Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to GH
Chapter 8: Jack and Gillian
The ringing in her ears wouldn't stop. Carly woke up from her uneasy sleep and groggily answered the phone. "Hello?" she answered, she looked at the clock, 8:42 PM; she noticed Sonny sleeping next to her, a glass of rum still in his hands. The mirror across the room revealed her blonde locks were untidy, but they also framed her make up smeared face. She figured that they must have taken a nap after the service.
"Carly?" a low voice asked. The voice sounded uniquely familiar, but she did not want to get her hopes up, there was no way it could be who she believed it was.
"Who is this?" she asked cautiously, biting her nails.
"It's me, Jason." Carly's eyes widened. Her heart was jumping enthusiastically, but her brain would not let her celebrate and believe the person on the other line.
* * * * *
The running shower water came to a halt; Brenda finished washing her hair for the seventh time in the last two hours. She claimed it was to get the hospital stench out of her hair, but Jason knew she washed her hair whenever she was nervous. Brenda walked out of the bathroom in her newly bought terry cloth robe. Jason's eyes moved slowly from a map of the Tri State area to Brenda's bare legs. She grabbed a PJ set from the shopping bag and looked back at Jason. "What?" she asked playfully. She had noticed his staring; even if it was for two seconds, she still noticed it.
Jason turned and finished his second phone conversation. "Uh-did you get me some clothes?" he asked casually, well he hoped it sounded casual.
"Here," she said as she threw him a plastic bag.
"This is all you got me-Two t-shirts and a pair of jeans?" he commented, measuring the pants against his body.
"I got you clothes, didn't I?" she replied as she came back into the room in her new light blue pajamas. She jumped on the bed, grabbed a bag of potato chips and started flipping channels with the TV remote.
"And you got yourself a new wardrobe." Her tattoo was peeking from underneath her clothes, Jason couldn't help but notice the teasing piece of art.
"Hey, a girl needs clothes," her eyes sparkled playfully and she popped another chip in her mouth. Jason just shook his head, accepting Brenda's humor. "Was that Sonny?"
"No, Anna, she agreed to get a couple of agents to check around and then get back to me," Jason yelled from the bathroom.
"But people think you're dead. Sonny thinks your dead!" Brenda yelled back as she began to sit upright on the bed.
"Anna promised to keep quiet. I'm not planning on telling Sonny yet." Jason mumbled while brushing his teeth. Brenda's eyes fell directly onto his shirtless body, and the towel encircling his neck. She quickly moved her eyes back up to Jason's face, embarrassed that he had noticed her staring.
Brenda returned to her Beverly Hills rerun on the television. "You're not going to tell him you're alive?? That's worse than sending him off to jail with a knife in his back."
"Relax, I told him, well Carly at least, that I'm ok, and that I'm staying away for a couple weeks, nothing else." Finished washing up, Jason walked back into the room and picked up the two T-shirts, trying to decide whether he should wear the green one or the black one. "It's the only way for us to track down the guy without Baldwin finding out and interfering. Because, you know, if I tell Sonny, he won't listen to me and want to-"
Brenda pointed to the green T-shirt, reading his thoughts. "He'll want to help, start getting men, and then Baldwin and JC will be suspicious." she finished for him.
"Exactly. You're pretty good at this." Jason replied, wondering how Brenda knew about his insignificant T shirt dilemma.
"I learn. Plus, there's also the fact that I don't want Sonny and company to know what I've been up to." She watched nervously as Jason went to sit down next to her, holding the green shirt in his hands. She didn't understand why her heart was pacing so quickly, it was just Jason, well, a half naked Jason. What girl wouldn't have butterflies?
"I get why you're staying away from Jax, by why Sonny? You know he still cares about you." Jason was concerned; he didn't want his best friend to be lied to by her again. But at the same time, he wanted to understand Brenda's motives.
"That's exactly why, I don't want him worrying about me or Carly getting all jealous and uptight about nothing." Brenda walked past Jason to open yet another bag of junk food, Where's the damn room service? She thought. Jason lightly sniffed in the airy aroma that whirled past when she walked.
"That's considerate of you." Jason remarked, ingesting the reasons Brenda had just providing, realizing how much less of a selfish brat she actually was.
"I thought so. So where do you plan on taking us? We should stop by the beach; JC always liked the ocean. Plus, we could, you know experience some waves."
"Why, Gidget, did you learn to surf already?" Jason joked as he stood up to change his shirt.
"Ha. Ha. " Brenda noticed his sculpted shoulders and back muscles, remembering the time when they lived together as a "married" couple. She quickly turned back to the television and opened her bag of nacho chips when Jason sat down next to her. "I'm going to check if they're gonna send us our dinner soon." Brenda hastily informed as she grabbed the phone. Jason picked up the remote and flipped through the various channels, a little bit amazed at the variety of shows that were on. He looked back at an impatient Brenda, tapping her fingernails on the nightstand.
"Hello, yes. Where is our food? This is Bren- I mean Gillian Moore, room 201. We ordered an hour ago and- good. No, thank you."
"What kind of name is Moore?" Brenda began, seriously contemplating the aliases Jason had thought up for them, "I mean, it sounds like we're having an affair or something." Brenda, chips in her hands, lay back on the bed on her stomach next to Jason.
"It's better than being Eddie Maine's long lost cousins." Jason said as he grabbed a handful of chips. His fingers brushed against hers. Neither of them flinched, but both felt a sudden spark in their stomachs that surprised them. "We need to try and figure out how to find Robin," Jason informed, trying to get Brenda to focus on what was more important.
"Jack and Gillian." Brenda began, ignoring Jason's request temporarily, "Gillian, that sounds so, innocent, I hate innocent names. But of course it's innocent, you like poor innocent girls." She smiled playfully at Jason.
"What's that supposed to-"
" And Jack- well Jack makes sense; after all you did break your crown." Brenda giggled, and laughed harder when she saw the perplexed look on Jason's face.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know, the nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill went up," she began to explain,"– no of course you don't know. Why would you know what a nursery rhyme is when you had no idea what a fairytale was." Both of them laughed at the memory of the day she taught him about fairytales when they were helpless in the swampy area.
"Another kid thing, how did it go?" he asked.
"No, no, I'm not going through that again with you. Let's try to figure out where JC took Robin." Brenda brought the map to the bed.
"Ok." Jason agreed. The couple stared at the map, clueless as to where to start. Jason couldn't take it anymore, for some reason, he had to know what the hell Brenda was talking about. "So who's Jack, is he a prince or something?"
"Fine, if you have to know." Brenda sighed heavily and a few strands of hair blew away from her face. "It goes: Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water. Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after. There, that's it. Nice and simple." She proceeded to walk away, hoping to get away from the stupid questions that he would soon ask.
"That's the whole thing? Why did they go up the hill to get water, couldn't they just use the faucet?"
"This was during the dark ages, when there was no indoor plumbing." She tried to explain without getting annoyed.
"So why a hill? Wouldn't you get water from a river or a well?" Jason crossed his arms and to Brenda he seemed to genuinely want to understand the rhyme.
"The well was on a hill. Hence the up the hill part."
"So he fell down the well?" Jason noticed annoyance in Brenda's eyes and voice. He really didn't care about this Jack person, but he enjoyed ticking her off over something as little as a nursery rhyme. And so their little bantering continued.
"No, he fell down the hill."
"Was he a prince?"
"Why would he be a prince? If he was a prince he'd get a servant to get his damn water."
"So why was he wearing a crown to get water?"
"The crown is his head. You could use a new one."
"I don't get it. How can a - " Someone knocked on the door.
"Dinner's here!" "Finally," Brenda exclaimed as she ran to answer the door.
* * * * *
"Mmmm. This is so fantastic, finally some real food, none of that hospital gunk. Are you going to eat that?" Brenda pointed to a piece of stuffed mushrooms on Jason's plate with her fork, her mouth still semi-full.
"Hey, hey, this is my plate, that one is yours." Jason defended, pulling his plate closer to him.
"Well, if you're not going to eat it, you might as well give it to me instead of wasting it. You know, there are kids on the other side of the planet starving and you won't even touch-." She attempted to reach over and pick up a piece of his food.
"So I'll mail it to them." He replied as he moved the plate further away from her.
"You know, you could at least show a little more courtesy. Honestly-" She reverted back to her own plate, it was almost clean.
"So did JC have any favorite places or homes out in the US?" Jason asked, playing with the food Brenda wanted.
"You think he's here?" She looked up from her food and Jason noticed a small flicker of fear in her eyes. She was obviously a bit nervous about confronting the guy so soon.
"Well, we should start here before wasting a trip to Europe." He explained, trying to ease her feelings.
"I don't know. You know, he hardly talked about his past. But I remember something about the Midwest." Brenda put down her silverware gently and started to focus on their serious conversation.
"I don't believe it." Jason said, which confused Brenda. "That's it? Just something about the Midwest."
"I told you, he didn't talk about his past tat much. He was kind of weird. I did tell you he was a weirdo, right? He had this obviously fake French accent, bad bleached blonde hair, and a bad complexion. The only thing good about him was his eyes, they were so intense, you know?" she asked, trying to focus the conversation away from her.
"No, I don't." Jason took a sip of his beer, in total disbelief of how much she noticed his physical appearance.
"Well, that's your fault. You should really go out and meet someone because you want to meet them, not because you want to kill them. You'd meet a lot more decent people that way." Brenda reasoned.
"Let me get this straight, you don't remember much about the guy's past, even though you conversed with him for months. And the only thing you do remember about him was his physical appearance? Jason asked.
"I'm sorry, I just pick up on those things. Sometimes I remember more of what they look like so if I ever see them again I can just walk in the other direction. Plus, we always talked about current events and stuff – you know, the juicy stuff. I mean, if it wasn't for the big croissant heist in Paris, during the time we first met, we might have not become current events buddies." Brenda explained, recalling the event.
"So what made you continue to talk to him, besides the heist thing?" Jason asked.
"Same reason why you talked to me even though you really didn't want to." Brenda met Jason's eyes, "because he was Robin's friend." Both looked down on their laps, uneasy at the fact that Brenda just stated. Jason looked back at Brenda, her head still slightly down with her wavy locks enveloping her face. She lifted her eyes slowly and met his gaze. She looked so beautiful and innocent to him just then.
"That was not the only reason I talked to you." Jason finally broke the uneasy silence.
"Then what was it? Cause, I mean, you sure didn't like me for some reason." Brenda attempted to compose herself, not make it look like she was upset at how he had treated her.
"I didn't like you because you blamed me for Sonny leaving you." Jason explained, trying to think of a legitimate reason. He had forgotten completely why he first hated her.
"That's why I started hating you." She noted as she sipped her water.
"Well, I guess… it all started when you tried to force me to remember someone I didn't want to be." Jason revealed, scratching his head.
"Well I'm sorry for trying to get my friend back, ok." Brenda defended. She knew where this was heading.
"I get that you wanted your friend back, but I don't want to be him, Brenda, I don't want anything to do with him. I mean, I see how you would like to be friends with a saint, but that kind of life is just not who I am." Jason explained for what seemed like the hundredth time. He did not want to go through this again, he thought it was done with years ago.
"I get that, but you have to understand this. You, or Jason Quartermaine, whatever, was like a brother to me, ok? We lived together, me, him, and AJ. We were a family. We were the first real family any of us ever had in a long time. So please don't go on the whole I hate Jason Quartermaine thing." Brenda requested fiercly.
"Look, I knew you guys were close, but-" Jason began, starting to get a little angry.
"Why do you think AJ is the way he is? Why I was hurting when you first pushed me away. You try everyday not to be like him, you ignore your family, you grimace at the mention of AJ's name, you stay away from hospitals, but that's not going to get rid of him Jason. Because, even though you might not know it, and certainly Sonny probably doesn't even know it, but there is a small part of him that appears everyday through you." Jason and Brenda's eyes were locked as Brenda explained her feelings about the conflict of the two Jason's that have been buried in her heart.
Brenda's eyes moved back down to her plate, "The loyalty, the bravery, the part where you excel at everything you love, that's all Jason Quartermaine, not Sonny Corinthos. Whether you want to accept it or not." Her confession moved Jason, he had not fully realized how deep her love for Jason Quartermaine was.
"You really cared about him, didn't you?" he asked softly.
"I did," Brenda looked up at Jason, smiling, the playful look back in her eyes. "Why do you think I put up with you all those years before you finally started being nice to me?"
"Is that why you put up with me? Because that's kind of a dumb reason to put up with a person who claims to hate you." Jason joked.
"It's probably a better reason than you could ever come up with." Brenda challenged.
"Are we competing for who has the better reason for not completely despising the other?"
"Aww, come on. The only reason you even stayed in the same room with me is because of Sonny and Robin." Brenda relaxed in her chair and crossed her arms, waiting for a comeback.
"True," Jason began, "But that's only part of it." Jason grinned, not sure of whether or not he should get into this with Brenda.
"So what was the other part?" she asked excitedly and leaned forward in her chair. "Wait where are you going?"
"I'm not going to get into this." Jason began to leave the table but Brenda grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Both were taken aback at how close he was pulled back. Their bodies barely touching, each staring into the others' eyes. They hadn't been that close since they had kissed years ago when Sonny left. Jason looked down at her touch, he noticed the gentleness in her fingers. Brenda followed Jason's gaze and she nervously took her hand away and took a step back.
"Come on, I confessed the classified causes behind my not so total hatred for you." She whined. Jason sighed and sat back down.
"Well, there's the fact that you, like Jason Quartermaine, are loyal, you defend the people you love. I respect that." Brenda was enjoying the compliments. He shook his head; "Do I really have to explain myself?"
"Don't stop, I'm really enjoying how this is making you squirm." Brenda snickered.
"Let's just say you provide a breath of fresh air in the Port Charles environment." Jason concluded and got up from his seat.
"A breath of fresh air?" Brenda exclaimed, looking up at him.
Jason turned around and looked down at the petite woman. "I don't know, you're different."
"Different? That's so original. Of course I'm different, what, you want me to be like the other girls," Brenda began to mock girls with a high pitched voice, "'Oh Jason, help me! Please save me from these bad guys, Jason please I need -"
Jason caught Brenda by surprise and stuffed a spoonful of his food in Brenda's mouth. "Shut up and finish your dinner." He pointed to her plate. Brenda tried to hold in her laughter and swallow the food at the same time. Jason started laughing at the site.
"So are you going to eat that?"
A/N: Aren't they adorable together? Thank you so much, you guys for all of your support and reviews! They really encourage me to continue even more.
Here's one of those preview kind of things for you guys.
Ch. 9 Preview:
Jason: How am I going to do that in 72 hours?
JC: Figure out a way. Click
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Jason: You got us into this mess!
Brenda: No, no, no, this is all YOUR Fault!
…. Jason grabs Brenda into his arms and…..