Chapter 8

Lucien woke up to feel the sun shining through his hotel window and smiled. It was another beautiful day. He got dressed, trying to decide what to do with his day. He had decided that visiting Stefan wouldn't be a good idea, since he would probably be viewed as a threat by the man. Maybe he should start with his cousin instead.

He headed to the Port Charles Grille, and was pleased to see that Nikolas was there, eating with that girl from yesterday. He sat down at a nearby table and ordered breakfast, trying to figure out how to approach him.

"Well, we meet again, I see. Did you find Luke's okay last night?" a familiar voice asked. He looked up and smiled.

"Mrs. Morgan, it's good to see you again," he said, standing up and offering her a chair. She smiled and sat down. She was supposed to be meeting Jason, but who knew how long it would take him to get there. Anyway, this guy intrigued her.

"Please, call me Carly," she said. "How is your trip so far?”

"Fine, I guess. I came to see my family, who doesn't know that I exist, and I'm kind of having trouble deciding how to introduce myself to them," he said, figuring that if anyone he had met so far could help him, it would be her. After all, she had dealt with a similar problem when she came there to find her birth mother.

She smiled. "Well, how do you think they'll react to you? I mean, will they be happy to have another family member?”

He thought for a minute and shook his head. "I'm not sure. See, it's kind of complicated. My family is very wealthy, and I'm the heir, although no one knows about me. If I tell my uncle and cousin who I am, they may think of me as a threat to their inheritance." He was trying to be as vague as possible, but it didn't work.

She smiled. "You must be a Cassidine."

He looked at her in shock. "How did you know that?”

She shrugged. "Well, there are only so many really wealthy families here. There's the Quartermaines, but I was married to one of them once, so I know that they wouldn't have any secret heirs anywhere, and even if they did, you're too proper to be one of them. Then there's the Jacks, but they don't really have 'heirs'. Plus they're all too darn nice to think of a new family member as a threat." She chuckled before continuing. "There's a lot of rich people here, but the only other family is the Cassidines. Plus," she added, leaning in closer like she was about to tell him a secret, "I noticed that you keep glancing over at Nikolas.”

He smiled. "Guess I can't fool you, then. Yes, I am a Cassidine. I'm sure you can understand why I didn't say anything before, with you being a Spencer and all.”

She waved his comment away. "Oh, please. My uncle is the only one who even cares about the whole feud anymore. Did you know that my mother, his sister, was married to Stefan once?" She saw his eyes widen in shock and smiled. "Yep, a Spencer actually married a Cassidine willingly. It didn't last very long, though. I think she only did it because she was on the rebound, and she was angry at Luke. Still, Nikolas is a good kid. I don't think you have to worry about him feeling threatened. From what I heard, he never really wanted to be the prince in the first place. Sometimes I even think he'd rather be a Spencer than a Cassidine! Well, Laura is his mother, so I guess in a way he is a Spencer. I'm sorry, I'm rambling, aren't I?" she asked.

He smiled. "It's okay. I appreciate your help. I'm just not sure how to tell him about myself. I can't just go up to him and say, 'Hello, you don't know me, but I'm your cousin. ' I don't think that will go over too well."

Carly looked up and nudged him. "Well, you better think of something quickly, because he's heading over here right now!" He looked up and saw Nikolas and his girlfriend, or whoever she was, coming straight for them.

"Hello, Carly. Are you waiting for Jason?" Emily asked. Emily and Carly had come to a truce of sorts ever since she and Jason had gotten married. Carly nodded. "Yeah, and he's late again, so I thought I'd keep my new friend company." She smiled at Lucien and winked. He sighed, knowing that this was going to be awkward.

“Hi, I'm Emily," she said, offering her hand, looking at him strangely. There was something odd about him, but she couldn't quite place it.. He shook her hand quickly as Nikolas did the same. "I'm Nikolas."

He smiled. 'Here goes nothing.' "It's nice to meet you. I'm Lucien Cassidine."

Taking this as her cue, Carly stood up. "I think I see Jason over there. It was good to see you again, Lucien. Emily, why don't we go say hello to your brother?" she asked the shocked girl, leading her away from the table. "Did he just say he was a Cassidine?" Emily whispered as soon as they were out of earshot. Carly smiled and nodded.

Nikolas just stood there, staring at the man in front of him. "Cassidine?"

Lucien smiled. "Yes, I'm your cousin. I came here to meet you, against my grandmother's wishes, so please, don't say anything to your father yet.”

Nikolas sat down, still in shock. "My cousin? Then your father would be..”

“Stavros. I'm the heir. No one knows that I exist, and if my grandmother had her way, I would remain a secret until I turned 24 and could claim my position as the prince.”

"So, why are you here then? It doesn't seem like it would be smart to come out of hiding like this, especially if Helena doesn't want you to." Nikolas said, still reeling from the news. That must have been why he had such a strange reaction to him in the park. He must have seen the family resemblance or something.”

"I know, it's probably the dumbest thing I've ever done. But, my grandmother and my uncle have always forbidden me to come here. They claimed that it was because Luke Spencer was so dangerous, but the other day I met a girl in Paris who used to live here. I told her who I was, and she said that she used to be a friend of yours. She told me a little about Port Charles, and told me about Mr. Spencer. The way she described him, I didn't see him as a threat at all, and I was too curious about this place to stay away.”

"Wait, you said the girl knew me. Who was she?" Nikolas asked.

"Robin Scorpio. She was very nice, and she told me that Mr. Spencer had recently lost his son, which surprised me, because I had never been told about that. They told me about his daughter, Lesley, but never mentioned him having a son. I thought it was strange that they would do that, so I decided to come here and investigate for myself. I actually ran into Mr. Spencer yesterday, and I have to say, I don't see why my grandmother is so afraid of him. He seemed pretty harmless to me.”

Nikolas had gotten very quiet all of a sudden, and Lucien looked at him strangely. "I'm sorry, I was just thinking about Lucky, Luke's son. He was my half-brother, and we were just starting to become friends when he died. Luke took his death very hard, which is probably why he didn't seem threatening to you. Normally, meeting a Cassidine that he has never known about would get him in full battle mode."

"I just don't understand why I never heard of this Lucky person before. My grandmother hates the Spencers so much, you'd think she would be gloating all over about one of them dying. Don't get me wrong, I love her, but she does have a bit of a vindictive streak in her.”

Nikolas was shocked by his statement. "You love her? How? She's horrible and mean to everyone. She kills people without regret, and all she cares about is getting her hands on the estate!”

Lucien frowned. "That may be how you see her, but to me she was the woman who raised me. My parents both died when I was too young to remember them, and she took me in, with the help of my Uncle Cesar.”

"Cesar? Don't tell me there's another Cassidine I don't know about!”

Lucien shook his head. "No, he's my mother's brother. They raised me to take over the estate when I turn 24, and taught me everything I know, which includes hating the Spencers and avoiding Port Charles. They don't know I'm here. They would probably come after me in a heartbeat if they found out, so please don't tell Uncle Stefan about me. I'm afraid he'll call my grandmother and alert her of my presence here, and I'm not ready to leave yet. There's something about this town that's bothering me, and I don't want to leave until I can figure out what it is.”

Nikolas frowned. "What do you mean, something here is bothering you?”

Lucien thought for a moment. "Well, have you ever been anywhere that you know you've never been, but yet you feel like you know the place? It's hard to explain, but I feel like I've been here before. Even some of the people seem familiar, and to make things even stranger, they all look at me like I'm some kind of ghost or something. Even you did it in the park yesterday.”

"Really? I guess you looked familiar to me because we're related, but as for everyone else, I'm not sure why they would recognize you. Who did you meet yesterday?”

Lucien thought for a moment. "Well, I was outside of Kelly's, and the waitress, I think she said her name was Tammy, she looked at me strangely. Then a couple came by, and I was talking to the man while his wife went inside. When she came back out, he introduced themselves to me, and she got this funny look on her face. I don't remember her name, but she had red hair, and his name was Jerry...”

Nikolas interrupted him. "That was Bobbie, Luke's sister. She was married to my father once, so maybe she reacted like that because of your name.”

"No, that's the thing. I wasn't telling anyone my last name, because I wanted to lay low for a while. Anyway, after that I met a blonde woman in the park. I think her name was Felicia, and then I saw you and Emily. Now that I think about it, she looked at me strangely just now, too.” He shook his head, wondering what was going on. “After I left the park, I met Carly, but she didn’t act like she recognized me. I asked her for directions to Luke’s...”

Nikolas stopped him. “You went to Luke’s? Why? I thought you were always told how dangerous he was. Why go right to him like that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I just figured I might as well meet him and get it over with. I hadn’t planned on telling him who I was. I saw the portrait of my grandmother on the wall, and I guess he saw me staring at it.”

Nikolas chuckled, remembering his first reaction to that painting.

“He got really weird when I turned around. His face got white, and he looked like he was going to collapse. I thought he was having a heart attack or something, and then he called me some weird name. Something about a cow, I think.”

Nikolas perked up as soon as he said that. “Was it Cowboy?” Lucien nodded. “That was Luke’s nickname for Lucky. Oh my God, no wonder everyone’s freaking out when they see you! I can’t believe I didn’t notice it, either. You look just like Lucky Spencer!”

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