A/N: Hey y'all. Here's your update. Again, I'm not really feeling the love with this story. I need some reassurance here people!
emmalee05- I love Jason's protective side too. And I love to write it. I'm glad you liked the chapter!
journeyfan01- Sorry, it only counts as one, lol! But I'm glad you're liking it so much that you want to review twice!
kaleymc- Thank you! You were the first one to catch the shirtless Jason thing. GH just doesn't have him shirtless enough, so I took matters into my own hand. You're welcome. Lol, j/k.
Elvira- You have finals now? Did you take summer classes or something? Anyway, I'm glad I was able to brighten up your day.
britchic- THat was more than a decent review. That was a fantastic review. I'm so glad you like it, and yes, Lucky will have a badside in this story.
CrazyJay- Thank you for the great review. I'm glad you're enjoying it so much. I'm thrilled that you think I'm doing good with the Jason portrayl.
Ana- I feel obligated to let you know this- my story will have many more depressing chapters. I write very angsty stories. I'm sorry that I faked you out with the fluff in the begining, but hopefully you like the angst as well.
ImJustKidding89- You are special! I'm glad you love the story, and I really appreciate your reviews.
anon14- I know that life gets busy, it's understandable. But you are a pretty decent reviewer, so don't feel too bad.
sexyt- I'm honored that you decided to spend your few seconds on little 'ole me. I'm glad that you like it, and I'm glad you understand my portrayl of Lucky.
Seth Cohen's girlfriend- Yay! I am so glad that you can review again! This calls for celebration. I love reading your reviews!
AllHart- Glad you like it! Keep reading and reviewing to find out how they get back COurtney and Meg!
middiegurl08- I'm glad you didn't think the chapter was boring. And I'm glad that you love it. So, here is the chapter that you were dying to read.
Nell- Wow, your first review ever? I feel extremely honored. I'm glad you like it so much!
tydavislover- I'm glad that you didn't think it was boring either. That's a yay!
luvthemorgans- Perfect timing! I was about to post the chapter but then my sister wanted to watch a movie so I postponed it. And when I came back, I had your review. So you just made it on to the chapter. Try not to get grounded anymore, I miss your reviews!
Chapter 8- The Ultimate Sacrifice
Midnight had once again come, and Jason was once again finding himself waiting desperately on the docks with hopes of seeing his family again. He couldn't help but think that this was all just a trap. There was so much at stake here. So much to lose. There was everything to lose.
Footsteps echoed throughout the docks and Jason's head shot up, looking at the man who was approaching. Sonny took a step forward as he and Jason glared at the man. The two didn't recognize him. He was a man who they had never met before, and who they had never heard of either.
"Who the hell are you?" asked Sonny.
"Mr. Corinthos, Mr. Morgan, I am so glad you made it to my little party"
"Who the hell are you?" Sonny repeated.
"My name is of little importance right now. Let's just talk business. I move whatever I want through your territory, Mr. Morgan here gets his wife and that little baby back, completely unharmed. If not, I make them suffer, and then I kill them. The choice is yours" said the man. "I don't want you thinking I'm as dumb as some of the other idiots in your past. I know what works with you two and I know what doesn't. I wasn't stupid enough to do something like contaminate one of your shipments. That doesn't do anything but alert you to my presence. Now, you have no idea of who I am, and I have the right bargaining chips. And I am not afraid to kill them. I would enjoy it actually. So watch your step" said the man.
"Give us a second" said Sonny as he considered the man's speech.
Pulling Jason aside, the two bent down in conversation as the man watched with an amused smile. He twirled the gun that he had in his hand around his fingers, a gleeful look still plastered on his face. Finally, the two grave men broke apart and faced the man again, stern looks on their faces.
"You don't have to do this Jason" said Sonny softly.
"Yes, I do" answered Jason. "We need more time to think" said Jason to the man. "We need time to plan"
"Understandable. You have 24 hours, and then the blonde dies. If I don't get an answer after 48 hours, the little girl is dead. Do we have an understanding?" asked the man.
"Not acceptable" said Jason.
"Oh really, and what do you suggest?" asked the man as his lip curled into a sneer.
"You let them both go. And take me instead" said Jason as he looked the man right in the eye.
"And so the tables turn…" said the man with a smile. "Alright, I can do that. Your sister and the baby will be returned here in 15 minutes. But after 24 hours Mr. Corinthos, your best friend is dead" he said before motioning to a bunch of guards that appeared from behind him.
Jason took a deep breath and then walked over to them, and stood still and allowed one of the men to clock him over the head with the butt of his gun. Sonny watched as his friend sacrificed himself. He watched Jason fall to the floor unconscious. Marco, who had been hiding in the shadows, grabbed Sonny and pulled him away before he could do something stupid. Sonny tried to fight him to help his friend, but the men just picked up Jason and threw him in the trunk of one of their cars, speeding off into the night.
Sonny gave an aggravated sigh. He hadn't wanted that. He hadn't wanted his best friend and most trusted employee sacrificing himself. But it was important to get Meg and Courtney back. Jason could handle himself as a captive. But the idea of his sister and niece in captivity tortured Sonny. He knew that they must be petrified. Now, he just needed to wait at the docks for the man to bring him back his family. And then, he could get to work on finding out who it was that was causing them so much trouble and beat them before a full out mob war began.
Jason couldn't see very clearly as he was lifted up. His arms were twisted awkwardly behind his back as two big burly guards held him up. Another guard walked over to him and backhanded him across the face. Jason felt his cheekbone sting with the pain but he refused to cry out. He felt a fist connect with his stomach, and then another with the side of his head. His chest was beaten on like a drum by the man's heavy fists, and Jason could feel his ribs buckling as they took the hits. The man moved to his face, hitting him with such force in the nose that it began to bleed profusely and Jason wondered if it was broken. His face received more hits and Jason was moaning and groaning as the beating continued. Hit after hit connected with his body, and he felt himself start to break. The pain was intense, and it felt like he wasn't even connected to himself anymore. He was like an outsider looking in. But every blow he felt and every smack stung. Finally, the men dropped his arms and he fell to the ground, his knees buckling and his legs unable to support himself. His body landed on the ground with a thud and the men stood back with sickly smiles on their faces to admire their handiwork. They each gave a few good hard kicks to his broken and crumbled body on the floor, their shoes scraping through his thin t-shirt, decorating his previously unharmed back with some wounds of its own. Finally, they left the room, leaving Jason to moan and groan on the floor.
The man from the docks walked back in and gave Jason a mock sympathetic smile.
"That looks like it hurts" he said.
"Have Courtney and Meg been released?" he asked through gritted teeth.
"See, there's a funny thing about that. I figured, why bother myself with that when I can have three hostages for myself. After all, three is better then two. Have a nice night Mr. Morgan" he sneered as Jason seared angrily on the floor, wishing that he was strong enough to lunge at the man. "Oh, and one more thing" said the man as he walked back over to Jason. Kneeling down on the floor, he pulled back his arm and punched Jason hard on the side of the head. The enforcer's head bent back with the force, and he felt the world around him go black as he slipped out of consciousness.
"Where are they? It's been twenty minutes already" growled Sonny as he looked down at his watch for the umpteenth time.
"I dunno Boss" said Marco, unsure of what else to say to calm down Sonny.
Marco took a deep breath. He didn't like this. He didn't like that Jason had just sacrificed himself. He couldn't believe that Sonny had allowed it. This was just dumb. This man was completely untrustworthy. It wasn't guaranteed that he would release Courtney and Meg anyway. He looked at Sonny who was staring at the water with dark eyes.
Flashback
"Sonny, we can't just give into this guy like this. If we do, it'll make us open for attack. It'll make us seem vulnerable. And we can't afford that" hissed Jason as the two men stood on the docks, talking about what the man had just offered them in exchange for Courtney and Meg.
"So what do you suggest, we let him kill Courtney and Meg?" asked Sonny with a sneer of his own.
Jason's eyes looked pained, and his chest constricted painfully. He didn't want to even think about that. Swallowing and taking a deep breath, he spoke again.
"We need to find out who he is, get the necessary information, and then strike back" said Jason.
"How do we know he won't hurt them?" asked Sonny.
"Because they won't be his prisoners anymore" said Jason as he prepared himself to make a bold but necessary move.
"What are you talking about?" asked Sonny, not in the mood for games, especially from a man who never played them anyway.
"We make a trade. Me for them" said Jason, his blue eyes now shining with determination.
"Are you crazy! No way! For starters, we don't know if this guy will actually return them to us. Second of all, I need you. I need your help with finding out who this guy is"
"You can do that without me. You have a pretty confident staff. And what choice do we have, we need to trust that this guy won't violate the rules. He knows that he's opening himself up for heavy retaliation if he goes against his word and doesn't return them. And not just from us. From other associations as well. From other families."
"I won't let this happen" said Sonny.
"Sonny, I am just an employee. I'm disposable. And I signed on to protect you and your family. And Courtney and Meg are your family"
"Yeah, but so are you. You are my best friend, and my brother-in-law. You are more than just an employee and you know that. I need you"
"You can do this without me. I need to make sure that Courtney and Meg are ok. They mean the world to me. And if, god forbid, something happens to them, I won't be able to live with myself. And I wont have any reason to live anyway" said Jason.
"Are you sure about this?" asked Sonny, seriously doubting the whole situation.
"I'm sure" said Jason as they broke out of their little huddle.
End Flashback
Sonny glanced at his watch once more before looking up at the sound of tires screeching. The black car slowed to a stop and Sonny waited eagerly to see his sister and niece's face again. The window rolled down and a hand reached out, brandishing a gun. Marco reacted, pulling Sonny down to the ground as gunshots rang out. After what felt like hours but was only seconds, the bullets stopped flying and the car sped off into the night. Marco got off of Sonny and was glad to see that both he and his boss were unharmed. Sonny angrily got up, cursing as he did, flinging his fists into the air around him.
"The son of a bitch double fucking crossed me!" he yelled into the night.
Courtney sat on the bed with Meg in her arms. The little girl had just finished a bottle and was getting sleepy. Her eyes were closing and her breathing was getting heavier. As Courtney looked down at the little girl, she thought back to the first night that she and Jason had Meg. How they had fed her together. She missed Jason terribly, and she wanted nothing more than to be held in his arms. Courtney cuddled Meg to her body as she got up from the bed. Placing the bottle down on the table, she walked over to the crib and placed the slumbering baby inside. Leaning against the bars of it, she stared at Meg for a bit. Brushing the soft blonde curls off of her daughter's forehead, she sat back down on the bed, ready to just put her head in her hands and cry. But at that point, the door of the room was jerked open. Standing up, Courtney walked over to Meg's crib, ready to defend her from whoever was there. But before Courtney could bend down to pick up her daughter, two guards walked into the room dragging a lifeless body behind them. Courtney gasped when she saw just whose lifeless body it was. It was her husband's. Leaving Meg in the crib, she ran over to Jason as the guards dropped him, locking the door behind them. She cradled his body in her arms, tears prickling at her eyes and then falling freely down her cheeks as she looked at the man before her. He looked so bruised and broken, and she knew that she needed to wake him up immediately. He could have a head injury. Courtney tried to shake him awake lightly, but that didn't work, and she dared not try harder for fear of hurting him. She called his name repeatedly, but that was useless too. Bending down her head, she began to kiss him all over to wake him. She planted the kisses all over his body but when she got to his lips, she cherished the resulting sweet kiss. Jason woke up as he felt the kiss on his lips, and his eyes widened in shock as he saw her there before him.
"Thank god you're awake" she exclaimed.
"Courtney" he whispered before pulling her into a tight hug, not caring how painful it was. He needed to hold her in his arms. He needed to have her there with him.
"I can't believe they took you too" she said softly as she began to gingerly finger some of the wounds on his face. "And on top of that, they beat you" she said as tears sprung to her eyes again.
"Shh, it's ok" he soothed. "It's not that bad. And they didn't take me" he said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I made a deal with the kidnapper. You and Meg were supposed to be released and he would get me in return"
"Jason, why would you do that?" she exclaimed.
"I need to do whatever I can to save my family" he stressed.
"And you being taken and beaten within an inch of your life is hardly saving us" she said.
"He was supposed to let you go" said Jason bitterly.
"Let's not think about this anymore. Let's trust Sonny to find us and save us. In the meantime, we need to get you cleaned up and stop some of this bleeding" she said as she gave his body a once over. "Can you make it to the bed?" she asked as she started to help him up.
"I think so" he answered with a wince as he got up.
She led him over to the bed and he collapsed on to it, the pain wracking his body. Courtney gave him a sensual kiss before getting up and going into one of the rooms off of the main room. While she was gone, Jason turned his head to look at Meg while she slept.
"Hey beautiful. I missed you" he whispered as he looked at her.
Meg rolled over in her sleep, her thumb finding its way to her mouth. The mouth opened and Jason saw a flash of her little pink tongue before the thumb went in the hole as she sucked on the finger.
Courtney emerged and walked into the other room for a second before returning to the bed, ice, towels, and a large first aid kit in hand. She sighed as she looked at him again before she began to undress him.
She tried to pull the now raggedy t-shirt off of him, but he cried out in pain as she did and she couldn't bear the idea of him being in so much pain that he actually cried out. Instead, she tried to rip at the material, hoping to get it off of his chest that way. Unfortunately, she wasn't strong enough. Jason reached up his hands and gently removed hers from the shirt. Setting his jaw and gritting his teeth, he pulled on the material, causing it to rip and making it easier for Courtney to remove it from his body. She drew in shallow breaths as she looked at his chest. Sighing, she made her way to his jeans, fingering the waistband a bit before undoing the button and pulling down the fly. It was familiar for her, sliding off his jeans, but she usually did it in happier situations. Getting up, she walked over to the foot of the bed and removed his shoes before seizing the ends of the jeans. Pulling, the denim material slid off his legs. She folded them up and put them on the chair next to her. She yanked off his socks and put them on the chair as well. Now, he was lying there in just his boxers, giving her a clear view of his body. He looked like hell, and for once, Courtney didn't notice his perfect shape, but rather the painful looking wounds and abrasions that covered him. Taking in another sharp breath, she started to work at the task at hand. Neither said anything as she soothed his skin, applied pressure to the big wounds to stop the bleeding, wrapped bandages around him, held ice on his aches and bruises, and just planted little kisses on each mark, welt, laceration, and wound on his body. Once she finished with the front side of him, she looked at all of the gauze that covered his body. Where there wasn't gauze, there were deep purpling bruises. His chest was completely covered in them, as was his face. His legs had received some serious scrapes from when he was dragged around on the hard concrete floors, but other than that, the jeans had done a pretty good job of protecting him. Taking a deep breath, he flipped on to his stomach so that she could tend to the wounds on his back and take care of his badly bruised arms. He cocked his head to the side so that he could watch her instead of a pillow as she worked. The couple was still silent as she cleaned out the marks that the men's shoes had left and then put bandages on them. Once she was done with both that and his arms, he flipped back over on to his back and stared at her. He reached up one sore arm and brushed back the hair that had fallen in front of his face, feeling the golden silk between his fingertips. She was perched on the side of his bed, staring into his sullen blue eyes. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She burst into tears. He pulled her over to him so that she was lying down on the bed next to him and held her tightly to him, trying to sooth her and convince her that he was ok as she buried her head into his broken chest, looking desperately for the comfort that she always found there in his arms. He smoothed her hair down over her back, leaning his head down to kiss her bare shoulder.
"I'm ok" he assured her.
"How can you be ok Jason?" she asked, fingering a particularly large gash on the side of his head. "This guy made you into his own personal punching bag and you shouldn't have been in that position in the first place. It's all my fault" she sobbed.
"You're kidding, right? How can you ever think that this is your fault" asked Jason with a smile at her.
"Because it is. You sacrificed yourself for me" she answered.
"No it's not. You were only kidnapped in the first place because of my business" said Jason. "And my inability to protect you, and our daughter, once again"
"You protect us" said Courtney determinedly as she looked into his eyes, seeing the pained expression that he held. "You're here with us now, right? And I know that no one will hurt us as long as you're here" she said as she snuggled deeper into his warm hold. "Let's not play the blame game"
"Alright" he said with a sigh. "Get some sleep" he whispered.
"You too" she answered.
"Nah, I'm going to stay up. You know, keep guard" he answered.
"Jason, they won't hurt me or Meg, believe me. They have never laid a finger on either of us"
"Yeah, but now that I'm in captivity, they may be a little less hesitant to"
"You need sleep. Especially because of your injuries"
"I am fine. Get some sleep, please. I want to just watch you tonight. And just hold you. I love you so much" he said as he buried his face into her hair.
"I love you too" she whispered as she fell into the deepest and most comfortable sleep she had gotten since this whole kidnapping mess had started.
A/N: New chapter will be up within a week or so, maybe a little longer or a little shorter. In the meantime, everyone go read my new story- Tangled Secrets. It's Jesse/Maxie with some Journey. 'Cause Maxie's Courtney and Sonny's sister in my story! Go read it, it's on this site, but review here first!