Between Now and Forever ch. 11 {JB}

by Victoria L. on December 27, 1999 at 09:28:06:

Hello, everyone! It's been a long time since I posted, and I really missed all of you guys, reading your stories, and talking to you. I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed holiday season, and I'm looking forward to 2000. Feedback is very appreciated. And a little recap, Jax had just agreed to help Brenda find Julia by going back to Port Charles. He had been in Massachusetts with Ned, Lois, Alexis and her son Bryan. Brenda, Jason, and Carly run a PI business with Brenda and Julia at the helm, and Julia's missing.

Victoria L.

Brenda's heart nearly leapt out of her chest at the sound of his voice. She sat up on the bed and held the phone even closer to her ear. "What? Really? I mean, are you sure?" Jax chuckled a bit.

"Yes Brenda, I'm sure. Whatever's going on or not going on between you and I, we have to do what we can to find Julia. And this may end up costing me a lot, but--"

"It won't, Jax, I promise."

"You can't make promises for other people, Brenda. If this just involved you and I, then maybe I'd believe you." She paused for a moment, not sure how to take that from him.

"Well, uh, I don't know--"

"Look, it doesn't matter, Brenda. Let's just put all of this aside and focus on finding Julia. I'm ready to leave tomorrow morning. I'll pick you up at the hotel and then we can fly back to Port Charles together. Deal?"

"Deal," Brenda said, breathlessly. "Definitely, a deal."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"Yes, oh and Jax? Thank you so much for this you have no idea how much it means to me that you've agreed to help."

"You're welcome, Brenda," Jax said, hanging up the phone slowly. Once the receiver was down, Jax leaned his head back against the headboard and sighed. "What the hell am I doing now?" he asked himself. Back in her hotel room, Brenda sighed to herself and smiled when she felt that familiar feeling she always got when Jax had done somethingn particularly nice for her. She always found creative ways to show her appreciation, but their relationship hadn't been that way in a long time, and she fought those familiar feelings, too. Had it really been two years? Sometimes it felt like he just walked out the door and other times it felt like another lifetime when they were together. She had never really known what she wanted out of life except to be with Jasper Jacks. It was truly the only sure thing she'd ever had in her life. That night, neither one of them got much sleep.

The next morning, Jax was up before anyone. He was having coffee and trying to figure out a way to calmly tell Lois that he was going back to Port Charles to help Brenda find Julia. He could tell how satisfied Lois had been with herself when she sent Alexis up to interrupt a private conversation between Brenda and himself. He knew that Lois wouldn't be too happy at this news, but he also knew that she only had his best interests at heart, and that anything she'd done was in some attempt to protect his heart. He loved her for it, really. Just then, Lois and Ned came downstairs holding hands, and obviously not expecting to see Jax down already. "What are you doing up?" Ned asked. He proceeded to pour himself a cup of coffee. "Are you feeling better?" he asked Jax. Jax nodded and noticed that Lois was eyeing him suspiciously.

"What?" he asked.

"What?" she said. "Nothing, I'm just looking at you right now, and I can tell that you're planning something. What is it?"

"Lois," Ned cautioned, "We have a lot of work to do. We had a shipment come in yesterday, why don't we leave Jax to his thoughts this morning?" Lois waved a dismissive hand at Ned.

"I'll be there in a minute, Nedley, you just go ahead and do your thing. I want to talk to my friend, here." Ned knew there was no point in arguing with his wife. He just shook his head and continued on into the front of the botanical shop. "So," Lois said, balancing her chin on her hands and her elbows on the counter in front of Jax. "You look better today," she said, fishing to see if he was going to give her the information she wanted. "I feel better," Jax said, nodding, confirming to her that he was not going to be forthcoming with the information. Well that was just fine with Lois. She had no problem dragging it from him. "Oh, okay then, so what are your plans for today? Are you going to be here later because we have to do inventory."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I can't help you with that today, Lo. I'm not going to be here."

"Fine, where will you be?"

"Out," Jax said, staring down into the black depths of his coffee cup.

"Out, where?" Lois asked, giving him a level stare.

"Out, as in not here," Jax said.

"Is Alexis joining you?" Lois asked. She knew she had gotten him right then.

"No she's not," Jax said, "because I'm not even going to be in town. I'm going back to Port Charles to help Brenda find her sister, Julia." Lois opened her mouth to protest, but Jax held up a hand to stop her. "Just hold on, Lois," he said. "This is just me doing a favor for a friend. I grew up with Julia and Brenda, and I can't just sit back and do nothing when she's out there, missing." "True," Lois said, "but isn't there some other way? These visions, spells, whatever you want to call them, they tax you physically, and I don't want you to put your life in danger, Jax."

"Brenda doesn't want that, either," Jax said thoughtfully. "Look, Lois, I know you're just trying to protect me, and I appreciate it, but this is something that I have to do. I promise you that I'm going to be very careful and I'm not going to do anything to hurt myself. I'm coming back here in one piece for you, and for Ned, and Alexis, and especially for Bryan. That kid's not going to be disappointed or hurt because of me." "Are you sure about that?" Lois asked. Jax knew what she was asking. She wanted to be sure that he'd come back at all if he went back to his old life. It really wasn't his old life so much as this was his new one. It was only two years since he left, and obviously he still had strong ties to everyone there. "Yes, Lois, I'm sure. I will come back here. I promise." "The only promise I want is that you're going to take care of yourself," she said, moving to hug him.

"I promise you that," he said. "Thank you, Lois, for taking care of me, and for being my friend." "Anytime, babe. Anytime."

Brenda came out of the shower, a towel wrapped around her, and another one she moved furiously about on her head to dry her hair. Without meaning to, her mind went back to a happier time. She had just come out of the bathroom, and it was Jax's turn for a shower. She had to be in to BJ's early, to help Carly, but Jax had other ideas. He came up behind her and snatched her towel away from her. She was about to run from him, but he was too fast for her. He caught her quickly and easily, and scooped her up into his arms, and kissed her passionately, begging entrance to her mouth. She whimpered and allowed him in. She gasped as he put her down and pulled her hard against him, the evidence of his arousal already apparent. "Jax," she groaned, as he began to caress her center, softly and slowly, "we don't have time, I have to go and help--" he stopped her speech when he kissed her again, his need for her urgent and wanting, growing more intense with every second. She moaned into the kiss, pushing her tongue inside and licking the roof of his mouth.

He couldn't take it any longer. His hands slid down the small of her back, and cupped her buttocks momentarily, before sliding down to the back of her thighs and then he finally eased her up and allowed her legs to come around his waist. He almost lost it when he felt her softness rub against his lower belly. Jax never broke the kiss as he carried her into the shower and put her underneath the water, getting her all wet once again. He thrust into her deeply, in one swift move and stifled her scream of joy with a powerful kiss. She could never resist him when he was determined, and right now she didn't have a mind to. She smiled to herself and shook her head, thinking of how she would have to listen to Carly's lecture on being late. It was certainly worth it, though. Jax got very creative with the body wash and he and Brenda certainly enjoyed themselves that morning in the shower. He carried her out of the shower, dried her off slowly, and agonizingly, paying close attention to both of her breasts, favoring one and then the other with the attentions of his tongue. Brenda collapsed on the bed in tender surrender, and when Jax climbed on top of her, they engaged in another round of lovemaking that lasted well into the morning. When Brenda realized how late it was, though, she had to forcer herself with every ounce of strength in her body to get him off of her. He relented, allowed her yet another quick shower and promised to be good and not interrupt her. He didn't keep that promise, though, and sneaked back in just as she was finishing. She kissed him quickly and scurried out before he could convince her to stay....

Brenda sat on the bed, thinking of Jax when she was rocked from her thoughts by the ringing telephone. She walked over to the phone and felt a familiar ache in her heart, and other parts of her body, still sensitive to Jax's touch. "Hello," she said, her voice a ragged whisper. "It's me," Jax said, catching her totally off guard. She didn't know how he did it, but he always managed to call her just when she was thinking of him. "Hey," she said, "what's up?" He smiled to himself, knowing immediately what she had been thinking of. He missed a lot of things about their relationship, and spontaneous lovemaking was high on his list. He didn't want to embarrass her though, so he kept the conversation simple.

"Nothing's up, I just wanted to see if you were ready. I got the tickets already, and if you're all set, I'll be right over to pick you up." All of the times when Jax had picked Brenda up and made love to her flashed through her mind in that instant. She was more amazed that she remembered all of the times, as they occurred so often. She was tempted to say that she was more than ready for him to pick her up, but she decided against it. "I, uh--I just got out of the shower, but I'm ready--I mean, you can come over now and,-- Oh, I'll be ready in about 20 minutes. Brenda breathed a sigh of relief once she realized that Jax wasn't going to continue the conversation. "Well I'll leave in ten minutes, then," he said, hanging up and not giving her a chance to say anything else. "Great," she said, hanging up the phone and sitting down on the bed. "Now maybe I'll have time for another shower--a very cold one."

In Port Charles...

Carly had gone over the files again and again. There was just nothing left to be said, really. There was zero information on this person that Julia had had for a client. He was in her miscellaneous section of her filing cabinet, and there were almost no notes on his case, yet from what they could see of the date of the file, he had been a client of hers for a while. Either nothing was going on in his case, or Julia was being purposefully cryptic. Carly couldn't tell what, but obviously his case had picked up a bit since he'd just been killed a few days ago. Reily had confirmed that it wasn't the bullet wound, but an overdose that killed him. The bullet just finished the job. The kid was in deep with drugs, and if Julia had been involved with him in anyway, personally, professionally, or romantically, then she had to know something about what he was doing. Julia was just way too smart to have the wool pulled over her eyes for this long. She may not have known at the beginning, or for a while after she took his case but there was no way that she was working for him for months and never guessed he was on drugs.

Carly shook her head. She had 100 theories and she knew that Brenda would want her to dissect each and every one of them, the most prominent being that Julia precisely DID know what was going on with that kid and that she either looked the other way, or was involved somehow, maybe even taking drugs herself. Carly really hoped that the latter wasn't true. She'd seen first hand what drugs do to a person's life, to their loved ones, and to their family. She did NOT want that for Julia and Brenda. She knew she had to figure out a way to broach the subject to Brenda carefully. If she just told Brenda what Jason had found out, Brenda would have flown off the handle and become irrational and not been able to shake the theory from her head. If she presented it to her in the right way, maybe Brenda would see something that Carly had missed. Carly certainly hoped so.

Just then, a young woman came into BJ's, wearing a long black dress that showed off her curves. She had incredibly long, straight brown hair, and a beautiful round face. Carly looked up at her and gathered up the files quickly and shoved them on a desk behind her. Carly wiped her red eyes and smiled. "Can I help you with something?" she asked. The woman walked slowly and purposefully back and forth in front of the glass. "Excuse me," Carly said, "Can I help you?"

"I'm just looking, thank you," the woman said, walking back and forth even slower, never once raising her eyes to look at Carly. Carly didn't like the feeling that she was getting from this person and she was glad that Jason was working on his cases at home with Michael. She sat and watched the woman as she was still browsing and the woman's eyes were darting about so quickly, Carly realized that she couldn't really be looking for anything to buy. She knew something was up, but she trusted her instincts, and she didn't push this. Whatever the woman had to say, she'd say it in her own time. After about five more minutes, the woman began to speak. "So many choices, you know? I just don't know what to pick. Isn't it funny how someone can want two things at once? Doughnuts, muffins, cookies, a little tangy, extra sweet?" She stopped moving then, and stood stock still in front of Carly. Carly immediately went up on the defensive, but tried to remain calm. Carly's hand was wavering slightly over the drawer that held her gun, a .38. She wasn't about to go down easily, and if this woman wanted trouble, she'd get it from Carly.

"Yeah," Carly said, nodding. "I know what you mean. People can be fickle." The woman spoke again and this time, Carly could hear a hint of Brooklyn accent on her voice.

"I'm so glad you agree with me, see, because my boyfriend is like that. Whoops, excuse me, I mean he WAS like that."

"Was?" Carly asked.

"Yeah," the woman said, "He passed a few days ago."

"I'm sorry," Carly said.

"Don't you say that to me!" the woman erupted, causing Carly to jump and allowing her fingers to close around the handle of the drawer. The woman's lips trembled, and she looked like she was on the verge of tears. Her face looked beautiful, even twisted up in pain the way it was just now. "You know, I really don't feel like pretending anymore. We both know what this place is," she said, raising her arms and motioning around the room. "We both know what you do, and so do the cops, even if they choose to look the other way."

"What are you saying to me?" Carly asked. "Are you threatening me?"

"Oh no," the woman said, feigning shock. She angled her head to the side, and through trembling lips, she whispered, "you're not going to get away with it. You can't hide it from me anymore." She looked so angry, Carly was actually afraid of what she might do. Just then, the woman leaned in closer and crooked her finger towards Carly, indicating to her to come closer. Carly barely moved. "I can hear you just fine," Carly said." The woman took her hand out of her pocket and Carly's fingers closed around the handle of her gun as the woman took an empty hand out of her pocket.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the woman said through clinched teeth. "My name is Drew Jacobs, and I want to know what the hell happened to my boyfriend!" Carly swore under her breath. Whoever had given them up this time was going to pay big time.

"Uh-Uh," Carly said, shaking her head and pulling the gun out of the drawer, aiming at point black range and cocking it. "I don't know who you are, and it doesn't make much difference to me, all I want you to do is back up real slow and get the hell out of here, right now."