Morning came and the thunderstorm was gone, leaving a few clouds in its place. The ground was wet outside and so was everything else that didn’t have the privelage of shelter. Birds flew around, as if trying to get themselves dry from the shower they’d endured through the night.

Courtney stirred in Jason’s arms inside the loft and opened sleepy eyes. She was awake before her alarm went off and reached over to shut it off. She was awake and didn’t need some buzzer to tell her that after the fact.

Slowly, she removed the blanket she was under and slipped out of the grip Jason had on her and out of bed. Before heading to the bathroom to take a shower, she took one last look at his sleeping form and smiled. He looked content when he was sleeping and the blonde decided to wake him after her shower.

~*~

Sonny Corinthos paced his penthouse, phone attached to his ear, trying to reach Jason. He hadn’t come home last night, according to the guard outside in the hallway, but the dark haired man wasn’t worried. It wasn’t exactly out of character for Jason to stay out all night. But, what did bother him was that the man wasn’t picking up his cell phone. That certainly wasn’t normal and pissed Sonny off.

“Where the hell is he?” he yelled, mostly to himself.

“Sonny, what are you yelling about? The kids are still sleeping and I’d like to keep it that way. Micheal doesn’t need to get up for another half hour.” Carly said, coming down the stairs.

“Jason’s not answering his cell and he’s not over at the penthouse. Do you have any idea where he is?”

“Nope, haven’t seen him. Don’t worry about it, he’ll check in. He always does,” she reassured her husband, her curiosity rising every second. It wasn’t normal for Jason to not answer his phone, especially when he was away from the penthouse. She couldn’t remember a time when he couldn’t be reached at either the penthouse or the cell phone, not even when he’d left for awhile. When he was with Elisabeth, he would always be available. But, now, Sonny couldn’t get a hold of him. Jason Morgan, what are you up to?

~*~

Courtney finished with her shower and dressed in a light blue sweater and tan jeans. She’d heard Jason get up and walk around in the living room so she knew he was awake. She finished blow drying her hair before going out to the living room, where she saw him standing near the kitchen counter, his cell phone to his ear. As he turned around, still talking to whoever it was on the phone, the two locked eyes and smiled.

Courtney had been somewhat dazed when she’d woken up, remembering everything that had happened the night before, with the storm and her nightmare. She’d woken up knowing that something had changed and that something new was about to begin, between the two of them. But, there was also the matter of doing business together that had her on edge. That is, if they were even ‘together’. This was going to be a bit difficult. She had nothing holding her back, but he was also in a business that wasn’t exactly legal and Sonny already didn’t like her. How much influence would Jason’s boss, best friend and partner have on their relationship, whatever it was? Courtney, don’t think about it. Besides, maybe he wouldn’t care. She thought about if for a second, then silently scoffed at herself. That’s not likely.

Jason looked at her as he turned around and held his breath as Max talked in his ear. She looked beautiful and the sweater made her sapphire eyes seem bright than they already were.

“Yeah, I know. The cell wasn’t working for some reason and with the storm, it just wasn’t possible to go home,” he told the bodyguard on the other end as Courtney passed by him and into the small kitchen.

She opened the refrigerator, looking for something for breakfast before she would have to leave for the office. Lucky this building has generators or else I’d be buying groceries all over again.

“Yeah, just let him know I’ll be over there soon. Thanks, Max.” Jason finished his conversation and ended the call. Predictably, Sonny was pretty pissed off that he couldn’t get a hold of him on the cell phone. The spiky haired man had known he would be, but it wasn’t like he had any control over how the phone or nature operated so what could he do about it?

Sonny, he was going to ask him where he’d been last night, even if Max hadn’t. It was just the Sonny thing to do and it was always one of the first questions he asked if he didn’t know. Jason always told him, and this would be no exception. Even if there wasn’t too much yet, he still had to tell Sonny sooner rather than later. If it was put off, Sonny would see it as a betrayal, which wasn’t what it was, and go ballistic. No, he’d have to tell him as soon as he got to Sonny’s penthouse.

Courtney grabbed a yogurt and some strawberries out of the refrigerator before glancing at Jason. “Do you want to stay for breakfast?”

Jason hesitated, not sure if he should risk making Sonny wait for a little while longer or not. “Um, sure. What are we having?”

“You tell me. What sounds good?”

He walked over to her and looked in her eyes longingly before turning his gaze to the machine’s contents. “How about eggs?” he asked.

“Okay. How do you like them, scrambled, over easy….” She took the egg carton out and set it on the counter next to the yogurt and the strawberries and turned to get a frying pan out of the cupboard.

“Scrambled, but I can make them. You don’t have to.”

She turned to look at him, laughter in her eyes and on her lips. “I will make them.”

“But-“

“Don’t argue with me, Mr. Morgan. It will get you absolutely nowhere.”

~*~

Faith Rosco stood in her office at her warehouse, Samantha McCall standing in front of her. The snake was more angry than she had been in a while, since her newest employee had screwed up not only once, but twice.

“What the hell happened? You’re telling me that she kicked you out of her office and refused to meet with you because you were late? Oh, an even better question. How in the hell did you let anyone see that you were the one destroying the phone guy’s van?” the blond devil questioned the petite woman, who wasn’t looking pleased with being chastised for her carelessness.

But, she knew deep down that she deserved it. Of course, the woman’s ego wouldn’t let her admit it to herself, at least not completely, and not to the point where she’d acknowledge it consciously to herself and give it some thought. She just stood there, refusing to defend her actions.

Faith got in her face, centimeters away, and glared into the chocolate brown eyes of the woman. “You fix this. And, if you don’t and they come after me, you’ll be feeling Morgan’s hands around your petty little neck before you can say ‘enforcer’.”

~*~

Jason walked into the penthouse, past the guard outside, and found Sonny at the couch on the phone with Meyer. It was clear that he wasn’t happy at all, and Jason didn’t want to add to his anger, but it was something he needed to do. Now.

Sonny finished the call and punched the button on the phone harshly. “Where the hell have you been? We need to talk.”

Jason looked at his best friend and sighed. He wasn’t sure how this would blow over, but he was willing to take the risk. “Yes, we do.”

“Okay, good, now that we agree on that. First off, I want-“

“Sonny, we need to talk about this but there’s something else that needs to come first.” Jason interrupted him, not in the mood to discuss business before he said what he need to say, least of all if it was about the woman who had broken into Stan’s van.

“What are you talking about? What else do we need to discuss?”

“Courtney Matthews.”

~*~

There was a loud knock on her office door, and Courtney looked up from her desk and the papers scatted on the surface of it. I don’t have any meetings scheduled for today, she thought as she glanced at her schedule book, which was indeed blank

“Come in,” she said anyway.

The door opened and a petite brunette walked in, causing the president of Matthews-Phillips to roll her eyes, at least in her imagination. She should have known that the woman would be back.

“Yes?”

Sam approached the blonde’s desk, seemingly confident, but Courtney could tell that she was anything but. “Hi. Look, I know that I should have called to let you know that I was going to be late for the meeting yesterday morning and it was my mistake. But, I really would like to do business with you.”

Courtney stopped reading the file that lay open on her desk and returned her eyes to meet Sam’s. “Excuse me?” she asked, somewhat amused and flabbergasted that the young woman had the nerve to even step into the office again, uninvited, to tell her she wanted another chance.

“I’d like to do business with you and have another chance to do so,” Sam replied timidly, trying to be as polite as she could. It was obvious that Ms. Matthews didn’t like the cocky client approach, so instead of settling in between the two extremes, she’d gone to the complete other end of the spectrum. Little did she know, that wasn’t working for her either.

“Ms. McCall, if I remember correctly, I said that I did not want to do business with you when I saw you yesterday morning and that does not change now. And, I’m not too impressed by you walking in here and acting like I invited you for a meeting.” Courtney said, her tone harsh and confident. The woman in front of her seemed to think that she could just walk into the building and knock on her door without an appointment and expect Courtney to want to talk with her.

“Fine, then I’d like to make another appointment.” Sam’s act of being weak and careful was falling away fast as she switched gears. This was suiting her purpose just fine, whether Courtney knew it or not.

“Good for you. I told you, I am not interested in doing business with you. So, get out of my office before I throw you out of the building myself.” The blonde stood and walked past Sam and went to the door of her office to open it. As she did so, she spoke to the secretary in the outer office. “Elise, let security know that there is a young woman on her way downstairs and when they see her to make sure she leave the building. Tell them that if they see her anywhere near here again, they need to get her away.”

The secretary immediately picked up the phone to call down to security as her boss looked back into her office, watching Sam as she came across the room and glared at her as she passed. “They’ll be watching her, Ms. Matthews.” The secretary responded.

Courtney watched Sam as she got into the elevator and rode it down to the lobby. She didn’t have a very good feeling about her, and it wasn’t because she was annoying. She was up to something.

~*~

“So, that’s where you were last night? At her loft, stuck in the storm after going over there by choice?” Sonny asked, silently fuming after his best friend, his confidante, had told him everything: what had happened the night they found that Johnny had betrayed them, the time on the docks after their meeting, and now that he had spent the night at her apartment, willingly. He’d exposed his feelings for her, and made sure that his boss knew that he’d never known that she was the president of Matthews-Phillips when she saw him punching the wall that night on the docks.

“Yes.”

“Okay, let me get this straight. You two met on the docks, she stopped you from tearing your hands to shreds on a brick wall, and you never knew who she was? She didn’t know who you were?”

Sonny was taking it surprisingly well, Jason thought. He’d expected him to trash the penthouse, throw glasses all over the place, but he didn’t. He also knew that he was still angry about it, though. That could be heard in every syllable the man spoke.

“Let me ask you a question. Did you object to the phone taps because of your emotions or did you really trust her? Was it really your instincts?”

Jason glared into the chocolate color of Sonny’s eyes, furious that he would even ask such a question. “How can you ask me that Sonny? My feelings weren’t in control then, they never are when it comes to business. You know that better than anyone.”

Sonny walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink, swallowing carefully. His best friend and enforcer had just informed him that he had feelings for the new president of Matthews-Phillips and he’d spent the night with her. Of course he was furious, since they would be answering to her if something happened on her piers and she decided to pull the leases. And, it was touchy, since Jason would be the one who would have to do all of the direct contract work with her. The question was, could he trust Jason to keep his emotions under wraps and work like he always had? Was this bad enough to make him choose between a job and woman he was developing feelings for?

~*~

Sam entered her room at the Port Charles Hotel and threw her jacket on the neatly made bed before laying down on it herself. She stared at the white ceiling, thinking about the incident at the Matthews-Phillips office. It had all gone according to plan and Faith Rosco would be furious when she found out that the new president refused to do business with her ‘enforcer’.

But, she didn’t care. Faith thought that McCall was working for her and that she was loyal, but the blonde witch was dead wrong in both cases. She would figure it out, eventually, and when she did, she’d be the loser because Sam would have everything she wanted.

~*~

“Can you do your work and still ‘be’ with her, do business with her, and not have your emotions involved?”

Jason knew that he could. Courtney had walked into his life, but that didn’t mean that he would get careless. “Yes, I can. But, we’re not ‘together’ yet.”

Sonny sighed and rubbed a hand over his face before replying. “Yes, I know that, you just have feelings for her. But, I need to know if this’ll be a problem, because if it will, some decisions would have to be made.”

“Yes, I can do the job I’ve always done.”

“Okay, I trust you.”

Silence came over the room as the two men silently knew the ‘terms’. If something happened and he and Courtney’s relationship developed, Jason would have to keep personal and business as far away from each other as possible in this case. And, if it came to certain measures, and both knew what those were, would they be able to trust her with that?

Of course, if they did get involved, Courtney would know a lot more than she would if it hadn’t gotten that personal. Sonny’s question was, if Jason couldn’t keep personal and business separate and actually let his emotions get carried away with him because of her, which would he choose?

Courtney walked into Kelly’s during the lunch rush and took a seat at the only available table in the room. Both of the waitresses were busy taking people’s orders and refilling cups, so she had a feeling that it may take awhile before she actually got around to being helped, but that didn’t bother her. She didn’t have any meetings that afternoon and she didn’t have anyone to answer to so she could be as late getting back as she wanted. The benefit of owning your own business, she thought to herself with a chuckle.

Picking up her menu, she began looking over the food choices that Kelly’s offered.

~*~

On the other side of the room, a darker blonde sat at a table with her six month old in a carrier next to her, as she talked to a darker haired man across from her.

“Okay, Jason gave me the blueprints for the building the other day and I looked over them. The place is perfect for the new club. It’s different than The Cellar, but that’s good since I don’t want two clubs that look too much alike.” Carly said as she took a bite of the food in front of her.

Ric nodded, glad that Carly had finally found a building that she liked. She was picky when it came to that, but in the end, that was an advantage, since she found something that suited her. “So, you’re sure about this one? I don’t want to get the building permits and all the other paperwork started if you’re going to change your mind.”

“Yes, this is the one I want. It’s perfect. Now, I’ve just got to get the loan from my husband and we’ll be all set.”

Morgan cooed next to her, happy to be out and about instead of playing with toys in the penthouse. His little eyes roamed all over the room, drinking in everyone inside. He enjoyed going places, since he got to see a lot more when he did. “Yeah, Morgan wants mommy to have another club, don’t you?”

Ric smiled as he watched Carly interact with the infant. He and Carly had just started working on the club when she got pregnant with the little boy and he’d witnessed Sonny’s fear for the child first hand. Immediately, there had been guards with her wherever she went and she had to call Sonny every two hours to ‘check in’. It had seemed a little extreme to Ric but when he mentioned it to Carly, who had no problem with the guards in this case she explained what had happened with Lily and the baby they’d lost when she fell down the stairs at the Quartermaine’s. It was understandable, then, why Mr. Corinthos wanted so much security surround Carly and their unborn child.

“Is Sonny thrilled about you having another club or is he running in the other direction?”

Carly looked back at Ric, puzzled. “Why would he be running in the other direction?” she asked.

“Well, when we actually started working on The Cellar, buying furniture, decorating, I remember the look on his face when you told him the total cost of all of it. It was sheer right.” Ric explained, picturing Sonny’s face in his mind. He’d never seen a man so scared of a ‘shopping’ bill before and he didn’t think it was possible for it to happen, but he’d learned that when it came to Carly, anything was possible.

“He’s scared whenever I say the word ‘store’, so he’s probably ready to run in the other direction. But, then again, he’s most likely find with me starting a new club because it’ll keep me from being in the penthouse when he doesn’t want me to be in there.” She laughed, and remembered Sonny telling her exactly that when she first introduced the idea of a second club to him.

Ric checked his watch and looked back at Carly. “I’m sorry, but I’ve got another appointment to get to. I’ll get the papers filed and I’ll look into who owns the building and give them a call.” He said, getting out of his chair.

“Okay, sounds great.” Carly responded with a smile. She was thrilled that her new club was under way and that she had someone to do the beginning paperwork for her, since she did all the regular paperwork for The Cellar. That was the tedious part of the job of owning a club and she hated it. But, you couldn’t have one without the other.

She watched as her partner walked out of the diner, and then went back to alternately eating and talking to Morgan, who was still content to sit in his carrier.

~*~

Courtney had been right in her assumption that it would take longer for her to be helped and finally a brunette waitress the other referred to as Elisabeth came over.

“Hi, I’m sorry about the wait. The lunch rush is really busy.”

“Oh, that’s okay, I don’t mind waiting.”

Liz smiled, thankful that the blonde woman wasn’t a rude customer and was pretty cool about having to wait longer than usual. “Well, thank you for being so patient. What can I get for you?”

Courtney glanced over the menu quickly again and chose a chicken salad and a glass of lemonade.

“Okay, I’ll take your menu and put your order into the cook. It shouldn’t take too long.” The girl said before walking to the kitchen.

The people here are friendly, she thought to herself. Maybe that’s why I feel so at home here already. I can’t believe I’ve only been here for a couple days, it seems like it’s been forever.

And, it did. A lot of things had happened since she’d arrived in the East Coast city, especially in the past three days. But, at least she hadn’t had as much trouble as she could have when it came to the Morgan-Corinthos deal. She’d expected Sonny to pitch a fit, much more so than he had, but luckily, she’d been wrong. He’d taken it well and she was thankful for that. She didn’t have to compromise her work ethic, and he didn’t either, at least very much.

She checked her watch and saw that it was around 12:30pm, earlier than she thought it would be so she took out her laptop, which she’d brought with her just in case she did want to finish some work during lunch, and sat it on the table. She hooked it up to her cell phone so she could check her email before starting on some documents. Just as she figured, she had an email from her brother and Mandy, in which Perry accused her of conspiring against him from across the country and Many explained that he was talking about the pictures she left, which should be there any day now.

He can be such a drama queen, Courtney chuckled to herself silently as she quickly typed out a reply to his silly accusations.

She didn’t notice when a brown haired man came through the door of the diner, but Carly did and she waved to him. He was obviously in a hurry but he stopped at his best friend’s table anyway, where she sat with Bobbie, who had joined her daughter after Ric left.

“Hey, Jase, where were you this morning?” Carly asked, eyeing him with suspicion.

“I was out,” Jason replied, annoyed that Carly would jump right into his business instead of having a normal conversation. Sure, the question seemed to be completely harmless to anyone who didn’t know her, but those closest to the dark blonde could tell that there was something behind her question.

The woman scoffed. “Well, thank you for that wonderful information, that was obvious. Where were you?”

Jason just rolled his eyes and walked to the counter. He needed coffee, badly, especially since Sonny wanted he and Stan to look over the files that Meyer had brought up on the mystery woman. Knowing Stan, he was probably still pretty pissed off that some woman had found a way to get into his locked van, so it wouldn’t be too pleasant. The guy didn’t take someone damaging his equipment very well, not that Sonny and Jason did either. Yeah, they were pissed off about it but Stan’s anger got annoying after awhile, sort of like Carly’s. He talked nonsense, and it was funny, but could give a mob enforcer a migraine.

Penny was behind the counter after handing Elisabeth a chicken salad for a customer seconds before. “Hey, Jason. How are you?” she asked brightly.

“Good, thanks, Penny. Could I get a coffee to go?” he responded, silently hoping that Elisabeth wasn’t working today. He hadn’t seen her yet and that was usually a sign that she wasn’t since she liked to jump on him like a ‘rabid dog’, as Carly so kindly liked to put it.

“Sure. It’ll be just a second, the pot’s almost done brewing.”

“Thanks.”

He took a seat at one of the stools placed at the counter and a minute later, Penny brought out the fresh pot of coffee as Elisabeth made her way behind the counter after delivering Courtney’s order to her. She watched as Penny poured the coffee into the familiar cardboard cup and, after placing the lid on top, handed it to the man she still love, even though he’d made it obvious that he had gotten over her.

Jason was doing his best to ignore her, which she was making hard to do by staring at him. He hated when people did that, even though he tended to do it a lot himself. He was ready to sic Carly on her when Penny handed him the cup of coffee.

“Thanks, Penny. See you later.” He said, giving her money for the coffee and a substantial tip before walking away.

“You can’t even say ‘hello’ or ‘goodbye’ when I’m standing right in front of you?” Elisabeth asked as he did so. She was hurt and her heart was being torn out every time he saw her and didn’t acknowledge that he did in any way. But, she had to fight for him, to hold on to him, even if he fought her the entire way. Yes, she’d made a mistake, but she’d realized that and was sorry for it and wanted him back.

By then, everyone had left the diner, most likely back to work for the last day of the week. The only people left were Penny, Bobbie, Carly and her son, Jason, Liz and Courtney, who sat at her table near the door, tapping away at her laptop, completely oblivious to her surroundings and them to her.

Jason stared that the girl who had once shared his penthouse, but most certainly not his bed, with absolute disgust. Of course, she wasn’t comprehending the fact that he did not love her, he never had and never would. But, he couldn’t say that he’d expected anything better from her. She was proving herself to be nothing more than an immature little girl who whined when she realized she’d lost out on something she maybe could have had. But, he knew that they couldn’t have had it. She honestly didn’t have anything that he would ever want. “There’s no reason to.”

Stunned and glaring at the man she claimed she loved, she asked, “Why not?”

Jason hated that stare. “Because you’re invisible to me.”

Before she knew it, the words were coming out of her mouth, in front of everyone left in the diner, who were already looking at them, even the blond in the corner, whose attention had been caught by Jason’s first response. “You’re such a jerk, Jason. We had something, I said I loved you and you can’t love me in return. You don’t give a damn about anyone, just yourself and what you want. Oh, yeah, don’t forget Sonny and Carly, you just sniff around their heels and carry out every command they give you. But, you don’t feel anything for anyone besides them, maybe that’s why it’s so easy for you to walk away and throw everything we had away.” As she said the last sentence, he continued to do exactly that before stopping when she spoke again. “See, you’re nothing but a selfish, arrogant, cold, heartless prick!”

Before Elisabeth Webber knew what was going on, she was backhanded by the hardest slap she’d ever experienced in her life up to that point.