Part III

Jason sat down on the cot on his cell, things were definitely not going as planned. He'd been in jail for four days, for a murder he didn't commit. He'd spend the rest of his life in prison if it meant that Carly got to hold onto her boys. He knew it wouldn't come to it though, because Carly would give him his alibi if he truly needed it. He wondered how differently things would've turned out that night if Carly hadn't been at Alcazar's that night when he'd shown up. It was supposed to be an easy job, go in, shoot Alcazar, have his clean up crew take care of the body and go home. But Carly had been there, so he couldn't do it, not then.

Jason turned around the moment Carly entered the bar. "What are you doing here?" Jason asked. "I thought you were going to stay home with the boys."

"They were already in bed and I knew you'd be here," Carly said. "It's not like you're where you're supposed to be." It should bother her that Jason was going to kill Lorenzo and the only reason he hadn't was because she was there, but it didn't. Lorenzo had flown under the radar for a while, but if he was a threat to Sonny or Jason, she wanted him dead. It didn't matter to her that she had been married to Lorenzo. Her loyalty was to Jason - first, last and always.

Jason laughed softly, "There's always tomorrow," Jason said. He still planned on killing Alcazar, just not tonight.

Carly reached for Jason's beer and took a drink, "So - " Carly paused. It had been about six weeks since they'd spent the night together in the Domincan Republic. She knew that neither of them regretted a single second about that night, but they hadn't mentioned it once. It's almost as if they were stuck in purgatory. She was still married to Sonny because he refused to sign the divorce papers. That night meant something to the both of them, but it didn't necessarily mean the start of something.

"Just say it Carly," Jason said.

Carly shook her head, "You know - for once, I'm going to be patient - " Jason laughed and Carly playfully slapped his arm. "I'm not going to push - " Carly paused and smiled, and lowered her voice, "About you know."

"I know," Jason said and brushed his thumb over Carly's jaw. He knew that Carly wanted more, they both did. Part of him just wanted to step forward with their life, but he couldn't do it. When Sonny found out he was going to do whatever he could to stop it. He wouldn't be able to, but there was one thing he could do and that was use Carly's boys against her and he wasn't going to let him do that.

Carly smiled, grateful that they were on the same page about this. She had been waiting for Jason for over ten years, she'd been waiting for him through eight marriages, six of them hers, and the final two his. She could wait a few more months. She was mature enough, confident enough and most of all secure enough to know that if she was patient, the payoff would be worth the wait. "Do you have twenty bucks?" Carly asked.

"You've got money," Jason said.

"That's not the point," Carly said. "Do you have money?"

"Yeah," Jason said.

Carly smiled and reached for Jason's hand, pulling him to the pool table. "If you win, you get to keep your twenty," Carly said and started racking the balls.

"We both know I'll win, so we can skip all this and I'll just dance with you," Jason said. He made it sound like it was a chore to dance with her, but it wasn't - and she knew it. He had always liked dancing with Carly, it gave him an excuse to hold her, especially when she wasn't his anymore.

Carly shook her head and tossed Jason a pool cue, "Nope, I'm playing to win," Carly said and picked up a pool cue.

"What's your prize?" Jason asked.

"You," Carly said.

"Carly - "

Carly walked over to Jason, setting her pool cue down, "Don't Carly me," Carly said. "We both know that we both want the same thing. You can't tell me you don't." Carly wrapped her arms around Jason's neck. "Six words, Jase. All you have to do is say six words."

Jason brushed a lock of hair behind Carly's ear, he knew he shouldn't - not here, not now. What happened in the Dominican Republic, that was just them. If they did this tonight, he wasn't so sure he'd be able to let her go in the morning. Carly smiled at him and lightly ran her fingers through his hair. Jason closed his eyes for a few seconds. To hell with what he should do, he wanted her and she wanted him - he was sick of denying it. "Do you want to go upstairs?" Jason asked. Carly nodded and he pulled back before she kissed him. Not that he didn't want her to kiss him, he knew they had to be more careful in public. Jake's was practically empty, no one would say a word if he didn't want them to. But he didn't want to give anyone the chance to say anything. "Good."

They were just supposed to have another night together, a night where it was just the two of them. And they had it. They'd spent the whole night together and went their separate ways in the morning. He stopped at the penthouse to shower and change and then went to the warehouse to try to talk Sonny into signing the divorce papers, when Taggert showed up and arrested him for Alcazar's murder.

"Hey - Angerboy," Taggert said as he approached Jason's cell. "You have a visitor. Your lawyer's here."

Jason glanced at the clock, his bail hearing wasn't for another three hours and Diane wasn't supposed to be here for two. "My lawyer?" Jason asked.

"If you don't want to see your lawyer, I'm perfectly content to let you stay in here," Taggert said. "After all, you might as well get used to it. You're going to be staring at these walls for a long time."

Jason glared at Taggert, "I want to see my lawyer," Jason said, standing up. He walked over to the edge of his cell and extended his wrists through the bars so Taggert could cuff him.

"Right this way Angerboy," Taggert said, letting Jason out of his cell and leading him to the interrogation room. If it were up to him, Morgan wouldn't have any visitors. Not Carly and certainly not his lawyer. But last time he tried to deny Morgan visitors, Mac had a fit. Something about Jason's civil liberties. As far as he was concerned, criminals didn't have any civil liberties, especially Morgan.

Jason rubbed his wrists as soon as Taggert uncuffed him. It was a short walk, but naturally Taggert made the cuffs as tight as possible. He sat down and looked up as soon as the door opened, but said nothing as Justus walked in the room.

"There better not be any marks on my client Detective," Justus said.

"Lieutenant," Taggert corrected.

"Regardless," Justus said. "If I find out that my client has unnecessarily suffered by your hand, I'll have your badge, Lieutenant." Justus sat down across from Jason, "Now, if you'll excuse us - we have a case to discuss."

Jason waited for Taggert to leave the room, "What are you doing here?" Jason asked. It had been years since he had spoken with Justus. The last time he heard from Justus, it was to let him know that he and Faith had moved to California.

"You're in jail and you didn't think to contact me?" Justus asked. He knew that he and Jason weren't as close as they once were, the battle lines had been drawn but the point was that they were family. Maybe that's all they had left, but if he could help Jason - he would.

"I have a lawyer, Diane Miller, she's more than capable of handling this," Jason said.

"If she were so capable, you wouldn't be in jail four days later," Justus said. "Besides, let her handle the case - let me distract Taggert. He gets flustered when he's threatened and he's more likely to make a mistake."

Jason nodded, "Okay," Jason said. While he didn't doubt Diane's capabilities, he also knew that Justus would be able to help. He wouldn't have come if he didn't think he could help. "Who called you?"

"Carly," Justus said. "She called me last night and sent out your jet."

"You don't like Carly," Jason said.

"I don't," Justus said. "But how I feel about Carly doesn't matter. She wants you out of here, so do I. I'm going to do whatever it takes to make that happen." He and Carly had never gotten along, he wasn't sure what Jason saw in Carly - but if Jason wanted Carly in his life, it was Jason's decision. Just like it was his decision to have Faith in his.


Brenda walked into the squad room and pointed to the nearest officer, "I'm here to see Jason Morgan," Brenda said.

"Visiting hours don't start for another hour," Cruz said and tried to figure out who the brunette was. She looked familiar but he couldn't place her. Visiting hours started in one hour and if there was one thing he knew about Jason Morgan, it was that Carly Corinthos was always the first and last person to see him - and she wasn't going to react well when she found out he was visiting with another woman.

"I'm his wife," Brenda said. Surely spouses had special privileges or something.

Cruz choked on his coffee, "You're married to Morgan?" Cruz asked.

Brenda smiled and walked over to Cruz, "Not currently," Brenda said. "Get Mac Scorpio - he'll give you the okay for me to see Jason." Brenda smiled again, "After I see him - maybe you and I could go out for lunch."

"You're sure your husband won't mind?" Cruz asked.

"Ex-husband," Johnny clarified and glared at Brenda. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm trying to see Jason," Brenda said. "You hate me so much that you couldn't even call to let me know he was in jail?" She knew Johnny was mad at her, she didn't blame him - but this wasn't about them, this was about Jason.

"It's being handled," Johnny said.

"Handled - right," Brenda said. "That's why when I spoke with Ned, he told me that Jason had been in jail for almost four days?"

"I'm going to get him out," Johnny said.

"You better or - " Brenda paused. Jason couldn't deal with being in jail - she knew that better than anyone. He would rather die than be locked up.

"Or what Brenda? You're going to destroy his life like you did mine?" Johnny asked.

"Can we not have this conversation right now?" Brenda asked.

"You almost got me killed," Johnny hissed. He ran into Brenda a few summers ago in Rome and they started seeing each other. What he didn't know was that she was using him to make her boyfriend jealous and he found out about it - when he woke up one day with a 9mm pressed against his head.

"I didn't know - " Brenda paused. She had no idea how jealous her boyfriend was, she wanted him to pay more attention to her. She didn't want him to hurt Johnny. "Johnny, I'm sorry, okay? You hate me, I get that, okay? But this isn't about me. I just want to see Jason and if he tells me to leave, I'll leave. But I need to see him and if there's anything I can do."

Johnny groaned, "Did you come straight from the airport?" Johnny asked.

"Yes," Brenda said.

"Visiting hours don't start for another hour, I'll take you to lunch," Johnny said. "Besides, Carly will be here soon to see Jason and I'm really not in the mood to referee a fight between the two of you."


"Come on, pick up," Leyla muttered. "Hey, call me - I need to speak to you - now. It's important. It's really, really important." Leyla snapped her phone shut and took a few seconds to compose herself as the elevator doors opened. If she got caught doing what she was about to do, she could get kicked out of the nursing program. She quickly walked over to the nurses' station and logged into a computer and started searching the database. Within moments she found exactly what she was looking for and she hit print. Leyla looked around and didn't see anyone nearby, so she did a few more searches. Each time, she found exactly what she was looking for. She grabbed her items off the printer and shoved them in her purse. Leyla turned around and came face to face with Epiphany. "Hi." Leyla wondered how much Epiphany saw.

"You've got twenty minutes if you want to observe that surgery," Epiphany said.

"Actually - I can't," Leyla said.

"Dr. Drake doesn't normally let student nurses observe his surgeries, he made an exception for you - I suggest you take it," Epiphany said.

"I know - but I have a family emergency. I just got the call - I need to take care of something. I was on my way up when I got the call, so I thought I'd stop by and apologize in person. Really - extend my apologies to Dr. Drake. Epiphany, I have to go," Leyla said. "I'm sorry."

"So you came up here - after you got this emergency call, printed off something - "

Leyla grabbed a sheet of paper from the inside of her purse, "Student nurse schedule," Leyla said. "I might have to switch with someone."

Epiphany looked at the paper in front of her - it was the student nurse schedule, "I expect to see you tomorrow at 7 am unless you're out of town," Epiphany said.

Leyla nodded, "Of course," Leyla said. "Now, if you'll excuse me - I really must go." Leyla offered a brief smile and sprinted into the open elevator. She hit the button for the ground floor and looked at the papers in her purse, "Paydirt."