Five points-- Nikolas
1
Nikolas looks up at the portrait over the fireplace. There is no real need for a fireplace merely for ambiance there were seldom any nights cold enough for a fire here at the compound. That and as a suitable setting for his mother's portrait. It's his favorite portrait of his mother. She always looked so serene but as if she had a secret. Father said the secret had been that she was pregnant with the Cassadine Heir, that even he hadn't known yet. Portraits of his mother were all over the compound. His father found every excuse to have his mother immortalized in oil either alone or with the family, with his father, when each of the children had been born, and then as a family. But it was consistent there was never any paintings of his mother and his Grandmother together. They just didn't get along and hadn't for as long as he could remember. And his father was always in the middle being tugged one way or another toward duty towards love until he had finally grown impatient with the tug of war and banished Helena from the island.
Oh that had gone over well. The murder attempts had started soon after that first mother alone and then after the both of his parents. The last attempt Mother and Father's car brakes had been tampered with on a trip to Monte Carlo. They'd almost went the same way as Princess Grace of Monaco. But instead of going off of the road, Father had managed to plow the car into the side of the mountain. Grandmother had a stroke soon after that and was confined to a sanitarium in Switzerland she'd been there for years with no sign of improvement.
"A penny for your thoughts?" Laura asks from behind her firstborn.
"I was just admiring your portrait." Nikolas. "And realizing you are as beautiful today as you were back then."
"Flatterer." Laura gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Are you the first one down?"
"The others got back late from sailing and should be down soon."
"And your father?"
"Business."
Laura rolls her eyes. "Why do I even bother to ask? I'll go get him. You light a fire under Renzo and Lesley."
"And we'll meet back here." Nikolas adds in conspirator type fashion. "The last one down has to explain it to Mrs Lansbury."
"Deal. As if she would ever fault you in anything." Laura laughs and heads toward the study. "How much longer are you going to be?" She questions from the doorway. "Mrs Lansbury is a gem but she can only work so many miracles."
Throwing his half glasses down on the desk. "Enough."
"Of my nagging?"
"Never that." Coming around the desk, her husband takes her hand and brings it to his lips, his beard tickling the back of her hand. "Never that. Enough of the paperwork. I'll be relieved when Nikolas has reached his majority and will take all of this off of my hands."
"I wonder, I always wanted to ask?"
"What is that my sweet?"
"If Helena had any idea what she was setting in motion the day she told Stavros that Luke was alive and living in Port Charles?"
"She couldn't have. She tried to lure you off the island with the knowledge."
"I wouldn't have left without Nikolas."
"She underestimated you."
"I should have warned Luke. I never thought she'd tell Stavros, that she'd taunt Stavros with the knowledge that Luke was alive. How could she had done that? I understand Luke, she wanted him dead since Mikkos. But how could she do that to her own son?"
"Stavros was already out of control. Nobody knows that better than us."
"Thank God you were here. After Stavros killed Luke. I knew that I would be next. Nikolas would have been under Helena's control."
"I made sure that would never happen, Lasha." just as you'll never find out that I was the one that told Stavros about Luke. "We've managed to make a good life for ourselves and our children. Nikolas and his siblings have been raised with love instead of duty, a departure from every Cassadine before."
"Come to dinner. The children have a surprise for you." Laura tugs her husband toward the door.
"What kind of surprise?"
"Only the best kind of surprise for their father. Only the best, Stefan."
"Happy Birthday, Father!" Nikolas, Renzo and Lesley call out to him. Mrs Lansbury holds up the cake that is lit with candles.
2
The spin of the wheel before him and the roar of the crowd behind him make no impact as the croupier calls out "RED 19. RED 19! You win again, sir!" Shoving the winnings toward the young man. "Place your bets, place your bets."
The young man cashs out and is tailed by the hangers on that go with the Monte Carlo crowd. It's his curse and his delight depending on his mood. Heir to the Cassadine Fortune, one might even say that there was a price on his head where the the marriage minded ladies were concerned. But they were of no interest to him. He enjoyed a more knowing sort. Women that knew the score and would be satisified with a diamond bracelet and a few good times before parting with no hard feelings.
"Prince Nikolas, your phone messages." The clerk behind the counter offers them to the young man.
Nik winces and sorts thru them. As expected most were from his father wanting him to check in. Probably with the names of proper young women that would be an asset to the dynasty. AS if he would settle down now. Cassadine marriages are forever until death do them part. And it wasn't as if there was a great track record in the family. Grandmother Helena was insane and had been for years, killing her husband's paramours and even her own son. His own mother had taken a header off of the cliff over the cove rather than face another day as a Cassadine bride. His father had been inconsolable or rather he'd never married again but rather had worked his way thru most of the highest priced... companions that the estate could provide. Quite embarrassing when they'd compared notes over a case of very fine wine and discovered that they had companions in common.
Going up to his suite, Nikolas uses his key card to enter the penthouse that is his home here in Monte Carlo. "Contessa, I wasn't expecting you."
"You should have." The lithesome redhead sits up on the bed allowing the satin sheets to fall away leaving her dressed in only the barest of garments. "How could I not stop by and give you my... regards seeing as how you were so sweet to come to my stomping grounds? Champagne?"
Nikolas comes over to the bed and loosens his tie. He reaches over to the chilled container and grabbing the bottle by the neck takes a long swig of the bubbling beverage. He runs one hand up the Contessa's side running a thumb over the tip of one breast and watching it pucker beneath the gossamer silk covering and then takes another swig.
The contessa pulls his face toward him and ravages his mouth savoring the taste of Dom on his tongue. "I missed you."
"What about Simon?"
"Who?" The Contessa teases breathily and then nips at his lower lip and then groans. "I'll be right back." She climbs out of the bed and goes to the bathroom carefully shutting the door behind her. He'd taken too long getting back. If she didn't check in then there would be agents swarming all over the hotel. It had taken ages to get this close to the Cassadine they couldn't have it blown now because of a missed check in. Searching thru her change of clothes on the back of the door she grabs her cell phone and goes over to the sink and starts running water. She looks out the window brushing the curtain aside. "Yeah, it's V. I'm in." She nods to the agent down in the courtyard. "Talk to you in four hours. Hopefully I'll have the goods by then." She clicks the phone shut and then drops it to the carpeted floor her hands going to her throat, tugging at the tie around her neck.
"You really shouldn't have done that." Nikolas hisses in her ear. He doesn't let up on the pressure even as the WSB undercover agent becomes a dead weight. "We could have had a good time."
Stepping away from the body he goes back to the bedroom and makes a single phone call. "I need a cleanup. There is evidently another agent in the courtyard. I'll inform my father in person of the WSB's interest. He's been wanting to see me anyway."
3
The flowers arrive to the hospital in Switzerland after the patient is already gone.
Thank you for your generosity, because of you, our little girl will have a shot at a full and happy life. The Spencers
"What should I do with these?" The nursing sister asks her supervisor.
"Give them to one of the other patients, one with no family. The bone marrow donor wished to remain anonymous and left no forwarding address."
"He should know what a wonderful thing he did."
"He knows without the flowers."
Nikolas Cassadine moves slowly up the stairs to the private jet. Giving bone marrow to a sister he'd never met outside of pictures, to a mother he'd never seen outside of a portrait on the mantal. He and his uncle had fought over this one. Fought long and hard. Uncle had seen no purpose in giving the marrow, of even being tested. His mother had made her choice years ago and it hadn't been her Cassadine family. She'd never looked back. Never once sent a letter or called. He knew that he was dead to her as cut out of his life as if he'd never existed. But he did exist. And the time wasn't right yet, not right to take back all that he'd lost.
~~~
Six years later in the same hospital but on a different floor, A grown man stares thru the one way glass at the woman that is twisting her hair and rocking, just rocking. "What happened to her?" He quietly asks the doctor.
"Psychotic break. It's difficult to say whether the break happened before or after she killed her stepfather."
"And they say the Cassadines are crazy." Nik snorts. Crazy or not she is his mother. "May I... speak... with her?"
"We're trying to keep her isolated from people that she knows that just seems to feed into her psychosis. Until we get her meds regulated we can't afford her to get worse."
Nik laughs without humor. "That shouldn't be a problem. She wouldn't know me from Adam."
"But I thought you said... that you are her son."
"I am. Shall we?" Nik indicates with one hand toward the door.
"If there is any kind of problem just knock on the mirror." The doctor reminds.
Nik nods and then goes into the room. "Good Morning.... Laura."
At the sound of her name the woman looks up at her visitor. "Stefan! Oh Thank Goodness you came!" She rushs into Nikolas' arms and peppers his face with kisses. "Helena found out about me putting the frogs in her bed. She locked me up in here and put guards on me! You have to get me out of here. I want to go down to the cove just the two of us and make love down on the sand like we did before."
"Make Love." Nik says quietly. Now he finally understood the expressions that his uncle so carefully hid from him, the bitterness that he'd always had toward Laura that was even greater than just abandoning her son.
"Stavros should be gone on business for another week. All that time just for us." Laura pulls Nikolas' head down to hers despite the resistence and forces an openmouth kiss on the man she sees only as her lover.
Nikolas pushes her away, half across the room and then wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, disgusted by his mother's actions and disillusioned about his uncle. Going over to the mirror he raps on it.
"Stefan! No, Stefan, you can't leave me here! I'll die if I can't see you!" Laura runs at Nikolas and grabs at the back of his jacket.
"Shhh. I have to make arrangements. And we can't arouse the guards suspicions." Nik softly murmurs.
"Oh. Right. When? When are you going to get me out? When can we finally be together?"
"Soon. You just have to be patient." Nik holds a finger to Laura's lips to silence her as the orderly comes into the room. Nik exits and turns immediately to the doctor. "How soon can she be moved?"
"Moved? She can't be moved!"
"She was evidently transferred from the United States to Switzerland. Make arrangements for her transfer to Greece."
"Her husband...."
Nikolas interrupts. "She has no husband. My father is dead and she is divorced from her other husband. I am her oldest son and I have the resources to care for her without involving an institution."
"She needs 24 hour care."
"Then make the arrangements. I want her out of here by end of business today." Nikolas pulls out his cell phone. "Uncle? Mother is coming to visit. Yes, she appears to be missing you."
4
From the balcony of the Mayor's mansion Luke sees more than a few familiar faces but it is one that has him questioning his sanity.. Laura? The cry comes from the depths of his soul uncaring if this is the action that finally gets him committed. "LAURA!!"
This isn't the time, this had been a really bad idea. There are too many people around, too many questions. Laura turns around to leave but then hears Luke call out and tries to get away. It seems like her path is blocked at every turn. When she finally gets clear, she is pulled around from behind. She knows who it is even if she hasn't felt his touch in so long. She'd know it anytime, any where no matter how much time had passed. Turning she looks up into the disbelieving eyes before she is pulled into a powerful embrace. "Oh Gawd, Luke.... Luke." Luke holds her at arm's length and then pulls her back to him and kisses her to verify that he isn't dreaming.
"Where? How?" Luke stutters his inate cool taken from him in the ultimate of wish fulfillment.
"That's a long story." Laura mutters brushing her hand against his smooth shaven face and then with a shaking hand running her fingers thru his tangled curly blonde hair.
"I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead."
"Can we get out of here? I really think we need to talk."
"Yeah, sure. Come on. I'm running the joint now."
"No, not here. Please. Can you take me to Kelly's? I'll explain everything there."
"Sure, Angel. But I'm not letting you out of my sight." Using the skills that had saved his bacon and Laura's too more than once Luke gets them out of the crush at the mansion and across town to Kelly's.
"I am so glad you're back." The waitress who'd been covering for Rose Kelly and Ruby both because they'd been at the mansion to see Luke sworn in as Mayor comes out from the kitchen with a crying baby. "He started up as soon as you left. I think he's teething or something and nothing was making him happy."
"I'll take him." Laura steps away from Luke and takes the baby from the waitress cuddling him close. Safe and secure again the baby cuts off his cries with just a hiccup and then grins up at Laura blowing bubbles in her direction. "You were just missing me weren't you my precious boy?"
"Your precious boy?!" Luke comes over to where Laura is standing and looks at the baby. Not that he knew much about the brats, disgusting creatures that were forever crying, puking or something even more disgusting.
"Yes, Luke, This is my son, Nikolas. He's the only thing that has kept me alive for the last year. If I hadn't of had him, known him, felt him growing underneath my heart, I would have probably thrown myself off of a cliff when Stavros Cassadine and Helena told me you were dead. I didn't believe them at first. I thought they were just torturing me by the time I really believed it... Nikolas gave me a reason to keep on living."
"Cassadine." Luke hisses. "I should have known. That bitch cursed us on our wedding day but I thought it was sour grapes since I killed her old man. I checked them out when you disappeared. But there was nothing, you just disappeared into the fog."
"I know you tried to find me. I knew it in my heart. I always believed that."
"And now you're back, Angel, my Angel, nothing is going to keep us apart ever again." Luke goes to give Laura another kiss, another embrace, still not quite believing that she is here and real. Nikolas grabs at the tie that Luke'd been forced to where when being sworn in and twists it in his moist little hand bringing it to his mouth so he can start gnawing on it. "Laura, whose his father?" It's a question he knows he shouldn't ask but can't resist any more than he could have stopped screaming her name when he first saw her.
"Luke, if there is any hope of us being together again, of making a future, then... you are. Because I will never leave my baby."
Luke reads the truth in her face. Not only who the child's father is but of his conception. It was only one of the things he loved about Laura, she could take the worst of situations and find the best part of it. She'd done that with him, when anyone else would have written him off or never forgiven. But the flip side of that was when Laura dug her heels in there was no budging. It's no contest. He'd do anything to get her back because life was hell on earth without her. And what was biology anyway but a bunch of bull****. He was nothing like his old man. He looks down at the baby. "I think he has your mouth... hard to tell right now seeing as how it is full of my tie."
Laura laughs at that but it's a laugh on the verge of tears. Her whole future is riding on this, hers and Nikolas'. It would break her heart to leave Luke but she had to protect Nikolas.
"Nikolas Spencer. hmmm I think it's kinda got a ring to it."
"They'll come after us." Laura warns.
"Let em. We Spencers stick together, baby. You, me and Nik."
5
Emily takes a deep breath and then another one. Then starts coughing hanging onto the railing of the balcony as she does so.
"What on earth are you doing?" Nikolas is laughing even as he grabs her around the waist and away from the railing. "Are you alright?"
"Fine. Fine." Emily chokes out on gasping breaths. Then she rolls her eyes. "Everyone is always going on about Paris in June and how wonderful it smells. GAG I think I'm going to die."
"It smells like an industrialized city. Darling, we are only here overnight please wait until we reach the chateau to be taking any really deep breaths."
"Now you tell me." Emily turns around in his arms and wraps one arm up around his shoulder and rest her chin in the middle of his chest as she looks up at him. "Thank you for bringing me here."
"Where else could we spend our honeymoon? I wouldn't say that it was the French that actually brought us together and made me realize the gem I'd been ignoring for so long."
Emily nods. "Not The French but the french language." She rubs a hand over the scar at Nikolas' throat thankfully the only lasting souvenir of that night at Luke's when Nikolas had been shot in the throat and Jason had to do an emergency trach on him using a penknife and a ball point pen. "You were with Sarah. And I was just your little tagalong."
"I was an idiot. Blind as well as mute. Until you taught me not only to speak but to see what was in front of me all along."
"How long have you been practicing that line?" Em asks suspiciously.
Nik grins at her. "Like that one? Came up with it when I was trying to figure out our wedding vows."
"Thank heavens your uncle put his foot down and we went with the original vows. I know he was all about not wanting anything trendy but Nikolas...."
"What?" Nik leans over and kisses Emily on the nose, running a finger along the ridge of an ear tucking her hair back.
"I just... love you so much and I want everyone to know but I want you all to myself. Does that make any sense?"
"Perfect sense." Nik agrees with a nod. "Emily, are you sure. I mean really sure."
"It's a little late to be asking." Em puts on a gruff voice. "Cause you know Cassadines Do Not Divorce."
"My family is crazy."
"So is mine."
"They are constantly interfering in my life and deciding what is best for me."
"So are mine."
"Luke probably regrets going in the ambulance to the hospital with me. He's overdue for another attempt at killing me." Nik is only half kidding.
"Who knows when my mother is going to spurn another lover who will try to use me to get over on the Quartermaines." Emily isn't even kidding that much.
"Have you ever thought of just running away from home."
"Sure, even tried it a couple of times but they keep pulling me back in."
"I'm your family now."
"And I'm yours. And we're going to be better than fine. We're going to be great!"
"But no matter what your mother says or how she pleads we are not living at the Quartermaines."
"Agreed." Em nods once and hard on that one. "Ditto to Spoon Island."
"Agreed."
"I love you."
"Thank you."
Crib Notes:
What if...
1) Laura hadn't left the island
2) Stefan is taken out of the picture.
3) Nikolas never comes to PC.
4) Laura takes Nikolas with her
5) Emily is never replaced by Robin a Nikolas's speech therapist.