AN:

Just a little something to tide over the restless natives. BTW trust me.

~Kelly~


Chapter Eight

Two weeks. That was how long Nikolas waited to start the next phase of his plan. In the mean time, he had met with Helena. He appreciated what Helena attempted tried to do but Nikolas hated that Elizabeth was drawn into the mess.

The older woman seemed almost pleased by his anger. Going as far as congratulating him on becoming a true Cassadine. It was easy to see Helena knew things had changed between him and Elizabeth.

In the end Helena promised to leave Rebecca to him but only if, she could deal with Ethan. Nikolas had no use for the newest Spencer and easily agreed. Lucky was already going to hate him what was one more sin.

Finally, the second stage was ready. It did not take much to convince Rebecca to meet with him. The con had been begging him for another chance. Their meetings often took place in public and always end with Nikolas rebuking her. The whole town had witnessed her behavior.

"What's all this?" Rebecca asked looking around the room. It was clearly set up for romance. Maybe the con was completely ruined after all.

"My attempt at an apology." he said politely. "I will admit I reacted badly to learning the truth."

"I was, Nikolas. I swear I was. I was gonna tell you everything. That's why it was so hard when you didn't believe me, even though I understood why you were angry. I mean, you had every right to be. "

"Part of me wants to believe you. However, that is not why I behaved as I did. It was the fact Helena told me. She seems to take sick pleasure in blowing my life up." Nikolas paused needing to get a better grip on his emotions. He needed her to believe him in order for his plan to work. "My anger should have been directed at her and not you. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you... about us. Well, at least now, there's no more secrets, right? So, maybe it could be the start of something new, something to build on."

"Are you asking me to try again?" she asked hopefully. It was almost unbelievable how gullible Nikolas was. Rebecca cared about no one but herself.

"I'm saying that this isn't done for me. And I hope it's not finished for you."

"You don't know how much I wish that things could be right between us again, Nikolas. I'm so sorry that I deceived you. The way I came into this is not where I ended up. I never expected to care about you. I mean, it never even occurred to me that I was gonna have real feelings for you. But then I did, and there was no contingency plan in place for that.

"I understand." he whispered sweetly taking her hand.

"Okay, see, you look like you do, but I have to doubt it."

"Why?"

Rebecca took a deep breath and tried to look hesitant. For this to work she had to look convincing. "Because when you learned the truth, there was such contempt in your eyes. There was such fury. And the depth of your hatred just took my breath away. Now I'm supposed to believe that all that just...just evaporated. You're gonna have to help me with that."

"There's really no way I can express how ashamed I am for the way I treated you. The only real defense I can offer is I opened my heart to you, something I never thought I would ever do again. When Helena told me it was all a scam for money, I was devastated. And when I'm hurt, I strike out."

"Yeah, no, I'm sure I would have reacted in the same way, but see, I would have meant it."

"And in the moment, I did mean it. But then I took a step back, and I allowed myself to hear what you were trying to say in your defense. I just wish I would have done it before I went off on you. It's somewhat ironic once you think about it. Now you're the one who doesn't trust me," he said with a self-deprecating laugh.

"Well, I want to, Nikolas. I'm just having a hard time with it."

"I know. I don't know, maybe the key to all this lies in our past. I mean, we are all products of it, right. You were the twin that was sold and discarded. I can see how that could breed resentment, why you would want to get some of what was unfairly denied to you."

She nodded agreeing with what Nikolas was saying. He looked truly sincere which made conning him all the easier. "All right, so what do you want? Do you want us to be friends?"

"I want a lot more than that."