It was a wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People couldn’t believe what I’d become
Revolutionaries wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh, who would ever want to be king?
– Viva la Vida, Coldplay

---

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

General Hospital: Elizabeth’s ICU Room

Elizabeth was drifting in a sea of gray, slowly rising towards the surface, her eyelids fluttering a few times — Jason was beside her — and then she was in darkness again.

When she could finally open her eyes and keep them open, she couldn’t quite understand what was happening. Jason was on the wrong side of the bed — the chair hadn’t been there before—

She turned her head on the pillow, staring blankly at the clear walls of the ICU. Was it…was it real? Had any of it happened? Had she dreamed all those days?

“What’s…” the words were barely air escaping from her lips. She turned back, her neck almost refusing the movement. “Jason…”

“Hey.” He slid forward, perching on the edge of the chair. He picked up her hand, though she couldn’t really feel it. “Hey. You’re okay.  They had to take you back into surgery. But it’s alright now.”

“Tired of…” The words faded, and she closed her eyes, nearly sank back into the gray. “Getting annoyed…”

“Elizabeth?”

“No more…” She tried to lick her lips, but her tongue felt almost swollen, difficult to move. “Don’t…why…. surgery?”

“There was some more bleeding. You should rest. Okay? It’s okay.” She felt his warmth hovering, then a gentle stroking at her forehead. “Just rest. I’ll be right here.”

“Was…fine. What—” Her throat was on fire, and all she wanted to do was go back to sleep, to slip into the comfort of nothing, but something wasn’t right, and if she fell asleep she’d never be able to tell him — “It doesn’t…make…sense…”

“I know. I know. But it will be.” His voice faded for a minute, and she could only vaguely make it out. “No, she’s awake. She’s asking questions.”

Another voice came in. “Elizabeth, darling?”

“Gram?” Elizabeth opened her eyes, blearily taking in the figure of her grandmother at Jason’s side. “Gram. You’re here.”

“I’m here, darling. Jason and I are right here. Now you just close your eyes and rest. You need all the strength you can muster for those boys.”

Her boys. Yes. Yes. Elizabeth needed to be strong for them, to get better for them. She closed her eyes and slid back into sleep.

Elm Street

“Oh my God, oh my God—”

Nadine stumbled, and hit the ground, her knees grinding into the pavement, her hand slipping from Johnny’s. He grunted, grabbed her hand, and hauled her back to her feet. “Let’s go! We gotta get out of here!”

“But—” She tried to twist, to look over her shoulder, but Johnny kept her moving, flying through an alley and down a back street until they came out to Elm Street where he’d parked his car — thank God for keyless entry, he thought, shoving his other hand in his pocket and yanking out his keys.

He jerked the passenger door open, shoved Nadine inside, then slammed the door behind her.

“Oh my God, we should call 911, right? We should—” Nadine’s fingers were trembling as he got in, slammed his own door, started the engine, and pulled out into traffic, desperate to put as much space between them and the pier as possible—

Because holy shit.

“Can they trace those calls?” Johnny muttered. “They’ll know you called. That you saw. They’ll never believe it was self-defense. They never do.”

She knew he was right, knew he spoke from experience. But she was a nurse. She saved lives, she didn’t take them.

Nadine said nothing for a long moment. He took a few more turns, getting on the ramp that would take them out of town.

“I can use star sixty-seven,” she said finally. “It blocks numbers. But I can’t do nothing, Johnny. Don’t ask me to do that. I know you’re right. I know—I know what you went through this summer, and I don’t want to help them do that to you again. But—”

“I just—” Johnny exhaled slowly, then pulled over to the shoulder of the road. He dragged his hands down his face. “Yeah. Make the call. Do what you have to do.”

General Hospital: Hallway

Jason murmured something to Audrey, then stepped out to meet Patrick in the hallway. “Did something go wrong in surgery—”

“No. No. I mean—look, just come with me.” Patrick gestured for Jason to follow, and he did reluctantly, though he didn’t like the look on the doctor’s face. What if they hadn’t stopped the bleeding? Or the bleeding had had more complications — sometimes there were blood clots, weren’t there?

He followed Patrick into a conference room. “Just tell me how bad it is. What’s going on?”

“Barring infection, Elizabeth should make a full recovery,” Patrick cut in. “But you need to get her out of this hospital.”

Jason stared at him because nothing about that statement had made any sense. “What are you talking about? She just had major surgery—she coded—her heart stopped. What do you mean, get her out of the hospital?”

“What I’m about to tell you—” Patrick rubbed his jaw, shook his head. “I don’t know for sure what the hell is going on, but I can’t guarantee this morning won’t happen again.” He prowled the conference room, stopping by a window. “Elizabeth’s bleeding was caused by an injury to her kidney noted during the original surgery as being likely to heal on its own. We re-confirmed that diagnosis by looking at the surgical video after we finished today.”

“Okay,” Jason said slowly. “Then how did it start bleeding?”

“I ordered pain medication for Elizabeth after she reopened the sutures.” Patrick gripped the back of a chair, leaned over it. “She received the first few doses up here in the ICU, then two more after she moved floors. After the surgery, we ran a toxicology report. Instead of fentanyl, she was given warfarin.”

“That’s…” Jason tensed. “That’s not a pain medication.”

“No. It’s meant to break up clots, and to give it to a patient with a bruised organ, it could have been a death sentence. Maybe we could say the first time, it was a mistake, but it was three times across two floors, with two different dispensary machines for the medications and two different nurses. I ran the numbers—three doses would have been enough to cause the bleeding necessary for what happened today. Elizabeth went into shock and would have died.”

“Three doses. Two different—that’s not a mistake.”

Patrick’s gaze was intense. “And there’s a chance Elizabeth isn’t the only victim. Maybe Spinelli last month, but we’ve had an uptick in patient deaths. Not anything too surprising. Mostly on the ICU where the rate is always high. But it’s been more patients unresponsive to medication. We’re pulling the records, but I can’t just…I don’t know if Elizabeth was a target or if it was just random, I can’t tell you that. But what I do know is that you need to get her out of this hospital. I can’t guarantee her safety here. Even with a guard on her. Because I can’t guarantee the safety of anyone if the machines are malfunctioning at those rates—and if it was an attack against Elizabeth personally, then I really can’t guarantee anything.”

Jason remained silent, his head spinning. Elizabeth had nearly been murdered. She could have died. And if she stayed in the hospital, there was no guarantee she’d be safe. Who knew what the hell could be injected into her IV? Jason wouldn’t know the difference even if he put a guard on her a door, watched her like a hawk.

Patrick dropped into a chair. “You have the money to set up something at your place. The resources to get whatever equipment you need to monitor. I know Audrey worked post-op before she took over the nursing program. But I can’t focus on this problem if Elizabeth remains at risk.”

“If it’s not just Elizabeth, then it could be someone going after the hospital again. Like last year.”

“Yeah. And if I make a call to the authorities, they’ll shut us down. Maybe that’s the right thing to do. I don’t know.” Patrick put his head in his hands. “I need more information, okay? Right now, Elizabeth is the only person I can say for certain has been a victim of sabotage. And as long as that’s true, she’s not safe here. You can make her safe.”

Jason scrubbed his hands down his face, absorbing all that Patrick had shared. He’d always hated hospitals, but he’d never felt unsafe in one before. Not like this. How many times had he placed his trust in the doctors here at General Hospital? Patrick was right. Elizabeth couldn’t stay here.

“I’ll get it done. You get me a list of what she needs, and I’ll make it happen. If you don’t want to call the cops, fine, Patrick, but this hospital—” Jason exhaled slowly. It had been Emily’s dream to be a doctor here. His father had spent most of his life here. Monica.

Elizabeth loved this place. Her grandparents had practically built it. This would devastate her. And he knew what she’d want him to do. She couldn’t help right now, so he’d do it for her. “I don’t know if I can help, but I have contacts. If you can think of something—”

“You have enough on your plate, but yeah. Yeah. Maybe I might need some help from the other side.” Patrick said. He rose. “Let me get that list together.”

Harborview Road

After Nadine had placed a call about hearing gunshots on Elm Street Pier, Johnny pulled back out onto the road, but he continued driving aimlessly, making turns until they were heading back into town, though he hadn’t said anything about where they were going.

It had begun to rain as they drove back into downtown Port Charles, and the only sound in the car was the repetitive squeak of the windshield wipers back and forth. The sky was gray, overcast, dimming the light in the car.

“They’re going to question me,” Johnny said finally, pulling the car to a red light. “And someone at the hospital might remember you were with me.” He looked over at her, and their eyes met. He looked haunted, his eyes almost hollow. “You’re a witness.”

“It was self-defense. I’ll tell them that. I’ll tell them you had your hands up and everything until the last second—”

“That won’t matter to some people.” His fingers tightened around the wheel. “You’re a witness.”

“You keep saying that. Who’s gonna know? Or care?” Nadine furrowed her brow. “If you’re worried about Jason Morgan, I don’t think he’ll get mad if I just tell the truth. Even if it’s about his friend—”

“No. No. Not Jason. My family,” Johnny said bleakly. “With Logan, they knew I wasn’t guilty. They knew the trial was a joke. I was never in danger. But this? I did this. And if Sonny doesn’t make it, it’ll start all over again, and they’ll arrest me, and put me in jail again.”

The light changed to green, and Johnny looked back at the road. But she kept looking at him, still not sure where he was going with any of this.

“The only person who knows I was there is you. You don’t know my father—”

“I do, actually. He tried to kill me,” Nadine said faintly.

“Yeah, well, that was just a taste of what can he do. After everything with the trial—I don’t know what he would have done if…” He flexed his hands, staring hard at the road in front of him. “I don’t care what they do to me. I’m a Zacchara. It’s part of the package.”

“Doesn’t seem fair.”

“Yeah, well, that’s how it works. But you—you, I can make sure you’re safe. From my family,” Johnny added. He nodded. “Yeah, okay. That’s where we’re going.”

“Where?” Nadine said. “Johnny—”

“I’m taking you somewhere where I know you’ll be safe. You just have to trust me.”

Elm Street Pier

By the time Nadine’s 911 call had been received by dispatch, authorities were already on the scene. The shots had been heard by residents of the nearby buildings, and while gunfire wasn’t exactly unheard of in the neighborhood, it wasn’t normally in broad daylight.

When Mac had arrived on the pier, accompanied by Harper, Sonny had already been transported to General Hospital. His condition was considered critical, though Mac had heard that before in reference to Sonny and would let the doctors handle it.

His job was to discover what had happened here and hope for better results than he’d had in the Kate Howard shooting — but once again, when it came to Sonny Corinthos, Mac was pessimistic about the chances.

“That’s a lot of blood,” Harper said, one hand on his holster. He crouched down at the bloodstains that hadn’t yet been washed away. “We know what it looked like when the paramedics arrived?”

“Uniform said it looked like Sonny hadn’t been moved.” Mac wandered around the area, looking at the wood of the dock stairs and the bench below them. He scrutinized a nick in the top of the bench, followed it down to chunk of missing dock— “How many shots were reported?”

“Not sure. Dispatch said a few reports came in. Scattered. Something like three or four. Why?”

“Sonny was laying here—” Mac gestured at the outlines of the blood. “Facing away from these stairs. So, he was shot from—” He moved a bit, to get into position. “Here. And he’s got a gun in his hand.” He indicated the marks he’d located. “And these are bullet marks. I don’t think this was an execution. There was an exchange of gunfire. Sonny shot back. Or took the first shot.”

“I’ll get CSU to sweep the area, look for bullets and see if they match the gun we took into evidence.” Harper pulled a notepad from his trouser pocket, jotted down a note. “Who do we want to track down first? Morgan? Or one of the current enemies du jour? Zaccharas? That Karpov guy? I mean, it’s connected to the Howard shooting. It has to be.”

“Jason’s at the hospital,” Mac said absently. “I talked to Robin a little while ago, and she told me Elizabeth Webber had a setback. Emergency surgery. I gather Jason’s been there most of the day. I’ll look him up when I go to get an update on Sonny. As for the suspects?” The commissioner exhaled slowly. “I don’t know that we could even talk to anyone on that list yet. Why don’t you check on Elm Street for any business cameras. See if we can find anything interesting. I’ll head over to GH.”

General Hospital: Emergency Room

Epiphany slid a chart into the slot, then leaned over to check the dispatch report. “Gunshot victim arriving shortly—did we page a trauma surgeon?” she asked the desk clerk next to her.

“Dr. Julian is on his way down.” The clerk popped her gum. “And I cleared trauma room two.”

“Good, good.” Absently, Epiphany wound the stethoscope around her neck as she approached the door, scanning the area for the doctor. After she finished with this incoming emergency, she’d get someone to cover for her, go check on Elizabeth.

“Hey. You here for the gunshot victim?” Leo asked, jogging up, his curly dark hair fluttering. He headed for the doors leading to the ambulance bay. “What do we know?”

“Not much. Just that he’s coming in from the docks. Not the first time—” The ambulance backed up to the building, and the doors popped open. A paramedic jumped down and started to reach for the stretcher.

“Gunshot to the upper chest and head,” the paramedic said, reeling off vital statistics. “Lost him a few times in the ambulance, but—”

“Holy shit,” Leo breathed as Epiphany stared down at the man on the gurney.

“I need—” She took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s get him into the trauma room. Then I need to make a call.”

Jason Morgan’s day was about to get a whole lot worse.

Harborview Towers: Lobby

“You can say it until you’re blue in the face,” the guard at the security desk said, his expression stone-faced and unchanged. “You’re not going upstairs until I talk to Jason.”

Johnny scowled, leaned in, but Nadine tugged on his arm. “Being rude to the guy with the gun seems like a bad choice right now,” she hissed, and he looked at her with a mixture of bewilderment and frustration.

He needed to get Nadine somewhere safe before all hell broke loose. How long before the PCPD was able to tie them together? How long before his crazy family found out there was a witness to Johnny’s latest mess?

After what his father had tried to do to Lulu—after what he’d actually done to Johnny’s mother, the last thing Johnny needed was the blood of another woman on his hands.

There was no guarantee Jason would believe what had happened with Sonny had been in self-defense, but he knew Nadine would be safe with him. Jason wasn’t like the rest of them — he didn’t believe in collateral damage. In hurting innocents.

But if Jason wouldn’t even talk to Johnny, then how—

“Then call him now,” Johnny said flatly. “Because I need to talk to him. And he’s going to want to hear this.”

General Hospital: Conference Room

Audrey removed her reading glasses, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re telling me that, somehow, Elizabeth was intentionally dosed with warfarin to induce bleeding in hopes of killing her.” She looked to Patrick, then back to Jason. She set the chart on the table. “Patrick. What on earth is happening?”

“I don’t know yet. We knew there was an issue with the machines, but nothing has ever happened like this. I can’t understand how this could happen across two different floors—” Patrick took a deep breath. “I need to get Elizabeth out of here. I can’t take the chance that it was targeted against her.”

Jason avoided looking at Audrey, convinced that she would start to think she’d been right all along about Elizabeth and her safety around him. But the thought of lying to her, of coming up with a grand excuse as to why Elizabeth had to come home now, didn’t sit right with him. Not after the conversation they’d had.

Audrey exhaled slowly.  “All right. I can certainly look after Elizabeth at the penthouse provided you get me all the same equipment,” she told Jason, who looked up, startled at her easy agreement.  She hesitated. “We may need to discuss transportation — I don’t know how the elevator will work, but let’s get the materials first. Now, Patrick.” She focused on the chief of staff. “How do you plan to attack this problem? Since you’re asking Jason to arrange for the necessary materials to care for Elizabeth, I can only surmise that we’re not involving the authorities at the moment.”

“I…” Patrick swallowed. “Mrs. Hardy—I know you retired a few years ago, but I’m sure you know what happened after Jolene—”

“Yes. I know that the hospital was given an immediate jeopardy notice by the Joint Commission.” Audrey clasped her hands. “You fear what happens if we report this. That we’ll be closed.”

“I think we’ll lose our Medicare funding, that the research programs will close down and everything—” Patrick grimaced. “And that’s a domino effect that we can’t come back from. If this is a problem I can fix quickly and quietly, if Elizabeth is the only patient affected like this, I can’t bring myself to involve the authorities.”

“Elizabeth would probably agree with you,” Jason told Patrick, who nodded. “I don’t—I don’t mean to speak for her, and I’m not. But I know what this place means to her.” He paused, his throat tightening. “What it meant to my sister, and my father. They wouldn’t want this to jeopardize the hospital either.”

“My husband built the emergency department,” Audrey murmured. “He brought this institution into the modern age. It was the center of his world. Of mine, as well. If not for this hospital, perhaps Steve never learns that Jeff was his son. Maybe Elizabeth never comes into our lives,” she told Jason. She touched his hand, squeezed it gently. “And Monica and Alan? Their story is written in these walls. The good Emily would have done if we’d had her a little longer. General Hospital is more than the sum of its parts.” She looked to Patrick. “People come to us to care for them, to look after them. To save their lives if we can, or to let them go with grace. Jolene Crowell did irreparable damage to our mission, crippled our ability to build the next generation. When they eliminated the nursing program, oh, it broke my heart. It was my pride and joy, but that was necessary to save the whole. We’ll bring it back one day.”

She patted Jason’s hand again, then released it. “Now you’re telling me someone else may be attempting more sabotage, to once again threaten the future of this hospital.” She folded her reading glasses, placed them back in their case. “No. I won’t allow it. Whether this is a personal attack against my granddaughter or not, they’re using my hospital to do it. We cannot allow it to stand. You get me what I need to look after Elizabeth,” she told Jason, “And I want your promise—yours as well—” she said to Patrick, “that you’ll find out what happened so that we are never in this position again.”

“You have it,” Jason told her.

“I’ll get the equipment list you need,” Patrick said. He got to his feet. “I’m going to save the hospital, Mrs. Hardy. I promise.”

Audrey watched him go, then looked to Jason. “You didn’t have to include me in this,” she said, tilting her head. “I’m sure you could have hired a private nurse for Elizabeth. Whisked her away somewhere else. Found a way to explain it.”

“I—” Jason seemed unsure how to handle that question but settled on the truth. “You said it yourself. This hospital meant a lot to your husband. To Elizabeth’s grandfather. I know what it means to her. What you mean to her. And she should be with the boys while she gets better. I could never take her away from all of you. Or lie to you about what’s happening.”

Audrey studied for him another moment. “You continue to surprise me,” she said. She sighed. “I do wish Steve were here. He always knew what to do in a crisis. It would break his heart to see General Hospital under attack again.”

“I—” Jason’s cell rang and he frowned at the notification. It was the security desk at Harborview. “Wally?”

“Boss, we got Johnny Zacchara in the lobby demanding to see you.” There was a pause. “With some blonde—the one who made the news after the trial.”

Which probably meant Nadine Crowell, but Jason didn’t know what the hell Johnny wanted. “Tell him—wait.” He had another call incoming. He switched over when he saw the name. “Epiphany?”

“You have to get down to the ER. They just brought Sonny in. He’s been shot and it doesn’t look good.”

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