Second Chances: Blood Brothers
Jason sped through the streets of Port Charles finally having a clear destination in his sights. Why it had taken Zander of all people to remind him of the boxcar he still hadn't a clue but that really didn't matter anymore. He could feel it. He knew where Elizabeth was. As he felt the hum of the engine beneath him Jason's mind focused on the boxcar and all it represented for not just him but Elizabeth as well. He recalled their conversations about that large metal structure in the middle of nowhere. He remembered how Elizabeth told him how Lucky had lived there and she painted the walls to represent how she saw their lives. His memories of that summer when he and she became friends and so much more filled every inch of him as he kept a steady pace to his target.
As he approached the boxcar, Jason cut the engine to his motorcycle and slowly rolled to a stop at the edge of the woods just before the path that led down to the tracks. He stashed his bike in a thicket. The last thing he needed was to tip Lansing off of his presence. In the distance Jason could see the top of the old rusted boxcar. He made his way toward it choosing to stay in the cover of the brush rather than the open space of the dirt path. He thought about the last time he had been out to this place. There had been snow on the ground – snow tainted with his blood. To this day Jason still had no idea what made him go to the boxcar when he had been shot by Moreno's men. He wasn't sure if it was his dazed and confused state of mind or maybe something more. Perhaps it was fate's way of bringing him and Elizabeth together in such a manner that had lead them to where they were today. Jason didn't know nor did he care at this point. All he needed was to get Elizabeth and to kill Ric.
Killing Ric Lansing would give him more pleasure than Jason ever imagined was possible. Never before had he ever felt the need to remove someone from this earth the way he did Ric. Jason struggled with the inner voices that were warring inside his head. One was that of the cool collected enforcer he was supposed to be and the other was that of the man who loved a woman so desperately he would do anything to save her. As he got closer to the boxcar he could see over the years the fade graffiti had been replaced with new markings mixing the color to the point where none of the images were discernable. Jason moved around the side of the structure careful not to make a sound. It was then that he heard Ric's booming voice ranting and raving yet he couldn't make out the words. He resisted the urge to barge in first thinking that a surprise attack would be his best defense against the wacko Lansing was but it was that thought that also held Jason back. It was obvious that Ric was far from stable and maybe startling him was the quickest way for Elizabeth to end up hurt or worse. So he stood silent rethinking his next move.
Jason pressed his back against the outside walls of the boxcar as he slid his body around to the front. He could see the heavy door was partially open. He could hear his erratic heart beat resounding in his ears. Jason felt the hairs on his arms stand on end as if he was standing in the cold rather then the warm sunshine. Again he wrestled with how to handle this all. Normally there was no thought process for Jason. He had a job to do and he did it without question but adding Elizabeth's life to the mix again caused his mind to spin out of control. He took a deep breath and focused his attention to the inside of the boxcar. The sun overhead made it hard to see what was going on inside but when he shaded his clear blue eyes the sight of Elizabeth crouched in the corner came into view. Finally Jason was able to breathe again. There she was unharmed except for the trauma that Ric put her through by kidnapping her. In some odd way though Jason thought this time it had to be a little easier for her. Yes there was the fear of what Ric would or wouldn't do to her but he had brought her to a place that at one time she had felt safe and loved. Jason only hoped that that had eased her anxieties even just a little.
Elizabeth pushed back away from Ric as far as the walls that met in the corner would allow. She saw the fire in his eyes as she stared down the barrel of his pistol and contemplated if he would really shoot her. She looked around the wooden floor in search of something – anything she could have used as a weapon against him. She wasn't about to go down without a fight. As her eyes probed her surroundings it was then that she saw him – Jason. There he was standing outside the boxcar. She blinked her eyes several times half expecting him to be nothing more than a mirage and be gone again the next time she looked. But he wasn't. He was still standing there. Her heart quickened realizing that soon this nightmare would be over. Jason was there and he would save her like he had so many times in the past. The only difference this time was that what had happened to her hadn't been Jason's fault or in any way tied to his business with Sonny. This was all about what she had done by letting Ric Lansing into her life.
Ric suddenly stopped rambling when he again took notice of Elizabeth's intent stare. The anger that welled in him was palpable and he turned quickly and his black eyes met the cold hard stare of Jason Morgan's icy ones. It was at that precise moment that Jason took notice of the gun that hung loosely in Ric's hand. Without giving Ric time to react Jason leapt into the boxcar and tackled him to the ground. Liz's frantic cries and pleadings fill the stale air of the boxcar as the two men struggled on the ground before her. She watched Jason get in several good punches that left Ric reeling yet didn't stop him from fighting until suddenly the sound of gunfire reverberated off the tin walls – then there was an eerie silence.
Elizabeth's eyes widened at the sight to the blood that poured from Jason's arm and pooled around him. Her mouth suddenly went dry and she was unable to speak. There she stood mesmerized while Jason lay in almost the exact same spot he had years before. The logical part of her brain knew that Jason is going into shock. She could see the beads of sweat already forming on his forehead and how sallow his complexion had become. It was obvious to her that Jason was desperately trying to stay focused but he was losing that battle quickly. "Jason!" she cried as he stumbled again and fell hard against the clapboard floor.
Without a single thought to her own safety or the gun that Ric still had trained on Sonny's enforcer, Elizabeth rushed past him in an attempt to get to Jason. "Oh no you don't!" Ric sneered grabbing Elizabeth firmly by the waist as she struggled against his grasp. He took pleasure in the anguish cries he heard escaping her lips as he forced her to watch the crimson circle of blood puddle around her lover. Ric chuckled to himself enjoying the show laid out before him. The invincible Jason struck down for his love of a woman. Watching him lay there virtually bleeding to death a person would wonder how he had gotten the reputation for being unstoppable.
"Jason!" she shouted again hoping that her voice would pull him back from the edge. "Jason, open your eyes! Look at me!" she commanded just as he had done for her the time that Zander shot her in the arm but by the looks of the blood flowing profusely from Jason's arm – this wasn't merely a flush wound as hers had been. "Jason you have to stay awake. Concentrate on the sound of my voice." Again she wiggled trying desperately to get to where Jason lay.
"Give it up he can't even hear you!" Ric laughed yet there wasn't a trace of humor to the sound. Actually the laughter had an eerie ring to it almost sardonic. All he had ever wanted was for her to fight as hard for him as she was for Jason. Even now when he was basically dying before them he still had Elizabeth's heart and that killed Ric.
"You're a monster!" Elizabeth turned and spit in Ric's face. "If you think that this will make me love you it won't!" she screamed having lost all sense of reason. "I hate you Ric. I hate everything about you!"
Those words stung him and for a moment he almost loosened his hold on her but again his rage took hold and he whipped her around to face him. He dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her arms. She winced under the pressure but wasn't about to let him see that. All of the sudden Ric was seeing images of Jason and Elizabeth having sex on the tiny couch in her studio. His brain was bombarded by those vivid images. They physically controlled him to the point of madness. "I love you," he stated as if those words held any meaning for them now.
Elizabeth was repulsed by the very thought of that. "You don't even know what love is Ric!"
"But he does?" He pointed to where Jason lay on the floor.
"Yes," Elizabeth hiccuped trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall onto her cheeks. She was losing him. She could feel it. With a sudden burst of new found strength fueled by desperation and fear she gave Ric a swift kick and while he was trying to recover she dove at Jason's lifeless body. "Jason – Jason," she cried as his blood soaked her clothes. "I love you. Please don't leave me." He moaned softly at the sound of her voice. "That's it stay with me. Come on baby stay with me."
"You ungrateful bitch!" Ric wailed as he ripped her from Jason's side. "I love you. I give you everything and this is how you treat me. Like I am some piece of garbage you can discard when you see fit. And for what the likes of him?" Ric sounded revolted by the very thought of that. "I don't think so!"
Abruptly Ric pulled her into a hard kiss his mouth angrily devouring hers as he ripped at the thin layer of clothes that covered her body. Immediately Elizabeth was thrown back to a time when she was sixteen and another man thought that she was his for the taking. All of her survival instincts kicked in and she started thrashing wildly looking for any means of escape. Her refusal to cooperate angered and frustrated Ric all the more. His rage getting the better of him Ric punched her square in the jaw. "If you can give it up for that brain damaged animal you can surely do it for the man that loves you!" Ric's voice boomed before his mouth captured hers hard again. He forced his tongue deep into her throat almost gagging her.
Ric pushed her to the ground positioning his body on top of hers. "Don't do this! Please don't do this!" she begged having lost the fight she once had. The idea of being raped again had her retreating to another place and time. When all Ric did was laugh at her request she began screaming like a wild animal caught in a trap.
Sonny weaved his way through the tree limbs until he came upon the path that lead to the boxcar. He too hadn't thought about this place in years and wondered how on earth Ric had even found it. He would certainly be shocked to find out his hiding place wasn't so well hidden. It was then that he heard the shrill cries and screams in the distance. Those sounds quickened his pace and until he was only feet away did he realize that they were cries from Elizabeth Webber. At that revelation Sonny went on a full tilt run until he was standing before the open door of the boxcar. The sight before him momentarily held him captive. There was Elizabeth half naked and pinned under Ric's body. The anger that Sonny felt at that sight consumed him as he jumped into the metal structure startling his half brother just in time for his goal to go unachieved. "RIC!!!" Sonny's enraged voice bounced off the walls.
The soft moan from the corner where Jason was readily caught Ric's attention. His gaze toggled between Jason and Sonny then back to Elizabeth. He felt like a rat in a trap but that didn't stop him. He turned the gun he was holding on Jason as he heard Elizabeth gasp below him. "Well it looks like you have arrived just in time brother – just in time for you both to watch while I kill your loyal soldier," he pointed to Sonny. "and your lover!" He turned to Elizabeth now.
Elizabeth's eyes followed the line of Ric's gun. The barrel was centered directly at Jason's heart and she knew it. She had just one chance to stop him and she had to take it. With all the force her tiny frame could muster she knocked Ric off balance sending the gun he was holding skating across the uneven floor. Ric scrambled to regain his weapon – the thing he considered his edge in all of this but just as his fingers grazed the cold metal he felt the bullet pierce his chest before he ever heard the sound of the shot. There standing over him gun drawn was his brother, Adella's other son. The man he expected to never act against him because of his love for the mother they shared had shot him point blank. The last thing Ric saw before he closed his eyes for the final time was Sonny's blank stare.
Jason forced his eyes open yet that only brought him blurred vision with no real sense of what or who was around him. The searing pain in his arm throbbed and he tried to clear the fog that enclosed his weary brain. He tried to make his body move but it was unwilling to comply with his orders. He could hear Elizabeth crying – screaming but nothing he did enabled him to get up and help her. He groaned again finally demanding his bleary eyes to focus. They agreed just enough for him to make out the image of Sonny standing in the boxcar shooting Ric. Jason wasn't sure if it was reality or just some fantasy he had been wishing on so long to happen but he averted his gaze to Ric's crumpled body lying on the floor. It certainly appeared to even Jason's hazy brain that Sonny had finally done what Jason had wanted him to do from the very start – he had killed his brother, killed Ric Lansing.
Sonny whipped out his cell phone as Elizabeth scrambled passed Ric's body in an effort to get to Jason. She heard Sonny's voice as he called for an ambulance yet all she could focus on was Jason. Now that she was so close to him she could see the massive blood loss he had suffered. She rested her fingers on his neck. He barely had a detectable pulse. Slowly she began to weep. "Don't leave me Jason. You can't leave me," she sobbed. She felt something around her shoulders and realized that Sonny had placed his suit jacket around her half-naked frame. "I love you Jason. I'm not letting you go that easily. Please don't leave me."
Sonny stood wondering if Jason could hear Elizabeth's voice. If her soft pleadings would bring him back from the brink the way that Carly's always seemed to do for him. "Elizabeth." Jason's raspy voice was the answer to that question. "I love you," he whispered before slipping unconscious again.
Elizabeth lifted her head and her tear filled eyes met Sonny's. The unspoken question hung between them both. Would Jason make it this time or had Ric been successful in killing his adversary after all?
A week later......
Elizabeth draped her arm around Jason's waist as they exited the elevator on the penthouse floor of Harbor View Towers. "I'm not an invalid you know," he laughed even though he enjoyed every minute of her closeness.
Elizabeth hadn't left his side the entire time he had been in the hospital. It had turned out that the bullet Ric fired had pierced a major artery in his arm. They had almost lost him twice on the operating table. As soon as Elizabeth was told by Monica and Alan that he would make a full recovery but would be weak from the substantial blood loss she had been relieved but made it her personal mission to see that he regained his strength.
"I know," she smiled. "Would you like me to move?" she asked slipping her arm from its resting-place.
"No!" he laughed again as he moved it back to where it had been. "I just don't need to be babied. Monica said I am fine. No lasting effects just need to get my strength back in this arm." Jason looked at the jagged scar that sliced through his bicep.
Max gave Jason a nod to show that all was ready for their arrival as Elizabeth slipped the key in the lock. "You go rest on the sofa and I'll see if I can find something in the frig to make us to eat," She said absently laying the keys on Jason's desk. "Are you okay?" she queried him when he remained standing in the doorway with Max at his back. "Jason?" she questioned again concern creeping into her voice. "I told Monica it was too soon to release you. Does something hurt? Do you feel faint again?" she asked recalling how Jason thought a day after surgery he would try to walk the halls of General Hospital and nearly collapsed just getting out of the bed.
Jason laughed softly at the mother hen she had become since his accident. It was reminiscent of those early days in her studio when she helped him recover from another gunshot wound. "What?" Elizabeth stared at him quizzically unable to gauge what he was thinking. "What?" she said again with a more anxious tone.
Without a word Jason turned her around so that she was facing the fireplace that stood across from them. It was then she saw it. He felt her suck in a deep breath, as her eyes were fixated on the mantel. "How – where did you find that?"
"It's not important," he answered.
Elizabeth moved forward and reached for her, no their, painting of 'The Wind' that rested on the thick wooden ledge. Her fingers traced the vivid colors and she was consumed by the emotions that had caused her to paint it in the first place. She smiled as she felt his arms come to encircle her waist. "Do you remember when I first showed you this?" she asked looking up at him.
"Yes and I remember how disappointed you were with my initial response."
"I was wasn't I?"
"Oh yeah! But then you explained it to me and I got it – every detail. As you described it the images came to life." Jason grinned thinking about that day on the docks all over again. "You gave it to me that day and ... ..."
"And you gave it back to me," she interrupted him.
"I explained that. It was kind of a tough thing to carry on the back of my bike," he laughed. "I told you it was a gift I had to come back for."
"Uh-huh." Elizabeth returned the painting to the mantle as a chill ran down her spine looking at it again.
"Do you like it there or do you want it hung somewhere else?" he asked.
"There's fine." She admired her work thinking that that was the one painting she had ever truly felt had been any good.
"I have something else for you." At those words Max came forward and handed her an envelope then quietly slipped back out the door.
"What's this?" Elizabeth eyed the wrapper curiously.
"Open it," Jason urged.
"Okay." She slipped her fingers under the flap and easily pulled out a sleeve with the local airline's insignia on it. Again her eyes searched his for some clue what this was all about.
"Go on read them," he continued.
Elizabeth did as instructed and opened up the packet to reveal two open ended plane tickets to Italy. She gasped reading the destination over again. "Italy? We are going to Italy?"
"Yes." He felt a wide smile that matched the one Elizabeth was now wearing creep across his face. "Do you like that idea?"
"I love that idea!" she squealed throwing her arms around his neck.
"I wanted to be the first person you saw the lights over Italy with," he said again remembering when he had returned to Port Charles that first time and her asking him if he had gone to Italy and how much she wanted to see the lights there.
"What about Sonny?" Elizabeth questioned cautiously. During his week in the hospital Sonny and Carly had been to see Jason several times but something told her that very little had been resolved between the two men.
"What about him?" Jason returned curtly.
"Won't he need you?" She had grown so accustomed to Sonny being a part of their existence she wasn't sure how to react.
"I need a break."
Elizabeth reached for his hands and tugged at them gently. The events leading up to Ric's ultimate demise had worn Jason out considerably. His continual battles with Sonny and Sonny's unyielding behavior towards Jason had taken their toll on what once was a solid friendship "Yes you do," she agreed with him. "I would love to go to Italy with you Jason."
"Then go pack. If you look closely we leave tonight," he smiled broadly as her eyes went to the departure date.
"How did you know you'd be out of the hospital?"
"Alan's the chief of staff don't you think I have a little pull?" he laughed.
"Are you sure you are up for the trip?" Elizabeth ran her hand across his cheek trying not to think how close she came to losing him.
"Stop worrying. Monica and Alan told me I needed to get my strength back. I can't think of a better way to do that than being with you in Italy. Just grab a few things we can get the rest of what we need when we get there."
Once more Elizabeth squealed as she started for the stairs but stopped and ran back to where Jason stood. "I love you Jason Morgan!" she whispered as she kissed him softly on the lips.
"And I love you Elizabeth Webber. Now go before we miss our plane."
He watched her disappear up the stairs and let out a happy sigh. She may not have left Port Charles with him all those years ago when he had asked her and maybe that's the way it was supposed to be but all Jason knew now was that this time around he was never going to let her go.