AN - some explanation is needed. This is set in the past, I'm thinking 98-99. definitely before the Sonny/Carly hate sex, a little AU (I've cobbled together both Carly new (the incident with the 'real' Carly's dad and the old (i.e. Virginia) pasts - as best as I could remember) and it's sort of Jason/Carly - my first, last & always OTP (one true pairing), but only slightly.

Chapter 9 – The Art of Acquisition

While Carly was meeting with Justus, Jason had his work to begin sorting out. For the time being, he had managed to put a stop to the custody proceedings, but he knew that was only temporary at best. Taking control of ELQ would go a bit farther solidifying their position, but there were other concerns as well, namely Robin and Sonny. As long as he remained under her influence, they were both a threat and before he was willing to even think about taking them out, which he was still hoping to avoid if at all possible, he wanted to find a find to neutralize them.

Luckily, Sonny's hands off attitude regarding the business worked to his favor. Although Sonny was still ostensibly in control, Jason was the one who kept everyone in line and was for all intents and purposes the boss. It didn't hurt that due to the whole Hanna Banana incident, and Jason cracked a smile at Carly's nickname for the moll, Sonny had transferred most of his property and assets over to Jason and never initiated their recovery.

His smile faded slightly. Betraying Sonny, his friend and mentor didn't sit well with him in the slightest and he really didn't want to move against the man he considered to be a brother, but if came down to protecting his family, Jason knew he wouldn't hesitate. He just really hoped that Sonny didn't force him into it, but either way, he had to prepare for all the contingences. After talking with Johnny, he sent him off to strengthen ties with members of the commission, just in case.

He turned his head as there was a knock at the door and a few seconds later, Lucky popped his head inside. "Got a minute?"

Jason stared at him for a long moment before nodding. "I expected you to come around sooner than later." His voice was even, but the younger man could hear the undertone of disappointment and anger.

Lucky sighed as he walked in. "Guess that means you heard about Emily and my mom then."

Jason raised an eyebrow as if to say obviously. "From Luke and Bobbie. From you, I'm not even surprised, a little pissed, but not surprised. My sister is another story. Where is she?"

He winced. "Yeah, she had to go and make an appearance at the Q's." He paused, growing more serious.

"It's my fault, Jason. I knew what she was going to do and didn't stop her, then insisted that we go to my dad, because I thought he could talk to her and I ducked out so I could explain to you. It really wasn't Em's fault."

"You done?" When he nodded, Jason stood up. "It must be in the Spenser DNA . . . " At Lucky's look of confusion, Jason shook his head. "Taking the fall. I don't even know how many times, Carly's tried to snow me with some bullshit story. I know you and I know my sister and this has her written all over it. So maybe your father bought that, but I don't. The only thing I do believe is you sneaking out. Emily fucked up, yeah, but she is my sister, Lucky. What the hell do you think I'm going to do to her?"

Lucky shrugged. He didn't think it would actually work, but it was worth a shot. At least, Jason was taking it better than his dad, who had hit the fucking roof.

"And I'm not the person you should be apologizing too."

"Yeah, I volunteered to see how pissed you and Carly were."

It was Jason's turn to shrug. "I'm more pissed than she is, but don't think she's going to go easy on either of you. Expect to spend time groveling and babysitting, although I'm pretty sure that Emily will get off a little lighter."

"Yeah, I figured as much." Lucky rolled his eyes. "She's still holding a grudge then?"

He smirked. "She can't help but bust your chops, so suck it up Spenser. I warned you not to call her Carlybabes. She really hates that."

Lucky scowled. "Well, if she'd stop calling me mini-Luke, I would."

"Hey, far as Carly's concerned, you started it." Jason shrugged, watching as he sprawled out on the couch. "How are things between you and Emily?"

He shook his head. Talking about his girlfriend with his friend, sometimes boss and over-protective enforcer brother was never Lucky's idea of a fun time, but his options were fairly limited. His dad and Carly were conflicted, Nikolas was out of the loop, his mother out of the question, obviously, and he wasn't even really talking to Em at the moment . . .

"What do you want me to say? I know she didn't mean anything and that she only wanted to help. I know it all and the worst part is that I knew she was going to do it. I warned her, but I didn't tell her not to do it. And if I had, she wouldn't have done it, but I didn't. I knew it was going to end bad, but I just thought that maybe there was a chance."

Lucky stared at the floor, because he knew it hadn't said the worst of it and somehow he knew that Jason knew it too. How Jason knew was one of the great mysteries that was Jason Morgan. He also knew that he could stop there and Jason would let it slide, but it would eat him up inside.

"If it had been Carly who was about to say something like that about Emily, then I would've stopped her." The words broke free like a damning proclamation and if he expected to feel a sense of redemption, he missed it somehow.

"Yeah," was the slow reply, "I know."

"Then why are you so fucking calm?" Lucky exploded, staring up at the older man angrily. "Why aren't you kicking my ass or something?"

"Would it make you feel better if I did?" Jason relaxed slightly. The kid needed to deal with his guilt one way or another.

"If you had done what I had did, I'd damn well kick your ass!"

"You'd try, anyway," he pointed out. "If Luke hadn't warned me so I could move forward against AJ, I might have been tempted, but he did, so I got the custody agreement signed and filed. If Laura does talk, it won't mean losing Michael and that's important to Carly." He shrugged. "The news might have gotten out some other way. Am I happy? Fuck no! But I kick your ass and not only do I have to deal with your family – Luke and Bobbie, but Emily and Carly would come after me too. Just because we're pissed at you, doesn't mean that we don't care either."

Lucky stared incomprehensively at him for a long minute, processing everything he had to say. He weakly smirked. "Yeah, right. Knowing Carly, she'd get a few shots in, herself."

Tilting his head, Jason arched an eyebrow. "Maybe. But she'd get me for it, later."

"So we're cool then?" At the other man's nod of assent, Lucky's smile widened slightly. "This mean that I still have a job?"

"As long as you don't fuck up again? Sure."

Justus rolled his eyes making a mental note to charge Jason double time for this.

Noticing, Carly laughed. "You need to loosen up, Justus. Trust me, this is going to be fun." At his raised eyebrows, she laughed again. "Look, you might be a Quatermaine by blood, but we both you how they treat you and this is your chance. Working together, they can't stop us."

Leaning back into his chair, he didn't whether to laugh or cry. "Carly, your issues with the Quatermaines are completely different than mine."

"True enough," she admitted, but with a brightly wicked smile, she quickly added, "that doesn't mean that we can't work together. It's pretty much your job, and since I'm not going to change my mind, you might as well work with me than against me, right?"

"Well, there is that, of course," he acknowledged. "But," he warned her, "this isn't going to be easy."

"Nothing easy is worth anything."

Justus nodded. "Ok, as it stands, both Jason and I have transferred our shares to you, which gives you a total of 20, enough to make the Quatermaines take notice if we're not careful. At the moment, they're under a holding company, so we should be safe for the moment, providing that no one looks too closely."

"And if they do? I mean aren't these things documented somewhere? Because if Edward or Ned get a clue, they will freak."

"They won't." He said definitively, when it looked like she was going to say something, he held up his hand. "Carly, I do know what I'm doing. The transfer to the holding company just happened today, the actual sale of the transaction is post-dated to the morning of the next ELQ quarterly meeting and by that time the stocks will have changed through enough hands that no one will have a clue until you announce it. The bigger problem is getting more shares. Most of the stock is as you know held in the family."

"Most, but not all," she was quick to point out, relieved that was one less thing she had to worry about. "There is Jax's shares, he's still reeling from trying to rebuild his company, I'm sure for the right price, we could acquire his. Not to mention Katherine Bell. We also might be able to talk Tracy into selling hers. And maybe we could get some from Lila and Emily."

"Wait . . . hold up for a minute." Justus rubbed the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. Some of her ideas were outrageous, but among them, he could see a twisted sort of logic. "Jax and Tracy are viable options. For the right price both of them will sell, I'd prefer to approach Tracy last - "

"Right, because she won't be able to keep her mouth shut." Carly cut him off in her excitement. "But Jax, I think we should move in on immediately. The way he's making money in Monte Carlo, it won't be long before he's got enough working capital to be a pain in the ass about it."

He stared first at the ceiling, hoping for divine intervention and when that was not forthcoming, he glanced over to Johnny who wasn't even attempting to hide his snickering.

"Hey man, don't look at me, I'm just here as the hired gun." Johnny answered the unspoken request. He'd been dragging out shopping with Carly before and recognized the acquisitive gleam in her eye, there was no way he was going to get in her way when she saw something she wanted.

Without skipping a beat, Carly said, "Don't mess with me DeMarco, we could always hit a few stores after this." When he quickly raised his hands in acquiescence, she laughed, before refocusing on the lawyer.

Justus sighed, she reminded him of Edward at that moment – intensely driven. "Ok, I agree with you on that point and to be honest I've already begun negotiations with him towards that goal."

"Excellent!" Carly's smile broadened as she leapt to her feet and began to rapidly pace in a tight circle in front of his desk.

"Katherine Bell, on the other hand, will be difficult." At Carly's look of confusion, he elaborated. "She got her shares after the fallout from her non-marriage to Ned and pretty much wields them like a weapon against him. She follows no agenda but her own and will be resistant to selling. We might be able to persuade her to you the proxy over her shares, but selling them outright, I doubt it. Of course, there is always the possibility that she'll run to Ned just to stick it to him and if she won't sell, it might not even be worth it."

"Damn . . . that sucks. Lemme me think about that one and I'll get back to you. Everyone has their vulnerability. I just need to figure out what hers is," Carly paused, thinking aloud.

"Likewise, I doubt Lila would sell her shares either – "

She interrupted him again. "You leave Lila to me. I've already got a plan for that."

"A plan?" Justus raised a skeptical eyebrow at that. "You do remember who we're talking about here. This is Lila, not a vulture like Edward or Tracy, or any of the other Q's really."

"Don't even worry about, this is in the bag. And no, I'm not going to coerce her or anything, I happen to like and respect Lila. I'm just going to take her up on a offer she made awhile ago?"

"Which included her shares?" He asked suspiciously.

"Yes!" Carly exclaimed in exasperation. "Just relax, man. You're way too uptight."

Shaking his head, Justus sighed. "Ok, fine. Even if your plan works, including Lila, Tracy and Jax's shares with what you already have, you still come up short. You'll only own 45, which is not enough to control ELQ."

She nodded, pacing even faster. "I need Katherine Bell's shares, which would bring me up to 50 and that is where Emily will hopefully come into play. . . I need someone, either Alan or Edward to give her a small share, even just one percent and I'm set."

"Does my cousin, either of them, know you're playing to use Emily in this little plot of yours?" He asked after a moment of stunned silence. Granted, he didn't talk to Emily much, but he was fairly confident of her opinions of getting involved in ELQ and he could imagine Jason being a party to a scheme like this.

"Emily owes me, she knows why. If I ask her to, she'll do it. She won't be thrilled about it, but she'll do it. And Jason . . ." She shrugged, her voice drifting off. "Well, he won't like it either, but he'll deal."

He cocked his head to side, thinking over what she had said. No, Jason definitely wouldn't like it and while he get be pissed at Carly, ultimately Jason would come down on him for allowing it. "Why don't we wait on that as a last resort? Don't forget that there is another three percent floating around that you could make a play for."

"Who?" Carly asked warily, concerned since he hadn't brought it up earlier.

"Alexis Davis."

She winced reflectively.

Bobbie stormed into the penthouse. "Jason, we need to talk!"

He closed his eyes, really beginning to hate that word. "Carly isn't here, Bobbie."

"I know that, otherwise I wouldn't be here. Guess what that bitch did now?"

Jason's eyes flew open at that, before immediately narrowing. "Bobbie, you had better not be talking about Carly." His voice was low, with an underlying trace of anger.

"Carly?" She shook her head in frustrated bewilderment, growing even more upset that he would think that. "No, this is about Carly. That bitch told Stefan everything and now he – "

"Wait a minute . . . " He ran his hand through his hair, thoroughly confused now. "What bitch told what?"

"Dammit, Jason, pay attention!" She yelled, feeling like she was at her wit's end. "Laura told Stefan fucking Cassadine everything she got from Emily! I know because he came up to today at the hospital to ask me about it!"

He stared at her blankly for a moment, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

"Ok, Laura told Stefan and? We knew that she wasn't going to keep her mouth shut. Did she tell Monica or any of the other Q's?"

Seemingly thrown by the change in topic, Bobbie quickly retorted. "No, not as far as I know and believe me, I would've heard about it, but that's not the point."

"Then what is the point? So Stefan knows, so what?"

Bobbie stared at him, her mouth falling open. "So what? This is Stefan Cassadine, we're talking about. And now because of Laura's meddling, he is suddenly interested in Carly."

"Interested? Interested how?" If nothing else that caught his attention, Bobbie was freaking out, but he didn't know why. "He's never even spoken to Carly, why would be interested at all?" Something was going on here and he didn't know what, but the hair on the back of his neck was starting to rise.

Uh oh, the suddenly sharpening focus in his eyes was putting her on more of an edge than before. "She's a Spencer, he's a Cassadine – that's enough of a reason."

A lie. Jason knew that with a certainty he didn't question. Bobbie was hiding something and whatever it was, it had to be big to elicit this kind of a reaction.

"He's dangerous, all Cassadines are dangerous, especially to Carly."

There was just enough truth in that to make him wary, whatever Bobbie's secret was, Carly was in the middle of it.

"Why?" The demand was issued harshly and with an almost rapid fire speed.

"He just is!" She insisted anxiously. "You have to keep him away from her."

"Tell me why, Bobbie. Why would Stefan or any Cassadine for that matter come after Carly and not you or Luke?" When she paled, he knew that he was getting closer. Jason pressed on, feeling no guilt when she staggered, hearing his next question. "And what does her past have anything to do with anything?"

"Jason, I have never asked you for anything – not when I found out you knew Carly was my daughter, not when she in Ferncliffe, not even when I knew had gotten back involved with you, knowing your lifestyle might be dangerous to her and Michael – well, I'm asking now. Keep him away from my daughter, if you don't, we could all lose her and Michael."

Bobbie blinked back her tears as she spoke, fighting to keep her voice from breaking as she held her breath, waiting desperately for his response. If he couldn't or wouldn't agree, she'd have to go to Luke and tell him everything. She knew Luke might never forgive her, but he would protect his niece and grand-nephew . . . she hoped.

The sins of the mother didn't have to fall to the child, she had to believe that or else she had already lost and Bobbie would do anything to prevent that. She had made so many mistakes with Carly, this was one that she had hoped would never come out, but Bobbie had recognized that look in Stefan's eyes. She had ignored it once during their marriage and it had nearly cost her everything, ignoring it this time would cost her so much more.

If only Laura could have had kept her damned mouth shut! Bobbie had always suspected that Luke's ex had it in for her, but she couldn't have scored such a direct hit, if she had tried, of all the people in the world to tell . . . If the situation wasn't so fucking dire, she would have laughed, because she refused to cry. The truth would change everything and Bobbie knew she had to whatever she had to keep it from imploding Carly's world.

"I want to know why, Bobbie."

The ultimatum left her cold and shaken.

"You don't know what you're asking, Jason. You don't." Bobbie shook her head, feeling more than a bit faint.

Actually saying the words would it make it true and she wasn't prepared to go there yet. If anyone deserved them, other than Carly, it would have to be Luke and only Luke. And as much as she hated it, the alternative would be so much worse.

"If you can't or won't protect my daughter and grandson, then you'll force to go to Luke and when he's through, you'll never see either of them ever again. Don't make me do that, Jason, please."

He stared at her with an air of menace clinging to him. She absolutely believed what she was saying and the merest suggestion of a life without Carly and Michael was enough to bring out every primitively possessive tendency within him. Jason had to force himself to reign in his temper, lashing out at Bobbie would do nothing but escalate the situation.

"I will always protect Carly and Michael, but I need to know what to protect them from." He ground the words out.

"I already told you! Keep her away from the Cassadines, especially Stefan or else . . . "

"You do not want to threaten me, Bobbie."

"Take care of my daughter or I will!" She glared at him, just as angrily, before stalking out and slamming the door behind her.

"Well that was just a little extreme, wasn't it?" Lucky commented, walking out from the kitchen, a strangely curious expression on his face.

Jason waited a moment before demanding, "What the fuck do you know, Lucky?"

"Whoa, man." Lucky raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "You're as much in the dark on this one as I am. I have no idea what that was all about!"

Narrowing his eyes, Jason stared him down until he was satisfied that Lucky was telling the truth. "Fine then, tell me what you do know about Stefan and any reason he might be after Carly."

Lucky shrugged, taking a sip from the can of soda he had gone into the kitchen for when Bobbie had shown up. Before he had gotten the chance to say hi to her, she had already begun fighting with Jason. "Honestly, I don't know. " He paused for a moment, sitting while trying to figure this out.

"I mean other than the obvious fact that he's a Cassadine and she's a Spencer, for anyone else in his family other than Nikolas and maybe Alexis since she's on the outs with the rest of them, it'd be enough, but Stefan's funny." At Jason's impatient look of confusion, he continued thinking aloud.

"For the most part, he's stayed out of the whole Cassadine murder and mayhem as to a way to world domination kick. He and Bobbie were married, which fell apart when he caught her trying to poison or drug him, depending on who you talk to, for my dad in some scheme in his never-ending vendetta. But even after that, he didn't try to retaliate against her other than to deny her alimony."

"He had a thing for my mom years ago, thus Nikolas," Luke commented wryly, "and took over as CEO at GH, although that wasn't exactly a kosher deal and he also kidnapped my grandmother for a few years, although he claims that was to protect her from Helena, but who the fuck really knows?"

"But going after Carly?" Lucky shook his head. "That I don't understand. I mean she is a Spencer sure, but in the whole Spencer/Cassadine politics, she's peripheral at the most. Even if Stefan did want to start the wars up again, which he's never shown much of a taste for, there are far better targets than Carly. I'd expect him to come after my dad, given his hang-up for my mom. Carly is barely acknowledged as a Spencer as far as the general population knows, there'd be no advantage in coming after her, unless you figured into the scheme and even then she'd be an indirect target. It doesn't make sense."

"Bobbie believes he will." Jason's voice was as tight as his fists clenched at his side.

"Yeah, obviously, but not for any reason I know. I mean, I'll talk to my dad and sees if he knows what's going on, but I can't promise anything."

"You think you can get anything from him?"

"Please, I'm no rank amateur. If he knows anything, I'll get it out of him, but don't hold your breath. If my dad knew something, he would have told me long ago, especially if it involved a Cassadine. Spencers don't keep secrets from each other." Lucky smirked.

Thinking about how Carly and Luke had kept her secret from Bobbie and now whatever secret Bobbie wasn't telling, Jason seriously wondered about that the validity of that particular statement, but deciding against mentioning it.

"I'll also check in with Nikolas, maybe he can figure out something from that end." He offered, but shrugged as if to say not to expect too much.

"Do that and if you learn anything, you come to me, not Carly," Jason warned him. "I don't want her freaking out if this turns out to be nothing."

"You got it, man."

More than pleased with herself, Carly glanced at her watch. It was still relatively early and Jason had mentioned that he was going to busy until dinner time with business, so she had a few hours to kill. The plan to buy up ELQ was going well, by tomorrow, with Jax's shares, she'd own one quarter. She still had to talk to Lila, lay the groundwork for the purchase of Tracy's portion and deal with whole Katherine Bell and Alexis Davis issue and she frowned at that thought, but Carly wasn't nearly as concerned about the petty details. After all, she thought with a smirk that's what she had Justus for.

Who needed to go shopping when she could buy a Fortune 500 company and screw over the Q's in one fell swoop? Carly decided to go to Luke's. Granted Luke would probably be there, which would be fun as always, but she needed to gloat to someone and considering her circle of friends, she smirked at the thought, she was admittedly limited in that respect.

Walking in, it was surprisingly deserted, Claude mentioned that both Lucky and Emily had taken off and he hadn't seen Luke in a few hours. Carly scanned the room, feeling oddly disappointed. Luke was never really going to approve of her, that ship, if it ever really existed, sailed long ago, but with the exception of Lucky he was the one person she thought would appreciate the irony of her stealing ELQ out from under them.

Jason, though she loved him dearly, couldn't see the delicious perfection of it. To him it was merely another tool, a means to an end, whereas to her it was a brilliant act of vengeance. She understood the Quatermaine's collective mindframe – AJ wanted only Micheal to satisfy Edward's bid for immortality through passing down the company within the family. Well, she was going to give the old bastard his heart's fondest desire, just not the exactly way he planned. She smiled, imagining the look on his face when he realized what had happened.

Carly turned to leave, when she heard Luke's voice abruptly. Tilting her head, she began walking towards his office. As she approached, she stopped just short of entering.

"Lay off the kid, Luke. She made a mistake, it happens." Carly leaned up against the doorframe. "It's not like the Spencers have the patent on fucking up and if anyone has the right to be pissed, I would think that would be me."

Both Emily and Luke turned to stare at her, a look of relief quickly followed by a guilty wince on Em's face, while Luke just glared at her.

"You would defend her just to piss me off, don't think I don't know what you doing, Caroline." He rolled his eyes, throwing up his hands in frustration.

"Hi, Carly." Emily looked more subdued than the older woman had ever seen her and Carly felt a slight twinge of remorse at the conversation she was about to initiate, but shrugged it off. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

"You wanna get out of here? I've got some shopping to do and we can . . . chat," the last word falling heavily in the awkward silence.

"Ummm," Emily glanced between the two Spencers uneasily, wondering which was the lesser of two evils. Luke was just pissed off at her and seemed to be taking a mid-rant break, Carly on the other hand seemed calmer, but Emily knew better than to trust it that, but then again Carly was the person she did really need to speak with and either one was a better option that going back home. "Ok," she hesitantly offered, in a more excited voice that she actually felt.

Resigned, Luke watched the interplay between the two women, knowing the Carly was up to something, but couldn't quite place it. Lucky or Jason would have a better idea, but standing past Carly he could see Johnny lurked in the shadows, hopefully he'd keep them out of trouble. He nodded slightly to the bodyguard, before snarking at them. "Good idea, get the hell out of my club. Some of us actually do work around here, although I know it's a novel concept for you Caroline."

She laughed at that, "Yeah, I know. I saw Claude outside, poor guy having to keep this place running, because we all know you don't. Come on, Em." She smirked at him, before walking out, Emily following after giving him an apologetic shrug.

Once he heard the front door shut, he picked up the phone and dialed. "Ok, Bobbie, spill it. What the hell is going on with Prince Vlad?"

"What do you mean, you can't find anything? How is that possible?" Stefan demanded heatedly. The answer he received did nothing to satisfy him and he slammed the phone down hard enough to crack the plastic.

It was a sign of his growing aggravation that his usual calm exterior was slipping. His investigator was having more luck, slight thought it was, in tracing the whereabouts of his mother than in learning the particulars of Caroline Spenser's background, which made no sense. Helena was barely trying to cover her tracks, yet all the records of Caroline before her arrival in Port Charles included the file he had originally complied on her were either missing or had been recently destroyed in a series of 'suspicious' fires.

Stefan Cassadine did not believe in coincidence. Even if Morgan had, for reasons of his own, the fires set in some ill-conceived plan to protect his paramour there would be no reason to steal his paperwork, nor opportunity. He had only just divulged the information to Barbara Jean yesterday and his security on the island was near impenetrable. Other than the occasional visitation from Luke Spencer, which contrary to the other man's belief, Stefan always permitted with the idea that allowing him his petty victories kept him from attempting other schemes, no one other than family or staff stepped foot on the island.

Morgan would have no chance to infiltrate his employees, their loyalty was absolute to the Cassadine family, if not himself. No, whoever had taken his file must have done so upon the order of his mother. And if Helena was interested in Caroline, then that went far in explaining his investigator's lack of progress.

But the why behind such an action was what he couldn't understand. As it currently stood, Carly Spencer should have barely registered in his mother's schemes. There had to be some unseen connection between his mother and Barbara Jean's daughter, but the girl hadn't even been in town on Helena's last visit. The obvious answer would be that it must have occurred before her arrival, but when?

Leaning back in his chair, he reviewed from memory everything he could remember from his brief perusal of the file almost a year and a half ago. Born twenty one years ago in Florida, given up for adoption to a Virginia and . . . no, he couldn't remember the husband's name . . . something Roberts. In the end, it was irrelevant; the husband abandoned them a few years later. Stefan recalled that their economic status fell shortly afterwards, forcing them to move into something the Americans called a trailer park, but he would consider to be a ghetto at best. There had been a mention of some trouble in high school, now thanks to Laura, he knew what that had been in reference to and the girl ran away to Miami and lived a life on the streets until Bobbie's investigator tracked her down.

Toying with the pink ribbon on the now crushed cigar, he thought back to his family's past, where would the intersection have been and when? To the best of his knowledge, Helena had never once been to the state, which Caroline never seem to have left before appearing under a false identity in Port Charles. He remembered his only visit to the state, with his father and Stavros and couldn't imagine his mother enjoying it much.

Then again, for him, it was a memory best forgotten. Too hot, poor company and his brother and father did nothing but whore around. Idly, he remembered the one bright moment in the entire trial his visit turned into. The young woman he had inadvertently saved from Starvos' unwelcome attention. To say she had been grateful was an understatement . . . Starvos had paid him back in full for him afterwards, but it was to be a precursor to his relationship with Laura back in Greece.

The beating he had taken the next morning was brutal to say the least. He couldn't remember her name, but for one in her profession she had been beautiful though terribly young, he had been scarcely older. Feeling a twinge of guilt, he struggled to remember her face but the image was too faded by time, all he could visualize was gorgeous red hair.

Red hair . . .

Stefan felt a cold wave of denial swept through him.

That had taken place, nearly twenty three years ago.

Beneath his fingers, his knuckles now bone white reflecting viciousness of his grasp, the cigar crumbled to dust, leaving only the pink ribbon curling delicately around his fingers.

Everything fit - the time period, his memory, Barbara Jean's reaction to his questions, the sudden movements of his mother, and that the damnable pink-ribboned cigar. Everything fit.

Unable to control the sudden maelstrom of violence with him, he roared a scream of rage. Rising to his feet, he wildly shoved the desk and watched in feral satisfaction as it crashed into the imported lead crystal glass window pane. In the wake of shattered glass and rush of footsteps, he waved the servants who appeared at the door away with one dark and fiercely glittering glare.

Beneath the vehemence of his anger, grief and bitterness, there was a small but intense burst of joy, almost buried under an overwhelming sense of remorse and Stefan deeply inhaled, drawing on every shred of his hard-fought for discipline. There was an infinitesimal chance that he was wrong, that he was jumping to conclusions based on nothing more than weak conjecture, but even as he acknowledged the possibility, Stefan knew with a gut-wrenching certainty that he was right.

The longer he accepted it as the truth, the more implications staggered him and with Helena back in the picture . . . He scanned the room and finding the phone, quickly rattled off a series of orders. He wanted them guarded, but it must be kept extremely low-key, without alerting anyone. Before he dared do anything more, he needed undeniable proof and he knew exactly where to find it.

TBC

Well, I've some dedicated reviewers & I love them dearly, lol. anyone else out there want to say something . . . anything . . . This story is on the brink of going very AU, but I can't say anything more for fear of ruining the surprise, but feel free to guess (although I'm sure it must be making a little more sense now, lol).

Well Helena has now arrived, so expect fireworks, lol.

Poor Carly, things are going to get a lot more complicated & interesting pretty soon. I've got lots of ideas for this story so if you've gotten this far, leave me a review. It's good karma, you know :D