Chapter Sixty Three
Jaime thought in that fleeting second that maybe Jason could get there in time. But just in case, she rushed to the steps and pushed Rosco down. It was just instinct.
The loud bang sounded in her ears and Jaime felt herself buckle, as if someone had kicked her in the stomach. Before her eyes, Jason continued to struggle with Lien and out of the corner of her eye, she saw her father scream her name. It was quite an odd experience.
Everything seemed to move in slow motion. She wondered if Rosco was all right. Jaime couldn't believe Lien would fire after watching her father hesitate after her plea to him. Her whole body ached. She thought to herself, why now, would her workouts with Sensei Li begin to kick in?
Jaime shook her head. She felt light-headed and disoriented. She wondered why.
Then her father looked down upon her, his lips were moving but she couldn't make out the words. Rosco was also hovering above her. Apparently she was lying down. Jaime laughed silently; they looked so serious and so worried.
Meanwhile, she hoped that Jason was okay. Jaime knew he could take the big lug, but it still didn't make her worry any less. She swallowed, realizing that her mouth was all of the sudden very dry. Jaime felt tired and woozy. Her right shoulder really hurt and she wanted to fall asleep.
~~~
"Jaime!" Jason called, brushing the long black hair out of her eyes. "Talk to me. You've got to stay with us!"
He looked around the docks for anything that could be made into a bandage. Jason hadn't planned for the gun to go off. He'd thought that he'd make it before Lien pulled the trigger. And Jason didn't realize that Jaime would jump in front of Rosco.
Mr. Nam offered a blue silk kerchief from his pressed suit. Jason took it gratefully and pressed it on her wound. She had lost a lot of blood and she needed to get to the hospital fast.
"Is she all right?" Elizabeth gasped.
Jason hadn't really even noticed Elizabeth's arrival until she spoke up. He frowned and handed her his cell phone. "Call the ambulance," he commanded, busy focusing on cauterizing the wound.
He could hear the sound of sirens. Jason guessed that the police had been notified about the shots at the docks and Taggert would soon arrive with his self-righteous attitude and sanctimonious speech on how this was his fault and why it could have been prevented. All his thoughts jumbled for a moment, but then he closed his eyes and cleared his mind. Jaime needed him to focus right now.
Jason took off his leather coat and covered Jaime. There was so much blood. He lifted her and looked for an exit wound. There was none. The bullet was still lodged in her chest. Jason looked up at Mr. Nam and his goons, who had finally woken up. "You need to get out of here," he stated, eyeing Lien and the other two guards. "There's too much to explain."
Nam began to protest. "I can't leave my daughter here."
Jason shook his head. "You have to. You can meet us at General Hospital. Your guys have to get out of here."
After some thought, and the rush of footsteps, Nam took off, which left Rosco and Elizabeth. "You follow my exact lead," he declared, glaring at Rosco.
He was trouble from the start. Jason should have just let Nam take him. Now he was pressing a thin piece of cloth to her chest, which kept Jaime from bleeding to death.
"Jason," Elizabeth whispered. "What happened?"
Jason remained expressionless, as he saw Taggert approaching. "Yeah, Morgan, what the hell happened here?"
~~~
Taggert wasn't surprised to find the blonde spiky robot hovering over another one of his victims. "Is this another one of your latest victims?" he spat disgustingly.
Morgan remained expressionless. "Can we do this later?" Jason retorted. "Jaime's going into shock and I'm sure you'd rather not have her die with you just standing there?"
Taggert looked down on the petite Asian girl. She was ashen and there was a small pool of blood trickling down the stairs. Swallowing hard, Taggert knew that he had to allow Morgan to care for the girl until the ambulance arrived. "Fine, but I'm sure your other friends can inform me of what happened!" Taggert replied stonily.
Glancing away from the leather clad goon, Taggert set his sights on Elizabeth who was quiet and jittery. "Miss Webber, could you step over here a moment and answer some questions?"
Elizabeth looked up at him, her eyes were clouded, and she seemed disoriented. "Hmmm?" she responded in confusion.
"Please step over here and answer some questions," Taggert repeated sweetly.
He would get down to the bottom of this if it killed him. And this time Morgan and Corinthos wouldn't get away with it. Taggert would finally make Corinthos pay.
Elizabeth stumbled down the steps, meeting him on the lower docks. She kept glancing nervously over at Jaime, and fidgeting with her hair. "What is it?" Elizabeth asked worriedly. "I wasn't here when this happened. I just came and found her laying there."
Taggert studied the small brunette. She had an emotional attachment to Morgan and he was quite skeptical about the merits of her account of the situation. "Really?" he replied suspiciously. "Well why don't you tell me just exactly brought you here."
~ * ~
After he'd taken Elizabeth's statement, which as he'd suspected, gave him nothing to go on, the ambulance arrived to take Jaime to the hospital. Taggert examined the crime scene and looked for any clues. There were no gun shells and no gun. He had the other officers who'd arrived at the scene, tape it off so that no one could disturb the docks.
Taggert knew that Jason had a gun on him and had the officers confiscate the weapon. "I'm sure you wished you'd thrown that into the water," he sneered.
Jason looked at him warily. "I don't care Taggert. It's not going to match the bullet in her chest. So if you're done with me…"
Taggert furrowed his brow. "No. No I'm not done with you." He smirked and pulled out his pad of notepaper. "Obviously you were here when it happened, so what went down Morgan? Did one of your boss's competitors decide to take you out and instead got this innocent girl?"
"Jaime. Her name's Jaime," Morgan growled. "And no, it has nothing to do with Sonny. And if there's nothing else, I'd like to go see if she's all right."
Taggert pushed his index finger into the leather jacket. "Don't think you can lie your way out of this. Once Miss Nam is out of surgery, I'm sure I'll get the truth."
Jason shook his head and brushed Taggert's hand away. "I'm sure you will," he stated dismissively as he walked away.
~~~
Rosco was in shock. He'd never expected her to get hurt. Right now, he'd wished he'd stayed in Canada. "So you're Rosco, huh?" the petite brunette inquired as he sat beside her in the hospital waiting room.
He nodded. Rosco's first instinct was to run, but he didn't know how he could. Morgan was watching him like a hawk, along with several others of Corinthos' goons. There was no way out. There would be hell to pay.
He looked down at his hands, which remained stained with Jaime's blood. Rosco didn't even know if she'd be all right. She had looked up at him just before she passed out. Even when she'd been shot, Jaime had a sparkle in her eye.
Rosco clasped his hands together and pressed his forehead against them. How could he have been so stupid? Now Jaime lay on an operating table, fighting for his life. He wished he'd never met her. As he stood up to go to the washroom, a couple of Corinthos' goons moved in, as if daring him to try something. Rosco rolled his eyes. "Just going to the washroom," he said sarcastically. "I can go to the washroom can't I?"
One of the men motioned him to start walking, while following a few paces behind. As if Rosco didn't have enough troubles. He was sure that the detective on the scene would be breaking his chops too, as he did Morgan. What was their story? What would they say?
Morgan and Nam could easily just pin it on him, saying that he'd tried to rob her, or kidnap her and his gun had gone off. While he entered the sterile hospital bathroom, Rosco pondered what his end would be. As he stared at himself in the mirror, the man staring back at him looked disgusted and full of revolt.
Suddenly all he could think of was Jaime's beautiful and intense face. Her laugh, which sounded out like music, and how fiery she got when she thought she was being pushed around. All of this life that exuded from within that beautiful girl, was balancing on the edge of a knife.
He wished he'd never set foot in Port Charles.