"Push Elizabeth!! This is the last one!" The doctor urged her on, even though Elizabeth barely had the energy to speak.
"Jason, I can't, I can't do this!" she said between breaths. She wouldn't know what to do if he hadn't been there with her.
Sitting behind her with his arms and legs surrounding her he brushed her hair back, "Elizabeth," he whispered barely loud enough for her to hear. "You are the strongest woman I know. You brought me back to you, didn't you? And you can do this. Do you know how I know? Because I love you, and you love me. And because we want to love our baby. Push for me babe, push."
Liz grabbed his legs as she gave one final push. "Come... ON!" She fell against him finally, gasping for oxygen.
"Liz," he said breathlessly, "look." He pointed towards the end of the table.
She could hear the cries before she could see the source.
The doctor raised his arms to show the new parents. "It's a girl!" he smiled broadly.
"A girl," Elizabeth repeated. She looked up at Jason, "We have a daughter."
He smiled down on her with tears in his eyes. "Yes we do."
Jason stayed in the bed with Elizabeth while the nurses cleaned her up and measured her. Jason's hand shook when the nurse handed him the scissors to cut the umbilical cord. Finally they handed her over to the proud parents.
"What should we name her?" he said into her ear, admiring everything about his new little girl.
Without even thinking Elizabeth replied, "Lila Nicole."
Jason nodded, letting his tears fall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"She looks like you."
"If you say so."
"She's got your beautiful blue eyes." Liz looked at him, the pride on his face impossible to miss.
"That they are." He smiled at his sleeping daughter. This is so perfect, he thought to himself. What was I thinking when I left her?
Elizabeth caught the flicker of pain ripple over his face. "Give her a kiss, Daddy, I'm taking her to her room. I think it's about time we talked." She watched him lean over her tiny body, being so careful.
She picked Lila up, being careful not to wake her.
Jason watched with admiration as his girls left the room. Knowing what this conversation was going to be about, he remembered the day he came home...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Liz woke up to two blue eyes fixated on her. She jerked away at first, not remembering who it was. Jason frowned, knowing how much pain he had caused her.
"How many months?"
"Seven."
He nodded. "Everything's well?"
She nodded, not telling him about the encounter with Lucky, and the subsequent hospital stay.
"Elizabeth, I'm sor-" She placed a hand on his lips to prevent him from finishing.
"Not now," she whispered.
He understood, letting Liz do it her way. She looked him up and down, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "Go take a shower!"
He laughed at her, but did as she wished. When he finished, she has fallen back asleep. He slipped under the covers, letting her sleep. When he awoke again, she had found her way to him, her forehead resting on his back, her arms around his chest. He could hear her crying quietly and felt the tears on his back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They hadn't talked about his departure since he had come home. It was inevitable that it would be discussed, but he understood Liz's need to take things at her own pace.
She closed the door when she returned, but turned the baby monitor on, just in case. Sighing, she lay down next to him in the bed, tracing lines along his chest. She didn't know how to begin.
"Jason.." she couldn't think of anything, the words to express her anguish and frustration the day he left her.
"Elizabeth, there's something you need to know first." He swallowed, not knowing how she would react. "There were three attempts on your life, before I left. I never told you because I didn't want to scare you. I thought leaving would make it better for you."
"Well you were wrong, Jason. You were the only thought in my head during those seven months. Poor Chloe, I could barely get any work done for her! Not to mention Sonny coming over here every other day." He smiled inwardly, liking the fact that she thought about him constantly.
"But you were safe."
"I'm safer when I'm with YOU." She looked into his eyes then, drowning in the storm of emotions they tried unsuccessfully to hide. "I don't want to be anywhere else but right her, in your arms, ever. This is the safest place for me. If you take that away from me, what have I got?"
"A longer life span," he said quietly.
"I don't care! I could die tomorrow from a heart attack!! As long as you're here to love me, I wouldn't care!"
"But I would."
"Jason, whatever happens happens. You can't control every single thing! And you sure as hell can't control my life! That's what Lucky tried to do when he told me to stop talking to you. WHY on EARTH would I want that again?!"
"Elizabeth, I wasn't trying to control your life-"
"Yes you were!! You didn't give me a chance to choose! The man I love, or a safe and loveless life. DUH! Jason, I would choose you. I chose you then, and I choose you now! I could have a hundred threats on my life, I don't care, as long as I'm with you." He tried to speak, but she kept going, "I know, I know. You can't keep me safe one hundred percent of the time. I understand that Jason, I really do. But you know what? It's worth it!" She stopped to calm herself down and quit yelling.
"It's worth the danger, as long as I can wake up in your arms, and look into those beautiful blue eyes. If someone held a gun to my head and told me the only way I could stay alive was if you were gone, I'd pull the trigger myself."
Jason tried putting that image out of his head, "Elizabeth-" he tried again, but she interrupted him, again.
"I know Jason. I remember what you said that night on the beach. There's a thousand reasons for you to leave and never look back. But now you don't have just one reason to stay, you have two."
She took his face in her hands, forcing him to look straight at her. "Jason Morgan, if you leave, I will follow you. I'll take Lila with me, and we'll find you." She placed a hand on his chest. "You seem to forget Jason, I know your heart. I won't ask for more than you can give. And there's nothing you can't give me."
"Except for a normal life," he said, more to himself than to her.
"Normal is a relative term," she said with a smile on her face.
He laughed in agreement. His life had been anything but normal since the night he got into the car with AJ.
"So we're agreed?" she asked him. "No leaving in the middle of the night? And if I'm in danger, the only one to protect me is you. Ok?"
Jason kissed her softly, "I don't agree with it, but do I really have a choice?" He chuckled at the look on her face.
"Jason Morgan-" it was his turn to interrupt her, with another kiss.
"I love you Elizabeth."
"I love you back."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His laugh was low and menacing.
"We must strike while the iron is hot gentlemen."