They'll Never Have Yesterday
by loveintrainwrecks
Summary: AU. He'd already lost Emily and he couldn't afford to lose someone else so dear to his heart. When Claudia's life is hanging by a thread, Nikolas thinks back to all the memories he shared with her. He knows loss very well, but he also knows hope. Naudia.
Author's Note: Italics represent flashbacks. Everything else is in the present. This story is a product of my obsession with this pairing and song. I hope you enjoy! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own General Hospital. The song 'Yesterday' is by Leona Lewis.
Prologue
They can take tomorrow and the plans we made
They can take the music that we'll never play
All the broken dreams
Take everything
Just take it away, but they can never have yesterday
xxx
It was 7:00 P.M., and Nikolas was getting ready to pick up Claudia for their date that night. The sky was beginning to darken into twilight as Nikolas stepped into his car. Sitting down on the leather seat, he reached into his pants pocket for a small burgundy-colored box. Nestled within it was a gold ring encrusted with a silver diamond.
He was going to propose to Claudia tonight. They'd been together for almost a year already, but they'd grown so close in those short months. The beautiful yet troubled daughter of psychotic madman Anthony Zacchara had come to mean so much to him. He remembered when they first met each other.
xxx
He found her struggling to stand up in the rain in front of the docks on Spoon Island. She was drenched from head to toe. Through the rain and the darkness of the night, he couldn't recognize who she was at the moment. But even then, he had the faintest glimmer of hope. He couldn't help but think it was Emily. As if by instinct, he ran to her immediately.
Realization sunk in when he recognized her not to be Emily. A gentleman nonetheless, he asked her if she was with anybody. But before she could reply, she fainted from exhaustion, her eyes coming to a close within seconds. He caught her before her weak body could fall to the wet ground and took her back into his home..
xxx
All of a sudden, Nikolas's cell phone rang. He picked it up swiftly and answered, "Hello?"
"Nikolas?" A panic-stricken voice replied back. It was Lulu.
"Lulu? What's going on?"
"It's Claudia," Lulu started, her voice taking on an edge of sorrow and worry, "she was shot."
The wheels of the car screeched to a halt as Nikolas immediately stopped the car on the side of the road. Nikolas felt the hard lump beginning to form in his throat. He could hear those last three words resounding in his mind. It was just like when he realized that Emily had died..
"Nikolas?" Lulu's voice on the other end of the phone shook Nikolas from his thoughts. "Nikolas, Johnny and I are at the hospital. Claudia's in the ICU right now. ..Please get here soon." She sounded like she was on the verge of tears.
Nikolas drove as fast as he could as his heart pounded heavily. A cascade of thoughts went through his head.
Emily's gone.. Now Claudia.. No.. This can't happen to me again, Nikolas thought to himself.
"It just can't."
Well, that's the prologue. Please review. :D