Note: This is for Jamie/destiny2161. You're the only reason I was able to get this out, sweets! Also, how awesome was Patrick on 7/05/06? He's SO the newest Liason pimp:D

Heat 08

"It's better this way."

Elizabeth's disappointed sapphire eyes trailed over Jason's profile. The enforcer sat on the bench right next to her, his hands clasped between his knees and his head bowed slightly. "Jason…"

But the mobster just shook his head. "It's better this way," he repeated softly. "At least she's safe. Alexis…Alexis wouldn't let anything happen to her. Whoever wanted Sam shot came back to the hospital to finish the job. Sam isn't safe there."

The brunette sighed, her thoughts also turning toward the events in the hospital while they had been operating. They had already called Robert a few hours ago when she remembered something that she had previously forgotten in shock: that someone had stolen into the nurse's locker room where she was changing and had subsequently been killed and left there – possibly by the same mystery hitman who shot Sam. The detective had appreciated the tip and told them that he was still on the case, and now had a few promising leads.

"I know you think that she's right, Jason," the young woman said quietly, "but I don't. Yeah, General Hospital might not be very safe as of recently, but there are ways for you to fix that. She could have had you put guards on Sam's room – made sure that no one got in without you knowing. For Alexis to throw you in jail and just move Sam out without letting you know is just…wrong."

In the other cell, Patrick discreetly craned his ears to catch Jason's reply.

"…If she's safe, then that's all that matters. I can let her go if I know that she'll be safer…without me."

"But, Jason, you're Sam's entire life. You love her."

His solemn blue eyes, tortured and defeated, lifted to meet hers. "Loving someone means letting them go if you know they'll be better off."

Patrick saw Elizabeth's hands curl into small fists out of the corner of his eye. "That's not true," she ground out, her liquid eyes piercing into his. "Loving someone means fighting for them, and fighting for what you have."

Jason shrugged heavily. "How long can you fight?"

"As long as it takes," she replied, her eyes shooting off sparks as she turned on the bench to face him. "Sam deserves nothing less, Jason, than to know that the man she loves wants her."

"I want her safe," he clarified pointedly. "Even if that means I can't be with her."

Her eyes shimmered with tears and the brunette pursed her lips, nodding once. There was never any arguing with Jason: once he had his mind set on something, he followed through. In his own misguided, noble way, he was trying to keep Sam alive and safe, not realizing that he was effectively taking away her power to decide what she wanted.

"Well, then, you are where you are."

Jason watched quietly as she turned around on the bench, facing the bars and offering him only her profile. Her eyes were downcast, trained on her fingers and her bangs fell down across her forehead and into her face.

Patrick shuffled in the next cell, straightening up on the bench. His guarded chocolate eyes met Jason's before drifting over to Elizabeth, and the doctor immediately knew something had upset the nurse. He had followed Jason and Elizabeth's conversation but it had confused him; he was absolutely positive that there was some subtext lurking there that he picked up on but had no hope of understanding.

True to his fashion, he immediately set out to cheer her up with his antics. "Hey."

She looked up slowly, quirking a brow at him. "Hey, what?"

His grin grew larger. "Did I ever tell you that rich female con-artists more than two times my age find me incredibly irresistible?"

The inquiry surprised her and for a moment, the brunette could only stare at her friend and his Cheshire-cat grin. "…What are you talking about?" His smile only grew, and Elizabeth felt like groaning. "Oh, no. Patrick, what did you do?"

The doctor's dark eyes twinkled. "Um, totally macked on Holly Sutton?"

She gaped at him, her lips pursed into a thin red line. "Holly Sutton? As in, Luke and Robert's Holly Sutton? Patrick, what's wrong with you?"

"Sprained my wrist while I was at it, too," he groused, settling back on the bench, pleased now that he had her undivided attention. "That Robert Scorpio sure is a jealous son of a-"

"You pissed off Robin's dad?" Elizabeth parroted, smacking her hand on the cold bench. "And all because you were hitting on his girlfriend?"

"Hey, she was only his girlfriend, like, forever ago," Patrick pointed out. "And also-"

"I don't believe you," the brunette seethed, trying to keep from showing her secret amusement. "And what about Robin?"

"What about her?"

"I'm surprised she didn't take her machete and whip it between your eyes!"

"Nah – she kissed my hand and made it all better."

"Pig."

The doctor only grinned triumphantly. "You love it," he sighed, stretching out on the bench. "Admit it."

"Not on your life," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and hiding her smile. "So I take it there was no happy ending for you and Holly, huh?"

Patrick grimaced. "No. She started hitting on Dillon."

The brunette burst out laughing and almost fell off the tiny bench. "Dillon? Are you kidding? Oh, man, and here I thought that you were the absolute worst…"

The doctor rolled his eyes. "I'm glad you're enjoying this so much, Webber. Maybe I won't even bother telling you all the other stuff that happened."

That immediately caused the young woman to sober up. "No! Tell me, Patrick – come on, you promised."

But her friend just tilted his nose. "What happens in the Markham Islands stays in the Markham Islands."

She narrowed her eyes but pretended to back down. "Okay, fine. I guess I can understand that."

A few tense minutes of silence passed before Patrick couldn't take it any longer. "Fine, I'll tell you," he huffed, lying down on his side on the bench so that he could be closer to her. "But only because you strong-armed me."

"One of my many talents," the brunette smirked. "I've got it listed on my resume and everything."

"Okay, so I told you about the villa, right? And how we had to spend the night there?"

"Yup. You mentioned something about bounty hunters, too. Was that the part where you and Robin were getting it on in the bathtub?"

He nodded impatiently. "Yeah, yeah – it was all Lulu's idea. Anyway, I didn't tell you the best part. During the night, someone stole Holly's jewels."

Elizabeth glanced discreetly over her shoulder when she heard Jason get up and walk toward the two bunked cots. "Really?"

"Yeah. And Dillon, of course, turned it into a game of Round Up The Usual Suspects."

"Of course."

"So first, Anna was all like, oh, it's Lulu and Dillon because one of them is poor and the other one wants to impress the boy."

"Go on."

"So, obviously, that wasn't true. So then Anna was like, oh, it's Robert. But then Robert blasted her by saying that she had practically slept on top of him the night before, so he couldn't have gotten up and stolen the jewels with her like that."

"Okay, that's a little disturbing."

"The visual will haunt me til my dying day. Anyway, then Anna was like, oh, it's Luke, he's a total con-artist and he's only ever been after booze, money, and women."

"See, now that actually makes sense. I've known Luke since I was a kid, and that's him pegged."

"I thought so, too, but then he explained that it couldn't be him. Then Anna said that it was me, and-"

"Lemme guess – Robin to the rescue?"

"Actually, no. She left me twisting. She actually told her mom that I got really close to Holly right when we landed, so it would make sense to think that I was only trying to charm the pants off of her so that I could take her money."

"Oh, man, that's great! She's a total keeper!"

"Shut up. Anyway, Robert stepped up for me and said that I couldn't have done it with my bum wrist and such. Finally, Dillon went all melodramatic on our butts and was like, it's Holly. Then Holly flipped out and threatened to shoot all of us if we didn't give her back the money."

"So? What happened?"

"Robin figured out that Anna took them."

Elizabeth laughed, propping her head on her hand as she lay sprawled out on the bench facing her friend. "I'm telling you – keeper."

"You say that one more time and I'm going to step on you," Patrick warned. "Turned out, Anna drugged Robert and Holly, took the jewels, and then went all Clousseau on our asses to take the guilt off of her herself."

"Pink Panther allusions?" the brunette teased, unable to help herself. "Gee, I wonder who you could have picked that up from!"

Patrick frowned, reaching out to flick her arm through the bars. "See, this is why no one tells you things."

"Not true," she snipped. "People tell me lots of stuff. I never ask – they just tell me. And then everyone calls me Amy Vining."

"Ouch."

"Tell me about it."

"…How about you tell me something?" Patrick asked slowly, tapping his clipped nails on the bench.

"Tell you what?" she volleyed back, narrowing her eyes. "And if you say the color of my underwear, I'm going to break your fingers."

"No, no," he huffed, waving a hand at her. "That's only what I ask you after you've had at least two glasses of wine. Anyway, I was just wondering…" He glanced over at the cot a few feet away where the enforcer was lying down and no doubt able to hear everything that was being said. "…What's up with you and Morgan?"

Her dark brows furrowed. "What do you mean? Nothing's up with me and Jason."

Patrick quirked a brow at her. "Really? Because I was picking up on some pretty heavy vibes back there."

Elizabeth straightened on the bench but remained close to the cell wall that divided her and her friend. Patrick watched her quietly, his chin tucked into his hands, and was about to say something when Epiphany spoke up.

"Drake, you leave Elizabeth alone and you put those pretty heavy vibes of yours back where you found them."

The nurse smirked in her colleague's direction. "That's okay, Epiphany, I don't mind answering. Patrick, there's nothing up between me and Jason. What you heard was us talking about…about how he's going to walk away from Sam because it's too dangerous for him to be near her."

The doctor glanced over at the man in question, noticing that he had closed his eyes. "And I take it you don't approve."

She frowned, her lower lip sticking out in a troubled pout. "Nope. Staying away from someone just because of the danger isn't the answer to anything."

Her voice was softer now, and Patrick quirked a brow at her. Finally, he got up from his stomach and scooted over to the far edge of the bench so that he was sitting right next to her. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

Elizabeth remained staring at the floor. "…Yeah. Maybe." Her friend waited for her to continue, but a long moment passed before she did so. "He tried the same thing with me once…twice…maybe three times. I lost count."

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, me, too," she murmured with a chuckle, turning her face to look directly into his eyes. "Jason and I used to date once."

The doctor's eyes widened and he nodded slowly, his lips pursed together as he considered it. "My Girl Scout image of you is just destroyed, Webber. Destroyed."

She laughed and swatted his shoulder. "It was a long, long time ago. It was after we all thought Lucky had died and I…I needed a shoulder. So Jason and I met up one day and we…I don't know, we became friends. Then things got a bit complicated in town and he told me that he couldn't see me any more."

"Because of the danger."

"Mm-hmm." She didn't look over to the cots three feet away. "And then about a year or two later, he came back and things were kind of rocky between me and Lucky. I think I kind of asked him to stay away that time."

"Because of the danger…to your relationship with your husband?"

"Mm-hmm." She blinked, staring at her fingers and playing with her wedding band. "And then a few years after that, he came back again and things got complicated in town once more. I…I was shot in the shoulder and – don't look at me like that, Patrick, it wasn't anything serious – and he told me that he couldn't see me any more because of the danger."

Patrick watched quietly and kept his mouth shut this time. He was beginning to see a pattern here – one that he never would have suspected otherwise, if the four of them hadn't been crammed into the same holding area.

"It didn't really matter, because we split up not too long after that and everything worked out for the best, but…I've seen him do this before. Staying away from someone just because you want them safe isn't the answer to the problem. It's just another problem – not to mention selfish. You're just sentencing yourself and the other person to a lot of pain and heartache…and the whole 'I want you safe because you matter to me' thing just doesn't cut it, Patrick."

She shook her head, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, and finally turned toward the cots. Jason's eyes met hers instantly, blue on blue, as the enforcer lay on his back and simply stared back at her.

Elizabeth swallowed and shook her head once more, their eyes still connected. "Love shouldn't be safe."