Word Count: 930

-2-

Brad fully expected his husband to be naked and waiting when he got home, but instead Lucas was completely dressed and looking the very opposite of relaxed. He was pacing their small apartment with his phone to his ear, listening intently to whoever was on the other end of the line.

"Just let me know if you hear anything. Bye, Dad."

With a heavy sigh he hung up the phone.

"That's not a happy face," Brad said needlessly.

"That was Julian. He's trying to hide it but he's kind of starting to freak out."

"Why?"

"No one's heard from Sam in a while. Patrick was working all day but Alexis went over to their place and found Sam's broken phone on the floor, but otherwise no trace of her. And she didn't pick Danny up from school."

"Hey, hey." Brad quickly took Lucas's shoulders and gently rubbed them. "Don't you start to freak out, too. She was just at the hospital with Patrick this morning. She couldn't have gotten into too much trouble since then."

Lucas tilted his head. "If you truly believe that, then you really don't know my sister."

"Just hear me out. Maybe she's gotten herself into a jam, but it's only just starting to get dark out. There's no need to panic yet okay?"

As comforting as the words were meant to be, Lucas still had a bad feeling about this whole thing. Like waiting any longer would only hurt Sam. Then he remembered.

"Hey, as far as anyone could tell, you were the last person to talk to Sam. She say anything, give any indication as to where she might have been headed?"

Brad looked away guiltily before settling back on his husband's face. "She said that she was coming back to the hospital to see Patrick."

But Lucas sensed the slight change in Brad's body language.

"That's all?"

A half shrug/half nod.

"And how did she seem? Did she sound stressed or busy or...anything?"

"She...was...happy," Brad settled on.

Having had enough, Lucas stepped away from his husband. Brad sighed, realizing he couldn't get away with even white lies or lies of omission with this man anymore.

"I promise, she was happy when I spoke to her. She couldn't wait to see Patrick. I don't know what could have stopped her."

Well, he had a few ideas and none of them were good. He was surprised to recognize that the apprehension he was feeling grew from worry for her; not just Brad's Sister, but Sam herself.

He wanted to tell Lucas that Sam was supposed to be delivering the news of her pregnancy, but if this all turned out to be a bunch of miscommunications, Sam would swiftly kick his ass for giving the news first.

"She's going to be okay," Brad promised, hoping positive thoughts counted for something. Lucas didn't seem to have much fight in him at the moment, and his shoulders dropped as he let Brad wrap his arms around him.

"I hope you're right."

"No one's heard from my daughter since yesterday. That's your standard twenty-four hours. Her whole family's been searching the town for her; now's when you step in."

If it was solely up to Julian, he wouldn't even be in this damn police department. He didn't like the venue; didn't like the people; didn't like the smell. Unfortunately, the love of his life wasn't ready for him to resort to less-than-legal methods to find their daughter. His way was to be their final recourse.

Detective Nathan West sighed, not wanting to deal with Jerome. Fortunately, Alexis had warned him ahead of time that Julian was storming his way.

"I'm well aware of the situation. Alexis already filled me in."

"Then why are you still sitting on your ass?"

Nathan is almost one hundred percent sure he can take Julian hand-to-hand, but he pushes his annoyance aside and rises to his full height.

"Believe me, I'm taking this seriously, like I always do my job."

"Well you're allegedly Sam's family, so I'm telling you to be even more diligent and get results yesterday."

If his daughter could hear him now, she would have his head. She was more than capable of taking care of herself, and they all knew that. By the end of the day she'd probably be reprimanding the whole family for raising such hell on her behalf.

"I do consider Sam family, And I already have people on it. Julian, I promise you, we're going to find her."

The kid's promise did nothing to ease his fears. His words were useless to Julian, except for making him realize that he was wasting his time here.

There was a grunt in lieu of a farewell as Julian turned around to make his exit without another word.

"Don't do anything stupid, Jerome," Nathan called to him. Not much chance of that, he thought.

Nikolas swirled the amber-filled glass, feeling the cloud fogging his brain getting darker and darker. He was almost numb. Almost.

The truth was going to come out soon, and there was nothing he could do about it. And now this message from his aunt. Sam is missing.

Not numb enough yet, the very thought of her being missing sent a pang of dread through him. The least he could do is to help look for her. He made himself sick as he considered the benefit of her being gone: keeping her mouth shut. He and Elizabeth could be in the clear, problem solved.

He moaned in disgust at his logic. How very Cassadine of him.

A/N: starting you off with the first two chapters. Hopefully I can give you new ones weekly. Please review and enjoy the story