Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. The powers that be at General Hospital do. They just don't use them very well. There are some original characters in here as well.

Feedback: Is greatly appreciated. If you like it tell me why, if you don't, please tell me what you don't like. It's how I learn.

Author's notes: A lot of the characters on GH will be in this fic, if you don't see them right away give me time. I like fic's with a lot of characters in them, so that is how I write them.

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What If…

Chapter 8

~Jakes~

"Who's in your shower Jase?' Carly repeated.

"None of your business Carly, I think you better go now," Jason said wanting her out of here.

"Leave, why Jason I just got here." She answered her mind racing, "So you brought in some bimbo for the day, no big deal Jase."

"Carly." He said with a sigh pinching his nose.

Yeah it was just a bimbo, a nooner, she thought glancing around the room again. Her eyes widened when she noticed the perfume bottle and hair brush on the dresser, she saw the suitcase opened against the wall, and women's clothing inside of it, she swallowed hard noticing a few pairs of women's shoes casually thrown under a chair. This was not good.

"Carly she is not a bimbo, I'd like you to leave now." He said with an edge to his voice when he noticed her not moving.

"So she's not a bimbo, then I definitely want to meet her. We can compare notes or something," She tossed off, damned if she was leaving before that door opened.

"Carly, I said leave, I will call you later."

"Why don't you want me to meet her Jase? What are you trying to hide from me? It won't do you any good you know I will find out eventually, so what are you trying to hide fro…" Carly broke off when an awful thought raced through her mind. No, he wouldn't, he couldn't.

She turned away and studied the clothes on the floor, they were small, petite, her eyes flicked to the shoes also small. Getting frantic now she moved closer to the bed and saw a long dark hair silhouetted against the white of the pillowcase.

"You didn't go to Paris did you Jason?" she asked in a whisper, feeling like she had been punched, he couldn't have gone to her, not after everything she had done.

"What?"

Carly turned to face him "You sonofabitch." She said softly glaring at him.

He stared at her stunned, he was too surprised to stop her when she moved to the bathroom door in a rush. "Robin, you little witch, get your scrawny ass out her." She yelled through the door pounding on it.

His hand closed on the doorknob an instant before hers did. Furious she turned on him, "How in the hell could you go to her, after everything she did to me, to Michael, to you, how could you go back to her?" Her voice broke in pain at the words.

"Carly." Jason reached out for her.

She stepped away, "I know that I hurt you, that's what I do, I hurt you and I'm sorry later. But you know I only do that when I get scared, and don't think. You know that I don't deliberately set out to hurt you, it just seems to end up that way." She walked away slowly, tears pouring down her face.

"But Robin, Jesus Jason, Robin thinks everything through logically and then she hurts you anyway. She is deliberately cruel. How could you go to her after…" Her voice broke and she choked on a sob, she was not going to let that witch back in Jason's life.

She swiped at the tears and stormed towards the bathroom door, Jason shifted in front of her to block her and tried again, "Carly calm down, it's not…"

Carly ignored him, yelling through him and the door, "Robin you little twit, get your butt out here, I am not letting you destroy him again."

Rory jerked in the shower and glanced towards the door, who was yelling the name Robin, puzzled she began to rinse the soap off of her.

"Carly." Jason snapped catching her arm.

"Why Jason?" She asked looking up at him, tears streaking her face. "I know Sonny and I hurt you, but you said you forgave us. You gave us your blessing for our wedding, you even convinced me to go through with the wedding. Why would you do all that and then punish me like this?"

"Carly." He sighed and pulled her into his arms, "It's not Robin."

She shuddered, unwilling to believe she heard him correctly, she pulled away to look at him "It's not?"

"No, I haven't seen Robin since that last night when I told her I never wanted to see her again," He answered relieved that she was finally listening.

"Not Robin." She repeated and relief coursed through her when she saw Jason nod in confirmation. Relief turned to anger swiftly and she smacked him on the arm, "Well why didn't you tell me that? God you let me go off like that and let me believe that it was Robin, what is wrong with you?"

Jason shook his head, he couldn't win with her, "When was I supposed to tell you? When you came bursting through the door? When you started jumping down my throat because you jumped to the conclusion that it was Robin in the shower? When?" he asked.

"Well who is it then?" She asked at the same time the shower in the bathroom was shut off.

"A friend Carly. My friend who you will meet another time, because you have to leave now." He answered taking her arm to propel her to the door.

"What's wrong with now?" She asked trying to slow him down that door should open any second now.

"Carly leave." Jason said opening the door.

"Wait." She tried again when he gently, but firmly pushed her out the door.

"I'll call you." He said shutting the door on her face just as he heard the bathroom door open behind him.

She raised her hand to pound on the door then stopped herself, maybe this was a good thing. She would rather meet the little twit later when Jason wasn't around so they could get some things straight. She turned and walked down the hall, Jason was the sweetest man she had ever met, but he was, well he was clueless when it came to women. She would have to protect him from himself, and the little viper.

"Who was that?" Rory asked walking out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, her long hair pinned up on her head. "I thought I heard someone yelling Robin." She continued getting dressed.

"It was Carly."

Rory paused in the process of pulling on her pants and looked up at him, "How did she take the news?"

"She thought you were Robin." he said with a sigh leaning against the door.

"Robin?" Rory asked surprised, "Why would she think that?"

"I don't know. I don't know why Carly thinks most of the things she does," Jason replied running his hand over his face.

She sat on the bed to pull on her boots "So when am I going to meet hurricane Carly?"

"Well if she had her way it would have been five minutes ago while you were in the shower." He replied shoving off the door to look out the window, there was no sign of the car or driver, Carly was gone, "Now that she knows about you I'm betting you'll meet her before too long, Carly's not exactly the patient type."

"Peachy." She muttered crossing to the dresser pulling the pins out of her hair. Her hand closed on the brush at the same time his did, she let hers fall away and looked up at him through the mirror over the dresser when he brought it up to her hair. The thrill she normally felt when he brushed her hair was missing as she thought about Carly.

She knew a lot about Carly, and could guess about the stuff he hadn't told her. But she also knew that even after everything she had done to him, Jason still loved her. She knew he wasn't in love with her, that he had never been in love with her, but she knew that he did love her and always would. It was this knowledge that made Rory a little nervous when she thought about meeting Carly. The last thing she wanted to do was to put Jason in the middle of the two of them, but there was a very good chance that, that would be exactly where he would end up.

Rory was pulled out of her reverie when Jason dropped a kiss on her head and ran his hands through her hair. "Don't worry about Carly, I can handle her," he told her his eyes locking on hers in the mirror.

"I'm not worried about Carly, whether we get along or not is not a big deal. I'm worried about you Jason, I know that it will hurt you if we don't get along and you get dragged into the middle of us. I don't want to hurt you, I I…" She cut-off when the phone rang, "You better get that, your probably being summoned."

He walked to the phone with a frown, he wanted Rory to finish her thought but he new the moment was lost for now. "Morgan." he said into the phone.

She sighed heavily, whether it was from relief or disappointment she didn't really know. Probably both. She knew that she loved him, that she had been in love with him since those first crazy meetings of theirs, but she couldn't tell him that she loved him. They had never spoken about the future, and the word love had a way of changing the way people thought about the future anyway.

She picked up her coat and slipped it on, watching him, she knew he cared about her, her being here proved that. But she was not going to force her feelings of love onto him, when he might not feel the same way. She refused to let him feel sorry for her if he didn't feel that way. So for now she kept those pesky love words locked away in her heart. She noticed him looking at her and belatedly noticed that he had hung up the phone. "Well I'm ready are you?" she asked brightly trying to dispel the tension in the room.

"Let's go." He said with a sigh after a minute more of watching her, he felt the disappointment again, for a minute he thought she was going to say something else. He picked up his coat and opened the door for her.

"So I get to drive right?" She walked through the door.

"Wrong."

"Why not? I know how to drive a motorcycle."

"You can't handle, your weight, my weight and the bikes weight, you know that," Jason answered slipping into the familiar argument and taking her hand to lead her to the stairs.

"Yes I could, I'm a lot stronger than I look."

~Park~

Emily sat on the bench, still upset over what Zander had said about Jason, she knew she shouldn't be surprised by his words but she was. Lately it seemed that all they seemed to do was disagree.

She sighed heavily watching a woman chase a toddler around the swings. Disagree wasn't the right word, Zander refused to fight with her, he would just ignore what he didn't want to hear. Lately he had been ignoring her a lot. She hated to think that she was wrong about him and everyone else had been right all along. She stood quickly trying to banish that thought. Zander was a great guy she told herself desperately. All relationships have their rough spots that's all this was a rough spot. She began walking again to the exit of the park, she had found that it was harder to think such thoughts when you were moving.

She looked up and saw Lucky standing on the path at the entrance to the park from Elm street, "Lucky," she called hurrying to catch him.

Lucky turned when she touched his arm, "Emily." He said with a smile focusing on her.

Her own smile faded when she saw the bruises on his face, "Are you okay?"

"Okay, I'm great." he answered with the first real smile she had seen from him in months, "Did you see her? Nikolas said you did, she's back, isn't that great?"

Her heart sank, this was going to be so bad for Lucky, "Yes I met Rory, and I talked to her at breakfast."

"Her name isn't Rory it's Elizabeth."

"Lucky." Emily took his arm and pulled him over to the low wall that bordered the side of the park and sat down, "I know that she looks like Elizabeth, but Lucky it isn't her." She said as gently as she could.

"Yes it is, she's just confused." he said adamantly and tried to pull away.

She kept her hand locked on his, "Lucky," she tried again "Lucky please look at me." She asked and waited until he did.

"I know how much you miss Elizabeth and what you would do to have her back even if it was for only a minute, but Lucky, Rory is not Elizabeth." She said her eyes locking on his.

"Yes she is."

"No Lucky, she's not, you know Elizabeth is gone, now you have to stop this."

"Emily, I know you don't understand," Lucky said after a pause his hand squeezing hers briefly before continuing, "I don't really understand it myself, but this is Port Charles after all, strange things happen here all the time. Elizabeth is back, I don't know how or why and I don't care, I only know she is here. Rory is Elizabeth, I know that the same way that I know that the sky is blue."

"Lucky." Her eyes began to fill.

"It's okay Emily, I'm not crazy, I'm not drunk, for the first time in years I am myself, and I know what I know, Rory is Elizabeth. All I have to do is help her remember, once she does the hell of these past two years will finally be gone." He told her shifting to face her.

"I know that you have been worried about me, both you and Nikolas. But I am fine now, she's back and soon she will be home with me, I'm not going to fall apart anymore, I have something to live for, someone to fight for, I'm going to be okay."

The tears slipped down her face her heart was breaking. Her friend was back, she could see it in his eyes, and in the cocky yet confident way he held himself. Lucky Spencer was finally alive again after two years, but it was so awful, he was alive to chase a dream that could never be.

"Don't cry Emmy." Lucky said using an old nickname for her brushing her tears from her face.

"Lucky, I miss Elizabeth too, especially now, but…" Emily stopped when she saw his attention shift away from her. Then she heard the sound of a motorcycle. She looked over at the street in time to see Jason and Rory go by on the bike, and head in the direction of Kellys.

Lucky stood quickly, "I'll talk to you later Emily," he said quickly shooting her his trademark grin, before turning to hurry after the bike.

"Lucky wait." She called after him getting to her feet, but it was too late he was already gone chasing a dream.

~Parking Lot~

"I still don't see why I couldn't drive." She grumbled getting off the bike.

"Well, because I had the keys?" Jason offered with a teasing smile.

She glared at him "You shouldn't make me angry Morgan," she said narrowing her eyes at him as he watched her from astride the bike.

"Really?" He said dryly.

"Yes, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry." She answered with the famous line knowing he wouldn't know where it was from.

"I wouldn't?" He asked with a smirk and raise of the brow "What do you think you could do to me?"

She leaned against his leg and pulled his head closer to hers, "I fight dirty Morgan. Remember that, oh and remember there are lots of times that I'm awake while your asleep, and I know how to use a pair of scissors." She whispered, running her hands meaningfully through his hair.

"Well isn't this cozy." A voice called out mockingly from behind Rory. She saw Jason's eyes move to the new arrival.

Rory watched as the teasing light in his eyes was extinguished in an instant and a cold mask slipped over his face, she felt the tension slam into his body. She shifted to face the newcomer, and Jason got off the bike quickly to stand in front of her.

"Should we strike up the band to play All Hail the Conquering Hero?"

She focused on the man, he was about 5'10" with dark hair, his clothes were expensive, his handsome face twisted in a sneer as he focused on Jason. She could sense the anger and uneasiness coming from the man, as Jason continued to stare at him.

"I would have thought this would be the last place you would want to be after the way you left last winter. How does it feel Jason, to be played? Carly played me and she played you before moving onto Sonny. I got to know golden boy, did you like that feeling?" he asked tauntingly moving closer to Jason.

Rory rubbed her hand over Jason's back and noted all the muscles there were tense ready to spring, in an instant she knew who the newcomer was, it was A.J. Quartermaine.

~Penthouse~

Carly barely waited for the door to open, before she stormed from the car.

"Mrs. Corinthos." Johnny said opening the door.

She never even spared him a glance, she walked past him, into the living room, where Sonny was on the phone.

"Right that's what I said three dozen." Sonny said into the phone and smiled at Carly.

She leaned against the table and waited, she knew by the smile that it was only coffee business she was allowed to stay. Allowed the word made her already mercurial temper spike. Leave the room Carly, go upstairs Carly, its business Carly, man she was sick of that.

"Your home early." Sonny said crossing to her to kiss her briefly, she grabbed his face and drew it down for a deeper, longer kiss.

"Yeah, I went to see Jason." She answered when she broke the kiss.

"Uhhm." Sonny murmured distractedly walking back to his desk.

"You will never guess what, no I should say who I found there with him," Carly said pacing the room.

"Who, oh you mean Rory." Sonny answered only half listening to her, his eyes focusing on the invoice.

"Rory? Is that the little viper's name? What the hell kind of name is Rory, it sounds like a disease," Carly went on for a minute before stopping.

Sonny was tipped off by the silence, he looked at Carly who had crossed her arms and was staring at him. "How did you know her name?" Carly asked quietly. Quietly was never a good thing when it came to Carly.

"Jason told me."

"Jason told you and you didn't tell me, why? It wasn't business, so why didn't you tell me?" Carly demanded.

"It was Jason's decision when or if to tell you, not mine."

"You're my husband and he's my best friend, and after everything I did to wreck his life the least you could do was tell me." She sat on the couch.

Sonny walked over and sat on the ottoman facing her, "Carly the only reason Jason told me, was because he had to. I met her under some," He paused not wanting to tell her too much, "interesting circumstances and Jason told me about her, even then he didn't tell me that much."

"When could you have met her, the only time you've been gone." She trailed off thinking, "The only time you were gone was last December before Christmas. He's been with her since December?" She finished incredulous, she felt so hurt that Jason hadn't told her.

He read the hurt in her eyes, "Carly I don't know if he would have told me if he didn't have to. You know how he is, he keeps things to himself; I know he didn't deliberately try to hurt you."

"It's just," She began a tear slipping from her eye, "I want him to be happy. Of the three of us, he is the one that deserves to be happy. You and I hurt him, and he forgave us, you and I are happy, and he's happy for us, I just want him to be happy too. If I know that he is happy maybe it will help…" she broke off again.

"Maybe it will help stop the guilt you still feel, the guilt that I still feel," Sonny finished for her.

"Yes."

He picked up her hands and pulled her from the back of the couch, closer to him, "I want that too. It doesn't seem right that we are so happy, and started being so, by wrecking his life. But Carly I think he is happy." He sighed and kissed her hand before continuing, "I think he's been happy for a long time. When he came back this last summer, he was worried about Emily and glad for us with the wedding, but there was a change in him, he was more relaxed, happier."

"You think he was with her even then?" Carly asked, not really sure if she liked that idea or not.

"Maybe."

She thought back and remembered a time when she had caught him on the phone. He had been talking to someone, saying something like he would be back as soon as he could. She had thought it was about Emily, but then she remembered his tone of voice, it was soft not like it was when he spoke with one of the guys. He had hung up as soon as he saw her.

"That's like eight months Sonny, why wouldn't he tell us?"

He looked into her eyes for a long time before he spoke, "For a while there, when he first left, you were convinced you were in love with him. In the days before we got married, you were expecting to leave town with him so you wouldn't have to testify against me."

"Sonny you know that I was in love with you even then, don't you?" She gripped his hands, "Jason was right I was never in love with him, I have only been in love once and that is with you."

He smiled his dimples flashing and lightening his face, "Now I know that, but then it wasn't quite as clear. Jason was the one who convinced you to marry me. He knew about us before we did."

"Of course Jason knew, he knows both of us better than anyone. You had to know how much I cared about you though, I only try to destroy the lives of people I love." Carly smiled at him running her hand down his cheek.

"Then I should consider myself lucky." He said with a smile, before sobering again, "You were running scared Carly, and you made a good show of wanting to leave the country with him."

"I was scared, scared of what I was feeling for you, and scared of not knowing how you felt about me, it was never that I wanted Jason instead of you."

"I know, but Jason didn't want to hurt you Carly. Telling you he had someone else in his life would have hurt you. Even when we wrecked his life he didn't want to hurt you, he left town to help you realize that you weren't in love with him. That he was just your best friend."

"You know I love you." She said kissing him, "I just want Jason to be as happy as we are."

"So you'll back off about Rory?" He asked keeping his eyes on hers.

"If Rory makes him happy, I won't have a problem with her." She answered, her eyes never leaving his, while at the same time she was thinking, the little tramp would have to convince her first.

"Jason should be here any minute, we got business, then you can talk about this if you want." He said getting up and moving to the desk.

Carly sat back on the couch and smiled, Jason would be here, Rory would be alone, perfect. "No I have a meeting I have to get to, something I just can't put off any longer." She came up behind him and slipped her arms around his waist "So what are you cooking tonight?"

"I'm cooking?"

"Well if you want me to cook, I still have some frozen pizzas I can nuke." She offered knowing what his response would be.

"Stay out of my kitchen and be back by 8:00." He said quickly.

"Later baby." Carly kissed his cheek, then rubbed the lipstick off of it, before heading for the door.

It wasn't that she didn't believe Sonny, Carly thought while she waited for the elevator, but she knew there was more to it than that. The only reason Jason wouldn't want her to meet this Rory was if she was a Robin Scorpio clone. Her eyes took on a martial gleam when she got on the elevator, it really didn't matter, she had gotten rid of Robin and she would get rid of Rory too. The little twit would never know what hit her, she thought with a canary smile.