Carly just stared for an instant at Jason without saying anything. Then the questions started tumbling out.

“Jason! When did you get back? Where have you been? Have you talked to anybody yet? Have you seen Michael? Oh, God--he’ll be so glad you’re back!”

She didn’t say, I’m so glad, too. It was way too soon, and this was much too public a place.

Jason nodded his answer to her last question. “I saw him tonight, Carly. He’s really big now. I can’t believe how much he’s grown. And he seems pretty happy.”

“He’s the most resilient little boy I know,” she said softly.

Jason turned to the bartender. “Hey, Claude, can I get a beer?”

“Sure, Jason. Welcome back.”

As Claude handed him the beer, Jason turned back to Carly. “Can you sit down and talk for a little while? Unless, I mean--I don’t wanna keep you from dinner or anything.”

Carly had almost forgotten why she was at Luke’s in the first place. “What? Oh, yeah, I can sit down. I don’t think Bobbie and Roy have even noticed I’m not there.”

She couldn’t take her eyes off him as they made their way to a table. They both put their drinks down, and sat in chairs facing each other. Jason was the first to speak.

“Carly, I talked to Emily tonight. She told me about the accident. It must have been rough.”

“Not as bad as the one you went through,” she answered. “Not for me, anyway. AJ's the one who hasn’t made it back. All I had were a bunch of cuts and bruises and broken bones, and they’ve healed. I’m a lot better now.”

Claude passed their table at that point. “Hey, Carly, how do you like Sex-on-the-Beach?”

“Well,” Jason said, with just a hint of a smile, “I guess you are better!”

***

For the next hour, it was almost as if he’d never been gone. They sat across from each other, just talking about what had happened in their lives over the past eight months. No one else in the bar came up to their table. Luke, Bobbie and Roy all seemed to sense that they needed a little time to catch up.

Carly told Jason all about Michael--what he did each day, what he’d learned, what he talked about. “Emily probably told you he’s living with the Quartermaines part of the time, didn’t she?” When Jason nodded, she continued, “It was something we didn’t have a choice about, after the accident. And once I got better, it just seemed to work out best this way. I guess I always thought that if AJ and I got divorced, and I knew we would eventually, we’d have some type of shared custody. And even though AJ isn’t in the picture any more, we still do.”

“So you and AJ are still married?”

“Technically, yes. To be honest, the whole idea of divorcing a guy in a coma is something I can’t deal with right now. I don’t think Alan and Monica could, either. And we haven’t had any reason to. I have my own life. I have Michael, and they have time with him, too. Michael doesn’t have a perfect two-parent family, but we’re all dealing with it. And as you saw, he seems happy.”

Jason could hardly believe what he was hearing. He knew what a life-threatening event could do to a person. He’d experienced it himself, on more than one occasion. But he was still amazed at how much Carly seemed to have changed. In the past, he’d accused her of using Michael to get what she wanted. Now, she only seemed to have her child’s best interest at heart.

Jason told her about meeting Emily, Michael, and Juan in church earlier that evening. “He didn’t forget me, Carly. He knew me right away.”

“Do you think I would ever let him forget you?” she asked. “Every night, before he goes to sleep, he points to the picture of the three of us together. And I tell him Mommy loves him, and Jason loves him.”

Jason looked down at his beer glass. “When I left, I thought the best thing would be for him to forget me. I couldn’t even say goodbye to him. I just looked at him through the window.”

“I know. It’s one of the things Edward told me about, after the accident.”

Jason was surprised. “The old man? I didn’t realize you two were so friendly.”

“He was really kind to me, Jason. He came to see me a lot, while I was recovering at Bobbie’s. I think he felt guilty.” Carly paused a second, then continued. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but he really loves you. They all do.”

She was right. Jason wasn’t ready to hear that. When he looked away, she brought him back with a question.

“Your turn. Do I get to find out where you’ve been? Or were you on some top secret mission for Sonny that you won’t talk about?”

It was the first time either of them had mentioned Sonny. Jason felt a twinge of remembered hurt for just a second, then put it out of his mind.

“I just had to get away and think. Everything seemed to be going wrong, and I thought Michael and everyone else would be better off without me. Yes, I kept it a secret--but that was mostly because I didn’t want Sorel coming after me.”

“Oh, God, Jason! Were you in that much danger?”

“He tried to kill me before I left. You know about the shooting, and later on he planted a bomb in Elizabeth Webber’s studio.” When Carly looked horrified, Jason continued quickly, “It didn’t go off, thanks to Roy.”

“I understand why you didn’t contact us. But are you sure it’s safe to come back now?”

Jason shrugged. “Emily told me Sonny and Sorel reached some kind of truce. At least, she thinks they must have, because there hasn’t been any trouble lately. She said she really hasn’t seen or heard much from Sonny at all.”

“He comes into Kelly’s once in a while,” Carly volunteered. “But we haven’t talked much since the accident. You know, he probably saved my life.”

She told Jason about Sonny and Johnny stopping at the accident scene, and about Sonny pulling her out of the ditch where she lay face down in over a foot of freezing water. “I could have drowned. But Sonny pulled me out, and he called the ambulance. I owe him, Jase,” she concluded.

“I’m glad he was there for you, Carly.” In his own mind, Jason added, I wish I had been there for you.

***

Bobbie and Roy finally ventured over to the table to welcome Jason back. Luke came out of his office to do the same. They all ate burgers and cheese fries together--even Jason, who’d already had dinner with Emily earlier. Finally, it was time to end the evening.

Bobbie smiled as she asked Carly, “Honey, can you find a way home tonight? Roy and I thought we might take a drive.”

“I can give Carly a ride,” Jason answered.

“Wonderful!” Bobbie said as she and Roy headed out the door.

“Was she a little obvious there?” Carly asked. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“No, I don’t mind.”

Carly and Jason started for the door. “Where did you leave your bike, Jase?”

“I don’t have the bike here,” Jason answered. “I stored it someplace safe, so Sorel wouldn’t be able to track me.”

“You mean you have a car now?”

“Not exactly.”

They went outside, and he guided her over to his pick-up truck. “This is it. What do you think?”

“I like it,” she said, climbing in on the passenger side.

“I bought it in Florida. I spent a few weeks there last winter.” He added, “I stopped by Virginia’s grave.”

“I still miss her. But I guess you know that,” Carly said softly.

They were quiet for a few minutes, as Jason pulled the truck out of the parking lot and headed toward Bobbie’s house. Carly absently pushed Play on the truck’s cassette player, and the voice of Garth Brooks filled the cab.

“Jason, when did you start listening to country music?”

“They play it a lot on radio stations in southern Illinois,” he answered. “I got to like it.”

“Southern Illinois? What were you doing there?”

Carly listened in surprise as Jason told her about the six months he spent living and working at the monastery. He left out the part about his talk with the Abbot that last night, when he finally realized it was time to return to Port Charles and start over.

“Jason, I gotta tell you--a monastery is about the last place I would have expected to find you!” She paused, then asked, “So, did you ever think about staying?”

He started laughing. “No, Carly, I didn’t. It’s a nice place to visit, and I enjoyed the work, and I liked the quiet--but no, I didn’t think about joining up or anything.”

Carly breathed an involuntary sigh of relief as Jason parked his truck on the street outside the brownstone.

“So, does this mean you’re going to be staying in town for a while?” she asked, trying not to sound as turned on as she felt about the idea.

“Yeah. I’m back.” Jason turned off the engine. “I’m glad we got a chance to talk tonight.”

“Me, too.” Carly didn’t want the evening to end, but she didn’t want to push it, either. She had done too much of that in the past.

“Would you, uh, like to see Michael tomorrow? Bobbie and I are going over to pick him up around two in the afternoon.”

“I told Emily tonight that I’d be back to see him. I could, maybe, give you a ride over there--then we could bring him back here.”

It was too dark for Jason to see the excitement on Carly’s face. And her voice was deceptively low-key as she answered, “I’d like that. A lot.”

“Okay. I’ll be here a little before two then.”

They looked at each other awkwardly for the first time that night. Then, Carly reached over and gave Jason a quick hug. “Good night, Jase,” she told him, as she pulled away and opened the door. “See you tomorrow.”

Jason didn’t want the evening to end, either. But there was plenty of time ahead.

He watched her go into the house, then sat there for a few minutes before turning on the ignition and pulling the truck away from the curb.

As he drove away, Jason was more sure than ever that the Abbot was right. Words said in anger and hurt could be taken back. And if you were lucky, you got a second chance--despite all the lost time and missed opportunities.

He wanted that second chance. And he was pretty sure she did, too.

He had told her once that he hoped to God she would find someone else.

Now, as he drove down the dark road, he listened to Garth Brooks give voice to what he was feeling tonight: Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

Unanswered Prayers is copyright 1989 by Bait and Beer Music/Forerunner Music, Inc./Major Bob Music Co., Inc./Mid-Summer Music, Inc. It appears on Garth Brooks’ The Hits and No Fences.

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