Chapter 24; Impact:

Sonny was standing at the terrace doors looking outside when Jason walked into his living room at Greystone. The enforcer could tell something was amiss with his friend and it sent a chill down his spine. Jason had only gotten that feeling a handful of times before in regards to Sonny, and each time preceded Sonny having a manic episode and chaos ensuing.

Bracing himself for the worst, Jason placed his most appeasing expression on his unshaven face. "Sonny," he called to the mob boss. His tone of voice was loud but not commanding.

"What'd you find out?" Sonny asked before Jason could speak again. He didn't turn around to face his friend, afraid the deadly gleam in his eyes would betray his actions. Jason, most certainly, wouldn't like that he'd dispatched two men to go to the hospital and to abduct the reporter.

"I found Jerry in Venezuela," Jason answered, walking further into the room. When Sonny turned, he saw the look in the older man's eyes that he tried to hide. "The Zacharra's are shipping black market drugs to ports all over the world, but the main concentration is Iraq."

He watched Sonny's eyes grow dark with interest. The mob boss licked his lips and took a sip of his drink slowly.

"Why?" Sonny asked after a long moment.

"I don't know. I'm thinking it has something to do with somebody selling to both sides. Those black market drugs are usually used for interrogations…" Jason wanted to ask what was going on, but thought the better of it. Sonny would probably just lie.

They stood there silently for a moment. A standoff between friends, employer/employee… neither one giving in and cracking under the pressure.

"Did he give you a name?" Sonny wanted to know. "They can't be doing this alone. Anthony is in no shape, Trevor isn't that ambitious and Johnny and Claudia…" he trailed off. "They'd need help."

Jason agreed but shook his head. "No. He didn't give me a name. He wasn't exactly… willing to part with the information he did give me."

"How'd you get him to talk?"

Jason thought about that briefly, flashing back to the things he did to get Jerry to talk. "You don't want to know."

Sonny nodded sagely, knowing that to be code for something terrible. "Is he still alive? You know this will be the first place Candyboy comes to when he finds out his brother is dead." Sonny rolled his eyes. "Like Jerry doesn't have enemies all over the world."

"He's alive," Jason began. "But while he was giving me information, someone shot him in the head." Both men briefly flashed to Sonny's teenage son Michael being shot in the head and the resulting coma he was currently in. "He's in a coma in a Venezuelan hospital."

"Well…" Sonny sipped his drink again and swallowed hard. "I won't be losing any sleep over that." He looked Jason up and down skeptically. "How long have you been here?"

Jason's brow furrowed deeply. "I just landed. Why?"

Sonny didn't answer right away. Instead, he stared into Jason's eyes briefly to see if he was being lied to. "Just wondering if I should put you to work right now for all the days you've missed," he tried a joke. He wouldn't dare tell him that Claudia said she'd seen him going to visit that reporter at the hospital. "Go home, you're probably tired. We'll talk in the morning."

Jason nodded and turned to leave. It wasn't like Sonny to be so… accommodating. Something was definitely wrong. When he got outside to his motorcycle, he pulled out his cell phone and called Milo. Jason felt the chill return to his spine when Milo told him that Sonny had Giovanni - someone used only for assassination attempts when Jason was unavailable (which he rarely was) - relieve him from his assignment of protecting Cordelia.

He raced to General Hospital as fast as he could with the gleam in Sonny's eyes haunting him the entire way.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Are you absolutely certain about this?" Cordelia asked while walking into the back bedroom. Jason was sprawled on his stomach, his head and chin resting on his hands while a pillow rested underneath his stomach. "Because I can have you at a hospital in twenty."

Cordelia walked over to the bed, her bare feet treading the carpet nervously, carrying a basin full of warm water. She put it on the nightstand next to a bottle of vodka, a pocketknife, a lighter, needle, thread, and a few bandages.

"I'm sure," he said stiffly. Sweat dripped down his forehead. It amazed them both that he'd regained consciousness as quickly as he did. However, Cordelia did have to drag him in the house as best she could.

"Fine," she breathed out and handed him the rolled up towel she'd tucked under her arm. "Here." She sat down on the bed, careful not to jostle him. "You're going to need it."

Jason took it from her and eyed it suspiciously. "What for?" he asked.

"Something to bite on," she replied and reached for the knife on the nightstand. "Okay," she sighed while grabbing the collar of his shirt.

Cutting downward, Cordelia was careful not to choke him or touch the wound; still, even that was a lot easier than maneuvering it over his head. Opening the shirt, she noticed the healed scars just below the nape of his neck and the two down on his left side. The wound below the nape was a cut, perhaps his attacker underestimated his strength, but the two on his left side were healed stab wounds. She fought the urge to trace them with her fingers, and hated how much they reminded her of her own scars. She also fought hard not to dwell on the fact that his back was well sculpted.

Tentatively, she reached out and touched his skin.

Jason sucked in air through his teeth when her tiny fingers delicately examined his wound. He could feel the tension coming off her in waves, and wanted to put her at ease somehow, but the pain in his body was preventing his mind from cooperating. He was having a hard enough time thinking clearly where she is concerned in the first place. They wouldn't be in this mess if he had never gotten involved with her. If he'd never gone against Sonny…

"At least it's not too deep," Cordelia said and dropped her hand from his back. She reached over and picked up the bottle of vodka. She still had reservations about this since a lot could go wrong. She thought about listing them all to him as reasons she should take him to the hospital - it could get infected, the bullet could have fragmented and gone deeper in your back - she decided to keep them to herself though. Jason would, most likely, shoot the idea down - pun very much intended. "Should only take a few minutes to get it out… hopefully."

He winced and squirmed when she poured the vodka on the open wound. "Good," he said gruffly. "I don't mean to sound ungrateful or anything…" Another hiss. "…but could you hurry it up a bit?" He felt her tensing again, nervousness taking hold (which was a bad thing for this). "I'm… sure you've done this before…" In fact, he knew she had. "You'll do fine."

"I've never had to fish a bullet out of someone's back and sew up the wound with a regular sewing needle and thread, Jason," she told him, sarcasm dripping from every word. In his current state, Jason couldn't retort properly.

She reached over and grabbed the lighter. Running the bright orange flame across the edge of the blade, she sighed heavily. They both knew that she and the other captives in Iraq patched up their own wounds sometimes. They couldn't really depend on their captors for proper medical treatment. Still…she hated the constant reminders of her time in that little wooden shack.

"Okay," she began softly. She looked over at him; he hadn't placed the towel in his mouth. "Jason, you're going to need the towel."

"I can take it," he replied gruffly. "Just… get it over with."

"Okay," she breathed out, her face clearly stating how unlikely it was that he'd get through this without screaming in agony. "This is going to hurt…a lot."

When the hot blade touched his skin, Jason thought it would be a good idea to bite down on the towel.

Twenty minutes later, the bullet sat in the bottom of the basin in a red pool of water mixed with Jason's blood. Cordelia had sewn up the wound as best she could, bandaged him and, with great effort, maneuvered him onto his side. She was just starting to clean up when Jason spoke again.

"Thank you," he rasped out.

Cordelia stopped and looked down into his face. He seemed calmer now (obviously), and that put her at ease. His blue eyes sparkled with something she couldn't quite place and when she looked over his bare chest and muscular frame, she felt a fire ignite in the pit of her belly.

It has been so long since she's been with a man intimately. The two inconsequential men after Rex were forgotten as soon as they left her bed. She hated to admit it, but there was just something about Jason that drew her in. She was attracted to him. Had been since the first time she laid eyes on him. If they were different people…perhaps they could explore that. Perhaps….

Turning her gaze away from him, she hoped he was too delirious to notice the look in her eyes. This really was not the time or the place. "Don't mention it," she told him. "And don't ever put me in the position to have to do it again, or I won't be nice and give you a towel to bite on." She smiled and started to move away when Jason reached out and grabbed her hand.

He looked up into her green eyes and was pleasantly surprised to see concern lacing them. He hoped she could in his eyes all that he wanted to say. How sorry he was for all of this. Her doe shaped eyes usually held such fierceness in them but tonight, it was as if all of that melted away. "I mean it," he said softly. "Thank you."

Cordelia nodded, her voice having left her temporarily. He looked so sincere. And so was she when she said, "Thank you for saving my life." She was thankful when he released her hand, and released the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Get some rest."

"There should be some clothes in the hallway closet," he told her. "I know you want to get out of that hospital gown."

Nodding, while picking up some of the items from the nightstand. "Thanks," she said and headed to the bathroom before he could say something else or touch her again.

She found the clothes right where he said they'd be. A pair of gray sweatpants and a black tee-shirt. She took them into the bathroom with her, closing the door softly, and proceeded to remove the hospital gown that was covered in his blood.

Letting it fall to the floor, she eyed the scars across her body. Constant, permanent reminders of a time she'd rather forget, yet something else that linked her to Jason Morgan. She'd pulled a few stitches from her previous surgery while running from her would-be killer, and they were causing a bit of pain. Pulling off the blood-soaked bandage, she proceeded to patch herself up much in the same way she patched up Jason.

When she returned to the bedroom a few minutes later, fully clothed in the sweats and tee-shirt, she found Jason fast asleep. He was shivering and sweating more than he had been when she'd pulled the bullet out.

Touching his forehead gently, his skin felt warm. She'd feared this. It'd been raining when she had to drag him into the house. That, coupled with the archaic methods she used in patching him up, he'd gotten a fever.

She went to the bathroom as fast she could and wet a cloth with warm water. Returning to his side, she placed it on his forehead. Hoping that his fever wasn't as severe as it could be. Cordelia knelt down to examine his face. God, he was handsome; and he had a habit of making her emotions go to the extremes with just a look. She touched his cheek gently and brushed some of his hair out of his face. He looked pale because of losing so much blood and seeing him like this reminded her of Cooper. This entire evening has been one long walk through the past.

Standing, she pulled the covers over him gently. She walked to the other side of the bed, took note of the gun on the nightstand, and sat down. Several images ran through her mind, but the most prominent one was Jason.

She'd thought about him the whole time she was in the hospital. Of course, waking up and seeing your ex-husband was a shock to the system, but it was Jason's face that seemed to linger. Those eyes that she just couldn't quite gage. Even when she thought he'd set her up in the warehouse…she just couldn't get him out of her mind. She knew Rex and John wanted her to stay away from him, Rex especially, but she couldn't - wouldn't. She'd made her choice to accept his help. Made her choice to…

Lying back on the bed, she felt Jason shiver. She would have turned up the heat if she'd known where the damn thermostat was. Sighing, she rolled onto her side and pulling the covers up around his neck, she wrapped her arm around him. She tried to ignore the way he seemed to fit perfectly against her. Tried to ignore the scent of his skin. Tried to ignore the peaceful rising and falling of his chest against her hand.

She hoped his fever would break by morning. Sonny would surely be looking for them by then. Wondering why his chief enforcer saved a woman he'd marked for death.