Second Chances: Living Arrangements
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason whipped the sedan into the emergency room parking lot at General Hospital and barely had the car in park before he was bounding through the entrance to the ER. His mind raced as it replayed his conversation with Max.
"What do you mean she's out cold?"
"Exactly what I said. She's passed out on the floor and I can't get her to wake up."
"I'll be right there."
"Don't you think we should take her to the hospital?"
"Yeah.yeah. I'll meet you at General Hospital. And Max."
"I know. No one but the docs will get in to see her until you get there."
That discussion wasn't more than fifteen minutes ago but for Jason it felt like a lifetime. He looked around the busy emergency room searching for Bobbie, Monica any familiar face at the moment.
"Where is she?" he asked finally seeing Max standing outside one of the cubicles.
"In there." Max pointed to the curtained off area.
"She's alone?" Jason did little to hide his panic.
"Dr. Jones is in there and Bobbie."
"I'm going in." Max stepped aside and let Jason pass through the opening in the brightly colored curtain. "How is she?"
Tony Jones turned around startled as Jason's voice had come out of nowhere. "She's still unconscious but her vitals are strong."
"Why isn't she awake then?" Jason knew from his own experience that that wasn't an easy question to answer.
"Honestly, we don't know. She could have hit her head when she fell. It could be a complication from the accident.."
"You said she was fine," Jason countered in almost an accusing tone.
"Jason," Bobbie walked over to where he stood motionless. "We are going to make sure she gets the best care. Don't worry."
Don't worry Bobbie said to him. How could he not worry? Not more than a couple hours ago they had professed their love and now all he could imagine was losing her all over again.
"I'm going to go schedule another CAT Scan and MRI. We should know something once we get the results back from those," Tony said.
"Can I stay with her?" Jason asked quietly.
"Of course you can." Bobbie pulled a chair up to the bed and offered it to Jason. "I'll be right out at the nurse's station if you need me." Bobbie gently squeezed his shoulder. She couldn't help but recall the little scene she had interrupted the other day between the two of them. She knew what Elizabeth meant to him. It had never been easy to reassure loved ones but when it was someone that Bobbie considered family herself it was even more difficult.
"Thanks Bobbie."
The red headed nurse left the room as Jason turned and focused his attention on Elizabeth's still form. With a shaky hand he reached out and took hers. Gently he caressed her soft flesh. "Elizabeth," he whispered. "Elizabeth, baby, you need to open your eyes okay? This can't be happening. I should have never left you alone." He cursed himself for running the minute Sonny called him. He should have stayed with her.
Jason pressed his fingers against his ice blue eyes and forced the tears back. "I love you Elizabeth. I have waited four years to tell you that. I can't lose you the minute I do." He choked back an impending sob yet the tears found their way to the surface. Before he could do anything to stop them they cascaded from his thick lashes landing squarely on her alabaster skin. "I love you." Jason brushed his lips against her cheek.
"I love you too." Elizabeth's voice was hoarse.
Jason pulled back and stared into the recesses of her deep cobalt eyes. "Thank god. Don't scare me like that!" Jason almost sounded angry but she knew better.
"Come here," she instructed as she pulled his face closer to her own. Softly their lips met and they shared a kiss as if they were anywhere but the emergency room of General Hospital.
"I have those tests.." Tony stopped short when he caught sight of the scene before him. He cleared his throat to garner their attention. "Awake I see," he almost laughed.
"Uh-huh." Elizabeth confirmed.
"How are you feeling? Can you tell me what happened before you passed out?" Tony asked.
Jason settled down beside her on the bed as she began. "Nothing really. I just felt really dizzy and then it went black around me. That's all I remember."
"Was that the first time you got dizzy?"
"No, there were a couple of other times."
"What?" Jason turned and stared at her. "When - when did that happen?"
"Right after you left this afternoon but it passed. I thought I just stood up too fast."
"I knew I should have never left," Jason said more to himself than her.
"I'm fine."
"That remains to be seen, Elizabeth," Tony interjected. "Being dizzy is normal for having a concussion but blacking out, well that concerns me. I have a CAT Scan scheduled for you. The orderly should be here in a few minutes to bring you up to radiology."
"Thank you Tony," Elizabeth said.
"Yeah thanks," Jason added. Once Dr. Jones had left them Jason turned to her. "Why didn't you tell me you were dizzy?" He rested his hand carefully against her face.
"I didn't think it was anything."
"Obviously it was. Tony said it could be serious. He's worried - and so am I," he added quietly.
"Jason, look at me. I'm fine." Elizabeth clasped his large hand between her two smaller ones. "Please don't worry. You know Tony he's just overly cautious."
"I'm glad he is." Jason captured her in his muscular arms and held her tight.
Elizabeth could feel that every muscle in his body was tense. "Jason, please relax."
"I don't think I can. You don't know what it was like when Max called me. I didn't think anything could have been worse than the day of the accident, not even when Zander shot you, but this was. I suddenly realized how much I had to lose." Jason kissed her gently on the forehead.
"You aren't going to lose me."
"They are ready for you in radiology Mrs. Lansing," the orderly spoke as he entered the room.
The hairs on the back of Jason's neck stood on end at the words Mrs. Lansing. Elizabeth felt his body go rigid once more.
"That's Miss Webber." Elizabeth corrected him. She thought back to the shredded divorce papers she had received earlier. "It's Webber no matter what you want Ric," she mumbled under her breath.
"What?" Jason gave her a quizzical look, which she chose to ignore, and remained centered on the young man in the hospital scrubs.
"I apologize, Miss Webber. Are you ready for your scan?"
"I guess so. Will you wait for me?" She looked back at Jason.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Jason watched as Elizabeth was wheeled from the room. He suddenly had a gnawing in his gut that he couldn't explain. There was more to Elizabeth's fainting spell. Jason knew that somehow, somewhere Ric Lansing figured into it, but how.
"How is she?" Max asked just as anxious about Elizabeth as the enforcer had been when he first arrived.
"She says she's fine but Tony isn't quite as convinced. Did Elizabeth tell you she wasn't feeling well - dizzy anything like that?" Jason questioned.
"No nothing. She didn't look good to me but you know Elizabeth.."
"She never wants to worry anyone." Jason finished Max's sentence.
"Yeah."
"I know and that's what's got me worried." Jason furrowed his brow still trying to get a handle on what could possibly be going on. "What happened after I left this afternoon?" he asked. "Anything out of the ordinary?"
"If you mean Lansing, no. Nothing but a delivery from Alexis Davis."
"Delivery?" Jason's ears perked at that comment.
"Yeah, I wasn't too keen on the guy, but then Elizabeth said that the package was her divorce papers so I let the guy go. And after that I didn't see her much again until she tried to carry a bunch of junk from her studio. She said she needed to get rid of some things."
"What?" Jason's face showed his confusion.
"I thought it was a little strange, especially since you said she was supposed to be resting."
"What was she getting rid of?"
"It looked like paintings, pictures, some dried flowers - you'd have to ask Marco I had him take it to the dumpster for her. She was trying to carry it all herself."
"No wonder she fainted," Jason said with a sigh. Elizabeth was always one to do it all on her own. The only person she ever let shoulder any of her burdens had been him and of course he was off with Sonny trying to get him to see something he was never going to. "Did you see the delivery from Alexis?"
"No, she just took it inside and I tipped the kid."
"So you don't know if it really was her divorce papers or not?"
"You don't think they were do you?" Max remarked.
"No. I think Lansing's up to his old tricks."
"What do you want me to do?" Max was ready to spring into action.
"Nothing at the moment. I need to work on getting Elizabeth to my penthouse before I decide what our next move should be. I'm not leaving any opening for Ric to have access to her."
"Do you think she'll go? To the penthouse I mean?"
"Yeah, I think this time she will." Max took note of the slight smile that passed across Jason's face and sensed that something was different. For once maybe the man of stone had finally let the wall around his heart crumble.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason entered Elizabeth's hospital room. All the tension he had been carrying with him since Max's cryptic call was released the second that Dr. Jones had given him the good news. Elizabeth's CAT scan showed no abnormalities and when Jason relayed to him what Max had said about her activities earlier in the day Tony's concerns about further complications evaporated.
"I just talked to Tony. He says everything looks good."
"See I told you - nothing to worry about." Elizabeth smiled brightly all the apprehensions from earlier vanished. All that she wanted to concentrate on was her and Jason and the love they felt for one another.
"You want to tell me why you felt the need to clean house," Jason said pointedly, "this afternoon."
"Isn't there anything Max doesn't tell you?" She frowned.
"No. Why don't you tell me what's going on?"
"Nothing. I just needed to take care of a few things." Elizabeth avoided his gaze and centered her eyes on the large window to her right.
"And they couldn't have waited?"
"I waited too long already." Jason couldn't help but notice the obscure tone in her voice.
"I know about the delivery from Alexis. Is that what this is about?"
"Yes.no.I don't know."
"What's going on?" Jason drew the armchair in the corner to the side of her bed. "I can't help you if I don't know what's happening."
"Don't you ever get tired of coming to my rescue?" she asked honestly. The entire time they had known one another she felt like he was constantly there to pick up the pieces of her broken life.
"I told you once that you could always come to me - that I would never turn you away and I meant every word of that. I love you Elizabeth."
"I love you too," she choked, "it's just that." she searched for the words to make him understand that she needed to know that their love was more than just a series of rescues.
"What?" He sought for some understanding of what she meant in the depths of her eyes. They had always been the window to her soul. The one place where she couldn't hide from him.
"I don't want you to think of me as an obligation. I don't want to be the damsel in distress all the time. I want you to want to love me not feel like you have to." Instinctively Elizabeth drew her lower lip between her teeth and began to gnaw at it
"I do love you. Not for any other reason than that I do. You aren't an obligation in the way that you make it sound. I will go to my grave protecting Elizabeth. Can't you see that without you I'm exactly what everyone says I am? I'm just Sonny's stone cold enforcer. I'm Taggert's Angerboy. I'm that borg."
"Jason," Elizabeth shook her head in disagreement.
"I am though. I'm only more when I am with you. And I like that. I love the way you opened doors to me that I thought were forever closed. I cherish you Elizabeth. You're not just some job that I was assigned. You saved my life in ways that you don't even recognize. I have never felt like I had to love you Elizabeth - I needed to love you - wanted to love you."
Elizabeth felt her warm tears trickle down her cheeks as Jason verbalized his feelings. Her heart swelled as the memories of all their tumultuous and joyous times together passed through her mind frame by frame.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
She nodded and buried her face against his shoulder, her tears soaking his black tee shirt. "I - I just," she sucked in a quick breath to calm the sobs. "just didn't want us to be together because of some catastrophe or tragedy. I wanted it to be real finally."
"It's always been real Elizabeth. We just never let it be."
"I know." She agreed.
"So are you going to tell me about the package from Alexis? Was it even from Alexis?"
"Yes and no."
She went on to explain about the shredded divorce papers and the single line note. Elizabeth watched his jaw tighten in rage as she spoke. His normally icy eyes blazed with a fury that would have frightened most.
"Would you please consider moving into the penthouse?" he asked when she had finally finished her explanation of the day's events. Jason made a mental note to contact Alexis the minute he had Elizabeth settled and safe. "I know that it feels like the other times that you have stayed there. That I am just protecting you - and yes I am protecting you but it's more than that now. I want you there. I want to wake up with you by my side. I missed that. I never told you but when I left your studio after I had healed from my gunshot wound I missed waking up and knowing that you would be there. I'd like to have that feeling again." Jason smiled.
"I missed that too."
"So you will move in with me?"
"Yes." The fears that she had harbored about not wanting this time to be just like all the others had been put to rest. Jason had done that and falling asleep and waking up in his arms was exactly where she wanted to be.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Within the hour Tony Jones had released Elizabeth into Jason's care with assurances that there would be no repeat performances of her domesticity for at least a few weeks.
It took all the fortitude Ric had within him to stay hidden as he watched Jason assist Elizabeth into the black sedan. He hadn't been allowed to even access the floor that her room had been on in the hospital. The doctors Quartermaine had made sure that he was 'persona non grada'. His cell phone rang just as the car pulled away from the curb.
"What happened?" he barked into the small device.
"I delivered them just as you instructed."
"Then how did she end up back in the hospital?"
"I have no idea. So where's my money?" the voice asked.
"You'll have it. You'll have." He slammed the cell phone closed and was beginning to rethink his unholy alliance.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason whipped the sedan into the emergency room parking lot at General Hospital and barely had the car in park before he was bounding through the entrance to the ER. His mind raced as it replayed his conversation with Max.
"What do you mean she's out cold?"
"Exactly what I said. She's passed out on the floor and I can't get her to wake up."
"I'll be right there."
"Don't you think we should take her to the hospital?"
"Yeah.yeah. I'll meet you at General Hospital. And Max."
"I know. No one but the docs will get in to see her until you get there."
That discussion wasn't more than fifteen minutes ago but for Jason it felt like a lifetime. He looked around the busy emergency room searching for Bobbie, Monica any familiar face at the moment.
"Where is she?" he asked finally seeing Max standing outside one of the cubicles.
"In there." Max pointed to the curtained off area.
"She's alone?" Jason did little to hide his panic.
"Dr. Jones is in there and Bobbie."
"I'm going in." Max stepped aside and let Jason pass through the opening in the brightly colored curtain. "How is she?"
Tony Jones turned around startled as Jason's voice had come out of nowhere. "She's still unconscious but her vitals are strong."
"Why isn't she awake then?" Jason knew from his own experience that that wasn't an easy question to answer.
"Honestly, we don't know. She could have hit her head when she fell. It could be a complication from the accident.."
"You said she was fine," Jason countered in almost an accusing tone.
"Jason," Bobbie walked over to where he stood motionless. "We are going to make sure she gets the best care. Don't worry."
Don't worry Bobbie said to him. How could he not worry? Not more than a couple hours ago they had professed their love and now all he could imagine was losing her all over again.
"I'm going to go schedule another CAT Scan and MRI. We should know something once we get the results back from those," Tony said.
"Can I stay with her?" Jason asked quietly.
"Of course you can." Bobbie pulled a chair up to the bed and offered it to Jason. "I'll be right out at the nurse's station if you need me." Bobbie gently squeezed his shoulder. She couldn't help but recall the little scene she had interrupted the other day between the two of them. She knew what Elizabeth meant to him. It had never been easy to reassure loved ones but when it was someone that Bobbie considered family herself it was even more difficult.
"Thanks Bobbie."
The red headed nurse left the room as Jason turned and focused his attention on Elizabeth's still form. With a shaky hand he reached out and took hers. Gently he caressed her soft flesh. "Elizabeth," he whispered. "Elizabeth, baby, you need to open your eyes okay? This can't be happening. I should have never left you alone." He cursed himself for running the minute Sonny called him. He should have stayed with her.
Jason pressed his fingers against his ice blue eyes and forced the tears back. "I love you Elizabeth. I have waited four years to tell you that. I can't lose you the minute I do." He choked back an impending sob yet the tears found their way to the surface. Before he could do anything to stop them they cascaded from his thick lashes landing squarely on her alabaster skin. "I love you." Jason brushed his lips against her cheek.
"I love you too." Elizabeth's voice was hoarse.
Jason pulled back and stared into the recesses of her deep cobalt eyes. "Thank god. Don't scare me like that!" Jason almost sounded angry but she knew better.
"Come here," she instructed as she pulled his face closer to her own. Softly their lips met and they shared a kiss as if they were anywhere but the emergency room of General Hospital.
"I have those tests.." Tony stopped short when he caught sight of the scene before him. He cleared his throat to garner their attention. "Awake I see," he almost laughed.
"Uh-huh." Elizabeth confirmed.
"How are you feeling? Can you tell me what happened before you passed out?" Tony asked.
Jason settled down beside her on the bed as she began. "Nothing really. I just felt really dizzy and then it went black around me. That's all I remember."
"Was that the first time you got dizzy?"
"No, there were a couple of other times."
"What?" Jason turned and stared at her. "When - when did that happen?"
"Right after you left this afternoon but it passed. I thought I just stood up too fast."
"I knew I should have never left," Jason said more to himself than her.
"I'm fine."
"That remains to be seen, Elizabeth," Tony interjected. "Being dizzy is normal for having a concussion but blacking out, well that concerns me. I have a CAT Scan scheduled for you. The orderly should be here in a few minutes to bring you up to radiology."
"Thank you Tony," Elizabeth said.
"Yeah thanks," Jason added. Once Dr. Jones had left them Jason turned to her. "Why didn't you tell me you were dizzy?" He rested his hand carefully against her face.
"I didn't think it was anything."
"Obviously it was. Tony said it could be serious. He's worried - and so am I," he added quietly.
"Jason, look at me. I'm fine." Elizabeth clasped his large hand between her two smaller ones. "Please don't worry. You know Tony he's just overly cautious."
"I'm glad he is." Jason captured her in his muscular arms and held her tight.
Elizabeth could feel that every muscle in his body was tense. "Jason, please relax."
"I don't think I can. You don't know what it was like when Max called me. I didn't think anything could have been worse than the day of the accident, not even when Zander shot you, but this was. I suddenly realized how much I had to lose." Jason kissed her gently on the forehead.
"You aren't going to lose me."
"They are ready for you in radiology Mrs. Lansing," the orderly spoke as he entered the room.
The hairs on the back of Jason's neck stood on end at the words Mrs. Lansing. Elizabeth felt his body go rigid once more.
"That's Miss Webber." Elizabeth corrected him. She thought back to the shredded divorce papers she had received earlier. "It's Webber no matter what you want Ric," she mumbled under her breath.
"What?" Jason gave her a quizzical look, which she chose to ignore, and remained centered on the young man in the hospital scrubs.
"I apologize, Miss Webber. Are you ready for your scan?"
"I guess so. Will you wait for me?" She looked back at Jason.
"I'm not going anywhere."
Jason watched as Elizabeth was wheeled from the room. He suddenly had a gnawing in his gut that he couldn't explain. There was more to Elizabeth's fainting spell. Jason knew that somehow, somewhere Ric Lansing figured into it, but how.
"How is she?" Max asked just as anxious about Elizabeth as the enforcer had been when he first arrived.
"She says she's fine but Tony isn't quite as convinced. Did Elizabeth tell you she wasn't feeling well - dizzy anything like that?" Jason questioned.
"No nothing. She didn't look good to me but you know Elizabeth.."
"She never wants to worry anyone." Jason finished Max's sentence.
"Yeah."
"I know and that's what's got me worried." Jason furrowed his brow still trying to get a handle on what could possibly be going on. "What happened after I left this afternoon?" he asked. "Anything out of the ordinary?"
"If you mean Lansing, no. Nothing but a delivery from Alexis Davis."
"Delivery?" Jason's ears perked at that comment.
"Yeah, I wasn't too keen on the guy, but then Elizabeth said that the package was her divorce papers so I let the guy go. And after that I didn't see her much again until she tried to carry a bunch of junk from her studio. She said she needed to get rid of some things."
"What?" Jason's face showed his confusion.
"I thought it was a little strange, especially since you said she was supposed to be resting."
"What was she getting rid of?"
"It looked like paintings, pictures, some dried flowers - you'd have to ask Marco I had him take it to the dumpster for her. She was trying to carry it all herself."
"No wonder she fainted," Jason said with a sigh. Elizabeth was always one to do it all on her own. The only person she ever let shoulder any of her burdens had been him and of course he was off with Sonny trying to get him to see something he was never going to. "Did you see the delivery from Alexis?"
"No, she just took it inside and I tipped the kid."
"So you don't know if it really was her divorce papers or not?"
"You don't think they were do you?" Max remarked.
"No. I think Lansing's up to his old tricks."
"What do you want me to do?" Max was ready to spring into action.
"Nothing at the moment. I need to work on getting Elizabeth to my penthouse before I decide what our next move should be. I'm not leaving any opening for Ric to have access to her."
"Do you think she'll go? To the penthouse I mean?"
"Yeah, I think this time she will." Max took note of the slight smile that passed across Jason's face and sensed that something was different. For once maybe the man of stone had finally let the wall around his heart crumble.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jason entered Elizabeth's hospital room. All the tension he had been carrying with him since Max's cryptic call was released the second that Dr. Jones had given him the good news. Elizabeth's CAT scan showed no abnormalities and when Jason relayed to him what Max had said about her activities earlier in the day Tony's concerns about further complications evaporated.
"I just talked to Tony. He says everything looks good."
"See I told you - nothing to worry about." Elizabeth smiled brightly all the apprehensions from earlier vanished. All that she wanted to concentrate on was her and Jason and the love they felt for one another.
"You want to tell me why you felt the need to clean house," Jason said pointedly, "this afternoon."
"Isn't there anything Max doesn't tell you?" She frowned.
"No. Why don't you tell me what's going on?"
"Nothing. I just needed to take care of a few things." Elizabeth avoided his gaze and centered her eyes on the large window to her right.
"And they couldn't have waited?"
"I waited too long already." Jason couldn't help but notice the obscure tone in her voice.
"I know about the delivery from Alexis. Is that what this is about?"
"Yes.no.I don't know."
"What's going on?" Jason drew the armchair in the corner to the side of her bed. "I can't help you if I don't know what's happening."
"Don't you ever get tired of coming to my rescue?" she asked honestly. The entire time they had known one another she felt like he was constantly there to pick up the pieces of her broken life.
"I told you once that you could always come to me - that I would never turn you away and I meant every word of that. I love you Elizabeth."
"I love you too," she choked, "it's just that." she searched for the words to make him understand that she needed to know that their love was more than just a series of rescues.
"What?" He sought for some understanding of what she meant in the depths of her eyes. They had always been the window to her soul. The one place where she couldn't hide from him.
"I don't want you to think of me as an obligation. I don't want to be the damsel in distress all the time. I want you to want to love me not feel like you have to." Instinctively Elizabeth drew her lower lip between her teeth and began to gnaw at it
"I do love you. Not for any other reason than that I do. You aren't an obligation in the way that you make it sound. I will go to my grave protecting Elizabeth. Can't you see that without you I'm exactly what everyone says I am? I'm just Sonny's stone cold enforcer. I'm Taggert's Angerboy. I'm that borg."
"Jason," Elizabeth shook her head in disagreement.
"I am though. I'm only more when I am with you. And I like that. I love the way you opened doors to me that I thought were forever closed. I cherish you Elizabeth. You're not just some job that I was assigned. You saved my life in ways that you don't even recognize. I have never felt like I had to love you Elizabeth - I needed to love you - wanted to love you."
Elizabeth felt her warm tears trickle down her cheeks as Jason verbalized his feelings. Her heart swelled as the memories of all their tumultuous and joyous times together passed through her mind frame by frame.
"Do you understand?" he asked.
She nodded and buried her face against his shoulder, her tears soaking his black tee shirt. "I - I just," she sucked in a quick breath to calm the sobs. "just didn't want us to be together because of some catastrophe or tragedy. I wanted it to be real finally."
"It's always been real Elizabeth. We just never let it be."
"I know." She agreed.
"So are you going to tell me about the package from Alexis? Was it even from Alexis?"
"Yes and no."
She went on to explain about the shredded divorce papers and the single line note. Elizabeth watched his jaw tighten in rage as she spoke. His normally icy eyes blazed with a fury that would have frightened most.
"Would you please consider moving into the penthouse?" he asked when she had finally finished her explanation of the day's events. Jason made a mental note to contact Alexis the minute he had Elizabeth settled and safe. "I know that it feels like the other times that you have stayed there. That I am just protecting you - and yes I am protecting you but it's more than that now. I want you there. I want to wake up with you by my side. I missed that. I never told you but when I left your studio after I had healed from my gunshot wound I missed waking up and knowing that you would be there. I'd like to have that feeling again." Jason smiled.
"I missed that too."
"So you will move in with me?"
"Yes." The fears that she had harbored about not wanting this time to be just like all the others had been put to rest. Jason had done that and falling asleep and waking up in his arms was exactly where she wanted to be.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Within the hour Tony Jones had released Elizabeth into Jason's care with assurances that there would be no repeat performances of her domesticity for at least a few weeks.
It took all the fortitude Ric had within him to stay hidden as he watched Jason assist Elizabeth into the black sedan. He hadn't been allowed to even access the floor that her room had been on in the hospital. The doctors Quartermaine had made sure that he was 'persona non grada'. His cell phone rang just as the car pulled away from the curb.
"What happened?" he barked into the small device.
"I delivered them just as you instructed."
"Then how did she end up back in the hospital?"
"I have no idea. So where's my money?" the voice asked.
"You'll have it. You'll have." He slammed the cell phone closed and was beginning to rethink his unholy alliance.