Steal Your Heart: Part 368-372

by: Jen

Jax and Brenda were in the hallway of the hotel ready to go outside.

“Wait,” Jax said. “Wait one second.” He went back into the room. He didn’t know what was wrong but he felt very panicky. He could not get rid of the feeling. Was it that pre-marital jitters nonsense? He hardly thought himself the sort to suffer from that stuff, especially given how much he loved this woman. No . . it was something else.

“Jax?” Brenda called to him. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes. I just . . . forgot something,” he said pulling his gun from out of the dresser drawer and sliding it into the back of his pants. Why had he went and gotten his gun? he wondered as he walked back to the door.

“Got everything now?” Brenda asked, smiling so prettily at him. When he looked at her it seemed as if nothing could go wrong or possibly be wrong.

“Well I’ve got you . . and that’s everything to me,” he said kissing the tip of her nose.

She laughed happily and they stepped onto the elevator. And as it descended Brenda was chattering away about something but Jax wasn’t listening. All he could hear was the pounding of his own heart which seemed ridiculously loud. Something was wrong.

Brenda leaned back against him as she continued to talk about something . . .getting a house or something like that . . and Jax slid his arms around her and he held onto her and he thought to himself that he had better not let her go. He had better protect her.

When the elevator reached the lobby Jax jumped in front of her, getting out first and checking out every person passing by. It looked harmless enough.

“Jax, what is *wrong* with you?” Brenda laughed.

He smiled at her to try and deflect any suspicious she might have and did not answer her. Holding onto her, he led her outside to where the limo was. They got inside and Jax stared at the driver so intently that the confused man began to perspire at the scrutiny. They reached the Tahitian Garden without incident, however, and Jax began to wonder if he was just overreacting to this panicky feeling. Maybe it truly was something as simple as wedding jitters?

He and Brenda got out of the car and headed to the southern most section of the gardens. The day could not have been any more perfect. The sun was golden and radiant, cascading it’s warmth all over. The skies were an endless stretch of periwinkle blue, cloudless and bright. The garden’s many exotic flowers and foliage were magnificent, bathed in the golden sunlight, attracting the most beautiful butterflies and a bevy of trilling love birds.

“It’s a perfect day for a wedding,” Brenda said as Jax led her to their destination.

“Perfect,” she agreed, smiling down at her. But then once again the panicky feeling shot through him and he abruptly pulled her closer to his side, causing her to miss a step.

“Hey don’t worry, honey, I’m not going anywhere,” she teased him. “You are really nervous aren’t you?”

The feeling of foreboding continued to build up in Jax as they walked towards where the Tahitian Priest awaited them.

“Wait, Brenda,” Jax said. Why did he feel as if they were walking straight into the Lion’s den?

A group of local Tahitian girls dressed gaily with flowers in their hair saw the bride and groom coming and excitedly began to sing their traditional wedding song. Neither Jax nor Brenda could understand the words but the melody was achingly beautiful and the children’s voices were like that of angels.

Jax saw that Brenda was spellbound by the specter. The kids looked adoringly at her as they sang and Jax scoped out every face just *knowing* that something was wrong. He carefully moved Brenda behind him, never letting go of her as he made his way, with her, towards the priest. He noticed two monks with the priest. He did not like this.

They reached the priest and Jax realized this was not even the same man he had spoken to.

“Who are you?” Jax asked, eyes that favored a cool shade of blue holding steadily on the priest.

“Mr. Jacks. I am sorry. Father Dumas could not make it. He became very ill this morning. I am to take his place as he did not wish you and your bride to be disappointed.” the new priest explained.

Jax looked at the man and he knew that he was lying.

“Who are these two?” Jax asked, looking at the two monks, who held their heads low.

“These are two Monks from the Chapel. They will act as the witnesses for the ceremony. They will be no trouble at all, I assure you. They do not even speak for they have taken a vow of silence.” The priest kept trying to look behind Jax at Brenda. “Shall we begin?” he asked, motioning for Brenda to stand beside Jax, but Jax held her firmly behind him preventing her from moving.

“Jax?” she said, confused.

Jax gazed at the monks with their heads hung low, their big hoods covering their faces. He had a feeling that was intentional. Who knew they were here? Who could have sent these people? He had no time to ponder it. He had to assume the worst and handle it that way.

“Excuse me, Father . . what was your name?” Jax asked the priest, his eyes blatantly exposing his complete disbelief of the man.

The priest leaned close to Jax. “My name is . . .”

“I don’t really care,” Jax said as he delivered a kick to the priest’s head that rendered the man immediately unconscious.

Brenda gasped in shock. One monk said to the other. “He knows! Get her!”

Jax pulled out his gun faster than a lightning flash splitting the darkness. “What happened to your vow of silence?” he asked just before he bashed one of the monks on the back of the head with the butt of the gun and then with the speed of a panther turned the gun back on the remaining monk, holding the barrel against his temple.

He pulled the hood down and saw that it was a woman. He did not recognize this person, but one look at her and he knew that she was as cold a glacier. Her brown eyes were that dead kind of brown that reflected a decided absence of conscience and the inability to feel remorse of any kind.

“Who sent you?” he demanded, cocking the trigger.

“Don’t be a fool, Jax,” she responded.

So she knew him? He stared at her, but there was nothing familiar about her to him. She had a low British accent. Her body was very muscular for a woman and her hands were unattractively large. He got the feeling that many a thing had been strangled by those ugly hands.

Behind Jax, Brenda held onto him so tightly that she knew she must be hurting him. But she was scared to death. What was happening? Who were these people?!

“Save yourself and leave the girl,” the Brit advised him.

“Save *your*self and tell me who sent you. You have until the count of 3,” Jax said.

“Or else what? Will you shoot me? Murder me here in cold blood in front of these impressionable young children and your pretty little wife? Would you really have her see my brains splattered all over her pretty white dress? Oh yes, that would make for a memorable wedding day,” the British woman said with a smile that was as ugly as her huge hands.

Jax suddenly realized that the woman was trying to stall him. That meant that she had back-up on the way. Without hesitation he rammed the gun into the side of her skull and with a grunt she dropped to the ground.

The children stared at him wide-eyed. Brenda just looked at him, scared out of her wits, and yet completely trusting him but wanting to know what they should do now.

“We have to get out of here,” Jax grabbed her hand an they started running out of the gardens.

“Your gun. You went back in the room to get your gun,” Brenda realized as she discarded the cumbersome veil from her head so it would not slow them down. “How did you know Jax?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said as they raced towards the garden exist.

All of a sudden he felt Brenda slow down a bit. “Ow!” she said.

“What? What?” he asked, his eyes darting every which way.

“I think something bit me,” she said.

Jax got them into a section of the garden that was crowded with trees to provide some camouflage.

“Where?” he asked her. “Does it hurt?”

“The back of my leg. And yeah, actually, it does kind of hurt.”

Jax turned her around and bent down to look at the back of her leg. His heart stopped.

He blinked , hoping what he was seeing would disappear, but it as still there. He saw the familiar tip of a small, deadly, poisonous dart which he knew all too well. He had first seen them used by the Toltec Indians of the rainforest. He saw his whole world crumble before his eyes like fairy dust slipping from his hands and he was incapable of bringing it back. A silent scream thundered inside of his head. A swell of anguish convulsed his body.

“What’s wrong, honey? Is it a bug?” Brenda asked, making a face.

Jax felt the knots forming in his stomach with severity, his heart was still arrested in horror. No, no, no, no ,no NO! This could not be happening! He swung his head around left and then right and saw a shadowy figure in a monk’s cloak racing away clutching a slender reed which had been used to shoot the dart. Jax looked back at Brenda who had no idea what had just happened to her. Tears swam in his eyes. A profound sorrow piereced his heart and then all at one a sort of madness raced through him in a rage.

“Whoa. Jax, I . . I . . .don’t feel so good,” she said in a nervous little voice.

He pulled the dart from her leg, carefully placing it into the pocket of his jacket and then he lifted her into his arms and ran like hell to the nearest hospital.

Brenda began to feel something happening to her as if she were losing control of her limbs and her heart felt funny too -- like it was beating out of order. It made her shudder. It felt so wrong. She was scared to death. Nothing felt right. “Jax, what’s the matter with me?” she asked. She felt his panic as if it were her own. And she knew in that moment that *he* knew what was wrong and he was not telling her. But he was even more scared than she was which clued her in to just how bad this was.

“Oh my God,” she murmured as she began to cry. Jax would never be so scared if he could fix this, she realized. That meant that he was helpless. He could not help her. “Oh my God,” she said ag ain, her tears spilling over like waterfalls of liquid diamonds.

“Brenda, hold on , baby. I will not let you go, I will not let this happen to you, I promise. And I always keep my promises. Please Brenda . . .” he said.

She heard him, but she could not answer. She felt herself slipping into a dark, dark place. Oh God, she didn’t want to go there! “Jax, help me!” she said clutching him in terror, the tears streaming down her face.

She heard him utter an oath and felt him running faster, like a deer in the night. “Hold on, sweetie,” he said. “For me, Brenda, Hold on, okay?”

His voice was fading. She was suddenly wrapped in a sheath of ice. “Jax, I’m freezing, I’m freezing,” she said her teeth chattering. And it was the last thing she said before she sank into a void of obsidian blackness that made her very soul scream in terror as she plunged forth into it. Where was Jax? Why wasn’t he pulling her out of this cold, cold blackness?

“No, don’t leave me. I love you , don’t leave me,” Jax begged her as he raced with her shaking body into the hospital screaming orders right and left at people as he explained exactly what was wrong with his wife. Their best doctor came racing towards him.

“Mr. Jacks, if what you say is true then you must know there is nothing we can do for your wife,” the doctor said.

Jax grabbed the man by the collar. “You keep her alive, you hear me?! You keep her alive until I can get . . .”

“Get what?” the doctor asked, confused. “Sir, there is nothing you can do to help her. I’m so very sorry but, as you surely know, this particular strain of poison has no antidote. No one survives. She’s already in a semi-coma and will live 24 hours at the most. And if she goes into a full coma then her time will be even shorter -- a matter of hours, perhaps minutes.”

“If she goes into a coma I will *kill* you!” Jax said in a voice that made the hairs on the back of the doctor’s neck rise. He believed this man would kill him.

As the doctor raced Brenda into an emergency room he barked out orders to those around him and soon Brenda was being hooked up to IV’s and monitors. The doctor had demanded that no one let this woman slip into a coma or they would be fired.

Jax pushed aside the enormous lump of sorrow in his throat, the cold hand of fear that wanted to wrap itself around his heart. He had no use for sorrow or fear. He was not going to lose her. He was NOT! He made a phone call to Port Charles.

“Hello?” the person at the other end answered.

“Nikolas?”

“Yes, this is Nikolas. Who’s this?”

“This is Jax, Nikolas. I need your help, right now!”

“Me?”

“I need something that your uncle has,” Jax explained. “I need it *now*”

“Hey, I know you have some kind of problem with my uncle and I’m not taking sides on this, okay? So if you think I’m going to sneak around behind his back and steal something of his for you then . . .”

“Listen to me!” Jax thundered at him, “I admit that most days I would like to throw your uncle into the fires of hell and watch him burn, but I have no time for that because you see my wife is at this very moment DYING! She’s dying, Nikolas, do you understand that? Now look, Stefan has access to something that can save Brenda’s life and you are going to get it for me!”

“Jax . . .”

“Don’t try to refuse me Nikolas because I won’t *let* you! You’re the only one in that damned family of yours who actually knows the difference between right and wrong! Help me, Nikolas. She’s . . .Help me!”

Nikolas was shaken by both the command and the emotion in Jax’s voice, the mixture of desperation and fury and he did not even hesitate to do as Jax asked. “What do you want me to do,” the boy asked.

“There’s a room in Wyndamere, I think it’s behind a hidden wall in the attic, you’ll have to feel around for it. There may be more than one, but this one will probably look like lab, so you’ll know you’re in the right place. Your uncle has got things that look like scientific formulas in there. They’ll be in test tube racks stacked up against a wall in a cool, dark area. I need you to find the one labeled XNEX4 -- it’s sort of amber in color -- and I need you to get it to me as soon as possible. I need the entire tube. Nikolas,” Jax’s voice grew a little more desperate, “I . . . only have 24 hours.”

“Where are you?” Nikolas asked and Jax heard the panic in the boy’s voice.

“I’m in Tahiti.”

“Tahiti? Oh man, Jax, if I have to find this medicine and then come out there I may not make it in time,” Nikolas said worriedly, getting as panicky as Jax.

Jax realized the kid was right.

“Nikolas just find it. For God’s sake *find* it and take it to General Hospital. I’ll get Brenda there somehow. I’ll find a way. Just hurry! My wife’s life is in your hands now.”

Jax hung up and immediately called his father. “Dad, look I have no time to explain but I’m in Tahiti and Brenda is really . . .” Jax paused, to try and get a hold of himself, “*really* sick and I have to get her to General Hospital as soon as possible. I don’t even remember what our assets are so I don’t know if we have access to the Concorde but . . .”

“It will there to get you in 45 minutes. Be ready,” John said immediately sensing his son’s urgency. He knew Jax. Jax was trying to hold it together and be logical and be calm and not give into his quaking emotions which were threatening to break him into pieces. But John could hear the strain and despair in his voice. John had no idea what exactly was wrong but if his son needed the damn Concorde then he was sure as hell going to get it!

“Jax, my boy, I don’t know the circumstances of what has happened, but whatever is wrong, don't you dare give into doubt. Don’t you dare give into despair. If you see them coming at you, you punch them in the face, son and put ‘em down for the count. You hear me? You never give into them! Hear me?”

Jax shut his eyes and ran an unsteady hand through his blonde hair. “Yes sir.” he said in a voice that was so obviously scared.

“The plane will be there, Jax. I swear it. I swear it! Get Brenda to the airport and be ready.”

John Jacks hung up and went about calling in favors and pulling major strings to get the Concorde plane to be at his son’s disposal.

In the hospital room Brenda remained trapped in a world of icy darkness. She was terrified to the depths of her soul. Her mind was a haze of confusion, her body was unresponsive to the commands of her mind, the darkness was pulling at her and the coldness was killing her, so cold, so cold. *Jax, come and get me, come and get me, come and get me . . .* her mind cried out into the haunting silence. Why couldn't he hear her? Where was he? He would not leave her, he would not leave her . . .

Jen

JJGA