Well back after a very very long hiatus is this story. I apologize for basically letting it drop off the face of the earth but for one reason or another I hit a writing snag when it came to this and decided putting it to bed for a bit was the best thing. But now it's back and I hope that it still has some readers interested in it. I hope to have some feedback about it soon.

Thanks again.
Lisa

Second Chances: Man Hunt

The black helmet that Jason had been holding tumbled to the ground with a loud crash as the realization that Elizabeth was gone settled deep in his chest. "ELIZABETH!!" he shouted again only to have his voice bounce back at him off of the cold brick walls that surrounded him. His head darted from side to side looking for any clue what might have happened – but there was nothing. Not a single trace of anything. Jason stumbled back against the half open steel door and desperately tried to focus his thoughts yet all he could think about was the feeling of déjà vu that consumed him. His mind settled on how close he had come to losing Elizabeth when she had been kidnapped and held captive in the crypt. He didn't want to think about how a few minutes longer she would have succumbed to the gas fumes if he hadn't gotten to her when he did. He didn't know if he could live through another nightmare like that and more importantly he doubted that Elizabeth could either.

Jason wanted to move but it was as if he was rooted to the pavement. His head shouted orders that his body was unwilling to follow. It was so unlike him to be in suspended animation yet that's how he suddenly felt – as if he had no control over anything including himself. It wasn't as though all of the other times that Elizabeth had been put into danger because of him he had felt any different, but it was though their declaration of love for one another that suddenly intensified his anxieties. "ELIZABETH!" he screamed once more yet the strangled cry got caught in his throat.

A roaring sound in the distance forced Jason to react – forced his brain to process something other than his own disbelief that he had lost Elizabeth again. Drawing his gun in almost attack like mode, he realized that the sound was nothing more than a car backfiring as it coughed to a start. For him it would have been easier – simpler if the reverberating sound had actually been gunfire. He would have known how to react. Jason's instincts would have taken over rather than leaving him standing there fumbling with so many emotions. For one instant Jason allowed himself the stabbing grief that consumed him. His love for Elizabeth ran deep – deeper than he had ever expected or thought possible. He wasn't about to lose her now – not after they had come so far to be where they were finally. Fishing through the pockets of his leather jacket he produced his phone. "Max!" he barked. "Elizabeth's gone. She's gone," he said again when the voice on the end of the line questioned incredulity. "There isn't time for this," Jason shouted again not wanting to answer any of Max's successive inquiries. "Get every man, I mean EVERY available man out looking for her. Turn Port Charles upside down if you have to. Just find her!!" Jason slammed the phone shut abruptly ending his call.

He felt his shoulders slump and fought against slipping back into a state of shock. He couldn't afford to be wasting valuable time. There was no question in his mind who was responsible for snatching Elizabeth. It was the same person who had been responsible for everything that had been happening. Ric Lansing. With that thought in mind Jason began a search of his own, starting with the Lansing home.

Sonny sat in the rear of the limo fingering the black silk scarf. Again his eyes focused on the blood red initials 'FR'. If he hadn't known that for the past weeks Faith had been under lock and key, Sonny would have easily fallen into the thinking that his little brother had wanted him to. Hell he had been thinking that for months now but the day that Sonny had Faith Roscoe picked up obviously was something that Ric hadn't planned on and inadvertently left him holding the bag for everything.

The long black car rolled to a stop and Sonny waited for his driver to open the rear door. He exited the car stretching after the long ride and stared at the small safe house three hours outside of Port Charles. Stuffing the evidence that finally revealed to Sonny that Jason had been right all along into the pocket of his over coat Sonny nodded to the two men standing sentry at the door before passing over the threshold.

Sonny turned the knob and entered the darkened room where Faith sat tied to straight back wooden chair. He watched for a moment as she squirmed realizing that she was no longer alone. With a controlled jerk Sonny ripped the blindfold from her clear blue eyes. Faith blinked several times attempting to focus but when Sonny let the roller shades shielding the room in darkness fly up flooding the room with the bright light of day the effort was a fruitless one for her.

Sonny stood in the blazing sunlight looking like a dark menacing force but as Faith's bleary eyes finally gave way to sight she realized who was standing before her. Again she squirmed hating to be in such a powerless position.

"Comfortable?" Sonny asked snidely.

"Very funny," Faith retorted desperately trying to remove her hands from the skillfully tied ropes holding her wrists in place. Sonny sat on the edge of the desk watching her and enjoying the discomfort his presence brought out in her. "What?" she finally spat unnerved by his cocky smirk that revealed the deep dimples in his olive skin.

"I think you know what," Sonny said as calm as could be as the gun that he had been carrying in his coat pocket emerged. Faith's blue eyes widened as he laid the heavy piece of metal beside him. The sunlight glinted off its polished surface. "There's a little matter of a fire at one of my warehouses that needs to be discussed."

"And you think it was me?" Faith asked in disbelief. "It you haven't noticed I'm a little tied up at the moment!" Her voice held more vibrato than a woman in her position should have.

"I can see that," Sonny concurred with a laugh. "But what's to say you didn't give the order a while ago? I'm sure ridding the world of Ric's big mean brother would have gained you some brownie points with him."

"What?"

"You heard me. That's just one more thing in the long list of what you've done to get in the good graces of my kid brother. Hell killing me would have been icing on the cake."

"What?" she said again as Faith tried to wrap her mind around what Sonny was talking about. "I didn't start any fire at your warehouse Sonny." Faith remarked as her gaze was drawn now to his hand resting gently on his gun.

"What about Jason's motorcycle? You tampered with that or had one of those bafoons you call guards mess with it. You looking to take out my right hand so you'd have easier access to the real prize? And what about the drive by outside of Harbor view Towers? Are you telling me you weren't responsible for that either?" Sonny's voice grew louder.

"I didn't touch Morgan's precious motorcycle. I told you Sonny I wanted a truce. I stay out of your way and you stay out of mine."

"So what you let Ric do all the dirty work and then you reap all the rewards?" Sonny questioned.

"Ric? What are you talking about Ric?"

"Don't play stupid Faith. It's obvious that you and Ric have been working together for a while now."

"I'm not working with anyone! I haven't done anything!" Faith forced.

"Oh really?"

"Yes, really!" she stressed.

Once more Sonny reached into his pocket. Faith stiffened fearful of what was to come next. She looked on as he pulled a slender piece of black silk from the opening and began waving it in her face. "Look familiar?" he asked.

"Should it?" she said sarcastically not liking playing this game of cat and mouse with him especially when she was the one in the trap. Sonny held the fabric up end to end between both hands revealing the script initials. She swallowed around the apple-sized lump that had come to sit in her throat. There was no doubt in her mind that the scarf was hers yet she wasn't about to admit it. "So what – it's a scarf."

"It's your scarf."

"What – you think I am the only person in Port Charles with the initials FR? Get real Sonny!" Faith huffed. "That isn't mine." Sonny got off of his perch and took two steps towards her burying Faith's nose in the sash. She coughed and sputtered as the residual smell of gasoline hung in the fabric's fibers. "What the hell are you doing?" she gasped when he finally pulled away.

"Giving you a better look at one of the rags that ignited the blaze at the coffee warehouse. One of your," he stressed, "rags."

"I don't know what the hell you are talking about Sonny!"

"Well then maybe it's time I sat talking to your partner in crime. Because apparently he was too stupid to realize his patsy was out of commission."

"What!?"

"When was the last time you talked to Ric, Faith?"

"I haven't," she lied.

"So you weren't living with him? You weren't sleeping with him? You weren't plotting with him on how to bring me down?"

"NO!"

"You're not a very good liar Faith and obviously you aren't too bright either. Ric's been playing you for a fool. He's been using you as his scapegoat the whole time. He's been setting a trail for all of his crimes to lead straight back to you. But then again he's not too smart either since he didn't even realize his alibi had become the guest of the man he was trying to eliminate."

Faith felt her blood boil in her veins as her anger began a slow steady burn. Suddenly she was overcome by a feeling of having done this before. It was just like when Ric plied her with flowery words when giving her the beautiful red glass that she later found out to be Elizabeth Webber's. Everything that Ric Lansing did was tied to his ex-wife. It was always always about Elizabeth and Faith knew this time to be no different – except now Ric was trying to take her out of the equation as well by offering her up on a silver platter to Sonny no less. She wasn't about to let Ric's whacked obsession with Elizabeth tighten the noose around her neck.

"I didn't set that fire or mess with Jason's motorcycle. I'm not the one with the bizarre obsessions." Sonny had to laugh at her last comment. In his opinion she was just as obsessed as Ric was in her own way. "It's Ric. All of it's been him. The bike accident, trashing Elizabeth's studio – everything was him. He wants her for himself and he's going to do anything to have her. He really thought getting rid of Morgan would give him a clear path to her. I tried to get him to see that we were the better pair... ..."

"And when he wouldn't listen that's when you decided to eliminate the competition?"

"What!? NO – NO!"

"Come on Faith you don't think I don't know that it was you who was responsible for that little drive by outside of my building? The one where your guy botched the job and shot my man rather his intended target."

"She wasn't supposed to be hurt," Faith blurted out before her brain could stop her mouth from speaking.

"So then it was your doing?" Sonny questioned even though he already knew the answer. His investigation into the incident was what had prompted him to pick Faith up in the first place.

"Yes – no."

"Which is it Faith?"

The blonde wanna be Mob boss looked away knowing that no matter what she said she had already stated too much. "I didn't want to hurt her. I just wanted to give Ric a message. I wanted him to know that you can't always get what you want."

"Apparently that's not a lesson you know too well yourself," Sonny stated almost cryptic.

Sonny had gathered all of the necessary information. It tore him up now knowing that all of the animosity between himself and Jason had been of his own doing – even Carly could see what he had been so blind to. It angered Sonny that he had let some warped sense of loyalty for family cloud his good sense. A sense that had kept him alive and well in his business for this long. It was time to do what should have been done a long time ago. Sonny's only hope was that his mother would understand his actions.

He turned his back on Faith and headed for the doorway. "Sonny – SONNY!" Faith's frantic voice called to him but he refused to look back. She had served her purpose and he gave a nod to Marco as he passed him. As Sonny climbed into the stretch limo the ringing of gunshots sounded in the distance.

With one swift kick of Jason's heavy motorcycle boot the door to Ric Lansing's home flew open with a resounding thud as it bounced off the pristine plaster walls. Again Jason found himself captured by an eerie sensation of déjà vu having not that long ago done the very same thing in his search for Carly. This time however he knew exactly what he was looking for. Immediately Jason walked to the bookcase that flanked the fireplace pulled over the glass door and pushed the button that he knew would allow the hidden panel to slide away revealing the panic room. He rushed the to room just as the door began to slither into the pocket in the opposing wall but stopped short when he found the room empty. Jason had truly believed that Lansing would have been dumb enough to use the familiar hiding place. "DAMN!!!" he shouted slamming his fist against the concrete block wall.

He had entered with such purpose to now only be struck dumbfounded again. Jason thought it would be truly as simple as walking into the panic room whisking his love away from her capture and coming back to dispose of him later. But that wasn't the case at all. There Jason stood just as he had in the alley behind Kelly's – bewildered and fearing the worst. All the things that Ric had done to Elizabeth in the name of love bombarded Jason. All the times that she had been within a hair of dying because of the madman she was married to paralyzed Jason for the moment fearing what else Ric could have in store for her.

Jason was about to turn an leave the room knowing that he was wasting more valuable time standing there thinking about things he could do nothing to change when his boot further crushed a broken canvas beneath his foot. He looked down and was reminded of the time he had removed a splinter from Elizabeth's finger and then subsquently stretched her remaining canvases. His head was filled with so many snippets of memories like that one. Times when things could have evolved into so much more if they had both just gotten out of their own and let it happen.

He took a closer look and realized that there were many more shredded and broken canvases, Elizabeth's canvases, littering the floor of the panic room not to mention a few of her paintings still hung on the walls. A chill ran down Jason's spine as there he stood in the shrine Ric had built to Elizabeth. A sickening feeling circled in Jason's stomach. He glanced at the paintings and while he wasn't able to see the full effect of the creation – they were still Elizabeth's creations and it angered Jason to no end to know that Ric had destroyed what she had painstakingly gave birth to. If he had had the time he would have collected the ones unharmed that remained hanging but he knew he couldn't. He'd come back for them he thought until the corner of a canvas caught his attention. Jason was drawn to the painting by a force he couldn't explain. He picked up the canvas and immediately knew the painting. It was his painting – 'The Wind'. Jason ran his fingers over the brush strokes and could see every one of them thanks to Elizabeth.

... ... "Elizabeth, I'm sure your painting is great, but you can't go by me."
"Then who should I go by some professor, or somebody? You're the one on the bike with me. You're the one who showed me the rush you get when the wind's in your face and the world is flashing by. Sort of hoped it was here."
"It probably is. It's just that I would be the last one to see it. You know about my accident?"
"Yeah, Emily told me."
"Right well, the person I was before is gone, and so are some of the things he can do."
"But you're fine right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. But it's like seeing two-dimensional things, ok – drawings, maps, paintings. I just don't see what I am supposed to see."
"But you can perform emergency surgery in the parking lot."
"Well, certain things I remember. Like I said, he wanted to be a doctor. But it's just things on paper don't click."
"Even photographs?"
"I'm a little better with those."
"Because they're more like real life."
"That's right."
"So it's as if you can see the primary colors but not the shades in between. Ok, come here. Look. Do you see this big red blur?"
"Yes."
"Okay. You know the neon sign in front of Apple Jacks?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Well, I painted it as a big red streak because I don't know about you but I don't take in the words as we're zooming by.
"Right, just the color."
"Right, red. And you see this big yellow thing?"
"Mm-hmm."
"That's Angelina's house of beauty."
"It's the door."
"Right, the huge yellow door. Okay you see these black loops in the distance? That's the top of the ferris wheel."
"From the corner of VanNess and Jefferson street."
"Yes. Yes, exactly you've got it."
"When you explain it, it sounds right to me. You know, a painting like this of the wind should probably be in a museum."
"No, no, no, no. This painting belongs on the wall of the man who taught me to see the wind in the first place.
"I'd like that. Thank you." ... ...

Jason held the painting against his chest recalling how he had always said it was a present he couldn't take with him but had to come back to. Well he intended for Elizabeth coming back for it too. He shook his head as he looked back over the panic room one last time. Ric was a psycho and the longer Elizabeth was his prisoner the more potential harm to her there was.

Jason stepped off the elevator as he ended his latest phone call to Max. Still now sign of Elizabeth or Ric. It was like they both dropped off the face of the earth and that idea terrified Jason. He had difficulty wrapping his head around feeling so helpless. That was one thing that Jason Morgan wasn't – he wasn't helpless but when it came to Elizabeth Webber and how much he loved and needed her he was just that – helpless.

Jason gave Johnny a nod as he approached the door to Sonny's penthouse. He had had enough game playing with Sonny and was about to let him know that the second that Ric Lansing was found, half brother to Sonny or not, he was a dead man.

"He's not home," Johnny said as though reading Jason's mind.

"Where is he?"

"He went to see Faith."

Jason just shook his head. Sonny was still pursuing the wrong avenues and Jason knew in his heart that the man he once looked up to and thought of as almost father like was lost to him. It was time that Jason do what had to be done whether Sonny approved or not.