When Jason arrived in the ER at eleven to pick her up, he found his sister crying in Nikolas Cassadine’s arms. He strode towards them and touched Emily’s shoulder. “Hey…”

Emily pulled away from her friend and launched herself into her brother’s arms. “Jason! What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to pick up Elizabeth…what’s going on?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s Lucky,” Emily sniffled. “There was an accident and he’s in there now. That’s where Liz is.”

He looked at Nikolas. “What kind of accident?”

“A beam hit him at a fire,” Nikolas explained. “Knocked him out and then landed on his leg.” He swallowed hard. “It took some of the guys a few minutes to get it off him. They’re trying to save his leg now.”

Emily started to cry even harder and Jason steered her to a seat in the waiting room, Nikolas followed them.

She sat down and took a deep breath. “He’ll be okay,” she told herself. “He will. He has to be.” After a moment, she seemed to have herself under control and she turned to her brother. “What do you mean you’re here to pick up Elizabeth?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jason said. “Do you need anything?”

“Yes,” Emily said, nodding urgently, “I need to distract myself. I don’t know when we’re going to find out anything so please…humor me.”

Jason shot Nikolas a look but the other man had drifted towards the entrance, anxious for word on his stepbrother. He looked back at his sister and sighed. “Okay. I’m taking her out for dinner after her shift.”

Emily managed a weak smile. “I told her you two would be perfect for each other. Fate and all.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Fate?”

Emily nodded and pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Me and Brenda explained it to her a few weeks ago–”

“This should be good,” Jason mused.

“And we decided that the two of you were fated to meet.” Emily crackled her knuckles. Even with the levity of the conversation, her eyes kept darting to doors of the trauma room.

Trying to keep his sister distracted, Jason asked, “How so?”

“Well…you saved her life five years ago,” Emily reminded him, almost absently. “And now five years later, it just…felt like there’s no way you wouldn’t meet. She was friends with Lucky and Nikolas, Lucky and I…” she faltered for a moment at the thought of her boyfriend but managed to continue her voice hoarse, “Lucky and I are dating and you’re my brother.”

“Just coincidences,” Jason told her.

“Not to mention she was on duty the last two times you were here with Brenda’s hand and your hand, too,” Emily reminded him. “Add in her crappy car and your being a mechanic…Fate.”

“Fate,” Jason repeated. “I still don’t think so.”

“Brenda really likes her,” Emily told her brother. “She thinks Elizabeth is the perfect girl to make you forget Carly.”

Jason sighed. “How many times do I have to tell you that I don’t need to forget her? It was a mutual break up.”

Emily was about to argue when she noticed Elizabeth push her way out of the trauma room. She blanched at the sight of blood on Elizabeth’s yellow scrubs but she stood anyway and joined Nikolas.

“He’s okay,” Elizabeth reported. She pulled her white surgical gloves off her hands and tossed it into a nearby trash can. “He made it through the emergency surgery a-and he’s stable. He’s going up for more surgery.”

“His leg,” Nikolas asked urgently. “Did you save it?”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah. He’ll, uh, need some therapy but he’s going to be fine.”

Emily let out a long relieved breath and threw her arms around Nikolas. “Thank God!”

“I’m going to go change and clock out,” Elizabeth told them quietly. She strode away from them, feeling out of place. Lucky may be her best friend but he was Nikolas’s brother and Emily’s boyfriend. It was different somehow.

She was around the corner when she finally pulled off the scrubs she wore over her clothes and once that was in the trash can, she leaned against the wall and closed her eyes.

“You okay?”

Jason’s voice caused her eyes to fly open. “Jason.”

He was next to her, his body facing her and his hip leaning against the wall. He braced an elbow over his head. “It couldn’t have been easy to operate on a friend.”

She shrugged. “Once we started…it didn’t matter. He was just another patient.”

“I don’t believe that,” Jason said. He shook his head. “You don’t seem like the type.”

“Jason…” she protested softly. He just stared at her and she finally sighed and looked at her feet. “I think if…if something had gone wrong…I don’t think I would have ever been able to forgive myself.” She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. “I’m exhausted.”

“I guess we’ll reschedule dinner,” Jason remarked.

She frowned a little and then managed a faint smile. “Dinner. I’m sorry. I…it slipped my mind.”

“It’s okay.” He straightened. “Do you need a ride home or something?”

“Yeah…” Elizabeth nodded. She took another deep breath and stood straight. “Just let me get changed. I’ll be out in a couple of minutes.”

“I’ll be here.”

—

Emily had found her brother by the time Elizabeth emerged from the staff room and when she spied the intern, Emily threw her arms around her, nearly cutting off Elizabeth’s airway.

“Thank you so much for saving his life,” Emily told her firmly. “You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“I was just doing my job,” Elizabeth replied a little uncomfortable. She smiled at the brunette when Emily finally pulled away.

“The other doctor said he’d be in surgery for most of the night,” Nikolas said. “So, if you need a ride home, I’m stopping by the apartment to grab a change of clothes. I can drop you off.”

Elizabeth shook her head and gestured towards Jason. “Jason’s giving me a ride.”

“Oh, that’s right, you two had a date,” Emily said. She smiled. “I told you so, didn’t I?”

Elizabeth flushed and looked away. “Yeah. Okay.”

“Come on, you can take me home instead,” Emily told Nikolas. “I need to get changed myself.” She tugged on the paramedic’s hand and led him away.

“Sorry about Emily,” Jason said as he and Elizabeth started for the doors of the emergency room. “She tends to get carried away.”

Elizabeth smiled. “She loves you. All siblings get carried away sometimes. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for my brother.”

“You have a brother?” Jason asked.

“Yeah…he’s younger…he’s about twenty years old and…well…kind of wild,” Elizabeth remarked. They left the hospital and she followed him into the parking lot. “Johnny’s always getting arrested. I feel sorry for his wife Kiki.”

Jason smirked. “Her name is actually Kiki?”

“It’s short for Kathleen.” They stopped in front of a motorcycle and she raised her eyebrows. “I should have figured.”

“Figured what?” Jason asked, unhooking the helmet from the back.

“That you rode one of these,” Elizabeth said. She smiled as she pulled the helmet over her hair. “It just…I don’t know fits you.”

He straddled the bike and gestured for her to get on behind him. “You ever been on one of these before?”

“Yeah, the last time I visited Johnny,” Elizabeth told him. She wrapped her arms around his waist in a tight grip and waited for him to start the bike.

—

“Wow!” Elizabeth exclaimed, pulling the helmet off. Her hair was somewhat flattened by the helmet but the wind immediately picked up the curls and started to blow them around her face. “You go way faster than Johnny.”

Jason grinned and hooked the helmet on the bike. “I should take you out on the cliffs then. I think you’d like the turns.”

“I think I would.” She pulled her keys out of her jeans and bit her lip for a moment. “Do you want to come up?”

“Yeah,” Jason admitted. “But I probably shouldn’t.”

Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She stepped closer to him. “I’m sorry about dinner.”

“It’s no big deal,” Jason said shrugging. “I’m sure it won’t be the last time we have to cancel.”

She smiled then and looked down at her feet for a moment before glancing back at him. “Does that mean there’ll be a next time?” she asked shyly.

“Well…if it’s okay with you…yeah,” Jason agreed. He cut off further conversation by pressing lips against hers gently. She moved close and wound her arms around his neck. He made no move to deepen the kiss–almost like they were taking a step back.

Taking a step back…taking it slowly…was just fine with her.

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