Part 3

Less than an hour later Liz entered Nik's living room with her children. Jake ran right to his uncle and threw himself in his arms.

"Hello" Nik said with a slight laugh. Even though he understood the sad reason that Jake tended to cling to him, it still made him smile that his nephew was so happy to see him. "What brings you all here this afternoon?"

Liz sighed as she sat down on the couch. "We need a place to stay."

Nik frowned. "What? Why?"

Liz looked at the boys meaningfully and Nik nodded. He grabbed the phone on the desk and dialed an internal extension. "Kara. Can you and Spence come down and get Cam and Jake? Thanks." He was unerringly polite and friendly, but he didn't stop for a reply. It was her job to do his bidding after all. He was the prince.

A few minutes later the kids were all upstairs playing and Nik again asked what was wrong. Liz explained her conversation with Jason as concisely as possible.

"I don't understand why he's doing this now? Couldn't he wait until Lucky was cold in the ground?"

For the first time that day she allowed herself to cry. She felt safe breaking down with Nik. He was her rock, as she was for him. The last remaining Musketeers relied on each other. When their pain and grief became too much, they turned to each other. Now she was turning to him to protect her sons. He held her close, even after her tears had dried.

"Of course you can stay here. In fact, if you hadn't asked, I'd insist. Jason is basically placing a target on Jake's back, and you and Cam aren't really any safer. At least here we can mostly control who comes and goes."

Liz nodded, pulling herself closer to him as she did. That was why it was her first instinct to come here. If she just wanted away from that house she could have stayed at the Spencer house with Lulu, with her brother at her Gram's old house or, god forbid, at the Quartermaines' with the other Spencers. That would only put them at risk though, and she didn't want that. Nik was, unfortunately, very used to protecting a child from criminals and loonies. Anthony Zachara was who she was most afraid of, even if he was in prison, and he ranked right up there with Helena on the freak meter.

"Am I overreacting?" She muttered into his shirt. She knew she probably wasn't, but she needed to hear it from someone else. Someone who would be slightly more objective than she could be.

"No, you are not. This is the best place for the kids to be. They have plenty of places to play and explore without leaving the island. They won't even feel confined here." He hesitated. "That is, if that's what you want. I just think it will be safer, and you don't need to pay for daycare when you work since I have a nanny already here."

"No, you're right." She pulled away and felt somehow emptier doing it. "Mostly, anyway. Jake can stay with Spence while I work, but Cameron needs to go to school. I know you could get him a tutor, but I think it would be better to at least keep that normal." After a pause she added. "For now at least."

Nic nodded and leaned back into the couch. Liz relaxed into him and rested her head on his shoulder. Ten minutes later they were asleep.

You would think that a big old castle like Wyndemere would be nearly sound proof. Voices shouldn't carry through stone, thick carpets and tapestries. Unfortunately the bedrooms on the second floor weren't as well insulated as you'd expect.

A scream echoed down the hall where the family quarters were located in the castle. Four doors opened within seconds of each other. Two adults ran down the hall while two little heads just peaked out in curiosity. Cam was pretty sure he knew what was going on, but he wanted to check anyway. Spence was just confused. Elizabeth expected this so she stopped in the hall where the doors sat opposite each other and smiled reassuringly at both of them.

"It's ok; Jake is just having another nightmare. Cam, why don't you go in Spencer's room and you boys can camp out on the floor?"

Cam nodded and went to grab a blanket and pillow. Liz made sure the boys were settled before she went further down the hall to where Nikolas was comforting Jake.

She stood back in the doorway and watched them for a moment. This was the first time anyone but her had been there to help Jake through his nightmares. She could never get him to talk about them, but with Nik, tonight, he wouldn't shut up. Maybe it was that Nik had been the one to find him that day, or maybe it was that her own grief and worry shone through when she held him close. Either way, this was good for him, and she didn't want to interfere.

"Shhh, It's ok Jake. I've got you." Nikolas was saying as he held Jake and rocked him like a baby.

"He's a bad guy, Uncle Nik. Daddy said that only police men and bad guys have guns. But he told me that he wasn't a police man."

"You talked to him?" Nik asked, bile rising in his stomach. He had assumed that it had been quick. The idea that the encounter had been longer than just a minute…

"No," Jake said, calmer now. "before. I asked him once if he was a police man and he said no."

Nik's head whipped around to see Liz's face. This was obviously news to her as well. He didn't want to push Jake, but maybe talking about it would help him. " Where did you see the bad guy before?"

"He's mommy's friend. Why is mommy friends with a bad guy?"

Nik again looked over to Elizabeth. She has a pained look on her face and tears welling. It was incredible how beautiful she looked when she was so sad. And, ok, that was weird, moving on.

"Maybe she doesn't know he's a bad guy. You should tell her, so she doesn't get hurt." Jake mulled it over a bit before slowly nodding. Liz picked up the hint, dried her eyes and came in the room.

"Hey kiddo. What's got you up so late?" She tried to be casual and calm, but her hands were shaking. Nik reached out and held her hand in his. She felt better almost instantly.

Jake was quiet for just a second. His mommy was always there to make him feel better. She always knew what to say, but he didn't want to make her sad anymore. He always heard her cry after he woke up with nightmares. But Uncle Nik was right. Bad guys hurt people and Mommy's friend was a bad guy. Daddy was gone now and he didn't want Mommy to go away too.

"Mommy, you can't play with Mr. Morgan anymore. He's not a nice boy." That's what Mommy had said to him when Tommy Glen had hurt Jamie Dawson's puppy. It was ok though, because he didn't really like Tommy anyway.

Nik's grip on Liz's hand tightened and she choked out. "Ok, Jake, I won't. Do you wanna camp out in Spence's room with him and Cam?"

Jake didn't bother to answer, he just grabbed his pillow and blanked and scurried out of the room and down the hall. A short burst of giggling followed and then they quieted down and went to sleep.

As soon as it seemed like the kids were asleep Liz began sobbing hysterically. Muffling her criew with her hands as she paced Jake's room. Nik pulled her close to him and hurried her down the hall to the master suite. It was the furthest room down the hall in the wing of the house where all the family bedrooms and Spencer's playroom were located.

He had moved Spencer from right next to him to at the far end of the hall when his rages had first developed a few years earlier. He had been grateful for that when Emily's death had furthered his downward spiral. He was grateful again now. None of the children needed to hear or see the state Elizabeth was in, or the one he was working himself into.

The moment they closed the door behind them, Elizabeth broke down screaming. This was worse than even her darkest nightmares had predicted. When she was pregnant with Jake, before she told Jason the truth, she had endured so many nightmares about how bad things could get. Nightmares about being blown up like Lilly, being shot by a man who was supposed to love her like Carly, her children being kidnapped by insane enemies the was Morgan, Michael and Kristina had been. This was worse than anything she had imagined.

Lucky being a cop had risks. She had accepted long ago that he could be killed in the line of duty. That was the price of being the hero. Being the one that put the criminals away and protected the innocent. There was also the threat that Helena would one day decide to get to Luke through his children. Of course she was in as much danger away from Lucky as she was with him, and her children were also fair game to the sick old woman. She had done her fair share to piss her off over the years. These were things that she had tried to be prepared for over the years. There were never any guarantees. Life was risk, and there were always people who would harm others for their own sick reasons.

But Lucky didn't court those risks for the most part. Yes, being a cop was a choice, but it was a brave, honest, legal choice. He didn't murder people knowing that it could bring hell down upon him at any time. He didn't invite the danger home with him.

Liz's nightmares hadn't been confined to the "how will Jason destroy my child" line of reasoning. She had been equally terrified of Lucky's addiction and his rage. It was something that no mother could ignore.

All things being laid out on the table, and her actual feelings for the two men being confused and off balance… She chose the man that was taking steps to overcome his darkness. The one who was trying to change, for her. Was she wrong? She didn't really know. It was something that she questioned constantly over the last 5 years. From the moment she asked Jason to give up his son. She had hurt everyone with that decision. Right now though, she only wished she had never told him.

Could Jason have changed his world for Jake? Would he have been willing to at least try? Nothing he had done had pointed to that really. He made promises, but he took them back just as quickly. He was who he was, and he wasn't going to change that. She had tried to make something, anything, work, but it hadn't and she couldn't help being relieved that Jake wasn't a part of that.

But he was a part of this. It was something that would haunt him his whole life, and it was only getting worse. At least he wouldn't remember the kidnappings and being held at gunpoint. Cam would only vaguely remember those moments. But Lucky's death? That would stick with him. He understood what death was now, and there was no going back. Knowing that the killer was his own biological father? She wasn't sure how he would take that. If he would ever forgive her for the lies she told. God help them if Jason actually got some kind of contact with Jake. She didn't think she would be able to stand for it. By Nik's reaction, he wouldn't. She was all of the sudden grateful for the Cassidine in him.

"What is he THINKING?" She blurted once she had calmed down some. While she had been sobbing Nik had laid her down on his bed and he was now holding her close. Her back was pulled tightly to his chest and his arms were holding her together. She felt like she'd shatter if he let her go. "What in God's name could he possibly be thinking?"

Nik let out a breath. He was enjoying holding her a lot more than he should, but he knew that she needed it, so he didn't pull away. Not that he thought that he really could. If he let her go he would explode. He was nothing but a grenade, and she was the pin. Holding her together was holding him together. "He's probably thinking that Jake didn't see him, or that he doesn't remember. All he knows is what the police know, which is that Jake couldn't talk about it or describe the person that… shot Lucky."

"I should have known something was wrong. I didn't see it though. I didn't see the way he flinched when I said Lucky's name, or brought up the shooting." She had spent the better part of an hour hysterical, and her words now came out almost cold, her emotion spent.

They didn't say another word, they just lay there together until they eventually fell asleep.