A/N--Is anybody even still reading this...I am almost to the end of Franco i think in two more chapters you will at least know whats going on...If anybody is still reading this please review. As always I hope you guys enjoy.

Chapter 10--Confronting the Truth

Lucky stared at the bottle of bourbon sitting in front of him. It had been years since he had drank, yet tonight the urge was stronger than it ever had been. Elizabeth, his soul mate was having an affair with his brother. He should be furious, he had the right to be, but instead all he wanted to do was drown in the bottle that sat in front of him.

He sighed, this wasn't the way to handle things. So instead of taking the sip that his mouth yearned for, he stood up a emptied the contents of the bottle into his sink. He had been through this before, he was a survivor, he would confront his betrayers and then put this behind him. He had to because the pain that came with holding on would be to painful for him.

Lucky pulls his cell phone from his pocket, dialing a number he knows all to well. He tells Albert that he is stopping by and to give warning to Nikolas.

Ten minutes later Lucky stands on the launch waiting for the boat to Windemere to arrive. Once he steps onto the shuttle it doesn't take long for his mind to start wandering to how many times his fiancé has stood there waiting to see his brother. His brother, she had been the one to bring them together, make them friends. That was gone now, never again would he trust the two people who had been with him through it all.

It was over he knew that. Stepping off the shuttle, Lucky surveyed the island, nothing had changed yet a dark cloud hung over it now. Lucky took in a deep breath, this would be the last time he set foot here for a long time.

Albert let Lucky in taking sight of the heartbroken man, and offered him some coffee. Lucky wanted to laugh at the thought that coffee would help. He shook his head and Albert left him to wait for his brother alone. The word brother made him cringe, brothers didn't do this to each other.

"Albert said you wanted to see me?" Nikolas says as he enters the room.

"Yes, I wanted to ask you how you thought it was okay to have an affair with my fiancé?" Lucky reply's with anger. He had planned on playing this smooth, but the reality of it all had sunk in when he saw Nik.

"She told you?" Nik asks relief sinking in that his secret was finally out.

"No our sister did, remember her the girl who almost died, but that doesn't matter to you does it, because you were to busy betraying me to care that Lulu had been tied to a bomb, or that Dominic had been injured while saving her." Lucky was furious, he had expected Nikolas to deny the accusation. Instead Nikolas stood there quietly taking the words that were being thrown at him.

"It wasn't like that Lucky." Nik was calm, and that seemed to be more infuriating than a blatant denial would have been.

"Then why don't you tell me how it was Nikolas." Lucky spits out. "Tell me how it was to seduce the love of my life. Did you laugh at how unsuspecting I was?"

Nikolas started to pace, he had never meant to hurt his brother. Then again he never meant a lot of things these days. "Lucky I didn't mean to fall in love with Liz, it just happened."

Lucky almost choked on the words he had just heard. "Love Nikolas, you don't know what love is. You have locked yourself in this place for almost two years and you chose my fiancé, your past and future sister-in-law to fall in love with. You know my father was right you were always going to find a way to live up to your name. The thing that is different is I'm not giving up without a fight so if you want Elizabeth you better be ready to fight."

Lucky had had enough, he needed to get out of this place. The thought of what they had done, his fiancé and his brother was too much.

Lulu sighed as she heard Dante knock on her bedroom door, she knew he wasn't going to leave things alone, not with how abruptly she had left the car earlier in the evening. "Come in." She calls from her bed, there was no use in playing a game.

Dante entered the room cautiously. He wasn't sure where they stood after earlier. "I heard you crying. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"It's nothing." Lulu wiped her eyes, she had been trying to stay quiet, knowing that Michael and Dante were in the living room. "It's just been a rough couple of days."

Dante decides it is okay to move closer so he sit's on the end of the bed. "That it has." Dante says. "Why don't you tell me what's going on?"

"I don't even know where to start." Lulu states.

"The beginning is always good."

Lulu sighs once again, as she feels the tears running down her cheeks. "I'm trying to be positive, I lived, but every time I close my eyes I see that ticker, and having seconds left to live, I would have died if you hadn't saved me." She is sobbing again but she doesn't care she wants to get it out. "Then I see Nikolas and Liz kissing at the hospital, and you know what really sucks, he didn't even come to see that I was okay, he came to be with her, our brothers fiancé."

Dante moves closer to Lulu, pulling her into him. "And then there is you, you risked your life for me again, and I always give you grief about what you are doing, but Jason wasn't there to save me you were."

At that Dominic pulls back, making Lulu look him in the eyes. "Lulu, I don't know Nik or Elizabeth well enough to say anything about that, but I do know that if you had died nothing else would have mattered. Not my cover, or my case. If you had died I would have been lost."

Lulu shoots him a confused look. "I don't see why it matters, once you bust Sonny you will go back to Benson Hurst and I will be here."

Dante suddenly understood why she had closed up earlier. "I don't plan on leaving Port Charles, my mom is here, and so are you." Dante, hadn't really thought of what he would do once he busted Sonny, but in that moment he felt the urge to protect Lulu as he had when he rushed into the building just days earlier. He would stay for her.

"I'm not asking you to stay." Dante sighed once again this girl was unbelievable. Did she ever put herself before others?

"And I'm not staying because you asked. I'm staying because your safety means something to me, and I can't just walk away because Sonny is gone. Not when that can put you in worse danger." Lulu looked confused again.

"What do you mean worse danger?"

Dante didn't know how to say what he needed to say, but he knew he needed to try. "When Sonny is no longer around, you won't have his protection anymore, and whoever tries to take over his land has no loyalty to those who showed loyalty to Sonny."

"So your staying to keep me safe."

"No, I'm staying to be with you, keeping you safe is just something that comes along with that decision." Lulu smiles at him and he knew that things would be okay with her.

Franco looked out the window of his new apartment. He had expected Jason to come after him, yearned for it, and now it just seemed like a waste of time. Jason would never accept his destiny. He had held a hand out for Jason and all he had gotten in return was disappointment.

He didn't need Jason now though, he had a new idea. Somebody who still had the chance to be molded. The thought made him happy, he would have a companion when he was done, that was sure.

He is frustrated though, one of the few emotions that he ever actually felt. His art had been destroyed by Dominic Pirelli, or Dante Falconari, whatever you wanted to call him. Jason hadn't played by the rules and that still meant a penalty had to be given.

Michael got to school with just seconds before the bell rang. He hated not having his car, but understood that he was being punished. His father had told him to lay low, so that's what he was doing.

Right now school was the only thing he could stand anyways. With Dante watching over his every move at Lulu's it was his only point of escape. Though watching his sister throw herself at Keifer did get annoying, he was used to it by now.

Hearing the final bell ring Michael heads off to Chemistry. Kristina is in the class and he promptly takes a seat next to her. "Carly let you come home?" She whispers.

"Yeah, on the condition that I stayed with Lulu." Kristina raises an eyebrow to her brother. Lulu Spencer was barely an adult herself, and watching out for Michael very often turned into a physical altercation now days. "Don't look at me like that , dads thug of the month hardly leaves her side. Mom likes him so that was the option I was given."

"and how does dad feel about all of this?" Kristina asks a bit of anger lingering in her voice.

"He likes that I'm home."

"He would. The golden child can never be to far from his side." Kristina bites out, she couldn't help but be annoyed at the closeness her father felt to Michael, he wasn't even his real son after all.

"Cut the crap Kristina. You know dad cares about us the same." Michael says, warranting a bad look from the teacher.

"Yeah so much that he rushes to your's and Morgan's side at the sound of a bullet."

"It's not like that."

"Then what's it like Michael?" Kristina says not bothering to whisper anymore. She was tired of hearing that Sonny cared about them the same. Sonny had fought to be in Michael and Morgan's life while he simply took whatever her mother said at face value."

"Perhaps you two will be more comfortable in the principles office." The teacher says interrupting their conversation. Kristina packs her things without looking at Michael.

Once they enter the hallway Michael is at her side. "Kristina he loves you the same as he loves me and Morgan."

"Look Michael, it doesn't matter our father isn't worth my time." Kristina admits, dropping her head as she does so.

"You are letting Alexis brainwash you." Michael hates when his sister gets like this.

"You sound just like him you know that. You think that because of who he is we are entitled to things, but guess what Michael we aren't. We don't get to run people off the road, or runaway to Mexico, or drink and drive and get away with it. Just because dad has influence doesn't mean that he cares about us and it doesn't make it right." Kristina is in tears by now, and while Michael feels the urge to protect her he also feels the need to defend his father.

"You didn't mind when Alexis took the blame for you, but when dad helps me out of a mess that's the wrong thing to do?" He asks his sister.

"When it reaffirms your want to be him, yes it is."

"You know what Kristina, I am tired of this whole holier than thou attitude. You find ways to twist the truth into fitting what you think is right and wrong, but guess what that doesn't always work."

"It's easy to defend dad when its not your family being tied to bombs by some psycho who has a crush on Jason."

"Really cause I'm pretty sure my mother was the original target, and that my cousin ended up getting taken hostage to, and Sam chose the life that she has with Jason."

"So did you're mother at one point, don't forget that." Kristina cries out.

Michael walks off leaving his sister in tears. He didn't have to listen to this anymore.