Only Her Hero

Disclaimer: I do not own General Hospital. Carly and Jason are the property of ABC and Disney.

Summary: After ten years of waiting for him, Carly finally settles for him as only her hero. So when Jason changes his mind, will it be too late for her to give their love a chance? Carjax. Jarly.

A Couple Hours Later

Jason's cell phone rang just as he prepared to leave the office. Max started spurting words in a rush before he could even say hello.

"Boss! Mrs. C – Mrs. J," Max was babbling, and Jason could hear Carly in the background telling him to call her by her first name. "Her water just broke. We're on our way to the hospital…Shit! Carly, just hold on. Breathe!"

Max had to be panicking pretty bad if he was calling his boss's pretty ex-wife by her first name.

Poor guy – he didn't know he was signing up for "Carly duty" when he joined the organization.

Jason wasn't doing much better.

"Okay Max. Just calm down. You need to get Carly safely to the hospital. Are you driving, or is one of the other guards?" Jason asked, trying to keep a clear head. It wasn't every day his best friend went into labor, and he promised her nothing would go wrong this time.

"Dave – or Dan. Dan. He's driving. I'm just trying to get Mrs. C to calm down and breathe," Max said. It sounded like he needed to take his own advice.

"Tell her to count to ten," Jason responded. Carly must have heard, because Jason could hear her laughing in the background.

"Just give me the phone, Max," Jason could hear Carly tell the panicking bodyguard. She sounded surprisingly calm.

'Mood swings.' Jason wanted to roll his eyes.

"Hey Carly. How are you doing?" he asked her softly when she greeted him.

"Okay. Everything is going to be just fine. I mean…Jax isn't here, but I'm actually going to make it to the hospital without bleeding out first this time. I think. This guy's a pretty crazy driver," Carly was working herself into a panic the more she talked.

'So much for being calm,' Jason thought. He was surprisingly sarcastic in these situations – at least in his head. Defense mechanism.

"It's fine. All the men are trained. He wouldn't be there if he couldn't do his job," Jason soothed her. He trusted that the man knew he was dead if anything happened to Carly.

"Okay," Carly breathed out. She was taking even, measured breaths, trying to stay calm.

"Sonny has Michael and Morgan," she told him after she calmed down again. "But Mercedes is going to bring them to the hospital after she grabs my overnight bag and toiletries at home. I was actually prepared this time, Jase! I guess the third time really is the charm."

"That's good," Jason assured her. "I'm on my way to the hospital too. If I make it before you do, I'll be sure to tell Dr. Lee you're on your way."

"Okay, Jase. I'll…" Carly was cut off by screeching tires and the sound of a sickening crash.

"Carly! Carly!" Jason said in a panic. "Carly! Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," she breathed out shakily. Jason had never heard a more beautiful sound in the world than her voice, letting him know she was okay.

That driver was a dead man walking.

"What happened?" he asked her anxiously. "Are you injured?"

"I'm f-fine," Carly tried to reassure him, but it was hard because she was close to panicking herself. "Two cars in front of us – big collision. We managed to stop in time. Just a little fender bender. We're all fine. Fine."

Jason didn't know who she was to convince – him or herself.

"Good. Okay, Carly. Calm down. You'll be alright. Where are you? I'm coming to pick you up," Jason told her.

"My hero," she teased him lightly, beginning to calm down.

She gave the cell phone back to Max, and he told Jason where they were. Jason trusted that Max would take care of her until he got there. He had to – Jason couldn't take any more surprises.

When Jason arrived, Carly was still in back seat of the limo. She was breathing heavily and trying to keep calm. The two cars in the intersection were totally demolished; Jason had a feeling there were fatalities.

'If Carly had been just one car ahead…' Jason couldn't complete that thought. The thought of a future in a world without Carly? It wouldn't be any kind of future at all – Carly was his world.

But Carly was right. Dan had managed to stop the car in time to avoid any serious damage – or injuries to his precious cargo inside. Jason ran directly to Carly after exiting his own limo.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" he asked her lightly, running his hands through her hair to calm her and reassure himself that she was there. She was safe, uninjured, and everything would be okay once he got her to General Hospital.

"Alright. A little stressed," Carly managed as she gave him a strained smile.

"You and Max are going to come in my limo with me to General Hospital. Dan," Jason bit out at the driver, "you're going to stay here until the police arrive. Just tell them what they need to know. Then you better come to General Hospital too. I'm stationing extra guards on Carly."

Dan managed to gulp out a submissive "yes, boss," under Jason's deadly blue glare.

Jason's eyes went soft again as he turned back to Carly. He scooped her up delicately, carrying her like a groom bringing his bride over the threshold.

It reminded him of that night so long ago, when Carly went into labor with Michael. But also of a dream he had not so long ago, where he and Carly got married and built a family. Together.

He managed to push that thought away.

Just barely.

Jason needed to focus on Carly now, focus on getting her the help that she needed to deliver the baby safely. He placed her gently in the back seat of the limo, holding onto her like she was spun glass. Max managed to clamber in opposite of where Carly and Jason were sitting, and Jason ordered his driver to take them to General Hospital.

'And there better not be any more interruptions,' went unsaid, because Jason knew the other man understood what was at stake.

"I know I say it a lot, Jase, but I really don't know what I would do without you. You're the most amazing best friend in the world," Carly told him sappily. He saw tears welling in her eyes, but he ignored them. Jason knew Carly was bound to be emotional right now – she was in labor, and her husband was hours away by plane on a business trip.

"You know I'd do anything for you, Carly," Jason told her matter-of-factly, as if there was no way to doubt that fact. For Carly and Jason, there probably wasn't.

She fell; he caught her. Whenever she became the damsel in distress, he became her fierce knight in black leather to slay the dragon, stop her from thinking of any crazy plans, and put her back on her feet. Even if he did have to return her to a prince afterwards.

So their fairytale was skewed. It worked for Carly and Jason – that's all that mattered. The rest of the world was inconsequential, as long as they had each other. For a while, anyway.

And maybe "a while" had to be enough. Maybe gently pushing Carly's bangs from her face, and wiping the sweat from her brow with a napkin from the limo's bar, and telling her to breathe and count to ten and hold on until they got to the hospital had to be enough.

Those few precious moments where Jason got to hold her hand, and pretend that he was her husband and she was having his baby (his, Jason's, not Jax, never Jax), maybe that had to be enough.

They had to squeeze an entire lifetime of what should-have-been into a couple of minutes; a couple of moments where Carly and Jason could just pretend that their lives hadn't veered so off track that they couldn't even recognize themselves anymore sometimes.

And Carly just kept breathing.

And Jason just kept wishing.

And Max just kept watching.

And then the limo pulled up to General Hospital, and Jason took a deep fortifying breathe to prepare himself to face the reality of a world where Carly already had two children that weren't his and another was on the way with a husband that wasn't him.

Jason gently picked up his best friend again, carrying her into the hospital.

Because it didn't matter that this baby she was delivering wasn't his. It didn't matter that the baby's father was almost halfway around the world.

In the end, all that mattered was that Carly needed his help, and he wasn't going to fail her. He would never fail her.

Because if Jason could only be hero, if he had to settle for that role with the woman he loved above all others, he was going to be the best hero he could possibly be.