Do not own General Hospital or any of the characters.

The Flame of Franco

Home...

The car ride was silent as Sam curled herself up into a ball in the passenger seat and looked out the window.

Jason kept on shifting his gaze on her. He had never been in the car before, and had Sam so quiet. Usually she was talking his ear off about one thing or another. However, she was as quiet as a church mouse as they drove down the streets of Port Charles. He was hoping that once she was in the familiar territory of the penthouse that things would soon go back to normal for her. That she will finally be able to recover.

There will be no doctors or nurses poking and questioning her. She won't be reminded so much of what she went through. Or so he hoped.

He was afraid that Sam recovery had been faulted by what had happened earlier with the psychiatrist, who had done more damage than good. It hadn't helped matters that the doctor, Dr. Riverton, had looked similar to Franco in Sam's eyes. And even had the artist similar weird manner. The doctor had been new to General Hospital. The chief of Staff had assigned him to Sam's case. Robin had told him this later because even she could see the resemblance between the two men after the incident had happened. And would had never assigned him to Sam's case if she had not seen him before hand.

"I made sure Spinelli is out of the house, so you can rest when we get inside," explained Jason softly over the music playing from the speakers. He knew that Spinelli would want to be home when Sam arrived but he didn't want her to be too overwhelmed. She needed peace and quiet for the moment. He had told Spinelli to go to the offices of McCall and Jackal and focus on work for a bit before coming home to the Penthouse. He wanted Sam to be comfortable and situated first.

His blue eyes looked quickly over at her, waiting for her to reply. However she did not.

She still had her eyes turned towards the window, lost in her own little world. He knew it would be like this for a while but he just wanted his Sam to come back to him. He missed seeing her smile, the light in her eyes, the notes of laughter in her voice. It was all lost now.

He didn't try to make small talk with her for the remainder of the ride home. He knew it was not use in doing so. Sam was lost to him.

After parking the SUV in the private parking lot of the building, Jason led Sam towards the main entrance of the building. His hand rested gently on the small of her back as the other one carried her bag. She did not seem bothered by his touch on her like it was. She didn't really seem to be paying attention as they walked past the doorman and quickly across the lobby to the elevator. Sam had her arms wrapped around her stomach. She just wanted to sleep.

The elevator ride was silence, as Jason kept on stealing glances at Sam. He had the urge to pull her to his chest and just hold her. But he knew, that it wouldn't make anything better. Sam was eary of being touched.

Once they stepped off of the elevator and made their way down the hallway, Sam trailing behind Jason. She was quiet as he unlocked the door and held it open for her. She brief looked up at him as she passed him.

Jason didn't know if it was the trick of the light or his imagination but he could have sworn he had seen a smile play out on Sam's lips. A slight one. But still a smile. He took this as a small ray of hope. It had been a few days since Sam had smiled.

Sam took a deep breath as she walked into the penthouse and took in her surroundings. She couldn't believe that she was finally home. Tears welled up suddenly in her eyes. She didn't know why she was crying all the sudden. It just felt like it had been ages since she had been here. That so much had seemed to change in that short amount of time. Everything looked the same. The Christmas decorations were even still up.

Nothing had changed, however everything had.

Reaching out for one of the throw pillows that rested on the couch, she hugged it to her chest as she took a seat and let her tears fall.

Jason took all this in as he watched her from the doorway.

Okay, I know it was a short one but I hope to have more up soon. Thanks for reading and please review!

Julie