A fun, little ditty we got talking about, couldn't stop talking about, and decided to go ahead and write together. We hope you enjoy.
"Stone Cold! You're ah...you're home early."
Jason peered curiously at the computer hacker and then took a deep breath through his nose. Spinelli acting nervously - well, more nervously than usual - made him nervous. And suspicious. He wanted to make sure the young man hadn't been smoking pot in the penthouse again. Not when Elizabeth and the children were coming over.
"I didn't expect you home...this, ah, early," Spinelli said as he hastily headed towards the pool table, grabbing a blanket off the back of the couch on his way.
"Elizabeth and the kids are coming over," Jason informed him. Peering at the man who was still living in his home as he threw the blanket over something on the floor and then scooped it up into his arms he asked, "What's going on, Spinelli? Are you smoking pot in here again?"
"No," the younger man answered emphatically, his eyes widened in hurt. "I promised you I would not do that anymore. I would not do anything that could adversely affect the Innocent One or the Adorable Tot."
"Don't call them that," he shook his head.
"Stone Cold, Junior?" Spinelli asked with a laugh.
"No."
"Alright," the hacker sighed in a very put upon tone. "Jacob. Will his mother be accompanying him?"
"Yes," Jason answered dubiously. "Why?"
"Chill, Stone Cold," the other man implored. "I like the Innocent One's mother. And the Adorable Tot is well...adorable."
"Spinelli," he asked, his patience stretching tenuously thin. "Do you think you could find something else to do while they're here?"
"Sure," came the happy chirp. "I'll be upstairs."
"I meant somewhere else," Jason clarified. He just wanted some time with Elizabeth, Cameron and his son without anyone else putting in their two cents into every conversation. If it was just them, then Elizabeth might relax a bit more.
"Fine," Spinelli said, though clearly sounded hurt. "I'll just take care of a few things and make myself scarce."
Then he dashed upstairs, twisting his body comically to keep the blanket covered object away from Jason. Curious blue eyes watched the progress, wondering what all that was about, but quickly dismissing it, because he had to get ready for Elizabeth's imminent arrival.
Jason looked up from his invoices and wanted to put a hole through the door. Maybe a bullet or two. Jason ignored the knocking; it was bound to go away soon enough.
The pounding only got louder. "Come on, Spinelli... open up. It's Milo."
Milo? What was he doing here? Jason pushed his chair back and walked over to the door, swinging it open on its hinges with a fierce tug.
"Mr. Morgan?"
"Yes?" Milo stood there, mouth agape as Jason stared him down. "You need something?"
The young man's mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water. "You weren't supposed to be here."
Jason looked at him as if he was speaking in Swahili. "Why wouldn't I be in my own home?"
"What? Oh yeah," Milo swallowed hard and looked away. "Of course... you'd be here... of course... it's your place. Yeah... whoa."
Jason scrubbed his hand over his face. "Look, Milo... is there a point to all of this?"
Milo shrugged his broad shoulders and looked around Jason. "Is... um, is... Spinelli here?"
His head hung down from his shoulders as if it was too heavy to lift up on his own. "Look, Milo," he sighed, "I've got a lot of work to do and if you and Spinelli are just going to be fighting over Lulu again, then-"
"Lulu? Whoa... you can stop right there." Milo held up his hands in surrender. "I'm not... he's not... we're not... that's over."
"Over? Since when?"
Milo shuffled his feet and his eyes fell down to the floor. "Since it got out... about the baby. She was totally wrong in yelling at you and Miss Webber. She got loud and ugly and Spinelli and I, well, we just didn't think she was right. Anyway-"
Footsteps pounded down from the second level. "Hey, Stone Cold... did I hear-" Spinelli tried to stop short, but ended slipping down the last few stairs to the landing. He nodded, "Milo."
"Spinelli."
Jason looked from one boy to the next and resisted the urge to knock their heads together. "Look, I don't know what it is you both think you're going to do, or why Milo didn't want me around today." He gave Spinelli a hard look. "You know the rules, Spinelli."
He snapped to attention, clicking his heels. "Yes, sir Stone Cold. I got it and no," he cleared his throat and shot a furtive look over to Milo, "we're not... doing that."
"No smoking in the penthouse?"
Milo's jaw dropped. "Whoa, no way, Mr. Morgan... I don't smoke. Sensitive lungs."
That was it; too much angst for him. Ah, who was he kidding? Jason Morgan breathed angst. He just didn't like dealing with angst of Spinelli proportions. "I've got work."
Spinelli smacked Milo on the shoulder. "We'll leave you to it. Right?"
"Right." Milo looked over at Spinelli, "Yeah... 'sides, you said you needed help with-"
"Duuuuude... not now." Spinelli hissed out in an exaggerated whisper. "We'll see you, Stone Cold." Spinelli, the slighter of the two then nearly dragged Milo up the stairs.
Jason sank back into his chair and let out a sigh. If it wasn't one thing with Spinelli, it was another. He picked up the stack of invoices and found the words blurring on the page as his mind was focused on the hushed voices filtering down from the second level. He tried one more time to focus on his work, he had to get something done.
"Jason?"
He blinked, bringing Elizabeth back into focus and smiled at her, a rather common occurrence when she was around. At least according to Spinelli. His smiled slipped a little at the thought of the confusing young man, and it fell completely away when he noticed Elizabeth's concerned gaze as she nibbled her bottom lip with worry. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"I was going to ask you that," she said softly, a bit hesitantly. "You've been...preoccupied all night. If there's something going on with work then the boys and I can go; so you can take care of it."
"No," he immediately shook his head, shifting his hold on Jacob who was slumbering in his arms. He didn't want them to leave. At all. "It's not business."
"Is it Carly and Sonny?" she asked. The concern was still there, but her face was a little more pinched around the mouth. He couldn't blame her; Carly had been more caustic and accusatory than usual when the truth came out. But only with Elizabeth, never mind the fact that Jason went along with concealing the truth from everyone as well.
"No," he shook his head wearily. "I told them both I'm staying out of this whole thing. Carly either wants to stay married to Jax or she doesn't, Sonny either wants to fight for her and the kids or he doesn't, but I want out of it."
He added, "Besides, I have my own family to focus on now."
She blushed prettily and looked away, acting like she was focusing on Cameron who was playing with trains and motorcycles on the floor. She always did that whenever he brought up family around her, and he didn't press. Even though he wanted to sometimes.
"It's not them."
"Then what is it?" she asked, looking back at him briefly. "You've zoned out a couple of times tonight."
"I'm sorry," he sighed. The last thing he wanted her to feel like was that he wasn't focused on her and the children when they were here.
"You're probably just tired," she smiled indulgently at him. "I know I am. I'd almost forgotten how often little babies wake up during the night."
Jason shook his head. "I'm not tired. But if you are and you want to rest, I can hang out with the boys for a little while and watch them."
That pretty blush crept back up onto her cheeks and he knew even before she shook her head, that she was going to say no. She never stopped him from spending time with Jacob, and she came over to his penthouse nearly as often as he went to her apartment because she said she wanted their son to feel at home in both places. Still, she seemed uncomfortable in the penthouse sometimes, and had never once let him put the boys down in the nursery upstairs for anything longer than a nap.
He remembered Michael waking up often during the night and he wished he was able to help her more with Jacob so she wasn't so tired.
"So...so if it's not business, and it's not Sonny and Carly, then what is it? Is there anything I can help you with?" She was clearly fishing for a subject to change the topic, but he allowed it. Especially since it kept bugging him.
"It's Spinelli."
"Spinelli?" she asked with a shake of her head. "What's wrong with Spinelli?"
"He's been acting strange."
When she raised her eyebrow he amended, "More strange than usual."
Elizabeth chuckled, "I'm not entirely sure that's possible, but what's he doing?"
"I don't know. He's...he's doing something that he doesn't want me to know about. Hiding it from me."
"Is he..." she trailed off and mimicked taking a hit. She obviously didn't want to say the words in front of Cameron, especially since the little boy had become a parrot in recent weeks.
"No," he shook his head. "I thought that at first, but I haven't smelled anything, and I searched his room."
"You searched his room?"
"My house," he stated unapologetically. He wasn't going to have that around his kids.
"He was hiding something under a blanket one day when I came home early and then today Milo came over and Milo wouldn't be doing any of that."
Her eyebrows dipped down. "Milo came over? Were they..."
"They're not fighting about Lulu," he told her. "Milo said that's ancient history given the way she acted when the truth about Jacob came out."
Elizabeth's mouth pinched into a tight line and he sighed, making sure Jacob was securely tucked against his side so he could free one arm and bring it around Elizabeth, drawing her close. Her ex-sister-in-law had been cruel towards Elizabeth once the truth came out to everyone, and Jason had encouraged Spinelli to meet the teen elsewhere because he was no longer going to tolerate her in his house. As he rubbed her arm, Elizabeth finally relaxed and leaned into him. He was glad because he didn't want to discuss Lulu tonight. Anymore than he wanted to discuss Spinelli, despite not being able to stop thinking about what the kid was up to.
"So what were they doing?" she asked.
"I don't know," he shrugged slightly. "I heard them talking, but couldn't make out what they were saying. Then after Milo left, I heard Spinelli still talking, and somebody else answering him. I knocked, thinking Milo came back, but Spinelli claimed he was alone and that it was just the radio. When he left tonight, I looked in his room-"
"You searched his room, again?" she laughed.
"My house," he stated again. "I wanted to make sure he wasn't hiding anybody in there. But the room was empty. I can't figure it out."
"Jason?" she smiled at him. "Do you ever understand Spinelli?"
He grimaced as he said, "I've started to. But this..."
"Let it go," she murmured, leaning back against his chest. "As long as Spinelli's not doing anything...illegal, or more so than helping you, let him have his secrets. He's young and he's not going to hurt anybody."
"Yeah, I suppose you're right."
"Of course I'm right," Elizabeth said slowly, her voice sounding drowsy and lethargic. He glanced down at her, but could only see the top of her head. "I'm a mother."
"You're a great mother," he told her.
His only answer was a soft murmur and a puff of breath against his chest. "Cameron?" he called softly to get the little boy's attention. When he looked up from his trains Jason asked, "Is Mommy sleeping?"
The little boy nodded his head with a small, bemused smile.
"Alright," Jason smiled in return. "You want to play after I put Jacob into his crib? We can let Mommy sleep for a little while."
Cameron nodded enthusiastically and jumped up to race upstairs. His job was to turn on Jacob's nightlight and get the blanket ready to cover his little brother and he took his job very seriously. Jason, with no small amount of skill, maneuvered himself up from the couch, without waking Elizabeth or Jacob and draped a blanket over Elizabeth's sleeping form. He didn't remember that it was the blanket Spinelli had used to hide whatever, all he thought about was that his family was staying for a little while longer and he was perfectly happy with that.
Jason pushed open the door and tossed his keys on the desk. It had been a day... okay, it had been hell and all he wanted was a cold beer and a chance to put his feet up for a few minutes.
Heading for the kitchen he moved across the room, slowing down as he reached the couch. A large duffle bag hogged more than half a cushion and Jason tilted his head at an angle to examine something sticking out of the duffle. A hand. A very small hand.
Bracing one hand on the arm of the couch, Jason slipped his other hand in the bag and lifted out a figure that was a few inches shorter than the length of his arm.
"Spinelli!"
The younger man appeared at the top of the stairs immediately and called out a warning. "Don't break him!"
"What?" Jason looked up at Spinelli and then back at the limp figure in his grasp. "Him? What is it?" He blinked at it a few times, taking in the foam hair on its head, the little leather jacket, jeans and leather boots. "Spinelli, this looks like me."
Puffing out his chest proudly, Spinelli beamed. "You think? He's my little friend." After a moment of boasting his expression took on a serious cast. "It took forever to get him right."
Jason didn't even nod. He didn't think his neck would work.
"Yeah, I tried to use one of those little," his hands tried to form the image, failing miserably, "little jacket things that they make for dogs... and even though I tried out all the different sizes, Chihuahua, Labrador, St. Bernard, it didn't work." Spinelli tried to outline the distance between his shoulder and waist. "Too short in the chest."
"What?"
"Yeah, he looked like a... a... Ken doll." Spinelli gave a shudder and continued on. "So I had to go to one of those 'stuff-it' places and they had a few different kinds and..."
Jason stood back and took in Spinelli's rapid hand movements and his rambling speech and knew that he wasn't smoking weed... at least not in the last few days.
"...and the jacket was perfect, a much better size! Still..."
It was...disconcerting at best. Spinelli making a doll that looked like him.
"...it was expensive, but it's really worth it... I'm mean it'll be worth it... when all those little kids are smilin' up at me-"
"Kids?" Jason's mouth went dry. "What kids?"
Spinelli stared at him, his eyes wide with shock. "Yeah... I guess I forgot to tell you. I'm the entertainment at GH in the kids' wing tonight."
"The hospital?" Jason let out a harsh sigh. "At least no one's seen it yet." The silence was deafening. "Spinelli?" The younger man didn't smile, not really. "You mean, people have seen this?"
"Sure. Of course! You didn't think that I'd go out to see the kids without making sure that I had it perfect, did you?" He laughed and Jason wondered if anyone would notice if Spinelli went missing. "So, I was totally thankful when Milo came over and helped me get my act down."
Jason shook his head to clear the cobwebs. "Milo? He's seen this?" It all made sense at once. Milo showing up, going upstairs, secretive conversations.
"Totally! He was a huge help!"
Jason amended his earlier thought. Who would notice if both younger men went missing?
Spinelli put his hand over his heart and gave a little bow. "You know...I admire you and all that, Big Daddy, but Milo, well he's known you longer and he really has your brooding machismo down to an art."
Clean the warehouse, wash the cars, don't we have a septic tank or something? Jason was going through every nasty little menial job he could think of. Milo was going to get reassigned. Carly always needed someone to carry her shopping bags when she went 'bargain' hunting'.
"... but you know, Stone Cold... you know my favorite part of the whole outfit... do ya? Do ya?"
Jason stared back, debating the wisdom of continuing on with the questioning. "What?"
Spinelli lifted up his hand and pinched his pointer and thumb together. "His little teeny tiny itty bitty t-shirt."
"T-shirt?"
Spinelli unzipped the jacket and pushed both fronts away to reveal the dark colored t-shirt beneath. "See?!"
The younger man put his hands on his hips and accused, "Dude, do you have any idea how long I sat there staring at your clothes?"
"You what?" Jason could barely wrap his mind around the affront. "You were in my room?"
"Well, of course, how else was I going to figure out what kind of shirt to use on my buddy? It was research."
"Never again, Spinelli."
"Whoa," he looked like the distraction irritated him, "okay... geez...sorry." He sighed, long and suffering. "Anyway, so it was really tough to make a choice. Dark Grey... Dark Green... Dark Blue... Dark Black...well, okay, so it's just black," he waved a hand trying to erase it from the air, "but it's dark."
Spinelli's posture sunk an inch or so as he continued on. "So, there I was. Stuck! That's when I went to the source of all Stone Cold info and-"
"The source?"
"Yeah... the tie-breaker of all tie-breakers."
Jason waited, somewhat patiently, amazingly since there was a knot of fear filling up his middle.
"The Innocent One's mom."
"Elizabeth?"
"Uh, yeah! Isn't that what I just said?"
"You showed this to Elizabeth?"
"No... no..." Spinelli gave Jason a little wide-eyed stare. "It wasn't done yet. Anyway, it was like this total simple little question, but wow. She was totally blushing. Really, how hard is it to pick a favorite?"
"What favorite?"
Spinelli was confused about the interruption. "I asked her to pick the color of t-shirt that she likes best on you."
Jason clapped his open palm on his forehead and dragged his hand down his face. "You asked her what?"
"Well, of your shirts... on you... her favorite... 'cuz well, she looks at you enough... practically every minute when you're in the room, and-"
His head snapped up. She looks at me?
"Wow," Spinelli continued, "If I had a beautiful woman looking at me like that all the time, I'd-" he shook himself to jog his thoughts. "The color, I asked her to pick a color and that's when it happened."
"What?" Jason bit out the word.
"She totally blushed." He gave a little laugh. "Her face got all red... and then," he swung his finger up and down, "her chest. Dude, she was pink aaaaaaall over."
He missed the growl that escaped from Jason's throat as Spinelli ran right on along his path to self-destruction.
"She has this thing with her ears..."
Jason's head snapped up. "Her ears?" What the hell is Spinelli doing looking that closely at Elizabeth?
"So, dude, it took her all of three seconds for her to pick out... the midnight blue shirt." He had a little smile and shrugged his shoulders with a laugh. "And then she mumbled that thing about the eyes."
"Eyes?" Jason leveled a curious look at him.
"What?" Spinelli was shocked out of his thoughts.
"You said... that she said... something about-"
Spinelli snapped his fingers. "Oh, yeah... the color of the shirt. She said it makes your eyes look all intense." Another laugh. "You should have seen her then, she got really red."
Jason's eyebrows rose as he parroted. "Intense?"
"I didn't know a woman could do that-"
"Do what?"
"Look all flustered and still sexy..."
Jason was lost in thought, remembering how flushed Elizabeth had been... the night Jacob was conceived. Then his head shot up. "Sexy?"
"What?" Spinelli was confused. "Huh?"
"What did you say about Elizabeth?"
The younger man held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, Stone Cold, point taken. Keep my mind off of Jacob's Mama... no offence intended."
Jason nodded.
"The mere fact that Nurse Webber is the quintessential embodiment of what I believe popular culture calls a MILF I realize that I shouldn't - mmm" Spinelli looked up over Jason's hand where it covered the lower half of his face. "Mmmm."
Looking down at the younger man, Jason leaned in close. "Spinelli... stop it. Right now."
Spinelli nodded and Jason removed his hand. "Dude, sincere apologies, my mouth got totally ahead of my mind."
Jason shoved his hands in his pockets.
"So, anyway... she picked out that shirt and it totally completed the look." Spinelli gestured with a flourish as he pushed aside the open front on the little leather jacket and revealed a little t-shirt, "Dude, you're wearing the same color!" Spinelli let himself have a little chuckle before announcing, "Now, he's ready for his first big night out."
"You are not taking that out of this house." Jason paced a step away and turned back. "In fact, you're going to destroy it."
"But, Stone Cold," he pleaded, "the kids... they're expecting him."
"No." He shook his finger back and forth. "You're not taking him to the hospital."
Spinelli looked crushed. "Come on, you are totally being uncool about this.
My family, well the Quartermaines, work at General. They so don't need to see this.
He tried a new tact, "Dude, the Adorable Tot loves my act."
I don't need Sonny to catch wind of this. Wait. Back up...
"The other kids would go nuts about him."
"Adorable... you mean Cameron?"
"Duh! Yeah... that's what I said."
Jason shook his head. "Would you please just use his name?"
"Ohhh-kay."
He changed his focus an instant later. "You've shown this to Cameron?"
Spinelli shrugged. "Sure, he and Morgan had the total giggles when I was practicing."
Jason was staring at Spinelli, incredulous. "You showed this to Morgan?"
"Dude, are we even in the same conversation?"
"Of course." Jason rubbed at his temples, fighting off a headache.
"They were my practice audience the other day at Mr. Corinthos, Sir's place."
"At least Sonny didn't see it."
Spinelli looked down at the floor.
"Did Sonny see it?"
"Yeah. He caught some of it, in between his phone calls."
Jason pressed his thumb and forefinger against his eyes.
Spinelli continued on. "He was laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes... dude, tears!"
My life is over. He looked over at Spinelli, doubled over with laughter. I'm going to have to leave town.
"...and the girls were rolling on the floor!"
He was going to kill Spinelli for this. "Girls?"
"Yeah... Mr. Corinthos, Sir's daughter and her sister. They were over and while they liked it, Carrot Top didn't like it much. Said I didn't get the growl right."
Jason swallowed. Hard. His jaw clenched so tight it hurt. "Spinelli..." His voice was quiet, lethal and Spinelli, didn't catch the warning.
Someone knocked on the front door and as Jason moved across the room to open it he saw Spinelli quickly slip his friend into the bag.
He swung the door open. "Yeah?"
Elizabeth looked up at him, shifting a bit on the balls of her feet. "Uh... is this a bad time?"
Spinelli brightened up. "Nope! Perfect timing, Mamacita! I have to get to GH." He grabbed the straps of his duffle and lugged it to the door. "Oh, hey, before I go," he pointed to Jason's shirt. "See? He's wearing your favorite color."
Jason was about to reach out and snap Spinelli's neck but then Elizabeth blushed. Pretty. Pink.
Spinelli was gone, the elevator doors closed and headed down to the garage. Jason should have called ahead and ordered the guards to confiscate the bag. He could have. But then Elizabeth leaned a fraction of an inch closer, her tongue sliding over her bottom lip, adding shine to the plump pink morsel.
"Where are the boys?"
She smiled and looked up at him with a glint in her eye. "Grams."
"Oh." He swallowed. "Good."
Elizabeth blushed again; coloring from the tops of her ears and all the way down into the lace inset of her blouse. It had been such a long time since August... so many wasted nights. That's when he wondered in earnest if her blush did go all the way down.
Jason reached out and gently took hold of her arm and pulled her inside, closing the door behind her.
The End
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