Second Chances: Reactions
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason felt cramped behind the wheel of the sedan that he had burrowed from the fleet of vehicles Corinthos-Morgan Coffee owned. He missed the freedom he felt when he was on his motorcycle. He looked up and immediately found the little window of Elizabeth's studio. He hated leaving her - not when they had by some miracle found their way back to one another. He hadn't believed that there would ever be a chance for that again. Something was different this time. He felt it. There was contentment in the both of them that hadn't been there before. Maybe it was because each of them had finally said what they had been feeling for years now rather than letting themselves get lost in what they thought the other needed or wanted. Whatever the reason Jason was relishing it. He pulled away from the curb and headed off to meet Sonny.
"What'd you need? I don't like leaving.." Jason stopped abruptly as one of the men threw back a tarp revealing his mangled motorcycle. His eyes widened at the site of the distorted wreckage. The night of the accident he hadn't noticed how badly contorted and misshapen it truly was. "Oh man," he groaned as he ran his hands across his face.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Sonny asked. "That you're damn lucky to be alive?" Sonny looked at his best friend and thanked the heavens above that both he and Elizabeth had come out of the accident with as little physically wrong with them as they had. He knew that he couldn't have survived losing the man who was like a brother to him and moreover Sonny was certain that Jason wouldn't have survived it if anything had happened to Elizabeth.
Jason purposely ignored Sonny's question. He couldn't let himself think about how close they could have come to not walking away from that accident. Visions of Elizabeth lying motionless on the pavement still taunted him and the sight of the crumpled pieces of steel drove those visions home. "How'd you get it here?" Jason asked as he made his way over to the bike. "I figured Taggert would want to go over it with a fine tooth comb."
"I called in a few favors," Sonny said. "I wanted our guys to check it out to see if they could come up with what might have happened."
"And?"
"Well they haven't looked at it yet. I thought you might like first crack at it. You did run that bike shop for awhile."
"Thanks."
Jason knelt down along side what now were merely pieces of his motorcycle. He ran his hands along the creased chrome. The image of his face was distorted in the shattered mirrors. He hated to admit to himself but it felt as though a piece of him had died. That bike had been his ticket to freedom when the Quartermaines wanted to tie him down. It had been the place where he had learned how to see the wind. It was the place where he had undoubtedly fallen in love with Elizabeth. He felt like a small piece of him was gone somehow.
"Anything?" Sonny was anxious for answers.
"Not sure." Jason didn't let on that he hadn't even begun to survey the motorcycle for possible causes of the accident.
The sequence of events leading up to the crash was merely a blur to him. It was difficult to piece together what might have happened for him to even begin to know where to start looking for the culprit. Finally after fifteen minutes of intense concentration, Jason's fingers found their way to the only thing that could have caused such destruction.
He knelt down and eyed the links of the chain that drove the rear wheel of the bike. Sonny took notice of Jason's unwavering stare at a part of the machinery that he knew nothing about. "So you find something?" Sonny asked when Jason didn't offer an immediate explanation.
"Yeah - I think so." Jason brought the chain over to the shipping area of the warehouse and stretched it out across one of the long tables. It had been wound so tightly around the rear wheel that it took a few minutes to straighten it.
"Well?" Sonny prodded.
"See this?" Jason showed him the end of the chain.
"Yeah, so?" Sonny hadn't a clue what he was even looking at much less why it was the potential problem.
"That's the master link. It holds the drive chain together. Look at it - it's been pried apart. Enough to make it loose."
"Maybe that happened in the accident." Sonny still didn't understand the significance.
"Not likely. Look at the rest of the chain. Even with how distorted it is from the accident all of the links are still in tact. This was intentional."
"Okay - I'm still not getting it," Sonny said honestly. "Bikes are your thing not mine."
"This link," Jason held out the master link in the palm of his hand. "it holds the chain together. If it comes loose in any way, as the motorcycle speeds down the road eventually the link will pop apart and the chain inevitably wraps itself around the back wheel and throws the bike out from under you."
"And that's what happened to you and Elizabeth?"
"Exactly. It was like there was nothing I could do to stop it. And there wasn't since the drive chain wasn't there anymore."
"And this couldn't have happened any other way than someone messing with the bike?" Sonny questioned.
"Master links just don't come loose Sonny." Jason knew he sounded frustrated but he couldn't help himself. It was one thing for someone wanting to eradicate him from the picture, he was accustomed to that. However it was something entirely different when Elizabeth got caught up in the action.
Jason's immediate reaction was to move as far away from her as he could get. Old habits died hard for him. All he wanted was to keep her safe and out of harm's way yet suddenly knowing how she felt, that she loved him, made what was once normal null and void.
"Jason?" Sonny's voice broke his train of thought.
"Huh?"
"I said I think it's time we paid Ms. Roscoe a little visit. I'm done playing games with her."
"What if it wasn't Faith?" Jason knew he was treading into choppy waters with where he intended on taking this conversation but he needed to.
"Of course it was Faith," Sonny said in his matter of fact tone. "She's knows to get to me she needs to remove you. It's just like her."
"Maybe, but it - something just doesn't feel right."
"What?"
"Faith, she loves to grandstand. She loves to flaunt her tactics in everyone's face. She gets a cheap thrill out of it..."
"Yeah so?"
"Well, if she was responsible for this. Where is she? I would think she's be knocking down your door showing you how easy it was for her to get to me. She's not Sonny. It wasn't her."
Sonny leaned against the table and digested Jason's remarks. Part of him knew that Jason was right. Faith Roscoe would have been all over this gloating by now and she wasn't. It would have been so much easier for Sonny if she had.
"Well who then? Who would want to come at me through you, now?"
"Maybe this isn't about you," Jason said pointedly.
"Who then?"
"Elizabeth."
"Well then we are back to Faith. She's already tried to kill her several times. What's one more?"
"I think it's Ric," Jason announced finally seeing he had no other choice.
"Ric? What the hell for?"
"Elizabeth. He can't deal with losing her. You saw him at Emily's funeral and there have been other times he's approached her. I think he's looking for a way to get me out of the picture. He sees me as a threat."
"Well to him you are. Hell half of Port Charles can see what the two of you feel for one another, even if you are both too damn scared to admit it."
"Not anymore."
"What?" Sonny did little to hide his astonishment.
"After the accident - well I couldn't imagine losing her. I finally just told her what I was feeling. I love her, Sonny. I have for a long time now. And the funny thing she loves me back."
"Good for you man. It's about damn time!" Sonny was genuinely happy for his friend. He deserved a good life with a woman who loved him. Elizabeth was that woman.
"Thanks," Jason said.
"Still though, Faith is our best shot. I can't see Ric in this alone. If it's even him at all. Like I said before she gets two birds with one stone if she takes you out and gets Elizabeth in the process. She's where we should concentrate."
Jason let out a labored sigh. He had hoped that Sonny would at least consider Ric's possible involvement. When he didn't Jason couldn't hold his tongue any longer. "Why are you being so blind to this? I mean for god sakes he locked Carly in a room for months, was going to steal your child and pass it off as his own, and kill Carly when she wasn't of anymore use to him. He let Elizabeth drink poison and filled her full of so many birth control pills that she nearly died - what makes you think he isn't capable of trying to kill me?" Jason's voice flared in anger and frustration.
"I know he is!" Sonny yelled back. "I know he's a bastard."
"But what then?" When Sonny didn't instantly answer Jason continued. "You may be willing to let him ride on the things he's done to your family but I'm not. I'm not letting him come after Elizabeth, Sonny. Do you hear me? Do you understand me?" Jason asked.
"I still give the orders, Jason!" Sonny's face suddenly hardened with determination. "Ric's off limits. Do you understand me?"
Jason threw up his hands and stormed from the warehouse. He couldn't - wouldn't debate this with Sonny any longer. Sonny was his best friend and taught him about friendship, respect and most of all loyalty, but Jason was now beginning to have his doubts if the Mob boss could return any of those things.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Elizabeth stared at the creamy piece of paper in her hand.
You can't get rid of me that easily.
She grabbed onto the table before her to brace herself as the room began to spin around her. She felt her chest constrict as she read those words over and over again. She ran her fingers through the shreds of paper that lay on the table.
"Why?" she said aloud. "Why can't you just let it go?" She asked that question as if Ric were standing in front of her. Elizabeth felt the tears burning her eyes. How had she let herself get into this mess to begin with? How could she have been so completely wrong about a man? She ran her hand through her thick ruddy locks, closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry. Yet it didn't work. The tears cascaded down her porcelain skin just the same.
How had in a matter of minutes she gone from being completely filled with joy to now being filled with so much regret? The ringing of the phone on the counter startled her.
"Jason?" His name fell from her lips before she had even thought of another word to say. "Hello?" Again there was silence on the other end of the receiver. "Hello? If you think you are scaring me - YOU'RE NOT!" But she was.
Finally the person on the other end of the line clicked off and a dial tone pierced Elizabeth's ear. Rather than placing the receiver in its resting-place she slammed it over and over again against the cradle until she dissolved into a fit of tears.
Without warning her fear had been replaced by sheer rage. She despised feeling helpless. She hated feeling trapped. It disgusted her to think that Ric thought he could bully her into loving him. She hated feeling as though she was that same porcelain doll from years before wrapped in cotton for fear she might crack under the stress of a person's touch. Elizabeth looked around her small studio. It was filled with artwork that had been earmarked for her gallery showing. The one that Ric had orchestrated to distract her from what he really had been doing - holding Carly prisoner.
Ignoring the throbbing in her head and the shooting pains in her arm and shoulder, Elizabeth set out about the room destroying each and every painting she had done for her bogus show. She took pleasure in obliterating them all. Once those were left in a heap of nothing more than ripped and torn canvas on the floor, she moved on to things that Ric had given her. There were momentos of their courtship, a Polaroid photo taken by the justice of the peace the night they were married and the baby blanket for their child that wasn't, that up until now Elizabeth hadn't been able to part with.
She gathered up all that her arms could carry and headed toward the door. She surprised herself with the force with which she threw it open.
"Elizabeth?" She could hear Max but wasn't able to see him. "What - what on earth are you doing?" he asked as he quickly took the load of things from her arms. "Jason said you were supposed to be resting."
"I needed to do get rid of a few things," she answered sounding more than a little breathless to him.
"I see. Why don't you let Marco get the rest of what you need to be rid of and go lay down? You look pale." Max's concern for her was evident in his stare.
"Fine." She moved aside and let Marco enter the room.
"What would you like me to do with all of this Miss Webber?"
"Burn it for all I care!"
"All right." Marco gave Max a funny look. He wasn't used to guarding Elizabeth and wasn't sure how he should take her response. Max just nodded and Marco gathered up all that she wanted rid of and left the room.
"Elizabeth," Max said softly. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, thank you though. I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I think I will go lay down and take a nap," she said suddenly feeling woozy again.
"Good idea."
Max watched as she closed the door between them and positioned himself in front of the steel frame as always. It wasn't until he heard a loud crash from inside that sent him dashing into Elizabeth's studio where he saw her tiny frame sprawled out on the wooden floor. She was out cold.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason felt cramped behind the wheel of the sedan that he had burrowed from the fleet of vehicles Corinthos-Morgan Coffee owned. He missed the freedom he felt when he was on his motorcycle. He looked up and immediately found the little window of Elizabeth's studio. He hated leaving her - not when they had by some miracle found their way back to one another. He hadn't believed that there would ever be a chance for that again. Something was different this time. He felt it. There was contentment in the both of them that hadn't been there before. Maybe it was because each of them had finally said what they had been feeling for years now rather than letting themselves get lost in what they thought the other needed or wanted. Whatever the reason Jason was relishing it. He pulled away from the curb and headed off to meet Sonny.
"What'd you need? I don't like leaving.." Jason stopped abruptly as one of the men threw back a tarp revealing his mangled motorcycle. His eyes widened at the site of the distorted wreckage. The night of the accident he hadn't noticed how badly contorted and misshapen it truly was. "Oh man," he groaned as he ran his hands across his face.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Sonny asked. "That you're damn lucky to be alive?" Sonny looked at his best friend and thanked the heavens above that both he and Elizabeth had come out of the accident with as little physically wrong with them as they had. He knew that he couldn't have survived losing the man who was like a brother to him and moreover Sonny was certain that Jason wouldn't have survived it if anything had happened to Elizabeth.
Jason purposely ignored Sonny's question. He couldn't let himself think about how close they could have come to not walking away from that accident. Visions of Elizabeth lying motionless on the pavement still taunted him and the sight of the crumpled pieces of steel drove those visions home. "How'd you get it here?" Jason asked as he made his way over to the bike. "I figured Taggert would want to go over it with a fine tooth comb."
"I called in a few favors," Sonny said. "I wanted our guys to check it out to see if they could come up with what might have happened."
"And?"
"Well they haven't looked at it yet. I thought you might like first crack at it. You did run that bike shop for awhile."
"Thanks."
Jason knelt down along side what now were merely pieces of his motorcycle. He ran his hands along the creased chrome. The image of his face was distorted in the shattered mirrors. He hated to admit to himself but it felt as though a piece of him had died. That bike had been his ticket to freedom when the Quartermaines wanted to tie him down. It had been the place where he had learned how to see the wind. It was the place where he had undoubtedly fallen in love with Elizabeth. He felt like a small piece of him was gone somehow.
"Anything?" Sonny was anxious for answers.
"Not sure." Jason didn't let on that he hadn't even begun to survey the motorcycle for possible causes of the accident.
The sequence of events leading up to the crash was merely a blur to him. It was difficult to piece together what might have happened for him to even begin to know where to start looking for the culprit. Finally after fifteen minutes of intense concentration, Jason's fingers found their way to the only thing that could have caused such destruction.
He knelt down and eyed the links of the chain that drove the rear wheel of the bike. Sonny took notice of Jason's unwavering stare at a part of the machinery that he knew nothing about. "So you find something?" Sonny asked when Jason didn't offer an immediate explanation.
"Yeah - I think so." Jason brought the chain over to the shipping area of the warehouse and stretched it out across one of the long tables. It had been wound so tightly around the rear wheel that it took a few minutes to straighten it.
"Well?" Sonny prodded.
"See this?" Jason showed him the end of the chain.
"Yeah, so?" Sonny hadn't a clue what he was even looking at much less why it was the potential problem.
"That's the master link. It holds the drive chain together. Look at it - it's been pried apart. Enough to make it loose."
"Maybe that happened in the accident." Sonny still didn't understand the significance.
"Not likely. Look at the rest of the chain. Even with how distorted it is from the accident all of the links are still in tact. This was intentional."
"Okay - I'm still not getting it," Sonny said honestly. "Bikes are your thing not mine."
"This link," Jason held out the master link in the palm of his hand. "it holds the chain together. If it comes loose in any way, as the motorcycle speeds down the road eventually the link will pop apart and the chain inevitably wraps itself around the back wheel and throws the bike out from under you."
"And that's what happened to you and Elizabeth?"
"Exactly. It was like there was nothing I could do to stop it. And there wasn't since the drive chain wasn't there anymore."
"And this couldn't have happened any other way than someone messing with the bike?" Sonny questioned.
"Master links just don't come loose Sonny." Jason knew he sounded frustrated but he couldn't help himself. It was one thing for someone wanting to eradicate him from the picture, he was accustomed to that. However it was something entirely different when Elizabeth got caught up in the action.
Jason's immediate reaction was to move as far away from her as he could get. Old habits died hard for him. All he wanted was to keep her safe and out of harm's way yet suddenly knowing how she felt, that she loved him, made what was once normal null and void.
"Jason?" Sonny's voice broke his train of thought.
"Huh?"
"I said I think it's time we paid Ms. Roscoe a little visit. I'm done playing games with her."
"What if it wasn't Faith?" Jason knew he was treading into choppy waters with where he intended on taking this conversation but he needed to.
"Of course it was Faith," Sonny said in his matter of fact tone. "She's knows to get to me she needs to remove you. It's just like her."
"Maybe, but it - something just doesn't feel right."
"What?"
"Faith, she loves to grandstand. She loves to flaunt her tactics in everyone's face. She gets a cheap thrill out of it..."
"Yeah so?"
"Well, if she was responsible for this. Where is she? I would think she's be knocking down your door showing you how easy it was for her to get to me. She's not Sonny. It wasn't her."
Sonny leaned against the table and digested Jason's remarks. Part of him knew that Jason was right. Faith Roscoe would have been all over this gloating by now and she wasn't. It would have been so much easier for Sonny if she had.
"Well who then? Who would want to come at me through you, now?"
"Maybe this isn't about you," Jason said pointedly.
"Who then?"
"Elizabeth."
"Well then we are back to Faith. She's already tried to kill her several times. What's one more?"
"I think it's Ric," Jason announced finally seeing he had no other choice.
"Ric? What the hell for?"
"Elizabeth. He can't deal with losing her. You saw him at Emily's funeral and there have been other times he's approached her. I think he's looking for a way to get me out of the picture. He sees me as a threat."
"Well to him you are. Hell half of Port Charles can see what the two of you feel for one another, even if you are both too damn scared to admit it."
"Not anymore."
"What?" Sonny did little to hide his astonishment.
"After the accident - well I couldn't imagine losing her. I finally just told her what I was feeling. I love her, Sonny. I have for a long time now. And the funny thing she loves me back."
"Good for you man. It's about damn time!" Sonny was genuinely happy for his friend. He deserved a good life with a woman who loved him. Elizabeth was that woman.
"Thanks," Jason said.
"Still though, Faith is our best shot. I can't see Ric in this alone. If it's even him at all. Like I said before she gets two birds with one stone if she takes you out and gets Elizabeth in the process. She's where we should concentrate."
Jason let out a labored sigh. He had hoped that Sonny would at least consider Ric's possible involvement. When he didn't Jason couldn't hold his tongue any longer. "Why are you being so blind to this? I mean for god sakes he locked Carly in a room for months, was going to steal your child and pass it off as his own, and kill Carly when she wasn't of anymore use to him. He let Elizabeth drink poison and filled her full of so many birth control pills that she nearly died - what makes you think he isn't capable of trying to kill me?" Jason's voice flared in anger and frustration.
"I know he is!" Sonny yelled back. "I know he's a bastard."
"But what then?" When Sonny didn't instantly answer Jason continued. "You may be willing to let him ride on the things he's done to your family but I'm not. I'm not letting him come after Elizabeth, Sonny. Do you hear me? Do you understand me?" Jason asked.
"I still give the orders, Jason!" Sonny's face suddenly hardened with determination. "Ric's off limits. Do you understand me?"
Jason threw up his hands and stormed from the warehouse. He couldn't - wouldn't debate this with Sonny any longer. Sonny was his best friend and taught him about friendship, respect and most of all loyalty, but Jason was now beginning to have his doubts if the Mob boss could return any of those things.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Elizabeth stared at the creamy piece of paper in her hand.
You can't get rid of me that easily.
She grabbed onto the table before her to brace herself as the room began to spin around her. She felt her chest constrict as she read those words over and over again. She ran her fingers through the shreds of paper that lay on the table.
"Why?" she said aloud. "Why can't you just let it go?" She asked that question as if Ric were standing in front of her. Elizabeth felt the tears burning her eyes. How had she let herself get into this mess to begin with? How could she have been so completely wrong about a man? She ran her hand through her thick ruddy locks, closed her eyes and willed herself not to cry. Yet it didn't work. The tears cascaded down her porcelain skin just the same.
How had in a matter of minutes she gone from being completely filled with joy to now being filled with so much regret? The ringing of the phone on the counter startled her.
"Jason?" His name fell from her lips before she had even thought of another word to say. "Hello?" Again there was silence on the other end of the receiver. "Hello? If you think you are scaring me - YOU'RE NOT!" But she was.
Finally the person on the other end of the line clicked off and a dial tone pierced Elizabeth's ear. Rather than placing the receiver in its resting-place she slammed it over and over again against the cradle until she dissolved into a fit of tears.
Without warning her fear had been replaced by sheer rage. She despised feeling helpless. She hated feeling trapped. It disgusted her to think that Ric thought he could bully her into loving him. She hated feeling as though she was that same porcelain doll from years before wrapped in cotton for fear she might crack under the stress of a person's touch. Elizabeth looked around her small studio. It was filled with artwork that had been earmarked for her gallery showing. The one that Ric had orchestrated to distract her from what he really had been doing - holding Carly prisoner.
Ignoring the throbbing in her head and the shooting pains in her arm and shoulder, Elizabeth set out about the room destroying each and every painting she had done for her bogus show. She took pleasure in obliterating them all. Once those were left in a heap of nothing more than ripped and torn canvas on the floor, she moved on to things that Ric had given her. There were momentos of their courtship, a Polaroid photo taken by the justice of the peace the night they were married and the baby blanket for their child that wasn't, that up until now Elizabeth hadn't been able to part with.
She gathered up all that her arms could carry and headed toward the door. She surprised herself with the force with which she threw it open.
"Elizabeth?" She could hear Max but wasn't able to see him. "What - what on earth are you doing?" he asked as he quickly took the load of things from her arms. "Jason said you were supposed to be resting."
"I needed to do get rid of a few things," she answered sounding more than a little breathless to him.
"I see. Why don't you let Marco get the rest of what you need to be rid of and go lay down? You look pale." Max's concern for her was evident in his stare.
"Fine." She moved aside and let Marco enter the room.
"What would you like me to do with all of this Miss Webber?"
"Burn it for all I care!"
"All right." Marco gave Max a funny look. He wasn't used to guarding Elizabeth and wasn't sure how he should take her response. Max just nodded and Marco gathered up all that she wanted rid of and left the room.
"Elizabeth," Max said softly. "Can I get you anything?"
"No, thank you though. I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I think I will go lay down and take a nap," she said suddenly feeling woozy again.
"Good idea."
Max watched as she closed the door between them and positioned himself in front of the steel frame as always. It wasn't until he heard a loud crash from inside that sent him dashing into Elizabeth's studio where he saw her tiny frame sprawled out on the wooden floor. She was out cold.