Chapter 10

In Wine, There is Truth Part II, Rated Pg-13, for language

METROCOURT LOBBY

Jason hurried out of Carly's office; he needed to make sure that Elizabeth didn't jump to conclusions again. They were going to sit down like they had planned and discuss what was going to happen, and what had happened in the past. According to Elizabeth's grandmother, if he didn't he was going to lose her. If discussing the past prevented that from happening, he would gladly take the time they would need and do so. What scared him was he had no idea why she would be angry about, they had become friends again so long ago, they had discussed things, what had changed?

Listening to someone yelling, he turned to hear Sam shouting at him about how it was his fault she couldn't have children, and how Jake should have been hers. Over his dead body, he couldn't believe he had considered having a child with her, he knew that he had been hurting, but to bring a child into this world because he was hurting would have been wrong. He was grateful that he had not done so with her, he was blessed that his mistakes had been corrected. Maybe he should have sent Tracy a thank you, if it weren't for the faulty condoms, he would not have his wonderful son.

After running up the stairs, Jason headed down the hallway in time to see Sonny rushing from the restaurant looking harassed. He hoped that Carly hadn't got up here before he did. Carly was going to be trouble; he could see the wheels turning in her head.

Rushing towards the restaurant he was surprised to see that it was calm and serene, with a few couples sitting at tables, and only Elizabeth and Diane at the bar. He was about ten feet away when he heard Elizabeth say something about wanting to have an affair. Well if she insisted, wait who was she planning to have an affair with?

"Do you have someone in mind or is who the guy is even important?" Asked Diane.

Stop encouraging this Diane.

"Well of course it, I couldn't just have an affair with just anyone?"

.

"Who do you have in mind?"

Sonny was going to need a new attorney; Diane was a dead woman.

"Jason of course, keep up with the conversation, please.

Good, because he really didn't have time right now to spend weeks in Pentonville or for another murder trial.

So let me get this straight you want to have an affair with Jason we are talking about Jason Morgan right, there isn't another Jason out there, is there?

"Of course it is Jason Morgan like I said I wouldn't have an affair with just anyone, it would have to be someone I was in love with."

Glad to know that, after the last few days, I was starting to wonder.

"So let me get this straight, you want to have a no-strings affair with Jason, but your in love with him, you have a child with him, and doesn't that sort of imply you already have strings attaching the two of you."

"Trust a lawyer to complicate things, I want to have an affair, I am tired of doing what everyone expects of me, and that's that."

Well she was going to have to accept that there were a few other little things like their family, but if she wanted to have an affair, he was where ever she wanted him to be.

"Okay you go ahead and do that."

I don't want permission, I think that you just ruined it for me, what use is having an affair, if you get permission?"

Well apparently it took seven or was it eight tequilas to get Elizabeth buzzed, he hoped she was still capable of talking tonight.

He asked "Is there was any left for me?" As he walked up.

Jason winced as he counted shot glasses as Elizabeth told him that she had drank most of the tequila herself, and that Sonny was a wimp. Well, now he knew why Sonny had fled.

He listened as Elizabeth told him he was a jerk, what the hell just happened? One minute she wants to get together, the next he was an ineffectual jerk. She was asking the bartender to call her a cab, just what had he done? He wished that Elizabeth made more sense.

He came back to the conversation as Diane said "I think that Jason would figure it out, don't you?"

Jason doubted it since he had never been able to figure Elizabeth out.

"No, he is an idiot when it comes to women, take Carly, yes someone please do, you think we can ship her to, well anywhere else?"

What had Carly done now?

"He still hasn't realized that she will never allow him to be happy, he can't be; see he is the back up plan. If she ever decides that she doesn't want to be with the man in her life, she always on to fall back onto; she's the best you know, at least according to her. If she decides to stay with whoever she is involved with, and she has a problem all she has to do is snap her fingers and he comes running to prevent whatever disaster she is deep in the middle of. He always goes, it's like Aladdin, you know rub the lamp and the genie appears, well Jason is her magic genie, except she get more that the allotted three wishes, she gets an infinite number."

Her what, he would never be with Carly, the first time had been a little more than a one-night stand, then infatuation caused by his love for her son. She needed to be saved from herself for the boys' sake. Who the hell is Aladdin? What the, wishes, he needed to get Elizabeth home she was truly drunk. Great he didn't remember her ever getting this drunk before. Had she had a run in the Sam?

"It's why she will never allow him to have anyone else get close; I guarantee she has a file somewhere on Sam to get rid of her at some point. I once heard her tell Courtney how to get him to do what ever she wanted. It would have been funny if it hadn't been so pathetic; she actually calls herself his best friend. Courtney was such a two-faced bitch to me but she learned at the feet of the master and of course Jason just responded the same way. You know when I thought that he really loved her it hurt less."

He didn't doubt the file on Sam; Carly had never forgiven her for getting pregnant with Sonny's child. He didn't do what ever Carly wanted, Jason changed his mind about getting her out of there, maybe he could find out what Mrs. Hardy was talking about. Pathetic, she thought he was pathetic, Jason's chest felt like he had been shot. What did Courtney do?

"He gets her a new place, never mind that her brother owns a building, he personally protects her, I get locked in a penthouse with an annoying amnesiac, who is making my PTSD worse, without knowing if he is lying someplace dying. I mourn a man who is actually faking his death, I'm nice to the widow, who I can't stand, while he is off watching Stripper Skipper, but it's not any of my concern its business. I can't even get a call to let me know that he is at the police station with the walking corpse, I have to hear from the TV that he is alive, where I see him on TV walking out of the station with his "family". Then after I pick my self-respect up off the floor, and leave, he sleeps with his brother's wife who has been playing me all along."

Oh, god, his mistake of keeping Sonny's secret, when she decided she couldn't handle his lifestyle, when she left him, she thought he had been shot, why, the guards knew he had been fine, so hadn't Carly, was this what she was talking about. Had Carly let her believe that something had happened to him? Jason remembered his pain as she walked out his door, and trying to deaden the pain, his mistakes with Courtney. What PTSD? Why would staying in the penthouse trigger it, had Zander been the trigger, it would explain her sleeping with him.

"Dumb bimbo leaves her diary sitting on the counter where she details that she is setting me up to find him at her place, then when I go back through stupid crap and find out that she has been playing me and him. Get this she even sets her husband up to be her stalker, so that she can get his brother in bed. But AJ is just being paranoid everyone tells him. Then when I call her on all of this Jason yells at me for slapping the whore.

Then he has the nerve to ask me to keep the secret from Sonny and everyone else. I was so hurt; I thought he loved her so I throw myself into dating someone who tries to kill me thinking that I was the one who screwed up, that I had been trying too hard. Then to find out that he wasn't even in love with her, that he just about destroyed me and for no other reason than to not hurt her feelings, her feelings. What about mine the person he says he loved, I guess we now know that mine don't count."

Jason felt his heart slowly dying, how could she believe this, how did this happen, he no longer knew that to think?

"To now know that he helped that stupid woman, you know he actually had the nerve to try and not tell me it was his girlfriend who tried to kill me. At the time I thought I was going to be permanently blind because of her, and what did Aladdin Jason do. He came to me and played on my sympathy for poor pathetic Courtney she suffered a miscarriage, and got addicted to pain killers, so let's forgive her, no one told her to jump off that yacht in the middle of the ocean."

"I had suffered a miscarriage after being pushed down a set of stairs and I managed to survive without getting addicted and I didn't even have a supportive husband, or family to help. But let poor pathetic Courtney break a nail and let's call in a plastic surgeon and have on call the best in the world."

How had things gotten so twisted, he needed to talk to Elizabeth, he needed to explain that he was the one at fault, he hadn't loved Courtney enough that was why she had acted the way she did, it was all his fault.

"Here's the best part I agree to not press charges after being lied to; I don't even get thanked for saving her ass from jail. He just walks out the door like it was an unsatisfactory business meeting he couldn't get away from fast enough."

Of god, imy life is over. I killed myself, without even realizing it, how, at hearing this Jason just wanted to die, why had she forgiven them, what had he done?

"Jason certainly made AJ pay for his crimes but lets face it; Sonny's sister would never have to face her crimes, would she? I guess I should have been happy that he had condescended to come down amongst us little people and let me know that she was sorry, of course she didn't come and tell me herself."

"So shall we have our conversation Jason, what would you like to talk about let's see, there's Courtney or how about how Sam's feeling's was more important than your own son, or let's go back to the kidnapping. You remember, when I was kidnapped and held captive for days, then when I get out of the hospital how you take me home to my studio, with a door that reminds me of being locked in the crypt. Instead of telling Carly to solve her own problems you leave there scared out of my mind, so which topic of conversation would you like to discuss?"

"See listening to Carly in her office I made a decision, you can spend all the time with the boys you want. We can even have an affair if you want to but I WILL NEVER LET YOU BACK INTO MY HEART, BECAUSE YOUR MASTER WILL NEVER ALLOW IT, WILL SHE?" With that question she saluted Jason with the last of the tequila and toasted "In Vino VERITAS"

Jason knew that his life was over, he just didn't seem to be able to win, the one person he had never wanted to hurt, and all he had ever done was hurt her. Jason watched Elizabeth walk around him. As her turned to speak to her and say what, he's sorry, sorry didn't even cover what he had done in the name of love.

Elizabeth waited for Jason to say something, but he just stood there. Giving up she told him "Let Diane know what you wanted in regards to the boys", and she would relay it to her. "Goodbye Jason."

Jason watched her leave, knowing that he didn't deserve anything from her, he needed to stay away, far away, he wouldn't ever hurt her again.

Diane Miller just sat at the bar, now wishing that she had not wanted to know what had happened. That girl just didn't get a break, how could Jason have been so cold and so ruthless with that young woman, she had clearly always loved him. Jason had at always had her respect, more so than his boss had ever garnered from her. She can't believe she had thought he had loved the mother of his son, but now she realized that it was all about his son. She was sickened by what she had heard, turning to lay into her client with her extensive vocabulary, Diane's anger crumbled at the look of devastation on his face, had Miss Webber misunderstood?

'Jason?"

"Just tell her that I will see the boys whenever she will allow, I will stay away, maybe we can have Mrs. Hardy or my mother can be an intermediary for us, she doesn't ever have to see me." Responded the deadened voice of the enforcer. Jason turned and walked out of the restaurant, once again knowing what nothing felt like.

MRS HARDY"S HOUSE

Elizabeth let herself into the house, seeing her Gram's car in the garage. Elizabeth quietly slipped up the stairs to curl up around a pillow crying silently so as to not awaken Cam or Jake.

At one AM, all cried out, Elizabeth got up and went down stairs to knowing she wouldn't get any sleep that night. She was ashamed that she had given in to her pain and hurt Jason. She knew that she had wanted to hurt him for all the times he had hurt her, but she had gone way too far. Elizabeth grabbed the throw off the sofa, and headed out the front door and sat on the steps. She knew that the guards were out there, but she also knew they would stay away unless she was in danger. The tears felt hot as they poured down her face, for Jason, and Jake and Cam. Not for herself, she had brought this on herself.

Elizabeth felt someone's arms around her, turning to say thank you to her Grams, she was surprised to see Georgie slipping back into the house holding the baby monitor.

"Elizabeth what happened, did that harpy hurt you, where is Jason?" Audrey couldn't believe she was asking where Jason was, twelve hours ago she had wanted him far away from her granddaughter, but Audrey never could stand to see her cry. She could hear Georgie on the phone in the great room.

She had asked her to try and locate Jason, when Georgie had came in to wake her. She said she could hear Liz crying through the monitor, and had been worried about her. Audrey and her listened as her granddaughter had hiccupped her tears away, then slip out of bed and down the stairs. She knew not to ask questions, so she just sat there holding Liz who cried like her world was falling apart.

Georgie started to call the penthouse hoping that she had better luck than with Jason's cell phone, leaving an urgent message to call her immediately. As she listened to the answering machine, she picked up the house phone and called Spinelli. She left a message on the machine similar to the one on his cell.

"Faithful Friend, hello are you there, did you call me in your sleep, hello? Spinelli was worried, what if his friend was hurt, grabbing his computer he started to activate it when she answered.

"Spinelli, is Jason at home? We are trying to locate him, something is wrong with Elizabeth."

The hacker hopped of bed and rushed into his mentor's room to see it was as neat and clean as it had been two days ago, the last time Jason had spent the night. Rushing down the stairs, he hoped that Stone Cold was on the couch, no luck after informing the faithful friend that he wasn't there, but that he the Jackal would locate him, that the maternal ones happiness meant all to Stone Cold. He told Georgie he would call back as soon as he had news.

Spinelli started up his laptop to check the GPS chip in Stone Colds phone, when he remembered he had disabled it in all the phones for Mr. Corinthos. He tried to think where he could be, when he recalled the guard outside the door. Rushing out he was told that Stone Cold hadn't returned since Kurt had started his shift at 9:00 PM. Spinelli asked the sentinel of protection to try his comrades-in-arms, that it was a Maternal one related emergency. Kurt translated and then relayed his message to the guards at the warehouse, Mr. Corinthos place, the Jacks house and various other protected spots throughout the city.

By the time that Spinelli called back to the Hardy house, he was upset to report to the Faithful Friend that he had failed in his mission. "Was the Maternal one still crying do you want me to come over?"

"No stay at the penthouse, in case he returns home. Yes, Elizabeth is still crying, Audrey got her to come inside, but she is refusing to say what is wrong. All Mrs. Hardy had gotten is that she is ashamed of something and that she would never be happy again."

Georgie felt like crying herself at the misery on the Elizabeth's face. She had always admired Elizabeth and Emily, she had wished for a friendship like that. When she had read Emily's letter she had been thrilled to be compared to the young mother and it had made her want to emulate the way she always stood on her own, dealing with everything in her life with class and honor. To see her this way was terrible, she had wanted to call her father to track down Jason but realized that wasn't an option. So she relied on her inventive friend to locate his mentor.

Spinelli knew what he had to do, even if it got him killed, but he would have to do it in person not over the phone. He had to go to the Godfather's fortress and hope that Stone Cold was there. Spinelli printed up notes telling Stone Cold to call Mrs. Hardy's house immediately that there was something wrong with Elizabeth, the posted them all over the penthouse. Grabbing his messenger bag and his coat, he asked the guard to drive him to Sonny's.

SONNY'S HOUSE

The night guard was reluctant to let the young genius into the house until he heard that Jason was missing and it was urgent. The guard followed the geek as he quietly slipped up the stairs to Mr. Corinthos bedroom. Spinelli's hand shook, but he was on an important mission, so he gently prodded the mobster only to end up with his hand grabbed and twisted.

"There better be a damn good reason you are in my house let alone my bedroom, Spinelli."

"Jason is missing and something is really wrong with Elizabeth. Georgie Jones and Mrs. Hardy gave me the responsibility of locating him, sir. Do you know where he is, is he working, I know that I can't know but this is important."

Sonny sat up and pulled his robe on, he realized that whatever had happened, Spinelli was talking like a normal person. Sonny started to worry, he ordered the guard to get a hold of Max and Milo, then told the hacker to wait for him downstairs. He dressed quickly, then went to find Spinelli.

Spinelli explained what he had done so far, and that Jason wasn't answering his phone. Sonny couldn't help but be impressed that the hacker had done all this before he had shown up.

Sonny asked about Jason's motorcycle, in the garage he was told. The GPS for the truck showed it at the garage, no other cars were missing, no guards had seen Jason, they had checked GH, the police station, the warehouse, even the Metrocourt, Spinelli was told he left alone about 7:30.

When the Giambetti guards arrive, Sonny had Spinelli explain the situation and what had been done so far.

"Did anyone check Miss Webber's house?" Asked Milo.

"Yes."

"The Bannister Docks?"

"Yes, the park as well. I have run out of places." Spinelli sounded distressed.

"What about the old bridge out the cliff road, or Vista point? Did anyone check Jake's?" Asked Max. "If something happened between him and Miss Webber, that is were he used to go when they fought in the past."

When Spinelli informed him that he didn't know of those places, Max sent a guard to check it out.

"The Studio, what about there?" Asked Sonny.

Max and Sonny tried to come up with any other locations associated with Elizabeth and other than Kelly's, had no place else to send a guard. Sonny was scared that whatever had happened had been because of Carly, after all the meeting last night had sent Elizabeth drinking and out for trouble. DIANE!

Sonny picked up the phone and called his attorney, and ordered her out to his house right away, that it was an emergency. She had been the person he had left Liz with the night before she may have some idea where Jason had gone. It was a long shot but all they had at this point.

The guard they had sent to the studio called and said that there were beer bottles everywhere, blood on the floor and that the studio was trashed. Sonny ordered the guard to stay there, and sent Max over to take a look at the place, he was the only one of the current guards who had ever been there.

The guard they sent to Jake's reported that Coleman had was furious with Jason, he had trashed the bar and destroyed a pool table then broken all the cues. Then Morgan had told him that Jake's was no longer under their protection, so if he were smart he would sell out and leave town, that who knows what would happen to his place.

Sonny desperately wanted to find Jason, he had gone past worried and had gone straight to terrified. He was tempted to call Carly and ask what had happened the night before but he knew that would make a bad situation worse. Max called from the studio to tell Sonny that Jason had trashed everything in the place and from the amount of beer bottles had been barely functioning when he had done it. He told him that the blood seemed to be from a cut. Jason had destroyed some frames and that there was blood on them.

Spinelli called Georgie to tell her about their lack of success and promised once again to let her know immediately if anything changed, if she would do the same for him. He shook his head no at Milo and Sonny then told them that Liz had become catatonic when Mrs. Hardy had tried to question her.

Diane blew in at that point "What is the emergency that necessitated me coming out of my nice warm bed at 2:30 in the morning?" Looking around the room she noticed Jason missing and sat down looked at Sonny and said "This is about Jason and Elizabeth?"

"What do you know?"

"I'm not sure, after you left Jason showed up a little later. Elizabeth had finished the bottle of tequila, and then she called you a wimp, then she just told Jason like it was."

Sonny had a bad feeling, but needed to know."What happened?"

"Carly happened now and apparently in the past. That ex wife of yours is toxic, if I got the gist of it, Jason really hurt Liz in the past, pretty deeply and they had been working their way past it then Carly happened last night. Liz basically told him that she wasn't going to wait around while Jason fixed all Carly's problems that she snapped her fingers and Jason went running. She told him he could see the boys whenever he wanted but that she wasn't part of the equation any longer, that she had tried to get past his asinine behavior in the past but it was too much. She was tired of being the only one in the relationship that everyone's feeling mattered more to him than hers.

So basically they went from on the cusp of everything to nothing in a matter of day, I hope you're proud of yourself, and Carly and that extended family of yours. The look on their faces in something I hope I never have to see again. She was misery personified, and he looked like well he looked like hell, he said something about knowing what nothing felt like again.

He was shocked at what she had said to him, how the hell could he have been that blind. I saw it on his face that everything she said to him was true, yet for some reason he didn't seem to connect his actions to her pain. SONNY WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED BETWEEN THE TWO OF THEM AND HOW DID YOU AND THAT HARPY EX OF YOURS LET YOUR SELFISHNESS RUIN WHAT THEY HAD? WHEN WE FIND JASON YOU HAD BETTER FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU DID AND MAKE IT RIGHT DO YOU HEAR ME! "

Kate Howard walked in from the patio to hear the last of Diane's rant and she narrowed her eyes at the look she saw on Sonny's face. Circling over to the sofa she asked the irritated lawyer what was going on, that all the cars leaving and the house being lit up had awoken her.

Diane outlined what had happened and what she had learned the night before to Kate who told her she recognized that guilty look on Sonny's face and that he knew more that he was telling. Diane was on a roll and she was determined to fix what had happened, she grabbed a notepad out of her briefcase and started writing down what she had heard the night before, and how to get Jason and Elizabeth together.

Kate offered to help explaining she had two reasons, one she knew Elizabeth a little from the hospital and Jason's trial and like what she knew. Secondly she was more than willing to get into battle with Carly Jacks, that the woman had been on her case since she had moved here. It was time to introduce her to the woman who had clawed her way to the top, and fought to keep herself there. She was tired of the spineless person she had become.

Sonny grabbed Spinelli and Milo and headed over to the Hardy house. He needed to talk to Liz, if she knew that Jason was missing it might snap her out of whatever state she was in. The two women grabbed their coats and followed him out to the limo.

Jason slipped into the door, slid down the wall to land on his rear as the bottle slipped from his hand. He was back where it all had started to go wrong. Numbly staring into the blackness, he wondered if his life would ever be what he had wanted it to be.

HARDY HOUSE

Audrey opened the door wanting to see Jason but instead saw his partner. Slumping a bit she asked "Has he been found yet? Liz isn't talking; she just starts crying when I try to talk to her. When I asked her what happened is when she slipped into the state she is now.

Sonny asked to come in, and Spinelli and the two women followed silently behind. "We have found out that something happened tonight between Carly, Jason and Liz, then I saw Liz drinking shots at the restaurant at the Metrocourt. Diane Miller stayed with her until Jason arrived and then Liz apparently just laid into Jason."

Audrey felt her age when she figured out that what she had wanted to happen had. Liz had let out all her pent up anger and rage at Jason's treatment of her in the past and had finally told the enforcer how she really felt. Now the pieces of her heart were too broken to fix. Looking at Sonny she wanted to tell him to leave that it was his sister's fault, but she knew they needed his help if the wanted to find Jason. She had to try; she knew that he needed to be around if the two of them stood any chance at a future.

She listened as Sonny outlined what had been done so far, as she watched the two woman go and try to comfort her granddaughter, the fashionista asking Georgie about the boys, and suggesting she head up to get some sleep, that Kate would listen for the boys. Georgie explained that she couldn't that she was going to be there for Liz since Emily couldn't be.

Diane glared at her client from the sofa, she knew that they were missing something. She told Elizabeth that Jason was missing and that he had destroyed Jakes and a studio apartment he owned near the warehouse. She saw Mrs. Hardy's head turn her way sharply and ask her to repeat what she had just said. When Diane complied she saw tears glistening in the old woman's eyes.

Sonny took a call from Max and informed the ladies that they were headed to the warehouse to see what they could do from there. "Spinelli, let's go."

Spinelli was surprised that Mr. Corinthos wanted him to come, but he followed him out anyhow. Audrey watched as her potential grandson followed the mobster out the door.

"Mrs. Hardy does that studio mean something to you? Kate and I are trying to get a complete picture of what is going on here. We want to help but only know a part of the story."

Audrey told them what she knew about the studio and its connection to Jason and Elizabeth, hoping that talking about it would stir something in her granddaughter. Not even a blink.

"What about this door she mentioned last night." Diane listened as the information was relayed to her and then made notes. She knew of Liz's history with Lucky and Ric. She needed the whole picture. She was starting to put the pieces together and it was painting a picture of two people who belonged together, but that they were constantly being pulled apart by outside forces as well as their own insecurities.

"The man I saw last night was devastated at what had happened in the past, the pain off the two of them was beyond unbearable. He told me to tell Elizabeth he wanted to see the boys but it could be on her schedule, that he would have you or his mother act as a go between. That he understood that she had reasons to want to never see him again. He said he knew what nothing felt like again." Audrey saw something like pain flicker again in Liz's eyes, she was just happy to see any emotions at all, even a negative one.

'So why was Jason staying there, that winter, I mean money had never been a problem for him, he could have stayed anywhere's why stay at a rundown studio with a seventeen year old girl, I mean even if they were involved." Kate was still trying to get the next piece to the puzzle that was Jason and Liz. The mob enforcer and the artistic nurse. She was amazed at the oddness of the couple, they shouldn't fit together but they did.

"He had been shot and Liz was hiding him to save his life." Diane was shocked when Elizabeth gasped, grabbed her coat out of the closet looked at her grandmother with tears in her eyes and said "I know where Jason is, can you keep the boys? "

"Elizabeth let me drive you, or let me have one of Sonny's guard's go. Sweetie you're in no shape to be driving." Kate and Diane grabbed their coats again and followed the nurse out the door when she rushed off without giving them an answer.

"The guards won't be able to locate this place, very few people know about it. I need to be the one to go, but your right I'm in no shape to drive, here are the keys." Getting into Elizabeth's grandmothers Buick the three women headed out on their mission. Listening to Elizabeth's directions Kate arrived at the side of the road in the middle of the woods, "Are you sure this is the right place?"

"I hope not." Said the nurse. "Please wait here, I need to cut through the woods, there is a clearing about fifty feet in that connects to an old rail line. If Jason's not there I will be right back."

Elizabeth exited the car and rushed into the woods before Kate had even hit the speed dial button to call Sonny.

"Sonny, no he didn't show up at the Hardy's but Liz came out of whatever she was in, and had us drive her to the middle of the woods, she says she hopes Jason isn't here but that she needed to check."

"A boxcar, why would Jason go to an old boxcar and why would Elizabeth not want to find him here?"

After listening to Sonny's explanation she turned to Diane and said. "I hope you can hike in those things, Sonny says we need to get in there, that he's on his way, that if this turns as bad as it can get, Elizabeth will need us."

The women headed into the woods following the footsteps in the light dusting of snow on the ground. They came to a clearing to see Elizabeth sitting on the cold ground crying again. She announced "He was here, but he's gone. What have I done, I am worse than Carly, I did this. " The two women had no idea what was going on, they tried to get the young woman to leave but she sat there clutching a picture and a blue baby hat.

Sonny and Max came running into the clearing slowing down when the saw that only the three women where there. Max knelt down next to the devastated brunette to try and comfort her. Sonny felt his heart clench as he saw the picture of Elizabeth and Emily, he had seen it years before, in a drawer in Jason's desk and a baby cap, that was probably Jake's. He knew that nothing he could say would help, so he backed away and asked the older women what had happened.

Meanwhile Max bent down and picked up Elizabeth as Milo joined them in the clearing. Max knew the significance of the boxcar for the young couple and he was grateful that she hadn't found him again lying in the snow bleeding to death. After telling Milo to double-check to make sure that the boxcar was empty, he headed out of the woods with Miss Webber,

Sonny, Milo and the women followed slowly listening to the history of Jason, Elizabeth and the boxcar.

Max headed to the studio with Milo taking Mrs. Hardy's car home. He turned the radio down when he heard that another young woman had been strangled. That didn't need to be shared right now, the deejay said she was a nurse at General Hospital named Leyla, he was sure that Miss Webber had known her, and he didn't want to add to her burden. Taking Sonny aside as the group headed up the stairs to the studio, he informed him of the latest murder.

Kate walked around the studio admiring the great lighting, but appalled at the mess, beer bottles empty all over the place, furniture destroyed, the only thing still whole was a painting on the wall. She circled over to look at it, good technique, she thought.

Diane and Sonny stepped out into the hall while Max attempted to hand Elizabeth his handkerchief to dry her tears. He needed to get her talking she was their best chance of finding Jason, so he asked if the cap had been Jake's.

Diane and Sonny looked grim as they came back into the room, Sonny's expression getting darker as Elizabeth explained that the cap had belonged to Michael when he was just a baby, and how Jason had gotten a hold of it. Sonny realized that Jason was revisiting places of happiness and pain, things connected to Michael and Elizabeth.

Max quickly gathered the same thing, and sent people to the park, and Sonny's old penthouse, and turning to ask Liz if she could recall any place else. Liz put her misery aside and suggested that they try the overlook, the Quartermaine mansion, and maybe the old boathouse.

Port Charles was starting to come alive for the day as all three places were checked and then quickly dismissed. Elizabeth asked if they had tried the old bridge and the statues in the garden behind it. They hadn't checked the garden, so a guard was sent out there.

Sonny wrote Max a note suggesting they try Ric and Elizabeth's old house. No luck there. They had just about run out of places when Spinelli came in and said that he had checked the barn where they found Lulu and Johnny Zachara, no luck.

"Why would Jason be in an old barn?" Asked his attorney.

"Liz and he had meet there." Softly whispered the hacker. " I also had a guard take me out to Spoon Island."

Elizabeth exited the studio to head down the hall to the bathroom, Milo shadowing her, he was concerned that she was too quiet, it just seemed off, he hadn't spent much time around the nurse but she had always seemed so lively to him.

Sonny was starting to think the answer didn't lie with a place connected to Elizabeth but a place that caused Jason pain but he realized that he had no idea where to start. He kicked at the black box on the floor, making it skid across the floor into the oversized steel door, knocking it open. Sonny bent over to pick it up and close it when he saw a piece of paper inside with writing in what looked like Italian. He pulled out the receipt and asked Kate to come over and please tell him what is said.

"It is a receipt for a wedding ring set and an engagement ring with rubies and diamond inlaid with an infinity design. Sounds gorgeous, and expensive. There was an inscription, it said "there are no words". The wedding set had the same design, with a date in August, then another in February. The receipt is dated for several years ago Sonny, so I would imagine it has something to do with this. Here is the bag is probably was in."

Sonny closed his eyes as he saw the bag; he had seen it before. While Elizabeth had been held hostage, and then later a week before he had faked his death. Both times Jason had put the bag away not telling him what it was. He knew that second date as well, it was the day of the explosion at the warehouse, the Valentines Day when they had both almost died. Jason had bought those rings for Elizabeth; he had been planning on marrying her. Until she had fled because she couldn't handle the life.

Diane peeked out the door and saw Milo standing awkwardly across from a door. She saw Liz come out with a towel, using it to dry her face. She apologized to Milo for taking so long, then headed back into the studio.

Sonny turned and stared at the young woman he had once considered a good friend, until the bonds of friendship had broken strained by his life. He had wondered why they had initially broke up and now his attorney was saying it was Carly and his fault, Sonny didn't remember much about that time, he had been so busy dealing with his family, and Brenda, he never even saw Elizabeth until months later. At the time he had been so angry with Jason that he had never stopped to wonder what had happened between him and Elizabeth, but the receipt and the existence of these rings made him realize that he had missed something. Later on, he had been grateful it ended but now it seemed they were trying to get it back.

Sonny called Max over and told him to start checking the safe houses, the old safe houses wait start at the one where I hid out when I was pretending to be dead. Sonny had a sick feeling at the pit of his stomach that Jason was tracing his footsteps to find answers. Now if he only knew the question, he would know where to find him. The only person with the answers was in no shape to do a postmortem on her past with Jason.

Elizabeth called her grams to check on the boys. She listened as her Grams told her that Cam had decided that Georgie was his girlfriend, Spinelli had explained the concept the night before to him and now he wanted one and chose Georgie for the position. She told Grams what she had done and how she had hurt Jason. Audrey listened her heart breaking at the guilt in her granddaughter voice. "My dear, talk to him, sober this time, but tell each other everything, you made mistakes as well in this relationship, of course his had far reaching consequences but sometimes it's the little things that hurt worse than the big ones."

Audrey told her that Georgie and Cam were going to the park this morning and that Jake had awoken early and was fighting with his stuffed animal, the animal was winning. She had to go before it completely won the battle. Elizabeth laughed as her grandmother had intended and turned around rejuvenated and ready to continue the search.

Max received a call "They found a trashed safe house. Sonny you were right it's the one you were staying at when we faked your death."

"Let's go." Said the mobster.

Max hesitated he had heard from the guard that Jason had done a real number on the place. When they pulled up in front of the house, Sonny was upset to see he was right about the safe house. He started out of the limo, when Max stopped him, "Mr. C, when this is over; I need to speak to you. I think that I could have prevented this, but I let my loyalty to Mrs. C blind me. If you are serious about wanting to help Jason and Miss Webber, we need to talk about what happened in the past."

THE STUDIO

"Elizabeth is that one of your paintings?" Asked Kate.

"Yes, it's mine." Elizabeth didn't want to discuss the painting, she just wanted to find Jason and try to fix things between them. She knew that they had to talk, but she was more scared of the talking and the answers, than living in limbo with the hurt.

Seeing that the young woman wasn't going to allow her to distract her, she saw Diane had a plan as well. "Elizabeth let's see if we can come up with any other places you have been with Jason. Or even places that mean something to one of you."

"I have, but unless Jason hoped a plane to Italy I can't think of anywhere else he would be." Elizabeth racked her brain with no luck; she started from the recent past and listed everyplace she had ever been with Jason, or everyplace she had been that was connected to him. After fifteen minutes Diane had a list of about 5 new places, she called Sonny and suggested he try them.

After checking Pier 52, Courtney's old loft, the church, the hospital roof, and finally Elizabeth's old apartment, they were back at the studio. The only one with any evidence of his being there had been the church. Sonny came into the studio to see Elizabeth and Kate cleaning the mess, and trying to come up with more places. When the door closed with a loud clang, Elizabeth shuddered. Sonny asked what was wrong?

"I hate that door; it reminds me of the crypt. It makes the same sound when closing."

Sonny looked up as Diane's legal pad hit the floor, remembering the argument between the star-crossed lovers the night before.

"Elizabeth, where is this crypt?"

"The old cemetery on the outskirts of town, why? No, Jason wouldn't go there. The place is in ruins, besides he barely registered that I had been kidnapped, then it was only because he felt guilty that...Come on, he left me here, to go and bail Carly out once again. If it I had meant anything to him back then he certainly wouldn't have left me there for days on end, then as soon as I was out of the hospital, do the same.

Sonny stared at the young nurse, did she think he would have gone to the old man, or even asked Taggert for help if he didn't care. He had tore this town apart looking for her, how much more had she wanted him to do?

Diane, who had heard about this part of the story from Max, realized that Liz didn't know. She sat down and told her all that Max had informed her, Elizabeth swayed on her feet, her skin turning a chalky white, then looking at Sonny she grabbed her coat. Telling the woman she needed to do this alone she followed Sonny out the door of the studio.

CRYPT

"Leave."

"No."

"Now."

"Not until we get a few things straight."

"I'm sorry but I won't walk away from the boys. I can't."

"I don't want you to, but we still need to talk. Jason I'm sorry for last night."

"You meant what you said, you were telling the truth, so don't be sorry for that."

"I'm sorry for my tone and the way I used words to hurt you."

"If you hated me that much, was making me admit to loving you, then. I just need to know were you trying to punish me for hurting you in the past." Jason could barely get the words out, just being in the same room with her was hurting him again, He knew he had no right to complain, he deserved everything that had been said, and all the pain he was feeling.

"I don't hate you Jason; sometimes I wish I could. I just haven't liked you very much at times. Just like you haven't like me very much at times."

Jason closed his eyes and said " I need you to tell me what you want, I need to know."

"You see that is part of the problem. Jason you always want me to tell you what I want, to decide what comes next, Jason I wish just once you would tell me what you want or what you think should come next, without asking my opinion, so that you can mold yours to what I say. So please tell me what you want? If it is your choice what do you want to come next?" She softly stated.

"I don't deserve that right now, but since it's what you want I will tell you. I have been dreaming though, I had this picture in my head of you and I and the boys as a family, doing family things like putting the kids to bed and cooking dinner and trips to Italy and Christmas trees. I wanted that so much I wanted our family. I know now that isn't possible, I am finally aware that it's too late. I'm not sorry that we have Jake, don't ask me to be, please. I, I guess I wish that we had been honest with each other along time ago, it would hurt less. As for what I want to come next, I'll be happy with just spending time with the boys, please let me stay in Cam's life as well, I know that..." shoving his shaking hands in his pockets. Jason stopped talking as his left fingers hit the warmth of the rings in his pockets. He swallowed the lump in his throat and continued on..."I know that you won't stop me from visiting with them, do you want to have Audrey and my mother act as hand off spots."

"No, I think this is one of times we need to communicate" she laughed softly,

" I was hurt and upset from Carly and started to drink, which reminded me of Emily. So I tried to push you away so that I wouldn't get hurt again, instead I tried to inflict as much pain on you as possible. Jason so much of the past has been brought back up in the last few days that it was the first weapon I could find.

Yes, I think we need to clear the air of all the past hurts. Then hearing you tell Carly last night that you had loved me all along and that you would have left her if I had asked, Jason I just don't understand, why did you get involved with her so quickly, to me it was like I had never mattered. Then when she told me that I had made our relationship up in my mind to be more that what it was, that you had told her you had never loved me, it was like Lucky and my parents all over again. My heart shattered, and I swore I would never be that open and vulnerable to you again. I couldn't trust myself around you.

Then last August happened. When you told me in the elevator that Sam would matter more than your child, I was determined to get you out of my heart again, but you kept sneaking back in. I'm not sure what happens now but I want to be a family, maybe not a conventional family. I think we need to have some long discussions about what has happened and deal with the pain we have cause one another. We need to continue doing what we have been, facing things together.

We need to separate our feeling for each other from the feelings we have for the boys; I came up with a plan I wanted to tell you about yesterday. We need to be together as a family unit for the boys, but I think we need to go back and explore our feeling for each other. I know this is going to sound strange. I think we need to have an affair."

Elizabeth was grateful that the darkness of the crypt hid her blush as she told him the last part.

."Fine, just how do you want to go about this? "

"We live at my house since the boys are settled there, and we basically live as a family but we keep the emotions out of the equations, the physical side stays the same. No more I love yous and no more making plans for the future, if at some point we decide we are in love with someone else, we agree to separate with as little disruption to the boys as possible. I want you to promise that if we want the boys to stay away from the new person in our life, we agree no custody battles like Carly and Sonny. Okay. Is there anything you want added?

Shaking his head no, he knew his life was about to become hell on earth but he had promised himself that he would fix the damage he had done. If this were the only way, he would accept it. He would make his heart stop telling him to push for more and work on retaining what he had now, not what he had lost in the past, and not what he had dreamed of for the future. He would do what he had to. He would still love her it would just kept to himself, like it had been for 8 years. The only difference was that he now knew now special it was to get to say it out loud and to hear it said back to him, but he would have the memories.

Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief; she hadn't messed up too badly. She knew Jason hated emotional confrontations, so she just had to learn to deal with the past and her anger and resentment that he didn't love her as deeply as she loved him. They were going to move in together and be a family together. It would hurt but for now she would make the best of the time they had together. She wasn't going to see Kelly just yet. She needed some distance from the grief and sorrow of the last few months before making that decision. She was ready to deal with the baby steps they were taking.

Holding her hand out to Jason, she said "Let's go get the boys and go home."