Crazy, Cosmic Chance

1) I don't own General Hospital or any part of Port Charles, its characters, or history. You'd know if I did, cause everything'd be coming up Jarly!

2) This story will revisit certain points in GH history, but with a new Jarly spin!

3) This is a Jarly story. All other characters may be written as friend, foe, or fodder. You've been warned!!

~~JARLY~~JARLY~~JARLY~~

"You bitch. It was you. Of course it was you." Carly exclaimed, shaking her head, studying Ava with disdain, "Killing Morgan wasn't enough?" She scowled, the tears on her face doing nothing to soften her anger.

Ava flinched at the mention of Morgan's name, a moments remorse flickering in her eyes, before they hardened once more. Determinedly, she attempted to tear her arm from Carly's grip, "I don't know what you're talking about Carly." She lied out of self-preservation, trying to buy time to get away from the dangerous blonde. And there was no doubt in her mind that, at that moment, Carly Spencer was definitely dangerous.

"Bullshit. You're the only person with access to Sonny's meds that would even think about tampering with them. But it worked so well for you last time, huh?" Carly snarled, her free hand swinging and striking Ava with a slap that reverberated throughout the kitchen.

Jason rushed through the back door, having heard Carly yelling her accusations from outside. Carly shifted in surprise, one foot turning towards the door, and her hold slackened unconsciously. Seeing Ava take advantage of the momentary loosening of Carly's grasp, he lunged forward, knowing in his gut that nothing good would come from that movement. He was proven right, as Ava twisted free of Carly's hand, shoving hard against her to put space between herself and her accuser. Caught unprepared, her precarious position paired with the power of Ava's push, sent Carly hurdling back. Before Jason could reach her, her head connected with the countertop, the mix of momentum and marble meeting with a sickening thud.

"Carly" Carly heard Jason call, but he sounded muted and so far away. "Carly, hold on for me." She could barely make out his face in the growing fog. "Carly, please." Jason begged before the blackness fully enveloped her and she drifted away into nothingness.

~~JARLY~~JARLY~~JARLY~~

"Carly" Jason pleaded, his voice hoarse with repetition, "Just open your eyes". Fear tinged his voice as Jason rested his head against their entwined hands. Hours had passed with no sign of life from the blonde in the hospital bed, the monitors around him the only reassurance that she was still here. Still breathing, still with him. "Please Carly," he tried again with little hope.

"Jase," came her whispered voice, sounding thick and croaky, but so much like music to his frightened ears.

"Carly," he breathed out in grateful tones, pushing the call button even as he tightened his grasp on her hand for a brief moment, "You're gonna be ok. It's gonna be ok," he promised.

Carly tried to swallow, glancing around the room through narrowed, sensitive eyes. Her head was pounding and her body felt sore. Everything seemed familiar, but oddly out of date for the modern, high tech facilities she was used to at General Hospital. Bringing her gaze back to Jason's, she asked, "What happened," flinching at the pain ripping through her dry throat.

"You were on the floor, unconscious. The Doctor said you lost a lot of blood. I got you here as fast as I could. They've been monitoring you ever since. But Car," Jason stopped, taking a deep breath, deciding to wait for the Doctor before he told her the rest, "you really scared me," he finished truthfully.

Carly looked over his face, seeing the worry and exhaustion written across his gorgeous, if slightly blurred, features. There was something else. She wonders if he'll ever realize that she knows him just as thoroughly as he knows her. That she can read him and hear the things he doesn't say, just as clearly as what he does. Right now, he's not telling her everything. Just as she opens her mouth to ask the barrage of questions running through her mind, the door to her room opens. The sight of the nurse entering strips every thought from Carly's mind.

"Ms. Roberts," the nurse begins, her voice professional, though cold and impersonal, "it's good to see you back with us." The inflection of her words betrays the fact that she only partially means them. The nurse forces a smile as she moves closer to the bed, "I'll need to check your vitals. The Doctor should be in to see you shortly."

Too stunned for words, Carly's eyes drink in the sight before her. She mindlessly follows directions, opening her mouth for the thermometer. Bobbie Spencer, in all her fiery glory, right in front of her, alive and well, younger than Carly can remember her looking in ages. Bobby's refusing to meet her stare and she's out of the room before Carly can get her brain to function again. Her mother. Her mother's alive. Her tears leave hot tracks on her cheeks as the thought repeats itself over and over in her mind.

"Carly, are you alright? Are you in pain?" Jason's voice breaks through her daze, "Do I need to call someone?" He asks, alarmed, grabbing the call button once more.

"No," Carly whispers, "No," she repeats a little stronger, gazing at Jason in wonder. "My mother, Jason. My mother's alive."

The worry in Jason's eyes only deepens, he questions, "Why wouldn't Bobby be alive, Carly? Are you sure you're ok?"

She blinks, noting the concern and confusion in his tone. Trying to digest his words, she buys time, asking, "Can I have some water please?"

Jason jumps up, blaming the fear and exhaustion for not getting her a drink already, knowing the dry fire in her throat first hand. "Sorry," he says, somewhat sheepishly.

Watching him maneuver around the room, Carly's senses hone in on him. She blames the ache, that seems to be everywhere in her body, for not having cataloged the differences before. This is not her Jason. Or at least, this isn't the Jason that was holding her in her kitchen seemingly minutes before. This is not her best friend, the man she's spent the last several decades memorizing.

And yet, Carly concedes, he's still her Jason. It's in his eyes, everything she needs to know to understand exactly who she's looking at. This Jason is still relatively new to the World, and though they're still best friends, there's also something undeniable and unspoken between them. There's hope, potential, the promise of something more that hasn't been obliterated yet. This is Jason before she betrayed him, before he broke her, before years of denial buried the best of them.

Carly glances around the room once more, seeing it all through clearer eyes. It's not some outdated, podunk place with questionable decor. It's General Hospital, but decades before the hospital she's grown use to now. She sips slowly, beginning to put the pieces together. The room is familiar, she's definitely been here before. Bobby was short with her, and refused to make eye contact. The light in Jason's eyes is brighter than it's been in decades. He found her unconscious, he said, and that she'd lost a lot of blood. Gingerly, her hands move to her abdomen, as a tentative when flutters through her mind. Fear grips her, past and present sharing space, as the last piece fell into place. "Michael?" She cries out.

Jason takes both her hands, kissing them lightly, and kicking himself for stalling earlier, "They had to do a cesarean, he's small, but he's alive and in the NICU. The Doctor was checking him out when I came back in here to sit with you. We're just waiting on an update." He reassured her, drinking in the signs of life bringing color back to her face. For a while there, he thought he was going to lose her. Lose both of them. He hadn't realized how much they'd come to mean to him until he'd had to face the thought of life without them both. Regardless of what any DNA test said, Michael was his son. He and Carly, they were his family.

Memories overcome her panic. Carly tried to place the exact when in her past she was in. Things were hazy, she assumed decades had a way of doing that, but she could vaguely recall this moment being different. She'd woken up a little later in the chain of events. Jason had been sitting by her bed, having learned Michael needed surgery, and worried about making the wrong choice without her. This time, they would go through it all together.

Carly wasn't sure if everything bouncing around in her head was some fever dream caused by blood loss and hospital meds. Maybe she'd gone insane. Or, as impossible and improbable as it might be, if she'd actually traveled back in time. All she knew was it felt like she'd been given a second chance. She was going to hold tight to those wild, unknown, and yet oh-so realistic images in her mind. Carly was going to make sure that if this was some crazy, cosmic chance at redemption, she got things right this time.

~~JARLY~~JARLY~~JARLY~~

To Be Continued