Another story long over due for an update. My apologies. This is mostly a transitional chapter, setting everything up so we can have some fun. I hope you like it. You will, of course, have to let me know. By..um..reviewing. = )

Chapter Six

24 Hours Later

Liz sent Jason a smile, hoping to reassure him. He had been hovering protectively since they had left the hospital. You would think they didn't have a professional nurse traveling with them, the way he acted. Of course, the fact that she winced at the least movement probably had something to do with his constant worry. She did it yet again, as she stood to leave the private plane.

"Are you sure-" He started for the millionth time.

"Jason, I'll be okay. You don't have to worry so much." As if the gods had aligned against her, no sooner had the words left her mouth when she tripped over her own feet. She didn't fall, but the resulting lurch caused excruciating stabs of pain to radiate through her entire body, and she found the world dimming around her. She could hear Jason cursing as his arms wrapped about her gently, and he carefully lifted her into his arms.

Having already exited the plane with the boys, Carly's face appeared in the door. "Hey, what's the holdup- Oh. Is she okay?

Elizabeth looked over, her gaze clear again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Tripped over nothing like an idiot. Then proceeded to regress to the Victorian age with a swoon." She snorted, "I'm real tough.

"You are tough. I didn't move off your couch for a month after I was shot, and here you are, taking trips to the Caribbean days after being shot." Jason objected.

Carly rolled her eyes at the pair of them, gazing soulfully at each other, pretending not to be. "Anyway, come on you two. The boys are getting restless." With that, Carly walked back down the stairs to the car. She was surprised how easy it was to be at truce with Elizabeth, once it got on a roll. It probably helped that Liz looked at deaths door, and that Carly still felt so personally responsible for Courtney's place in their lives. She knew it wasn't her fault that the Courtney had turned out to be a two-faced bitch, but certainly the girl would never have become so entangled if Carly hadn't made such an effort to make her a part of the family.

Grief tried to rise to the surface again. Since she had learned the truth, she had had no time to morn for the friendship she had lost. Or, truthfully, had never had. Now was not the time either, and she determinedly pushed the feelings back, smiling at her children. Looking at them, her smile became real. Jason and Liz got situated in the other car, and they all drove off to the casino.

Back in Port Charles

"Gone?" Courtney echoed, staring at her brother.

"Yes. I received another threat, and I sent Carly and the boys to the island." Sonny did his best to squelch the betrayal. He wanted to rail against the woman that had proven, once again, that trust was a rarity he could not afford.

Gritting her teeth, Courtney forced her voice to be worried, "And Jason and Elizabeth-" She let her voice quaver, "Did they go.. together?

Sonny mentally assessed the value of letting Courtney think Jason had moved on. But he decided to stick to the original plan. "No. Jason is there to protect Carly, Michael and Morgan. Elizabeth is there because.. Well, there's no easy way to say it. She's obviously become paranoid and irrational. I can't blame her after her marriage to Ric. Carly said you heard all those ridiculous accusations she's been making. I didn't want the police to get involved, so I had her sent to the island with a private nurse." He tacked on, as if just thinking of it, "I had Jason guard Liz last night, just in case she tried to talk to anyone.

"Oh- that's why he was there." Her tone now took a relieved tone. "I don't mind telling you, I was.. concerned that they might be, well, getting back together.

Sonny laughed. "No! No, Jason loves you. Heh.

Courtney smiled. "Well, I should get going. I have a shift at Kelly's and I don't want to be late." She leaned in to hugs him. Sonny flinched, and coughed dramatically.

"I think I'm coming down with something. I don't want to give it to you.

"Right. Okay, well I'll see you later." Sonny breathed a sigh of relief as the door closed behind her. That had been close. If she had hugged him, he wasn't sure he could have restrained himself from blurting out the truth. He felt sick. Had there ever been a more false conversation than the one he had just endured? Both of them pretending to be loving siblings, neither meaning it. He just hoped she had bought it.

Courtney stood in the elevator, riding down to the street. She wondered if anything she had just heard was the truth. Rationally, she thought yes, since Sonny would never have been able to hide it if he knew she had betrayed him. But he had avoided hugging her- of course, they had never been that physical with each other.. Her brain replayed the conversation over and over, before she finally decided that while the current course of events was extremely inconvenient, she hadn't been exposed.

At the Island

Liz let out a contented moan. Between the beautiful sunset, the wonderfully comfortable chaise lounge, and, most importantly, the codeine buzz, she felt better than she had for years. If she tried (as she was doing) she could, in fact, forget the past year, and it was like she was flying. Hmmm. Maybe that was the codeine again. Succumbing to sleepiness, Liz slipped off to dreamland with a slight smile on her lips.

It was a smile that Jason puzzled at, in light of everything she had gone through recently. But he also let himself linger over it, remembering when it had been his goal in life to produce them. Not that she had ever really known it. He thought she had begun to love him, before the whole fiasco with Sonny. He knew she hadn't loved him after that. And he had just discovered, when faced with a world she wasn't apart of, that it mattered to him. That she had once loved him; that she no longer did. After all, until two days ago, she had been a peripheral part of his life, if anything. If someone had asked him, he would have said her total absence would give him but a pang. He never suspected that the threat of it would roar through him the way it had.

He had also never suspected how little he cared for his wife. Huh, live and learn, right? He knew that the pain of her treachery should be overwhelming, but he found that it wasn't so personal. Objectively, he was furious that he could have been taken in, and there was a vague sense of hurt that someone he considered, well, good and kind, turned out not to be, but none of it was had the intensity that a man should feel after learning that his wife had been plotting to destroy him.

Looking at Elizabeth, Jason began to wonder if Courtney had ever been anything more than a distraction. Something to take his mind off his loss. He thought, subconsciously, he must have known there was nothing between them. In an effort to continue the charade, he had escalated things between him and Sonny. It was all so clear looking back. No wonder Sonny hadn't wanted them to be together. He had known that Jason was using Courtney. The fact that she had turned out to be using them didn't make it right. He sighed. He wished that he could undue that last years. Tell Liz the truth. How much pain could have been spared for them all if he had.

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