The Babble: How am I doing? It's kind of hard sliding in and out of so many character's minds, so please let me know if I veer off too badly. Also the explanation on Chapter 1 may help.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Betrayal, Loyalty, and Love
Chapter 3
~Limousine~
Sonny frowned at the phone in his hand, before turning his attention to the night visible through the limousine window. Jason still wasn't answering his phone and that surprised and concerned him. Jason always answered that phone. It was the only secure way they could communicate when Jason was out of town. Jason knew he was the only person that had the number, so for Jason not to answer was strange.
Sighing he tucked the phone back in his pocket, he knew Jason had been angry with him over what had happened to Emily, but he hadn't expected this reaction. Closing his eyes he let himself remember what had happened during their last conversation.
~Two Weeks Before~
Sonny was startled when his phone began to chirp. It had been so long since it had rang that he had forgotten he still carried it. He pulled out the phone to answer it, but the phone kept ringing. Suddenly uneasy he realized it was his other phone that was ringing. The secure phone, the phone that only one other person had the number too, in other words it was Jason. Sighing heavily he pulled out the small phone. He had been dreading this call. "Yeah?"
"Sonny it's me," Jason's strong voice came over the line.
"Hey it's been awhile. How are you doing?" Sonny got to his feet and headed for the window.
"I'm okay. I finally tracked down that part I've been looking for. It was the last part so my search is over."
"So you're ready to build your bike then?" The code was ridiculous but on the off chance that the line was tapped it was innocuous enough, that no one could prove anything. The part was one of Sorel's men, since he said it was the last part, it meant it was the last man. The request he had made of Jason was now finished.
"I can do whatever I want now," Jason agreed.
Sonny thought it was a little ironic that they were discussing the fact that Jason had killed Sorel's people and yet he was phrasing the questions in a way, that Jason didn't have to lie. The fact that Jason still didn't like to lie was another idiosyncrasy that made Jason unique. "That's good."
"I think I'll just travel for awhile though."
Sonny took a breath, he knew what he had to do. He had been preparing himself for this discussion ever since he had first found out about Emily. Now that it was finally time to have it, he wanted more time. "You might want to rethink that."
"Why did something happen?" Jason's tone changed to one of concern.
"Yes," he sighed then decided to be blunt, knowing that's what Jason would prefer. "The night of the Nurse's Ball there was an accident. A bus was struck by a train, Emily was on the bus."
"Was she hurt?" Jason's voice was sharp.
"Yes, she injured her back, and the injury caused paralysis."
He heard Jason's sharp inhalation of breath and swallowed hard. He hadn't even gotten to the difficult part yet.
"Is it permanent?"
"The doctor's are optimistic, before she left town she was able to move her right foot a little bit," Sonny tried to sound hopeful.
"Left town? Why did she leave Port Charles? What was she doing on a bus?" Jason's questions were fast, one on top of the other.
"She had to leave," he paused and braced himself. "Because she wasn't safe here, she was on the bus because she was leaving town with Zander."
"Why wasn't she safe?"
Jason's voice was quiet, almost devoid of emotion, and that worried him. "Sorel escaped from jail, and was coming after Zander. They were running away from him. Even after the accident Sorel made a move on her in the hospital. Her family moved her to an undisclosed rehab, both to help and protect her."
"Why didn't she come to you? She knows to come to you if I'm not in town. Why didn't she?"
"They tried, but I was unavailable. They either got tired of waiting or grew too scared, so they took off on their own," he answered honestly.
"How could you be unavailable for her?" The accusation was apparent in Jason's voice.
Sonny flinched as the words cut him. He could tell Jason that he was unavailable because Sorel had stabbed him and left him for dead. That as a result he had been out of it for days. He could tell him that he had been so hurt by Carly's betrayal that he had just wanted to shut down for a while and block the world out. That Angel at the very least had provided that for him, a place where he could process everything, and he had chosen to remain there instead of going back to his life and facing Carly again. He could tell Jason that, but it wouldn't make a difference. In the end it came down to the fact that he hadn't been there for Emily and as a result she had gotten hurt.
"Sonny?"
"I had a little trouble with the Feds, but that doesn't matter, I should have been here for her," he said finally. There was no need to tell Jason that the trouble was caused by Carly and as a result he was ending his marriage. Jason would find out about that eventually but what was going on between him and Carly wasn't important right now.
"Are you still in trouble?" Jason asked after a minute.
Sonny was surprised at the question and then realized he shouldn't have been. Jason might be angry with him, but he wouldn't turn his back on him. "Alexis handled it."
"Good. You said she was moved. Do you know where?"
"No. Apparently the family moved her, even Zander doesn't know where she is."
"The family is still trying to control her."
Sonny could hear the disgust in Jason's voice and corrected him. "Not this time, Zander told them not to tell him. If he knew where she was, he would be tempted to go see her. If he did that Sorel could get a line on her, and he didn't want that. So he convinced the Quartermaines' to move her, it didn't take much."
Jason was quiet for a long time while he digested that. "Do you know if she's okay?"
"I would have heard from the family if she wasn't," he sighed and sat at the table. "I haven't looked for her. Sorel is still loose, I didn't want to take the chance of leading him to her." It may be too late, but he was trying to protect her.
"You said this happened the night of the Nurse's Ball. That was in June."
Sonny could hear the anger in Jason's voice, this is what he had been dreading. "Yes it happened in June."
This time the silence between the two friends was deafening. He had agonized for weeks over whether to tell Jason or not. He had even picked up the phone dozens of times to call him, and yet in the end he always hung up. Since Emily's injuries weren't life threatening he had rationalized that there would be nothing for Jason to do, if he did come back. But if he stayed away and kept hunting Sorel's men, he could accomplish something. In his altruistic moments he believed that was why he had never called Jason. But in his selfish moments, he was afraid that Jason would have come back to Port Charles and left the job incomplete, and he couldn't afford that. But now he wondered if he could afford what would happen if Jason didn't understand his actions.
"You should have told me."
Sonny sighed heavily, feeling a deep sense of loss inside him when he heard those five words. Jason's voice had been cold, remote, and he wondered if this was the end of their friendship. "Maybe," he conceded. "What are you going to do now?"
"What should have been done months ago."
"If you mean Sorel, I have him covered," for once he didn't care if someone was listening in. He wanted to make this right for Jason. "You should concentrate on your sister right now."
"Sonny I don't think you should tell me what to do right now," Jason shot back before sighing heavily. "I can't talk to you right now."
"Do what's right for you," Sonny was still reeling from Jason's retort. It was the first time he had spoken to him like that.
"I'll be in touch."
Sonny had respected his wishes and hadn't tried to contact him, not until tonight. He knew Jason was probably with Emily since he hadn't shown up here. He knew Jason didn't hold grudges, so he wasn't punishing him by not answering the phone. He was probably just still angry with him. He would give him another twenty-four hours, if he didn't reach Jason by then, he'd do some checking.
Nodding to Johnny Sonny headed for the elevator that led to the penthouse, the day had been long, and the night was shaping up to be even longer. A noise on his left caught his attention when he stepped off the elevator. Both him and Johnny tensed, even though they knew Sorel was in the hospital, he turned and then relaxed when he recognized Alexis.
"God," Alexis dropped to her knees and started picking up things that had fallen from her purse.
"Are you okay?" Sonny crouched beside her to help. With her arm in a sling her movements were limited.
"I'm fine. Don't I look fine?" Alexis demanded, yanking a brush from his hand and shoving it in her purse. "It's just this door," she got to her feet and pointed to the door. "The lock on it is tricky. Not like my old lock on my old door. But I don't have my old door anymore do I? No I am stuck with this door and this lock that doesn't like me, because you decided to play hero with a bomb strapped to your chest. Do you even know how crazy that was? Do you even care that you could have killed us all? Or were you too damn busy showing Sorel that you were so much tougher than him, that you didn't even care?"
Her voice was getting louder and louder. "Breathe Alexis," Sonny interrupted her tirade. Her eyes looked desperate, and as much as he might deserve her anger, he had a feeling that he was a substitute for the real person who had set her off."
"Stop telling me that," she snapped. "You don't have to coach me on my breathing, I was doing it," she trailed off and began to gasp. "For years," she gasped again, "before I met you."
"Breathe Alexis," he interrupted her again.
Closing her eyes she leaned back against the wall, he watched her fight for control, and was startled when she jerked upright again.
"I need your help."
Her eyes were still desperate but her breathing was under control again. "Okay what do you need from me?"
"I need a man, maybe two. They have to be good at what they do, and discreet," she began to pace as she thought. "They will need to know about alarms, and probably scaling 20 story buildings," she stopped pacing. "Jason. I need Jason, he would be perfect for this," she touched his arm. "Will you get me Jason?"
Sonny frowned as he processed her request, it sounded like she was up to something illegal. "Why do you need Jason?"
She looked him right in the eye. "I need him to steal my necklace."
~West Coast~
Jason let himself into his darkened hotel room, habit had him checking the markers he had left behind to see if someone had been in the room. They weren't disturbed, he would have been surprised if they had been. He wasn't expecting trouble, if he was he wouldn't be anywhere near Emily.
Emily. He smiled in the dark when he thought about his sister. She had finally had a breakthrough today, he sighed in relief just thinking about it. They hadn't talked about it much, but he knew her lack of progress had really discouraged her. He had also been feeling helpless and that was frustrating. He wasn't used to feeling helpless, it brought him back in time, to when he first woke up in the hospital, and he absolutely hated that.
Pulling the gun from his boot he put it in the bedside table, then he crossed to the patio door, and stepped outside on the small balcony, so he could hear the ocean. Emily had once told him that him and Ned were the 'actors' or the doer's in the family. When they had a problem they dealt with it right away, and didn't try to hide from it. Whereas her and A.J. were reactors, when faced with a problem they would sit back and watch, or hide, and just let things happen to them. He hated to admit it, but her description was pretty accurate. Or it once had been. But Emily had begun to take charge of her life, to act more, at least she had been until this had happened to her.
He climbed up and sat on the rail, resting his back against the wall of his room, his eyes staring out unseeingly into the night. When he had first arrived here, he could see how tired she was. She had been trying to stay positive but he could see the situation was wearing on her. The fact that she was alone here didn't help. Sonny really should have told him sooner. Even if he didn't go see her right away, he would have found a way to get a message to her. From the shock and hurt he'd seen in her eyes when she'd first seen him, he realized that she had felt abandoned by him. The things she had said to him tonight, only confirmed that for him. She had obviously been angry with him for a long time, and he was glad that she had finally let it out, but now he couldn't help but feel guilty.
Guilt wasn't an emotion he was real familiar with. He had felt a little guilty when he asked Robin to keep a secret about Michael, a secret she didn't want to keep. But since that was for Michael's own good, the guilt he'd felt was small. The guilt he had felt when he gave Michael up though, was huge and all consuming. He had promised that little boy that he would always be there for him and suddenly he wasn't. The guilt had clung to him for a while. He was only able to let it go because he believed he was doing the best thing for Michael.
But this guilt, he sighed, couldn't be explained away. He had never thought about what the people he left behind felt when he disappeared the way he did. He'd always tried to let the important people know he was leaving, but he normally did that by phone, so he never saw their faces, when he told them.
He had never wanted a family, and the Quartermaines' were never that to him. But Robin had taught him the idea of family, and then showed it to him. And now he did have a family. Sonny, Emily, Carly, Michael, Lila, Monica, and… Elizabeth.
"I don't want to be free, I want to be with Lucky."
He still got a bitter taste in his mouth when he thought about her words. He knew that words had the power to hurt, and those had cut him deep. Maybe it would have been easier for him to accept if he knew that she meant them with her whole heart, but he knew she didn't. She had never been able to lie to him, not once, not even that awful night. He had heard the resignation in her voice when she had said them, and he had also seen the determination in her eyes, a determination to back up her vow.
Rubbing tiredly at the knots at the back of his neck, he hated to look back, because there was nothing he could do to change things. But talking about her with Emily tonight had brought the memories back to him. The memory that he hadn't pressed her for the truth, because of the determination he had seen in her eyes, because he knew she wouldn't admit the truth. She had taken a big step by telling him that she wanted more from him, and then telling Lucky the same thing. But when Lucky reacted badly, she had backtracked and hid. She went back to what was safe and normal for her, she had slipped back into being a reactor again.
Jumping down from the railing he leaned against it, looking down at the water far below him. He only wanted her to be happy, he had told her that, and it was true. But he couldn't force her to be happy. He couldn't seem to make her realize that she would never be happy unless she lived her life for herself, and not someone else. He had spent months trying to make her realize that. Trying to make her realize that there was life after Lucky, but in the end she had refused to see it.
"Did you know her and Lucky got engaged?"
Emily's question had surprised him. A part of him had hoped that she would be more willing to take control of her life, if he wasn't around. But it didn't look that way. He let out a snort, or maybe everything he was thinking was just wishful thinking on his part, and she was in fact deliriously happy with Lucky and planning her wedding.
"I don't think she can do what she wants to do, not anymore."
He frowned when he remembered that. He hoped Emily was wrong, he wanted Elizabeth to be happy, and if Lucky was who she needed for that, he wished her well.
Moving back inside the room, his eye fell on the phone he had laid on the table. He probably should turn it back on, but he wasn't ready to talk to Sonny yet. Besides if Sonny was calling him it was probably to tell him to do something and he didn't want to leave Emily.
Something had happened to change Sonny. The last time he had been back, Sonny had been different. Their friendship that had once been so strong seemed to have been forgotten. Sonny only seemed to want to talk to him when he was giving orders. Sonny had the right to tell him what to do, but always before he had framed the order more as a request and explained why he had needed it done. But not in these last few months, Sonny had taken a hard line with everyone and he didn't like it. He knew Sonny had been under pressure, but that couldn't excuse everything.
If Sonny did expect him to leave, and it wasn't an emergency concerning either Carly or Michael, he wasn't going to do it. He couldn't help but wonder how Sonny would react to that. At one time his best friend would have understood, but now he wasn't so sure.
There were only two things that he did know for sure. One was the fact he was going to stay with Emily for as long as she wanted him too. The other thing was, he wasn't going to go to Port Charles anytime soon.
"Did you know her and Lucky got engaged?"
For the first time in almost two years he had no desire to see Elizabeth again.
~Penthouse~
"Because I want the guy to be discreet Jason will be perfect. A lot of the time no one even knows when he is in town. So if we can sneak him into town, he could get the necklace and leave before anyone is the wiser."
Sonny kept quiet and opened the door to his penthouse, letting her precede him inside while she spoke. He paused and spoke quietly to Johnny. "Don't let anyone in."
Johnny nodded and pulled the door closed. Tonight seemed to be a night for Sonny to deal with emotional women. He was glad it was Sonny and not him.
Alexis hadn't even paused for breath. "So if Taggert is watching any of your men, he will miss Jason entirely," she turned to face him. "So when do you think he can get here?"
"Alexis I need you to answer some questions for me first." Out of habit he moved to the wet bar only to stop when he remembered it was gone. All of the furniture that had once been in the penthouse had been lost when the bomb had went off.
"What do you need to know? It's my necklace and I want it back."
"Okay we'll start with that. If it is your necklace why do you need someone to steal it?"
"It is my necklace, it was my mothers, and now it belongs to me. My father gave it to my mother when she told him she was pregnant with me," her eyes were watering but her voice remained strong.
Sonny moved and sat on the exposed part of the stairs, he gestured for her to sit beside him. "Who has it now?"
"Helena, she's going to auction it off in a couple of days," she snorted in disgust. "To show how giving the Cassadines' are. But she can't do that because it is mine."
"Can't Nikolas get it back for you then? Isn't he the one who owns everything?" Sonny asked her when she sat beside him.
"Nikolas," his name came out on a sob and she took a breath before going on. "I told him it was mine, that Helena had stolen it after she killed my mom, but he went along with Helena. He couldn't even look me in the eye while he ripped my heart out. I never thought he would do that to me."
Sonny could heart he pain in her voice and he understood it. She had been distancing herself from the Cassadines' in the past several years, but she had remained close to Nikolas. For him to side with Helena over her on something this important must have been brutal for her. "Did he say why?"
"No. He's not acting like Nikolas. He's moved onto the yacht with Helena, he's kicked Gia, Laura, even Lucky out of his life. He parrots Helena, even Stefan can't reach him, and tonight neither could I," a tear slipped unnoticed down her cheek.
"Luke, Nikolas, Laura and I are trying to help him, but it's been hard." Elizabeth's words from earlier came back to him, and he wondered if Nikolas getting close to Helena was all part of Luke's plan. He frowned, wondering if he should tell Alexis, that her nephew probably hadn't turned his back on her at all.
"I told him that it was my mothers. I don't have very much of hers. I don't have that many memories of her either. I had blocked a lot out, because it hurt so much to remember," she turned to look at him then. "Do you know I have Luke to thank for giving my mother back to me?"
"No. That doesn't really sound like Luke." He knew Alexis and Luke had a strange relationship, one that seemed to be based on uneasy respect, but he really couldn't see Luke doing that for her.
"Well he had his reasons. It wasn't done out of the goodness of his heart. In fact he only did it so he could blackmail me into working with him," she waved that away. "But he did give me something that I can never repay. My mother was an opera singer and he tracked down some of her recordings and gave them to me. He gave me back her voice."
Her voice was quiet and her focus on the room, but Sonny knew she wasn't seeing the paint cans, the ladders, or the sawhorses scattered throughout the room. She was focused on the past. He had been trapped by memories before and knew that you could only ride them out.
"Her voice brought back more memories and of course Luke had found out what had happened to her, but by then I was remembering on my own. I was four when she died. I remember waking up from a nightmare, into a nightmare. I called for her, but she never came so I went looking for her. I heard voices downstairs and crept down to the landing, and looked through the railing into the salon," she shivered slightly. "I remember the hard wood floor was cold, it was winter and the house was drafty."
"My mom was in the salon, she was tied to a chair, there were some men in the room, and a woman," she smiled bitterly. "Helena, although I didn't know it then. My mother looked so scared and that scared me. Even now I can't remember what was said, I just remember my mother's face. Even though she was scared, she was so beautiful."
"I'm sure she was," Sonny spoke quietly but it didn't seem to matter she didn't even hear him.
"My mother saw me on the stairs and I opened my mouth to call to her, and she shook her head stopping me. Do you know how many times I've wondered what would have happened if I had spoken?"
Sonny recognized that type of question, he had several similar ones in his head. What if he had told people what was going on with Deke. Would someone had believed him and stopped Deke? What if he'd called Lily's father and told him he was going to be a Grandfather, that night, instead of waiting for the morning, would the hit have been called off? Would Lily and his child be alive? What if he had married Brenda like he had planned, would she still be alive? What if he hadn't taken Carly to the Quartermaines' that day would his son still be alive? These were questions that haunted him. Questions that chased him into the blackness that was always there waiting for him. He knew the danger that these types of questions could awake in a person.
"She was wearing the necklace, and had on an evening dress," he voice had softened in memory. "I remember seeing the sparkles, she must have been out that night, but I don't remember," she got to her feet to prowl the room, as if unable to sit while finishing her story. "I sat on those steps and watched Helena slit my mother's throat, while my mother looked at me."
Sonny couldn't help but flinch at those words, he knew Helena had killed her mother, but he didn't know that she had seen it. He didn't know that her death had been so brutal. No wonder she had blocked out the memories. How could a four-year-old bear to remember that?
"Luke found out that my father, Mikkos," she went on disgust in her voice. "Had arrived not long after that, and before Helena could do anything to me, he took me away. We left my mother there and I became Alexis Davidovitch and I forgot her, I even forgot that Mikkos was my father for awhile."
"You were just protecting yourself," Sonny countered.
"It doesn't matter. I remember her now. I remember my mother, I remember playing with the necklace, I remember my mother telling me that one day it would be mine," her voice trailed off. "And tonight I saw that necklace for the first time in 30 years. It was sitting on a table, with other treasures, waiting to be cleaned, displayed, and then sold," she shook her head. "I can't let that happen. I have to get it back."
"Does Helena know that you know about it?" Sonny asked getting to his feet.
"Yes. Nikolas had to pull me away from her," she answered quickly, her voice rising, trying to make her point. "I told you he agrees with Helena."
"So if it goes missing she'll know that you have it," he frowned at that. That would be a bad situation for her. If she hadn't tipped Helena, getting away with stealing it would be easier.
"Yes, but I don't care if she knows. I just want it."
"It's not that simple Alexis," he sighed. "If Helena goes to the police their first stop will be you. I don't think you know what you're asking here."
"Of course I know," she snapped. "If the police come to me I'll handle it. If Jason does his job right they'll never be able to prove anything," she turned away from him. "Besides Helena would never go to the police, they would just get in her way."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"
She whirled around again the desperation evident in her eyes. "I don't care, I want it. I would be able to look at when I wanted too, or even if I had to hide it someplace that would be fine too, it would be mine again, not hers."
"I'll buy it at the auction for you," he offered her a compromise.
She recoiled from him like he had hit her. "If Deke was selling one of your mother's necklaces would you buy it from him? Would you give him money to purchase something that was your mothers and should be yours?"
Sonny felt the words hit and realized exactly what she was feeling. There was no way he would ever give Deke money. So how could he expect Alexis to be okay with something, when he wouldn't be? "No."
"No, you wouldn't," her tears started again. "I can't do this alone. I know we haven't gotten along recently and that has been my fault. I have said some pretty awful things to you. I am sorry for that, I realize that you were trying to protect everybody and you did do the right thing by taking Zander like that. But I had been so worried and I lashed out at you. It wasn't fair to you. In the end even Zander and Emily understood why you did it. So there was no reason for me not too, but I wish you would have told me."
"I didn't tell you because you needed to be kept in the dark so you could do your best work. You were killing yourself trying to find Zander and also trying to figure out a way to convict Sorel, if Zander was gone," he was glad she was finally listening to him. He had missed talking to her. "Sorel was watching you, if he saw you let up, he would know that I had Zander. He could have gone after him, Emily, or even you. But when you reacted the way you did, it helped convince him that Zander had taken off."
"Why didn't you tell me that?" she demanded. "Sonny you just stood there and let me yell at you."
"You had a right to be mad," he sighed then went on. "You do your best work when you don't know about certain aspects of what I do. That's what makes you so good Alexis."
"I just wanted to let you know that I was sorry. And you need to know that I was sorry before I ever found out about the necklace. I'm not apologizing just to get your help."
"I know," he offered a smile.
"So will you help me?" she asked finally.
He searched her dark eyes for the conviction he knew he would find there, he knew that even if he turned her down, she wouldn't quit. He could understand her need to do this, but he didn't like it. "Yes, I'll help you," he said finally.
She staggered back slightly in relief. "Thank you."
"I'll get you the necklace," he vowed. "No matter what it takes."
Alexis began to shake and the tears started in earnest.
Sonny moved slowly, and cautiously put his arms around her shaking shoulders pulling her closer to him. She went stiff in his arms, and he just waited, until she finally sagged against him and cried.
~Studio A.M.~
Elizabeth set the makeup down in disgust. It wasn't even 9:30 in the morning and it was already sweltering. The makeup was running as soon as she put it on. She sighed and gave up. Today the world would just have to see both her pale face, and the dark circles under her eyes. She shook her head slightly, at least now she had an excuse to look like hell. Lucky had broken up with her, so she was allowed, even expected to look sad. Before last night she wasn't supposed to show her sadness. She moved back to the couch and sat on the corner where the fan could hit her.
She had to let Nikolas know what had happened last night. She also had to find out if Lucky had done something to Luke. Sometime during the long night she had come to a decision. If Luke was hurt she was going to stop the charade and tell people about Lucky and Helena. She would do that to try to force Lucky to get help, and also to protect other people from Lucky.
Frowning she tucked some of her hair behind her ear. She knew Nikolas wouldn't approve of her decision, she sighed, and Laura probably wouldn't either. Lucky might approve though, especially now that he was starting to realize something was wrong with him. She wanted to help Lucky but she wouldn't allow anybody else to be hurt, in trying to help him. Her Lucky would never want that. He would want her to put other people before him. She was going to try to do what was right for everybody from now on, not just what was best for Lucky.
A knock sounded on her door and she moved slowly towards it, trying to center herself. She had a feeling she knew who it was. She opened the door and forced a smile. "Hi Nikolas."
"Elizabeth," he gave her a hug and stepped into the studio.
She took a deep breath and closed the door. "I thought we were meeting later on."
"Helena scheduled a meeting for later, so I wanted to catch you before you went to work."
"Okay," she trailed him to the couch. "But I thought you were going to meet with Luke this morning."
"I was," Nikolas unbuttoned the top button of his shirt, and frowned at the fan. "But he didn't show, he probably overslept. I wasn't going to go to the club to check it out though."
"He wasn't there?" she sank down on the couch. God what if Lucky had hurt Luke?
"No. Elizabeth how can you stand to stay here? It's so hot."
"I like it," she answered absently. "Has Luke missed a meeting with you before?"
"Yes," he turned to look at her then. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I didn't sleep very well last night," she took a breath. "There's something you need to know."
"Did something happen?"
"Yes. Lucky broke up with me last night," she bit her lip and waited for his response.
"What?" he looked shocked.
"He told me he's afraid that he would hurt me, like he hurt Luke."
"What do you mean hurt Luke?"
"Lucky doesn't remember anything for sure, but he thinks he hurt him," she shifted on the couch to face him.
"But he doesn't know for sure right?" he pressed.
"No. But now Luke is missing."
"We don't know that. You know how Luke is, he does what he wants to, when he wants too. Just because he wasn't there this morning," he went on sharply as if trying to convince himself. "It doesn't mean that something happened to him."
"Come on Nikolas. Luke wouldn't blow you off, not when it comes to Lucky," she touched his hand. "Besides all of this was his idea."
He ignored that, "Lucky would never hurt you."
"We don't know what Lucky is capable of," she shot back. "That's why we're doing this, because we don't know what he's capable of."
Nikolas got to his feet. "I still know he wouldn't hurt you," he paused to look at her. "You know that don't you?"
Did she? The Lucky she once knew wouldn't do most of the things he had done in the year and a half since he had come back. This Lucky was so unpredictable it was hard to know what he would do. She knew Nikolas was waiting for an answer and she didn't have one for him, not one that he would like anyway, so she just shrugged.
"Elizabeth," he looked aghast at her actions. "You have to know that."
"A part of me, still believes that Lucky would never hurt me, or anyone else. That is the part of me that is fighting so hard to save him," she struggled to find the words to make him understand. "But there is also a part of me, that looks at what he has already done and I'm scared that he hurt Luke, I'm scared that we'll never get Lucky back."
He crouched in front of her and took her hands. "You have to believe we will."
Her eyes searched his dark ones. "But at what cost? I can't take the chance that someone else will be hurt while we are trying to help him. I don't want anymore guilt."
"Guilt?" he repeated, his eyes shifting away from her. "I don't know what you mean. No one has gotten hurt."
"Nikolas," she dropped his hands. "You know that's not true."
He got to his feet and nervously tucked his hands in his pockets. "What do you mean?"
"Emily," she cried angrily, "Zander, Alexis, Carly, Sonny, do I need to go on?"
Nikolas turned away from her and moved to the window. "What about Emily? She's not even in town anymore."
"And why is that Nikolas?" Incensed she trailed him to the window and jerked him around to face her. "She's in a hospital because of what we did. She's paralyzed, because of what we did. Jesus Nikolas. Do you even think of her? Do you ever regret not going to the police?" Her eyes searched his. "Because I do. The few hours a night I can sleep, I'm haunted by the memory, that we knew where Sorel was, and we didn't say anything. And because of that Emily was hurt. So I ask again Nikolas, do you ever even think about your friend? Or is she expendable because of your need to help Lucky?"
Nikolas recoiled from her words and didn't answer.
