Chapter Eight: Tear my heart out

Summary: Elizabeth confronts her father following his miraculous return from the 'dead'.

A/N: Cast your mind back to late 2002, a tough year to be a Liason fan. It was the beginning of the end for Jason and Elizabeth and the start of the Journey train. We all know what happened following Elizabeth's confrontation with Jason on the show – she walked out on him, tossing out the infamous cutthroat "First, last, always." comment. This chapter follows the confrontation between them that is alluded to in Chapter Three: Worth it, as well as a much needed, though short, scene between father and daughter.

The flashback within this chapter contains actual dialogue excerpts from the show, which will be noted with italics. But, as some of you will be able to tell, to fit into the AU, I have taken some artistic license.

Thanks to Jill, my partner-in-crime and fellow WABFF&TB, for being my eyes and ears for this chapter.

Prompt: The cruelest cut of all

X-X-X-X-X

Tension crackled in the air, volatile and explosive. Repressing emotion was near physically impossible for them both, thus they knew that this confrontation was inevitable. Just as they both knew instinctively that something had fractured, perhaps irreparably, between them.

As Elizabeth stood just beyond the threshold of PH4, she cast her mind back a mere twenty-four hours as she watched her life, trust and love all spiral away from her. As she picked up her suitcases and walked away from the one person she had trusted above all others….

Tears of anger stung behind her eyes and threatened to spill over, but her voice, when she spoke, was strong. "Let me save you the trouble of stonewalling," Elizabeth said coolly. "I already know Sonny's alive, Jax has been shot, and Brenda's back. Does that cover all the real reasons you've been gone at night while I sat here wondering whether you were dead or alive?" x

Ever stoic, Jason's reply was even. "It was just supposed to be a couple of days."x

Elizabeth's eyes widened incredulously and she shook her head in disbelief. "Do you think any of this is acceptable?" -

"I don't know what you mean."x

Fury leapt into her voice and was echoed in fierce sapphire eyes. "Staging big, elaborate hoaxes! Setting people up to grieve for no reason or worrying themselves sick for nothing? What goes through your head?"x

She held up a hasty hand. "You know what? Don't answer. I already know the answer, okay? And I've heard it plenty – you were just doing what you had to do. Didn't matter if anyone else was devastated."x

Elizabeth paused, her thoughts going to her little brother and her stepmother, and the bond they seemed to have formed in the midst of their common grief. "God, I could only imagine what Carly must have been going through."x

Jason swallowed hard, breaking eye contact, knowing that his next few words would hit her hard. He braced himself for her reaction. "No, Carly knew that Sonny was alive," he admitted softly. "That's what Sonny wanted."x

The tears finally spilled over, a crystalline waterfall over pale cheeks. Fury bled into shock and raw hurt as the meaning of Jason's statement hung between them like a malevolent mist. "Great," she gave a shaky humourless laugh. "Do you have any idea how foolish I feel right now?" she dashed away her tears, trying to find comfort once again in her anger. "Do you even care that you've trampled my trust or that you've ruined any chance we ever had of being together? Or is that a small price to pay knowing you did your job the way Sonny wanted?"x

Jason could feel desperation clawing at his senses as the weight of her words settled. "I tried to warn you. I told you that there would be things that I can't tell you. Come on, I didn't like that I was hurting you and I was keeping secrets from you, but lives were at stake, and that's just part of my job."x

"Where does the truth fit in? Or the trust?" she demanded. "I turned myself inside out to prove that I deserved both from you. And not only did you go and throw it in my face, you do something that makes it impossible for me to trust you!"x She turned away, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing his words tear her apart.

Jason tried to reach for her hand not surprised that she refused to let him touch her but rather by the pain that struck deep within his heart. He could see her drawing within herself, using her anger to build an insurmountable wall between them, and that scared him more than he cared to admit. "Look, y-y-you have a right to be mad, but just try to understand that this had nothing to do with you."x

Elizabeth whipped around, her eyes acid pools of anger. "Nothing to do with me?" her voice was razor sharp. "It had everything to do with me, Jason! Sonny is my father! This is my world, too!"

She gave him a mutinous glare as she hissed, "Uh-uh, no, sorry. I'm here, and I'm in it, and I count!"x

She broke off and gave another mirthless chuckle. "You know what the ironic thing is?" Jason's distressed blue eyes lifted to hers in question. "It's that you actually did tell me the truth – I just didn't want to hear it. When you kept pushing me away and you warned me about who you really are I should have listened instead of making you up in my head. But you are Sonny's..." she broke off as the tide of her emotions threatened to overwhelm her. "Sonny's enforcer – first, last, always. I hope it's enough."x

And now here she stood, eyes locked with the man himself. Michael Corinthos Jr. was alive and no worse for the wear. Clad as usual in a dark expensive suit, dark curls slicked back with as rigid control as he exuded over the people in his life; he stood just by his bar, a seemingly ever present tumbler of scotch in his hand. His eyes were watchful, trying to gauge her mood upon Johnny's announcement of her arrival.

He was the man who had given her life, who had read stories to her at night, kissed her booboos and promised her the world. He was the man who had helped to make her as strong as she was, encouraged her to follow her dreams, to listen to her heart, and not let people dictate her life.

He was the man who had helped to break her heart.

"It needed to be quiet."

They were five simple words of woefully inadequate explanation that scalded her very being.

Elizabeth shook her head disbelievingly, hot tears of anger pricking her eyes. "Don't use that as an excuse," she spat. "I've heard it all from your faithful servant, Jason! Don't insult me any more than you already have!"

"Elizabeth –"

"No!" she interjected forcefully. "I spent two weeks of sleepless nights wondering if Jason was alright, culminating with the PCPD showing up at my door to break the news that you were dead!

"What the hell did you expect when next I saw you? When I turned on the television only to have some reporter let me in on the story. Did you honestly expect that I would be so overjoyed by your miraculous resurrection that I would forget the hell that you put me through?

"They told me you were dead! Jason took me to the morgue! I identified your body! You bastard, I grieved for you!"

Sonny flinched, pain and regret swimming in his expressive dark gaze, but he said nothing in the face of his daughter's justifiable anger.

Hot tears by now were streaming freely down her cheeks, and her voice was heavy with emotion. "You talk about betrayal… well this is it. I finally understand why you know so much about it. You're the master."

She took a deep shuddering breath and drew herself together. Steel threaded her tone as she tightened her coat more securely around her slender frame. "Consider yourself warned. You and me," she gestured back and forth between them, "we're finished."

TBC…

A/N: All text noted with the x refers to actual show dialogue.

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