I had a concept for Chapter 9 that didn’t feel right as I wrote it. It felt like I was dragging the story out and I thought it was slowing my writing down. So I rewrote it — and you’ll get Chapter 9 eventually. But these scenes were cut and at the moment, I have nothing planned where I could use any of the content, so I thought you might enjoy it since my updates for this week are otherwise non existent.

It hasn’t been edited so there’s no italics or anything added other than my usual scene settings. I haven’t even really looked at it for typos.

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Chapter Nine

Friday, October 27, 2006

Morgan Penthouse: Master Bedroom

He was going to be a father. He was a father. How different his life was today than merely a week ago. He had been trading words with Carly, trying not to think about Elizabeth still married to a man who did not deserve her, possibly pregnant with his child—but more likely her husband’s.

He had been feeling guilty for not feeling worse about Sam and Ric, had been living with a general…dissatisfaction with how things stood in his life.

But now, just a week later, he lay in his bed, his wife curled up beside him as she napped after they had made love to celebrate their child.

He had a wife, a new child on the way, and he had Cameron, his stepson who he would treat as his own, never making him feeling different than Jason’s biological child.

He was a father, something he had always wanted to be again, but never truly hoped for.

“What are you thinking about?”

Her cheek against his bare chest, he could feel Elizabeth’s lips as she spoke, as they stayed curved in a slight smile.

“How different everything is,” he admitted, his fingers lightly stroking through her hair, letting the strands slide through his grasp, falling down to rest against her bare shoulders and his chest. “Good different,” he clarified before she could think he meant anything else.

“I know,” she murmured. “Considering everything that’s waiting out there, I suppose I should feel…less at peace, but I can’t help it.”

Something inside him released as she said this—he had told Sonny he wanted to take care of her, an emotion he wasn’t used to feeling. He was used to taking care of people—he’d been carrying Carly on his back for nearly a decade, and of course he had taken care of Courtney and Sam, but—

It was different—this urge to make Elizabeth’s world better, to ease her burdens. She always took on too much, worried about people and things she shouldn’t. She had always internalized everyone else’s problems and taken them home with her.

He had never wanted to be one of those people who used her generosity and warmth to make themselves feel better.

“I just…I hoped if we did this, that I would truly feel as though it had been the right choice. Not just for the moment, but…” Her arm, draped over his waist slid up his torso, her fingers tracing some abstract pattern as they moved. “But later. When the craziness of this moment had passed.”

He knew what she was trying to say, what she didn’t have the courage to put into words. He had suggested marriage as a solution with an expiration date, but something had shifted in the days since—beginning with the conversation before the ceremony and continuing to this moment.

He could no longer see a reason to consider what was between them as something that should end, and Jason thought she possibly felt the same—even if she wasn’t ready to put it out there.

It had only been a week after all.

“I know Ric is not going to go away just because Diane gets him thrown off the case, and I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of people who aren’t thrilled that we’re having a child together, but…” Elizabeth tilted her head up, resting her chin on his shoulder. “I can’t bring myself to worry about any of that. It all…it feels so far away right now.”

“Good,” Jason said, not telling her that’s exactly what he wanted. He didn’t think she’d respond well to his urge to make her problems go away. He had always been one for letting people live their own lives—except for Carly, who had proved she could not do so without some sort of supervision—but it was different with Elizabeth. It always had been.

“Boy or girl?” Elizabeth asked, leaning up a bit more, leaning on her elbow. “Which do you want?”

“Healthy,” Jason answered, his fingertips drifting up and down her opposite arm. Her skin was so soft…

“That’s it?” Elizabeth asked. “You don’t have a preference?”

He hesitated. “I don’t know,” he answered. “I guess a boy would be easier because we’ve both been around them more, but it might be nice to have a girl.” A daughter. With her smile. He could see that.

“I guess I’m supposed to want a girl,” Elizabeth said. “Because I have a boy, and most people want a matched set, but it’d be nice for Cameron to have a brother.” She pursed her lips. “I really don’t know. Do you want to find out?”

“Can we?” Jason asked, frowning slightly. “Isn’t it a bit early?”

“Oh…” Elizabeth sat up, the sheet pooling to her waist, her hand braced against her still flat tummy. “Yeah. I’m only—it’s about ten weeks right now. And I—I think we have to wait another six, maybe ten weeks before it can be seen on an ultrasound. Kelly and I didn’t talk about it yet.”

“If you want to find out, we can.” Jason lifted a shoulder. “It—it doesn’t matter to me much—” He hesitated, because maybe that sounded like he didn’t care overall, but she just smiled.

“I know, you’ll love the baby no matter what. I don’t know. I found out with Cameron because it…” She bit her lip. “So much about my life was out of my control at that point, but knowing whether I was having a boy or girl, planning for him, picking his name? It was something I could do.” She chewed her lip. “I’m just not sure I could wait until May.”

“You’re due in May?” Jason asked, bringing one of his hands to rest behind his head. There was so much he didn’t know—he had tried to stay out of it, not speak about it, but now that he was the father, now that they were a family—

“May 15.” Elizabeth hesitated. “Though Kelly might adjust that at the next appointment since well, I clearly know the date of conception.” Her blush crawled up her neck, her cheeks flaming as he grinned.

“Clearly.” He laced their fingers together, her small, pale hand enveloped his larger, darker one. He had always liked the way they fit together.

“Anyway, waiting to find out is a nice idea, but I’ll probably go insane by then.”

“So we’ll find out when we can.” He tugged her towards him so he could draw her in for another kiss. It was barely noon and they still had a few hours before Cam needed to be picked up.

He wanted to spend those hours with her.

Elizabeth drew back a moment later, her brows furrowed. “What’s that sound?”

Jason blinked, then listened to the tinny sound of his phone ringing somewhere at the foot of the bed where his jeans had been discarded. “My phone,” he said flatly.

“Oh. Okay.” Elizabeth sat up, tugging the sheet to cover herself.

“Just—I have to…” He stood and quickly located the phone in his pocket, scowling when he saw Sonny’s name on the screen. “Sonny?”

“Hey, man. I know you wanted to kind of settle in today, but—”

“Is it important?” Jason demanded, because he had told Sonny to handle things for a few days to give himself time to get into a routine with Elizabeth, with Cameron.

“I promise—and I need to talk to Elizabeth as well.” Sonny sounded serious, and Jason remembered the trouble his friend had gone to make sure they had a nice wedding.

Jason scrubbed a hand over his face. “Okay. It’s about noon now. We have to pick Cam up at school at—” He looked to Elizabeth. “What time?”

“Two-thirty,” she murmured, her eyes blank, her expression still as she seemed to be preparing for him to leave her alone.

“We’ll stop by Greystone on the way to get Cam, around one-thirty. Is that enough time?”

“I mean…yeah, but—”

“I promised Cameron we’d buy race cars after school and I’m busy right now Sonny. Is it going to make a difference if we deal with it in ninety minutes and not now?”

“No,” Sonny admitted. “I’ll see you at one-thirty, Jase.”

Jason set the phone on his nightstand before climbing back into bed. “Sorry—”

“You—you could have gone,” Elizabeth said, chewing on her bottom lip. “I’m—I mean, I get it. It’s like the island, right? You have to deal with things—”

“He wants to talk to you, too,” Jason told her. “Which means it’s not life or death. If it needed to be taken care of immediately, Sonny would have said something.” And he could remember now all those years ago when he and Elizabeth would be together, and he’d leave her for Sonny or worse, for Carly’s nonsense.

And how she’d walked away from him after weeks of leaving her alone in the penthouse.

“There are going to be times when I have to leave when Sonny calls,” Jason told her. “And I’m going to hate it. It’s going to be in the middle of the night, it’ll be in the middle of dinner or breakfast. There’s nothing I can do about those times. But not today.”

“If you’re sure…” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “I’m ready for that, I promise you.”

He cupped her cheek and drew her closer. “Where were we?”

Greystone Manor: Foyer

Jason touched Elizabeth’s elbow. “Hey. Could you—just wait here a minute, okay?” He gestured towards Max. “Catch up with Max. I’m sure you remember him.”

“I do, I harassed him just this summer when I was trying to find you after you checked out of the hospital.” Elizabeth said.

Leaving them, Jason closed the door behind him once he was in the main room. “Sonny—”

“Hey, man…” Sonny came away from the windows. “I really am sorry about this—”

Jason held up a hand and shook his head. “I get it, but I just—” He hesitated. “I know there are times when it has to be me you call, but I think—”

“We need to get someone else,” Sonny finished. “Delegate. You’ve got a wife and son at home now, another baby on the way. I get it. We can do that. I thought about it after I called you—” He paused. “You got the results this morning, didn’t you?”

“We did, but—” Jason hadn’t expected Sonny to know exactly what he was thinking. “Let me get Elizabeth.”

Jason opened the door just as Elizabeth was looking at something on Max’s forearm. “I don’t think it’s infected, Max, but you need to take better care of these kinds of things,” she said. “Don’t you guys keep a doctor around for this kind of thing?”

“Sure, Mrs. Morgan, but it wasn’t much,” Max said. “It didn’t even hurt.”

“Well, clean it with some peroxide, keep it clean and covered for a few days.” Elizabeth blinked at Jason. “Hey, ready for me already?”

“Yeah.” Jason frowned at Max. “You okay?”

“Oh, yeah, just a cut I got in the kitchen.” Max rolled down his sleeve.

Elizabeth joined Jason at the door. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just—Sonny asked about the test and I didn’t know if you wanted—”

“We can tell him if you want

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The above scene is unfinished because I ditched the concept in the middle of the scene…and apparently, the line. 😛 Like I said, some of the dialogue didn’t feel right, some of it felt forced, at least to me, and I like the changes I made. You’ll be able to make up your own mind soon, I hope.