Jason extracts revenge on Port Charles and becomes Elizabeth's Guardian Angel.


Avenging Devil Prompt - If a candle flame turns blue, it means a ghost is in the house.
Santa Angel Prompt - A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together. ~Garrison Keillor
Avenging Devil
Prompt - If a candle flame turns blue, it means a ghost is in the house.

She was an invisible specter. She moved through life quiet and unassuming, never drawing attraction to herself. Many days it seemed people forgot she was even there. He wondered how they thought their food appeared before them, or things got done considering they never took the time to acknowledge her or thank her.

She was a hollow shell of a person, and Jason wanted to rage in anger and frustration wondering how nobody else saw it. Were these people so wrapped up in their own selfish lives that they couldn't see that Elizabeth Webber was slowly dying right before their very eyes? That she was wasting away into skin and bones, emotionless, expressionless...lifeless, and if someone didn't do something soon they'd discover an emaciated corpse in her studio? How could they not know what was happening?

Of course, Jason knew that he held a measure of blame himself. He had asked others to look out for the brunette artist, but he had never reached out to contact her. He told her she was more than a friend, but then left one January morning nearly three years ago and never sent her so much as a postcard. A fine way to thank the woman who had dragged him out of the snow, saved his life, fought the town on his behalf, and then practically pleaded with him to stay.

Anger coursed through Jason, directed at himself, but also the citizens of Port Charles who claimed to be so thoughtful and caring, but were nothing more than selfish louts. In that moment, he knew that he was right to come back here. He knew that he was right to go forward with his plan of revenge and retribution. It was no hardship on his part to expand the scope of it, and extract a little extra; it seemed the least he could do.

The citizens of Port Charles would pay for what they had done to him, and to Elizabeth.

The Spencer family was surprisingly easy. Still in grief and mourning over the loss of Lucky, even though it had been years since the garage fire that claimed his life, they had not noticed when Jason went after their hidden supplies of cash and assets. They claimed to love Elizabeth like a daughter, had welcomed her into the family when Lucky was dating her, had grieved with her after the fire, and then turned on her like a pack of wild dogs when she formed a friendship with the enforcer. They had expected her to stay exactly as she was, as they were; frozen in that night that Lucky died. She was not allowed to have her own life, or form new friends, or even perhaps fall in love again one day. She was to stay loyal to the memory of a boy who was never coming back.

When the IRS audited the Spencers, raided the blues club and Laura's company Deception, seized their assets and their home, Jason had not minded at all. He had his lawyer set up a trust fund for the youngest child that could not be touched or garnished. Her grandmother was named the trustee on the account, the only one able to access it until Lulu Spencer turned twenty-five, and when Luke and Laura decided to flee to avoid prosecution and the humiliation that came from the fraud charges brought against them, they left their daughter with Leslie Webber.

The Cassadines were next. Nikolas had claimed to be Elizabeth's friend, but when he thought she had chosen Jason over him, he had shown he truly was Helena's grandson and had turned vicious and cruel. He called her a slut and told her she was disgracing Lucky's memory, that she must have led Tom Baker on, and she deserved to be alone. Nobody would want her now that Jason had used her and abandoned her, but perhaps if she was nice to the prince, he might see it within him to honor his brother and take care of her. That he meant to make her his kept woman was clear to Elizabeth and she told him she'd rather starve than accept his offer.

Nikolas set out to punish her, but Jason punished him. Cassadine companies were raided, bought by numerous shell corporations, dismantled and sold off for enormous profits. Helena Cassadine was murdered in her bed, Stefan was taken off to prison and Alexis was disbarred for ethics violations. Nikolas' advisors were gone, and he soon found himself unable to stop the tide turning against the family. He was forced to sell off family holdings, properties in various corners of the world, and he took the generous offer on Spoon Island because it allowed him to pay the back taxes and fines on the Cassadine island off of Greece. He was forced to go to exile there with a diminished staff and a house bare of ancient antiquities and artifacts. The prince was nothing more than a pauper and Jason intended to keep him that way.

With each person that fled town, Elizabeth gained a little more life. She no longer slinked around the corner in shadows, frightened and fearful that she would be unceremoniously attacked and eviscerated merely for their whims and pleasures. While he could see that she felt for the people's sudden turn of misfortune, she had long ceased having the ability to offer them sympathy for the years of abuse and cruelty they'd heaped on her. She began to blossom while they faded, and Jason was grateful he could help her in some small way.

His next attacks would be his most satisfactory, for Sonny, Carly and her worthless mother would fall. And fall hard. For they were the biggest cause of Elizabeth's misery.

After all that Jason had done for Sonny, after all that he had sacrificed and labored for the older man, everything between them had changed that night in November. The night Sonny thought he could save Jason from Carly by showing the younger man just what the woman truly was. As if Jason somehow did not already know. He knew that Carly was the kind of woman who would scheme and do anything to get what she wanted, he also knew - based on how she slept with A.J. in Jason's room at Jake's - that she would sleep with anybody. It wasn't an unknown fact to him.

Deep down, Jason was sure that Sonny truly believed what he was saying; that he slept with Carly to prove a point to Jason. He did prove a point that night, just not about Carly. Sonny proved that he was selfish and greedy and he wanted everything, people included. The fact that Jason had a woman panting after him during a time when Sonny did not, that Jason could have a child to love and care for when Sonny's only child had died along with Lily in a car explosion, had burned at Sonny. Why should Jason have a chance at a family when Sonny did not? Sonny had slept with Carly, not to save Jason, but to steal Jason's life because the older man couldn't bear the thought that his brain-damaged enforcer had something he didn't.

When Jason refused to forgive Sonny and Carly, when he left town to get away from their constant pressures to forgive him, their lack of respect for him, and their harassment of Elizabeth, he thought his absence would spare her. Instead, without him there to shelter her, they had turned on her. When A.J. had divorced Carly and taken Michael from her, Carly blamed Elizabeth. The brunette must have had something to do with the fact that Jason didn't help her or protect her little boy when he had promised he always would. While Jason didn't like his older brother, he'd had a talk with A.J. and told him that if he didn't clean his life up and stand up to their grandfather, that Jason would take Michael one night and raise the little boy himself. He was willing to allow A.J. a chance at fatherhood, because nobody deserved to live with Carly as their mother.

The fact that she had a child with Sonny did not bother Jason. The fact that she neglected that child and Sonny was disinterested in it because it was a girl did not bother him either. He was done cleaning up their messes or telling them to act like grown-ups. Carly mourned for her son that she was certain would bind her to Jason, and Sonny only wanted a son to perpetuate his business. And in their bitterness and misery with being bound to a person they loathed and despised, they turned on Elizabeth.

Carly insisted her mother fire Elizabeth from Kelly's and the nurse had complied. Sonny had not looked out for Elizabeth, any more than he'd looked out for Emily and the rest of the Quartermaines. He tormented the family, even Lila, with his presence at ELQ board meetings and often let Carly go in his place to vote his proxy. He did nothing to rein in his wife from going to Jake's where Elizabeth had found employment, until Jake had stood up to the vicious woman and had her arrested and banned from the bar. The bar owner had been the one person to protect Elizabeth and stand up for her to the town, especially after Emily was hurt by one of Sonny's enemies and sent out of state to rehab her broken back.

For their sins, the three would pay.

Kelly's began to have distribution and supply problems that even Sonny in his might and power couldn't fix. Customers began staying away, the city and federal government came after Bobbie during the raid on Luke's assets and the diner was seized and sold at auction. Jake bought it with money Jason had given her and hired Elizabeth to be the manager. No longer did she have to wait tables, she was in charge and she could refuse service to anyone. Sonny, Carly and Bobbie were at the top of her list.

The mafia don was outraged at first, but soon his attention was diverted elsewhere, because a systematic attack on his empire and business was initiated. Supply lines were interrupted, product went missing, and accounts were raided. Struggling to find the necessary cash flow, Sonny authorized Benny to begin selling off outlying properties. Jason low-balled the offers, giving Sonny just enough money to survive a few weeks longer, but never enough to truly get ahead. The floundering mafia boss was in a state of constant want, which led to a state of constant anxiety. The older man fell into his pattern of making rash decisions, outrageous bids to seize other holdings and powers and in the process alienated the very people he was in an uneasy alliance with.

Jason never had to be faced with the decision over whether to eliminate Sonny or not. He merely stood back and watched other people take down the failing don. Once he was dead and Carly found herself facing the ignominy of merely being the widow of a mobster and nobody respecting her, and having the IRS investigating her estate, she fled with her daughter and mother and Jason was finally free of those he had long ago seen for who they really were.

He stayed hidden, though, not wanting to cause anyone to think he was planning to take over for Sonny despite having dissolved his partnership with the betrayer years previous. He merely watched from a distance as Elizabeth Webber regained her vibrancy, regained her spirit and love for live and was now seen as the beloved granddaughter of General Hospital's venerable doctor and nurse duo, instead of someone overlooked. The Quartermaines flourished with Sonny Corinthos gone, and at Jake's gentle prodding, Elizabeth once again focused on her art.

Maybe one day he would come into her life again. Maybe one day he would feel as if he had atoned for the wrongs he'd perpetrated against her. If not, he would at least be content in the knowledge that Elizabeth no longer looked like she was destined to slip silently into an early grave.

Santa Angel
Prompt - A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together. ~Garrison Keillor

The last time Elizabeth could remember enjoying Christmas was the year Jason recuperated at her studio. Certain that she'd find no joy in the season since Lucky was dead, she had been shocked into action by finding Jason lying in the snow nearly dead. She'd had no choice but to push her thoughts and memories aside and focus on getting him better. Then she had to protect him from the town, her friends and his own; it hadn't left her with time to wallow in her misery over Lucky. She'd found herself looking forward to the holiday, purchasing a tree, making decorations and finding herself filled with embarrassed joy that Jason actually bought her a gift.

That good feeling had disappeared when he had and the good citizens of Port Charles had become the bane of her existence. She didn't buy a tree, she didn't feel like celebrating and she purchased a gift for her grandmother and attended mandatory gatherings with the older woman, all the while wishing she could just go back to her studio and try to pretend December 25th was just any other day of the year.

However, as Christmas approached this year, she kinda, sorta found herself looking forward to the day. Just a little. Not a lot; not enough to actually get a tree and decorate it, but enough so that she wasn't completely dreading the day. She actually enjoyed going out and finding her grandmother's gift, instead of dragging herself out and telling herself she had to find something for the older woman. She also picked up a little something for Jake who had become a friend to her in the past months. She sent a card to Emily and the girls had made plans to talk on the phone in the evening. It wasn't much, but it was something.

The past year had brought so many changes to Port Charles and even though she had no proof, she knew Jason was behind them. Who else could mess with the Spencer, Cassadine and Corinthos families and bring them all to ruin? She told herself she shouldn't relish in other people's misery and misfortunes, but the years of their constant attacks and mistreatments had left her hardened to their plights. So when Luke and Laura fled, when Nikolas was brought down to pauper level and Sonny died and Carly, her daughter and Bobbie all had to flee to town, she hadn't been sad to see them go. Not after the years of putting up with their bruising words and harassments.

There was a part of her that took perverse pleasure in managing Kelly's and knowing that Jake owned it. She could make her own hours, hire the people that she wanted to and she didn't feel bad at all about telling Sonny, Carly and Bobbie that they were no longer welcome at her establishment. Bobbie had seen too late that it was punishment for her behavior towards the brunette artist, but Sonny and Carly had only seen it as someone turning on them and had been vitriolic in their abuse. She had let them spew their insults and then called the police, not caring a bit. Because she no longer was going to be cowed by the likes of Sonny and Carly, and she also knew with every fiber of her being that Jason was watching out for her and he would step in if it got really out of hand.

When Sonny's empire crumbled after the man's death, she had been certain that Jason would arrive back in town then. He'd step in, take over the business, and she'd get to see him again. Lila and the rest of the Quartermaines had thought the same thing, and they'd all been surprised - and even disappointed - when it hadn't happened. Some men in Sonny's organization fled, others were arrested, and whenever someone tried to rise up and take control of the city again, the police stepped in with swiftness and accuracy and took the aspiring criminals out. Elizabeth didn't think Jason was working with the cops, but it was a little surprising that he hadn't stepped in to take over. Of course, she'd noticed that none of the men he'd worked closely with, that she would have considered him friendly with, had stayed in town; the men sent to jail had been those that Sonny had hired after Jason left town and never came back.

Now that Port Charles was free from the sickening influence of Sonny Corinthos and the mob and the Spencers and Cassadines were soon going to fade into obscurity, Elizabeth found it easier to go through her days. She was painting once again, encouraged by Jake, and finding joy in it once more. She was saving some money and beginning to think about the future instead of just getting by day to day. While her grandmother didn't like that Elizabeth was friends with a woman who owned a bar, she was aging too rapidly and it was sapping too much of her strength for the older woman to really put up much of a protest. Audrey was the only thing keeping Elizabeth in town and she was saddened to think that her grandmother probably wouldn't be around next year and then there would be nothing tying her down to Port Charles. Maybe she'd take off like Jason and never come back.

Shaking her head to clear those thoughts, Elizabeth focused on her task at hand. She'd sent the other workers home and had said she'd finish cleaning and closing the diner. She'd done it enough in her life that she knew how get it done in no time, and she didn't mind staying behind because she didn't have any plans for the evening. It might be Christmas Eve, but there were no parties to go to, and her gram went to bed early these days and they'd decided to gather on Christmas day instead of trying to get together the night before.

She knew it was pointless to think about Jason and wish he'd come back to Port Charles, or that he'd at least contact her somehow. She'd wished for that too many times in the nearly four years since he left town that snowy day in January. He never sent a postcard or called, he didn't come back to town; he told her she was his friend, that they were more than friends, and then he dropped out of her life completely. She'd gone through the gamut of feelings in regards to that. She'd been angry at him for discarding her like a used piece of gum, for leaving her to deal with all the mess of Port Charles; she'd prayed and pleaded with any deity she could think of for him to come back or at least contact her; she'd been sad, she'd been in denial that he couldn't have forgotten her as easily as it appeared and something must have been wrong, she'd been worried on his behalf, she'd felt it all. Now she was just resigned to the fact that he was gone.

Apparently he could go after everybody else in Port Charles and have Jake look out for her, but he couldn't contact her himself. Some great friendship there. It wasn't arrogance or pride that told her that Luke and Laura's troubles along with Nikolas' had been connected to her. Jason going after Sonny and Carly made sense, but there was no reason for him to go after the others. Except for the fact that they'd attacked her and belittled her and turned their backs on her. Jake suddenly contacting her hadn't been coincidental either, despite the older woman trying to deny it.

So Elizabeth knew that there was no point in thinking about Jason Morgan. He would only end up disappointing her again. She'd had enough disappointment and hurt over him; she'd merely come to expect it and she knew that this year would be no different. So she didn't wish for him to show up, for him to slip a Christmas card into the mail, or to even call. Jason had come into town and extracted revenge, but there was certainly nothing that enticed him to stick around. She wasn't foolish enough anymore to think that he might actually want to talk to her or speak to her.

Once the diner was closed up and the sign put out telling customers they'd see them the day after Christmas, Elizabeth bundled up in her coat, slipped her hands into her pockets and cut across the docks to head to her studio. It was less frightening to do so now that the mob was gone, and Elizabeth no longer rushed as she used to. Spoon Island was vacant, the harbor quiet, and she was grateful for the solitude as she made her way back to her small apartment. No din from the coffee warehouse, no chance of seeing someone she didn't want to see, and no foolish hopes of Jason waiting down by the bench they used to meet at. She liked it that way.




The soft beep drew her from sleep and she groaned, annoyed at her alarm clock waking her up. She went to reach out her hand lazily to press snooze, but her body didn't comply. Her hand remained at her side, and the alarm clock continued to beep, picking up the tempo to chastise her for not stopping it sooner. Still, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get her arm to move and soon she simply forgot about the alarm clock and just went back to sleep. A little more time and then she'd get up to go to her grandmother's house for Christmas.




Her bed had never felt this good.

Even when she'd had a bed at her grandmother's house, it had never been this soft. The couch at her studio was old and lumpy and Elizabeth had learned the different ways to sleep so as to minimize aching muscles the next day. But this bed, it was like sleeping on a cloud. Soft, with warm sheets wrapped around her. It felt sinful and decadent and it made it so hard to wake from their wonderful embrace. And she found she didn't want to.

Why wake from this beautiful dream? Why wake from bliss? For once her heater was working, she was cozy and protected and she had absolutely no wish to wake up and face reality. She let out a sigh and snuggled back into the warmth of her bed and let herself drift off once more.




Her alarm clock was going off again and she frowned at the sound. Why was it that every time she was in the middle of a wonderful dream the thing always went off and woke her up? With a sleepy curse directed at the annoying device, she reached out her hand, aiming for the small table by the couch. Instead, she merely encountered more sheets, over more bed. She tried to open her eyes, fighting against the pervading desire to sleep, and turned her head. There was no table because there was no couch. She was on a bed, in a room and she could still hear the infernal alarm clock as its tempo once again increased, mocking at her and scolding her for not turning it off. If she'd known about that little annoying feature when she'd bought the stupid thing she would have left it at the store. She had to get to it soon or it would hit its high-pitched frequency that sounded like a bomb ticking down about to explode.

There was a rustle somewhere beyond the field of her vision and she turned her sluggish head, searching for the person who could hear the stupid electronic device but was doing nothing to stop it. All thoughts of her alarm clock vanished when a tall, imposing figure approached and then sat down beside her. Her eyes were wide, meeting his equally shocked gaze as Jason Morgan gaped at her.

"You're awake."

She stared at him. "Jason? What...what's going on?"

He sighed and scrubbed his hand over his forehead and then said, "Jake called me. You...you were mugged Christmas Eve on your way home and were taken to General Hospital. You were on the stairs when the mugger went after you and you took a pretty hard fall."

He licked his lips and then said, "You've been unconscious for over a month."

All she could do was stare at him and whisper, "A...a month?"

Shifting on his chair he said regretfully, "Audrey...when the police went to tell her what happened...she had a stroke. She...she's getting treatment. In fact...I brought her here as well because I knew you'd want her taken care of and close by and she didn't want to be apart from you because she was concerned about you just lying in a hospital room, but with her own condition she couldn't really visit you."

"Gram?" she questioned. "You're...you're taking care of Gram? Why?"

"Because she's important to you," he said simply. "We've...we've had some interesting conversations."

"But why are you here?" she persisted. "You've been gone for years...you never came back after you got rid of Sonny and Carly and the rest of them. Why...why did you suddenly come back now?"

Jason sighed heavily and said, "I...I stayed away because it was my fault they were treating you like that and even though I got rid of everyone...I couldn't just barge into your life."

"I wanted you to barge into my life," she insisted angrily. "Didn't you understand me at all?"

"Jake kept trying to tell me," he said regretfully. "I...I was actually coming back to Port Charles for Christmas...I was going to try to work up enough courage to talk to you."

"I'm not scary, Jason," she told him wearily. "I thought we were friends and then you just dropped out of my life. It really hurt."

"I told myself that you were better off without the kind of trouble I could bring you," he tried to explain. "I thought that if I could make you happy, then that was at least something."

"You've been gone for a while, but there are some things we have to work on," she told him. "If we're going to be friends, you have to realize that I want my friends near me. Not looking out for me like some weird guardian angel. It wasn't your fault what happened to me; I chose to lie to everyone to protect you. So stop acting like a martyr and be my friend."

The corners of his lips turned up and he said, "I'll keep that in mind. But feel free to give me another big, ol' scary speech if I ever forget."

"Don't you know it's not nice to tease the infirmed?" she huffed.

"Oh," he smiled sardonically, "I know all about taking care of someone who's injured. It requires lots of soup, off-key singing and teasing. Think you're up for it, Webber?"



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