Hey, I know it's been a while since the last chapter but I had a little writer's block. Thank for all the wonderful reviews and I hope you like this chapter. Please review.

Part 3

Jason woke to a strangely familiar sound the next morning and in a funny way it relaxed him. The sound could only be described as a swishing sound of a brush hitting a canvas and he knew right away that it was Elizabeth.

"Morning," he ran his hands through his hair as he walked up behind her.

"Sorry, if I woke you, but Johnny brought my painting things this morning and I couldn't wait." She smiled up at him as if nothing in the whole world was wrong.

"You can't paint the lights if there isn't any," he told her, talking about the fate that it was day there for there were no lights on.

"I wasn't painting the light, I was just painting." She moved a little to show him her newest painting.

"What the hell is it suppose to be?" Courtney voice again broke through a moment that the two were having and Elizabeth's grip tightened on the paintbrush, no doubt imagining Courtney's neck.

"It's art, but you wouldn't know anything about that." Liz growled before turning back to her painting.

"I know a lot about art, thank you," Courtney told her and Liz laughed.

"I don't mean crayons and coloring books, I mean Van Gogh and Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci." Liz told her with a small smirk and Courtney looked insulted but before she could say anything Jason spook.

"Be good, you two." The two girls stopped glaring at each other to look at him.

"Since when do you want good?" Liz asked, going back to her painting. Jason chose to ignore her comment and pulled out a chair to watch her paint.

"Jason, take me to Italy, I want to see some art." He noticed the way Liz's brush froze in mid air like the rest of her body at Courtney's words; he'd promised Liz Italy.

"Don't start Courtney, Elizabeth was only bugging you, you know about art." It was a lie but he couldn't bring himself to bring Courtney to Italy.

"But I wanna go, I wanna see paintings by Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, I want to see the Sistine Chapel." It was a shock that the girl knew what the Sistine Chapel was let alone where. Liz pushed back her chair and dropped her paintbrush on the tray of colors before spinning to face the two other people.

"You don't deserve to go to Italy, or to see painting done by sure wonderful artists because you don't truly understand the seer brilliance of it all. Plus I won't hold my breath on the Italy thing, he promised me Italy too." With that she stormed out the door, bushing past both Sonny and Carly who seemed to have heard everything.

"What was that all about?" Sonny asked stepping into the penthouse, followed by Carly who kept looking over to where Liz had gone.

"She thinks she can paint," Courtney waved off.

"She can paint, Courtney." Jason hissed, moving away from her and towards Sonny.

"Shouldn't someone go after her?" Carly asked, looking at each person in turn.

"No, why? I finally got rid of her." Courtney said smiling.

"Ric escaped last night, he's not dead and I think you had better find Elizabeth because chances are he's out…"

"…Looking for her. Damn it, I have to find her before he does." Jason cut off his boss and shot out the door after the petit painter leaving the three people standing in his penthouse. Carly noticed the canvas set up in the corner by Jason's massive window and gave Courtney a questioning look before moving towards it.

"She likes to paint, she was painting when I woke up. Her and Jason were talking about the light or something like that." Carly nodded at the answer she was given as she took in the beauty of the painting in front of her.

"It's wonderful," she breath and then the idea came to her, she'd ask Liz to paint her a painting for her house.

***

Elizabeth wanted to kick herself for having shown so much emotion, for having all but admitted that she still missed Jason and his promises. She could feel the tears threaten to fall as she dropped into the bench on the dock, the thought that it might be unsafe never crossing her mind. She pulled her legs up to her chest and rested her head in them, staring out into the blue water and letting herself get lost in thought. Her thoughts slid straight to Jason and everything they'd been. She remembered finding him in the snow and saving him; she remembered him saving her in turn and countless times after that. She remembered riding on the back of his motorcycle and finally really seeing the colors and the wind and the lights, she remembered painting it all; that painting was her best work. Liz let herself remember when he put the steel door with numerous locks on at her studio for her; god she missed that studio. She remembered when he showed her how to swing a bat at someone and promise to keep it with her all the time and when he saved her from that graveyard. Small tears tricked down her face as she reminisced about the two of them. Slowly she whipped away the fallen tears as she remembered the postcard he's given her from Italy and the piece of ruby red cut glass, she loved that piece of glass, it helped her paint better, cleared her head, but she hadn't seen it in a long time, not since Courtney had walked in and taken her place with the hit man.

"Maybe it's packed away," before she had moved in with Ric she had left two small boxes of stuff with her grandmother, most of the stuff reminded her of Jason, and Elizabeth would have bet anything that the piece of glass was in one of those boxes. It was thinking of Ric that made her shiver as if she was being watched and she quickly shot her head up to scan the docks. Her tears blurred her vision and she would have sworn that she could make out a person at the far end of the docks but she wasn't sure. The panic that she felt when she was locked in the crypt or when she'd been raped crashed down upon her and she scrambled to her feet, backing away from the figure, she could now see, making their was towards her. Whoever it was, was getting closer and she wanted to cry but instead wrapped her arms around herself and hoped her wouldn't trip walking backwards. She didn't want to take her eyes off of the other person in fear that they'd grab her but she knew that if she didn't turn and run soon it would be too late to get away. Finally she summed up enough courage to turn and run and ran straight into someone. Elizabeth let out a scream as she struggled to get away from the person with a firm grip of her arms.

"Elizabeth, Liz, it me, it's Jason, you're okay." His deep voice broke through her panicked mind and she stopped struggling to look up at him and breathed a sign of relieve at the deep blue eyes she met.

"Oh, god, Jason." He pulled her into his arm and rubbed her back, she was shaking.

"Hey, what happened?" He asked her as she held him for dear life.

"I saw someone, there was someone here Jason." She told him through tears of fear. He pulled her back from his but kept his hands on her shoulders.

"Where?" His eyes scanned behind her for someone but there was no one there. She turned and pointed to the now empty spot where not even five minutes ago she'd seen someone.

"Where'd they go?" she stepped back, closer to Jason as she scanned the docks as well. "Someone was here, Jason, I swear." She told him and he could feel her hair on his neck.

"I know, I believe you, there's something I need to tell you, Liz, look at me," She turned and looked at him with a confused expression. "It's Ric, he escaped Liz, and he's not dead." Again she shivered and he automatically pulled her into his arms.

"What? How? Oh my god." She whispered against his neck and it took everything he had not to shiver from the feeling.

"I don't know but we have to get you back it's not safe here and it wouldn't be safe until we find him." He guided her towards his motorcycle, never letting her go and scanning the docks for someone the whole time. No, he wasn't scanning the docks for someone he was scanning the docks for Ric because Jason would bet his life that the person Liz had seen had been Ric Lansing himself.

-Girlygirl