Authors Note: This takes place in last year's timeline. I posted it on a dare, if there is interest, the story is completed so I'll post once a day. Just a few things to remember, Stavros Cassadine hasn't revealed himself yet. He is lurking around as Lucien Cain. Carly and Sonny got divorced, and Luke was cured of the disease. He doesn't remember seeing Stavros. If there are any things that aren't clear, I'll be happy to do my best to clear them up! Constructive criticism is welcome, flames will be ignored! Enjoy!
Part One
Carly lay still and was quiet as possible. The room was cloaked in darkness and it was hard to tell if she was alone or not. If he was in the room, she wanted him to think that she was sleeping. Her one hand lay across her stomach and her blonde hair spilled across her face covering her eyes as she glanced around the room.
Finally, she heard the door click and the feeling that she was alone came over her. She sat up in bed and reached over and turned on the bedside lamp. The sight of the room disgusted her. It was too dark and gothic. Plus, she hadn't really been allowed to leave it since she was brought here.
But when was that?
Carly estimated that it had been two days since she had been injected with something that rendered her unconscious. But she couldn't be sure. She hadn't seen a clock in the room at all, and thick black curtains usually covered the only window in the room. She carefully crawled out of the huge bed, her feet sinking into the thick carpet. She made no sound as she walked across the room and touched the curtain. Pulling it back, she saw the outside from her prison for the first time. All she could see was darkness. That supported her two days theory.
The most important thing for her to remember was not to panic. Panicking would get her nowhere, and she had to keep her head clear to deal with him. Yelling as she had found out the day before would anger him. And she didn't want him angry.
Did anyone notice she was gone?
Now that she was no longer the wife of mobster Sonny Corinthos, Carly had dropped off the radar of Port Charles' society. Now that her face wasn't plastered on the front page every other week, no one seemed to care.
Bobbie must know something was up. After all, Carly lived in apartment in her brownstone and traveled to work with her some days when she volunteered at the hospital. If Carly didn't come home from her walk in the park, Bobbie would know something was wrong.
But would Bobbie realize what had happened?
Carly knew her mother too well. If Carly were missing, Bobbie would run to Sonny and blame him. Didn't she realize that Carly had cut off all ties with Sonny? For once, Carly listened to her mother and had let Sonny go. She couldn't stand to look at his face anymore…see the hurt in his eyes. She had grown tired of trying to convince him that she was sorry, and she was tired of being yelled at. She loved Sonny very much but the divorce was a good idea. She needed to move on, and not be stuck in the same rut she had been in for many months. She moved into the Brownstone and brought Michael home. She volunteered at the hospital just to give her something to do, and got more involved with her family.
That's what got her into to this mess.
Would she get out alive?
With all this questions running through her mind, Carly didn't hear the door open.
"My sleeping beauty is awake." The familiar voice said from behind her.
Carly froze for a second and then turned around to face Stavros Cassadine.
****
Bobbie leaned against the chair in her brother's office. "Sonny said that the mob has nothing to do with Carly's disappearance."
"Of course he would say that." Luke told her. "Everything he says is a lie, Bobbie. Who else would have taken Caroline?"
"Sonny thinks Carly ran off on her own."
"Sonny is full of you know what." Luke wasn't ashamed in voicing his feelings for his niece's ex-husband. Since their divorce a few months ago, Luke had watched the spoiled brat he found turn into a woman he admired.
She was Spencer through and through; it had just taken him too long to figure it out. "She would never leave Michael. If Carly wanted out of this town, she would have taken him too."
"I am really getting worried, Luke." Bobbie bit her lip. "Sorrel has been dead since summer, killed by his own daughter, and as far as I know Sonny has taken control of all of Port Charles. He might be telling the truth. If someone new wanted to threaten Sonny, why take his ex-wife? It's pretty obvious that Sonny doesn't want her anymore."
Luke lit a cigar, something he did to think. "So, for now, we are ruling out that Carly didn't take off and it's not the mob. Who then?"
Bobbie shook her head. "I don't know, Luke."
Her brother shot out the next name that came to his head. "The Quartermaines."
"What?" Bobbie cried.
"We all know Junior wants Michael back and his little plot to send the Trojan horse by the name of Skye didn't work. He could be desperate Bobbie." Luke told her. "With Carly gone, a judge has no choice but to give the father total custody of Michael."
"Okay, AJ will do anything to get Carly out of the way, but I doubt he would go that far." Bobbie said. "I really have to get home. Leticia is watching Michael. I know he knows that something is wrong. I want to be there for him."
Luke watched his sister go. He had one more theory that he hadn't spoken out loud to her. "The Cassadines." He muttered to himself. He had been over a month since Tony had given him a cure for the virus that was ravaging his system. Since then he had struggled to remember the details of his actions while under its effect and how he came to be infected. All he remembered was Lucky had been the one, at Helena's command, to inject him.
He couldn't remember anything else…and didn't know of the danger Stavros posed.
He grabbed his coat and got rid of the cigar. If Carly was being held by the Cassadines, Momma Cassadine was the first person to ask.
****
Sonny put down the phone. No one knew anything.
Bobbie had surprised him earlier that day, barging in and accusing his mob ties as the cause of the disappearance of her daughter. He was caught off guard. Carly was missing? Hadn't he just seen her in the park a few days ago, holding her son's hand as the two walked towards the playground?
He had sat at his desk for an hour, trying to concentrate of work but thinking of her. Especially the day she had asked for a divorce. What had changed her mind? She had been fighting so hard and then she just gave up. They had been through so much, and he had never expected to end like that. Somehow he saw them together forever but he was just too stubborn to attempt to trust her again.
That didn't mean that he didn't care. If Carly disappeared without a trace then he would do his best to find her. Despite the fact that he was unsure of his feeling for her, Carly held a part of his heart. Not to mention she had a son that she loved deeply and who needed her.
He was sure that no one connected to him at taken her. When Sonny was still hurting over her betrayal he made it known to the public that he was through with her. Taking her would not be of any use.
Sonny picked up the phone again. Carly was in danger, he could feel it.
****
Michael Quartermaine stood in the October sunlight; playing with an airplane his Uncle Sonny had given him. Leticia, the one stable person in his life, watched him carefully.
She leaned against the railing, knowing in her heart that Michael was upset. He didn't talk as much and he wasn't eating very much. She knew that these things were directly linked to the disappearance of his mother.
She, herself, was worried sick. She and Carly had become friends since she had been hired to be a nanny to the infant Michael.
She looked up when she heard someone approach.
"What do you want?" She asked, immediately stepping between the newcomer and Michael.
AJ Quartermaine held up a piece of paper. "I'm here for my son…and this time no one is going to stop me."