Ch. 31 Still Frame

"It doesn't matter, ok? Because, yes, I'll be here or there or wherever you need me." he reached our once again to touch her face, but this time she didn't pull away. Her felt her skin, cold and wet from the shower they stood in, and instinctively pulled her closer until he could feel her lips against his. the sweet lips he'd missed for so long. To him, the world disappeared when he kissed her, but it was still there. A roll of thunder sounded and Courtney abruptly pulled away from him.

"No, this is crazy. I love A.J."

"What did you say?" Jason asked, shocked at what he thought he'd heard. Her face told him she was just as surprised at him, if not more.

"I'm...not sure. It just came out." she said, nervously pushing her wet hair behind her ear. "What was that?"

"It was, uh, it was what you said after our first kiss." he said, feeling a smile threaten to appear as he thought about the night. "It was raining, we were fighting, and we kissed."

"Who's A.J.?" she asked.

"A.J. is..." he sighed, realizing how complicated everything was in their life. "A.J. is my brother, and-and your ex-husband."

She opened the door and burst into the apartment, hoping to see him. Hoping everything was better and he'd just forgotten to call her. But no one was there.

"Where are you?" Carly asked the empty penthouse.

She was doing her best not to call every two seconds. She'd been waiting at her place alone, going stir crazy, waiting for her phone to ring. However, if she had one wish, it wouldn't be for the call. She would want to see her two best friends waltz through the door, smiling and happy. Telling her she was being crazy, or how her plans never work and she shouldn't even bother.

A noise upstairs snapped her out of her thought. She ran up the stairs hoping to see one of their faces. She opened the door to the master bedroom and all but ran in.

"Court-" she stopped when she saw the woman. "What are you doing here?"

"I live here, remember?" Robin replied, matter of factly. Carly rolled her eyes, wishing the woman would disappear.

"What was that noise?"

"I just dropped something." she responded, wanting to quickly clean up the mess she'd made, before the woman saw. But Carly was faster than she thought. "It's nothing."

"Like hell, it's nothing." she spat angrily, picking up the shattered frame. Cautious of the broken glass, she pulled the photo out.

Looking at the paper that captured the happy moment between her two friends, she briefly forgot that there was any troubles in their life at the moment. For the moment they were perfect; a picture. But they weren't, she remembered how torn apart Jason was when they all thought that Courtney left. She'd come over one day to find all their pictures had been taken down. Though, she never actually thought he'd throw them out, she knew he had put them away.

"Where did you get this?" she furiously asked the brunette.

"I found it." she replied.

"How? By snooping through everything?" she asked, knowing Jason would probably put something he held dear somewhere safe. "Why did you break it?"

"It was an accident. I told you I dropped it." she lied. Robin was happy to see when she moved in that there were no pictures of the "happy couple" around. It was just something else that assured her she could get him back. That was before. Before the girl came back into his life. As if that didn't make things harder for her, but tonight she found not only did he have pictures of them together. He basically had a shrine to the girl. She'd never felt so angry before. It wasn't an accident that the picture was smashed.

"Bull. You expect me to believe that you had nothing to do with breaking a picture of your ex and the woman he loves?" she asked.

"Loved." Robin said, correcting her.

"What the hell are you talking about? You can't be dense enough to think he doesn't love Courtney." she said, laughingly at her.

"Just the opposite, actually. Unfortunately, I know that Jason loves Courtney. But that doesn't matter now."

"Why not? Because you're here to steal his heart away?" she asked sarcastically.

"Because the woman that came back, the woman that you and everyone sees now...isn't Courtney." she stated happily.

"You're crazier then I thought. Of course that's Courtney." she said, defensively.

"Wrong, it's a Courtney, sure, but it's not your Courtney." she answered, keeping her self-celebration inside as the power in the conversation transferred to her. "The person in that picture doesn't exist anymore. You know it, I know it, and Jason knows it."

"She does exist. She's there, and we're going to help find her. And when that happens, you won't have a leg to stand on."

"Now who's lying?" Robin retorted. " Jason knows what it's like to be in that position, and he's not going to push her to remember anything. He's not going to tell her that they had some fabulous love that was written in the stars. He's not going to tell her about the rock he put on her finger. Why? Because he knows it won't help. Nothing will. She's gone, and the sooner he realizes it and comes to terms with it, I'll be right there to help him through the difficult time."

Carly listened in awe to the woman's rant. She knew she resented Courtney and her relationship with Jason. But this was bordering on obsession. She felt she should tell Sonny or Jason about it, but they would probably just write it off as her hate for the woman. No, she needed more before she could go to them about her.

"So, what, you came to town hoping something like this would happen and you could work your way in?" Carly asked to keep her going. She had a feeling that Robin was reaching her slip. And when she did, she would be there to make sure there was hell to pay.

"God, no. And you're calling me dense? I couldn't hang around waiting for a miracle all the while watching her enjoy having everything that belongs to me. Sonny swore to always protect me. Jason was in love with me. Then one day, out of no where, there she is. 'Surprise Sonny. Guess what? Daddy couldn't keep it in his pants so here I am.' And it was that easy. She just shows up and claims to be Mike's daughter and everyone loves her. Did anyone even think it was a con? Was there ever a DNA test or something? No. Because she's Courtney. Saint Courtney, perfect to a fault, right?" she angrily continued.

Carly was starting to get worried, wondering just how unstable she really was.

"You're crazy." she said in disbelief at how volatile she was against her friend.

"Crazy?" she repeated. "No, that's not me, remember? I'm not the one who was in the nuthouse! I'm not the one put in the pretty white room! Screaming for help so loud that they had to drug me 'til I didn't know up from down!" she shouted. "I'm not crazy."

"Screaming for help?" Carly repeated, feeling her heart break at the thought of her friend calling for help and getting punished for it.

"Yes, screaming. 'Please. Let me out of here! I'm not crazy! I don't belong here! Let me go, blah, blah, blah.'" she mocked, remembering the sound of it. "God, it was annoying. I didn't think there were enough drugs in the world to ever shut her up."

Releasing all of that made her feel a lot better. Venting at the someone, she felt like a weight had been lifted. Seeing the look on Carly's face as she put one and one together, she knew she had gone too far.

"You were there." Carly accused. "You were behind this."

"N-No, I was just-" she stammered backing away as the other woman advanced threateningly.

"Don't try to deny it," Carly seethed. "It was you. It was you, and I'm going to make you pay, you psychotic bitch!"

not much journey this time...but perhaps a yay none the less?