Dream a Little Dream

Chapter 2

Jason was sitting in bed, waiting for ... he didn't know what. He'd had lunch, his first food since waking up. It was just chicken broth and Jell-O, but it tasted good. It seemed like such a long time since he was hungry.

Alan and Monica had stopped by earlier in the day, but had only stayed long enough to check on his condition. They didn't push him to say or feel anything. When he tried to bring up Sonny, Alan had told him to relax, everything would be straighted out.

He was surprised, and a bit angry, to see Dr. Kevin Collins, a psychiatrist, walk into the room.

“Hello, Jason,” he said, smiling and offering his hand. “It's good to see you.”

Jason shook hands politely. “So they think I'm crazy,” he said.

Kevin smiled his mild, professional smile.

“No, they don't,” he said. “It's standard for patients coming out of a long-term coma to meet with a psychiatrist. Sometimes it's easier for patients to talk to someone like me about things that worry or confuse them. This can be an overwhelming experience. Family and friends are usually pretty emotional right now, so some patients don't like to get into things with them. So I'm just here to help you make the transtion.”

“What did they tell you about me?” Jason demanded. “What did they tell you I said?”

“They said that you had some strong memories,” Kevin replied. “I wouldn't let them tell me about them. I want to hear everything from you, unfiltered.”

Jason looked him in the eye. Kevin looked back without flinching. Jason decided to take a chance, and started talking.

An hour later, he stopped. Kevin's expression had not changed since Jason had begun telling him what he remembered. What surprised Jason was the several times he had to stop, and grope around his mind for a memory, a face, a name.

Kevin looked up from the notes he had taken while listening to Jason. He knew Jason was not in the mood for being soothed or coddled. He needed – and deserved – straight talk.

“None of it happened,” Kevin told Jason bluntly. “You dreamed it all, Jason.”

Jason stared at Kevin.

“I don't believe you,” he said “They probably told you to tell me this.”

Kevin kept his expression and voice even.

“You have every right not to believe me,” he said. “But why would I lie? You're not going to be in this bed for very long, and if I was lying, you'd find it out pretty quick.”

Jason glared at him.

“I want proof. Real proof.”

Kevin nodded. “All right. Be ready at 9 a.m., tomorrow. I'm going to take you to the Port Charles University library. They have computers and microfilm of the Herald and New York Times. We'll have to have an orderly on hand to wheel you around, as you're not strong enough to walk yet. Is there someone else you want on hand, someone to answer your questions?”

Jason thought for a minute. He didn't want Alan or Monica there, or any Quartermaines. He needed someone he could trust, someone without an agenda.

“Can you get Robin Scorpio here?” he asked. Kevin nodded.

* * *

Jason lay in his bed the next afternoon. Robin had been unable to accompany them because of some sort of urgent matter in the Stone Cates wing. She'd stopped in before he and Kevin left to apologize.

He asked Kevin to allow no visitors, except for Robin. He was reeling from hours in front of the microfilm machine. He'd first read the account of his accident, how his brother AJ had turned himself in to the police. AJ served six months in jail, then three years of probation. The judge also took away his driver's license for five years. He had to stay clean and sober throughout his probation, and had to undergo random drug and alcohol testing, or else he'd go back to jail.

Then he asked the librarian for information about Sonny Corinthos. That information, more than anything, is what had Jason feeling like a stranger in a strange land.

Federal prosecutors, led by noted mob-buster John Durant, began working with local law enforcement, including police commissioner Mac Scorpio and district attorney Ric Lansing, in the late 1990s to bust organized crime's grip on the waterfront district.

Soon after, Sonny Corinthos' insistence that he was simply a legitimate coffee importer began to crumble. Raids on ships bound for Port Charles revealed undocumented cargo of bootleg gay porn. Then there was a fire in one of his buildings, and Lucky Spencer was believed to be killed in the fire.

Sonny had once enjoyed a measure of respectability because of his friendships with Luke Spencer, Lucy Coe and Robin Scorpio. But everyone began to distance themselves after the fire, and rumors of erratic behavior came out. Sonny became more and more isolated – and more and more dangerous.

His world began crashing down when Luis Alcazar, brother of Port Charles University history professor Lorenzo Alcazar, came to town. There was a history of bad blood between the brothers, and Luis decided to antagonize Lorenzo by setting up an organized crime operation on the Port Charles docks. It ignited a turf war with the embattled Sonny Corinthos.

Sonny's final downfall began in 2002, when one of his men was seen leaving a warehouse on the docks belonging to Luis Alcazar. A few minutes later, the warehouse blew up, and killed a passer-by, Kristina Cassadine – younger sister of local lawyer Alexis Davis, half-sister of General Hospital executive Stefan Cassadine and aunt of Cassadine heir Nikolas Cassadine.

Soon after, Sonny began “losing” shipments – his ships were either pirated or raided. Rumors floated around that the Cassadines were behind it. Being an international empire, it would have been a snap for the Cassadines to do this. Alexis had sworn revenge at her sister's funeral, warning Sonny that her family was perfecting its skill at vendettas while his ancestors were peasants working the fields for lesser families than the Cassadines.

Business associates were scared off by all of this, as well as Sonny's increasingly irrational behavior. In his desperation to save his empire, he made mistakes that law enforcement detected and pounced on. It all came to a head one night on the docks. Sonny resisted arrest, and died trying to shoot his way free from the police surrounding the warehouse in which he'd barricaded himself.

* * *

Jason was still staring blankly at the ceiling when Robin Scorpio walked in.

She'd grown up, but kept a freshness and innocence about her that even the diamond chip in her nose couldn't jar. Her long, wavy brown hair was loose at the back, but pulled back from her face with barrettes in the front. Even her professional pantsuit and hospital ID badge couldn't make her look much older than he remembered her.

He looked at her solemnly for a few moments.

“I suppose Kevin told you what a loon I am,” he said.

“You aren't crazy, Jason,” Robin said, sitting down in the chair next to the bed. “Your subconcious let you believe these things for whatever reason – a coping mechanism, or a way to work through what was happening.”

Robin went on to tell him about Sonny's sad end. She believed he was bi-polar, because it would explain so much about his moods and behavior. He also had major issues from his childhood, stemming from his abuse at the hands of his stepfather and his mother's inability to do anything about it. He drove Brenda Barrett away for good with his violent temper and his misogyny. She went on to marry Jax, Robin said. They had a commuter marriage - Jax worked in Port Charles while Brenda ran a casino in Las Vegas.

Sonny, meanwhile, continued to alienate everyone who cared about him. When he began sleeping around with anonymous women, Robin was genuinely puzzled because he'd seen Stone's end. His response to her questioning was to fling barware at her and order her out of his penthouse. She tried to talk to him several times afterward, but he would have none of it. The last straw for their relationship, she said, was when he refused to acknowledge any responsibility for what happened to Kristina Cassadine. Kristina had been Robin's friend.

“I wonder whatever made me attach with Sonny while I was out,” Jason said.

Robin shrugged.

“Who knows? Maybe the idea of being bad, of punishing your family and AJ for what happened, appealed to you. Maybe it was symbolizing something else. I don't think it matters. What does matter is right now. I've learned that tomorrow is not a guaranteed thing.”

Jason looked over at her.

“So that wasn't a dream,” he said. “You have HIV.”

She nodded. “So far, so good,” she said. “The medications, and living healthily have worked. I haven't developed AIDS yet. And my work keeps me going.”

“Tell me about it,” he said. “Tell me everything about what's been going on with you. I feel like I've fallen into a strange world instead of waking up in Port Charles.”

So Robin told him about her life since Stone died. She had gone to Paris to attend college, coming back to the states after finding out that her mother Anna was, miraculously, alive and living in Pine Valley, Pennsylvania. Anna was now doing consulting work for the WSB out of the home she and Robin shared. Sometimes she went to New York or Washington for meetings, but never stayed more than a few days. She would not leave Robin to go back to working as an agent. Robin's father, Robert, had never been found. Robin still held out hope he was alive, since both her mother and Faison had survived, although she rarely spoke of it because she didn't want to hurt her mother or Mac. Robin gave up the idea of med school because it would have been too physically grueling. She worked for the hospital administration, running the Stone Cates AIDS Wing. She coordinated community education events, support groups, and made sure the latest research and medical breakthroughs were incorporated at GH.

“Where's Keesha?” Jason was thinking of Keesha Ward, his girlfriend when he'd been in the accident.

Robin told how Alan and Monica, along with Justus, had urged Keesha to go away to college. She was now working for the Mary Mae Ward Foundation to open a Ward House in Harlem. She'd married last year.

Jason tried to understand, but he still felt hurt and left behind. Robin gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze.

“I pushed her to go, too,” Robin said. “She couldn't do anything for you or anyone else sitting by your bedside, maybe forever. As I said, tomorrows aren't guaranteed. And the world needs people like Keesha to make it a better place. She's carrying on Mary Mae's legacy.”

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Karen Wexler stuck her head in.

“I had to see this,” she said.

Any remaining belief that his dreams had been real vanished. In his dream, Karen had died after being hit by a car. Sonny had fought with her father, Scott Baldwin, at the memorial service. But here she was. She had made it, and become a doctor. She looked so sunny and confident, Jason thought.

"We've been waiting for this for a long time," Karen said softly.

She caught Jason quickly up on her life. She'd moved back to Port Charles after finishing medical school. Her marriage to Jagger had not survived the pressures of their careers. She saw Jason was looking pale and tired, so she wrapped up her story quickly, and she and Robin said goodnight.

Jason fell asleep quickly after Robin and Karen had left. In his dreams, he wandered the docks he'd imagined he patrolled with Sonny. But everywhere he looked, something was changing. Sunlight, fresh paint, music, and good times made it a different place, a place people wanted to be. He took off his black leather jacket and dumped it in a charity drop box. Jason rolled over and fell deeper into a dreamless sleep.