Author's Note:
Hi there girls! First of all sorry for the wait. Real Life has me busy, busy... But alas, I got the inspiration I needed to take a minute and post this next chapter after watching the amazing Liason scenes yesterday. Here it is what we've all been waiting for, Jason and Liz see each other for the first time since baby Lila was born. I hope I don't disappoint... Feedback is greatly appreciated.
4 Remembrance
Elizabeth stepped out of the ferry that lead her back from Windermere and walked over to the Elm St. Pier. She had less than an hour before she had to be at Mercy for her shift. She started to grab her cell phone to call Lucky and Cameron, but it slipped from her hands, falling on the docks.
"Damn it. This is the last thing you need Elizabeth, a broken phone."
She bent down and picked it up to inspect it. Thankfully it wasn't broken. She finished assembling the battery that fell off and standing up she found herself facing the old building, her old studio. The memories hit her like a bucket of cold water.
"If I had decided not to go for a walk that morning or even stop for a cup of coffee first, you'd probably be dead. I would've never spend that Christmas with you, or gotten a piece of red glass or my post card from Italy. Those things changed me. They made my life after you different from my life before."
She remembered telling him those words once, trying desperately to hold on to him, to the memories, to the feelings that started right there in her artist studio, once upon a magic winter.
With a sad smile she turned around to be on her way. But after taking a couple of steps she heard the familiar sound of his motorcycle boots on the planks of the pier. And a second later she saw him. His blond spiked hair, black leather jacket, low riding jeans… Strong legs, squared shoulders and deep blue eyes…
"Leaving doesn't change how you feel about a person, sometimes it makes the feelings even stronger."
At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But then he heard her gasp of surprise and realized she was real. Her hair was longer, lighter, her eyes bright with recognition and her jeans still hugging her in the right places…
How long has it been since he last saw her? Years… Five, five years since she had vanished from his life. He knew she was doing okay, he had asked one of his guys to look for her and when they found her, alive and well, leaving safe with her little boy he had left it at that. But seeing her now, he realized how much he missed her.
"Jason." A smile tug at her lips.
And then he saw her. Younger, her hair shorter, eyes glowing as she ran towards him… "Jason you are back."
Memories of another time… A lifetime ago.
Shaking away the memory, he walked closer. "Elizabeth. Hi."
They stood there, eyes locking on each other. Silence filling the air, souls connecting after a long time away from each other.
"How are you?" She asked tentatively.
"Good. And you, how are you?" He asked.
"Me? Oh I'm good… Great actually. Or at least I'll be once I get out of my last two exams. I won't like anything better than a whole day in bed, to sleep I mean. But that's just not going to happen… Sometimes I forget that I have a million things going on at once. But life it's definitely good. My son is healthy, I have a nice home, a steady job, air in my longs…" She trailed off, only to catch the slight teasing glint in his eyes.
"A lot of air in your lungs. In one breath you almost filled me in on the last 5 years."
She smiled and bit her lower lip. "I tend to go on when I'm around you remember."
"Never really could forget." He added softly.
Trying to catch her self, she began to fidget. "Sorry… I wasn't…"
"You don't have to be sorry Elizabeth."
"I don't want you sorry, and I don't want you hurt. Don't- don't you know what you mean to me?"
"Whoa… wait there a minute Liz…" She said under her breath closing her eyes and then opening them to find his worried gaze.
"What, what is it? Is something wrong?"
"Nop... nothing at all. Don't mind me. I was just…" She looked everywhere but at him.
"It's okay if you have to go..."
"I- I have time." She said looking at her watch and realizing, she really didn't.
"So…" They both said at the same time.
"Go ahead." He said tilting his head.
"It's okay… You were going to say something."
"You first."
Shaking her head she laughed. "This is so weird."
"What is?" He asked looking up at her, eyes twinkling.
"This… Us…"
"Don't you get it yet? Is not OK for you to just drop out of my life. I would miss you too much. The way you just let me be who I want to be, the way you listen, the way you care like no one ever has before."
Elizabeth walked over to the bench and sat down patting the empty space at her side. "Come on… If we are going to do this, we better do it right."
"As bossy as I remember." He said with a hint of a smile.
"And don't you forget it." She said in between laughs. "No, but seriously, everything is great on my side. I left because after my grandmother died I realized that if I wanted to give Cameron the life he deserved, the one I didn't have growing up, I had to walk away from the madness."
He agreed with his head and looked away. She found his eyes and her smile was sad. "I'm only sorry that that meant letting go of our friendship. I mean we were just starting to become friends again and I just took off..."
She couldn't really tell him the truth. That seeing him fall in love, forming a family and having a baby with someone else had a lot to do with her decision.
"We are always friends Elizabeth. It doesn't matter how long or how far apart."
"I know."
She turned straight ahead and watched the water… The big freighters ducked far down the pier, workers downloading crates on to the warehouses… The world was still going on forward around her, and at the same time standing still inside of her.
He was the first to break the silence. "You still kept in touch with Emily, Nickolas…"
Elizabeth nodded her head slowly. "At first I tried to keep away, I wanted to stand on my own two feet for a while. But Nick, Em and Lucky can be very persuasive when they want to be. As a matter of fact I was just getting back from Spoon Island. I was helping Em with the plans for Paige's birthday."
The smile in his lips at the mention of his niece was authentic and contagious. Elizabeth smiled at the thought of the almost three year old who wanted to become a fairy princess.
"You know she demands on being dressed as a Fairy Princess… Wings, tiara and fairy dust included." Elizabeth chuckled remembering the image the little girl made while they were fitting in her costume.
"I'm surprised she doesn't demand it's held at a real Enchanted Forest." Jason added.
"Oh, she did… And that's were I come in."
He looks at her with a raced brow. "You are trying to find an Enchanted Forest?"
She tilts her head to the side. "It's true what they say… Some things never change. You are always so literal. Of course I'm not trying to find an Enchanted Forest… I'm trying to build one."
Jason's eyes became big like saucers, confusion marring his face. Not really getting what she meant. She couldn't help but let out a big laugh… "You should see your face right now!"
"Yeah well you can laugh all you want. And I'm still not the one trying to build a Forest." He said running his hand on his forehead.
Stubbornly she answered. "Well you can doubt me all you want, but if I could paint the wind..."
Just like that he was back in time… Standing in front of her… Admiring her spirit, her innocence, her untainted beauty…
"I'm trying to paint the wind... Maybe not the wind exactly, but how the wind feels against my face whenever I'm at the back of your motorcycle. Like the world it's screaming by and nothing matters but the wind. And it's trying to carry me and take me away and I feel that if I let go I can almost fly. That is what I'm trying to get down on paper. Somehow that feeling, that one perfect second where I know exactly what the wind is…"
Coming out of his reverie, he realized she was still talking. Quickly he jumps in and interrupts her. "If you say you will build an Enchanted Forest, you will. If anyone can give Paige her magical dream birthday, it's you."
They looked at each other then, eyes warm, blood finally running through their veins and heart pounding inside their chest. That connection they always shared back full throttled as if they've never been apart.
The moment was broken with the sound of a cell phone ringing. Jason blinked and turned around to look for his phone. He realized then that it wasn't his phone the one to interrupt them this time.
"Hello." Elizabeth answered as she stood up from the bench. "Yes… I'm okay." She looked at her watch and realized she was running late to her shift. Closing her eyes she listened to her superior. "No, I'm actually on my way." She looked sideways towards Jason. "I got sidetracked… But I will be there in 20 minutes. Bye."
She quietly picks up her purse and turns to find Jason standing at her side.
"I have to go."
"Sorry I held you up. I should head back home too. But…"
What could he say to her? I should've been back home but seeing you here for the first time in years had made me realized what I've been missing all along?
"I didn't expect to see you again." She said sincerely. "But it was nice to talk to you, so don't be a stranger."
They looked at each other again, she felt nervous all of the sudden. As if she was the seventeen year old with a crush on her best friend's brother all over again. So to keep from making a fool she turned around and started to walk away.
Jason felt as if he should stop her, ask her to walk with her, do something to keep her from walking away again. And all of the sudden the words where out of his mouth… "Elizabeth, wait."
"You've always being honest with me... I don't want to lose that, I don't want to lose you. So that's my decision. I want you in my life."
Her words from so long ago came back to him making him feel younger, filled with hope and resolution. How could he still feel this connection to her after so long? He didn't know, and he wasn't about to question his motives now.
"Here, let me give you my card." He started to put his hands the inside pocket of his leather jacket, but her words stopped him.
"It's okay. I have your number." She said while walking towards him and looking for a pen inside her purse.
Grabbing his hand she wrote on his palm. "This is mine… Just in case."
When their eyes connected one last time her lips turned into a big smile and her eyes were shining bright. With one last wave of her hand she turned around and walked away leaving him speechless.
Walking out of the main warehouse he smiled at the man clocking in for the night rotation. Making his way towards the dock he took a moment to breath in the salty air of the water and bask in the sun that was slowly coming down tinting the sky pink and orange.
Leaning his elbows on the wood railing he closed his eyes and listened. The sounds of the waves, seagulls diving into the water looking for food, the faint beeping of the jeeps inside the building moving cargo… life going on everywhere.
Once upon a time he remember the bullets flying overhead, the smell of gunpowder in the air, terror building in the pit of his stomach and living inside his heart. The panic of losing what was most important to him, over and over again, rooted inside his soul.
Sonny Corinthos never thought his life could be like this. Peace and happiness were never something he even remotely thought he deserved. He smiled remembering the giggles of excitement of his children during the boat ride they shared together. They were all safe and happy. And he thanked God everyday for the second chance.
Opening his eyes he focused his dark chocolate eyes at the horizon and remembered the most important day of his life. The day he decided to leave the mob and become legal. His oldest children Michael and Kristina had been taken hostage and into Mexico by the Ruiz family. It was almost a week later when they could find them and it was seven days he lived in hell. He could've given everything he had, even his life, for his children to come back alive. And he did.
A family from Florida, the Melendez, helped him giving him resources and information they had been collecting over the years. Their rivalry with the Ruiz Family went back decades and they were just waiting on them to make a dumb move. The alliance between them gave the Melendez the reign of the Eastern Seaboard territory and Sonny and Jason the freedom of a clean slate. The Five Families made it difficult, but not impossible and a few months later it was real.
Now, four years later, his biggest fear was that his investments would earn enough profit for his empire to keep building to divide into four equal parts for his children.
They were all great kids, different personalities but still the same adventurous spirit. Michael, who wasn't his son by blood but by every fiber of his heart, was the oldest at 14. Already a young man, he was noble but firm in his decisions. Always stepping back to observe and protect his younger brothers and sisters. Kristina was the perfect mix of himself and Alexis. Thank God for that, because if she had taken over her mother's personality it would've been chaos. At 12, she was blossoming into a beautiful young lady, one of the most intelligent people he knew, even at her age. She was mature, but still had a little dreamer inside of her. Morgan was 8 years old and he was the adventurous one. Jumping into the water, running out into to the wilderness, climbing rocks… He loved to experiment and had a voracious appetite for learning.
And then there was his little Lila. The four year old… He smiled and could hear her little voice in his ear… "I'm almost five Uncle Sonic!" She was a big girl now. All sass and attitude, she sure took after her mother. The little rascal was a talker and could turn things around in her favor in a second. She sure had everyone in the family eating out of her hands, even his wife Carly.
Carly had made it very difficult for him and Sam at first. And he couldn't blame her, he did made a mistake sleeping with Sam but he couldn't regret it. Not after having the miracle of being a father to the little girl. They almost lost her when she was being brought into the world. But she didn't only make it, but managed to save Kristina's life with the stem cells of her umbilical cord. He actually became a father twice in the same week, if it wasn't for Kristina's illness, Alexis would've never told him the truth.
His marriage had suffered a lot over the years. But they had managed to work hard on it together, even going to a therapist three times a week. Five years later it was stronger than ever. But still his wife wasn't ready to admit to the world that Lila was his illegitimate daughter, she was at ease by the fact that everyone believed Lila was Jason's daughter.
And that's where the problems began. He wanted his daughter back, and pulling that ball in motion was going to cost a lot. Not only because claiming his daughter was going to wreck havoc in his marriage, but also because it was going to spin his best friend's life out of it's axis.