Chapter Nine

He couldn't help smiling at the sight of her outline in the distance.

She sat still on the beach. The sun, a golden, orange filling the sky as the backdrop. Her eyes were trained on the waves that crashed at the shore. Her white outfit glowed in the scarce amount of light from his viewpoint.

Jason had barely spent time with his nanny today with Johnny's arrival on the island. He had reluctantly joined the reunited Four Musketeers and Sonny at the Corinthos villa for an update. He didn't want to leave his daughter and her nanny sitting at the table with the table set for lunch. Lil's sad eyes and her famous pout had been enough to tell him she was disappointed. Elizabeth on the other hand smiled and encouraged him to go take care of business

Coming home, he found Lil and Max about to join Elizabeth on the beach. It was the perfect opportunity to make up for his absence since lunch and through dinner. After the progress, he had made with Elizabeth the day before he didn't want to jeopardize it by letting work get in the way. Grabbing what he needed he had joined his daughter back to the beach to where her nanny waited.

"Come on, Daddy," Lil called over shoulder a few paces ahead of him, her blue bunny dangling from her arms.

Gripping the wicker picnic basket tighter, he quickened his pace and caught up with his daughter.

"Liz," the four year old tapped her nanny gently on the shoulder.

"Yes, sweetie," she looked up. She stared at him for a moment before smiling gently. "Hi," she murmured, shifting her attention back to Lil.

Up close, he noticed what she was wearing. A simple white tank top and knee length skirt. She looked relaxed, but something was wrong. He could tell from the far away look in her doe shaped eyes. He moved off to the side to start a fire, but close enough to listen to their conversation.

"Want to build a sand castle with me?" Lil asked hopefully.

"Maybe tomorrow. I'll just watch you today."

"Will you make sure David stays away from my castle tomorrow?"

Elizabeth chuckled. "Anything for you."

Lil ran off delighted by the idea of having Liz on her side tomorrow against her older cousin.

Within moments the fire cackled, growing fiercer with the gentle sway of the wind. Jason looked up to find Elizabeth looking at him with her forehead wrinkled.

She raised one perfectly plucked eyebrow. "Is that safe?"

Grinning, he shook his head at her. "Of course, it's safe. It's actually safer to light a fire on the beach then it is in the woods."

Elizabeth nodded her head in understanding before focusing her eyes on Lil in the distance.

With his hand he motioned for her to come closer.

Curiosity in her eyes, Elizabeth padded barefoot on the sand to stand next to him.

Once she had joined him, Jason took a seat on the sand and patted the spot next to him. Elizabeth sat down besides him with a look of mock suspicion on her face. Smiling, he reached for the picnic basket.

"Have you and Lil had dessert yet?" He asked smoothly.

Elizabeth frowned. "We were waiting for you to get back."

"Good," he murmured, the corners of his lips quirking. Pulling off the blue cloth on the basket, Jason revealed the contents: three small ceramic ingredient holders.

"S'mores?" The dejection in eyes lessened as her face brightened in joy.

Smiling timidly, Jason nodded his head, beginning to slowly retrieve the ingredients.

Lil came running at her nanny's delighted outburst. "Can I help, Daddy?"

Handing Elizabeth a fondue fork, he faced his daughter with a smile. "Just be careful," he warned, handing her a fork of her own.

Gleefully, the four year old took a seat between her father and nanny.

Passing around the marshmallow and making sure Lil had a handle on her fork, Jason settled down on the sand and watched as they all began toasting their marshmallows. The sun was now at the horizon.

"Is this what people do when they camp?" Lil asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over them.

The young father frowned. "I've never been camping."

"Me neither, Daddy. What about you, Liz?"

Elizabeth scrunched up her face. "Yes, I did a long time ago. I really didn't like it."

The curiosity in the four year olds was immediately sparked. "Why?"

Jason tried to stifle a chuckle at Elizabeth pursuing her lips together.

"There were a ton of bugs everywhere and I scraped my knee the first time I went."

"What do you do when you camp?"

"A lot of things. Hiking, telling scary ghost stories around the campfire, and watching the stars. I went when I was in the Girl Scouts'."

"You were a girl scout?" Jason interjected, amused at the thought of an eight year old Elizabeth with her curly brunette hair in a yellow girls scout outfit.

She narrowed her eyes in a playful glare. "I'll have you know I moved up the ranks from a Daisy to a Girl Scout and have all my badges as well as the Gold Award."

"I believe you," he couldn't stop from smiling.

Rolling her eyes at him, Elizabeth turned back to Lil.

"Do you think I could join the Girl Scouts' and go camping?"

"You could go camping without being a Girl Scout."

"Really?"

Her nanny nodded her head.

"Daddy, can we go camping?"

"We'll see, sweetie," he removed his marshmallow from the fire. "S'mores time." He motioned for the others to remove their marshmallows from the fire as well.

"How do we eat these?" Lil asked, looking puzzled at her fork and toasted marshmallow.

"Well," Jason looked around for somewhere to place his fork down. "Elizabeth, can you hold this for me?" Handing over the fork to his nanny, Jason reached for the graham crackers and Hershey's chocolate bars. "You first place a piece of the chocolate bar on a cracker and then place it under the marshmallow," he explained as he demonstrated for his daughter by using her marshmallow. "Then, you get another graham cracker and chocolate and place them on top of the marshmallow. Slowly, pull the marshmallow off the fork," he tugged gently. "And you have your s'more." He waved it around for Lil to see.

Lil reached for her s'more. "It looks yummy."

"It is," Elizabeth stated. "Just be careful, the marshmallow is still hot."

"I will," the four year old said, grabbing her stuffed animal. "Come on, Mr. Floppy, let's go finish our sand castle."

Taking one of the forks from Elizabeth, Jason began making another s'more.

"I thought you said you never went camping," she inquired.

"I haven't."

Her eyebrows meet into a deep V. "Then how do you know how to make s'mores?"

Jason looked over at her with a smirk. "Sonny once made s'mores using his s'more maker. I read up on it and learned that they're an outdoor snack for camping."

"Oh," she accepted the s'more he handed her with a "Thank you," and handed the other fork she held over to him.

Sitting next to her on the soft white stand, Jason did his best to keep his gaze off of her, but he failed miserably. He caught glimpses of her from the corner of her eyes. The look of sorrow was back in her eyes. He took in the lack of determination in the set of her jaws. The corners of her lips were set downward. Her eyes were soft and guarded now. She hugged her body as she took small bites of her s'more. There was something wrong. It nagged at his heart to see her like this.

"Elizabeth?"

Surprised, she looked up at him. "Sorry, I was just in my own world." She ran a hand through her chocolate locks.

He watched her closely without any shame of openly looking at her. "Is everything alright?"

Once again, she looked startled as if she hadn't even noticed he was there. He watched her take in a deep breath before she spoke.

"I was just thinking about something."

"Do you mind if I ask what?"

Her eyes were back on the waves. He thought she was lost in thoughts again when she spoke.

"I was eight years old when," Elizabeth began. She immediately had his full attention, while he was aware of his daughter as well. "My parents rented a beach house on the Jersey shore during the summer that year. At night, I would always sit on the beach and watch the waves."

Jason sat silently, listening to her words. His heart tearing at the sadness he heard in her voice and saw in her cobalt eyes.

"Sometimes I would ran around like Lil does, but most of the time I watched the waves." She sighed. "My parents were too busy mingling with the adults of the neighborhood to notice me. Sarah, my sister, made her own friends and my brother, Steven, he was the only one that would sit with me or help with my sand castles." A soft smile spread on her face. "I miss him."

"Where is he?"

"He's in Africa right now." A proud smile replaced her sad one. "In the Congo to be exact, a part of the Doctors Without Borders organization, helping the people forgotten in the war that's always raging there."

"What about the rest of them?"

Elizabeth faced him with questioning eyes.

"Your family," he elaborated. "You mentioned your parents and your sister."

"The last I checked my parents were in Europe and my sister not too far from them. Grams…well you know about her."

"Sorry about your grandmother."

She gave him a confused look.

"I know she hasn't spoken to you since you started working for me. I'm sorry that you lost her because of me."

"It's not your fault," she murmured. "She was never able to accept my decisions just like the rest of them. Well, except for Steven," she added.

"You never talk about them," he murmured.

"There's nothing much to say about them," Elizabeth shrugged. "We share the same blood, but we have nothing else in common."

He nodded his head not sure what he could say to comfort.

"What about you?" the brunette asked.

Puzzled, he replied back with a question of his own. "What about me?"

"Your family. The Quartermaines."

His gaze fell way from her. Silence stretched between them.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to pry."

"Don't be sorry." She had shared a little about her relationship with her family; he could do the same for her. "The Quartermaines are a difficult bunch." Jason inhaled deeply. "After I woke up from my coma they wanted me to be someone I wasn't. It was frustrating because I couldn't remember. It was hard turning in every direction to find someone telling me who I was. Jason Quartermaine was a stranger to me and I didn't belong in that house so I left."

"Just like that?"

"Well," he chuckled, "they made it difficult, but I had my grandmother supporting me and my sister."

"Lila?" she asked.

He turned to her, a smile on his face."She always supported me in everything I wanted to do. Working for Sonny, opening the garage, wanting to marry Robin, not wanting to marry her, being with Sam and most of all having Lil. She was always backing me. Never any criticism from her, just advice."

"Sounds like Lila."

"Yeah," he smiled. "It felt right to name Lil after her. She reminds me of grandmother sometimes with that knowing twinkle in her eyes." His gaze shifted to his daughter in the distance, playing with the sand.

"She has a kind spirit," Elizabeth murmured.

"I don't know how much Emily has told you about my nonexistent relationship with the Quartermaines, but-"

"I haven't asked."

Startled, he turned to her in confusion. "What?"

"I haven't asked about your history with the Quartermaines." When he simply quaked at her, she began to fumble for words. "I mean I know a thing here and there about you as Jason Quartermaine from Brenda and Sonny even the guards, but I didn't feel right asking. I listen to Emily when she needs to vent about the madhouse, but I never felt right asking about your past."

He was surprised. Everyone asked about his past even the tourists that rarely arrived in Port Charles. A small gossip about him and his family had everyone leaning in closer to hear. "Why?"

Her gaze was on her s'more. "Your past is private. If you wanted me to know something, you would tell me. I don't need to poke into your life just to feed my curiosity."

Jason smiled. "You know you could have asked me."

She shrugged one shoulder. "It didn't feel right."

He chuckled. "Well, you can ask me anything you want." He smiled as her eyes widened until they were the size of saucers.

Nodding her head, Elizabeth looked away to watch Lil come running up to them.

"The sun is gone."

Both of them looked up and noticed that indeed the sun was gone and the moon was up.

"Yes it is," Jason agreed with his daughter as he began to gather their belongings.

"Can I have a bubble bath when we get to the house?"

"Sure, sweetheart," Elizabeth rose and took the child's hand.

Silently, they walked back to the villa. Lil was the first to run into the house. Jason and Elizabeth followed her in.

Turning for the kitchen, Jason paused at his name. Pivoting, his faze locked with Elizabeth's. She smiled at him. He returned the smile.

"Promise me something?" she asked her eyes sincere.

Jason nodded his head, curious by her request.

"I know that you love Lil more than anything, but please promise me that when I'm no longer with you and Lil, you'll make sure that she never feels like I did when I was a child without my brother," her voice cracked. "Promise she'll be always full of life and loved."

There was nothing the young father could do, but nod his head in agreement. His eyes followed her up the steps until she disappeared upstairs. If things went right Jason thought to himself, Elizabeth would be around to make sure that his daughter was happy with both of them both in her life.