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Betrayal is the one truth that sticks. Arthur Miller

" Talk."

It was cool serene calmness of Sonny's demand that scared Ritchie, terrified him down to the very marrow of his bones.

The collective reaction that gathered in him, sent out a clear warning- this meeting would not end well.

He had to think, think fast. Sonny, all in all, was a business man. He loved to bargain, loved to play with people's heads as long as he had the upper hand on where their wallet was located. He liked the idea of mixing personal involvements and business setups. Sonny played dirty and if Ritchie wanted to survive and leave this room alive he was going to have to do the same.

Casting the older man a short but fully inspective glance, the younger guard wasn't eased by what he saw.

Sonny had been so irrational lately…completely atypical, off the wall, bellowing for the most tedious of tasks- that was the behavior of recent-one he had become used to no matter how amateurish it had been.

He knew Sonny hadn't accumulated a name for himself measured against the standards of his actions in the past weeks. He was scary, out of control, on edge and now he was pulling another one eighty. Reversing his anger, holding it inside like he was waiting to unleash his fury at the right and proper moment he deemed ideal.

Sonny Corinthos was nothing if not resourceful, nothing if not cunning. Planning ahead was mandatory in this life. People might call it paranoia, but the paranoia is what saved their asses from surprise onslaughts like this.

He realized now they all had underestimated Sonny and Ritchie was going to be the second after Anthony to pay the price.

" I'm waiting."

Finally deciding to sit, Sonny took a careful relaxed seat next to him, releasing some of the blocking pressure in Ritchie's skull. But then again, Sonny Corinthos hovering over like a thirsty doberman would stunt the strongest of men's thinking process. In his two years he had certainly never grown unaffected to the superiority and inferiority the man evoked.

His black eyes were trained on him, never wavering, pinning him to his seat- the power of his stare emanating like steel darts and he was the damn dartboard.

The cold metal of the gun reflected off the corner of his eye, magnifying the hard deathly presence. The gun was the only thing he could see now, the only thing he could feel and taste when he tried to speak. It was pointed indirectly his way…kinda sideways.

If Sonny had decided at that moment to put him out of his misery, cut short his sadistic game, the bullet would hit him somewhere in the range between his heart and liver. A place only death could come and cure.

Burning nausea traveled through him, drenching his insides with the stench of finality, landing and festering in one and all places. Leaving in its wake violent shakes and sweats.

The silence was not helping matters. It would serve only to further wet the murderous appetite of the man sitting next to him as he brewed in his waiting, reserved state, gushing for permission to attack.

The time for second thoughts was over. He needed to act.

" Sir…please…we, I thought that..." He twisted an imperceptible inch in Mr. Corinthos' direction. "I was just trying to the do the right thing here. Please, Mr. Corinthos, I beg you-"

" Beg me?" His voice shot up, his dark brows curving with genuine inquisitiveness. " You go behind my back and you have the fucking nerve to insult me in thinking you can beg for my mercy? That I would even fucking grant you it …you lying piece of shit."

He still sounded so calm, his deep ebony eyes reflecting off like an abandoned pond that had been isolated from nature's touch since the beginning of time.

Like today was any other day and Sonny was talking about an order he wanted Ritchie to carry out

He commanded his voice not to shake as he continued his humbling plea. " Sir…you're right, sir. What I did was wrong…I...I was trying to do the right thing. Jason didn't want the girl to die so I thought-"

" Tell me everything."

Ritchie didn't hesitate this time to exact his intentions." Promise me you'll spare me."

" Wow." Sonny chuckled, full on, disbursing the morbid heavy awareness that shook between them.

Getting up, Sonny didn't filter his snicker and the amused sigh that followed as he made his way over to the wet bar.

Pouring himself a shot of brandy Sonny offered Ritchie one in a silent gesture by tipping the crystal bottle Ritchie's way. The guard refused just as mutely, with only a shake of his head and Sonny wasted no time offering again, gulping the liquid down in one consuming shot.

" I underestimated you, Ritchie. You know the guys say you're dumb, you shouldn't have been given the rank you were, but I didn't listen to them. Jason and I knew we saw beyond your limited mental capacity."

" I won't say another word…" Ritchie vowed, stiff with fear "...not unless your guarantee me that I walk away alive."

Appearing still in a state of relaxed amusement, like Ritchie's theatrics of terror were meant for the sheer entertainment value of Sonny's benefit, the man shook his head, his words rolling off unworthy. " I don't owe you shit Ritchie."

" I have been loyal to you for two years. Two years!" He exclaimed, standing but not moving from his place. " I didn't do this to go behind your back…I'm not Bruce Webber. Jason explained the problem, he trusted me and I agreed…I thought he was right. He asked for my help and I couldn't say no. I owe him."

" What about me?" Sonny shifted, taking the hand away that was leaning on the bar and resting it on his hip, geared for the self- righteous excuses Ritchie threw his way. " You could have come to me, asked me…I'm not a monster, Ritchie. No matter what people may say, your fear of me is compromising the truth here. I am a reasonable man. Jason could have said something…he didn't! He told me he was okay with this. The problem needed to be eliminated and I asked him if he had an issue with it and he said no. What does that tell me? I'm not a fucking mind reader."

When Ritchie remained standing, stripped of words, his face a white sheet of one noted dread, Sonny queried in a low drawl, sounding wounded. " You think you did what you thought was right? Is that what you're telling me?"

The attempts Ritchie made to recalculate his phrasing died on spot in his frantic need to act. Sonny was mad enough, the truth couldn't hurt anymore. " Yes, sir. Mr. Corinthos...but I never meant to betray you. It wasn't like that."

Sonny's stare blipped into his like a radar that had found its target. " I believe you."

" You do?"

" Like I said I'm not the monster you think I am. Just like you're not the neanderthal that I've been treating you like."

Ritchie could read the contemplation engraved in every step his boss took. And Ritchie watched him, his eyes stalking Sonny as he walked back and forth. Deserting himself of everything that summed up the kind of pride a man basked in, he whispered "Please."

" Why should I? Whether you think you were right or not makes no difference to me. You still went behind my back, deceived me for weeks…that alone deserves death." Sonny crossed over to where he was before, giving Ritchie a glimpse of the agony he would suffer at his hands when the timing seemed fit.

Mouth snapped open then shut, Ritchie limply went on. " I did it for the right reasons, I-"

" The right reason. ..this isn't some moral debate…we're not fucking politicians where you get impeached if you fuck up, leave office, step down. You knew the rules going in Ritchie." His head slanted to the side, his eyes aligning in such a way that his face was a ghostly shadow, unreachably eerie. " My rules have been enforced time and time again...you have killed for me, killed men for less…why should you be any damn different?"

Ignoring his instinct to jump bail and run, placate the fraught nerves that surfaced in his boss's every present breath, Ritchie forced himself to finish." I don't want anything from you. I'll walk away. You can send me wherever you want. Ship me out of the damn country, just…please."

Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Sonny's head dipped closer, his eyes vacant as he detachedly eyed Ritchie than leaned back. The corners of his mouth pinched down sourly. " Tell me what you know and I'll let you live."

" But Jason-"

" Everything." His sharp demand was irrefutable.

He wouldn't believe it or relish in the shock wave of relief buried underneath his raw nightmarish anxiety. " You'll let me live?"

Sonny nodded, his glare already to the brim with patience for answers. " I'll let you live."

" Jason came to me. He told me he wanted to make it look like we had carried out your orders just like you wanted, make it look like a robbery and then we'd send them away."

Sonny covered his mouth, soaking in the information." Why?"

" The girl…" he shrugged, " he felt bad for her I guess-"

" Felt bad for her?" His angry whisper rippled in disbelief. " He went against his best friend, his partner because of pity-"

" Jason-"

" Jason doesn't do pity. Ritchie!" He shot out in rage, noticeable only by the tinge of clarifying hurt in his eyes, " Jason has killed more people, he's….what aren't you telling me?"

" Sir, Jason didn't get into specifics. Honestly, he said he didn't want her family hurt, that he thought it was wrong and that was all there was to it. If there was more going on between him and the girl, he never let on. Jason isn't really the type to confide his feelings to me or anyone else."

Sonny sat, let out a heavy, thoughtful breath. " What else?"

" We got there, we were going to take them some place, hold them there for a while and send them away to live…you know, for good. But the cops showed up, so Jason took the girl, Elizabeth, as leverage for a while…just in case the cops trailed us…and that's where they've been ever since."

Nodding as if he agreed, as if he was being let in on a plan he hadn't been purposefully excluded from, Sonny asked levelly, " And what did the next part of your plan entail?"

" Getting them out of the country. That's it."

" And Jason really thought he could get away with this…and that I would never know?"

Ritchie sighed, exhausted, weary from the fear that was paying a major toll on his body. This particular fear was months coming. " He thought it was best you didn't. He wanted to do right by Elizabeth…I guess because she helped him when she saved his life…so-"

" So he lied." He concluded, staring at some space in front of him.

Ritchie couldn't think to say or do anything but nod." Yes, sir."

The wheels in Sonny's head were turning at a slower pace, but moving along as he spoke pensively. " And who else was in on this?"

" Sir?" Ritchie gulped.

Sonny's stare came to rest on his, devoid but authoritative in his approach. " Who else, Ritchie."

Stumbling, Ritchie squeezed his eyes shut tight. The hate that rose and scattered was directed only at himself, but he needed to live. He had to. " Me, Jason, and…Max."

" I see."

Ritchie didn't like the conclusiveness of his tone. The way he seemed to be preparing himself this whole time, waiting and now he was ready to go forth. " It wasn't like we were maliciously trying to go against you, but-"

" But you did anyway."

" I'm sorry." He rushed out, watching in horror as Sonny dusted his shirt then pants off; flicking a piece of fuzz from his collar like a man who had more imperative business to attend to than listening to his nervous ramblings.

The chill that went up Ritchie's spine when Sonny finally planted his glare on him was one of cold hard dread, unforgivable and unrelenting in its message.

Whispering as he cocked his gun, Sonny eyes blackened like two pieces of lint, remorseless and lifeless in their hold on him." Sorrys not good enough."

"I was …I thought…Jason, he was good to me. He gave me my first job" His voice tore out, the burn of nausea gripped his stomach and traveled higher, "…I wanted to make things right for him. He never asked anything of me so-"

" So his loyalty came above mine." Sonny waved the gun as he spoke.

Ritchie shook his head as he eyed the gun, sweat was beading across his brow, on the planes of his scruffy cheeks. His eyes bled out the undeniable truth of his fate and the tiny whisper that broke from across his wobbly twisted lips was one of desperation. " No, that- that's not what I mean."

" Then what do you mean." Sonny's apathetic voice dared for interpretation. " Tell me Ritchie, how am I ever supposed to trust you after this?"

Eyes bulged, head quaking like a leaf rattling in a hurricane, Ritchie fell to his knees, the tears falling from either sides of his face. His ashen face was distorted, quivering underneath the blackened two inch hole that held his fate. " But you promised."

Sonny chuckled again, this time not veiling the perverted delight that sprang from his laughing mouth. " You should know better than anybody, Ritchie." He aimed the gun, right where he had aimed it at Anthony who now lay two feet away. Dead. Sonny's eyes became possessed, scourging Ritchie with a fire only hell could follow. " First thing you learn in this business …everybody lies."

And he shot him.

She found Jason standing in the kitchen, over the counter. His back was to her but she could read the heaviness of his thoughts, the palpable tension rolling off of him like radioactive waves.

He turned just as her bare foot grazed against the cold tile. Wrinkled white t-shirt, wrinklier jeans that he hadn't bothered to button, his hair was recklessly mussed, but it all went along quite well with the ruffled set of his mind frame.

The way his eyes dimmed only to brighten when they became alert to her. He was hiding as well. Or maybe just dreading as much as she was the inevitability of the next morning.

She was going to miss him so much, it scared her to even contemplate the amount of anguish she was going to be in. Eighteen years and she never missed or cared for one person enough to understand that emptiness. She'd read about it, read about it a lot from all the greats, but reading the words off a page and having them come to life inside you were two completely different things.

She was different now. The past month had changed, forced her to grow up and speed way past the maturity of her peers. She always had felt less than connected to her age group, but now she was on a planet all her own. One no one could comprehend except for Jason.

Elizabeth knew the affects weren't reversible. Meeting Jason had made her someone else….the person she had always been inside and wanted so badly to come out. She had just been in a state of waiting all these years. Waiting for someone to see her, call her out and be happy with who she really was. He did that.

Her life before him was someone else's life and Elizabeth couldn't deny that there was no going back. She didn't want to even if she could.

He watched her like he always did as she scooped herself onto the counter opposite him. His stare was gentle and captivating in its fruitful endeavor. He didn't hide the primal enjoyment that flexed in his sterling blues as he trailed down her body with one heated sweep, only to go back up again even slower.

She felt intensely naked under the lengthy excursion of his glare though she was conservatively dressed in a blue hoodie and her usual ruffled jeans. Although, she chuckled inwardly, he wasn't aware she was clothed in only her sweater and jeans. No underwear. Her initial excuse was she was too lazy to do laundry, but right now she was high on her femininity and the way it pulled at him. He made her tingle with a powering need she couldn't explain even to herself.

She saw him lean his hip into the counter, his brow darken as frustration bloomed and fought for action.

The instinct to wrap herself in his arms, submerge in his warmth again until he blinded her from everything and took them both away from this cruel reality almost overcame her. But she couldn't let it.

She needed to be strong. It's what he would want. And her family needed her.

She wiped the corner of moisture from her mouth, not purposefully to tease, but she saw him tense anyway. " So…what comes next?" she asked tentatively.

" Next?" His eyebrow slanted at her question.

" Tomorrow morning."

His stare fell away from hers for a moment only to find her again, this time giving her with a more formal look. She knew he was trying his damndest to remain detached while talking. He was failing miserably. They had been intimate now, saw sides of one another that neither had shown before, to anyone. Probably never would again for her.

They hadn't just had physical sex. There weren't enough adjectives in the English language that did justice to what transpired between them in that room. No word would ever begin to express the connection of that experience.

Clearing the gravel in his throat Jason answered, his voice just as low and coarse as before. " Max is going to have your family. We'll meet up with them and then…the airport."

" Airport?" She wasn't expecting that for some reason.

His gaze fixed on hers. His mouth barely moved. " Yeah."

" Where…" It was her turn to clear the mucky quality of her voice. Her emotions were getting the better of her and she really didn't want to talk about this anymore, but she had no choice. They had avoided it long enough "…where are u sending us too?"

He stepped closer. " I don't know. That's for you and your family to decide."

The resolution in his answer reminded her of the way he was in her attic, distant, stoic. She didn't like it. " I don't understand."

Sighing, Jason stepped even closer, a foot between them as he eyed her reluctantly. Apparently he was as uncomfortable with this conversation as she was. " No one is going to know where you are. It's better that way. We hired the pilot and plane under assumed names…there not connected to us and once you board you can tell them where you want to go. We'll never know."

She shook her head, looking down at the frayed ends of her sweater cuffs. " Oh."

He stayed where he was, hadn't moved but felt closer, waiting with a patience that both irritated and unnerved her. She didn't know what he was waiting for and she had nothing to say. Nothing that he would want to hear anyway.

He must have been reading her mind because he said exactly what she knew he would.

His hand came up, stilled than rested next to her knee on the counter as he whispered, " Its better this way."

" You keep saying that," she murmured in a shaky but even voice.

His head tilted sideways, his brow hooding over his eyes as he tried to read her face. " Because it's true."

" I wish things were different." The words came out, expelling from her before she could rethink the danger of the territory she was voyaging into, the topic that would potentially scar her if she dug to deep and she didn't need the extra hurt to bring her down.

She heard him sigh, harsher, fuller, like the weight of the world existed in that one breath. " It doesn't matter. Either way."

Her head came up." What?"

He blinked, but easily masqueraded his expression to informal remote concern. " Either way, I could never be with you."

Her lungs closed off, but she squeezed by the pain to get the words out. " Because of the danger."

" Because of who I am." He stated matter of fact, standing straight and away from the huddle he had created between them. " It doesn't fit with who you are."

" How can you say that?" She said slowly, emotion spreading across her face and tone.

" After everything that happened."

" It's not that…" He ran a hand through his messy golden locks, gripped the ends in a tug to accent the weak manage he had over his anger. " Elizabeth, I'm not trying to hurt you. I want to be truthful. That's the only thing left I can give you."

" So this was just all about living in the moment for you?" She went to stand but he gripped her thigh and kept her in place. She ignored the warning in his eyes and his hand as she continued, " I mean I know it was. But it was more than that. I wouldn't..." She felt the tears coming and froze them out from what she needed to say "...I mean I couldn't have been with just anyone…I wanted to be with you because…it's you. Don't you get that? And maybe this was some kind of distraction, maybe you don't even realize-"

" No."

She wiped the first tear with a hard flick of her finger. " Maybe because I let my feelings show…"

" Stop." His eyes closed tight.

" I let my guard down," she concluded, clouded by what she was feeling, unaware of what she was missing when Jason's jaw squared like the worst kind of torture was being silently inflicted on him without her knowledge, "… and you were attracted to me so it made it seem like more and I took it as more…I was naïve enough to believe-"

" Stop!" He shouted letting go only to crowd her in her seat on the counter. " Stop it." He growled lowly but sharply into her face.

Their breathing hushed, hushed to silence only to rise, deeper and darker like the rhythm of their body's together inside. His eyes fell to her mouth, swirled liquidy blue as blaring desire unfolded throughout him. He leaned in, licking his lips, already tasting the flavor of her. His breathing hitched as his neck strained and his adam's apple bobbed.

The fuzzy sensation was coming at her in small doses. She wanted to give in…give in and let him do what he wanted to her, but she couldn't. A very conscious part of her knew the bleeding feeling her soul had been punctured with wasn't going to end…it was just beginning and Jason could only subside it for a moment and then it would be back again. Stronger than ever.

She had already lost. " No. No." She pushed at his chest and he immediately withdrew. "You…don't. Don't think you can just kiss me…take it away. I get it now."

" Get what?" He drove his hand through his hair and the frustrated action only served to make him look handsomer. " That you drive me fucking crazy."

Unperturbed and fairly immuned to his temper by now Elizabeth shot back swiftly. " I think I have stated more than once how much I despise that word."

His features were fixed, deliciously arrogant and unapologetic as he eyed her straight on. " Too bad."

" Fine."

" Good."

" Good."

" I'm going to go pack." She went to move but his hand was back on her thigh, this time there was no caress in his touch. His hold dared her to move and he had iron defiance in his eyes, taunting her to prove it.

" No." His mouth barely moved. " No you're not."

" You're an asshole." She provided with conviction.

Nothing stirred behind his eyes to even garner a glimpse of a reaction. " I've been called worse," he informed lowly. He sounded slightly amused, but there was still anger mixed in his features.

Except his stare which turned gray, a sore wounding quality that pricked at her heart.

" Is that supposed to surprise me. Because it doesn't ." She said with a little less fervor when she noticed there wasn't a trace left of pleasure in his face now.

" Please…" he whispered, hoarse, "Don't be upset."

" I'm not." She added quicker than necessary as she played with the end of her cuff again.

He tipped her chin up with his finger. He was glad she let him. " You're lying."

" No. I'm fine." She shrugged, shifting her jaw to the side to bite the inside of her mouth, smothering the emotion threatening to break her. "This is better like you said…"

" I never said it was better so that you'd hide from me. I'm trying to do what's right. And what's right is for you to be away from me. For good."

" Right." She answered emotionless, sniffling back the drip under her nose. " Right…so this doesn't have to go on. This can end, that's better, right? What the hell is so better?"

Obliterating what was left of his self control, Jason snapped, his stare ripping into her as he let his pain splurge out." That you'll be safe!" He roared, breathless, " Safe, don't you get that."

Disabled from thought or speech Elizabeth sat, and suddenly his agony became hers. One tear, just one, slipped from the corner of his eye. " Safe," she whispered.

" You think I could walk around, doing my fucking job if I knew you were in danger?" He yelled feverishly on the verge of mindless desolation. " You think I could live like that?"

" But Jason-"

" No. No. You listen to me. I can not…I will not have you in danger." He spoke sternly, his words directed at her, but it was like he was speaking to himself. His features were centric to his emotion… in their depletion of restraint. " There's no two ways about it. You need to be alive Elizabeth. I need to know you are safe…" he croaked out.

" But what if-"

" There are no what ifs." His hand sliced in the air. " You think I haven't thought about this. I haven't thought about any other options. There isn't any."

Her chest plate had to be cracking from the weight of emotion. It heaved in and out and she let herself be overcome. Crying, she wiped her soaked cheeks, barely mumbling out her words that were clogged with her tears. " I'm not strong enough to take this…I thought I was but I can't do this…"

" Elizabeth."

God, he sounded so wrecked up. " Jason, I don't want to lose you…not when I've just found you."

Cupping her face he brought it up, right below his as he leaned over. She immediately wiped the trail his tear had left. His eyes were glassy, his voice wobbly when he spoke but he sounded rigidly determined." I want you to do something for me."

" I can't."

" Shhh." He whispered, his mouth against hers. " Listen to me." She looked up at him, her eyes soggy and miserable, dangerously gorgeous in their temptation for him to get lost in them.

" I want you to live, you hear me….live for yourself. You've wasted so much time being scared. Change that. If I know you are out there somewhere happy…" He faltered, fought back the cry by swallowing and pressing his forehead into hers as he breathed out exhausted " … that's all I need. I'll be okay."

Her head twisted to turn out of his grasp but he wouldn't let her. He didn't know what he was asking." I don't know how," she hiccupped "…God, Jason, I need you-"

" No you don't. No you don't." The wall of tears in his eyes sprang out but didn't drop. His mouth frowned down into a piercing line as he bit back the urge to cry. " Let me tell you something…you, look at me. You are one of the bravest most fearless people I know. Do you know that. You have so much strength inside you. Look at all you've been through. What does that say? Elizabeth. I have never met anyone like you, anyone half as strong." He gripped her face harder. " You don't even know…"

" Please stop-"

" Do you know how much you have to give? You…" He sighed, falling short on words.

She was watching him now. Moved to the point of pain from what he was allowing her to see for the first time- the man he was inside. The person he never let out, for anyone. She was unable to say anything but his name. " Jason."

" You're beautiful." He confessed begrudgingly, as if he was enslaved by his emotion. "You're so goddamn beautiful…the way you laugh, the way you smile, the way you shy away…everything," he murmured softly, " …everything about you makes me want you. That will never change, Elizabeth."

His thumbs rested on the plane of her cheeks, wiping away the rest of her tears, sinking into the cool smoothness of her skin." Promise me."

His stare was vivid, securely locked in concentration on her solely. To the point and downfall of her distraction. " I-I"

The rest of his fingers rested behind the shell of her ears, rubbing the sensitive spot, drawing her out. He whispered again, this time firmer, more inflexible." Promise me you'll live."

What else could she say? She was hopeless, fighting a losing battle. Her eyes closed and she vowed the words, meaning them only because she saw he needed to hear it. " I promise."

There was no relief, how could there be, but his shoulders relaxed from their stiff position, his nose buried into her cheek as she said, " Promise me you'll be safe."

His answer came routinely. " I'll be fine."

She didn't like the casualness of his tone. " Jason." She arched a brow, pulling back a smidge to fully look at him.

The slight crooked grin he gifted her with was marred from the blatant ache that saturated his blue eyes, starving him from any chance at happiness. " I promise." He vowed, his voice husky and quiet.

She licked the residual tears that had plopped on her cheeks. She gulped them down, fixated on erasing the heaviness that lay in the air. If this was the last of their time together, she didn't want to spend it like this. " You know you're going to end up giving in one day. You're going to find some pretty girl, make her your wife…get a house in the suburbs…I can see it…" She joked half heartedly, placing the flat of her palm on the warm expanse of his chest, right where his heart lay.

He was still, immobile as he let out. " That can't happen."

" Because of your job." She surmised, glancing at his impervious but heated expression and blushing from the inside out when he didn't move to conceal the uncomfortable intensity he was displaying.

There was a silence, a heartbeat of a moment where she had no idea what would come next. Jason seemed on the edge of something, not breathing, a frozen statue under her.

He licked his lips, his eyes bobbing between hers, dosing her speechless in their striking exposure. " Because it won't be you."

When she didn't say or even blink to counter his words, he looked down, scraped his bottom lip with his teeth. He swallowed like it hurt to do it than locked his stare back on hers, tears peeking behind the crystal shimmer of his eyes. " You, right here…this…this is the closest I'll ever come to that dream. And it wasn't even a dream I wanted."

Stop, she wanted to yell, scream for a stop to this. It was torture hearing words like that knowing they could never be brought to fruition. She smiled tight signaling her need to end this before she lost all her sanity for good to him.

Jason read her instantly, wiping his hand down the side of her face, nudging her chin up with his thumb. " You're sick." He stated seriously.

" I'm okay." She insisted weakly, too worn to fight the stubbornness she saw set in his jaw.

" No. You're not. We got nothing here. Ill be gone for five minutes."

She smiled, her eyes drowsy, her body shrugged into a hunch position, spent from their conversation." Okay."

Disbelieving he leaned closer." Okay?"

" Yes." She giggled at his incredulity. He was so cute sometimes. She pushed at his chest. "Go. I'll be fine."

" It'll just be five minutes."

" I know."

" First, do me a favor."

" What?" She glanced from under her lashes.

" Kiss me." He ordered gently.

" Jason."

" Do it." He cupped the back of her knee, massaging the responsive skin with the tips of his fingers, his mouth already halfway down to hers.

And she obliged, cooperatively, willing. There was nothing he could ask that she wouldn't do. She knew that now. Being in love did that to a person.

His phone was ringing.

It was hard to hear over the noise of his heart. Over the last framed image of her in his mind.

Beautiful.

Bare in her beauty, reckless in her want for him…which he still couldn't understand.

The emotion gripped him in the aisle. He needed to get back there. He needed to have all the time he could with her. Everything was running out between him and her. Soon there would be nothing left and memories would only serve to screw with him. He'd die from the distraction she would bulldoze through him.

He squeezed the liquid medicine bottle in his hand. Sliced his hand through the air to grab the phone and bring it to his ear.

" What?" he barked out oblivious, his strides long as he made his way to the line of customers.

" Jason, fuck. Jason…Ritchie's dead."

Jason stopped in his place, almost tipping forward. " What?"

" I came to Sonny's penthouse. " Max explained, frantic. "No one picked up the phone and Ritchie had said he would be there…he's dead, so is Anthony."

His mind went numbly void, like a nuclear blast had just wiped away every inch of thought from him. " Where's Sonny?"

" I don't know man. No one knows where he is. He never came down the elevators. All our guys are in place. We don't know where the hell he went to. Jason, I think he knows. I think he knows everything. He's lost it man…"

After a second of getting his breathing under control, gulping for oxygen, Max realized Jason hadn't said anything. " Jason, Jason… are you there?"

And then buzz of the dial tone rang in his ear and Max understood. Jason was gone. If he knew the man like he thought he did, he was already midpoint to Elizabeth. Hopefully he wasn't too late.

She didn't like being without him.

Screw the cold.

She didn't care if she had pneumonia. As long as he was with her, she could handle it.

Elizabeth halted the avenue her thinking was going down. She couldn't go on like this. She wasn't going to be able to handle the rest of her life if she couldn't even make it five minutes without the man.

She tried to be impartial in her judgment of her actions. First loves were like that. They got a hold on you, took you through the ups and down at such a dramatic pace, Elizabeth didn't know where the girl who started out in this mess ended and where this new, grown up mature Elizabeth began.

Jason was right. She had to live. If not for herself then for him. She owed him her life. He had risked everything, the least she could do was conduct a decent future she could be proud of, make something of herself that would turn the heads of every family member. If she could indeed manage not to mess up what she had been given.

Knowing her…

She felt his hands snake around her waist, as usual the jump of her skin ran its course and she chuckled lightly. His hot breath fanned her ear, dropped to the pulse point.

" That was quick." She murmured, leafing through the tea bags.

" I thought it was about time we met."

The foreign tone, the musky scent hit her and she whipped around only to be jerked back against the body of the strange man. Her eyes widened then slit in recognition as the black orbs staring over her pulsed and dilated.

Her bones broke from the terror and she clutched on to the lapel of his suit jacket.

The birth of terror expanded, locking her jaw in place, stirring her stomach up as a fire trail of bile rose fiercely.

" Sonny-" she whispered

" Corinthos." He finished pleasantly, soothing. The menacing humorless black holes of his stare clawed at her, translating a deathly silent exchange that didn't necessitate words. " It's nice to finally meet you, Elizabeth Webber."