Wyndemere. Dining Room.

Nikolas sat across from Claudia and Spencer. Claudia looked like she hadn't slept all night. And she'd been quiet when they were alone together. Not closed off. Just quiet.

Now she was chattering away with Spencer, but if you looked closely, like Nikolas was doing, you could see it was taking some effort for her to look effortlessly interested in the babbling non-sequitors of a three year-old.

Alfred entered the doorway and beckoned to Nikolas. Claudia and Spencer didn't look up as Nikolas followed Alfred out of the room.

Helena's night guard was waiting for him in the hallway.

"How is she?," Nikolas asked.

"The same," the guard answered. "You asked me to tell you if anything unusual happened."

"Yes."

"The woman with the black hair -- the one with the bandage on her wrist -- she came to see Mrs. Cassadine last night."

Nikolas felt a wave of humiliation sweep over him. "What happened?"

"Nothing. She never said anything. Mrs. Cassadine woke up, and asked what she wanted, but she never said anything. The woman just left."

"Thank you," Nikolas dismissed the guard. "That will be all, Alfred," he added.

"Very good, sir," Alfred said, and left.

Nikolas went back into the dining room to be confronted by the bizarre sight of Claudia singing to Spencer. Nikolas watched, unseen.

Claudia sang, "I pirati ballano sul ponte delle navi/E le casse scassano/Se perdono le chiavi"

If that wasn't unbelievable enough, Nikolas' jaw dropped when Spencer climbed off his chair, turned around twice, and sang, "Gira, Gira".

"Sì, Spencer! Good!," Claudia said, before continuing with the song, "Gira, Gira per il mar/Corri e non fermati Mai/Sempre all'erta notte e dì/Pirata sei così."

Claudia's voice died off as she saw Nikolas standing in the doorway. "You caught me," she said.

An opening if ever Nikolas heard one. But Spencer was there, so he let it go. "You're teaching him Italian?"

"And to be a pirate," she said sheepishly. "You can deal with Russian. I'll stick to this alphabet."

"You were right about the Mandarin website," he said.

"Yeah," she said. "I had a feeling. I can spot money laundering from a mile away. Hazard of my heritage."

"Gira, Gira," Spencer said insistently, turning around.

"I guess I got him all wound up for the nanny," Claudia said.

"That's what she's paid for."

All morning, Claudia had felt like she was walking through a thick fog. Something about Nikolas' voice sounded strained, and she fought her way through the fog. Nikolas looked a little shaken. She wasn't sure if she'd ever seen him that way. "Are you okay?," she asked.

You went to my grandmother, he thought. You lied to me. And even though I'm the Master of Suspicion, I didn't see a thing. Do you think I'm okay?

"Nikolas?"

"I'm fine. Do you want the tech lab file back?"

Claudia shook her head. "I have ... I have something I need to..." She cut herself off. Discussing this would only make her get more emotional and get Nikolas involved. She couldn't afford either. "No. But thank you." She brushed her hand through Spencer's hair, and then left the child's side. "I'm going to the guest house for a little while. I'll be back for an afternoon with The Little Prince." She stood on her toes to kiss Nikolas' cheek. She looked back at Spencer. She had a nagging suspicion that whatever solution she came up with, her child was not going to have a good life like Spencer. She looked up and caught Nikolas watching her with a good deal of curiosity. "That song reminds me of my mother," she said. And then she left.

******************************************

The Guest House.

Claudia could not find a back door out of her problem.

"Your brother, although I admire and prefer his morality, is in a business where his morality will get you killed," Nikolas had said.

If she disregarded John's wishes and forced Sonny to back down using her Italian connections, there would be no end to this cycle. Wasn't that how all of this began? Sonny thought he was taking revenge, and it had all spiraled to here.

If she stayed on Spoon Island, John would be a barely moving target. And if he wasn't? What would happen once the baby was born?

Being with Nikolas made her forget that there was no way out. Maybe she didn't fantasize about a future when she was with Nikolas and Spencer, but she was definitely not looking at her present realistically. Maybe, maybe if she'd met Nikolas before she'd come to Port Charles, this would have been possible. Probably not.

******************************************

Port Charles Grill.

Alexis hurried to Nikolas' table.

"Sorry I'm late," she said. "I'm not used to having all of my daughters under one roof. I don't think I've ever spent so much time apologizing in my life."

"Apologizing?"

"Apparently, I'm a little bossy. Well, a lot bossy. Three children ganging up on you is frightening. You're lucky you only have Spencer. And he's a boy. Much easier."

"I want you to move in with me," Nikolas said abruptly.

"Or not so easy," Alexis said.

"You yourself said that we don't know what your new brother looks like. And we don't know who he's bringing with him. Wouldn't you feel safer with your family at Wyndemere?"

"Nikolas."

"What?"

"Granted, on paper, you may have a point. It would seem logical on paper. But come live in the real world for just a second here. There is no way Kristina is going to stay on the Island. Besides which, even if all three of my children were fine with this, they need to get on and off the Island every day. So do I!"

"It takes 20 minutes to get to town."

Alexis thought about that. She thought about living on the Island. She knew she was probably going to have to concede. Which meant she had to voice one last objection. "If we were to stay with you --"

"You're staying with me. End of discussion."

"If we are to stay with you," Alexis began again, "This is not the end of the discussion. Because unfortunately, we have to discuss your sleeping arrangements."

Alexis had never seen Nikolas shut down so quickly.

"Imagine how comfortable this is for me," she said. "I can't have you sleeping with Claudia when you have impressionable girls under your roof. Especially --"

"Especially because it's Claudia."

"No. No, Nikolas. I'd have this problem with any woman. And especially a married woman. Who is not married to you."

This was a problem. Because aside from the fact that he wanted Claudia in his room, this would also mean that Wyndemere wasn't really Claudia's home. She was already editing herself around Alexis. What would happen when there were three more people to deal with?

If Alexis had an ounce of compassion for Claudia, Nikolas might have confided in her about Claudia's background. But as things stood now, he couldn't do that to Claudia. In the same way that he couldn't tell Claudia that a young Alexis had seen her own mother die at the hands of Helena. He couldn't do that to Alexis.

"Claudia's an adult. Sometimes. I think she'll understand. Can we come to an agreement about this?," Alexis asked.

*******************************************

Wyndemere. Living room.

Claudia was picking up the pieces of the wreckage of her afternoon with Spencer. Nikolas came into the room looking worn out.

"I promise, this will all be gone in five minutes," she said. "Maybe ten."

"I have a problem," he said.

"Okay," she said slowly. He didn't say anything else, so she took a seat on the couch.

He slowly walked over to the couch and sat beside her. "Until we have a handle on Helena's protege, I need to move Alexis and her daughters in here to keep them safe."

"Okay," she said, quietly.

"She won't move in unless --"

"Okay," Claudia said. "I get it."

"She wants us to have separate bedrooms."

"I know." No matter where she ended up, she never was home.

It was as if she'd anticipated it. Her reaction tore at Nikolas. "It doesn't mean -- "

"I think I should move back to the guest house," Claudia said, also calmly and quietly. She needed a place to be hers, just for a little while.

"No," Nikolas said.

"Nikolas. I can't get upset. You understand? I get it. I get that your aunt thinks that us sleeping together under the same roof as her kids is going to make them go wild. I get that Wilma is not going to loosen the bone and let her hair down. I get that I don't have a choice. So I don't want to talk about that part of it. Okay?"

Claudia, despite her best efforts, had gotten increasingly emotional as she went on. Nikolas held her face in his hands. "I don't want this," he said.

"Okay," she said. "But I don't want to deal with what happens when the two of us sneak into each other's rooms -- and you know we will. My head will explode if I can't say anything, and I'm afraid I'll start breaking all sorts of your rules, and I don't want to end up like we did that first day when you moved me here. Okay?"

"All right."

"So if I move back into the guest house, we'll have privacy when we're together, and there's no way I can be on the wrong side of anything if any of the kids happen to be where they shouldn't be." She took a deep breath. "When?"

"Tonight."

"Oh." She looked like she'd had the wind knocked out of her. Then she straightened up.

"Have dinner with us."

He is insane. Well-meaning, but insane, she thought. "No. Thank you. But why don't you come over after Spencer is asleep?"

"As soon as he's asleep," he promised.

******************************************

Wyndemere. Dining room. Evening.

Dinner was pandemonium. Nikolas withdrew further into himself, watching the chaos from outside. He knew he was doing the right by protecting Alexis, but he had definitely done the wrong thing by Claudia. He had a bad feeling about this. And he already missed her.

"Gira, Gira," Spencer sang, slipping out of his chair and turning around twice. It looked like Spencer missed her too.

"Spencer," Nikolas said softly. "Come here."

Spencer climbed up on his father's lap. "Claudee," he said.

"I know," Nikolas said. "I miss her too."

*****************************************

The Guest House. Night.

Claudia flung the front door open before Nikolas was up the walk. She pulled him inside the house and kissed him. They clumsily made their way further into the house. Claudia did not seem to want to part lips with him, and Nikolas couldn't say he minded.

She unbuckled his belt.

"Wait," he said.

"Listen," she said, kissing him again and unbuttoning his pants, "Any minute now, one of your relatives is going to come bursting in here with a hangnail." She started to drag him up the stairs, unbuttoning his shirt, and kissing his neck. "So I think we should get to this portion of the evening as soon as possible. I'm not going to be able to wake you up in the middle of the night to have my way with you anymore, you know."

Nikolas lifted her off her feet and carried her the rest of the way to the bedroom.

*******************************************

The Guest House. Claudia's bedroom. Later.

Wrapped up in each other's arms, Nikolas and Claudia were half-asleep. Claudia forced herself awake. She didn't have this kind of time anymore. She nudged Nikolas.

"Nikolas?"

"Hmmm?"

"I have to tell you something."

"What?"

"It's important. Look at me."

Nikolas opened his eyes. He leaned in and nuzzled her neck.

"I lied to you," she said. "Last night. It's the first time I ever lied to you, and I want to fix it."

Nikolas pulled back and looked her in the eye. This was a first. Someone telling the truth before he confronted her. "What did you lie about?"

"I didn't get up to check on Spencer. I went to see your grandmother. That's it, too. Just to look at her."

"Why?"

Claudia weighed how much to tell him. She decided to give him just enough so that when she finally did what she had to do, he'd understand. "I've been thinking about things," she said. "About the mess I'm in. Your grandmother is the second strong woman I've ever known who's been a family like this, and I just -- I was wondering about her."

"Claudia, if you need a role model, I suggest you find another."

"Well, yeah. I mean, look at her. She's in your basement. But I don't have a lot of examples for predecessors."

"Who was the first?," he asked. "The first strong woman," he clarified.

"My mother."

Nikolas propped himself up on his elbow. "You've never told me about her. Except that she was sent away."

"I know. It's hard for me to talk about her since she's been gone."

"When did she die?"

"My mother's alive."

He let that sink in. "Where is she?"

"Milan," Claudia was silent for a moment. "She was really strong, Nikolas. So she didn't bend. She broke. She was lost before I ever got to Milan. My mother has been in a catatonic state for the last 20 years." He took her hand and threaded his fingers through hers. "I didn't know until I got to Italy. I started out with daily visits. For over a year, I went every day. Then weekly. The weekly visits lasted until I came back to the States. There's been no change since I left. But I miss seeing her. My last visit, I --." she broke off. "I had to come here. John was in trouble. But it was hard."

Nikolas brushed the hair out of her eyes. "Laura was catatonic."

"I know," she said.

"How come you never said anything?"

"It never came up. And it's not the sort of thing you introduce casually into conversation. Especially with someone who's somewhat inept with basic interaction," she said, poking him with her free hand. He smiled. She smiled back and pulled her hand from his. "Anyway, I guess if I'm going by the two women who came before me, there's no way to be a strong woman and stay in this life without becoming damaged. That's what I've been thinking about."

"You don't have to stay in that life, Claudia."

She didn't answer, just checked the clock by the bed. "It's late," she said. "You should be heading back."

****************************

When Nikolas arrived at the guest house with the newspaper the next morning, Claudia was gone.