She was shaking like a leaf! Her fingers could barely get the key in the lock, but after struggling, dropping them twice, and trying for a third time, she pushed the door open to the dark living room, rushing in to slam and lock it soundly behind her. A musty smell from her house being locked up for weeks, greeted nostrils busy trying to sweep air in, as her chest heaved in her disjointed movement to the stairs. Feeling along the banister and up its dark rise, she made her way to the bedroom, only then risking to flick a lightswitch. With the boys living at Lucky's, she'd spent her days at the hospital and her nights on Spoon Island, unable to muster the strength necessary to face the emptiness of a house that belied her life now. Nikolas, the only friend she had left, had offered her a safe place in his home, her only haven away from the wreckage her life had become, but even that safety would be lost to her after tonight. Unless she gave him what she's always known he truly wanted…he'd never say no to her offering to share his bed again…but the polite, disciplined aristocrat was no match for an angry, vengeful Jason Morgan.
Her frazzled reflection in the mirror was the first to greet her in the flood of white light, hair tousled and tangled from running all the way from the docks, cheeks stained with tears that ran a constant flow from puffy, swollen eyes. She'd bitten off so much more than she could chew, and tonight it had earned her a place she'd never thought to ever, ever be…on a list of those Jason called, enemy. She knew precisely what happened to the enforcer's enemies!
There was only one choice left open to her now…she had to get the hell out of town! Swirling away from the truthful mirror, she grabbed a suitcase from the closet and opened it hastily on the bed, then returned to grab an armful of clothes from the closet. Frazzled, hasty trips between closet, dresser, and bathroom, filled it within minutes and just as she closed the zipper and straightened from bending over the bed, strained ears picked up quiet footsteps falling just outside the doorway.
Heart leaping from her chest, she looked around her in terror, seeing no place good enough to hide. Dear God he'd come for her…he'd killed them all at the warehouse and come to finish the only one who'd escaped. With a giant lump in her throat, she attempted to run, but leaden legs were stuck in place by the bed, her frantic eyes returning to the open doorway, as the shadow crept onto the doorjamb. This was it - she'd taken her last liberties and pushed his very last button, and she'd known from the moment she'd heard Robin give the order to finally and forever rid them of the woman he loved, the woman he'd wanted from the start…that she'd end up here. She knew clear as her own name, that he'd track her to some dark, isolated spot, where he'd drain her body of its very last breath. She knew she was so dead!
"Elizabeth? Are you in here?"
The jagged sigh of relief was so enormous it dropped her to a jerky seat on the edge of the bed, so grateful for the shadow that morphed into her friend.
"Nikolas!" He came into full view, halting at the open door to sweep the chaotic room. "Ohmygod, you scared me!"
After a brief hesitation, Nikolas entered the room slowly, coming to a stop before her, eyes falling to the stuffed suitcase. "I've been looking everywhere for you. You've been so scared to leave the house and you weren't at work, so I was worried something had happened."
Lifting a palm to wipe the emergent cold sweat at her forehead, she closed her eyes briefly in expanded relief. "No - I'm sorry - I needed to get some things."
"You've been here this whole time?"
With a darting glance to his scrutinizing face and back to the floor, she realized she couldn't possibly tell him the truth. "Yes, yes I have. I needed to get some things."
Hesitating, he looked at the suitcase again, then at her frazzled and disheveled appearance. "You said that."
She had. Clearing her throat, she made to get up from the bed but sat back down instantly when her legs refused to cooperate, the earlier fright taking its toll to render them still and lifeless.
"I'm sorry - I don't know what's the matter with me."
Slowly lowering himself to the bed, Nikolas sat facing her, observant eyes boring into panic alive all over her.
"Could it have something to do with where you've really been?" Frantic eyes met his and he could tell when she finally saw. "Something to do with what happened to my cousin tonight?"
"Wha-what?"
"Alexis called me a few hours ago - frantic after a call from Jason - telling her Sam had been shot. Know anything about that?"
The lump returned to her throat with a renewed dryness that parched. "Wha-aat?"
Lifting his chin, Nikolas leant his head to the side in study of her deceptive face mirroring a mind trying desperately to form a deflecting lie, his voice falling low and slow. "You reeally had me fooled, didn't you?"
Suddenly her eyes were filled with blinding tears again and the new lump swelled in bounds, recognizing that tone belying one more person completely disenchanted with her and seeing through unveiling eyes the ugliness she'd been able to keep hidden for so long. Heart sinking to her knees, she sobbed openly, knowing instantly she'd lost him too…her only, solitary friend left.
"Nikolas - I can explain."
"Go ahead…I'm listening." His voice was calm and deadly smooth…the Cassadine he never was with her. "Explain to me how you've been living in my home, taking full advantage of my hospitality and our friendship, crying your sorrows in my arms…while plotting to have my cousin murdered?"
Head shaking violently, she attempted to explain herself. "It wasn't me, it was Robin. Robin wanted her dead, not me!"
"Oh, so when you learned Robin wanted to have her killed, you called the police? You called me - you called Lucky? Jason? Your damn priest, at least?"
Shame dropped her eyes to the ground and she sniffled as she wiped the tears from eyes that refilled instantly. "I couldn't - I was afraid Robin would hurt me."
"So she threatened you then?" The mocking tone of his voice dripped with underlined anger.
"You didn't hear how calmly she ordered them to take out Sam and Carly - I knew if I crossed her she'd hurt me too, and you know I already have one lunatic after me. I couldn't risk it Nikolas - I had to think of my boys!"
A dry, mocking laugh sounded and his head shook at her. "Your boys? You mean the ones who live with Lucky…the ones you haven't seen in days? Those boys?"
"That's not fair - you know Lucky's been keeping them away from me! Nobody, including you - stopped him from taking my children from me."
Rising from the bed, Nikolas walked slowly to the closet and rattled the empty hangers dejectedly. "You are unfit, Elizabeth. For the longest time I couldn't see that. I thought they were all wrong about you and treating you so unfairly. They didn't know you like I do. But then I started to think - Lucky did!" He turned to face where she still sat, unable to move. "Lucky has known you a hell of a lot longer than any of us and much better too…and he wants nothing to do with you."
"Lucky hates me because he can't have me - you can't let his unfair judgment ruin our friendship."
"Unfair. Interesting word. Was it unfair of him to lash out at us for sneaking around behind his back? For telling him we loved him in one breath, then tearing each other's clothes off in the next, while you were wearing his engagement ring?" He stepped closer to her slowly bowing head. "Was it unfair of him to put those boys first when all you did was chase my cousin's husband like he was the last man left on earth? Is he being unfair loving those boys and letting them know they have at least one parent they can count on?"
"Right now, Nikolas - where was he before? They couldn't count on him until now, could they? It was all me!"
"Now, is all we have." He moved to stand immediately before her and reached a hand out to brush her wild hair, down to her chin that he raised so she would meet his eyes. "Now, is when you tried to kill my cousin, leave my aunt to mourn her child - force her son to have to grow up without her." A lone finger stroked icily along her jaw, "Now, is the time to pay the piper."
Gulping hard at the hand that had been tightening slowly at her chin, she became aware that they were no longer alone, as the shape of two burly men closed in behind him, one carrying a long duffle bag that he bent over to open on the floor. The panic that had abated at Nikolas' appearance earlier, burst open again, and her feet finally worked to send her springing upward.
"What's going on?" Terror roared inside her head as one man drew nearer, then catapulted when he grabbed her arms and pinned them behind her, while the other held the huge bag open on the floor. "Nikolas, what are they doing? Please - don't do this! Nikolas, please! Don't do this to me?"
But he simply stepped out of their way, turning his back to her cries. "You would have benefited from paying closer attention to Sam over the years, instead of hating her so hard for your shortcomings. I bet your existence my brave, unstoppable cousin was fighting when she was shot…not begging and weeping like a spoiled, entitled little brat who always got her way!" Ignoring the squirming as she fought the tape being slapped across her mouth, he paused without turning, "You should've especially paid very close attention to how protective I felt about her."
Reaching the foot of the stairs, he watched the duffle being toted to the van and tossed unceremoniously to land really hard, then strode past the other two darkly clad figures standing on each side of the open front door, hands clasped at their backs, intent on his final instructions upon exit.
"Gut this place and level it to the ground. Elizabeth Webber will be erased from Port Charles, like she never existed!"
"Yes, sir!"
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
"I can't believe you left her alive, Jason? You let them both get away with shooting Sam?"
Throwing a tired hand to drag across his face in exhaustion, Jason stood akimbo in the waiting room facing an angry Carly, Sonny at her back eyeing him thoughtfully. The two-hour drive back to the unfamiliar hospital and his ladylove after checking on Danny, was worth every minute of what he'd just wiped away from her world.
"She wasn't armed, Carly."
"No? Do you think she cared Sam wasn't a threat to anyone when she was shot? Is that really it - is that the real reason you couldn't shoot her - or are you still harboring some old, misplaced loyalty to who you thought she was at one time?"
Turning his back on the frustrated anger, Jason blew a sharp breath and placed both hands at his waist, before easing back to face her again.
"I'm going to pretend you didn't just ask me that. I'm not blind - I see very clearly that Robin is no longer the friend I knew, and I wanted nothing more than to end it, believe me. Tonight just wasn't right…but I'll take care of her."
"Oh, yeah? How? When?"
"When the time is right!" His angry glare snapped his rage, "You think I'll ever let her get anywhere near Sam again?"
Her matching anger flayed at him in query, "What's to stop her? You didn't!"
"Do you honestly think that's what Sam would've wanted…me to shoot her in cold blood?"
The question quelled the flaring anger almost instantly, to send her hands upward in relenting frustration and acknowledgment of that truth. "No - she wouldn't!" Thrusting a hand through her thick blonde lochs, Carly sighed dejectedly, "I suppose you wouldn't be the man she loves so much if you could do that." Slapping his shoulder, she turned away from him, "Still wish you weren't so principled all the damn time!"
"Leave him alone, Carly. You know how Jason works." Sonny stepped in front of Jason and nodded, "I get it. But what are you going to do about our little problem? We both know it's not just going away."
"I know. I just need to get Sam well…then I'll deal with it."
"What about the other one?" Carly had been shocked to hear of Elizabeth's involvement but not overly, knowing how desperate the woman was overall, but even more to get rid of Sam. Of course she jumped on the opportunity of her friend doing the dirty deed that would benefit them both. "What am I asking…you never do anything about either of those two."
"That's not true. I cut Robin right out of my life when she hurt Michael, and Elizabeth doesn't mean a damn thing to me, so she's beyond done. She ran out of there like a bat on fire, and I let her because she's her own worse enemy. Nothing I could ever do to her will ever hurt her as much as her own actions will. She'll get what's coming to her. Over my dead body will either of them get near Sam again."
Antsy, he paced the small room, trying to be respectful of Alexis and Sam's sisters' time with her, but needing anxiously to be by her side. "Are you sure she's doing okay? The doctor checked on her since I left?"
Carly's heart softened at the unusual panic in her friend's breaking voice, knowing from experience very few things rattled him like the thought of losing the woman he loved. Letting go of earlier frustrations, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders to hug him close. "I'm sure." Rubbing his shoulders as she released him to see his eyes, she assured him best she could. "She's still in the coma but she's holding her own. Come on, Jase - you know Sam's tough. She's fighting right now with everything in her - I guarantee it! One measly bullet couldn't drag her away from you and Danny - not in this lifetime." She hugged him again, then backed away slowly, eyeing him curiously. "Ah, Jase…I know you're always happy to see me, but please tell me that's your gun in your pocket?"
Knitting confused brows trying to decipher her meaning, Jason eased back and frowned when it dawned, "Eew, Carly - no!" Digging inside his pocket, he looked down at the tiny black velvet box he retrieved and turned between his fingers. "Danny and I stopped to pick this out before we went riding…we were going to give it to her tonight at dinner."
With a gasp, Carly took one step back, her face breaking into complete delight. "Is that what I think it is?" At Jason's nod, she grabbed at the box that he quickly snatched from her grasp. "Let me see, Jason!"
Holding it away from another nosing attempt to grab it from him, Jason shook his head at her, "No…Sam gets to see it first."
"Sam wouldn't mind. Matter of fact, she'll appreciate me helping you pick the perfect ring she's going to spend a lifetime wearing. What if you chose wrong? Don't you want the benefit of my taste to know if you need to go change it right now?"
Shaking his head again, Jason stuffed the box back inside his jeans pocket. "Nice try, but I know exactly what Sam likes. I know her like I know my own soul." He smirked at her pouting displeasure at being told no. "Besides - Danny helped pick it out - it's important to my son, and his mom will love it. I just pray she says, yes." He was praying for so much more in that moment, his heart longing for the minute she'd again open those beautiful chestnut orbs that bored him the way no other soul ever had…like she saw him…every single time!
Unable to hide the emerging smile, Carly stomped and clapped her hands at her lips. "I'm so happy for you. You deserve this Jason - you both do." With an abrupt spin, she started for the doorway, startling Sonny, who missed when he reached a hand out for her.
"Where are you going?"
"Alexis has been in there long enough." She swung to face Jason, "I'm taking her on a coffee run, while you go ask Sam the question that would wake her from any coma!" Without waiting for a response, she hastened towards Sam's room, leaving both men looking after her in wonder.
"You're really going to ask her now?"
"Of course not. I want her very awake for the moment I ask her to spend her life with me again. I don't want her missing a single moment of it."
Sonny nodded to where Carly had disappeared. "Maybe somebody should tell her that?"
Both men watched from the doorway of the waiting area as Carly ushered Alexis, Molly and Kristina from Sam's room and in the direction of the cafeteria, very obviously reluctantly being coerced. Grateful for his chance to go to Sam, Jason shook his head and headed for the love of his life.
"Nah."
A/N: Ooops - guess I lost - tehehe...
