"Elizabeth! Your nose! Oh, you poor thing!"
The nurse grunted in frustration and swung around to head back to the exam room she'd just vacated, wanting desperately to avoid what she knew that greeting was bringing. Slamming the door shut behind her proved futile as it broke back open and Maxie swept inside to face her standing by the empty bed.
"Leave me alone!" The nurse quickly turned her back to prevent the blonde's gaping of her cotton stuffed nostril.
"I just want to see the damage…hope you know you still have friends…don't know where exactly, but I'm sure at least one person would care if you bled to death." Her blonde bob moved up and down quickly, her condescendingly mocking tone dripping with feigned concern as she shifted the pocketbook from one arm to the other, "Yes, I'm almost certain of it."
"I should have her arrested. No wonder you two are friends - you're exactly the same type of trash this town would do well without!"
Rolling her eyes to the ceiling, Maxie marveled at the gall. "Forever calling someone else trash when you're the one constantly doing the trashiest! Spitting out babies you never know who to pin on, screwing siblings and chasing after people's husbands, then turning your nose up at the rest of us like you're anybody! Always trying to run somebody out of town - when did you get elected Mayor? With so many people hating your guts every corner you slither into, I'd say you're the one who should seriously consider leaving. I'd even help you pack!"
Swinging round in anger, she scoffed at the jabs. "You'd love that, wouldn't you? Well, that's just too bad…I'm not moving an inch away from Jason and my boys." In her head, her anger sounded alot more threatening than the stuffy sound that came out, thanks to all the cotton.
"Funny you mention Jason - you know, Sam's real husband, real father of her child, real love of her life…but not so funny really, since he's all you can ever seem to talk about. How do you even manage to keep your job here? You're never at GH unless Jason is here as a patient or sitting vigil by Sam's bed. Matter of fact, you don't appear anywhere in this town unless Jason Morgan is in close proximity - don't you have any kind of a life outside of another man who doesn't want you? I lied to Lucky about being pregnant, trying to hold onto him, and you saw how that turned out…but instead of taking heed, you took it and ran with your own version, all the way through pregnancy, through birth, his supposed death and even his miraculous return! You were planning to run this one for life, weren't you Betty?"
Frustrated and sad from the day, Elizabeth couldn't handle anymore dumping. "Why are you stalking me? Don't you have anything better to do or anyone else to taunt?"
Maxie chuckled then held a forefinger up, "Stalking - now that's an interesting word. It's actually the perfect one I'd use to describe the way you follow Sam and Jason around day and night. You know, like that day they blinded you in Sam's office!" When the woman turned ashen grey and stricken, Maxie twisted the knife she'd just stuck, "That kinda love is pretty darn powerful, as you saw…tends to rear its head in the least expected places at times…that raw, torrid, unbridled passion that rips the clothes off each other, desperate to express that ravenous, animalistic craving to bang each other's brains out…you know, like you saw Jason expressing all over Sam that day?"
Elizabeth wanted to throw up. She'd been humiliated and disgusted at the sight, but she never realized anybody knew she was there. Of all people to have knowledge of the lowest moment of her life. "You're disgusting! Get out of my way!" She stormed around Maxie, who didn't try to stop her, just grinned wickedly as she watched her tear from the room to get way.
"Nice catching up with you. Let's do it again soon!" The fingers of her right hand waved mockingly to the fast retreating back of the woman racing to the nurse's station. Chuckling out loud to herself, Maxie shook her head and followed from the room to continue on to her annual checkup. Taking jabs and potshots at some deserving people will never get old.
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;
Alone on the park bench, Sam watched Danny on the jungle gym off to her left, his rich laughter carrying to where she sat in full appreciation of all she had. Her little boy was healthy and happy, filling her heart with only his smile any moment of any given day…they had a home and family, which alone in itself made them rich in the best possible way. Her son would never know the lonely childhood she'd lived, never know the pitfalls of having only a Cody McCall to pattern his life after, nor the coldness of having to keep his head down as he fought for a place in a miserable world. Thanks to her extended family and to a father that doted and wanted him, a mother who lived everyday for him, her son was set.
Sam wished that Jake could feel the same. He had a strong father who loved him and cared about his welfare, but who battled a very real gypsy complex. Who was to say it wouldn't rear its head again, despite him not wanting it to? But Jake also had extended family that Sam hoped were about to step up and help ease the pain he was going through at the hands of his so-called mother. Unfortunately, one member of that extended family was a grandmother who chose to see nothing but stars when she looked at his mother, always enabling and excusing her selfish choices and patting her on the back when what she really needed was a good kick in the ass. Another was an aunt who could call her out when her whoring ways pit two brothers apart, but pat her on the back when she went after a married man in love with his wife. That poor little boy was up for a rocky road through life.
Sam smiled when she saw Danny leave the jungle gym and started running towards her.
"Hey, babyboy. Tired now?" When he nodded and sagged between her legs to lay his head on her chest, Sam hugged him close. "Okay, let's go home." When he didn't move, she rubbed her cheek atop his head. "What's the matter, kiddo?"
"Mommy, why is Daddy sad?"
She wasn't caught totally offguard. Danny was a very bright, very astute little boy who drank in everything around him. He'd no doubt noticed his father's long absences when he took off on one of his bike rides to be alone with his thoughts and feelings. Sam knew he would've also picked up on Jason's even more silent presence when he was with them the last few days.
"Daddy got some sad news that he's learning to accept."
"Is he going to go away again?"
Lifting her head and his tiny chin so she could meet his eyes, Sam assured her little boy, "No baby. Daddy would never take off on you. Last time he went away it wasn't because he wanted to - he never wanted to leave you and he never would - you believe that, right?" When he nodded in her hand, she continued, "Daddy and I love you more than anything in this world, kiddo!" She dropped a kiss on his head and squeezed him closer. "We're not going anywhere!"
"What kind of news, Mommy?"
Sam was silent for a moment when she wondered if it would be too much, but remembering her promise to always tell her child the truth, she eased him from her arms and patted the bench next to her, pulling him inside the crook of her arm when he sat.
"You remember when Jake came back and I took you over to his house to introduce you to your big brother?"
"Yah."
"Yah - okay." She took a deep breath. "Well, it looks like Mommy was wrong. You and Jake don't have the same daddy afterall."
"We don't?"
"No, baby. You remember my friend Lucky who we saw with Aiden and Cameron at Kelly's?" He nodded again and Sam brushed his golden curls, then scratched softly where her fingers rested, "Lucky is really Jake's daddy too, like he is Aiden's."
"He is?"
"Yes, baby. There was a mistake and everybody thought you and Jake were brothers, but it turns out you're not."
"That's why Daddy is so sad?"
Sam hugged him to her side and rested her chin on his head. "Mhm! Daddy misses Jake, which is why he's going to be a little sad for awhile."
They sat silently for a few minutes, Sam thinking about how fast things can change on a dime without you even seeing it coming. She never thought this was a conversation she'd ever need to have with her child, but remembered a time when she never thought she'd ever have a child to be having one with. Danny's voice broke the silence they sat in.
"Does that mean I don't get to play with Jake anymore?"
"No baby - this doesn't change how you feel about Jake or how he looks out for you. It just means you're not related the way we thought."
"So we can still play monster trucks and video games?"
"Jake's daddy and I are friends, so we can arrange a playdate whenever you want, okay?"
"We'll help him right, Mommy?" He pulled away from her grasp to look up at her. "We'll help Daddy feel better!"
Smiling, she touched his cheek softly, marveling at how quickly he could shift gear, "Yes, we will."
Watching from the far side of the park, he kept to the shadows of the bushes so she wouldn't see him and get angry again. She was so beautiful, holding their baby in her arms. Danny! He'd grown so much…and he'd missed it all! Danny was no longer the happy little baby who was't the least bit scared by all he went through that fateful day - fearless, just like his mother. He may not share any of his own DNA but he loved him just like he did…and hopefully one day soon, his mother would welcome that love for them both.
Watching her with their son only doubled the ache he'd had to hold her since the moment he got back. It had been days and the image that had sustained him, the way he'd dreamed her running into his arms on sight and never leaving, was fading a little more with each passing day that she kept him at more than arm's length. She hadn't aged a bit since he left, had only grown more beautiful with motherhood - just like he knew she would. She was a natural from the start - despite the doubts she'd always used to psyche herself out, thinking she'd be bad at it. She wasn't, and he always knew she wouldn't be.
"You should be more careful - ogling another man's family in public can get you killed - depending on the man."
His spine straightened at the cold voice to his back, and even without turning he knew the man had a gun aimed at his head.
"No harm when that family is the man's doing the ogling."
The click of the chamber confirmed his suspicion and after a silent pause, he turned to meet the barrel he knew was there, in the hand of the man impersonating his life.
"So you're sticking to that story then? You're going to try to convince everyone that you're me?" Jason held the gun in place, weirded out by aiming at his old face but knowing he'd suffer a million times worse to protect the family he'd die for.
"Won't have to try very hard - they'll soon see the truth for themselves."
Jason couldn't decide if he was just a very good actor or if he really believed his own lies, but either way, he would take no chances where Sam and Danny were concerned.
"What makes you think you'll live long enough to try to convince them of anything?" He sounded the words, despite how the visions of burying his own face in the Pine Bearings triggered the kind of nightmares shrinks milk for a lifetime.
"Sam already saw me. If I suddenly disappear again she'll start asking questions - answers to which will shut you down when she's finally ready to accept the truth and find out you did this."
"Yea? What makes you so certain she won't help him get rid of the trash?"
Both men looked to the sudden appearance of Sam to Jason's right as she came to stop with her gaze locked on the newcomer, who's eyes softened at the sight of her.
"Sam. You don't mean that. Deep down you know it's me - I know you do."
"Don't talk to her!" Jason's jaw tightened when he grit the words out.
"Oh, you tell her who she can talk to now?"
Sam ignored the pissing, her frustration growing with the tedious game. "Who are you? Why don't you just tell us what you want so we can get it over with? Nobody here will ever buy your Jason act, so just save us all time and just tell us what this is about!"
The disappointment was acute. He'd been sure she was just hiding from her feelings, that she was just so shocked to see him after all this time that she was burying them and they would no doubt surface real soon. But she was sounding more and more convincing each time he saw her now, and it hurt.
"Sam."
"Yes! Yes, that's my name - we all know my name! Can we get on with it now? Who are you?"
"Jason Morgan. I was always Jason Morgan and Jason Morgan is who I'll always be. Don't know how to be anybody else."
"Except we all know that you have to be, since Jason is standing right before you."
"How can you be so sure? I did some checking - this clown showed up out of nowhere, unrecognizable, couldn't remember you - like I would ever forget you in a million years - and chose somebody else over you. He so clearly isn't me!"
"Clearly!" Sam took another step closer, watching Jason's hand steady with the gun but knowing he was itching to pull the trigger. Placing her hand lightly on his outstretched arm, she pushed so he'd lower the gun. "He's who he says he is. You, on the other hand, nobody has a clue about. We're never going to believe you, so what say we move to plan B…what is it you're after? Money? Notoriety? What can we do you for?"
There was no mistaking the distrust in her eyes. She really didn't believe him, a fact that hurt more than the bullet from the gunfight he'd waged to break free from his captors.
"Sam, I've been held in a prison in Brussels for the past three years!"
"Three? If you were Jason you would've been gone for longer than that!"
"I am, and I was! Before that they held me in a facility pumping me full of drugs daily. When the wound to my back healed, they moved me to a compound where I managed to fight my way out, only to have them corner me in a tiny village outside Waterloo, where all anyone spoke was French and I couldn't understand a damn thing said. I was forced to defend myself when they found me and got sent to prison for killing three of their men in the streets. It took me three years to find a way out of that hellhole and onto a boat headed for the states…to make my way home to you!"
Sam couldn't help it - she found herself slightly mesmerized by the picture his words painted, envisioning Jason's face fighting his way out of the situations he described, having no doubt her Jason would've fought just as hard. But her Jason hadn't been the one to have to face any of those things, if indeed they happened.
"You're only proving more and more why you can't be Jason. Other than the fact he's standing right here, it would never have taken Jason three years to break out of a prison, no matter where it was. He wouldn't have gotten caught in the first place."
"I've gone to prison before, Sam."
"Voluntarily…not because they caught him doing anything! But you wouldn't know a thing about that."
"I remember quite well going to prison so I could protect Michael. I hated leaving you then too."
Jason had heard enough. He was just about to raise the gun and pull the trigger this time without caring, when Sam stepped between him and his target. Of course she did. Half the time she knew what he was thinking before he even thought it. Of course she sensed he was at his threshold with the facade.
Sam studied the man facing them as she used a hand behind her to soothe Jason's holding the gun, her eyes narrowing like they did when she contemplated. "That's the most Impressive part of your ruse and the only part that really throws me…how do you know the things you do? Somebody would've had to have actually gotten inside Jason's head to be able to know all that - and we all know that's impossible. So how do you know so much about his life?" She shrugged nonchalantly, "You might as well just tell us…we're going to figure it out…it's what we do." When he still stared at her blankly, she bobbed her head, "I mean literally…we do this for a living!"
Realizing he wasn't going to get anywhere with Sam while her guard was around, he relented to take this up another time. He wanted more than anything to get her and Danny away from this man, but if she was't willing to do it yet, he couldn't force her, and it was at least evident that physically harming them was not on his agenda. He would make that suffice for now.
"I hope you give me a chance to prove everything to you, Sam. But I'll leave you alone until you're ready to let me. I'll be waiting, when you're ready to come find me."
Although reluctant, he walked past the big brute and made his way towards the docks. Sonny needed to go over plans for a new shipping route and hated to be kept waiting. Knowing that at least one part of his old life was falling back into place would sustain him for now, and he could use this time to formulate a new plan to get his wife back.
"You should just let me kill him, Sam."
"You're not killing anybody." She wrapped her arms around his waist, contact with him instantly bringing the calm she sought, like it always did, and she softened her look upon his face. "I missed you last night."
Jason could feel the tension leaving him the moment she wrapped him in her love, and as he smiled for the first time in days, he stroked the hair to rest it behind her ear and pulled her fully into his arms. "I missed you too. I'm sorry - I know I have to do better."
She shook her head softly. "Don't apologize. You're hurting - I know how much - and the only thing I wish is that I could help you past it."
His fingers stroked the soft lines of her face as his eyes roved behind them before meeting her brown depths. "You do. Nothing calms me like you." Bending his head to find her, his lips sought solace in the connection that grounded and sustained him. When her soft body relaxed fully into him, Jason enfolded her completely to his chest and devoured her mouth hungrily, his tongue teasing its way home to rest in a lock with her own. Inhaling sharply, he squeezed her tighter when the warmth of her body upon him cried for more of her.
When his heady kiss robbed her of oxygen and left her lightheaded, Sam broke from his firm lips to gasp for much needed air, resting her forehead to his while her eyes stayed closed to the dreamy state she succumbed to in his strong arms.
Jason squeezed her even tighter, allowing her love to wrap him wholly. "Where's Danny?"
"With his aunts. They just met us here to get him for their lunch date." She smiled with her eyes still tightly closed. "I love that he has so many people in his life, Jason. I love that he has the childhood every kid should."
Releasing a sigh where his lips lifted to find her forehead, Jason couldn't ignore the relief that shot all through him.
"You called me, Jason."
Sam finally opened her eyes to find the unusual look of fear behind those of her stalwart warrior. "That's your name. That is, and will always be your name."
His eyes fell involuntarily to the ground between hem. "You don't wonder if he's telling the truth and I'm the imposter?"
"Not for a single second!" She clasped strong jaws between her hands and lifted his face with eyes to meet hers for dire emphasis. "You're you and I don't doubt it at all! I haven't doubted who you are for one second since this debacle started, Jason - not one!" Her thumbs rubbed the goatee he was growing in. "I know you!" Her eyes fell to the side of where the man had left. "What we don't know is who this guy is and what he wants."
Finding his resolve in the face of her own once more, Jason agreed. "You're right - but he did give us a place to start."
Sam smiled as her thoughts fell in line with his. "He did, didn't he?"
"He did. Let's get Spinelli on it. We need to find that prison and that facility he talked about…let him see just how real we take this story of his."
