Notes: Referring once again to the notes on the prologue. And begging for replies. I know I'm a reply slut. Sue me. But you can't sue me for copyright infringement.
Her Greatest Mistake
Chapter 4
~Airport~
Sonny caught his breath when Jason appeared in the door of the plane, Enrique was right, Jason didn't look well. He knew that Jason had always been accused of being cold, unfeeling, a robot, but he wasn't. Now though, when he watched Jason move slowly towards him, he did look empty. His face was set, his eyes cold, the mask of aloofness he always wore, had been replaced, by a stone expression. The expression was one he wore when he had to do the worse things that Sonny ever asked of him, and Sonny wondered if it would ever come off.
"What happened?" Jason asked when he reached them.
Even his voice was cold, like all the emotion and feeling had been ripped out to him. Sonny cleared his throat. "I'll tell you on the way." He jerked his head to the waiting limousine.
Jason headed for the limousine only to stop when Johnny put his hand on his arm. Jason looked down at the hand then back up at Johnny.
Johnny dropped his hand quickly, meeting those icy blue eyes. "You're bleeding." He gestured to Jason's hand, and the blood dripping on the asphalt.
Sonny moved closer. "What happened Jason?"
Jason turned his hand over, displaying a piece of glass still embedded in his palm, he looked at his hand and then shrugged. "The bottle broke." He pulled the glass from his palm, dropping it to the ground, before moving towards the car.
Johnny stepped in front of him, pulling a handkerchief out and shoving it in Jason's hand. "Wrap it."
Jason looked at him coldly, making no move to do what he was told.
Sonny kept quiet, he needed to know if Johnny could get through to Jason. This would be the first test.
"I said wrap it." Johnny ordered. "We have a lot to do without you bleeding all over everything in the process. This will work for now, I'll bandage it later." He turned around opening the door to the limo. "Do it."
Without a word Jason wrapped his hand and climbed in the limo.
Sonny paused by the door. "Sit back here with us." He said after a minute.
Johnny took a deep breath before getting in the car after them.
~Hardy House~
Lucky eased the window up, and crawled inside the room, trying to be quiet. He didn't want to wake her. Ever since the rape Elizabeth had trouble sleeping. That was why he snuck out of his house and came over here to watch over her while she slept. Normally he sat outside the window, but it was cold outside tonight. Lucky turned to lean back out the window. "Go home Foster." He called to the dog that wasn't there.
Satisfied he shut the window, before making his way over to the bed. She hadn't moved, so that was good, maybe she would sleep through the night without any dreams. Lucky sat down leaning back against the bed, if not he was here for her. He squinted in the dark trying to make out the posters that lined her closet. When he heard her moan behind him, he shifted immediately to take her hand in his. "It's okay you're safe Elizabeth."
"Every time I close my eyes, I'm back in the park, and he's grabbing me, he's hurting me, he has me on the ground crushing me. I don't want to close my eyes, I don't want to see those stars again."
"It's okay Elizabeth." Lucky tried to calm her, her voice was loud in his head. "I will never, never let anyone hurt you again." He reached up to stroke her hair.
"Please don't hurt me anymore Lucky, please."
He jerked back, the gun slipped unnoticed from his waist when he stood, falling to the floor and making no noise because of the thick carpeting. He shook his head, the pain was back in his head, the noise kept getting louder and louder in his ears. His breath was coming out in quick jerky pants. "I didn't hurt you Elizabeth." He yelled.
He reached up to touch her hair again, only to stop in confusion when he felt it. It felt so different, not soft like it was supposed to. His hand tightened on it and he pulled at it slightly, yelping in surprise when it came off the bed.
Light blazed in the room causing him to blink in surprise. "Lucky is that you?"
Lucky turned to focus on Audrey Hardy, who had walked in the room to look at him. He turned back to the bed, what he thought was her hair was really yarn. The hand he thought he was holding was a swatch of material. Elizabeth was gone.
"Lucky?" Audrey repeated.
In a daze Lucky looked around the room, there were no posters on the wall. Elizabeth's vanity was gone too, in its place stood a dressing mannequin with a half finished dress on it. All traces of Elizabeth had been removed. Panic began to set in, and he searched the room looking for her. "Where is she?" The words slipped out, when his eyes finally came to rest on Audrey again.
Audrey had started towards Lucky when his appearance stopped her, it looked like he was covered in blood. She watched him bring a hand to his face gripping it, like he was in pain. When he dropped it again, a smear of blood was on his forehead. "Lucky are you hurt?" She took another step. "Is Elizabeth hurt?"
"Hurt?" Lucky repeated the voices in his head were back. "I didn't hurt her." He yelled moving around the room.
She jerked to a halt, suddenly feeling afraid of Lucky.
He paused at the mannequin. "I told you I didn't hurt her." He yelled at it before shoving it to the ground.
She began to back out of the room, keeping her eyes on him. She had almost reached the doorway when Lucky stopped pacing and focused on her. She sucked in a breath to keep from screaming when she saw the madness in his eyes. Oh God please be okay Elizabeth.
"Where is Elizabeth?" He asked advancing on the older woman. "I know she was here. Where did you take her?"
~Limo~
"What happened?" Jason asked again.
"Kellys." Sonny told the driver before raising the privacy window.
He caught Johnny's look of surprise and shook his head.
"We came back from dinner and found Emily waiting there, she was…" He stopped to study his friend. "She is hurt."
"How bad?"
"Doc examined her, she has a broken rib, a concussion, and she needed some stitches, nothing that won't heal." Sonny said in reassurance. But what she had lived through tonight would never fade.
He waited for Jason to speak, when it became obvious he wasn't going to, he went on. "She wanted to talk to you. She was adamant about it. When she told you what happened, that's when I found out too."
"Where is she?"
"The penthouse, she's waiting for you."
Jason nodded his face giving nothing of his feelings away. "What have you done?"
"I have Cal looking for Spencer, so far he hasn't found him." Sonny glanced at his watch, Cal should have checked in by now.
"And?"
"Francis, Johnny, and I checked her studio." He took a deep breath remembering the destruction they had found there. He felt Jason's eyes on him and forced himself to continue. "Emily was right it was destroyed."
"But it was empty." Jason stated.
Sonny looked at him in surprise. "Yes it was."
Jason nodded. "So Francis is still there trying to figure out what happened?"
Sonny was struck again by the calmness in Jason's voice. "We'll go there later. I figured you would want to see her room."
Jason glanced briefly at Sonny. "Yes."
"We should have over an hour to do so before anyone wakes up there. It's the Fourth of July, the beginning of a long holiday weekend, so it'll be easy to check the studio unnoticed later on." Sonny finished his concern for Jason was growing by the minute.
"Are you okay Jason?" Sonny asked finally.
"I'm fine." Jason looked out the window. "I'll find her and everything will be fine." He turned to look at Sonny. "After all Lucky isn't a threat."
Sonny flinched at hearing his own words tossed back at him with such coldness. He turned away unable to meet the empty look in his best friend's eyes. His dismissal of Jason's concerns had helped lead them here. He didn't think Jason would ever forgive him. If she was dead, he knew he would never forgive himself.
~Hardy House~
"Lucky I haven't seen Elizabeth." Audrey said quietly stilling her movements. His eyes reminded her of her ex-husband. They got like that right before he would get violent. Even though it had been decades she remembered what to do. She didn't move even though every cell inside of her was screaming at her to run. She kept her eyes on him bracing herself for anything.
"You're lying. She was here. She was having a nightmare." Lucky shouted coming to a stop a foot away from her. "I was holding her hand and then you came." He paused to clutch his head again. "You made her leave."
"Perhaps she's downstairs Lucky." She offered quietly keeping her voice low and calm. "Would you like me to check?" She clasped her hands in front of her, to show she wasn't a threat to him.
"Downstairs?" He repeated in confusion. The voices were getting louder and louder in his head. His eyes took on a far off look as a memory forced itself on him.
~April 19, 2001~
"What happened with you and Jason when I was gone?" Lucky demanded he felt sick to his stomach even saying the words.
"Lucky neither one of us meant for anything…"
"Did you sleep with him?" He interrupted appalled, his fists clenched in anger.
"No." Elizabeth shook her head. "I already told you that, no. Jason…" She paused. "He has feelings for me…"
"Yeah it's pretty obvious." He clutched a paintbrush in his hand. But she was his not Jason's. Jason could never come between them because they were permanent.
"And the thing is, I've realized I feel something for him too."
Audrey noticed his preoccupation and started edging her way back to the door. She needed to get away. She had to find Elizabeth.
"That's a lie." Lucky snapped blocking her words from his head. "We're permanent Elizabeth." He looked at Audrey who had made it to the doorway. "You're working with him to keep me from her."
Audrey stopped. "With who?"
"Jason." He yelled advancing on her. "You're trying to keep her and me apart, so she'll be with Jason."
"That's not true Lucky." His name came out on a cry when he began to shake her by the shoulders.
"Then where is she?" Lucky demanded. "If you're not helping Jason tell me where she is."
"I never stopped caring for Jason."
Her voice again made Lucky stop. "That's not true."
"I never stopped caring for Ja…"
"Shut up." Lucky shoved Audrey away from him turning to face Elizabeth who stood in front of him in her red shirt with gray sleeves, her face serious and calm.
Audrey fell backwards, crashing headfirst into the wall. Pain exploded in her head making her dizzy. She kept her feet, taking a step away from Lucky, with each step she took, the blackness receded and her fear grew. She waited for him to stop her, she could hear him speaking to someone in the empty room behind her. She heard him yell Elizabeth's name at the same time she turned the corner of the hall and found the stairs.
"Elizabeth." Lucky yelled. "You don't mean that." He advanced on her, his hand fisting, he gave a yell of surprise when she disappeared. "Elizabeth." He yelled again looking around the empty room.
Audrey stumbled and fell heavily into the wall, when she was struck by a brief feeling of vertigo.
His eyes fell on the gun, he bent over, picked it up, and headed for the door he heard the thump down the hall and turned in the direction of the stairs.
Audrey heard him coming and propelled herself faster down them, jumping the last few. She hurried to the front door. Her hand was on the handle, the other on the dead bolt, when she heard the click of a bullet being chambered behind her. Her bones seemed to liquefy in fear, she turned to face Lucky and the gun that was pointed at her head. "Lucky you don't want to do this."
Lucky looked at Jason, he hated that condescending look Jason had on his face. He always pretended to be better than everyone else. "I told you Jason she's mine. She belongs to me."
"I'm not Jason." Audrey said shakily.
"You don't own people Lucky." Jason told him with a smile. "Elizabeth is her own person."
"No." Lucky screamed the hand holding the gun started to shake.
Audrey held her breath, her eyes trained on the gun, it dropped so it wasn't pointed at her head anymore, it was now pointed at her chest.
"You say that Jason, you're just trying to make yourself look good." Lucky said. "But I see through you. Elizabeth doesn't want you."
"Then why does she come to me?" Jason asked leaning against the door. "Why does she lie to you, leave you alone, and always come to me?"
"Lucky please put the gun down." Audrey said softly.
"She doesn't. You made her help you, you made her lie…"
"No one makes Elizabeth do anything." Jason grinned at him. "Come on we lived together for awhile, you haven't managed that yet have you?"
"No. She told me she was just helping you when you were shot." Lucky argued desperately lowering the gun, trying to clear his head so he could concentrate.
Audrey's hands were behind her, she had freed the deadbolt and twisted the door handle opening the door. Lucky wasn't looking at her, she shifted slightly to the left opening the door wider.
"Is that what she told you?" Jason taunted. "Sort of like when she told you she didn't come to me after the Deception shoot," he laughed. "She's a good little liar isn't she?"
Audrey turned slowly the door was almost open far enough to slip through. She could see the porch light on at her neighbor Mrs. Powell's house, safety was in reach she just had to move slow.
"You didn't really think you were the first did you?" Jason asked. "How many times did you ask if we slept together? You never believed her. Why should you?"
Lucky raised the gun again. "You shut up, she's mine." He waved the gun at Jason. "She's only been with me."
"All those nights you thought it was you she was touching, you she wanted." Jason leaned closer to Lucky. "Don't you know when she closed her eyes she was seeing me?" He laughed again.
Audrey stepped on the porch, freedom at hand. The porch light came on automatically, triggered by her presence.
The light struck Lucky's eyes the same time Jason's laughter rang in his ears. "She's mine." He screamed bringing up the gun firing it at Jason. Jason continued to laugh, so he fired again. The laugh was cut off and Jason fell to the ground.
Lucky began to laugh in relief Jason was dead. He moved over to the body he wanted to shoot him one more time. He looked down at the blond in the pink robe, a robe that was rapidly being stained by blood. Jason didn't wear pink. He bent down, his hand shook, when he reached out to brush the hair away from the face. "Mrs. Hardy." He choked out, peering at the unconscious and bleeding woman before him, in shock. "Who?' He clutched his head. An image of Jason entered his head again.
"Jason did this to you." Lucky said lurching to his feet. "Don't worry Mrs. Hardy, I'll find him, I'll kill him, I'll bring her back."
He could still hear the echo of Jason's laughter ringing in his ears. He stepped off the porch and into the night leaving Audrey laying half in and half out of her door.
~Kellys~
Johnny picked the lock easily, opening the door before letting Jason and Sonny precede him inside. The limo had been quiet, Jason's words were the last words spoken. He had watched Sonny react to them like Jason had hit him. Sonny was quiet and brooding. Normally when he got like this Jason was the only one who could pull him out of it. Johnny looked at Jason, a wall of ice surrounded him, and this time it looked like Sonny was on his own.
He closed the door quietly, before following the others to the stairs, his eyes automatically scanning the room. He caught a flicker of movement coming from the kitchen, one hand reached out to stop Sonny, the other went for his gun.
Jason already had his gun drawn, he'd automatically shifted so he was in front of Sonny. Shielding him from whatever was in the kitchen.
Johnny moved up beside Jason pointing his gun at the opening over the counter, while Jason's was pointed at the door. He sighed in relief when Tammy walked out of the kitchen, a baseball bat held aloft in her hands.
"Jesus Christ." Tammy cried lowering the bat when she recognized them. Her blonde curly hair was wild and streamed past her shoulders. "What the hell are you doing?"
Johnny shouldered his gun, resting his hand on Jason's arm for a second to propel him to do the same. Shaking the hand off Jason tucked his gun away.
Sonny stepped around them, crossing to Tammy. "I'm sorry if we scared you, we didn't want to wake anybody."
"That's okay." Tammy said catching her breath. "I heard someone down here earlier, so it's been an edgy night." She looked at their serious faces. "What do you need?"
Sonny smiled slightly. Tammy was loyal, smart and would keep her mouth shut. "We need to check out some of your rooms upstairs."
She sighed her eyes drawn to Jason again. "Whose?" She had a feeling she knew.
"Elizabeth and Lucky's." Sonny said.
"Sonny I don't know." She began.
"Tammy." Sonny took her hand. "I don't want to put you in a bad spot, but something might have happened to Elizabeth, we need to check to be sure."
"What happened?" Tammy demanded.
"We don't know." Sonny sighed wondering how much to tell her. In the end he decided to tell her as much of the truth he could. She lived here too, if Emily was right she needed to be warned. "Emily told us that Lucky hurt Elizabeth tonight."
"Lucky?" Tammy repeated. "He wouldn…" Her voice trailed off images, flashes of the last several months went through her head. She pulled her hand out of Sonny's hold, placing it on her hip. "How bad?" She asked dully.
She didn't seem surprised and that worried Sonny. "We don't know. That's why we're here now." He rubbed his chin. "We need to search now before the police get involved, if they get involved."
She nodded, taking a deep breath, before stepping behind the counter to retrieve her keys, and leading the way up the stairs. "Since Emily moved home it's just been the three of us." She led the way down the hall. "About 6 weeks ago Elizabeth asked me if she could move to the biggest room." She turned to look at them. "It was the only one with a private bath so I agreed."
She put the key in the lock. "Lucky stayed in his old room." She pointed to a door halfway down the hall. "I'm at the far end." She unlocked the door but made no move to open it. "His key is here too. Don will be here in an hour to start baking." She moved away stopping in front of Jason. "No matter what you find her Jason." She ordered. "You find her and help her."
Jason met her stare without blinking. "I will."
She searched his eyes, seemingly convinced she nodded and went down the hall to her own room.
Sonny turned to Johnny and nodded. Johnny pulled out some latex gloves he had brought with him, he handed them to the others before pulling his on and opening the door. He stepped in the room, flicking on the light, his eyes scanning the room, for any sign of danger. He moved further inside allowing the others to follow.
Sonny glanced around the cheerful room. It reminded him of Elizabeth, it was friendly, open, and warm like her. He closed his eyes catching a whiff of potpourri that was on the dresser. The room was neat but not obsessively so. Her apron was on the bed, the clothes she had obviously been wearing to work in beside them. Her bed was made.
He looked around noticing the paintings on the wall. He always knew she painted. The one time he had been in her studio he had been too preoccupied to pay attention to her work. But he could see it now she was good. No, he corrected himself, she is good. He moved further into her room, heading towards the window as Johnny emerged from the bathroom and shook his head slightly.
Jason filled the doorway, but didn't come in, his eyes racing around the room refusing to, or unable to stop anywhere for long. "Any sign of her?" He asked roughly.
"No."
Sonny moved closer to the bathroom door, his expression changed, while he chased a memory.
"What are you thinking?" Jason asked, finally moving inside shutting the door behind him.
"This used to be Hannah's room." Sonny came to a stop in front of the open bathroom door.
"And?"
Sonny moved inside the small bathroom and reached up to touch the bolt that was on the inside of the door. "This wasn't on here then."
Johnny turned back watching Sonny test the bolt before moving to the doorjamb to look at the other part of the lock.
"What do you see?" Jason asked remaining on the far side of the room.
Sonny took a step back, allowing Johnny to study both sides of the door and the doorjamb. Johnny looked at Sonny finally and nodded his agreement.
"The lock is new, and it wasn't put on by a professional." Johnny said finally, turning to look at Jason. "There's wear on it though, the wood is beginning to splinter in the doorjamb, the bolt is beginning to warp." He swallowed hard. "It looks like someone spent a lot of time trying to get the door open when someone else had locked it from the inside."
Jason remained quiet. He showed no reaction to the words, words that seemed to mean that tonight's violence wasn't an isolated incident.
"Of course we don't know how long this bolt has been on here." Johnny said to fill the void. "It could have been there when she moved in."
Sonny's eyes fell on the closet. God he hated closets. Deke would lock him in them when he was bruised and beaten, sometimes for hours, other times for days. He walked towards it slowly and opened it. His eyes latched on another bolt lock on the door.
This closet was designed to lock people out not in. Sonny swallowed hard, he knew without a doubt, what had been going on in this room, who had bought these locks in a vain hope for self-protection.
Jason moved closer, his eyes on the lock too. Sonny squatted down, to look inside. "Oh Christ."
"What?" Johnny asked. He couldn't help but remember the last closet, and the cat with the missing head. It was true this one didn't smell, but it was also air conditioned here.
Jason came up behind him, watching Sonny reach inside the closet and pull out a blanket, a flashlight, and a knife.
Sonny looked up at Jason. "She made a hide."
"What?" Jason asked softly, the first flicker of emotion rippled over his face.
"A hide." Sonny explained. He had made one when he was 8 in an old cupboard in the hall. It had been a safe place to hide, away from Deke's temper. That was before Deke had begun to lock him in the closet as punishment. "It's a place to hide, when…" He couldn't say it, even now he couldn't bring himself to say the words.
"When Lucky would attack her." Jason finished the thought. He turned away from the door. Saying the words aloud was like a catalyst and it destroyed the protective numbness that he had been living in. Fear and anger were beginning to make its way through the coldness, forcing him back to his feelings.
He moved towards the dresser, he didn't want to feel. He had come close to losing it on the plane, the only reason he hadn't was because he broke the bottle and several other things on board, until he was finally able to block everything out and go numb.
He caught sight of a slight sliver of red that peeked out from under a scarf on the dresser. He moved the scarf exposing a shard of red glass. He sucked in a hard breath, there was no reason to think it was the same glass. Even though the color was the same vivid red. It was a smaller piece broken and jagged. He picked it up and it was lost in his hand. The red of the glass matched the red that had seeped through the handkerchief on his hand.
~February 13, 2001~
Jason dug in his pocket, he had wanted to give this to her and now was the perfect opportunity. "When I went to Italy, I saw these glass blowers, and they made all kinds of stuff." He grimaced. "Some of it was pretty junky, lots of gold and paint all over it." He smiled when he saw her wrinkle her nose. He pulled out the piece of red glass. "But the color of the glass was so intense, I brought back a piece to remind me." He took her hand placing the glass on her palm. "Look, it's kind of like a stained glass window at a church."
Her eyes seemed to glow, and she traced the glass with her finger. That was the reason he had bought it, it was so vibrant, so alive, so beautiful, it reminded him of her.
"What an incredible red."
"Happy Valentines Day." Jason said softly smiling at her.
She smiled at him for a second before her eyes changed. "Jason you keep this, it's important to you."
Jason closed her hand over the glass. "It's not a ruby." He held on to her hand. "It's a hunk of glass take it."
Her eyes lit. "Thank you it's beautiful." She moved to the window to hold it up to the light.
He came up behind her. His hand covered hers moving the glass a little higher. "There you kind of…" He put his other hand on her shoulder. "You really need to take it outside to see the light coming through." He looked down at her face. "And I'd go with you if I could."
She looked up at him smiling at him briefly before focusing on the glass again. She leaned back so she was resting against him slightly, and he tensed in response.
"It's perfect here."
He remembered her hands they were so small, she was so small. Small enough to hide in a bathroom, in a closet. His breathing started to become erratic, he could smell her around him.
"Jason?"
His hand tightened convulsively on the glass. Had she called for him? When she cowered in the dark. When her body was full of pain had she wanted him? There was a snapping sound, Jason thought it was his heart shattering.
Sonny was beside him, forcing Jason's hand open. The shard of glass had broken again, fresh blood mixed with the glass, so you couldn't tell the difference between the two. He looked up from his hand into Sonny's worried eyes. "Why did I give her something that looks like blood?"