The Guest House. Living Room.
Claudia stood with her back to the front window of the guest house, facing Helena.
So this was the big, bad Helena. She looked like she'd blow away if someone closed an encyclopedia volume with too much force in her direction. But looks could be deceiving, so Claudia stayed on her guard.
Helena eyed Claudia.
"What have we here?," said Helena.
"Well, I like to think of me as a 'who' and not a 'what,' but I can see where that wouldn't work for you," said Claudia. "Makes it harder to kill. I've been there."
"I presume you are the infamous Claudia Zacchara I've been hearing so much about," Helena said, studying Claudia.
"Technically, I'm Claudia Corinthos. Still married. What do you want?" With any luck, Helena would babble like a bad comic book villain.
"Just curious about the woman my grandson is so interested in. You can understand that, can't you?," Helena purred.
"I thought you people were more genteel than my people. I thought you asked questions first, and then slit the throats."
"What do you want with my grandson?," asked Helena.
"That's it? That's all you want? You could have asked nicely. Instead you had to make me drip my blood all over my nice dress," complained Claudia.
"The dress is black. It won't show," said Helena.
Claudia had only one goal right now: to reverse positions. She had to get Helena's back to the window before the nanny brought Spencer up the path. Everything else could wait. Unfortunately, she could not use her gun to do it. Guns going off near children -- not going to happen again.
So she was going to have to get Helena closer to her. Just then, the baby kicked. Oh, not now, honey, she thought.
"Your grandson and I," Claudia began, purposefully waving her gun around like an incompetent shoots-like-a-girl type, "are helping each other out in a few matters." She really needed to get that stitched on a pillow when this was over.
"What... does... that... mean?," asked Helena, as if to a backward child.
"It means," said Claudia, "that we'll let you know when we feel like it." She leaned in a little toward Helena, whispering girlishly, as if confiding in Helena, "It's all so new, we don't want to jinx it. Hey," she said, resuming a normal no-nonsense tone of voice, "I have a question for you."
"What's that?," asked Helena, inching closer.
Claudia really hoped she'd found Helena's trigger. "Who's Nikolas' new uncle?," said Claudia.
Helena looked momentarily thrown off-balance and then rushed toward Claudia, knife first.
At that moment, the tea kettle went off with a loud piercing whistle, and Helena lost her focus just in time for Claudia to side-step her. Helena pitched forward, and Claudia grabbed her arm, whirling her around so that Helena's back hit the window. Mission One accomplished.
Just in time. Here came Alexis (?!) up the walk with Spencer.
Claudia grabbed Helena's knife arm and kept pounding the older woman's wrist into the window, which served two purposes. It got Alexis' attention, quickly sending her back down the path with Spencer in her arms, and it forced Helena to drop the knife. Claudia kicked the knife away. Done, and done.
"Okay," said Claudia. "Do I have your attention?"
Helena tried to bang her knee into Claudia's belly.
Claudia backed away, training her gun on Helena and staring at her in eerie disbelief. "Did you just try to kick my kid?"
And Helena knew she had made a terrible mistake.
Claudia gestured with her gun. "Down on the floor, Grandma."
********************************************
Wyndemere. Living room.
Alexis burst in carrying Spencer.
"Helena's at the guest house!," she shouted at Nikolas. Nikolas was on his feet immediately.
"Where's Claudia?"
"She's with her. They were struggling when I saw them."
Nikolas rushed to the door, calling over his shoulder, "Call Elizabeth Webber, and get her down here immediately."
*********************************************
The Guest House.
"I don't care if you once owned all of Greece," Claudia fumed, circling Helena, who was sitting on the floor with her hands on top of her head. "This Island is now Nikolas'. And he has given this guest house to me. Which means you have been a very rude guest in my home." Claudia was on a roll now, and it wasn't going to stop any time soon. "And you didn't even bring a house-warming gift. In fact, you removed all my utensils, you incompetent." That got her attention. "That's right, I said 'incompetent.' What kind of moron plans a surprise attack and then wears perfume? And have you never seen Raiders of the Lost Ark? Gun versus knife -- no brainer."
Claudia looked Helena over carefully. Helena wasn't sure what Claudia was looking for, but she was becoming a little afraid.
"Now. You're gonna stay away from Nikolas and Spencer," Claudia continued. "Or you're gonna end up with your head in a vice. And I won't stop squeezing no matter how much you answer." Claudia took careful aim, and shot. A bullet grazed Helena's shoulder. "Oh, I'm sorry," said Claudia. "Did you want to change into black before I did that?"
Just then the door flew open. Nikolas was there with two of the security guards. He rushed to Claudia's side and gestured the guards over to his grandmother.
"Congratulations, Nikolas." said Helena, a little woozy. "You finally chose a woman who could be a Cassadine. Too bad she'll never clean up well."
The two guards pulled Helena to her feet, and carried her out of the guest house. Nikolas took off his shirt and pressed it against the cut on Claudia's wrist.
"You okay?" said Nikolas.
Claudia nodded.
"How's the baby?"
"Fine. That witch tried to kick my belly."
"Can you walk? I have Elizabeth coming to the main house."
"I can walk," she said. "Did Spencer see anything?"
**********************************************
Wyndemere. Nikolas' bedroom.
Claudia sat on the couch, while Elizabeth began her examination and Nikolas hovered. Alexis watched from a distance.
"Shouldn't she be lying down?," Nikolas asked Liz.
Elizabeth lifted Nikolas' makeshift bandage from Claudia's wrist.
"Does she need stitches?," Nikolas asked.
"I don't need stitches," Claudia said.
"Where have I heard that before?," Nikolas asked her.
Claudia smiled slightly, for the first time since he'd found her with Helena.
Alexis eyed the scene curiously.
Elizabeth dipped a cotton ball in disinfectant. "She doesn't need stitches."
Claudia winced as the disinfectant made contact with her skin, but she didn't make a sound. Elizabeth bandaged the cut.
"Claudee!," Spencer called from outside the door.
"Claudia," Alexis said. "I need to talk to you."
Claudia called out to Spencer, "I'll be right there, Spencer! Just give me a minute!" She nodded to Alexis.
Elizabeth took Claudia's blood pressure.
"Claudia," Alexis said. "Do you think Mikkos had another son?"
"I know he did."
"You know he did."
"Are you surprised? That guy was the Sonny Corinthos of the Cassadines."
"You know this for sure?"
"Well, I suspected, but unfortunately I blew my wad to distract Helena and her reaction confirmed it."
Elizabeth finished up. "You're fine, Claudia."
"Thanks," Claudia said to Liz.
"You told Helena that you knew?," Alexis continued with their conversation.
"In so many words," Claudia answered. "I had to get her off balance. Spencer was coming." She looked up into Alexis' eyes. "Did he see anything?"
"No."
Claudia burst into tears. She nodded. "Good. Good."
Nikolas pulled Alexis away from Claudia. "Let's continue this another time."
He knelt in front of Claudia.
"He's okay," he said.
Claudia wiped her face. "Okay. Can I see him?"
"I'm going to take Liz to look at Helena. And then Alexis and I will go over security. Will you be all right here?"
Claudia took a deep breath and composed herself. "Yeah. I want to see him."
"Will you be all right watching him until we get back?," he asked. "I'll have a guard posted right outside."
"We'll be fine."
Nikolas nodded to Alexis. She opened the door and Spencer ran in to Claudia, carrying a children's book.
"Hey there, big guy." Claudia dropped to the floor and hugged Spencer. "Let me look at you."
Nikolas held the door open for Elizabeth and Alexis, and they left the room.
Claudia looked Spencer over carefully. He looked the same. Nothing had touched him.
"So what do you want to do?," she asked. "Do you want to read your book?"
"No!," he answered.
Nothing had touched him.
*******************************************
Wyndemere. The Study.
Nikolas had had lunch sent in to Claudia and Spencer in the bedroom.
Liz had bandaged up Helena's wound. After weighing the options, at Alexis' suggestion, Helena had been left to stew in a cot in the basement overnight. There were four guards watching her. The lack of control over her situation was bound to set her on edge. That could only help.
Liz had been sent home with a security detail, and instructions to bring Lucky into the loop.
"Helena must have come into the guest house from here," Alexis was saying. "There's a tunnel connecting the two buildings, but it hasn't been used since the 90's. I think we should board it up."
"We'll ask Claudia what she thinks," Nikolas said in a deadened tone.
"When do you want to talk to Helena?," Alexis said.
"Ideally? Never." Nikolas laughed hollowly. "But I guess you and I can go down there tomorrow and give it a try."
"I'd like to talk to Claudia about our new relative."
"Tomorrow."
"All right. Tomorrow," Alexis said. "Nikolas." Nikolas looked up at Alexis, shell-shocked. "Claudia's okay. She's probably more equipped to handle Helena than any of us."
"That doesn't mean she should have to," Nikolas said.
*********************************************
Wyndemere. Nikolas' bedroom.
When Nikolas returned to his bedroom, Spencer and Claudia were asleep on the bed. Spencer's head was tucked into the curve of Claudia's neck, and Claudia had her arms wrapped protectively around him. She woke with a start as Nikolas took Spencer from her.
"It's okay," he said. "I've got him. I'll be right back."
When he did get back from tucking Spencer in, Claudia was fully awake and sitting on the couch.
Nikolas sat beside her. He took her hand in his, and stared at her bandaged wrist. When he looked up, his eyes were red-rimmed. "I'm sorry," he said.
"Oh, come on, Nikolas," Claudia said. "You're not going to try to take the blame for this, are you?"
"I promised," he said. "I said that you and your baby were safe."
"Hey," she said. "Nobody's perfect. Besides, you didn't say that your grandmother was completely incompetent. Advantage: Zacchara."
Nikolas smiled weakly. "Are you okay?," he asked.
Claudia looked at their joined hands. She took a deep breath. "When John was a little bit older than Spencer, he saw his mother get shot. By our father. He was never the same boy." She looked up at Nikolas. "I was so scared I might have done that to Spencer."
Nikolas wiped away a stray tear from Claudia's cheek.
They looked into each other's eyes for a long moment. She brought her hand up and brushed his cheek. He bent his head as she lifted hers, and their lips met. It was such a gentle, tender kiss.
They pulled apart, opening their eyes and quietly looking at each other. He lifted her up and carried her to the bed. She pulled his shirt out of his waistband as he gently kissed his way from her mouth to her neck.
"Oh," she said, suddenly.
He looked up at her.
"Sorry," she said. "Baby's kicking."
He looked down and slowly unwrapped her dress. He pressed his hand to her belly, and then looked up at her, smiling. She smiled back tentatively. He bent his head and kissed her belly. She brushed her hand through his hair.
Then he tenderly kissed the scar that he'd helped to heal so long ago, and she fought not to lose herself. She pulled him back up to her so that they were looking into each other's eyes again. "You won't make me fall in love with you," she insisted, her eyes filled with tears.
He didn't answer, just began the slowest, most tempting journey to her lips. His eyes closed. She battled with herself, and then her eyes closed. Their lips met. And it began.
