AN: Thanks for the reviews! I hope this next chapter is okay. Hopefully, I'll give this story the justice it deserves… Let me know if I don't! ;)

Part II

She wasn't here anymore. He was on his own, alone in her house, staring at where she had fallen. He sat, cross legged, in the middle of her living room and replayed the awful moment over and over again.

"Jason…" He was pretty sure he was going to hear that last, desperate word of hers for a long time to come. Hell, he just may hear it forever - a constant reminder of his complete failure to keep his promise to her. With a guilt-ridden sigh, he ran both of his hands over his face.

A hand grabbed his shoulder causing Jason to start. His gun was left where he'd let it drop. So, whoever it was had a free shot if they wanted to take it.

"Jason…" the pained face of Damien Spinelli came into focus. Apparently, he'd been calling his name for a while now. "Mr. Morgan… Max told me to tell you that the Valkyrie arrived at the hospital. He also told me to tell you that he called Mr. Jacks." Jason nodded. For the first time since Carly had been a part of his life he hadn't trusted himself to help her. Not after he'd been the one… Instead he'd immediately called Max, who had been with Spinelli on their way to Carly's house after Jason's panicked charge there.

"Are… are you going to the hospital?" Spinelli asked. Jason looked up at the teenager. To the hospital? To watch Carly fight for her life again, this time because of him?

"Yeah. I am," he said. He needed to be there, to be her strength like she always said he was. He needed to be there to watch over what he had wreaked.

"The Valk… er, Carly would want you there," he said. Jason closed his eyes and let a ghost of a smile fleet across his face.

"Sure," he said in a way that he knew confused the teen. He stood and made his way out the door, leaving Spinelli behind with a worried look on his face.

GeneralHospital

He walked down the hallway and it seemed eerily empty. It was hard to believe that a few long weeks ago this place had been full of frantic activity. Jason had lost Alan here without being able to tell his father what he'd meant to him. He'd be damned if he'd let the same thing happen to Carly. Over the past months, he knew that he'd taken their friendship for granted more than he ever had. And allowing himself to be manipulated by Sonny in order to manipulate Carly… it was something he was always going to be making up for in a long list of things he regretted when it came to her.

He stopped outside her room and looked in. Carly normally looked vibrant and full of life. But today, as wires and tubes ran in and out of her body, she looked pale and lifeless. He couldn't help but flash back to all the other times she had been in this same place, fighting for her life. Most of those reasons, he thought bitterly, had been because of Sonny. And now, he had joined the ranks of the man who had broken her mind, body & spirit.

Jason's attention was caught as he heard a voice from inside the room.

"Carly, baby, you need to wake up. Michael and Morgan need you. Your mother needs you. I need you. I love you. Once you wake up, we'll go back to Fiji. I'll take you away from all of this. I'll let the police handle Jerry, and you and I will get back to the business of being happy," the accented voice said. Jason watched as her Aussie husband stroked her hand and placed gentle kisses on her fingers. A strange feeling set in his stomach as he watched another man say the words that could have – should have – been coming from him.

"I think you finally did it, Morgan," Jax said suddenly, startling Jason.

"What?" he asked before he could hold himself back. Jason knew what Jax was getting at, but the natural animosity between them prompted his derisive question.

"Whatever devotion Carly had for you, I think you may have finally killed it," the Aussie said. "You never should have put her in the position to have to stand in front of your gun."

"I can't believe I just heard that come out of your mouth. You should never have put her in the position to need to!" Jason yelled. Jax nodded, much to Jason's surprise.

"I shouldn't have. I love Carly. I never should have made her choose," then with a glance as cold as Jason's own gaze was known to have been, Jax looked the other man square in the eye. "And neither should have you." Jason didn't say anything, just stood stoically by Carly's other side.

"It's funny," Jax said after a quiet moment. "I always thought myself better than you and Sonny. Sonny shot her in the head and you let him live. For two people who said to have cared about her as much as you did and to have let that happen… I couldn't see how I could not have looked better in her eyes even if I'd paid for it. But here we are. Sonny shot her in the head because she wanted to be independent, you shot her in the chest because she wanted to be loyal… and I let her be pulled her in the middle of something like this because she wanted to honor me." Jason closed his eyes at the pain those words caused. And they hurt even more because they were right and it was Jax who said them.

"You're an asshole, Jax," Jason said. As the blond looked up at him, Jason smiled, remembering the riot act the Aussie had read him not all that long ago. "But so am I. Carly is who she is. She exudes these great qualities every day that no one takes the time to see. And we're all constantly surprised when we finally look at her and realize they really are there." Jax let out a bitter laugh.

"The town gives her a bad rap for being insecure and not knowing what she wants. But is it no wonder that she never knows? Her best qualities, as you so pointed out, have only been punished," he said. With a shake of his head, Jax brought her still hand up to his mouth and kissed it gently. "I love you, Carly. Sleep well."

When Jason was alone with her, he sat on the edge of her bed and took her other hand. It felt wrong for him to be holding her hand like this. It felt wrong to be pushing the blond strands of hair behind her ear. It felt wrong to be sitting here like her best friend wishing her to get better again so that he could hear her voice and see her smile and watch her beautiful blue eyes roll at him again. He was the one that put her here after promising her time and time again that he would keep her safe.

Carly was erratic, Carly was impulsive, Carly was Carly. Above all else, Carly was beautiful in her unpredictability. To say he understood why she had chosen to save the life of a person like Jerry Jacks would be a mistake. But she was loyal, and that Jason did understand. He also knew that there was more he needed to understand. The fact that Carly had willingly stood in front of his gun for her husband's brother said lots of things. First and foremost that she trusted Jax more than she did him. That was how it was supposed to be, he guessed. That was the unit a husband and wife were supposed to present. It was something he had prepared himself for since dancing with her at her wedding.

But when she had said that she would always need him, he had believed her. Jason had never thought that it wouldn't be true. Who was he without Carly trusting him, without her loving him, without her needing him? Jason was pretty sure that he didn't like himself without her and it had been a long time since he'd thought like that.

Of course, he'd almost lost her before. The car accident, the fall through the ice, the kidnappings, the hotel fire, her breakdown, the train wreck, the epidemic, the hostage situation… But Carly had always pulled through and she was always on his side. Even through everything with Sonny, he'd always known that she was loyal to him above all else. Jason had gotten used to that. He was starting to think of her as Spinelli's invincible valkyrie. But all of those near misses… none of them had been anything directly done by him. Now, he was worried that the bullet from his gun would be fatal to something he'd never thought could be broken, if not Carly herself.

AN: Let me know what you think!