AN - some explanation is needed. This is set in the past, I'm thinking 98-99. definitely before the Sonny/Carly hate sex, a little AU (I've cobbled together both Carly new (the incident with the 'real' Carly's dad and the old (i.e. Virginia) pasts - as best as I could remember) and it's sort of Jason/Carly - my first, last & always OTP (one true pairing), but only slightly.

Chapter 6 – Sucker's Bet

The next few days were anything but peaceful, between dealing with the Quatermaines about Emily, Cary and Michael, trying to ignore Sonny and Luke, meetings with Alexis and Carly which were a struggle just to remain civil, Carly herself and the business in general . . . Jason was exhausted.

He was an enforcer, not a damn referee.

There were times he hated that part of his job, but at this point he was just waiting for someone to fuck up for the chance to release some pent up aggression.

"I know what we should do tonight."

He looked up to see Carly standing above him, looking drop dead gorgeous. Almost afraid to ask, he watched her for a moment. "And that would be?"

"We need to go to Jakes. Play some pool and when you lose, as you will, we'll dance for a bit. Pizza and beer like old times. Leticia is on her way over and we need to get out of here and have some fun."

Sitting on a bench, Lucky stared out at the water not that was much to see, of course, in the dim light.

"You look like someone with a lot on your mind. Anything you want to talk about?"

Lucky's head rose abruptly, as he tensed, before recognizing the voice.

"Hey Nikolas." Lucky sighed, glad it was only his brother and annoyed at himself for being caught by surprise. He'd lucked out this time, but couldn't afford to be caught unaware again.

"What are you up to, man?"

"Not much, just on my back to Wyndemere." Nikolas looked at him concerned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing . . . everything, take your pick. Family shit mostly." Lucky sat up a bit straighter.

The Cassadine's expression grew more serious, "Laura or Lulu?"

"Oh, no. As far as I know, they're fine. This is all about Carly, Dad, Bobbie, Jason, Michael, Emily and the rest of the damn Quatermaines."

"Ahhh, yes. I heard about that from Robin. So AJ really is Michael's father then?"

Lucky turned to face his half-brother who sat down next to him. "Well that's what she says, anyway. I know you're friends with her, but at the moment, she's topping my shit list." Seeing Nikolas's expression darken, he quickly added, "Just ignore that, I don't want to fight with you over her. I'm too busy fighting everyone at the moment. Anyway, Carly and Jason are denying it, of course, but what else is new?"

For a moment, it looked like Nikolas was about to say something, but thought better of it. "How about we agree to disagree on that point? So I suppose, Bobbie is still supporting her despite everything. But how did you, Luke and Emily get involved? As far as I knew, we all pretty much thought the same about her."

"Yeah, well things change, you know." Lucky opened his mouth, hesitating. "We . . . um, found out some stuff, old history."

Nickolas looked at him curiously, but Lucky shook his head in a clearly negative gesture, indicating that topic was closed for discussion.

"Sorry, I can't get into it, Nik. As far as the rest of Port Charles is concerned, Carly is a Spencer with all that entails, with the family firmly behind her, assuming she and my Dad can stop fighting for more than five seconds at a time. What happened with Tony is dead and forgotten now."

"And Emily?"

"She was there when it went down and after hearing Robin, AJ and Edward plotting to take away Michael when she knows . . . well, more about Carly. Now she's on the warpath too, already told Alexis that she wants to testify against them if it gets to that point." Lucky laughed, but there was little amusement to be heard.

"Em wants out of the manor and Monica and Alan, not to mention Edward, are up in arms about it. She trying to convince Jason to either get her emancipated or petition the court for custody, which considering that he and Carly might have to fight AJ for custody of Michael just makes life that much more complicated. Monica and Alan already want to bring me up on charges for anything and are threatening to have her shipped off to boarding school. So basically, my life is seriously sucking at the moment. How's it out there on Spook Island, 'cause I might have to hide out there for awhile if this shit keeps up."

Nikolas stared at him for a moment. "Complicated apparently isn't the word for it. I don't envy you. We really need to catch up more often." He shook his head. "Stefan is . . . Stefan, nothing new there. No, no that's not true, actually." Nikolas shrugged. "There is something going on, but as usual, I'll probably be the last to know. He's more on edge than usual than I've seen him since Helana left."

"What is she coming back?" Lucky raised an eyebrow in mock-horror that was less faked than not at the mere thought of the queen of the dead's return.

"Don't even joke about it. You think life is rough now? Who knows what havoc my grandmother would cause in Port Charles given the chance?" Nikolas gave a slight shudder at the thought. "As far as I know she securely exiled to the island and to remain there until her death."

"Knock on wood," Lucky joked, but it fell awkwardly short between the two brothers, each now lost in their own thoughts.

While Jason was off getting drinks, Carly racked the balls yet again. This was going to be their third game and she was determined to win this time. If it killed her, she was going to get him out onto the dance floor, even if she had to cheat. She had held off the impulse thus far, but fuck it. This was becoming ridiculous. She picks up the cube of chalk and idly polishes the end of her cue stick.

"Typically Carly-babes . . . out drinking. Why am I not surprised? And where is my son? With the nanny?"

Carly stiffened, before she shook her head at Max walking towards her. She slowly turned around to face the mocking face of AJ.

"What I do in my spare time is none of your business. And as far my and Jason's son is concerned . . . well, that's really none of your business either. Michael may be your nephew, unfortunately for him, but he's also lucky enough to have Jason as a father. So take your accusations and vodka," she smirked, nodding knowingly to the half-filled glass in front in his hand, "and go to hell."

"Ok, keep lying. The truth will come out soon enough in court. You don't really think any judge will let you keep the kid when they hear about how unstable you are, do you?" He laughed an ugly sound that seemed to overwhelm the usual music and noise of the bar. "Once my son is back where he belongs, you'll come crawling back on your knees soon enough."

Carly breathed in sharply, eyes narrowed as she glared at him vengefully. With a deft twist of her wrist the cue stick in her hand spun through the air only to be caught in its downward swing at the last moment.

"Settle down, Carly." Jason's low voice murmured in her ear as he plucked the stick out of her grasp, placing it across the table behind them. He moved next to her, even as Max and Johnny began crowding AJ, standing on either side of him.

"Don't you have anything better to do with your time, like an AA meeting, maybe?" The deceptively relaxed note in Jason's voice was belied by cold gleam of his eyes.

AJ flushed angrily, looking first at Jason, then at two guards now standing next to him, his eyes falling to see the outline of shoulder holsters on each one. "Yeah, yeah, live it up now Jason. We'll see who's laughing when I take Micheal back. Maybe Robin'll take you back, because we both know Carly won't stay without her brat. If I'm feeling particularly generous, I'll even send you an invite to the wedding, complete with an air-tight prenup, Carly." He refocused his attention back on her.

"Never gonna happen, Junior." She snarled, while Jason's arm slipped around her waist, anchoring her firmly against him.

"You want to live long to find out you're wrong? Don't threaten her, don't talk to her, don't even look at her." The temptation to give into his banked anger later, almost broke free before he could leash it back. Jason knew this wasn't the time and taking a deep breath, memorized this moment for later. AJ's time was growing shorter with every word out of his mouth.

"Is that a threat?" AJ demanded violently, his glass spilled over as he stepped forward only to be jerked to a stop on rough hand grabbing his arm. Behind him Johnny shook his head, a mockingly sad expression on his face as he shrugged, as if to say what can you do?

"I don't bother making threats. That was a warning and the last one you'll get." Studying AJ for a minute, the smaller man fidgeting under the intense scrutiny, Jason shook his head, scoffing. "Get him out of my sight. And while you're at it, maybe explain exactly why he should leave Carly alone since he's obviously too drunk or stupid to understand."

Nodding in acknowledgement, the two men took a hold of an arm and began hauling the drunken Quatermaine towards the door. AJ balked loudly at first, but after Johnny's free hand inched closer to his jacket, he bitterly complied, walking just fast enough not to attract attention, although still dragging his heels enough that they had to exert themselves. As they moved away, Jason could hear Johnny begin lecturing in an exaggeratedly slow voice. "Now you see . . . the thing is, we like Miss Spencer. Hell we don't even hold the fact that she slept with you against her and well . . . we get a little upset when someone disrespects her . . ." Until his voice faded away.

One corner of his mouth rose in amusement, before he turned back to Carly, still glaring off after them. She glanced up at him. "Don't say it. I know I should have kept calm, but he just pisses me off so much . . . "

"Yeah, well. Forget about him. Except for Emily, that's pretty much the definition of a Quatermaine, isn't it?" His arm slipped behind her as he fingers began to lightly trace a meandering and barely there path along her spine.

Carly turned back to him, the militant glint in her eyes slipping away as a faint smile unwillingly curved her lips. "No, your sister drives me crazy in an entirely different way, trust me. Between ranting about the Q's even more than I do, trying to talk me into going into therapy, which I do not need and sneaking more of her stuff into the spare bedroom when she thinks I'm not looking, I can't seem to get away from her unless she's with Lucky, which just goes and pisses you off."

"You noticed the backpack thing too?" He asked, his free hand brushing a tendril of hair behind her ear.

"Yeah, well, I'm not blind or as oblivious as she seems to think. Are you going to call her on it?"

"No point to it." Jason shrugged. "You know that she'll either deny it or claim it's for when she stays over."

Carly arched an eyebrow skeptically. "And you know as well as I do that no one needs that much stuff for one or two nights."

"We'll deal that when we have to, unless you want to talk to her about it."

"Oh, hell no!" Carly shook her head vehemently. "You are not sticking me with that job. She's your sister, you deal with her. I do my best to avoid her like the plague and I have problems with that. I swear if she slips me just one more pamphlet, I'll scream."

Explaining that Em was just trying to help wasn't going to win him any points and he knew it. "Ok, I'll talk to her about it," Jason offered. "I think she discovered that she might even like you and when Emily likes people, well she this is what she does."

"And I appreciate it, I really do. She's not so bad once you get used to her, but she's really got to get off my back – between the two of you and Bobbie calling me, every single day, it's beginning to make me a little crazy. Even Lucky brought it up, although I know your sister was behind that one. I told all of you that I dealt with that shit years ago. Hell, it's almost makes me glad to see Luke, because at least he doesn't mention it."

"Makes him good for something then."

"Now, I wouldn't go that far . . . " Carly laughed although to his ear, it sounded a little forced, more than ready to talk about anything else.

Pulling back from his almost embrace, she grabbed her cue stick. "It's still best out of five, so don't think you're going to get out this so easily."

Jason shrugged. Carly was back in avoidance mode, one he was becoming very familiar with, which led him to add credence to what Bobbie and Emily had both told him separately. Carly had always been unpredictable, but since that night at Luke's, she been unusually skittish when it came to anything remotely physical.

Even her game was off. Carly had never beat him yet, but she was missing shots that normally she should have made and he had to wonder if it was a subconscious thing. Just thinking about it made his head hurt, but since this was Carly, he couldn't afford to ignore it.

He made a mental note to read a few of the pamphlets scattered around the penthouse. Emily and Bobbie were wrong in trying to pressure Carly into seeing a shrink and he'd have to put a stop to it. Maybe she did need help, but he wasn't going to stand by and let anyone coerce or guilt her into doing anything she didn't want to. Jason remembered how it was when he was in the hospital and couldn't forget Carly's reaction to Ferncliffe. He'd have to find another way to deal with this.

Watching Carly fuss with the balls and the triangle, reinforced that idea. "Ok, you go ahead and break, but this time, we're renegotiating the bet."

Across the table, Carly eyed him suspiciously. "Oh yeah? What terms?"

He walked across the length of the table, removed the triangle, tossing it onto a nearby table. "Well, you said that you wanted to dance, so when I win that's exactly what we're going to are to do."

"Are we really? And if I win?" She sidled away from him to the far end of the table.

"Whatever you want. But, I'll let you pick the song when I win."

"Oh really?" Carly's eyes narrowed as she tried to read his expression. Jason freely offering to dance with her was unprecedented to say the least, which meant he was up to something, but the question was what did he have in mind? No way to learn unless she played, of course. "Fine. When I win, we go shopping for you."

Jason winced and she broke out in laughter, before taking her shot.

Next morning, Emily walked into the penthouse and almost turned on her heel and walked out. Carly and Micheal and apparently ganged on Jason in what appeared to be a food fight.

"Ummm, I can come back in an hour or so, if you're busy."

Jason turned to face his sister, Carly waved to her and Michael not realizing the game was over promptly tossed a handful of cheerios into Jason's hair.

Laughing, Carly scolded Micheal in a voice that no one, not even the two year old could take seriously. "Oh no, Mister Man, game's over, baby," before she got up and brushed the bits of cereal out of Jason's hair. Standing over him, she received a surprise of her as his arm swept out, pulling her into his lap.

"I blame this all on you, you know, Carly." Jason shook his head, apparently serious although his smile showed his true mood.

"Hey, as far as I'm concerned," she playfully protested, squirming out of his hold, "you started it, man."

"How do you figure that?" He asked dryly watching move beyond his reach, slightly frustrated.

Carly unfastened Michael from his high chair and picked him up. "You shouldn't make fun of mommy. Isn't that right, baby?" She held Michael up, deftly avoiding his last handful of cereal that was slung in Jason's direction, with a child's gleeful laughter. "See, even Michael agrees."

Jason rolled his eyes as he stood up, sending cereal falling to the floor.

"Emmy . . . Emmy!" Micheal's arms reached out to his aunt, who he saw at the door."

"Yes, that's your Aunt Emily. But first we've got to get you cleaned up, Mister Man. We'll be back down in a bit, ok Em? " Carly looked over her shoulder as she began walking towards the stairs.

"Ok, I'll be here." Emily walked into the room and finding a relatively clean spot on the couch sat down to wait.

Glancing at her brother, she asked, "a food fight?"

"Yeah, well. They had fun."

"I'm sure." She smirked. "So what's going on?"

Jason shrugged. "Long story short. Carly won at pool last night, so we're going shopping for a few hours. It's Leticia's day off and since you seem to spend enough time here, I thought you might want to babysit for a few hours."

"Wait a sec . . . Carly beat you at pool and now you have to watch her shop? How did that happen?"

He sighed. "No, she beat me and we have to go shopping. I think she's planning on buying me more suits."

"And I repeat - how did that happen?"

He shrugged again. "It did, end of story." There was a pause as he sat down to face her. "Em, I need you to back off a bit on the idea of Carly going to a shrink." His voice was lower than usual.

Looking back toward the stairs, Emily could hear splashing and Carly and Micheal's voices and leaned closer. "Jason, has she talked about it with you? If not and I'm guessing that she hasn't, she needs to talk to someone, preferably a professional."

"She doesn't want to and the more you push, the more she's is going to pull away. That's the just the way Carly is."

Glancing back to the stairs, her voice fell into a harsh whisper. "Jason, you're my brother and I love you, but you have no idea what you're talking about! Think it about it, ok? Carly was raped! I don't care what excuses she makes for that bastard that was a classic case of rape, if I ever heard one and believe me I have. Even worse, she hasn't dealt with it at all, you heard what she said, everyone blamed her for it and she blamed herself, she still does."

"Then she gets into town and what does she do? She gets involved with you – the whole no-name sex thing – that is not normal behavior. Then there is Tony, another pseudo father figure, and the time she slept with AJ – she was drunk, just like when she fourteen. That's more than just a coincidence, Jason, it's a dangerous pattern! And . . . " Emily's voice drifted off. The tension between them grew tighter with every passing second and she forced herself to continue, "have you even considered that it might not have been the first time?"

"Do you honestly believe that you're saying anything I haven't already thought of . . . anything I haven't imagined?" He demanded, the caustic tone in his voice as flaying as a whip. "No matter what anyone says, I'm not stupid, Em. I haven't gone an hour without all of it going through my head since she told us, but there is nothing I can fucking do about it, until this custody thing is straightened out."

He got up at moment as smoothly and dangerously as a panther, days of repressed violence visible in every precise movement. "You're talking about the theoretical, I'm trying to deal with reality. Have you looked at Carly, I mean really looked at her. It's costing her everything just to keep it together and that kills me, but forcing her to talk about it . . . hell, forcing her to even think about it may bring everything crashing down."

"We might have to go to court, Emily, and Carly has to be able to handle that. What do you think is going to happen if she loses Michael now? I don't know if she'd survive that and I won't let anything jeopardize her life. I can't. Em . . . do you understand? You need to back off, otherwise you can't be here. Contrary to popular belief, I am not ignoring the situation, but this isn't the right time. You're trying to help, I know that, but whether you realize it or not, you're doing more harm than good. Please, Emily, I've never asked you for anything, but I am asking you to please back off here. Can you do that or not?"

Somehow his voice changed from blatantly demanding to an impassioned pleading and for the first time she could remember since before the accident, she saw unabashed fear in his eyes. And she didn't know what disturbed her more – what he said or how he said it. Out of all them, her and Spencers, Jason knew Carly best and if he was openly displaying this level of fear . . . how could she deny him?

"Ok, Jason." She began slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I will back off, for now. And I'll tell Bobbie to do the same . . . but she is going to have to deal with this eventually and I still want to help. But I won't bring it up to Carly until you say it's ok, all right?"

He stared at her with considering look in his eye. "Good enough. I understand Spencer double speak as much as the next person. You've been hanging around Lucky too much, I won't forget that either, Em. Do what you're going to do, 'cause I know that you're going to do it anyway, but I don't want Carly anywhere near it. I'm serious, Emily, this is non-negotiable."

"I promise."

"Ok," he nodded in agreement, knowing that was the most he was going to get from her.

Just then Carly came back downstairs. Handing Michael off to Emily's waiting arms, she snagged Jason's hand, pulling him to his feet. "Ok, Emily you know where everything is, you have our numbers if anything goes wrong, not that it will, of course and we should be back in a few hours, ok?"

Emily laughed slightly, wondering if she took a breath in between all that. "Don't worry about us. Michael and I will be fine. You just go out and fun, dressing up my brother, ok?"

"He admitted that he lost?" Carly's smile widened as she lightly elbowed Jason in the ribs.

Jason rolled his eyes as they discussed him. "I'll just sit back time until you're ready."

"Oh, no. You are not getting out of this so easily." Carly smirked as she tightened her hold on him and began dragging towards the door.

Dragging himself into the park, wincing slightly at the bright sunlight, Lucky wished he brought some sunglasses. Going out plastered last night got him to sleep, but now he was paying the price.

"A little hung-over are we?" Emily shook her head. "Serves you right. I told you to come over last night. But don't worry, I promise not to tell your mom." She smirked at him and he found his arms suddenly full of a squirming two year old.

"What?" Lucky's eyes opened wide . . . His head swung around and he repressed a groan in a mixture of both dismay and pain at the sudden movement. "What did you do, Em?"

She shrugged unapologetically. "I told you Michael had a play date, I just didn't mention that it was with Lulu and you never bothered to ask. Not my fault."

"Yeah . . . ok. I'm gonna remember this," he mumbled.

"Again, not my fault." Glancing at him out of the corner of her, she laughed taking some pity on best friend. "Look hold out for five minutes. I need to talk to your mom, so you get to baby-sit the kids and in Michael's bag," which she promptly handed off to him, "if you check the side pocket, you'll find a bottle of water and aspirin."

"You are a lifesaver." He leaned forward to press a thankful kiss on her forehead.

Emily smiled. "I know."

"So what do you want to talk to my mom about again?" He eyed her suspiciously. When she refused to answer, he juggled Michael in his arms to free one hand that reached out to tilt her face up to his . . . "Emmie, what are you up to?" At her continued silence, he sighed, prodding deeper. "This is about Carly isn't it?"

Her only response was to cross her arms firmly across her chest, ready for an argument.

"Dammit, Em." Lucky swore. "You know Jason said to let this go."

"And I promised not to bother Carly about it and I haven't." Look it's a simply question, Lucky. Do you trust me or not?" She demanded.

He stared at her hard. "Don't pull that card with me. This isn't a matter of whether I trust you or not, this isn't about me or us for that matter, remember?" He lifted his arms slightly, still holding Michael to further illustrate his point.

"And Michael is my nephew. I would never do anything to jeopardize him and I cannot believe that you of all people would suggest something like that!"

"Fuck!" The profanity slipped out without so much as a thought and he quickly added, "but you didn't hear that, ok Michael?" Directing his attention back to Emily, he sighed. "This has all the potential to be a disaster, you know, right?"

"I know that and I promised to back off, not let go," she finally answered, hoping it didn't sound as belligerent to him as it did to her. "We've talked about this. Jason, Carly, your dad and Bobbie are all focused on Michael as they should be. Believe me when I say that better than anyone else, I know the perils of growing up with the Quatermaines, but what about Carly? She is in complete denial and the only one who gets that is Jason and you know how he feels about doctors. He doesn't even want to consider it."

"Has it occurred to you that maybe he's right?" Lucky shrugged. "I mean this happened, what six, seven years ago?"

"And if I ask your mother if she'd over what happened with Stavros, what do you think she'd say?" Emily held her breath as he glared at her, flatly.

He took a deep breath, before breaking eye contact. "Low blow there, Em, but I get your point. What I don't understand is why this is so damn important to you. Carly's my cousin, your brother's . . . whatever it is they've got going and your nephew's mother, but other than that you've got no ties to her. So why can't you let this drop?" His voice still held a slight edge, but it smoothed out, letting her know that he forgave her.

"Come on, Lucky, you know that it had to have traumatized her. . . "

"Oh, I'm sure it did, but that's still bullsh –" He glanced down at Michael playing with a toy, "umm bs and doesn't explain your sudden hung up on it."

Emily sighed. She hadn't planned on getting into this, but he wasn't giving her much of a choice. "Ok, fine. Look, I hated Carly with a passion that wouldn't quit, even before I met her. I listened to what everyone said and decided that she was an insane bi-" He eyes landed on Michael "ummm, witch. Then there was at Luke's and I felt guilty as hell, I still didn't know Carly or understand her but I felt sorry for her, compassionate, you know. She suddenly became a real person instead of this woman who was destroying my brother. I wanted to help for no other reason than that. Even if I hated her, I'd still want to help just on the principle of it."

"But, you know I've spent time with her, Lucky. I mean, last month if you had told me that I'd be able to spend an hour with Carly and we wouldn't be ay each other's throats, I would've called you a liar. But I have. We're not best friends or anything, but . . . I kinda like her. She's good with Michael, she'd smart, funny as hell and have you seen her with Jason? I love my brother, Lucky, I really do, but I know who he's become – what he is and what he does. That's not an easy thing for anyone to accept, never mind love, but she does and when they're together." She shook her head, seemingly at a loss of words. "When they're together . . . I see this different side of him that no one else brings out except for Carly and Michael. Once this custody thing is thrown out, I know they're going to be together, but I want them to be happy and for that to happen, I really believe that Carly needs help. And this can be my little contribution, since no one will let me do anything else."

Lucky listened patiently, resisting the impulse to wince. There was no point in reminding her that she had broke the news of Edward and AJ's plans, when she obviously was in no mood to listen. He also had a feeling that he knew where this was going, but went ahead and asked the question anyway. "And my mother?"

"When I worked on the teen hotline and heard stories like this they were always sent onto a psychologist. Well, Carly refuses to see one and it's not like I could casually drop by Kevin Collins office or something without somebody noticing and setting off all sorts of alarms. But your mom, she's gone through it, she's a social worker and best of all, no one is going to be at all suspicious if they see me talking to her – not my family or yours. It's perfect!"

This could not possibly turn out well, but other than gagging and hog-tying her, which he didn't think Jason would appreciate much not to mention what Emily would do to him afterwards, Lucky couldn't see a way out. If he didn't let this slide, who knows what she'd try next time.

"Ok, I'm telling you right now that I do not like this, but since I doubt you're going to listen to me I'm just going to ask you to, please, please be careful. My parents aren't talking to each other at the moment, so chances are you're safe, but Em, you have got to make sure that you change the details, tell her the bare minimum, make sure that she doesn't have a clue who you're talking about and whatever you do, you've get her to promise not to say a word to anyone, because that would blow this completely out of the water, ok?"

Emily smiled as Laura approached with Lulu in tow. He waved to his mom as Lulu toddled over to him, arms wrapping around his knee Michael began stretching his arms down, so Lucky bent down to pick up his sister as well. Emily ordered him to take the kids down to the pond to feed the ducks and he watched them walk off, shaking his head.

Yeah, no doubt about it, he was definitely a sucker.

TBC

Well, I've some reviews & I love them dearly, lol. anyone else out there want to say something . . . anything . . . not too much J/C fluff in this chapter but I'm setting up a few critical plot points for future events. This story is on the brink of going very AU, but I can't say anything more for fear of ruining the suprise, but you can feel free to guess. Poor Carly, things are going to get a lot more complicated & interesting pretty soon. I've got lots of ideas for this story so if you've gotten this far, leave me a review. It's good karma, you know :D