So…I am sorry about the wait. It's funny, even though I know a ton of stress is not conductive for writing, it still comes as a shock, when my muse just refuses to work past that stress. Hope everyone can understand and will still stick with this story. Tomorrow my dad has to have an echocardiogram and then hopefully with answers…my stress will back off and let me go back to every other day type of posting. (No promises though. It seems as soon as I think things are levelling off, they don't) Also, numerous days of freezing my butt off, didn't help (They were replacing all the windows and patio sliding doors in the apartment, which, even though it wasn't minus 30, it felt like it with no barrier really against the cold. Hope you guys enjoy and will share your thoughts. Thank you for sticking with me!

Chapter Thirty-Four

One word, five letters strung together to make a simple word, a name…and with it, that simple, though passionate, pain infused utterance, was enough to deconstruct his whole world and align it into something, something so much more, something better, something so unfathomable that it rocked Jason to his very core.

"Elizabeth!" Jason breathed. His anger and fear, the living, breathing embodiment of everything he was and had been in the last hours…days it felt like, suddenly, almost too suddenly, disappeared.

Hope wasn't something he had much of, it was something that was for other people, people who still had hope, faith in humanity but…hearing her voice, knowing she wasn't going to become another statistic in his long line of fuck ups and should have's and could have's, left him lightheaded, breathless.

He may not understand everything that was going on but for this small moment in time, he truly felt like there was nothing and no one who could possibly stand in his way. The world could burn to the ground around him and only that…voice, could push him beyond his aptitudes, his…capabilities, to go further, push harder, go and do longer.

"Jason?" Elizabeth questioned fearfully.

Pulled back from the incomprehensible depths of his own mind, Jason shook himself. There would be a time and place for him to come unhinged, when everything and everyone was safe, for even the 'Borg' needed time to reconcile what was, what could be, what never will be, he was just a man, though many disputed that fact.

"I'm here Elizabeth, I'm here. Please tell me you are safe?"

"Umm…" She said with a good dose of uncertainty.

"Umm? Elizabeth now is not the time to beat around the proverbial bush, this is life and death and if I have any chance of getting you home, then I need all the facts." Jason said, not unkindly.

"Well, it's not like I am trying to beat around the bush, it's just the answer to that question isn't really…quantifiable at the moment. Because, you see…I mean, well… Okay, I have been kidnapped, and I am sure one or both or all…I'm not really sure, probably do mean me harm but, well, to be honest, I don't think I was this confused, ever… First there was the other guy, who is massively nuts, like coocoo for cocoa puffs…I don't know exactly but his words were pretty straight forward, what with the wanting to kill me but then the other guy, the brother, Jerry…who has your number in his phone, which, can I just say, freaks me out a little because he's the bad guy right and you know him or something and…well, I find this a little distressing and he looks at me like I am the one who should be chewing her hair in the mental ward, but it isn't my fault I talk when I am scared or nervous or you know, all the time. And that lady…holy shit, talk about scaring someone enough to shit…You know I did a paper on fairy tales, and all the evil step-mothers and witches and queens and what not and none of those could ever be as creepy as that woman…" Elizabeth said before taking a huge breath. "Remind me next time to breathe because for a moment there, I thought I was going to pass out."

Jason couldn't help it, he'd been riding the adrenaline train for so long that her familiar ramble undammed his emotions; he laughed and cried in equal measure. "Oh you, beautiful, confusing, fountain of weird…I love you…" His words trailed off as his brain suddenly jumped off the gas pedal and hit the brakes, like he had been going 180 one second and the next, he was at a complete screeching, halting, shuddering stop. If he was prone to exaggeration, he'd swear that his whole body literally juddered to a grinding halt, all because of his brain.

The long, shivery breath she exhaled had Jason contemplating retracting but for the life of him, he couldn't find a plausible reason to deny what he just said, and honestly, didn't want to. Remembering something Lila once said, he grabbed on to that nugget of wisdom and refused to let go. 'When its right, it will always be right and nothing that right could ever be wrong.'

"Really?" She breathily questioned.

One little word, and strangely, he found himself disappointed he didn't get a huge ramble. Smiling at his own Idiosyncrasies, Jason said. "Well…yeah. I'd love to count the ways and all that but…we really need to get back on track. As for one thing you said, yes, Jerry has my number but that's because he was…I suppose one would say, entangled with my aunt…what he saw in her…what she saw in him…anyway, he got in some trouble and I helped him out with something and told him he could call me if the problem ever became a problem again. I swear, I am not, nor would I ever do anything to hurt you." Jason said passionately.

"Would you understand if that just confused me more? Nothing is making sense. It seems like he, well, let's not beat around that proverbial bush, he helped his brother kidnap me and then he kind, maybe, sort of saved me from death but…seriously, what the fuck?"

"Hmm…well, I'd love to be able to say I could help clear this up but I think I am just as confused as you. Can you put that asshole on the phone?" Jason said through gritted teeth.

"Mr. Morgan, I'd say this is a pleasure but…how can I help you?" Jerry asked Soto voce.

"Don't ever try that meek and harmless shit with me Jacks. You kidnapped an innocent woman!" Jason all but screamed.

"Is any woman, really, truly innocent?" He asked po-faced.

Even though the phone wasn't on speaker, Elizabeth heard the unmistakable shouts and screams of rage. After a particularly color and descriptive, expletive filled rant, she couldn't help but blush. Chancing a quick peak at the other man, she realized he too had a faint blush coloring high on his cheekbones.

"Are you quite finished? Because as entertaining as this is, we both know that this is a time sensitive endeavor and while I may have bought your lady some time, she wasn't wrong; Jasper…has lost himself to his grief and has decided that forcing Mac to suffer his own hardships is the only way he'll be able to move on. I'll admit that in the beginning, I was just as fueled with rage and wanting someone to pay but in order to gain some semblance of peace, I'd have to hurt myself the most and as you have been shouting for twenty minutes, I don't have an unselfish bone in my body. Since discovering that Elizabeth is alive, I have been trying to…I guess the saying is, do damage control, although, I fear, I inflamed the situation more than calmed it. My own bitterness is a double edged sword in this instance and believe it or not, I realize I…maybe even encouraged his rage in some instances, because chastising myself isn't really my way. Sometimes it is easier to bathe in his rages and insane surety than it is in admitting that all of this, is…it's my fault."

"Damage control how?" Jason spat. His fingers going numb from how hard he was clenching them, to stop himself from pummeling something, anything, to take out some of his anger because rational or not, he wanted to rend the man until there was nothing left.

"When we were informed of her miraculous rising…was the first time I took a really close look at my brother and while you may not like us, and probably could care less about our tragic life, blah, blah, blah, it is what led to this being the clusterfuck it is. After our mysterious benefactor contacted us, I got in contact with Robert Scorpio. Since, Mac had no idea of his paternal link; I thought it best to go to someone who would be a little farther removed. I am not a good man, I don't even think I am an okay man, but since this all started up again, nothing seems right. I don't know who the benefactor is and that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. For a while, I thought it might be Dominique but you know a little grave robbing and some testing…well, she is well and truly, dead." Jerry said.

The hiccupping sob next to him finally registered and for the first time in his life, he felt truly horrible about not even trying to sugar-coat the abysmal truth. "Elizabeth…I am so sorry. That…I didn't…"

The squawking in his ear finally halted his words.

"You insensitive, moronic, Neanderthal piece of shit…" Jason shouted.

"Yes, yes...back to the matter at hand. Robert doesn't trust me, you don't trust me, hell, I don't trust me but the fact of the matter is, there is someone out there who wants to take revenge against her, besides my brother and until all parties are identified, we are no further ahead than we were before. Honestly, I don't want to be helping anyone with the last name Scorpio but that is my…cross to bear… We will be entering Port Charles within the hour, so you better figure out how you can protect her." Jerry said before hanging up.

Yeah…nothing about anything made sense anymore. Somehow he had managed to be on the other side of his brother and that truly burned but what burned worse though, was the fact that he couldn't let someone so completely innocent be used in an act of revenge. Maybe it was the thought of his lost child being used like that, that made him want to do something, honestly, he didn't know the answer or maybe he wondered briefly, he didn't want to know. It was a hard thing for a man like him to admit, but perhaps his hubris hadn't been his original need for revenge but thinking he knew best almost always.

"You are an asshole!" Elizabeth said with conviction.

"Yes!" He said almost serenely.

Mumbling under her breath, Elizabeth said, "I hope you get a disease of your pecker and it falls off!"

Jerry's eyebrows practically crawled off his face with his shock. "You don't pull punches do you?" He asked, almost in awe.

"Why the fuck should I?" Elizabeth offered back.

Ahh…lovely, the spitfire was back. And maybe, especially if he never spoke of this to anyone, he could admit that he admired her ability to not dwell on the worst of the worst. If he had more humanity, maybe he would share that her pluckiness was something she should always nurture because, it was not only what made her stand out from the dregs of society but also gave him hope for the whole of the human race.

Too many people made their woes the world's woes and he could lump his brother and himself and numerous other people in that category but she never did. She questioned but she never blamed. She didn't wallow and maybe that was the most shocking because…to date himself…in this day and age, it seemed her generation was all about slacking off, blaming others for their troubles and doing the least amount of work while bitching about the unfairness of it all. Rolling his eyes at the amount of self-depreciation and the small, almost niggling feeling of pride, he quickly threw up the blue wall in his brain. He was an asshole and this sentimentality bullshit would get him nowhere, quick.

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