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Amy stared defiantly at the pair of detectives in front of her.
"You're going to have to unhandcuff him from the gurney......."
The cocky bald-headed one bent over
and made a show of staring at her
name tag.
"I'm sorry nurse..... *Vining*......
but Mr. Spencer here seems to
think police custody is something
you can check in and out of like a
rehab clinic."
Amy's mouth pursed into a thin line.....
she definitely did not like
this guy.
"I need to get at the burns on his wrist and arm....."
Taggart opened his mouth to make
another snide remark, when he was
interrupted by Garcia.
"I'm sorry mam, but we have reason
to believe Mr. Spencer may be a
flight risk......"
Her eyes narrowed into slits.
"He needs to have burns dressed,
have a carbon monoxide test, we have
gauge damage to the lungs.....
Now if you're trying to interfere with
my care to this patient, I would
gladly make note of it and bring it to
the attention of my good friend
Mac Scorpio........"
Taggart's head tilted slowly to
the side, his jaw working
convulsively, giving away his frustration
and sending a wave of
self-satisfaction through Amy.
She stared back at him, daring him to
test her.
"Fine."
He moved slowly over to the gurney,
grabbed Luke's wrist and yanked it
up, causing him to wince. He quickly
unlocked the cuff and stepped back,
waiting expectantly.
Amy rolled her eyes.
"I believe my patient also has the
right to privacy during
treatment........"
Taggart stepped forward to argue.
Garcia's arm shot out, stopping him,
and guiding him to the door with
a stern look. The door clicked soundly
shut behind them, snapping Amy
out of her cool, professional mode.
"Luke! Oh my god what happened?!
I mean, first you come in here with
Lucky, who *has a bullet in his
head* and , I don't even know what you
told Bobbie, but it wasn't very
much, and you just leave! And you
don't even mind that you left Laura
behind here practically catatonic!
Then Sonny Corrinthos comes in
here and says.........."
Luke's head snapped up.
"Where is Laura?"
"I mean, really Luke, how could
you think you're not Lucky's father?
You two are so much alike and.........."
"Amy!"
"So now you come in here, with a
bunch of Cassadines and two officers,
who really could use some work
on their manners! I mean really, that one
was so rude!......."
"AMY!"
She froze startled.
"What?"
"What happened to Laura?"
Luke watched with trepidation as
Amy's face fell. He knew Amy.......
he knew her entire demeanor changed
when she had bad news........ Her
comment would come short and soft
like, "I'm sorry for your loss" or
"let me get a doctor to explain
his condition to you..." or.....
""Luke, Laura had a breakdown......"
Yep, there it was.
"Where is she?"
Amy's brows furrowed slightly. He didn't even look surprised.
"Uh...... uh, the psyche ward. We had to admit her."
He nodded sadly, then jumped up
quickly as if poked in the back with a
sharp needle.
"Where can I get out?"
Amy followed his gaze to a door off the side of the room.
"Luuuke......."
He walked briskly over to the door
and looked through the small window
making sure the coast was clear.
She followed and stood behind him, her
hands resting condescendingly on
her hips.
"You know all that stuff about treatment?
That wasn't for their
benefit only....... you really
do need to be checked out........"
Luke spun around flashing her his most charming smile.
"Well, look for yourself.....I'm
standing, I'm breathing..... and I
sure as hell have felt my heart
racing within the last five
minutes....... I think that pretty
much covers it."
Before Amy knew it, he had quietly
opened the door and slipped into the
next room. She poked her head out
the door and loudly whispered after
him.
"Luke! Luke come back here, you're going to get caught!....... Luke!"
He gave her a quick wink, and slid out the next door.
************************************************************************
Alexis leaned up against the wall,
her cellphone carefully trained on
her ear. Truth was she felt ridiculous
"pretending" to be on the phone,
but she had to know what was going
on in that room. The guilt was eating
her alive, not to mention the self-loathing
that came with it. What had
she become? Someone so desperate
to get in her brother's good graces,
that she would become a conspirator
in an innocent boy's murder? She
swallowed the lump in her throat.
She wasn't supposed to feel like
this....... She had prepared herself...
slipped on her professional,
detached facade and set out to
do her "job" quickly and efficiently....
This was what Stefan wanted.....
and what he wanted, no matter how
ludicrous in her mind, was what
she would get for him....... She needed
him to be in her corner... not
only because she was sure she couldn't
survive another estrangement from
him and Nikolas, but because of the
imminent threat Helena held over
her head.... he was her only protection
from death at the hands of her
mother's murderer.
Alexis glanced up catching the curious
stares of a group of nurses...
They=92re getting suspicious....
"Uh.... Yes....... uh huh....... what else?......."
Her eyes shifted over, gauging their
reactions. Most seemed content that
she was actually talking on the
phone, while a few tried to watch
discreetly, still suspicious.
Alexis closed her eyes against the
pounding in her head...... When did
this get so complicated? Not only
had the plan gone awry, but now she
was losing control of her emotions........
it scared her to think that
only moments ago she had felt a
surge of panic at the though of
something happening to Lucky Spencer,
the young man she was essentially
trying to kill. What happens if
he dies........ when he dies? Would she
be able to live with herself?
She was shaken from her thoughts
by the shrill ringing of the cellphone
next to her ear. She gasped at
the shock, and pain the deafening noise
sent reverberating throughout her
head. She looked up at the rater large
group of nurses now staring directly
at her. She could feel the
embarrassment flushing her cheeks.
She cleared her throat trying to
regain her composure.
"It...... it malfunctions sometimes........"
She watched the pairs of raised
eyebrows in front of her...... nope, not
buying it.... She turned around
and quickly scurried down the hall.
Making sure she was a discreet distance
away from the giggling and
hushed gossip, she answered her
phone.
"Alexis Davis...... Stefan! Where are you?"
She listened a moment, her brow furrowing in confusion.
"You're where? Here?.... I mean,
at General Hospital?........
What........"
Her eyes widened.
"Oh my god! Is he alright?!........ I'll be right there."
Alexis flipped her cellphone shut
and slid it in her briefcase. She
turned and sprinted down the hallway
past the entertained expressions of
the amused nurses' station.
************************************************************************
The woman peeked out from around
the corner. The ends of her mouth
turned up. Natasha could really
run when Stefan snapped his fingers.
It's just a shame he didn't carry
the same clout with other people
like Stavros had.... Stefan had
always been the disappointment of the
family.... first befriending his
bastard sister, then having a bastard
child himself with none other than
his brother's wife.... A woman
undeserving of bearing the Casssadine
heir as far as she was
concerned.... A woman so pathetic,
she would willingly turn down Stavros
and his affluence, for a man like
Luke Spencer......... A woman
currently trapped in a padded cell........
well, that would change
soon.......
Helena clapped her hands together,
her aligned fingertips lightly tapped
against her sinister grin.
Yes, there was much retribution
here to be done....... Now was the time
for her real timoria........
Luke poked his head around the corner.
Visually sweeping the area, he
decided it was safe to proceed.
As he turned into the hallway, he looked
through the large window next to
him. He froze..... Lucky....... there
he was..... he looked alert and
..... well, not exactly good, but very
much alive. Luke ran to the door,
opening it quickly and slipping inside
quietly. It was then that he noticed
the other people in the room. They
all seemed to be staring at Lucky,
sharing the same expression--
sympathy, mixed with fear and shock.
Luke's heart skipped a beat when
he heard his son's low, gravelly
voice.
"What bullet?!"
Bobbie looked at Luke, her lower
lip quivering. Emily stood next to
Jason her eyes reddened and puffy,
flushed with hot tears. Sonny shifted
uncomfortably. Luke's smile faded.
Alarm bells were sounding in his
head. Something was definitely
wrong...... Lucky was asking about the
bullet...... he hadn't even acknowledged
Luke's presence........
Luke felt his chest constricting.
Sonny looked around. It looked like
no one else was going to approach
the subject. He took a deep breath
and cleared his throat.
"Lucky.......Do......... do you remember what happened?"
There was a long silence in the
room, making them all painfully aware
that Lucky's heart monitor was
still beeping rapidly....... Bobbie was
tempted to go take his vitals,
but she know what it was...... Lucky was
having an anxiety attack. And this
conversation was not going to help.
Instead of moving on her thoughts,
Bobbie found herself rooted to the
spot, much like the others in the
room. They were all spectators now....
outside observers to the thoughts
running through Lucky's mind.
************************************************************************
Lucky felt his body go cold. A bullet?
He must have heard wrong........
He waited for someone to correct
him, anyone...... but there was only
silence. He could feel the frustration
building..... no one was
answering, and it only angered
him more that he couldn't read their
expressions......
"What bullet?!"
Again he was gifted with another
silence. He could feel the discomfort
in the air, the tension hanging
like smog around them...... it was a
bullet.... they were too craven
to tell him so...... okay, get a
grip, you've been shot before....
He felt his chest tighten. Never
it the head before..... never so
maliciously.... never with intent to
kill....... this was on purpose.
He felt like the air was being squeezed
out of him. This explained why
he couldn't see.... this explained
the massive headache......... The
pain was so intense he felt nauseous,
and their cryptic language
wasn't helping.
"Lucky..... Do...... do you remember what happened?"
Did he remember? He barely could
focus on the current conversation much
less on an incident that happened........
god, how long has it been? It
felt like forty years but he knew
enough not to trust his senses right
now. He felt like he was out of
control..... he was.... his body was
revolting against him, his mind
crippling in the pain around it. He felt
the blood pumping through his body,
wondering why it kept moving......
it felt like it was searing hot,
blazing trails through him..... it felt
like the only sign of life, in
an otherwise dead body...... blood.... so
familiar.....no... he had this
fight with himself earlier..... it was...
blood.... bloodtypes..... there
was a fight about bloodtypes.
Lucky felt his hands raise up and
grip his head. It was throbbing.......
he couldn't ask for drugs.... he
needed to stay awake..... he needed
to find out what happened.....
he *had* to know. His cheeks were hot
with tears....... was he crying?
He didn't even know anymore...... he
just need to remember......
It was a fight about someone's bloodtype.....
What the hell would that
matter unless it was about paternity......
Think, Lucky, think.
"There was broken glass....... I
was at the club and there was broken
glass on the floor......."
************************************************************************
Luke watched anxiously as Lucky
struggled with the question. He gripped
his head in his hands, a sudden
flow of tears sweeping down his face.
Luke lurched forward to go to him
but froze when Lucky started speaking.
"There was broken glass...... I
was at the club and there was broken
glass on the floor....."
Sonny closed his eyes. Oh god......
the bottles he had dropped.....
that's why Lucky was there and
Luke didn't see him...... he had
asked him to clean up the glass
for him..... Sonny let his head fall
forward, hanging in shame. He rarely
allowed himself to feel guilt in
his profession..... but when he
did, like now, it ate him alive.
"Then someone was yelling .......
there was people fighting about
bloodtypes...... mom and dad were
fighting and dad yelled........
something..... he yelled something
about raising a Cassadine ba.......
bast......"
Bobbie turned to Luke shocked. She
knew her brother lost his head when
he was upset, but she never believed
he could be so coldhearted that he
would say something so caustic
to someone he loved...... She turned back
to Lucky, growing ever more concerned
about his increasing pallor. By
now his eyes were horribly inflamed,
and raced wildly around the room.
Lucky stopped trying to finish his
sentence and looked up abruptly, as
if struck by an idea.
"Did...... Did my Dad shoot me?"
Luke's eyes snapped up, suddenly
blazing with rage. He impulsively ran
froward only to be stopped by Sonny.
"HOW COULD YOU ASK THAT?! YOU KNOW
I WOULD NEVER HURT YOU
INTENTIONALLY!!!"
Lucky froze. His eyes widened in
shock and horror. His voice came small,
and high-strung.
"Dad?.........You'2re...... When did you......."
Luke felt his anger give way to
fear as he watched Lucky. His breathing
was shallow and erratic. A thin
sheen of perspiration had broken out
over his countenance. But what
disturbed Luke most was Lucky's eyes.
They looked incredibly bloodshot,
and seemed to skim over everything in
the room...... Including him......
his eyes were searching him out, but
never seemed to find him.....
"I...... Oh god......"
Lucky struggled to gain a little semblance of control.
"Then...... who shot me?......"
Sonny looked over to Bobbie and
Luke silently asking them who had to
tell him. Luke seemed to be studying
Lucky too closely to hear what he
was saying. Bobbie stared at Sonny,
her fist held tightly against her
mouth. She allowed a single tear
to fall down her cheek before breaking
her gaze. Sonny closed his eyes...
he didn't want to see the kid's
face when he reminded him what
he did.
"Lucky..... maybe you should just......"
"No Sonny, I want to know........."
"You......... you Lucky.......... you shot yourself."
************************************************************************
"Alexis! I appreciate your promptness........
I suspect you were
somewhere in near proximity to
arrive so quickly."
Alexis squirmed under his close scrutiny.
"Yes, I had hospital business to attend to......"
"Did you happen to catch sight of Lucky Spencer?"
She hesitated a moment....... She
didn't want to lie.... but she
didn=92t want Stefan to doubt her
loyalty to him.... She didn't want
him to know her growing remorse
for her actions, though she suspected he
sensed it. He always had a way
of seeing through her, ever since they
were children.... he was probably
reading her thoughts right now......
"Yes I did....... He was in stable
condition, it appears he will make a
full recovery..... There did look
as though there was some sort of
crisis however......."
Stefan nodded, stone-faced.
"Did you find out what this crisis
pertains to? Is it something we
might use to our advantage?"
Alexis' mouth opened slightly in
shock. It just sounded so
heartless...... not to mention
the fact she was sure that this crazy
escapade had drawn to a close.......
Revenge would have to come another
time....... more carefully planned.
Frankly, she didn't even know how
to continue from here.........
if she wanted to..........
"Uh........ I couldn't hear what
happened........ Stefan....... I
really think it best we discontinue
this course of action
immediately...... before we can't......"
Stefan smiled.
"Even if we wanted to, we couldn't
now. The catalyst has already taken
place....... now we can just see
to it that the scale tips in our
favor........."
************************************************************************
The man stood in hesitation. His
conscious was telling him that this was
wrong, however his fiscal problems
were telling him he couldn't afford
to lose his job. Orders had come
from the highest of management.......
someone must have been bought-off........He
snorted. That seemed to
happen a lot in this hospital.
He moved closer to the bed and began
unbuckling the straps. He hoped
whoever had gone to all that work
knew what they were getting into. This
woman was suffering from severe
psychoses..... When she wasn't
catatonic, she was voicing an irrational
thought or suffering from a series of delusions.
He moved to remove the leg restraints.......
Her kicking and screaming
had subsided shortly after the
doctors had administered a
tranquilizer.......... God bless
psychosomatic drugs.
Now free of her restraints, the
woman lay limp in the bed. Her dulled
blue eyes were partially hidden
under her heavy eyelids. They stared
ahead unfocused. Behind her, her
golden hair fanned out on her pillow,
shiny and vibrant. It gave him
a glimpse of what she must have been like
before.........
Her clothes remained the same since
she was admitted........ maybe a
little more rumpled......... They
always changed the more difficult
patients last. Not that she would
have let anyone touch her clothes
anyway. She had commented during
one of her more lucid moments that this
was one of her favorite blouses,
but then upon observing the large blood
stain across the front proceeded
to tell the staff that she just hated
when her sons put their red socks
in the white laundry......
The man turned his attention back
once again to the telephone hanging on
the wall. He was waging an inner
battle with himself about calling the
woman's sister. When she came down
to visit she was very
concerned...... She had seemed
nice enough....very talkative, but
genuinely terrified for his patient......
She had a right to know her
sister was being released.
He reached into his pocket to retrieve
her beeper number. His hand
emerged from his pocket, a thick
wad of cash held tightly between his
fingers. He studied the money a
moment..... Not enough to pay off his
debts, but enough to make a sizable
dent..... with a promise of more to
follow..... provided he hold up
his end of the bargain. He sighed
defeated, and sent a silent apology
to the woman's sister.
"Mrs. Spencer you're free to leave........."