Hi everyone! I'd just like to let you know that the stories I have posted on this page are prequels to a different story I've written about 110 chapters of so far. "Extended Family" is the continuing story of Cassadines, Spencers, and other families and citizens of Port Charles. The prequels will make a LOT more sense to you if you check out Extended Family. A lot of the loose, sad ends that are in "And So it Goes" and "Red Red Rose" will be tied up for you in "Extended Family". It's too large to post here, though, or else I would! You can find it at this link
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Lot/5704
Thanks!
KimLee
Ib"Surviving Without You"/b/I
***A WSB Safe house in Arizona, June 17th, 1979***
"You've got to push now Monique," Anna Devane ordered as she peered down at the Doctor one more time. He beckoned for her to have a look so she did, "The baby is crowning Monique…I can see the head."
Monique Thernadas bit her lip to keep from screaming out in pain. Twenty-five hours seemed like a long enough time to give birth to a child. Monique felt that she had certainly been through enough in the last twenty-four hours to have produced a litter of children. And yet she was still being told to push.
Anna saw her bit her lip in pain and ordered strictly, her accented voice echoing throughout the sterile, unfriendly room, "You can scream out Monique…if it helps your pain, please scream out. But you must push now."
Monique did let out a guttural scream as she bore down one last time. She never wanted to do this alone. She had always dreamt that Stavros would somehow make it to her before she went into labor. She remembered his words to her when she had told him she was pregnant with this child.
You have made my life complete," Stavros insisted letting her go and placing her hand over his heart. "You've given me all that I don't deserve, you've completed my life."
For all of his heartfelt words and love for her…he was not here to have his life completed. He wasn't here to towel her forehead or hold her hand as she gave birth to the strong baby girl.
"It's a girl Monique!" Anna announced happily, wiping her friend's head off with a cool towel. "You have your Katya!"
Monique couldn't quite recall what happened next. There were many sounds in the room. Through her haze she could here the Indian nurse in the room whisper, "My grandfather would say it's an omen. She is born for a hard life…but also has the ability to achieve greatness."
The next thing she remembered was the silent infant being placed in her arms. Monique opened her eyes to see the red, wrinkly baby looking back up at her.
"Her eyes are blue," Monique noted quietly to Anna.
"Almost all babies eyes are blue when they're born," Anna explained. "My Robin's eyes were blue as well but now they're as dark as coffee beans. I'm sure Katya's eyes will be the same as her father's in no time."
Monique nodded looking back down at the tiny child. The child that had cost so dearly. Monique's freedom, her love and life with Stavros, her home. She swallowed the disgusting emotions that were building up in her. She shouldn't feel this way towards her new baby.
It wasn't the child's fault.
***Three years later, Detroit Michigan***
"Mama!" A three-year-old Katie clapped her hands as she toddled around in the growing grass. "Look at me!"
Monique looked up from her newspaper to observe her tiny daughter rolling over and over again in the grass. Her wild hair was barely contained by the two pigtails at each side of her head. And the little red dress she had didn't stand a chance with the freshly cutgrass. She smiled and shook her head.
"Katya my little princess, you are going to get filthy," Monique warned. "Come here."
Katie clasped her chubby hands together and approached her mother with a guilty though pleased smile. She made it to the front steps her mother was sitting on and swayed her body back and forth in a guilty type of dance. She was happy to have grabbed her mother's attention for the moment.
"What have I told you about petite jolies?" Monique quizzed.
"They stay clean," Katie answered back with a grin. She broke out into giggles at having remembered the answers before running back over to the lawn and tumbling again. "I am no petty jolly mama!"
Monique sat back with a laugh observing her rambunctious daughter with delight. She was quite well behaved when the occasion really called for it. But when she didn't have to behave, she didn't bother with using her limitless energy in following rules. So much like her father…
Stavros never followed rule, until he absolutely had to. Katya was Monique's constant reminder of Stavros. No matter how many times she wanted to get away from the memories, to get away from the dull ache that filled her soul…she was always there in those light brown eyes of her daughter. Stavros haunted her in Katya's smiles, in her every movement.
"Annanane!" Katie called out in delight, running across the lawn to intercept the newcomer. The elegant woman picked up the happy, precocious child and hugged her.
"You remember me?" Anna asked in awe, amazed at how much the little child had grown.
"Of course she remembers you," Monique said a quiet, almost angry tone. "You were just here to visit us two months ago."
"I love Annanane!" Katie hugged the woman tightly; not caring whether the dirt from her romps in the grass got on Anna's black suit. She couldn't pronounce the DE at the beginning of Anna's last name. Her childish mind enjoyed the nickname though, having it roll of her tongue uncontrollably.
"Katya, you're getting your precious Annanane filthy!" Monique scolded, holding her hands out for her daughter.
"I don't care about the dirt," Anna shrugged her off. "I haven't been able to hold a little girl like this in a while," Anna looked at Katie with widened eyes, "Do you know Katie that my little girl isn't so little anymore. I can barely pick her up!"
"I'm three!" Katie happily announced.
"I know!" Anna nodded. She placed the little girl on the ground, pulling on each of her pigtails three times. She then reached into her bag and produced a brightly wrapped package for Katie, "For a very special little girl."
Katie's eyes light up in astonishment. She wasn't used to getting presents at all and she grabbed it eagerly. Somehow the three-year-old managed to not immediately rip into the gift. Instead she sat on the ground and stared at it for a few moments, inspecting the red bow.
"RED!" Katie clapped taking the bow off and putting it on her dress. She pointed at the dress then the bow and concluded, "Red Mama! Two R-E-D!"
"Yes Katya," Monique smiled. She walked away slightly, and wasn't surprised when Anna followed her.
"She's so smart," Anna complimented. "She'll be rattling off the dictionary in no time."
Monique nodded, knowing how intelligent her child was. There were times when she would look forward to Anna's surprise visits. She didn't get that much of an opportunity to make friends in America, and Anna had become a treasured one. But lately, Anna's visits simply were to move them to another part of the country. Move them to a safer place.
"When do we leave?" Monique asked, knowing that this was the purpose of the visit.
"As soon as possible," Anna answered reluctantly. "I'm so sorry about this Monique, but Mikkos and the whole Cassadine clan are moving about like insane men. We have no idea what they're planning, and the best thing for you and Katie is to keep moving."
Keep moving Monique repeated to herself. That's what she had been doing all her life. As an orphaned child she moved from institution to institution. Even once she escaped the fate of orphaned children, she still had to keep moving to keep living. Job after job…the only time she had never been moving was with Stavros…for those few happy months they never had to move, never had to worry. Then it started all over again, but this time worse. This time with a child whose light brown eyes haunted her. "When do you think we'll ever be able to stop moving?" Monique asked, sitting down on her front steps again.
"When it gets safe," Anna whispered. She placed a hand over Monique's and said, "I know this is hard…but if we hadn't kept moving you, Helena would have surely found you by now…Katie would never have reached her third birthday."
"I know that," Monique nodded. "It just gets harder…she keeps asking so many questions that I can't answer."
"She'll understand in time," Anna reassured her.
Monique accepted this, adjusting her life in a matter of moments. Finally she called out to her daughter, "Katya!"
"Mama!" Katie smiled as she ran over to her mother and Anna. "A book!"
"You got her a book?" Monique smiled. "She's not that smart yet."
"Oh but she will be," Anna announced happily, pulling the little girl in her arms again. "You're going to be smarter than anybody else I know!"
"Annanane is so funny," Katie shrugged and pushed on Anna's nose. "I have your nose!"
"You do not!" Anna shook her head. "Give it back to me then you little imp!"
"Katya!" Monique let her voice rise. "We have to pack your things now."
Katya got quiet quickly, knowing that sound in her mother's voice by now. It was time to start following the rules now. When it came time to start packing things, Katie knew she would have to stay hidden and quiet until they reached whatever was their destination.
"I'll help you," Anna whispered to Katie as Monique went into the house.
Katie nodded and looked at Anna with a pensive expression. "Is Mama mad?"
"No, Mama just feels…helpless," Anna tried to explain. "We all feel helpless."
"Is it me?" Katie pondered further, her tiny brow furrowing. "I did it?"
Anna's eyes widened at the little child's ability to process the situation around her, and feeling guilt in the end. She shook her head gravely and said, "No Katie…you must never think that you did this."
Katie nodded dolefully, reaching for the ground. Anna put her down and watched in amazement at how much Katie resembled her mother in the fact that she simply adjusted. Heading up to her room to help pack her things.
"It's no one's fault," Anna whispered.
***One year later, Port Charles***
Anna Devane checked the reports one last time. Things just didn't make sense. They couldn't possibly make sense.
Stavros Cassadine was supposed to sell out his family to the WSB in order for the protection of Monique and his unborn child. But the information was supposedly never received by the WSB. Stavros was supposed to back out at the last minute.
None of it made any sense to her. The WSB still had the information that they needed, they must have gotten it from Stavros. It was an impossibility for them to have gotten it from anyone else. But the cover story was that Stavros learned Monique was safe and backed out. He was told weeks after that ship exploded that Monique was actually alive.
Unless he was never told to begin with. Stavros could have given the information the WSB required and then he saw that ship explode, thinking his pregnant wife was on it.
"He was never told," Anna realized, piecing together Stavros' mental health, the holes in the report and the wealth of information the WSB had stocked up. "He thinks that Monique really did die…it bought the WSB time to fool everyone."
She was certainly not supposed to stumble across this. Robert had acquired it by accident and brought it to her for analyzing. Someone in the WSB was trying to be on both sides.
Anna ran to her phone, dialing a secure number she knew by heart by now.
"Hello?" Monique answered after a few rings.
"It's me," Anna said quietly.
"Not again," Monique sighed. "We've been in Pennsylvania for only two weeks!"
"No, not to move," Anna shook her head. "I think its time you tried to get in touch with Stavros. The way we always discussed it."
"Are you serious?" Monique asked breathlessly. She tried to concentrate but Katie was in the background singing along to her hearts content with Big Bird, "Katya please!" she hushed her daughter, who immediately complied. "I can send the letter?"
"Yes," Anna nodded. "It's time to get your family back together."
***Two years later, Florida***
Katie rushed home from her day at school, eager to tell her mother about the notes she learned to play on the piano today. Every day had been surprisingly the same for the past two weeks for the six-year-old. They had lived in the same place, she had attended school daily, learning new things and taking them home to show to her mother.
But today was decidedly different. Katie approached her house and could see shadows through the window. A lot of shadows. She squinted and could discern at least three men in her mother's living room. Along with two smaller shadows. Katie presumed it was her mother and someone else.
Monique had been telling Katie that her father was going to visit very soon. Katie didn't really know what to think of that. She supposed it was good. She didn't know her father really. She could recognize him from the one picture her mother carried around. But she knew nothing about him.
She would have much rather preferred a visit from Annanane. Katie loved visits from this exotic woman. She always had a book for her and a story about her daughter, Robin. Katie aspired to make Anna love her just as much as she loved Robin. She wanted her mother to love her the way Anna loved her daughter too.
The only thing was Anna hadn't been around to visit lately. Little did Katie know that the letters Monique was receiving from her father told her to cut off all contact with the WSB, especially Anna Devane. Katie had no idea that this last move to Florida was to get away from Anna.
This was probably the day that her father was supposed to visit. That's what all the people were there for.
But something stopped her from jumping in. Her mother had always told her that if she was surrounded by a lot of people, Katie should run as far away as she could. But Katie was curious and didn't want to run. So she hid in her house. Sneaking in she hid in the shadows of a closet, watching her mother interact with these visitors.
She didn't understand the language they were speaking. Katie knew little French, but she could tell the large men talking to one another were not speaking French. Her mother was in the middle of the room, seemingly surrounded by these imposing people.
Except for one other woman in the room. But she held a different air about her altogether. Monique looked at her as if she were the devil incarnate.
Katie could barely follow the fast paced conversation. The one thing she could understand was that her mother was frightened and angry.
"You should have never run away you little slut," the old woman said viciously. "It's only going to cause you more pain in the end."
"How did you find me?" Monique asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"The letters," Helena growled, throwing a pile of paper at Monique's feet. "Just be glad your bastard child is dead…or I would kill you before your very eyes."
Katie could only watch in horror as the large men restrained her mother. Helena brought a shiny object to her mother's throat and with one flick of her wrist…Monique fell to the ground with a shrill shriek that quickly died out.
Katie remained hiding as the visitors quickly left the house. She flinched when the front door slammed. It made her spring into action as she ran to her mother, wishing to help her up again.
"Mama?" Katie questioned, her eyes filling with unshed tears. "Mama I don't know what to do, there's so much red!"
She held her chubby hands to her mother's throat desperate to make it stop.
"HELP!" Katie screamed at the top of her lungs. Her childish sobs filled the room as she pressed on her mother's neck, desperate to stop the blood. "Someone help me please!"
She let her head rest on her mother's chest, her hands still clasped around her neck. And soon she couldn't see anything else but red.
***A WSB safe house in Florida***
"Little girl?" a soft voice tried to break into Katie's mind. "Are you going to wake up today?"
Victor Collins took a deep breath, staring at the little girl intently.
"You've been like this for three days," he whispered. "Do you know how long that is?"
No answer again. She had been found in the corner of a room upstairs from the murder victim. She had been covered in her mother's blood, catatonic to everything around her. In the bedroom upstairs she clutched two things. Two necklaces. Victor recognized them at once as Cassadine medallions.
"I need to know what happened," Victor sighed. "Can you tell me why you have those necklaces?"
No response. The girl didn't even blink her eyes. Her appearance was haunting to say the least. Her eyes were empty and they were rimmed with dark shadows. Her face was a deathly shade of white. And she had no expression, just staring off into space.
"I'm from this thing called the WSB," Victor suddenly started to explain, although he didn't understand why he was saying this to a little girl. "We help people." He turned around again to get away from her chilling brown eyes.
"Annanane," Katie whispered, blinking slightly.
"What?" Victor asked.
"Anna," Katie blinked again looking at Victor as it noticing for the first time. "I need to go to Anna…Devane."
Victor nodded, recognizing immediately the personal ties that young Devane agent could have to this case. He would go to her separately and tell her the girl was alive. But it was best for now if this little girl stayed far far away from Anna Devane.
***Four years later, a beach in Florida***
"Katie-did, will you please pay attention!" Caroline Benson yelled at her best friend.
"What?" Katie looked up in confusion.
"The ball!" Caroline pointed to the beach ball. She tossed her blond mane with a laugh as Katie quickly got up and retrieved Caroline's beach ball. "Stop reading and come play with us!"
"In a minute," Katie nodded, looking back into the books. It was one of the few possessions she had kept from her life with her mother. The books fascinated her beyond all belief.
"You're little sister is a little crazy," a seventeen year old boy told the fourteen year old Caroline as he sauntered up to her, wrapping his arm around her.
He didn't expect for Caroline to push him into the sand forcefully, or kick the sand in his face. "You just shut your mouth about her," Caroline hissed.
"Sorry," he shrugged. There went his chances of landing the hot young Caroline Benson.
Katie grinned at Caroline's showing off before going back into her books. They were gifts. She could remember that much. From Annanane.
She could never remember what happened to Anna though. She wished she could. There were always new questions popping up into her head. Ones that she desperately needed answered.
Katie reread a paragraph in the copy of Little Women, a paragraph that she had read thousands of times. It didn't make any sense at all to her. She had compared it to the library's copy and it didn't match.
Just that one paragraph in the whole book. And all the other books that Anna ever gave her held similar, curious paragraphs.
It was some sort of code, but Katie couldn't comprehend it just yet. She didn't know if she ever would. But she knew she needed to try her best. Something told her that if she figured it out, she would find Anna, and finally get some answers.
Her musings were cut short by the beach ball again, landing directly in her lap.
"Hey Cuckoo bird!" the same boy shouted at her. "Can you get your crazy orphan butt to throw that thing to me!"
Katie closed her eyes and sighed, knowing what was coming next. She heard Caroline tackle the defenseless boy, hitting him mercilessly as he screamed for help. Katie reluctantly got up to stop Caroline from getting arrested.
***Five years later, Texas***
Years and years of cracking codes and this is where she ended up. A little cattle ranch in the panhandle of Texas. She had been on another one of her week long jaunts, hitch hiking and stealing train and bus rides across country.
All of those mysterious paragraphs in her many books actually meant something after all. It took her forever to figure it out with no clues, but she had. She counted to every prime number, going to that letter in the paragraph and found that the combined letters spelled state names…city names, sometimes even addresses. That was one of the easier codes to crack, Katie found that with even more impossible orders she would get names. And one of them was Anna Devane.
And another year of traveling to all of these possible addresses, and she wound up at this tiny ranch.
"She can't be here," Katie shook her head. Although she hoped against hope she was. There weren't many more places to look.
Katie had also managed to get another name from those books. Some master operator of the whole deal that knew where everyone was. Only when Katie tried to contact the person, he had thought it was a prank and got the number changed.
So she decided to do it by trial by elimination.
And she was close to having them all eliminated.
She approached the ranch while scratching her scalp. She'd been on the road for days and hadn't been able to get a shower in the longest time. Caroline was going to have a fit when she got back to Florida with all of these dirty things. Katie squinted in the scorching sun, seeing a figure in the distance, and desperately trying to control a horse.
"Damn," the woman muttered as the horse reared and strutted when the only thing she wanted it to do was sit still. She finally threw the reins down in anger and hissed at the horse, "I've been trying with you I really have, why in the world won't you do what I want you to do?"
Katie instantly recognized the voice. The accent was unmistakable. And that long dark hair in a loose braid hanging down her back.
"Annanane?" Katie whispered.
Anna froze, she hadn't heard that name in a long time. Not since Victor Collins called her nine years ago. She turned slowly, not recognizing the beautiful teenager before her. But she somehow managed to get the words past her dry lips, "Katya?"
***Later that day***
"Thank you Robert," Anna grinned at her husband before placing the warm meal in front of the tired looking girl. She took a deep breath and said, "I can't believe you found us."
"Well…it only took nine years," Katie said modestly. "I wish I had some clues to figure those books out in the first place…but all I got was no where a lot."
"But you found me," Anna reassured her, placing a hand over hers. "That's all that matters."
Katie smiled and started shoveling in the good chili and cornbread.
"You like it?" Robert asked raising an amused eyebrow at the girl. When she nodded with her mouth full he grinned, "Secret recipe I stole from a friend in Port Charles, New York."
"Well it's very good," Katie grinned. "Thank you Mr. Scorpio."
Robert grinned and went back to his study for the time being. Anna had told him she had a lot to discuss with the girl. The two remaining women remained silent for a while, Katie munched on her meal and Anna looked at her as if she were some sort of ghost.
"Why didn't you come for me?" Katie asked suddenly, looking up from the wood of the kitchen table.
Anna sat back, she was ready for her questions. "I wasn't allowed, company rules."
"I don't understand," Katie shook her head. "What's this whole WSB thing anyway? And…you know why do they get to tell you who you get to see?"
"The WSB is a life long curse and blessing," Anna shrugged. "I had to stay away from you because they said I was too personally involved to begin with."
"Well if you were already personally involved, what was a little more going to hurt?" Katie said sullenly. "I didn't understand what was going on…I still don't really understand what's going on."
Anna nodded, she herself rarely understood the intricate webs the WSB had made in her life. She suspected something else in the Cassadine cases…something even bigger than the WSB itself. She didn't dare voice her concern though, she still had a daughter to worry about. And people that found things out about the head of the WSB…usually they found themselves with nothing to worry about in the end.
"Do you remember my mother?" Katie asked quietly, just as suddenly as her previous question.
"Of course I do," Anna nodded. "She was a beautiful, strong woman. Incredibly smart, almost fearless. She loved you very much you know."
Katie's eyes welled up with tears but she wouldn't dare let them leave her eyes. Anna saw it, saw so much of her mother in her in her foolish strength. She placed a reassuring arm around the girl's shoulders, pulling her to herself.
"I can't remember her," Katie sobbed quietly.
"That's nonsense," Anna shook her head. "Of course you can remember her."
"But I don't like to. It was my fault wasn't it?" Katie asked quietly. "The old woman said that if mama had never run she would be alive. And…and she ran because of me…right?"
Anna sighed deeply, not really wanting to get into Katie's family history right now. She did the only thing she could do. She petted the girl's long black locks and whispered, "None of this is your fault Katya. Absolutely none of it."
***Florida, Caroline's apartment***
"Take a nice long shower!" Caroline ordered. She was surprised when Katie emerged from the bathroom clad in her bathrobe. "You have got to be kidding me, you're not done yet!"
"I'm too excited to be clean!" Katie insisted.
"Eww…that's gross Katie-bear," Caroline screwed up her face in disgust.
"I took a shower all right," Katie rolled her eyes. "Just not a forever long one like you," Katie pushed her finger into her best friend's shoulder blade. "And don't call me Katie-bear, it's a ridiculous name."
"Oh…the little girl spends one weekend with her hero and now I'm utterly ridiculous!" Caroline sneered.
"You know you're my hero!" Katie said reproachfully, a silly grin plastered on her face.
"So what's going to happen now?" Caroline demanded.
"Now?" Katie shrugged. "She said she would call someone who could get me hooked up."
"So you're going to be leaving?" Caroline bit her lip. "Because I may be leaving soon too," she admitted. "I'm through with Florida."
The phone rang, making Katie jump with excitement, "Hello?"
"Katie Thomas?" a gruff voice bellowed over the phone. "This is Marcus Taggert. I was told to call you."
"Really?" Katie grinned, hopping up and down with excitement.
Taggert rolled his eyes. This was just a kid…a kid that had been signed as his partner. Normally this was against protocol, but the girl had cracked the code with zero help, the WSB couldn't pass her up. And she was willing.
"Did Anna call you?" Katie demanded.
"The thing with Anna…she's dead Katie," Taggert said quietly.
"What?" Katie nearly dropped the phone. "I just saw her this weekend!"
"Yeah well things happen in the shortest amount of time," Taggert explained lamely. Truth was Anna and Robert Scorpio were supposed to be dead, but they really were on that ranch where Katie had been that weekend.
"Don't lie to me," Katie mumbled angrily. "You just wait, if you don't tell me the truth right now, I'll find her daughter! I'll take this to the press! This entire WSB thing will be out in the open, every safe house, every important place you can think of…"
"Okay, okay I give," Taggert said quickly. This kid was more trouble than she was worth, he was sure. Then again it had taken him tutors, cheat sheets and three years to get the code. She had gotten it all on her own. This was going to be an uneasy partnership if the kid could already get him to break at her every whim. "She's just not alive to the world. Her safety depends on it."
"Wow," Katie breathed. She was astonished and overwhelmed at the information she had gotten, "So is that like my first official, REAL secret?"
"I swear if you have pimples and a retainer I'm going to scream!" Taggert groaned at her childish wonderment.
"I do not have pimples!" Katie scoffed. "And only dorks wear retainers."
"Didn't mean to offend you kid," Taggert laughed at her feisty nature. "So are you ready to start your life with the WSB?"
"Am I ever," Katie grinned, mentally preparing herself for whatever adventures the future held for her.