Fic: Say Goodbye (GH, Lana/Jake, Molly/Cameron, Lanaverse)
Title: Say Goodbye
Author: empressearwig
Claim: Robin/Patrick
Fandom: General Hospital
Theme: 5 - Kiss Goodbye
Disclaimer: Any characters originally belonging on General Hospital do not belong to me.
The party was way too loud.
It was all Lana could think about as she stood on the fringes of it, watching the crowd and sipping her soda. The entire high school aged population of Port Charles must be here, she thought idly to herself. But then that must be what happens when the three guests of honor had all gone to different high schools.
She leaned back against a tree and looked out at the full grounds. Nikolas and Elizabeth had offered up Wyndemere as a location for the going away party that Molly, Spencer, and Jake had wanted to throw, mostly because it was the only place big enough to accommodate all of their friends.
Lana let her eyes drift through the crowd, looking for the guests of honor. She’d always known she was the baby of their group of friends, but somehow she still couldn’t believe she’d be stuck in Port Charles all alone next year. Well, except for Lila, she realized as she spotted the red-haired girl standing wrapped in the circle of Morgan’s arm.
She frowned. Just because they were both there, that didn’t mean they’d end up friends.
She let her gaze move on, and found Spencer standing surrounded by his normal crowd of fawning girls.
She looked at him closely. To someone that didn’t know him well, she was sure, they’d see no difference. But she did know Spencer, and she knew that something had changed in the last few weeks. He’d always had a sense of humor about the flock of girls that followed his every move, but lately, he seemed to have lost that. It was like he’d come to see himself the way they saw him. As a pretty face with a fat wallet, and nothing more.
She didn’t know what had happened, but she sincerely hoped that moving to England for Oxford was going to help.
She was worried about her friend.
Unable to stand it any longer, she looked away. It was too sad to even watch.
She moved on, letting her gaze wander across the masses.
And then, just as she’d thought (hoped) she wouldn’t be able to see him, there he was.
Jake Spencer.
The boy that she loved, and that had broken her heart so carelessly.
She stiffened, heart hurting, knowing she should look away, but unable to do so.
She hadn’t wanted to come tonight for precisely this reason. She’d known it would hurt too much to see him laughing and talking with his friends as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and she felt as if the world had ended.
But Molly had insisted.
Molly would just have to understand why she couldn’t stay, Lana decided, allowing herself another moment to drink in her fill of the sight of him.
She tore her gaze away, and pushed herself off the tree, intent on heading inside, heading away from him.
And then suddenly Molly was there, tugging Cameron along behind her.
Molly looked very determined.
Lana held up a hand to ward off her friend. “I know what you’re going to say, but don’t. I can’t stay, Mol, I can’t be here, I can’t -” Her voice cracked at the last, and she felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” Molly said, dropping Cameron’s hand and coming to stand next to her friend, wrapping her arm around her. “I never should have made you come.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Lana sniffed. She looked at Cam with watery eyes. “Hi Cameron.”
“Hey Lan,” he said. “My brother’s a punk. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize for your brother,” Lana said, doing her best to smile at him.
“Of course he does,” Molly countered. She squeezed Lana’s shoulders. “Why don’t you go wait in the study while Cam and I say our good-byes, and then we’ll take you home.”
“That’s nice of you, Mol, but I’m a big girl and I can get home by myself.”
“I know,” Molly said gently, trying to soothe Lana’s ruffled feathers. “But I’m the reason you’re here. So humor me.”
“It’d make my life so much easier if you’d just say yes,” Cameron interjected. “If you don’t, she’ll be worried about you for the rest of the night.”
Lana looked back and forth between their expectant faces. “Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll be inside. But if this takes more than a half hour, I’m leaving without you.”
She started walking towards the house.
Molly turned to Cameron with anger on her face and in her voice. “I could kill your brother!”
“I know,” Cameron said soothingly. “And while I agree with you that he’s a jackass that doesn’t deserve to live, especially after seeing how broken up Lana is, he really did mean well, Mol. He thought this would hurt her less.”
“Does she look like this is hurting less?” Molly demanded, eyes flashing.
“No,” he acknowledged.
“Well, then we agree.”
His voice turned wary. “Agree on what?”
“That we’re either going to fix this or you’re going to have to commit fratricide.” She looked at him expectantly. “Right?”
Cameron groaned. “Molly, you can’t possibly think this is a good idea.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Of course I do, or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“Mol, I really don’t think you should try to interfere,” he warned. “Lana’s been hurt enough, do you want to make it worse?”
“I won’t let him make it worse,” she said matter-of-factly. “Now are you coming with me while I try to bash some sense into your brother’s thick skull, or do I have to do this by myself?”
He knew there was no stopping her when she was in one of these moods, and if he was with her he could probably stop Jake from dying. He thought. He gave in with a sigh. “Fine.”
She smiled triumphantly. “Good.”
Molly grabbed Cameron’s hand and started dragging him towards his younger brother.
Cameron sent up a silent prayer for his brother.
If he wasn’t already regretting what he’d done, he would be by the time Molly got through with him
And it wouldn’t be pretty.
*
Molly needn’t have worried.
Jake hadn’t been doing anything but beating himself up since the day he’d broken things off with Lana.
Though he stood clustered in a group of his friends from the baseball team, smiling and laughing as though nothing was wrong, he’d been keeping an eye on Lana all night.
Seeing her hurting and knowing that he was the cause and that he couldn’t do anything to make it better seemed the least penance he deserved.
He was so preoccupied with watching Lana retreat alone towards the house that he failed to notice Molly barreling towards him, till she was poking him in the chest.
“You are scum, Jake Spencer,” she announced loudly, jabbing him again.
He grabbed her hand and looked around at his friends, who now wore a mixture of amused and intrigued expressions.
“Not here,” he said tersely, jerking his head towards a less crowded area.
Not giving her a chance to respond, he stalked away, forcing Molly and Cameron to trail behind him.
When he was sure they were in the most private spot they were going to get at a party with over 500 guests, he spun around. “What is your problem?” he demanded, pitching his voice as low as he could to still be heard over the noise of the party.
Her eyes narrowed and she dropped Cameron’s hand, crossing her arms over her chest. “My problem?” she demanded. “Have you seen Lana tonight, Jake? Have you seen what you did?”
Some of the fight fell out of him. How could he be mad at Molly for reacting this way to Lana’s more than obvious hurt, when he was feeling the same way? “Of course I saw her. She looked miserable, which for the record is also how I feel, thanks for asking,” he snapped back at her.
“You certainly haven’t been acting like you’re miserable,” she said. “You’re still the life of the party.”
“Just because I’m better at hiding what I’m feeling doesn’t mean I’m not hurting too,” he practically growled. “Don’t push me, Molly.”
Seeing Molly about to go off, Cameron put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. “Mol, I don’t think you actually came over here to yell at Jake, no matter how much you’re enjoying it, so why don’t you say what you wanted to say. Lana’s waiting, remember?”
“Wait, she’s still here?” Jake blurted out before he could stop himself.
Something in his voice made Molly reconsider. “Yes, she’s waiting for Cameron and I do take her home.” She studied Jake for a moment. “I’m not sure if I’ll live to regret this, or even if Lana will forgive me for it, but you should go talk to her, Jake.”
Jake stared. Of all the things he’d imagined coming out of Molly’s mouth, that wasn’t one of them. He glanced at his brother, who seemed as surprised as he was. “You can’t be serious.”
She smiled then, though it wasn’t the friendly one she normally wore. “Oh, but I am. And if you make me regret it, I’ll kill you myself.” She jerked her chin towards Cameron, who was still holding her shoulders. “I won’t even need him to help me.”
Jake raised an eyebrow at his brother.
Cameron shrugged.
Nodding, Jake turned his attention back to Molly. “What could I possibly say to her that would make this better?” he demanded. “Tell me, I want to know.”
“You found the words to make her fall in love with you,” Molly said levelly, looking him straight in the eye. “I have faith you can find the ones to help her now.” She shrugged. “Or tell her the truth.”
“I did tell her the truth,” he growled, on the brink of losing his temper with her.
“You told her you were a scared little boy, running away from the best thing that’ll ever happen to you?” Molly asked, voice syrupy sweet. “I must have missed that part when she was sobbing on my shoulder.”
“Molly,” he sighed. Wearily, he rubbed his hands across his face. “Fine, I’ll talk to her.”
“Good,” Molly said. “Now shoo.”
“Shoo?” Jake echoed, raising both eyebrows. He looked at Cameron. “You don’t ever say no to her, do you?”
Cameron considered, and then shook his head. “Not really, no.”
Growing less amused by the moment, Molly interjected, “Tick tock, gentlemen.”
Jake nodded and squared his shoulders. “Right.” He turned and started towards the house.
“Oh, Jake?” Molly called after him.
He turned his head. “Yes?”
“Won’t you need to know where she is?”
Molly’s voice contained the first traces of amusement that it had all night, he noted, his teeth gritted as he spun around to face her “Right.”
Taking pity on him, Cameron said quickly, “She’s in the study, man. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” Jake muttered, turning back around and walking more quickly towards the house.
They watched him walk away.
When he was out of sight, Molly tilted her face up towards Cameron’s. “He’s going to screw it up, isn’t he?”
Cameron hesitated, torn between his loyalty to his brother and his honest opinion. In lieu of an answer, he pressed a kiss to the side of her head.
“That wasn’t an answer,” she pointed out, smiling up at him.
He winced. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t notice.”
He grabbed her hand and started pulling her in the same direction Jake had just headed.
“Where are we going?” Molly asked, struggling to keep up with him.
“To wait.”
*
Jake paused in the doorway of his step-father’s study.
Lana was curled up on the couch, feet tucked up underneath her, though she’d slid out of her sandals in deference to the butler’s strict no shoes on the furniture policy. She stared blankly ahead at the wall, or at least that’s what he thought she was doing.
She looked so much younger than her age, and so impossibly small, almost like a little girl.
She looked miserable.
He sighed, hoping that whatever the outcome of this, he wouldn’t make things worse.
His sigh must have been louder than he thought, because at it, her head turned towards the door.
“What are you doing here?” she asked flatly.
He winced. He’d rather her yell at him than see her like this, all pale, and sad, and just so un-Lana-like. He pushed off the doorframe and crossed the room, settling himself on the opposite end of the couch. He turned to face her, taking a deep breath. “I wanted to see how you were,” he said finally. That much was true at least.
She laughed, though it was a bitter sound, one that he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard before. “How I am?” she asked incredulously. “I think that’s pretty damn obvious. You broke my heart Jake, do you really need to rub it in?”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“Clearly this was a bad idea,” he muttered, standing up and stalking towards the door. “I’m sorry if I made things worse.”
“Why did you really come?”
Her simple question stopped him in his tracks.
He slowly turned to face her. “What do you mean?” he hedged.
She sighed. “I mean, you didn’t just come to see how I am. Anyone with eyes can see that. So I want to know why you really came.”
He rubbed his hand across his eyes. How well she knew him always came as a surprise. “I did want to see how you are. But I also wanted to see if there was anything I could do to fix it.”
Her eyes went wide. “Unless you have a time machine that can take us back two weeks, back before my idiot boyfriend decided to break up with me, make that my idiot ex-boyfriend, I don’t see what you could possibly do to fix this.”
“Come on, Lan, don’t be like this! Let me help.”
“You did this!” she exclaimed angrily. “You broke up with me. You don’t get to make offers to help to ease your conscience.”
Jake didn’t reply for a long moment. He knew what she said was true, but that didn’t take away the need to make this better. “I know that,” he sighed. “But I can’t stand to see you like this, Lana. I can’t.”
“Well you should have thought of that before you broke up with me,” she snapped, some fire sparking in her eyes.
“Why can’t you understand that I did it for you?”
“Because you didn’t,” she sneered. “You might have told yourself that your noble, self-sacrificing gesture of breaking up with me for my own good was about me, but it wasn’t. It was about you.”
He blinked. That had not been what he was expecting. “I think I’d know better than you why I did it,” he said, a touch of anger creeping into his voice.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, I have no doubt that you’ve convinced yourself of that, but let’s be honest here, Jake. What about this is better for me? Meanwhile, you get to go off to California unencumbered by your still in high school girlfriend. Now, you tell me which one of us this situation is good for.”
“You cannot be serious,” he growled, advancing on her. “You think I broke up with you so I could date other girls in California?”
She nodded, though a trace of doubt appeared in her eyes.
He reached out and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her to him roughly. “Are you insane?” he demanded, trying to resist the impulse to shake her. “I love you. I don’t want anyone else.”
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have been able to break my heart this easily!” she cried, pain laced through every word.
He dropped her arms like he’d been scalded, stung by the implicit accusation in what she’d said. “You think I don’t love you?”
Her eyes lowered to the floor. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know,” he repeated hollowly.
She looked up, and was stricken by how hurt he looked. “Jake, I’m sorry,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm. “I shouldn’t have said that. I know you love me, I do.”
He shook his head. “Clearly you don’t.”
“No, I do,” she insisted.
Jake stared at her for a moment, and then let out a rueful laugh. “Look at us.”
Her nose crinkled in confusion. “What?”
He gestured back and forth between them. “This is so absurd. We love each other. It’s killing both of us to see the other one upset, and yet all we can do is fight.”
She nodded, agreeing with him. “I think the anger is easier to handle than the rest of it. I know if I concentrate on how absolutely furious I am with you, the less I can think about how bad I feel.”
“I suppose I deserve that.”
She nodded again. “You do.”
They stared at each other for a moment more, till Jake reached out and took Lana’s hand, pulling her back to the couch.
This time they sat so close their knees were touching, and he didn’t relinquish her hand.
“I’m sorry,” he started, tightening his grip on her fingers. “I know you might not believe that, but I am. I know I hurt you, but I honestly thought it would be better to break up now, than say six months from now, when we both resent each other for not being where the other is.”
“But I wouldn’t have resented you,” she protested.
“You would have,” he said, holding up his other hand to ward off the ensuing comment. “And no, I’m not thinking for you, I’m just being realistic. You’re telling me you wouldn’t ever resent me for not being here? Not being able to take you to homecoming or the prom?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know. But long distance relationships can work! Look at your brother and Molly.”
He nodded. “Point taken, but it’s a lot less far from Boston to Port Charles than it is from California to Port Charles.” He grinned for a moment. “Besides, my brother and Molly are not normal.”
Lana smiled at that. “True.” She looked down at their twined fingers. “So what now?”
“What now?” he echoed, confused at the sudden shift in the direction of the conversation.
“Well, we’ve fought, and I’ve cried, and I assume you came here to do something, so what is it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Well then, I guess all that’s left to do is say goodbye.” She looked up at him, tremulous smile on her face.
“I guess so,” he said slowly, staring at her, trying to memorize her face, which was ridiculous because he knew he knew it better than his own. “Will you email me? Text me? Something? I don’t want you to be cut out of my life.”
She hesitated. “Maybe. I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.”
“I suppose that’s fair.”
“I don’t really remember how to be just your friend, Jake. We haven’t been that in a long time, maybe ever, so this is going to be hard.”
He nodded. “I know. For me too, you know.”
The minutes ticked by as they stared at each other, both unwilling to do or say anything that could cause the moment to end.
Molly’s voice from the door broke the silence. “Everything all right in here? Lana, are you ready to go?”
Lana started at the intrusting. “Could you just give us another minute, Mol?”
“Of course.” Molly retreated back into the hall.
“So I guess this is it,” Jake said.
Lana nodded. “I guess so.” She started to stand, still holding onto his hand, but then she changed her mind and sat again, leaning into kiss him one last time, before she could regret the impulse to do so.
The kiss was tender and sweet, both of them lingering over it, not wanting it to end.
Lana pulled back first. “Goodbye Jake,” she whispered before rushing out of the room into Molly’s waiting arms.
“Goodbye Lana,” he said to the empty room.
Author: empressearwig
Claim: Robin/Patrick
Fandom: General Hospital
Theme: 5 - Kiss Goodbye
Disclaimer: Any characters originally belonging on General Hospital do not belong to me.
The party was way too loud.
It was all Lana could think about as she stood on the fringes of it, watching the crowd and sipping her soda. The entire high school aged population of Port Charles must be here, she thought idly to herself. But then that must be what happens when the three guests of honor had all gone to different high schools.
She leaned back against a tree and looked out at the full grounds. Nikolas and Elizabeth had offered up Wyndemere as a location for the going away party that Molly, Spencer, and Jake had wanted to throw, mostly because it was the only place big enough to accommodate all of their friends.
Lana let her eyes drift through the crowd, looking for the guests of honor. She’d always known she was the baby of their group of friends, but somehow she still couldn’t believe she’d be stuck in Port Charles all alone next year. Well, except for Lila, she realized as she spotted the red-haired girl standing wrapped in the circle of Morgan’s arm.
She frowned. Just because they were both there, that didn’t mean they’d end up friends.
She let her gaze move on, and found Spencer standing surrounded by his normal crowd of fawning girls.
She looked at him closely. To someone that didn’t know him well, she was sure, they’d see no difference. But she did know Spencer, and she knew that something had changed in the last few weeks. He’d always had a sense of humor about the flock of girls that followed his every move, but lately, he seemed to have lost that. It was like he’d come to see himself the way they saw him. As a pretty face with a fat wallet, and nothing more.
She didn’t know what had happened, but she sincerely hoped that moving to England for Oxford was going to help.
She was worried about her friend.
Unable to stand it any longer, she looked away. It was too sad to even watch.
She moved on, letting her gaze wander across the masses.
And then, just as she’d thought (hoped) she wouldn’t be able to see him, there he was.
Jake Spencer.
The boy that she loved, and that had broken her heart so carelessly.
She stiffened, heart hurting, knowing she should look away, but unable to do so.
She hadn’t wanted to come tonight for precisely this reason. She’d known it would hurt too much to see him laughing and talking with his friends as if it were the most normal thing in the world, and she felt as if the world had ended.
But Molly had insisted.
Molly would just have to understand why she couldn’t stay, Lana decided, allowing herself another moment to drink in her fill of the sight of him.
She tore her gaze away, and pushed herself off the tree, intent on heading inside, heading away from him.
And then suddenly Molly was there, tugging Cameron along behind her.
Molly looked very determined.
Lana held up a hand to ward off her friend. “I know what you’re going to say, but don’t. I can’t stay, Mol, I can’t be here, I can’t -” Her voice cracked at the last, and she felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.
“I know, and I’m sorry,” Molly said, dropping Cameron’s hand and coming to stand next to her friend, wrapping her arm around her. “I never should have made you come.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” Lana sniffed. She looked at Cam with watery eyes. “Hi Cameron.”
“Hey Lan,” he said. “My brother’s a punk. I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize for your brother,” Lana said, doing her best to smile at him.
“Of course he does,” Molly countered. She squeezed Lana’s shoulders. “Why don’t you go wait in the study while Cam and I say our good-byes, and then we’ll take you home.”
“That’s nice of you, Mol, but I’m a big girl and I can get home by myself.”
“I know,” Molly said gently, trying to soothe Lana’s ruffled feathers. “But I’m the reason you’re here. So humor me.”
“It’d make my life so much easier if you’d just say yes,” Cameron interjected. “If you don’t, she’ll be worried about you for the rest of the night.”
Lana looked back and forth between their expectant faces. “Fine,” she sighed. “I’ll be inside. But if this takes more than a half hour, I’m leaving without you.”
She started walking towards the house.
Molly turned to Cameron with anger on her face and in her voice. “I could kill your brother!”
“I know,” Cameron said soothingly. “And while I agree with you that he’s a jackass that doesn’t deserve to live, especially after seeing how broken up Lana is, he really did mean well, Mol. He thought this would hurt her less.”
“Does she look like this is hurting less?” Molly demanded, eyes flashing.
“No,” he acknowledged.
“Well, then we agree.”
His voice turned wary. “Agree on what?”
“That we’re either going to fix this or you’re going to have to commit fratricide.” She looked at him expectantly. “Right?”
Cameron groaned. “Molly, you can’t possibly think this is a good idea.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Of course I do, or I wouldn’t have said anything.”
“Mol, I really don’t think you should try to interfere,” he warned. “Lana’s been hurt enough, do you want to make it worse?”
“I won’t let him make it worse,” she said matter-of-factly. “Now are you coming with me while I try to bash some sense into your brother’s thick skull, or do I have to do this by myself?”
He knew there was no stopping her when she was in one of these moods, and if he was with her he could probably stop Jake from dying. He thought. He gave in with a sigh. “Fine.”
She smiled triumphantly. “Good.”
Molly grabbed Cameron’s hand and started dragging him towards his younger brother.
Cameron sent up a silent prayer for his brother.
If he wasn’t already regretting what he’d done, he would be by the time Molly got through with him
And it wouldn’t be pretty.
*
Molly needn’t have worried.
Jake hadn’t been doing anything but beating himself up since the day he’d broken things off with Lana.
Though he stood clustered in a group of his friends from the baseball team, smiling and laughing as though nothing was wrong, he’d been keeping an eye on Lana all night.
Seeing her hurting and knowing that he was the cause and that he couldn’t do anything to make it better seemed the least penance he deserved.
He was so preoccupied with watching Lana retreat alone towards the house that he failed to notice Molly barreling towards him, till she was poking him in the chest.
“You are scum, Jake Spencer,” she announced loudly, jabbing him again.
He grabbed her hand and looked around at his friends, who now wore a mixture of amused and intrigued expressions.
“Not here,” he said tersely, jerking his head towards a less crowded area.
Not giving her a chance to respond, he stalked away, forcing Molly and Cameron to trail behind him.
When he was sure they were in the most private spot they were going to get at a party with over 500 guests, he spun around. “What is your problem?” he demanded, pitching his voice as low as he could to still be heard over the noise of the party.
Her eyes narrowed and she dropped Cameron’s hand, crossing her arms over her chest. “My problem?” she demanded. “Have you seen Lana tonight, Jake? Have you seen what you did?”
Some of the fight fell out of him. How could he be mad at Molly for reacting this way to Lana’s more than obvious hurt, when he was feeling the same way? “Of course I saw her. She looked miserable, which for the record is also how I feel, thanks for asking,” he snapped back at her.
“You certainly haven’t been acting like you’re miserable,” she said. “You’re still the life of the party.”
“Just because I’m better at hiding what I’m feeling doesn’t mean I’m not hurting too,” he practically growled. “Don’t push me, Molly.”
Seeing Molly about to go off, Cameron put his hands on her shoulders and squeezed. “Mol, I don’t think you actually came over here to yell at Jake, no matter how much you’re enjoying it, so why don’t you say what you wanted to say. Lana’s waiting, remember?”
“Wait, she’s still here?” Jake blurted out before he could stop himself.
Something in his voice made Molly reconsider. “Yes, she’s waiting for Cameron and I do take her home.” She studied Jake for a moment. “I’m not sure if I’ll live to regret this, or even if Lana will forgive me for it, but you should go talk to her, Jake.”
Jake stared. Of all the things he’d imagined coming out of Molly’s mouth, that wasn’t one of them. He glanced at his brother, who seemed as surprised as he was. “You can’t be serious.”
She smiled then, though it wasn’t the friendly one she normally wore. “Oh, but I am. And if you make me regret it, I’ll kill you myself.” She jerked her chin towards Cameron, who was still holding her shoulders. “I won’t even need him to help me.”
Jake raised an eyebrow at his brother.
Cameron shrugged.
Nodding, Jake turned his attention back to Molly. “What could I possibly say to her that would make this better?” he demanded. “Tell me, I want to know.”
“You found the words to make her fall in love with you,” Molly said levelly, looking him straight in the eye. “I have faith you can find the ones to help her now.” She shrugged. “Or tell her the truth.”
“I did tell her the truth,” he growled, on the brink of losing his temper with her.
“You told her you were a scared little boy, running away from the best thing that’ll ever happen to you?” Molly asked, voice syrupy sweet. “I must have missed that part when she was sobbing on my shoulder.”
“Molly,” he sighed. Wearily, he rubbed his hands across his face. “Fine, I’ll talk to her.”
“Good,” Molly said. “Now shoo.”
“Shoo?” Jake echoed, raising both eyebrows. He looked at Cameron. “You don’t ever say no to her, do you?”
Cameron considered, and then shook his head. “Not really, no.”
Growing less amused by the moment, Molly interjected, “Tick tock, gentlemen.”
Jake nodded and squared his shoulders. “Right.” He turned and started towards the house.
“Oh, Jake?” Molly called after him.
He turned his head. “Yes?”
“Won’t you need to know where she is?”
Molly’s voice contained the first traces of amusement that it had all night, he noted, his teeth gritted as he spun around to face her “Right.”
Taking pity on him, Cameron said quickly, “She’s in the study, man. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” Jake muttered, turning back around and walking more quickly towards the house.
They watched him walk away.
When he was out of sight, Molly tilted her face up towards Cameron’s. “He’s going to screw it up, isn’t he?”
Cameron hesitated, torn between his loyalty to his brother and his honest opinion. In lieu of an answer, he pressed a kiss to the side of her head.
“That wasn’t an answer,” she pointed out, smiling up at him.
He winced. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t notice.”
He grabbed her hand and started pulling her in the same direction Jake had just headed.
“Where are we going?” Molly asked, struggling to keep up with him.
“To wait.”
*
Jake paused in the doorway of his step-father’s study.
Lana was curled up on the couch, feet tucked up underneath her, though she’d slid out of her sandals in deference to the butler’s strict no shoes on the furniture policy. She stared blankly ahead at the wall, or at least that’s what he thought she was doing.
She looked so much younger than her age, and so impossibly small, almost like a little girl.
She looked miserable.
He sighed, hoping that whatever the outcome of this, he wouldn’t make things worse.
His sigh must have been louder than he thought, because at it, her head turned towards the door.
“What are you doing here?” she asked flatly.
He winced. He’d rather her yell at him than see her like this, all pale, and sad, and just so un-Lana-like. He pushed off the doorframe and crossed the room, settling himself on the opposite end of the couch. He turned to face her, taking a deep breath. “I wanted to see how you were,” he said finally. That much was true at least.
She laughed, though it was a bitter sound, one that he wasn’t sure he’d ever heard before. “How I am?” she asked incredulously. “I think that’s pretty damn obvious. You broke my heart Jake, do you really need to rub it in?”
“That’s not what I’m trying to do.”
She snorted. “Yeah, right.”
“Clearly this was a bad idea,” he muttered, standing up and stalking towards the door. “I’m sorry if I made things worse.”
“Why did you really come?”
Her simple question stopped him in his tracks.
He slowly turned to face her. “What do you mean?” he hedged.
She sighed. “I mean, you didn’t just come to see how I am. Anyone with eyes can see that. So I want to know why you really came.”
He rubbed his hand across his eyes. How well she knew him always came as a surprise. “I did want to see how you are. But I also wanted to see if there was anything I could do to fix it.”
Her eyes went wide. “Unless you have a time machine that can take us back two weeks, back before my idiot boyfriend decided to break up with me, make that my idiot ex-boyfriend, I don’t see what you could possibly do to fix this.”
“Come on, Lan, don’t be like this! Let me help.”
“You did this!” she exclaimed angrily. “You broke up with me. You don’t get to make offers to help to ease your conscience.”
Jake didn’t reply for a long moment. He knew what she said was true, but that didn’t take away the need to make this better. “I know that,” he sighed. “But I can’t stand to see you like this, Lana. I can’t.”
“Well you should have thought of that before you broke up with me,” she snapped, some fire sparking in her eyes.
“Why can’t you understand that I did it for you?”
“Because you didn’t,” she sneered. “You might have told yourself that your noble, self-sacrificing gesture of breaking up with me for my own good was about me, but it wasn’t. It was about you.”
He blinked. That had not been what he was expecting. “I think I’d know better than you why I did it,” he said, a touch of anger creeping into his voice.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, I have no doubt that you’ve convinced yourself of that, but let’s be honest here, Jake. What about this is better for me? Meanwhile, you get to go off to California unencumbered by your still in high school girlfriend. Now, you tell me which one of us this situation is good for.”
“You cannot be serious,” he growled, advancing on her. “You think I broke up with you so I could date other girls in California?”
She nodded, though a trace of doubt appeared in her eyes.
He reached out and grabbed her shoulders, pulling her to him roughly. “Are you insane?” he demanded, trying to resist the impulse to shake her. “I love you. I don’t want anyone else.”
“If you loved me, you wouldn’t have been able to break my heart this easily!” she cried, pain laced through every word.
He dropped her arms like he’d been scalded, stung by the implicit accusation in what she’d said. “You think I don’t love you?”
Her eyes lowered to the floor. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know,” he repeated hollowly.
She looked up, and was stricken by how hurt he looked. “Jake, I’m sorry,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm. “I shouldn’t have said that. I know you love me, I do.”
He shook his head. “Clearly you don’t.”
“No, I do,” she insisted.
Jake stared at her for a moment, and then let out a rueful laugh. “Look at us.”
Her nose crinkled in confusion. “What?”
He gestured back and forth between them. “This is so absurd. We love each other. It’s killing both of us to see the other one upset, and yet all we can do is fight.”
She nodded, agreeing with him. “I think the anger is easier to handle than the rest of it. I know if I concentrate on how absolutely furious I am with you, the less I can think about how bad I feel.”
“I suppose I deserve that.”
She nodded again. “You do.”
They stared at each other for a moment more, till Jake reached out and took Lana’s hand, pulling her back to the couch.
This time they sat so close their knees were touching, and he didn’t relinquish her hand.
“I’m sorry,” he started, tightening his grip on her fingers. “I know you might not believe that, but I am. I know I hurt you, but I honestly thought it would be better to break up now, than say six months from now, when we both resent each other for not being where the other is.”
“But I wouldn’t have resented you,” she protested.
“You would have,” he said, holding up his other hand to ward off the ensuing comment. “And no, I’m not thinking for you, I’m just being realistic. You’re telling me you wouldn’t ever resent me for not being here? Not being able to take you to homecoming or the prom?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know. But long distance relationships can work! Look at your brother and Molly.”
He nodded. “Point taken, but it’s a lot less far from Boston to Port Charles than it is from California to Port Charles.” He grinned for a moment. “Besides, my brother and Molly are not normal.”
Lana smiled at that. “True.” She looked down at their twined fingers. “So what now?”
“What now?” he echoed, confused at the sudden shift in the direction of the conversation.
“Well, we’ve fought, and I’ve cried, and I assume you came here to do something, so what is it?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Well then, I guess all that’s left to do is say goodbye.” She looked up at him, tremulous smile on her face.
“I guess so,” he said slowly, staring at her, trying to memorize her face, which was ridiculous because he knew he knew it better than his own. “Will you email me? Text me? Something? I don’t want you to be cut out of my life.”
She hesitated. “Maybe. I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.”
“I suppose that’s fair.”
“I don’t really remember how to be just your friend, Jake. We haven’t been that in a long time, maybe ever, so this is going to be hard.”
He nodded. “I know. For me too, you know.”
The minutes ticked by as they stared at each other, both unwilling to do or say anything that could cause the moment to end.
Molly’s voice from the door broke the silence. “Everything all right in here? Lana, are you ready to go?”
Lana started at the intrusting. “Could you just give us another minute, Mol?”
“Of course.” Molly retreated back into the hall.
“So I guess this is it,” Jake said.
Lana nodded. “I guess so.” She started to stand, still holding onto his hand, but then she changed her mind and sat again, leaning into kiss him one last time, before she could regret the impulse to do so.
The kiss was tender and sweet, both of them lingering over it, not wanting it to end.
Lana pulled back first. “Goodbye Jake,” she whispered before rushing out of the room into Molly’s waiting arms.
“Goodbye Lana,” he said to the empty room.