Babble: My Halloween present to any of you still reading this fic of mine. Please let me know what you think. And if you want you can rub it in regarding your Halloween plans, since I'll be stuck at work.

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Her Greatest Mistake

Chapter 13

~Penthouse~

"Where the hell is Jason?" Sonny hissed the question between his teeth, trying not to alert Emily to Jason's disappearance.

Johnny's eyes widened when he belatedly realized that Jason was gone, he headed for the door to check it out.

"Is Jason here?" Emily asked softly from her position next to Zander on the couch.

Sonny sat on the ottoman in front of her, patted her hand, and lied through his teeth. "He's checking something out right now."

"About Elizabeth?" Emily forced her eyes open wide, hope filled them.

Sonny looked over at Carly who was clearing the stairs with Emily's medication in hand and she shook her head. "Yeah Emily, it's about Elizabeth," he answered finally.

Emily was either still too tired, or in so much pain to see the interplay of the other people in the room. "Don't bother him then, I'll talk to him later."

Carly moved to sit beside Emily and held out a glass of water. "I want you to take this pill Emily."

Emily made a face and began to shake her head.

"No arguing," Carly ordered. "You need to do this, Jason doesn't need to be worried about you as well," she played her ace in the hole.

Alexis could feel the undercurrent of tension in the room, and had picked up on the fact that Jason, who had been here when they had first entered the room, was now missing, so she tried to help as well. "Why don't you go upstairs and get some rest. You are very pale."

"Yeah Emily let's go upstairs. Your mom is on the way over here, and the first thing she will want is to see, is you lying in bed." Zander reminded her.

"I am a little tired," Emily conceded, and she knew she would need energy to deal with her mother. She had finally called in after leaving the police station and Monica had been frantic. She had managed to convince her, with a lot of help from Alexis, to come alone and keep it quiet for now. But she had a feeling that once Monica saw her injuries, quiet would be the last thing she would be.

"Rest is the best thing Emily," Sonny prodded her.

"Thanks for coming to the police station Alexis. I know you had to leave Nikolas to help me so I really appreciate it," Emily showed no signs of moving.

"That's okay Emily," Alexis lightly patted the girl's hand.

"How is Nikolas? I wanted to see him…" she trailed off.

"You need to take care of yourself, just like Nikolas is taking care of himself," Carly jumped in quickly.

Emily nodded then blinked hard trying to force the cobwebs from her mind. "Are you mad that I went to the police?"

Sonny sighed, staring into her injured face it was hard to be mad at her for anything." It's not my place to be mad."

"But you are," she whispered softly. "It's just the guilt. It's so high, it makes it hard for me to breathe. If I had been thinking clearly last night when Lucky attacked me, I would have gone to the police then. If I had they could have caught him, they could have stopped him before he had the chance to hurt anyone else," her voice took on a self-loathing tone. "But I didn't do that. Instead I ran and hid, and Gia, Nikolas, and maybe even Elizabeth paid the price for what I did."

"That's not what you did Emily," Carly cried sharply. "Lucky is your oldest friend, and you never in your wildest dreams thought he would ever hurt you, or Elizabeth. So when he did hurt you, you didn't know how to handle it. You had to shut down, until you could. This is not your fault."

Emily shook her head, denying herself the out that Carly was trying to give her. A lot of things weren't clear in her mind right now. Most of her emotions were on overload, and it was hard to identify even one of them. But the one clear thing in her mind, and in her heart, was the guilt she was feeling.

Guilt because she hadn't seen the pain Elizabeth was in until it was too late. Guilt because she hadn't told the police sooner, what had happened with Lucky, and Gia ended up paying the price. Guilt because she had let her brother down. Jason had only asked her for two things in his life. One was to be Michaels's godmother. The other was to stay close to Elizabeth and keep an eye on Lucky. She had let him down both times. She couldn't even remember the last time she had seen Michael. And as for Elizabeth and Lucky, last night showed how much she had failed him there. But even above that, the strongest guilt she felt was for not being able to see that Lucky was in so much trouble.

Lucky had always been the confident, in control, devil may care, larger than friend to her. He always had a grin and a plan, and most of them seemed to work, or at least a little bit. He had helped her let go of the pain she felt after her mother had died, he had been her first and best friend in Port Charles, and she had let him down. He had never been the same since he had come back. Yet she had pretended that he was. She had needed him in her life, because of what he had meant to her so much so, that she hadn't let herself see, that he had changed from the boy she had loved so much into an unrecognizable stranger. And because of her unwillingness to see how out of control he had gotten, people were hurt, and some were even dead.

"Emily," Sonny touched her hand trying to get her attention. Her dark eyes and face were ravaged with what he knew was guilt. "Emily as soon as you told Jason who hurt you, I had people out there looking for Lucky."

"People like Cal?" she whispered.

Sonny hesitated then nodded his head.

"Don't you see it wasn't enough?" She asked wearily. "You looked for him, but you did it quietly. The police would have broadcasted the hunt. People would have been warned about Lucky. He wouldn't have been able to sneak up on them. People like Audrey, Nikolas," her voice broke and she swallowed a sob. "G-Gia they would have known. Taggert would have made sure of that. But I didn't go to the police, and you kept the search quiet, and more people were hurt."

Sonny couldn't speak. He couldn't ease her mind, because what she was saying was true. And you couldn't defend yourself from the truth.

~P.C.P.D.~

"You look like hell man," Garcia watched his friend scrape out a cup of 4 hour old coffee from the old burn scarred coffee pot. "You should try to get a few hours sleep."

"No," Taggert took a long drink of the drudge and sighed much like a junkie getting his next fix. "We need to keep on this."

"You won't be any good if you burn out. You need to have fresh eyes, or if not fresh eyes, alert ones." Garcia pressed. "You've been on for over 27 hours straight man, you're not a machine."

Taggert ignored him and moved back to the sparse files on his desk that made up the evidence they had managed to collect thus far. He picked up the transcription of Emily's statement and began to read it for the 20th time.

Garcia recognized the set expression on his friend's face and took a seat across from him at the desk and picked up his own notes. "Hmm," he said after a few minutes of reading.

Taggert looked up. "What? Did you catch something?"

"I don't know if it's anything yet," Garcia answered tentatively, scanning his notes then the official statement. "But it's something a little strange."

"What?" Taggert demanded. They had, had no fresh leads, since Emily Quartermaine had walked through the door. Oh there had been hundreds of bogus leads that the station had gotten after the WLPC news report had aired, but so far none of them had panned out. The 24-hour window was almost gone, and he knew how bad that could be in an investigation.

"Emily mentioned that she had pulled herself up by a red throw on the couch at one point during her fight with Lucky in the studio," Garcia started.

"I know."

"I don't remember seeing a red throw in the studio. I remember the puke green couch, but no red throw, do you remember seeing one?" Garcia asked.

Taggert closed his eyes and pulled the memory of the studio up. "No there wasn't one."

"So where did it go?"

"Are you boys playing a game with me?" Dr. Aaron "Whitey" Ford, interrupted the conversation at the desk with a snarl.

Taggert leveled a glare at the older man. "What?"

Whitey sighed, belatedly remembering Taggert's connection with these cases, he took a breath and tried again. "Are you sure no one worked the studio before my team got there?"

"We called forensics right away," Garcia replied. "Just like procedure calls for. Why?"

Whitey shook his head and leaned a hip on the desk across from them. "Because I swear a tech worked the studio before I did."

That caught Taggert's interest. "Why do you say that?"

"Someone was definitely there before you two."

"Couldn't it have been traffic from Lucky, or Emily?" Garcia tried, he didn't really want to mention his hunch that Jason and/or Sonny had been at the studio before they had arrived. He knew it was only a matter of time before Taggert reached that conclusion himself, but he hoped it would be later. Given the feelings of animosity that existed between the three men, if Taggert began to believe that Gia would still be alive, if Jason and Sonny hadn't gotten involved, he knew it would be very bad.

"I know how to tell the difference between someone contaminating the scene, and someone working the scene," arrogance was Whitey's biggest vice, and it came out in his tone. "There were lots of people who contaminated the scene, including you two, but there was one person who worked the scene. And they were good."

"How do you know?"

"I can't point to any one thing, and even if I did you wouldn't catch the importance. The way a small speck of blood was missing where it should have been, no strands of thread or hair, where there should be some," he shrugged. "I can't explain it, but I know someone, with experience worked that scene before we got there. As far as I can tell only samples were taken, so the scene hasn't really been tampered with, but I thought you should know."

"Francis Carnivale," Taggert said suddenly.

Garcia closed his eyes and waited.

"Who?" Whitey asked, drumming his fingers on the desk.

"Francis is one of Sonny's boys. He's an ex-cop, who had several rotations in crime scene, forensic work. He's the one that always cleans up after Corinthos and Morgan," Taggert explained coolly. "He's the reason you and your techs, never find any evidence that can be linked to Corinthos."

Whitey bristled at the jab, but before he could shoot off a reply he caught Garcia's shake of the head, and he bit it back. It was painful but he tried. "Maybe, but it seems the detective side of investigating those crimes, couldn't find any evidence either." It just wasn't in his nature not to jab back, at least a little.

"I know," Taggert agreed, shocking both Whitey and Garcia, he got up and moved to the chalkboard.

"A former cop with experience in forensics, would explain why we could find no physical evidence to link Corinthos to anything," Whitey conceded. But if Taggert heard, he gave no sign, he was too busy staring at the name Lucky Spencer and all the lines that shot off from it on the board. "But why would he care about Spencer?"

"Elizabeth Webber and Emily Quartermaine," Garcia explained. "Both him and Morgan are tight with those two, and Lucky hurt them both."

"Garcia," Officer Andy Capelli cleared his throat behind the Detective. "You have another one."

"Give it to someone else, the Spencer case is priority," he waved the younger man off.

"This one more than likely is tied with Spencer," Capelli pressed. He went on louder when Taggert turned around to look. "The body Mac's kids found in the river, was just identified. It's our missing girl Elizabeth Webber," he held out the file.

Garcia closed his eyes for a long minute before taking the file. "Are they sure?"

"Yeah. Apparently her parents did that Ident-A-Kid program when she was 8 in Boulder, Colorado. Fingerprints don't change no matter how old you get. So the prints of an 8 year old Elizabeth Webber, match those of the girl in the river."

"Christ," Taggert moved forward and sank limply in a chair, rubbing his eyes, his voice cracked when he went on. "How many more bodies are we going to find? How many more will pay before Spencer dies?"

Garcia stood up and shielded Taggert from Capelli's view. "I hear the body was pretty messed up?"

"Yeah her face got caught in the blade of a propeller, so the fingerprint identification was the only one we had, besides her clothes and jewelry," he tapped the folder in Garcia's hands. "It's all there."

"Thanks," Garcia nodded in dismissal before looking at Whitey.

"I'm already on it." An energized Whitey cried loudly before scurrying out of the room, nearly knocking over Lily the dispatcher in his haste.

Garcia turned back towards Taggert who was alert again. "You want to do this now?"

Taggert glanced at his watch and swallowed hard. "You better get started alone," he stood up and quietly pushed his chair up under the desk. "I need to pick up my mother at the airport."

What could you say to that? How could you offer comfort to your best friend, when he just lost his sister? Garcia didn't know how, so he nodded, the only way he could help Taggert, was by finding Lucky. "I'll begin the notifications."

Notifications. Taggert smirked bitterly at that word. Today he had been the notified instead of the notifyer. His job would never be the same again. "I'll be back later."

"Take your time," even as he said the words he knew Marcus would ignore them. With a sigh he opened the file, and the first thing he saw was the missing red throw wrapped around the body of Elizabeth Webber.

~Jake's~

"You're a little over dressed aren't you O'Brien?" Jake called out when she recognized the man who had just entered the crowded bar. She looked at the clock, 9:30. "You're early too."

Johnny frowned at the blonde, for once not caring what she was saying. "Have you seen Jason?"

Jake's smile vanished and she moved towards the end of the bar where there was less people. "I knew he was back in town, that explains everything."

"Explains what?" Belatedly he noticed that there were only fragments remaining where there had once been a large mirror behind the bar. "What the hell happened?"

"Someone broke in last night. They smashed the mirror with a pool ball, then went upstairs and trashed one of the rooms. They even went so far as to shoot a hole in one of the pillows," Jake lowered her voice. "The room was the one I keep empty for Jason. I was going to let you or one of the boys know the next time you came in."

"Shit." Johnny rubbed at his forehead in frustration. "So you haven't actually seen Jason?"

"Not yet."

"Thanks. If you do see him call me or Sonny immediately," he began to move away then stopped when an idea came to him. "Do you know who Elizabeth Webber is?"

"Yeah," Jake left it at that. Johnny probably already knew that she had seen Elizabeth here with Jason, but in case he didn't she wasn't going to volunteer the information.

"When was the last time you saw her?" Johnny pressed. "It's important Jake."

She could tell from the serious look in his eyes that it was, and she thought about it. The memory, when it came, wasn't a pretty one. "It was April, maybe a day or two after I knew Jason was gone again. I was in one of the other rooms, and I heard a crash come from his empty room. I opened the door and saw a very pale and frightened looking Elizabeth, standing next to a broken lamp, and Lucky Spencer standing where the lamp should have been on the other side of the room."

"Two days?" Johnny questioned. If the abuse had started that early, Elizabeth must have been in hell.

"Yeah," she could tell from his expression that he was reading the scene the same way she had, and didn't like the conclusion any better than she did.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"To who? I would have if I could have reached Jason," Jake replied. "I never heard any of you even mention Elizabeth, I only ever saw her with Jason. There was no reason to think you would care."

"I guess that's right," he sighed and focused on the blonde again. "Remember the instant you see him call. And if you see Lucky Spencer, go the other way and call."

"You know I rented a Spencer a room once. I read people pretty well, so I knew he would be okay," she moved back behind the bar. "But if Lucky had come to me asking for a room, with eyes like he had that day in Jason's room, he couldn't have hit the door fast enough for me. Those eyes were of a man possessed, they weren't the same as they once were."

"You have no idea how right you are Jake," Johnny commented before heading outside. He waited until he was in the car before placing the call.

"Yeah."

"He's not at Jake's. But it looks like Lucky was sometime last night. He trashed Jason's room, even shooting at the bed," Johnny reported.

They had missed him again. Sonny wasn't used to feeling this helpless or frustrated. "You need to find him."

"I have a few more ideas," Johnny hesitated then decided to share the burden with someone else. "I don't know if you want to know this or not, but Jake shared a memory about Elizabeth and Lucky."

He didn't know if he wanted to hear it either, but he had too. "What is it?"

"Two days after Jason left town, Elizabeth went to Jake's looking for him. Lucky followed, or found her there, he broke a lamp, from the sounds of it, he broke it throwing it at her."

"Two days?" Sonny pinched his nose hard enough to bring pain and fought back the blackness in his mind. "Keep looking."

"I'm on it," Johnny hung up and frowned at the man beside him.

Manny squirmed. "What?"

"How the hell could you let him take off on the bike?" Johnny demanded.

"Hey don't try to turn this around on me," Manny shot back. "Since I've been in the organization it has been stressed that if Mr. Corinthos or Jason asks for something you get it for them no questions asked. Jason called and requested a bike a few hours ago, so I brought him the bike."

"He was upset, how could you let him take it?"

"How was I supposed to tell he was upset?" Manny demanded. "His expression hardly ever changes. We don't call him the iceman for nothing."

"Don't," Johnny hissed a warning. "Don't dismiss him like that. You know better."

"I know," Manny sighed guiltily. "I was out of the loop Johnny. Jason requested a bike, so I brought it to him. I didn't know what all had been going down. I was at my sister's until three hours ago. I got back, I came on duty, and Jason called and wanted a bike. When he saw me in the garage, he looked a little wrecked, but his voice was in control, he was in control when he took off. I didn't know what was going on until you showed up a few minutes later."

"We just have to find him Manny," Johnny decided to let the blame game die for now. "And we need to find him soon."

~Penthouse~

"Sonny what is it?" Carly was by his side as soon as he hung up. "Did Johnny find him?"

"No," he moved past her to the couch.

"What happened?" Alexis asked.

"Yeah what's going on now?" Zander asked his eyes moving towards the stairs. He wanted to be up there with Emily. But as soon as she fell asleep, Carly had appeared and told him to come down again.

"There was a body pulled out of the river by Bannister's Wharf. It was Elizabeth." Sonny explained shortly.

"Oh god," horrified Alexis could only shake her head in disbelief.

"This is going to kill Emily," Zander's first thought was on the person he loved. She already felt like she was responsible, this was only going to make her feel worse.

"You need to keep the TV off, no radio either, she isn't ready to know about Elizabeth," Carly took charge, and began giving orders to Zander. "If she asks about Jason, try to divert her attention. I know," she held up her hand when Alexis began to speak, and her voice turned snarky. "She will find out eventually, but the longer it takes, the stronger she will be when she does."

"I was just going to say that we'll need to head off Monica as well," Alexis stated.

"Oh god that viper is coming here?" Carly groaned.

"That vip…woman is Emily's mother," Zander reminded her.

Carly rolled her eyes and headed to the wet bar. If she was going to see her former mother in law, she was going to need a drink.

"I'm going to get back to the hospital. I don't want Nikolas to hear about Elizabeth the wrong way," Alexis picked up her briefcase and moved towards the door.

"Thanks," Sonny trailed her to the door. "I know you had to leave your own family to help Emily."

"My 'family' helped create this situation," Alexis reminded him. "If something else happens, you know where to find me."

~Yacht~

"Really Andreas, I don't know what I am going to do with you," Helena studied her manservant. "I told you I wanted Lucky Spencer dead, and not only have you not managed to do that, you don't even know where he is."

"Madame it has been difficult, Mr. Corinthos' men as well as the police have been out in force looking for him. We have people following them, if one of them find Mr. Spencer, we will relieve them of him, before they can deliver him," Andreas tried to head off her wrath. He was quite fond of his throat being in one piece.

"Excuses are one thing I will not tolerate. So is failure. I am already displeased that Lucky Spencer broke before I was ready for him too. Do not try my patience very much longer."

"Intimidating the help again Mother?" Stefan offered from the doorway of the salon. "The only people who quiver in your presence anymore, are your lovers, in horror of course. And your paid minions, my how the mighty have fallen."

Helena gracefully reached for her glass of Sherry, by no manner did she give away her nerves at Stefan's unexpected presence. "Stefan to what do I owe this displeasure too?"

"I think you know mother, your latest and costliest plan yet, just backfired," he moved into the room, ignoring Andreas entirely.

"What are you burbling about now?" She asked dismissively.

"Your plans for Lucky Spencer, are all for naught. Nikolas knows it was you who killed his brother."

"Lucky is dead?" Helena got to her feet at the unexpected news. "My dear Nikolas must be so distraught. What do you mean I killed him?"

"Yes he is distraught, but he is also angry," Stefan moved quietly up behind her. "And you know who he is angriest at?"

Helena controlled the shiver his voice awoke in her and sipped her drink. "You are beginning to bore me Stefan."

"He's angry at you mother."

"Why would be angry with me?" Helena turned around and eyed her son. "I certainly didn't kill Lucky. I didn't even know he was dead."

"He died in 1999 mother, when you had Faison take him away from Nikolas and the Spencers."

"I didn't arrange for that to happen, Faison did that, I rescued Lucky and returned him to Nikolas," she responded stepping past him.

"Nikolas doesn't see it that way, in fact he sent me here with a message."

Helena turned around a small smile on her face. "What does the Prince ask of me?"

"He wanted you to know that it was time for you to start looking over your shoulder," he saw her pale and his smile turned vicious. "Congratulations mother, you taught Nikolas how to hate, and you're the person he is focused on."

"I don't know what kind of lies you have been filling Nikolas' head with but I have done nothing to hurt him. I would never hurt him."

Her voice was firm, but Stefan saw her hand shake, and enjoyed her discomfort. "You finally got your wish, he is turning in to a true Cassadine. And you remember how forgiving the Cassadine's are, don't you?" He gave her a final smile in warning and then left the salon.

Helena waited until she was sure he was gone before she sagged slightly. "Andreas I want Lucky Spencer now."

~General Hospital~

Bobbie sighed wearily, giving into temptation she leaned against the wall. This day was rapidly turning into one of the worst in her life, and it wasn't over yet. She still hadn't fully grasped the idea that her nephew was the one who had caused all of this damage, but the longer she was awake, the harder it was getting to deny.

During the slow hours, her brain had taken the opportunity to run through her memories of Lucky, both the good and the bad. In the last year or so since he had returned they were mostly bad. All the signs that there was something seriously wrong with him, were so blaringly bright in hindsight it was a wonder she wasn't blind.

Yet at the same time, the memories of the sweet 10 year-old boy who had first stolen her heart, the first time she had seen him at Kelly's, were there. It was so hard for her to rationalize them with the person the 10 year-old had become.

"Bobbie?"

She opened her eyes at the sound of her name and saw the sad expression on the man's face. "Oh god tell me he's not dead."

"No," Detective Garcia spoke quickly trying to ease the fear. "We haven't found him yet."

She sagged in relief. "I know he's done bad things, horrible things, but I'm terrified for him."

"That's understandable, he's still your nephew. He's still the kid who used to get in my face when he thought I wasn't helping Elizabeth enough," he stopped himself when he remembered why he was here.

Bobbie picked up on the hesitation. "What happened?"

"Can I see Audrey Hardy?" Garcia tried to deflect her question.

"It's after visiting hours."

"It's important Bobbie," Garcia replied.

"Is it about Elizabeth?" She saw the way his gaze shifted and knew it was. "Tell me what you know about Elizabeth."

"I can't…"

"Goddamnit Garcia, tell me," she caught his arm before he could walk away.

Dr. Kevin Collins turned the corner in time to hear her loud demand and quickly made her way to the pair.

"I need to see Audrey," Garcia tried again.

"Tell me," Bobbie hissed. "Tell me she's not dead."

"I'm sorry Bobbie," Garcia admitted the truth finally. "We found her a few hours ago, she was in the river."

Horrified Bobbie covered her mouth and staggered back. Memories of her conversation with Lucas and then with Roy came back to her. The girl in the river, the girl who had been cut by the propeller blade, the girl her son had found. "No."

"I'm sorry Bobbie."

"It can't be Elizabeth. She can't be dead. Lucky couldn't have," she staggered again and Kevin caught her before she could fall.

"Bobbie let's sit down," Kevin said quickly trying to calm her.

At the sound of his voice, anger surged inside of her and she tore free of him. "Don't you dare talk to me. You knew something was wrong with Lucky. You knew and you didn't tell anyone."

"Bobbie it wasn't like that," Kevin answered. "I didn't know he would get this violent."

She jumped on his words. "This violent? As compared to what, just violent?" She demanded, shoving him back a step.

Garcia quickly stepped between them. "You knew there was a problem with Lucky?"

Kevin grimaced. "Lucky is a patient of mine yes, and before you ask, I can't tell you anymore. Client/patient confidentiality."

Doctors, Garcia shook his head. "We'll see what the Court says about that. But Bobbie is right, if you knew he was dangerous and you didn't warn people, you can be considered an accessory to his crimes, and right now his crimes number 4 murders, 2 attempted murders, and an assault."

"4?" Kevin asked, he was only aware of Cal Rogers and Gia Campbell.

"We found Elizabeth Webber, and another missing girl named Jane Morrisey, we believe Lucky killed them both."

"Are you sure?" Bobbie asked desperate to keep hope alive.

"We have a witness who saw Lucky choking Elizabeth, right before the time the coroner estimates that she was thrown in the river, and died. The other girl was killed at the boxcar," he kept the details of her death to himself.

"Jesus," Bobbie wiped the tail tale track of tears from her face and straightened her spine. "I'll go with you to see Audrey."

"I think I should go too," Kevin offered. "She's going to need someone."

"I think you've done enough Kevin," Bobbie cut him off. "This way Detective," she inclined her head and left without another word to Kevin. "Have you informed her parents?"

"Not yet," Garcia admitted. "We haven't been able to track them down, apparently they were taking a mini-vacation in Africa, they're on a safari somewhere. We did manage to reach her sister in Paris, and also her brother in Boulder. I think he's flying in tomorrow or the next day. Sarah was going to try to get a flight today."

"Better late then never," Bobbie muttered. "This is going to be hard on Audrey, her only thought since she woke up has been about Elizabeth."

Garcia peered through the glass at the older woman who was still hooked up to several machines. "I don't think any of this is going to be easy on anybody."

Bobbie sighed, trying to brace herself, then moved into the room. Audrey's eyes opened right away and that dispelled her hope that Audrey would be asleep.

Kevin moved to the window, a part of him still reeling from Bobbie's accusation. He believed in protecting his patient's privacy rights. He had made that oath years ago and still believed in it. Yet, he was still a human being and if someone had known what his brother Ryan had been going to do, he would have been angry if they hadn't told him.

But he hadn't known for sure. He knew Lucky's disassociation was rising, as was his anger, but he didn't know he would go off like this. His attention was caught by a wail coming from the other room, and he focused on the three people in the room. Bobbie was trying to calm Audrey, while the older woman writhed on the bed shaking her head. Garcia was standing there looking like he would rather be anywhere then there.

He jolted when the alarm on the machines by Audrey's bed began to go off. All he could do was watch as Bobbie began to perform CPR on the older woman, soon he was jostled out of the way when several nurses and a doctor went charging past him into the room.

He hadn't known for sure that Lucky would break so violently. But when all of this ended, would that even matter. Would there be anybody left for him to apologize too?

~GH 4th Floor~

"Are you sure Alexis? There's no chance that it was a mistake?"

Alexis tightened her grip on her nephew's hand. "I don't see how Nikolas. The police are notifying her family right now, and the person who told me would give anything if it weren't true. But I'm afraid it is. Elizabeth is dead."

Nikolas focused on the white tiled ceiling. He had made it up to 214 before his aunt had come in. "Lucky did it?"

"It looks that way," she leaned forward concerned at his lack of reaction. "Nikolas are you alright?"

"I don't know what I am. I know what your saying, but they're just words, they don't mean anything yet," he brought his hand up to his cheek, and wasn't surprised to feel it was dry. "I can't even cry. Do you think I've lost that ability too?"

"No Nikolas. You've had the worst day of your life, and you're probably in emotional shock. You heart is saying it can't handle anymore right now. When you can, then you'll grieve."

He shook his head and took a deep breath. "I can still smell her perfume on my skin. I don't want that to fade."

Alexis' heart broke at the words, and she dashed at her own tears before going on. "It will fade, but your memories of Gia will always be there, in your heart, in your mind, in your soul."

Nikolas showed the first flash of life, she had seen in him when the door opened and Stefan walked in the room. "Did you see her?" He demanded.

"I gave her your message Nikolas," Stefan crossed to the bed. "She was concerned."

"I want her concerned, I want her afraid, then I want her gone." He said before focusing on the tiles and his counting again.

His words were chilling to hear and very unexpected. They were delivered in a calm voice, devoid of any emotion, he could have been ordering dinner for all the interest he showed. And yet Nikolas meant them, and that was most frightening thing of all to his family.

~Morgue~

"She should have been safe here Marcus," Florence screamed. "My baby should have been safe here. This was the one advantage of living here over New York, she would be safer here."

"I know mom," he tightened his hold on her arm, afraid she might stagger again. She had made it through the viewing, signed the necessary papers, and held on until she got out the door. But then she had collapsed in his arms. He held her while she cried, while she raged out her tears. A part of him envied her tears. He hadn't let any fall yet, and knew he wouldn't, he couldn't, not if he wanted to keep going on.

She pounded on his chest. "You're a police officer, why didn't you protect her?"

He was aware that most family members of victims, at one point or the other, raged at the police. It was easier to blame the police for not protecting them, then to blame the victim for dying. He knew that, and he understood it, yet her words still cut deep.

"Lucky had killed before, why didn't you stop him Marcus? Why didn't you stop him before he took my baby?"

Was it worth trying to explain the truth to her? Would she even hear, that the first body had barely been ID'd when Gia had been shot? That they didn't even know who they were looking for, until Gia had been shot? Would she even hear the words?

"I know mom. I should have stopped him earlier," instead of the truth, he offered the words he knew she needed to hear.

Florence began to shake, something deep inside of her was irrevocably broken, and nothing would ever be right again. "A parent should never bury their child," came the broken whisper. "I don't know how to do that."

Taggert caught her before she fell. "I'll handle it mama," he took her weight and began to move to the elevator.

"I just don't understand why?" Her anger was gone, at least for the moment, and haunting questions took its place. "I fought with her the last time I saw her. I fought with her a lot of the times I saw her. I never told her, god I never told her."

"Told her what mom?" He asked helping her in the elevator.

"That I was proud of her," she clutched his hand and leaned back to search his face. "Do you think she knew I was proud?"

"I know she did." This lie was important as the last had been, and his mother must have believed it, because the tears started again.

"Why?" Was the last word she managed to say before the doors closed.

Michele Peters waited until the door closed before exiting the morgue and locking the door behind her. Family notification was always the worst part of her job. When she told people that, she could tell that most didn't believe her. They believed that cutting up a person, had to be the hardest thing in the world.

She could never fully explain that she would gladly do 50 autopsies in a row, if it meant she never had to stand across from a mother, who was still holding out hope that their child was still alive, then watch that hope wither and die, when they saw their child on the gurney. Watch the hope turn into death of a sort, when they realized the person they loved most in the world was never coming back. That was something no medical book could prepare you for, and it was the worst part of her job.

She pulled the protective booties from her shoes and dropped them in the bin, before heading towards the stairs. It was time for a much needed cigarette break, she glanced at the clock on the wall. 11:30, she only had another half-our, and she could go home. She was probably the only person looking forward to July 5th. Habit had her flipping off most of the lights, so the hall was dimly lit.

~*~*~*~

The fire door needed oil, it made a loud creak when it was opened. But no one was around to hear it. If he were one that noticed the setting of things, he would realize that the dim lights, the creaky door, and the long antiseptic hall, fit the needs of a morgue perfectly.

But he wasn't the type to notice things like that. Even if he was, he couldn't tonight. Tonight all he was doing was putting one foot in front of the other.

In stark contrast to the fire door, the door that led to the coolers, made almost no noise when he picked the lock and pushed it open. Just a soft swish as the sleeve on the bottom of the door brushed the floor. He paused just inside the door, staring at a wall of about 20 little doors, each with a handle on them, much like he had seen on the handle of the big freezer at Luke's.

It took another minute but finally he turned from those freezers and moved to the filing cabinet by the desk. He made quick work of one drawer, then the other, searching for the information he needed, but he couldn't find it. He shut his eyes hard, bracing himself to search the freezers one by one. He opened his eyes, and saw her name on a file that was resting on top of the file cabinet.

Thirteen. She was in freezer 13.

Jason ran a hand over his tired eyes. He didn't want to see her, and yet he had too. He still couldn't believe she was dead. But, that, was what the police believed, it was what Sonny believed. Should it matter that he didn't? That he couldn't.

His hand hovered over the metal bar that opened the freezer. If it was her, did he really want his last memory of her to be how she looked in death? "No," he shook his head. He didn't want to remember her that way.

But he still opened the drawer and slid the gurney out. He could see the blood stains on the dull gray sheet covering her. The sheet draped her body exposing the small outline of Elizabeth. He reached for the top of the sheet and was surprised to see his hand shake slightly. The last time it had shook, was the first time Sonny had handed him a gun, and then it was only a nervous tremor. But this was a definite shake.

He brought his hand back down, and moved the sheet around her waist, exposing the slim white hand to view. Her nails were clear for once, but they were chipped, and jagged in places.

His mind flashed back to the last night he had seen her in the park. He had held out his hand to her and she had tentatively raised her hand, and for a heartbeat he had thought she was going to take it. But in the end she hadn't, and in the end, he hadn't pushed her. He had left.

He focused on her hand and picked it up from the table. It was ice cold, and limp in his hand.

She hated the cold.

Her hand disappeared in his, just like it always had. Jason could see a faint trace of blood under some of the nails, when he turned it over. The hand was too small to fight for long. She was too small to fight alone.

Yet he had still left her.

His eye locked on her white limp hand while memory after memory raced through his mind. How many times had he taken her hand? How many times had she held onto him on the bike with this hand? Now it would never hold anything again.

That thought made him angry. The anger gave him the need to see her face one more time. He jerked the sheet back, expecting to see her face, what he saw shocked him and stepped back in horror.

"Eliz…" He couldn't even say her name. Her dancing eyes were gone, her mile wide smile, was gone, the only thing left was the brutal aftermath of Lucky's destruction. What had once been beautiful had been rendered ugly.

Her hand slipped from his hold, and the sound of it hitting the table broke his paralysis, and he tore from the room. The door slammed open, knocking over an unsuspecting Michele, but he never paused. He was at the fire door and out of it, before Michele had even got to her feet.

~Yacht~

Helena moved into her stateroom, pausing to remove her jewelry before moving on to the closet. She opened it and removed one of her robes, she could hear the sounds of Andreas drawing her bath in the other room, and she moved back to the bed, to await it's readiness. Lying down she closed her eyes. She was almost asleep when she felt the bed depress beside her. "Andreas never presume," she informed him without opening her eyes. "This will hardly get you back in my fav…"

She trailed off when she felt the press of a cool blade on her throat. Startled she opened her eyes, and looked into the eyes of a madman. She realized immediately that she was looking into the eyes of her killer.

~Cliff Road~

"It felt like we were flying."

He grimaced and took another curve.

"I am in love with you."

He revved the engine, pushing the bike's speedometer up to speeds of over 70 on a road that he should have been doing 40 on.

"I have to help him I may be the only one who can."

He took a curve even faster, and the bike fishtailed a little as it caught some of the sand on the road.

18 times in two days.

He saw the signs warning him about the roadwork ahead, but he didn't care. Instead of slowing he went even faster. And as he broke through the sign announcing the road ended in 10 feet, he could swear he could hear her laughter racing him on the wind.