Courtney didn't realize how exhausted she was. Yawning, she lifted her heavy eyelids and turned her face into the fan. As the wind cooled her face and blew the stray strands away, Courtney noticed that Jason was already up.

She sighed. Keeping things from her husband was something she hated. But would it hurt him that badly? As far as she knew, all those men were dead. Courtney placed her hands on her stomach and asked her son,

"What do you think? Should I tell Daddy about what really happened to us? He'll be able to handle it right?"

Jason, who'd been standing in the doorframe, said, "I can handle it, I promise."

Carly had no idea what she was doing. She thanked all that was holy that her mother had taken the boys last night, and that Sonny was basically knocked out from the pain meds he was taking.

Why was flipping pancakes so damn hard?

She had seriously been considering sending Aunt Jemima hate mail when she remembered the bacon she'd decided on cooking in the microwave, to spare herself the extra aggrivation of trying to work the oven. Carly shook off the oven mitts she'd been using to hold the spatula and dashed to the microwave. Steam came billowing out as she opened the door.

"Damnit!" Carly said loudly, she grabbed a nearby fork and jabbed at a piece of the bacon. Once she'd managed to stick it on her fork, the bacon flopped over.

"Well, if my family wanted rubber and pancake batter for breakfast, I'd be their hero!" Carly huffed as she tossed the fork, with rubbery bacon still attached, into the sink, already filled with burnt food and used dishes.

Why didn't she just order from Kelly's? All she'd wanted to do was suprise her husband and her best friends with a delightful breakfast. She even had the table prepared, flowers and all. Carly wiped her hands on Sonny's now very dirty, 'Kiss the Cook', apron. Just as she turned around, she saw Sonny standing in the kitchen, looking appaled.

"Uhm, good morning?" Carly offered as she tried to duck out of the kitchen. No such luck.

"Tell me you didn't ruin any of my pans, break any dishes or appliances, or burn yourself..." Sonny began, covering his eyes with his hand.

Carly's hands went up. "Sonny, I can explain"

"Please Carly, get out of my kitchen..." Sonny mumbled, not that he'd really cared if she'd made a mess. He just got a kick out of giving her a hard time. But, that definetely went both ways.

"Well, if you're going to blame anyone, blame Aunt Jemima," Carly said in all seriousness as she took off his 'Kiss the Cook' apron and put it over his shoulder. She grabbed her purse, on her way to Kelly's to get some real breakfast for her family.

On her way out Sonny could have sworn that he heard her say, "Easy to make my ass."

Jason walked slowly toward the bed where Courtney was now sitting up, clutching the sheet around her.

"Jason, I..." Courtney began, unsure of what to say.

Jason, however, got right to the point, "Did they touch you?"

"What? Jason no! At least, not in the way you're thinking," Courtney stated as she shifted her eyes away from her concerned husband's face. "They hit me."

Anger flashed through Jason's blue eyes as tears filled Courtney's sapphires.

"No one is ever going to hurt you like that again okay? I promise," Jason said softly as he gathered his wife into his arms.

"I was so scared," he felt Courtney's whisper against his neck. "I was afraid I'd lose the baby"

"Hey," Jason soothed, "it's okay. You're home, both of you." He kissed her temple. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Courtney considered this, then decided that she just wanted to forget about all of it. She nodded her head no.

Jason sighed, "Okay, that's alright." Slowly releasing her, he used the pad of his thumb to wipe away her falling tears. "We'll talk when you're ready. I won't push you."

"Thank you," Courtney said, gently kissing his lips before getting up to make their bed.

"Courtney? There's one more thing," Jason said, pulling the prescription out of his pocket.

"How'd you get that?" Courtney asked, getting somewhat flustered.

"It fell out of your jacket," Jason stated, not wanting her to think he'd been invading her privacy.

"Oh," Courtney said softly. She looked down at her hands, ashamed. Jason was afraid that she'd get addicted again.

"Court"

"Don't. Don't Jason, you don't believe that I can take pain killers and not get addicted do you? You think I'm still that weak woman that I was all those years ago when I lost the baby!" Courtney yelled as she abandoned her task of making the bed and attempted to storm out of the room.

Jason grabbed her arm. "I don't think that. I never once thought you were weak. You're the strongest person I know," Jason said, not wanting her to walk out.

"You don't have to say that Jason," Courtney said, yanking her arm out of his grasp. "I was addicted. Once addicted, always addicted right?"

"No, Courtney come on. I love..."

"You love me, but you don't trust me to watch out for myself. To take my pain medication without standing behind me watching to make sure I don't take six instead..."

"I just wanted you to be careful, because of what happened last time. I never want you to be that desperate," Jason tried to reason with Courtney, but he had a feeling that he was losing this battle. He didn't know how to say the things she needed to hear.

"Don't you think circumstances were a lot different then Jason? I had just lost our baby. Now I'm pregnant! You know, you know how much I love this baby. I would never do anything to jepordize that," Courtney said tearfully as she shook her head and left the room.

Jason ran down the stairs after her, and saw her putting her sandals on. She was leaving. "Don't go Courtney, stay. You need to eat something"

"I'll stop by Kelly's," Courtney said as she grabbed her pocketbook and opened the door. Jason followed.

"Why are you doing this?" He asked.

"Because you don't trust me," was her reply as she hit the elevator button. As it dinged, Carly stepped off, smiling brightly as she dropped the brown paper bag of food she'd been holding and enveloped her best friend into a hug.

"Oh Court, oh honey. I'm so glad you're back! We gotta go shopping soon for that boy in there! How is he? You look fantastic... except for those tears..." Carly looked at Courtney and then at Jason and said "oh".

"I'll call you okay?" Courtney whispered as she stepped onto the elevator and pressed the down button. Once the doors had been totally closed, Courtney hit the emergency stop button, slid down the wall of the elevator, and cried.

"What did you do?" Carly asked as she picked up the breakfast and marched over to her penthouse, Jason in tow.

"Nothing, she's upset at me for something I brought up," Jason murmured, seeing Sonny sitting on the couch as they entered.

"Hey," he greeted, getting up. His ribs were still sore, but not as bad because of the meds he'd been taking. "Where's my sister?"

"Jason did something stupid. She left," Carly said, placing the bag down on her, what she thought was a beautifully set table.

"She didn't leave. I mean, she did. But she's coming back..." Jason sighed as he dropped himself into the nearby chair and put his face in his hands.

"Carly? Would you give Jason and I a second?" Sonny asked, sitting back down on the couch.

"I have to clean up the kitchen anyways, from the disaster that occured in there this morning"

"I already did," Sonny said in his monotone voice.

"I knew there was a reason I married you!" Carly said, planting a kiss on her husband's cheek and bounding upstairs. Well, they thought she was upstairs. Men were so stupid sometimes.

"I told Max to follow Courtney," Jason said, "If that's what you're worried about."

"No, of course you'd do that. We need to discuss what needs to happen," Sonny said, talking lower.

Carly strained to hear.

"They're dead, all of them. Tony Jones, Sandoval, all of them," Jason said. He couldn't really focus on what Sonny had been saying. He was so worried about Courtney...

"Good. No witnesses? What about that Antonio guy?" Sonny questioned.

"No witnesses. Antonio won't testify against us. He's on our side," Jason said, rubbing his hands over his face.

"I want you to set up an appointment with him. I want to meet this man, formally. I want him working with us," Sonny told Jason, more than asked.

"Why?"

"He saved my sister's life, and quite possibly mine as well. I owe him, and he did a damn good job of keeping Courtney alive," Sonny stated, watching his enforcer's expression change from jealousy to confusion rather quickly.

"Alright," was all the blue eyed man said.

"Okay Carly," Sonny said, knowing she was around.

"I gotta go Sonny," Jason said, he couldn't sit. He had work to do, and he was going to go and find his wife.

"Yeah alright man. Send Courtney over here later will you? I want to make sure she's alright with my own eyes."

"Sure Sonny," Jason said as he exited the penthouse.
"Carly I gotta go too, I got things to take care of," Sonny said as he kissed his wife on the cheek and made for the door.

"Yeah alright, everyone just leave. I only slaved over a hot stove all morning..."

Author's Note: I decided that I want to keep Antonio around. I liked writing him, I want him to have a past. Oh and to clear up some confusion, she has bruises from the car accident, yes. She also has bruises from where the men hit her when she tried to save Sonny. Courtney wasn't going to tell Jason that they beat her up because she figured he'd just chalk it up to the car accident and leave it alone. Hope that helped. Let me know what you think!