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Web of Deceit

Part IV

~Jail~

Elizabeth rested her head on the cool wall and tried to think about anything other than what she had been thinking about. But it was no use. She had been in this cell for 8 days, 8 long days, and every time she looked around it, it seemed like it was getting smaller. She looked down at her pale wrist, it looked like it had shrunk too. It was like she was trapped in a vacuum and everything was shrinking. Soon there wouldn't be anything left but these four walls.

She sighed and closed her eyes. It was thoughts like this that weren't helping her. Her grandmother, Luke, Sarah, especially Sarah were always telling her to be positive. That she would get out of this mess any day now. But any day now didn't seem to be coming, and she was beginning to think it never would.

Her trial date was looming large, and the latest in the parade of lawyers her grandmother had brought in, had said it didn't look good for her. Hell she knew that over a week ago. Each lawyer that her gram had brought in had told her to plead guilty to a lesser offense. Each one had said that was the only way she wouldn't go to jail for 20 years. And each one of them after giving that advice was shown the door rather painfully by Luke.

Her nose wrinkled in a small weak smile. Luke was even willing to swallow his pride and talk to Scott Baldwin about taking her case. But Scott was unavailable, camping somewhere in Alaska with Serena.

Her trial started in 3 days and things didn't look good. The evidence against her was damning. Gia didn't remember. Her closest friends believed she was guilty. Courtney still denied being there. She had thought that with time Sonny might realize that she wasn't lying, but apparently he hadn't. Or if he had, he had decided to side with his sister anyway. It didn't matter anyway, there would no Calvary to come to her rescue this time.

If there were a bright spot about going to prison, it would be that she wouldn't have to see Lucky anymore. He had been coming by every day, to offer his help, and look at her through those sad empty eyes of his. He wanted her to admit that she needed his help. According to him, once she did that, this whole mess would evaporate. She was beginning to seriously doubt his sanity.

Elizabeth pushed her way to her feet and fell heavily against the wall when the room spun and began to go dark. She remained where she was and waited for the feeling to pass, before moving back to her cot. It was time for 2:00 – 3:00 nap. This was how she lived, she slept, picked at her food, tried to stay positive when her gram or the others were around, then went back to sleep.

"Elizabeth."

She closed her eyes and tried to block out the sound of her name. She had forgotten about the whispers. Whispers that came from the next cell. Those whispers were almost worse than the food in this place.

"I wonder if my darling Nikolas will come by again. I hope so. I do love to hear him threaten you." Helena Cassadine moved closer to the wall that separated her cell from Elizabeth's and prepared to enjoy the afternoon edition of her favorite pastime, which was tormenting Elizabeth Webber. "And to think I once thought you worthy of at least sharing his bed."

Elizabeth pulled the pillow over her head and tried to block out the voice.

~Luke's~

"Luke this is killing her, and it is killing me. She dies a little more every day and it's only been 8 days," Audrey cried out. "I don't know how much more she can take."

"She's strong Audrey." Luke pointed out.

"Yes but she shouldn't have to be this strong." Temper spent Audrey sank in the chair. "It pains me, that I didn't believe her at first. And I know that hurt Elizabeth as well," familial pride gone she focused on the one other person who was devoted to saving her granddaughter.

"Her parents have refused to come home. They won't even call her. Steven is too busy in his practice to come." Audrey didn't hate. It didn't come naturally to her. But she was rapidly coming to loathe her family. "Sarah tries, but her parents should be here. Her family should be here, and they're not."

Luke had a few choice words he could use on to describe the Webber clan, but wisely didn't. "She has you."

"Yes but I doubted her. I have no idea how much that hurt her. I thought she took drugs, and didn't believe her when she denied it. I didn't believe her, until they accused her of attempted murder and realized she was telling the truth. That's something I'm going to have to live with."

"The important thing is when it came to crunch time Audrey, you're here for her." He shuffled some papers on his desk. "So what does the latest 'Tricky Dick' have to say?"

She looked at him blankly.

"The latest in the revolving door of lawyers, what's his advice."

"The same as the others. To plead it out. Make the offer of 7 – 15 and with good behavior maybe she could be out in 5 years." Audrey had become very familiar with legal jargon in the past week. She had also developed a healthy dislike of the entire law field.

"Idiots every last blood-sucking one of them." Luke grumbled and got up to refill his coffee cup.

She agreed but didn't voice her opinion. "I thought Alexis Davis might change her mind. But as of last night, she still refuses to even meet with Elizabeth and hear her story."

"Thanks to Corinthos no doubt," he murmured darkly.

Audrey hesitated, then the image of Elizabeth behind bars came to her and she swallowed her pride. "Elizabeth always used to defend Sonny to me, he even helped her before. Yet he turned on her just like that."

"Yeah," Luke drawled. "Corinthos is like that. He cuts people out of his life for what he sees as a betrayal to him, yet he does the same thing to other people all the time."

"Do you…" she trailed off.

Luke moved back to his chair and waited for her to continue. He had a feeling she was working up to something that was hard for her to admit.

"As much as she spoke of Sonny, she spoke so much more of Jason Morgan," she darted a look at him. "What do you think of him?"

"Junior?" He tugged on his ear and took a long sip of coffee, the stuff tasted horrible without any brandy in it. "Are you asking me if I think he could help Elizabeth? Then the answer is yes. If you want to know if he will side with her over Corinthos," he trailed off and thought about it. He remembered all the times he had seen them together, he remembered Lucky's jealousy, and Elizabeth's sadness when he had left town.

"I think he will. Jason's not like other people. Once he gives you his loyalty you could screw him six wa…"

Audrey raised an eyebrow.

"Er anyway," Luke began again. "He'd still be loyal to you. But if you mess over someone he cares about, he won't be. That's what broke him and Robin up in the end. It wasn't my psycho niece like everyone thought. Robin broke his trust, which he could forgive, but in doing so she hurt Michael, and that was something he couldn't. Another thing about him is that he sees through people right to the truth that they want so desperately to hide and he calls them on it."

"So he would know she was telling the truth."

"Oh I have no doubt he'll believe her. He'll believe her without even asking her," his gut twisted because his son didn't have that same sort of faith in her. "And he'll help her, no matter what."

She nodded she had thought so herself, but it was nice to have her suspicions confirmed. "Can you contact him then?"

Luke smirked and flipped open the cover of a laptop that was cycling through information. "I've been looking for junior since I got to town."

Audrey looked worried at that pronouncement. "The hearing starts in three days. What if you can't find him in time?"

Luke grimaced he wasn't about to let Audrey know about plan B that was safely locked away in his safe. The plan B that involved nitroglycerin. There were things even a grandmother shouldn't know. "I'll talk to Natasha," at her blank look he clarified. "Alexis, about taking Elizabeth's case."

He finally glowered down at the ringing phone he had been ignoring. "What?" He snarled into it."

Then his expression changed, his face seemed to light up and a smile crossed his lips, causing Audrey to blink in surprise.

"Sunshine. I've been waiting to hear from you." He paused and listened. "Listen sweetie I need your help to find that brother of yours."

~Penthouse 4~

Carly stormed off the elevator the same time Alexis opened her door and walked out into the hall. They eyed each other warily but before either had a chance to speak they were both distracted by the sound of shouts coming from Sonny's penthouse.

Moving in tandem they turned the corner towards the door, in time to see it fly open and Zander come flying out of it, crashing into the wall.

"Zander," Carly hurried to his side in concern.

Alexis looked past him to an irate Sonny who was standing in the door.

"Get out. And don't ever come back." Sonny ordered him.

Zander straightened and focused on his former friend. "Fine I'll leave. I don't want to work for you anymore. I don't even want to know you. I have no idea what happened to you man, but at times you act like Sorel."

Sonny took a step forward and Carly turned on him. "Back off," she warned him. "Are you attacking him because he had the balls to tell me the truth about you spying on me?"

"This is between him and me Carly."

"Bull Sonny. You hired him to be my friend, to keep an eye on me, and what I do, so he could report my every move back to you," she stepped closer. "I bet you never counted on him liking me for me."

"You're fired Zander." Sonny said then turned to go back inside.

Alexis blocked his way. "Another ultimatum? Is that what you gave him?"

"Move Alexis."

"Who are you Sonny? I look for my best friend in you, and I can't see him anymore." Alexis whispered.

Sonny wait until he was past her and in the room before he flinched in reaction to her words.

"Will you go with Alexis Zander, I need to talk to Sonny," Carly asked.

"I don't think…"

"Please." Carly patted his arm. "I'll be fine."

Zander nodded reluctantly and trailed Alexis to her penthouse.

Carly moved inside the penthouse and looked around at the new design of it. It wasn't as dark as it had been. But it still wasn't alive. "I look around this place and even though it looks different, even though it's painted in lighter colors, it still the same as it was when I moved in here. Cold, angry and empty."

She looked at him sadly. "I fought to change this place, I fought to change you. I tried to fill both it and you up with warmth. But I wasn't strong enough, or good enough, or worthy enough, for whatever reason I failed. Or maybe I failed because you wanted me too. You never wanted me to get to far in, because I might abandon you, so instead you abandoned me first."

"That wasn't how it happened." Sonny interrupted, pouring himself a drink.

"Isn't it? Didn't all this start when you stopped talking to me? When you started hiding things from me?" She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter now. Since then I've done everything you wanted me to do. You wanted the divorce I gave you the divorce. You wanted to be Michael's father, I let you adopt him. You wanted me to be a better person. Someone you could trust, so I tried to become one," she took the glass from his hand. "You know what Sonny, I started to change just so I could please you. Just so you would see I was worthy of your love. But no more."

Sonny moved past her to sit on the couch, trying to get a break, but she trailed him.

"I realized the longer we were apart, the more I started doing things for me. Changing for me. This may have all started in some attempt to prove myself to you, but now it's only for me."

"Fine I'm happy for you." Sonny cried shortly. "I'm glad you've finally moved on. Are we done?"

"You're falling Sonny. You're falling so fast and so far I don't know if you can stop yourself. Soon there won't be anybody left here to catch you. I'm gone, Courtney lasted what? A week. Mike has been banished, Jason's gone, it even looks like you've managed to lose Alexis," she shook her head at that. "Zander was loyal to you, and now you've abused his trust and tossed him out too. You're so afraid of being left by people, that you try to kick them out of your life before they can leave you. Yet at the same time you hang on to people so tight, you try to control them, even after they leave, that we have to break free of you just to breathe."

Sonny closed his eyes and shook his head, yet he made no effort to defend himself.

"I fought like hell to get Michael away from the Quartermaine's and their twisted sense of love that masked their need to control people, and stifle their dreams. I trusted the most important thing in the world to you," she rubbed her forehead wearily. "But I won't let you near Michael when you're like this. He deserves better than that, better than you right now. So I'm putting you on notice. If you want to see your son, get control of your life. Because until you do, you won't get near him."

Courtney barely had time to move down the hall to the emergency exit before Carly stormed out of the penthouse heading for Alexis' penthouse. She waited until Carly opened the door and barged in there before moving back down the hall to Sonny's door that was still ajar. She peered in and saw him staring at the wet bar. Her mouth curved into a slight grin when he took his arm and brushed it against the bottles shattering every one of them, by shoving them on the floor. She moved to the elevator before he could see her, the sound of him breaking more things followed her every step.

~Penthouse 2~

"All I'm saying is you need to watch him. You're around him more than anybody else, more than most attorneys are." Carly couldn't help but make the jab.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "Carly how many times do I have to tell you that Sonny and I aren't involved in that way? Right now we're barely speaking. Right now I don't even like him very much."

"Whatever," Carly huffed. "All I'm saying is Sonny gets in these moods. Normally when he does Jason is the only who can bring him out of it. He gets destructive. You just need to watch him," that was the best she could say to her one time rival, so she turned to Zander. "Are you ready to leave?"

Zander got up from the couch in surprise. "I thought you were mad at me."

"Oh I am," Carly warned him before giving Alexis a look. She took the hint and moved over to the couch.

"Look Zander I've really only had three friends in my life. The real Carly Roberts who died when we were teens. Jason started out as a no-name sex partner, who I later blackmailed, before we finally became friends. And then there is a guy who was paid to be my friend, and in the end decided it was better to be my friend than keep his job." She smiled slightly. "So we're friends, and I don't have enough of them to throw one away. But I'm still mad," she said when he smiled. "So you're on swatch detail."

Zander sagged in relief, he was afraid he had lost her, and as unnerving as it was too realize he never wanted to lose her. "Swatch's?"

"And paint," she tucked her arm through his, "also music, lot's and lots of music," he opened the door and she jerked to a stop. "Luke," she said his name icily.

"Caroline," Luke drawled with a sly smile. "In trouble again are you?"

Carly rolled her eyes and dragged Zander past him.

"Good choice going younger this time Caroline," Luke called after her, earning a glare in response. "The geriatric club hasn't been good to you. Maybe you can train this one," he peered at Zander. "Can you fetch yet boy?"

They both glared at him and Luke smiled in return and moved into Alexis' penthouse. "Was it something I said?"

"Isn't it always?" Alexis was well used to Luke's actions. "What do you want?"

"Natasha you wound me," Luke moved to the other couch. "Is that anyway to talk to your former partner in crime?"

"The emphasis is on the word former Luke. And why is it you always forget that we nearly murdered the wrong person when we did work together?"

"Details," Luke waved his hand dismissively before reaching for a cigar.

Alexis plucked it from his hand. "What do you want?"

Luke pouted for a minute then got serious. "Why are you neglecting Elizabeth?"

~*~*~*~

"So you've reverted to following orders again? Kind of like when Helena forced you to get my ex-doc-bro-in-law out of jail for kidnapping Michael." He shot her a look. "And look how well that turned out."

Alexis felt the darts that his words cost her, but didn't show it. "This is different."

"Why because the threat came in the form of an ultimatum delivered by dimples?" Luke just shook his head. "I thought you were stronger than that Natasha."

"Nikolas also…"

"The dark prince? Whether you want to admit it or not, the boy is acting more and more like his father every day. With the stiff gone, no one will rein him in. Don't encourage him."

"Back off Luke," Alexis moved to the door and opened it. "I won't listen to you talk about Nikolas this way. Goodbye."

"Helena is in the cell next to hers. She talks to her all the time, she messes with her head." Luke kept his eyes on his clenched fists. "She blames Elizabeth for breaking her hold on Lucky. She blames her for helping to get her caught, hell she blames her for being alive, and all the time she is there whispering in Elizabeth's ear, and she can't get away from the old bag."

Alexis closed the door and moved back towards the couch. She was aware of the kind of mind games Helena could play on someone. She looked up at the nearly empty mantle above her fireplace. She'd had her own little breakdown not to long ago in direct reaction to coming out of one of Helena's mind games.

"She's wasting away before my eyes Alexis, she dies a little more every day, and she's barely even been there a week," he focused on her and the pain in his eyes was evident. "Have you ever seen a butterfly? They are so beautiful and light, and the way they move, they captivate you. Lucky caught one once, it was so beautiful he wanted it with him always. So he put it in a jar, on the windowsill where it would have plenty of light, and waited for it to dance. But it wouldn't, it died that night. Some things are just meant to move freely, with no restraints. She was trapped when she shouldn't have been, and she died when she couldn't get free. There are some things in life that need to be free to live."

He got to his feet and moved towards the door. "There are some people who shouldn't be caged either. She won't survive jail and she shouldn't have too. All I'm asking you to do is to talk to her. Look at the evidence. And after you do that, you can turn that little girl down, then fine. But don't hold back because of Corinthos," he hissed out the name. "Because he's not worth it. And unless I've been wrong about you for all these years, you already know that."

~Jail~

"Move it Princess you got another visitor."

Elizabeth hid the flinch when she heard the matron's voice. She had been hoping she had seen the last of this particular guard. She hadn't been on the cellblock since her first day here, and she had been relieved. But it looked like her luck had run out. She moved quickly holding out her arms, hoping that she wouldn't be rough.

But the guard slammed the cuffs around her wrists, and tightened them hard against her wrists anyway, but Elizabeth didn't wince. She wouldn't give her the satisfaction. She bent forward slightly as the cuffs went around her ankles. Her mind went back to the last time she had been cuffed like this.

Most of her visitors came directly to her cell, the only exception had been Sonny. And that must have been because of who he was. She swallowed hard, and didn't even feel the pokes in the back as the guard helped move her along. Maybe he had come back. Maybe he had decided to help her after all. Or maybe he was angry, because she was still trying to convince people that Courtney had been driving not her.

She worried her lip as they neared the door. She knew she was in trouble, when even Taggert didn't believe her, but she had still kept trying. Maybe he was mad about that. A part of her mind didn't believe that Sonny would ever hurt her. Yet, that same part also believed that she would soon wakeup in her own bed, and find that this was all a hideous nightmare.

Which one would it be? She closed her eyes as the door opened, then opened them slowly when the matron jabbed her from behind. "Alexis?"

Alexis looked over and at the girl and tried to remain objective when she saw her, but it was hard when she looked into that too pale face. "Elizabeth, I wanted to talk to you."

Elizabeth moved awkwardly to the table and waited for the guard to cuff her to the table and leave before speaking. "I didn't think you would come, not after what Sonny said."

"Sonny doesn't speak for me," she informed her. "At least not anymore. I don't know if I will take your case Elizabeth. But I would like to hear your story, then if you okay it, I would like to look at the evidence against you, after that I'll let you know if I want to take your case. Fair enough?"

"Yes." Elizabeth swallowed hard, and tried to battle down her hopes. She didn't want to get to hopeful, not yet. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Where else? The beginning."

~Bayside Hotel~

Courtney had barely opened the door, when her arm was grabbed and she was pulled inside the room. The door slammed shut, and found her back pressed hard against it, as she was faced with a furious male. "AJ what's your problem?"

"What's my problem?" He demanded, holding up a paper. "This is my problem."

She scanned the headline but she already knew what the article said. "What about it?"

"This says that Elizabeth Webber is telling her attorneys that she wasn't driving the car the night it went off the road. She says you were. What the hell do you know about this Courtney?"

Courtney brushed past him and slipped off her coat. "What do you think I know?"

"Damn'it I don't want to play 20 questions with you. I've seen you naked, I've seen the bruise on your shoulder. The bruise that could have been made by a seatbelt." He followed her to the bed.

"Are you asking me if I was driving? Be very sure you want to know AJ. Because since we started this, you've only wanted to know certain things."

AJ hesitated and his eye fell on the picture of Elizabeth on the paper. "Tell me if you were driving the car."

She sprawled back on the bed. "Of course I was driving. Don't you know Elizabeth Webber never lies?"

~PC Grille~

"Thanks for meeting me."

"Anything for my favorite ex-wife," Jax bent down and kissed her cheek before taking the bar stool next to hers. "So what's the crisis?"

Alexis kept her eye on her martini. "Elizabeth Webber."

"I heard about that. It's a shame, she was always so nice. Chloe used to say she was a godsend. I find it hard to believe she was on drugs, or would try to kill someone." He nodded at the bartender in thanks when he set his usual in front of him.

"That's just it, I don't think she did." Alexis played with the olive in her glass. "I think she's innocent."

"So you taking her case then?"

"Don't you want to know who the guilty party would be, if she was innocent?"

Jax leaned back and studied his friend. He probably knew her better than a most people. Right now she was definitely on her second martini, and she only drank martinis when she was trying to make a tough decision. A decision that was a win/lose type of decision. "I'll bite. Who did it?"

"Courtney Matthews, otherwise known as Sonny's kid sister." She downed the rest of her drink and puckered her lips in reaction.

Jax let out a whistle. "The one who caused the scene at New Years?"

"Yep," she waved at the bartender for another drink. "The very one. And you know what. I think she did it. Sonny doesn't want to hear that. He even said I had to chose between helping Elizabeth, and him and his sister."

It was hard, very hard, but he bit back the comment he wanted to make about Sonny. No sense in getting her back up, when she was finally beginning to see the truth about the bastard. "So what are you going to do?"

Alexis huffed out a breath and studied her full drink. "I don't know. If I don't help her she could go to jail. With what her lawyers have done so far, there's a chance that even I couldn't fix it."

"You not fix a case?" Jax teased. "Impossible."

"You're right," she agreed. Confidence was something she never lacked, at least when it came to her work. "But if I do take it, Sonny will see it as a betrayal. He doesn't forgive betrayals."

"Ass…" the rest of his comment was muffled by his drink, but Alexis still eyed him coolly. "So are you going to represent Elizabeth or not?"

"Represent Elizabeth are you crazy?"

Alexis spun around and her head kept spinning. "Nikolas."

"Tell me I didn't hear him right. Tell me you aren't considering representing Elizabeth." Nikolas demanded.

"Well…"

"She tried to kill Gia, my fiancée, she partially blinded her, and scarred her so bad, that she doesn't want to leave Wyndamere. And you want to defend her?"

"I don't think she did it," Alexis told him quietly.

"I don't believe you. I know you will represent anybody, but I thought you would have some loyalty to me, to your family, and even you wouldn't stoop this low."

"She's entitled to the best representation she can get." The words seemed to just fly out of her mouth.

"And we all know you're the best don't we?" Nikolas shook his head in disgust. "Don't do this Alexis. I'm asking you, as your nephew not to do this."

Alexis got unsteadily to her feet and focused on him, then her gaze shifted past him when a movement at the door caught her attention, and she saw Sonny standing there listening to them. "I know you don't want to hear this," her words were meant for both of them. "But Elizabeth didn't do this. She shouldn't go to prison for it, and if I can help her stay out of jail, I'm going to do that."

Sonny turned on his heel and walked out of the bar.

Alexis closed her eyes feeling the pain of his action down deep in her heart.

"Fine you won't do it out of love for me Aunt, then maybe you will do it when I tell you too," Nikolas spoke coldly and Alexis' eyes flew open at the tone. "I'm ordering you, as the Cassadine Prince, not to take this case. If you do, you will be banished from the family, forever."

Alexis' mouth dropped open in shock as she looked in her nephew's face, and saw her half brother's eyes looking back at her.