Chapter 26
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Lucky pointed the gun at Jason and pulled the trigger. Before Jason could stop her, Elizabeth ran in front of him falling into his arms as the bullet entered her body. Lucky cried out and dropped to his knees. Jason ignored him and laid Elizabeth gently on the ground. Her sweater was already covered in blood.
"Elizabeth, Elizabeth. You have to open your eyes." He took off his jacket and used it to apply pressure to her wound.
Her eyes slowly opened. "Jason," she whispered. She raised her hand to his cheek and tried to smile. She opened her mouth to say something but couldn't catch her breath. Her hand fell to the ground as she lost consciousness.
"No, Elizabeth, you need to stay awake," Jason shouted taking her face in his hands. She had stopped breathing. He reached for his cell phone to call an ambulance.
He tried to find a pulse and couldn't. Without thinking he began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation pumping air into her lungs. He needed to keep her breathing. He continued until a hand touched his shoulder. "Sir, you have to step away. We need to look at her," said a paramedic.
Jason stopped and looked around. The ambulance had arrived and two paramedics were waiting for him to move away and let them do their job. He hadn't even heard the sirens. He stood giving the paramedics space to work on her. He noticed people nearby watching the events. How long had they been there? Did they see the whole shooting or did they arrive after? Elizabeth would hate this, he thought. She wouldn't like knowing these people were seeing her at her weakest moment.
He looked at the blood on his hands. Elizabeth's blood. He couldn't think, couldn't move. All he could do was stare helplessly while the paramedics tried to keep her alive.
He snapped out of his trance when he realized they were placing her into the ambulance. He moved to join her. When the paramedic refused, he grabbed him and shoved him up against the ambulance door. He wasn't going to let her out of his sight. The paramedic reluctantly agreed.
Jason held her hand the entire way to the hospital. She arrested twice during the journey. The paramedic was forced to shock her to get her heart beating each time. In his mind, it didn't seem real. He was in the back of an ambulance with Elizabeth clinging to life, but he felt separate from everything. It was like he was dreaming. He thought if he reached out she would disappear like his other dreams. He touched her cheek. She didn't disappear.
He followed the gurney into the emergency room of General Hospital refusing to break his connection with her. The paramedics recited her vital statistics, but he just concentrated on her. Her eyes had not opened since that first time. Her skin was pale and lifeless. She barely resembled the smiling happy woman who had kissed him goodbye only two hours ago at Jake's.
Two orderlies were needed to pry his hands apart and keep him from entering the trauma room. He wasn't allowed passed the doors. Instead he could only stare through the window at the doctors and nurses working to save her life. He worried they were trying for nothing. She's dead he wanted to scream. He didn't want them butchering her beautiful body if she was already dead.
"Jason?" Bobbie came up behind him. "Are you all right?" She saw the blood on his clothes and hands. "What happened?"
He couldn't tear his eyes from the window. "Elizabeth was shot." His voice was devoid of emotion. He sounded as if this happened everyday.
"What? Where's Lucky? Does he know?" She didn't wait for a reply. She entered the room to see where she was needed.
Jason wanted to laugh. Does Lucky know? Lucky shot her. Anger began to break through the nothingness he was feeling. He wanted to kill Lucky. His hands clenched into fists. Had Lucky been standing beside him, he would have ripped him apart with his bare hands.
He couldn't remember what happened to Lucky after Elizabeth was shot. He was sure he wasn't there when the ambulance arrived. He must have run off when Jason was trying to keep Elizabeth alive. He wanted to hunt him down. He wanted to spend days punishing Lucky for hurting Elizabeth, but he wouldn't. She wouldn't have wanted him to hurt Lucky. She would never forgive him if he caused Lucky's death.
The doors flew open as they brought her out. They didn't stop. They rushed her to the elevators. He was able to only catch a glimpse of her before the elevator closed. A hand touched his shoulder. Bobbie had stayed behind to let him know what was happening.
"They're taking her up to surgery, Jason," she said removing her mask. "The bullet is lodged near her aorta, and they need to remove it before it causes anymore damage."
"Will she be okay?"
She gave a sad smile. "I don't know. She's lost a lot of blood. Her heart is weak. They need to go in and find out just how much damage the bullet has done to it. If she makes it through the surgery, that will be a good sign. Why don't you go up to the surgical waiting area? One of the doctors will see you as soon as the surgery is over. I need to go call Audrey and Lucky. They'll want to know what's happened."
He watched her leave not sure what he should do. He couldn't sit in a waiting room until the doctor showed his face. He couldn't handle it. The hospital walls seemed to be closing in on him. He needed air. He needed to feel the wind on his face and get control of his emotions. Since the accident, he had spent his life keeping his emotions in check. At the time they were the only things he had control over. Now he couldn't. He felt lost. Without her he didn't have any direction. He wanted to run but he didn't know where to run to. He couldn't leave her, but he couldn't stay there.
He took the stairs two at a time to the roof. It was the next best thing to being on his motorcycle he could think of. He could feel the wind on his face and stare out to the water. He used to come up here after he came out of his coma. Whenever he couldn't handle another visitor, he would escape to the roof to hide out. He didn't know if they had looked for him, but he knew they never found him up there. He would sit for hours staring out to the water trying to figure out who he was and how he fit into his family domain since he couldn't remember them. The water always gave him a sense of peace. It had calmed him allowing him to face his family without breaking anything.
As he stared out over the water he waited for the calm to come, but it didn't. All he could see was Elizabeth's blood soaked body. She couldn't die. Without her he didn't think he could live. His body would function, but he would be dead inside. He would live in the nothingness that was his life before Elizabeth entered it. Was this what she felt when she had lost Lucky in the fire? Was this the torment she had gone through? This despair that his life was over. Was that what had driven her to go to Jake's that night? He understood her need to feel anything but the pain of losing the one you loved. He wished he could feel anything but this nothingness that encased his heart.
Tears fell down his cheeks, but he did nothing to stop them. He needed to suffer. Elizabeth was struggling to live because of him. His selfish desire to be with her was going to kill her. He thought of all the people who had warned her to stay away from him. They were right. He did only bring her pain and misery. If she died, he would be the one who killed her. He shouldn't have come back. Her life was perfect before he entered it. He selfishly thought he knew what was right for her. He thought she was living a lie, but it was better to live a lie then die with the truth wasn't it.
He wasn't sure how long he stayed on the roof, but when he finally made his way to the surgical waiting area, it was with purpose. He needed to know how she was then he was going to leave. He didn't want to cause her anymore pain. He needed to protect her from him.
He stopped by the nurses' desk when he saw who was in the waiting area. Audrey and Laura clung to each other both deep in tears. Luke was trying desperately to console them without much success. They were inconsolable. Sonny and Carly sat across from them quiet mourning in their own way. The scene told him everything he needed to know. Elizabeth was dead. They wouldn't be this distraught if she had survived the surgery. For a second his heart stopped beating.
Sonny must have said something to set Luke off. He left his grieving wife and grabbed Sonny shoving him up against the wall. Jason couldn't understand what could cause Luke to attack Sonny. None of this was Sonny's fault. He was to blame for Elizabeth's death, not Sonny, not Carly, not Lucky, but him. He would have to live with that knowledge the rest of his life.
"Oh my God," Laura whispered seeing Jason standing in front of her covered in blood. "You murderer," she yelled rushing over to strike him. Jason didn't defend himself. He stood letting her hit him repeatedly. It was only the first in many punishments he deserved.
Carly grabbed Laura's arms and pulled her away from him. He almost told her 'no, let her continue', but he couldn't say anything. What was there to say? He was standing with Elizabeth's blood on his hands. Laura was right. He was a murderer.
Before Laura or anyone else could do anything, Taggert approached him. Jason hadn't even seen the detective standing by the wall. He'd been too focused on the people mourning Elizabeth to notice the other people near the waiting area.
"Jason Morgan," Taggert came up behind him handcuffs in his hands, "you're under arrest for the murder of Lucky Spencer and the attempted murder of Elizabeth Webber. You have the right…"
Jason didn't hear a word. He didn't care what Taggert had to say. Elizabeth was dead. Anything Taggert had to say was unimportant. He didn't resist as Taggert handcuffed him. He could hear Audrey's sobbing and Sonny and Carly yelling at Taggert, but couldn't see them. All he saw was Elizabeth smiling face, and knew he would never see it again. Elizabeth was dead. Taggert pushed him towards the elevators. Sonny was telling him Alexis would meet him at the station, but he didn't want Alexis there. He wasn't going to fight the charge. Elizabeth was dead. It didn't matter what happened to him.