As a child Elizabeth Webber had always hated hide and seek. Her older siblings would hide so well and then take great, and fiendish, delight in jumping out and scaring her half to death. They always found her because at five years old, she couldn't hide as well as they could. Who know that covering one's head with a blanket didn't entirely hide a person? Steven and Sarah did and they laughed for days at her feeble and pathetic attempts at hiding. Any time they wanted to play after that, she refused. She'd rather them call her a baby than jump out and scare her.

Growing up, Elizabeth had always been the practical person. She didn't get into situations she couldn't see an immediate exit strategy from, and she played it safe in all aspects of her life. From work to school to her personal relationships, Elizabeth Webber was boring, staid and true and steady.

That all changed the day walked into Professor Alexis Davis' classroom and a woman who looked like a gypsy descendant began to talk. The course was a mixture of art, mythology, legends and lore. It was more offbeat than Elizabeth felt comfortable with, but it was a requirement and she was not going to let some whack-job keep her from her art degree. She'd fought long and hard to get her family to finally back off and let her pursue her desired course of study, she wasn't going to let this set her back.

She'd nearly changed her mind when Professor Davis gave them their assignments that made up forty percent of their semester grade. There were only three grades in this class, their midterm, their final, and their one art project. Blow any of them and they'd blow the class. Elizabeth was determined not to fail. Even if it meant she had to study local folk lore and ghost stories and choose one to paint.

Elizabeth thought she and her classmates would be tripping all over each other, competing with different interpretations of the same theme, but she was wrong. Apparently Port Charles was a hotspot of paranormal stories and activities. There were the catacombs under the docks that had been used by bootleggers in the 1920s and were the scene of a horrific massacre to rival Chicago's St. Valentine's Day Massacre. There was Spoon Island and the abandoned estate Wyndamere that had tunnels where more than one person was supposedly sealed in Cask of Amontillado style and a couple of parapets where people had plummeted to their deaths - either self-inflicted or aided along. Then there were the sub-basements under General Hospital, the cemeteries and their crypts and the Quartermaine grounds where family feuds and conflicts had resulted in tragedies. There was even Vista Point which may have been near an ancient Indian burial sight.

Elizabeth would have been happy to have gotten any of those places as her assignment. Instead, she'd gotten this one. She was beginning to think that Professor Davis didn't like her. The old crone had seemed to take devilish delight in presenting Elizabeth with her pre-picked legend. Especially when Elizabeth realized that she had to get this painting done if she had any chance of keeping her scholarship.

They were encouraged to get permission to be on the scene, especially since they'd most likely have to be there after hours, in order to sit and sketch the sight and see if they couldn't get the feeling of the place. What Professor Davis hoped for was that they might actually see a ghost, catch movements out of the corner of their eye, or feel the presence of someone trapped between this world and the one beyond. It would help them as they painted the moment on canvas. They'd get the right atmosphere, be able to put the right feeling and emotion into their rendition of the the event.

Somehow, Elizabeth believed Professor Davis knew all along that Sonny Corinthos would not give her permission to enter his late wife's nightclub The Cellar and wait until 1:32 in the morning to see if she might feel his dead wife's presence at the exact moment she'd been gunned down in a spray of bullets by a rival mobster. He was polite, if not a little distant, when she went into his office at the coffee warehouse on the docks and told him who she was, what her class was about and what her assignment was. He told her that the club had been sealed up after the police released the crime scene and nobody had ever entered it again. He didn't need the money so it was never re-opened, and he wasn't going to disrespect his wife's memory by allowing someone else to go in there.

The only time she saw emotion from the man was when she said that the class was being taught by Alexis Davis and she had given her this assignment particularly. Maybe if he wrote a note to her professor explaining he was refusing his permission, Professor Davis would give her another assignment. Mr. Corinthos blew up at her, yelling and screaming and telling her to get out and go tell her illustrious professor that she needed to leave him and his family alone. He wasn't responsible for her sister's death, or Alexis' miscarriage, and it was sick and cruel of her to make his wife's death a school assignment.

Men had rushed into Sonny's office to calm him down and escort her from the building. She'd been looked at like she was the enemy and she wanted to apologize to them, to explain that it wasn't her idea, but she'd been deposited neatly outside in the rain, been given a glare that would have melted steel by a blue-eyed hulk of a man, and then had the door neatly slammed in her face.

Her meeting with Professor Davis hadn't gone much better. The teacher had given her a look that would have frozen the water in the harbor and took off her glasses, saying that Sonny Corinthos was an ego-maniacal tyrant who conveniently forgot it was also his child that she'd miscarried, and that his lack of cooperation wasn't an excuse for Elizabeth not completing her assignment. One way or another, Professor Davis expected Elizabeth to produce a painting of the night Carly Corinthos had died, and she would know whether or not Elizabeth actually had gone to the club, because Alexis had been there that night as well, and there were decorations on the walls that had only been put up that night and were never in any photographs and not included in any newspaper or police accounts of the crime.

The message was clear; go to The Cellar or she'd fail this assignment.

That led Elizabeth to this plan. She used her advantage as a resident of Kelly's boarding house to sneak down the back stairs tonight, and pick the lock to the nightclub under the diner. She only meant to do the briefest work here. She'd purchased a second-hand video camera with a night-vision attachment and she intended to tape the interior of the club. Rudimentary measurements would be taken and once she had everything that she thought would fool her professor into believing she'd disregarded Sonny Corinthos' orders, she'd turn on her flashlight and take a picture of the wall decorations so she'd have the exact color of them.

Then she planned to sneak back upstairs, lock the door behind her and try not to wet the bed as she prayed and hoped Sonny Corinthos and his steel-eyed henchman never found out what she'd done. It wasn't her fault Alexis Davis was a vindictive, cruel witch, but she didn't think the mobster would understand that. Elizabeth planned to use every bit of begging and pleading she possessed, showing Alexis the photographs of the wall decorations to prove she had gone to the club, but not turn in her assignment until the very end. Once her final was taken, Elizabeth planned to leave Port Charles and finish schooling somewhere else.

Somewhere away from the nuts of Port Charles. Somewhere hopefully where Sonny Corinthos couldn't find her, or would figure it was too much trouble to come after her when he realized she'd broken into his dead wife's club. Because she wouldn't put it past Alexis Davis to show Sonny the picture, just to torment him and possibly sign Elizabeth's death warrant.

Her plan had worked well, she had packed away the video camera, tucked her notepad covered with measurements into her bag and had just taken the picture of the stupid wall decorations when Elizabeth was frozen by the sound of something scraping over a wood floor. She switched off her flashlight, and tuned it around to hold the heavy Mag Light in her hands like a club. Although, given that it was after one in the morning, a flashlight might not be much of a defense against a specter.

Her rational brain took over and pushed all thoughts of hauntings out of her mind when she heard the sound again. It wasn't a scraping sound, it was footsteps, and they were coming closer. Blindly feeling her way towards the left, Elizabeth made her way behind the bar and crouched down. Her eyes, that were trying to adjust to the non-existent lighting, were aided when a few faint overhead lights were turned on. She spied a section underneath the bar where crates of booze had no doubt once been housed, and blessed her petite stature and the fact that she wasn't claustrophobic, as she tucked herself into the space and held her breath.

A second set of footsteps joined the first and Elizabeth cringed when she recognized one of the voices as belonging to Sonny Corinthos. He was talking to someone named Jason who said it was a good thing he'd said no to the nosy art student because they needed people to continue to believe that Carly's club was locked up tight and never used after her death. Apparently the mobsters were using it as a storage facility for their shipments and had been for months and nobody was none the wiser.

Sonny wasn't so sure because why else would Alexis assign one of her students to paint the scene of Carly's death. His wife had died years ago, Alexis had been teaching at PCU before that, and she had never assigned The Cellar as part of her ridiculous coursework. She suspected something, Sonny was sure of it, and so he wanted Jason to move all the shipments out and not use the place for at least six months.

Elizabeth thought her heart was going to pound right out of her chest. She was witnessing, or at least hearing, the admission of criminal activities. The cops would love to subpoena her and Sonny Corinthos might just try to kill her to keep his secrets safe. Did they mean to move the shipments tonight? Elizabeth could be stuck under here for hours and she wasn't looking forward to that prospect.

An odd clatter suddenly filled the air and Elizabeth jumped, connecting her head on the wood above her. Gunfire. She was now an auditory witness to a mob hit and her body would be found shot and stuffed under the bar. Could her life get any worse?

The answer came to that question when she heard muffled sounds, scuffling and then Sonny Corinthos' steel-eyed enforcer, the man she now knew was named Jason, dropped over the bar right in front of her. A gun was in his hand, and he rose up briefly and fired over the bar. Elizabeth covered her ears and was just about to squeeze her eyes shut when Jason dropped back down and his eyes widened when he spotted her.

She was trapped as he continued to fire and prove that he wasn't just a coffee importer despite what it said on his tax returns. Gradually the gunfire stopped and she was forced to stare at Jason's pants and scuffed motorcycle boots as he stood to survey the scene.

"Are you alright?" Sonny called out, obviously to Jason.

"Yeah," he sighed, then bent down and grabbed her arm, roughly pulling her out from her cramped position. "But we've got a problem."

She stared in sheepish horror and humiliation as Sonny walked around the bar and his eyes narrowed when he recognized her.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

Honesty seemed like the best option. "Trying to get just enough information to fulfill my assignment."

Jason apparently didn't like that answer because his hand convulsed painfully around her upper arm and gave it a little shake. He was dragging her out from behind the bar and she had no idea what was going to happen to her, but she was picturing all sorts of things and none of them were good. They all ended with her getting two taps to the back of her head before her body was dumped off the pier.

"Andreas?!"

Sonny stopped and whirled on her demanding, "What?"

"That man," she pointed to the lifeless, glass-eyed body in front of her. "I've seen him before at Professor Davis' house. She...she said he was a servant of her father's."

The grip on her arm changed and it was no longer filled with rage, but it was still just as tight. The steel-eyed enforcer wasn't dragging her, he was pushing her. Ahead of him; out of the building.

"Now we know why Alexis wanted her student to paint Carly's club," he said, actually lifting Elizabeth and carrying her up the stairs like she weighed nothing.

"Yeah," Sonny agreed, right behind the pair. "She was looking for her revenge for our child."

"How long do you think she's been watching this?" Jason asked, opening up a door and shoving Elizabeth inside a Cadillac Escalade.

"Too long," his boss stated, as he got in the passenger seat and glanced back, not at Elizabeth who was cowering on the backseat, but at the club. "Too long."

"What do we do with her?" the younger man asked, jerking his head in Elizabeth's direction as he climbed behind the wheel and started the vehicle.

Now Sonny Corinthos did turn his gaze on Elizabeth and she held her breath awaiting his pronouncement. "We protect her," he stated, "until we find out just how much she knows and until we figure out what we're going to do."

Sonny was always such a fool when it came to women. The flip of some hair, the line of a leg, the flutter of eyelashes and the man melted like butter in the desert. Throw in some tears and the man could never stand his ground. It took a lot for Sonny to inoculate his heart against the machinations of a woman; a betrayal, an attempted murder or something equally as drastic. Elizabeth Webber hadn't crossed that line yet, which meant that Sonny was going to fall for her poor victim routine.

Jason was furious with the younger woman, and that had only grown when Sonny insisted that they needed to protect her after all that she'd witnessed at the club. The woman had broken into their property, been present during a shootout, and Jason was expected to guard her. She should be thrown into a room at a warehouse and interrogated as to how much she knew and why she was really there. She should be dumped at a safe house with a guard assigned outside the door and only crackers and water to subsist on until she was ready to talk. Not this.

She should not be in Jason's house, sitting on his couch with his blanket wrapped around her falsely shaking shoulder drinking his hot chocolate he kept for his sister out of one of his mugs. She wasn't someone to be coddled and treated like a long, lost friend come for dinner. She was the enemy. And if she wasn't exactly the enemy, then she was at the very least a person to be suspect of, to treat with suspicion and distrust. Because she was connected to Alexis Davis, no matter how innocuous the relationship the young woman tried to make it.

Once they'd arrived at his penthouse and Sonny had gone into host mode to coddle the fool, despite this being Jason's place. The enforcer had stood by the side of the room, prowling occasionally near the wall while casting a suspicious eye on the scene playing out on his couch. When Spinelli came downstairs, drawn from his room by the unusual sounds, he didn't question Mister Sir, he came to Jason and asked what was happening. In hushed tones the master told his grasshopper that they'd discovered an intruder at Carly's club and Sonny seemed to buy her innocent routine, but Jason wanted her investigated. He'd learned that her name was Elizabeth Webber and she was a student at PCU in Alexis Davis' art class; he knew by giving that to Spinelli, the computer whiz would be able to investigate her.

"Spinelli," he said low so as to not alert the other two people in the room, "I want to know everything. I want a full, complete, thorough investigation into her. You find out everything there is to know about her. Her family, her history, her medical background, any scrapes with the law, anything she's ever posted online or that's been said about her. Nothing gets left unturned, or discarded no matter how small or innocent it seems."

"The Jackal understands and will obey," Spinelli promised with an odd, little half-bow and then he bounded back upstairs.

"I think she's in shock," Sonny said a few minutes later.

Jason looked over and saw the glassy-eyed stare on her face, the mug of barely-touched hot chocolate in her hands that was now threatening to slip out and fall on his leather couch, and the way she still continued to tremble despite the extra blankets Sonny had placed around her. The older man extracted the black mug from her hands and set it on the coffee table and then looked over at Jason. "What do you think?"

"I think she's faking it," he answered curtly. "I think she's playing you like a fool and you're letting her because you can never believe that women would do something like that to you. They must be pure and innocent and would never deliberately set out to hurt you. Despite knowing otherwise."

"So I suppose you've sent your little sidekick off to investigate her," Sonny snapped in irritation as he stood up.

"I have," Jason answered without shame. "She's playing you, Sonny. She wasn't just some poor, innocent bystander caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. She was meant to steal secrets or report back to Alexis somehow. She knew one of the shooters, after all. Said she'd seen him at Alexis' house. Why would she be going there unless she was somehow working with her?"

"Because some professors actually invite their students to their houses for socializing or study groups, sometimes," the older man answered snidely as he rounded on Jason. "Alexis is that type of professor. She likes the opportunity to get to know them outside of class. She takes an interest in her students, asks about their other classes, asks about their work, and puts some of them in contact with different museums to get their work shown. She used to talk about it all the time. Just because Elizabeth Webber went to Alexis' house does not mean she was somehow involved with the shooting."

Jason merely raised his eyebrow and remained silent. His boss huffed and shook his head. "You don't believe me."

"I don't," he admitted plainly. "I don't trust her. She upset you that day in your office; clearly she's working with Alexis."

Sonny looked back at the woman sitting on the couch and shook his head, "I don't think she is. She didn't come there deliberately trying to hurt me. She was asking permission. I don't think she had any idea of the history between me and Alexis. See, I also investigated her. I had Benny do some digging and she came to Port Charles for schooling after Carly's death and Alexis' miscarriage."

"Doesn't mean she couldn't have heard other people talking."

"No," the older man agreed. "But I don't think she did. See, she saw me on the docks one day and apologized to me. Said she had no idea I had a past with her professor and she didn't know why Alexis was doing this but she'd tried to get out of the assignment and her teacher wouldn't budge."

Flicking his hand dismissively through the air the enforcer scoffed, "She was just trying to lull you into thinking she'd given up on the idea. Clearly she hadn't since she was down there tonight. Look in her bag. I bet you'll see I'm right."

When Sonny didn't move, Jason stepped forward and grabbed her bag. Sonny made to protest, but then turned away in resignation. Jason flipped open the messenger bag, like the one Spinelli always carried around, and began to pull things out. There were rough sketches of the bar; walls, nooks, the curves and the alcoves that Carly had loved so well. There were dimensions and notations and Jason could see the methodology in the planning. She'd clearly been sent there to scout things out. There was a video camera, he'd have Spinelli watch it later and report back on it, and a flashlight and camera. Turning it on and looking at the display screen he saw a picture of the gaudy decorations that Carly had put up the night she died and nobody seemed to have the heart to tell her they looked awful.

Jason looked at Sonny pointedly as he set those items to the side. They would need to be analyzed, gone through and then destroyed. Then Jason kept searching. He pulled out slick, glossy brochures for other colleges. All of them were out of state; two of them were even out of the country. There was a journal and in small, but loopy handwriting there was a dated outline of meetings with Alexis. Tossing them on the coffee table with triumph, Jason looked at the older man.

"See?" he arched his brow. "She's looking to go to school elsewhere. Alexis is probably paying her off. There's a notebook outlining meetings with her."

Sonny didn't say anything; he just looked at the brochures, and then reached for the notebook. Silently he read it, lingering over certain lines and looking at the traitorous woman sitting on the couch. The woman they had better be delivering to Alexis Davis to let the older woman know that her plan didn't go as she'd hoped.

"Did you actually read this?" Sonny asked quietly.

"I saw that she was detailing dates that she met with Alexis," he stated definitively.

"Trying to get out of doing the assignment," the older man said with a deliberate tone meant to deflate Jason's assessment. "There are notes about meeting with the department head asking him to intervene. That was after she met with me. There are notations of owner refuses permission, ask Prof. D for new place and met with D.H. to ask for new assignment and then Prof D furious, refuses to change."

Sonny flipped a few pages and then said, "There are figures of new college expenses, deadlines underlined to apply for financial aid that were before tonight and I guess the checkmarks next to certain colleges meant she sent off requests to them. I don't know. We'd have to ask her."

Placing the notebook down deliberately he looked at Jason and then asked, "So you still think she's being paid off by Alexis?"

"I don't know," Jason answered grudgingly. "Maybe not, but then why was she there?"

"Hoping to get enough to placate Professor Davis and hope that you never found I was there before I fled town," Elizabeth Webber's disembodied voice answered from the couch.

Both men turned to look at her, Sonny sitting beside her while Jason remained standing. Elizabeth sat up, the blankets falling off one shoulder. She looked at Sonny and her eyes filled up with tears, causing Jason to scoff in disgust.

"I'm really sorry," she whispered. "I...I didn't want to upset you by going to your wife's club and I really tried to change my assignment, but Professor Davis wouldn't give me a new one. Then when I heard that she gave another girl in the class a new assignment because the girl objected to breaking into an abandoned church, I tried again. I even went to the department head but he wouldn't help me out. So I planned to show the diagrams and the picture to Professor Davis, turn it in just before the semester ended and find a different college to transfer to. I have to do this class, though, because without it I'm not a fulltime student and then there's problems with getting my records transferred or getting financial aid at the new school. Otherwise I would have just dropped the class, but I can't. And it's like Professor Davis is upset with me or something, or she's obsessed with this assignment because she's being completely unreasonable and keeps asking if I've started and she said that if I don't have some sort of proof to show her tomorrow that I've actually begun, and by begun she means I've actually been to The Cellar, then she would kick me out of class. So I had to go tonight and I had to be there at the time your wife was shot...it was part of the assignment and I...I'm so sorry, Mister Corinthos."

How she said that in just a couple of breaths Jason would never know. But her tear-filled rambles had the desired effect. Sonny reached into his suit coat pocket and extracted his handkerchief for her to use. Then he reached around the young woman and placed the blankets back on her shoulders.

"It's okay," he gently assured her. "We believe you."

Jason looked sharply at his boss, but the older man steadfastly refused to meet his eye. Continuing on, Sonny said, "Don't worry about it. The important thing is that you're safe and we intend to keep you that way. So you'll be staying here with Jason and Spinelli until we can figure out the reason someone you've seen with Alexis was involved in the shooting."

Angrily, Jason straightened and demanded, "She'll be staying here?"

"Well, I don't want to move her into my place," Sonny shrugged. "It would be too disruptive to Michael. But you and Spinelli can keep an eye on her and make sure she's safe."

When he was about to argue and angrily retort that the young woman didn't need protection from Alexis, they needed protection from her, Sonny held up his hand and with all the force of him being the boss ordered, "Think of this as your new assignment. Something I want you to handle personally."

Jason Morgan did not like living with people. He'd decided that after Carly and Robin had turned his home into a battleground of their petty jealousies and insecurities and then his girlfriend had retaliated against his ex-lover trying to seduce him once again by telling A.J. that Michael was actually his son instead of Jason's. Robin took off for Paris and never showed her head around these parts again, not even for the annual Nurses' Ball to support AIDS research. Carly, in some convoluted scheme that only made sense to her, married A.J. took Michael away from him and then slept with Sonny. Jason went from having his home filled with noise and people, to being utterly alone.

As he healed from his heartbreak and anger, he decided that he was never going to fall in love again and he was never going to live with anybody. Women were more trouble than he needed, and as he watched every one of Sonny's relationships crash and burn, he became more convinced that he was correct in his declaration. Lily had died while pregnant with Sonny's child, Brenda betrayed the older man by wearing a wire, Carly had decided that just because she was married to Sonny - something that happened only because she'd gotten pregnant and then lost the baby later - she didn't have to give him her full heart. She constantly tried to get Jason back into her bed, and when that didn't work and Sonny wouldn't give her a divorce, she set out to have as many affairs as she could; figuring that if her husband wasn't going to honor his wedding vows then she wouldn't either.

Both of his friends had a string of lovers, but oddly enough, Carly showed a little more discretion in choosing her partner in infidelity. Sonny always chose someone that sent him to the brink of self-implosion. Angel, Jordan, Hannah, Sam and Alexis had all threatened the business in one way or another. Sometimes it was a direct attack, getting involved with Sonny as some form of retribution or an attempt to steal secrets; sometimes it was hurting him by choosing another lover and sending the mob boss into a spiral of depression and anger that resulted in Sonny making rash decisions that jeopardized everybody.

When Carly was killed, Sonny had taken the death hard. It had been during a good period for the couple, they had forsaken other lovers, recommitted to their marriage and were even trying to have a baby together. To lose her so violently had caused Sonny to lash out at everybody. It was only when Jason told him that if he didn't get his act together that he'd sue for custody of Michael that Sonny had pulled back from the brink of insanity and began to focus once more. He poured his affection and attention into Carly's son that he'd adopted and had, after that, become a virtual monk. It was not to say that the older man did not have an occasional liaison, but he did not have long term relationships. He actually thought about how his actions and his relationships would affect his son.

That was why Sonny had not wanted Elizabeth Webber to stay at his penthouse. Sonny's home was his private domain. It was for him and Michael and business was not conducted there. The times when Sonny did give into his baser needs and sought female companionship were conducted in the terms of a hard and fast rule; the woman never went to the penthouse. She did not call the penthouse. Sonny called her and they met elsewhere. Combined with the fact that such relationships rarely extended beyond one meeting and sometimes six months or more could pass before Sonny once again showed weakness, and Jason could understand why his boss did not even suggest the young woman stay with him.

What Jason couldn't understand was why she had to stay with him. Even though Damian Spinelli had been living with Jason for almost two years, Jason still thought of it as only a temporary situation. Sometimes he was greatly annoyed at the noise and disruptions the younger man brought into his life. The high octane energy levels that resulted in the virtual bouncing off the walls and the harem of women that came and went from the penthouse and the younger man inviting people to stay that annoyed Jason to no end, were tempered by the knowledge and realization that Spinelli was useful and found things quickly that other people couldn't find. He knew why he kept the computer hacker in the organization, even if he wasn't always sure why he kept the younger man in his apartment.

So while Jason had grown accustomed to Spinelli's presence, and knew - even if he did not want to admit it - that he would miss the younger man if he was gone, he did not want to have Elizabeth Webber in his house. She was a woman, she was a traitor, and by virtue of her gender she was treacherous and untrustworthy. He knew that simply by her being here, that trouble was bound to follow them. Trouble that Jason was not looking forward to at all; because when it came it was going to be big. He could sense the veracity of that in his bones.

So Jason had laid ground rules the moment Sonny walked out of the penthouse door. Just because the older man had decreed that Jason was look out for her did not mean she was an invited guest. She was to stay in her room. She could come down for meals. If she chose to eat in her room, that was fine, but she fixed her own tray and took it back up there; they would not wait on her like they were her servants. She did not use the phone, she did not use the computer, she stayed out of their way and she listened to whatever they told her to do. When the rules were finished, he flicked his wrist and sent her upstairs, ignoring the slow, slightly disoriented movements.

Then he sat down at his desk and once again went through her belongings, searching for the proof in them that would convince Sonny he was correct about the petite woman. Spinelli came down some hours later and informed Jason that he had a program searching for everything about the life of Elizabeth Webber and to have no doubt that the hacker would uncover her deepest secrets. That was all Jason wanted to hear before heading out to check in with the guards about the shooting at The Cellar and find out information on that. He never gave his house guest a second thought that evening.

Nor did he think about her when he arrived back at the penthouse after noon the following day and was met with the slightly troubled countenance of Spinelli. Elizabeth Webber had not come down from her room since last night. He'd heard her head to the upstairs bathroom a couple of times, but she did not come down for breakfast or lunch. The younger man was a little concerned and wondered if someone should check on her and perhaps bring her some food. Jason shook his head no, filling the computer genius in on the rules he had laid out for the young woman. If she didn't come to eat, then she could go ahead and be hungry. They were not coddling her. Her lies, her deception, her duplicity had caused this situation; he was not going to cater to someone like that.

His resolve had nearly broken on day three of not seeing her. He knew that she was eating because there would be a washed plate, glass and set of utensils in the dish drainer in the morning, along with a note on his desk. He was almost annoyed that she was using his kitchen when he wasn't around to watch her, but then figured that it didn't really matter. He'd already locked up his files, his gun and the liquor cabinet. He and Spinelli locked their doors to their bedrooms at night and Spinelli's laptop was never far from the hacker's side. Even at night. After the first night, he had Spinelli put a temporary block on the phone when they went to bed so no one could dial out, just in case she was trying to contact someone. But the alert that would have indicated she tried never sounded, and Spinelli hacked into the phone company records and told him that she never made any calls that first night. She was, at least, following the rules he'd dictated to her.

It was the notes, though, that nearly got to him. The first night she asked if someone could get her some clothes from her room. He'd picked up a pen and scribbled a very firm No. He didn't bother explaining that she was supposed to be considered dead, and it would look very strange to anyone who might be watching her place above Kelly's - even though the men he had watching it hadn't noticed anybody - if some of his people went inside it. The next night she asked if she could have her sketch pad. He once again wrote no underneath her request in firm, block lettering. He'd been thrown by the request, because he had expected the note to contain a request for someone to buy her some clothes if they would not bring her own. He was glad he didn't have to decide whether he was going to spend his money on her. Refusing her access to her sketchpad had been easier. Even though he had already taken the sketches pertaining to The Cellar off the tablet, he was not going to give her anything she could use to entertain herself with. This wasn't a vacation, it wasn't a retreat.

She apparently thought it was because her next note was a request for a book, or a magazine. He'd picked up the pen to once again write no when he set it down. An attack of sentimentality had him wondering what it would really matter if he gave her a book. He'd almost decided to find one for her, since he kept his books in his room and there was no way he was letting her go in there - he'd break his no serving rule just this once - when Spinelli came bounding down the stairs announcing he had news. What Jason heard afterwards had caused him to pick up the pen and nearly rip the paper as he wrote No. No books, no paper, no pens, no anything. Stop making requests; we are not here for your pleasure.

When Spinelli questioned what had upset Jason so badly, the enforcer had told the hacker to mind his own business. It was just something he had to settle with their guest. What Spinelli needed to do was get back upstairs and find out whatever was in that sealed juvenile document and why exactly it had been treated differently than any other one. Since he rarely raised his voice at the younger man, Spinelli stood frozen to the ground and then tripped over his feet in his haste to do his master's bidding. Jason felt a twinge of regret over the way he'd treated the hacker, but promised himself that when Spinelli uncovered the document, he'd apologize.

It was imperative they find out what was being hidden by the state of Colorado. Because Jason knew, he absolutely knew that it would contain the proof necessary to show Sonny Elizabeth Webber was in league with Alexis all along, that she was not who she claimed to be, and then finally, the thorn in his side could be extricated from his penthouse and his life. He just needed Spinelli to unlock the heavy encryption, and then everyone would see he was right.

"Stone Cold! I've been poisoned, Stone Cold!"

Elizabeth heard running feet, a slamming door and then those same heavy-booted feet pounded down the stairs. Elizabeth rolled over on her bed and placed her back firmly towards the door. She was hungry, starving in fact, but she wasn't going to leave her room. Not until Cranky and Stupid went to bed and she could move around the apartment in peace and eat and grab a few snacks to sustain her during the day. She knew they didn't want her here, she didn't want to be here, and she had no desire to interact with either man who treated her like she was the Whore of Babylon or a leper.

She heard running up the stairs and then suddenly her door swung open, banging against the wall. Sitting up on the bed with a jerk, she turned and gaped at the funny-haired computer geek who was standing in her bedroom red with anger. Funny how they locked their doors at night, along with several other things in the penthouse, but found it perfectly fine to come into her room without knocking. What if she'd been in the middle of rinsing out her underwear and had been naked?

"You tried to kill me!" the younger man blasted at her. "You put nuts in the brownies."

"You...you're allergic to them?" she asked in dismay, getting up and backing up from the advancing man. Jason Morgan stood in the doorway to her room observing the scene but making no attempt to intervene.

"No," Spinelli shook his head. "But that's beside the point. What kind of...of backwater, culinary destroyer puts nuts in brownies."

She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "You mean this just you...you didn't like them? They were quite visible; you could have just picked them out."

"I smelled chocolate, I reached out and I grabbed, I didn't look."

"Well, then that's your fault," she retorted, now feeling angry. "I made the brownies last night because I wanted some and I saw the ingredients downstairs. I could have brought them all up to my room and not shared, but pardon me for leaving some down where I knew they'd be eaten. The nuts were in the cupboard, I put them in. You do not get to barge into my room and yell at me, acting like I poisoned you or caused you to go into anaphylactic shock, when it was merely that you didn't like them."

"You should have asked one of us," Spinelli insisted. "Or better yet, you shouldn't be using Stone Cold's food. You're an interloper, you're a traitorous spy, you're..."

The computer he was holding in his hand - did he go anywhere without it? - beeped and the strange man suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. Or maybe it was a bong. He seemed the kind of man who would be a pothead.

"Ah-hah!" he exclaimed in delight. "The Jackal has achieved success. The State of Colorado's secret system is no match for the Assassin of Cyberspace."

Jason Morgan pushed himself off the door frame and asked, "What does it say?"

"You guys are investigating me?" she asked, sounding small and stupid. "You're digging into sealed files? Those...those are my sealed files. You're-you're invading my privacy."

"And you broke into The Cellar," Morgan snapped at her. "So I'm investigating you; because you're hiding something. Or why else would your juvenile files be sealed with an encryption beyond anyone else's?"

She swallowed and wrapped her arms around her stomach, but couldn't speak. Speech was impossible. He looked at her a long moment and then turned away, dismissing her as he always had. As everyone had in her life.

Spinelli sat down on her bed and his fingers fairly flew over the keypad. Jason stood beside him, looking over her shoulder. She stood rooted to the floor, despite the fact that she was going to be ill.

"Let's see," the younger man said, "there are several things here. One file is still encrypted, but my program should crack it soon enough. Let's start with the earliest file. Elizabeth Imogene," Spinelli snorted, "Webber was charged with vandalism when she was in junior high."

"Criminal misconduct started early," the blond mobster said contemptuously at her.

"It was a school assignment," she managed to say on a whisper. "The teacher didn't get the right permission or permit or something; there were ten of us from art class painting a mural, I was the only one taken down to the station because my last name was Webber and the neighbor who called the cops didn't like my father who was a prominent surgeon in the community."

Her parents had yelled at her, denigrating her for shaming the family name and inconveniencing them, but never once getting mad at the teacher.

"Hmm," was all Jason vocalized.

"Here's the next one," Spinelli said anxiously. Vandalism must not have been what he was looking for. Perhaps he expected her to be suspected of killing all the cats in the neighborhood.

"Another police report," he said, his voice slow and drawn out that indicated he was talking while still reading the report. "When she was fifteen, she...wait, this isn't against her, she...she was the victim of the crime."

"Victim," the older man said, disbelief clear in his tone.

She was really going to be ill now. But her knees were shaking too hard for her to get out of the room and down to the bathroom.

"When she was fifteen," Spinelli repeated, "she was...she was-"

He stopped speaking abruptly and Elizabeth actually heard him swallow. "Stone Cold, she was..."

"I was raped," she said, sparing the younger man from having to voice the words. "I was grabbed one evening in the park where I was sketching some climbing vines on the gazebo. It was the same man who called the police on the vandalism charge; his dislike of my father had grown. He held me overnight and when he dropped me off on my front lawn without any clothes, all my mother cared about was the fact that it was the paperboy who found me and rang their doorbell."

She raised her eyes from the carpet and met the shocked gaze of Jason Morgan and the tortured, almost painful, look of the younger man who had unlocked her secret. "Now...now you know. And I...I-"

She abruptly stopped, her hand flying up to her mouth. She wasn't going to make it to the bathroom; she needed to find something... The trashcan from the corner appeared in front of her and Elizabeth didn't care that Jason Morgan was still holding it, she bent at the waist and threw up.

"Get her some water," Jason commanded softly as he set the trash can on the floor. Elizabeth sank to her knees beside it, her hands braced on the carpet as she purged once more. A soft, hesitant hand touched her shoulder, pushing her hair back.

When she felt she was no longer in danger of having her stomach convulse, she sat back on her heels, seeking to put distance between her and the trashcan, but also her and Jason Morgan. She didn't want him touching her. How dare he now extend sympathy and kindness to her? She didn't want his pity; she didn't want him anywhere near her. In fact, she really didn't care what kind of danger she might be in from those who shot at Jason and his boss in The Cellar; she had to get out of here.

She pushed back even more, and then rose to her feet. She was unsteady and Jason reached out a hand to help her, but drew it back when she slapped it away angrily. "Don't touch me!"

He held his hands out to the side and took a step back. "Okay. It's okay. I-I'm sorry."

"I don't want your sympathy," she hissed at him. "Just stay away from me. You wanted to know my life history, so certain I was lying and hiding something from you and your boss. Well...there it is. I was held for fifteen hours, one for every year old I was, by a man who blamed my father for losing his contract with the city after his wife died. It wasn't that my father misdiagnosed his wife, or mistreated his wife; the man was a pig who didn't take his wife to the doctor until her bruises had faded because he didn't want domestic assault charges brought against him. By then, her internal injuries were too great, the coroner found evidence of abuse, the man was arrested and the city terminated his engineering contract. I...I was retribution on my father. Are you happy now that you know that?"

"I-I'm sorry," he said. But his words were empty and hollow to her, because he was the reason she was remembering that dark room, lit only by a single, bare light bulb.

"I don't want your pity," she shook her head, taking a step towards the door. "I don't want you near me. I don't want to see you ever again."

The computer beeped once more as she passed it and she encountered Spinelli in the doorway, a tray with a variety of beverages in his hands. He looked at her in dismay and confusion.

"Get out of my way," she growled at him and thankfully he immediately complied.

"Where are you going?" Morgan called after her.

"Anywhere but here," she replied dismissively.

"You can't leave," he commanded, grabbing the front door mere seconds after she opened it. "It's too dangerous; we don't know how men Alexis Davis claimed worked for her father ended up at Carly's club. We don't know why she wanted you there. People might have seen us take you out of the club. We can't let you go walking around."

"You know what?" she asked him, turning to look at him and pouring every ounce of hatred she had for him into her voice. "It's not really your decision. This is my life and I said I'm leaving."

Then she pushed the door forward with all her strength, slamming Jason's fingers into the frame. He yelled, then swore and when she pulled the door back open, he quickly released the wooden structure and was too distracted by the pain in his extremity to stop her. She made it all the way to the elevator and pushed the button and was almost to freedom when the doors opened and Sonny Corinthos stepped off with a guard and a little boy. He looked around in confusion at the scene and his countenance darkened.

"Max, take Michael inside," he commanded before rounding on the group and demanding, "What's going on?"

"She's trying to leave," Jason grit out, holding his hand against his side in clear pain.

"I can see that," the older man nodded. "Why? I told you to keep an eye on her and keep her safe."

"Like I would stay here," Elizabeth scoffed derisively.

"What?" he asked, looking at her in bewilderment.

At that moment, Spinelli skidded to a stop in the open door of Jason's apartment and gasped out, "Stone Cold."

Then he gulped and squeaked out, "Mister Sir."

"What is going on?" Sonny demanded.

"Stone Cold," the youngest man of the group gestured in what he probably thought was a subtle manner. "You have to see this."

"What?" the mob boss demanded. "Somebody had better answer my questions now. Why is she trying to leave? What happened to your hand? And why do you look like you just heard some super, mega, ultra game had just been released?"

"Spinelli," Jason said. "What is it?"

"It's...it's the other file," he answered. "It...it is now decrypted."

"Decrypted?" Sonny questioned. "You mean...you found something in your search on her?"

He turned to look at Elizabeth suspiciously and she took advantage of the fact that he was no longer holding her arm to take a step towards the door.

"There were some sealed and hidden Juvenile Court documents Spinelli found," Morgan explained. "Two of them...two of them were harmless. Nothing..."

"What was in the third?" the oldest man asked when his employee trailed off. "Something, or nothing? And how does that play into her about to flee the building?"

"The third file...the third file is an adoption record," the computer whiz answered.

"Adoption?" Elizabeth questioned. "I'm not adopted."

She looked at Jason in disgust and then at his compatriot. "What is with you? You...you break into my privacy, you hack into my records and you plant this? Did you..." Her eyes narrowed in anger. "You already knew about the rape."

Sonny looked at the other men in shock and then at her, "What?"

"You knew I was raped, and you wanted to watch my reaction, didn't you? So you could then spring this whole adoption thing on me and see how I responded to that. You just...I cannot believe that you would dredge up something so personal, so horrible and play on it in an effort to bring false evidence against me. You are just so certain that I'm lying to you that now you're making things up all so you can accuse me and get him," she jerked her thumb at Sonny, "to believe you."

By now she was mere feet from the stairwell. "And you wonder why I say that I'm not going to stay here one more minute."

Then she turned and fled.

Jason was so surprised by the revelation that Elizabeth Webber had been adopted and her accusing him of planting the evidence and using her rape against her that he was slow moving after she fled down the fire escape. The fact that she thought he would manipulate her by using something so vile from her past angered him, but he was quickly shaken from such thoughts. For he found himself slammed up against the wall by none other than Sonny.

He forgot, sometimes, that the mobster did not just sit around while others did his bidding. While Sonny didn't go out on hits or when Jason or one of the lieutenants went to deliver a warning, the older man kept up his skills. He wanted to be prepared in case someone he trusted to guard him suddenly turned on him, or his bodyguard was killed during an attack. He would also never just blithely have his son with him and not be able to do everything he could to ensure the little boy was safe. So the mob boss went to the shooting range weekly and sparred with the guards to keep his body toned and his reflexes sharp.

That training and skill was currently pinning Jason to the wall while exerting enough pressure on his neck to prevent him from gaining a full breath and immobilized, but not enough to threaten loss of consciousness. Jason was scrabbling with his fingers to try to get a hold on the other man's arm, but was unable to budge it. For Sonny was furious and in no mood to be lenient.

"What did you do?" his boss demanded harshly. "You went digging into her past and used...used the fact that she had been raped against her?"

"With all due respect, Mister Sir," Spinelli said frantically from the doorway, "it was not like that. Stone Cold was only trying to defend-"

"Shut up!" Sonny thundered at the younger man, sending a look so quelling that Spinelli shrank back as he paled. "You're the one who hacked into the system, so you're as much responsible for violating that woman all over again!"

Jason was able to use Sonny's momentary distraction to shove the slightly shorter man back. When the former street scrapper looked ready for another round, Jason was able to make him stop by gasping out, "We have to stop her from leaving the building."

The Cuban's eyes went wide with anger and he turned and struck out, his right hand jabbing at the wall and punching a hole in the plaster. Spinelli whimpered from the doorway. Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Jason hit the speed dial for the front desk and listened to it ring. After the seventh ring he was about to hang up and go down there to see what happened when it was finally answered.

"Front desk."

The guard was breathing heavily and his manner was short and abrupt and Jason knew before even asking that Elizabeth Webber had fled the premises.

"Frank," he said, because he had to know. "Has a brunette come through the lobby?"

"Yes, Mr. Morgan," the man said regretfully. "We knew that Mr. Corinthos wanted her protected and we tried to stop her, but she was desperate, almost crazed. She slipped out of Marco's grasp and...kicked him in the groin. I tried to give chase, but she disappeared into the fog and I knew I shouldn't leave my post. I was just going to call some men to go look for her and then call you."

Jason closed his eyes and then said, "Thank you, Frank. Call some men and send them in her direction. I'll be down in a few minutes to help with the search."

Then he hung up the phone and raised his eyes to meet Sonny's murderous gaze.

"I understand that you have trust issues, Jason," his friend said with an eerie calmness that indicated just how mad he really was. "Robin betrayed you, the Quartermaines tried to have you committed, using your sister as bait to get you over to the house, and you think that I've made foolish choices with women in the past. But that is absolutely no excuse to make an innocent woman pay for their sins."

"Innocent?" he sneered. "She broke into Carly's club."

"Yes," Sonny agreed. "But you automatically assumed the worst of her. You automatically believed she was working with the Cassadines in an effort to take us down. You twisted weak facts to fit your preconceived judgment of her instead of being objective and truly following the leads where they went. You treated her like a prisoner, and viewed everything about her with a lens of distrust."

"She had a sealed juvenile record," he stated, trying to find some way to defend himself even though he knew there was no excuse for exposing her rape in such a manner. "It was encrypted beyond anything Spinelli ever encountered."

"And you didn't tell me about it," his boss pointed out mildly, but also distinctly chiding him for not following proper protocol. "You should have read it with me, because you should have realized you weren't being objective."

Looking over at Spinelli, the don asked, "What does her adoption record state?"

"Uh...no-nothing, Mister Sir, beyond the fact that she was adopted. The birth parents' information is missing, and it only references a lawyer who handled the adoption." The boy was frightened, ready to faint, but Jason knew he couldn't protect his young friend at the moment. Sonny's fury was too great to allow Jason to speak up.

"Then I want you to investigate this lawyer, find out where he was based, if he's still alive, everything. We may need to access his files."

The computer hacker gave a nervous nod of his head before gratefully disappearing back into the penthouse. Then Sonny turned to look at Jason and ordered, "Go and find Elizabeth Webber. You don't come back until you do, you do whatever you have to keep her safe, but don't you dare harm her or think you can treat her with the same contempt you have since she's arrived."

He then took a step back and shook his head, "It appears you and I need to have a discussion on women, because I don't ever want to see this kind of behavior from you again."

Irked by the patronizing tone in Sonny's voice, the enforcer straightened his spine and growled out, "I am not Michael."

"Then don't act like him," was all the older man stated. "Now you better go find her."

Of all the nights for a thick, impenetrable fog to roll in off the harbor. He always scoffed at the description of pea soup fog, but tonight it was more than appropriate. Jason could barely see a couple of feet in front of him and knew that it was going to be extremely difficult, if not virtually impossible, to find the petite artist. If she was quiet, he could walk right past her and he'd never know unless he stumbled into her.

It was going to be difficult to convince her to come back to the penthouse with him. After the brusque and harsh way he'd treated her, and then the way she'd recoiled from him after reciting the details of her rape, she wasn't going to want anything to do with him. So it was going to be hard to fulfill the do no harm portion of Sonny's command. He could only hope he was somehow able to convince her before her shouting alerted the police and he wound up in jail with her claiming he was trying to kidnap her.

He hadn't thought he was being that unreasonable with her. After all, he hadn't locked her in her bedroom or only given her water and bread. He just hadn't been convinced like Sonny was that her life was in jeopardy. He had been so certain and now he was beginning to doubt himself.

The look on Elizabeth Webber's face was one he had never seen before, and one he hoped to never see again. He had seen death; looked into the eyes of a man as he pulled the trigger, slipped the knife in, or strangled his throat until the eyes went blank and dull. He'd seen fear topple giants of men and had seen them weep for mercy. He'd seen pure evil, sadistic torturers who gleefully exploited and relished in another person's misery and pain. But he had never seen something as haunting as the look in her eyes as she told him about her rape.

There was shame, there was humiliation, and there was terror. Though she had censored the event with her words, her eyes had spoken everything. She'd been held for fifteen hours. Fifteen hours of physical, psychological and emotional abuse. She'd been left naked in front of her house, found by a stranger and had her mother berate her for the experience. She spoke the words in a flat, resigned voice; laying bare her most humiliating and hurtful experience to a stranger who had kept her locked in a house, who had taken delight in treating her with degradation, and thought he had a right to know her deepest pain.

In that moment of realization, Jason was disgusted with himself. He was ashamed of taunting her with the fact that he would uncover her hidden secrets. She had stood there, not afraid of him finding she was a traitor, but ashamed that he would discover that at the age of fifteen she had been kidnapped and savagely brutalized by an abusive man. Anger coursed through him on her behalf and he decided that he'd have Spinelli give him the man's name and current location - which hopefully was prison - and teach the man the true meaning of fear.

A new resolve flowed into him and he felt an increased need to find the young woman who had shared his home for a week. He needed to find her, to protect her from the demons of her past he'd unleashed on her, as well as protect her from any of Alexis Davis' people that might be in the city. It would not do for her to realize that her art student had not died.

He let his instincts guide him, moving along with no real thought to his movements in the hope that he could somehow find Elizabeth before someone else did. As he neared the docks, he realized that his hopes had been in vain. For he heard voices, and one of them belonged to Elizabeth. The other was a man, and it was clear by the tone of his voice that he was not pleased.

Jason slowed his forward progress, stepping lightly on his rubber soled boots, taking advantage of the dulling qualities of the fog to draw closer. Hopefully without detection. Elizabeth was crying, her pitiful sounds tearing at Jason, and he had to force himself to tune her out, focus on the other person and anyone else who might be in the vicinity. He could not allow himself to become enmeshed in her pain or he'd lose his focus and endanger them both.

"You are not supposed to be alive," the stranger growled, one suit-clad arm wrapped around Elizabeth's waist keeping her back pressed to his chest. The other hand held a short dagger against the artist's neck, and there was no doubt in Jason's mind that the polished metal was lethal in its sharpness. "I should have known she would fail me. She was always so pitifully weak and inept."

Elizabeth sobbed and the man pressed the blade harder, causing red to bloom on her pale neck. Jason drew his gun from his jacket, flexing his hand on the rubber grip.

"I see I shall have to dispatch you myself," Elizabeth's assailant said cruelly. "And then I shall have to deal with Natasha, teach her what happens when she fails the family. And you...it's only fitting you should die by my hands. Our family has such a tangled history of murdering our members. Sometimes it's warranted, though; like when it's necessary to eliminate the undesirables."

Jason didn't want to risk a shot at the man for fear of hitting Elizabeth, so he fired beside the pair, splintering a wooden bench. The dark-haired man loosened his grip slightly as he looked around and Jason was quick to capitalize on the opening. He rushed forward, pulling Elizabeth to him and fired at the man who lost his balance and fell into the water. He'd send his men to search for the assailant, his main priority was getting Elizabeth to safety before somebody else in the Cassadine family came searching for her.

Elizabeth Webber had a set of lungs on her like Jason had never heard before. Considering he'd heard a lot of screaming in his lifetime, he felt qualified to state she was the best screamer he'd ever encountered. He might have been impressed, or annoyed considering how long she actually did scream, had the sounds coming from her throat not been so heart wrenching. Because Elizabeth's screams came not from delight, sexual fevor or even fear; they came from a well of terror so deep inside her soul that Jason felt haunted by them. Especially since he knew he was very much responsible for them.

Once the Cassadine male went over the edge of the pier, Jason picked up Elizabeth and fled the scene. He didn't want to be around when the cops showed up to investigate the gunfire, and he wanted to get the young woman to safety. Elizabeth absolutely came unhinged by the action. She let out a bloodcurdling No! and began to fight with a ferociousness he had never beheld in a woman before. She kicked, she bit, she clawed and she hit and she twice slipped out of his grasp forcing him to have to chase her down and grab her all over again. He knew he was dredging up painful memories for her, but he had to get her to safety now and he couldn't waste the time to try to calm her down and rationalize with her.

He took her to the warehouse and then had a guard drive them to the Towers in a darkened-window SUV and pull into the underground garage. She yelled and screamed and tried to get away the entire time. All the way up the elevator, she raged against him and it didn't stop when they reached his penthouse. In fact, it got even worse.

The guards all stared in confused horror, Sonny came out of his penthouse, and Spinelli watched with nervous concern as he twisted his fingers together. Jason ignored the insults spewed at him and the bruises to his shins and sides as he carried her into the living room and approached the couch.

"Elizabeth," he said gently, yet firmly, "We're at my penthouse. I'm going to set you down. You're safe now and we're going to figure this out."

He released her and then stepped back, braced for her attack. She flew at him, her fingers curled into claws as she tried to scratch his face. He grasped her wrists, strong enough to keep her from hitting him, but careful not to bruise the delicately built woman. With her hands manacled, she began to kick him and he barely turned his leg in time, lifting his thigh to absorb the blow aimed for his groin. Sonny rushed forward but Jason shook his head and commanded the older man to stop.

"Don't approach her from behind," he instructed. "Don't!"

Her terror seemed to exacerbate when he lifted her off her feet positioned behind her. He recalled her words about her attacker and how she was grabbed while in the park and he strongly suspected that she'd been grabbed from behind and dragged away. He would not repeat that action with her anymore. Especially since the Cassadine male had been holding her from behind with a knife to her throat.

"She doesn't realize what's happening," Sonny observed.

"No," he agreed. "She's lashing out, fighting to survive..."

He swallowed thickly, "Probably reliving her attack. I don't want her to hurt herself, but my presence terrifies her."

Sonny approached, making sure to come from an angle she could see him, if she'd been more cognizant of her surroundings. His movements were slow and unhurried, measured and non-threatening. In a soft voice he said, "Let her go, Jason, and then step back."

Understanding that the older man was going to try to calm her down, Jason nodded his head, and as Sonny returned the gesture, he let go of Elizabeth's hands and moved out of the way. Immediately, his boss was in front of the young woman, hands gently placed on her arms and he did his best to meet the artist's gaze as he softly talked to her.

They were nonsense words, meant to calm her with their gentle tone. He talked to her like he would to Michael after a frightening dream. Her anger abated, her fight faded, and Sonny was able to draw her towards him in a loose embrace. All the while he kept talking, hoping to ease her fractious soul, until she shuddered, and then clung to him as sobs replaced the screams.

Jason turned away from the sight, but could not leave the sound, and stalked into his kitchen, roughly yanking open the refrigerator door and reaching in for a beer. Twisting the top off, he tossed it at the trash and did not care that it pinged off the wall. He could hear Spinelli scurry in behind him and was halfway finished with his drink when the younger man tentatively asked, "Stone Cold?"

He merely replied with a harsh shake of his head. He wasn't going to answer questions right now, not when he'd only have to repeat the answers for Sonny. Instead he commanded, "Pull up any surveillance footage you can find from the docks, especially Elm Street Pier. It was foggy out tonight, but we may get lucky and catch something."

Out in the living room, the sounds of Elizabeth's cries continued and Jason reached for another beer. Spinelli stood at the kitchen counter and typed frantically, all the while sending not-so-surreptitious glances at Jason. The enforcer paced the kitchen like a caged animal; angry, frustrated, desperate for something to do and feeling helpless as he could do nothing.

After half an hour, the sounds from the living room faded, and another half an hour passed before Sonny's dress shoes could be heard coming across the hardwood floors. By that time, Jason had consumed another beer until he forced himself to stop. He'd have to get drunk later, for now he was going to have to answer Sonny's questions.

Looking haggard and unsettled, the Latino stepped into the kitchen and said, "She's fallen asleep. It's not the most restful and I'm seriously considering calling Bobbie to come check her out and bring a sedative in case we need it, but she's resting for now."

He turned to look at Jason and pierced him with obsidian eyes, "Now tell me exactly what happened tonight."

"I was wrong," Jason immediately said. "I...I've seen you, Sonny. Get taken in by a pretty face, tearful eyes and I just...she was in Carly's club and she was sent there by Alexis Davis and I was certain there was more going on than what she was saying. Something didn't seem right; why would Alexis be so insistent on sending her student there?"

"Because Alexis is crazy like the rest of her family," Sonny replied bluntly. "She just hides better under her disdainful hauteur and university credentials. That was no excuse for you to treat Elizabeth Webber like she was a prisoner in your house."

"No," Jason shook his head. "I...I had Spinelli check on things and he found there were sealed, and encrypted juvenile records. The first one was an erroneous vandalism charge. A school project some hardnosed idiot claimed was vandalism because he hated Elizabeth's father. The second...the second was her rape. She..."

He swallowed, feeling like he was betraying Elizabeth's privacy, even after he'd just invaded it. But he didn't want her to have to tell the story again, so he forced himself to be the one to talk about it.

"The guy who called the cops on the project...he grabbed Elizabeth and held her for fifteen hours, her age at the time, and..." He scrubbed his hand roughly over his face, "She didn't say what he did, but he raped her, no doubt repeatedly while he tortured her. He dumped her naked on the family's front lawn."

Sonny's jaw clenched tightly and a muscle in his jaw ticked with wild fury. "Was this monster caught?"

"I don't know."

Pointing a finger of command at Spinelli, the Cuban ordered, "You find out everything you can about this man. Where he is, even if he's in prison. He will be dealt with, do you understand me?"

"I do, Mr. Corinthos," Spinelli said on a broken whisper.

"If he's in prison," Jason stated, "He's still dying."

Sonny looked at Jason suspiciously, but then said, "I agree."

Then he let out a breath and continued, "And the other record was the adoption file."

"Yes," the computer hacker spoke up. "All it has is that she was adopted by Jeff Webber and his wife, and the lawyer's name. I'm already running a search on the man and will bring you any information that I find."

"Good," the mobster nodded. "Good. We need to find out who she is."

"I think I have a clue on that," Jason said. "She's related to the Cassadines."

"The Cassadines?" Sonny questioned. "How do you know?"

"I found her on the docks," he told the two other men. "And someone was holding her captive. He was about my age, dark hair, he had a knife to her throat and said that Natasha had failed, and he would have to rid the family of the undesirable element himself."

"Natasha?" Spinelli questioned.

"Alexis Davis is actually Natasha Alexandra Cassadine; she grew up Natasha Davidovitch, and changed it to Davis," Sonny explained. "Her father is Mikkos Cassadine and her mother a Swedish opera singer."

"Oh," the younger man nodded and raised his eyebrows.

"The man was your age?" the Cuban questioned Jason. "Not older than Alexis?"

"My age," Jason stated firmly. "Maybe a little younger. He was not older."

Sonny pondered the news for a moment and then said, "It must be her nephew Nikolas. Her brother Stavros is the first born and is married and has a son. Her brother Stefan has never married, though it's rumored he's had a string of mistresses and there's some speculation that there is an illegitimate child or two out there."

"Why would...forgive me," Spinelli interrupted nervously. "Why would the Unhinged Professor send Elizabeth to Mrs. Corinthos' club? Why does this involve Mr. Sir aside from his former liaison with the art professor?"

Jason sighed and said, "The Cassadines are Russian mob. Sonny didn't realize her connection to the family because of her using the name Davis. There's some rumor that they're descended from Russian nobility and the first born men are actual princes, but they're mob, and we wondered if Alexis' presence meant they were going to make a move on U.S. territory. Mikkos Cassadine is a ruthless mobster, but his health is failing so his son Stavros runs things now and he's ambitious and greedy. The brother, Stefan, is not really involved in things, except on the edges. Stavros has a son, Nikolas, who will take over the family business, so he's being trained in the way of his grandfather and father, but there are some indications that he has all the ruthlessness of his grandmother Helena who is more vicious than the men put together."

"She killed Alexis' mother in front of her," Sonny stated. "Slit her throat because Kristin was Mikkos' mistress and had born him two children. It was an affront Helena could not stand, even though she knew Mikkos only married her to gain the land and territory her family had. What Helena really wants is to run the territories and she's raised her son and her grandson to be vicious."

"So Elizabeth is related to this family?" Spinelli asked with a nervous swallow.

"If the guy was Nikolas," Jason shrugged, "that's what he implied. He seemed quite angry."

Sonny sighed and scrubbed his hand over his face, "If we're going up against the Cassadines, then we a whole new problem on our hands. They have deep pockets and a lot of international resources. I'm going to have to tell the Five Families about this, because we might need their assistance. The attack on The Cellar could be just the beginning."

"Spinelli," Jason said quietly, yet earnestly, "We really need to find out her past. Who her parents are could let us know why the Cassadines are coming after her. How did the Webbers from Colorado end up with her? We need to know this."

The hacker nodded immediately, "I'm on it, Stone Cold and Mr. Sir. I will not rest until I find out where this lawyer is."

"He won't have this stuff online," Sonny shook his head. "You're going to need to pay his office a visit."

"I know," Jason agreed. "As soon as Spinelli gets a lead, I'll go. It will be better if it's me; especially for Elizabeth."

"Give her some space," the older man nodded his head.

"Should I come with you, Stone Cold?" Spinelli asked hopefully. He always looked for an opportunity to get out and do more. "The Jackal could provide on sight tech support."

"Jason can take one of the guards," Sonny countered. "I need you here, Spinelli, to upgrade our security systems. Now that the Cassadines know Elizabeth isn't dead, and that Jason rescued her, they're going to come after her. We need to make this building as secure as we can, because I will not let her be hurt again. All of us will do whatever we have to in order to protect her from her family that seems intent on slitting her throat."

It was quiet when she woke. At first it was so disorientating that she couldn't remember where she was, and she sat up with a start, looking around her. The room was spacious and sparsely furnished, and it wasn't until she saw the pool table that she remembered where she was. Because she only knew one person who had a pool table in their living room. She groaned and flopped back down onto the couch; she was at Jason Morgan's house.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

She'd tried to leave here last night, had been determined to leave here last night, and she'd gotten sucked back in. She couldn't remember all the details of how that happened, just a jumble of fog, gunshots and the feel of someone pressed up against her back. Her breathing shallowed and she closed her eyes, forcing herself to take a deep breath in through her nose and letting it out slowly through her mouth. In and out. In. Out. In. Count to five. Out. Count to ten. In.

Slowly she began to calm, was able to push back the memories of her rape and remember that years had passed since then. She was no longer in Colorado. She was not fifteen years old. She was safe, she was okay.

The memory of a knife against her throat made her raise her hand and her eyes widened when she felt the wound under her fingertips. Her skin burned and she could recall with perfect clarity the feel of the blade against her throat, barely daring to swallow for fear the knife would cut deeper. She could remember the anger, the harsh words, and the rage that had vibrated in the man holding her. It wasn't the same as when she'd been grabbed, the sexual sadism that had aroused her rapist. This man hadn't been aroused, he was incensed. The bruising grip on her arms, the way he spat his words at her in contempt, the pure fury that had fueled him to rush at her on the docks...it all spoke to hatred and loathing.

She didn't understand it, didn't know who he was or what he'd meant, but she couldn't forget the feel of his hands on her. It swirled in her mind, combining with another man who'd touched her in anger and bile rose in her throat. She felt dirty and cold and she pushed back the blanket that covered her and stood up, expecting Jason Morgan to pop out of a doorway and yell at her. When the room remained silent, and nobody arrived, she turned and ran.

She didn't even think of going out the front door, she fled upstairs to her room, determined to wash away the feeling of last night; even though she knew from experience that nothing would erase the memories. Locking her bedroom door behind her, she focused in on one task: get clean. Shoes, clothes, jewelry were discarded in a rush before she turned on the shower and stepped inside. The water was cold and it shocked her skin as she leaned forward and dry heaved, nausea making her dizzy. Soon, though, it warmed and she leaned against the warming porcelain and breathed deep until she thought she could stand. Then she reached for the soap and washcloth and tried to erase the memory of hands on her body.

When the water turned cold once again and Elizabeth could no longer stand the chill, she turned off the water and wrapped herself in a thick towel. She gave a cursory swipe to her hair to blot the water away, and then walked back into her bedroom. All she wanted to do was crawl under the covers and sleep. She'd worry about clothes to wear later; because she fully intended to throw away the ones she'd been wearing since the shootout at the nightclub.

As she approached her bed, though, she stopped. Suitcases sat on top of the comforter. Her suitcases. When she opened them, she found them full of her clothes, from her apartment. Everything was here, including her toiletries. A box beside the bed caught her eye and when she opened it, she found her school books and art supplies inside. The knick knacks from on top of her dresser were in bubble wrap sitting on top of everything. Her entire room at Kelly's had been packed up and moved to Jason Morgan's penthouse.

How dare he!

This was the same man who refused to get her any new clothes after she'd been brought here and kept against her will. This was the same man who treated her like a leper and all of their interactions were filled with contempt and distrust. This was the same man who went digging into her past, exposing her rape and making her relive the horrific event and then compounded the trauma - even if it might have been unintentional - by picking her up from behind, all because he was just so certain she was lying to him and he wanted to prove it to Sonny Corinthos. And now that man had the presumption to go into her apartment and pack up her belongings.

She didn't want to be here. She didn't want his pity or his sympathy. She wanted to just get away from Port Charles and everyone associated with it.

After pulling on some sweats and running a comb through her hair, she marched from the room, intent on having a few words with Jason Morgan. She was tired of his high-handed tactics and she was tired of feeling scared and alone in the face of his hostility. She walked down the hall to his room and banged on the door. She didn't care what time it was, she didn't care if she might be waking him or interrupting him or inconveniencing him. She was tired of the way he was treating her and she was determined to let him know.

His door didn't open, but the one behind her did and she whirled around to see the little computer nerd Spinelli looking at her uneasily. "Artistic One? Is...is something wrong?"

"Yes, something's wrong," she spat at him. "I want to talk to Jason. I want to know what gives him the right to pack up my entire room and bring everything here?!"

His eyes widened slightly and he took a step back into his room. Elizabeth followed, barging in when the young man scurried back in the face of her anger. She looked around, as if expecting Jason to be hiding there somewhere and demanded, "Where is he?"

"Stone Cold is not here," he answered. "He has left on...on an expedition to seek the truth regarding you."

"The truth?" she asked scornfully. "You mean the truth where you make up more lies about me being adopted? You know, you really are a piece of work, aren't you? Just blindly following along like some stupid mutt, doing whatever the great Jason Morgan says. Like making up lies that I'm not a Webber."

Her voice waivered slightly as she continued to browbeat the young man. "Did the two of you enjoy reading about my rape? Think it was funny? Think that it was what I deserved? I mean, I'm just a pain in the butt art student who obviously is lying to everyone, so why not invade her privacy and find out her deepest hurt and then blindside her with it? Make her relive it and then when she's in shock over it, spring the news on her."

"No."

The reply was little more than an anguished whisper and Elizabeth paused and took a step back as she looked at the young man before her. His face looked broken and crumpled and he appeared ready to cry. He was twisting his fingers together before him in distress and agitation. "No, Artistic One, that wasn't...The Jackal could never take delight in someone else's misery. Especially over something so horrific as what happened to you in your formative teenage years. I am most sorry-"

"Shut up," she commanded him harshly and he immediately clamped his lips together. "I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear your pity or your sympathy. You invaded my privacy all because Jason Morgan ordered you to and you never once thought that perhaps I might be telling the truth. You came barging into my room accusing me of trying to kill you and acted like I should be eating bread and water while...while chained to the wall..."

She raised her hand to cover a sob and the young man's eyes filled with pure anguish and he took a step towards her. When she raised her hands in front of her, he stopped at once and even took a step back.

"Artistic One," he began. "Please...I am..."

"Stop," she shook her head. "My name is Elizabeth. Don't...don't apologize for something you aren't really upset about. Just...just stop talking."

He nodded, but remained silent.

"I want to leave," she informed him. "I don't care what's going on here; I don't care what anyone might say. I want to leave."

Then she turned and walked out of his room, heading for the stairs. She had to get out of here. She couldn't breathe. She felt dizzy and lightheaded and she had to get away. She had to.

When she opened the door, the guard outside turned and she pushed at him, intent that another person wouldn't stop her. She couldn't stay here. She couldn't stay around people who were going to look at her with a mixture of pity and sorrow mere hours after they'd looked at her with distrust and hostility. It was too much. And if this mountain of a man didn't get out of her way she was going to knee him in the groin.

"Elizabeth?"

She looked up and saw Sonny Corinthos standing in the hallway, an older, redheaded lady behind him. With his hands out to the side in a gesture of no malicious intent, he walked forward, motioning for the guard to step away.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I have to get out of here," she responded, her breathing shallow and rushed. Her hands were beginning to tingle and her head felt fuzzy.

"It's okay," the older woman said as she took a step towards Elizabeth. "It's okay, Elizabeth, just relax. You need to take some deep breaths and calm down or you're going to pass out."

The woman reached her side and wrapped an arm around her side gently, "That's it. Just relax. Take some breaths."

The lightheadedness retreated and Elizabeth no longer felt she was going to sway on her feet. She leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes briefly while taking another breath. "I'm okay," she whispered. "I just...I need to get out of here."

Sonny cleared his throat lightly and said, "I understand why you'd want to leave, Elizabeth. But...it's not safe for you to go. The Cassadines are going to be looking for you and they've already tried to kill you twice. I don't entirely understand what's going on, but I just...I can't send you out onto the street knowing you could be in danger."

She looked at him, feeling understanding and genuine empathy directed towards her, not pity fueled by guilt. But she pleaded with him to understand, "Please. I just...I can't go back there."

He sighed heavily, "I know that Jason wasn't that kind to you and I truly do apologize for him. He just...he was a little overzealous in his beliefs and efforts and he went about things the wrong way."

"He's a grown man," Elizabeth shook her head. "He doesn't need you making excuses or apologies for him. He knew what he was doing."

"Yes," Sonny nodded. "And he now realizes he was wrong."

"Why?" she demanded. "Because he found out I was raped and now he feels sorry for me? I don't want his pity and I don't want to stay in his apartment."

"He realizes that you had no idea you were adopted and now that we know that you're related to the Cassadines, he's not about to let you get hurt."

She lifted her brow in question at him, "What's so special about the Cassadines? Aside from the fact that they're all apparently psychotic? And why are you so certain I'm adopted? That's just something that Jason and his little cyber geek over there cooked up to convince you against me."

Sonny gestured towards the open door of Jason's penthouse and said, "It's a rather long, and slightly complicated story. Maybe we should sit down."

With great reluctance Elizabeth agreed, and went back to the couch she'd woken up on only a little while ago. The redhead, a nurse by the name of Bobbie Spencer who was Sonny's mother-in-law, sat beside her. Sonny sat on a chair perpendicular to the couch while Spinelli perched uneasily on the desk behind him. Slowly Sonny explained about the Cassadines, the various members, their history and their intrigues and how Alexis Davis was related to them. He explained about his affair with the professor and the child they'd lost that resulted in her bitterness towards him.

When he was done, Elizabeth leaned back against the couch and rubbed her temples. "So the Cassadines are Russian mobsters, but you didn't know Professor Davis' connection to them until after she became pregnant with your child. The man I saw at her house who was also at The Cellar worked for Mikkos Cassadine and was sent there to kill you and Jason Morgan. Professor Davis sent me there under orders from her nephew Nikolas Cassadine who's the man who grabbed me on the docks and held the knife to my throat. He's as ruthless as his father and grandmother and for some reason he hates me with a passion and wanted to kill me. He would have if Jason hadn't shown up. He seems to believe that I'm related to him which supports Spinelli's find of sealed adoption records."

"Yeah," Sonny nodded. "That's what we know so far."

"Spinelli said that Jason was searching into my past," she stated, tilting her head to the side. "For what exactly?"

"For information on the adoption. Like who your parents are; how exactly you're related to the family."

"And what do you hope to do with that information?"

"Maybe we can figure out why exactly Alexis and Nikolas seem to want you hurt," Sonny explained. "Depending on whose daughter you are, we can try to figure out how best to protect you. We need to know what's in those sealed records."

"And Jason's gone to get that information."

"Yes," he confirmed.

Elizabeth folded her arms over her chest and looked over to the side of the room. She found herself hoping, for the first time, that Jason was truly as good at his job as his reputation seemed to indicate. Because she was curious about all this, and wanted to find out who she truly was.

As Jason searched through the office of the lawyer listed on Elizabeth's adoption papers, he realized just how much he had come to rely on Spinelli for this type of investigation. As things became more digitalized and stored in computers and online storage depots, Jason had become less involved in the process. It had been a while since he'd had to break into someone's office, go through their files and steal their information. There was a part of him that liked doing work like this again, and then there was a part of him that wished it had been stored online where Spinelli could just hack into it. Of course, he knew why it wasn't stored online; it was to prevent someone like him from getting the information.

Jason had taken just one guard with him, and between the two of them, they had disabled the security system and surveillance cameras in the building, and should the fat rent-a-cop decide to do rounds instead of just watching a looped feed of an empty hallway on a television screen, they would be alerted to his presence quickly, giving them enough time to prevent detection.

The law office of Hastings and Jeffries was an established, thriving, but not overly ambitious practice. It was just the right size to have expertise on a matter like private, closed adoptions, but not too big to attract a lot of attention to itself. The office didn't normally specialize in adoptions, though they did enough that taking on this case hadn't been out of the ordinary. Whoever had planned this secret adoption had done well to not stand out, but also was guaranteed discretion and secrecy.

If the records were sealed and not in Colorado State's online records, then that meant the only hard copies would be with the birth parent - since whoever it was also was a Cassadine and they were notoriously paranoid and overboard about secrecy and security - and the lawyer who handled the whole thing. Jason had the name of the lawyer; the head lawyer himself even though he rarely took on cases even at the time of the adoption, preferring instead to manage the firm he'd built up. While the man was long past the age he could have retired at, he still kept an office, and still did the occasional guest lecture at a nearby law school and advised the younger lawyers in the firm. Jason could only hope this meant he still kept his files in his office.

Spinelli had accessed the building codes and blueprints for the building and the office and they were fairly certain there was a small room in the lawyer's office. Most likely it was hidden, and that was where he would - again, hopefully - keep files on things like super secret adoptions. There was a lot of supposition, guessing and hoping that they were holding onto and Jason knew that luck sometimes played a large role in finding things; he just didn't like having to rely on it now.

He felt that he had a lot to make up to Elizabeth, and finding the truth about her parentage and why it might mean that the Cassadines were trying to kill her would be a start in that process. He had not been fair to her and Sonny had been right in calling him on it. It was simply that Jason had seen too many women play his friend for a fool and Jason had been burned in his past and he simply didn't believe it was coincidence that Elizabeth Webber had shown up at The Cellar on the night she had. Now he realized that it hadn't been, but it hadn't been of her duplicitous actions. Someone in the Cassadine family wanted to kill her and had sent her to Carly's old club hoping she would become a victim of the shootout.

Jason knew, though, that if he attempted to apologize to his houseguest she was just as likely to spit in his face as to accept it. He had not been fair to her, and she highly resented him now. After digging into her past and discovering her rape, she would no doubt view any softening towards her as pity over the past. While there was a measure of that - it still horrified and enraged Jason that a fifteen-year-old girl had gone through such an event - he could be man enough to admit that he had been wrong and was apologizing merely for his previous treatment of her. But considering the fact that it was his actions that had sent her fleeing from the penthouse and straight into Nikolas Cassadine's arms, she was not going to be very welcoming of any overtures he tried to make.

Of course, he could be wrong, but Jason detected a stubborn pride in the artist. She hadn't begged and pleaded with him for even simple things like clean clothes, or the chance to wash the ones she'd been wearing. She kept to her room, avoiding him and only raiding the kitchen at night. She was not going to suddenly change the way she interacted with him just because he'd finally had an attack of conscience and decided it was time to start acting like a decent human being.

So the very least he could do, probably the only thing she would want to accept from him, was to discover her parentage and try to eliminate the threat against her. This was why he was searching through the filing system of the lawyer who handled her adoption and continuing on despite the fact that the man had no obvious rhyme or reason to his placement of files. Things were not alphabetized or kept in chronological order, so Jason was forced to go through every box, every file cabinet and search every piece of paper hoping to finally find the key to her connection to the Cassadine family. He was running out of boxes, though, and he wasn't sure what they would do if her information wasn't in this office. Would he then have to break into the man's home? That could prove to be very tricky indeed.

Finally, with four boxes left, Jason stumbled across the information he'd been seeking. Information regarding a lawyer from Greece came first, and then a meeting with the birth parents was followed by details of the search that would meet the criteria dictated by the parents about who they wanted to adopt their child. Jason made sure he had every piece of paper involved in the adoption which had actually taken place over a very small window of time, and then he set to work scanning them with the portable device Spinelli had given him and shown him how to work. Once every scrap of evidence was properly notated, Jason put everything away, wiped down every surface in the room even though he'd worn gloves the entire time, and made his way back to the front room of the law offices.

He and the guard left and nobody was none-the-wiser as to what had happened. They headed straight for Port Charles, making sure they weren't followed and that cops didn't stop them, and when they finally arrived, each man was tired and exhausted. Spinelli took the scanner from Jason and promised that he would download and print everything out for them to analyze and go over. Sonny took one look at Jason and sent him off to get some sleep, a reprieve that Jason was grateful for. As he passed the room Elizabeth was staying in, he could hear her moving around inside and he wanted to knock on her door, tell her he'd found information, and that they'd tell her all about it and begin the first of what he knew would be many apologies to her, but instead he kept going onto his room. He didn't need a lot of sleep normally, but he'd pushed himself hard lately and he was on the verge of collapse. Now was not the time to speak to Elizabeth. Somehow he sensed he was going to need all his collective wits about him when he began that process.

Elizabeth felt strange as she gathered downstairs with Sonny, Spinelli and Jason. She'd heard the enforcer come home, but he'd gone to sleep and Spinelli had disappeared to work on processing whatever information the older man had discovered. It was hard for Elizabeth to not feel anxious as she'd waited, and despite Sonny's generous gift of art supplies for her to use, she'd been unable to do anything productive. Information about her past, about her true parentage was at hand and it was hard to concentrate on anything besides that.

Finally, the group gathered and Jason kept his distance from her, but no longer looked at her with distrust and ill-concealed suspicion. She hated it, because she knew it was all because he pitied her, felt bad for all he done only because he found out about her rape. It was why Elizabeth didn't like to talk about it. It was a horrible experience for her, she'd spent years in therapy over it, still had nightmares on occasion and went to a rape support group when she felt the desire, or the need, to. But she didn't like to advertise the fact that she was a rape survivor. It was her business and she didn't want to have answer people's questions, or deal with their comments and looks.

"So," Sonny spoke, pulling Elizabeth's attention back to the group and away from her thoughts regarding the blond across from her. "What did you find out?"

"I found the adoption records," Jason stated. "And I'm sure Spinelli's done some digging based on the names."

"I did," the younger man nodded. "I've discovered some very interesting, and possibly enlightening, facts, regarding the Artistic One's parents."

"Well," she spoke up. "Is someone going to tell me who my real parents are? I've been doing some thinking based on what you said and I wondered if Alexis was my mother. She seems cowed by the Cassadines and this Prince Nikolas guy; if she gave me up why wouldn't she send me off to my death?"

"I once would have said Alexis wasn't capable of something like that," Sonny said, causing her to remember that he had a history with her art professor. "But I've come to find out that I don't really know her at all."

Looking at Jason, the mob boss asked, "Is she Elizabeth's mother?"

"No," he shook his head. "Elizabeth is related to the Cassadines through Stavros."

"Stavros?" the older man asked in clear surprise.

"He's the oldest son, right?" Elizabeth questioned. "He's Nikolas' father? The guy who grabbed me on the docks?"

"Yes," Jason answered her question. "Stavros is Mikkos Cassadine's oldest son. He's actually the person who really runs the Cassadine family now; Mikkos is getting older and has some health issues despite them trying to hide it."

So her brother had tried to murder her. Apparently Sonny was correct; the Cassadines truly were a murderous, backstabbing lot. Turning her focus away from that, she asked, "And my mother?"

"Is not Stavros' wife," Spinelli picked up the tale. "The name listed on the birth certificate is a woman who has long been suspected of being the oldest Cassadine son's consort. But her background makes her unacceptable to be his wife or the heir's mother, so a more appropriate wife was chosen and once Nikolas was born, there has been very little contact between the spouses. It appears that Elizabeth is the daughter of his long-time lover."

"Then why was I placed up for adoption?" she asked. "If he supposedly loves my mother and not Nikolas'?"

Jason looked at Sonny and the older man sighed before answering, "Probably to prevent what's currently happening; someone finding out the truth about you and trying to kill you. We know that Nikolas and Alexis are in on this plan...the real problem comes if Helena is in on it as well."

Jason knew that he should never underestimate an enemy. To become complacent meant that pretty soon six of your closest friends would be carrying your casket. He always assumed the worst, prepared for a disaster and did his best to stay ahead of the curve. He was cautious and he was careful, and never fully trusted anyone looking to form an alliance.

Once Jason knew that Elizabeth Webber was sent to The Cellar by Alexis Davis, he'd been suspicious of her. Because he knew that Alexis was connected to the Cassadine Family and Jason would never underestimate them or believe them incapable of doing something simply because it went against The Code. Rules were made to be broken, and the Cassadines were the living embodiment of that sentiment. Of course, he'd been proven wrong in his belief that the artist was working with the older woman to bring Sonny down. Instead, he found out she was related to the crazy family herself and they were attempting to kill her.

After that, Jason was determined to protect her. She truly had no idea what she was facing and nobody should have to face that family alone. They made the Quartermaines look like the Cleavers; they would destroy Elizabeth in her current state and Jason had solidified with Sonny in the resolve that such a thing would not happen.

It was merely that the resolve and the execution were proving difficult to bring together. Elizabeth Webber did not like him at all. She did not trust him, she rejected any overture he made to her, and she lashed out at him telling him she didn't want his pity or his sympathy. He'd proven to her how he truly felt and just because he now knew she'd been raped and was related to a whack job of a family shouldn't alter anything. Any sudden showing of kindness towards her was viewed with distrust and outright hostility. His attempts at apologizing and explaining himself were brushed off. She didn't want to hear it and she didn't want to accept it.

He knew that continued attempts to explain would only merit her increasing ire, so he stopped. He was polite, even in the face of her chilly responses, and he went about his business. He kept her in the loop about things they discovered regarding her past, her parents and the Cassadine family and she would listen, thank him stiffly and then flee his presence. She spoke with Sonny when the older man came over, and she had lost much of her hostility towards Spinelli, though she never completely warmed to the younger man. She'd once told him that just because he was following orders didn't absolve him of all blame, but he hadn't decided on his own to treat her the way he had and that meant something to her. She was resigned to the fact that Sonny and Jason wanted her to stay at the penthouse, but it was clear that she did not like it.

In all of their investigations, their speculations and their trying to figure out what they were going to do regarding the Cassadine Family, they never once expected someone to reach out to them. It was an underestimation that caught them off guard. The front desk guard called Jason one morning and said that there was a visitor who would like to see him and Sonny regarding Miss Webber.

A feeling of dread filled Jason as he went across the hall to his friend and conveyed the message and he could see that Sonny was uncomfortable as they rode down to the lobby in the elevator. The man did not give his name, but they both knew that anyone who knew Elizabeth was staying at Harborview was not to be considered friendly. The harbor had been searched for signs of Nikkolas Cassadine's body, but nothing turned up. There were too many places he could have swum to safety, and that wasn't even counting the family's holding of Spoon Island. If he survived, and it was highly likely since Jason wasn't shooting to kill so much as he was trying to prevent Elizabeth from being killed, then he would no doubt convey that she was alive and someone was protecting her. A smart guess would lead them straight to him and Sonny.

As the elevator doors opened, Sonny made sure his suit jacket was buttoned and lint free and he stepped out with Jason right behind him. The older man with a slight tinge of grey in his beard standing by the front desk made the enforcer's hands clench at his side.

"Mr. Corinthos," he said congenially as they stepped forward. "Mr. Morgan."

Sonny's voice had a touch of steel as he replied, "Mr. Cassadine."

"You may call me Stefan," he said as if giving a great concession. "It is what most others do since Mr. Cassadine is reserved for my father or brother."

The two men stopped several feet away from Elizabeth's uncle and Sonny folded his arms over his chest. "Why are you here, Stefan?"

The other man, who often filled the role of mediator on behalf of his family, looked around the open lobby and asked, "Is there someplace else we might talk?"

Sonny weighed the question a moment and then said, "Paul, call up two men to replace you and Tony. You two come with us."

The guard lifted a phone, and within moments two others arrived. They stepped behind the front desk without questions and the guards escorted Jason, Sonny and Stefan onto the elevator. The mob boss pressed the button for the penthouse level and when they arrived, he motioned for the two guards to step out first. They did so, creating a barrier between the elevator and Jason's penthouse; then Sonny gestured for Stefan to go to his own. The older man did not like to conduct business in his home because of Michael, but the little boy was currently at school and there was no way they'd be going to Jason's. Nor did they want to go anywhere else and risk stepping into a waiting trap the moment they left the building.

Before the Cassadine representative stepped inside Sonny's penthouse, he was patted down, his gun was removed, and the papers in his coat pocket were given to Jason. Only then was he allowed inside.

"I'm sure you understand our precautions," Sonny said without apology. "Considering what's happened recently, we're naturally suspicious of your unannounced arrival."

"Yes," Stefan stated without real offense, just annoyance over the procedure. "I could not call ahead, though, because I am hoping that my visit here today can go without remark for a few hours. At least long enough for me to begin measures to ensure Elizabeth's safety."

"How exactly do you propose to do that?" Sonny asked, sitting down in his chair and gesturing for Stefan to be seated on the couch. Jason remained standing behind Sonny.

"By leaving her here in your protection first of all," the other man said with surprising honesty. "And then contacting my brother. He does not know what his son and sister are up to."

"So you're aware that Alexis and Nikolas have tried to have Elizabeth killed? Twice."

Cassadine nodded. "Yes. Nikolas is...rather upset over the discovery that he has a sister."

"He sent your family's men into my property to shoot at me and my associate, but that was just a cover to kill an innocent woman," Sonny said, his voice low and hard. "That's a direct act of war on me, Stefan. Tell me why exactly I shouldn't retaliate against him and the rest of your family."

"Mr. Morgan already shot Nikolas," the other man stated, a little hopefully. "Surely that could be considered a retaliatory gesture."

Jason huffed and Sonny gave a mocking laugh as he shook his head. "I hardly think so, and so do you. Jason wasn't truly trying to kill your nephew; he was trying to save someone under our protection."

"So you admit that you have Elizabeth," Stefan was quick to jump on that news. "She's under your protection?"

"Well, she's certainly not safe with your family," Jason said disdainfully.

"The situation is...rather precarious," the Russian conceded. "Many suspect my father is ill, but my family has gone to great lengths to not say just how dire the situation is."

"How dire is the situation?" Sonny interrupted. His tone indicated he wanted to know and would not accept the lies told to others.

"My father is very ill," the other man admitted. "He's at home, on oxygen and intravenous medication. That he has survived as long as he has is a surprise to everyone. Stavros is in a very precarious position of running the organization and preparing for takeover, without actually truly holding the power. Many work with my brother, but don't fully acknowledge him as the head of the family because our father is still alive."

"Right," the mob boss nodded. "So that prevents him from knowing what his son and sister are up to, or caring about his daughter?"

"Stavros loves Elizabeth," Stefan said forcefully. "He loves her very much, but he knew that for her safety he could never be a part of her life."

"Did your mother threaten to kill her?" Jason couldn't help but ask.

"Actually, no," the other man shook his head. "My mother is quite enraptured of the idea of her granddaughter; it is my father who would be a threat to Elizabeth."

Sonny's voice was laced with skepticism as he said, "You'll forgive me if I have a hard time believing that considering Helena slit the throat of Alexis' mother and killed her younger sister right in front of her."

"That is because Kristin Bergman and her children were a personal affront to my mother," Stefan explained. "My mother and my father do not love each other; their marriage was a business arrangement just as my brother's was. But for my father to have a long-time mistress and have two children with her...it was a personal insult my mother would not stand for. By killing the mother and youngest child she wounded my father; the insult continued by allowing Natasha to live and forcing her to be the poor relation welcomed into our house. Always near my father, but never able to be acknowledged."

"So why wouldn't she have treated Elizabeth's mother and her that way?" Jason inquired.

"Because my mother loves Stavros unconditionally. Blindly. Obsessively and unhealthily. He is her favorite child; he can do no wrong in her eyes. She loves Nikolas because he is Stavros', but she also sees much of Mikkos in him and she cannot stand her husband. Elizabeth is the daughter she always wished for but never had. Once she had produced me," he said, spreading his arms out, "giving my father a spare to his business empire, my father refused to visit her bed. It was another reason she hated Alexis and her sister so much; my father had daughters, but not with her. She had hoped I was a girl so that my father would be forced to try again for another child. Elizabeth is the culmination and embodiment of her hopes. She does not care about my daughters, for they are mine. My father allows them to live because Nikolas is already alive and my daughters would never threaten the business empire. I am not allowed to marry their mother because there may come a time when my father needs to broker another deal, but I am allowed to know them and be with them."

Stefan sighed heavily as he then said, "But Elizabeth would be a threat. Stavros refused to have another child with his wife, especially once Elizabeth was born. There is no spare, and until Nikolas marries and has a son, the line of succession is threatened...no matter how unlikely it seems that such a thing would truly come to play. I do not know if Nikolas is acting under my father's orders, or if this is his own plan. I need to alert Stavros as to what is happening, because he is the only one who has a chance of pulling Nikolas back into line and cowing Alexis into not aiding our nephew."

The other man took a deep breath and then admitted, "There is a lot of turmoil in my family at the moment and with Nikolas' actions, it could be viewed as an attempt to usurp his father. Would Mikkos support Stavros or Nikolas? I am unsure at the moment. That is why I need to keep this visit quiet, but I also want to ensure my niece's safety. My brother loves her very much and I want to protect her if I can."

"And that's where we come in," Sonny said.

"Yes," Stefan admitted. "I am asking you for your help. Do this, Mr. Corinthos, and - especially if my brother succeeds my father - and the Cassadine Family will be in your debt."

Elizabeth stood by the wood and bulletproof glass doors that looked out over the terrace and let out a slow breath. Jason and Sonny had just filled her in on a meeting they'd had with her uncle once again. The older man, though she had never met him and wasn't sure if she wanted to, had told the two men that things were very unsettled in his family at the moment. Her father was missing, though Stefan was trying hard to keep that fact quiet. Based on the way Nikolas was acting, the older man strongly suspected that he was somehow involved in Stavros' disappearance.

Her grandfather was not bothered by the fact that he had not heard from his oldest son in several weeks, while her grandmother was growing frantic with worry. It seemed a coup, sanctioned by Mikkos, was underway. This was why Stefan could not get any meetings with his nephew and couldn't get his sister to listen to him. Alexis was useful to Nikolas and her father and for once Mikkos was openly choosing her over his wife. Stefan feared for Stavros, Elizabeth's safety, and even his mother's and his own family's.

Which was why he'd once again come to meet with Sonny and Jason and ask for their help. Not just to keep Elizabeth safe, but to find his brother. He could not use any resources of the family to search for Stavros because Nikolas would immediately stop it. If Sonny led the search, then Nikolas would not be able to interfere without starting more troubles between the families. Nikolas' position was not secure or powerful enough to take on the Port Charles mob boss and the support of the Five Families. There were some inside the Cassadine Organization who did not support Nikolas, and many outside it certainly were grumbling against him.

The two men were honest with her, explaining the politics and pitfalls of all that was happening. They were patient as she asked questions, trying to make sense of it all, and they also were completely truthful about it. They didn't hedge or try to prevaricate, even when she was certain their natural tendency or desire was to do so. It was overwhelming and a little scary, but she appreciated their honesty. Because she was in danger and there was no sense pretending she wasn't. She fully believed that forewarned was forearmed, and she felt she needed a lot of ammunition to go against the Cassadines.

It made her think about the family she'd grown up with and she found she had many feelings towards the Webbers. Not all of them were good. She had a lot of anger and resentment towards them, as well as many questions. How had she ended up placed with the Webbers? And why had they adopted her if they were only going to turn around and treat her the way that they did? She had grown up feeling marginalized and belittled for the way that she was. She now knew why she didn't like medicine, it wasn't in her genes. It also made sense why she didn't look like anyone in her family and why her brother and sister had teased her, sometimes cruelly, about not really being a part of their family. Perhaps they could remember when she had joined them, and knew that she wasn't really their sister. Certain Steven, being older, would have known the truth.

But why had her parents gone along with this? And how could they take a child in, agree to raise it, and then treat her as they had? Steven and Sarah were feted, treated like everything they did was wonderful - even when they were outright defiant and disobedient - but Elizabeth was constantly criticized, harangued and left begging for scraps of affection. She'd often identified with Cinderella, because there many things that she was denied even though Steven and Sarah got to do the exact same thing when they were her age or younger.

The more she thought about the Webbers, the angrier she became. Her mother had constantly put her down. Always said that Sarah was prettier, that Elizabeth should give her sister things just because Sarah wanted them, and despite the years of therapy she'd gone to, nothing could ever diminish her mother's anger at her when she'd been raped. She'd acted like it was Elizabeth's fault, that she'd somehow arranged for it to happen, that it proved she was a worthless, moral-less child.

Anger began to vibrate through her and the sudden urge to lash out, to hit someone or something coursed through her. She wanted to rage, to scream, to destroy as so many conflicting and confusing emotions swirled through her. She stepped away from the terrace door when her reflection mocked her, taunted her and she found herself curling her hand into a fist, ready to strike out. But she couldn't, she wouldn't, because this was not her house. She couldn't destroy Jason's stuff; he didn't deserve that. It wasn't right, no matter how angry she was feeling. She pressed her fingers into her palms, ignoring the bite of her nails into her skin, and tried so hard to step outside the anger that was surging through her, throbbing in her veins.

"Elizabeth?"

She spun around, stared at Jason and for a moment she wanted to charge him. Lash out and fight him just to find an outlet for all her hurt. She was surprised by the impulse that wanted to consume her and she wrapped her arms around herself, commanding herself not to move.

His brow furrowed and he set down his bottle of beer, "Are you alright?"

She nodded, hoping he would leave before the ache inside herself couldn't be contained anymore.

He shook his head, "What's going on? You...you're pale and you're shaking."

Stopping suddenly and swallowing, his voice caught as he asked, "Are you...do you want me to call Bobbie? I...I can have her come over if you want to talk."

It took her a moment to ponder out what he meant and then she shook her head, "I...I'm not thinking about my rape."

He seemed to relax his shoulders in relief, "Then what's wrong? I know it was a little overwhelming what Stefan was talking about. Sonny and I aren't trying to scare you; we're just trying to be honest with you."

"It's not my rape and it's not the Cassadines," she flung at him, her anger cracking. "Just stop it. I'm upset and before you go getting an overinflated ego and think that everything's about you, I'm not mad at you. I've been thinking about the Webbers and I...I am so angry. I just...I want to hit something and pretend it's them, I want to scream at them, yell at them, tell them they're horrible and awful and I hate them for what they did to me and I...just go away and leave me alone."

He shook his head and said, "I've got a better idea. Come with me."

Jason knew that Elizabeth was upset and he was trying very hard to respect that and not act like he was patronizing her by allowing her to be angry. He understood anger at family, there were times when he still looked at some of the Quartermaines and all he saw were the people demanding that he remember them. That he wasn't someone with a medical condition, he just wasn't trying hard enough and if really concentrated then he would remember who he used to be. They never understood his anger or his frustration and the more they talked at him, the more he just wanted them to all go away. His situation was not the same as Elizabeth's and he wasn't going to try to pretend that it was.

He just wanted to give her what he sensed she was craving most and trying very had to repress: an outlet for her anger. So he didn't crowd her when she finally agreed to follow him. He didn't talk to her on the elevator ride down to the basement, and he didn't try to find a bond with her. He merely was showing her something he hoped would help her.

As they stepped off the elevator and he gestured towards his right, they walked along a short hallway and then stepped into the fitness center that Sonny had installed in the building. It was a place for the guards to train, but he felt that Elizabeth might find something here to use.

"What is this?" she asked, peering up at him.

"It's our gym," he answered. "Look, I know that you hate me because of the way I treated you and I know that my apologies aren't going to immediately fix that. I know that you hate being cooped up, even though you tell Sonny you understand. I didn't think about this sooner, but when I saw you were angry..."

He trailed off and spread out his hands. "You can swim, you can run, you can lift weights and there's even a punching bag if you really want to use it."

Jason hesitated slightly and said, "I'm not going to tell you not to do it, but just...if you're not used to it, you can tear up your hands and your arms will ache for days so don't do it 'til you're ready to drop or you'll barely be able to move later."

"But if I want to hit it?" she asked.

"I think we might be able to find you some sparring braces," he told her. "Probably would be a good idea to protect your hands."

"And so I what...punch the crap out of the bag and tell you why I wish it was my family?"

He shook his head. "No, I think I can understand why you're mad at the Webbers. Nothing makes sense to you right now and you're probably frustrated. I understand that feeling and so I thought you might want to come here."

"Found out you were adopted and your whole life was a lie?" she snipped at him.

"No, I woke up from a coma and couldn't remember my family. And then based on the way they treated me and kept pushing me, I didn't want to remember them. It's why I left them, came to work for Sonny and only have contact with a couple of them. Every time I see them they constantly try to make me remember who I was, they don't respect my choices, and I get so frustrated that I shut down so I don't yell at them." He didn't look at her because he didn't want her to feel like he was telling her his story to get her to open up to him or trust him or feel sorry for him. "Sonny was the first person who didn't treat me like I was damaged; like I could actually do things. Even though I get along with my grandmother, I always feel like I'm letting her down by not being who I used to be and don't visit her as often as she would probably like."

"I can't figure out why the Webbers would adopt me and then treat me the way they did. Did they not want to adopt me? Were they forced to? Blackmailed? How did Stavros have contact with them? Or this attorney in New York? What made them take me and then act like I was a disgrace to their family?"

Jason suspected she didn't really want him to try to answer her questions, and as soon as she finished speaking, she hunched her shoulders, wrapping her arms around herself. "So...what do I do first?"

"Let's find you some sparring gloves," he suggested. Hopefully she'd tire soon, or disperse her anger and he wouldn't have to step in worrying about her hands or her muscle fatigue. But after hearing her questions and thinking back to what she'd said about Mrs. Webber and how the older woman reacted to Elizabeth's rape, Jason understood Elizabeth's compulsion to hit something. Since he had trashed his room and driven a motorcycle into the Quartermaine living room, he didn't really feel that he was in position to judge her anger coping methods. He would merely try to keep her from injuring herself.

Her body was sore, but she liked it. Jason had been right when he'd suggested she start off slow on the punching bag, but she'd been so angry and so fueled by pain that she'd pushed herself too hard the first day. She'd barely been able to lift her arms the next few days, but that didn't keep her away from the gym downstairs. If she couldn't punch something, then she could try to outrun her demons. She'd hit the treadmill, running until her legs wobbled and she was drenched in sweat. Day after day, she kept going back and she began to learn to pace herself.

Gradually her body didn't hurt as much, and she found that she slept harder and deeper when she fell into bed exhausted at the end of the day. The more time she spent down in the gym, the less time she spent thinking about questions she was no closer to getting answers to than she was swimming to the moon. It gave her something to focus on in a way that her art couldn't. Invariably when she tried to pick up a paintbrush or a charcoal pencil she thought of her art classes and Alexis Davis and that night in The Cellar and how she'd come to stay at Jason Morgan's penthouse and what she'd learned about herself and her family. Right now she wanted to avoid thinking about all that.

Exercise distracted her, exercise gave her something else to do, and she was grateful for it. In the time since Jason had brought her down here, he'd been gone frequently, searching for her father, trying to find answers about her family, as well as take care of Sonny's own territory. He was a busy man, something that Elizabeth had never quite associated with the mob before. She thought it was men sitting around in smoke-filled rooms making deals and eating and only occasionally going out and doing something. Jason seemed to be gone all the time.

Maybe he was still giving her space after their disastrous beginning. Maybe he was trying to avoid her. Maybe he had other people he wanted to spend time with. It wasn't really her concern, and she often tried not to think about it. Most of the time she was successful. Because since she had started going to the gym, she had met several of the other men in Sonny's organization. They were all respectful and polite to her and didn't try to strike up conversations with her. There were also clear senior men in the organization.

She was beginning to suspect that either Sonny or Jason asked these senior guards to be down at the workout room at the same time she was, because it didn't seem to matter when she went, one of them was always there. They would speak to her briefly, leave her to her workout, offer a few pointers or just say a word or two from time to time, but she was never truly alone. And they also kept the younger guards at a discreet, but respectable, distance. She came to know their names, didn't feel uncomfortable around them any longer, and actually looked forward to her trips down to the gym when she'd see them.

So when she walked into the workout center and didn't see one of the normal guards, but Jason instead, she felt a brief flash of irritation. It's not that she never saw him down there, but more often than not he was elsewhere. And if he ever did get home to workout, it was well past the time she was in the gym. Today, though, he was dressed in his street clothes and looked decidedly unhappy.

That unhappiness was evident in his voice when he crossed his arms over his chest and said, "We need to talk."

"Well good morning to you," she snipped at him, feeling once again that she was in the presence of the man who had distrusted her and dug into her personal background when she'd been deposited unceremoniously in his penthouse. "Who spit in your coffee today?"

He dropped his arms and let out a breath, making a visible effort to relax before speaking. "I'm sorry. I'm not mad at you and I'm not about to start yelling at you, but I really need to talk to you."

Elizabeth tilted her head slightly to the side in question and asked, "What's going on?"

"We've got a problem."

"A...a problem? What kind of problem?"

"Your brother Nikolas isn't happy that we're looking for your father. He's begun pushing at Sonny and stepping into the territory. One of our shipments disappeared, a ship blew up in the harbor a couple of days ago and when we tracked down who sold him the explosives we discovered that he purchased a lot more than was necessary, or even used, to blow the ship." Jason looked at her and said rather regretfully, "He's got enough explosives to blow up a building."

"A building," she said slowly, realization sinking into her stomach like a stone. "You mean here."

He nodded slowly, "We've gotten some information, and our men are working to secure the building, but we think the safest thing is to get everyone out of here. I was on my way to go up to the penthouse when the guards said you were coming down here, so I came to meet you."

"So we go?" she asked. "Now? Can we go back to the penthouse and pack anything?"

"Elizabeth," he said gently, his voice soft in contrast to the growing agitation and slight panic that was creeping into hers. "We need to go now. The guards will try to pack some stuff and bring to the safehouse we're going to, but we want to get everyone out of the building. Especially you. You're the one Nikolas is after."

Her eyes widened and suddenly she was hit with the impact of how much she was endangering other people. People who were trying to be kind to her, to help her and all she'd been was angry and petulant because her life had suddenly been thrown into turmoil. She'd never realized how much everyone else's life had been thrown into turmoil as well. Jason and Sonny were searching for her father and dealing with problems in their business because of her brother and grandfather. They were trying to keep her safe, while having their own lives impacted. Sonny had a son that was now in jeopardy!

She nodded numbly, allowing Jason to take her arm and guide her out of the gym and towards the elevator. Suddenly getting her clothes or art supplies seemed trivial, even selfish. They were nothing in comparison to human lives.

"Michael's at school isn't he?" she asked as they neared the elevator and Jason pressed the button to call the car.

He looked down at her, his lips frowning in confusion. "What?"

"Michael's at school, right?" she asked, a little more impatiently this time. "He's safe, right? He's not here at the building. Sonny's going to take him some place safe, right?"

He nodded slowly and Elizabeth let out a sight of relief. "Good. Good. I'm glad. I don't want him in danger because of me."

The elevator car arrived and she stepped on with Jason right behind her. He pressed the button on the control panel for the garage and looked down at her. "Are you okay?"

"I just...I suddenly realized that you and Sonny are doing so much to keep me safe and I...I don't know if I've ever thanked you for that. That shootout at The Cellar was supposed to kill me," she said, sober realization still filling her. Gone was the angry frustration over being taken to Jason's penthouse and kept under lock and key. "Nikolas is trying to kill me. He...he would have if you hadn't found us on the docks."

They passed one level of the parking garage and were headed for the next, rising closer towards the surface street, as Jason turned towards her. "It's okay. I-"

His next words were swallowed up in the deafening roar of an explosion. Even inside the metal structure, Elizabeth heard and felt the blast like she was standing right beside it. The car rocked and jerked and Jason clutched at her, pulling her to his side. The elevator ground to a halt, jerked, dropped slightly, and then suddenly she felt the car fall. Jason pulled her even closer, turning their bodies, crouching them towards the floor and bracing his legs. They landed with a thud, both of them sprawling to the ground, him slightly on top of her. Her knee throbbed from the impact, and her arm slid out from under her, causing her chin to hit the floor. She tried to turn, tried to move, but Jason kept her pressed down, refusing to let her up. She understood why a second later when another explosion sounded, making the elevator car shake with the building.

Pure terror filled her and she grabbed at his arm wrapped around her when the lights blinked and then went out, plunging the car into total darkness. Not being able to see, the sounds that she heard were so much more frightening as she heard explosions that sounded farther away and then thuds of objects falling on top of the elevator. She whimpered and she felt her cheeks grow damp with tears, but Jason never let go of her. If anything, he only pulled her more tightly against him.

It felt like hours had passed, though realistically she knew it wasn't that long, but gradually the sounds faded away until there was only an eerie silence left. She could feel Jason's weight pressing on her back and she wasn't irritated by it, or frightened at being held from behind, she was comforted to know he was there. That she wasn't alone. He shifted, rising off her slightly and she whimpered unconsciously, not wanting to lose contact with him.

"It's okay," he said gently, keeping hold of her, even as he sat up and helped her up as well. "Are you hurt?"

"A little banged up," she confessed, "but nothing too bad. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered. He stood, never letting go of her hand and then asked, "Can you stand?"

Elizabeth gingerly tested her knee, but slowly rose to her feet aided by Jason. Once she was sure of her feet underneath her she looked in the darkness towards his presence she felt at her side and asked in a soft voice, "What happens now?"

"We need to see if we can get out of here," he told her. "We probably fell into the bottom of the shaft and I don't know if we can get the doors open, but maybe we can get the emergency hatch in the roof open."

"Won't people be looking for us?" she wondered.

"If the building's standing and the men are okay...probably," he answered. "But we don't know if Nikolas has men out there and I don't want to be sitting in a box waiting for them to come."

She tried to swallow her fear down but it seemed to lodge in her throat. She didn't know if Jason heard her, or felt the terror radiating off her, but he reached out, touching her back gently and said, "I promise you, Elizabeth, I-I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. I'm not going to let Nikolas hurt you."

"I believe you," she whispered. Despite all the anger, loathing and everything else she'd previously felt towards Jason Morgan, in this moment, she trusted with absolute surety that he would protect her. He would do his best to get them out of the elevator and out of the building and them get them to a safe location. She could only hope that luck was on there side.

"Good," he replied, his voice gentle and calm and helping keep her grounded and focused. "Then let's see if we can get out of here."

This was the most time she'd ever spent with Jason Morgan. Only a few weeks ago, they probably would have been in a massive fight right about now, even if they were trapped in an elevator together. However, that was no longer the case. She'd begun to gain a different perspective in recent weeks about Jason.

He'd apologized for the way he'd treated her. And while apologies didn't erase all that had happened, and she first thought they were born of pity about her rape, she was beginning to suspect honesty in his actions. He was helping her in a manner that she truly had no right to expect, and couldn't believe he was doing it. He'd given her a way to vent her frustration, but didn't try to make the experience into a bonding moment. And even now, he wasn't crowding her or ordering her about, but he also was treating her like she wasn't capable of doing anything.

"I can't get it," she grunted in frustration, her arms quivering from exertion.

"Okay, okay," he sighed as he shifted his hold and lowered her from his shoulders. "Let's sit down and take a break for a few moments."

"The shock we felt must have shifted some debris onto the emergency hatch," she said in agitation that was directed at no one in particular.

After first taking a moment to assess injuries and see if they'd get emergency lighting, she and Jason had begun working on finding a way out of the elevator. They'd blindly felt around in the dark, tried to see if they could open the main doors until they realized that the top hatch would be their best bet. Jason had lifted her onto his shoulders and she'd felt around the ceiling, trying to find the recessed panel. It was hard to do because it was hidden behind a light panel, explosions were still rocking the building and just when she'd gotten the light fixture out of the way and cried out with premature joy that the hatch was moving up, a closer explosion had sent them tumbling to the ground, rocked the elevator car and apparently dropped debris onto the emergency door.

"Even if we could somehow get you up there," she sighed, "I doubt you'd be able to get it open."

"Then we'll have to wait," Jason declared with a calm finality that made her clench her teeth together. She knew he was correct, but did he have to be so stoic about it? "Maybe one of the guards will find us."

"Which guards?" she asked with an arched brow even though he couldn't see it. "Yours, or Nikolas'?"

He was quiet for a moment and then said, "Hopefully ours. I only have one spare clip."

She wasn't sure if he'd made a joke or not, so she let it pass and they sat in silence. There were no more explosions and they were apparently too far away to hear gunfire. Or maybe the battle was over. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she rested her head on them and tried to battle down her feelings and fears.

"Michael wasn't home, was he?" she asked when the silence became too much for her to bear.

"No," Jason answered. "He was at school. His guard would have followed procedure and got him out of school and then taken him somewhere safe."

"Good," she let out a breath. "Good. I'd hate to think of him trapped in this like we are."

"This isn't your fault, Elizabeth," he told her.

Even though it was dark and he couldn't see her, she looked away as she remained quiet. Silence stretched between them and Jason let out a sigh. "Elizabeth. You...you're not to blame for this."

"Aren't I?" she demanded. "It's my family that put your men in danger. It's my family that just blew up your building. I have been acting like a child being angry at you and I've never really thought about all you and Sonny were doing to help me."

"Hey," he said softly. "You had every right to be angry. You were in the middle of a shootout and then...I wasn't very nice to you when you first came to my house. Sonny asked me to look out for you because after hearing your story he was pretty sure Alexis sent you there to be killed, and he was right. But I...I was a real jerk to you."

"You've already apologized, Jason," she told him.

"But it still doesn't excuse what I did. I just...I've watched Sonny get taken in by a pretty face and he sometimes loses his judgment and reason around women and I..."

"I showed up at his ex-wife's place. I broke in and you hadn't really expected to see me. You knew that Alexis had made me go there as part of an assignment." She shrugged in the darkness. "Looking back on it now...I can see where you'd be suspicious."

"But that still didn't give me the right to treat you like I did," he countered. "I could have gotten you some clean clothes; I could have let you have something to read, or your art supplies. I was just so sure I was right. And then...then I had Spinelli go digging into your past."

Her stomach soured and she closed her eyes to swallow thickly. "Let's not talk about that."

"I blew your life apart by figuring out you'd been adopted," he said, apparently determined to continue on in contrition. "If you acted like a child, you were justified in it."

"Your men are in danger because of me. Michael is danger because of me," Elizabeth pointed out.

Jason let out a breath and then said, "Elizabeth, my men are in danger simply because of the life they chose to lead. And...and we do everything we can do minimize Michael's danger, but we know that we're not always successful and may not prevent something in the future, but we do everything we can to keep him safe. When we learned of the threat, he was at school, his guard followed a protocol we have in place and that we've had to use before and took him from school. You are not responsible for the danger."

"Nikolas blew up your building to kill me. It's been his third attempt on me. He's escalating," she insisted. "You and your men are looking for my father. The only reason that my dear brother and my grandfather are coming after you is because of me."

"But it's still not your fault," he told her in a gentle voice, but also firm in his meaning. "You didn't decide to go searching for your family and take on the Cassadines; you had no idea you were anything but a Webber. It was Nikolas who made a move on you, who continued to make a move on you even after finding out you're under Sonny's protection. Nikolas is the only one responsible for this. You're the victim here."

"I hate being a victim," she said as a shiver went down her spine and a chill settled into her bones. "I-I hate feeling helpless."

There was a weary sigh across the elevator from her and Jason said, "I'm sorry."

"So," she cleared her throat as she broke the silence that descended over them and hung oppressively. "So we just wait here and hope to be found by the right people?"

There was regret and frustration in his voice when he answered, "Unfortunately, that's about all we can do."

She nodded and closed her eyes, trying to will away the tears she felt forming. She hated waiting. It was too much like being trapped in the room her rapist kept her in.

She jerked awake when she heard a distant bang. Her head snapped up and she straightened, Jason's jacket falling off her shoulders. As time had passed, fear, stress and the dropping temperature had made her start shivering and Jason had moved closer to her, offering her his leather jacket in order to keep warm. They'd ended up sitting side by side and she must have eventually fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder if the kink in her neck was any indication.

"What was that?" she demanded in a whisper.

His voice was low as he replied, "I don't know."

There was another bang and then a shout and Jason shifted beside her, reaching behind him. She knew without even seeing that he'd reached for his gun. The metallic click of the slide confirmed her suspicions. She wanted to cling to his side for reassurance, but she stopped herself. She would not be one of those pathetic females hiding behind a man. Besides, Jason would probably need freedom of movement if he was going to get into a potential firefight.

Tense minutes passed by as they heard people coming closer, but the voices were still too muffled to determine who they were. The only thing they could do was sit and wait and wonder if this would be their salvation or their death. Because Elizabeth had absolutely no delusions that if Nikolas or his men found them then both she and Jason would be dead.

Finally a clear shout was heard, "Jason?!"

She felt him sag beside her and relief was clear in his voice as he shouted, "Yes!"

"Is Elizabeth with you?"

"She's here," he shouted back.

"Hang on, boss," the man yelled back, "we'll get you out of there."

She closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall of the elevator. It was Jason's men. They were safe. At least for now.

"They'll get us out of here," Jason said in reassurance. "And then we'll figure out what to do after this."

"I know," she responded. "I...I trust you."

He inhaled quickly, but that was the only indication of his surprise. They didn't speak and she tried not to flinch when she heard men step on top of the elevator. Even though she was pretty sure they were resting on the bottom she still tensed every time the elevator shifted. She had a feeling that she'd be taking stairs for a while. She didn't ever want to be trapped inside an elevator again.

"Hang on," the voice outside shouted some time later. "We've got most of the top cleared. We just need to move one more piece and then we can get the hatch open."

There was a loud scraping sound, a few tugs which shook the entire elevator and then with a protesting groan, the metal finally yielded and the emergency hatch opened. Elizabeth couldn't suppress the sob of relief that slipped out when a flashlight shone inside the car, washing over them to assess the situation.

"Take the light," the guard Elizabeth now recognized as Max commanded a man beside him and he knelt down and stuck his head and shoulders inside the opening. "You alright, Jason? Miss Webber?"

She mutely nodded, but Jason replied, "We'll be okay. Just get us out of here."

Max reached behind him and then brought his hand forward, dropping down a harness attached to a rope. "We're all prepared, Boss."

"Take Elizabeth," Jason instructed, reaching for the black nylon and stepping close to Elizabeth to strap her in. "What's the situation?"

"A mess," the guard answered succinctly. "Michael and Sonny are safe; we got some of the guards out before the place blew."

"How'd Cassadine get into the building?" Jason demanded harshly as he cinched the belt around Elizabeth. She hissed and he immediately gentled his touch, loosening the strap as he murmured, "Sorry."

"We've got to figure that out," Max answered, the normally gentle man's voice turning bitter and harsh. "I swear, if it was a mole I will personally cut the man's throat. You won't even have to give me the order."

"She's ready," the man beside her called up to their rescuers. "Be careful. She banged around a bit when the elevator fell."

Elizabeth suddenly felt herself being lifted up and she wouldn't let go of Jason's hand. He had been with her this entire time, keeping her grounded, keeping her focused and then gently taking care of her. As foolish as it suddenly was, she didn't want to be separated from him. Even for the small amount of time it would take for him to get out of the elevator. He didn't say anything, but in the dim light from the flashlight, she was able to see that he was looking at her. He held her hand, lifting his up above his shoulder until they had to break the connection. He did his best to reassure her even though he didn't say a word, and when he disappeared from her sight, she felt that she would be okay until he was beside her again.

Once she was safely on top of the elevator, Jason didn't bother waiting for the men to send down another rope and harness. He jumped up, grabbing the elevator top and began to hoist himself out. A couple of guards helped him up and once he was clear, nobody commented that Elizabeth stepped around several men to stand beside Jason.

"What do we do now?" she asked, looking up at him.

"We get you out of here," Max answered. "Both of you. Mr. C. wants you guys out of the state, preferably out of the country and laying low while he figures out to do next. We may be able to fake your death long enough to get the jump on Cassadine. So we can't send guards with you. You need to protect Miss Webber."

Max cleared his throat uneasily and said, "Boss' orders."

Traveling on a private jet was kinda nice. No standing in line at airports, no being crammed into a too small seat and dealing with seat encroachers among her fellow passengers; the car pulled up right to the airplane inside a private hanger, she and Jason were hustled on board, and then the plane took off immediately. Ah, the perks of housing a plane at a private airstrip.

Of course, the flight plan filed was false, as were the number of passengers. She and Jason were now supposed to be dead and she wondered just how much Sonny would spread the word of that. Jason had been worried about a few of his family members finding out and Sonny had actually looked regretful as he acknowledged Jason's concerns, but then both men came to the conclusion that they couldn't risk telling the truth. Even to spare two women's feelings. When Sonny had turned to her and expressed the same regret that they wouldn't be able to tell her family the truth, she'd squared her shoulders.

"Of course we can't tell the Cassadines," she answered. "That's the whole point of us faking my death. Since I don't know the uncle you two have been dealing with and Helena Cassadine is just a faceless name to me, I don't have any real feelings regarding them."

"I...I meant," Sonny began.

"The Webbers," she interrupted him. "Yeah, I know. But right now, after everything I've learned, after thinking about everything they've done to me...right now I don't care what they think if they might hear I'm dead. They'll probably be relieved."

Then she'd turned and gotten on the airplane, leaving Sonny and Jason to talk privately before Jason boarded the plane and Sonny slipped back to Port Charles to deal with the fallout of his home being blown up and his best friend dying in the explosion. Thankfully Jason didn't mention the Webbers or her comment to Sonny. Instead, he made sure she was strapped in, was feeling okay and dealing with the bumps and bruises forming from the explosion and told the pilot they were ready to take off. When exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep on the plush leather couch, he'd laid a blanket across her and she had no idea what he did until he finally succumbed to his own body's needs and fell asleep in a deep, square chair.

When she got back from going to the bathroom and getting a bottle of water, she looked out the window and tried to guess where they were at. All she knew was that they were flying over water. She sighed softly and shifted on the couch, bringing her legs up and trying not to wake Jason. While she'd mostly tried to tune Spinelli out, some of his babbling while she'd been at the penthouse had gotten through to her. Jason was a man who could run on little sleep, but every-once-in-a-while, his body demanded a recharge session and he'd actually get eight or nine hours instead of four, five or maybe six. She had no idea when the last time Jason had slept, and after everything they'd just gone through, she wanted to let him have a little rest. With Sonny's command that he keep her safe and the fact that the building they'd been in had exploded, she had this innate sense that he'd push himself to protect her. Even if it meant forgoing sleep.

The silence in the cabin combined with the whine of the engines through the outer skin of the plane began to cause her eyelids to droop and she shifted, twisting around and let herself be lulled back to sleep as well.

Jason blinked and stretched, his muscles aching and protesting not only from sleeping cramped up in a chair but from getting tossed about during the explosion. He looked over at Elizabeth and found her in a different position, but still asleep. Scrubbing his hand over his face, he stood and headed forward to talk to the pilots. The men were bored by the long flight, but Jason knew that they'd be landing soon and then everyone could get some rest.

He was about to turn when he noticed the instruments and realized that they weren't heading in the direction he thought they were going. Leaning forward to make sure he was actually reading them correctly, he looked at the pilot and asked, "What's going on? We're not on our original course."

"Got a call from Mr. Giambetti," the pilot stated. "Change of plans. We landed and took on more fuel, but we have orders to take you to a different location."

"Why?" he demanded, not liking the change in plans and that the pilot hadn't awoken him. He had no idea how Nikolas' men had gotten the explosions into the building and it made him suspicious to suddenly be doing something different, but not having heard directly from Sonny.

"Don't know," the other man shrugged. "Mr. Giambetti said once you were awake you should call him on the satellite phone. That's all I know, Mr. Morgan."

Jason grunted in response and then stalked towards the back of the plane. He grabbed the phone and then stepped into the bathroom to have some privacy. He could only hope that he was actually able to get a hold of Max and that this whole change of plans was legitimate. While he knew some basic skills about flying an airplane, he hadn't done it in a while and he didn't want to try to figure out where they were and where was safe to land.

"Giambetti."

"Max," he growled out. "Why'd the pilots change course?"

"Sonny's orders," the other man stated quickly. "We found Elizabeth's father and we got him to a safe location. He wants the three of you together."

Jason didn't think that having Elizabeth and Stavros Cassadine in the same location was a smart move. Nikolas wanted both of them dead and now Sonny was going to put the two people in the same place?

"He doesn't think that might make Nikolas' job easier for him?" he asked fiercely. "Why don't we just tie a big red bow around the two of them and just hand deliver them to Cassadine?"

"Sonny thought Elizabeth might like the chance to talk to her father," was all Max could offer. "So a guard will meet the plane."

Then the other man hung up the phone and Jason was left with a whole lot of frustrations. He not only had to keep Elizabeth safe from her psychotic half-brother and grandfather, but now he was going to have to keep the man responsible for this whole mess safe as well. While Jason had agreed to help Stefan Cassadine search for Stavros, that didn't mean that he wanted to sit down and have drinks with the man. If he'd gone to such lengths to keep Elizabeth safe, then why did the older man leave her with the Webbers? According to Stefan, Stavros had been keeping an eye on his daughter, so he must have known how she was treated and what had happened to her. Jason couldn't understand the man's thinking that had left her in a situation where she'd been emotionally neglected and abused by people who were supposed to love her.

With a sigh, Jason headed back to the cabin of the plane and looked over at the woman sleeping on the couch. There was no sense waking her and telling her about this now. She'd only become angry or anxious and since Jason had no idea how long it was going to take to get to their new destination or actually arrive at the safe house, there was no sense in being premature about the announcement. Better to let her sleep, let her body and mind recover from their ordeal in the elevator and then when she woke up, he'd tell her.

It never crossed his mind to lie to her about their true destination.

When Jason had told her that they were going to hide out with her father Stavros, she hadn't quite known how to respond to that pronouncement. While there was a part of her that wanted to meet him, simply for curiosity's sake, there was another part of her that wasn't sure she was ready for it yet. How did one meet the man who was responsible for her ending up with the Webbers and whose son was trying to kill her?

Jason hadn't said anything as they traveled, having sensed by her reaction to his announcement that she wasn't entirely thrilled about the situation. He merely gave her the news and then followed the person waiting for them to a car while getting directions. He let Elizabeth have some time to walk around, stretch her legs and deal with the news. Of course, now the silence was beginning to get to her because she had way too much time inside her head to envision all sorts of things she'd love to say or not say and wondered about how he would react or what kind of explanations he'd give her.

As they turned off the main road, Jason glanced over at her and said, "We'll be there soon."

She merely nodded and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Listen," he began. "There's nothing that says we have to stay here. I don't know exactly why Sonny arranged this. Maybe he thought you'd want to talk to Stavros, or maybe he's hurt or something. I don't know. But Sonny told me to keep you safe. And if you don't want to stay with your father, then there's nothing that says we have to."

Her eyes widened as she looked over at him. "Really?" she wondered. "You mean that?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Look, I'm not saying our situations are the same, 'cause they're not. But how you decide to deal with your families, both the Webbers and the Cassadines, is your own business. I hated when people would arrange for me to interact with the Quartermaines as if time spent together would somehow make everything better between us. If you meet Stavros and you want to stay, then that's what we'll do. If you meet him and you decide you want to go someplace else, I'll tell Sonny and that'll be the end of it. No one's going to force you, Elizabeth."

She licked her lips and swallowed, "Thank you. I just...I don't know. I have so many questions and I want answers. I think I deserve them. But I just...just because I now know he's my biological father doesn't really change the fact that he's a stranger to me."

They neared a house and Jason slowed the car, bringing it to a stop. He put the car in park and then turned on his seat to look at her. "My suggestion to you is to just go in there and see how it goes. Don't feel like you have to do anything."

She nodded once more and wiped her hands on her pants, then reached for the handle to open the door. Stepping outside, she tucked her hands under her arms and followed Jason as he approached the house. He stopped and talked to a guard briefly, and then opened the door, stepping in and then waiting for her to enter. Once she was inside, he walked behind her as they headed down a short hall to a family room with several couches. A dark-haired man stood up and turned towards them.

"Elizabeth," he breathed out in pure adoration as her feet froze to the floor and she refused to go any further. He started towards her, but then stopped when he saw that Elizabeth stepped back until she bumped into Jason.

"I'm sorry," Stavros said as he stopped. "I realize you do not know me. You have not received the same updates as I have."

For some reason, hearing about the fact from his own lips that he'd been receiving updates about her crawled under her skin and rankled her. How long had he been informed about her life? Her entire life? Recently? Did he know about her rape and the aftermath?

"Yeah," she said. "I want to talk to you about that, Dad."

Elizabeth Webber had a temper. While Jason had seen her angry, that had been born of fear - the night she attacked him after he'd uncovered her rape and then Nikolas had almost abducted her - and frustration - not having any answers to her ever-increasing questions about life had left her tense and edgy - he'd never seen her let loose what he was sure was a well-honed vicious tongue. Considering the attitude and snark that rolled off her while she talked to Stavros Cassadine, Jason had a feeling that this wasn't the first time she'd used sarcastic anger in dealing with people. Right now, she was not thrilled with her father and Jason didn't blame her at all.

"Elizabeth," the older man tried once again to explain. "You have to understand. It simply wasn't safe for me to claim you as my child."

"Yet, you received regular updates on me, including photographs, from the time I was a child. How was that any safer?" she demanded. "Don't you think that your wife, or your father, or your son might somehow find them and then find out about me? After all, look at what's happening now!"

"Yes," he sighed heavily. "I deeply regret that Nikolas discovered your existence."

"You regret?" she pondered. "Well, that's just great. I can forget all the attempts he's made on my life because you regret it. Why didn't you try to stop him?!"

"Because things aren't that easy," the older man said with just a touch of condescension in his voice. "I married Nikolas' mother as part of a business alliance. She did not have any brothers, and when we married, many of her father's assets were transferred to the Cassadines. It helped strengthen our family at a time when we were a little low on funds. My father was very pleased with the arrangement."

"So she was bartered off," Elizabeth nodded her head. "Her body for your financial stability. And you didn't love her, but you were expected to have a child with her because both your fathers wanted grandchildren, yeah, yeah, I think I know how this goes. But according to my dear uncle you were already in love with someone and she agreed to keep on seeing you even though that meant she'd be your mistress. Well...technically I suppose she was already your mistress, or did you call her your girlfriend?"

She tilted her head to the side and then sneered, "Probably not. You could never be seen in public with her so you just met her in private, paid for her condo or apartment, or maybe you actually gave her a house. You probably paid for her utilities and bought her pretty clothes and jewelry and in essence made her one high-priced whore. But I can see by the way your face is turning red that you don't like that word or my assessment because you're now going to go all sentimental on me and tell me that you love her and it was never just about sex."

"You may be my daughter," Stavros said as his eyes narrowed, "but you may not speak to me that way."

"Considering you fobbed me off on the Webbers and stood back while they treated me like crap, I think I'll talk to you any way I feel like it," she retorted heatedly. "You got my mother pregnant, it was too dangerous for her to keep me and raise me probably because that meant you would have had to give her up and couldn't have kept seeing her. So you both chose to keep having sex with each other as opposed to having one of my parents raise me. Or did she want to keep me but you forced her to agree with you simply because you wanted a readily available booty call?"

"Do not speak about me and your mother that way," he shouted back, stepping towards her. Jason took a step forward as well to remind the older man he was in the room and he wasn't going to stand back and let Stavros threaten Elizabeth. "You don't know anything about our relationship."

"And you don't know anything about me," she snapped at him. "You may have gotten pictures and reports and updates, but that doesn't mean you can claim you know me."

She firmed her lips and raised her chin. "And quite frankly, Dad, I'm not sure I want to fix that."

Jason woke to a soft sound and then saw faint light come under the door to his bedroom. He sat up, waiting for a moment, and then tossed the covers back, swinging his sweat pant encased legs over the side of the bed. As he moved towards the door, he grabbed his shirt he'd tossed at the end of the bed and pulled it on. Walking quietly down the hall so as to not startle Elizabeth, he found her hidden in the shadows of the room. The single lamp she'd turned on didn't extend its illumination to the other side where she stood by the window, looking out at nothing through the wooden slats of the blinds.

He stood there quietly for a moment, debating whether to speak or not. He didn't want to intrude on her if she desired privacy, but he couldn't just walk away. He could feel the pain coming off her simply by the way she held herself. He knew it long before he saw her hands come up and her fingertips wiped away silent tears. He knew before those silent tears gained sound and she brought her hand up to her face and rolled her shoulders inward while wrapping an arm around her waist. He knew this was why he'd stayed; so that he could keep her from falling to the ground when her knees buckled.

Since momentum was already taking them down, he lowered them to the floor and sat with his legs bent. She was curled up into herself, partially turned into his chest. He'd heard her cry before, back when she'd relived her rape and Bobbie had to sedate the young art student. This was not the frantic, frightened horror of the past. This was pain, deep and all-encompassing that flowed up from her soul in a never-ending stream.

He didn't try to offer her words of comfort. He was never good at finding words like that, and he suspected that they wouldn't really be believed at this moment anyways. He simply held her, gently brushing his hand over her back; almost petting her like one would a frightened animal. He sensed that what she needed most in this moment was just the simple knowledge that she wasn't alone.

He had no idea of how long they'd sat there, but his back ached and his leg had gone numb. Still, he held Elizabeth as she cried until she quieted down. Her sniffles faded and still she didn't raise her head. He wanted to speak, but was afraid to break the silence. Soon he began to wonder if she'd actually fallen asleep and knew that if she had, he was going to have a hard time standing and then getting her back to her bed.

Just when Jason was thinking about the best way he could extract himself from underneath her and then stand to get circulation back into his leg before lifting her from the floor, her jagged, ruined voice drifted through the night, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he replied softly, shifting his hold on her and stretching his leg.

"I'm sorry," she said next.

"It's okay," he assured her. "You don't need to apologize for how you feel."

"I know you said we can leave here and we don't ever have to see Stavros again but..." She trailed off and then sighed, "Would you be upset if I told you I...I don't know, but I kinda want to go see him again?"

"I told you," he repeated. "You don't have to apologize for how you feel."

"I don't know how I feel," she confessed in a voice that sounded almost like a frightened child instead of the woman who had angrily, and deservedly, chastised Stavros Cassadine only hours before.

"Growing up with the Webbers...I learned early on to guard my emotions around them. It...it seemed like if they saw I was hurt or unhappy, then they tried to make it even worse. But if I acted indifferent to what they did, or lashed out in defiant anger, then it...it seemed to stymie them. They didn't know how to respond. They seemed to...to want to make me hurt."

Jason closed his eyes and swallowed thickly.

"So when I saw Stavros I just...I was so angry. So angry."

"You have every right to be," he told her, projecting some of his own feelings. He was angry on her behalf. Angry at the Webbers. Angry at Stavros for supposedly knowing about her life but never doing anything to help her. What kind of man leaves a child in that situation? That was what made blood run hot through Jason's veins. Not the knowledge of the Webbers and how they treated her, but that Stavros had received updates on her, knew what the situation was like and did nothing to remove her from the situation, did nothing to protect her or help her.

"So when I was talking to him," Elizabeth continued, "and I was angry, it was just so easy to keep that anger. To yell at him like I want to yell at the Webbers. To not listen to his pleas to hear him out, to let him explain. I just...I wanted to get out of there so badly."

She was quiet and an uneven breath fluttered out over Jason's shirt. He let his hand smooth over her back, coming to rest on her hip as he asked, "And now?"

"And now," she sighed. "And now I'm curious. I...there's a part of me that wants to know what he was going to say. Is there anything that could possibly explain away what he did? Even if there's not, even if I end up angry at him all over again...at least I'll know. I won't torture myself wondering what if."

Her head lowered, almost shamefully, as she asked, "Is that silly of me?"

"No," Jason shook his head. "It's not. I-I think it's only natural that you have a lot of questions. Even if you're angry at him, you see Stavros as a way to start getting some of those answers."

She pulled back slightly to look up at him, but never actually pulled out of his arms. "So we can go see him again?"

He nodded, "Yeah. But tomorrow. You...you should get some sleep first."

Biting her lip and lowering her eyes, she said, "I'm sorry if I woke you."

"It's alright," he told her softly. "I was glad I was here...and hopefully could help."

"You did," she replied with just the smallest of a Mona Lisa smile. "And I'm glad you were here, too."

Then she unfolded her legs, wincing at the movement. Together, they managed to stand and make it back down the hallway. They parted outside their rooms and Jason hoped that she'd be able to find some sleep tonight, and maybe she'd start to find some answers tomorrow.

"Elizabeth," Stavros said, surprise clear in his voice when she walked back into the house with Jason. "Mr. Morgan. I-I didn't expect to see you again."

"Yeah," she nodded. "I wasn't sure I wanted to come back. But I have questions and right now, you're my best shot at getting some of them answered."

The older man nodded his head just a fraction and Elizabeth pulled her hands up into her sleeves, clasping the edge of the fabric. "What's my mother's name?"

"Elise," he answered. "Elise Laurent. You...you were named for her."

She frowned slightly, "Where does Imogene come from?"

"It was her grandmother's name," Stavros replied. "The woman who raised her."

With a shake of her head because she didn't want to start thinking about other relatives she had out there and didn't know, she asked, "What does my mother do?"

"She's an artist," the older man answered, his voice softening. "We've seen your work and it's...it's beautiful, Elizabeth."

"Why didn't she want me?" she demanded, hardening against the reminders that they knew about her, had seen her work, and knew about her but had never stepped in.

With a defeated sigh, her father ran a hand over his face. "May we sit down?"

"You can sit," she told him. "I prefer to stand."

"Very well," he said slowly and lowered himself into the cushions of the couch. He swallowed and scratched his jaw and then said, "Your mother did want you, Elizabeth. She wanted you very much. If there's one thing that comes out of this, I want it to be that. She wanted you from the moment she found out she was carrying you."

Arching her brow, Elizabeth asked, "Then how come she didn't raise me? Was it like I said yesterday, you refused to give up your relationship with her and you'd rather have sex than your daughter?"

He clenched his teeth together, and then said, "I never forced your mother to give you up just because I wanted to keep having sex with her."

Hearing the underlying reference she clarified, "But you forced her to give me up."

"My wife...Nikolas' mother, is a very cold and cruel woman. I didn't love her, I didn't want to marry her, it was very much an arranged marriage brokered into a business deal," he told her.

"If you're looking for sympathy," she scoffed, "I don't have any for you."

Stavros shook his head, "No, I wasn't... It was not a pleasant marriage and my father knew that I'd been involved with your mother before I married Nikolas' mother. He told me to be discreet as he had been. Unfortunately, my father wasn't very discreet which is how my mother knew about his many mistresses and about Alexis and her mother. What none of us realized, is that my wife was every bit as ruthless as my mother."

Elizabeth leaned against the desk in the room, and twined her fingers together in front of her, listening as her father spun his tale.

"She knew I did not love her; I knew she did not love me. I knew she took lovers and I could have been angry about the fact that she made me a cuckold, but I looked the other way."

"Because of my mother," she said.

He nodded. "Yes. She did not take a lover until after Nikolas was born, but even still, I performed a DNA test on my son to ensure he was mine. Once I was sure he was mine, I did not care to visit her bed anymore. She had always suspected that I had a mistress, but she did not challenge me on it."

She closed her eyes and shook her head, disgusted by the actions of everyone involved. "So if you had a nice little arrangement going, then what changed?"

"Some how she found out Elise was pregnant," Stavros answered heavily. "I do not know how, but we were at a party one time and my mother was in a foul mood. She and my father had fought over Alexis and Danielle, my wife, spoke out of turn in front of my associates. It was unforgivable, airing our family's private affairs in public, but I was chilled to the bone. She laughingly explained away that my parents were upset because of Mikkos' illegitimate child, and said that while she may not like her mother-in-law, she could understand Helena's ire."

The older man paused for a moment and then said, his voice haunted by the past, "She said that Helena had done one thing right; she'd killed Mikkos' mistress. The one thing she'd done wrong, was leaving the bastard child alive and allowing her husband to bring her into the home and forcing Helena to watch her grow up. Then looking directly at me, with a look that froze my blood, she said that if it was her in that situation, she would kill both mother and child and make it be a message to her husband."

Elizabeth swallowed hard, feeling cold herself as Stavros continued to explained, "I knew in that moment that I had to protect you. I hid your mother away, and when you were born, I felt it best that she not raise you. I refused to let you be adopted in Europe; I felt it best to hide you in the United States. Elise went into hiding as well and I didn't see her for many years. I did my best to protect the both of you, but felt that you had a better chance for survival if Danielle were to ever find out that you were not being raised by your mother."

Licking her lips, she did her best to absorb the information he'd given her. It appeared her death had been desired even before she was actually born. Running her hands through her hair she let out a breath and then looked up at her father and asked, "So how did I end up with the Webbers?"

Jason felt like an interloper; intruding on a personal conversation that he should really not be a part of. But when he'd tried to slip into the kitchen, Elizabeth had immediately turned to look at him and pierced him with a pleading look so haunting that he abandoned all attempts at leaving and merely settled back into the spot he'd been before. He had no doubt that Stavros would prefer that he leave, but Jason didn't really care what the man wanted. He was charged with keeping Elizabeth safe and after her soul-wrenching pain last night and the blossoming trust between them he was not going to abandon her. If she wanted him to stay, then he'd stay.

"I did not have much time, Elizabeth," her father began. "To search for a family to take you in. Your mother was due to deliver you at any moment and I truly feared for your, and her, safety. I knew I could not go to my father for help or advice and I feared that my mother would be as much of a threat to you, if not more, than Danielle based on what she'd done to Alexis' mother. That left me with one alternative, my brother."

Jason crossed his arms over his chest, immediately finding his guard going up. Stefan was the man who came to him and Sonny trying to protect Elizabeth and search for his brother. How did he fit into the scenario that had placed Elizabeth with the Webbers?

Elizabeth must have had some of the same feelings, because she wrapped her arms around her middle and peered at her father curiously. "You're saying my uncle arranged the adoption?"

"He put me into contact with the lawyer who handled it," Stavros nodded.

"How did he know the man?" Jason asked.

"Stefan often traveled for our family's business; my father sent him out to handle the low-level and mundane things. I assumed that is how he met the man in New York City," the older man explained. "At the time, I was quite anxious to have any help I could get and when my brother gave me the man's name, I called."

"When you got updates about Elizabeth, were they from the lawyer himself?" Jason further questioned.

"No, we agreed that there should be no direct contact between the two of us once the papers were signed and I paid his fee. He had a law school friend in Colorado who found a family looking to have a child, and through a series of intermediaries, with my brother being the final person, information was passed to me regarding my daughter," Elizabeth's father stated as a sinking feeling grew in Jason's stomach.

"How much do you really know about Elizabeth's adopted family?" he pressed, causing both father and daughter to look at him in question.

"Mr. and Mrs. Webber were a young couple," Stavros said. "They were college graduates and Mr. Webber worked for IBM, hired right out of college. His career track looked very promising; plenty of room for advancement and ability to raise a family. Mrs. Webber had unfortunately suffered from cysts and other ailments as a teenager and her doctors deemed it highly unlikely that she would ever be able to conceive a child. They were anxious to have a family and had already contacted the lawyer in Colorado about adoption. That's how he came to recommend them"

"Th-that's not the Webbers," Elizabeth shook her head, her voice sounding thick. "Those...those aren't the people who raised me."

He looked at her sharply, and then over at Jason with a fulminating glare. "What are you talking about? Carl and Marie Webber in Denver, Colorado. Those are your...your parents."

"No," Jason told the man. "Her parents are Jeff and Natalie Webber. They're doctors and had two children already when they adopted Elizabeth. Did you get copies of Elizabeth's police reports?"

The older man's head snapped back in surprise. "Police reports? What are you talking about? What police reports?"

When Jason heard Elizabeth's intake of breath he looked over at her and saw that she'd gone slightly ashen. Gently walking towards her he made no move to touch her until she looked up at him and he was sure he wouldn't startle her. She looked from him to Stavros and said, "You never really knew, did you?"

"Knew what?" Stavros demanded. "What is going on? Clearly there is something you're not telling me, that you thought I knew."

"Did...did you know that I was raped?" Elizabeth asked, her voice soft in the room.

Jason was watching the older man and Stavros' reaction said everything. The man blanched, his eyes widening in disbelief and horror. Then anger filled them. Pure, unadulterated anger as his fists clenched at his side. It was the same anger that had filled Jason when he'd discovered that his sister's modeling agent had gotten Emily hooked on drugs as a way to manage her weight and try to keep her from realizing he was taking a bigger percentage of her fees than he was entitled to.

"You were...you were...what monster did that to you?"

Elizabeth closed her eyes, tears silently streaming down her face and Jason stepped closer to her, cautiously touching her arm. He made sure to keep his touch light, ready to snatch it away if she reviled from contact. She turned towards him, and he wrapped his arms around her, holding her quietly as she struggled with her emotions. When she quietly sniffled he rubbed her upper arm and suggested, "Why don't you go into the kitchen and get a drink? Just take a moment. We'll wait here."

She nodded once and then stepped away from him, not looking at either man as she walked into the kitchen. Jason looked over at Stavros and after she disappeared around the corner, the hardened look was back in his eyes and he demanded, "Mr. Morgan, I want to know what is going on."

"Clearly Elizabeth wasn't placed with who you thought she was," he stated.

"But I don't..." The older man shook his head. "I received updates on her. Photographs, information regarding school plays, ballet recitals, art projects. One of my...one of my favorite pictures of her was her on the driveway of her house, her curls bouncing as she played with a jump rope. That was...that was all a lie?"

"The people who raised her are Jeff and Natalie Webber," Jason repeated, "and they certainly weren't the doting and loving parents that you probably envisioned Elizabeth growing up with. They neglected her, were at the very least verbally and emotionally abusive towards her, and when she was raped when she was fifteen years old, her parents got angry at her for shaming the family name."

The eyes of the man across from him hardened into flint. "They blamed her? She was a child. She was the victim!"

Jason shot a glance over at the doorway to the kitchen and Stavros followed it, then looked regretful at his outburst. "Forgive me. I just...I don't understand how this happened."

"Neither do I," Jason shook his head. "But I'm going to find out. Right now, I don't trust anybody in your family, including you, but I especially don't trust your brother. Maybe he was as ignorant as you claim to be, or maybe he switched things around. But someone got Elizabeth placed with Jeff and Natalie and I want to know who."

He scrubbed his hand over his face and then said, "I also want to know why Alexis would help your son try to kill his own sister after everything that happened to Alexis and her mother because of Helena."

"My son is a very cruel man," Stavros sighed. "He is my heir; he's the prince-in-waiting. My parents fought constantly over the way my brother and I were raised and looked at my son as a way to assert their views once again. I cared for my son insofar as he was my heir and my successor. But because I did not love his mother, I oftentimes cared very little for the boy. Danielle often viewed him as the reminder of her forced marriage and her father bartering her away and so she was quite happy to leave his care to the nannies and then the tutors that were hired for Nikolas. My mother quite doted on my son and turned him into a very selfish child."

"You did nothing to correct it," Jason pointed out. He wasn't going to let this man act like he wasn't responsible for his own child.

"You're correct," the older man agreed wearily. "However, I did not care to give much attention to Nikolas because I was too busy waiting for the next update on Elizabeth. She was the child I wanted, but I couldn't have her so my life became obsessive about her, just as my mother's became obsessive about Nikolas.

"The spoiled child grew up to be a demanding and cruel adult, having been tutored well by his grandmother," Stavros continued. "He can be quite lethal when he chooses, and he frequently chooses to be. Because he was mostly raised by mother, he was instilled with a disposition against Alexis. He knows how to cow her and threaten her, even though he is younger than her. He no doubt threatened her in some way that she assist him in killing his sister or else. He may have even threatened to kill her. He's attempted that once already, even though it was brushed off as an accident. For all her formidable attitude with others, she is very much the scared little child who watched Helena slit her mother's throat whenever she is with Nikolas."

Jason shook his head at the truly insane dynamics of the family and then said, "I don't think we should stay here any longer. I have no idea if your brother is trying to help you or hurt you, and I certainly don't trust him in regards to Elizabeth. I don't know if Sonny might tell him our location, so I want to get out of here. I want to get Elizabeth somewhere else, somewhere nobody knows about."

The older man arched his brow and then asked, "Are you telling me I'm not invited along on this trip? You seem to believe that you are the only man who can protect my daughter; what if I want to keep her safe?"

Jason cocked his head to the side and asked, "Do you honestly think Elizabeth trusts you right now?"

The answer came in the form of Stavros' falling shoulders.

"As for whether you come with us," Jason continued on, "quite frankly, that's entirely up to Elizabeth to decide."

She was nibbling on her bottom lip again; a clear sign that she was once again thinking over the past few days and wondering if she'd made the right choice. It was the only indication he had of her thoughts and he found himself wondering if she'd talk to him this time, or just once more head to her room and fall into a fitful sleep. Jason wasn't a person who felt the need to fill up silence with mindless talk, but even he was beginning to feel uncomfortable after the last couple of days. Because Elizabeth rarely spoke, she rarely did anything other than emerge from her room to push food around on her plate, and then curl up in the couch with a book she never read or a sketchpad she never utilized.

When she sighed and slowly stood from the couch, Jason decided that maybe this was one time he shouldn't wait for her to begin a rambling stream of her thoughts while trying to process them all. Maybe she needed a little prodding. He was beginning to think that left alone for too long she would simply continue to withdraw further and further into herself.

So setting aside his book, he wiped his hand over his pants while lightly clearing his throat. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She startled at the sound of his voice and hastily looked over at him, then just as quickly looked away. With a shake of her head, she was just going to continue her retreat, but he stopped her once more.

"If you've changed your mind and you want Stavros with us, you just have to let me know. I'll get in touch with Sonny or one of the guards and they'll contact him, arrange for us to meet up." He stood and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "You don't have to feel bad if you've changed your mind, Elizabeth."

"What if I feel bad because I haven't changed my mind?" she questioned, still only meeting his gaze briefly.

"Why would you feel bad?" he asked.

"Because he's my father," she stated, her voice rising slightly.

"He may be your father biologically," Jason said gently, "but that doesn't mean you owe him anything. Any more than you owe the Webbers anything just because they were legally responsible for you. Neither of them made real good choices, Elizabeth, and if you're upset by everything you've learned and if you're angry about what's happened to you, then you have every right to feel that way."

"You've told me that before," she sighed. "And I know that rationally it's perfectly understandable if I'm upset. I just... I grew up always trying to please the Webbers, even when I tried to act indifferent. Nothing I ever did was good enough for them and sometimes I got angry and I lashed out and I rebelled and it felt so good in the moment."

Looking down and crossing her arms over her chest she then said, "But I learned that I always paid for my acts of defiance. So it was just better if I tried to play the game."

Jason flexed his jaw, shifting it side to side as if trying to weigh the words before actually speaking them. He cautiously ventured forward, knowing he might meet resistance and hostility. "Did they...did the Webbers hit you?"

Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him, but then her gaze darted away. "I got spankings when I was younger, but never with a belt or a spoon or anything like that. Steven and Sarah got spankings, but I always seemed to get more. It was always the lectures. The talkings to me, telling me everything I was doing wrong, how I was being punished by having a privilege taken away because I'd broken the rules or made a wrong choice and there needed to be consequences for my actions."

All seemingly benign statements, perfectly acceptable forms of parenting, nothing that would set off any alarm bells for anyone that might hear the Webbers talk to their daughter or hear Elizabeth complain. Not that Jason suspected she ever did to anyone except maybe a few of her friends. It made Jason wonder once more how the Webbers had ended up with Elizabeth and why they had accepted her given the way they treated her.

"Your brother and sister never were punished as often as you, were they?" he asked, even though he was pretty sure of the answer.

She shook her head, "No. But they were just considered more obedient. I was always the problem child."

"I doubt you were," Jason shook his head. "The people who raised you seemed intent on punishing you."

"It was always my mo... It was always Natalie. She was always finding problems in everything I did," Elizabeth explained.

"I don't know why she did it, Elizabeth," he told her, taking a few steps towards her and leaning against the arm of the chair. "But she was deliberately being cruel to you. It wasn't anything you did. You could have done everything she asked you to, or told you to and done it perfectly and she still would have found something to punish you about."

"I know," she admitted on a small whisper. "And I...I hate her for it. I want to yell at her. And I want to yell at Jeff for never stopping her. And I want to yell at Stavros for not letting my mother raise me and not protecting her and me better. He's in the mob, he has money, he should have resources, he should have been able to hide me and my mother and protect us. It's just...it's all so weak to say that he thought I would be better protected if I wasn't with her. He's just finding excuses to justify his behavior."

This was what she needed. She needed to get upset and say all this. For too many days she's been letting this bubble and fester inside her.

"If he's any kind of man, any kind of mobster he would have been able to hire someone to report directly to him. He believed the reports because that's what he wanted to believe, but he never looked into them." Her face was flushed and her eyes were bright with tears. "He claims he loves me, that he loves me more than Nikolas...then why didn't he do more?!"

"I don't know," Jason shook his head. He couldn't find anything to say that would excuse or justify Stavros' actions because he agreed with Elizabeth. Stavros should have done more.

"Why wasn't I enough?" she demanded of him. "Why wasn't I ever enough? My whole life I have just wanted someone to want me for me, to love me for who I am, not who they want me to be or who they expect me to be. I wanted someone to hug me and kiss me and genuinely mean it. There were times I wanted to believe my brother and sister's claims that I was adopted because I thought that meant someone would come and take me away from the Webbers. And they'd love me and it would be perfect and wonderful and I finally realized it was all just a fairytale. That stolen children, or kids sent home with the wrong parents and salvation from a miserable life was great for kids' stories but it wasn't real.

"And then here comes Stavros," she said bitterly. "And I find out that the people I thought were my parents weren't and he claims he loves me and now all I feel is hollow. I feel angry. I feel so jumbled up inside and I don't know what to think or believe or feel and I just want my life back. I want to go back to who I thought I was before I got this stupid assignment and I broke into Sonny's club and my whole life was tossed into the blender and nothing is right anymore. Maybe it would have been so much better if Alexis' plan had actually worked and I'd been killed in that shoot out that night."

She was nearly hysterical and just like the night she'd broken down before, Jason was there to catch her as she dissolved into anger and pain. He wrapped his arms around her and held her, as if he could somehow keep her from shattering apart. Her hands fisted in his shirt as he gently brushed his palm over her back.

"I know you're upset," he said softly, "but you don't really wish you'd died that night, do you?"

She shuddered in his arms, "No. I just...I feel so strange, Jason. I...I hated you when you first brought me out of the club and now...now I feel like you're the only person I can count on."

"I'm sorry about how I treated you," he said softly, still filled with regret over the callous and cruel way he'd acted. "Nothing can excuse that."

"Is...is all this just making it up to me?" she wondered. "Is this just guilt and your job because Sonny told you to keep me safe?"

Jason frowned slightly, his hand stilling on her back. He was about to speak but she went on.

"Because I...it seems so strange to say, but I...I consider you my friend, Jason. You...you just let me be what I am. I can be angry or sad or confused and you don't tell me what to do and you don't try to fix me; you listen and let me figure things out and you...I really feel like you understand because of what happened with your family and you aren't just trying to play me to get a false connection to me and work some angle. Am I wrong?" she nearly pleaded. "Have I completely misread this whole thing again?"

"No," he told her, his hand once again gently brushing over her back. "You're not wrong. I didn't want you there in the beginning and I...I was wrong then. But I...I'm not trying to work an angle or get you to trust me, Elizabeth, simply to play you. I...I consider you a friend."

She pulled back slightly to look up at him, her eyes red and her cheeks still damp from her tears. "I really need a friend, Jason, and I...I never would have thought this based on the way we met and first interacted...but I'm really glad that it's you. I couldn't imagine talking about this to Spinelli or one of the guards or even Sonny. I...I feel like you understand me."

He nodded his head in confirmation.

"I've felt alone for so long and to suddenly have you supporting me, helping me...I'm so glad to have a friend."

"I am," Jason told her. "I'm your friend."

It seemed the most natural thing to bring his hand up to wipe away her tears and he didn't even question the action until his thumb was brushing across her cheek. The friction of his skin over hers suddenly seemed to change everything. He was quickly very much aware of the fact that he was a man and she was a woman and he held her in his arms, their bodies pressed tightly together. She was attractive, she was intriguing and there was no way to hide his body's sudden reaction to the situation.

Elizabeth's eyes flared with recognition and her own swirling emotions and the hand still clinging tightly to his shirt wasn't just holding him to anchor her in a turbulent sea of pain and confusion. It wasn't going to let him go. She pulled him closer, or maybe she only succeeded in moving herself. Maybe she'd used the momentum to carry forward, or maybe he'd allowed himself to be pulled along with the tide. He wasn't sure; he was only aware that when their lips met, the world exploded between them.

If it wasn't for his new, secured cell phone ringing, Jason had no idea what the outcome of his kiss with Elizabeth would have been. The admission bothered him more than he was comfortable with.

Even when he was annoyed with her and just certain that she was lying to him and Sonny about her involvement with the Cassadines and her purpose at the club, he could acknowledge she was a beautiful woman. But beauty wasn't the only thing. Plenty of superficially beautiful people were perfectly ugly on the inside. And he simply repeated that mantra as a way to remind himself that he couldn't forget that she'd been discovered inside The Cellar in the middle of a shootout.

When he came to realize that Elizabeth was telling the truth, and then watching her life get blown apart by the knowledge that she was adopted, he began to feel bad for the way he'd treated her. He told himself that looking into the truth about her family, making small overtures towards her - like taking her down to the gym - was just because he was looking out for her. Like he was her big brother. The only problem was, despite telling himself he was doing this for her like he would do it for Emily, he couldn't think of her as his little sister. She got under his skin too much, she affected him too deeply.

He'd avoided the penthouse partly to atone for the way he'd acted towards her and not force her to have to deal with him, and also so that he wasn't around her. If he had a task, if he had a goal, if he had something that would require long hours spent working and seeking, he might not think of her so much. It wasn't the most attainable goal since what he was seeking for related to her, but he'd hoped for some relief of not being near her physically. It just hadn't worked out that way.

Because they were trapped together in the elevator, because Sonny didn't know how Nikolas Cassadine got the bombs inside the building, and because it was known that Elizabeth and Jason had been inside the building when it was under attack, his boss had decided that they should fake their deaths. Jason could protect Elizabeth by going into hiding and getting them away from Port Charles. Jason agreed that it made sense; it was also a tough assignment. Because they were together almost constantly, and they had to hide by virtue of the fact that they were supposed to be dead. And so, in constant companionship, Jason had struggled even more with the odd mixture of feelings he had towards the art student.

When they were put into contact with Stavros, Jason's protective side had risen even higher. And it was definitely not how he would have reacted towards anyone that hurt Emily. He hated Stavros because he'd been a lousy father to Elizabeth. He'd wounded someone so deeply who absolutely did not deserve to be treated that way. Jason had seen her pain, he'd held her as she cried, and he'd empathized with her heartbreak so deeply that his own chest hurt from the emotions. He wished there was someway that he could make it better for her so that she wouldn't cry anymore. He would gladly to anything just to see her smile, to hear her laugh and to let her be happy.

So when awareness, attraction and desire had flared up between them, Jason had been unable to stop himself from kissing her. A voice in his head told him it was wrong. That he was taking advantage of the situation; it was only because the two of them were alone and they'd shared a lot of emotionally charged situations together that they were acting this way. But a deeper, baser part of himself told that voice to shut up. Elizabeth was a beautiful woman, he wouldn't deliberately hurt her, and he would take his cues from her and stop if she said so.

The fact that it had been his phone that had called them back to the reality of the situation had been hard to deal with. Awkwardness had intruded; Elizabeth had blushed deep crimson, raised a hand to her bee-stung lips and then fled his presence. He'd been highly tempted to chase after her and confront the issue head on, but instead he'd grabbed his phone and growled out a terse greeting. He had definitely not been pleased by the way the moment had ended and now as he sat in silence in the living room, he wondered if he would lose the connection he and Elizabeth had built during their time together.

Jason heard her door open down the hall and felt his breath catch in his throat. She had a bathroom attached to her room; there was no reason for her to come out, unless she was hungry. Even if she was bored, she would stay in her room if she wanted to avoid him. She'd done that at his penthouse. If she was hungry and reacted poorly to seeing him, then he'd go to his room. He would not sit around and make her uncomfortable.

The closer her footsteps got, the tenser he became. How would she react? Would she yell? Would she icily ignore him? Was their budding...friendship, relationship, whatever irreparably damaged? His heart was pounding hard in his chest when she finally stepped into the main room and paused when she saw him there.

She awkwardly shifted on her feet and cleared her throat, then stunned him with her statement, "I'm glad you're here. I...I was hoping you hadn't disappeared into your room."

He felt his breath whoosh out of him in surprise and his pulse pounded in his ears. Elizabeth twisted her fingers together and then said, "I-I think we should talk."

"Okay," he nodded, and was still as she crossed the room to sit down on the sofa. As far away from his chair as she possibly could be.

"I...I don't know how to say this," she began, unable to look at him. "But I'm sorry."

He blinked in confusion. "You're sorry?"

"I..." She cleared her throat and looked down at her hands, the knuckles of which were white. "You've been very kind to me, Jason. At first...I didn't like you. I hated you, and Sonny a little bit, but most of all I hated you. You couldn't stand me...the feeling was mutual and then...then when you went digging into my past..."

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

"Intellectually, now, I can see why you did it. I," she lifted her head briefly and quirked her brow. "I think your methods and interaction with people sometimes leave things to be desired...but you're not really in the business of pleasing people. But after that...you changed. And at first I was sure it was just pity and I didn't want that. Not from you; not from anybody.

"But now," she shrugged and ran her hand through her hair. "We've been thrown together and you've...you've been really great as I've been dealing with seeing my...Stavros and you let me be mad or hurt or confused... All my life I've had people tell me I was wrong. I shouldn't be selfish, or I shouldn't be upset and I should just get over it, or I shouldn't feel one way, I should feel another. But you...you don't tell me I'm wrong or make me feel bad, you help me...even if you think you're not doing anything. Having you hold me when I cry...that is the safest I have ever felt in my entire life."

She blinked and wiped at the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry for taking advantage of you."

"Taking advantage of me?" he wondered. "How did you take advantage of me? I took advantage of you. You're confused and you've had your entire life tossed upside down and I'm supposed to be protecting you from people who have been wanting to kill you since you were a baby and instead I'm..."

He trailed off and cleared his throat gruffly. "It's just the two of us alone and that's bound to...stir up things."

"This isn't a case of Stockholm Syndrome," she huffed at him with an annoyance that surprised him. "I'm not falling in love with my captor, and it's not just because we're all alone and I'm horny or something."

They both seemed to blush after her last statement.

"I'll admit, Jason," she confessed. "It doesn't entirely make sense to me. I couldn't stand you; you couldn't stand me. Now we're on the run together. Yeah, people would say that it would be only natural for us to have an affair on the lam...but that...that wasn't why I kissed you."

He swallowed thickly.

"You've shown a part to me that I never would have gotten a chance to see if it wasn't for us being alone together all the time. There's a part of you that is not the fearsome, cold, emotionless killer that others make you out to be. I know that you would kill someone to protect me," Elizabeth said with a surety that stunned him in its truth. "I can sense that about you. You have this fierce, inherent protective potency about you...but there is also so much more. And I've seen that side of you."

He felt stripped and laid bare before her as she now wouldn't look away from him. Her eyes bored into his and her emotions were clear on her face.

"I don't have the answers and I don't know everything that I want," she continued on. "But I...I can't say that kissing you was a mistake because that makes it sound cheap or horrible and that...that isn't how I feel. Maybe it wasn't the best timing; maybe I'm not really ready to handle everything, or maybe I'm trying to find something else to focus on instead of thinking about everything else going on around me. But I...I can't say that it was a mistake or that I'd never want to do it again."

She blushed and looked down, "I'm not saying that I want to suddenly hold your hand, or kiss you all the time or sleep with you tonight but...but I want to be...open to whatever happens."

Jason sat in his chair completely stunned. He'd expected her to hate him, to tell him to stay away from her and never come near her again and that hadn't happened. It wasn't that she was asking for more right away, but she wasn't entirely rejecting the thought.

"Look," she said, tucking her hair nervously behind her ear. "I...I've just rambled on here and I haven't let you say anything. You...you may be thinking this whole thing was a mistake and you're trying to find a way to let me down gently about the future and I..."

She huffed and looked up at him, "Just be honest with me, Jason. If it's no, then it's no...but don't sit there in silence ignoring things. The elephant in the room won't go away just because we don't talk about it."

Holding up his hands to keep her from continuing on, he took a breath. "I...I can't say kissing you was a mistake, just maybe not the best timing, like you said. It might be hard to not think about it and just be natural around each other...but I don't want to say it will never happen again. You-you're an attractive woman, Elizabeth, but I...I just don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

They sat for a moment, wondering what to say next, and then Elizabeth continued to show her strength in courage in the moment. "Okay," she nodded. "We're agreed. We'll just...take it as it comes. There's no need to freak out about what happened and pull back and avoid each other. Maybe this'll be like a summer fling - you know you're going to leave and probably never see the person again, but you still kiss and hold hands and whisper silly words; or maybe we'll never kiss again and we'll just continue on as we were before. I just...I just don't want to label anything right now and decree that it's one thing or that something will never happen again. I think that will only makes things more awkward between and I...I don't want that. I like being able to talk to you, and have you around."

"I agree," he nodded. And as she stood and headed back to her bedroom, Jason continued to sit in the silent room and wonder what exactly had just happened between them.

Elizabeth had forgotten what a force of nature Damien Spinelli was. The man had so much energy he blew into a room like a tornado, he rolled over obstacles like a tsunami and when he was done speaking, she was always left exhausted, feeling like she'd just run a marathon in the desert. She wondered how exactly Jason, a laid-back, sedate, unflappable man, put up with such concentrated energy and vibrancy on a continual basis. Even she didn't have that much energy.

As she watched them interact, she began to see that there was a balance to their relationship; a yin and yang aspect. Jason was methodical and focused, which helped rein Spinelli back and get him to think things through a bit instead of rushing off with only half the facts. Spinelli was able to get the latest technology and information which provided information quickly which allowed Jason to make informed decisions and handle a situation efficiently. Jason provided Spinelli with stability while Spinelli provided Jason with a little liveliness that the older man definitely needed in his life. It was an interesting Odd Couple dynamic and it seemed to work for them.

Elizabeth had been a little surprised when the younger man had shown up at their location, but then she realized he had been the person who called, interrupting her kiss with Jason. He apparently had information Sonny felt they needed, but that was too complicated and too much to just divulge over the phone. So he showed up, blowing into their lives to deliver his information, and as much as she no longer harbored ill feelings towards him for his actions at the beginning of their acquaintance, Elizabeth also hoped he'd quickly blow out of their lives once the information was imparted.

It wasn't that she didn't like him; he was endearingly quirky and she couldn't help seeing the reasons why Jason kept the young man around. It wasn't that she begrudged his relationship with Jason; she wasn't some jealous shrew who demanded to be the center of attention all the time. It also wasn't that she didn't want to share Jason's attention; it was actually probably a good thing right now that there was someone else around making her and Jason focus on something else besides the kiss and conversation they'd recently shared. It was just that Spinelli's presence did cause her to remember those first days in Jason's penthouse and it left her feeling a little unsettled. Especially because for four hours he and Jason had been talking and she'd been relegated to her bedroom.

This whole situation was about her and her life. So why was she being told to go elsewhere while they talked about her? Because they surely couldn't be talking about the situation back in Port Charles and the business for this long. She felt she should be out there, hearing information first hand and not some filtered, watered-down version she'd get later on. She should be part of this, and any decisions made or suggested, from the beginning. Not brought in after the fact and merely told how things were going to go.

The more time she spent in her room, the more she grew agitated. She paced from the window to the door, from the closet to the bathroom. She was just beginning to work herself up into a frothing state when a soft tap sounded on her door. Spinelli would never tap softly and she took a deep breath while mentally steeling herself for the confrontation with Jason.

Yanking open the door she arched a brow and said, "Yes?"

"Uh...there's some food out here if you want it," he began. "And Spinelli has some information you should probably hear."

"I should probably hear?" she questioned as she stepped past him. "Considering this whole thing is about me, yeah...I probably should."

"We weren't talking about you without you here," he told her.

Turning around and ignoring Spinelli setting out paper plates and cups while opening a box of pizza she asked, "So you've been talking for four hours about your allegedly illegal activities?"

Jason hooked a hand behind the back of his neck and suddenly she had the feeling that perhaps they had, indeed, been discussing business for four hours. Jason looked tense and worried, his shoulders rigid. Worry began to fill her, along with dread. Things had not been good when they'd ended up inside an elevator as bombs exploded in the building; they were letting people think they were dead...what had happened now?

"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice softening.

"We discovered how Nikolas got the bombs inside the building," he told her. "They got some men inside the organization; Sonny's been dealing with a lot. It's been pretty rough back there."

"You think you belong there," she surmised. "Because your job is to help Sonny; not to protect someone else."

He looked down, confirming her statement. She didn't feel slighted by the sentiment, she'd discovered that Jason had a lot of loyalty to Sonny and it was understandable that he would feel it was his place to work alongside his boss.

"The other guards and soldiers are good," he told her, his voice clearly trying to absolve her in keeping him away from Port Charles. "It's important that you stay safe, and my job is to do what Sonny tells me."

Clearly they were going to be at an impasse here and she didn't want to discuss this anymore. Things were bad; it wasn't really her place to question them. Spinelli had come to talk to Jason about that, but he also had information about her family. That's what she was focused on right now. It was about all she really could focus on. Things were too crazy to go taking on new worries at the moment.

Turning to Spinelli she lifted a plate and then slid a slice of pizza on it. Looking at the young hacker who had been doing his best to ignore her and Jason's conversation she asked, "Jason said you found out some stuff about my family?"

"About both your families," he confirmed, the enthusiasm from having unearthed a find bubbling up into his limbs. "The Cassadines and the Webbers."

As she sat down at the table and set her plate in front of her, Jason took a slice as well and sat down on the side of the table between Spinelli and Elizabeth. Focusing entirely on Spinelli she asked, "What did you find?"

"That your adopted mother Natalie Webber and your stepmother Danielle Cassadine are sisters," he stated.

Elizabeth dropped her food onto her plate and stared at him, "What? Stavros said his wife was French. My...the woman who adopted me was definitely not French. We visited her parents in Pennsylvania; they'd been in America for generations."

The young man shook his head, "Not according to her Social Security number, her birth certificate and her immigration status. I do not know if Jeff Webber is aware of who his wife really is, but Natalie Webber was born in France. She was an exchange student during high school, decided to pursue her higher education in America, she married Jeff Webber, became stepmother to Steven Lars Webber, gave birth to Sarah Webber and adopted you."

Looking down at the pizza on her plate, she picked at the cheese topping and closed her eyes, trying to make sense of everything. The woman she thought had given birth to her, the woman who had lied to her, who had treated her with disdain and contempt, who had made her life miserable nearly every day, was actually the sister of Stavros' wife. The woman who had threatened to kill Elizabeth and her biological mother.

"Does that explain how Stavros thought I ended up in one family when I really ended up with Jeff and Natalie?" she asked, looking up at Spinelli.

"Mr. Corinthos, Sir believes it might," he nodded his head.

"It does make sense," Jason agreed, entering the conversation. His voice was thoughtful, as if he was piecing together the clues and his thoughts as he spoke. "If she was aware of your mother and her pregnancy, and she threatened Stavros, she knew he would make arrangements. Now, whether she knew he would try to adopt you out to a family in America, it's hard to say. Stefan handled the arrangements; she might have known he knew lawyers in America and thought they'd try here to keep you away from her. So it could have been part of her plan all along, or she just capitalized on it when she realized what was happening."

"But...but why?" she asked.

"It was to punish Stavros," he surmised. "And you."

"But the Artistic One was just a child," Spinelli argued. "Why would the Evil Stepmother want to harm just a child?"

"Because Elizabeth wasn't her child," he pointed out. "She was the daughter of the woman that she knew Stavros loved more than her. Her very existence was an insult, and a reminder of her husband's mistress."

"So she arranges for her sister to adopt me, knowing that Natalie would never love me, and ensuring that I'd be miserable?" she asked, horror filling her at the whole twisted nature of it all.

"It also explains how the reports that were supposed to be sent to Stavros weren't factual," Jason continued.

Elizabeth pushed her plate away and sat back, unable to look at the food any longer. Nausea welled up inside her, along with despair. She leaned her head back, closing her eyes as they filled with burning tears.

"Elizabeth?" Jason asked softly.

She shook her head, unable to speak. Chairs scraped and then she heard him ask, "Spinelli, would you...give us a moment, okay? Go find..."

"The Jackal understands, Stone Cold," the younger man hastily said.

She felt Jason crouch beside her chair and touch her arm, but he didn't press her to speak or crowd her. He merely offered her comfort and strength with his simple touch.

"I...I called her 'Mom'," she managed to get out. "I hugged her, I kissed her, I told her I loved her...I just wanted her to love me and take care of me and I could never...I could never understand how she could give so much to Sarah and Steven but she..."

She let out a shuddering breath as tears began to trek down her cheeks, "It was all part of some plan. Concocted with a woman who threatened me before I was even born. My brother is trying to kill me, my stepmother has wanted me dead, and I was living with a woman who made it her life's goal to make me miserable."

Sitting up straight, she swallowed and opened her eyes, looking over at Jason. "I want to go see her."

When Elizabeth had first come to live at his penthouse, he'd found it easy to tell her no. She wasn't his guest, she wasn't his friend, she wasn't someone he wanted around; she was the person who had broken into The Cellar, she was somehow working with Alexis and he was not going to give her amenities like her art supplies back or a book for her to read. Jason had considered his penthouse her prison and the place wasn't supposed to be Club Med. Then after finding out what had happened to her, and watching her struggle with the disappointing truths and revelations about her families, he found himself wanting to give her anything he could simply to give her some small amount of comfort. So it wasn't easy for him to look at Elizabeth and deny her latest request.

"No," he shook his head. "That isn't a good idea."

She glared at him, the anger chasing away the remnants of the tears caused by the pain of realizing that her adopted mother was the sister of her stepmother and all the injustice and outright cruelty she'd suffered at the older woman's hands had been planned and premeditated. Elizabeth glared at him and huffed, "You can't stop me. I'm not some fragile doll that has to be wrapped in cotton and put on the shelf so that I don't get hurt. If I want to go and confront the...person who raised me, then I can. You can't tell me no just because you think I can't take it."

"That's not what I'm doing," Jason told her. "If you want to confront your adopted mother when this is all over, then you can do that. Just like you had every right to yell at Stavros. But you can't go see Natalie Webber right now."

Her eyes narrowed as she demanded, "Why not?"

"Because we're supposed to be dead, Elizabeth," he told her and was relieved to see some of the fight drain away. "Right now, things are not safe. Nikolas wants you dead. He's fighting against Sonny because he thinks we're hiding you. We have no idea if Stefan was part of the conspiracy to put you with the Webbers, or if he was duped. If you show up and confront Natalie, do you think that she isn't going to tell anyone that she saw you?"

"I-I hadn't thought of that," Elizabeth said softly.

"I know," he answered gently, to show that he wasn't angry with her. "You have every right to feel the way you do; I've told you that. And I'll support you however I can. And if that means when this is all over you want to go confront your adopted parents and brother and sister, then we'll do that. If you want to go confront Stavros and his wife and the rest of the Cassadines, we'll do that, too. If you want to go confront your birth mother-"

"We'll do that as well," she said with a wistful smile, finishing his sentence.

"Yeah," he nodded. "Once things are safe, whoever's left standing, you can go yell at them all you want."

She let out a slight chuckle along with him. "You really mean it, don't you?"

"I always mean what I say," Jason answered.

"Yeah," she agreed, her tone softening as she tilted her head to the side slightly. "You're one of the few people I know who doesn't talk with a hidden agenda. And how you could go from hating me so much in the beginning to now seems weird, but with you, it seems simple."

"I didn't know all the facts at the beginning," he confessed. "I'm so-"

She placed her finger over his lips to cut off his apology. "No more. You've apologized and I've accepted it. I don't bring up what happened before to make you feel bad and make you keep apologizing."

"I know," he whispered against her skin. "I do it because I don't like thinking about what I did."

"No more," she told him firmly, even as her voice dropped. "You don't seem like a guy who lives looking back, so stop doing it with me. It makes me feel like I'm damaged or broken, like you're the one wrapping me in cotton."

His mind flashed to a completely different image than the one she was talking about. Not a porcelain doll people bought but didn't play with because it might ruin the value; he saw her against cotton sheets. His sheets. He knew his mind shouldn't go in that direction. They may have kissed and declared it wasn't a mistake, but he shouldn't start thinking about her in his bed.

He was about to pull away when Elizabeth tilted her head to the other side. She hadn't moved her finger off his lips; instead she was staring intently at where their flesh met. The moment changed, charged with friction as she moved her fingers to the side of his jaw and placed her thumb on his mouth. Her digit swept lightly over his flesh, heat warming the skin.

Swallowing thickly, Jason looked at her, and felt his breath catch when she lifted her gaze from his mouth to his eyes. There was so much swirling around in her eyes, but the desire, the want...the need was unmistakable. She licked her lips and he subconsciously mimicked the movement, shocking them both when his tongue flicked against her thumb. Her gasp filled the air, followed by her heightened breathing.

There was no denying this moment, and there was no stopping it. He shifted, gaining position so he could lean towards her. She kept her hand on his face, but used it to pull him towards her. With undeniable certainty, their lips met. The first pass was gentle, a feeling out, remembering their earlier time but also taking the time to explore and learn as they hadn't done before. Jason pulled back slightly, but Elizabeth protested with a whimper and followed after him. The soft sound from the back of her throat was his undoing.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her from her chair. He definitely wasn't graceful as he sat down, no longer crouched beside her. Grace and dignity did not matter as much as comfort, as the freedom to move without barriers between them, or the elevation difference of her in a chair and him crouching on the floor. She was in his lap, pressed against him, molding them to one being, one flesh. There was only one way they could possibly get any closer and his body began to crave it, began to demand it.

Elizabeth's movements were a mixture of passion and chastity. At times he couldn't seem to tell where her hands were; all he knew was that she was igniting fire across his body. Then at other times her hands were gentle, stationary, and her lips were soft and gentle as they whispered almost hesitantly across his jaw. Jason was enflamed, he was almost panting with desire and his hands were equally as frantic in their desperation to pull her closer, to feel more, to give more. He grabbed her hips, lifting her effortlessly to twist her, bringing her astride him to face him directly. It was a move she clearly appreciated as she leaned her weight into him, pushing him backward and taking control of the moment.

"Stone Cold, Stone Cold."

His brain hazily recognized that he needed to respond, but Elizabeth got her hands under his shirt and all thoughts but the moment seeped away.

"Stone Cold, I am sorry to disturb, but there is a most urgent mess...age," the younger man trailed off as he walked into the room and then there was a squeak. Not from Elizabeth, not from him, but from Spinelli. "I...forgive...oh...Stone Cold."

It was the plaintive tone of the final words that finally got through to Jason and he had to pull himself away from Elizabeth. He expected to see embarrassment, mortification, or shame painted on her face; instead he only saw liquid desire and clear frustration over the interruption. Tearing his gaze away from her, he looked over at Spinelli. His back was to them, and he was hopping distressedly from foot to foot.

"Spinelli," he somehow managed to get his throat to work. "Give us just a minute."

"Of course," the younger man fairly gasped with relief and fled from the room.

Looking back at Elizabeth, Jason sighed heavily, regretfully, and said, "I'm sorry. Something must have happened."

She nodded, pulling her lower lip in between her teeth and Jason had to close his eyes. He wanted to ignore Spinelli and continue what had been started between him and Elizabeth, but he knew he couldn't.

"I'm so-" he began, but Elizabeth brought her fingertips up to cover his mouth and shook her head.

"Don't," she whispered. "It just...you need to find out what Spinelli needs. And I...I'll just get out of your way."

She braced her hands on his shoulder and swung her leg back, standing and stepping away from him. Jason wanted to help her, but knew that he would come undone if he touched her. So instead he waited until she was standing and then pulled himself up as well. Elizabeth's hair was tousled, her face was flush and her lips were raw, he swallowed hard at the picture she presented and knew this moment was going to haunt him for a while.

"I...I'll just go to my room," she told him. "Will you tell me what happened...if you can?"

"Yeah," he found himself nodding.

Then he stood in the room and scrubbed his hand over his face as she left. He was frustrated at the interruption and could only hope that Spinelli did not want to talk about it. He wasn't sure he could; not right now. He'd have to impress on the young man to not mention this to others back in Port Charles. It wasn't that he was ashamed of what happened, but he didn't want his personal life bandied about among the men. And he didn't want them talking about Elizabeth that way; she deserved more respect than that.

Respect. That was the thing that continued to plague Jason. While they had talked about their last kiss and said that they'd just let things happen and see what developed, he hadn't been expecting today. In fact, he hadn't planned on kissing her again. She said she didn't regret it, and he didn't either, but he didn't think it was something they should be doing. Not while they were forced to be together while hiding from people trying to kill them. If he let his guard down, then he wouldn't be alert to any dangers coming at them.

It wasn't just that, though. No matter what she said, no matter if she initiated kisses or was an active participant in them, he still felt like he was taking advantage of her. She was young - she was still in college - and especially vulnerable right now with everything she'd found out about her parentage. She was uncertain and frighten, no matter what she said or how well she tried to deal with it. It wasn't that Jason thought she couldn't make her own decisions, it was just he wondered if these were truly the right ones for her.

Maybe what he really feared was Elizabeth looking back on this time and regretting it. While she might not regret it now, would she in the future change her mind? Would she declare that it was just the emotions of being on the run and needing someone and he was convenient? It wasn't that he believed she was deliberately using him, but he feared getting involved too deeply and having her change her mind. Because he knew that getting involved with Elizabeth would not just be a casual thing. She was not like one of the women at Jake's that he hooked up with when he was looking for sex.

He felt protective of her, he felt the desire to make her happy, to make things right for her, but it was definitely not familial like how he wanted to take care of Emily. While it may not make sense, while it may seem too quick, it was how he felt and there was no denying it. At least to himself. And he didn't want to get to safety, find a resolution with the Cassadine mess and have her decide that this time here wasn't what she wanted. That she didn't want him and only felt that he'd taken advantage of the situation. He would do anything to not have her declare them a mistake. Even if it meant not acting on his feelings until things settled down and they both could be sure this was truly what they wanted.

He'd left. Without a word to her; Jason had left. He'd listened to whatever news Spinelli had to impart, ordered a guard to come and watch her and then vanished into the night when she'd been asleep. He hadn't even possessed enough common courtesy to write her a note, or wake her up and tell her he had to leave. Although she did have the vaguest sensation of him coming into her room that night and crouching by the side of her bed to brush his fingertips over her cheek.

She thought it had all been a dream until she woke up in the morning, screamed in pure fright when she walked into the living room and discovered someone other than Jason or Spinelli sitting at the table, and realized Jason had left. Once she was over the shock of seeing a practical stranger, she realized that she did know the man. She had seen him back in Port Charles, he had been on the detail protecting Stavros when she and Jason went to visit her father and he was able to recite the seemingly ever-changing password Jason drilled into her head every couple of days that would help her distinguish friend from foe. The man had clearly been stationed there at the request of Jason.

The only problem was, he wasn't Jason. She didn't want some no-name guard on her. She wanted Jason to protect her, but she knew that their time together was over. Elizabeth had known that having his presence had only been an anomaly. His supposed death along with hers had been a convenient ruse to perpetuate, allowing Sonny and the other men time to go through the organization and find out who had helped Nikolas. It gave them the upper hand on her brother because the Cassadine Prince would expect Sonny to be weak and act erratically over the presumed death of his partner and friend. It would make Nikolas bold and, they hoped, foolish, and then they would be able to ensnare him in a trap or eliminate him.

Clearly, something had happened that necessitated Jason making his reappearance back in Port Charles. The guard had at least told her that much; Jason had returned to Sonny's side. The two men would stand united and fight against Elizabeth's family and she would be safely tucked out of the way. Out of sight, out of mind.

While she knew she had fallen asleep, and Jason thought he was probably being kind in not waking her before he had to go, she wasn't looking at his actions with a favorable light. By not waking her, or even making the effort, he showed her she wasn't more important than business. By not even taking the time to write the briefest of notes - really, how long did it take to scribble down 'Have to go. Something's happened.'? - he spoke volumes to her. She was dismissible; as she always was.

She had never ranked with the Webbers, she clearly hadn't ranked with her birth parents, and now apparently she didn't rank with Jason. All of them had found it easy to toy with her life to suit their whims, their desires, their needs. Stavros claimed he was protecting her when he sent her away, but he could have done deeper checking into her situation instead of just accepting the superficial reports. Her birth mother could have fought harder to keep Elizabeth with her instead of capitulating to Stavros. She had grown up at the mercy of a vindictive woman who willingly tormented a child to appease her sister and who knew how complicit Jeff Webber was in her treatment. Even as an adult, her life had been toyed with. Alexis Davis had maliciously given her a school assignment with the sole hope that she would be killed. She had been grabbed by Sonny and Jason and kept against her will until they finally believed she wasn't working for Alexis and the rest of the Cassadines and then she was shuttled off to the middle of nowhere because they deemed she should fake her death.

She felt out of control, that she couldn't make any decisions for herself without them being overridden by someone who claimed they knew better. Jason didn't know what she wanted; he merely left. What she wanted was him around, even as she told herself he had more important things to do than to protect just her. If he was going to guard just one person, then his job was to safeguard Sonny. He had kissed her; it had been actively participated in by both parties, and then he just walked away. No word, no thought given to her...he just poof: vanished into the night.

Elizabeth spent her days once again alone, once again unable to go anywhere or interact with people. She was having her life ruled from afar and it raised her hackles in a way that some people might consider slightly irrational, but she thought Jason would have understood that she wouldn't like being treated this way. She had talked to him about the Webbers and how they'd capriciously changed the rules all the time on her. He had listened to her as she railed against Stavros and tried to make sense of all the confusion she had. They had discussed her time living at his penthouse and how his attitude towards her in the beginning had fueled so many of her deep-seated hurts. She thought he had known her better than she understood herself sometimes, and so for him to just walk away without a word hurt her in a way the years of neglect by the Webbers hadn't been able to.

He told her he was her friend, she thought they were on the verge of so much more. Clearly she had been wrong. Friends didn't treat friends this way. Almost-lovers didn't treat each other this way. Despite him saying he wanted to be slow because he didn't want to feel like he was taking advantage of her, she did feel cheap and used.

She would stay here and not to try to escape because she knew that any attempt to leave would only be foiled by the guard assigned to watch her and it would also prematurely alert Sonny and Jason to her intentions. She had firmly decided that she was not going to go back to Port Charles. She also wasn't going to have anything to do with Stavros or the woman who had given birth to her. Maybe one day she'd go and confront the Webbers over their treatment of her, but when the day came that the guard told her everything was taken care of and she was free to go, she intended to disappear. She'd learned enough from listening to Jason, they were traveling under assumed names anyways and it was highly doubtful that he'd care enough to look when the guard arrived in New York without her.

She was done being used by other people; now it was just time to make sure she was ready to go whenever the all clear signal came in.

She'd never expected him to actually return. One morning, when she finally decided to come out and eat a late breakfast, the guard told her that they would have a visitor that day. She figured it would be Max or one of the other high-level guards who would come and tell her that everything was taken care of; she was free to come home. She never expected it to be Jason himself walking through the door of the safe house.

His presence surprised Elizabeth and for a moment, all she wanted to do was run to him and hug him, but she made her feet stay where they were and she wrapped her arms around herself. He looked thinner and tired and she cursed herself for even noticing. She wanted to inure her heart against him, she didn't want to care about his well-being. When she realized that was a pipe dream, she at least told herself not to let him know she'd been worried for him.

She nodded absently as the guard excused himself from the room and she looked at Jason with what she hoped was a neutral face. She wouldn't act nervous or hurt by refusing to meet his eye, she would just meet his gaze disinterestedly, listen to whatever he had to say, and then calmly inform him that he'd wasted a trip, that she wasn't going to back to Port Charles. He could have just called her guard, or sent one to tell her the news.

"Hey," he said finally, as silence stretched out between them. She had decided she wasn't going to speak first. If she did, she was afraid she'd give herself away. Either by railing at him for leaving without a word, or begging him to love her and not just cast her aside. He was going to have to exert himself.

"Hey," she replied back, infusing nothing into her voice.

Quiet descended over them again and Jason just looked at her. She wouldn't look away from the silent battle of wills, and forced herself to let out a bored sigh and shift her weight, ticking one hip to the side. His gaze was focused, it was searching and it unnerved Elizabeth, but she was not going to back down. She was stubborn, and she had pride and she had years of practice with the Webbers of not showing how hurt she was. She would not give Jason that knowledge. That kind of knowledge was power, and she wasn't going to let him have that over her.

Finally he let out a heavy sigh and looked down, bringing his right hand up to squeeze the bridge of his nose. Then he scrubbed his hand over his face and brought it around to rub the back of his neck. When he finally raised his gaze again, there was such regret and even a touch of despair in it that it nearly caught Elizabeth off guard, but she kept her expression blank. He moved towards her then, not fast, but with a deliberateness that left her in no doubt she was the intended destination. As he stopped in front of her he let out another breath and his hand drifted up to touch her cheek.

She turned her head away from his touch and his hand froze, then dropped back down to his side. He swallowed thickly, the only sound in the room until he whispered, "I'm sorry."

Bringing her gaze back to look at him she lifted a brow in question. She wanted more than that, but she wasn't going to beg for it. She wanted some kind of explanation. Even if she didn't understand it or accept it, she wanted to know what had driven him, what had motivated him, what had made him do what he had. Did he have any idea how he'd hurt her? How he'd made her feel? She wanted to know, but she could not give voice to it because it would be begging and begging was a weakness.

"I've thought about the night I left so many times," he began, his voice soft and almost hesitant, "and I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought it was what I needed to do."

An agitated hand swiped over his hair as his head dropped. "I thought that it was best if I went. I needed to go back, to help Sonny and deal with what happened, but I left for another reason. I left to put space between us."

She couldn't help it, she flinched at his admission.

"I thought it was what you needed. That you didn't need me taking advantage of the situation and you and that we needed to be apart." Jason let out another heavy breath and then lifted his head to look directly at her, his guilt, his shame, his pain clear in his eyes. "I should have talked to you, but I didn't. I didn't because I was afraid, Elizabeth, and I know I hurt you because of that."

This time he did touch her, not retreating when she tried to shy away from his touch. "I hurt you and I am so sorry, Elizabeth."

"If you know," she said softly, "that you hurt me, then why did you do it? Did you even think that it might hurt me before you left? Or did you only think of it afterwards?"

"I knew it might hurt you," he confessed raggedly, almost brokenly.

"Then why did you do it?" she asked him. She desperately wanted to plead with him, but she was holding herself by a thread.

He looked down and she stepped back, away from him. Rubbing her hands over her arms she licked her lips, "I thought you understood, Jason. I thought you were different. You heard me say what the Webbers did to me. You knew that my whole life had been turned upside down. And...and we had a talk about us. About how this wasn't just the situation throwing us together and I didn't want you to stay away from me, and then...I woke up and found you gone."

She raised a finger in silence and said, "I understand that things were out of control in Port Charles. Spinelli showed up because there was stuff that couldn't be said over the phone. Sonny is your boss and he's your friend. The men who work with you are your friends as well and you are a man of action and of course you would go back when things were bad and the situation was dire. I understand that because I've listened to you and I think I've come to understand you."

Letting out a breath and forcing herself to calm down before this dissolved into a shouting match she said, "I also understand that everything is not about me. This wasn't just about keeping me safe, this was about your business and the men who work for you and a little boy who you care about, but I will not lie and say I wasn't hurt. I...you really hurt me, Jason."

She closed her eyes, cursing herself for the tremor in her voice and the vulnerability she'd admitted, but she had always lost her defenses around Jason, shown him things she'd never shown anyone else and this time appeared to be no different. She simply couldn't walk away like she'd done with the Webbers.

"You...you stirred up a lot of feelings in me, Jason," she told him. "When you left without a word and I woke up and there was a strange guard in the house...I felt you were just like the Webbers. And maybe that was an unfair comparison at the time and still is. But it made me feel like I didn't matter. I didn't matter to the Webbers, I didn't matter to my biological parents and...I felt like I didn't matter to you."

"No," he finally spoke. "You do. You do matter, Elizabeth."

"It would be so easy to call you a liar, Jason," she admitted. "To just yell and screech and hold onto my hurt. I know it's not fair to paint you with the same strokes as the Webbers or Stavros, but...but you just walked out."

Pointing to a spot not far from them she said, "You kissed me. You understood all the emotions that I had even when I sometimes didn't; discovering my adopted mother was the sister of Stavros' wife and had deliberately made my life miserable. You understood how confused I was, how hurt I was, how I was desperately searching for something and you gave it to me. You kissed me; you pulled me off the chair and onto the floor and somewhere in the middle of that kiss it wasn't just about trying to erase the pain or feel something besides confusion. I didn't remember all that I'd been feeling only moments before, I don't even know if I remembered my own name. At that moment in time, there was nothing but you, me and the undeniable passion from both of us. In the back of my mind I realized that you were exactly the kind of man I could fall in love with and another part of my head said fall in love?, I was already in love. I would have given you everything if we hadn't been interrupted and I thought you felt the same."

"Elizabeth," Jason said raggedly.

She shook her head, "I really don't want to hear how you thought you had to leave. That we needed space. I didn't want space when I left the room, not from you. I was giving you the opportunity to talk to Spinelli, to deal with whatever happened. I thought maybe you'd have to leave, but I thought that surely you'd talk to me; that you'd tell me what you were going to do."

She licked her lips and looked at him sadly, "The fact that you didn't...it really did hurt, Jason. Even leaving a note for me, if you didn't want to wake me up and face having to say good-bye to me would have been something."

"I know," he told her. "I know. I came into your room and I...I could have easily forgotten that Spinelli was waiting for me and the jet was ready to go and if you'd woken up and spoken to me I was afraid I was going to."

"That doesn't excuse not leaving a note," she replied with a shake of her head. "You made a decision for me, Jason. My entire life has been about people making decisions for me and arranging things to their whims. From Stavros to the Webbers and then Sonny declaring that we were going to fake our deaths...and then you. I just...it left a very sour taste in my mouth and I decided that I wasn't going to put up with it.

He lifted a brow and looked at her, "What do you mean?"

"I meant that whenever the word came in that this danger was over and it was safe to go, I wasn't going back to Port Charles. I was going to take my bag and leave," she admitted. "And even now I'm not sure if that still isn't what I should do."

At his hurt, and then angry look Elizabeth said, "This isn't about trying to get even, and what I'm about to say isn't meant to lay some guilt trip on you or make you jump through hoops begging me or something. It's just that...I would have willingly gone back to Port Charles with you and explored where our relationship could have potentially gone; now my trust is...I don't know if it's broken completely or just bruised. But I'm not real anxious to leave with you. You've apologized and I...I'm trying not to just dismiss it out of hand. But seeing you, being here, being around you...it's not going to help me. I know. I know enough of myself to know that."

"So I'm supposed to just let you go?" he asked and then shook his head. "I can't do that. We might have handled the men that were trying to take over Port Charles, things aren't completely settled. We don't know if Nikolas is alive or dead, we don't know if Stefan was part of the plot to put you with the Webbers, we don't know what your grandfather is going to do or what your stepmother will try. I came here to take you back to safety; you're talking about walking away and being unprotected."

"Then give me a guard," she requested of him. "If there are still dangers, I won't ignore them. But..."

She trailed off wearily and looked away from the man who she still wanted nothing more than to run into his arms. But she needed to figure out whether she could accept his apology, his explanations and live with it. She didn't want to be petty and she tried to explain it to him. She tried to make him understand that she needed to figure this out and it was very hard to do with constant reminders of him or his presence close by.

"I can't just let you go," he shook his head. "It's not just safety, Elizabeth. That's a big part of it; you're too vulnerable with just a guard. The safest place is in Port Charles, close to us.

"But it's not just safety," Jason repeated. "I screwed up and I'm not going to do it again. Letting you walk away is the wrong thing to do."

"Not if I'm asking for space," she insisted.

"Then you won't stay at my place," he conceded. "But I'm not going to give you space by letting you leave completely. I want to make this right."

When she closed her eyes he said, "You're right; I didn't trust you to believe what you were saying. I heard you, but I still just thought it wasn't right. That I would be taking advantage of you, that I wasn't doing the right thing. That I needed to be the strong one, that I needed to make sure that we didn't regret what happened and in that, I now regret what happened. I regret that I hurt you; I regret that I didn't listen to you; I regret that I walked away. I won't do it again. I'll regret it even more if you leave, if what I did has ruined this chance."

"Why?" she whispered raggedly. His words were undoing her, breaking her resolve, destroying her defenses and she couldn't remember half the reasons why she thought she couldn't be around him. "Why are you doing this now?"

"Because nobody's ever fought for you, Elizabeth," he told her, his voice dropping. "Your mother, Stavros, the Cassadines, the Webbers...nobody's ever fought for you. They've fought you, they've plotted against you, they've tried to manipulate you, but nobody's been on your side. I will be on your side."

"I'm not a princess locked in a tower waiting for someone to save me," she shook her head.

"I'm not trying to save you because I think you can't do it yourself; you've stood up to your father, you survived the Webbers and the Cassadines coming after you, you're stronger than you believe. I'm doing this because you deserve to have someone help you. I want to fight anyone whoever's hurt you because they hurt you. I want to take care of you. I want to love you. I want to stand by your side and face everything life throws at you because it's you," he said. His voice was so tender, so sincere, yet also so fierce with determination that she knew he would slay her dragons or die trying.

She squeezed her eyes shut and tears leaked out, spilling onto her cheeks. She felt him before her, and then with infinite tenderness, he wiped away the ever-present moisture. "I will make this up to you," he whispered, "if you'll let me."

"You don't owe me," Elizabeth shook her head. "This isn't about pay back."

"I know it's not about punishment," he replied, "but it's about honoring you. I didn't do it before, but I will show you that I will spend the rest of my life honoring you if you'll let me."

"Oh," she sobbed out, her hands reaching up to clutch his.

Jason cradled her face with infinite tenderness and whispered, "Look at me, Elizabeth."

She instantly complied, her gaze locking on his. "I'm asking for a chance; please don't walk away."

Port Charles looked like a battle-field. At least to Elizabeth's eyes.

Sure, the buildings still stood, children still played in the park and the ice cream truck slowly trundled down the street. To Elizabeth, though, and her jaded view, it might as well have been a scene from a war movie. Razed homes, burned out cars, death and destruction meeting on the streets.

Harborview Towers was not fit to live in. The bomb blasts had weakened the structure and even though the building still stood, the city wasn't allowing anyone inside. Sonny had refused to allow his son to be unprotected, and so the little boy had been shuttled off to a private island the mafia don owned. While he was gone and while Sonny was in the middle of taking on the Cassadine family, he had apparently gone out and purchased a fortress.

He decreed it the safest place for everyone, especially Elizabeth, and so she had been brought here upon her return from the dead. The house was huge and imposing; she felt a bit like Catherine Moreland in Northanger Abbey and kept expecting to find secret passages and ghosts to visit her in the middle of the night. The house sat high on an expanse of land that was cleared of nearby trees; all the better to have clear sightlines she presumed. The land itself abutted the Port Charles River, but the sheer cliff face would certainly make a water landing and attack hard.

This was very much Sonny's castle where he would protect his fiefdom, and Elizabeth was trying very hard to fight off the feeling that she was a princess locked up in the tower. Housed in the guest wing, six bedrooms, one mini-kitchen and a living room, there was no need for anyone here to mingle with the rest of the house. Which was what Sonny wanted. He did not want his son's living space impinged on.

The only reason Elizabeth was not feeling completely trapped was because of Jason's presence. He was often busy meeting with Sonny, but when he wasn't, he was with her. His bedroom was next to hers, and Elizabeth was certain, though she had not found it yet, that there was a connecting door between the two. Spinelli was housed in a guest bedroom at the opposite end of the hall and he rarely ventured out from his days of surfing the web for information for Stone Cold and Mister Sir, or playing video games to make her feel like he was really there.

It was Jason that kept her feeling sane. If she wasn't already up in the morning when he left, there was a note for her telling her when he left, and always a promise that he would see her - no matter how late in the day. So far he'd never broken that promise. Even on the night that he woke her up when he came into her room to check on her. She'd thought it was a dream until the next morning when he confirmed that he'd given into his selfish whims and couldn't resist talking to her despite the fact that she was tired and nearly incoherent.

When he wasn't off with Sonny, he was doing everything he could to prove to Elizabeth that he wasn't going to give up on her. They talked, further getting to know one another. They didn't go over his leaving again and again; Elizabeth knew that nothing productive would come from that. Instead, they shared things; thoughts on events not related to the destruction the Cassadines had brought, they talked about places they'd traveled and favorite moments they'd had. It was all a deepening of understanding and Elizabeth knew that Jason was doing this to help her better understand him.

They hadn't kissed again since that day before he left, but that didn't mean he hadn't touched her. His hand brushed over hers if he brought her a drink, or when they sat down to share a rare meal together. When they had a few moments and could sit on the couch to talk, she invariably ended up resting against his side even if they'd started out by sitting on opposite ends of the couch. He would brush his hand over her hair, or trail his fingertips along her shoulder. She would find herself drawing indecipherable patterns on his t-shirt and somehow, when they walked upstairs and headed for their respective bedrooms, her hand would end up in his and their fingers would be twined together.

She wanted to kiss him. Badly.

At first she thought that maybe he was trying to wait until she felt comfortable, but now she wasn't sure. Thinking that all she needed to do was give him a little encouragement, Elizabeth had begun to lean a little closer to him, stare pointedly at his lips during moments of quiet conversation and she'd even licked her lips and decided to stop waiting for him and seize the bull by the horn. So to speak. Instead, Jason had turned his head and her lips had fallen innocently on his cheek. He hadn't said anything about it, and Elizabeth hadn't made a move since.

It was rather hard to do when the object of her pursuit wasn't even around. She woke up the morning after the missed kiss to find a note on her dresser. Unless Jason was able to pick the old-fashioned lock on her bedroom door, move the chair she'd wedged under it, and then replace it all as he was leaving, there had to be another way into her bedroom. How nice of Sonny to tell Jason, but not her. He hadn't referenced the night before, he instead told her that they'd been contacted by someone in her family and he was leaving to check things out. He might be gone for a couple of days, but he hoped it wouldn't take that long. While she wasn't happy with him leaving, or just ignoring what had not happened between them, she was appreciative that he'd left a note for her this time.

This time she believed he wasn't running away from her. This time she believed that he was going to come back. This time she didn't get angry, but instead decided to talk to him when he got back. She was no longer going to sit around being subjected to other people's whims. If he needed more time, then she would agree to that. But she wasn't going to let him dictate their relationship and especially the physical side of it without speaking up and letting him know what she wanted.

Apparently she was going to have to put her trust in Jason to the test, and she was going to have to exercise patience - not exactly her strongest suit. For Jason, however, she would do this. Because she believed that she had finally found someone worthy of the efforts.

It was late when Jason finally arrived back at Sonny's. He'd been gone for over a week and four days ago Spinelli had been rousted from his bedroom and left with a guard. Elizabeth had been completely alone in the guest wing apart from the guards who checked in on her often and Sonny who stopped by a couple of times a day. She asked him what was going on, thinking she might get an answer since it had to do with her family, but Sonny was stubbornly tight-lipped and would only tell her that his men knew what they were doing.

Well bully for them.

She wasn't giving up on Jason, she just wasn't happy with the men around him. Why was it that nobody wanted to answer her questions? If this had to do with the Cassadines, then shouldn't she know? Sonny used to tell her what was happening in regards to his battle against her family, but now he refused to say anything. It was all very frustrating and after she told Sonny that two days ago, the mob boss hadn't been back. All she'd seen was the guards who made sure she had enough food.

Anger and frustration had turned into worry and Elizabeth no longer kept to her room in angry defiance, she wandered around the expansive guest wing unable to sleep or sit still. She flitted around looking for some sort of occupation, some way to distract herself and pass the time. Sketching wasn't working, television didn't help either; she couldn't help wondering if the war that Sonny and Jason had fought against Nikolas and his men had escalated once again. Now that word had leaked out about her being very much alive, had her estranged and murderous half-brother decided to once again come after her and thus by extension the men protecting her?

She knew that Sonny and Jason and the men working for them were smart and deadly in their own rights, but it didn't stop her from imagining all sorts of scenarios. All of them seemed to get progressively worse and many of them ended with Jason lying hurt and bleeding somewhere and unable to protect her while Nikolas stormed the castle and prepared to finish her off. She really had turned into a silly gothic heroine.

Thankfully she was pulled from her musings by the sound of people approaching. Footsteps and voices echoed in the hallway outside the door that connected the guest wing to the rest of the house. She turned and faced it, wondering who was approaching at three in the morning and she didn't know who was more shocked when the door finally opened. Sonny and the old man behind him because she was standing in the living room and not up in her room where they probably expected her to be, or her at the sight of Jason being supported by the guards and definitely looking hurt.

"Elizabeth," Sonny said quietly.

She ignored him as she rushed forward while demanding, "What happened? Where is he hurt? Have you called a doctor?"

When the guards looked at Sonny instead of answering her, she huffed and rolled her eyes and said, "Take him upstairs to his room. He needs to rest."

Turning to look at the man standing behind Sonny she demanded, "Are you the doctor?"

The grey-haired man shook his head and Sonny opened his mouth like he was going to speak but Elizabeth cut him off. "Then get the doctor. I'm going to go up and check on Jason and see if I can help."

"What can you do?" the older man asked. His voice was soft, slightly raspy and somehow it fit with his appearance; someone who had once been robust and healthy but appeared to recently have battled illness.

"My adopted family is filled with doctors," she told him curtly. "Just because I didn't follow in their footsteps doesn't mean I don't know a few things. Until Sonny gets a doctor here, I'm going to see what I can do."

"Elizabeth," the raspy-voiced man called to her. "I wished to speak to you."

She stared at him in exasperation and confusion. "What? I don't even know who you are. And frankly, I'm not going to waste any more time when Jason is hurt and needs help."

"Mikkos," Sonny cut in softly, placing a hand on the older man's arm. "Let her go see if she can help Jason."

That was all Elizabeth needed to hear. Sonny would deal with the old man and figure out what to do with him. Elizabeth didn't care who he was or why he was there; Jason was upstairs hurt and she had already been kept away from him long enough.

Taking the stairs two at a time, she rushed down the hallway to Jason's room and pushed open the door that wasn't fully latched. The guards were helping him into bed, taking off his clothes and nobody seemed to notice her right away. It allowed Elizabeth to see the bloodied bandages on Jason's side and on his thigh. She could see the pale pallor of his normally tanned skin, and the way he was clearly in pain and shaking from the exertion of movement.

"Max," she said softly as she walked into the room and drew every man's attention to her. "I need you to get me a first aid kit. Ask Sonny if the doctor's coming or do I need to try to stitch him up myself."

When the burly guard stood there for a moment she shooed him with her hands and said, "Go."

Once he was moving, she turned her gaze to Francis and said, "I need rags and then I need you to tell Sonny to get into the kitchen and fix some soup. Rich, thick broth. Jason's lost a lot of blood needs to get his strength back."

Thankfully she didn't have to repeat herself, and the other guard disappeared out the door. Then she approached the bed and sat down beside Jason, reaching for his bandages to assess the damage. "It's a good thing the Webbers were doctors and they made sure I knew first aid techniques backwards and forwards and what to do in case of an emergency. I may not have wanted to become a doctor, but I know enough to help you out."

"Thank you," he said, his voice thick and heavy with fatigue. "Sonny wanted to take me to a safehouse to get better, but I told him to bring me back here. I...I wanted to see you."

She placed her hand gently against his cheek and smiled at him. "I'm glad, because I've missed you while you were gone. Now...I'm going to check your side and you're going to talk."

"Talk?" he puzzled.

"First, who's the old guy downstairs and what's he doing here?" she asked him. "And second...where's the secret door between our bedrooms?"

Elizabeth may not have wanted to go into medicine like the rest of the Webbers, claiming she had no interest in it, but Jason believed she would have made a great nurse. She was calm and steady while changing his bandages and then deciding to go ahead and suture his wounds because the doctor wasn't available. She watched over Jason to make sure he didn't get an infection, changed his bandages with such a delicate tenderness that he was both enamored and aroused by her, and every time he woke up from the rest he just couldn't fight against, he saw her sitting beside his bed, her notebook she'd turned into his chart beside her.

She had not left his room since his return to Sonny's house, and there was no way for Jason to deny the pleasure he felt at that. He knew that she was hiding out in his room in part to avoid her grandfather and Sonny, but he knew that the larger part of the reason that she was in his room was because she wanted to be with him. She was never far from his side. And it seemed like she was always touching him. Sure, she could have been checking for a fever, or inspecting his wounds, but somehow he thought that stroking his bare biceps wasn't the traditional way to feel for fever-flushed skin.

Of course, her ministrations did nothing to help his libido. Although how he could think about that when he was trying to get his strength back and recover from all the blood he lost somewhat surprised him. He remembered all the raging and somewhat surprising feelings he'd had when he woke up after his accident, but he knew that his ogling of Elizabeth could in no way be compared to the leering comments he'd made towards his nurses at General Hospital. There, any female would have sufficed; now, he only wanted Elizabeth. Actually, he wanted to be healthy, not under Sonny's roof, and not having danger looming over them, so that he could show her exactly what he felt for her.

So when he opened his eyes and didn't see Elizabeth in the chair she preferred to sit in while he slept, he was at first confused by her absence, but then grateful for the moment he had to get his emotions under control before he saw her. She had to be aware of the condition he woke up with, but she never mentioned it. Even when she lowered the sheet to check his bandages. Having her lean over him, her hair brusheing against his skin did nothing to help him subject his body to his control. Maybe today he'd be able to not embarrass himself or Elizabeth.

He turned his head to the left, wondering where she was. Just because he was glad she wasn't here to see his body's reaction to thoughts of her, didn't mean he didn't want her around. He liked it when she was there; he enjoyed having her take care of him. Sometimes they were simply together in companionable silence, and other times he hardly knew what they were talking about, he just relished in their conversation. He also thought it was slightly strange that she wasn't there to immediately check on him the moment he woke up, almost as if she was glad he was awake and she didn't have to keep her distance from him any longer.

Yet, it was doubtful she was in the bathroom, considering the door was open and the room was dark, and she wasn't anywhere near the medical supplies that had been laid out on a side table in the room. Just as he was going to turn his head to scan the other side of the room, a murmur filled his ear and the bed jostled. He immediately whipped his head around to stare at the amazing sight of Elizabeth slumbering beside him.

Her hair was partially covering her face and her lips were pursed slightly open as she slept, and there was simply no denying that she was the most beautiful woman Jason had seen and he was definitely in love with her. Even if he hadn't told her. One hand was tucked up under the pillow that she'd bunched up at the corner, and the other was lost somewhere under the sheet. She apparently was one of those people that slept with the covers tucked up to her chin and Jason found it absolutely adorable, even if it frustrated him to not be able to see more of her.

As he watched her, drinking in the appearance of her face, he noticed all that he'd missed before. Or maybe that she was hiding under make-up. She looked completely exhausted. Dark smudges stood out under her eyes, and he wasn't surprised when he remembered that she'd been constantly by his side. While she was always trying to get him to eat, he could hardly remember her eating anything. She must have run herself completely ragged taking care of him and it both touched and frustrated him. He didn't want her neglecting herself on his account.

Shifting to turn slightly towards her and not aggravate his healing wound, he got better situated so he could watch her. Her lashes were long and dark against her skin. She had a small beauty mark on her lip that he had to force his gaze away from lest the urge to kiss her become overbearing. Her skin was pale and flawless, ivory with just the faintest blush of color, and he wondered if she knew just how beautiful she truly was.

Unable to resist the urge to touch her as she lay in his bed, Jason lifted his arm and brushed his knuckles lightly over her cheek. Her soft skin was like silk and he couldn't help making several passes over the enticing temptation. It was only when her eyelids fluttered and she groaned low in her throat that he realized he was being selfish. She was exhausted and needed her sleep; he didn't need to be pawing her. Unfortunately, he came to that determination just as her eyes opened hazily. She blinked, stretched in the bed and then actually nuzzled her cheek against his touch while practically purring in contentment. He nearly came undone at the sound.

"Hi," she said, her soft voice thick with the remnants of sleep.

"I'm sorry," he immediately told her. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

Blinking slowly, Elizabeth then smiled at him and said, "I think I could get very used to waking up like this."

"Elizabeth," he groaned low in his throat. Though whether he was warning her away or inviting her closer he couldn't be sure.

She didn't say anything, merely maneuvered herself up onto her elbow and leaned towards him. He knew what she was intending to do, and he could have resisted her advances, but he didn't want to. It had been too long since he'd kissed her, since he'd drank from her lips and he couldn't deny that he wanted this just as much as she did. The touch was light at first; they were separated by too much distance for it to be more than that. Yet, during the kiss, she moved closer, gaining better leverage while still mindful of his injured side that lay between them.

Her delicate fingers skimmed over his face and then speared through his hair. Her chest was pressed against his, trapping his arm until he maneuvered it free. His hands cradled her head, his arm wrapping around her and his hand tangling itself in her thick locks. Undeniable need and want arced between them and even though Elizabeth got closer, she still seemed aware of his injuries and didn't mold herself to his side. He pushed the covers down so that his hands could explore her back, meeting the hem of her shirt and traveling back up, this time skin on skin.

She purred and arched even closer to him, his name a ragged moan from her lips before she turned her attention to his jaw and kissed the heavy shadow of his beard. He felt bereft and tried to turn his head to land his seeking lips on any patch of skin he could find but the angle was wrong. Instead, he could only pant as she continued her assault, tasting the shell of his ear, finding the pulse point below and then feasting on his neck.

"El-Elizabeth," he rasped out, hoping to call her back to his lips.

She raised her head slightly and smiled at him in a most tempting and provocative manner, "What do you want, Jason?"

"You," he stated with blunt honesty. "I want you so badly..."

His next words were sure to hurt her. "But we can't."

Instantly she stilled and looked at him, before retreating way, moving the sheet with her. "Is it your side? Are you hurt? I tried to be careful."

"You were," he assured her, reaching out and trailing his hand on her arm. "And I wouldn't have cared in another few minutes."

Her sensual flush deepened and he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to find reason and control. "But we're in Sonny's house and you...you deserve better for our first time than to have it be some quiet quickie when Spinelli's down the hall, your grandfather is downstairs and the guards could come in at any moment to check on me."

She peered at him for a moment, resting her hands on his chest, and then asked, "Is that why you wouldn't kiss me before? Because we were in Sonny's house?"

Jason let out a breath as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and said, "I didn't want to rush you and I wasn't sure I could stop at just a kiss. But...yeah, I didn't want us to feel like we were kids sneaking around. Spinelli may be oblivious once he gets in his room with his games, but I didn't want our business to get talked about in Sonny's house."

Lifting a brow, she said, "And yet Sonny gave us rooms that have a connecting door. You don't think he might have...suspected something might happen?"

"Yeah," he said with a shake of his head, "Sonny might have told me about the rooms, and I did use the door to come in that night before I had to leave, but I wasn't... This is still Sonny's house and he's always met his women elsewhere, he doesn't bring them to the house where Michael is. And no, we're not children, but...I didn't want people talking about us. It was why I told Spinelli to not talk to anyone about the kiss he saw. I don't want the guards to say anything to you, or about you."

He paused for a moment and then finally stated, "It's not that I think they'd be crude or disrespectful, but I didn't want them talking about us. It's nobody's business but ours what happens between us and I didn't want it to become fodder for talk anymore than it probably already is. I'm sure they've seen the looks I've given you, and they might suspect...but what we tell people is our business."

Elizabeth looked down, her hair curtaining her face and for a moment he wondered if he'd upset her or hurt her somehow. But when she looked up, her eyes were shimmering with tender joy, not pain. She chuckled slowly as she said, "You have got to be one of the sweetest people I have ever met. You didn't kiss me because you didn't want to disrespect me by somehow it getting out that we might have slept together and have the guards say something about me. I understand your reasoning. But, Jason, next time tell me."

"I know," he sighed heavily. "I was planning to talk to you in the morning. I didn't trust myself around you that night. Instead Sonny told me that he'd gotten contacted by your family and suddenly I had to leave to go meet your grandfather and there wasn't any time for a conversation. I barely had time to write you a note."

She brought her finger up to rest over his lips, silencing him. "I understand. And I'm glad you left the note, it really helped me. And I understand why, even without your injuries, you're not comfortable with more. But, Jason," she leveled a stern look at him, "we're going to have to find a compromise. I love you too much to just be content with holding your hand and little pecks on the cheek."

Elizabeth didn't meet her grandfather until she was ready for it. Despite Sonny offering to have a guard sit with Jason while she talked with Mikkos, she had declined. She made it quite clear to Sonny that she wasn't in any rush to talk to the older man, and he could explain that to the Russian however he wished. She didn't leave Jason's room, taking her meals instead in with him, and the few times she needed to go to her room, she used the connecting doors in the walk-in closets to make the journey. She didn't want to take a chance of running into Mikkos in the hallway.

Then Sonny said that her grandfather would like to speak to her and they could meet in Jason's room since she was reluctant to leave her patient. She once again told Sonny to tell Mikkos no. While the Cuban might have suspected, she only told Jason that she didn't want their space impinged on by anyone so unconnected to them. He would want to stay, to talk to her, to try to convince her of whatever and would certainly not leave quickly and unobtrusively like Sonny and the guards did. He could wait.

She suspected that it didn't make the old man happy, but she frankly didn't care. She wanted Jason by her side, and until he was strong enough to at least pretend like he wasn't going to pass out after going down the stairs to the living room, then she wasn't going to meet with her grandfather. This was her life and she was making the decisions now. Anyone who didn't like it or at least accept it had no place in it.

So, a week-and-a-half after Jason was brought back to Sonny's house and he hardly had a limp when he walked to the bathroom, Elizabeth knew she really couldn't put it off any longer. She was going to have to meet her grandfather and talk to him, and after ten days of having it linger in the back of her mind, filling her with questions, she decided she might as well get it over with. They could talk, he could say whatever it was he had to say, and then it would be over. And when it was, she would have Jason to talk to and help her organize and sort through her feelings.

Jason's hand rested lightly on her back as they walked down the upstairs hallway towards the stairs. Despite all she'd said, she was feeling nervous about the impending meeting and she twisted her fingers together tightly.

"Hey," Jason said softly, placing his hand on her arm and gently stopping her. "It's going to be okay."

"I-I know," she nodded her head with a quick jerk.

"Sonny's going to be there and so will I. Despite what Mikkos might say, I'm not going to leave you alone unless you ask. And even if you do, I won't go far."

This time she was slightly more relaxed as she said, "I know."

She managed a slight smile. "I know."

"Good," he said, a low growl entering his voice. "Because I love you, Elizabeth, and nobody, regardless of whether or not they're family is ever going to hurt you again."

Her stomach did a slow, sensual flop in response to his declaration. Every time he told her he loved her, or let her know just how much he cared about her, she felt like she just flew over the edge of a rollercoaster. It had been like that ever since he responded to her unintended, but certainly not regretted, declaration of her own love for him. And just like he had on that morning in his bed, Elizabeth knew he was going to kiss her now.

This time wasn't wild and fueled with barely-restrained passion; this time was slow, deliberate, but still just as passionate. He tangled a hand in her hair as he lowered his lips to her mouth and teased them both with nibbles and light caresses until they couldn't take anymore torment. Then he pressed her back against the wall as he conquered and plundered and used all of his impressive skill to show her just how much she meant to him. She clung to him, seeking to pull him ever closer as much as to hold herself up as her knees trembled under the onslaught of his demonstration.

Finally, he pulled back slightly, resting his cheek against her temple and pressing light kisses into her hair before he hoarsely said, "Now...let's go see your grandfather."

Letting out a dazed sigh, she nodded her head and hand in hand they descended the stairs. Mikkos and Sonny were waiting in the main room for them and when they arrived, Sonny raised his brows slightly and smiled before looking away. Mikkos, however, did not let their arrival, or appearance, go uncommented.

"Nice of you to finally join us," he stated curtly. "Of course, given your appearance, perhaps you should have taken a few more minutes to compose yourself."

Elizabeth said nothing, merely sat down on the couch across from the older man and looked at him with a steely eye while crossing her arms over her chest. Once Jason was seated beside her, she lifted a brow and asked Mikkos, "Why are you here?"

"Hasn't Mr. Morgan informed you?" he asked back, his lips almost curling to a sneer. "What exactly have you been doing all this time in his room?"

"I've been taking care of him and not talking about you," she replied. "Quite frankly, I didn't want to talk about you. But I'm here now, and so I'm asking you. Why are you here?"

"I wished to meet you," the older man stated.

When he said nothing more she raised both brows towards her hairline and demanded, "That's it? You wished to meet me? You called Sonny and Jason went to get you, getting shot in the process...and it's just because you wished to meet me?"

She licked her lips and then said, "Why?"

"Because you are my granddaughter," he told her.

"Convenient for you to claim it now," she said. "How long have you known about me? And when my dear brother was trying to kill me and your daughter was helping, why exactly didn't you step in?"

"The Cassadine family is...complicated," the older man said, his voice now soft.

"Yeah, well, most families are complicated," she nearly snorted. "You don't get to claim the monopoly on them and act like it excuses anything that happened. You brokered a marriage between my father and a woman he doesn't love simply so you could consolidate your business holdings. Apparently you thought it was acceptable because your own marriage was that way. So you probably didn't care that my father had a mistress and had a child with her. So long as your line of succession didn't get interrupted."

She shook her head in disgust and said, "Quite frankly, I'm not impressed with any of you. I don't care if my father supposedly loved me so much he arranged for my adoption to protect me from his murderous wife. I don't know, and I don't really care, that my uncle may or may not have been involved in the switch that placed me with the Webbers and my adopted mother was the sister of my stepmother. I don't care about you and your precious little princes who will run your empire after you're gone. I don't care if you're sick and only have months to live, or perhaps it's weeks based on the look of you. I don't care. You do not have any right to come in here and demand to see me and then act affronted because I've chosen someone who puts me first instead of being with you."

Elizabeth paused and licked her lips, taking a breath and letting it out slowly before she continued. "Surely you weren't so incapacitated that you didn't have any idea what Nikolas was doing, or your own daughter."

"I did not know," he shook his head. "But when I found out..."

"What?" she demanded. "When you found out, what did you do? Did you try to stop him? Did you care that he was trying to kill me? Did you care that he was starting a war in your family's name and could possibly get killed and you worried about that more than you worried about me? I want honesty instead of platitudes."

"When I found out, I told him to stop because you were not worth it," Mikkos stated harshly. "It was ridiculous to go to war over a girl. Some child of his father's that Stavros did not even have contact with. Nikolas has no heir, Stefan has no sons; the family...the business would risk falling into someone else's hands and there was no point in this madness."

"Because I'm a girl," Elizabeth nodded in understanding. "I would be my father's heir should Nikolas die. Since you think there's some Russian noble blood running through our veins, I would be the princess instead of the prince, but I still might make a claim. And if I married someone, then they might run things, or our sons and it would no longer be a Cassadine at the helm. Correct?"

He was silent, but she saw the answer in his eyes. This was all about succession and a patriarchal society where sons - first sons - were valued and everyone else didn't matter. Until such time as the first son was no longer available and then there would be infighting.

"So why are you really here?" she asked her grandfather. "To convince me to go away? To bring me into the fold where I can be controlled and ordered around? Or maybe you thought that nobody would suspect a sick, frail old man and therefore you'd get close enough to poison me and thus eliminate the problem."

At the mention of poison Jason tensed beside her and Sonny clenched his fists on top of the arms of the chair he was sitting in.

"See, I listened to things that Alexis said," Elizabeth told him. "I listened to the stories about death and murder and intrigues and poisons and everything else that she talked about. I have no doubt that Sonny and the guards searched you and your bags for weapons. But would they check your medicine? How would they really know if the pills in the bottle were for your heart...or whatever else is wrong with you...or were they poison?"

Leaning forward, she stated firmly, "I don't trust you or anyone else in my so-called family. I've heard too many stories and I wouldn't put it past you claim that you were sick and dying and just wanted to meet your granddaughter. Or maybe that Nikolas was threatening you and you needed Sonny and Jason's help to fight back. However you did it, you got here. And then...you'd hand me a glass of water you dissolved a little pill into and your family problems are taken care of. And if you didn't make it out of here, because did you really think Sonny and Jason wouldn't kill you, what did it matter? Your precious Nikolas would be there to take over, just as you wanted all along. Isn't that right, Grandfather?"

When Mikkos remained quiet, Sonny leaned forward and looked at the aging man, demanding in a harsh, low tone, "Is she right? Did you come here, after asking for our help, simply with the intent to kill Elizabeth?"

He looked away and Sonny snapped his fingers; guards melted out of the shadows and Elizabeth understood why Sonny was regarded as lethal and someone not to be messed with. "Take Mr. Cassadine to house number three. Make sure he does not leave and make sure he doesn't have any personal possessions on him. In fact, you have my full permission to strip him down and search him thoroughly."

Despite the protests of the older man, Max and his brother grabbed Mikkos and forcefully escorted him from the room. Sonny shook his head in disgust, anger causing his jaw to clench. It was Jason, though, who finally spoke. The fury rolled off him in waves, striking against Elizabeth even though she hadn't looked at him.

"How did you know?" he asked, his voice tight and barely restrained.

"When Spinelli would come in to check on you, I asked him to do a little digging," she admitted. "I didn't trust Mikkos' sudden appearance and I'd heard too many stories from Alexis. Despite his bumbling appearance, Spinelli is apparently very good at searching a room. And he also speaks Russian. While Mikkos muttered to himself figuring Spinelli couldn't understand him, he was actually listening to everything my dear old grandfather said. Which seems to have included his plans to take care of Stavros' problem."

Jason seethed as he waited in the living room of the guest wing; an emotion that had been his constant companion since Mikkos had been dragged away by the guards after Elizabeth exposed that his intent in coming to see her had been to eliminate her. After risking his life to get the old man out of the compound in Greece and to Sonny's house, the enforcer was beyond angry that it had all been a plot. Aside from the personal affront he felt, he was mad on a whole other level. While it was always dangerous to trust rival organizations, there was supposed to be some level of scruples. A plea for help, the way it had been worded, it would have been dangerous for them to ignore it if word spread to others, and yet it had all been a trap.

He'd brought a man intent on killing the woman he loved right to her. He'd placed her life in jeopardy and would have never known it had Elizabeth not been suspicious and asked Spinelli for his help. Thankfully the younger man had put past issues with her aside and did as she asked; for they learned the truth of the Cassadine leader's intent.

"Jason."

His head shot up as Max stepped into the room, men following behind him. His gaze focused solely on one individual. Not looking away from Stavros he commanded Max, "Go find the others."

The guard left the room, leaving the other men behind and Stavros looked around questioningly. "May I ask why I've been dragged here so hastily and unceremoniously, Mr. Morgan?"

"You can," he answered, a lazy shrug of his shoulders accompanying his words. "But I'm not saying anything until everyone's here."

"Then why were they not waiting?"

"Because we're not here to do your bidding," Jason answered, an edge now tingeing his voice. "Our lives do not revolve around you. Besides, there were a few things I wanted to say to you first."

Unaccustomed to such outright hostility, Stavros folded his arms over his chest and demanded, "What?"

"You have one last chance to prove to your daughter whether you're sincere or not," he replied. "Me personally, I think you - like the rest of your family - are nothing more than a liar and a manipulator. My loyalties are not to you, my sympathies are not to you, and empty pleas and cries for understanding won't make a difference to me. The only thing that will make a difference with me is action. Just know that if you're not prepared to do anything, I will step in and handle it."

A confused look furrowed the other man's brow and he asked, "What are you speaking of, Mr. Morgan?"

But Jason shook his head and looked over to the side of the room where a door opened and Elizabeth walked through. Sonny followed behind her, looking polished, put together and serious. He was every inch the mob boss and was ready to rule over this meeting in his house. He and Jason had discussed and even laid the groundwork for the future; it all depended on Stavros' answers. Spinelli followed the pair, looking uncomfortable and uneasy, his shoulders hunched forward slightly as if he could make himself invisible to the gathering.

"Elizabeth," Stavros smiled at her. "It is always good to see you."

"I wish I could say the same for you," she replied. "Or the rest of the Cassadines. Frankly, I sometimes think that the best thing I ever had in my life was that I wasn't raised with you. While the Webbers weren't sunshine and roses, I got away from them. I only wish I could get away from the rest of you."

"What...what do you mean?" he asked.

"I'm talking about the murderous lot that is unfortunately my family," she grit out.

"I...I thought that Mr. Morgan and Mr. Corinthos had protected you from your brother. I am working on gathering together those who will be loyal to me and then I will confront your brother."

"Will you also confront my grandfather?" Elizabeth questioned him.

With a small shake of his head, Stavros asked, "What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about my grandfather who Jason rescued from my crazy half-brother, and then got shot in the process of doing an old man a favor. He contacted Sonny and Jason and asked for their help. Jason and men went over and got him and brought him here because he claimed he wanted to see me, to try to make things right. Turns out his idea of making things right was to kill me."

Her father's hands clenched into fists and he demanded, "What?!"

"Mikkos didn't know that we have someone here who can speak Russian," she said, not giving Spinelli away. "He listened to my dear grandfather as he waited around for me to leave Jason's room where I spent my time taking care of him since been shot. While his impatience grew, so did his carelessness until he was speaking of things he probably wishes he hadn't, even if they were in a different language. He also told me that I wasn't worth the war that was brewing; he told Nikolas that my brother shouldn't go after me, not because I'm his sister but because it's simply not worth risking tearing apart the business over a woman."

She took a deep breath and took a step closer to Jason. He wanted to touch her, to comfort her in some way, but he didn't want to alert Stavros to the change in their relationship. It wasn't the older man's business, and he didn't want to get distracted by any arguments her father might have regarding the two of them. It was time to focus on the fact that Mikkos needed to be dealt with.

"Jason and Sonny are understandably upset," Elizabeth continued on. "They made a show of good faith and found out it was all a trick. Mikkos asked for their help, only because he wanted to get close enough to kill me. Right now they have him secured at a separate location. Any other person would have been dead before they left the room, but they left him alone because of me. They wanted to know what I wanted done with him because he was attempting to kill me and this whole war has been about me."

"And...and what did you say?" the older man wondered.

"I said that I wanted to know what my father intended to do about the situation," she stated simply.

"I...I...what do you want me to do?" he tried to stall.

"I want you to be honest," she answered, tipping her head slightly to the side in a false show of innocence. "If this were any other situation, if he had threatened anyone else...say, Nikolas...what would you do?"

"Elizabeth..." Stavros shook his head.

"No," she demanded, "I want to know. If your father had threatened your son would you step in and do something?"

"Yes," the older man answered back forcefully.

"So what are you going to do because he was trying to kill me?"

With another shake of his head, he let out a heavy breath, "It is not as easy as taking care of my father, Elizabeth. Because unfortunately Nikolas will not give up either. And I'd have to take out my father and my son."

"And you're not willing to do that," she nodded slowly. "Not over your daughter that you threw away."

"I did not throw you away!" Stavros shouted.

"Yes," Elizabeth countered back firmly. "You did. You arranged for me to be adopted off to someone else. You wouldn't let my mother keep me because then that meant you couldn't see her anymore. You weren't willing to do that, so I was the one who was expendable. Just like I am now. You're not willing to stand up to your father and your son because it's all about primogeniture for you. If Nikolas dies, then you have nobody to take over your precious business, right? Stefan doesn't have a son, I'm only a girl...while I suppose you could still father a child, would you be around long enough to raise him and groom him to take over? You're not willing to protect me because protecting the family line and the business is more important."

"That's not what I'm saying, Elizabeth," her father pleaded weakly with her to understand.

"Then why don't you tell me exactly what you're saying," she pressed. "Just so that I don't misunderstand anything."

"Your grandfather has always helped me keep Nikolas in line. Except now he's working with Nikolas and I'm not in a position to take both of them on. You're asking me to kill my father and my son."

"And you're not Cassadine to do that?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as scorn entered her voice. "I thought the Cassadines thrived on turning on each other like rabid dogs and killing one another."

"You don't know the history of our family, you've only heard Natasha's distorted view," he snarled back at her.

"What it still boils down to," Sonny said, his voice deceptively calm and light. "Is that you are unwilling to do everything necessary to protect your daughter. Elizabeth is right; you threw her away. You can pretend all you want now that you desire a relationship with her and you love her, but you're not prepared to go to battle over her. You're not prepared to jeopardize your future business dealings in order to protect her. Do you honestly believe that when your father dies your son won't usurp your place? He's proven that he's willing to do whatever it takes...do you think he'd hesitate to kill you?"

"Nikolas won't do that," Stavros shook his head. "I can talk to him. If I can get him away from my father, I can talk to him, work something out."

"I think the working something out will include the elimination of me," Elizabeth said sarcastically.

"Something we are not willing to permit," Sonny stated firmly. "We will protect her with the full force of our resources and will fight anyone who threatens her. Even if it means we fight against you because you are unwilling to see what needs to be done."

With a nod of his head, the head of the organization said, "Very well; we know what needs to be done now."

"And what does that mean?" Stavros demanded.

"It means that your father is dead," Sonny replied evenly. "And we will fight your son. He's crossed me, Mr. Cassadine. He planted bombs in my building, he's killed my men, and he's destroyed my shipments. I will treat him as I treat any other enemy who comes after me in such a direct and blatant manner. As of now, the Cassadine and the Corinthos organizations are officially at war. I will destroy your family and your business."

"Elizabeth," her father pleaded, but she looked away.

"You can't let them do this," he continued. "We're your family. You can't let them destroy your family."

Elizabeth licked her lips and firmed her shoulders before she stated in a quiet, almost broken voice, "I have no family."

Then she turned her back on him and closed her eyes as silent tears squeezed out of the corners. Stavros stared at her, then looked at Jason and Sonny and said, "Surely we can make a deal."

"I told you," Jason said in a flint-edged voice, "I wasn't going to be moved by pleadings. You had your chance, and you showed what mattered more to you. From now on, we will protect Elizabeth. We will protect our business and our interests. If you pull your son back and stop coming after our holdings, we might let you live. But as far as we're concerned, you will be treated like everyone else in your family. You've all tried to kill Elizabeth; you don't get to claim family when it's convenient to you. Our protection of you ends now. You're on your own, Mr. Cassadine."

"Get him out of here, Max," Sonny ordered. "Drop him off at the airport and make sure he gets on a plane. If he attempts to leave the airport, you are authorized to view him as a threat and eliminate him."

"You got it, Boss," Max stated and grabbed Stavros' arm, dragging him from the room and not being gentle at all about it.

Once the door was closed, Sonny looked at Elizabeth and then at Jason, and quietly said, "I'll go fix us all something to eat. We can talk later when you're ready."

With Sonny's exit, Spinelli took the opportunity to leave the room as well, mumbling something about going to monitor the situation. Once they were alone, Jason stepped over to wrap Elizabeth in his arms and hold her. She was stiff and quiet at first, and then he felt her tears wet his shirt and her shoulders start to tremble as her crying became more vocal.

"You're not alone, Elizabeth," he said softly, resting his cheek on her hair. "You're not alone. You have family, still...you have us."

Elizabeth was not aware of much after Max dragged her father out of Sonny's house. She knew that she and Jason were left alone, she knew that Jason held her and spoke to her and she knew, despite feeling foolish about it, that she hurt at the proof of her father's feelings in regards to her. She really shouldn't have expected any different, after all, Stavros had chosen the business over her when she was just a baby, but that didn't prevent the pain that lanced through her when she realized that her father would not risk his life and business to protect her. Of course, he was in an unenviable position of having to contemplate killing his father and his son...despite the stories she'd heard regarding the Cassadines it was a rather overwhelming event to contemplate patricide and homicide of your own child.

Maybe she had been wrong asking him to step up on her behalf. It was just that she didn't want Sonny and Jason to be blamed for the death of Mikkos. She wanted someone to know their reasons for it before it happened and she had thought her father would understand. That he would be properly horrified that his father wanted to murder her. Maybe he had been horrified by the thought, just not enough to do anything real and tangible to stop it. Because merely killing Mikkos would not stop Nikolas from wanting her dead. Would not stop her stepmother from wanting to see her harmed.

"You're going to have to take on the entire family," she breathed out to Jason as she sat on the end of the bed in his room. She didn't remember walking upstairs, she didn't know if Jason had carried her...she only knew that she was in his room and he was kneeling before her, poised to take off her shoes based on the way one hand was on the heel of her shoe, the other hovering near her ankle.

"Elizabeth?" he asked, looking up at her in concern.

"You're going to have to take on the entire family," she repeated. "Mikkos, Nikolas...who knows what Stavros will do now. Stefan probably won't stand by and let his father and nephew be killed and throw the business into turmoil. My stepmother...my aunt...what about Stefan's lover and children...what will they do? What will my grandmother do? Stavros made it sound like she hated Mikkos, but apparently she doted on Nikolas. If you kill him, what is she going to do? And what will my real mother do? Is she going to hate me for what happens to Stavros...or will she understand? And what...what about my parents? I-I mean the Webbers. My adopted mother is my stepmother's sister...they're supposedly connected people in France. What is their family going to do once all this starts?"

"Elizabeth," he said gently, rising up from his knees and moving to sit beside her. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to him. "You need to calm down. You're going to make yourself hyperventilate if you keep talking this fast and worrying about this."

"I can't help worrying about it," she burst out, wrenching herself from his hold and pacing across the room. "You and Sonny are going to war with this...this madness and it's because of me. I know Nikolas came after the business, but he never would have done that if you hadn't protected me. You wouldn't have had to protect me if Alexis hadn't sent me off to The Cellar hoping to kill me along with you and Sonny. I'm at the heart of all of this and I feel like Helen of Troy with two nations going to war over me and it...it's all so surreal and it seems so ridiculous."

Jason stood from the bed and approached her slowly, but deliberately. Once he was standing in front of her, he brushed his hand across her cheek and let his fingers whisper through her hair. Looking at her intently he said, "It is not ridiculous to fight to protect you. You didn't ask for any of this to happen, you were completely innocent. Sonny and I knew what we were doing when we protected you from Alexis. And then once we found out all that was involved, there was no way we were going to turn our backs on you."

"But your business," she protested. "The men who have died."

"It's not your fault," he told her firmly. "Nikolas and Mikkos chose to come after you and attack us. We will strike back."

She still looked at him forlornly, wondering how it was that he didn't blame her for this entire mess. When they first met, he would have. "How can you not hate me?" she questioned. "How can you be so ready to send your men into danger, to take on the Cassadines all because they want to kill me?"

"Because I love you," he told her. "Being around you, spending time getting to know you...somehow in the middle of it all, I fell in love with you. And I will die to protect you."

"No," she clutched at his shirt, shaking her head in desperation. "No. No, you can't die. You can't. You're all I have left, Jason...I can't lose you. The Webbers hate me and they'd probably turn me over to my stepmother. My birth family is out to kill me. You are the only person who has ever looked at me and just seen me. You don't demand things of me, you don't demean me, and you don't dismiss me as not being worth your time. You look at me and I...I feel like the rest of the world doesn't matter. I feel like I'm the most important, precious thing you've ever seen and I feel cherished. You can't leave me."

He lowered his head and pressed his lips against hers in a fervent kiss. His own desperation flowed through him and she felt it. She felt the promise that she knew she couldn't ask for. She knew that he would do everything he could to make sure he didn't leave her. He would fight, she knew that he wouldn't have it any other way...it was who he was, but he would do all that he could to make sure that he returned to her when it was over.

Just when Elizabeth thought they'd continue on in this frenzied desperation, Jason began to change the tenor of the kiss. He caressed instead of conquered, his touch was gentle instead of fevered, and instead of pulling her towards him as if he couldn't get close enough, he stepped back slightly. As his ardor cooled, it helped hers to do the same. She remembered that they were at Sonny's house, that the older man was waiting to talk to Jason and that a war with her insane family loomed over their head. While she knew that Jason wanted her, she also knew that he was reluctant to sleep with her at Sonny's. More than that, the timing was not the best.

Turning her head, she rested her cheek against his chest and let out a shaky breath, trying to tamp down her frustration. Would their timing ever be right? Would they ever get a chance to be together where it was just them and they didn't have people waiting, or places one of them needed to go? Closing her eyes, she tightened her arms around Jason's waist and once again felt ridiculously close to tears.

"Hey," he said gently, his voice low. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she nodded against his chest, not feeling equal to looking up at him quite yet. "I'm sorry I got a little carried away. I kinda forgot where we were and besides, you need to meet with Sonny. I'm just glad for the time I have with you."

Blinking and pulling herself together she looked up at him and told him, "Thank you for taking care of me. I know it's foolish, but it hurt."

"It's not foolish," he shook his head, brushing his fingers against her cheek and cradling her face in his broad palm. "He's your father."

"No," she denied. "He's not. I don't know him. He's no more my father than Jeff Webber is; he just happened to help make me."

With a laugh to cover the sob that was threatening to overwhelm her she said, "I don't mean to sound melodramatic, but right now I don't consider anyone my family. The Webbers and Cassadines don't count; I'm trying not to be ridiculous at the moment and fall apart. I've been on my own for years, so why should I suddenly feel like a lost little orphan?"

"Elizabeth," he said, his voice dipping down and reaching into the corners of her soul that were begging for him but she knew she couldn't give in and be weak right now.

"Jason," she shook her head, trying to warn him. "I'm trying not to fall apart right now."

"Why?" he questioned. "Do you think that I want you to pretend with me?"

"You need to meet with Sonny," she answered. "I know you do. You need to do that; not sit around here while I have some overblown reaction."

"Sonny will understand if I'm not there," he refuted, bending his knees slightly in an attempt to look her in the eye. "Mikkos and the rest of the Cassadines can wait a few more hours, or Sonny and Max will take care of things until I join them. I am not going to walk away from you like this. I know you're hurt and I know you're feeling alone, but you're not, Elizabeth. You have us."

"I know," she whispered. "I know that you care for me, I know that Sonny and the rest of the men will do everything they can to keep me safe."

"Do you know why?" Jason asked her, tilting his head slightly to the side.

"Because you're good men," she told him, sincerely meaning it. "None of you is going to let me be hurt just because I got caught up in a crazy family."

"That's it," he agreed, "but it's also because we're family. The movies aren't just making up lines when they call this una famiglia. We consider each other family, and you've become part of that. Long before I fell in love with you, the men looked out for you like they would a sister. They got on my case for the way I treated you. And now that they know that you're the woman I love, there isn't anything that they wouldn't do to protect you. You may not have a family like the Cassadines or the Webbers, something traditional that people understand, but you have us. You do have family, Elizabeth. And that is why I'm not leaving you; not when you need me the most."

Tears spilled over her lashes and Jason caught them with his thumb, then lowered his mouth to hers. It wasn't as desperate as their last kiss, but it was just as powerful. She felt the sense of belonging he was trying to convey to her. She knew that the love, the acceptance, the belonging she had never felt before was finally there. With a group of men tied together by their own code of honor that the rest of the world scorned. She had found a family, with Jason at the heart of it.

He bent suddenly and picked her up, carrying her to his bed and laying her down on it before stretching out beside her. He never ceased kissing her as his hands roamed her body, each pass becoming bolder and more enflaming.

"Jason?" she questioned, her head thrown back as he assaulted her neck. He had been insistent before that he would not take her in his friend's house.

"Shhh," he murmured against her skin. "Just feel, Elizabeth. Just let yourself feel."

War was never pretty. Death was never pleasant. It wasn't clean and censored like the movies and TV shows. It was gruesome, it was overwhelming, but for those who had chosen to be involved in this kind of business, it was merely a way of life. Kill or be killed, and fight to protect those things most important. It was a matter of choosing the right battles, choosing the right times to strike down with unholy might and terror, and when to go for a quieter, but still insidious, attack.

Right now, they were throwing everything at the Cassadine family and pulling absolutely no punches. Mikkos had been killed and his body shipped back to Greece as a warning. They were not overtly disrespectful and sent him home piece by piece, but there was a definite message delivered in the way his body was shipped. The Cassadine family was under attack and Sonny meant to bring them to their knees, just as Mikkos had been when he was crammed into a crate.

A power struggle erupted in the family. Stavros should have been the rightful heir, but Nikolas was looking to leapfrog his way into power and if he had to kill his own father to do so...well, that's just what needed to happen. Alexis had fled from Port Charles when the fighting between organizations erupted into the streets and she rightly read the situation. Sonny would not let sentimentality over their deceased child safeguard her; she had set him up, she had set up an innocent woman and she had sided with the man trying to destroy his business. No appeals to the past would protect her and Nikolas had no further use for her and wouldn't step in on her behalf, either.

Nobody could quite make out what side Stefan would fall on, or Helena. Helena had not been seen at all since Mikkos' funeral, but Stefan was seen traveling between his brother and his nephew. Perhaps he was trying to broker peace, or perhaps he was trying to not alienate whoever ended up the ultimate victor of the infighting. Jason still didn't trust the man's involvement in Elizabeth's situation, so he viewed every move the younger brother made with the utmost suspicion.

Sonny and Jason were content to let the Cassadines fight amongst themselves while implementing the next phase of their attack. The more they warred each other, the more of the enemy was killed without any of Sonny's men being exposed. While attacks were made on the organization by the Cassadines, they were erratic and unfocused and easily repelled. Jason and Sonny never underestimated any move, but they had bigger priorities at the moment. Destroying the Cassadine's power base by bankrupting them. Only those bound by the strongest and blindest of loyalty would continue to fight once they knew there was no money left to pay them. Outside resources become unavailable when they're wanted on credit and not cold hard currency. Piece by piece, the great Greco-Russian empire was crumbling, and nobody inside it even seemed to notice.

They knew that eventually the war would be taken to the Cassadine doorstep and casualties could be high. For now, though, Sonny and Jason were content to orchestrate the dismantling via Bernie and Spinelli's machinations and deal with the paltry efforts Nikolas made. They were watching the situation very closely, and knew that most of the son's efforts were in wresting control of the business away from his father. Stavros was fighting back ruthlessly and blood ran in the streets around them. Sonny saw no reason to put his men into the middle when the duo was doing such a good job of eliminating the other's powerbase. The victor would turn on Sonny, but would be sufficiently weakened; that's when the Latino would send forth his men that had been held in reserve and level the family.

Jason felt a bid odd, watching the maneuvers from afar, but there was no mistaking that they were maneuvers. Sonny may not have graduated from high school, but the man did read. And he'd apparently studied wars, and commanders and Sonny's war on the Cassadine could be compared in many ways to fighting between nations and their armies. Jason found himself wondering if the Cassadines - for all their pride in history and their lineage - had seen the similarities yet, or if they - like so many before - had merely underestimated and dismissed Sonny as an uneducated thug.

While Jason wanted to be doing more than dealing with whatever minor skirmishes arose surrounding the business in Port Charles, he wasn't going to complain too loudly. He was able to spend more time with Elizabeth than he had originally thought he'd have once they moved to strike against the Cassadines. He was nearby, and he had not missed a night at her side since the fateful day she had turned her back on Stavros.

They tried to remain discreet, mostly because Jason felt that their private lives were their business. There were a few raised eyebrows among the guards, a few questioning, lingering glances from Sonny and Spinelli, but all men were respectful enough to not comment or tease. The connecting doors between their two rooms helped both Jason and Elizabeth keep their privacy and their dignity. Spinelli had once knocked at Jason's room at a rather inconvenient moment, but Elizabeth had scurried off to her room and if Spinelli wondered at the older man's rather brusque answering of the door, he kept it to himself. If asked, they would have confirmed - there was no reason to deny their deepening feelings - but they weren't going to just announce it to everyone that they were sleeping with each other.

When Jason was late in returning to Sonny's compound, he would first go to his room and wash away the actions of the day, then he would slip into Elizabeth's room through the connecting closets and crawl into bed beside her. Even in her sleep she would turn towards him, sometimes cuddling close to him, sometimes only reaching out her hand to rest it on him; the motion always moved him. She had been lost and adrift after Stavros left, and despite her amazing strength that he admired in her, she had needed to grieve for the ending. She tried to hold so many things inside her, but having seen her hold too much and then shatter from the pressure, Jason didn't want her to repeat that. He didn't want her to hide her feelings from him and he'd reassured her and done his best to convince her that no matter what happened with the Webbers and the Cassadines, she did - and always would - have family with him.

Maybe one day he would ask her formally. For now, he merely intended to show her that she was not alone anymore and he would not turn his back on her. Every morning that she woke up beside him, he could see the realization of his commitment getting through to her. He hoped that when he did have to be gone, it would sustain her and keep her going until he returned to her.

However, this morning's gradual awakening and time where they could talk and share their love, was cut short by someone pounding on a door down the hall from Elizabeth's room. It was loud, it was persistent and Jason knew that it was Spinelli knocking on the door to his room. He'd been the recipient of such frantic wake-ups from Spinelli before when the hacker would stay up late working on something and then summon Jason from what few hours of sleep he'd managed to get to alert him to his findings.

The knocking paused and just as Jason was about to get up and go through the connecting doors to his room, there came a new knock. This one on Elizabeth's door. It was not as frantic and machine gun-like as the one on his door. It was slightly hesitant, yet also firm.

The voice that accompanied it was completely hesitant. "Um...Fair Elizabeth...is...do you...I am seeking Stone Cold. Please."

Elizabeth sat up on the bed and pushed her hair out of her face while bracing her elbows on her bent knees. She then lifted her head and looked at Jason. "Go ahead and answer the door. He knew to come knocking here...there's no point in trying to hide anything."

He nodded and left the bed, tugging to make sure his sweatpants weren't sagging before opening the door. Spinelli sprang back into the hall and let out a slight eep upon seeing him.

"Stone Cold," the younger man gasped out. "I apologize most profusely for the...the early morning disturbance...but something has happened that demands your immediate presence."

He twisted his hands together and fairly hopped from foot to foot. "And the presence of the Fair Elizabeth."

"What is it?" Jason demanded.

The hacker shook his head and said, "Mister Corinthos, Sir wants you both downstairs immediately."

Scrubbing his hand over his face, he let out a sigh. "Okay. We'll be down in just a minute."

The young man nodded and then turned and fled for his bedroom. Jason closed the door and turned to find Elizabeth no longer in bed but in the bathroom, brushing her hair back and then securing it into a ponytail so it would be out of the way. She grabbed a long sleeve shirt to put over the camisole top she'd worn to bed with sleep pants and then waited while he grabbed a shirt hanging on a chair and slipped it on.

"What do you think it is?" she asked him as they stepped into the hall and turned for the stairs, their bare feet padding lightly on the thick rug running the length of the space.

"I don't know," he shook his head, reaching out to take her hand as unease settled into his gut. For Sonny to be up this early and send for Jason, it wouldn't be a good thing. To send for him and Elizabeth...Jason didn't even want to begin to speculate what could have happened.

As they reached the ground floor and stepped into the main room, Jason came to a stop and tugged on Elizabeth's arm to move her behind him. Why hadn't he thought to grab his gun? Just because there were guards surrounding the house didn't mean that the interior could never be breached. It was a rookie mistake and Jason was above such lapses.

Elizabeth gasped when she realized what he was trying to shield her from, or more exactly who. In the middle of the room next to Sonny stood Helena Cassadine. Dressed in a blood-red suit, she was clearly the focal point; something she no doubt intended. The room seemed to pale in comparison next to the imperial looking woman.

"Elizabeth, darling," she spoke. "I see that Stavros was accurate in his assumptions; you and Mr. Morgan appear to have developed a relationship beyond his willingness to protect you from your brother."

She smiled at the pair when they didn't move or respond and then said, "There's no need to hide, my darling. I came here to see you...and unlike your grandfather, I definitely don't want to kill you."

Elizabeth stared at the woman in front of her, looked over at Sonny, quickly glanced at Jason, and then returned her gaze to Helena Cassadine. Then she shook her head and snorted. Downright scoffed before it turned into a bitter laugh.

"What is it with you people?" she demanded.

Then looking at Sonny she raised her brow, "Spinelli came banging on our door for...this?"

"She contacted me and said she wished to speak to you," the older man replied. "I know you don't care, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to see her if you wanted. Of course, I had no idea she was going to show up here at this hour. She's been searched, her bag and jewelry taken. No chance of her trying to slip something in your drink."

"As if I'd take anything from her," Elizabeth huffed.

"Elizabeth, darling," the older woman said, interjecting herself back into the conversation. "I know that you probably have no wish to see me."

"Then why are you here?" she asked, turning to look back at the silver-blonde haired woman. "If you can already predict, or maybe it's imagine, my reaction to you being here...then why did you come?"

"Because I wanted to let you know that there was someone in our family who was happy you know about us now," Helena replied. "To let you know that there is someone who loves you."

"Funny," she arched her brow. "My father claimed to love me, but he sent me off to some other family so he could keep sleeping with my mother, and now that his son is trying to kill me, he's trying to reason with him and get him under control. I'm sure that people tried to reason with Genghis Khan as well, and I'm sure that worked real well for them."

"Yes," her grandmother sighed wearily. "Nikolas is not willing to listen to anyone at the moment. He is...upset regarding his grandfather's death and he blames you for it. He is determined to make you pay, as well as rectify the wrong he believes occurred when you were born.

"I love my grandson," she admitted. "But I will not condone his behavior towards you. Mikkos and his heirs only focused on the male line of succession; they believe that women are insignificant and can be bartered away for whatever needs to be procured. I knew that when I married him...it was an arrangement between our families. But I wanted whatever power I could get and with Mikkos' vast empire I was certain I could obtain some. And I did."

Elizabeth dipped her head to the side in mock salute and said, "Congratulations. I'm very happy for you."

"It also benefits you, Elizabeth," the older woman continued. "I have made alliances with people my sons and my grandson are not aware of. My husband may have suspected, but he was content to ignore them because he wished to ignore me. I provided him with his heir and spare and he did not care that I wished for a daughter...he went off and had one with that harlot. And when I dispatched of her, he prevented me from eliminating the whelps as well. I was forced to bring his daughter into my home and raise her; he was sure I wouldn't mind since I'd wanted a girl."

With a lift of her brows she said, "If this is supposed to make me sympathetic to you, it's failing miserably. In fact, if I'm supposed to see your side of things, then I think I'm just going to go back to bed. It was your example that my stepmother wished to emulate when she found out about my mother. It was because of that that I got sent to the Webbers...where I grew up with my step-aunt as my mother and lived through years of verbal and emotional abuse from her, just as I'm sure Alexis suffered under your loving care. So if I'm supposed to empathize with you simply because you wished for a daughter and didn't get one...well, you're failing miserably."

"I know that it seems twisted," Helena admitted. "That I could claim to love you when I tormented Natasha. But I do love you, darling Elizabeth. From the moment I found out that my dear Stavros had another child, a girl, I have loved you. I have had men keeping an eye on you, keeping me informed of your growth and progress. I knew your mother was Danielle's sister, and that you were not treated well. I also knew that Stavros had no idea and neither did Stefan. It was all orchestrated by my duplicitous daughter-in-law."

Elizabeth swallowed roughly and stepped backwards, blindly reaching for Jason's hand and almost sobbing with relief when he clasped hers. Shaking with hurt and anger, she stared at the woman in front of her and wanted to rage at her. Wanted to spit on her, slap her, yell and scream. But the pain that was gripping her had made it impossible for her to speak.

It was Jason, though, who found his voice and said all she couldn't somehow find the air to speak. "If you knew," he demanded with cold fury, "then why did you do nothing to stop it? Why did you let Elizabeth grow up where she was abused and tormented, where she was raped and blamed for it, where she was made to be miserable? If you love her so much...why would you leave her in that situation?"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand, Mr. Morgan," the older woman stated dismissively.

"Try me," Jason growled fiercely. "I'm not so brain-damaged that I can't understand family. I walked away from mine when they would rather cover-up for the brother who rammed my head into a tree and made me forget them, than deal with me as I was. So don't tell me that things were complicated and you couldn't step in and help Elizabeth. It's just another excuse for never helping her."

"I was protecting Stefan's children," Helena stated. "As well as trying to keep my husband from going after Elizabeth. He may not have cared about the daughters he sired, but he was furious with Stavros for Elizabeth. He threatened on more than one occasion to kill everyone except Nikolas and raise him exactly how he wanted. I was trying to protect other lives, as well as keep Stefan and Stavros around to temper their father and Nikolas."

"Except that didn't work so well, did it?" Elizabeth asked as she finally found her voice.

"Nikolas was more manageable until he found Stavros' files regarding you," her grandmother tried to explain. "There were times I thought Nikolas might actually side with his father against Mikkos. If Mikkos had died sooner, Stavros would have been the head of the family and he would have been able to deal with Nikolas. But Stavros had to travel on business and Nikolas went searching for some contract that he shouldn't have, but wanted to prove he could take the initiative...and he found out about your existence. Since then...he has become obsessed with eliminating you because he sees you as the reason his father and mother were never happy. He refuses to see that it was Mikkos' arrangement, forcing two people into a marriage neither of them wanted, that caused them to be unhappy and affected Nikolas' childhood."

The older woman lifted her brows and said, "I'm afraid that the Cassadines can be quite obsessed at times."

"At times?" she retorted.

Then with a tired shake of her head, Elizabeth said, "Look, I don't care. I don't care about your reasons for why or why not you didn't do anything. I don't care about any of you. I rather like living and I trust Jason and Sonny to keep me that way. I wouldn't trust you to go to the corner and get me a newspaper."

Bringing her hand up to rub at her forehead wearily she slumped her shoulders as she looked down at the ground. "Frankly, whatever you were hoping for...I don't think you're ever going to find it. With every new family member I meet, I like you all less and less and I don't want any further contact with you. So could you...could you please just go back to wherever it is you came from and leave me alone?"

"I can't do that, Elizabeth," the other woman replied, and if it wasn't for the fact that Elizabeth knew they were all psychopaths, she would almost believe the regret she heard was genuine. "Because I love Nikolas and Stavros as well, despite how foolish and pigheaded they are behaving. Our power is dwindling, along with our bank accounts. I believe your Mr. Morgan and his associate may have some knowledge about that. I wish to find a way to stop this senseless violence between our two organizations before everyone in my family is wiped out."

"Oh," Sonny said, his voice light, but lethal. "I don't think every member will be dead. We plan to keep Elizabeth alive and healthy."

"I believe you do mean that," Helena replied and gave a regal bow of her head. "And I thank you. But I would like to not eliminate the Cassadine line completely. That is why I would like to try to broker a truce between us."

"No offense to you, Mrs. Cassadine," Sonny replied, his voice still light. "But the truce needs to come from your son and grandson. Nikolas is the one who began this war between our organizations; he is the one who blew up my building, went after my shipments and has killed my men. I'm not sure who is responsible for the attacks happening now; I will hold your grandson and his father equally responsible because Stavros made his choice. While your effort is noble, you've wasted your time coming here. The only one who can end this war is the one most determined to continue it. Until he is willing to concede, we will continue to defend Elizabeth and our territory."

"But Elizabeth can get Nikolas to no longer see her as a threat," Helena stated. "She can make her brother see that she is not a threat to him and he will back off of her and you."

"And what do I have to do to accomplish that?" Elizabeth wondered, tilting her head in question as she folded her arms over her chest. "Frankly, I think the only thing that would get Nikolas to leave me alone is for me to die. I'm not willing to do that."

"No," her grandmother shook her head. "You need to get married."

Elizabeth couldn't help looking at Jason after the older woman's pronouncement, but his face didn't seem to register any reaction to her words. He just glared icily at Helena, his hands taught at his side.

"And just...who exactly do you...propose that I marry?" she couldn't help wondering.

"There is a family that the Cassadines were once aligned with, but Mikkos disregarded them," her grandmother began. "I maintained contact with them, had my own business dealings with them. They are not as powerful as the Cassadines, but if you were to marry one of their grandsons, then you would be protected. You would become part of their family and organization and Nikolas could be persuaded you were no longer a threat to our family."

Sonny laughed before Elizabeth could even say anything. "You're a crazy, old bat. Why would Elizabeth be safe if she married a family that wasn't as powerful as the Cassadines? It seems like she would be more vulnerable."

"Nikolas will believe she isn't a threat if her new family cannot come after the Cassadines," she retorted.

"If you want Elizabeth to become part of an organization," Sonny said. "If you think that she's less of a threat if she's married and will produce sons to populate someone else's business, then it would be more sensible for her to marry Jason."

"Mr. Morgan is only an enforcer," Helena shook her head.

"You planning to marry her off to a first son?" Sonny did not back down. "I know the families you've maintained contact with, Helena. I've had you under investigation since Alexis and I were one-time lovers. I know who you associate with and the only family that has any remote chance of standing up to your insane grandson only has a younger grandson not married. He has very little influence in the family business, so how would that benefit Elizabeth?

"On the other hand," he continued, bringing his hand up to rub his chin. "Jason is my enforcer. He's powerful and respected in his own right. His wife would be afforded the same protection as my wife would. Not just by our men, but by our associates. They would support us in any action we undertook to protect her."

By now, Elizabeth was openly gaping at Jason and Sonny, wondering if both men had taken leave of their senses. Sonny was talking about marrying her off to Jason in a case of we can protect her better and Jason was not saying anything.

"Nikolas, and perhaps even Stavros, would be threatened by such an alliance," Helena shook her head. "They would view it as your attempt to completely eliminate them and then fold our business into yours because Elizabeth is now married to your right-hand man. You are simply too powerful."

The Latino's dimples came out in full force as he smiled with an almost maniacal grin. "And that's why we're her best choice. You want to protect your granddaughter with certainty, not just hope for the best. Marrying her to Jason ensures she will survive."

"Yeah?" Elizabeth finally spoke up, drawing the attention of the room to her. "Well, what if I'm not interested in such a stellar deal? Getting married for protection is no better than Stavros getting married to my stepmother to join business empires or Helena here marrying Mikkos because the Cassadines needed a cash infusion and she had the best dowry."

She pulled her hand of Jason's and crossed her arms over her chest. "If I ever get married it's going to be because I love the man and he loves me and we want to have a life together. Not because it's expedient or protects one of us or anything like that. I am not going to be bartered off like I'm some animal. So if you're all done trying to arrange my life, why don't you figure out, instead, how you're going to protect it? Some way that doesn't involve me getting married simply because you have some hair-brained idea that it's somehow the only way or the best way possible."

"If you'll excuse me," she said, her voice dripping with disgust, "I'm going back to bed. I can't deal with this crap any longer."

Of all the things Jason expected to encounter when he came downstairs with Elizabeth this morning, her grandmother and a marriage of convenience had not been anywhere near the top. He'd thought that perhaps the Cassadines had tried to launch a full out strike, or maybe Stavros had come crawling back - or perhaps his brother - in an attempt to broker peace between the two organizations. He had not expected to come across the woman some people referred to as The Ice Queen.

He was angry on Elizabeth's behalf that this woman supposedly claimed to love her granddaughter, but had left her in a home where she'd been abused and mistreated. Claims of doing it so that she could protect everyone else just left a bitter taste in Jason's mouth. Because all it meant was that once again Elizabeth was sacrificed for everyone else. She was left in a miserable situation simply so that others didn't have to stand up and fight, or so that other people could continue having their peaceful, little lives.

Why was it that nobody ever thought about what was best for her?

And then came the most insulting part of the entire conversation. Helena wanted to marry Elizabeth off to some second son in a weak organization and believed that such a move would actually protect the younger woman. That, somehow, bartering her off to a pathetic family would make Nikolas feel less threatened and would placate him and he would no longer feel the need to destroy her. How was it possible that she couldn't see that it would only leave Elizabeth more open and vulnerable? Nikolas wouldn't be satisfied with such a move; he would see it as an open invitation to wipe out his sister and her new family because nobody would be able to stop him.

Jason honestly couldn't figure out if Helena truly believed her plan would work, or if she was simply more subtle in her desire to eliminate her granddaughter. Or if the whole suggestion had merely been a ploy to bring about a different marriage proposal. Like the one Sonny suggested.

The older woman had alluded to the fact that everyone believed he and Elizabeth were involved, yet she had suggested her granddaughter marry someone else. Why not just ask Jason to step up and marry Elizabeth and formalize the protection he and Sonny were already offering her? Was it really a case of believing the Corinthos Organization was too powerful, or was she playing them and hoping to rile them and make them insist that Elizabeth would marry Jason and nobody else? And why was it that nobody could ever just come out and say what they meant but instead had to go through all these ridiculous maneuverings and games?

After Elizabeth left the room, Sonny kindly suggested that Helena leave and give them all a chance to think things over and talk about the situation amongst themselves. The older man had acted as if he would somehow be able to get Jason and Elizabeth to come around to the idea and Elizabeth's grandmother didn't need to worry about anything. Once she was gone, he'd merely turned to Jason and suggested that the enforcer think about it. Making Elizabeth his wife would ensure that their allies would stand behind them completely. No longer was it merely protecting an innocent woman caught up in a family feud, now it would be the Corinthos Organization protecting the wife of Jason Morgan. Families who were reluctant to engage the Cassadines over the matter would now step up and support Jason and Sonny completely.

Jason could only gape at his friend's suggestion. Hadn't the older man been listening to Elizabeth? Marriage - despite what Sonny had done in the past - should not be about convenience or power. It should be about love and mutual respect and wanting to be with that person above all others. Jason believed that, and Elizabeth most of all deserved that.

"Oh, Stone Cold."

Spinelli squeaked to a stop as he entered the room. Jason looked up from the couch where he was sitting nursing a beer, despite the early hour and gave a reassuring look to the younger man.

"I...I thought that perhaps you would be upstairs," the computer tech continued on. "I...I heard the Artistic One...rather loudly enter her room. I...The Jackal presumed that you would be talking to her and calming her down as you are always able to do."

Jason let out a sigh and said, "I'm not sure what to say to her at the moment."

The younger man looked positively confused as he asked, "Did you and the Fair Elizabeth quarrel? You...I do most profusely apologize for this morning's...early awakening. I hope I did not embarrass you or the Artistic One."

"It's not that," he shook his head. "You know that Helena Cassadine was here...that's why Sonny wanted to see us?"

When Spinelli nodded, Jason continued. "Elizabeth is upset with her grandmother. I'm upset with her grandmother. Helena knew Elizabeth was with Stavros' wife's sister, but did nothing to protect Elizabeth. She claimed that she had to leave Elizabeth there in order to protect everyone else."

"While the Fair Elizabeth suffered," the younger man said softly.

"Exactly," he growled out. "And then she comes along with this ridiculous suggestion that Elizabeth should get married to some second son in a weak family that Helena knows because that will somehow make Nikolas less threatened and he won't try to kill her anymore."

"By leaving her vulnerable with an organization that won't be able to repel any attack the Deranged One makes?" The incredulity in the hacker's voice was exactly how Jason felt.

"Yeah," he scoffed. "You saw that flaw, too. Sonny did, and so he suggested that instead of marrying Elizabeth off to some weak organization, she should marry me. We're strong, we could protect her and the Families would step up to protect my wife instead of it merely being someone Sonny's extended his protection to."

"That's wonderful, Stone Cold," Spinelli fairly burst with enthusiasm. "You and the Fair Elizabeth will be joined in wedded bliss!"

Jason stared at the man, a scowl deep on his face, and the hacker's eyes widened and his mouth opened and closed several times before he timidly asked, "You...you and the Fair Elizabeth won't be getting married?"

"Elizabeth claimed that she wasn't going to get married just for convenience or power, or because it would somehow make things easier," he shook his head. "She stormed out of the room and hasn't been down since."

"Did...did you talk to her?" the younger man wondered.

"I...I don't know what to say to her," Jason admitted. "She was pretty disgusted with the whole idea."

"How do you know?" his friend asked.

"She said it, Spinelli. When Sonny and Helena were haggling about whether she should marry this kid Helena knows or marry me, she said she was sick of them talking about her life that way and trying to marry her off."

The other man paused for a long moment and then cautiously asked, "What did you say while Mr. Sir and the Long Lost Grandmother were talking?

"Nothing," he shook his head. "What was I supposed to say? They were arguing over our future like we were nothing more than pawns in their game."

The computer hacker looked positively dismayed. "You didn't say anything?"

When his silence confirmed it, Spinelli sighed out plaintively. "Stone Cold."

"What?" Jason snapped. "What? What was I supposed to say? That I didn't appreciate them talking about my life like that and that when I asked Elizabeth to marry she would know that I loved her and wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and not because it would make it easier for Sonny and me to protect her?"

Spinelli threw his hands up into the air and said, "Yes!"

Taking a deep breath and quelling back slightly from the furious glint in Jason's eye, he continued. "You know what her family's like. Her grandmother married her murderous grandfather because the Cassadine family was in financial difficulty and Helena brought a much needed cash influx. But Recently Departed Grandpa didn't love Helena and had a long-standing relationship with the Swedish Opera Singer which resulted in Helena killing her and trying to kill Mr. Sir's former paramour.

"Elizabeth's own father got married to someone he didn't love because it solidified the family's power," Spinelli pointed out. "So Stavros romanced the Fair Elizabeth's Maternal One, and that resulted in Elizabeth's life being threatened even before she was born. Now the Cassadine Matriarch and Mr. Sir start talking about marrying the Fair One off to someone, even if you are a potential groom, and it's nothing more than a business arrangement."

Jason began to understand what the younger man was trying to make him see. "You love her and you say that marriage to her is something you've contemplated...but you didn't want it to be about protection or expediency. Did you ever contemplate that perhaps the Artistic One desired it to be the same way and was hoping you would speak up and tell Mr. Sir and Granny that?"

"Why wouldn't she just say that?" he asked in irritation.

"She did," the other man pointed out. "She said she didn't want her marriage to be about what they were talking about, she wanted it to be about love. But did you really expect her to say 'If Jason ever asks me to marry him I want it to be because he loves me, not just because it's a convenient way for him to protect me'? You may be sleeping together, but how is she supposed to know you've been thinking about marriage?"

Jason sighed and rubbed his hand over his forehead. "Yeah. She wouldn't say something like that. She...she wouldn't look at me while she was talking."

"The Fair One looks at you all the time," Spinelli stated. "She must have been upset and hurt."

Peering at the other man in question, the enforcer asked, "Did Elizabeth send you down here to talk to me?"

Immediately the younger man shook his head vigorously. "No. I have not seen Fair Elizabeth since this morning when I unfortunately interrupted your interlude and I have not heard from her since she slammed the door and alerted me that someone had come upstairs."

"Then what's with the advice?"

"The Grasshopper has learned from his Master," Spinelli said, giving a little bow with his head. "Whenever The Jackal has had confusion and troubles in the romance department and has come seeking wisdom from the great Stone Cold, his master has always counseled him to listen to what the fairer sex is saying. That what women want is for someone to listen to them and to believe in them and what The Jackal hears from the Fair Elizabeth's words is that she does not want a marriage bartered and arranged. But she didn't say that she would never marry you. If the thought repulsed her, she would have stated that you were the last man in the world she could ever be prevailed upon to marry."

Jason lifted his brow and the hacker just shook his head and pointed to the door that would lead to the stairs. "Get up there and talk to her. That's what she needs instead of you sitting down here drinking beer."

He had a feeling it would come down to this, but even if Elizabeth was initially a little upset with him, he was going to follow through with his plans. After talking with Spinelli, Jason had gone up to his room and knocked on the connecting door between his and Elizabeth's rooms. There was no answer, and when he tried the knob, he discovered that it was locked. Not a surprise. Elizabeth was obviously upset and looking for a little space.

He would respect that, after he spoke with her briefly and let her know his feelings on her grandmother's declarations. He wasn't going to let her stew for hours longer on this; he had seen Elizabeth hold onto her emotions and they always blew big and messy and he wanted to avoid that if possible. So he deftly picked the lock on the door and made his way into her room. He made enough noise to alert her that he was coming so she wouldn't be entirely caught off guard, but he didn't hear any response. He discovered why when he found her sprawled out on the bed that they had shared only hours earlier.

Her eyes looked slightly red and puffy and she had a bit of a snuffle as she slept and he highly suspected it was because she'd cried before falling asleep. He hated seeing the definitive confirmation that she'd been decidedly upset. Letting out a sigh, he frowned slightly as he neared the bed, wondering how she would react to his presence. Was she mad at him, or merely the over-presumption and high-handedness of her grandmother and Sonny? Would she treat him as a convenient target or give him a chance to talk to her?

Sitting down on the bed, Jason watched her for a moment before reaching out and gently placing his hand on her leg. She shifted slightly under the touch, but settled down again. Slowly, he rubbed his hand over her calf, his fingers at times sliding under the leg of her pajamas as he maintained a soft, yet steady pressure in the hopes of rousing her from her nap.

"Elizabeth," he said quietly as her eyelids fluttered. "I'm sorry to wake you, sweetheart, but I wanted to talk to you."

She stretched languidly as her eyes blinked hazily, and then suddenly she froze. Her body went ramrod still and he stopped his hand's movement, yet didn't remove it from her leg. He knew she was awake; it just remained to be seen how she would react to him.

Deciding to start first in the hopes of diffusing any anger she might be feeling, he said, "I'm sorry if I startled you, or maybe even upset you coming in here. I know you locked the door. I wanted to talk to you, Elizabeth, about what happened downstairs."

"There's nothing to talk about," she told him, rolling away from his touch and looking straight up at the ceiling.

"Yes, there is," he insisted. "Sonny and Helena were out of line, trying to arrange your life and deciding that marriage was the only way to keep you safe. It's not your responsibility to make it easier for Nikolas to accept or dismiss you. His actions are completely on him."

"It's obvious that my grandmother loves him and so she doesn't want him killed. And she doesn't want her son killed." Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders. "I understand that."

"I don't care about Nikolas or Stavros," Jason told her, an edge entering his voice. "What I care about is how she made you feel."

She crossed her arms tightly across her chest and said, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Your grandmother was ready to barter you off like you were a piece of property or livestock," he said, doing his best to keep his voice gentle. "With no regard for your feelings or wishes, she was mapping out your life. Who you'd marry and why, and she was once again putting you behind your family."

He watched as she clenched her jaw together and her throat muscles tightly convulsed as she swallowed. Gently reaching out, he placed his hand on her ankle making sure to keep the touch light.

"I don't know whether she was sincere in claiming she loves you," he continued on, looking down at the rumpled covers. "But that's not the important thing. What matters is that she wasn't really thinking of you in that moment. Your safety is paramount, and you won't have that if you get married off to some second son in a weaker family. Sonny and I have been protecting you because you are important and we will continue to do that no matter what."

He glanced up at her and said, "I hope you'll believe that, Elizabeth."

Licking his lips he then told her, "Your happiness is also important, and you wouldn't have that in her scenario. Not knowing anybody, scared and frightened and feeling abandoned. Nobody can force you to do anything you don't want to...least of all get married. That's why Sonny was also wrong in his suggestion."

"Then why-" she burst out, before stopping and clamping her lips together.

Jason shifted, moving closer to her on the bed and now resting his hand on her knee. "Why didn't I say anything when they were talking?" he asked.

Her eyes drifted closed and she nodded her head just a fraction.

"Because in that moment, Elizabeth," he confessed. "I was afraid to say anything."

Her eyes snapped open on that and she turned her head to stare at him. "Afraid?"

"I was afraid of opening my mouth and agreeing with them and not having you understand that it wasn't for their reasons that we should get married." He let out a breath and said, "I also didn't want to get into a fight with your grandmother, but before Sonny started talking I was ready to tell her in no uncertain terms that there was no way I was going to let you marry anybody that wasn't me."

Elizabeth's eyebrows drifted up towards her hair and she stared at him incredulously. "What?"

"See," he sighed, "this is why I didn't say anything; because I didn't want to make you angry at me. But I have to tell you, there is no way I'm letting you marry somebody else without a fight."

She pushed herself up on her elbows and gaped at him and he reached out to rest his hand over hers. "When Helena was talking about marrying you off, there was no way I was going to let that happen. You are not a piece of furniture or an animal to be bartered off; you don't deserve to be treated like your only value is in diffusing a war or a feud. Your marriage should be about love, because you love him and he loves you above everything. That's what I felt when they were talking. It just hit me that there was no one else I wanted to marry except for you and there was no one else I wanted you to marry except for me. But we couldn't have that discussion downstairs in front of your grandmother or Sonny."

Shaking her head slightly she pushed herself up further until she was sitting, looping her arm around her raised knees, and looked at him. She looked so in awe and he just kept going since she wasn't fighting with him.

"Then I was sitting downstairs trying to sort it all out. It was so sudden, but it felt right, but I didn't want you to think that I was only saying that because of the situation."

"Jason?" she interrupted softly and he immediately stopped speaking. "What do you want?"

He took a deep breath and then looked straight into her eyes and said, "I want to marry you, Elizabeth. If you're not ready for it to be right now, then it won't be. It won't be rushed because anyone thinks it would make it easier to handle Nikolas and the rest of your family but I..."

Trailing off, he looked down briefly as he took a deep breath and then looked up at her again. "I want to marry you, Elizabeth. I don't want to let you go...not because I think you'd actually agree to marry someone else - especially if you didn't love them. But once the thought struck me...it's all that I want. I want everyone to know how much I love you and that you're my family."

Elizabeth looked down, her fingers playing with the fold of the sheets, before she tentatively reached out her hand and covered his. She didn't look up at him, but she wrapped her fingers around his broad palm and squeezed slightly. He was quiet, wondering what thoughts were going through her mind, but allowing her time to sort them all.

"When Helena began talking," she finally spoke, still not looking up at him, "I was struck by how archaic it all felt and sounded. Arranged marriages, pairings made for financial bailouts or territory mergers, people who despise or don't know each other suddenly married...it's all so distasteful and insulting. I want you to promise me something."

"What?" he asked, leaning forward slightly to hear her.

"Promise me that you will never use, or allow someone else to use our children like that," she said as she finally looked up at him. "Our children will not be negotiating tools. If they fall in love with someone in a different organization and want to marry them, that's one thing...but if they want to marry someone else away from this life, they'll be allowed to. Our children are never to be pawns."

"Never," he quickly agreed with her. "They will be allowed to make their own choices...I promise you, Elizabeth."

The corner of her mouth turned up as she said, "Then, yes. Yes, Jason, I'll marry you, because I know you'll keep your promise to me."

He blinked, his own smile of joy mixed with disbelief forming. "Yes?"

"Yes," she nodded. "I know you love me, and I love you. I know this isn't because of what Helena and Sonny said...or at least not just because of that. I feel it, Jason. I know you and I feel it. So, yes, I'll marry you."

Leaning forward, he captured her lips, wrapping his arm around her waist and pulling her closer. He increased the pressure, pouring everything he felt into that moment, trying to convey to her how much he loved her and wanted to marry her and was happy with her answer. It was when she was laying back on the bed, her fingers spread against his back to pull him closer as he hovered over her resting on one elbow that he paused. Looking down at her, seeing the love and passion in her eyes for him that it struck him; she was going to be his wife. He had only a marginal relationship with some members of the Quartermaines and Sonny was his brother-mentor-friend and Spinelli was his friend but Elizabeth...

She was going to be his wife. She was talking about having children with him. They were going to make a family, and it wasn't just because it might be a convenient means to protect her. When he'd found her hiding under the bar in The Cellar, he never thought they would end up in this place.

"You said yes, right?" he asked, partially teasing, yet utterly serious.

"Yes," she repeated, her voice a solemn vow in the quiet room. "Yes."

"When?" he asked. "Sonny will think this about Helena and will push for as soon as possible...but it's completely up to you, Elizabeth. If you need some time to get ready or to adjust to it all...I want you to know that I will support you completely."

She brushed her fingertips lightly over his cheek and her eyes misted over as she gave him a wobbly smile. "I know. But I don't see any need to wait. After all," her eyes twinkled slightly, "it would make it easier to protect me."

When Elizabeth agreed to marry Jason, not because it would make it easier for him and Sonny to protect her, or because her grandmother had some silly notion that it would make her half-brother fear her less and stop trying to kill her, but because she loved him and felt it in every fiber of her being that he loved her, she had not expected this for her wedding day.

She expected a quick, simple ceremony with a priest or a judge and Sonny and Spinelli for witnesses. Maybe she'd pick out her finest dress to wear and Jason might put on something besides jeans and a t-shirt. She would have accepted that; after all, Sonny kept stressing the need for secrecy. They did not want to let any of the Cassadines know what was happening and have Nikolas make an attack on that day. They wanted to present the marriage to her family once it was completed and they had the full weight and force of the Five Families behind them because those men were willing to go toe-to-toe with the Cassadine family in order to protect Jason Morgan's wife.

Secrecy, to her, meant sneaking a priest or a judge into Sonny's house in the middle of the night, getting married in the living room and signing the marriage license like it was just another piece of paperwork for Sonny and Jason's lawyer to file. She had not expected days to pass between her accepting Jason's proposal and the actual ceremony to take place. She had not expected it to take place in a quiet, out-of-the-way church outside Port Charles that was beautifully decorated with flowers and candles that made the place glow ethereally. And she had definitely not expected to walk down the aisle in a designer gown while the heads of the Five Families sat in the pews of the chapel.

How Sonny had arranged it all was beyond her, but it was just proof that despite his kind demeanor and gentle handling of her situation, he was, indeed, a mobster. And Jason was his second-in-command and powerfully connected in his own right. The men who witnessed her say her vows to Jason had been upset at first when they were transported from the back room of the restaurant they were meeting at to this small chapel, but they stayed because they respected Sonny and Jason enough to give them the benefit of the doubt and accept their need for secrecy. They spoke to her with a level of respect she knew she wouldn't get if Sonny had just introduced her as Stavros Cassadine's hidden daughter, and certainly not if they'd just encountered her when she'd been nothing more than a waitress putting herself through school.

At first she'd been frightened and intimidated at the thought of saying her vows with such powerful and deadly men watching her, but the moment Jason took her hand in his and began to speak, she completely forgot everyone else. In that moment, it was simply the two of them alone with the priest. Her voice was thick with emotion as she finished her vows, and when Jason slipped the wedding band that matched the engagement ring perfectly that he'd surprised he with the day after he proposed she had tears slide down her cheeks. Her hand shook when she went to place his ring on his finger, but when the priest declared them man and wife and told Jason he could kiss the bride, she never wanted the blissful feeling to end.

Clapping brought them back to the moment and Elizabeth turned to look at the men in the audience, smiling sheepishly at them which seemed to make them clap even harder. Jason tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow and then led her down the aisle to the vestibule, around the corner and down into the basement of the church where that room had been transformed into a small reception area. The other guests soon followed them and she stood by Jason's side as the men approached them, presumably to offer their congratulations. Guards milled around the perimeter of the room and she knew more were outside keeping them all safe, and if she could just forget that the majority of the room, and possibly even the groom, had guns under their suit jackets, she would believe that she'd stepped into a fairy tale.

The men formed a line to greet her, and one by one, they all stepped forward to speak to her and Jason.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Morgan," an elderly gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair and bushy eyebrows greeted them first. He looked to be the oldest of the group and the man Sonny spoke to the most, so it didn't surprise her that everyone else seemed to defer to him. "Mr. Corinthos has explained to us the situation regarding your family the Cassadines, but we know that is not the reason you have chosen to marry Mr. Morgan. There was no denying the love on your face...and I have never seen such emotion from the man."

He took her hand and then leaned forward to kiss her cheek. "May your marriage be filled with love and happiness, and may you be blessed with children."

After pronouncing his blessing upon them, he straightened and withdrew her hand from Elizabeth's. As the man turned to speak to Jason, she realized that she felt something in her hand and glanced down. Her eyes widened when she saw she was holding a folded stack of money, a hundred dollar bill on the outside of the crisp, new-feeling pile. She glanced over at Jason but he was still speaking to the man and so her eyes flew around the room, looking for someone else to give her a clue as to what she should do. Sonny met her gaze, smiled at her reassuringly and then slipped his hand into the pocket of his coat and nodded his head towards Jason. She blinked and then licked her lips and nodded her own head, shifting her bouquet to shield her slipping the money into Jason's pocket. He looked down at her, his eyebrows lifted slightly in question when he felt the tug on his coat, but then he looked up as the next man stepped forward.

The remainder of the family heads spoke to her first, complimenting her and well-wishing her and Jason, and then each one of them slipped money into her hand as they clasp it. Some brushed a kiss over her knuckles, while others kissed her cheek, but they'd all leave behind a gift of bills as they then talked to her husband. She would place the money in his pocket, still in shock over the whole process, and then smile warmly at the next man who stepped forward.

Once their associates had been greeted and Jason's pocket was weighted down, food was served, toasts were made and cake was cut. Sonny had outdone himself on the preparations and Elizabeth could hardly believe the true joy of the moment. It was not something hasty that was thrown together for expediency, but it was something she could cherish and hold onto forever. She sighed as a fear tears seeped out from the corners of her eyes and rested her head against Jason's shoulder while she hugged his arm tightly. He looked down at her, the love in his eyes giving way to a question as he scanned her face.

"Are you okay?" he asked her softly.

"I'm perfect," she replied, her own voice soft as well which forced their heads close together in intimate conversation. "This day was perfect, Jason, and I just had to tell you that. I wasn't expecting all this when I agreed to marry you."

"I wanted you to have it," he told her. "We couldn't have a large wedding because of the circumstances, but you deserved to have a special day."

"It was," she swore to him.

"It's something we can tell our children and not have to be ashamed that it was in Sonny's living room like he first suggested," Jason said, the corner of his mouth turning up slightly. "It was everything I felt you deserved as the woman I love."

She leaned forward slightly and was pleased when her husband understood her intent and her wishes. He moved his head forward as well, his lips brushing across her own warmly and firmly. When they pulled back, he brought his free hand up to brush at the tendrils of hair that curled around the side of her face and the smoldering look he gave her made her grateful that they were alone at the head table for the moment.

"What happens next?" Elizabeth asked him. "Do you need to meet with the men who came?"

He shook his head, "No, Sonny will speak to them. We don't have to stay here if you want to go."

"I don't want to be rude," she answered. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

"You're just supposed to be my wife," he answered, placing his hand over hers. "That's all I expect of you; for you to be yourself as you've always been. I married you for you, not anything else."

"I know," she whispered, calming under his gentle words.

"So do you want to go?" he asked.

She nodded and he smiled at her, then stood and reached for her hand. "Then let's go. Sonny's arranged something for us tonight and some guards are going to make sure it's safe...so I can focus on you. Sonny will work everything out."

He smiled at her, warmth and love emanating from his look and said, "Let's go, Mrs. Morgan."

Some days, it still simply astounded Elizabeth that Jason fell in love with her. And more than the fact that he fell in love with her, he asked her to marry him. Not because it was convenient or a means to an end to protect her, he wanted to marry her. He loved her so much; quirks, faults, aggravations and all, that he chose to become her family. After all the heartache, pain and insanity she'd suffered at the hands of people she thought were her family or claimed to be her family merely because they shared common genetic markers, his pure, unconditional love simply amazed her.

When news of her marriage filtered out, the Cassadines were not happy. Nikolas had attacked back with everything he could, had mortgaged off pieces of the business and sold family heirlooms simply to be able to pay any and all assassins who would come after Elizabeth and her husband. It had been so much easier for Sonny and Jason to dismantle the Cassadine business empire when her half-brother was acting recklessly and desperate for cash. Stavros had become ruthless and relentless in stopping his son once he realized that the younger man's obsession was about to completely bankrupt the family and cause them to lose all power. Helena had come to Jason and Sonny pleading with them to let her speak to her granddaughter and they relented only when Elizabeth agreed. The only thing the brunette had to say to her grandmother was that Jason and Sonny would leave her enough personal wealth to live if she economized and that would occur only if she stayed out of their way.

After wanting to barter her off like a goat, Elizabeth didn't have any use for her grandmother. She was also unmoved when Helena claimed that she'd wanted Elizabeth to marry Jason Morgan all along and knew that by talking of him marrying someone else it would make him claim Elizabeth as his bride. Whether that was really the old woman's intentions or not, Elizabeth didn't care. The fact that Helena even thought it was acceptable for her to try to barter her away was the only thing that mattered and Elizabeth was not in a mood to forget and forgive just because her grandmother was now worried about the solvency of the family.

Stefan had proved that in the end, he was as much of a Cassadine as anybody, but he perhaps did care for Elizabeth. He fled with his lover and their children, marrying her and hiding away from the war the family fought. He assured Sonny and Jason that he would not support his brother or nephew any longer and he was not going to let the family keep him away from his children anymore. In return, her husband helped her uncle disappear; he also promised to wipe the older man off the face of the earth if his words and actions turned out to be nothing more than a sham.

Elizabeth suspected that they weren't. While she still didn't want to spend time with her uncle, she had the sense that he was seizing his opportunity to get away from the insanity of their family and have the life he wanted to live. She wished him the best and only hoped that he followed through on his convictions.

For that reason alone, she would spare him. The rest of her family would not get off so easily. The Cassadine family was on the brink of ruin. They'd been teetering there for quite some time, but now it would be complete. Their businesses were gone, their homes sold off, personal wealth was depleted, and the underworld was turning against them because of their actions. Mobsters were as shrewd of businessmen as anybody else, and while a few might cling to loyalty and old friendships, the majority were smart enough to know that Sonny and Jason had might and power on their sides, and when that combined with the history of all Elizabeth had gone through, the Cassadines found themselves with very few supporters.

Even Stavros' wife's family could not save them. The family had been wealthy, but long before Sonny began going after their finances, they'd started to fall on hard times. Jason's friend and business partner had merely exacerbated the situation and sped the inevitable along. While her stepmother's family was properly outraged over their change in fortune and the fact that their daughter's husband's family situation was precarious, they couldn't stand up to Sonny and they merely became an empty shell. They had nothing to back up their outrage and were not a viable threat.

This war would end eventually, but Elizabeth knew that it would not be the ending she wished for. It wouldn't end with the two factions merely learning to live with each other's existence. No, the war would end in the only way it possibly could for a family so steeped in the history and culture of Greece; tragic. Nikolas would never accept a truce as long as Elizabeth was alive; Sonny and Jason would continue to fight to keep her alive. One of them would have to die for this end, and as much as Elizabeth did not like her family and wanted nothing to do with them, as much as she would always remember how it felt to have Nikolas standing behind her with a knife at her throat poised to kill her, she didn't want to see her brother killed.

She knew that he was making a choice and she wasn't spitefully asking for his death merely to satisfy some twisted whim. She also knew that she hadn't capriciously turned her back on her grandfather and demanded his death as thinly veiled retribution. Her grandfather had come with the express purpose of killing her, and her brother would not stop until he achieved his goal. Even if Sonny and Jason turned him into a homeless pauper, he would continue to come after her with the intent of killing her. She knew that intellectually, but it did not make it any easier to accept that someone was going to die because of her. Again.

Her brother had been tracked down and Jason had disappeared two days ago. Even though he had not specifically said where he was going, she knew. She knew he'd left Sonny's house with the intention of eliminating Nikolas. While her half-brother was a threat to Sonny's business and responsible for the death of men and the destruction of business and buildings, Elizabeth knew that was not why Jason went personally on this kill. He was going because of her.

It was not that she was disgusted by Jason, or even frightened by him. She knew what he did, she knew that he was someone others would consider violent and deadly, but to her...that wasn't who he was. He was not a man who thrived on violence and killed simply for the thrill of it. But she also was not naïve enough to believe that he only killed for self-defense. Maybe it should bother her more, but she had come to see a side of him that she loved, and she had found a way to live with the rest of it. She knew that her grandfather had been killed, she knew that men working for her father and brother had been killed, she had heard a gun battle the first night she'd met Jason and knew that he was responsible for killing the man at The Cellar. It was merely the odd juxtaposition of life to sit in Sonny's house, waiting for her husband to come home and knowing that when he arrived it would mean her half-brother was dead. And that he'd done it because Nikolas wanted to kill her, and he would kill again in the future without hesitation if meant keeping her safe.

Feeling edgy and restless, Elizabeth left her bedroom and wandered downstairs. It was late, Spinelli was in his room doing who knew what, and she knew that guards were patrolling the perimeter of the house, but Sonny was no doubt asleep or spending time with his son. She had tried painting or sketching, but she knew herself; Jason had become an integral part of her life and she would not feel settled until he returned. Even if it meant he was coming back to her with proverbial blood on his hands.

She heard a door click in the background and she was aware of it, but did not give it too much attention. Guards routinely walked through the house, making sure nobody had slipped past their patrols. The man would open the door, see she was in the room, give her a respectful nod and then head back on his rounds. She had become accustomed to their presence and their habits, mostly because she knew there was little choice but to accept them. Jason and Sonny were powerful men and there would always be people wanting to gain that power for themselves by coming after them or those they held dear. As Jason's wife, she was a target, and the guards were there to keep her safe and give her husband peace of mind. For his sake, she did not fight them or resent them.

A murmur of voices caused her to look up, merely because the men were usually quiet at this time of night. They strived to do their jobs unobtrusively and not disturb the members of the house. Conversations were held in quiet tones, and so to actually be able to hear the voices through the closed doors was not normal. For a brief moment, a flicker of fear raced down Elizabeth's spine and her eyes darted around the room wondering if she should hide. Even as she wondered it, she wondered how it would look if she hid and it turned out to only be one of Sonny's men. However, as footsteps neared the door off the foyer, she knew that Jason would tell her to trust her instincts and it was better to be cautious than too trusting.

Just as she turned and was ready to hide behind the counter in the small kitchenette area and try to reach for a knife in a drawer, the door opened and she saw her husband framed in the structure. He seemed surprised to see her, but stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. Almost giddy with relief to see him and realizing that her paranoia had gotten the better of her, she turned once again and raced across the room into his open arms. He was clearly tired, but as he dropped his travel bag on the floor and caught her up in his hug, the only thing Elizabeth felt was joy that he was home.

The realization would come later that his return meant Nikolas had met his demise. Later she would think about how she so easily loved her husband who had returned home after killing someone. For now, she was focused on the fact that he was home. That he had returned safe, that he was still in her life to love her and to make her feel connected to something bigger than just herself. He was her safe place, he was her comfort, he was her encouragement and he was hers.

His job didn't matter to her because that wasn't who he was. He was a man who made her feel loved and accepted for who she was not who he wanted her to be; he provided her with the security she had wanted all her life and never had. To her, his job did not define him; just as to him her past and parentage did not define her. Together, they merely loved each other and were a family and now, her other half was home.

Tomorrow, she would deal with the fact that her brother was dead.

Back when Elizabeth first found out the truth about who she was and what the Cassadines and Webbers had done to her, she wanted to confront them all; to yell and rail at them for what they had done to her. Now that time had passed and so much had happened, she no longer had the burning desire to face her adopted parents and let them know exactly how she felt about them. Married, in love, finally feeling accepted for who she was, she didn't think about the people who had hated her for being the illegitimate daughter of their brother-in-law and deliberately hurting her while pretending to be doting and loving parents. She no longer wanted to ask them why they had done what they had; she knew that no answers they gave her could ever satisfy her.

Instead, the only thing Elizabeth wanted to do now was let them know that they could never hurt her again. Now that her brother was dead and her adopted mother's family was in financial ruin and destroyed and the Cassadines were in no better shape, the Webbers held no sway over her. In fact, because Elizabeth was married to a hit man and his friend was one of the most powerful mob bosses on the Eastern coast, she was in a position to make their life miserable.

Not that she would. Petty revenge held no desire for her. She'd toyed with the idea, even thought up elaborate plots to bankrupt them, have Spinelli doctor up false claims and police reports against them and watch them fall from grace and influence amongst their sphere and end up in prison. But those thoughts had only been fleeting; she knew she really held no stomach to follow through on them. Simply having no further contact with them ever again, and Jason's guards would ensure that, was enough for her.

She did, however, want to see them one last time. To simply give herself closure by letting them know she now knew the truth and she would never talk to them again. To let them know that the things that had happened to the couple and others...she knew about them and she had done nothing to stop them, just as they had done nothing to stop the years of pain she had lived with. The Doctors Webber would find out that she was no longer a scared little girl looking for their love and affection; she was a married woman who had found a family to accept and love her unconditionally and she no longer cared what happened to the people who raised her.

She'd given them no warning that she was coming; she didn't want them to try to hide from her or try to alert Stavros' wife. Jason's men had watched the house for several days, learned the routine of the older couple, knew the security code to the house, and thanks to Spinelli, the pair was about to lose a chunk of their investments. Elizabeth didn't want the money; a rape crises shelter and a center for abused children were about to get large, anonymous contributions. It was the only petty thing she was allowing herself to extract from the people who had lavished praise, attention and money on their children while always being stingy towards her.

As Elizabeth sat in the car and looked at the house she'd grown up in, she realized that she no longer hated the sight of it. Its white paint with blue trim no longer made her stomach clench because of the heavy oppression and contempt that was housed inside its walls. She no longer wanted to run at the mere sight of it; because she knew that when she walked out of the house this time, she would be finally free of it. There would be no more ties to it; she would finally sever them like she'd tried to do years ago when she fled from Colorado and escaped across the country to go to a small, liberal arts college and study art against her parents' desires.

"We don't have to do this." Jason's hand lightly touched her shoulder and she finally tore her gaze away from the house and looked at her husband. "We can just drive away and nobody will ever know that we were here."

She smiled at him, touched by his protective nature. "I'm fine, Jason. I'm not bothered by the house, or the thought of the Webbers. In fact, I was sitting here thinking about how I'm finally not bothered. I used to get stomach cramps sometimes as I approached the house because of everything that happened. I always wanted to go in through the side door because I hated passing by the lawn where I was dumped after my rape and where Natalie screamed at me while neighbors peeked out of their front windows or stepped out onto their porches."

Taking a deep breath and reaching for his hand she said, "I'm no longer afraid of the house because it's just a house. No matter who lives there or what they did to me...it's over. I know the truth. I know that I never have to speak to them again in my life. I know that when I leave, I'm going to go home to a wonderful man that I love and that I know loves me. Nothing they say to me can hurt me again because I know it's not true, and even if it does hurt...I know that I'll have you there to help me deal with it and put it behind me."

She took his hand and raised it so she could kiss his fingertips. "I'll be leaving here with you, Jason, while Jeff and Natalie will remain here. And whatever happens to them...it's no longer any of my concern."

Her husband smiled at her, "Okay. I didn't want you to be hurt or feel like you had to do something...but you're ready for this and it's entirely your call."

"Then let's go wake up them up," she smiled wickedly and reached for the door handle.

She waited for him to get out of the car and join her on the sidewalk, then she took his hand as they walked up the sidewalk to the porch. It hadn't changed in years, but now it was just a bunch of overstuffed flowerboxes and kitschy clutter that she looked at dispassionately as she pressed the doorbell down and didn't release it until an angry, but still bleary-eyed couple answered the door.

"What's going on?" Jeff Webber demanded. Then he blinked in recognition and asked, "Elizabeth? What's the meaning of this?"

"Hello, Jeff," she greeted him and then looked over his shoulder. "Hello, Natalie. Sorry to wake you up, but I wanted to talk."

Jason knew that nothing Jeff or Natalie Webber said today would ever make him like them. He didn't like them based purely on the things Elizabeth had told him about the people who raised her, and he liked them even less when he had Spinelli investigate them and discovered their dirty little secrets and sordid pasts. However, their blemishes could have been overlooked, had they not tormented the woman he had come to love and marry. Because of their behavior towards Elizabeth, because they'd blamed and yelled at her for her rape instead of supporting her and helping her, he would never like them. And he was glad that they would never be his in-laws that he'd have to invite over and tolerate.

While Elizabeth didn't want to be mean and petty towards them, Jason had no qualms in exacting revenge. The money Spinelli siphoned off that would be donated to causes dear to Elizabeth, was only the beginning. The Doctors Webber were going to run into a series of misfortunate events in the coming months. Nothing glaringly obvious, nothing in too quick succession, but they were going to pay for what they'd done to his wife. While he would never lie to her should she ask him, Jason didn't intend to volunteer this information to her. This was his own personal project. He would enjoy seeing them go down, just as he was enjoying this moment.

Jeff Webber was a gray-haired, slightly paunchy older man who at one time had probably been described as a ladies' man. Now he sat in his bathrobe on the couch next to his wife who was probably mortified that she was being seen without her hair and make-up perfectly done. They definitely were not happy to see Elizabeth, but they were also clearly intimidated by Jason's stony visage, and the two bodyguards who had entered the house with them. Max and Milo had volunteered for this assignment, and just like everyone else in the organization who was ready to protect Elizabeth, they were firmly on her side. Standing behind the chairs Jason and Elizabeth were sitting in, the two men had unbuttoned their suit coats and deliberately shown that they were wearing shoulder holsters - and therefore guns - to the two people who were doing their best to not appear as if they were cowering on the couch. And failing miserably at it.

"Are those people really necessary?" Jeff Webber asked, not looking directly at the Giambetti brothers but merely in their general direction.

"Yes," Elizabeth said plainly. "They're here for my protection. See, there's this murderous bunch of nut jobs who would probably be happy if I were dead and Max and Milo are determined not to let that happen."

"Eliz-" Natalie began, but quickly stopped when Elizabeth snapped at her.

"Shut up!" Jason's wife turned her icy glare on her adopted mother and said, "I don't want to hear you speak, Natalie. I heard enough of your voice yelling at me, taunting me, degrading me while I was growing up. I'm here to talk, not to listen to you."

Letting out a breath she crossed her legs and said, "I know the truth. I know that you adopted me. I know that I am the natural daughter of Stavros Cassadine, Russian mobster by way of Greece. I know that his wife is your sister, Natalie, and that she threatened to kill me and my birth mother before I was born. She hijacked the arrangements Stavros made to have me adopted, and had me sent here to live with you. Where you would make sure that my life was miserable."

Turning to look at Jeff Webber she said, "I don't know whether you're aware of who your wife truly is, if you were part of the plan to torment me merely for the sin of being born, and honestly...I don't really care. What I do care is that I'm not actually related to you. I can walk out the door and wash my hands of you. You could win a million dollars and I won't feel hurt because I won't get any of the money, or you could wind up in a homeless shelter and I won't care.

"See," Elizabeth firmed her shoulders, "at one time, I would have given anything for you to love me the way you loved Steven and Sarah. All I wanted was your acceptance and your approval and when I finally realized that I would never get it, I left home. But I could never leave you behind. Because parents are supposed to love their children, and despite trying not to care, I couldn't completely make myself not wonder why you treated me differently."

Tilting her head to the side almost mockingly she said, "Now that I know the truth...it's over. You have no more power over me. Now I can hate you, or simply walk away from you and not feel bad about it anymore. You're nothing to me. I wanted to tell you that to your face; to let you know that for all that you tried, you didn't break me. And you're on the losing side. The Cassadines are nothing. My half-brother is dead. My grandfather is dead. My father is desperately trying to find two dimes to rub together and my stepmother appears to have snapped in her grief and has been committed to an asylum. I'm sure Stavros will take very good care of her. Your family, Natalie, is nothing but a name that once held power, but now even the mice aren't afraid of them. And you two and your worthless children are nothing."

Elizabeth stood and Jason was instantly at her side. She reached for his hand and laced their fingers together while adjusting her purse on her shoulder. Letting out a sigh she looked at the couple on the couch and said, "When I walk out this door, I will be going home with my husband. We will be with our friends who are as close to us as family. We'll get on with our lives, moving forward...and I will never have anything to do with you ever again."

They turned for the door and when they reached it, Jason indicated for Elizabeth to go the car with Max, then turned back to face the doctors. "You should know," he told them, his voice low and hard, "that it's only because of Elizabeth that you're alive. I know everything you did and if it was up to me? You'd have met the same demise Nikolas and Mikkos did. So just remember on whose charity it is that you're still alive...and know that we will always be watching you. Think on that for the rest of your lives."

Then he left the house and knew that the fear of the implied thread held in the last statement would haunt them for a very long time.

Elizabeth had always loved the rain, but after weeks of it, even she'd had enough. It felt like the rain was following her, determined to hide the sun, take away the beautiful light and force her to stay inside. While she didn't mind the company, Jason was with her and there were no distractions from business to take him away from her, she was growing a little restless. As much as she loved her husband and was enjoying finally having a honeymoon with him, she longed to get outdoors.

It had rained for days before they left Port Charles, but she hadn't minded. She was too busy packing and gathering everything they would need to take. With the war with the Cassadines over, and Jason and Sonny's business once again shored up and secure, the older man told them that it was the perfect time for them to get away. Elizabeth deserved a trip, and so did his best friend. There were plenty of men who would be on hand to help out should anything arise, and Jason didn't need to worry about rushing back unless it was an all out war.

They first flew down to Sonny's private island where they intended to spend a few weeks of privacy and relaxation before they headed off for the rest of their honeymoon. However, the day they arrived, a low pressure system formed over the island and didn't move. It rained for days. The surf rose, the roads flooded and Jason's plans to take her out on his boat or drive her to old ruins on his motorcycle were scrapped. Of course, they did find other ways to occupy themselves and for several days they didn't care that they never left the house, let alone the bedroom. But after a while they wanted something else to do.

With the weather not changing and more storms, and possibly a tropical storm that could develop into a hurricane, projected for the island, they decided to cut their stay short and head to their next destination. Unfortunately, it was also raining in Italy. Knowing her love of painting and art, her husband had arranged for a rented villa in a location where they could easy head off to other towns to tour museums and old churches and soak in the beauty of the masters. They had ventured out, and it hadn't rained every moment of every day, but Elizabeth was growing tired of slogging through wet streets to get to the next church or museum and her paintings were taking forever to dry given the pervasive humidity in the air.

Even her normally unruffled husband was showing signs of irritation with the weather. The motorcycle he'd arranged for them was sitting unused in the garage. The planned tours of the countryside came and went with them still indoors, hoping for a break in the weather. While he loved to read and enjoyed learning more of the local history from the books he'd picked up when they ventured out, he was not a man who wanted to spend all day indoors. He'd taken to staring out the windows even more than usual and his shoulders were no longer relaxed but held a certain amount of tension that seemed to increase with each successive day of rain.

As the rain continued to fall outside, Elizabeth set her book aside and stood up. She could always read about the frescos later, she reasoned, as she approached her husband and touched his back softly to let him know she was there. As she slipped her arms around his waist and pressed a kiss to his shoulder she felt him let out a breath and then bring his arms up to cover hers.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," he replied with a small nod.

She frowned against his back and pressed, "Jason...what's wrong? You say you're okay but you don't seem alright. You're tense and quiet."

She let a smile come into her voice so he would know that she wasn't chastising him. "I mean...even more quiet than you normally are."

He let out another breath and then reached behind him, encouraging her to come around him. Once they were facing each other, arms wrapped around the other, she looked up at him and softly asked, "What?"

"I'm sorry, Elizabeth," her husband told her.

"For what? The rain?" she wondered. "You can't control the weather."

"This wasn't the honeymoon I wanted to give you," he told her.

She smiled at him and said, "I know. It wasn't exactly the honeymoon I envisioned. But that doesn't mean I'm unhappy."

"You're as restless as I am," he countered. "It's been weeks of rain. The sailing and the time at the beach was rained out. I wanted you to see the countryside and come away inspired to fill our home with paintings. I wanted to show you Venice and how the light is different there. Instead...everything's gray and cloudy."

"Who knew we were going to get atypical weather?" she asked with a small grin and a shrug. "I don't think there's really anything we can do but wait for it to change or come back another time. For now...I'm not really complaining. Sure, sometimes I'd like to get out and go for a walk without having to put on rain boots and carry an umbrella and still end up wet...but this is just a drop in the bucket compared to everything else we've been through."

He hugged her closer to him and rested his chin on her head. "I know. I just wanted to do something special for you; to take you some place you've always dreamed of going. After everything that happened with the Cassadines and the Webbers, after dealing with the attacks and the threats...I just wanted us to relax."

"I am relaxed," Elizabeth told Jason. "Even when I'm feeling antsy and restless. We have security and we always will, but my deranged lunatic of a half-brother is no longer trying to kill me. My stepmother is in a mental asylum and I heard you and Sonny talking about how you think Helena might have had something to do with it. Stavros is trying to salvage the shred of business you left him, and my uncle seems to be happy and he actually sent a very nice card and gift to us. While I still think he's a little odd, I wouldn't be entirely opposed to getting to know him. Life will never be normal for us, but this is definitely less frantic than it was for a while."

"That's true," he agreed. "I just know that peace like this isn't always guaranteed and even if it's not the Cassadines, someone else will come along and try to move on Sonny's territory and it will be back to late nights and increased security. We won't be able to plan out vacations like other people."

"I know," she told him. Tilting her head back slightly to look at him, she raised her brow and said, "If you're trying to convince me to hate you or the circumstances, well...it's just not going to work. See...I vowed to love you for better or worse. I think that we can both agree I brought plenty of worse along with me. Despite telling my mother and father that I'm not ready for a relationship with them and may never be, they're not going to give up. We're always going to be a part of the crazy Cassadines."

"Maybe the craziness lessens over time," he chuckled in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"So if we have to deal with someone coming after us because they want Sonny's territory...we'll deal with it." She fixed him with a determined look and said, "Stop beating yourself up over it. I mean...it hasn't been all bad that we've had to spend more time indoors than we would have otherwise, has it?"

The corner of his mouth turned up in a slow, sensual move and he said, "No, it hasn't."

"And we've been able to do some things," she continued on. "I've seen churches and museums I only read about, Jason, and wanted to visit but never thought I'd be able to. You've given me something I never thought I'd have. I'm not mad that we haven't had the chance to do everything we wanted to. That just means we haven't had the chance to do them yet."

He brought his hand up to brush her hair back behind her ear and smiled down at her. "I just want to give you a trip you'll remember. I wanted it to be a happy memory for you, something to replace all the bad we had."

"It has been," Elizabeth told him, and genuinely meant it. "I'm happy, Jason. Sure...it'd be nice if it rained a little less, but I'm happy. Besides...with all the time we've spent indoors...maybe we'll come back with a different type of souvenir from Italy."

Her husband looked at her for a moment and Elizabeth began to wonder if she'd said the wrong thing. They hadn't really talked about a family, beyond saying they'd like to have one some day. They weren't actively trying, but they certainly weren't taking measures to prevent one. While she didn't suspect anything, and she wasn't getting her hopes up, she knew that they were certainly improving the odds that she might get pregnant sooner rather than later.

"Do you think...?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," she replied. "Nothing has made me suspicious. It was merely an observation given our recent activities."

He nodded thoughtfully and then said, "I would be happy. Would you?"

"To have your baby?" she asked. Tightening her arms around his waist she said, "I would be very happy. I'll be very happy whenever it happens."

Then she smiled teasingly at him and said, "Just know that if we ever have a girl, we are not naming her Alexis. While my crazy aunt may have been the reason we met and you had to protect me...I'm not naming our daughter after the woman who tried to kill me. That is just not something we need to explain to our child."

He laughed with her and nodded. "I agree. But that is the reason why I let Alexis live. As long as she never comes near us...I'm content to let her become a teacher at some other college."

"One our children will never go to," she joked. "Because who knows what nut job assignment they'd end up with."

The End