AN - some explanation is needed. This is set in the past, I'm thinking 98-99. Definitely before the Sonny/Carly hate sex, a little AU (I've cobbled together both Carly new (the incident with the 'real' Carly's dad and the old (i.e. Virginia) pasts - as best as I could remember) and it's Jason/Carly - my first, last & always OTP (one true pairing), but only slightly.
Chapter 14 – Blood Sports
In the silence that followed Stefan's proclamation, Alexis' bag began to rumble slightly. She automatically reached to pull out her cell phone, wincing when she saw the number.
Stefan sighed in frustration. "Ignore it, Natasha. I need your attention in the here and now. Family business takes precedence over - "
Still wincing, she interrupted him. "Under the circumstances, I think you might actually want me to take this call." Her voice was husky with trepidation.
Stefan's narrowed impatiently as he silently demanded an explanation.
"It's Johnny O'Brien." At Stefan and Nikolas' blank stares, Alexis elaborated with a shade of impertinence. "Johnny – bodyguard, occasional enforcer, works for Sonny and Jason, and is usually found guarding Carly. If he's calling at this hour, then something must be going on with one of them."
Stefan stared her down for a moment, before nodding his permission allowing her to answer it.
The muted response on the other end of the phone call wasn't loud enough for anyone else to hear, but Alexis' responses were enough to put them both on edge. Mindful of that fact, she interrupted Johnny to ask, "But Carly is fine, right?"
Johnny was silent for a moment, puzzled by that offbeat question, but when she repeated louder, the hair on the back of his neck stood up.
"Where are you?"
He brusquely demanded and when Alexis paused, before quickly responded in a sharper that usual snide manner that she was in her office not that it was any of his business, his suspicion gave way to a near certainty.
She asked again about Carly and he cut her off with the terse statement that Carly wasn't on the scene and ordering her to "get her ass down to the hospital", before hanging up abruptly.
Sighing, Johnny glanced around to see who was around.
Eventually he spotted one of their guys and sent him off to check out Alexis' office. Something was up with her if she was bothering to lie to him and considering the Cassadine situation, he wasn't about to take anything for granted.
Keeping an eye out for Scorpio, he began walking around, listening to the snatches of conversation going on around him, making mental notes of what he overheard.
Apparently, one of Moreno's guys actually saw the two bombers and from the description, Johnny thought he might know one of them. Mitch something, a local loser Sonny had used a few times. Johnny always wondered why Sonny never had someone rub him out after his last fuck-up.
When one of Moreno's goons started staring at him, Johnny moved on, snagging of their guys and sent him off to try and locate Mitch. He was debating calling Jason, when he suddenly spotted him.
Jason was pissed.
If he had been anywhere other than where he was, he would have trashed the place and if he had been anyone other than himself, the crowd probably would have pulled out their weapons while running for cover, but being Jason Morgan the only person truly aware of the imminent danger was Johnny who all too well recognized the deadly look in his boss's eyes.
With a sinking feeling in his stomach, Johnny acknowledged two things – Jason's meeting with Sonny had not gone well and that the shit was about to hit the fan.
Focused as he was on Jason, he almost missed the sight of Scorpio stalking past him. "Fucking hell . . ." He swore to himself, even as he moved faster. This was not going to end well.
As the doorknob began to turn, everyone tensed and Lucky's hand tightened on the grip of the gun. A soft sound of relief was heard when Emily walked through the doorway, tossing a book bag heavily on the floor.
"Ok, now that I've arrived, will someone please tell what the hell is going on?" Emily demanded in an annoyed voice, throwing her hands up in frustration.
"It's hard enough trying to study in that madhouse, never mind getting dragged out without even so much as an explanation. If I get busted for this, I'm going to kick someone's ass!"
Carly laughed. "Make sure I'm around to see it."
Emily actually snarled in response to Carly's apparent nonchalance. Her eyes glanced over each one of them in turn with an alarmingly devastating accuracy, before zeroing her umber eyes on her best friend.
Taken totally aback, Lucky stammered, literally gob smacked for the first time in his entire life by this unexpected, not to mention unprovoked in his opinion, attack by his usually sweet Em.
He broke eye contact and looked desperately towards his father and cousin. "Ummm . . . help here? Please?"
Carly immediately refused to make eye contact and Luke, damn him, only snickered in response.
Left with no other options, Lucky reluctantly turned to his irate best friend with a tentative smile, his mind utterly blanking as to what he was actually going to say, when his cell phone suddenly saved him. Before the ring had even finished, he yanked it out of his pocket and with an apologetic shrug, quickly answered it, without even glancing at the number.
"Jason?"
There was a long pause on the other end, before an unexpected voice responded.
"Where are you, Lucky?"
Aww, fuck. Lucky winced, before running his hand through his hair frustrated with himself.
"Sorry Nik, things have been . . . a little hectic lately." He sighed audibly. "You know this really isn't a good time, right now. I'm gonna have to call you back later, ok?"
Although everyone was already watched him as soon as he answered the phone, upon hearing Nik's name Carly's attention intensified and Luke's expressions darkened as he now stared at Lucky suspiciously.
"If by not 'a good time' you mean that someone attempted a hit on the Corinthos-Morgan organization, then yes, I am well aware of that fact, which is precisely why I called you. We are still brothers despite our . . . disagreements."
Lucky's eyes widened as he checked his watch. They had only found out 20 minutes ago, so how the hell did Nikolas know already? Something was definitely going on. He turned into the couch slightly as his voice lowered.
"What are you talking about?" He demanded in a colder tone then he had really waned to.
Nikolas scoffed impatiently.
"I'm sure that most of Port Charles knows by this point. For future reference, car explosions involving both alleged mobsters and the police commissioner's daughter in a public parking lot does tend to make the rounds rather quickly."
He replied in a dry voice that belied his anxiety expressed only by his involuntary tapping of his fingers.
Ignoring his father's unwavering stare, he continued,
"Naturally, as a concerned brother, who knows of your involvement with said mobster's organization, I wanted to make sure you were ok. That is still permitted, is it not?"
Lucy sighed again, because when you put it that way, it sounded plausible enough. Maybe, just maybe, he's was getting to be as paranoid as Luke when it came to the "Cassadine Threat".
"Yeah, ok. I'm fine, I was nowhere near when it happened but this still really isn't a good time to talk, I need my phone free."
Nikolas briefly closed his eyes in relief. Alexis hadn't mentioned Lucky, but under the circumstances who the hell knew what was going on.
"Well, I'm glad you're not injured. Are you at the hospital?"
"No . . ." Lucky drew out the word and paused cautiously. Brotherly concern was one thing, but why did Nik keep asking where he was?
Nikolas smoothly responded. "Ok then, I was going to ask you how Robyn is, but I guess you wouldn't know. In that case I'll let you go. Talk to you later then."
He waited for Lucky to make his goodbye and hung up, leaning heavily into his chair. He hadn't gotten nearly as much as he had hoped, but was unwilling to push his luck any further.
"Well, that was a fairly useless endeavor." Stefan's ground out, in a tightly controlled voice.
Letting his eyes fall shut, Nik tiredly responded.
"I don't know what you expected to learn. We already knew that Carly, Lucky, Luke, Michael and now Emily are all together, likely entrenched in Morgan's penthouse. Considering Lucky and Luke's presence, not to mention the increase in Morgan's men that indicate they are expecting retaliation from someone."
"Yes and that is what worries me. This wasn't an attempted coup. Morgan wouldn't have been so careless, so Corinthos aside, where is the treat coming from – the mafia or elsewhere?"
Nikolas' eyes sprung open and Stefan wryly shook his head.
"I did mention that your grandmother has been spotted skulking around the Port Charles Harbor, didn't I?"
Nikolas mumbled a particularly vile Greek curse in realization.
"Morgan," Mac barked, with Taggert pulling up the rear sneering, as he stormed into Jason's path one hand hitting the younger man squarely in the chest.
"Scorpio." Jason replied in kind, his eyes flat and stony, even as he attempted to brush past him.
Taggert snagged his arm with a tight grip.
"Whoa, whoa there, Angerboy, we ain't even begun with you yet . . ."
Jason stiffened as he brusquely shook off Taggert's hand.
"Am I under arrest?" He demanded in a low tone.
"Keep it up and you will be." Taggert muttered surly.
Mac glared at Taggert, before turning back to fume at Morgan.
"Don't push me, Morgan! That's Robyn, my niece, fighting for her life in there."
"Yeah . . . and your point is?" Jason bit out impatiently.
"You sonovabitch!"
Mac saw red and lunged towards him, only to collide into the larger body of Johnny who easily shoved the commissioner back a few feet.
Now standing in front and just off to the side of Jason, Johnny glared back at the two officers. He opened his mouth, but was cut off before he had the chance to say anything.
"And in front of all witness's," Alexis' voice chided as she walked up to the hostile group, "very sloppy, commissioner."
Standing off to the side of the four of them, she shook her head in a show of thinly-veiled condescension.
Taggert's eyes narrowed in disappointment. In just 30 seconds, he watched his chances of arresting Morgan go up in smoke.
She took a moment to adjust her glasses, before turning slightly as she directed the full force of her attention on Mac.
"Now unless you have a warrant for my client's arrest, I believe this conversation is over . . . Unless of course, Mr. Morgan wishes to press charges against you for what I must say might be the clearest case of attempted police brutality I've ever been unfortunate enough to witness."
The hate-filled glare that swung her way started her already fragile nerves as she met Mac's eyes before they refocused on Morgan for a long, intense moment.
"He's free to go,' Mac bit out the words bitterly. "But if she dies, Morgan, I'll be getting that warrant and not even Ms Davis will be able to save your ass from me!"
He spun away, Taggert following at his heels.
Alexis let go of his breath, before turning to face Jason and Johnny.
She studied them both for a moment.
Morgan was as expressionless as ever, she mused to herself, re-examining him in the light of her new-found information. Her head tilted slightly as she tried to imagine him with Carly, her niece. The very thought was galling on an intrinsic level.
Family relationships aside, the girl irked her and the fact that they actually shared the same blood was beyond disturbing. So Carly was adopted, it certainly didn't justify her behavior . . . at least she hadn't been forced to witness her own mother's murder and at the hands of Helena, no less.
Jason's attraction to her was one thing, obviously Carly knew how to please men in bed – that much was obvious from her history, although Alexis couldn't imagine how much of a cold fish Morgan must be in the bedroom. The fact that both Stefan and Nikolas seemed equally blind to her faults was, quite frankly, mind-boggling.
Stefan's reaction, she could almost understand. Assuming the DNA results were correct, she was his daughter and if nothing else, Stefan was near obsessively protective of his family, but it's not like he had watched her grow up, or even had had one conversation with Carly. Perhaps his reaction was one of responsibility and guilt . . .
But Nikolas? His unexpected support didn't make any sense. Alexis vividly recalled a conversation she had walked into between Robyn and her nephew last month. Inevitably, the topic of Carly had come up and Nik had nodded in agreement as his friend began one of her endless litanies of the evils of Carly Spenser.
A cough drew her attention back to the matter at hand and Alexis blinked only to be confronted by Johnny's suspicious stare.
"Keeping the peace as always, I see," she snidely remarked, with a supercilious sneer she hoped divert his attention.
Johnny ignored the obvious dig, instead he challenged her.
"25 minutes? Considering that your office is around the corner that's odd under the circumstances, almost like you had to come from across town. What happened, Lexie, you ran into traffic at this hour?"
She responded by crossing her arms in front of her chest and dismissed him, turning to face Jason, whose eyes moved from Johnny to her, narrowing slightly.
"May I assume that we are done here for the night?"
Jason stared at her long enough to make her feel like a butterfly about to pinned up for display for he nodded in agreement.
"You'll be called if you're needed."
And with that, he walked past her, summarily dismissing her. Johnny smirked at her, before he followed suit, leaving Alexis with a phone call to make, even as she seethed in frustration. Jason might be austere and an unreasonable client, but having to deal with his obnoxious minion was enough to drive her mad.
Once Johnny sat down opposite him, the engine started. Jason stared out the window for a moment, watching the blur of lights.
"Do we have a problem I need to know about?"
Johnny froze for a moment.
The question hadn't taken him by surprise . . . not exactly, anyway. He'd been expected it from the moment they entered the limo, but since Jason hadn't asked already, he assumed . . . whatever it didn't matter anymore.
Johnny sighed, he knew a multi-layered question when he heard it, but he decided to answer only the most pressing aspect – no need to throw gas on the fire, they were in enough shit as it was at the moment.
"Ms Davis," he sarcastically referred to her, "has thrown in with her brother, who you can bet is well aware of anything she knows now."
Jason stared back at Johnny impatiently, waiting for him to continue.
"She lied to me on the phone. She didn't come from her office, so I'm pretty sure she was at Spook Island."
Jason raised an eyebrow.
"You've been hanging around Luke too much, man."
Johnny shrugged.
"If there is one thing I've learned from the Spencer's it's just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you. Anyway, I've got a guy checking on it to be sure, but it's pretty much a given and she was very curious to know if Carly had been involved in the hit."
"Great, just fucking great . . . " Jason scoffed, running a hand through his hair.
He leaned back, trying to get his thoughts in order.
Before he could even begin to get a handle on the Spencer-Cassadine shit, he need to deal with Sonny, whoever the hell tried to hit them, all while keeping Scorpio and Taggert off of his ass. Luke and maybe Lucky, if he didn't need the kid elsewhere would take care of Stefan. Luke, after all, lived for that shit and it would keep him hopefully out of Carly's way for awhile, which would be a nice benefit.
Sonny was unstable as fuck, even worse than he was after Lilly's death. He would have to be taken out of the equation, one way or another, before this was over. But first thing first, he needed to figure out who was making a grab for their territory and that was what was really fucking with him. Moreno would be the primary a contender and was a bastard, to be sure, but Jason didn't figure him for trying something like this.
No, whoever did it was either sloppy as hell or sneaky as fuck. Stupid enough to go after Sonny first, when anyone who was wise should've have come after him instead, sloppy enough to botch it and a moron for attempting it at the No-Name which is neutral territory. Unless they were counting on Sonny and the Committee assuming that he had tried to make the power grab, but no one in the know other than Sonny would buy that and Sonny was hardily a threat to him.
No matter how Jason figured it, he couldn't make any sense of it, not to mention the fact that trying was giving him a Carly-sized headache.
Listening to Lucky's explanation did little to quail Emily's frustration and she pouting at Jason's desk. Apparently, she somehow came to the conclusion that Lucky was to blame for her inconvenience and had decided to ignore him as she began pulling out her laptop to do her homework, grumbling to herself.
Seeing the pout on Lucky' face almost made Carly feel sympathetic . . . but not quite. She still had her own axe to grind with her cousin and Jason wasn't around to distract her this time.
"So Lucky . . . did Nik have anything interesting to say?"
She asked, sliding into the seat next to him.
Lucky's expression instantly changed from petulant to near panic-stricken as his thoughts raced. Damn . . . so for much for any hopes that she'd forgotten.
Jason had been pretty clear on the fact that he hadn't mentioned any of their suspicious to Carly. He hadn't come out and said expressly not to tell, but it had been strongly implied and Lucky still wanted to come out of this situation alive and intact.
"Ahhh, no, not really. He heard about what happened and wanted to make sure I was ok."
Carly nodded her head. "Yeah, I can understand that. It's kinda funny though when you think about it." She pointedly added glancing at Luke who was staring at the two of them as one would observe a wild animal exhibit at a zoo.
Wincing and knowing he was going to regret taking the bait, Lucky gave in anyway, asking, "Why's it funny?"
She smirked. "Well, with Nicky being a vampire and all, who have though he'd be concerned about a half-brother. It's just ironic, considering that some people in this very room think nothing of issuing death threats to their full-blood relatives."
Emily perked up, as she turned slightly, waiting to see the fallout on this Spencer drama. Lucky slunk even lower in the couch, wishing yet again that he was anywhere else. Luke's eyes brightened in anticipation of a knock-down drag-out fight, as stepped towards Carly, who was now standing up herself, complete with a head full of steam.
"What's the matter, little girl? You running out of material on me, 'cause I know I've heard that song before," he taunted her.
"Hey, why change it, when it's still true, uncle?" She retorted.
Luke shook his head mock sadly. "Didn't anyone ever teach you that using the same hammer, it eventually loses its impact? I expected more from you . . . guess I should've known better."
"Oh, I learned all sort of things, Luke." She drawled, decided not to pull her punches anymore.
"But you wouldn't know any of that, of course, since you couldn't wait to get rid of me when I was a baby and never bother to get to know me since I got here."
"And here we go again . . ." Lucky mumbled to himself, careful not to draw their attention. He was pleasantly surprised when Emily suddenly slid in next to him.
"They've been going like this for a while?" She whispered as quietly as possible.
"Yeah, pretty much until you got here," he answered just as quietly.
"Think we should break it up?"
He lifted an eyebrow in surprise. "Go right ahead . . . I'll mourn you at your funeral."
"All we need now is some popcorn or something."
Lucky glanced at her, a slight frown on his face. "Since when have been into blood spots?"
She quietly chuckled, digging out a comfortable spot under his arm, as she leaned back to watch the action.
"Whine, whine, whine . . . Don't suppose it ever occurred to you to once you got into Port Charles, to simply walk up and say something to one of us instead of sneaking around and plotting?" Luke demanded, getting angry despite himself.
"Whine?!? You sonovabitch!" Carly's eyes darkened into something that promised swift retaliation.
He knew full well that he wasn't exactly playing to the script and if Bobbie was here and listening, she'd probably try to kick his ass for it, but his frustration was beginning to get the better of him. The smart thing would be to simply cut his losses for the day and walk out, but three things kept him there.
He knew Jason wasn't messing around. If Luke walked out, then he wouldn't be getting back in, not until Morgan showed back up anyway, whenever that might be. Not even counting the guards, he knew Lucky could and would use that gun if necessary, but Luke wasn't about to leave that kind of burden on his kid. Spencers protected their own, end of story. If anyone who didn't belong tried to come through that door, Luke was going to take their heads off himself.
Secondly, he had a pretty idea of why Carly was going after him in the first place. No way in hell, she forgot their slip-up about the vamps, but she had decided not to push it, which was smart. The last thing she needed was something else to worry about with Jason out dealing with an attempted hit. Picking a fight with him was pure distraction and classic Spencer tradition. If she wasn't pissing him off so much, with her shots, he'd actually be proud of her for it.
And that brought him back to his problem. She'd fight with him because it was safe and he understood that mentality all too well. Back when he gave her that half-way serious death-threat, Bobbie was still in the dark about Carly being her daughter, which is how they both wanted it. Luke, because he was so damn sure it was the best way to protect his little sister and Carly, because despite whatever the hell he had convinced herself that she wanted revenge, one some level still wanted to preserve the unrealistic hope that her mother loved her.
Yeah, it made no sense, considering that shit with Tony, but since Bobbie didn't know Carly was her daughter, the fact that she hated Carly for breaking up her marriage didn't mean that she hated Carly, her daughter. Fucked-up logic to be sure, but Luke understood that kind of convoluted rationalization and it paled in consideration of some of the shit he had convinced himself of over the years.
As angry as Carly might be at Bobbie, there was always going to be a part of her that longed for a loving mother-daughter relationship, but in order for that to happen, Carly needed someone else to blame. And that was where he fit in, the perfect target for Carly to vent against, since according to Carly's logic, she didn't have anything to lose with him. It played in perfectly with his script, except he knew the one thing she didn't – he wasn't about to go anywhere. By his logic, admittedly equally fucked-up, it made sense, he thought of it as his penitence.
Unfortunately, her sniping was all too accurate. Getting pissed and lashing back, wasn't part of the plan, but it was getting harder to control himself. The last thing he wanted to do is to further ostracize her. Whether she liked it or not, they were family, and before they were done, she was going to realize that she couldn't chase him away.
TBC
Well, the story has now gone completely AU, lol, & I'm not done yet. Hopefully, the next chapter will be out much sooner. I've got lots of ideas for this story so if you've gotten this far, leave me a review. It's good karma, you know :D