"Elizabeth?"
Elizabeth stared at Lucky incredulously. "Lucky, what are you doing here?"
Glaring at Jason, Lucky stepped towards Elizabeth, taking in the visible bruises on her body. "My God, Elizabeth… what has he done to you? He's a monster. How can you be standing next to him when he hurt you like this? How can you be holding his hand?"
Lucky turned towards Taggert angrily. "Why haven't you arrested Jason for what he's done to Elizabeth?!"
Taggert sighed. The last thing he wanted to do was to defend Jason Morgan… "Lucky, you've got it wrong."
Lucky's eyes blazed. "You're right, I do. Because I thought that the police were supposed to HELP people and put criminals away. Yet you still let Jason near Elizabeth, even after he put those bruises on her."
Elizabeth's eyes narrowed and Jason felt her stiffen next to him. He put his hand on her shoulder, trying to hold her back. "Jason didn't do this to me," she spat out, glaring at Lucky. "Jason would NEVER lay his hands on me like that."
Jason pulled on her slightly. "Elizabeth, you don't have to do this."
"No… He needs to hear this." She turned her attention back to Lucky. "You keep telling me that Jason is going to hurt me, and that Jason is just using me. Well he's not. He's NEVER hurt me. In fact, he's the one who makes it better when I AM hurt. And he's not using me either. Jason came all this way to find me."
"Jason's the one who hurt you?"
Elizabeth sighed, throwing her hands up. Jason pulled on her arm, trying to get her to sit down. "Elizabeth, you're going to make yourself sick if you don't calm down. You don't have to defend me to him."
"You would say that," Lucky spat out. "Stop trying to make yourself look good, Jason. Elizabeth will see what you are and she'll realized that I'm the one she loves. That I'm all she needs and she'll walk away from you and never look back."
Elizabeth's jaw dropped. "Is that why you're here? Because you think coming here will make me fall in love with you again? That it'll make all of our problems just disappear?"
Lucky stepped closer and tried to grasp her hand but she pulled it out of his reach. "I just want to make you happy again. Remember when we were happy?"
Sighing, Elizabeth ran her fingers through her hair. "That was a long time ago, Lucky. A lot has changed. WE'VE changed."
"We haven't changed that much, Elizabeth. If you'd see how much Jason is clouding your vision, you'd see that we are the same people who fell in love… and that we can get back to where we were before."
Taking a deep breath, Elizabeth looked around. While Jason stood next to her, refusing to move, Sonny and Taggert had discretely moved away, giving her and Lucky space. Her eyes caught Jason's for a second before turning back to Lucky.
"That's not what I want," she said softly. "I don't want to go back to being that girl."
"Elizabeth…"
"And it's time I started doing what I want," she interrupted. "It's time I stop trying to please everyone else because I can't. But what I can do is make myself happy."
Lucky held out his hand to her, tears in his eyes as he realized that he was truly losing her. "I can make you happy."
Elizabeth looked down at his proffered hand and sighed. Unconsciously, she squeezed Jason's hand a little tighter. "Not anymore you can't," she whispered.
His gave crumpled as the tears fell from his eyes. "Elizabeth," he said brokenly, his hand remaining outstretched for a second longer before he pulled it back. "I love you."
"A part of me will always love you, Lucky… You were my first love. That'll never change. But I'VE changed too much for us to be together anymore." She took a deep breath before turning towards Jason. "Are you ready to go?"
"You're leaving with him?" Lucky asked. "You're going to walk away from me, and go with him?"
Elizabeth squeezed Jason's hand as he led her around the couched in the waiting room and towards the elevator.
"Yes."
The flight back to Port Charles had been short but exhausting. Elizabeth had slept most of the way and Jason had sat by her, his hand still encircling hers, watching her sleep.
When they had landed, Taggert had taken Elizabeth to the station to be questioned. Jason had gone with her, eventually being forced to wait outside of the interrogation room while they talked to her. She had been tired afterward, and he'd taken her to Jake's so that she could rest, promising to take her for a ride later after she slept.
So here he was, in front of General Hospital, with one more thing he needed to do, for himself, before he could help Elizabeth.
Deal with Jeremy Barker.
The guard in front of the hospital room had been easy to deal with; a handful of bills had taken care of him. Quietly, Jason looked around the hallway before stepping inside, closing the door behind him.
Jeremy lay peacefully in the bed, resting comfortably. Jason could see an outline of a brace on his leg when Elizabeth had shot him through the blanket that covered him. He stepped towards the bed, his eyes never leaving Jeremy's form.
Slipping on his leather gloves, Jason reached forward, his left hand circling Jeremy's throat. As his fingers tightened, Jeremy's eyes snapped open, widening when they saw Jason's cold stare looking back at him.
"What the hell?"
Jason tightened the pressure around Jeremy's throat a fraction of an inch and Jeremy's breath caught. "Do not speak," Jason said, his voice deadly and calm. He snatched away the call button for the nurses station that Jeremy had been blinding reaching for and threw it to the ground.
"Did you think that you could hurt Elizabeth and not suffer for it?"
Jeremy's eyes were wide as he watched Jason's free hand snake up the IV tube in his arms.
"Did you think you wouldn't die for touching her?"
His hand tightened around the IV, pausing for a second as his cold cerulean eyes locked with Jeremy's. "Did you think I wouldn't torture you for what you did to her?"
Jason's hand yanked on the IV, pulling it of out Jeremy's vein. The tube ripped some of his skin on the way out, blood pouring freely from the wound.
Jeremy hissed out in pain as his arm throbbed. The pressure on his throat increased slightly and he stiffened, fear lacing through him.
"You were wrong," Jason said calmly. He took a deep breath, forcing it out loudly between his lips. "You drugged Elizabeth," he said, his voice getting harder. "I think it's time I returned the favor."
Jeremy's eyes widened as he watched Jason pulled out a syringe from his jacket pocket. He struggled, ignoring the fact that Jason had a tight hold around his neck.
"No… please…" He wheezed as Jason increased the pressure on his neck.
Without mercy, Jason inserted the syringe into Jeremy's arm, emptying the contents. His eyes darkened to a deeper shade of blue as he held the man down.
"This," he said quietly, motioning to the syringe. "This is for the Hell you put Elizabeth through."
Jeremy's body went through a series of painful spasms as the drug worked its way through is system. His eyes rolled backwards as his entire body felt like it was on fire. He felt Jason lift his hand off his neck but it did nothing to relieve the pressure crushing his throat as the drug closed off his windpipe.
Reaching out blindly, Jeremy tried to find something, anything, to help him but he came up empty handed. His body felt like a ten ton weight were sitting on top of him, and gasping, he looked over at Jason.
Even through his pain, the look on Jason's face made him shiver.
"Nobody hurts Elizabeth like you did and gets away with it."
Jeremy's eyes widened as his body jerked for the last time, and the last thing he saw, were Jason's cold eyes.
Jason felt Elizabeth slide off the back of the bike before he even had the kickstand down. She had been unusually quiet during the ride, even when he sped through the curves of the Cliff Road. Elizabeth usually yelled out in excitement when they went riding, and the fact that she had been silent meant that she was hurting.
A lot.
Sliding off the bike, Jason watched as she made her way towards the bridge before stopping and walking off into the direction of the ruined estate. He silently followed her through what used to be the estate's gardens, watching as she stopped in front of the statues.
Her hands slid over the broken statue of the horse. The statue he'd broken.
"What happened here?" she asked softly.
Jason stepped up beside her. "When you were gone, I came up here, and the next thing I knew, I was throwing things and… I lost my temper."
Elizabeth's eyes widened slightly as she moved over to the other statue. "You didn't break the statue of the girl, did you?"
Following her, Jason watched as she inspected the statue carefully. "No… I was about to but I stopped."
Elizabeth turned towards him and Jason saw tears in her eyes. "What stopped you?"
Reaching out for her, Jason ran two of his fingers down her cheek. "You. I thought of that night you asked me if she was smiling or not and… and I knew I couldn't ruin her."
Grasping Jason's hand in her own, Elizabeth turned back towards the girl, her hand running over the face of the statue. "She's not smiling. She looks so… lost."
Pulling Jason over to a bench, Elizabeth sat down. "That's kinda how I felt too."
Jason squeezed her hand as he sat down next to her. He watched her carefully. "Are you ready to talk about it?"
Elizabeth took a deep breath, closing her eyes. A slight breeze pushed her hair into her face as she felt Jason brush it aside. Opening her eyes, she looked at him. "I thought I was going to die." Her voice caught as she took a deep breath to calm herself. "He was so out of control… and then when I found out he was Tom's son…" Her voice wavered as s eh covered her mouth with her hand.
Reaching for her, Jason pulled her into his arms as she sobbed. He spoke to her softly, but he didn't tell her that everything would be ok, and he didn't tell her that she would be fine, because that was for her to decide.
But he told her that she was safe.
After a few moment, Elizabeth pulled away, her breathing still irregular as she tried to calm herself. Jason watched her carefully, keeping one of his hands on top of hers.
"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her face with her free hand. "I cried all over your jacket. And it's leather… and wet leather is never a good thing. And-"
"Shh." Jason reached forward and put one of his fingers over her lips, quieting her. "You don't have to apologize for crying. If you feel like you need to cry, then cry. You've been through a lot these past few days. You don't have to pretend that you're fine because I know you're not."
Elizabeth nodded. "That's right… I don't have to pretend when I'm with you." She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "I guess I'm just… just a little overwhelmed right now. When Jeremy had that knife I thought for sure that I was going to die."
"He can't hurt you now."
"I know," she said nodding.
"And Lucky," Jason prodded. "I know that was tough for you. That confrontation at the hospital."
Elizabeth took a deep breath. "It hurt, having to hurt him. But it also felt right. He thought that we were going to get back together and I needed to make him understand that that's not going to happen."
"Do you think he realizes that now?"
Elizabeth sighed. "I hope he does. I don't want to have to keep hurting him. But he needs to understand that things between us are never going back to how they used to be before the fire."
Elizabeth looked over at Jason and gave him a small smile. Her hand reached up, her fingers tracing his jaw line. Leaning forward, she placed a gentle kiss on his lips. She pulled back slightly, resting her forehead against his.
"I've had a taste of freedom," she whispered softly. "And I want more."
Wrapping her arms around him, Elizabeth squeezed him tightly, smiling as he squeezed her back. She rested her chin on his shoulder.
Pulling her onto his lap, Jason squeezed her tighter as he felt a tear trickle down his cheek.
He was crying.
Jason Morgan was crying.
Elizabeth felt his shoulders shake slightly as he burrowed his head against her neck. Tears flowed freely from her eyes as he rocked them both back and forth. And together, they held each other, bringing each other the comfort they both desperately needed, and wanted more than anything.
"You're freedom for me, Jason," Elizabeth whispered. "And I'm not letting go. I'm never letting go."
THE END