The Ripple Effect by iletudrive

[JRK Archiver]

“I know but I like her, I wished she liked me, after all its over now, I just wish she would move past it.” Chloe said sliding in the chair V had vacated, her posture the same as V’s had been a few moments before.

“She almost lost the man she loves because of you, she’s entitled, to be a bit standoffish.” Alexis told her. “Now what’s this about a fax?”

~Kelly’s~

“What about Lucky?” Elizabeth asked nervously.

Laura could see the wariness in Elizabeth’s eyes. “How is it going with you two?”

“It’s the same, he tells me I should be with Nikolas.” Elizabeth said simply.

“You know he doesn’t mean that.” Laura watched Elizabeth closely for her reaction, she saw a flash of anger in the girl’s eyes for an instant before a mask descended. That surprised and concerned her, she didn’t know Elizabeth could hide her feelings that well.

“That’s what everybody says.”

“What do you say?” Laura asked.

Elizabeth shrugged, she didn’t know how she felt for sure. She knew that she was getting tired of being in limbo, and the idea of not being with Lucky wasn’t as scary as it once was. But she knew that wasn’t what Laura wanted or needed to hear from her.

“Is Nikolas right are you giving up on Lucky?”

“That didn’t take long did it?” Elizabeth snapped, before sighing and trying again. “I should have known he would talk to you.”

“He needed to talk to someone, I’m afraid you surprised him.” Laura told her.

“How long am I supposed to wait Laura? How long am I supposed to hang on, while he tells me over and over again that he doesn’t love me, that he doesn’t want to be with me, that he wants me to be with someone else?” Elizabeth asked letting some of the doubt show. “How long am I supposed to wait for him?”

“Oh honey.” Laura patted her hand. “I know this has to be killing you, but you have to see the love in Lucky’s eyes, the love that is still there whenever he looks at you.”

“Didn’t you once say that love was not enough?” Elizabeth demanded. Her mask was cracking and her real feelings were coming through. She wanted to shut up but couldn’t. “You love Luke, but it wasn’t enough to save your marriage.”

“We’re still married.” Laura retorted.

“In name yes, but he lives over the club, you live at your house, you dated someone else for months. How is that a marriage?” Elizabeth shot to her feet and paced away.

“I did not come here to talk about me and Luke.” Laura said finally.

“I can’t question you, but you can grill me about Lucky is that it?” Elizabeth sniped. She saw Laura flinch and guilt hit her. “I’m sorry Laura, I didn’t mean any of that.” She moved to sit down beside her again. “I guess I’m still wired over my fight with Carly. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Luke and you are none of my business.”

“It’s okay Elizabeth, I know this is hard for you, I wish I didn’t have to question you either. I wish I could just let it go, and let you and Lucky work this out on your own.” Laura said softly. “It’s just you helped so much the last time he wanted nothing to do with Luke or me. I know it’s not fair, but I wanted that help again. That’s my selfish motivation, I want my son back, and I think you can help with that. But it’s not all selfishness either, if I get my son back, you get Lucky back. I saw how much you loved my son, how much he loved you, how happy you two were. You grieved as I hard as I did.” The tears started falling from Laura’s eyes. “But we got a miracle, he’s back, he just needs our help to find his way home.”

Elizabeth reached out and hugged Laura. She was right, Lucky did need her help, she couldn’t give up on him. She would never be able to face Laura if she did. She would never be able to live with herself, either. “Of course I will help Lucky, if he’ll let me. You know that.”

Laura squeezed her hard in relief. “If you ever want to talk, just come on by.”

Elizabeth smiled automatically. “Tell Lulu I’ll come by next week and we’ll finish that painting we started.”

“I’ll tell her.” Laura got to her feet, the mask was back in Elizabeth’s eyes, and she felt guilty, “Goodnight Elizabeth.”

~Docks~

“Why don’t you just admit the truth, you want Emily. Just like I’ve been saying ever since you came back.” Juan said shoving his hands in his pockets.

Lucky smirked at him. “You just never get it Juan, Emily has been my friend for years, she will always be my friend.” He paused then went on. “And long after your gone she will still be my friend.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Juan snapped.

“Juan you’re already out the door, you’re just too stupid to realize it.” Emily was right when she accused him of looking for an excuse to hit Juan. The guy was an idiotic, hothead and he didn’t deserve Emily. In a sense the whole Ted problem happened because of him.

Juan pulled his arm back to swing at Lucky, only to get jerked backwards.

“Stop it Juan.” Nikolas said moving in between him and Lucky.

“I should’ve figured you’d show up. What you want a shot at me too?” Juan cried shoving Nikolas back a step. “Bring it on.”

“Juan grow up.” Nikolas told him tiredly. He couldn’t help but wonder for the thousandth time what Emily saw in him, he was nothing but attitude.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Juan told them both. “I’m with Emily, so you two better deal with it.”

Lucky shook his head. “Actually you’re not with her, you cheated and she dumped your ass, so why don’t you do us all a favor and go back to Puerto Rico.” He couldn’t help going on. “But you won’t do that will you? Not as long as she’s helping you with recording career.”

“Lucky!”

Emily’s yell stopped Juan’s latest rush.

Lucky flinched when he saw the look she gave him. “Emily I’m sor…”

“Save it Lucky.” Emily snapped. “Is it so hard for you to believe that he might like me for me?” She demanded.

“Yeah.” Juan said.

“And you shut up too.” Emily turned on him. Now she was the one who wanted to hit somebody.

“Emily are you okay?” Nikolas asked, trying to deflect her anger.

Emily counted to ten in her head. “Can we just try to get along? I have enough to worry about without wondering when you two are going to attack each other.”

“Let’s move on then.” Nikolas said immediately. “Has anyone heard when the next rave is yet?”

“No. The last one got busted after we left, so their keeping it quiet until the day of, less likely for the cops to find out that way.” Juan answered.

“We need to find out when and where.” Lucky said.

“We need to make sure Zander Smith is there, or this is going to be all for nothing.” Nikolas advised them. “Juan do any of your friends know him? Maybe we can find out if he will be there.”

“You think I hang around with druggies?” Juan demanded.

“Juan he didn’t say that, he just knows that you’ve been to more raves then we have.” Emily said quickly trying to ward off another fight. She was getting a headache.

“He seemed pretty in to Elizabeth, maybe he’ll hunt her up.”

“He drugged her.” Lucky snapped turning on Juan, “I don’t think he’ll go looking for her now.”

“Fine I can check with Allison, maybe she knows, she will also be one of the first people who will know where the rave will be held.” Juan offered, his eyes on Emily.

Emily stiffened and swallowed hard. “You should do that then, she’ll be happy to hear from you.”

“Emily…”

“No you really should talk to her.” Emily said. “We need some information and you’re our best bet for it.”

“Okay I’ll call her.” Juan shoved his hands in his pockets. “Can we talk Emily?”

“No we can’t, I need to finish what I started with Lucky, that is before you decided to hit him.” Emily turned to Lucky. “Come on.”

“You still want to do this?” Lucky asked in surprise.

“Yes and you will do this, you will do it right now.” Emily grabbed his hand. “Bye Nikolas, Juan.” She tugged on Lucky hand and practically drug him down the dock towards Kelly’s.

~Kelly’s~

Elizabeth cleared a table, her mind not on the dishes, but on her conversation with Laura. She didn’t blame Laura, she just wanted her son back, but she couldn’t help feeling trapped by all the pressure that was put on her. With everything that was going on with Emily, and the last several months with Lucky, it was just wearing on her. Going after Carly earlier today, and then snapping at Laura, told her she was heading to her breaking point. The last time she neared that point, she went out looking for trouble and instead found Jason. Or rather he found her.

She carried the dishes to the counter, was it somehow prophetic that he was back, just when she was about to blow again? She smiled weakly while she set a burger in front of her customer, and then moved behind the counter. She glanced up when the bell on the door rang, and saw Lucky enter the diner.

She took a deep breath and pasted a fake smile on her face.

“Hi Elizabeth.” Lucky said crossing to the counter and sitting down. “You look like you’re in a good mood.”

There was a time when he knew her so well, that he would see the fakeness, she shrugged guess that time was gone. “Better than you I hear, who won the fight?”

Lucky shifted on the stool. “You heard about that.”

“Yes I’m the one who bandaged Emily up.” Elizabeth said. “She wasn’t happy.”

“I know she made that clear.”

“Did you want anything?” Elizabeth asked setting a soda in front of him.

“Actually I need to talk to you.” Lucky said watching her closely.

“Just let me take this order out.” Elizabeth said picking up some plates and taking them to a table.

Lucky turned around and looked at Emily who was watching through the door. She gave him a thumbs up.

Lucky turned back around. “Be with me.” He said quietly in practice.

“Alright Lucky, what did you want to talk to me about?” Elizabeth asked coming to a stop in front of him, on the other side of the counter.

“It’s just…” He broke off a feeling of love welled up in him as he looked at her, and for once the voice in his head that he normally heard when he saw her was quiet.

“Lucky?” She stepped closer to the counter in concern. “Are you okay?”

“I know I’ve hurt you in the last few months, and I’m sorry about that.” He tried again. “I never really wanted to do that, in fact it’s the last thing I ever want to do. I hope you know that.”

Elizabeth was quiet, and then surprised when he reached over and took her hand. For a minute when she searched his eyes, she thought she saw a glimpse of the boy she fell in love with so long ago. Then he blinked, and it was gone. “Lucky?”

“There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time now, and I just can’t wait anymore.” Lucky took a deep breath and prepared to tell her that he still loved her. “I really want you to be…with Nikolas.”

Elizabeth jerked her hand from his, incensed. This really was the last time she was going to let him do this to her. “I am so tired of this Lucky. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I don’t want to be with Nikolas. Can you not hear is that it?” She demanded, pulling off her apron and dropping it on the counter.

“Wait Elizabeth…” He’d seen the hurt flash in her eyes before the anger arrived. What did he say, it obviously wasn’t what he meant too.

“Lucky I have tried to be patient, to give you the benefit of the doubt. I have let you hurt me over and over again, but I’m tired of it.” She headed for the door. “I’m tired of it, and I’m tired of you Lucky.” She shoved the door open almost hitting Emily who was standing to the side of it, but she never saw her, she never even paused. She stormed out of the courtyard to the docks.

“Elizabeth?” Tammy called entering the courtyard from the other side with Mike.

“What did you say?” Emily demanded when Lucky walked out of the diner.

“What do you think?” Lucky said disgustedly.

“Go after her.” Emily ordered him, and Lucky took off.

~Alley~

Elizabeth wasn’t sure where she was going until she heard the roar of a motorcycle. She bit her lip and took off towards the sound. “Hey.” She said breathlessly.

Jason pulled off his helmet and looked at an out of breath Elizabeth. “Hey.”

“When I heard the bike I was hoping it was you.” She told him.

She was out of breath, and her eyes looked a bit wild, something had set her off. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Ok. Ask me what I hate more than anything in this world.” She demanded moving closer to the bike he was straddling.

“Ok.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you hate more than anything in this world?”

“When Lucky tells me to be with Nikolas.”

Jason looked at her in surprise, that didn’t make any sense. “That happened tonight?”

She stepped closer, putting her hands on her hips. “Yeah for like the 10,000th time.”

“Why would he say it?”

“I don’t know.” She spread her arms to the sky in frustration. “He came into Kelly’s. He made this huge buildup like something was going to be different. I looked in his eyes and for a second, I though I saw love there. Lucky was practically begging me to listen to him, so I listen to him, and guess what he says?”

Jason shook his head. “Be with Nikolas.”

She nodded. “Why do I keep falling like this? Why do I keep diving right in? Why won’t Lucky stop hurting me?”

He didn’t know, but he didn’t like to see her in pain. “Why would Lucky want you to be with Nikolas?”

“Who knows? Ever since he got back, he just decided that I should be in love with Nikolas, and just be his friend. It’s driving me crazy.” She moved closer and rested her hands on the other side of the handlebars. “It’s like his brain is stuck there, and then he turns around and starts acting like he loves me again, then the whole damn thing just starts over and over. Ugh.” She finished with a groan and looked up at the sky.

“You want a ride?” He asked softly.

Her grin was instantaneous and wide, “I thought you’d never ask.” She moved around, taking the helmet from him, pulling it on quickly and climbing on behind him on the bike. She slipped her arms around him and felt happy for the first time since this morning.

The bike took off with a roar.

“Elizabeth.” Lucky yelled entering the alley behind them, but it was too late she was gone.

~Kelly’s~

“What happened?” Emily asked when Lucky came back inside the diner.

“She left with Jason.” He told her angrily. “She climbed on his bike and took off.”

“Well she was pretty upset, maybe you should let it go for tonight.” Emily said. And maybe she needed to talk to her brother, to find out what he thought about all of this. Elizabeth seemed to heading straight for Jason whenever she had problems, she was beginning to wonder if something was going on between them.

“No. I’m going to find her tonight.” Lucky said turning to head for the door.

“Hold it Lucky.” Tammy moved in front of him. “Where do you think your going?”

“To find Elizabeth?”

“No you’re not.” Tammy snapped, putting a hand on her hip. “You know I don’t care if the family that you no longer claim owns this place or not. I run it not them. And you just ran out my best waitress.” She shoved an apron in his hands. “So that makes you the waitress tonight.”

“Tammy.”

“I don’t want to hear it Lucky, you used to work here, you know what to do, so do it.” Tammy ordered before stalking out of the diner, with Mike at her heels.

Emily smothered a grin, when she saw the look on Lucky’s face.

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 6
~Bridge~

Elizabeth was laughing when she climbed off the bike, she caught part of her pant leg on the taillight and hopped backwards trying to free it from the bike.

Jason watched her in amusement, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” she grinned sheepishly, before pulling off the helmet and looking around. “I never knew this was here,” she crossed over to the large cement barrier. “Where does it go?”

Jason followed her to the edge, “Over the gorge,” he pointed out into the night. “I guess there used to be an estate out there. The bridge is all that’s left.”

She moved closer so she was leaning over the edge of the barrier and peered down, after a few feet the only thing she could see was an inky blackness. “How far down does it go?”

“Far, you can’t see the water at night but you can hear it if you’re quiet,” he explained moving to stand beside her.

“Quiet,” she repeated shooting him a look. “Am I supposed to take that to mean something?”

“No,” he looked down at her and couldn’t resist going on. “When I want quiet the last thing I do Elizabeth, is come and find you.”

“Funny,” she glared at him and shifted her hip to bump into him, but she would have had more luck trying to move the concrete. She had either forgotten or blocked out just how big he was. She glanced down at his hands when he looked out over the gorge, they were so much bigger than hers were. They weren’t soft, she could feel the calluses on his hand when he touched her, but they were gentle. And she knew they were capable of the softest caress like when he touched her face the night before.

She tore her gaze from his hands and looked out into the night. It was better that she forget about last night and what she thought almost happened between them. If she thought about it too much, or tried to analyze it, it might cause problems with their relationship, and she didn’t want that. A small smile crossed her face when she heard the sounds of the water far below them. This really was a nice spot, she was glad he brought her here. “How did you find this place?”

“I found it by accident the first time, I was out riding and I followed the road, it dead ends not to far from here,” he hadn’t allowed himself to remember that time in his life, it had been to painful and he didn’t like to look back. The only time he had felt free anything even close to being happy, back then, was when he was on his bike, and that had led him here, and to her. “There was a girl here crying.”

She tilted her head to look up at him, “Who?”

“Robin,” he half expected to feel the pain he used to feel when he spoke or thought about her, but he didn’t. “I’d seen her once before at the hospital, but I didn’t know her,” he shrugged and looked around. “This is where we met, after that we came here a lot.”

“Why did you bring me?” She could tell he was okay being here, and even okay talking about Robin. His voice didn’t go all stiff, and his eyes weren’t sad, the way they used to be when he spoke about her.

“You know it’s away from everything. It’s quiet, I thought I’d take you to the boxcar, but that would make you think of Lucky or me being shot. So this seemed better.” This could also be a new place for memories of the two of them, the way her studio was. He also liked the fact that he knew Lucky had never been here with her, it made it more personal, between the two of them.

“Does it bother you to be here without her?” It seemed, like he had let the pain that Robin had caused him go, but she wanted to be sure, she didn’t want him to hurt anymore.

He looked around and thought about it, he had expected to feel something, even if it was just a sense of awkwardness, for being here with Elizabeth instead of Robin, but he didn’t. “You know this is the last place that I ever saw her after she told the truth about Michael. I thought I’d never come back. But when we turned up the road, I didn’t see any point in avoiding it. Now I know it’s just a bridge, whatever it used to mean is gone.”

She considered what he said and was envious. “I wish I could do that. Just go to the boxcar and not have it mean anything.” The few times she had been there since Lucky had returned, had made her head swim with memories. Memories of happier times, with Lucky, but also memories of that terrible day with Jason. “To go to Kelly’s and not remember Lucky’s arms around me when we danced.” She frowned, again the memory had changed from Lucky holding her on that last night, too the time she had asked Jason to dance with her. She had been trying to recreate a memory that night with Jason, but it hadn’t worked. Jason was too strong of a personality and too close of a friend, to pretend that he was someone else, or to be used as a substitute. Because he wasn’t a substitute, he was a dream of the future. She inhaled sharply at that thought, was Sonny right, did she want more from Jason? More importantly did he want more from her?

“Are you okay?” He had watched her retreat inside herself, and lose her color all of a sudden.

“Emily told me you loved Robin more than your life and when it was over you just let go,” she turned to face him, desperate for the answer. “Can you teach me? Because even though we promised each other forever, Lucky doesn’t want me to love him anymore. So I need to learn how to let go of that promise I made to him.”

He thought about her words, tonight she didn’t say she loved Lucky but that she wanted to keep a promise. He wondered what that meant.

“When did you stop hurting over Robin? How long did it take?”

“I wasn’t really keeping track,” he frowned and thought about it. With everything that happened with Michael, Carly, Sonny, and even with her, Robin had gotten pushed to the background. “I had so many other things to think about. And when Robin left it was easier.”

Elizabeth grimaced, “I see Lucky everyday.” Even when she didn’t want to see him, sometimes, he was still there. “He says he wants to be my friend, so I put on my fake perfect friend smile, and tell him that everything is fine with me.”

She demonstrated the smile for him and he could see that it didn’t reach her eyes. When she smiled and meant it, her eyes shone. He wondered why no one else, especially Lucky couldn’t see that.

“I can’t show how I really feel because Emily or Nikolas or somebody else with the best of intentions will tell me not to give up. That I’m right for loving Lucky, that he just needs time,” she groaned and shook her head. “Time won’t fix it, he doesn’t love me. I just have to move on and accept it.”

He could hear the frustration and doubt in her voice. “Yeah but you say that like you did something wrong. It’s not your fault that Lucky changed his mind.”

She turned so she was leaning against the barrier and facing him. “But why did he Jason? I mean that’s the thing.” And it was she just needed to know why. “You know why you and Robin broke up. You have a reason your feelings changed. If Lucky has a reason for not loving me anymore he won’t say it. If he’d just give me some sort of explanation, maybe I could do what he wants and let go.” She had to hang on until she knew why, there had to be a reason, something that happened that made him stop loving her. If not it meant that she just wasn’t the type of person people could love for a long time. Her own parents were supposed to love her, but she rarely spoke to them and hadn’t seen them in years, her brother and sister were the same way.

The only people who had said they loved her and proved it by staying around were her Grandmother and Lucky. And now Lucky said he didn’t love her anymore. She couldn’t help but think that maybe she had done something that made him stop loving her. That he had finally realized that she was unworthy of his love. But maybe there was another reason she could point to for his change of heart. Maybe it had nothing to do with her. She just needed to know, if it was her fault that he stopped loving her. She pulled herself out of her thoughts when she realized Jason was talking, “What?”

“I said what does Lucky say besides he doesn’t love you?”

“To be with Nikolas, to be happy,” she rolled her eyes. “Don’t ask me how he’s convinced himself that Nikolas can make me happy.”

“He shouldn’t be jerking you around,” he could see the pain in her eyes and hated to see it there.

“Yeah well he does and I keep letting him,” she smiled bitterly. “That’s the part I should be able to change, but I don’t know why I can’t.”

“Maybe you’re scared of what will happen if you don’t love Lucky,” he put his hand over hers on the barrier causing her to look at him. “You see I didn’t know who I was if I didn’t love Robin. I thought she’d leave and there would be this emptiness inside me forever.” She turned her hand over and laced their fingers, to offer support, but made no move to interrupt. “I was wrong. It hurt, it hurt worse than anything for awhile, but it fades and you remember that there are other things to live for, other people,” his eyes searched hers and his voice got softer. “You remember there’s stuff that you want to do, things you want to feel, and eventually you just realize the pain is gone. At least that’s how it happened for me.” He reached out and brushed a strand of her hair off of her cheek, her skin felt as soft as it had been last night. “What do you like?”

There was that feeling again, a feeling she hadn’t felt before in her life, until last night. It was both a longing and nervousness, and it seemed to happen whenever he touched her. “I don’t understand?”

“What do you like?” he repeated. “Painting, ice cream, going fast…”

Her eyes lit, “Going fast.” She interrupted him with a grin.

He answered her grin with one of his own, “Why? Why fast?”

“I don’t know,” she let go of his hand to gesture. “It makes me laugh, and I feel alive. It makes my heart pound.” It was hard to explain the rush that being on the back of his bike gave her. It was more than adrenaline it was freedom.

“I used to fight.”

“With whom?” She asked in surprise, other than those times with Nikolas, he seemed to be in control all the time.

“Oh anyone,” he admitted. “I don’t know.”

Her eyes raked him over, “You don’t strike me as the fight-picking type.”

He didn’t know if he had just been complimented or insulted so he let it go. “Well you know I’m not really,” he shrugged. “But there must be something about me that irritates people.”

“I can see that,” she teased with a laugh.

He glared at her but she kept smiling. “Or maybe they just knew it was what I wanted, because I’d go to Jake’s and I wouldn’t even be paying attention, then some guy would insult one of the waitresses. I’d try to stop them, and all hell would break loose.”

“So you want to go to Jake’s and pick a fight?” Her eyes were practically glowing at the thought of it.

He tapped her shoulder, “You ever been in a bar fight?” He asked looking her over.

“Well I guess the first night that we met. Remember you got that creep away from me.”

‘Yeah.” He nodded and shifted so he was directly in front of her.

“I wasn’t very grateful,” she admitted sheepishly.

“So what you want to dance with some jerk you don’t know?”

“No,” she shook her head and put her hands on her hips. “Listen you can pick the fight and I’ll just be your back-up.”

“Really?” He questioned, lightly shoving on her shoulder to test her balance. She frowned at him and took a step back. “First I need to know if you can handle yourself.”

“Oh,” this time when he shoved her she was prepared and kept her balance easily.

“How hard can you hit?”

She looked at her hand, she’d wondered the same thing earlier today when she thought she was going to fight with Carly. “I don’t know I don’t go around hitting people every day.” She laughed, “this whole bar fighting thing is going to be kind of new to me.”

“Alright,” he held up his hands, palms out, about shoulder level. “Come on and try it.”

“Are you serious?” her eyes went wide at the thought.

“Yeah go on,” she made a half-hearted swing and he smirked. “You can do better than that.”

“Well I don’t want to hurt you,” she countered with a laugh. She couldn’t believe he was doing this. She was getting a boxing lesson, she would definitely be ready for Carly then. But she probably shouldn’t mention who she hoped to try her newfound technique out on.

“Well if you can’t hurt me, then it’s not a great idea that we go bar fighting at Jake’s,” he held up his hands again. “So you need to show me that you can fend for yourself.”

“Okay,” Elizabeth made a fist and swung harder, this time when her hand hit his palm, it made a smack sound.

“Go ahead, better,” he nodded his approval. “Now other hand.”

She made a face and swung harder, “Ouch.” The impact sent shockwaves up her arm, but barely even moved his hand. God that was frustrating.

“There you go other hand now,” he could see the frustration on her face, but he could also see how alive her eyes looked. She had a lot of anger and tension in her that was dying for release. He decided to push her a little harder. “I want you to hit harder, get mad.”

She paused and looked at him instead of his hands. “You don’t want to see me mad.”

“No I do want to see you mad,” she needed to let it out, and he wanted to help her.

“Oh no you don’t,” she warned him. No one liked to see her mad, she’d spent the last few years burying her temper, because no one wanted to see her mad. And here he was telling her to let go. How did she know that if she did let go, she would ever be able to hide it again?

He could see her fighting with herself, trying to bottle back the emotion. “Come on,” he taunted, “hit me.”

She swung harder and connected with his right hand and then pulled back and aimed for his left, he moved suddenly and she missed his hand, and on her follow through she ended up, turned around with her back against his chest. Her off balanced weight was being supported by him, and his hand on her waist. Her shirt had ridden up so his hand was partially on her bare skin, it felt like he was branding her. “Oh,” she managed finally, feeling out of breath for a minute and the reason had nothing to do with the boxing lesson.

“See.” His voice was next to her ear, causing her to shiver in reaction. “Now you got to keep moving, otherwise you’re to easy to catch.”

She tilted her head slightly to look at his profile, her hand had dropped to cover his on her waist. What if she wanted to be caught? She continued to look into his face, making no effort to move out of his arms.

He had only meant to give her a tip about standing in one place, he didn’t realize how she would feel against him. How the muscles in her stomach seemed to tense under his fingers. How her eyes, which had been alive with anger and determination, would suddenly turn dark and mysterious. He lowered his head slowly, moving closer to hers. His eyes were locked on hers the whole time.

An old farm truck went past them on the road and tooted his horn, startling them both, and the moment was shattered.

“Okay I’ll keep moving,” Elizabeth quickly stepped away from him.

“Okay,” Jason said slowly watching her jerky movements. She didn’t want to talk about what almost happened, he sighed and let it go. “So do you want to rest or do you want to try again?”

“What do you think?” She asked the same time she swung.

He jerked back so she missed by several inches.

“I almost got you,” she cried moving her feet like he told her too.

“Not even close,” he countered her movements and held up his hands. They dropped back into their normal teasing routine easily enough, “other hand now, alternate.”

“Yeah,” the swings packed a little more power now. For a minute there she had thought he was going to kiss her, and she couldn’t help but feel both disappointed and frustrated that she’d been wrong again.

~Port Charles Hotel~

V knocked on the door for the third time and still got no response, she hesitated and then used her key to let herself inside. “Jax are you here?” she moved over to the stairs that led up a level to the bedroom, but there was no response.

She crossed back to the couch and sat down tiredly. The last week in Alaska with Jax’s parents had taken a lot out of her. It wasn’t that she didn’t like them, because she did, it was just she had felt like she was under a microscope the whole time and she didn’t like that.

Maybe it would have been easier for her if she hadn’t known how much they had loved his former fiancée Chloe Morgan. They hadn’t known that their relationship had been a sham, they had thought they were getting a new daughter in law. Since Chloe and Jax had dated years ago before Brenda, that had known her and approved of her for a very long time. She frowned if Jax had told them he was bringing her and not Chloe to Alaska, they would have been prepared, and maybe they wouldn’t have shown their disappointment so keenly when she walked through the door instead of Chloe. But Jax had wanted to surprise them. Well they had been surprised all right.

She rubbed at her temples, the headache that she’d had for the last week was making itself known again. She wished she’d told Jax no when he’d invited her to Alaska. They were still so new, it was far too soon, to be meeting the parents. But it was hard for her to say no to him. Running into Chloe today hadn’t helped. Talk about having your biggest insecurities on display. Chloe was blonde, beautiful, smart, charming, classy, wealthy, and petite, while she most definitely was not.

“Those look like too heavy of thoughts to be having on such a beautiful night,” Jax’s voice came from behind her.

She kept her eyes closed and let him take over for her and rub her temples, “Is it night? Time seems to blend.”

“Long day?” Jax moved to sit beside her, mimicking her pose by resting his feet on the coffee table.

“Not really, I’m just not used to having so much free time,” she rested her head on his shoulder. When it was like this, just the two of them, she felt strong about being a couple. It was when she was alone, or they were in public that the doubts seemed to assail her. He hadn’t picked up on it yet and for that she was grateful. She was a trained police officer, used to dangerous situations, so how was she supposed to admit that formal dinners and 5’5” blondes with perfect manners terrified her?

“You know you can always come back and work for me. You were the best personal assistant I ever had.” He knew something was bothering her, he just hadn’t broken through all her walls yet to find out what it was.

“No, if I’m dating you, I’m not working for you.” On that she was firm.

“What about L&B? You know Ned would love to have you back. He hated the fact that you quit in the first place.”

“Well it would have been kind of hard to work for L&B while I was living in the Riveria, besides between Elizabeth and Nikolas I’ve been replaced.”

Jax lost his smile at her words, he hated remembering how she had almost left him to go with Simon. What galled him was the fact he had introduced them, when he was trying to get his money back. He never thought Simon would spend months pursuing her, and follow her across the continent until he finally wore her down enough that she agreed to leave with him. He had been so sure that Simon had only pursued her because he thought she was with him. But even after he knew she wasn’t, that Jax was in fact engaged to Chloe, he kept after her. It had been a huge wake-up call for him, when she announced she was leaving town with Simon.

“What are you thinking that has you frowning so?” V asked getting his attention again.

He brought her hand up to his lips, “I was just thinking what would have happened if I couldn’t stop your plane, and you had left.”

“Well since you blocked the runway with your plane, it was a pretty safe bet that I wasn’t going anywhere.” She tried to joke off the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her, but she couldn’t stop the thrill the memory caused her.

[JRK Archiver]

“I needed to get your attention, I couldn’t have you leaving now could I?”

“I guess not.”

“So what are you going to do?” Jax asked, he knew she wouldn’t be happy unless she was working.

V glanced at her bag and the application and notebook that she knew was in there. She had a feeling that he wouldn’t like what she was thinking about doing. He had said earlier that it was a beautiful night, so she didn’t want to ruin it by arguing. She tilted her head and began to nuzzle his neck, “I’m going to do lots of things to you, Mr. Jacks.”

“What did I tell you about calling me Mr. Jacks?” He moved so she was pressed under him on the couch. He had never realized how playful she was.

“I believe you said something like you were going to throttle me the next time I did so,” she replied her fingers working on the buttons of his shirt. “But before you do I have a last request.”

“That seems fair,” his hand traced its way up her long leg.

“Good,” she grinned wickedly and whispered in his ear, before nipping on his earlobe.

“Why Venus is that any way for a Goddess to talk?” He asked, before kissing her, he was willing to give it a shot.

~Bridge~

“Come on left hand,” Jason said. “Keep moving, now the right.”

Elizabeth swung again connecting with his palm, “Ow.” She stopped moving and began to shake out her hands.

“So how does it feel?”

“Like my arms are going to fall off,” she admitted with a small laugh.

He nodded, “Yes fighting is different,” he jerked his head to the bike. “So you ready to go to Jake’s?”

“No,” she backed away to lean against the barrier. “I’m fine right here, my heart is going 100 miles an hour.”

He moved over beside her, “It worked then.” All the tension she’d had in her was gone, he could see that in her eyes.

“What? Do you think I should go pick a fight at Jake’s everytime Lucky hurts me?”

“No,” his voice was serious. “I just think you should do what you have too, to remember that you’re alive.”

She thought about that for a minute and then looked at him with a smile. “I think I’ll leave the motorcycles and boxing lessons for when I’m with you and I’ll just paint the rest of the time.”

In that case she would never be in a fight and for that he was glad. He’d take her for a ride whenever she wanted, whether she was hurt or not. “That’s good, that you get a rush from your art.”

“Well it’s even more fun when it actually works,” she grimaced. “I tried painting the Nurse’s Ball this year, kind of like The Wind. It didn’t work though, I couldn’t capture that intensity.” She paused and debated a minute before going on, “I saw Robin at the Ball.”

“I didn’t know.”

“She talked about living with H.I.V. and how things were for her in Paris,” she bit her lip then asked the question she didn’t know if she wanted to know the answer too. “You didn’t go to Paris did you?”

“No,” the thought never even crossed his mind. He wasn’t angry with Robin anymore, but he didn’t have any desire to see her either. “I’m glad she’s happy though.”

“Yeah,” she was relieved that he hadn’t gone to see her and the jealousy that thought aroused in her dissipated. Uneasy when she realized she had been jealous of Robin she changed the subject. “You know Emily really missed you that night, she said she wished you were here.”

Since she brought the subject up he decided it was time to press her. “Is this about whatever you were trying to tell me last night on the pier?” She refused to meet his eyes and he knew he was right. “What happened to Emily?”

“It’s nothing to do with the Nurse’s Ball.” She told him truthfully.

“Lucky told you not to tell me,” he shook his head, disappointed that she still wasn’t going to tell him.

She saw the flash of hurt in his eyes before he hid it. “God Jason it’s complicated.” She touched his arm hoping he would understand, and yet at the same time hoping he would push her for the truth. Because they really could use his help.

“Elizabeth, it’s not for me.” He took her hand, “My sister is hurting, something happened to her. She wanted to tell me, but Lucky stopped her.” He searched her eyes, “You wanted to tell me too, I saw that.”

She couldn’t lie to him, not when he was looking at her like that, and was touching her. “Emily and I think you could help. But Lucky had some good reasons to keep it a secret and we all agreed.”

He let go of her hand and started to rub at the back of his neck, he was starting to get real tired of Lucky. “Did whatever this is, happen to Emily or Lucky?”

“To all of us, its kind of ever-expanding,” she admitted quietly. “Jason I told you if it was up to me, I would tell you, but its not.”

“But the problem is getting worse Elizabeth. How bad are you going to let it get before you let me help?” He followed her when she turned to look over the gorge. “I don’t care what happened. All I want is to fix it for Emily,” he turned her so she faced him, “for you. If Lucky can handle things that’s fine, but I can see that you’re having doubts, so that worries me.”

“I promised Emily, Jason you know I don’t like to break my promises.”

She didn’t want to break her word to Emily, not Lucky, he sighed heavily and looked down at their joined hands. He didn’t even remember taking her hand, or had she taken his? “If somehow this gets out of hand, if something goes wrong and you and Emily are going to get hurt, I want you to promise me that you’ll call me, okay? Whatever this is I can take care of it no questions asked.”

“I promise,” that would be one promise she would keep above all the others.

“Thank you,” it was the most he could hope for right now. He’d talk to Emily in the morning, maybe she would tell him.

“I think I should be thanking you,” she kept a hold of his hand and leaned against the barrier again.

“So you want to head back?” he asked after a minute. He wasn’t ready to leave, but he wouldn’t mind going for another ride.

“No,” she said immediately. “Although I probably should, I could stay out here with you forever. In fact why don’t we?” She turned towards him only half joking.

“We could do that,” he agreed. “But I seem to remember that you like to eat.”

She swatted his arm. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to comment on how much a woman eats? Jeez Jason you really should know better. And you better be nice, or the next time you’re in Kelly’s all you’ll get is sou…” She trailed off her eyes going wide.

“What?”

“Oh my God, I was supposed to close tonight, and I ran out of my shift.” She took a step away only to jerk to a halt when he didn’t move, and her arm went tight, she tugged on his hand. “Come on, Tammy had a date tonight, if she didn’t find someone she’ll be stuck. I swear if I were her, I would fire me.”

“No you wouldn’t,” he moved with her this time over to his bike and handed her the helmet.

“So you think I can steer?” she pulled on the helmet and tightened the chinstrap.

“No,” he kept his answer short, figuring she wouldn’t have a way to argue then, he was wrong.

“What if I told you it made me feel alive?”

“I’d tell you to get your own motorcycle.”

“Oh come on you’d miss me too much if I did that, besides your acting like I did a really bad job last time,” she put her hand on her hip and glared at him. “I think I’m insulted.”

He avoided the glare by getting on the bike, “We almost crashed last time, didn’t we?”

“Please,” she waved the remark off with her hand and changed tactics. “You know I just need some practice, come on you’ll be right here, holding onto me, I won’t have a chance to mess up,” she placed a hand on his thigh, “please.”

~Harborview~

“Hold the elevator,” Alexis called racing for the doors. She wished she hadn’t hurried when she saw who was inside.

“I thought lawyers were ambulance chasers not elevator chasers,” Carly said snidely.

“I’m talented,” Alexis said sweetly. “Hi Pete.”

“Ms. Davis,” Pete nodded his head at her. Among the guards she was one of the favorite people that associated with Mr. Corinthos. She knew everyone’s name, and always called him by it. She never treated them like they were beneath her, just because they were guards, unlike some people.

“You do know that peach is not your color don’t you Alexis?” Carly taunted she was still wired from her run-in with Elizabeth and the follow-up tongue-lashing she had received from her mother.

Alexis turned around and studied the blonde, “At least I don’t wear ketchup I eat it.”

Carly glanced down and saw a smear on her shirtsleeve. “Damn’it this is silk.”

Alexis got off the elevator and headed for her door. “Carly you might be able to afford silk now, thanks to your talent with men but, you really should learn how to take care of it. You never know how long it will be before you can afford another blouse.” There was something about Carly that set her teeth on edge, and brought out the cattiness in her.

“What the hell do you mean by my talent with men?” Carly demanded.

“You forget I know everything about you, including the fact that you haven’t worked since you were six months pregnant. You’ve relied on Tony, Jason, A.J., and now Sonny to support you.”

“I don’t think I like what you are insinuating,” Carly moved closer.

“Then I must not be doing it correctly because there should be no doubt, you shouldn’t like it. You know what they say the truth hurts.” Alexis’ frustration over not being able to find a loophole to help Sonny had reached a boiling point. So when faced with the reason for his trouble, Carly, she found herself insulting the woman on a level she normally reserved for Helena.

Johnny’s eyes widened at Alexis’ remark and he knocked discreetly on the door to alert Sonny. It wasn’t that he minded bloodshed but he wanted to make sure the right woman was bleeding when it was all said and done.

“Are you calling me a whore?” Carly shrieked.

“I wasn’t going to use that name, it’s so declasse but if that’s the word you prefer, I’ll go with it.”

Carly started to charge, when she was jerked to a halt by an arm around her waist. “Stop it Carly. What the hell are you doing?” Sonny demanded of her, “Are you alright Alexis?”

“Is she alright?” Carly jerked out of his hold and turned on him. “She’s the one who called me a whore and you want to know if she’s alright?”

“Actually you called yourself a whore, I was merely pointing out a few facts.” Alexis corrected causing Johnny and Pete to grin.

“You skanky ass little bit…”

“Enough Carly,” Sonny interrupted her. “Get inside.”

“I’m not a dog Sonny I don’t follow your orders. Why the hell are you defending her?” Tears sprung to her eyes, “she attacked me.”

“Go inside Carly,” he repeated tiredly, nodding at Johnny to open the door.

“Fine but this isn’t over.” Carly warned them both before entering the penthouse and slamming the door hard enough that it moved Johnny back a step.

Alexis rubbed at the bridge of her nose. “In all honesty I might have started this little skirmish. I let her get to me, normally I don’t.”

“Carly can get to anyone if she has enough time, believe me.”

Alexis opened her door and gestured for him to come closer. “I heard from Dara Jensen,” and lowered her voice so the guards didn’t hear. “Carly’s deposition will be in two weeks.”

“I thought we had two months.”

“Dara fast-tracked it. I tried to stall, the most I was able to do was delay for two weeks, that doesn’t give me a lot of time to figure a way out of this for you.”

“Do your best,” Sonny told her taking her hand. “It’s always been good enough before.”

She looked down at their hands then back into his warm dark eyes, his faith in her was reassuring but also troublesome. She didn’t want to let him down or give him false hope, “Son…”

He placed a finger over her lips to stop the words, he could see the doubt in her eyes, but he didn’t want to hear it expressed out loud.

Alexis froze at his touch, he was a mixture of scents, his cologne, along with oregano or basil, and coffee. It shouldn’t have worked but on him it did. Her stomach twisted into knots the longer he looked at her.

He wanted to kiss her. It didn’t matter that they were standing in her doorway with two of his guards only a few feet away. It didn’t matter that Carly was in his penthouse no doubt destroying it in a temper tantrum. It didn’t matter that she had a ring on her finger that said she belonged to another man. The only thing that mattered to him was the need to kiss her. He didn’t know if it was wishful thinking or not, but in this instant he could swear he could see the same need reflected in her eyes.

Before he could move, her phone began to ring and she pulled away from him.

“I-I need to get this, it’s probably…probably,” she stammered.

“Ned,” Sonny finished for her.

“Yes, Ned he’s supposed to call, so I’m sure that him calling like he’s supposed to. I really need to talk to him too, so I’ll have to talk to you about the case some other time because I really need to answer the phone.” Why couldn’t she stop talking?

“Alexis take a breath and answer the phone.” Sonny interrupted her before shutting the door in disappointment.

He leaned against the door for another minute before he headed for his own door, “Pete what are you still doing here?”

Enjoying the show, Pete wisely buried that thought and got to the point. “You wanted to know if Ms. Benson went around certain people.”

Sonny rubbed the bridge of his nose, “Who did she go see?”

“Elizabeth Webber, in fact they almost got into a fight in the middle of Kelly’s.”

“Thanks Pete,” Sonny dismissed him with a shake of his head. The question of what to do with Carly was becoming more tiresome everyday. He stood in front of the door for another minute bracing himself for the fight he knew was coming. “Shut up Johnny,” he said finally and opened the door.

“I didn’t say a word Boss,” Johnny answered the laughter evident in his voice.

Sonny spared him a glare before entering the penthouse.

Johnny waited until he closed the door, before he let his grin show. His boss had his hands full with both the women who lived on this floor.

~Kelly’s~

“Admit it you had fun,” Elizabeth tugged on his hand, when he didn’t respond. “Admit it.”

“You know that bike is way too big for you,” Jason kept his expression stern.

“How would you know?” She scoffed. “You never even took your hands away, basically all I did was sit in front of you with your arms around me for a change.”

He came to a stop by one of the tables in front of the door. “If I didn’t brace you, you’d have to control my weight, plus the bikes, plus the force of the wind.”

“What about my weight?” She demanded.

He couldn’t resist, her face was the picture of outrage, he reached out and placed his hands on her hips, as if testing her weight. “That’s my point you’re not strong enough to control the bike on your own.”

“Oh Emily says you never lie,” his hands were still on her hips but she didn’t mind.

“Not often,” he admitted moving closer.

“Yeah well I think you’re lying tonight. I think you like being the one who decides where we go,” she felt the exhilaration she normally felt after a ride, but she felt something else too. Something more powerful than that, and somehow she knew it was in direct reaction to Jason and the fact he had his hands on her. She knew that she should move away, that they were just friends, that he probably had no idea that she had suddenly developed a crush on him, but with her adrenaline pumping she didn’t feel like backing off.

“I offered to take you anyplace you wanted and you said nowhere.”

“Yeah but we did go somewhere,” she rested her hands on his arms and searched his face. “I had the greatest time, I would have gone crazy had I not found you in that alley.”

“I’m glad I was there,” his hands seemed to have a mind of their own and they moved so they spanned her back.

“I’m so glad you’re home,” she moved then and wrapped her arms around his neck, rising up to kiss his cheek.

His arms tightened around her immediately, he bent slightly so her head was even with his, he couldn’t stop himself from pressing his face into her hair.

She drew back slightly and her eyes locked on his, his mouth was just a few inches away, giving into temptation she shifted again and pressed her lips to his.

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 7
~Kelly’s~

Jason was stunned when he felt her lips on his, but that lasted only for a second, she began to pull away and he responded quickly. He brought his hand up to cup the back of her head to keep her lips on his. Her lips were softer than any he had ever felt, and a little timid, she sighed and tilted her head, opening her mouth slightly. He used the opportunity to deepen the kiss.

She was kissing Jason and for once it wasn’t a dream. Feeling his mouth move on hers, she realized that no dream she’d ever had even came close to the reality. She heard a moan and wasn’t sure who let it out. She felt his tongue whisper past her lips and her arms tightened around his neck in response, as she opened for him.

“Elizabeth.”

Her name came from behind her but it was easy to ignore, easy to keep on kissing Jason.

“Elizabeth!”

Her name was repeated and she felt Jason tense and draw away from her. She realized then that she should recognize the voice, but for the life of her she had no idea, who was speaking, she only knew they had lousy timing.

Jason broke the kiss reluctantly and looked over her shoulder at Lucky who had just walked out of Kelly’s and was staring at them with a look of shock.

Coming out of a daze, Elizabeth stepped back abruptly and turned around, “Lucky?”

“What the hell are you doing Elizabeth? You don’t belong with him,” Lucky snapped. The shock he’d originally felt when he looked outside and saw them kissing had turned into anger. It was a deep anger, one that he hadn’t felt before. Even as angry as he had been with his father paled in comparison to this, and that unsettled him.

“Lucky,” Elizabeth spoke again, finally realizing who was standing there glaring at her. “Why are you wearing an apron?” It was the only coherent thought in her head. Too much of her brain was reliving the kiss Jason had just given her, or was it the kiss she gave him? After all she had initiated it.

“What?” Lucky demanded looking at her in shock, shock quickly turned to anger. “You don’t belong with him,” he turned on Jason. “You stay the hell away from Elizabeth.”

“You know what? It’s not up to you who I stand next to, or talk too,” she retorted starting to get upset herself.

“Oh were you standing? Because from where I was, it looked like you two were kissing.”

“I don’t think this is any of your business,” she wasn’t ready to deal with the implications of the kiss yet.

“Not my business?” he repeated. “Everything about you is my business,” he stepped closer to her. “Why don’t you tell me again what happened when you two lived together.”

Jason had been willing to let Elizabeth handle this but he didn’t like the anger that was on Lucky’s face, or the way he kept crowding her. He moved closer, “You need to back off Lucky.”

“You don’t tell me what to do,” he yelled at Jason. “I’m not Emily, I don’t buy your crap that you’re better or wiser than humanity,” he stepped closer to Jason. “So why don’t you just admit that you are after Elizabeth.”

It was getting harder and harder to recognize the kid he once knew in the angry person in front of him. “She’s my friend, I thought you were too.”

Lucky scoffed at that remark, “I don’t want to be friends. In fact I don’t want you around, so leave.”

Elizabeth didn’t like what she was seeing or hearing. She had never heard Lucky talk like this, and to Jason of all people. Her eyes moved from Lucky’s angry face, to Jason’s calm one and she instinctively shifted closer to Jason.

“That’s not up to you to decide.” Jason had been in enough situations that he knew Lucky was close to losing control. He remembered the boy who used to rent a room from him and tried again. “You know, whatever you’re going through I didn’t do it. Elizabeth didn’t do it, so you shouldn’t blame us for it.”

“Us?” Lucky was finding it harder and harder to breathe. He had never been this angry before and it was focused primarily on the man in front of him. “You don’t get to defend her.”

“I will always defend her,” Jason warned him. “I’m trying to respect you Lucky, but you’re not making any sense.”

“Screw you,” Lucky screamed charging him.

“Lucky,” Elizabeth yelled in shock.

Jason blocked his charge easily enough and shoved him back several feet. “That’s enough,” he wasn’t going to play around with Lucky anymore. Lucky had changed and obviously not for the better, he stopped thinking of him as a boy he once knew and instead thought of him as a guy he had no desire to know.

“What are you doing?” Elizabeth demanded stepping in between them, focusing her anger on Lucky.

“What am I doing? You kissed him Elizabeth. What the hell are you doing?”

“I told you what I do with Jason is none of your business,” she snapped, then grabbed a table to keep her balance when Lucky charged past her and after Jason again.

“That’s enough,” Jason grabbed Lucky’s arm and twisted it around his back, immobilizing him. “Lucky I don’t know where this is coming from, but you don’t want any trouble.”

Lucky jerked erratically trying to free his arm, but Jason merely increased the pressure, keeping his arm in place and Lucky off-balanced.

“Jason let him go,” Elizabeth put a hand on his back.

“Are you sure?” he turned his head to look at her.

“Yes, Lucky won’t do anything else stupid. Will you Lucky?” she asked moving closer.

“Whatever,” Lucky snapped.

Jason let him go and took a cautious step back, eyeing Lucky warily when he turned around to glare at them again.

“I think you owe Jason an apology Lucky,” she crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

“For what?” Lucky snorted refusing to rub at his sore shoulder, not wanting to give Jason the satisfaction of knowing how much it hurt.

“For attacking Jason like that. He’s always been your friend, my god he gave you a job, a place to stay, why did you go off on him like that?”

Lucky shook his head stubbornly. “He’s after you Elizabeth, and you belong to me, so he needs to back off.”

Elizabeth took a step back in confusion at the words. Now he was saying she belonged to him, she wearily shook her head, he was making no sense as usual.

Jason frowned at the words. It sounded like Lucky was staking ownership of her, like the Quartermaine’s tried to do with Michael. He didn’t like it, he glanced at her face, and saw the confusion in her eyes when she shook her head. Lucky was playing with her head again. “Look if you have a problem with me, that’s fine, deal with me. Don’t take it out on Elizabeth, she’s my friend, I’m not going to let you hurt her.”

“You don’t get it Jason, things change,” Lucky shot back cockily. “She might have thought you were a friend, when I was away, but I’m back now and she knows better. I won’t let you use her again.”

“Lucky you don’t speak for me,” Elizabeth interrupted. “Jason will always be my friend, whether you will be, remains to be seen.” She turned to Jason and gave him a quick hug. “Thanks again for tonight, I’m sorry about this.”

“It’s not your fault.” He wanted to say more, but wouldn’t, not with Lucky here.

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” she let her hands drop and turned around to face Lucky. “You need to think about what just happened here. Until you are ready to apologize to me and to Jason I don’t want to see you.” With that she walked past him into Kelly’s pausing only to flip the sign from open to closed, lock the door, and pull down the shade, leaving the two men alone in the courtyard.

“Elizabeth,” Lucky called after her moving towards the door in shock. What was she doing locking him out like that? He pushed on the door but it refused to budge, “Elizabeth.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to you Lucky,” Jason watched him pound on the door again. “Lucky go home.”

“What and leave her here with you?” Lucky turned around to glare at him. “You’d like that wouldn’t you? That way she’d be easy pickings for you. But that isn’t going to happen.”

Jason pinched his nose in frustration. “Are you even listening to yourself? Because you are making absolutely no sense.”

“I’m not going anywhere Jason, Elizabeth belongs with me not you.”

“I thought she belonged with Nikolas,” Jason countered. “Isn’t that what you tell her everytime you see her?”

Lucky frowned at that, that is what he meant wasn’t it? He shook the doubt away. “She doesn’t belong with you, and that’s what matters. So you stay the hell away from her.”

“Lucky, only Elizabeth can tell me to stay away and she’s not doing that.”

“So you’re admitting it. You do want her,” Lucky cried.

Jason just shook his head, he wasn’t about to explain his actions to some hot-tempered kid. “Lucky you need some help.”

Lucky jerked back a step, he didn’t need help, he was in control. His hands began to shake and he quickly shoved them in his pockets. “Just stay away from her,” he warned him again, then threw the apron on a table and left the courtyard.

Jason was heading for the door, to talk to Elizabeth again when his cell rang. “Morgan,” he frowned and glanced at his watch. “Now? Okay I’m on my way.” He glanced at the closed door for a minute longer then headed for his bike, he would have to talk too Elizabeth tomorrow.

~Inside~

Elizabeth pulled the shade slightly to the side and sighed in relief when she saw the empty courtyard. She sat wearily at a table, what had just happened? She had kissed Jason, Lucky said she belonged to him, she had kissed Jason, Lucky attacked Jason, she had kissed Jason.

“Enough,” she stood up and put the last two chairs on the table. She couldn’t think about what had just happened right now, if she did she would go insane. She grabbed her purse from behind the counter, turned off the lights, locked the door and headed for home. She wasn’t going to think about what just happened until tomorrow.

Elizabeth was replaying the kiss she wasn’t supposed to be thinking about in her head, when she gradually became aware of footsteps behind her. She paused to listen and the footsteps stopped as well. Frowning at the dark all around her, she regretted that she had decided to take the shortcut through the docks, instead of walking on the well-lighted streets.

She picked up her pace and hurried towards the sign for Bannister’s Wharf. She was almost home. A horrifying thought crossed her mind and slowed her steps, whoever was following her would know where she lived.

She looked to the right and saw the open bay door of the Corinthos-Morgan warehouse. A lot of people were visible through the door, unloading a shipment. She veered towards the warehouse and the people there. She had only taken a step when a hand fell on her arm stopping her in her tracks.

~Quartermaine’s~

Lucky climbed the tree and tapped on Emily’s window. He saw her frown at the window before setting aside a notebook she was writing in and crossing over to him.

“Lucky,” she quickly opened the window when she recognized him. “What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know, I just couldn’t go home.” Lucky glanced around the room but really didn’t see anything. His mind was still trying to process what had happened with Jason and Elizabeth.

Emily could see the anger in his face and braced herself. “What happened?”

“Your brother happened,” Lucky sniped angrily.

“What do you mean?” she sat on the bed and watched him pace.

“Jason happened, he has Elizabeth so confused, he’s messing with her head.”

“That doesn’t sound like something Jason would do,” she spoke quietly. “In fact I know he wouldn’t do that.”

“You don’t know your brother Em, because that is what he is doing. He wants Elizabeth and he’s messing with her head in order to get her.” Lucky paused by her dresser and picked up one of the glass figurines that she had there. “She even sent me away tonight because of him.”

“Lucky why don’t you start at the beginning? Because I got to tell you, you’re not making any sense here.”

“Why does everyone keep telling me that?” Lucky demanded raising his voice. He saw her eyes go wide and flick to her door, and quickly lowered his voice. “Tammy made me work so I was closing up when I heard someone in the courtyard. I looked outside and saw Elizabeth and Jason,” his hand tightened convulsively on the fragile figurine. “He was kissing her.”

“What?” she sat back in surprise. “Are you sure?”

“Yes I know what a kiss looks like. Kissing as in mouth to mouth, as in he had his hands all over her, holding her against him,” Lucky snapped.

“Well where were her hands?”

Around his neck, holding him back, at that memory he snapped the figurine in his hand in two. “That doesn’t matter, he was mauling her.”

“It does matter,” Emily shot to her feet ready to defend her brother. “Since you don’t want to answer me, I would say she had her arms around him, therefore she must have wanted him to kiss her. Because he wouldn’t maul her.”

“Emily whose side are you on here?” Lucky turned on her. “Didn’t you hear me? He was kissing Elizabeth. My Elizabeth.”

“And she was kissing him back wasn’t she?” Emily demanded moving closer. “Wasn’t she?”

“Yes,” he admitted reluctantly. “But that doesn’t matter he has no right to kiss her, she’s mine.”

“Wrong Lucky she belongs to no one. You have been telling her for months that it’s over between the two of you. She finally heard you and moved on.” She didn’t know how she felt about the fact Elizabeth seemed to be moving on with her brother.

“I thought you understood Emily. You know why I’ve been pushing her away, you know I don’t mean too. What? Because she’s kissing your brother you don’t care about us getting back together anymore?”

Emily shifted guiltily on her feet. “I didn’t say that.”

“God Em, you have been our biggest supporter and now you think its great that Elizabeth has moved on,” he dropped the broken figurine to the floor and headed for the window. “I thought you were my best friend.”

“Wait Lucky I am your friend,” she followed him to the window feeling guilty. “It’s just…it’s different now that my brother is involved.”

“Well I guess I know where I stand then,” he started to crawl out of the window.

“Lucky stop it. I have been telling you for weeks to talk to Elizabeth. But you refused too,” she yanked on his arm and pulled him back in the room. “Don’t blame me because when you finally do decide to talk to her she doesn’t want to hear you.”

Lucky slumped wearily on the window seat, “I told her she didn’t belong with Jason, that she belonged with me.”

She sat down beside him. “What did she say to that?” At one time she knew Elizabeth would have been thrilled to hear those words, but now she wasn’t so sure. She had been thinking about Elizabeth tonight, replaying in her mind all the little conversations she’d had with her, especially the ones in the last few weeks. She finally realized that Elizabeth had been trying to tell her for weeks that she was giving up on Lucky, but she hadn’t wanted to hear her.

“She told me that what went on between her and Jason was none of my business. Then she told me she didn’t want to see me again until I apologized.”

“Apologized for what?”

“I sort of attacked Jason,” he admitted sheepishly, waiting for her angry reaction, he wasn’t disappointed.

“What? Lucky what were you thinking?” She shoved at his shoulder. “Forget it, you obviously weren’t thinking.”

“I couldn’t help it. He made me so mad, they both did,” he frowned at her. “I was so close to losing control Em, it scared me.”

“It’s okay we’ll figure it out,” she hugged him trying to offer some comfort.

“I can’t lose her Emily,” his words were muffled by her shoulder. “I think I would die if I lost her.”

Emily frowned at his words, he sounded like he meant them. She needed to talk to Jason and Elizabeth and find out what exactly was going on between them. She patted Lucky on the back, and she needed to do it soon.

~Docks~

Elizabeth screamed and flailed out with her purse when she was jerked around.

Immediately the hand on her arm was dropped and her attacker raised his hands in surrender and backed away. “Take it easy Elizabeth.”

She put a hand over her racing heart. “Jesus Zander you scared me.”

“I’m sorry, I thought you heard me call your name,” Zander touched her arm lightly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“No I didn’t hear you, I must have been lost in thought,” she took a step back breaking the contact.

He frowned at her actions but said nothing. “I wanted to see how you were. You were pretty out of it at the rave the other week. I was actually heading to that diner you said you worked at when I saw you.”

Now her heart was racing for another reason. Realization was setting in that she was alone on the docks with a man who had drugged her, and killed a cop. “I’m fine,” she was relieved her voice was only a little shaky.

“Good. I was sorry you left the rave with that guy. What was his name, Lucky?”

“Yeah.”

“He’s your boyfriend right?” He hoped not he had enjoyed talking to her, and was sorry that he had drugged her.

“Not anymore,” she answered without thinking.

He smiled at that. “Good.”

Elizabeth swallowed hard, this was not good, he seemed to really be interested in her. It was hard enough to pretend she liked him, when she knew Nikolas and Lucky were around, but out here alone, it was even harder.

“I was looking for you for another reason as well,” he stepped closer. “There’s another rave Friday night, I was hoping you would come.”

“I don’t know, after what happened last time,” she forced herself to smile. He was giving him the information they needed, all she had to do was play along. “Are you going to be there?”

“Definitely. I was hoping you would be there too,” he smiled his best smile hoping to charm her. “I can promise you that nothing will happen to you this time.”

It was strange but she almost believed him. “Then I’ll be there. Where is it?”

He dug in his pocket and wrote the address on a scrap of paper. “We’re keeping this one quieter than the last one so it doesn’t get raided.” She reached out to take the paper from him and his hand closed over hers. “I’m glad you’ll be there Elizabeth, I’ve been wanting to get to know you better.”

She refused the temptation to pull her arm free and instead smiled at him again. “That’s nice to hear Zander, maybe it is time to get back into the dating scene. Although I am going to take it slow.”

“You should you’re less likely to be hurt that way. Speaking of which,” he glanced around the dark dock. “I better walk you home. You have no business being alone around here at this time of night.”

“That’s okay my place is real close by.” The last thing she wanted was for him to know where she lived. It was bad enough he knew where she worked.

“I insist Elizabeth, I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he took her arm in a proprietary manner and began heading back down the dock, away from the warehouse. “So where do you live?”

“Over there,” she gestured vaguely in the direction of her building. She kept the pace slow, trying desperately to think of a way out of this. She needed him to think she was interested in him. So he might get suspicious if she ran screaming away from him when he was trying to be nice.

“It’s a gorgeous night, look at that moon. It’s the Lover’s Moon,” he looked at the sky then glanced at her.

“Mmm,” she answered non-committedly. Someone heading for the stairs by Bannister’s Wharf caught her attention. “Johnny,” she yelled in recognition. “Excuse me,” she pulled free of Zander and ran for Johnny.

Johnny frowned at her fast approach, his eyes going to the man following her, “Miss Webber are you…”

“Call me Elizabeth and play along with whatever I say,” she hissed cutting him off, keeping an ear pealed for Zander’s approach.

“Johnny,” she pitched her voice so it would carry around the dock. “It must be fate running into you like this.”

[JRK Archiver]

Johnny frowned then smiled brightly causing her to blink in surprise. “You too Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth kept her hand on his arm then turned to face an out of breath Zander. “Sorry but I had to catch Johnny. I’ve been playing phone tag with him for days now. I think you were it.” She turned to him smiling a tad too widely.

“You must not have checked your voice mail then because I phoned you back.” He could feel the uneasiness and a trace of fear coming off of her. He focused on the man with her, and made a mental impression of him. He knew Jason and more than likely Sonny would want to know every detail about him.

“Well since I’ve got you now, I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished with you.”

“Elizabeth I thought we were going to talk,” Zander jerked his head. “Alone.”

Her hand tightened on Johnny’s arm. “It will have to be right now Elizabeth,” her hold caused him to speak. “I’m tied up in meetings the rest of the week.”

“Sorry Zander, I have a portrait that I did for Johnny ready, and I need to talk to him about the next one.” She tried to act disappointed, but she had a feeling she failed. “You understand a starving artist can’t let a sale go by.”

“How will you get home?”

“I’ll see her home,” Johnny said immediately.

“Okay, we’ll finish this on Friday then,” Zander locked eyes with her. “Right?”

“Right. I can’t wait for Friday,” Elizabeth smiled back.

“Sorry but we better go. I don’t have a lot of time Elizabeth.” Johnny interrupted their staring contest, he turned slightly to head for the other steps and her building. Her hand tugged at his arm trying to propel him in the other direction. He frowned until he figured out what she was doing. She wanted to take the long way to her building by going to Charles Street. He smoothly turned and they started walking to those steps that led to Charles Street.

“Bye Zander,” Elizabeth called over her shoulder before preceding Johnny up the steps.

Johnny took one more look at Zander sizing him up and filing the information away for future reference, before following her up the stairs.

Zander frowned after them long after they disappeared from view. There was something a little bit off about Elizabeth. He had originally sought her out at the rave because he’d thought he had seen her talking with Gia. He had even drugged her in an attempt to get some information out of her. But she had left before he could get very much out of her.

He had finally decided that he was probably reading too much into it. Instead he remembered how fun she was to talk too, and how beautiful she was, so he had decided to find her, to see if she would be interested in a date with him. He felt bad about drugging her, and wanted to get to know her better.

He frowned and began to walk away, after speaking with her tonight he was worried again. She had said all the right things and smiled at the right times, but there was something a little off. Her smile seemed a little desperate at times, and the way she had run to that Johnny guy sent up red flags in warning. Johnny had looked familiar to him as well. He was going to have to keep an eye on Elizabeth, and the rave would be a perfect place to start he decided.

~Jake’s~

Jason let himself in his dark room and made his way to the bed. The tip he had been chasing turned out to be a dud. He laid down on the bed and put his arm over his eyes. The timing couldn’t have been worse too. He had wanted to talk to Elizabeth about what had happened, before she had the opportunity to build any walls between them.

He didn’t blame her for wanting to get away from Lucky. Lucky, he frowned and considered what Lucky had said and done tonight. Lucky had acted like a guy who was still in love with her, and was jealous of her interest with someone else. Yet at the same time, his claims of ownership were way out there. If this is what Elizabeth had been living with for the past several months it was no wonder she was ready to blow.

He got off the bed and headed for the window, stripping off his shirt along the way. He opened the window and let the breeze in the room. He had been surprised that she had kissed him, he had tried to kiss her before and both times she had backed off and pretended it didn’t happen. That’s what made this kiss even more special, she was the one who initiated it.

He leaned against the windowpane, and wondered what she’d think about what Lucky said, after she had time to cool off and think about it. Lucky had said he wanted her back. He didn’t know if Lucky meant it or if Lucky had just said it to keep her away from him. He shrugged in the end the only thing he wanted was for her to be happy. He hoped that she might be willing to see if they could be happy together, but if not, then he would live with that. The one constant in their relationship had been her love for Lucky, so if that won out in the end he would have to respect her decision.

“Jason will always be my friend.”

Her words from earlier came back to him. But if she was ready to let Lucky go, he was going to be here for her. As for the kiss, whether it would end up being real or temporary madness on her part he didn’t know. He was glad it happened, he had wanted it to happen for months now, so he had no regrets, and he hoped she didn’t either. He would wait and see how she acted the next time she saw him. He didn’t want to lose her friendship so if she regretted it, he would never mention it again.

With that decision made he headed for the shower, to wash the day off. One thing he did know for sure, he wouldn't be able to wash away the memory of holding her, and her kissing him, and he had no desire too either.

~Studio~

“Are you sure he didn’t follow us?” Elizabeth asked again when she unlocked her door.

“Yes we walked slow enough, and took the most meandering route possible. I would have known if he was behind us.” Johnny entered the room behind her, his eyes sweeping the room out of habit more than an actual concern of a possible threat. “So are you ready to tell me what that was all about?”

She watched him make himself comfortable on the couch and realized she was going to have to tell him something. She’d rambled on about everything under the sun during their walk home, hoping he wouldn’t mention it. She saw him cross his arms over his chest and realized she was S.O.L. “I just didn’t want him to know where I lived.”

“And you couldn’t just tell him that?”

“No, then he would know I wasn’t really inter…” she trailed off and turned away to straighten up some papers on her table. “I just think that a woman should get to know someone before she lets them walk her home.”

“I agree with you, in fact I tell my sisters the same thing all the time,” he waited until he saw her shoulders sag in relief, then went on. “But in this case that wasn’t the reason.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Elizabeth look at me,” he waited until she did. “You have a little problem, when you lie to someone you care about you don’t look at them. But when you lie to someone you don’t like, like Zander, you look them dead in the face.”

She frowned at that, she used to be better at lying. Maybe she should think of it as pretending she seemed to be real good at that.

“Elizabeth?”

“I can’t say anything else Johnny, can’t we just leave it at that?” She pleaded with her eyes and her voice. “Just know you did me a huge favor and I’ll owe you one,” she saw him begin to shake his head and hurried on. “Please Johnny.”

He frowned at her then nodded. “Okay I’ll drop it.” And he would too. He’d drop it right in Jason’s lap. He knew Jason would get the truth out of her. He glanced around the studio. “You’ve changed this place, it looks good.”

She looked around proudly and agreed. “Thanks again for volunteering to help move the furniture in.”

“I didn’t volunteer, Francis drafted me,” he corrected with a laugh. “If I had known it was three flights I would have said no.”

“Come on it wasn’t that bad,” she teased him. “You mean to tell me a big strong guy like yourself had trouble moving things up three measly flights?”

“In case you didn’t notice Elizabeth your headboard is solid Oak. That’s not exactly lightweight material,” he told her sticking up for himself.

“Well one good thing about tonight is you’re calling me Elizabeth again. I’m sick to death of the Miss Webber you call me everytime you and Francis come into the diner. You’re older than me, I call you by your first name, and yet I’m Miss Webber.”

“I think Mr. Corinthos prefers that when were on duty,” Johnny explained. “We keep it formal with everyone.”

“But I heard you call Sonny boss.”

“Well,” he shrugged and got up. “I need to go.”

“Wait I really do have something for you,” she headed for a stack of sketchpads on the floor. “I meant to bring it to work, but I kept forgetting.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything.” In fact he wished she hadn’t. He didn’t exactly know what her relationship with Jason was, but he had no desire to find out the hard way.

“It’s nothing major Johnny, it’s just a sketch, so relax. You might not even like it.”

“I doubt that Jason says you’re good.”

Her face flamed at the mention of Jason and she was relieved she was turned away from him so he couldn’t see her reaction. “Did he? That’s nice.”

“Yeah,” he moved over to look at some canvas stacked against the wall.

“Are you and Jason tight then?” She kept her voice casual, almost disinterested.

“I guess, I’m as close as anybody. He doesn’t let people in very far,” he crouched down to study a landscape.

“Do you think he’ll stay in town?” She tried to make it sound like she was just making conversation, but she held her breath while she waited for his response.

“I don’t know. I know he liked to travel. He’d send these postcard from all over the place.” Johnny answered absently. She really was talented, he wondered if she sold any of her work. His mother had a birthday coming up soon.

“He sent you postcards?” He sent Emily postcards and Johnny some too. Why didn’t he send her any?

He heard the shakiness in her voice and thought back to what he’d said. Oh boy. “It wasn’t that many, just a couple. He must have remembered that I sort of collect postcards.” Collect postcards? Could he sound any lamer?

“Oh,” she cleared her throat. “Found it,” she got to her feet and started flipping through a sketchpad. “Here you go,” she carefully tore out a sketch and handed it to him.

“Elizabeth,” he wanted to fix what he’d said.

“Wait I need to sign it first,” she took the sketch back and scribbled her name. “So what do you think?”

He glanced down at the picture and couldn’t help but laugh. She’d drawn a sketch of him and Francis on either end of her headboard. She’d emphasized the strain and perspiration on Francis’ face, while his own face was calm and easy. What was so funny was she had drawn it so his end of the headboard was propped up on a box, so he wasn’t lifting anything while Francis was in fact holding up the headboard. “You know I only did that for a second.”

“Sure.”

“I was just catching my breath,” he continued on following her to the door. He frowned at the sketch, she had drawn Francis with all these muscles where were his? “You know this isn’t an accurate picture.”

“I draw what I see Johnny,” Elizabeth laughed and opened the door. “Night.”

Johnny frowned at the sketch again and looked up in time for her to shut the door in his face. “Night,” he muttered. It was a very good sketch she’d only made one mistake his muscles were bigger than Francis’ were.

~Inside~

Elizabeth leaned against the door tiredly. Although it was only 11:30 it felt so much later than that. She felt like her whole world had changed. In a sense she guessed it had, she had kissed someone tonight and it wasn’t Lucky. That was a first for her, it wasn’t like the time she’d kissed Nikolas trying to make Lucky jealous. No when she kissed Jason she wasn’t even thinking about Lucky. In fact she wasn’t thinking at all.

Maybe that was part of the problem, she had kissed Jason because she’d felt like it, she couldn’t try to think herself out of it now. She had done it and couldn’t change it. In fact she didn’t want to change it, kissing him had felt good. She flopped down on her bed. Be honest Elizabeth it felt more than good, it was mind-blowing. She groaned Lizzie was back in her head.

But Lucky had said she belonged with him tonight too, wasn’t that what she’d been waiting for? Not belonged with, belonged too, like you were his dog, or a trophy. She had to admit Lizzie had a point that time. She didn’t know what to think. She didn’t know what to feel, or how she was supposed to talk to Jason now. Lucky’s interruption was good on that point, she didn’t have to see if he regretted kissing her. But where did they stand now? He’d barely been back in her life for twenty-four hours, and she’d already kissed him. He had made no effort to keep in touch with her while he was gone. At the time she thought that’s just the way he was, he’d only sent Emily two postcards. But now she knew differently. He’d kept in touch with Johnny too. Maybe she was reading to much into what she thought he was feeling, maybe he’d only kissed her back out of surprise. After all he was older and more experienced than she was.

“There is no word for what I feel for you.”

She’d just play it by ear, she’d wait to see how he acted around her. If he didn’t mention the kiss then she wouldn’t. In the end the one thing she knew for sure was she didn’t want to lose his friendship, even if that meant never kissing him again. So she would wait and see how he acted around her tomorrow. With that decision made she headed for the shower, she had a feeling she’d be having more dreams tonight.

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 8
~Studio~

“Why me?” Elizabeth muttered when another empty hanger crashed to the floor. She stepped over it and kept pawing through her clothes, searching for a miracle, a clean shirt that she could wear to both jobs. She was beginning to think that was impossible.

She pulled out a hot pink shirtwaist dress and frowned at it. “What was I thinking when I bought this?” She dropped the dress on the floor then reached back into the mess that was her closet. She closed her eyes and yanked hard, managing to unearth two shirts a purple and a green one. Both of which, if paired with her black pants would be dressy enough for L&B and comfortable enough for Kelly’s. Today might be a good day after all.

She heard a knock coming from the other room, stumbled out of the closet and surveyed the damage. “Maybe I should do my laundry,” she muttered turning to head for the door only to stop and detour by the bed to pick up her robe when she realized she wasn’t dressed. Without bothering to check the window to see who it was she unlocked the door and opened it. Any thoughts of doing laundry vanished from her head, “Jason.”

“You shouldn’t open the door without knowing who it is,” Jason frowned at her. “You didn’t even check the window. Elizabeth you need to be more careful,” he stopped the lecture when she shut the door in his face.

“Who is it?” she called through the door.

He couldn’t help but smile. “Very funny Elizabeth.”

She pulled on the shade sending it up so she could look at him. “Your name is Elizabeth too? What a coincidence so’s mine.”

“Are you going to let me in?”

She shifted from the window and pulled the door open. “Do come in,” she grinned at him in relief. She had expected to feel nervous around him, and was glad that she didn’t, that she was able to tease him like usual.

Jason moved inside and set a bag he was carrying on the table with a thunk. “Were you robbed?” he turned to look at her before jerking his head at the mess on the other side of the room.

“No. That’s just my normal Thursday morning, what the hell am I going to wear panic,” she admitted with a laugh.

His eyes moved over her. “Interesting choice.”

She swallowed hard at his look, did she really think she wasn’t nervous? He had only looked at her and she was having trouble breathing again. Her hormones were awake with a vengeance. “I hadn’t decided yet,” she managed finally. Even the air seemed to react to his presence, it seemed more charged then usual.

He saw her blush and realized his look was making her uncomfortable, he hoped that was a good sign. Sometime during the course of the night, he had changed his mind in how to deal with Elizabeth. He had been planning to give her some time before he sought her out, but when he woke up this morning he realized he didn’t want to wait. He needed to know where things stood between them.

“So what did you bring me?” Elizabeth asked when he continued to look at her. Feeling flustered she walked around him, making sure there was plenty of room between them and pointed to the bag on the table.

He put his hands in his back pockets so he didn’t give into the temptation of touching her to find out if her skin was as soft as the colorful robe she was wearing. “That’s the reason I came by. I need a favor.”

“Of course,” she agreed immediately.

“Don’t you want to hear it first?” he asked testing her reaction by stepping closer, she tensed but didn’t pull away.

“I trust you,” she looked up at him.

He looked down into her upturned face, their height difference readily apparent this morning. He hadn’t realized how small she really was. She normally wore boots or shoes around him that made her appear taller than she really was. He felt like a big ox standing next to her, but the trust he saw in her eyes comforted him. “Good. I was afraid you might not after last night.”

“Why? What happened last night wasn’t your fault,” she answered honestly. “Lucky had no right to go after you like that. I’m sorry he did.”

“You don’t have to apologize to me for what Lucky did,” he took a chance and touched her hand.

“I feel like I should though,” she looked down at his hand. “Lucky was your friend and I feel responsible for him going after you the way he did.”

“Lucky’s changed, you can’t control what he does.”

“I know he’s changed, I’m just trying to figure out why he’s changed in the direction he has.”

“Did you think about what he said last night,” he paused until she looked up at him. “About wanting you back?”

“Yeah,” feeling chilled she stepped away and rubbed her hands over her arms. “I didn’t like the way he said it, like he was,” she trailed off.

“Staking ownership,” he finished for her.

“Yes,” she nodded and turned to face him again. “My Lucky would never talk like that, so it’s hard for me to understand why this Lucky is doing what he does.”

Her Lucky to this Lucky, he wondered if that meant she was seeing them as two different people with her Lucky being gone. “About what set him of…”

“God will you look at the time,” she interrupted him. “I’m going to be late for work again.” She hurried to the other side of the room, and began to sort through her clothes on the bed.

Avoidance again, Jason sighed heavily.

“Purple or green?”

Her question caused him to focus on her. “What?”

“Purple,” she held a shirt to her chest, “or green?” she held the other one up.

He shrugged, “Their both nice.”

“God you’re so helpful,” she frowned at him, dropped the green shirt and headed into the bathroom to get dressed. She left the door open slightly. “What was the favor?”

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do since last winter,” he wandered around the studio side of her place. He frowned at a canvas on the easel, seeing the bright colors there but not much else. He moved on to look out the window. “It’s more like something I want to do for you.”

“Just a minute, I can’t hear you,” she made a face at her reflection in the mirror. Why had she run away like a chicken when he started to bring up the kiss? Was it because she was afraid he would say it was a mistake and it would never happen again? Or because she was afraid he would say that he wanted it to happen again? She groaned loudly, when did life get so confusing?

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just fighting with my hair,” she called back, “and myself,” she murmured to her reflection.

Jason looked at some books she had stacked on the windowsill, one in particular caught his eye, The Mysteries of Egypt. He took it down and opened the front cover. Property of the Port Charles Public Library, was stamped on it. He flipped to the back of the book to read the date due stamp and saw that it was overdue by about 8 months. He smiled slightly and tried to figure out what that meant. Why had she kept the book, she had gotten for him, when he had been recuperating here?

“Now what did you bring me?” Elizabeth asked coming back in the room and heading for the bag. She opened it, curiosity bright in her eyes, “Locks?”

He couldn’t help but laugh at the confusion on her face when she pulled a slide bolt lock out of the bag. “Yes locks.”

“Gee Jason you shouldn’t have,” she rolled her eyes. “I mean that.”

“You need them,” Jason replied easily.

“I have locks already,” she pointed to the door. “See?”

“I know but these are better,” he held up his hand to stop her reply. “Just hear me out, please.”

Elizabeth sighed and moved over to the couch, knowing she could never refuse him, when he said please. “You have three minutes before I have to leave for work.”

Jason followed her to the couch, he knew he would have to choose his words carefully, if he wanted her to listen. “I know how much you love living here. But you know this building isn’t very secure. You have a single bolt lock and a large window in the door. Elizabeth the lock is child’s play, and even if it wasn’t, with that window it doesn’t matter. A person could break the window, and reach in, unlock the door, and be inside in less than a minute.”

“Don’t sugarcoat things for me Jason I can handle the truth,” Elizabeth replied trying to downplay the uneasiness she felt when she found out how easy it was to break in here.

“I’m really not trying to frighten you,” he told her softly when he saw the fear in her eyes. “I just wanted you to know.”

She reached over and took the slide bolt from his hand. “And this is supposed to help?”

“Yeah. If you want to keep the door, I want you to let me replace the handle lock, and put this lock,” he pointed to the slide bolt. “Low enough on the door that if someone did break the window they couldn’t reach it. I also want to put one of these on your bathroom door.”

“Why?”

“So if someone does break in and you’re here, you have a safer place to hide.”

“Jason are you in trouble?” she touched his hand in concern. “Is that what this is all about?”

“No I’m fine,” his hand covered hers. “You matter to me Elizabeth. I just want to make this place safer for you, or as safe as you let me.”

She could only see concern in his eyes, turning them serious. “You said if I keep the door. Why wouldn’t I keep the door,” she pointed to the bag. “Do you have a new door in that bag too?”

“No but I do have one.”

“Jason,” she grinned in surprise. “When did you have time to get me a door?”

“I found one after I saw you that first night and found out you moved back here.

She looked down at the lock in her one hand, then at the hand that was still holding Jason’s. She hadn’t even realized that she was still holding his hand. It had felt so natural, that she wasn’t aware of it, she frowned at their hands for a second, then left her hand there. “If I let you what would you do to this place, to make it safer for me?”

“Well short of you moving out, which you wouldn’t do, I’d install an alarm system,” he saw her eyes widen at that. “Which you wouldn’t like either. So I’d settle for replacing the door with a fire door, with no window, better locks, and spy hole so you could check who was there.” He decided to stop there rather then mention what he would do to the windows. As prickly as her pride was he knew she wouldn’t go for that.

Elizabeth sighed and got off the couch, glancing at the door, and then at the lock on her hand. A door with no window in it would have come in handy when Jason had stayed here last winter. Or at least if they had remembered to pull the shade more often. “But you would be satisfied if I told you to just put on the new slide bolt?”

Jason bowed his head and sighed heavily. “I guess I’d have to be.”

She smiled at the resignation she heard in his voice, then quickly turned it into a frown when he looked up at her. “Can you meet me at the corner of 12th and Waters at 1:30 today?”

“Yes,” if he was surprised at the change of subject he didn’t show it.

“Just like that? No questions?”

“I trust you,” he repeated her own words to her.

“Okay meet me there at 1:30,” she picked up her bag and headed for the door. “And don’t forget to bring the keys to my new door.”

“Why did you change your mind?” he got to his feet and trailed her to the door.

“Why?” she repeated turning back to look at him. “You explained why you wanted to do this when I asked you to. You were willing to let me make up my own mind and not tell me what I had to do. You were willing to do what I wanted to do even though you didn’t want to. In other words you gave me a choice and respected me enough to make the right decision,” she smiled at him. “Of course you always do. 1:30 don’t be late,” she ordered and then was gone.

Jason leaned against the door after she closed it and shook his head slightly, somehow she always managed to surprise him. She might not have been willing to discuss the kiss, but he had found out the most important thing. They were still more than friends and he wouldn’t have that any other way.

~Docks~

“Ah Lucky it’s always a delight running into you,” Helena Cassadine called stopping Lucky in his tracks.

Lucky sighed and turned around to face her. “What do you want from me now Helena?”

“Now that isn’t very nice Lucky. Really your mother has taught you the most deplorable manners.”

Lucky opened his mouth automatically to defend Laura, and instead said. “I’m sorry Helena, I’ve had a bad night. I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

Helena smiled at the boy’s subservience. She hadn’t even had to use the control phrase this time, that told her that Lucky was indeed upset, and her control over him was solid. “Please sit and tell me what has you so bothered. Perhaps I can help.”

“I saw something last night that worried me, something concerning Elizabeth and Jason,” he explained sitting on the bench beside her.

“Jason Morgan?” Helena questioned she wasn’t aware that he was back in town.

“Yes him,” his voice was full of disgust. “He’s confusing her, and she’s going to get hurt because of him.”

“What is he doing?”

“He wants her for himself, so last night he kissed her,” anger was apparent in his voice. “I caught them and confronted her, and she had the nerve to send me away.”

Helena didn’t like the sound of this. She didn’t see Elizabeth’s appeal, but her grandson wanted her. One of the benefits of her control over Lucky, was being in the position to get her for Nikolas. Elizabeth had made the foolish mistake of choosing Jason over Nikolas once before, she wouldn’t allow her to hurt Nikolas again.

“Even when I told her that she belonged with me, she told me to leave,” Lucky continued on clenching his fists in anger.

“Don’t you mean she belongs with Nikolas?” Helena corrected him sharply. Lucky turned to look at her and she was surprised at the venom she saw in his eyes. She could feel the anger coming off of him and realized that she needed to reassert her control. “Elizabeth belongs with Nikolas.”

“No she’s mine,” Lucky snapped surging to his feet.

“Lucky protect your queen,” Helena called after him, and like she threw a switch inside of him the anger faded from his stance. His red face drained into an impassive mask, the venom vanished from his eyes, turning them vacant, and when he smiled passively at her she knew he was hers. “Whom should Elizabeth be with?”

“Nikolas,” Lucky answered automatically, even as a small part of his mind rebelled against that thought.

“That’s right, and what will you do to see that happens?”

“I’ll convince her that she should be with Nikolas, because Nikolas loves her, and they would be perfect together.” Lucky’s replies were monotone.

“Yes they would,” she stood from the bench and straightened her jacket. “As for Mr. Morgan, we don’t want him to interfere.”

“No,” he snapped a little of the anger worked its way back up to the surface.

Helena was pleased to see that. Anger was such an effective weapon, when it was harnessed correctly. Lucky had done a good job of holding back his anger, even when he was under her control. It seemed that Jason Morgan was the catalyst she needed to unleash Lucky’s anger. That would be good to know in the future. “So you will have to keep a close eye on Mr. Morgan won’t you? Especially when he is with Elizabeth.”

“I will,” he vowed. “I will make sure Elizabeth sees Jason for the hood he really is.”

“Good after all being around Jason could be unhealthy for her,” she explained. “We wouldn’t want Elizabeth to get hurt.”

“Are you threatening Elizabeth now Grandmother?” Nikolas asked hurrying down the stairs to stand between her and Lucky. “Why are you talking about Elizabeth?”

“Why Nikolas how lovely it is to see you,” she beamed at him. “But I am afraid that you misunderstood me as usual.”

Nikolas ignored her and turned to face his brother. “Why are you even talking to her? And about Elizabeth of all people.”

“Relax,” Lucky smiled vaguely. “You really need to cut Helena a break, she has been nothing but good to me, and she only wants what is best for you.”

Nikolas shook his head tiredly before turning to face her. “I am getting tired of telling you this Grandmother, but I will try again. You say you will do anything for me, correct?”

“Of course my darling.”

“Fine then stay away from the people I care about, specifically Lucky, Elizabeth, Emily and my sister. I mean what I say Helena, do not go near them.”

Helena practically glowed in pride, the warning in his voice pleased her so. “Nikolas I only have your best interests at heart. I hate the fact that Stefan continues to poison your mind against me,” she sighed. “I will relish the day when you finally realize how much I love you and would in fact do anything for you. As such I will abide by your wishes and leave.”

Nikolas stepped back and avoided her hug.

“Lucky,” she paused in front of him. “It was a pleasure as always,” her eyes pierced his in warning. “You will remember what we discussed, won’t you?”

“Of course Helena,” Lucky smiled agreeably at her. Once again losing his identity at the sight of her eyes, and the sound of her controlling voice.

Nikolas watched her warily until she and Andreas disappeared from view, then he focused on his brother. “Lucky why do you keep talking to Helena?” He touched his arm when he didn’t respond, “Lucky?”

Lucky jerked his eyes from the spot Helena disappeared and focused on Nikolas. The fog seemed to be lifting from his brain, making it easier to concentrate. “I told you I don’t have a problem with Helena. If you gave her a chance, you wouldn’t either.”

Nikolas rubbed at the back of his neck and tried to squash the impulse to shake some sense into his brother. “You know that’s not true. Lucky she tried to kill our Grandmother, our mother, you know she can’t be trusted.”

Lucky recognized the truth in what Nikolas was saying but he still couldn’t bring himself to agree. “I thought we agreed not to discuss Helena since it was apparent we weren’t going to agree.”

“We did agree to that,” Nikolas admitted. “But that changes when I hear you discussing Elizabeth with her. Now what did Helena mean about Elizabeth being hurt?’

Anger cleared more of the fogginess from his brain. “I told her about Elizabeth spending time with Jason. She agreed with us, that nothing good would come out of that. That the more time she spends with him, the more of a chance she will be hurt because of it.”

Nikolas agreed with the sentiment, but he still wasn’t comfortable with Lucky talking to Helena about Elizabeth. Elizabeth had told him that Helena had confronted her, a few times before about him. She hadn’t told him what Helena had said to her, but he had been able to see the fear in her eyes. He did not want Helena anywhere near Elizabeth. “Lucky I don’t know why you want to spend time with Helena, but I don’t want you to discuss Elizabeth with her.”

“You think Helena will hurt her?” Lucky laughed at that. “She won’t. She knows you love her, Helena would never hurt her because of that.”

Nikolas frowned at the words, he didn’t like the way Lucky had phrased that. That the only reason Helena wouldn’t hurt Elizabeth was because of his feelings for her. It made him wonder what Helena would do to her if he weren’t in love with Elizabeth.

“Lucky, Nikolas,” Emily hurried down the steps to join them. “What’s wrong?” she asked Nikolas when she saw his face.

Nikolas shook off his uneasiness and turned to her. “I just had a run-in with Helena.”

“Helena?” her eyes whipped to Lucky and she saw the vacant smile on his face. “Are you okay?”

“Of course, Helena’s not a monster,” he dismissed the concern in her eyes. “I need to get to work. I’ll talk to you two later.”

“Lucky,” she caught his arm stopping him. She knew Nikolas was listening so she tried to phrase her question carefully. “Are you sure nothing happened?”

Lucky patted her hand. “I’m fine, Nikolas is fine, everyone is fine,” he hurried up the stairs and disappeared from view.

Emily sighed and turned around to face Nikolas, who had his arms crossed over his chest and was studying her intently. “What?” she asked nervously when the scrutiny continued.

“Why are you so worried about Lucky?”

She looked away and looped her fingers in the back of her pants trying to look unconcerned. “Because of Helena. Why else?”

He knew by her posture that she was evading the question. He could read her pretty well, and his senses were screaming that she was lying to him. “It’s more that that Emily.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” she started by him and couldn’t help the exclamation of pain that slipped out when he reached out and stopped her by catching her arm.

“Did I hurt you?” Nikolas immediately dropped his hand.

“No it’s nothing,” she tried to step away but he caught her hand holding her in place. “Nikolas don’t.”

He ignored her and pushed the sleeve of her shirt up exposing a ring of bruises above her wrist. He looked up into her face in shock, and then back down at the other arm, pushing the sleeve up to expose a matching ring of bruises. “Who hurt you?”

“Nikolas its no big deal,” she hedged looking away when he looked up again.

“Emily tell me who hurt you,” he turned her head forcing her to look at him. “Tell me.”

It was hard to ignore the command in his voice, and the plea in his dark eyes. “Lucky,” she whispered. “It was Lucky.”

~Kelly’s~

Elizabeth looked up when she heard the door open and a smile lit her features. “Luke you’re back,” she cried in delight hurrying around the counter to hug him.

“Darlin if I’m going to get a welcome like this every time I come back in town, I’m going to go out of town more often,” Luke grinned and gave her a big hug.

“You’re out of town too often as it is,” Elizabeth drew back and smiled at him. It had taken some time, but she was closer to Luke than anyone else in the Spencer family. But it was so much more than that. She had never been close to her own father, after a rocky beginning, Luke had become a surrogate father to her.

“Ah I love to be missed,” he winked at her. “Especially by pretty young things.”

She laughed like she knew he wanted her to do. “Do you have a minute? I need to talk to you.”

“I have all the time in the world for you.”

“Okay sit and I’ll tell Tammy I’m taking my break,” she hurried back into the kitchen.

Luke took a seat and watched her through the window. He knew her well enough to know that there was some problem causing the worry he saw in her dark eyes. He sighed heavily, he had a feeling his son was involved. Laura accused him of being obsessed with the Cassadines and while he readily admitted he was, he had another obsession too. That obsession was his family, and Elizabeth was a member of his family and she always would be. Even if his son wanted to throw her away, Luke never would. It surprised him a bit, how loyal he was to her. She was the only non-Spencer that he had ever let in that far.

“Here’s some coffee.”

[JRK Archiver]

Elizabeth set a cup in front of him, drawing his attention away from his thoughts. He watched her settle in front of him. “How have you been?”

“Okay I guess,” she sipped at her soda. “It’s been difficult.”

“Because of Lucky?” he leaned back against his chair. “Does he still have that wild hair about you and the Cassadine being the second coming of Liz and Dick?”

“Liz and Dick?”

“Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton,” he saw her blank look and shook his head. “Don’t those schools teach you anything anymore?”

She smiled, boring was never a word anyone could ever associate with Luke Spencer. “Yes he’s still convinced that I should be with Nikolas.”

Luke shook his head, he couldn’t understand what was going on in Lucky’s head, and that was unusual. Even when Lucky had been furious with him a few years before, he knew what Lucky was thinking. But now he couldn’t seem to get a read on him. If he was having troubles and he only saw Lucky a few times a week, he could imagine how Elizabeth felt when she saw him daily. “I don’t know what to tell you about that. I don’t know where he got that idea.”

“I don’t know either, but that isn’t the only thing,” she hesitated. When Luke had walked in the diner today she knew that she needed to tell him some of what was going on. Next to her Luke knew Lucky better than almost anyone else. “Something happened last night with Lucky that really worries me.”

He saw the serious look in her eyes and leaned forward in concern. “What?”

“Lucky saw me with Jason and he got angry. Luke I’ve never seen him that angry,” she paused and tried to find the words to say this without hurting him. “Even as angry as he was with you because of, well you know. He was still in control then. But last night, he was out of control,” she rubbed at her elbow. “He even got violent.”

“Violent?” he didn’t like the sound of that. “What did he do?”

“He attacked Jason,” she rubbed her elbow again, “twice.”

Luke saw her motion. “Did he hurt you?” he gestured to her arm and she immediately stopped rubbing her elbow. “Elizabeth?”

“He didn’t mean to,” she hurried to explain. “He pushed past me trying to get to Jason, and I rammed my elbow on the table.”

Luke pulled a cigar out of his pocket and began to roll it in his fingers, he really didn’t like the sound of that.

“Luke you know Lucky. He doesn’t react to things like that.”

“Did he even notice what he did to you?”

“No, he didn’t even stop,” she admitted and he grimaced. “You see what I mean?”

Now he was worried. He had watched Lucky with her, for over a year before the fire. His son would watch everyone and everything around her, obsessed with making sure nothing or nobody touched her or hurt her. For Lucky to hurt her and not even know it made him admit something he hadn’t wanted to say aloud since Lucky had come home, that there was something seriously wrong with his son.

“Even though his anger scared me, there was something worse though. His eyes were blank, his face was livid with anger and he was saying all this stuff, but his eyes were vacant,” those vacant eyes had haunted her during the night.

“Well darlin we know the cowboy hasn’t been the same since he’s come back. Maybe something happened to him that he hasn’t told us about.”

“Maybe, but it would have to be something pretty bad to make him act like that.”

“Has he mentioned anything about what Faison might have said or done?”

“No. We don’t talk very much, whenever we do see each other he goes on and on about me being with Nikolas. That of course makes me angry, because he is trying to control me, to tell me what to do, so I walk away,” her fingers traced patterns in the condensation forming on her glass. “The only one he still seems wiling to talk to is Emily.”

Luke brightened at her name. “They were always close.”

“I know. Maybe she knows more,” she shrugged. “But I don’t know if she’ll tell us anything. Her first loyalty seems to be with Lucky.”

“Does that bother you? The fact that she sees Lucky so much?”

“No I know their friends, I understand that,” she replied honestly, she had been upset at first, but now she was actually relieved. “It’s just that Emily wants things back the way they were, so bad, that sometimes she’s blind to how things are right now.”

Luke studied her shrewdly he knew her well enough to pick up on some things that she might now want him to know. “Like the fact that you are letting Lucky go for good?”

Elizabeth stiffened at the question and tried to avoid looking at him. She wouldn’t be able to lie to him if she saw his eyes, and she suddenly realized that she would have to lie to him. If she told the truth, she would let him down and hurt him, and she didn’t want that. “I didn’t say that. You know I owe Lucky too much to ever quit on him.”

He saw through the fake smile in a heartbeat and felt a pang of regret over the loss of her for his son. “What about Mr. Talkative then?”

“Who?”

“Jason, he of the Woody Woodpecker haircut. Seeing him with you set Lucky off, somehow I don’t think you were just talking. That doesn’t seem to be what Jason does best.”

She withdrew from him, hurt at the accusation, even though it was true. “I thought you of all people knew the truth. That the only reason he stayed with me last winter was because I was helping him, that he was my friend and nothing more.”

“Elizabeth,” he read the hurt in her eyes and held out his hand to her. “I know that. Darlin I watched you grieve so hard for my boy, that is broke what little heart I had left,” his hand tightened on hers when she took it. “But Lucky is back now, and he’s changed. You don’t have to grieve anymore.”

“I know he’s back, and you’re right he has changed,” her eyes searched his looking for permission to go on.

“It’s okay Elizabeth tell me what you think.”

“A part of me will always miss Lucky, because even though he is back, he’s not. You always said that Lucky had the best heart,” she sighed in regret then forced herself to go on. “I don’t feel that heart anymore, this Lucky is an angry stranger.”

“I know it’s hard, but I have to believe that my son is still in there, that he’s still fighting to come back. I don’t know what Fu Manchu or the Wicked Witch did to mess with his head, but I know that Lucky will figure out a way back. The Spencer’s are too stubborn, and strong to be held down for long,” he put the unlit cigar in his mouth. “I’m just going to hang on until he does.” He was also going to go after the dragon lady to find out what she did to his son. Inactivity was one thing he did not do.

She saw the resolve to help Lucky in his eyes and it helped harden her own resolve. “I won’t give up either. I just wanted to let you know what was going on.”

“I know you mean well, and there’s nothing I would like more than your help,” he patted her hand. “But you’ve put your life on hold long enough. It’s time for you to start living again.”

“But I need to help Lucky, I owe him so much,” she argued. “Besides I helped before, when Lucky was angry with you and Laura.”

“I know. I still believe you brought my son back to me. But you shouldn’t help Lucky out of obligation, but out of love, or it won’t help at all.”

Elizabeth flinched and tears formed, she was losing him, she was losing the Spencer’s, her family, she didn’t want that. “I do love Lucky.”

He saw the desperation in her eyes and for once cursed his lack of tact. “That didn’t come out right. I know you love Lucky, but I don’t think you’re in love with my son anymore.” Which was a pity because he knew if she were she’d fight for Lucky forever if that’s, what it took. But her avoidance of his questions about Jason told him that she was moving on, even if she couldn’t admit it to herself.

She didn’t know what to say, because she was finally willing to admit to herself that maybe she wasn’t in love with Lucky anymore.

“Don’t look so sad darlin, we’ll get him back,” Luke stood. “I need to go check in at the club and find out if Claude booked another Reggae band into the club.”

She stood as well and gave him a hug in goodbye. “Yes, you better go fire him again.”

“Bye,” Luke smiled at her.

“Luke,” her voice stopped him at the door. “I’ll let you know what’s going on with Lucky. I’ll keep my eye on him.”

“I know,” he pushed open the door and left. He wished he could be a better man and tell her again to start living her own life again. But he was a selfish man. He knew Elizabeth was his best chance of getting Lucky back. He moved in the direction of the docks, but he’d still go after the source of the problem, and that meant a visit with the old bat.

~Kelly’s Courtyard~

“Jeez rude or anything?” Gia snapped when someone ran into her from behind. The rest of her blistering retort was lost when she turned and saw who had bumped into her. “Zander.”

“Gia. I haven’t seen you in awhile. Are you avoiding me?” Zander asked.

“I’ve been busy,” she stayed in place and battled down her nervousness and fear.

“Yeah sneaking around with that guy you told me about,” he scratched his chin. “What was his name again?”

“Nikolas.”

“Right,” he edged closer. “You know it was fate running into you like this. I wanted to talk to you about another friend of yours.”

“Who?”

“Elizabeth.”

“What about her?”

He could see the boredom on her face and hear the disdain in her voice. That was interesting behavior, when Elizabeth was supposed to be her friend. The warning bells were ringing in his ears again. “What do you two like to talk about?”

“Lot’s of things,” she answered briefly. “Look I have to go.”

Zander stepped in front of her, stalling her in her tracks. “You know I hope you remember what you’re not supposed to talk about. Not with her or anyone.”

“Look I already told you I wouldn’t,” she tried to step around him, but he blocked her. “I don’t know anything.”

“That’s never stopped you from running your mouth before.”

Gia looked over his shoulder and saw her brother approaching, the color drained from her face and she backed up into the wall. “I have to go.”

He saw the worry in her eyes, her sudden frantic movements and looked over his shoulder to see what had spooked her. He saw a tall good-looking bald guy moving closer, and every instinct in him screamed that the man was a cop. “What’s the rush? Why don’t we go say hello to Elizabeth?”

“He can’t see me,” she hissed. “Let me go.”

“If I let you go, you need to tell me the truth about Elizabeth and what is really going on here.”

Gia stopped her physical struggle as an internal battle continued to wage. She needed to get away from Marcus before he saw her, but she couldn’t tell Zander that they knew he killed someone. She looked past him again, Marcus was almost here, her self-preservation instinct decided it for her. “Fine let’s go.”

Zander took her arm and propelled her out of the Courtyard on the Charles Street side the same time Taggert entered the Courtyard from the other side. He frowned in the direction the couple had left, he was struck again by a familiar feeling of recognition.

“Okay you can let go of my arm now, he’s not following us,” Gia cried after a couple of blocks.

“Fine,” Zander let her go. “Start talking.”

She swallowed hard and crossed her arms over her chest. “For starters Elizabeth and I aren’t really friends. She’s just friends with some people I know. We don’t get along to well.”

That didn’t surprise him. Gia was a self-centered bitch, he doubted Elizabeth would stand for that for very long. “Then why were you two so tight at the rave?”

“You know what raves are like it’s better to hang with someone, especially if you’re a girl.”

“Yeah but you don’t do that. You always fly solo.”

She shivered hating the fact that he seemed to know about her. “It was her first rave. So I hung close.”

He could almost believe that, but he still felt that he was missing something. “What about the guys in her life?”

Gia stared at him in disbelief. Here she thought he was questioning her because he was suspicious of them, when in fact he wanted Elizabeth. How did the little twit do it? She wasn’t beautiful, she wasn’t that smart, yet here was another guy that she had hooked. “Unbelievable. What is her appeal?” She demanded. “She’s short, okay looking, and mouthy, what the hell do all of you guys see in her.”

“There’s a quality about her that you’ll never have Gia,” he shrugged. “You would never understand.”

“Well you’ll never get her,” anger made her speak rashly. “You’ll have to take a number at the end of the line of the fan club of Elizabeth Webber. First there’s the blond, brain dead, ex-boyfriend Lucky, then there’s the, oh so rich but clueless Nikolas, and finally the dark horse, an intense god named Jason. You’re in last place buddy.”

He knew about Lucky but who were the others? He frowned when he placed one of the names. “I thought Nikolas was with you.”

Her eyes widened and anger vanished, when she suddenly remembered who Zander was, and she now felt fear. “He used to have a thing for her,” she tried to brazen it out. “But he’s over her now.”

“Really?” He moved closer. “Why am I having a hard time believing you? And if your lying about this, it makes me wonder what else you are lying about. Did you lie to me when you said you haven’t talked to anybody about the Pinecone Motel?”

“I’m not lying,” perspiration was forming on her brow. She caught movement over his shoulder. “Look there’s Jason the front runner to win the heart of Elizabeth,” she pointed to him, trying to deflect Zander’s attention.

Zander gave her a warning glare, and took her arm to hold her in place, and then turned to look. He saw a tall blonde man in jeans, speaking to an even taller blonde in a suit. He watched the man in jeans scramble up in the truck and pick up a door, easing it down to the guy in the suit. “Which one is Jason?”

“The one who wears his jeans so well.”

He focused on the man again, then lowered his gaze to look at the lettering on the side of the truck. C&M Coffee. He dropped her arm in surprise and she hurried away but he didn’t even hear her go. C&M stood for Corinthos/Morgan. Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan, Jason the guy who was with Elizabeth. C&M were Sorel’s main competitor. He focused on the men again and saw the jacket fly open on the man in the suit exposing a holstered gun. This wasn’t good. Elizabeth Webber had a lot of explaining to do.

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 9
~Docks~

“Lucky,” Emily whispered. “It was Lucky.”

Nikolas closed his eyes expecting to feel disbelief or surprise, but he didn’t. Instead he felt like the other shoe had finally dropped. Something had been off with Lucky ever since he had returned. The Lucky before the fire would have cut off his hands before he would hurt Emily, but this Lucky was different.

He let go of her hands and moved past her to sit on the bench. This Lucky was so different, that he had sensed the anger and a hint of violence coming off of Lucky for months now, but he had tried to ignore it. “I wish I could say I was surprised.” He faced her when she sat down beside him. “But look at what he did the first time he saw Luke, he decked him and ran away.”

“He didn’t mean to hurt me.” Emily argued a little too desperately. “I was trying to help him and he lost control.”

“Emily he’s been losing control a lot lately. And regardless that doesn’t excuse him for putting marks on you. So how did this happen?”

She averted her eyes. “I told you I was helping him.”

“With what? What could you have been doing that he gave you these bruises?” He demanded pushing her sleeve up to expose the dark rings again.

She was quiet, she didn’t like thinking about Lucky kissing her, because it really hadn’t been a kiss to her. A kiss was an act between two people that had the potential to be magic. The more she thought about Lucky's mouth on hers, and his weight pressing her to the bed, the more uneasy she became. Maybe she had been in denial where Lucky was concerned, but the memory of yesterday and last night had forced her to wake up.

“Emily?”

“It’s hard to explain Nikolas.” She sighed heavily and began. “You know how hard it is for Lucky to talk to Elizabeth? That every time he does he ends up hurting her.”

Nikolas nodded.

“Well he’s been wanting to tell her some things, so I told him to practice on me. To pretend I was Elizabeth and tell me what he wanted to tell her,” her voice drifted off. “I just thought I could help him and Elizabeth.”

“But?”

“He lost touch with reality.” After hours of denial she finally said the words out loud. “He really thought I was Elizabeth, and he just wouldn’t stop. Even when I fought him and yelled at him, he wouldn’t stop.”

Nikolas felt his stomach drop and he carefully took her hand in his. “He didn’t stop what Em?” He was afraid he knew and he hoped he was wrong, but he needed to know for sure to help Emily and Lucky.

“Kissing me.” Her admission was soft, difficult for him to hear.

“Hey Em, Nikolas.”

Elizabeth’s greeting stopped Nikolas before he could speak, he turned to look at her and for the first time in months he wished she were anywhere but here.

Grateful for the reprieve, Emily shifted on the bench to look at Elizabeth. “I was just on my way to see you.”

“Oh well I just got off,” Elizabeth looked at her watch. “I’m meeting someone, and then I have to get to L&B.” An idea popped in her head and she grabbed Emily’s arm, pulling her from the bench. “I need to talk to you alone for a second.” She turned back to Nikolas and shot him a smile. “Excuse us a minute. Hey is that a new shirt?”

He looked down automatically and opened his mouth to respond, but she went right on speaking. “It is? Great green is a good color for you. Now excuse us,” she pulled on Emily’s arm again.

Emily shrugged her shoulders at Nikolas and let Elizabeth pull her away from the bench. “You’re in a good mood.”

“I am?” Elizabeth looked surprised. She hadn’t been, after Luke had left she had felt really depressed. But as the clock inched along moving closer and closer to the time, she was going to see Jason again, her spirits had picked up.

“You look like your flying.” Emily studied her friend, if she didn’t know better, she would think that Elizabeth’s good mood was drug aided. She hadn’t seen Elizabeth look this full of life in … she frowned she couldn’t even remember the last time. Her face was glowing, her eyes sparkling, the smile was wide on her face, and it seemed like she couldn’t stand still.

“Jason was kissing her.”

Lucky’s words came back to her. That couldn’t be it, could it?

“Earth to Emily, come in Emily.” Elizabeth grinned as Emily blinked owlishly at her.

Emily couldn’t help but respond to the grin. She hadn’t seen Elizabeth smile like that since before the fire. “What?”

“Can you do me a favor?” Elizabeth repeated, drawling out the words in exaggerated slowness.

Emily rolled her eyes at her antics. “Sure.”

“Good,” Elizabeth checked her watch again. “Can you call Jason at exactly 1:45?”

“Why?” It seemed her brother was the cause of the good mood. She still didn’t know how she felt about that.

“Please Em.”

“Yeah I can,” she caved, she really had to speak to her brother and Elizabeth about what was going on between them.

“Great.” Elizabeth grinned again and then took a step away. “I got to go.”

“Wait. What am I supposed to say to him?”

“Oh I don’t know,” she bit her lip and thought about it. “Just ask for me.” With that she turned back to the bench. “Bye Nikolas, I need to go, but I’ll talk to you later.”

“Bye Elizabeth.” Nikolas got to his feet when Emily joined him.

“I almost forgot.” Elizabeth turned around on the stairs to face them again. “I found out some stuff and need to tell you,” she looked around before going on. “About Zander and the rave, but I’ll have to fill you in later.”

“Elizabeth are you okay?” Nikolas couldn’t help but question her. She was acting so strangely.

“What?” Elizabeth demanded. “Can’t a person be in a good mood?”

“Of course I just mean…”

“I’m fine Nikolas. But I am going to be late.” Elizabeth smiled again then was gone as quickly as she’d arrived.

Emily looked over at Nikolas and saw the same look of surprise reflected on his face, that she knew was on hers. “You saw it too.”

“I saw what?” Nikolas focused on her.

“Elizabeth. When was the last time you saw her like that?”

He stuck his hands in his pockets and thought about it. He had seen her smile and laugh for months, but nothing like that. “I thought she was happy for the most part. I knew things were rough with Lucky, but I thought she was happy.”

“But?” Emily prompted him moving back to the bench. She wanted him to say it out loud because then she could too.

“When you see her flying like that, her eyes dancing, it makes you realize that she hasn’t been happy in a really long time. I never realized she was so good at pretending.” He dropped heavily on the bench and stared blindly at the water. Seeing her today only showed how desperate he had been around her. He wanted her to be happy so badly, that he had bought into her act that she was, and in truth she was really only halfway alive.

“It hurts doesn’t it?”

Emily’s soft question got his attention. “What hurts?”

“Caring so much for someone when all they see you as is a friend.” She knew the pain he was feeling very well.

~PC Grille~

“Alexis are you eating alone?”

Alexis jolted when she placed the voice. Her fingers tightened convulsively on the pen in her hand, before she forced herself to loosen them and looked up. “Yes I am Sonny.”

Sonny pointed to the chair opposite her. “Can I join you?”

No of course he couldn’t join her. She was here trying to work, because her office was too quiet, and gave her too much time to think about last night and him. So why would she want the object of her distraction to join her at a lunch she was only picking at to begin with? She didn’t, she wanted him to leave, she wanted to be alone, so she could figure out what she was thinking. “Of course you can join me.”

Sonny smiled and sat down.

“But if we do discuss business I will have to bill you.”

The grin was lighting quick, and the dimples devastating. “I would expect nothing less from you, I could turn this into a business lunch and write off the expense entirely.”

Alexis leaned back against the chair. “Now that is an idea.”

“But I don’t want to talk about business,” he nodded at the waiter who set a drink in front of him. “I would rather talk about you.”

“Me?” Alexis reached nervously for her water. “What about me?”

“Are you okay? I know you were upset last night, and this morning you ran out of the garage so fast, I was worried.”

She turned away and took a long sip of her water buying time. She had been hoping he hadn’t seen her this morning. She hadn’t been prepared to see him when she got off the elevator in the garage, so she did the only thing she could do. She turned around and got back in the elevator, went to the lobby and took a cab to work. “I was just running late.”

Nerves, he could see them running just under the surface. She was so calm and in control when it came to her work, that nothing fazed her. But in her personal life, the cracks showed, and right now he was looking at some cracks. It gave him hope that she had felt something last night as well. He decided to try to help those cracks along, and wondering what type of response he would get from her, he took the first shot. “So why didn’t you take your car then?”

“It’s been acting funny lately, I keep meaning to get it checked.” Her response was quick, she’d had time to prepare, and the ball was back in his court.

Sonny raised his eyebrows. “You know I can have someone check the car for you.”

“Sonny what do I look like to you?” Alexis pulled her glasses off and leaned over the table towards him to make a point. “Do I seem like a helpless woman, who needs a man to take care of her car for her? I can take it to a mechanic myself, that’s what their there for after all. So I can handle it myself, if it becomes necessary.” And she wouldn’t have to do that because there was nothing wrong with her car.

“I didn’t mean to infringe on your control.” He replied after a minute, there probably wasn’t anything wrong with her car, but with Alexis you could never quite tell. “So if you’re feeling so confident today, you want to talk about the wedding?”

Unfortunately for Alexis she had just taken a bite of her salad, right before he lobbed that question at her. She swallowed wrong and that set off a fit of coughing. “What about the wedding?” She managed finally.

“I just figured that was what Ned was calling to discuss with you last night.” Scored with that hit.

“He was just checking in, he does that. That’s what happens when you’re in a real relationship.” Deflect and counter, deflect and counter, it was just like dealing with any opposing counsel.

“Meaning what?” Sonny took a sip of his wine.

“Meaning the psycho blonde you’re with these days.”

“Ouch, the claws are back out.” He put his hands over his chest in mock surrender. “And here I thought we were friends.”

“I’m sorry Sonny.” She began to twirl her glasses in her hand. “I had a bad morning and I’m taking it out on you.”

“What happened?”

She pointed to the table and the list she had been working on. “Ned wants me to finalize the guest list so we can send out the invitations.” She tried hard but she couldn’t quite stop a scowl from crossing her features.

Sonny kept his face neutral. He was getting used to hiding the uncomfortable feelings he felt whenever he thought about her marrying Ned. Ned was so wrong for her, he was a Quartermaine through and through, he just hid it a little better then the rest. Lois had finally seen it and broken free of him, he wondered what it would take to make Alexis see it as well. “You’re moving ahead then.”

“Of course, I agreed to marry him, so why would I change my mind?”

“I don’t know maybe the fact that you almost hyperventilate every time you think about being Mrs. Ned Ashton, for the rest of your life, is what makes me wonder if you really want to marry him.” Sonny swirled some pasta on his fork. “Do you need a paper bag?”

Alexis glared at him. “A few justified concerns, does not mean I am backing out of the wedding. I love Ned, so why wouldn’t I marry him. And I won’t just be Mrs. Ned Ashton.” She swallowed hard before saying those words.

“Of course not, you will also be one of the Quartermaines.”

“I will still be the same person. Alexis Davis.” She retorted.

“Don’t you mean Alexis Davis Ashton?”

Her glasses clattered to the table. “I didn’t change my last name when I married Jax, why would I change it now?” She liked her name, it was her name, her identity.

“Yeah but when you married candy boy, you weren’t in love with him. It was a business relationship. This time you’re in it for the long haul. Forever and ever Mrs. Ashton, of course you’re Mrs. Ashton #7, but remember two of those marriages were to the same woman.” Sonny couldn’t help but needle her a little bit. She was far to good to waste her life on a user like Ashton. He had tried, for Lois and Brenda’s sake, to get along with Ned. But after he convinced Brenda to wear a wire on him, any pretense of getting along with him went out the window. He tolerated Ned now, because he used to be one of the few votes of reason on the ELQ Board. But now he wasn’t even that anymore.

“So what’s in a name?” Alexis demanded. “I’ll still be Alexis the best attorney in New York and most other states. I’ll still be in control, I’ll still love popcorn and American Movie Classics, changing my name won’t change that. Just because I’ll be Alexis Ashton, A Squared, doesn’t mean I’ll change. I mean look at you,” she gestured at him with her fork, spilling the salad on the table. “You’re name is Michael Corinthos, Jr. and you changed your name.”

“Alexis calm down.” He wanted to get a rise out of her, but not this much of one.

“Besides it’s not like I haven’t changed my name before. I was once Natasha Alandria Davidovitch. Could you imagine if I went in front of the bar with that name? The judge would kick me out before I could get it all out. So Alexis Davis works, and now I…” she gasped. “I guess…”

Sonny moved to her side when she began to gasp. “Breathe Alexis.”

“Alexis Ashton will…” gasp, “work.”

Sonny pushed her head between her knees. “Johnny.”

“Right here.” Johnny tapped him on the shoulder and handed him a paper bag, he had taken to carrying around with him. “There’s nothing to see here people, move on.” He turned on the curious onlookers with a glare that inspired them to move.

“That’s it take it easy.” Sonny told her softly, brushing her bangs back from her face while she breathed in the bag.

“This is so ridiculous.” She pulled the bag away when her breathing began to settle.

“Quiet.” Sonny brought the bag back to her face.

“Why do I keep doing this?” She asked when he finally took the bag away.

Sonny moved back to his seat. “Because your afraid.”

“Why? What’s changed? I love Ned, so why does the thought of marrying him, drive me to this?” She held up the brown paper bag with a confused look on her face.

“Maybe because deep down you know that he’s not the one for you.” Sonny offered keeping his voice low.

“Not you too, everyone seems to be against this wedding. The only ones in our families who are even remotely supportive are Nikolas, Emily, and Lila. Why is that?”

“We can see things that you’re too close to see.” He kept his voice even, trying to reason with her. Reasoning with a lawyer is never easy. They like to be the ones that say what is going on, not listen as things are being explained to them. So he had to tread lightly. “You two have had a lot of problems, you still do, and yet you seem to think this wedding will magically change everything. Marriage doesn’t work like that.”

Alexis thought about that. When Ned had first suggested getting married, he had mentioned it as years off in the future, so it was easy to agree and forget about it. Plans and her never seemed to have a knack in working out, so she put the proposal away and moved onto other things. But when he mentioned setting a date, because of the Eddie’s Angel situation, she had been upset. No she had been afraid. She liked the idea of marriage, sometimes, but to actually get married, that was another thing entirely.

“But Ned wants to marry me.”

“So, what do you want?” He asked.

She wasn’t even aware that she had told him that. She didn’t want to be alone for the rest of her life. Ned was willing, no he actually wanted her on a permanent basis. No other man in her life had ever wanted her like that. Add to that the fact that she did love him on some level, and marriage made sense, at least to her logical mind. It was just her illogical heart and stomach that weren’t paying attention. “What everyone else wants, to be loved, needed.”

“And Ashton does that for you? He makes you feel loved, needed, secure?” He couldn’t help but add that.

Secure was one thing that Ned never made her feel. He liked to put limits on his love. The realization of that made her want to change the subject. “What about you? What do you want Sonny?”

You the answer was on the tip of his tongue. “What everyone else wants, to be loved, needed.”

She smiled wryly at him. He had managed to cheer her up, of course he always seemed to do that for her. He smiled back, and those dimples of his flashed, making her blink. If only he wouldn’t look at her like that. It would make her life so much easier.

“Don’t settle Alexis.” He took a chance and covered her hand on the table. “There is someone who will make you feel all those things you wanted as a little girl.”

“I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago Sonny.” She looked at their hands, then back at him. “Besides if he does exist, what’s taking him so long to get here?”

“Maybe he is here, and you just haven’t realized it yet.” His thumb moved softly over the pulse point in her wrist, and he noted how it jumped under his touch.

“Son…”

“Alexis are you ready to go?” V interrupted Alexis, coming to a stop by the table.

Alexis pulled back immediately and looked up at her friend in confusion. “Go?”

“Yeah we had some things to discuss.” V turned to Sonny. “Mr. Corinthos.”

“Ms. Ardnowski.” Sonny managed a smile when he really wanted to scream.

“That’s right,” Alexis began to shove her papers in her briefcase. “Sorry Sonny I’m late already.”

“No problem.” His eyes caught hers. “Think about what I said.”

~Docks~

Nikolas turned to look at Emily, he knew that she was talking about herself, and him. They had never discussed the time that she had wanted more from him and he had been oblivious to her feelings until it was too late to stop the pain he’d unwittingly inflicted on her. He had been afraid that it would hurt her if he mentioned it, so he’d kept quiet. He had also been relieved, because he didn’t know what he would have said if she had wanted to talk. So he’d kept quiet and tried to put their friendship back on track. It had taken a long time, but he thought he had finally succeeded. Now that she had brought it up he still didn’t know how to handle it.

“Why do you say that?” He asked finally.

“Nikolas you forget how well I know you.” Her smile was slightly bitter. “I know your feelings for Elizabeth run deeper then hers do for you.”

“Does she know?”

“No the person you like is normally oblivious.” She couldn’t help the catty comment, but she hurried on trying to hide it. “She thinks you’ve let the idea of you two go. That it was only temporary madness on your part.”

Nikolas heard the bitterness she was trying to hide and knew then that the hurt he’d unintentionally inflicted on her was still there, at least a little. He sighed heavily at that realization he hated hurting her.

She misread his sigh. “Don’t worry Nikolas, it eventually does pass. Just look at me. I’m walking proof.” She had gotten over him too, she had Juan in her life now. Of course one of the reasons she had jumped into the relationship with Juan was because he was the first guy who showed any interest in her. Because she was tired of the guys that she did like, only liking her as friends. That she wanted someone to want her for a change.

Now though she was trying to ignore the fact that not only did Juan want her, he seemed to want lots of other girls as well. She couldn’t be too mad, Juan had served his purpose he had gotten her over Nikolas or so she liked to tell herself. She couldn’t help but gasp at that thought. Where the hell had all of those thoughts come from? They couldn’t be true. Her relationship with Juan wasn’t based on fear of being hurt again or being alone. It just couldn’t be.

“Are you okay?” He couldn’t help but notice her distress. He took her hand drawing her attention.

She focused on him and tried to bury the thoughts that had rocked her. “I’m fine.” She took a breath and tried to remember what they had been talking about, Elizabeth, right. “You’ll get over her eventually.”

Nikolas took a chance. “Like you got over me?”

Color flooded her face but she didn’t look away. “Yes, like I got over you. Soon you’ll go back to just being friends again.”

He searched her face, for what he wasn’t sure, but whatever he was looking for he didn’t see it there. He sighed and lowered his eyes, and they happened to land on the bruises on her arms. The sight of them caused him to switch focus. “Finish telling me what happened with Lucky.”

Emily blinked at the sudden change of subject, but she couldn’t help but be relieved. The way he was looking at her made her pulse race and the last thing she wanted was to fall under his spell again. “I told you he thought I was Elizabeth and he started to kiss me.” She kept her answer brief hoping it would be enough.

“Go on.” When she still didn’t speak he went on. “Emily I know you think your protecting Lucky but you are not. By not telling me, you’re making me imagine a lot of things that I really don’t want to think.”

She didn’t want to tell him, because she didn’t want him to think less of her. She knew she hadn’t done anything wrong, but there was a small part of her that wondered if he would feel the same.

“Please tell me.”

“He had me pinned on the bed, his hands were holding my arms down, and they were so tight.” Her voice had lowered and her eyes went dark at the memory. “He was really scaring me. I was yelling at him but it was like he couldn’t hear me. I finally managed to get a hand free and I slapped him. That brought him back.”

“Em I’m so sorry,” he shifted and took her in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder. That must have been terrifying for her. Lucky was in serious trouble that much was obvious, but his primary concern right now was in making sure that Emily was okay.

She closed her eyes and felt the uneasiness start to drain from her. “He was so horrified when he realized what he had done, that I felt bad for him. He didn’t even remember doing it to me. I tried to convince both him and myself, that it was his feelings for Elizabeth that had finally overwhelmed him. He had tried to deny them for so long that he just couldn’t anymore, and instead of Elizabeth he let them out on me. I even convinced him to talk to Elizabeth. You know me, ever the cheerleader.” Her voice turned mocking. “Well he blew that, and only made things worse with Elizabeth. I tried to convince myself that it was a one time fluke, that Lucky would never lose control like that again.”

Nikolas brushed his hand over her hair to soothe and waited for her to continue.

“But something happened last night that really makes me wonder.”

“What happened?”

“Lucky was upset, so he came to see me.” She had decided to leave out what had set Lucky off, at least for now. "I thought I had calmed him down, until he was ready to leave…”

“Lucky I’ll talk to Elizabeth and Jason tomorrow. I’ll find out what is going on between them.” Emily moved from the windowseat to stand in front of him.

“And what if she tells you she is dating him?” He asked softly his blue eyes locked on her.

Emily wrapped her arms around her waist, suddenly feeling chilled in her thin tank top. She honestly didn’t know how she would feel if Elizabeth started dating her brother. She wanted both of them to be happy, she just wasn’t sure if she liked the idea of them being happy together. She frowned when she realized how selfish that sounded. She was beginning to realize that one of the reasons she was fighting so hard for Elizabeth and Lucky to reunite were for her own selfish reasons.

Elizabeth and Lucky were the closest thing to a perfect love that she had ever seen outside of books, and she wanted to believe that that kind of love didn’t just disappear. She needed to believe that, otherwise what hope was there for her. That was a selfish reason to want two people to stay together, and she didn’t like the realization. She had a lot of thinking to do here. “I don’t know Lucky. Let’s not borrow trouble by worrying about something before we know the truth.”

Lucky got slowly to his feet. “I’ll try but it’s just so hard, every time I close my eyes I see her wrapped up in Jason.”

“Try not to think about it.” Habit had her giving him a hug in farewell.

Lucky’s arms came around her immediately, pulling her tighter against him. She felt his face in her neck and waited for him to release her but he didn’t. She patted his back and tried to pull away but he didn’t let her go. Her eyes fell on the bruises she had discovered on her arms and she couldn’t help but remember how she got them. For the second time that day, for the second time in her life, she was afraid of Lucky.

“Lucky let me go.”

[JRK Archiver]

He gave no sign that he heard her order.

“Lucky stop.” She hissed in warning. Her struggles grew when she felt his lips on her neck. “Let me go.”

“Elizabeth.” Lucky murmured the name in her ear.

Sickened and scared Emily stomped hard on his foot and twisted free of him. As she had feared she saw the familiar vacant eyes staring back at her from a face with absolutely no emotion on it.

“Lucky.” She raised her voice and sharpened her tone when he stepped towards her. She got through to him and he seemed to snap back to life again. “I think you should go now.”

Lucky blinked at her then shrugged. “I already said I was going Emily. Let me know what she says.” With that he turned and climbed out the window.

Emily hurried to the window and did something she hadn’t done for years. She locked it.

“It was like he wasn’t even aware of what he had done. Like he wasn’t even there for those few minutes.” Emily was standing on the edge of the docks by then, rubbing her hands over her arms.

Nikolas rubbed at the back of his neck, this was worse then he’d thought. Lucky was sliding out of control. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah he just scared me a little.” She tried to dismiss her fear. “There’s something else you should know.” Since she had given away a little she knew it was time to tell the rest. “This isn’t the first time that Lucky has lost time.”

“What do you mean?”

“One of the reasons that I’ve been spending so much time with Lucky is because I’m the only one who knows that he is losing hours out of every day.” She saw his look of confusion and hurried on. “I noticed that he drifts off when your talking to him, and during that time he has no clue what is going on. He finally admitted that its been happening a lot, sometimes for hours at a time.”

“Why didn’t he say anything?” Nikolas demanded. “Why didn’t you?”

“He wanted to keep it quiet, he threatened to leave if I told anyone. I was just trying to help him.”

So that was the secret that they had been keeping. Between that, Juan and the Ted situation it was no wonder Emily looked like she was about to drop. “I can understand your loyalty to Lucky, it’s just this is awfully serious for you two to try to figure out on your own.”

“I know that.” Emily cut off the lecture with a gesture of her hand. “I’ve tried to convince him to talk to someone else, someone like Kevin Collins or Gail Baldwin, but he refuses. He is convinced that we can figure it out ourselves. You know how he is Nikolas, he convinced all of us that we could handle the Ted situation. He can be very convincing when he wants to be. But I think both situations are getting out of control, and we need help with both of them.”

“I’m glad you finally told me. Now we just need to figure out how to make him get some help.” He ignored her comments on the Ted situation, he had a feeling he knew who she wanted to get help from, and right now he just wasn’t up to talking about Jason.

“I thought if he told Elizabeth she could get him to get help. He agreed to tell her that he still loved her, but wasn’t going to tell her anything else. I figured once she knew that much, she would figure out the rest. But Lucky got weird with her again and it didn’t work.” She debated a minute then decided to go on. “Now I think it’s a good thing that it didn’t work. The last couple of times that Lucky has slipped into this trance and lost control he has been fixated on Elizabeth.”

“I take it you don’t mean in a good way.” Nikolas pressed her when her eyes shifted away. “There’s more then your telling me isn’t there?”

“I just think that with her history she shouldn’t be around Lucky when he’s this close to the edge. He could scare her or…” she trailed off.

“Or hurt her.” Nikolas finished for her. He never would have thought it was possible to believe that Lucky would hurt Elizabeth, but a part of him did.

“So what do we do now?”

“I have to talk to Lucky.” He answered with a sigh.

“He isn’t going to want to talk to you about this.” She tucked her hands in her back pockets and corrected herself. “No he’s going to be mad at me for telling you and will more then likely shut down on both of us.”

“So he gets mad, it’s not like the first time he’s been mad at me. Remember for the first two years or so that I knew him I was the Cassa-Creep.” He held out his hand. “Come on let’s get some lunch and you can fill me in on the rest.”

She took his hand in relief, she was glad she wasn’t alone in this anymore.

“One more thing. I don’t want alone with Lucky, at least not until he get a handle on things.” His dark eyes were serious.

Emily was quiet while she thought about his order. She didn’t like being told what to do, even if it was only out of concern for her. But a part of her felt relieved that he had told her that. Lucky’s behavior had been getting odder lately. With his reaction to Jason, and what he had done to her yesterday, she really didn’t want to be alone with her oldest friend anymore. “Okay I will try not to be alone with him. What about Elizabeth? Do we tell her?”

Now it was his turn to be quiet. He couldn’t help but remember how happy she had looked when she had come roaring through here a few minutes ago. If she did know she would do anything to help Lucky, including making herself miserable again. “Let’s hold off on that. There is no reason to bother her until we have a better idea as to what is going on. After all it’s not like she’s going anywhere.”

Emily wondered if she should tell him, that it looked like Elizabeth was going somewhere, at least in her heart. She was moving away from Lucky. If she did tell him she had a feeling he would want to get Elizabeth involved in helping Lucky just to keep her away from Jason.

“Do you agree Em?”

“That sounds like a good idea.” Emily said finally. “It’s not like we have to worry about her being alone with Lucky anyway. So I don’t think we need to worry her yet.” She felt a momentary twinge of guilt but buried it. “Let’s eat.”

~12th and Waters~

Elizabeth hurried down the street, checking her watch every few feet, she was so late that she hoped he was still there. She reached the corner and paused to settle her breathing and straighten her hair before turning it. She saw him immediately, and the sight of him was enough to make her breathing turned erratic again. He was across the street, leaning against the bike, his head was turned away from her and it gave her a chance to study him unaware.

Why did he seem to get better looking each time she saw him? He was dressed ordinarily enough, just like thousands of other men. But there was nothing ordinary about Jason. The black boots, led into faded, well-worn blue jeans, the sun was hitting his hair, and it made it seem blonder then usual. The day was hot, so he had left his leather jacket elsewhere, and instead wore a simple blue cotton T-shirt, his arms were tan and well defined. The artist in her wanted to sketch those muscles that were so clearly outlined by his formfitting shirt. The woman in her though, wanted to touch those muscles, to see if they would quiver under her touch.

“Elizabeth.”

She wanted to follow the path of those muscles in his stomach, first with her hand and then with her mouth. Would her breath make them dance, they way his breath on her skin made hers dance?

“Elizabeth.” Jason repeated her name and touched her arm in concern.

“Jesus.” Elizabeth yelped and jerked back from him. My god she was fantasizing about him, while she was looking at him. When had her crush turned into full-blown lust? What the hell was she going to do?

“Are you okay?” Instantly concerned he reached out to her again.

“I’m fine.” She avoided his touch by backing away. She just needed a minute to get her weird reaction to him under control. “I’m sorry you startled me.”

He frowned at her when she refused to look him in the eye. “I had been trying to get your attention, you were just standing there looking at me. Didn’t you hear me say your name?”

Mortification caused her face to flame and she tried to battle it back. She really needed to get some perspective here. This was Jason whom she was fantasizing about. If he knew what she was doing he’d probably be embarrassed, or pity her, or not want to be around her anymore, so she needed to suck this up. She took a deep breath and put on her best fake smile. “No I must have been daydreaming, sorry.” She stepped around him being careful not to touch him. “Thanks for meeting me, I’m sorry I’m late.”

“It’s okay.” He saw through the smile to the nerves she was trying to hide. He wished he knew what she was thinking. “So what are we doing here?” He asked as he trailed her down the street.

“You are going to help me get what I want.” This time the smile was genuine, she swallowed hard and took his arm, to turn him into a drive.

Jason looked up at the sign over the drive Al’s Automotive Emporium and then back down into her grinning face. “You’re buying a car?”

“Yes and you’re going to help me.” With that warning she led the way onto the lot. “Come on Jason.”

“I didn’t know you wanted a car.” Jason commented when he followed her on the lot.

“What you think I want to ride the bus for the rest of my life?” She turned to look at him with a grimace on her face. “Believe me when I say that if I never see the inside of a bus again I will die happy. Everybody crowds you so you can’t breathe, and the smells,” she wrinkled her nose. “If possible they’re even worse in the summer with all the heat and the swe…”

“Okay so you hate the bus.” Jason cut her off and looked around the overflowing lot. “So what kind of car do you want?”

“It’s not a question of what I want Jason, it’s about what I can afford.” She took his hand and led him to the left side of the lot. “That means secondhand used, which means these.” She gestured to a series of vehicles that looked like they had a lot of wear and tear on them.

“If it’s just a matter of money.” He stopped in surprise when she suddenly turned into him, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head on his chest. “Elizabeth?” His hand automatically went to her back.

“Play along Jason.” She whispered tightening her hold.

“Hey there folks. It’s a beautiful day for car shopping.”

Jason shifted his head and studied the man who had joined them. He was barely taller then Elizabeth but was probably close to three times her weight. He was wearing green plaid pants and a brown shirt that was littered with sweat stains. The sun glistened off his heavily greased black hair.

“Oh hey there sweet thing, I see that your back just like you said. And you brought your man with you aren’t you a smart little thing. He can tell you just how sweet my cars are. I’m Al, Easy Al is what they call me, because I love to make your car dreams come true, just as easy as pie.” Al kept smiling even though he was a little upset. He much preferred to sell cars to women when they were alone. They were so much easier to be led that way. And this one had seemed more brain dead then most.

Elizabeth put on the vacant look she had been practicing. “Of course I’m back. I told you I loved this car. It’s just so cute and the color is to die for.”

Jason focused on her as soon as she spoke, she didn’t sound like herself. In fact she sounded like someone he thought he knew. He frowned and listened as she went on about the car to Al. She sounded like that annoying blonde nurse from the hospital, Angie, or Amy or something.

“But Jason here,” she touched his stomach, getting his attention. “Will have the final say. He worries about me.”

Al glanced at Jason to size him up. He could normally read people, in his business he had to, and he had to do it quickly. But he was having problems with this Jason. The man’s eyes were sharp, but other then that Al couldn’t get a read from him.

He focused on the girl instead and again tried to lead her to the red convertible he knew she wanted, even though she thought she couldn’t afford it. “I still think you would look great in this little honey here. Just think how jealous your girlfriends will be when you come rolling up in this beauty. And think with the convertible, it will be so easy to load those shopping bags.”

Elizabeth swallowed the blazing retort to the sexist comment, and smiled instead. “I know I love this car. But it is out of my price range. I think I’ll stick with this one.” She leaned against a gray Volkswagen Rabbit.

“Now the difference in price between these two is nominal.” At her vacant look he swallowed his glee and went on. “It’s not that much sweetie. In fact the worse deal here is the Rabbit.”

“But last week the price swing between the two was over $2,000.” Elizabeth reminded him. That was one of the reasons she had brought Jason with her.

“No it wasn’t, honey you must be remembering the Pinto on the back lot, you know the purple one you just loved.” He rolled his eyes in Jason’s direction then quickly looked away when Jason just met his look with a cold stare.

“No I’m going to stick with the Rabbit and the price we agreed on last week, as long as Jason here likes it. And of course if it passes the…the,” she looked blankly at Jason. “What did you call it baby? The mechanics field test?”

“Now honey there’s no need for that, I have the papers saying it has been checked and certified, by one of the best mechanics in the city.” The mechanic happened to be his brother-in-law but that made no difference.

“I think a test drive and an inspection is definitely in order.” Jason spoke for the first time he was still trying to deal with the baby Elizabeth had just called him. He could see through the lies Al was telling easily. Judging from Elizabeth’s actions so could she.

“Well I hate to slow things up, I had a couple in here just an hour ago, making an offer on this one. They said they would be back soon.” He looked at his watch. “If you take it out for an inspection, and they come back and make me an offer, I’ll have to take them up on it. You’re just going to have to trust me little lady.”

Elizabeth checked her watch and made a face. 1:47 she was late. “Jason.”

Jason’s cell phone began to ring and Elizabeth crossed her fingers. “Morgan.”

Al’s eyes widened when he put the names Jason and Morgan together and came up with Jason Morgan. Cautious eyes made a new study of the man on the phone.

Elizabeth saw him pale and stifled a giggle.

“It’s for you.” Jason held out the phone.

“Thanks.” She took the phone. “Hello.”

“So I’m calling like I promised and I have no idea why I am.” Emily spoke quickly.

“Oh hey Em. I’m sorry I forgot to call you.”

“You do realize we are going to have to talk.”

“I had no doubt about that. Talk to you later though.” Elizabeth disconnected and handed the phone back to Jason. Then turned to face Al and this time she spoke in her normal tone of voice. “So the keys and the intake papers for the inspection?”

Al’s eyes slid from her to Jason who had his arms crossed over his chest and was studying the car. “I’ll be right back.”

Elizabeth leaned against a car. “So what do you think?”

“I think I want to know why you were acting like an idiot?”

“To get around Al.” She hopped up the hood of an old Ford. “He has been jerking me around for weeks, jacking up the price, not wanting me to see any papers. I sent Nikolas here to scope him out. But Nikolas rolled up in the Jag, and the price of every car on this lot happened to jump about $2500. Then Lucky came by and Al offered him the Rabbit for $700 less then what he offered me. I just wanted to get a fair price for it.”

“And how do I come in?” he leaned against the hood next to her.

“Well, I have to admit I was using you.” She grinned slyly at him. “Let’s face it Jason one thing you do very well is intimidate people. If you happened to intimidate Al, who was I to argue with that.”

“And Emily’s call?”

“Well I had a fifty-fifty shot with that one. Sometimes you answer the phone Morgan.” She offered a bad imitation of him. “The other time it’s yeah.” That imitation made him grin. “So if you happened to say Morgan, and Al happened to recognize your name. Well there’s no harm in that.”

He had been used in a lot of ways, but to get a good deal on a used car was a new one. “Elizabeth are you sure about buying a car from him. Especially a used car. If it’s just the money I can help you…”

“Stop.” She jumped off the car and put her hands on her hips to glare at him. “I didn’t ask you to come, so you would buy a car from me. I want to do this on my own. I have been saving money for just this reason for years, and I finally have enough to buy my car. Is this Rabbit,” she gestured to the car. “What I really want? No. But it’s what I can afford.”

“I would like to help you, you helped me, you saved my life, the least I can do is get you a car.” Jason argued.

“But then it would be you buying it, instead of me doing it for myself.” She cried and saw the confusion in his eyes at her rant. “Give me your wallet.” She snapped, holding out her hand.

He looked down at her hand then back into her eyes, which were shining in anger and pulled the wallet from his jeans and placed it in her hands.

She opened it and her eyes widened in shock at the amount of cash in it. “Jesus Jason what if you were rob…” She snorted. “Never mind.”

She pulled a crisp $100 bill from the wallet and put it on his hand. “Now this is all the money you have, and you can buy this dirt bike, for just under that $100 and it will be yours free and clear.” She pointed to dirt bike that was chained to the fence.

“Or Ned, will buy you a brand new not even released 2001 Harley Davidson, fully loaded with everything you could possibly want on it. Now which one would you want? The bike you could buy yourself. Or the one that could be bought for you?” She crossed her arms over her chest and waited.

Jason looked at the bike and thought it wise not to mention the couple of hundreds he had in his jean pockets. He grinned and shook his head. “I get your point.”

Elizabeth smiled back at him. “I know the car isn’t much, but it will be the first big purchase of my life. Even the studio wasn’t totally mine at first, because for a while Gram helped me. But this,” she turned back to the little car. “This one is all mine.”

He bent down and peered in the window at the cracked upholstery, and the old dial radio in the dash. “If this is what you want.”

She looked longingly at the red Mustang convertible. “For now it is.” She leaned back against the hood and tilted her head back, the heat from the sun, felt nice on her face. “And there is another reason you’re here.”

Jason mimicked her pose. “What’s that?”

“Well I assume since you were a bike mechanic at one point, you know something about engines. Maybe even car engines, if not, you probably know someone who does. I’m not an idiot, I do want to get the car inspected before I buy it.”

“I can do that.” Her eyes were still closed and he used the opportunity to study her. Her grin was wide, her cheeks were turning slightly pink because of the sun, but the color looked good on her face. She looked very relaxed and very beautiful.

“You do know what that means, don’t you Jason?” She opened her eyes and turned to look at him. “That means you will be responsible for keeping my car running. If something goes wrong with it, I’ll have to call you to get your expertise.”

“I’ll be responsible for it?” He questioned shifting closer to it. “How do you figure that?”

“It’s a rule, when someone helps someone else buy a car, they have to be available if that car breaks down.” She couldn’t seem to stop herself from leaning against him, while she looked up into his face. “So it looks like your going to have to stay in town.”

“So all of this is to get me to stay in town?” He lowered his voice, his hand moving around to rest at her back. “You could have just asked.”

“I tried that once. You left anyway.” Her eyes were serious and she shifted again, so she was leaning against him instead of the hood, his thigh resting between her legs. “I wanted to hedge my bets.”

The wind caught her hair, and he brushed it from her face, tucking it behind her ear. “You could try asking again. You might be surprised at what I’d say this time.” He slowly lowered his head down closer to her upturned face.

She matched his move by letting herself relax fully against him, except for her neck and head which she angled up closing the distance to him, meeting him halfway. She felt his breath on her face, and her eyes began to drift closed.

The shrill ring of the cell phone broke the spell and Elizabeth tensed up again. Why was it that phones seemed to ring at the absolutely worst time?

“Are you going to get that?”

Jason’s voice broke her mental cursing and she flushed when she realized it was her phone ringing and not his. “Right.” She backed away and dug in her bag for the phone. “Hello … That’s okay Chloe … Where? … No I can do that, I’m downtown already. Bye”

She closed the phone and nervously ran a hand through her hair, before finally putting the phone back in her bag. “I need to go.”

“So I gathered.” Jason felt the disappointment settle in his gut. “I’ll talk with Al and get the car checked out, then I’ll meet you later.”

“Okay.” She was nervous all over again. “It’s a date.” Her eyes went wide. “I mean, it’s not a date, it’s just that’s a plan.” She began backing away. “That’s right. I’m planning on seeing you later.” She turned away. “Bye Jason.”

“Elizabeth wait.” Jason closed the distance between them, when she stopped but didn’t turn around. “You’re key.”

She opened her eyes in surprise, she hadn’t expected him to say that. She turned around and reached for the key he had in his hand. Her fingers brushed his, and she couldn’t help but feel a jolt of electricity at the contact. “Thanks.” Her voice was a lot huskier then usual.

“I think I should thank you for letting me do this for you.” He pulled another set of keys from his pocket. “I made you a spare.”

She glanced down at the keys in his hand, and before she even thought about it, words were flying out of her mouth. “Keep them, you’ll never know when you need a safe place to get away from it all.” A hint of surprise crossed Jason’s features and she hurriedly started moving again. “I need to go. I’ll see you later.”

“Elizabeth.” Again he called after her stilling her flight.

God she really needed to leave before she embarrassed herself even worse. “Yeah?”

“You have something of mine.” His voice came from directly behind her and she felt his breath on her neck. “And I’m going to need it back.”

She nervously licked her lips. “W-what?”

He turned her to face him. “My wallet.”

She blinked in surprise then smiled in relief, before digging in her bag for his wallet. “I wasn’t trying to steal it.”

“Mm-hmm.” He held out his hand.

“I wasn’t.” She slapped the wallet in his hand. “I just forgot.” She saw Al walking towards them, and heard her Lizzie voice screaming in her ear and decided to go for it. She stood on tiptoes and pressed her lips to his.

His mouth parted in surprise, his lips, warm, soft and experienced. Before he had a chance to deepen the kiss or pull her closer, she pulled back and stepped away. “Bye sweetie.” She said loudly before hurrying away.

Jason watched her run to catch a bus at the corner, and shook his head. Things were moving between the two of them. He wasn’t sure where exactly but they were definitely moving.

“So did the sweet thing have to leave?”

“Her name is Elizabeth and if you can’t remember that, I suggest you don’t call her anything at all.” Jason ordered without turning around.

The sweat began to roll off of Al’s brow at those words. “Of course I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Jason turned around, his eyes coolly assessing the man in front of him. “I assume those are the papers?”

“Yes.” Al held them out nervously. A quick phone call to his brother had confirmed that this was in fact The Jason Morgan. He couldn’t help be a little nervous being around him.

“Good.” Jason took them from him. “This is a good start. But you know what I’m going to need from you Al? I want your original intake forms from when you bought the car, and your records of all the work you did on it.”

“Now those are private materials I don’t let anyone see those.”

Jason just looked at him and waited.

“Of course I’ll go get them.” Al began backing to the office.

“Al everything better be on there. I’d hate for my mechanic to find something that isn’t.” Jason called after him.

Al swallowed hard. Who knew that sweet little thing would be the end of him?

[JRK Archiver]

Chapter 10
~Port Charles Hotel: Penthouse~

“Yes I’m aware of that.” V Ardnowski spoke into the phone being careful to keep all emotion from her voice. It wouldn’t be kosher to appear too eager, especially given the circumstances.

“You can understand my haste in wanting results. It has been over 6 weeks now, and we’ve still heard nothing.”

“In cases like this, it takes a lot of time to chase down all the leads.” V drummed her fingers on the desk. Her inherent need to be honest was warring with her desire for the job, and as usual honesty won out. “I can assure you ma’am that the police have spent countless man hours chasing down leads. No lead would have been considered too small to investigate.”

There was silence on the other end of the line and V wondered if her loyalty to the police force had cost her the job, before she even had a chance to start it. She closed her eyes and began to hit her forehead on the desk quietly, but quite painfully.

“Your desire to stick up for your former employers even after the way you left the PCPD further convinces me that I’ve made the right choice in hiring you.”

V sat up in surprise and a smile danced across her features causing them to light. She strove to sound serious when she spoke. “You won’t be disappointed.” Her honestly kicked in again. “Ms. Wyatt I can’t promise you the results you so desperately want, but I can promise to give you everything I can.”

“I know you will V, and please call me Lisa.”

V got up from the desk and opened the door waving Alexis in the room before turning her attention back to the phone. “Okay Lisa I’ll get started immediately and will update you weekly on what I find.”

“Good I’ve transferred your retainer and first weeks expenses into your account.” Lisa paused. “V I need you to know how serious this is.”

Smile gone V’s voice was just as serious. “Believe me Lisa as a former police officer, I know exactly how important this is.”

“Thank you.”

V’s frown stayed on her face for a moment longer while she hung up the phone. With a sigh she turned, her eye fell on the curious face of her best friend, and she let out a yell. “I did it Alexis.”

“Did what?” Alexis winced slightly at the bone-jarring hug V was giving her.

“That new job I was telling you about, it came through.” Too excited to sit V paced around the sofa first one and then the other, and then kept moving.

“V you’re going to need to back up I got called away before you finished telling me what was going on.” Alexis reminded her.

“Oh that’s right.” V turned away from the window and ran a hand through her hair.

Alexis couldn’t help but feel envious when the hair plopped back into place right where it had been before V had ruffled it. If she tried that she would end up looking like she had a birds nest on her head. She blinked the thought away and forced herself to concentrate on what V was saying.

“So because of that I knew I couldn’t go back to the force, and I also knew I didn’t want to be a personal assistant.” V made a face and dropped down on one of the couches. “L&B was fun but it didn’t give me the kind of challenge that I crave. So this was the only alternative as I saw it.”

“What was?” Alexis took a seat facing the tall redhead.

“My own security firm, specializing in consulting work, private investigations, bounty hunting, kind of like your one stop security store.” V’s eyes were shining when she went on. “I’ve always toyed at designing security systems, now it will be more then just a hobby, I’ll be able to make my living from it.”

“That sounds great.” Alexis’ first response was to be happy for her friend. She knew how unhappy V had been when she wasn’t working, but then the lawyer side of her kicked in again. “Not to be negative, but where are you going to find the funding to open your own company?”

“Remember the money I gave to Jax when he was trying to win back his fortune?” V asked.

Alexis nodded.

“Well he insisted on paying me back with interest several times over. So I have enough to start my own company.” V couldn’t help but smile again. She had barely let herself dream of owning her own company. The practical side of her normally won out, and ended the dreams before they started. But this time it was no dream, it was real, and whether she lasted or not, she was going to go for it.

“It sounds like you’ve given this some thought.”

“Oh I have believe me, I first started the paperwork and got certified not long after I left the PCPD, before I went to L&B. I took the last of the tests before I went to Alaska, and I got all the paperwork back yesterday. You should have seen Taggert’s face when I went in to file my licenses with the police department.” Her laughter rang out and was so infectious that Alexis joined in. “He looked at me like I was nuts and then started in on me about coming back to the station, anything but going private. Most cops consider privates as only slightly above lawyers on the food chain.”

“Charming.” Alexis murmured.

“Yeah well you haven’t heard the best part.” V leaned closer so enraptured in her news she failed to notice the penthouse door opening. “I already have my first case.”

“Well don’t keep me in suspense.”

“I’ve been hired to find out where Ted Wilson is, and if he’s dead bring his killers to justice.”

“Over my dead body.” Jax announced his presence with a slam of the door.

~Kelly’s~

“Stop it Nikolas.” Emily said on a gasp, she had laughed so hard her sides were aching. “You have to be making that up.”

“I’m not.” Nikolas protested with a grin of his own. “Stefan’s pants split down the seam the instant he bowed to the Countess.”

“Oh God,” she brushed the tears from her eyes. “What did he do?”

“Well I have never seen my uncle move backwards that fast before.” Nikolas shook his head at the fond memory. It felt good remembering the good times he’d had with his uncle, especially now.

As if a cloud had covered the sun, Nikolas’ smile faded and his good mood evaporated. It was hard for him to believe that his uncle might be dead.

Emily sensed the change in him and immediately stopped laughing, she covered his hand to offer comfort. “Has there been any news?”

“No.” He admitted with a sigh of frustration. “Everyone believes that he is dead, even the investigators that I've hired have found no trace of him. When Mac arrested Luke for his murder, most people stopped looking for him.”

“But Luke was only arrested for a couple of hours before Felicia came forward and cleared him. Why wouldn’t the police keep looking?”

“I don’t know. I know Mac went after Luke because of a personal grudge, but once he did that, it was like the police agreed that Stefan is dead. That he’s lying dead somewhere and they just haven’t found him yet.” Nikolas rubbed wearily at the knot of tension at the back of his neck. That knot seemed to form every time he thought about his uncle.

“I’m sorry Nikolas. You’ve been so busy trying to help me with my problems, when all these questions about your uncle must be ripping you up.” Emily flushed guiltily.

“Don’t,” his hand tightened on hers and his voice was sharp cutting off her recriminations. “You are my friend and there is no place that I would rather be then here helping you. In fact it’s nice to focus on this instead of Stefan at times.”

“That’s what Lucky said.” Emily spoke without thinking.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh,” she looked startled for a minute then went on. “I went to tell Jason what was going on yesterday and Lucky caught me. He said he needed to do this, that the only time he felt normal was when he was helping me.”

Nikolas leaned over the table and lowered his voice. “I thought we decided not to tell Jason.”

“I know what we decided, but I also know my brother.” Emily explained wearily, she wasn’t really up for another fight about her brother. “I know you don’t like him, but you have to admit he can make this whole problem disappear. I’m tired of having this hanging over my head, over everybody’s heads. It’s even harder now that Jason is in town, because he knows something is going on, and all he wants to do is help, no questions asked.” She glanced down at her purse. “But instead of talking to my brother I’m avoiding him and his calls, all because I want to help Lucky.”

Nikolas could see the truth in her words and made an effort to battle back the anger he always felt at the mention of Jason’s name. Emily was right he didn’t like her brother and probably never would. But she was also right when she said Jason could make their problem disappear. “Is that why you decided not to tell Jason, because Lucky asked you not too?”

Emily studied her hands and absently noted that her polish was beginning to chip. “Yes, Lucky doesn’t feel like he can control anything in his life. If I went to Jason for help, instead of relying on Lucky, I don’t think he would be able to handle that rejection.”

“Is he that close to the edg…” Nikolas trailed off when he spotted the bruises on her arms and answered his own question. “Then that’s another reason for me to talk to him as soon as possible.”

“What about telling Jason?” She focused on him again.

He met her eyes reluctantly. He really didn’t want to work with Jason, but it might be their only choice. In the end the only important thing was ending this nightmare for everyone involved. "I guess…”

“Emily I’m glad I found you.” Juan’s voice cut Nikolas off and Juan took the seat next to Emily.

Nikolas couldn’t help but grimace at the boy. What Emily ever saw in Juan was beyond him. Juan was a walking, always talking, loudmouth who seemed to think the more people he could make angry, would make him a bigger man. Nikolas always wanted to tell him that all it did was make him look like that much more of an idiot.

Emily couldn’t help but sigh and tense when Juan moved his chair closer to her. Lately it seemed like being around Juan, took more energy then she had. If she were honest with herself she would have to admit that their problems had started long before the rave. “Juan what are you doing here?”

Juan frowned at her less then enthusiastic response to his presence. Then turned his eyes on a disapproving Nikolas, no doubt this was his influence. “I found out some stuff about the rave.”

Disapproval turned to interest. “What?” Nikolas asked.

“It’s set for tomorrow night, but no one seems to know where. They’re trying to keep it quiet so it won’t get busted and only a few people know in advance. Allison isn’t one of those people.”

Emily couldn’t help the little flash of anger she felt when she heard Allison’s name. A part of her blamed the chipmunk voiced blonde for getting her into this mess. But then again if Juan hadn’t kissed Allison in the first place she never would have started drinking that night.

“We need to know as soon as possible.” Nikolas was saying. “We will need time to get everything set up. You need to find out where it is Juan.”

“I don’t see you doing much to help, except for sitting on your ass that is.” Always quick to fight Juan fired back hotly.

“Please don’t.” Emily spoke quickly trying to stop the fight, her dark eyes pleaded with Nikolas.

Nikolas bit back his retort and took a breath before trying again. “I’m just saying that we need the information as soon as we can get it Juan. We will need time to move the bod…” He trailed off and focused on the man behind Juan. “Lieutenant Taggert.”

Emily jerked at the mention of his name and her knee hit the table leg jostling their drinks. Nikolas gave her a warning look and she tried to calm down.

“Nikolas.” Taggert nodded at him while dropping his hand on Juan’s shoulder. “Have you forgotten what your supposed to do today?”

“No.” Juan put a cocky smile on his face and tried to bluff.

Taggert just shook his head. “You need to clean the apartment today.”

“Right, I’ll get right on that.” Juan agreed immediately trying to get rid of him.

Little warning bells went off at Juan’s easy acquiescence. Normally he had to browbeat Juan into doing anything, before he could pursue it though Tammy called to him from the counter.

“Taggert your order’s ready.”

“Thanks.” Taggert took another look at the people at the table. Something had been going on with Juan for weeks now but he hadn’t been able to find out what. He had a feeling it was more then just the breakup with Emily. “See you later then.” He said finally before touching Emily’s shoulder. “Emily.”

“Goodbye Lieutenant.” Emily tried for breezy but her voice came out stilted.

“That was close.” Nikolas groaned in relief when Taggert headed for the counter.

“Too close.” Emily agreed.

“Let’s get out of here.” Nikolas suggested and Emily began to gather her stuff.

“Emily can I talk to you?” Juan lowered his voice. He hated to grovel, especially in front of other people, but he knew he was losing her. “Please.”

“I don’t want to fight.”

“Neither do I.” Juan took a chance and touched her hand. “Please Em.”

Nikolas watched the indecision move over her face and smothered another groan. Here was a guy who was supposed to be in love with her and he hadn’t even noticed the bruises on her arms. Say no Emily. Cut him out of your life once and for all. He willed the courage to her, but wasn’t surprised by her reply.

Emily dropped reluctantly back in her chair. “Okay.”

Nikolas put some money on the table. “I’ll just go and talk to Lucky.”

“Be care…” She trailed off not wanting to give anything away to Juan and also in surprise because her first instinct was that Lucky might react irrationally. “See you later?”

“Yes.” Nikolas nodded at her, ignored Juan entirely and headed out the door.

Nikolas stepped out into the deserted courtyard and took a deep breath, trying to dispel the last of the irritation that Juan brought out in him. Unfortunately all he could smell was the fish being offloaded on the nearby docks. He turned and headed for his car.

“Nikolas wait.”

He scrubbed a hand over his eyes, this day just kept getting better and better. He turned around slowly. “Hello Gia.”

Gia couldn’t help but notice his cool response and that irked her. She knew she wasn’t perfect but she was getting tired of always being hated on sight. “Don’t sound so thrilled to see me.”

Nikolas smiled slightly as he studied the girl in front of him. As was her norm she was dressed in the height of fashion with her pencil thin dark skirt and her boots that went over her calf. He felt a reluctant attraction to her as he studied her. “What did you need?”

“You know you could treat me a little nicer. I am putting myself on the line here just like the rest of you.” She put her hands on her hips, stretching the tight white shirt over her chest and glared at him.

There went the attraction, he hid a grin at that realization. He was attracted until she opened her mouth and out came something that Juan would say. “And you are being well compensated for your risks Gia.”

Gia smiled reluctantly, he was the only one who seemed to have an answer for everything she tossed at him. “Are you placing a price on my life?”

“No you do that yourself.” He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for her next jab.

“And you pay it.” She taunted.

“Gia as fascinating as this is, I do have places to be, so is there a point to this?”

Gia stepped closer to him, she had spent a worrisome couple of hours after her run-in with Zander, trying to decide what to do. In the end she knew she had to let the others know that Zander was very interested in Elizabeth and that he seemed to recognize this Jason, no one wanted her to meet. She was dreading having to talk to Elizabeth. The girl with her superior attitude was enough to make her gag. When she spotted Nikolas she knew she had an out. Of all the people she was now tied up with he was the only one she even remotely liked.

“Gia is there a point?”

Nikolas’ question drew her out of her reverie, of course he was still a pain. “Yes I needed to tell you that…” she trailed off and her eyes went wide.

“What’s wrong?”

Gia didn’t even try to answer, moving quickly she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers.

Nikolas’ eyes widened in surprise but he moved willingly enough when she turned his body, so he was leaning against her and pressing her against the building. He was vaguely aware of the door opening beside them and someone walking out of the building.

Gia kept her eyes open and watched Taggert walk away before closing her eyes and letting the kiss continue. He sure did know how to kiss.

He pulled back after another minute and grinned at her. “You seem to do that an awful lot.”

Gia pushed him away from her. “Like you’re complaining.”

“I was raised not to fight with women, so if you feel the need to maul me every now and then…”

“Maul you?” Gia was outraged.

“Yes maul. This is the third time you’ve wrapped yourself around me out of the blue, when I have done nothing to encourage you.” He couldn’t help but tease, the anger shooting out of her dark eyes amused him.

“Encourage?” For a second Gia could only gasp in anger. “Listen to me Princey, I hate to burst your delusions of grandeur, but you have been into me ever since we met.”

“Really?” Nikolas’ eyes raked over her. “Then why are you always the one that kisses me, while I’m always the one who walks away?” He shot her another grin and then left the courtyard before she had time to reply.

~Penthouse~

V shot off the couch like someone was shooting at her. “Jax I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Apparently not.” He moved further into the room, taking time to nod at Alexis before focusing on the woman in his life. “Were you even going to tell me about this?”

“Of course I was,” V flushed guiltily. “It’s just everything sort of fell together today, and I haven’t seen you yet to tell you.”

“Come on now V, I know you, you don’t just leap into things. You must have been thinking about this for a while now. What I want to know is why didn’t you tell me?” He turned to look at Alexis who was doing her best to blend into the couch. “Did you know what she was planning?”

Alexis looked up at him and answered diplomatically. “I know she’s been unhappy being unemployed.”

“That’s obvious Alexis,” he snapped. “The question is did you know what she was going to do about her boredom? That she was going to be a private investigator?”

“I prefer security specialist.” V chimed in.

“And what is so special about tracking down a cop that is more then likely dead?” Jax turned on her.

“You know I think I should probably be going.” Alexis interjected, before things got really ugly.

“Don’t you see that because he is a cop this case is so much more special?” V shot back. “It could have been anyone of us.”

“You’re not a cop anymore V.”

“My look at the time I’m going to be late for Court.” Alexis tried again, but was still ignored.

“I know that.” The hurt flashed in V’s eyes. “You’re the reason I’m not.”

Jax saw the hurt and the anger evaporated, but the fear remained. “I know and I’m sorry about that. I never wanted you to quit because of me.”

“I didn’t quit because of you.” Incensed that she had let that slip out, she tried to backtrack. “I quit because of the way the department handled things. Their treatment of you was just the final straw.”

“So I’ll be going.” Alexis got to her feet and slung her purse over her shoulder.

“Wait Alexis.” Jax’s voice stopped her before she took a step. “Talk to her, reason with her.”

“Jax I’m a lawyer, who says I know how to reason?” Alexis tried to joke. She knew better then to be drawn into personal fights.

“Alexis tell him that this what I’m trained for.” V glared at him.

“Well you see…”

“You’re trained to work within the rules and with a partner, not to go out alone.” Jax interrupted.

There was a knock on the door but Alexis was the only one who seemed to notice.

“Jax you make it sound like I’m going to be walking into hell, without a hope for survival.”

“I’ll just get that.” Alexis moved to the door. “Elizabeth,” she cried in relief and pulled her into the room.

“Alexis hi, I needed to get a signature from Jax, is he here?” Elizabeth held up a manila envelope.

“V you know as well as I do, that the reason that no one has found Ted Wilson is because he was taken out by the mob.” Jax yelled.

Elizabeth dropped the envelope on the floor, spilling the papers, she quickly crouched down and began to pick them up. Why were they talking about Ted Wilson?

“We don’t know that for sure Jax.” V argued. “I’ve been hired to find out where he is, and if he is dead to bring his killers to justice.”

Elizabeth gasped then managed a weak smile for Alexis who was helping her gather her papers.

“What else could it be V?” Jax moved closer and took her hand. “Wilson was working undercover at the raves trying to track the drug flow into the city. The only people who run drugs in Port Charles are either in Sorel’s or Corinthos’ mob family. So one of those two had him killed.”

“But we don’t know that for sure, it could have been some junkie, for all we know.” V pleaded with him to understand. “Don’t you see that the not knowing what happened is worse then knowing that he’s dead? Right now Ted Wilson’s family and friends are going crazy because they don’t know. Did you know that he was getting married in October?” She demanded. “His fiancée is so worried that she’s the one who hired me, she can’t move on with her life until she knows what happened to him.”

“And don’t you see that I don’t want to lose you?” Jax kept hold of her hand when she tried to pull away. “If you investigate this, you’re more then likely going to be investigating the mob. They don’t like that. When you were a cop it afforded you some protection, but you’re not a cop anymore. And it seems like they wouldn’t care even if you were, someone has killed once, and they’re not above doing it again. You will be all alone in this.”

Elizabeth was feeling extremely guilty, she had purposefully focused on Emily and what would happen to her if people found out about Ted. She hadn’t allowed herself to think about what Ted Wilson’s family was going through. Now that V had spelled it out for her, she felt even worse. She got slowly to her feet and put the papers back in order.

“Jax I’ll be careful. You know that.”

“I know how determined and tenacious you can be.” Jax corrected. “That’s what scares me, you won’t quit until you find him, and whoever killed him.”

Elizabeth gulped.

“Are you okay Elizabeth?” Alexis touched her arm in concern when she saw the girl’s paleness.

“Maybe I should go, this seems to be a bad time.”

A shrill whistle startled three of the occupants in the room, and they looked at the fourth in surprise.

“Alright now that I have your attention,” Alexis smoothed her skirt down and ignored the surprised looks she was getting. “Elizabeth here needs a moment of your time Jax, and I really need to be going, so go to your neutral corners until we leave.”

“Sorry Elizabeth.” Jax took a breath and crossed over to her with a smile on his face.

Elizabeth couldn’t help but blink at the metamorphosis. “No problem, Chloe needs your signature on these contracts right away.”

“Chloe,” V snorted and stalked over to the window. Now they couldn’t even have an argument without having the perfect little blonde’s name show up in it.

Jax looked warily at V, who seemed to be even madder, before taking the papers from Elizabeth.

“If you need to read them, I can come back.” Elizabeth offered, she really wanted to get out of here.

“No I trust Chloe.”

That time V’s snort was audible to the whole room.

“Thanks for bringing these by Elizabeth,” Jax signed his name with a flourish, before heading for the door. “How are things going with Lucky? I bet your glad to have your boyfriend back.”

“Well…” She trailed off and headed out the door.

Alexis paused in the doorway. “Tread lightly Jax, if you try to control her, you’ll lose her.” She kissed his cheek and then followed Elizabeth to the elevator.

Jax closed the door and turned to face V who was glaring at him from behind the couch. The setting sun was drifting through the window behind her, and set off her hair like a blazing sunset. Judging from the expression on her face, blazing was an apt description. “Where were we?”

“We were just about to say that if you can trust Chloe and you can’t trust me, then maybe Chloe should be the one you date and not me.” V fired back hotly.