PART 18
- General Hospital - ICU -
Alan Quartermain awoke in the middle of the night. It took him a moment for his eyes to adjust to the low light of the room, but once they did it was easy for him to see the silhouette of the man standing just inside the doorway. The hesitant stance, the broad expanse of muscle, and the stern expression on his face made him easy to identify. "Jason... is something wrong?"
"I'm sorry to wake you."
Alan smiled at the concern in his voice. "No... no... it's fine... what happened?"
Jason barely moved. Didn't look up at all. "I went to Elizabeth's memorial."
"I know," he nodded in sympathy, "Emily stopped by and told us about it. It's a beautiful way to remember her, son."
"Cameron was there with Audry."
Again, Alan's smile was soft... melacholy, even though Jason didn't look at him. "He's so much like Elizabeth."
"Cameron said something to me before he went home with Audry." Jason took in a breath and pressed it out of his lungs as he moved forward, sitting on the edge of Alan's bed. He felt odd talking to Alan at all, but to reveal something this... personal. "He said Elizabeth wasn't dead... that he still... that I could feel her if I tried."
There was a long pause between them as Alan considered his words. "And do you... feel her, son?"
Jason's hand pressed tight over his heart even as his head shook slowly from side to side. He looked up at Alan with confusion plainly written in his features. "I... I don't know," he pressed his lips tightly together, "I feel...something... but I don't... the Metro Court..."
Alan reached out a hand and touched Jason on the shoulder. "You've made a life for yourself on your instincts alone, Jason... you've lived because there's something inside you that had guided you... saved your life on many occasions..."
In Jason's mind he watched memory after memory of those moments... those 'tight spots' that he'd gotten out of.. wounds that he'd survived... most of them because of Elizabeth.
"So if you're instinct is telling you that's she's still alive," he sighed and offered Jason an encouraging smile. "Then maybe you ought to listen to your instincts."
- Corinthos Coffee Warehouse -
Sonny Corinthos was off his game. He had been for months, but now... as he stared down Maximus Giambetti, he did something he rarely did. He blinked. And as the elder of the two and the most experienced, Maximus caught the slip and exploited it.
"The first thing you're going to do," he instructed the mob boss, "is go down to the morgue and claim my son's body and take it to this funeral home," he produced a card and gave it to Sonny, "they'll take care of him in the manner to which my son deserves. They'll expect," he added, "your assurance that the bill will be paid."
The room stilled as Sonny looked at the card. He wasn't a man used to anyone telling him what to do, but without Jason in the room... without Jason standing with him... he was uncomfortable to say the least. "Max was one of us," he felt his throat close a little as he said the words, "we'll take care of his funeral."
Before Maximus could continue, a woman barreled into the office past the guards and nearly ran into Maximus in her haste. "Who are you people, I-" she stopped short and her eyes widened, "you! You're... I mean, Max... well, I'm Carly and-"
"You," Maximus glared at the woman standing before him, "you're the one I really wanted to see."
- Hartford Critical Care and Clinic - Newport, RI -
Ewen struggled with every minute of Elizabeth's... treatment. He hated it. Hated himself for doing it, but it was less stress for Elizabeth and her baby if he did it this way. "You're married to Ric Lansing."
She barely nodded, the suggestive state of her mind was near absolute. "Married to Ric..."
"You're happy with him..."
"Happy..."
"You're expecting a child..." There was a pause, a stillness of her body that worried him. "Elizabeth, you're expecting a child..."
Her hand drifted over her baby, her fingers caressing the rounded bump with grace and love. "A baby..."
"With Ric Lansing," he prompted her, his eyes willing her to agree.
She continued to smooth her hands over the baby until she sighed. "The baby... no, not Ric." Her brow furrowed and she shook her head. "No... not his."
A warning took Ewen's attention off his patient and he had to agree with Dr. Scoville's reproach when the man entered the room. "You've got to figure this out quickly." The doctor increased the drip into her IV. "It's not just going to be hurting her... you have to worry about her child." They both agreed silently. Elizabeth's own concern was for her child's welfare.
Ewen made a note in his chart. During their next session he would try another tact.
- Tribeca, New York -
Craig opened his room at the hotel and stared at the sparse furnishings around him. "Not quite the Metro Court... but never mind that... I'll be done with this place and probably done with anything in America once I find where DA Lansing has holed up.
He set down the grocery bags on the bed and sat down to unpack the contents. A six pack of beer, chips and salsa, a map of New York and the surrounding states, a prepaid cell phone,
sandwich fixings and buried down at the bottom of the bag and conveniently picked up at a dark street corner... a .357 complete with a handful of bullets. "It's not much," Craig lamented as he opened a beer, "but it's a start."
- Hartford Critical Care and Clinic - Newport, RI -
Ric set up the conference call in the seclusion of Dr. Scoville's office. The doctor had made himself scarce whenever Ric was around and that was fine... as far as Ric was concerned. It was so much easier to hide things when you didn't have to worry about someone eavesdropping.
"I want the transition to be as easy as possible for my wife," he began, "I want to make sure that the transport vehicle will have the easiest ride possible. She has been put on bed rest by her doctor and I don't want any bumps that aren't completely necessary." He tapped his pencil on the blotter."
"We have a vehicle that will suit for your purposes. We'll have it available to you within the week."
Ric shifted forward in his chair. "I want it ready at any time... we may have to move at a moment's notice."
"Will her doctor be travelling with her?"
"We'll have another doctor at our destination. I only want your assurances that she'll be safe while in transit. We have," he drew in a shaky breath as he pressed a hand against his temple, the stress was getting to him, "lost a baby before... and I will not lose this one." There was silence on the line. "Are we clear?"
"Yes, sir."
"Now," Ric calmed when he heard the reassurance in the man's voice, sitting back in his chair, "I want tinted windows. I don't want anyone to see inside the vehicle. We need to travel in secret..."
- Corinthos Coffee Warehouse -
Carly felt very alone in that room. It wasn't just that it was full of men, usually that was a good thing for her. Having a man like Maximus Giambetti stare her down was not something she enjoyed. There had been few men in her life that could make her feel this... odd and uncomfortable. Tony Jones had been one... but only after he'd discovered that warming his bed had strings attached... to her mother of all people. AJ Quartermain... the man she'd all but destroyed just to keep her son. There were a few others, but at that moment she couldn't remember them.
In the eyes of Maximus Giambetti she saw judgement... and it was cold and scary place.
"I think Carly should be the one to personally see to my son's care and his memorial. She was," he scoffed, "someone my son cared for deeply." He narrowed his gaze at her. "His mother, God rest her soul, had been a beautiful woman inside and out, but you... he must have been blind to think that you were anything like her."
Sonny could only agree to part of Maximus' statements. "Carly would be more than happy to see to the Memorial. Is there anything else?"
He nearly laughed. "Oh, there's no end to the concessions you're about to make, Corinthos." The man thought for a minute. "But the next thing on my list is talking to Jason Morgan. Where is he?"
Sonny and Carly shared a look.
- General Hospital -
Spinelli appeared in the doorway of Alan Quartermain's room like a mouse afraid of his tail being lopped off. He cleared his throat to get Jason's attention. "You called?"
Alan gave his son a nod and closed his eyes to get some sleep.
Jason pulled Spinelli out into the hall and sat him down at an empty part of the nurse's station. "I need you to go back over the footage from the security cameras at the Metro Court." He saw the hesitation in Spinelli's eyes. "What?"
"The cameras, sir. They were mostly damaged in the collapse of the building. I can check and see if they had information stored off-site, but I'm not sure"
"You once told me you could do anything with a computer. Right?"
Spinelli straightened up a bit and nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Then do this, Spinelli."
Opening his laptop, he waited for it to power up. "What am I looking for... specifically?"
Jason let out a measured breath, trying to still his own anxious heart. "Elizabeth."