What Happened to Forever?

Chapters 7-8

~*~Chapter 7~*~

***Luke's office***

Luke is speechless for a minute, letting what Felicia had just said soak in. "Faison? Oh hon, that's not possible. He's dead. Remember? He blew himself up with Robert and Anna. How could he be Krieg?"

Felicia shakes her head. "No, that was his voice. It's unmistakable."

"The dead don't make phone calls, babe. It couldn't have been him."

"Yes it could've. Come on, Luke! People come back from the dead all the time in this town! You of all people should know that! I mean, how many people do we know that were presumed dead at one time or another? You, Laura - more than once! - Lesley, Edward, Frisco, Mac, Ryan, Katherine, Alan, Holly, even Faison himself!.....need I go on?"

Luke is laughing at this point. "Okay, you made your point. But why would Cesar Faison be pestering me? It's your's and Bubba's families that he has it in for! I know I have a lot of enemies out there, but as far as I know, I haven't done anything to him. Although, didn't he once live at Wyndemere? Maybe he's pals with Count Vlad...." At this point Luke is just kind of rambling to himself.

"Well, what kind of 'business' were you doing with Krieg?" Felicia asks, also curious what he would want with Luke, and afraid that he may be planning something against her and Mac.

"No, no. A gentleman never discusses business with a lady." Luke drawls jokingly. Felicia just glared at him. "Really, though. Nothing personal, but I don't want to disclose that information."

"Oh, come on! This is me you're talking to! Your 'partner in crime.' You know I won't say anything to anyone about it. If this really is Faison, then the people I love could be in danger. I need to know everything." Felicia pleads. She's worried. Faison has caused nothing but trouble in Port Charles in the past, and she doubted that he ahd changed his ways. He was probably as deadly as ever.

Luke sees the look of worry on her face and realizes that she wasn't going to give up until he told her. "All right. I never could resist a beautiful woman." He proceds to tell her about the Ice Princess and his past dealings with Krieg. He concludes by saying that he had been pressuring Luke to sell him the entire stone. Since Luke continued to refuse, he just kept upping the offer, but to no avail. Luke always had a strange feeling that sooner or later Krieg's patience would wear out and he would find a more violent way of getting the diamond, but he hadn't felt threatened by him. After all, he's survived years of war with the Cassidines - compared to them Krieg was small potatoes! Now he's starting to rethink that opinion.

"So, does he know this is the Ice Princess, or does he just think you have a really nice diamond hidden away somewhere?" Felicia asks.

"As far as I know, he juts thinks it's a big rock. He's never mentioned the name or anything." Luke muses, "Maybe he does know. That would explain why he's so eager to have it. But how would he know? No one knows it even exists anymore, let alone that I have it!"

"Well, he must have some kind of hidden agenda. When did you say you'd give him your answer?" "Next week," Luke replies "He's supposed to contact me next week.." he trails off, thinking about his conversation with Krieg earlier. Something about it was bugging him. In fact, he always got an uneasy feeling after talking to him, like there was something he wasn't quite getting....

~*~Chapter 8~*~

Nikolas is sitting in Kelly's, nervously playing with his napkin. He was meeting Emily there in a few minutes, and found himself nervous. 'What's wrong with me? It's just Emily. I've known her for years! Why am I so excited at the thought of her walking in the door?' "Because you're falling for her, stupid. Just admit it."

"Admit what?" A female voice asks teasingly. He jumps, not realizing he had been speaking aloud. Liz stads over him, tying her apron, with a smirk on her face. He blushes, embarassed that she heard him, but at the same time thankful that it was only her and not Emily! Before he can think of a response, the door jingles, and Emily rushes in. Her face is flushed, and her hair is in her eyes. He thinks she has never looked so beautiful.

"I'm SO sorry I'm late! This project for English is killing me!" she pants, letting her books fall to the table with a heavy thud, and throws herself down in the chair. She looks up, still out of breath. "Hi Liz."

"Hey Em. Tough day?" she chuckles, looking at the pile of books Emily had been lugging around. 'No wonder she's out of breath!' Emily rolls her eyes. "You are so lucky you're not in my English class-" she cuts herself off when she sees the flicker of pain in Liz's eyes. "Oh! I'm sorry. That just slipped out. I know today is a hard day for you, for all of us actually. Great one Em, 'open mouth, insert foot-"

"It's okay, really," Liz interrupts. "Don't censure yourself around me. 'Lucky' is a regular word. You shouldn't have to avoid using it just because it's also his name. Now, what do you guys want to eat?" she gets out her pad and takes down their orders, then goes back to the kitchen.

For the first time since she blew in, Emily turns and looks at Nikolas. Her heart does a little jump, like it does every time she sees him. 'I can't believe we're actually on a date! Well, a sort-of date, but still a date. Man, I must look horrible right now. Why did I run here? He's so gorgeous. He looks so serious right now. I wonder what he's thinking about.'

'How did I know her for so long and never realize how beautiful she is? Even all flustered and out of breath, she's glowing. I wish I could just lean over and kiss her, but that would probably freak her out. Why is she looking at me like that?' Nikolas meets her eyes and smiles. "So, big English project, huh?" 'Oh, good one Cassadine! That's all you can think of? You're a real master of the obvious!'

Emily giggles at the expression on his face. He looks like he's arguing with himself over something. It's so cute. She grins. "Yeah, it's a pain. It's this huge thing about Shakespeare. We have to choose one of his plays and do this long, detailed research paper on it, and relate it to modern day life and stuff. It's going to take me forever!"

"I love Shakespeare! Which play did you pick?" 'What luck! I can offer to help her with it, and that way I can spend more time with her, without being too obvious.'

Emily grimaces. "You actually understand this stuff? I'm doing Romeo & Juliet because it's the most famous and I figured it would be easier, but I've read it three times, and I still don't get half of it! I'm getting ready to just give up and rent the movie!"

Nikolas laughs. 'She's cute when she's frustrated.' "Don't worry. If you want, I can help you. Shakespeare was a big part of my studies when I was younger."

"Oh, would you? Thank you so much!" In her excitement, Emily lunges across the table and hugs him. They feel a jolt of electricity run through them, and separate, suddenly shy of each other. Just then, Liz arrives with their food. She had seen Emily hug him, and could feel the sudden awkwardness between them. She smiles and absently fingeres his necklace, thinking how much they reminded her of herself and Lucky when they started going out. A single tear runs down her cheek.