Fic: Love For A Child

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: Love For A Child
Chapters: Part 4: Chapter 1/3
Author: csi_sanders1129
Genre: AU. Romance. Drama.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~3,200
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 I:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3

Part 2:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Part 3:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Part 4:

 

June 14, 2012

Three days pass before it happens. Jason and Spinelli have scarcely left the penthouse, but that hardly means they’ve been out of contact. Calls to Diane, calls from Mac, calls from Cody and various other associates about the other players in Sadie’s kidnapping, calls from Diana, even. She still hasn’t budged on the custody issue, but Spinelli is working on her. The one person Jason has not managed to contact is Agent Raynor.

But clearly that had only been because Raynor had been waiting to contact them.               

The knock on the door comes at eight a.m. sharp. Like some sick and twisted wakeup call that drags a very sleepy Jason and Spinelli from their bed in pajama pants and t-shirts. “Morgan. Open this door right now!” Comes the booming voice, and Jason does as told.

Agent Raynor stands in front of them looking furious and about to explode.

“Nice of you to take the time to make a house call. Why can’t you answer your phone instead?” Jason snaps, having called the man no less than a dozen times since they’d gotten Sadie back.

“I am aware that you two are inquiring into who was involved in the funding of the rather interesting kidnapping situation earlier this week.” Raynor says with gritted teeth. “What I want to know is whether or not you two know anything about Sonny Corinthos’ sudden demise within the confines of the federal witness protection program.”

Jason and Spinelli exchange equally floored looks at the news of Sonny’s death.

“What?”

“Corinthos is dead. My guess is you two had something to do with it. You’ve ruined our case against Anthony Zacchara.” Raynor reiterates, in case they didn’t already realize that. It’s bad enough that Raynor held Spinelli’s freedom over Jason for as long as he did, but the fact that Zacchara’s trial was taking years to unfold was certainly not helping matters any.

Out of habit – nothing good ever comes from Raynor being around Spinelli – Jason subtly moves to stand in front of his lover. “We haven’t done anything to Sonny. I was calling to ask you about the guy who paid off Casey to kidnap Sadie, Miguel Conlon.” He says. “You can check the security tapes; we haven’t even left here since we got home from the hospital.”

“I’m sure the tapes will prove that. But that doesn’t mean you didn’t call out a hit on your former boss from the comfort of your own home.” Raynor counters, just as crying rings out from upstairs.

“I, ugh, the Jackal must go see to Princess Sadie.” Spinelli mumbles awkwardly, pardoning himself from the conversation in favor of sprinting up the steps to Sadie’s room.

Having just woken up for the morning, Spinelli is guessing the little one is wanting her bottle. “Dada!”  She greets him, raising her arms as a sign she wants to be picked up.

Spinelli complies easily enough, careful of the casted weapon that her arm currently is. “Alright, Baby Sadie, we’re not going to allow the wrongly informed FBI agent to affect you getting the vitamins and nutrients you deserve, are we?” He coos, bouncing the baby on his hip as he carries her downstairs. He glares at Raynor as he moves past the living room into the kitchen.

“Talk.” Raynor tells Jason, eyes on the door Spinelli and Sadie disappeared though. “You know it’d be a shame if Child Protective Services got a memo about Sadie’s current prospective adoptive parents. One nearly arrested and convicted for life for treason, and the other a suspect in the midst of an extremely well covered murder investigation. I’m thinking that’d go over real well, don’t you agree?”

 Spinelli looks pale when he reappears, Sadie and her bottle in his arms. He’s clearly heard what was said. “We had nothing to do with whatever happened to Mr. Sir.” Spinelli says again, just in case Jason didn’t make that clear enough when he said it.

Raynor rolls his eyes. “Maybe not the two of you directly, but probably someone in your organization. I want to know who or I’ll take both of you down and you’ll never see that kid again.”

Since Jason and Spinelli have no idea who was responsible for killing Sonny they’re kind of limited on the options they have in that agreement.

“We’re no longer involved in the coffee importing business.” Jason tells him, pointedly avoiding Raynor’s use of words that are synonymous with mob. “But we’ll be sure to let you know if we hear anything.” He promises because if it ends up coming down to rolling on someone in the organization or keeping Spinelli and Sadie safe and free, it’s not even a contest.

“I’ll be in touch.” Raynor says, with a final air of threatening authority that shouldn’t work as well as it does. He slams the door as he lets himself out and Jason leads a frozen Spinelli back up to their room and sits him on the bed while he goes about digging his cell phone out of the pocket of his discarded jeans.

“What now?” Spinelli asks, still feeding Sadie.

Jason settles a hand on the younger man’s back. “We figure out who killed Sonny.”

“Only cowards threaten children.” Spinelli comments. And it’s true. People only go after kids when they know adults won’t get them what they want. And this is even worse because Raynor is threatening all three of them.

Jason’s already on the phone, though. With Cody, Spinelli figures.

“Hey, I need you to look into anyone who’d be after Sonny and looking to pin a hit on me.” Jason explains quickly. “The FBI just left here. Sonny’s dead. They think I called it.”

“I’ll start digging.” Cody agrees, because the list of people fitting Jason’s requirements is probably as long as Cody is tall.

Jason hangs up and his next call is to Diane. She is already well aware of the reemergence of the FBI in their town, and has already been buried under a pile of warrants and subpoena’s to tide her over for a while. Including several relating to Sadie.

“What can we do?” Jason asks, getting quite desperate for answers at this point.

“Nothing about this recent influx of paperwork, but getting Diana on board with you would certainly be helpful.” She says for what is not the first time. Jason is beginning to suspect that Diana has reasons other than Casey for not signing the paperwork. He’s beginning to suspect a lot of things, actually.

He tells Diane he’ll work on that and then turns to Spinelli. “Can you get information on when, where and how Sonny died?” He asks. He hates asking the younger man to use his hacking skills and risk federal involvement once more, but Raynor will never tell them and that is pertinent information.

“Of course.” Spinelli answers, and offers a fed and burped Sadie to Jason. Spinelli exits the room to grab his laptop from downstairs and returns a moment later with it already well through booting up. The computer finally kicks into gear and then the Jackal is loose on the unsuspecting world of cyberspace. “Raynor said something about the late Mr. Sir being found and destroyed while in WitSec, yes?”

“Witness Protection, yeah.” Jason agrees, but Spinelli’s fingers are already flying over the keyboard. He ducks out of the room quickly to put Sadie back in hers.

Only a few moments of intense silence from the younger man pass before he is grinning triumphantly, having effectively hacked into yet another supposedly secure government site. But then his smile falters. “Oh, Stone Cold. You have to see this. This is… most troubling.”

That gets Jason’s attention. He peers at the screen, and he sees a photo of Sonny. Beside name appears the alias Miguel Steven Conlon.

“’Conlon’ as in the same name that paid Casey off.” Jason realizes why the name sounds familiar. “So Sonny transferred the money from the offshore account into Casey’s?”

“The account she transferred it to was in the name of Eric Samuels.” Spinelli reminds him. “I’ve been doing research on him. He’s been arrested since Sadie’s kidnapping for purchasing a large quantity of drugs. It looks like he was just a hired gun who grabbed Sadie for the cash Casey supplied him with.”

Jason fears something makes sense in all of this. “Bring up Sonny’s WitSec page again, will you?” He prompts. He can’t help but think that maybe Sonny and Casey were in this mess together. Because how else would Sonny even know about Sadie?

“You think of something else?” Spinelli inquires, but does as requested.

Jason assesses the information quickly, but then something else catches his eye. “Look where he was relocated to.”

Miguel Conlon’s current address reads, rather distressingly, Oakfield, Tennessee.

“How could that have happened? Surely the Federal Ones did research on the Ace of Cyberspace in their previous attempts to make an arrest.” Spinelli wonders. “There’s no way they’d relocate Sonny anywhere that has ties to any of us.”

“Maybe they didn’t know. You weren’t living there at the time. Maybe they knew you were out of contact with your family.” Jason suggests, because he is equally as confused on how the FBI could have made such a grievous mistake.

Spinelli shrugs. “Perhaps Diana or Casey knows this ‘Miguel Conlon’.”  He grabs up Jason’s cell phone and dials the familiar number.

Diana answers on the third ring with a friendly greeting. “Miguel Conlon?” She asks, a hint of surprise in her voice when Spinelli questions her. “Yeah, he lived down the street from us. Mom was… kind of dating him.”

“She was what?”

“They went out for a while. I met him a few times; when he’d come over to pick Mom up for dinner or something. He seemed nice. Why?”

That information renders Spinelli one hundred percent speechless.

“Did he have something to do with Sadie’s kidnapping?” Diana questions, noting her brother’s shock at the news she hadn’t found at all relevant. Spinelli’s remains silent and she has her answer. “He did, then.”

“Spinelli?” Jason asks, quite concerned at his lover’s sudden silence.

Spinelli swallows, and covers the mouthpiece of the phone with his hand. “Casey was dating Sonny.” He says, quite solemnly. “That’s is how Mr. Sir knew of Sadie and of our involvement in the situation.”

Jason takes the phone. “Diana, when was the last time your mom went to see him?”

“The other night, just before she disappeared. I guess just before she went to New York to get Sadie.” She tells them, and the pieces start to fall into place.

“You don’t think she would…” Spinelli begins, but cuts himself off. The woman has already disowned him and had Sadie kidnapped. He’s not sure how much he would put past her at this point.

Jason returns his attention to the phone. “Have you seen Sonn- Conlon since?” He corrects himself quickly, and luckily she has no idea who Sonny Corinthos is so she doesn’t question the mistake.

She pauses for a moment, thinking. “No… I… I haven’t. But there were all sorts of trucks and vans around his house last night. Did… did something happen?”

“The FBI is currently investigating his death.” Jason tells her, not sure exactly how much he should divulge when they have Raynor breathing down their necks. “You’re sure Casey saw him before she left?”

“Positive.” Diana answers, thought she clearly wants to question how Jason would know such a thing without being directly involved himself.

“Okay. Can we call you back in a little while?” He asks, but she tells him no. She’s going to fly up there to see Sadie now that the little one is safely away from her grandmother. “Alright then, we’ll see you soon. I’ll have someone pick you up from the airport.” He turns to tell Spinelli of the plans.

“I figured Diana would do as much.” Spinelli answers, typing away at his computer as if his life depends on it.

Jason sits down beside him again. “What are you looking for?”

Spinelli grins in victorious accomplishment when yet another government site fails under his attack. “The Jackal is looking up Mr. Sir’s alleged cause of death. And it appears to be poisoning. Would Stone Cold happen to know what the leading weapon of choice for women has been throughout the span of history?”

“Poison?” He hazards a guess.

“That would be correct.” He continues typing, looking for details, Jason imagines, and unsurprisingly, he finds them. “Looks like our killer used… a cyanide compound. Impressive.”

Jason looks to Spinelli. “Could Casey have done this?”

“Well, she convinced Sonny to fund a rather expensive plot to kidnap Sadie. The Jackal is decidedly convinced that she could get her hands on the required chemicals and end Mr. Sir quite easily.” Spinelli explains. “Whether or not Federal Agent Raynor will accept that as a possibility is another matter entirely.”

“Well, we’ll just have to convince him then.” Jason sighs.

By the time Diana’s plane lands some five hours later, Jason and Spinelli have laid out all the information they have. From wireless security footage of Casey purchasing some of the compounds needed to create the cyanide mixture that poisoned Spinelli, to scratch paper filled with possible theories. It’s all starting to fit together nicely.

“We’re going to have to tell her.” Jason sighs, as they wait for the knock on the door signaling Diana’s arrival. “Everything.”

Spinelli nods, although reluctant. “The Jackal is well aware.”

It’s only a few moments later when Max knocks on the door upon his return from the airport, entering before one of the penthouse’s inhabitants opens the door. “Jason,” He calls, with Diana’s bags in hand, and the girl trailing behind him. “Spinelli’s sister is here.” The duo appears around the corner, coming from the kitchen, where their myriad of evidence is so nicely spread out, Sadie cradled comfortably in Spinelli’s arms.

“Diana,” Spinelli greets and little Sadie hides her face away from the relatively unfamiliar person, very anxious around new people given both the natural development process of stranger anxiety as well as the trauma of her latest adventure.

Jason takes Diana’s bags after a polite greeting and deposits them in the guestroom. He returns to the living room to find Spinelli trying to coax Sadie into her mother’s arms, but she is having none of it. “Dada!” She cries out, and Jason knows big baby blue eyes are pleading with Spinelli.

“It’s okay,” Diana forlornly laments, and it’s clear she’s disappointed that Sadie isn’t cooperating, but, “I can’t say I’d blame her after what she went through.”

Spinelli nods, and looks to his Stone Cold for a moment before speaking again. When he does, it’s quite a stuttering attempt. “There are… some rather pertinent pieces of information that Stone Cold and I feel we need to disclose.” He begins, just as he and Jason agreed, and the two of them sit down on the couch opposite Diana.

“Oh… okay.” She agrees, sensing the seriousness of whatever it is her brother is so intent on telling her.

“Miguel Conlon, ugh, wasn’t who you thought he was.” Jason starts. “He was in Witness Protection. His real name was Michael Sonny Corinthos and he ran, well, he ran some shady dealings here in Port Charles. I worked for him and Spinelli worked for me.” He goes on to explain, and she seems to catch on to the idea of what exactly it was that they did. “The FBI got seriously involved about a year ago and got Sonny out of it. They had us, too, but, we… I made a deal. So they wouldn’t go after Spinelli. I gave them Sonny and they left us alone.” At least until the FBI got bored again and Raynor decided to break his word. “Sonny got placed in WitSec and somehow he ended up in Oakfield.”

Spinelli picks it up from there. “Mr. Sir must have ascertained your connection to Stone Cold and the Ace of Cyberspace, and discovered the role we were playing in Sadie’s life. Perhaps Casey informed him of the details following the dramatic episode last month. Most distressingly, the news of Mr. Sir’s untimely demise was enough to spur the Federal Ones back into action. They think Stone Cold and I were responsible for his death, but we had no part in it. We haven’t left Baby Sadie’s side since she was returned to us.” Spinelli rambles off in Jackal-speak that Jason is glad to hear. “There is also a rather substantial amount of evidence suggesting that Casey was the one indeed responsible for that crime, as well.”

Diana sits in something like shock absorbing that overwhelming about of information. Her brother and his boyfriend are in the mob, their boss was dating her mom, and some sort of revenge was the ultimate reason behind Sadie being kidnapped and injured. Not quite what she’d had in mind when she’d made the plans to fly up here. “This is a joke. You’re kidding, right?”

Spinelli frowns, adjusting his grip on the still squirmy and anxious baby in his arms. “Alas, we are entirely serious.”

“Wait a minute.” She says, as something not unlike a startling revelation hits her. “Wait. Sonny? His name was Sonny?”

Jason and Spinelli exchange confused looks and the elder nods in reply. “Yeah, everyone here called him Sonny.”

Diana is silent for a moment, thinking through a conversation she’d overheard between her mother and the dubiously named Miguel Conlon. “Mom knew who he was. She called him Sonny. I heard… he was picking her up for a date or something and she called him Sonny.”

“Casey was aware that Mr. Sir’s WitSec persona was a fictitious one.” Spinelli extrapolates, eyes wide with the realization. “If his identity was compromised, perhaps he feared the Federal Ones would step in and relocate him in the midst of his plan. He may have threatened to expose Casey if the kidnapping plot were to be uncovered.”

“You think she killed him to cover up the kidnapping?” Jason asks, following Spinelli’s idea.

Diana speaks up again, before Spinelli can confirm or deny Jason’s addition to his theory. “Mom was acting weird. Weirder than her normal weird, I mean. Like. Crazy weird. I'm serious, Damian. This went beyond her whole ‘the mailman is stealing our cable’ thing. Maybe she was acting before Sonny could. It might have just been the kidnapping, but, maybe she found out he was up to something, too?” She proposes.

Sadie starts crying then and Jason speaks up. “You mind if we move to kitchen?” He suggests, since baby food now makes up a good portion of the otherwise bottle-filled diet of baby Sadie. Upon Diana’s nod of approval, Jason scoops the baby out of Spinelli’s arms and off to the kitchen while the siblings trail behind, continuing their impromptu reminiscing of old times. “Mailman stealing the cable?” He inquires, once he has Sadie situated in her high chair and a container of some mashed vegetable out.  

“Those were some dark times in the Spinelli household.” Diana sighs and shakes her head at the memory.

“Indeed they were, but Diana has a point. If Casey were acting abnormally, then perhaps she did know something of Sonny’s intentions and acted before Mr. Sir could make a move against her.” Spinelli looks to Jason. “Do you think we have enough to convince Agent Raynor that we played no part in Mr. Sir’s demise?”

Jason only sighs. There’s no way of knowing how determined the man is this time. “We’ll see.”