Summary: AH. Elizabeth finds Jason close to death in the snow and both of their lives change dramatically. Mostly Jason and Elizabeth, but there will be other GH characters and couples.
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, I have no affiliation with Disney, General Hospital or the actors. No copyright infringement intended.
Thank you all for the responses.
Chapter 4
He was alone. No family. No friends. No one.
It was visitation day in the ward. And while every other patient sat quietly spending time with loved ones, Jason looked bitterly on.
There would be no visitors for him today.
One of his orderlies, David--leader of the pack--let him know as much. Jason had seen the menevolent satisfaction in David's face when he delivered the news. The man had delighted in telling Jason that he would be one of the only patients with no family or friends to visit today.
He wanted Jason to feel the blow.
And just like a lonely person hoping that someone would come for him, he did. It hurt him to the core to know that he would sit alone and watch as everyone around him enjoyed time spent with people who cared about them. He didn't have that, and at this point he had to wonder if he ever had.
Whoever was responsible for putting him in this ward didn't care about him. They never sent him a letter or extra socks and underwear--like the family of the other patients did. A person like that, people like that could have never cared about him. But maybe he hadn't been the type of person that people cared about?
He couldn't remember his past. He had no idea who he was before this place. He didn't know Jason. All he knew was Alex . . . and Elizabeth. Miss Webber.
He had remembered her. Even if for a second, he remembered her. Though he was now beginning to question if the recollection was a true one or a manifestation. Maybe he wanted to know something . . . someone so badly that he made it all up?
"You're the one on the bike with me. You show me the rush you get when the winds on your face and the world is flashing by."
But the memory was so clear. So vivid that felt transported to that moment in time whenever the recollection came to him. He tried to cling desperately to it, afraid to let the fondness that the memory invoked drift away and leave him alone once again.
He regretted the way he had treated Elizabeth. She had not been back to the ward since that day. Almost a week had passed, without so much as a glimpse of her. She was afraid of him. And why shouldn't she be? The show he had put on was enough to get him confined to his room for three days. If it had been bad enough for that, it was surely bad enough to scare away a scrap of a girl like Miss Webber.
"No visitors for you today, Alex?"
Jason looked up to find David leering over him. The florescent lights of the meeting room bounced off of his freshly shaved head.
"Since you won't be receiving any guests, we might as well get you back to your room. Wouldn't want you to start acting crazy again and scare the nice people away." David rubbed thoughtfully at his auburn goatee.
Jason quietly stood. His quick, stealthy motion had David taking a step back.
The orderly was a burly guy, but he was no match for Jason on his own. He showed his own fear by backing up the way he had. Jason found a small victory in that.
David motioned to one of his peers. The man left the wall and walked over.
"You need help with The Mute, David?"
Anger heated Jason's chest. That was their new name for him. They used it freely as a way to weaken him, to make him feel inferior. Most of the time it worked.
"Yeah, Gus. Get his other arm," David directed. "He's a strong one."
Jason didn't protest. He went willingly along but not because he wanted to. What he wanted was to tear the whole ward to shreds, and escape the confines of the imprisoning white walls. The only thing keeping him from raging like a madman was the hope that if he acted in the proper manner then maybe Miss Webber would come back.
She was a weakling, but she hadn't always been. She used to have spunk--too much spunk--and she had been free spirited. Her Grams had complained about that very thing all the time. But now she was . . . meek, a shell of her former self. But who could blame her? After everything she had been through in the last years--from her rape, to losing Lucky and then Jason--even the strongest person would crack.
And she was cracking.
She hadn't been back to the hospital in almost a week. After she returned home the day of the altercation with Alex, she had barricaded herself in her room and refused to come out. Not even her mother, who was ailing more and more each day, had been able to coax Elizabeth from her bed.
She felt like a total failure as she sobbed into her pillow. To her parents' credit they handled her sudden bout of melancholy gently.
In the mornings her mother would come in and open the blinds so that Elizabeth could get a glimpse of the outside world. In the afternoons her father often came in to sit quietly with a cup of coffee while Elizabeth nursed hot coco that he'd made special for her. At night she would take baths, sitting in the water for so long that all of the heat was gone from it and she was shivering before she forced herself to leave the tub.
She was ashamed to admit that she had thought twice about ending it all. While she had sat in the tepid water she thought of how easy it would be to just submerge herself and take a suffocating breath. She had also eyed her razor thinking it a better option than drowning.
She had reasoned her insanity away with thoughts of Lucky and Jason. They were gone now, the only two people in the world that understood her, and she wanted to be with them. The only thing keeping her from turning that dangerous corner was the great sense of guilt that came every time she contemplated it.
How selfish was she? Here her mother was, battling breast cancer, trying to be strong, trying to stay alive, and Elizabeth, perfectly healthy Elizabeth, was considering ending her own life.
She thought, perhaps, that she had been on the verge of some sort of mental collapse for a while and it took the troubling encounter with Alex to finally send her over the edge. Now that she had tipped and tumbled down, found that there was no place lower she could go, Elizabeth had no other choice but to pick herself up and get on with life.
After lacing up a pair of new leather boots her mother had recently gifted her with, Elizabeth shrugged into her parka and started for the door. This was her first day back at the hospital, and while she was wary about going back into the environment that she suspected caused her such great sadness, she could not let herself give up.
"Elizabeth, would you come here a minute?"
Her mother's voice traveled from the kitchen, sidetracking Elizabeth's walk to the door. She pivoted, turning back in the direction of the kitchen. When she entered, she saw her mother sitting at the table, a Home & Garden magazine set before her.
Gloria Webber laced her thin fingers together and gave Elizabeth a weary smile. Elizabeth smiled back, it was not often during her child hood that her mother shared a smile with her. She had always been too busy for such things. But now Gloria was different, her once brisk pace had slowed considerably, her hard demeanor had softened, and her once stern face had become serene.
"You look well today," Gloria said after studying Elizabeth for a long minute.
Elizabeth's smile faded, she knew that she did not look good at all. Even after applying makeup this morning she hadn't been able to add substantial color to her pale pallor or cover the dark circles under her eyes. It was nice that her mother said it but the untruth of it all pained her.
"Thank you," Elizabeth answered, urging her voice past the lump in her throat.
Her mother sighed and placed her palms flat against the table. She looked so small to Elizabeth, nothing like the force of a woman she used to be, but that is what chemotherapy did to a person.
"Are you feeling well?" she asked, her voice laced with concern.
"Much better," Elizabeth answered with more exuberance than she felt. "I think getting back to work at the hospital will do me a world of good." She plastered on a smile that she was sure her mother saw through.
There was an extended silence between them where Elizabeth shifted uncomfortably on her feet and her mother stared at her with all too knowing eyes.
Finally, Gloria looked back to her magazine, her pale fingers gripping at the pages. "Have a good day, Elizabeth," she said not looking up from her reading material.
"You too," Elizabeth offered, leaving the kitchen.
When she made it outside the cold air assailed her. She had been cooped up in the house for so long she'd forgotten just how cold Colorado was. Much colder than Port Charles had ever been. She tightened her scarf around her neck as she rounded the house toward the garage. Her father was standing outside of her car as she approached. Elizabeth noticed the exhaust billowing out from the pipe of her 92 Honda Civic in puffs of white clouds.
"Thanks for warming the car for me," she said, stepping next to her father.
Jeff Webber didn't answer, he simply nodded and looked out over the blankets of white snow around them. Elizabeth had always known her father to be introspective, spending more of his time in medical books and observing life as a silent spectator while it went on around him. He was doing that now, seeing something that she could not.
Elizabeth watched her breath puff out before her mimicking the exhaust of her car. When her father finally spoke it was so softly that she almost didn't hear him.
"I've never known you to be a quitter, Elizabeth."
She inhaled sharply, the cold air biting inside of her nose and throat. She felt exposed, as though her father knew the inner workings of her mind.
Jeff Webber continued speaking just as quietly as he had before. "I know about the patient at the hospital. Tabitha informed me the day it happened."
So he hadn't been talking about her giving up on life, but about the volunteer work. Elizabeth didn't know if she was more ashamed of that or not. Her family lived for medicine. They would never walk away from their job when things got rough. But she had proven herself to be a disappointment to them once again, giving up the way she had.
"I wasn't ready for something like that to happen to me," Elizabeth said. She wondered if she should clue him into the fact that she had been so freaked out over it partially because Alex looked so much like her dead friend, Jason.
"I know that things are strange for you now. Your world has been turned upside down, and it's understandable; your reaction. I also know you, and you're not a quitter, Elizabeth."
She pressed her lips together and nodded, unable to say or do anything else.
Her father turned to her for the first time since she reached his side. He looked worn, now that she actually looked at him. The months of dealing with her mother's sickness were weighing heavily on him.
"Tabitha tells me that the patient seems to respond to you in ways he doesn't with other staff members."
Elizabeth's brows rose. "She told me the same thing, but that was before . . . "
"She wants you to try again with the patient," Jeff told her, continuing on as though she hadn't said a thing. "I think you should too," he added.
Elizabeth felt her brows crease in disbelief. She could understand Tabitha, but her father? He couldn't possibly think that was the best thing to do. "I don't understand," she said desperatly seeking a reason for it all. "He reacted violently with me, he threw cards and . . . looked so . . . "
Wild. Crazy. So much like Jason. All those thoughts ran through her head.
"That happens, Elizabeth. It's a hospital, even the most docile patients' act violently sometimes. This is no reason to give up."
Elizabeth stiffened. Her father was serious. She looked away from him, unable to face the pleading in his eyes. He didn't want her to give in to defeat, he wanted her to be strong, spunky Elizabeth, who faced the world head on. She wanted to be that too. So bad she wanted to be that Elizabeth again.
She licked her lips, tasting her cherry lip balm. "I'll do it." she said quietly.
"That's my girl." Jeff smiled down at her, hope shining in his eyes.
"I should get going then if I'm going to save the world," Elizabeth replied lightly, trying her best not to betray her real feelings about this new turn of events.
Inside of her car she turned up the radio as far as it could go, her old speakers pushed to the limit. She tried not to focus on the doubt that was swirling in her stomach. She tried not to be afraid. She wanted so desperately to go back to being the Elizabeth of old.
It was lunch time for him, Jason surmised when the door to his room opened and David entered with one of his buddies behind him. They each grabbed an arm and hauled him up from his bed to his feet. He went along with them as they led him toward the cafeteria.
He was ready for the usual routine of them walking him through the service line where they would put inedible food upon his plate, then place him in a corner by himself while they watched him eat, amused and pleased with themselves.
He was surprised when they released his arms and stepped away. A moment of elation passed over him, followed directly by a feeling of dizzy discontent. What game were they playing with him? He hesitated at the start of the line, oblivious to the fact that he was holding up other patients waiting behind him.
He didn't know what to do. Should he go forward, grab a plate and pick out edible food over the slop the orderlies chose for him, or should he wait? Had they finally granted him some shred of freedom?
The complete uneasiness he felt was enough to make him tilt on his feet. That was when he saw her. Jason's whole body froze as Elizabeth entered his line of vision. He hadn't expected her but there she was, standing timidly before him, dressed in her white clothes and peppermint apron.
Jason looked over his shoulder. David and the other orderly were posted against a wall, watching this all play out with hard grimaces. He turned back to Miss Webber.
She smiled half heartedly at him, and he found himself frowning back at her.
"Hello, Alex," she greeted, her voice a bit high pitched. "I'll be having lunch with you today."
Jason watched in silent confusion as she grabbed two plates and started down the line. He followed, dumbfounded, as she gestured at each pan of food they came to. Realizing that she was asking him what he wanted, he began to shake his head, yes and no at each tray they stopped in front of.
She made his plate with a percision that he hadn't seen before, placing each item on his plate with care. Fried chicken first, and next to it she deposited mashed potatoes without the sludgy gravy that David always added. She spooned green beans next to the potatoes and then placed a roll on top of it all.
Jason was pleased.
When they reached the end of the line, she made her own plate, filling it with lettuce leaves and adding tomatoes and cucumbers. She finished it off by drenching the salad in Italian and Ranch dressings. She then reached for a plate of chocolate cake.
Elizabeth fumbled, trying to balance the three plates. Jason was about to use his good arm to help her, but she positioned her plate in one hand then propped the cake plate on the inside of her forearm, and grabbed his plate with her free hand.
He was fascinated by her.
"Where do you want to sit?" she asked.
Jason blinked at her then looked away, deciding on a table next to a large window.
They took their seats. Elizabeth dealt out the plates. "Do you sit here often?" she asked, forking into her salad.
Jason's eyes followed her movements. She was nervous and trying to hide it. The thought bothered him. He was upset that she was still afraid of him. He would never hurt her. Frustrated, Jason picked his fork up, stabbing it into his potatoes. If Elizabeth noticed his anger, she didn't let on.
"Well do you?" she asked, persistent.
Her eyes met his, they were blue-gray and bleak as the sky on a cold day. Jason put his fork down and shook his head. He eyed the small plastic flowers inside of a vase on the table.
"How about we sit here each day I come? I kinda like this view."
She was staring out of the window when he glanced at her again. He let his eyes travel to where she looked. There was not much to see other than snow-covered land and mountains in the distance.
Jason reached out, too quickly because he made her jump. He ignored her reaction as his hand went to the plastic flowers. He snapped one off at the halfway point and twirled it between his fingers. Elizabeth stared at him, her eyes intent on the flower between his thumb and forefinger.
Slowly, so as not to alert her, he lifted the flower to her face. He watched as she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. His fingers swept her cheek, grazing skin as soft as satin. He lingered there for a moment, just staring at her. The way her teeth sunk into her pink lip, the way her lashes cast a dark shadow over her alabaster cheeks . . . Finally, he tucked the plastic stem behind her ear and moved his hand away.
She did not look up at him, her eyes stayed downcast, her cheeks became stained--the color of merlot.
After a full minute with no response, Jason became agitated and looked away from the mouse of a girl, turning his attention back to his plate.
Elizabeth's whole body was on fire, her cheeks aflame with embarrassment. Why had she not stopped him? She should have, it was not appropriate for her to accept flowers from a patient, even if it was only a bright pink, plastic flower.
She tried to bring her eyes to Alex's but she could not. She felt trapped by him now, his presence large to her small one. When she did find the courage to look up, he wasn't worried about her at all. She had made a big deal out of nothing. Now she really did feel silly.
They ate the rest of their meal in silence, Elizabeth mainly picking at the leaves of her salad. Pushing her uneaten plate of food away, she dug into the chocolate cake. She was halfway done before she realized that she hadn't offered Alex any.
She glanced at him. He was watching her intently from under thick sandy lashes. His bright blue eyes, wild yet subdued under heavy lids. She became all too selfly aware and dropped her fork to her plate. Alex grinned at her then; a small lift at the corner of his mouth. Elizabeth felt herself flush again under his attention. She went to push a strand of hair behind her ear and her fingers touched the flower. She had forgotten it was there.
Pulling it from her ear, she studied the tiny gift. "Thank you," she said softly, placing it into the pocket of her candy striper apron.
Alex grunted and looked, away a frown marring his perfect features.
Night fell over the hospital. Save for the light that shone outside of his door, Jason was submerged in darkness. His good arm was folded behind his head as he stared up at the ceiling.
Thoughts of Elizabeth Webber ran through his head. Why had he been so upset that she discarded the flower he gave her? She had tried to talk to him the rest of their meal but he refused to respond, not shaking his head yes or no to any of her questions. He could not help the bad mood that came over him when she removed the flower from her ear and put it away. He took it personally.
He took it hard.
What was worse was that David and his minions had witnessed it all. They did not waste time telling him how pathetic he had looked: A mental case like him trying to woo a pretty girl like Miss Webber. They were right, really. What had he been thinking?
One thing was for sure; he would never think it again.
Jason stamped out any and all thoughts about Elizabeth Webber as he closed his eyes for sleep.
Elizabeth stared thoughtfully at the flower between her fingers. The bright pink petals smiled brightly up at her. Bringing the flower to her nose, she inhaled. It was a silly thing to do being that it was a plastic flower, but she couldn't resist.
She was aware that Alex had become mad with her after she removed the flower from her ear. She would have put it back if not for the orderlies that stared at her accusingly. She was a volunteer at the hospital, she was there to help the patients not accept plastic flowers from them. She felt her cheeks warming at the thought.
Shamelessly, she basked in the feeling that had emanated from her when Alex had tucked the stem behind her ear. It was the closest she had come to intimacy since the night she danced with Jason in Kelly's.
Elizabeth sighed, placing the artificial flower on her night stand. She turned off her lamp and settled into bed, secretly looking forward to tomorrow.
To be continued...
