Chapter 13
“Look, you stay here, and I’m going to go find Luke. Don’t let anybody see you, okay?” Nikolas said.
Lucien nodded. “I’ll hide, don’t worry.”
Nikolas rushed over to the nurses station and asked about Liz. The nurses pointed down the hallway and he thanked her. A few minutes later he came upon her room. Luke was standing next to her bed, holding her hand.
“How is she?” he asked tentatively. Luke looked up and glared at him.
“Thanks to your cousin, she had to be sedated. Barbara thinks she may have had a breakdown,” he said angrily.
Nikolas was shocked. He hadn’t expected her to react so badly. He rushed to the other side of her bed and looked down at her sleeping face. “I’m so sorry. Emily told me she was coming back, but I didn’t know it would be so soon. If I had known...”
Luke softened when he saw how upset Nikolas was. “Don’t beat yourself up, son. I didn’t know either, otherwise I would have warned her.”
Nikolas smiled, thankful for Luke’s understanding. “If it means anything to you, Lucien feels terrible about what happened. He even made me bring him along to make sure she was okay.” He saw the instant look of fear on Luke’s face and knew what he was thinking. “Don’t worry, he knows to avoid Laura, and he promised to stay out of sight while I was in here. Look, I know you don’t like my family, but he seems like a good guy. Granted, he actually likes Helena, but aside from that, he seems pretty decent. He’s just here to find out why he was forbidden to be here.” He laughed at how strange that sounded.
“Well, I guess I should warn you that I’m having him checked out. I don’t trust the kid any farther than I can throw him. Anyone raised by your grandmother is a threat to my family, and I need to make sure that he isn’t here to cause trouble, so forgive me if I’m a little skeptical,” Luke grumbled, looking down at Elizabeth.
Nikolas nodded. “I understand. Just so you know, I’m not planning on telling my father about him yet. Lucien doesn’t want everyone to know who he is until he figures some things out. Aside from Carly, I think I’m the only friend he has here.”
Luke looked up in surprise. “How does Caroline know him?”
Nikolas shrugged. “He ran into her on the street when he first got here and asked her for directions to your club. I don’t think she knew Lucky well enough to see the resemblance, so she’s probably the only person who hasn’t looked at him like he was some kind of ghost. They seem to have hit it off pretty well.”
Luke chuckled. “Leave it to Caroline to make friends with the new blood-sucker,” he muttered. Nikolas glared at him, then looked down at Elizabeth before leaving the room.
“How is she?” Lucien asked anxiously, coming out of his hiding place as soon as he spotted Nikolas again.
He shook his head. “She had to be sedated. They think she had a breakdown. Look, Lucien, don’t blame yourself. You didn’t know. It’s my fault for not warning you.”
Lucien was quiet for a moment, trying to absorb everything. “Can I see her?” he asked quietly, looking down the hall.
“Luke’s still with her. I don’t think it would be a good idea right now. Laura will probably be here soon, too, so we should go.” Lucien nodded reluctantly as they left.
~*~
“Luke!” Laura exclaimed, rushing into the room. “Bobbie just called me. What happened?” She hurried to Elizabeth’s bed and looked down at her.
Luke sighed. He had not been looking forward to explaining this. He knew that Laura would flip when she found out that their son’s doppelganger was in town and he hadn’t told her yet.
“There’s a new kid in town, claiming to be the Cassidine heir.” Her eyes grew wide as she tried to process the information. “His name is Lucien, and he says that he’s Stavros’s son, and was raised by Helena and some uncle. He just showed up a couple of days ago.”
Laura looked at him in confusion. “Okay, so that’s weird, but what does it have to do with Liz?”
“I’m getting to that babe, just give me a minute. He came to the club a few days ago, and I caught him staring at that painting, you know the one of the old bat. Anyway, when he turned around to talk to me....I don’t know how to say this, but...he looks like Lucky.” She gasped, and he quickly put up his hand to stop her from saying anything yet. “I know, that’s not possible, but it’s true. His hair’s longer, and he has that same goatee-thing that Count Vlad has, but he’s got those same blue eyes.”
“How? I mean, do you think he could be....”
He shook his head. “We don’t think it’s possible. He doesn’t seem to recognize anyone here, and he clearly hates me just as much as any good Cassidine would. I think it’s just some freak of nature thing. It’s just really unsettling when you first see him, that’s all. Anyway, I was at the Port Charles Grille this afternoon meeting with Mac and Felicia, who are looking into his background for me. I was about to leave when Elizabeth here walked in.”
“Yeah, she wanted to surprise you, so I told her you were probably there,” Laura said softly, still trying to grasp the idea that there was a Cassidine out there with her baby’s face.
Luke continued. “Well, Nikolas was having lunch with Lucien there, and she saw him before any of us could stop her. As soon as he looked at her, she fainted. When she woke up here, she freaked out on us and they had to sedate her.”
“You mean, she had a breakdown like I did?” she asked fearfully. Luke nodded, smoothing Elizabeth’s hair out of her face.
“Wait a second. Did you say that Nikolas was with him? You mean, he knew about this kid too, and neither of you told me?”
‘Here it comes,’ Luke thought. He sighed. “We were afraid of how you would react. Nikolas said he had already warned the kid to avoid you so this wouldn’t happen. I didn’t want to tell you until I found out more about him. Remember, he was raised by Helena, so he could be dangerous.”
Laura shook her head slowly. “Okay, I understand, but I still want to see him.”
~*~
“Why don’t you stay here?” Nikolas asked, showing Lucien into his cottage. “You said you were worried about Helena finding you, right? The first thing she’ll do is check hotel records.”
“I know, but I used a fake name and paid cash,” Lucien said.
Nikolas shook his head. “Still, she could figure it out. It’s safer here, and I doubt she’ll ever think to look for you with me!”
Lucien thought about it for a moment. It made sense, and he hated staying in hotels. “Okay, I’ll stay, but you have to let me pay you back somehow.”
Nikolas smiled. “Can you cook?”
Lucien laughed and nodded. “Then that will be my payment. I’ll go check out the kitchen right now and see what I can make for dinner.” Nikolas pointed him in the right direction, and he went in to investigate the pantries. He still couldn’t get Elizabeth’s face out of his mind. He kept seeing her, laying on the floor of the restaurant. He hated that he was the cause of her collapse, and vowed to visit her as soon as he could.
A few minutes later, he emerged from the kitchen. “I need to go buy some things first, and I want to get my bags and check out of the hotel. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Nikolas nodded and handed him a spare key. “You know, it’ll be good to have some company around here. Thank you for staying.” Lucien smiled and took the key. For the first time in his life, he had a real friend. It felt good.
Graphics Courtesy Of:
