"Sam, I need you to tell me what happened. Why were you outside of the police station?"
Her eyes were dry, and Mac Scorpio was but a blurred mass in front of her. She blinked her and he blurred more as the moisture started to return. "I can't…" Sam blinked more and her hands rose to her eyes. "I can't do this now, Mac. Not like you care, anyway." She groaned and slouched in the chair. "It's your station he was shot in front of, your cops that held me back from getting to him. You could give less than a damn what happened to Jason, so stop pretending, alright?"
She didn't want to hear what any of them said. All she wanted to do was see Jason. She wanted someone to tell him how he was doing. The last time she'd seen him was as he was wheeled out of the emergency room, headed for surgery. The blood wasn't flowing as quickly as it had been outside, but she could still see pieces of gauze that were soaked with his blood.
Too many people came around her. The Quartermaines, who paid no attention to their wayward son until something happened, wanted to scream as though they had a right to know anything. They placed blame and pushed their way in to see Jason. It wasn't fair. They could see him, but she couldn't? One of the nurses had come out and said that he was asking for her, but still, she couldn't get inside. The Quartermaines wouldn't move.
And then there was Lorenzo Alcazar. She could vaguely remember him talking to her, though what he said was still a mystery. His voice, softer than all the rest, was lost in a sea of screams, shouts and loud talking. She got the idea that he was trying to help her, trying to calm her down, but nothing but Jason was going to do that.
He was kneeling before her like a ghost, suddenly replacing the police commissioner. His black hair was pushed back, but slowly falling into his face again. A royal blue shirt flapped open around him, buttoned at the bottom. His right arm was heavily bandaged and strapped to his body. His eyes were gentle, and Sam knew he was trying to convey compassion, but at the moment, she couldn't accept it. Looking at him, she could only think that he was up and walking while Jason was in surgery.
"If they say anything else to you, direct them to Alexis. You don't have to say anything."
Sam looked at him and nodded. She let her body fall into the depths of the large plastic chair and pulled her feet up. Curled up into a ball, she looked at her hands. The blood was still on them. The blood was still everywhere. "I gotta know the second he comes out, okay? The second they put him in a room, I need to know."
"As soon as I know…"
"You'll tell Carly," she said, her voice short and staccato. "As soon as he's out, you'll tell Carly, and ya know what? I undertand why. He's her best friend, and she's your wife, and you'll feel the need to tell him, but I need to know. The Quartermaines won't tell me, and the doctors will tell you first. So, just… when he's out, find somebody that can tell me."
Sam knew she was being unfair, but she needed to express to Lorenzo how badly she needed this information. Yes, there were a lot of people in Port Charles who were closer to him than she was. His sister, Emily, hadn't even been called. Her nephew, who he had raised for the first year of the boy's life, wasn't at the hospital. He was probably as ignorant of the situation as Emily. Carly and Jason had a bond that Sam could only wish that she had with him. And Lorenzo…
When a car accident with his brother, AJ, left Jason Quartermaine void of his memory and previously jovial disposition, it was Lorenzo Alcazar who took him in. When he changed his name to Jason Morgan and needed a job, some way to be independent of the family that wanted to run his life, Alcazar had given him all of that and more. Both men had lost brothers of their own, Lorenzo a twin to the dark business they worked in and Jason to brain damage, and had found that familial bond with each other. Lorenzo was as close to Jason as anyone could ever be and he deserved to know of his condition, but so did Sam.
"I know you're angry right now, and you're hurt." Lorenzo touched her leg lightly and Sam jumped. She settled herself and looked down at his hand. "But, believe me, Jason will be fine, and I'm going to find out who did this. But, right now, Jason would want to know that you're okay."
"I'm fine!" She shook her head and lowered her cheek to rest on her knees. Sam bit her bottom lip to stop its quivering. "I just need to know about Jason, alright? I just…" She stopped as a familiar voice, almost shrew-like, followed the whoosh of the automatic doors opening. "And you should handle that 'cause if she comes starting with me, I swear I'll hit her. No offense, but I can't handle…" Her arm waved out behind her without her body turning. "…that, right now."
Lorenzo sighed and turned his head. Sam would have said that he couldn't handle it, either, but if there were anyone besides Jason who could handle Carly Alcazar, it was her husband. He gave her a final pat on the leg and rose to his feet, leaving Sam alone.
Being by herself, she could focus on what was important. She stared across the hall and looked into the room that had previously held Jason. She'd stood at the window, staring inside, waiting for someone to tell her anything. Waiting for someone other than the police or Alexis to talk to her. Now, the room was empty except for the orderlies cleaning up the floor. They were preparing the room for someone else, and if they ever put anyone inside, she would finally turn away. Without Jason in the room, it wasn't quite as important as it had been half an hour before.
Sam curled herself up tighter and decided to wait. Someone had to come and talk to her. Someone had to tell her how the surgery was going, even if it were just to tell her that Jason wasn't out yet. And at some point, the District Attorney would make his way towards her and badger her a lot more than Mac had. And then, Alexis Davis would take him off of her hands and she would be free to wait again. Because if there was one thing that D.A. Ric Lansing enjoyed more than his ever-failing attempts to destroy Alcazar's empire, it was facing off with the firey Cassadine attorney.
