Chapter 4

"As long as you all do as we say, no one will get hurt," said the voice. The speaker, as well as the other two men, looked like they couldn't be more than 23 years old. His hands were trembling with fright.

Out of the corner of her eye, Courtney saw a man dressed in a business suit silently trying to call for help on his cell phone. Unfortunately, she wasn't the only one. One of the hijackers caught sight of the man, and reaching him in four quick strides, stuck his gun to the man's head. The man froze. "Don't…don't make me use this," the hijacker said, stuttering, as he ripped the cell phone out of the man's hand. He came back to the front of the plane, and yelled, "Alright, everyone, turn their cell phones in!" He yelled it again, when no one listened. People slowly started to get up and make a pile of their cell phones.

Courtney breathed a silent breath of relief. Neither she nor Zander had cell phones. She looked over at Zander and saw him eyeing the hijackers. He looked like he was absorbing every little detail about them, from what clothes they were wearing, to their personality itself.

Several hours passed without a word uttered among anyone. The only conversation heard in the plane was that of the hijackers. They were silently mumbling amongst themselves, and occasionally, she caught words like, "so this is the plan," "how much money do we want?" and "he better have the drugs when we get there." She couldn't help wondering what would happen when they reached Port Charles. Actually, why hadn't they reached Port Charles yet? The flight was only supposed to be a few hours long, and already, they had been on the flight for much longer than that. She soon found out.

This time, it was the third hijacker who spoke. He was the only one who hadn't spoken a word to them. "In case you haven't figured it out by now, we are not going to go to your target destination, Port Charles. No, we are headed to a small town in Colombia. There, we'll drop you off…if you're good, that is. And don't bother about trying to call the cops on us once you get there, because by the time they find this location, we will have different names, different faces…we will be different people. Oh, and you might want to relax for a bit. This is going to be one looooong flight." He sniggered. Courtney could see a difference between him and the other two men. She hadn't noticed it at first. He was more confident, standing up straight, and not stuttering. He held his gun like he had used it many times before, in a relaxed, casual way, whereas the other two would hold their guns extremely tightly, as if they were afraid if they didn't, they would drop them. But his eyes. His eyes were empty, devoid of any emotion. There wasn't a wall, preventing people from getting in. There just wasn't anything there. Although his eyes were actually a light shade of brown, they seemed pitch black to Courtney. It didn't help that the man had a huge scar starting from his left cheek and stretching all the way across his eye to just above his eyebrow.

All of a sudden, she realized that his eyes were focusing on something. In fact, it seemed like he was looking right at her. She felt her skin prickle with goosebumps. Why is he staring at me? It was then that she noticed he wasn't looking at her, but at Zander, who was motioning to the man. Oh my god, what is Zander doing? He's going to get himself killed.

"Yes?" he sneered. "Is there anything that I can help you with to make you more…comfortable?"

"Actually, sir, I was wondering if I could use the bathroom. You know, when nature calls, you can't exactly prevent it," he said with a grin. Courtney's eyes nearly popped out of her head. He couldn't really be thinking about going to the bathroom at a time like this, could he? Her eyes met his. She knew as she saw the confidence in his eyes that he was up to something. Oh god, please protect Zander, she thought.

Courtney could see the hijacker contemplating what to do, sizing Zander up, deciding if he was a potential threat. He must have decided he wasn't, because he went over to one of his mates, who was sleeping, and kicked him. "Hey, go with this guy. Keep your gun on his back, and do NOT let him out of your sight, even for one second," he instructed. The man nodded, and did as he said, grabbing Zander by the collar, and walking him up to the front of the plane.

Ten minutes later, he still wasn't back. She looked towards the front of the plane. He's taking an awfully long time, she thought when she noticed him coming out…without the guard. What's going on? she wondered. Then she saw that Zander was holding something, something black and shiny, in his right hand. He was holding the hijacker's gun. Before Courtney could blink, Zander had brought his hand down on the second hijacker's head, knocking him out with the gun. The third one was still sleeping, which was handy, because Zander quickly tied him up using the same rope they had used to tie up the air hostess. He dragged the other two men to the same place (he must have knocked out the first hijacker in the stall) and tied them up quickly too.

A million questions were racing through Courtney's head. How did Zander know how to do all this? She knew when she saw him in action, the ease, the comfort, the grace with which he moved, that this was not his first time he had been in this situation. And then the look on his face. His normally grey eyes seemed to become a muddled black color, similar to the one hijacker's. He had this look of utter hatred, like he had wanted to kill the man. She looked back at Zander. He was breathing hard, and sweating. The expression was still on his face, until he spotted Courtney staring at him with her mouth hanging open. She thought she saw something then, just for a second. That look of hurt that she had seen when she first met him. But when she looked again…nothing. Zander wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, the one that was holding the gun. He then walked into the cockpit. In a few seconds, an announcement came on over the intercom.

"Hello, this is your captain speaking. The hijackers that nearly seized our plane today have been put under control, thanks to this brave young man. They had impersonated staff on the flight, and soon after we took off, had tied both me and my co-pilot up. They were attempting to fly to Colombia to intercept a drug shipment and probably would have killed us all once they had reached there. Luckily for us, we were able to put them under control, or rather Zander here was able to. We are currently flying over Venezuela and are trying to make an emergency landing there. I am already in contact with the airport, and you all will be updated when there are any further advancements."

Zander walked out of the cockpit soon after that, and sat down next to Courtney. They were silent for the rest of the flight.

Chapter 4

"Daddy?" she said. She could already feel her eyes starting to fill with tears. "Daddy, is that really you?"

She ran towards him, and threw her arms around his neck, refusing to let go, until she felt his arms gently tugging hers down. She grudgingly let go. She was really confused. She looked at her mom, then her dad again. "What's going on guys? I thought Daddy was…I thought he was dead." She swallowed the lump in her throat. Her mom had told her that her dad had died when she was about 5 years old. It hadn't affected her then. It was as if, one day, her dad had just stopped coming around. But when she was a little older, and she would see the other girls playing or talking to their fathers, she couldn't help but wonder, Did my daddy not love me enough? Why did he leave me? Over time, she had gotten used to the fact that her dad was not ever going to come back, and she had learned to ignore that empty feeling in her heart, that place that would never be filled. But now…now he was standing before her eyes, a ghost that had risen from the dead.

"Honey, Courtney," Janine replied, stroking Courtney's hair, "Your dad…your dad was never dead. He just left. He took all my life savings, and blew them away gambling in one day. And then, he just left. I didn't want you to deal with the fact that your father was a lying, cheating scoundrel who abandoned you, so," she trailed off.

"So you told me that he died!" Courtney yelled, incredulous. "You don't have the right to decide that for me! And you," she turned to Mike, her father. "You were gone, how many years? Fourteen? And you couldn't even bother to lift up a phone and call me once?" Tears were streaming down her face freely now. She didn't even bother to wipe them away.

"Hold on now. Let's get a handle on our emotions," Sonny chimed in. Courtney whirled around to him.

"Who the hell are you to tell me what I should and should not do?"

"Courtney, Sonny's my son. That makes him your…your brother," Mike said hesitantly. Courtney let this sink in a moment. When she spoke again, her voice was calm.

"Is there anything else you haven't lied to me about, dear mother and father? Are you going to tell me next that I'm adopted? Or perhaps I have a long lost twin sister?" She spat these last words out.

She had had enough. After nineteen years of being left, abandoned and neglected, Courtney had finally had enough. She was out of there. She picked up her bag, and before anyone could stop her, headed out the door. She vaguely remembered a guard trying to block her, but she gave him a hard kick where it hurt the most, and as he slumped to the ground, she ran out the door.

She blindly hit the elevator down button, and when she reached the ground floor of Harborview Towers, she sailed out the front door. Not sure of where she was going, she let her feet lead her wherever they wanted. She started walking faster and faster, until she was jogging, and then sprinting. Her eyes were entirely filled with tears now, threatening to overflow at any second, and almost completely obstructing her vision.

All of a sudden, she collided hard into something, and felt her world tilt sideways for the second time that day, as she felt her body hit soft, damp grass. Courtney slowly rose to her feet, trying to rub the grass stains off her pants. Damn, she thought. These were my favorite pants.

She looked at her surroundings. She was in a park of some sort. It was filled with lush green grass, a beautiful playground and several kids playing with their parents. Looking at them only made her feel worse, and the tears that she had been holding back spilled across her pale cheeks. Finally, she looked over at what, or rather, who she had bumped into, as she realized that another person was sprawled on the ground too. A big man, who was now getting up and rubbing his forehead.

Courtney did a double take as she realized who it was. "Jason?" she said in awe. For some reason, Jason didn't seem nearly as surprised as she was.

"Hey Courtney. I knew we would be bumping into each other sooner or later. Port Charles is a really small town. Did you find your mom? Her name's Janine, right?" He grinned, but immediately dropped it when he noticed the state that she was in.

Just the mention of Janine threatened the deluge of tears to begin again. Courtney inhaled a jagged breath, not trusting herself to speak yet.

Jason gently touched her arm. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, peering down into her big blue eyes.

It was all Courtney could take. "Oh Jason," she exclaimed as she buried her face in his shirt.