Chapter Four

Disclaimer: Do not own Nintendo or Super Mario Bros. Or General Hospital. Or, anything really.

Thanks to those who read and replied. It feeds my muse. Who has a voracious appetite.

This chapter is un-beta-ed, so I really hope I haven't missed any mistakes/typos.

--

"Fancy meeting you all here," Claudia Zacchara halted her morning jog through the park as she spotted the vigorous progression of a few of those in the small city she was acquainted with, "Where are you three, highly attractive male specimens headed this morning?"

Max yanked at his collar; Milo blushed and preened at her words; and Jason answered briskly, "Shortcut, the office is on the other side of the park."

"I see," Claudia reached in with a smile to adjust Milo's tie after watching the younger man struggle with it for a few moments, "There you go hon."

"Th-th-thank you," Milo managed to stutter out, stroking his tie down his dress shirt covered front; while Max discreetly cuffed him in the arm, shaking his head at his overeager younger brother, "Would-would you perhaps like t-t-to walk along with us? I'm sure," He paused, looking over at Jason's stoic face and statuesque posture, "I'm sure the boss wouldn't mind," Again, he glanced from Claudia's decidedly low-cut tank top to his employer, who watched Milo with a raised eyebrow, "Would you sir?"

"Yeah, would you? Sir?" Claudia teased, flipping her hair over her shoulder and sending a mocking grin in Jason's direction before changing her focus back to Milo, replying in a voice so sickly sweet, Jason felt ill, "Sure hon, I'll walk a ways with you." She topped it off with an over-bright smile, and Jason couldn't help but raise his hand to rub his forehead. It was too early in the morning for this.

"Let's get on with it then," He grumbled, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets.

"Oh, hey, give me a second, I want to find out what John's doing out here," Claudia paused, turning in the direction of the dark haired young man who stood about ten yards away with his back to them, "Hey! Johnny! C'mere!"

The dark haired man turned, and after quickly pointing at himself, he jogged over to join the group. It was as he neared that Claudia realized that she hadn't called out to her little brother. Instead, a young man with similar features, similar dark hair; though he wore it longer and floppier; and a beanie atop his head, skidded to a stop in front of them.

"To what does the Jackal owe the beckoning of the astoundingly bodacious Vixenella?" The newcomer asked, and Claudia was clearly baffled, muttering,

"You're not Johnny."

"No, indeed, it is I, the Jackal, the grasshopper to Stone Cold's master, the ace of cyberspace," The funny, floppy haired kid rattled off, "What is it that you herald by?"

"Spinelli," Jason stepped between them, waving a hand from the Jackal to Claudia, "This is Claudia Zacchara. Claudia, this is Damien Spinelli."

"Hi," Claudia muttered, still inspecting Spinelli's face, while Spinelli began to hyperventilate as he babbled about yet another denizen of darkness darkening the shores of their fair city. Jason had to finally wave a hand in front of the kid's face and clap him on the shoulder to catch his attention,

"Spinelli focus here. Claudia is a business associate. She isn't evil, completely, and she isn't going to chase you around with a fireplace poker," While the Jackal shuddered at the memory, Jason turned to Claudia, a definitive tone to his voice, "Is she?"

"Business associate?" The eldest Zacchara sibling gave him a pointed look, "I'd at least call you a friend Morgan."

"Alright, friend then," He amended, a hand still clamped on his young friend's shoulder, "Spinelli? You still in there?"

"Are you sure you're little, whatever he is, is alright?" Claudia questioned, leaning in and looking at Spinelli's nervous expression, "He seems a little excitable. Like a Chihuahua."

"A Chihuahua?" Spinelli huffed, ripe with indignation, "The Jackal resents that comparison from the deepest recesses of his very soul. The Jackal may not possess the manly strength, ripped physique, and steely glare that Stone Cold embodies, but he-that is-I am by no means a lowly purse-habitating, yippy, knitted sweater wearing mongrel."

Max managed to fight off the laugh that was threatening his composure, but Milo wasn't so lucky; his escaping in a high-pitched snort. Claudia sniggered at the clearly offended speech, "Stone Cold has to be you right?"

Jason nodded, "Yeah." But before he could begin the probable long task of reassuring Spinelli he did not resemble such a creature as a Chihuahua, Claudia reached out, and trailed her fingertips down the Jackal's clean shaven cheek,

"I like him. He's cute."

"Oh no," Jason didn't like the amused look in Claudia's eye, nor the nervously interested one in Spinelli's, "The kid is off limits. Especially to you. Got it?"

"Oh, come on now Jason," Claudia replied sweetly, not pulling her hand back from Spinelli's face until the last second, "I won't hurt him."

A disjointed, hack of a giggle emerged from Spinelli, and Jason used the grip he'd kept on the boy's shoulder to yank him back to his side, "Off limits."

"Fine," Claudia groused, while Spinelli looked disappointed, "He resembles John far too much for that anyway. That would just be creepy."

--

"This seat taken?"

Elizabeth looked up from her lunch to find Robin standing beside one of the empty chairs at her table. The doctor was leaning, with one hand on the rounded top of the straight backed chair; the other on the top of her rounded belly, "Go ahead."

Her smile felt forced, and she hoped that didn't show through. She'd gone to Kelly's for her lunch break today to have a few moments of peace to herself. She liked Robin; the other woman was her friend. But lately all Robin seemed to want to do was hook her up with the new 'hot-doc', and Elizabeth couldn't get through to her that she wasn't interested. It was as if Robin wasn't listening, and had made it her mission to find Elizabeth a man. Too bad all her efforts were for naught.

Robin lowered herself to the chair's seat, still rubbing her hand over her belly, and sighed, "Ahhh. That feels better."

"Long day on your feet?" Elizabeth asked in a knowing voice.

"Yes," Robin sighed again, "But don't say anything to Patrick, or he'll go to Doctor Ford and have me put on leave or something else equally crazy because he thinks he knows what's best for me. I know what I'm doing. I can take care of myself and this little one."

Elizabeth forked up a bit of her eggs (She'd had an odd craving for Huevos Rancheros and Mike had been kind enough not to say anything.) and took a drink before she attempted in answering that particular statement. That territory was marked tread lightly lately, "Just remember that you don't have to do it alone. You've got Patrick, who's going to be a great father."

"Yeah," It seemed Robin was in a good mood about the subject because a smile pulled the corners of her lips upward and she twirled the plastic flower in the ceramic vase in the middle of the table, "I'm lucky. And it's part of the reason why I think I admire you so much."

"Admire me? Seriously?" Elizabeth blushed, pushing the remainder of her lunch around on her plate, wincing slightly when the tines of the fork scrapped lightly on the plate, "I'm just an ordinary mom, nothing special with me."

Robin shook her head, smiling, "See? You're so modest about it, but you're raising two kids all by yourself, and doing a great job, by the way."

"Thanks," The blush grew stronger, and Elizabeth ducked her head, covering her embarrassment with wiping her mouth with her napkin.

"Can I just ask you one tiny little question though?" Here it comes, Elizabeth was sure. She and Robin hadn't had a conversation lately, excluding patient care thankfully, that Robin hadn't managed to stick in a plug for her new pick, "Just one."

She knew she was going to regret this, but Elizabeth replied cautiously, "Sure."

"I see you and Jason hanging out sometimes," Robin began innocently, "And he stops by the hospital, and you go out with Nadine and Kelly and me, but do you ever think that maybe, you need more than just friends in your life? Do you ever get lonely?"

--

"Long time no see stranger," She stuck a hand in her back jeans pocket, "Feel like company?"

"Of course, of course," Spinelli opened the penthouse door to find a smiling Nadine on the other side. He ushered her inside, then closed the door behind her, "Welcome. And what brings the Noble Nurse Nadine to the Jackal's abode?"

"Well," Nadine slipped her jacket off her arms and hung it over the back of the desk chair, "I haven't seen you in a while and I thought I would come by and see if you'd zonked out on your keyboard beneath a mound of," She laughed as she gestured to the exact items, "Orange soda bottles and BBQ chip bags."

Spinelli, too, had to grin as he jumped to sweep away the offending bottle and bag collection, "Ah, no. Stone Cold and the Fair Maximista would not let me become buried. One of them would surely roust me before I was swallowed up."

"True," Nadine agreed, leaning her hands against the stuffed top of the armchair, "Jason must be keeping you really busy," She observed. As Spinelli looked about to speak, she added, "I know you can't talk about what you do for Jason. Just be careful, okay?"

"Okay," Spinelli agreed, gathering the last of his junk food garbage and dumping it in the can, "Thank you for not pressing. While I appreciate all that comes with the Fair Maximista's attentions, she does press for internal details of Stone Cold's, ahem, business, and it is becoming increasingly difficult not to disclose them to her."

"The Fair Maximista huh?" Nadine teased, knowing her friend's affinity for the outgoing blonde.

Spinelli groaned before his legs seemed to go to liquid and he collapsed to the couch, "You too can see the Jackal's plight! My affections for Maxie are as plain as the," He stalled, seeming to run out of metaphors.

"Nose on your face?" Nadine suggested an old standard.

"Yes!" And he was off again, "My affections are as plain to the world as the delicate nose on her beautiful face, but to Maxie, I am simply the friend, and am doomed to remain so."

"Aw, Spinelli," She sympathized, sitting beside her crumpled friend on the sofa, giving his shoulder a one-handed squeeze, "I know Maxie cares about you."

"Oh yes, Maximista cares," Spinelli rubbed his face before using both hands to sweep his wayward locks to one side of his face, "Maximista reminds me daily of that. By why can't she see?" He imploringly asked, his face adorably lost, "Why can't the Fair Maximista see that I hold the deepest, fullest devotion for her? But alas, the Jackal will be forever regulated to the friend denomination and will be forced to watch helplessly while some slick, nattily attired, Fredrico comes along and sweeps my Fair Maximista off her feet and whisks her far away from my sight."

Nadine patted her friend's back again, "I'm sorry Spinelli. I wish I could tell you what to do, but you can't force something like this. Either it happens or it doesn't."

"Sage counsel dear friend," Spinelli grimly agrees, "And how do you fare?"

"It's weird, you know," She began, thinking back to the first time she'd met her newest friend, "When you first meet someone, and you expect them to be all one way, and they are totally not what you expected at all."

"Ah," The Jackal observed with a sly grin, "You are speaking of the Dark Prince Zacchara."

--

"Morgan," Jason answered his cell blandly, wedging it between his shoulder and his ear as he reached across the desk for the contracts Diane was holding for him to sign.

"Jason?"

The childish voice startled him enough to have him waving away the contracts and sinking down into his chair, "Cameron? Hey buddy, what's going on?"

"Jakey took my Puppy and he won't give it back. And Gram's is mad at me 'cuz I broked her vase. An-and Mommy's all sad, and Jakey's no fun an-and Billy at daycare sat on my cupcake today. On purpose."

"On purpose?" Jason asked, though part of him was stuck on Mommy's all sad. He listened carefully to his boy's chatter; inserting a comment where a break in the boy's rambles called for it. The non-stop flow of words from Cameron made a smile grow on his face. Cam was so much like his mother.

Diane smiled as she watched Jason's phone call with his son. She was one of the few that knew about the relationship, having been the one to quietly handle the adoption process. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders when he heard the childish voice on the other line, and as he chatted about Billy from daycare squashing Cameron's cupcake; a rare smile graced her employer's handsome face. She encased the contracts she'd brought him to look over in a file folder and set it a top the desk. Jason looked up and offered a small, lopsided, grateful smile as Diane nodded, and slowly backed out of the office.

"Jason?"

"Yeah buddy?"

"I miss you. When are you comin' home?"

His chest felt like it was being squeezed in a vise till the point his heart would break at his child's wistful voice, "I miss you too little man. I'll see you soon okay?"

There was a pause, and then a small voice asked, "Promise?"

"Promise Cameron," Jason replied definitely, not going to join the ranks of those who'd made promises to the little boy and broken them, letting the child slide through the cracks, "I love you son."

"Love you too Daddy."

--

Spinelli once again abandoned his fruitless virtual pursuit to answer the door. Clearly, Casa de Stone Cold was buzzing with activity today. But upon opening the door, Spinelli was stunned to find the Septic Son waiting in the Harborview Towers hallway.

"Hi," His visitor began, and Spinelli curtly responded,

"Hello."

"You mind if I come in?" Johnny asked, gesturing toward the inside of the apartment.

While it looked like Spinelli was mentally arguing with himself, he eventually stepped aside and allowed Johnny to enter, "Stone Cold is not presently on the premise, but be forewarned, I, the Jackal, am fully capable of protecting this sanctuary if need be."

"Look man," Johnny held up a hand, palm forward, hoping to ward off another of Spinelli's rambling tangents, "I'm not here for some covert reconnaissance mission. I didn't come here to snoop through Jason's place."

Spinelli's brow creased as he narrowed his eyes, trying to imitate a Stone Cold Stare, "Then what, pray tell, is the reason for your appearance here?" He crossed his arms and perched on the arm of the chair.

Johnny inhaled deeply, holding it in before releasing it slowly, "I heard you the other day, telling Maxie about the Nintendo you found at the flea market."

"While the system is a true find, some may even say a classic," Spinelli pointed an accusatory finger, "Eavesdropper!"

Johnny rolled his eyes, "I thought that you'd want to play a classic game on your classic system." From his jacket pocket, he then produced a rectangular cartridge, the once bright and colorful label worn and faded.

"Super Mario Brothers!" Spinelli exclaimed, leaping from his seat to grasp the offered game, "An oldie, but a goodie. Where did you get it?"

"It's mine," Johnny grinned, losing a bit of stiffness he'd held since entering the apartment, "I had it when I was a kid."

Spinelli looked up befuddled, "If it's a treasure from childhood, why offer it to me?" He glanced from the game to his visitor once again, "Is it going to blow up or something?"

"No!" Johnny slid a hand across his forehead, before pinching the bridge of his nose for a second, "It's nothing like that Spinelli."

"Then why are you coming here, and offering me a game, which I could very well already have?"

"If you don't want it, then give the damn thing back!" Johnny burst out in frustration, holding his hand out for the game, and Spinelli peered at the other man with an oddly understanding look on his face,

"Are you okay?'

Johnny hauled in three deep breaths through his nose before he even tried to reply, "I've spent my whole life in that house. Nobody wanted to be friends with Anthony Zacchara's kid. And even if they did, whose parents in their right minds would let them? I had Claudia, but then Trevor and my father shipped her off, and it was just me. I can't make friends. It's not that I won't, it's that I can't. But you know my father. You've seen him, and you know he's insane, and," He stopped, heaved a heavy sigh, girded his mental loins and continued, "And you and Nadine, you guys are different," He shrugged, "I was hoping we could hang out."

--

Awaiting the order they'd called in nearly forty-five minutes before, Max drummed his large fingers on the counter at Kelly's, leaning his chin in his opposite palm. He was staring off into space, and didn't notice the odd look he was receiving.

"Stop that," Jason ordered, shaking his head, "What are you doing?"

Max gave a breathy sigh, his beefy shoulders lifting as he inhaled, and then sagged on exhale, "Nothin'."

Jason shook his head again, knowing the reason for his friend's sappy behavior, "You're thinking about Diane aren't you?"

"Yeah," A dopey, affected smile held the bodyguard's face and Jason couldn't miss the opportunity,

"Has Diane met Claudia yet?"

"What?" Max was stunned from his stupor, "Why would Diane meet Claudia?" An odd, devious grin slowly curled the corners of Jason's lips, "Don't man. Just don't."

"What?" He leaned back on his stool, waving a hand in Max's direction, "Why would I tell Diane about you slobbering all over another woman?"

"Jason, seriously," Quickly becoming agitated, Max would probably have done just about anything for Jason to remain silent, "You can't tell Diane-"

"He can't tell me what?" Her voice floated over their shoulders, and instantly Max was a shade of purple Jason hadn't known existed, "What is it that you two are conspiring?" Leaning her head between both of theirs, she intoned in a whisper, "Because I seriously doubt either of you would be obtuse enough to discuss hypotheticals here."

"Of course not," Max blustered, clumsily tipping over his take-out coffee cup in an attempt to turn himself around in his chair, succeeding only in spilling it all over the sleeve of his dress shirt and sending it flying over the counter to the floor.

"Max!" Diane exclaimed, making a little hop backwards so the splash would miss her shoes, "While I have all the respect and admiration for an eager man, these," She extended one foot so they could see her shoes, and Jason couldn't help but wonder how the hell she managed to walk normally in them, "Are loaners."

The two slipped into some kind of softly murmured conversation, one alternately chuckling, and Jason had to look away. Besides the fact he felt like he was intruding, it made him think about Elizabeth, and all that they had, but couldn't express. Everything was hidden away. And while sometimes he could convince himself that they were just saving it all for themselves, that their relationship, for once, wasn't for public consumption, he found himself impatient for the day he could simply kiss his wife, wherever, whenever he so chose.