Disclaimer: I don't own anything…
Last Train Home Ch. 12:
The short ride to the Cellar had been unbearably uncomfortable. Jason kept his hands clenched to the wheel while his eyes never once wavered off of the road. Courtney on the other hand, had spent most of the journey trying in vain to find a something on the radio. Unfortunately, sweet love songs were the only ones that were being broadcast that day. Letting out an annoyed sigh, she turned the dial off and began busying herself with scenery. A slight sense of relaxation seemed to filter between the two as the Cellar came into view. He barely had the car parked before the light brunette was hopping out the passenger side door.
"Hey, where's Jason?" Carly greeted her best friend as she entered. "Emily said that you two were coming together."
"Yeah, he's on his way in…" Courtney replied trying to avoid her friend's questioning eyes.
"Well, what happened?" Carly prodded. "I mean it's been almost an hour…"
"Nothing happened." Courtney answered a little too quickly, which furthered piqued the brunette's curiosity. "I need to umm…I just need to use the ladies room." The bride watched as the other woman darted off as fast as she could in her heels. She was about to follow when she noticed a young light haired man entering the restaurant.
"What did you do?" Carly accused before Jason even saw her.
"Well, nice to see you, too. The ceremony was beautiful. Congratulations." He smiled and was met with a cold glare. "Carly, this is your wedding. So why don't you enjoy it…"
"I can't enjoy it when my matron of honor is obviously upset."
"Courtney is not upset."
"Yes she is, Jason. And I have a feeling it's your fault." Carly growled. "So, tell me what you did so I can fix it."
"I didn't do anything." He replied and watched as his female best friend placed her hands on her hips. "Look, everything is going to be fine. Don't ruin your day over it." Before Carly could respond, the best man drifted off into the crowd.
Courtney touched up her make-up slightly in an effort to keep her mind off the embarrassment she felt. Jason had moved on. If his tryst with Elizabeth didn't make it glaringly obvious than the kiss cemented the fact. What was she thinking? How could she have let herself believe that he reciprocated the feelings that had been living in her heart for years. She heard the squeak of the door and noticed Emily's reflection in the mirror behind her.
"You alright?" She asked timidly and Courtney nodded. She wanted to keep what happened at the church to herself.
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"
"I just heard Carly talking to Jason and she said that you were upset." Emily explained.
"Of course she did," the other woman muttered in aggravation. "Carly was just being dramatic…"
"Well, you know if something happened and you want to talk about it…" The light brunette's doe eyes revealed sympathy and for a moment Courtney let her guard down.
"I'm pathetic and let's just leave it at that," she whispered trying to keep the sadness out of her voice.
"You know when Lucky and I first got together, I tried everything in my power to stop it," Emily whispered having an idea of what transpired between her brother and his ex wife. "After everything with Nikolas, I was so scared of getting hurt. God, I must have pushed him away a thousand times in an effort to save myself."
"Seems like that worked out real well for you."
"Yeah, well he persisted and I finally realized that there was no reason to fight it any longer." The younger woman smile remembering how stubborn Lucky Spencer could be. "Anyways, the point is that while your situation is different, Jason is operating in the same mode. He doesn't want to get hurt and he also doesn't want to hurt you in the process."
"Yeah, well he failed at that," Courtney grumbled.
"He's going to come around. After all, you are his soul mate." Emily assured.
"What makes you so sure of that?"
"Because he told me." She noticed the look of surprise on the other woman's face. "We were talking one night about a year ago…
Flashback
Jason found his sister on the docks overlooking the water. He noticed the look of sadness settled on her normally bright features. She offered him a smile when she saw him approach her.
"Everything alright?"
"Nope," she answered honestly. "Lucky wants to get married."
"That's a bad thing?"
"What if he isn't the one, Jase?" Her voice was shaking.
"I thought you loved him?"
"I do, but it's so different than the way I loved Nikolas that I'm not sure if it's right." He looked at her in silent contemplation. "I mean what if what Nikolas and I had was true love and I'm just trying to project that on to Lucky?"
"Em, I see the way your eyes light up when Spencer walks into the room and I never saw that when you were with Nik. I think you're just scared."
"I am not…" She tried to sound tough, but knew that her brother could see right through the act.
"Yes, you are. It's ok to be nervous." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I mean when Courtney and I got married, I was scared shitless."
"Why?"
"Because I knew that this was the one person that I could spend the rest of my life with and what if I wasn't enough for her?"
"How did you know that she was "the one"?" Emily asked softly. Her brother shifted uncomfortably, realizing that he opened the door for this line of questioning.
"I just did."
"Can you give me something more to work on, Jase. I mean this is the rest of my life we're talking about."
"Ok," he grumbled. "It was when we were on our way up to the cabin --you know-- to tell Sonny about our relationship. We got into an accident and I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it." He took a deep breath remembering the incident so clearly. "And right before I passed out…her face came to mind. Everyone says that their whole life flashes before their eyes in near death experiences, but the only thing I could see was her. I guess that's when I knew that she was it for me. She's my soul mate." Emily brushed a few tears away touched by the look of affection on her normally stoic brother.
"Why did you let her go?"
"Let's not get into that right now…" Jason replied. "But I will give you this piece of advice: Don't ever give up on your one true love, Em. Lucky makes you happy and I don't want to see you throw that away because of foolish doubts."
"Yeah well maybe you should take your own advice." His younger sister rebutted before giving him a small smile encouragement.
End Flashback
"I accepted Lucky's proposal the next day," Emily finished with a smile.
"That's very sweet, but I can tell you that things change." Courtney whispered rushing out of the bathroom. She slid through to masses of people with ease and had almost made it to the main table when a strong arm clasped around her wrist.
"Congratulations, man." Jason greeted the groom. Sonny had spent the better part of the last hour mingling and was glad to see a familiar face that he actually wanted to speak with. How he had let Carly talk him into inviting so many people? The Cellar was filled to maximum capacity with guests that he either didn't like or didn't know.
"Thank God you're here," Sonny offered one last grin to a woman, who swore that she went to grade school with Carly, before taking a few steps towards his best friend. "These people are out of their fucking minds," he whispered gesturing to the crowd around them. Jason smiled but didn't offer a response. "Where have you been?"
"Traffic was a bitch," he lied with ease.
"Yeah, I'm sure it was…" The other man replied skeptically. "Where's Courtney?"
"I'm not sure."
"You ok?" He had noticed the far away gaze in the younger man's blue eyes.
"I'm fine," Jason tried, but knew he wasn't fooling anyone. Luckily, Sonny's attention was divided as his whiskey colored gaze settled on a scene unfolding in the far corner.
"Dad," Courtney was surprise to see him there. She tried to shake off his grip, but the old man held on steadfast. By the look of his haggard state, it wasn't hard to figure out that he had already taken full advantage of the open bar. The same look of anger was smoldering in his glassy eyes.
"I can't believe you had the nerve to show up here," he growled.
"I was invited."
"You don't think I'm on to you, do you?" He slurred slightly, which was met with a look of confusion. Before she had the chance to question her father, Sonny and Jason came over.
"What's going on?" Sonny asked as he noticed Mike's grip on Courtney.
"Nothing," the woman lied. "We were just…"
"I'll tell you what's going on," Mike interrupted. "She's trying to turn us against one another."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Sonny was quickly becoming annoyed.
"She's just like her mother…" Mike continued on. "She's going to use you up and then take off, because that's what she does best. She doesn't love any of us, especially not you, Morgan. Trust me, I know a little something about the Matthews women." Courtney ripped her arm out of her fathers hand before giving him a look of disgust.
"The only thing you know about is being a deadbeat dad," she managed to get out before racing out to the terrace. Sonny took a step to follow her, but Jason quickly got in the way.
"I'll go talk to her. You deal with him." He motioned to Mike before following his ex wife out.
"You try to give someone fair warning…" the older man muttered taking a sip from the glass in his hand.
"I tried, Mike." Sonny's tone was dangerously low. "I invited you here out of respect and what do you do? Make a fool out of me and my little sister."
"She's the one that's making a fool out of both of us. For somebody so paranoid, you seem to forgive her awful easily."
"Courtney and I have made amends, because she is my family."
"So am I."
"Not anymore. I want you to leave and never come back. If I find out that you make any contact with my children, wife, or sister, I will make you rue the day you were born." The intensity that settled between the two was tough to ignore as Mike threw a disdainful glance at his son before exiting.
Jason saw her standing in the center of the terrace. Even with her back towards him, he could tell she was crying by the steady fall of her shoulders. She was shivering slightly in the cool spring air. Shrugging off his jacket, he came up behind her and placed the black material over her exposed arms. She seemed surprised, but didn't turn around.
"I'm not like her," her voice was unsteady as if she was trying to convince herself.
"I know you aren't." He settled his arms around her waist and she took comfort in his close proximity. He wasn't quite sure what drew him to her so magnetically. The earlier kiss and the feelings it evoked had caught him off guard. The tingling of her lips on his was something that he had been unprepared for. It wasn't suppose to happen like this. She wasn't suppose to induce the flutter of his heart any longer. It had been years, but it felt like old times in the way that he could look at her and everything else would fall apart. Elizabeth never had that affect on him, but his ex wife did. That scared him, because he knew that he wanted more. He wanted Courtney to move back in with him so that they could continue their fairytale romance and live happily ever after. But what he wanted and reality of the situation were two completely different things. So, he did the only thing he could and that was protect himself. He liked to think in the long run, Courtney was being saved as well.
"You don't have to stand out here with me," she informed him.
"I know," he replied not moving from his position. Courtney let out a slight sigh as she wondered how odd things were between the two of them. A little over an hour ago, he was pulling away from her kiss, but now here they stood with arms wrapped around one another. What worried her the most was that she didn't want it to end. She wanted to stay like this forever, but it was fairly obvious that he didn't want the same thing. Letting out another sigh, she slid out from his embrace and turned to face him.
"About what happened earlier…" she began but was quickly cut off.
"What happened, happened."
"I know, but…"
"Do we really have to do this right now?" His tone was more than a little harsh. She looked at him with a glimmer of hurt and nodded, but didn't say anything. It was apparent that there was going to be no resolution between them tonight, so maybe it was best just to walk away. She was about to reenter the Cellar when a slight rustling in the bushes caught her attention. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the barrel of a gun glistening in the soft moonlight. Her breath hitched when she heard someone cock it.
"Jason!" She screeched as a petite finger pulled the trigger.
A/N: We all know it's not a General Hospital wedding without a little gun play. So who's going to get shot? Who's the gun toting criminal? I guess you're going to have to wait to find out. Feedback is always appreciated.
