Chapters 24 & 25
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"Wow..." Keesha whispered as she tried to catch her breath.
Jax laughed, placing a small kiss on the tip of her nose. He moved
from on top of her and she sat up in the bed, reaching for him. He
came over, sitting between her legs, resting back against her body.
Keesha wrapped her arms around Jax; he took her hands and laced their
fingers. "Your hand really does seem better." he stated softly as he
looked at it.
"I figured it wouldn't do that much damage." she shrugged, releasing
that hand from his to look at it herself. "Oh my God..." out of the
corner of her eye, she caught the time. "Do you realize what time it
is?"
Jax tilted his head and looked at the clock. He smiled. "As I always
said, time flies. Want some breakfast?"
"Sweetheart, it's past breakfast time."
"Not in Australia. There it's only 7 am...besides, you owe me cinammon
rolls." he laughed once more.
"You..." Keesha kissed the back of his neck. "...can have anything
your heart desires."
"Actually, I owe you."
"As if you bake..."
"Hey!"
"Besides, owe me for what?"
"It's been an...impossibly long time since I've been so happy, Keesha.
In fact, I never expected to be truely happy ever again." he closed his
eyes and leaned further back against her. "That's changed now, and all
because of you. Even with the impending doom I'm facing...." he
groaned as if on cue the doorbell rang. Getting up and putting on his
robe, Jax headed downstairs. "One minute!" he called, and a second
later, opened the door. "Jerry..." Jax's smile faded. "Why is she
here?"
"I told you this was a bad idea..." Miranda turned to walk away.
"And I told you that I couldn't do anything without letting him know."
Jerry spun Miranda back around to face the front again.
"Do what?" Jax asked slowly.
"Can we came in?" Jerry asked, though already he hed led Miranda
inside. Jax sighed and closed the door. "Where's Keesha?"
"Upstairs...." Jax looked up at the stairs as Keesha descened. She
looked at Jerry and back at Jax, waiting.
"You can stay if you want...I'm going to tell her anyway." he added to
Jerry. Jerry shook his head, but sat down on the sofa. "Do what?"
"Miranda needs my protection."
Before Jax could say anything, Keesha was beside him, placing her hand
on his leg. He bit his tonuge and waited.
"Helena Cassadine is going to go after her."
"What did you do?" Jax looked at Miranda.
"I know something I shouldn't know."
"Seems to be a pattern." he answered.
"Hey, it's not my fault that your parents were nothing but..." Miranda
stopped herself, glancing over at Jerry. "What your family was was not
my fault. And I wasn't the one who cheated on you...."
"Conversation is over....get out of my house." Jax stated calmly.
Keesha watched as he stood and headed toward the door.
"I didn't want to come here anyway!" Miranda countered. "I asked
*Jerry* for help..."
"WHY?!"
"None of your damn business Jasper!" Jerry exclaimed.
"HOLD IT!" Jax, Jerry, and Miranda turned their attention to Keesha.
"Can we try this once more?" she looked at Miranda. "You want Jerry's
help, obviously that concerns Jax, and rightly so..." she looked at
Jerry. "...because we're talking Helena Cassadine here..."
"She is *getting* my help." Jerry stated simply.
"What do you want? My blessings, because it's not coming." Jax stared
into his brother's eyes. "Helena Cassadine would think nothing of
trying to kill you."
"Don't you think I know that? I had the same concerns when it came to
you, if I remember correctly. But I came through for you...I'm not
asking you for help, I just don't want you running to Mum and Pop, and
I don't want you trying to interfere. Can you do *that*?"
"Why is she running from Helena? What do you know?" Jax turned his
attetion to Miranda once more.
"I know about Nikolas' parentage."
"That's old news, Miranda."
"Yes, but Nikolas turns 21 in November. Helena's control over the
family will become null and void then, and revert back to Nikolas,
because no one ever proved, legally, that Stefan, not Stavros, is
Nikolas' father." Jerry sat back down, and watched as Jax came away
from the door, settling on the arm of the sofa next to Keesha. "...She
wants me to testify to what I know. She's been trying for years, to
get me to testify....ever since...."
"Ever since?" Keesha couldn't help but ask.
"Ever since, she held me and Lucky Spencer captive." she waited for
this to sink in, looking at Jax for his reaction. He didn't give one.
"Did you know?"
"Educated guess. What does Lucky have to do with this?" Jax asked.
"I don't know."
"Yes, you do."
Miranda shook her head. She looked at Jerry and he nodded. "Helena
beleived that Lucky's death would lead Luke and Laura back together,
thereby leaving Stefan alone, once more. She figured that he would
retaliate, and the Spencer-Cassadine feud, which basically has died
since Laura came back to Port Charles around 4 years ago, would start
up again, leaving Stefan too busy to wait for me to show up...and she
would have the element of surprise. I was going to come, testify to
what I knew, about Nikolas' parentage. That Stefan knew, but Helena
didn't..."
"Helena did know."
"I know that, but what do the courts know. Anyway, to make a long
story short, Nikolas would get nothing, and Helena would be in control
of everything still."
"Why did Helena let Lucky go?"
"To shake Luke, Stefan and Laura once more."
"And you?"
"I just told you."
"Let me get this straight. We're supposed to beleive, that Helena kept
you captive, only to send you to Port Charles, months in advance before
Nikolas' 21st birthday. Where you could bond with Jerry, one of the
few people who would be able to protect you? Not to mention Stefan
himself...why don't you just go to Stefan?"
"Because..." Miranda thought, and a few seconds later finished, "..he
scares me. He wanted me dead at first, before the parentage was in
question. Like I said, I knew, and Stefan knew that I knew, that's why
I was running from him when I met you."
"You were running from Stefan?"
Jerry ran his fingers through his hair. "Yes, but that's not
important."
"When did you find *that* out?" Jax looked at Jerry.
"She told me...while she was getting better."
"I don't beleive this...."
Keesha looked up at Jax. Obviously he was hurt that no one told him.
But what Keesha wondered was, was he hurt because of Jerry...or because
Miranda trusted Jerry more than she trusted him. Miranda and Jax
seemed to have so much unfinished business. She tried to remain
focused, but she couldn't. She never could control her jealousy, and
right now all that was going through her head was why could Miranda
push Jax's buttons still?
Jax glanced at Keesha as she took a deep breath, standing. He watched
as silently she headed up the stairs.
Shani-25 contrinued below
"...so will you stay out of it?" Jerry's voice brought Jax back to the
conversation at hand.
Jax looked at him. "No."
"No!"
"No...because Helena would *never*..." he turned his attention to
Miranda. "...ever take such a chance as letting you go early, to come
here, where you could even bother to ask for help-from Jerry, or
Stefan, or Luke for that matter. You're hiding something, as usual,
but I don't even care. What I do care about is the fact you're
choosing to drag my brother in it...and I will not let you get away
with it...."
"Damn it Jax!" Jerry stood again.
"You're going to do what you want, and I'm going to hate it...but I'll
help. Because someone here, has to keep a straight head, and
obviously, when it comes to her, you can't. But you want Miranda
protected. Fine, I'll help in anyway that I can."
Instantly, Jerry's anger at Jax faded. "Even when you're being the
bratty little brother, you always come through for me Jax."
Jax looked down on the ground. "Can you guys please go, I have some
business to take care of."
Miranda stood from the couch, waiting for Jerry. Jax looked up as he
heard the door close.
She shouldn't have gotten Jerry involved. Because though he would help
her, for Jerry, Jax was going to make sure that he knew all of her
secrets.
Jax leaned up against the doorway, watching as Keesha stared out the
window. Slowly, he came up behind her. "What's bothering you?" he
asked softly.
"Nothing." Keesha turned away from the window and gave him a small
smile. "I'm going to the library to try and catch up on the work I've
missed...." she looked out the window once more. "So did you Jerry and
Miranda reach some sort of understanding."
"Sort of."
"That's good."
"That is because of you as well you know. We were headed down the wrong
conversation highway, Jerry and myself...you got us back on track.
Rehashing the past over and over only causes useless pain."
"True, but only if it's ever been hashed in the first place."
"Again, what's bothering you?"
"Again, nothing...."
"Come on..." Jax wrapped his arms around Keesha's waist. "Tell me."
"Why does Miranda get to you still?"
"The same reason Sonny does, but to a lesser degree. But then again,
today she just moved closer to his position." Jax answered without
thought.
"Are you sure? I mean, maybe you have some things that were never
discussed and...never mind." Keesha sighed. "I hate it when I do
that."
"Do what?"
She shook her head. These were her own private demons...she didn't
discuss them with anyone. But then the words started to flow. "I have
this...jealousy thing, It's stupid, I know it's stupid, but I can't
control it." she sighed once more and moved over to the bed. Jax
turned and looked at her. "It's not...crippling or anything, I never
do irrational things because of it, but it's still there. It's like,
if I could just....do this, like so and so did, then we'll be okay. It
started with Jason, Robin did something for Jason that I couldn't...and
for a long time I wondered why. But when I was finally able to let
that go, then I was competeing against booze for AJ's love. Do you
know how completely humilating it is to be angry at an...inanimate
object....because it can hold your boyfriends attention longer than you
ever could? It was like...I failed or something." she managed to look
in Jax's direction, a small part of her waiting for him to tell her
that she was, in fact, the moron she felt like. Even though she knew
he would never say somrthing like that.
"Go on."
Keesha continued to look in Jax's eyes. "So I see that Miranda
still...you are the calmest person I've ever met. But she pushes your
buttons...it's so unlike you to react automatically like you do around
her. I watched that, and I know that you two never
really...*finished*...and it made me wonder why, and I got thoughts in
my head, like *me thinks he doth protest too much*." she took a breath.
"But like I said..."
"I love you...".
"I know. If I didn't think you loved me, I never would have told you
what I just did." she admitted. "So we don't have to discuss this
anymore. It's old news now." Keesha smiled.
Jax returned her smile and came closer. "Does that mean I can't tease
you for being jealous over a...woman, I use the term loosely, such as
Miranda." he joked and her smile grew.
"That's what it means."
"Wait, so I can't ask you what could possibly make you think that *she*
had something you didn't..."
"I get it, Jax..." Keesha laughed and reclined back on the bed. He
hopped into the bed strecthing next to her.
"I can count the number of people who actually cared about what I felt,
and what I thought, on one hand, Keesha." Jax's tone grew serious.
She tilted her head to look at him as he continued looking up at the
ceiling. "You ask me how I am, and I realize that you really and
truely want to know...you actually do care. You told me that I can
count on you..." he glanced over at her. "The thing is I already knew
that...I may have wanted to fight it, I may still...but I already know
that. And that just makes me love you more." he stared at the ceiling
again. "And then you tell me about you, though obviously part of you
doesn't want to...you trust me enough to tell me what you think...what
you're feeling. And again, it makes me love you more." he smiled.
"Caring, sharing..." he closed his eyes with a laugh. "You know, if you
aren't careful, I'm going to start to beleive that you're in love with
me."
Keesha was silent as she sat up in the bed. She came closer and
rested on top of him, looking down into his face, "Look at me." she
asked softly.
Jax realized he may have crossed a line he shouldn't have. "Honey, I
was joking..."
"Look at me."
Jax forced himself to open his eyes.
"I *am* in love with you."
"Keesha..."
"Never in my entire life have I been so in love." she wiped away the
tear that started to form in her eyes as she continued staring into
his. Looking for any shred of doubt there, her mind already working
over time on ways to get him to beleive her. "I love you." she
repeated for the third time.
Keesha waited for a reaction.
Any reaction.
Finally it came. "Again." he whispered.
Keesha took a deep breath, this time letting the tear escape. "I love
you, Jax." she stated again.
A smile slowly grew across Jax's face. "Thank you."
Keesha shook her head. "No. Thank you."
Shani
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