Author's Note: So my new goal is to turn ALL of you into Rachel fans… Seriously, I love that even those of you who still don't like her are reading this. Makes me smile.
As for this chapter…well…I never thought I'd have to post this warning in front of one of my stories but, wow it's even hard to type this, I wonder what typing the actual scene will be like… I'm sorry guys… there's a Jax/Courtney scene coming up. I'm really sorry, but I'm sure once you read it, you'll be okay. I promise.
The Tangled Webs We Weave – Chapter 3
Courtney paused outside of the door to her loft to fumble through her purse for her keys. She knew she had agreed to meet Jax at his place after she left the hospital but she was exhausted and just wanted to climb into her own bed and sleep. She would call Jax as soon as she changed her clothes, and hoped he would understand. Truth be told, she didn't care if he understood or not, she just wanted a little bit of time to herself to process what had just happened.
"Here we go," she muttered to herself, finally retrieving the key and unlocking her door. It swung open and she stepped inside, anxious to get into pajamas and crawl into bed.
"Hello Gorgeous!" She froze in the doorway.
"Jax." She forced a smile onto her face as she shut the door behind her. "What are you doing here?"
He smiled at her and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I was at my place and I realized you would probably come home first to change, so I thought I'd make it easier for you by bringing everything here instead."
"Oh." She nodded and sat down to take off her shoes, sighing as her bare toes sunk into the plush carpet. She wriggled them around and closed her eyes.
When she opened them again Jax was standing directly in front of her, holding a champagne flute in his outstretched hand. "What do you say we get you all relaxed?" he asked.
Why not, Courtney asked herself as she took the glass from him. Reflexively she finished it in three long swallows. "Thank you. Do you think you could maybe run that bath for me?" she asked.
"Of course. I'll be right back." Jax dropped a kiss on her cheek before heading into the other room.
Courtney waited until he closed the door behind him before letting out the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She stood up and walked over to the table where the champagne bottle stood. As she reached out to pour another glass she saw that the sleeve of her shirt was stained dark red in some spots. Rachel's blood, she realized as she took another sip. "Definitely time to get out of these clothes," she said to herself as she crossed the room to her closet, peeling off her clothes the whole way.
By the time Jax came back into the living room she was wrapped in an old pink terrycloth bathrobe and her long blonde hair was piled on the top of her head. "All set?" she asked, smiling brightly at him.
"The water is the perfect temperature," he declared. He frowned slightly. "Why are you still wearing that when I brought you that green silk one from Greece?" he asked.
She sighed, thinking of the pile of green silk that still lay wrapped in tissue paper at the top of her closet. "This one's more comfortable," she said as she sailed past him on her way to the bathroom. She instantly felt guilty and paused at the door to turn back and face him. "You're still going to be here when I'm done right?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. She smiled as he nodded. "Good." She disappeared into the bathroom.
Courtney sighed as her body fell into the steaming bath, the heat instantly soothing her tired muscles as she sank up to her chin. She inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of the jasmine bath oil, as her mind tried to process the events of the entire day.
It hadn't really hit her until then just how close she had come to losing her life and would have if Jason hadn't shown up. A part of her not to read too much into it, that he had only gone to the hotel simply because he couldn't let innocent people get hurt.
There was a bigger part of her however, that couldn't let go of the conversation they had at the hospital and she had to wonder that it there was more to it than he was letting on.
She sighed, sinking deeper and closing her eyes. She really was tired, her mind couldn't focus on one thing for too long of a time, and before she knew it, she was reliving the last few minutes she had spent in Rachel's room.
"Just wake up," Courtney whispered, covering Rachel's hand with her own.
Instantly she felt something similar to a shock course through her body and she gripped Rachel's hand tighter for a second before releasing it, and bringing her own hand against her chest. She opened her eyes and looked down at Rachel to see if there was any indication that she had felt anything.
Rachel was still motionless, her eyes closed, the only movement Courtney could see was the rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.
"What's going on?" she asked, speaking more to herself than to Rachel. She bit her lip and reached out tentatively towards Rachel's hand again.
"How's she doing?" Steven asked from the doorway.
"No change," she replied, quickly dropping her hand at her side as she stood up. "But I do need to be going," she said. She cast a glance over her shoulder at Rachel again. "You'll call me if anything does change?" she questioned. Steven nodded at her and she thanked him before leaving the room.
Courtney opened her eyes and inspected her hand. She wriggled the fingers slowly and if she concentrated enough, she could still feel the same feeling pulse through to the tips that had earlier. She didn't understand it.
"What could it have been?" She whispered as she slid her eyes closed again.
Oh my God, is he going to remind me of every single thing we ever did together? How does he even remember all of this stuff? I don't even remember what I wore on my last date with AJ and Steven apparently remembers what I wore on the first day of surgical rounds? That's either really crazy or incredibly sweet.
But my God, if he brings up one more 'remember when' story I swear on all things holy that the first thing I do when I wake up is strangle him.
"Oh Rachel." Steven leaned forward and picked up her hand. "How did you end up in Port Charles to begin with?" he asked, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. "You always said you belonged where the sun shone for eighteen hours a day and it never snowed. You wanted to be on a tropical island and nothing was going to change your mind. As soon as were done with your residency, that was it, you were going to be gone."
He set her hand back down to her side and leaned even closer to her. "Do you remember when—"
Here we go…
"When we first started our rounds out in Chicago. It was just after our first date." Steven laughed slightly. "You walked into the hospital at four in the morning, just pissed. Absolutely livid because there was nine inches of snow on the ground and they were still calling for another six by noon. You swore up and down that you wouldn't spend another day, another second in Chicago and insisted on being transferred to another hospital."
Yeah, so? They didn't let me go.
"Well, needless to say, the Chief of Staff didn't think an aversion to snow was a valid excuse for a transfer, so you were stuck. Stuck in Chicago, and stuck with me."
Hard to say which was worse really..
"And while I was happy that you were staying put, I still saw you were unhappy, so do you remember what I did?"
You're the one who's freaking Rainman, Steven, you tell me.
"I know you remember Rach. Remember, I got some of the other residents to cover for us and I stole you away from the hospital for three whole hours. Remember that? I took you to the uh, the hot tub gardens, that's right. And even though we were outside in the middle of twenty-six degree weather, the hot tub was amazing, right?" Steven chuckled. "We fought over which room we wanted, you wanted Bali, I wanted the British Isles. Of course, we ended up in the Bali room, and it was so great. I remember there were flowers all over the place, and the floor was covered in sand and it was just like being on the beach."
Oh yeah. Come to think of it, that was a pretty sweet thing for you to do. We were in the hot tub and it was so bizarre because it looked like we were on the beach and yet there was snow falling on us. You started laughing at me because my hair kept freezing and then you pulled me under the water and when I came up…oh wow.
"That was our first time together Rach," Steven continued. "You got under my skin then, and even now, I wonder what would have happened if, well you know what if."
If I hadn't nearly ruined my career for you? You know what would have happened? We still would have broken up because you drive me crazy.
Why are you doing this to me now? We've been over for so long and the only reason I'm here is well, to make you pay for what you put me through.
Get real Rachel. You're not going to do anything to Steven and you know it. Not now. Not with everything else going on. You're going to need a friendly face, and as long as you can keep him from finding out, he's going to be it.
Oh. Did I just decide to let Courtney out of the plan? Damn this stupid coma! I can't keep my thoughts clear or in order and they haven't slowed down, if anything, they've speeded up. I just need to wake up and process all of this. I don't know how much more I can take.
Steven sighed. "I need to get back to work, but I'll check in on you later. Courtney said she'd be back in the morning, you're really lucky to have her for a friend." He bent down and kissed her forehead. "Wake up soon Sweetie. I'll be back soon."
Well that was interesting. What do I do now? There's no way I could possibly still have feelings for him. Not after all that's happened. No. If anything, he's just talking me to try and make me wake up. Saying anything he thinks will make me wake up.
Yeah, that's it.
"You're so beautiful," Jax murmured, burying his face in her shoulder.
"Mmm." Courtney turned her head to the side and bit her lip. When she had gotten out of the bathtub all she had wanted to do was curl up in her bed and sleep, but Jax had other plans, and while sex had been the last thing on her mind, she felt she owed him tonight for making him lie to the police. Besides, she had reasoned, she had spent enough nights with Jax to know exactly what to do and then she could sleep.
What she hadn't counted on was Jax wanting to take his time, and he was taking forever. Her eyes focused on the flickering candles that were on her nightstand and she winced as he bit her neck. She moaned softly because she knew he was waiting to hear it and closed her eyes.
He always bit too hard, she reflected. If there was one thing she had been willing to bet on when she first met Jasper Jacks, it was that he would be an incredible lover, and while she hadn't had much to compare him too, she had been slightly disappointed after the fact. It made sense, she had realized later. How he threw money around on anything and everything without a care in the world, what he was really doing was overcompensating.
A small giggle escaped her lips and she was relieved when Jax took it as a good sign and quickened his pace. His hands gripped her waist and she gritted her teeth as his nails dug painfully into her flesh.
Jason was never harsh in bed. He was always gentle and – Stop it! Courtney chastised herself. She felt horrible for letting her thoughts drift to her ex-husband and she concentrated all of her energy on Jax.
This was what the rest of her life was going to be like, she realized, as she wrapped her arms around him, softly encouraging him. Champagne hazes and mediocre lovemaking with a man she wasn't sure that she really even loved to begin with. She told herself she did, she convinced everyone around her that she did, but she still couldn't be sure.
Stop it! She scolded herself. Her life was moving forward, Jax would give her everything she wanted, whether it was spoiling and worshipping her, which she had to admit was nice, or giving her the safety and stability that she craved.
Besides, she argued silently with herself. He's moved on. He's with another woman and more importantly he's happy. You have to let go, Courtney. You have to let go.
You have to move on. She realized that Jax was waiting for her and keeping everything she had just told herself in mind, she allowed herself one final nod to the past.
She murmured to Jax in hushed tones, telling him everything he wanted to hear from her, everything she wanted him to do, and while he was the one here with her and focused wholly on her, Courtney was fantasizing about her ex-husband and the last time they had made love.
Jax drifted off to sleep soon after, his arms wrapped tight around her, and while sleep was the one thing Courtney wanted most that night, it was the only thing evading her. She freed her right hand from underneath the blanket and stared at it in the moonlight. Still even now, after hours had passed, she could feel what she had when she had touched Rachel, and the longer she looked at it, the more unsettled she felt.
"What's going on Rachel?" she whispered to herself once again. She remembered that Stan had never gotten back to her as Jason had said he would and made a mental note to try and call him in the morning. Stan, she clarified in her mind. Not Jason.
Maybe she was just feeling sorry for Rachel, that she really had no family to speak of and she felt obligated to be there for her. Maybe once she found Rachel's mother, she could shake that eerie feeling she had had ever since she left the hospital.
Maybe she could get Rachel to change her mind on the whole AJ/Steven mess and move on with her life.
Sighing, she turned and looked at Jax, who snored softly beside her. She had to tell him sooner or later about Rachel's blackmail, and maybe he could help her figure things out.
Tomorrow, she thought as she yawned. Tomorrow I'll tell Jax everything.
Jax.
Not Jason.
