Til Death Do Us Part

Lost in Darkness

Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything. {stands on bridge} I have nothing! There is nothing to live fo—oh look a butterfly!

A/N: Again, sorry for the delay {kisses the feet of readers and begs for forgiveness} The story should become more interesting after this chapter, so bare with me. And please please PLEASE review! Hugs and stuff!

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Almost automatically, Jason whipped his cell phone from its home in his jacket, answering the ringing with an emotionless "Morgan."

"Jason, it's Zander." Oh, wonderful. The self-destructive bastard that had once held the title of his brother-in-law wanted to talk to him. No doubt to deliver some ill-fated ultimatum Faith had devised to gain Sonny's territory. He really couldn't deal with him right now.

"Listen, Zander, I really don't have the time for you or Faith or anything else you have to say. You can tell Faith that Sonny is not interested in—"

"Jason, this is not about Faith!" Zander shouted, interrupting perhaps the longest string of sentences he had ever heard Jason utter. "This is about Courtney."

Instantly, Jason froze; his feet stopped their tread towards his car mid-step, and his lungs ceased their quest for air. A thousand thoughts raced through his mind, a thousand gruesome situations leading to Zander's call unfolding before his eyes. When his lungs finally escaped their paralysis, Jason had to fight to keep voice from quivering as he questioned Zander. "Wh-what happened to my wife?"

The words rolled off his tongue, leaving him to digest their bitter irony. Courtney wasn't his wife anymore. By now she had signed the divorce papers. But if something had happened to her, none of that mattered.

Zander did not fail to miss the pain in Jason's voice. It amazed him how deeply Jason, "the Enforcer", the cold-hearted and emotionless killer, loved the woman lying unconscious in the back seat of his car. No matter how much he disliked Jason, Zander couldn't help but regret what he was about to say. "I don't know. She passed out on the docks about ten minutes ago, and she hasn't woken up. I'm taking her to GH. Meet us there."

Zander's words had barely left his mouth before the man on the other end of the phone was on his bike, speeding away.

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Darkness. Everywhere, there was darkness. The cruel ebony prison encased her from all angles, suffocating her slowly. She tried to move, to fight her way out of this jail, but found she was unable to do so. It was as if she had no body at all. Thoroughly terrified, she attempted to scream, but no sound came from her mouth. She could not tell if her eyes were open or closed; nor did she know if she was standing up or lying down. She could not even be sure if she was breathing...

'Is this death?' she though, not so much out of fear than out of morbid curiosity. 'Am I dead? Is this all there is for me?'

Where was heaven? She was a good person, wasn't she? For God's sake, she had given up everything she loved to maintain her damned moral standards! No, there had to be some mistake. She shouldn't be here, in the empty, cold darkness. She should be with God, with the angels, with him...there could be no heaven without him.

This couldn't be death. She couldn't be dead. Perhaps she was somewhere in-between live and death, where only the petrifying darkness existed. Only darkness.

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Practically skipping, Emily Quartermaine made her way through the busy hospital floor. Try as she might, she couldn't stop a borderline insane smile from giving away her pure bliss; her test results were in, and she was still in remission. 'This must be what it feels like to be on top of the world,' she thought as she approached the receptionist's desk, preparing to schedule another bi-monthly appointment. However, a distraught man in the waiting area caught her attention.

'Zander?' she wondered to herself. 'What's he doing here? Oh, God, what if he's been hurt working for Faith?!' Forgetting the feud currently waging between the two of them, Emily hurried over to Zander's side.

"Zander!" she called anxiously, making no attempt to hide her concern.

Zander instantly removed his head from his hands. "Emily?" he said, disbelievingly. What was she doing here? And why was she talking to him, after the way he'd been treating her? Suddenly, a horrifying thought crossed his mind.

"Are you okay?" he asked, springing from his seat. "The cancer's not back, is it? Is that why you're here?"

"No! I'm fine. In fact, I just got test results back saying I'm in perfect health."

Zander let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "That's good," he said, falling back into his seat. "That's really good."

"Yeah. But, um, why are you here? You're not hurt, are you? Did Faith do something to you or..."

Zander silenced her with a shake of his head. "No. This has nothing to do with that bitch." He paused, looking up into Emily's eyes. "I quit."

Emily didn't know if it was possible, but she felt better that she had five minutes earlier. "Oh, Zander, that's great! I was so worried about you!" she said enthusiastically and she bent down and gave him a quick hug. She pulled away, leaving her hand resting on Zander's leg as she took a seat beside him.

"You were?" he questioned, briefly forgetting about the awful events of the night. He hadn't thought she'd cared about him anymore.

"Well, yeah, of course," she stated tentatively, as if her words were forbidden. "Zander, just because we aren't together anymore doesn't mean I stopped caring about you. You were my first love, and that doesn't change."

A familiar feeling of bitterness began to resurface within Zander. "But not your true love, right? You have your prince for that." He shifted his leg, causing Emily to remove her hand, an act he immediately regretted; it had felt so right touching her, as if they were two puzzle pieces that fit together.

Emily said nothing. They had been doing so good! She thought they might actually be able to have a conversation without hostility. Sighing, she stood from her chair, about to leave when she remembered why she had approached him in the first place "You never mentioned why you were here."

Something shifted inside Zander; Emily could see it. His animosity towards her and Nikolas faded away, his features instead consumed by fear and haunting memories. As his eyes met hers for the second time that night, a familiar feeling of dread settled in the pit of her stomach.

"It's Courtney. Something's very wrong with her, and I don't know what."

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Frantically, Jason ran down the halls of the hospital, nearly knocking several people down and causing a nurse to drop a pile of files. He didn't have the time to care. It had been nearly two hours since Zander had called him. Though he had exceeded the speed limit constantly on his way, he had been too far away to get there any sooner. He had no knowledge of Courtney's condition. For all he knew she could be...

'Don't think like that,' he told himself furiously. 'It won't do any good.'

Suddenly, he spotted the one person who could give him answers.
"Zander!" he called, rather breathless from running, as he approached the man and his sister. "Where is she? What happened?"

Zander stood to face Jason, while Emily also rose and took his hand; she wanted to offer whatever support she could.

"We were on the docks," Zander began. Jason noticed that he refused to make eye contact with him. "I heard someone behind my and I saw her collapse. She was still conscience when I got to her, but only for a few seconds. She-uh, she..." Zander couldn't bring himself to continue.

Jason stared at him, his patience running thin. "She what?" he finally snapped, unable to wait for the news any longer, no matter how bad it was.

"She though I was you," Zander blurted, faster than he had meant to. He just wanted to get this over with.

Wordlessly, Jason flopped heavily into a chair, putting his head in his hand. Courtney thought Zander was him. She had needed him, desperately, and he hadn't been there. Images of his wife shivering on the cold ground, calling out his name and getting no response, tortured Jason.

"Where is she now?" he asked a few moments later, still not removing his head from his hands.

"I'm not sure. A few hours ago Tony Jones said he wanted to run some tests, but I haven't heard anything since."

"I just got a hold of mom a few minutes before you got here," Emily said, speaking at last in a desperate attempt to make the situation better. "It's her day off, but she's on her way over now to see if she can help."

Jason nodded subconsciously, absorbing all the information. For a while the three sat in an uncomfortable silence, none knowing what to say or what else to do. Every so often Zander fidgeted in his chair, not quite sure whether he should be there, all the while knowing that he could not make himself leave. Emily bit her once perfectly manicured nails, an old habit that refused to die. And Jason simply sat and looked at the opposite wall, his stare so hard and cold that one who didn't know him would think he had no emotion at all.

Lucky for the three, Monica soon entered the waiting room; already in uniform and showing no indication that she had been woken from a much- needed nap to come. Instantly Emily, Zander, and Jason jumped to their feet, all speaking at the same time.

"Mom, did you get any news?"

"Have you seen Dr. Jones yet?"

"Where's Courtney?"

"Everyone calm down!" said Monica, trying to keep the situation from escalading. "No, I don't have any news on Courtney's condition, no; I haven't spoken to Dr. Jones, and Courtney's in room 620. It's the second door on the ri—"She stopped mid-word, as Jason was already running towards his wife's room.

Slowly, he opened the door of room 620 and peered inside. There was Courtney, still unconscious. Her blonde hair spread itself wildly against her pillow, a few rogue strands falling into her face. Her skin, usually pink and as full of life as she, was now almost as pale as the pillowcase on which she rested. God, she looked so helpless, so fragile lying on the bed with hulking monitors beeping around her. Tentatively, as if his touch would cause her to shatter, Jason took her hand in his. Suddenly feeling cool metal against his skin, he looked down and was amazed by what he saw; his wife was wearing his wedding ring.

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Still darkness. There was nothing around her, nothing she could feel. In this limbo she had no sense of time; she did not know if she had been here for minutes, days, or years. Long ago (or so it seemed), she had given up trying to find a way out, trying to determine if she was alive. Breathing was no longer a concern. Life was no longer a concern. The numbness continued to spread through her, taking over her mind. Soon there would be nothing left of her; she would be nothing more than a memory. And there was nothing she could do but wait.

Suddenly, a flicker of warmth spread through her. From some source she could not locate, energy flowed through her veins, waking her from her slumber. Slowly, she could feel her body again, and found where the spring of warmth originated; her hand. Her eyelids struggled against her mind, still frozen in darkness, to open to the world. 'No,' she thought desperately. 'I don't want to go back. There's nothing there for me. There's no one there. Please no...' But her body, so weary of its none-use, refused to listen. Slowly, her eyes opened, allowing the bright lights of a hospital room to assault her senses.

"Courtney!" someone next to her said urgently. She knew that voice...but it couldn't be him.

"Jason?" Courtney questioned weakly, her voice barely a whisper. Immediately, her husband moved into her view and began unconsciously stroking her pale cheek. "Wh-what happened to me? Why am I here?"

"You collapsed on the docks. Zander took you to the hospital and called me. Tony did some tests, but we haven't gotten the results yet. I think Monica's trying to find out for us."

Right on cue, Monica walked into the room, a packet of test results in her hand. A few minutes prior she had gotten them from Tony, and then begged to be the one to tell the couple the news. They should hear it from her.

"We, we just got the results of your tests, Courtney." God, how was she going to do this?

Jason knew that look. It was the same one Monica had given Emily so many times when the cancer had nearly killed her. It was the look she had given him when he had woken up from his accident. And now, with the tests results in her hand, she gave it to them.

"Monica," Jason prompted, trying to keep the fear from his voice. "What do they say?"

With a long sigh, Monica spoke the words Jason feared. "Courtney, I'm afraid you have a brain tumor."