Prompt: Kill someone already
Part 23
This was… hell.
After one splendid week of spending almost every waking moment with Jason, sleeping in the same bed when they actually slept, going out on rides, just… being together, something with work came up and now he was hardly around.
Despite being nervous at first, at what he might think, Elizabeth always went into his room to go to sleep after spending yet another day alone without him. She would be awaken in the middle of the night by him curling his arm around her and pulling her into his side, but when she woke up the next morning, it was always to an empty bed. She tried sleeping in her own bed once, to see if maybe he didn't want to sleep together, that maybe things were moving too fast for him. But when she woke up in the middle of the night with his leg thrown over hers, she knew that he wasn't staying away from the penthouse to stay away from her.
He was busy with business, and it killed her to be away from him for so long.
It had been five days since he picked her up from her shift at Kelly's and brought her back to the penthouse. He made love to her with an urgency she had never experienced before and when they were lying on the couch, both spent from the passionate love making, he explained to her that things were going to change for a while.
She nodded that she understood. But now, after being away from Jason for so long with not speaking to him except for five minute conversations on the phone and not actually seeing him, she began to realize that she didn't understand. Or maybe did understand but just hated it, dammit.
She knew he had a job that was not a normal job, knew that he would be away at odd hours. But all she wanted to do was see him.
And it wasn't even as if Jason being gone was the only factor that was making her miserable. It was a huge factor, the largest factor that aided to her misery, but being locked up in the penthouse and heavily guarded was another thing that was driving her slowly insane.
Along with explaining to her that he wasn't going to be around for a while because of a job, he also explained that security would have to be raised and she wouldn't have as much freedom. When he said that, she thought he was just trying to keep her safe.
Not keep her a prisoner.
Which was exactly what he was doing. Both of her guards had told her numerous times that they were under strict orders from Jason to not take her out unless it was an emergency, like the building catching fire. She was allowed to go to work, but both guards had to accompany her. She lost a lot of customers since both Max and Johnny were so intimidating they scared everyone away.
She didn't mind the guards and the constant supervision as long as she was allowed some space, and she was allowed none. They were always right there, not allowing her to have a private conversation unless she was safely inside the penthouse. But when she was inside the penthouse, she wanted nothing more than to have the guards come inside and keep her company she was that bored.
It was one thing to keep her safe; it was another to drive her completely insane.
Elizabeth glanced at Johnny as he stood by the door that led to the kitchen in the back of Kelly's diner. Max was in the kitchen with her, watching as she rinsed some dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. Her shift was over in five minutes and all she needed to do was roll some silverware. She glanced at Max again, caught him staring at a lower part of her anatomy as she bent down to reach the silverware bucket and quirked a brow at him.
Max immediately snapped his gaze up, blushing at being caught checking out his boss's girl. Clearing his throat, he checked his watch. "Are you almost done yet, Ms. Webber?"
"I'm not even going to answer you, Max."
His brow's furrowed at her snippy remark. She couldn't be that mad at him for checking her out. It wasn't like it was the first time and every time before she would either raise a thinly shaped eyebrow or do some checking out of her own. Max was a fan of the latter but would never admit it to anyone else. There were just some things men didn't mess with and one of your friends little ladies was one of those things. Especially when said friend had a temper and a special attachment to his gun.
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why won't you answer me?" He sighed.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes heavenward. "What's my name?"
What the hell? Max dipped his head, answered her slowly. "Elizabeth."
"See, and here I thought you had forgotten."
"Are you kidding me?" He asked, clearly astonished that they were even having this conversation. He knew that she wanted him to call her Elizabeth but it seemed that every time he did, Jason was right there, glaring at him. When Elizabeth gave him a pointed look, he snapped his head back and glared up at the ceiling. "Fine, are you almost done here, Elizabeth?" He spoke her name through clenched teeth.
"Uh-oh." She whispered.
"What?" He asked, not taking his gaze from the ceiling.
Her voice was still a whisper. "Jason's behind you."
"What?" He spun around; already trying to figure out a way to explain to his boss what was going on. But when he turned around no one was there and the only sound he heard was Elizabeth's laughter.
"I'm sorry… I had to. You should have seen the look on your face."
"That wasn't funny."
Elizabeth snapped her mouth shut, trying with all her might to contain her smile but failed miserably. "I'm sorry. And yes, I'm almost done here."
"Good, we have a schedule to keep."
Elizabeth threw a rolled up fork and knife into the bucket with more force than attended. Good attitude gone, she finished her rolling with jerky movements. She was so damn sick and tired of hearing about that damn schedule. The guards knew the exact time it took to get to and from Kelly's and would leave not a minute later or earlier to get her to work. Once at work, Johnny would make a phone call, most likely to Jason, to let him know that they made it. And the same went when they went back to the penthouse. If she was scheduled to leave work at 2:00, than Jason would expect a call at exactly 2:09. One time, she was running late and they didn't make it home until 2:11 and there was a search party getting ready to leave the Harborview towers when they entered the lobby.
It was annoying to have to live like that, stay to a specific schedule where not a minute could be altered. She almost wanted to take her sweet time rolling the rest of the silverware just so she could break the damn schedule.
When Max cleared his throat and tapped his watch, it was her breaking point. She threw the rest of the silverware into the tub and then yanked off her apron. "I have to go to the bathroom."
"Can't it wait until we get back to—?"
"No!"
Elizabeth slammed into the bathroom, knowing that Johnny followed her and was now standing guard outside. She turned on the faucet, bracing her hands on the sink. She needed a break; she needed to get out of there. She need time to herself where she could enjoy the fresh air and maybe even get a new idea for a painting by taking in the sights of Port Charles.
Nibbling on her bottom lip, Elizabeth looked at the small window above the single toilet then back at the door. Without giving herself a second to talk herself out of it, Elizabeth closed the lid of the toilet and stood on top of it, opening the window once she reached it.
It took some maneuvering, but she was able to fit her body into the tiny opening and gracefully fell out of the window. Once she saw that no one was in the alley she took off on a run, fearful that Max or Johnny had heard all of the noise she made.
Jason slammed into his penthouse. His muscles were tight and all he wanted was one of Elizabeth's soothing backrubs. It was the first time in five days since he was able to make it home during the daylight hours and he wanted nothing more than to spend time with Elizabeth as she loosened his muscles. He missed her, hated that the only time they spent together was when he would crawl into bed in the middle of the night and pull her to him.
He was angry that after yet another meeting with another mob family, he still came to a dead end. He was really close to killing somebody already and his first choice would have been the asshole that had tried to kidnap Kristina and Elizabeth, and was held up at their safe house.
Until he escaped five days a go, the son of a bitch.
And to top off the fact that Jason was livid that the man had escaped, he was now above the boiling point since he didn't have any one to kick the shit out of. For a good reason, anyway.
Putting all of that behind him, his frustrations at still not knowing who his enemy was and his anger, Jason had walked into his penthouse expecting to see Elizabeth waiting for him. He wasn't able to get the phone call from earlier that day telling him they had made it home after her shift because he was in a meeting, but he knew he would have gotten a call if something happened. But instead of Elizabeth sitting on their couch, she was no where in sight. The only ones in sight were a very scared looking Max and Johnny and a somber looking Sonny.
No fucking way.
"What happened?" Jason asked, already knowing that Elizabeth wasn't there and something happened to her. He would kill them if she was hurt. He didn't care who them were, all he knew was that he would kill them.
No one answered at first, still surprised to see Jason when they weren't expecting him so soon. Max was the first to speak, if sputtering could be considered speaking. "Hap-happened? Nothing…nothing happened. Why would you…" He ended with a nervous laugh. The look on Jason's face was enough to make the large man fall to his needs and beg for mercy.
"Jason maybe you should—"
"Shut the fuck up, Johnny."
"No problem, boss."
Squaring on Sonny, Jason placed his hands on his hips, glared at his friend. "Why wasn't I called right away?"
"Because we have it handled."
"Handled?" Jason clenched his hands into tight fists, willing himself to control his anger. "Where's Elizabeth Sonny? She's obviously missing and even if you did have it handled, I should have been called the second someone realized she was gone!" He ended on a roar.
"Jason, you're only her guard."
"I'm more than her guard and you know it." Jason snapped.
Sonny felt bad for using such tactics when his friend was obviously distressed. But he couldn't help it. He knew there was something more between the two than just roommates and Jason guarding her, but he wanted Jason to admit it.
"I know," Sonny smiled. "The second Johnny realized Elizabeth was missing he called me and they went looking for her. They found her at the park but I told them not to approach her. She obviously wouldn't have run away if she didn't need some time to herself."
"She ran away?" Jason asked; his voice low and confused.
Johnny stepped forward when he looked at Max and his friend shook his head, holding his hands up. "She told us that she had to use the bathroom. I stood outside the bathroom door for a while, but when she didn't come out, I knocked but she didn't answer. I broke the door down, the window was open and Elizabeth was gone."
"She crawled out of the bathroom window?"
All three nodded their head in answer.
"Where is she now? And how come you two aren't with her?"
Sonny answered. "I put two guards on her that she hasn't met before so she wouldn't recognize them. I didn't want her to see Max and Johnny and get upset."
"You didn't want…" Jason took in a breath, his anger growing with each passing excuse "Her life is in danger right now Sonny. I don't care if you had to carry her back here kicking and screaming. She should not be out there in the open for anyone to get to her."
"Jason, she's safe. I've got two men on her that know to stay close… where the hell are you going?"
"I'm going to bring her home."
"Give her some room, man. It's got to be hard for her to be stuck here everyday, not being able to leave except to go to work. She probably just needed some breathing room."
Jason spun around, pointed a finger at the balcony doors near his pool table. "She can get some breathing room on the balcony."
"You're going to make things worse if you go after her right now. There is a reason—"
"Dammit Sonny, I can't let anything happen to her."
Elizabeth picked that exact moment to walk into the penthouse. Both Max and Johnny rushed forward to stand before her when they saw the look on Jason's face. They used their bodies to block Elizabeth from Jason's anger.
Max held up his hands, swallowed thickly. "Now, Jason, you might want to—"
"Shut up."
"Ok."
Elizabeth stared at Jason through the space between the two bodyguards blocking her from Jason. Her smile was hesitant when she saw the fury on his face. Lifting a hand, she slowly waved it back and forth. "Hi."
His eye actually twitched.
He was pissed.
And she was in deep trouble.