AN: Thanks to everyone who has been reading Fortress. I have opened my own fanfic website and this is the last chapter I will post here. I have other stories and one shots there that I have not posted here and will be doing site exclusive works as well. As for Fortress, I will still post it at The Canvas or you can go to my site to check it out from here forward. A link to my site is on my profile page. Thanks again !

Chapter 16

The silence was deafening.

Elizabeth stood in front of her bedroom window, her arms folded across her chest hugging herself, as her tear streaked face stared into the night. Jason stood behind her, head hung low, fingers intertwined as his hands cupped the back of his neck.

She didn't know what to say to him. She hadn't intended to tell him the truth, but was naïve in thinking she could hide it from him. Their relationship was always so confusing. They knew when the other was hurting by simply looking into their eyes, but at the same time, the number of ways they misunderstood and misinterpreted each other was simply astounding. They were a conundrum.

Jason cleared his throat and Elizabeth turned her head slightly in response. "Can you please walk me through what happened?" he asked; his voice gravely.

She took a deep cleansing breath and wiped the remnants of her tears off her cheeks. Turning, she walked past him and sat on the edge of her bed. "Where do you want me to start?" she questioned as she watched her fingers twisting in her lap.

"Elizabeth, this is by no means and accusation, but we used protection," Jason stated, looking at the top of her head.

She touched her forehead and shifted. She didn't want to have this conversation, but now that he knew she had been pregnant, he deserved the truth. The chips would fall where they may.

Elizabeth cleared her throat before speaking. "No birth control is one hundred percent effective," she paused, "and there was that time we started to – you know – in the shower," she trailed off. "I don't know exactly how it happened, but it did." She lifted her eyes to meet his.

Jason swallowed hard and rubbed a hand over his face. "When did you find out?"

"It all happened so fast." Elizabeth averted her gaze, staring at some nondescript spot across the room. Her voice sounded far away…distant. "About a week after I moved out of the penthouse I realized I was late. I took a test and it was positive," she sighed as her lips briefly curled into a small pained smile. "I didn't want to tell you until it was confirmed by my doctor. After my appointment, I went straight to the penthouse…"

The enforcer's eyes rolled closed. "What happened?" his voice cracked.

Her eyes moved to his face. "I think you can piece the rest together," Elizabeth stated simply.

Jason shook his head. "I-I need to hear what happened Elizabeth. I need you to tell me."

"You weren't there," she responded, her voice tight and strained. "I looked at the sheets draped over the furniture and I was so confused. I went to your room and opened your closet, looked in your bathroom for any sign that I was mistaken. And when I realized I wasn't…I cried," she paused and sniffled, then wiped her nose. "I was pregnant and you were gone."

"I would have come back," the words tumbled out of Jason's mouth.

Elizabeth's wet eyes found his. She searched his face as the statement fell between them.

Jason fidgeted. He felt like an ass, but he needed to understand what happened. The news that years ago he could have had a child, but that child died, flattened him like a steamroller. There was no going back to fix things, that he knew, but he wanted to understand what Elizabeth had been living with.

"That was the night of the car accident," he stated.

Elizabeth nodded her head in response. "I shouldn't have been driving. Between the weather and…" she trailed off. "I had no business being on the road," her voice cracked as her eyes glassed over.

He blew out a breath. "How did it happen?"

"I was driving on Harbor View, thinking about what I was going to do –"

"What do you mean 'what you were going to do'?" he interrupted as he furrowed his brow.

"Jason," she said sharply. "I was the worst kind of cliché…a waitress pregnant with an illegitimate child by a mobster who had skipped town," she paused. "Don't get me wrong. I loved our baby. I loved it from the moment it sunk in that I was pregnant. I was even starting to get excited about the idea of you and me and our baby." Elizabeth stood and walked to the other side of the room. "After I found out about the baby, I had every intention of us trying to work things out, seeing if you would want to be a family. And when I realized you were gone…" she turned her back to him and was silent for a moment before continuing.

"It was raining hard and I was crying. Before I knew what was happening I saw the red lights off the back of truck. I slammed on my breaks and the car started skidding. I couldn't remember what to do. Pump the breaks? Turn into the skid…away from the skid? My mind shut down and all I could think about was the baby."

Elizabeth stopped talking. Jason saw her back expand and relax as she took multiple deep breaths. He watched her arms move to cradle her stomach where their child had once been.

"The airbag released on impact, and as I sat there pinned against the seat I did a mental scan of my body and nothing hurt," her voice lifted momentarily. "My heart was racing, but I wasn't in any pain. It wasn't until after I was pulled from the car that the shock wore off. My head started throbbing and I got scared. I made them take me to the hospital."

She wiped her cheeks and turned to face Jason. "The doctor in the ER said that if it was going to happen there was nothing they could do to stop it. It was even too soon to find the baby's heartbeat." Elizabeth's chin started quivering.

Jason stiffened. He wanted to punch something. "Why didn't you call anyone?"

"I just wanted to go home. I didn't want to talk or answer questions. I just wanted to be." Her eyes met his and he knew exactly what she meant.

Elizabeth turned away from him again before speaking. "The cramping started around three a.m.," her voice wavered. "I'd fallen asleep a couple of hours before thinking that everything was okay. It had been hours since the accident and nothing had happened." She lifted a small shoulder, "I thought we were in the clear."

Jason heard her breath hitch and watched her shoulders start to tremble. He reached for her, and then dropped his hand. Elizabeth's cry rolled into a sob as she shuddered. Unable to stop himself, he stepped up behind her and wrapped her in his arms, pulling her against his chest.

He placed his lips against the crown of her head as she wept. A pit of grief had formed low in his stomach and was rising with each passing minute. To say he had let her down was an understatement. She had been pregnant and excited and then had to suffer through the loss on her own.

Elizabeth moved in his arms, trying to pull herself free, but Jason refused to let go. His return forced her to face the loss [iand[/i he had asked her to recount it. He damn well wasn't about to abandon her now.

When he wouldn't release her, she folded her body over his arms as she cried. Jason turned them and led her to the bed. Elizabeth crawled into the middle and curled into a ball. Wanting to be with her, he kicked off his shoes and followed, wrapping himself around her once more. Her back nestled against his chest as her face found a spot on his shoulder. He pressed his cheek against her hair as they lay together.

Jason stroked her arm as he murmured to her gently. He was filled with sorrow. His head hurt, his heart hurt. The thought of what Elizabeth had gone through…scared and alone. He wanted to get into a bar fight, he wanted to shoot something. His muscles rolled and bunched with tension.

She could feel the warmth of his breath fan across her neck and shoulder as Jason exhaled slowly. She could feel his fingers caressing her arm gingerly. But Elizabeth was exhausted, too exhausted to react to being pressed so intimately against her former lover, the father of her unborn child.

She was torn. On the one hand, she felt as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders; carrying the grief of the loss on her own for almost three years had lain heavy against her soul. She was so angry with Jason, so angry with herself, and wasn't willing to open her pain up to anyone else's critique. The mere thought of Grams saying something negative about Jason, in response to learning about the baby and the miscarriage, filled Elizabeth with rage. The idea of hearing the words "it was for the best" or "it was part of God's plan" made her want to throw something. In truth, the only opinion that mattered was his.

And he had yet to give it.

Mixed with the turmoil of reliving her experience, sharing with him the truth about what had happened after he left town, was fear. Fear that after the shock wore off, after he was noble and provided an appropriate amount of support, that he would look at her the way she looked at herself; as an irresponsible, immature, petulant girl who had carelessly risked the life of their child and lost.

Jason shifted behind her, moved to line up his mouth with her ear. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Her eyelids fell closed in response.

His fingers moved her hair away from her ear, sliding it over her shoulder and off her neck before returning to her arm and running down the length of it.

For a split second, Elizabeth imagined it was three years ago and he was with her, caring for her exactly the way he was in this moment. But that thought only triggered the never ending train of "what if's". She was a prisoner to "what if's".

He cleared his throat. "I would have come back," he repeated, the words leaving his lips much slower the second time.

Elizabeth nodded her head. Hearing him say it now, she believed him, but at the time…

"The only reason I left was because I loved you," he sighed, "I couldn't – I just couldn't run into you around town and act like I didn't care, like you didn't matter to me. I thought it would be better for you…better for us, if I left." Jason's voice was thick with emotion.

She drew her bottom lip into her mouth and began to chew as the tears pricked the backs of her eyes once again.

He swallowed hard. "Losing the – our baby – was not your fault. If it's anyone's, it's mine. I should have been there for you. Not running half way around the world like some fucking coward." Jason rolled onto his back and ran a hand down his face, then punched the mattress next to his hip.

She jumped slightly at the unexpected action of his fist connecting with the padding beneath them. Listening to him try to take responsibility didn't make Elizabeth feel any better. For three years she had blamed herself for being careless, him for leaving town, God for the storm, and anything or anyone else she could imagine for her loss. She had created a fortress of guilt, blame and grief, and had condemned herself behind those walls. She couldn't sit by and watch him do the same.

Elizabeth rolled towards him. "Jason, look at me," she requested.

He blew out a large breath before turning. They were lying side by side, facing each other. She searched his face. His watery blue eyes pierced straight through to her heart. In that moment she realized how much she had needed to do this with him. Grieve with him.

Her lips curled into a small sad smile. Elizabeth lifted her hand and pressed it to the side of Jason's face, cupping his cheek. "You are not a coward. You were hurt and you did what was best for yourself. I pushed you away," she paused. "I pushed you away and then I blamed you for not being there when I needed you. It was wrong…I was wrong."

"But I should've –," he started.

Elizabeth pressed her fingers to his lips. "Jason, you're not psychic. There was no way for you to have known."

They were silent for a moment then her eyes rolled back into her head as she fell onto her back. "Ryan was so right…although he had no idea why."

Jason's brow furrowed. "Right about what?"

She turned her face to look at him. "The walls, remember?" She continued, "I thought I had moved on…moving to a new place, going to nursing school, getting a new job. I really thought I had moved forward, but emotionally…I've been stuck. It hurts, but at the same time, it's relieving to finally talk about it," she paused, "with you."

Elizabeth watched his icy blues move over her features. Saw the glint off a single tear as it escaped the corner of his eye. She grimaced and reached up to wipe it away. Jason rarely cried and the sight of it tweaked her heart.

He licked his lips. "I'm glad you told me," he exhaled, "but I still need some time with this."

She nodded her head in silent understanding as her tears fell once more. Turning towards him again, she snaked her arms around his neck, wiggling into his and they held each other.

Elizabeth stirred. She swallowed as she nestled her head, she took a slow, deep breath, inhaling the scent around her, she flexed her fingers over the smooth surface of taut skin, firm muscles…

Her mind caught up with her surroundings. Finally assigning meaning to the sensations around her, she froze. Her eyes opened as the morning sunlight streamed into her bedroom windows, highlighting everything in a warm glow.

She was lying against Jason's chest. He was on his back, cradling her with one arm and she was nuzzled against his side, her head in the crook of his shoulder. His hand was tucked into the waistband of her jeans; she could feel the warmth of his fingers splayed low on her back. Elizabeth's leg was draped high over his and her hand had apparently burrowed itself under his shirt. His free arm was resting across his stomach, his hand cupping her elbow.

She noticed a throw blanket was draped over them and her bedroom lights were turned off. Her eyes drifted closed as her pulse quickened, being with him like this after so many years felt surreal. A small smile curled her lips ever so slightly with the knowledge that he had chosen to stay.

It suddenly struck her that her eyes felt like someone had poured sand into them. She desperately needed to rub them, but didn't want to. Elizabeth felt apprehensive about facing Jason in the light of day. Between learning of the baby last night and waking with him like this, a lot had happened between them in the past twelve hours. She was unsure how he would feel. They'd wake up…talk…have coffee…then have to go to work…

Work!

Elizabeth's eyes shot opened as she strained to see the clock from her position. No luck. She lifted her head, craning her neck to try to catch a glimpse of the digital numbers. All she could make out was the seven and she knew she was screwed. She was supposed to be at work at seven.

She looked at him. His face was soft, the lines of worry relaxed as he slept. Her cheeks tugged the corners of her mouth up. "Jason." His name came out raspy and she cleared her throat. "Jason," she said again gently.

His eyes fluttered open and she watched his face as it took a moment to register where he was. "Hey," he said, his voice sounding gravely as he removed his hand from her pants and started to straighten.

As he moved, Elizabeth realized her hand was still up his shirt and her thigh was laying intimately over him. She scurried to sit up. "I'm late for work," she said quickly, brushing her hair out of her face as she felt her cheeks flush.

"Huh? O – Okay," he stumbled before rubbing his hands over his face and turning to get off the bed.

She ground her hands against her eyes and immediately recognized how swollen they were. "I sorry I don't have time to make you coffee. I've got to call Epiphany and then jump in the shower. She's going to kill me. She's been so irritated by me lately and I can't blame her. I've been distracted," Elizabeth babbled as she rolled off the opposite side of the bed.

Jason stood, having put his boots on, and they stared at each other from opposite sides of the bed for a moment. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans as Elizabeth licked her lips.

"Well…" she said, grimacing slightly. "Let me walk you out," she rushed as she motioned towards her bedroom door.

They walked down the hall in silence. Elizabeth passed Jason as he grabbed his jacket and opened the door for him. Feeling anxious, she was chewing her bottom lip and tucked her hair behind her ear.

He lifted his gaze from the floor to meet hers. The look of uncertainty in his eyes was unexpected and she felt slightly taken aback. "So," she said, her voice flat although there was definitely a question behind it.

"We'll talk," he responded matter-of-factly.

Elizabeth fidgeted, averting her gaze, "Alright."

Jason turned and strode out of her apartment.