Also, I'd like to note that I do not own ABC's "General Hospital" or the characters and I will NOT be receiving any payment whatsoever for writing this story. It is intended for entertainment purposes only.
~*Chapter Four: Desire*~
After an uncomfortable night of sleeping on the cot, Kristina and Ethan were awakened when Helena and her goons appeared outside of their cell. "We brought you breakfast. You must eat every bite," Helena said with a wicked grin as a tray of food was sent in through a slot in the bars.
Ethan lifted the tray and looked at the food suspiciously. "What did you put into it? Some kind of poison?" he demanded.
Helena laughed. "Why would I poison you? I wouldn't want to harm either one of you or I would not get my heir," Helena responded. "No, there isn't any poison in the food. But there might be something else..."
"What did you put in our food?" Krissy demanded.
"I had the cook sprinkle in a little aphrodisiacs," Helena told them with a wink.
"Ohhh my God!" Ethan gasped.
"I am not eating this food, you wrinkled-up, disgusting, old-!" Kristina cried out.
"Temper, temper, my dear sweet Kristina. Aphrodisiacs aren't all you'll be getting. It's time for your fertility injection," said Helena as her eyes twinkled with amusement.
She sent her goons into the cell to grab Ethan in a powerful hold as her physician entered, Dr. Kronos and injected Kristina in the hip with a syringe. Kristina cried out and tried twisting away, but she could not escape as two of Helena's henchmen held her steady. Looking across the cell as Ethan struggled to get free and go to her side, tears rushed from Kristina's eyes. Her crazy grandmother meant business. She had laced their food with aphrodisiacs, then had given her some sort of injection to increase her chances of conception. Helena wouldn't rest until she got her 'heir.'
"We'll never give you what it is you want!" Krissy spouted off when the goons let her and Ethan go and had quickly exited their little prison.
"Ohhh I think you will, if you want to live!" responded Helena.
"I'd rather die than see you do this to Kristina," Ethan spoke up as he glared at Helena through the bars.
"Ohhh that can be arranged. Perhaps you are dispensable after all. You do have an older brother. Lucky could 'do the trick.' He could just as easily get Kristina pregnant if you can't perform. And if I have to kill her, there's always her little sister," Helena stated. "Although Molly's a bit young to have a baby..."
"Ohhh my God, you make me sick!" Kristina cried out when Helena threatened to bring Lucky or Molly into her evil plans.
Helena just laughed wickedly. "Give me what I want and I will set you both free," she promised. "It's as simple as that... unless you'd like to pay the consequences." With those words, Helena signaled to her physician and her goons and they followed her into the tunnel and disappeared out of sight.
As soon as she was gone, Kristina looked at Ethan as she rubbed her hip which continued to throb from the painful injection. "Ethan, what are we going to do?" she asked him fearfully.
"I dunno," he said quietly. "There isn't a lot we can do at the moment. It's been over 24 hours since we've eaten, and the only food that's been provided for us is laced with aphrodisiacs ... or so she says."
"So, we are just supposed to eat that?" Kristina demanded.
"Kristina, we can't starve. We have to keep our strength up so we can escape this place," Ethan said with a heavy sigh. "Yes... I do think we are going to have to eat the food."
"Wh- what will the food make us do?"
A half smile came to Ethan's face as he picked up a piece of bacon from the tray and started nibbling on it. "I don't know. I have never eaten aphrodisiacs before..." he said with a slight chuckle.
"Ethan, this isn't funny. We need to talk about our options. You aren't actually thinking of going along with that woman's plans, are you?" Kristina asked him quietly.
"Kristina, Helena's very dangerous and demented. We might not have another choice," Ethan stated. "I have to keep you safe. If I get you out of here alive, that's all that matters to me..."
"I won't have sex with you... just because that woman tells us to... and if I get pregnant, I won't hand her over my baby," Kristina said as she looked hungrily at the tray of food. She was starving, but afraid of what the effects might be. As her stomach rumbled, she went to sit down on the edge of the cot.
Ethan went to sit with her, wrapping an arm around her in comfort. "Kristina, I feel so helpless here. I want to keep you safe and get you out of this mess. But I don't know how to do it. I don't have the means to get us free right now. So, you'll just have to trust me. Trust me that I am going to do everything in my power to get us out of here, so you can go off to Yale and have the life that your parents were dreaming for you. I know you're scared now, but I am going to do everything I can to protect you," Ethan said to her. "You believe me, don't you?"
Krissy gazed into Ethan's eyes. "I believe you. None of this is your fault, Ethan," she said as she wrapped her arms around him. "I'm just so scared right now..."
"I know," Ethan responded as he softly caressed her cheek. "But we are going to be okay."
Tenderly he lowered his lips to hers in a soft, lingering kiss. She wrapped her arms around him tightly as the kiss continued and turned to one of passion. After a moment, Kristina broke away, looking at him questioningly.
"Kristina, I need to ask you about something..."
"What?" she whispered.
"You still have feelings for me, don't you?"
Quietly, she nodded. "That's good, because I have feelings for you, too; though I tried to forget them. I thought you were better off if we weren't together, if you went on to Yale and met someone else a little younger. Everyone kept telling me you weren't the one for me, but I should not have listened to them," Ethan admitted. "I should have listened to MY heart... and most of all, I shouldn't have lied to you when you asked me about my feelings..."
"Will you forgive me, Kristina?" Ethan asked her softly.
"I forgive you," she told him quietly. "But I knew it all along; that we were meant to be together."
"I think that Helena knows it, too... and that's why she's doing this. She knows in the end that we can't resist each other," Ethan said with a heavy sigh.
"Ethan, what are you saying?" Kristina asked.
"I am saying I want you, Kristina," he admitted.