Section Two

Luke Spencer sighed, sitting down on the bed in his son's apartment. He hadn't seen the kid in nearly a week and, after two days of searching; he was starting to get worried. Lucky had, in recent years, developed an annoying habit of taking off whenever the mood hit without telling anybody, so it wasn't the fact that he couldn't find the kid that had him worried. The thing that had him sitting on his son's bed an hour before dawn was that he could find no evidence that the kid had taken anything with him.

Luke knew the driver's license and bankcard still sitting on the bed stand wasn't anything to worry about, Lucky knew how to accumulate fake ID's. However, he would never leave his backpack behind, or go on a prolonged trip without first making sure he had plenty of money and, according to the bank record, Lucky hadn't drawn a penny from his account except to pay rent for the last two weeks.

Pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes, Luke wracked his brain trying to think of what he could have missed. Something felt very wrong about this and he was about to do something incredibly stupid, like call the police and report the kid missing. That might actually have been an option at this point if he thought there was a single cop in this town who could find their own car keys. No, he was going to have to find Lucky himself. If only he had a place to start.


"Sir? Sir, can you hear me?"

Lucky struggled to open his eyes, trying to identify the source of the distant voice.

"If you can hear me I want you to squeeze my hand OK?" He heard the voice again, a little closer this time, and attempted to contract his hand around the warmth he now could identify as a hand.

"That's good, very good. Now, I'm going to go get the doctor to let him know you're awake. Don't drift on me, I'll be right back."

Lucky nodded slightly, opening his eyes just in time to see the young woman's back as she left the room. Feeling like he was moving through water, Lucky looked around, trying to take stock of his situation. He was in a hospital room, and there was an IV attached to his hand. When he brought his hand up to his head he felt a bandage taped to his forehead, and an incredible pain emanating from his middle surged to life at the movement. What had happened?

An older man who could only be the doctor walked into the room before the thought was complete.

"Hello young man," the doctor said smiling gently. "I'm Dr. Jacobson, how are you feeling this morning?"

Lucky squinted, trying to focus more clearly, "What happened?" he asked, his voice sounding hoarse to his own ears.

"The bus you were on was hit by a semi just as it got into town." The doctor said looking closely at Lucky.

Lucky nodded, he remembered the bus.

That seemed to be enough of a response for the doctor and he continued speaking, "You were very lucky, young man. You were unconscious and bleeding when the paramedics finally pulled you out. Don't worry about the head, though, it seems to have been just a nasty bump. You did have some internal bleeding, though and we had to remove your spleen."

The doctor continued speaking, but Lucky didn't hear him, still trying to process that last piece of information. Remove his spleen? That wasn't possible.

"Young man? Young man?"

Lucky shook his head and looked at the doctor who was studying him with some concern.

"I'm sorry. What did you say?" Lucky asked not liking the look on the doctor's face.

"I asked you what you're name is. You've been unconscious since the accident and we couldn't find anything to identify you on the bus."

"Lucky Spencer," Lucky answered the doctor before fully considering the question. Technically his name was Lucas, not Lucky, but the thought wouldn't occur to him until later.

"Lucky Spencer?" the doctor asked, and at Lucky's nod he wrote something down on the clipboard in his hand. "Well Mr. Spencer," the doctor continued, "I want to keep you here for a few days OK? The incision on your abdomen will need some time to heal and you seem to be disoriented, I'm a little worried that the blow to your head may have caused more damage than I originally thought. Do you need us to contact someone and let them know you're here?" The doctor waited until Lucky shook his head no, and then continued, "There's a phone by the bed there if you change your mind, and the button there will call a nurse to you OK? I'll be back to check on you again in a few hours."

Lucky watched the doctor leave and lay back down, still trying to assess his situation.

"He seems a little disoriented." He heard Doctor Jacobson say to the nurse outside the room. "It might be the concussion, but I still want a close eye kept on his mental state." Lucky didn't hear the nurse's answer, but could guess as to what it had been.

Looking around the sterile room Lucky considered the doctor's comments about his spleen being removed. He knew that couldn't be possible. When he was ten he'd been shot in the stomach and during the surgery to remove the bullet, the doctors at General Hospital had removed his spleen. He remembered it clearly because it had scared him so much to find he couldn't walk at first and Tony Jones had explained the surgery to him.

Lucky closed his eyes, deciding he might have to stay here a little longer than necessary to investigate. If the doctors and nurses thought he was too weak to move, it would be much easier to do some 'investigating' while no one was around.


Luke leaned back in his chair, staring at the phone intensely, willing it to ring. It was too soon for anything to be coming in, but there was nothing left to do and waiting had never been his strong suite. A knock on the door made Luke looked up, wondering who it could possibly be.

"Mr. Spencer?" a voice said from behind the door as the knocking came again.

Luke waited a moment, slightly surprised when he recognized the voice, "Come in, Cassadine."

Nikolas walked through the door hesitantly. Going into a room alone with Luke Spencer had always made him feel a little like he was walking into the proverbial lion's den.

"I heard that you were looking for me." Nikolas said, coming into the room fully, while being sure to leave the door open behind him.

Luke leaned back in his chair and regarded the young man in front of him a moment before picking up a cigar. "And I heard," Luke paused to cut the end of his cigar, "that you were in a meeting and wouldn't be available until tomorrow."

"We finished early."

"Ah, I see," Luke said, picking up his lighter and lighting his cigar.

Nikolas waited a few long moments before realizing Luke wasn't going to continue. "Well, obviously whatever it was has resolved itself. So, if you don't mind, I'll be getting home."

Luke smiled to himself at the slight irritation he heard in the kid's voice and waited until he was nearly out the door before speaking up. "When was the last time you saw Lucky?"

Nikolas stopped, halfway out the door, then turned back to face Luke, a confused and slightly worried look on his face. "About a week ago; we had dinner. Why?"

Luke exhaled a heavy cloud of smoke that billowed out to curl around the room, "As near as I can tell," Luke said putting his cigar in between his teeth, "the last time anyone saw him was Sunday night."

Nikolas paused, considering his words carefully. "He could have just decided to leave. He does that occasionally." Even as he said it he knew there was something else bothering Luke. He just wasn't the kind of parent that worried unnecessarily.

Luke shook his head and put his cigar, still lit, on a tray on his desk, "Not without taking anything with him."

Nikolas blinked; Luke was actually going to give him information? That just never happened. "He didn't take anything?" Nikolas asked, trying to keep his voice neutral. "You're sure?"

"Of course I'm sure Cassadine. Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, that's not what I said." Nikolas said quickly. He would rather cut out his own tongue than apologize to Luke Spencer, and this was as close as he could make himself come. "It's just . . . I'm just trying to figure out what's going on, that's all."

Luke considered the young man, picking up his cigar once again. He really didn't like this kid, but the Cassadine money would certainly help speed things up a bit in finding information. Besides, Lucky had grown close to his 'brother'.

"OK," Luke said slowly, making his decision, "I'll try and make this simple, so you can follow."

Nikolas sighed at the insult, but sat down in the chair across from Luke, waiting for him to start.

TBC . . .

P.S. For those of you who are leery of reading works in progress, don't worry, this story IS finished. I'm just waiting on a friend of mine to go through and help me weed out all the major errors before posting each section.