~*~Chapter 83~*~

The plane trip back to Port Charles was rather uneventful. Everyone slept for at least some part of the flight, with at least one person awake to watch Helena, who was tied to a seat in the far corner of the cabin. She had resigned herself to her fate, and was being rather reasonable, not trying to escape, not even really saying anything.

Lucky and Elizabeth sat at the opposite end, as far away from her as possible, Lucky took the time to get to know his son, and to reconnect with Liz. They were so involved in each other, most of the time they were completely oblivious to the other people in the small plane.

Luke and Laura sat with Sergei, talking to him about his life, listening as he described his childhood. Luke was still struggling with the knowledge that he had yet another son that was raised by Cassidines. However, he did find that since he had already managed to accept Nikolas and love him, accepting Sergei was coming a little easier. It would still take some time, but someday they might actually be able to be a real family.

V spent the entire trip in the cockpit with Jax, keeping him company while he piloted the jet, keeping him awake, even flying it herself for part of the trip, although he made her swear never to tell anyone about it. He knew that they would kill him if they found out she had been flying, while Jax slept!

Once the plane landed, Helena was immediately taken into police custody and placed in a high-security facility until a trail was set.

~*~

Elizabeth smiles as they make their way out of the airport, gazing around at the town she never thought she’d see again. Lucky stands beside her, holding Baby Luke (their nickname for him to avoid confusion). She turns to him and laughs at the expression on his face. “What?”

“Nothing,” he says with a small smile. “Can’t I look at my wife?”

“You just had a weird look on your face, that’s all. Everything’s okay, isn’t it?”

Lucky nods and wraps his free arm around the waist, leaning down to place a quick kiss on her lips. He pulls back and smiles warmly at her. “Everything’s perfect.”

“All right, enough with the PDA!” Luke jokes from behind them. “It’s bad enough we all had to be stuck on that endless flight with the two of you being all mushy, give us a break now!”

“Oh, Luke, give them a break. They’ve been apart for almost a year!” Laura scolds. They thank Jax and V for their help, and hurry over to the car Sonny sent for them, while Jax takes V home.

“I’m sure you’re dying to go home, but if we don’t stop to see Nikolas and Emily first, they’ll kill us,” Luke says with a laugh. Laura nods in agreement, nervous about the reaction Sergei was going to receive.

Lucky glances over at Liz for confirmation. “It’s up to you, baby.”

“It’s fine. I should probably meet my namesake anyway, right?” she asks with a smile. “And they should see their nephew, too.”

“Yeah,” Lucky says quietly, looking down at his son. “I still can’t believe I’m a father! I just wish I hadn’t missed so much already.”

Liz reaches over and touches his arm comfortingly. “You haven’t missed that much. Anyway, you’re going to be there for the rest of his life, and that’s what matters.”

~*~

“I’m starting to get worried, Nikolas,” Emily says, pacing around the living room. “Shouldn’t they have called or something by now?”

“Maybe they can’t. They may not be near a phone, or they may still be trying to lay low, and can’t risk having a call traced to us,” he responds, watching her from the couch. “Come here, you’re wearing a tread in the rug.”

She sighs and goes over to him, giggling he pulls her onto his lap. “This is Luke and Laura we’re talking about, they live for this kind of adventure. Don’t worry, they’re going to be fine. They’ll call us as soon as they can.”

Emily wraps her arms around his neck and rests her head on his shoulder. “I know, I guess I’m just nervous about them finding Liz. What do you think Helena did to her?”

“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s not good. Luke tried to kill her, she doesn’t take that sort of thing lightly. I just hope she didn’t hurt her in any way. If she did, she’ll regret it, because she’s going to have a lot of angry Spencers to deal with!”

“That’s assuming Lucky doesn’t kill her on the spot!” Emily says with a small laugh. “I wouldn’t want to be in her shoes when they show up on that island, that’s for sure.”

The phone rings, startling them both. Emily jumps off of his lap and hurries over to it, hoping it’s some news from her in-laws. “Hello?” she answers expectantly. After a few seconds, her face falls. “Sure, he’s right here.” She walks back to Nikolas and hands him the phone. “It’s the hospital.”

He sighs and takes it from her, wondering what they want. Emily excuses herself and rushes upstairs to check on Bethie, leaving him alone in the living room.

“Hello. .. Yes, I approved that yesterday... Carol, this is my day off, can’t it wait? ... Just leave it on my desk and I’ll sign off on it in the morning... No, it’s not an emergency, it’s PR, it can wait one more day!”

There’s a loud knock at the door, interrupting his thoughts. He glances up the stairs, then walks over to open it, still listening to Carol babble in his ear about her latest crisis. He swings open the door and nearly drops the phone when he sees his parents standing there.

“Carol, something just came up, there’s no way I can come in today, it’s just going to have to wait. Bye.” He hangs up before she can say another word, then quickly hugs Laura, relieved to see that they’re all right.

“Oh, thank God you’re okay!” he says, letting go of her and hugging Luke. He steps back and looks them over, suddenly realizing how nervous he had been about their trip. “Is she okay? Did Lucky take her home already?”

“Actually, they’re back in the car. We wanted to make sure you were home first. Is Em here?” Luke asks, looking past him into the cottage.

“Yeah, she’s upstairs with Bethie. Come in, I’ll go get her.” He turns and hurries up the stairs, while Luke motions at the car for the rest of them to come in. By the time Nikolas and Emily come downstairs with their daughter, everyone is seated in the living room. As soon as she hears them coming down the stairs, Elizabeth stands up and walks over to greet them.

“Liz!” Emily exclaims, launching herself at her as soon as she sees her there. Liz laughs and hugs her back, nearly falling over.

“Hey, Em, it’s good to see you again.” The two woman let go and smile at each other, then Emily steps out of the way, revealing Nikolas behind her, holding Bethie.

“Welcome home, Liz,” he says with a wide grin. “I suppose they told you about Bethie here.”

Liz nods, startled for a moment by how much Nikolas looked like Sergei. She hasn’t seen him in so long, she has to remind herself that this is actually Nikolas in front of her, whom she loves dearly, not Sergei. She steps forward to look at her niece.

“She’s adorable. How old is she?” she asks, looking over Emily.

“A month,” Emily replies proudly.

“Really? She’s almost the same age as Luke!” Liz says, drawing some very confused looks from Nikolas and Emily. She laughs and turns to find Lucky. They follow her gaze, seeing the group in the living room for the first time. Lucky stands up and walks over to them with their baby, but they don’t see him, they’re too busy staring at Sergei.

~*~Chapter 84~*~

“Um, have I just slipped into the Twilight Zone?” Emily asks softly.

“Yeah, what’s going on here?” Nikolas adds, looking over at his parents for an answer.

Laura smiles and stands up, motioning for Sergei to follow. “Honey, this is going to sound crazy, but this is your twin brother, Sergei. Helena has been keeping him in Greece without any of our knowledge.”

“My what?” he asks, shocked. “How can I have a twin? I would have known, you would have.....wait, you didn’t know, did you?” He looks over at Laura, afraid that after all these years, she was still keeping secrets.

She quickly shakes her head. “Oh, no, I had no idea, I swear to you! I would never keep something like that from you, Nikolas! Helena had be drugged when I gave birth, and took him from me right away, I never had a clue that I had twins!”

Nikolas and Sergei continue to stare at each other, amazed at the nearly identical resemblance. Emily shakes her head in disbelief, then looks over at Lucky, gasping when she sees the baby in his arms.

“Lucky, where did you..?”

He chuckles and walks up to her. “It turns out Elizabeth was pregnant when Helena took her. This is my son, Luke,” he says, holding the baby out to her. She smiled and takes him, amazed by everything that had happened.

“I can’t believe this. Please tell me this is the last surprise, because I don’t think I can take any more of them!”

Liz laughs and leans against Lucky. “No, that’s it. I think that’s plenty, though, don’t you?”

She smiles, handing Baby Luke back to Lucky, then walks over to Nikolas. “Honey, let me take her from you. I should go put her back to bed anyway.”

Nikolas nods and relinquishes their daughter, still staring at Sergei in shock. Emily hurries up the stairs with her, returning a moment later, out of breath.

“Why don’t we all sit down?” Laura asks, trying to ease some of the tension that was filling the room. Emily nods and takes Nikolas’s arm, leading him into the living room to sit. Sergei follows, sitting down in the chair opposite him.

“Um, guys, I hate to run like this, but we should probably head home. I’m sure Elizabeth is tired, and should get Luke settled,” Lucky says hesitantly. He knows that they’re going to have to tell Nikolas and Emily everything that happened on the island, and didn’t want to be there to hear it again. Plus, he and Liz hadn’t had a moment alone since they rescued her.

“Of course, honey,” Laura says sympathetically, walking over to hug them both. “We’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Thanks, Laura, Luke, for everything,” Liz gushes, then turns to Lucky. “What are we going to do with him, though? We don’t have any baby stuff at the house, not even a crib.”

“I have an extra,” Emily offers. “It’s all yours if you want it.”

“An extra crib?” Liz asks, surprised.

Laughing, Emily nods. “Yeah, the Quartermaines went a little overboard with the baby gifts, so I have extras of pretty much everything. Anything you need, let me know, I probably have it!”

“We’ll just take the crib for now, thanks, Em,” Lucky says. “Just tell me where it is, and I’ll get it.”

Emily leads him to the back for the crib, while Liz waits by the front door with Baby Luke, watching as Luke and Laura begin to tell Nikolas what happened. She knows why Lucky wanted to leave so soon, and was sort of relieved. She didn’t exactly want to have to listen to them tell her tale, either. A few minutes later, Emily and Lucky come out with a large box.

“Some assembly required,” Lucky chuckles, seeing the perplexed look on her face. She laughs, then follows them to the door. After saying a quick good-bye to everyone, they return to Sonny’s car and load the crib into the back, the climb in to head home.

After a short drive, the car pulls into their driveway. They climb out and Lucky goes to the trunk to retrieve the crib, while Liz hurries to the front door, excited to see her home again. She pulls out the keys Lucky had given her earlier and unlocks it, pushing her way inside, cradling Luke in her arm.

Liz smiles, looking around the room. It’s just as she remembered. It almost felt as though she had never left. She looks down at her son and smiles.

“Welcome home, Luke. This is our house. I hope you like living here as much as I do,” she whispers, rocking him gently as she waits for Lucky to come in with the crib.

“Lucky? Is that you?” a female voice calls out from the end of the hallway. Liz looks up in surprise as the door of their bedroom opens and an attractive woman walks out, wearing one of Lucky’s shirts. She stops when she sees Liz, a sly smile spreading across her face.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were someone else,” she says sweetly, resuming her journey down the hall. She approaches Liz, scrutinizing her. “You look familiar, have we met before?”

“I don’t believe so,” Liz says softly, trying to contain her anger at finding a strange woman in her home. “This is my house, would you care to explain what you are doing in it?”

“That’s where I’ve seen you before, in the pictures here,” she says triumphantly, then sticks out her hand toward Liz. “I’m sorry, I never introduced myself. I’m...”

“Kimber!” Lucky shouts angrily as he comes into the house and sees her there. He drops the box on the floor and hurries over to Liz. “What the hell are you doing in my house!”

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