Shattered Web: Chapter 4

It became obvious to Jason after only a few hours with Liz that she needed something to take her mind off of everything that had happened to her over the last two days. That's why, after spending the morning eating breakfast with Sonny, and laughing as best they could under the circumstances, Jason took Liz to do the one thing that always seemed to calm Carly down, shopping.

Now at 7:15, they were just sitting down at the P.C. Grill for some dinner.

"I can't believe how much I bought! I never thought of myself as being one of those girls that shops 'till they drop, but I'm totally beat!"

"After everything you've been through, that's understandable."

"Yeah, I guess…" Liz took the second afforded her to think back on exactly what had happened to her.

After Jason had come back into the penthouse, she'd left the comfort of Luke's arms and gone to Jason; something about him offered a sense of security that she couldn't feel in the arms of Lucky's father. Jason let her rest in his arms while he rubbed small circle of comfort across her back; it was a nice thing, feeling safe.

When she'd finally pulled from his grip, Jason moved her to the couch where they'd proceeded to sit in quiet silence until Sonny called them to eat his masterpiece of a breakfast. And as promised, orange juice was served.

Once everyone was finished and the adults in the room could no longer stand the silence of the subject they brought it up.

"Liz, honey, is there anything else you remember?"

"Luke, don't!" Jason's voice cut thought the conversation before it had a chance to get started. There was a deadly calm about the way he spoke to Luke.

"Jason, I don't want to upset Elizabeth anymore than you do, but if there's something she remembers—"

"Then she'll let you know. Liz?"

She looked at Jason, thanks shining in her eyes, "Yeah?"

"I still think Sonny might have some of Robins' old clothes here, they might fit better than those sweats."

At Sonny's nod, Liz had gone back into the room she'd been placed in and opened a box labeled "Robin," to revel an array of clothing to choose from. After trying on and discarding many of the smaller items, and pledging to herself to never be so anerexic to fit into those clothes, she left the room and when back down stairs.

It was obvious to here that she'd just walked into an argument that had been stopped for her benefit. Liz didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so instead she got angry.

"WHAT?! Go ahead, it isn't going to do any good. I don't know who did this to me, I don't know who hates me so much that they'd want to hurt me with," her voice caught in her throat, "Lucky. But I do know that you're fighting over this isn't going to make it better, and it isn't going to stop me from closing my eyes and seeing…seeing that awful…that awful…it isn't going to change anything. Please stop, just please don't fight over this, I couldn't bear it if you started fighting over this."

It was Jason who ended the silence after Liz's outburst, "Elizabeth, it's been a rough night on everyone. In our line of work, yelling is generally a good way to keep from killing each other." The smile that stole over his face was contageous as Liz found herself also smiling at the irony of his little joke. "So I'll tell you what, you need out, and Luke and Sonny need time to think this through and come up with a plan. Why don't you and I get out of here for a little while?"

So there they were, ten hours later, with a limo filled to the drivers seat with packages, and a measure of Liz's good spirits intact.

"You know Jason, it's going to take me a while to pay you pack for all the stuff I bought."

"Don't worry about it."
"Are you kidding? How much money did we spend today just on clothes for me?"

"You needed them if you were going to stay with me." A statement, Jason was simple that way, get what you need, it had always been that way. If you needed something, then you find a way to get it.

The argument between Sonny, Jason and Luke had started after Liz went to look through Robins clothes.

"Jason, you know I care about her too, hell, if Lucky were still alive, they'd probably be planning a wedding by now! She meant the world to my son, and I fully intend to kill whoever did this to her!"

"Jason understands that Luke, but you can't—you can't just coherse the girl into telling you something she doesn't know! Jason's just trying to protect her, that's all man!"
"I know that Sonny, I know. But damnit! I can't protect her unless I know what front this is coming from. Is it someone that I know? Are they doing this to her because she was involved with my son? For crying out loud, maybe it's the Cassidines! Anything she can remember will only help us help her!"

"Luke," throughout all of Luke's yellings and arguings, Jason had remained calm, "Pushing Liz isn't going to get you the answers you're looking for. She's told us everything she knows. Now it's up to us to keep her safe from whoever did this to her. That's it, that's all there is to it. It doesn't matter why they did it; all that matters is that we keep her safe from this point on. I don't know if this is a one time thing or not, but I'm not taking the risk that it isn't.

"Jason your right, but so is Luke. We gotta—gotta find out who's doing this so we can, you know, prevent who ever 'they' are from getting to her again."

"I'm not prepared to compremise her just to get some answers to questions that don't matter."

"Jason if you think that I want one hair on her head in any kind of pain—"

"LUKE! Settle down, that not what Jason meant, now just calm down—"

Liz had taken that moment to appear at the top of the stairs. The clothes she wore were too tight for her, and she seemed uncomfortable just standing there looking at them with so much pain in her eyes. Her words had shocked the whole of them, and Jason could sense the waves of defeat rolling off of the woman at the top of the stairs. That was when he'd decided on the first thing that had to be done, get Liz out of there, and fast. The second thing was to get her into some clothes she could breath in.

"Jason, I mean come on, you must have spent like a thousand dollars just on clothes I could fit into so that I could stay at your place for a couple of days. That's crazy!"

"Actually it was closer to two, and I told you not to worry about it, you needed it. And as to how long you're staying with me, that remains to be seen. For that reason, you need clothes."

The stunned look on her face showed she hadn't realized how much they'd spent, and Jason got a chuckle out of the way her eyes seemed to bulge out.

"Um Jason, I don't even make that much money in…well, it'll take a long time." She gave him a weak smile.

"Ok, look did you help me pick out that shirt you said would look great with my jacket, or not?"
"Well, yeah, so?"
"So, we're even. Your fashion advice for my two thousand dollars."

"Jason that doesn't even compare—"

"You've never seen some of the things I've come out of my room wearing."

She couldn't help it, she laughed; and when Jason joined in she laughed harder.

"It's true. After the accident, I couldn't match patterns together; they just got all mixed up in my head, kinda like a jigsaw puzzle. Robin use to turn me around at the door, go to my closet and pick something out for me. Haven't you ever wondered why I usually wear solid colors? It's 'cause it's hard to mix up blue jeans, a leather jacket, and a solid colored shirt."

"Well then it's probably a good thing I stopped you from getting that awful purple thing you were looking at."

The banter went on until the food arrived and they began to eat. Comfortable quiet settled over the two of them as they just enjoyed some peace after the last trying twenty-four hours.

It took a few minutes of quiet before Liz started to feel as if someone was watching her. At first she ignored it, thinking it was just her nerves, but when the feeling didn't go away, she began to get a little worried.

Jason had insisted that the guards come into the restarunt with them, and as such were seated at the next table over. Liz took a glance at them, and noticed that they didn't seem to be alarmed. Thinking that she was just over reacting, she began to eat once again, only to feel those hidden eyes on her once more. Not wanting to alarm Jason, but also wanting to make his presence known in case someone was watching she turned to her dinner companion.

"Jason?"

He looked up at her and smiled, a reasuring gesture, one she needed despiritly.

"Um, I got you something—while we were shopping, I mean. Johney has it, I'm going to grab it from him."

She stood and moved over to the table seating the four bodyguards. Liz moved next to Johney and spoke into his ear, "Have you notice anything strange?"
He looked at her with concern and then took a quick glance around the establishment, "No, neither have the boys, we were just discussing that. Why, have you?"

"I'm not sure, it's just, weird, oh, I don't know. Maybe it's nothing, but I don't want Jason to worry about me if it isn't. I, um, kinda told him that I got him something so that I could come over and talk to you. Any ideas?"

She gave him a weak smile indicating her creek, minus the paddle.

Reaching into his breast pocket, Johney pulled out an envelope and handed it to her, "We'll keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. Give this to him, but Ms. Webber, I don't think you should be keeping secretes from Mr. Morgan, others have tried, and it hasn't gone very well. If your honest with him…well, just do us all a favor and tell him you're uncomfortable."

Liz got a thoughtful look in her eye and then looked at the envelope in her hand, "What's this?"
If Liz hadn't been seeing things she would have thought Johney was blushing, "Um, gift certificate to the golf shop." He paused at the amused but questioning look in her eyes, "It's a present for my father. He golfs."

Liz thanked him, and after promising to pay him back—against his protest—she went back to the table she and Jason were sharing.

Jason watched her approach with an amused smile on his face.

"What's so funny?"

"Johney gave you the gift certificate he was going to give to his dad for his birthday."

"How did you—oh never mind." Leaning out over the table toward the group of body guards trying not to laugh at the display of their charge getting caught at her own game, she spoke to the group in general, Johney in particular, "Thanks anyway." The group burst out laughing, causing the other patrons to stare at them.

Jason too was laughing as Liz turned back to face him. "Yeah, laugh it up Jason, just laugh it up."

When his laughter died down, Jason looked at her with all seriousness, "Do you want to tell me, or should I ask Johney?"

"Number one, Johney wouldn't tell you even if you did ask, I told him in confidence!" She was a little mad at how he thought he could just step over her for the answers, "And number two, I'm kinda having a weird feeling, like someone's watching me."

At her words Jason was instantly alert. He scanned the surrounding tables and looked for anything or anyone who was trying hard not to be seen. Jason noted with some pride that his boys were following his lead and doing the same.

Suddenly, Liz let out a giggle and put her face in her hands. "Oh God, this is not happening! I don't need this today!"

"Liz, what's going on, what do you mean?"

She raised her face and looked at him, a smile and a twing of annoyance making her look more lovely than he'd seen her all day, "Promise you won't cause a sceen?"

"No. Now tell me anyway."
"Jason!"

"Elizabeth," his tone left no room for argument, "Tell me."

"Ok, ok, gees! Don't turn around, but Carly and A.J. are sitting three table behind you, and I think Carlys trying to kill me with her eyes." Liz giggled again, and Jason resisted the urge to smash something.

From early on in their friendship, Carly had detested Liz being his friend. She'd insisted that Liz was after nothing more than his money, or his body, or something else along those lines. He'd tried to reason with her, explaining that it was nothing like that, she hadn't listened. At one point after he'd come home late one night, after taking Liz one a bike ride, she'd threatened to take Michael away from him. Jason also knew from the few times Liz had let something slip, that Carly was also harassing her that Ruby's. But before he'd had a chance to tell her to knock it off, Carly had gone and married AJ, effectively removing herself from his life. She was no longer his problem, only his mess.

"Are you sure that she's the one?"

"Yeah, look—well don't look—but they just had their menus taken away, which means that those strange "eyes" I felt on me started at just about the time they were seated. AHHH! She makes me so mad!"

"I know what you mean."

Suddenly, Liz felt totally guilty, "Oh Jason, I'm really sorry. Here I am bashing the mother of your son. I'm such an idiot!"

"He's not my son." The words sounded hollow and fake even to him, and from the look in Liz's eyes, they sounded the same to her. "Don't worry about it, I understand how you feel. Sometimes I just want to ring her neck!" A twinkle entered his eyes, "You think you had it bad when she'd come into Ruby's and harass you, imagine how I felt having to go home to her!"

They laughed, it was a good feeling, even if it was at Carly's expense, actually, that's what made it feel so good.

Jason stood and explained to the boys that they'd figured it out and that they could stop giving the evil eye to the other customers.

A pleasant conversation around Liz's purchases followed and it was about a half an hour later that they chose to bypass dessert and just go home.