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A/N: Ok… like you can all guess, things are going to go from bad to worse now with what Carly holds in her hands… just remember things won't stay bad forever... ok that was my little attempt at a warning, anyway hope you'll enjoy this drama filled chapter!

The characters are not mine; just borrowed…

Chapter 19 - Into The Spider's Web

-- Harborview Towers --

"Good evening Milo." Jason told the young man as he passed by him.

"Mr. Morgan!" Milo called out. "Ms. Webber came by earlier."

Jason swiftly turned around to face the doorman. "Really? She was here? When?"

"About ten minutes after you left."

"Damn it! I missed her."

"Yes, but she said she would call you."

Jason's eyes grew larger. "Really, she said that? Did she say anything else?"

"No not really, but she seemed pretty sad she wasn't able to see you… and if I might add she looked really pretty."

"Thanks Milo."

Jason took an elevator ride all the up his apartment tower to his penthouse. It was already midnight but a deep desire to hear Elizabeth's voice took over him. Their last conversation had been especially one sided, with him desperately trying to justify Sam's presence and make Elizabeth understand that he had no intention of cheating on her. Jason hoped she had finally heard his plea and that it was the reason why she came by.

There was only one way of knowing; he dialed her number.

"Hey... Are you sleeping?"

"Ummm… I was… but it's ok…" Elizabeth managed to say out of her dry mouth.

"Sorry I woke you; I just really wanted to talk. Milo told me you came by earlier."

"Uh huh… I wanted to talk to you about everything that happened yesterday." She said in a hazy voice.

"You know what, you seem really tired; why don't we talk about all this tomorrow?"

"Ok… but Jason, I just wanted to tell you I was sorry, for the things I said to you. I completely overreacted… when you did nothing wrong."

"Hey… it's ok… you were worried and well everything was there for a misunderstanding; but anyway, just call me tomorrow; I'll probably be at work all day."

"Ok, I'll call you tomorrow… goodnight."

"Elizabeth?" Jason quickly said before she hung up.

"Umm?"

"You know what… nothing, we'll talk tomorrow. Sweet dreams."

-- EW Offices, Elizabeth's Office -

The next day…

"You reached Jason Morgan's cell phone; I can't answer this call right now so please leave a message or try me in the office."

The first thing Elizabeth did when she arrived at work that day was trying to call Jason. She could only remember half of what she had told him when he called the night before and Elizabeth was convinced that she hadn't made much sense. She needed to talk to Jason, to clearly tell him she trusted him and wanted to leave their pointless argument behind them.

"Morgan Enterprises, Office of the CEO how may I help you?" Jason's assistant recited through the phone.

"Um… Hi, it's Elizabeth… Webber and I wanted to know if I could talk to Jason. He said he would be in the office all day but I can't get a hold of him."

The assistant rolled her eyes thinking that she was dealing with the usual case of the obsessed ex girlfriend. Why couldn't these women just get a clue and understand that when things were over they needed to move on.

"Mr. Morgan is in a meeting, would you like to leave a message?"

"Ah, ok… could you tell him that I called and would like to talk to him. Thank you. And…"

The secretary had already hung up leaving Elizabeth who was about to ask at what time his meeting would be over to swallow her question.

*****

When Elizabeth wasn't around, or in no shape to run the place, Maxie Jones was in charge of making sure everything was running smoothly and sometimes the young woman asked herself what EW would be if she wasn't there to deal with her boss' mood swings.

Elizabeth had arrived at work that morning thankfully feeling better than she had the day before but still not looking her best. Only one thing could have been to blame for the sudden changes in her frame of mind… her love life. Only two days ago, Jason and Elizabeth had seemed so in love it was intoxicating to her. What could have gone wrong that fast? Maybe Elizabeth had been right and she wasn't ready to date just yet.

Right when Maxie finally decided to go talk to her boss about her extended downbeat mood, a tall blonde with wild hair and a questionable fashion sense entered EW. Maxie stared at her wondering who would wear the kind of tight dress she sported with these glossy boots and shiny jewelry in the middle of the day.

"My name is Carly Jacks and I need to see your boss so announce me right now!" The woman said with a huge attitude that made Maxie dislike her instantly.

"Do you have an appointment?" The younger blond asked, eyes rolling.

"Oh, I don't need one!"

"Elizabeth is busy right now, you'll have to…"

"Oh cut the crap. Lizziebeth is going to want to hear what I have to say." Carly was so threatening that Maxie had no choice but to take her seriously.

-- Elizabeth's Office, EW --

Maxie poked her head inside Elizabeth's office and told her a certain Carly Jacks was insisting on seeing her. A surprised Elizabeth told her assistant to let Carly in, curious to hear what Mrs. Jacks had to say.

"Nice to see you again, Elizabeth." Carly threw out looking aberrantly happy.

The designer formed a crisped smile. The feeling was not mutual. "What do you want?"

"Well, not much actually; have you had your doze of daily gossip yet?"

"Ok Carly, if you came here to waste my time you can save your breath… You don't like me I don't like you, let's leave it at that."

"I pity you Elizabeth, do you actually enjoy being men's sloppy second? Going after Jax when he is clearly still in love with me… and Jason, how will you get in your little head that he is not a one woman man and has never been. Besides, he deserves so much better than you."

"You are completely delusional; you don't know anything about Jason and me. Now excuse me but I have some work to do." Elizabeth said showing Carly the door.

"Oh no… just when it's becoming interesting…" Carly walked past Elizabeth to sit on the comfy white leather arm chair that faced the designer's desk.

"What do you want?"

"Like I said, I just wanted to show you something." She picked up a magazine from her oversized handbag. "You cannot begin to imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon this article earlier today. I always thought you were no match for Jason. He needs a woman who can handle a… big man." Carly handed Elizabeth the publication in question to the designer.

Jason Morgan out of fashion?

The business mogul was photographed last night with this mysterious brunette. Is Elizabeth Webber already a distant memory?

She didn't understand, or her brain didn't want her to register the information. It was a picture of Jason, with the slutty woman she had unfortunately met a couple days before. They were standing in front of what seemed like a hotel room, while the half naked woman's hands were all over him. Elizabeth closed her eyes; there was the proof of what she had feared. Even after Sam showed up at his door, she still thought she could have read the situation wrong, but now that she saw this picture there was no more doubt.

"Oops, taking your expression you didn't know he was seeing someone else, but if it can make you feel better, you had the longest tenure of all of his conquests."

"Shut up!"

"Oooh… touchy! Well see how that feels to see your man with a slut?"

"It's not Jason… that can't be, this is a mistake." Elizabeth said denying what seemed like the obvious.

"What, you want to tell me you were with him yesterday night? Well he was having a good time with this woman while you were busy sipping champagne with Jax."

"Who do you think you are? Coming in here, showing me these pictures! What, are you satisfied now Carly? Let me tell you what, you're a really sick woman."

"Oh right, I think it is not at me that you are mad right now but at Jason. So save those nice little phrases for him ok?" With these words, Carly left the room extremely pleased with herself.

Tears of anger and heartache started to silently fall from Elizabeth's eyes as soon as the blond woman left her office. The image was engraved in her mind. Elizabeth felt completely foolish for giving Jason the benefit of the doubt when he was playing her all along. He was cheating on her while she spent all day beating herself up for not trusting him. Elizabeth was devastated.

*****

"What did she want from you Eliza…?" The young assistant noticed her boss' tears. "Oh my god, what… what's wrong?" She ran to her and placed a comforting arm around her shoulders.

"Nothing Maxie, I'm fine." Elizabeth said wiping the tears off of her flushed cheeks with the back of her hand.

The magazine Elizabeth was firmly holding caught Maxie's attention. "What is this? Is that Jason?" She took a better look. "No, it can't be. Jason wouldn't do that to you!"

Elizabeth managed to somewhat calm down and spoke in a thin voice. "This woman… was… at his place the other night. She interrupted us… talking like something was happening between Jason and her." Elizabeth sighed heavily then walked towards her desk. "I got mad and... left without letting him explain."

"Wow, are you telling me that he was seeing that woman behind your back?"

"I don't know… He called me the next morning and told me he was sorry and that she was nothing to him. And I believed him. He said she was just trying to come between us and I believed him." She wiped her nose with a tissue Maxie handed her. "Thanks. So I went to see him yesterday because I thought that maybe I overreacted a little and should have given him the benefit of the doubt, but he wasn't there. He was probably with that slut at the time!"

"What? No! Why would he do this to you? This man is visibly crazy about you Elizabeth!"

"But I guess I just wasn't enough. I have never been enough for anyone; not my parents, not Lucky and now..."

"Don't say that. Don't talk like this… there has to be a catch somewhere, this isn't right! And why would this Carly take it upon herself to make sure you saw these?"

"Because she is a spiteful bitch who enjoys seeing people suffer. You know I don't even care right now really; all I know is that I was played like a fool again… I need some time alone Maxie, and if Jason calls, you can tell him to go to hell!"

*****

As soon as Jason got out of his meeting, he tried returning Elizabeth's calls, in vain. Jason had been overjoyed when the night before she had told him she was over the whole Sam McCall situation but the man grew worried again as he tried her cell without success. He then called Maxie but the diligent assistant had coldly told him that Elizabeth was in the middle of something and couldn't take his call then hung up the phone abruptly which had raised his concern. He thought Maxie liked him so he couldn't understand why the attitude. Jason decided to drive up to EW and find out why the sudden change in tone.

Before he entered EW headquarters, his cell phone, rang in his pocket.

"Diane? What's going on?" Jason asked wanting to get straight to the point.

"What's going on is that you need to come back to the office right now, it's urgent."

"What happened?"

"You were right to be worried; whoever warned you about Corinthos was right on. I just learned that all of his assets have been frozen."

"Damn it! Ok, I'll be back right after I take care of something important."

"You might want to delay that important something and come in right now, we've had a visit from a very charming investigator who said in not so many words that he wants to take you down for complicity with Corinthos. We might be facing RICO charges."

"This is crazy! We haven't done anything illegal and they certainly have no way of proving these allegations."

"I'm not sure; he was talking very confidently. I'll let you in on all the details as soon as you get back in the office… which should be right now."

"Alright, thanks Diane, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Jason hung up the phone particularly irritated by the circumstances threatening his company. He had worked hard to get it to this level and there was no way anyone would take it away from him. Morgan Enterprises was a completely legitimate entity and he would challenge anyone to prove otherwise. Jason Morgan was not Sonny Corinthos and their relationship was limited to a business deal; right at this instant he hated the alleged coffee importer for putting his life's work at risk.

But before he dealt with the Corinthos issue, Jason had to talk to Elizabeth and make sure everything was clear between them.

"Maxie!"

The young blond woman jumped up from her chair in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I have been trying to get a hold of Elizabeth but she isn't answering my calls."

"And you're surprised?" Maxie noticed Jason make his way towards her boss' office. "Wait, where are you going? You can't just barge in there!"

Too late, the young man opened the door ignoring the lively blonde.

"Elizabeth?"

The brunette was completely taken by surprise. She was not expecting to confront Jason right now, it was too soon. She remained quiet in an effort to keep her calm.

"I saw you called me earlier, sorry I was in a meeting."

The woman remained quiet, but it didn't stop Jason. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything… I just really wanted to see you. We need to talk and make sure everything is ok between us."

"Do I look like I'm ok? Oh my god Jason, I can't believe this is happening to me again. I can't believe you are doing this to me!" She told him brokenhearted.

"What?" The young man asked, surprised by the change in her speech. The night before she was telling him how sorry she was for the way she overreacted and now she was back to blaming him. "Listen Elizabeth I told you the truth and all of it and yesterday night you said that we were fine."

"Yeah, that was yesterday night and now it's today and everything changed."

"What are you talking about, what happened?"

"What happened is that I know you cheated on me! I trusted you and you betrayed me Jason."

"No… I didn't Elizabeth! Once again I am sorry for how Sam interrupted us last time but don't let her win. Don't let her come between us."

Elizabeth left her desk to stand in front of the window, observing the view Port Charles had to offer. "I really thought you were different, but I guess I was wrong. I should have listened to my first instinct and stayed clear of you." She paused as she felt tears forming in her eyes.

"What do you mean? Nothing happened with that woman, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth turned to face Jason again. "And you can't even admit it. Maybe Carly is right and I'm just not the type of woman you need."

"What does Carly have to do with this?"

"Well she is your best friend right? She knows you more than anybody else."

"Ok, you lost me here. I don't know what else to tell you."

"What about the truth?"

Jason was starting to lose patience. "I've told you nothing but the truth! Something I am not is a liar Elizabeth!"

"Ok, if it's how it's going to be then just leave right now. I really don't have anything more to say to you."

"Elizabeth, wait! This is a big mistake; it has to be a misunderstanding. This can't be about this meaningless interruption. Again, that woman is nothing to me!"

"Meaningless… listen to yourself! So you want to tell me you weren't at the Metro Court with her yesterday night? Huh?"

Damn it… and another misinterpretation Jason thought. "Again don't jump to conclusion! Yes I was there, but only for five minutes not more. She called wanting to talk to me about business so I went, we talked and I left. After that I went straight to the office, I had a meeting with Spinelli then my lawyer. You can ask them they'll tell you I was there."

"Of course they will, they work for you."

"Elizabeth why can't you just trust me when I tell you nothing happened with Sam. She is nothing to me, she had information on a client so she asked me to meet her at her hotel, we talked and then I left."

"Yes, of course… talking business at night in her hotel room. What do you think I'm stupid?"

Jason sighed, wondering how she even knew about his meeting with Sam; but it didn't matter, because he didn't do anything wrong even though the circumstances looked really bad. "Elizabeth… that woman is nothing to me. I can't even stand her so why would I want to be with her when I have you…"

She interrupted him. "Please just leave. I don't want to hear another word coming out of your mouth. Just go."

"I am not leaving; we need to talk about all this! You are not being serious right now."

"For the last time, we're done; you need to leave… now!"

"Elizabeth! Listen to me! You have to stop putting all men in the same basket! I am not Lucky!" Jason said making his way towards her.

"I thought Lucky was the worst thing that ever happened to me but you just took betrayal to a whole other level!"

"What? You cannot be serious! Listen to me!" Jason pleaded.

She picked up the Italian crimson vase that now decorated her office and uncontrollably crashed it at Jason's feet sending a thousand shards of glass flying all across the room. "How serious do I look?"

"Fine! Is that how it is going to be? If that's really what you want I'm out of here!"

Jason was as confused as ever when he left EW that day, and especially hurt that the woman he was growing to know well and develop feelings for did not have any trust in him. He had told her the truth and nothing but, and he didn't have time for these kind of hysterics, he was a coveted man and sometimes women did crazy things to get his attention. He had assured Elizabeth that the only one he had eyes for was her and didn't know how else to show it to her. The businessman had other problems to deal with at Morgan Enterprises; if she wanted to be left alone then he would do just that.

--

Next on AFA: "Friendly Concern"