A/N – Thanks for the comments! Glad you liked the suspense! Guest – The real Susan is innocent. I like to think that the GH mob only killed people who came against them or tried to hurt them or threatened to do them harm. They do have a code. Thanks! * kikimoo – real Susan.

Chapter 25 - Impaired

Elizabeth knew she had to do something to slow Marcus down. "You know Jason will kill you for this."

"Not if I kill him first." Marcus said smirking.

"What did he ever do to you?" she asked curiously.

"He breathes and that offends me," Marcus said. "He cost me everything and my face will be the last thing he sees."

Liz sighed and slowly inched her way forward. "Where are you taking me?"

"To the man that I work for. He'll know what to do with you."

He pulled into a small lookout area by the bridge and another car pulled up. AJ opened the door and grabbed a struggling Elizabeth and put her into his car. "I'll see you later," he said to Marcus.

AJ took off in the opposite direction and then Marcus turned his car and soon as he was back on the road, Jason's car struck him and the next thing he knew, his car was dangling precariously off the side of a bridge.

Jason jumped out of his car and rushed forward yelling Elizabeth's name. The car began to rock a little and he saw that only Marcus was inside. "Where is she dammit?" he yelled.

Marcus looked over at him and smirked. "Somewhere you'd never believe in a million years."

"You think you've won don't you?" Jason said angrily. "I will kill anyone who tries to hurt her."

"We'll see about that," Marcus said. "You're too soft Morgan. You won't be able to pull the trigger. I guarantee it."

Marcus tried to reach his gun which had fallen to the floor but the car lurched a little.

Jason pulled his gun out. "Don't even think about it, " he said lethally. "Now where is she?"

"In the trunk," Marcus lied. "You'll have to save me in order to get her out."

Jason looked at the trunk for a moment. "I don't believe you."

"Suit yourself," Marcus said moving on purpose.

Jason lowered his weapon and put it in the back of his jeans and ran towards the trunk and tried to hold the car steady.

Johnny and Cody pulled up and ran towards him.

"Don't let him out of your sight. He has a gun," Jason said.

Cody trained his gun on Marcus.

"What's going on?" Johnny asked.

"He said that she was in the trunk. I don't believe him but I can't take the chance," Jason said gripping the bumper. "I can't hold it much longer."

Cody looked at Johnny and he made a decision and shot Marcus in the head as Johnny tried to hold the car steady alongside Jason. Cody climbed on the side of the bridge and managed to reach the car door and opened it and Marcus fell out into the current below. He jumped back off and ran to his car and opened the trunk and got a crow bar out and ran towards the other two men.

The trunk had been damaged a little so he put the end of the crowbar into a crack and tried to get the trunk open.

Jason groaned loudly as he tried to hold the car steady. "I—I can't hold on," he yelled.

Cody tried to work fast and right as he got it, a piece of the bridge gave way and car surged forward. Jason yelled Elizabeth's name as he and Johnny fell backwards.

Cody chased the car and right before it went over, the trunk flew wide open and he saw it was empty. Turning around he looked into a distraught Jason's eyes. "She wasn't in there."

Jason took a few ragged breaths and fell back onto the ground. His hand was killing him and he felt Johnny grab it.

"We need to get to the hospital," Johnny said seeing the deep gash in his hand.

"No," Jason said.

Johnny looked up at Cody and the other man helped him get Jason up and into the car. Ignoring Jason, Johnny drove straight to G.H. He didn't care if Jason would be made him. The cut looked really bad.

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Monica looked up and saw Jason leaving a trail of blood from the elevator to the nurse's station and she ran towards him. "What happened?"

"A car was in an accident on the bridge and we tried to help. Jason got hurt." Johnny explained.

"Over here," she said as Johnny and Cody helped Jason towards a cubicle.

Patrick rushed over and followed them and the men got Jason onto the bed. Patrick took a look at his hand and cursed. "You're going to need surgery."

"No. Elizabeth. I have to find her," Jason said painfully.

Patrick looked him dead in the eye. "If you don't get surgery, you may lose all feeling in your hand and not ever be able to use it again. Trust me when I tell you that Elizabeth is not going to want that. What's it going to be?"

The room was silent. Sarah had walked up and was standing beside Monica.

"He's right. Elizabeth would want you to try to save your hand Jason," Sarah said walking up to him.

Jason was shaking with rage and Sarah reached out and stroked his hair, trying to calm him. "Please. If we're going to find her, you need to be in good health. If you run off right now, you'll probably get an infection and up losing your whole hand."

He looked at Sarah. "I would die for her."

"But she doesn't want you to die," Sarah said emotionally. "Please Jason, just say yes. Let Patrick help you. Johnny and Cody will do everything they can to find her. Please."

Jason breath was shallow. He had lost a lot of blood and knew he was in no shape to go anywhere. "Okay."

Patrick looked up at Monica and Epiphany. "I need an OR prepped."

"I'll assist," Epiphany offered.

"Good," Patrick said.

Sarah looked at Jason. "I won't leave you," she said quietly.

"Thank you," Jason said as he began to feel dizzy. "Feel weak."

"You've lost a lot of blood. I'll probably have to give you a few pints," Patrick said, "I'm going to go prep. Monica, can you clean out his wound?"

Monica nodded and got the supplies.

"I'll give him an IV," Sarah said.

Both women got busy.

"This is going to hurt," Monica said.

Jason groaned as Monica cleaned out his wound and temporarily bandaged it.

"We have to get you undressed," Sarah said, "I'll cut off your shirt."

She grabbed some scissors and got to work. Once that was off she undid his belt and looked over at Monica who held up Jason's boxers while Sarah got his jeans pulled down and then she took off his boots and covered him up.

"Don't tell Patrick. You know how jealous he gets," she said with a little smirk making Jason slightly smile.

He was so tired.

Sarah put the I.V. in his other hand. "You're doing well Jason."

An anesthesiologist came into the room and explained what was going to happen and Jason signed off on the surgery.

The last think he remembered was Monica looking down at him with a smile before she kissed his forehead.

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Elizabeth laid quietly in the backseat of AJ's car. They drove for about a half hour before pulling into a driveway.

AJ parked the car and then opened the back door and pulled her towards him and then carried her towards the house. A man opened the door and he went inside and tossed her onto the couch.

"Welcome to your new home away from home," he said.

"Who are you?"

AJ smiled. "I'm Jason's brother, AJ Quartermaine."

She gasped. "Why?"

"Let's just say that it's payback time for Mr. I can do no wrong Morgan," AJ said.

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"You know, I've been kind of re-thinking my options, since the playing field has changed. I think that EJ had the right idea about marrying you into the fold. That would probably piss off my brother the most at this point," he said.

"I refuse to do that again," she said firmly.

"You won't have a choice," AJ said.

"If it's the properties you want, then just bargain me for them. Why are you even involving a marriage?"

AJ smiled. "Maybe I want to see my brother suffer more than I want the properties."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes.

"And you having the baby with my name on the birth certificate—even better," AJ said.

"How about you grow the fuck up and let me go," Liz said angrily.

AJ grinned. "Nice mouth. I think over time we would be great together."

"So, you're not planning on ever letting me go?"

"Til death do us part baby," AJ said, "I'm going to finish what EJ started."7

"If you think I'm going to be some willing participant, you are sadly mistaken," Elizabeth said. There was no way in hell she wouldn't fight.

"You won't hurt your baby," he said before looking over at her guard, "Take her to her room. She needs her rest."

"When are you going to call Jason?" Liz asked.

"In a few days. I want him to fester a little bit." AJ said with a smirk.

Elizabeth followed the man upstairs and she was locked inside. She perused the room. There wasn't a lot of furniture. She needed a weapon. Walking over to the window, she looked out and there was nothing but trees. They hadn't driven terribly far so she just hoped that Jason would find her.

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Sarah sat in a chair next to Jason's bed. He hadn't woken up from the surgery yet but it had gone well. Suddenly, Carly came rushing into the room. "How is he?"

"Stable. The surgery went well."

Carly nodded and touched Jason's hand. "You know we'll probably have to restrain him."

Sarah smirked. "He'll want to go after her."

"I don't blame him but right now, he needs to rest. I have Spinelli in the waiting room. I figured if he at least had the geek by his side, it might make feel like he's doing something," Carly said. "Sonny has everyone out there looking for her."

Sarah side. "This is just so crazy. I'm really scared for the baby," she said quietly.

"Hopefully, they'll both be fine. We just have to pray that they won't hurt her," Carly said.

Jason stirred. Carly walked up closer to his head and stroked his hair. "Jason, it's okay. You're fine. The surgery went well."

His eyes fluttered open. "Elizabeth."

"I'm sorry. We haven't found her yet but we're looking everywhere," Carly said.

He tried to get up.

"No. You are not moving right now. Spinelli is here. Once the doctors take a look at you, I'll bring him in as a compromise."

"Carly, I need to find her," Jason said firmly, "Get out of my way."

Sarah stood up. "I will stab you with a needle and put your ass to sleep if you don't calm down."

Carly looked over at her. "Nice bedside manner," she said with a grin.

Sarah smiled.

"Did you really expect for me to lay here and do nothing?" Jason asked exasperatedly.

"Yes. You just got out of surgery," Carly said, "What good are you going to be if you make things worse? Elizabeth needs you at 100%. You are going to stay here for now and we'll do everything we can to find her."

Jason sighed.

"Please Jason. As anxious as I am for you to find my sister, I don't want you harmed as a result," Sarah said. "She would be so upset if you were hurt worse than you already are."

"Okay," he said trying to squelch his temper, "Get Patrick."

Sarah nodded and left the room.

"She hasn't left your side Jason. You are her lifeline right now," Carly said softly.

"I know she's worried. I am too. Elizabeth's pregnant and someone has her…" His voice trailed off. "I just feel so helpless."

Johnny walked in. "Hey."

Jason looked up at him. "Anything?"

He shook his head. "We've torn apart the house. Spinelli tried tracing the phone lines. Whoever they were working with, covered their tracks. When they try to contact us, we'll try to trace the call."

Anna walked into the room. "Sorry to interrupt, but I think we should talk, off the record of course."

Jason stared up at her. "What do you want to know?"

Johnny was surprised that Jason even asked.

She turned and shut the door before talking. "I know that you won't talk to me if you know that you could be criminally charged so, I'm offering you a deal."

"Go ahead."

"I'm not going to ask you to admit that Stefano is dead and that maybe you had a part in it, but I am pretty sure that is the truth," she said watching Jason carefully. "We just need to find whoever is running Dimera Enterprises right now and shut them down. You don't need to know why but we have a very good reason."

"Go on," Jason said.

"He was working with someone. We know that but we just don't know who. We did come up with a name but we are 100% sure that the person is dead," Anna said.

"Who?" Jason asked.

"Crane Tolliver. He did have a connection with the Quartermaines and your biological mother," Anna explained, "However, he was killed. Whoever is using the name probably did so to be clever. Crane was trying to get one over on the Quartermaines, so maybe this person is too," Anna said.

"What do you need from me?"

"Something went down tonight. We know about the bridge and the car crash. Do you think EJ or Kristen had a hand in this?" she asked.

Jason looked down and then back at her. "No and Yes."

Anna got the feeling that none of them were alive and had no idea how Jason managed to rid the world of the Dimeras but he apparently had done so. "Can you give me a name?"

"Marcus Taggert," Jason said, "He kidnapped my girlfriend in order to get to me. I think he made the switch with his boss before the crash at the bridge."

"So Elizabeth is missing?" Anna asked.

"Yes. She's pregnant and they took her."

Anna nodded. "I think it's best if we work together on this so we both can get what we want."

"I don't think you and I really want the same thing. When you catch this person, what are your plans?" he asked.

"A very lengthy prison term," Anna said watching him roll his eyes, "I know you probably want him or her dead but that can't happen under my watch, especially since I'm willing to let the other deaths go."

Jason sighed. "Fine as long as Elizabeth is returned unharmed."

Anna walked towards him and held out her hand.

Jason took it.

"Deal," she said firmly, "I'll run whatever we can on Marcus. I'll touch base with you tomorrow."

Jason nodded and watched her leave.

"I hope that wasn't a mistake," Carly said.

"Me too," Jason said as Patrick and Sarah walked into the room.

A/N – At one point on the show, AJ used Crane Tolliver's name on his passport.