~* Chapter 17 *~

 

"You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

And he had…only he got the feeling that the gun that was pointed at him was far from being simply a figment of his imagination.

“Alcazar.” Jason lowered his gun since he had no chance of getting a round off without getting shot himself…at least without back up.

“That is my name, but I’m not Luis. My brother is still very dead.”

“I didn’t realize Luis had a brother.”

“Not many people did, and that was fine by me. But now people have to know who I am. Starting with Sonny Corinthos.”

“What did you do with him?”

“He’s here. But he’s dying. It seems he had a disease that he didn’t want anyone to know about. I can understand. His untimely death gives many lots of reasons to swoop in and take over his territory.”

“Not as long as I’m here. Sonny and I built this business together, and I’m not about to give it up. Not to you.” Jason was shocked by the news of Sonny’s illness, but he knew that he had to hide his surprise. First he had to get Sonny out of there, then he could worry about him.

“I figured that, but I’m not worried. I think this will be a great opportunity for you got get out of the business. And you’ll want to get out of the business, especially if the life of your child means anything to you.”

“Leave my family out of this!” Jason said angrily as fear for Courtney and his unborn child gripped his heart.

“All right, then. How about this. If you value your life, then you’ll get out of the business,” Alcazar said raising the gun. He had the laser on and it was directed right at his heart.

“Before you shoot me, there’s just one thing I want to know.”

Alcazar lowered the gun, giving him permission to continue.

“Why were you working with Ric?”

“Ric is my brother’s trusted lawyer and accountant. My brother never should have trusted him, but since he was working for me, I didn’t mind that he was a sneaky backstabbing weasel. See we both had the same goal. We wanted to take Sonny down. I wanted his territory, and Ric wanted revenge.”

With that small bit of information, Ric walked into the hut himself, wheeling Sonny in a wheelchair. “We are brothers, you know,” Ric said. “We had the same mother. Adella. But Adella loved Sonny more. She left me to be with him. Sonny ruined my life, so I feel it’s only fair that I take whatever he had. I never imagined it would be so easy. It almost takes the fun out of getting revenge, since any moment now Sonny’s going to keel over.” Ric laughed a sinister laugh and it disturbed Jason to hear that voice and to see how bad Sonny looked.

All of his jet black hair had turned completely white, and it was a lot thinner than he’d ever seen it. Sonny’s face and whole body seemed emaciated and weak. He had shrunken and dried out, almost like a mummy, but there was still movement in his eyes, and Jason knew that Sonny understood everything that was going on.

“Since Sonny’s dying, why not just kill him off? Why lead me here with this elaborate deception?”

Ric looked away and Sonny closed his eyes. Alcazar was the only one who seemed willing to give him an answer.

“Tell me!” Jason demanded.

~*~

"Johnny, it hurts so much. Make it stop!” Courtney cried out in the back of the limo.

“We’re almost there, Courtney. Then the doctors will find out what’s going on. Everything’s going to be all right,” Johnny tried to assure Courtney.

When she felt another contraction she grabbed Johnny’s hand and squeezed tightly. “Oww!”

She was beginning to panic and Johnny knew that wasn’t good for either her or the baby. He saw the tears in her eyes and knew she was close to becoming hysterical.

“Courtney, please, try to relax,” Johnny said, squeezing the hand she held in her death grip reassuringly, while caressing her hair with the other. “We’re almost at the hospital, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you or the baby. You just have to trust me.”

“Johnny, it just hurts so much, and I’m so scared…for the baby, for Jason, and for myself…what if something happens to the baby, Johnny? What will I tell Jason?”

“You’re going to tell Jason that he’s going to be the father of a healthy baby in a few months. Courtney, you’ve got to believe that!”

Courtney nodded, and then squeezed her eyes shut with the pain of another contraction. She tried to breath through this one, trying to calm herself for her baby’s sake. Then she felt the limo slow to a halt. She opened her eyes as Johnny picked her up and carried her into the hospital.

Dr. Meadows rushed to her immediately. “Courtney, what’s wrong?”

“She thinks she might be going into labor,” Johnny explained.

The doctor called for a nurse to bring her a wheelchair. “Courtney, I’m going to get you into an examining room so that we can see what’s going on. Just try to relax. You’re in a hospital and I’m going to try to do everything I can to make sure that nothing happens to you and your baby.”

“Thank you, Dr. Meadows,” Courtney said as the doctor signaled to the nurse to begin wheeling her down the hall. When Courtney felt another contraction she grabbed the doctor’s hand. “Please don’t let anything happen to my baby!”

~*~

"Courtney.”

Jason felt his heart fall into his stomach as he stared down Alcazar. “What does Courtney have to do with any of this?! You leave Courtney alone,” Jason said, pointing is finger at him angrily. “You touch her, you die!”

Alcazar looked amused. “You seem so confident for one who has a gun pointed at him. But don’t worry about me. I want nothing to do with Courtney. Ric here,” he said tilting his head in that direction, “is a different story.”

With fury Jason whipped his eyes in Ric’s direction. “I knew it! I knew you were a slimy weasel when you came to Courtney with news about Sonny.”

“I have fallen in love with Courtney. And you have always been an obstacle for me to get rid of because of my vendetta against Sonny. I knew that even if I were to get rid of Sonny, I would still have you, his loyal right hand man to contend with. I would have just had Alcazar’s men take you out, or done it myself…but Courtney changed everything. I need her to trust me. I think she already does…but she’d never trust me if you were conveniently killed just as I decided to usurp power over the territory. So this wild goose chase—it was all for Courtney’s benefit. So that she could trust me. When I return alone, I’ll tell her that you were in a terrible accident and that we were able to locate Sonny, but only after it was too late. She’ll be grieving her brother, and you, and I’ll be there to comfort her.”

“She’ll never believe you. She already suspected that you were up to no good when you came over yesterday to tell her that you found Sonny. If I die, she’ll never trust you again.”

“You have such faith in her love for you don’t you? You wouldn’t be so sure of it if you had seen her with me just last month…but that’s right…you weren’t there! You didn’t see how close we got—”

“That’s a lie!” Jason said, rushing Ric. He was stopped in his tracks by a gunshot that hit him in the shoulder. Jason stumbled back in shock as he looked at Alcazar who was holding the gun.

“You really surprise me, Morgan. Rushing someone with no defense. I could have shot you, but I want to shoot Sonny first. And I want you to suffer, I know that honey was the ‘head’ of the territory, but you were the real brains. I want you to be helpless to keep your friend and mentor from dying.”

“We’re going to make a sacrifice,” Ric said, going into the back of the room where he pulled out an oblong wooden box. There were two locks on the side and after he undid them, he opened the box revealing a small gold-handled dagger.

“This dagger belonged to my father. Did you know that Sonny?” Ric asked him, taking it out of it’s case and beginning to run it along Sonny’s neck. “Of course not,” Ric said, answering his own question. “I think it’s fitting that since you ruined my life as well as my father’s that you die by his sword, by my hand. The question is, should I slit your throat, or should I stab you through your bleeding heart?”

Jason stared at Sonny willing Max to burst in the room. Where was he??? Jason was running out of time. His stall had worked to give them a few more minutes, but he knew time was running out quickly, along with the blood running out of his wound. The pain was excruciating, and the blood flowed freely and fiercely. He knew that he was in danger of bleeding to death if he couldn’t get the bleeding stopped. Well, he was in danger of a lot of things at the moment, but he still waited for Max.

“Hurry up, Ric. It looks like Morgan here is about to bite the dust already from my one little bullet hole. Let’s get this over with quickly. We’ve already wasted too much time with this idiotic plan of yours to ensnare Courtney. You should have just killed them and taken her. She would have had no choice but to be with you if you wanted her to.”

Ric looked up at Jason and smiled. “I’m going to enjoy this so much. Goodbye, ‘older brother.’ I barely new you, but you ruined my life. It’s time for you to pay.” With that he reared back and with all his might, stabbed Sonny through the heart.

The reality of it was brutal. Jason couldn’t believe that after all that he had been through with Sonny, it was all over and there wasn’t anything he could do about it. And now it was his turn to face the music for the life that he had chosen. Even though he had been in similar situations before where he just knew that he was going to die, he hadn’t cared before. He hadn’t felt afraid for his life. He was cold-blooded, unfeeling Jason. Nothing could touch him, and that’s part of the reason why he had survived for so long.

But now it was different. Now he was terrified. Because he knew that if he didn’t live, Courtney and his unborn child would be in danger. His blood ran cold with fear for her and his son. But there was nothing that he could do.

“Your turn now, Morgan,” Alcazar told him, pointing the gun straight at his head.

Before he could pull the trigger, though, Jason heard a shot from behind him. It was Max. The shot knocked the gun out of Alcazar’s hand, giving Jason enough time to run back to where Max had suddenly appeared behind him. Then Alcazar’s backup appeared out of the woodwork as well.

“It seems like we’ve been foiled…for the time being,” Alcazar said shaking his hand that stung painfully from the shock of the blow knocking the gun out of his head. “One down. One to go. Let’s go,” he told his men, then quickly exited the hut.

Ric grimaced in anger that Jason had gotten away. But Jason had already disappeared with Max into the jungles of the island.

~*~

Her contractions hadn’t gotten anymore severe, but they were continuous and still painful by the time they got her settled in a room. Johnny stood by her, holding her hand the entire time that Dr. Meadows examined her. He knew that more than anything she wished that Jason was there, but since he couldn’t be there, Johnny wanted to be there for her instead.

After a nurse had gotten her hooked up, Dr. Meadows came in, finally. “Courtney, what you are feeling is entirely natural. You’ve been experiencing Braxton hicks, and they are not uncommon at this stage in your pregnancy as your body prepares for the birth of your child. That is the explanation for the contractions. However, in my examination of you I noted your elevated heart rate, and I’d like to keep an eye on you for a while. Your baby is in no danger. It is nothing that I’m too concerned about. I’ll give you some medication to help you relax, but there’s not much I can do for your contractions. You’re just going to have to hang in there and they will eventually stop on their own.”

Johnny looked at Courtney with relief. She had tears in her eyes, from the pain and worry about her baby. “I’ll do whatever you say as long as my baby is all right.” She winced as another contraction started, but she wasn’t as scared anymore now that she knew what was happening to her. She remembered reading about Braxton Hicks, but she never imagined that they would be so painful until they actually began.

Dr. Meadows administered a sedative into her IV and she immediately felt relief from squeezing in her uterus.
She looked up at Johnny who seemed disheveled and very worried about her. She smiled weakly at him.

“I’m so sorry for scaring you like that, Johnny. You poor guy, ever since you’ve come into contact with me it’s been one medical crisis after another. But you’ve always been such a good friend to me…because Jason isn’t here…”

Johnny squeezed her hand. “I’m honored that I can be here to help you. I’m just glad it’s nothing serious.”

Courtney laughed. “No, not serious I guess, just surprisingly painful.” She caught her breath when another contraction hit, but it didn’t last nearly as long as others had. “I think the contractions are receding already. Have you heard anything from Jason?”

“No. As far as we know he’s still on a mission with Ric to get back Sonny. He said we might be out of communication with him for a day. He only just left.”

“I just wish I knew that he was okay. Now that I know that the baby is going to be fine, I just need to know that the father will be fine too. I don’t want to have to do this without him,” she said rubbing her belly protectively.

“We’ll probably hear from him soon, if he doesn’t return with Sonny already. But I think you should worry about yourself. She said that there wasn’t anything wrong, but she does want to observe you. There must be a reason, and I don’t want you to overdo it. Okay?”

“All right, I won’t overdo it. I’ll just stay here and rest. Just like the doctor ordered.”

Johnny was once again struck by the beauty of her smile and how brave she was. There she was, in pain and she had to be feeling the effects of stress, but she was still more concerned about others than herself.

She noted him looking at him and was reminded that his feelings for her ran deep. She wished that she could reciprocate, but not only did she not love him, but she was in love with someone else. But she did care for him very much. “Johnny,” she said, reaching for his hand, “Thank you so much for being here. I couldn’t do any of this without you. And I can always rely on you to be there for me…sometimes even more than Jason…It means so much to me.”

Lowering his voice to a soft whisper, “You can always count on me. I’d do anything for you and I always will.”

~*~

"You have to get on that plane!” Jason whispered fiercely to Max in the hidden foliage of the island. After they had escaped from Alcazar and Ric they had rushed to the plane, knowing that it was their only chance of escape.

“But what about you? You’re bleeding. I can’t just leave you here.”

“You have to go and I have to stay here. It’s too risky for both of us to try to stowaway, and you would be easier to hide than me since you’re not bleeding. You’re Courtney’s first defense. You have to warn Johnny that Ric is after her. Then you can come back and get me. I’ll be fine until you bring back help.”

Knowing that Jason was right, Max reluctantly left Jason and head towards the plane. Jason watched him climb in. When they chartered the plane he made sure to get one with an unknown hatch for just such a contingency. He had told only Max about it. And now they could put it to use.

He only hoped that the plane was the way that Ric and Alcazar planned to get off the island. If they decided not to, then he and Max would be up the creek without a paddle much farther than they already were. He supposed that if for some reason Alcazar left on his yacht, then he would try to swim it and stowaway on the ship. He realized, though, that if it were the case that it would be likely that he would die. That couldn’t happen yet. Not with Courtney and his baby in danger. He refused to think about that.

Luckily, he heard an entourage trudging through the foliage near him, and saw Ric, Alcazar and two thugs come out and onto the beach towards the plane. He let out a breath that he didn’t realize he’d been holding. So far, so good. Max was safely tucked away on the plane and should be able to get to Johnny and Courtney before Ric could. He just hoped that nothing else bad would happen.

After he watched them board the plane and take off he decided to take a look at his wound. The bullet had gone straight through, so he didn’t have to worry about trying to take the bullet out. It had stopped bleeding heavily, but he still needed to get it to stop. He backtracked into the center of the island where he saw some freshwater. He took out the pocketknife he kept in his sock and used it to cut off the lower part on one of the legs of his jeans to use as a bandage and then cut off a piece to use to wash his wound not that it was completely sterile, but it was the only thing he had. He dipped the small piece of clothe in the water so he could wash the wound and began washing his torn flesh. It was awkward, but he did as best he could. Then he wrapped the longer cloth around his arm as tightly as he could. When he was satisfied with his first aid work, he knew it was time to get to the task that he had been dreading.

He slowly walked toward the hut where he was sure Sonny body still lay unburied. He hadn’t seen Ric or Alcazar and his bed carrying anything away.

When he made it back to the hut he saw Sonny’s lifeless body lying on the ground with flies already beginning to buzz around the bloody corpse. It disgusted him how Ric had murdered him and then left his body to the elements without proper burial. Tears almost blinded him when he walked closer and saw the expression of horror and fear on Sonny’s frozen face. Sonny had been his father, his mentor, his brother, his best friend and now he was dead.

So much had changed since he’d last seen him. Sonny had been so strong, with a backbone of steel and iron in his heart for him to have been able to do what he did to him and to Courtney. When he thought about the months that he and Courtney had been separated a base part of him felt that Sonny had gotten everything that he deserved, but the part that loved him knew that no one deserved his fate and was sorry that he was dead. Dreadfully sorry that he had been too late to save him. Too late to talk to him, or hear his reasons for doing what he did. And he would never get a chance to apologize to Courtney.

Courtney! Jason didn’t want Courtney to see Sonny like this. He had grown old and sickly looking in a month since she’d seen him. And now he was a terrifying corpse. Courtney didn’t need the added stress. His death would already affect him because she loved her brother in a way that he would never be able to comprehend. Jason wanted to save Courtney from any more pain than was necessary.

He noticed a closet and went to look inside. He found some food supplies water, trail mix…he wouldn’t die of hunger or thirst, not for a while yet. He also saw some rope, some other supplies and a shovel. Just what he needed. Looking at Sonny’s body and then the shovel, and thinking about Courtney, he got an idea.

Then he went outside and found a clear spot. He began to dig. He kept digging despite the pain in his shoulder and the sweat pouring down his back. He felt tired beyond anything he’d ever endured before, but he had to do this. He couldn’t let Sonny rest there above the ground where insects and animals could get to him. And he wanted Courtney to always have the memory of the way he was, not what he had become in the last few weeks of his life.

When he finished digging the hole he picked up Sonny’s body and placed him in. He said a quick prayer, and then began to cover it up with earth. At the end of his task he felt exhausted, but he had one more thing to do. He went back to the waterhole he had found and searched for a large, flat rock. He placed it at the head of the grave and then collapsed.