Chapter Three

Everything around her was a daze.

No one in the room seemed to exist except for Jason. The arm wrapped around her waist was foreign to her as her stare locked on that of a man she had thought she would never see again. At times, that thought had crushed her heart. But, when she allowed herself to think about how he had left her and all that happened to her after that night so long ago, she could only continue to exist because of that thought.

She had never wanted to see him again, thought she never would.

But, standing there, her lips slightly parted with tiny gasps of air pushing through, she admitted that it was so good to see him. She wanted so much to run into his arms, to hold on tight and never let him go.

Like she should have done that night.

But she hadn't and he hadn't stayed and now everything was different.

What was he doing there anyway? How was it that after all this time they were in each others lives again? She almost asked him, in front of Sonny's businessmen and… Sonny. Snapping her gaze away from Jason's, Elizabeth turned her head slightly to peer up at her husband. Her mouth was tilted in a slight smile, her way of trying to seem calm and normal though her heart was racing a mile a minute.

As she met the confused stare of her husband, Elizabeth's smile turned what she thought was brighter. She knew now was not the time to get the answers to the many questions that ran through her head. Not with so many people around, and not with her husband standing right beside her. "Aren't," she started off sounding so weak that she cleared her throat, attempting again. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Elizabeth could see Jason's head tilt to the side. A piece of hair fell against his forehead and her hand itched to smooth it away. To touch him.

She wouldn't look at him. If she did, she knew she would break down and give in, causing a scene. But when Sonny's forehead creased into a bigger frown, Elizabeth could feel her pulse racing and looked away, her gaze colliding with Jason's.

His expression didn't help. He was looking at her like he had never looked at her before. Confusion and anger radiated off of him and when she allowed herself to look deeper, Elizabeth sensed longing in his expression—at least somewhere deep within her hoped for that to be longing.

Sonny clearing his throat brought Elizabeth's attention back to him. "Jason, this is my wife, Elizabeth." Elizabeth felt her lips twitching but she couldn't quite smile. It was too hard. "Elizabeth, this is… Jason. But you already knew that," Sonny quickly added. "How?"

Elizabeth was always able to think fast on her feet. When her father would come to her about something that might have happened in school or with a boy, she would always be able to smooth his feathers… most of the time. It was a trait she had learned through time because of her father. Apologizing never pacified him. He would always expect one, but it was never enough. And that's when she learned to lie.

In this case, it seemed like old habits die hard. "I just… assumed. You said your best friend was going to be here and since he's the only one I don't recognize, I figured he was Jason. Plus, Emily can't praise her brother enough and Jason here fit her description." It was a lie, of course. The only information she had ever gotten from Emily about her brother was that he was Sonny's best friend. Elizabeth couldn't recall her friend even mentioning her brother's name.

Truth was Elizabeth knew Emily never did. If she had, the name Jason would have triggered some type of memory about her Jason. Ironic that her Jason ended up to be this Jason.

She could tell both men were looking at her with different types of confusion. Sonny wondering why she was wrung so tight, Jason wondering why she was lying. Trying to get past this, Elizabeth thrust out her hand, finally able to smile what was one of her best "fake" smiles at Jason. "It's nice to meet you."

She didn't look him in the eyes, rather focusing her gaze just below. Her hand stayed in midair for a long moment and she almost ran out of the room in pure fear of what could happen until Jason slowly lifted his hand, engulfing hers with his. His hand held hers lightly and released hers instantly as if it burned. It hurt, the way he reacted to her touch, but it shouldn't have surprised her.

The last time she saw him he hurt her heart in the worst possible way. Why change now?

"Are you ok?" she heard Sonny whisper lowly in her ear.

"I'm fine."

"You're shaking and you look pale. What's wrong?"

Elizabeth ducked her head for a moment, trying in earnest to recover from her shock of seeing Jason and the moments since. Shaking under control, she placed her hand on his forearm, looking at him from beneath her lashes. "I'm just a little nervous. This meeting's important to you and I don't want to mess anything up."

Sonny's dimples appeared as he hugged her tighter before showing her to her seat. "You'll be fine, trust me."

She only nodded. But when Elizabeth looked up and saw Jason take the seat right across from her, she knew that she would be anything but fine.

His first thought was to drag her out of that room and demand to know what the hell was going on. For months he had searched for her and found nothing. Yet, here she was all along, married to his best friend.

The woman who claimed to love him, the woman he was more than willing to lay his life down for was now married to his best friend. And Sonny had no idea who she was.

She looked beautiful, he allowed that as his brooding gaze drifted from the bottle he held tightly in his hand to her. Her eyes were downcast, like she was afraid to look at him. He wanted her to look at him so he could figure out what the hell was going on with her. He was pretty good at reading people and since the moment he had met Elizabeth almost two years ago she was always an open book, her emotions lying on the surface for him to see. That was one of the things he loved about her the most. He never had to guess with her. They just always got each other.

Until the night he left her. He could never forgive himself for what happened that night or forget how her face had changed, how she looked at him like she didn't even know him.

It was a look he carried around with him for months while he was helping Sonny out by tracking down a man in the Deluca organization. It was a look that caused him to drink many nights when he came back and found her gone, no where to be found.

But here she was and he couldn't even pull her against him and hug her like he wanted to the second he saw her walk in. When their eyes had connected, Jason stopped breathing and forgot about everyone else in the room. He even took a step closer to her, seconds away from pulling her against him and kissing her. But when he caught her scared look as she whispered his name, it gave him pause. That's when he realized that she was on Sonny's arm, looking like the perfect couple.

It made him sick, hearing Sonny call Elizabeth his wife. It was that moment Jason was finally able to know what it felt like to want to wake up from a bad dream.

Only, he didn't dream. It was all real and it killed him.

He turned his attention away from Elizabeth when he was asked a question about how it felt to be home or something like that. He couldn't recall and didn't care. He answered and that was all that mattered.

He tried to focus on the conversation or even his food, but he couldn't. His gaze always turned back to Elizabeth. Every once in a while, her eyes would flicker towards his and then look away quickly. It disturbed him to see her so withdrawn into herself. He also didn't like how skinny she looked. He could tell she wasn't eating right just by how she pushed her food around with her fork, never once taking a bite.

She played the dutiful wife, that was for sure. She smiled at all the right times, laughed at crude jokes made that normally would have caused her to narrow her eyes and give the offender a measured look. She was a shell of herself and every damn time Sonny placed his hand on her arm Jason wanted to rip it off.

His fingers clenched into a fist as her hand covered Sonny's while she smiled up at him. There were a lot of questions he needed answered and Jason didn't think he could make it through the rest of dinner to find out. It was in his nature to not keep things from Sonny, but he would follow Elizabeth's game for now.

But once he found out why she neglected to tell him she was the daughter of a local mob boss, why she left Italy and hid from him, and how they hell she ended up married to his best friend when they were the ones in love, Jason was going to have to figure out a way to explain it to his best friend.

At the moment, that seemed impossible.

The knob was cool against her palm as Elizabeth quietly turned it, opening her door slowly. Her room was across the hall from Sonny's and Elizabeth did not want to wake him up by making any noises. She had some answers to get; knowing now was most likely the best time to get those answers without causing suspicion from Sonny. He was already curious about her reaction to Jason; she didn't need to add anymore confusion by walking over to his penthouse while Sonny was awake and trying to find an excuse to explain why she was going there.

So, at 3:30 in the morning, Elizabeth found herself tip-toeing down the stairs of her penthouse after spending the past three hours standing in front of her mirror talking to herself about what she would say to him the moment she saw him. She went back and forth between wanting to throw herself in Jason's arms and kiss him soundly to knocking him upside the head for doing this to her.

She was not even close to being over him, no matter how much she told herself she hated him. But she was able to breathe easily knowing that she was never going to see him again. Yet, here he was, in her life again yet not as she would have wanted it. She was married to another man and Jason was that mans best friend, his enforcer for crying out loud.

She almost paused as her bare feet hit the first floor of the apartment, but she kept walking, telling herself that it was now or never. Really, she would have loved to find out what was going on during the ride back to the Towers, but that was impossible with Sonny sitting in the same limo.

It had unnerved Elizabeth when she found out that Jason was going to be riding home with them. A part of her was excited because she knew he wasn't going to disappear again, but a part of her wanted to crawl into a corner rather than sit in the same limo as him and Sonny.

From the way he looked at her all night, Elizabeth was sure that he hated her. Whether it was because she told him she hated him that fateful night or because she lied earlier, she didn't know.

All she knew was that her life was about to erupt even more than it already had by coming back to Port Charles and having to marry Sonny.

That fresh reminder made Elizabeth even more determined to march across the hall to where she saw Jason enter the second they stepped off the elevator after dinner. For all his staring he did during dinner the jerk couldn't even say two words on the ride home, on the ride in the elevator, or even before he slammed into his apartment earlier.

As she opened the door, Elizabeth was startled to find Max standing there, turning quickly to look down at her with alarm. "Is everything ok, Mrs. Corinthos?"

She was so shocked to see him, calling herself all types of stupid for forgetting that there was always a guard outside the door, that Elizabeth took several moments to realize he asked her a question. Shaking out of her stupor, Elizabeth took a step back, tucking her hair behind her ear in a nervous habit. It was sick how well she was able to come up with a story. "I…I couldn't sleep and I thought I'd come down here and see how you're doing."

His alarmed look turned to confusion, causing Elizabeth to quickly add, "It can't be all that great standing out here all night while you should be sleeping. I feel bad for you so I thought I'd ease my guilt by seeing if you needed anything."

Seeing the goofy smile and blush that changed the guard's expression once more, Elizabeth began to feel like a jerk. Max had been nothing but nice to her since she moved in three months ago and here she was lying to him while he stood outside her door to protect her. He deserved better than this but she couldn't explain to him what was really going on. The best she could do was at least offer him something. "Would you like a cup of coffee? I could whip up some brownies if you want."

Max dipped his head, shaking it as well. "I'm fine, Mrs. C. I wouldn't mind coming here later to find some brownies waiting for me, though. After you get some sleep, of course," he added with a stern expression though his eyes were lit with humor.

Elizabeth only nodded, turning around to walk back into the penthouse. The door was just about to close when Max called out to her. "It's a pleasure to look out for you." With that, he closed the door.

Elizabeth felt a hint of tears gathering in her eyes as her throat began to close. So much was going wrong with her life but there were some she could count on. Max being at the top of her list.

Jason used to be at the top. Hell, he used to be the only name on that list. For so long it was only the two of them, living life to the fullest. And now, they couldn't even act like they knew each other and she didn't know why that was. She started it; acting like she didn't know him, but what else was she supposed to do?

Run to him and kiss him in front of her husband?

Shoulders sagging in defeat, Elizabeth placed her foot on the first step when she felt a strong arm wrap around her waist as a hand clamped down over her mouth.

Her gasp echoed through the living room as she felt herself being dragged.