Leave it to Carly Corinthos to interrupt at the perfect or not so perfect time.

This incident was clearly a mixture of both and Jason felt slightly relieved, slightly annoyed. He wanted to hear what Elizabeth had to say but he also wanted to run from it.

And he didn't want to two of them to get into another fight while they were in a hospital, Elizabeth still recovering from a concussion.

"She wouldn't listen to me," Max said as he came in behind Carly, "I told her that everything was fine but she insisted that she come see you. It was either her driving here by herself or me bringing her," the helpless bodyguard shrugged.

"It's okay, Max," Jason nodded.

"Obviously everything wasn't fine if miss goody two shoes is lying in a hospital bed and my child, and your child Jason, is God knows where."

"Jason and my child, along with Michael, are fine," Elizabeth said as she struggled to sit up in bed. Jason was beside her, pressing a large hand against her shoulder, trying to push her back, "They're at the Brownstone with Bobbie and Francis."

Carly actually snorted, "What happened? Did you trip over your halo?"

"Carly, that's enough," Jason said.

"No," Elizabeth said finally succeeding in sitting upright and wincing slightly, "No, let her continue. Let her stand here and have a fit about how horrible I am, how much of a wicked person I am, how everyone thinks that I'm so damn perfect and she just knows I'm not."

"I don't have to prove that anymore, Elizabeth," Carly smirked as she crossed her arms across her chest, "You've already gone and proven to the world the type of woman you are. It's bad enough that you broke up a marriage, wait until this city finds out that you kept your little boy away from his father for three whole years."

"And the pleasure you will get out of that," Elizabeth laughed bitterly, "I haven't done anything to you…"

"Excuse me!" Carly screamed, "You stole my husband!"

"I wasn't aware that I could steal something that you had already left."

"You threw me out of my own penthouse."

Elizabeth laughed, "I'm surprised Jason actually believed that, I'm surprised anyone believes that when you tell them. You are the one who packed your bags, Carly. You are the one who told Sonny that you were leaving. I asked Johnny to usher you out after you slapped Sonny, after the blows started coming. You made the first move."

"You were screwing around with my husband," Carly seethed as she moved closer to the bed, only to be stopped by Jason's hand on her arm.

"No, I was not," Elizabeth said quietly, "You have no idea when Sonny and I began our relationship. You never bothered to look past your hurt feelings and wounded pride. You just assumed, like you always do. Assumed I was screwing around with Jason, assumed Sonny was screwing around with Brenda, assumed I was screwing around with Sonny. Well," she said with a twisted smile, "Made an ass out of you didn't it."

"Are you going to let her talk to me like that?" Carly asked looking at Jason with glassy eyes.

"Don't do that," Elizabeth snapped, "Don't turn to him when you swore to me, to everybody that would listen, that you could handle little Lizzie Webber. For four years Carly, no for a hell of a lot longer than that, you've been treating me like a whore, and it all started because I became friends with Jason. You can blame me for falling in love with your husband all your want," she looked at Jason, a sadness in her eyes, "I blame myself sometimes simply because of the people who got hurt in the situation," her eyes flashed back to Carly, anger in them, "But stop blaming me for helping Jason after what you did to him."

Carly laughed, the tears gone from her eyes, as that familiar smirk appeared on her face. "Wonder who's going to help Jason now after what you did to him."

Elizabeth almost shot out of the bed, that comment hitting to close to him, and she gripped her head, cringing and hissing.

"It's time to go, Carly," he said as he took her by the elbow and headed towards the door, "Elizabeth, I'll be back."

"Don't," Elizabeth said quietly as she pressed her hand against her forehead and laid back down on the bed, "I'll be asleep."

She sighed and laid back against the bed, nearly curling into a ball with her back facing the door. He wasn't slightly relieved anymore and he wanted to kill Carly.

Carly pulled away from him once the door behind Elizabeth's room was shut, "I can't believe you. That woman tramps all of your heart and you just let her continue to do it, time and time again. What's it going to take, Jas?"

"Can you leave us alone for a minute?" Jason asked looking towards Johnny and Max.

"I'll get some more coffee," Johnny said, still glaring at Jason before he and Max disappeared.

Jason turned back to Carly, trying to hold back the anger that he felt in his gut, trying to remind himself that she was in pain, they were all in pain and that something dangerous was lingering on the horizon.

"You need to stay out of my personal life, Carly, I'm not going to tell you that again," he said as he moved away from her and ran his hand over his face.

"She was your personal life, Jason," Carly said turning to face his back, "But when you left town she decided to plop herself right into mine and I do not want her there."

"So why fight her now?" Jason asked turning towards her, "Why after all this time must you come in and start a fight with her in a hospital no less? Why didn't you start fighting four years ago?"

"I didn't start a fight with her…"

"Carly," Jason said with a small laugh, "I know you too well for you to pull that with me. The two of you can't be in the same room together without exploding. Max told you that everything was fine…"

"Yet Francis is guarding Michael," Carly said, "And Miss Muffet…"

"Carly! Enough!"

"Jesus Jas, if the Mafia only knew how forgiving you were with a tiny little…"

"I forgave you didn't I?" Jason asked, "I remember seven years ago walking into the penthouse I'm living at now and seeing Sonny in a robe and you coming down the steps in his shirt. You put me in danger too many times to count, you took Michael away from me after I swore to you that everything would be alright, after I lov…" He stepped back from her, taking a deep breath, calming himself, "What makes what Elizabeth has done to me any different than what you have?"

Carly avoided his eyes, looked down at the floor, felt her whole body tense as images of the horrific things she had done to Jason flashed before her mind. But that was her, that was what she did, Elizabeth was a completely different story.

"Is it so different because we were in love with her?" Jason asked, "Is that it?"

"You were never in love with her," Carly practically growled as she looked up at him, a lone tear trickling down her face.

"I was in love with her," Jason said as he looked past Carly towards Elizabeth's room, through the window where her body had relaxed and she was obviously sleeping.

His heart constricted painfully.

"Why does she get to have it all?" Carly asked, "Why does she get the family and the child and the security?"

Jason's eyes moved back to her, "Why did you walk away from it? Both you and Sonny did. The two of you were perfect for each other and you couldn't realize it because you both kept pushing each other's buttons."

Kinda like he and Elizabeth were doing to each other right now.

"You just kept fighting and accusing and hurting each other," he said quietly, "Pointing fingers, pointing out the blame."

That's what he and Elizabeth did, blamed each other, accused each other, hurt each other.

"I don't think either of you realized until it was too late what you had," Jason said as his eyes moved from Carly's face back to Elizabeth's room, "I don't think either of you realized the connection you had, the bond you share."

God Elizabeth, we're right there.

"How much you loved each other."

How much I'm still in love with her.

"Are we talking about me and Sonny?" Carly asked, "Or you and Elizabeth?"

Jason's eyes lingered on the mother of his child before they fell back on Carly, whose eyes held accusation and pain, "I know how much you meant to Sonny. What I don't know is why he threw it all away."

"Because of her," Carly said, "It doesn't matter how hard I pushed…"

"You knew that you could only push so much, Carly," he said, "Sonny could only handle so much. Can you really blame Elizabeth if you pushed him right out of your life?"

"Can you blame Sonny if you pushed her out of yours?"

Jason stood there mute, numb, as he was rendered speechless. He walked away from Elizabeth, he pushed her away more times than he could count and Sonny was there to pick up the pieces.

Where did the blame lay?

Jason watched Carly's eyes grow big before they moved past him, behind him and she said his own name softly. He turned, followed her gaze and saw Francis standing there, his arm placed around the shoulder of his son and JJ, crying, clutching a book.

"JJ, what happened?" Jason asked as he dropped to his knees quickly, opening his arms for his little boy.

JJ ran into them, sniffing as he buried his head against his father's shoulder, "I'm sorry Daddy, I didn't mean to listen."

Jason's arms came around his son and he held him tight against him, picking him up in his arms as he came to stand in front of Francis, Carly at his side.

"What happened?"

"He heard me talking to Bobbie," Francis said quietly, "I wasn't aware that he was awake, we both thought that he was sleeping," he looked at his feet before continuing on, "I told Bobbie that Elizabeth was in the hospital."

"I didn't mean to listen," JJ said pulling back and looking at Jason while the tears ran down his cheeks, "Mama told me it was never nice to listen to other people talk, that I should always say when I'm there but I was just coming down," he hiccupped and rubbed his sleeve against his nose before continuing, "And I heard Uncle Francis say that Mama was hurt, she hit her head. I wanted to see her Daddy, Uncle Francis said no but I have to see her. I have to make sure she's okay."

"Jason, I'm sorry," Francis said quietly, "I should've checked to make sure…"

"It's okay, Francis," Jason said as he soothed his son by rubbing him on his back, "Can you please take Carly home or maybe to the Brownstone so she could see Michael?"

"I know that now is not the time," Carly said quietly as she reached up and gently patted JJ's hair, "But I'd like to finish this conversation."

Jason nodded as JJ looped one arm around his father's neck while his tears quieted down, "Francis will stay if you need him."

"I know he will," Carly said and smiled at JJ, "It was good seeing you."

"Bye Aunt Carly," JJ said before burying his face in his father's chest again.

"Goodnight, Jas."

"Goodnight," Jason said as he watched Francis usher her out of the hospital hallway and towards the elevator. He then pressed a soft kiss to his son's hair, "You Mom is just fine. She's sleeping right now."

"Can I…" JJ hiccupped again, "Can I see her please?"

"I really think you should be in bed," Jason said, "She'd be really worried right now if she knew that you were up worrying about her. She just has a cut on her head; they put a big bandage on it and want to keep her here just to make sure she's okay."

Two big fat tears rolled down JJ's cheeks as his lower lip trembled, "I don't want Mama to go away like Uncle Sonny did."

Jason pulled his son back into his arms so the little child wouldn't see him cry. His heart just shattered into a million pieces and knew that once he regained control of himself he would take JJ in to see his mother.

Whoever the hell did this was going to pay and it would be done with Jason's own bare hands.

"Let's go see her," Jason said as he put JJ down then reached up to brush his own tears away quickly before his son noticed. He then smiled and wiped away JJ's with the pads of his thumbs. It was then that he remembered the book he was holding.

"What do you have there?" he asked taking JJ's hand and leading him to the door, pushing it open and letting JJ walk in first.

"My favorite book," JJ said, "Mama used to read it to me all the time when I was little. She reads it to me once a week now. I take it everywhere. Michael likes it too."

"What's it called?" Jason asked as he bent down to JJ's level again. He wanted to child's focus on him before he actually saw Elizabeth lying in the bed with the monitors beeping around her. He wanted to make this as easy for him as possible.

JJ smiled as he held it up to his father, "It's a book about Italy."

Jason hands shook as he reached out and took the large, hard covered book from his son. It was so heavy he wasn't sure how JJ was able to carry it, but he did, and with pride. The pages were worn, folded down at the corners for JJ's favorite parts; the cities were highlighted with bright yellow marker.

One of them was Venice.

Jason felt the tears fill his eyes again and he felt some of the anger inside of him being directed at himself.

This is what he walked away from; this is what he was getting for pushing everything and everyone away. This kind of torture, this kind of pain. He deserved every minute of it.

He scooped his son up in his arms and started to walk him towards the bed, "I know that this is a little scary," he said, "But these monitors are just to make sure that your Mom is okay, see how they're beeping? That's normal, that means she's doing just fine."

"She looks tired," JJ said as he reached down and touched Elizabeth's chestnut colored hair, so much like his own.

"She is," Jason said quietly, "That's why she's sleeping."

"Can I sleep with her?" JJ asked, "I'll be real careful."

Jason nodded as he placed his son down in the bed and watched as JJ, every so carefully, situated himself around his mother, sliding one arm around her waist and burying his head against her back.

"I'm here Mama, I love you."

There were the tears again and this time Jason couldn't hold them back. He stood there, the book of Italy clutched in his hand, his son buried against the body of his own mother and the world started to close in on him, started to spin, but her voice, that sweet voice, brought him back.

"Jason?" she whispered confused and then she looked down, saw JJ, saw his wonderful smile and the tears in his eyes. Her own face lit up and she brought him tightly against her as she twisted around in bed, waving back the nausea that assaulted her when she moved. "Hi baby."

"Oh Mama you're okay!" JJ said as he hugged her tightly, "Uncle Francis and Daddy told me you were but I just had to see."

"He overheard Francis," Jason said quietly as he brought the book up against his heart.

"I didn't mean to hear," JJ said, "I was coming downstairs, I couldn't sleep."

"It's okay," Elizabeth smiled as she smoothed down some of his curls, "It's okay, I'm glad to see you."

"I brought my book," JJ said as he motioned the one that Jason had a death grip on, "Daddy can read to us, he can read to us until we fall asleep."

"Oh honey, Daddy's tired, I don't…"

"I can," Jason said as he grabbed the nearest chair and pulled it up beside the bed, "I want to. What part do you want me to read?"

"Venice," JJ said as Elizabeth pulled him into her arms and he wiggled against her, "Mama loves to read about Venice. She promised to take me there one day."

"I'd like to come too," the words were out of his mouth before he even realized what he was saying. When he saw Elizabeth's startled surprise, he nearly regretted saying it, that was until he looked into those blue eyes and saw a shred a happiness shine through.

The first real sign of happiness in over a week.

He was glad he put that back in her eyes.

He cleared his throat and flipped through the pages until he came to the highlighted section of Venice. As he started to read he couldn't help the smile that appeared on his face as both JJ and Elizabeth's eyes drifted closed.

"Venice, Italy receives only about thirty inches of rain annually according to the elevation…"