27

"Elizabeth!"

She only walked faster.

Jason huffed under his breath and broke into a light jog. "Elizabeth, wait!"

He was just about to catch up with her when she turned, and Jason tripped over his feet to avoid knocking her over. Elizabeth yelped and latched onto his arms as he collided with her, but they managed to keep their footing.

Her dark eyes flew up to meet his, and her expression was pure exasperation. "What are you doing here? Are you following me?"

He was just about to reply with something to mollify her when he realized that there was no one else following her. "Where are your guards?"

Elizabeth's eyes narrowed but she offered no response.

Jason snarled and narrowed his eyes as well. "Elizabeth. Where are your guards?"

She began to trouble her lower lip. "Well…"

"Elizabeth!"

"Don't get mad!" she warned him, jabbing a finger in his face. "I've had it with people getting mad at me tonight!"

"Then tell me where your guards are and why the hell they're not guarding you!"

She waved her hand carelessly. "I don't know, I might have given them the night off."

"What?!"

"Don't get mad," she repeated, her lower lip sticking out in a pout. "You always get mad. I'm so sick of people getting mad."

Jason's expression didn't soften. "Are you drunk?"

Elizabeth snorted. "No. But I kind of wish I was."

He let out a slow, long sigh and thought for a minute. She wasn't drunk, but she was definitely just a little buzzed, a little loosened up by that scotch he had seen her downing. Arguing with her wouldn't do either of them any good; what he needed to do was stay calm and just reason with her the best he could.

"Why did you give your guards the night off? What were you thinking?"

She actually had the nerve to roll her eyes. "I gave them the night off after they dropped me off at Kate's party because Elton was going to drop me off at my place."

He arched a brow. "And where's Elton now?"

His ex-wife glared ferociously at him, which was actually pretty funny because she was all of 5'2" and trying to be intimidating. "Probably downing a pomegranate martini and telling some woman that he wants to put a dollop of whipped cream on her head and serve her over crumb cake."

Jason fought a smirk and failed. "I thought he was gay."

"Not that there's anything wrong with that," she replied instantly. It was a phenomenon that Spinelli called Seinfeld conditioning. "Stop that."

He let out a sigh and gently took her arm, turning them around. "Fine. Since you don't have any guards with you, I'll take you home instead. Let's hail a cab."

"But I can't go home," she replied, resisting his efforts to pull her to the curb. "Not yet. Damn it, stop dragging me. You can't drag me around anymore – we're not married. Stop with the man-handling."

Jason gritted his teeth and stopped pulling, even though he retained a firm grip on her arm. He had learned his lesson after all the times she tried to run away from him. "Why can't you go home yet? What happened?"

"I was going to Benedetti's for pizza," she answered, pointing down the street. "I'm hungry. I can never eat right at these things, anyway. Elton and I normally duck out a little early and find a nice little place to gorge."

Jason's lips pursed into a frown as he stared down the street in the direction she pointed. "Can't you just order pizza from your apartment?"

She glowered up at him, feeling that familiar feeling of wanting to smack him creep up on her. "Yeah, you'd lock me up at my place and put a padlock on the door if you thought you could get away with it."

Jason closed his eyes and let out a slow breath through his nostrils. It was true, he absolutely hated the thought of her being out unnecessarily and without the proper protection, but that didn't mean that he wanted her wrapped in cotton and locked away in a tower.

"Fine. I'll take you to Benedetti's. How far is it?"

"Eight blocks that way."

Jesus Christ, this woman…

He glanced down at her ridiculous high heels, the ones that would have once sent thoughts of wild, crazy sex running through his head if he hadn't gotten so good (relatively) at suppressing his desire for her. "You sure you can walk that far in those things?"

She arched a brow at him and gave him a perfectly supercilious look. "Of course I can. I'm Couture."

"Yeah, whatever the hell that means," he muttered as he slipped her arm into the crook of his elbow.

Elizabeth laughed despite herself and stumbled into him slightly. "Don't worry, I'm wearing moleskin inserts."

"What?"

"Moleskin inserts," she repeated as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "They're little slips that you put on the insides of your really high heels and they make them much more comfortable and easier to get around in. Moleskin, Jason."

He pulled a face. "Sounds disgusting."

"Staple of the industry."

"You sound more and more like Kate every day."

Elizabeth burst out laughing. "Oh, dear God, shoot me when that happens."

The remark made him chuckle. "I thought you liked Kate."

"I do – but that doesn't mean I want to be just like her." Elizabeth snickered and adjusted her hand in his hold. "I love the girl, but she's so uptight and snippy sometimes. I don't think I have it in me to treat people the way she sometimes treats them."

She tossed her hair over her shoulder and drew her shoulders in just a little. It was a warm summer night, but the cool breeze still made her a little uncomfortable since she had walked out of the Rosebud Room in just her dress. Elton would make sure to grab her wrap for her; she had checked it in with his coat, anyway.

"It's kind of why I'm glad with the job I have," she continued. "I get to work on the magazine, I get to handle the photos and supervise the shoots and hang out with models and actresses and singers, but I don't have to do any of the networking and PR stuff that Kate and Elton do. I don't have to worry about what people think of me and how I can make them like me. It was never something I was good at, anyway."

Jason braved a glance down at her. "You weren't bad at it. You had a way of letting people see exactly what they wanted to see in you, and they liked that. But you never did care what they really thought. One of the things I've always liked about you."

The compliment puzzled her. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"But you needed me to put forth a certain image as 'Mrs. Morgan.' How was that any different?"

He couldn't very well come out and say that it was different because he would have loved her no matter how she acted as Mrs. Morgan, so Jason only shrugged. "It just was."

Elizabeth didn't let his ambiguity bother her. "Okay. Whatever. But it's a good thing that I don't have to do any of that anymore. I can barely handle being anyone other than myself. Eighteen years spent living with my family nearly eradicated any sense of self I ever had to begin with."

"Yeah, your family," Jason murmured. "They're…something."

A long moment of silence stretched between them and Elizabeth slowly looked up at him, and Jason was startled when she burst out laughing.

"What?"

"Since when did 'something' become synonymous with 'psycho jerks that get off on terrorizing me'?" she asked, still laughing. "I saw them with you. My mom was drooling over the fact that the great – rich – Jason Morgan was once her son-in-law, my dad was all over you with technical questions, Steven was prowling around you in circles trying to size you up, and Sarah was groping you in public."

Jason blanched. "You saw her do that? And you didn't say anything?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "She made the moves on all the men she suspected were interested in me, or vice versa. I've kind of accepted it."

"She was…She better hope that I never run into her again…in a dark alley."

She smiled as they waited for the walk signal to switch on. "Yeah, we've never gotten along. She's always loved to sabotage everything good in my life. It taught me early on to hide how I felt about things. If Sarah didn't know that I was happy, she couldn't ruin it for me."

Jason glanced down at her. "And what did your parents teach you?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "My parents taught me that the only thing worse than a traumatic, ugly divorce is two people who should be divorced but stay together just for the kids, and then spend every single waking moment fighting and resenting each other for not being able to get divorced."

She shook her head as he laced his fingers with hers. "The only happy marriage I've seen in my entire extended family is my grandparents'. Grampa Steve and my Gram Audrey. They've loved each other for fifty years without fail, and even at their age, they still find ways to surprise each other. My parents? Not so much. At their age, they still find ways to start new arguments. Hey, however you can keep it fresh, I guess.

"It spills over into the kids, too, you know. If my father spent too much time with Steven, coaching him, advising him about his career path, taking him around to meet his other doctor pals, then my mom would totally overcompensate with Sarah. Then my dad would fawn over Sarah and scold my mom for coddling Steven. It was exhausting to keep up with."

Jason frowned slightly and squeezed her hand without realizing it. "And what about you? What were they like with you?"

"I was always the black sheep of my family."

He spared her a gentle glance. "I can't imagine you being the black sheep of any family."

"Dream a little with me," she replied dryly. It was highly ironic that he would say something like that, especially when she had considered herself the black sheep of his family ever since he'd reluctantly married her. "I was the gangly little kid that never fit in with the popular kids at school, that didn't share the rest of my family's interest in medicine, had no desire to be a debutante, and had no noteworthy talents with which to make my parents proud. Plus, I was the only one that was short and dark-haired; all of them are tall and blonde. I'm probably illegitimate."

Jason balked at that. "Elizabeth."

"What?" she asked innocently. "I've always thought so – since junior high. I just never cared enough to find out for sure because it wouldn't have solved anything – even though being told I'm not a Webber by blood would probably be the greatest thing that ever happened to me. It really wouldn't surprise me if I were illegitimate – the result of one of my father's many trysts or my mother's many not-so-secret affairs. It would explain the disinterest, the resentment I've always dealt with."

She came to a stop in front of a little pizza shop and looked up at the bright neon sign. "Oh. Here we are."

Jason reluctantly let go of her hand as Elizabeth reached for the door and entered. He knew from Michael that Elizabeth didn't get along with her family, but it was never something they had discussed between themselves. He'd occasionally heard her chatting about it with Spinelli, who had his own baggage as far as families went, and that was probably how Johnny had heard of Sarah's promiscuous tendencies. But he'd never initiated any sort of conversation with Elizabeth about it and now found himself regretting it. He had no idea that she carried all of that with her, and it explained a lot in light of their failed marriage.

"Buona sera, Papu." Elizabeth was beaming at a short, balding man who stood behind the counter with random red splotches on his white apron. "How are you?"

"Lizabeth, sweetheart, I am good," he smiled back. "What can I make for you? And for your friend here?"

Elizabeth glanced up at Jason hesitantly. "Uh, Jason, did you want…"

"I'll have whatever you're having."

"Oh." She bit her lip and considered it, and then a devilish little smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. "My usual, Papu. And two sodas. And an order of breadsticks with your red sauce. And cannolis for later?"

"Coming right up. You two sit, sit. Play the music, sit."

Elizabeth tapped her nails on the counter and then pushed herself away, selecting a booth in the corner. Jason popped the top two buttons of his shirt and slid in from the other side, glancing cagily around the empty restaurant. It was small, the walls were covered in random Italian and baseball paraphernalia, a dusty jukebox wheezed in the corner, and the forest green tiles were just a little sticky under the soles of his shoes. It was a far cry from Rudd, where he had originally intended to take Elizabeth for dinner, but he supposed it was all right.

"So…"

He could tell she was a little uneasy now that they were sitting face to face with little more to do than stare at each other. It shouldn't have surprised him: even as husband and wife, they hadn't had much practice just sitting and talking.

They alternated between shooting the breeze about the most random, inconsequential things and sitting in awkward silence until the food was ready, and that was when Jason found himself staring down at a gigantic, greasy slice of pizza with little green and yellow things on it.

"The hell is this?"

Elizabeth took a big bite out of hers and shot him a smirky look. "My usual."

He picked the piece up and watched the grease trickle onto the paper plate. "And that is?"

"Pineapple and jalapeño with extra parmesan cheese on top."

"…Great."

"Oh, come on, just try it."

The bells on the door jingled as Jason hesitantly popped a piece of pineapple into his mouth, and the next thing he knew, what he was hoping would be a comfortable dinner alone with his ex-wife was ruined by his sidekick and his protégé.

"Stone Cold! Fair One! How fortuitous!" Spinelli was beaming as he and Johnny burst into Benedetti's. "We never expected finding both of you here."

"Hey, this is a surprise," Johnny agreed, shooting his mentor's ex-wife a dimpled grin that made Jason frown. "Elizabeth, it's always good to see you. You look amazing."

She blushed and had the presence of mind to dab the grease from her mouth. "Thank you."

Jason scowled at the boys. "How did you know we were here?"

Spinelli held up his iPhone. Stone Cold. I tracked the GPS in your phone."

The enforcer's scowl grew more menacing. "You said you disabled that."

"I did…but not so that it was inaccessible to even me. That would be like teaching a lion to climb a tree."

Elizabeth wasn't following. "Lions can't climb trees."

"Exactly," Spinelli replied, sliding into the booth with them as Johnny headed to the counter to place an order.

"Don't sit," Jason growled but as usual, he went ignored.

"It's a parable," the boy continued. "The lion approached the cat and asked it to teach it the wisdom of its ways, so the cat taught the lion just about everything it knew. When the lion grew confident in its abilities, it thought to remove the cat permanently to eliminate the competition."

"Sound business technique," Johnny interjected, sliding into the booth so that he was next to Elizabeth. Jason's frown also went ignored. "Or so your Lover Boy over there tells me. But don't worry, Jason, I'd never attempt the same on you. Put that thought completely out of your head. Completely."

"Anyway, the Interloper's veiled threats aside, the cat climbed up the tree where the lion couldn't reach it, and the lion was all, hey, you said you would teach me everything you know, and the feline was like, yeah, but not at my own expense." Spinelli took a big bite out of a breadstick and waved it in the air for emphasis. "So in removing the GPS feature entirely from Stone Cold's phone, I would have taught him how to climb a tree. Sorry, Stone Cold. You remain with both feet on the terra firma."

Jason scowled and pushed his piece of pizza to his left. "Here. You eat this, but get us more napkins first. Johnny, go order me a regular slice. And refill Elizabeth's drink. And for fuck's sake, if you stick straws up your nose again, I swear to God-"

He was interrupted by the sound of Elizabeth giggling behind her napkin. "What?"

"Nothing," she replied with admirably feigned innocence. If he didn't know her so well, he just might have believed her.

"You think this is funny?" he challenged, his twinkling eyes belying his stern tone. "You try handling these two little shits and see how you do."

"Hey," the boys squawked in unison. "We resent that!"

Elizabeth hid a smile as her ex-husband glared. "Just go do what I told you."

She waited until they were both out of earshot before turning back to Jason. "You know, I kind of like having them around."

It was the truth. She considered Spinelli a friend from her days at Harborview because the two of them were about the same age, and Johnny Zacchara was absolutely adorable in his need to flirt with her to needle Jason. And having those two around certainly made it easier to be in Jason's company. She didn't know what she'd do if it was still just the two of them, staring at each other all through dinner.

Jason shot her an exasperated look and reached for the half-eaten breadstick Spinelli had left on his napkin. "You just like it when people bug me and I can't do anything about it."

Elizabeth laughed and threw her hands up in the air. "All right, guilty as charged."