Chapter Fifteen

Across town…

The Lighthouse

Lucy smiled at Christina as she handed her daughter the supplies they would need for their picnic down at the footbridge. As her little girl continued to stack, as neatly as possible, the napkins into the basket, someone began knocking upon the front door. She promised Christina that she would be back in a flash, then Lucy rose from her crouched position at the coffee table in the living room and crossed the room to the door.

Just as she was about to open it, Kevin came down the stairs in a rush to answer the object himself. Lucy grinned at him and held up her hand toward him. "I've got it, Doc. Help Christina finish packing," she laughed out as the two of them looked toward the little girl and the mess she was making.

Once Kevin did as Lucy requested, she grabbed the doorknob and pulled it open. Her eyes widened at the man before her and cast a look over her shoulder at Kevin.

"Ms. Coe, Quinn Tyler," the man introduced.

Lucy glanced away from Kevin to the man in front of her and grinned nervously. When she didn't readily greet him, the man removed his baseball cap from his head as he said, "I'm the private-"

"Uh, right," Lucy said loudly, as shot a look back at Kevin and saw him investigating the happenings at the front door. "Right, Mr. Tyler, I know who you are. Let's go outside and discuss the donation." Lucy then ushered the man away from the door and closed it behind her.

"Ms. Coe, I'm not looking for donations. You hired me to-"

Her hand quickly shot up between them as she interrupted with, "I know exactly who you are and what I hired you to do. The problem, Mr. Tyler, is that my husband doesn't."

He nodded his head slowly as he muttered, "Ooh," and placed the cap back upon his head.

"Don't you investigators use the phone?" Lucy's eyes perused his tennis shoes, worn jeans, dark t-shirt, and brown leather jacket. "And don't you usually dress a little more-"

"Proper?" He asked and then grinned, which actually if he had been quite a few years younger could be charming. "Normally. But today is my day off."

Lucy crossed her arms beneath her chest as she wondered exactly how much time she had left with this man before Kevin got curious enough and come outside to see what was going on. "Then if this is your day off, why are you here?"

Without saying a word, Quinn reached inside of his leather jacket and pulled out an envelope. He wiggled the object between his thumb and forefinger as his charming grin transformed into one of devilishness. "I finally had a chance to develop these. They are quite interesting."

Reaching out, Lucy snatched the envelope from the man and practically tore inside of it to see its contents. The first picture showed Livvie leaving her apartment, the next was her coming into contact with Jack. The next few showed a heated discussion between the two, before Livvie changed locations and stood before a brick building. As Lucy continued to flip through the pictures the wording of the building came more and more into sight.

A gasp left Lucy as her eyes flew to the private investigator before her. "Do you realize what this means?"

"That I am well worth what I charge my clients."

Lucy continued to look at each and every one of the pictures as she returned, "That you are, Mr. Tyler." Once she finished gazing through the photos, Lucy shoved them back into their envelope and sighed. "I will have your money for you in the morning. I have to go have a conversation with my husband about his daughter."

A while later…

Alison's place

Alison unlocked the front door, swung it open and gestured that Rafe preceded her into the house. Once he walked over the threshold, Alison followed Rafe inside of the cottage they once shared and sighed. "Have a seat," she suggested as Rafe turned around to face her when he stood before the couch.

"I think I would rather stand," Rafe returned, his tone still a bit gruff.

With a shrug of her shoulders, Alison placed herself down into a chair, which sat diagonally from the couch, and glanced up at Rafe. "I think you should sit. What I'm about to tell you isn't going to be easy to hear." When Rafe continued to stand, Alison gave a shake to her head and pressed on with telling Rafe the truth.

She didn't feel good about this. Apprehension was squeezing her stomach into a ball and it made her heart pound heavily in her chest. She knew she shouldn't be doing this, this was something Rafe had to discover for himself. It wasn't every day that someone discovered he or she was an angel, and Alison had the feeling Rafe wasn't going to take the news well. How could he? It was like learning that the person you thought you were no longer existed.

"So," Rafe began as he broke the silence, "tell me about my past."

His blue eyes were filled with determination and the look upon his face told her that he wasn't going to bend from the decision he had made to hear about his past. No matter how much she knew this shouldn't happen, he was twice as determined to make it. So, after taking a deep breath to find the courage and words she needed to do this, Alison began the tale Rafe demanded to know.

"I'm not sure if there is a direct link to the two situations, but I think there is."

Rafe's brow drew together as he asked, "What are you talking about?"

Alison threaded her fingers together in her lap and met Rafe's confused blue eyes with her own. "I think the reason you can't remember the last ten years of your life is directly effected by where you've been all that time." The confusion upon his face only deepened and Alison sighed again. "I'm not explaining this very well. So I guess the only easy way to tell you about your past is to just say it."

"Please do," he urged, still standing.

"Rafe," Alison breathed out in a soft voice, "ten years ago you fought with Caleb because you were trying to protect an innocent woman from being killed."

Shock and disbelieve readily occupied Rafe's face as he snickered with uncertainty. "What are you talking about? I don't remember that."

Alison unfolded her hands and rose from the chair she was sitting in. She then moved to stand beside Rafe as she continued to tell him about his past. "I don't know why you don't remember this, because you recall everything else about your past. But you saved this woman from Caleb," she murmured in a gentle voice. "But when you had your back turned, Caleb stabbed you-"

Rafe's head was shaking with his denial to Alison's words. "You're telling me I'm dead?"

Lifting a hand to her forehead, Alison tried to bide herself some time to think of something to say. This was going so badly. He looked so confused, hurt, scared and angry. She shouldn't have told him any of this. He should have recovered these memories on his own.

"Alison," Rafe snapped, causing her to gaze back up at him. "Do you really expect me to believe this?"

Her hands flew before her as she tried to explain. "Rafe, I know it's hard to hear this, but you have to understand-"

"Understand what, that I'm dead?" He questioned aloud, though he wasn't in a position to listen to any response. "You're wrong, Alison," Rafe accused in an angry voice. "How can I be dead? I'm standing here, flesh and blood, living and breathing and-" Rafe's sentence fell short as his mind flashed back to a time where he had had this very same conversation with someone else.

"She just wouldn't tell me about -me-."

"And can you honestly say you would have believed her if she had told you … 'Rafe, you were a vampire slayer,'?"

"Yes, because I know that is true. I can remember that part of my life."

"Okay, well then would you have believed her if she had said, 'Rafe, you're dead'?"

"Are you saying I'm dead? That I'm some holy apparition floating around Port Charles."

"Holy, yes. Apparition, no. You are very much flesh and blood."

"Are you really asking me to believe that I'm dead? How can I be dead, Lucy? You tell me that I'm not a ghost, so if I'm dead than how could I be standing here with you having this conversation?"

"It's easy, Rafe. It's because you're an-"

Both of Rafe's hands flew to his face as he scrubbed his skin relentlessly. This wasn't happening. He wasn't hearing Alison tell him that he was dead. How could he be dead? It had to be a lie. She had this ready-made story about some battle with Caleb, in which the vampire stabbed him in the back. There was just no way that could happen. He would never be so caught off guard to be stabbed, let alone in the back.

"You're lying!" Rafe hissed out, his blue eyes landing upon Alison. He watched her own widen with shock and her mouth fall open at his accusation.

"How can you say that?" Alison asked as one of her hands landed upon her chest. "You said you trusted me to tell you about your past, then when I tell do you call me a liar? What is that? I tell you the truth, you call me a liar, and you take the word of a liar as gospel. What is wrong with you, Rafe?"

Rafe held his hands out before him in a tiny shrug, as he mockingly replied, "Maybe it's because I'm dead and I know no better."

"Stop it, Rafe!" Alison demanded angrily. "There is more to this story that you don't know. If you would only listen-"

"To more lies?" He interrupted, his lips curled into an angry smirk. "I don't think so, Alison. I think I have had about enough of this 'dead' lie from both you and Lucy."

"What?" Alison questioned as her head tipped slightly to the side. "Lucy has told you that you are-"

"Dead, yes. And I found it to be a joke then, but now it's not so funny, Alison." His hard eyes softened a little as he murmured, "I trusted you to tell me the truth-"

"I did!" Alison swore.

As if she hadn't spoken, Rafe continued with, "But instead you feed me this story you and Lucy cooked up to - to, I'm not sure what this was intended to do. But it was a sick joke." He then stared at Alison for a long cold minute before moving away from her and heading toward the door.

"Wait," Alison called out as she ran up to Rafe and grabbed his arm with her hand. He suddenly whirled around to face her, his eyes as angry and cold as she had ever seen them, and ripped his arm from her grasp. "Please, you have to listen to me. You have to know the full story -- Rafe, you need to know the truth."

"I guess if I want to know that, I'll have to ask my wife," Rafe said, stressing the latter word to intentionally hurt Alison. And it worked. Because as soon as he had spoke the word and the painful remark, Alison's hand fell to her side, and her eyes suddenly misted over with tears.

"Fine," she whispered and then swallowed down every emotion that was assailing her. "Go to Livvie and believe every word she ever tells you. But you'll never get the truth from her. Never."

"Are you finished?"

The sheer contempt in his eyes pointed directly at her was mirrored in his voice, and Alison felt like dying. She had never seen Rafe look at her like this before, and it was killing her to know he thought she was liar. "Yeah," she murmured and then watched him disappear behind her door.

God, what had she done?

~*~

To Be Continues …

P.S. Sorry for the lack of editing! LOL and it taking so long to get this out.