Babble: Things to know about this story. 1) It's set during the time when Elizabeth faked her death; and 2) Ever here of a guy named Murphy and a pesky little law that follows him around? Since there are kidnappings, druggings, gun fights, plane crashes, snakes, wild animals, waterfalls… this fic seems to fit that law.
Hope you enjoy it. Please let me know.
Steph
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One of Those Days
Part XII
~Plane~
A shriek echoed around the small interior of the plane. Hearing it Nikolas was able to stop the club inches from the brown-haired girl's head. "Emily?" His weak question illustrated his shock.
Emily Quartermaine peeked through the fingers of the hands covering her face. "Y-yes."
The club clattered to the floor of the plane and quickly rolled away. Hearing that Emily dropped her hands to study her one-time friend. Nikolas looked as shocked as she'd ever seen him. "Are you going to let me up?"
"I ought to throw you off the plane." Nikolas responded even as his ingrained manners came to bear and he helped her into a sitting position.
"It's good to see you too," she grumbled and immediately found herself being smothered in a hug. The hug was so familiar and comforting that she couldn't help but respond. She may be alternating between feeling hurt or angry when she thought of him, but they had been friends too long for her not to feel anything.
"How did you get here?" Nikolas pulled back to search her face then moved on to search the plane looking for a wheelchair. "Can you walk?"
"I'll show you if you let me." Emily replied. She was getting tired of being on the cold hard floor of the plane. She hadn't really thought about the realities of her plan when she snuck on board the plane. If she had she would have brought a cushion with her.
The sound of banging caught his attention and Nikolas turned to look at the cockpit where the Mountain was waiting. Although Emily and him had been speaking quite loudly in order to be heard over the roar of the plane they weren't loud enough that Max could hear them. Getting to his feet he hunched slightly out of deference to the compact interior of the plane and to help Emily get up. The sight of her standing under her own power warmed his heart. She appeared to be a bit unsteady but he hoped that was due to the rocking of the plane and not because of any physical limitation.
They began making their way up to the cockpit. "Take the seat." Emily nodded and climbed awkwardly over the control panel to take the co-pilot's seat, while he pulled down the jump seat behind them.
"Ms. Quartermaine," Max nodded at her.
Nikolas was surprised by Max's behavior. He was acting like he'd just run into Emily at Kelly's not like she'd been discovered as a stowaway of a private plane. "What are you doing here?"
"Max how are you?" Emily ignored Nikolas' question.
"Fine," Max replied. "I hope you weren't to uncomfortable back there."
Emily heard Nikolas make a noise that sounded like a growl and smothered a laugh. "It was a bit bumpy especially when you started practicing your roll technique."
Max blushed at her words and Nikolas was agog at the sight of the Mountain blushing.
"I saw you at the airport in P.C." Emily finally decided to answer Nikolas' question. "I recognized Max and wondered why you were traveling with one of Sonny's men, so I decided to follow you."
"You decided to follow us." Nikolas parroted too surprised at the moment to be angry. He merely shook his head in wonder as the day turned even stranger.
~Woods~
Frozen in place Elizabeth could only stare down the barrel of the gun that was inches from her face. Spanish filtered past her ears and then went on over her head. She had no idea what he was saying, probably something about not moving, which she was only too happy to oblige. The man seemed to realize she couldn't understand him and his eyes narrowed in speculation. When his eyes shifted past her to check out the direction she'd come from she could only hope Jason was still sitting on his butt somewhere and wouldn't come barreling upon them. She recognized the odor coming from the hand-rolled cigarette that hung from the man's lips as marijuana and felt he might be a little too trigger happy for her peace of mind.
Holding her breath she waited to see what happened next and tried not to flinch when the man lowered the gun and moved closer. She remained tense however because even though the gun was no longer pointed at her head it was firmly gripped in the man's tattooed hand. Up close and personal to the man she tried not gag, apparently he had an aversion to water and such things as showering or doing laundry. Biting her lip she decided not to mention it.
"American?" The man asked in heavily accented English.
"Yes," she nodded and watched the man's eyes change yet again. This time they went wary and almost before she was aware of it he had pulled a piece of rope out of his pocket. One end of the rope had been formed into a loop that he quickly slid over her wrist and tightened until it was tight against her skin. Another loop was formed and slid over her other wrist and that was tightened as well. Soon her hands were bound in front of her. The speed and efficiency in which he'd accomplished that move with only one hand told her he had plenty of practice tying people up. It wasn't a comforting realization.
Once she was bound he moved around her and soon she felt his hands on her back, then her legs as he checked her for what she could only assume were hidden weapons. Her only consolation was that his touch remained impersonal, she hoped it would stay that way. The gun poked her in the back and he gestured in a direction, taking that to mean she was to move, she forced herself to walk. Moving into the brush that covered a path she could only wonder where the hell was Jason?
~*~*~
Jason remained in the bushes a few feet from where Elizabeth and Dominguez's guard were standing. His gut had clenched in anger while watching the guard tie her up and then search her for weapons, and yet he remained where he was hidden. He couldn't take the risk of moving to soon. He needed to make sure the guard was by himself before he made his move. He had to wait in order to keep the risk to Elizabeth's safety at a minimum.
He knew what he was doing was smart and really the only move he could make, but that didn't mean he liked it. In fact his blood began to simmer as the guard prodded her with his gun to get her moving. He caught a glimpse of her expression and instead of the fear that he'd expected to see he saw a touch of anger in her expression. Recognizing it, he realized she was probably cursing him, wondering where he was. Shaking his head in ill-timed amusement he waited until they disappeared from view before moving after them as quietly as he could.
~New York~
Sonny swaggered through the doors of Unique Unlimited like a man who already owned the place and was about to strip it for parts. Johnny gave a passing thought to the bespectacled young man sitting behind the receptionist desk then decided to save his pity for someone whose fate wasn't already sealed.
"I want to see your boss." Sonny announced loudly.
"Ms. Zelle is out of the office." The receptionist responded with a mechanical smile. "She is expected back next week if you'd like to make an appointment."
"I don't make appointments." Leaning over the desk Sonny closed the appointment book startling the receptionist.
"I'm sorry?" His smile faltered. This was not going the way it was supposed to. He wasn't trained to handle situations like this. "I'm sorry Mr. Mr?"
"Corinthos," Sonny supplied and watched the younger man's eyes bug out from behind his lenses and knew it had been recognized. "My name is Sonny Corinthos and I suggest you find me someone to speak to."
A woman who had been about to enter the lobby heard that pronouncement and quickly scrambled back until she was hugging the wall in the hall. What was Sonny Corinthos doing here?
"Mr. Corinthos," a striking African American woman entered the lobby. "Perhaps I can be of assistance. I'm Meg Barnett the general manager of Unique."
Leaving the slowly disassembling receptionist in his wake Sonny moved quickly towards the woman.
Her face remained composed but Meg watched his approach warily. The fact that one of the most notorious mobsters on the East Coast was in her office meant trouble not only for the company but her boss as well. "What can I do for you?"
"You can tell me who placed the bounty on Jason Morgan." Sonny snapped.
"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," she replied smoothly.
"Don't toy with me Ms. Barnett." Sonny smiled feeling in control. He'd recognized the look in the woman's eyes, she was an operator, that knowledge reassured him. He was used to handling operators and he had no doubt he would handle her. "I know your company is the one responsible for the snatching of my partner Jason Morgan."
"If your partner is missing…"
"In fact I imagine that is where you boss is at the moment," he went on. "What I want to know is who placed the bounty that your boss so foolishly decided to accept."
Meg held her smile even as she cursed her boss. She'd advised against taking the bounty on Morgan but her boss had been looking for a challenge. Now her worst fears were coming true. Something had gone wrong with the Morgan jack and whatever that was it had led to Corinthos' discovery of their company being the one behind it. "Mr. Corinthos, I'm afraid you've gotten some bad information."
"Don't," he warned her. "You really don't want to play around with me, not right now, not after what you've done."
The threat of violence in the man's eyes surprised her. From her research of Corinthos she knew he had an ingrained sense of honor when it came to women. Her boss believed it was that code of honor that precluded him from hiring their company when it was obvious that he could use their expertise.
Sonny took a breath and used the delay to try to battle back his rage. He needed to hold it together. He couldn't explode yet, not until he knew who it was that had started this disaster that had cost Elizabeth her life. "Your jack is over."
"Mr. Corinthos."
"It was over when the plane carrying Jason Morgan, your two flunkies and an innocent girl crashed into the ocean, killing everyone on board with the exception of Jason," Sonny informed her coldly.
The woman eavesdropping in the hall moved a little closer trying to hear better.
"Mr. Corinthos," Meg started and then trailed off when his words penetrated. She knew there had been a problem with the payment for the jack but she hadn't been informed that the plane had crashed. The two idiots on board weren't a great loss, they were drug smugglers by trade and had only been hired because of the plane, so they weren't a great loss to humanity. But what was this about an innocent girl?
Sonny could read the questions in her eyes. Questions she refused to ask and inched closer. "Elizabeth Webber was on that plane. She's dead because of your jack."
The woman in the hall staggered back against the wall in shock, her mind began replaying conversations she'd had with Elizabeth.
"If you people bothered to research Jason at all then you should recognize her name. You should also realize what she means to Jason and that means you ought to know what he'll do when he finds out she's dead," he taunted.
This time Meg couldn't keep the worry from showing on her face.
"You better tell me who placed the bounty." Sonny's voice was soft but that didn't belie the menace in his eye.
Johnny kept busy scanning the lobby. They were beginning to attract some attention. Cataloging them was his business and he was very good at his job, so far he hadn't spied a gun on any of them. He wasn't sure if it was his boss's menace or his glare that kept them at bay, but so far they were merely watching the show. A flash of color caught his eye and he focused on the entry to a hall behind the receptionist desk, but by the time he'd focused on it the woman was gone. He was struck by a nagging feeling of familiarity, dismissing it for the time being he went back to his job.
"Jason won't ask any questions." Sonny went on, inching closer until they were almost sharing the same space. He lowered his voice and kept his eyes locked on hers, he could have been seducing her except for the words he was saying. "Jason's been compared to a machine, a Borg if you will, in this case that's an accurate assessment. He won't stop, he won't be swayed by begging or bribery, he'll just keep coming until he knows who hired you and punishes everyone that contributed to her death."
"I'm sorry that you lost a friend," Meg tried to counter and calm her fears at the same time. "But the fact remains I don't know what you are talking about."
"If something should happen to Jason, if he should die as well," he went on like she hadn't even spoken. "I'll be honor bound to complete what he started."
Not liking the increased attention his boss was garnering Johnny took a step forward and cleared his throat. Sonny nodded in response and Johnny raised the radio to alert the driver to bring the car around.
"I know who you are Ms. Barnett. I know where you live, both here and in Paris," he paused to let that sink in. "I know where to find most of your operatives as well." Was it wrong to enjoy the way she'd paled? "I'll give you until noon tomorrow to get me the information. If I don't have it by then…" he let the threat hang in the air, turned and left as dramatically as he'd arrived.
The woman who had been eavesdropping collapsed against the wall when she heard the door close. Noise began filtering around the lobby again when people began moving from the lobby back into the offices she walked into the lobby and crossed to Meg. "Whew I don't envy you."
Meg leveled a glare at one of their best operatives, using the time it took to do that to try to settle her breathing. The threat Corinthos had leveled certainly packed a punch.
"I thought we didn't do mafia bounty's."
"We don't." Meg forced herself to walk while she explained. "This wasn't a mob snatch, the boss had a personal guarantee about that." She checked her watch and swore lightly. "She missed her first check-in I'll have to tell her about the girl at the next one. She needs to know about the new threat."
"What if she doesn't check-in?"
"We'll follow standard procedure." Meg rubbed at her temple suddenly she had a nasty headache. "The boss has to miss three check-ins before we move in."
Nodding she stayed where she was after Meg disappeared. If they followed procedure a whole day would pass before they moved in. Somehow she didn't think Sonny would wait a full day for answers. The only question was could she?
~Trail~
"Did you hear something?"
Jess paused to listen then shook her head. "Nothing but the same noise we've been hearing all day," she pronounced after a minute and began to walk again.
Hawk took a step to follow then came to a halt again. The hair on the back of his neck had risen a sure sign that trouble was coming. Turning he looked carefully at the bushes that surrounded them, searching for the source of the trouble that was making him uneasy, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. They weren't alone, he knew that, yet he saw no signs of where their watcher was. For the first time in years he felt a sense of fear. Whatever was watching them was evil, the likes of which he'd never seen.
Amalie, his riverboat driving Creole Grand Mere, had been a medicine woman on the Bayou. She had raised him and trained him to believe in evil, in all of its many forms, so he had no trouble saying the word, or identifying what had spooked him now. Somehow he knew it was the purest form of evil watching them now. Moving on instinct he hurried after Jess and caught her arm. "Run."
Jess took one look at his face and complied. He herded them off the overgrown trail they had been following to the relative safety of the trees. They'd barely made the cover of the tree line when the dirt behind them began exploding in their wake.
~Woods~
Francis held up his hand to stop Manny when the faint sound of gunfire reached his ears. Both men looked back in the direction of the shots.
"You think that could be about Jason?" Manny asked when the sound of gunfire faded.
"No." Francis' response was immediate. "We're definitely on Jason's trail, he somewhere ahead of us. Whatever the shots were about they have nothing to do with Jason."
Deferring to Francis' superior knowledge was something Manny was used to doing so the shots were easy to dismiss. "We still on his trail?"
"Yeah," Francis gestured to the overgrown path. "It's difficult to track him. I only catch a glimpse of his track every few feet or so. The nick in the boot tread tells me we're on the right track. I only hope he stays to the trail, if he doesn't he's going to be a bitch to track."
~Trail~
Stavros tripped over an overgrown root and went sprawling. Cursing richly he got to his feet and brushed the dirt from his face. He wasn't sure how the man had realized he was being hunted but he'd managed to grab the blonde and get them out of sight before he could stop them. The fact they'd gotten away, bothered him. The sight of the blonde had awakened his carnal instinct, once aroused they were hard to deny. In fact he wasn't sure how to deny them, as the Prince he'd never had to. It had been such a long time since he'd hunted, he wouldn't be denied for long.
Glancing in the direction the pair had disappeared he was tempted to follow, to execute the man and take the woman. The temptation was so strong he actually took a step from the path to follow them, then remembered why he was on the island in the first place. He was there to find Elizabeth Webber, to make her tell him where the Ice Princess was, once he knew that he would punish her. He would have fun punishing her, in fact he might arrange for Nikolas to join them to witness the punishment and learn how he was supposed to keep a woman in line. It was his right, his duty, as Nikolas' father to teach him how to take control. Decided he turned back on the path to continue on the way the pair had been going.
~Plane~
"You never answered me Nikolas. Why are you with Max? And what's this about Jason and Elizabeth?" Emily asked.
This time it was Nikolas who ignored the question. "I didn't know you were back in town."
"I just arrived," she admitted then mad at herself for answering his question she took a jab. "I wasn't aware you even knew I left town."
Nikolas flinched and looked away from her, his mistake was in meeting Max's glare, which he returned with one of his own. The glare had the desired effect, however, and he turned back to Emily. "I knew you were gone."
"You couldn't prove it by the amount of cards and letters you sent. I guess I should be used to it after all you didn't even bother to come to see me when I was in town at GH." Emily was still bitter, she still felt hurt that the only one of the four musketeers who'd bothered to come see her after she'd been hurt was Elizabeth. And even her visit had been more about her and Lucky then anything else.
"There's been a lot going on," Nikolas admitted. "However, that is no excuse. You were my friend, I should have been there for you."
His guilt was easy to read and when Emily felt herself weakening she changed the subject. "Answer my question. Why are you with Max?"
Nikolas looked towards Max for guidance but the Mountain was taking an extreme interest in the darkening horizon.
"Nikolas?" she prompted. "Jason was with me until last week when Sonny called to ask a favor."
"I'm glad you weren't alone."
"Don't try to avoid my question, you're not good at it." When he looked at her in confusion, she went on. "Compared to the Quartermaine's or Jason you're a babe in the woods when it comes to evasions."
Recognizing the determination in her eyes he realized he was going to have to tell her something. "The favor Sonny asked Jason to do was for me … and Elizabeth."
"Jason didn't mention that."
"I don't think he knew," he admitted.
"What happened Nikolas?" Emily buried her anger and learned standoffishness and studied him, he was really upset about something, and the sight of that was making her nervous.
"Elizabeth had to get out of town. No one could know where she was and she needed protection once she got out of town. We went to Sonny and he contacted Jason," he admitted in a rush.
"Why did Elizabeth have to leave town?" She wanted to know.
"That doesn't matter now," he evaded and wasn't surprised when she glared at him. "Something happened when she got where she was going … Jason was kidnapped."
The words were so unexpected that Emily could only blink.
"Did you hear me?"
"Jason was the one that was kidnapped?" Emily asked doubtfully.
"Yes and apparently Elizabeth followed the kidnappers and snuck onboard the plane the kidnapper's placed Jason on." Nikolas stopped and hoped she wouldn't question him any further. He didn't want to be the one to tell her that Jason may be dead, or even worse, that Elizabeth was dead.
"What happened then?" She knew him well enough to know he was holding something back. When he didn't answer she clutched his hand. "Tell me."
"The plane went down, there was only one survivor," he kept a hold of her hand when her grip went lax in his.
"No," she instinctively denied the awful words. "He can't be … she can't be."
Faced with the sudden devastation in her eyes he knew he could hold nothing back. "We don't know who survived."
Emily's eyes filled. "No."
"I'm sorry Emily. I'm so sorry."
"No," she lashed out, slapping at him. "You're lying."
"I'm sorry," he kept apologizing and just let her flail at him. Finally he caught her arms and crouched awkwardly half-behind, half-beside her seat and pulled her head to his shoulder. Eventually he felt her tears against his neck. "I'm so sorry."
~Trail~
Elizabeth couldn't help muttering under her breath. Jason seemed to be taking his sweet time coming to help her. How many times had she saved his butt in the last few days? She didn't wait to help him, she just charged in and it had worked time and time again, so where was he?
The rope was chafing her wrists, she was dying of thirst, her dizziness had returned, and her knees were killing her because of the number of times she'd fallen on her forced march. She never realized how much a person used their swinging arms for balance while they walked, until the time had come she couldn't use them.
The man behind her suddenly swore, curious she turned to see what his problem was just in time to see all hell break loose. The guard that had been herding her like a sheep was now holding a hand to his throat and cursing. Her eyes widened in surprise when she recognized blood coming from between his fingers. Before she had time to figure out what had happened Jason emerged from the bushes behind the armed guard and charged him.
The guard's focus had been on her face, which apparently wasn't a poker face because an instant before Jason reached him he whirled around to meet the charge. She couldn't help but scream when the sound of gunfire and groans came from the men in front of her.
~*~*~
"Did you hear that?" This time it was Manny who called for a stop. "It sounded like a gunshot."
Francis nodded and quickened his step. "It came from ahead of us."
~*~*~
Jason and the guard seemed to have survived the gunshot without injury. The gun went flying and landed near her feet while the men kept up their brutal fight. Scrambling for the gun Elizabeth awkwardly picked it up and pointed it at the two men on the ground in front of her.
The memory of the last time she'd held a gun crashed into her and the gun began shaking in her hands. The last time she'd held a gun she'd killed a man. She hadn't meant to, she hadn't even thought she'd hit scarman when she fired, but she had. She had hit him in the arm and when that happened he'd lost control of his own gun and it fired crazily killing the pilot and crashing the plane.
Now she was holding another gun and this one was pointed in Jason's direction. There was no way she could risk shooting it. She might hit Jason. She was just going to have to hope that Jason won the fight, or if she had to fire Jason was nowhere near where she was aiming. Her focus returned to the fight and to her untrained eye it seemed like Jason was losing. Her fears were confirmed when the guard got his feet under Jason's stomach and kicked him backwards. Jason flew back and landed hard on the ground and she winced in sympathy when she saw the awkward angle of his body.
The guard got to his feet and moved after Jason who seemed to be stunned because he was making no effort to get up off the ground. Catching the gleam of a knife in the guard's hand she didn't hesitate. Dropping the gun she ran forward, launching herself at the unsuspecting man. She crashed into him hard and they both fell heavily to the ground.
Aware of the knife in the man's hands yet desperate to stop him from hurting Jason, Elizabeth fought as best she could, but she was handicapped both by the ties on her wrists and by her weakened condition. In spite of her valiant effort the fight was doomed from the very beginning. She tried to keep him pinned by grinding his face into the ground, she could hear his muffled curses and ground harder. The guard reared back violently and bucked her off sending her flying backwards through the air. She barely had time to scream when her body connected with the ground, her head with a rock and darkness claimed her.
~Woods~
Jess prided herself on her physical fitness, her stamina, but even she was ready to scream when Hawk finally called a halt to their mad dash. Bending over she rested her hands on her knees and tried to catch her breath. Her consolation came with the knowledge that Hawk was breathing just as hard as she was.
"How did you know?" Jess finally gasped out.
How could he explain it to her? His worldly boss didn't really believe in evil and every time he started talking about the mysticism his Grand Mere had believed in her response had been to change the topic. She hadn't been raised on the Bayou she didn't know there were things that existed in the world that could never be explained away and evil was one of those things.
"Hawk?"
"He was downwind I caught a whiff," he offered a line from a movie he'd once seen and saw her expression turn doubtful.
"I'm amazed you could smell anything given the lovely aroma you're emanating."
"Your not so fresh yourself boss," he snapped.
Before she could respond their attention was caught by a flash in the darkened sky above them. "We better find someplace to hold up for the night. Things are going to get wet around here."
Hawk studied the sky for a minute then shifted his attention to her, catching her expression he couldn't resist a remark. "I'm ready for a wet T-shirt contest, how about you?"
"Juvenile," she hissed and began moving.
Letting out a long wolf-whistle Hawk trailed her. "I have to admit you have me beat when it comes to the T-shirt contest. But I don't mind."
~Trail~
Jason crashed hard into the guard. The sight of an unmoving Elizabeth on the ground made him snap. The abuse he unloaded on the guard was brutal, punch after punch until the guard stopped moving and still he swung. When he was convinced the man wasn't going to move anytime soon, he left the guard and crawled to Elizabeth's side.
"Elizabeth?" His voice was soft and his hand shook when he reached out to touch her face. Brushing back her hair his eyes narrowed at the faint trickle of blood coming from beneath her hairline at the corner of her head. She'd been hurt again, and once again he hadn't been able to stop it. Angry all over again he wanted to pound on the guard but knew he had to get her out of there.
Moving quickly he retrieved the man's gun and radio. Next he carefully removed the binds from Elizabeth's wrists and took great pleasure in tying the guard up with the rope as tightly as possible. Finally he checked the guard's pockets for anything else that could come in handy, and discovered a lighter and a package of crackers. Pulling the backpack free he tucked them inside it and put it back on before heading back for Elizabeth and picking her up as gently as he could. Gentle or not her head still lolled backwards over his arm, infuriating him, he turned back to the guard and kicked him several times, moving him from the trail into the brush.
He began walking away only to come to a stop after a few steps. The guard would be discovered eventually and when he was they would try to track who had beaten him. Realizing that, he paused and awkwardly pulled a small bushy branch from a tree and began brushing at his prints, obliterating them. Backing carefully from the path he made sure he left no trace of Elizabeth and his passage.
~New York City~
Sonny poured a liberal dose of scotch in his glass and studied the night skyline. How was he supposed to tell Jason that Elizabeth was dead? How was he supposed to tell his best friend that he had let him down and a woman he cared for had paid the price?
He wasn't blind to Jason's feelings for Elizabeth, he even believed he'd picked up on her feelings for him. All Jason had ever asked of him was to keep his family safe and help them if they asked for his help. He'd already let Emily down and she'd been hurt because of it. Jason had managed to forgive him for that, but forgiveness wouldn't happen this time. Although Jason hadn't said the words the last time he'd left, Sonny knew that Elizabeth was as important as Emily to Jason, in a different way.
Now he was faced with having to tell Jason that she was dead. Logically he knew that it wasn't his fault. The bounty had been on Jason and Elizabeth had followed in an attempt to help him. He couldn't control what had happened. But the fact that Elizabeth had been in his care at the time of her death meant that it was his fault.
Draining his glass in one long gulp he deliberately set his glass down. Almost immediately he turned the glass over barring the path of more dark amber liquid. He couldn't afford to bury the pain in alcohol, he couldn't afford to crawl into the darkness in his mind. He still had so much left to do, he needed to be able to move to do it. Things like telling Nikolas that Elizabeth was dead.
~Plane~
"We'll take you back to the island and you can take a plane back to Port Charles," Nikolas informed her when her tears finally stopped. "Max turn the plane around."
Sitting back against the seat Emily shook her head. "I'm not going anywhere."
"Emily this could be dangerous," Nikolas hesitated not wanting to tell her about his father, a concept he could barely grasp himself. "You need to leave."
"Either my brother or my best friend is dead," she pointed out. "I'm not leaving until I know who. After I find out I'm going to need to help the survivor deal with the knowledge that the other is dead."
"You've barely recovered from your injury. You'll just slow us down," he pointed out viciously. "Max, turn the plane around."
"Don't do it Max," Emily warned him. "I'm staying with you until I know what happened."
"Turn the plane around," ignoring her he ordered the Mountain as sharply as he could.
"I'll just follow you," Emily warned them both. "You better keep me with you Max."
"Max," Nikolas all but yelled when he realized the Mountain had yet to turn the plane. "Turn the plane now."
"Don't do it Max," Emily warned.
"I couldn't if I wanted to." Max finally interrupted their argument. "We have a problem."
"What sort of a problem?" Nikolas demanded then got his answer when the engine sputtered once, twice, then cut off completely.
~Trail~
"What's wrong?" Manny asked when Francis came to an abrupt halt.
"The tracks," Francis murmured, using the flashlight he'd brought with him he began searching the ground.
"What about them?" Manny took a step away and cautiously touched his ribs trying to figure out if any were broken.
"The tracks end."
Surprised Manny took a step in his direction then went flying as he tripped over something. "What the hell?"
The light turned in his direction and they both took in the beaten, bloody, unconscious man. Scrambling to his knees he checked for a pulse. "It's weak but he's still alive. It looks like he ran into a truck."
"You ever been around Jason when he lost his temper?" Francis wanted to know.
"I can't say I have," Manny admitted.
"It's ugly." Francis scanned the ground trying to find the direction Jason had went and was soon distracted by the sound of Manny's stomach growling.
"Sorry," Manny's sheepish expression came through the dark night. "It's been awhile since lunch. "You find his trail?"
"Its to dark to find anything." Francis finally admitted. "We better find a safe place to hold up for the night. We can get a fresh start in the morning. We need to find someplace high," he muttered under his breath hoping Manny didn't hear him.
"High?" Manny latched onto that one word. "Why high?"
Francis didn't want to answer, he really didn't want to answer Manny but knew he had to. "The woods come alive at night."
"Alive?" Manny was puzzled until a beautiful idea came to him. "Do you mean alive with animals?"
Francis didn't even bother to stop his groan.
"Cool!" Manny took the groan as a sign of assent. "What kind of animals?"
Francis turned his light on his watch he had the time to kick Manny's ass now, he wasn't trying to keep a schedule any longer, nothing was holding him back.
"Are there any cats here?" An oblivious Manny wanted to know. "Or maybe bears."
~Unique~
Opening the door slightly she made sure the hallway was empty before leaving the copy room and heading for the office at the end of the hall. The file clutched in her hand was the original the copy hiding in the bag on her shoulder. All she had to do now was return the original before anyone knew it was gone.
Reaching the door she knocked softly and waited a few seconds before opening the door. Moving quickly she headed for the file cabinet and replaced the file. Repeating her earlier procedure she carefully checked the hall before exiting the office. She'd only taken a few steps away from the door when Meg appeared at the end of the hall.
"Were you looking for me?" Meg asked.
"I just wanted to know if you'd decided on how to deal with Sonny Corinthos."
"I told you that's up to the boss."
"Right. I'll see you tomorrow." With that she turned and headed for the lobby unaware that Meg was watching her every step.
~Cave~
Jason found the cave quite by accident. Night had fallen on them quickly making it difficult for him to see where he was going. He was being doubly cautious because Elizabeth was still unconscious in his arms, yet he was determined to put as much distance between them and the beaten guard as he could. Tiring sooner than he liked to admit he had leaned against what he thought was a boulder covered by vines. When he pitched forward collapsing to his knees he realized the vines had been a fake front shielding the entrance to a cave.
Setting Elizabeth down carefully he reached for the lighter and clicked it on. The lighter didn't illuminate much of the cave but what he saw seemed to be dry. The sky had been rumbling ominously and he knew the storm was about to break. Moving cautiously he headed deeper in the cave to see if it was empty. He'd traveled about 20 yards before giving up, the cave was too large for him to search with such a dim light. Letting the lighter go out he blew on his fingertips to cool them before turning back.
The dim light coming from the entrance guided him without the need to use the lighter and for that he was grateful. He paused beside Elizabeth long enough to settle her more comfortably and reassure himself by checking her pulse again. His sigh was one of relief when he felt the steady beat of her heart. Getting to his feet he headed outside. If they were going to stay in the cave they would need to shield it better.
Carefully he rearranged the vines until they totally hid the entrance to the cave. He hoped that would keep out the casual observer. The rain had just begun to fall when he made his way carefully back through the vines to Elizabeth. There was still a faint light coming through the vines but that light didn't go far. The darkness appeared to loom up directly behind where Elizabeth lay.
Settling himself against the wall near the entrance he pulled the Bowie knife from his boot and laid it next to his hip within easy reach. Next he pulled the canteen from his backpack and took a brief sip. Finally his focus turned to Elizabeth. Moving her carefully, cautiously, he settled her head on his lap. He had just begun to dab the cut on her forehead with the edge of his shirt when he was distracted by a noise.
To be more specific he was distracted by two noises. The one coming from outside the cave had him tensing, his hand picking up the knife. Someone was moving closer to the entrance of the cave. They were taking their time trying to mask the sounds of their approach and that concerned him. But the sound that really worried him came from his left, from somewhere back in the darkness of the cave. His eyes moved from left to right not knowing for certain which way held the most danger. But he finally knew one thing for certain. They weren't alone in the cave.
~*~*~*~*~*~
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