Chapter 2 - There Is a Reaction

He was worried for no reason. He knew it. He knew the chances of being found by any of his former enemies were always a possibility, but in the five years he's lived in London, he's not exactly been in hiding and nothing had happened. Not even when he was at his weakest.

The very public feud and rebuking of all things Sonny Corinthos, Carly, and their children included, Jason was more than sure was publicized throughout the organization. He'd made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with Sonny or anything involving him.

Nevertheless, the enemies he'd made during those ten years weren't exactly the type to just forgive and forget. Nor were they the type to let him disappear.

He's been very lucky these past few years and wondered now if his luck was starting to run out.

He looked down at the crumpled piece of stationary on his desk and read the words again.

I've found you.

They seemed to jump out at him, attacking that part of him that was always left unguarded. He'd gone back upstairs after watching Lucinda pull away from the parking garage and gotten it from the trash. He didn't know why. On some subconscious level he didn't want the note and what it could represent in his home. Didn't want it anywhere near the life he had with Lucinda.

His gaze flickered up and landed on the picture of Lucinda that graced his desk. Was she really as safe as he thought her to be? Was she sitting in her session right now or was she somewhere with a gun pressed to her head? He fought the urge to call her office harder than he's ever fought anything in his life. She was strong and independent and didn't deserve to live her life in a glass cage… that could easily be broken.

That's the problem with glass…

…it always breaks.

"Elizabeth?" Jason whispered her name as he sat by her bed in General Hospital. Her eyes were open, but she couldn't bring them to meet his. He reached out his hand to touch her forehead, but stopped himself. She wouldn't welcome his touch anymore than she welcomed his presence.

She looked so fragile, so broken, just a former shell of the woman she once was and he knew he was the cause of her disposition. "I'm sorry," he whispered as he dropped his hand in a defeated effort.

It required more strength than he currently had to stand and walk away from that bed. From her. More strength to turn and face her one last time. Elizabeth looked at him now…with the eyes of a child afraid of some vile monster. With the sad eyes of a woman brokenhearted.

Jason turned and left her room, sparing her the view of his falling tears.

"Mr. Quartermaine?" His secretary's soft voice jarred his thoughts. Focusing his eyes on the petite blonde standing in front his desk, he placed an appeasing smile on his face. The blonde smiled back. "Here is the Colson file you requested," She placed it on the desk. "Mr. Declan just returned your call and is regrettably unable to make the meeting today. So, your morning is freed and your two pm conference call has been pushed back to two-thirty per your request."

"Thank you, Sandra," Jason replied softly, phone in hand to make some calls.

Sandra turned on her heels and headed toward the door. "Oh," she called, pivoting on her heels and turning around in a whirlwind to face him again. "Rex is in the waiting area. He said he needs just a moment of your time. Said it's important."

Jason placed the phone receiver back in its cradle. She'd just saved him a call. "Send him in, please, Sandra."

The petite blonde exited the room and, not more than a second later, another blond entered. This time a man with chiseled features and mischievous eyes. He was younger than Jason, early twenties at the most.

"I went over the building's security tapes," Rex was saying as he closed the door to Jason's office. He turned and faced Jason with a grievous look on his face. He plopped down in the chair opposite Jason's desk, the look never fading from his face and making Jason's heart thunder in his chest. "We've got a problem," Rex said finally.

"That being?" Jason asked, his voice calmer than he thought it would be.

Rex bit back a smirk. That's one of the things he admired about Jason… he always got straight to the point. "I checked out the security tapes as I said and there is something of interest."

Jason chuckled softly to himself as his hands clenched and unclenched. Rex Balsom was a good private investigator. He was young and cocky, but had a dutiful sense of right and wrong and the horrible blurred than that one sometimes had to cross. He came from a troubled past which enabled him to get in good with the shady characters, but had the respect of a police commissioner which enabled him to get the all clear from the law abiding.

Jason never regretted hiring the kid as his personal detective… but right now, Rex was treading a dangerous line.

If he didn't tell Jason something concrete right now, he was going to reach over and snap the kid's neck like a twig.

"Someone entered your building a little after midnight and headed up to the penthouse level. This was almost thirty minutes after Dr. Knight had gone."

Jason breathed a slight sigh of relief. Lucinda hadn't encountered this person and for that he was very thankful. Yet, he was also troubled as to what it could mean. Did the person wait for Lucinda to leave the apartment? Were they simply waiting for a moment to get Jason alone?

"Then… it gets a little weird," Rex's exaggerated drawl wrenched Jason from his dark thoughts.

"Define a little weird," Jason demanded.

"The time stamp put them at your penthouse at 12:05 am," Rex began. "Then the next time stamp is 12:35 when Dr. Knight returned. A whole half-hour has been blotted out like it was cut from the tape."

"Did - -"

"I had Archie check it out," Rex answered the question before it could leave Jason's mouth. "No one tampered with the tape and there's no indication that the camera stopped working during that half hour."

"What about the security guard?" Jason asked. "Did he see anything?"

"Lawrence was upstairs for about an hour handling a domestic violence issue on the fifth floor. Police confirmed he was there helping Mrs. Carmichael after her husband attempted to run off with their son." Both men scowled. "His night-shift partner, Tommy Easley, was unable to answer my questions over the phone." Rex smiled a bit. "I thought I'd pay him a visit once I leave here."

That dread-filled knot once again found its way into Jason's stomach. He didn't like this. He didn't like any of this… and something told him it was bound to get worse.

"Was Lu…" his chest felt tight. "Was Lucinda in any danger last night?" Jason wanted to know… just had to know.

Rex's face remained stoic. "It's hard to say. She was at the hospital until 12:20. Cops confirm it and so does the timestamps on the hospital security keycard. I'm sure she was fine." Rex took extra caution before saying the next words. He was certain Jason already knew them, but they needed to be said. "It seems this person… was trying to get to you."

Sighing pensively, Jason leaned back in his chair and it creaked ominously under his weight. He ran a hand through his dirty-blond locks wistfully. He stared at Rex, silently, before picking up the crumpled note and handing it to him.

"I want you to find out who wrote that. Get together with Archie and do whatever it is that the two of you do, but find out who they are."

Rex looked at the note and then back to Jason, he wouldn't ask any questions. "I would need something to compare it to," Rex said.

Jason's gaze softened a bit as he reached inside the desk drawer and pulled out a stack of letters and tossed them Rex. Looking down at the hefty stack in his hands, Rex saw that all the letters were sent to an Italian P.O. Box that Jason had forwarded to London. They were all addressed to him and all sent from someone named Sam McCall. Again, Rex knew better than to ask questions.

Jason rose from the chair and stood next to the window, overlooking the busy street below. Storm clouds were gathering on the horizon. Jason thought, oddly, that it was fitting. There was surely a storm brewing.

Jason Morgan was rearing his dangerous head again.

"I've tried so hard to keep Jason Morgan away from this life. Away from Lucinda," he shook his head, "I don't want any of this to touch her," he turned and pinned Rex with a lethal look, "Jason Morgan is dead and I'm paying you good money to keep it that way."

Rex knew very well what was expected of him. Jason paid him well to keep his image out of the newspapers across the world, keeping up the appearance that Edward Quartermaine was an old coot who'd hired someone to keep up appearances after his grandson was killed. Paid him well to protect the woman he loved.

Rex admired the lengths Jason went to in order to protect himself and Lucinda. Admired the fact that he gave him a chance after that whole fiasco with Todd Manning back in Llanview. Rex had gone to great lengths in finding Todd's son, only to find him as the adopted son of a friend. He'd wrestled for weeks on what to do, but before he could make the decision, Todd had found out the truth and publicly disgraced him. He'd lost his P.I. license for a while and any hopes of winning anyone else's respect when Jason Quartermaine showed up on his door and offered him a job he ultimately couldn't refuse.

Rex had come to look at Jason and Lucinda as friends…and Rex Balsom always protected his friends.

"I'll get right on it," Rex said finally, jumping up from the chair and heading for the door. He stopped on his heels and pivoted to face Jason once again. "There's something else you should know." Jason waited with baited breath. "The person on the tape is a woman. I couldn't really get a positive ID on her, but it's… a woman."

Rex left after imparting that information on Jason, closing the door softly behind him, leaving Jason with the feelings of dread and worry to fill his senses. He looked out the window in the direction of the hospital where Lucinda worked.

She's safe, he told himself. Jason Morgan is dead and Lucinda and I are safe.

Rex's words had a way of filtering in, though. No matter how hard he tried to ignore them.

"It seems this person… was trying to get to you."