Alternate Reality series. Michael is kidnapped, and he has an interesting cellmate.


Part 1 Prompt - Finding the Road to Paradise
Part 2 Prompt - The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
Part 3 Prompt - Pink Poodles
Part 4 Prompt - Cheese Fries
Part 5 Prompt - Still Married
Part 6 Prompt - The devil made me do it
Part 7 Prompt - Take the key and lock her up, lock her up, lock her up
Take the key, and lock her up - my fair lady
Part 8 Prompt - banana pancakes
Part 9 Prompt - Social Anxiety Disorder
Part 10 Prompt - Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do
Part 11 Prompt - You make me proud
Part 12 Prompt - Insignificantly enough, we both have significant others
Part 13 Prompt - Sex on the beach
Part 14 Prompt - Too Darn Hot
Part 15 Prompt - The Grass Is Always Greener...
Part 16 Prompt - For desired results, simply follow directions
Part 17 Prompt - The adventures of marriage
Part 18 Prompt - That Kind of Girl
Part 1
Prompt - Finding the Road to Paradise

Elizabeth Webber was not a good person.

She was selfish. She was immature. She hated her family. In fact, she'd been quite pleased when her parents dumped her with the neighbors her senior year and took off to Africa to go treat the underprivileged. Her sister Sarah - Perfect Sarah - was at college studying to be a doctor. Her older brother Steven, who was from her father's first marriage and so much older than her he'd been in high school when she was born, was a well respected doctor and forensic technician in New York. He'd recently moved from New York City to Port Charles where he took care of their aging grandmother as she suffered through the beginning stages of cancer treatments.

He was a freakin' saint. Or a chump. Elizabeth's money was on chump. She'd never really gotten along with Steven. It wasn't the age; it was that he was a carbon copy of their father. And Elizabeth did not get along well with her father at all. She only marginally got along better with him than her mother. So she was perfectly content to let Steven go play noble doctor with their grandmother. She didn't care that she probably would be cut out of the old lady's will. She thought about going out there and playing nicey-nice just to get the money, but couldn't do it. She'd be showing her true colors in a week and high-tailing it out of there.

Elizabeth liked her life in Colorado. She painted, sold her pictures in high-end towns that tourists flocked to like buzzards to road kill in the summer time and lived a comfortably modest existence. It wasn't perfect, but at least she didn't have her nosey family butting into it; they'd learned long ago to go their way and let her go hers.

So she'd been extremely displeased when she'd been grabbed on her way home one night by associates of her brother's. She couldn't even begin to imagine what business her brother would have with people who wore cheap suits, too much grease in their hair and shoulder holsters. They said she was insurance to make sure her brother cooperated with their boss's scheme. She'd laughed in their face and told them her brother wouldn't give her a warm bucket of spit if she was on fire; they'd clearly grabbed the wrong sister. They would have been better off grabbing the blonde one in Boston. They hadn't been amused and she'd ended up with a split lip.

And then they left her alone for three days except for coming in to give her food even death row inmates would complain about. But on the fourth day, the door opened, and they shove a little red-headed boy through and shut the door. Leaving her alone with the brat. Who wouldn't stop crying. And Elizabeth Webber who shunned her friends when they got married and spit out babies, was suddenly a twenty-four hour babysitter. Just her luck.

But somewhere after the eleventh hour of crying, something inside her shifted. And she walked across the room and tried to comfort the little boy. She was so inept and so awkward that she only seemed to make matters worse, so she stood up and stalked back to her place on the bed. Where she promptly pretended to go to sleep. Until she felt a scared, shaking, sniffling little boy climb up beside her, and turn to her for comfort. And the ice around her heart melted a little more.

When the guards came with breakfast the next morning she demanded to know how long she was going to be stuck with the brat, but when the doors closed she turned to him and made sure he ate his breakfast, and even gave him a little of her own when he still seemed hungry. And that's how she suddenly became Michael Corinthos, The Third's very best friend. All by giving him her canned pear slice.

She talked to him to keep his mind off what was happening, telling him stories she tried to remember or made up on the spot. He, with the brutal honesty of kids, told her she was a lousy storyteller. But that it was okay because his Uncle Jason stunk too, but made up for by talking about places he'd traveled to. So Elizabeth told Michael about Colorado. She talked about skiing in the winter, hiking the flower-covered mountains in the spring and summer, and described the bonanza of color in the fall when the leaves turned and the forests exploded like they were on fire. He loved hearing about Colorado and she talked until her throat was scratchy and her voice was hoarse. And when she could talk no more, she would simply hold his hand to give him strength.

That was when he began talking to her. He told her about his father and living in Port Charles. It was a small world, and she never told him she knew anybody that lived there, she simply listened. Michael told her about the people he knew and the places he'd been, but his favorite subject to talk about was his Uncle Jason.

Elizabeth was certain that the great man described was a product of a child's typical embellishments and exaggerations, and if he was half the man Michael described he still sounded too good to be true. The little boy didn't come out and say it, but she'd surmised in the things he said that his father and his beloved uncle were mobsters. It certainly fit her assessment of the men who'd grabbed her. What she couldn't understand was how come she was grabbed along with Michael, when by all accounts her straight arrow brother who worked for the police would be on opposite sides of the law from the boy's father. It was a mystery, and she spent as much time trying to figure it out as she did trying to figure out a way for her and Michael to escape.

So far, she hadn't come up with anything, but she wasn't giving up. The problem was, the door was only opened when their captors brought in food. One guard carried their plates, another stood in the hallway, with a very large, and very prominent, gun. She couldn't figure out how she'd get passed them, and even if she did, she knew she couldn't leave Michael behind. So, she did the only thing she could, she stayed and prayed. Something she hadn't done in a very long time.

"Elizabeth?"

She blinked as the silence was broken and looked over at Michael as he lay on the bed, his eyes large with fear and curiosity. "Hey, you're supposed to be asleep," she chided softly with a smile.

"Do you think they'll kill us?"

Her heart stilled and then leapt up to take lodging in her throat. She'd hoped he hadn't woken from his nap earlier in the day when Dumb and Ugly had told her that time was running out for their family back home to start cooperating. If something didn't happen soon, they'd have to send a message to their loved ones. Elizabeth had a shiver of fear go down her back because she knew exactly what message Ugly was talking about.

"I don't know, Michael," she said softly, wishing she could say something different to him, but knowing he could tell when she was lying. "They sounded serious, but it could have been a bluff. It's not like we can call up your father or my brother and tell them what they said. They're probably just tired like we are and they're getting bored, and when people get like that they say things just because."

She was pleased that it sounded like she might even believe that herself. What really mattered was whether Michael did.

"I sure hope Uncle Jason finds us soon," he said, repeated his oft-voiced wish. He was certain that his uncle was out looking for him and would find the both of them. She had no doubt that Jason Morgan was looking for Michael, but the United States was a very big place, and the world was even larger. It would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack and they could be long dead before the little boy's hero stumbled across them.

"I sure hope so too, buddy," she said, more for something to say than out of truly believing the words.

"You should try to get some sleep, Michael."

He yawned and snuggled down on the bed and she cast a worried glance at the door. When the guard had brought dinner in tonight, he'd looked at them differently. She was afraid that any second the door would open and their fate would be sealed.

But the door didn't open that night or the next, and gradually they began to relax. That was her mistake. She got complacent. Because on the second night the door swung open and banged sharply against the wall, jerking both of them from their sleep. Ugly was across the room in a flash and grabbed Michael off the bed. The little boy's screams filled the air as he was drug across the floor.

"Stop it!" she cried, scrambling off the bed and racing after Michael. Dumb was there to smash her on her shoulder with the butt of his gun, sending her crashing to the ground in pain.

"Elizabeth!" Michael screamed, as Ugly wrapped a gorilla arm around him and hoisted him in the air.

"Too bad your dad don't love you, kid," he said tauntingly, laughing as Michael's kicks bounced harmlessly off his shins. "Your daddy's going to learn that our boss means business."

"But he's just a boy," Elizabeth cried, struggling to get up and hoping that Dumb didn't send her sprawling back to the floor. "You think killing a boy is going to make his father cooperate with you? He'll just search harder to find you and kill you."

"Shut up," Dumb hissed and she cast a wary glance at him. "Besides, I thought you would have been relieved to have us take the brat."

"Elizabeth, please," Michael cried, as Ugly took a step backwards towards the door.

"Take me," she said, and the man stopped, shooting a look at Dumb.

She stood and repeated, a little surer this time. "Take me. Show his father my dead body and say that it could be him. That'll motivate him. Then your boss will get what he wants."

"No," Michael yelled. "Elizabeth, no!"

"It'll be okay, Michael," she promised him through a smile she hoped wasn't quaking. "You'll be okay."

Turning to Dumb she hoped he had two brain cells that would spark together. "Come on, what do you say? Deal?"

"Put the kid down," he instructed his partner as a meat hook masquerading as a hand closed over her arm. He immediately began dragging her out the door. "Let's go."

She looked back at Michael just before the door was closed and couldn't help wishing that Uncle Jason truly was the superhero Michael thought he was. Because if he didn't come crashing through the door in the next five minutes, she was going to die.

Part 2
Prompt - The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.

Jason Morgan knew the world was a big place. When he'd emerged from his coma eight years ago, not knowing anything, he hadn't realized there was much of a world beyond the hospital and the town of Port Charles he was stuck in.

Then he learned. The world was vast, and he was fascinated by it. Now that fascination seemed to be mocking him. The travel books of the many countries he had visited and longed to visited filled up not merely shelves in his penthouse, but multiple bookcases. While that knowledge once thrilled him, he could have endless possibilities of places to explore; now he hated knowing how large the world truly was. Because that meant Michael could be anywhere.

He had loved the little red-head boy since he was born, had helped raise him when his mother was unable to, and he'd watched him grow. Sometimes it hurt to watch him with Sonny, but Jason ultimately knew the situation was for the best. Sonny loved Carly, had been able to give her the life she had always longed for. While Jason had cared for the vibrant woman, he hadn't really been in love with her. Carly had deserved the joy and cherished tenderness she and Sonny had. It hadn't been easy on any of the three men when she had died several years ago when her car flew over an embankment and into the frigid waters of the lake. They all had been devastated.

Jason had lost his best friend, Michael had lost his mother and Sonny had lost another wife. It had nearly broken Jason's friend, sending him into a grief tailspin that he only pulled out of because he had a little boy to raise. Sonny had held on tightly to Michael and poured all of his love into the child. Which was why he was an absolute wreck now that Michael had disappeared. The boy's guard had been knocked out on the way home from school and it had been three days since all that was found of Michael was his Harry Potter backpack and his gloves that he hated wearing.

Jason had spearheaded the search for the boy. Guards from the organization went anywhere they could think of, favors were called in with all of their associates across the world and snitches were beaten to within an inch of their lives if they'd seemed to be hiding information about where Michael was. So far, all they'd received for their efforts was a great big goose egg. Nobody knew anything, and Jason knew that with no ransom demand, they were running out of time. Of course, he didn't say that to Sonny, but the shadows creeping into his friend's eyes signaled he knew.

His penthouse had turned into command central. The phone rang day and night with men calling in, reporting and receiving instructions. People walked in and out with a determined purpose. And Sonny remained locked in his home across the hall, the shades drawn, the barware smashed and the bourbon flowing like water. Jason checked in frequently, more out of concern for the older man than having any news to report.

So when Sonny flew through the door three hours ago, hair disheveled and shirt untucked, claiming that he'd heard from the kidnappers, Jason was both hopeful and frightened. News this long after the kidnapping could be just a report of death, or they could finally be making their demands known. It had, thankfully, been the latter.

The kidnappers had called, demanding the shipping rights down in Puerto Rico, along with Sonny's casinos there, or they would kill the little boy. Not only did the people who had stolen Michael have Sonny's private number, they also had the one to his fax machine, and they faxed several pictures to show their clear intentions. What had been a surprise to both men was the woman in the pictures with Michael. She was petite, dark-haired and clearly a captive as well. Judging by the way she was bound, gagged, and blindfolded in the last picture.

Sign over the casinos and shipping companies within 24 hours or the woman dies. The boy in 48.

The note, typed in bold font at the bottom of the page, was a clear indication of their intent. As had been Michael screaming and reaching for the woman as she was dragged from the bedroom. Whoever this woman was, she would die unless Sonny capitulated to the kidnappers' demands. She was an unknown, a possible plant to win Michael's affections and Sonny's sympathies, or she was in very grave danger. They weren't taking any chances; they assumed she was in danger.

The phone beside Jason chirped and he picked it up, grateful for the distraction in the quiet drone of the airplane. "Yeah."

"We've started the paperwork. We'll make it look like we're going to agree to their demands. How far out are you?"

"Almost there," he replied. "Stan's meeting me at the airport."

"Good, good." There was a pause and then Sonny's voice shook slightly as he said, "Jason, bring him home. And find out what's going on."

"I will," he vowed, and silently slid the phone back into the cradle.

Stan Marinsky was their point man in Las Vegas. Word had drifted to him that several freelancers had been hired to do a job, for who it wasn't yet clear, but the targets were said to be a woman and a boy. Doing some digging he found their trail had gone to Colorado and then to North Dakota near the Canadian border. He'd headed up there, and snooped around, then reported in to Jason. Jason made it to the airport in twenty minutes where he boarded the jet that had been fueled and waiting since Michael's disappearance.

When the plane landed a short time later, he exited quickly, pulling his jacket tighter around him to ward against the snow that was falling. Stan was waiting by the metal building, bundled up like an Eskimo. Immediately the short man stepped forward. "Jason."

"Stan," he dipped his head and followed him to the waiting car. Once they were inside, he turned slightly. "What have you found?"

"A couple of weeks ago an abandoned property was purchased, and then several upgrades were made to the place. Charmed the panties right off a pretty little thing at the county records office, got the blueprints in the back." Jason didn't turn for them, he wouldn't be able to make them out, and so he motioned for Stan to continue. "I've studied the layout; it's going to be a pain to get up to the house. Not just from the road, but also since the area around the place has been cleared."

"Don't worry. You get me there; I'll find a way inside." It wasn't vain boasting, it was a simple statement of fact that Jason intended to see happened one way or the other. There was no way he was going to let Michael be harmed. He had two goals. Get inside, secure Michael and the woman. When that was accomplished, then he would find out who hired these goons and why.

"Okay," Stan murmured. "It's going to be about twenty-five minutes 'fore we get there."

Jason knew that in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that long. But it was a very long time for a worried uncle to wait. However, if they went too fast they risked running into an overanxious highway patrol officer who would unnecessarily complicate their lives.

In the silence of the car, the sudden ringing of his cell phone sounded like an explosion and he reached for the object, wondering what had happened in the short time he'd spoken to Sonny. Clicking it on, he asked, "Yeah?"

"Jason?"

"Johnny? What's wrong?"

"The kidnappers called. You better hear this."

There was a brief moment and then Jason heard the faint click of a tape recorder starting.

"What's taking so long, Corinthos? You haven't even contacted our man you were supposed to. You wouldn't be trying to play games with us, would you? Don't believe we'd really kill your son or the woman? Maybe you need a little persuasion."

"Daddy?"

"Michael?" Sonny's voice carried relief and guilt all at the same time.

"Daddy, please, they'll kill her. You can't let them kill her."

"Who, Michael? Who?"

There was a scuffle and Sonny shouted for Michael again, but the little boy wasn't heard from again.

"You've raised a gallant little boy there, Corinthos. He grew rather attached to his companion. You should know that he's still in the room with us, we've just silenced him."

"If you harm him-" Sonny began.

"Shut up," the kidnapper cut in. "And listen up. Because I will shoot a new hole in the lovely lady here for every hour that passes without our man being contacted. Starting now."

Then the roar of a gunshot filled the car, causing Stan to look over sharply. And the unmistakable sound of a woman's screams followed shortly after, and Jason's grip around his phone tightened to the point of pain. The sick SOB shot her. And he didn't doubt that Michael was in the room when the whole thing took place. There was something in the man's voice that said he wasn't kidding.

The tape clicked off and Jason breathed out slowly. "Johnny?"

"Yeah?"

"Was there anything else in the call?"

"Ended right after the screams. Sonny's on the phone with the guy right now. Jason, he's going to give it all up if you don't get Michael back."

"We'll be at the house in ten minutes," Jason told him. "See if you guys can stall just a little bit."

"Okay," the other man sighed. "But, Jason, you only have forty minutes after you get there before they shoot her again. Depending on where they shot her this time..."

"Yeah," he breathed out. "She could bleed to death."

Part 3
Prompt - Pink Poodles

When Elizabeth was 15 years old, she'd had her wisdom teeth extracted by an incompetent oral surgeon who had begun the procedure before the anesthetic had fully kicked in. She could still remember those moments of pain before she was more fully knocked out, and had always avoided situations that could bring back those memories. But she didn't think it was just her low tolerance for pain that was the problem at the moment. Being shot was extremely painful. It made her wisdom teeth procedure feel like stubbing her toe in comparison.

She was certain that the only reason she wasn't on the floor in pain was because she was tied to the chair still. Stupid, crazy kidnappers. When she stepped forward to protect Michael, she thought they'd be shooting to kill. Not shooting to maim her and torment Michael's father. But she knew that even if they'd told her their real intentions she still would have begged to have taken Michael's place. She couldn't imagine having to sit by and watch him go through this pain.

Of course, the fact that he was watching when they shot her and hadn't been removed from the room since then, but was kept tied up in a chair on the other side probably wasn't helping him either. Sonny Corinthos was going to have to look into a really good child psychologist to help his son get over this experience. Knowing Michael was watching her, even if she couldn't see him because he was behind her, had kept her trying to keep control of her coping methods. She wanted to swear like a sailor and cry. Instead she just settled for biting her tongue until it bled while silent tears of pain burned scalding paths down her cheeks.

Slowly opening her eyes, Elizabeth peered at the clock across the room. It was difficult to make out the numbers, partly due to the small size of them, but also because the pain was making it difficult to focus. She couldn't tell if the second number was a three or a five. If it was a three, she had twenty minutes until she'd be shot again. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that these sick people would call Michael's father again and shoot her while on the phone with him. But if the number was a five, then she only had mere seconds until they went all psycho on her again.

Would they shoot the same shoulder, the other shoulder, or would they go lower this time and go for her legs? The macabre thoughts were being fed by the pain and the anxiety that at any second it could happen all over again. Maybe she'd be lucky and she'd pass out from the pain, and very likely the blood loss, after the next shot. She only hoped that didn't upset Michael too much.

"Your daddy is a stupid, stupid man, little boy," Ugly, the apparent brains and designated spokesman of the pair, said to Michael from somewhere behind them. They sounded so far away, Elizabeth absently wondered if they'd moved Michael.

Dumb then appeared suddenly in front of her, a sardonic smile on his face as he drew his gun from his shoulder holster. Her mouth went numb and even if she wasn't gagged, she didn't think she could have made a squeak, let alone actual words. The gorilla of a man leaned forward, the gun in front of him, and suddenly new fire was racing through her shoulder as he pressed the barrel against the wound. She yelled incoherently around her gag, nearly choking in the process while Michael screamed from behind her.

"Stop that, you're hurting her!" the little boy yelled, fresh tears filling her voice to match the ones that had erupted from Elizabeth's eyes.

Ugly laughed, low and twisted before replying. "You better get used to it, kid. If your father doesn't do what he's supposed to, she's going to be in a lot more pain soon. And when she's dead...it'll be your turn."

Her foot twitched against the ropes, an involuntary reflex to kick the man standing before her for the torment he was inflicting on Michael. Only cowards went after women and children, and these two were the lowest of the low. Her pain-addled brain had long since given up trying to figure out how Stephen was connected to them. That was an enigma that was going to have to wait until there weren't more pressing matters at hand. Like where she was going to be shot next.

"It's time to call Daddy," Ugly taunted and Dumb smirked in front of her. "Better tell him how concerned you are for your friend, Michael. Because she's the only reason you haven't been hurt yet."

Dumb stepped back and raised the weapon he held in his hand while Ugly's droning voice filled the air. She knew he was talking to Michael's father, but the words had become the buzzing of a bee hive. Her entire focus was on the yawning black hole of the gun in front of her. The hole where white hot fire would come shooting out at any second and bring another round of misery to her life. She closed her eyes and tried not to hyperventilate as she waited. And when the deafening roar of the gun filled the air, she flinched and waited for the pain.




Jason hated being rushed. He was methodical, careful and planned things out. The business he was in was unpredictable, but when he'd joined Sonny's organization he'd worked under a great mentor who made him practice contingency situations until he was so conditioned his responses were automatic. He knew how to handle a skidding car, a crashing motorcycle and an erupting gun battle, because he'd practice those things over and over and over. Before going to do a job, he'd study escape routes, building layouts and had backup scenarios three, sometimes four, deep.

But here he was flying blind. He was going off of line of sight, and vague descriptions and trying to get from the road to the house before an innocent woman was shot again. All without being detected by unseen defenses. It was enough to make even him curse the conditions.

Behind him, Stan was hugging the ground just like him as they crept towards the house. There was more than one armed person inside the house. Kidnappers usually worked in pairs, and Michael had said they when talking about who held him. But what did they mean? How many people would there be inside? Two, or twelve? Jason had never really worked with Stan on a situation like this, but he had to trust the man to be his backup, as well as help insure the lives and safety of Michael and the woman inside. They were only going to get one shot at this, and time was rapidly ticking by until the next time they shot the other captive.

After what felt like an eternity, he and Stan reached the back door of the house. They looked around for anything that would indicate obvious booby-traps or alarm wires, but they didn't have the time to do as thorough an inspection as they would like. By Jason's watch, they had less than five minutes until the deadline. They needed to get inside now. Pulling his picks out of his back pocket, he quickly set to work and soon the lock of the door popped open and he carefully twisted the knob, then cautiously opened the door. There were no obvious indicators, but who knew if a silent alarm had alerted the captors to their presence. They would just have to move quickly.

They eased inside, checking rooms as they passed and coming up empty. One door on the right held a small bed, and several empty dishes, along with a large lock, on the outside of the frame. One or both of the captives had once been held in the room. But they weren't there now.

Jason's head jerked up and his grip on his gun tightened when Michael's raised, panicked voice carried to them, and Stan tipped his head as more voices filled the air. He couldn't make out what was being said, but he knew that whatever it was, it wasn't good. Stan followed as he took point, and they slowed, and then stopped completely as they neared the entrance to a large room.

His blood boiled as he saw Michael tied up to a chair, one man standing to his side holding a cell phone. Shifting slightly, Jason got a larger view of the room, and saw the only other two occupants. One was Hal Rubio, a hired thug from San Diego, and the other was the woman from the photograph. Of course, Jason could only see the back of her, but considering she was tied up to a chair and blood was staining her left side from the shoulder area down, it was a pretty good bet it was her. The fact that Rubio was holding his gun on her was another give away.

Flexing his fingers on the textured grip of his gun, Jason looked at Stan. Stan could only see Michael and the other man, so Jason tipped his head and pointed ever-so-slightly with his gun. Stan nodded and the promise shone clearly in his eyes that he would protect Michael. Then Jason raised his gun and let out a slow, calming breath.

Rubio was watching the other man, his eyes flicking back every once in a while to the woman in the chair as the man spoke on the phone to Sonny. By the tenor of his voice, not just the words, Jason knew the signal would come at any moment to shoot. He wasn't going to let that happen. He adjusted his grip slightly, looked at Stan and nodded, and the two men fired. The dual reports filled the small hallway with near deafening decibels, but the only thing that mattered was Rubio and Other Man both were hit and fell to the ground dead. Rubio, caught by surprise, fired off a round, even as he was falling, but his hand jerked wide and the shot harmless lodged itself in the ceiling.

"Uncle Jason! Uncle Jason!" Michael screamed as the two men entered the room.

Jason immediately crossed the room, untied the boy and swept him into his arms for a crushing hug. Michael clung to him, his tears soaking Jason's neck. Michael was alive.

"Jason."

Stan's voice pulled him back to the moment and he turned, still holding Michael. When the little boy looked up, he immediately twisted and squirmed and it was all Jason could do to hold onto him enough to lower him back to the ground without letting him fall completely. Then Michael was across the room and frantically calling after the woman that Stan was gingerly untying and easing down onto the floor.

"Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth," Michael pleaded as he dropped to the ground beside her. "Can you hear me? Say something, Elizabeth."

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, her eyes soft and glassy as she turned her head slightly towards the sound of his voice.

"Yes," he quickly assured her. "Uncle Jason is here. I told you he would find us. Didn't I? I told you he would."

A lopsided grin hooked the corner of her mouth. "Yeah, you did, Michael."

Jason had knelt on the other side of the woman, inspecting the wound as Stan moved aside. Michael looked up, across her body, his eyes desperate and pleading. "Can you help her, Uncle Jason? She helped me and she saved my life. You can't let her die, Uncle Jason. You can't let her die."

"I won't, Michael," he told the boy. "We'll help her. But we need to get out of here, okay?"

"Okay," he nodded, immediately trying to look braver than he felt and it killed Jason to see him bury his emotions. The only real emotion he showed was for the woman lying on the ground. "You can carry her, right? You can get her out of here?"

He wanted to carry Michael, to hold onto him, keep him close. He didn't want to have to entrust the boy to someone else, not after he'd been taken while in the care of others, but he knew that the easiest way to give him the assurance he needed was to take care of Elizabeth himself. He slid his arms under her legs and shoulders, trying not to aggravate the wound too much but knowing that distance from the scene took precedence over the injury and nodded. "Of course, Michael. I've got her. You go with Stan, okay?"

The boy nodded immediately, walking with the other man, but constantly checking on the woman his uncle was carrying. "You promise you'll take care of her?" he pleaded.

"I promise, Michael," Jason said. "I will do everything I can to help her."

Part 4
Prompt - Cheese Fries

The singular mind of kids was unlike any other. Kids were so focused, almost to the point of obsession, over one single point, that everything else seemed to fade away. Sonny Corinthos understood it, had even admired it in Michael before - how he could play so intently, or read so focused - that the world outside could be burning and his son would be oblivious. Now, however, Sonny was cursing that one quality he once loved so much in his son.

Because while he himself was singularly focused on his son and making sure he was safe, healthy and fed, his son's attention was anywhere but on him. No, Michael's complete and utter attention was in another room, wrapped around a young woman who had captivated and captured his heart. Again, Sonny understood it, but it was a bit bothersome to a father who wanted nothing more than to hold his child close to him, love him and comfort him, and in return gain a small amount of comfort himself from the attention and love of his son.

But Sonny couldn't let Michael know that he wanted his attention on him. He had to be unselfish here because what his son needed was to worry about the woman lying upstairs in the safe house bed while a doctor, supervised by his Uncle Jason under strict orders to not leave her side, attended her. So, Sonny did the only thing he could do under a situation like this. He cooked. He made pancakes with chocolate chips in the hopes of tempting his son to eat. He made macaroni and cheese. He whipped up a simple pizza unencumbered by such nasty things that an eight year old boy doesn't like - feta cheese, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes - and went instead with ooey, gooey, processed mozzarella cheese and greasy pepperoni.

Sonny's efforts went entirely untouched.

Michael picked at his food. Dutifully nibbled a few bites when Sonny said something, but for the most part, he sat at the table raptly staring at the stairs which led to where Elizabeth Webber lay. Bleeding all over the sheets.

Stan was passed out on the couch, fed and exhausted after his thorough search to find Michael. The man deserved the rest, and the money that Sonny was already wiring into his bank account. Francis Corelli, one of his most trusted bodyguards and soldiers, had been reduced to a courier who ran up and down the stairs bringing updates from Jason and pleas from Michael. Johnny and Max patrolled the perimeter, supervising the lower flunkies who truly guarded the place, mostly because they were besieged by questions from Michael the moment they walked into the room.

Every man was relieved by Michael's safe retrieval. Every man was grateful he'd made it through the ordeal physically safe, if not entirely mentally. But what had every man's concern was the young woman who had sacrificed herself for the young boy simply out of the apparent goodness of her own heart. The child's concern had seeped into all of them and they knew that if anything happened to the woman, it would be as painful and as devastating to Michael as when Carly had died. Every man hoped, and even prayed, that she made a full and speedy recovery.

When Sonny heard her last name, he gave Johnny the task of investigating her fully. The last name of Webber could be merely a coincidence. Or she could be related to Steven Webber once police lab flunky under John Durrant, a federal prosecutor who had been an annoying thorn in Sonny's side, and now employee of Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar, the two men trying very hard to push him out of power. The fact that they might have been responsible for the brakes failing on Carly's car which had led to her death only intensified his pure, unadulterated hatred of the men.

Why would Steven Webber's sister have been kidnapped along with Michael? Was it a move against the brothers Alcazar and himself by an outside force? If that was the case, surely Luis' daughter Sage would have been a better target. Which made Sonny wonder if the brothers had been responsible for Michael's abduction and had taken Webber's sister as a means of ensuring his cooperation for whatever the plan was. He had noticed that the good doctor had been looking more and more recalcitrant during recent meetings.

Johnny was still waiting to hear back from Benny and their host of snitches and information gatherers, so Sonny was forced into the position of once again having to wait. And since he could no longer cook, since nobody - especially the little boy for whom the food was meant for - was eating, he cleaned. He attacked the pots and pans with vigor, scrubbing them brilliantly clean and spotless. Not a speck of food, or grease, could possibly be found once he was through.

"Dad?"

Michael's voice was so soft, but it sounded like a gunshot in the tomb-like silence of the house. He winced. Bad choice of words there. Immediately he placed the pan in the sink and turned to his son, grabbing a towel to dry his hands. He sat down at the table kitty-corner across from the boy and reached out to still the boy's idle hand.

"What is it, Michael?"

"You can't let her die, okay?" he not for the first time pleaded with his father.

"We'll do everything we can for her, Michael," he promised. Completely and fully sincere, and yet doubtful about his abilities to keep that promise simply because of the nature of her wounds.

The little boy yawned, even while keeping his mouth completely closed, and Sonny stood and pulled the boy to his feet. "You should get some rest."

Immediately the suggestion was met with defiance. "I can't. I can't sleep until I know she's okay."

"Alright," Sonny nodded. He was not anxious about taking Michael upstairs to the bedrooms anyways since it would be too close to where they were working on Elizabeth. So instead he directed them over to the living room where the fire burning in the fireplace had chased all lingering dampness and cold to the corners. "Then why don't you humor your old man and sit with me for a little while."

Stan never missed a beat in his snores as the two Corinthos men sat down in a large, overstuffed leather chair and Sonny drew a blanket over the two of them. As the little boy snuggled into his lap, his head tucked under his father's chin, Sonny blinked back the threatening tears as he once again held his son. It had been the longest plane ride of his life as he'd flown up to their safe house in Alberta because Michael staunchly refused to leave Elizabeth's place of residence no matter how hard his uncle had begged him. When he entered the house, he had crushed Michael into his arms, holding him so tightly that the boy had protested. Sonny relished the opportunity to hold him once more.

"Are you warm enough?" he asked softly, for already he could feel Michael fighting the effects of fatigue. The little boy nodded against his chest.

He knew from brief snatches of conversation with Jason that Michael was likely to be traumatized for a while by the events that had happened. Michael had been quite talkative with his uncle as they'd traveled to safety, stopping only to get the doctor Sonny had ordered sent to North Dakota. The little boy had been in the room when they'd shot his friend and protector, he'd seen the blood, heard her cries, had been prevented from being near her, and had listened to the men's taunts that they'd shoot her again until she died and then turn their guns on him. He was going to get the doctor's recommendation for a good, and discreet, child psychologist to help him with the nightmares, grief and blame inevitably to come from the little boy that despite not being his own flesh and blood was so very much like Sonny.

What Sonny didn't understand was what had caused Elizabeth to willingly, even demandingly, take Michael's place. His belief in human nature had been nearly destroyed in the many years he'd been in this life, and it was surprising to him that someone who barely knew his child would offer to be shot in his place. He would be in debt to this woman for the rest of her life because of her actions. Long after Sonny was dead, because he was certain that in his line of business he would die before she did, he would make arrangements for her security and care. He would entrust the most discreet of men after him, to make sure that forever long Elizabeth Webber was alive, that she would want for nothing and would forever be under Sonny Corinthos' care. Which meant that the task would fall first to Jason, and then whomever the other man entrusted the job to.

As Michael's breathing slowed, deepened and then settled into the stages of sleep, Sonny leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Grateful to have his son back, he himself soon slept as well.




Jason stepped out of the shower, quickly dressing in clean clothes and then headed downstairs to the lower level of the house. He'd heard Stan stagger up the stairs just as he was heading into the shower, so the only two people present were Sonny and Michael, asleep in the leather chair. The cold remains of dinner were on the table and Jason turned away, standing instead at the window as he stared out into the leaden gray skies.

He glanced at his hand, braced on the wall beside the window and knew that he was only seeing things when he thought he could still see blood on them. As the results of his accident years ago, he couldn't imagine things, couldn't pretend or make things up, but he was unfortunately plagued by the uncanny ability to recollect things down to the minutest details. And the sight, feel and smell of Elizabeth Webber's blood on his hands was a memory he wasn't soon to forget.

She nearly died. Could still die, in fact, if infection were unlucky enough to set in. The doctor was a competent and skilled man, had traced the path of the bullet through her body, repairing the damage as best he could. But he'd nearly used up all the blood supply that he'd brought with him, simply during the surgery. He needed to get more to help replace the blood that she'd lost before Jason and Stan had arrived. Max was out seeing to the arrangements and Jason had taken a moment to shower and clean up while the doctor sat with Elizabeth monitoring her recovery process from the anesthetic.

Because Michael had begged, pleaded and cried, Jason had sat beside her the entire time. He'd helped the doctor by holding Elizabeth, or handing him the supplies needed. Sometimes he simply sat beside the bed holding her hand, feeling rather foolish about the whole thing. And the event had bothered him more than he'd wanted to admit.

He was no stranger to blood, and certainly not to gunshot wounds. He had more than his fair share of scars and war stories. What bothered him was that it was an innocent woman that would have the same experience now. That she had come so close to dying simply because she'd been shot in his son's stead. Jason shook his head. Despite knowing that Sonny had adopted him, despite knowing that Michael didn't remember the year that Jason had raised him, Jason remembered it. He remembered holding Michael in the hospital, changing his diapers, feeding him his bottles, worrying about him during his surgery because of his heart condition. He remembered standing at the window and reading to him, taking him down to the ocean and letting him play in the sand. In his heart he would always consider Michael his son, and Elizabeth Webber had saved his life.

He would owe her for the rest of his life. He would provide whatever she needed financially, and he would do everything he could to take care of her physically. And that included protecting her from whatever mess and danger her brother Steven Webber presented. He didn't know what the connection between her and Michael's kidnapping and her brother was, but he would not rest until he did. And if she was in any danger from Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar, or even her brother, he would do whatever it took to protect her.

Part 5
Prompt - Still Married

"There you go," Johnny said as he slid a rather thick folder across the dining room table at Jason. Looking to Sonny, the guard continued, "Everything Benny and I could find on Elizabeth Webber. The back section regards her connection to Steven Webber, the illustrious doctor of Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar."

"Clearly you're hinting at something," Sonny said, his voice low, mindful of the fact that Michael was upstairs. Even if the little boy was in Elizabeth's room, none of the men wanted him to hear this conversation. Or any of their conversations about business. "Give us the summary since we don't have a chance to read the report in detail right now."

"Steven Webber is Jeff Webber's son with Heather Webber. Elizabeth's mother is Catherine Webber. The good doc is quite older than Elizabeth or her sister Sarah, and has never had a very good relationship with either girl. When Jeff and Catherine headed off to Africa on a medical sojourn, Sarah was sent to Port Charles to live with their grandmother Audrey Hardy."

"Audrey Hardy?" Sonny questioned. "The nurse at General Hospital?"

"The one and the same," Johnny informed them. "Elizabeth, however, is not as favored as her sister, and was left in the care of some neighbors with Steven being given emergency guardian powers."

"But her parents are alive," Jason said, looking up from the folder. "So what does that have to do with anything?"

"Audrey Hardy."

"Johnny," Sonny's voice was a warning to get on with the explanation.

"Audrey Hardy is going through cancer treatments. That was Steven's pretense of moving to Port Charles. John Durrant used that to his advantage, the Alcazar's capitalized on it. I've gotten a sneak peek at Mrs. Hardy's will."

"A sneak peek?" Jason raised an eyebrow.

"Alright, I pilfered Alexis' files. Benefits of dating the lawyer and knowing how to make sense of her filing system. Audrey filed her will with Alexis. Audrey has never liked the way the family has sucked up to her, fawning over her while mentally calculating the holdings they stand to inherit. So, Audrey, in a fit of pique named Elizabeth as the sole inheritor of Audrey's estate when she dies."

"You think her brother knows?"

"With the researchers that Luis has at his disposal, I'd consider it highly probable."

"But why would they kidnap Elizabeth?" Jason asked, setting aside the folder. He'd read it later in his room. Right now he was too involved in the conversation with Johnny and Sonny.

"Lately, Steven has been breaking ranks with Luis and Lorenzo. He's been meeting with Durrant, maybe they wanted to keep him in line," Johnny shrugged. "Or maybe he thought he'd rid the world of one pesky little sister who would prevent him from inheriting if she were still alive."

"Rather far fetched," Sonny brushed off the wild idea.

"Maybe," Johnny shrugged once more. "It's hard to say. Steven Webber is a tough nut to crack, but let's look at the history of who his mother is. She's the cousin of Jason's mother who, along with Scott Baldwin, blackmailed Alan Quartermaine hoping to get Jason's Quartermaine's inheritance before Alan got custody of Jason as a baby."

Jason looked up sharply at the reference to his past as a Quartermaine. Sonny cast a glance at him, then turned back to Johnny. "So you think, like mother like son?"

"Heather Webber is crazy as a loon, in and out of institutions. Madness is hereditary, maybe Steven's not quite such the stable man he portrays. But it's all just a guess. But when I was researching him and digging through his school files, I did find references to Steven being referred to a psychiatrist while at school, but can't find the records. We're still digging."

"But your gut says something's there," Jason said. They all were suspicious men by nature, and by business. Their gut feelings had saved their lives more times than they could remember and none of them were quick to dismiss the feelings simply because there were no facts to back them up.

Johnny sighed and traced his finger over the grain of the table. "It does. Something's just not right about him. He came to town after Durrant began bothering us-"

"His grandmother got sick," Sonny said, apparently taking the role of Devil's Advocate for the moment.

"True. But their sister Sarah was going to come stay with her. Sarah's studying oncology, it would make sense for her to come, especially since she'd stayed there as a teenager. But Steven suddenly showed up instead."

Jason agreed, there was something off about the situation. "Does he have a tail?"

Johnny nodded. "He does."

"Then for the time being, we tail him," Sonny said. "And we keep an eye on Elizabeth Webber. And hope she recovers soon."

They all sighed and Jason's eyes strayed to the stairs leading upstairs. Elizabeth Webber, just two days after emergency surgery under the less than ideal circumstances, still had yet to regain consciousness. Michael had remained stubborn that he had to see his friend, and in the end Sonny had relented. Jason would have too, given the circumstances. The little boy was too worried about his newfound friend, and he was becoming even more agitated over not being able to see her.

They all started when they heard a door slam open and pounding feet that could only belong to Michael suddenly echo on the floor above them. "Dad!"

Sonny immediately stood, followed by Jason and Johnny and rushed across the room. He met Michael flying down the stairs. "Dad!"

"What's wrong?" Sonny asked immediately.

"She's awake, Dad. She's awake. Come on." Michael turned to Jason and said, "Come on, Uncle Jason. You guys have to come see her."

Then he immediately turned and flew up the stairs again. Sonny tried to call after him, but the boy was beyond listening, too excited that she'd woken up.

Johnny cleared his throat, "I'm going to check in with Benny. I'll see you later."

"Sure," Sonny nodded and looked over at Jason. "You ready to go talk to her?"

"Yeah." He was just as curious as he knew Sonny was to find out her side of the story, and also to thank her for taking care of Michael.




Being shot sucked.

And it also made her a complete chump.

She thought Steven was the only idiot in the family, stuck in Port Charles taking care of their grandmother, all for the hopes of sweet talking her into a good inheritance. But what did it say about her that she'd ended up shot for a complete stranger?

Okay, Michael Corinthos, Junior, wasn't a complete stranger. But she hardly knew anything about him. And she'd begged Dumb and Ugly to take her instead of him, knowing they meant to kill one of them that night. Maybe she'd been hoping for immediate death, telling herself that at least she wouldn't have to be stuck with the brat any longer. But despite how much she wanted to appear jaded and disinterested, she knew that wasn't the truth. She'd offered herself up as the sacrificial lamb because she couldn't stand to think of a little boy being shot. How would she be able to live with herself, even if she never met Michael's father, if she hadn't tried to stop it?

What she hadn't counted on was getting shot, and living. Or being rescued by the illustrious Uncle Jason and being whisked off to be cared for. Sonny Corinthos was nothing at all like she thought he would be. He was all smiles and dimples, along with an almost overbearing gratitude, constantly thanking her for taking care of his son and apologizing for her being shot. Since he hadn't been the idiot pulling the trigger it was irritating that he kept apologizing for it.

Michael had sat on her bed and cried. Not really used to kids, and especially not to tears of happiness, she'd been a bit freaked out by him. He hugged her, mindful of her bad shoulder and told her over and over how happy he was that she was alive and awake now. Surprisingly, she found herself much more at ease with him than with his dad and uncle. She could almost pretend it was just the two of them again sharing stories of places they liked over canned pears. Almost.

It was impossible to forget that the two men were in the room. Michael's father simply couldn't stop saying thank you and asking if she needed anything, making like he was going to call the doctor back at the first sign she needed him. The other man, Uncle Jason, was impossible to forget simply because of his manner. He hadn't said anything beyond a few words, then stood silently in the back of the room, arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the wall. But she could feel his eyes on her, and a commanding nature to his presence that made it completely impossible to forget he existed. Elizabeth had no doubt, she thought as a chill swept down her spine, that his attitude made him a very imposing figure in Sonny Corithos' business.

And yet, when Michael called out to him, told him to stop being silly and standing by the wall, his easy manner and smile he gave the boy went completely against that imposing figure dominating the room. He seemed a little more human, as he let Michael take him hand and drag him over by the bed and introduce him to her. When he thanked her for helping Michael, it sounded more sincere than all of Sonny's words. He seemed hesitant to speak, but when he did, everyone in the room listened, herself included.

She'd tired easily, despite having been unconscious for two days, and only when she fell asleep momentarily did the men leave and the doctor returned. Now that she was awake, after a six hour nap according to the clock, and couldn't fall asleep, she wished they'd come back. The doctor was gone and she hated being alone. She'd never liked strange places, had always shied away from sleepovers at her friends' houses, and when she'd had pneumonia as a child and had spent a week in the hospital, she'd cried every night. Until a friendly nurse had come in and done what her parents, highly trained doctors, had been unable - or unwilling - to give her. Comfort. When the nurse came on duty, she'd come in and hold Elizabeth's hand, tell her a story, and promise to check in on her often during her shift. It was the only way Elizabeth could sleep after her parents went home every night.

Right now, Elizabeth would gladly take the doctor coming back, just so that she wouldn't be alone.

When the door cracked open, she found herself eagerly looking over at it, and was surprised that instead of the doctor, Michael's father and uncle walked inside. Suddenly she was uneasy. While she might have welcomed the doctor, the other two men still made her nervous. Because she knew they were mobsters.

"Are you alright?" Sonny immediately asked, when they saw she was awake.

"I'm fine," she said.

"Are you in pain?"

"Nothing that I can't handle."

"Sonny," Jason said softly.

"Oh, right, right," the older man shook his head. "I'm sorry. I don't want to carry on like a Nervous Nelly as Michael called me."

"How is he?" she asked, concerned about the boy, but afraid to ask too many questions while he'd been in the room. "I mean, really? He...he was in the room when they shot me and I...I hope he's able to deal with...everything."

"He'll be okay," Jason said. "He's scared, even though he tries to hide it. But I think seeing you wake up helped him. He went to sleep in his own bed for the first time since we came here."

She sagged back against the pillows, unaware of how tense she'd been. "I'm glad. They kept him there and I could hear him crying, but they had me gagged so I couldn't say anything to try to reassure him."

Jason handed her a Kleenex and she looked at him in surprise, until he brought it up to her face and wiped at the tears she hadn't been aware she was crying. Immediately grabbing the tissue she wiped at her face in embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Sonny interjected. "You're tired and trying to recover."

"We wanted to ask you a few questions," Jason said, hesitantly. "But if you're tired."

"Actually, I'm not. So it's okay. Ask what you want."

He bit his lip and said, "What do you know about your brother and Luis or Lorenzo Alcazar?"

She was sure they could see how she paled, because suddenly they sat forward on their chairs and looked very concerned. "Elizabeth?" Sonny asked.

"I...I... Lorenzo Alcazar was one of Steven's professors in college. But he...I haven't heard of him since then," she lied and hoped they couldn't read it on her face. "What...what do they have to do with Steven?"

"They're in Port Charles," Sonny said. "They're...business rivals of mine. And your brother is working for them."

"He's what?" she gasped. He wouldn't be. Steven wouldn't be working for them. Not after what they'd done to him, after what they'd done to their family.

"Elizabeth?" Jason said. "Are you alright?"

"I...I'm fine," she said weakly.

"Then the rumors are true," Sonny murmured softly. "I'm sorry we did it this way, Elizabeth, but we wanted to find out. Luis Alcazar threatened to kill your father, didn't he? And he threatened to kill you."

She was grateful for the Kleenex that Jason had handed her earlier as she pressed it over her eyes trying to stem the tears.

"Elizabeth," Sonny's voice broke through the memories and haunting pain of the past. "I promise you, that we will do everything we can to help you, to help your family. But now that we know the truth behind the rumors, we need to take steps to make sure you're safe. The best way to do that is to make it clear that you're connected to us, under our protection."

"Steps?" she asked weakly. "Protection? I don't..."

"The best way to do that," Sonny continued on, looking over at the man next to him, "is for you to marry Jason."

Part 6
Prompt - The devil made me do it

Sonny Corinthos was an arrogant and presumptuous man. Beneath a layer of smarmy good charm lay a man who clearly was used to getting what he wanted when he wanted, and having everybody obey his every whim. She had no doubt that people would call him a devil in disguise, since underneath all those polished good looks lay the heart of a true officious man. For all Elizabeth Webber cared, he could go stick his head in the oven and turn on the gas. Because there was no way, no way she was going to marry someone just because he told her to.

Not even if the person looked like Jason Morgan. She wasn't blind. The man had killer good looks, emphasis on the killer. Because, just as she wasn't blind, she also wasn't dumb. Michael's beloved father and uncle were hardened criminals and she had no doubt they'd killed a few men to get where they were. Especially since they knew the Alcazar brothers.

She sat and listened while Sonny laid out their plan. Jason said very little. When he did speak, it was to express his concern for her safety and to promise her that he'd do everything he could to keep her from harm. Apparently that included marrying her, a complete stranger. Michael claimed Uncle Jason was the smartest man he knew, from where Elizabeth lay, Uncle Jason was a chump like her own dear brother Steven.

"No," she repeated once again to Sonny after he'd launched into another round of trying to convince her to marry his second in command. "I appreciate that you two are concerned, but surely there are ways to keep me safe without Jason and I being forced into a marriage with a complete stranger."

"I wish that there were, but honestly this is the best, and safest, way."

"But it can't be true that Steven is working for Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar. Surely he could help me and keep me safe," she protested.

"But he is working for them," Sonny shook his head. "I know it's hard to believe-"

"It's impossible to believe," she cried out. "He wouldn't work for them. He just wouldn't. They threatened our entire family. They nearly killed our father. Lorenzo blackmailed Steven when he was his professor in college. I can't believe that Steven would work for them."

"It's possible that they're blackmailing him now," Sonny suggested. "That you were taken to ensure that he remained under their thumb and didn't go to the police as he's apparently been threatening to do."

"So he wouldn't be able to protect you," Jason spoke quietly from the side of the room. "Not like we can."

"Do you really think that the Alcazar brothers would come after me again?" she asked, her voice somewhat frightened and timid now.

Both men looked down and studied their hands, refusing to answer her or meet her gaze. And she took that as complete confirmation of the fact. "Then why can't I just run away and hide? Surely, between the two of you, you have the means and motives to make me disappear and I don't mean to the bottom of an ocean."

They looked sharply at her, but then Sonny softened his features and shook his head. "It won't work. They'll keep looking for you. We'd have to assign people to watch over you and guard you, and we would never be certain that the Alcazars wouldn't get to them, corrupt them and turn the people who are supposed to protect you against you. The only way to truly insure your safety is if we keep you close to us."

"But I can be close to you without having to be married to the mob, can't I?" Elizabeth protested.

"The only way we could secure the protection of our associates, make sure that they didn't work with the Alcazars, is to make you a member of our family. That means marriage."

She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the pillow, weary and exhausted of this discussion. She wished there was some way else. Oh, she believed Sonny when he said that Luis Alcazar would stop at nothing to get her. Killing her fiancé with a well-placed car bomb had certainly convinced her that the man meant business. But Sonny and Jason were mistaken when they thought that all of the Alcazar brothers' actions against their family were merely to keep Steven in line. No, Luis Alcazar had apparently decided to merge his family into a respectable, humanitarian family like the Webbers by making her his bride. Which was why the car bomb everyone thought was intended to kill her had found its true victim when her fiancé was blown to smithereens.

"Sonny," Jason said softly. "Why don't you let her get some rest?"

"Alright," the older man agreed and Elizabeth heard them both get up and shuffle across the hardwood floors.

When the door closed softly behind them, she let out a muffled sob and clenched her eyes shut even tighter. There was no way she could marry Jason. Not only did she not even know him, she also knew that if she married him, Luis and Lorenzo would turn their attack on him and Sonny even more. And she wasn't going to be the reason why Michael possibly lost his uncle and father. But how could she continue to rebuff them without completely explaining herself? She knew that if she told them the real truth, they would insist even more on taking care of her and would claim that they were grown men who could take care of themselves. But Elizabeth knew the truth, and she knew what depravity the Alcazar brothers were truly capable of.

"Elizabeth?"

She gasped and her eyes flew open, meeting the gaze of Jason. She hadn't thought he was in the room, hadn't heard him sit down on the chair that Sonny had vacated. What was he doing there? Going to try in his own way to agree to marry him?

"You know that this marriage would be in name only, right? I wouldn't try anything. It's just for your protection."

"I know," she said. Believe me, I know. He and Sonny had graciously pointed that out to her, several times. That Jason would never try to take advantage of her. That they'd have to act like they were a happily married couple, but that in private it would be another picture. She'd have her own separate bedroom in Jason's penthouse, he'd only hold her hand, or touch her back when they were in public. Everything would be strictly platonic.

She wasn't even going to think about how long the arrangement would last. How long she would have to play the happily married wife to a man she didn't know. She didn't hate him, she thought he was rather nice - especially given Michael's glowing recommendation, and he certainly was handsome. But handsome and nice were certainly nothing to build a marriage for who knew how long on. Did she want to be stuck in something like that for possibly the rest of her life? She didn't care about kids. She hated the thought of her life not being in her own control anymore.

"So, then what's really holding you back?" Jason asked, moving his chair even closer.

She shook her head and turned away. "Isn't what I've said enough?"

"It would be, if it was the truth. But it's not."

"And how do you know?" Elizabeth snapped at him. "What are you a mind reader now? Michael already thinks you can walk on water, did you add omniscient to your list of qualities?"

He didn't flinch or even seem to anger at her outburst, and that seemed to make her even more upset. "Look," he said calmly, "I know that this is a difficult situation. You've been kidnapped by people who are after your brother and me and Sonny. You got shot protecting Sonny's child, and now you're being asked-"

"Told," she muttered under her breath.

"-to marry a man you don't even know. I understand that's a lot to take in and adjust to."

"Do you really? Have you ever married someone you didn't know or didn't like?"

"Yes," he said surprising her. "I did. She was Sonny's ex-girlfriend who had been held prisoner by Luis and was sick. I married her to keep her from breaking up Sonny's marriage with Michael's mother, and to provide for her."

She raised her eyebrow at him. He really was a chump. He'd already married someone else to protect them from Luis. Obviously he wasn't married any longer because he wouldn't be able to marry her. "Did she die?" she asked.

He nodded. "But I kept her safe. Just like I'll keep you safe."

"You're a fool," she laughed. "The only reason you kept her safe is because Luis didn't truly want her. Let me guess, this woman...she was petite, brunette, feisty."

"Obnoxious," Jason interjected.

"Remind you of anyone?" she challenged.

He frowned. "What?"

"Take a look at me," Elizabeth commanded. "And then think of this woman that you married."

"I guess you're sort of alike," he said after a few minutes.

"Was she Melissa or was she Brenda?"

He sat back in his seat, surprise crossing his face. "Brenda. How did you..."

"Luis Alcazar didn't try to kill me," she snapped at him, "the intended target was my fiancé. Because Luis Alcazar decided that the way to make himself appear more legitimate in the world was to marry into the Webber family. And unfortunately for me, my sister is blonde and Luis prefers brunettes. He's sent me the death certificates of Melissa Bennet and Brenda Barret to let me know what he's capable of. And each time he's done so, he's sent a note saying that I could prevent other people from dying if I'd only agree to his proposal."

Her eyes felt heavy and she realized, belatedly, that she'd taken a pain pill shortly before Jason and Sonny arrived for their latest attempt to persuade her. "So I'm refusing to marry you, not because you're a stranger and not because I don't think you can keep me safe - even though those reasons are part of it. I won't marry you because if you're my husband, Luis and his brother will stop at nothing, absolutely nothing, to eliminate you and force me to their side. I won't have Michael lose his father and his uncle because of me. I didn't take a bullet for him simply to put him into more danger."

"Elizabeth," Jason said softly. "Now that we know the truth we can make sure that the appropriate measures are taken. There's an island that Sonny owns that Michael can go to until Luis and Lorenzo are taken care of. We can send you there."

"But you'll still be in danger."

"I can take care of myself," he assured her, as her eyelids drifted shut.

"Uncle Jason is amazing, Elizabeth. Nothing can hurt him. He always comes back home."

"A regular Superman," she murmured.

"I promise you, Elizabeth, you will be safe."

"Do you promise you'll be safe as well?" Forcing an eye open she regarded him seriously. "Because I won't agree to this only to have you be in danger."

"I promise I'll be safe," he nodded. "Does that mean you'll consider it?"

"Yes. I'll..."

"Elizabeth?" he asked, bringing her back from the sleep that beckoned her. "Will you marry me so I can keep you safe?"

"Yes." And then she slept.

Part 7
Prompt - Take the key and lock her up, lock her up, lock her up
Take the key, and lock her up - my fair lady

"She agreed?"

Jason ran his hand over his face and nodded. "She did."

"How'd you do it?" Sonny asked, pouring a glass of scotch for all the men present. "I half expected her to come storming down the stairs demanding to leave."

Shrugging, he picked up his glass, but didn't take a drink. He wondered if she was even aware of what she'd agreed to, considering the speed in which she'd suddenly fallen asleep and then the doctor informing him that he'd given her a pain pill not long before. But instead of dwelling on that, and worrying about if she'd suddenly start fighting them again in the morning, he focused on the more pressing issue. The truth about Luis Alcazar's obsession with her. Apparently Brenda had only been a diversion for the arms dealer when he couldn't have what he really wanted. He shuddered at that thought, considering the shape she'd been in when she finally escaped from him and showed up on Sonny's doorstep begging for his help.

"Jason's got a way with the ladies," Johnny chuckled, taking a sip of his own drink.

"True. After all, Brenda certainly fell for his charms."

Max turned to glare at Francis. "Brenda was crazier than a March Hare. She hated Jason and made his life miserable." Rounding on Sonny he said, "I can't believe you're making him go through that again."

"This isn't like Brenda," Sonny shook his head. "And Elizabeth Webber isn't Brenda Barret."

A fact that Jason was extremely grateful for. While he didn't know much about her, aside from her file and Michael's description of her, he was hoping she'd be saner, and kinder, than his dead wife. He knew that he couldn't attribute all of Brenda's ill temper to the fact that she loathed him, she had been sick - physically and mentally - which was why he'd married her. Take care of her until she died, and try with all his might to keep from killing her himself. Those had been his vows to her. She'd giggled at them while Sonny glared, but he'd stuck by them. And for the most part had fulfilled them.

Now he was getting married once again. Only this time, the bride-to-be wasn't sick - aside from a gunshot wound - and didn't seem to annoy him with every breath she took. But he didn't have any delusions about what married life would be like. This was in name only. While she might be pretty underneath the bandages and bruises, he couldn't say for sure. And those bandages and bruises were doing a good job of reminding him why he was agreeing to this in the first place. He owed it to her to take care of her, for Michael's sake, and also for her own. Nobody deserved to be left defenseless against Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar.

"So, when is this wonderful affair going to take place?" Johnny asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. He seemed to be enjoying this whole thing way too much and Jason was figuring out ways he could get Johnny back for this.

"I think we should wait until she's better," Sonny said.

"Why?" Francis asked. "Seems like we'd want to get her secured away before anything happens."

"If the Alcazars knew where she was I imagine we would have heard from them already. Besides, we can spin it better if it happens later, rather than sooner."

"Spin?" Max asked through a grunt. "How exactly do you plan to spin a marriage of convenience? Especially given Jason's previous marriage."

"That's exactly why we need to spin it into something plausible," Sonny told him. "I don't want to tip Luis off to anything just yet. We need to make this seem romantic."

Johnny snorted and Jason shot him a glare when he said, "Jason doesn't do romantic. Geez, Sonny, this guy's idea of romance is a date to Jake's, a game of pool, maybe a spin around the block on his Harley, before he's up bouncing Bunny on his bed springs."

"Oh, crap, you're drunk already," Francis groaned. "Too much alliteration this early in the evening isn't a good thing."

"So Jason's not a conventional guy," Max shrugged. "I think we can still pull it off."

Sonny arched a curious brow at the bodyguard and asked, "How?"

"Probably the same way you're thinking," he smirked. "Classic rescue story. He charged in to save Michael, was found a pretty little female there too. She was injured; he was so grateful that she'd saved Michael's life he stayed by her side day and night to make sure she was okay. They talked, he liked her, she liked him, never felt anything like it before...yadda yadda yadda."

"You been pilfering Alexis's romance novels?" Johnny asked. "'Cause that sounds like a plot stolen straight out of one of them."

"Nah," Francis shook his head. "His old lady's got him watching soaps while he's over there nursing her back to health from her surgery."

"Don't disrespect my ma," Max growled low in his chest.

"Max is right," Sonny cut in, diffusing the situation and bringing the guards back to the moment at hand. "That's what I was thinking. We don't want it to seem rushed. We want it to be at least believable to other people, even if Luis doesn't ever believe it. We gotta make it sound halfway plausible to the Five Families if we expect to ask them to help protect her from her psycho stalker."

"And having their wedding picture show her lying in a bed isn't going to make it look very believable," Max nodded his head.

"So, we wait for her to get better," Johnny shrugged, tossing back the rest of his drink. "Works for me. In the meantime, what do we do?"

"We keep digging into Steven Webber," Jason spoke. "Now that we know what's going on with the Alcazars, I want to know what's going on with the good doc."

"You think he's working with them, or is he trapped?" Sonny asked.

Sighing, he once again scrubbed his hand on his face. "I don't know. The whole bit about the will Johnny found out makes it questionable."

"Or, he may not know," Francis said. "If he's taking care of his sick grandmother and worrying about not being killed by the Alcazar brothers, maybe he doesn't know."

"Betcha Luis knows," Max posited. "Given his freakish nature I would lay dollars to donuts that he knows everything about it, including the fact that she stands to inherit a tidy sum once Mrs. Hardy dies."

"If he knew that, why wouldn't he kill her off and make Elizabeth the benefactor?" Johnny asked. "Since he's been trying to connect himself to the family for so long to make him appear more legitimate."

"He needs to have Elizabeth as his wife before that happens. No way she'd marry him if she already had the money," Sonny shook his head. "He's a snake in the grass and he probably thinks that forcing Elizabeth into a marriage after kidnapping her needs to be done before the grandmother dies. However, I wouldn't put it past him to kill Mrs. Hardy once after the ceremony took place."

"We need to find out about Steven," Jason once again said. "Is he working with them, or is he trapped? Would he hurt Elizabeth, or would he help her?"

"He's a tough nut to crack," Francis shook his head. "I still haven't figured out what happened to make him go into therapy while he was in school. I've looked into the good Professor Lorenzo's background around that time, cross-referenced it against Steven's during the same period, but so far I'm not finding anything except for the fact that Steven took a couple of classes from him."

"Well, you better find out," Jason said. "Because until we know for certain, I don't know how he's going to react. And I don't know what to tell Elizabeth about her brother. She's worried about him, she's worried about herself-"

"She's worried about us, especially you," Johnny smiled.

"She doesn't need to be," he shook his head. "We can take care of ourselves."

"True, but you gotta admit it's sweet that she refused to marry you 'cause she was worried about you and Michael," the guard grinned.

Sweet. Jason shook his head. Maybe it was Johnny who was reading too many of those stupid romance novels Alexis had lying all over her house. Sweet made Elizabeth sound like a little kid having her first high school crush. That was nothing like the present situation. The woman was frightened, and it was his job to look out for her.

"Francis, Johnny, I want you to keep digging," Sonny told them. "Maybe it's time you called your contact in the State Department."

"You know, I got a distant cousin who works for the CIA," Max offered. "He acts like he hates me 'cause of his job, but he would help out."

"Good," their boss pointed a finger at him and nodded. "You get in touch with him."

"And what does Jason do during this time?" Johnny smirked and nudged Francis who sat beside him.

Sonny smiled at them before turning to look at Jason and issue a direct order. "Simple. He spends time getting to know his fiancée to make his being in love with her all the more believable."

Part 8
Prompt - banana pancakes

Jason Morgan was nervous.

He was not a man to show much emotion, except for the small group of people he allowed to get close to him, and when he did show emotion to the outside world it certainly wasn't nerves. There was too much that was important to him in life, too much that depended on him to have a calm and collected demeanor about him, too much danger that could possibly happen if his mind wasn't completely focused, for him to show something like nerves. Sure, he understood that things could go wrong in his line of work - and oftentimes they did. But he was simply not a person who sat around worrying or fretting about the future and things he couldn't control. What would come would come and he had to be able to deal with it without losing himself in emotions.

Yet as he sat in a room next to a petite sleeping woman, he realized that the sweat on his palms, and his back, and his forehead wasn't because the room was warm to keep Elizabeth from catching cold on top of her gunshot wound. He was in fact nervous about what he would say to her when she woke up and he laid out the plan to her. When he told her that for Michael's sake they needed to appear to fall in love so that when Jason married her to protect her from Luis Alcazar and his only-slightly-less-deranged brother Lorenzo, Michael didn't suspect anything. The little boy needed to believe that his favorite uncle and beloved protector had fallen in love while she recuperated.

Maybe it was wrong to use her obvious affection for Michael in this manner, but he figured it was the easiest way to accomplish what they needed without arousing suspicion, or causing her to dig her heels in stubbornly and fight against him. Michael was a little boy who wouldn't understand a marriage of convenience. He hadn't been around Brenda very much and Jason wondered if the little boy was even aware that his uncle had been married for a time. Due to Brenda's illness, Carly's insecurities and Michael's young age, Jason and Sonny had been able to conceal much of the events from Michael. This time they wouldn't have that advantage.

Michael knew Elizabeth, he was worried about her, and he liked her very much. While the little boy pretended that he was older than he was and therefore could be trusted with the weighty matters and secrets his father and uncle dealt with on a daily basis in their business, he didn't understand things. And he shouldn't. Michael shouldn't know that there was a man who was determined to marry his new favorite person for her money, or for the advantages he could gain in society by being her husband. The little boy shouldn't know that this man had tried to kill Elizabeth's family, had succeeded in killing Elizabeth's fiancé, and would more than likely kill Elizabeth herself or hurt her if he was able to get near her. Jason was determined to keep that information from Michael, and he was certain Elizabeth would as well. So in order for the little boy to not question the matter, or to say something damaging to the wrong person by an innocent slip of the tongue, he had to believe that Jason was entering a marriage for the reason that normal people did. Love.

In order for Jason and Elizabeth to reasonably pull off the charade of falling in love and deciding that they had to get married because they couldn't bear the thought of not being together, Jason had to spend time with Elizabeth. He had to get to know her. He had to be comfortable around her.

Those were all things that would be easier said than done.

Because Jason Morgan didn't want to spend time with Elizabeth. He didn't want to get to know her and he certainly didn't want to be comfortable around her. Because he knew that if he let his guard down around her and thought of this situation in anything but the business matter that he had been...he was in danger. Not physical danger, but emotional danger.

He could see himself heading down a path that could lead to heartache the likes he hadn't felt since Robin had told A.J. that Michael was his biological child. After he'd been betrayed by the one woman he thought he would love for the rest of his life, he vowed to never let anyone get near him in such a manner. Any relationship he had was based strictly on his terms. He didn't get involved in long-term commitments, he kept things strictly physical, didn't share any piece of himself that he wasn't willing to readily give up and when he decided the relationship was over, it was over. He walked away and never looked back.

Which was why it hadn't bothered him to get married to Brenda. He knew he would never willingly choose to get married. He wasn't involved in anybody in a long-term relationship that would get hurt by his marriage of convenience. So Brenda could have lived two days or twenty years, it didn't affect him. Except for how long he would have to put up with her whining, but he could always lock himself in his bedroom or take off down to the island if she got too annoying. But she hadn't lived very long due to her illness and the abuse and neglect she'd suffered at Luis' hands, and he hadn't mourned her except in the common decency anyone has for another person dying.

But something told him that Elizabeth would be different. She didn't annoy him. If they'd met under different circumstances he could see himself having a relationship with her, or maybe even becoming her friend. In his rules that he set up for himself, he didn't make friends with the women he slept with and he didn't sleep with the women he became friends with. She could have tempted him to want both. There was no denying she was pretty. The longer he looked at her, the more he realized that she possessed a natural beauty that bled from her inside to her outside. She wasn't peroxide and plastic, she was natural and beautiful. And he had to forget that.

He could maybe allow himself to think of her as a friend, but he had to put his physical attraction to her behind him. Being her friend would make it easier to carry out their charade of marriage to the outside world. He would focus on that and nothing more. He couldn't allow himself to forget his duty to Sonny, Michael and to her. Duty came before anything else.

"If you keep frowning like that you'll have wrinkles before you're thirty."

He snapped his head up and blinked at the sound of Elizabeth's voice. Her voice was thick with sleep, deep and husky from fever and not using it, and he curled his hands into fists in his lap to not be affected by it. "I'm already thirty," he said shaking his head.

"Really?" she questioned, her head tipping slightly to the side.

He waited when it seemed like he was going to say more, but she didn't and he found the corners of his mouth tipping down slightly. Well, there was no sense waiting time when they had a plan to implement, so he leaned forward and quietly asked. "How are you feeling? Are you in pain, do you want the doctor to come in?"

She shook her head slightly, careful - he noticed - not to jar her shoulder. "No, I'm okay. If the doc comes in he's only going to want to pump me full of pain medication again."

"It's okay to take something for the pain," he told her, worried about her being uncomfortable.

"Yeah, but I don't need what he's pushing. I hate feeling loopy and tired all the time."

Jason made a note to speak to the doctor and see if there was something they could give her that would make her comfortable but wasn't quite as strong. "Okay," he conceded. "But if I notice you seem to be in too much pain I'm getting the doctor."

She looked at him oddly for a minute, but then nodded her head. "Okay."

Elizabeth settled back onto her pillows and lay there and he suddenly found it hard to speak. Telling her they needed to get to know each other seemed cold and impersonal and he didn't want it to seem like they'd memorized lists about each other, but he wasn't sure how to start. But Elizabeth's body gave him an opening. Her stomach growled, clear in the quiet room and he smiled slightly as he asked, "Hungry?"

Her cheeks were tinted pink. "Apparently."

"I'm sure Sonny wouldn't mind fixing you something. In fact he'd welcome the opportunity to cook."

At her questioning look he explained, "He loves to cook and fixing something for you to eat would give him something to do besides sit around downstairs worrying."

"He can cook?" she asked.

When Jason nodded she chuckled. "Well at least I won't starve then. I can't cook anything but brownies from a box. I've even been known to burn soup from a can."

"Let me just go tell him you're awake and hungry. I'm sure he'd be happy to fix you something. Probably some soup."

Her face twisted into a grimace. "Do I have to eat soup? I mean...could I have something else?"

He sat back down in the chair he stood up from and grinned slightly. "Don't like soup?"

"I had tonsillitis a lot as a kid and my mother would only let me eat soup. The summer before I got my tonsils finally taken out I ate so much soup that I can't look at a bowl without my gag reflex kicking in."

"Alright," he said, standing up. "No soup. Last thing we need is for you to puke. Anything in particular you would like?"

"I don't suppose the doctor would let me eat sausage or bacon?"

Jason would ask, but he had a feeling the answer would be no, based on his own diet he'd been forced to follow after being shot before. "Probably not quite yet. Oatmeal?"

Her nose curled up. "Hate it worse than soup. Don't suppose you have any donuts downstairs?"

They were in the middle of nowhere, but he wasn't going to tell her that. So instead he shook his head. She nodded and said, "Maybe you should just ask the doctor what I can have."

"Do you like pancakes?" he asked.

"What?"

"It's a simple question, Elizabeth. Do you like pancakes?" Michael loved pancakes, especially when Sonny or Jason made them with chocolate chips and put whipped cream on it. While Jason didn't think the doctor would go for chocolate chip pancakes for his patient, he'd probably allow another variety. And pancakes, with their accompanying syrup, would probably satisfy the apparent sweet tooth that the woman lying in bed had. "Or what about waffles?"

"Pancakes," she said. "I like pancakes."

He stood and smiled as he turned for the door. "I'll go tell Sonny. I'll be back in a little bit."

As Jason walked down the stairs, he realized that while he may not know what her first pet's name was or who her favorite author was, he at least knew that when he stocked the kitchen at his house, he would not include any soup or oatmeal, but would be sure to include lots of pancake mix.

Part 9
Prompt - Social Anxiety Disorder

The whole world was mad.

As Elizabeth sat in her bed, barely able - or was it allowed? - to sit up as she recovered from a gunshot wound, she wondered when everyone around her had started taking her pain pills. For that was the only explanation she had for their weird looks and their strange half-whispers she heard. Jason Morgan spent every day in her room, talking to her, bringing her books to read, sometimes even reading out loud to her like she was some heroine to his hero in a romance novel. Sonny Corinthos had an ever-present twinkle in his eye whenever he stepped into her room, and the three other men she'd met, guards by the names of Johnny, Francis and Max, all regarded her oddly. They'd give her warm smiles, and to Jason sly grins, and she wondered if it was possible that maybe they hadn't started taking her pain medication but that she had overdosed on it.

The only person who didn't seem to be acting strange was Michael. He'd sit with her and ask her questions, bring her books he begged her to read to him, and when he had been presented with a jumbo coloring book and a box of 64 Crayola crayons, he plopped himself down on her bed and insisted he color with her. And since good ol' Uncle Jason seemed to always be there, he got to join in the activities as well. Which he did willingly with a smile.

Whenever Michael was around, Jason was friendly and open. The enforcer would talk to her and Michael, dividing his time almost equally. However, when Michael left, Jason's behavior changed. He would lean towards her, an intent look on her face, and she wondered if he was even aware of the fact that his voice dropped half an octave when he spoke to her. He'd ask her questions about herself. Her past, her likes, dislikes, thoughts about anything and everything under the sun. And, even more strange, he seemed to share the same things about himself. It was almost like...he was trying to get to know her beyond their present situation.

Enjoying a rare moment of solitude in her room, Elizabeth brought the fingers of her good hand up to massage her temple as she contemplated the past week's events. Jason's behavior was odd. There was no other way to explain it. He was attentive, helpful, she'd even discovered he possessed a dry sense of humor that he didn't show very often. Or maybe she just was able to see beyond the gruff exterior he presented and find humor in his straightforward answers that shattered convention. Under normal circumstances she might have found herself liking him.

She snorted. Who was she kidding? If she'd had the great fortune to run into him anywhere else and he displayed this side of him, she would have been making a fool out of herself by panting all over him. Or at least trying not to look like she was panting all over him while at the same time clearly showing she was interested in him. She probably would have even forgiven him a corny pick-up line that in anyone else she would have laughed off scornfully. But this wasn't a normal situation, and Jason wasn't just a guy she might meet in a bar. She had been shot, the Alcazar brothers were after her, and Jason Morgan and Sonny Corinthos were Neanderthals who wanted him to marry Jason to protect her. And since she shot Jason down, she couldn't understand why he was doing all that he was.

Did he expect Elizabeth to change her mind? If he wore her down by his constant presence did he think she'd give in and marry him? Even if she might, might, in a moment of drug-induced insanity think that being married to Jason Morgan might not be such a bad thing, there was still no way she'd agree to it. She would never agree to marry anyone because she knew what Luis Alcazar would do. He'd kill her husband, and then he'd come after her. She was pretty sure she'd explained that to Jason already. Which was why his behavior was so perplexing.

A soft tap on her door broke through her thoughts, and she knew just by the gentle pressure on the door that it was Jason. Aside from suddenly sliding down in bed and pretending to be asleep, which she figured he and his super-hearing would detect, there was no way she could get out of seeing him, so she wearily called out, "Come in."

As expected, Jason walked in, holding a tray in his hand. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw the delicate crystal bud vase on the tray containing two yellow roses tipped with red. Thanks to Sarah and her incessant vacuous-ness, Elizabeth knew that particular rose signified the sender felt friendship, but was falling in love with the recipient. Then she shook her head and bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud. The mere thought of Jason Morgan bringing her roses, and knowing the meaning behind the color of roses, was simply too funny. And could not even possibly begin to be true. No, it was more than likely that Sonny had added the roses.

However, when Jason set the tray down beside her, she sincerely doubted that Sonny had prepared it. No where in sight were the healthy, organic foods the older man normally prepared for her. Instead, there was a steaming cup of hot chocolate, something she hadn't been allowed to drink since Sonny claimed the sugar wasn't good for her, and donughts. Jason appeared to be indulging her sweet tooth this morning.

Then her eyes drifted to the strawberries and fresh cream, a cup of coffee, and a little velvet box. This wasn't just a breakfast for her. This was a breakfast for two. An intimate encounter as best could be done with a woman recovering from nearly dying, and with half a dozen men - and one very capricious child - always roaming the hallway just outside her door. Her eyes flew up to meet his, as she wondered if she was mistaken in the intent, if there could possibly be any other explanation for this moment.

Jason, however, wouldn't meet her gaze. But she did notice a faint blush on his cheeks, and a sudden nervousness in his actions as he released the tray and stepped away.

"Jason?"

Her soft question hung in the air, yet he still made no effort to raise his head and look at her. Instead, he directed his answer towards the general vicinity of his boots. "We need to talk."

"O-okay," she nodded. They did need to talk. They needed to clear up whatever was happening at this moment. Surely this couldn't be...

"We've gotten word that the Alcazar brothers seem to be looking for you."

Sudden dread filled her stomach and soured it. She needed to leave. Luis would be searching for her and she had to get out of her. She pushed back the covers on the opposite side of the bed from Jason and tried to swing her legs around.

"What are you doing?" he asked, suddenly rounding the bed and forcing her legs back under the covers.

"I have to go," she explained to him. "I need to get a start so I can try and get away from Luis."

"You're not going anywhere, Elizabeth," he shook his head. "Not now, not ever. When I said we had to talk it wasn't to make you run, it was to tell you we needed to move the plan up."

"The plan?" she echoed faintly in confusion.

"Sonny and I had hoped we'd have a little more time. That we wouldn't have to do this quite yet. We wanted to make things look...if not completely natural to Michael to at least not be rushed to make him or anyone else question the matter."

"Question the matter?" She peered at him, her tired ache of the morning now intensifying to a headache. "What are you talking about?"

"We need to get married today so we can head back to Port Charles," he explained as he turned to face her for the first time. "I won't let us go back to Port Charles without already being married. Too much could happen if we tried to hold a ceremony there. It's better to arrive already married so that you can move into the penthouse immediately and be under Sonny and my protection along without associates."

"Whoa, wait a minute," she shook her head. "What are you talking about? I already told you I wasn't going to marry you."

Jason paused and frowned. "You agreed."

She folded her arms as best she could and tilted her chin in stubborn defiance. "Um...no, I didn't. I told you, and Sonny, that I wasn't going to marry you, despite your chivalrous - and outdated - offer."

"Elizabeth," he said, pulling a chair close to the bed. "I understand that you're frightened. But I promise you, I can take care of myself. I've faced Luis Alcazar before and walked away from him. Granted I wasn't your husband at the time, but I was Brenda's and he didn't kill me then. He won't kill me now. This won't be like your fiancé. I know what to expect, I know how to take care of myself. The guards will protect you, and they'll look out for me."

Her eyes were wide as echoes of a conversation she was certain was a dream floated back to her. She had told Jason about Luis, about his threats, about killing her fiancé, and Jason had promised her that he'd take care of her and himself. She... Her eyes widened as she looked up at Jason. She had agreed to marry Jason.

"I was drugged. You drugged me. You tricked me into confessing when I was hopped up on pain medication, and then...I would never have agreed if I'd been in my right mind. I didn't know what I was saying."

He didn't seem to take her rantings in any offense. Instead, he simply reached for her hands, and ran his thumbs lightly over the back of them in gentle circles. "I was afraid you hadn't remembered. But we don't have time to argue with this right now, Elizabeth. We need to get you...and Michael back to Port Charles. We're not as safe here as we would be there. The building where we live, we can control it better. We had to bring you here to take care of you, but we can't stay here any longer. Michael…Michael needs to be back in a more secured environment. And so do you."

She swallowed at the stinging rebuke, however unintentional Jason meant it. She wasn't the only person who had been kidnapped by Luis and Lorenzo. Michael had been taken, and had been frightened. Of course everyone would want to get him back home. He needed to be protected. And she was keeping him in danger by her stubborn nature.

"But can't you take him back? Just him?" she asked.

"Then Luis and his brother will know that we have you, or at least had you. They'll be even more determined. And despite what you think, Elizabeth, you are in no condition to be running off to escape them. You lost a lot of blood, you had an infection...you were shot. You'd never make it. If we go back to Port Charles and everyone sees that you're my wife...we can protect you better than you can do on your own."

She heard the tender pleading in Jason's voice and she was surprised by the burning lump that formed in her throat and the tears that fought to escape her eyes. In this past week she had gotten to know him, and despite his job she felt he was an honorable man. More than that...she trusted him. She trusted him to protect her, to succeed where others had failed.

When she nodded her head slightly, Jason let out a sigh and picked up the box off the tray. "Michael can't know anything about the danger you're in. He can't think that we're getting married to protect you. He needs to think that we're in love, that I fell in love with you while you were here and that you fell in love with me."

Jason opened the box and turned it around and the tears she swore were foolish to shed, spilled over anyways. The ring wasn't gaudy or overbearing. It was simple, it was pure, it was elegant. It was everything she would have wanted if she were getting married for true love instead of protection. And as Jason slipped the ring onto her finger, she found herself suddenly wishing she really was wearing it for the former reason, instead of the latter.

Part 10
Prompt - Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do

Elizabeth Webber Morgan was in big trouble.

She had, despite every attempt not to, despite telling herself that it would be foolish to do so, despite trying by every means in her power to prevent it, had fallen in love with her husband.

Which meant she was screwed. And not in a good way.

Because no good could come of this situation. For herself, or for Jason.

They had married two days after he'd slipped the ring on her finger, and while everyone around them had been in rapturous smiles, Michael most of all, she and Jason had faked their smiles for the pictures. Sonny had prepared a huge wedding feast that had been lost on the bride and groom, and enjoyed heartily by the guards. She had tried to hide the tears in her eyes when Sonny ordered Jason to place his large hand over her own petite one and cut the beautifully decorated cake he'd made for them. It looked like everything she'd ever dreamed of, and for one brief moment she let herself imagine what the day would have been like if the circumstances had been different. And in that unguarded moment when tears had shimmered in her eyes, Francis had taken a picture.

That same picture now adorned the mantle of the fireplace downstairs and everyday she saw something that was a symbol of what she could truly never have. Because this would be her only wedding in life. No matter what happened with Luis Alcazar, she would never get married again. Because if she didn't die, she would either be a mob widow, or a mob divorcee. And nobody would ever want to attach themselves to such a situation. She would have guards for the rest of her life, and any sane man would run screaming for the hills at such a situation.

Michael had been, and still was, one of their biggest supporters and cheerleaders. The little boy had gained an aunt he loved, who spent time with him, who played with him instead of trying to get rid of him, and who most of all loved him just as much as his uncle did. Elizabeth knew that she would never have children in her life; because that wasn't the marriage she had with Jason. And despite previously thinking that she'd never wanted the dirty, smelly, crying, drooling, wet, little bundles of annoyance, she now could think of nothing she wanted more in her life. She wanted a child of her own. Instead, she would settle for a family.

Because that was what Michael, and by extension Sonny and the trio of guards had become. They had become family to her. More than her own of flesh and blood had ever been.

The problem with that was she wanted to make a family of flesh and blood with Jason. And that brought her back to the original thought. She was in deep trouble.

To every citizen of Port Charles, except for the Inner Six, the Morgan marriage was a thing of love and tenderness. Even the Five Families thought that Jason Morgan had truly been smitten by Cupid this time. She had learned and pieced together by conversations with Jason and Sonny, and to a lesser extent Johnny, Max and Francis, that Sonny's associates didn't know the truth of their marriage. Mostly because the family heads had said upon meeting Jason and Sonny for the first time after everyone arrived back at Port Charles, that they hoped Jason's new bride wasn't another person he'd married in order to protect them. They had overlooked the first such marriage; they weren't inclined to accept a second one.

Sonny had assured them that it wasn't the case, that Jason was in fact very much in love with his wife. And the fact that she happened to be Steven Webber's, connected to Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar, little sister had no impact on the situation at all. And since Mario Benditti was a shrewd man who felt it was all a little too convenient, and who was prone to dropping in unannounced to their penthouse and whose guards Francis and Max had seen following her, she and Jason had had to turn on lovesick newlywed charade stronger than any of them had ever imagined.

She didn't have a separate bedroom from Jason; something she probably wouldn't have had anyways given Michael's disposition for running into their penthouse at the unearthly hour of six to fling their door open and pounce on their bed. And she didn't know how much more of the situation she could take until she could no longer be held responsible for her actions. After all, how was one supposed to sleep next to the handsomest man she'd ever known and not be tempted? One night after waking up and finding herself draped across her husband she'd been forced to alter her sleeping arrangements.

She now painted late into the night, sometimes barely able to drag herself to the couch located in her studio before falling asleep. When Jason would come find her in the morning, after showering and dressing, she would head back to their bedroom where she would sleep for several hours free from the fear of embarrassing herself. They'd been in this arrangement for the past week and a half, and thankfully Jason hadn't questioned her on it. Maybe he wasn't even aware of it considering that he spent the majority of his day absent from the penthouse at the warehouse. His cover for the reconnaissance he was doing against the Alcazar brothers.

Right now, however, she desperately wished that he'd return.

Because she wasn't sure how much more time spent answering Mr. Benditti's questions she could take.

The man had once again dropped in unannounced, hoping he wasn't inconveniencing her. But he'd heard about her grandmother's failing health and wondered why the nursing staff hadn't seen much of her. He hoped there wasn't some sort of problem.

"Unfortunately there is," she said as she handed him a cup of Corinthos-Morgan's Premium Colombian Blend. "My brother and I have never gotten along very well. In fact, I've never gotten along with the majority of my family. When Jason and I went to visit them after our honeymoon to tell them about our wedding, my grandmother didn't react to the news very well. My brother's reaction was even worse.

"While I'm concerned about my grandmother," she said carefully, looking down into her coffee cup to appear deeply troubled by the turn of events that she'd predicted right down to her grandmother's diatribe about how stupid and irresponsible she was, "I refuse to sit around and let my family, which has abandoned me except to try to control me, abuse my husband. My loyalties are to him now."

Daring a peek at him, she could see Mr. Benditti smile ever-so-slightly at her answer. "An admirable quality, Mrs. Morgan. I was afraid your husband's distaste of hospitals was preventing you from attending your grandmother."

"A distaste of hospitals is something Jason and I share. My parents are both doctors and I spent too many hours alone and forgotten in their offices while they were busy taking care of other people's families. They wanted me to go into the family profession and when I declared I wanted to study and pursue art instead of medicine they weren't very supportive. It's left a sour taste in my mouth in regards to hospitals and, as much as I love my grandmother," she lied smoothly, "after a few minutes I'm ready to bolt for the fresh air."

"So you're an artist?" the gentleman across from her asked. As if it wasn't obvious due to her paint splattered shirt and pants.

"Yes," she said. "I had my pieces in several small galleries and stores back in Colorado. I'm working on some new pieces to send them shortly."

She paused and figured she should turn on the moon-eyed wife act, which wouldn't be very hard in this case. "Jason's actually been great in putting in a studio for me so that I could paint as much as I wanted to. You actually caught me in the middle of a project when you arrived."

"It must be nice to have something to do while your husband spends so much time away," Mr. Benditti remarked with a studied casualness which she knew was anything but. "I've never seen a newlywed gone so much."

"Jason is very dedicated to his job," she returned smoothly. "It's one of the things I admire and love about him. Given everything Michael's recently been through, Jason wants to let Sonny spend as much time at home with him as possible. I don't mind Jason being gone if it means Sonny gets to be with his son."

Then she smiled secretively. "Besides, he's always home for us to share dinner together. So I really can't complain."

She was spared from further rude questions by Mr. Benditti by the door opening and Jason walking in. He must have really been down at the warehouse when Max had undoubtedly called him to let him know that Mr. Benditti had arrived, because he'd arrived rather quickly. The only delay in his trip home, had been to the florist, based on the two dozen coral roses he was carrying.

"Elizabeth," he called out, and then raised his head. His face changed from hopeful anticipation to all business when he saw the other man in the room. She knew this whole façade had to be wearing on him; he'd admitted he didn't like lying and found it hard to act against how he really felt. "Mr. Benditti. I didn't know you would be here. I...I finished up earlier than normal tonight and thought I'd surprise Elizabeth with an evening out."

"What beautiful roses, Mr. Morgan," the older Italian smiled. "My wife loves whenever I present her with coral roses. Of course, given that they mean desire we usually don't end up leaving the house at all."

Elizabeth just wanted the ground to open up and swallow her now. How dare this man do this to them. How dare he continually drop in uninvited and presume to question them about their marriage and now their sex life. It was, despite Sonny's attempts to calm her down by his agreeing that it was distasteful, simply a code of their lifestyle. If a man didn't take a mistress, and openly boast about it among his peers, then he needed to at least lewdly allude to a healthy sex life with his wife. It made her feel like a piece of horseflesh being judged for her breeding abilities.

"Thank you, sweetheart," she smiled broadly, and graciously, as she moved around Mr. Benditti to take roses from Jason. "I love them, and of course any flowers you bring me. Let me just go put them in some water."

She moved to take them from him, but instead Jason refused to relinquish his hold on them. He drew her towards him, and leaned down to kiss her. She was sure it was meant for Mr. Benditti's benefit, but it quickly went beyond that. She didn't remember dropping the roses, she didn't hear the older mobster leave the penthouse, but when she found herself pulling Jason's shirt out of his pants and reaching for the buttons, she suddenly pulled back from the kiss. Her lips were red and swollen, her blood pounded in her ears, and she struggled desperately to regain control of her breathing while her cheeks were aflame with embarrassment. She saw Jason open his mouth to speak, but instead she turned and fled for the stairs, not stopping until she was locked inside her studio, her shaking legs giving way as she slid down the door to puddle on the floor.

She was definitely in deep trouble.

Part 11
Prompt - You make me proud

Jason Morgan was frustrated.

Ready to split his skin in two, yell at the next person who dared to make his life miserable, he needed a good bar fight to work off his tension and anger. He knew that Johnny would say he needed to stop avoiding his bride Elizabeth and make her his wife, but that was part of the reason he was frustrated. So that wouldn't help matters any.

There were three things that had Jason ready to lose to his mind and they were - in no particular order because the degree to which they annoyed him varied from day to day and hour to hour; Luis Alcazar, Mario Benditti, and Elizabeth. Each person had him at the end of his patience individually. Collectively they were driving him to distraction.

Luis Alcazar had done nothing since they had returned to Port Charles. Nothing. And that worried Jason. Because it meant that the arms dealer had something big, and nefarious, brewing. Jason would actually prefer if a warning shot were fired across the bow, because then he could get an estimation of where Alcazar was, and what he might be planning. By being silent, Alcazar was gaining power. Because Jason was becoming nervous and frustrated. He expected that the moment Luis heard about Elizabeth and Jason's marriage he would have done something. Anything.

Instead, he and his brother had gone about their business as normal. They appeared in public without any outward signs of stress or anger, and even the meetings that they were followed to and conversations listened in showed no cracks in their appearances. Which meant that Luis' anger ran deep. And that meant he was dangerous. Even more dangerous than he'd been when Jason had married Brenda.

So Elizabeth never left the penthouse without him or a small army of guards by her side. But she was growing annoyed at having her every move planned and approved, so she was spending more and more time in the house. Which pleased, and bothered him. He was glad she was safe, but he also knew that she was not a person who liked to be kept cooped up indoors. He was afraid she would slowly suffocate under the strain and the deep vibrancy she possessed would soon vanish.

Mr. Benditti was a cause of her unhappiness, and that unhappiness grew proportionally to the amount of time she spent trapped with the old Italian and his impertinent questions. Jason understood that the Families wanted to make sure they were being conned into protecting another Mrs. Morgan who was nothing more than a spoiled, pampered pain in the butt who constantly snuck off with her lover and flaunted it in the face of Port Charles' citizens. But that didn't give the aging mobster the right to come in and question her about her family, their sex life and when she thought they'd need to convert one of the rooms into a nursery. Of course, given the manner in which she welcomed Jason home nearly a week ago had done a lot towards convincing him that the Morgan marriage was one based on mutual love and respect.

He'd only stopped by once since then, and that was only for five minutes to drop off a bottle of wine and some Belgian chocolates. He suggested that the next time Jason brought home coral roses, they make use of the delicacies instead of wasting dinner reservations. Mr. Benditti had even gone so far as to stop Jason after a meeting two days ago and let him know about a secluded retreat he and Mrs. Benditti enjoyed. Jason had stood there and accepted the advice and then spent three hours on his bike trying to forget the whole situation.

Because right now, the biggest source of Jason's frustration was his wife. Elizabeth Webber Morgan was all he could think of at the moment. Maybe it was because she seemed to be going out of her way to avoid him that made her such a constant presence in his mind. There was no disputing the fact that the object of his near ever-waking thought was doing everything in her power to not be anywhere near him.

It began several weeks ago when he'd woken up, pulled from his sleep by the feel of her removing her body from over his. She'd moved slowly, extracting herself from his arms which had ended up around her as she'd used him for a pillow. He'd never felt such a loss until she slid out of bed and he found her the next morning asleep on the couch in her studio. That was where he found her every morning afterwards; covered with paint and exhausted. He would gently wake her up, after taking a very cold shower and dressing, and he knew that she would then return to their room to sleep. Because every night the sheets were rumpled and untucked after he'd straightened them in the morning, and they undeniably smelled like her.

Then, there was The Kiss. The afternoon he'd arrived home after receiving Max's call letting him know Mr. Benditti had once again arrived and was in a mood. Elizabeth had dealt with the Italian admirably, had handled him better than Jason ever thought imaginable, but there was only so much she should have to put up with. So he'd left the warehouse to show her his support and also prove a point to Mr. Benditti. He'd only meant to kiss her slightly, to prove to the mobster that the marriage was real and they were still in the honeymoon phase as Francis had explained to him they should be acting out. Instead, he'd all but thrown her down on the floor - or at the very least the couch - and taken her right there. In front of Mr. Benditti.

The roses had been dropped, his hands had become tangled in Elizabeth's hair, and somehow most of the buttons of her oversized paint shirt, except the ones right between her breasts, had become unbuttoned. And that oversight occurred only because he hadn't had the time to undo them. Elizabeth had pulled out of his grasp and fled upstairs when she realized that she'd pulled out his shirt and had undone the button on his jeans. He had hardly seen his wife since then.

What he couldn't understand was why. He was attracted to her. That had to be more than obvious from their kiss. She was obviously attracted to him. What he couldn't figure out, was why she was fighting it.

He knew that they needed to talk. If only he could pin Elizabeth down long enough to do so. Groaning, Jason scrubbed his hands over his face. Pinning down wasn't the best phrase there. Because that lead to a whole other host of phrases he'd like to do to her, and with her. And he knew before any of those could occur, they needed to talk. And he was scared to death of having such a talk.

"Jason?"

He spun around from the window and turned, startled by the sound of Elizabeth's voice. She had barely spoken to him, less than she'd seen him, and the soft lilting question of her voice surprised him, pulling him out of his thoughts. And then he fought to keep from acting on those thoughts when he finally was able to look at her.

Sonny had insisted they go out to dinner tonight. Make an appearance beyond the initial one they'd done when they first arrived. Jason and Elizabeth couldn't stay locked up in their penthouse all day. Sonny had said it jokingly, but also clearly conveyed that this was part of the ruse. The rest of the town, and their business associates, and especially the Alcazar brothers, needed to see them out and about.

So there Elizabeth stood in a deep burgundy colored silk dress that ended just below her knees, held up by the most ridiculously thin spaghetti straps and showing off copious amounts of shoulder, neck and cleavage. Jason wanted to tell her to go upstairs and put on something more decent. He wanted to take her upstairs and take her out of the dress before putting them in bed. Together. Instead, he settled for staring at her like a landed fish and curling his hands into fists so tight the tendons ached.

"Jason?" Elizabeth asked again, shifting slightly as she stood before the closet door. "Is...is everything okay?"

He cleared his throat. "Yeah. I... Sorry, I was thinking."

She waved a hand towards her outfit. "Is this okay? For tonight, I mean? Sonny said we were going to The No Name? I wasn't sure what the dress code was so I called Alexis."

"No, no, it's fine," he said, making a mental note to tell Alexis to butt of his life and to take her boyfriend Johnny with her. Because he had no doubt what-so-ever who thought Elizabeth should wear her current outfit. "We, uh, we should go so that we're not late."

By the time they reached the restaurant, Jason was eyeing the wet bar in the limousine and wondering what Elizabeth's reaction would be if he suddenly had a stiff drink. The demure way she sat beside him, the scent of her perfume as it washed over him, the way he alternately cursed and thanked her evening coat for hiding her flimsy excuse for a dress from his eyes...he was doubting he'd ever be able to make it through dinner without doing something drastic. Like kissing her senseless, or throwing her over his shoulder and stalking back to the penthouse.

When the car stopped, and Max opened the door, he was never so glad to get out into the fresh winter air. After making a quick scan of the street, he reached back and held out his hand for Elizabeth. She softly slipped her hand into his and climbed out, not releasing it as they started towards the building.

And that was when it happened.

The door opened, and Luis and his brother Lorenzo stepped outside. Immediately Max and Francis stepped between the couple and the brothers, and Elizabeth took a half step behind Jason while painfully tightening her hand around his.

"Elizabeth," Luis smiled. His look had a barely disguise feral quality, and his voice was deep.

"Mr. Alcazar," Jason said, his own voice low, but full of warning and threat.

"What a pleasant surprise running into you tonight." Elizabeth and Jason remained silent and the arms dealer continued on. "I'd heard that you had married recently, Elizabeth. Imagine my surprise."

"Surprise?" she said, her voice soft, but strong. "I can't imagine why it would surprise you. We hardly know each other and we certainly have no claims on each other. I found a wonderful man I decided to spend the rest of my life with."

"For however long that might be," Lorenzo snorted from behind his older brother.

"Is that a threat?" Max growled, taking a step towards him. "Sure sounded like a threat to me. I hate threats, especially against women. People who threaten women and children are cowards and don't deserve-"

"Max," Jason cut the guard off. "You'll have to excuse my associate here. He's grown rather protective of my wife. I can't say I blame him. In fact, I'm quite grateful to know that my men, and in fact all my associates, will protect her and keep her safe when I can't be with her."

The words hung between them, letting the arms dealer and his brother know that Elizabeth was protected. Not only by Jason and Sonny and their men, but by the Families as well. Jason's gaze never wavered from Luis' and the message was contained quite clearly. Don't come after Elizabeth, or I will kill you.

He only wondered if Luis and his brother were smart enough to heed the warning shot Jason had fired back in response to their first move. And since he knew they wouldn't, he wondered what the next action would be...and when it would come.

Part 12
Prompt - Insignificantly enough, we both have significant others

"You're in love with your wife."

Jason's head snapped up and he gaped at Sonny for a moment, before his eyes hardened and he looked back down at the paperwork on his desk. Maybe if he was fortunate Sonny would grow tired and leave and he could get back to focusing on the matter at hand. How to protect Elizabeth from the Alcazars, and prevent her from finding out his true feelings for her.

"Admit it," Sonny said, the smile in his voice evident even though Jason wasn't looking at him. The chair across the desk creaked slightly as his boss sat down, but still he ignored him and ran his pencil lightly over the column of numbers. "You're in love with your wife."

"We need to focus on Luis Alcazar," Jason said, his voice hard. "After last night's meeting, we need to be prepared for whatever they do next."

And that was the reason he couldn't tell Elizabeth, or anybody, about his feelings for her. Let alone act on them. This marriage wasn't for any other purpose than to protect the woman who had helped Michael while he was kidnapped and was shot for her troubles. He needed to focus on business. Personal feelings meant nothing. Personal feelings would get her, and possibly him, hurt. He couldn't risk that.

He wouldn't risk creating a situation where she would stay in his life. She was too good for a life like this. She needed freedom and fresh air, she needed the ability to come and go as she pleased and not have people wanting to harm here simply because she was connected to him. He was going to eliminate the threat of Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar, and then he was going to divorce her. He was going to set her up anywhere she wanted to go, and he'd never see her again. Because there was no way they would ever work out. She was too good for him, and in the end he would only destroy her.

Last night's meeting had been a cold bucket of ice to his overworked libido. He had nearly forgotten all his personal rules. Friends and lovers were separate. Elizabeth was too good of a person to be his friend, let alone his lover. He would never forget that again. He would be focused on the goal, and when it was done, he would let her go.

Even if it meant he might end up miserable. Because Sonny was right; he was in love with his wife.

"The guards and you will protect her," Sonny assured him. "But what I'm more interested in is your stake in the matter."

"What stake?" he asked. "I have no stake. I married her to protect her. I hardly know anything about her."

Sonny sat back in his chair and folded his fingers in front of him. "I thought you didn't lie, Jason. But you just lied to my face. You know plenty about Elizabeth Webber. You read her file, and more importantly you spent time with her. You fixed a studio up for her because she paints; you found out her favorite brand of art supplies and nearly bought out the supplier. You know her favorite foods; you know what she doesn't like. You even stop and buy her little presents because you think she might like them or want to paint them. You know her. Even if you try to deny it."

Shaking his head, the older man regarded him. "So why are you trying to deny it, Jason? You're attracted to her. You're more than attracted to her. There's nothing wrong with it."

"Nothing wrong?" Jason scoffed. "She's got a psychopath trying to kill her and you want me to seduce her? She doesn't belong in this life, Sonny. She's too good for it."

"Too good for it? Says who?"

Jason widened his eyes, certain he was hearing things. "I say. You should too. She's an artist who deserves to go where she wants to go, do the things she wishes, without having to look over her shoulder for killers and assassins. Being in this life would slowly kill her."

"Did you read her file?" Sonny asked scornfully.

"Of course I did."

"Then did you miss the fact that her godfather is an actual godfather?"

"What?"

"Elizabeth Webber's godfather is-"

"Al Reyes," Jason nodded.

"No, Alfonse Reyes," Sonny shook his head.

"Chicago?"

"Retired to Boulder," his boss nodded. "Moved there years ago. Why do you think Elizabeth stayed there?"

"Because she doesn't get along with her family."

"Wrong. She gets along with her family alright. Except that the Webbers aren't her family. Reyes is her uncle, who arranged for Elizabeth's adoption with the Webbers. His niece was fifteen and got into trouble and the Webbers took her in."

"Then why did they treat her like they did? Why did they ignore her and act like they couldn't stand the sight of her?" Jason's jaw clenched at the thought of it, at the sadness and hurt that entered Elizabeth's eyes and voice every time she mentioned her family.

"Because Steven Webber is a spoiled child who hated the new attention his baby sister was getting and set out to make her life miserable. We cracked the black hole in his life. He's not being blackmailed by the Alcazars, he's working with them because Luis has promised to get rid of the annoying brat who came in and messed up his life."

Jason's blood ran cold at the cruel, calculating heartless manner that Elizabeth's family had acted. That her brother had made a deal with the devil and was trying to pawn his sister off to evil incarnate. He reached out and grabbed the phone, knowing that he needed to alert Elizabeth's guard detail of the latest information. Steven had never been to the penthouse, but they needed to be aware in case Elizabeth ever encountered him while she was out.




"Elizabeth?"

She stiffened when she heard her name, and was grateful for the sunglasses she wore that would hide her contempt for the man who was standing before her. "Steven."

He looked over at the guard who was sitting beside her, "Can I join you, Liz?"

She wanted to say no, but aside from her plain dislike of her brother who had tormented her as a child, she could think of no real reason to do so. Besides, maybe she could try and find out what was going on with him and Luis and Lorenzo. Because she just didn't understand how he, a doctor sworn to help people, could hook up with the two men who had brought so much pain to their family. They had killed her fiancé, had threatened their parents, had threatened her, and Elizabeth was certain that there was no way that Steven would willingly work with them. Maybe if she could convince him that Jason was helping her and therefore could help him, he could get away from the Alcazars.

She looked over at Francis and smiled sweetly. "Sure. You can join me, Steven."

Francis nodded slightly and stood, moving just a slight distance away to join the others who had set up a perimeter of defense. She knew that Jason had okayed the outing. He had been the one to suggest it this morning, saying he felt bad that she always was cooped up indoors and that he didn't think anything could happen. Besides, they needed - especially after last night's run in - to show Luis that she wasn't going to hide. So she'd left the penthouse with no less than six armed guards all so she could spend a few minutes outdoors with her sketchpad to gain inspiration for more paintings.

"So how are you?" she asked politely. "How's Gram?"

Steven ignored her questions and immediately launched into several of his own. "Are you nuts, Liz? Married to Jason Morgan? Don't you realize that he's a mobster?"

"You're a fine one to talk," she snapped back. "Luis Alcazar killed my fiancé, he threatened Dad. Or have you forgotten that? Obviously you must have considering that you're working for him. Steven I don't understand-"

"No, I don't expect you would," he cut her off with a shake of his head.

"Then let me help you," she pleaded. "Jason and Sonny...they can help you. They can help us. Whatever is going on, just tell them. They can help. Come back to the penthouse with me, wait until Jason gets home and then talk to him."

Steven studied her for a minute and she felt herself grow nervous under the scrutiny. Then his face darkened. "You're in love with him, aren't you?"

"Of-of course," she stammered, knowing that because they were out in public and Steven had agreed to needing help yet that they needed to keep up appearances. "I wouldn't have married him otherwise."

"You married him because you were shot, Lizzie," Steven sneered. "And you turned your soulful little eyes on him and begged him to take care of you, just like you did to my father. But you fell in love with him, didn't you? This isn't just a ruse anymore, is it?"

She sat back slightly, confused and just a little worried about his knowledge of her wound and his anger towards her. "What?"

"You were shot, Lizzie, because the idiots Luis sent to kidnap you couldn't follow orders and kill the kid in the face of your stupid nobility."

She glanced over at Francis out of the corner of her eye, thankful for the dark sunglasses hiding her gaze. He was turned, watching her conversation with her brother and she lifted her hand slightly to signal him to come over. But before she could, Max was by her side. "Mrs. Morgan? Mr. Morgan called, you should come with us."

She nodded and went to stand, not trusting to let Steven out of her sight. She knew that with Max at her back, she would be safe.

"You're not going anywhere, Lizzie," Steven said as he stood as well, reaching out and snagging her arm.

"Let go of her," Max growled.

"Oh, I don't think so," her brother shook her head. "Not unless you want her to die."

Elizabeth stared at him in confusion that quickly turned to horror when Steven let go and held up his hand. Around the tip of his finger was a small needle, with a drop of blood. She glanced down and turned her wrist to see a corresponding drop of blood on her skin.

"I've only got twenty minutes to get her the antidote. Now, Luis has set up a safe house for us, Liz. We don't have much time, so I suggest you come with me now."

A rustle in the bushes preceded Luis' men stepping out and flanking Jason's, two on each side. "These men will just make sure that we're not followed," Steven smiled viciously. "Let's go, Liz. Luis is waiting, and his patience won't hold out much longer. And neither will mine."

Part 13
Prompt - Sex on the beach

It was apparently fated for her to die. Elizabeth didn't know why, but she decided that she obviously meant to die young. Nearly blowing up beside her fiancé, her father crashing her car and later finding out the brakes had been tampered with, being shot, and now being poisoned. Maybe it was time to just stop fighting fate and go with the flow.

After all, if she did die, then Luis and Lorenzo Alcazar could no longer come after her. Her brother would no longer be yelling nonsense at her telling her she'd been adopted and he hated her from the time his mother and father brought home his new baby sister and that's why he'd asked the Alcazar brothers for help. It would just quiet all the noise and the pain. Maybe instead of praying that the poison in her blood would slow down and she would survive this ordeal, she should pray that they didn't make it to the safe house in time. If she was dead, she couldn't be tortured any longer. And right now, no pain sounded really good.

Of course, given the way Steven was ranting at her, she didn't think he'd be merciful enough to allow her to die until he extracted his full revenge. She shuddered to think just what that revenge would entail and how the Alcazars would play into it. Would Luis try to marry her still? Would he force a divorce? Or would he simply hold onto her and make her a widow? Because she knew that Jason and the guards would come after her. Her husband was noble and loyal that way. Kinda like a Golden Retriever.

Because any other emotion besides duty, she was sure Jason didn't feel, or would never admit to it. Like the kiss which had haunted her for weeks. She could remember the feel of Jason's lips against hers, his hands as they'd tangled in her hair before roaming her body. She remembered the feel of his body under her hands and his obvious desire for her pressed against her belly. And she also remembered the way he hadn't spoken to her afterwards, how he'd avoided her and showed her that she'd been right to pull away because it would have obviously been a mistake. It wouldn't have been making love with her husband whom she'd fallen in love with. It would have been hormones. Cheap sex. And it would have messed everything up.

As the poison lanced through her, causing pain to explode in her cells and cold sweat to form on the small of her back, she allowed herself to lament the loss of what never could have been. A man like Jason Morgan would never have looked twice at her if she hadn't gotten herself kidnapped and thrown in with his nephew. He never would have married her if she hadn't been in danger. And he certainly wouldn't fall in love with someone like her. Hormones, boredom, an itch needing to be scratched and a myriad of other cheap reasons could probably result in him sleeping with her, but it would never mean to him what it would mean to her.

Elizabeth had never considered herself a romantic, not after growing up in the Webber household and watching her parents fight about anything and everything - mostly her. She believed that love was merely respect for another person and a belief that you wouldn't want to kill them after a couple of years together, it wasn't a fairy tale emotion that swept a person off their feet and made them feel invincible. It was why she never wanted children. Why bring another human being into your misery and mess? How different it all seemed now that it was slipping away from her.

She loved Jason. Not just because she respected him and thought he was a decent person, but because he made her stomach flutter and her heart race whenever he was around or she merely thought about him. She could think of nothing more perfect than to get lost with him and only have him to talk to, only have him to rely on, only have him to keep her warm at nights. She imagined having children with him. Somehow the thought of children wasn't so repulsive if they were his. She'd gladly deal with dirty diapers and sleepless nights if it meant that she had helped create a person who was part Jason.

Since she knew it would never happen, she decided to cling to that fantasy. It helped push away the sound of Steven's voice and the pain coursing through her body. It was actually even...blissful.

"Wakey, wakey, Lizzie," Steven sneered as the car slowed. "We're here."

Elizabeth concentrated on forcing Steven's voice back. She focused on the memory of Jason's kiss, and imagined what it would have been like if she hadn't suddenly gotten scared and ran. She fantasized on coming home and telling Jason that Michael was going to get a cousin. As she slipped into that place, it blocked out Steven, Luis and Lorenzo, and helped her face whatever came her way.




Jason Morgan was mad. They had been too slow in gathering information, hadn't figured out that Steven Webber wasn't a victim, but an equal conspirator in the plot against Elizabeth, and now she was missing. Worse than that, Max told them that Steven had apparently injected Elizabeth with a poison that would kill her in twenty minutes unless he got the antidote in her. The guards had stood by helplessly as they'd been outnumbered and watched their charge be taken away from them. Francis and Max were in as bad of moods as Jason had ever seen, and he understood their sentiments completely.

Elizabeth's life was once again in jeopardy because he'd failed her. He'd promised her he'd protect her from Luis Alcazar and his deranged brother, and he'd completely missed that it was her deranged brother that posed the biggest threat. The line of people who were going to hurt him because of this was growing by the minute and he feared what happened when her uncle Alfonse Reyes found out that Jason Morgan couldn't keep his own wife safe.

The only blessing, if one could call it that, in this whole disaster was the GPS tracking device he'd planted in her jacket last night when he set up the outing to the park. When Johnny had suggested it to them, he'd scoffed, but Sonny persuaded him to see the wisdom in it. The devices these days were small and lightweight and Elizabeth would never need to know it was there. Which meant that should Luis and his brother try anything, they wouldn't know it was there. Kidnappers would probably ditch her purse, but they wouldn't deprive her of a jacket, especially in the winter. And it was working.

The signal showed continual movement which gave them encouragement that she was still wearing her coat. They were able to track the car she was in, even being able to get ahead of them to see how many people were with Elizabeth and how many cars there were. Jason had decided not to move too soon, because if Steven Webber didn't have the antidote on him, he wasn't going to risk Elizabeth's life simply to go for an easier kill on the road. They would have to storm another safe house, but each man was in agreement that it was better that way because it meant a greater chance of Elizabeth surviving the poison.

Cautiously they approached the house in the distance, grateful that one thing seemed to be going their way in small fact that the Alcazar guards from the park were now neutralized and wouldn't be sneaking up on their rear. Now they merely faced the unknown in how many guards were inside and whether or not the Alcazars were there. Chances were very high they were, after all, Luis had been stalking Elizabeth for years. He wouldn't pass up the chance to be there when Steven brought her in in a weakened state.

"Jason?"

He turned his head slightly as Johnny approached him, while keeping the binoculars trained on the house. "What?"

"Preliminary thermal scans are in. There appear to be five guards inside, besides the six outside. There are four people in one room. Good guess it's Elizabeth and the others."

He nodded, while mulling over the information and formulating a plan. "How many of our guys are here?"

"Ten," Johnny informed him.

"Simultaneous kill on the guards out here, then we move in. I want the guards inside taken out quietly. You, Max and Francis are with me and Sonny and we go straight to Elizabeth. Luis and Lorenzo, kill immediately. Steven is mine."

"Jason," his friend said cautiously.

"Johnny, he isn't killed until we know that Elizabeth has the antidote. Once we're sure of that, I don't care what happens to Steven Webber. Torture him for all I care. But it doesn't happen until I know that she's safe."

"Okay. I'll pass the word. Be ready to move soon because we don't know how often these goons out here are supposed to check in."

"I'll be ready."

In the end, it went much like Jason had ordered. The guards outside were eliminated without warning. Inside however, one of Alcazar's guards fired off a shot that killed one of Jason's and alerted the others in the house to their presence. But the brothers and Steven had obviously not counted on such a high number of men arriving, because no sooner had they reached for their weapons to come investigate, then Jason and the others were inside the room. Luis and Lorenzo were sent meet the Devil, and Jason advanced on Steven Webber, his gun trained between the good doctor's eyes.

"The antidote," he growled. "Did you give it to her?"

When the other man hesitated Jason squeezed off a shot that imbedded itself in Steven's kneecap. "Don't lie to me. I can torture you without killing you, but I'm not in the mood. I want the antidote, and I want it now."

For all of Steven's bravado and criminal dealings, he folded rather quickly when confronted with his own pain. He immediately pointed to his medical bag, indicated the empty syringe inside and swore he gave Elizabeth the antidote. She couldn't very well marry Luis if she was dead after all.

As Jason gathered Elizabeth in his arms and picked her up he glared down at the man who had hurt her. "She couldn't marry him because she's my wife."

Part 14
Prompt - Too Darn Hot

She's my wife.

Three little words kept running through Jason's head on an endless loop, tormenting him and pleasing him all at the same time. For all the reasons why he should push her away, get her out of his life and give her the freedom she deserved from criminals like the Alcazar brothers and him, he found that he couldn't. For the simple reason that he loved her. He loved her, she was his wife, and he wanted her in his life.

So he was ignoring reason, and he was ignoring his head, and he was finally listening to his heart. Sonny and the guards hadn't said it, but their simple grins and small encouragement had shown him that they approved and hoped things worked out for him. They all hoped that Elizabeth Morgan remained a permanent part of all their lives, and especially Jason's. Which was why they were being extremely helpful.

But Jason was slowly going insane, because in the two weeks since they'd arrived on the island after taking her out of Port Charles he hadn't spent time with his wife. He'd seen her from afar. First it was that he wanted to make sure she was healthy and recovered from the poison; then he'd needed time to make his decision. He was ashamed to admit that he'd intended to leave her when they first arrived. Convinced that she deserved more than he did, he was going to make sure she was alive and healthy, and then quietly slip off the island leaving the divorce papers behind. Thankfully, that plan was now abandoned.

He was currently in the plan of wooing his wife. Small gifts and simple notes were delivered to her daily. He felt ridiculous, but he hoped that the simple, heartfelt words would soften her and convince her that he was serious when he went to her today and told her that he loved her and he wanted her to stay. He just hoped she felt the same way. Now that she was free from the threat of Luis Alcazar, would she decide that she wanted to get back to her life? Would she want to go back to Colorado? Would she want a divorce and him out of her life? He had to convince her not to.

And today he would. He would finally see her, hopefully they'd be able to talk and come to an understanding, and hopefully he'd be able to control his libido long enough to do this right and not rush for a physical relationship. He knew from their kiss all those weeks ago, that they would be able to set any room, any building, on fire with the heat between them, but he wanted to show her he respected her. That he was serious about them being equals in heart and mind together and that he wanted her for who she was, not for the spark she lit in him. To that end, he really hoped she wasn't wearing one of those itty bitty bikinis she'd taken to wearing around the island, because he wasn't sure he'd be able to control himself if she was.

He'd been up since dawn, but he knew that Elizabeth wouldn't be up yet, so he sat on the veranda of his cottage sipping a cup of coffee and waiting for the time to pass to a decent hour so he could go and talk to his wife. Time was moving incredibly slowly and he felt a bit like Michael when the little boy would ask every five minutes if it was time. He'd tried to read the paper, but he found he really couldn't concentrate. Not when his mind was focused on the one place on this island where Elizabeth was.

"Jason?"

He stood and turned to face Sonny, surprised that the other man was here. Sonny was spending his time with Michael, dealing with the casinos and occasionally flying back to Port Charles to deal with the Five Families in containing the aftermath of the Alcazar killing. He hadn't expected Sonny back so soon after leaving last night. Or to bring a visitor with him.

His surprise deepened, but he hid it behind a mask of neutrality as he appraised the man standing next to Sonny. Older, unknown, but something seemed vaguely familiar about him. And given the way that Sonny looked regretful and downfallen standing in front of the man, Jason was immediately on guard and suspicious about this visitor.

"Jason," Sonny said on a sigh. "I'd like you to meet Elizabeth's uncle, Alfonse Reyes."

"You and I need to talk, Mr. Morgan," Mr. Reyes said, his coal eyes glittering dangerously as he crossed the room. "You married my niece, swore to your associates that you would keep her safe, and she ended up poisoned and almost killed. I should shoot you for what you did to Bethie."

"I'm sorry that Elizabeth was hurt," Jason said, struggling to suppress the guilt that rose up on those words, as well as control his temper at the man standing before him. "But we didn't find out about Steven Webber's connection to the Alcazars in time to prevent him approaching Elizabeth. You, sir, were the one who placed Elizabeth in that situation when you placed her with the Webbers. You were the one who was in Colorado watching over her for years until I met her. And you never contacted us once Elizabeth was in Port Charles. We did everything we could to keep her safe, but we didn't have all the pieces. Did we?"

"Don't you take that tone of voice of with me, Mr. Morgan," Alfonse growled at him. "I am her uncle and I protected her the best that I could."

"Which apparently wasn't very good," he shot back.

"Jason," Sonny warned quietly, and Jason took a deep breath.

"You may be her uncle, Mr. Reyes, and I understand how you feel about her being hurt. I will do everything in my power to keep her safe, but you know as well as I do that there are no guarantees in this business."

"You talk as if you'll still be married."

"Yes, sir, I do plan on that," Jason admitted, only because the man was related to Elizabeth. "If Elizabeth will have me."

Mr. Reyes scowled and his eyes darkened dangerously. "Over my dead body. I will never accept my niece remaining married to you."




She was pretty sure her husband was in love with her.

It was an odd thought, and Elizabeth couldn't help giggling over it. Most people, when they got married, knew they loved the other person and that the other person loved them. Since that hadn't been the case when she married Jason Morgan, she had kept it to herself when she'd fallen in love with her husband. Love hadn't been part of their deal. He was protecting her from people who wanted to kill her because he felt guilt, or gratitude, or anything other than love for her.

But given the notes and gifts that had been arriving at her little cabana on the beach the past eight days, she was pretty sure her husband's feelings had changed just as hers had. At least she hoped that was the case.

They were odd gifts, certainly not the conventional chocolates and flowers that most people thought of when it came to romance. But she'd never expected them from Jason. In the short time she'd gotten to know him, she knew he wasn't the kind of man who did traditional love. He was unique, he was an original, and so his gifts wouldn't follow convention, they would be heartfelt and completely him.

I love the way you paint.

The note had been accompanied by a blue oxford shirt. The same kind of shirt she'd accidentally gotten paint on one afternoon when she hadn't removed all the paint from her hand and had went to put it away after finding it discarded on the bed when Jason had thrown it there after a business meeting he'd been forced to wear it for. When she saw the bright red paint streak across it she'd felt horrible and apologized to him profusely when he arrived back home, offering to replace it for him. He'd shaken his head, told her it was alright, he hated wearing those kind of shirts anyways, and instantly put her at ease. She'd taken it as her painting shirt, and it had been that shirt she was wearing the day he'd kissed her in front of Mr. Benditti and deftly undid most of the buttons.

I love your laugh.

I love your smile.

The theme had followed through the notes and the presents. Things he'd clearly gotten for her because he remembered some aspect of their short time together, or something she'd mentioned to him in passing but he'd filed away and got for her because he'd wanted to. It was making her fall in love with him more and more and leaving her happy, and just a bit anxious.

Every day she waited for the knock on the door and one of the guards to open the door slightly and say, "A package for you, Mrs. Morgan."

Every day she looked forward to the gift's arrival. And every day she hoped that this would be the day that Jason himself would step through the door instead of one of the guards. She wanted to see him, she wanted to talk to him, she wanted to figure out what it was exactly that he wanted from her. Did this mean that he wanted to be with her? Did he want to stay married to her? Would they actually pick up their kiss from weeks ago and follow it to its natural conclusion?

Usually the gift had arrived by now, and as each second passed, she could only hope that the delay meant it was something bigger, or maybe it would be Jason arriving. Her sketchpad lay discarded on the table on the porch overlooking the beach and she tapped her fingers nervously on her legs which were drawn up in front of her on the chair. While the island was beautiful and there was certainly no shortage of inspiration for paintings or sketching, she saw none of it today. Her skin fairly tingled in anticipation that something would be happening soon.

When the soft knock on the door echoed through the room, she fairly jumped out of her seat and raced inside the room. The door opened cautiously and Francis poked his head inside. His face was stoic, but that wasn't unusual. She knew he would give nothing away. "There's someone here to see you, Mrs. Morgan."

Her heart leapt up into her throat. Was it Jason? Had he finally showed up? She nodded shakily and took a deep breath to calm herself down and waited for her husband to walk inside. Instead, a middle-aged man walked inside.

"Beth."

She blinked and took a step back, looking over the man's shoulder at Francis, but the guard had already shut the door. "Do I know you?"

"Probably not," he sighed regretfully. "My name is Alfonse Reyes. You may have seen me when you were younger, but I haven't seen you in many years."

She frowned, going through her memory and wondering why that name sounded familiar to her. Elizabeth couldn't place it, though, and she stared at the man who was walking around her little bungalow. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, Beth," he told her. "We should probably sit down. There's a lot we have to talk about."

"I don't want to talk to you," she said as she skirted past him and went to open up the door. "I want you to leave. I don't know who you are, and I don't know why you're here."

She opened the door and Francis turned to look at her, his face deepened with worry and concern. "Francis, I want you to find Jason. If he's not here, I want you to find Sonny. Tell them I want to see them now."

"They won't be coming, Beth. Especially your husband," the man said, his mouth puckered around the contempt with which it said the last word. "I'm your family, Beth. I'm your uncle. I'm the one who placed you with the Webbers."

"Look," she shook her head at him. "I don't care if you claim you're the Pope. I don't know who you are, and frankly, I don't want to know. I want to see Jason and Sonny. They're my family."

"Not for much longer, Beth," he said as he reached into his suit pocket.

"My name is Elizabeth," she corrected him coolly. "And what do you mean not for much longer?"

"I mean, your husband asked me to give you these," he said as he handed her a packet of papers.

She took them but refused to open them. Something was off here and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. When he saw that she wouldn't look at the papers, the man sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, Beth, but Jason Morgan is asking for an annulment."

Part 15
Prompt - The Grass Is Always Greener...

"You have no right."

Alfonse Reyes blinked at Elizabeth as she stood, arms crossed and eyes glittering dangerously in the Caribbean sunlight. She smirked at the shock on his face and let it fuel her anger. "You have absolutely no right to come into my life and do this to me."

"Beth."

She held up her hand, a single finger extended and pointed it menacingly at him. "Let's go over this one more time. My name is Elizabeth, not Beth. Don't call me it again or I'll have Francis come in here and adjust your attitude."

The older man looked a bit uneasy, but nodded slightly. "Alright, Elizabeth. Why don't you sit down and we can talk about this."

"I'm not going to sit," she shook her head at the man who claimed to be her uncle and was only looking out for her. "Because that would imply I want you to stick around, and I don't. What I want is information, and if you care about me like you claim, you're going to give it to me. What did you do to make Jason send me those?"

She swept her hand at the annulment papers that lay on the table exactly where she'd dropped them during her uncle's explanation. About her biological mother, him placing her with the Webbers, and then watching over her as she grew; her anger grew with each word that came out of his filthy mouth. She didn't believe for a minute that Jason had sent her the papers willingly, that it had been his idea, not after all the gifts he'd been sending her during the week. But she realized enough during Alfonse's monologue that he was in the same business Jason and Sonny were in and had to have done something that made Jason sign the papers the older man handed her.

"I didn't do anything, Elizabeth," he shook his head.

"You're a liar," she snapped at him. "I don't believe you. You did something to my husband and I want to know what it is. Now."

Mr. Reyes tipped his head slightly and stared at her in bewilderment. "Your husband? Beth, sweetie, tell me you didn't actually fall in love with Jason Morgan."

"It's Elizabeth," she seethed at him. "And yes I did. He's honorable, he's tender, I like him, and more importantly, I love him."

"Does he feel the same way?" Reyes asked.

"I don't know. I think that he might. I was hoping I would find out soon," she admitted, "and then you showed up and ruined everything. Why would you do that?"

"I care about you. You're my niece. I want to take care of you."

Elizabeth scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You care about me? Euphemism for you love me? Or you care about me like you care for the family pet? 'Cause thanks anyway, I've been cared for by the Webbers and I'll pass."

"The Webbers were a mistake," he said.

"A mistake of your making," she pointed out to him. "You placed me with them. You were in Colorado supposedly keeping an eye on me. If they were such a mistake, why did you leave me with them? When Luis Alcazar started causing problems all those years ago, why didn't you step in? I was over eighteen, I was an adult, surely you could have come to me and told me the truth about my family and done something. Instead, you did nothing."

The older man groaned as he sat down in a chair. "It was a complicated situation, Beth...Elizabeth."

"Complicated? All the more reason for my biological family to help out, don't you think? Especially someone with connections such as yourself. Instead, you left me for years at the mercy of Luis, Lorenzo, and as it turns out, a man I thought was my brother. You let Sonny and Jason do what you should have done; they protected me. And when they took care of the Alcazars and Steven, then you swoop in and show up and expect me to be so amazingly grateful that my real family showed up that I wouldn't care about your neglect, or your interference in my life."

Elizabeth walked to the bay window that overlooked the beach and her voice hardened. "I have a real family. They're the men on this island. My husband, my friends, my nephew. They showed me what it means to be cared about, to be protected, to be loved. They did what you should have done and didn't, and they are the people I will stand by."

"Elizabeth," he pleaded, but she cut him off.

"I think I've heard enough from you, Mr. Reyes. You can go now. I don't care if my mother was your favorite niece and you want to get to know me because I'm your last connection to her. I'm not grateful you showed up in my life uninvited and unwanted, and I'm certainly not grateful that you bullied my husband, the man I love, into doing something that will make me unhappy." She turned and crossed her arms as she stared at him, "I'm not some naïve little girl who's blinded by what's happened here just because you come in and say magic phrases like family and love."

She walked across the room and opened the door. She didn't need to look to know that Francis was still there and that he had turned when the door opened. "I want you out of my life, Mr. Reyes, and I never want to see you again. If you try to interfere in my life, in my marriage again, I will forget the fact that we share blood and I will treat you with the same contempt, disregard and efficiency as the Webbers. Now get out of my house, get off of this island, and you better hope for you sake that I, and especially Jason, never see your face again. Francis?"

He appeared in the side of the doorway, "Yes, Mrs. Morgan?"

"Make sure Mr. Reyes makes it safely onto his airplane."

"With pleasure, Mrs. Morgan."

The stout guard walked into the room and glared lethally at the man before them. She could see the sadness on the older man's face, the weariness that entered his eyes, and she didn't care. He thought he could come into her life and choose to run it simply because he was her uncle. She wasn't going to put up with it. She didn't want a family with him anymore than she wanted one with the Webbers. He had placed her in that Hell, he had left her with people who treated her with indifference, and outright plotted to kill her, and had done nothing. Blood didn't erase those sins. She only hoped that she could find Jason and let him know that she didn't want Alfonse Reyes in her life, she wanted him.

"Francis?" she said softly as the man was prodding her uncle out of the room.

"Yes?"

"I need to see Jason. If he can't be found, I need to see Sonny. I don't care what Sonny's doing, I don't care what Mr. Reyes here told either of them. I really need to see them."

The guard smiled slightly and nodded in understanding. "I'll call Johnny and have him come get you. He'll take you to see them."

Her smile was immediate. "Thank you, Francis."

When he left, she closed the door and quickly ran to her bedroom. She didn't know if Jason would be there, but if he was, she needed to change. Because she was going to show him she wasn't giving up on him. She only hoped he hadn't given up on her.




Sonny sat on the couch next to Michael, the little boy nearly asleep after a day of playing in the surf and running along the beach. Add a big dinner, a half hour of reading a book, and the boy was struggling to keep his eyes open. Slowly Sonny closed the book and maneuvered his son onto his lap so he could stand up and put him to bed. He was halfway down the hall when the front door to the cabana blew open and he glanced down to make sure the boy stayed sleeping. Michael didn't need to see Uncle Jason in what Sonny could only guess was an agitated, and drunk, state.

After being ready to go to Elizabeth and admit that he cared about her, that he loved her and didn't want what had begun as a marriage of convenience to end, Sonny's friend was now angry and destructive. Elizabeth's uncle had gotten to Jason. Preyed on all the fears and insecurities the younger man had, and Jason's resolve that had taken a week to finalize, blew apart like a dandelion in the wind. Even though Sonny had tried to convince Jason to stand up to Alfonse Reyes and talk to Elizabeth first, his friend had signed the annulment papers the retired mobster brought with him, and then left to head to one of the casino bars to drown the pain.

As Sonny shut Michael's door, he took a deep breath to fortify himself for dealing with Jason. Jason was usually a quiet drunk until he snapped and jumped in headlong into a bar fight. He wasn't like Sonny who ranted and raved and destroyed the bar glasses in his house, so Sonny was surprised, and a bit apprehensive, as to what brought Jason back here so early in the evening.

So when he stepped into the living room and saw Elizabeth pacing back and forth across the room in great agitation he was stunned completely. "El-Elizabeth?"

She turned and he could see anger, hurt, pride and determination all flashing through her eyes. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair looked like she'd run her hands through it repeatedly, and he wasn't even going to guess why she was wearing a man's oxford shirt that looked like it would better fit Jason or one of the guards. "Where is he?"

"Who?" Sonny asked. "Elizabeth, what are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for Jason," she said firmly. "I want to talk to him."

"I...I really don't think that's a good idea right now, Elizabeth," he said gently. "If you're looking to say goodbye before you leave with your uncle, maybe you should just let me do that for you."

"I'm not leaving with my uncle," she said scornfully with a toss of her head. "In fact, Francis is currently escorting him to the airport and I told Alfonse Reyes that I would prefer to never see him again. I'm looking for my husband, Sonny."

Now Sonny needed a drink. He crossed to the bar and poured a glass of brandy, turning to Elizabeth and silently asking her if she'd care for one. She shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't know what this guy said to Jason, but I need to talk to him. I need to ask him if this is what he really wants."

She'd pulled the annulment papers out of her pocket and was waving them around. "My uncle put him up to these, didn't he? Jason wasn't going to ask me for an annulment or a divorce, was he?"

He could only shake his head no.

"I didn't think so. Not after the notes and the gifts he sent me. I was looking forward to seeing him, to talking to him. I was hoping that he felt the same way I did and that we could talk about it. Instead, I get some overgrown windbag who thinks that just because he's my uncle and he tossed around words like he loves me that I would toss off you and Jason and go back to Colorado with him. I told him to get lost, that you guys were my family and I wasn't leaving."

His eyes widened in surprise and Sonny tossed back the rest of his drink. He debated getting another one, but decided that given Elizabeth's current state that probably wasn't a good idea.

The brunette in front of him seemed to soften slightly, and she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth and nibbled it roughly. "Unless Jason tells me he doesn't want to see me anymore, I'm not leaving without my husband. And...and if he does tell me he doesn't want me anymore, then I still wouldn't go with Mr. Reyes."

He found himself grinning at the woman in front of him. She knew what she wanted, and she was determined, and she was going to need all of that to deal with Jason. And he knew she was going to ask for his help, and he knew he was going to give it to her. Jason had convinced himself this was for the best; Elizabeth was going to have to convince him it wasn't. That she didn't want an annulment, she didn't want to leave with Reyes, and she didn't want to leave Jason. It was going to be fun to watch.

"So I'm asking you, Sonny," Elizabeth was nearly pleading, her eyes large and hopeful. "Where's Jason? I really need to talk to him."

"He's at one of the casinos, probably well on his way to getting drunk," he said truthfully. "Maybe you should wait until morning to talk to him, Elizabeth."

She shook her head resolutely. "No. I want to talk to him now. And if that doesn't work, then I'll seduce him and sleep with him. After all," she grinned at him. "Can't very well get an annulment if we've consummated the marriage."

"Oh boy," Sonny breathed out under his breath as he eyed the wet bar. Jason had no idea what he was in for tonight. d>

Part 16
Prompt - For desired results, simply follow directions

What she needed was a field guide, a little how to manual. How to Seduce Your Husband in Ten Easy Steps or Dummies' Guide to Husband Seduction. Since nobody had created such a book yet, she was just going to have to wing it and make it all up as she went along.

Step One: Locate Your Husband

This step proved fairly simple. Sonny called ahead, Max accompanied her, and when the casino and hotel staff heard that Mrs. Morgan was arriving they'd tripped over their feet to help her. Everyone from the casino manager to the hotel bus boy had gone out of their way to be helpful without intrusive. The manager met her at the VIP entrance and told her that Jason was in a private high roller's room getting blitzed.

The good news was he was alone. She was grateful that there wouldn't be witnesses to her plans, and that she didn't have to extract him from the grips of some tramp trying to take advantage of him. That meant she could skip Step Two and move straight on to the next one.

Step Three: Get His Attention

That proved a little harder. Jason was oblivious to her entrance in the room. He was sitting at a table, a bottle of tequila in front of him and more beer bottles than she could count. She figured he just assumed she was one of the casino staff and was planning on ignoring her while she did his job.

It wasn't until stopped on the other side of the table and threw annulment papers down forcefully, causing them to slap against the polished wood and then slide across before stopping next to the bottle that he looked up. He looked at the papers, then up to her where he blinked slowly, hazily.

"E-Elizabeth?"

"I'm not signing those," she told him forcefully. Which lead to...

Step Four: Lay Your Cards Out Quickly

"What?" he asked, his forehead knitted together tightly with confusion. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be on a plane with your uncle."

"And you were supposed to come see me in person and tell me another thing you love about me," she shot back at him. "I didn't leave with my uncle and I never will. I'll tell you exactly what I told him. I don't care that he's my family. He placed me with the Webbers, watched while they ignored and neglected me and never did anything about it. Just like he never did anything about Luis and Lorenzo until you finally did something. He had years before you came into my life to do something and he didn't."

She huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, still angry at the older man. "Why should I go anywhere with him just because he shows up claiming to be family? You're my family, Jason. You. You, Sonny, Michael and the guards. You're the one I care about; you're the one I want to be with."

She took a deep breath and licked her lips and met his gaze directly. "You're the one I love, Jason."

He sat back in his chair, and blinked slowly. Then he brought them to the next step.

Step Five: Fight For What You Want

Jason let out a ragged sigh and closed his eyes. "You should have left with your uncle."

He stood and grabbed the nearest bottle and turned his back on her. "You should have left, Elizabeth."

"Why?" she asked him bluntly.

"Because I failed you. I promised you I would protect you from Luis and his brother and I didn't. You were poisoned. If Steven hadn't given you the antidote in time."

She marched over to him and placed her hand on his arm, tugging at him to try to turn him around. He remained firmly in place so she gave up and slipped in front of him, staring at him with determination. "You didn't fail me, Jason. You didn't know about Steven. You couldn't have. Because Steven wasn't what I thought he was. Sure he was a pain to me, but I never thought he would try to kill me, I never thought he was part of this. So don't blame yourself that you didn't find out he wasn't a victim like we all thought he was.

"If you want to blame someone," she said, quickly shuffling in front of him when he tried to turn away, "blame Alfonse Reyes. My dear uncle that you want me to leave with watched Steven and the Webbers for years. He could have contacted you, told you what he knew, but did he?"

Jason remained silent and looked away and she wanted to stamp her foot in frustration. Either that, or kick him in the shin for being so stubborn. "I don't blame you, Jason, and you won't make me do so simply because you'd rather be a coward."

His jaw shifted slightly to the side and he glanced darkly at her out of the corner of his eye. She pressed forward, knowing she had to get him angry before she could get through to him. "That's right; I think you're a coward. You think that you don't deserve anyone in your life, that nobody would ever love you for who you are and what you do and so you'd rather push away someone who you could have a chance with instead of having to work. What were all those little notes you sent me, Jason? Were they just a joke? Did you want to see me panting after you and then yank the rug out from underneath me? Say 'ha-ha, fooled you'?"

He looked pained, but at least he was looking at her directly by now. She took it as a good sign. "Was that it? Was it just a game?"

"No." His voice was strained and barely above a whisper. "No, Elizabeth."

"Then why did you send me those papers?" she pressed. "Because you thought that's what you should do because some guy who didn't love me enough to be a bigger part of my life and unfortunately shares DNA with me convinced you that's what you should do?"

He dropped his head and Elizabeth took a step towards him, invading his space. It was time for the next tactic.

Step Six: Sometimes Talking is Overrated

Slowly she reached out and brought her hand up to his cheek. "DNA doesn't make a family. You, Sonny and Michael taught me that. You're my family, Jason. And you're the person I want to make a family with."

He looked up at her, his eyes widening in surprise and barely contained desire. Encouraged, she took another step towards him, her thigh bumping into his, her chest centimeters away from his. She slid her hand from his cheek around his neck and cupped it. "Do you ever think about it, Jason?"

"Think about what?" he asked in a hoarse whisper.

"That day you brought home the roses and we kissed?" She nudged closer, in full contact with him and could feel his chest begin to rise and fall more rapidly. "Do you think about what would have happened if Mr. Benditti hadn't been there? If I hadn't stopped."

"Yes," he admitted, his breathing now coming in little pants.

"I'm glad," she murmured, rising up on her toes. "Because I think about it all the time, too."

Then she kissed him. Weeks after that glorious day in their penthouse, she was finally kissing him again. Jason hesitated only briefly, before he responded ferociously. She should have been frightened by his response, by his power, but all she wanted to do was weep that he wasn't fighting her anymore, that he wasn't pushing her away.

He spun her around and pressed her against the wall, leaning into her and capturing her mouth over and over again with bruising intensity. She rose up to meet him, not backing down from the challenge. She clung to him, pulling him closer, urging him on. Neither of them noticed when the beer bottle fell out of his hand and rolled onto its side, spilling golden liquid onto the carpet. The only thought they seemed to have was the same. Closer, faster, more.

She wasn't sure how the thought made it through the delicious fog in her brain, but somehow Elizabeth had enough sense to know that they were in a public room in the casino. Sure nobody would disturb the co-owner and his wife, but Elizabeth didn't want anyone to accidentally walk in on them. And, as her glazed eyes lazily drifted open as her head was thrown back baring her neck to Jason's delightful actions, she caught sight of the black, glass half-dome on the ceiling and realized that Big Brother was watching, and taping, their every action.

"Ja...Jason," she gasped out, pushing slightly on his shoulders.

Her eyes slid shut as he trailed his tongue down her chest where her shirt had parted and she nearly gave up. But she persisted. "Jason...there are cameras."

"I'm the owner," he growled, nipping her ear.

"Then get us a room," she pleaded with him.

He paused and looked down at her, before gently setting her back on the floor. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she wanted to curse herself. She'd broken the mood and now he wasn't going to continue the delicious torture he was inflicting on her body. He looked around, his breath ragged and harsh, and then shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth. You...you deserve more than this."

"I deserve you," she pleaded. She didn't want to have to go through this all over again.

His grin was slow, wicked and lethal. "Easy, honey, or I'll forget about the cameras again. Come on."

He led her out of the room and down a back hallway to an elevator. An employee materialized out of some hidden door and discreetly handed Jason a key card and then just as discreetly slipped away. The card opened the elevator and when they were inside Jason pressed her up against the wall while trying to slip the card into the slot on the control panel. Finally, he had to tear his mouth away from hers to complete the task, and they were then swooping upwards to a place she hoped had a lot of privacy and one big bed.

When they reached the private hallway, he pulled her along beside him, and then swept her up into his arms after he opened the door to the Owner's Suite. He carried her inside the room, kissing her deeply, then gently set her down and stepped back a couple of feet. "Are you sure?" he asked her.

"I love you, Jason," she told him purely and honestly and she took a step towards him. "You became my family while we were in the cabin and you cared for me. I watched you with Michael and Sonny and the others and I saw a different side of you, a side that I fell in love with. I..."

When she trailed off and looked down at her toes, he stepped towards her, gently raising her chin. "Elizabeth?"

"I never thought I wanted children," she said and he seemed confused by what she said. "The Webbers never cared for me, I thought babies were smelly and dirty...and then I met Michael. I watched you with him. And now..."

She paused and reached down for his hand, taking a step backwards. "Now I think about how some day I would very much like to have your child."

Jason closed his eyes and growled low in his throat, reaching out for her. She batted his hand away and grinned at him. "Where's the bedroom?"

When he nodded at the door behind her, she led him with her and whispered, "Let me take care of you tonight."

Now, it was time for the oldest form of seduction. A woman in charge.

The room was large and somewhere a part of her was impressed. But all she cared about was the man in front of her and how they had waited way too long for this. She reached for him finally and kissed him, turning him around and pushing him back towards the bed. She tugged at his shirt, lifting it up until finally he took over and whisked it over his head, sending it somewhere else. Pushing him back on the bed, she gave him a wicked smile and then knelt down, teasing him by suddenly reaching for his foot. He groaned and threw his head back on the bed.

She slipped off his boots and socks, and then slowly trailed her hands up his legs and stood up, letting him know she meant business. Pausing, she blinked, and then stood up and huffed.

Unbelievable.

This said a lot for her so-called powers of seduction.

Jason had fallen asleep.

Part 17
Prompt - The adventures of marriage

As Jason slowly drifted into consciousness, he groaned at the light that was filtering into the room. He raised his arms to cover his head, wishing he could burrow back into oblivion, but that was over the moment he realized only one of his arms responded to the command of his brain. His right arm was still on the bed...and even worse, had some kind of weight on it.

Immediately Jason began to process the situation. A soft weight was on his arm...and pressed up against his side. A silky smooth leg was twined into between his, resting high on his thigh, and he could feel the heat radiating from the form next to him. His eyes screwed shut and he stifled a groan, not of pain this time but of mortification. He was in bed next to a woman.

He'd gone to the casino last night to drown the pain over losing Elizabeth, and he'd ended up in bed with a bimbo. He was such an idiot.

Slowly, he moved, hoping with everything in him that he could slip out of bed without waking her and then get out of the room he was in. Carefully he shifted to his left and even though he told himself not to, he glanced down at his companion. And he paused. Chocolate silk curls were splayed out across the pillow and his arm, but what caught his attention most was the blue oxford shirt she wore. Either she had only gone to bed with a few buttons done up, or most of them had come undone during the night, but the shirt was parted revealing her bare stomach and - he swallowed roughly - a generous amount of cleavage. In fact, it wasn't so much cleavage as it was the majority of her breasts.

The woman was beautiful, and he felt like a bastard for even thinking it. He'd signed annulment papers, not because he wanted to, but because he'd allowed himself to be convinced by Elizabeth's uncle that it was the best thing for her. And then he apparently went out and found someone who looked like his wife and took her to bed. If he couldn't have Elizabeth, he'd apparently bedded a substitute. He deserved the verbal lashing, and possible physical beating, the guards and Sonny would want to inflict on him.

Desperate now to get away, he shifted more, and began to tug his arm out from underneath the woman. And then he froze when she stirred and moved towards him, purring low in her throat. "Hey, where are you going?"

She lifted her face, and he sucked in a breath like he'd been punched in the gut. "El-Elizabeth?"

She curled into his side, sliding her leg up his thigh to nestle firmly against him. "Mmm, good morning, Jason."

Instantly he was hard, and there wasn't any way to hide it from her. "What...what are you doing here?"

Elizabeth propped herself up on her left elbow, her right arm wrapped around his waist and her fingers dancing a provocative melody over his skin. "I told you last night, I'm not going anywhere."

Her eyes narrowed slightly and she tipped her head accusingly. "You don't remember last night, do you?"

Embarrassed, and regretful because something big had happened last night, he shook his head. She sighed and dropped her face onto his chest. Her breath puffed across his chest and he had never felt something so wonderful as that simple act. "I was afraid of this," she groaned.

"What did happen last night?" he asked curiously, reaching out and capturing her chin. Lifting it so he could see her eyes.

"I went looking for you to tell you that I wasn't going with my uncle, that I didn't want an annulment. That I wanted you. That I love you."

The words were said softly, but with such force and devotion that they stole his breath and he closed his eyes. She didn't leave with Alfonse Reyes. She loved him. She was in love with him, Jason Morgan.

"Jason?"

He opened his eyes when he heard the uncertain tremor in her voice, and his chest tightened when he saw the fear in her gaze. Wishing he had words to tell her everything he was feeling, but knowing he'd never find them, he reached up and brushed her hair behind her ear. Then he slid his hand around to the back of her neck and tugged her forward, her lips crashing into his perfectly. He showed her the only way he could at the moment, exactly what he was feeling.

He'd meant for it to be a simple kiss, to silence her fear that he wanted the annulment, that he was going to fight her being there. But as with everything that happened between them, it quickly spiraled out of control. He didn't know who moved first, but she was under him, the last of the buttons open and the shirt parted. Her bare chest was against him, a sweet friction causing his body to throb.

With every last ounce of strength and self-control he possessed, he forced himself to pull back drawing the sides of her shirt back together. He sat back on his heels, scrubbing his hands over his face. Elizabeth's tiny fists dimpled the mattress and he heard the plaintive hitch in her voice, "Jason?"

"I'm sorry," he breathed out. "I...I got carried away."

"Not from where I'm laying," she shook her head. "I don't know what's worse, you falling asleep or you pulling away."

She propped herself up on her elbows, the shirt parting slightly and demanded, "What is going on?"

He dropped his head back and gazed up at the ceiling as he swore darkly. "Elizabeth, I'm sorry. I just...I'm still a little foggy about what happened."

"I told you," she said. "Last night and this morning. I didn't leave with my uncle. I don't care that he's my uncle. He never helped me, and he suddenly expects me to leave my friends, to leave the people who made me feel like I was part of a real family, just because he says so. I love you, Jason. I don't know when it happened, when I began wishing our marriage was something more than just a means to protect me from Luis and his brother, but it happened. I don't want an annulment, I don't want a divorce...I want you. I want to be with you, I want to have a family with you."

He had to get out of bed. She couldn't say things like that to him and expect him to hold onto his self-control. Especially when she was wearing the shirt he gave her and had hoped to be peeling off her body before her uncle showed up and threw his whole world upside down. He scrambled to his feet and walked across the room, his blood throbbing to the frustrated growl she let out. Elizabeth loved him, she wanted to have a family with him, he had never heard anything more wonderful in his entire life. And so he decided he was going to do this right.

"Where are the papers?" he asked.

"What?"

"The annulment papers?"

She let out a frustrated huff and flopped back down on the bed. "They're downstairs in the room I found you. I didn't sign them, I won't sign them. And if you're planning on filing them, you're going to have to draw new ones because I tore them up last night."

He turned, and found himself flashing her a grin. "I don't want to file them, Elizabeth. I want to make sure nobody else, like your uncle, can file them."

She sat up again, the frustration seeping out of her body. "You don't want to file them?"

"No," he shook his head and walked towards her. Her eyes widened and his eyes followed her pink tongue as it anxiously licked her lips. "I don't want to ever hear about annulment papers again."

He stopped at the end of the bed and leaned forward, bracing his hands on the mattress. "I love you too, Elizabeth."

Her breath quickened and he smiled, glad that she was affected by him just as much as he was affected by her. "I want this marriage to be real, too. I..." he tipped his head to the side and his heated gaze slid over her, "I want to have a family with you."

He watched as she swallowed roughly, and before she could undo him by lifting her hand towards him, a pull that he knew he wouldn't be able to resist, he stood and stepped back. "But we're going to do this right."

"What?"

"We're going to do this right," he announced. "Which means we're going to get married again. This time when we say our vows, we're going to know that we mean them."

"Okay," she nodded. "Can we do them tomorrow?"

"Nope," he shook his head. "We're going to do them today. Because then we're going to go on our honeymoon. Alone and uninterrupted for the next two weeks."

"Jason," she pleaded.

He pulled on his jeans and reached for his shirt before walking back to the bed. He sat down, her slight body rolling towards the depression his made. "I'm going to make this right for you, Elizabeth. I'm going to give you what you deserve, even if you think you don't.

"And then," he said, leaning towards her and letting his breath wash over her ear and smiling when she shivered. "I'm going to make it up to you, over and over again, for falling asleep last night."

Part 18
Prompt - That Kind of Girl

She was married to...the most perfect man in the world for her.

He loved her as much as she loved him. When it happened, why it happened, she didn't care. She'd long ago given up trying to make sense of when protection from a psychotic man and equally psychotic brothers had turned into love. But it happened, and Elizabeth would spend the rest of her life thanking whatever higher power had blessed her life.

As frustrated as she was the day she woke up next to Jason and once again had him bring her to the brink only to leave her unsatisfied, she had forgotten it all. Jason had insisted on doing it right. Her idea of right, as he escorted her from the owner's penthouse suite on the top of the hotel would have been find a minister, say some vows, head back up to the suite and call it a day. Jason's idea of right was vastly different.

He turned her over to the manager of the hotel's day spa and told the Latin beauty that he was entrusting her with his wife. He wanted Elizabeth to have a day of pampering and care, because they had a special evening coming up. Then he kissed her, full of love and promises for later despite being relatively chaste, and told her he would see her later. Anna took Jason's charge seriously, and led her into a V.I.P. suite of the spa where she was turned over to a team who scrubbed, rubbed, buffed, and polished every inch of her. Her skin glowed, her muscles were relaxed and pliant, her feet were soft as silk and her nails were done up in a decadent, sinful red. Her hair was styled, her make-up was done, and then she was led to a room where a beautiful dress was hanging.

The off-white dress was simple enough for the island, yet elegant enough for The No Name. Anna told her to get dressed and that Mr. Corinthos would be waiting for her when she came out. When she was in the dress, with its strips of fabric criss-crossing across her back, and her sandals on and buckled, she came out to find Sonny and Michael, both dressed in dress shirts and slacks, waiting for her. Michael was holding a bouquet of coral roses for her, each man had a coral rose pinned to their lapel, and Sonny escorted her to the waiting car.

They said little to each other as they drove, yet Elizabeth could feel the excitement and gleefulness rolling off Michael in waves. And more than once she'd turned to find Sonny smiling at her. The car stopped near the beach, and Max climbed out of the front seat, a rose pinned to his shirt, and opened the back door for them.

"Take off your shoes, Aunt Elizabeth," Michael giggled.

She turned and frowned at him slightly, "What?"

"You don't want to get sand in your shoes," he explained simply as he was already stripping off his shoes and socks. When she saw Sonny was doing the same, she shrugged and shook her head and reached down to unbuckle the straps.

Michael and Max scampered off ahead of them, and Sonny waited with her for a minute at the car. He turned to her and smiled. "You make him happy."

"Michael's a special little boy," she smiled.

"He is," he agreed with a grin. "But I meant Jason. And I'm glad he met you. Now, let's get going, or he's going to think I ran off with the most beautiful woman on the island."

He led her down a strip of white silk spread over a sandy path, and as they rounded a corner, Elizabeth gasped as tears sprang to her eyes. Jason was waiting for her at the end, Francis, Johnny and the others with him along with a priest. The surf was rolling in gently on the sand, and the sun was just starting to turn orange as it began its descent into the ocean. It was beautiful, and everything she ever wanted in her life and never even knew. When she and her fiancé Bill were planning their wedding before Luis blew him up, she'd hated the fuss her mother insisted on making the wedding and reception. She would have been just as happy going down to the court house and being married by a justice of the peace.

But as she clasped hands with Jason and exchanged vows that this time she truly and deeply meant, she realized this was what she'd always wished she could have, but didn't know the words for. Somehow Jason had known. He hadn't done a quick ceremony where they would be thinking of what would come afterwards, instead he created a beautiful and cherished memory for her. Something they could tell their children about and not cheapen the beauty and importance of the day.

The ceremony was over before she knew it, and they headed back to Sonny's cabana where they had a small meal, toasts were made, and the evening was shared with the people she had called her family. She had everything she could ever hope for. Until Michael began to yawn and Jason began to tug on her arm telling her they had a plane to catch, and suddenly she was reminded of his promise that morning. Her smile was a little nervous as he led them outside to where Francis had the car waiting, and assured Jason that their bags were already on the plane. She had no idea where they were heading on their honeymoon; all she knew was that there had better be no more interruptions.




She still didn't know where they were, but she didn't care. Elizabeth had gotten stuck on the words private island and the name, and all other things Jason said after that, were nothing more Charlie Brown Adult Speak. He'd bought an island, for their honeymoon, and any other times they wanted to get away. He'd bought an island. And she owned half of it.

Never in her wildest dreams had she ever thought she'd own an island. That was something other people did. Not her. But here she was. Stretched out on a beach that she owned. There were servants in the house, but they were discreet and she never saw them, and after a week she'd forgotten they were even there. So she no longer thought twice about sunbathing topless, and she knew that Jason sure didn't mind when she did. In fact, he didn't seem to think twice about joining her on the beach with nothing but his towel. Which of course had led to him keeping his promise to her.

She figured he had more than made up falling asleep on her and then pulling away the next morning. After all, they hadn't left the bedroom the first four days they were here. But Jason seemed to think that he would always be in the red, and she no longer even bothered to argue with him. He seemed to be enjoying working off his debt, she more than appreciated his efforts, and this was, after all, their honeymoon. Things would change, simply because of the circumstances, when they returned to Port Charles. She was going to stop worrying about it, and just enjoy it.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Morgan." His deep voice drew her from her thoughts, a moment before the cool salt water dripped across her sun-heated skin.

She rolled, not bothering to take her discarded bikini top with her, and looked up at Jason. Her left eyebrow rose slightly as she took in the golden hue of his skin, uninterrupted by anything as inconsequential as a swimming suit. "Good afternoon, Mr. Morgan. Doing a little skin diving today?"

He chuckled and dropped down next to her on the extra wide towel before claiming her lips in a salty kiss. "Why don't you join me?"

"Hmmm," she mused. "As tempting as that sounds, I probably should head back up to the house. After all, we are leaving tomorrow and I haven't even begun to pack."

"We don't have to leave tomorrow," he told her, his hand skimming over the outside of her knee.

"We can't keep delaying our return," she shook her head. "We've already stayed an extra week."

"So?" he shrugged. "Sonny won't mind, the guys won't mind."

"What about Michael?" she asked, her breath hitching slightly as his hand traveled up the outside of her thigh to stop at her hip where his fingers toyed with the ties of her bikini bottoms.

"Michael will understand when he gets older."

She laughed, but it was swallowed up by Jason's kiss. She didn't care if they stayed another day, but she knew that eventually they would have to return to Port Charles. As wonderful as this tropical paradise was, she also knew she didn't want to stay here permanently. Maybe when Jason retired they'd live here. She missed the city, and she missed Sonny and the others, and she missed her home.

When the kiss ended, her fingers were tangled in Jason's hair and her eyes were cloudy. He pulled back just far enough to flash her that grin that she loved so much, the one that told her he was about to work off another portion of his debt. "Elizabeth?"

His voice was deep and husky, and her skin was heated in a way that had nothing to do with their location near the equator or the sun which was high overhead. "Hmmm?"

"Come swimming with me," he whispered as he stood and pulled her up with him. That sneak had undone the ties on her bikini during the kiss.

"Well," she smiled, as she licked her lips and tasted him there. "When you put it that way, how could I resist?"

The End



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