"Jason, she's holding her head - she could have a concussion and really shouldn't be driving. Take her home." Sam could tell from the angle of the vehicles that the stop had been very sudden. The woman probably hit her head.

Elizabeth grimaced at more than just the low throbbing at her temple. "I'd rather not be diagnosed by an out of work PI, thank you very much!" She grumbled further beneath her breath, "Like you're the one here with the medical know how."

"I'm not leaving you anywhere near this creep, tied up or not, so let's go!" Jason took Sam's arm gently and turned her towards her vehicle.

"We can't just leave them here like this."

He opened her passenger door before he answered, "He's lucky I don't cut his throat still, and she's a big girl. If she can jump in with a psychotic rapist with her eyes wide open, she can get herself the few miles home."

Sam watched him close her door then walk around to the driver side and climb in next to her, where he threw the SUV into gear and backed up, not sparing one glance in either their direction, but she couldn't help looking back to see the lights of his SUV come on when it started up behind them. They were silent at first, until his last statement replayed in her mind, bringing her eyes to search his face for confirmation when the reason he was suddenly on such a deadly rampage became clear.

"How do you know what he is?"

Her quiet whisper reignited Jason's somewhat calming blood back to boiling, when his mind conjured the image of the brute touching her against her will. When the fury threatened to send him back to finish what he'd started, Jason took a deep, stilling breath.

"Carly and Sonny let it slip on Christmas…but all they said was he made us believe Danny wasn't mine. I left before they could give me details - I wanted to get to you so you could tell me what really happened. I thought maybe he falsified some records, misled us into thinking one thing, when it really was another…I didn't dream he'd…Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew what would happen. Franco would turn up dead and Danny and Jake would lose you all over again…he's not worth that Jason."

Silence fell between them again. It helped that she was next to him…something about her was so very soothing to his spirit…even when she was the one deserving to be heartened.

"It was Michael who told me the rest tonight. That man did what he did to you, and he's been allowed to roam around town, grinning in your face, invading your personal space at will - why? Why isn't he locked up or dead?"

She heard the renewed anger as his temper flared again and Sam knew if she didn't keep him calm he was likely to turn right around and run the SUV over Franco where he left him.

"For awhile we all thought he was dead…you thought you took care of him before you…but he showed up after and was cleared of any wrong doing because of his medical condition. We can't touch him, Jason."

"Oh, I can touch him!"

Jason's hands gripped the steering wheel, baring knuckles that yearned to beat the slick, sarcastic grin the man usually wore in their presence, and he knew what he'd known all night…bastard wouldn't be grinning for long.

"No - you have to promise me that you'll leave him alone. You can't go after him now."

He looked at her incredulously, "No! No, Sam - I'm not going to promise that! I can't - NO!"

"If anything happens to him after tonight you'll be the first person they come for. Elizabeth is a witness to your hatred of him - so are any number of people who saw you take off after him from the party. You can't touch him, Jason…not now!" She turned in the seat from where she'd shifted to face him and eased back in place, adding softly, "Not yet."

Jason glanced at her then brought his eyes back to the road. She was right of course. He had to be smart about when and how he made Franco Baldwin disappear.

"I thought Sonny was supposed to be some kind of brother to me…how could he let somebody who hurt my wife in that way, live and remind you of it everyday? Why didn't he take care of him?"

"I have no explanation for why Sonny does anything he does. Maybe he thought it was too risky - maybe it didn't matter since you were gone, I don't know. I've thought about it a few times - about doing it myself…but I have Danny to think about. I couldn't afford to let Franco take anything else from him or from our lives…especially after we thought we'd lost you."

He pulled up outside the cabin and sat with the engine idling, staring straight ahead of him as he processed her words. She'd had to be everything for his son for so long - mother, father, guide, interpreter - instilling confidence and doting out love and encouragement, teaching empathy and care. It was fully time he shared his part of that with her.

"Can you come in for a few minutes? I'd really like to talk."

She knew she shouldn't. There was something about the place, something about him in the place that had always proved her undoing…she really shouldn't. But he'd gotten a shock tonight and he was still reeling. It was time they talked.

Jason got the fire roaring and made them coffee, handing her a cup where she sat on the sofa before he sat on the edge of the fireplace to face her. She'd kicked off the six inch stilettos and tucked her feet beneath the throw to keep them warm. He took a sip and admired the slender fingers swarming the cup as she did the same.

"Why don't you hate me, after the way I've been acting?"

Sam lowered the steaming cup and allowed the warmth to spread through her as she studied the hurt in his somber blue eyes.

"I did for awhile. It stung…I won't lie, it did! I thought you were a low bastard for not even trying to find out who Jason really was, what he meant to all of us and why. I did't need you to try to be him again, but I needed you to try to know him. To try to know Danny." Sam looked down into the shimmering liquid, "But I get it too…it was too much for you. Jason…he - you, were a giant among men. Not many can live up to the way we see you. I got that it intimidated you to find out who you really were."

Her words shamed him. While they loved and missed him, revered and honored him, he'd been busy denouncing them. The life he thought he wanted had been in his sights and it didn't include guns and goons and an unhealthy alliance to a man he couldn't stand - who'd tried to kill him. It didn't include the deadly skills he'd learned he possessed - he'd wanted no part of it, no part of the former him. He'd thought that was the man she'd loved and that was the man she'd married - he couldn't be him, so he couldn't be hers.

"I'll be honest - you all made me sound ten feet tall and irreproachable - that's alot for a guy to live up to. I knew I'd end up disappointing you when I couldn't be your Jason Morgan again, so I thought why not leave things the way they were? Everybody was happy with who they are now, so best leave it all alone." He was studying his coffee too. "Boy, was I wrong!"

"A part of you has always longed for the peace and quiet you found in your new suburban life, it's why it was so easy for you to stay put. You don't exactly love the mob way of living but it's what you know, it's what you're best at…but what you don't get about my husband is that he was so much more than just mob guy Jason. He was Sonny's enforcer and felt an obligation to him and his family, yes…but he was such a giver! YOU, were such a good man! You have no idea how many people you've helped, how many lives you've saved in this town. You didn't go looking for trouble and you spent a lot of time protecting the people who live here."

Jason smiled, despite the tension still in him. "What, like some avenging angel, warring on the side of good?"

Sam smiled too, the light joke snapping the tension that surrounded the heavy conversation that was long overdue.

"Laugh, but you kinda were. Bad guys knew to stay away because of you and good guys wanted you in jail but still found themselves seeking you out for help to keep this town safe. Nobody has been able to move drugs or guns through here for decades, because you and Sonny live by certain standards. Law Enforcement hate you but they respect that about you too." She chuckled out loud. "You're like the backup police in town, only you solve the crimes and catch flak for it because you're better at it than the real cops. It's hilarious!"

She had the most radiant, captivating smile!

"I thought it was living on the edge that you loved about me…I had no idea it was the policeman in me."

The smile disappeared when she sought his eyes. "I loved everything about you and I was happy with whatever life you chose. When we met, you were a danger junkie with a penchant for speed, and nothing thrilled me like jumping on the back of that bike and holding onto you tight. If that's who you wanted to be forever, if that's what made you happy…then I'd have been happy too. If you wanted to go straight and live life as an ordinary Joe…that would've made me happy too. It was never what you did, Jason - it was always who you were. I was the happiest I'd ever been with you, and I was ready to live whatever life you wanted, as long as we lived it together and you were happy doing it."

She was unbelievable. How do you love someone like that? How do you align their needs, to make them paramount to yours? Jason knew instinctively he'd felt the same about her! How could he not? With someone so bare and open completely to you, how could you not give them the very same? He could feel it coursing through him as he looked at her and felt the force of each word. He'd felt the exact same way about her.

"Why? What could I have ever done to earn that kind of loyalty?"

"You loved me! When I had no idea what the word really meant or how it could affect everything about you, you gave it to me unconditionally, without strings. Nobody had ever had the kind of faith in me that you did. You encouraged and trusted me to be a better person that I didn't even know lived inside me. You gave me room to sprout my own wings and it taught me how to soar…you gave me life."

"Come on, Sam - how could I do all that?"

Sam laid the coffee cup down on the table at the edge of the sofa and met his eyes again. "I told you before about my past as a con. Everybody in this town knows that about me and everybody in this town, treated me like one. Everybody but you. You never used my past to define me and you made sure I didn't use it to limit myself. Jason, you encouraged me to believe in myself and my decisions. You showed me the kind of respect I'd never known from anybody in my life before you - you have no idea how much that helped me grow. With you, there was no judgement, no condescension, no ridicule…I was an equal for the first time in my life and you made sure I felt your love. Despite people telling me you didn't know how to love or to show love, I'd never felt anything stronger in this world. You have no idea what that does to a person, how much it builds confidence and self assurance. I had no idea how much I needed that…'til you gave it!"

There it was again. There was that love he'd never known possible until he'd heard her talk about her dead husband. To be loved like that? Jason put his own cup to the side and leaned forward to brace his knees.

"What about you? What did you give me? Because if you felt like that about me, if I was giving you all that, it must've been because I was getting what I needed too. So what was it, Sam…what did you give me?"

She was tingling. The blazing blues were piercing through her as he waited for an answer and Sam could feel the pattering of her heart that threatened to leap from her chest. The way he was looking at her, like he was trying to see the very core of her.

"That's a question only you could answer."

The whisper escaped and the need to put space between them sent her sinking further into the sofa, but his gaze only followed. The room was suddenly hot and stuffy - she needed air! Tossing the throw aside, Sam leapt to her feet and hurriedly crossed the room to push the window open, breathing deeply when the cold night air slapped her face and gave the calm she sought, a calm that was ripped from her in the next second when she felt him, rigid and strong, standing at her back, so close she could feel every muscle that rippled his thighs, his arms, his chest! He was so close but moving closer still to brush the tip of her right ear with lips that singed when he whispered, "I know you know. I can feel it, Sam…just like I can feel you now." His hand reached up to softly switch her ponytail from where it rested on her shoulder, to fall down her back when his whisper continued, "You and me - we were one, weren't we?"

Jason couldn't stop himself. He knew he should give her space but he'd been compelled to move to her, to touch her, to caress any part of her she'd let him. Her movement to the window had echoed like a mating call, entrancing him to cross to her, to feel the closeness of her sexy, alluring back, to brush the slender arms he could envision stroking life into him to set him on fire for her. He needed to touch her. His forehead rested to the back of her head and the sweet scent of her shampoo enticed his arms to surround and hold her close to his chest. When she rested against him and laid her head back, he felt like he'd just arrived home, the feel of her soothing and hot to every inch of him she touched. He rocked her softly in place as they stood there, eyes closed to the night and to the world, encased in one of their own. He could die just holding her.

"What happened to us, Sam? Tell me how we got here - how I let myself get to a point where I don't get to hold you like this everyday?" Jason could hear the sound of his voice crack, and the lump that built in his throat appeared from nowhere.

"I wish I knew, Jason. For some reason you and I, even at the peak of the immensity of everything we feel for each other, always seem to mess it up."

"But why? Is there a pattern? Is there a reason, because I have to tell you, Sam…" he took hold of her shoulder and turned her softly so she would see his face, "The way I've been feeling about you for sometime now - I've never felt anything this intense in my life." He shook his head when his words to him sounded like a line, needing her to know that they were anything but, "Granted, I don't have much to compare it to - nothing past when I woke up in the hospital last year, but everything I've felt since then, everything I thought I knew…what I've been feeling when I'm around you, when I see you, when I think about you…which has become every minute of every hour of everyday…when I remember snippets and bits from our past together…it takes my breath away! I loved you more than I knew possible…so tell me, please…tell me how I could ever have been stupid enough to let you get away from me? Tell me…please tell me!"

Sam could feel her eyes tearing up at the impassioned, raw, emotional break in his voice and she longed to make his hurting stop. He was so confused, so lost and in pain, and he had no way of making sense of it, when his mind refused to cooperate and help him see. The torture that streaked his features and crashed his eyes tore at her heart, and when she reached a hand to stroke the side of his handsome face, it was the face of her Jason she saw…her lost, broken, beautiful Jason who needed her now.

"I'll help you, Jason! You're not alone…you've never been alone! We've gone through this before…you lost your memory before and you found your way back…you'll find your way back this time again, I promise. And I'll be there, I won't leave you alone, I promise."

He couldn't breathe if he didn't hold her! Crushing her soft, beautiful body to him, Jason held her so tightly she felt like an extension of where he stopped. That her tiny, tiny frame could give him so very much…so much warmth, so much empathy, so much understanding and compassion, so much care! Where did she keep it all? No wonder he loved her as fiercely as he's felt he has! He was such a fool!

His arms tightened of their now volition and it was as though he was trying to ooze her in. She felt so good, she smelled so good…Jason lifted his head from where it crested her neck and allowed his cheek to rub softly in the lift, bringing his lips to trail the path that brought him instinctively to the corner of her lips, sweet, succulent, juicy lips that called his own, and before he knew it he was tracing softly from the corner and across.

Sam's head was swimming. She'd felt the slow burning trail that drifted across her cheek to land on her lips and when the teasing tip of his tongue brushed the outside, they opened as of their own accord to invite him in, the tip of her own greeting with touch, then a dance, when he entered with a full, strong sweep. She heard his groan and felt the crush of her body when he pulled her closer still, eliciting a moan from the bottom of her soul when the man of her world swept the corners of her mouth with the sinful tongue that had transported her to the mountain top again and again and again and again! The floor had fallen from her feet and she was suspended in air, floating on clouds and drifting, even as she felt the strength of the hold that engulfed her.

Oxygen, she needed oxygen…and just when she'd pass out from her refusal to break his lips to breathe, he gave her life with air when his lips left hers to burn across her chin and char their way down her neck, a neck that had been bared of the dress that had covered all of her. Her dress, when had it disappeared from arms and chest and back now kissed by cold air from the wind…

Jason was on fire! He couldn't stop…knew he should but he couldn't…her body was like wine that had him drunk at the very first sip, hooking his lips that couldn't leave her flesh an inch untouched, unkissed, unloved…freed from the hinderance of a dress between them when he zipped the long line down her back and bared her to him. She was cold…he had her near the window still. That wouldn't do. Shrugging his hands free of the shirt she'd unbuttoned for him, he swept her beautiful, voluptuous goodness from the floor, allowing the gown to fall as he turned and strode for the bed, his lips once again sired to hers in desperate need as she clung tightly to his neck and writhed beneath his kiss. She wanted him too. Much as he died for the feel of every part of her on him, she sought him on her as well, lending life to the fever ravaging his brain and tearing through every molecule in his body.

He laid her down and hovered, again breaking from her lips with a reluctance but need for air, his eyes falling upon the most desirable thing he's ever seen in his life. He couldn't help himself from trailing the full, generous breasts with peaks that called for his lips…to the tight, flat stomach that dove into the thin strip of lace that covered her gorgeous mound, hovering over toned legs that went on and on. His eyes trailed back to find her own, a swimming sea of brown that gave nectar to his soul and pulled it right into her.

"God, you're beautiful!"

When her arms reached up he was already in descent, the need to claim her lips once more paramount to all. His hand sought and found a pink peak to tug softly, molding into a full fist of soft, velvety breast that called his lips to leave hers in search of their treasure. Rolling his tongue to harden and delight, Jason pulled in a nipple then a tasty mouthful, groaning when the fill to his mouth tore a moan of desire from her throat. The taste of her left him thirsty for even more, enticing him from one breast to lave the other with equal fervor. When she moaned again and wrapped his leg with her own, his hand roved her stomach in search of southern treasures, finding home inside panties that led to the soft strip covering her juicy lips, inviting him inside to part the folds that hid the wet, wet core of her.

Sam could not stay still. His mouth upon her breast burned equally hot to the finger inserted within her, first one and then another, stroking a hot trail in and out that left her panting, writhing, wanting more and more of him. Grabbing his head with both hands, she whipped her lips to plaster forcibly to the strong ones that soon took over their kiss, sending his tongue crashing between her lips to sweep inside her caverns, while his fingers drove her into a frenzy. Her hips bucked his hand again and again, sending hot heat to her belly to burst her wide open when the orgasm crashed through her, as he kissed her hard.

Jason couldn't take it anymore. He needed to be inside her! Hopping from the bed in a second that felt more like an hour away from her, he tore the dress pants and boxers from his body, the only remaining barriers to what he needed to live! His eyes would not tear themselves from her. She was a goddess, splayed out for his worship, and when he joined her back on the bed, her legs spread in invitation for him to happily slide within. The feel of her hand that circled his throbbing organ as she guided him home was like nothing he remembered, and when she rubbed him against the juiciness of her entrance, eyes that never left hers questioned her one last time, even as his breath held, knowing he'd die if the answer was no.

Sam couldn't look away from the husband she'd missed in the blue eyes that scoured her now. She knew this man. She knew this look she'd seen a million times, the one that relayed everything he felt for her, every promise he'd made to her, every need he needed fed by her. He wanted her. He saw her. He loved her! So her answer was yes…a million times yes! A billion times yes, to the pulsating bigness of him waiting anxiously at her entrance, to the glorious feel of his push against her walls when she guided him home. Her eyes closed of their own accord and she felt the touch of his forehead when it descended to hers, both stilling to the tight fit of her body that adjusted to fit him to her, closing tighter still when the beautiful movement of hips that sent him in and out of her, stirred an ecstasy she hadn't felt in years and years, a euphoria that he alone brought with the deep, deep strokes that reached the very core of her and slapped the hidden spot he found like a roadmap. She felt the tears that seeped beneath closed lids, when her mind met her heart and sang the sweet song of their love…reunited, rejoined, returned to her. His sweet, sweet loving returned to her.

Jason's mind was fogged. Where was he? He'd been here before with her…that place where your heart met your soul and fed your mind to give everything to the one you adore. To give her every molecule that makes up your body, with every stroke that took you to the center of her where you live the only life that matters. She was part of him, not separate…she was the heart of him, the mirror of every piece that ever meant a damn. She was home. When his strokes took him to the meat of her and frenzy grew in his need of her, Jason buried his head to her neck and groaned, feeling his back tighten as he grabbed both her arms and pinned them above her head, the fever sending him to drive and drive, deeper, deeper into her, fueled by her moans of pleasure that bounced the room and strummed his ears, he couldn't get enough…he couldn't give enough.

"More, Jason - MORE!"

Her insides were wet and her tight, tight grip gave him life! He drove hard, fast, harder, as she wriggled her hands free to hold him tight, her nails raking down and across his back when he reached down to grab her knee and lift it to his chest, never breaking stride as she writhed beneath him in tandem with each glorious thrust into her that sent him whirling.

"JESUS CHRIST, SAM!"

She was blazing through him - he couldn't think, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't live without what she was giving! Writhing hips met him thrust for thrust and burning lips scorched his skin where she kissed and sucked in succession where they landed to his neck, his chest, his ear, his lips. When the orgasm tore through his back and tightened his sac, his head dipped to desperately find a nipple as she whimpered and bucked against him in answering orgasm.

"Yeessss, Jason, Yeeeessss! Yessssss!

Sam felt the bed disappear from beneath her and the room and everything fall away completely, when the orgasm crashed through every part of her and tightened every muscle in her body. Flashing, blinking lights went off behind tightly closed lids and her arms and legs locked in place around him, then loosened with the rest of her when the bed reappeared and she sank limbless into it.

As he came down, Jason could only lay there. He wanted to shift his weight from her but he couldn't move a single, solitary muscle. He desperately needed a minute.

Sam could finally breathe again. His weight felt heavenly atop her, keeping them close, connected, and she didn't want him to move an inch - not yet, not yet.

Finally getting the ability to think again, Jason rolled to the side and brought her into the crook of his arm, his gaze falling to search her face, trying to find confirmation that her earth had shaken even a tiny little bit of a fraction as his had. Her eyes were closed but he thought he read satisfaction in the makings of a smile. Good. If she'd felt any part of what he just did, he had the tiniest chance.

"Are you okay? Was I too rough - did I hurt you?"

Sam smiled, eyes still closed. "I'm perfect!"

His eyes roamed her contented face, the beautiful angles of which he could study for the rest of his life. "You have no idea." He rubbed her arm where his draped around her body and caressed the soft hair at her temple. "That was...incredible!"

When she smiled again and mumbled, "Mhm!" he smiled too and let his eyes drift closed, his drained body relaxing in the sweetest sleep he'd had in years and with the siren in his arms, whose lullaby was the sweetest music to his heart.

Sam was just about to drift off to his soft, even breathing when her eyes suddenly flicked open. Wide! What the hell did she just do? Turning her head slightly, she studied his handsome, chiseled face in peaceful slumber, and her panic grew. What the hell did she just let happen?

Waiting another minute to make sure he was fast asleep, she eased carefully from within his hold, stilling when he stirred and reached for her shifted form. When he was settled again she slid from the bed to dash about quietly, gathering her belongings and getting dressed, eyeing the bed furtively the whole time to make sure he hadn't moved. Three minutes later she was easing down the path from the cabin, greeted by silver streaks of the new day that crept across the sky to usher in the new year. Stopping at the end of the trail, she bumped her head against the steering wheel again and again, chastising herself for doing such a stupid thing.

"Way to go, Sam! As if everything isn't already complicated enough - sure - go right ahead and mirk it up more with sex!" Incredible, earth shattering, one of a kind sex, but still!

Sighing, she eased up off the brake and steered the SUV towards home. When had she ever made anything easy on herself?

A/N: I couldn't help it - I just desperately needed a JaSam love scene so I had to toss it in! Wasn't really going for it just yet but it came out, so now we divert a little bit...soapy! Thanks for reading!