Chapter Five: When does the madness stop??
“Are you sure about this?” Brenda asked for what had to be the bazillions time.
“Yes, Brenda. Sonny has been keeping Jason around by keeping his wife away from him. Then, you add into the equation that the last time Sonny ordrained it possible for the two to see each other they conceived a child, and Sonny has the perfect bate to keep Jason in line…”
“Either do as I say or watch your wife and child die…” she thought out loud as her hand drifted to his stomach. She looked at him perplexedly. “How did you find this out?”
Luis smiled. “It seems that Lt. Taggart was snooping around and just happened to find his phone… and I’ll just let you figure out the rest.”
Brenda shook her head sadly. “This is wrong. This is just wrong!”
“What? Taggart perusing Morgan’s things or…”
“Sonny blackmailing him with his wife and child. It’s just WRONG!!! How could he!? After all he‘s gone through, losing Lily and their unborn child. And then Carly miscarrying their unborn child…” She seethed. “And it’s not like Jason’s going to give off any outward appearance that something’s wrong. I mean, this man can get shot and not realize it until he says sorry for bleeding on your carpet. This is the same man that would have rather frozen to death than get on a piece of debris with me in freezing cold water. UGH!! I just want to hurt him sometimes.” She spat slamming her clenched fist into her palm.
Luis smiled dryly as he covered her hands with his own. His hand seemed to swallow hers whole as she was so small and “delicate” while he was large and “domineering”. He knew all to well that she was anything but delicate, and only Brenda knew how un-domineering he truly was in real life. “ Brenda, my love, please, you are pregnant with our child. You need to keep your calm.” He said in a tone that was both beseeching and affectionate.
“Oh.” Brenda sighed, shrugging her shoulders, trying to loosen her muscles. “It’s okay, I’m calm. This is me. Calm.” Deep breath in. Slow exhale out. “And I’ll stay calm as long as you get me to the Port Charles Police Department and let me talk to Jason.”
But Luis wasn’t so sure anymore that she should be apart of this. He could tell by the fire in her eyes that she would not be pacified in any other way. Letting out a long sigh of resignation he relented. “Okay, but I take care of Corinthos. I want to talk to him man on man. No interference. I want to know what scared that child so badly.” He said with venom lacing his voice.
That sat in a compatible silence as they road through the darkened streets of Port Charles. It was almost midnight of the day that Michael had been found, and yet, it felt like so many moons had risen and fallen that day.
AJ held Michael securely in his arms as he slept for only the second time in God only knew how long. The phrase “Dey didn’ lemme sleep bunches” kept on echoing inside his head and keeping him from getting even an ounce of sleep. Well, that and the fact that beside him laid his ex-wife who was staring at their child as though he were the only thing in the room.
“I have yet to thank you for what you did.” She said in a whisper that by the tone he could tell she was on the verge of tears.
“I would have done it whether or not it had been Michael.” He assured her. “No child deserves that kind of brutality.”
He heard the faint said of her hair rustling against the pillow as she nodded. “But I want to thank you… for calling me… for staying with him… for everything…”
“I’m telling you Carly, it was nothing.” He tried to reassure her at yet keep his voice at a whisper at the same time. He was about to say more when the door creaked open and Courtney peaked her head in.
“Sorry, am I interrupting?” She asked as she walked towards them. She looked at Michael, so small and yet so vulnerable and her heart ached for the pain she knew --and yet couldn’t quite understand-- that they were going through.
“No, no, honey. What’s up?” He whispered adjusting Michael so that he didn’t wake up.
“I just got off the phone with Reginald. He’s with Leticia up in the city. He took her there to keep her mind off things and since she found out that you found Michael she’s been on the verge of in Reginald’s words “pure and utter maternal hysteria” and he doesn’t want to drive down here without someone with him to help him keep her from making him veer off the road.” She replied, matching their whisper tone. “So, if you guys don’t need me to awful badly I might volunteer to drive up there and help him with Leticia.”
Carly barely suppressed a laugh. She could only imagine the fits that Leticia had been giving him. She had become her closest friend during the kidnapping. Even to the extent that when she saw her getting to downtrodden that she demanded that she and Reginald take a week end off and go up to the city. Little did they know that this would be the weekend that Michael was rescued.
Carly and AJ shared a look that could only be categorized as a mutual mind meld. In no way could they ever recapture their friendship from long ago, but they could try and be friends again. “If it’s not to much a hassle…”
“No, no, none at all. I’d actually be glad to be helping in some way…”
“You have been helping Courtney.” Carly Courtney smiled. “But right now I feel like a bump on a log waiting for test results to come back. I want to help. I want to help Leticia.”
AJ nodded. “Are you sure?” He asked feeling a pang of guilt.
“Yes AJ, I’m SURE!!” She insisted. Walking over to the bed she kissed him on the lips-- no need to get passionate in front of a traumatized small child-- and smiled. “I’ll be fine.” She insisted again.
“I love you.” He said vehemently.
“I love you too.” She replied their eyes meeting.
“Be careful.”
“I will.” she said as she left the room.
AJ settled against the pillows, and thought about where he was in life. His child in his arms. His loving wife bending over backwards to be helpful. His ex-wife laying next to him as they helped their child come to grips with the horror that had happened to him during the duration of his captivity. Surrounded by friends and well wishers. His boss was his best friend. His coworkers were some of the most loyal, most giving, caring individuals he had ever met. His sister was in love with a man that madly loved her and married her. His ex-wife’s family was being half way nice to him and helpful. How could his life get any better.
“Carly…” He whispered.
“Yes…”
“Thank you…” He whispered back tearfully.
“For what?”
“For this… for everything… if things hadn’t happened the way that they had… none of this had happened… and, and…” He sniffled back some tears. “Just thank you for letting me hold my… my son. Even if it’s this one time.”
“Don’t you talk like that AJ. Michael needs you. Your…” she searched for the word. “As much as it pains me to admit it, I was wrong to keep him away from you. And I was wrong to interfere in your bonding time when we were married. I’ve made so many mistakes…”
“Carly,” he scolded. “We are both mutually responsible in some way shape or form for the mutual animosity we felt and the things that we did because of it. I say we let it go and start over. It’s counter productive to dwell on the past when he needs us to be his rock for his present and future. Can we do that. Can we stay in the present and forget the recriminations and manipulations of the past and work on the future?”
Carly looked at him, really looked at him for the first time in a long time and she could see that he had changed. AJ Quartermain, alcoholic, love-deprived, black-sheep AJ Quartermain was different. She looked at him and noticed how tired he looked. Did I do that to him? Did I put those lines around his eyes, the worry etched in his iris? The circles around his eyes, the bags under them? Am I the reason he sounds so tired? So worn? So defeated? I know that Michael’s kidnapping and captivity has taken it’s toll on the both of us but AJ, he looked so… so… haggard. And yet he wants to forgive and forget and start anew. Despite my deceptions, despite my lies, despite the things that we have done to each other. He’s even willing to put the fact that I did nothing to prevent or stop Sonny from hanging him in a meat hook for so long… He’s a bigger human being than I am. And for that I will start over… and I want to start over with the truth. Carly reached over and covered one of his hands with her own.
“AJ, I’d like that more than you can ever realize.” He smiled at her sadly, his eyes not quite smiling with him. Carly paused, knowing that what she was about to say would forever change the dynamic that they had struggled to maintain during the last few months. “And I…” she took a deep breath… “ I would like for Michael to know that not only are you his hero… but that you’re his father.” His entire body stiffened, and he slowly looked at her, his eyes swimming with tears.
It took him a second to find his voice and squeeze Michael just the tiniest amount. “I’d like that…” he whispered hoarsely. “I’d like that a lot.”
Carly rested her forehead against his and caressed Michaels hair as they sat in silence both knowing that when he woke up, that nothing would ever be the same.
Jason walked into the interrogation room slowly, laboriously, his body weak and his spirits low. Not that you could tell by his mannerisms, on the outside he was Jason Morgan, cool calm and collected. But on the inside he felt like a man on death row an his last appeal as midnight loomed.
“I thought visiting hours were over with.” He said dryly noting mentally that it was past midnight and no one would tell him how Michael was. He worried about him. He looked so small and helpless in his room being held by AJ.
“I’m just following orders.” The guard replied.
He had noticed the change immediately when Michael had laid eyes on Sonny. It was as though someone had thrown him back into the unsafe place that had cause him so much pain. He worried that it had something to do with the stupid choose Sonny had made that first week after his disappearance.
He had been adamantly against Sonny going door to door in the neighborhood around the area where Michael had last been seen but Sonny had insisted. And it had given him an unsettling when Sonny had told him that he thought he might have seen a redhead in the upstairs window, but instead of investigating he just brushed it off as his imagination being overactive. He had asked, to the point of PLEADING with Sonny to check it out. But he had refused because “They weren’t that type of people, Jason! I stood there! Laughing with them! I think I’m a better judge of character than that!!”
He groaned, resting his head on the table as the guard cuffed his hands to the middle of the table. The guard felt halfway sorry for the guy. He had just spent the last five hours being yelled at by his supposed best friend/boss and now he was about to be interrogated, again.
“She’ll be in a second.” The guard said before leaving.
Jason looked up for a second. “She?”
Luis guided Brenda through the PD’s crowded lobby and was met by a smiling, teary-eyed Mac. “Brenda” He said, giving her a big hug and squeeze.
“Mac,” she smiled, returning the hug.
“You look fantastic.” He said as he pulled away, giving her a good once over. “I see life had been good too you.”
Her smile faltered, and Luis came up behind her and gave her waist a slight squeeze. “Only in the last year Mac.” He gave her a quizzical look. She shook her head. “I’ll explain later.”
Luis cleared his throat. “Is he ready?”
“Yes.” Mac paused. “Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, you and Morgan, you weren’t exactly close personal friends or anything…”
Brenda chuckled. “No, that we were not. But if what my husband and your police department found out is true…” Mac nodded, shaking his head. “Then,” she said putting her hand over her ever expanding belly, “I’ll be the only one that will be able to get through to him.”
“I don’t like it. I just don’t like it.” Mac shook his head ruefully.
Luis wondered for a second if maybe this wasn’t the best idea he had ever had. “You are going to keep an eye on them aren’t you?” He asked. When Brenda gave him a look he looked at her with pleading eyes and understood. He was worried, more than he wanted her to know.
“I’ll be fine. Jason may be an alleged mobster but violent towards women, or pregnant women for that matter is something he is not.” Luis nodded but gave her one last squeeze any way.
“Be careful, that’s all I ask.” He whispered, kissing her lips softly.
“Aren’t I always.” She smiled devilishly. “Mac, do you have the stuff…”
He nodded, reached over the top of his desk, opened a drawer and got out a ring, a cell phone, a ring, and a very worn picture.
“Here, good luck, you’re going to need it.” She nodded then walked away to talk to Jason
As soon as she was out of site Luis turned to Mac. “Have arrangements been made for me to see Mr. Corinthos?”
Mac didn’t like it but if it got through to Sonny and got him talking he was all for it. “Yes,” he answered reluctantly. “But if he hurts you…”
“You will not be held responsible Commissioner.”
“Okay, I’ve given you fair warning.” He warned, leading him to the holding area.
The door opened and closed, but Jason didn’t bother to move. He knew the person didn’t have what he wanted or needed. He just kept his head on the table as the chair across from him moved and the person sat down. He wasn’t going to talk. There was nothing to say.
Sonny had stupidly man handled Skye and somehow or another he too got arrested.
A soft feminine hand covered him causing him to jump a little and sit up straight. His heart sunk when he saw it was Brenda. He had been hoping… but that’s what he got for hoping.
Brenda…” what else was there to say. He didn’t like her. He looked at her closely, she looked different. She kind of glowed. His eyes drifted to her stomach. Pregnant. His stomach tightened. He wondered…
Brenda felt self conscious under Jason’s scrutinizing eye. Her hand went to her belly almost out of reflex. “I guess I owe you a congratulations…” he looked up sharply. “You and your wife will have a beautiful child I’m sure.” she said turning his hand over and placing the cell phone, wedding band and picture in his palm and them took a key, that Mac had slipped her, and unlocked his cuffs.
He sat there for a second stunned, almost in disbelief.
“How far along is she?” She asked curiously.
“Six… five or six months.” He replied though confused.
“How long have you been married?” Her tone was soft and reassuring. She was beginning to see the anguish that he had been hiding. He didn’t have to hide it any more. He didn’t have to be afraid any more… he could breathe again and not carry this secret like a piece of dynamite afraid that if he might slip up that Sonny would detinate it, exploding what little happiness he had in this world like confetti.
“How… when…”
“Taggart was being his nosey self and when he heard… well, he took pity on you and called Luis and well Luis did a little research and a little digging…” She noticed he put on the ring first the looked at the picture as though he were looking for it to have changed. Her brow furrowed. “I thought you couldn’t see pictures.”
He looked up, not used to people examining his every move. “I… I can’t, but I know what’s here. She… she showed me the lines and the details, I can’t really see it, but it helps me remember… you know… In my head…”
“Can I see? I didn’t look before, I didn’t want to invade your privacy… any more than I already had.” She said blushing a little.
He thought about it for a second, contemplating whether or not it was okay. It was his secret. Not something he was ashamed of, but something no one knew of to protect her. “Sure…” he said handing it to her with a shaky hand.
She held it delicately by the tips of her fingers, looking at the beautiful woman in the picture. She had waist long jet black hair that was strait as a board, a flawless olive complexion, and the most hypnotic blue eyes she had ever seen, the exact same shade of blue as Jason’s. “She’s beautiful.” She said in awe, then carefully handed it back to him.
He took it back and looked at it, wishing for once he could see her on the paper. He looked at the cell phone. “This isn’t my cell phone.”
“We know…”
He looked at her carefully, not quite understanding. “This is…”
“It’s Sonny’s cell phone.” She nodded. “He only let you talk to her on that phone right?”
“Once a month,” and sometimes not even that, he thought to himself.
“And he never let you see the number right? So that you …” her voice tapered off as Jason frantically (well as frantic as Jason can do) started looking for the number.
“Does Alcazar know where she is?” He asked scrolling through the numbers, hoping something would jump out at him.
“Not yet, but he’s looking.”
“Wait!” He exclaimed. Nearly making Brenda jump. “I think… I think I found it.” He was nervous. Jason Morgan. Man of steel, was nervous. Carefully he punched in the number and waited… and waited… and waited…
ring… ring…
Ring… ring…
Ring… ring…
“Allo…”
His heart skipped a beat.
“Daks…” He whispered, sighing as though he could finally hope.
She paused, sitting up as fast as her ever expanding belly would allow. She looked at the time. It was midnight in Port Charles, almost 5 am where she was. “Jason?” She asked with tears in her voice.
He sighed, hearing her say his name made it real. “It’s over mi hija. It’s finally over.”
Brenda felt like an intruder and went to leave but Jason motioned for her to stay. She sat down and looked at him curiously. He motioned for a pen and paper. She dug through her purse and handed him a pen and an envelope.
“I’m coming to get you Daks. And I swear to God, once your with me your NEVER leaving my sight again!!” He declared. Her reply was a resounding squeal of happiness that even Brenda heard.
His body ached, but not as badly as his head. He didn’t know what was worse. The beatings, or the fact that every time he saw the doctor that the head aches only intinsified that much worse.
He tried to escape the light but the chains allowed little movement. He groaned as the door opened and the head ache began to throb agian. He tried to keep his eyes closed, but a resounding kick in the gut made his eyes shoot open and his body fell hard to the ground as he pulled the lever to release him. He was unable to catch himself and groaned in agony.
Before he could even attempt to crawl away the doctor had him penned to the floor and was forcing him to look him in the eye.
Zander’s face was red from the head ache and it only got worse the longer he looked at him. The memories, fragmented and distorted were bombarding him and then leaving him as quickly as they came.
“Remember me yet?” He asked, putting his knee against Zander’s already mangled rib cage and then pressing which caused the pain to intensify ten fold.
Zander shook his head no, remembering that speaking was not an option. Because when you spoke you disobeyed, and to disobey was to deserve punishment.
A wide, sadistic smile creaked across his face. “Go-o-o-o-od.” He drawled. “Maybe this will give you a reminder.” He leaned in close to his ear and hissed. “Soon, I’ll have you both RIGHT where I want you.” Zander tried to pull away, but the doctor made sure that his head stayed still. The sound of his voice compounding the pain even more. “And there is nothing you can do about it. Because I remember you, my boy, my precious little guinea pig. You’d do anything to protect her.” He hissed almost yelling. The pain in his head growing so intense that he scarcely heard his voice because he was about to pass out. “Remember, boy, you sold your soul to me once to protect her, what makes you think you wouldn’t do it again.” With that he slammed his skull against the hard concrete, knocking him out.
Even in slumber Zander worried about the proximity between his body and the doctors, it unnerved him and frightened him that someone could posses so much power over him. He didn’t know who he was protecting, only that he would till the death. His mind refused to shut down even with the pain so excruciating that it hurt to breathe or blink. He just wanted help.
HELP ME!!!!!”
“HELP ME!!!!”
Azora sat up like a bolt, sweat beads rolling down her face and neck. That voice, it seemed so real… she thought, but then her thoughts moved to the headache that not even prescription drugs could handle.
She tried to sleep but the voice haunted her. And the memories that would come in dreams and leave once she woke up…
It meant something, but who would believe her…
…and who would care…