Limbo
Luke and Alexis stepped outside for several minutes while Monica finished examining her. They stood outside in silence as they waited for Monica to come out with some news. Finally after it seemed like forever passed, Monica opened the door. "Well, I was wrong, she didn't have a miscarriage."
"I knew it!" Luke said.
"Skye had a baby." Monica informed them. "Less than an hour ago."
"A baby?" Luke repeated in shock. "Skye had a baby?"
Suddenly it all made since. Skye disappeared because she was pregnant and was afraid to tell him. So many emotions flooded through him at once. Anger. Shock. Anguish. Relief. Happiness. Fear. He couldn't believe that she wouldn't tell him about something so important. Something life threatening.
"Yes." Monica answered. "The question is, where's the baby?"
"Helena." Luke breathed through gritted teeth. "Helena sat this whole thing up."
"You stay here with Skye, I'll find her." Alexis volunteered.
"Alexis, I don't think that's such a good idea." Luke told her.
"I can handle Helena." she said, dashing off. Alexis knew that her stepmother couldn't have gotten far.
"Luke maybe you should go after her." Monica suggested.
"She'd just send me back." he replied. "Can I see Skye?" he asked. "I really need to see her for myself. I need to put my mind at ease."
Monica nodded and walked back into the room where Skye was.
"Is she going to be all right?" he asked, following.
"Skye's unconscious, at least for now." she told him.
He felt his heart sinking. "What does that mean?" he asked.
"It means that she could go into a coma. Skye's lost a lot of blood, but the good news is that the bleeding has slackened." she said. "Once the helicopter gets here I'll know more."
Luke sat down on the bed next to Skye, he gently brushed the damp hair back away from her pale face. "Everything's going to be all right. I promise." he whispered. "I'm never going to let you out of my site again." And to think that her dying had brought this to his attention.
------
Alexis ran to the edge of the grounds. Helena was impatiently waiting for her private jet. The baby carrier was sitting on the ground beside her. Alexis eyed the carrier and then Helena's dark form. She tried to remain as quiet as she possibly could, trying to determine what to do.
"What took you so long, Natasha?" Helena asked, her back to Alexis.
"How did you know I was here?" she asked.
"I sensed your mousing presence." Helena answered, turning around to face her. "It's too late now."
"What's too late?"
"Poor Antoinette, she just wasn't strong enough." Helena said, almost regretfully. "Just like your Mother. Did you honestly think that I would let this opportunity pass right by me?"
"Taking that child isn't going to help you win your feud with Luke." Alexis told her. "It's only going to deepen it."
"That's where you're wrong." she corrected her. "I've got the ultimate prize."
"How could you leave her to die?" she asked.
"Skye has served her purpose to me. She's given me an heir, an heir who will rule the Cassadine Empire the way its suppose to be ran."
"You can't take her baby." Alexis said bluntly. "I won't allow it."
"You won't allow it?" Helena laughed. "Do you think you're going to stop me?"
"That child will never obey you Helena." she told her. "No child of Luke Spencer's will ever obey you."
"We'll see about that."
"No." Alexis said firmly. "That baby is Luke's, so why don't you just give the baby back to me. You know Luke's going to come after you Helena, it's only a matter of time before he tracks you down and makes sure you join your sons in hell."
Helena swiftly pulled the dagger out of her long cloak and lunged toward Alexis, grabbing her throat with her free hand. "You shall join both your Mother and your sister in death." she hissed, choking her stepdaughter with all the power she possessed in her body. Alexis was frozen in fear and in shock as Helena began to cut off her oxygen supply. Somehow Alexis gained her strength and struggled to push her away. Helena fell to the ground, the knife flew out of her hand. Alexis went directly for the child who was laying in the basket, his wails filled the cold night air. Helena groped the cold, damp ground in search of her weapon, finally she grasped it tightly in her hand. As Alexis crouched over the infant, Helena came up behind her, pulling her away from the child and toward the bluff.
"Natasha, you always were quite foolish." she told her, pushing the blade of the knife against her stepdaughters throat.
The metal was as cold as the winter wind against her, sending chills down her body, filling her veins with ice. She looked over the bluff, it was such a long way down, through rock and trees, she imagined falling and hitting the icy water beneath. "Helena." she gasped.
"There's no use in pleading with me now." she laughed. "Its too late."
Alexis placed the heel of her boot against the rock in front of her as Helena continued to patronize her, pressing the blade tighter and tighter against her quivering throat. In a swift move, Alexis pushed off the rock, sending her backwards with Helena. They both hit the ground in a thump. The dagger once again was thrown from Helena's hand.
As they struggled against each other on the ground, Alexis' hand grasped Helena's throat, digging her nails into the area just beneath her chin, cutting of her oxygen supply, unbeknownst to Alexis, Helena had gripped the dagger firmly in her hand again, without reservation she plunged the blade into her stepdaughter's right side. Alexis gasped in pain and in terror as she felt the cold of the blade enter her body and the warmth of her blood escape.
Helena let go of the knife, leaving it embedded into Alexis' flesh. She looked down at her hand, the velvet skin covered for the second time tonight with the blood of her sacrifice. She pulled herself up off the ground and stood over Alexis. "Tonight was a good night, Natasha. I've succeeded in killing all of the Cassadine daughters." she looked at Alexis squirming in pain for several long seconds before turning away and heading toward Mikkos II.
The ache in Alexis' side was painful, more than uncomfortable, but less than unbearable. She knew what she had to do. She pulled the dagger from her side, biting down on her bottom lip to keep from screaming as the metal was freed from her body. Quietly she gained to her feet and slowly made her way over to Helena. Her own blood dripped down the handle of the dagger that she gripped tightly in her hand. Helena reached down and lifted the baby up into her arms.
"You're going to let me go." she told her stepdaughter. "If you fight me I will have one of my men kill you."
Alexis dropped the dagger as Helena's jet came into view. It was all very quick as Helena and the baby boarded the jet and then took off just as quickly as they had appeared.
Alexis' hand grasped her side, trying to stop the blood flow. It was quite a way back to Wyndemere. She grabbed Helena's scarf off the ground tightly around her waist, wincing in pain, but never the less hoping that it would slow down the bleeding, at least until she got to the towers.
------
The helicopter had landed and the medics as well as Monica were working rapidly on Skye. Ric and Tracy were explaining to Mac and another officer what had happened and Luke was standing outside the tower door with Nikolas, waiting for any word on Skye. Alexis' heels sounded against the stone floor, causing both Luke and Nikolas to look up.
"Alexis?" Nikolas called out.
"Are you alright?" Luke asked.
Alexis' breathing was shallow as they met her halfway. "Helena." she breathed out. "Helena has the baby." she breathed out as she crashed to the ground. Luke sunk down to her, turning her over onto her back. "She's been stabbed." he told Nikolas.
Nikolas opened the door to where Monica and the medics were working on Skye.
"Alexis has been stabbed."
"Alan will help Alexis." Monica told him. "Alan, go help Alexis, I'll take care of Skye. Emily you go too."
"Okay." Nikolas agreed, his eyes settling on Skye. He carefully backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"She's been stabbed in the side." Luke informed Alan as he knelt down to her.
Ric came running into the tower and as soon as he seen Alexis he was frozen in terror. "How did this happen?"
"I don't know." Luke told him, standing up. "She went off after Helena."
"And you didn't try to stop her?" he yelled. "You know how dangerous Helena is, you know what she's capable of! Look what she did to Skye!"
"I couldn't stop her!" Luke yelled back.
Alan had removed the scarf and pulled Alexis' sweater up to her bra and began assessing her vitals, before attending to the wound itself. "It's a deep laceration." he observed.
Emily grabbed a pillow off on the chairs and propped Alexis' feet up to help with blood flow.
Ric grabbed Luke by the collar of his shirt and threw him up against the hard, stone wall. "You could have had someone follow her! You never care about anyone other than yourself!"
"Don't pretend to have morals now, Lansing!" he shouted, trying to push Ric's forceful hands off of him. "It doesn't suit you!"
"She was stabbed at an angle." Alan told Emily, talking over the ruckus, as she joined him on the ground, in attempts to help Alexis and her Father in any way she could.
"The both of you shut up!" Tracy screamed, stepping in between Ric and Luke, trying to separate them. "That's enough!"
The door to the room where they were working on Skye was opened and they wheeled her out on the stretcher. The medics directly went over to Alexis, Emily filled them in on what was going on as Luke rushed over to Skye who had an oxygen mask covering her face. Monica was holding a bag of IV fluid up and a medic held a unit of blood.
Luke gently stroked Skye's hair. He hated seeing her completely helpless and not being able to do anything about it. "Is she going to be alright?" he asked.
"She's stable." Monica replied. "We've given her two units of blood and she'll need more as soon as we get her to General Hospital. She's going to pull through."
"I'll go with her to the hospital." he insisted. "I wanna be there when she wakes up."
"That's fine." she told her husband. "Why don't you take Dillon with you. And Mike." she said, getting on of the medics attention. "Luke and Dillon going to fly out with you and Jake. After you unload Skye I want you to come back for Alexis. The other two are going to stay here with me."
"Yes, Dr. Quartermaine." Mike agreed..
Once Skye was on her way Monica rushed over to Alexis.
"Her vitals are pretty stable." one of the medics informed her. "The bleeding has slacked off and we've started her on saline."
Alexis began to whimper, making her way back to consciousness.
"Alexis." Monica said, lowering herself to the ground. "Alexis, can you hear me?"
"Monica." she breathed. "Helena...she's...she's."
"Don't worry about Helena." Monica told her. "Everything's going to be alright."
"She has the baby." she finally breathed out.
"Shh." Monica silenced her. "Don't talk, save your strength. The helicopter will be back very shortly." she told her, covering her up with the blanket that Nikolas handed her.
------
Alexis awoke to the sound of Ric's voice. She felt like she had been hit by a truck. "Where the hell am I?" she asked.
"Relax, Alexis, you're at GH." he told her. "You and Helena had a little sword fight."
"I thought that was all just a really bad dream." she said, wincing in pain.
"Well, it wasn't and you have the wound to prove it." he replied. "What did Helena say to you?"
Alexis was silent for several seconds. "I don't know. I remember fighting with her and everything else is just a blur, except for the baby. Helena has Skye's baby, Ric, you have to find her."
"The PCPD is doing everything they can to find Helena and Skye and Luke's baby." Ric told her. "There's nothing more we can do other than sit back and wait."
"How is Skye?" she asked.
"Skye lost a lot of blood." Ric said softly. "She went into shock and has slipped into a coma."
"But she's going to be alright?" Alexis asked. "Luke's with her?"
Ric nodded. "Luke's with her. He's refused to leave her side until she wakes up."
"I can't believe Skye didn't tell him she was pregnant."
"I'm sure she had her reasons." he replied.
"I suppose." she agreed. "Is Kristina all right?"
"Kristina's fine, she spent the night at Sonny's." he told her. "I thought that would be the best place for her given everything that has happened in the past several hours."
"I wanna see her."
"I'll call Sonny and get him to bring her over." Ric whispered as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. "But you have to get some rest, okay?"
"Okay."
------
Luke sat on the side of Skye's hospital bed, clutching her hand in his. "This is all my fault. I should have done a better job at looking for you, but every lead I had ended up as a dead end. If you would have told me about the baby I would have never ever let you out of my site. I've made a lot of mistakes in the past and I'd like to think I've learnt from them, but Helena has done it again, she's gotten one up on me. History seems to be repeating itself and I don't know how to stop it. Helena's doing to you the same thing she did to Laura, she's taken your child knowing that it will drive you crazy."
He rubbed a hand through his hair. "Baby, please wake up. Please don't make me face this all alone. You're my sanity and without you God only knows what I'll do to Helena once I find her and I promise you I will find her and the baby if it's the last thing I ever do."
It didn't matter how much Luke pleaded or begged or promised the fact remained that Skye would possibly never wake up and that their child would be raised Cassadine and later be used against the Spencer's. It was about more than the Cassadine-Spencer war. It was about life and death . The life and death of Skye and his child. His child. He didn't even know if it was a girl or a boy Helena had stolen from him.
"I know I'm not the perfect Father, Skye, but when you wake up and we get our baby back, I promise to do the best I can, for the baby and for Lulu and Lucky." he whispered. "I'm not going to let Helena get away with this."
Luke eyes traveled over Skye's pale, limp body, it felt as if Helena had pierced him with a dagger and was now just twisting it at her leisure. In that moment he realized just how much he loved Skye. He lowered his head softly against her stomach as he cried. For her. And for him. And for their baby.
Lucky watched from the doorway as his Father broke down, sobbing into Skye's stomach for several minutes before pulling away trying to collect himself.
Luke felt a strong hand on his shoulder and turned his head to see his son standing behind him. "Why aren't you with the PCPD trying to find my child?" he asked.
"They wouldn't let me help." Lucky told him. "They said it hit too close to home and I figured the best place for me to be was here."
"There's nothing you can do here." Luke replied as he turned his attention back to Skye. "There's nothing any of us can do."
"Don't tell me your giving up on Skye already."
"I'm not." he assured his son. "Skye's a fighter, she'll find her way back."
Lucky sat down in the chair next to the bed. "You didn't know about this baby did you?" he asked.
"No." Luke answered. "But it doesn't make it any easier to accept."
"We'll get Helena." he told his Father. "She's done a lot of horrible things in the past, but taking an innocent baby is definitely something new."
Luke looked over at him. "This is it, Lucky, this time Helena dies." he breathed out. "And not by going over a cliff or by blowing her yacht up. I wanna watch the life drain from her body so that I know she's good and dead once and for all."
"This time I'm inclined to agree." Lucky replied. "How long did Helena have Skye?"
"I'm not sure. No more than a week." Luke answered. "But we all know how much damage Helena can do in a few hours time."
"Let's start looking for her right away."
Luke shook his head. "I can't." he replied. "I can't leave her."
"Then I'll start without you and when Skye wakes up and you know that she's alright you can join me." Lucky told him. "Just tell me where to look."
------
Alan sat quietly in his office with his head in his hands. He wished Skye would have told him about her pregnancy, after all it was a risky one. On some level he felt that he failed his daughter, but then again he knew that Skye wouldn't have kept the truth from him if she didn't have a reason.
Monica tapped lightly on his office door before making her way inside and shutting the door behind her "Are you alright?"
He raised his head to look at her. "My daughter's in a coma and Helena Cassadine has my grandchild. What do you think?"
She sat down on the sofa beside him. "Did you get a hold of Skye's doctors in Paris?"
"Yes." he answered. "Dr. Jonas Dubois. He said that everything in Skye's pregnancy had gone accordingly. She mad some complications at the beginning but once she made it into her third trimester everything was smooth sailing."
"That's great news."
"The baby was a little premature."
"How much?"
"About three weeks." Alan told her. "But the baby is Helena's bargaining chip so I'm sure she got him to a doctor right away."
"Thank God for that." she sighed. "At least we know she won't hurt the baby."
"It's not like she doesn't have it in her to disregard any life that isn't her own."
"I honestly think that Helena won't do anything to hurt Skye's baby."
"You seem to be forgetting that Skye's baby is Luke's." Alan reminded her. "Helena would do absolutely anything to destroy Luke."
"Helena likes mind games." Monica told him. "Right now she's just putting her plan into motion."
------
Helena cradled the infant close to her chest. "My darling, I have such grand plans for you. You're going to grow up strong and courageous. You're going to hate the Spencer's. And when you reach the age of twenty-one you shall destroy what's left of them."
The baby's eyes seemed to be getting heavier and heavier as she rocked back and fourth. "Hush little baby don't say a word, Momma's going to buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird won't sing, Momma's going to buy you a diamond ring..." Helena sang, trailing off as his eyes closed.
TBC...