A/N: So, for keeping you all waiting for so long, here is the 2nd of 2 chapters that are ready for you! Enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-One
Jason and Elizabeth had spent their last free day together, with Cameron. They had taken the toddler to the park to play on the swings and in the sandbox for a couple of hours. Today, though, Elizabeth had had to go back to work, and Jason missed her fiercely already. Jason had offered to keep Cameron home with him while she was at work, but since the boy hadn't been to daycare in several days, he was missing his friends. He promised Jason that he would stay home with him another day. The blond called his sister and found out that she wasn't on shift that day. He asked her to come over so they could talk privately about their shared memories of the previous lifetime. Since she wasn't due for about another hour or two, Jason called Elizabeth, "Hey, it's me."
"Hey! What's up?"
"Is this a bad time?"
"No, is everything okay? Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, I called to see if you were getting a break soon."
"Um, yeah, in about 30 minutes. Jason, are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I just wanted to see if I could take you to Kelly's for a quick bite to eat and some hot chocolate."
"Mmmmmmm. That sounds delicious, but I can't have hot chocolate right now."
"You can't? Why not, you love hot chocolate."
"I know! Regular hot chocolate has too much caffeine for the baby. I have to buy the special white hot chocolate packets to drink at home. Mike doesn't serve that. But I will take you up on the food."
Calculating the time in his head, "Okay, meet me out front and I'll swing by to pick you up."
"Okay, see you in a few." Elizabeth hangs up the phone. She cannot stop smiling.
A brusque voice pipes up behind her and asks, "Are you gonna stand there and smile all day, or are you going to work before your break with Jason? I've got patients that need to be seen, so get a move on."
Still smiling, the pregnant nurse bops off, "Sure thing, Epiphany. I'm on it!"
Muttering to herself, "Thank God that woman got her head on straight and told that man he was her baby's father! I was so tired of watching her suffer." Epiphany looks thoughtfully after her favorite nurse and smiles.
Thirty minutes later, Elizabeth walks out of the hospital doors and sees Jason sitting in his black Escalade watching for her. She smiles at him as he gets out of the car and walks her around to her door. Helping her in, he reaches across to the console and places a cup in her hands.
"What's this?"
"Drink it and find out. It should be cool enough that you don't burn yourself." He closes the door and gets in the driver's seat. Putting it in gear, he turns them towards Kelly's.
Taking a sip, she closes her eyes and sighs, "Jason, you didn't have to do this."
"What?" he asked. "You said you can only have the white hot chocolate, so I stopped at the coffee shop and got you one."
"I'm surprised you still made it in time."
He glances over at her with the question in his eyes.
"I figure if you stopped at the coffee shop, somebody would have had a problem that they needed you to solve, or some sort of business would have to be discussed, so you'd get pulled into a meeting," she rambled.
"Oh, I called ahead and told them to bring it out to me."
Laughing, "one of the perks of being the boss?"
"Something like that."
Pulling in and parking at the docks. Jason gets out and opens the door for Elizabeth. Helping her out of the truck, he guides her into the diner and to a table in the corner. Georgie comes over and greets them. After taking their order, she leaves so they can talk in semi-privacy. Jason questions Elizabeth about her first day back, then they chat about other things until Georgie brings their food back with an enthusiastic, "Enjoy!"
They had eaten their lunch, chatting about inconsequential things, just reveling in each other's company until Elizabeth realized that her break was almost over. She knew Jason would have enough time to get her back to the hospital, then head home to meet his sister. They were heading for the door when Jason cries out and falls to the floor unconscious. Looking around panicked, she saw Lucky with a bloody baseball bat hanging in his hands and a smirk on his face. She fell to the floor beside Jason, screaming at her almost ex-husband," Are you fucking crazy? What the hell, Lucky?"
Raising the bat to take another swing, he is suddenly taken down by one of Jason's men, Francis. The bodyguard had thrown himself at Lucky and pinned him to the ground so he couldn't harm anyone else.
Holding Jason's bloody head in her lap, she grabs her cell phone to call 9-1-1. Explaining to the operator what had happened, she listened as the woman on the other end of the line dispatched the police and an ambulance. Jason still hadn't woken up by the time the paramedics arrived. The cops had taken Lucky into custody and Elizabeth promised to come and give her statement later. Francis agreed to go to the station and give a statement, since the incident was not related to the business.
Arriving at the hospital in the ambulance, Elizabeth jumps out and runs into the ER with the paramedics, following them into the cubicle. She helped to give Dr. Patrick Drake all of Jason's current stats, along with a summary of what had happened. Concerned about the fact that Morgan hadn't woken up, Patrick order an MRI to see if Jason had any swelling of the brain. He also added a battery of other tests including blood panels and gases, etc.
Epiphany told the nurse not to worry about finishing the rest of her shift, as she assumed that the pregnant woman wouldn't want to leave the enforcer's side. Elizabeth thanked the head nurse and hurried after the orderlies who were rolling Jason to the MRI. She was so scared seeing him lying so still on the gurney, it wasn't like him to be this still in a hospital.
Once the MRI tests ordered for Jason were complete, the orderlies and Elizabeth moved Jason into a private room. The orderlies left and the nurse flitted around trying to make him comfortable. Meanwhile, Patrick consulted with Robin as the test results for the MRI and blood work started coming in. Robin was looking over the blood work results and was having trouble figuring out why there were trace amounts of scopolamine in his system. "Patrick?" the young doctor asked her partner, "Do you see anything in Jason's file about him being given scopolamine or anything with that in it?"
"What?!" the neurosurgeon asked, quite alarmed. Quickly scanning the file, he finds no record of the drug ever being administered to the patient in question. "No, there's nothing in here about it. Why? What's going on, Robin?"
"The blood panel that I'm going over is showing trace amounts of it in his system. I can't think of anyone less inclined to take medicine than Jason, let alone him agreeing to take anything like this. Even if he does have trouble sleeping, I don't think he'd ask for anything to take for it. That's the only thing I can think of that he might need it for."
"I wonder how long he's been taking it?"
"I don't know. I guess it depends on whether or not he was taking by choice or not."
Looking quizzically at Robin, "What do you mean?"
"Just what I said, I don't see Jason taking something like this for any reason. It makes me wonder if he knows he's been taking it or not. I'm going to ask Elizabeth if she's seen him taking anything." Walking down the corridor, she steps into the room with the nurse and her friend. "Elizabeth, can I ask you a question?"
Startled, she hadn't heard the woman enter the room, "Oh, Robin, sorry I was lost in thought. What did you want to know?"
Not sure how to approach the subject, she asked, "Um, I need to know if you've seen Jason taking any pills or liquid medicine recently."
Thinking about it for a minute, she shakes her head, "Nothing except for the antibiotic and pain reliever I brought him when he was shot just before Thanksgiving. But I don't think he's taken either of those in at least a couple of weeks. Why?"
"Because we found trace amounts of scopolamine in his blood work."
The nurse was immediately alarmed, "What! Jason would never take something like that! There's got to be some sort of mistake, a mix-up in the lab or something."
"No, I ran the test twice, myself, and came back with the same results. Let's just hope he wakes up soon and we can ask him, okay?"
"Robin, is he going to be alright?"
"Jason's strong and resilient, I'm sure he's going to be just fine. Patrick should be in shortly with the results of his MRI."
"Okay, who do I have to call that Patrick can tell them to?"
"No one. Jason has you listed in his medical file as one of the people to speak to. He has you listed as his Power of Attorney, in the event that anything happens to him and he cannot make his own medical decisions." With that, the shorter brunette walked back out of the room to finish looking over Jason's test results.
Stunned, Elizabeth just sat beside Jason's bed, holding his hand and staring at him for several minutes. Unaware that she is crying, she feels Jason's hand gripping hers a little. Gasping, she looks up and sees his eyes open. "Oh my God, Jason! You're awake!"
"Wha…." he starts. "What happened? Why are you crying?"
Getting up to get him some ice chips, she spoons a few into his mouth. "You don't remember?" Slowly shaking his head no, Elizabeth continues, "Lucky snuck up on you and hit you in the head with a baseball bat. I think you were unconscious before you hit the ground."
Struggling to get up, Elizabeth pushes him back to the bed, "No way mister! You've got, at the very least, a concussion. Lay back down."
"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?"
"I'm fine. Francis knocked him down before he could do anything else. I called 9-1-1, the police and the ambulance showed up. Lucky's been arrested."
"When can I get out of here?"
"Well, I can't say I didn't see that one coming. But, I would guess, tomorrow, at the earliest. They're gonna want to keep you overnight for observation, I'm sure. I'm going to go find Patrick and Robin and let them know you're awake." Nodding his ascent, Jason closed his eyes after watching her leave his hospital room.