Chapter Seven

Won't Let You Down

Note- Thanks for reading. This story is so AU that it is hard to know if people will like it but it has been great fun to bring together my two favorite female characters and have them interact. Your reviews have been very helpful and made me smile. So thanks!

October 2002 -

Jason and Carly walked into the hospital room. Kendall was looking calmer and more at peace.

Carly asked, "So?"

"Ryan is taking me back to Pine Valley as soon as I'm released."

Carly nodded. Jason saw the pain flicker through her eyes, so did Kendall, but Ryan missed it. He could only concentrate on the woman he loved and the baby he just found out about.

"Good," Carly said. After a second she introduced Jason and Kendall. "Okay, Jase, this is the infamous Charlotte- ex-cheerleader, bad girl, and man chaser, just like me. Call her Kendall. She likes it better now."

She went on, "Charlotte, this is Jason Morgan. We don't ask about his job but call him when...the con doesn't work out or the world just majorly sucks. He's great at making that better. And we all know Ryan..." Carly looked at him and asked "You manage to pull your head out of your ass now?"

Kendall told her, "We worked it out. Pipe down."

"Well, I just think a real man wouldn't high tail it out of town when you were carrying his baby and make you trek around half the continental USA to try and find him but that is just my take on it ..."

"Carly."

"What, Jase?"

They looked at each other and she shrugged.

Ryan said "You're right. Though I didn't know about the baby and I really thought Kendall was better off without me. I can see how you two became friends in Florida though, you both have spitfire tempers when someone you love is being messed with."

Kendall and Carly both swallowed, as chills ran over them, and they looked at each other. What they felt was love amplified, it was beyond sisters, it was beyond making sense.

Dr. Lee stepped into the room. "Can I speak to the patient alone?"

Kendall cleared her throat. "It's fine. This is the baby's father and they're ... it's fine."

"If you say so. Well it looks like your contractions have stopped, as you must know, but I'm afraid you will have to be on complete bed rest until you deliver."

Kendall and Ryan both opened their mouth to ask a question but Carly, with concern in her tone, beat them to it. "Does she have to stay in the hospital?"

"No. But she can not have any stress for the next six weeks or so. Or else, Ms. Hart, you will be back here and we might not be able to prevent an early delivery."

"I understand.," Kendall said " Can you transfer my records to Pine Valley Hospital in Pennsylvania? I'll be heading home as soon as you say I'm up for traveling."

The doctor said, "That will be about three days after you give birth."

"What?" asked Kendall and Carly in unison.

Dr. Lee said, "No plane rides, no train, definitely no bus and I would not even attempt a long car ride if I was you. You need to find a bed here in town and stay in it, if you want to protect this pregnancy."

Kendall looked at Ryan. "Room for one more?"

"Actually, no. I live over a bar. But I will find us someplace."

Carly sighed loudly.

Kendall said to her, "Don't even think about it."

"I wasn't."

Kendall raised her eyebrow.

Carly repeated "I wasn't!" But her face said she was.

The two old friends stared at each other, having a whole conversation without words.

(Well tell me

do you think it'd be alright
if I could just crash here tonight?


You can see I'm no shape for driving,
and anyway I got no place to go.

Yet, you know it might not be that bad.

You were the best I'd ever had.

If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might not be alone.

Tomorrow we can drive around this town
and let the cops chase us around.
The past is gone but something might be found
to take it's place


Hey jealousy
Hey jealousy
Hey jealousy Hey jealousy
) ( Gin Blossoms)

Jason finally spoke up. "I can call a real estate agent and have you a place by the time you are done here."

"I know of a perfect apartment," Carly said slowly, as if she hated to make the suggestion but had no choice in the matter.

Kendall studied her, about to object, thinking that Carly wanted Kendall to move in with her. That would certainly be too much too ask at this point, Kendall felt.

"Across the hall from mine. It's available and furnished and I can keep on eye on you," she said to Kendall, then glared at Ryan "and make sure you are the Daddy material you better the hell be."

Ryan said "Works for me, what about you, Kendall?"

She asked Carly, "Are you sure? Completely...utterly...positively... we could kill each other and I need no drama right now."

"I'm a drama free zone," Carly said "Ask anyone."

Jason laughed . She gave him a look that made him stop.

Carly said to Kendall, "I know you didn't come here for me...but you are here... and I'm here...and you need me...okay? You just do. So take the stupid apartment, let me redecorated cause I so rock at doing that, and just pop out a healthy kid, kay? Okay. I have to go now cause I have ...things to arrange... but my address is," she told her " just knock on the door when you get out of here. And if I am not there tell the hot guy standing outside my door who you are and he will give you a key to your new place."

"You don't have to," Kendall said in a I know everything is not forgiven voice.

"Yeah, I do... and you know it," Carly said then spun on her heel and left, with Jason trailing behind her.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Dr.Lee told them some more about Kendall's condition and then left. Ryan asked Kendall "That's Caroline, huh? They call her Carly, like they used to call you in high school. That a coincidence?"

"She took my name. She missed me."

"I'm sure she must have. You always said she's your best friend."

"The best one I will ever get. After you, she's...someone it is near impossible for me to walk away from. But I did just that. And, no matter what she says now, Caroline is not going to easily get over it. She might never forgive me, she might be really glad to see us leave in a two months and then never speak to me again."

Ryan took her hand again. "Or she might still love you, like you love her. She might forgive everything you did."

"It doesn't work that way. Not with us. I knew the price when I bailed."

"You more than paid for it. Tell her how bad things got at your worst point. Tell her you need her. Or I could for you..."

"No. She will see it or she won't. We never had to say all that stuff. That's how I know how angry she is right now."

"And that is how she must know," Ryan said "how sorry you are and how much you care for her still."

Kendall nodded and then he leaned over and kissed her. He murmured, "And I'm sorry and I love you."

(And you can trust me not to think
and not to sleep around .

If you don't expect too much from me ,
you might not be let down.

Cause all I really want is to be with you
feeling like I matter, too.

If I hadn't blown the whole thing years ago
I might be here with you

Tomorrow we can drive around this town
and let the cops chase us around.


The past is gone but something might be found
to take it's place
Hey jealousy )

Ryan went on, " And I will work for your forgiveness..."

"You have it."

"That quick?"

Kendall smiled, with tears in her eyes, "I love you, idiot."

"See? That could be just what Caroline is thinking about you."

xxxxxxxxx

Carly didn't say a word to Jason as they left the hospital, but he could see all her conflicting emotions on her face. He reached out for her hand, and she not only took his but, for a moment, her whole body leaned against his arm, drawing in strength and just letting herself rest on him.

Still silent, they made their way to his SUV and Jason took her home.

"You sure you want her living right across the hall from you?" he finally asked when they pulled up in front of her apartment building.

Carly let out a frustrated breath. "No, I'm not sure. But...I'm sure I can't abandon her even if she did just that to me."

She looked away. "She's alive, Jase. I prayed for years that her soul was at peace. I've carried her with me...I've lived for her, thinking she couldn't do it for herself. I've talked out loud to her in the middle of the night when I was desperate or lonely... and now she's here... but can I forgive her? Should I even want to?"

"Only you know that."

"I hate what she did."

He nodded.

"But I don't hate her," Carly said "How could I? We were everything to each other back then...I see her and it's like seeing my whole past. Seeing everything I wrecked and now it isn't anymore. Now it's whole and here and the one thing I never thought anyone really got- a second chance- I could have that with her...like I have that with you. I could turn my back on her but then I'd never get over any of this...and Charlotte needs me. I have never let her down yet when she needed me..."

After a moment, they climbed out of the car and they headed inside. "I'm going to have her checked out," he said "see what's she's been up to all these years."

"You'll find out she's done every horrible thing you can imagine. Just like everyone around here thinks I have. That's not the whole story about her, just like it isn't about me. Charlotte...Kendall...whatever...she's complicated and sometimes she wrecks lives, and sometimes she wrecks herself. Sound like anyone you know?"

He opened the door to the manager's office for her. Jason said "You already made up your mind, haven't you? You're forgiving her."

"No. But I know that you don't have to forgive your family to still love them." Carly gave him an exhausted and rueful smile, letting him know they were in for the ride of their lives, now that they were back together and now that she had her other best friend back.

It was going to be messy, he was sure, but if it healed that broken place inside of Carly that was created when she believed Charlotte died, then he would be more than worth it to Jason to put up with Kendall, Ryan, their baby on the way, and whatever drama they would bring with them.

His mind drifted back to last night, how Carly had opened up her body, heart and soul to him, saying words he longed to hear for years, showing him how he affected her, how she loved him at the core of who she was...it was something he would never forget and something he would always fight to keep in his life.

He had tried to step away from her, for the sake of keeping all of their lives sane, but now he could see that there was no way possible to be happy without Carly holding his hand, without her looking at him with eyes filled with love, without being able to kiss her and raise their son together. Jason was grateful they were a couple again, on this day, and that he could be there for her every step of the way with this Charlotte situation.

He hated to try and imagine the future, his brain didn't really work that way, but for what he could see of his days to come, he wanted Carly right by his side. It was the only way he knew how to live in this world, loving her and their son with all he was.

He used to think he could give that up. Now he knew that had only been a lie.

(Tomorrow we can drive around this town And let the cops chase us around


The past is gone but something might be found
To take it's place


Hey jealousy
)