The Convenient Wife
by Kelly

chapter 45

When he found Alexis on the pier sitting alone on a bench, her knees
drawn up to her chest, while in the midst of a good old-fashioned
cry, Jason's first thought was to turn and walk away. Leave her with
her pride. Leave her alone with her misery to let it all out…or to
stop herself…to whatever. It made him uncomfortable to view this
formidable woman in the throes of such pain, and he halted not
knowing whether to go or stay.

The decision was made for him when she suddenly sensed his presence
and looked up. Jason received the patented Davis eye roll as she
endeavored to wipe her face and runny nose with the back of her hand.
He smiled at that. Quite an inelegant move for a beautiful semi-royal
aristocrat who was raised to know her salad fork from her dinner fork.

Alexis must have caught his smirk and misinterpreted it because she
exploded like M'80's on the Fourth of July.

"Don't you dare laugh at me, Jason Morgan!" she yelled hurtling to
her feet. "I know you KNOW. And I don't care that you KNOW. My life
does not revolve around what Sonny's mob enforcer thinks of me!"

Jason held up his hands in surrender. "Alexis, I'm not here to attack
you. I just—"

"Did you hear what I said, Mr. Tough Guy? I don't care what you think
of me! I LOVE him and I have ALWAYS loved him. You can believe that
or not, knock yourself out. But you are not gonna stand here and
question the truth of it. Not tonight. Because if you do I think I
may just have to knock you on your ass!"

Jason inhaled a quick shocked breath and held it as he realized that
he was having to do a sort of backwards, bent-at-the-waist, Matrix
move to avoid contact with Alexis. The little woman was jabbing one
finger into his muscled chest to punctuate each word she said.
Finally, he had no choice but to grab her forearms gently but firmly
and to hold her away from him.

"ALEXIS, I repeat, I am not here to attack you," he told her,
enunciating each word with exaggerated care. "I saw you crying on the
bench all alone. I wanted to make sure you were alright. Period. The
end."

"M-make sure I was alright?" she repeated stupidly, unable to make
sense of the words, apparently.

"Yes," he answered her. "To make sure you were alright. That's all."

Alexis blinked at him, seemed to see the sincerity in his face, and
then did the unthinkable. Her face crumpled and she began to cry
again, this time in earnest.

Jason, unsure of exactly what to do, let instinct lead him and pulled
her into his arms. He felt her sink into his chest and her arms
linked round his back. He frowned in pure masculine confusion. "What?
Alexis, why are you…why did that make you cry?"

She tried to speak but it came out muffled against the fabric of his
shirt. He leaned back to ask her what she'd said. She sniffled and
hiccupped through her words just like her daughter had earlier
today. "I—said—I said, why the hell'd you have to pick now to be n-
nice to me, you big th-thug?"

Jason was nonplussed for a second. And then the words sank into his
brain. And he laughed from the depths of his soul, so deep and so
true that his mirth infected her and she laughed through her tears as
he held her in his arms.

"It's way past time for Sonny's two guardians to stop throwing
daggers at each other," he chuckled, holding her back from him so he
could look at her. "I think we may just be on the same side."

Alexis sobered. "How can you say that? You—you don't hate me for
lying to him?"

Jason averted his eyes for a moment, and then looked back at her. "I
can't pretend I'm happy you kept his child from him. But there's
something else I been thinking about since I came back from Europe,
something that lets me know what he means to you."

She arched one eyebrow at him questioningly.

"If you truly hated him, you would've never married him and saved him
from prison. You would've turned State's evidence and put Sonny in
Pentonville when this whole thing began. That's what Ric wanted you
to do. It's probably what Mac advised…and Jax and Ned, too. But you
didn't."

She tucked the corner of her lip into her mouth as he continued. "I
thought it was a trick to bring Sonny down; now I know it wasn't. I
was wrong."

Alexis nodded. "I only wanted to help him."

"So if you did all this now to protect Sonny, then I think you did
all that two years ago to protect his child."

Her eyes fell to the docks. "But I don't know if he can get past
that."

Jason gave a rueful shrug. "We both know what he's like when he's
hurt," he said. "It takes him back to being abused as a kid."

She sighed deeply, closing her eyes. Jason read the resigned sadness
in her face, and lifted her chin with his finger. Her brown eyes
opened to him.

"All you can do is give him time," he said.

"That's what he asked me for," she whispered back.

"Then give it to him," came the husky reply. "Wait for him to get his
head on straight, Alexis. What you two share…it's worth the wait,
isn't it?"

She smiled tearfully. "It is," she agreed.

Then a flash of chestnut brown caught his eye and he turned to watch
Elizabeth walk across the docks with her child. Alexis followed his
gaze. They smiled at the young woman and waved. She waved back
happily.

"Worth the wait," Jason repeated half under his breath, his eyes on
the departing figure. "The best things always are."

***

"You haven't contacted me today, Grayson. What kind of operation are
you and Lansing running? It's all over the paper that you may not
take this to trial. They're saying you have no case against Sonny
Corinthos. Are you just gonna sit there and let this thing go south
without fighting back?"

There were days when dealing with the public felt like nails on a
chalkboard to Jack, and today was one of those days. AJ Quartermaine
had been calling all morning and here it was the afternoon and the
man's fifth call had been put through by the receptionist who took
over for his secretary on lunch hour. The secretary knew that under
no circumstances was this little twerp to be put through today. Jack
had predicted that the conversation would run like this, and he had
no time to placate the little rich boy. So he had issued an "I'm in a
meeting" policy for any and all calls Quartermaine to his secretary.

The receptionist twit who'd put the call through would be losing a
vacation day or two when he was finished with her.

"Mr. Quartermaine," Jack greeted, affecting his best saccharine
sweet, brown nosing tone. "How are you today?"

"How the hell do you think I am when the man you promised to PUT AWAY
is on the verge of getting off Scot free again?!"

"That is not true, Mr. Quartermaine. Our case has been damaged,
admittedly, but it is by no means dead as I told you—"

"You're incompetent if you believe that. You don't have the
experience I have with this guy. He's Teflon!"

Jack gritted his teeth at the incompetent remark. This man was
treading on thin ice. "No man is Teflon. I've been a prosecutor for a
long time. Even the toughest crime bosses can and do fall."

"Oh really? Well, I don't see a plan in place that can make THIS one
fall, Jack. So what is your plan B cuz obviously plan A is dead in
the water? What are we going to do?"

That was the straw.

"You know what?" the prosecutor finally exploded. "WE are not going
to do anything because WE are not prosecuting this case, AJ! I am!
You don't get to order me around because you hate this guy and you
happen to come from the richest family in town. You have no more
right to pull strings in this case than a bum on the street does,
regardless of the fact that the man adopted your only child. That's
tough but it isn't my concern! I'm here to get a criminal off the
streets, and I'll do it the best way I see fit!"

For a solid three minutes, there was silence on the line. "That's how
you're playing it, Jack?"

"That's how I'm playing it, AJ."

"Then I guess I'll take matters into my own hands. You know the
saying, if you want a job done…"

The line went dead, and Jack's stomach soured. He popped a few
antacids from his top drawer stash into his mouth.

He feared he'd just supplied gunpowder to a loose cannon.

chapter 46