Chapter 14

Before he opened his eyes, he knew exactly where he was, God he could smell the stench of a hospital from a mile away and it never got any better. He could hear the beeping of the heart monitor machine next to his ear, annoying the hell out of him, the impossible thin hospital mattress was causing his back to spasm, the anorexic pillow they used was causing his neck to stiffen, his stomach was threatening war on him, he felt like a marching band was playing through his brain, his mouth was dry, he felt sick, but he pushed all those thoughts aside to focus on the small soft hand that was gripped within his own, the small hand that belonged to the woman he loved. "Sam…" He faintly called out as he fluttered his eyes opened. Then confusion hit him. "What happened?"

"Oh… Jason…" She held onto his hand tighter as she placed a soft kiss on his cheek. She let out a breath of relief at seeing his beautiful blue eyes again. "How are you feeling?" She noticed him trying to sit up but she quickly placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him back down. "No Jason, you can't get up… I'll explain everything but you need to stay still…. please…" She was thankful that he relented. He sat back and looked up at her, as if he was ready for her to tell him why he was here. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Scrunching up his face in, Jason tried to recall the entire day. "I just remember leaving your place then heading home." He tried to keep the sadness out of his eyes when he recalled their earlier argument, but he knew she saw it, he could see the sadness and guilt in her brown eyes. "I walked into the penthouse and….. that was about it. What happened?"

"You were drugged, you and Brenda…." Taking a deep breath, Sam explained the events that led them up to the hospital. She told him about finding them, not being able to hide the sadness in her tone, he reached for her hand and held on tight as she told him about what the doctors said and about talking to Sonny, she told him everything except…..

"Where did you go after you found us?"

She could hear the guilt in his tone, the sadness pulled at her heart but this was no way his fault. She closed her eyes, she knew this was coming and she wasn't going to lie to him, she wasn't going to hide anything. She tried to build that wall around her heart to prepare her for what was to come. This would end up going two ways: the first, Jason would accept what happened and they would be able to move on from it, or the second, he would hate her for turning to another man.

"No Sam. Don't do that." He knew what she was doing, she was shutting down on him and he wanted to stop it. He had no idea what was going through that little mind of hers but he knew she was trying to protect herself. Didn't she know that he would never do anything to intentionally hurt her? What it must have been like for her to see him and Brenda together? Jason knew, it probably ripped out her heart, he had felt that same way once.

Biting her lip, she blinked away her tears, and gave herself a little shake. God he knew her so well. "I finally understood how you felt… when you saw me and Ric together… I finally understood the pain that you went through, and a… a part of me always wondered why you never broke down that door and stopped us, you know, why if you finally wanted me back why you didn't fight for me… I never understood it, and then maybe if you had, I never would have slept with Ric and we never would've broken up…. I'm not blaming you or anything…. God Jason it was all my fault, I was such a mess….." She let out a deep sigh and sniffled while wiping her tears away before continuing with her thoughts. "But it's over now and we've gotten passed it and we're stronger than ever…. And I finally realized today what you must have felt like…. Like there was no hope, like it was all gone…. Feeling like you lost everything…. And I thought I had…. I thought that I lost you, that I lost it all… So I did the same thing you did… I left, I know this time it was different because I came to you after the fact, but I still left…. I didn't fight for us…"

"Sam…." Jason could feel her anguish and it was ripping at his heart. He remembered what it felt like, seeing her with Ric, he wanted to die, and she was right, he felt like he had lost everything.

"I went to see Aidan…." She whispered, the tears falling from her eyes, watching the overwhelming pain that settled on his face at her admission.

Jason felt like he was punched in the gut, all the air left out of his lungs, his heart stopped and his body ran cold. "Sam, oh baby please….."

"No, no Jason, I didn't sleep with him." She shook her head and reassured him. "I don't even know why I went to him…. I guess I just felt like I had no place to go… I figured that I would be able to talk to him, you know and that he would be objective about it…. I just didn't need my mom or Maxie or anyone else telling me that they were right about you, that you would hurt me again… I didn't want to hear it…. I just… I just didn't want to be alone…." She wiped her tears away and continued. "He kissed me… Aidan kissed me, and for a second, for one split second I wanted him to, I didn't want to feel pain, and I just wanted to hurt you… But I couldn't do it, I thought that you had betrayed me, but I couldn't go through with it, I loved you too much… so I pushed him away… I didn't want to be that person anymore, I didn't want to hurt you or myself…. I couldn't do it….. So I ran….. back to you."

"Oh Sam…" He was angry as hell but not at her, never at her, he knew what she was feeling and he thanked God that she didn't fall into another man's arms even though that bastard was clearly trying to take advantage of her. He reached out to hold her, to touch her hand but she stood up and backed away from him. His heart dropped as she pulled away from him, his own eyes growing misty, he never wanted to be away from her ever again.

"Wait…" She abruptly stood up and backed away from him, she needed to get this out. "I need to finish." When he nodded, only then did she continue as the tears still fell as she pulled herself together and held back her sobs. "I'm sorry…. I'm sorry for the fight we had… I'm sorry for yelling at you….. I'm sorry for accusing you about caring about other people's needs above ours, that was why I fell in love with you in the first place, you don't know how to be selfish, I love everything about you and I never wanted to change that, so I'm sorry…. I'm sorry for yelling about a secret your keeping that had nothing to do with us…. I'm sorry for kicking you out…. And…." By this time she was losing it, her voice was cracking from her sobs, the tears were nonstop, her posture defeated but she had to continue. "And… I'm sorry for running to another man…. I'm sorry…. I'm sorry for not believing in us….." She covered her mouth to muffle her cries and tried to step back when Jason reached for her.

"Don't…. don't Sam…." He tried to reach for her again. "Please baby, come here… please…" His voice cracked and his own tears fell at seeing her in pain, feeling it in his heart and soul. "I need you… please…" He felt her hand in his and he squeezed tight, needing that contact with her. He let out a breath of relief and pulled her to sit down on the bed next to him. "Sam… Look at me…" He lifted her face up with his hand, brushing her hair away, wanting to look into her brown eyes. "You have nothing to be sorry for baby… I do…." When she shook her head, he cradled her face in his hand, delighting in the feel of her soft skin. "I'm the one that needs to apologize, I'm the one that brought Brenda into our lives…. And Sam I swear it, I never meant to hurt you intentionally, I was just trying to end this threat so that I could get her out of our lives then spend the rest of mine making it up to you…. I love you Sam…. I fucking LOVE you! Nothing and no one will EVER come ahead of you, and I'm sorry for making you think that you are not a priority to me. You are EVERYTHING to me!" He leaned in, pulling her to him as he gave her a sweet kiss, lingering and enjoying the feel of her soft lips on his. Pulling back, he tried to control his rage, not at her but at Aidan. "I understand why you went to Aidan. I do. I'm not happy that he kissed you…" He couldn't help his hands clenching into tight fists. "But I'm glad, oh baby I'm so glad that you pushed him away and came back to me…." He kissed her again taking the opportunity to force her lips open for his tongue, he could feel their tears mixing together, tasting the saltiness, his heart soared that she was here with him. "Stay with me." He whispered to her as he pulled back and just as she was about to answer, there was a knock at the door, Sonny.

"Hey… I'm sorry if I'm interrupting, I can come back…" Sonny was turning around to leave but Sam's voice stopped him.

"Actually, Sonny you don't have to leave, I should get going…" She stood up, pulling away from Jason's arms as he held on tighter.

"No Sam, please stay…." Jason pleaded then looked around her to his friend. "Sonny can you come back…."

"Jason, I need to go…." She pulled her hand away, giving him a kiss and a reassuring smile. He was so cute when he was needy. She stood between the two men. "Besides I need to talk to Spinelli. I'll get him to check out the security cameras on the building, find out who went in and out, anything suspicious." She looked between the two, Sonny nodded in agreement, but Jason was a little hesitant but he had finally agreed.

"Good, good… Let me know if you find anything." Sonny told her.

"Of course, I'll call as soon as I find anything. I hope Brenda's ok." She was glad to see him nod, Brenda was ok and so was Jason. Walking over to Jason, she bent down and gave him another quick kiss, wanting to be in this moment forever. She was thankful that they were able to get everything out in the open. "I'll see you at the penthouse."

"Sooner than you think." He assured her, he wasn't about to stay a minute longer in the hospital. "I love you."

Smiling and knowing not to argue with him about his care, she nodded. "I love you too." She walked out with a last bright smile.

Watching her walk away from him was something Jason would never get used to, it was always hard. Was it so wrong to have her chained to his side? Looking up at Sonny, Jason could see his worry. "Is Brenda ok?"

"Yeah." Sonny nodded. "She's just shaken up. We need to find who did this? They touched her Jason, they fucking stripped her down. Sam thinks it's one of our enemies." Sonny couldn't hide his anger.

"And you don't? You think it's the Balkan? I think I'm going to have to agree with Sam, they already had a chance to get her, why set us up like that. All they wanted was her, why pose us for you to find us? At least one of our enemies would've set it up so that you would kill me for the betrayal. Unless….." Jason had another thought, and it disturbed him. "Unless it wasn't about you…"

"What do you mean?"

"What if this was about Sam? What if this whole thing was set up so that Sam would find us? Oh fuck Sonny, he got exactly what he wanted…. well almost…"

"What the hell are you talking about Jason? Who set this up?"

"Aidan. I bet it was him, I bet he set this up, I bet he set it up just like how it turned out. But it didn't work, did it?… he thought that he was going to get Sam but it didn't work…" Jason's monitors were signaling his agitation.

"Jason man, I think you need to calm down."

"She saw us, she saw us and then she ran to him. He kissed her! That BASTARD put his hands on her but she pushed him away. Bet he didn't count on that, did he? She chose me! She will always choose me!"

"Who?"

"AIDAN!"

"Ok, ok, listen you need to stop. I'm not sure what Robin's cousin has to do with any of this but you need to calm down. We need to figure how they got in the penthouse in the first place? The guards are crawling all over the lobby…"

Jason thought hard, Sonny was right, whether it was Aidan or the Balkan or some other enemy, they had to find out how they got into his home. It's virtually impenetrable, like a stone fortress, no one has ever broken in, no one except….. "Manny." He breathed out like fire.

"Manny? Jason, what does he have to do with this? Manny is dead."

"He was the only one that had ever broken in, remember? It was right after we came back from Hawaii, after I killed Javier, Manny was coming after Sam. The son of a bitch broke in through my balcony, in our bedroom." He clenched his fists white, so tight from the anger, then it came to him. "Oh shit…" He sprang up, ignoring the dizziness as he pulled the wiresroughly from his body. "I have to get out of here! What if he's still there? What if he's still in the penthouse, and Sam is there." He glad that he was still dressed, he grabbed his boots and was putting them on when Robin came in the room.

"Jason, you have to get back in bed…."

He quickly cut her off. "Robin, I need to get out of here, Sam could be in trouble and whether you like it or not, I'm leaving…" He grabbed his jacket and ran out the door with Sonny in tow giving the guards directions to get Brenda back to Greystone. Jason didn't care, he had only one destination in mind. Get to Sam.

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Sam walked into the unguarded penthouse, both Max and Milo were in the hospital guarding Brenda and Jason, but Spinelli should be here by now. "Spinelli!" She called as she set her laptop down on the coffee table just in time to see Spinelli running down the stairs.

"Fair Samantha! The Jackal is always pleased to see you but is wondering what happened to the rest of the occupants."

"A lot has happened since you went to Maxie's. I don't have time to explain just yet, but we need to get to work. Jason and Brenda were drugged here in the penthouse and we need to find out who has been here." She grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the desk where his laptop was sitting. "I need you to set this up to see the security cameras in the lobby. You need to keep an eye open for anything or anyone suspicious." She turned to the coffee table and grabbed her own, bringing it to him. On her way to the penthouse she thought about another way they could get in, the same way that Manny used. "I need you to set this one up so that it can get any cameras that would be facing the east side of the building, facing the bedroom balcony this high up."

"Stone Cold? The Divine One?" He whispered in horror. Surely not his master?

Normally Sam would get annoyed at the nick name that he had come up for Brenda, but she knew that Spinelli was just worried about his new friend and Mentor. "They're both fine, but we need to find the people who did this to them. Ok?"

"Right away." He started typing, first setting up one laptop then the other.

"So how does this thing work?" He set hers in front of her on the coffee table. Hers would be the one facing the balcony. She heard her phone ring, pulling it out she saw Aidan's number. Feeling the guilt creep back in, she ignored the call and placed her phone back in her pocket.

"You press the arrow button to fast forward and when you want it to play normal, you let the button go. Click on the picture when you want it to stop." He gave her the instructions in plain English, then went to sit at the desk to look at the cameras facing the lobby.

They had only been working for about ten minutes when Spinelli spoke up. The kid had the attention span of a gnat. "The Jackal needs some nourishment." He stood up and walked towards the kitchen. "Can the Jackal get Fair Samantha anything?"

"No thanks Spinelli." She wasn't hungry, she probably wouldn't have an appetite until the person who did this was caught. Hearing a knock on the door, Sam sighed and stood up to answer it, leaving the laptop to play on its own. "Aidan."

Aidan had been in his car, parked across the building, waiting for her to get here. He thought that she would've gone home but she had never shown up, and now she was back here, back to the place that she had once shared with Morgan. Aidan used every ounce of control he had to keep his anger buried down deep. "May I come in?"

Sam was hesitant at first, she didn't have the time to deal with this especially since they were trying to find the enemy, but she felt guilty for using him earlier. "Sure." She held the door open, waited for him to pass then closed it behind her. She gave a quick look towards the kitchen, Spinelli was still in there. She waited for him to turn around. "Look Aidan, I'm really sorry about earlier…"

"There's no need to apologize…"

"Yes there is, I never should've come to you." She could see the sadness in his eyes and it just made her feel worse. "I'm sorry."

"Samantha, you just found out that Morgan cheated on you, of course you'd be upset."

"But he didn't." She didn't want to tell him the whole story so she made it short. "Turns out that he was drugged…." She could see the skepticism in his face. "I know, believe me I know it sounds crazy but in my world it's anything but." She shrugged, offering up some humor.

"Is he alright?" He choked out, not really caring about the other man, but he felt he had to fake sympathy. "And Brenda?"

She was about to answer but stopped for a second. "How did you know it was Brenda?"

"I… I just assumed." He could see her wheels turning, she was thinking about his answer, so he quickly changed the subject. "I tried calling you."

She wasn't sure but something was off, something was bothering her, it just didn't feel right. Her eyes kept on going back down to the laptop sitting on the table then up at him again as she thought about his answers. "That's another thing Aidan…" She looked up at him. "I thought you said that you lost your phone when we were stuck in the tunnel." She looked down at the screen again, she felt bad for accusing him of dishonesty. "I guess you probably just found it or…" Her voice suddenly trailed off at the image on the screen. There, right in front of her eyes, she found out who the person that broke into the penthouse was. She couldn't hide the wide eyed look or the way she breathed out. "Oh my God…."

Aidan knew it, from the first second that her voice trailed off. Reaching behind him, he pulled out the vial of chloroform and a white rag. He took advantage of her distraction as he began dousing the rag with a generous amount of the drug. When she finally looked up at him with incredibly wide and hurt eyes, she started to scream "SPINEL….." But he was faster, as he pounced on her and covered her mouth and nose with the rag, pulling her body to him. "I'm sorry Samantha, please forgive me…." He held her tight as she struggled against him, no doubt holding her breath. Her legs flailed around him, knocking over the laptop that was on the table. He could here movement in the kitchen and knew he had to get out of there. Without a moment to lose, he picked Sam up in his arms and walked out the door.

Spinelli heard a commotion in the living room and went to investigate as soon as he was done making his meal. Returning to the other room with an orange soda in one hand and a sandwich in the other, he looked around for his partner in crime, noticing that she was missing. "Fair Samantha?" He looked around, she was just here, and he could've sworn that he heard her talking to someone. "Fair Samantha?" He walked in further just as Jason came barreling through the door with Sonny behind him.

Jason ran into his penthouse, he had a bad feeling the entire drive over, something wasn't right, he could feel it: Sam was in trouble. He was hoping to be wrong, hoping to see her sitting on the couch in his penthouse, to see her sweet smiling face, but when he ran in to hear Spinelli calling out for her, he wanted to roar out in rage. "Where's Sam?" He demanded as he looked around the room, the pillows were knocked in an untidy manner and the laptop was on the floor, it didn't look like much but it was enough. "WHERE THE HELL IS SAM?!"