Chapter 13
Fire and medical personnel were everywhere. The warehouse was on fire and the firemen were trying diligently to put it out. The police had taped off the area around the warehouse stopping anyone except paramedics and firemen from going near the building. Elizabeth stood behind the tape frantically searching for Jason.
A second explosion hit. It was smaller than the first but its heat radiated from the warehouse hitting Elizabeth stinging her eyes. Jason can't die, she silently pleaded. I need him too much. She felt a hand on her back.
"Elizabeth, let's go. There's nothing we can do here."
She turned to look at Lucky. She had forgotten he was there. She couldn't leave. Before she could reply she saw a fireman walking near her. She touched his arm to get his attention. "Please, can you tell me if Sonny Corinthos has been found yet?"
The fire fighter looked down at her perspiration and smoke covered his face. "Not yet." He turned and walked away without looking back to her.
Elizabeth looked back towards the warehouse. Jason, please be okay. She felt so helpless. After Lucky, she had promised herself she would never feel like that again. But she did now. An odd sense of déjà vu rushed through her. She was standing outside a burning building waiting helplessly as a person she loved was fighting for his life. Only this time, it was worse. Jason had saved her when Lucky had died, who would save her when Jason died?
She heard shouting from the warehouse. "They're coming out!" She saw movement from the building's entrance. At first she didn't know what it was. There was too much smoke to make out who it was. She saw a figure walking through the smoke. He was moving slowly. He looked like he was dragging something. As the smoke cleared, she saw that it was Jason half carrying half dragging an unconscious Sonny. Jason released Sonny to the paramedics running toward them. He waved off the one trying to assess him. He wanted them to take care of Sonny.
Jason started coughing and bent forward, his hands resting on his knees. He looked up when he was able to catch his breath and stared straight into Elizabeth's eyes. She was standing next to Lucky with a bunch of white roses in her arms. Her face was devoid of anything. She stood like a statue. That worried him. He had never seen her like that before. With Lucky standing beside her, he didn't know if he should see if she was all right or just leave her. He wasn't even sure he had enough strength to go over there. He wanted her to come to him. He wanted to take her in his arms and kiss her. He wanted to feel alive after almost dying and she was the only thing that really made him alive, but he knew she would never do that. She was with Lucky even now. Why was it so hard to remember that fact?
Elizabeth stood frozen looking at Jason. Her mind couldn't quite process what her eyes were seeing. Jason was all right. He wasn't dead. He was covered in dirt, sweat and smoke, but he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life.
"Elizabeth, Sonny's going to be okay. Let's go to Kelly's." Lucky's voice seemed to be coming from a far off place rather than just next to her.
She looked at Sonny. The paramedics were placing him on a gurney. Carly was gripping his hand and touching his face. Tears were running down her face. Elizabeth hadn't even known Carly was there. Her whole being had been fully concentrated on Jason and him being okay she hadn't even seen Carly arrive. Jason! She looked back to the place where he was last. For a second she almost believed she hadn't seen him. That he hadn't come out of the building and had really died inside the warehouse. The panic rose deep inside her again. She closed her eyes. When she opened them again, he was there. He hadn't moved from his position. He was still staring at her. She could see the need in his eyes. He needs me, she thought. He started to cough breaking their connection.
That seemed to snap her out of her frozen state. She moved to grab the police tape, dropping Lucky's flowers. She barely registered Lucky calling after her as she ran toward Jason. She ran into him almost knocking him down, her arms going around him.
"You're alive, you're alive!" she said desperately tears forming in her eyes. She tightened her hold as if she would never let go again. "I thought you were going to die."
"It's all right. It's all right." Jason's voice was husky and rough from the smoke. He held her for a second savouring the feel of her arms around him. As much as he wanted to hold her for the rest of his life, he saw Lucky approach and knew he had to let go.
He tried to remove her arms from around his neck, but she held on tighter. "Elizabeth." He tried again with a little more force. When she wouldn't move, he used all the strength he had left to push her away. He looked into her eyes. Placing a reassuring hand on her cheek and looking into her eyes, he said, "Elizabeth, I'm okay."
Before she could say anything, Lucky had caught up to her. "Elizabeth, what's going on?"
She turned to look at him. "Jason saved Sonny's life."
"I see that. I didn't know he was in town," he said with suspicion. "Did you?"
She quickly turned her head back to Jason. "No, I didn't. It was a shock seeing him coming out of the warehouse." The lie flowed easily out of her mouth.
Lucky looked at her trying to decide if she was telling the truth. Her reaction seemed to contradict what she had said. He knew at one time she and Jason were friends or at least that was what she said. Nicholas had hinted at more. Looking at her now, he wondered if Nicholas was right.
Paramedics coming for Jason interrupted Lucky's thoughts. He watched quietly as Jason refused to go to the hospital.
"Jason, you have to go to the hospital and make sure you're okay," she said forgetting about Lucky again.
"Elizabeth, I'm fine. I don't need to go to the hospital," he replied even as coughing overtook him again.
"You're not fine. Please, for me?"
He looked at her for a moment then at Lucky. He could see that Lucky was suspicious. He wanted to be here for Elizabeth when Lucky starting asking more questions. He looked back to her and saw the pleading in her eyes. She didn't just want him to go to the hospital to make sure he was all right; she also wanted him to get away from Lucky. She wanted to protect him from the questions she knew Lucky would ask. He didn't know what to do. He saw the determination in her eyes and knew he couldn't say no. With a shake of his head, he allowed the paramedics to walk him toward the ambulance.
It was only after Jason had been loaded into the ambulance and it had driven away did she turn back to Lucky. She saw the questions in his eyes. She knew she would have to answer them, but she didn't know if she could. She needed to calm herself. Her emotions were all over the place. She didn't like lying to Lucky but she also wanted to protect Jason.
"Can we talk about this at Kelly's please?" she asked before he could say anything.
He looked at her. He wanted to know what was going on. "Did you know Jason was in the warehouse? Is that why you wanted to come down here?"
"Sonny is my friend. I was concerned for him. When I saw Jason there, my concern went to him as well. They are my friends Lucky. I needed to make sure they were okay."
"They aren't your friends. They're dangerous. You shouldn't be associating with them."
"I'm not going to discuss this with you right now. Especially here," she waved her arms around. There were still standing outside the burning warehouse. Fire, police and medical personnel were working tirelessly around them trying to put the fire out and take care of the injured. She was surprised they hadn't been told to leave. "I'm going to Kelly's. You can come with me if you want." She turned and walked away without waiting for his reply.
As she walked to Kelly's, she couldn't get thoughts of the day out of her mind. She didn't know what was happening or how she felt about it. This morning she had woken fully intending to spend Valentine's Day with Lucky, the man she loved. Instead, she had kissed Jason and probably done more if the warehouse hadn't exploded. Then she had almost lost him. She could still feel the panic inside her. It scared her. It was so intense. She had never felt like that before. Even with Lucky. She hadn't thought it was possible. When Lucky had died, the pain had been so great she had wanted to die too. Just thinking that Jason was dead, Elizabeth had already felt dead. There was no pain, no hurt. There was nothing. With Lucky the nothingness came after the pain, after the crying. As she stood waiting to here that Jason was dead, she felt nothing. Her whole body had seemed to shut down. There was no pain, only emptiness. If Jason had died, she knew she couldn't have survived. When had Jason become such an integral part of her life?
"Elizabeth? Are you all right?"
She looked up to see Emily coming out of Kelly's. How did she get here?
"Elizabeth?" Emily was worried. Elizabeth looked dazed. Had something happened to Lucky? "Is it Lucky?"
"Lucky? No, it's Jason."
"Jason? What about Jason?" Emily demanded.
"You need to go to the hospital," Elizabeth told her best friend. "Jason's there. There was an explosion at the warehouse."
"What!" Emily took off before Elizabeth could say anything else.
Elizabeth made her way through Kelly's and up to her room. She saw Lucky's Valentine's present lying on her bed. As she sat down and ran her hand over the scrapbook, she started to cry.