I'm back. I mulled this over as I drove across the prairies (boring) and I'm ready to roll. A bit AU. Jason's history is the same but he's never met Elizabeth. She is new to Port Charles. She has Cam who is about 3. Jason is with Sam - this is still the first go round. I think we can all agree that the Jason of the second go round with Sam is just not worthy of hero status. Sam lost her baby, same history there, she has also been shot and told she can't have kids. Jason feels really guilty about it, but did not try to break up with her and at this point is probably with her more out of guilt than love, though he may not realize it yet. Sam is searching for a way to have a baby. Picture Jason and Elizabeth about the same age they were for the NOP.
The Sun In My Sky
AU
Rated: R eventually
Ch 1
"Jason! Tell her I won't do it!" Carly Corinthos slammed into the penthouse apartment, Jason Morgan shared with his girlfriend, Sam McCall. Her mother, Bobbie Spencer ran in after her.
"Jason, maybe you can talk to her," Bobbie implored. "I really need her help."
Jason sighed inwardly and put down the newspaper he'd been trying to read. This was life with Carly across the hall - you lurched from one crisis to the next.
"What is it, Carly?" Carly was supposedly Jason's best friend, though he figured go to guy and problem solver might be a more apt description.
"Mama wants me to babysit some, some... girl!"
"Not babysit, Carly," Bobbie began.
"I won't do it! I have my own life, I have two kids! I'm not looking for more!"
"Carly, that's not very charitable," Bobbie began again.
"Stuff your charity," Carly said, flopping down on the couch and pouting.
"Wanna tell me what's going on?" Jason asked, as Sam entered the room from the kitchen. Not that she'd been cooking or cleaning or anything, she'd just been grabbing a diet soda.
"Mama wants me to look after some castoff for her," Carly said.
"She's not a..." Bobbie sighed and turned to Jason. "My old college roommate Katherine Webber called me yesterday. Her daughter Elizabeth is on her way to Port Charles from Chicago. She caught the bus last night and will be here later this afternoon. Elizabeth is down on her luck and has no place to go, but she wanted to get out of Chicago."
"Are the cops after her?" Sam asked.
"A child is on the bus by herself?" Jason asked.
"No, no Elizabeth is not a child. She'd be, oh 24 or 25 now. She has a little boy of her own, who's about three."
"And they are not staying with me," Carly said.
Bobbie ignored her. "Elizabeth is an artist and she had been just starting to make a name for herself when her partner in the gallery cleaned out the bank accounts, stole all the paintings she hadn't sold and took off. She's in debt up to her neck and determined to pay it all off. But she wants a fresh start and she basically has nothing right now. Katherine and her husband Jeff and I were close at university and I want to help out."
"Where are her parents? Shouldn't they be bailing her out?" Sam asked.
"They are both doctors and are in Africa right now. Katherine got me on a satellite phone and asked me to meet Elizabeth's bus and find a place for her for a couple of weeks until she can find work and make daycare arrangements. But the problem is that the brownstone is full and my apartment is too small to share with a mother and a baby."
"What about the kid's father?"
"Not in the picture," Bobbie said.
"And you want Carly and Sonny to put her up," Jason said.
"Well, the penthouse is huge," Bobbie said.
"Not huge enough," Carly said. "Leticia can barely handle Michael and Morgan, I won't throw another child on her."
Jason and Bobbie said nothing to that, because what could you say? Carly was choosing to raise her kids by nanny.
"We could rent her a place," Jason said.
"I think that might seem a little too much like charity for her," Bobbie said. "I've met her. She's going to have a hard enough time accepting a free room for a while. She'll do it because of her little boy, but it will eat at her."
"I'm sorry we can't help Mama, but that's life," Carly said. "Unless Jason and Sam want to take the little waif in."
Jason waited for Sam to protest but she didn't and he looked at her curiously.
"She's 25?" Sam asked Bobbie.
"Thereabouts," Bobbie said.
"In good health?"
Bobbie looked confused but answered. "As far as I know."
"Her birth, with her son, was it difficult?"
"I don't know. All I know is that Cam is a perfectly healthy beautiful little boy."
"What are you getting at Sam?" Jason asked.
"Jason, come here for a minute." Sam indicated over by the french doors that led out to the balcony. She grabbed his arm. "Jason, this is perfect!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Our baby, Jason. We could finally have our baby!"
"You are not suggesting we take this woman's child from her?" Jason was appalled. He knew Sam had been desperate for a way to have a baby, now that they had learned she couldn't conceive. The chances for adoption were slim to none, given his less than stellar reputation with the police, and the nature of his business, but this?
"No, no. Pay attention," Sam snapped. "Not the boy, the mother. She's down on her luck, she owes big money, it's perfect!"
Jason mentally counted to ten. Sometimes he just didn't know what Sam was talking about.
"Jason, surrogacy. She could be our surrogate! She could donate an egg and carry your baby and then give it to us! We could have our baby! And we'll pay her and she'll likely jump at it to cover her debts. And we can take her in now and that will give us time to get to know her, figure out if she's healthy enough and a good enough mother."
"Sam, stop. Stop it. We haven't even talked about surrogacy." Jason actually wasn't all that sure he wanted to have children with Sam. His life didn't really lend itself to fatherhood and he wondered sometimes just what kind of mother Sam would be, with her tendency to be a bit of an adrenalin junkie.
"We're talking now. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime!" Sam ran back to Bobbie. "Bobbie, Jason and I will take her in. She can live here. We have the room."
"Sam!" Jason said, but his voice was lost in the cry of relief from Bobbie and surprise from Carly.
Fuck, he said to himself, as the women talked around him. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Not that he minded helping someone out who was down on their luck, he didn't. But the surrogacy idea was not a good one. Sam had been desperate ever since her baby died two years ago. It hadn't been his baby, it had been Sonny's. Sonny, always a hound dog, had slept with Sam when he'd been on the outs with Carly. Then, she'd turned up pregnant and Sonny asked Jason to take her in to save his marriage. And to protect this adopted son Michael, Jason's nephew. Jason had been unable to say no, as he often was with either Sonny or Carly, especially when they used Michael as a reason, and Sam had moved in. And they'd fallen into a relationship. Jason had felt really bad for her when her baby died, really bad. And they'd gotten closer.
And it had been working, sort of. In a this is what my life is kind of way. He ran an illegal operation with Sonny. He'd been arrested dozens of times. Not exactly the kind of life that attracted... what exactly? Sam was okay with his life, liked it actually, and he figured he couldn't really expect more. He probably didn't deserve it.
He wasn't much of a dreamer, but sometimes he'd had vague dreams of a life with someone who just knew him, knew him inside out. Loved him, not for his money or his looks or his power, but just for him. The him he knew was inside that he never let out. He'd had these dreams for as long as he could remember, which wasn't long, considering he'd lost his memory in an accident at 21 years old. But still, these phantom dreams continued, through all the relationships before Sam, all two of them. And the continued still. Dreams about a life with someone kind and compassionate and maybe even funny. Who he could laugh with and tell things he'd never told anyone. Who he could sit with at night and talk about his day. Someone who would understand him, love him for it, or despite of it.
Sam didn't really do any of those things, but he was with her. He owed her. It was his fault she couldn't have children. His fault. She had been shot by one of his enemies and the damage had been too great. She could never conceive a child. And he loved her. He guessed.
"Come on, Jason," Sam said. "Bobbie says the bus gets in to Port Charles in a half hour. That's barely enough time to get to the bus station."
------
They stood at the bus station - Jason and Sam. Bobbie had been called into an emergency at the hospital, where she was a surgical nurse. Carly hadn't come, saying she didn't want to get involved in the rescue mission.
The arrival from Chicago was announced. Jason waited, ignoring Sam who was babbling excitedly about this opportunity. Almost as if the young woman arriving wasn't a person but a commodity, something Sam could buy.
The bus stopped and weary passengers began to disembark. He watched for anyone who might meet the description he'd been given, a young dark haired woman with a toddler. And then he saw someone who might be who they were waiting for. She got off the bus and her little boy was wailing, sobbing actually.
Jason couldn't see the woman's face, her head was down. She came down the stairs of the bus and walked to a bench, burying her face in her son's hair. She rocked him and he could see her shoulders shaking. She was crying too.
He walked up behind her, not checking to see if Sam was following.
"Oh, Cammy, Mommy is so sorry. I know you're tired, I know it. I wish we didn't have to take such a long ride. But we're here now. Our new home, though Mommy doesn't quite know where that is yet. But someone is supposed to meet us. Come, look at me, baby. Let me wipe your eyes. With kisses!" She enthusiastically set about wiping his face with kisses and soon the little boy was giggling.
"Mommy's swurping!" he yelled out as she made slurping noises against his round little cheeks.
"Mommy is swurping. And she will swurp you right up." She kissed him again and again.
Jason watched it with a smile. He supposed this was her, she'd said Cammy and Bobbie had said that was her son's name. He reached out a hand and touched her shoulder.
"Miss?"
She started and turned around, standing and picking up her son. "Who wants to know?"
For a moment he couldn't speak, could barely breathe. That face, those eyes - he was sure he'd never seen her before so why did he feel like he recognized her?
"Sam McCall and this is Jason Morgan," Sam said, pushing forward. "You'll be staying with us."
"Oh but I..."
"No, Bobbie couldn't take you in, so we said we will," Sam said. "Let's go get your luggage."
She pushed Elizabeth ahead and looked back at Jason smiling. "Isn't it perfect?" she whispered. "We even look alike."
Jason stood there dumbly. Looked alike? They were both quite short and had brown hair but that was it. They were completely different. Sam was tanned and had deep brown eyes and a small round mouth. Elizabeth, from the brief glimpse he'd had looked nothing like that. She had softer brown hair, pale, luminescent skin and blue, blue eyes. A lush mouth. A wide, generous mouth.
Sam looked like his reality. Elizabeth looked like a dream.
Ch 2
Sam was pulling Elizabeth along. Elizabeth was trying to hold her little guy, a packsack and drag a large suitcase. Sam was chattering away, completely oblivious the fact that Elizabeth was looking shell shocked and was struggling to hold everything. Jason rushed over.
"Here," he said. "Let me." He grabbed the pack and the suitcase.
Sam tugged her arm. "The truck is over here," she said.
Elizabeth dug her heels and stopped. "Will you just slow down?" she asked. "I don't even know you people. Do you think I'm going to get into a car with my baby with two people I don't even know? You could be serial killers, or... or con artists, or spies!"
Jason's lip quirked. He didn't know why she would think spies were worse than serial killers, but that's what it sounded like.
"I'm sorry," he said gently. "We're rushing you. Like Sam said, I'm Jason Morgan. We live across the hall from Bobbie's daughter Carly. Bobbie has a full house right now and she asked us to put you up because we have lots of room."
"Why didn't she ask her daughter?"
Jason looked at her with interest. Smart.
"We have more room," he said. "And Carly has two young children. We just thought it would be better."
Elizabeth looked at the handsome man, undecided. She looked into his eyes - blue eyes, seriously blue eyes. He was what she called sinful handsome, unattainable handsome. But there was sincerity in those eyes. And honesty. She bit her lip.
"Can we.. can we call Bobbie?"
Jason smiled and Elizabeth absorbed the fact that the smile was deadly.
"Sure." He pulled out his cell and dialed General Hospital. He handed it to Elizabeth so she'd know she'd reached the hospital receptionist. He studied her while she waited for Bobbie, Sam shifting impatiently beside him.
The first elusive hint of recognition was still there. Some part of him knew her, though he didn't know from where. Maybe he'd met her as a kid? Maybe she'd visited Bobbie and he'd met her? He didn't know. But she was beautiful, more than beautiful. Her face was alive, her eyes full of feeling. He watched as her white teeth bit that lush lower lip, watched both lips move as she spoke to Bobbie.
She hung up and handed him the phone. "Thanks." Then she looked at her son. "Well, Camster, I guess this will be today's adventure."
"Wentoor." Cam agreed.
"Adventure?" Jason asked.
"Cam and I have a deal. Every day we try to have an adventure. It could be as little as feeding the ducks in the park or reading a new book, but it has to be something we both decide we're glad we did. So today's adventure is new friends. Better than that stinky bus, right Cam?"
"Tinky bus," the boy agreed.
"Now that I know you're not spies or serial killers, I am happy to accept your offer. On the understanding that I am looking for work and I will try to contribute to the rent. I just have to find proper daycare for Cam. He's had a rough time lately and he needs stability. It's my job to provide it, though I haven't done that well at it lately. Stupid partner running off with my paintings." The last was muttered under her breath before she continued. "And by the way, if either of you happen to stumble across a painting of a boy who looks like Cam swinging from a clothesline with all the sheets, report it to me. It's not even the money, it's the fact that rat is going to try to pass my work off as his. As if that untalented hack could ever paint like me. I may not have sold much but I knew I was good and he did too, the rotten fink."
"Fink!" Cam yelled. "Wotten fink!"
Elizabeth kissed her son's neck.
"My cheerleader. And furthermore, he stole all my art supplies and I can't afford to buy more until I get a job. I don't know if you know this, but paint is expensive. Oh the things I could say if Cam wasn't here. But he is, so I'll stop. I don't think we've been formally introduced. My name is Elizabeth Webber. I am not a spy or a serial killer either. And you are Jason and Sam, my new roomies." She held out her hand.
Jason smiled at the speech and took her hand. He ignored the little zing that ran through his veins and said, "Good to meet you, Elizabeth. You too Cam."
The boy's solemn eyes looked steadily at him. Then he offered his little hand for Jason to shake.
"That's my little man," Elizabeth said happily, kissing his curly head.
"Cameron, would you like to come see Auntie Sammy?" Sam cooed, holding out her arms.
Cam shrank back against his mother. "No," he said emphatically.
"Sorry about that, Sam. Cam's his own man. He'll warm up to you eventually," Elizabeth said, while Sam glared at Cameron.
"Let's go," Jason said.
Twenty minutes later they were at the penthouse.
"Wow," Elizabeth said. "Top floor. Nice digs. I know I can't afford this rent."
"Don't worry about that right now," Jason said. "Let's just get you settled."
"I'll show you your room," Sam said. "It's upstairs."
Jason followed them up with the bags.
"It's perfect," Elizabeth said, though she wondered how long she and Cam could share a room. She really needed to get a job. "I'm just going to try to get him to nap. He was up most of the night. I'll come downstairs as soon as he's asleep."
Sam skipped down the stairs ahead of Jason. "I think she'll be perfect don't you? She's the right physical type, her boy looks healthy. I'm so excited!" She threw her arms around Jason and he extricated himself.
"Listen Sam, I don't want you talking to her about surrogacy. We haven't really discussed it ourselves and you can't just ask a total stranger something like that."
"Of course not. I'll have to soften her up first. But don't you worry I'm going to start working on that now."
"Sam..."
"He was out like a light, the little sweetheart," Elizabeth said, coming down the stairs. "The past few days have been awful for him."
"He's a beautiful boy," Sam said. "He must have been a beautiful baby. I had a baby once too, but she died." Tears trembled on Sam's lashes.
Elizabeth looked startled at first but then her eyes filled with sympathetic tears. "Oh, how awful," she said. "I am so sorry. I don't know how I'd survive it if anything happened to Cam. I'm so sorry, Sam." Elizabeth threw her arms around the other woman, tears running down her cheeks.
Sam flashed Jason a triumphant look over Elizabeth's shoulder, tears suddenly gone.
That was so wrong, Jason thought. So wrong. Elizabeth obviously had a tremendously soft heart and Sam was working her.
"Why don't you tell me what kind of work you're looking for?" Jason asked.
Elizabeth broke off her embrace with Sam and wiped her eyes.
"Well, ideally in an art gallery, but of course I'll take anything to start. Waitress, store clerk, anything."
"How are you with numbers?"
"Um, I don't think I've ever tried. I left the books to my partner. And look how well that turned out. I'll learn numbers! I don't think I could ever be an accountant, they're too gray. Jobs have colors you know. And accountants are gray. Artists are multi-colored. At least I think I am. I have no favorite color, though I like the primaries. Blue and red especially. But I don't think I'd turn completely gray if I were to learn to input a few numbers into a computer. Would I?"
Jason looked at her, at a loss. "Uh, I don't think so. I.." He stopped, not knowing what to say.
Elizabeth smiled, a warm, happy smile that caused his heart to race just a little for some reason.
"I've done it again, haven't I? I confuse people sometimes. My parents used to say I could lose anyone on the winding path to a point. Probably why they ran away to Africa and left me with the neighbors." She looked momentarily said, then bucked up, eyes twinkling again. "I think you were about to maybe suggest a job for me?"
"Yeah, yeah I was. I have a lot of bookwork and entering all the invoices and payments into the computer is tedious work but it has to be done." He had someone doing it, but he could move that person on to something else.
"I thought you had..." Sam said.
"Sam why don't you go order some food for us? I bet Elizabeth is hungry, and Cam will be too when he wakes up."
"Okay, I'll order Chinese. I know you love it." Sam went into the kitchen.
"So if you agree, you could learn to enter all the accounting information. And you could do it here, so you wouldn't have to worry about a babysitter. I'll have a computer brought from the warehouse. There's a little room, I use it for a workout room now, but we could put the computer in there."
His arms were suddenly full of warm living woman, as Elizabeth hugged him tight. Then she jumped back, blushing.
"Sorry. Sorry, I'll try to contain myself. I've only been here half an hour and I've jumped both of you. I'm a hugger. I always have been. And you're so good to offer this to me. I'll do it for the rent."
"No, no. I'll pay you a salary and deduct the rent from it," Jason said. And the deduction would be small. He tried to shake the feeling of her in his arms away. He didn't know why he was suddenly manufacturing a job for a person he'd just met but he liked this Elizabeth Webber. Life had kicked her in the face but she was fighting back, she wasn't letting it get her down. She was resilient. He liked that. He admired it.
Sam came back out. "Okay, dinner is ordered. I was going to learn to cook before our baby died, but then there just didn't seem to be much point." Her lip quivered.
Elizabeth took her hand. "Come and sit down and tell me about her. Maybe talking will help. What was her name? How did you lose her?"
Jason listened while Sam spilled out her tale of woe. He'd heard it all before, over and over again. He didn't begrudge anyone their grief, Sam could mourn as long as she felt she had to, and because she couldn't have more children he felt even worse about it. But as he heard her tell Elizabeth the baby was theirs he wanted to jump in and correct Sam. It hadn't been theirs. He'd agreed to raise the baby with Sam but it had been Sonny's baby. And he also knew Sam was laying it on pretty thick because she was trying to work Elizabeth again.
Fuck.
He did think he wanted children. He just didn't think he wanted Sam to be the mother. And she was his girlfriend. He was supposed to love her. What did that say about him? He was full of doubt. And watching the two women on the couch, one so innocent and helpful, the other calculating her every word toward a certain result, he felt even more doubt.
The Sun In My Sky
AU
Rated: R eventually
Ch 1
"Jason! Tell her I won't do it!" Carly Corinthos slammed into the penthouse apartment, Jason Morgan shared with his girlfriend, Sam McCall. Her mother, Bobbie Spencer ran in after her.
"Jason, maybe you can talk to her," Bobbie implored. "I really need her help."
Jason sighed inwardly and put down the newspaper he'd been trying to read. This was life with Carly across the hall - you lurched from one crisis to the next.
"What is it, Carly?" Carly was supposedly Jason's best friend, though he figured go to guy and problem solver might be a more apt description.
"Mama wants me to babysit some, some... girl!"
"Not babysit, Carly," Bobbie began.
"I won't do it! I have my own life, I have two kids! I'm not looking for more!"
"Carly, that's not very charitable," Bobbie began again.
"Stuff your charity," Carly said, flopping down on the couch and pouting.
"Wanna tell me what's going on?" Jason asked, as Sam entered the room from the kitchen. Not that she'd been cooking or cleaning or anything, she'd just been grabbing a diet soda.
"Mama wants me to look after some castoff for her," Carly said.
"She's not a..." Bobbie sighed and turned to Jason. "My old college roommate Katherine Webber called me yesterday. Her daughter Elizabeth is on her way to Port Charles from Chicago. She caught the bus last night and will be here later this afternoon. Elizabeth is down on her luck and has no place to go, but she wanted to get out of Chicago."
"Are the cops after her?" Sam asked.
"A child is on the bus by herself?" Jason asked.
"No, no Elizabeth is not a child. She'd be, oh 24 or 25 now. She has a little boy of her own, who's about three."
"And they are not staying with me," Carly said.
Bobbie ignored her. "Elizabeth is an artist and she had been just starting to make a name for herself when her partner in the gallery cleaned out the bank accounts, stole all the paintings she hadn't sold and took off. She's in debt up to her neck and determined to pay it all off. But she wants a fresh start and she basically has nothing right now. Katherine and her husband Jeff and I were close at university and I want to help out."
"Where are her parents? Shouldn't they be bailing her out?" Sam asked.
"They are both doctors and are in Africa right now. Katherine got me on a satellite phone and asked me to meet Elizabeth's bus and find a place for her for a couple of weeks until she can find work and make daycare arrangements. But the problem is that the brownstone is full and my apartment is too small to share with a mother and a baby."
"What about the kid's father?"
"Not in the picture," Bobbie said.
"And you want Carly and Sonny to put her up," Jason said.
"Well, the penthouse is huge," Bobbie said.
"Not huge enough," Carly said. "Leticia can barely handle Michael and Morgan, I won't throw another child on her."
Jason and Bobbie said nothing to that, because what could you say? Carly was choosing to raise her kids by nanny.
"We could rent her a place," Jason said.
"I think that might seem a little too much like charity for her," Bobbie said. "I've met her. She's going to have a hard enough time accepting a free room for a while. She'll do it because of her little boy, but it will eat at her."
"I'm sorry we can't help Mama, but that's life," Carly said. "Unless Jason and Sam want to take the little waif in."
Jason waited for Sam to protest but she didn't and he looked at her curiously.
"She's 25?" Sam asked Bobbie.
"Thereabouts," Bobbie said.
"In good health?"
Bobbie looked confused but answered. "As far as I know."
"Her birth, with her son, was it difficult?"
"I don't know. All I know is that Cam is a perfectly healthy beautiful little boy."
"What are you getting at Sam?" Jason asked.
"Jason, come here for a minute." Sam indicated over by the french doors that led out to the balcony. She grabbed his arm. "Jason, this is perfect!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Our baby, Jason. We could finally have our baby!"
"You are not suggesting we take this woman's child from her?" Jason was appalled. He knew Sam had been desperate for a way to have a baby, now that they had learned she couldn't conceive. The chances for adoption were slim to none, given his less than stellar reputation with the police, and the nature of his business, but this?
"No, no. Pay attention," Sam snapped. "Not the boy, the mother. She's down on her luck, she owes big money, it's perfect!"
Jason mentally counted to ten. Sometimes he just didn't know what Sam was talking about.
"Jason, surrogacy. She could be our surrogate! She could donate an egg and carry your baby and then give it to us! We could have our baby! And we'll pay her and she'll likely jump at it to cover her debts. And we can take her in now and that will give us time to get to know her, figure out if she's healthy enough and a good enough mother."
"Sam, stop. Stop it. We haven't even talked about surrogacy." Jason actually wasn't all that sure he wanted to have children with Sam. His life didn't really lend itself to fatherhood and he wondered sometimes just what kind of mother Sam would be, with her tendency to be a bit of an adrenalin junkie.
"We're talking now. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime!" Sam ran back to Bobbie. "Bobbie, Jason and I will take her in. She can live here. We have the room."
"Sam!" Jason said, but his voice was lost in the cry of relief from Bobbie and surprise from Carly.
Fuck, he said to himself, as the women talked around him. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Not that he minded helping someone out who was down on their luck, he didn't. But the surrogacy idea was not a good one. Sam had been desperate ever since her baby died two years ago. It hadn't been his baby, it had been Sonny's. Sonny, always a hound dog, had slept with Sam when he'd been on the outs with Carly. Then, she'd turned up pregnant and Sonny asked Jason to take her in to save his marriage. And to protect this adopted son Michael, Jason's nephew. Jason had been unable to say no, as he often was with either Sonny or Carly, especially when they used Michael as a reason, and Sam had moved in. And they'd fallen into a relationship. Jason had felt really bad for her when her baby died, really bad. And they'd gotten closer.
And it had been working, sort of. In a this is what my life is kind of way. He ran an illegal operation with Sonny. He'd been arrested dozens of times. Not exactly the kind of life that attracted... what exactly? Sam was okay with his life, liked it actually, and he figured he couldn't really expect more. He probably didn't deserve it.
He wasn't much of a dreamer, but sometimes he'd had vague dreams of a life with someone who just knew him, knew him inside out. Loved him, not for his money or his looks or his power, but just for him. The him he knew was inside that he never let out. He'd had these dreams for as long as he could remember, which wasn't long, considering he'd lost his memory in an accident at 21 years old. But still, these phantom dreams continued, through all the relationships before Sam, all two of them. And the continued still. Dreams about a life with someone kind and compassionate and maybe even funny. Who he could laugh with and tell things he'd never told anyone. Who he could sit with at night and talk about his day. Someone who would understand him, love him for it, or despite of it.
Sam didn't really do any of those things, but he was with her. He owed her. It was his fault she couldn't have children. His fault. She had been shot by one of his enemies and the damage had been too great. She could never conceive a child. And he loved her. He guessed.
"Come on, Jason," Sam said. "Bobbie says the bus gets in to Port Charles in a half hour. That's barely enough time to get to the bus station."
------
They stood at the bus station - Jason and Sam. Bobbie had been called into an emergency at the hospital, where she was a surgical nurse. Carly hadn't come, saying she didn't want to get involved in the rescue mission.
The arrival from Chicago was announced. Jason waited, ignoring Sam who was babbling excitedly about this opportunity. Almost as if the young woman arriving wasn't a person but a commodity, something Sam could buy.
The bus stopped and weary passengers began to disembark. He watched for anyone who might meet the description he'd been given, a young dark haired woman with a toddler. And then he saw someone who might be who they were waiting for. She got off the bus and her little boy was wailing, sobbing actually.
Jason couldn't see the woman's face, her head was down. She came down the stairs of the bus and walked to a bench, burying her face in her son's hair. She rocked him and he could see her shoulders shaking. She was crying too.
He walked up behind her, not checking to see if Sam was following.
"Oh, Cammy, Mommy is so sorry. I know you're tired, I know it. I wish we didn't have to take such a long ride. But we're here now. Our new home, though Mommy doesn't quite know where that is yet. But someone is supposed to meet us. Come, look at me, baby. Let me wipe your eyes. With kisses!" She enthusiastically set about wiping his face with kisses and soon the little boy was giggling.
"Mommy's swurping!" he yelled out as she made slurping noises against his round little cheeks.
"Mommy is swurping. And she will swurp you right up." She kissed him again and again.
Jason watched it with a smile. He supposed this was her, she'd said Cammy and Bobbie had said that was her son's name. He reached out a hand and touched her shoulder.
"Miss?"
She started and turned around, standing and picking up her son. "Who wants to know?"
For a moment he couldn't speak, could barely breathe. That face, those eyes - he was sure he'd never seen her before so why did he feel like he recognized her?
"Sam McCall and this is Jason Morgan," Sam said, pushing forward. "You'll be staying with us."
"Oh but I..."
"No, Bobbie couldn't take you in, so we said we will," Sam said. "Let's go get your luggage."
She pushed Elizabeth ahead and looked back at Jason smiling. "Isn't it perfect?" she whispered. "We even look alike."
Jason stood there dumbly. Looked alike? They were both quite short and had brown hair but that was it. They were completely different. Sam was tanned and had deep brown eyes and a small round mouth. Elizabeth, from the brief glimpse he'd had looked nothing like that. She had softer brown hair, pale, luminescent skin and blue, blue eyes. A lush mouth. A wide, generous mouth.
Sam looked like his reality. Elizabeth looked like a dream.
Ch 2
Sam was pulling Elizabeth along. Elizabeth was trying to hold her little guy, a packsack and drag a large suitcase. Sam was chattering away, completely oblivious the fact that Elizabeth was looking shell shocked and was struggling to hold everything. Jason rushed over.
"Here," he said. "Let me." He grabbed the pack and the suitcase.
Sam tugged her arm. "The truck is over here," she said.
Elizabeth dug her heels and stopped. "Will you just slow down?" she asked. "I don't even know you people. Do you think I'm going to get into a car with my baby with two people I don't even know? You could be serial killers, or... or con artists, or spies!"
Jason's lip quirked. He didn't know why she would think spies were worse than serial killers, but that's what it sounded like.
"I'm sorry," he said gently. "We're rushing you. Like Sam said, I'm Jason Morgan. We live across the hall from Bobbie's daughter Carly. Bobbie has a full house right now and she asked us to put you up because we have lots of room."
"Why didn't she ask her daughter?"
Jason looked at her with interest. Smart.
"We have more room," he said. "And Carly has two young children. We just thought it would be better."
Elizabeth looked at the handsome man, undecided. She looked into his eyes - blue eyes, seriously blue eyes. He was what she called sinful handsome, unattainable handsome. But there was sincerity in those eyes. And honesty. She bit her lip.
"Can we.. can we call Bobbie?"
Jason smiled and Elizabeth absorbed the fact that the smile was deadly.
"Sure." He pulled out his cell and dialed General Hospital. He handed it to Elizabeth so she'd know she'd reached the hospital receptionist. He studied her while she waited for Bobbie, Sam shifting impatiently beside him.
The first elusive hint of recognition was still there. Some part of him knew her, though he didn't know from where. Maybe he'd met her as a kid? Maybe she'd visited Bobbie and he'd met her? He didn't know. But she was beautiful, more than beautiful. Her face was alive, her eyes full of feeling. He watched as her white teeth bit that lush lower lip, watched both lips move as she spoke to Bobbie.
She hung up and handed him the phone. "Thanks." Then she looked at her son. "Well, Camster, I guess this will be today's adventure."
"Wentoor." Cam agreed.
"Adventure?" Jason asked.
"Cam and I have a deal. Every day we try to have an adventure. It could be as little as feeding the ducks in the park or reading a new book, but it has to be something we both decide we're glad we did. So today's adventure is new friends. Better than that stinky bus, right Cam?"
"Tinky bus," the boy agreed.
"Now that I know you're not spies or serial killers, I am happy to accept your offer. On the understanding that I am looking for work and I will try to contribute to the rent. I just have to find proper daycare for Cam. He's had a rough time lately and he needs stability. It's my job to provide it, though I haven't done that well at it lately. Stupid partner running off with my paintings." The last was muttered under her breath before she continued. "And by the way, if either of you happen to stumble across a painting of a boy who looks like Cam swinging from a clothesline with all the sheets, report it to me. It's not even the money, it's the fact that rat is going to try to pass my work off as his. As if that untalented hack could ever paint like me. I may not have sold much but I knew I was good and he did too, the rotten fink."
"Fink!" Cam yelled. "Wotten fink!"
Elizabeth kissed her son's neck.
"My cheerleader. And furthermore, he stole all my art supplies and I can't afford to buy more until I get a job. I don't know if you know this, but paint is expensive. Oh the things I could say if Cam wasn't here. But he is, so I'll stop. I don't think we've been formally introduced. My name is Elizabeth Webber. I am not a spy or a serial killer either. And you are Jason and Sam, my new roomies." She held out her hand.
Jason smiled at the speech and took her hand. He ignored the little zing that ran through his veins and said, "Good to meet you, Elizabeth. You too Cam."
The boy's solemn eyes looked steadily at him. Then he offered his little hand for Jason to shake.
"That's my little man," Elizabeth said happily, kissing his curly head.
"Cameron, would you like to come see Auntie Sammy?" Sam cooed, holding out her arms.
Cam shrank back against his mother. "No," he said emphatically.
"Sorry about that, Sam. Cam's his own man. He'll warm up to you eventually," Elizabeth said, while Sam glared at Cameron.
"Let's go," Jason said.
Twenty minutes later they were at the penthouse.
"Wow," Elizabeth said. "Top floor. Nice digs. I know I can't afford this rent."
"Don't worry about that right now," Jason said. "Let's just get you settled."
"I'll show you your room," Sam said. "It's upstairs."
Jason followed them up with the bags.
"It's perfect," Elizabeth said, though she wondered how long she and Cam could share a room. She really needed to get a job. "I'm just going to try to get him to nap. He was up most of the night. I'll come downstairs as soon as he's asleep."
Sam skipped down the stairs ahead of Jason. "I think she'll be perfect don't you? She's the right physical type, her boy looks healthy. I'm so excited!" She threw her arms around Jason and he extricated himself.
"Listen Sam, I don't want you talking to her about surrogacy. We haven't really discussed it ourselves and you can't just ask a total stranger something like that."
"Of course not. I'll have to soften her up first. But don't you worry I'm going to start working on that now."
"Sam..."
"He was out like a light, the little sweetheart," Elizabeth said, coming down the stairs. "The past few days have been awful for him."
"He's a beautiful boy," Sam said. "He must have been a beautiful baby. I had a baby once too, but she died." Tears trembled on Sam's lashes.
Elizabeth looked startled at first but then her eyes filled with sympathetic tears. "Oh, how awful," she said. "I am so sorry. I don't know how I'd survive it if anything happened to Cam. I'm so sorry, Sam." Elizabeth threw her arms around the other woman, tears running down her cheeks.
Sam flashed Jason a triumphant look over Elizabeth's shoulder, tears suddenly gone.
That was so wrong, Jason thought. So wrong. Elizabeth obviously had a tremendously soft heart and Sam was working her.
"Why don't you tell me what kind of work you're looking for?" Jason asked.
Elizabeth broke off her embrace with Sam and wiped her eyes.
"Well, ideally in an art gallery, but of course I'll take anything to start. Waitress, store clerk, anything."
"How are you with numbers?"
"Um, I don't think I've ever tried. I left the books to my partner. And look how well that turned out. I'll learn numbers! I don't think I could ever be an accountant, they're too gray. Jobs have colors you know. And accountants are gray. Artists are multi-colored. At least I think I am. I have no favorite color, though I like the primaries. Blue and red especially. But I don't think I'd turn completely gray if I were to learn to input a few numbers into a computer. Would I?"
Jason looked at her, at a loss. "Uh, I don't think so. I.." He stopped, not knowing what to say.
Elizabeth smiled, a warm, happy smile that caused his heart to race just a little for some reason.
"I've done it again, haven't I? I confuse people sometimes. My parents used to say I could lose anyone on the winding path to a point. Probably why they ran away to Africa and left me with the neighbors." She looked momentarily said, then bucked up, eyes twinkling again. "I think you were about to maybe suggest a job for me?"
"Yeah, yeah I was. I have a lot of bookwork and entering all the invoices and payments into the computer is tedious work but it has to be done." He had someone doing it, but he could move that person on to something else.
"I thought you had..." Sam said.
"Sam why don't you go order some food for us? I bet Elizabeth is hungry, and Cam will be too when he wakes up."
"Okay, I'll order Chinese. I know you love it." Sam went into the kitchen.
"So if you agree, you could learn to enter all the accounting information. And you could do it here, so you wouldn't have to worry about a babysitter. I'll have a computer brought from the warehouse. There's a little room, I use it for a workout room now, but we could put the computer in there."
His arms were suddenly full of warm living woman, as Elizabeth hugged him tight. Then she jumped back, blushing.
"Sorry. Sorry, I'll try to contain myself. I've only been here half an hour and I've jumped both of you. I'm a hugger. I always have been. And you're so good to offer this to me. I'll do it for the rent."
"No, no. I'll pay you a salary and deduct the rent from it," Jason said. And the deduction would be small. He tried to shake the feeling of her in his arms away. He didn't know why he was suddenly manufacturing a job for a person he'd just met but he liked this Elizabeth Webber. Life had kicked her in the face but she was fighting back, she wasn't letting it get her down. She was resilient. He liked that. He admired it.
Sam came back out. "Okay, dinner is ordered. I was going to learn to cook before our baby died, but then there just didn't seem to be much point." Her lip quivered.
Elizabeth took her hand. "Come and sit down and tell me about her. Maybe talking will help. What was her name? How did you lose her?"
Jason listened while Sam spilled out her tale of woe. He'd heard it all before, over and over again. He didn't begrudge anyone their grief, Sam could mourn as long as she felt she had to, and because she couldn't have more children he felt even worse about it. But as he heard her tell Elizabeth the baby was theirs he wanted to jump in and correct Sam. It hadn't been theirs. He'd agreed to raise the baby with Sam but it had been Sonny's baby. And he also knew Sam was laying it on pretty thick because she was trying to work Elizabeth again.
Fuck.
He did think he wanted children. He just didn't think he wanted Sam to be the mother. And she was his girlfriend. He was supposed to love her. What did that say about him? He was full of doubt. And watching the two women on the couch, one so innocent and helpful, the other calculating her every word toward a certain result, he felt even more doubt.


