Chapter 5

"Carly, I can-"

"No, don't care. I don't want to hear it."

Jason chased her out the door and down the hall to the elevator. "Please, just listen to me."

"What you said about loving me? Yeah, I can see that you're in love with me."

"She came over, and I didn't get to tell her about us."

"Jason, just leave me alone for a while, okay? Coming over here was a mistake." The elevator opened and she ran into it and closed it before he could say anything else.

He walked into his apartment to face Elizabeth.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Elizabeth, I love Carly," he said.

"Yeah, I know that. I don't know why because she's been a thorn in our side, to say the least, for years."

"No, you don't understand. I'm in love with Carly. I want to be with her.

"When did you decide this?"

"About a week ago."

Elizabeth felt rage forming inside her. "You told me that you loved me, but that we could never be together because it was unsafe. You said that I needed to protect my children. Guess what, Jason? Carly has two kids, too!"

"Yeah, and one of them is never going to move or speak again because of my life! I wasn't lying to you. I did want to be with you, but it is too dangerous. I told Carly the same thing… but we couldn't help it. We've been in love with each other for years, and it took her husband dying for us to figure it out."

"Did you ever really love me?"

"I did, and I'll always care about you, but the love I feel for Carly is more than I've ever felt before."

Elizabeth was angry, and she could feel herself about to cry. But she wasn't going to give Jason the satisfaction of seeing her cry. "I'm sorry that I've wasted so much time on you. Please don't contact me or my sons every again."

Jason sighed. He would deal with her later after her anger had worn off. Right now, he needed to find Carly and deal with her.

Carly sat in her living room, looking at a picture of her with Jax, Michael and Morgan from last Christmas. She had had it all… and she had lost it. She threw the picture against the wall and glass shattered in all directions.

"Damn you, Jason Morgan! Damn you!"

She went to pick up the glass that had shattered, but she pressed the glass into her hand. "Ouch," she said, as blood started to ooze from her hand. She was about to get a towel when she heard the door open.

"What have I told you about leaving the door unlocked?" She looked up as Jason walked in the door. She was not in the mood to do talk to him.

"I don't think you have a right to lecture me right now."

"When it comes to your safety, I always have the right." He saw her hand and the blood that was gushing out of it. "Jesus, Carly, what did you do?" He ran and got a few towels and put them in her hand.

"I threw a picture, and it broke. I tried to clean it up, and I ended up cutting myself with the glass."

He laughed.

"It's not funny."

"But this is typical Carly. Whenever you're upset, you always do something stupid, and you usually end up hurting yourself."

"Oh, so now I'm stupid. Thanks. After lying to me, I don't think you should be insulting me."

"First of all, I didn't say you are stupid. I said the things that you do are sometimes stupid. Second, I did not lie to you."

"Yes, you did. You said that you were in love with me. Clearly, you are not."

"I did not lie to you because I am in love with you."

"You were kissing Elizabeth! How can you be in love with me when you're still in love with her?"

"Come here," he helped her off the ground and sat down on the couch with her. "I love you. That's what I told Elizabeth. And that's what I would have told you had you not freaked out and ran away."

"You love me? Not Elizabeth?"

"Yes, that's what I said. God, you are the most stubborn woman I've ever met!"

"Yeah, but you knew that already. I'm sorry, but I just felt like I was losing someone else I loved when I saw you kissing Elizabeth."

"You didn't. I'm right here."

"And you love me?"

"Yes, I love you!" he laughed. "How many times do I have to tell you that before you believe me?"

"Oh, I believe you. I just wanted to hear it again."

"Get used to it. I'm going to be saying it more. I love you, I love you, I love you."

"Good because I love you."

He cupped her face in her face in his hands and kissed her. And he kissed her again. It took everything he had to pull away from her.

"Jase," she said.

"Yeah?"

"I think I might have loved you forever."

He laughed. "What?" she said.

"That might have been the corniest thing I've ever heard. Please tell me you don't expect me to say stuff like that."

"Of course not. It might hurt your 'Stone Cold' image."

"Thank you. Let me see your hand." He slowly pulled the towel away from her hand. The bleeding had stopped. "It looks better. Let me get you a band-aid."

"Wait. Before you go, I should tell you what we're doing later."

"You've made plans?"

"Yes. Morgan and I are decorating for Christmas tonight and you get to help."

"Carly, Thanksgiving's not even until next week."

"I know, but I love Christmas, and so does Morgan. And you know that the holidays are a busy time for the hotel, and I'm free now. So we're doing it tonight and you get to help. No excuses. Oh, and you can invite Spinelli over, too."

"I love how you just include me in your plans without asking me."

"Please. What else would you be doing tonight? Watching tv and eating takeout? You know you'd much rather be doing this."

That night, Carly, Jason, Morgan, Maxie, Spinelli, and Lulu all decorated Carly's house for Christmas. When Jason called to invite Spinelli, he asked if he could bring the "blonde ones" because apparently Maxie and Lulu were friends.

The house was all decorated, and they were almost done with the tree. Carly opened the last box of ornaments but before anyone could get any out, she gasped.

"What?" Lulu asked.

"These are all really old ornaments."

"Wow, these are old." He pulled out a few ornaments. "These are from…" he paused. "These are from Michael's first Christmas."

Carly pulled out more, including a reindeer that Michael had made when he was little, and another that had Michael's name on it, which was barely legible because he had written it when he was so small. The last one that she pulled out was a picture ornament- the picture was of Carly, Jason, Michael, and baby Morgan.

"I love this picture," she said. She hadn't realized it, but she had started to cry. Jason put his hand in hers. "I love it, too." He was fighting back tears, too.

"Mommy, are you okay?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said, trying to smile. "How about you all finish decorating the tree. I'm going to go upstairs for a minute."

"Hey, will you keep an eye on him while I go upstairs to check on Carly?" Jason asked.

"Yeah," Lulu said, "is she going to be okay?"

"This Christmas is going to be hard for her. She misses Michael so much."

He walked into her bedroom and saw her holding the ornaments. "Hey," he said.

She wiped tears away from her face. "I'm sorry," she said.

He said down next to her and put his arm around her. "You don't have to apologize for anything."

"I was doing okay until I saw the ornaments. I was trying to be happy for Morgan…. I just want my son back."

"I know, baby. We all do."

"Oh, Jase, I know this is hard for you, too. Michael was just as much your son as he was mine. How are you?"

"Having you helps." He looked at the ornaments in Carly's hands. "Do you remember when he made this reindeer? He made the biggest mess ever!"

She smiled. "Yeah, I do. I never thought we would get the glitter up."

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too." She kissed him.

"You know," he said, "we could just stay up here. They're watching Morgan downstairs."

"No, we need to go back down. Nothing's going to stop me from missing Michael, but being with everyone helps. And I really do want Morgan to have a good Christmas."

"I think he will. But how about tomorrow I arrange for us to have the day all to ourselves? We can just stay here, and I can hold you all day long."

"That sounds fabulous." She kissed him again. "Thank you for being here. You always make me feel better."

"You're welcome." He kissed her.

"Okay, we have to go back downstairs."

"I wish we could stay up here. I like it just being us."

"Tomorrow," she said. "Tomorrow we can do whatever we want, remember?" she said, smiling.

He smiled, too. "Yeah." He couldn't wait. He just wanted to hold her in his arms because they could just forget about everything. They could forget about all the pain and sadness, if only for a little while, because they were so in love with each other.