A/N: I just wanted to say a big thank you to both new and old readers of this story for hanging in there. I haven't updated in a long time and I'm so sorry for that. This story has been on the back burner for a while because I just couldn't get some of the elements from the last chapter right. I posted this extra chapter to make up for some lost time but it is a short one. Please let me know what you think of the story. Feed back is always great. Good or Bad. Anyway...Happy Reading!
Previously on General Hospital
Alexis watched as Ric began writing. She smiled at how hard he was concentrating, like he wanted to get it right the first time. Her smile then faded and was replaced by a look of concern when Ric started to grimace from the obvious pain this was causing him. Before she could voice her concerns Ric stopped writing. She noticed the look on his face when he was done. It looked like worry. Alexis dismissed the look and then turned the pad to her. When Alexis read what Ric wrote she started to feel sick.
"Ric, we shouldn't do this now. There is plenty of time for us to talk." Alexis said.
Ric let go of Alexis' hand and tapped the pad hard letting her know that he wanted an answer to his question.
"Don't do that. We're not in a court of law and this is not a cross examination. You can't badger the answers out of me." Alexis said.
Inside the Command Center
"I think I found something." Lucky said.
Lucky had been looking at tapes for two hours and was starting to get tired. He felt his eyes were about to cross when he saw finally the vehicle that matched the one he saw leaving the garage the night Ric was shot.
"Whatcha got partner?" Rodriguez asked.
"Right there. That looks like the same car I saw leaving the garage when Ric was shot." Lucky said pointing to the screen.
"How do you know? Looks any other black car to me." Rodriguez asked.
"I just know. Something about this car is telling that this is the one we need to find. Call it a hunch." Lucky said.
"I'll go with that. Now we just need to find out all that we can about this car. Maybe one of our techno geeks can zoom in and get a good look at the license plate. Cates has got his plate full so I'll give to Rodgers tonight and see if he can enhance the tag. Hopefully we can get something off of it." Rodriguez said.
Lucky nodded his head then looked down at his watch. Keesha had left over two and half hours ago with Doug to talk to Mac and inform him about what happened in France with Alec and to decide who was going to take Alec's place on the French Task Force. He had been so involved in watching the security tapes that he didn't realize how long she was gone.
"They've been gone along time." Cates said not even looking up from his computer screen.
"Yeah, they have." Rodriguez said.
"I'm sure we'll find out something soon." Lucky said.
Rodriguez looked at his partner and knew that he was trying to not show how nervous he was.
He was about to call his partner out on his being as cool as a cucumber routine when he heard raised voices in the hallway.
"What the hell is that?" Rodriguez asked.
"I think we better go find out." Lucky said.
As both men started to get up and find out what was going on they heard the door buzz. They didn't have to stand too close to the door to hear what was being said.
"This is bull and you know it Keesha!" Doug said.
Keesha was getting really tired of Doug's tirade. He had no idea how close he was to having her fist in his mouth. Keesha knew better though. No matter how good it would make her feel, it wouldn't change the situation.
"Enough already Doug! I feel the same way as you. If you remember I agreed with you in the meeting. Your words and mine fell on deaf ears. We have our assignments and we'll just have to deal with it for now. Or at least until we can think of a better reason for the the powers that be to change their minds. So, please! Let's just get through this as civilly as possible." Keesha said.
"Fine. But I want you to know that as soon as this move is over I will be fighting for that change." Doug said.
"You do what you have to do Doug." Keesha said.
Keesha and Doug entered the room both looking upset. Lucky didn't have to be a mind reader to know that they were both pissed off about something. Whatever was said in that meeting couldn't have been good.
"Is everything ok?" Lucky asked.
"Yeah, it's fine." Keesha lied.
She tried to smile and not show how angry she was to Lucky but she could see from the concerned look on his face that he wasn't buying it. She quickly got straight to business to avoid telling Lucky the real reason why she and Doug were arguing.
"Now, we have a lot of work to do and not much time." Keesha said.
"What's up?" Rodriguez asked.
"Ric Lansing needs to be moved to a safe house as soon as possible." Keesha said.
"Because of the bombing?" Lucky asked.
"Yes. A decision was made to have Ric and his family moved for their own safety." Keesha said.
"His doctors will never go for it. He's still recovering from his injuries." Rodriguez said.
"It doesn't matter what his doctor's say at this point. He's going to be moved." Doug said.
Lucky couldn't believe what he was hearing. He knew that Ric would eventually need to moved but not this early in his recovery.
"And Mac agreed to this?" Lucky asked.
"No he was..."Keesha was cut off by Doug.
"Over ruled. The WSB and FBI pulled rank and made the decision for the Commissioner." Doug finished.
"Ouch." Cates said.
"I thought we were supposed to be working together on this? Now you guys wanna take over?" Lucky said angrily.
"Hey! That's not fair! We have been working with you. And just so you know Doug and I disagreed with moving Lansing. But like Doug said, we were over ruled. We have to follow orders just like you do. I'm sure there are some orders you got that you didn't agree with but you followed them anyway and that's what we are doing now." Keesha said.
Rodriguez saw his partner was not scoring any points with his would be girlfriend right now so he decided to save him before he made things worse with her.
"Whoa! Everyone needs to calm down. We're all still on the same side here. No need to jump down each others throats. Now I know we all don't agree with moving Lansing but like the lady said, it's out of our hands. Let's all just shake hands and talk about how are we going to make this happen. " Rodriguez said.
"Sorry." Lucky said.
"It's ok. We're all just a little on edge." Keesha said.
"Now that we're all sorry can we just please move on to the matter at hand." Doug snapped.
"So what's the plan? Where exactly are we going to put Lansing and his family." Rodriguez asked.
"The plan is to move Lansing sometime around midnight to a safe house at an undisclosed location." Keesha said.
"And where's that?" Lucky asked.
"The location will be sent during transport." Doug said.
"What! That's crap! How are we supposed to make sure this whole thing goes smoothly if we don't know where hes going?" Lucky asked.
"Yeah, I mean I understand the need to keep this thing quiet but to not have us in the loop seems a bit stupid to me." Rodriguez said.
"If it helps any, Doug and I don't even know the final location. We are just as much in the dark as you guys are but it's for a good reason." Keesha said.
"And that is?" Lucky asked.
"No offense to you both, but the PCPD has had leaks in the past, and in this town there are eyes and ears everywhere. With that in mind, the higher ups thought it best to keep the location hidden until we get Lansing secure and on the road." Doug said.
"I'm gonna let the jab at our PD go and ask who will be going with Lansing instead?"Lucky asked.
"Relocation will be handled by Cruz and Doug." Keesha said.
"Glad I dodged that bullet. Better you than me partner." Lucky said patting him on the shoulder.
Rodriguez felt a headache coming at the mere thought of having to deal with both Ric and Alexis. One angry lawyer was bad enough, but two,two was going to be a huge pain in the ass. And given his past encounters with both, this was not going to be pretty.
"Lucky, I''ll give you a dollar if you go." Rodriguez said.
Lucky laughed.
"It's gonna take more than a dollar for me to go and on your salary you can't afford my fee. Sorry bro, this is all you." Lucky said.
"Oh joy." Rodriguez yawned.
"I think you better get some shut eye my friend. It's gonna be a long night for both of you. You're going to need all the rest you can get dealing with both Ric and Alexis."Lucky said.
"What about the rest of the surveillance tapes? There's still a lot to go through." Rodriguez said.
"Lucky and I can handle it. You and Doug get some sleep." Keehsa said.
"Who can sleep with all this going on?" Doug asked.
"There is nothing more you can do right now Doug. The most important thing right now is to just get some rest. If anything changes I'll let you know."Keesha said.
Doug sighed. He knew Keesha was right. There was nothing more he could do and if he and Rodriguez were going to take care of this major relocation then maybe sleep was indeed what the doctor ordered.
"You win. Sleep it is." Doug huffed out.
"You sure Lucky?" Rodriguez asked.
"Yeah get out of here." Lucky said.
"Alright. I'll see you guys later." Rodriguez said.
Doug was about to go out the door after Rodriguez when he turned back around.
"Keesha!" Doug said.
"Yes?" Keesha said.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about earlier. I was really insensitive about the whole you going.."
Keesha cut off Doug before he could finish his sentence and tip Lucky off to what happened in the meeting.
"Don't worry about. Water under the bridge. Good luck tonight." Keesha said.
Doug nodded then waived his good byes and left.
Lucky noticed how Keesha again cut Doug off before he could finish his thought. There was something she didn't want him to know and now he was beyond curious. He just didn't know how to bring it up.
"Done." Cates said.
"What's done?" Lucky asked.
"The 911 tape." Cates said.
"I thought I told you to leave it for Rodgers." Keesha said.
"Yes ma'am you did. There really wasn't much on it so I was able to clean up the audio faster than I thought. I also took the liberty of making you a CD of the call so you can listen to it any time you want." Cates said.
"Your the best Cates." Keesha said.
"I know." Cates joked.
"Hey Keesha, why don't we go check out the crime scene like you wanted. I wanna test your theory about evidence still being there." Lucky said.
"Sounds good to me. Let's go." Keesha said.
"And while you two are gone. I'm gonna find out who tried to access our files. They think their good but I'm better." Cates said.
"If anyone can find them you it's you Cates." Keesha said.
"Don't butter him up too much Keesha. His ego's already big enough. Hold down the fort and no grape soda while were gone. Ya hear me?" Lucky said.
"It's my fuel!" Cates whined.
"Fine. One can. No more." Lucky said sternly.
"Thank you. Now you two go. I'm going hunting." Cates said happily tapping on his computer keys.
"Happy hunting." Lucky said as they left.
As Keesha and Lucky walked towards his car in the parking lot he couldn't get the conversation Doug and Keesha were having out of his head. There was something she didn't want him to know. His detective instincts were were yelling at him to ask her what was going . His heart on the other hand was saying to hell with what's going on just let her know you're here for her.
When they got in the car Lucky was about to start the ignition then stopped. He looked around the parking lot to make sure no one was around. Once he saw the coast was clear he pulled a surprised Keesha over to him and gave her a searing hot kiss that caused her to moan in his mouth. They broke apart breathless. Lucky looked at Keesha's swollen lips and smiled at the desire for him in her eyes.
"Not that I'm complaining Lucky but what was that for?" Keesha asked.
"I know you have something to tell me but for some reason you're holding back. I kissed you to let you know that you don't have to hold back from me. I don't want you too. Too many times in my life people have kept things from me because they were afraid of how I would react or didn't trust me with the truth. Please know that whatever you have to tell me I will understand." Lucky said.
"Lucky..."was all Keesha could get out before she started crying.
"Keesha, please tell what is going on. What has got you so upset like this? Did something happen in the meeting? " Lucky asked.
"Yes." Keesha said.
"Is it that bad?"Lucky asked.
"It depends on how you look at." Keesha said.
"Keesha, please just tell me what the hell is going on!" Lucky snapped.
"I'm leaving Lucky." Keesha said.
"Leaving? You can't leave! We're in the middle of an investigation." Lucky said.
"I can leave. I have no choice. You're looking at the new head of the French Task Force." Keesh said.