What Happened to Forever?

Chapters 45-46

~*~Chapter 45~*~

Bobbie hangs up the phone, grinning. “Alexis, he’s okay! Luke got him out!”

Alexis comes running up to the nurses’ station from the couch she had been sitting on. “Oh, Bobbie, that’s wonderful! How is he?”

“Well, from what Laura told me, he’s fine. Faison didn’t hurt him from what they can see, and he immediately went running off to find Elizabeth.” She grins again, thinking about how romantic the whole thing was.

“What about Faison and Helena?” Alexis asks nervously. Nothing is more dangerous than Helena Cassidine when she’s lost to a Spencer.

“That’s the best part!” Bobbie says. “They tried to escape on her yacht....and Luke blew it up!” she says, laughing.

Alexis smiles. “Ding dong, the witch is dead!” she exclaims as they both laugh, hugging each other.

They had been hanging out in the lounge all afternoon, in case Stefan tried to leave, but luckily, he had a full schedule, so he wasn’t going anywhere for a while. Now that they knew the rescue operation was successful, they could finally go home. Before they could take a step toward the elevator, however, the doors opened and two police officers got off. The two women exchanged a look and decided to stay. This could be interesting.

Lts. Garcia and Taggert stop at the office’s door and knock. “Enter!” the voice on the other side orders

Garcia raises and eyebrow at his partner before entering. They know this one is going to be difficult.

“Mr. Cassidine,” Taggert greets cheerily as they approach the man’s desk. He looks up at them over the rims of his reading glasses, his eyes questioning.

“May I help you two?” he asks, beginning to get nervous.

Garcia flashes his badge before speaking. “Stefan Cassidine, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Lucky Spencer.”

“What! This is preposterous!” he exclaims, standing up. “Lucky Spencer died a year ago, and I had nothing to do with that, either!”

Taggert chuckles. “Oh really? Then explain why he was found today, being held prisoner, in none other than your home on Spoon Island?”

Stefan tries to act shocked, but the two cops can see right through him. “Oh give up the act, you had something to do with it, and you know it. And before you try to blame your conspirators, Cesar Faison and your own dear mommy, I feel you should know that they are dead.” Taggert says, watching Stefan’s face. It’s obvious that this was the first he had heard of their deaths. “Oh, yes. Seems they tried to escape on Mommy’s boat and well, let’s just say they went....boom!” he says sarcastically, throwing his hands up in the air to further his point. Garcia, who is trying to remain serious and professional throughout this exchange, can’t help but chuckle at his partner’s colorful account of the day’s events.

“Are you trying to tell me that Helena’s yacht blew up?” Stefan asks, getting annoyed.

Garcia decides to take over before Taggert goes too far. “Yes, Mr. Cassidine, it seems that there was a bomb aboard. They didn’t get far from the island before it was detonated. As far as we can tell, there were no survivors. I’m sorry the news has to come at such a bad time, but we really do have to bring you down to the station for questioning.” He says, walking over to Stefan with his handcuffs.

“Are you also going to arrest Luke Spencer? We all know he was behind the bombing!” he exclaims. If he has to go down for this, at least he take Spencer with him.

“Now why would we do that?” Garcia asks, getting annoyed with the man. “We have no proof. All we know is that Luke was busy rescuing his son at the time. Even if he was behind the bombing, well, frankly, he did this town a great service.”

“Yeah, maybe we should give him a medal,” Taggert adds.

“Fine. I do not agree with this, but if you must do this, please do not use those things.” Stefan says, pointing at the cuffs. “I will go willingly.”

Garcia shakes his head. “Sorry, police procedure. We must handcuff you. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt.” He says, pulling Stefan’s hands behind his back and slapping on the cuffs.

Taggert smiles. He is thoroughly enjoying this. He was disappointed when he learned about the boat accident, because he had wanted desperately to avenge Lucky’s ‘death’ for so long. Now it looked like he had another chance. He had been ecstatic when he first learned that the boy was alive, but immediately became angry that someone would do such a thing to his family. They had been through hell this past year, Elizabeth too. He vowed then and there to put away the bastards who did this. Oh no, Stefan Cassidine was not getting away from him. Not if he had anything to say about it.

They lead Stefan out into the lobby, past Alexis and Bobbie’s shocked faces, reading him his rights. As usual, he is arguing the entire way, saying his lawyers were going to sue them, that he would have their badges. As the elevator doors close, Bobbie and Alexis turn to one another and burst out laughing.

“Now THAT was a beautiful sight!” Alexis exclaims. As her laughter dies down, she gets serious again. “Oh no, Nikolas is going to be crushed when he hears about this.”

Bobbie wishes she could ease her mind by telling her about Luke being his real father, but she knows that her brother doesn’t want anyone else to know until they have a chance to talk to Nikolas about it. “Don’t worry, he’s a tough kid. I have a feeling he’ll be fine.” she says consolingly.

“I hope so. He’s been through so much already. I know that he took Lucky’s death pretty hard, and when he finds out that his own father had a hand in it, I don’t know what it’s going to do to him.”

Bobbie picks up the phone and dials. “Hi, Laura, it’s Bobbie. I just thought you should know that Stefan was just arrested.... I thought Nikolas should know.... Do you know where he is? ...Oh, he’s there, that’s good....” She whispers, “are you going to tell him tonight? About Luke, well, I guess about Stefan, too. Let me know if there’s anything I can do, okay? Bye, Laura.” She hangs up and looks back at Alexis.

“I’m sure he’ll be fine. He’s at Luke and Laura’s right now, and she assured me that they will do everything in their power to make sure he gets through this.” Bobbie says cryptically.

Alexis looks at her like she’s nuts. “Are you trying to tell me that Luke Spencer is willing to ignore his lifelong vow to destroy all things Cassidine, and actually help the son of the man who helped ‘kill’ his own son?”

Bobbie laughs. “When you put it that way, it sounds insane. Let’s just say that my brother has had a change of heart. Trust me, you’ll understand later. Anyway, aren’t you a Cassidine? He doesn’t hate you, does he?”

Alexis nods. “Yeah, but I dislike them almost as much as he does, so I’m an exception. Remember, we’re talking about the boy he so lovingly refers to as ‘demon spawn’.”

Bobbie smiles, shaking her head. “Nikolas will be okay. I promise.” she says, wishing she could be as sure as she sounds.

~*~Chapter 46~*~

Lucky pulls back from Elizabeth and smiles at her. He still can’t believe that he’s here, kissing his angel....he looks up and sees Nikolas and his parents watching them. He blushes and quickly lets go of her. When she realizes why he stopped, she blushes as well, hiding her face in her hands.

The three spectators burst into laughter when they see this.

“Don’t stop on our account, Cowboy. It was just getting good!” Luke exclaims, thrilled to see his son finally happy again.

Lucky throws a pillow at him. “Dad, you’re a pervert!” He puts his arm around Elizabeth, making sure she’s okay. She laughs, feeling truly happy for the first time in over a year. He smiles at her before turning back to his father. “Yeah, well, show’s over.” He gets serious again. “I couldn’t help overhearing you earlier. You said something about having to talk to Nikolas, so we’ll get out of your way now.” He starts to lead Elizabeth out of the room, but Luke stops him.

“Hang on there. What we have to tell Nikky here involves the whole family,” he says, ignoring the evil look that Nikolas gives him. Noticing that Liz is about to excuse herself he puts up his hand. “As for you, little lady, something tells me that you’re going to be part of this family real soon, so I’d like you to stay as well. I think my wife here would agree.” Laura nods.

Lucky looks at Elizabeth and she shrugs. She’s not sure what’s going on, but any excuse to stay here with Lucky is enough for her. They join Laura on the couch and wait for Luke to explain what’s going on. Before he can say anything, the phone rings. Laura sighs. “I’ll get it.”

She answers the phone and they sit in silence, listening. “Hi Bobbie.... He was?... Of course he should.... Yes, as a matter of fact, he’s here..... Yeah, we were just getting ready to.... Sure, we’ll tell him that, too... I promise, I’ll let you know. Thanks Bobbie.” She turns back to her family after hanging up the phone, trying to decide if she should break the news about Stefan yet.

“So, what did my little sister want?” Luke asks, noticing the pained expression on his wife’s face.

“Uh..she just called to let us know that, uh, Stefan was just arrested for Lucky’s kidnapping.” Nikolas immediately stands up to leave, but Luke grabs his arm and holds him back.

“Hang on a minute. You can’t do anything for him right now anyway, so will you just stay and hear us out before running off?” he asks.

“Please, Nikolas?” Laura asks. “I know you care about Stefan, but to be honest, he was involved in this. Alexis overheard him talking to Helena the other day. If you stay, we can explain everything, and then if you still want to go, we won’t stop you.”

Nikolas thinks about all of this, unable to accept that his father was behind something that hurt Laura so deeply. He figures that he might as well listen to what they have to say. For Luke to be begging him not to leave, it must be important “Okay, I’ll stay. For now,” he says reluctantly, sitting down again.

Luke smiles. He starts at the beginning, explaining how Felicia recognized Faison’s voice, and how they got Lucky’s medical records and discovered they were phony. He tells how he asked Alexis for help and she brought over the medical records she and Jax had obtained in Greece.

“Now, I’m no doctor, so I called Barbara to come help me make sense of them. At first she said that they just showed that Nikolas was Count Vlad’s kid, which we all knew anyway, but then she spotted Lucky’s file on my desk and took a look at it. She got real freaked out for a second and said that if the records were correct, that Lucky here was also Stefan’s,” He puts up his hand to stop Lucky from saying anything. “Now hang on, there’s more. We all know that it’s not possible for that to be true, so she asked if I had any records on the rest of the family. I gave her what I had on me and Laura, and she said that my records were the same as the ones in Nik’s file that were labeled as Stefan’s. So, either he was my evil twin, separated at birth, or someone switched the records to fool Helena, because we all know that if this got out, Nikolas wouldn’t be here right now.”

Nikolas looks at Luke. “What are you trying to say?”

Luke takes a deep breath, knowing it’s going to take all of his willpower to admit this. “I’m saying that it looks like I’m your real father. Not Stefan, not Stavros. You’re a Spencer, and for me to admit that, you know it’s got to be the truth!”

Luke and Laura look around the room at the three teenagers. They’re all just sitting there in shock, their mouths hanging open. Lucky is the first to speak. “Wait a minute. How can you be so sure that the rest of the file wasn’t faked?”

Luke chuckles. “That’s my boy! I knew you’d ask that, and believe me, that was my first thought too. Luckily, I had my own copy of Nikolas’s records from back when he helped LuLu.. When we compared those, they matched. Nikolas is a full-blooded Spencer. His doctor switched the records to save his life. As far as we know, he was the only one who knew the truth.”

Nikolas is still speechless, trying to absorb it all. Lucky speaks again. “So, he’s not a Cassidine at all?”

“Not by blood, at least,” Luke jokes. Laura jumps in, trying to put Nikolas’s mind at ease. “Honey, we know this is a lot to take in. It’s still a shock to me. We don’t expect you to forget about Stefan, but we would like to get a chance to be your family when you’re ready.”

Nikolas looks at Luke. “You’re trying to tell me that after all these years of hating me, you’re going to accept me as your son now? Just like that?”

Luke smiles sadly, knowing that the boy would be suspicious of his motives. “Well, it will take some time of course, but if there is anything I’ve learned this past year, it’s that anything can happen, and that family is the most important thing in the world. I’m willing to put aside my past feelings if you are.”

Nikolas feels a tear run down his cheek. He’s still confused, but for the first time, he feels completely at home, like this day was what he had been waiting for all his life. He can’t explain it, but all those years of being a Cassidine, he had felt misplaced, like he didn’t really belong. He assumed it was because of Laura being his mother, but now he finally knew the real reason, and it felt right. He was a Spencer. Everything suddenly made sense: why he was able to be LuLu’s donor when her other brother and parents couldn’t, why he always felt a connection with Lucky, no matter how much he tried to hate him, and how he never felt completely at home with Stefan.

Everyone is looking at him, waiting for his reaction. He looks at Luke, and for the first time, sees unconditional love in the man’s eyes. That’s all it takes. Nikolas breaks down in tears, and Luke rushes to hug him. Everyone in the room is crying, watching father and son comfort each other. Liz puts her arms around Lucky, knowing this is probably hard for him, to know that he isn’t his father’s only son anymore. Laura is bawling, and Lucky reaches over to hug her.

“How are you doing, honey?” she asks Lucky through her tears, worried about him. He’s been through so much today. She remembers how hard he took the news of Nikolas’s existence all those years ago, and hopes he takes this news better.

“I’m okay, mom. It’s a little weird, but I’ll be okay. As long as I’m still his favorite...” he says, looking at his father, causing everyone to laugh, even Luke and Nikolas, who had finally pulled apart.