Chapter Five

"Jason, wait I want to talk to you." Sam whined as she ran up to Jason.

"What do you want, Sam?" Jason sighed, really not wanting to have to do this yet again. They were over. Plain and simple.

"How are you? How's your hand?" she asked as she looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"I'm fine." he snapped still not looking at her.

"I wanted to thank you for saving me." Sam said as she reached out and touched his hand.

"It's my fault Manny took you. That's why nothing can change." Jason said emotionless as he pulled his hand out of her reach.

"Don't you love me?" she whined as she moved closer to him.

"I... won't watch you get hurt again because of me. I can't." Jason replied calmly.

"So you do love me." she smirked happily.

"It doesn't matter now. We're over. You need to move on." Jason said firmly.

"How could you do this? Don't you care that you're hurting me?" she cried as her eyes filled up with tears.

"I'm sorry about that. But I'm not going to change my mind." Jason stated as he started to walk away.

"Alexis put you up to this. I know she did." Sam spat as she wiped her eyes angrily.

"Alexis only wants the best for you. And she's right. We can't work." Jason replied firmly as he stopped and looked back at her.

"Yes. We can you just have to give us a chance." she pleaded once again.

"You're only hurting yourself Sam." Jason said and then walked quickly away.

"I am going to make you change your mind Jason." Sam retorted furiously not even caring that Jason was no longer around to listen. She was Samantha McCall and she always got what she wanted and she wanted Jason Morgan.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Elizabeth knelt down by the still fresh gave. She hadn't been back since the funeral three days ago. Today would be her first back at work. She needed to come by here. Elizabeth sat for nearly an hour in silence. There was nothing she wanted to say. Her guilt over feeling relieved kept her from being angry. "Good bye, Lucky," she whispered softly as she stood to leave.

The minute she reached the nurses' desk she knew coming to work was a bad idea. "What are you doing here?" Maxie spat with contempt as she glared at Elizabeth.

"I'm working, Maxie. Which is what you should be doing." Elizabeth replied calmly without bothering to look up.

"I knew you didn't care about Lucky. If you did you wouldn't be here." Maxie taunted as she walked up to the desk and stood in front of Elizabeth.

"You don't know anything about my marriage." Elizabeth spat as she finally looked up at a smirking Maxie.

"That's where you're wrong. Lucky told me all about it. How you were cheating on him with Patrick. I guess this means the two of you can be together now." she retorted almost gleefully at Elizabeth's gasp.

"I am not sleeping with Patrick." Elizabeth snapped her jaw clinched in anger as she started to walk away from Maxie before she did something she knew that she would regret.

"You didn't deserve Lucky. He was a wonderful man." Maxie spat to Elizabeth's back as she hurried down the hall. 'I am going to make her life miserable.' Maxie thought to herself as she patted her stomach gently. 'Just the way she made my Lucky's.'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You said you needed me. What's up?" Jason asked as he walked in the door of Sonny's office at the coffeehouse.

"We need to minimize the fall out from Manny's death." Sonny stated as he laid down the file he had been reading on the Ruiz Family.

"What do you want me to do?" Jason asked as he sat down in the chair across from Sonny's desk.

"Nothing. Not yet." Sonny replied.

"Why?" Jason asked with a sigh.

"You're distracted. Why?" Sonny asked as he noticed the unfocused look in Jason's eyes.

"I ran into Sam on the way here. She wants to work things out." Jason told him emotionless.

"You don't want to." Sonny stated rather than asked, because he knew Jason well enough to know that Sam wasn't who Jason really wanted anymore and truth be told she probably never had been.

"Things with her wouldn't work." Jason said with certainty.

"Why? I understand what happened with Manny shook you but..." Sonny prodded trying to see if Jason would actually admit the real reason that he and Sam would never have worked.

"It's not that." Jason said with a shake of his head. "She's hurting so much and I hate it." Jason said and then stood and started to pace back and forth.

"Who Sam?" Sonny asked even though he knew that Jason wasn't talking about Sam anymore. He had that look in his eyes that he only got when Elizabeth Webber was involved.

"No. Elizabeth." Jason said shaking his head no.

"That's right the funeral was a few days ago. How is she?" Sonny asked as he noticed Jason tense up at the mention of the funeral.

"Trying to hold it together. I hate that I can't help her." he answered almost wistfully.

"So that's why things won't work with Sam." Sonny said glad that Jason was finally after all these years ready to admit that it was and always had been Elizabeth for him.

"I don't understand." Jason said as he stopped pacing and looked at his friend and mentor.

"Elizabeth. Jason even you have to admit after all these years Elizabeth means something to you." Sonny stated calmly, even as he mentally rolled his eyes.

"Of course she does. We're friends." Jason replied automatically using the same old line he had been spewing for eight plus years.

"That's bull. She's it for you. She was eight years ago. She was four years ago and she is now." Sonny retorted with a laugh. He would never understand how two such smart people could be so dense when it came to the love that each of them had for the other.

"I just want to protect her and make her happy." Jason said softly as he thought about how lost and upset she had been lately and how she felt guilty because a part of her was relieved that she didn't have to deal with Lucky and his shit anymore.

"I know. So what are you planning to do about it?" Sonny asked with a raised brow.

"What I always do. Just be there when she needs me." Jason stated calmly and then turned and walked out the door. Suddenly he needed to see Elizabeth. He needed to see for himself that she was okay. After all, that's what friends do. 'Who the hell am I trying to kid?' he asked himself. 'She's always been more than a friend. Hell, there are no words for what I feel for her.' he thought as he climbed on his bike and drove off into the wind, looking for the only person that he had ever been able to see it with.