***Hey everyone. I hope you are still enjoying the story. Please remember to keep on writing those reviews so I can still keep writing the story. Thanks for all the comments I have received, they have been great. I'm glad everyone seems to like the character plots. I love Luke and Sonny being friends, and Liz/Carly and Skye being friends too. ***
**** Huge plot twist, in this chapter, Elizabeth is going to tell Jax how she and Carly became friends after the panic room ordeal. This is not how it happened on the show I made up my own version of events. Plus I'm giving advanced warning Liz's dialogue is pretty long, so please bear with it. ****
***I just watched some old episodes of GH back when Jonathan Jackson played Lucky and I'm feeling a little nostalgic for the Lucky/Liz chemistry. This is still a Jax/Liz fic but I am going to have Lucky still be protective of Liz, cause they are still good friends. So I hope you all enjoy. ***
Oh yeah and Skye is living in the cottage that Jax used to live in.
CHAPTER 5Skye was sitting on her couch reading a magazine when she heard a knock on her front door. She went to the door and was shocked to find Carly on her doorstep. She stuttered through a greeting.
"Uh Hi Carly, um what can I do for you?" Skye asked slightly wary. She and Carly always tried to be civil to each other around Elizabeth but they were far from being buddies.
"Can I come in?" Carly asked, feeling a little nervous about showing up at Skye's unannounced.
"Sure, come on in." Skye said gesturing Carly to enter.
Carly entered and took off her coat and threw it on a chair. She looked around and turned to face Skye.
"You're probably wondering why I'm here huh?" she continued before Skye could respond. "Well I'm actually here about Elizabeth. I swear if you told me that she and I would be best friends last year I would have told you to check yourself into Ferncliff. But she is my best friend and I know you and her are close. That's why I'm here. Elizabeth has been hurt a lot by Ric and I think she deserves some happiness. I mean I have Sonny, you have Luke and I think Elizabeth needs someone who will respect and love her." Carly said. Before she could finish Skye interrupted her.
"You mean, someone kind and gentle and tall with blonde hair, blue eyes and Australian?" Skye said grinning.
Carly smiled seeing Skye catch on. "Exactly, I know you noticed the chemistry between them the other day." Carly said sitting on the couch excitedly.
Skye sat on the couch turning to face Carly. "I know I completely saw the sparks when they hugged."
Suddenly both women realized that they were chatting like old friends and both paused for a second.
"Look," said Skye. "Elizabeth is obviously important to both of us so why don't we agree to put our animosity to the side and work together to fix Elizabeth and Jax up together?"
Carly thought for a second and then smiled, "Deal" Both women smiled and shook hands.
"So this art show sounds like a good place to start, I mean having opened a club with Jax I know how he works. He will want to be there every step of the planning with Elizabeth. I don't think they will be able to resist each other but I think a slight push from us won't hurt." Carly said.
"I think you're right. We need to just start putting the idea in their heads. I'll work on Jax and you work on Elizabeth. We'll just keep mentioning how great a team they make and you know build them up to each other." Skye said.
"Perfect," said Carly "We'll start them off slow and just keep them on the right track, and if they don't catch on we will just have to push a little harder. Speaking of a great team, I think we are doing excellent ourselves."
The women smiled at each other, who would believe it?
Ric sat on the park bench trying to figure out how things went so wrong. Not that he screwed up and lost Elizabeth but basically that he got caught. Now he lost the only bargaining tool he had to keep her married to him. He had to figure out some way to get her back. He thought about Jax and quickly pushed the thought out of his mind that Elizabeth had anything to do with the buyout. No not his sweet Elizabeth, she would never actually do anything to leave him. He knew she still loved him she has just been brainwashed by Sonny and his friends. He just had to find some way to get her back. He became distracted when he heard someone coming up the path. He looked up to see Lucky Spencer.
Lucky sighed when he saw Ric; he was definitely not in the mood to deal with the psycho. Unfortunately, fate was not on his side.
"Lucky" Ric called out. Lucky attempted to keep on walking but Ric jumped in front of him.
Lucky rolled his eyes, "What the hell do you want Lansing?"
"Have you seen Elizabeth? I've been worried about her." Ric asked.
"Why are you asking me? I'm not going to tell you a damn thing about Elizabeth." Lucky said looking Ric straight on.
"I'm her husband," demanded Ric. "I have a right to know what is happening with her. You have no right to tell me to stay out of her life. She loves me and she just needs to realize it."
Lucky snapped and grabbed Ric by the collar pulling him roughly up, "After what you did to Elizabeth you shouldn't be allowed to live in the same country as her. Stay away from her. Do you understand me? I swear if you even look funny at her I will kill you."
Ric took a swing at Lucky but missed. Lucky turned and hit Ric in the stomach knocking the wind out of him. Lucky started to walk away as Ric fell to the ground gasping for breath. He turned to Ric once again.
"You hurt Elizabeth again and I promise you, you'll wish you were never born." With that Lucky walked out of the park.
Ric gasped and swore revenge on all of those who wanted to keep his Elizabeth away from him.
Elizabeth took a seat across from Jax. They had just been to the gallery and she had shown Jax the set-up she wanted. After an afternoon of planning they were sitting outside Kelly's enjoying an ice-tea.
"So I think if we put the bar on the right side of the room that will leave more room for people to look at the art, that is if they want to. Maybe we should put the art in that separate room in case they hate it. Then they can come out and talk and have refreshments and not have to look at my art. What do you think?" Elizabeth asked hurriedly.
Jax smiled, the more time he spent with her the more he liked her.
"I don't think you have to worry about people not liking your art ok? You are going to be fine. Now putting the art in a separate room then the refreshments is practical so people looking at the art are not disturbed by ongoing conversations." Jax said.
Elizabeth sighed, "Yeah I guess you're right. You really know a lot about this, I'm glad you are helping me I'd probably screw everything up if I was on my own."
"I doubt that," Jax said smiling. After a moment of quiet he spoke again. "Elizabeth can I ask you a personal question? And please don't feel like you have to answer."
Elizabeth looked up "Um sure, go ahead."
"What really happened in the panic room? I read in the paper that Baldwin said it was some kinky fetish room and that's how Ric is free, but I look at you and Carly and I know that's a lie." Jax said gently.
Elizabeth let out a sigh, "I can answer for you it is a bit of a long story if you don't mind." She waited until Jax nodded for her to go on.
"Well, I don't know if you already heard this, but I was pregnant, and I was really happy about it. I loved Ric and things were great. But one night Faith Roscoe shoved me down a flight of stairs and I lost the baby. Ric was convinced Sonny did it, but I knew it wasn't him. He would never hurt me like that, no matter how angry he was. I tried to tell Ric that but he wouldn't listen; even when Faith confessed he chose to ignore her to keep holding on to this grudge against Sonny. Ric wanted to punish Sonny so he bought a house with a panic room, of course he told me the house was for us but that was a lie, and he kidnapped Carly. So after awhile of ignorant bliss I decided I wanted to try for another child. A doctor Ric paid off told me I couldn't have children and I was devastated." Elizabeth said tearing up.
Jax took her hand in his and squeezed it lightly; he felt his heart break as she told her story. She smiled gratefully at him and left her hand in his enjoying the gentle pressure he was applying.
"I wanted to be sure so I went to Dr. Meadows here at GH and she told me that I was absolutely fine to have children. When she ran the tests she also found large amounts of hormones in my system. That is when I figured it out Ric was feeding me birth control, who else could have been doing it? After some persuasion the first doctor confessed to being paid off to lie to me by Ric. I sat in the chairs in the lounge and was shaking I was sick and I hated him for what he was doing to me. I wanted out of the marriage so bad, but then I got to thinking, why would Ric do this when he wanted children before? What if he was doing this because he already had a child lined up? I thought about Carly, no one knew where she was. Sonny and Jason were insistent that Ric had her. That's when I came to the conclusion that Ric had Carly. I went home that night and pretended nothing was wrong. I played the part of the stupid wife and then when he thought I was gone I spied on him. I saw him open a door with a button hid in a bookcase, and inside was Carly. Neither one saw me but I saw them. He had her chained to the wall like an animal and from where I stood I could see TV monitors. She could see everything going on in the house." Elizabeth stopped to take a drink, even after all this time the horror always struck her. She took a breath.
"You don't have to keep going if you don't want to, I didn't meant to upset you." Jax said touching her cheek lightly.
Elizabeth smiled, "Actually you're the first person I've ever told the whole story to. Baldwin wouldn't hear me out when I tried to tell him what Ric did to Carly. It's kind of nice to talk about it, I mean if you want to keep listening."
"I'm listening" Jax said.
"Where I was standing I could see the monitors and from the angles I was able to see a camera placed in the living room. I couldn't believe I had never noticed it before. He came out and closed the door and went into the kitchen. I ran out and gestured to the camera hoping Carly would see me and know I was going to help her. I snuck into the garage and got bolt cutters and hid them under the couch. I know I should have called Sonny or Jason, but it would've been easier to explain why I had bolt cutters instead of why I was on the phone with Sonny Corinthos. I could say the cutters were for my art somehow. Anyway he had to leave, as soon as he was out the door I waited a few seconds and then opened the secret door. It opened and there was Carly. She was crying and telling me she saw me gesture to her. I grabbed the bolt cutters and went into the room to get her out. That's when Ric came back in, he had forgotten a file. I knew I was in trouble and I accidentally dropped the cutters under the bed. He came in and he was furious. He was yelling at me telling me I was ruining our chance at a child. Before I could do anything he closed the door with a remote and we were trapped. I cut Carly loose with the cutters and waited for him to come back in. I knew I could knock him out if he was just come back in. But he didn't. I never slept, not for those three days in that room. I would sit in front of Carly's bed and watched over her just in case Ric came in. I wouldn't allow him to hurt her. People would stop by the house looking for me and he told them I went out of town to look at art galleries. He would look at the camera and smile at us in the room. I started getting horrible headaches, which I realized was from all the hormones he was poisoning me with. Carly and I talked and bonded in that room. It was surprising because we had always disliked each other, but in there we became best friends. Ric came in finally. He went at Carly like he was going to hit her when she called him a name. I threw myself in front of her and he hit me instead. I flew back by the bed and realized the bolt cutters were there. He was towering over Carly and I knew he was going to hurt her. I grabbed the cutters and hit him over the head knocking him out. I grabbed her by the hand and ran out of the house grabbing the car keys on the table. I didn't think or anything I just got her into the car, jumped in locked the doors and took off like a bat out of hell. I didn't slow down until we hit Sonny's penthouse. We got to the front door and the minute I saw Max, I knew we were safe." Elizabeth said softly.
"I passed out minutes later because of an embolism caused by the dugs. They took me to the hospital and Carly sat at my bedside watching me the way I watched her. Ric was caught but then let go again. When I woke up two days later, Carly was there holding my hand talking to me. She became my best friend and sister that day. Wow, well don't say I didn't warn you that my pathetic tale was a long one." Elizabeth said standing up to clear her table, a habit from years of waitressing. She stopped when Jax stood up in front of her.
"I think you are the bravest person I have ever met," with that Jax pulled Elizabeth into his arms hugging her close. Elizabeth sighed and closed her eyes resting against his chest. She couldn't believe someone she barely knew could make her feel so safe. She pulled back and looked into his eyes. They stared at each other for a moment and Elizabeth felt all the blood rush to her head. He bent slowly and his lips were mere inches from hers. She tilted her head up and just as he was about to kiss her, Kelly's front door slammed open as people were leaving. The two jumped apart and Elizabeth looked at the ground feeling her face heat up.
"Well I should probably be going I have business to attend to, I'll give you a call later this week and we'll discuss the show." Jax said. He tilted her chin up and caressed her cheek. With that he turned and walked away. Elizabeth braced herself on the table and caught her breath. What the hell was that? She almost kissed Jax. Never in a million years could she have thought that could happen. Sure she had the occasional daydream about him these past few years but never thought they could actually come true.
"Elizabeth there you are." Elizabeth turned and smiled when she saw Carly walking towards her. Maybe Carly could help her sort out her feelings, being an unbiased opinion and all. If only she knew Carly was anything but that.
Next time:
Carly works on Elizabeth. Ric shows up and we see their close friendship as they face the monster.
Skye talks to Jax about how wonderful Elizabeth is
Just a random conversation between Luke and Sonny-just for laughs
*** I hope you guys liked this chapter, I know Liz had long dialogue so I hoped it didn't bore you, please review and I promise the next chapter will be lighter, with much more humor. ***