Author's Note: Aw you guys! It makes me so happy that some of you still decided to read this, knowing you didn't like Rachel; that really means a lot to me! Also, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only the one that wants to see Rachel reformed.

A lot of this chapter, and some of the chapters to come take place while Rachel is in a coma, so any paragraphs that are in italics are her thoughts, dreams, flashbacks, etc…

So I'm not sure about this chapter. I thought it would be easy to write a character who's in a coma, but guess what? Not so much. I'm not entirely convinced that I have Rachel or even Courtney characterized in this, so any constructive criticism or suggestions for improving anything are most welcome.

As always, I love the feedback and thanks for reading!


The Tangled Webs We Weave – Chapter Two

So it's really true what they say, you can be completely aware of everything going on around when you're unconscious. Remember that, and stop talking to yourselves in front of your patients. Okay then, just open your eyes; it can't be hard. Open them. Hmm. Maybe just one eye then. Dammit.

Rachel was aware, that much she knew. The paramedics had finally gotten her to General Hospital and she could hear them talking to whoever was in the emergency room at that time, but she couldn't make out the words.

It shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I know what I would do if someone came in with a gunshot wound to the chest. Why are they so confused?

"Oh God, it's Rachel." The voice was clear as a bell and oddly calming.

Please, please, please. For the love of God, don't let Steven anywhere near me. Doesn't anyone here know that's a conflict of interest? Seriously, listen to him, he's a mess, he's ordering the wrong tests. I don't need a tox screen! I need to be in surgery. I'm stable enough now! Oh God, I'm going to die, Steven Webber is actually going to kill me.

"Steven, you have to stay here. Please."

Who was that? Had to be Monica, I knew that woman was smart. Monica is AJ's mom though. Well crap, does she know anything about that? Probably not. Hmm. Thoughts going hazy now, must be the anesthesia.

The next few hours passed without her even knowing but once the anesthesia wore off Rachel's mind became clear again. And she could still hear voices.

"But she'll wake up soon right? I mean she is going to be okay, isn't she?"

"Rachel's in a coma. If she does wake up, I can't say when that will be."

If? What the hell is if? Of course I'm going to wake up. Way to be optimistic Stevie. But who are you talking to?

"Okay. Well, is it okay if I just sit here with her for a little while?"

Is that Courtney? I guess that means she's okay. I wonder if Jax is too. And who the hell shot me in the first place?

"Well, welcome to the world of mob violence Rachel. Bet you never dreamed you'd be shot by a hitman, huh? Well, you wouldn't have if you hadn't interrupted Jax and I. To be perfectly honest, you wouldn't have been anywhere near the gunfire if you hadn't thrown yourself into my life in the first place." Courtney took a deep breath. "I'm not saying you deserve it Rachel. No one deserves to be caught in the middle of that. But I won't lie. My life would be a lot easier if you were dead."

No it wouldn't Courtney. You have no idea what will happen to you if I die, do you? You'll be arrested for AJ's murder before my time of death is called. Hell, if I don't wake up soon enough, you'll be arrested anyway. Jax won't be able to save you. Neither will your precious Jason, for that matter.

"I don't wish you dead though," Courtney continued. "Maybe everyone's right, I am too nice, and too trusting, but I don't want you dead." Courtney's voice became louder in her ear, causing Rachel to assume she had leaned closer. "I want you awake Rachel. I want you to fix what you've done to my life and I want you to pay for it."

Fix it? Pay for it? If I could laugh I would. Courtney, you're clueless. When I wake up I am going to send your world crashing down. What will you do when you find out that we're sisters? Twins, at that? Will you welcome me with open arms like you did Sonny? And really, do I want you to?

Sonny. Oh my God. Sonny's my brother too. Shit. Michael's my nephew. I can't wake up now, as soon as I do, Sonny's going to kill me. What have I done?

Jesus, why couldn't I have known all of this before I met AJ? AJ. That bastard, he knew! He had to know. Seriously, it can't be coincidence that the person he's after is my sister. How did he find out? Did he know before we started sleeping together? I need to wake up. As soon as I wake up, I am going to kill AJ myself. I'm a damned smart woman I can definitely get rid of the body without anyone knowing about it. Everyone thinks he's dead anyway. Is someone else in here too?

"How is she?"

Courtney sighed. "Steven doesn't know if or when she'll wake up," she said, running a hand through her hair. "What are you doing here, are you done talking to the police?"

Jax nodded. "We need to talk about that," he said. "I need to know why you told them Jason was meeting you at the restaurant."

"What did you say to Mac? Did you go along with what I said?"

"I didn't have a choice Courtney." Even in her persona non grata state, Rachel could tell he was annoyed. "Can you explain to me why we're covering for Jason again?"

"Can we talk about this later?"

"I think we should talk about it now," Jax persisted.

"I can't right now," Courtney said, shaking her head. "We'll do it later, okay?"

"Fine." Jax sighed. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice softening. "It's only been a few hours since the shooting, maybe you should let me take you home, and you can rest for awhile."

"No." Courtney turned around and stared at Rachel again. "I'm going to stay here for a little while longer."

"Why?" Jax looked at her curiously.

"I don't know, I can't explain it. I just want to stay and talk with Steven the next time he comes in. Then I'll come home." She smiled at him then. "Why don't you go on though? I'll come meet you in an hour or so?"

"I'll have dinner and champagne waiting, maybe a hot relaxing bubble bath too," Jax said, smiling as he momentarily forgot that they were in the middle of a semi-fight.

"Sounds great." Courtney leaned over and kissed him. "I'll be home soon." She smiled as he walked out of the room. "Finally," she muttered as she watched him walk into the elevator.

Trouble in paradise Courtney? God, coma patients must live off of all the drama that comes in and out of their rooms, it's like a god damned soap opera. So you lied to the cops to protect your ex-husband, no wait, I mean your non-husband, and you're making your fiancé lie too? If I weren't the one framing you for murder, I'd say you were the evil twin.

Which brings me back to that. Do you really need to know? Sure, I was about to tell you earlier today, but maybe I was shot for a reason. If I don't tell you, we won't have to go through all of that awkward crap about mending fences and putting the past behind us, because let's face it, that's probably not going to happen. If I do tell you, everyone's going to be thrown into a world of pain and once again, I'll be blamed for ruining lives.

I know who my family is now, that's all I really wanted anyway. I don't have to try and have a relationship with all of you. It's really not necessary.

Rachel drifted off into darkness, not sure if she could call it sleeping or not, as Steven walked back into the room.

"Steven, have you contacted her family? I mean she has to have someone we can call, in case something goes wrong, right?" Courtney walked out into the hallway with the doctor after he had checked Rachel's vital signs.

The curly-haired doctor shook his head. "She told me earlier today that she may have found her birth mother but I don't know if she contacted her or not."

"Birth mother? Rachel was adopted?"

"You didn't know?" Steven's brow furrowed as he ran a hand over his head. "I thought you and Rachel were best friends." He nodded at Courtney's silence. "I guess I was right in assuming you two weren't as close as she made it out to be. Rachel's adopted parents both died a few years ago, and she has no brothers and sisters."

"So she has no one?" Courtney's head swiveled back in the direction of Rachel's room.

"Not unless she managed to call the woman she thought was her mother." Steven looked at his watch. "I'm sorry, I have another patient to check on, are you going to be here for awhile, or are you leaving?"

"I'll be here for awhile," Courtney murmured, still looking through the door to Rachel's room. She sat down on the bench outside of the room and put her head in her hands, closing her eyes. She didn't know how long she stayed like that until she heard unmistakable footsteps approach her.

"Courtney?"

She picked her head up. "Jason, hey." She moved over so he could sit down next to her. "They let you go already?"

He nodded. "Not enough evidence to hold me."

"Yeah well, you're welcome," she said dryly.

"Thank you," he said sincerely. "You didn't have to do what you did, I know it can't have been easy."

She lifted her shoulders in a slight shrug. "Just tell me one thing?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Why did you really show up at the Metro-Court today?" she asked.

He shook his head and looked away, staring off into the distance, but not at anything in particular. "I was at the park, and Carly and I were talking, and she told me you were having lunch there. I reacted, I knew what was going to happen and I knew those guys would have no idea who you were, and I had to stop them."

"But you set yourself up. You could easily have just called them, couldn't you have?"

Again, he shook his head. "I told you, I reacted. I just knew I had to be there to make sure."

Courtney nodded. "Thank you," she said softly, placing a hand on his arm. She let it linger a moment longer than she should have before drawing it away again.

Jason just turned and trained his eyes on hers, nodding so slightly she wasn't sure if she had imagined it. It amazed her even now, the nonverbal conversations they could have with each other.

"How's Rachel?" he asked, gesturing to the room. "Is she going to be okay?"

"It's wait and see right now," Courtney said. "Actually, God Jase, I hate to even ask this, but maybe you could help me with something."

"What is it?"

"Look, not that anyone knows, but Rachel was adopted, and both of her parents are dead, and she has no brothers or sisters. Steven said that today Rachel told him she had maybe found her birth mother but he doesn't know if they talked or not." She looked back into the room. "She needs family with her right now, no matter how well they know each other or not."

Jason nodded again. "I'm actually on my way to meet Stan, but I'll have him call you as soon as we're done and he'll help you find any family she has."

"Thank you so much," she said, offering him another smile. "I know things are crazy right now, and I hate to even ask, but it's just… nobody deserves to lie in a hospital alone."

He waved his hand dismissively. "It's no problem at all. Stan will call you in a few hours." He stood up, and she followed suit. "But until then, she has you, right?"

"Right." Courtney looked away uncomfortably. She still hadn't told anyone about Rachel's blackmail, and now she wasn't sure if she should or not. She smiled again. "Again, thanks for everything, I'm going to go sit with her for awhile."

"You're welcome. And thank you again." She watched as Jason turned and walked away before going back into the hospital room.

She sat down next to bed, drawing her chair as close as she could. She sighed as she stared down at Rachel. She looked so small lying there. Courtney would even go as far as to say that she looked harmless, even.

"Talk about awkward," she whispered finally. "I don't know why I'm here Rachel, I just am. I should probably be terrified right now, I should be waiting for Mac to bust in here to arrest me for AJ's murder." She laughed softly. "I should probably be on my way to the PCPD or at least to Jax to tell them everything you've done to me. Of course, I can't prove it, but there has to be something I can do to save myself here." She leaned closer. "I know I've already said this, but I'm going to keep saying it. You need to wake up Rachel. You need to wake up and take responsibility for what you did because I will not go down for a crime you committed." Her eyes traveled from the wires attached to her to their sources. "It'd be simple, you know," she spoke more to herself than to the other blonde. "One switch, one tube pulled loose, and you'd be out of my life once and for all." She took a shaky breath before going on.

"You're lucky I'm not that kind of person though. God only knows what would happen to me if something happened to you."

Rachel had become aware of her surroundings somewhere in the middle of Courtney's speech and her mind was racing. Courtney actually contemplated killing her for however brief a moment it was. There was no way, she realized with a sinking heart. No way she could ever rectify the damage she had done to her.

Besides, I still need you Courtney. I need you to kill Steven. God, what a Lifetime movie we are, sisters killing our respective others for each other. What good would a compulsive gambling father and a con-artist mother be to me? Yeah, it's better this way. I know who you all are, but I don't need anything from you.

Courtney was still talking. "I guess it's really not doing you any good, me sitting here and being negative, but really, Rachel, what else can I do? Sit here and tell you everything's going to be all right?" She looked down at the blonde again and sighed. "Everything is going to be okay," she said finally. "We both know you aren't going to let go of your vendetta and give up so easily, that's just not you." Her eyes traveled down to Rachel's hands and she hesitated.

God, you are a sap! Don't do this, please, don't do this. You need to stay bitter at me Courtney. Please, just make this easy for me. I can't tell you now. There's no way."

Courtney bit her lip. "We need to settle this Rachel," she said softly. "So you just have to wake up soon okay?"

I'm not telling you the truth. You can't ever know. Rachel was almost entirely convinced that she was doing the right thing. She knew she couldn't let anyone know what she had found out and she knew what would happen if they did. She was almost convinced, repeating it a few more times would convince her completely. She was one I won't say anything away from believing herself when the unthinkable happened.

"Just wake up," Courtney repeated, covering Rachel's hand with her own.

Even in her morphine-induced state Rachel could feel the shock pulse through her body as their hands touched. It was a sensation unlike any she had ever experienced before, it was as though they were connected and for a brief moment she felt Courtney's hand clench hers before she gasped and pulled away quickly.

Damn.