Title: Heaven Can Wait
Author: Alison
Feedback: Please leave feedback on the message boards.
Rating: PG
WIP
Type: Angst, Episode rewrite (I refer to parts of the June 1^st episode), a little Romance
Summary: Courtney found out three weeks ago that she was sick. She leaves Port Charles to keep her family from having to bear the burden of her illness. Jason and Sonny are worried about her and look for her but no trail leads them to her. Will Heaven wait so Jason can spend his life with the woman he was meant to be with, or will Heaven be unforgiving and take her away before Jason can say goodbye?

Prologue

His mind drifted back to that night again as he drifted off to sleep. June 1, 2004. That had been a terrible night. It was stressful and confusing, just like the past three weeks had been.

He had been standing on the docks looking at the water that night. His thoughts floated back to happier times. He slipped his wedding ring out of his pocket. In the eye of his memory, he could see her smile as she slowly, carefully, put it on his finger.

His ringing cell phone broke his trance.

“Ja…Jason?” a voice stuttered at the other end of the line.

It was Courtney. Jason could tell that something was wrong with her. “Courtney, is that you?… Is everything OK? What’s wrong?”

“Jason, can you… can you meet me at the loft in twenty minutes?… Please?” She was on the verge of tears as she tried to ignore the concerned tone of his voice.

“Yeah… yeah. Twenty minutes, ok. Are you alright?” Jason repeated her request out loud. He was worried. It sounded like she had been crying before she called.

“I’m… It’s… Bye,” she ended the call abruptly.

~*~

It had been a long, upsetting, and shocking day for Courtney Morgan. Her dad was beaten up, she found out that Sam was carrying Jason’s baby, and that he was marrying Sam. None of that compared to what had just happened.

She had been having the worst headaches. Everything would start to spin, and sometimes she would black out. Courtney decided to get checked out at the hospital just in case something really was wrong.

She decided to go to Mercy Hospital early in the morning, early enough so that no one would call her and miss her. She didn’t feel like having a search party of Sonny and Jason’s men looking for her. She knew a lot of people at GH so she thought better of going there. If something were wrong it would get around quick.

Her appointment was at seven AM. Various doctors did multiple tests, and she was out by nine. They told her they would call her when the results came in.

At 9:50 PM, her cell phone rang. She had just left General Hospital after visiting with her father.

“Hello,” Courtney answered her phone as she exited her car and walked to the front door of her building.

“Courtney Morgan?” asked the caller.

“Yes,” Courtney responded. She recognized the voice of one of the doctors that she had seen that morning at Mercy Hospital.

“I’m calling about the tests you had today at the hospital,” the doctor said in a stern voice.

Five minutes later she threw her clothes in a bag as tears streaked down her cheeks. After packing some things including pictures of Sonny, Carly, Michael, Morgan, Mike, Rosie, and Jason, she washed her face and called Jason. He’d be there in twenty minutes.

She sat down on the couch with a pen and paper and Rosie lying obediently at her feet.

Dear Jason…

It was 1:37 AM when Jason woke up breathing hard in New York.

It was 12:37 AM when Courtney woke up crying in Wisconsin.

Chapter 1

Jason sat up and tried to calm his racing heart and heavy breaths. It was almost as if he’d been running because his skin shined with perspiration. He took a few deep, slow, relaxing breaths, before he looked at the clock 1:37. He sighed and threw himself back into the pillows. He couldn’t get comfortable on the bed, so he got up and went down stairs.

Jason hadn’t slept much since Courtney left. She had left him a short letter that wasn’t very descriptive. It was very vague as to why she left and what was wrong. He read it all the time, especially when he was restless, like tonight. He took the letter out of the top drawer of the desk, hoping that when he read it, it would give him a clue that he hadn’t caught onto before.

Dear Jason,

I’m sorry I had to leave, but I didn’t have many other choices. I’m sick, Jason. I’m really sick. I just want to tell you that I’m not coming back. Please, take care of Michael, Morgan, Sonny, and Carly for me. Mike too. I can’t take Rosie with me and she’s missed you a lot. Please, take good care of her for me.

Jason, I just want you to know that I want you to be happy. You are the only one for me. You’ll be in my heart forever.

With Love until the day I die,

Courtney

His eyes teared up as he read that last paragraph. She must have been crying while she wrote it because there were watermarks on the paper from her tears.

~*~

Sam watched Jason from the stairs. She could see a tear on his cheek as it caught the moonlight. She had never seen him cry, but she wasn’t surprised. He had been on the edge for weeks.

He and Sonny had been threw ever possibility that could have forced Courtney to leave. They thought that the letter had been forged and Courtney was in danger. She could have been blackmailed, but maybe the letter was really. Maybe Courtney was sick and couldn’t share the burden with her family.

She had read Courtney’s letter. Sam could tell that Jason was heart-broken. He was scared to for the Love of his life.

Sam had been eavesdropping on Sonny and Jason. If Courtney really had left on her own freewill, she had done a good job of making sure there was no paper trail to follow. Courtney’s bank account had been emptied for cash the night she left. She hadn’t used her cell phone or any of her credit cards yet. No one knew where she was.

Sam retreated to her bedroom. Jason need some time to be alone with his thoughts and memories.

~*~

Courtney woke up crying. “I love you, Jason!” she whispered. Those were the four words she hadn’t been able to write in that letter. Sure, she pointed to that assumption, strongly, but she hadn’t been able to put the actual words down. She didn’t want Jason to feel responsible for her. She didn’t want him to give up the family that he would soon have to have to help her.

The clock read 12:37. Courtney drowsily walked over to the nightstand and opened the drawer. She took a small wooden jewelry box out and walked to the living room with it. She sat on one of the four big blue couches.

‘This is my home now,’ she thought. ‘Unfortunately, this place is also the home of sick children. Wards of the state of Wisconsin.’

The kids had all kinds of diseases; cancers, tumors, and AIDS were just a few of them. There were twenty kids and three ‘counselors’ including Courtney, herself. She had to watch over only four children since they were young and full of energy. Matt, who was four, Angela and Marie were identical twin girls, who were three-and-a-half, and Clair, who was two, were all in her care.

Clair and the twins had the same disease as Courtney. Matt had lung cancer and was being treated with chemotherapy. She brought them all to their appointments at the hospital. They each had a treatment three times a week. Their treatments were three weeks on and one week off.

Courtney settled herself on the couch and looked at the wooden box in her hands. A small red and pink heart was painted on the lid. It reminded her of the one she had when she was young.

The box had belonged to a girl named Janine. She had died on June 17^th, last Thursday, of lung cancer. The five-year-old had left her jewelry box to Courtney for her ‘pretty blue ring.’

Courtney opened the box and it started to play ‘It’s a Small World.’ She smiled as she looked at the toy necklaces, bracelets, and rings that once belonged to Janine. She didn’t have the heart to take them out. Courtney gently pulled out her two rings. She slid them on her finger, the finger that they had once graced everyday.

Courtney suddenly started to sob. She mourned Janine’s death. She wept for Matt, Angela, Marie, and Clair. Tears flooded her eyes for the baby she miscarried. She grieved for her broken family back in Port Charles. She started weeping uncontrollably for Jason and their Love. The only thing she didn’t cry about was her illness, she had cried enough about that.