~ Stranger In The Night ~

~ By Vicky ~

~ Chapter 17 ~

~ Courtney's Hospital Room ~

"Jason Morgan, you are under arrest for the attempted murder of Alan James Quartermaine Jr." Taggart announced.

"What?  No!  You can't do that."  At Taggart's words, Courtney became irate and attempted to get out of bed.

"Hey, hey, it's fine," Jason told her as he tried to keep her lying down. 

"I'm afraid we can Mrs. Quartermaine," Taggart said emphasizing her married name.  "You see your husband is upstairs unconscious in coma after nearly being beaten to death by your friend here.  They're not sure he is going to make it.  So if he dies Morgan, you are facing murder charges.  And the best part is, we have a witness.  You're going down Angerboy and it's about damn time.  Read him his rights boys.  I want everything done by the book."

One of the officers handcuffed Jason and began reading the Miranda as Jason stood there silently.  "You have the right to remain silent…"

"No you don't understand…" Courtney started.

"Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law…"

"AJ attacked me!" she yelled.

"You have the right to be speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning…"

"You can't take him!"

"If you cannot afford a lawyer, one will be provided for you at government expense."

"I need him!"

"Mrs. Quartermaine if you would like to press charges against your husband, you can call the precint," Taggert told her coldly.

"Please don't take him.  I need him with me," she cried.

"Courtney, you'll be ok.  This won't take long."  Jason finally broke his silence to reassure her.

"No, I'm afraid.  I can't do this without you."

"Yes you can.  You're strong, you'll be ok," he told her, believing every word.

"Let's go Morgan!" Taggart said as he dragged him out the door.

Courtney's head fell into her hands and she sobbed.  She didn't know what she would do without Jason.  What if he went to prison?  How did things get so out of control in such a short amount of time?  Last night she thought things couldn't get any worse after losing the baby, but they just did.  She took a deep breath and eyed the phone sitting on the end table beside her.  She picked it up and dialed, waiting for the person on the other end to asnwer.

"Hello?" the voice answered.

"Sonny?" she choked out.

"Courtney?  What's wrong?"

"Jason was arrested.  You need to get him out."

"Arrested!  For what?"

"Attempted murder."

"Of Who?" Sonny yelled.  He hadn’t ordered any hits lately.

Courtney winced at Sonny's tone.  "AJ."

"Courtney are you alright?"  Sonny got very serious very quickly.

"No… but there isn't time to tell you about it now.  You need to get Jason out.  I need him."

"Ok, where are you?"

"The hospital."

"Oh God."

"Sonny please!"

"Ok.  Ok.  I'll get Jason out.  Don't worry."

"Thanks," she said before hanging up.

Sonny felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to find his wife looking concerned.  "What happened?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, but Jason is in jail and Courtney is in the hospital."

"The baby?"

"I don't know.  I have to go try and get Jason out.  Can you go to the hospital and see Courtney?  She didn't sound good."

"Sure."

"Thanks."

Courtney sat in bed feeling powerless for a good twenty minutes before the phone rang.  On reflex her hand immediately picked up the receiver.  "Hello?"

"Hey…you ok?" Jason asked.

She sat up in bed, excited to hear his voice.  "Just worried sick, how are you doing?"

"I'm fine, been through this before."

"I called Sonny… he's coming down to the station," she told him.

"That's good considering I used my one phone call to call you."

"It's probably selfish of me, but I'm glad you did."

Jason smiled.  "Things are going to be ok."

"Jason how can you say that?  Our baby is dead and you're in jail!"

"I'm not in jail.  Sonny will have me out tonight."

"I'm scared."

"I know, but I'm not going to let anything happen to you, even if I'm in lockup."

"God, I hope you're not," she breathed.

"I'll be ok."

"You don't deserve this."

"A cop is giving me the signal to get off.  I have to go."

"Ok… Jason?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you," she said with a sigh.

Jason smiled at her words.  "I love you too," he told her before hanging up.

Five minutes later there was a knock on the door and Courtney froze.  She knew it was too soon for it to be Jason.  Carly poked her head in.  "Hey, can I come in?"  Courtney nodded and Carly sat down beside Courtney's bed.

"Did Sonny go to the police station?"

"Yeah he left as soon as you called."  Courtney nodded.  "How are you doing?"  Courtney shrugged.  "A nurse told me that you lost the baby.  I'm sorry," Carly said sincerely.

"Aren't they supposed to keep that stuff confidential?"

"Yeah well, the nurse was my mother…"

"Are you really sorry?  Or are you just here to say I told you so?" Courtney remarked snidely.

"Courtney why would I…"

"Because you warned me.  You and Sonny both told me AJ was a drunk, that he was only using me, and would hurt me in the end.  I didn't listen, and now my baby is dead because of me."

Carly shook her head.  "This is not you're fault."

"If I hadn't…"

"No Courtney…"

"Why are you even here?  You don't like me!" Courtney snapped.

"You're right I don't like you.  I don't like how you treated my husband when all he was trying to do was look out for you and love you, but you're family and when family is in trouble, you're there for them.  And I thought that since I've been through this before, I could have been some help to you, but if you don't think so I will just leave."  She began to get up.

"Carly wait… I'm sorry.  I shouldn't have snapped at you like that.  I'd like you stay," Courtney said a bit foolish of how she reacted.

Carly sat back down.  "Ok, apology accepted."  Courtney gave her a weak smile and Carly's heart broke for the young girl.  She could tell Courtney was paralyzed by the loss and didn’t know how to react to it all.  "Look, I know how you're feeling.  I lost a baby because of AJ as well.  I've been there.  It was the most devastating thing I've ever experienced, and part of me blamed myself.  If only I hadn’t gone to the Quartermaine's that day.  If I hadn't fought with AJ.  If I had just walked away my baby boy would be alive, but you see no matter where I was or what I said to AJ, he had no right to grab me that day, and I am pretty sure that whatever he did to you he had no right to do either."  Courtney had silent tears running down her cheeks.  Carly squeezed her hand.  "Do you want to talk about what happened last night?"

Courtney took a deep breath and wiped some of the tears from her face.  "It's complicated…"

~  PCPD  ~

Sonny walked in to see Jason being held in the interrogation room.  He could see Baldwin and Taggart circling him, asking questions that would go unanswered.  Jason just sat there silently with his cuffed hands resting on the table.  Sonny watched as Taggart threw up his hands and stormed out of the room.  "Hey Taggart, I want to see Jason," he called after him.

Taggart seemed to stop and think about it for a moment then said, "Yeah ok."  He ushered Sonny in and both Taggert and Scott left. 

"Hey man, I called Justus.  He is on his way," Sonny informed him. 

"Thanks, the faster I get out of here the better."  Jason then signaled to the tiny microphone at the end of the table.  "Why don't you take your jacket off it's a bit warm in here."

Sonny understood what he was saying and placed his suit jacket over the microphone.  "Anything else?"  Jason shook his head.

"Damn it," Taggert said from behind the glass window.  "They covered the mic."

"Don't worry about it.  We have a witness.  This case is in the bag," Baldwin commented as he left the room. 

"Jason what the hell happened?" Sonny asked.

"Well it's sort of complicated…"

~ Courtney's Hospital Room ~

"How complicated?" Carly asked.

"I'm not exactly sure where to start…"

"The beginning is always good."

"Yeah well, I'm not even sure where that is.  My life just became this big mess in the matter of weeks and I don't know how it happened or who's fault it is.  Well, it's my fault I know that but for the life me I don't know how I went from coming to Port Charles to look for my mother to sitting in this hospital bed after losing my baby."

Carly gave her hand another squeeze.  "You're losing me, I'm sorry."

Courtney gave a half laugh.  "I'm losing myself.  Ok to make a long story short.  AJ beat the crap out of me and I lost the baby."

~ PCPD ~

"So I got a call last night from Courtney.  She was crying and very out of it…"

Sonny interrupted his friend's explanation, "Wait hold up…how do you and Courtney know each other so well?"

Jason swallowed hard.  "I ran into her on the docks one night and we started talking."  He would tell Sonny the whole truth, but he needed to get most of this out before he dropped that bomb on him.  Who knew how he'd react?  Sonny nodded and seemed satisfied with his answer anyway.  "So I went to the Quartermaine's to check on her.  When I found her…"  Jason sighed and shook his head at the memory.  "She was in bad shape Sonny.  She had been beat up and she was in some sort of shock.  She couldn't really communicate with me."

~ Courtney's Hospital Room ~

"AJ hit you?"  Carly asked somewhat in shock. 

Courtney nodded.  "Repeatedly."

"Was he drunk?"

Courtney nodded again.  "Anyway, Jason brought me to the hospital, and after I told him what AJ did, he must have left when I was sleeping because he was here when I woke up.  I think Jason might have done something to AJ because the next thing we know Taggert's here arresting him for AJ's attempted murder.  He didn’t even care about what AJ had done to me," she said bitterly.

"Wow.  If there is one thing Jason and Sonny both have no tolerance for it's violence against women.  There is just one thing I don't understand.  Drunk or not, why would AJ hit you knowing you were pregnant with his child?"

~ PCPD ~

"Courtney ended up losing the baby.  She was devastated and blamed herself.  How anyone can blame themselves for what some creep did is beyond me.  I mean Courtney didn’t ask to get hit.  AJ's the one who was the coward and hit a woman, a pregnant woman no less!"  Jason said through gritted teeth.  He was getting agitated talking about last night's events.

"So AJ did that to my baby sister?  Bastard!" Sonny banged his hand on the table in rage.

Jason nodded and his voice got lower as he began, "Sonny after seeing what he did to her, I lost it.  I wasn't thinking straight, I mean I went into this mode find AJ and kill him, but it wasn't like a job.  I didn't care who saw me, what the risks were.  I just wanted to get my hands on him and beat the hell out of him… and I did."

"Jason I get wanting to punish AJ for what he did.  Part of me wants to go finish him off right now, but you know better!  We could have eliminated him without anyone tying it to us.  Why would you be so careless?"

~ Courtney's Hospital Room ~

"Yeah…well see that's kind of the most complicated part of the story.  AJ found out that there was a very good possibility the baby wasn't his," Courtney explained.

"Oh…"

"You think I'm a slut don't you?"

"Oh honey, I am in no place to judge believe me. And come on, you're married to AJ, I don't blame you for looking elsewhere."  Courtney tried not to laugh at Carly's comment.  "Um…I hope you don't mind me asking this and feel free to tell me it's none of my business but who was the father?"

Courtney looked to the side for a moment, debating whether she should say.  There was no point in hiding it now, it's not like she wanted to stay in her marriage or even cared what people thought about the situation now.  So she looked Carly in the eye and told her the truth.  "Jason."

Carly nearly choked on her own gasp.  "WHAT?  Jason's?  My Jason?  Jason Morgan's?"  Courtney nodded and Carly shook her head in disbelief.  "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell like that, I was just shocked.  I mean I thought maybe there was some sort of attraction between the two of you the night you passed out at my club, but I had no idea things had progressed that far."

"Yeah well they had, and I royally fucked it up."

~ PCPD ~

"Sonny, there is something I have to tell you, that you're probably not going to like," Jason said tentatively.

"Ok…"

"Courtney was pregnant with my baby."

"Excuse me?" Sonny asked not sure he heard Jason correctly.

"Courtney and I were sort of seeing each other for awhile and…"

"YOU GOT MY SISTER PREGNANT?" Sonny yelled.

Jason winced and nodded.  "Can you keep it down though?  Fabric can only muffle so much," he said looking at the jacket covering the mic.

"Jason! How could you do something like that?" Sonny whispered through clenched teeth.

"Would it help if I told you I love her?"

"You love my sister?"

"I do."

~ Courtney's Hospital Room ~

"When I met Jason, I was questioning a lot of things about my life.  My marriage, my past, I was starting to feel like maybe marrying AJ wasn't the best idea.  Anyway, I met Jason on the docks and we just clicked.  He seemed to understand me so well, and I seemed to understand him at least I thought.  Things progressed quickly and we started sleeping together.  I felt guilty about cheating on AJ, but I couldn't stay away from Jason and I didn't want to.  Then I found out that Jason lied to me…"

"Jason doesn't lie," Carly butt in."

Courtney rolled her eyes.  "Well he didn't tell me the truth.  You see the whole time we were together, he never told me is full name, that he worked for Sonny, or that he was AJ's brother."

Carly tilted her head from side to side.  "That is pretty shitty of him, but maybe he was just scared how'd you react?"

"I think I get that now, but I didn't back then.  I treated him pretty badly after I found out the truth.  I told him I wanted no part of him, but secretly I ached every day I wasn't with him.  When I found out I was pregnant, I handled it badly.  I lied to both Jason and AJ.  I just thought AJ could provide a better life for my child.  Boy was I wrong huh?"

Carly gave her a half smile.  "We all make mistakes."

"Yeah and mine cost me my baby's life."

"You don't know that.  Who knows what could have happened?  Maybe this baby just wasn't meant to be," she suggested.

"You sound like Jason you know.  He was so great after I lost the baby.  I was a mess.  And he didn't blame me once, after everything I did, he didn't blame me.  I did though, still do.  But Jason just held me, told me he loved me, comforted me in ways I didn't know he could."

Carly had tears in her eyes now.  "Jason can be pretty amazing sometimes.  He has a capacity to forgive that I have never seen in any other person."

"Yeah, and boy am I grateful for that.  I don't know what I would have done without him last night.  I love him Carly and if he goes to jail because of me I will never forgive myself."

~ PCPD ~

Justus came in and made a beeline for Scott who was talking to an officer outside the interrogation room.  "Mr. Baldwin, I am assured my client will be arraigned today at the earliest possible time?"

"Um… I don't know about that.  You know so many criminals so little time.  Who knows when the courts will get to Mr. Morgan's case?"

"Well if that's the case, then you've done a horrible job of managing crime in Port Charles.  I am sure that would not bode lightly when it comes to running for re-election next term Mr. District Attorney."

Scott glared at Justus and mumbled something as he walked away.  Justus smiled and made his way into the interrogation room.  "Hey Jason, we should be getting word on your arraignment very soon."

"Thanks Justus, the faster I get out of here and back to the hospital the better," Jason said looking at Sonny who was still glaring at him. 

~ Courtney's Hospital Room ~

"If there is one thing you don't have to worry about it's Jason going to jail.  Sonny and Jason make careers out of staying out of jail.  They know how to work the system," Carly informed her.

"Oddly enough that actually sounds comforting," Courtney admitted.

"Well, if you plan to be with Jason, you will quickly learn that there are just some things you can't worry about.  It will drive you insane if you try."

~ Courthouse ~

Forty-five minutes later, Jason stood before the judge awaiting arraignment.  "Next case…The People vs. Jason Morgan."

Jason stood with Justus beside him as the judge began.  "Jason Morgan you have been charged with the attempted murder of Alan James Quartermaine Jr.  How do you plead?"

"Not guilty," Jason said stoically.

"Plea noted."  The judge then looked to the prosecution.

"Your honor the people request that Mr. Morgan be held without bail.  Mr. Morgan has the resources to easily get himself out of the country as well as a new identity.  Not to mention that Mr. Quartermaine is still in General Hospital completely defenseless.  Mr. Morgan may try to finish him off so to speak," Baldwin argued.

"Your honor my client has been arrested numerous times and not once has he ever jumped bail," Justus reasoned.

"Mr. Ward boasting your client's previous arrest record isn't the best way to argue his case.  Nonetheless, I don't see Mr. Morgan is a flight risk and I am sure Mr. Quartermaine's hospital room will be well protected.  Bail is set at $50,000."  The judge banged his gavel and stepped down.

Jason turned to Justus and thanked him.  Sonny came up behind them and placed a hand on Jason's shoulder.  "I am going to go get your bail paid."

"Thanks man, I want to get back to Courtney."

Sonny gave Jason a stern look.  "Just take care of her ok?"

"I will, you don't have to worry about that," Jason assured him with a hint of a smile, relieved that Sonny in his own way just gave them his blessing.