Lerdo123
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(1/23/04 12:56 pm)
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Miracles (Christmas Fluff): Part II/? (Liason)
A/N: The banner for this story can be found HERE, and the first part can be found HERE. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read the first part of the story; I love feedback. Feel free to post any questions, comments, or suggestions. I have pretty thick skin. 
Miracles
Part II
When she came to, Elizabeth found herself lying on her back on the couch in the living room. Jason crouched down on the floor beside her, feeling her pulse and gently stroking her hair back from her cheek. She couldn’t suppress the fine tremors that overtook her at his touch. He must have felt her tremble, for his blue eyes snapped to hers.
Elizabeth was afraid to blink, worried that if she did, he would disappear. Without taking her eyes off Jason for a second, Elizabeth slowly sat up. She pinched herself to make sure she was really awake. “Ow.”
Jason eyed her quizzically. “I wanted to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
“You’re not.”
She slowly raised a trembling hand and reached out to touch his face. “Is it really you? Are you really here?” Her hand traced over the slash of his cheekbone. He felt real. Very real.
With a sigh, Jason captured her hand between both of his and pressed it to his lips. “I’m here, Elizabeth. I’m here.”
Overcome with emotion, Elizabeth leaned forward and allowed her husband to wrap his arms around her. Burying her face in the crook of his neck, she inhaled deeply, trying to memorize his scent, a scent she’d never expected to encounter again. Her heart was both glad and heavy. All those long, lonely months without him...All those—
Elizabeth pulled back abruptly and slapped Jason across the face.
“Ouch. What the hell did you do that for?” Jason asked, gingerly touching his face.
Elizabeth’s pretty mouth was twisted into an angry scowl. “That was for worrying me.” She raised her hand again, but Jason anticipated her next move, so he grabbed her wrist before she could slap him again.
“Will you stop that?”
“We thought you were dead, Jason! Your parents, Emily, Carly, everyone thought you were dead. Sonny sent people to look for you.” She shook her head, radiating fury. “They came back empty-handed, over and over. You just vanished. Where the hell have you been all this time, Jason?” Yanking her hands from his grip, she leaned back against the couch and folded her arms over her chest.
Rising from his kneeling position on the floor in front of Elizabeth, Jason settled on the couch beside her and attempted to put his arm around her shoulders. But she shrugged it off impatiently, frowning. “Don’t you try to distract me, Mr.”
Jason sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. The gesture, so familiar, made her heart clench. She tucked her knees underneath her and turned to face him. Her voice was soft when she spoke. “Will you please tell me where you’ve been for the past eleven months?”
“Yes.” He reached for Elizabeth’s hand. Once their fingers were linked, he began his story. “You remember I left here the day after Thanksgiving.”
Elizabeth nodded solemnly. “I’ll never forget it. It was…the last time I saw you.” Her voice shook slightly, and Jason tightened his grip on hand. Her mouth tightened. “You said Sonny had an emergency job for you.”
“Yeah. At the time I couldn’t tell you where I was going or why. Sonny was worried because there was a big jump in the amount of cocaine being run through Port Charles.”
“Who was responsible?” Her voice was steady now. Before Jason could respond, however, Elizabeth said, “Let me guess. Alcazar.”
“Close. Alcazar, Faith…and Ric.”
Elizabeth’s eyes widened in shock. After everything he’d done to her and the people she cared about, she shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that her ex-husband was involved in cocaine trafficking. But she was. To think that he’d stoop so low. Ric Lansing had ceased to be a part of her life a long time ago, though. He was part of her history, but that was it.
“Figures that bastard was involved. I can’t believe I was married to him. What was I thinking? Anyway… Go on.”
“We got a lead that their main manufacturing plant was in Peru. Sonny asked me to go there and take out the plant. It was supposed to be a message to them. It was supposed to be a pretty standard operation. But something went wrong.” He paused and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I rigged the explosives, then I started to leave. I must have tripped some sort of alarm I didn’t know about though, because next thing I knew, the guards were inside, looking for me. They didn’t catch me, but I…I didn’t get out of the building before the explosives went off.”
Elizabeth pressed closer to Jason, silently asking him to put his arm around her. He did so, holding her without speaking for several moments.
Finally, he cleared his throat. “Something fell on me—a beam, maybe—and it had me trapped. I couldn’t move, and the smoke made it hard to breathe. I don’t know how I got out of there, Elizabeth.” With his arm still firmly around Elizabeth, he twisted his wedding band. “It’s the craziest thing; as I was lying there, I thought I saw you. You were telling me I had to get out of there. I reached out to touch you, and then I blacked out.”
Their eyes met, and Elizabeth said a silent prayer of thanks. She didn’t believe in God, but her husband had come back to her alive, and that was a blessing. She might not know who or what was responsible for it, but it was a miracle.
“When I woke up, I didn’t know who I was or where I was. The first thing I saw was this old woman. She told me she’d found me in a field near the plant. Her grandson had helped bring me to her house. Apparently I was unconscious for four days. The fever broke, and I woke up.”
“They hid me, the old woman and her grandson. Alcazar’s men had executed her husband and her son because they’d organized a protest against the plant.” He fiddles with a lock of Elizabeth’s hair, savoring its softness. “Things started coming back to me, eventually. Slowly. I dreamt about you. Even when I remembered my dreams when I woke up, I still couldn’t remember who they were about. I still couldn’t remember who I was.”
She heard the frustration and anger in his voice. She leaned forward and cupped his face in her hands, gazing into the endless blue of his eyes. “But your memory came back. And you’re here now. That’s what matters most.”
He nodded and wiped his eyes, eyes that were suddenly moist. He had missed so much of his life, their life. “You’re right. My memory came back. I had a hell of a time getting out of Peru and getting back here. Alcazar’s men were looking for whoever was responsible for the explosion at the plant.”
“Why didn’t you at least call and tell me you were alive? I thought you were dead, Jason. You don’t know what it was like for me—“
“You’re right; I don’t know what it was like for you. But by the time my memory came back, more than 10 months had passed. I was desperate to talk to you, to see you. I just didn’t want to scare you into having a heart attack or take a chance that Sonny would send someone to get me out of there and have Alcazar find out that those people were helping me.” He rubbed his thumb across her bottom lip. “I wanted to see your face when you found out I was ok.” He drew a shaky breath. “Baby, I’m sorry I was gone so long. I’m so sorry you thought I was dead. I can’t imagine what that was like for you. But I’m here now. I came home to you as soon as I could.”
Sadness, desire, and fierce love glowed in Jason’s eyes, and Elizabeth knew it was mirrored in her own. When he threaded his hands through her hair, she knew he was going to kiss her. And she wanted it. So badly. She ached for him, this man who had stolen her heart so long ago. Just as their lips met, a loud cry sounded through the baby monitor, startling them both. They jumped apart.
“What is that? Is that…? I mean…?”
Smiling through the tears that had suddenly sprung to her eyes, Elizabeth took Jason’s hand and led him upstairs to their bedroom. She let go of his hand and reached into the crib beside their bed. Cooing softly, she picked up Annie and gently placed her in her father’s waiting arms.
Happy to be held, Annie stopped crying and blinked up at Jason, her eyes wide and very, very blue. “My god, she has…She has my eyes.” His voice was husky and filled with wonder, the same wonder that Elizabeth had felt when she’d first held their daughter.
Elizabeth laughed, joyously, for the first time in months. “Yes, she definitely has her daddy’s eyes. Lila Ann Morgan, meet your father. Jason, meet Annie.”
Annie wrapped a tiny hand around one of Jason’s fingers. At that instant, Jason was gone. He’d never believed in love at first sight—until that moment. “You named her after my grandmother.” His eyes were wet with tears when they met hers.
“You weren’t here to say so, but I thought you would like that. I’m just sorry Lila never got to meet Annie.”
“Thank you. I know she would have loved that.”
Just then Annie let loose a loud wail. Elizabeth immediately reached for her, quickly unbuttoning her pajama top as she did so. “Someone’s hungry, huh? Ok, just a sec, Annie.” She sat down on the bed, and propped a pillow against the headboard. With that done, she nursed Annie.
Jason sat down on the bed beside Elizabeth and watched contentedly as his wife nursed their daughter. His daughter. He savored the words, rolling them ‘round in his mind. His heart was so full of love for both of them, but it ached too, as he thought of all the precious moments of his daughter’s life that he’d missed.
Elizabeth turned to look at him, a soft smile on her face. He brushed his hand across her cheek. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I know. And I love you,” she replied, pressing a kiss into his palm. Their eyes met and held, saying everything that words could not.
“When did you know you were pregnant?” Jason finally asked.
Elizabeth sighed. “I knew the day before Thanksgiving. I was going to tell you the day after Thanksgiving. But then you left—”
“And you didn’t want to worry me, so you decided to wait till I got back,” he said, finishing her sentence.
“Yeah,” she said. “Are you mad that I didn’t tell you before you left?” Her voice was tentative, and she nibbled at her bottom lip.
There was no hesitation in his voice when he responded. “No. Not at all.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “But I hate that you had to go through it without me.”
“Me too. But you came home. And besides, there will be more kids.” She smiled mischievously.
“Yeah? More?” He waggled his eyebrows lasciviously, and Elizabeth laughed.
“Yup. At least one. So don’t think you’re off the hook yet. You’ll be massaging my swollen ankles yet, Jason.”
“I look forward to it,” he replied. “So tell me what I should expect.”
”Well, I was sick for most of my first trimester. When that ended, the cravings started. Jalapeno poppers and vanilla ice cream; those were my favorites.”
“Yuck. You’re kidding, right?” Jason asked, a disgusted look on his face.
Elizabeth smacked her lips. “Nope.”
“Ugh. I think you’re going to make me sick.”
Elizabeth laughed, her eyes dancing with sheer happiness.
The doorbell rang, interrupting the moment. They froze, staring at each other.
“You probably shouldn’t get that.”
“Who is it?”
“Probably Nik, Em, and Grams.”
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