Title:Rain and Rooftops

Author: Tiffany

Feedback: Sweet_Tahira82@hotmail.com

Rating: PG-13 Category: WIP

Type: Dramtic/Romance

Summary: When Jason stops Courtney from going To New York with A.J. at the airport with life altering news, how will this effect those around them?

Chapter One: Stopped in your Tracks

She stood there waiting for him. This was the moment of truth; this was the moment that they would begin their new lives. She sighed watching as their bags were checked and they retrieved their tickets. He turned to her and smiled and she returned it all the while inside she was screaming. Maybe it was nerves, and jitters. Maybe it was moving jitters, whatever it was she couldn’t get them to stop. She jumped slightly when he took her hand in his.

"Sorry…" She muttered softly.

"Are you sure that you’re okay?"

No! I don’t feel right and I don’t think I’m ready to do this. "I think that I’m just nervous about flying and about Rosie being locked up for so long." She whispered.

"Hey don’t worry. I’m going to be there with you the whole ride there. I won’t let anything happen to you or Rosie." He bent over and kissed her cheek. It was sweet and beautiful and all A.J. She nodded.

"I know." Taking in a deep breath she tried to exhale all her fears and let him lead her toward their plane. Every now and then she would glance back not really expecting him to be there, but unable to help herself. She had told herself that she wasn’t allowed to lean on him. She told herself that she had to learn to lean on A.J. He was her husband; he was the one that she made all those promises to. She wanted to lean on him and she would; she didn’t have a choice. They were moving away to Manhattan just so they could start anew. It would be just the two of them like it had been all those months ago when they first started out. Things were good then; they were better then. It was what they both hoped to recapture. As they reached the terminal she absently placed her purse onto the conveyor belt to be checked as she walked through the metal detector.

It wasn’t until she was on the other side that she heard her name being called over the hustle and bustle of the people around them. "Courtney! Courtney!"

She looked back just in time to see Jason running through the patrons as they milled about. She saw him crash into an elderly man and knock his hat off in the process. Saw him trip over some kid’s book bag and recover with amazing grace before finally reaching their terminal.

"Jason?" She questioned.

"Don’t leave." His breathing was ragged and hoarse but she heard him nonetheless. "What?"

He swallowed hard trying to catch his breath and slow down the erratic pacing off his heart. "Don’t go."

"Jason what the hell are you trying to pull here? I mean what do you hope to accomplish by doing this?" A.J.’s voice cut in as he stood between them in the doorway of the metal detector.

Jason turned to him. His eyes glazed over with ice and disgust. "Shut-up! You paid Coleman to stalk Courtney. You came to him and told him that you would pay him $250,000 to scare her and Coleman agreed because you told him that if he didn’t do it, you would get someone else who would. You knew that Coleman didn’t want to stay away from her and you used that and played on it."

"Would you give me a break!" He laughed sarcastically. "I mean you would do anything to get to my wife wouldn’t you? You would come to her and tell her anything just to take her away from me. That’s been your plan from the beginning hasn’t it?" He asked losing patience with the man before him.

"Oh please A.J." He brushed the older man off.

"No! You can’t stand the fact that Courtney loves me and trusts me. It just eats you up inside that she would want to stay with me then go off and follow you around like some lost little puppy."

"A.J. all the equipment was found to be registered under a dummy name but when I went back to the store that had to have made it they told me that a dark hared man came in. I showed him a picture of you and guess what he said?"

"I don’t have to guess because I’m pretty sure that you paid the guy off."

"Right. And the crap about you losing your case, that was a lie. There never was any case A.J. You went to Lila and asked her for the money because you said that you and Courtney fell on hard times and Lila being the woman that she is agreed. She set you up an account with accessible funds and everything. You always had money A.J."

"You are so far gone man! Courtney can you believe this?" He said turning to her with a smirk. "He honestly thinks that I would stalk you! He would stand here just to shake your faith in me. You claimed that you just wanted to keep her safe but let’s be honest Jason! The only reason why you were sticking close to my wife is because you want to be with her. I’ve seen the way you talk to her. I saw the way you looked at her while you were in our apartment."

"When?" Jason asked absently.

"When? Every time that you were with her, I saw the way that you stared at her when you were trying to so-call teach her about not being afraid. I heard you when you told her that the stalker was just messing with her head. I heard it in your voice the way that you wanted my wife! How you just came right in with this new computer and set it up for her, I saw it all!" He fumed.

"How?" Her voice was soft almost hesitant as she stared at A.J. He whirled around and looked at her.

"How what sweetheart?" He asked.

Her eyes were glazed with unshed tears as she stared at her husband. "How could you have seen that? You weren’t there A.J."

"What?"

She swallowed hard. "You said that you saw us when we were in the apartment, when Jason told me that what the stalker wanted was me to be afraid… you said that," suddenly it was so hard to breathe. "You said that you heard Jason tell me that all the stalker was doing was messing with my head. The only people in that room were Jason, the stalker’s cameras and I, so how did you know that?" She waited there for an answer. There had to be a reason. Her husband loved her. He wouldn’t do this to her. People who loved one another didn’t do this. So she knew that he was going to explain it to her. There was a reason and he was going to tell her. So she waited.

A.J. stood there not sure of what to say. Not sure of how to respond, because he had been caught and yet… She was standing there as though she still believed in him. She still wanted to trust him but the look was fading fast. All the faith and love that she had for him was disappearing deep into those watery blue orbs. When had she trusted and believed in him so much and why hadn’t he seen it before? Was that faith always there? If he had known then he would have never and now it was fading.

"Courtney, let me explain. I just wanted to know that you needed me as much as I needed you and I see now that you do." He whispered.

Still she waited. That couldn’t be it. That almost sounded like a confession. Is that what it was? Did he really just confess? No! He couldn’t have confessed because that would mean that he did it. People who loved one another didn’t do these things! But he didn’t offer anything else. He just stood there looking at her. And she knew that it was true. She felt like she was in a daze. She turned and picked up her purse off the conveyor belt and walked back through the metal detector and past him almost as if he didn’t exist.

"Courtney! Wait." He reached out and grabbed her arm but she yanked it free. She didn’t even turn around as she kept on walking. She didn’t stop at Jason almost as if she didn’t see him either, because she wasn’t really seeing anything. She felt the emotions spin through her and she fought the tears so unaware of the world around her. She just placed one foot in front of the other and kept going.

A.J. went to go after her when Jason stopped him. "Jason let go of me. I have to go after her. She needs me!"

"No. She doesn’t. She never did and she never will now." He stated. "You stay away from her."

"She’s my wife!" He retorted.

"For how long?" He replied. "I mean it A.J. You come anywhere near her and I’ll make you sorry." His voice was soft but his words were firm. He left him there and went after Courtney.

He caught up with her as she made her way outside into the night. It was raining again. It was only fitting. She looked around not sure of where she should go. She didn’t have anyplace.

"Courtney."

"East or West?" She asked.

"What?"

She closed her eyes to push the tears back and then said a little more firmly. "East… or…West? Which way should I go?"

"Maybe I should take you home."

"I don’t have a home to go to."

"Courtney…"

"But I can’t just stand here in the rain." She continued as if she hadn’t heard him. She furrowed her brow. "How could he do that? Why?" She asked herself softly. She looked up at him and waited for him to answer.

"I don’t know." He replied.

She let her head bend forward and nodded. "I loved him." Her voice broke and she simply stood there as the tears spilled over onto her cheeks.

"Come here." Jason opened his arms and urged her into them. She grabbed him and clutched him feeling the tears seep into his leather jacket. He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head absently. And there they stood in the rain neither feeling the cold or the water just each other.