Chapter Thirteen, Dark Recess:
Jason shifted on the heel of his boot uncomfortably as Cordelia sat on the edge of bed. She stared at him intently, the expression on her face changing constantly. The stoic look in her eyes did less to ease the growing knot in his stomach. Seriousness, remorse, and unfettered anger mingled tightly on her beautiful face, and the enforcer wondered just how dangerous she truly could be.
Cordelia's eyes drifted away from Jason's expressionless face briefly. She couldn't believe she was sitting there trying to find the proper way to tell someone about her condition. The only people who knew were Rex and John, and outside of them, the psychiatrist that diagnosed her. It was unfathomable really - telling a mob enforcer her medical condition. The thought that he would somehow use it against her wasn't too far from her mind, but she couldn't see how that could properly benefit him. Having schizoaffective disorder didn't make her incoherent or able to easily manipulate.
It made her terrifying.
The episodes she experienced were a simple break in her psychosis - or as simple as that could possibly be. Her personality shifted slightly away from reality to delusions of grandeur (where she felt she had to save everyone) to manic/depressive episodes where she could hardly control the anger, sadness, and rage.
The episodes didn't usually last long. Not anymore, not since she's been taking her medication, but when one did happen upon her…
Cordelia's eyes snapped back up to Jason's face. How could she tell him all of that and possibly expect him to understand? She hardly understood it herself. Yet, didn't he deserve to know? Didn't he deserve to know the circumstances before pledging his allegiance?
As she stared at him, Cordelia wondered if she could really, possibly trust Jason Morgan? Sure, his saving her life on the docks counted for something, but he was still a mob enforcer. He was still a danger to have around and could possibly be far more detrimental than anything else. And in knowing that, or rather realizing it, she found that she did trust him.
Her eyes diverted away again and closed briefly, checking back whatever she didn't want him to see. She'd never really trusted any this quickly besides Rex. Sweet, wonderful, blue-eyed soldier Rex who'd saved her and taken care of her. Rex who loved her, cared for her, and walked beside her no matter the cost. Her best friend sacrificed so much for her, and she felt awful comparing Jason Morgan to him. Jason Morgan who stood in front of her aimed weapon and asked her t trust him. Jason Morgan who saved her life on the docks from gunmen after asking her to trust him. Jason Morgan who risked his life by defying the mob and helping her.
How could she not trust him? Even a little?
"Jason," she said softly, opening her eyes to meet his. "I…"
"You don't have to tell me," the blond enforcer said. He'd watched her struggle with the task and, though curious, ultimately decided that he didn't need to know. "I don't need to know."
Cordelia rose from the bed to stand before him. "Morgan," she countered. "I could kill you."
Jason nodded slightly, finding it hard to tear his eyes away from her. As small as she was, her presence was commanding. A small smirk curled the corners of his mouth when he stepped closer to her. He liked the way she didn't seem to respond to his advance. Liked the way she seemed to have no fear.
"I'm Jason Morgan, chief enforcer for the Corinthos organization," he said quietly, his blue eyes staring deeply into hers. "I'm known throughout the mob world as one of the deadliest men alive." His eyes left hers briefly, Jason remembering how she could smell the fear on him, before saying, "Some of the most treacherous men in the world know who I am. You can't possibly be a bigger threat to me than they are."
Somewhere in her mind, Cordelia knew that Jason meant that as a way to appease. He was trying to find a way to dissuade her from her desire to disclose her mental condition. She knew that, and a part of her appreciated it, but she couldn't let it happen. Jason had a family to return to.
"Do those men have mental conditions that make them think they're out to save the world? Do they have something in their minds that make them think killing their friends is the right thing to do? That you're saving them?" She looked angry now, and her eyes glistened with tears she wouldn't let fall. "Do they hear voices?" she whispered softly, wondering if she looked as broken as she sounded. "The voices of the fallen." It was then they both knew she was speaking of more than her mental condition, or even the men Jason had been speaking of. She was speaking of her sister, trying to find a rational reason in an irrational situation.
Jason fought the urge to hold her, wondering somewhat why he felt the urge to do so at all. "No," he told her. "They're not sick or have mental conditions that make them evil. They're just evil. They do evil things to innocent people simply because they want to, and because they feel it's their right." Jason felt a gnawing in the pit of his stomach at the classification - especially since he considered himself one of them.
"Why are you helping me, then?" Cordelia asked, her eyes expressing clearly what she could not say. "Your boss, to be as powerful as he is, is among these men and he considers me a threat. You're defying him, your friends, and your own screwed up code of honor by being here." She let out a sharp exhale. "Why?"
"Because you asked me to," he told her much in the same way he told John. "Because I am one of those men who hurts people simply because I think it's my right and that I can. Because your sister is innocent, and if helping you get her back will wash some of the blood off my hands…" He choked back the words of hope that his son wouldn't grow up to hate him for what he does. Besides, he knew nothing would ever wash the blood off his hands.
Cordelia looked up into Jason eyes and saw immediately the same self-loathing she often saw in her own eyes. He looked like a man who'd come to regret the choices he's made in life, but could no more alter his course than he could change the rising of the tide. She, too, knew what it felt like to look back and have nothing but regrets. She had quite a few of her own.
"You asked for my help," Jason continued after a moment of silence. "I'm giving it to you. There are plenty of ways I could have died, should have died, and probably will… but if I die helping you… then I would have at least done something right. Something… to be proud of."
She understood his reasoning, found it almost admirable. Still, Cordelia could see the potential for danger in their alliance - and no longer just for herself. "This is a risky chance you're taking, here, Morgan." When Jason realized her eyes now held concern for his well-being, he was genuinely touched. It'd been such a long time since anyone but Spinelli showed a genuine concern for him that he'd almost forgotten what it felt like.
"I know," he said simply.
His blue eyes held such expression, that Cordelia found it hard to think clearly. She was beginning to see Jason in an entirely different light. She swallowed hard and stepped around him. "Let's get started then," she said. "Rex!" she called her friend who appeared in the doorway of the bathroom a moment later. Rex looked between the two of them, having heard their conversation from the other side of the door, he, too, looked at Jason with a different view. "Morgan has decided that he doesn't want to know about my condition… for now." She walked to the desk and grabbed a folder. Rex followed suit and crossed over to sit at his computer while Jason stood behind Cordelia. "Here." She handed him the folder. "This is everything we've been able to find on Tom Courtland."
Jason opened the file to another picture of Cooper. Behind that was a copy of a driver's license, a bank statement, a credit card application and other forms of paper identification.
"It's everything you expect to find in a ghost file," Cordelia said. "Everything that proves he exists… but it's nothing really. Seems Tom Courtland didn't exist until two years ago." Jason looked up at her while she spoke. "He has a home, a credit card, an empty bank account even a job… but he doesn't exist. No arrests… not even a speeding ticket. He's also never been admitted to any hospitals in this country."
"How did he get a social security number then?" Jason wanted to know. "You need that for credit cards and such."
"Stolen," Cordelia responded. "That was the first thing we checked. That number belongs to a man who died nearly thirty years ago."
"Somebody went to a lot of trouble to create this identity for him," Jason said, once again looking over the information. "This had to cost a fortune."
"So, whoever he is he has a sizable bank account," Rex added absently as he typed information into his computer.
"Hang on," Jason interjected, his brow furrowing with confusion. "I know this address." He walked over to the bed and pulled his cell phone out of his jacket and hit a speed dial button. The three of them waited silently for whomever the enforcer called to answer, though Rex and Cordelia had a good idea who it was. Cordelia gave Rex a look and he smiled before typing something in.
When Spinelli answered, Jason cut into the teenager's incessant rambling about the shoot-out on the docks (apparently someone sent Sonny a message about it), and had him look up the information on Paul Wade.
"Check the last known address of Paul Wade," Jason ordered, and a sudden beeping of the computer screen in front of him grabbed his attention. A window was open on Rex's computer screen that showed Spinelli looking bewildered at the open window on his computer screen that showed the three of them.
"Um… greetings, Noble Travelers," Spinelli muttered, his voice sounding a bit distorted over the computer.
"I've hijacked your computer ISP and your webcam, kid," Rex told him. "This is a secure network so you don't have to worry about speaking this that cryptic way."
"That's just the way he speaks," Jason pointed out. Cordelia laughed as Rex and Jason shared a look.
"Spinelli," Cordelia spoke to him, saying his name for the first time. This was not lost on Spinelli as his immediately blushed a crimson red. "What information do you have on Paul Wade and why?"
Spinelli cleared his throat and smoothed his hair. "When Stone Cold and I - the Jackal, Ace of Cyberspace," Cordelia and Rex both looked at Jason, who stared straight ahead. "arrived home last night, Stone Cold instructed me to retrieve any information available about Cooper Barrett."
"Which I'm sure led to his time in Iraq," Cordelia posed.
"Right, Ravishing Reporter," Spinelli commented, unable to hear Cordelia asking Jason what he just called her in a low whisper. "It turned up his service record and his return home two years ago. However, some of the information didn't coincide with the supposed arrival of Cooper Barrett in Port Charles, so the Jackal searched even deeper."
"Things like what?" Cordelia asked, her eyebrow rose in question.
"Cooper was brought home two months shy of completing his service deployment."
"Okay, for the sake of argument, that is not uncommon if a soldier is wounded in war. He would recuperate in an army hospital before being taken stateside if his injuries permit."
"Right," Spinelli agreed. "But Cooper arrived home nearly two weeks after his supposed recuperation."
"So what was he doing in Iraq for those extra two weeks?"
"I wasn't able to obtain that information; however, I did find where he was right after."
"Where?"
"The Saint Augustus Medical Center in Manhattan," Spinelli said. "He spent three weeks there and is on record for having four facial reconstructions done."
The temperature in Cordelia's body dropped several degrees. She could almost see what was happening in her mind and it made her sick to her stomach. "He was having surgery to look like Cooper," she announced.
"Apparently not enough for you to recognize him," Rex replied. "Maybe he couldn't get close enough. Spinelli, can you send me that information?"
Spinelli agreed and via the click of a button, the information was in front of all of them.
"Okay, okay…" Cordelia said trying to regain some of her composure. Anger pricked at the base of her spine. "Why would anyone want to have reconstructive surgery to look like Cooper Barrett?" she asked, but it wasn't really a question. She was going through the motions in her mind, being the journalist she was by asking the tough questions.
"He's the son of Harlan Barrett," Jason answered.
"Okay, but why create the alias of Tom Courtland if you already have a fortune at your disposal? Why come to Port Charles?"
"Maybe he's running from something?" Rex posed.
"Or someone found out that he isn't who he's saying and is blackmailing him," Cordelia said. At any rate, she didn't want to think about someone disrespecting the memory of her deceased comrade. She looked back at Spinelli on the screen. "What does any of this have to do with Paul Wade?"
"The home address is the same," Jason answered.
"What?" Cordelia asked incredulously.
"Also," Spinelli interjected. "Paul Wade was in the same unit as the man who came home - who has been disproved of being Cooper Barrett."
Cordelia scoffed while looking half-amused and half-annoyed. "What?" Jason asked before Rex could.
"Paul Wade is the youngest son of Congressman Robert Wade. He's a Park Avenue trust fund brat. There's no way his father would let him anywhere near armed combat."
"He's doing community service at General Hospital if you want to go pay him a visit," Rex offered, and he eagerly wanted to go as well.
"What's your connection to Paul Wade?" Jason asked when Cordelia ran to her side of the room to grab her shoulder holster and jacket. Jason could sense a change in her when his name was mentioned.
"He's the prick who helped my sister with her addiction to drugs," Cordelia revealed with a clenched jaw. "He was her supplier."
The rage in her eyes touched something inside of him. He could see her spinning out of control with the news about someone having surgery to look like her friend. Jason deduced that she must have cared for the real Cooper a great deal. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder reassuringly. Hoping the gesture would mean something to her. He couldn't begin to understand why he wanted her to cling to him, but couldn't stop himself.
Rex watched them carefully, wondering if the jealousy shone in his eyes as brightly as he thought. He couldn't be certain if it were romantic jealousy (he hoped not) or if it were the fact that there was someone else Cordelia chose to rely on.
John walked in quietly and shared a glance with Rex while Jason dropped his hand from the woman's shoulder and the two of them communicated silently. "I've got news," John announcing, demanding the attention of all.
"Us, too," Cordelia said, and had John wondering if the us now included Jason. "We're going to pay a drug-dealing son of a bitch a visit at the hospital. I'm sure his case worker didn't know they were putting a drug runner in a hospital."
"You're going to want to hold off on that, babe," McBain said, he looked twice at the screen when he saw Spinelli's head moving. The teenager waving at the FBI agent had John shaking his head.
"Why?" Cordelia asked, properly intrigued.
"Because I pulled some strings with Commissioner Scorpio and you get to talk to Johnny Zacharra about what's been going on in that warehouse." Cordelia's eyes lit up with excitement as a smile grew across her pink lips. "He's even cleared Morgan." John tipped his chin to the enforcer standing behind Cordelia.
"How'd you manage that?" Rex asked, curious about John's tactics.
"That," He leveled Rex with a look. "Is not important." He said it in such a way that Rex was certain that it was important.
The three of them stood in quiet reverie of John's powers of persuasion until Jason spoke up. "I don't think I should go."
"Why not?" Cordelia asked, turning to face him.
The look he gave her almost stopped her heart. "I wouldn't be any help. Johnny's not going to say anything if I'm there."
"He will if he doesn't know you're there," Cordelia said before revealing the rest of her plan. "I think you'll be a big help. You know him better than the three of us. You can tell me about his little physical nuances that I wouldn't be able to pick up on. Like if he fidgets when nervous or does something when he's lying. Something behavioral that I can use to get into his head."
Rex handed him an earpiece and a small pin to hide in his collar that would serve as the microphone. By accepting them, Jason offered his help. "Keep working," he told Spinelli before Rex grabbed the laptop off the desk.
"That's great work, Damien," Cordelia complimented the tech-wizard before Rex closed the link and they all headed out the door.