Ch. 18 The Bitter Ache

Voices. She heard voices. Not very well. It was like trying to listen to a detuned radio, only catching random words and phrases before static could block it out.

"…much longer like this? Why hasn't…..yet?" one asked.

"…hard to say…" another answered.

She wondered if they were talking about her. It was possible. Against her body's will, she forced her eyes open. The bright light fiercely stung her eyes. On reflex she closed them and brought her hand up to her head. The movement felt like it took more effort than it should have. Letting her hand slide back down, she could feel how drained her body was. She opened her eyes again and blinked and squinted several times to try to adjust to the light. Unintentionally, a slight groan escaped her throat. As it did, a man appeared at her side, taking her hand in his.

"Hi." he greeted softly stroking the back of her hand with his free one. "How do you feel?"

She wanted to answer him, to talk to him, to find out what was going and what had happened. But she was exhausted; not having the energy to keep up any longer, her head fell to the side and her eyelids drooped closed once more.

Jason stroked her hand while he held it in his as he gazed at her sleeping form. He returned her hand to the bed before standing up. Though he didn't want to leave, he knew there were people who wanted to know what was going on. He looked back once before closing the door and heading towards the waiting room.

The man ran a hand through his slick black hair as he paced. It felt like it had been forever since they'd arrived. A million thoughts ran through his head. But the biggest one of all was "who?" He didn't know the details about what happened, all he knew was what he'd been told. Robin said she was told to go somewhere and Jason followed. So whoever it was had to have known that Jason was following her, otherwise it didn't make sense. Robin had never met his sister, what significance would it have for her to be there alone?

The steady rhythm of tapping brought Sonny's attention to his wife, who sat impatiently hitting her foot against the time tile floor. He knew if it weren't for the weight of the situation he would've been give the "I told you so." speech she loved to use so much. She'd been telling him the whole time that something was going on. But he just dismissed it and now they were waiting for someone to tell them what was going on.

Jason stood just outside the waiting area before going in. His mind still reeling from the events and discoveries he'd come across earlier in the day.

"Oh my god." he whispered.

For the shortest second possible, Jason was frozen in place. His mind knew it was real, but his heart didn't want to believe it. It wasn't right. It wasn't real. It couldn't be. But it was. He was really standing there. The instant the realization fully hit him, he was no longer frozen.

"Courtney? Oh God, Courtney." he spoke trying to keep from hyperventilating. He hovered above her still form and cupped her face with his hands. He placed his shaking hands to check for a pulse before he began caressing her cheek with the back of his hand. He would rather wake up alone, thinking she was off having a better life without him than o have her before him like this. Hearing movement behind him, he remembered he wasn't there alone. He turned around and looked at Robin and the nurse who stood watching him.

"What the hell's going on here?" he asked anger obvious in his tone.

"Sir, you need to-"

"Tell me what's going on! What did you do to her?" he asked his eyes growing darker with anger and rage. "What did you do to Courtney?"

"That's Courtney?" Robin asked, trying to preserve her innocent image by playing dumb. Luckily for her, as far as everyone knew, she'd never met or seen the girl before.

Jason ignored her question and held his stare on the intimidated nurse. HE was furious in a way he'd never felt before.

"How long has she been here?" he asked barely containing his anger.

"I-uh, I just started a week ago. She was already here." she stuttered.

"She doesn't belong here!" he shouted. He went to back to her and tugged at the straps viciously. Once they were detached, he gently snaked his arms under her and lifted her into his embrace.

"You-you can't do that, sir."

"Try and stop me." he growled dangerously before walking past the woman. Robin was in shock at how quickly everything had gone down and regained herself in time to catch up with Jason who had obviously forgotten about her.

"Jason." Carly called bringing her husband's attention to the distraught man approaching them. "What's going on?"

"Uh, She woke up for a second."

"Did she say anything?" Carly asked. Jason only shook his head and placed a hand on the back of his neck rubbing at the tension that had made a home in the particular spot.

"But she's ok, right? Health wise?"

"I don't know Carly, they're running all sorts of blood tests right now to check." he looked around before speaking again. "Robin leave?"

"Who cares" Carly replied quickly.

Jason ignored her remark. Her feelings for Robin weren't important at the moment. He had questions, and she was going to answer them. But even that would have to wait until after they knew exactly what was going on with the blonde that held his heart.

"Jason?" she interrupted, her voice noticeable softer that before and slightly wavering. "You don't think…I mean, she wasn't in that place this whole time. Was she?"

"I don't know." he didn't admit that the same question was eating at him along with countless others. What if he'd gone looking for her from the beginning like Carly said? What if he hadn't cancelled lunch that day? What if he hadn't run into Robin? So many questions.