Chapter Ten

"Good morning, Lover." Maxie said as she rolled Nikolas over, straddling his waist and wearing nothing but an old, ratty T-shirt he knew belonged to Mac many, many years ago that read The Outback after Mac's old nightclub. Her sweet face held no make-up and her hair was mussed, and that was how Nikolas liked her best because he knew that no one else got to see her like this. With everyone she held up her guard with make-up and 4 inch Stilettos, but with him, she was just herself.

"Oh, my God. What time is it?" Nikolas asked, stretching his arms before wrapping them around her shoulders, pulling her to him as closely as her baby bump would allow.

"Almost 11. Looks like I wore you out last night, Cassadine." She smirked whole-heartedly, even though inwardly hers was breaking. How long would this dream last? Her eyes clouded over with emotion. The doctor had said her pregnancy was fine. It had been her heart that would fail her. That wasn't new. Her real heart as well as her borrowed one had always come up lacking.

"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" He asked, holding her tighter against his chest, burying his mouth against her collar bone, tasting the sweet taste that was Maxie Jones.

"Nothing. Nothing. I am just worried about Luke and Lucky."

"They aren't back yet?" He questioned, rolling them over so that she was underneath him, continually kissing her neck. Maxie's unshed tears suddenly were interchanged with arousal and desire, and she could feel every pound of her borrowed heart as he lifted his head to stare into her sapphire eyes with his intense sable ones.

"I don't want to talk about your brother and his father." She panted as his fingers grazed over her sides, slowly lifting the T-shirt from her pastel skin. His full mouth smirked at her panting state as he returned his tongue and lips to her sweet skin.

"No, I didn't think so." Nikolas told her in between placing light kisses along her collar bone before finally raising himself to rid her of the only clothing she had on.

He stopped then with his own breath quickening and his chiseled chest rising urgently, and he looked at her. He really looked at her. She stilled underneath him and looked back.

What Maxie saw scared her to no end. This man loved her with passion and desire that others ached for in their lifetimes. Anyone can love out loud, but Nikolas loved her quietly with more ardor than she'd ever known. As she stared back at him, she took something away that only two people in love could understand.

His eyes told her stories of years to come and a love that would rival anything that came against it.

He had loved before her. That was no secret. They both had buried lovers on more than one occasion. But Emily and Jesse and Courtney and Coop, their love was all-consuming. Things like that can't last forever.

But their love was steady and loyal and endless.

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Carly walked into the nursery her youngest shared with Laura-Lee Spencer and lifted the blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby girl into her arms. She always knew that she and Jason would have the most beautiful baby girl. She just never thought it would've turned out like this. Jason was God-knows-where, and here she was wrapped up in one of her Uncle Luke's plots.

They were supposed to grow old together. Even as she married Sonny, Lorenzo, and Jax, she always thought that she and Jason were supposed to grow old together.

They were supposed to have the life she always wanted. They were going to raise Michael, Morgan, and MJ in a house with a friggin' white picket fence and be happy about it.

Or at least that was the plan.

But Jason would be the first person to say that Carly's plans never work out.

"Your daddy would be so surprised to see you, my angel." Carly whispered to the toddler. MJ just went along wiping her sleepy eyes as Carly gently tried to wake her for the day. She definitely got her sleeping habits from the Spencers.

"Yes, he would, my girl. And he would pick you up, and he would love you. I miss him so much sometimes. But I miss him even more when I look into your eyes, Macy Jean, because they are his and his are Lila's. It's amazing Edward didn't take one look at you and demand visitation." Carly laughed throughout the tears that threatened to fall down her cheeks.

"But he didn't and life went on." Carly said, tears falling freely now. "The girls know and Mama and Noah and Uncle Lucas and Uncle Patrick. When I told Aunt Robin, I was half-hoping she'd repeat history and go running her mouth about who your daddy is, but the one time I want her to be honest…she keeps my secret. She always was useless like that."

"Nice, Carly." Robin guffawed, unaffected by her step-sister-in-law's story. She'd walked in on the same scene too many times to count. But this was Carly's life. She'd be damned before she made the same mistake with MJ that she had made with Michael.

"Oh, shut up. Talk to my brother yet?"

"Hit me where it hurts why don't you?" Robin said, leaning against the wall. Somehow the country had this quiet effect on all of them. She didn't like it at all. It allowed too much time for personal reflection.

"I didn't spend all those years hating your guts for nothing, did I?" Carly replied.

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Knowing she was going to be a mother was one thing, but every time that baby moved inside of her, Nadine felt it in her heart. And every time Lucas' hand brushed over the swell of her belly, Nadine was consumed with guilt. How did she get here?

Her best friend was masquerading as her baby's father while her baby's father was living like a dead man at Crimson Manor.

She hadn't seen him in over a month now, but their conversation was still fresh in her memory. He had told her he loved her, that he didn't care who her son's father was, and that no one would ever be what he was to her.

What pissed her off was the fact that he was right along with the fact he was her baby's father. Nadine still didn't know how she had ended up here.

It was just one lie and then another and then another, and then all of a sudden her whole life was a lie.

"Hello," Alexis said, walking into the room off the kitchen to find Nurse Crowell sitting at the piano, staring blankly at the keys.

"Can I ask you a question, Ms. Davis?" Nadine asked quietly.

"Of course," Alexis said, sitting on the couch facing the piano, concern written on her face.

"I'm a liar. How do I get out of it?" Nadine inhaled. "I'm pregnant by a man I'm insanely in love with and I have my best friend masquerading as my baby's father. That's my big secret. What do I do?"

"I tried that once. I just ended up married to him almost a decade later, and all my great reasons for separating my daughter from her father went down the drain anyway. Come clean. That's my advice."

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Luke could feel eyes on him before he ever opened his. The last thing he remembered was heading over to Felicia in that little bar in Vegas. Cowboy was there. Where was Lucky? And what about Felicia? Had she been made?

"He's squirming. He's awake. Get your ass up, Spencer!" rang the familiar voice of Robert Scorpio. It was then Luke felt like he was in the twilight zone.

"Scorpio? What the hell?" Luke said, sitting up and opening his eyes to see Felicia and Cowboy still out beside him with Robert, Frisco, Sonny, Jason, and that damn Zacchara boy staring at him.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Luke." Frisco said, looking at his old friend for the first time in over 15 years.

"Nice crew. You two trade in the WSB for the mob?"

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