Chapter 13

One hour later

When he stopped the bike they were at a park on a hill that overlooked a nearby town. The lights from the businesses cast a pale glow over them.

Carly climbed off the bike and looked around, "Isn't this where we took Michael to see fireworks a few years ago?"

" Ya, you can see every one that goes up for miles around from here."

"He loved that night. This year we watched them in Bobbie's backyard surrounded by guards." Carly said "We should bring both the boys here next year."

Jason didn't answer instead he got off the bike and walked over to a bench to sit down . His eyes focused on the town below.

He wouldn't promise something he might not be able to do.

Carly didn't push the issue. She joined him on the bench and said, "So, what are we doing here?"

"Talking."

"I know that, " Carly said with a laugh but why here? Don't get me wrong I am thrilled you have more time for me now. But we could be at my house checking on Michael's sleep over, cause you know that boy is running poor Leticia ragged. Or at your place where I could beat you at pool for the third time. Or at our place."

Jason gave her a raised eyebrow.

He asked, "Jake's?"

"Where else? I can't go in there without literally feeling your presence in the room. You are Jake's to me. Why do you think I take so many dates there?"

"Trying to find a new boy on the side?" he joked, something he rarely did. But it felt good to be here, away from life, hearing Carly try and

explain the way she thought.

He knew her. Jason knew what made Carly

the happiest and the most hurt. He knew the exact words it would take to break her heart because he had seen people break it right before his eyes.

Jason could read her lies before she spoke them. It was a feeling that rolled through him as she prepared another half truth to try to give him, a feeling that said, "Here we go again."

But still, at times, Jason learned new things about her. Like this, she takes her dates to Jake because of him?

Carly didn't laugh at the "new boy on the side" crack.

Instead she turned to face Jason and

said, "You're irreplaceable to me. You know that."

She waited, forcing him to look away from the view below and at her.

His half closed eyes washed over her, sitting there with her devotion to him all over her face.

She amazes me, Jason thought. So willing to just go there.

Even though he had such a hard time finding words to tell her he felt all the same things that she admitted to feeling for him.

"I take my dates there," Carly said with an easy smile. For her this confession was no secret, it was just fact. "because I want to see if any of them make me feel half of what I felt at Jake's when I was there with you. Since I'm single, I guess we know the answer to that question."

And nobody holds me
And nobody knows me


Nobody knows me

like my baby

Lyle Lovett lyrics

Jason looked away again.

How can I even think about leaving Port Charles in a few months if it means leaving her behind? Jason thought

He needed to know Carly and the boys were safe and taken care of in order to sleep at night.

And no matter who she had ever married or shared her bed with, Jason only trusted himself to protect her.

Carly scrunched her eyebrows at him as he withdrew from the conversation. But instead of trying to force him to respond, she turned and stared out at the view.

Something has to change, Jason thought

This life he had now felt like a never ending trudge through waist deep mud with only

rare moments of freedom from the muck.

Moments like tonight. And moments when he carried Morgan in his arms and saw Carly's smile on his face. And moments spent with Michael, watching him move out of boyhood and slowly toward becoming a man. A man Jason hoped would have a better life than him , Carly or Sonny had now.

The rest of the time he was running to save someone's life, to take someone's life, to make the little world the people he cared about lived in safe again.

Years ago, that had been exciting to him. It had felt powerful and gave him meaning. Now it was tiring.

The threats became more deadly each time and one time, Jason feared, he might not be able to run fast enough to head off the danger for these people who he had vowed to protect.

Carly scooted closer until her arm brushed against his. Jason lifted his arm and put it around the back of the bench. Carly gave him a questioning look but he kept his eyes faced forward. She squeezed in closer.

I can't leave her, Jason thought, and I don't know if I can stay in Port Charles for the rest of my life either.

Things were easier back when he hadn't seen so much loss, death and near death. Thinking Michael had left this earth changed him. Having to tell Sam he could never see himself having a child with her, knowing that child would be in danger from birth,

changed his idea of what his life could be.

Seeing Carly slip away into herself, his fighter unable to fight hard enough, made him hate the path that led her to that place. He should have been able to keep her out of that darkness.

Jason couldn't keep going through the same motions everyday knowing only more pain and threats awaited Carly and the boys.

He felt Carly's warmth next to him. She liked to push the limits of life but for now, for him, she was able to sit and just be there for him, with him, giving him what he needed without saying a word.

Jason had to find a way to make her life secure once and for all, whether in Port Charles or somewhere else.

"Carly?"

"Umm."

"You used to talk about showing the boys the world. But they haven't seen much beyond the island." Jason swallowed and then said, "We should go away together."

it was a dream made to order
South of the border
And nobody knows me like my baby

Lyle Lovett lyrics