Three

It had to be around noon by now, Jason figured when he woke up, the sun piercing through his closed eyelids. He rolled over in the bed, vaguely aware of a dull throbbing in his head. He expected the other half of the bed to be empty. To his dismay, it was not.

Jason ran a hand over his face as he recalled the events of the night before. Memories of Elizabeth showing up at his door in tears, their reconciliation of sorts, and a game of pool flashed before his eyes. He shook his head, in a futile attempt to rid himself of other, more explicit recollections of the previous evening.

He spoke softly to her, careful not to touch her. "Elizabeth, you have to wake up."

The response he received was a groan of protest; he tried again. This time, she bolted into a sitting position.

"Ooh. My head. That was a bad, bad idea," she moaned.

"That's not the worst of it," Jason said under her breath.

Elizabeth turned her head slowly, scrutinizing the surrounding area. Realizing exactly where she was, her mouth began to form a perfectly round, delicate 'O'.

"Oh, my god. Did I…did we?" She looked at Jason for confirmation.

"I think that maybe you should go now," he told her.

She looked away quickly. "I…yeah."

Jason glanced away as Elizabeth dressed herself quickly and flew out of the room. She was felt a small wave of relief wash over her when she realized that Jason had decided to stay where he was, not following her. With her head pounding furiously, and her body fighting a courageous battle against nausea, she stopped just outside of the elevator in the hallway and waited, impatiently, for it to reach her floor.

At that moment, Sonny appeared in the doorway to his own penthouse. He looked at her curiously, taking in her disheveled appearance.

"Hello, Elizabeth," he greeted her, his voice carefully even.

"Hi, Sonny. I guess you're here to see Jason. That's good. You…you're in luck because he's just there in his penthouse, and he's not busy. I mean, he's…he's not busy, and, um, he's there," she stammered.

"Are you alright?" he asked, knocking on his best friend's door.

"Yeah. Yes, I'm fine. I'm…fine. I –"

Jason's door abruptly swung open; Elizabeth cringed. Thankfully, the elevator doors opened with the sound of a small bell chiming not a moment later.

"Well, here's the elevator. Goodbye Sonny…Jason."

They both nodded their heads toward her in unison. With that ordeal over with, Elizabeth ducked into the elevator and disappeared.

"Is she okay?" Sonny asked, gesturing toward the elevator doors.

"Yeah, she's…we, uh…she's fine," came his friend's unconvincing reply.

Jason moved out of the way to let Sonny into the penthouse.

Sonny moved past him, but stopped in the middle of the room, and picked up Elizabeth's coat that had been lying across the back of the couch, forgotten.

"Is this Elizabeth's?" Sonny asked.

Jason looked up, and then nodded in recognition.

Sonny chose not to comment, but instead asked where his younger sister was.

"She's at the island," Jason answered, looking at him strangely. "Where else would she be?"

"I assumed she would be here."

"Why?" Jason asked, confused, concentrating on following this line of dialogue.

"She called me yesterday, said she was coming home. I'm going to the island instead this afternoon," Sonny explained.

"Why didn't I know about this?"

"Courtney asked me not to tell you. She wanted to surprise you or something like that. Max picked her up from the airport at around seven o'clock this morning. I came to talk to you about watching the business while I'm gone," Sonny clarified.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," Jason replied. "So, you're sure Courtney was here?" he asked.

"Max informed me that after picking her up at the airport at around seven, he drove her here, and dropped her off at about eight o'clock this morning," Sonny explained.

Jason realized that Courtney must have come to the penthouse, and found him in bed with Elizabeth.

"I have to go find her," Jason exclaimed, reaching for his own jacket. He was halfway out the door when Sonny stopped him.

"What's going on, Jason?" he asked. "This has to do with Elizabeth, doesn't it? I know she was here last night because she answered your phone. Did she spend the rest of the night here, too? Was she just leaving this morning?" Sonny asked angrily.

"She did. I…we were drinking; we were drunk. I know it's not a good excuse for what happened, but it's all I have. I'm sorry," Jason defended apologetically.

"Did Courtney see you together?" Sonny asked.

"I don't know."

"Then maybe it isn't me who you should be apologizing to." With that statement, Sonny turned and left the penthouse.

Jason sat down on the couch, massaging his temples for a few seconds. He then stood up, and left to go find Courtney. And he did find her – in the park.

"Hi," Jason said as he approached her. "Sonny just told me that you came back this morning. I have to assume that you came to the penthouse, and I want to explain," he began.

"Save it, Jason. Save your lies for someone who cares," Courtney burst out. "Oh, wait, here's a suggestion for you: go tell Elizabeth Webber about it. I have to say, you both looked pretty cozy this morning," she said coldly.

"Courtney…" he started.

"Shut up, Jason. Just SHUT UP! Tell me, how long have you been cheating on me with that tramp? On second thought, don't answer that. I don't even want to know." She started to walk away from him, but he grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"This has never happened before, Courtney," he said roughly. "We were both drunk," he tried to explain.

"Let go of my arm," she said quietly, her voice severe.

He let his hand drop.

"God, I can't believe I trusted you, Jason. I mean, no wonder you were so eager to have me go to the island. You and Elizabeth were probably laughing at me when I left. 'Stupid Courtney'," she mimicked. "Doesn't know a thing," she laughed bitterly.

"It wasn't like that at all, Courtney. I wanted you to go to the island so you could be safe," he said. "And Elizabeth would never laugh at you. She regrets what happened as much as I do."

This, he realized quickly as Courtney's eyes darkened with rage, was quite possibly the worst thing he could have said at that moment.

"Do not defend Elizabeth Webber to me, Jason. You were just scared that Ric would retaliate when he found out that you were sleeping with his fiancé," she spit at him. "What better way to protect her, than to send me to a remote island, thousands of miles away, and move her into the penthouse with you?"

"That's not true, Courtney."

"I don't believe you, Jason, and I don't have time for this."

With that statement, she walked quickly away from him. Jason watched her leave; waited until she disappeared from his sight, then he sighed and turned around, heading in the opposite direction.

He would go visit Emily, he decided. He hadn't spent nearly enough time with his sister lately. It would also take his mind off both Courtney and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth sighed, and leaned against the wall of the elevator.

'God, I am so stupid. What was I thinking?' she asked herself. She sighed again. "I wasn't," she answered aloud.

Elizabeth got off the elevator, walked through the lobby, and left the building. She hailed a taxi to take her to General Hospital. Once there, she pulled Monica, Emily's mother, aside.

"How's Emily doing?" she asked politely.

"I wish I could say she's improving, Elizabeth, but at least she isn't getting worse. That's something to be thankful for," Dr. Quartermaine answered.

"Is she still in the same room?" Elizabeth asked.

"She is."

Elizabeth thanked her again, and left to go visit her friend.

She treated Nikolas, Emily's fiancé to a smile as she passed him on her way in

"Don't wake her up, alright. She needs her rest," he told her as he left.

"Of course," Elizabeth agreed.

She walked into the hospital room and sat down in the chair beside Emily's bed. To her surprise, her friend's eyes popped open.

"Has he left yet?" Emily asked, sitting up, attempting to look out of the hospital room's small window to the hallway.

Elizabeth smiled. "You mean Nikolas?" she asked.

Emily nodded, trying to peer into the hallway.

"He left just a minute ago. I saw him on my way in. He mentioned that I shouldn't wake you because you need your rest," she added pointedly.

"I pretended to go to sleep so he would go home and get some rest himself," Emily said, explaining the surreptitious details of her brilliant plan.

"I take it simply asking him to go home for a while wasn't procuring the desired result?"

Emily laughed. "No, he's been wonderful, really supportive, you know. Nevertheless, he has to be drinking about a thousand cups of coffee each day to stay awake at the hospital for so long. That much caffeine isn't good for anyone," she joked.

"He did look like he could pass out at any moment," Elizabeth agreed. "So, how are you feeling, Em?"

Emily shook her head. "I don't want to talk about me. I hear enough from the doctors. How are things with you?"

"Things are good. I went to Jason's last night. I decided we needed to get our friendship back on track," Elizabeth told her.

Emily looked interested. "And how did that go?" she asked.

"It went well," Elizabeth lied.

Emily didn't look convinced, but before she had a chance to question her, the door to the room opened, and Jason walked in, interrupting them.

"Sorry," Jason apologized. "I didn't realize anyone would be here right now."

Elizabeth stood up. "I'm going to go," she said with a deep blush.

Jason stepped out of her pathway quickly, and Elizabeth nearly fled the room. Emily watched their interaction with increased interest.

Jason sat down in the chair Elizabeth had previously occupied and promptly asked Emily how she was feeling.

"I'm going to tell you the same thing that I told Liz," she began. "I hear enough about how I'm doing from the daily parade of doctors floating in and out of here. I appreciate your concern, Jason, but I'm that last thing that I want to talk about right now," she said. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," was his sparse reply.

"Come on. I've talked to you a grand total of twice in the past few weeks. As your sister, I'm sure I'm entitled to a more of a detailed description of how you're doing than a simple 'fine', don't you think?"

He sighed, but acquiesced. "I'm doing alright. It's good to have Carly back. I think the only two people who are happier than I am are Sonny and Michael. Other than that, nothing else has happened lately that I want to talk about."

"What about Elizabeth?" Emily pressed.

"What about her?" Jason shot back, his eyes narrowing almost imperceptibly.

Emily shrugged. "She seemed like she was going to tell me something when you got here. For two people who are supposed to be reconciling and putting their friendship back together, she sure did leave in a hurry," Emily observed. "You wouldn't happen to know why she left so quickly, would you?"

"I don't want to talk about Elizabeth, Emily," he said firmly.

"Why?" she persevered.

"I was serious. I don't want to lie to you, so I'm not going to say anything. If Elizabeth wants to tell you, she will; that's her prerogative. If she doesn't, you aren't going to hear about it from me."

Emily looked taken aback by his reply, but before either of them had a chance to say anything further, the door to her room opened again, revealing a very embarrassed-looking Elizabeth.

"Sorry. I, um…forgot my purse," she said blushing, and refusing to look at Jason.

Memories of the night before flashed, unbidden, in front of Jason's eyes. He was experiencing an extreme sense of déja vu, except that this time, Elizabeth had forgotten her purse instead of her jacket, which was, he remembered, still resting on the couch in his penthouse.

Jason stood, and retrieved her purse, which was hanging over the back of his chair. He wordlessly handed it to her before leaving the room.

"That was strange," Emily commented, amused. By this time, she had a very good idea of what had transpired between her best friend and her older brother the night before.

"Elizabeth," Emily began, needing to hear an explanation from her friend. "What aren't you telling me?"