Ch. 5
Spinelli woke up to the smell of fresh pancakes and eggs cooking on the hot kitchen stove on a cloudy and rainy Monday morning. He and Georgie had stayed the night at Maxie and Lulu's two bedroom apartment. He and the two sisters along with Lulu had slept in the living room, watching romantic comedies all night to lighten the mood over Emily. It helped for they laughed, smiled, and jokes about the past. That all faded when Lulu brought up Nikolas and Emily's wedding without thinking. The mere mention of her name on such a beautiful occasion brought on pain and heartache. Dead silence filled the room, everyone feeling somewhat guilty for enjoying their selves, even if the enjoyment was only temporary. The silence faded, but the remorse remained and it was then decided that it was time to go to sleep, everyone spreading out on the living room floor.
Spinelli yawned as he looked into the kitchen to find Georgie placing plates all around the kitchen table.
Georgie looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Look who's finally up. Good morning sleepyhead."
Spinelli sat down at the table, scratching his already messy brown hair. "Greetings, Wise Georgie."
Georgie took a seat next to him. "Hope you like my cooking."
Maxie strolled into the kitchen with Matt Drake, along with Lulu and Dante following suit. Matt was a talented doctor at General Hospital, who next to his older brother Patrick, was considered one of the best of the best. He had met Maxie through Patrick's wife, Robin who just so happened to be Maxie's cousin. Since then, Matt has taken a liking to Maxie and after much resistance, Maxie had finally caved, the two having gone on a few dates.
Maxie sat across from Spinelli, Matt seated on her one side, Lulu on the other with Dante sitting in-between Lulu and Georgie. It was like one big happy family….except for the fact that Spinelli and Matt hated each other's guts and Spinelli could barely stand Dante…Yup…One big, dysfunctional family was more like it.
"Way to go, Georgie. Cooking breakfast? What's the special occasion?" Lulu asked as she poured orange juice into her glass.
Georgie lightly smiled. "Well you know, everyone's been so heartbroken over Emily so I just wanted to get everyone together and do something nice. Even if it is something as simple as cooking breakfast."
Matt took a bite out of his bacon. "I take it you're the better cook in the family?" he smiled sarcastically at Maxie who glared at him in return.
"Actually Maxie is a way better cook than me, believe it or not." Georgie admitted.
"Actually I refused to believe it." Dante chipped in.
Maxie rolled her eyes. "I cook."
"Doubt it, Maxie." Lulu responded. "I mean ever since we moved in together, I have yet to see you touch the oven. I'm beginning to think the only thing you know how to operate in the kitchen is the microwave."
"Yeah, I don't cook but that doesn't mean I can't cook." Maxie defended. "I mean I cooked fore Spinelli that one time he accidentally shot his shesdygdb hn jhjhgfoot because he couldn't figure out how to work a gun." Matt and Dante could barely contain their laughter.
"So let me get this straight…" Matt began. "You're a licensed P.I, but you don't know how to work a gun?"
"Well The Jackal…" Spinelli began to explain before Maxie cut him off.
"Don't be silly, Matt. Everyone knows Sam goes on all the missions while Spinelli does all of the computer work."
Matt and Dante continued to laugh. Spinelli knew he was obviously never going to hear the end of this. Matt was a doctor and Dante, a cop. Those two careers alone were enough to make the girls swoon. Maxie and Lulu were eating out the palm of their hands and Spinelli couldn't help but be envious and embarrassed at the same time. Envious that Matt had Maxie falling hard and embarrassed that Maxie made him look like a wimp that hid behind his computer while Sam handled all the hard labor.
"Stop laughing, you guys." Lulu warned. She sympathized with Spinelli. "Spinelli is just as much of a badass PI as Sam, Dante."
Dante didn't say anything. He knew Lulu was obviously going to give him hell for laughing at her friend once they were alone…and he was dreading it.
Matt on the other hand continued on with the teasing antics. "So are you and Sam looking into the PC killings?"
Spinelli nodded. "The Fair Samantha and I have been working endless days and nights to find new evidence leading to the capture of the PCK, but to no avail, I'm afraid."
Dante leaned forward on the table. "Maybe that's why you should let the police handle it. You and Sam—"
"Especially you." Matt interrupted, pointing towards Spinelli.
Dante ignored Matt's interruption and continued. "Are only going to get in the way of this investigation."
"I'm sorry, but who jumped off the roof to warn the cops about psycho Jerry Jacks and his army of psychotic minions?" Maxie blurted out. "Not the PCPD, that's for sure, but Sam."
Matt shrugged. He already knew the details on the Metro Court Hostage crisis. Just like he knew Sam was largely responsible for several lives being saved in the Metro Court explosion. But where Spinelli fit into that scenario he had no clue. "I wasn't around back then, but I know all about Sam playing hero. My point is where was Spinelli during the hostage crisis?" He looked at Spinelli. "Let me guess, you were probably on your laptop playing computer games?"
Spinelli tried to speak up, but Maxie beat him to the punch yet again, taking the liberty of defending Spinelli herself. "Spinelli was inside the Metro Court as well, you idiot. There wasn't much he could do with armed gunman lurking around."
"And yet Sam managed to swipe a ski mask from one of those armed gunman lurking around and broke out of the Metro Court Hotel without breaking a sweat." Dante hinted. "I'm sorry, but I kind of have to agree with Matt here. Out of Spinelli and Sam, Sam seems to be the only one who knows her stuff and has the goods to back it up."
"I can't believe you guys are debating this." Georgie muttered with a sigh. Her attempt at a nice, pleasant breakfast with friends and family wasn't going as planned. Not by a long shot. She looked over to Spinelli and could see him tensing up. He was clearly getting upset. She could tell just by looking at his body language.
"I can't either, Georgie." Maxie agreed. "So what if Sam prefers doing the physical stuff like beating up the bad guys and throwing herself into dangerous situations. She's a danger junkie. She admits it. Spinelli on the other hand isn't like that. While Sam would rather break into a bank or something, Spinelli would much rather stay behind the scenes and work on his laptop."
"Maxie." Georgie glared at her older sister. She knew Maxie's wording came out wrong, but the point was she made Spinelli sound like the biggest little wimp on the planet.
Matt nearly fell out of his chair from laughing so hard, satisfied that his point was proven. That Spinelli hid behind enemy lines while Sam crossed that boundary. Dante put his hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter so Lulu wouldn't rip him a new one. That didn't stop Lulu from taking notice and kicking him under the table. Dante winced in pain.
Spinelli, embarrassed by the way Maxie unintentionally described him as a loser, hurried out the kitchen.
Maxie stopped telling Matt to shut up in order to look her at her sister. "Oh calm down, Georgie. I didn't mean it like that."
"Well I know that, but Spinelli obviously didn't. He just left." Georgie told her.
Maxie rolled her eyes as she got out her seat and hurried after Spinelli who was grabbing his laptop case from off the living room table. "Spinelli, wait"
Spinelli, who reached the front door, had stopped dead in his tracks, slowly turning around to face Maxie.
Maxie inched closer to him; a great amount of distance between them remained. "I didn't mean it like that, okay. What I meant back there was you handle all of the important technical stuff while Sam…"
"Performs acts of bravery in the brink of danger?" I heard you as well everyone else loud and unfortunately clear." Spinelli answered bitterly.
"Good. Then you have no reason to be upset. Now let's go back into the kitchen and eat." Maxie started to head back but stopped when she realized Spinelli wasn't trailing behind her. "Okay, what's wrong?"
Spinelli hesitated to answer, but finally confessed his thoughts. "Where shall The Jackal begin? How am I supposed to express my feelings on how everyone thinks of me as less of a man compared to egotistical doctor or the dutiful cop? Or the inferior half to the McCall and Jackal duo?'
"Spinelli," Lulu began as she and Georgie entered the room. "Dante and Matt were being idiots. I admit that, but the rest of us don't think that way."
"If that is true, which I highly doubt, then tell me, Fair Lulu, have you undoubtedly forgotten that I broke into the Metro Court to rescue you in your time of dire distress and need during the hostage crisis?"
"Of course I remember, Spinelli." Lulu replied tentatively. The truth of the matter was she did in fact forget that the only reason Spinelli was there in the first place was because he broke in to save her. She tried to conceal the lie, but the crushed look on Spinelli's face told her that the jig was up. "Spinelli, it was a long time ago. My memory is foggy."
"Perhaps so, but the hesitation in your voice spoke truth." With that, Spinelli hurried out the door without looking back, leaving the three girls speechless. He was going to prove to everyone that he wasn't just the Robin to Sam's batman. Or he wasn't just a boy competing with Dante, Matt, and Johnny's manhood. He was a MAN! And he didn't want to be known as only the KING OF CYBERSPACE, but also as THE PI to go to when people needed help.
If he was going to be taken seriously as a man, potential boyfriend material, and as a PI, he had to do something heroic, something our of his comfort zone. Something no one expect him to do alone and cracking the PC Killings mystery on his own seemed like the right way to do it. In order to do that, he had to steer Sam in the opposite direction. He wasn't going to steal all of the glory, but he was going to hand Sam a simple task in a completely different spot safe and unrelated to the killings so she would stay clear out of trouble. This way Spinelli would investigate the crime scene all his own and would gain enough evidence to find the bad guy so Sam wouldn't be too pissed with him for tricking her and Maxie would fall head over in heels in love with him. Spinelli smiled deviously thinking his mischievous thoughts to himself because his plan wasn't just genius… It was PERFECT.
Xoxoxoxoxo
Sam zipped her remaining black leather over-the-knee high heeled boots over her dark blue skinny jeans. Leave it to her to sport heels during an investigation. Spinelli had texted her earlier this morning explaining that he was stuck at the office and would meet with her later. Also in the text was the instruction to spy on Chris Isaacs, the janitor who found Emily's body. Chris lived on his live-aboard boat off the pier so Sam had a clue where to go. She didn't question Spinelli's lead, for he normally gave info on potential suspects. In fact, she damn near jumped at the chance to investigate on her own for a little bit. No offense to Spinelli, because though she loved working with him, she loved even more working alone sometimes.
She grabbed her hand-gun from her safe and looped it in her belt's right holster. In her left holster, her cell phone was fully charged and ready to snap pictures of anything valued as evidence. She was ready to move.
After a fifteen minute drive, Sam parked her silver Lexus on the curb, two blocks away from the pier so she could take a look around the area. Not to mention she didn't want Chris or whoever lurking around to link her with the car. They could memorize her license plate and would be knocking on her apartment door in a matter of hours. Better safe than sorry, she thought to herself.
Arriving on the scene, Sam slowly walked onto the main deck, eyeing her surroundings within each step as a way to make sure she wouldn't get surprised attacked or find anything out of the ordinary. The coast was clear. Gaining a bit of nostalgia as she tiptoed around the main deck, Sam's heart began to ache a little at the thought of her life on her own boat once upon a time. As a con on the run, she lived most of her adult life on her own live-aboard boat. It was the only stable thing she could call a home at the time. She felt alive on that boat. It was her escape. She sold it when she was finally able to call Port Charles home. Still, every now and then the brunette haired beauty missed steering that boat and all the memories it held. She sighed, figuring out that taking a trip down memory lane was getting her nowhere.
She spotted the stairs that led downward to the upper deck which was where the master cabins were located. The lower deck which was the floor directly under the upper deck held the engine room, crew quarters, as well as the double bed cabins. Sam was familiar with the particular layout of the boat which would definitely make it easier to find her way around.
Her instincts were on full alert as she made her way down the upper deck. The first room to check was the main master cabin. It made sense since she would doubt that anyone sane enough would pass up the opportunity to make the best cabin room available their bedroom. When she reached the door leading to the master bedroom, she twisted the doorknob. As she suspected, the door was locked. It was no problem a former thief couldn't solve, of course. She took the hair clip out of her already loosely worn bun, her hair falling around her face as she inserted the clip into the door lock. It wasn't much of a struggle because the door opened almost immediately. She looked back behind her to make sure the coast was clear. It was empty. No sign of Chris in sight since she came on his boat. She wondered where he was.
She gently closed his door and took out her phone, setting it on camera mode to take pictures whenever necessary. The first thing she made her way to was the desk in the corner of the faded gray painted room. On the desk were papers stacked on papers. She rummaged through them without a moment's hesitation. Tax papers, blueprints of the boat, bills, bills, bills, and a newspaper article on the death of Emily. She ran to his king sized bed and ducked down on the floor to search underneath. Nothing but a metal box was underneath. Pulling it out and placing it on the bed, she swiftly unlocked it, opening it to find more papers. She sighed. If it was more bills, she was going to kill herself. One by one, she rummaged through the pages. Nothing but letters and old photos and a newspaper article on a teen getting declared innocent of rape charges. She did a double take at the article, reading through it from beginning to end.
19 year old, college dropout Christopher Regis was quite the man of the news after being arrested on rape charges filed by 18 year old Anya Lewis who claimed he got her drunk and raped her in the upstairs bedroom at a mutual friend's house during a party. Christopher denied the allegations and a court battle took place. After a year's worth of debate regarding his innocence, Christopher was declared not guilty due to lack of evidence.
Sam stopped reading the article. She didn't know if she was sick to her stomach because she was in the bedroom of a maybe rapist or if she was sick to her stomach because if he did actually rape this girl, he got away with it. She shivered at the thought, putting the metal box back underneath the bed. As she got up, she could hear footsteps drawing near and she literally went into freeze mode. Ducking under the bed, the realization had hit her; she had left the newspaper article on top of the bed. It was too late to reach atop and grab it because Chris Isaacs opened the door and was in his room instantly.
Chris threw his keys on his bed, groaning as he went to his desk, turning on his laptop to check his email. Sam poked her head out from under the bed and looked at Chris who was still reading through his emails. Taking the opportunity to grab the article from off the bed while his back was turned, she patted the bed down until she could find it. Just as her hand landed on it, Chris stood up and so she ducked back under the bed, the article still in the same spot.
Chris turned around and spotted the newspaper article, his eyebrow furrowing. "What the hell is that doing out?" he asked himself, out loud. He walked over to his bed and picked it up, looking around suspiciously. He had a feeling someone was in his room and he wanted to know who. He opened his door, leaving his room altogether.
After a few seconds of patiently waiting to see if the coast was clear, Sam finally crawled from underneath the bed. She knew Chris had realized someone was in his room. She had no clue if he left his boat or if he was even coming back to his room at all, but she wasn't going to stick around to find out. She made a dash for the door, opening it, running right into Chris who standing right in front of her like he was expecting her all of this time.
Chris caught onto her, his grip tight on her arms. "Hey there, beautiful." He pushing her back to his room. "Why are you leaving so soon?"
"Let me go!" Sam shouted. She tried to free herself from his grip, but it was no use. He was stronger.
"Why would I do that?" he asked, sarcastically, shoving her onto the floor. "I mean you obviously went through a lot of trouble to sneak onto my boat and go through my stuff like you own the place. Why the hell are you here?"
Sam ignored his question and decided to ask one of her own. "Are you going to call the cops?"
He chuckled. "Hate to burst your bubble, gorgeous, but I don't think you're in any position to ask questions."
Sam rolled her eyes, sitting up straight. "Yeah, well I'm asking. What are you gonna do with me?"
He knelt down beside her. "I don't like cops. No point in involving them in this."
"So you're letting me go then?"
Chris pushed Sam's hair behind her right ear with his hand, a cold shiver running through Sam's body. "I didn't say that either." Sam slapped his hand away. Chris stood up, smirking at Sam. He took the newspaper article out of his pocket, waving it around like it was some kind of flag. "I'm assuming you read this?"
"I'm assuming you did it." Sam said smartly. He shrugged, leaning against his desk. "Is that your way of admitting it?" She tried to play it coyly, reaching for her gun without being noticed. Ofcourse, it wasn't even in her belt's holster. . Just her luck.
"It's my way of telling you that you you'll never find out…" he told her. Before Sam could respond with a smartass comment, Chris continued speaking. "There's two sides to every story, gorgeous. Remember that. I mean what if I told you she was practically asking for it."
"No girl asks to get raped, you jackass."
"Rape is such a strong word. I prefer to call it a game of cat and mouse."
"You're sick."
"And you're stupid for letting me get away with taking your gun," he held up her gun. Sam was shocked he was able to pull off taking it without her even noticing.
"Are you planning on shooting me with that?" she asked.
Chris rolled his eyes, an annoyed expression on his face. "You also ask too many questions and I find you really stupid for breaking into someone's home without doing a little research." He placed her gun down on his desk.
"Trust me, I did my research." Sam said bitterly. "And rapist didn't come up on the report card." She was still on the floor, but she managed to back herself up against the wall.
"That's because my name was changed after I got cleared."
Sam remained silent so he took that as his chance to continue. "What if I said I was in college? I was 19. I was drunk. She was drunk. She teased me, and we had fun. What's done is done, my name was cleared, I dropped out of school and came to Port Charles for a fresh start. Been working at the Metro Court for the past three years now... Everything was fine and forgotten until I found that body in the alley. Now I'm being interviewed by cops and my face is being plastered on the news like I'm a criminal."
"I'm sorry, but I could have sworn rapist was under the category, criminal."
"Only if you get caught." He winked. This guy was sick. "Which by the way, I think I'm gonna have a little fun with you for a little while."
Sam knew where he was getting at. Obviously this dude had issues and he wanted to play cat and mouse with her next. There was no way she was gonna take his shit lying down. "You're not gonna touch me!" Sam yelled. A wave of adrenaline shot through her like a bolt of lightning and she jumped up and practically bolted towards the door. Chris caught up with her before she made her escape and pulled her back towards the bed. She wasn't going down without a fight. She punched him hard in the face before kicking him where every man was most vulnerable.
Chris groaned in pain, but he didn't let go of Sam. Instead he smacked her so hard, she fell onto the bed. "You bitch!"
"Oww!" Sam covered her now bruised cheek with her hand.
Chris pulled her towards him, by the legs, attempting to pull down her pants. Sam continued kicking and screaming, doing whatever necessary to make the creep keep his slimy hands off of her. Nothing she did was working.
"Let go!"
"Shut up, bitch!" he yelled practically ripping her black tightly fitted shirt open.
Sam closed her eyes. She did everything she could but it wasn't going to be enough. This sick freak was going to win.
As the door burst open at that moment, Chris took his eyes of Sam and onto Jason Morgan. Before Chris could even utter a word, Sam took this opportunity to strike, kicking Chris in the crotch once again, before punching him in the face two more times, knocking off his glasses. Chris stumbled back before Jason pinned him against the wall, his gun aimed at Chris's head. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you?"
"We were just fooling around." Chris muttered under his breath.
Sam grabbed her gun off his desk and aimed it at Chris. "That's what you call it these days?"
"I wasn't gonna touch her, I swear."
Jason disregarded Chris promise, instead looking back at Sam. "You're okay?" he asked.
Sam nodded, zipping up her leather jacket to cover her almost exposed boobs. She regained her composure, aiming the gun back at Chris. "Yeah."
"Okay, then. Get out of here!" Jason ordered to her.
"Uh, not until I get the answers I was looking for. Like for instance, why exactly are you here?"
Jason didn't say anything. She heard he was a man of silence. But she literally didn't realize it was the truth until now.
Sam sighed, frustrated that Jason wasn't answering her question. "Let me guess, then. You're here looking for answer's on your sister's murder and you'd thought 'hey, let me start here since this guy was the one to find her body?' Am I right or am I wrong?"
"That's what this is about?" Chris blurted out. "Look man, I'll tell you what I told the cops. Which is I don't know how that Emily girl got killed. I was taking out the trash and found her body. That's it. I swear."
Jason turned his attention back to Chris, not saying a word as Chris continued to ramble on, analyzing him word for word, studying his expressions. Finally the enforcer weakened his grip on the custodian.
"Don't tell me you believe this creep?" Sam asked.
"I don't think he's lying."
"Right, because he has a fine record of telling the truth." She said sarcastically. "The guy's a rapist and if you didn't get here when you did, I probably would have been his next victim."
"Yeah, well he's not lying about this, trust me."
Sam scoffed. She talked to this guy once at Emily's funeral and all of a sudden he was asking her to trust him. He was asking for too much, here. "Give me one good reason why I should?"
"Because Emily's my sister. You don't think I wanna catch this guy more than you do?"
Sam lowered her gun. That was a good enough answer for her. She shrugged. "What are we doing with this guy?"
"Don't worry about it." Jason told her, flat.
"Look, if you want me to go along with this, I'm expecting a bit more cooperation here. I don't take orders, not even from Sonny's mob enforcer. So you're stuck with me for now."
Jason shook his head, lowering his gun with one hand while his other hand continued to pin Chris against the wall. "I'm giving you one hour to pack your bags and get out of Port Charles. If I find out you didn't leave, I'll find you myself. And I will find you, you got that?"
Chris nodded frantically. "Y-yeah. I got that."
Jason finally let go of him and turned to look at Sam. "Let's go."
Sam nodded and headed out the door, Jason following suit. After minutes of awkward silence, they finally reached the pier. Sam, who was ahead of Jason, stopped walking rather abruptly. She was about to thank him for saving her, but her phone went off. She answered it, holding the phone up to her ear. "Hello…wait, Spinelli….Okay, where are you? Ok, I'm on my way." She hung up just as fast as she had answered the phone and then looked at Jason. "I have to go."
He nodded, not saying a word and then she ran off, Jason looking after her once again.
Author Note: Sorry I haven't updated this story in forever you guys. My life has been one roller coaster ride after another and I kind of lost any passion I had for writing this because I've been going through a lot. Luckily I got my spirit back and I'm ready to continue this fanfic. That was chapter 5 and I hope you really liked it because I totally am not too sure if I liked the direction I was going with this chapter. Lol. Please give me your honest opinion and I promise I will get started on chapter 6 right away.
So what did u think of the chapter? Did the Jason saving sam thing seem realistic? It was the only way I could think of for Jason to show up on the boat was for him to dig into Emily's murder as well. :) I'm trying to make the JaSam relationship take it's time because I don't want to rush things so I hope you guys are patient with me :)
Next chapter: Sam goes to save Spinelli and she gets help from Jason. Lucky's not too pleased to find Jason at Sam's place. :)
_Kourtney