Chapter 14

First Jason saw the face of the man who injected him with the body freezing drug loom over him again.

Then Luke was there saying it was all over.

Soon another drug was shot into him and within a few minutes he could feel his body coming to life again.

He could move his toes , then fingers. Finally his limbs came back. But he was so weak he couldn't even sit up. His muscles had atrophied.

He had to drink some water before he could speak. And then his voice was very scratchy and weak.

The first words his said were, "Carly sent you?"

Luke smiled, "My niece seems to have quite a soft spot for you. Sorry it took so long."

Jason said, "Where'd that guy go?"

"The doc? He took off."

Jason groaned in frustration.

Luke added, "You can go after him later if you want but for now we need to get you out of here and strong again. Tracy and a nurse are outside. We can get a wheelchair and move you somewhere you can build up your strength again."

"I can walk." Jason said. He tried to sit up but couldn't do it.

Luke said, "Give yourself time, man. You've been through a living hell."

Jason gave him a haunted look. "Worse than that."

"I believe it." Luke said. He turned to go speak to Tracy, who still was waiting outside the vault, when

Jason said, "Thank you, Luke, for coming to get me."

"Thank Carly. She never gave up."

Rex picked the lock at Ric's office and they ransacked the place. Carly's phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Caroline, darling."

Carly held the phone in place with her shoulder and yanked open a file cabinet drawer. She rifled through it.

"Uncle Luke, it's been a while. You still searching for Jason or sipping Mai tais in Hawaii?"

"I'm looking at him right now."

Carly froze. She spun around and looked at Rex and Max who were busy searching. "Who?"

Hearing her tone of voice Rex and Max both looked at her.

Luke said, "Jason Morgan, alive."

"Let me talk to him."

Luke passed the phone to Jason, who sat next to him in the back of car. Tracy was driving and the nurse was in the front seat, an unwilling hostage who Luke had ordered to monitor Jason's health.

Jason said, "Hey, Carly." He heard her gasp. His eyes filled with tears. He turned and looked out the window, trying to hide his face from Luke.

Carly breathed into the phone softly saying, "Oh, Jase."

"I'm okay."

"I missed you." The word missed was choked out, making it five syllables.

"Ditto, Car."

She smiled and tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Where were you?" she asked

Jason couldn't even speak because he was so choked up so he passed the phone back to Luke.

"Niece, we won't be back for a while."

"Where are you going?"

"I can't say."

"Don't do this, Luke! Don't you dare! No one is keeping him from me for another second."

"Caroline." Luke said sternly

Carly tried to calm down. "What?" she hissed out

"He doesn't want you to see him the way he is. Is that clear enough?"

"What kind of macho bull is that? Is he hurt? Tell me, Luke."

"He will be fine. I got to go."

"Wait!" Carly cried " Do you know it was Ric who was behind all this?"

"That's what I heard from someone who helped him."

"Diego?"

"No, a doctor from Pennsylvania."

"A doctor?" her voice was frantic "What did he do to Jason?"

"Nothing that Jason can't recover from, okay? Just chill till we get back to town. It may be a few weeks."

"Call me every day. Twice a day. Tell Jason that right now."

Luke sighed, he said to Jason "Carly says call her twice a day."

Still looking out the window, Jason nodded.

"He says okay."

Carly sniffled as she thought about Jason, finally her mind started to react to him being alive and found and she felt weak. She grabbed at a chair and Max was instantly at her side, helping her to sit down.

"Bye." Luke said

"Hold on." Carly whispered. "Luke, thanks. Thanks a lot, okay? You don't know how much this means to me, really."

Luke felt his own eyes start to tear. Tracy looked back at him, almost sensing his heightened emotions.

Luke said, "I know a little something about going to extremes for love, Carly. I was happy to help."

"Take good care of him for me."

"I promise. Now, good bye, Carly."

The line went dead. Carly looked up at Max, who stood next to her wearing a look of concern.

Rex said, "Luke found Jason?"

Carly nodded. Then she stood up and hugged Max. She started sobbing in his arms.

"It's okay, Mrs. C." he patted her back "It's okay, Carly."

Carly smiled and pulled back, startled because he called her by her first name. "Did I tell you he was alive, Max? Did I tell you or what?" she cried happily.

"You told us." Rex said

"Damn straight I did." she said "So ha! Take that world and everyone who said he was dead."

Max said, "When you're right you are right, Mrs. C."

Carly grinned from ear to ear and did a five second happy dance then hugged Max again as she said,

" Jason is alive!"

Jason, still staring out the window, said softly to Luke "Could you call my parents? Tell them I'm alive, okay?"

"Glad to." Luke said

XXXXXX

Sonny usually didn't go near the basement door in the normal course of his day. But Lois called and was talking about high school. Sonny, feeling nostalgic, decided to get his old yearbooks out and flip through them.

He found Milo guarding the basement door.

"What are you doing?" Sonny asked

"Nothing sir."

"Excuse me then. I'd like to go into my basement."

"For what?"

"Move, Milo. I give the orders around here."

"Yes but I can't allow you into the basement, sir. We have a rodent problem."

Sonny glared at the young man. "You will step aside or you will no longer be working for me. And when you lose this job you don't get unemployment benefits. Though your mother will be able to collect on your life insurance policy. Do you get my drift?"

"Yes, sir."

"So what or who is in my basement?"

"Your brother. Carly found proof that he was involved in Jason's disappearance."

Sonny shook his head. "Milo, don't you know by now not to let her talk you into things?"

"I believe her, sir. And according to Max there is evidence."

Sonny narrowed his eyes. He mumbled "That can't be.. Hmm, I will get to the bottom of this. Go down there and blindfold Ric. I'll be down shortly."

Sonny went upstairs and took out some truth serum he had. He used it on his guards if he suspected them of disloyalty. If they were disloyal they never lived to tell the other guards how Sonny found out.

He took out a gun and loaded it. As he walked through the house Sonny was careful to not let his eyes linger on photos of Ric, Alexis, Kristina or Molly. He reached out and put his mother's photo face own on the mantle.

Sonny found his brother tied to a chair, blindfolded.

Ric was shouting, "Milo, we can make a deal. How much do you want? Talk to me! Come on. If Sonny finds out you did this he'll have your ass and you know it!"

Sonny grabbed Ric's arm and pushed up his sleeve.

"Milo, "Ric cried, unable to see out of his blindfold, "what are you doing?"

Sonny shot the drug into his arm.

He waited for it to take effect and then said, "Okay, little brother, what do you know about where Jason is?"

Ric said, "I took care of him. We don't have to worry about him"

"Oh yeah. You kill him?"

"Better. He's in a living death, paralyzed, my captive. I did it for us, Sonny. And Carly is next. That bitch is always in my way. She won't stop her whining about Jason. She needs to join him in his cell."

Sonny punched Ric and the chair Ric was in tumbled over.

Sonny grabbed him by the shirt and drug him back up. "Give me the address, Ric."

Ric cried, "I love you and you treat me this way. Why?"

"You crazy bastard. What is the address to where you have Jason?"

Ric told him.

Sonny pulled out his gun. He closed his eyes and said, "Forgive me, mother."

Then he pulled the trigger.

XXXX

Carly, Rex and Max heard the gunshot. They left Ric's bedroom and entered the hallway. Michael came out of his room.

He said, "What was that, mom?"

"I'm not sure, hon. Where is Morgan?"

"Coloring in my room with Leticia."

"Okay. Back inside for you too. Rex will stay with you while Max and I go find out what that was."

Rex nodded and ushered Michael back inside.

Max picked up his walkie talkie and said, "Marco, was that a gunshot?"

"Yeah, Max. It came from the basement."

Max pulled his gun out and said, "Stay up here, Mrs. C."

"No way."

They never made it to the basement because Sonny stopped them in the living room.

His eyes were crazed, their was a stain of blood on his shirt.

"Carly, get the kids and get on a plane for the island. Things are about to get ugly around here and I do not want my sons seeing it."

Carly stood on the stairs, still, her eyes huge. She whispered, "Is Ric...?"

"He did make Jason disappear." Sonny said "You were right. But don't worry I know where he is."

"Luke found Jason a hour ago."

Sonny screamed, "Why didn't you tell me? You did this all behind my back."

Carly walked the rest of way down the stairs and over to him. "I didn't know if you could believe Ric did this... if you could take care of him."

"Well, I did."

Carly hugged Sonny. "I talked to Jason. He's going to be okay. We are all going to be okay."

"Just go to the island. Alexis will be coming after me for this. I won't let her prove a case against me but it will be front page news for a while and Kristina will be caught in the middle. Get Michael and Morgan away from here until everything dies down."

XXXX

Monica listened to Luke's words, but couldn't make sense out of them. She gripped her cell phone tighter as her body started to shake. She stood in the middle of the Quatermaine living room with most of the family around, because they were having a board meeting. They had just been arguing about who controlled Tracy's proxy.

You're son is alive... the words repeated in her mind over and over and Luke kept talking.

She hissed, "What did you say?"

"Sit down, Monica."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?"

All the Quatermaines stopped bickering and stared at her. Edward said, " My God what is she so worked up about?"

Luke told her again, " I'm sitting next to your son, Jason, right now. It seems Carly was right all along. She'll probably be saying I told you so to all of you for life but I don't think you won't mind considering that your son is coming home to you."

"Jason is still alive? My boy is still alive, Luke?"

The Quatermaine's jumped to their feet and surrounded her, all taking at once.

Luke whispered to Jason, "You better tell her yourself, man."

Monica yelled at the family, "Quiet!" She angled the phone so that Alan could listen with her.

Jason swallowed down his tears, took the phone, and said "Hey, it's me...I missed you."

Note- One chapter to go!