The sound of her voice screaming Emily's name resonated in Elizabeth's ears. She watched as the car kept its steady pace as it headed straight for the sea of bright red taillights in front of them. "EMILY!!" Elizabeth yelled once more.

Emily Morgan finally ceased with her ramblings long enough to have her attention drawn back to the stopped traffic ahead of her. "OH MY GOD!!" she screamed with her own frightened voice as she slammed her foot against the brake pedal. Nothing. She tried to keep her cool as she pumped the pedal again. Still nothing. She swallowed hard around the lump in her throat and began to panic.

"EMILY, STOP THE DAMN CAR!!" Elizabeth ordered.

"I'm trying ... ... I'm trying," Emily was nearly in tears now.

"Well try harder!" Elizabeth felt helpless as she sat watching and waiting for Emily's Volvo to slam into the cars filling the city street. The scene in front of her looked more like a parking lot, not a thoroughfare through downtown Chicago.

Again Emily stepped hard on the brake. The effort did not produce anymore results than it had the first dozen times. The pedal was soft under her foot. The car continued on its path as though it was on autopilot. Suddenly an idea struck Emily. It was something that her father had taught her about what to do when the roads were snow and ice covered. She downshifted the car into the lowest gear possible. Both she and Elizabeth felt the pull of the transmission as it slowed the car's pace just a bit.

"WHAT THW HELL ARE YOU DOING?!?!?" Elizabeth bellowed.

"Trying to get the car under control," Emily stated. She was suddenly very calm.

For all of Emily's efforts the car was still headed straight for the traffic that was bottlenecked on the street. Emily searched her surroundings in hopes that she could find a place to bring her car to a halt where it would cause the least damage to it, herself, and Elizabeth. Just as they were nearing the congested traffic, Emily swerved and hit a fire hydrant head on.

Jason sat in his office at Morgan Enterprises scanning the files before him but not really seeing them at all. He had paced around the house for hours waiting for Emily to return from her meeting with Elizabeth. When his father and mother had come home from their visit with AJ and Courtney, he had slipped out the back entrance of the house unnoticed.

In the stillness of his office he couldn't get his mind off of the fact that Emily said that Elizabeth seemed distracted to her, nor could he stop worrying about her being all alone in the Malucci mansion. That thought ate away at him. Jason didn't care how much Elizabeth professed that she could handle Anthony – he knew better. He knew that the only way to handle Anthony was to neutralize him, something that Jason had been silently working on no matter what his father's wishes were. Anthony may have thought he was the only one with a winning hand in this high stakes poker game, but Jason had a few tricks of his own up his sleeve yet.

The shrill ringing of his cell phone drew Jason's eyes to the device that sat in his open briefcase on the corner of his desk. "Morgan," he said into the mouthpiece.

"Boss... ..." Johnny's strained voice made its way through the air waves.

"Johnny?" Jason questioned. The background noise made it difficult for him to hear who was talking to him.

"Yeah boss, it's me."

"Where the hell are you? What's going on? I can barely hear you. Are those sirens in the background?" Jason panicked as the unmistakable sound of the wailing of an ambulance siren in the distance readily caught his attention. Johnny hesitated for a moment not knowing what to say or even how to tell Jason what he had just been witness to. "Johnny???"

"I'm here."

"What the hell's going on?"

"Jason," he paused.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?!" Jason's tone had a bite to it as he tried to cover the fear that was consuming him. The sirens that had previously sounds so distant now blared as if they were directly on top of Johnny.

"There's been an accident... ..."

"OH MY GOD ELIZBETH!!!" Jason felt his mouth go dry.

"And your... ..."

"What hospital?" Jason interrupted him.

"Chicago Memorial, I guess," Johnny answered.

"Don't leave her sight! Do you understand me?!?" Jason ran out the door before he had even heard Johnny's response.

Reggie knew the ambulance bay of Chicago Memorial Hospital was the last place he should be at the moment but a force beyond his control propelled him forward to exactly that spot. He needed to know how seriously Emily Morgan had been injured. Reggie had actually thought about ditching Anthony's idea of tampering with the brakes on the Volvo but his fear of Anthony's wrath had pushed him forward. With each act against the Morgan family his boss orchestrated, Reggie became more and more leery of Anthony's sanity. Anthony was playing well beyond the scope of reason. Reggie was fairly certain that in Anthony's twisted sadistic mind that he was expendable as well. The fear of that expandability and the torture he had seen Anthony exact on others before kept Reggie marching to the tune that Anthony had composed.

Reggie ducked behind a concrete pillar as the next ambulance rolled into the bay. He held his breath as the doors swung open and two uniformed EMTs jumped out. Suddenly a gleeful smile filled Reggie's face. The sight of Emily Morgan exiting the back of the ambulance of her own volition sent a wave of relief crashing over him. He noticed her arm was in some sort of splint but all in all she appeared unharmed. As quickly as that joyous smiled appeared on Reggie's face that was how fast it faded. What he saw next was something he never expected to see and it certainly wasn't part of Anthony's plan. Reggie's eyes were fixated on the stretcher that was being pulled from the back of the ambulance. There was Elizabeth Malucci, Anthony's wife, lying unconscious.

Jason weaved his Porsche through the heavy evening traffic. His mind was flooded by the background noise of his conversation with Johnny. The shrill sound of the ambulance siren still pierced Jason's ears as a cold shiver passed through his body. The mere thought that something had happened to Elizabeth had him breaking out into a cold sweat. It was like his worst nightmare had finally come true. Jason gripped the steering wheel hard enough for his knuckles to turn white under the pressure as images of Anthony and the horrors Jason wanted to inflict on him danced before his eyes.

"Can I help you?" a young woman in surgical scrubs asked as Jason tore around the emergency department.

"I need to find a ... ..." Jason hesitated unsure of what he was supposed to call Elizabeth. He had to keep his haphazard thoughts under control. There wasn't any room in this situation to make matter worse.

"You need to find who?" the woman questioned.

"A friend of mine was in an accident. I think that she was brought to this ER."

"What's her name?"

"Elizabeth, Elizabeth Malucci," Jason held his breath half expecting the walls to crumble around him at the sound of her name.

"Well, if you check with the admitting desk, I am sure that someone will be able to assist you."

"Thank you," Jason said as he began to make his way to the desk the woman had mentioned, but then thought better of the idea. He knew he couldn't afford to draw more attention to himself. His inner struggle began all over again. Head and heart were engaging in their war games once more, with each one expecting full recognition of its point of view. Jason shook his head to momentarily put a stop to the voices locked in combat. No matter what side of this ongoing battle won, right now all Jason was able to focus on was finding Elizabeth. He began his pursuit of her by pacing the corridors of the ER in the hope that she would magically appear unharmed.

Elizabeth could hear the commotion taking place around her. All the voices and noises were disjointed at best. The only thing that stood out was the glaring white light high above her and the constant throbbing in her head.

"Miss, miss can you hear me?" A soft voice prodded her to open her eyes.

"Um," she groaned in return.

"Doctor," the voice grew louder in Elizabeth's ears, "she's semi-conscious."

"Mrs. Malucci, can you open your eyes? Can you hear me?" The doctor came closer as he began assessing her vitals.

"My head," Elizabeth answered weakly as she brought her hand to her forehead.

"Easy, we need you to just lie back," the man ordered when she attempted to bring her body to a sitting position.

"What happened?" she questioned.

"You were in a car accident."

Those words brought the memory of Emily's car plowing into a fire hydrant flooding back to her. "Emily? How's Emily?" Elizabeth asked frantically.

"Your friend is fine. She has a sprained wrist."

Elizabeth let out a sigh of relief. "Can I see her, please?" Again Elizabeth tried to sit up.

"As soon as I have assessed your injuries. You have a sizable bump on your head. I would like to have a CT scan performed just to rule out any serious head trauma. Would you like one of the nurses to call your husband?"

"Elizabeth!!" Jason's urgent voice filled the cubicle.

"Jason," Elizabeth's face lit up at the sight of Jason standing in the doorway.

"Apparently that call won't be necessary," the doctor said as he watched the man he assumed to be Elizabeth's husband come forward and embrace her tightly. "I need to schedule the CT scan... ..."

"CT SCAN?!?!" Jason's voice shot up an octave.

"It's only a precaution. I just would like to rule out any complications. I am sure the only thing we will find out is that your wife has a pretty nasty concussion. Relax," the doctor smiled, "I will leave you two alone for a few minutes."

Jason buried his face in Elizabeth's thick chestnut locks. The relief he felt at finding her basically unharmed brought forth a flash flood of pent up tears. Elizabeth reveled in his tight embrace. "I can't believe you are here," she cried as her own tears threatened to choke her.

"Where else would I be?" Jason pulled back and smiled at her, momentarily letting his heart rule his head.

"But... ...with Anth....."

"Shhh," Jason easily brought his lips to hers as a way to silence the word he knew she was about to say. Right now he didn't want to, nor could he, focus on Anthony. Jason knew that Anthony Malucci would have to be dealt with, but right now he wasn't about to let anything come between him and Elizabeth. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine now," Elizabeth pulled his body closer to hers never intending on letting him go.

"No seriously, you look like you are in pain." Jason's eyes filled with worry.

"My head is killing me, but really I think I'm okay." She gently squeezed his hand as reassurance.

"Come on lie back then," Jason urged. "The doctor said you need to rest."

"I'm afraid if I close my eyes... ... when I open them you will be gone," she stammered.

Jason looked away as he thought back to the numerous occasions he had done that very thing to her. He then focused on her beautiful face thankful that Anthony's attempt to harm her hadn't been successful. Secure in her safety, Jason was not thrown back into his ever-present struggle on what to do next. He couldn't leave Elizabeth to fend for herself again. It was obvious that his having her tailed had done little to stop Anthony and his own guilt for the horrors his family had already suffered at Anthony's hand gnawed away at Jason too.

"You shouldn't be worrying about anything right now except resting," Jason laid his hand on her arm in a small attempt to reassure her of his presence.

"Jason?" Elizabeth sounded like a timid child as her large sapphire eyes looked up at him.

"Yes?"

"I love you," she said effortlessly. Jason's arrival illustrated to her that he was returning to her life. That thought made it so simple to let her emotions for him spill forth. Jason yearned to be able to utter those three tiny words back to her. His heart was bursting with them. "Jason??" Elizabeth's voice urged him to return her affections.

"You just rest now." He avoided her statement. He pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat beside her. His love for Elizabeth and his loyalty to his family clashed inside of him.

"Jason!?" He heard the annoyance he knew so well creep into her voice.

"Yes?"

"Please, please don't pull away from me again. I know you love me. You can't deny your feelings. Besides, they are written all over your face. I love you, Jason!" Elizabeth pushed her body closer to his.

"Elizabeth, please sit back!"

"Not until you tell me why you are here! If you no longer have feelings for me, why would you have come bursting into the room? TELL ME, WHAT WAS THAT ALL ABOUT IF IT WASN'T ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS FOR ME!!!" Elizabeth's voice boomed, as she finally was able to raise her body to a full sitting position. "How did you even know about the accident anyway?" she questioned.

"I have my ways." Jason tried to sound detached.

"What? You are having me followed too??" Elizabeth gasped as she reached for the bed rail to steady herself.

"ELIZABETH!?!?" Jason shouted as he watched her sway before his eyes. "Please, would you just relax? You need to save your strength," he stated as he assisted her in laying back.

Desperate, Elizabeth held tightly to Jason's jacket unable to hold back the torrents of tears escaping her eyes. "Jason," she sobbed. He remaining words were lost in her cries. Instinctively Jason's arms enveloped her. The sound of her cries was more than he could bear. Emotions that carried the force of a tidal wave crashed against his resolve. The idea that he could have very well lost her forced him to take leave of every one of his logical, reasonable senses.

"I do love you, Elizabeth," Jason whispered softly into her ears as he cradled her. The war of wills had finally ended. His heart was the victor.

Elizabeth pulled back to meet his eyes. "Say it again," she urged.

"I love you," he smiled softly as he complied with her request.

"I'm glad you are here." Elizabeth nestled her head against Jason's chest.

"There's no place I would rather be." He had lost all pretenses now. The admission of his love for her had changed everything all over again. "Would you please rest now?" Jason half laughed as he thought how stubborn she was and just how much he loved every inch of her.

"Have you seen Emily yet?"

"Emily?" Jason gave her a quizzical look.

"Yes. She was in the car with me."

"WHAT?!?"

"Jason, Emily was driving."

Jason felt the blood drain from his face with those words. "Do you know if she's all right?" he asked his voice barely audible.

"I think so. They told me she has a sprained wrist."

"Thank god! How did this happen?" he finally questioned.

"We were busy talking when all of the sudden the traffic in front of us just stopped. Emily tried to slam on the brakes but nothing happened Jason. I don't know how she held her cool. I certainly was panicked... ...."

"So you slammed into the stopped traffic?" Jason's eyes searched Elizabeth's for an answer.

"No, we hit a fire hydrant. Emily took the car up onto the curb to avoid all the other cars."

"Smart thinking."

"Well at the time I didn't know what the hell she was doing, but apparently it worked."

"Her brakes failed? Is that what you think happened?" Jason questioned as the wheels in his brain began to turn with record speed.

"I am no mechanic, but I can tell you this much. They certainly weren't working," Elizabeth stated.

Jason ran his hand over his race as he tried to collect his thoughts. The Morgan family fleet of vehicles was impeccably serviced. Something like a faulty brake line would never have been missed.

"Jason?"

"Hummmm?" he mumbled turning his attention back to Elizabeth.

"What are you thinking?"

"Nothing," he lied. "Would you mind if I went to check on Emily?"

"Jason, what's going on in that head of yours?" Elizabeth eyed him cautiously.

"Nothing," he lied again.

"You think Anthony is responsible, don't you?" Elizabeth felt the panic rising in her voice.

"I have my theories," Jason offered yet didn't actually answer the question directly.

"Jason," his name caught in her throat," I can't lose you again." Tears blurred Elizabeth's vision as thoughts of Jason walking away from her again consumed her.

"You won't. I'm not ever letting go of you. That I can promise you. You rest while I go check on Emily." Jason smiled at her his own tears hung dangerously on his thick lashes. "I won't be long, I promise."

As Jason left Elizabeth's cubicle, his eyes made direct contact with Johnny. "HOW THE HELL DID YOU LET THIS HAPPEN!?!" he barked as he began Johnny down the corridor away from where Elizabeth lay resting. Johnny was speechless for a second. The words that Jason wanted to hear evaded him. "You were supposed to be looking out for her! Where the hell were you when all this was going down?!?" Jason huffed as his blood boiled in his veins.

"I was watching her!" Johnny shot back.

"Oh really!?!?! Then how the hell did she end up in a car accident?!?" Jason restrained the urge to dispose of the incompetent standing before him.

Reggie slipped behind the wall that separated him from the angry altercation that Jason was engaged in with one of his soldiers.

"What did you want me to do?"

"You were supposed to make sure that nothing, I meant NOTHING happened to her! Why the hell was she in that cubicle all alone!?!"

"Do you hear yourself, man? What? Was I supposed to muscle my way into her exam-room?!" Johnny countered with his own angry voice. "I'm not Elizabeth Malucci's fucking baby-sitter!"

Reggie's ears perked up at the sound of Anthony's wife's name. Suddenly his take on Jason Morgan's anger changed.

"YOU ARE WHATEVER I TELL YOU YOU ARE!!" Jason shouted.

"Get a grip Jason!" Johnny said with no intention of backing down this time.

"What?!? What did you say to me?" Jason clenched his jaw.

"You are losing it, Jason. It's time to cut your losses and move on don't you think? I mean I know the Malucci broad is a looker... ..."

Without warning Jason threw Johnny hard into the concrete wall behind them. "YOU WILL TREAT ELIZABETH WITH RESPECT!! If I ever hear you refer to her as anything but the lady she is again... ..." Jason's voice trailed off as his eyes darted to those people suddenly gathered around them.

Johnny adjusted his jacket as his piercing eyes rested on Jason. Boss or not, Johnny knew that Jason had lost all sense of the control he once possessed. "Will there be anything else?" Johnny asked curtly.

"No, I will handle things from here on out," Jason countered harshly. "Just be sure that the family knows Emily is safe and that I will be bringing her home."

Reggie watched as the two angry men parted company. While he had originally assumed that Jason Morgan had been there to see his sister, it was obvious to Reggie now that things weren't always what they seemed to be. Finally he had a crystal clear picture of what was really driving Anthony Malucci in his pursuit of the Morgan Clan, and Reggie wanted no part of it. He had been a freelancer for many of the families in the inner circle for a long time now and had been party to schemes like this before. Reggie knew none of their outcomes had ever been good. The last thing he wanted for himself was to be caught inside a lover's triangle.

There was just one snag that kept him from walking away from Anthony's plan and that was that the final leg of it had already been set in motion. Tomorrow was to be Anthony's day of glory. Reggie recalled how animated Anthony had been as he described each and every detail of his final assault. It was almost sadistic in nature. Reggie watched Jason's form as it got further away from him. He contemplated how to thwart Anthony's well-orchestrated plan and still come out of this whole thing unscathed himself. He was certain that, no matter which side of the fence he was one, it would be the losing one. With that in mind, he decided for once to let his conscience reign supreme.

"Apparently you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, my dear."

Elizabeth opened her eyes to see her husband standing over her.