Jason
Morgan sat pensively in first class, staring out the window at the
night sky. He never liked to fly commercial because there were strangers
in the seats next to him who never failed to want to chat…to
indulge in some small talk about whatever. Jason didn’t do
small talk.
His personality mirrored the work he did: cool, controlled, goal
driven. No detours or side trips down Conversation Lane. Efficiency
was key. Words were used when they had to be.
Except with Sonny and Carly. They were two friends with whom he
could let his guard down and share his feelings. Sonny because he
had given him a life and a purpose ever since the accident. Carly
because he had loved her…and in many ways, still did…
The two of them had only failed Jason one time, and he had resolved
never to dwell on that night again. It had sliced a bit of his heart
away when Sonny had slept with Carly even though she had still belonged
to Jason. More than the visceral betrayal of a lover and a friend,
it had been the loss of his family that he’d mourned. Little
Michael who had been--in every sense except the biological--his
son. That had been the deepest wound.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall of the plane.
He’d shuffled that pain away with the rest of his grief and
loss so that he could behave the way people expected the unfeeling
mob enforcer to behave. But lately he had had enough of loss. Lila,
his beloved grandmother. And the finalization of his divorce from
Courtney. It had all piled up on him until he’d had to flee
Port Charles for a while. He’d asked Sonny for some down time,
which had been gladly granted, and he’d flown to Europe to
be by himself.
But he’d stayed away too long it seemed.
Carly had called him hysterical with the news that Sonny had been
arrested for the AJ debacle years ago. He hadn’t been around
then but he knew of it. And if the Feds had witnesses they would
nail Sonny to the wall with this case. Jason knew he needed to be
Sonny’s eyes and ears along with Justus. He needed to find
a way to make the charges—and possibly the witnesses—go
away. By any means necessary.
Only one thing bothered him. Carly said this mess had been brewing
for a week or so. Jason had left Sonny his number overseas. So why
hadn’t his friend called for his help?
***
“You should have gone home with Jax and gotten some sleep,”
the commissioner told her. “He didn’t want to leave without
you.”
Alexis tilted her head and angled a determined look at Mac. “That’s
because my ex-husband is a gentleman and a sweetheart,” she
told him. “But I am not leaving this precinct no matter what
you, Jax, or anyone else says. I’m staying here until I can
see him.”
“The Feds are in control of that, Counselor. All I’m contributing
is the holding cell. I can’t interfere with their routine.”
Alexis gave him a small smile. “Come on, Mac. With your reputation
and your WSB ties, you can do whatever you want. Plus the Feds are
in your territory.”
He grinned reluctantly at her. “You sure know how to sweet
talk a man. Sonny know that yet?”
With any luck he would have if that damn cell phone hadn’t
rung, she smiled to herself.
“Please Mac, let me see him tonight. Let me stay with him.
It’s our honeymoon, for goodness sake.”
“And you wanna spend it in a jail cell?”
“I want to spend it wherever my husband is.”
She looked at him, saw him softening a bit. “The night’s
half gone anyway,” she argued.
“Now wait a minute, you cannot spend all night. Grayson’s
people see that they’ll say I’m biased towards Sonny and
they won’t let me anywhere near this thing.”
Alexis’ smile broadened and she drew one elegant finger down
his jaw playfully. “But you are biased….just not towards
Sonny.”
Mac caught her hand in his and squeezed it affectionately. “You’re
shameless, Ms. Davis.”
Alexis winked. “I know.”
***
He lay on his back and tried to keep breathing though a foot was
pressing squarely onto his chest. Or it felt that way even if the
feeling was in his head.
It was amazing how the mind worked, he mused, torturing him long
after the literal abuse had stopped. Then he almost laughed at the
thought. That was something Alexis would do: analyze her panic attack.
He busied himself by counting the intersecting lines on the ceiling…His
life and hers had been like the lines…on two totally disparate
paths when they had suddenly intersected. By chance…by fate…by
his good fortune.
And losing her had felt worse than losing any woman who’d ever
walked out of his life. He could admit that now if only to himself.
It had been worse even than this thing with Carly. Because Alexis
had been more than lawyer and lover. She had been his equal. His
friend. She knew him almost as well as he knew himself. He’d
missed her then.
He missed her now.
“Sonny.”
So much apparently that he was conjuring her voice in his mind.
“Sonny.”
He turned his head and marveled at the person who stood there, an
exquisite apparition straight out of his head.
