Somebody had visited Jason's room but hadn't tried to harm him physically - what was that about? Gathering intel, perhaps? As she watched him fall asleep for the second time that night, Sam's brain went into overdrive. Something was off - she could feel it.
She got up from the cot Epiphany had placed in his room for her and moved over to the window, pulling her hair up and away from her face as she looked down into the calm night. Through the slits of the blinds, she clearly saw a momentary red glare that disappeared as quickly as it had shown up. Her senses quietly peaked, Sam kept her eyes fixated on the interesting spot and before long, it appeared again. Stepping cautiously closer to the window she was able to make out a form. Someone was down there, lurking in the shadows, smoking. That, in and of itself did not alarm her as it wasn't at all strange, except the hairs were standing on the back of her neck and she just knew that whoever it was, had her husband's room in sight.
There it was again. It was three a.m. - anyone lounging on the side of the road smoking a cigarette at that time of the morning was usually up to no good. The fact that he was just outside of Jason's room was no coincidence.
Turning back to the bed, Sam checked that he was asleep, the pain killers he was on thankfully doing their job and forcing him to rest. She scribbled a quick note telling him she'd be back, kissed his lips lightly, then ducked out of the hospital. Taking the stairs to the garage level, Sam looked around her carefully as she pulled her hood up and stuck her hands inside the pockets of her jacket. She exited the garage cautiously and made her way around to the side of the building, making sure to stay in line with the cover from the hedges as she closed in on the smoker's position.
She smelled him almost at the same time that she saw him, eyes trained upward as he dropped a butt at his feet, then looked down to where he ground out the light next to the others around him. Sam watched him pull his collar up, tightened his coat against the cold, and wrapped his arms beneath his armpits in an obvious effort to get them warm.
Hanging back in the shadows, she watched and listened until she was certain that he was alone, then she waited and tried to get a look at his face. He hung in the shadows himself, so it wasn't until the flashing lights from an incoming ambulance caught his attention and he turned in its direction that Sam was able to see him clearly from its headlights. She recognized the face as that of a janitor whom she'd seen at least twice since Jason's been in the hospital, once outside his room mopping, and another time she'd passed him in the hallway fixing lights. He'd been keeping tabs on Jason!
She was unarmed. Just as she'd made the instant decision to run back to the SUV in the garage, a black sedan turned the corner and stopped by the creep long enough for him to get into the passenger seat. Sam watched it drive towards the heart of town, breaking out her phone to write down the license plate.
Jason was under surveillance! Helena, for whatever sick reason, was still interested in him. Sam hurried back to the SUV to retrieve her weapons from the trunk. She hated to bring a gun inside the hospital but she would not be caught off-guard and leave Jason vulnerable to them. She strapped her knife to her leg, stuck a tiny canister in her pocket and tucked the gun in the waist of her jeans, before using the elevator to speed her way back to his side, stopping short when she pushed open the door. Helena Cassadine was stooped over, whispering in Jason's ear!
"Get the hell away from him!" Sam stormed over to the bed and pushed her so hard she staggered back into the night table, her evil cackle sounding as she straightened herself and Sam looked at Jason's still sleeping form. The fact that Jason, who was the lightest sleeper she knew, hadn't awakened to the shouting or anything else, suddenly sent panic running through her. Sam remembered he'd gone to sleep earlier that evening complaining of a headache. She knew at the time that it was a pretty bad one to make him even admit to having it, and now here he was sleeping through everything.
"What did you do? What did you do to him?" Her frantic questions rattled off as she shook her husband's shoulder lightly, trying to get his eyes to open.
"Jason, baby, wake up! Jason! Wake up baby, please!"
The old bat was strolling the room calmly. "You can save your breath, my dear. Mr. Morgan will awake when I want him to…just like he'll do whatever else I want him to."
Sam looked over to her in angry hatred. "What do you want with him? Why can't you just shrivel up and die like the ancient mummy you are and leave us the hell alone?" She stormed toward the smirking bitch. "What did you do to him?"
"You really should learn to behave more ladylike, Samantha. It would do you a world of good and cut down on those wrinkles, dear."
"Jason had a headache earlier, did you do something to his brain when you had him? Why isn't he waking up?" Sam was seething and she wanted to put a bullet in the woman's head, but she needed to know what was happening to Jason.
Helena clasped her hands in front of her and laughed dryly. "Let's just say that Mr. Morgan possesses a certain…skillset, that is wasted on Sonny Corinthos, but will prove very useful to me. He and I will do great things together."
"You sick, evil bitch! You're trying to turn my husband into a machine?"
"Oh, come now, dear, he's already that. I'm merely tapping into a natural part of him and adding some - let's say…enhancements?"
Sam turned away from her and rushed back to Jason who still laid completely still. "Jason," she touched his cheek as she whispered urgently, "baby, please wake up!"
Helena walked calmly back to his side, "This is all very amusing but I have a schedule to keep." Sam looked at the evil curve at her lips as she uttered, "We really must run now, Soldier Boy."
Sam watched in alarm as Jason's eyes popped open at the command, as if someone had flipped on a switch to which he'd instantly responded. Her slight relief at seeing his eyes opened faded instantly when she saw how very blank they were, as he stared seemingly unseeing up at the ceiling. "Jason! Baby?"
There was a shocking pain at the back of her head before Sam felt herself falling. Not again, she groaned, as darkness surrounded her and pulled her under. "Jason," was her last conscious thought.
"Mrs. Morgan! Sam, can you hear me?"
Sam's head felt like a runaway train was blasting its way through as she reached her hand up to soothe a throbbing temple. "Epiphany?"
"There you are, Sam. Take it easy, we've got you."
She moved to sit up, suddenly frantic with worry when she remembered what had happened to her, "Jason…where's Jason?"
The stern nurse looked at her questioningly, "That's what I was hoping you would be able to tell me. I came in to check on Mr. Morgan and found him gone, and you on the floor." She was explaining even as she gave up trying to keep Sam down as she fought to get to her feet. Grabbing her by an elbow to help steady her, she asked, "What happened here?"
Sam stood groggily then dropped into the nearby chair as she struggled to stop the room from spinning. Her head felt like concrete and she grimaced though the memory of her husband responding to Helena's command. They had obviously done something to him when they had him, and now they'd taken him again. She looked to Epiphany who was turning from the nightstand with a cup of water.
"Didn't anybody see them leave?"
"Them who, who was here?"
Sam was reaching for her phone, "Cruella and her goonsquad!"
"I'll get the police." Epiphany started towards the telephone by the bed, mumbling to herself, "Equipment disappearing, sounds coming through walls, and now this!"
"Please, don't! I don't have time for PCPD red tape - I have to find Jason before she does whatever the hell she's obsessed with using my husband to do."
The head nurse didn't condone the actions of the mob, but Jason and Samantha Morgan were good people. She'd seen them help so many, countless times, often when the police were running around in circles and being of little and no assistance. She had no doubt that Jason Morgan was in trouble, just as she had no doubt that Sam Morgan would find him, and faster than the police ever could. She nodded tersely.
"Thank you, Epiphany." Sam brought the cell to her ear and listened as the ringing raged against the throbbing in her head. "Can you please ask the staff if anybody saw anything?"
"Fair Samantha! The dawn is still breaking yet, is all not well?" Spinelli's sleep ridden voice finally sounded over the phone.
"No, it's not Spinelli. Helena took Jason - she has him again, Spinelli!" She tried to keep the panic from her voice but she was worried out of her mind. He was not himself and she had no idea what they were doing to him. How could she have let them get their hands on him again?
"I just sent you a license plate number that I got from someone who was watching his room last night - I need to know who the black sedan belongs to, ASAP."
"Right away, Fair One!" All sleep was forgotten and Spinelli was on instant alert. "We'll know in two seconds."
Sam knew he was trying not to ask but that he had to have questions. "I'm gonna find him Spinelli. I know who has him and I know where she'll try to take him, but she hasn't had time to leave town yet, so I need to head her off."
Just twenty minutes later she was pulling up to the address Spinelli provided. Empty. A quick look around showed her no-one had been there in days.
Back outside Sam sat in her car and thought it through, the dull headache making it a little difficult, but nothing stopped her for long. The fastest way out of an harbor town was by water, and it was a very inconspicuous way to stay beneath the radar. Yes, it was possible that whatever Helena had in mind was local, but Sam knew that Spoon Island would not be where she'd go again.
Something Epiphany said came back to her, prompting her to head back to the hospital. Running up to the nurse's station she was happy to see the no-nonsense authoritarian, "Epiphany, did anyone report seeing them leave?"
"No, and I've talked to every nurse, doctor, orderly, nurse's aide, and technician on duty - not one person saw anything."
Sam agreed, "It's not possible." She called Spinelli again to check the hospital feed for a direction to follow.
"You're not going to like this, Fair One."
"What's the matter?"
"There's no record of them leaving. No one who looks like Stonecold, The Evil One, or anyone being coerced into leaving - and I've gone through the feed from each exit, frame by frame."
"Do you think there's any way you missed them, Spinelli?"
"I don't see how - they do not appear on any footage for the relevant time frame. I know they left but…"
"Or did they?" Sam remembered how the first unwanted visitor to Jason's room earlier had disappeared as though to nowhere, and now, Spinelli, who could find a needle in a haystack on his computer, couldn't find a crew toting a kidnapped enforcer the size of a wrestler? Plus no-one on staff saw them either? There was one very plausible explanation. Maybe they didn't leave!
One of the many things Sam and Jason had in common was how much time they'd spent in hospitals, one in particular. She remembered a time when one involuntary stay was sans injury, when a mad man tied her up in the basement and taunted Jason to find her so he could watch her getting carved up. He'd had her in the basement where there were several spaces that Helena could be hiding now!
Using the back stairs, Sam moved quietly down two flights of darkness, the occasional beam of daylight breaking through in places that allowed her to move without needing a flashlight. She listened and heard nothing but the echo of empty space. Creeping quietly along she soon came to a steel door with a glass square at the top. Easing up on tiptoes Sam made out Jason strapped to a bed, with Helena and someone in a labcoat standing near him, two goons moving around close to them.
Crouching back near the door, Sam closed her eyes and took a breath. Thank you, God! They hadn't taken off for ports unknown. The fact that there were only two guards with them suggested to Sam that Helena didn't expect to be found in their clever hiding place and they were clearly in transit to their true destination, but over her dead body would they move her man again!
Checking the clip on her gun, Sam removed the pepper spray from her pocket and took another deep breath before she burst through the door, surprising them all. The guard closest to the door spun in her direction and went for the gun at his hip, but she was faster with the pepper spray at the ready, pumping off in his face and raising her gun at the head of the other as he went down screaming in peppered agony. The second guard froze midair when the barrel pointed at his head, anxious eyes fleeing over to Helena for instructions.
To the wretch's credit nothing ever seemed to rattle her much, the annoying chuckle sounding as she turned to Sam. "It's okay Horatio, she's a little more tenacious than I gave her credit for but we don't need to use force to stop Mrs. Morgan. I have something far better in mind."
"I don't care what your game is lady, I'm sick of playing with you. What the hell do you want with Jason?"
"I'll be only too happy to clue you in, my dear."
"Jason - are you okay?" When there was no answer to her shout, Sam looked over at him again, knowing she'd seen his eyes open when she entered the room. They were indeed open, but completely unfocused. "Jason?"
Helena was laughing again, "In this room, my voice is the only one he responds to, and you need to put down that gun before I show you exactly what I mean!"
"Sam, please - she means it. Please don't make her do it!"
Sam looked to the woman in the white coat, noticing for the first time who she was. Her mouth fell open in shock, the surprise rendering her speechless as she gaped at her in complete disbelief.
"R-Robin?" Her voice trembled as she continued to stare at the woman who had been buried months earlier after her lab exploded and she was thought to be in it at the time. "You-you died! They found a body with your rings, there was a funeral - is that really you?"
The doctor blinked her eyes shut and raised her hands in plea. "I know it's shocking to see me right now, but, Sam please…put the gun down…you don't understand what's going on."
"You're damn right, I don't! But right at this moment, I have to tell you that I don't really care. I'm sick to death of everybody treating Jason like a drone, instead of a person. Release him, now!"
Helena's voice carried above them smugly, "I'm afraid she can't do that, and my patience is wearing thin with this little spectacle - put that silly thing down this instance."
"The only place I'll put it is right between your eyes if you don't let my husband go." She looked angrily at Robin, "I have no idea what you're doing for her but you know how much Jason hates to be restrained - how can you put those things on him?" She cocked the gun pointed at Helena when she snapped, "Untie him, right now!"
"Do as she says!" Sam didn't care for the controlled confidence in the woman's voice but she couldn't think about what that could mean - all she thought about was Jason being tied up and drugged again. The guard immediately did as she bade, unfastening Jason's restraints.
"Move!" Sam waved them to the other side of the room as she made her way to the bed. "Jason, are you okay?" He laid unresponsive and her heart leapt uncontrollably.
"Soldier Boy, dispose of her!" The cold command brought Sam's head around to Helena and wrenched a sob from Robin.
"No, please Helena - don't do this! Don't make him hurt her - he won't survive that!"
"Calm yourself, Dr. Scorpio-Drake, or you will soon find that you've outlasted your usefulness and that of your family."
Movement from the bed caught Sam's attention and she looked over in relief to see Jason sit up then slowly got to his feet, only the tiniest grimace marring his brow as he fought against the pain of it. She watched him walk to the guard and remove the gun from his holster, then turn with it pointed at her. Her mouth opened in shock but before she could say anything she heard Helena's cackling an instant before the first gunshot, followed instantly by a second.
Blinking unbelievingly, Sam realized that she was still standing and her husband had removed the threat from them. He'd turned the gun from her almost as soon as he had trained it there, and had taken both guards to the floor, turning in an instant to set it at Helena's head.
"What do you think you are doing?" Her angry rebuke was laden with surprise and authority as she instructed, "Do as I command this instant and depose of this gutter snipe, Soldier Boy!"
When he made no move to comply she raised cool eyebrows and clasped her hands together in front of her. "I should've known you would have failed me, Doctor. You're a constant disappointment and I hope you realize this means the imminent death of your little girl and that delightful, Dr. Drake, are at your hands."
"No, please - you can't hurt my family. I did everything you asked - Jason was conditioned - you saw it earlier. I did what you asked!" Robin was frantic in her pleas to the mad woman.
Sam almost fainted at the sound of Jason's voice when he cooly told the shrew, "You're no longer giving orders, lady, and you're not in the position to threaten anyone anymore." She took a deep breath and then another when her husband addressed her softly, "Nobody will ever use me to hurt you and they sure as hell will never hurt you as long as I draw breath."
"My dear, Mr. Morgan I have resources and means beyond what you could ever imagine. This mere hiccup will not deter my plans from being fulfilled." She started moving towards the door, "You would never shoot an unarmed woman, and as soon as I'm free from this dismal little place I'll acquire a physician capable of finishing Dr. Scorpio-Drake's work and case studies. You're not stopping anything with this little display of yours."
Sam sounded a whistle through her lips to get the hag's attention.
"Jason might not shoot you, Cruella, but I will!" She watched an icy smirk start to form just before she pulled the trigger and sent a bullet straight through the witch's heart, quickly changing that smirk into shocked surprise, sinking her to her bony knees. She looked down slowly to the red streak forming on her pristine silver suit, and back up to Sam.
"Why, you little gutter sni…"
"Snipe - yes, I know!" Sam added, just before she followed up the first shot with a second one right between the crone's dead eyes. "That's for my grandmother, my husband, my child, and every innocent soul you're planning to hurt, you evil bitch!"
"Sam!"
The sound of her name from his lips was heaven to her ears, prying her gaze from the fallen corpse to the beautiful sight of her man reaching out for her. Running into his arms, she wrapped hers around him carefully, holding him to her when she could finally breathe again.
"Jason!"
Easing her away from him, Jason searched her eyes worriedly, "Are you okay?"
Sam laughed and gasped at the same time, "Me? You're the one who was kidnapped and brainwashed, walking around with a bullet wound, Jason…are you okay?"
He smiled down at her as he stroked her face softly, "I'm good now." He squeezed her to him for emphasis, the way she melted against him giving him instant solace. "I'm good now."
Robin was still in shock, hands covering her mouth as she stared at the tyrant laying in a pool of her own blood surrounding her on the floor. "She's dead! She's really dead!" Giant teardrops escaped as she realized, "She can never hurt Emma, ever!"
Jason walked over to her, his arm clasping Sam to his side securely. "It's okay, Robin. It's done now." He looked at his friend closely, "Are you okay?"
Robin nodded through her tears, "I'm fine. I thought she'd control you forever, Jason. How did you do that?"
He looked down at Sam who had shifted to slip her hand into his and he squeezed it tightly. "She wanted to use me to hurt Sam. That's not possible, no matter how gone I am - that could never happen." He broke the prolonged gaze from his wife's gorgeous face to tell his friend, "I remembered you being there…I woke up once when she had me before…and you were there."
Robin nodded. "I know. They've been keeping me locked up working on a miracle drug to revive frozen members of their family. Then one day they brought you to me near death. As soon as I'd gotten you stable, Helena started a mind probe so she could condition you to obey her commands, activated by the moniker, Soldier Boy. I don't know what her big scheme was but she's been threatening to hurt Emma and Patrick - that's why I had to do what she said, Jason. I'm sorry I had to do this to you but I had to keep them safe."
"Of course you did. It's okay, Robin. Thank you for saving my life!"
"Your family will be beside themselves to see you - they've been grieving so much since they thought you died." Sam was still surprised to see her but she sure was grateful. "Thank you, Robin! Thank you for saving the love of my life!" She looked up into his handsome face and smiled with tears brimming her brown eyes, "Again!"
Jason pulled her into his side and they started moving towards the exit when Robin answered following them, "It's okay to stop needing me to, Jason. I mean it - feel free to stop nearly dying at anytime!"