Well, here you go. It took me dropping a bottle of V-8 on my foot for me to sit down and write the next chapter. I have no idea where this is going and this chapter kind wrote itself. But since I'm patiently waiting for my husband to get home from work to me to Med Express for X-rays, I guess I'll start the next chapter. I hope you like it...and as always, I hate to proofread...so ignore the errors until i find them and fix them. -Jenn
Chapter 7
Spencer stepped up onto the deck that surrounded the lakehouse. He couldn't bring himself to knock on the door for fear of what he would have to face on the other side. He leaned against the railing and looked out over the lake. It was a calm, tranquil morning. The birds were chirping and squirrels were playing on the path that twisted through the woods and led down to the lake. He smiled to himself as he thought about the first time that he followed that path.
Flashback
"Molly...Molllllllllly..." the young 12 year old cried. "Molly where are you?"
"Hey Spence, whatcha doin'?" Spencer quickly turned around to see his older Cousin Sam standing just behind him. He loved Sam like a sister and he felt a connection with her that he couldn't quite explain but a smile always spread across his face whenever she was around.
"Oh, hey Sam. I was looking for Molly. Aunt Alexis told her that she had to clean her room and when I went to help, she was gone."
Sam let out a laugh, "So Molly's hiding from Mom, huh? Why doesn't that surprise me?" Sam moved to Spencer's side and wrapped her arm around his shoulders and leaned her head down to his. She lifted her other arm and pointed toward the woods. "You see that path over there, right beside the black raspberry bush?" Spencer nodded. "Follow that path and you'll find Molly at the end of it. It leads down to the lake and there is a huge log that Molly sits on when she wants to be alone. Or hide...from Mom," she finished.
Spencer's eyes got huge and unsure. He looked up to his cousin with uncertainty. "What? What's wrong?" she asked.
"That path...it...um...goes into the...um...woods."
"Yeah, so?"
"I'm not supposed to go into the woods, Sam."
Sam shook her head from side to side in disbelief. "Spencer, you're too good of a kid and your father is freakishly overprotective. Every now and then you're going to have to take a chance in life. Do you want to go see Molly?"
He nodded. "Then go. Don't worry about what Nik is going to say. I take care of him. If he finds out. And he doesn't need to find out. So go. Stay on the path."
"You'll cover it with dad?"
"Yes, I take of your dad." Spencer smiled and ran toward the path.
"Hey, Spence," Sam called to him.
He stopped and turned, "yeah?"
"Do you have your phone?" he nodded and she smiled. "Good, call me if you get lost." He flashed her one more smile and disappeared down the path.
"Hey, Spence..." He heard Molly's voice pull him out of his memory. He turned to see Molly standing behind him she looked so much like Sam and he let the smile crawl across his face once more at the memory. "What are you doing here?"
"Hi, Mol. I didn't know that where back... "
"Yeah, I got in last night."
"I stopped by hoping to talk to Tina and Sam."
"Sam and Tina aren't here. Sam had to take some things to the office and Mom made Tina go with her. It was funny, Mom gave Tina explicit instructions to stay in the car and wait for Sam."
"How come?"
"Well, Mom knows that Sam had to take the car keys with her to get into her office. So if Tina stayed in the car suffocating in the heat, Sam wouldn't be compelled to stay at work and shut out the world." She sat down on the padded wicker bench and patted the pillow next her motion for Spencer to join her. "So, how are you doing?"
He shrugged and accepted her invitation to sit. "As well as can be expected, I guess. Did Aunt Alexis fill you in?"
"Yeah, well...no...Sam started to tell me, but I kinda ran off. I didn't want to hear it. Besides, I get the feeling that I should hear it from you."
Spencer looked away quickly. He stared at the path thinking back to that day with Sam, her words were ringing in his head, 'every now and then you're going to have to take a chance in life.' He let out a sigh and turned back to Molly. "I don't know how to say this Mol, so I just going to blurt it out. I joined the Marines."
Molly flinched in shock and anger, "you did WHAT?"
"I think you heard me."
"What on earth possessed you to join the Marines?"
"I wanted something more, Molly." He got up and began to pace.
"Does Mom know about this?" she asked as she watched him move back and forth.
"Yeah, everyone knows. Including my Dad."
"And again, I ask. What on earth possessed you to join the Marines?"
He stopped pacing and looked at her intently, "Molly, I had to. I am tired of having everything handed to me. Think about it, we have never had to work for anything in our lives. The only person who wasn't handed everything on a silver platter was Sam. I want to know what it feels like to actually work to achieve something. You, Tina, and me...we never wanted for anything. We were all given a college education. I was handed a VP-ship as soon as my diploma was in my hand."
"You know, Spence, that is probably the only perk to being a part of this family."
"I want more Molly. I want a sense of self worth."
"Okay, I probably don't want the answer to this, but where does Sam fit in. She's beating herself up over something..."
"I got lost..."
"What?"
"I got lost. Remember that day that I finally followed the path down to the lake?"
Molly laughed, "Oh yeah, the day that I was hiding from Mom so I didn't have to clean my room."
"Yeah...well the only reason I walked down the path that day was because Sam convinced me to take a chance. Then she followed it up with 'call me if you get lost'. Ever since that day, I've counted on Sam to help me find my way when I am truly lost. So I talked to the recruiter. I've thought long and hard about what I wanted to do...and then I called Sam."
Molly's anger began to build. Spencer was always her best friend. Her confidante. Why didn't he feel that he could come to her? Why Sam?
"So tell me Spencer, did you sign the papers before or after you talk to my free loading, con artist sister?"
"Molly, that's below the belt..."
"Before or after, Spencer?"
"Molly..."
"Before or After? It's a simple question Spencer..."
"After...alright...after"
"What did she say to you? Did she convince you that joining the Marines would be adventurous? That the world would be at your fingertips? How this is the best thing that you could possibly do with your life?"
"No..." he yelled back at Molly. "No, she told me that it was my life and if this is what I want then I should go for with everything that I got. And that she would support any decision that I would make. She told me that she would back me up with Dad and Aunt Alexis. She understood...no correction... she understands what I am feeling."
Molly let out and angry sigh and looked up to the sky "so how did this lead to Nik's accident?"
Once again he leaned against the railing and remembering that stormy night, "Sam came over the night that I told Dad..."
Flashback
"What the hell do you mean, you joined the Marines? If you want to get yourself killed you can just go work for Sonny and Jason. I have worked hard to give you everything that you ever wanted, Spencer and this is how you repay me?"
"Dad this isn't about you, okay?" Spencer was interrupted when Nigel entered the room to announce the arrive of Samantha Davis, who was right on the butler's heels.
"This isn't a good time, Sam...I call you later." Nikolas tried to dismiss her.
"I asked Sam to be here Dad." Spencer stepped up next to Sam.
"What?"
"Before I made my final decision, I talked to Sam."
"Oh, so this is your doing, huh Sam?" He asked as he shoved her back from Spencer.
"I didn't do anything but support my cousin in a decision that he as made for himself, Nikolas." She shot back.
"His life is fine."
"For you maybe, but what about him. He wants more, we wants to get out of corporate Cassadine and see what else is out there."
"And you had nothing to do with that? You didn't fill his head about traveling the world without a care in the world, conning enough cash to eat for month, or going from on port to another?"
"No I didn't, I simply told him that I am proud of him for making such a hard decision and I wills support him in any way that I can. You know that I did the best that I could with the life that was handed to me, Cousin. I was taken from my mother and given to family that didn't give a sh-- about me. I did what I had to do to survive, it wasn't a decision that I made. But I know what it is like to have to depend on myself. I have a confidence that I wouldn't have had if I had grown up in Club Cassadine. And maybe, just maybe Spencer wants to find out what he can be outside of the Cassadines as well."
"So you support his decision to run off to war and get himself killed?"
"No, I support his decision to live his own life outside of this family's money." Nikolas glared at Sam. She was saying all the right words to the wrong person. "This is on you," he pointed to Sam and said with an angry calm as he left the room.
"I'm so sorry, Sam..." Spencer started.
Sam put up her hand to stop him. She shook her head, "you don't have anything to be sorry about. He just upset, he'll get over it and calm down. You'll see."
Spencer smiled at his cousin. She truly did understand how he felt. Probably the only person in his family who did understand.
"Excuse me," Nigel said as he entered the room. "But Mr. Cassadine had taken the launch."
"Let him go, Nigel, he's probably just going to the Metro Court."
"I'm sorry Miss Davis, but you don't understand, he has taken the launch boat on his own without the captain."
Spencer looked to Sam, "Oh my God...the storm." The cousins took off to the boat house. Sam was hoping that she could call Nikolas on the radio and get him to stop the boat and at least wait out the storm. They could see the boat out in the water but the storm moved in from out over the lake and brought horrible winds with it. It was all they could do just to make it to the boat house. When they finally got inside the boat house a weather alert was coming across the radio indicating strong winds and tornado warnings. Sam tried to call the boat, it was getting further and further away but it was not headed toward the docks of Port Charles. It was headed out toward the middle of the lake.
"Call the Coast Guard," Spencer shouted. "He's not going to answer you, he's too angry." Sh--! He's right. Sam nodded in agreement and quickly changed the channel on the radio.
Sam quickly explained the situation to the Coast Guard. They had a boat that was already out and moving in that direction. Spencer and Sam listened as the Coast Guard boat communicated with the port.
"We got it, he's moving away from the harbor."
"Do what you got to do to stop him, if he gets any further out in this storm, he'll capsize."
"We shot up flairs, he's not responding to the radio...oh sh--...Send the chopper, the boat capsized. A microburst has capsized the boat."
"Chopper is on it's way. We are sending a boat to the island to pick up Miss Davis and
Mr. Cassadine."
Spencer turned to his cousin with tears welling up in his eyes, "Sam?"
"He's okay, Spence, the Coast Guard is already there, they are going to bring him in. Come on, let's go to the dock, they'll take us to the hospital."
"Oh my God, Spencer, I am so sorry." Molly got up and pulled her cousin into a warm yet strong embrace. Tears were streaming down his face. This was the first time that he had to tell the whole story, Sam was the one that was holding everything together and keeping people up to date. Molly released Spencer when she saw Sam's car pull into the driveway. She watched was Sam and Kristina made their way to the deck.
"Hey Spence, are you okay?" Sam said noticing the tears.
"You bit--" Molly started as she grabbed Sam's arm and pulled him away from Spencer.
"Excuse me," Sam narrowed her eyes toward her sister.
"You heard me..." Molly shoved Sam backwards. "You bit--."
"Molly stop," Kristina yelled. "Don't start something that you can't finish."
"Shut up, Kristina. This is between me and Sam."
"Molly, what the hell are you talking about?"
"Oh you know what I'm talking about sister dear. How dare you encourage Spencer and this stupid idea of joining the Marines. Is it your goal to destroy this family?"
"You are not thinking clearly. I have done nothing wrong. I'm sorry if you don't agree with the decisions that Spencer is making in his life but that is for you to deal with. I have done nothing but try to be here for this family. You're the one that took off to Manhattan. You don't call, you don't visit. Mom and Dad have bent over backwards to try to get you to come back home and you don't even return the phone calls. You don't give a damn about this family...little sister." Sam pushed passed her sister to enter the house. Molly grabbed Sam's arm and spun her around before she was able to open the door.
"Just because you're Daddy's little girl, doesn't mean that you get to make the rules for this family."
Sam jerked her arm from Molly's grip, "You no nothing about what has been going on around here. You want to be mad at me for that? Fine. ..be mad at me, but leave Dad out of this. You can be mad at me all you want, but in the end the blame goes back on you. You distanced yourself."
Molly reach back then brought her arm forward to slap Sam across the cheek. Just as Sam back out of the way, the door opened and Jerry stepped out on to the deck catching Sam as she fell backwards. "What in the world is going on out here?" he asked as he steadied Sam. He looked around to each girl and Spencer.
Jerry and Alexis had married years ago and only Alexis, Nikolas, and Sam had knew of his past and he worked hard to win over Sam's affection. When Jerry saved her life after the hit and run, she finally considered him worthy enough to be around her mother. But when he began to become protective of the whole family she finally gave into the idea that Alexis was in love with this man. But it was the day that Jerry invited Sam to lunch at the Metro Court. That was the day that he asked for Sam's permission to marry her mother. She gave her permission followed by a warning, 'if you hurt her in any way, you have to answer to me.' When they broke from lunch, she gave him a final smile, I would love to have you as my Dad. And there it was, from that day forward, all three girls considered and call Jerry Jacks, "Dad." But he was always going to have that special place in his heart for Sam.
"Nothing, Dad," Kristina finally answered. "Molly finally stuck around long enough for someone to tell her the truth. And rather than accept it, she decided that it was a better idea to blame Sam."
"Ah I see," he said looking from Molly to Sam. "Sam...Tina, go help your mother in the kitchen please?"
"Sure, Dad..." Kristina answered as she followed Sam inside.
"Spencer, you look exhausted, go inside and lay down..." Spencer nodded to his uncle as he retreated into the house. "Molly, we need to talk..." He reached for her hand and led her toward the path to the lake.
