Luke
took a drag on his cigar and exhaled a perfect 'O'. "So, the
Queen of the Damned decided she preferred a warmer climate."
Alexis looked confused. "What are you taking about? What has
her reappearance to do with the weather?"
Luke smirked. "I kinda sent her to Antarctica to play with
the penguins."
"Luke, what the hell are you talking about?"
He shrugged. "Never mind, too long a story. Never expected
her to make it back alive. One thing about the old bat, she's got
more lives than a cursed black cat."
Alexis muttered. "You killed enough other Cassadines but you
couldn't see fit to stake her? Not going soft on me are you?"
Cameron was listening to the exchange and it shocked him. "Luke,
you've killed Cassadines? I thought you just talked about it like
it was your favorite perverse fantasy."
Luke rocked on the rickety chair and shrugged. "Nope, Doc,
all too real. I've taken out one or two but they're notoriously
tough to kill and have an annoying habit of coming back from the
dead. Tash is living proof that even their own can't manage to kill
'em."
Cameron looked at Alexis with puzzlement as she stared at Luke,
a warning in her dark chocolate eyes. They both were talking as
if killing Alexis's family was just a sport and the intimation that
Alexis had the same instincts was disturbing. He knew she prided
herself on being un-Cassadine by how she chose to live her life.
To hear different was startling but this was Luke talking and he
was the master of exaggeration. Or as his granny used to say, consider
the source.
Cameron asked with careful nonchalance, "So, Luke, who did
you kill?"
"Pop and Ice Pop," Luke snickered at his little inside
joke.
Alexis snapped at him. "Luke, stop with the history lesson.
We need to deal with the Helena problem not take a trip back to
the past."
Luke sighed. "Yeah, you're right. But I do love to open my
Cassadine scrapbook and snuggle up to all the warm and fuzzy memories."
Cameron was getting an uneasy feeling and wanted to know more but
the look on Alexis's face stopped him cold. She had the closed,
focused look from the trial when only someone who knew her well
could read the turmoil that was running rampant inside her. He prided
himself on being that someone and he was not comfortable at that
moment with what he was seeing.
Cameron nodded. "Yes, Luke, let's get on with it."
Alexis turned to him and sighed audibly. "Why can't you just
go home to Port Charles? Luke's here now and we can handle Helena.
I don't want you here."
Cameron crossed his arms over his chest and glared at her. "When
we get back to Port Charles, I want to take you to the clinic and
have your short and long term memory tested because obviously they
are not functioning up to par. We've had this discussion and I'm
NOT going back unless you are sitting beside me. Maybe all that
glue Dobson wears is seeping into your brain cells."
Alexis glared back. "Fine but I warned you once and I won't
again. Stay here and whatever happens to you is on your own stubborn
head - not mine."
"Kids…kids…stop kicking up all that sand in each
other's faces. Gotta keep your eye on the prize folks or we are
toast," Luke lectured.
He looked at Cameron and then Alexis and asked, "Isn't Dobson
that rather fey British butler at the Q's? I don't understand what
his glue has to do with Natasha unless she's sniffing it. Or does
the good Doc here have some competition in the romance department?"
Alexis opened her lips to say something sarcastic when an annoyed
Cameron interjected. "Alexis is Dobson."
Alexis stared at him. He broke his promise to her and he never did
that - ever. He must really be angry with me, she thought unhappily.
Why couldn't he get it through his thick head that all she wanted
was to protect him as he always protected her. She was terrified
that something would happen and she'd be unable to save him, to
lose him as she lost everything dear in her life. She knew she would
never survive it.
Luke looked stunned and that was saying something. "Tash, you
sneaky devil! Doing a Victor, Victoria on the Q's, huh? Boy, only
goes to show lots of money doesn't guarantee an equal amount of
brains."
Alexis took a deep breath. "Cameron had no right to tell you
and you must promise to keep it secret. You would do anything for
your family, right? Well, this is the only way I can be around my
daughter so I chose to do it." She looked at Cameron. "Some
people disagree with me but it was my only option."
Luke looked surprised. "Darlin', your only option? Hardly.
You're a Cassadine and I'm just wondering why you didn't choose
the option behind ye old Russian door number 2?"
Alexis gnawed at her lower lip. "I prefer not to answer that
question. My reasons are private." She didn't want them to
know how estranged she'd become from her brother and how much his
current actions and those of her family were worrying her. But most
of all, she was afraid of the price any favor begged of her family
would extract from her.
Her answer surprised Cameron since they always shared so much but
obviously she was holding back, whether to protect him or because
she didn't trust him. Either way, he was disturbed and just a bit
hurt.
Luke just nodded. "No problema. I've always kept your secrets,
Natasha, I'm not about to do a reverse nelson now."
Secrets, Cameron thought as he looked from one to the other, I don't
like that at all. He sat down on the bed next to Alexis who moved
slightly away to give him room. Distancing herself, he sighed to
himself.
Alexis needed to get back to the nasty subject at hand. "Enough
of me, we need to discuss what to do about Helena."
Luke tipped the chair back against the wall and stretched out his
legs. "So, the bitch is back. When did the sun get swallowed
up by the moon?"
"Independence Day night during the fireworks display. We were
on a boat in the harbor when I caught sight of a yacht. The harbor
was filled with boats and people and this yacht was deserted and
I was curious. I caught movement and saw a blonde woman. The hackles
went up on my neck - I just knew it was her."
Luke glanced at Cameron. "And I bet good old Dr. Quack here
tried to convince you that it was all your bombs-bursting-in-air
imagination, right?"
Alexis looked over at Cameron. "Yes but he doesn't know her
like we do, Luke. He doesn't know how she can slip in and out of
places like a wraith with none the wiser. He saw I was upset and
he tried to explain her away rationally."
Luke snickered. "Mistake numero uno, Doc. There is nothing
logical or rational about the old witch. She is pure undiluted 150-proof
evil personified and unless you treat her like the satanic minion
she is, you'll end up dead and just another notch on her lipstick
case."
Cameron stayed silent. This discussion was beginning to worry him
quite a lot.
Luke asked Alexis, "What happened next?"
"I contacted Leo…"
Luke nodded, "Good old dependable Leo…"
"And he put his people on it. They tracked the yacht to Dover,
England where it docked and she took a car into Kent," as she
said it she looked meaningfully at Luke.
He knew exactly where she was headed. "Why in hell would she
go there after all these years?"
She whispered with devastating softness, "To relive her finest
moment, perhaps?"
Luke looked at her sadly, his eyes filled with empathy but also
anger. "No doubt she'd get her jollies from it but that is
too high concept. Helena is all about the goal and the means to
get there. What could she be looking for? Does the family still
own it?"
"The family has never owned it. The property has never appeared
on any inventory of Cassadine assets. It is almost as if it…"
"Doesn't exist?" Luke asked.
She nodded and thought back to the day she received the strange
telephone call from a barrister in England claiming to be her father's
personal counsel.
"I was approached a few years ago by my father's private lawyer,
an very old man with more than a few very old secrets. I'm still
not certain how he found me or why he sought me out but he seemed
concerned and more than a bit afraid. He was unknown to the family
and asked me to keep his confidence. He informed me he was the trustee
of my father's, shall we say, more personal holdings, one's he did
not want the family to know. I flew to London and met with him.
Among the papers he gave me was a list of properties Mikkos owned
through a series of holding companies so they could not be traced
back to him." She looked away as she felt tears start to pool
in her eyes. "It was on the list. He had to hide us away from
Helena, you see."
"But she found you."
Her breath caught in her throat. "Yes, she did. Leo's men found
the estate in ruins. It seems my father walked away and never looked
back."
"But also never sold it," Luke said knowingly. He wondered
at a man that could love so deeply that even after death he could
not give up the woman he loved, the home that he made with her,
with his children. It shook him to the core that he saw so much
of himself in the man circumstances eventually forced him to kill.
Luke looked into Alexis's eyes and it felt as if the room held just
the two of them locked into the past - the past that made her, the
one that changed him.
Cameron's voice entered the conversation and they both started.
"Excuse me, but what are you two talking about?" Cameron
asked. He felt like the third wheel as Alexis and Luke immersed
themselves in a history they both recalled, a history he was not
party to, and it was a feeling he did not appreciate.
Alexis looked a bit chagrined, almost forgetting he sat next to
her. "I'm sorry, Cameron. Rosewood, the estate where I grew
up with my Mother and Kristina until… I w-was sent to Gr-reece."
He heard the stammer in her voice and he knew it was the place where
she saw her Mother killed, where she lost her sister the first time
and where the nightmare that became her life first saw the light
of day. Or is that the murky darkness of night?
He reached out and laced his fingers through hers and squeezed her
hand. Her palm was sweaty and he detected a slight shake as the
tension worked its way through her body. She held onto him limply
as if all the strength had focused itself in her mind leaving her
body defenseless.
"I'm sorry, I know those memories are devastating to you. But,
if no one has gone there for years, what would she expect to find?"
"That is what we need to find out, Cameron. She never does
anything without a well thought out purpose."
Luke continued, "Ok, so she goes to Kent and then…"
"Back to the yacht and they set sail. Leo's men were able to
intercept a cell signal and it gave Paris as the final destination
which is why I came…"
"We came," Cameron interrupted gruffly.
"I came and he followed me here," Alexis finished with
a sidelong glance at Cameron.
Luke put out his cigar but kept it in his mouth, chewing the stub.
"Paris… Paris. Just what would she want in Paris after
her stopover on Memory Lane?"
Alexis winced at the dispassionate way he referred to a place that
forever lives in the deep recesses of her heart. A place of simple
joy and utter anguish, a place she could never imagine entering
again.
"She can't head to any family residence because security would
take her into custody. She is cut off from all family assets and
her own are frozen, at least the ones we could find. So unless she
is hiding something or has other contacts, it makes no sense why
she would come here."
"Is it couture season on the runways?" Luke snorted.
"Maybe but not much chance of her paying for her purchases
except the old fashioned way."
Cameron innocently said, "The personal barter system?"
They looked at him in surprise and then started to laugh. It lightened
the mood that had fallen over them. Even the blonde goddess looked
relieved as she stared down at them from four sides of the room.
"Good one, Dr. Quack. Ya know, sometimes you're okay,"
Luke chuckled.
Alexis pushed her hair off her head musing, "She has to be
here for a reason."
The shrill chime of a cell phone pierced the room. Alexis pulled
her phone out of her purse, checked the Caller ID and answered.
"Alexis Davis."
She nodded and spoke in rapid French. Cameron could not keep up
and he saw Luke was just as confused. She motioned for a pad and
pen and rolled her eyes as Luke handed her some scented notepaper,
the image of Marilyn pursing her lips in a pouty kiss staring out
from the top.
"Merci."
She clicked off the phone and looked at them. "They put into
port at Le Havre and not a peep from the yacht. At least not yet."
Cameron looked thoughtful. "Odd, she seemed so hell bent on
getting where she was going."
Luke replied, "She's a bloodsucker, Doc, just like the rest
of them. She's probably waiting for dark to swoop in on the party.
Le Havre? That means we have time. I have to take care of some business.
If I were you, I'd get some rest because it could be a long night."
With that he saluted and walked out the door.
Alexis sat unmoving, her body felt like dust, as if one brisk wind
would scatter her limbs to the ends of the earth. She had to make
sense of Helena's movements. There was no direct threat, no face
off with menacing repartee but she had the inescapable feeling that
something wicked was headed her way and she had to stop it before
it took on a life of its own and everyone she loved, everyone still
alive in her world, would be threatened.
She glanced down at her hand, now alone as the warm strength of
Cameron was replaced by the dampness of her own sweat. She missed
his touch, the sense of security it brought her, the focus it gave
her when she did not know what to do. She knew she had to try at
least one more time to force him to go away, back to Port Charles
where he would be safe. He was so incredibly pig-headed and frustrating
but his heart was true. She couldn't fault him for his stance but
fear was overwhelming her. But annoyed or not there was a small
part of her, the part where the heavy tread of fear was not found,
that was so very glad he was here.
She grasped his hand and held it to her heart. "I know you
want to help but will you please go home - for me, for Kristina.
There are things I must do that cannot involve you."
"I am involved Alexis, like it or not. I've been involved since
the day I found you in the snow and held you, praying to the God
that I abandoned when my son died, praying another person in my
life that mattered would not be stolen away from me. I can't walk
away now."
"As much as you want, Cameron, you can't help."
"Why? You'll let Luke help you. I don't understand why you
won't allow me to help you too."
She reached up and took his face between her hands. She gazed at
him as if memorizing every inch of his face, looking everywhere
but into his eyes. She caressed his cheek with her thumb and when
she finally raised her eyes to look at him, he saw fear, naked and
unmasked, staring out from them.
"Because I'm selfish."
"What does that mean?"
"I know her, Cameron. I've watched her and survived her since
childhood and I know how she thinks. From such simple things as
my toys and books to sophisticated things like my Mother's life,
she slowly and viciously spent her life making me suffer for my
Father's infidelity by stealing away everything I love. I was the
bastard child, stark evidence that my father loved my mother more
than her. She could not countenance that betrayal and chose to exact
her revenge in subtle, psychological ways. I can't run the risk
of her finding out about you."
He needed to hear her say the words so he asked the question. "What
about me?"
"That you exist and are important in my life," she smiled
gently at him, continuing softly as she touched her cheek to his,
"and in my heart. She would take that and use it against me,
use YOU against me and I cannot allow that to happen. I would die
first."
"Let's not talk about dying, Alexis. We are both going to live
long healthy lives no doubt frustrating the hell out of each other.
We are stuck with each other and you are stuck with me now. There
is no argument you could make, no guilt trip you could send me on
that will make me leave you here alone. Not after what I heard this
afternoon."
"I won't be alone. Luke's here."
'Yes, and surprising as it is, I'm happy about that but I will not
walk away with so much at stake. If you think I would you don't
know me at all."
She could not do any more. She would have to hope that fate was
on their side. Sighing in defeat, she touched her lips softly to
his as her fingers moved to entwine in the silkiness of his hair.
She pulled him to her hungrily, yearning for his touch and the loving
strength she would always find in his arms. Everything began to
fall away, the fears, the uncertainty, the bitter memories until
all that remained was her body molding itself into his to draw sustenance
from his touch, to regain strength and hope from the passion of
his kiss. As her tongue slid lazily along the contour of his lips,
she heard him moan as he folded her more tightly into him, two souls,
two bodies becoming one. Falling backward onto the bed, they bounced
on the springy mattress and came to rest in the middle.
Cameron brushed the hair from her forehead and stared deeply into
her eyes. They promised so much to him yet the depths hinted of
secrets he knew she could not yet share. He wanted her to trust
him with all her secrets, the past that haunted her, the present
that tested her and the future that awaits its creation. He wanted
to trust her with all that he is - and was - and create that future
together. But first, they had to face the past, a past that could
destroy her, her child and anyone else that stood in the way.
They would face whatever may come together.
The cell phone rang and Alexis quickly jumped off the bed and picked
it up. She stood quietly listening and then looked down at the display
on her cellular. Cameron noticed her body language change as her
spine straightened and a cool expression appeared on her face.
She murmured, "Merci" and slowly walked over and handed
him the cellular. Puzzled he looked down and saw a digital image
frozen on the display. Looking closer, he saw blonde hair, a patrician
face and a sly smile that even trapped in wireless captivity gave
him chills. He looked up from the bed, eyebrow arched.
