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Carly whirled around, her blond mane flying at the sound of her name.
When
she saw it was AJ
Quartermaine, her eyes narrowed and she cast a suspicious glance around
the
hallway of her apartment
building. She noticed the apartment across the hall with it's
door propped
open and boxes just inside. AJ
was leaning against the door frame of this particular apartment, his
muscular
arms crossed over his chest.
"It's AJ Quartermaine, remember?" he said, pushing himself off the door
frame
and stepping toward her.
"Do you need help with those?"
Carly looked down at the packages she held and nodded, handing one to
him
while she fished her keys out
of her purse and unlocked her door. "I remember," she muttered,
stepping into
her apartment and placing
the bag she was still holding on the counter.
AJ followed suit, looking around her apartment after he'd placed the
bag down.
He focused on an elegant
picture frame poised on the telephone stand near the front door.
AJ stared at
the joyous people in the
picture for a few moments, before realizing that they were the picture
that
came with the frame. He
chuckled and looked back at Carly who was busying herself pulling various
salad fixings from her
refrigerator and placing them in a paper bag.
"You don’t seem too thrilled that we’re neighbors," AJ said tentatively,
running a finger along the edge of
the telephone stand then inspecting it for dust.
Carly rolled her eyes, still halfway in the refrigerator. "Brilliant
deduction, sherlock," she muttered, pulling
out a bag of tomatoes and inspecting each one carefully before depositing
them
into the paper bag.
AJ furrowed his brow, confused by her reaction. "May I ask why, exactly?"
Carly let out a huge sigh of exasperation and looked at AJ as though
she was
seeing him in her living room
for the first time. He really was sort of handsome, in a Quartermaine
sort of
way pretty good build, nice
hair. Definite possibilities. For someone *else* of course
Carly reminded,
grinning. She tossed her hair
over her shoulder and sighed again, for good measure.
"Jason’s not exactly going to be comfortable coming around here if there’s
a
Quartermaine *spy* next
door," she explained, as though AJ should have already figured *that*
one out.
AJ snorted at this, raking his fingers through his hair. "If you
hadn’t
noticed, *neighbor*, Jason doesn’t give
a damn about the Quartermaines one way or the other," he lamented,
not seeming
particularly happy with
this notion. "In fact, he-"
AJ was stopped by the sound of another female voice in the hall. "AJ?
Where’d
you want this last-"
Keesha stopped short in the doorway of Carly’s apartment and glared
at her.
"Carly." She pronounced the
name in a clipped tone, more obligatory than anything.
Carly smiled sweetly, gathering the bags together in her arms once again
and
heading for her front door.
"It’s always a pleasure to see you Keesha, but I have to get going
now so "
She ushered Keesha out into
the hall, AJ close behind.
When the three were out of Carly’s apartment, she handed the bag of
Chinese
food to AJ. "Could you hold
this, *neighbor*?" Carly asked, fishing her keys out of her purse
and locking
her door. "I’m off to the
penthouse," she explained, knowing neither AJ nor Keesha wanted to
know.
"Dinner for Sonny and
Jason they eat like pigs!"
Keesha rolled her eyes as AJ handed the pungent bag back to Carly.
She
practically skipped to the elevators
at the opposite end of the hall.
"Have a nice evening guys!" Carly called in a sickeningly sweet voice
as the
elevator doors closed.
Keesha turned on AJ as soon as Carly was out of sight. "Ugh!"
she groaned,
rolling her head back and
placing her hands on her hips. "That girl makes me positively
ill!"
AJ laughed, picking up the box she’d discarded in the middle of the
hallway
and placing it inside with the
others. "She’s not that bad " he began, then stopped when he
saw the look on
Keesha’s face. "Okay,
okay," he said, switching tracks. "She’s awful terrible horrible
"
"Shut up!" Keesha spat, plopping herself on one of the unopened
boxes just
inside AJ’s apartment door. "I
know you don’t think that so don’t try to humor me." She sighed
heavily,
blowing the hair off of her
forehead and watching AJ unpack a box of glasses in the kitchen.
Keesha
couldn’t help herself. Her
curiosity got the best of her.
"What’s so great about her anyway?" she asked, trying to sound casual.
AJ smiled, turning from the box to face Keesha, leaning up against the
door
frame. "She’s funny," he began,
thinking hard about the best way to sing Carly’s praises without, well,
singing Carly’s praises. "I think
she’d probably be a good person to have on your side. You know?
Loyal.
Fierce. A fighter."
Keesha rolled her eyes, picking herself up off the box and heading further
into the living room, surveying her
surroundings. "She’s also probably a bad person to *not* have
on your side,"
she lamented, pulling the
blinds open on each window and bathing the room in the dusky glow of
twilight.
"I mean, face it AJ, she’s a
bitch."
AJ laughed, taking more glasses out of the box marked fragile, and placing
them in the cupboards. "Yeah,
so you better watch out!" he teased.
Keesha ignored this, and turned toward AJ, a thoughtful expression on
her
face. "What do you think her
intentions are toward Jason?"
AJ swallowed his chuckle and became serious. He thought for a
moment,
wondering why Keesha would
find Carly a threat to Jason. "What do you *think* her intentions
are toward
Jason?" he insinuated, raising
his eyebrows.
Keesha closed her eyes at this, hating the pain it still brought to
her when
she thought about Jason with
another woman. It had been over a year since his accident and
she still
couldn’t get past him. It was as
though the man she knew, the man she was in love with, had died.
Jason Morgan
looked like him and
sounded like him, but was not him at all. There were no similarities
beyond
the physical, and even his
appearance was changing to where he didn’t even look like Jason Quartermaine
anymore.
AJ noticed her silence and realized it still pained Keesha to think
of Jason
with another woman. "I’m sorry,"
he admitted, going to her and pulling her into a friendly hug.
"But Keesh,
you’ve got to accept that Jason's
not the Jason he used to be, and never will be again. If he’s
with Carly now,
he’s with Carly now and that’s
just how it is."
Keesha buried her face into AJ’s chest, trying to keep the tears at
bay.
"Thanks for the pep talk, AJ," she
muttered, trying not to sound angry. She wasn’t angry, at him.
She was
furious at Carly. Her reasons why
were a little fuzzy at the moment, but Keesha was sure that her feelings
about
Carly were right. She was
just no good. And Keesha decided right then and there that she
was going to
do something about it.
Something had to be done to make sure Jason didn’t get hurt.
Or sucked in to
Carly’s shenanigans any
further than he already was. The plan was already beginning to
formulate in
her mind.
*~*~*
"Hello boys!" Carly announced as Johnny opened the door for her at the
penthouse.
Sonny was sitting at his desk doing paperwork, and looked up, then back
down,
without so much as
acknowledging Carly’s presence. Jason was no where to be seen.
Carly stuck her tongue out at the back of Sonny’s head as she went to
the
dining room table and deposited
the bags on top of it.
"Sonny," she drawled, shrugging her coat off of her shoulders and hanging
it
on the coat rack. "You didn’t
kill Jason *already*, did you?"
Sonny chuckled, finally laying his pencil down and getting up from the
desk to
peruse the packages Carly
had brought in. "He’s in the den watching TV," Sonny muttered,
pulling the
salad fixings out of one bag
and looking at them closely.
"I brought Chinese," Carly explained, pointing to the bag Sonny was
not
looking through. "And you said
you always like to have a salad so "
Sonny smiled, gathering both bags in his arms and heading for the kitchen.
"Nice," he murmured. "Thanks.
I’ll fix this up and let you guys know when it’s ready."
Carly beamed at Sonny’s approval. "Impressed?"
Sonny laughed, pausing in the doorway of the kitchen. "Slightly,"
he allowed,
nodding toward the salad
bag. "Now, if you’d *made* the salad, that would have been impressive."
*~*~*
Carly smiled at the sight of Jason, asleep on the couch, the faint blue
glow
of the television illuminating his
face. She grabbed a pillow from the opposite end of the sofa,
careful not to
disturb his feet, and laid it on
the carpet in front of him. Kneeling on it, she positioned her
face just
inches from his and plastered on her
widest, cheesiest grin.
It only took Jason a few moments to awaken, and he jumped back at the
sight of
her. "Ahh!" he gasped,
holding his injured stomach. "Why do you *do* that!?"
Carly began to chuckle, then laugh, throwing her head back and completely
enjoying the moment. "Cause
it’s funny!" she announced when she’d finally gotten ahold of herself.
Her
face softened at the grimace he
had twisted his features into, as he struggled to override the spasms
of pain
coursing through his abdomen.
"I’m sorry," she whispered, a concerned look clouding her face.
She smiled
slightly, and leaned into him
again. "Do you want me to kiss it better?" she purred, brushing his
lips with
hers.
Jason relaxed instantly, and even smiled a bit, circling his hand around
the
back of her head and pulling her in
for a deeper kiss. He kept it slow and languid, although his
heartbeat
increased with each second she was
joined to him.
Carly threaded her fingers around the back of his neck and up through
his
hair, a groan escaping from
somewhere deep in her throat as she realized how good he felt and how
long it
had been since she’d been
with him like this.
"I didn’t realize this was going to turn into a conjugal visit," Sonny
joked,
crossing his arms over his chest
and leaning against the door frame, an amused smile playing on his
lips.
Carly pulled away almost immediately at the sound of his voice.
She ran her
hand across her mouth,
standing up and trying not to look as embarrassed as she was.
Jason lay there
for a second more, slightly
dazed, and Sonny’s smile turned into a full-blown laugh at the
look on his
face.
"You going to be alright to come and eat dinner?" Sonny asked, clapping
Jason
on the shoulder as he sat
up. "Carly brought Chinese."
"And a salad," Carly piped up, obviously proud of her thoughtfulness.
Sonny rolled his eyes as the three made their way to the dining room.
*~*~*
"I got a job," Carly announced proudly, beaming at Sonny and Jason over
her
plate of kung pao chicken.
Both men looked up, forks poised in mid air, waiting for her to elaborate.
"I’m going to be a bar-ten-der," Carly enunciated, careful to highlight
the
fact that we wasn’t going to have
to be a waitress anymore. "Plus the bar back, and do the bookkeeping,
well
some of it. I know my way
around a calculator pretty well, you know. Anything that starts with
the
letter B, I’m doing we’ll except
bouncing, cause we all know I’m much better at *starting* fights than
stopping
them " she gushed, her
voice raising a few octaves at her excitedness.
Sonny laughed a little bit at this, and Jason couldn’t help but chuckle.
"Where?" Sonny asked, taking a large bite of fried rice and watching
Carly
expectantly.
Carly’s smile faded a bit. "Well, here’s the thing. I ran
into my *favorite*
uncle Luke down at the docks
and he was, you know, being his usual self. So we started fighting
and the
men that he was with sort of
jumped to my defense. Nice guys, they were. Well, after
Luke was done laying
into me, they felt sorry for
me and asked if they could buy me lunch. I’m never one to refuse
a free meal,
so I said sure, and if they had
a job floating around, I’d take that too. When Luke heard this,
he told those
guys that I knew you. I didn’t
know why he said that at first, then I figured it out "
Carly trailed off when she saw Sonny’s expression harden.
"Luke said you would probably be mad but he said you’d get over it,"
Carly
defended, hoping against
hope that what she had committed to wasn’t irreversible.
Sonny nodded, and let out a short breath. "Yeah, I bet he said
that," he
muttered, staring down at his plate.
"So let me guess, the guys you had lunch with were Mario and Peety,
and you
are the newest member of the
No Name family?"
Carly nodded slowly, glancing from Jason to Sonny with a nervous look
in her
eye. She was half nervous,
half defiant, truthfully. It was in her nature to defend herself
on instinct,
and she was trying hard not to go
on a tirade in front of Sonny.
Sonny took a bite of his food, chewing slowly and swallowing before
speaking
again. "I don’t like it
Carly " he began.
He was cut off when Carly stood abruptly at the table, picking up her
plate
and backing toward the swinging
door that lead to the kitchen. "I wasn’t asking your permission,
Sonny!" she
hissed before disappearing
behind the door.
Jason looked at Sonny and spoke for the first time since Carly’s announcement.
"Are you going to tell
Mario and Pete to fire her?"
Sonny sighed, shaking his head and pushing the food around on his plate
with
his fork. "No."
When it was apparent that Sonny had nothing more to say on the matter,
Jason
picked up his plate and took
it to the kitchen. He saw Carly standing at the sink, scrubbing
furiously at
an apparently clean plate. She
didn’t look up as he came in. Jason set his plate on the counter
next to the
sink and stood there, waiting for
Carly to acknowledge him. Her scrubbing only became more intense.
"Carly," he finally said, placing a gentle hand on her arm.
Carly slammed the sponge and plate down in the sink with a loud
clatter. She
whirled around to face Jason.
"What?" she snapped, folding her arms over her chest and glaring at
him.
Jason widened his eyes in surprise. He had no idea why she was
so mad all of
a sudden. "Just calm down,
Carly," he soothed, reaching up and encasing both her shoulders with
his
hands. "Sonny’s just worried
cause everyone at the No Name is connected."
Carly rolled her eyes, but softened just a bit. "I figured," she
muttered,
looking down at her feet. "But, I
mean, what does it matter? First of all, I’ll be surrounded by
men with guns.
What could be safer than
that?"
Jason dropped his head. "Carly " he muttered.
"Okay okay," Carly sighed, exasperated. "Look, while I was there,
it seemed
like the type of place John
Gotti takes his wife on their anniversary. Where he takes his
whole family to
celebrate his daughters
communion."
"*Who* goes there?" Jason asked, a confused look clouding his features.
Carly rolled her eyes. "Never mind," she said, shaking out of
Jason’s grip.
"What I’m *trying* to say is
that it can’t be much more dangerous than hanging out with you.
I mean, I’m
in danger from you aren’t I?"
Jason shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest. He did
not like to
dwell on the fact that indeed,
Carly was in danger from him, and the closer she got, the more dangerous
it
got for her. One hand
involuntarily trailed down to the wound in his stomach. He had
to admit it,
she was right.
"Yeah, it’s sort of like hanging out with me," Jason began.
"I mean, it’s
the same thing, I guess. But Carly,
I’ve never been to the No Name, but I do know that everyone who does
go there
works for or with Sonny
on some level. And some of them aren’t that nice."
Carly gave Jason an appealing pout, and thought for a moment.
"You’re not
that nice either, but I hang
around *you*," she said, a sly smile appearing on her face.
Jason dropped his jaw in mock surprise. "I am *so* nice," he exclaimed.
"I
put up with you, don’t I?"
Carly gasped. "You jerk!" she exclaimed, reaching into the
sink to soak her
fingers with water. She flicked
a bit of water in Jason’s face then backed away, laughing.
Jason’s eyes widened, and he nodded in understanding. He kept Carly
in his
stare as he moved toward the
sink, reaching his hand in and grabbing a fistful of water. Without
so much
as a word, he flung it at her,
leaving small droplets dripping from her hair and face.
Carly gasped, looking down at herself. "You want to play like
that huh?" she
goaded, pulling the soaking
wet sponge out of the sink and heaving it over her head. Jason
jumped out of
the way of the flying sponge
just as Sonny walked into the kitchen.
The soaking wet flying object landed right in Sonny’s chest with a wet
thud.
It fell to the plate he was
carrying and Sonny merely gazed in shock at the assailant as Jason
and Carly
dissolved into laughter.
*~*~*
Carly awoke to hear someone coming down the stairs. She lifted
up her head,
blinking rapidly to bring her
eyes to focus. She was in the penthouse, on the sofa in the living
room, and
she'd fallen asleep practically
sitting up. There was an arm beneath her head which she'd been
using as a
pillow, and since the person
attached to that arm was Jason's, Carly deducted that the person descending
the staircase behind her must be
Sonny.
She got up, groaning softly at the stiffness in her limbs. Checking
her watch
told her that it was nearly 2:30
in the morning. She had to get home, after all, she was to report
for work in
the early afternoon. Carly
cleared her throat softly at this thought, at the same time laying
eyes on
Sonny who was standing near the
window.
"Can't sleep?" she asked as she approached him, keeping her voice in
a low
whisper so as to not wake Jason.
Sonny cleared his throat, and it came out sounding more like a low growl.
"No," he muttered, glancing
quickly at Carly as she stood next to him, then turning his attention
back to
the darkness outside.
The two were quiet for a few moments, both lost in their own thoughts
as they
stared at the ink black water
below. Carly rolled her neck back, massaging it slightly with
her fingers
then trying to rake the tangles out
of her hair. Sonny's voice startled her and she jumped slightly
when he
spoke, her breath catching in her
throat.
"Carly," he said, in a voice of emotion she couldn't quite read.
"I'm sorry
about how I reacted about the No
Name. I'm not gonna fight you on it. I just want you to
realize why I feel
like you shouldn't work there."
Carly sighed slightly, closing her eyes briefly, then focusing them
on the
twinkling lights of the city in the
distance when she opened them again. "I'm listening."
"Everyone at the No Name is connected," Sonny began, explaining to Carly
without realizing that Jason had
already filled her in. He continued without allowing Carly to
interrupt.
"And it can be dangerous."
"Aren't I in danger standing right here at this window?" Carly asked,
peering
down to the sidewalk below.
Sonny tapped the glass with his finger. "Bulletproof," he murmured.
"And
reinforced. Johnny's
outside...Jason and I are right here. It's different than at
the No Name
where all kinds of things could
happen."
Carly rolled her eyes, blowing her bangs off her forehead. "Like
what? Like
the place gets shot up?
Bombed? What?"
Sonny closed his eyes at these words. He didn't even visit these
possibilities in his wildest nightmares. Too
many memories. Too many bad things had happened to people he
cared about
because of the organization.
He decided to ignore Carly's words instead. "I just don't want
you to hear
things here, then hear things
there, and all of a sudden find yourself knowing things you shouldn't
know."
Carly laughed at this, then covered her mouth, glancing at Jason.
She stifled
it nicely and took a breath to
steady her emotions. "Sonny, I don't know much about this mob
thing you have
going on, but I'm a pretty
sharp girl. And from what I gather, the danger is like cold weather.
Once
the temperature drops below a
certain degree, it doesn't matter what the temperature is, it's just
cold."
Sonny tore his eyes away from the window once more and shot a confused
look
toward Carly. "Do you
know that you make no sense when you talk?"
Carly shifted her feet, tilting her head and looking at Sonny with
exasperation. "What I *mean* is, at some
point, the longer I hang out with Jason, I'm just going to be
in danger in
general. At some point it's not
going to be any level of danger, it's just going to be...dangerous."
Sonny looked down, rubbing his eyes then moving his hand around the
back of
his neck and massaging it.
"Does that, does that bother you?" he asked, almost in a mumble.
Carly paused, putting a finger against the glass and shivering as though
the
cold that she felt as she pressed
the pane shot through her entire body at once. She wrapped her
arms around
herself and swayed back and
forth, then turned to look at Jason. She smiled as she watched
him sleeping
peacefully, his chest rising and
falling in a steady rhythm.
"Jason's worth it," she finally said, her voice confident and sure.
Carly
even surprised herself. She didn't
even know until she said it, but it felt like the most natural thing
in the
world. And she meant it, with all her
being.
Sonny caught Carly's gaze, and grinned. He nodded toward Jason
and patted
Carly on the shoulder. "He's
lucky to have someone like you," he lamented.
Carly beamed, grabbing her coat off the rack and putting it on.
She flipped
her hair outside the collar and
rummaged around the sofa for her purse. She finally spied it
halfway under
the couch and pulled it out
triumphantly. She put it on her shoulder and leaned down, brushing
Jason's
forehead with her lips.
"Listen Sonny," Carly said, as she opened the front door of the penthouse
and
stood beside Johnny.
"Thanks."
Sonny sighed as he watched her disappear out the door and into the world
beyond, suddenly seeming more
dangerous than before.
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