Written in 24 minutes. No time for typos of spell check.

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Corinthos Penthouse: Living Room

“Well, Morgan?” Taggert asked, folding his arms and raising his brows when Jason just stared at Courtney. “She’s waiting for an answer.”

Jason exhaled slowly and ignored the detective because there was no point in giving him any attention. Taggert reminded him of Michael as a toddler — if you looked at him when he was throwing a tantrum, it just encouraged him to keep going.

Instead, he focused on Sonny’s sister and one of the reasons he’d decided to get on a plane and marry Brenda Barrett. “You,” he said, deliberately, “kissed me.”

Courtney narrowed her eyes. “That is—”

“What happened,” Jason finished, bluntly. “I’m sorry if you thought there was something more. There wasn’t. There isn’t.”

“Is this because I’m married?” Courtney demanded. “Because—”

“You know, this is really fun and everything,” Sonny said, throwing Jason a dirty look, “but maybe we get should see what Taggert wants—” He offered his sister another look of his own, and Courtney closed her mout.

“Well, I came to get proof Morgan’s alibi,” Taggert said, with a shrug. “I thought you might want to take care of this without lawyers. You give me the flight records that prove you took off before the gunshots were heard—”

“If you want paperwork, then you tell Baldwin to get a subpoena,” Sonny said, darkly. He stalked over to the desk and grabbed a business card off the desk. He shoved it at Taggert who took it, holding it between his thumb and index finger. “Our new lawyer. Diane Miller. Call her from now on. Don’t come back without a warrant—”

“You sure I can’t stay and watch?” Taggert asked with a smirk as Sonny slammed the door in his face, then turned to his sister and Jason.

“What the hell is going on?” Sonny demanded. “Is this why Elizabeth said the thing about the box cutter?”

“She told you?” Courtney said, her eyes widening. “And you didn’t do anything? Sonny, she threatened me?”

“To cut off your hair with a box cutter. Yeah, I got that. You’d live,” Sonny said, dryly, dismissing her as Courtney sqawked in protest. “Jason—”

“Nothing is going on,” Jason said, gritting his teeth. Hadn’t he just said that? “And you had no right to tell Elizabeth it was—” he said, turning his irritation on the blonde. “What is wrong with you? I didn’t kiss you back. I didn’t call you, and I immediately put another guard on you. How did you not get the point?”

“I thought—” Courtney pursed her lips. “So everything that happened between us meant nothing to you.”

“What else happened?” Sonny demanded.

“Nothing,” Jason repeated. He didn’t often lose his temper, especially with women, but there was something about this whole thing that was really pissing him off. If Courtney hadn’t told Elizabeth anything, she wouldn’t have been upset enough to wander down to the pier. She wouldn’t be in danger or even involved with the PCPD’s case.

“That’s—”

“I’m leaving,” Jason decided. “I have more important things to deal with. I told you, Sonny, I’m done guarding your sister. You deal with this.” Then he left the penthouse, slamming the door behind him.

Sonny looked at his sister, shocked and open-mouthed at Jason’s hasty exit. “Well,” he said, slightly uncomfortable, “I guess you got your answer.”

“But I don’t understand. How did I get it so wrong?” Courtney asked, tears stinging her eyes. “I really thought—”

“This definitely sounds like a conversation I want nothing to do with, so maybe you go home and think about why you’re so angry about Jason not returning your feelings, and leave me out of it,” Sonny suggested. He opened the door. “Here you go.”

“You’re a real bastard,” Courtney snarled as she stormed out.

“I can live with that,” Sonny called after her. Then he closed the door and leaned his head against the door. From now on, he was staying out of everything.

Kelly’s: Kitchen

“I can’t believe Courtney just ditched her shift like this,” Mike muttered as he dumped plates into the sink. “You know, bad enough you did it—”

Elizabeth winced. “Still really sorry—”

“But you’ve worked here forever,” Mike continued. “You’ve built a little credit, you know? She’s been here eight minutes. And she just left? No word on where she was going or why? I can’t just let this go because she’s my daughter—”

“I mean, she didn’t say,” Elizabeth replied, “but I have a pretty good idea she was heading over to see Sonny.”

“I thought she hated Michael,” Mike said, baffled. “Why would she—” He shook his head. “She and I are going to have to talk about this.”

“Well, you have a good time with that,” Elizabeth said, waltzing out of the kitchen and straight into her grandmother.

Audrey Hardy arched a brow. “Mrs. Morgan, I presume,” she said stiffly.

Elizabeth grimaced. “Well, I hadn’t really decided on that,” she muttered, then looked down at the ground. “Gram, I know you’re mad—”

“Mad is hardly the word I would use,” Audrey said slowly. “While I may not approve of the groom, I am very disappointed that you didn’t include me in any of this. I thought we’d come further than this, Elizabeth.”

“Wait, what—” Elizabeth snapped her head up, stared at her grandmother. “You’re…not mad?”

“As long as you assure me that it’s not what Scott told me,” Audrey said, drawing her brows together with worry. “You didn’t marry Jason to protect yourself or him from the PCPD.”

Elizabeth paused, then saw Jason come into Kelly’s behind her grandmother. She waved him over. Hesitantly, Jason approached the two of them.

“Mrs. Hardy,” Jason said with a nod. Elizabeth slid her hand in one of his. “Hello.”

“Jason,” Audrey said, before looking back at her granddaughter. “Elizabeth?”

“I married Jason because I love him,” Elizabeth said. She glanced up at Jason. “And he asked because he loves me.” His lips curved into a hesitant smile before she focused on her grandmother again. “I hope that’s something you can be okay with.”

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