Babble: Thanks to those who read my work, and a double thanks to those who reply.

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Betrayal, Loyalty, and Love

Chapter 8

~Studio~

Elizabeth was still laughing when Nikolas unlocked the door and ushered her inside her home. She knew she was scaring him, she was scaring herself, but she couldn't seem to make herself stop laughing. If she didn't laugh she may cry and she was sick to death of crying. A part of her was worried about the laughter though, it didn't sound right to her ears and judging from Nikolas' expression he didn't think it sounded right either.

Trying to sober herself, Elizabeth wrapped her arms around her ribs, that were beginning to hurt, and attempted to stop laughing. "S-sorry Nikolas."

"Are you okay?"

"You know I've heard that question more today than I have in my entire life." Shuddering at that implication Elizabeth kept herself busy by turning on the various fans scattered throughout the studio.

"There's a reason for that Elizabeth. You look like hell." Nikolas informed her bluntly.

"Ouch Nikolas, don't sugarcoat things for my benefit." Moving to the windows she began to open them trying to cool the stifling room.

"Elizabeth what happened today?"

"What happened?" She parroted as she struggled with the lock on her painted window. "It would be simpler if you asked me what didn't happen."

"Did you see Luke?" Nikolas moved behind her and reached past to try to open the window.

"I got it," she hissed, brushing his hands away from the window. "I saw Luke alright. Believe me I'll never forget him."

"What happened?" Nikolas repeated.

She could feel herself beginning to get upset again and was unnerved. The roller coaster of a day had drained her and she honestly didn't know if she could handle another ride on her crazy emotions. Trying to stem the feelings she concentrated on trying to open the window that seemed to have swollen because of the heat and humidity.

"Lucky didn't kill Luke like he feared," she answered finally. "But he did do something to Luke, or if not him someone did. I don't know what happened to Luke or who did it, but I know that the man I saw today was not Luke Spencer."

"What do you mean?" Nikolas asked the confusion evident on his face. "Are you saying Luke has a double?"

"No. It was Luke but at the same time it wasn't. I know you don't like or trust Luke, but even you would realize that something was wrong with him. Something happened to Luke to change him. The man I saw today, the man who spoke to me that way, was not the Luke I've known for five years," she shuddered at the memory of those crazed eyes. "This man was different. He scared me."

"Are you okay?" Nikolas touched her shoulder in concern and she jerked away.

"There's that question again. I'm really beginning to hate it," she snapped angrily. Pulling hard at the window she snarled at it when it still didn't budge. The irritation, and frustration added to the unease she was already feeling and her stomach began to swirl again. "You know, no one ever used to ask me that question. Either they didn't care enough to want to know, or they already knew the answer because I had informed them how I felt, rather loudly and repeatedly. It was probably a mixture of both. I used to be a real selfish person, I still am I guess, but it's a different kind of selfish. Back in the day I was real bad. You remember how I was when we first met don't you?"

Turning to look in his direction she went on before he could answer her. "I didn't care about anything or anyone. I would use anyone I could if they could help me out. Did you know the only reason I ever began talking to Emily was because I knew she was a friend of Lucky's?"

"No I didn't know that," he admitted quietly.

Unnerved by the calm look in those dark eyes she went back to the window again. She had no idea where the words were coming from, but she could no more stop them than she could open the window. "It's true. You see even then my world revolved around Lucky. You might say that was the beginning of what has become my life's mission. Oh at that time, he was so wrapped up in Sarah he barely even knew I was in the room, unless I was spilling something on him, or threatening to spill something on him, or making Ruby mad. But did I let that fact stop me?"

Yanking hard on the metal bar trying to open the window, she almost screamed when it still didn't budge and her frustration grew. "Where was I? Oh yes Lizzie, see I was Lizzie the Terrible then, I didn't let anything or anyone stop me. I wanted Lucky and I was bound and determined to have him. So when I found out that Emily was one of his best friends, and overheard some kids giving her a hard time because she'd just gotten out of rehab, I got in their face about it. Did I really care about Emily at that point? Hell no, I just knew Lucky would hear about it, and I wanted to impress him." She turned to face him then, her eyes a little too wide and desperate. "Didn't know that did you?"

"No," Nikolas took a step in her direction only to stop when she went back to the window.

"But it doesn't surprise you does it? Not you. You were the one person who saw through me back then. You were suspicious of me from the beginning. God I hated that about you."

"Elizabeth what's going on?"

"When I was selfish like that the only person who could hurt me was me. But that all changed, I changed. Who would have believed that one frigid night in February could turn me into this?" Shaking her head she couldn't keep the bitter smile from her lips.

"What do you think you've been turned into?"

Giving up on the window and barely registering the concern on her friend's face Elizabeth began to roam the small studio, being unconsciously careful to stay out of his reach. "I never realized how much that night changed me. Oh sure some of the changes were obvious. Lizzie died that night and the Elizabeth that emerged was barely recognizable to anyone who knew Lizzie. But that Elizabeth didn't last too long either, she died as well. She died the night Lucky died." Coming to a halt she tried to puzzle something out. "Only he didn't really die after all, but Elizabeth still did."

The words began tumbling out faster and faster, one on top of the other and her movements began to take on a frantic tone.

"I tried to turn myself back into that Elizabeth, but I couldn't. And the Elizabeth that remained," she gave a harsh sounding laugh. "This Elizabeth is so fucked up all she knows how to do is hurt people."

"Elizabeth," Nikolas tried to interrupt.

"Who am I?" Blazing to life she picked up one of the completed canvas' that lined the wall and studied it with a critical eye. "Am I a sometime wannabe artist?" Shaking her head she snorted. "Get real. At best my talent was lukewarm, at worst it was sentimental and maudlin tripe. So no an artist is something I never was and never will be. I better brush up on my waitressing skills, that's where my true talent lies." To prove her point she brought the canvas down over her knee breaking it. She managed to destroy several other pieces before he reached her.

"No," Elizabeth twisted free of his grasp and picked up another painting throwing it as hard as she could. It crashed into her overcrowded table knocking several things off of it before falling to the ground.

"You need to calm down."

"I forgot about the other reason, I'm not now, nor will I ever be, an artist," she continued on like he hadn't even spoken. For every step he took towards her she took one back. "To be an artist you have to feel and I can't feel I'm not allowed too. At this point I don't think I know how to feel."

Her back hit the table and her mind flashed back to the afternoon when she had gotten sick. "I'm empty inside, I must already be dead," she whispered.

"What?"

Turning away from the concern she could see in his eyes her hands gripped the table, and her eyes darted around the room. She could feel her control beginning to slip. When his hands touched her shoulders she shifted and jerked hard on the table flipping it over, catching Nikolas off-guard she moved away again.

"It wasn't always like this. I used to be selfish. I used to be the only one who had that power to hurt me. But I got stupid. That frozen night made me stupid. I began to let people in. I let them in and they hurt me over and over, until they killed me."

"Don't say that. Don't ever say that," Nikolas ordered.

Agitation increasing, each breath began to come harder than the last, Elizabeth dodged away from Nikolas, picking up a cup here, a paintbrush there, only to throw them as hard as she could to see them break. It was nice to be the one breaking things, instead of being broken, for a change.

"They're just words Nikolas. Word's can't hurt people, don't you know that?"

"Calm down." Nikolas managed to catch her wrist but when she yanked so hard he was afraid she would break her wrist trying to get free he let her go. "Elizabeth."

"Words like I'm a woman who was so desperate to be loved and so needy for it, that I would hang on to someone I didn't really love, so I wouldn't have to be alone, they don't matter do they?" She demanded as Luke's words echoed through her mind. Next came Audrey's, "Or the fact that I could do so much with my life but instead am choosing to waste it."

Breathing was becoming difficult but the words wouldn't stop coming, the memories of what had been said to her today wouldn't stop coming. "That I'm nothing but trash or a whore, those words don't hurt. Or the fact that I'm poison, like Lucky thinks. But those are just words, so they don't count." Her eyes grew desperate as her breath kept coming in gasps. She knew she was getting close to breaking and this time she didn't know if she would be able to pick herself back up. "Or the words that he doesn't want to hear about you. They don't really matter do they?"

Elizabeth pulled away when Nikolas reached out for her and began backing away. "Now you tell me that Helena wants me dead and all I can say is so what?" She tried to yell but the words came out on a painful gasp.

"You need to calm down and breathe Elizabeth." Nikolas moved closer.

"No," clutching her stomach she backed away and stumbled over the case that held her easel, picking it up she turned around. "Don't you see that I'm empty inside Nikolas? Everyone figures that out eventually. That's why they all leave me in the end. That's why they don't want to hear about me. I have some sort of poison inside of me, and it kills the love that people once had for me."

"You are not poison," he argued.

"Yes I am." Elizabeth screamed, turning abruptly she let the case go and it crashed through the window that had refused to open, sending glass shards flying everywhere. "Leave before I poison you too."

"No."

"Y-yes," she began to gasp as her throat closed up on her. Shuddering as her body began to jerk she tried to take air into her suddenly closed off lungs.

Closing the distance quickly Nikolas caught her by the shoulders before she could fall. "Breath Elizabeth," he half begged, half ordered. Picking her up he carried her to the window hoping to catch some of the fresh air that was swirling there. "Just breathe that's all you have to do."

Elizabeth didn't want to listen, she just wanted to give up. Nikolas' words came to her over her ragged breathing, and she ignored them, a part of her looking forward to the growing darkness forming before her eyes. But then her eye landed on the partially rebuilt Corinthos/Morgan warehouse and a little of the desperation she was feeling began to fade.

"Just breathe Elizabeth."

~General Hospital~

Skye Chandler Quartermaine sat in her car and debated with herself. She had no idea why she was back at the hospital. She had no excuse to be here. If she ran into that bothersome Lieutenant again she would have no reply if he asked her why she was sitting in her car in the hospital parking lot. Her father had long since gotten off duty, visiting hours were over, so she had no excuse offer.

Her gaze shifted from her perfect manicure to her purse and the gun she knew was inside there. Smuggling the gun out of the mansion had been easy. Ever since she'd moved in she'd made it a point to find out where the keys were kept to every door and every locked case in the house. That included Edward's gun collection.

She was smart enough to choose a weapon that wasn't unique. The Colt .45 in her purse wasn't unique in any way. Edwards simply tried to have at least one of every kind of gun in his collection. She had discovered through her snooping that Edward had three Colt .45's so there was a good chance that no one would ever know that one of the extra ones was missing.

It wasn't the first time she'd taken a gun. One of her ex's Dr. Jonathan Kinder had discovered that the hard way. She still wasn't sure what she was going to do with the gun. But ever since Sorel had been admitted to the hospital, she'd taken to carrying the gun around with her everywhere she went.

The compulsion to take the gun out and shoot the evil reminder of a past she never wanted to remember crashed into her every time she saw Sorel. The compulsion was much like the urge she'd get to have a drink. Thus far she'd managed to hold off both compulsions but it was only a matter of time before she faltered.

"You know what they say Ms. Quartermaine. Pride goeth before the fall. You should be aware of that, how many times have you fallen?"

The Lieutenant's smirking words came back to her. He was smarter than she'd given him credit for. She would have to be very careful from here on out, and the tightrope she was already walking seemed to grow even smaller.

The world would be such a better place if only Sorel would die. Her focus moved to her purse again. If only Sorel would die.

~Pier 52~

Carly sniffled a final time then pulled out of the arms holding her. Turning her head, her watery eyes focused on the man who had been holding her, and opened wide in surprising recognition. "J-jax?"

"Are you okay?" The Australian asked in concern.

Smothering a groan. Carly stood and moved away from the bench. It was bad enough to lose it, but to lose it in front of Jasper Jax, one of her husband's worst enemies was awful. She began to feel embarrassed and she hated to feel embarrassed. Aware he was waiting for her response she forced some venom in her voice. "I'm fine."

"You know he's not worth your tears. You won't believe me now. But you are better off without him."

That was all it took to fire her temper. "As usual you don't have the first clue what you're talking about. You've had what? Three conversations with me and now you think you know what is best for me."

"I may not know you but I am an expert on Sonny Corinthos," Jax stood and moved up behind her. "I've seen the devastation that man causes. I've seen the wreckage he brings to the women who make the mistake of trying to love him. You should consider yourself lucky, the last woman he destroyed he left broken in the rain, the woman before that died in an explosion."

Whirling around Carly swung out, but Jax caught her hand before it connected with his face. "I'm not Lily and I'm sure as hell not as fragile as Brenda." Taking advantage of the way his eyes closed in pain over the mention of his late fiancee's name she tugged her hand free. "I'm stronger than they were. Sonny won't break me, no man will ever break me."

"I hope your right for your sake and your sons."

"My son will be just fine, he has me and he has his father, Sonny," she deliberately drawled out his name.

"You both could do so much better."

"You don't have a clue." Irate Carly stalked away then back again. "You're jealous of Sonny, you always have been. You have no idea how good of a man Sonny is. You're not even fit to shine his shoes."

"Carly," Jax began in a reasonable tone of voice.

"I don't want to hear it Jax. My husband is a great man. And we're fine together we just had a minor setback, that's all."

"Really?" Jax held up the papers she'd thrown at Sonny. "To me it looks like he filed for divorce."

"You don't understand." Infuriated she jerked the papers from his hand. She could see the compassion in his eyes and the sight of that drove her crazy. She didn't need anyone's pity. "We just had a misunderstanding, that's all. Once I make Sonny understand what happened everything will be fine. He'll understand and we'll be back on track, my family will be back on track."

"It's funny how familiar those words sound," Jax murmured before holding out a handkerchief. "Here."

Angered at the tears she dashed them away with a frenzied wipe of her hands. She had to fix this, she knew she could, she just had to think of something. It wasn't her fault that she got so scared she'd reacted without thinking. "Sorel," she muttered her expression shifting into one of hate.

"What about Sorel?"

"It was all his fault," she whispered mainly to herself. Sorel was the reason that Sonny had been so distant, so worried. Sorel was the one who had shot Sonny trying to kill him, he was the one who had blown up the warehouse with Sonny in it, he was the one that had sent the bomb to the penthouse. He was the person responsible for her having a bomb in her living room where her son played every day. Sorel was the one that had driven her into reacting. He was the one that had scared her so much that she had reacted without thinking things through.

She never would have turned Sonny in if Sorel hadn't made her so crazy. It was all Sorel's fault that her life was in ruins. He was the reason that Sonny had kicked her out and was trying to end their marriage. Sorel was the reason Zander was in the hospital. Sorel was the reason Jason had to leave town. Sorel was the cause of it all, and it was time for him to pay.

"Where are you going?"

Hearing Jax's call Carly never even broke stride. "Don't worry Jax I'll make sure the Boy Scout's send you your merit badge for your good deed of the day."

~Dock's~

"Sonny?"

At the sound of his name Sonny paused and turned around. "Angel?" the dark-haired woman in white stood out on the dark docks like a beacon.

"I thought that was you," she smiled and moved down the steps towards him.

"What are you doing here?" Sonny asked not quite willing to keep the suspicion from his voice. It was true that the woman had saved his life and given him shelter at a time when his life was falling apart, but every now and then her presence made him uneasy.

There was something almost familiar about her and whatever it was, it was unsettling. When those moments happened he tried to convince himself it was just his suspicious nature, and that he was more than likely imagining things and yet, he couldn't help but be wary of her.

"Sonny?" Angel put her hand on his arm to get his attention. "Are you okay?"

Seeing the concern in her eyes Sonny tried to banish the lingering doubts he had about her. "I was thinking about something else. What did you say?"

"I was asking how you are. You were pretty upset the other night at the hospital and I guess old habits die-hard I wanted to check on you." She smiled at her reluctant admission and an answering grin flittered across his features.

"I'm fine," moving past her he focused on the half-built warehouse. He was going to have to put in a better sprinkler system, not to mention security system. This was the third time they had to rebuild the warehouse, it was getting a bit ridiculous.

Sonny worked up a smile when Angel joined him at the edge of the dock. "I forgot to ask you why you were at the hospital. Is anything wrong?"

"I'm fine I was just visiting someone."

"Nothing serious I hope," Sonny remarked casually.

"No nothing that won't soon be fixed," she smiled at him. "I was wondering if you'd like to get some dinner."

Again the feeling of unease washed over him and again he tried to battle it back. So far he'd refrained from having Benny investigate her. He hadn't wanted to repay her kindness with suspicion. But somehow he knew it was only a matter of time before he did investigate her. There was something about the way she kept showing up everywhere he was lately that didn't feel right.

"Sonny?" Again she touched his arm.

"Not tonight Angel." He turned her down as nicely as he could. "I had a long day, I don't think I'll be very good company." The excuse he gave her was an honest one. Between Alexis, Jason, Carly, Luke and Elizabeth he'd had a hell of a day.

"You don't have to entertain me Sonny. You don't even have to talk, I thought you knew that by now." She broke off when lightning lit up the sky around them illuminating the dock. "Looks like a storm is coming."

Looking up Sonny focused on the dark storm clouds that were moving in over the water. Already the wind had picked up and the sound of the waves hitting the docks had increased. "Looks like it's going to be a nasty one."

~Alley~

"Hey hold up Frank."

At the call Jason moved back into a doorway and waited for the speaker to pass the mouth of the alley. Lightning lit the sky, briefly illuminating the two men in uniform at the mouth of the alley.

"Since when do you read W Steve?" Frank Scanlon pointed to the magazine in his partner's hands.

"Since the lovely Gia Campbell has graced the cover," Steve Gray held up the magazine and opened it to a page that was already creased.

"Forget it man she's out of your league. Besides isn't she engaged?"

"Not anymore," Steve shot back. "Her and that Cassadine dude are over."

"Been reading the gossip pages again?"

"No I saw it with my own eyes. Remember that call we made the other day to the PC Hotel? I saw her going into a suite there, apparently she lives there now." The blonde paramedic went on with his explanation. "And this afternoon I saw proof positive that Cassadine has moved on as well."

"Really?" Frank frowned when the sky lit up again.

"Yes I saw him kissing another girl on the docks today. And my soon to be girlfriend Gia saw the whole thing as well."

"Come on we better get back to GH you can fill me in on the rest of your delusions on the way." Frank began moving to the waiting ambulance.

"I'm telling the truth that guy Cassadine was kissing that waitress that works at Kelly's. You know the cute brunette, I think her name is Elizabeth."

Opening the door Frank shot his partner a look. "Elizabeth is engaged to Lucky Spencer, he's Cassadine's brother."

"From the looks of the kiss I saw today I would say that relationship is over," shooting his partner a long look Steve lobbed his next shot. "Imagine a woman playing two brothers against each other, kinky."

Frank glared at the dig and started the ambulance with a roar.

Jason waited for the sound of the vehicle to fade before stepping clear of the alley. Elizabeth was kissing Nikolas and wasn't involved with Lucky anymore? He tried to shake the thought away but couldn't help but wonder what was going on. In fact his first instinct was to head to the left, towards the docks, Kelly's, and her studio, to find her and find out what was going on.

The other part of him was telling him to head to the right and the hospital and do what he'd come here to do. Elizabeth could take care of herself. She wasn't his responsibility, she never had been and never would be.