But if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
And if you close your eyes
Does it almost feel like
You’ve been here before?
– Pompeii, Jasmine Thompson

---

Friday, March 24, 2006

Morgan Penthouse: Living Room

Jason made some final notations in the warehouse ledgers, grimacing as he thought about the tax records and paperwork that still needed to be dealt with before the tax deadline in April. They’d never hired another business manager after Benny Abrams had died three years earlier, not a permanent one anyway. It had fallen to Jason to deal with the taxes which he usually liked.

He liked working with numbers. They were straight forward and always added up or divided into the same thing. You didn’t have to read between the lines or look for nuances or subtleties that he’d never been that great at grasping. Maybe, if things had been different after the accident, he’d have been an accountant.

Benny used to tell him that all the time and Jason shook his head at the memory. He didn’t think about the man all that much anymore except during tax season, but he still missed him.

He looked over, saw Sam take a seat on the sofa with the tabloids and a cup of coffee, her usual morning routine. They hadn’t spoken much since he’d gone to the warehouse on Tuesday night, and Jason was honestly relieved by that. If they weren’t talking, they weren’t fighting—

And she wasn’t asking questions about his past with Elizabeth, questions he hadn’t asked himself in nearly four years.

 Sonny gives you an order, and you follow it.

 He didn’t know how to explain to himself or to her that he didn’t like disappointing Elizabeth, of knowing that she thought he was better than he obviously was. Sam and Sonny were right — Manny wasn’t their problem anymore, and Skye’s safety was something Alcazar should worry about, not him.

Unless it matters enough for you to do what you think is right.

 He rolled his shoulders and turned to another stack of invoices to look over. He had men watching Manny at the hospital, so there was no point in worrying. If Manny made a move that concerned them, then he’d be in a position to act.

 And this doesn’t.

Sam was right, Elizabeth didn’t understand his life. She never had.

“Jason.”

Jason frowned and turned to Sam. He hadn’t even heard her walk across the room. He put down his pencil and turned to look at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked as he took in her dark, concerned eyes.

Sam sighed, looked down at the paper she held, then set it on top of his paperwork. He furrowed his brow, then looked at the front page she’d given him. His sister’s face stared back at him along with the profile of Sonny—as Emily was opening the door to him into a room.

Jason swallowed hard as he picked up the paper, then looked at Sam. “What—”

“She signed into the Cosmopolitan Hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Michael Smith,” Sam told him. She leaned against the edge of his desk. “She arrived first, then Sonny. The clerk recognized Sonny, then went upstairs and took the photo. He knew who Emily was.”

Of course he did. The Quartermaine heiress and the mafia don. Who could resist that story? The clerk had probably sold the photo for more money than he’d make in a year working behind the desk at a hotel. “How long were they there?” he asked flatly. He could read the story himself, but he had a feeling it would only make him angrier.

“I don’t know. The clerk waited a few hours. They didn’t leave and even ordered room service. She registered with cash—he must have sold the photo in the middle of the night to get it into the paper—” Sam broke off as Jason’s fingers clenched, crinkling the paper. “Jason—”

Jason carefully set the newspaper down, took a deep breath. His hands were nearly trembling as rage boiled in his veins. His little sister. His vulnerable little sister who had been raped and cheated on last year. Whose husband had left her for another woman. Who had been attacked by Carly during her nervous breakdown.

Sonny had slept with Jason’s sister. His much younger sister.

“Did the paper say whether it was the first time,” Jason demanded. He shoved his chair back and got to his feet. “How long?”

“According to the clerk, it was the fourth time they’d signed in, and they’d always stayed the night before then.” She bit her lip. “Jason, I know you’re angry. I get it. I know Emily’s had a bad year. She got close to Sonny last fall when she stayed in his guest house. You weren’t there. You couldn’t be, I know that. But—”

“That makes it okay?” Jason demanded, temper licking at his throat. He swallowed hard, shook his head. “I’m sorry, I—”

There was a furious knocking on the door as his sister’s voice called out to him. “Jason? Jason? Please answer—”

Jason strode to the door and yanked it open to find Emily standing there, her eyes rimmed with red, her hair disheveled. “Emily.”

She looked past him to find the newspaper on his desk, then turned her eyes back to him, her brown eyes distressed. “I tried to—I tried to get here—I didn’t think you read the Sun.”

“He doesn’t, I do.” Sam picked up the paper, rolled it up, and tucked it under her arm as she crossed them. “Are you okay?”

“N-No, not really. Um, Mom reads the Sun, so you can imagine how much fun breakfast was—” Emily clenched her hands together in a fist, pressed it to her chest. “You’re not saying anything, Jase.”

“What do you want me to say?” Jason demanded, his words short and clipped. “Is the paper lying?”

“No, no, it’s all true, b-but I need you to understand why I didn’t say anything. I knew—God, I knew how everyone would act, but I’m not a kid anymore, you know? And this—with Sonny—it just happened—”

“It needs to stop.”

The words were out of his mouth before Jason even realized what he was going to say. Emily’s eyes widened, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam’s mouth open slightly. Because he never told anyone what to do. Not like that.

“It—” Emily took a deep breath. “You just don’t understand, okay? Sonny and I—it’s real, you know? A-And I know it’s going to take some adjustments, but—”

“It won’t because it’s ending. Today.” His voice sounded rusty, even alien to him. He knew he was doing this wrong—that he was saying the wrong thing. His sister’s pale face flushed with color as her shock and worry dissolved into irritation.

“You don’t get to decide that. I am an adult, Sonny is an adult—”

“He’s an adult who is going to hurt you,” Jason snapped. “You don’t know what you’re getting into—”

“It’s—I’m different. Sonny and I are different,” she insisted. “Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you think I don’t know who he is? Maybe you’ve been cleaning up his messes too long, but—”

“You saw what happened to Brenda. Damn it, Carly went after you and nearly killed you because he drove her to a breakdown. You aren’t going to be the next woman I have to—” He bit off the rest of his statement.

“You don’t know how we are—” Emily shook her head. “No, I’m not going to stand here and justify my relationship with Sonny to you. I am my own person, and you don’t get to make my decisions. So what if Sonny has hurt people? I have, too. What about what happened to Zander?”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re blaming yourself for his death—”

“No, but I was a part of it. I didn’t help. Sonny’s made mistakes, but he didn’t drive Brenda or Carly crazy.”

“Em,” Sam said softly. “Em, he’s just worried about you—”

“Oh, please, don’t even—” Emily rolled her eyes at his fiancée. “Please. Don’t you start. What, you think because Sonny used and threw you away, he’ll do the same to me?”

Sam scowled, pressed her lips together, shook her head. “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

“No, I’m dying to hear your opinion, Sam. C’mon—”

“Knock it off, Emily—” Jason began.

“No, I want to hear what the con artist has to say about my life.” Emily’s brows lifted as she turned to Sam. “Let’s hear it. I mean, you know Sonny. You have to know and understand the mark, that’s how this works, right? You conned Jax by pretending to be some strong badass, you conned Sonny by being a whore, and my brother—” Emily’s smile was thin. “You conned him with a baby. Too bad that didn’t work out the way you planned—”

“You’re leaving.” Jason yanked open the door. “Now.”

“Jason—”

“You came over here to tell me about Sonny. Consider me told. You don’t get to throw Sam’s daughter in her face. You’re angry at me, be angry at me. You don’t take it out on her—”

Emily snorted and stalked out in the hallway, whirling around for one last dig at the threshold. “And the con just keeps going, doesn’t it, Sam? Hey, maybe you figured out how to keep it going. He’ll always feel sorry for the whore with a dead kid—”

Sam’s face was white as Jason slammed the door in his sister’s face. He exhaled slowly, and now the trembling in his hands wasn’t just anger. It was shock. He had no idea his sister had that kind of venom inside of her for Sam. For anyone.

He turned to look at Sam. “I’m sorry.”

“Why?” Sam exhaled slowly, a careful breath as she let her arms fall to the side. “Was she wrong?”

“What?”

She stared at him, her eyes dry. “Was she wrong?” Sam repeated. “I conned Jax, you already know that. And Sonny started as a con. So did you.”

Jason swallowed hard. “Sam—”

“It’s not like I planned it—not after Sonny. But I needed a place to be safe. To figure things out. So I picked you. And I stayed.” She exhaled slowly. “I used my kid. I knew it would work. I knew you were…”

He just stared at her as she trailed off. “What are you saying to me right now?”

“I thought it stopped. I thought I stopped conning you.” She clenched her hands into fists at her side. “But maybe I don’t know how to do that. I mean, I just—I don’t know. Maybe I don’t exist. I don’t. Samantha McCall never existed. I was just some baby Alexis Davis threw away, and Cody McCall ended up with. I had ten different names by the time I was fifteen, you know that? I don’t exist. Maybe I never did.”

She scrubbed her hands over her face, took a deep breath. “Thank you for making her go. I need to take a walk.”

“Let me go with you—”

“No. No. I need some air. I feel like I’m suffocating in here.”

Jason watched her go, then looked over as his cell phone began to ring. He could see the caller ID screen flash with Carly’s name. He grimaced, then reached for it.

It was going to be a long day.

General Hospital: Locker Room

Elizabeth tugged her scrub pants on, then cinched them at the waist with the tie. She sat down to put on her sneakers.

Then she heard the locker room door open so hard that it bounced against the wall with a booming THUD. She twisted on the bench as Emily rounded a row of lockers and threw her bag on the bench. It rolled over and fell onto the floor, cosmetics, pens, and keys spilling out onto the concrete floor.

Emily scowled down at it, then looked at her. “Well, go on. Let me have it. Be the fifteenth person to scream at me and throw me out.”

Elizabeth merely lifted her brows. “Good morning, Em.”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. The entire world knows I’m screwing Sonny Corinthos.” Emily got on her knees and started shoving things back into her purse.

Elizabeth tied her second sneaker then tugged her hair back into a ponytail. She closed her locker. She’d seen the tabloids and hadn’t been as surprised as she thought she might be. “Well, by now, I guess they do. Who threw you out?”

“My brother. Can you believe it?”

Elizabeth hesitated as she pinned her ID to her scrub top. “Jason?” she asked with a frown. That didn’t sound like the man she knew. “Jason threw you out?”

“He demanded I stop seeing Sonny, too. It was like an alien zapped into his place. Like he wasn’t even my brother. And then Sam had the nerve to weigh in like anyone gives a damn what she says—”

Elizabeth scratched her temple, trying to understand. “Jason threw you out because you refused to stop seeing Sonny?” She could see Alan or Monica maybe doing that. Possibly Edward. But not Jason.

“Well…” Emily bit her lip. “Maybe he didn’t throw me out until I…” She looked away, sighed. “Until I accused Sam of using her dead baby to con Jason into marriage.”

“Oh.” Elizabeth nodded slowly. “Well, yeah, that would do it, I would bet. Em—”

“I didn’t mean it—”

“Yeah, you did. You’ve said the same thing to me.”

“Well, I didn’t mean to say it,” Emily said with a roll of her eyes. “But, like, where she does get off, telling me Jason’s just worried about me—” She scowled. “Oh, I know that look, Elizabeth Imogene. You agree with her.”

“I—” Elizabeth sighed. “I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But you know it’s not like Jason to just tell you what to do. He only does that when he’s scared.”

“He thinks Sonny will drive me nuts. It’s not my fault Brenda had a breakdown or that Carly spent time in Ferncliffe. It’s not even the first time she was there, you know? Like, they both had issues. I don’t—and I’m certainly not going to listen to a man who’s currently screwing Sonny’s last girlfriend—”

“Well, you’re forgetting about Reese,” Elizabeth reminded her, still at a bit of a loss at what had gotten into Emily. “Emily—”

“No. No, you don’t get to agree with my brother, Elizabeth. That is tremendously unfair. You are my best friend. He doesn’t even know you exist anymore. You have to take my side—”

“Emily, you have a vicious way of being an idiot when you get mad.” Elizabeth shook her head. “The same thing that makes you a good friend is what makes you an awful person to fight with.”

“What does that mean?”

“Because you are so compassionate and you read people so well—you know exactly where to drive the knife when you want to hurt someone.”

Emily stared at her. Folded her arms. “That’s not true—”

“No? Sam tried to defuse the situation with you and Jason, and you threw her dead daughter in her face. I mean, Christ, Em. Whether you like her or hate her, whether she’s a con artist or not — you know how hard that was for her. For Jason. They were—” She shook her head. “That was a bad time for them. And she loved her child. And you used it against her. Because you wanted her to shut up and leave you alone.”

“I—”

“Just now. I’m here, trying to be there for you, and you think this is a good time to remind me how it ended with him? He doesn’t know I exist, Em? What the hell.”

“I—” Emily’s lip trembled. “But—”

“First, it’s not true. I know it’s not true. But you know what happened between us at the end. You know how much it hurt me for him to treat me like nothing. You know that. So you used it. Just like you used Sam’s daughter. Because when you’re hurt, you need to take us down with you.”

“I’m sorry.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s been a bad day, okay? I woke up to my entire family screaming at me. I tried to head off Jason, but Sam had already shown him the damn paper—if she wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have seen it. And I could have explained it to him—and why the hell is he so mad? He married Sonny’s sister, didn’t he? He quit his job over her. He—”

“I am aware of what Jason sacrificed to be with Courtney,” Elizabeth said dryly. “And so is he. What exactly do you think you could have said to him that would change how he handled it?”

“The paper makes it seem like some sordid affair. We’re not married. Neither of us, okay? We’re single. We’re adults. I have a right to be happy, Elizabeth. Don’t I?”

“Of course you do. But you don’t get to decide how other people feel about this. Because, yeah, Jason married Sonny’s sister. And that ended in disaster, so there’s that. And he was the one that broke Brenda into little pieces. You were at the wedding. You saw it happen. You saw her break down afterward. He’s watched Sonny with woman after woman, and you think he’s thrilled you’re next?”

“It’s different with me—”

“And maybe it is. But he didn’t hear about it from you. You knew he’d take it like this, Em. You knew everyone would. Lucky thinks I knew and lied to him about it, so that’s been fun for me.” Elizabeth took a deep breath. “You went into his home and ended up fighting with Sam. Is that all you said to her? Or did you maybe deserve to have him throw you out? And good for him. Because if you’d ever used either of my miscarriages against me in a fight, I would have thrown you out, too.”

She stalked away from her best friend and went to clock in. She didn’t have the patience for Emily right now. She adored her best friend more than anything in the world, but Emily could be incredibly naive and selfish.

And Elizabeth just did not have room in her life for that right now.

Courtland Street: Alley

Lucky cleared his throat and ducked behind a row of trash cans. “Santiago?” he called, pitching his voice low.

“Yeah, what you call for?” the irritated growl came from the shadows as a man with an average-height and olive skin sauntered towards him, his dark hair tucked underneath a backward baseball cap. “You wearing a wire? You tryin’ to screw me over?”

“No,” Lucky scowled. He glanced over his shoulder, making sure they were alone. “You got it?”

“Yeah, I got it, but I’m not convinced you’re for real. Maybe you’re setting me up.” Santiago lifted his chin, held out his hand. In his palm sat two round white pills.

Lucky raised his brows. “What, you want me to prove it by taking them in front of you?”

“Yeah. That’s the way of it. You want to do business, you gotta try the product.” He wiggled his hand. “So, let’s go.”

“Fine,” he muttered. Lucky grabbed the pills and tossed them down his throat. The taste was chalky on his dry throat but if they were the oxy Santiago had promised on the phone—

The pain would be gone soon, and Lucky would be able to breathe again. He’d be able to get through his therapy again.

He knew he was taking a chance buying the product on the street, calling old contacts he’d met while patrolling the streets as a rookie, but he was desperate. He’d gone to Mercy Hospital, and doctors there had refused another prescription.

Lucky was a cop, damn it, and he didn’t deserve being treated like a goddamn drug addict. He just needed to get through therapy, and how the hell was he supposed to do that if he couldn’t even think through the pain? Everything was always on fire, and he just wanted the fucking pain to stop for a minute so he could think.

“Satisfied?” he demanded. He shoved the cash at Santiago. “Take it. Give me what I asked for.”

Santiago pursed his lips, then shrugged. “Sure.” He dug a bag out of his pocket. “Just what you asked. Twenty pills.”

“Twenty—” Lucky scowled. “I told you I needed thirty—I paid for thirty—”

“You want me to sell to a cop, you gotta pay the price.” Santiago drew back his hand. “You don’t want it?”

“Give me the fucking pills.” Lucky snatched the plastic bag from the dealer’s hands as his money disappeared into Santiago’s jeans. “This had better be the real stuff.”

“Hey, a cop on the client list isn’t the worst thing to have.” Santiago shrugged. “You need a refill, you know where to find me.”

He slunk back into the shadows, disappearing down the alley until all Lucky could hear was footsteps.

He wouldn’t need a refill. He’d make these last two weeks, and then he’d be able to get back to work. And then he’d never have to take another damn pill again.

Greystone Manor: Foyer

“Don’t bother to tell me he’s in a meeting,” Jason all but growled at Max as the loyal guard attempted to stop him. “I’m going in—”

“Listen, Sonny said if you came in, he—” Max pressed his body against the double doors that blocked Jason from the living room. He spread his hands out.

“Max.” Jason glared. “Do you think you can stop me?”

“No,” the guard admitted, “but I got my orders, Jase. So I gotta at least try.”

“Fair enough. Now move.”

“Moving.” Max darted past Jason and went outside to get away from whatever was going to happen inside there. He, and several others that worked at the estate, half thought Sonny had it coming. You just didn’t date a guy’s sister without warning him. Not when you’d known her since she was twelve years old.

Sonny scowled as Jason shoved the doors open. “Max!” he called.

“Don’t bother. He’s already gone.”

The two partners stared at each other for a long moment, nearly a decade of friendship between them. This wasn’t even the first time Sonny had done something like this. There had been that terrible night when Carly had waltzed down the penthouse steps, dressed in nothing more than Sonny’s dress shirt.

That had hurt. Not only because Jason had half-believed he was in love with Carly, but because he’d known why Sonny had done it. Because he thought Jason needed to be taught who Carly was. Sonny had proved himself that night to be no different than Robin. He was just someone else who couldn’t see that Jason was his own man, capable of making his own choices—even if they were mistakes.

They’d managed to somehow put that past them, but now—

“She’s an adult, Jason,” Sonny said finally. He calmly sipped his bourbon. “And you’re not her father.”

“Then why lie?” Jason demanded. “You’ve been avoiding me, not taking meetings, not taking care of business because you knew how I’d feel—Emily’s been ditching work, her friends, me—you both knew how this was going to go, so you lied—”

“Because we knew you’d be unreasonable,” Sonny said easily, but his dark eyes darted away, almost if he didn’t believe his own words. “So we kept it to ourselves. I’m sure you’re worried about her safety—”

“I’m not—” Jason clenched his fists at his side. “You think this is about danger? Emily’s an adult. She’s been around me long enough to understand it. That has nothing to do with it.”

Sonny blinked at him, set the tumbler down on the bar with a thunk of glass. “What the hell then—”

“I should have seen it coming,” Jason said flatly. “She was lonely and vulnerable. Alone. Desperate. That’s your type.”

“My…” Sonny trailed off as the corners of his mouth tightened. “My type.”

“Brenda. Carly. Hannah. Lily. Sam. All of the women you’ve damaged. All of the women you’ve used. Brenda and Carly had nervous breakdowns. Lily is dead. Hannah gave up her career for you—”

“And you blame me for all of that?” Sonny demanded.

“I will not let my sister be next casualty!” Jason shot back. “Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean I don’t know exactly who you are and what you do to women. I’m the one that cleans up after you!”

Sonny exhaled slowly. “I didn’t realize you thought so highly of me,” he said dryly.

“Is that why you’ve refused to do anything about Manny Ruiz?” Jason demanded. “Why I’ve been taking all the meetings? Why you’ve been distracted? This always happens—you fall in love, and you let everything go to hell. Not this time—”

“Fuck you!”

“If anything happens because of Manny Ruiz—” Jason began.

“What’re you gonna do?” Sonny taunted. “What? Some friend you’ve turned out to be—”

Jason opened his mouth, but a sound behind them had them both pausing and turning to look as Sam entered, hesitant. “What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice tight.

“When I got back to the penthouse, you weren’t there. I was afraid you’d come here.” Sam put her hand on his arm. “You’re still upset. You’re not thinking clearly. Let’s go home.”

“Oh, look. Another one of my messes you’ve had to clean up,” Sonny snarled with a dismissive wave of his hand at the woman who had carried—and lost—his child.

Sam reeled back as if struck, and Jason winced, wondering how many more hits she was supposed to take today. It was one thing to take their anger out on each other—but Sonny had gone too far—

“Don’t talk to her—” Jason began.

“What? Isn’t that what you’re here to do? To prevent your darling little sister from being one of my pieces of roadkill?” Sonny snarled. The other man stalked towards them. “You clean up my messes — I’m just stating facts. You’re not wrong. Who let Sam live with him while I dealt with Carly?”

He shrugged, but the rage was almost visible in the trembling of his shoulders. “You don’t want Emily to end up crazy like Brenda and Carly, dead like Lily and Reese, out of a job like Hannah, or…” Sonny squinted at his former girlfriend, who glared at him. “What exactly is the nature of your damage, Sam? What terrible legacy have I left you with beyond shoving you at Jason?”

Sam took a deep breath and bit back whatever terrible thing she was going to say. Jason could see her shaking from the effort. “I am not going to let the two of you use me to hurt each other. I’m fine, Sonny. You never gave a damn about me or my daughter, and I knew that.”

Sonny smirked, then looked at Jason. “See? Proof I don’t ruin all women—”

Sam narrowed her eyes. “You can’t hurt someone who doesn’t give a shit about you, Sonny. You can’t damage something that doesn’t let you touch it. I never gave a damn about you either.”

Sonny stared at her, stunned. “But—”

“You were a rich man who was handsome and mildly good in bed. You were a mark. Until you weren’t worth the effort. So, please, leave me out of this fight. I’m not someone you need to fix or clean up,” she shot at Jason, and to Sonny, she said, “And the only worthwhile thing I got from you was my daughter. You can both go to hell.”

She stalked out, slamming the front door behind her, the sound echoing like a gunshot.

Jason exhaled slowly and looked back at Sonny, who was shell-shocked as if it had never occurred to him that the con artist he’d taken to his bed had only been using him the way he’d used her.

“You and Emily are going to do whatever you want. You’re adults. But you lied to me. You avoided me, and you’ve been ignoring business. Not just Manny Ruiz, but the Escobars. And if just one person gets hurt because of this—”

He trailed off because he honestly didn’t know what he would do. So he just let his threat hang in the air before he left.

Something had broken in his relationship with Sonny that day, but maybe it had already been broken, and Jason had simply refused to see it.

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