Chapter Ninety-Five:
Facing the Day

Lucky's Room, early morning.

Lucky lies on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Very familiar cracks, and for the first time since he got here, he can see them clearly. He took the aspirin about an hour ago, and they seem to be working better now... Or maybe they were working before, and the headache was worse. It doesn't matter, he's feeling better, and he figures he has about three more hours before he can reasonably broach the subject of going home.

Under normal conditions he wouldn't bother with playing along. But, without even getting up, he knows there is no way he can walk from here to the club, and his mother still has his wallet and keys hostage. He closes his eyes quickly, squeezing them shut against the memory of the previous evening. He doesn't... no, he just can't think about it. The minute he does, a completely new type of pain appears in his head, and he has to focus on other things. Like getting the hell out of this house before something like that happens again.

He rolls over, facing the wall, away from the still-darkened window. Another thing he doesn't feel like thinking about. He'd avoided this place for a reason. Not just the house, but this place, this specific room. Generally, any place where he'd spent hours being dark and brooding weren't the sort of place he really liked to return to. He needs to get out of here, get back outside, walk some place, breath air that isn't stale, that doesn't feel like it's already been churned through his lungs before. But that's not really an option. For the life of him, he can't figure out what his options are. He knows he aches too much to even try to pretend he's up to par. And even lying down, he's vaguely aware that the dizziness hasn't faded as much as he would have liked. So how long did it take to recover from a concussion anyway? And why was this question just occurring to him now?

Lulu: You're awake.

Lucky: Hey.

Lulu: (smiling) Are you feeling better?

Lucky: (shrugging as well as he can) Getting there.

Lulu: (Crawling up onto the bed) You were really sick yesterday. You slept all day!

Lucky: That's why I'm awake now. What's your excuse?

Lulu: I always get up early.

Lucky: Yeah, I know. I've wondered if you're really my sister. (Lulu frowns at him) It's a joke, Lu.

Lulu: Sometimes your jokes aren't funny.

Lucky: (Putting his hand over his heart) Ow. Tough crowd. (Lulu pulls her knees up to her chest and snuggles up against him. Lucky winces slightly as he moves his arm around her, pulling her a bit closer. This he misses. Early mornings with Lulu. It had been the hardest thing to leave, when he'd left the house. And part of the reason he had.... The last two months he lived in this place it had taken every ounce of self control he had to be civil to everyone, even Lulu. He'd snapped at her repeatedly over tiny little things that never would have gotten to him before, and she'd stopped doing things like coming by his room when she woke up in the morning. And he hadn't blamed her. He turns his head away from her and studies the wall, forcing the lump in his throat down).

Lulu: Are you going to leave again? (Lucky blinks and looks down at her again)

Lucky: What?

Lulu: (Looking up at him) I miss you. (Lucky stares at her a moment)

Lucky: You don't beat around the bush, do you? (Lulu shakes her head, and smiles at him)

Lulu: I want you to stay. (Oh, boy. Lucky sighs and closes his eyes. This is a conversation he has no interest in pursuing. )

Lucky: Lu, we've talked about this.

Lulu: I asked Daddy at diner if you had to work tomorrow and he said no, he didn't think you had to work until next week, so you can just stay here! (Lucky keeps his eyes closed. Great. So his Dad is under the impression that he still works at the club... He'd quit except he plans to be out of the city in a week, so it's all a moot point. He groans and shifts in the bed, pushing her off of him so that he can pull himself up to lean against the headboard. Lulu kneels next to him, her eyes shinning hopefully. Oh, this isn't going to be easy.)

Lucky: Remember back when I moved out? (Lulu bites her lip and nods, and Lucky loses his train of thought) Lulu!

Lulu: What?

Lucky: Look... (He shakes his head) Did Dad put you up to this? (Lulu looks at him oddly)

Lulu: What do you mean?

Lucky: Nothing. Ok. (He takes a deep breath) We talked about this. How kids move out of their parents houses, it happens!

Lulu: Emily still lives with her parents.

Lucky: Emily... Ok, that's different.

Lulu: Why?

Lucky: Because Emily... (He frowns. He doesn't know how to explain Em's living arrangement to Lu, since it's kinda a mystery to him anyway. He shrugs) She's Emily. She does things her way. I do things mine.

Lulu: (face falling) And your way is to leave? (Lucky looks at his little sister warily. Don't do it, he tells himself sternly. You know why you can't do it. It's not going to be any good for anyone. )

Lucky: (sadly) Lulu, when I'm here..... (He sighs and reaches out to pull her towards him. His arms protest, but they protest to everything he's done so far this morning, and he's getting really sick of listening. Lulu crawls up the bed, and moves to sit on his stomach, a long established ritual. Lucky sucks in his breath sharply, and pulls away from her) Hey! No... no, that's not good. (Lulu looks at him confused) I'm sorry, Lu... I didn't mean to .... (he catches his breath slightly) It just hurts. (Lulu looks at him, remorsefully)

Lulu: I'm sorry.

Lucky: Don't sweat it. Come here. (After eying him carefully, Lulu crawls up to him again, gingerly avoiding touching him. He rolls his eyes) I'm not going to break, come here. (He reaches out and playfully pulls her towards him, so that she falls, laughing, against his chest)

Lulu: You're being weird!

Lucky: There you go with that word again.

Lulu: You ARE weird!

Lucky: Then I'm being normal, right? (Lulu shakes her head and curls up against him, again)

Lulu: I wish you could stay here forever.

Lucky: What, in this bed?

Lulu: No... Like, when you're not sick? Be here like before, so that we can play like we used to.

Lucky: (heavily) Lulu... Look, I know I'm not exactly bucking for brother of the year, here.... But things will be different. I promise. It's not going to be so .... Hard. I mean... (He stops. Why is he saying this? How are things going to get easier? They can't. They won't ever be. Lulu's world is going to be rocked just as badly as his is, if not worse. He hugs her with one arm against him, as tightly as he can).

Lulu: (quietly) Why is it hard, Lucky?

Lucky: Man... you just don't ask the easy questions, do you? (He closes his eyes) I said to you before... sometimes I get angry. And ... Look, I used to hate it when Mom and Dad fought, you know? (Lulu nods) So... you probably hate it when I fight with them too, don't you?

Lulu: I don't know why you and Mom fight so much.

Lucky: It's... It's really hard to explain, Lu.

Lulu: WHY? (She pulls away from him, kneeling again) Don't you love her anymore? (Lucky looks at her pained)

Lucky: Yeah, I love her.

Lulu: So why do you fight with her?

Lucky: Don't you ever just get mad, Lulu? I mean, when things are confusing, or you don't like what's happening?

Lulu: yeah.

Lucky: Well... that happens with Mom a lot. It doesn't mean that I don't love her. Hey, we used to fight, remember?

Lulu: (protesting) We never fought!

Lucky: Oh yeah? Remember when I was supposed to take you tobogganing, and you wouldn't wear that stupid hat?

Lulu: I HATE that hat!

Lucky: Yeah, but it was cold!

Lulu: YOU weren't wearing a hat!

Lucky: You used that one on me back then too.... Doesn't matter. I'm the big brother, I get to tell you what to do.

Lulu: That isn't fair!

Lucky: See? It's not fair. I'm not all fun and games, Lulu. If I came back, you'd remember. Things are better this way.

Lulu: They are not!

Lucky: If I live somewhere else, people don't fight so much. Isn't that better?

Lulu: I don't care! I don't care if everyone fights! Not if you're here!

Lucky: Aw, Lulu....

Lulu: I want you to be here! I want things back the way they were! When we could have breakfast together, and you'd make me pancakes, and when we'd take Foster for walks -- Foster! He misses you too! If you won't stay for me, then will you stay for Foster?

Lucky: Lulu!

Lulu: Or for Dad?

Lucky: Don't! Stop it! (He sighs heavily) You're not going to give up on this, are you?

Lulu: I want you here. I want you to stay here. Please? Just for a little while?

Lucky: I.... (He looks at Lulu's face, her eyes pleading with him) Look, first of all, you are all the reason I need to stay, Lu.

Lulu: Then why won't you?

Lucky: Because! (He stops and exhales heavily. How can he do this to her? How the hell can he walk out of here and leave her to deal with what's going to happen? He IS going to do it. He already knows that. In one week, he'll be gone and have no idea when he'll be back. He looks back at her face. She has tears welling up in her eyes. He leans forward and presses his forehead against hers, looking into her eyes.) Ok. You win. (Lulu pulls back from him, emitting a high-pitched squeak)

Lulu: Really? You'll stay?

Lucky: I ... Ok. Here's the deal. I'll stay. But I want you to understand one thing, Ok?

Lulu: (excitedly, bouncing up on the bed) What? What?

Lucky: I"m only doing it for one reason -- because YOU asked me. Not for Dad and not for Foster, Ok? For you. I'm staying for you. (Lulu smiles at him, the smile spreading wider and wider across her face, until she finally barrels at him, forgetting all about his injuries.

Hannah's Apartment, Bathroom.

Hannah stands in front of the mirror, drying her hair, and concentrating, for the sake of her steadily throbbing head, on making the least amount of noise humanly possibly. This is a familiar feeling, and it's usually because she is trying not to wake Nikolas. But this morning that's not really a problem, because he's gone.

She still can't wrap her mind around that. Where he went, and why he didn't wake her. Of course, she'd probably scared the hell out of him last night. Nikolas might be educated, traveled and well-read, but he just didn't have experience with things like what she'd pulled on him last night. But then, all of this was a new one on her, too. All she knows right now is that she had to get away from this death trap apartment and out into the world and gain some clarity. Enough dithering, it's time for action.

What kind of action, she's not sure. Helena's remark about her "assuming" that her every word is being closely monitored has her more than a little unhinged. The apartment must be bugged, she's certain of that. The big question is the outside world. She can't get this stupid movie out of her head. "The.... Something". Sure. The title evades her, but the opening scene doesn't. Two people talking in a public park, moving around and around in circles, voices never raised above moderate conversational level.... "The Conversation"! She smiles slightly in triumph. Not that the name of the stupid film matters. But in this life, you have to take joy in the details. That conversation in the park was monitored by plants, guys dressed as.... Well, park people. And they'd recorded and recovered every single word. By the end of the film the man hired to tape the conversation had become so paranoid he'd become convinced that every single move he made was watched, his every breath recorded for prosperity. It was chilling. And right now, in her gut, she feels like she's in the same boat. One wrong move, and she's dead. One right move and Lucky is.

There are other options, her mind keeps telling her. Write a note, and hope nothing NIKOLAS says is recorded. Or play some ridiculously twisted game of charades. It's too confusing. And two simple. The game is easy, really. All she has to do is tell Nikolas not to hit Lucky, under ANY circumstances, no matter what he found out. And she had to let him know this soon. She has an eerie amount of responsibility in this scheme, and that has to put things in her favor. There has to be another answer. There has to be some way out. Lucky had talked continually like Luke Spencer was to Cassadines what Kryptonite was to Superman. However, she had just the slightest suspicion that Lucky's idea of his father was a little inflated. At eighteen. Kids were usually pretty disillusioned by then. Maybe there was something to it. Either way, she had to get out of this place, and fast. She had to find Nikolas and begin to get herself out of this pit.

Jason's Penthouse.

Jason comes down from the bed room in as close to a bad mood as he's had in a long time. It had been a long night, and the person he most needed to talk to right now was under lock and key at the Spencer House. The timing of Lucky's accident couldn't have been more inconvenient... Or convenient, depending on who you were. Given the events of the last 24 hours.... There were two many strange occurrences again, too much strange stuff going on. And to have Jacob out of the picture, Lucky in the hospital, and Luke Spencer knowing all about their arrangement... it was too much all at once just to chock it all up to a cosmic coincidence. Lucky's "outta left field" Cassadine theory was getting more and more convincing by the minute.

Reaching the landing, Jason stops and regards his early morning visitor coolly.

Jason: Any reason this couldn't wait?

Nik: Any reason it should?

Jason: What do you want?

Nik: Some answers.

Jason: I've already been through this with Luke.

Nik: I know. I already knew everything Luke knew.

Jason: I know. Lucky told me.

Nik: I'm not asking those kind of questions. I just want a really simple answer to a really simple question.

Jason: Well, I'm here.

Nik: Is my brother in danger?

Jason: yes.

Nik: (going cold) I... what?

Jason: Someone tried to kill him, didn't they?

Nik: I guess they did. That's not what I'm asking you.

Jason: Sounds like it is.

Nik: No. I want to know if he's in any danger from you.

Jason: From me? No.

Nik: (sighing) Not from YOU, I mean because of whatever it is he does for you.

Jason: Maybe.

Nik: Maybe?

Jason: I don't know.

Nik: I need to know this ..... Jason.

Jason: I told you, he might be. It's always a possibility.

Nik: How much of a possibility.

Jason: Yesterday I would have said it was slim. Today.... I'm not so sure.

Nik: What?

Jason: You don't want to know why.

Nik: I think I do.

Jason: Fine. But I'm not going to tell you. Look, I have a deal with Lucky. The details of that arrangement are between me and him. I'm not going to discuss them with you.

Nik: I don't WANT the details (He stops, running his fingers through his hair. He DOES want those details, but not from Jason. Ideally, he wants them from the horse's mouth) I just want to know how... Look. What happened to Lucky and Emily... was that about your organization?

Jason: No.

Nik: And you can say that for sure?

Jason: I made inquiries. That had nothing to do with me.

Nik: So... it was my Grandmother.

Jason: You'd know that better than I would.

Nik: I do. It was her. I always knew it had to be... it's just.... (He shakes his head, annoyed at the fact that he let himself get so distracted) What kind of danger do you think he's in? (Jason just stares at Nikolas, giving all the answer he's willing to). Fine. I guess that's all you're going to say. (Nikolas turns to leave)

Jason: Wait. Nikolas. (Nikolas turns back to him. Jason descends the rest of the stairs) You want to help Lucky out?

Nik: That's what I'm trying to do.

Jason: He doesn't trust you, you know. (Nikolas manages to keep his face calm, though he feels like Jason's twisting a knife in him. He nods) You want him to?

Nik: Maybe. (Jason searches his face, then takes a step back)

Jason: I don't deal in maybes.

Nik: Ok, Yes. Yeah, I want him to trust me.

Jason: Ok. Can you get to him?

Nik: I...

Jason: CAN you?

Nik: (determinedly) Probably better than you could.

Jason: I could get to him. But not without using a middle man. You just might be a better cover.

Nik: Cover?

Jason: Luke doesn't want him dealing with me.

Nik: Luke doesn't want him dealing with me either. (Jason sighs heavily) Ok, I understand. Whatever it is, if it comes from me, Luke wont' think it's about you.

Jason: Exactly.

Nik: All right. What is it? (Jason stares at him, studying every aspect of Nikolas's face, eyes, reading him without apology. Nikolas returns the gaze, refusing to flinch or turn away. After a moment Jason goes to the desk and opens a drawer. He pulls out a small business envelop, and walks back over to Nikolas, extending his hand. Nikolas reaches out to take it, but Jason pulls it back)

Jason: This has to get to him today.

Nik: Fine. I can do that. I have to go out to the house anyway.

Jason: Don't look at it. That's for your sake as much as anything else.

Nik: (firmly) I wont'.

Jason: Ok. (he gives him the envelop. Nikolas puts it in his inner jacket pocket, carefully.) I'll tell him about this. Either way it ends up, he'll know what happened here.

Nik: So you mean if I don't --

Jason: The envelop is sealed. He'll know it's supposed to be.

Nik: I SAID I wouldn't look at it.

Jason: I believe you. Just don't change your mind.

Nik: I won't.