Fic: Love For A Child
Dec. 21st, 2009 11:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csi_sanders1129Chapters: Part 3: Chapter 2/2
Author:
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csi_sanders1129Genre: AU. Romance. Drama.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~7,500
Pairings/Characters: Jason/Spinelli.
Synopsis: Spinelli gets a call concerning his past and it leads to a significant alternation of his and Jason’s future.
Comments: Okay, I have been working on this fic since December and it is NOW OFFICIALLY DONE. And, I mean, really, my chapters had to be divided into chapters. This is that epic fic of epicness I’ve been mentioning sporadically over the months. It’s set in 2011/2012, but it takes certain liberties (Maxie and Spinelli were never really together, Jason turned Sonny in during the FBI stuff in early 2009, various other little stuff, too. Any questions, just ask, kay?) All in all, characters you recognize are not mine, but the new characters are mine. Enjoy!
Part 2: Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
Part 3: Chapter 1 |
June 11, 2012
What seems like seconds after their eyes finally close, the sound of Spinelli’s ringing cell phone shatters the silence of the room. Spinelli ends up crawling half off the bed to reach for his jeans to retrieve his cell, and flops back down beside Jason before he flips it open. ‘Maximista’ announces the caller ID. “Tis I, the Jackal.”
“Put me on speaker phone.” Maxie answers, by way of greeting, and he can hear Sadie cooing and babbling in the background once he presses the correct button.
“What’s going on?” Jason asks, a hint of panic in his voice.
“Listen, Sadie. Listen, it’s your daddies.” Maxie says, and her voice is quieter, like she’s holding the phone away from herself. “Say something, guys.”
“What’s going on?” Jason repeats, a little less worried because Maxie is clearly not that interested in talking to them.
“Is everything alright back at Casa De Stone Cold?” Spinelli asks.
“…Nnnn… Dada!”
Jason and Spinelli stare at the phone in awe for a moment, and then turn their gazes on each other. “Did she just...?” Jason asks, ice blue eyes shifting back toward the phone sitting in Spinelli’s hand.
“Affirmative.” Spinelli nods, and like the first time he saw the little baby he turns into his insane giddy self. “Sadie Baby…” He croons into the cell phone, and she giggles in response.
“Dada!” She repeats.
“When did this start, Maxie?” Jason inquires, and he hears Sadie say it again.
She hits a button, presumably turning her phone off of speaker. “Just a little while ago when I got up to feed her. She kept looking at the door. I may or may not have been baby-talking to her and then she just said it.” Maxie explains. “And I thought you’d want to know.”
“We missed it.” Spinelli realizes suddenly, his head falling back against pillows that survived their earlier games. “We missed her first word, Stone Cold.”
Jason’s hand lands on his chest. “Hey, it’s okay.” He returns his attention to the cell phone. “Can you get the video camera out of the desk and get her to say it again, so it can be catalogued on Spinelli’s tape of firsts?” He requests, and he can already hear her moving about.
“Of course.” Maxie answers. “And I’ll call if anything else comes up. Just enjoy the rest of your night.”
“Alright. We will.” The elder replies, and Maxie puts them back on speaker once more to say goodbye, earning another excited ‘Dada!’ from Sadie before they end the call.
But, Spinelli is still sulking. “We missed it.” He repeats, as he sets his phone on the bedside table.
“Last time I checked even you didn’t have the video camera out for every four a.m. feeding.” Jason reminds him, though he wouldn’t have been surprised. “There’s no way you would have gotten it on tape if it happened at the same time.”
“I know.” He pouts, and Jason leans closer to press languid kisses against Spinelli’s neck and shoulder, which the younger man eagerly leans into. “But one of us surely would have been conscious to witness such a spectacular event, and just a brief moment later, whichever one of us hadn’t would have been able to. Whereas, we cannot simply run downstairs and behold the major milestone that her first words represent.”
Jason has to agree with that, although he certainly doesn’t regret getting to have some time alone with Spinelli. He knows that’s not what Spinelli means, though. “Let’s just stay here a little while longer, okay? Then we’ll go home and we can hear Sadie say ‘Dada’ as many times as we can.” He suggests. “We’ll leave as soon as the sun comes up, if you want.”
Spinelli smiles and shifts closer to Jason. “I think a little later than sunrise will be fine.” He muses with a yawn. Another kiss pressed to Jason’s lips and he resigns himself to a few more hours of sleep.
***
“What now?” Jason mumbles, when the phone rings again just two hours later.
Spinelli fumbles for his phone again. “If Baby Sadie has suddenly learned how to walk, or speak in full sentences, or hack, the Jackal will not be amused.” And, again, the caller ID displays Maxie’s nickname.
Before he has time to question Maxie, she is in full hysterics. The phone remains on speaker, so they both hear the words coming out of her mouth. “Sadie’s gone!” Maxie declares in a state of absolute panic.
That gets Jason and Spinelli moving. They’re both scrambling for discarded clothing even as Jason demands further information. “What do you mean, she’s gone?”
Sniffling comes from the other end of the line. Crying. Not good. “I… this big huge guy, I’ve never seen him before, came bursting in. He hit me over the head with something… and I guess then he grabbed Sadie, but he was gone when Max woke me up. And, God, I’m so sorry…”
“Are you okay?” Spinelli asks, because as much as he’s concerned for Sadie, he doesn’t want Maxie hurt, either. They’re both pulling on shirts now, already having hopped into boxers and pants, and heading for the door.
“Don’t worry about me. You need to find Sadie!” Maxie demands. “Was this mob guys, Jason?”
“I don’t think so.” He replies, solemnly, as they impatiently wait for the elevator to arrive. When it does, the view is none of their concern, except for reminding them of the distance back to Port Charles. Mob guys would probably have either killed or taken Maxie with them. And besides, as far as he knows, there hasn’t been much in the way of new blood around. But perhaps the lack of chatter should have been a clue. Now he’s not so sure. “Call Max and Milo, get them over there with you.”
“We’re already here, boss. They took down Milo, too.” Comes another voice over the line. “I was on the other side of the building. By the time I found Milo, they were already gone.”
Jason growls, as he punches the button for the ground floor impatiently. “Damn it. Have Cody meet us there and tell him to start checking with all known associates for any information.” He’d do it himself, but Cody is his intended replacement and he’s going to have his hands full with trying to get them back to Port Charles without getting them killed or pulled over.
Spinelli is a near catatonic mess by the time they find the car meant for them to return in sitting in the parking lot. Max and Milo must have left in another car, because the SUV is still present. “She’s gone…” He mumbles, every once in a while, but is otherwise silent. And by the time Jason gets them on the road he’s just as worried about Spinelli as he is about Sadie.
Against his better judgment and his need to get home as soon as possible, he pulls over. “Spinelli.”
Nothing.
“Spinelli.”
Still nothing in response.
Jason is really starting to panic himself now. His reaches out and shakes Spinelli’s shoulder lightly before his hand trails up into Spinelli’s hair, and then Jason is pulling him close. That seems to work. “Spinelli,” he says again and that is evidently enough to crack through the wall.
“She did this.” Spinelli mutters, through an onslaught of rapidly appearing tears. “It had to have been her.”
“Casey?” Jason asks because somehow the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. But that makes more sense than a stealthily carried out mob conspiracy does.
Spinelli nods against his shirt, which is already damp with tears. “Indeed. Diana probably refused to demand Sadie be returned to her.” A sniffle. “And she probably took matters into her own hands.”
He has a point, Jason realizes, as he pets Spinelli’s hair to calm him. “We’ll find her, okay? I promise you that we’ll find her. But we need to get back home.”
The younger nods again and untangles himself enough to allow Jason to be able to drive. The rest of the drive is made in silence and when the building finally comes into view, Spinelli looks away. 122 Harbor View Towers. It’s never felt less like home.
Cody is waiting by the entrance for them. Jason throws the car into park and Spinelli is headed for him by the time Jason even gets the door open. “I had Max take Milo and Maxie to the hospital to get checked out. She said she’d call the Commissioner once they got there.” Cody tells Jason, as Spinelli blows past them and towards the elevator.
He presses the button and bounces impatiently for a moment before he gives up and takes off for the stairs. Spinelli is just reaching the door to penthouse number two when Jason and Cody reach the floor. “Wait.” Jason demands, a hand catching Spinelli’s arm before he can go barging in. “Did Max clear it?”
“He did, I did, no one’s there.” Cody verifies, but Jason slips into the room first anyway.
Nothing looks out of place except for the pile of toys on the floor, neon green octopus included. Spinelli falls apart all over again upon seeing that. “Stone Cold…” He motions toward Sadie’s favorite toy.
Jason curls an arm around him and Spinelli falls to his knees, bringing Jason down with him. “We’ll find her.” He repeats what he said in the car.
Spinelli spots his laptop sitting on the desk, right where he left it. And he’s glad this heartless thug was not of the search and destroy type. He sniffs and climbs away from Jason, opening his portal into cyberspace and waiting anxiously for it to boot up.
“What are you doing?” Jason asks, standing behind him, Cody on his other side.
“If the Jackal can hack into his mother’s bank account, then we will be able to tell if she was indeed behind this cruel act.” He types in his password and loads his internet browser and sets to work jackaling the information he needs.
“You don’t think this was mob related, then?” Cody asks, having not been told otherwise.
Jason motions to Spinelli. “We’ll see.”
Just a few moments later, the Jackal has successfully hacked into their required information. “There are no overly suspicious transfers from Casey Spinelli’s account, but there was a one hundred thousand dollar sum deposited two weeks ago. It came from an offshore account belonging to…” A few more clicks offshore accounts usually prove pretty tricky. The new window appears proclaiming the new information, and Spinelli’s eyes widen in confusion because the name doesn’t belong to anyone he recognizes, not even as an alias. “A Miguel Conlon.”
Jason rages in anger at the equally unfamiliar name, a fist flying to significantly dent the wall. “Did Conlon pay for the actual kidnapping, or did Casey?” He asks, because that is what he needs to know.
He’s typing away again. “Ugh, there have been numerous small transfers from Casey’s account,” He won’t call her Mom anymore, Jason’s notices. “To the tune of nearly fifteen thousand total, all to the same account. Registered to an Eric Samuels, residing in New York.”
“Samuels?” Cody echoes, biting his lip in thought as the name rings a bell. “Some of the guys saw someone down by the docks the other night named Samuels. They were convinced he was just looking for work, but…”
A knock at the door interrupts Cody from saying anything more. And surprisingly, it’s Commissioner Scorpio as opposed to Lucky making the house call.
“Are Maximista and Milo in good health?” Spinelli inquires, as he minimizes his incriminating searches.
Mac fixes him with a glare. “They’re both fine. Both with mild concussions and both back here.” He turns his infuriated gaze onto the root of all of his problems. Jason Morgan. “When are you going to realize that your mob lifestyle hurts everyone around you? I’m sick of my daughter being in the middle of this all the time.”
Jason motions the older man out into the hallway, pulling the door shut behind them. “This wasn’t anything to do with me.” He explains, honestly, for once. He doesn’t know what Miguel Conlon has to do with Casey or Sadie or Spinelli, but as far as he knows it’s not mob-related.
“Yeah, I’ll believe that when hell freezes over.” The Commissioner scoffs. As if the mob ever does not have something to do with anything that occurs in their town.
“Spinelli’s mother took Sadie from us because she found out that he and I are together. She didn’t take it very well, lots of yelling, screaming. Granted, Sadie isn’t ours yet, technically, but if anyone can relate to being a parent to children that aren’t biologically yours, I figure it would be you.” Jason fires back at the man who pretty much raised Robin, Maxie, and Georgie by himself.
Mac nods in agreement, with the good sense to look somewhat guilty for jumping to conclusions. “Sorry.” He relents, still with a hint of hostility, but he does understand. “I’ll get Lucky and everyone to start the search and put out an AMBER alert.” A sigh, and he’s grabbing his radio. “You have a description for me?”
Jason provides a description of Casey Spinelli and a photo of Sadie for Mac before he slips back into the Penthouse. Much to his concern, Spinelli is tugging on a jacket when he does. “Where are you planning on going?”
“With you. After Sadie.” Spinelli replies, simply enough, as he slings his messenger bag over his shoulder.
“No, no, no.” Jason shakes his head, and glares at Cody just in case he put this idea in Spinelli’s head. “You’re staying here.”
Spinelli blocks the exit out the front door with no qualms at all about getting between Jason Morgan and an escape. “Sadie’s mine, too, Stone Cold. You’ll need me to go along, to track Casey’s movements, if nothing else.”
Jason sighs in defeat, knowing from the start that this was an argument he wouldn’t be winning. He’s reeled further in when he spots a neon green object tucked in Spinelli’s pocket. Sadie’s octopus. “Alright. Come on.” He sweeps an arm over Spinelli’s shoulders, holding him close before they step out of the penthouse. He still has instructions for Cody. “Can you keep checking with contacts about Samuels and Conlon?”
Cody nods and is already on his cell phone by the time Jason and Spinelli reach the elevator.
“Where are we supposed to start?” Jason asks, because he knows Spinelli probably already searched as much as he could.
“There was activity on her credit card at one of the bus depots just outside of Port Charles. Fortunately for us, this Conlon character presumably did not tell her the rule about not using credit cards while on the run with kidnapped children.” Spinelli rants, quite begrudgingly. “Did the Top Cop register an AMBER Alert for Princess Sadie?”
Jason nods, as they race back toward the SUV. “Yeah. I gave him one of the pictures you took last week and a description of Casey. He’s sending both in.”
Spinelli is visibly relieved to hear that. “Then there is a greater chance that she will be apprehended before she boards any buses.” They’re in the car now, and Spinelli is gripping Jason’s hand for dear life as he speeds off in the direction of the bus depot Spinelli goes on to tell him about.
It takes them nearly forty five minutes to get to the place. They hit every red light along the way, of course, and end up behind any and all slow drivers on the road. And by the time Jason finally swings the car into the depot’s lot, Spinelli is nearing catatonia again. Jason pulls him close for a second and kisses him quickly.
“Better keep that close.” He gestures to the green octopus as they both clamber out of the vehicle.
Upon entering the crowded lobby whereupon a good hundred or two people are milling about, the couple splits up, searching through the crowds for signs of Sadie.
Three little kids all huddled together playing with some sort of portable video game system. No. Handful of teenagers milling about in one corner, probably up to no good. Negative. Jason spots a woman slightly reminiscent of Casey, but it turns out to be some innocuous older lady who very nearly takes his head off with her cane.
“You spot anyone?” Jason asks, when he joins up with Spinelli again.
A guy about Jason’s age walks by with a squirming baby in his arms, but they disregard him quickly enough. They’d be able to pick Sadie out easily.
“Dada!”
“Did you…?” Spinelli inquires, upon hearing the same voice he had over the phone just a few hours ago. “Sadie!”
They split again, both calling out her name every couple of seconds. It’s like a very messed up version of Marco Polo, but eventually Spinelli zeroes in on another squirming infant. This one wrapped up in blankets in a woman’s arms. Casey.
He comes to a stop when he realizes he has no way of getting Sadie safely out of her grandmother’s arms and into his own. “Sadie…” He whispers, so glad to see her even if she’s not in his arms yet.
Jason appears beside him just seconds later, as do a handful of security officers stationed at the bus depot. “There a problem here?” One officer, Ryan Kelly, his ID badge reads, asks, looking between the people involved in whatever this is.
“Those two hooligans are after my grandbaby.” Casey says, sounding offended enough to pass for someone who doesn’t know them.
Officer Kelly glares intently at the two culprits and looks about ready to have his boys haul them away.
“She’s ours. The baby is ours. Her name’s Sadie. She was reported kidnapped about an hour ago by a Port Charles Police Officer. Mac Scorpio.” Jason explains, and Spinelli is digging her neon green octopus out of his pocket. “He has her favorite toy.”
Sadie’s eyes light up, but she is being unhelpfully quiet. “Oooh.” She squeaks, one hand reaching out, not fully coordinated enough to grab it effortlessly yet.
Casey, or whoever she is claiming to be, knocks it from Spinelli’s hand before Sadie can grab it. “Nonsense. You can’t prove that that’s her favorite toy or any of the other lies you’re spinning.”
Jason nudges Spinelli, and whispers something to him. The officers around them don’t seem to like that too much, but Jason stops as quickly as he started, and Spinelli talks this time. Only… he doesn’t seem to really know what to say. “I ugh… her name is Sadie Morgan Spinelli. I picked it out. Sadie, because it’s my sisters middle name. Morgan, because it’s his last.” He gestures to Jason. “I call her Princess Sadie a lot, because Sadie means Princess, and sometimes Baby Sadie, just bec-” He’s cut off when little tiny arms reach out for him. “Oh, finally.”
“Dada!” Sadie squeals with joy, reaching out for him as if suddenly realizing that they’re there. “Dada! Dada! Dada!”
“And she called us Dada for the first time earlier today.”
The various police officers seem quite inclined to believe them now, especially after one radio’s in to check on recently issued AMBER alerts.
“Yeah. Just got one in for a sixth month old. Female. Sadie Spinelli. Suspect is a brunette woman, Casey Spinelli. The kids grandmother. Don’t tell me you found the kid already? Over.” Came the dispatcher’s voice over the static filled radio.
“Ugh. Seems like they found us. Who’s the baby supposed to be with? Because our supposed suspect is claiming it’s her. Baby is screaming otherwise. Over.” Officer Kelly reports in.
A static pause. “Lemme call in to check. Over.” Another break in conversation, broken by another upset shout from Sadie and a stream of tears follows suit. “A, ugh, Damian Spinelli or a Jason Morgan, according to the report. Over.”
Jason slowly pulls his wallet from his back pocket, as the cops around them are still wary of them, obviously. “My ID.” He says, by way of explanation, as he passes the wallet to the nearest officer.
“Jason Morgan.” The man reads, and passes it to Officer Kelly, who eyes it for a moment before returning it to its owner.
“And Damian Spinelli, I presume?” Kelly questions, looking to the other man.
Spinelli nods and produces his own ID, offering it to another officer who nods in confirmation.
With the law definitively on their side now, Jason and Spinelli are slightly more at ease. Not until Sadie is back in their arms, though, will they be completely relaxed.
“Ma’am.” Officer Kelly says as his men move to surround her more thoroughly and Jason and Spinelli less. “You don’t have anywhere to go, so just pass the baby to one of us and this can all go smoothly.”
That statement seems to remind Casey that this does not all have to go smoothly. She holds Sadie tight, almost too tight, really. And everyone around her realizes that she’s made her decision not to go quietly into police custody. “No,” She shakes her head, glaring intently at Jason and Spinelli who stand right in front of her. “No, I won’t let you take her.”
Sadie’s cries escalate to a new level of intensity, and one of her arms flails about wildly reaching out to them.
By now a small crowd has formed around them, made up of the other pedestrians milling about the crowded bus station. Officer Kelly is forced to give up a few of his men for purposes of controlling the gossiping mass of people. “Look, we don’t want anyone to get hurt here.”
“I’m not letting my granddaughter grow up with the likes of those two fags.” Casey hisses, still clutching baby Sadie. She swats at the baby’s extended arm to keep her that much closer. “She’d be better off dead than raised by my incompetent and irresponsible son. Not that I’d even consider him that anymore.”
Various glances are had by all not directly involved between Jason and Spinelli and Casey and Sadie, mostly from the crowd, but a couple coming from security guards who had shown up late to the party. “Let’s not get out of hand, here, alright?” Officer Kelly continues his ineffective negotiation. “Don’t do anything irrational.” He adds recognizing the hint of threat in the woman’s words.
Jason and Spinelli, who have been observing with silent terror for the last few moments, have had about enough. “We have to do something.” Spinelli whimpers, eyes locked onto the squirming bundle that is one very distressed Sadie.
Sadie is falling unnervingly silent now, probably because she can’t breathe due to how forcefully she’s being held.
“That’s it.”Jason whispers to Spinelli. Casey has turned her attention on the lead security guard as he tries and continues to fail at talking her down. “Get Sadie.” He instructs, and nudges Spinelli forward a bit as Jason circles around to stand behind her before he drives forward and catches her.
Spinelli follows Jason’s orders and moves forward as well, just as Jason makes his move. Sadie slides rather gracefully from Casey’s arms into Spinelli’s.
Only… one of Casey’s hands darts out despite Jason’s attempt to hold her back. Her extending fingers wrap around Sadie’s little arm and twist, and there is an audible sickening crack.
Everything is silent and unmoving for the briefest of seconds until Sadie breaks out into the loudest cry either Jason or Spinelli has heard in the six months since she joined their family.
“Sadiesadiesadiesadie…” Spinelli repeats as he cradles her in his arms.
Jason passes a struggling and cursing and shouting Casey off to one of the officers, not even watching as she is handcuffed and led away. His focus is entirely on Spinelli and Sadie, and the fact that the poor little infants arm is very clearly broken. “Keep her still.” Jason says, falling to his knees beside Spinelli. He runs a hand over Sadie’s head but nothing stops the screaming.
“An ambulance is on the way.” Officer Kelly tells them, but then returns to the chatter emitting constantly from his radio.
It seems like forever before the sirens are approaching. Probably just minutes, really, but with Sadie wailing in pain and Spinelli looking pretty much shattered from the inside out, and Jason just trying to keep everyone calm, it’s much more like eternity.
But then two paramedics are trying to extricate Sadie from Spinelli’s hold. “Sir, we need to take her.” One medic says, but Spinelli is having none of it.
“I’ll carry her.” He protests, and the paramedics relent rather surprisingly. Spinelli and Jason follow the medics outside to the waiting ambulance, and they allow Spinelli to sit on the stretcher and keep hold of Sadie instead of resting her on the obtrusively large surface by herself. Jason, however, acquiesces to their instructions to sit on the bench beside the stretcher so they can work. “Her arm… Is she going to be okay?” Spinelli asks, voice faltering as he speaks.
One of the medics, David, the name on his shirt reads, seems slightly less concerned with little Sadie’s arm and more so with the bruise revealed when he cut away the pink track suit-ish top thing Maxie must have dressed her in – Jason had been opposed to its purchase, she’s not going to be out jogging anytime soon, he’d argued, but Spinelli had insisted and ultimately won out. “I’m worried about this.” The medic states.
“She was being held like this,” Jason speaks up, demonstrating Casey’s grip on thin air. “And she got quiet for a minute before we got her away.”
“Hmm.” The medic observes, as he checks on the baby’s heart rate. Slightly elevated, but kind of expected given the recent trauma and the break in her arm. “Double time, Tom.” David calls up to the front of the ambulance, where his partner is already well on the way to the General Hospital.
Jason shifts closer, barely on the edge of the seat. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just concerned about her breathing. I mean, she seems okay for now, but she probably needs a chest x-ray.” The paramedic explains. “Her arm, too, obviously.”
Spinelli and Jason trade concerned looks, and Jason can read Spinelli all too easily now. He’s nervous and tearing himself up inside and probably five thousand other things that he can’t help with until they get a moment alone and know Sadie’s okay. For now, he rests a hand reassuringly on Spinelli’s shoulder and gives a light squeeze. “It’ll be okay.”
The hospital is unsurprisingly bustling with activity – as it always seems to be since the remodeling after that fire following the bio-toxin incident a while back. But, they are seen to quite promptly. Robin greets them by the door, looking quite unhappy about seeing so many friends in one day. First Maxie, now the trio of Jason, Spinelli, and Sadie.
“What’s going on?” While news of the kidnapping had indeed spread throughout Port Charles faster than wildfire, most of the details were unknown. “Is Sadie okay?”
David the paramedic interrupts any answers the stressed out parents might have provided and begins a report on his patient’s condition.
His assessment spurs Robin out of concerned friend mode and into serious doctor mode. “Let’s get her up to Pediatrics.” She says, and toward the elevators they all go.
Two hours later, after quite a bit of poking and prodding and x-raying, Sadie is sleeping as contentedly as possible for the moment against Jason’s chest while Robin looks over the various images provided by the x-rays. “Well, I’m pleased to say her chest seems to be fine. No broken ribs, no pneumothorax. Her arm is definitely broken, though. We’ll set that and give you some light pain meds for her.” She explains, still surveying the multiple angles.
“Will she need to stay long?” Jason inquires. He just wants to get Sadie and Spinelli back home. His lover has been quiet ever since they’d climbed into the ambulance. They all just need to relax and remind themselves that this nightmarish panic of a day is over now, and Sadie is safely theirs again.
Robin shakes her head. “No, once we take care of her arm, you’ll be able to go. If you see any changes or new symptoms, get her back here quickly, though.” She insists, just as a new student nurse walk in with the casting materials. “On the plus side, the break was clean, so we don’t have too much to worry about there. Baby bones are notoriously resilient.”
The process begins, starting with a gauzy underlayer before the plaster is added to the mix. Just a few squirmy minutes and then the cast is done.
“Pink okay?” Robin asks, and Jason nods. And the procedure is ended with a pink wrap over the white plaster.
“Thanks.” Jason says, and shifts Sadie in his arms. The poor baby is exhausted and her head lulls against Jason’s chest the second it can.
“Just remember: I don’t really want to see you guys from this perspective often, okay? Friendly Robin is fine. Doctor Robin, not so much.” She tears off a prescription for a child friendly pain killer and tucks it in Jason’s jacket pocket. “Now, go round up Spinelli and get home.”
Jason smiles, because Robin has succeeded in making him feel better. That all comes crashing down when he spots Spinelli curled up in one of the awkward hospital chairs, with his head buried against his knees. He sighs. “Sadie, look.” He prompts. “Who’s that?”
The sleepy infant is understandably grumpy, but upon seeing Spinelli she smiles. “Dada!” Putting her one and only vocabulary word to use she squeaks and waves at him with her good left arm.
Spinelli looks up and untangles himself, crossing to stand in front of Jason and Sadie. “Hey Baby Sadie.” He coos, and kisses her forehead. He doesn’t accept when Jason tries to transfer her to his arms, though.
Jason’s not quite sure what to make of that yet. “Ready to go home?” He asks, nonetheless.
“Affirmative.” Spinelli replies, sounding as broken down and exhausted as he looks.
Minutes later they are at home once again, and well on their way to their floor when the elevator dings early. Maxie’s standing in front of them, looking several kinds of miserable. “Oh, thank God. She’s safe.” The blonde exhales, and moves forward to hug Spinelli quickly. “I’m so sorry, you guys. I’m so sorry.”
Jason’s free hand lands on her shoulder. “Wasn’t your fault.” He says simply. “How’s your head?”
“Fine.” She answers. “They hit Milo a bit harder, though. He’s crashed on the sofa inside if you wanna talk to him.”
He shakes his head. “I’ll talk to him later. Tell him to feel better, alright?”
Maxie smiles and backs away to let the elevator doors close. But Jason then realizes that Spinelli is nowhere in sight.
He hadn’t even noticed Spinelli get off the elevator, but the stairwell doors are just swinging shut so he can guess where he’s gone. “Your daddy’s having a bit of a mental breakdown, it looks like.” Jason tells a sleepy Sadie as the doors slide closed. She thunks her casted arm against his chest. “Don’t worry. We’ll fix him.”
When he and Sadie finally do reach the proper floor, Spinelli is nowhere in sight, but two guys clad in blue FORENSIC windbreakers are waiting for the lift themselves. “Glad you guys got your kid back.” One says, as he enters the elevator. “We cleared the scene and just let your roommate in.”
“Thanks.” Jason says as he slips quite hurriedly towards the door to Penthouse 2. A couple things are out of place and there seems to be excess fingerprint powder on a few surfaces, but otherwise the living room remains untouched. He knows where Spinelli will be, but he has to take care of Sadie first.
He makes up a bottle quickly in the kitchen, goes through the motions of feeding and burping a very sleepy Sadie, gives her a dose of her pain meds, and then he’s heading for the stairs.
“Spinelli?” Jason prompts, as he pushes open the door to Sadie’s room but finds nothing. Option two it is then.
Spinelli is lying face down on their bed once again, just like the night this whole mess started, when Jason enters the master bedroom.
“Spinelli.” He repeats, sitting on the edge of the bed.
Slowly the younger man sits up, knees once again drawn up to his chest. “I’m sorry.” He says simply, and Jason is baffled.
“For what?”
“Dada!” Sadie coos again, casted arm reaching out for Spinelli. Spinelli’s eyes fall as a reaction.
“She wants you.” Jason prods, prepared to turn the now squirmy and grumpy infant over. “I’ve been holding her all day; I think she’s sick of me for a while.”
Spinelli half-laughs at that. But still doesn’t move to take Sadie. “I… I’m afraid I’ll break her.”
Jason’s reaction is similar to that of a deer caught in headlights. “What?” He says, nearly frozen in place.
“I don’t want to hurt her.” He repeats, as he plays absently with his hands, not letting himself get near Sadie, as if touching her would shatter her into a million pieces.
“You’re not going to break her.” Jason insists, shifting Sadie in his arms so he can reach out to Spinelli who shies away from his touch, as well. “You didn’t do anything wrong today, Spinelli. You understand that, right?”
“It was my fault. This was all my fault.” Spinelli laments and the lack of Jackal-speak is really starting to worry Jason on top of everything else at this point.
Jason can’t believe what he’s hearing. “How was any of this chaos your fault, exactly?” He asks. He drops his hand and scoots closer to his retreating lover. “Because I can’t wrap my head around why you think that.”
“Because…” A long pause indicates that Spinelli has not previously thought of any well-thought out reasons to support his claim. “Because Casey was my mom.” He finally says. Jason notes the past tense. “And maybe we should have been harder to find, or had more security, I don’t know, but I know I’m supposed to look out for Sadie. And then I get her arm broken when I try to save her.”
By now, Spinelli has scooted himself to the edge of the bed in his attempts to evade Jason and his comforting touch. And when Jason’s hand lands on his leg, he pulls away again, causing himself to tumble backwards. With his knees hooked on the edge of the bed and the rest of him on the floor, it is a very ungraceful fall. “You okay?” Jason asks, concerned as he leans over the edge, with Sadie in his arms.
The baby giggles at Spinelli’s predicament and once again tries to escape Jason’s hold to get to him. “Dada!”
Using the opportunity presented by Spinelli’s current position, Jason shifts to sit beside him on the floor, trapping the younger man in place with his free arm. Sadie is still squirming but he keeps her back until he’s got Spinelli thinking clearly again. “What she did to Sadie, what she did to us in taking her. That’s all on her. The other guys, too. I haven’t forgotten about Conlon or Samuels.” Jason adds, making a mental note to put a call in to Agent Raynor about those two, too. Just in case the federal agent can help them at all. “None of this is on you. Casey broke Sadie’s arm. Not you. You’ve never, ever hurt Sadie.”
Spinelli frowns, until he finds a very impatient six month old placed on his chest. “No, don’t-” He cuts himself off when Sadie smiles at him and says her new favorite word over again. “Princess Sadie…” He sighs, defeated at least for now.
“Better?” Jason asks, as he leans down to kiss Spinelli softly.
The younger nods slowly, and gathers the contented Sadie into his arm so he can sit up. Jason’s arm releases him and helps him up. “Much. Thanks.” He replies, resting his head against Jason’s shoulder. “This has just been one very long day, Stone Cold.”
Jason contemplates their chances of being able to go to sleep uninterrupted now – they all certainly need it at this point – but he doubts Maxie will be the last one inquiring into Sadie’s condition today. They still have to talk to Mac, and Jason does need to call Raynor, and call Diane as well. “We’ll camp out in Sadie’s room tonight.” He promises for now. “Let’s just relax for right now, though, okay?”
Spinelli nods and they head downstairs to the living room. Some of Sadie’s toys are scattered about by the couch and Spinelli stops in his track when he sees them. “Stone Cold.”
“Yeah?” Jason asks, across the room and reaching for the phone.
“The octopus.” Spinelli pales. “We left it at the bus station…”
He’s right, Jason realizes, after Casey knocked it out of Spinelli’s hand, no one paid much attention to the neon green octopus. “We’ll figure something out.” Jason says, even if it means driving back to that dreaded place.
Spinelli nods, looking somewhat disheartened at the loss of the permanent fixture in Sadie’s life. “Come on, Baby Sadie,” He says nonetheless, setting her on the carpet where she’d been before.
Jason, distracted from his phone calls for the moment just watching them, makes himself useful by cleaning up the lingering fingerprint powder.
A knock at the door disturbs their quiet moment and Jason opens the door to Mac, who produces two things. One, a once-green, once-eight legged, and once-stuffed blob that Jason assumes was the very topic of his and Spinelli’s previous discussion. The other is a pristine looking, slightly larger, brown and tan stuffed moose.
Jason accepts both.
“The officers who were at the bus station gave me that. It’s… ugh, seen better days, I take it?” Mac explains. “After Georgie was kidnapped back when she was a baby someone gave her a moose kind of like that, so…”
“Thanks.” Jason smiles, and steps aside to let the Commissioner in. “Ugh, here for follow up, right?”
Mac nods, and eyes Sadie’s injury from across the room. “She okay?” He asks. Despite the differences he and Jason have had in the past, seeing children hurt is never a good thing and this is no exception, especially considering that there have been no connections to the mob.
“She has a broken arm, but she’ll be okay.”
“That’s good.” The older man says. “Casey Spinelli is in custody. And definitely not going anywhere. Diane Miller showed up to make sure of that.”
It figures, Jason thinks, that she would have heard about it already. It was probably all over the news. He’ll still need to call her later. “You have questions for us?”
“I need statements from both of you concerning what happened at the bus station.” Mac says, pulling out an old fashioned notepad. “If now’s a good time.”
Jason shrugs. “As good a time as any.” He agrees and he and Mac sit on the couch while Spinelli and Sadie remain on the floor. Jason tucks the ruined octopus into his pocket and offers Spinelli the moose with a half-amused laugh.
Mac leaves twenty minutes later with their full accounts of the chaos at the bus station and a promise to make sure she stays locked up as long as possible.
With a sigh, Jason closes the door behind him before he returns to Spinelli and Sadie. He sits beside them on the floor, and Spinelli’s head rests against his shoulder as they watch Sadie play with her brand new moose stuffed animal.
“At least Mac’s on our side for once.” Jason says.
“His Commissionership is certainly an asset to the PCPD. Surely a more honorable force to be reckoned with than the DA of Darkness was.” Spinelli agrees as Jason’s arm curls around his side. “You think we can go to sleep soon?”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same-”
Spinelli’s cell phone rings from where it sits on the desk, cutting Jason off. The younger man scrambles for it and the caller ID reads as number unknown. “Hello?” Spinelli greets somewhat hesitantly. He saves his normal introduction of ‘Tis I, the Jackal.’ for numbers his cell phone recognizes.
“Damian! Are you okay? I just got a call from New York about Mom getting arrested! What’s going on? Is Sadie okay?”
Jason sees Spinelli tense from across the room. He’s scooping Sadie up and approaching the younger man in seconds.
“Diana,” Spinelli says, both to calm his sister and to inform Jason of whose calling. “We’re all… Okay. Mostly.” He amends, when he catches sight of Sadie’s pink arm again.
“Mom really tried to kidnap Sadie?” Diana asks with kind of an incredulous disbelief. “I mean, I know she was… upset when she found out you and Jason were together, but I never thought she’d… I’m so sorry.”
Upset is the understatement of the century, but Spinelli lets that slide. “She paid some guy off to break in and take her while Stone Cold and I were out. They took out a guard and our friend Maxie in their vicious attempts.” Spinelli explains the short version. “Casey broke Sadie’s arm when we tried to get her back.”
He hears Diana gasp on the other end of the line. “Oh, God… I…I never thought she’d do something like that. Not in a million years.” Comes her quiet reply. “Is there anything I can do?”
There is one thing she could do that would help them, but Spinelli is unsure as to whether or not her refusal to sign the appropriate paperwork is her own doing or the convincing of their mother. “I don’t suppose you would be at all inclined to fill out the files that would grant Stone Cold and I custody of Baby Sadie?” He prompts. Or, well, technically the papers only grant him custody. Once that’s done, Diane has paperwork prepared so Jason can adopt her as well.
The hesitation that is his answer tells him it wasn’t all Casey’s doing. “I… I don’t know.” She answers. “I’ll call you back later, okay? I… need to think about some things for a while.” And Spinelli can accept that, so they hang up after exchanging brief goodbyes.
“She’s not all for that plan yet, I take it?” Jason inquires, as he passes Sadie over. Spinelli frowns in response. “We’ll work it out, okay?” Jason promises, leaning down to kiss Spinelli quickly. It’s only five in the afternoon, but neither is particularly concerned with the time. They’re all exhausted and sleep sounds like the first relaxing thing in a while. “I’ll meet you in Sadie’s room.” He says and gives Spinelli a nudge toward the stairs.
He goes through his usual routine of checking locks and cleaning up toys and flicking off lights before he races to their room to grab a blanket and pillow before he heads to the pink room Spinelli once inhabited.
“It’s your turn tonight, Stone Cold.” Spinelli tells him, peering down at Sadie resting comfortably in her crib, her new stuffed moose nearby as well.
Jason stands beside him and grabs a book from the shelf nearby. One of various Dr. Seuss books someone gave them just after Sadie’s arrival in Port Charles. He sighs and opens to the first page of ‘The Digging-est Dog.’
“I was the saddest dog you could ever see. Sad because no one wanted me. The pet shop window was my jail. The sign behind me said, ‘For Sale’...”
Spinelli’s eyes move between a sleepy Sadie and Jason as he quickly progresses through the pages of Dr. Seuss text, and by the time the elder reaches the last lines of the book, big blue eyes are no longer peering up at them. “I like that one.” Spinelli comments, as Jason returns the book to its place on the bookshelf.
They curl up together on the floor, arms tangled around each other and Spinelli’s head resting on Jason’s chest. “Me, too.” Jason drops yet another soft brush of lips on lips, and Spinelli grins up at him.
Sleep comes pretty easily after that.
.
