve a lot better
than--" "Stone Cold, please," Spinelli
interrupts. "We've discussed this before, and it never changes--
You have my loyalty, and nothing's going to change that." It
happens so rarely that when Spinelli stops using his third person
speech, Jason can't help but listen and listen he does now. "Just
as I have your loyalty, I hope."
Jason's lips purse but he finally returns to his work, not sure what else to say to dissuade his friend.
---------
It happens when Jason least expects it, weeks after this conversation-- he and Spinelli are walking down by the piers, discussing the latest happenings in the tension with the Zacharras and Sonny when gun shots are heard. The guards come out of the woodwork and shoot back, defending the two as they duck behind crates and Jason pulls out his own gun, returning fire at the two shadowy forms hiding behind anything and everything they could find.
They seem to be outnumbered, but are holding their own until Spinelli hears something beyond the gunfire. When he turns slightly, he sees a shadow on the ground and gapes for a moment before his brain starts working and a weird of sense of deja vu floods through him as he tackles Jason instinctively just as another gunshot rings out-- and everything goes hazy for a moment. "Spinelli!" Jason yells as he squints up into the sunlight, breathing harshly. "Talk to me," he commands, picking back the torn jacket to get a look at the wound on his shoulder.
Spinelli swallowed through the wave of fire going through his arm and whispers, "You get him, Stone Cold?"
"Yeah, yeah," he murmurs. "We got him. Stay awake, ok? Ambulance is coming."
"Ok, Stone Cold..." He slowly rolls his eyes to the side and grimaces as he gets a first glance at the downed shooter, blood pooling around him.
"Hey, Spinelli, don't--" Jason cups his face and keeps him from looking at the gore too close. "Just focus on staying conscious, ok?"
"I'll try," he forces out even as his eyes slowly slip closed.
"No, Spinelli, stay awake," Jason orders again, leaning over him. "Hear the siren? They're really close. Think you can stay awake that long?"
"Yeah," he whispers, even though his eyes are still closed.
"Doesn't look like it to me," he sighs, shifting Spinelli's jacket again to gauge the bleeding. "Come here." He gingerly lifts the younger man up and props him up against his chest, which causes Spinelli to open his eyes a bit.
"Stone Cold?"
"I got ya. This might hurt," he warns briefly, before applying pressure to the gunshot wound. Spinelli blinks a bit before whimpering lowly, twitching. "I know, just hang in there."
"Ja- Jason," he breathes, leaning closer to his mentor and burying his face in his leather jacket.
"What happened here?" the EMT workers finally burst onto the scene, leaving the stretcher by the stairs so they can transport easier.
Jason quickly looks around to find his guards still watching carefully, but their guns are hidden so he focuses back on Spinelli. "We were walking down the pier when shots were fired... Spinelli was hit in the shoulder. I've been working to keep him conscious since."
The EMT nods distractedly while preparing Spinelli. "Gun shout wound to the shoulder," he announces into his headset. "Early to mid twenties, appears to be going into shock. Preparing for transfer."
"I'm coming with," Jason says, daring them to try to stop him.
"Jason Morgan, you're going to need to come with me," the familiar voice of Mac breaks into his staredown with the EMTs. "We have questions to ask you."
Jason grimaces, not completely surprised by anything but the fact he hadn't noticed the arrival of the officers. "You'll be fine," he tells Spinelli, patting his good shoulder. "I'll be at the ER as soon as I can... and I'll have someone call Maxie for you." To his relief, Mac doesn't say anything as Spinelli is wheeled to the ambulance.
--------
The questions are the usual 'what happened, why were there three dead men, and your own computer tech shot, but you come out unfazed?' types of police ramblings that Jason refuses to answer until Diane Miller arrives, and even then he's stoic and quiet, masterly hiding the anxiety that thinking of Spinelli in the ER alone causes him. Finally Diane works her magic and gets Jason released and he quickly fills out the paper work required, desperate to get to the ER.
When he arrives, Maxie is pacing up and down in front of the nurse's desk, picking at her designer blouse.
"What's going on?" Jason asks her, preparing himself for the usual loud rants the blonde provides him whenever Spinelli gets sick or injured on his watch.
"They have Spinelli in surgery, taking the bullet out of him," she says softly, barely looking at him. "I wasn't even allowed in to see him before, before they took him. What happened?!"
"Ambush," Jason says before dropping into the uncomfortably plush chairs near the nurse's station. He can't put into words the exact sequence of events-- how they were being shot at and Spinelli pushed Jason out of the way. He thinks Maxie would understand, because Spinelli pushed her out of the way of that car, after all, but... he's not in the mood to have her squeech at him. All he can think of is Carly's reaction towards Sonny when Michael was shot-- and that was a ricochete.
Maxie's eyebrows raise curiously as Jason stares blankly at the nurses wandering around, but she drops it for once and goes for a second chair, twisting her hands as they wait.
The time it takes for them to bring Spinelli out and settle him into a room seems to drag on forever, but when it happens, Maxie and Jason are by his side, Maxie holding his hand and Jason mindlessly brushing the uncontrollable hair off his forehead, both silently grateful the nurses are giving them a moment to be with him before they drag his bed into the room and begin work on settling him.
"The surgery went well," Robin says to Jason, since she had scrubbed in to observe once she realized who was on the table. "He had lost a decent amount of blood, but we stabilized him and got the bullet out. He should be fine with some physical therapy."
Maxie sags in relief before moving to Spinelli's bedside, pleased that the nurses had finished getting the IVs set up quickly.
"You sit with him," Robin says gently, as Jason's eyes lock on his pale friend's face. "We'll discuss everything later. The anesthetic will be wearing off shortly, and he'll be coming around. Call for a doctor when that happens, ok?"
"Thanks, Robin," he says quietly, walking past her and sitting next to Spinelli across from Maxie. He doesn't say anything, lets the blonde's rambles fill the room as she encourages Spinelli to awaken.
"What happened?" His attention returns to her as she eyes him curiously, obviously trying to temper the "Bad blonde one" that still lurks deep within. "How did he get shot?"
Jason swallows a bit and looks away. "We were ambushed."
"You said that already!" she exclaims. "What does that mean?!"
"We were walking on the docks and shots rang out," he says, forcing himself to do the one thing he constantly tells Spinelli to do-- focus. "We were outnumbered and someone snuck up behind us and took a shot at me. Spinelli saw him and pushed me out of the way, and this happened." He numbly waves a hand at Spinelli's unresponsive form and then looks up, willing to take on whatever Maxie has to dish out.
Her mouth is open, ready to scream, yell, slap Jason, whatever, but time stops when Spinelli's hand reaches past the IV and rests on hers, his eyes fluttering. "It's not Stone Cold's fault, Maximista," he forces out sleepily, smiling comfortingly as she chokes and closes her mouth. "Stone Cold is well?" he whispers, turning his head on the pillow to look at his mentor.
"Yeah," Jason whispers, "thanks to you. I'm fine. You just... just rest." His hand is smoothing Spinelli's hair once more, which seems to ease the young man back to much needed sleep. Maxie, however, still looks unhappy.
------------
When Spinelli is released from the hospital a couple days later, Jason is relieved that Maxie is off on a mission for Kate so that the move goes easily, and he gets a minute with the hacker. "How do you feel?" he asks once he's settled into the couch, laptop by his side and a bowl of soup untouched nearby.
"Very relieved to be home, Stone Cold. Has there been any progress in finding the culprits of the other day?" he asks, his arm shifting awkwardly within the sling that he was fitted with before achieving freedom from General Hospital.
"No, not yet. When you're better, you can help if you want," Jason says doubtfully, turning from Spinelli's knowing gaze.
"Stone Cold? Is there a problem?" he asks, though a part of him knows. The Jackal should've made more an attempt to talk to Stone Cold while in the hospital, but between the medicine, and nurses in and out, among others...
"No, just thinking," Jason says softly. Silence drifts through the penthouse for awhile until finally he speaks again. "Spinelli, do you think... maybe you should move in with Lulu and Maxie for awhile?"
Spinelli's mind's drifted but at this suggestion, he focuses on his roommate sharply. "What?"
"I told you this life was dangerous for you, and you got shot. It could've been a lot worse... maybe you'd be better off living with them," he suggests, eyes locked on Michael's picture on the mantle.
Spinelli looks sympathetic as he follows his gaze to the red-headed boy who will possibly be stuck to a hospital bed for the rest of his life. "No, Stone Cold. The Jackal prefers it here. What happened on the docks was a one time thing-- the Jackal's choice. It wasn't your fault that your protege got shot. Stone Cold could've been injured much worse if the Jackal had not acted, and so I cannot regret what happened on the docks."
"But next time--"
"Who is to say there will be a next time? The Jackal has been under Stone Cold's tutelage for nearly three years, and this is the first time such an occurrence has happened. "Please do not worry about the Jackal so much."
Jason looks frustrated but says nothing for a long moment, his vacant blue eyes looking away from Michael's photograph. "I'm not going to force you into something you don't want to do... If this is where you want to be, I won't kick you out." He watches as Spinelli smiles, deciding to get more guards, do everything he can to make sure something like this never happens again.
Spinelli dozes off on the couch not long after this conversation, leaving Jason to stare thoughtfully at him, plans cluttering his mind. I'll make sure everything'll be fine...