Babble: Read the author's notes on the prologue. Any flashback without a specific date is all my creation.
Reply: Please let me know if your reading this. And if you've replied already thanks you don't know how much that means.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Her Greatest Mistake
Chapter 6
~Jake's~
"Lucky I can explain." Elizabeth said quickly.
"Save it Elizabeth." Lucky snapped, moving closer to her, the hand holding the gun shaking because of the rage inside of him. "So where is he?"
"Where is who?"
"Jason, is he hiding in the bathroom?" Lucky asked heading towards the closed bathroom door. "Morgan get your ass out here."
"Lucky he's not here." Elizabeth told him quietly.
Lucky ignored her shoving the door open, to look inside the empty bathroom. His temper was still sizzling when he turned back to glare at her. He frowned when he saw her take a step back from him. The fact she was retreating from him infuriated him even more. It was like she thought he would hurt her. He would never hurt her. What had Jason done to her mind? "What happened to the promises that you made to me? As recently as last night, you swore to me that you would stay away from Jason." He paused and gestured around the room with the gun. "Yet here you are again, I guess your word doesn't mean anything, anymore."
"Lucky please let me explain," she pleaded. "I was looking for Jason, but not for the reason you think, I needed to tell him goodbye." She paused. "Forever."
Lucky jammed the gun in his waistband. "Do you expect me to believe that? How many times have you told me that you were saying goodbye for good to Jason?" He circled her while he taunted her. "First there was the night I found you downstairs, with his arms around you."
"He was just showing me how to play pool."
"Right, you stayed with him and sent me away," he snapped.
"Lucky you ordered me to go, I'm not a dog. I don't just obey your orders." Elizabeth snapped, her eyes flashing in frustration.
"Let's see then there was the time you went and saw him after the photo shoot." He scratched his chin. "You lied to me telling me that you needed to be alone, and you came here instead. Then later on you lied again saying you were at the mall."
Elizabeth blanched. "You knew I came here?"
"Yes," he yelled, coming to a stop in front of her. "I came looking for Jason the next day to apologize to him, and guess what?" He leaned closer to her and whispered. "I found your gloves here."
"That was the night you two fought on the docks," she said slowly, horror filling her eyes.
He reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, ignoring the surprise in her eyes, and her slight yelp of pain, when he began to shake her. "The night he tried to kill me with a knife."
"Lucky stop that, you're hurting me." Elizabeth cried a tear slipping from her eye.
"I'm hurting you?" He asked in stunned surprise, he jerked her close so his face was inches from his own. "What about the way you hurt me?" He saw the fear in her eyes and shoved her away from him, causing her to stumble back into the bed. "You've been lying to me for months about Jason don't you think that hurts me?"
"Lucky calm down." Elizabeth said getting to her feet.
Lucky began to prowl the room. "I thought the lies were over, didn't you promise me last night, that you would only tell me the truth from now on?"
"Yes."
"What happened to you Elizabeth?" he asked keeping his back to her while he rested his hands on the desk.
"I just needed to say goodbye to him Lucky." Her voice was soft and it came from directly behind him. "He was my friend once, I couldn't just let it end without a word. But I was too late, he's already gone."
He could hear the disappointment in her voice and it infuriated him. She wasn't supposed to care about Jason, she was to care about him.
"I never stop caring for Jason."
Incensed Lucky picked up the lamp on the desk, whirling around and throwing it at her in one swift motion.
~Penthouse~
Carly eased the door to the guest room closed quietly, Emily was still asleep, and for the moment, she looked peaceful, the dreams she'd had earlier, were held at bay, for now.
She crossed the hall and let herself into Michael's room, moving to the daybed to check on him. She pulled up the sheet and kissed him lightly on the cheek before moving out of the room and heading down the stairs.
The living room was still lighted and she glanced at the clock on the desk, 5:10 a.m. Jason should be in town by now. She hoped he was okay, and that he wasn't blaming Sonny for what happened. Sonny already blamed himself, and if Jason blamed him too. She shook her head it wasn't Sonny's fault, he wasn't a mind reader, he couldn't have known what was going on with Lucky and Elizabeth. How could he have known if Elizabeth never told him?
"Hello?" Carly asked tucking the phone between her shoulder and head, while putting her earring on the other ear.
"I need to speak with Sonny, is he there?"
"Who is this?" Carly asked suspiciously. The feminine voice was soft and vaguely familiar.
"Carly can I speak with him? It's important."
"Is this Elizabeth?" She demanded, suddenly recognizing the voice. "Listen I told you to stay the hell away from my husband."
"P-please Carly." Elizabeth's voice broke.
Carly shook the memory away, there was no use in thinking about what she couldn't change. That did remind her, she needed to talk to Cal as soon as possible, like tonight. But first she needed to check on Mike. Sonny was mad at Mike more times than not, but Carly knew that he did love him. She wanted to go to the hospital to check on him, but couldn't leave Emily. She ran her hand over her hair, she didn't want to bother Sonny, but if something was wrong with Mike, and she didn't tell him, Sonny would be mad at her. With a sigh she picked up the phone and dialed Sonny's cell number.
~Hardy House~
"What do we got?" Lieutenant Marcus Taggert asked an officer when he reached the crime scene.
"A neighbor," the officer looked at her notes. "A Jenna Powell discovered the victim lying halfway on the drive in a pool of blood. The vic is on her way to General Hospital, it doesn't look good." She jerked her finger. "The witness is over there."
Taggert nodded. Smothering a yawn he headed towards the witness. "What was the victim's name?"
The officer consulted her notes again. "The owner, one Audrey Hardy."
Taggert looked at the house in surprise, when he'd gotten the call about a shooting at this address, he'd thought the address sounded vaguely familiar but he hadn't had time to check it out. He had a vague memory of speaking to Elizabeth Webber and Lucky Spencer here once. He remembered how nice and friendly Mrs. Hardy had always been to him, and his gut burned over the fact that this had happened to her.
"Mrs. Powell?" Taggert asked the woman in the blue bathrobe, who had obviously been crying.
"Yes." Jenna wrenched her eyes from the bloody stain on the drive.
"Can you tell me what happened here tonight?" Taggert asked, taking her arm lightly to propel her away from the early morning curiosity seekers that had gathered on the sidewalk beside her.
"I was waiting for my daughter Amy to get home, she should have been home hours ago." She glanced at her wrist automatically, expecting to see her watch, but she wasn't wearing it.
"How old is Amy?" The last thing he needed was a missing kid on top of this.
"What?" Jenna asked in confusion. "Oh she's 22."
"Okay, what happened next?" Taggert asked opening his notebook.
"I went to the window to look for Amy and I noticed that Audrey's porch light was flicking off and on. I got curious so I opened the blinds to look, and I saw…I saw Audrey…" Her eyes filled.
"It's okay take your time." Taggert said softly trying to reassure her.
"She was lying on the drive. I raced over here and saw the blood."
"Was she conscious?"
"Yes she was moving, crawling towards the street, when she heard me she stopped."
"Alright then what?" Taggert prompted.
"I ran back to my house, and called 911, then I came back here." She paused. "I brought a blanket." She pointed to a bloody blanket lying on the grass. "She was unconscious by then, so I just wrapped it around her." Audrey had looked so pale and lifeless, when she had come back, that for a few terrifying seconds she had thought Audrey was dead.
"Did she say anything to you?" Taggert asked.
"No." Jenna said immediately, only to frown when she remembered something. "Wait she asked for Elizabeth, her granddaughter."
"She did?"
"Well she said Elizabeth's name." Jenna explained.
Taggert noted the difference in his notes. "Did she say anything else?"
"No." The night sky was giving way to dawn, and even though it was already close to 80 degrees, Jenna still felt chilled.
"Before you found her, did you hear anything suspicious? Did you hear any loud noises or see anyone in the neighborhood that you weren't used to seeing?"
"I don't know. Fireworks had been going off all night." She rubbed at her eyes trying to remember. "There was one time, I heard a real loud firecracker, like an M-80, well actually there were two of them, one right after the other."
"When was that?" Taggert asked. A gunshot could sound like a firecracker to the untrained ear.
"Around 4:00 a.m."
"And you found Mrs. Hardy when?"
"About 4:45." Her eyes widened the implications of his questions sinking in. "You think that was when she was shot? That I heard the shooting?"
"Mom."
Jenna turned around to see her daughter on the other side of the police crime scene tape. "Thank God."
"Go on, we'll take your official statement later." Taggert told her, gesturing towards her daughter.
Jenna started away, only to stop and turn around. "Should I call Elizabeth?"
"No. I'll take care of that." Taggert told her, before heading towards the drive again. He paused noticing for the first time the chalk outline on the drive and sidewalk. "Who did the outline?" Taggert asked the same officer he spoke to earlier.
"I did." She smiled giving her explanation. "I beat the ambulance, I knew we would probably need it, the old lady didn't look good, she probably won't make it."
Taggert glared coldly at the rookie. "The old lady has a name and she is still alive. There was no call for you to treat her like she wasn't." He snapped. "Go over and help with crowd control."
"Sir…" She questioned glancing over to the five people who were on the sidewalk. They weren't exactly a crowd. Besides as first on scene, she had a right to be near the action.
"Get the hell out of my sight. Until you learn respect, you have no business being here." Taggert ordered before heading towards the house.
~Limo~
Sonny glanced at his watch 5:15 a.m. "Max why are we taking the long way?" He called to the driver.
"There's some police activity down on Elm, it looks like crime scene techs, and I didn't think you wanted us to be noticed." Max explained.
"Good." Sonny pulled out his phone and called Francis.
"Hello."
"We're on our way. Are you ready for us?" Sonny asked.
"Yes. I've done as much as I can without further equipment and a lab." Francis said tiredly.
"Any problems?"
"No it's been quiet here."
"Good send the others away. We should be there in a few." Sonny closed the phone. If Jason did have a hard time at the studio, the fewer the people who saw it, the better.
He looked over at Jason who was staring out the window, towards the breaking dawn. He needed to prepare Jason for the studio. He raised the privacy glass, so Max couldn't hear. "Jason."
Jason turned to look at him saying nothing.
"I told you we were at the studio earlier, I need to tell you what we found." Sonny said slowly.
Jason took a deep breath to prepare himself. "Okay."
"It's a wreck, all of her paintings have been destroyed. Her supplies are trashed so is her easel. The paint is everywhere, and some of it is mixed with blood. Francis has been checking it out, but he wasn't going to disturb anything." He rubbed his chin before forcing himself to go on. "I told you there is some blood, but the worse part is the closet." He stopped, not knowing how to explain.
After a minute, Johnny finished it for him. "There is a lot of blood in the closet, inside it I found a bag with a decapitated cat in it. Francis said the cat belonged to her Grandmother." He paused. "The head was missing."
Jason looked at Johnny, his expression was the closest thing to shock, Johnny had ever seen from Jason.
~January 2000~
"My Gram has this hellion of a cat." Elizabeth said shifting on the bench. "The only person that cat has ever liked was Lucky. He was the only person he'd let pet him, pick him up, or come too. I swear that cat loved to wake me up in the mornings by jumping on me with its claws extended." She finished with a grumble.
Jason laughed. "So he was a terror?"
"You see this?" Elizabeth asked pulling off her glove and holding out her left hand, pointing to the jagged scar on her index finger that looked like half of a wishbone.
"Yeah what about it?"
"One time when I was visiting Gram, I think I was about 12 or so, the little bugger bit me."
Jason laughed again, ignoring the wounded look she shot him, when he did.
"It's not funny. He wouldn't let go, the cat was literally hanging from my finger, while I screamed bloody murder." Her face was the picture of outrage.
"It must have been a small cat then." He couldn't help but tease.
She punched him lightly on the shoulder, before laughing herself. "So maybe it's hind legs were still on the ground, that's not the point of the story."
He took her hand to look at the scar on her finger. "It does look like it probably hurt." He admitted. "Put your glove on, it's cold."
"No what hurt was that I got in trouble for picking on Gatsby." She told him pulling on her glove. "I'm the one bleeding and I'm the one in trouble." She rolled her eyes.
Jason wisely smothered his laugh. "That's not right."
"That's the Webbers." She quipped. "Hey there's a vendor selling hot chocolate, you want one? My treat?" She asked getting to her feet.
He thought of his desk and all the paperwork that had piled up, while he had been recovering. Then he looked into her hopeful face, seeing the humor in her eyes, her cheeks still red from the ride they had just taken. He had missed her this last week. "Sure, the paperwork will keep awhile longer." He said getting up. "But it's my treat."
"Getting bossy now Jason?" She asked falling in step beside him.
"I learned from a master." He said with a sly grin.
She laughed and stuck her arm through his. "You have so much left to learn."
"Gatsby?" He asked forcing the memory away.
"Yeah that's the name Francis said." Sonny nodded.
Jason turned back towards the window. How much had Elizabeth gone through while he was gone? How much more would she go through before he found her?
~Penthouse~
Carly slammed the phone down. "Damn'it Sonny who the hell are you talking too?"
She drummed her fingers on the desk, unsure of what to do now. Mike hadn't called back yet, and even if he had she couldn't help him. She was under strict instructions never to give him Sonny's cell number.
She bowed her head to rest it on the desk, only to pause when she saw the partially open drawer. Sonny must have forgotten to lock it after calling Enrique. Her hand hovered over the drawer handle. She had bought him this desk with locks to prove something to him, after she had let Bobbie snoop in the last one. She glanced over to the closed door, and then yanked the drawer open, pulling out his work address book.
She thumbed quickly through the book, then scribbled down the name and address, put the book back in the drawer and shut it quickly. Pushing Mike to the back of her mind, she dialed Cal's cell number. She drummed her fingers, waiting impatiently, she was about to hang up, when it was picked up.
"Hello."
"Mike? Why do you have Cal's phone?" She asked in surprise.
~Jake's~
As soon as he let the lamp fly towards her, he regretted it, shocked that he had even thrown it, much less thrown it at Elizabeth. Lucky looked down at his hand in shock, and then looked back up at her, in apology.
She was gone.
"Elizabeth?" He called searching the room for her. The room was empty, there wasn't even a broken lamp on the floor. "I don't understand?" He whispered.
His head was throbbing again, he moved into the bathroom, and turned on the cold water in the sink. He realized then that she had never been there, at least not, tonight. What had just happened was a vivid memory of the last time they were here, that was when he broke the lamp, by throwing it at her, not tonight. He sighed in relief, having figured that out.
The water began to run red when he scrubbed at his face trying to clear his mind. He stared at his hands, watching the blood swirl down the drain with water. How had he gotten blood on his hands?
He looked up to look at himself in the mirror and gave a cry of surprise, when he saw Elizabeth in the mirror standing behind him. What surprised him the most was her appearance. Her eye was swollen shut, there was blood coming from the corner of her mouth, he could see the harsh red outline of someone's hands that had been left on her pale throat.
"Please stop."
Horrified he spun around to touch her and she vanished. His breath came in hard pants, he slowly turned around, his fingers clutching the sink in support. He kept his eyes down to focus on the water, which was once again clear, all traces of blood gone. He kept staring at the water until his heart rate leveled, and his breathing evened. When that happened he braced himself and slowly raised his head to look in the mirror again.
This time he moaned when he saw his appearance. His eyes were wild and unfocused, he still had a trace of blood on his forehead. Whose blood was it and why couldn't he remember? He bent towards the water again, it didn't matter whose it was, he wanted it gone, he rubbed the water over his face, to clean it off. He looked back in the mirror, and saw Jason standing behind him with a smirk on his face.
"You see she always comes looking for me."
"You shut up Jason." Lucky ordered.
Jason leaned back against the wall, crossed his arms over his chest, and grinned cockily at Lucky. "You were never enough to keep her happy or satisfied, that was what she needed me for. She needed me."
"No she loved me, needed me, you confused her." Lucky argued desperately, gripping the sink again, when the anger, his new and constant friend, returned.
"No I saved her." Jason explained.
"No." Lucky cried angrily. "I saved her. In the park it was me that saved her."
"And I saved her from you." Jason taunted. "When you tried to control who her friends were, what she did with her life, her feelings, she came to me, she needed me. You see Lucky I set her free." He paused to grin at Lucky. "I set her free, and you know what? She still wanted to be with me."
"NO. NO. NO." Lucky shouted the roaring was back in his ears. He focused on Jason and heard his laughter. He plowed his fist into Jason's face, shattering the mirror, but not feeling it. In the broken shards of the mirror, he could still see Jason behind him, and worse he could still hear his laughter.
He whirled around, but Jason was gone, the echo of his laughter, reverberating in the small bathroom. He stormed from the bathroom into the other room, but Jason wasn't there. He shoved over the dresser, then moved to the chairs by the window, intent on destroying everything.
"Jason I plan on telling Lucky everything tonight."
Her voice brought his rampage to a stop. He didn't want that memory, he brought his hands up to cover his ears and shook his head desperately trying to block it, but it came anyway. He couldn't believe it when she said that.
"Jason can I go with you?" Elizabeth asked.
"It's up to you." Jason said turning towards the stairs.
He had hid by the payphone, watching them go up the stairs, to come to this room. Alone to this room, with Jason, after she had said never again.
"I plan on telling Lucky everything tonight."
What had she been going to tell him? That she was sleeping with Jason?
"Yes." Jason answered his question.
Lucky turned and focused on the bed, where Jason was lying down, his hands propped behind his head, his feet crossed at his ankles. "That's not true, she wouldn't cheat on me."
"Then why did she come to my room, when I offered to bring her the gloves downstairs?" Jason asked. "Why do you think she wanted to be alone with me?" He patted the bed. "This sure got a workout."
"No." Lucky yelled. It couldn't be true, it just couldn't, his hand closed over the butt of the gun again.
"I plan on telling Lucky everything tonight."
He focused on the bed again, and this time he saw Elizabeth, his Elizabeth, lying there on top of Jason, they were both naked. "No." He staggered back from the bed.
"I plan on telling Lucky everything tonight."
He pulled the gun from his jeans and moved over to the couple that was intertwined on the bed. "I told you Elizabeth we're a permanent lock. I can't live without you."
"Lucky you're killing me, stop."
"And I won't let you live without me." He put the gun to her head and pulled the trigger, sending the feathers from the pillow he had just shot in the air. Jason's laughter echoed in his ears.
~Studio~
Johnny led the way down the dimly lit hallway to her studio. The building was eerily silent in the early dawn. He knew from checking it out before that the building was mostly unoccupied, but the quiet that was here now, seemed like it belonged in a morgue not this building. The only noise was the rhythmic tapping from Jason's boots as he walked along the wood floor. He paused outside the door and waited for Sonny and Jason to catch up. He glanced at Sonny who nodded at him. "Francis." He said knocking lightly. "Open up." The door was opened almost immediately and he stepped inside.
Sonny glanced back at an impassive Jason, then took a deep breath and entered the destroyed studio for the second time tonight.
Jason paused outside the door, his focus was on the food bags, that were propped against the wall. They were greasy, stained and the odor of sour food was beginning to seep from them. The animal inhabitants of the building had already discovered the fare and hurried down the hall, when he kicked one of the bags so it stood up, displaying the logo on the side. Eli's Rib Tickling Good. He remembered Elizabeth telling him that Eli's was Lucky's favorite place to eat.
Had Lucky hurt her, and then went out to get supper? When had he returned and where was Elizabeth then? His eyes were fixated on the bags, his feet seemed to be bolted to the floor.
"Jason?" Sonny stepped closer, touching his arm, trying to get his attention.
"He went out for food?" His voice sounded rusty even to his ears.
"As soon as Eli's opens Francis will check to find out what time he was there." Sonny told him. "Are you ready for this?" He asked when Jason still made no effort to move.
"Would you be ready? If you got a phone call like I did tonight?" Jason asked wearily.
"Look you don't have to do this now." Sonny said keeping his voice low. "I can handle things here, and update you later, after you rest awhile."
"If the situation was reversed, and it was Carly who was missing, would you trust me to find her?" Jason asked, looking at him.
"Yes." Sonny answered without hesitation. Jason had never, ever let him down. "I trust you completely, with my family, with my life."
"Well, there's the problem. I can't trust you like that, not anymore, not with her, she's too important, to be forgotten again." Jason said coldly. He saw Sonny flinch in reaction and felt a momentary pang of regret. He needed to let go of this anger he was feeling towards Sonny, but right now it was one of the things that was keeping him moving.
Sonny stepped back to let Jason enter the room. For the moment Jason kept his eyes on the door. When he grabbed the side of the door to close it, he saw the bloody handprint on it, from its size, he knew it was a woman's.
He hesitated for a long minute before turning with the door to close it, keeping his back to the room, he took a deep breath and rested his head on the window in the door. Flashes of memory were hitting him, memories of her and him in this room. From the first time she brought him here, to the last time he saw it, when she kicked him out. There was so much of her, and him in this studio, it scared him. And that was unusual. He didn't get scared, he was the one in control. But this studio, and outside on his bike was where he had fallen in love with her, and now, if Emily was right, this studio could also be where she died. His hand tightened on the doorknob, he didn't want to see it broken, because he was afraid that when he saw her next she would be broken too.
"Jason you told me yourself, that you knew she wasn't here. So this is just a room." Sonny said quietly. He didn't want to give Jason any false hope, but he could see that his friend was faltering and he needed to help him stay focused.
"You're right Sonny, this wasn't where she was killed, because she's not dead." Jason said, straightening up, and slowly turning around.
~Cassadine Yacht~
"You rang Madame?" Andreas asked from the doorway, hastily smoothing his robe in place when she wasn't looking.
Helena Cassadine looked at the clock beside her bed. 5:30. "I thought I told you to wake me when Lucky Spencer arrived."
"He never showed up Madame."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Helena snapped. There were times when she missed his brother Ari. It was a pity she'd had to kill him, but disloyalty and failure were unforgivable sins in her book.
"Madame I am sorry…" He started quickly.
"Save your feeble excuses, find Lucky and bring him to me. I have decided it's time for the next part of my plan." Helena ordered in dismissal, lying back against the pillows. Port Charles wouldn't know what hit it by the time she was through with it.
~Jake's~
Lucky pulled a feather from his hair. Why had he shot a pillow? He stared at the gun in his hand, he wanted to drop it, but he couldn't seem to let it go. Somehow he knew that he would need the gun. He glanced around the room trying to figure out where he was.
His lifeless blue eyes suddenly glowed in recognition, he was at Jake's and he'd been looking for Elizabeth. But of course she wasn't here. He knew where she was. He shook his head, what was wrong with him, she was probably getting worried about him. He tucked the gun in his jeans at the small of his back, and headed out the door, leaving the destroyed room in his wake. Soon they would be reunited and no one would ever come between them again. "You hear that Jason? No one will ever come between us again."
"She always comes to me." Jason's words were mocking and they followed him down the hall.
Lucky began to whistle to block them out. He had to get there, he had to get to Elizabeth, he shouldn't have been gone so long, time was running out. He pushed open the door.
"She always comes to me."