Gia knocked on Carly's hospital room door before stepping into the room.
"Hi."

"Gia, what are you doing here?" Carly asked, putting aside yet another
boring fashion magazine. She was about to bribe one of candy strippers to
bring in her a copy of the Wall Street Journal soon. "Is this another one
of those 'girlfriends' things you were telling me about?"

"No, I wanted to see for myself that you were okay, Miss Cassadine." Gia
walked over to the foot of the bed.

"Please. I'm laid up in a hospital bed recovering from a gunshot wound. I
think it's okay for you to call me Carly." Carly beckoned her closer.
"Don't stand all the way down there."

"Carly then." Gia nodded as she walked around the bed to Carly's side.

"Before you ask, if anything would *have* happened to me, your job still
would have been safe." Carly told her.

"I wasn't worried about my job." Gia assured her. "If Deception decided to
drop me tomorrow I'd have at least ten new offers before the end of the
week."

"You'd like to think so." Carly murmured.

"Oh, I know so." Gia said confidently with a smile. She winked. "But I'm
not about to test out my theory anytime soon."

"Smart girl." Carly noted.

"I *was* being sincere when I said I wanted to see if you were okay, by the
way." Gia said. "We didn't talk that long at the No Name but I usually have
good instincts and I liked you."

"Thank you, I suppose." Carly frowned. "So how are things with you and
Zander?"

Gia looked at her in surprise. "You actually want to hear about my
boyfriend? I would have thought my ranting at the No Name was enough."

"Sure." Carly said. "I'd love to hear to all the details. Especially the
steamy ones. But first, close the door."

Gia did as Carly asked after shooting her a quick worried look. Gia then
came back over to the bed, sliding into the chair next to it. She hooked
her purse strap on the back of the chair, crossed her legs, and took a deep
breath. "Well, Zander and I—"

Carly started to shake her head and held up a hand. "I don't want to hear
about you and Zander."

"Ok, now I'm really confused." Gia confessed.

"I just used that as a excuse. I needed the door closed because I wanted to
talk about Deception. My father has guards posted outside the door and they
report back to him about everything. I'm not supposed to be worrying about
anything business related while I'm recuperating. So that's why I said I
wanted to hear about you and Zander."

"Okay…" Gia said slowly. She wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen
next anymore so she wasn't going to assume anything. She waited for Carly
to direct the conversation.

"I've decided I wanted to take on a more hands on approach with Deception.
My lawyers and I are in the middle of negotiating a contract with Greenlee
Smythe. She's one of the top perfumers at Enchantment and we're close to
luring her away. We're revamping the entire fragrance line."

Gia nodded and waited until Carly said anything that actually had to do
with her. She started to smirk at a memory. "Erica Kane wanted me as one of
her models. She pursued me for quite a long time."

"But you turned her down." Carly said.

"She wanted me as *one* of her models. Deception wanted me as their main
model. Which would you rather be? The Face of Deception or just another
Enchantment model? I wanted the spotlight for myself."

Carly nodded her head slightly. "And you have it. However the fragrance
line isn't the only thing that's being revamped at Deception."

Gia narrowed her eyes. "And what does that have to do with me? I'm just the
face. I smile pretty, I take a picture, no big whoop."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Carly began. "I'm taking
Deception in a new direction. No more of that just one Face of Deception
nonsense."

"You're replacing me?" Gia jumped up. "I thought you just said that my job
was safe? What is going on here, Carly?"

"If you'd sit back down, calm down, and generally shut the hell up I'd
explain." Carly said with a cold smile.

Gia waited a beat before taking her seat, watching Carly warily. "What's
going on?"

"You're still the face. You'll remain our main spokesmodel. Only we're
adding two more faces to go with you. There will be, in addition to the
Face of Deception, the Face of Innocence for our younger pre-teen oriented
line and the Face of Seduction, a new line we will be launching."

"So where does this leave me?" Gia asked.

"Right where you are. You'll remain our signature model but Deception needs
to expand itself. We don't want to spread you too thin, over expose you by
trying to use you for everything."

Gia thought about it. Was this going to be good for her? She wasn't sure.
"I don't know…I'm so used to having it all to myself, you know? I'm not
sure if I like sharing it."

"This is still a great deal, Gia, and you know it. You won't find anything
like it at any other company. Of course you're free to go out and find out
for yourself. Deception won't take you back if you choose to leave though.
There are hundreds of other models capable of taking your spot."

"You don't have to threaten me." Gia said coldly.

"I'm threatening you. I'm just telling you the truth." Carly shrugged. "We
can relaunch Deception with an old familiar face along with two new faces
or we can just start out fresh with *three* new faces. Your choice."

"I'll have to talk with my agent first." Gia said carefully though she
already knew her answer. She had a good thing going with Deception and she
would be foolish to mess that up.

Carly nodded knowingly. She could already tell what Gia's answer would be.
"You do that."

A knock on Carly's door halted their conversation. Carly, thinking it was
Alexis or her father, cleared her throat and said, "Zander took you where?"

Emily popped her head in and Carly relaxed. Emily grinned, "Hey there—oops,
I didn't know you had company. I'll come back later."

"Actually I was just leaving." Gia said. She grabbed her purse and turned
to Carly. "I'll get back to you about your offer after I talk with my
agent."

"Please do." Carly murmured.

Emily stepped out of the doorway and let Gia pass by her. Once she was
gone, Emily glanced at Carly. "Who was that? She looked familiar?"

"Gia Campbell." Carly supplied. "You wouldn't have a newspaper with you,
would you?"

"Nope." Emily said. "What was Gia Campbell doing visiting you?"

"We met a few nights ago, we hit it off. And I took over Deception." Carly
shrugged.

"Oh." Emily said. She took Gia's seat. "So—"

Carly cut her off. "Don't say it. I'm fine. How are you instead?"

"Oh, I'm *great*." Emily said sarcastically.

"What happened?" Carly asked.

"Some how I got stuck with the job of refereeing Lucky and Nikolas." Emily
rolled her eyes. "Laura had a big dinner a few nights ago."

"Things didn't go over well?" Carly guessed.

"Well…Laura had a good time." Emily said. "And Nikolas and Lucky didn't
jump at each other at the table. So that was a good thing at least."

"Yes." Carly murmured because she knew that Emily needed to hear it. "But?"

"But…but Lucky's all freaked out about Nikolas being in the family. And
Nikolas won't stop *looking* at me and saying things…"

"And you don't like it when he does that or you do like it. Just too much?"
Carly said shrewdly.

"Of course I like it." Emily scoffed. "What girl wouldn't? But that's not
the point, the point is that Lucky wants nothing to do with Nikolas and I
have to fix that. Only it's not helping if Nikolas is hitting on me in
front of him. How can I make Lucky get along with Nikolas if Lucky keeps
thinking Nikolas is going to steal away his family and his girl? Lucky
seems him as a threat."

"Why is it all up to you? You can't force Lucky to do this." Emily nodded
to herself. Lucky had basically told her the same thing but she couldn't
help wanting to try. Carly continued, "Lucky's going to have to work this
out for himself."

~*~*~

"You weren't lying when you said you didn't have much." Luke drawled over
his shoulder.

Nikolas carried only one suitcase as he followed Luke up the back stairs to
his new home. Laura followed behind them. Nikolas tightened his hold on his
suitcase and said, "I didn't bring much with me to America. I had more
clothes though. Helena bought them. I declined to keep them and left them
back at the hotel room."

Luke paused on the step above Nikolas. He turned around fully. "Good.
You're not about to owe anything to that b—"

"Luke." Laura said warningly.

"Viper." Luke amended his statement. "Spencers owe her nothing."

"I'm not a Spencer." Nikolas said, quietly and defiantly. Just because it
turned out that Luke was his father and he shared a meal with them it
didn't mean that he was magically a Spencer.

Luke clamped his hand on Nikolas's shoulder and said, "Yes, you are."

Nikolas pushed his hand away. He gritted through his teeth. "No, I'm not."

Luke glanced at Laura over Nikolas's shoulder. He tossed her the keys.
"Here, you deal with this. I gotta talk to Claude about this month's liquor
shipment."

Luke trudged down the stairs, leaving Nikolas to stare after him. He asked
Laura. "What just happened here?"

Laura moved up a step so that she was closer to Nikolas. She said. "Luke
just wants you to know he's accepted you. He wants you to take pride in
being a Spencer. You're his son. You're a part of his family. It was years
before he even recognized Carly as a Spencer."

"She's a Cassadine." Nikolas said flatly. "And am I supposed to be
flattered by this? Throw myself at his feet and thank him for declaring me
a 'Spencer'?"

Laura looked down to hide her smile. "Actually, I think that is what he
wants. Luke is very big on family. It's the most important thing to him.
Once you're apart of his family, he'd do anything for you."

"Someone told me that once." Nikolas murmured.

This time Laura did smile fully at him. She took Nikolas by the hand and
started to lead him up the stairs. "Come. Let's get you settled in your new
home."

Laura led him down the hall. Using the keys that Luke tossed to her, she
opened the door to Nikolas's new apartment. She flicked on the lights.
"It's not much but I stocked the refrigerator for you last night."

"You didn't have to do that." Nikolas quickly said as he placed his
suitcase on the floor by the door.

"I wanted to." Laura assured him. "I want to make sure you're eating right.
Would you like the grand tour?"

Nikolas shrugged, "Okay."

"Well, here's the living room." Laura gestured with her hands.

He glanced around. There wasn't much. A faded couch. An old radio. One lamp
sat on an end table next to the couch.

"I'm sorry there's not much here. Luke used to store his records here. I
had him and Claude clear them out last night. I wanted to buy you some new
things but Luke thought it was best that you decorate for yourself."

"No, this is fine." Nikolas said. "It's better than my old room at least."

Laura frowned at the reminder of his place on Courtland Street. "Okay,
through those doors over there is the kitchen, down the hall is the
bathroom and the bedroom. And that's about it. I hope you like it."

"Thank you." Nikolas said softly. "You really didn't have to give me this."

Laura touched his cheek. "I'm going to give you as much as I can so you
better get use to it. Do you need my help unpacking?"

"No there isn't much in there."

Laura nodded. They stood silent for a while staring at each other. The
silence stretched on uncomfortably. Neither was sure of what to say next.
Suddenly Nikolas knelt down and unzipped his suitcase. He started to
rummage through it.

"What are you doing?" Laura asked.

"Lesley Lu." Nikolas said over his shoulder. He slipped his hands under a
couple of shirts until what he found what he was looking for. He stood up.
"She liked my stories about my baby sister Sofia. She wanted to see a
picture of her but I didn't have one on me."

"Is that it? May I see?" Laura extended her hand and Nikolas gave her the
small photograph. It was of him carrying a little dark haired girl. They
were both smiling at the camera. She lightly traced his smile with her
finger. "Sofia?"

Nikolas looked down at the picture and smiled. "Yes. I have pictures of the
whole family. Even though I left them, I still felt I had to bring part of
them with me."

Laura suddenly looked up into his eyes. "I don't have any pictures of you."

Nikolas shrugged and took the picture back from her. He turned his back on
her and placed it back in the suitcase. He thought back to all the family
pictures he saw at her house. "It doesn't matter."

"It matters to me." Laura said earnestly. "You are a part of my family. I
should have pictures of you. I have tons of Lucky and Lulu growing up and
I…I don't even know what you looked like as a little boy."

He frowned. "You're not going to try and drag me and the rest of them down
to a photo studio and have a family portrait done, are you?"

The thought had briefly crossed her mind but Laura didn't linger on it.
"Not right now. Maybe in a few months?"

Nikolas shook his head. "If you want some old photos of me, I'll call
my—Irena, I'll call Irena and see if she can mail some over."

"Thank you." Laura smiled and took his arm. "And in the meantime, I'll buy
some more film."

~*~*~

"Hey there boss." Hannah grinned around the door. She came into the room
carrying a plastic shopping bag. Sonny stared at her with curiosity.

"What are you doing here?" He asked.

"I drew the short straw." She shrugged. "All the girls send their best
wishes. They hope you'll recover soon."

"Thanks I guess."

Hannah rolled her eyes. She grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the bed.
"They all wanted to come. Drawing straws was the only way to keep the whole
group from barging in here. Cheer up, I brought you something." She said in
a teasing tone.

"Not flowers I hope." He grumbled. He was sick of flowers. He felt like he
was in a damn funeral parlor.

"Why would I bring flowers to you? I brought you something you could
actually use." Hannah reached into the shopping bag and pulled out a
plastic wrapped pastry.

"Cannoli?" Sonny laughed.

"My grandmother's recipe. One bite and you think you're in heaven. And I'm
not bragging here. All truth." Hannah said. She unwrapped the treat and
handed it to Sonny. "Here, taste."

Sonny bit into it. He closed his eyes and moaned softly. "Hannah, I think
I'm in love."

Hannah laughed, "Yeah but what do you think of the cannoli?"

"It's good, real good." Sonny said around a mouthful. Once the whole thing
was gone he said. "I didn't know you could make this."

"I can do more than just dance, you know." Hannah shrugged. "When I'm sick
of the life, I'm going to open a bakery. I've got tons of old recipes in
the back of my head that my mom and my grandmother drilled into me."

"Why don't you just open one now?" Sonny suggested.

"Money, which I do not have?" Hannah said. "I'm saving a lot of what I can
so that in a few years I'll be able to start my business."

"Why not go to the bank and asked for a loan?" Sonny said, wiping his mouth
with the napkin that Hannah passed to him. Hannah raised her eyebrow. "Or a
loan from me."

"Thanks but no thanks. I'm not going to owe 'The Business' anything."

Sonny shrugged, he wasn't going to push it. He eyed the plastic bag
greedily. "So, is there more?"

"Yes." Hannah laughed. She reached into the bag and pulled out two more.
She laughed again at the forlorn look on his face.

"That's all?" He said even as he quickly took them from her. He ate half of
one. He was going to try and make them last.

"I'll bring you more next time." She promised.

"Good. Good." He nodded. "How's Sarah Webber doing?"

Hannah glanced at him in surprise, "You know about that?"

"She dropped by yesterday afternoon." Sonny said. "She was wreck. She feels
horrible about the whole thing."

"You should see her in the dressing room. She's positive everyone will
think she something to do with it just because it turns out her sister was
involved in the shooting." Hannah shook her head. "Poor girl. She says that
she and her sister weren't even close. She hadn't seen her in years, had no
idea she was in Port Charles."

"She told me all that. I think, it was hard to tell with all the tears."
Sonny sighed. "Let her know that I certainly don't blame her for anything."

"Did it already but I'll do it again." A sly smile appeared on her face. "I
guess that newspaper picture worked after all. You and Cassadine are
uh…again?"

Sonny ate the other half of the cannoli. "I'm not talking about that with
you."

"You always say that but you always do in the end." Hannah pointed out.
"Don't make me drag it out of you. Tell Aunty Hannah what happened."

"Sonny, when are you going to get guards on you?" Lois demanded to know as
she stormed into the room. She stopped short when she saw Hannah sitting
next to Sonny's bed.

Hannah stood up and walked over to Lois. "You must be Mrs. Corinthos.
*Such* a pleasure to finally met you."

"Who are you?" Lois watched her warily.

"I'm Hannah Scott." Hannah said with self-importance. "I work for your
husband. And let me tell you he is a pleasure to work for. One of the best
bosses I've ever known."

"Is that so?" Lois murmured. She shot Sonny a look. He shrugged and started
to eat his last cannoli.

Hannah glanced at her watch. "Omigod! I gotta go. I'm late for a date. With
Zander!" Hannah squealed. She tossed a grin at Sonny. "Did I tell you that
was going *very* well?"

"Nice meeting you, Mrs. Corinthos." Hannah said over her shoulder as she
scooted out of the room.

"One of your employees?" Lois arched an eyebrow.

"A dancer at the club." Sonny said.

"Of course she is." Lois murmured. "I stopped in to tell you that I'm going
home with Mike. We're taking the kids to my parents and then I'll be back."

"Alright but you don't have to stay with me." Sonny said.

Lois shot him a look. "I'm staying until you're better. You're not going to
be able to take care of yourself at home and I won't have *Hannah* or one
of your other *dancers* taking care of you. And don't even get me started
on your girlfriend."

Sonny sighed and shook his head. "Fine."

Lois narrowed her eyes. "What are you eating?"

Sonny glanced at her quickly. "Nothing." And he popped the last bite of
cannoli in his mouth.

~*~*~

Barbara was waiting for Luke in his office by the time he finished with
Claude. He looked presently surprised to see her sitting behind his desk.
He closed the door behind him, "Barbara Jean, what are you doing here?"

Barbara raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Luke, you called me? Told me to drop in?"

Luke shook his finger. "Right. I wanted to know what your undead ex was
doing about Helena."

"If you wanted to know that, all you had to do was call Stefan and ask
him." Barbara pointed out. When Luke shot her a look Barbara just sighed.
"He's looking for her."

"What do you mean, looking for her?" Luke said in disgust.

"Once Stefan was positive Carly was going to be okay, he went to Helena's
yacht. Only he found out that it left the harbor the night of the shooting.
We have no idea where she's sailed off to or if she was even on the yacht."

"He should have had her under control a long time ago. First my kids and
now this…" Luke shook his head.

"Helena's a monster but she's also unpredictable. Who knew that Carly's
secretary was an assassin hired by Helena. And to think I use to feel sorry
for the girl." Barbara shuddered.

"She's gone so save your pity." Luke said in dismissal. "How's sweet
Caroline holding up?"

"She wants to get out of the hospital. Stefan wants her out also but he
wants her to come back to Wyndemere to recover. Which she will be
completely against because I'm there."

"You two still at it?"

"She was shot, Luke, she didn't all of a sudden have amnesia." Barbara
muttered under her breath. "That would have been nice though."

"Oh yeah, have her wake up the next morning all sweet and sunshiny and
calling you 'Mama' and having heart-to-heart talks with you…" Luke laughed.
"You'd hate it."

"I'd like to know what it felt like at least." Barbara sighed. "But I think
we had a break through the other day. She opened up to me a little. It was
by accident though. We still have a long way to go."

Barbara shook her head. "Okay, enough about me and my children problems,
how are you dealing with Nikolas?"

"It's hard." Luke said simply.

"And?" Barbara pressed.

"And I don't want to talk about it. The only people the kid seems to trust
is Laura and Emily."

"Emily?" She frowned.

Luke waved his hand. "Long story. What matters is he's not opening up to me
and I don't blame him. It's too soon. If it was me I'd be acting the same
way. It's killing Laura though. She's hoping he'd throw his arms around her
and promise to be her little boy forever and ever. She left behind a baby
and right now she's trying to deal with the fact that he's a full grown
man."

"What about Lucky and Lulu? How are they handling it?"

"Lulu's over the moon. She's got one more big brother. That's all she
sees." Luke shrugged.

"And Lucky?"

"Cowboy's not happy." Luke said softly. "He hasn't talked about it to
anybody yet but he doesn't have to. You can see it on his face. Nikolas is
an interloper. He's butting in where he doesn't belong."

"It's complicated." Barbara murmured.

"Yup. But we'll pull through it." Luke stared up at the ceiling.

Barbara followed his gaze. "Something going on up there?"

"I gave Nikolas the apartment. Laura's up there with him. I told you how
she's gotta separate the baby from the man? She's determined to do
everything for him, to make up for what happened. I guarantee that any
minute now she'll come down here asking for a job for him."

"I guess you don't want to?"

"I'd give it to him. If he wanted it and he asked for it." Luke told her.
"But he won't even if he really did want it. He wants to do it on his own
and I respect that."

"But Laura's going to keep trying to baby him." Barbara pointed out with a
shake of her head.

~*~*~
"Where have you been?" Were the first words out of Zander's mouth as soon
as Gia walked past the bodyguards and entered the spacious apartment she
shared with Zander.

Gia tossed her purse on the couch and slipped out of her jacket before
answering. She wasn't going to play his "jump when I say jump" game. "I
went to the hospital."

She knew he wasn't going to be satisfied with that answer but she still
started for the kitchen. Zander rushed up behind her and grabbed her arm.
He pulled her to her roughly. "Why?"

"Why what?" Gia asked, playing dumb.

"Why did you go to the hospital?" Zander whispered harshly. He pulled on
her arm again.

"To see Carly. That's all." Gia swore. "I went to see how she was doing."

"Is that all?" Zander narrowed his eyes.

"Yes." Gia tried to shake his hand off her arm but his grip was too tight.
"Zander, let go. Please."

Zander watched her closely and Gia sighed in exasperation. "What did you
think I was out doing?"

"Did you see Sonny?"

"No!" Gia cried. "I don't even know the man that well. I went to see Carly,
my *new* boss."

Zander squeezed her arm once then dropped his hand. He seemed satisfied
with her answer. Gia rolled up her sleeve and gently rubbed her arm. She
muttered under her breath, "If you left a bruise…" She looked up from her
arm. "What is the matter with you?"

Zander just threw up his hands and stalked over to the couch. Gia frowned.
Great, he was in a mood. She was hoping to take a nice long bath and relax
but there would be none of that if Zander was home sulking. She tucked a
braid behind her ear and threw back her shoulders. Time to get him out of
his mood.

She walked over to the couch and curled up next to him. She touched the
back of his neck lightly and murmured, "What's going on?"

He turned his head slightly in her direction. "It's nothing."

"Come on." Gia started to knead his neck muscles. "You can tell me. Is it
business?"

"If it was I wouldn't tell you." Zander growled.

Gia sighed and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. She knew it was
business and she knew it had to do with Sonny Corinthos. God, she hated
when he got like this. He would be hell to live with. She was going to have
to give up her relaxing bath after all.

She pressed closer to him and said softly, "How about I go upstairs, light
some candles, run a bath…"

She trailed a finger down his cheek. "Would you like that?"

"What time is it?" He suddenly asked.

Gia frowned. "I don't, around 7?"

Zander pushed up off the couch, leaving Gia behind to wonder what just
happened. He straightened his shirt and ran his fingers through his hair.
"I gotta go."

"Where?" Gia asked.

He looked down at her. "Out."

"When are you coming back?" Gia wondered.

'When I feel like it!" Zander exploded. "What's with the 20 freaking
questions? I'm going out, I'll be back later. Deal with it."

Zander strode over to the door, jerked it open and let it slam close behind
him. Gia stretched out on the couch. He was going to his girl on the side.
Gia knew it and she wasn't bothered by it. It meant she had the apartment
to herself that night. And for that she was glad.