~*~Chapter 67~*~
“Dad, how can she still be alive? We all saw her yacht blow up. How is this possible?” Lucky asks.
Luke shakes his head. “If it were anyone but Helena, I’d say it wasn’t possible, but Helena just doesn’t follow the usual laws of nature. Somehow, she got off that boat before it blew.”
Lucky gasps as a thought hits him. “Faison! You don’t think.....”
“No, no, he was way too drugged to have gone anywhere.”
“Yeah, Jason and I both shot him, he wasn’t waking up for hours,” Sonny adds.
Johnny opens the door. “Mrs. Spencer.” He smiles at Laura as she hurries into the room, then closes the door again.
“Hey, babe,” Luke says as she makes her way over to the couch. “Thanks for coming right over.”
“No problem. What’s the big emergency? Are you okay, Lucky?”
Lucky grins at her and nods. “More okay than I have been in months, actually.”
“What?” She looks to Luke again. “What happened?”
“Honey, we think we know where Liz is. Lucky got a letter from her today. Um, you may want to sit down for this.”
“Luke, I am sitting down! Okay, now I’m worried. What’s going on?”
“She used a code that Lucky taught her, and the message said ‘History repeats, HC alive, Love EIS.’ Which we think means...”
“Helena’s alive!? How?” Laura gasps, interrupting him.
“She must have made it off the boat. Whatever happened, Liz says she’s alive. Now, we just need to figure out what the ‘history repeats’ part means,” Luke says, looking at the letter again.
“She couldn’t be at Wyndemere again? Where they had me?” Lucky asks fearfully.
“Maybe, but I think it’s locked down now that Vlad’s in the slammer. Someone would have noticed by now if people were there,” Luke muses.
“Okay, wait. Let’s just go through what happened, step by step. If something is repeating, then maybe that will help us figure it out,” Laura suggests, taking the letter from Luke and scanning through it.
“Good idea, Mom.” Lucky grabs the pad of paper and switches to a clean sheet, jotting down notes as he talks. “Let’s see....she went to the store one morning, and no one’s seen her since. There were signs of a struggle in her car, but there hasn’t been a single clue or lead about who took her.” He thinks for a minute, tapping the pen on the table. “That’s it. That’s all there is. How are we supposed to figure this out?”
Laura grins suddenly. “You don’t see it? I just can’t believe we never saw it before!”
“What, babe? What didn’t we see?” Luke asks, wondering what her revelation was.
“Do I have to spell it out for you? All those times Lucky would ask you what you did that time I disappeared? Does that ring a bell?”
Lucky and Luke exchange shocked looks. “Oh my God! No, she couldn’t be...” Lucky whispers, horrified at the idea.
“No, wait,” Luke says, waving his hands in the air. “This is totally different. I mean, you were taken by Stavros to be his wife. There aren’t any more Cassidines around, so what’s the point of taking her?”
“Come on, this is Helena we’re talking about. When does she need a reason to make our lives miserable? It’s just revenge for rescuing Lucky and trying to kill her!”
“Oh, right,” Luke says, “Man, I must be slipping. Okay, so what’s our plan? How are we going to get her out of there?”
“Well, we need to fly to Greece, then get a boat to the island,” Laura says, looking at Sonny. “Do you still have that jet?”
“Sure do,” Sonny answers, smiling. He was starting to wonder if they forgot he was in the room. “It’s all yours, whenever you need it.”
“And you’ll come along to help, right?” Luke asks hopefully.
Sonny shakes his head. “Sorry, I can’t. There’ve been rumors that the Feds are watching me again. I have to stay put for a while.”
“Damn. Who else can we take along? We need all the backup we can get.”
“Hey, what about V?” Lucky asks. “She was a cop once, she can handle herself.”
Laura smiles, nodding. “Yeah, I think she would be good. Why don’t you call her while we set everything up? Sonny, how soon can we take the jet?”
“Now, if you want. All I have to do is call the airport and let them know you’re going.”
“Great. Let’s get this show on the road, then,” Luke says, jumping out of his seat. “Cowboy, call V. Sonny, call the airport, tell them we’re flying out tonight. I’ll set up a boat in Greece, and babe, can you find those maps we used to have that showed where the island is?”
“I think they’re in the attic somewhere, I’ll go home and check. Oh! What about Nikolas and Emily?”
“Well, they can’t leave the baby, but we should still tell them what’s going on, shouldn’t we?” Lucky asks, standing up to go to the phone.
“Yeah, they’ll kill us if we don’t. I’ll stop by the cottage on the way home and fill them in,” Laura says, heading for the door. “Should we all meet there in an hour?”
They all agree on the plan and split up, each to do their respective job.
~*~Chapter 68~*~
(Nothing happening in Greece, so a double-dose of PC this time)
“Hello?”
“V, it’s Lucky! Are you busy for the next few days?”
“Why?” she asks warily, wondering what he’s up to.
Lucky chuckles. “Because we’re going on a rescue mission, and I was hoping you’d come along. We could use your police training.”
“Rescue mission? Who’s rescue?”
“Elizabeth,” he answers simply. She can practically hear him grinning.
“You’re kidding! How did you find her?”
“Long story, I’ll fill you in on the plane. We’re all meeting at my parents’ house in an hour. Can you make it?”
“I wouldn’t miss it. Who else is going?”
“Just my parents. Sonny has to stay in the country, he thinks the Feds are watching him again,” he explains.
“That’s all? Lucky, for something like this, don’t you think you should have more people? Why don’t you ask Jax along? He’s a pilot, and I’ve learned he’s very good to have around in a crisis.”
“Do you think he’d go? I mean, what about Chloe?”
“Oh, she’s out of town all week. There’s a big fashion show in Paris. I’m sure Jax is dying for something to do!”
“Okay, then, I’ll call him. So will you do this?”
“Of course! I’ll pack something quickly and then meet you at Luke and Laura’s. And Lucky?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m really happy to hear you found Liz. I was getting worried about you for a while there.”
“Yeah, I know, you weren’t the only one. Thanks, V. I’ll see you soon.” He hangs up, then dials Jax, realizing that she had a good point: having a pilot along would not be a bad thing at all.
~*~
“Hey babe, is everything set?” Luke asks, walking in the door. Laura gets up from her chair and smiles. “Yeah, Nikolas and Emily wish they could come along, but they don’t want to leave Beth. Oh, and I found the map. Here.” She hands him the old map, then sits down again, waiting for the others to arrive.
“Cool. The boat’s all ready and waiting for us. I figure once we land, we take the boat to the island, scope it out a bit, then we can get off with the cowboy and take care of any guards, then go find Liz. V can stay on the boat for us, make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.”
“Are you sure she’ll go along with that? I mean, she can be almost as stubborn as us when it comes to stuff like that. She may not want to just sit back while we do all the rescuing.”
“Well, someone’s got to watch the boat, and I think when we find Liz, we should all be there. I’m sure V will understand.”
A few minutes later, there’s a knock at the door. Luke gets up to answer it, surprised to see that V isn’t alone. “Hey, Jax, what brings you here?”
“Didn’t Lucky tell you? I’m coming along. He and V thought you could use a pilot with survival skills, just in case.”
“Oh, well, we haven’t talked to him yet, but I suppose that makes sense. Come on in, he should be here soon.” V and Jax both walk in, greeting Laura, then sitting on the couch, waiting for Lucky to get there so they could start their adventure.
“While we wait, why don’t we see what the weather’s like over there?” Laura asks, flipping on the Weather Channel. They sit back and wait for the International forecast.
“Hey, that Kristina chick’s pretty cute!” Luke says when one of the reporters comes on. Laura throws the remote at him, which he catches deftly. “Thanks, babe, now I can channel-surf!”
~*~
After calling Jax, Lucky packed up some stuff for himself, then realized that he should bring a bag for Elizabeth. He hurries over to their house and quickly throws some of her clothes and bathroom supplies in a duffel bag. He briefly looks around the room for anything else she may want, his eyes falling on the chair by her side of the bed. He smiles and walks over, picking up the teddy bear lovingly and putting it in the bag.
“I bet she misses you, Boris, ol buddy,” he mutters with a laugh., then heads out of the room. On his way to the front door, he grabs a recent picture of him and Beth, so she can see what her namesake looks like. After placing that in the bag, he zips it up, takes a deep breath while scanning the room one last time, then goes to the front door.
Lucky flips off the lights and turns the knob, pulling the door open. He jumps, startled to see someone standing in front of him. “Kimber, what are you doing here?”
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