Fic: 12 Days

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: 12 Days
Chapters: Day 9-10/12
Author: csi_sanders1129 
Genre: Au. Drama. Romance. Mystery.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~4,000
Pairings/Characters: Jason/Spinelli. Spinelli/Other.
Synopsis: Jason and Spinelli suffer through 12 days of complete and total hell at the hands of the Creepy Christmas Stalker out to win Spinelli over.
Comments: Major thanks to suerum  on this one as well. Um, after day 8, the days seem to get longer and longer, so they split kind of oddly. The last chapter will be posted on Christmas Day, though. It does get a little bit AUish at the end of the fic, but not ridiculously so. Boys aren’t mine. Enjoy, and Happy Holidays! I have work tonight, so I’m posting now and not later.

Days 1-4

Days 5-8

 

Spinelli was the first to wake on Day 9. He found himself curled against Jason’s chest, the elder’s warm hand snaked under his t-shirt and resting on his back, keeping him close. It was definitely not a bad way to wake up - if only it wouldn’t go toward antagonizing his obsessive stalker.

 

With no leads on what today’s gift would bring – other than the promised nine dancing ladies – and no progress on the mysterious messenger, they had little to do today aside from more research. But, for now, Spinelli was in no hurry to extricate himself from his mentor’s hold.

 

“You look far too comfortable like that.” Jason mumbled, eyes still closed as he pulled himself back to consciousness.

 

Spinelli moved to sit up, taking Jason’s words as prompting to end the uncharacteristic cuddling encounter. “A million pardons, Stone Cold, I…”

 

Jason shook his head, hand still settled on Spinelli’s back, securing him in place. “No, stay.”

 

There was no argument following that request. The younger settled himself against his mentor’s side once again, his arm tossed easily over Jason’s chest. “What... what do you think our Creepy Christmas Stalker will do when he discovers that the Jackal will not slay his master?”

 

“Shh…” Was the elder’s answer, as he played absently with the stark white bandage on Spinelli’s palm. “Not thinking about that right now.”  Jason shifted, rolled to his side so that he was facing Spinelli. Watching him closely for signs that he was interpreting any of this incorrectly.

 

“Stone Cold?” Spinelli prompted softly, unsure as to whether or not what he thought was occurring was indeed occurring, maybe it was all in his head. “Are we…?”Maybe he’d finally lost his mind with all of this chaos.  Because there was no way that…

 

Jason leaned in closer, stopping so that it would be Spinelli who made the last move. “Whatever you want, Spinelli.”

 

The younger closed the remaining distance between them bringing their lips together briefly. And it was only briefly because there was a pounding knock on the door that interrupted anything that might have gone further.

 

The two shared a brief look of fear – as if the one kiss had somehow set off some silent alarm and brought the obsessive and possessive follower running – before Jason climbed out of bed, carefully approaching the door.

 

“Jason, I know you’re in there!” Came the familiar voice, at which point the mobster relaxed. He opened the door with a sigh of relief at seeing Carly standing on the other side. “What exactly are you doing here? And why have you booked an entire floor of my hotel?”

 

He opened the door without answering her inquiries and allowed her access, with no thought as to what their current situation would look like. One bed, with Spinelli in it, both of them in sleep rumpled clothes. It didn’t take her long to jump to exaggerated (but not entirely wrong) conclusions.

 

“Oh-kay.” She blinked, shaking her head in surprise. “I think that answers my first question, but why the whole floor?”

 

“The Jackal implores the Valkyrie not to question that matter, for it is a very, very long and arduous tale to tell.” Spinelli said, sitting up in bed now, but not looking terribly inclined to move from it.

 

Carly raised an eyebrow at Jason, hoping for more information than Spinelli’s evasive answer. After a few seconds of staring, she sulked as she knew she was getting nothing out of the aptly nicknamed Stone Cold. “Well, then. At the very least, why didn’t you tell me you changed your mind about the Charity Ball tonight?”

 

“Because we haven’t?” Jason answered, perplexed. Once all of this stuff with Spinelli’s follower began, he’d taken both of them off the guest lists for all of the holiday parties they’d been invited to.

 

She held up an invitation, Spinelli’s name scrawled across the front of it. “According to this, left at the front desk, Spinelli did.”

 

Jason frowned. It must have been the stalker’s doing. “Oh, right.” He said, nodding to Spinelli for him to play along, too. Carly didn’t need to know of any of this. “You did tell me about that.”

 

“So you’re coming, too, now?” Carly asked, as there was only one invitation in Spinelli’s name. “I’ll go get you on the guest list, I suppose. Oh, the joys of being in charge of this event.” She made for the door, setting Spinelli’s papers down on the kitchen counter. “I’ll let you two get back to… whatever it was that you were doing?”

 

They watched her go in silence.

 

“The Jackal did not re-request attendance to the Charity Ball this evening…”

 

The elder sighed, peering out of the door once more to make sure Carly was indeed gone.  “I know, Spinelli. But I don’t want Carly pulled into this, too.” He crossed the room to pick up the papers, looking through them for clues. “One of the groups performing at this thing fits today’s pattern.” Jason passed it to Spinelli.

 

“’Yuletide High Steppers, Nine beautiful ladies dancing their way into your heart!  Better than the Rockettes!!!!’” Spinelli fell backward on the bed, heaving a sigh of exasperation. “Well, that certainly does meet today’s criteria. Why should we even attend? It will be just like yesterday – the 9 ladies dancing will know nothing of our mysterious observer.”

 

“You’re right. They won’t know anything more than the ones from yesterday, but whoever’s doing this to you was there yesterday – he had to be to plant the knife and the note about me – so chances are that he’ll be there today.”

 

“It appears as though we’re thinking about that subject now.” Spinelli frowned.

 

Jason nodded. “I liked it better when we weren’t.”

 

Spinelli’s face flushed at the meaning behind such words. “As did I.” He said, and Jason laughed. “Wait…” He paused, as he examined the invitation again. “There… there’s another note.”

 

~ Beloved, I count each heart beat in anticipation of when we shall meet again.

 

“Meet again… He could be talking about when all of this started.” Jason guessed, once Spinelli read the thankfully non-threatening note aloud. “Or any of the times he’s been close to you in the last week.”

 

“Alas, there is no way to tell as of yet.”

 

“I guess we’ll just have to find a way to figure it out at the Ball tonight.” Jason shrugged. “You didn’t pack a suit, did you?” A shake of the head from his roommate and bedmate verified his suspicions. “Neither did I. Looks like we’re going shopping, then.” There was no way of knowing if the birds were still roaming the Penthouse and now was not the time to find out.

 

The party was barely beginning when Jason and Spinelli arrived. Purposely – they’d  planned to grab a spot close to the entrance so that they could watch the new-comers, see if anyone worthy of a suspect list entered.

 

Unfortunately, since this was a big event all over Port Charles, and held every year, nearly everyone in town showed. People Jason knew, people they both knew, and complete strangers to both of them.

 

“Anyone watching us?”

 

Jason shrugged, eyes scanning the crowd facing toward Spinelli’s back. “Carly, but we know why she’s doing that.”

 

As the party got more and more crowded it got harder to determine when someone was staring or just gazing off into space. The nine ladies dancing had already started and ended their performance for the evening when Jason had an idea. “Come with me.” He prompted, and Spinelli followed close behind. “We’re going to test a theory… And probably make Carly stare some more.”

 

“Why’s that?” The younger wondered, even as Jason led him towards the crowded dance floor. “Stone Cold?”

 

The elder offered a hand and Spinelli could only stare in confusion. Surely Jason was not asking him to dance? “Trust me. Just go with me on this, okay?”

 

Since, for Spinelli, Jason and trust were heavily associated, he could do nothing but agree. He accepted the hand his mentor had offered and found himself pressed closer to Jason than before, just as the music to a new song began.

 

“Watch the crowds,” Jason urged him, already doing that himself as they danced to the slow rhythm of the song. “If this guy’s so obsessed with you, then he can fight for you, too.” Hopefully not literally, more so in the jealous way Jason expected of the lunatic.

 

Shock was the prominent emotion faces on most of the faces around them. Surprise, slack jawed looks and wide eyes, too. A few here and there seemed upset by their display, but that wasn’t what Jason was looking for.

 

He heard something like ‘See, I told you I wasn’t making it up!’ from Carly’s direction, and he could only guess that she’d told Jax or someone else about what she’d thought she’d interrupted this morning, but that wasn’t what he was looking for either.

 

Somewhere toward the back of the ground that had gathered to watch their spectacle, a glass shattered on impact with the floor. That was it.

 

“Come on.” Jason prompted again, pulling Spinelli along behind him as they broke through the crowd to where the sound had come from. They found the shattered wine glass, but whoever had dropped it was long gone. “Damn it!” Jason growled, pacing in frustration at having lost the culprit.

 

But, Spinelli seemed exponentially less frustrated. “While it will not get us our doer, we can get a positive identification…” He said, pointing up to the security camera mounted on the door that the stalker likely would have exited through.

 

They headed to the Cyber Café quickly – dodging the looks and questions that followed them as they exited. Whatever Jason and Spinelli were, it was no one’s business but their own. And at the moment they had way more important things to deal with than the nosy gossipers of Port Charles.

 

“Can you find the footage from the camera?”

 

“The Ace of Cyberspace would require a much greater opponent than the MetroCourt’s systems to have even the slightest difficulty with such a task.” He assured his mentor, finger’s flying over the keyboard. He hovered at Spinelli’s side as he hacked into the hotel’s security systems and accessed their security tapes. They had to be fast. There was a chance that the stalker could be doing the same thing in order to wipe the footage.

 

“Don’t try to watch it now, just copy it first.” He instructed and they watched the video file save to a folder on the desktop. “Good, good.”

 

Spinelli brought up the file once he’d secured the computer from any incoming hacks and let it play through. Both he and Jason watched intently for signs of the tell-tale glass breakage. After several moments of staring, Spinelli spotted it.

 

“There.”

 

The figure was fuzzy and hard to make out on the cameras resolution, as he was really a good way away from it, but it was clear that he had been the one to drop the glass. The look on his face – at least from what they could see – seemed to back it up.

 

“That’s the messenger in the video footage from yesterday.” Spinelli stated, bringing up a saved copy of that file as well. And, indeed the two matched. “Which poses the same problem as it did with that evidence. The Jackal could not identify the man who delivered the clock, so it stands to reason that identifying him now will remain unlikely.”

 

“Don’t need to ID him if we can catch him tomorrow.” Jason reminded him. “He’ll show up again, I’m sure. And now we know what he looks like.”

 

“This is true.” The younger agreed, saving his files to the flash drive he’d purchased while they were out. “Shall we return to the festivities?”

 

“Nah, let’s just go back to the room. He’ll be gone now.”

 

The Creepy Christmas Stalker hadn’t tried – as far as they’d known –to break into this hotel room, but, upon their return to it, it became readily apparent that that streak had ended. One wall was entirely covered in photographs. Arranged in a five by nine grid, the black and white photos depicted mostly Spinelli – going back months. Anyone else in the pictures was blacked out, unless it was Jason, then it was scratched out in red.

 

Not only were there photos, but the room had been trashed. The bed had been flipped, the mattress and accompanying blankets shredded, the knife that had cut Spinelli – the one that Jason had stashed under the sink – was imbedded in the pillow Jason had been using. The table was overturned . Clothes from their bags had been tossed about – those that were Jason’s had also met a fate similar to the blankets . It was clear that their still unidentified shadow had not been happy that his orders had been disobeyed. Instead of slaying Stone Cold, he’d accepted a dance.

 

“This is… most unnerving.” Spinelli commented, looking closely at the photographs. “Something is... odd…”

 

“All of it, I’d say.”

 

He began pulling the pictures from the wall. “No, there’s some pattern in this. Perhaps it will lead to a clue. The Jackal needs to look into this.”

 

***

 

Spinelli had spent all night working with the pictures, trying to find something that made it all make sense.

 

Finally, sometime close to five in the morning, he’d figured it out. “Aha!” He had proclaimed, startling Jason out of his state of near sleep. The elder had been sitting on the floor beside him in their new room – one of the benefits of having a whole floor to themselves.

 

“You got something?”

 

“Indeed, Stone Cold.” He grinned, gesturing to the layout of photos. “For each of the 9 days of gifts we’ve had, there is a corresponding amount of photos. Day 1, one photo, Day 2, two photos, and so on, but they were all jumbled together on the wall. Out of the 45 photos we were given, they also seem to go forward in time. Day 9’s being the most recent. If the Jackal is correct in his timeline, then the closest thing we have to a starting point is this one here.”

 

Jason took the photo he offered, examined it closely.

 

It was obviously taken in summer, judging by the short sleeves and shorts Spinelli was wearing. He was outside of Kelly’s, and while it was unclear who was inside of the restaurant, Jason felt it was safe to guess that Maxie was one of the diners, as Spinelli was holding a bouquet of flowers. If he had to guess, he would have had to say it was around the time Spinelli’s first proposal had scared Maxie off.

 

“He’s been following you since July?” He said, more to himself than he was posing an actual question. Spinelli had been tailed – at the non-wedding, at home, at Jake’s - all over the place as far as the pictures showed and Jason had never caught on. Never noticed that Spinelli was being followed.

 

“Evidently, at least that appears to be the case presented in the pictures.” Spinelli answered, letting out a yawn.

 

Jason was still staring at the pictures, though. The most recent one appeared to have been taken just yesterday, when they’d been in bed together. Everything, absolutely everything, in that picture had been scratched out in black or red but for Spinelli.

 

That also meant that their room had been bugged. He was exceptionally glad that they’d moved now.

 

Just in case, though, he examined that picture more closely, to try to figure out the angle the camera would have had to have been at. The air-vent was the only possibility. To be safe, he checked the vent in this new room, looking for any sign of bugs. He found none, but he checked everywhere else, too.

 

“Guess he didn’t want to waste cameras in rooms we weren’t going to be in.” He shrugged. He’d probably show up and wire this one once they went out.

 

Spinelli yawned again, leaning his head back against the bed. “I suppose our actions have not been making our not-so-friendly follower terribly happy. If he perceives our activities as betrayal by the Jackal, he could turn more violent.”

 

Jason nodded. He’d already realized that. Maybe dancing hadn’t been a terrific idea, but it had smoked their target out quite well. “We’ll figure it out. Now we just have to wait for the next clue.” He sat down on the bed as Spinelli gathered up the photos. “You should get some rest.”

 

“No, Stone Cold. I’m not tired.” He lied, rolling his shoulders and rubbing his eyes. “I’m fine. Really.”

 

They sat around, both stubbornly refusing to sleep, for several hours. There was finally a knock on the door and Jason opened it cautiously. It was the desk clerk from the other day, the one who’d given them the clock. “Yeah?”

 

“You… you got another delivery. It came in the mail.” He stammered, obviously not wanting another encounter where the terrifying man yelled at him about unidentified messengers. “Sorry to bother you.” The man said, and then hurried back down the hallway.

 

“Day 10 is represented by ten Lords a’leaping. What does today’s gift bring?”

 

Jason sighed, opening the envelope. “A ticket to an event at Port Charles University? Ten Morris Dancers?”

 

Spinelli interest piqued. “Morris dancing was a folk music style in England, most popular in the fifteenth and sixteen centuries. It’s seen as one interpretation of the 10^th day.” He explained, and why he knew this Jason would never know. “The dance style – lots of leaping – has recently grown in popularity; troupes performing it are appearing all over the place.”

 

He nodded, absorbing the information. “There’s a note, too.” He said reluctantly. Chances were that it wouldn’t be pleasant, not after everything last night. And he was, indeed, correct in his assumption.

 

~ My dearest Damian, clarity has descended upon me, and I now know that I must perform that which you cannot so that we can be free to pursue our combined fates.  He shall not sully the purity of our committed love any further.  You have been enchanted by him and I shall liberate you by disposing of the dark wizard.  Warn him if you will, it matters not.

 

They read the words together, exchanging deeply concerned looks when they were through. It was the first time a letter had included an active threat. Sure, the one on day 8 had prompted Spinelli to kill Jason, but it had not threatened to do otherwise if he were not to comply.

 

Spinelli was the first to speak. “The Jackal would suggest that we remain within the temporary sanctum of the hotel room for today.”

 

“We can’t hide out here forever, and we’ll miss our chance to catch him today if we don’t go.” Jason countered, even more infuriated now that this note had come.

 

“But perhaps we should alter how we participate in the day’s events. Perhaps we should not attend the Morris Dancing – it will surely throw the Creepy Christmas Stalker for a loop, and maybe it will even make him realize that the Jackal does not share with him whatever it is that he believes we have.”

 

Jason doubted that showing the stalker he was misinterpreting would be as simple as not showing up for one of his gifts, but the rest of Spinelli’s logic – that he could get behind. It was a new theory, a new method, and they could use a new idea about now. Nothing else had worked.

 

“Alright. We stay.” He agreed. “On one condition: You sleep.”

 

“Only if you do as well, Stone Cold.” Spinelli bargained, and with a nod of agreement from his mentor, they climbed into bed.

 

The next thing either of them knew – aside from the fact that they both really, really were beginning to like waking up together – was that the fire alarm was blaring.

 

“Get up, get up, get up.” Jason insisted, looking totally prepared to carry Spinelli out of the building if he didn’t get moving soon. He grabbed the photos and the rest of their combined evidence in one hand, and took Spinelli’s hand with the other, leading him through the maze of a hallway and toward the stairs.

 

“You don’t suppose that our unhappy stalker took things to extremes when he realized that we were not in attendance at day 10?” Spinelli theorized, noting that the event had started and likely ended already. They had been well and truly asleep.

 

Jason shook his head. “I don’t know, maybe.”  He spotted movement out of the corner of his. It was in the middle of the hall, which no one should have been in given that the entire floor was theirs. “Hey!” He shouted, and the figure ran. His attention returned to Spinelli, handing him the pile of papers and the ring. “Go outside, find a cop or someone who can keep you safe and stay with them.”

 

“Stone Cold, don’t-“

 

But he was already running off.

 

Spinelli did what Jason told him, as much as he didn’t want to. He ran outside, found Johnny, and stuck with him. He didn’t know why the Mob Prince was there, nor did he care, he just knew that he wanted Jason to come through the doors safe and sound and maybe having ended all of this.

 

No such luck, of course.

 

Jason chased after the figure he’d seen, following through the hallways and up to the next floor. “Stop!” He shouted, though he doubted it would have any effect. They were in a vacant hallway – thanks to the fire alarm – when the man did stop, and that was when Jason realized his mistake.

 

He’d fallen into a trap.

 

The man before him was the same one who’d been at the party, been the messenger, been on Spinelli’s security footage. Tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. Dressed in black, but with apparent expensive taste. He looked… normal. But Jason knew he wasn’t.

 

“You have posed quite the problem for me, Morgan. Interfering in everything, keeping him from me.” The man said, as he pulled a knife from his pocket, a twin to the one that Jason had left in the room. “You kept him from tonight’s show – he would have loved it, you know. But, no, you dragged him into bed with you again.”

 

He refrained from saying anything that would suggest that Spinelli hadn’t been protesting – he wasn’t sure if that was what was keeping Spinelli safe for now or not – so he settled for saying nothing instead.

 

That didn’t sit well with the stranger either. “Well? Aren’t you going to say anything?”

 

Living up to his Stone Cold nickname, he remained silent, still.

 

“Okay, then. Maybe… maybe you just want this over with. Maybe you know that he belongs with me and you have no right to touch him, that he’s mine.”

 

Jason was ready when he lunged with the knife. Angled himself so that it missed completely, and sent the stranger off balance, but he regained himself quickly, went for another strike that left a long gash on Jason’s arm as he threw a punch. It would bruise, Jason knew, but that just wasn’t enough. He wanted the guy to pay for everything he’d put Spinelli, put them, through over the last ten days, but it looked like now wouldn’t be his chance.

 

The stranger was shaking off the punch and moving to try the knife again when the shout had come. Coming from a staircase, where firemen had to be starting to check the floors for stragglers as they looked for the non-existent cause of the alarm.

 

“Hey, you need to clear out of here!” Someone called out, gesturing for them to hurry. Jason turned to make sure that he wasn’t still under attack, but he found that he was alone. The stranger had disappeared.

 

One of the firefighters took him outside, where he found Spinelli waiting with Johnny. The younger caught him in a hug as soon as he was spotted, and Jason didn’t fight it, not even with the pain in his arm.