Chapter Fifteen

Johnny's mind race, his thoughts jumbled. The name that Georgie had whispered with despair lacing her words was the very last name that he would have ever expected. Feeling her breath hitch and her start to pull away, he focused back on her. Georgie was pale, her large eyes bleak, and tears were streaming silently down her face. Giving her a gentle tug to pull her back against him, he rested his mouth near her ear. "We will figure this out together, Georgie. I am not abandoning you and Bay, there is no way that will happen. Calm down," he urged softly.

Feeling like he was intruding, Johnny scraped back his chair. His green eyes pinned the younger man and he could read the concern for the woman in his arms easily. Knowing that she was in good hands, he cleared his throat. "I think that you two need some time alone. I am staying in town for a while. I will talk to you tomorrow, Zacchara." Pausing, he waited until Georgie looked over at him, her head still lying on Johnny's chest. "Tell him everything, Georgie girl. Leaving him blind will not help matters for you or Baylor. I have my cell if you need me."

Pulling away from Johnny's grasp, Georgie hugged the other man. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you."

His eyes sparkled with a touch of amusement. "I married Lizbit's sister. I am use to being hollered at. Trust him, Georgie," he added seriously in a hushed voice. "He will stand beside you. We all are going to."

"God, I hope so. I'm so tired of dealing with all of this alone," she confessed. Kissing his cheek, she watched as he nodded once more at Johnny before slipping out the back door. Feeling Johnny move up behind her, she tensed but kept her eyes averted. "I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"Listen to me, Georgie. You have nothing to apologize for." Seeing her breaking apart was tearing at him. Turning her to face him, he tipped her chin up so that he was looking in her tear drenched eyes. "I swear to you, it will be okay. But you have to tell me everything. No more secrets."

Gathering her strength, she wiped her face. "It's bad, Johnny, really bad."

"And we will deal with it," he promised. Deciding that they needed to get some fresh air, he gave her quick once over. "Come on. Let's get out of here for a bit, and then when we get back, we will put everything on the table." Seeing her confusion, he pressed a light kiss to her forehead. "You need a break, Georgie. Just relax and shove everything back for a couple hours. It will help."

"Where are we going?"

"You'll see," he told her as he ushered through the house and to the front porch. Seeing Logan, he paused. "You can head on out, Hayes. Just tell whoever is covering tonight that we won't be back for a few hours. And call in extra guard to be placed at Maxie's."

Watching as Zacchara helped Georgie into the sleek sports car, Logan wondered what had changed between the two. Georgie had been polite but standoffish with her new husband until just now. While she may not have been aware of it, she had let her guard down and was leaning emotionally on Johnny, at least for now. Hoping that they both knew what they were doing, he dialed Coop's cell to warn him that another guard would be arriving.

OoOoOoOoOoOo

After getting Elizabeth settled in bed and back asleep, Jason joined O'Brien on the back porch. He could sense that his friend was preoccupied with whatever had happened when he had talked with Georgie. Worried about the young mother, he ran a hand over his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's in a lot of trouble, isn't she?"

"It's not good," he confirmed. "She's lucky to be alive. As much as I despised Diego, I gotta admit that without him interfering, Georgie would already be dead."

Conflicting emotions warred within Jason. He hoped that Diego Alcazar was burning in hell for killing Leticia and especially Emily. But at the same time, he had already suspected that the man had put enough protection in place for Georgie that it had kept her going until his father had taken over helping her. When O'Brien never offered any more information, he gave him an arched look. "Well? Are you going to tell me what you learned or not?"

"No," he stated evenly. "Don't get riled up, Jason. Georgie is telling Zacchara everything. They need to clear the air between them before talking to you tomorrow. I am sure that he will tell you all that she tells him." He took a pull of his beer before continuing. "And if she still hasn't given full disclosure, then I will enlighten you both after I kick her stubborn ass."

Not thrilled with the answer, Jason growled in aggravation. Telling himself that it was only one more night without answers, he forced himself not to badger his friend. The night had been hell already and he could tell that O'Brien was adamant. Instead, he switched topics slightly. "And what did you think of Johnny? It's amazing that he doesn't need therapy after growing up that lunatic father of his."

"I think that he is already in deep with Georgie," he answered immediately.

"And that's bad how?"

"It's not." Smirking, he drained the last of his drink. "Unless your name is Georgie and you are trying to keep everyone from breaching the walls that you hide behind. But enough about them for now. Tell me why Spencer, Carly, and that skank Sam are getting close enough to our girl to cause issues."

Frustrated, Jason stood and leaned against the railing. "They won't be able to now. When Elizabeth was GH, they had easy access as long as the altercation was all verbal."

"Try again," he snapped, his Irish lilt stronger with the emotion in his voice. "I want to know why they are alive."

"You think that I don't want to take care of them, once and for all? But I am not willing to leave Elizabeth with three children, alone, while I am in prison. You know that the PCPD would focus solely on me and my men."

"Then think outside the box," he groused. "Sam and Lucky, we can get rid of them easily. In fact, we should let the law," he sneered the last word, "take care of their own detective. Mac would be thrilled to put him in a cell after the altercation where Georgie was hit. Sam will be a bit more complicated, but she is naturally destructive. We just have to push her in the correct direction."

"I already have a plan in play for Lucky. He will be made aware of it soon enough. Carly is the one that I am having trouble dealing with. I am so angry, O'Brien, that I could throttle her. Elizabeth could have lost our child, all because she won't accept our relationship."

"I have an idea, but you got to be ready to let it play all the way through. Can you do that? After all these years of saving her, I need you to be certain, Jason."

Hating that it was boiling down to this with Michael and Morgan's mother, he blew out a breath. Picturing Elizabeth's terrified expression when she had woke up in the hospital, he steeled himself. He had taken care of others for way too long. It was time to protect his family. "As long as you aren't risking your freedom. Sarah would kill me and her sister."

"You're probably right about that. But I am not going to touch the blond she-devil. Sonny is going to handle this one for us. He just needs the right motivation."

"It's perfect," he murmured after mulling it over.

"Leprechauns always bring good luck," he shot back with a wicked gleam in his eyes. "Besides, I owe that bitch. I just wish her counterpart Courtney was alive. She deserved everything that I am getting ready to unleash on 'oh so strong' Carly."

OoOoOoOoOoOo

Unlocking the door, Johnny led a bright eyed, laughing Georgie into the house. Taking out his family's speedboat had accomplished exactly what he had wanted. When she had wanted to pilot, he had been wary at first, but it turned out that she could handle the craft with relative ease and only minimal help. "I never pegged you for a speed demon," he teased as he grabbed a couple beers from the fridge to go with the pizza that they had picked up.

"It is a speed boat," she informed him as she collected napkins and plates. "For some reason I assumed that you knew that."

"Come eat, smartass, before it gets cold."

The easy banter slowly disappeared as they finished their meal. He could see her starting to pull back the longer that they were back at the house and sighed. Any progress that he made with her letting him get closer usually ended up being erased by her past cropping up. Hopefully after tonight, there would be no more surprises to pop up.

Starting to stand, she glanced over at his empty beer. "I'm gonna grab a glass of wine. You want another beer?"

Capturing her wrist, Johnny shook his head. "I don't think that is really a good idea. A clear head may be for the best."

"For you maybe," she muttered but sat back down. Uneasily twisting the hair tie that she had placed on her wrist after leaving the boat, she bit her lip. "God, Johnny. I don't even know where to begin."

"Just answer some questions for me to start with then. I know that Diego got you away from the WSB after the incident in the park. Something that has nagged at me though, is why you were at the park alone at night. You knew what happened to Emily. I may not have known you other than from Kelly's back then, but you didn't strike me as being someone to ignore the danger of that was going on."

Pain flashed in her eyes. "Robin texted me. She asked that I meet her there. I never thought anything of it," she admitted. "Even when Frisco and Anna showed up instead, I was still unaware that something was wrong."

"You wouldn't have suspected anything even remotely close to what happened. You had always believed that they had your best interest at heart." Seeing the faraway glaze to her eyes, he reached for her hand. "What happened next?"

The color drained from her face as memories flashed through her mind. "Anna said that they needed my help." Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes. "The next thing I know, I felt a stinging in my neck and then nothing for a while."

When she stopped, he hated that he had to push her to relive this part of the nightmare. He had grown up in a house with a father that would have rather killed him than to look at him, but Georgie had always had her 'family'. To be betrayed the way that she had been, especially considering the reason and all that she went through, had to have caused unimaginable pain. "So you woke up in South America?" he prodded.

"I wish that was when I first came to. I must not have been out long, but when my mind woke up, I couldn't move or respond in anyway." Suddenly standing, she paced in front of the fire place, her arms crossed. "I could hear everyone, everything that was going on. Spinelli finding what he believed was my dead body, Mac falling apart, Maxie screaming, and the investigation at the scene, then silence after I was moved to the morgue, I guess." Swiping the moisture from her eyes, she bit back a sob. "Then I heard Diego's voice telling me that everything was going to be okay. He argued with another person to give me something that would put me completely under. He knew the drugs that were used at first had left my mind wide awake while it mimicked death in every other aspect. I woke up a day and half later at the Alcazar compound."

"Jesus," he breathed. "Thank God he got you out of there."

Her eyes met his and she gave a watery laugh. "It's only too bad that he didn't kill Robin that night when she argued against him taking me. See, my so called loving cousin was the one that he threatened. She was in there getting ready to pass me off to Anna and Frisco. And as soon as we were gone, she ran and told them that he had taken me out of there. They knew where I was the entire time, but it was kind of hard to go after Diego because he was supposedly already dead and Lorenzo had too many high ranking connections in all forms of the government. It wasn't until I left after Diego really was murdered that it became the cat and mouse game."

Unable to stay still and watch her fight to maintain her composure, he slowly made his way over to her and she wrapped her arms around him without hesitation. Letting her cry, he hoped that he could listen to the rest without losing it. The last thing that she needed was to see the fury that was building the more that he heard. And he knew it was only going to get worse. He was more concerned about what happened in Prague and the events that had led directly to up to it. From the way that Logan said his father reacted when bringing it up, and then O'Brien's searching it out, he knew without a shadow of doubt that she had been through more than just a nightmare. The death of her son made that only too clear. And then they had to discuss exactly how to deal with the fallout from her being Julian Jerome's daughter.

OoOoOo…Author's Note….

I know that it has been a long time since I worked on my stories. I lost my muse for a long time with everything that had happened. But I am trying to get back in the rhythm. This story started calling to me a couple days ago. I hope that you all are still interested in it. I am also going to try and get a new chapter up for my Glo story if any of you are still reading.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. I reread some of the reviews earlier and wanted to say thanks for your support of my story.