Only Her Hero

Disclaimer: I do not own General Hospital. Carly and Jason are the property of ABC and Disney.

Summary: After ten years of waiting for him, Carly finally settles for him as only her hero. So when Jason changes his mind, will it be too late for her to give their love a chance? Carjax. Jarly.

"Jason!" Carly shouted, bursting into his office uninvited and interrupting his work.

"Yes, Carly?" he replied, not bothering to look up from his papers.

"I don't know if I should tell you first, but I'm really excited, and Jax is in an important meeting. And I just…I just needed to tell someone. Right now," she was talking a mile a minute, all on one breathe, and giving Jason a headache. As he lifted a hand to rub his temples and lifted his eyes from his paperwork, Jason's heart plummeted at her next words…

"I'm pregnant!" she burst out excitedly.

Jason just sat there blankly for a second. How was it, almost ten years after…that night…the thought of her with any other man sometimes still made him want to kill somebody? Or maybe just crawl off to the boxcar with a gunshot wound to die as alone and miserable as he lived without her.

Jason guessed he waited too long to respond, because Carly's eyes began to fill with tears and she whispered, "Aren't you happy for me?"

Jason sighed.

"Of course I am," he partly lied. He was happy that she was happy, but he didn't want her having a child with Jax, or Sonny, or A.J., or any man that wasn't him. He still loved Carly's children as dearly as if they were his own, simply because they were hers, but it hurt that Michael and Morgan weren't his too.

And now there was yet another man that she would be permanently linked to. His brother, his supposed best friend, and now Jasper Jax. Jason knew that the infamous playboy and corporate shark would be turned into a guppy by a pregnant Carly.

She was so beautiful when she was pregnant. And men fell in love with her left and right. He had fallen in love with her when she was pregnant with Michael. Sonny had fallen in love with her when she was pregnant with the child she miscarried. And even Lorenzo Alcazar had fallen in love with her when she was pregnant with Morgan. A beautiful, hormonally pregnant Carly was an even more dangerous heartbreaker than normal. And that was saying a lot.

"…I have to plan a romantic night to tell him…" Carly had been talking for a while, but Jason really hadn't been paying attention. So caught up in his own thoughts, Jason only managed to nod at the appropriate times because he had so much previous practice. He usually tried to ignore her when she talked about other men, but he also pretended to be listening. Her feelings got hurt when he didn't pay attention to her; not to mention, Jason didn't want his best friend to know how much thoughts of her with another man hurt him.

"…I know Jax will be ecstatic. I'm still nervous though? What about Michael and Morgan? How will they feel about a little brother or sister? And I'll have to ask Sonny to watch them tonight. Oh! I have to tell him too, soon. As soon as I tell Jax. And Mama needs to know. And Lulu! And we'll have to start telling business associates and preparing for my maternal leave…" God, was she still talking about preparations?

There was a time Carly could see straight through his mask to all that he was feeling inside. Jason wasn't sure whether he had gotten better at hiding his feeling from her over the years, or whether she just didn't care enough to really look anymore. He definitely liked the former theory more.

"I fell in love with you when you were pregnant with Michael," Jason said nostalgically, almost whimsically. A man of few words and many thoughts, sometimes Jason wondered where his brain went when she entered the room.

"Oh…" Carly replied, finally falling silent.

"And I wasn't around you during most of your pregnancy with Morgan," Jason continued, purposefully neglecting to mention the baby that Carly lost with Sonny. It was still a sore subject for her.

Meanwhile, Carly just stared at him with large, liquid eyes.

"It's just…going to bring up memories. That's all," Jason finished lamely.

"I…Dr. Lee told me the baby is due in August!" Carly blurted in a blatant attempt to change the subject. A blatant attempt to ignore what Jason just said.

"Congratulations," Jason whispered, almost brokenly. "I'm sure Jax will be very happy."

"Jason," Carly said tentatively, "I love him! I'm in love with him! I waited years for you to give us a chance. When you gave me away at my wedding to Jax, I finally began to give up on there ever being an 'us'. But I still love you. I will always love you. You're my best friend. My hero!"

Jason smile slightly at that last part.

"I guess that will have to be enough, huh?" He tried to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"I'm sorry, Jase," Carly replied. "I really am. We would have been great together. But that chance passed us by. And we're great together this way too. I'll always be on your side, you know that. You're the superhero. I'm the sidekick whose crazy plans sometimes turn her into the damsel in distress." Now she was talking like Spinelli.

"I love you," Jason told her. He meant in the forever kind of way. The kind of love country songs are written about and nations start wars over. The kind of love that scared him so much he ignored it for ten years in fear of getting hurt, and finally realized too late that it hurt more to watch his soulmate build her own forever with another man.

"I love you too," she replied. She meant in the forever kind of way. The kind of love country songs are written about and nations start wars over. The kind of love that persists ten years before you finally let go and settle for a best friend and savior instead of a soulmate because it hurts too damn much holding onto a dream you know will never come true.

A dream of a little blonde-haired blue-eyed angel of a daughter with the man that she knows she will love until her last breathe, no matter how hard she tries to convince herself and the whole world otherwise.

They shared another moment in silence, contemplating the greatest love that should have been.

Then Carly smiled awkwardly.

"Well, better let you get back to work. I still have to think of a way to tell Jax," she said lightly.

Jason just nodded and turned back to his paperwork, attempting to hide the tears he knew really had no right to be in his eyes. It was his own fault she gave up on him, on them. How many times did he think he would push her away, reject her dream of forever, before she finally gave up on them? He was lucky she still by his side as his best friend.

And he was bound and determined to make sure nothing ever took her any further away than she already was.

Carly put a hand on the doorknob, and then slightly turned back.

"If it's a boy, how about Jason?" she asked him.

"Jason Jax?" he questioned ironically. "I don't think Jax would be too happy about that."

"He'll deal," she told him seriously. "He'll give me anything I want to make me happy."

And Jason knew that was the truth; sometimes it was the only thing that got him through the night.

And as his best friend left the office to go tell her husband about their expected baby, he didn't tell her that he prayed it was a boy. Because Jason didn't think he could tolerate her living out their dream of a little blonde-haired blue-eyed angel with another man.