Shadowing Death: Threads
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Thanks to the reviewers for the last chapter!
Okay, I was going to bring in, just as a mention for now, the character of Sonny's accountant who died during a later part of the show that obviously won't be happening during this story. I seriously thought his name was Benny, but everywhere I check it's listed as Bernie. I'm in total shock, I don't ever remember it being that! I know the actor that played him though, Richard Fancy, and he's down on IMDb as Bernie Abrams. Is this name confusion just me? Let me know what you guys remember!
I'll write his name as Bernie for this chapter, but it feels weird...
-- Alcazar's Yatch
Antonio Corsi adjusted his tie and gripped the folder in his hands even tighter. Ordinarily, he wouldn't be quite so visibly nervous, but he couldn't really help it. Luis Alcazar wasn't known for being a particularly patient man, not even very loyal. Where Jason Morgan would always been Sonny Corinthos' enforcer and that was just a well-known fact that only death could change, Alcazar trusted only himself. It bred a feared respect, but virtually no feeling of job stability.
Normally, he was a confident man. After all, he'd gotten this high up in such a man's organization. In this moment, he was sure that some of his success had to do with the fact that things hadn't fallen apart quite as badly as they were right now. He looked down at the mostly disappointing folder in his hands angrily, "Bullshit." He whispered.
He knocked on the door forcefully. Just enough to keep Alcazar from knowing that he was nervous, but not disrespectfully demanding.
"Enter."
Corsi opened the door and strode inside Alcazar's office. "Sir, I have the reports you wanted." He tried to keep the resentful edge to his voice and managed it perfectly. He'd really been against the plan from the beginning. What did they need New York for? Nothing.
Alcazar lazily waved his hand to the seat across his desk. "Tell me."
Best to get the worst news out of the way, he thought. "Thus far, we have no visual confirmation on Morgan or Webber."
"What locations do we have under surveillence?" Alcazar asked, his voice tight as if he was trying hard not to get angry at such a fact. Corsi had heard that in his voice before - it didn't mean good things anyone's health.
Pulling some papers from his folder, Corsi outlined each report. "We've got outside men on the Quartermaine mansion. As our stats on Morgan stated, it's unlikely that he would go to them for help. His sister is the most likely person he would be in contact with. We've had someone tailing her at a distance. She and AJ Quartermaine, however, have closed ranks there and we've been unable to get audio or visual of inside the grounds."
"Anything with the sister?" Alcazar asked, eyeing the photos that Corsi whipped out, glad to have something to show.
"There seemed to be a chance meeting between the girl and Carly Corinthos at a department store. They briefly spoke about Corinthos' son and the wife offered to bring Morgan's sister with her to see him at his Grandmother's." Corsi explained. He opened his mouth to continue, but Alcazar beat him to it.
"Surveillence there?" Alcazar interrupted.
Corsi nodded. "One man and audio." He answered. "The meeting between the two seemed unlikely, but Corinthos' wife didn't appear happy to see the girl. The invitation was...obligation. At Bobbie Spencer's, nothing out of the ordinary was heard"
"Is it likely that Corinthos' wife is that good an actress?" Alcazar asked, sifting through the pictures of the meeting.
Antonio hesitated. "She's a loose cannon, but if properly motivated..."
Alcazar nodded, understanding what Corsi hadn't said. "Protecting Morgan would properly motivate her." He finished. "Next location."
"We kept an eye on most of the entrances to General Hospital, in case Webber risked bringing him there. Obviously, that was a dead end. We've put an orderly to keep an eye on Monica Quartermaine's hospital room. He has confirmed audio inside her room." Corsi explained. At least some other asshole had a guarantee on his life for another week.
Alcazar waved away the small victory. "Virtually useless."
Corsi had to agree. He didn't let his frustration show, "Probably. We have someone keeping an eye on Webber's studio, but after getting picked up there she'd have to be stupid to go back."
"She's not stupid." Alcazar quietly acknowledged.
There, again, he had to agree. Elizabeth Webber hadn't seemed like the usual type of empty-headed mob slut. "We also have a man watching her Grandmother's home, though we didn't bother with a bug."
"Other family?" Alcazar questioned.
Antonio shook his head, "No, there's almost the same situation there as with Morgan. The Grandmother is the only one in the tri-state area. Morgan would have been too injured to get out of town."
"She's not going to put her Grandmother at risk. Re-locate the man there." Alcazar ordered.
A good call, Corsi agreed. "Yes, sir." He answered.
"Next."
"All known warehouses and buildings leased to Sonny Corinthos, the Corinthos-Morgan company or Jason Morgan himself. That includes properties on the docks." Corsi said, bringing yet more paper out of the folder. "We've kept as close an eye as possible on the docks properties, but Corinthos has those incredibly well protected. We can only get so close."
Alcazar nodded, clearly expecting that. "Try and get audio in the ones we can. It's a risk, I know, but I want only well qualified men going near those."
Antonio nodded, glad to finally get a level-headed answer out of the man. Alcazar was a smart man, but lately he had seemed anything but. "Yes, sir." He repeated as per Alcazar's requirements of him. "There's also Harborview Towers."
"No audio or video." Alcazar said, not even bothering to tell him to try. It was well known in the business that Sonny Corinthos was obsessively paranoid about family safety. His organization had secured the entire block that his apartment building was in and owned the building itself. Only trusted individuals lived there. It wasn't a known fact, because otherwise the PCPD would be all over the place, but Antonio could appreciate the necessity of it. It was better than Alcazar's goddamned floating fortress.
"Send men down the street at random intervals in different cars. I want the best we can get on that block of buildings." Alcazar ordered, conviently forgetting that others had tried to things like that before and had been killed for it. Yeah, Antonio thought, Sonny Corinthos was a freakishly paranoid man.
His "Yes, sir." was a little less neutral than before but he said it nonetheless. "We have audio confirmation on Bernie Abrams office, as well as Alexis Davis'."
"Davis is unlikely, don't bother."
He nodded, "Abrams?"
Alcazar thought about it a second, "Keep it." He ordered finally. "Anything else?"
Corsi thought a second before revealing his thoughts, "I'd have to assume that Morgan and Webber got to Sonny Corinthos. We've looked at previous addresses for both, and there was nothing there. Either they've vanished into thin air, or they're with him."
"Then they're with him." Alcazar ground out angrily. He clenched his fist and Antonio watched him carefully. "Have the guards on duty from the night they escaped taught a...lesson." He ordered.
"Yes, sir."
"I want audio in Quartermaine mansion." He ordered, though Corsi thought that was a waste. A guy like Morgan wasn't going to go to a family like that for help.
"Yes, sir."
"How has Larson been in rising ranks at Corinthos'?" Alcazar asked, refering to the man they'd planted in Corinthos' organization. A notoriously hard thing to do.
Antonio fished out the final page of his reports. "He says he's gaining trust, but a lot of those men were loyal to Morgan."
"Loyal to Morgan, not Corinthos." Alcazar pointed out, "Have him keep spreading distrust in Corinthos. He can play off Morgan's 'death' if he wants."
"Yes, sir."
Corsi watched as Alcazar's body language changed then. He watched without trying to look like he was doing so. After the man had visibly forced his hand to unclench and his body to relax, he asked, "Brenda?"
He'd made it seem casual, but Antonio knew better. Lovesick obsessed idiot. "Nothing."
"We're done. Leave."
-- Outside Monica Quartermaine's Hospital Room
Emily hobbled forward on her crutches, her mind still racing from the long conversation she'd had with AJ. He'd been stunned, to say the least. She couldn't blame him - everyone thought he hated Jason, but that just wasn't true. Sometimes, even Emily was fooled, but all she cold remember was before Jason's accident. They fought, but it was clear that AJ loved his little brother. How could he not? Jason and AJ had both been sent to boarding school at a young age, but Monica and Alan weren't about to send them to different ones. Through the years, they'd disappointed both boys, missing games and plays and parent days, but that had only strengthened the relationship between the brothers. They were the only family they had to count on.
And maybe that had changed when they got to return home, and maybe AJ's drinking had weaked the relationship, but it hadn't changed everything. And maybe AJ couldn't stop competing with Jason, maybe he'd hurt his brother physically and mentally and emotionally, but it didn't change him from loving Jason.
It was, Emily had long ago decided, a very destructive love.
She'd always thought that they'd be better off and more able to deal with eachother if it wasn't there, but she was grateful for AJ's bizarre older brother instincts now.
He agreed with what Carly had told her, that she should act as if she was constantly being trailed and that each room she went in was bugged. It was safest for Jason and really, everyone involved.
Originally, she and AJ had beefed up security at home when reporters from all over decided that Jason's life made for a great story and they'd do anything for the inside scoop. They had hired a very pricey, very discreet company to keep people out, and they would have to hope that it was enough. Sonny had said that he was sending some of his own men to join in with their private security force and AJ had willingly agreed to handle the details there.
She envied him, because her task was much harder.
She certainly wasn't telling the whole family by herself. Though AJ wasn't anymore willing to do the deed himself, he'd recognized the complete and total cruelty of that and once Emily called to tell him that Mom was coming home, he'd head over to help her.
No, her job was to get Mom out of the hospital.
Sighing, Emily went into her mother's room and closed the door. "Having a nice lunch, Mom?"
She'd hoped that it was something nasty like greasy mac-and-cheese, green jello and bread with day-glo butter spread, but clearly being the Chief of Staff's wife got you some nice perks - edible food among them.
Monica looked up from what she was barely eating and gave a strained smile to her daughter. "Sit down, Emily."
Emily did so gratefully. Her back didn't ache like it used to and soon she wouldn't need any help at all, but it had been an active few days. "Do all the patients get that turkey club or are you just special?"
"Emily." Monica said wearily. "Please."
Conceeding that annoying her mother wasn't the nicest thing to do, Emily dropped her act just a little. "I hear you talked with Michael." She started as she pulled a piece of paper from her bag soundlessly. "He told me all about it. I saw Carly at Wyndams..." She kept up her story, never stopping long enough to let anyone listening know that she was doing anything else. She slid the piece of paper in front of her mother and watched as Monica made to open her mouth.
Emily pushed her finger against her mom's lips and gestured to the piece of paper as she kept talking about her visit to Michael.
Mom,
DON'T SAY A WORD. This is important. I'm not playing a joke.
I know that you don't want to leave the hospital, but we have to go. There's some news about Jason that you have to know, but we can't be sure that things are safe here. I can tell you at home, where we're going.
Once I finish talking about Michael, I'm going to bring up you going home. Then I will tell you I'm going to the bathroom, that's so I can flush this down the toilet. Yes, that's how serious this is.
You cannot let on that anything else is going, someone might be listening.
Tell me you'll give home a try when I get out of the bathroom. Make it convincing, okay?
Please, Mom, if you love Jason at all, you'll come home with me.
Emily kept talking but her mind was reading over the words that she'd carefully written in AJ's apartment. She watched her mother read the words once, then twice.
Finally Monica looked up and nodded.
-- Corinthos Apartment
Elizabeth still wasn't entirely sure what she was needed for in this conversation, but she wasn't about to interrupt to question Carly's quiet request that she sit with Sonny and Carly as they explained to their son that while dead people can't come back to life, his uncle had, though he'd never been dead at all.
Her headached just thinking about the way Sonny was trying to explain things, but her heart ached even more for the little boy who sat there, his mixed up emotions playing constantly on his face.
"But Mommy said you saw!" Michael pointed out.
He was protesting the whole thing, and that hurt them all. Elizabeth knew that Carly and Sonny had fully been anticipating having to hold Michael down from seeing Jason before they were sure that he understood what they were trying to say as well as could be expected.
That wasn't the case at all. Michael clearly didn't want to believe that Jason was alive and for what reason, they couldn't be sure.
"I did, Michael, but I told you, a very bad man made Jason sick and so I only thought he was gone." Sonny patiently explained. Elizabeth had to respect his strength, she and Carly had already broken down in tears.
"That's stupid!" Michael yelled and Elizabeth was inclined to agree, "How could you not know?"
"Michael." Carly whispered.
Her son flushed a little and said in a near whisper himself, "Sorry, Dad."
"It's okay, Michael." Sonny forgave easily. He ran his hand over his eyes and Elizabeth remembered that he'd spent the whole day at meetings when all everyone had wanted to was to sort out what was going on.
"Honey," Carly started, "What is it you don't understand?" She asked, and Elizabeth appreciated that she was going straight into the heart of the matter.
Michael shuffled his feet, "You said he wasn't coming home again."
Carly smiled sadly, "If he had died, Mr. Man, he wouldn't come home, no. We didn't know he was still alive, because everything said that he had. They gave him something to make his heard go so slow and so quiet that even a doctor would have said Jason had died. We couldn't have known."
"But you said he's still sick. What if it happens again?" Michael asked, sounding like he was gearing up again.
Sonny fielded this, "He's getting better. We're going to make sure of that."
"Why?"
Elizabeth knew the boy wasn't asking why they were going to make sure Jason got better. Nothing even close. He wanted to know why this had happened. Why had someone hated Jason so much that they would want to do this to him, make him seem dead. Maybe the boy wasn't thinking that specifically, but it boiled down to the same question.
All three adults stared at Michael for a second. Finally, Sonny answered, "We don't know."
Not a total lie, but enough of the truth. They didn't know everything.
Elizabeth smiled at Michael then, sensing he was just as scared that Jason was going to disappear if he believed them as she had been on that boat. "Why don't we go upstairs and visit him, Michael?" She offered finally. Sonny and Carly turned to look at her, surprised. She hadn't said anything at all yet, but this she was sure about. Carly nodded permission to her and Elizabeth knew that the woman was both relieved and wary.
Michael didn't say anything, didn't even look at her. So Elizabeth took charge and pulled Michael to his feet. The boy followed her obediently enough, but still said nothing as they went up the stairs.
Elizabeth didn't bother knocking on Jason's door; instead she just stuck her head in. She saw, with a rush of gratitude, that he was awake. Sleeping was too close to dead looking.
"Someone wants to see you." She said simply as he raised an eyebrow.
Gently, she brought Michael around from behind her.
Jason smiled, "Come here, buddy."
I had just told someone I thought that I wouldn't finish this anytime soon. See what happens when I get properly motivated?
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