Notes: Please see the explanation on Part I, and please reply.

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Dancing on the Axis

Part II

Ric stared down at Elizabeth with a horrified look on his face. He hadn't meant to hurt her, concerned he dropped to the floor beside her. His hand shook when he brushed the hair from her face and he knew he paled when he saw a faint trickle of blood coming from the corner of her head. When he determined she was breathing he quickly got to his feet and began to pace.

"This is not good," he muttered under his breath. On one level he liked Elizabeth it was impossible not too. He had sought her out for one purpose only, but that didn't mean he was a monster, it didn't mean that he didn't feel something for her. In fact things would be so much easier if he didn't feel anything for her. But from the first moment he met her he had been having unsettling feelings for her, and now she was lying unconscious at his feet, and she had heard far too much for him to let it slide.

Desperate he moved to the phone and hit redial, he needed some guidance in this matter. Elizabeth was going to be brought into the plan eventually but it was too soon, all the pieces weren't in place yet. The phone on the other end went to voicemail letting out a curse he hung up the phone.

"What do I do?" He ran his hand through his hair and focused on Elizabeth again. He couldn't leave her on the floor. They needed to talk. With a groan he moved towards her and slid his hands under her shoulder and rolled her over. Squatting he put one arm under her legs, the other under her arm, stood, and couldn't help but wonder how light she felt in his arms when her head came to rest on his shoulder.

He was moving towards the bed when a brisk knock came from his door. "Shit." His eyes moved from the unconscious body he was holding to the closed door.

~*~*~

"Courtney."

Grateful that her back was turned when she recognized the voice, she tried to mask her flinch, taking a deep breath she turned around slowly, giving herself time to change her expression from triumphant and gloating, to sad. "Hi Jason."

Seeing the misery on her face he couldn't help but feel bad but his resolve remained firm. "Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you."

"I'm kind of busy at the moment," Courtney looked around the deserted diner and bit back a curse. She wasn't ready to have this conversation with him.

"It's important Courtney," Jason's voice was serious yet firm, it was time to finish things once and for all. This last week had been an extremely long and frustrating one. If he didn't know better he would say that Courtney was deliberately avoiding him, but that made no sense. She couldn't know what he wanted to talk to her about.

Reluctantly Courtney stepped out from behind the counter and moved to a table, twisting the rag in her hands as she moved. Her mind raced ahead trying to figure out how to play this. She wasn't about to let him leave her, and she refused to let that bitch Elizabeth win. There had to be a way to solve this, there simply had to be. She wasn't used to having men reject her and she wasn't about to let Jason be the first.

"How have you been?" Jason asked when they were seated.

"Lonely, I miss you Jason, I miss us, and I also feel hurt, you walked away without a look back," she twisted the rag tightly around her finger causing her eyes to sting. "I'm not like you Jason, I can't turn my feelings off on a dime. I loved you when you walked away from me, and I love you now."

Seeing the tears made him feel even more uncomfortable. "I'm sorry I hurt you Courtney, more sorry than you know."

"You're miserable Jason I can see it on your face. I'm miserable too, and there's no reason for it. Sonny will come around he loves us too much not to, and even if he doesn't he has no right to keep us apart. It's time to end this agony," she begged, touching his hand, waiting for him to turn his over and clasp hers, but it remained palm down on the table.

Jason couldn't deny he was miserable, but it wasn't for the reason she thought and that made him feel even worse. Elizabeth was right, he had been incredibly unfair to Courtney for a long time now. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about Courtney, us."

Courtney's heart soared when she heard that word. He had missed her, and more importantly what they did together. "What about us?"

"There is no us Courtney, I'm sorry to say there never really was," he kept his eyes on her and watched the smile die from her face. If he ever had a doubt it was gone in that instant. As much as he hated hurting Courtney, hated putting that look in her eyes, that pain was nothing compared to the pain he always felt when he took Elizabeth's smile away. He quickly banished Elizabeth from his thoughts, now wasn't the time to think about her.

"What?" Confusion crossed her features. "Of course there is an us. The only reason we broke up at all was because of my idiot brother."

Jason blinked at the unexpected venom in her voice then shook it off. "Sonny was part of it, but we never would have broken up if there wasn't more to it than that. I called Sonny on his behavior last week, he gave me an ultimatum about you and then he fired me."

"Jason's that so great," Courtney cooed, "now there is nothing keeping us apart."

"Yes there is," he pulled his hand away from hers. "The thing keeping us apart is us," he took a breath. "Or make that me, I realized something after my meeting with Sonny. I realized that I don't love you Courtney."

"No," trying to hide her anger she shook her head fiercely. "I love you, you love me, its just Sonny that is putting these thoughts in your head, that's all. He ordered you to stay away from me, and you are trying to do that because you don't want to lose him."

"No Courtney," his voice was soft but firm. "I don't mean to hurt you but you deserve the truth. I should never have gotten involved with you in the first place, I was running away from my feelings for Elizabeth, and I used you to do it."

The rag she was twisting around her fingers tightened painfully and she embraced the pain to try to hold onto her temper. "Elizabeth? She's the reason you are saying this?"

"No, Elizabeth is not the reason. I'm saying this because it's true. I didn't know what I was doing, I only just figured it out."

"I bet you had help figuring it out," she sniped spitefully and got to her feet.

"I know you're hurting…."

"Hurting?" Courtney whirled on him. "Jason we've been together for months now, we've been fighting everyone to be together, and now that we can be together you say you don't love me? I say you're running all right, your running from me and the love we feel for each other."

"I don't love you Courtney. I never should have said I did," he corrected her instantly.

"Stop saying that," she yelled startling him. "This is all Sonny's doing. You are so determined not to lose your position as number one flunkie that you've convinced yourself you don't love me so you can stay his yes man."

This time the venom in her voice was impossible to ignore. "That's not what happened and you know it."

"I don't know anything, but that you told me you loved me, you took to me to bed, you bought us a place to meet, to stay, to plan our lives together, and now you're saying all of that was a lie?" She demanded moving closer. "I don't believe you Jason. Your afraid and you are doing what you always do when you are afraid you run and try to push that person out of your life. I saw you do that with Eliza…" she trailed off but the damage had been done.

"Exactly," he nodded at her words. "I was still running from her, from my feelings for her when I got involved with you. I was pushing Elizabeth away just like you said, and I used you to do it, but it didn't work. That wasn't fair to you and I'm sorry for hurting you. But I'm not going to go on like this anymore. The fact is I don't love you, and I never did," he tried to soften the blow. "But I do care for you."

Infuriated she simply reacted, slapping him hard across the face. "Do you really think your sainted bitch Elizabeth wants you back? She doesn't, she's upstairs in bed with her boyfriend while you're down here breaking my heart."

Jason's eyes automatically darted to the stairs before focusing on Courtney again. This was a side of her he had never seen before, and Elizabeth's words about her came back to him. "Your mad at me, not Elizabeth, don't drag her into this."

Incensed all the more over his defense of the bitch Courtney twisted the knife a little deeper. "That's right, she's moved on, she doesn't even care about you anymore. I didn't want to tell you, because I know how protective you are of Elizabeth. But she has been dating him for months now, and they don't exactly keep it a secret. Sometimes she disappears upstairs for hours, and when she comes back down…" she trailed off and smiled a bit viciously, "well you don't need a sign to spell out what they were doing upstairs."

Coldness entered his veins at her words and he tried to block them from his mind but they lingered. Unbidden the memory of her tending to Ric when he was shot came to him, and as much as he didn't want to think it, he couldn't help but remember all those times she had turned to Lucky and then to Zander. It wasn't unusual for her to turn to someone else. Besides she was a beautiful woman, who wouldn't want to be with her? But Ric?

"Don't you see, Elizabeth has moved on," Courtney moved closer and touched his hand drawing his focus to her. "You started moving on too, you're just fighting it. Don't fight it anymore Jason. Just give in, you know how good we are together," she stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. "You know how good this feels," she reminded him before kissing him hard.

Surprised by her actions it took a second for him to step back and break the one-sided kiss. She moved after him and he caught her by the arms holding her in place. "Don't do this to yourself Courtney."

Jerking free of his hold she turned away from him trying to battle down her anger. If she lost it completely she would never get him back. Bowing her head she buried her face in the towel and her shoulders began to shake.

The coldness faded when he saw her begin to cry he took a step closer and held out a hand to comfort her, then let it drop. As much as she was hurting, it would be worse if he gave her false hope. That was a lesson he had learned the hard way with Carly. Stiffening his back he took a final look at the stairs and the darkness visible at the top before looking at Courtney again. "I am sorry I hurt you but it's better you know the truth."

Courtney barely held it together long enough to hear the door close, the towel muffled her scream of anger, then she turned around slowly, hoping he was watching her outside the door, but Jason was long gone.

"That sonofabitch." She yelled and kicked a chair sending it crashing into the table and tipping the table over in the process. "She is not going to get away with this." Infuriated she moved to the base of the stairs and looked up them "Elizabeth you just pissed off the wrong person and believe me you are going to pay."

~*~*~

"Carly, this is an unexpected surprise." Ric exclaimed when he opened the door. He shifted to bar her progress but the blonde had already breezed past him and into the room. He took a cautious look down the hall but didn't see a bodyguard anywhere. Closing the door he turned around to look at her.

Carly was frowning around the room, it had been years since she had been inside the room. It was difficult for her to recognize it as the room she had lived in when she had first come to Port Charles.

"Carly?" Ric prompted when she remained quiet.

"I've come to a decision Ric, and you're not going to like it," turning she crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a cold look. "I'm telling Jason everything, and I'm telling him today."

Ric felt his stomach drop to his knees but before he could say anything a noise coming from his closet caught his attention, he winced and waited.

"What was that?" Carly asked and made a move towards the closed closet door.