Chapter 22
Shane pulled Caroline close and hugged her tightly. “I won't leave, not if you
want me to stay. I think that I may feel worse leaving, because I would never
know if we could have made it. We've always planned ahead, but this seems a good
time to live day by day. Even if you eventually do pick Jason, I want to know
that I tried. And I don't want to miss a second of you. I love you too much.”
“I know. I love you too. No matter what I do or say, I know that I love you. And
right now, I just want to focus all of my attention on you and Michael. Nobody
else.” Caroline kissed him softly, and Shane kissed back. The kiss continued,
and became more passionate. When they finally broke it off, Caroline was feeling
warm and safe inside. She smiled at Shane and was about to say something, when
she noticed him staring above her head. She whirled around, and found Jason
holding Michael, who had just come out of the office. Caroline's eyes met with
Jason's. In his eyes was hurt, anger, love… then finally… acceptance. He knew
that for now, he had lost.
Caroline took a deep breath, and tore her eyes away from Jason's, to look at
Shane. Shane was still staring at Jason, his expression unreadable. He then
cleared his throat, and took Caroline's hand. They stood in place, and watched
as Jason slowly made his way toward them. When he was a few feet away, Caroline
took Michael from him, and kissed her son's head.
“So did everything go okay?” Caroline asked quietly.
“Yeah. The doctor just took some blood, and a few tissue samples. He said he'll
call when the test results are in.”
“Did he do AJ yet?,” she asked while tucking her necklace in her shirt so that
Michael couldn't grab it.
“I guess the doctor is in with him now. I didn't exactly wait to find out,” he
answered
“Well, then I guess that we better leave. I really don't feel like facing AJ
again,” Caroline commented.
Jason nodded. “Let's go.”
The three of them walked to the elevator and reached the parking lot in silence.
Caroline looked at Shane and smiled. “Hey Shane, what do you want to do today?
I'm sure that you didn't come all the way from Florida to sit in Jason's
penthouse.”
Shane smiled back, and took Michael's baby bag from her. “Why don't we take
Michael and go out for lunch?”
Caroline shifted Michael to her other arm, and moved to the left as Johnny
opened the limo door. “Umm, okay. Anyway in particular?”
“Nope. It doesn't matter to me. You pick.”
“Why don't we just go to Kelly's? She serves good food.”
“Sure. Whatever you want,” Shane agreed.
“You'll have to take Johnny,” Jason interrupted. “And make sure that he stays
with you and Michael at all times.”
Shane opened his mouth to veto the idea, but Caroline gave him a look. “Fine,”
she said quietly, not wanting Shane and Jason to go at it again.
“Good. Why don't you go with the limo? That way, Johnny won't have to tail you.
First just drop me off at the penthouse.”
“Fine,” she said again.
********************
Jason opened the penthouse door, and found Robin sitting on the couch reading.
As soon as Robin saw her boyfriend, she closed the book and smiled. “Hi. How are
you?”
Jason sighed as he took off his jacket and draped it over his desk chair. “Not
too good,” he said as he walked over to her and gently kissed her.
“Mmmm… sit down. Tell me how it went,” she said pulling at his arm.
Jason complied, and put his arms around her. “It went fine, I guess. The doctor
took blood, and a few tissue samples. The only real action came before, when
Shane and AJ got into a fight.”
Robin narrowed her eyes. “A fight? About what? They don't even know each other!”
“Yeah, well, they know each other now. AJ was throwing insults at Caroline left,
right and center, and Shane wouldn't stand for it”
“Figures it would be Caroline's fault,” Robin muttered.
“Why is it Caroline's fault? AJ was the one who was out of line.”
“But Jason, AJ has the right to feel the way he does. He was drugged, lied to,
and betrayed by someone who claimed to be his friend.”
“I get that. But it doesn't mean that he has to act like a jerk to Caroline
every time he sees her. If Shane hadn't done what he did, I probably would have
jumped him.”
Robin sighed, and removed herself from Jason's embrace. She got up, and walked
towards the window. “Jason, I have no sympathy for that girl. She got herself
into this mess. She made choices… bad ones… and even when they backfire, she
always seems to get someone to dig her out of her hellhole. Like you… or like
Shane.”
Jason got up, and walked toward her. “What do you mean, like me and Shane? I
help Caroline because she's my friend, and Michael's mother. And its also my
actions which got her into the situation she's into now. As for Shane… he's just
trying to stand up for his girlfriend. I don't see anything wrong with that.”
“Of course you don't. You're blind when it comes to Caroline. Jason, I don't get
it. She's a liar, manipulative, and has no set of morals what so ever. She does
what she wants, and doesn't think of how her actions effect everyone else. She
only puts her own selfish needs in front… even before Michael.”
“Robin, you're wrong. Caroline loves Michael, she lives for him! When has she
put herself in front of him?”
“Jason! What do you mean *when*? She does it everyday! Ever since she first
found out that she was pregnant. She wanted Tony, so she didn't tell him that
the baby might not be his. She then drugged her baby's father! Was she thinking
about Michael then?”
“Yes, she was. She was afraid that AJ would take her baby. She just did what she
had to do in order to keep her son.”
“Really? How about when she left her newborn son to go to god knows where! You
can't stand there and tell me that she did that for Michael!”
“Robin, she just… she just left because the circumstances around Michael's birth
reopened old memories.”
“Like what? I don't think that there's anything that balances leaving your child
while he's in the hospital!” Robin practically shouted.
“Robin, would you calm down? Caroline was just… just thinking about her infant
daughter who died two weeks after she was born.”
“What?” Robin asked shocked.
Jason sighed, wishing that he hadn't told Robin about Caroline's other child. He
didn't know how Caroline would react to Robin knowing about Eleyna. “Caroline
and Shane had a daughter, who was born with complications, and died two weeks
later. When she saw Michael hooked up to tubes, she felt as if she was re-living
Eleyna's death. She just had to get away. She thought that it would be best for
both her and Michael. I don't agree with what she did… but I understand it.”
Robin was silent for a moment. “If I had a baby, I wouldn't leave him or her… no
matter what,” she said softly.
“Well, you're not Caroline. And you haven't lost a child before. She did. And
its not as of she didn't love Michael. She did. Every second of every day, she
fought. She fought Dr. Jones, she fought AJ, she fought ANYBODY… just so that
she could keep her child. People said that all she wanted was Dr. Jones, but
then why did she work so hard to keep him away after?”
“Because she didn't need him anymore. She had YOU.”
“She had me for what? I helped her keep her child. I wasn't going to marry her,
like Dr. Jones was. Caroline isn't dumb. If she wanted someone to look after her
or at least to provide for her, she probably would have told AJ the truth. If it
were money she was after, AJ would have been a better candidate than Dr. Jones.
But she didn't want money… she wanted her child. She came to me, desperate and
scared. She was afraid she was going to lose what she wanted most… her baby.”
“But Jason… SHE LEFT HIM! I feel bad about her daughter, really I do. But she
didn't know if Michael was going to die. By the time she woke up, Michael was
basically out of danger.”
“Yeah, but it still hurt her. She thought she had done something wrong that hurt
him. It was the second time that she had given birth to a baby, and something
had gone wrong. She was suffering from post partum depression, and she didn't
know what to do. Robin, you weren't there. She tried… she tried like hell to be
with Michael. The day she woke up, I opened her hospital door and found her
trying to walk. She wanted to see her baby. She wanted to be with him. Its only
when she got there, she realized that she couldn't do it. She also went a second
time, but still couldn't bring herself to hold him. Robin, when she said that
she was going to leave, she promised that she would be back. And I knew that she
meant it.”
“Fine. Jason, I'm not going to argue with you about that. But how about her
lying? She lied to Tony and to AJ about Michael. That's wrong, and there is no
way that anyone could justify it.”
“Robin, she knew that it was either her or one of them who would get to raise
Michael. She wanted it to be her. I don't see anything wrong with wanting to
keep and raise your child. If you were pregnant, and I said that I wanted the
baby, and that you couldn't go anywhere near it, what would you do? Wouldn't you
want to do all that you could to keep your baby?”
Robin bit her lip, and tried hard to fight the tears. “Jason, that's not going
to happen. I'm not going to get pregnant. At least not until there is a cure for
this damn disease. That's why I'm so upset to see Caroline use Michael as a
pawn,” Robin said as she wiped her tears on her sleeve.
Jason pulled Robin close. “I'm sorry,” he whispered. “I didn't mean to be
insensitive. Its just that I know why Caroline has done all the things she's
done. I may not condone it, but I understand it. And I understand why you feel
the way you do.”
Robin continued to cry softly. “It's not fair Jason. Nothing about the disease
is fair, but… it just hurts so much. And it hurts even more to see Caroline use
her child to get what she wants.”
“What do you mean, she's using Michael?”
“She's using Michael to get to you. She wants you Jason. She's always wanted
you. Sometimes I think that her main goal in life is to take you away from me.
She'd jump at the chance to get you into bed.”
Jason sighed, and remembered the kiss which he and Caroline had shared the night
before. He would have loved to have Caroline in his bed. It was she who had
declined. “Caroline isn't interested in me. She's with Shane now, so there's no
way that she's using Michael to get to me.”
“She's using Shane too. She wants to make you jealous. She thinks that if she
shows her and Shane as the perfect couple, you would get possessive of Michael.
She knows that whoever has her also has Michael. Right now, isn't Michael with
Shane and Carly?”
“Caroline,” he corrected. “And yes, Michael is with them. But she isn't using
Shane for anything. Except for love. She wants to love him, she doesn't want to
love me. So don't worry about Caroline. You're the only woman who wants me.”
Robin smiled. “I love you, and I would die if I didn't have you. And I think
that I would kill myself if I lost you to her.”
“Well, it’s a good thing that I don't have to worry about that. She's happy with
Shane.”
“For the time being. When she gets tired of him, she'll be back to focusing her
attention to you.”
“Right now, I don't see that happening,” Jason said softly.
“Good. Well, um, I'm going to make a salad for lunch. You want some?”
Jason nodded, and watched her go into the kitchen. He then sat on the couch and
rested his head on his hands. He thought about the look on Caroline's face when
he had kissed her forehead in the doctor's office. It had been a look of desire…
of longing. But he knew that she wouldn't act on her love for him. He then
thought about the kiss he had walked in on, between Caroline and Shane. He had
wanted to kiss her in that way. He wanted Caroline to kiss him that way. But he
couldn't see that happening. He wanted to fight for her… that's what Sonny had
taught him to do. Fight for what you want, what you believe in, and for those
that you love. He just didn't know if it was fair or right to fight for someone
who didn't want you back.
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