ROAD TRIP

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Chapter Eight- No Bull for You

"We can not leave Tennessee without doing something fun!" Lulu cried from the back seat of the SUV, about thirty miles outside of Memphis.

They were on a back road because the highway was grid locked with traffic.

Grandma Spinelli was safely deposited at her relatives house. Jason knew the charges against Sam were dropped because she called. The only thing left to do, in his opinion, was haul this car full of chit chatters back to upstate New York as fast as humanely possible.

"We should ride the bull at Bronco's," Spinelli said as he read a billboard advertising the country and western bar.

"I want to ride the bull!" Lulu said, excitedly.

Jason had three words for that idea, but the slow way he said them made it sound like five words.

"Forget about it," he said.

"Fugh get bout it," Spinelli mocked Jason, using a wise guy voice.

Carly sat in the front passenger seat, "Jase, we could all use a food break. Your not being a very good babysitter."

"They aren't babies."

"But they are so cute and small..." she said, as if describing puppies.

"Carly," he warned, starting to smile and not wanting to. "No. No to Bronco's. No to the bull. No."

"Jase," she whined

He let out a breath. "They can have fast food. If they are good and ...quiet. Who wants to play The Silent Game?"

"Me!" said Spinelli "Are there prizes?"

Lulu elbowed him. Milo leaned forward, looked around Lulu, and glared at Spinelli.

"Okay, here are the rules.." Jason started

"No one liked that game the first time." Carly said "If you really want to have some fun you could give me a driving lesson."

"I would rather ride the bull," Jason deadpanned.

"Are we riding the bull?" Lulu asked excitedly

"There's another sign," Milo said. "Bronco's in one mile."

"We're riding the bull!" Lulu said, clapping.

"No bull." Jason said

In a voice like The Soup Nazi Lulu said, pointing first at Milo "No bull for you!"

She pointed at Spinelli, and said it louder, "No bull for you!"

Milo laughed.

Spinelli said, "Good one. He could so be the Fun Nazi."

"What did you just call me?" Jason asked

"Hmmm?" asked Spinelli, playing dumb, which wasn't very hard for him.

"No more talking." Jason said

In unison, Milo, Lulu and Spinelli mocked "No talking for you!"

Carly laughed.

Jason shot her a look, "Could you be on my side? What do you think? Huh? Geez."

She sobered up. "I'm on your side. Where else would I be, Jase?"

His eyes softened at her tone.

"There's Bronco's," Milo said, pointing out the window.

Lulu started to tap Jason's shoulder, over and over, she begged "Pull over. Please. Please. Please. You will be my favorite almost was and should of been cousin in law if you do...come on... pull over."

Carly smiled at the description.

Bump. Bump. Bump.

"You have got to be kidding me," Jason muttered as he pulled off the road and into a store parking lot. "A flat freaking tire.. right now..errrr."

Lulu cried, "God wants me to ride the bull!"

Jason climbed out of the car and went around back to drag out the jack and spare tire. When he looked back up, Lulu and Spinelli were jogging down the road toward Bronco's.

Milo asked, "Should I go after them?"

Jason gave him a death stare.

Milo stuttered, "Yeah, I should probably go after them. Okay, boss. I'm right on that."

Milo hurried away.

"Need some help?" Carly asked

"You ever change a tire?"

"I have watched a variety of husbands and boyfriends do it, does that count?"

He smiled. "I got it."

"Jase, I know your acting like the kids are driving you nuts.."

"It's not an act."

"But one day you might look back and think of this trip as the good old days." Her voice softened. " Our good old days."

He concentrated on putting the new tire on.

She continued, softly, "Or maybe you won't. I don't know."

She thought of better times they had shared, and worse. She thought of when he loved her, and how some people believed he never had. But if that was true she would be a very different woman today.

She would be less, lacking all the layers he had embedded into her

soul. And she wouldn't feel this nagging sense of living the wrong script, the alternate ending of the movie. The one that was good but no where like the real ending, the one they should have had.

Standing on the side of the road, in December, wearing his leather jacket, and a PCU sweatshirt she borrowed from Lulu that had been bought by Milo, she started to speak from her heart to him.

Carly said, "This trip was just a couple days out of a life but I liked spending them with you- away from Port Charles. You know even in a fire or an epidemic or a jail cell, it's fun to be alone with you.. me and you against the world. What I'm trying to say is...this road trip could be something... our something... if you would let it."

She watched him work, his muscles straining, his shoulders tense and wondered why she was rambling all this at him, telling him what he already knew, what he didn't want to hear. Over and over she said it, or didn't say it, daily, but still it was there in every look between them.

"I think I'm going to ride the bull," she said "You don't get that chance every day. And I would hate to let a once in a lifetime thing slip through my fingers. That would be... tragic. Don't you think, Jase?"

Soul mates, the word popped into his head.

He blamed it on the fact she kept bringing it up for the last few days. He felt like strangling Jax for leaving Carly behind and making her feel unwanted. But Jason knew that no matter what Jax did or didn't do, it didn't really change the emotions Carly and Jason danced around constantly.

This was supposed to get easier. No one had ever told him it would, but he figured it must. Feeling like this for the rest of his life couldn't be possible, always one inch away from diving right back into that whole messy scene between them. And then aching, like someone jabbed a knife in his gut, when he let another moment, and there were a million gone by already, slip past.

He stood up, studied her face. Then, like usual, chickened out. He took a step back and started to load the flat tire into the car.

Carly began to walk toward Bronco's, not really let down because Jason not acknowledging what lay between them was par for the course. If he ever did, which she figured he wouldn't, every thing would change.

And Jason Morgan didn't do change very well.

(Well sometimes I get all wrapped up
cause I don't know who to be


but you know when to be my security blanket, and when to

uncover me


So let's just sit out on the back porch
and unravel everything
someday these will be our old days, let's make them worth remembering

There was never a point in our love
that I didn't love you


not a point in our love


I always did, I always will, I always do

love you still


I always would, how could I not?

just look at us,

baby


we're kind of perfect ) ( by amazing folk artist Kacy Crowley)

"Carly," he called after her.

She turned, the wind whipped her blonde hair, she reached up and pushed it out of her face.

"Are you going to leave me behind," he called out "just because I'm a little slow?"

She waited until he was next to her to answer him.

"Why would I start leaving you behind now?"

He smiled at her soft question, her unbreakable loyalty. What had he done to deserve it? Only fallen in love with her once upon a time, and no matter what anyone thought, he knew, that had been an easy thing to do.

She looked down at his leg, "Even though you went and got yourself shot and scared me half to death. And now you are limping around like someone in a senior citizen home."

"Hey." he said, pretending to be offended.

She put one arms around his waist and they started walking toward the bar.

Carly teased. "You know one day when you do get really old and senile, I'll still think your just as hot as ever. I'll visit you everyday and tell you stories about how I was your One True Love."

"And what if you get senile first?" he asked

"Well you'll have to visit me and tell me the stories. Will you do that, Jase?"

"You better write these stories down. Because you know I am not good at making stuff up."

She stopped walking, her arms still around his waist, and looked up at him. "You lived it. What's there to make up?"

Jason suddenly remembered why he didn't spend a lot of alone time with Carly, because once they fell into this rhythm it was a short drop right into the deep end. Into everything she said was right there for the taking.. into a place he fought everyday from even thinking about.

Spinelli walked out the door of Bronco's and called out to them,

"You're missing it! Lulu is riding the bull!"