Chapter 51

Talking After the Grind From Behind

"Mom, leave Gram alone. Gram, I don't know why you try to engage in conversation with Mom. Please don't do this here." Elizabeth begged as she stood between the two women in the center of the room.

After dinner everyone milled around over drinks, talking and laughing. Then the argument started. It was the same argument the two women had for Elizabeth's entire lifetime. Audrey and Penelope never got along. Audrey never liked the way Penelope raised her children or how she treated Charles. Penelope never liked the way Audrey always meddled and talked down to her as if she were a child. Same argument, same confrontation, different decade.

"Elizabeth, why don't we take Aaron and your grandmother home?" Jason said as he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, sliding up behind her in a display of his unwavering united front with her against all others.

"Grams, I think that would be best." Elizabeth said letting out a long breath and reaching up to pat Jason's hand. She quickly twined their fingers and brought his hand down her shoulder and arm and settled it, with hers, at her waist.

"Well, I am pretty tired. However, I have my car here." Audrey stated smiling at her granddaughter.

"Yes ma'am, but you have had a few glasses of wine. We'll get you and your car home safely. Please let us drive you." Jason reasoned moving to Elizabeth's side and wrapping his arm around her waist.

"You are right Jason. Doctor Hardy always said two glasses of wine was my limit and I believe this may be my third." She said while holding up her near empty wine glass. "Driving is probably not a sound decision."

"If it's okay with you, I'll get Georgie to drive your car home and Spinelli can follow her. They may stay out pretty late though. I think the kids have plans after this with their friends." Elizabeth said as she motioned over to the crowd of twenty-somethings all huddled against the far wall.

"They haven't been drinking have they?" Audrey asked as she eyed the group suspiciously. Youngsters were sure different than when she was young. Piercings and tattoos and bawdy language. She sighed as she thought of the golden days when women wore girdles and it would have been scandalous for your bra strap to show. Men wore suits and always a belt. "You never know with kids these days."

"No, no neither of them have had anything tonight." Jason stated with a sound shake of his head then turned to Elizabeth. "I'll go tell them baby. Why don't you say goodbye to everyone and I'll meet you and Audrey at the valet. I'll grab Aaron and his diaper bag from Amy." He pulled her flush with his chest and placed a light kiss to her temple.

"Okay. Grams give Jason your keys." Elizabeth said as she pulled from Jason's arms and reached down on the table next to her and handed her grandmother her clutch.

Audrey pulled her keys and handed them to Jason with a light pat to his hand. "You are a good boy Jason. I don't believe the rumors about you and your partner. My bridge club can sure come up with some dooseys. Elizabeth is lucky to have found you."

"I'm the lucky one Audrey." He assured her with a wink. He then turned and shot a glance at Elizabeth. Kind of a whew-we-scraped-by-that-one look. He then walked to the far side of the room.

"Dad, we're going to take Gram home. I'll see you tomorrow." Elizabeth said walking over to her father and stepmother who were in conversation with Sarah and Billy.

"Okay, Mom you get a good nights sleep and Stella and I will pick you up tomorrow for the wedding around five." He said as he gave his mother a kiss to her cheek.

"Thank you son." She smiled and gave a quick nod to Stella.

"We wanna go! We wanna go!" Nicholas hopped up and down tugging on his Aunt's arm.

"Well, I rather expected that." Sarah said as she gave a knowing look at Elizabeth.

"Mom, can we stay at Aunt Elizabeth's house tonight, PLLEEEESSSSEEEE!" Rachel begged.

"If your Aunt and Jason say it's okay."

"Can we Aunt Elizabeth? I'll help you with Aaron and everything. We'll be good, we promise."

"Of course you can sweetheart."

"Do you want me to go upstairs and get them some clothes?" Sarah asked.

"No, they can sleep in two of Jason's t-shirts tonight. Billy is coming over in the morning to hang out with Jason while we all go get our hair and nails done. You can bring them some play clothes then. You'll be there by ten won't you? Our appointment is here at eleven in the salon."

"Sounds like a plan. Billy said he and Jason were going to take Aaron, Rachel and Nicholas over to Carly's? Apparently Carly has a nanny and she has a pizza party planned so Jason and Billy can play with Billy's new gun he got for Christmas at the target range."

"Yep, that's the plan. I'll see you two tomorrow." Elizabeth said leaning in to give her sister a kiss on the cheek. "Come on you two. How about we stop at the store on our way home to get all the makings of a super duper deluxe banana split?"

"Yea!" both kids chimed together.

Sarah quickly hugged and kissed her grandmother and Audrey pulled up the rear of the train of family members slowly working toward the exit of the room. Nicholas turned and grabbed his great-grandmother's hand. "You gonna come eat ice cream with us Gram?"

"No, no dear. You are going to drop me off at my house first."

"Aww Gram, you should come."

"Gram is pretty tired. We'll spend time together after your cousin Chris gets married. Sound good?"

"Yep!" the little boy answered with a beaming smile.

Elizabeth stopped to say good bye to a few other family members and guests then headed to the manager. "Make sure anyone that drinks too much is given a ride home by one of the valets and put everything on our tab. I don't want anyone pulling out any money. No matter how much my Dad protests." She ended with a knowing glint.

"Yes Ma'am. We have everything ready to your specifications for tomorrow. It will be a beautiful wedding."

"Has the cake's arrival been confirmed?" she asked.

"I am sure the head chef, Rebecca, has taken care of everything but I'll ask her to make sure. Don't worry Ms Webber, everything will be perfect."

"That's what I want to hear. Tell Mr. Morgan we'll be waiting at the car." Turning her head she asked, "Who wants to ride in the back and who wants to sit next to Gram?"

"ME" they both exclaimed.

"Well, Aaron's car seat will be in the middle so one of you has to sit in the back back. Do we need to do eenie meenie miny mo?"

"I'll sit in the back back" Rachel relented. At twelve, she was already starting to show signs of maturity mixed into her still playful childlike demeanor.

Elizabeth looked down at her "mini-me" and pulled her niece into her side. "For that, you get an extra cherry." And she kissed the top of her head.

Jason made his goodbyes with Aaron in his arms. He went to leave and Mark stepped in front of him. "May I?" He asked as he put his arms out to take Aaron from Jason's side.

Jason looked over at Chris who was intently watching the exchange. Chris made a quick affirmative nod of his head and Jason cleared his throat. "Sure." He said as he handed over the little boy.

"Gramps loves you. Real soon we'll get to spend lots of time together, I promise." Mark said as he kissed the little boys head. Aaron stared at him as if he were a stranger and twisted and turned in his grandfather's arms to reach out for Jason.

"Ja Ja" Aaron whimpered.

Mark closed his eyes in defeat and handed over the child. "Drive safe." He told Jason and walked away.

'That was cryptic' Jason thought as he snuggled the child in his arms and strode across the lobby floor toward the front door. Aaron was in the process of reaching up and grabbing on to Jason's nose and giving it a squeeze. Turning his head away from the miniscule fist he looked up and noticed Elizabeth's niece and nephew standing next to her and Audrey. He walked over and whispered into the head valet's ear.

"Jason, Aunt Elizabeth said we get to stop for banana splits!" Nicholas said excitedly.

"Oh she did, did she?" he said looking at her puzzled wondering what in the world she was thinking wanting to feed the kids sweets at nine o'clock at night.

"I said we would stop at the store and get the makings for banana splits. We have to put Aaron down to sleep before any of us can have one." Elizabeth corrected her nephew.

"Since we have the added passengers, I had Maurice get the limo. This way we all have plenty of room."

"I thought Chris and Amy were taking the limo."

"This one's Sonny's. He won't mind."

"Oh, okay. Come here Aaron. You are slobbering all over Jason's shirt."

"Fine with me, I'm never wearing it again anyway." He laughed.

"Why? You look most handsome." Audrey argued.

"Thank you Audrey but pink is not my color."

"It's" Elizabeth was cut off before finishing.

"Salmon, I know baby but it's still pink."

XXXXXXXX

Elizabeth walked downstairs in her pajamas with two of Jason's t-shirts in her hand. She watched from the landing on the stairs as Jason rolled around on the floor with Nicholas. He was showing Jason his Karate moves and Jason was taking the hits as if he were fighting against Bruce Lee. Both were laughing and Rachel spied her Aunt and rolled her eyes then turned her attention back to Hannah Montana on The Disney Channel.

"Okay, I think it's time for bed boys and girl. Do you two want to sleep on the couch or the bed in the office?"

"We'll sleep on the couch. Jason already got us pillows and blankets." Rachel said as she patted the items next to her.

"Alright then. There are new toothbrushes I set out for both of you in the bathroom next to Spinelli's room. Go brush your teeth and put on these t-shirts while I make up the couch."

"Okay" They both chimed happily skipping off to the bathroom.

"You know, we should not have let them eat so much sugar so late at night." Jason said with a warning tone.

"Look who's talking. I believe YOU were the one that had a bigger banana split than all three of ours combined."

"Well, Nick challenged me. Men can't back down to dares Elizabeth. It's just not manly. Besides, I need a lot of energy. I plan on a workout in the bed tonight." He winked and grabbed her hips as she was spreading a sheet on one side of the sectional and tucking it in. He gave a fully clothed thrust and then another at her from behind leaving little doubt of what kind of workout he wanted.

"Jason!" Rachel shrieked.

"Sorry…ummm….I slipped and fell into your Aunt Elizabeth." Jason stammered with blood immediately rising to a dark blush over his cheeks. Elizabeth stopped and turned to catch a glance of his face before looking over at her niece.

"Oh please. I'm not ten. I have even seen some PG-13 movies and a rated R one once." Rachel said as she wagged a punishing finger at Jason. Clearly she had a better handle on what she saw than they thought.

"Uh…Rachel? Maybe you and I need to have a talk?" Elizabeth said, not really sure what she should say to the girl but not really positive she should leave it alone either. She turned to Jason and whispered, "Go get the other can of Redi-whip. The chocolate flavored one. I'll be upstairs in a few minutes."

Jason gave her a half smiling wince and walked to the kitchen then practically sprinted through the dining-room to avoid Rachel's line of sight to get to the stairs with the can of whipped cream tucked under his shirt. He didn't look back for fear of catching the eyes of the twelve year old.

"What'cha got Jason?" came the sounds of Nickolas' curiosity.

"Ummm…Nothing Nick. Get to bed, I'll see you in the morning and you and I will go for that run on the beach with the dogs." Jason said as he took the stairs two at a time.

Elizabeth looked up to see his apologetic glance and then looked over at her niece and nephew and shrugged. "Come here you two. Aunt Elizabeth wants to talk to you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sorry about that." Jason said as Elizabeth entered the room. "How did it go down there?"

"Oh, fine I guess. I didn't go into it too much. I just discussed how you and I weren't married but we love each other like a married couple and sleep in the same room. That, of course, prompted quite a few questions from Nick. I told him to ask you tomorrow on your run so you have all night to prepare" she laughed. "Then I pulled Rachel into the kitchen to make sure she didn't have any questions about what she had specifically seen you do. She's fine. I think maybe my sister needs to have The Talk with her. She's more advanced at twelve than I was at fifteen."

"Well I didn't help much, did I?" he said apologetically closing his travel book on The Netherlands and set it on the table next to him.

"No, you didn't. It was weird though."

"Weird how?" he asked as he climbed over on his knees and pulled her down on the bed into his lap. He placed a kiss to her back between her shoulder blades just below the nape of her neck.

"Well, Rachel said I can't have anymore babies. Almost as if she knew about the miscarriage. I'm sure Sarah wouldn't have told the kids about that. And the way Rachel said it was like the baby had been born. It was just….weird."

Jason tensed up at her last statement. He knew that Rachel would remember Cameron and wondered if the young teen had accidentally meant him in her conversation about not having any more babies. He pulled her in tight and hugged her hard. Leaving the words he wanted to say unspoken and deep in his conscience.

"Honey? Does it bother you that we can't have children?" she asked turning in his arms to face him.

"Uh…no" he said holding his breath.

"That's not very convincing. Look, we've never really talked about it. I know I never wanted to have kids but if a child would make you happy, then it would make me happy. I guess I never really asked you if you wanted to be a father. I love you Jason. I would do anything for you. You know that, right?"

Before he could answer since he was carefully weighing his words, she spoke again. "I know I can't have children but we could adopt or find a surrogate if you wanted a child of your own. I don't want you to be with me if I can't fulfill all of your life's dreams."

"You are my life's dream. I'm just afraid that I'll wake up soon." He said with a kiss to her forehead. He wanted this conversation to stop. There was so much left hanging in the balance right now. He just wanted to get past the wedding so that he could then focus on Cameron. If he could bring Cameron home to her then all the possibilities came open for them. He wanted to tell her that she could have children. He wanted to tell her that Rachel did mean she already had a child. He wanted to tell her everything would be alright with them. Soon.

But he couldn't tell her what he was thinking. Dr. Winters had impressed him that afternoon. He left their conversation feeling like the weight of the world now rested squarely on his shoulders. HE could be the one to pull her from a nightmare he hadn't even known she was having. One she didn't know she was living.

"So you don't want children?" she asked looking for the truth in his eyes. She noticed a glint of fear in them and it confused her.

He turned away from her because he couldn't lie to her face. She knew him too well. He simply said, "Why don't we get past this wedding tomorrow and then we'll talk. Besides, with Amy and Chris going on their honeymoon, we'll have a whole week of twenty-four hour parenting with Aaron. That may be all the birth control we need to make the decision." He hoped that would end the conversation. He was wrong.

"Jason, you need to be honest with me. I don't want to be the one that keeps you from having everything you want out of life. I love you too much for that. You give me everything and what can I give you? Nothing."

"HEY, your love is not NOTHING to me. It's EVERYTHING! Now that I know what it's like to be loved by you, to spend every day loving you, to climb in this bed" he marked it by pounding his fist into the mattress "and wake up with you in my arms…baby…you just don't know. I can never tell you or show you what you mean to me. I don't care about money or power or family or even breathing if I can't do it or have it with you. Sure, I can buy you diamonds. I could buy you a house that three of these condos fit in. I can buy you your own island but that doesn't compare to you looking me in the eyes and telling me you love me. I don't feel worthy sometimes. Your love is the greatest gift I'll ever receive."

He was looking straight at her now. He watched as the tears welled up in her sapphire eyes. He lifted his hand to cup her cheek and used the pad of his thumb to swipe away the one that shed. "Please don't ever tell me that you give me nothing because the truth is you give me everything."

"I just worry that" she started but he pressed his lips to hers stopping her words. His hand moved from her cheek to her neck as he pulled her in close. His tongue slipped past her full lips and mated with hers.

She pulled away and looked at him. "I love you Jason Morgan."

"See, that's my dream. It's all I want in this world. Those three little words from your lips meant for me. It's everything. YOU'RE everything. I'll do everything in my power and give all that I have to keep hearing you say that to me."