| Subject: ET Chapter 4 |
Author:
Becca
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Date Posted: 15:18:12 06/18/01 Mon
In reply to:
Becca
's message, "Eternal Ties" on 17:53:29 05/24/01 Thu
ET 4
**The Bike Shop**
Alison was on her way to open the coffee shop, having slept surprisingly well the previous night. She thought she’d be anxious having Lucky in the same building, but she wasn’t. And she didn’t quite understand why not. After all, she had no reason to trust him; he could have been a psycho for all she knew. But the fact that he trusted her, that he trusted them, put her mind at ease.
Lucky had every right to be paranoid and untrusting. He didn’t tell Alison and Jack much about his time being held prisoner, but just from the way his blue eyes would darken at the mere mention of where he had been for the last two plus year and she knew it wasn’t pretty.
But he trusted them, and for that reason alone she wasn’t going to turn her back on him. Alison knew she was probably putting her relationship with Jamal on the line, but she was compelled to do this. If she and Jamal were truly meant to be, they’d work through this. But Lucky, for all intents and purposes, had nobody to rely on. Even if Jack couldn’t go the distance, Alison made a pact with herself that she would.
“Nine o’clock, time to open,” she said aloud, to no one but herself. She quickly opened the door, and pulled out the clapboard with the menu. Alison smiled to herself, it was warm and sunny, it felt like the start of a beautiful day.
“Are you open?” a soft voice asked, nearly causing Alison to jump out of her own skin.
“Almost,” she said, spinning to face her customer. “I’ll have the machine up and running in a minute. You can have a seat out here or inside if you like.”
“I’ll stay out here, it’s a nice morning,” the young woman explained.
“What can I get you this morning? Our special today is--.” Alison looked to the menu board, realizing that with all the craziness of the previous night she had forgotten to change the special. “Hazelnut, and we have delicious blueberry muffins.”
“That sounds perfect in fact, I’ll take a large coffee and one muffin.”
“Be right with you,” Alison said as she disappeared inside. She grinned at Jack who was already up and dressed in the bike shop, looking to get to work on a Harley. “Hey Jackers, morning.”
“Is uh, our friend up?” Jack asked, motioning to the room next to his where Lucky was sleeping. Alison shook her head. “Do you think he knows anything about bikes? With Jamal away I could really use an extra hand.”
“I think he has other things on his mind, Jack, and they don’t have anything to do with motorcycles,” Alison scolded with a smile as she started the cappuccino machine. She glanced towards the door and the customer, trying to figure out why she looked so familiar. “Hey Jack, do we know that customer?”
“What?” he questioned, moving to the door to get a better look. The young woman had dark hair and wore sunglasses, obviously petite and thin.
“Do we know her? She looks so familiar to me.”
Jack walked back over to Alison, a thoughtful look on his face, “Isn’t she . . .wait, she works at Kelly’s, oh my gosh, Alison . . .” Jack dropped his voice even lower, pointing towards Lucky’s room. Before he was able to get out another word, Lucky stepped out of the room, wearing his jeans and a tee shirt Jack had lent him. He had a baseball cap in his hands, and a pair of sunglasses tucked in the collar of his tee shirt, making Alison wonder when their new friend had time to shop.
“Morning sunshine,” Alison joked, trying to make him feel as comfortable as possible.
“Really? I’ve been up for hours,” Lucky joked, running a hand through his hair before placing the cap on his head. “I went to the Y, took a shower, and got myself a disguise . . . not in that order of course.”
“You can shower in the apartment, Jack uses it . . .so can you,” Alison informed him. “It’s no big deal, I have plenty of hot water.”
“I’ll remember that for next time,” Lucky noted. “I wanted to come back and let you two know where I was going to be today.”
“That’s sweet,” she said, finally finishing the customer’s cappuccino.
“Where are you going man? Need any help?” Jack questioned.
“The library, I’m going to do some research on mind control and all that, see if I can pinpoint how everyone cannot recognize me,” Lucky explained. He took the cup and plate from Alison’s hand and grinned at her, “let me, it’s the least I can do.”
“What do you mean?” she wondered.
“I um, borrowed thirty dollars from the safe so I could buy the disguise. I’ll pay you back, I swear,” Lucky promised, and Alison knew he’d repay her.
“Hey, um, I don’t think you --.” Jack tried to stop Lucky, but he just shook his head and smiled before turning to go outside. “Damnit.”
“What’s wrong?” Alison questioned worriedly.
“The customer—it’s that Elizabeth girl Alison. The one he’s in love with,” Jack stated simply as they both looked to the door with worry.
**
“Your coffee and muffin,” Lucky announced as he stepped outside. He nearly dropped the coffee on the ground when the customer looked up at him, smiling.
“Hey, fancy seeing you here,” Elizabeth said with a chuckle, a sense of relief washing over her as she looked at the stranger she couldn’t get her mind off of. She had to go to the police station in twenty minutes to visit Lucky, but at the moment she couldn’t think of anyone but Spence.
“Y-you too,” Lucky whispered softly, shifting uncomfortably where he stood. “How are you this morning?”
“Tired, and angry and . . . I don’t need to worry you with those annoying details,” Elizabeth said, motioning for him to sit down. “Do you have a few minutes to sit, talk? There is something I have to tell you.”
“Um,” Lucky swallowed, trying to push the lump in his throat down. “Ok. What do you have to tell me?” he asked, taking the seat across from her.
“Do you live her?” she asked, motioning to the bike shop.
“Since last night. Why?”
“My boyfriend used to live here . . .well, before the fire. Now he lives with me at Kelly’s,” Elizabeth explained.
“Oh, that’s great,” Lucky said tensely, the idea of the imposter sleeping in the same building with Elizabeth, let alone the same room and bed, sending a jolt of anger through his body. “Is that all you wanted? To tell me that you live with your boyfriend at Kelly’s? Was that some sort of message Elizabeth? Cause don’t worry, I know Lucky loves you very much, you’re meant to be with him—I am not about to stop that.”
“What? No, that’s not what I meant at all,” Elizabeth said, getting angry herself. Who was this guy, making accusations like that? They just met hours ago. “It was just conversation. I actually wanted to know if you’d like to get lunch or something sometime, since you’re new around here and all.” Elizabeth glared at him briefly, trying to figure out if she had told Spence about Lucky and their relationship. “But I can see last night was a fluke and you aren’t interested.”
“Wait, wait,” Lucky reached out and touched her hand to stop her from standing up and leaving. “I overreacted. It’s been a crazy couple of days. In fact, I was really hoping I’d run into you again, and I think lunch would be great.”
“Excellent,” Elizabeth said with a smile. It was like one look into his baby blues and she could melt. “How about tomorrow, at noon, at Kelly’s? Do you know where that is?”
“Actually, I do but . . . it gets busy there and I don’t like crowds and all that. How about . . .Eli’s? Have you been there?” Lucky asked with a sly grin, hoping something would get through to her.
“Yeah, I like to think that is where I went on my first date with Lucky,” she said with a nostalgic sigh.
“Then it’s a date . . . well, not a date date, but you know,” Lucky told her happily, unsure why he was doing this. There was so much he had to work through, so much anger and confusion and resentment inside of him, a lot of it directed at Elizabeth, yet he couldn’t help but feel seventeen again when around her. It was a great feeling, and he would take advantage of it while it lasted.
“I’ll look forward to it, something to take my mind off of my wedding preparations and the trouble Lucky has gotten himself into,” Elizabeth noted sadly.
“What did he do?” Lucky asked.
Before Elizabeth could answer her cell phone started ringing. She held her hand up to Lucky apologetically as she answered it. “Good morning . . . what? When? Why didn’t anyone tell me? Oh my God!” she shrieked the final phrase, “is he alright? Nikolas, a fire? I didn’t know . . . I’ll be right there . . .wait, then where are you? . . . Ok, I’m on my way.”
Lucky stood up with her, trying to read what was going on inside her head. There was a look of pain, anger, and sadness in her eyes, and his heart broke. “What’s wrong?”
“Late last night Lucky . . .he set a fire in jail. And now he’s missing. I’ve got to go Spence,” Elizabeth said breathlessly.
Lucky watched her drop a five on the table before sprinting away from the bike shop in near tears. He pounded the table in anger, this imposter was making his life a mockery. How’d he end up in jail and why would he start a fire? But what angered him more than anything was that he knew it was probably killing everyone who he loved to think he was involved in yet another fire.
“This has to end now,” he muttered to himself. Lucky slipped on the sunglasses and left the bike shop, heading in the direction of the library, his mind set on getting his life back before there was nothing left to get back.
**Windemere**
“So much for truces,” Luke declared as he burst though Stefan’s study, his eyes blazing as he glared at his nemesis.
“Luke, what are you doing here? I didn’t sign on to this alliance for you to be visiting me unexpectedly,” Stefan sneered as he looked back down at the computer. “I’ll have you know I’ve almost decoded these discs. And if you could just give me a little while longer, I’ll have them cracked.”
“Where’s my kid?” Luke asked harshly as he leaned over Stefan’s desk, a pistol held tightly in his right hand.
“Lucky? Why should I have your son? I put him in jail, remember?” Stefan defended himself, looking unwaveringly from Luke. “Did you misplace him again Luke? Really, you should learn to keep better track of your own offspring.”
“You think you’re funny Steffin, don’t you?” Luke snickered. “There was a fire at the jail last night, Lucky’s missing. Where do you think he could be?”
“Not with me,” Stefan insisted, standing up and folding his arms across his chest. “I’ve spent all night trying to figure out what are on these damned discs. And if I had to guess where Lucky was, I’d look in Helena’s direction.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” Luke said as he cocked his head to the side. Stefan had no idea, Luke shook his head at the irony. This one was for Lucky, “Maybe your demented brother has him.”
“What?” Stefan muttered, looking down at the discs.
Luke smiled to himself, for once a Spencer knew something about the Cassadines that they didn’t, instead of the other way around.
“You don’t have to decode those discs any longer Steffin, I think I figured out what Mamma Cass didn’t want any of us to know. She was raising your big brother Stavros from the dead . . . none of us could have guessed this one,” Luke mused with a laugh.
“That’s a lie. Stavros died, he broke his neck, how could my mother possibly raise the dead?” Stefan challenged.
“I don’t know, she gave him the Walt Disney treatment?” Luke guessed, only have jokingly. “It doesn’t matter how she did it Count Stiff, all that matters is the one man who makes you look like a sane, upstanding lad is not dead and wandering the streets of Port Charles. Face it man, I want this to be true less than you, so I’m certainly not lying.”
“Did—did you see him? What does he look like? Is he . . .is he . . .how?” Stefan stumbled over his words, inwardly cursing himself at the act of weakness in front of Luke.
“I didn’t see him with my own two eyes, and I didn’t get a chance to go hunt the bastard down. Right after I found out, I got the call about Lucky starting a fire and then disappearing from the PCPD.”
“Then how do you know? Did . . .he didn’t go to Laura, did he?”
“No, and he won’t get near her,” Luke vowed, knowing that this one time he and Stefan were on the same page about Laura. “He stumbled upon my darling niece Caroline. The bastard told her his name, and she recognized it . . . the way she made it seem, he hasn’t aged in twenty years. She said he passes better for the unPrince’s brother than yours.”
“Stavros at that age . . . that’s not a good thing Luke,” Stefan admitted. “My mother and my brother, working together . . .”
Luke held his hand up to stop him, “Call me crazy, but I don’t think the King of Obsessing is really working with Helena. Wouldn’t you think she’d be keeping her little weapon under wraps? Waiting to break him out at the perfect time? Nah, Stavros is wondering around Port Charles all on his own. So Steffin, who do you want? Stavros or your mother?”
“Why don’t we take them together? That way we could guard against going one on two in case of an alliance between them,” Stefan suggested.
“You know, once it gets out that I’m working with you, my reputation is going to be shot all to hell,” Luke muttered as he shook Stefan’s hand in peace for the second time in less than twenty four hours.
**Helena’s Yacht**
Helena stood over the couch where Lucky was sleeping. She touched his face, running her fingers along his jaw, hoping the boy would wake soon.
“Wha—where am I?” he muttered, sitting upright quickly when he realized who was touching him. “What am I doing here?”
“You set a fire in the Port Charles Police Department holding cell and my Andreas broke you out and brought you to me,” Helena said sweetly, holding the Ice Princess in front of his face. “I need a favor from you my boy.”
His eyes went from wild and fearful to almost dead and lifeless in a matter of moments. Helena smiled proudly.
“Good boy, pay close attention because this is your most important mission yet,” Helena began. “Do you know who Zander Smith is?”
Lucky nodded, “He’s Emily’s boyfriend, the boy we framed for the cop’s murder last summer.”
“Very good my dear,” Helena patted his hand. “I recently found out that he’s also Alexis Davis’s son. He must be eliminated. If he isn’t, he’ll stand in the way of Nikolas and we can’t have that, can we?”
“No, must protect Nikolas,” he said robotically.
“Take this,” Helena handed Lucky a switchblade, “You are going to take the blade to Zander’s throat. Understood? It must be done that way my boy, or I will not be pleased.”
“When?”
“Soon, soon . . . the Nurses Ball is next week, afterwards you will carry out the mission.”
“The Nurses Ball.”
“And don’t mess this one up. You did well with young Lucas, but you failed miserably in your test run with Jason Morgan.”
“Morgan,” he said angrily, tightening his hand around the knife so hard his knuckles turned white. “I shouldn’t have failed there—I hate him.”
“He’s inconsequential now, you have the girl. You won—so long as you do what I tell you and do not make any mistakes. Don’t be a failure like your father.”
**The Boxcar**
Elizabeth looked around the faded boxcar, an overwhelming sense of loss as she remembered the greatest summer of her life.
“He’s not here, is he?” Nikolas called out as he came upon the boxcar. Gia was behind him, amazingly she looked truly concerned.
“No,” Elizabeth shook her head. “He was taken Nikolas, I know it . . .Helena took him again and she’s going to hurt him and I’m going to lose Lucky again.”
“No, you’re not,” Nikolas said hopefully, pulling her into a hug. “We’ll find him—I swear, we are not going to lose Lucky another time.”
“Maybe he didn’t even cause the fire,” Gia tried, “maybe he the guy in the cell next to him did. He could have lit his shirt on fire and thrown it into Lucky’s cell. Lucky could have just taken off, taking advantage of his good fortune and all.”
“The fire originated on Lucky’s cot Gia, he started it,” Elizabeth told her, all the frustration she was feeling almost overwhelming her.
“I was just trying to be optimistic,” Gia said, Nikolas put his arm around her, giving her a warm smile.
“We know, this is just a very stressful time,” Nikolas noted.
“I can’t believe I didn’t realize he was still under Helena’s control,” Elizabeth lamented as she walked to the spot of the boxcar where she and Lucky fell asleep together so many years ago. “He’s been so erratic lately . . .Jason! Oh my gosh, he left with me thinking he attacked Lucky. He was right, Lucky did go after him. I don’t get why this is happening. Is this a test? Can’t we just be together and happy?”
Elizabeth slumped to the ground, closing her eyes. She could almost see Lucky, seventeen years old and beautiful, standing in front of her, smiling with encouragement. “What did they do to you?” she whispered to the figure in her mind.
Nikolas and Gia exchanged confused looks.
“What is with this place?” Gia asked, whispering to Nikolas. “Why would Lucky come here anyway?”
“The summer before he was taken, this is where he lived. Lucky and Elizabeth have a lot of memories here, it was a place of comfort to him,” Nikolas explained.
“This is doing no good,” Elizabeth said suddenly, snapping out of her lost memories. “We have to look somewhere else. Let’s go.”
**Port Charles Hotel—Suite 66**
Stavros stood in front of the mirror, examining his reflection. He was really amazed how he hadn’t aged in twenty years. For that alone he could almost forgive his mother for playing god. He wasn’t sure what his mother’s tinkering had done to him yet, but something told Stavros he was going to have to go back to Helena to find out if there would be any side effects to sleeping in a freezer for twenty years.
He pulled his suit coat on and went to the door to leave, finding a well-dressed goon waiting outside the suite.
“My word, nock otherwise how am I supposed to know you are here?” Stavros joked, smacking the man on the shoulder.
“I’m Andreas, your mother’s assistant. She’s asked me to tell you she requests your presence,” Andreas said, holding his hands behind his back, smirking slightly.
“Yeah, well, Mommy Dearest can wait, I’ve got to go shopping. No matter how amazing these threads are, I’m going to need more clothes. I was thinking, go wild you know, get a pair of those leather pants all those guys on that MTV are wearing. I could pull that off, right?”
Andreas looked at Stavros like he was an alien. For some reason, he had always expected Stavros to be much like Stefan, very uptight and reserved and formal. This guy was the opposite, then again it could be a side effect of being frozen and in a coma for so long.
“No, Stavros, that can wait,” Andreas pulled his hands from his back, revealing a handgun. “You will be going to see your mother—now.”
**Spencer House**
Lucky had finished his research at the library, figuring out that Faison had probably come up with, as Alison had guessed, a drug that would make someone susceptible to suggestion if given the right cue words. Lucky mused that the way the cue words and the suggestions were administered to his friends and family was through the telephone system. It was an easy way to reach many people easily, not to mention to send subliminal message through the phone would be easily done. Of course, there were probably other ways too, but at the moment Lucky couldn’t think of them.
Why he was at his childhood home, though, was to do some more digging. Fortunately, his mother, grandmother, and little sister were all gone for the day, so he was able to get inside rather unnoticed. Once inside he felt like he had stepped into another world.
“Remodel much?” Lucky muttered sarcastically, not really liking what his mother had done to the place.
A smile jumped to his face when Foster came barreling into the room, recognizing his master right away. “Hey boy, ah Foster, I missed you … at least you recognize me,” Lucky said as he happily hugged the mutt. “So tell me, have you been looking after Lulu for me?” Lucky patted the dog on the head and walked over to the fireplace.
He took one of the photos down, a knot forming in his stomach as he looked at it. It was the picture from Christmas 1998 of Nikolas, Lesley Lu, and himself. Only, it wasn’t him in the photo, it was the imposter. All the other pictures were like that as well, he was basically erased from every photo and replaced with the man pretending to be him.
Lucky knelt to the ground, petting Foster, “Well Foster, this answers my question. Looks like Helena kept up her mastery of doctoring photos. I bet she’s done it to every picture I’m in. Don’t worry boy, I’ll get to the bottom of this. I’ve got two new friends who are helping me out. I’m on my way home Foster, I just need you to hold down the fort a little while longer.”
**The Docks**
Zander stood staring out at Windemere for a good while. The idea that the people who inhabited that castle were his family was something he couldn’t really fathom. It was much easier making sense of his father’s legacy. That’s who Zander was. He was street smart, cunning and not opposed to getting into a fistfight if it meant his honor.
But the Cassadines? He was nothing like them and probably would never be. The little he knew about that family wasn’t good. They kidnapped Lucky and faked his death, and they had kidnapped Lucky’s mother Laura twenty years before. They were some sort of royalty, though the land they ruled over Zander did not know. They had lots of money, but Nikolas seemed to see it as blood money and wanted no part of it.
“What have I gotten myself into?” Nikolas muttered, throwing a stone out into the water in frustration.
“Shouldn’t you be at work?”
Zander spun around to face the person the voice belonged to. “I was just on my way Sonny.”
“Alexis told me,” Sonny admitted, wondering if Zander knew the entire truth yet.
“Yeah, well, how surprised were you? Me, a Cassadine,” Zander miffed, for the first time realizing how much he and Sonny had in common. They were both intensely loyal, to a fault even, and felt everything very deeply, loving the people in their lives with their entire being. And he was sure he got his temper from Sonny, even if Sonny had learned to control it. He just couldn’t see his sometimes uncontrollable anger being a Cassadine trait.
Sonny chuckled, “It could be worse, you could be a Quartermaine.”
“True . . . Sonny, is what Alexis says about her family true? Would Nikolas grandmother really . . . kill me?”
Sonny stepped forward protectively, “Not while I live. I promise you Zander, you and your mother I’ll protect until my last breath.”
“I’m sure Luke Spencer told his son that too . . .and look what happened to him,” Zander noted glumly. “But if we don’t tell anyone who I am … no danger, right?”
Sonny nodded, “For a while, but Helena has her ways.”
“She won’t get to Alexis through me. Whether she’s my mother or not it doesn’t matter, Alexis has been the only person, outside of Emily, who has shown me any sort of love. I won’t let anything happen to her,” Zander vowed.
“So you understand why she never told you?” Sonny asked, noticing that Zander was avoiding eye contact.
“Yeah, I understand . . .it doesn’t make growing up without my mother any easier. Nothing could make up for that.”
**The Boxcar**
Lucky pulled himself into the boxcar, feeling as if he had been transported back years, to a time when life was so different. Innocence was lost, but the purity of love was found. Back to a summer when he found his soulmate, the only person he could ever imagine spending his life with. The one person he would do anything for. Even stay imprisoned.
And now, he was going to get her back.
He removed his sunglasses to get a better look at the boxcar. All the paintings were so faded and worn it made his heart ache. There really was no going back, he figured, but the future was unwritten.
A jolt of fear coursed through his veins as his eyes fell upon the far wall where a shrine had been constructed. There were dozens of photographs of Elizabeth hung haphazardly on the wall. His imposter, whoever he was, had become obsessed it appeared.
Lucky knew that the imposter was supposed to be in love with Elizabeth, but something told him this had gone beyond any programming, that the man pretending to be him had actually fallen for Elizabeth.
“Elizabeth! Are you in here?” came a voice that sent Lucky careening back to his first few months being imprisoned.
“So tell me Spencer, are you going to let the boy live?” Faison asked sharply as he stood over Lucky. Lucky sat at the table; his eyes closed in an attempt to drown out the screams coming from the television monitor.
“What do you want from me? Let me go . . .please god, let me go!” the boy on the monitor shrieked. He was tied to a chair; his blonde hair matted against his head, which hung low, his chin against his chest. It would jolt back when the guard in the room hit the red button on the wall that sent a jolt of electricity through his body.
Lucky cringed as he watched the procedure happen to the boy that had happened to him so often. He wanted to stop the boy’s pain, but he didn’t know how. And he didn’t know what the consequences would be.
“What do you want from me?” Lucky echoed the other boy’s question; his own pain and anguish momentarily drowning out the cries from the monitor.
“You know Lucky, you know,” Faison repeated. Lucky looked down at the table, his hands shaking wildly. He covered his left hand with his right in an attempt to stop the shaking, but it wouldn’t help.
“Look at me!” Faison yelled, grabbing Lucky’s hair and yanking his head back. “You know what I want . . .and if you don’t give it to me willingly, you’ll get the same treatment as the boy.”
“I’ll tell you everything . . .anything . . . just tell me who he is,” Lucky begged, needing desperately to know.
“You’ll know soon enough Lucky, but first you must answer.”
“Fine, just make the screaming stop, make it stop,” Lucky relented, feeling as if he had lost a piece of himself.
In some ways, Lucky had lost part of himself. That was they day he began divulge every memory and feeling he ever had or felt, that was the day he began to give Faison and Helena the information needed to make the boy into his replacement.
“Elizabeth,” the voice asked again, causing Lucky to dive out the other side of the boxcar. But he didn’t leave; he hid in the bushes, almost unable to leave.
“Oh my god Lucky, I was so worried,” Elizabeth called out as she came running through the woods to where who the man she thought was Lucky was standing.
“I’m fine, I was worried about you actually . . . I shouldn’t have started that fire, it was stupid,” Lucky admitted, pulling her into a tight embrace.
In the bushes Lucky felt his blood begin to boil with jealousy. It was one thing to hear stories and even seen the occasional video tape, but to see it right in front of him felt like a vice grip on his heart.
“Why did you do it? Everyone was in a panic.”
“I don’t know,” he claimed, sitting on the edge of the boxcar. “I don’t know where I got the lighter from . . .but when I had it I knew I had to use the opportunity to get out. You know? I couldn’t be locked up again Elizabeth. I can’t do that again . . . I couldn’t.”
Lucky rubbed his arm nervously as he listened to the explanation, something he could totally understand. Until he figured this out, until he stopped Helena and got his life back, Lucky would live in fear of being locked up again. Imprisoned like a criminal, caged like an animal, it wasn’t a way for an innocent young man to live.
As Lucky watched the reunion between the lovers he felt an equal combination of hatred and empathy. He wanted to rip the boy’s heart out for kissing and holding and touching Elizabeth, but he also knew that he had no real control over the situation. Lucky knew what the boy had been put through, the same torture he had to endear. Only for Lucky he went through it to lose his identity, the boy went through it to be given it.
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