Forge

Helena Cassadine smiled to herself. She was in the position of power. She was in the position of a lifetime. And she held life and death in the palm of her elegant hand. This time she would strike Luke Spencer exactly where it hurt the most and she was going to make damn sure that he never recovered.

So her darling Mikkos had sired another bastard child. At the moment she didn't mind her husbands unfaithfulness because he gave her the power to destroy her oldest and dearest enemy. In the end it would be worth it. Helena's dark eyes slid over Skye's medical file, taking in ever bit of information about the accident she had when she was in her early twenties. The accident that left her unable to carry a child to term and would be lethal if she tried.

She was about to hit so many different birds with one stone. Luke would go insane at thought of a Spencer-Cassadine spawn. Skye would die trying to carry the child, relieving her of the humiliation of another extra martial affair Mikkos had. And by chance that the child lived he or possibly she would become the Cassadine Heir that Nikolas should have been. Then there was Alexis, she would lose another sister and seeing Alexis in pain always brought her so much pleasure.

This time Helena was sure that she had worked out a foolproof plan that no one would ever be able to trip up. This time she would succeed. The images of Skye in agonizing pain and Luke in a much deserved distress evoked a wicked laugh from deep within her. Her plan was already in motion all she had to do was sit back and wait for Luke and Skye to conceive Skye's much wanted child and Luke's much unwanted nightmare.

"Mrs. Cassadine?" a voice called, pulling her away from her thoughts.

"Yes?" she asked as she looked up.

"A Miss Quartermaine is here to see you."

Helena rose to her feet. "Send her in."

The young man left the room and summoned the other lady.

"Where the hell have you been hiding?" Tracy asked her as she entered the room.

"I've been expecting you." Helena told her. "I have a project that I need some assistance on."

"What would that be?" she asked. "Please tell me it has nothing to do with Emily."

"Oh, I assure you, little Emily is the farthest thing from my mind." she assured her. "This has to do with your other niece."

"My other niece?" Tracy questioned. "Oh, you mean Skye."

"Yes, Skye."

"What about her?"

"Skye's a Cassadine."

"Well that explains a whole hell of a lot." Tracy breathed out once the shock had subsided. "That and the fact that Luke Spencer is going to have a heart attack. So I'm assuming you have some master plan to use Skye to destroy Luke?"

"You catch on very quickly."

"So what's the plan?" she asked. "Are you going to cast a spell on them too?"

Helena laughed. "Of course not." she said seriously. "Luke and Skye are going to destroy each other on there own. All they needed was a little push, which I've already given them and now the rest is up to them."

"Why don't you start from the beginning." Tracy told her. "I think you have a lot more explaining to do."

------

Skye and Ric stumbled through her bedroom kicking the door shut behind them. They were completely wrapped up in each other as they made their way through the dark room. How they made it from the sofa in the den to upstairs and down the hall they would never know. Their kisses were passionate and lustful and entirely too rushed.

"It's too dark in here." Ric mumbled against her mouth. "Where's the bed?"

"I know where I'm going in the dark." she assured him as she broke away long enough for him to remove her top.

His lips sought out hers once again, tangling his mouth together with hers. Skye's hands worked masterfully on the front of his shirt, undoing the buttons in breakneck speed and then pushing the fabric from his shoulders. He trailed several wet, open mouth kisses down her neck and at the moment Luke Spencer became the farthest thing from her mind.

"Please tell me that the Quartermaine's aren't going to come busting through here?" he murmured against her skin.

"They're not." she breathed out as she backed them closer and closer toward the bed. Before she could warn him Ric stumbled backward onto the bed taking her with him.

"Found the bed." he laughed.

There was nothing romantic about it.

There was no candlelight.

There was no moonlight.

There was no music playing softly in the background.

There were no promises of forever and always.

Together they were seeking comfort in the arms of a friend. Comfort and understanding in someone they had learnt to trust. Their night together was a one time deal, something that they would look back on with no regrets. Because sometimes forgetting the pain even for a brief second was worth it no matter what the cost.

They ended up somewhere between loving making and sex. Nothing too soft, yet nothing too hard. Nothing too meaningful yet nothing too meaningless. Whispers in the dark were those of comfort, not those of sweet nothings. And at the height of their ecstasy there were no declarations of love only the sounds of pure physical pleasure.

And when it was all over they both agreed that they didn't make a mistake and that it wouldn't change their friendship. A friendship that had slowly evolved and one they both wanted to keep. As they lay sated without the thoughts of Alexis or Luke bouncing through their minds they had no idea how much this night would cost them in the long run.

------

"What do you mean we've made a mistake?" Luke asked Alexis.

"I mean we let the people we care most about walk out of our lives without a fight." she told him. "We let them walk away believing that they were completely in disposable to us, like our time with them didn't mean anything at all."

"I take it you're having second thoughts about ruining things with Lansing before they ever got started?"

"I really like Ric." she admitted. "He makes feel things that I haven't felt in a very long time. He makes me feel alive and like I'm the only woman in the world and I'm afraid that I've ruined it. I'm afraid that I could beg him to give me another chance, a real chance, and he would turn me down flat. Not that he wouldn't have every right after the way I acted. I was petty and childish and it would serve me right if I ruined any possibility of a serious relationship with a wonderful, caring man."

"You haven't lost him forever." Luke told her. "Not yet anyway."

Alexis shrugged. "Maybe I have."

"Lansing's not my favorite person." he admitted. "But you've got this thing for him that I can't deny. It's more than like and lust. Dare I say it? Could it be love?" he mocked. "Could you being falling in love with the District Attorney?"

"Possibly." she breathed out. "At least I'm not afraid to admit my feelings."

"What about you're feelings for me?" Luke asked.

Alexis smiled. "I love you." she told him. "Just not in that way."

"Are you saying that my kisses meant nothing to you?" he half joked.

She looked at him for several long minutes. "Not too many years ago I would have said yes, your kisses would have melted my heart into a puddle, but now whatever we could have had or would have had has passed." Alexis said, somewhat regretfully. "Although I can't help but imagine what it would have been like."

Luke smiled. "I guess we'll never know."

"I guess not." she agreed. "And besides look where the path has lead us."

"I can't complain." he sighed. "So what are you going to do about Lansing?" he asked, changing the subject.

"That's just it." Alexis breathed. "I don't know."

"Is this about his kiss with Skye?"

"It's not just that." she sighed. "It's the fact that I was a hypocrite when it came to Ric and his actions. I blasted him for something innocent and meaningless."

"How do you know it was meaningless and innocent?" he asked.

"Because Skye's so much in love with you, Luke, that other men are the farthest thing from her mind." Alexis said with a smile. "And I know that you hate to hear it, but she is, she's hopelessly, devotedly, head over heels in love with you and a simple kiss with Ric would never change that."

"That's the thing." Luke breathed out. "I can't love Skye the way she deserves to be loved."

"Did Skye ever say that?"

"She didn't have to."

"Luke." Alexis whispered. "If Skye thought that she'd run for the hills and never look back."

"Skye knew that it was never going to work out." he insisted. "We both knew it from the beginning."

"I know you love her." she told him. "And you're being foolish for not giving this a chance."

"What would be the point?" Luke asked. "I can't give her what she wants."

"What do you think she wants?"

"You know a white picket fence and all the things that come along with that." he told her. "I've tried that before and it didn't work out."

"Luke, when you love someone, all your dreams of how you imagined your future to be fly out the window and you start new dreams together." Alexis explained. "I know Skye well enough to know that when she loves she loves with her whole heart. You insisted on coming to see her even after I told you to stay away and now you wanna walk away from her and not look back because things have gotten a little complicated?"

"It's not that things got complicated, it's that things went into a completely different direction than I had planned."

"Nobody plans to fall in love, Luke." she sighed. "It just happens."

"I know."

"Please don't break her heart, Luke." she whispered. "She doesn't deserve it." Alexis softly kissed his cheek and got up off the barstool and left.

----

Skye made her way down the hall and was heading toward the stairs when a sharp voice from behind called out. "Skye Quartermaine don't you dare take another step."

She froze. "Yes Auntie Tracy?" she asked.

Tracy made her way over to her. "Ric Lansing's car was parked in the driveway all night and it wasn't moved until this morning." she informed her. "What do you know about it?"

"Nothing." she answered. "What am I suppose to know about it?"

"Was he with you?" Tracy asked.

"Well, Tracy, you know that I can't get a man, you said so yourself." she mocked.

"I never said you couldn't get a man." she corrected her. "I said that you couldn't keep one. There is a big difference."

"Where are you going with this?" Skye asked. "Because frankly I don't have the time to stand here and discuss my personal life with you."

Tracy looked at her for several long seconds. "Aren't you suppose to be in love with Luke Spencer?" she asked.

"What does Luke have to do with this?"

"Nothing." she answered. "I was just trying to keep all the facts straight. Let me see if I've got this, you correct me if I'm wrong. You're in love with Luke, but you're sleeping with Ric Lansing?"

"Once again, Tracy, you could not be more wrong." she said, annoyed. "The only person Ric is interested in is Alexis."

"You know, I don't blame you for forgetting about Luke, I mean he is old enough to be your father, and going after someone like Ric."

Skye rolled her eyes. "Why are we having this conversation?'

"I was just curious." she told her. "Ric is young and ambitious and even I can't deny your beauty, the two of you would make such a good couple. And I guess now that you're making a play for Ric that must mean that Alexis is with Luke?"

"Why do you assume that?" she asked.

"Because you always lose the man you love." she reminded her as she walked away. "Maybe." she added as she turned back around. "Maybe if you wouldn't fall in and out of love so easily you're relationships would be more stable."

"At least I can find a man." Skye shot back.

"There's no need to get nasty." Tracy snapped. "I was just trying to help you out."

"You get stranger and stranger with every passing day." Skye told her.

-----

Alexis knocked softly on Ric's open office door and waited for an answer. "Come in." she heard him say, although he never even bothered to look up. She closed the door behind her. "New case?" she asked.

The sound of her voice caused him to forget what he was doing. "Alexis, what are you doing here?" he asked. Suddenly he was nervous and excited at the same time.

"What, can I not come by to see you?" she asked.

"No." Ric smiled. "Please, have a seat."

Alexis sat down in the chair across from him. "Is it possible that you could spare some of your time for me?"

"I always have time for you."

"I'd like to talk things over." she told him.

"Okay." he said slowly. "Does this mean that you've decided to give us another chance?"

"Are you saying that you're willing to give me another chance after the holier than thou attitude I gave you?"

"You didn't have a holier than thou attitude." he assured her. "You were just trying to prevent yourself from getting hurt and I understand that. We all do questionable things to protect ourselves."

"I'm really sorry about going on and on about your kiss with Skye and not being able to trust you. Especially after the things that happened with Luke." she told him. "I've been so lonely these past few weeks without you and Kristina misses you too."

"I miss her." Ric told her. "I've also missed you more than I could have ever imagined."

"Ric, do you honestly think that we can make this work out?" she asked. "Because I don't want to jump into something that isn't going to work out in the long run."

He got up from his desk and walked around to sit down beside her. "Isn't that what life's about?" he asked. "Isn't it about taking risks and seeing where they lead you? Sometimes they don't always work out, but wouldn't you rather take the chance than spend the rest of your life wondering what if?"

"I wanna be with you more than anything." she whispered. "And I'm willing to take whatever risk necessary because I don't want to pass up this chance."

"You don't know how happy I am to hear you say those words."

"So we're going to be able to put the past behind us and move on?" Alexis asked. "Because I don't care about anything that happened up until now. This moment is where is everything begins."

Ric thought back to last night. The night he had spent with Skye and in his mind he debated back and fourth rather to tell her. "Alexis, there's something you should know."

Alexis noticed the serious expression across his face. "What is it?" she asked. "You can tell."

"While we were apart." he began. "And I didn't think I had a snowballs chance in hell of getting you to give me another chance, I was with someone else." he admitted. "It was just a one time thing."

She looked at him for several long seconds because even though she was a little hurt, she didn't have any right to yell because she was the one who ended things with him. "It's okay." she finally said. "I was the one who pushed you away and I didn't expect you to be waiting for me in the wings if I changed my mind or came to my senses."

"You're alright with this?"

"I can't not be alright with it." she told him. "You had no obligations to me. I may not like it but it's in the past and as long as that's where it stays it doesn't matter."

"I want to be completely honest with you." Ric told her. "I wanna do this right this time and I don't want there to be any secrets between us. Do you wanna know who…"

"No." she interjected. "It doesn't matter who she was. All that matters is that from now on you and I are going to do our best to make whatever this is between us work."

"Are you sure?"

"What's in the past should remain in the past." she replied honestly. "And if we're going to make this work then the only place we should be looking is the future."

"I couldn't agree more." he told her. "I wanted to come to you so many times, but I was afraid that you'd turn me down flat and I didn't know if I'd be able to handle the rejection."

"I'm just sorry that it took me this long to realize what I had known all along."

"What's that?" he asked.

"That I need you." she whispered.

Ric leaned forward and softly brushed his lips against hers. "You won't regret this." he whispered. "And I think this calls for celebration."

------

Luke sat back at his desk and opened a bottle of scotch. He sloppily poured some in the glass in front of him and then proceeded to down the contents. After repeating his actions several times he heard insistent knocking on his office door. "Go away." he yelled.

Bobbie jiggled the knob of the door only to find it locked. "Luke Spencer, you put your glass of liquor down and unlock this door right now!" she demanded.

"Barbara Jean, I'm not in the mood for a conversation."

"Okay." she breathed out.

"I knew you'd understand."

"Lucas either you open this door or I'm going to bust it in!" she shouted. "What's it going to be?" There were several seconds of silence and then Bobbie heard the turn of the lock. "I'm glad you seen it my way." she told him as she made her way into the office.

"What's up?" he asked.

"I'm here about Lesley." Bobbie replied. "As well as Lulu."

"Is there something wrong with Lesley?"

Bobbie sat down on the sofa beside her brother. "Lesley is getting older Luke and her health is becoming fragile and while she loves Lulu, she can't be expected to take care of her too much longer."

Luke gave her a somber expression. "I knew this day would come sooner or later and I always thought it would be later."

"Time has a funny way of running out on you before you're ready." she told him. "You have a very important decision to make."

"Barbara, I love Lulu, but I can't take care of her all by myself." he replied.

"It won't be all by yourself." Bobbie assured him. "You'll have help. There's me and Lucky and Nikolas and Skye. You won't be alone."

"I don't know if I can do this." Luke admitted. "It wasn't suppose to be like this. Laura was suppose to be here."

"I know." she said softly. "But she's not and now you have to honor her by taking care of your daughter."

"I guess I'll have to move out of here. This casino is no place for a child to grow up." he mumbled, thinking out loud. "I'll have to find a new place."

"You don't have to decide everything right now." she told him. "I just wanted you to have a little time to adjust to the situation. And you know Luke, you're getting older too and maybe this is the time you should plant your feet a little more on the ground."

"Maybe."

"Well, I have to get going."

"What's the rush?" Luke asked. "Why don't you stay and have a drink?"

"I'd love to, but I have to pick up Lulu, I'm taking her to the park and then she's going swimming at the Quartermaine's." Bobbie informed him. "I don't wanna be late."

"Swimming at the Quartermaine's?" Luke repeated. "Is that safe?"

"I'm sure everything will be fine." she assured him. "After all Skye will be there."

"Then there's nothing to worry about."

Bobbie noticed the somber expression on Luke's face. "Is there something wrong between you and Skye?"

"There is no me and Skye." he told her. "And before you start on some long tirade I'd advise you to save your breath. My not being a part of her life is really for the best."

"You keep telling yourself that." Bobbie replied as she got up off the couch.

"Tell Lulu I love her."

"I will."

-----

Alexis made her way through the grounds at the Quartermaine's and over to the pool house, she walked through the open door. "Skye?" she called out. "Skye?"

"Just a minute, Alexis." Skye answered.

Alexis sat down on the sofa and waited for what felt like an eternity. "How much longer are you going to be?" she asked.

"Don't get your panties in a twist, it's only been two minutes." she told her as she emerged from the other room. "I couldn't find the bathing suit I wanted."

"Such a crisis." Alexis mocked. "It's not like you're going to wear it for the rest of your life."

"Well, you never know." she said as she slipped her sundress on. "Besides, I want to be prepared incase any available men drop in unexpectedly."

"You mean Luke." she corrected her.

"I assure you I don't." Skye answered. "Luke has been the farthest thing from my mind for quite sometime now. Which reminds me, why are you here?"

"How did talking about Luke remind you of me?" Alexis asked.

"Oh, I don't know." she laughed. "Maybe because you can't seem to keep your hands off of each other."

Alexis flashed a condescending smile. "Let it go." she sighed. "Besides I'm here about Ric."

Skye avoided eye contact with her. "What about Ric?"

"I know what happened, Skye, and don't you even try to deny it."

TBC….

Thanks for the reviews!

Please review again!