Chapter 12

Elizabeth knocked quietly on the door, but there was no answer. She sighed and left the building. "Maybe he's at home," she thought, and headed over to the Spencer's house.

Laura answered the door and smiled broadly. "Elizabeth! I didn't expect to see you here!" She quickly hugged her and led her inside.

"Hi, Laura. I'm on a break from school and wanted to come back and see everyone. How are you?"

"I'm good, I suppose. How about you?" Laura asked, looking at the girl with concern. Luke had told her about his conversation the other day, and he had seemed worried about her. Now that she was here Laura felt the same way. Liz looked terrific, but there was no life in her eyes, only sadness. She had taken Lucky's death so hard, and although they knew she was trying to move on, it seemed that she just couldn't do it.

Liz smiled sadly. "I'm okay. It gets easier, but I just can't stop thinking about him. Being back here is making it harder, but Sonny told me that after a day or so it wouldn't be so bad. I just hope he's right."

"Oh, honey, it will," Laura said, hugging her. "I'm glad you're here. We all missed you so much. LuLu will be so excited to see you!"

Liz smiled. She loved that little girl like she was her own sister, even more than Sarah. "Is she here?"

Laura shook her head. "No, she's at Felicia's, playing with Georgie. How long are you in town for?"

"About a week. I'm staying with Gram, but I just can't handle my old room right now. There's too many memories in there, you know? I think I'm going to sleep in Sarah's old room tonight." She sat down in a chair and put her head in her hands. "Oh, Laura, why is this so hard? It's been five years, and I still can't believe he's gone. I feel like he's been on a really long trip, and I'm just waiting for him to come back. Why can't I let myself believe that he's gone forever?"

Laura rubbed her back comfortingly. "I don't know, honey. We all handle death differently. I had that breakdown, and Luke buried it by going on that crazy adventure with Felicia. Since then, we've just helped each other heal."

"I wish I had that. I've told some of my friends in New York about him, but it's not the same, since they never knew him. After the fire, I had Nikolas to lean on, but it was too hard to stay here, so I went to the art school to get away from the memories. It worked a little, but even in New York I couldn't forget about him. Every time I pass a pretzel vendor or the hotel we stayed at, or walk down the street we were going to live on..." She started to cry and Laura pulled her into another hug.

"I'm sorry, Laura. I didn't mean to come here and lay all my grief on you. It's just that ever since I got off that plane, I've felt like I'm 16 all over again. This town hasn't changed at all. It's like I jumped in a time machine or something. Every time I turn a corner, I keep expecting to see him standing there. I don't know why I can't accept his death. I've been to so many different therapists, and none of them can figure it out, either. What's wrong with me?" She burst into tears again, and Laura continued to hold her, smoothing her hair away from her face, her heart breaking at the girl's pain.

~*~

(all the events at the Grille are happening sort of simultaneously)

"All right, Bubba, what did you and the little lady find out?" Luke asked, sitting down at Mac and Felicia's table. "And why did I have to meet you here? Why not the Outback?"

"It's being repainted today. What's wrong with the PC Grille?" Mac asked.

Luke shrugged. "I just never feel right here. It's too ritzy, I guess."

Felicia laughed. He really did look out of place for some reason. "We haven't found much yet, Luke, but we're still looking. So far the only big thing we noticed was his birthday."

Luke waited anxiously for her to get on with it, but before she could continue, Mac tapped her on the shoulder and pointed at another table.

"Felicia, is that the guy you met in the park?"

She looked in the direction he was pointing and nodded. "Yeah, that's Lucien."

Luke turned around. Lucien had just sat down at Nikolas's table, and they were already in deep conversation. "Well, I'll be darned. Do you think Nikky knows who he is?"

Mac shrugged. "I don't know. Why don't you go ask him?"

Luke laughed. "Sorry, Bubba, but when Cassidines congregate, I try to stay away. It's sort of a Spencer 'rule of survival'." He looked over again at the table. The two cousins seemed pretty chummy, and he wondered what they were up to.

"Okay, so what's this birthday that's got you so shaken up?" he asked, turning back to Felicia.

"Oh, right. His birthday is listed as April 16, 1982. Does that ring any bells?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, there's bells ringing all over the place here. Do you think it could just be a coincidence? I mean, just because Lucky died on April 16, that doesn't mean that no one else could be born on that day, right? And lots of people were born in 1982, not just Lucky."

Mac shrugged. "We're still trying to figure that out. So far, everything else checks out with the story he told Robin. He lived in Greece all of his life, up until he moved to Paris last year, although there isn't really any information about his childhood, no school records or anything, but knowing the Cassidines, he probably had private tutors. There is a mention of him taking an equivalency exam three years ago, but that's it. Helena is listed as his legal guardian, but we haven't been able to find anything about the uncle yet. Did he ever say his name?"

Luke shook his head. "No, we didn't get too chatty. I insulted his grandmother, and he got mad. That was about the gist of it. Look, thanks for the info, and let me know if you find anything else."

They both nodded as Luke got up to leave.

~*~

"Okay, so Helena's your grandmother, Stavros was your father, your mother's name was Anna Faison, and her brother is Cesar Faison. Helena and Cesar raised you in Greece, and you don't remember any other relatives, right?" Nikolas said, looking at the list they had made.

Lucien nodded. "Right. As far as I can remember, my only contact for most of my life was the two of them and the servants. Do you think you'll be able to find anything out based on that?"

Nikolas shrugged. "I don't know. Helena should be easy. My father probably has a ton of stuff on her somewhere in Wyndemere, I just have to try to find it. The problem is going to be figuring out how to do that without him knowing."

"Can't you just say that you wanted to learn more about your family?" Lucien asked.

Nikolas chuckled. "No, he'll see right through that one. We both hate Helena too much to care about her past. If I take a sudden interest in her, he'll know something is up."

"What if you say you're getting the information for Luke? You did say that you don't totally hate him anymore, right?" Lucien suggested.

"Yeah, we're relatively civil to each other, but I don't know if I would go to any extremes to help him out. If I told my father that I was helping Luke, he'd probably have me sent to Ferncliff!"

"What's Ferncliff?" Lucien asked, thinking it was a boarding school or something.

"The city's mental hospital," Nikolas answered, and Lucien laughed

~*~

Elizabeth looked around the crowded restaurant. Laura had told her that Luke was meeting someone there for lunch, and she really wanted to surprise him before he found out she was in town. She saw Nikolas sitting at a table nearby, talking to some guy that she'd never seen before. His face was turned away from her, so all she could tell was that he had long, dark blonde hair. They were obviously deep in conversation, so she decided not to try to get Nikolas's attention yet.

She kept scanning the room and finally found Luke, sitting with Mac and Felicia. Just as she was getting ready to go over there, he stood up. She smiled and waved at him, and he waved back for a second before a look of fear flashed across his face. She was confused. Why did he seem afraid that she was there?

Just then, she heard laughter, and her heart nearly stopped. She would know that laugh anywhere. "Lucky," she whispered, looking frantically around the room to see where it was coming from. Her eyes fell onto the man sitting with Nikolas, and everything went into slow motion.

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