No Boundaries: Chapter 2

Elizabeth woke up twenty minutes later completely disoriented.

She was vaguely aware of a pair of arms around her, steadying her, in the back seat of a vehicle.

"Elizabeth!" Carly exclaimed.

As soon as the words were spoken the arms around her shifted. She looked up slowly to see that it was Jason who was holding her so tightly.

He smiled down at her. "Hey, how do you feel?"

"I'm alright," she responded, groggily.

"Glad to hear it, Elizabeth." But it was Sonny who spoke to her this time.

Carly, still feeling the urge to put her two cents in, asked, "do you still remember what happened back at the warehouse?"

"Yea, I do."

"Good. We won't have to force you to relive it."

"I do have a question though..."

"Go ahead," Sonny told her.

"How did I get here?"

"Jason caught you after you passed out and obviously we weren't going to just leave you there at the warehouse," Elizabeth barely heard Carly say.

"She's right, Elizabeth. The warehouse is dangerous and you shouldn'r be near there ever."

"Alright, Jason. I'll never go near the warehouse again. But it's not like I had a choice today. Given the circumstances," she huffed, glancing at Carly.

"I know. I just want you to be safe."

Elizabeth, not able to think of anything to say, managed a feeble thank you in response. ____________________________________________________________________________

Almost ten minutes later, Elizabeth was on an elivator on the way to the penthouses that Sonny, Carly, and Jason lived in. She had no idea why they had brought her here too.

They entered the penthouse and Sonny gave meaningful look to Carly.

"Alright, alright. Geez I just get back home and already you want me to leave. Fine. Do you business. I'm going across the hall. Elizabeth! Your coming too."

With that she grabbed her arm and dragged her accross the hallway to Jason's penthouse.

Five minutes later they were talking about what had happened. Elizabeth wanted to know why they had brought her here instead of just dropping her off at her grandmother's or something.

"It's probably just a precaution. Ric was working with Alcazar and he's not dead yet. Sonny and Jason definitely won't want you out roaming the streets alone," Carly was telling her.

"By the way, I never did actually get a chance to thank you for what you did at your house. Getting me out of there, I mean. For a second I thought that I was dreaming too and I was imagining you there. Quite possibly one of the scariest moments of my life."

Elizabeth smiled bitterly at Carly. "It was horrible what Ric did. I can't believe I was married to that piece of slime. You know, this could be a breakthrought for me right here. I realize that I couldn't have possible been in love with Ric. I never really knew him. The Ric that I married never existed."

"It only hurts for the first little while. He'll fade into a bad memory in no time. Or maybe he'll be like one of those nightmares that you forget after a few days.

Elizabeth smiled.

"Come one, lets go back to my place. I'll show you the guest room. On second thought, maybe you'd like to stay at Jason's? Sonny and I havn't seen each other for almost a month you know."

She smiled mischeviously. "We do have to make up for lost time."

Elizabeth laughed. "Come on carly, that was way too much information."

Carly smirked. "Sorry, princess. Guess I have been saying a few things that your little ears just can't take."

"Now, wait a minute. That is NOT true."

"Ok, ok. Calm down. We'll call a truce for right now. Besides, I'm sure you'll want to talk to Sonny and Jason about what's going on. I know they won't let you go home. Your stuck with us."

"You know, Carly, I honestly don't think that I'm going to mind being stuck with you anymore. You seem to have changed. Your not as cold as you once were."

Carly laughed. "I know, isn't it scary. I think there's something wrong with me."

Elizabeth smiled. I'm going to go talk to Sonny now. Your coming with me. I don't want to be the only one that's yelled at if I'm interupting their business or something." ____________________________________________________________________________

Sonny cleared his throat loudly when he saw Elizabeth and Carly walk back in. Jason stopped speaking.

"Are you alright?" Sonny asked.

"We're fine, Sonny," Carly replied.

Jason spoke up this time, "did you need something...?"

"I wanted to know what was going on. Am I staying here, going to a hotel, I want to know? I am NOT going back home. I've mad a decision regarding that particular problem. I just won't do it."

"You don't have to."

"Well, I was thinking that Elizabeth could stay with Jason."

He looked up when Carly said that.

"Just think about it. Sonny and I havn't seen each other in almost a month. There are things we would like to do. Make up for lost time, you know?"

Sonny shook his head trying not to laugh, then said, "would that be alright with you, Jase? Carly and I probably should spend some alone time before we see Michael again in the morning."

"I...yea, sure. It's alright with me but I'm leaving it up to Elizabeth. If she doesn't want to stay at my place we could put her in a safe house or something."

"No way. Your are NOT putting me in a safehouse. Do you ahve any idea how increadibly boring thos places are?"

Carly laughed. "I do!"

Elizabeth smiled at her and then turned back to Jason. "I'll stay with you. You still have a guest room right?"

He smiled. "Yea, I do."

"Good." ____________________________________________________________________________

Elizabeth had fallen asleep with a surprising ease. Jason, however, did not.

All he could think about was what would have happened to Elizabeth if he had hesitated for even a moment before he shot Ric. He didn't think of Sonny's reaction for once. He was thankful that he didn't. Elizabeth would have been the one with the bullet in the forehead instead of Ric.

He didn't know about anyone else, but he knew that if she had died, he would have been devastated because it would have been his fault. That thought was his last before he fell asleep himself.

A few hours later he was woken up by a noise downstairs in the living room. It could have come from the kitchen though. He wasn't sure.

He got up quickly and reached for his gun. He checked Elizabeth's room and began to panic when he realized that she wasn't there.

He moved out of the room and went downstairs quietly.

Whoever had broken into the penthouse was now in the kitchen.

He lifted his gun, ready to aim at the intruder, and stepped into the kitchen doorway.

Elizabeth let out a shrill scream when she saw jason with his gun pointed directly at her.

Jason lowered the gun quickly.

"Jason, what are you doing?!"

"You scared me. I thought that there was someone in the penthouse. I could hear someone down here. I checked your room first and you weren't there. I guess I overreacted."

"It's alright. Just promise me that you won't do that again. I'm not used to having a gun pointed at me regularly. Well, at least not twice in one day."

She glanced at the kitchen clock, which read 2:03. "Twice in two days, actually, because its not yesterday anymore."

"Just promise me that you won't do that again," he said.

"What? Wake up in the middle of the night and grab a snack. Geez, I didn't realize that it was illegal." She laughed at him.

"I'm serious. I could have shot you."

"You could have, but you said it yourself, you were overreacting. Or did I hear you incorrectly?"

"Stop joking around about this. It's not a game."

Oh, thre are those familiar words again, she thought.

"You know, Jason, I think I caught that your work wasn't a game after about the five billionth time you told me," she said angrily.

"Come on, Elizabeth. I worry about you, that's all."

"And I'm flattered. I just don't need to be reminded of the severity of it all every single day."

She yawned. "I think I should go back to sleep now, ok?"

He smiled down at her. "That would probably be a good idea."

She smiled back. "Good night, Jason. Oh, just wondering, your not gonna come after me with that gun of yours on my way back up the stairs are you. Oops, sorry, I guess I'm not being serious again."

She laughed, and before he could reprimand her again, she took off. He could hear her laughing up until she shut her bedroom door.

He sighed, shaking his head, then left the kitchen to go up the stairs to his own bedroom and try to get some sleep. ____________________________________________________________________________

The next morning, when Jason woke up, Elizabeth was not in the penthouse. He was, once again, worried about her.

He chastised himself. Saying, mentally, that caring this much for people in his business could prove to be fatal. He ignored that though. He thought of Sonny and Carly. Sonny would give anything for Carly and he was doing just fine. Although, Sonny could also be a perfect example fo why he shouldn't care about some people the way he did. Because Sonny loves Carly his own brother had kidnapped her and held her captive for about a month. He didn't want Elizabeth to be held in a small room like an animal the same way Carly had been by Ric.

For the time being he wouldn't bother repressing his protective feelings. He was grateful for them at the moment. They were what had saved Elizabeth's life at the warehouse yesterday. ____________________________________________________________________________

Across the hall, in the penthouse opposite Jason's, Elizabeth was having breakfast with Sonny and carly. Michael wasn't even awake yet.

It was probably better, as Elizabeth was busy telling the story of the night befroe when Jason had found her in the kitchen.

"And then, he got mad at me because I decided to come downstairs and make a midnioght snack. Like he can really blame a girl for being hungry. It wasn't my fault or anything.

Sonny spoke up, "Well, he was probably right to be worried. Especially since we havn't found Alcazar yet."

"Oh, don't pay any attention to him," Carly said. "Sonny and Jason are so alike that they don't even realize it themselves."

"Then why didn't you marry Jason instead of Sonny?"

"Why didn't you marry Jason when you were together. God knows you were together for long enough. I mean, you were living together even.'

"Um...maybe because he didn't propose." carly laughed at that.

"Who didn't propose?"

Elizabeth jumped and turned to see Jason with a questioning expression on his face.

"Oh, that,um...Carly and I were just talking about...um..." She faltered.

Carly gallantly picked up the slack.

'We were talking about why you and Elizabeth never got married when you were together."

Carly that's enough," Sonny warned, finally stepping in.

By that time, however, Elizabeth's face and neck had amnaged to turn a pretty shade of red.

Carly was ushered out of the room quickly by Sonny.

Jason sat quietly, thinking about what he should say to Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, sensing the obvious tension, decided she should leave before either of them said anything they would later regret.

"You know, I should probably get an early start over at the studio. Sonny's bought it back for me. I don't know if you knew. but I sold it when I moved in with Ric."

Jason's eyes darkened at the mention of Ric. Elizabeth noticed and began rambling again.

"I'm re-painting it today and beginning to put some furniture in soon after. Sonny said Francis and Johnny could help me move the big things when I'm all done.

"Do you need any help today?" It was the first thing that Jason had said so far.

"Um...no. I'll be fine on my own."

With that, she rushed out the door and into the elevator.

Jason sighed, frowning at the missed opportunity to say anything of importance. ____________________________________________________________________________

Elizabeth hurried up the steps to her studio, all the while chastising herself for being so abrupt.

Her stomach did a flip as she opened the door and stepped into the studio.

"Alcazar." She whispered.

"Hello, Elizabeth."

TBC