Christmas Morning, Morgan Household-
If there were carolers in the early hours of the morning odds would be high that the last place that they would ever seek to be around would be the penthouse towers. It would be neigh impossible for them to even get up to the level that they could be heard. In a way, Courtney was saddened by that fact. She liked Christmas Carols just as much as the next person, even if they were sung off key, especially if young children were involved. She had foreseen her and her baby doing the same thing a few times during the holiday, at least until the child was old enough to not want to do that with her anymore. But, like so many other dreams that came with the child, they were gone, stripped from her without even a word.
Jason hadn't waited up for Dillon and Damian to finish their conversation. It wasn't his place to listen in, but he certainly hoped that his speech to Damian did sink it. He knew the intentions were pure, but like so many things in life intentions weren't enough. Nobody knew that fact better than Jason Morgan.
Jason got up from the bed and stood, seeing his wife's head turned in the opposite direction. Her hair flowing so beautifully down the sheets, like velvet. He loved Courtney's hair. That wasn't to say that he didn't love everything about Courtney, or almost everything, but her hair was certainly a big plus mark in her favor.
Unbeknownst to Jason, Courtney was actually awake. She had been awake for some time. When she heard him heading for the door she thought about keeping quiet, but she realized that she couldn't do it, not this time. "You're just going to leave me alone again?"
Jason stopped, turning around to see Courtney, who was in the motion of sitting up in the bed, using the sheet to cover her even though she was in her nightgown. He wasn't sure how to take the question. It seemed like she was angry with him, but he didn't know why she would be. "I didn't know that you were up, Courtney. I was just going to take a shower."
"Jason, please, don't go." She sighed. "I know that I told you I would never ask where you were, that I promised I wouldn't get involved… but the way that you left yesterday… I just need to know. Please, tell me what happened."
"I told you it wasn't dangerous…"
"Which is why it's scaring me so much, Jason," Courtney admitted. "Can't you see that? Every time that you go out you don't say anything, but this time you tell me that what you're doing isn't dangerous. I know you wouldn't lie, but it makes me wonder what could be so important that you left to do something that wasn't dangerous." She hated being this way, especially with him. Jason deserved better than this, but her curiosity had, at least in this instance, overwhelmed her desire to keep her husband happy.
Knowing full well that the lack of information was eating at his wife's very being, Jason sat down next to her in the bed. He waited for a moment, giving her time to calm herself as much as she could. "I went to go see the Quatermaine's, Courtney."
"What?" She didn't hate the idea of Jason seeing his birth family, in fact, she was in favor of it, but it was still a shock to her. "You went to go see them, and you didn't think that I would understand?"
"I didn't want you to be worrying about me while you were spending time with your family on Christmas Eve…"
"I wouldn't worry about you."
"Yes you would," Jason corrected her. "I know you, Courtney. I know that you would have worried about me, at least on some level, and it would have distracted you the whole time that I was there. You would wonder how I was taking everything in that happened at the mansion. You would wonder if anyone said anything that would try and trigger my memory, even though we both know that it's never coming back. You would wonder if I would decide that I wanted to go back into their lives. Courtney, you would act the same exact way that I act whenever I'm around them. It's nearly impossible for me to not worry about myself when I'm around them. They'd never hurt me physically, none of them, but they would hurt me emotionally… and they often do, that's something that even I can't really deal with."
Courtney listened to her husband's speech. He was correct, of course. He had guessed what she would have been thinking about. She barely had a good time with her own family because she was so worried about him, but if he had told her that he was going to see the Quatermaine's it wouldn't have been possible for her to even have that good of a time with her father and everyone else in her family. That didn't mean that she still didn't wish that she had known. "We could have went together."
"You had plans…"
"They would have understood that I needed to be with you," she put her hand on his cheek softly. "Jason, my family means the world to me, you know that, they mean the world to you, too. But you're my husband, you're the man I love, you're the person that I have to protect above all others." If she had a child that child would be the person that she needed to keep safe, but they no longer had that option.
"I'm sorry that I hurt you," Jason put his hand over hers. "But you know that if I could do it again I would do the exact same thing that I did last night. Courtney, that's just the way that I am. You need to accept that."
"I know," she turned her head away. "Maybe someday I will. I love you, Jason, but there's always going to be a part of you that you keep from everyone but yourself, and that part of you is the part that I really want to know."
"It's the part that you can't know. Nobody can know that part of me… not even myself."
"So what happened?" Courtney changed the subject back to the visit with the Quatermaine's, now that she knew, she was genuinely interested in the outcome of the event. "Wait… before you even tell me what happened, why did you go?"
"Our nephew dragged Dillon to the mansion for their Christmas party, and while he was convincing Dillon to go inside and be with his family he just happened to hit my cell phone on his speed dial so that I could hear the conversation myself." Jason still wasn't pleased with those actions, but he understood the motive. "That was why I picked up my phone last night, he called, I thought he might have needed my help… I should have just let it ring."
"Maybe it was an accident…"
"It wasn't," Jason shook his head. "I asked him, Courtney. Damian admitted that it was part of some grand scheme to get the Quatermaine's together. We had a short conversation because he left. It was more me talking to him and him listening."
"What'd you talk to him about?"
"I told him that he had no right to try and manipulate any of us into doing something against our will. Dillon, myself, anyone else. I told him that what he did was wrong, even though he thought he was doing something that was in the best interests of everyone involved."
"Were you angry?"
"Of course I was angry. I'm still angry at him, Courtney. Knowing me, I'll probably never be able to trust him again… at least not in the way that I was starting to. You know how much I hate it when people try and get me to do things, when people take away the options that I have. It reminds me too much of how I was after the accident, and I don't want to be that person anymore."
"He didn't know you before you got in the accident, or even right after," Courtney didn't know why she was defending Damian, but she was. She understood that what he did was, on some level, wrong, but that didn't mean that Jason had the right to demonize him. "He just wanted you to be happy… you and Dillon."
"Dillon and I can make ourselves happy without anyone's help," Jason hated fighting with Courtney, and it was worse because it wasn't even something that involved both of them. "I told him the truth, Courtney. I told him that I appreciated the sentiment and the fact that he cares so much about me, but I couldn't say that he did the right thing, because he didn't."
Courtney remembered the way that Damian was acting, especially right after he arrived home after he was apparently at the mansion. It seemed like something was wrong with him, and now she knew what. "I'm sure you got the point across to him, Jason. You should have seen him after you talked to him, he was crushed."
"I didn't mean to be so hard on him… but I won't apologize for saying what I said."
"You don't need to," Courtney moved the sheet away. "You told him how you were feeling, that's what he's always wanted, honesty. Maybe now he'll try and be a little less honest, or expect less honesty from people."
"Courtney, can we not do this right now?"
"Do what?"
"Fight."
"We're not fighting," Courtney denied the fact that they were at least having a difference of opinion. "We're done, Jason. You were right, he was wrong, you got your point across, I found out the information that I wanted, everyone's happy."
"You don't seem happy."
"Well maybe I'd be a little happier if I knew that my husband trusted me enough to tell me that he was going to see his family!" Courtney snapped, moving out of the bed. She could see it in Jason's eyes, he was hurt. "Look, Jason… I'm sorry. I really don't want to do this, either, especially today. All I'm asking is for a little more consideration when it comes to doing simple things. I've been with the Quatermaine's before, plenty of times, both with you and with AJ. I know how to handle them. You don't need to protect me from people who wouldn't even try and hurt me. I'm a big girl, I can stand up for myself."
Jason didn't know if he could do what Courtney was asking. He would certainly try, but there would always be that part of him that didn't want her involved with that part of his life, the same part that didn't even want himself to be involved with them. "How did your night go?"
"If you take away the needless worrying, it went pretty well," she moved over to the window, looking out through the drapes at the snow covered roads. Nobody was out on those roads, everyone was inside, together. It was Christmas. She smiled, feeling the spirit embedded inside of her, the anger slowly being siphoned away from her being. "You should have seen Michael, Jason… it's like, he's reached this whole new level of happiness now."
"I've always wanted Michael to be happy," Jason got off the bed and went to his wife's side. "I'm glad that he was."
"Sonny was happy like that, too. You could see it in his eyes. Every time he gets a new child he just becomes a different person, a better person. He'd have been perfectly content with Michael and Morgan… but I think, especially after everything that happened with Damian, Sonny looked at this as something more than it would have been otherwise. It was his first Christmas with all his children. It was special to him."
"This is special to me," Jason wrapped his arms around Courtney's waist. "Looking out the window with you, just talking, alone. This is all I've ever really wanted from Christmas, to be with a woman that I care about with all my heart and soul. You're that woman."
"But we're not alone," Courtney looked up at him. "We're alone right now, but we've got a teenager who happens to be sleeping a few doors away from us." She smiled brightly as an idea came into her head, "Why don't we give him his present right now?"
"Courtney…" Jason returned the smile, it was infectious, even to him. "It's early in the morning, I'm sure Dillon can wait a few hours for his present."
"Come on, Jason… he deserves his gift. He's had a tough time adjusting, we all have… besides, I want to see his face when he opens it! Please…"
"All right, you win," Jason followed Courtney out of the room.
"You wait right here," she said as they passed by Dillon's room. "Make sure that he doesn't wake up. I'll go get the gift." She tiptoed, trying to act like a spy or something. It took Jason everything that he had to not at least chuckle.
Slowly, Jason turned the knob, looking to see if Dillon was even in the room. He was. Sleeping, his hair naturally frazzled. Jason knew that Dillon wasn't his son, and he would never think of Dillon as such, but Dillon was under his protection, just like Courtney, Michael and everyone else. Jason would do whatever was needed to keep Dillon safe.
Courtney came up the stairs with the wrapped box in her hands. She put her index finger up against her lip as she walked into the room. Jason followed behind her, neither making more than the slightest of sounds. She handed the box over to Jason gently as she reached over and pinched Dillon's nose, the childhood tactic to wake someone up, it never failed her before.
Like clockwork, it had the effect on him that was intended as he struggled for breath and opened his eyes, arms flailing about at random. Groggily, he asked to nobody in particular, "What?"
"Merry Christmas!" Courtney grinned.
"Sleep good… Christmas wait…" Dillon tossed his sheet over his head.
"I guess you don't want your present then…"
The sheet was thrown forward faster than it had been drawn back. "Present?"
"Here," Jason handed Dillon the box. "This is from both of us."
Dillon looked at the box for a moment before his hands tore at the paper like it was nothing. When the box was freed from its paper prison, he opened and saw the contents. "A digital camcorder?"
"So you can make movies," Courtney sat next to him. "I know you want a bigger budget, but everyone has to start somewhere, right?"
"Thank you both… so much," Dillon hugged Courtney, his mind racing with the possibilities. He looked up at Jason, who was smiling and who nodded. It wasn't a hug, but it was something.