Second Chances: The Squeeze
Ric opened his eyes and the bright white light from overhead almost made him dizzy. He turned his head from side to side trying to gauge where he was exactly. The events of the day were nothing but a blur yet when he attempted to use his hands to force himself into a sitting position – the stabbing pain that radiated from his wrists brought those forgotten memories back with such clarity.
Jason Morgan was at the forefront with his gun trained on his captive – trained on Ric. He recalled his desperation in trying to get to Elizabeth. The cryptic way Jason had run from the cabin set alarms blaring in Ric's head. Enough so in fact that he had risked bleeding to death just to get to her.
Thoughts of Elizabeth swirled in his mind. Was she hurt? God forbid was she dead? That idea nearly choked him. He couldn't wrap his brain around the thought that she might have been gone. He had to know. He had to know if she was all right. Ignoring his own agony Ric again pushed himself into a sitting position and swung his legs over the side of the narrow bed. That quick movement had the room spinning around him. Once he was finally able to collect his thoughts he surveyed his surroundings. His best guess was he was at some hospital yet he knew it wasn't General Hospital. It was far too small and quiet compared to the busy atmosphere that consumed GH.
Gingerly Ric let his feet rest on the cold tile floor. He steadied himself with his hand unsure if his legs would with stain him. He felt the back of his hospital gown fall open and immediately he scanned the room for his clothes. Just as he was about to make his way to where his jeans and shirt sat in a heap he was interrupted.
"And just where do you think you are going?" a large nurse in a white lab coat asked.
"Home. I need to get home!" Ric said with determination as he headed towards the chair that held his clothes.
"I don't think so," she countered. "You've been out cold for a couple hours. You aren't going anywhere."
"You don't understand – my wife she could be hurt. I have to get to her!" Ric's voice grew in intensity. His need to find Elizabeth causing his mind to race once more.
The nurse could hear the heightened anxiety in her patient's tone and when he mentioned something about needing to get to his wife – that she could be hurt a red flag went up in her mind. Given the man's injuries she couldn't help but wonder if maybe this was more than what it appeared to be at first glance. "You can't go anywhere until we get your wounds stitched," she stated.
Ric looked down at his wrists finally and realized that while the wounds had been bandaged blood was still seeping from beneath the thin white gauze. He leaned against the small hospital bed and let out a heavy breath.
"Sir you lost a lot of blood. I am sure that once the doctor has closed your wounds he will want you to spend the night – just for observation."
"I can't!" Ric nearly shouted. "I can't stay here. I've already wasted too much time. My wife – she could," Ric choked on his next words. "she could be dead! I have to get the hell out of here!" Suddenly his eyes resembled those of a caged animal looking for any means of escape. "I can't wait around here any longer!"
"I'll go see what's keeping Dr. Michaels," the nurse said as she walked out of the room leaving Ric to pace the floor. Immediately the woman headed for the security phone and within minutes an uniformed hospital security officer was stationed outside of Ric's door. Then she placed a call to the local sheriff's office. Normally suicide attempts, and that's what she first thought this was but now was less than sure, required a seventy-two hour hospital stay but with the way the man inside was going on and on about the possibility of his wife being dead – well suddenly that had the nurse thinking perhaps this was a botched murder/suicide and that was completely out of her league.
When the nurse finally reentered Ric's room she found him completely dressed and still pacing the floor. "Where's the doctor? I have to get the hell out of here! I need to get to my wife!"
"Sir you really need to calm yourself. This isn't helping," she said in her best soothing voice.
"No, you're NOT helping!" he yelled pushing his way passed her. "I'm leaving!"
"Sir you can't," she tried to stop him. "You haven't had your wounds looked at yet."
"I'm an attorney. I know my rights. I can sign myself out against medical advice. I want the papers NOW!" Ric's voice boomed.
The older woman suddenly was frightened of the glowering man standing before her. If what she suspected to be true indeed really was there was no telling what he could be capable of. She wasn't about to take any chances so she nodded and walked to the nurse's desk and retrieved the papers in question, watched him sloppily sign his name due to the pain in his wrists and walk out the door.
A few moments later the county sheriff and his deputy entered from another corridor and while the nurse had no suspect to deliver to them between her and the man who had brought the injured man into the emergency room that day they gathered enough information to begin a preliminary investigation.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Faith stood on the docks as fury seethed inside of her. She didn't like being stood up. It was well past lunch and the dinner hour was fast approaching and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of Ric since he left the house that morning. The ringing of her cell phone from inside her tiny black bag interrupted her thoughts. "What?" she barked her annoyance for other things coming through in her voice. "And?" A smile slid across her bright red lips as she listened. "So my message was delivered then? Good!"
Faith shut the phone quickly and dropped it into her black bag again a contented grin filling her features. She was pleased with herself. It was time that a certain someone understood just who he was dealing with. It was time he understood what a force she could be when pushed. On that note she reached for her phone from inside her purse and dialed. "Where the hell are you?" she asked out loud as once again she was put through to Ric Lansing's voice mail.
Faith found herself walking back and forth across the worn planks of the docks her rage growing with each step. Her mind was filled with images of Ric running off to check on his little waif of a wife. Why was it so obvious to the rest of the world that Elizabeth Webber had moved on to Jason Morgan but Ric was so unwilling to see it? Hell she would have been glad to let Jason and Sonny deal with Calamity Jane without giving her a second thought if only Ric could do the same. In the end Elizabeth could be a means to distracting Jason enough to bring about the demise of Sonny and his empire and that's all Faith had ever really wanted – until now. What she wanted now also included Ric Lansing and somehow the circle of men around Elizabeth Webber tightened.
"UGH!" she growled in frustration. She dialed Ric's home number and suddenly was bombarded with the sound of Elizabeth's voice on the answering machine. "Damn him!" she thought. Elizabeth was still everywhere in that house. Knowing he would have to come home eventually Faith headed off in the direction of his home figuring she would wait there for him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. It had taken hours to get back to Port Charles. He was feeling the effects of his injuries again and knew that if he didn't get them stitched up soon he would end up passing out or in shock again. But only thoughts of Elizabeth and her safety were what were driving him at the moment. All else would have to wait. He picked up the receiver and dialed General Hospital.
"GH information desk. How can I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like to check on the status of a patient. Elizabeth Lansing."
"I'm sorry sir we don't have any patients by that name listed."
"Try Elizabeth Webber then."
"Sorry sir, still nothing."
Ric steeled himself for what he was about to say. He couldn't believe he was going to let these words pass his lips but he had to if he wanted to find out anything about Elizabeth. "Then try Elizabeth Morgan." Ric heard his voice falter.
"No sir, no Elizabeth Morgan either."
Ric cringed as the woman on the other end of the phone repeated Elizabeth Morgan. "Are you sure?" He was at a loss. The way Jason had run out of the cabin before he couldn't imagine that it wasn't in some way tied to Elizabeth's safety.
"Is there something else I can help you with sir?" The voice on the other end of the line invaded his thoughts.
"No." Ric slammed down the phone without so much as a thank you or good bye. Ric's lids fell heavy against his eyes as he slumped down on the floor alongside the sofa table that held the phone. Jason and Sonny had done it again. They were keeping him away from his wife. The fury inside him grew with mountainous force. Ever since the whole panic room debacle and Emily's death Jason had been standing between him and what belonged to him – Elizabeth. Ric couldn't stop thinking of Elizabeth lying in some hospital bed hurt with Jason sitting beside her lovingly. That idea had his pulse pounding the sound resonating throughout his head. He couldn't – wouldn't lose her.
Slowly he rose from his position on the floor cradling his injured wrists attempting to stave off the waves of pain that rolled through his body. Ric placed his hands on the portion of the wall he knew would slide away as soon as he pressed the remote in his pocket. Even after all this time he still carried it with him and half heartedly had considered using the place again to bring Elizabeth to her senses but instead Ric chose to use the room as a shire to his wife. He let out a painful yelp when the bandage on his wrist caught on his pocket as his fingers fumbled in an effort to find the button that would allow him access to his sanctuary. Almost immediately the access panel slid back into the wall and the sight before him stunned him.
There they were all of Elizabeth's paintings – the ones he had been able to salvage from her studio torn to shreds thrown across the floor of the panic room. Ric left his breath quicken to the point he was barely able to breathe. He ran his fingers along the slashed canvases leaving drops of blood their path. Ric felt as if he had lost another part of Elizabeth again. The only notion that brought him any comfort was that Jason had to have been consumed by jealousy to have trashed Elizabeth's paintings. That made Ric extremely pleased.
"Don't you like the way I redecorated the place?"
Faith's voice startled him. He hadn't even heard her enter the house. "You? You did this?" he questioned dumbfounded and suddenly disappointed that what he had envisioned playing out hadn't.
"Un huh," she confirmed stepping over a canvas to enter the room.
"Why?"
She looked at him with disbelief in her eyes. Is he really that stupid Faith thought to herself? "Um.... Let me see," she began. "How would you expect your lover to take this little mausoleum of sorts?" Faith made a sweeping gesture with her hands to illustrate all things Elizabeth that threatened to swallow her.
"What did you do to her?" Ric asked not bothering to answer the question Faith had directed at him. All he could hear repeating in his ears was the one sided conversation he had heard Jason having – the conversation about Elizabeth. "What did you do to her!?!" he questioned once more coming to stand nose to nose with a woman he no longer had any use for.
"What the hell happened to you?" Faith inquired taking a good look at Ric's beaten face and bloody extremities.
"I swear to god if you hurt her I will kill you myself!" Ric grabbed the lapels of Faith cream silk jacket leaving tell tell markings of his own blood behind.
"What is it about that little ragamuffin that men fall all over themselves protecting her?" Faith wondered aloud. "First that oaf Max, we all know that Morgan would die for her and now you. What the hell is so special about her?" Faith's cocky intonation had the hairs on the back of Ric's neck standing on end.
"What did you do to her?" He had the makings of sounding like a broken record.
"Hum...." Faith brought her finger to her chin as though she was perplexed by his question. "I heard about a shooting....."
"SHOOTING!?!" Ric's voice filled with panic as images of Elizabeth being shot filled his head. No wonder Jason had darted from the cabin leaving him there to twist in the wind.
"Oh don't worry your precious Elizabeth is fine – for now," she added purposely. "You thought wrong when you thought you could play me. You thought you could lead me around by the nose and I wouldn't notice. Well that was a miscalculation on your part. Watch your back Lansing and your little wifey's too."
Ric watched Faith exit as quickly as she had entered. He stood motionless feet affixed to the floor as her not so veiled threats bounced around in the recesses of his mind. He leaned against the table that housed the monitors he had used to torture Carly with while he held her captive. He had forced her to watch the goings on inside the Lansing house. She was subjected to witnessing both Sonny and Jason's endless arrivals there to search for to only come up empty handed over and over again. Ric felt the bile rise high into his throat as he recalled her trying desperately to get him to understand that Elizabeth was about to drink lemonade that Faith had poisoned. Ric shook his head in a vain attempt at shaking off the pictures in his mind's eye of all of the acts Faith had committed against his wife. A sudden sense of urgency filled him. He knew that Faith's barrage against Elizabeth wasn't about to end. He had to put a stop to it. Quickly he grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Marcus Taggert was sitting at his desk when Ric charged through the doors of the PCPD. He went straight for the detective's desk. "I want you to arrest Faith Roscoe," he said plopping down the chair across from the man wearing the badge.
"You want me to arrest who?" Taggert asked looking up from the file he had been studying. A file whose information wasn't bringing him any closer to bringing Sonny Corinthos or Jason Morgan down.
"Faith Roscoe," Ric said again.
"On what charge?" Taggert almost mocked him.
"The attempted murder of my wife."
Taggert leaned back in his chair and scrutinized the man before him. From where he sat Ric Lansing was no better than the other men he was trying so desperately to put away but he certainly wasn't above using any means necessary to get what he wanted. "What the hell happened to you?" the detective finally asked as he surveyed the battered man seated in front of him.
"Didn't you hear me? I want you to arrest Faith Roscoe. She tried to kill my wife today."
"I heard you."
"Then why the hell are you just sitting there starring at me? Why aren't you putting out an APB on Faith?"
Taggert continued to give Ric a questioning gaze. He would have laughed if he found it even remotely funny. There sat Ric Lansing, half brother to Sonny Corinthos whose ex wife was shacking up with none other than Sonny's enforcer Jason Morgan and he was trying to put his brother's biggest competitor behind bars. It was all too ironic.
"What?" Ric asked angry that the man looking back at him from the other side of the desk could do nothing but smirk.
"I'm just trying to make sense out of it all."
"What's there to make sense of? I told you Faith is after my wife."
"Don't you mean ex wife?" Marcus Taggert corrected him.
"That doesn't matter," Ric shrugged off that minor detail. "She's already tried to kill her once today. You know she's going to try again."
"Now wouldn't the be something anger boy should be worried about? How's that concern me?" Taggert was enjoying toying with a man who was obviously desperate. He wondered just how desperate though. The phone on his desk rang before he was able to give that anymore thought. "Taggert."
As he listened to the voice on the other end of the line he kept his eyes riveted on Ric Lansing. The tale he was being told sparked a plan in his brain. "I understand, but I assure you that Elizabeth Lansing...who now goes by her maiden name Webber." Taggert watched as Ric's face blanched at the sound of Elizabeth's name. "is alive and well and here in Port Charles. No, no not a hint of foul play from her husband. I will be sure to call you if we come across Mr. Lansing. Evening sheriff." Taggert replaced the receiver in its cradle and stared Ric directly in the eye. "Start talking or I ship you back to Mayberry," Taggert joked though there was no humor in his tone. "and let them deal with you!"
"What... what," Ric stuttered, "what does Elizabeth have to do...."
Before he was even able to complete his sentence Taggert cut him off. "Seems as though you have people in that little hick town thinking you killed your wife before you tried offing yourself." Taggert motioned to the blood soaked bandages. "You really should have those looked at."
Suddenly self conscious Ric slipped his hands out of view. "I would never hurt Elizabeth!" he said in defense of himself.
"But you would try to hurt yourself?" Taggert questioned.
"NO – NEVER!" Ric sounded as though the mere thought of that was sheer lunacy.
"Then do you care to tell me what the hell happened to you? Or did you decide to step in front of a Mack truck?"
Ric felt his body beginning to shake. What the hell had he gotten himself into? He had only wanted to protect Elizabeth. He had just wanted to remove Faith from the equation but rather than doing that he had put himself smack in the middle again. He was well aware of Marcus Taggert's hatred for both Jason and Sonny and he would use any means necessary to capitalize on that – even if that meant feeding Ric to the wolves in the process. "I got into a fight."
"A fight huh? With who a mountain lion?"
"It started out as a difference of opinion and it got out of hand."
"I'll bet!" Taggert said not buying a single word of it.
"Actually it turned ugly and I ended up getting slashed by a broken bottle."
"You don't say? And here I didn't think Morgan used any other weapon than his gun. But hell a broken bottle would get the job done just as nicely with far less evidence to dispose of." Taggert sat back and watched Lansing squirm at the mention of Jason Morgan's name.
"Jason didn't do this to me."
"You really expect me to believe that?"
"He didn't."
"Hey Bruce," Taggert turned to the uniformed office at the sergeant's desk. "Arrange a transport for me would ya. I have to have a murder suspect taken back to Hayes Landing."
"Sure thing," the officer said.
"Wait," Ric announced.
"Hold that thought Bruce." Taggert turned back and looked at Lansing. "So are you ready to file assault and battery charges against Jason Morgan?"
Ric looked away for a moment. Maybe this was just what he needed. Maybe it would go along way in showing Elizabeth what kind of man she had aligned herself with. "Yes, yes I am."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The heavy pounding that reverberated from downstairs startled Jason. He hadn't been fully asleep but rather enjoying how Elizabeth felt resting against his body. At the sound of persistent knocking he disentangled himself from her doing his best to disturb her blissful slumber. Quickly he pulled on a pair of gray jogging pants and padded down the stairs.
"This better be damn important!" he growled running his hand through his blonde spikes.
"Sorry boss," Max's voice came from behind Detective Taggert's shoulder.
"What the hell do you want?" Jason just shook his head tired of the officer's continual harassment.
"Jason Morgan you are under arrest for the assault and battery of Ric Lansing....."
"Jason?" Elizabeth's soft voice came from behind him. He turned to see her standing there in her silk pajama bottoms and tank top. He was about to turn and go to her when Taggert joyfully placed his handcuffs around Jason's wrists.
"You have the right to an attorney. If you can not afford one...."
"I know the drill." Jason interrupted him. "Max call Justus."
"Wait!" Elizabeth cried out as Jason was being pulled from the penthouse toward the awaiting elevator. "At least have the decency to let him get dressed." She addressed her comment to the over zealous detective.
"Fine." Taggert had been so consumed by arresting Jason that he hadn't taken notice of his attire or lack there of.
Elizabeth dashed up the stairs at Jason's heels. She watched in silence as he pulled on his signature blue jeans, black tee shirt and leather jacket. Without warning she flew from her perch on the bed wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.
"Sshh," Jason said as he soothed her unkempt curls. "Please don't cry baby. Justus will handle everything. I'll be back here before you can even miss me." He smiled as he kissed the tip of her nose. "I better go before Taggert thinks he can come charging up the stairs."
"Jason..." her voice hitched in her throat.
"Yes?"
"I love you. No matter what I love you." She gave him a weak smile as Taggert returned the handcuffs to his wrists.
"I love you too baby."
"Let's go!" Taggert barked disgusted by the scene before him.
Max gently closed the door as Elizabeth watched tears escaping her sapphire eyes.
Ric opened his eyes and the bright white light from overhead almost made him dizzy. He turned his head from side to side trying to gauge where he was exactly. The events of the day were nothing but a blur yet when he attempted to use his hands to force himself into a sitting position – the stabbing pain that radiated from his wrists brought those forgotten memories back with such clarity.
Jason Morgan was at the forefront with his gun trained on his captive – trained on Ric. He recalled his desperation in trying to get to Elizabeth. The cryptic way Jason had run from the cabin set alarms blaring in Ric's head. Enough so in fact that he had risked bleeding to death just to get to her.
Thoughts of Elizabeth swirled in his mind. Was she hurt? God forbid was she dead? That idea nearly choked him. He couldn't wrap his brain around the thought that she might have been gone. He had to know. He had to know if she was all right. Ignoring his own agony Ric again pushed himself into a sitting position and swung his legs over the side of the narrow bed. That quick movement had the room spinning around him. Once he was finally able to collect his thoughts he surveyed his surroundings. His best guess was he was at some hospital yet he knew it wasn't General Hospital. It was far too small and quiet compared to the busy atmosphere that consumed GH.
Gingerly Ric let his feet rest on the cold tile floor. He steadied himself with his hand unsure if his legs would with stain him. He felt the back of his hospital gown fall open and immediately he scanned the room for his clothes. Just as he was about to make his way to where his jeans and shirt sat in a heap he was interrupted.
"And just where do you think you are going?" a large nurse in a white lab coat asked.
"Home. I need to get home!" Ric said with determination as he headed towards the chair that held his clothes.
"I don't think so," she countered. "You've been out cold for a couple hours. You aren't going anywhere."
"You don't understand – my wife she could be hurt. I have to get to her!" Ric's voice grew in intensity. His need to find Elizabeth causing his mind to race once more.
The nurse could hear the heightened anxiety in her patient's tone and when he mentioned something about needing to get to his wife – that she could be hurt a red flag went up in her mind. Given the man's injuries she couldn't help but wonder if maybe this was more than what it appeared to be at first glance. "You can't go anywhere until we get your wounds stitched," she stated.
Ric looked down at his wrists finally and realized that while the wounds had been bandaged blood was still seeping from beneath the thin white gauze. He leaned against the small hospital bed and let out a heavy breath.
"Sir you lost a lot of blood. I am sure that once the doctor has closed your wounds he will want you to spend the night – just for observation."
"I can't!" Ric nearly shouted. "I can't stay here. I've already wasted too much time. My wife – she could," Ric choked on his next words. "she could be dead! I have to get the hell out of here!" Suddenly his eyes resembled those of a caged animal looking for any means of escape. "I can't wait around here any longer!"
"I'll go see what's keeping Dr. Michaels," the nurse said as she walked out of the room leaving Ric to pace the floor. Immediately the woman headed for the security phone and within minutes an uniformed hospital security officer was stationed outside of Ric's door. Then she placed a call to the local sheriff's office. Normally suicide attempts, and that's what she first thought this was but now was less than sure, required a seventy-two hour hospital stay but with the way the man inside was going on and on about the possibility of his wife being dead – well suddenly that had the nurse thinking perhaps this was a botched murder/suicide and that was completely out of her league.
When the nurse finally reentered Ric's room she found him completely dressed and still pacing the floor. "Where's the doctor? I have to get the hell out of here! I need to get to my wife!"
"Sir you really need to calm yourself. This isn't helping," she said in her best soothing voice.
"No, you're NOT helping!" he yelled pushing his way passed her. "I'm leaving!"
"Sir you can't," she tried to stop him. "You haven't had your wounds looked at yet."
"I'm an attorney. I know my rights. I can sign myself out against medical advice. I want the papers NOW!" Ric's voice boomed.
The older woman suddenly was frightened of the glowering man standing before her. If what she suspected to be true indeed really was there was no telling what he could be capable of. She wasn't about to take any chances so she nodded and walked to the nurse's desk and retrieved the papers in question, watched him sloppily sign his name due to the pain in his wrists and walk out the door.
A few moments later the county sheriff and his deputy entered from another corridor and while the nurse had no suspect to deliver to them between her and the man who had brought the injured man into the emergency room that day they gathered enough information to begin a preliminary investigation.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Faith stood on the docks as fury seethed inside of her. She didn't like being stood up. It was well past lunch and the dinner hour was fast approaching and she hadn't seen hide nor hair of Ric since he left the house that morning. The ringing of her cell phone from inside her tiny black bag interrupted her thoughts. "What?" she barked her annoyance for other things coming through in her voice. "And?" A smile slid across her bright red lips as she listened. "So my message was delivered then? Good!"
Faith shut the phone quickly and dropped it into her black bag again a contented grin filling her features. She was pleased with herself. It was time that a certain someone understood just who he was dealing with. It was time he understood what a force she could be when pushed. On that note she reached for her phone from inside her purse and dialed. "Where the hell are you?" she asked out loud as once again she was put through to Ric Lansing's voice mail.
Faith found herself walking back and forth across the worn planks of the docks her rage growing with each step. Her mind was filled with images of Ric running off to check on his little waif of a wife. Why was it so obvious to the rest of the world that Elizabeth Webber had moved on to Jason Morgan but Ric was so unwilling to see it? Hell she would have been glad to let Jason and Sonny deal with Calamity Jane without giving her a second thought if only Ric could do the same. In the end Elizabeth could be a means to distracting Jason enough to bring about the demise of Sonny and his empire and that's all Faith had ever really wanted – until now. What she wanted now also included Ric Lansing and somehow the circle of men around Elizabeth Webber tightened.
"UGH!" she growled in frustration. She dialed Ric's home number and suddenly was bombarded with the sound of Elizabeth's voice on the answering machine. "Damn him!" she thought. Elizabeth was still everywhere in that house. Knowing he would have to come home eventually Faith headed off in the direction of his home figuring she would wait there for him.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Ric wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. It had taken hours to get back to Port Charles. He was feeling the effects of his injuries again and knew that if he didn't get them stitched up soon he would end up passing out or in shock again. But only thoughts of Elizabeth and her safety were what were driving him at the moment. All else would have to wait. He picked up the receiver and dialed General Hospital.
"GH information desk. How can I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like to check on the status of a patient. Elizabeth Lansing."
"I'm sorry sir we don't have any patients by that name listed."
"Try Elizabeth Webber then."
"Sorry sir, still nothing."
Ric steeled himself for what he was about to say. He couldn't believe he was going to let these words pass his lips but he had to if he wanted to find out anything about Elizabeth. "Then try Elizabeth Morgan." Ric heard his voice falter.
"No sir, no Elizabeth Morgan either."
Ric cringed as the woman on the other end of the phone repeated Elizabeth Morgan. "Are you sure?" He was at a loss. The way Jason had run out of the cabin before he couldn't imagine that it wasn't in some way tied to Elizabeth's safety.
"Is there something else I can help you with sir?" The voice on the other end of the line invaded his thoughts.
"No." Ric slammed down the phone without so much as a thank you or good bye. Ric's lids fell heavy against his eyes as he slumped down on the floor alongside the sofa table that held the phone. Jason and Sonny had done it again. They were keeping him away from his wife. The fury inside him grew with mountainous force. Ever since the whole panic room debacle and Emily's death Jason had been standing between him and what belonged to him – Elizabeth. Ric couldn't stop thinking of Elizabeth lying in some hospital bed hurt with Jason sitting beside her lovingly. That idea had his pulse pounding the sound resonating throughout his head. He couldn't – wouldn't lose her.
Slowly he rose from his position on the floor cradling his injured wrists attempting to stave off the waves of pain that rolled through his body. Ric placed his hands on the portion of the wall he knew would slide away as soon as he pressed the remote in his pocket. Even after all this time he still carried it with him and half heartedly had considered using the place again to bring Elizabeth to her senses but instead Ric chose to use the room as a shire to his wife. He let out a painful yelp when the bandage on his wrist caught on his pocket as his fingers fumbled in an effort to find the button that would allow him access to his sanctuary. Almost immediately the access panel slid back into the wall and the sight before him stunned him.
There they were all of Elizabeth's paintings – the ones he had been able to salvage from her studio torn to shreds thrown across the floor of the panic room. Ric left his breath quicken to the point he was barely able to breathe. He ran his fingers along the slashed canvases leaving drops of blood their path. Ric felt as if he had lost another part of Elizabeth again. The only notion that brought him any comfort was that Jason had to have been consumed by jealousy to have trashed Elizabeth's paintings. That made Ric extremely pleased.
"Don't you like the way I redecorated the place?"
Faith's voice startled him. He hadn't even heard her enter the house. "You? You did this?" he questioned dumbfounded and suddenly disappointed that what he had envisioned playing out hadn't.
"Un huh," she confirmed stepping over a canvas to enter the room.
"Why?"
She looked at him with disbelief in her eyes. Is he really that stupid Faith thought to herself? "Um.... Let me see," she began. "How would you expect your lover to take this little mausoleum of sorts?" Faith made a sweeping gesture with her hands to illustrate all things Elizabeth that threatened to swallow her.
"What did you do to her?" Ric asked not bothering to answer the question Faith had directed at him. All he could hear repeating in his ears was the one sided conversation he had heard Jason having – the conversation about Elizabeth. "What did you do to her!?!" he questioned once more coming to stand nose to nose with a woman he no longer had any use for.
"What the hell happened to you?" Faith inquired taking a good look at Ric's beaten face and bloody extremities.
"I swear to god if you hurt her I will kill you myself!" Ric grabbed the lapels of Faith cream silk jacket leaving tell tell markings of his own blood behind.
"What is it about that little ragamuffin that men fall all over themselves protecting her?" Faith wondered aloud. "First that oaf Max, we all know that Morgan would die for her and now you. What the hell is so special about her?" Faith's cocky intonation had the hairs on the back of Ric's neck standing on end.
"What did you do to her?" He had the makings of sounding like a broken record.
"Hum...." Faith brought her finger to her chin as though she was perplexed by his question. "I heard about a shooting....."
"SHOOTING!?!" Ric's voice filled with panic as images of Elizabeth being shot filled his head. No wonder Jason had darted from the cabin leaving him there to twist in the wind.
"Oh don't worry your precious Elizabeth is fine – for now," she added purposely. "You thought wrong when you thought you could play me. You thought you could lead me around by the nose and I wouldn't notice. Well that was a miscalculation on your part. Watch your back Lansing and your little wifey's too."
Ric watched Faith exit as quickly as she had entered. He stood motionless feet affixed to the floor as her not so veiled threats bounced around in the recesses of his mind. He leaned against the table that housed the monitors he had used to torture Carly with while he held her captive. He had forced her to watch the goings on inside the Lansing house. She was subjected to witnessing both Sonny and Jason's endless arrivals there to search for to only come up empty handed over and over again. Ric felt the bile rise high into his throat as he recalled her trying desperately to get him to understand that Elizabeth was about to drink lemonade that Faith had poisoned. Ric shook his head in a vain attempt at shaking off the pictures in his mind's eye of all of the acts Faith had committed against his wife. A sudden sense of urgency filled him. He knew that Faith's barrage against Elizabeth wasn't about to end. He had to put a stop to it. Quickly he grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Marcus Taggert was sitting at his desk when Ric charged through the doors of the PCPD. He went straight for the detective's desk. "I want you to arrest Faith Roscoe," he said plopping down the chair across from the man wearing the badge.
"You want me to arrest who?" Taggert asked looking up from the file he had been studying. A file whose information wasn't bringing him any closer to bringing Sonny Corinthos or Jason Morgan down.
"Faith Roscoe," Ric said again.
"On what charge?" Taggert almost mocked him.
"The attempted murder of my wife."
Taggert leaned back in his chair and scrutinized the man before him. From where he sat Ric Lansing was no better than the other men he was trying so desperately to put away but he certainly wasn't above using any means necessary to get what he wanted. "What the hell happened to you?" the detective finally asked as he surveyed the battered man seated in front of him.
"Didn't you hear me? I want you to arrest Faith Roscoe. She tried to kill my wife today."
"I heard you."
"Then why the hell are you just sitting there starring at me? Why aren't you putting out an APB on Faith?"
Taggert continued to give Ric a questioning gaze. He would have laughed if he found it even remotely funny. There sat Ric Lansing, half brother to Sonny Corinthos whose ex wife was shacking up with none other than Sonny's enforcer Jason Morgan and he was trying to put his brother's biggest competitor behind bars. It was all too ironic.
"What?" Ric asked angry that the man looking back at him from the other side of the desk could do nothing but smirk.
"I'm just trying to make sense out of it all."
"What's there to make sense of? I told you Faith is after my wife."
"Don't you mean ex wife?" Marcus Taggert corrected him.
"That doesn't matter," Ric shrugged off that minor detail. "She's already tried to kill her once today. You know she's going to try again."
"Now wouldn't the be something anger boy should be worried about? How's that concern me?" Taggert was enjoying toying with a man who was obviously desperate. He wondered just how desperate though. The phone on his desk rang before he was able to give that anymore thought. "Taggert."
As he listened to the voice on the other end of the line he kept his eyes riveted on Ric Lansing. The tale he was being told sparked a plan in his brain. "I understand, but I assure you that Elizabeth Lansing...who now goes by her maiden name Webber." Taggert watched as Ric's face blanched at the sound of Elizabeth's name. "is alive and well and here in Port Charles. No, no not a hint of foul play from her husband. I will be sure to call you if we come across Mr. Lansing. Evening sheriff." Taggert replaced the receiver in its cradle and stared Ric directly in the eye. "Start talking or I ship you back to Mayberry," Taggert joked though there was no humor in his tone. "and let them deal with you!"
"What... what," Ric stuttered, "what does Elizabeth have to do...."
Before he was even able to complete his sentence Taggert cut him off. "Seems as though you have people in that little hick town thinking you killed your wife before you tried offing yourself." Taggert motioned to the blood soaked bandages. "You really should have those looked at."
Suddenly self conscious Ric slipped his hands out of view. "I would never hurt Elizabeth!" he said in defense of himself.
"But you would try to hurt yourself?" Taggert questioned.
"NO – NEVER!" Ric sounded as though the mere thought of that was sheer lunacy.
"Then do you care to tell me what the hell happened to you? Or did you decide to step in front of a Mack truck?"
Ric felt his body beginning to shake. What the hell had he gotten himself into? He had only wanted to protect Elizabeth. He had just wanted to remove Faith from the equation but rather than doing that he had put himself smack in the middle again. He was well aware of Marcus Taggert's hatred for both Jason and Sonny and he would use any means necessary to capitalize on that – even if that meant feeding Ric to the wolves in the process. "I got into a fight."
"A fight huh? With who a mountain lion?"
"It started out as a difference of opinion and it got out of hand."
"I'll bet!" Taggert said not buying a single word of it.
"Actually it turned ugly and I ended up getting slashed by a broken bottle."
"You don't say? And here I didn't think Morgan used any other weapon than his gun. But hell a broken bottle would get the job done just as nicely with far less evidence to dispose of." Taggert sat back and watched Lansing squirm at the mention of Jason Morgan's name.
"Jason didn't do this to me."
"You really expect me to believe that?"
"He didn't."
"Hey Bruce," Taggert turned to the uniformed office at the sergeant's desk. "Arrange a transport for me would ya. I have to have a murder suspect taken back to Hayes Landing."
"Sure thing," the officer said.
"Wait," Ric announced.
"Hold that thought Bruce." Taggert turned back and looked at Lansing. "So are you ready to file assault and battery charges against Jason Morgan?"
Ric looked away for a moment. Maybe this was just what he needed. Maybe it would go along way in showing Elizabeth what kind of man she had aligned herself with. "Yes, yes I am."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The heavy pounding that reverberated from downstairs startled Jason. He hadn't been fully asleep but rather enjoying how Elizabeth felt resting against his body. At the sound of persistent knocking he disentangled himself from her doing his best to disturb her blissful slumber. Quickly he pulled on a pair of gray jogging pants and padded down the stairs.
"This better be damn important!" he growled running his hand through his blonde spikes.
"Sorry boss," Max's voice came from behind Detective Taggert's shoulder.
"What the hell do you want?" Jason just shook his head tired of the officer's continual harassment.
"Jason Morgan you are under arrest for the assault and battery of Ric Lansing....."
"Jason?" Elizabeth's soft voice came from behind him. He turned to see her standing there in her silk pajama bottoms and tank top. He was about to turn and go to her when Taggert joyfully placed his handcuffs around Jason's wrists.
"You have the right to an attorney. If you can not afford one...."
"I know the drill." Jason interrupted him. "Max call Justus."
"Wait!" Elizabeth cried out as Jason was being pulled from the penthouse toward the awaiting elevator. "At least have the decency to let him get dressed." She addressed her comment to the over zealous detective.
"Fine." Taggert had been so consumed by arresting Jason that he hadn't taken notice of his attire or lack there of.
Elizabeth dashed up the stairs at Jason's heels. She watched in silence as he pulled on his signature blue jeans, black tee shirt and leather jacket. Without warning she flew from her perch on the bed wrapping her arms tightly around his waist.
"Sshh," Jason said as he soothed her unkempt curls. "Please don't cry baby. Justus will handle everything. I'll be back here before you can even miss me." He smiled as he kissed the tip of her nose. "I better go before Taggert thinks he can come charging up the stairs."
"Jason..." her voice hitched in her throat.
"Yes?"
"I love you. No matter what I love you." She gave him a weak smile as Taggert returned the handcuffs to his wrists.
"I love you too baby."
"Let's go!" Taggert barked disgusted by the scene before him.
Max gently closed the door as Elizabeth watched tears escaping her sapphire eyes.