Mean | 81

Well, all that icing

And all that cake.

I can’t make it to your wedding

But I’m sure I’ll be at your wake.

-- “Bukowski,” Modest Mouse

.: Crimson Manor, Crimson Pointe :.

“Okay.” Nadine played with a lock of hair as Johnny and Amalia milled around her in the family’s private den, about to settle down for an after-dinner glass of port. “Yeah, no, I’ve kept you up too long. But, seriously, Claudie, consider coming out to Port Charles for Thanksgiving. You know we’d love to come to Milan again, but it’s been forever since you’ve been at the house. And Thanksgiving’s just a couple days away…”

She listened some more, breaking out in a smile. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Okay, I’ll let you go. Talk to you soon. Bye.”

“Well?” Amalia took the glass her father handed her and looked expectantly at her mother. “What did she say? Is she coming?”

“I don’t think so,” Nadine sighed, putting the phone back in the cradle. “You know how she is. Stubborn. She says she wants us at the house on Thanksgiving morning.”

“We still have a couple days,” Amalia pointed out. “I bet we could sway her.”

“I bet you could sway her,” Johnny corrected, taking a seat next to his wife. “Claudia doesn’t listen to us, but she’s always done what you asked.”

“That’s because she likes to think of you as her little doppelganger,” Nadine grinned, making Amalia laugh.

“I’ll work on her,” she promised. “Aunt Claudie won’t know what hit her.”

“In the event that we don’t end up convincing her, though, it might be smart to pack a few things,” Johnny suggested. “We can take the jet out the afternoon before Thanksgiving and get there by nighttime. Oh, and I invited Jake along with us, so we might want to let him know to do the same.”

Nadine and Amalia stared at Johnny as he innocently sipped his port. “You invited Jake along?”

He nodded. “Yeah. He’s coming over to the house on Friday night, anyway. I bet he can be packed up and ready to leave by Saturday afternoon. And Claudia would love to have him over. She’s always on her best behavior when he’s around, too, I’ve noticed. Huh.”

Nadine looked at Amalia, who shrugged.

“Maybe Jake should be the one to invite her to Port Charles,” Amalia joked. “He’s got as good a shot as I do.”

“We should get him on that,” Johnny laughed. “Although, you know, I do hate how Claudie jerks us around every year. We always get the house ready for her every year and then we end up schlepping out to Milan.”

“If she does show up this year, we should throw a post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas party at the house,” Nadine suggested. “Just a nice winter party, get everyone together for the heck of it, since we’ll probably be in Italy for Christmas, anyway. Who knows, maybe we can invite Jason and Elizabeth. They’re kind of an official couple now, aren’t they?”

“You might want to hold off on that,” Amalia murmured, settling back with her drink. “Even if you invited her, I doubt Elizabeth would come. She hates Aunt Claudie.”

“Well, yeah, a lot of people in this town dislike your aunt,” Johnny allowed. “But that’s from so long ago. And Claudia hasn’t even been here in several years.”

Amalia shook her head. “No, no. Remember when Jake went out to his place in Milan and Aunt Claudie wanted to go to the opera with him?”

“Sure.”

“One of the society rags here got a hold of some paparazzi shots,” she explained. “Jake was telling me that Elizabeth found the picture of him and Aunt Claudie and basically blew a gasket. She went on and on about how she’s such a horrible woman and how much she hates Aunt Claudie and all of that until Jake basically told her to leave. Inviting her over wouldn’t be such a great idea. Besides, Mom, I can’t figure out why you even want to bother.”

Nadine frowned. “What do you mean? Elizabeth and I were really good friends.”

“Exactly – were,” Amalia emphasized. “When we were all kids. When she found out that you two knew what she did and didn’t tell her that you knew, she flipped out and stopped talking to you completely. It was completely hypocritical and ridiculous to her, and she’s never apologized or made any kind of overtures after that. Why you’d even entertain the thought of being nice to her and bringing her back into your circle is beyond me.”

Johnny shrugged. “Don’t look at me – she was always your mother’s friend more than she was mine. And you know me: I tried not to get too involved when it all fell apart. If she doesn’t want to talk to us, that’s her choice. But on the other hand, I’m not going to ignore her, either.”

Amalia rolled her eyes and finished off the last of her wine. “That’s fine. All I’m saying is that you might want to hold off on inviting her to any party if Aunt Claudie’s in attendance.”

“We’re getting a little ahead of ourselves here,” Johnny pointed out. “As far as we know, your Aunt Claudie has no plans to return to Port Charles any time soon.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

.: Oceanside Towers, Penthouse 2 :.

“I’m really going to do it.”

“I know,” Morgan grinned at his best friend, whose knee was bouncing up and down with nervous energy. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s about damn fucking time. You’ve put that girl through hell.”

Jake snorted. “I-”

“Jake.” He leaned forward in his armchair, feeling that this part was non-negotiable. “You put Li through hell. You did since even before you guys officially started dating. In fact, if you look up ‘long-suffering’ on Wikipedia, there’s a picture of her.”

“Well…” He shifted in his seat and looked sheepish. “Yeah.”

“Can I ask you something?” Morgan adjusted his grip on the beer that Jake had brought over, an interesting IPA called Firestone Walker.

Jake poked around in the last container of Thai food and, finding nothing, set it back on the table with the rest of the trash. “Sure.”

“Why now?” Morgan stretched his legs out, his socked feet resting comfortably on the coffee table between them, ankles crossed. “Why not…I don’t know. Why not right out of Yale? Or before you became partner? Or after? Or before or immediately after you were in charge of the whole business? What makes now the perfect time?”

“A lot of things,” Jake replied. “I couldn’t marry Lia right out of Yale, when I started working for your dad. I didn’t have anything. I was still living at home. I wouldn’t be able to keep her in the style she was accustomed to.”

“Somehow, I doubt she would have cared,” he drawled.

“She wouldn’t have, but I did,” Jake persisted. “And I couldn’t marry her when you made me partner. It was too soon. I was untested. I hadn’t made a name for myself. And after I took over the whole business, there was too much to be done. Plus, I was given ELQ to juggle.”

“But you were just recently given Carmine’s assets to juggle,” Morgan pointed out.

“That’s different,” he disagreed. “Now, it’s all here. It’s all complete. My organization stretches from Cape Cod to Las Vegas. It’s solid. I have the name: everyone who’s anyone knows who I am. I have the resume: my accomplishments speak for themselves. I have the financial assets: Lia wouldn’t be taking a step down if she agreed to marry me. She’d retain her lifestyle and her place in society, all of that. Even if it doesn’t matter to her,” he added when Morgan opened his mouth to protest.

“And in addition to all that, I have been working very closely not only with Johnny but with his entire team during this acquisition period,” he pointed out. “John got to see first-hand what I’m like as a businessman. And he got to see that I know what I’m doing, sure, that’s important. But he also got to see that I can work with his people. He lent me his legal and financial teams and he saw how seamlessly it worked. He should know from that experience that if he were to hand me part or all of his business, the transition would be comparable in terms of ease.”

“So that was why you made sure his guys were always with you,” Morgan murmured.

“Duh,” Jake snorted. “You know me – I always have ulterior motives. Even if I have legitimate motives, there’s always an ulterior one somewhere. Lurking.”

His best friend laughed. “Fair enough. So now that you’re almost coast-to-coast and you showed John that you can work with his people, it’s suddenly the perfect time to marry Lia?”

“Pretty much,” Jake replied. “Everything’s fallen in place. I’ve been working for years to get to this point. And I’m finally here.”

“Have you told anyone else? Besides me and Cam?”

“Mike.”

“Really? What’d he say?”

“You know how he is right now,” Jake chuckled. “He’s completely in love with Eden. And her son. Kid’s name is Timothy, right?”

Morgan nodded at the mention of the little boy his older brother was planning on adopting. “Yup. When they get married, he and Eden are going to change his last name to Corinthos. Make it official.”

“Yeah, I thought I remembered him saying that. Anyway, Mike knows. He said it was a long time coming and he was glad I finally had my head out of my ass.”

“Sounds like my brother,” Morgan smirked. “Any other gems from Captain Lovesick?”

“Mainly, he was just happy that the two of us would be getting married kind of close together,” Jake replied. “He and Eden have a summer wedding planned in Kent and Port Charles, and he figures me and Lia will get married somewhere around there, too. Also, he said to remember to let Lia do whatever the hell she wants with the wedding. He says if she wants me to wear a suit with coattails, to wear a suit with coattails.”

“Sound advice.” Morgan’s socked feet swayed back and forth. “You told anyone else?”

“Nope. Just you, Cam, and Mike. Figure I’ll tell Spence, too. He’s probably got some good advice. He and Laur have been married for a couple years now and they’re still going strong, so he’s got to be doing something right. Oh, and Moll and Kay know, mostly because they have to know about any future changes to the organization, if I can foresee them.”

“Got it,” he nodded. “…You’re not going to tell Uncle Jason?”

Jake shrugged and took another pull from his bottle. “He can find out when everyone else does.”

“You know, I’ve kind of been wondering what he’d think on the matter,” Morgan admitted. “On one hand, I know that, obviously, he’ll be happy that you’re happy. That’s a given. But on the other, I figure it’s got to be another nail in the coffin.”

“What do you mean? Because of her family?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “I mean, it’s just another reminder. He did everything he could to keep you out of the mob. He let Uncle Lucky raise you, for fuck’s sake, let you have his name. Stayed away from you and your mom and Cameron almost your whole life. Did every single thing he could to keep you away from that kind of life, away from people like John, who’ll be your father-in-law, and away from people that he hates, like Claudia Zacchara, and now you’re all grown and marrying everyone’s favorite mob princess.”

Jake smirked at that. “Yeah. Funny how that worked out. Personally, I’m thinking Jason can suck it.”

Morgan laughed. “Fair enough, don’t really know what I expected. I guess it’s enough that you’re actually doing this, after shying away from anything romantic with Li since you two started dating.”

“I don’t shy away from-”

“You’ve never even told her you love her,” Morgan pointed out. “That certifies you a grade-A pussy. You better work on that, man.”

“I…will,” Jake said slowly. “If I don’t fuck things up, I’ll have the rest of my life to work on that.”

“John will be happy,” his best friend pointed out. “He likes you. Always has. And he wanted someone like you for his son-in-law. At least now, he won’t push that Bruno jackass at Lia. That guy’s a piece of work.”

“Ugh, I don’t want to talk about Bruno,” he groaned. “He’s done. Thing of the past. Lia will never have to see him again if I have anything to say about it.”

He played with his bottle, watching the liquid swirl. “Can I tell you something?”

“Sure.”

“…I’m really glad he’s going to be my father-in-law.”

His best friend smiled at that. “I know you are.”

They sat together for a long time, each one staring contemplatively at his beer. It was a bittersweet moment for both: proof that, yet again, their lives were taking off in different directions, immutably changing and hopefully for the better.

Finally, Morgan smiled. “You’re getting married.”

Jake smiled back. “…I’m gettin’ married.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

.: 234 Cherry Blossom Lane :.

“Cameron said that he was named TIME’s Person of the Year, but not to tell anyone,” Elizabeth said excitedly as Jason approached the bed. Dressed in gray sweatpants and a white t-shirt, he pulled off his socks and got under the covers with her.

“Really?”

She nodded, adjusting the pillow behind her back as they sat against the headboard. “He did say not to tell anyone, so don’t let it slip. TIME is trying to keep it under wraps.”

“When did Cam find out?”

“A few days ago, he heard a rumor from Spencer, who’d heard it from one of his friends at the magazine, I think,” she explained. “He asked Jake and Jake said it was true.”

“Wow.” Jason fluffed the comforter in his lap, trying not to take any of hers and failing. “That’s a really big deal.”

“I know, isn’t it?” Elizabeth played with the ends of her ponytail. “I still can’t believe it. My son – our son – is TIME’s Person of the Year. It’s so…”

She looked over at the picture of Cameron and Jake when they were eight and ten that she always kept on her nightstand. “…Incredible.”

Jason followed her gaze to the picture. “Yeah. It is. Good for him, though. He’s worked really hard for it.”

“I can’t wait to read the article,” she said, clapping her hands lightly. “It better come out soon.”

“I wonder if he’s even done the interview yet,” Jason mused.

“I don’t know.” The corners of Elizabeth’s mouth curved downward. “You know, he didn’t even tell us himself. I had to hear it from Cameron, and you had to hear it from me.”

“Yeah, well.” Jason shrugged. He hadn’t really expected Jake to tell him anything about this, anyway, so it was no great loss for him. “You know how he is.”

“I’m glad he’s at least out of the house now,” she said quietly. “He must have locked himself up there for three weeks, easily. Just last night I saw him out to dinner with Cameron and Spencer and this morning he and Anna were having coffee outside of Kelly’s.”

Elizabeth resituated the comforter again, taking back her share from Jason, and sank down in the bed. “I was just hoping that once he was done with everything, he’d…I don’t know, come by or something. Or call. I was hoping I’d actually see him more, or at least hear from him.”

“I kind of wish that he was still working on all of that,” Jason admitted. “I saw him more when he was.”

“Because he needed your help?”

He nodded. “Yeah. He’d actually invite me over to his place. He’d usually have cold beer. Twice he even said to stay for dinner. His dog got to know me, too.”

“Wolfe? He’s a good dog,” Elizabeth smiled. “Not as good as Teague, our old German Shepherd. He was such a good dog. Always got along great with all the kids. And with Johnny and Nadine’s dog, too. Jake and Amalia would take them for walks together sometimes.”

“Amalia was the one that gave Wolfe to him on his birthday, I think. He really loves that dog.”

“He would.” Elizabeth flicked her hair out of her face. “He always said she was a great gift-giver. He said that about Johnny, too. And did you know, all of those wines he has in his cellar? I mean, the really good Italian ones? Claudia sends him a bunch every year.”

Jason nodded slowly. “…He’s on good terms with Johnny, so that doesn’t surprise me, that he’d be on good terms with Claudia, too.”

“You know, about Wolfe, I didn’t even know that he’d gotten a dog. I just went to his house one day and was almost tackled by this huge beast, and Jake ordered him out of the room and said, oh, by the way, Mom, I got a dog. Seriously. I had no idea.”

“Yeah.”

She twiddled her thumbs, her gaze growing distant. “You know, I never thought it could be this way. Me and the boys were always so close when they were growing up. I spent so much time with them, I knew everything that was going on in their lives…”

“Well…not everything.” It was an uncomfortable thing to say, but it was true all the same.

“Yeah.” She gazed down at her hands. “Not everything. And much less now. About Jake, at any rate. Cameron, he still tells me everything. Although, who knows, maybe he only does that because he sees me for eight hours every day at work, and there’s no escape.”

“Don’t say that. He doesn’t want to escape from you.”

“Sure feels like Jake does, sometimes.”

“He’s just…private,” Jason suggested. “There are a lot of things he can’t talk to you about. Just like me. I wouldn’t ever tell you anything about the business. And later, you started telling me that you didn’t want to know, which was fine. Jake’s the same way.”

“I don’t want to know about his business. Really, I don’t,” she said plainly. “But I do want to know about his life. Apparently, that’s too much to ask for. He never tells me anything anymore, and it feels like whenever I go to see him, we just fight and he has me escorted out. My own son kicks me out of his house.”

“He doesn’t kick you out of his house,” Jason disagreed. “It’s just…different. He’s busy. He can’t sit around and have long discussions while he’s trying to get his work done. A lot of the stuff he’s handling – it’s time-sensitive. And maybe arguing with you distracts him, and he knows he can’t afford to be preoccupied so he just goes back to work. Remember how you used to say that sometimes, when you went to see Sonny, he’d try to get the conversation over and done with as quickly as he could and then get Max to walk you to your car? It’s like that.”

“Sonny’s not my son,” Elizabeth said stubbornly. “I expect differently from Jake. Maybe that’s the problem…”

They sat together in silence for a long moment as Jason thought of some way to cheer her up or make her feel better…or alternatively, change the subject.

“Hey, did you hear about Morgan and Anna?”

She turned a little in bed and grabbed his wrist. “Oh, my god, how have we not talked about this?”

Jason grinned back at her. “I don’t know.”

“Apparently they’re a couple?” Elizabeth tucked her hair back behind her ear. “How did that happen?!”

“I don’t know,” he laughed.

“I’ve got a theory,” she explained, holding her hands up to lay it out for him.

Jason turned a little more to face her, playing along. “Go ahead.”

“I think it involved a champagne bottle and, wait for it,” she cautioned. “…Anna smacking Morgan over the head with it.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

.: Jake’s Bar & Billiards :.

“So we got a nice, tidy little apology from the Gazette,” Morgan explained, “and upon closer inspection of the university by-laws and code of conduct for the faculty, Port Charles University discovered that it’s not very interested in any follow-up disciplinary action against Anna.”

“Mm,” Amalia murmured, glancing over her shoulder toward a darkened corner of the bar.

Morgan smirked and leaned a little toward her, snapping her out of it. “I’m sorry, am I boring you?”

She laughed with embarrassment and tucked her hair behind her ear. “No, no, not a bit. I’m so sorry, I just felt – forget it.”

“What?”

“I just felt like I was being watched,” she admitted, causing Morgan to quickly scan the bar out of habit, just like his father and Jason had taught him. “Like, I could feel someone’s eyes on me the whole time I’ve been here.”

“I don’t see anyone other than the regulars…” Morgan murmured.

She touched his arm. “It’s nothing, forget about it. It’s been a long day, and it’s probably just getting to me. I’m going to head home, I think. And I’m glad that this whole thing blew over. You and Anna don’t need that.”

Amalia crinkled her nose at those words. “You and Anna. Gosh, it still feels so weird saying that.”

Morgan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

She laughed and squeezed his hand before pulling away. “You know what I mean. See you later, okay?”

“Night, Lia.”

He turned toward the bar as soon as Amalia left and no sooner did he set his glass down than he was practically accosted by his stepfather and Patrick Drake.

The two men flanked him immediately and Morgan eyed first one, than the other.

“Uh…can I help either of you?”

Never one to beat around the bush, Patrick folded his arm and turned Morgan around. Jax prevented him from escaping.

“So we hear that you’ve been seeing my daughter.”

Morgan nodded. He’d been expecting this. “Ah.”

Patrick and Jax watched him for a long moment. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Aren’t you going to answer the question?”

“It wasn’t really a question,” he pointed out. “It was a statement. Hearsay, really.”

“Morgan…”

He looked over at his stepfather. “What?”

“Look.” Not knowing what to do with his hands, Patrick first put them in his pockets, then pulled them out and crossed his arms again. “I understand that you and Anna have some sort of a relationship. I want to know what your intentions are.”

Ugh, he hadn’t expected the I-word. Really, this was a bit much considering he and Anna had just started sleeping together a week ago.

“Okay.” He waved off Coleman when he lifted a bottle of scotch, suggesting liquid fortification. He wouldn’t be staying long after this awkward interrogation. “Let me be very clear with you both.”

Jax and Patrick appeared to be listening very closely, and he hoped that they actually heard what he was saying, instead of what they wanted to hear.

“Yes, it’s true that Anna and I have started seeing each other.” He held up his hand when Patrick and Jax both opened their mouths. “But you should be aware of the fact that it’s not serious. We’re just two adults who have made a conscious decision to…spend more time together. So, I’m sorry if you had gotten your hopes up, but I’d like to remind you that neither Anna nor I did anything to cause that. And we would appreciate a little distance with regard to this situation. Thank you. Have a good night, both of you.”

Patrick and Jax both glared at the back of his head as Morgan walked calmly out of the bar.

“That kid of yours,” Patrick groused.

Jax just sighed. “That kid of mine.”

“Can you believe that?” The arms were once again crossed. “It’s not serious. It’s not serious and we’d appreciate a little distance. These kids.”

He snorted and shook his head as Jax nodded sagely in agreement. “How do you think this happened, anyway? We couldn’t get them to stop fighting when they were kids.”

Jax motioned for two glasses of scotch, figuring they both needed it. “Well, Elizabeth has a very promising theory involving a glass bottle and an act of violence.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

.: Somewhere Between the Cliff Road and Port Charles :.

“Elizabeth? Elizabeth!”

He found her passed out in her car along the Cliff Road, pulled way over on the gravel shoulder. Her door was unlocked – she often forgot to lock it before pulling out of the driveway – and he opened it quickly, trying to rouse her.

“Elizabeth?”

She was slumped over the steering wheel, still wearing her seatbelt, but didn’t appear injured otherwise. The cold night air seemed to revive her a little because she let out a small moan as Jason gently reached around and set her free from the constricting belt.

“That’s it.” He braced her in his arms and pulled her back, away from the steering wheel so that she was propped up against her seat. “Elizabeth, can you hear me? Wake up, come on.”

Her lashes fluttered and Jason’s heart jumped. He brushed her hair away from her face and that was when he saw it: a nasty gash along her hairline, and dried blood cracking on her pale porcelain skin.

“Fuck.”

He cradled her face in his hands, wincing at how cold she was, and tried even harder to revive her. “Elizabeth. Elizabeth, please, wake up. Just look at me.”

Her lashes fluttered again and slowly, painfully slowly, her eyes opened. “J-Jason?’

“I’m here,” he promised, not wanting her to think it was a dream and drift off again. “I’m right here.”

“What happened?”

“You’re in your car,” he explained slowly. “You’re on the Cliff Road. You pulled over and you have a cut on your head. Elizabeth, do you remember anything?”

“My head hurts,” she murmured, biting back a sob as she gingerly touched the cut on her forehead. “It really hurts.”

“We have to get you out of here,” Jason muttered, looking around. “I’m going to get you set up in the backseat, okay? And then I’ll drive us home. Someone can pick up my bike later.”

“Mmm.” She was still touching her forehead. “I…I don’t think my car is working.”

Jason reached around her and found the key in the ignition. He turned it and cursed when he heard only a choking, sputtering sound. He tried again, and then once more, but with the same results.

“I’m going to take a look.” Hesitantly, he left her after making sure she was steady, and darted around to the front of the car. Even in the dark of the winter night, he could see the bad dent in the front fender, and the scrape on the drivers’ side where she must have hit the guardrail for a bit before drifting back into her own lane.

Jesus Christ.

“The car’s no good,” he affirmed, hurrying back to her side. Elizabeth seemed more alert now, and her teeth had started chattering with the cold. Jason took this as a good sign. “We’re going to have to leave it.”

“What are we going to do?”

“First, we’re going to get you warm.” He pressed the button in the door and the trunk unlatched. Jason made his way over to the back of the car and drew out water bottles and two blankets, along with the first aid kit. He dumped them in the back and then made his way over to her.

He gathered her up in his arms carefully and slowly picked her up, walking slowly over to the back and helping her into the seat. He closed the driver’s side door and joined her, pulling the door shut.

Elizabeth was trying to unfold the blanket, and Jason took it and wrapped her up in it. The Cliff Road was deserted tonight, and he was glad for that. It would give him some time to figure this out.

“How are we going to get out of here?” she wanted to know. “I can try to ride with you on your bike-”

Jason shook his head. “I’m not taking any chances. I shouldn’t have even taken it out on a night like this, but I just felt like riding. Don’t worry, I’ll fix this.”

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and would have called Max or Milo when he remembered that they were in Miami. Ritchie had retired to Tucson on the generous package he’d received from Morgan and Jake, as had many of the men formerly on his payroll.

Fortunately, nothing like this had come up in a very long time, and when it had, Jake had always been around to handle it. But Jason didn’t want Jake to know about this yet, if ever, and that made the situation much more difficult. Without an address book full of bodyguards at his beck and call…Jason wasn’t sure what he’d do.

First, he’d need someone to check Elizabeth out. He could ask Patrick or Robin, but there was a problem with that. He’d seen blood on the fender of Elizabeth’s car, and he didn’t want to take chances involving anyone else.

Cameron, for that reason, was also out. He didn’t want Elizabeth’s son involved in this, just in case it turned into something bigger. Memories of the night that Monica accidentally hit Sam came flooding back to him and he reverted to that frame of mind: this was on a strictly need-to-know basis.

He punched a few numbers into his cell and waited.

“Francis.” Jason could feel Elizabeth’s eyes on him. “Meet me at 234 Cherry Blossom. Bring your medical kit. Yeah.”

When they’d been on assignment and needed a doctor in a pinch, Francis was the one that filled in. Sonny had gotten him basic medical training for that reason, and Francis had always been very good at that sort of thing. Besides, he was still loyal to Jason and had nothing to do with Jake’s organization anymore. Jason knew he could be trusted.

He needed to call someone to get him out of here, but his contact list was limited. There were a number of men that he’d worked with before that he could call, but the problem was that those men worked for Jake now and would tell his son everything in a heartbeat.

Finally, he remembered an old friend of his from the days when he kept his own auto and bike repair shop. He wasn’t one of their mechanics that managed the organization’s fleet of cars, but that was perfect: this man had no ties to Jake and never did. It wouldn’t be at all suspicious.

Jason found the number and dialed, praying that someone would pick up.

“Joe? Joe, it’s Jason. Jason Morgan. Yeah.” He rubbed his arm up and down Elizabeth’s side, trying to warm her. “I have a problem and I need your help. I need you to get the tow truck and meet me on the Cliff Road, about seventeen miles from the Oceanshore Drive exit. There’s been an accident.”

He let out a huff of frustration. “Yeah, I know you close at five, Joe. I wouldn’t have called you – no, it can’t wait until morning. I need you to get the tow truck and meet me here. The car’s in bad shape, and I need you to tow it to your garage. No, not my place, your place. Just tow it to your garage and leave it in there, okay? Yeah. I’ll pay you triple your rate. You’ll be dropping me off at 234 Cherry Blossom, got it? Yes, I said triple. Okay. Hurry.”

Jason flipped his phone shut and wrapped both arms around Elizabeth. “Don’t worry. He’ll be here soon.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

.: 234 Cherry Blossom Lane :.

By the time they got home, it was nine o’clock at night. Joe had towed Elizabeth’s car to his garage for repairs, under strict instruction from Jason that he not ask questions, not tell anyone, and just fix it. Once the car was safely hidden at his place, he dropped Jason and Elizabeth off at her house.

Francis was there waiting for them, and he followed Jason into the house, kneeling in front of his old charge as soon as Jason set her down on the sofa.

After examining her, Francis deduced that she had a grade 3 concussion. It was particularly serious because according to Jason, she had lost consciousness. He cleaned the cut on her forehead and applied a butterfly clip and told Jason to get her to the hospital for a CT scan.

Elizabeth, who was doing much better now, insisted that she was fine and, seeing as how she’d treated many a concussion at the hospital, she could handle the situation on her own.

The former bodyguard could sense that this wasn’t a random car accident. “You don’t have to tell me, but can I ask what happened?”

Jason sighed and rubbed his forehead. Francis was one of his oldest bodyguards and he knew he could trust him: none of this would get back to Jake in any event.

“I found her on the Cliff Road, passed out in her car,” he explained, looking down at Elizabeth. “Do you remember crashing at all?”

“Vaguely,” she said with a frown. “I remember…I remember I was trying to work the GPS because I’d missed my exit, and then I think I hit a patch of ice, because I lost control of the car.”

Jason sat down next to her and Elizabeth tried to remember as much as she could. “There was a scraping sound – I think that was when I was driving against the guardrail.”

She shuddered, thinking about how close she had been to falling off the cliff. “And then I was back in my lane, and I was trying to get the car to stop fish-tailing, and I…I think there was something up ahead. The sun had just set and I couldn’t really see it. It was big and black, though.”

Elizabeth bit her lip, troubling it. “I…Jason, I think I crashed into it.”

He gripped her hand. “What else do you remember?”

“I feel like…I feel like crashing into it would have stopped me, but it didn’t,” she said slowly. “Maybe I hit another patch of ice? Or maybe I didn’t hit it hard enough to have the car stop? Because I remember it was still going pretty fast and there was a really hard bump when I crashed into the thing – it was probably a car. Oh, god. And then…I think I hit the side of the cliff, because then there was an even harder bump and then I don’t remember anything.”

“She hit her head on the steering wheel,” Jason told Francis, who was listening intently. “That’s how I found her. Elizabeth, if the son had just set, you must have been out there for almost three hours before I found you.”

She shivered and he wrapped his arm around her. “Oh, God, Jason, what if I hit someone? You said there was a big dent on the front. And Joe said there was blood…”

“You heard that?”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah. He said there was blood on the fender. I had to have hit someone, right? I couldn’t have just hit a deer or another animal – oh, God, I hit someone. I hit another person. I’m going to be sick.”

Francis quickly handed her a glass of water, his expression grave. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m having Joe on Maple Road fix the car,” Jason murmured. “You remember him, right? He knows to fix the car and keep his mouth shut. And…I’m going to find out what happened. I didn’t see any other car on the Cliff Road before I found Elizabeth. But I’m going to go back, see if I can find anything.”

“Jason, don’t.” She clutched his hand. “It’s cold, and it’s so dark. What if something happens to you? We need to call the police. Lucky – I’m calling Lucky.”

“You’re not calling Lucky,” he told her firmly. “We don’t need to get the police involved. I can figure this out.”

“But, Jason, I hit someone.”

“You don’t know that.”

Elizabeth glared at him. “I think it’s pretty obvious.”

“Let me find out,” he said, standing up despite her hold on him. “Francis, will you help?”

“Sure thing.”

“Good. We’ll take your car and go back to the Cliff Road. I’ll get flashlights and gloves, in case we find anything. And a few things in case we need to…clean anything up.”

Francis nodded. “We can pick up your bike, too. You want me to just wait here?”

“Yeah. Let me get Elizabeth something to eat, first.”

“I want to wash up,” she said slowly. “I can’t eat anything right now. I just – I just want a hot shower. Promise me you won’t go anywhere.”

Jason sighed and looked at Francis. “Yeah, I won’t go anywhere.”

“I’ll round up a couple guys,” the former guard said as Jason bent to help Elizabeth up. “I’ll let them know what’s going on and we’ll be ready to go whenever you’re ready.”

“I’ll call you,” Jason said as she leaned heavily into his side. “Let’s shoot for two hours.”

“Got it, Boss.” The last part came out of habit. “See you then.”

Francis let himself out and Jason helped Elizabeth up into a hot bath. He got her clothes out while she was washing up and then sat and waited. After what felt like forever, she came out in a towel, her eyes red and puffy, and he knew she’d been crying.

She dressed silently in the sweatpants and long-sleeved t-shirt he’d picked, then wrapped herself up in a robe. The cut had started bleeding again in the shower and Jason cleaned it and reapplied the bandage, then helped her downstairs.

While they were upstairs, Francis had someone drop off soup from Kelly’s, and Jason helped Elizabeth to the couch and made her have some of it.

“I’m not hungry,” she kept saying.

“You really should eat.”

“How can I eat when I ran someone over with my car?”

“You don’t know that you did,” Jason repeated.

“Jason. I remember hitting something that looked like a car. And there’s blood on my fender. Someone was probably changing a flat or something and I – I hit them. I hit someone with my car!” She burrowed into the couch, covering her face with her hands. “Oh, please, not again. Please, God, don’t let this happen to me again.”

“Hey.” He sat down next to her and pulled at her hands, holding them in her lap. “No one saw. No one knows. And when I was on the Cliff Road, I didn’t see anyone there.”

“You might not have taken the same route I did,” Elizabeth pointed out. “I was on the Cliff Road for a while, and you normally take the Sea Mist ramp onto it.”

“We’ll know more once I get out there,” he said firmly. “Until then, I need you to stay calm, okay? I’m going to go out there and I’m going to get some answers. Whatever happened, I’ll find out. I just need you to stay home, stay calm, and not say anything to anyone. And to not call Lucky. Can you do that?”

She nodded slowly. “Are – are you going out now?”

“Yeah,” he nodded. “I want to get out there as fast as I can, before too many other people go by and see my bike, before anything there changes too much. I’m going to figure this out, Elizabeth, okay? I need you to trust me.”

She tried to smile as he smoothed her hair out of her face. “I do trust you. That was never the problem. But…Jason, you shouldn’t have to do this. You’re putting yourself at risk trying to cover up what I did.”

“I will always help you no matter what happens,” Jason ground out, making sure she understood the weight of what he said. “I won’t let anything happen to you, Elizabeth. You weren’t guilty the first time and you aren’t guilty now. I’m going to prove it.”

She knew his definition of ‘prove’ was sketchy at best, but Elizabeth nodded anyway. “O-Okay.”

“I’m going to go change and grab the things I need.” He gave her hands one last squeeze and stood. “I’ll be right back.”

Elizabeth nodded as he hurried up the stairs, then sat in silence and stared at her soup for what felt like forever. The sound of a quick knock at the door interrupted her silent reverie and she gasped, looking up at the door in panic.

“Mom?”

A harder knock this time.

“Mooooom?”

It was Jake.

Oh, no, it was Jake.

Elizabeth gulped, almost choking, and just stared at the door, trying to come up with what to do even though she was unable to move. Did she let him in? Did she try to get rid of him? Did she-

“Mom, I’m letting myself in! You really should lock the door, you know.”

He twisted the knob and entered, looking down at a large package he was holding. “Okay, I know it’s late, but I was out and wanted to get this over before I forgot. My designer brought over these weird angels for the tree, and I don’t like that kind of stuff, but I know that you do, so I thought you might want it for your-”

Having walked into the living room, Jake finally looked up at her after setting the heavy box down on the coffee table and Elizabeth knew it instantly when his gaze fell on her bandage.

“What the hell happened?”

She winced, but Jake was already in front of her, leaning down a little, smoothing her damp hair away so he could get a better look at the gash on her forehead.

“Oh, my God, Mom, what the hell happened?!” He had her small hand in his and guided her back to the couch. “How’d you get hurt like that? When did this happen? Why the hell didn’t you call me?”

“Francis, meet me out front. Yeah.” Jason trotted down the steps and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his son standing there. Jake straightened to his full height, seeing his father dressed all in black and holding a large flashlight in one hand and his phone in the other, and his gaze hardened instantly.

“You want to tell me what the fuck is going on?”

Jason slowly descended the last three steps. “…Just a car accident.”

“Just fucking nothing,” Jake spat. He left Elizabeth’s side and stalked toward Jason, his anger apparent. “You wanna try that again? You wanna tell me why my mother is sitting there looking scared as shit with a fucking gash on her forehead while you’re dressed up like a goddamn paratrooper?”

“Jake…”

He held up his hand at Elizabeth’s protest, his eyes never leaving Jason’s. “I want to hear what he has to say.”

“What do you want from me?” Jason fired back. “She was visiting someone after work and hit an icy patch on the Cliff Road. Her car spun out, she hit her head, and passed out. I was coming down the Cliff Road and I saw her. I can’t control every aspect of her life, I can’t control everything that happens to her. You might have some kind of God complex; that doesn’t mean all of us do.”

Jake worked his jaw. “And her car? Where is it?”

“I had a mechanic friend of mine come pick it up,” Jason replied smoothly, a little louder than necessary. A good dose of false, self-righteous anger often worked well as an evasive tactic, and he hoped Jake bought it. “It’s at his place. He’s working on it now. She loves that car – I wanted it to be fixed as soon as possible.”

“And why wasn’t I informed?”

“We don’t tell you everything that happens in our lives,” he half-sneered. “Isn’t that what you have your men on us for? If they didn’t find out and get word to you, that’s not my problem.”

The anger in Jake’s eyes faded, replaced by something cold and calm, something Jason had trouble placing. His son clasped his hands behind his back and turned away, heading toward the large window that looked out over the front lawn.

Jason was sure he’d bought it until Jake spoke.

“Your bike’s not here.”

His heart started pounding faster in his chest; not because of what Jake had said, an innocuous enough statement, but how he’d said it.

“It’s-”

“I received a call from my men earlier this evening, saying that you’d taken your bike out despite the conditions,” he said calmly. “They said they’d let me know when you arrived home safely. If my mother was ‘just in a car accident,’ as you claim, you would have had her ride in the tow truck and followed on your bike. It takes a lot for you to leave your bike anywhere but at Harborview or here.”

He turned around deliberately, ignoring Jason completely now and focusing just on his mother. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

Elizabeth’s dark blue eyes darted helplessly between Jason and Jake. Behind Jake, Jason slowly shook his head. Elizabeth bit her lip and looked back at her son, whose expression hadn’t changed.

A long moment passed before she let out a quivering sigh. “…I think I hit someone with my car.”

Jason closed his eyes.

“What?”

She began to wring her hands together. “Tonight. I was driving and I-I hit an ice patch and then I hit the guardrail. But I got it back in my lane, but then I saw something in front of me – a car – and I felt a bad bump, but I don’t think I hit the car. And I hit another patch and then I think I crashed into the cliff, and when I woke up, your father was there.”

She sank down on the couch and Jake sat with her. “Jake, I think I ran someone over with my car.”

“Where’s your car now?” he asked urgently.

“At Jason’s mechanic’s.”

“I’m going to need a name and a number,” he barked, pointing a finger at his father. “What happened to the car? Any damage? What do you remember?”

“There’s a big scrape on the side where I hit the guardrail,” she got out, “and there’s a big dent on the other side of the fender. And…there’s blood.”

“Blood,” he repeated slowly.

Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah.”

Jake let out a short breath through his nose and stood, thinking. “Were there any other cars on the road when you were spinning out, besides the one you hit? Any when you were driving home?”

“Maybe one or two. It was pretty deserted.”

“And your injury – your cut. Is that the only place you got hurt?”

Elizabeth nodded. “It’s just a cut. Doesn’t even need stitches. I have a concussion, but I’ll be fine. Nothing else is hurt.”

“No whiplash? Neck pain? Back pain? Anything?”

“Nothing.”

Jake planted his hands on his hips, his mind racing. “All right. Okay, we can deal with this.”

“I wanted to call your – to call Lucky,” she started. “He could-”

“No one’s getting Pop involved,” Jake said quickly.

“But-”

“Mom.” The word was half-growled, half-shouted. “No one is calling Pop. Do you understand?”

She nodded slowly. “…Okay.”

He was silent for a moment, and Elizabeth continued wringing her fingers. “What – what do you think? Does it look bad? Do you think I hit someone?”

“I’m going to have to get a look at the car,” he replied. “You said there was blood on the fender – hopefully the mechanic hasn’t cleaned it up yet. Maybe I can get a sample of it, get some answers. The size and shape of the dent will also be telling. My forensics guys will know more.”

He clapped his hands together and turned away. “All right. I’m going to take care of this.”

“I’m already on it,” Jason told him. “I’m leaving right now to find the spot she spun out on the Cliff Road. You can go to Joe’s place – he’s on Maple Road, Joe’s Auto Garage, right by the motel.”

“Here’s what we’re going to do,” Jake replied in kind. “You’re going to stay here to avoid raising any eyebrows. I’m going to handle this.”

Jason glared at him and moved toward the door. “I’m going to-”

Jake waited for him to open the door, and Jason found Chase and a junior guard standing there in a manner that appeared casual, but was very much meant to convey that he wouldn’t be going anywhere.

“I believe you know Chase,” Jake said lightly. “That’s Simon. If you go around back, you’ll find Alex. Over by the garage, that’s where Matt’s hanging out. They’ll be around if you need anything.”

He moved past Jason quickly, brushing roughly against his shoulder, and Simon and Chase moved aside to let him pass.

“I hope you two enjoy your evening at home together,” Jake said politely. “Take care of my mother – she’s had a rough night. But I imagine she’ll be back to herself tomorrow. It’ll be like nothing ever happened.”

Sending Jason a knowing look – meaning, make sure both of you keep quiet about this – Jake turned on his heel and headed down the walkway away from the house, phone in hand.

He had a long night ahead of him.

~*~*~*~*~*~

.: Morgan Manor :.

Morning dawned, cold and bright, on Morgan Manor and Jake hadn’t slept a wink. He’d recovered Jason’s bike and had it quietly returned to his mother’s house, parked in the garage like it had never left. Her car had been retrieved from the mechanic’s garage, and unfortunately, the first thing the man had done was gone after the blood. He’d taken a large number of pictures, however, which he happily turned over to Jake as soon as the younger man stated his name.

Those pictures were all Jake had to go on for now, aside from the sizable dent, and so they would have to do.

From the size of the blood stain, the color and apparent opacity of the blood, and the size and shape of the dent that his forensics guys were still examining, it was starting to look like his mother really had driven over someone on the Cliff Road the night before.

He sighed and rubbed his blood shot eyes as he sank down into his chair behind his desk. He had a ton of work to do but it would all have to wait: this new incident involving his mother had taken front seat, no pun intended.

His men were on the scene at the spots on the Cliff Road where Elizabeth had hit the guardrail, allegedly hit the person, and hit the side of the mountain before passing out, and they knew what to do. He could expect detailed reports when they returned.

Until then, he just had to wait, and take care of some other unfortunate business.

With a sigh, he lifted the receiver on his desk telephone and hit one of the speed dial options. The phone rang and went straight to voicemail, which surprised him, because the person he was trying to reach was always up and able to be reached at this hour, every single day, without fail.

The tone sounded and it was time to leave the message.

“John. It’s Jake. I’m sorry I missed you. I’m also sorry to have to call you and ask to cancel our meeting for tomorrow night. Something’s come up. I don’t know yet when I’ll be able to reschedule, but I hope you’ll be able to meet with me when I do. Thanks.”

He set the phone down and leaned back in his chair, scrubbing a hand over his face as the sun rose higher over Morgan Manor.