Note: The medical info from the last time, per your questions, was legitimate. I did some research and picked a couple things that I felt Elizabeth might come across in her course of study, borrowing from some of the stuff that my own medical school friends told me.
Heat 07
Jason shifted slightly on the hard metal bench, taking care not to jostle the dozing brunette that had her back pressed up against his side. She was tucked in under his arm and was clearly asleep, despite her protests that she just wanted to 'check her eyelids for light leaks'. The enforcer stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankle once more, his hand absently falling at her waist as the young woman murmured something about bedpans and wheelchair races.
Patrick was flat on his back on the other bench as Epiphany snored atop the lower bed in the bunked set, and the young doctor would occasionally glance at his neighbors. He had always pegged Elizabeth Webber as being a sweet, demure, straight-arrow kind of woman – always doing right by everyone else, following the rules except when her heart told her otherwise, and never rocking any boats.
That vision of Elizabeth, however, didn't sit too well with the young woman that was curled up against the most dangerous man in the Tri-State area and looking mighty comfortable at that. She didn't seem the kind of woman that would cavort with mobsters, but it was clear that she and Jason weren't strangers. He had caught them talking in low, hushed voices often, deeply engaged in serious conversation that didn't seem to have anything to do with rogue surgery and everything to do with affairs of the heart.
He shook his head, clearing such thoughts away. It wasn't his business what Elizabeth's ties to the mobster were. As far as he was concerned, she was his respected, trusted colleague…who he just happened to hit on every chance he got. What she did on her spare time or during the dark days before he walked into her life wasn't any of his concern.
The doctor let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes for the first time in hours, thinking that he might as well follow Elizabeth's cue and try to get some sleep. But just as he was settling down, he heard the scuff of sneakers in the hallway and opened his eyes in time to see Robin Scorpio marching over with an officer in uniform, dressed in her hospital scrubs.
She offered him a small smile as the officer let her in, and Patrick immediately scooted off the bench to meet her at the bars. They didn't bother with greetings; instead, Robin just stood on her toes and pressed her lips softly against his. He snaked an arm through the bars to cup the back of her neck, keeping her close and at the same time feeling the tension she carried in her shoulders. Clearly, she had not had a relaxing shift.
"Honestly, Drake, my fondest wish would be if you miraculously turned out to be a eunuch," came a dry, familiar voice from down the corridor.
"Mm? Eunuch?" Jason smirked wearily as Elizabeth groggily awoke, rubbing her eyes and looking around. Her sapphire eyes landed on Robert and she blinked a couple times, gingerly stretching and sitting up on the bench. "Oh, hi, Robin. Robert."
The agent nodded curtly at the occupants, moving to stand next to his daughter. "We brought you coffee – figured you could use it."
Elizabeth smiled gratefully, rising off the bench and hearing Jason follow suit. As she approached the detective, she noted that his clothes were rumpled and his thinning hair appeared windblown. She took her coffee from Robert through the bars and handed Jason his, waiting as Robert passed Patrick and Epiphany two sealed paper cups from Kelly's.
"There are two with milk," he replied gruffly, motioning to the little M's on the top of the containers. "Elizabeth and Epiphany, yours have sugar and…I'm sorry but I didn't grab enough for Morgan and Patrick."
"He's not sorry," Robin whispered loudly to Elizabeth as the two women shared a secret laugh.
"Well, they'll just have to take theirs black and plain," the detective shrugged, not appearing apologetic at all.
Again, the petite brunette at his side winked at her colleague. "Dad, I hate to break it to you…but Jason drinks his black with no sugar."
Robert scowled, but the frown turned into a smirk as Patrick took a sip of his and grimaced. "Okay, there's no way I can drink this swill – it tastes like brake fluid."
The agent's satisfaction, as it turned out, was short-lived. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and passed Patrick her cup, taking his from him. "Here, take mine."
The younger Drake eyed her skeptically, but wasn't about to relinquish his new cup of coffee. "What about you?"
Jason quirked a brow when the young woman shrugged. "I don't mind drinking mine plain without sugar," she explained, taking a gulp as if to prove it. "I don't know – I guess Jason kind of got me hooked on it, too."
Robert frowned, not noticing how his blonde arch nemesis smirked proudly. "Thwarted by a Spencer – that isn't right at all."
Robin rolled her eyes as Elizabeth laughed. "Okay, we can't stay for too long, but we came because we have news. Dad?"
The detective heaved a sigh and motioned Jason a step away from the group. Confused, the young man could only follow. They weren't allowed much privacy in the holding facility, but there was no way the detective could relate his report with Elizabeth's wide, innocent eyes bearing down on him. "Morgan, I have some new information that might be of interest with you, but we're both going to have to be entirely straight with each other. Anything you say stays between us – I won't be using it against you at a later time."
Jason didn't reply to that, and his features conveyed nothing of whether he trusted the detective or not. Not fazed by the lack of response, Robert wrapped a hand around the bars and leaned closer, his voice low and confiding.
"I've been working the case myself," he started, glancing around as if he thought he was being spied on. "Independently of the PCPD, of course – I'm not about to give my brother the satisfaction. Anyway, the officers found the dead body of a man on the roof of the Port Charles Hotel – the sniper that shot your Miss McCall. They have his weapon and tripod in the evidence room right now. But…we have reason to believe now that there were not one but two men on the roof that night."
His words carried in the small facility, and the rest of the group had caught the information. Jason stared skeptically at the older man, his brows furrowed. "Two snipers? That's impossible – they would have been spotted. What did they find?"
Robert squared his jaw. "The sniper had been strangled, Jason. He had rope burns all along his neck."
Elizabeth gasped, and even Jason took a step back. "So…" The brunette's voice was small, puzzled. "There were two people on the roof that wanted Sam shot?"
Robin's dark eyes were on her father, probing his pale topaz eyes when Robert looked away, shaking his head. He looked…almost uncomfortable. As if wild horses were unable to drag the next words from his mouth. Jason, too, was staring hard at the man as his daughter settled her hand on his forearm. "…Dad?"
Patrick and Elizabeth exchanged worried glances as Robert gruffly cleared his throat. "No, Elizabeth. Only one person on that roof wanted Miss McCall shot. And he got her."
"So who did the other one want shot?" Patrick questioned, his dark brows quirked as he studied the aging detective.
Robert exchanged apologetic glances with Jason, conveying his regret over not being able to tell him this matter privately, and then looked away. "The PCPD officer on the case found a picture in the strangled sniper's pocket – a picture of his target for the night." A strained silence followed before Robert simply blurted out the news. "He was after Elizabeth."
Robin and the brunette in question both gasped shortly, and Robert's remorseful cornflower blue eyes fell on the young woman, who had covered her mouth with her hand.
"Dad, there's got to be…"
"It's no mistake," he replied quickly, quietly, slipping his hands into his pockets. "He had a grainy snapshot of Elizabeth tucked into his pocket. I…Elizabeth, I'm sorry you had to find out like this, but it was clear to me that no one else was about to tell you."
"Why the hell would someone be after Elizabeth?" Patrick demanded, having finally found his voice. Jason watched as he reached through the widely spaced bars that divided their cells and dropped a hand on the trembling brunette's shoulder, squeezing forcefully in reassurance. "What the hell did she do to piss anyone off?"
"Morgan, that's what I'm hoping you can answer for me," Robert replied, turning toward the enforcer. "Have you heard any rumblings about this hit?"
Jason was shaking his head adamantly, refusing to even consider the question a moment longer. "No – no. I would've put protection on Elizabeth. I- Are you sure?"
Robert nodded. "Any other idea of what might have made Elizabeth a target? I haven't talked this over with Mac, but was Lucky bearing down on any of your colleagues or enemies? Was he causing friction?"
The enforcer shook his head absently. "No – he's just a beat cop, nothing more." He regretted his words almost immediately, but rushed on anyway. "He wasn't involved with taking down any of the organizations in the area."
Robert frowned, thinking. "What about…you?"
Jason's eyes turned to stone as he quirked a brow at the detective. "What about me?"
"Well, Luke mentioned once that you and Elizabeth had grown close after Helena nabbed Lucky a couple years ago," the agent shrugged as Robin looked on. "You've been in contact with her more frequently over the past few weeks. Could any of your enemies be using her to get to you?"
A muscle in Jason's jaw ticked as he reflected on what to tell the detective. He couldn't come out and directly say that since he had recently taken over the syndicate, the families and any other threat to the stability of his organization were reluctant to make a strike against him. His power had been established, and the only threat he faced at the moment was Sonny. "The only enemy I have at the moment is whoever shot Sam."
"And whoever shot Sam…saved me," Elizabeth murmured, turning white as a sheet as she slowly raised her watery eyes to meet Jason's. Patrick and Robin exchanged worried glances, but remained quiet. "I…I was out on the balcony by myself for ten minutes before Emily made me go back inside. Whoever was on the roof had…had a clear shot." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "Then…someone killed him. And then that someone shot Sam."
"Hey, hey." Patrick reached out immediately and took her hand, squeezing it fiercely and forcing her to look up at him. "Listen to me, okay?" he asked with such tenderness and resolution that both Robin and Robert were momentarily surprised by the display. "You did not do this. This isn't your fault."
"That bullet wasn't meant for Sam," Elizabeth argued, her voice cracking as her nails dug into his palm. "It wasn't…it wasn't meant for Jason, either." The enforcer closed his eyes, remembering what he had told Elizabeth in the hospital room right before she went in for surgery – that this was his fault. "That bullet was meant for me, Patrick."
"It doesn't matter," he responded firmly, reaching for her other hand as Robin nodded along. "Whoever was after Sam would have found her at another time, another place. You have no control over that, Elizabeth. And if being happy that it wasn't you on my operating table makes me a bad person, well, I won't refute that."
"Patrick's right, Elizabeth," Robin agreed, her soft brown eyes boring into her friend's liquid ones. "Whoever was after Sam would have come after her another time. The important thing to focus on right now is that you weren't hurt, too."
"And that someone thought to save you," Robert added. "The sniper was killed because he was after you. It would have been easy for Miss McCall's shooter to simply wait for another location, another time to find his target. If anything, his mission was infinitely complicated by the presence of the other shooter. But instead of retreating and waiting for a more opportune moment…he decided to spare you."
"Elizabeth."
Robert snapped his mouth shut when Jason finally spoke, and all eyes fell on the enforcer as he gently reached out to the nurse. Patrick relinquished her hand somewhat reluctantly, standing alongside Robin as he watched Jason cup her chin and force her to meet his gaze.
"They're right," he told her quietly. "You didn't do this – it wasn't because of you." He shook his head firmly when she opened her mouth to protest. "You were both targets – it's not like Sam would have been spared if you had been shot. Both of you were targets. So don't blame yourself, okay? Because no one else does."
She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and attempting to compose herself as Robert shuffled quietly in the background. "Well said," he muttered, glancing in Jason's direction. "I'll be working this until it's solved and I'll make sure to keep you informed. I had hoped in coming here that you'd be able to shed some light on the sniper's identity-"
The shrill ring of Robin's cell phone – the Pink Panther theme song – interrupted him, and Robert paused long enough for his daughter to retreat over by the windows to answer it.
"If you can think of anything else, be sure to get in touch with me," Robert told him. "You've still got my number – use it if anything else pops up in your head. Any clue you can provide as to who saved Elizabeth would be most-"
"Sam woke up."
Robin's quiet but firm voice interrupted the two men and all occupants turned to stare at her. The young doctor swept her bangs out of her face in an agitated manner and slowly crept toward them.
"She woke up – thirty minutes ago."
Elizabeth gasped, the sharp intake of air turning into a sigh of relief, and Patrick closed his eyes reverently at the news. Robert glanced at Jason who instantly shot forward, his hands wrapping around the cold metal bars.
"What happened? Is she okay?"
Robin nodded jerkily, regretting the next bit of information she had to reveal to her ex-boyfriend. "She's…she's fine. Her vitals are good and she hasn't lost any of her memories or motor functions or anything. She…she asked for Alexis as soon as she woke up."
Elizabeth glanced at Jason, wondering how he'd take the news, and even Patrick waited with baited breath. "And?"
"I…" Robin glanced away, heaving a small, guilty sigh. "Alexis apparently just convinced Sam to let her take her to a private clinic because…because General Hospital was too dangerous. And Sam agreed. She's gone, and no one knows where."