csi_sanders1129 | Fic: Worth The Wait (Reply)

Title: Worth The Wait
Chapters: Chapter 7
Author:

csi_sanders1129
Genre: AU. Drama. Romance.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~1,800
Pairings/Characters: Jason/Spinelli.
Synopsis: Spinelli’s parent’s show up in the middle of the night and some of Damian’s secrets are inadvertently exposed, leaving Jason in a difficult situation.
Comments: AU in that I entirely distort the timeline of events as it is known to have occurred. Not so much actual events, but moreso the details of people involved in them. Which reminds me. I suppose I have to warn for mentions of underage involvement. Nothing graphic or messy, I promise. Partially co written with

cynical_sweater and with lots and lots of aid courtesy of

It only takes Daniel a week to explode. Jason's still in town, will be until Spinelli's better and back on his feet. The only thing is… Daniel doesn't know this yet.

After Spinelli is released some four days after his admission to the hospital, Lisa lets Jason into the house so that he can look after Spinelli while she's running errands and stopping into work to keep caught up. Daniel comes home early one day, finds them sitting on the couch, Jason's good arm casually tossed around Spinelli's shoulders, watching some special Spinelli had wanted to see on the History Channel.

Daniel starts off stuttering and unable to actually form words. Jason stands, putting himself between the fury-crazed man and Spinelli just out of instinct. "Relax." He tries to placate Spinelli's father, holding up his hands – one of which can be considered a weapon, if it comes to that – to further assure Daniel that he means no harm.

"Relax!? Don't tell me to relax when I have you here, breaking into my home and seducing my son!" He all but roars out, face going red with anger. He looks like he's about to explode all over the room. "I want you out of here this instant and I am calling the police."

"If the Jackal may interject-" Spinelli tries, still sounding a bit hoarse, but his father's glare turns on him from around Jason and he falls silent in response.

"We're just watching a movie." Jason insists calmly, gesturing to the still rolling action on the television screen. "That's all."

"I… I… I have no idea what you think gives you the right to, to come barging in here like you own the place!" he sputters, fists balling at his sides. "I know that you seem to think that you – and the no good thugs you associate yourself with – are all above the law, but you're not. I'll see to it that you are arrested." He says, more confidence and less stammering now. "If not for what you've done to my boy, then at least for breaking and entering!"

"That would require him to have actually committed the crime of breaking and entering, though, Daniel." Lisa informs him, matter-of-factly from the doorway, where she has just appeared with a paper bag full of groceries. "I invited him in this morning."

He stares at his wife in shock. "I… you… why?"

"Because as of now – as of last week, actually – I've accepted that Jason is a part of Damian's life and by trying to keep them apart, we were only going to lose him. So, in order to prevent that from happening, I'm allowing this."

"But," Daniel protests, practically laughing as he questions the sanity of everyone around him. "Damian is only seventeen and Mr. Morgan is… is a mob prince, for heaven's sake!"

Jason and Spinelli watch the exchange with concern, the elder ready to step in and intervene if anything gets out of hand.

"In eleven months, Damian will be eighteen and you and I will have no say at all. Until then, I've been promised and assured that nothing will occur against any laws. Watching a movie, as they informed me they would be doing before I left, is not, last time I checked, illegal." She retaliates. "As for your second point: I may be a bit in the dark – as I wish to stay – with regard to any organizations Jason may be tied to, but since our son is already involved with Jason he is a target with him or apart from him. From what I have observed he is safer with him and it is clear to me that Jason would risk his life to protect him."

Daniel looks about to retort again, perhaps fly into yet another rant, but Lisa cuts him off before he can begin.

"So, as long as Damian is recovering and as long as there are mob thugs running around trying to kill him, Jason is more than welcome to stick around and help look after him. After that, we'll work out some sort of arrangement." She explains, lying out the plans she's drawn up and not in a tone that gets argued with. "Are we clear?"

Her husband nods, still looking quite furious, and storms out of the house.

"He'll be better once he cools down." Lisa assures the two bystanders to the argument. "Jason, would you mind helping me with these groceries?"

Daniel comes back late that night, and, to his credit, he is calmer. Spinelli's snoring lightly against Jason's side on the sofa, casted leg comfortably propped up. The elder seems quite content to just sit in the dark and let him sleep.

"Please don't yell." Jason says quietly, hoping he'll listen, if only for Spinelli's sake.

Spinelli's father nods in agreement, and is just as quiet when he responds. "Lisa's not wrong, is she? You'll keep him safe?"

"As best I can. There… aren't any guarantees in my line of work. Not for anyone." He says honestly. "But Spinelli is the best thing that's happened to me and I'll do whatever I have to for him, to protect him."

There's a long pause, and for a moment Jason fears that he said something, did something to set Daniel off again and another loud tirade is about to be delivered. But none comes.

"Hm." Daniel says thoughtfully, then stands and walks out of the room. "I'll hold you to that."

Five weeks later, the day Jason's cast comes off, he goes back to Port Charles. Spinelli's got another week or so in his cast, the doctors think, as his wasn't as clean a break as Jason's had been, and after that he'll have to go through some physical therapy. His lungs are still a little messed up from the smoke inhalation, the doctors aren't sure if that'll ever go away, but at the moment it just means that Spinelli won't be running any marathons.

The first place he goes is to Sonny's place, because while he promised Spinelli that he wouldn't go after Weston and his thugs for revenge, he said nothing about roughing them up a little bit before turning them over to the police.

Sonny isn't terribly fond of the second part of his plan – the 'cooperating with the authorities' part – but then that becomes the least of his worries.

Jason has something else to tell him with regard to his future business plans.

"Once I'm done with them, I'm quitting." He says simply, because he's been thinking this through since his talk with Spinelli's father. He'd sworn that he'd do whatever it took to protect Spinelli, so now he's going to act on it.

Sonny's eyes widen in disbelief and for a moment he goes through the same motions that Daniel did before he blew up over walking in on he and Spinelli sitting on the couch. "Ugh, would you care to tell me why you've made this sudden decision?"

Jason shrugs. It doesn't matter how Sonny takes this news. Once he's got Weston locked up, he's done. "I need to do this, to make sure that Spinelli stays out of danger once he comes home."

"You would be doing this for him." He rolls his eyes, his anger now armed with a clear target. "Damn it, Jason. That kid has caused you so much trouble and now you want to go and make this stupid move?" With a hand to his head, he goes for the scotch on the desk on the other side of the room. "Why? So he can leave again and I'll have to put up with you being all distracted? Spinelli was trouble enough before he left-"

Jason sighs, leans against the desk. "He left to protect me, he had to."

Sonny stares. "Protect you from… what? A computer virus?"

"He, ugh, lied about how old he was. I didn't know about it, not until his parents showed up one night." Maybe Sonny knowing his reasoning, all of it, will make him understand. "Spinelli went with them so they wouldn't go after me."

"So he was underage… how underage?" He pauses to ask, he doesn't wait for an answer, but does stop long enough to down his shot of alcohol and pour himself another - it sounds like he's going to need it. "And you two were together. Great, so not only was he trouble before all of this – distracting you and getting you to disobey my orders – he could have gotten you arrested because he kept secrets."

"I know his reasoning, you don't need to." He growls out. He'd like to defend Spinelli from Sonny's comments, like he used to do before Sonny more or less accepted that he wasn't going anywhere, but he needs to make it clear that he's not coming back to the organization. Pissing Sonny off usually only succeeds in making him ignore most of what is said. "All you need to know is that this is the end of our business relationship."

Sonny shakes his head. He'll believe it when he sees it. "Didn't you learn anything from when you were in charge? Just like you told me – saying you're done with the business doesn't mean that it's done with you."

"You never really left." Jason supplies. It's true. The entire time he'd been in control of the business, Sonny was still looking over his shoulder, questioning his moves and interfering. "Spinelli and I, we'll be out. If we have to, we'll leave."

That does more to annoy the older man. "Not to mention that you're leaving me without an enforcer and with a useless hacker."

And there it is. The main argument. "This isn't about you, Sonny. I've made my decision and you're not going to change my mind. I'm putting Spinelli first, where he should be. We'll open up a Private Investigations office or something, it doesn't matter. We'll be done."

He makes for the door, but he stops. He has one more thing to do. He's hardly expecting favors from his ex-employer at this point, but it's really less of a favor and more like a last request. "Oh, give this to your useless computer guy for me, will you?"

"What is it?" Sonny begrudgingly asks, taking the sealed envelope.

"The name of Spinelli's college roommate. He knew how old Spinelli was." And Jason may or may not be inclined to cause him some unexpected financial and legal troubles in return for his bad judgment on the issue of bedding an underage Spinelli. "He doesn't know I'm doing this."

Sonny nods for whatever reason, and downs the rest of his second scotch."I'll make sure the new resident geek gets it."

And with his resignation formally behind him – as well as a rather displeased Sonny Corinthos – he walks away.