Chapter Twenty Eight
Jason woke up early and found his wife missing. Looking around, he was about to get up when he heard footsteps entering their bedroom. "Hey, you are up."
Stretching, he saw her eyes following his movements and said "Yes I am, so why don't you come back to bed."
With a smile, she leaned down to give him a kiss, ran her hands down his naked chest then said "I can't. I have to be at the hospital in a half hour for my shift. Cam is still asleep."
Reaching out to grasp her hand, he saw the way she was trying to keep from yawning and said "You look tired, I shouldn't have kept you awake so long last night."
"Jason, you may keep me awake that way any time you want." she said then admitted "I was like this with Cam too. The first couple of months I was always tired. It won't last too much longer, but in the meantime I have a shift to work."
"Are you sure?" he asked clearly worried as he ran his hand up her arm and over her shoulder as he caressed her back. "I mean, I am sure that Epiphany would understand, after all, you are pregnant."
"Yes, pregnant, not ill, Jason." she said gently. "Besides, you have the harder part to deal with today. Tomorrow is the day before Christmas, remember?"
Releasing Elizabeth, Jason stood, seeing her eyes watching him as he walked towards the bathroom, he said "You know a picture lasts longer."
"Huh?"she said her mind on the night before and flushing as she recalled how Jason got those scratches on his very nicely curved rear.
"You look like you are trying to memorize what my ass looks like." he said as he stopped in the doorway. "I was saying a photo would work much better."
"Why should I take one of those when I already have a drawing of your very fine rear end." she said with an impish grin as she called out that she would see him later.
Giggling as she heard Jason's footsteps hurrying towards her, she quickly opened the door and hopped into her already waiting car. "Step on it, Paulie, before the boss tries to catch us."
"Right away, Mrs. Morgan." he said as he backed out of the driveway. Jason was on the other side of the door, realizing unless he wanted to be seen buck naked in the middle of winter, he would have to ask his wife just what she meant by her remark later.
Going to the house phone, he lifted it and dialed her cell number. When she answered he said "I love you Mrs. Morgan and I will see you later and you will explain that."
"Oh, you mean what I said just before I left." she queried while watching Paulie drive past a long line of people in front of the post office. "Well, I already have a drawing of what we discussed, am thinking of having it framed and hung. Maybe in the guest room."
With that, she hung up and laughed asking Paulie if he was finished with his holiday shopping. Being told yes, except for the wrapping, she told him that she had something for him and took out a tin of brownies. "Thanks, Mrs. Morgan."
Courtney woke up, looked around the room and frowned. She was bored, but when she had called Carly the blond had suggested she stay out of sight for at least a week. That then and only then could she return without AJ being able to complain.
Wishing she could use her credit cards, she picked up the phone and called Carly. "Carly are you sure I can't go shopping with my cards?"
"Yes, it is better if no one knows where you are." she said annoyed with the other blond.
"But Carly, remember, AJ dropped me off, he knows where I am. So what is the big deal." she whined. "I want to go shopping."
Wanting to say that now was not the time for Courtney to grow a brain or a spine, Carly instead said "He doesn't know what hotel you are at."
"Oh, so no one can no what hotel I am staying at." she said now getting it. "Okay, I can deal with that."
Carly hung up, believing she had solved the problem. Two more day, she needed two more days. On December 26th, she would have cleaned out Courtney's bank accounts and no one but no one would know it was her except for the lousy man stealing bitch.
Looking at the list, she quickly left Courtney's loft, the jewelry wasn't worth much, not even the wedding ring from Jason had brought her in much cash. She had picked the loft clean of any value, even selling the television to some guy off the streets. Hell she had even sold the diamond studded dog collar that the other woman had idiotically bought for her pet who had ran away several months ago.
Back at Jake's, she checked out her stash, happy to see she had over fifty thousand dollars in cash, she laid back on the bed, her mind starting to drift into her favorite fantasy, unaware that Courtney had come up with a different plan than not shopping.
In the Caribbean, Courtney was getting out of the hotel limo in front of the airport. Entering, she walked over to the border guard and asked to speak to his boss. "Ms. Matthews, what may I do for you today? Do you need some help with applying for a new passport?"
"No, my friend that you called took care of it." she said. "No, see, I used the ten thousand dollars I took with me already at the Casino and I came to make another withdrawal."
"Withdrawal?"he asked confused. "I don't understand, what are you talking about?"
"The money you are holding for me." she said "I need some of it, I get it can't be more than ten thousand dollars, but that should do fine. I am only doing a little shopping."
"Ms Matthews, you seem to be laboring under a misconception. That money isn't being held here for you. That money was confiscated. It now belongs to the island government."
"But-but it is my money. My ex husband gave it to me as a payoff if I left town." she said "How can they just take my money?"
"Didn't he tell you that it was illegal to bring in that amount of cash?"he asked.
"Well he said he didn't think I could, but since I did before... look, can you just fix this, I need my money." she said reaching out for his hand and smiling at him. The man considered lying to her, after all, clearly she was no money laundering mastermind. Instead he said "I am sorry, Ms Matthews, there is nothing I can do. You need to speak to the Guardia Prefect. That is the equivalent of your police back home."
Leaving, Courtney went to where he sent her, had the same meeting with a man there who knew exactly who Courtney Matthews was and he listened to her tall of whoa and thought to himself that maybe he could use this to get to Corinthos. "I will see what I can do for you, Ms. Matthews."
Courtney left, then went to the strip mall. There, she shopped until she dropped and soon had the limo piled with bags as she drove back to the hotel. In her hotel suite, she was trying on clothes, modeling them for herself in front of the mirrow when she heard a knock on the door.
"What?"she asked the manager annoyed at being interrupted.
"Ms. Matthews, I am sorry but I need to speak to you." he said as he moved into the room. "We have a policy to run credit cards every seven days on our customers, I am sorry but yours came back as no good."
"W-what, look someone made a mistake. I have an unlimited credit limit." she said.
"Ms. Matthews, the bank said that that account was closed." he stated."Now, I need you to come with me."
"Why would I do that. There was a mistake made." she said "You know who I am, who my brother is."
"Ms. Matthews, I am trying to be polite but either you come with me while the staff packs your bags or I have security bring you with me. There is the matter of a seventy thousand dollar hotel bill."
"What the hell, how on earth could this dump cost that much?" she asked waving her arms around the large suite.
"This is the Presidential suite, we charge nine thousand dollars a night and you have been using your key card to charge room service and masseuses to it. Simply put, you owe us money and if you don't make good on the bill, we will have you arrested for theft of services."
Courtney followed him down to his office, after a call to her bank, she said"Wait, how is that possible."
"Ms. Matthews, you were only given five million dollars as a separation settlement. Your brother is no longer replenishing the funds." said the bank branch manager. "Today almost thirty thousand dollars worth of jewelry and clothes were charged to your account. Thereby making the charge from your hotel unable to go through as the money is no longer there."
Courtney was in shock, she had no idea that she had so little money in that account, nor that she had spent that kind of money while shopping today. She HAD bought some jewelry, but she hadn't realized just how much two necklaces had cost. Thank god she had money in her other accounts, then with the checks being deposited in three days from her charity, things would work out fine.
"Ms. Matthews, that doesn't change the fact the credit card you gave me is no good."
"B-but, but Carly has all my other cards. I only brought one with me." she said stunned to be told it didn't matter and that to keep things quiet they wouldn't create a scene but that she had to pay the bill by the end of the month.
"Thanks, I will be heading back to my room now. Could you please have them send up a banana daiquiri. I think I need one to deal with all of this. You really need to..."
Stopping her from leaving, the manager said "Ms Matthews, your luggage is waiting in the limo, the driver is free to take you wherever you want to go, but you won't be staying here."
"But where am I to go?" she asked. "I don't get my new passport until the day after Christmas, Carly said.
"Ms Matthews, that is your problem." he said coldly.
Jason and Cam spend the day handing out holiday bonuses to his staff and crew. "So Cam, what do you think, should we go see Ms. Miller next?"
Entering the attorney's office just as Mac Scorpio left, clearly annoyed, he asked "What did you do to the man?"
"Nothing."she snarled then looked at Cam. "How are you doing my sweet innocent favorite client. I am so glad you are too small to be arrested."
Cam just ignored the woman and sucked on his fingers. "Should he be doing that?"
"He has a tooth coming in." Jason said wiping his small fingers and handing him the teething ring from the diaper bag. "Here, this is for you."
Opening it, her eyes widening for a second, she said "Thank you, very generous."
"You earned every single dime of it." he said then standing asked "Now, did you actually want something or did I show up just so you can see my face outside of the police station."
"You might want to sit back down for this." she said then when he was seated told him. "Carly came to see me, she seems to think I am representing her in upcoming trial."
Groaning, he said "How did she take the news you weren't?"
"Not well." she said grimly. "Its why Scorpio was here. I had to call him to get her out of my office. He had to tell her if she didn't leave he was going to arrest her."
Inside General Hospital, the staff were like kids in a candy store as they explored the new medical equipment and Alan was already trying to get it certified for use when he heard his name being called. Looking up, he greeted Robin then introduced her to Dr. Winters.
"Actually, sir, it is Drake, Robin Drake." she said with a smile. "Anyhow, my husband wanted to see the new laser guided equipment he heard about and I called Tony Jones who is showing it to him. I just wanted to apologize for sort of bring Brenda to town. I had no idea she was going to jump on this Sonny is innocent bandwagon."
Lainey asked her "Your friend, her name wouldn't be Brenda Barrett, would it."
"Yes, may I ask why?" inquired Robin.
"I just got a call from the warden at Pentonville, a Brenda Barrett showed up requesting a visit with Sonny. He called to ask me to observe the visit." she told the petite woman.
"I can't believe..." Groaning, Robin was torn between getting Brenda help and doing what her husband asked. Patrick wanted her to leave it alone, but she felt guilty for the way things were working out. Despite wanting to be there, desperately, she said "Would it be against the rules for you to let me know how it works out. I am concerned about Brenda."
Seeing Elizabeth entering the hub with a chart, Robin hesitated then walked over. "Hi, do you have a minute."
Looking at her watch, Elizabeth said "Well a minute is just about all I have."
"Thanks, I uh, I just wanted to say. I am sorry about Brenda. I have tried speaking to her, tried to get her to face that Sonny was wrong, but she is refusing to listen." she said helplessly. "Anyhow, I just wanted to say that. I know that you more than likely could care less, but I have seen Jason and you a few times, here and there, just glimpses really. He loves you, its so obvious. I wish you two well."
Nodding at the other woman in thanks as she heard her name being called by Epiphany Johnson, she went to find out what she would be doing that afternoon and after getting her schedule turned around to be Robin walking to the elevator with the dark haired man she believed was her husband.
"Elizabeth, are you ready for tomorrow?" asked Emily as they met at the hub an hour later.
"Yes, gifts are wrapped, brownies baked, dinner prepped." she said mentally crossing off her list. "What about you?"
"Gifts, yes, nothing baked but cookies bought at the bakery on ninth, as for dinner, I will spend a moment in the chapel praying dinner isn't ruined at the Quartermaine residence." she said with a smirk."Guess what, I found the perfect gift for Cam yesterday. You are just going to love it."
"I hope you obeyed the rules." she warned. "Nothing noisy, nothing hideously expensive, nothing too big with too many pieces."
"I swear, on my Girl Scout Oath." she said holding up her hand.
"Emily, you once told me you were never a girl scout." she reminded her friend who just shrugged as she smiled at Elizabeth. "Emily..."
Sonny looked across the table and Brenda was shocked at the calculating look she saw in his eyes. "Oh, Sonny, what have they done to you?"
"Jason, he betrayed me for that woman." he said trying to keep from going to overboard. "Elizabeth Webber, she set me up and used Lucky Spencer to get me out of Jason's life."
Hearing his version of the story, Brenda felt her heart sink as she heard the self aggrandizing words come from his mouth. In Sonny's mind, he was the best, the most loyal, the truest mobster with a heart of gold alive.
While Brenda truly believed he had gotten a raw deal, she could see the darkness in his eyes and knew that there was no way that Sonny would be able to help her, hell, he could barely help himself.
"Brenda, I wouldn't want you to see me this way." he said playing for sympathy. "I only wish..."
"Oh god." she said her feelings of guilt getting to her. If Sonny wasn't available, well she guessed it would have to be Jax. But just to be sure that this wasn't some kind of plot between Jason and him... she gave it one last try. "I feel so bad, but I just wanted to see you before..."
"Before..."he prompted not liking how she didn't seem to be offering sympathy to him for all his troubles.
"Before... I came home... Sonny, I came home to marry Jax." she said. Seeing his anger, then his face turning red she told him to calm down."Sonny, you know that I have always always loved Jax. I just felt it was time to grow up and marry the man who has always held my heart."
With that, she watched as Sonny's face contorted, then he grasped his heart, then his body clenched as he fell out of the backless chair and landed sideways on the ground, his head hitting so hard, blood was now flowing.
"I think you should leave, Ms. Barrett." said the man next to her. "I would say you have done your part."
"My part?" she parroted as Sonny was being lifted onto a gurney as medical staff operated on him.
Back in the med bay, the doctor said "Corinthos needs specialized treatment."
"We have to send him to Port Charles." announced the warden, annoyed his most notorious prisoner was dying. "Let me get his file."
"Really, all you need to know, is if he is an organ donor." said the man in the white coat. "He is brain dead, sir."
"I will check." he stated then reported to his boss. "Corinthos is brain dead, he had a heart attack and hit his head during a visit. He is an organ donor. Where do we send him to be harvested."
"I will call General Hospital. I have to admit, I wouldn't have believed a man as selfish as Corinthos doing anything that generous."
Anthony watched dispassionately from where he stood outside hospital walls, thank you, Ms Barrett. The former model had given him a way to deal with the mini mobster in such a way as to not be traced back to him or his alter ego.
With a chuckle as he watched the other woman weeping as they led her to the car she had waiting, he said as he frowned "But it still doesn't get you off the naughty list."
Returning to work from a break spend with Nadine and another new nurse, Elizabeth had a moment's peace before hearing Epiphany saying her name. Being told to suit up as the second nurse to a surgery, she asked what kind.
"With Dr Quartermaine." she was told as she went to change and prepare the surgical room.
Monica showed up, looked at Elizabeth and said "You can't assist, I shouldn't even be performing the surgery."
"What is it?" she asked seeing the look on her face as another nurse entered and began to prepare.
"Its Sonny Corinthos, he had a visit from Brenda just before lunch, he had a heart attack while she was in with him." reported the older woman. "He hit his head and if I have to declare him brain dead, someone will be harvesting his organs."
"Oh, okay." she said then left and went to the locker room. Making a call she asked "Jason, did you hear about Sonny?"
"Yes, I got a call a few minutes ago. I am dropping Cam off at daycare in ten minutes." he told her. "I have to go to a meeting."
Getting who that meeting had to be with, she swayed for a second then said"Be careful, okay?"
"I will." he said grimly then told her. "Elizabeth, can you get out of there, I am worried, we all know the people who will be showing up there."
"I will be fine, I have Paulie and my shift is only another hour and a half." she promised. "We will head straight home after that."
"I love you." he said then heard her saying the words back before meeting with Johnny as they drove to the meeting. "Do you think they know?"
"About my father." he asked grimly. "Fifty/fifty."
Snippets:
Gail looked at the results, not sure if she should be happy or sad that her closest friend had no markers for any neurological diseases or physical causes for her recent behavior.
Calling her husband, she said "We will be arriving in three days. I am not sure what is up with Audrey, Lee."
"I know, she has gotten that old age disease where you think you are always right and that you know better than anyone else." he said bluntly. "She lost her family, Steve's family for one reason only, the same reason she was estranged from Lucille for years."
With a sigh, Lee said "She thinks she is better than them, that she and only she has the moral compass to be right. Lucille's only crime was being a nurse who loved a man who worked as a janitor, not in the medical profession. As for this nonsense with Elizabeth and her child; well, I hate to say it, but Audrey will never face that she was in the wrong."
"I just hate the idea of her growing old alone, Lee." she said then hung up the phone. Lee had gone to see Edward Quartermaine, then home, while Gail was still at the Hardy house, wondering how to fix the unfixable.
Anthony gave a quiet chuckle, Corinthos had been declared dead, his organ's harvested while his astounded father, his sort of wife and the police all stood around the hospital waiting room.
Hearing the news that Brenda Barrett was holed up at the Quartermaine gatehouse, her guilt eating her alive, he just shook his head surprised she hadn't shown up at the hospital.
"Does anyone know where Courtney is?" asked Mike as he wiped away the tears at the news his son was no longer among the living. "I have to get to her, to tell her about her brother."
"She is out of town." said Carly quickly. "I will try and track her down."
With a look of disbelief, Mike said "Thank you, but now. Why are you here, Carly. Sonny and you were divorced, you almost killed my daughter, you did kill my grandchild. You shouldn't be here."
"Sonny and my divorce wasn't legal." she mumbled flushing at the way everyone looked at her. "Ask Diane Miller, Sonny screwed something up with the paperwork. Lorenzo found out when he filed for divorce."
Mac who had entered, gave Mike the news that she was telling the truth but then looking around asked where Courtney was. "I don't know, but I think Carly does."
Growing, Carly said "I have no idea where the twit is, I was trying to be helpful, after all as Sonny's widow, I am the one who..."
"Well, well the gangs all here." said Diane annoyed to be forced to deal with this farce but Corinthos had left his final will with Ric Lansing and Alexis Davis who had refused to show up to this mess.
"What do you want?" snapped Carly still smarting from the telling off she had given her earlier that day.
"Mr Corinthos will, I have been asked to deal with it, since he was broke, there is no money to sort out." she said then after a pause, continued. "Sonny had pre arranged his funeral after his last one. He had certain... shall we say requirements. I have been asked to let whoever I need to know that St. Agnes is coming to take care of everything."
"Broke, wait, what about his overseas accounts, surely the FBI couldn't take those?" asked Mike.
"There is nothing, not so much as a dime left. After his funeral and any final expenses are deal with there is a small life insurance police evenly divided out among his four children." she said looking at the file. "Morgan, Michael, Kristina and Dante."
"Dante?"asked a surprised Carly. "Who the hell is Dante, was that what the name of Sam's brat was supposed to be?"
"No, this is the son of a woman known as Olivia Falconari." she said then left to go speak to Alan. Carly was so incensed by the idea of Sonny having another kid, she never realized that she was being completely cut out of planning on the funeral.
Jasper Jacks was not amused by the news that his best friend had imparted."Are you serious?"
"Yes I am. Brenda was overheard telling Sonny that the two of you were getting married." Ned didn't tell him that he had heard it from the lady head shrink he had gone out with a few times, there was no reason for him to be told everything.
"I already told her, we were the past, thankfully a long gone past."he said as he began to pace. "When is she leaving town again?"
"Robin convinced her to go after the holidays." he said while moving to the window of his new penthouse. "You know, she showed up here, thinking this was still Jason's. She truly thought she could just show up and crash here."
"Your cousin certainly collected quite a group of selfish, self centered women, didn't he?" asked Jax. "Brenda, Courtney, Carly, at least he finally got it right."
"Yes and my family gives thanks every single day for it. At least Emily does." Ned ruefully admitted. "I wanted to ask, this Nadine of yours, does she have a sister?"
"Ned, sorry but with your track record, I wouldn't even consider asking."the blond man told his best friend. "I have finally found the ONE. I am not losing her, I dealt with Jerry already, so he can't mess up my life. I have dealt with Brenda, hopefully she gets the message before Nadine gives in to her urge to explain how the girls from Upper Sandusky treat women who chase after taken men."
"What?"asked Ned confused. "Upper where?"
"Its where Nadine is from in Ohio, and she has already had a few run ins with Brenda who is about to learn that farm girls are not pushovers."he stated.
Ned sat down on the sofa, then looked at Jax who seemed mightily pleased with himself. "Do you think you can actually get it right with this one?"
"I have no doubts." said Jax as his mind went to the fact he had tried all his gold plated moves, had used every single ounce of his charms to try to woo Nadine. All he had gotten for a long time was a friendly non committal smile.
It had taken time, patience and most importantly being open and honest to win her heart, even if she still wasn't gracing his bed. He found he appreciated her slow pace, her need to truly explore them, before moving their relationship forward.
Across town, Johnny was swearing as they left the meeting. "Morgan, how the hell am I supposed to do that? How the hell am I supposed to figure out what is going on in my father's head?"
With a sideways look, Jason said "All they want to know is where he will end up, Nothing more. They guaranteed no actions against him."
With a heavy sigh, Johnny confessed. "He is talking to my dead mother. I have heard him in the study with her. I knew how bad it was, but this part... I don't get it. Do you?"
"No, I mean, I know who Elizabeth's parents are. I assured them we can offer proof. And your father knows who I am and what I am capable of, so why the hell did he go to the families and ask them to protect her?"
"I have no idea, anymore than I get why he went to them and said she is my sister." said Johnny still not sure what the heck Anthony was up to with this caper. This one, well it made no sense because the one thing they were sure of, Elizabeth Webber WASN'T his sister.
TBC
A/N: Johnny is not Elizabeth's brother, this is all about Anthony's losing his mind.
