Chapter 25
Elizabeth was walking down the hall at General Hospital with a cup of coffee in her head fresh from the lounge. Elizabeth was struck with worry when her youngest seemed to develop another fever the day before. She had seen sick patients before, but her son was so lethargic and pale, that she had to get him to the hospital. They were running more tests on Jake, and had done numerous blood panels—this November was very cold, so she just hoped it was another virus. Elizabeth was so distracted that she didn't even see the man standing in front of her.
"Elizabeth."
Elizabeth looked up at the man, "Johnny, hey, um, how are you?"
"I'm good. How are you?"
The tension was awkward; this was the first time that Johnny and Elizabeth had scene each other since he walked out on her after the benefit. He tried to avoid getting shot at all costs in order to not run into her at the hospital. He didn't think running a pick up for information at the hospital would make his heart ache the way it did.
Elizabeth put on her best smile, "I'm okay."
Johnny knew Elizabeth better than she thought, "No, you're not. What's wrong?"
"I'm just tired. I've been up all night here with Jake. He has got some virus or something, and they are running all sorts of tests and now I just have to wait."
"Well, I am sure coffee will help at least," Johnny looked down at the file in his hand, "well, I have to get this back to Jason," both looked away from each other, then Johnny continued, "I hope Jake's okay. Take care Elizabeth."
"Thanks."
Johnny walked away from Elizabeth. As much as he felt his heart ache for her absence in his life, he felt it hurt with the pain she caused him. He stepped into the elevator to head over to Jason's office. He decided to not tell Jason that he knew Jake was his son, and Jason never brought it up, so Elizabeth must have kept her mouth shut. He was glad for that because he never wanted to talk about that again. Johnny stepped off the elevator and dropped the file he held in his hand. He heard voices just around the corner as he bent down to pick up the file, and the conversation made Johnny stop in his tracks.
"The preliminary results are in for the young Webber boy," the male voice must have been a doctor, "it's cancer."
Johnny swallowed hard. Poor Jake, poor Elizabeth. He continued to listen in on the conversation.
"We are going to tell the mother now, and then we can do more extensive testing to determine which type."
Johnny needed to go to her. She would need him. He turned towards the elevator to take him back to Elizabeth, but stopped. He knew the right thing to do.
Johnny hurried through the door to Jason's office. He caught Jason off guard. Jason was sitting at his desk when the sound of Johnny coming through the doorway. He knew Johnny would bring back the information he was looking for quickly, but he didn't know he would race for it.
"I take it you got the information I need?"
Johnny slowly walked over towards Jason's desk. He hurried over to his office, but wasn't sure what he was going to say when he got there, "Jason, she needs you."
Jason was busy writing down coffee production numbers, and wasn't really paying attention to what Johnny had said, "Huh?," Jason did even bother to look up.
"Elizabeth. She needs you."
Jason stopped what he was doing. Johnny had his attention now. He didn't know what to make of it.
"Jason, it's Jake. He's sick. Jason, it's bad."
Jason looked up at Johnny. His heart was racing. He could see the sincerity in Johnny's eyes—Elizabeth must have told Johnny that he was Jake's father, but he wasn't concerned about that now. He had to get to her, "Where is she?"
"She's at General Hospital."
Jason picked up his jacket from the coat hanger and left without saying another word. Johnny stood there. He wanted to go, but knew it wasn't his place.