"Mom, are you here?"
Pushing the door to Alexis' lakehouse open, Sam entered the living room calling out to her, then stopped when her mother looked up from the couch where she was sitting with an unknown blonde woman.
"Hi, baby! Come on in!"
Alexis rose from her seat and held her hand out to her eldest daughter, who reached out to take it, stepping down from the landing and allowing her mother to lead her into the living area.
"Sorry, I didn't realize you had company. I can come back later, Mom - I just wanted to stop in to check on you."
Alexis patted Sam's hand where she held it in both of hers. "No, you don't have to leave. Let me introduce you to someone…Sam, this is Liv - she's a friend."
"Hello."
Sam was shocked at the instant dislike that slapped at her. She did not like this woman…and she didn't even know her!
"Sam - it's so nice to finally meet you, your mother's told me all about you. Please, come in - sit…join us."
Sam looked at the stranger then back to her mother. "Really Mom, I don't need to intrude - finish your meeting and I'll stop by after I pickup Danny from Monica's."
"Nonsense." The blonde giant stood and moved towards them, instantly grabbing hold of Sam's hand to pull her towards the couch.
Feeling uneasy with the woman touching her, Sam softly withdrew her hand from hers to remove her coat, before taking a seat on the couch, where the woman instantly sat close to her…too close for Sam's comfort, so she instinctively shifted her body, during which she also moved a couple inches further from her.
"I'm sorry…Liv, is it?" When she nodded, Sam continued, "Who are you exactly?"
"She's my sponsor, Sam." Alexis offered an explanation, knowing her daughter and that her curious mind was no doubt working overtime to place the strange woman. They lived in a pretty small town where they knew most everybody in their circle, or at least had seen them around. She herself hadn't met Liv until she got home a few days before to find her on the porch with Julian, something she would not be sharing with her daughter, who she knew would not appreciate it in the least. Julian had quickly explained that the woman who'd promptly introduced herself as Alexis' new sponsor, had been there when he arrived.
"Your mother has told me so much about you, Sam. You girls mean everything to her, did you know that?" She reached out and rested her hand on Sam's belly. "Family is everything, don't you agree?"
Alexis was chagrined. Huh, oh!
Sam looked at her belly where she wanted to yank the woman's hand off her, but instead told her cooly, "Ahh, Liv - please don't touch me without my permission."
The blonde pulled her hand back and smiled boldly, "Oh, I'm so sorry, how very rude of me. May, I?"
Sam looked at her questioningly. "I'd rather you didn't."
Alexis felt the urgent need to put the woman at ease in case her feelings were hurt, knowing that Sam wouldn't give a rats ass if they were. She didn't appreciate strangers laying hands on her or her baby and wasn't shy about making it known.
"Liv, Sam doesn't like to be touched - it's nothing personal - she just met you, that's all."
"Oh, don't think another second about it - I completely understand. It is kind of rude, when you think about it - a complete stranger thinking it's okay to lay hands on your body without even asking first. It's weird, but it's such a natural thing to do with a pregnant woman, am I right?"
Both women smirked uneasily as the talkative blonde continued, "So, Sam how far along are you - you look like you're about to pop anytime now."
"Yep, my husband and I are getting ready to welcome this little one very soon. So, how long have you been my mother's sponsor? I'm surprised we haven't met you before."
"Alexis and I just started working together. I'm new in town."
"I see. Do you have family here?"
"No, I'm afraid I was never lucky enough to land the husband and kids. It wasn't in the cards for me, unfortunately. But you lucked out in that department, didn't you Sam? You're living the dream with the dark, handsome guy, and now on your second child. Some women are lucky like that, aren't they?"
Something about the way she said that didn't sit very well with Sam. The woman was giving her the creeps and she didn't really understand why. She was a bit brash and overstated but she'd given no real reason not to like her, so what was so very annoying and out of place about her?
"Jason and I aren't lucky…we work at our relationship and we have love, honesty, and trust between us. Luck can't sustain a family."
"Oh, of course - I wasn't trying to imply that you didn't." Her eyes cast down to Sam's belly again, making the PI grotesquely uncomfortable. "Children are such a blessing, but we don't all get to share in that particular joy."
She seemed to pull herself up. "Do you like your OB?"
Sam's eyebrows shot up at the strange question, which Liv noticed and hurried to explain.
"I'm not asking for me, of course, but I have a friend who's looking to change. If yours is any good, I'd like to pass on her information, if you don't mind."
"GH has some of the very best, renown doctors in the country - your friend would be well cared for by any one of them."
"But don't you have one in particular?"
"Yes, I do!" Sam got to her feet, getting annoyed with the woman and her intrusive, personal questions and behavior, needing to leave and not insult her further in her mother's home where she was her guest. "Mom, I'm gonna take off. I'll call you later and Danny and I'll come see you tomorrow, okay?"
Alexis could sense it coming and she also knew it was to prevent the alternative, that her daughter was on the brink of unleashing. Matter of fact, she'd been surprised she'd held back so calmly. It was obvious that Sam did not care for Liv at all, and the audacious woman kept giving her more reasons to feel that way.
"Okay, baby." Alexis hugged her daughter and walked her to the door. "Kiss my grandson for me and tell him grandma loves him."
"I will." Sam looked over to the blonde and she could swear she saw a strange, calculating look on her face before it warped into what Sam was sure was a phony, friendless smile. Something was seriously off about the woman. "Goodbye, Liv."
"Bye, Sam. It was really nice meeting you - hope to see you again very soon."
Eyeing her and wondering why the words sounded like a threat, Sam mustered a tiny smile then kissed her mother's cheek and left them alone, unable to shake the uneasy feeling she got from the stranger. Noticing there was no other car in the driveway other than her mother's, Sam looked around in search of one that must belong to the woman, noting two parked on the street that she didn't recognize as belonging to the neighbors. Pulling out slowly, she drove by them and captured the plates for each one before she drove away.
Her hormones had all her senses kicked into overdrive, including the overprotectiveness that she felt towards her family. Her mother had had a hellish year and the last thing she needed to do was to build trust with someone she shouldn't. Another big disappointment was not something she wanted her to have to endure anytime soon, so she was going to find out some more about this person who was claiming a place of trust in her life.
Jason walked into the restaurant at the MetroCourt where he found Julian waiting at a table, his eyes darting the room furtively, as though ready to jump at his own shadow. Taking the unoccupied chair across from the unlikable man, Jason got straight to the point.
"You were very vague with Sam about some threat to her and our family, now you call and say you want to come clean, so here I am - who are we in danger from?"
Julian glanced over at the scowling young man whom he'd have to entrust with the security of his daughter and grandchildren. He didn't care at all for the brusque enforcer with the deadly skills he'd always heard so much about, but he had no say in his strong daughter's choices. He couldn't deny that the man did seem to love his family as he'd kept his word and stayed away from the business like he promised them, but he needed him to keep them out of the way of the new danger headed their way, which was unlike anything they thought they'd faced before. He had no idea what his sister really had planned but he was quite certain her threats were very real. She'd tried to kill him, her blood…he had no illusions about her not carrying out her threats against Sam and Alexis.
"You need to keep Sam and the kids safe. Stop asking questions about things you don't need to be involved in. As long as you keep your heads down, you won't have anything to worry about, but you have to stop running around town digging into stuff."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Just what I said. Get Sam to stay out of things that don't concern her. She won't listen to me, so I hope you can take your head outta your ass long enough to see that I'm only concerned for her. I'm trying to save your children."
"Did you just threaten my children?"
"What? Listen to me, will you? You don't know what you're dealing with."
"I don't tell Sam how to feel and I sure as hell don't tell her what to do. So why don't you stop beating around the bush and give us some real information that will be of some actual use, and not just a complete damn waste of my time."
Julian studied Jason as though he was contemplating the request, then he drained his coffee cup and refilled it from the carafe sitting between them before he filled the cup in front of Jason, who just glanced at it then back to Julian, without so much as touching it.
"I don't want you to pour me coffee - I want you to tell me who's threatening my family!"
"I tried to warn you. If anything happens to Sam or those kids, it'll be on your head!"
Jason leant across the table angrily, hissing through gritted teeth, "You keep saying nothing and I'm going to treat you like the threat. What do you think I do to people who threaten my family?"
"I'm not your enemy. I would never harm my daughter or her children!" The open dislike at the table was thick as they stared each other down. "Relax and drink your coffee - I'm not who you need to be wary of."
"But you know who is! How is keeping it to yourself not just as bad? You're bringing harm to them by not being forthcoming with what you know! Tell me who it is - tell me who I need to be looking for!"
The two men sat and glared at each other, thinking how stubborn and uncooperative the other was. Noticing how his eyes kept going to the coffee cup at his finger tips, Jason realized that Julian hadn't taken a sip since he refilled his cup. Looking closely at the brew, Jason tilted the cup slightly.
"What's this?" He looked up to eyes that would have been a dead giveaway at poker. "Why are you trying so hard to get me to drink this?" His senses were flaring - they had been ever since he got there, and Jason could remember a time when they'd been referred to as his spidey senses. Sonny used to bet people to try and get a lie past him.
Julian grew uncomfortable…shifting in his seat as though it was on fire, clearing his throat and no longer meeting Jason's eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean? You think I'm trying to poison you? What would I look like, poisoning my daughter's husband?"
"A corpse."
He cleared his throat again, this time forcing his eyes to meet cold blue ones punctuating pursed, thin lips.
"Exactly. I'm trying to get you to listen to reason, Morgan - I can't make you do anything you don't want to do, but don't say I never warned you!"
He then got dramatically to his feet and walked to the elevator, where he pretended to push the button, glancing over his shoulder to see if Jason would take a drink. Only, the stubborn son of a bitch pushed the cup away and just sat there fuming. So much for his plan to slow him down so maybe they would finally listen.
He turned and pushed the button to call the elevator for real this time, looking over once more only to find that Jason had disappeared. Julian scanned the thinly occupied room curiously before the ping of the arriving car drew his attention. He wasn't sure that he shouldn't be concerned about the man's whereabouts.
He finally got to the parking garage and sunk into the driver's seat of his car, sighing loudly when he realized what a huge waste of time that meeting had been. He couldn't get Morgan to listen, and now he'd probably drawn suspicion to himself by trying to drug him. Just then, a shift behind him alerted Julian for the first time that he was not alone in the car. The click of the gun sounded as soon as his panicked eyes darted to the rearview mirror.
"You're officially a threat - drive."
"What the hell are you doing?"
"I'm not going to tell you again!"
The eyes that glared back at him commanded obedience.
"Where?"
"To the docks - go!"
Minutes later they were pulling up to a known Corinthos warehouse, where Julian was ordered to exit the car.
"Morgan, this is ridiculous…" he trailed off when a punch to his gut doubled him over in sharp pain.
"That's for trying to poison me, you son of a bitch!" Shoving the man through the door, Jason pointed the gun at his head and gestured towards the back of the room. Following obediently, trying to walk upright, Julian staggered past two Corinthos associates who barely looked up from a card game to nod at Jason who shoved him to enter a dark, tight room ahead of him. The flick of a switch quickly illuminated the place. Fucker must've taken the stairs to beat him to the garage and ambush him like that.
"Sit!"
He sat down. "Morgan, what is this? Have you lost your damn mind?"
"You're about to learn that when it comes to Sam and our children, no one who poses a threat to them will ever be safe from me. You're going to leave here one of two ways, you either tell me something useful and walk outta here…or you get carried out. The choice is up to you."
"My daughter would never sanction this. How would you explain to her that you killed her father, huh - how?"
Jason sneered at the man. "You may have known her for awhile now but you don't know Sam very well at all. When it comes to our children, she's more of a biter than you know…don't count on Sam to rescue you from this…you will lose!"
"This is preposterous! You can't keep me here - I didn't do anything!"
"NO…YOU DIDN'T!" Jason neared on the man menacingly. "Somebody is threatening harm to your flesh and blood and you do NOTHING! You even refuse to give us a name - what kind of father does that make you? Grandfather - you think you're worthy of my children calling you that when you won't even point out a threat to their safety? I could've respected you, Julian - I could've seen you not saying anything…IF…you were doing something about it. But you aren't are you…because whoever this is has you crapping your pants in fear. Well, guess what?" He circled Julian slowly, then stooped near his face. "Time's up, pops! Choose!"
Julian was eyeing the black latex gloves Jason had been donning slowly, and when he pulled out the cutting shears from his back pocket and snapped it twice, he finally understood that maybe his sister wasn't the bigger threat afterall.
