Disclaimer #1: I am in no way a doctor so I have no idea what I’m talking about on the sections that need a doctor.

Disclaimer #2: Katherine Bell is alive. This makes the story set when Katherine just told/just before she told him that she was “pregnant” and Lucky was just found.

Disclaimer #3: Faison is not in jail. He fled the country shortly after Lucky was discovered.

Disclaimer #4: Faison HAS given Helena the medication or whatever it was to counteract the drugs that Stefan gave her in the first place. She is doing what she is on the show...pretending to be paralyzed, still.

Disclaimer #5: Baraboo is a real place. It’s in Wisconsin north of Madison. Bluffs, if you don’t know, are like the love child of a mountain and a hill. They are basically hills made of rocks. At least that’s what I think they are. I don’t really know because I don’t spend any time near them because I don’t like them. I’m not a hiker. But if you’re ever in Wisconsin and you have a chance to go to Devil’s Lake and you are a hiker, then the West bluff is for you. I got so sick on that bluff it’s unreal. I’m majorly afraid of heights. I can’t even look out my window with out feeling dizzy. Anyway, I’m just saying this because I will be describing everything as best as I can. It’s not that good, I know, but I honestly rarely ever get out of my room, though not for lack of trying of my family members. I like being a recluse. I should also mention in this one that Marlo is a fictional place and as far as I know there are no homes in the Bluffs unless you count the fictional home of the Goobin's. I’ll explain them in the story. The fact that I put that in there just proves that I can get a bit carried away with things.

Disclaimer #6: More about the setting since it has come to my attention that I need to clarify it more. Nikolas knows that Kathy is “pregnant”. Lucky has just been rescued from Faison’s prison. Faison has given Helena the antidote to the drugs that Stefan gave her and she is doing what she is on the show, pretending to still be incapacitated. Jason and Carly are where they are now, trying to find out what Hannah is up to. If there’s anything more, I’ll add it when it comes up.

Blood Tells All

Chapter 1: Discoveries

Vanessa Mathers and her daughter, Vallery, had just arrived to Port Charles and they were getting situated into their rooms at the Port Charles Hotel.

“Will you please remind me exactly why we’re here?” Vallery asked coldly.

She had never gotten along with her mother. Vanessa thought of her daughter as a constant reminder of her one and only true love who she had had a “falling out” with. Vallery didn’t see why Vanessa had even given birth to her when she could’ve had an abortion or given her up for adoption or something.

“I’ve already explained it to you about a million times, Vallery,” her mother answered. “I don’t need to explain it again. Go out and explore the town or something.”

“Yes, of course, I shall do that,” Val mumbled to herself. She went into her room which adjoined with her mothers. She picked up a few of her notebooks, pens, and her portable CD player. She made sure to put a couple CD’s in her purse along with the extra pens.

It would be easier if I were just to get a laptop, she thought as she checked her hair before shoving her hotel room key in her purse, leaving her own room. She put her headphones on in the elevator.

She walked around for a while before sitting down on a bench in the park. She pulled out her purple notebook which she used as her diary.

Ok, here we are. Vanessa and I are in Port Charles. I should be happy, shouldn’t I? I mean, I’ll get to meet my father. Happy, happy, joy, joy. But I’m not happy. How can I be knowing that that woman is going to turn everybody’s lives upside down? I mean, it’s only been just the two of us for so long. More accurately, it’s only been me and her...to each her own. Two separate people who happen to share the same house.

I can only imagine what lie she’s going to tell to get my father to take care of me so she won’t have to. Not that she really would have to for that much longer. I guess she could tell the truth, however unlikely that would be. She could just go up to him and say, “Here. She’s our daughter. I’ve had her for the past 16 years, it’s your turn now. By the way, before you contest this, you will have to take care of her...after all, I am dying.” Then she’d do her little merciless laugh and walk out of our lives forever, leaving me to explain exactly what was going on. She would have an involvement of five minutes at the most.

But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that happen. She is going to have to explain. Why should I have to? I’m not the one who went through the love ‘em and leave ‘em routine. But from what I have heard, they really were in love. Or was it lust mistaken as love? One can never be sure.

You have no idea how hard this is going to be. I mean, I’ll have to meet my father, his son, and his new girlfriend. Not to mention I get meet my only living grandparent. Oh, joy.

I know that I may be a bit over dramatic about this, but what is life without drama? Without creativity? It would be the world after the Grinch stole Christmas if it weren’t for those damn Whos down in Whoville who sang no matter what. Not to mention little Cindy Lou Who, the smallest of the Whos.

You know, anyone who reads this diary will think that I’m totally insane. Maybe I am. Maybe that’s what living with Vanessa Mathers will do to you. I have no idea.

Anyway, moving on. Port Charles is definitely nicer than Baraboo. I don’t know why, though. I mean, to me there are just as many stores, nor more many people. But it’s different. Better somehow. Perhaps because it hasn’t had the bane of my existence living here. Who knows. Who really knows anything?

--Vallery

Val looked up from her notebook as she closed it. She noticed a dark-haired man talking and laughing with a few other people. She recognized him from the photos that Vanessa’s little private investigator got for her.

He was her brother, Nikolas. This is going to be hilarious, she thought. I mean, it’s not as if he will actually say, welcome to the family. Look how he and Lucky got along when he, himself, first came to town.

Vallery watched her brother and his friends for a while longer before she picked up her writing notebook. She opened it to the page that she was last on before she put it away. Screw it, she thought. Go buy the laptop.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Nikolas was spending the day with Lucky, Elizabeth, Emily, and Juan. He had promised Laura that he would keep Lucky busy while she finished up a few errands that she had to run for the welcome home party that she and Luke were throwing for Lucky that night.

Luke had found Lucky being held captive by Caesar Faison a couple of weeks ago. Nikolas was glad to have his brother back. It was as though everything was back to normal. He just hoped that it would stay that way.

Nikolas sensed someone watching them and looked over to where a young woman was just getting up from the bench that she was just sitting at. He instinctively knew that she was the one who was watching them and was uncomfortable with it.

“Nikolas? What are you looking at?” Emily asked. She had been trying to get his attention for a few moments now.

“What? Oh, nothing,” he answered, looking back at his friends.

“He was just checking out some girl that was over there,” Juan said pointing at the bench and smiling.

“I was not,” Nikolas replied.

“Then how come you were looking at her for such a long time?” he asked.

“She was looking at us first. She was giving me a weird feeling like her being here in Port Charles isn’t a good thing,” Nik said, not really knowing how to describe the feeling that she gave him.

“Weird,” Elizabeth replied. “I wonder what she could want.”

“Who knows?” Nikolas answered.

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Lucky pointed out.

“Maybe, but I doubt it.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Vallery was sitting at a table outside of Kelly’s trying to get everything on the laptop she had just bought operational. She was almost done, just a few more commands to go through.

“There. Now I won’t have to get writer’s cramp,” she said to herself out loud. She picked up her black writer’s notebook and opened it. She had only a few lines written in it so she wouldn’t have to type that much out onto the word document.

She started typing what was in the notebook then started typing whatever popped into her mind for the characters. She heard voices coming toward the restaurant and looked up to see Nikolas and his friends. She smiled. He looked so happy now. She could only imagine what it would be like for him to find out that he had yet another sibling that he didn’t know about.

Nikolas noticed her looking at him again and walked over to her.

“I saw you in the park today. Why do you keep watching me and my friends?” he asked sounding frustrated.

“For clarification, I wasn’t watching your friends. I was watching you. And as for why I was watching you, why should I tell you? Give me one good reason,” she asked with more venom than she meant to release.

She was upset that her mother was going to turn his life upside down. She didn’t believe that it was right. After all, she could take care of herself. She didn’t need anyone.

Nikolas was taken by surprise by the amount of anger in the girls voice. “I believe that I have a right to know. What is so hard to understand about that?”

“Nothing. But you will find out soon enough. Believe me,” she said shutting down the laptop and slipping it in the case she bought for it.

“What in the world is that supposed to mean?”

Val shook her head. “Never mind. Well, in parting I will leave you with the following advice. The world is a comedy to those who think; a tragedy to those who feel. Buh-bye now.”

Nikolas stood there watching her leave, not knowing what to make of what she had said.

“Hey, Nik. You alright?” Lucky asked coming out of Kelly’s to get him.

“What? Oh, yeah, Lucky. I’m fine.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Great...today’s the day, Vallery thought when she woke up to Veruca Salt’s song Volcano Girls. She lay there listening to the lyrics for a while. “No wonder I like this song. It somehow reminds me of myself.”

Leave me, lying here

Cause I don’t wanna to go

Tell me tell me

What you really want from me

You’ve got to let me know

I’m falling off and I need you terribly

One down and one to go

Volcano girls we really can’t be beat

Warm us up and watch us blow

But now and then we fail and we admit defeat

We’re falling off we are watered down and fully grown

Leave me, lying here

Cause I don’t wanna go

A million miles of running and I hit the wall

I bounce back and I run some more

But this is it I’m giving up I’m calling quits

So get down and meet me on the floor

Way to go way to flip off everyone

I steal your thunder then I try to bolt

But I could stand a little pity now and then

I’m falling off I am watered down and fully grown

I told you about the seether before

You know the one that’s neither or nor

Well here’s another clue if you please

The seether’s Louise

Leave me, lying here

Cause I don’t wanna go

When Vanessa started pounding on the door that connected their two rooms, Vallery shut off the alarm and got up and dressed.

As she looked at her reflection in the mirror she thought, hey, kid. Look up, things will be getting better...I hope.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

The party the night before had gone great. Nikolas was glad that everyone had had a good time, especially Lucky. He deserved some happiness after what he’d gone through.

Nikolas was called to Stefan’s office shortly after he woke up. When he walked into the office he rolled his eyes when he saw Vallery and an older woman with auburn hair sitting next to her. Stefan was looking slightly pale.

“Father, are you alright?” he asked, looking back and forth between Stefan and the two women.

“Yes. I am,” Stefan answered. “Nikolas, this is Vanessa Mathers and her daughter, Vallery. I don’t know any other way to say it than to be blunt. Vallery is your sister.”

“What? My sister?”

“Yes. She is. We haven’t run any tests yet, but I have no reason to believe that what Vanessa tells me isn’t true.”

Nikolas was speechless. He felt like he was just punched in the stomach. For the next hour Stefan and Vanessa relayed the facts to him.

A little over sixteen years earlier Stefan and Vanessa had gone out. The relationship had ended on a bad note. Shortly after they broke up Vanessa had found out that she was pregnant, but wasn’t sure if she should contact Stefan. She had decided against it and raised Vallery by herself in Baraboo, Wisconsin. They lived in a large estate in the bluffs called Marlo.

Vanessa wasn’t going to tell Stefan at all if it wasn’t for the fact that she had just a short time to live. She needed to arrange for someone to care for Vallery after she died and the obvious choice was Stefan. So they had packed and come to Port Charles and here they were.

“Sorry,” Vallery quietly said to him when they were alone outside Wyndemere. “This wasn’t my idea. I can take care of myself. I really didn’t want to create a...an upheaval in your lives.”

Nikolas just looked at her.

“The reason I didn’t tell you yesterday and told you that you’d find out soon enough was because I knew about the party for your brother last night and I wanted you to have a good time.”

He still only looked at her and she was getting fed up.

“Why aren’t you saying anything, you big baboon?”

Nikolas raised his eyebrow. “Because it annoys you.”

“Ok. I give. Why do you want to annoy me? I haven’t done anything. It was all Vanessa’s idea.”

“I don’t have to tell you,” Nikolas answered.

“Oh yes you do,” she said, the ever present smirk returning to her face. She looked at her watch. “But not right now. We have to go down to the hospital for the paternity tests. I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if Vanessa really is lying. I mean, she’s done worse before.”

“Like what?” he asked, his interest peaked.

“You don’t even want to know,” Val answered as Stefan and Vanessa walked out through the front door. “See you later, Nikolas.”

Nikolas watched them leave. He didn’t want to go with them so he had decided to stay on the island. He thought about her question. “Why do you want to annoy me?”

The truth was that he didn’t know why he did it. Maybe it was because they didn’t get off to that great of a start, or because he didn’t like surprises, but just the same, he didn’t really know why. He found that he liked annoying her. That was the only time that she ever showed any emotions or facial expressions at all, other than a satisfied smirk. Whenever something struck her as annoying her eyes narrowed and she looked like she was either trying not to hurt him or to not burst out laughing.

He thought about what she had said about Vanessa lying and doing things worse than that. He wondered what they were. I’ll ask again when they return. After all, if she really is my sister, she’ll be living here.

After thinking for a while he grew bored and he went into the house to call and see if Lucky, Liz, Juan, and Emily wanted to get together to do something.

Well, I already told you what the song is, but I’ll say it again. It’s Volcano Girls by Veruca Salt off of their album Eight Arms to Hold You.

Chapter 2: Getting to Know You

Two weeks passed and it was found that Vallery really was Stefan’s daughter. By this time the whole town knows about Vallery and have more or less accepted her.

Vanessa moved back to Marlo to continue her treatments and shipped the rest of Val’s things to her at Wyndemere, where she is now staying. Nikolas and her just barely get along while Val and Stefan do get along rather well. She and Laura also get along quite well.

Nikolas found it hard to get used to having another person living at Wyndemere and tried to find a way to get Vallery out of Port Charles, but only ended up frustrated. Val made him listen as she told him that she wasn’t leaving until she was eighteen, if even then, so he had better get used to her.

Nikolas decided to at least try to get to know Vallery. He was only doing it because Stefan and Laura had asked him to just give her a chance. He walked to her room and knocked on the door.

Vallery paused the tape she was watching and told him to enter.

“Oh...it’s you. Hold on a minute. The movie is almost over,” she said, pressing the play button.

Nikolas walked in and saw her lying on her bed watching the TV. She looked completely relaxed, a way that he had never seen her before since she was always uptight around him.

The tape started up again and Vallery spoke along with the man on the screen. “And crawling on the planet's face some insects called the human race...lost in time and lost in space and meaning.”

Vallery stopped the tape and hit the rewind button as she turned to Nikolas. “It’s a surprise to see you here. You hate me and I can just tolerate you. So I’m thinking that you want something. And before you ask, I’m not leaving. I’m not going to move back in with Vanessa...not that she has much time left. Unless, of course she’s lying about that.”

“I wasn’t going to ask you to leave again. What’s wrong with me just coming in here to get to know my sister?”

“Everything,” Vallery answered. “You’ve never wanted to before and I truly didn’t expect you to want to now.”

“Then you underestimate me.”

“How much is Daddy and Laura paying you?”

“Paying me? What?” Nik asked, trying not to laugh. “You think that they’re paying me to get to know you?”

Vallery nodded her head. “As sure as I am that Tim Curry is a good Tammy Faye Bakker.”

“What?”

“Tim Curry. He plays Dr. Frank N. Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Don’t tell me that you’ve never seen it.”

“I’ve never seen it.”

“Okay...I’m going to take that as the signal to make you watch that movie some time. What time is good for you? And don’t even think of backing out. I know where you live.”

“Anytime is. And of course you know where I live. If you didn’t, I’d feel the need to take you to the hospital and have your head checked.”

“Ha ha. Real cute. So how did they get you here if they’re not paying you.”

“They asked. They said that I could say no, which I did. But then a little while ago I decided what the hell, I don’t have anything better to do.”

“Oh, I feel so honored now,” Val answered sarcastically. She got up and walked to her bookcase which held just a few books and mostly video tapes. “So...you’ll be here tonight? I’ll have you watch Rocky Horror then. And don’t tell me that you’ve never seen Clue neither.”

“I’ll be here. And I thought that Clue was just a game.”

“Well, it isn’t. There’s a movie based on it, which, coincidentally, also stars Tim Curry.”

“You really like this guy, don’t you?” Nikolas asked wondering exactly how many movies that she was going to force him to watch that night.

“Yeah...I guess. I have four movies that he’s been in. But I’m sure he’s done more than that.”

“What ones do you have?”

“Why? We’re not going to watch them. Unless you want to watch about ten hours of movies instead of three and a half hours.”

“Ten hours?”

“Yeah, two hours, hour and a half, four hours, and an hour and a half. Nine hours. And I know that you don’t want to watch all my favorite movies. That would be about thirty or more hours.”

“Let’s not go there.”

“Right,” Vallery said walking back to her bed with the videocassette of Clue. She sat down. “Which brings me to the point, what do you want?”

“I already told you. We might as well get to know each other as long as we’re going to be stuck with each other for a long time.”

“I guess. What do you want to know?”

“Sure...make it sound like it’s my last meal or cigarette or something.”

“Sorry. Let’s do it this way. I was born on February 3, 1983. Vanessa named me Vallery Stefanie Cassadine. Vallery since every woman in her family had a name beginning with a V. Stefanie in honor of Daddy since if you take away the I and the E you are left with the name Stefan. And you obviously know where the Cassadine comes from.

“You would not generally define my childhood as a happy one in any other way than appearance. I became a good actress at a very young age. I always had to pretend that I was a happy go-lucky child. It was disgusting. Every one I knew back in Baraboo wished that they were me. I mean, money, servants, and not that bad of looks. Not that I’ve ever cared about that.

“Anyway, my childhood was mostly spent with very few friends that I only saw at school considering that most people didn’t want to go up into the Bluffs, where Marlo sat because of it’s seclusion and the climb and all. It’s very bothersome. And I guess that’s why I believe I’m partially insane.

“You see, growing up I had these invisible friends. And before you say anything I know that most children have invisible friends, but this was different. I honestly saw them. I could feel them. But only I could see them. That felt so much to me considering that I wasn’t exactly the most popular person at school. I was cruel and bitchy, just like my mom. Like mother like daughter, I guess.

“Then one day I was outside playing and wishing that I had someone to play with and I heard this voice. It was the voice of a person my age. This was around when I was six or seven. I walked out into the woods and there I saw him. Noobie Goobin. Go ahead. Laugh, I know that you want to.”

Nikolas just smiled, knowing that it was normal for a kid, despite what Vallery thought. “Go on, continue.”

Vallery lay down and held onto her stuffed gorilla that she always had on her bed. “Now I don’t know how it all got started, but eventually I made up a whole family for him. His mother was Suzy Goobin and his father was Looban Goobin. He had sisters, Heidi, Mary, Francie, and Mandy and some brothers, Scooban, Booban, Yooban, and Bob.”

At that Nikolas did laugh. “Bob?”

“I like that name, you got a problem with it?” she asked with an edge to her voice.

“No, I don’t. Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting one to be named Bob.”

“Yeah, well, Nooban made five boys and four girls, not including the parents. But Noobie’s favorite relative was his uncle Reuban. He was a Mountie. You know, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police? He lived in the Yukon. Well, his favorite sister was Heidi, who was shipped off to a Swiss boarding school so I only met her once. The only brothers that he got along with were Bob and Boobie. Don’t laugh at that. I know that’s a dumb name but Suzy and Leubie named him.

“Anyway, I played with Noobie, and once in a while Boobie and Bob, everyday after school. Eventually I also made more friends in school and they came home with me and everything, but I always made sure to see the Goobin boys every day, whether it be before or after school.

“After a while, they stopped coming around as much, though I still saw them at least twice a week, usually on the weekends. Well, I got along better at school, thought my grades still were bad, not that Vanessa ever cared as long as I looked pretty and acted polite to all her society grubbing friends. Eventually I got a boyfriend when I was about twelve or thirteen. I don’t really remember since the years fly by like seconds.

“Well that led to my downfall as a human being. I kept seeing Noobie, Boobie, and Bob on the weekends and Scott on the weekdays and Fridays. Then one day, my fifteenth birthday, I found out that Scott was screwing around on me. I don’t know why, but I was devastated. It wasn’t as if I really cared. It wasn’t as if I couldn’t have gotten through it on my own because I could have. But the day before I had found out that the Goobin’s had to move to the Yukon to be with Reuban since Looban lost his job. That and the break up totally sent me over the edge. I had a nervous breakdown. I got better about 6 months later, but I’ve never seen the Goobin’s again. I miss them. Noobie was my best friend.

“Anyway, it was around the time that I got out that I learned that Vanessa had her brain tumor. She took radiation but nothing was helping. That took about a year to discover. Then she made the biggest decision of her life. She had to face her ‘one true love’, I guess you would say if you believe in that sort of thing...”

Nikolas interrupted her. “What do you mean ‘if you believe in that sort of thing’?”

“I don’t believe in the true love business. I’d love to, but honey, there is no such thing as a fairy tale life. Can I get on with the story? I’m almost done.”

“Please do.”

“Ok, Vanessa had to decide what to do with me. I tried to tell her that I could take care of myself and we didn’t have to disturb you and Daddy. But she wanted me in the custody of someone she trusted. Daddy was the only choice. So she packed up some of my stuff and here we are. You know the rest after we showed up.

“The day you saw me watching you in the park I was just thinking that Vanessa and I shouldn’t have come. You looked so happy with your brother, and Elizabeth, and Emily, and Juan. I didn’t want to disrupt that. You did nothing to deserve it. Neither did Daddy, though I am glad to finally know him. And you, I guess,” Vallery said. “There we are. ‘A glooming peace this morning with it brings. The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned, and some punished. For never was there a tale of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo’. Sorry, it sounds better than saying ‘and they all lived happily ever after’.”

“I guess it does,” Nikolas answered. “Though I’ve never thought of it before.”

“I think of things like that. Like, was Mr. Scholls, the inventor of the Qwerty keyboard, related to Dr. Scholls, the foot guy? You definitely think I’m insane now, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t. But you definitely aren’t entirely sane, either.” He looked at the clock. “You want to come with? I told Lucky and the others that I’d meet them for lunch.”

“No thanks. You can invite them tonight if you want. We could make it a slumber party or something.”

“Ok, I’ll invite them. See you tonight.”

“Ok. Have fun.”

Nikolas smiled and closed the door. Vallery stood up and walked to the window in her room. She felt tired and restless now. She walked over to the bookcase and looked for something that would put her to sleep and popped it in the VCR and fell asleep, not wanting to think about why she told Nikolas things that she’d never told anyone before.

Nikolas waited for the launch, thinking about what all Vallery had told him. She was a strong person with a fairly good sense of humor. He laughed again as he thought of her story of the Goobin family. I wonder if she was just b.s.ing me on that part, he thought. “I’ll have to ask everyone what they believe about the Dr. and Mr. Scholls thing.”

Quote is from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet Act V; Scene III, Lines 316-321. And the Goobin’s are from my own traumatic childhood. They were told to me to get me to stop asking “are we there yet” every five seconds.

Chapter 3: Revelations

“How is the quote unquote ‘hyper active devil child from hell’?” Juan asked as Nikolas sat down at the table.

“What?” Nik asked.

“That’s what you called Vallery that one day a couple of weeks ago. She had just punched you, remember?” Elizabeth answered.

“Oh, yeah. I remember. She isn’t that bad. She still drives me nuts, and she should be admitted to Ferncliffe, but other than that we’re getting along.”

“Now why does she belong in Ferncliffe?” Lucky asked, smiling.

“Because she’s either a really good liar or she was telling the truth about seeing an invisible family that only she can see.”

“When did she tell you all this?”

“Just a little while ago. Father and Laura asked me to at least try to get to know her so I spent the last hour listening to her talk. Which reminds me, what are you all doing tonight?”

“Nothing much. Just taking care of Lulu, why?” Lucky answered.

“Val roped me into watching a couple of movies with her tonight. She said that I could invite you all to watch them with us.”

“What movies?” Juan asked.

“Rocky Horror Picture Show and Clue,” Nikolas answered.

“No offense, but I can’t imagine you watching Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Lucky laughed.

“Why not?”

“When you see it, you will know. Elizabeth and I would love to come, but we’re taking care of Lulu. We’d bring her with, but she’s not old enough to see the movie.”

“I’m out, too,” Juan said. “I have to work tonight.”

“My parents are still a bit mad at me for hiding Juan. Besides, I promised to spend time with my mom,” Emily replied.

“Sorry, it looks like you’re alone tonight,” Elizabeth smiled.

“Thanks. Thanks a lot. Now I’m stuck with her alone.”

“Look at the bright side. It’s just a few hours,” Lucky pointed out. “You’re not going to be stuck with her forever.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Vallery awoke to the ringing of a phone. She sat up and realized that it wasn’t her cell phone. It was Nikolas’. She didn’t remember him leaving it in her room. She reached over and picked it up.

“Hello?”

“Who is this?” the female on the other end asked.

“None of your business. Nikolas isn’t here, may I take a message?” Val asked, pulling a notebook and pen out of the drawer of the nightstand.

“Alright. Tell him that Katherine Bell called and would like to talk with him about our child.”

“Vallery felt like she’d been punched. “Ok...I’ll tell him. Buh-bye.” She hung up the phone. “Child? Nikolas has a child?”

She got up and started pacing. “Why do you care? Nikolas isn’t any of your concern. He’s your brother so you have no reason to feel betrayed.”

She walked over to her mirror and checked her hair and make-up. “Val, you are too vain at times.” She stopped what she was doing and stared at herself. “You are also insane. You are talking to yourself.”

She shook her head. “I’ve got to stop this. I’m becoming as insane as you made yourself in that story you told Nik!”

She picked up her cell phone and dialed in a number. “Carly? It’s me. Will you meet me at Kelly’s in ten minutes? Thanks.” She hung up the phone and put it in her purse.

After a moment of indecision she also put Nik’s phone and the message from Katherine in her purse. She told Stefan where she was going and left for Kelly’s.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

How are things with Katherine?” Lucky asked Nikolas after Juan, Emily, and Elizabeth left.

Shortly after Lucky had returned, Nik had told him about Katherine claming to be pregnant.

“Everything is the same as it was the last time I told you about all this. I don’t know what to do. No child should be raised by parents ho hate each other. And our child deserves to have both parents.”

Lucky nodded. “I hate to ask this, but other than Katherine’s word, do you have any proof that she is pregnant?”

“No. And I know what you’re thinking. No one would be so cruel as to lie about being pregnant.”

“People have done worse.”

“Lucky, can we just drop this?”

“Alright. For now.”

“Thanks. It’s great to have you back, you know.”

Lucky smiled. “It’s great to be back. But it still bugs me that Faison is out there, somewhere, terrorizing other innocent people. Or he could still be here in PC just hiding and waiting to see who he could play with next.”

“I highly doubt that he’s in PC. Your father would surely have found him by now.”

“You’re probably right. Besides, sooner or later he will be caught.”

“That’s right. He’ll do something stupid and get caught. And think of it, it’s probably torture for him knowing that he was found out and can’t continue using you.”

Lucky laughed. “He lost control and will probably never get it back.”

Nikolas looked up as Luke walked through the door. “Your dad is here.”

“Hi Cowboy, Cassadine,” Luke said coming up to them.

Nikolas nodded and lucky said, “Hi dad. What’s up? You look like the cat that ate the canary.”

“I think I’ve located Faison. Felicia and I are going to check it out.”

“Really? Where is he?”

Luke smiled. “I get the feeling that if I tell you, you’ll just follow us there and try to bust him yourself. I just dropped by to give you this,” Luke handed him a sheet of paper. “It’s the number where you can reach me in case of an emergency.”

“If there is one, will you actually answer the phone? Aunt Bobbie told me that you don’t always answer it when you’re out of town.”

“I’ll answer it.”

“You say that now, but will you stick with it?”

“Yes, I will. Now I’ve got to go. Don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do,” Luke said as he left.

“And that would leave out what?” Nikolas laughed.

“Just about nothing,” Lucky answered.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

“Hi Carly,” Vallery said walking up to the outside table where her best friend was sitting and sat down.

“Hi Val. What’s up? You sounded upset on the phone,” Carly answered.

“Does Katherine Bell have a child?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

“Katherine? No. I would peg her as the mothering type.”

“So she isn’t a mother?”

“Now unless she’s pregnant. Why? What happened?”

“It started a few hours ago. I was watching a movie and Nikolas came in. He said he decided to give me a chance at Laura’s behest. So he asked about me and I fed him all this crap about me being insane. Do you remember the stories that I told Michael the other day about the Goobin family?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Well, I told him that from when I was little up until last year I saw them. They were like my invisible friends. My best friends.”

“He bought it?”

“Hook, line, and sinker,” Val smirked. She saw Carly’s eyes widen. “What is it?”

“Hi Nikolas, Lucky,” Carly smiled.

Val turned around. “Nikolas! How much of our conversation did you hear?” she asked, her face pale.

“Everything after ‘he decided to give me a chance at Laura’s behest’,” Nikolas answered.

“Oh...well...uh...” she stammered. She shook her head. She hated was she was about to do, it was so characteristic of her mother, but she didn’t see any other way out of the situation she put herself into. “It’s not my fault that you are so naïve and trusting. Everyone could tell that they were simple children’s stories. Why you couldn’t see that I’ll never know. Nor do I particularly care. But I do have one theory. Maybe you never got to live your childhood so you are now. Or maybe you just plain never grew up. Either way it is non of my concern!” She reached into her purse and pulled out his phone and the message from Katherine and handed them to him. “But here’s some advice. Grow up fast. Children shouldn’t raise children. Children shouldn’t be toyed around with.”

Nikolas didn’t know what to say as she left. When she had made the comment about children raising children she looked more sad than angry or upset.

“I never expected that from her,” Carly remarked, getting up to follow her. “Do you want me to find out what is really bothering her? I mean, you two could start either World War III or a second civil war.”

“Would you? Please?” Nikolas asked, not knowing what possessed him to do so.

“Sure. See you both later,” Carly smiled, going after Vallery.

“What, exactly, was that all about?” Lucky asked.

“I don’t know. I think she was upset about getting caught up in that lie she told me earlier. Then she started talking about children...but I never told her about Katherine.” Nikolas sat down in the chair that Val had been sitting in.

“Then who did she know?” Lucky asked, sitting down in Carly’s recently vacated seat.

“Katherine,” Nik said, handing the sheet of paper to Lucky.

“I don’t really see why she’s so upset. I mean, she’s upset about you not telling her about Katherine when she’s lying to you. She expects total honesty from you, but she can lie at any time. She’s setting a double standard.”

“I know, but I can’t help but feel bad about not telling her. She didn’t deserve to learn the news from Katherine. She’s my sister, she should have learned from me.”

Lucky leaned back and nodded, saying nothing. He observed Nik as he spoke. There was more than hate between the Cassadine siblings.

“That may be so, but she has to remember that you two don’t know each other that well.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Carly caught up with Vallery at the docks where she was sitting on a bench.

“What was that big show back there about?”

Val looked up. “I was caught in a lie and some emotion that I’ve never felt before. I ended up pulling a Vanessa on him. I acted exactly like her. And to my own brother! I can’t believe I did that.”

“You saw no other choice. Why did you lie to him in the first place?”

“I don’t know. When he asked about me I was filled with joy. He was finally accepting me in his life. I guess I’m not used to happiness or something, because my defense mechanisms started working and made me lie. Every time I tell someone about me, they use what I tell them to hurt me. My defenses told me to lie so I did. The first things that came to mind were Ferncliffe and the Goobin stories.”

“I understand that. But what in your past could be bad enough that it could be used to hurt you?”

“Many, many things. I’m no Snow White.”

“Who is?” Carly said. “You want to stop talking about this, don’t you?”

Val smiled. “Do you mind?”

“No, I don’t. But you will have to tell me more later.”

“We’ll see.”

“Are you going to the charity guild ball tomorrow night?”

“That’s tomorrow? I totally forgot!”

“Yes, it’s tomorrow. Please don’t abandon me there alone. You have to come. Who else will run interference?” Carly pleaded.

“Of course I’m coming.”

Carly hugged her. “Oh, thank you! Do you know if your father and Nikolas are going?”

“No, I don’t. Why?”

“Because, if they don’t come you can definitely sit at the Quartermaine table.”

“Thanks, but there’s a problem.”

“Problem? What’s the problem?”

“We have to go shopping for the dress I’m going to wear tomorrow night.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

After meeting with Lucky, Nikolas went back to Wyndemere, hoping that Vallery had gone there after talking with Carly. No matter what Lucky said, Nik still felt as though he should have told Val himself. But he was also angry at his sister for lying to him earlier.

He tried to keep what lucky had said earlier in mind. They really hadn’t known each other for long. All he really knew about her was her name, age, that she didn’t like her mother, she was a great liar, and was as stubborn as any person he’d ever met.

Nikolas’ mind wandered back to earlier that day when he had entered her room when she was watching that movie.

Her dark brown hair was down around her shoulders and slightly messed up. He had never seen her with her hair down before. She usually kept it back in a ponytail or a braid. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and a dark plum colored midriff tank top. She had been leaning back against the headboard of her bed, holding her stuffed gorilla to her as her clear green eyes were captivated by the actions on the screen of the television set.

Nikolas didn’t want to admit it. He knew it was wrong. But he was attracted to her. She was his sister. It wasn’t right to have the feelings that he had for her.

He was just heading up to see if Vallery was in her room when he heard a knock on the door. He turned around and walked back to the front door and opened it.

He looked at the man who was standing on the other side of the door. He was tall with thick blonde hair and was wearing a three-piece suit.

“May I help you?” Nikolas asked.

“Yes, is this the residence of Stefan, Nikolas, and Vallery Cassadine?” the man asked.

“Yes it is. I’m Nikolas Cassadine. May I be of help?”

“Yes, you may. My name is Brent Jacobs. I’m the lawyer of the late Vanessa Mathers. I have been instructed to bring these letters to you, your father, and your sister. Could you make sure that they receive theirs?” Brent asked, handing him the letters.

“Of course, thank you.”

“It’s my job. If any of you need to contact me, here’s my number at the Port Charles Hotel. I’ll be there until tomorrow night when my flight leaves. Good day, Mr. Cassadine,” Brent said handing Nikolas another sheet of paper and left.

Nikolas closed the door and looked at the letters. Each envelope had a name typed on it. He placed his father’s on the desk in his study where he’d be sure to see it.

He then went to Vallery’s room. He knocked on the door and didn’t receive an answer. He opened the door and looked into the room.

“Vallery?” he asked. “Are you in here?”

He still didn’t receive an answer. He closed the door and went to his room a couple of doors down. He set Val’s letter down on his nightstand and opened his envelope and pulled out a letter and a packet of papers that were stapled together.

He opened the letter and read what Vanessa wrote.

Dear Nikolas,

I know you don’t know me or particularly like me after I dropped Vallery off in Port Charles to live with you and your father.

I know that Vallery isn’t the easiest person to get along with. I truly hadn’t expected to have you two meet, but fate must’ve had other ideas.

Since Vallery is so hard to get along with and she will undoubtedly cause you endless frustration, I wanted to leave you something. The highlighted sections on the enclosed copy of my will indicate all of what I’ve left you.

You can do what you wish with your inheritance. All I ask is that you enjoy it.

May you get the happiness you deserve,

Vanessa Mathers

Nikolas reached for the will and skimmed through it.

Vanessa had left most of her fortune to Stefan, including Marlo, the estate in the bluffs, some property in the western united states and in various countries in Europe and South America, and the shares to some companies she had bought.

To Vallery she left enough money so she could live comfortably the rest of her life and a couple of pieces of property in England, Puerto Rico, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand.

The next section was highlighted in bright green. His jaw dropped when he read what Vanessa had left him. She had left him around five hundred million dollars, property on nearly every continent, and a few plots of land throughout Port Charles.

All in all, Stefan had inherited the most if everything was converted into cash value, Nikolas inherited the next largest sum, and Vallery had inherited slightly less than him.

“I can’t believe she did this,” he said out loud.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

“I have to go help finish with some stuff for the ball tomorrow night. Will you be ok?” Carly said as she and Vallery arrived at the docks.

“Yeah, I’m just going to go to Kelly’s and get something to drink before I go home.”

“Ok, so I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. No go on ahead. You’re going to lose Hannah if you stay here and talk any longer. I know that’s what you want to do, so go follow her.”

“Thanks, Val,” Carly said, setting off after Hannah. “I’ll let you know what I find out.”

Vallery laughed and walked the rest of the way to Kelly’s, still carrying the garment bag that held the dress that she had bought for the ball. She was about to walk through the door when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

“You had better find a surrogate soon. I’m paying you enough money,” the voice of Katherine Bell said.

Val turned around as Katherine hung up her phone and walked up to her.

“Ms. Bell?”

Katherine looked up at her. “Yes? Do I know you?”

“Not yet. But you will soon. I can either be your best friend and help you, or your worst enemy and make your life a living hell. Best friend is the better choice since I’m a bitch you don’t want against you,” Val answered, faking a British accent.

“How could you help me?”

“My name is Colonel Sanders. And yes, that is my real name. I have cruel parents. Anyway, I heard you were looking for a surrogate for something and I believe that I could help you find one.”

“Really?” Katherine asked, looking around. “I don’t know why I’m trusting you but I am. Something’s telling me to. I’m looking for a surrogate mother. I told my boyfriend that I was pregnant, but I’m really not. In fact, I recently found out that I can’t bear children at all. That’s why I need a surrogate and soon.”

Vallery nodded. “I think I know someone who would be interested...for a price.”

“Of course I would pay the person.”

“Hello Katherine, Vallery,” Elizabeth said coming up to their table. “Would you two like anything?”

Val put her head down in her hands. “Pepsi, please.”

“Ok, Katherine?”

“Oh, nothing, thank you.”

Elizabeth went back inside to get Vallery her Pepsi as Katherine turned to Val.

“Vallery? As in Cassadine?”

“Yes. And I found you out. Here’s a word of advice, Ms. Bell. Never trust anyone. If you do, you’ll only embarrass yourself...as you just did.”

Katherine stood up and slapped Vallery across her face before leaving.

Elizabeth had just stepped outside just in time to see Val get slapped. She rushed over to her. “Are you ok?”

“Yes. I’ve been hit harder than that before,” Val answered after taking a drink.

“Why did she hit you?”

“I tricked her into admitting that she isn’t really pregnant. But if I tell Nikolas, he won’t believe me.”

“She’s not? What makes you think that he won’t believe you?”

“I already lied to him today. I told him a bogus story and he found out that I was lying. How about if you tell him? He’ll believe you.”

“I don’t think so. He won’t accept the possibility of there not being a child. I already tried.”

“Well, we need more proof than just our word against hers. But what would constitute as enough proof?”

“I don’t know. I have to get back to work. I’ll think about it and let you know, ok?”

“Ok, thanks. I should be going anyway. It’s getting late,” Val said, paying her check. “See ya.”

“Bye.”

On the way back to Wyndemere she thought about her conversation with Katherine. As she entered the mansion, she smiled. “I know how to get proof.”

She went to Helena’s room and entered it. As expected Helena was awake. Vallery hung the dress she was still carrying over the back of a chair and sat down.

“Hello, Helena. I know I’ve been here for two weeks but haven’t been here to visit you. I’m sorry about that. I know you’re wondering who I am. Well, I’m your granddaughter. Do you remember Vanessa Mathers? Well, I’m her daughter. But I don’t blame you for hating her. She wasn’t my favorite person either. She’s dying, so you don’t have to worry about her. By the way, My name is Vallery. But we’ve got a bigger problem and Vanessa. You obviously know about Katherine Bell’s fake pregnancy. I was able to trick her into admitting that she is unable to bear children. I know that you know more than that. You know where I can find some substantial proof so we can use it to convince my stubborn brother that there is no child.”

Helena just stared at her.

“Grandmama, cut the act. I know you aren’t really incapacitated. I saw you in Daddy’s study the other day talking to some guy named Ari on the phone. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell anyone. Now will you cooperate, please?”

“I can tell you must be good at getting what you want, Vallery,” Helena commented, smiling.

“Most people say that I’m spoiled and everything I have was just handed over to me when I asked for it. But that’s not true. Vanessa doesn’t give anything without an ulterior motive for doing so. But you know that, don’t you?”

“Yes, I do. How did you trick Katherine?”

“It wasn’t hard,” Vallery answered. “I was about to enter Kelly’s when I heard her order someone to find a surrogate for her and Nikolas’ child. I then pretended to be a British woman named Colonel Sanders who knew someone who would be a surrogate for a price. She must’ve been happy that I knew someone because she bought it hook, line, and sinker. She told me that she couldn’t bear children. But then someone, who shall remain nameless, blew my cover. I got slapped pretty hard, but nothing else really happened. But Nikolas already caught me in one lie today so he won’t take my word over hers. That’s why I need your help. I need some conclusive evidence of her lies to convince my stubborn brother that there is no child.”

“She was telling the truth about that, at least. The drugs that my doctors gave her after she fell off the parapet left her barren. Her medical records are in Athens, Greece. They are in a filing cabinet in one of my buildings.”

“Which one? I’ll go there first thing on Sunday. I’d go tomorrow but I made a promise to go to a charity function and I don’t break my promises.”

“That’s good. That proves that you aren’t like your mother. But I won’t tell you which building the file is in.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because, my dear, you are going to take Nikolas with you. If you leave alone he will suspect that you created the records yourself. And if you take him with you, but you find the files easily, he will again suspect that they are forged because you knew exactly where they are. However, if you take him with you and it’s hard to locate and accumulate the records, there is definitely something in there that I felt the need to keep hidden. Nikolas will believe them then.”

Vallery nodded at Helena’s words. “That makes sense. Thank you.”

“I want Katherine stopped as much as you do. All I ask of you is that you continue to remain quiet about my not being incapacitated.”

“I won’t tell a soul, Grandmama. I promise.”

They heard the door start to open and Helena leaned back in her act of paralysis. Vallery looked toward the door as Stefan entered.

“Vallery, I’m surprised to see you here.”

“Hi Daddy. I just thought that Grandmama should know who I am. After all, someone might mention me to her and she’d wonder if I’m legit.”

“But she wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway.”

“O, I don’t’ know about that. She may not be able to move, but I’m a strong believer in telepathic and telekinetic powers. I know it sounds farfetched, but you never know.”

Stefan smiled. “I know better than to argue with you when you really believe in something, however unlikely.”

Val laughed. “So you have heard Nikolas and I arguing.”

“How can anyone not hear you two. You argue constantly.”

“Sorry. I didn’t notice that we were that bad.”

“You aren’t, though at times it is annoying. But at least you two aren’t trying to kill each other.”

Val stood up. “Daddy, I have higher morals than that.” She picked up the garment bag. “I have to go hang this up. Goodnight.

“Goodnight,” Stefan replied, shaking his head.

Vallery went up to her room and hung up her dress. She looked around for something to do. She had to find a way to get Nik to go with her to Greece.

“It’s never going to happen, my friend,” she said to herself heading into bathroom to take a shower.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

A couple hours later, around eight o’clock, Nikolas was sure Vallery was in her room. He could hear her stereo through the closed door.

He knocked, but she didn’t hear him. He wanted to know if they were still on for the movies and he also had to give her the letter that Brent had given him.

He opened the door and saw her in front of her laptop writing while singing along with the CD.

“I got you crawling up a mountain

Hanging ‘round my neck

Got you twisted ‘round my finger

Crawling ‘round my legs

The emptiness

The craziness

Satisfy this hungriness

Darling how would it feel

If we sleep together

Will you like me better

If we cum together

We’ll go down forever

If we sleep together

Will I like you better

If we cum together

Prove it now or never

Make me a pretty person

Make me feel like I belong

Make me hard and make me happy

Make me beautiful

The emptiness

The craziness

Satisfy this hungriness

Darling how would it feel

If we sleep together

Will you like me better

If we cum together

We’ll go down forever

If we sleep together

Will I like you better

If we cum together

Prove it now or never

If we sleep together

Nothing satisfies me baby

If we sleep together

I’ll wear something pretty baby

If we sleep together

Give me what I crave now baby

If we sleep together

Save the rest for later baby

If we sleep together

You will drive me crazy baby

If we sleep together

I save it all for you my baby

If we sleep together

If we sleep together”

In the pause before the next track started playing Nikolas said Val’s name loudly.

She jumped and knocked a container of paper clips off the desk. She turned around, using her remote control to stop the CD and turn off the stereo. She bent down to pick up the paper clips.

“Hello. Did you know that when you did that you have undoubtedly caused my subconscious to have me have a nightmare tonight?”

“Sorry. I was just wondering if we’re still going to watch the movies tonight.”

“Of course. You don’t really think that I’d cancel you watching Rocky Horror for the first time just because of this afternoon, do you?”

Nikolas smiled. “Honestly, no. I guess not.”

“Good. Now, you aren’t going to be comfortable watching movies in that,” she said, indicating his jeans and tee-shirt. “Go change into something more comfortable and I’ll get the movie ready.”

“Fine,” Nik said, turning around. Then he remembered the other reason why he was there. “Oh, Vallery?”

“Yeah?” she asked, shutting down the laptop.

“Some lawyer dropped this off for you,” he answered, handing her the envelope.

She took it from him and looked at it. “Ding dong the bitch is dead,” she said as she threw it on her desk, not giving it a second thought.

“Why do you hate your mother so much?”

“I’ll tell you the truth some other time. Just go get changed so we can start the movies.”

Nikolas left and returned to Vallery’s bedroom a few minutes later. She was sitting on her bed dressed in a long-sleeved man’s royal blue silk dress shirt and black silk boxers. She was putting her hair up in pigtails. She looked at him as he entered.

“Come on, let’s start the movies.” She moved over so Nik would have room to sit down. “Get ready for the weirdest experience that you will ever have in your life,” she said, smiling, as she pressed the play button.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

The song was Sleep Together by Garbage and is off their album Version 2.0.

Chapter 4: Are we going insane?

The next morning Nikolas awoke with pressure on his chest. He looked down and saw Vallery’s head lying on him. Her right arm was laying across his stomach and his arm was around her left shoulder.

He thought back to the previous night. They had watched Rocky Horror Picture Show the whole way through. He didn’t really know what to think of it. Then Vallery had put in Clue. He knew that Val had fallen asleep near the beginning of the movie and he guessed that he had fallen asleep just shortly after her.

He vaguely remembered her setting the TV on a timer so it would turn off itself, same with the VCR, explaining why they were both off now.

Nik felt Val start to stir. She lifted her head and looked first at him, then at the clock.

“Morning,” she said before rolling over and sticking a pillow over her head.

He laughed and got up and went to his room. Vallery wasn’t a morning person. In fact, he had never seen her up and awake before ten am at the earliest. It was now just barely eight.

He showered and changed and went to get something to eat from the dining room. He had just sat down when Vallery came in and sat down.

“Sorry. I’m not a morning person,” she said, suppressing a yawn.

“I know. You’re never up this early.”

Val smiled and reached for the teapot. “Cute. Sorry I fell asleep on you last night.”

“It’s no problem.” In fact, he thought, I kind of enjoyed it. He shook his head slightly. What are you thinking? She’s your sister. “I fell asleep shortly after you did.”

“This is new,” Stefan said as he entered the room. “You two aren’t arguing over something.”

“It’s too early for that, Daddy,” Val whined. “I’m not even supposed to be up yet. The only reason I am is because my pillow woke up and left the room.”

“What?”

“We fell asleep watching movies last night and this morning she was using me as a pillow,” Nik explained.

“Oh, so you two are getting along?” Stefan asked, surprised. He knew that they didn’t really know what to make of each other.

“For now,” Val answered. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy a few things so I’ll be ready by tonight.”

“That’s right. That ball is tonight, isn’t it?” Nik asked.

“No. I’m just going to get all dressed up for no reason at all,” Val answered sarcastically. “Sorry, I haven’t had enough caffeine yet. Are you two going?”

“Yes, I’m going with Laura,” Stefan answered.

“How about you Nikolas? Are you going?”

“I hadn’t planned on it,” he answered as he finished eating.

“No date, huh?” Val smiled.

“That’s not why I’m not going.”

“Then what is? Come on. You can come with me. I don’t have a date either.”

“Fine. What time do you want to go?”

“When I’m ready. I promised Carly that I’d be there on time. I’m supposed to run interference between her and Hannah...for as much help as I’m going to be. Now I have to get some hair clips to go with the dress I bought yesterday. C’mon, Nik. Let’s get a move on.”

“Why do I have to go with you?”

Val grabbed his hand and pulled him along. “Because I said so. You also have to stop me from buying too much.”

“Oh, alright, fine. I’ll go,” Nik relented allowing her to pull him out of the room.

Stefan just stared after them, amused.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

A few hours later, Nikolas and Vallery sat outside of Kelly’s.

“Nikolas?” Val asked, suddenly nervous about what she was about how he was going to react to her request.

“What?” he replied suspiciously.

“Have you ever considered a spontaneous trip out of the country?”

“Not really. Why?”

Val leaned forward. “Well, I just want to take a trip to Greece for a while starting tomorrow. And I’m almost positive that Daddy won’t let me go unless you come with me.”

Nikolas nearly choked on the water he was drinking. “You want me to go to Greece with you?”

“Yeah. Are you alright?”

“Uh...yes. How long would we be gone?”

“A week at the most. Please?” she pleaded, walking around the table and kneeling in front of him. She took his hands in hers and looked him in the eyes. “Please. I need to do this and I need your help.”

Nikolas got the feeling that whatever brought this on had more to do with him than him just being a chaperone.

“Vallery...are you in trouble or something? Do you think that I’ll yell at you?”

“No, I’m not in trouble. And yes you’ll yell. Nikolas, Katherine isn’t pregnant. I talked to her yesterday and she admitted to me that she’s barren.”

Nikolas shook his head. “And why should I believe you? You’ve already lied to me once for no reason.”

“I admit that I lied about having a nervous breakdown and seeing the Goobin’s. But no one needs to know about me. Your sudden interest in me scared me. The only times that people wanted to know about me, they used what I told them against me. I don’t know you that well. I didn’t know what you intended to do with my past. I figured that if I lied to you, you wouldn’t hurt me.”

Nikolas unconsciously squeezed her hands. He still didn’t believe her about Katherine, but he understood why she lied to him.

“I’m not lying about this. You don’t have to believe me but you have to give me a chance to prove it to you.”

“By going to Greece with you?” Val nodded. He took a deep breath. “What proof is there?”

“A file. It’s in Athens. Will you trust me even though I don’t deserve it?”

“Yes, I will. But...” Nikolas was interrupted by Vallery jumping up and giving him a hug.

“Oh thank you!” She pulled back and she felt an invisible force pull her back to him. She slowly leaned in toward him. Her lips brushed against his lightly.

When Nikolas felt her lips against his he reflexively pulled her closer to him. All thoughts rushed out of his head as his tongue delved into her mouth. Val returned the kiss with the same amount of passion, her hands sliding into his hair. Nik pulled out of the kiss first.

“We shouldn’t have done that,” Nikolas said standing up as his thoughts returned to him.

“Right. That was wrong,” Val joined in quickly. “It was a mistake. I was just overexcited.”

“You can’t take all the blame. I participated in it too.”

“But I initiated it. I should know.”

“Yeah, you initiated it, but I also participated. I’m the one who deepened it.”

“Maybe so, but...what the hell are we doing?” Val asked.

“We are fighting about who is to blame for something we both did.”

“Ok...let’s put what happened behind us and never speak of it again. Ok?”

“Ok. So, what were we talking about?” Nikolas asked sitting back down.

“You are willing to give me a second chance.”

“Right. But if you turn out to be wrong about this, I’ll never trust you about anything ever again.”

“Fair enough,” Vallery said, leaning back. “Look, I really am sorry for lying to you.”

“Just don’t do it again.”

“Alright. I won’t.”

“Who used your past against you?” Nik asked when he couldn’t contain his curiosity anymore.

Val looked away from him. “Who hasn’t? There were my ‘friends’, my ‘boyfriends’, even Vanessa. They used my mistakes and fears against me...as well as my crimes.”

“Crimes?”

“Can we talk about this later, please?”

“Sure. Do you want to go home?”

“Can we? It’s time to start getting ready anyway.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Nikolas said, leading her to the docks.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Nikolas was getting ready for the ball when his cell phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Nik,” Lucky said. “Are you going to that ball tonight?”

“Yeah. Vallery wanted me to go. How about you?”

“I’m going with Elizabeth, Juan, and Emily. I just wanted to know if you would be there.”

“It depends on if Val ever finished getting dressed,” Nik said as he walked down to the foyer to wait for his sister.

“Has she been giving you a hard time today?”

“Not really.” Nikolas hadn’t told Lucky what had happened between he and Val. “But she was able to talk me into going to Greece with her tomorrow.”

“Why are you two going there?”

“She asked me to give her another chance. And I am. She said that there is proof there that Katherine can’t have children.”

“Really? Katherine isn’t pregnant?”

“According to Val, Katherine admitted to her that she wasn’t. Val says she can prove it and this is her last chance to prove that I can trust her.” Nikolas heard Vallery coming down the stairs. “She’s here. So I’ll see you in a little while?”

“Of course. Have fun.”

“Yeah right. See ya.” Nik hung up the phone and turned to see Vallery struggling with a choker.

She didn’t notice him standing there watching her as she struggled with the clasp. She took it in her hands and looked at it.

“I don’t get you. Your friends, the earrings, went on fine. Same with the bracelet and rings. Hell, the cross and hair clips even went on fine. So what is your major malfunction? I’ll strike a deal with you. I’m going to try to put you on again. If you don’t work, I’ll make sure that you, kind sir, are cremated before your time.”

As Vallery tried again to fasten the choker, Nikolas had to suppress a laugh. She still couldn’t work it. She looked up into the mirror in front of her and jumped as she spun around.

“How long have you been there?”

“The whole time,” Nik answered. “Do you always talk to inanimate objects?”

“Isn’t that what I’m doing right now?” she snapped. “Sorry. I’m just going through a battle of will with this stupid thing.”

She threw the choker on the table where Nik picked it up.

“It’s alright. Come here,” he said pulling her in front of him so that her back was facing him. “Hold up your hair.”

She did so as he proceeded to fasten the clasp. “Thank you for helping me.”

“It’s alright. You looked stressed...and like you really were going to throw it in an incinerator.”

“I was. And you’d be stressed to if you had to play interference between your best friend and her worst enemy.”

“Then why are you doing it? By now you’d usually be backing out of it.”

“I promised. I never break a promise. The only time I ever have is when I was in the hospital and I couldn’t keep it.”

“The hospital? What for?”

Val turned around. “Because I didn’t something stupid and I had to pay.”

Nikolas opened his mouth to respond when he heard his father’s voice.

“You are not wearing that.”

“What? This?” Val asked looking down at what she was wearing.

It was a fairly revealing and form fitting deep cobalt blue ankle-length dress with spaghetti straps and a slit up the side. Her hair was swept up at the sides and was held there by hair clips with jeweled butterflies on them. The choker and matching rings and bracelets were constructed of starling silver, sapphires, and ebony. Her other necklace was the plain sterling silver cross that she almost always wore. Her other rings included her class ring and a silver ring that was two snakes holding an opal between them, both of which she rarely ever removed.

“She, that. It’s far too revealing,” Stefan answered simply.

“Have you ever seen my closet? This is conservative compared to most of what I have in there. I’m not changing.”

“Father, give up while you can. Vallery is the most stubborn person you could ever hope to meet. Believe me, I know...she’s perfected her techniques on me,” Nikolas interjected, knowing that there would end up being a fight if he didn’t do something to stop them.

“You even said it yourself, Daddy. I’m too stubborn to argue with.”

Stefan shook his head. “Alright. Wear the dress.”

“Thank you Daddy. Let’s go. I have to help Carly from the second the two of them step into the same room until they both leave.”

Nikolas just shook his head and followed her.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

A couple hours into the ball, Vallery was finally able to get Carly alone. They ended up in a room of the Port Charles Hotel (where the ball was being held).

“Help me, I think I’m going nuts!” Val said collapsing on the bed.

Carly sat on a chair and looked at her friend. “What’s up?”

“I’m finding myself attracted to someone I really shouldn’t be attracted to.”

Carly perked up. “Who? C’mon! Tell me!”

“You’ll find me insane.”

“I’m hardly the one to condemn you for that.”

“Promise me you won’t tell a soul,” Val said, looking deadly serious.

“Of course I won’t tell. I promise.”

“I love my brother.”

“Of course you love him. He’s family, you’re supposed to love him.”

“I’m not talking about that kind of love. I’m talking about full fledged, Romeo and Juliet, Lucky and Elizabeth, unbreakable, together forever, unconditional love.”

Carly was speechless. “Isn’t that illegal?”

“Yes...NO! Only if I sleep with him...or marry him. It doesn’t matter if I love him or not. That’s not the point.”

“Then what is? Sorry, I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s alright. I kissed him this morning,” Val said quietly.

“You did what?”

“I kissed him outside of Kelly’s this morning.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes. I think he liked it, too, but I’m not sure. I mean, he responded to it.”

Carly smiled. “I really don’t know what to say.”

“It’s ok. I wouldn’t know what to say either if this situation were reversed.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

“What?” Lucky asked after Nikolas pulled him into an empty room.

“I’m going insane,” Nikolas answered.

“I’m sure that living with Vallery will do that to you.”

Nik glared at Lucky. “I mean it. You know what you fell for Elizabeth?”

“Yeah, I do,” Lucky nodded.

“Well, that’s what I feel for Vallery.”

“You what?” Lucky asked in shock.

“I’m in love with my sister. I know it’s totally wrong, but I can’t help it.”

“Nikolas? What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Vallery and Carly reentered the ballroom as Stefan and Laura stopped dancing.

“I have to go talk with Daddy for a few moments. I’ll be back soon,” Val told Carly as she walked over to her father. “Hi Daddy, Laura.”

Laura smiled warmly. “Hello dear. How are you enjoying the ball so far?”

“It’s alright. May I borrow Daddy for a short while?”

“Of course,” Laura answered.

Vallery dragged Stefan out onto the dance floor.

“Daddy, I have a question. Would it possibly be alright if Nikolas and I were to go visit Greece for a short time? Nik already agreed to go with me and it would be for just a short time. May we go?”

“Do you really want to?”

“Yes. School starts soon and I’d like to go on one short trip before that happens and ruins the good mood I’ve been in.”

“Alright. I’ll make arrangements for you tomorrow,” Stefan said as he led her off the dance floor.”

“There’s no need to. We already did it. We are leaving tomorrow and we’re only staying a week at the longest,” Val said quickly, walking over to AJ and Carly, who looked like she was being tortured.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Lucky and Nikolas returned to the ballroom and looked around. Emily and Elizabeth were still talking, it looked like Juan was getting interrogate by Lieutenant Taggert, and Vallery was walking away from Stefan looking like she was sure the roof was going to cave in.

“What’s wrong with her?” Lucky asked.

“I think she just told father of our impending trip to Greece.”

“Why are you going to Greece?” Emily asked as they came up to the table.

“It’s just some odd idea that Vallery has that she feels I need to get involved with,” Nik explained not wanting to go into it any further.

“Oh,” Em replied.

Lucky looked at Juan who was coming to join them. “Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, just another lecture on the evil that is Sonny Corinthos and why I should stay away from him.”

Chapter 5: Ask Away

Vallery quietly entered Nikolas’ room. She had told him that she’d wake him a couple hours before it was time to go. It was now seven am, but Val was wide awake, seeing as how she hadn’t slept at all last night.

She hadn’t been able to sleep because she had been thinking about her and Nik’s kiss outside of Kelly’s. The whole scene kept playing in her head on an almost constant loop. To herself she admitted that she wished that another kiss would happen, though she knew it was wrong.

Vallery quietly walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge, watching him sleep peacefully for a few moments.

“Nikolas, time to wake up,” she said. He moved a bit but didn’t wake up. “Nikolas, wake up,” she continued, shaking him. She still didn’t wake up. “Fine, be stubborn then.”

She walked into her room and found the glass bowl that she usually kept beads and other small stuff in. She dumped the contents into an empty desk drawer and went into the bathroom and filled the bowl up with ice cold water. She then returned to Nikolas’ room with the bowl.

“Nikolas, if you don’t wake up now, you will get wet,” she said loudly. When he didn’t even move, she threw the contents of the bowl on him.

Nikolas sat straight up in bed when the water hit him. “What did you do that for?”

“I couldn’t wake you up any other way!” she answered innocently, trying to cover up a smile.

“But did you have to throw water on me?”

“Yes, I tried, I really did. You wouldn’t wake up so I thought that water would do the trick. I guess I didn’t have to have it so cold but I didn’t know if you’d wake up any other way.”

“So you thought that cold water was the right choice?”

Vallery took a deep breath. “Yes,” she was able to get out before bursting out laughing.

“You think that my being wet is funny, don’t you?”

“Yes...oh yes it is.”

“Really?” Nikolas replied. Vallery had just set the bowl down on his nightstand when he pulled her down on the bed and started tickling her.

“Nikolas, stop!” she cried, laughing.

“Not until you promise me that you’ll never do that again!”

“I can’t do that! Please don’t make me, I can’t do that!”

“Yes you can. I know you can,” he said, continuing to tickle her.

“Fine! You win! I promise that I won’t wake you up by throwing water on you ever again. Now stop tickling me!” Val was surprised when he actually stopped. “Thanks.”

“That wasn’t too hard, now was it?”

Val tried to catch her breath. “Yes it was.”

Nikolas smiled at her. She was leaning back on her elbows, her legs straight in front of her. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were closed as if she were trying to slow her heart rate. He was overcome with a sudden feeling to kiss her again. He shook his head, trying to clear it of those thoughts.

“What?” he asked when he noticed that she was speaking.

“I said that I should let you get ready to leave. We leave in an hour and a half. I spent a half of an hour dealing with you. Get ready,” she smiled, picking up the bowl. “Good morning, by the way.”

“You too,” he replied, watching her leave.

He got up, took a shower, and got something to eat. He went back up to his room and noticed that there were still forty-five minutes left until it was time to leave. He thought back on earlier that morning and decided to see what Vallery was doing. He found her in her room lying on her bed just staring at the ceiling.

“Are you alright?” Nikolas asked.

Vallery looked at him and smiled. “Yeah, I’m just bored.”

“You are too?”

“Yeah. But I have an idea,” she said sitting up.

“Do I want to know what it is?”

“I think you do. Have you ever heard of the game Twenty Questions?”

“Yes, I have. Why?”

“Well, since you want to know more about me and I’m just bored enough to tell you. So, you can ask me unlimited questions about myself and I have to tell you the truth. I promise I will tell you the truth. You already know that I don’t break my promises. You in?”

“Yeah, I’ll play.”

“Great. Ask away.”

“Was all of that first story you told me a lie?”

“No, not all of it,” she answered shaking her head.

“What about it was the truth?”

“I was born in Baraboo, Wisconsin on February 3, 1983. My name is Vallery Stefanie Cassadine. I am good at acting, I’d have to be after growing up with Vanessa. I had and still have very few friends. The basic Goobin stuff, like names and where they lived, is true, except it’s a story that people told me to get me to be quiet. I lived at Marlo in the bluffs. I believe that I am turning into Vanessa more and more every day and my boyfriend Scott was screwing around on me. Next question.”

“Yesterday, you said that you committed a crime, what was it?”

“Which one?”

“What do you mean, ‘which one’?”

“Well, I’m hardly a saint. I’ve been around the Baraboo police so much that I know each and every officer personally. I know all about them all.”

“Really?”

“I promised to tell you the truth, didn’t I?” At Nik’s nod, Vallery continued. “The first time I was arrested was for shoplifting when I was eight. I don’t know why I did it, but I did. I never did it again, but I did do other stuff. Taking guns to school, juvenile drinking, accessories to crimes, possession of illegal narcotics. But I was framed for that one. I’m not stupid enough to take or sell drugs. They belonged to my boyfriend at the time and he never told me that they were in my backpack.”

“And you aren’t in a Juvenile institution?”

“One more infraction and I’ll be locked away for a long time.”

“How many boyfriends have you had? I mean, by the way that you were just speaking it sounded as if you’ve had a lot.”

“I guess I have. I’ve had at least ten boyfriends. I’ve stopped counting. Anyway, all of them were jerks.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You name the type of creep, I’ve probably dated it.”

“Oh, is that part of why you’re always so bitchy?”

“Yeah. But then again, if you had to grow up as Vanessa’s child, and have every mistake that you’ve ever made used against you, you’d be that way too.”

“What did people use against you?”

“My mistakes, you know, my crimes, my fears.”

“Your fears?”

“Yeah, they’d use my fear of performing in front of people against me by making me get up in front of the whole school and perform in plays or give speeches. It’s annoying.”

“What all do you fear? It doesn’t seem as if you would fear anything.”

“Let’s see, I’m afraid of performing in front of large groups of people, afraid of heights, falling down stairs, flying. That’s part of why I’m so uptight today. I don’t want to fly. I’m afraid of the plane crashing into a mountain or something like that.”

“You don’t have to be afraid. I’ll be with you. You have nothing to fear,” Nik said gently, taking her hand and squeezing it.

“Thanks. You don’t have to be, but thank you. It means a lot to me.” She looked at the clock and noticed the time. “Come on, we have to go if we’re going to catch the plane on time.”

Chapter 6: The Discovery

Nikolas looked in on Vallery, who was taking a nap. He had made her lie down as soon as they got to the hotel and had been asleep ever since. She really wasn't kidding when she said that she was afraid of flying. She had had an anxiety attack the whole time they were in the air. Nikolas had the feeling that he could go another lifetime without flying with her again.

On the plane they had decided that they wouldn't start looking for Katherine's medical records until the next day. Nikolas didn't know whether to believe Val about Katherine not being able to have children or not. Part of him hoped that she was right. He knew that he wasn't ready to take care of children.

Vallery stirred and looked over at Nikolas who was sitting in a chair a few feet from the bed. She noticed that the room had grown dark. "How long was I out?"

Nikolas jumped when he heard her voice. He hadn't noticed that she had woken up. "A few hours at least."

Val sat up. "Why did you let me sleep for so long?"

"You were tired. The plane ride took a lot out of you. I thought that you were exaggerating when you said that you were afraid of flying."

"I don't exaggerate my fears. I'd never do that. Especially flying. It's a shame that we're going to have to do it on the way back home."

Nikolas didn't want to think of that. "Do you mind if I give you a tranquilizer as soon as we get on the plane?"

"Please do!" Vallery said. "What time is it?"

"It's seven at night."

"Already?"

"Well, yeah. There is a time difference and you have been asleep for a while."

"Oh. Can we have some food delivered to the room or something? I'm hungry."

Nikolas laughed. "Do you feel like going out for dinner?"

"Sure. Let me just get changed quick, ok?"

"Of course. I'll be out in the main room."

"Ok, I'll be out in a few minutes."

Nikolas went out into the main room and waited. A short time later Vallery came out of her room and joined Nikolas.

"Shall we go?" he asked, opening the door.

"Yes, we shall," she smiled.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

The next morning they got up bright and early to start their search. They started by checking out every place that they could think of where Helena could have possibly thought to store any records.

"Didn't you think to ask the person who you got the information about the records from about where the records were located?" Nikolas asked Vallery at noonday.

"I'm sorry, but I was allowed only a minimum amount of time with the person. I didn't have the time to ask," she explained. "There are two places that I can think of. Helena has two more old buildings. One on the East End of town and one on the West End of town. Things will go quicker if we split up. You take the east and I'll take the west."

Nikolas looked at her. "You really do like to take charge, don't you?"

"Not really, but sometimes the situation calls for it. So, here's a map of the town and the red dot signifies the building which you have to search. We'll meet back here in two hours. Bring along anything you find that might possibly be useful. See you in two hours," she said, not waiting around to hear if Nikolas had anything to tell her.

"Vallery!" he called out. "I really don't think splitting up is a good idea!" But she was already out of sight. "I can't believe that I'm doing this." He shook his head and turned around to go do his search.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Vallery looked through the last of the boxes in the building she was searching, still finding nothing. She looked around the room again and spotted a filing cabinet. She walked over to it and started searching the drawers.

"I had better find it soon," she said, opening the second to last drawer.

Spencer, Luke. "That won't really be all that helpful." Spencer, Laura. "No thank you, can we just bypass the Spencer's, please?" Morgan, Jason; Morgan, Chloe. "Why does she need files on them?" Jacks, Jasper "Jax". "I get it, she creates a file on every person who even comes close to Port Charles." Mathers, Vanessa. "I hope she included that she's dead." Faison, Caesar. "Ok, this one looks interesting," she said, removing the file, placing it into her backpack.

"Next drawer," Vallery said to herself. "Ok, Helena really needs to get someone who can file correctly." Ardanowski, Venus. "If I had more time, I'd file these myself." Ashton, Ned. "No thank you." Baldwin, Lee. "At least I'm getting closer." Baldwin, Scott; Baldwin, Serena. "Ok, she should be coming up soon." Bell, Katherine. "Here we go!" She pulled out and opened the file. "I wish I could understand this stuff. After all, the only part of biology I got a good grade in was DNA, so there's no way I'd be able to understand this."

Out of sheer curiosity, she opened the last drawer. Davidovich, Alexis. "Someone who I can understand, finally. After all, she is a Cassadine." Coe, Lucy. "Though that does sound interesting, no thank you." Cassadine, Stefan. "She doesn't even like him, why does she have one on him?" Cassadine, Stavros. "She must really be sentimental." Cassadine, Nikolas. She pulled out the file, not knowing why. She opened it up. "I really should not be doing this." She flipped through the various pages, one catching her eye.

"No. That's not possible!" She glanced quickly at her watch and noticed it was time to be leaving. She put the file into her bag, and opened up the first drawer, taking out the file of every person with the last name Spencer. She was about to turn around to leave, when she was covered in darkness.

"I'm sorry, Miss Cassadine, but you can be useful to me," a heavily accented, decidedly male voice said.

Chapter 7: What Happened?

Nikolas couldn’t find anything in the warehouse. He could only hope that Vallery could. He checked his watch and noticed it was time to start heading back to their meeting spot, he was already going to be late.

As he neared the marketplace he started to get a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. Instinctively he knew something had happened to Vallery.

Nikolas reached the shop where he was supposed to meet Val and looked around. He couldn’t see her. He asked the shopkeeper if he had, but he hadn’t. He thanked the shopkeeper and started to run to the warehouse that Vallery was supposed to search.

He had known that it was a bad idea for them to split up, but he had ignored it. He would never forgive himself if something had happened to her.

He reached the warehouse and started looking around for Val. He was having no luck finding her. At last he got to the last rooms; the file room.

Nikolas turned on the dim light and started looking around for some clue as to where Val could be. His gaze fell to the floor and noticed something sparkling slightly.

He walked over and picked it up. It was Val’s cross necklace. She was wearing it when he last saw her. Seeing it only heightened his fear that something terrible had happened to her.

He heard someone enter the room and started to turn around when someone pinned his arms to his side and yelled, “Gotcha!”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Vallery groaned as she started to come to. Her head hurt and her heart was beating in her ears. She slowly opened her eyes and looked around.

She had expected to be waking up in her hotel room, but instead she was waking up in a cold steel room. Everything that happened started to come back to her. Waking up, searching the warehouses, splitting up with Nikolas, finding the files...

The only thing after that that she remembered was waking up in this room. She sure didn’t’ know how she got here. She slowly sat up and looked around. Her backpack was lying on the steel table across from the end of the bed.

Vallery stood up and started to walk to the table when the door opened and a man stepped in.

“Who are you? What do you want with me?” Vallery asked, trying not to sound as scared as she felt.

The man just looked at her for a few moments. He had long brown hair that was graying around the temples. His brown eyes were cold as he answered her questions. “You are my revenge against Helena, and I’m sure you’ve heard of me. I’m Cesar Faison.”

Chapter 8: There's a New Woman in Town

"Let go of me!" Nikolas struggled with the person holding him, not able to break free.

"We've finally got you, Faison!" Luke said.

He and Felicia had been told that Faison had been seen entering the building they were currently in. They had checked every room, the one they were in being the last one. They had finally found him.

Nikolas recognized the voice immediately. "Luke! Let me go! Laura is going to be so upset with you when she finds out about this!"

Luke froze. "Nikolas? What are you doing here?"

"Let me go and I'll tell you!" he said, being immediately released. "Hello, Felicia."

"Hi, Nikolas," she replied.

"Cut the small talk. What are you doing here?" Luke interrupted gruffly.

"I’m looking for Vallery. She was last seen here. We split up to look for Katherine's medical records and she didn't meet me back where we were supposed to meet. When I got here, I found this," he explained, holding out Val's necklace. "She never takes it off. Something has happened to her. Why are you here?"

"We're here on a tip that Faison entered the building, but he isn't here," Luke answered.

"You don't think he has her, do you?" Felicia asked, thinking about the coincidence.

Luke looked at her and Nikolas. "I'm sure he does. She's too valuable to give up. If he has her, the Cassadines are in his mercy. So are the two of us," he gestured toward Felicia and himself. "She's one of the few Cassadines that I can stand."

"So that...psycho has her?" Nikolas asked angrily.

"Probably," Luke replied grimly.

"We have to get her back. For all we know, he could be torturing her or she could be dead now! We have to get that bastard!"

"NIKOLAS!!! Calm down!" Luke shouted. "Don't make me tie you up like I had originally planned."

"Nikolas, we'll get her back," Felicia said, knowing that if her two companions got anymore upset, they'd never find Faison. "We all have to calm down and think. He couldn't have left Greece so soon. We need to think like Faison."

"You're right, Felicia," Nikolas said. "Who knows him well enough to figure out where he went?"

"We do," an accented female voice called out to them.

"We know exactly where he went," her Australian partner added.

Felicia and Luke turned around, shocked at the voices.

"Robert? Anna?" they asked at the same time.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

"Caesar Faison? You're the one that injected the counteractive drug into Helena, aren't you?" Val asked, trying to be civil.

"Yes I am. It worked, didn't it?"

"No. Or if it is, it's taking its sweet old time doing its job. Not unlike you!"

Faison gave her a hard stare. "What do you mean by that?"

Vallery thought quickly. She hadn't meant to say that. "You were supposed to get Young Master Spencer back after he escaped. But you haven't done that, now have you? What are you doing? Biding your time? Luke and Felicia are onto you."

"I know that. And why should I get Lucky back. After all, it's Helena's revenge."

"Yeah, well there's a new woman in town. I'm taking over for my grandmother now, sweetie pie, and you now have to do as I say."

Faison laughed. "Why do you think that?"

"Well, sweet cheeks," Vallery explained with a devilish smile. Growing up the daughter of Vanessa Mathers had taught her a few things. She slowly advanced toward him. "If you thought that my grandmother was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet." She slammed him up against the wall, her hand squeezing down on his neck, her nails digging into his skin. "You have chosen the wrong woman to screw with."

Faison was finding it hard to breathe; the ball of her hand was pressed against his windpipe. He grabbed her arm and tried to move it, not getting anywhere. She was stronger than she looked.

"You don't think I'd let you go now, do you?" she hissed, laughing. "I just found you and I don't ever want to lose you again."

"You're choking me," he managed to get out.

"Am I?" she asked, putting a surprised tone in her voice. "I'm dreadfully sorry. I don't mean to. But as long as I'm doing it, why stop now?"

Faison struggled more. His vision was starting to get blurry.

"Do you want me to let you go?"

"Yes," he gasped out.

"Fine, I will," she lightened her grasp on his throat. A second later she tightened back up again. "IF, and only if, you agree to do exactly as I say. Can you do that for me, Dearie?"

"Yes!" he gasped out.

"All right then!" she replied sweetly, letting go of his throat. "Now who's in charge?"

"You are," Faison answered angrily.

"Don't be upset with me, Darling. After all, as long as you please me, you will come out unscathed. Do you understand?"

"Yes."

"Yes, what?"

"Yes Madame."

"You know what? I've never liked being called 'Madame'. Why don't you call me...Queen? Or Goddess? Or even Your Highness, if you enjoy using that endearment."

"Yes, Your Highness," he repeated.

"Thank you. Now, let me out of here and lead me to a more...worthy room."

Faison nodded and led her out of the room. He knew that she was only 16, but she was a powerful and frightening little 16-year old.

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

"Yes, it's us," Robert answered, smiling at their obvious confusion.

"But...but how?" Luke stuttered.

"Do you remember how Lucky's death was faked?" Anna asked slowly.

"Yeah," Luke answered, nodding dumbly.

"Well, ours was also faked. As was Faison's, obviously! He has been holding us captive for the past years, but a few months ago one of his buildings was bombed. We managed to escape before it went off. He believes us to be dead. Now do you want to save Miss Cassadine or not?" she continued. "Luke, shut your mouth. You're catching flies."

"Come on everybody!" Nikolas said, wanting to get to Vallery as soon as possible. He was getting more and more worried about her with each passing moment.

"You heard the man," Robert exclaimed. "Let's get moving!"

Chapter 9: You’re What?

Vallery grinned as she sat behind the huge oak desk that Faison had acquired for her. She knew that she was going to like this. Pretending to be psychotic was fun. And productive. Maybe this was what Vanessa was always trying to teach her. Have fun with your time on earth.

“Nah,” she said, shaking her head. *Now what should I make Faison do next?* she asked herself. *Something utterly humiliating...*

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The group of rescuers creeped up to the large compound that Faison owned. It almost looked like an insane asylum. They decided to split up to look for Faison and Vallery.

Robert and Felicia would search the east wings and Luke, Anna, and Nikolas would search the west wings.

Nikolas was anxious to find his sister. He was almost bouncing off the walls, driving Luke and Anna nuts.

“Stop it or your sister will be greatly harmed,” Anna hissed.

“Sorry. I just need to make sure that she’s alright,” Nikolas answered.

“I understand that, but you being as wound up as you are isn’t going to do anyone any good.”

Nikolas just shook his head as they continued to search the rest of their designated wing.

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“Robert, we aren’t finding anything. There isn’t any trace of Vallery or Faison,” Felicia whispered.

Most of the wing looked like it hadn’t been used in years. Which wasn’t really off the mark.

“We’ve been all over the place. They must be in the west wing where Anna, Luke, and Nikolas are.”

~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~¤~

Nikolas, Luke, and Anna had to shrink back into the shadows as a group of guards passed them. These were the first guards that they had seen in the half-hour that they had been searching. They knew that they had to be getting close. They turned a corner and came face to face with Faison.

Faison had a surprised look on his face, partially from seeing Anna, still alive, and partially from the trio getting past his guards. He was about to speak when Nikolas slammed him up against the wall, not unlike what Vallery had done a couple of hours earlier.

“Where’s my sister?” he yelled, ready to punch the man in front of him.

Luke pulled Nikolas off of him, knowing that Nikolas beating him up wouldn’t do anybody any good.

“Answer him, Faison. Where is Miss Cassadine?” Anna asked, taking matters into her own hands. The three men’s eyes widened as they saw that she was pointing a gun at Faison.

“Where did you get that?” Luke asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” she replied, never once taking her eyes off of her former captor. “Where is Vallery?”

“Beyond that room,” Faison answered, pointing to a door at the end of the hall. “There are two rooms behind there. She’s in the furthest one. But she’s there of her own free will, I’ll have you know.”

“What do you mean?” Nikolas asked, wanting to punch his brother and sister’s kidnapper. He would have, but Luke was still holding on to him.

“I went into her cell a few hours ago after she woke up. She turned psychotic on me. Believe it or not, she is running this compound right now.”

“Why would she want to do that?”

“She’s insane,” Faison answered monotonously.

Anna shook her head. “Turn around, now.”

Faison did as she ordered, knowing that she wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

Anna motioned for Luke to give her something to tie his hands together with.

With one arm still around Nikolas, holding him back, Luke reached into his pocket and got out the pair of handcuffs that Felicia had gotten from Mac to use on Faison. He handed them to Anna, who promptly handcuffed Faison’s hands behind his back.

She turned him around and pushed him towards the door at the end of the hall. Nikolas ran ahead, hoping that Faison was telling the truth.

He opened the first door, Luke and Anna following behind him with Faison. Then he went through the next door which was across from the first one. He entered the room to see Vallery sitting at a huge desk with file folders scattered around her.

“Faison, it’s about time you showed up. It took you long enough to get back here from the kitchen,” she said in a stern, yet annoyed, voice. She looked up and smiled. “Nikolas!” She ran around the desk and hugged her brother, nearly knocking him over.

Nikolas had never been so happy to see someone in his life. He was so glad to see his sister. He felt as though he couldn’t trust Faison, so he didn’t know if Vallery was even here. “You’re here. You’re really here.”

“Of course, where else would I be?” She turned to the three other people in the room. “Hello Luke...Faison...Alex?”

“Actually, it’s Anna now,” Anna answered, looking around at the confused looks everyone was giving her. “I guess I should explain.”

Just then Felicia and Robert entered the room. “You found them!” Felicia exclaimed brightly. She saw the confused looks that Anna was looking at. “What?”

“How can you be named Anna. When I ran into you a few months ago, you were Alexandra Marick,” Vallery said angrily, hating to be confused.

“I’ll explain everything soon. What is this about you running this compound?”

Vallery grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Isn’t that just so cool? I pulled a Vanessa on him and almost killed him so he gave me the compound to run while waiting for Nikolas to arrive.” By now she was almost bouncing, she was so pleased with herself.

“You what?” Nikolas asked angrily.

“I scared him. It’s that simple. Now can we get home? I found Katherine’s medical charts.” She walked over to the desk and shoved all the file folders into her backpack.

Nikolas looked around. “How about we explain everything on the way back to Port Charles? It will be easier on everyone.”

Everyone nodded and followed Nikolas and Vallery out of the compound.

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An hour later everyone was on the Cassadine Jet on their way to Port Charles. Vallery was taking deep breaths, trying not to freak out, as she and the others listened to Anna’s story.

“We kind of lied about us being held captive by Faison. We were but we got out a few years ago. Everything happened as we said, except for the time. We did get out of the building before it blew up, but just barely. We were thrown in the explosion and I hit my head rather hard. I ended up waking before Robert did, but I didn’t know who or where I was.

“I found my way to London, where I was institutionalized after my friend was murdered by her politician father. I had a nervous breakdown so the people who adopted me as their own thought it would be best if I went there for therapy. By that time I was known as Alexandra Devane, since the only thing that I could find that could give a clue to my identity was a strip of paper with ‘A. Devane’ written on it.

“After I got out of the institution, I had forgotten everything about the incident with my friend and her father. Eventually I met a man named Dimitri Marick and moved to Pine Valley, Pennsylvania. Shortly after we moved there, he died from a rare brain disease. I tried to save him, but I couldn’t.”

Vallery nodded. “Because you’re a neurosurgeon.”

“Right. How are you anyway? Are you doing better?”

“Yeah, I am. I miss Dimitri, but I think that I’ve finally accepted his death, though I still feel as though he’s still here. And don’t get all philosophical on me talking about him still being alive in my heart.”

“I know. You’ve never liked that.” Anna looked around again. “Vallery is Dimitri’s cousin. Distant cousin, but cousin just the same. I met her at his funeral.”

“Both of them,” Vallery smiled softly.

“Right. At both of them. Long story short, his first death was faked. Anyway, I moved into the cottage by Wildwind, Dimitri’s estate, and I lived there for a while before his brother, Edmund Grey, started to drive me nuts. He eventually found out about my breakdown and my little identity crisis that I was having by then, so he helped me find out who I am. It came to light that I wasn’t Alexandra Devane Marick, but I was really Anna Devane Scorpio, WSB agent. That led me to Robert, and we’ve been together ever since. We’ve been tracking Faison for the past few months and that ended up leading us to you three,” she nodded at Felicia, Luke, and Nikolas, “and then to you, Vallery.”

Everyone was speechless until Val spoke up. “Right. So what are we going to do with the Dutch Brainless Wonder over there?”

“Take him to jail, what else. He’ll pay for what he did to you and my son,” Luke answered.

“But I did more to him that he did to me. I scared him shitless. That was fun,” she laughed.

“You aren’t going to start doing that to everyone now, are you?”

“No. Just brainless people.” She smiled as Anna joined in with her on the next part. “Like Erica Kane.”

Vallery laughed. “We still know each other, don’t we?”

“Of course. You helped in part with the funeral arrangements...I guess we bonded then.”

“That was just depressing. I’m never going to another funeral. Unless it’s Erica’s. Or Vanessa’s or even Adam’s.”

“Anyone who you hate, right?”

“Of course. And that’s only to make sure that they’re really dead.”

Nikolas looked at Luke and shook his head. “I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to explain what has happened on this trip.”

“Neither do I,” Luke replied.

Chapter 10: There’s Never an Easy Way

It had been two days since everyone arrived back in Port Charles after what was now termed “The Athens Adventure”. Stefan didn’t know a lot of what had happened during the adventure due to Vallery’s fear of her father never letting her out of Wyndemere ever again.

Those weren’t the only secrets that Vallery was keeping from someone. She hadn’t yet told anyone about the extra files that she had found in Helena’s warehouse. She had given Katherine’s file to Nikolas and he was having it reviewed by a doctor.

Anna and Robert were now living in Port Charles, waiting for Faison to be put on trial for all he had done. Word was that Robin was going to be coming home for her winter break from the Sorbonne.

Felicia had gone home after the trip and Mac wouldn’t believe her about not having an affair with Luke and they were now in the process of getting a divorce. It seemed to Vallery that Felicia wasn’t as heartbroken over the decision as she should be.

Luke had been spending a lot of his time celebrating over Faison’s capture, which absolutely amused Anna, Vallery, and Carly who had all quickly bonded and become the best of friends.

Nikolas and Stefan had been waiting for the doctor to call about his analysis of Katherine’s medical files ever since they were sent in. Nikolas wanted more and more to get the whole deal over with so he could get on with his life and not have to worry about Katherine.

Vallery was now in her room looking over the pilfered files for what seemed like the millionth time since finding them.

“I can’t keep doing this,” she said aloud to herself. “Someone needs to know about it.”

She had asked everyone’s advice on what to do. Luke, Anna, Carly, Felicia, even Lucky, who didn’t like Vallery all that much. They had all said the same thing: tell the person whom it involves. She still wasn’t sure if she should or not, so she went to the last person Vallery could think of to ask, Stefan.

She went down to his office and knocked on the door, entering when he told her to. She surveyed the dark interior of the office, her eyes landing on her father and Nikolas.

“If you two are busy, I can come back,” she said, not wanting to interrupt. Or maybe just trying to get out of asking her question.

“We’re not busy at all. Please come in,” Stefan replied with a smile. He had become close to his daughter since he had met her.

Vallery entered and sat down in a chair next to Nikolas. “May I ask you both a question?”

Stefan and Nikolas both nodded, wondering what this was all about. Vallery rarely went to anyone for help unless it was Anna Scorpio and Carly Quartermaine, or Luke Spencer, much to Stefan’s chagrin.

“Well,” she started. “Hypothetically, let’s say that you have some information on someone. If you tell that someone about it, it could hurt many people. If you don’t tell someone about it you feel like the worst person to ever walk the Earth, but then you are the only one hurting instead of many people. Should you continue to keep it to yourself, or should you tell the person that it most concerns?”

Nikolas looked at Vallery carefully. He knew that there was something bothering her, but she refused to talk to him about it. He hoped that this meant that she was ready to talk to him about it. They had grown closer when they were in Greece, though he was still bothered by the feelings that he was having for her. “Of course you should tell the person it concerns. They have a right to know.”

“I agree with Nikolas. You should tell this person, whoever it is,” Stefan replied, happy that his daughter had come to him instead of Luke.

Val nodded her head. “Thank you. I really appreciate your help.” She stood up and left the office, heading up to her room, leaving a confused Stefan and Nikolas behind her.

“Damn it!” she hissed. So far everyone had told her to tell the person. If everyone felt that way, Vallery knew she had to tell the person. “Life sucks!” She gathered up the files and put them in her backpack. She had arrangements to make. But first she had to stop in to see someone.

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“Nikolas, do you have any idea what that was about?” Stefan asked.

Nikolas shook his head. “None at all. She’s never acted like this before...at least while she’s been here. I wonder what it could be.”

“Well, I hope we were able to help her. It’s obvious that whatever she needs to tell someone is weighing on her conscience.”

Just then, the phone rang. Nikolas answered it first, hoping that it was the doctor that he had sent the files to. “Nikolas Cassadine.”

“Mr. Cassadine, this is Dr. Cole. I have the results from the analysis that you had me do.”

Nikolas nodded his head to Stefan, letting him know that it was indeed the doctor. “Yes, Dr. Cole. What did you conclude about Miss Bell?”

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Later that night, the news had spread quickly. Katherine was barren and was not able to produce children. Shortly after finding out the news, many people had gotten invitations to go to Luke’s. Luke denied having anything to do with it; he was also confused by the invitation. Everyone slowly assembled in the blues club, waiting to find out who was behind the invitations. Nikolas and Stefan were there with Laura. The invitation had requested that Lesley Lu stay at home. Lucky was there with Elizabeth. Luke was, of course, there, sitting with Bobbie, Carly and Anna.

They were all questioning who could have sent the invitations, but no one had a clue. They all quieted down when the door to the club opened, revealing the person who had to have sent the invitations.

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Vallery entered her grandmother’s room, looking at her angrily. “Did you know about any of this?”

Helena raised her eyebrow. “Did I know about what?”

“Don’t play stupid with me, Grandmother. You know full well what I’m talking about. Do you know what this will do to everyone? It will crush them, all that they’ve ever known. I didn’t think that you could be this cruel.”

Helena got up and walked over to where Vallery was standing and grabbed her arm painfully. “You know full well why I have done what I have done. You also know that you are just like me. You know that you are not going to tell anyone. You are too soft, just like your father.”

“I’d rather be like him than be like you,” Val snarled, yanking her hand out of Helena’s grasp. “But I will warn you of this, tonight all your plans will die...they will go up in smoke! You’re world will collapse with everyone else’s.” With that, Vallery walked out of the room, slamming the door loudly behind her.

“I knew that any daughter of Vanessa’s would be a horrid one,” Helena grumbled to herself. She entered the passageway that led to Stefan’s office and entered the room, heading straight to the phone. “Ari, I have a job for you to do. You must kill Vallery Cassadine, now.”

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Vallery took a deep breath and entered Luke’s. Everyone stopped talking and looked at her, questioning expressions on their faces. She took another deep breath. It was now or never.

“I suppose that you are all wondering why I have called you here. It has to do with the question that I posed to most of you. About if I should tell someone the information that I have or not...well, it was anonymous. I should. So that’s what I’m here to do.” She put her backpack on the table and opened it, removing the files.

Sometimes we get lost in the night

Sometimes we get lost in our lives

But I - I didn't want to lose you

Maybe it's not in the cards

Why'd you let down so hard

When all I ever wanted was to love you

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart

“These files came from the same warehouse that Katherine Bell’s did. It seems that Helena has medical files on each and every person who has ever lived in Port Charles. I don’t know what, but something made me grab a few different files. After I looked at them, I saw why I did.” She took another deep breath.

“I remember from my biology classes, the DNA exercises that helped us to understand genealogy, blood types, and other things like that. I noticed something strange when I saw two of the files. The DNA codes were very similar. The conclusion that I came up with was that the two people were related.”

Sometimes what's wrong seems so right

Sometimes when we shouldn't we might

But all I ever wanted was you

I think of when I held you last

Oh love could you forget so fast

There's a little bit of you in everything that I do

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart

“But the only way that they could be related was as father and son. Then I took out another file to double check my findings, and they show that the man believed to be this person’s father is really of no relation to them.”

Luke shook his head. “Vallery, get to the point! What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’m getting there, Luke. Don’t get you’re boxers in a knot. I have called you all hear to save repeating the story a few million times. And I don't know how to say this other than being blunt, so that is what I’ll do.”

I wanna tell you about me

I ask you to stand still you leave

Well I may look lonely and blue

But I've been here waiting for you

And I want an answer or two

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart

Vallery turned to Luke. “Congratulations, it’s a beautiful baby boy.”

“What?” he asked, more confused than ever.

“You’re a daddy. You know how it happened, I’m pretty sure you know since you now have three lovely children.”

“But who?”

“Ok, I’ll take this step-by-step for you. The setting is the Haunted Star. The mother is your lovely wife…ex-wife...whatever. The child, quote unquote ‘the demon prince.’”

At this, everyone started asking questions. Except for Luke and Nikolas, who both looked stunned.

“I don’t have all of the answers, but I do have a lot of them. If you want to know the answers...all of them, ask Helena.”

“But Helena is a vegetable,” Luke said, finally finding his voice.

“Well, there’s a slight problem with that idea. Considering that my dear father gave my ever-loving grandmother an incapacitating drug and the antidote was given to her soon thereafter by that idiot Caesar Faison. She has been acting for the past few weeks.”

“How do you know this, Vallery?” Stefan asked, wondering how he couldn’t have known.

“A few days after I moved into Wyndemere I saw her using the phone in her office. I promised to keep it a secret as long as she told me where I could find the files on that twit Katherine Bell. She told me and I kept my promise.”

“But why are you telling us now?” Laura questioned.

“Because Helena went too far on this one. She deserves what’s coming to her.”

Laura looked between Luke and Nikolas. “Nikolas, honey, are you alright?”

“Should I be?” he asked angrily. “I’ve just found out for the second time that my father isn’t who I thought he was!” He turned to Vallery. “How do you know for sure that this is true? That this isn’t one of Helena’s tricks? You can’t know, can you?? You were right about Katherine, but I know that you aren’t right about this. I don’t care if I never see you again.” Nikolas turned and ran out of the club.

Why you wanna break my heart, oooh

Why you wanna break my heart

Val sat down in a chair. “I knew I should have kept that to myself! I never chose to listen to anyone before, why did I choose to do so now?”

“Vallery, he’s just upset. He’ll get over it and realize that it’s not your fault that Helena is a bitch,” Laura said, trying to reason with the girl.

A dark figure silently entered the club, going unnoticed by the group of people that were digesting the news that had just been broken to them. The figure silently raised a gun and aimed it.

“Mom’s right, Vallery. Nikolas is just upset,” Lucky agreed. “I don’t know why I’m telling this, you’ve never been my favorite person, but he’ll come around and realize that you had nothing to do with this.”

Everyone threw themselves down on the ground as loud gunshots echoed through the club.

{Song Credit: “Why You Wanna Break My Heart” Dwight Twilley, Dionio Music adm. By Bug Music ASCAP}

Chapter 11: Something Unexpected

Everyone waited a few moments before slowly raising themselves off of the floor and looking around. The gunman was nowhere to be seen.

Vallery looked around, knowing that her grandmother had just been behind that. She spun around when she heard Elizabeth scream. She looked down and noticed Lucky lying on the floor of the club, bleeding from a bullet wound to his left shoulder.

She stood stunned for a few moments before pulling out her cell phone and dialing 911. She told what happened and the paramedics were on their way. Bobbie and Anna were doing their best to help Lucky until the paramedics arrived.

Luke was trying to calm down Laura and Carly was doing the same with Elizabeth. Stefan was contacting some of his guards to find out who sent the gunman.

The paramedics arrived shortly thereafter. Luke went with Lucky in the ambulance to GH while everyone else followed. After arriving at the hospital the doctors took Lucky into surgery, leaving everyone else in the waiting room. Anna went to find Nikolas to let him know what happened after he left.

“Who do you think did this?” Laura asked.

“It’s obvious,” Vallery answered bitterly. “It was my damn grandmother. Ari was aiming for me in the hopes to kill me before I let the cat out of the bag and Helena was exposed.”

“Vallery, how do you know it was Ari?” Stefan questioned, angry with his mother for causing this to happen.

“I saw him the second the first shot went off. By then it was too late to warn anyone.” She turned to Luke, Laura, and Elizabeth. “I’m so sorry I allowed this to happen. I swear to you that Helena will pay. She will not get away with this.”

“I don’t doubt you know what you’re doing, darlin’ but I do believe that it would be safer for you if you left it to me,” Luke said soberly.

“No! This is my fault. If Ari hadn’t been aiming for me, he wouldn’t have missed and hit Lucky instead. The two of us have never gotten along that well, but I still care for the little guy...I would never have wished this on anyone, except for maybe Helena herself.”

“Vallery, I’m afraid that I have to agree with Luke. It is too dangerous for you to go after Helena yourself,” Stefan spoke up.

Vallery knew better than to argue with them both at the moment, but she vowed to herself that her grandmother would pay.

Nikolas rushed into the waiting room after Anna informed him of what had happened. “Is he all right?” he asked, coming to a stop in front of Luke and Laura.

“We don’t know yet, Nikolas,” Laura said softly. “He’s in surgery right now.”

Things remained quiet in the waiting room for a while, everyone afraid that talking would cause something bad to happen. A nurse had come out of the operating room during the surgery to inform them that Lucky needed a blood transfusion.

Vallery walked over to Nikolas quietly. “How are you doing?” she whispered.

Nikolas glared at her coldly. “Don’t talk to me,” he hissed. “I don’t want you anywhere near me. You are somehow responsible for this, I know it. I want you out of my life starting now.” He got up and walked to the other end of the waiting room.

Carly stood up and walked over to where Vallery was sitting, tears silently running down her face. “He’s just upset. He didn’t mean it. He’s just upset.”

“It’s not just that, Carly. He meant it, I know it. I saw his eyes...if Stefan wouldn’t get upset he would have killed me. You can tell by just looking in his eyes...”

“Vallery...don’t be crazy. He’ll forgive you...he just didn’t want to hear what all you told him tonight.”

“I hope he can forgive me,” she replied quietly as Carly pulled her into her arms.

Bobbie came out of the operating room. She had gone on duty after Lucky had been brought in and had helped during the procedure.

“Barbara Jean, is the Cowboy going to be ok?” Luke asked, standing up.

“He came through all right. He’s going to be fine,” she answered, trying to find a way to say what had to be said next while everyone was hugging each other in relief. “Wait!” she said, causing everyone to turn to her. “There’s something I need to tell you. During the surgery, when we gave Lucky the blood transfusion, we noticed something out of the ordinary.”

“What was it, Bobbie?” Elizabeth asked, getting even more worried than she had been.

“I’ll just cut to the chase...Luke, Lucky isn’t your son.”

“What do you mean, Barbara?” Luke asked, hoping that his sister wasn’t going to say what he thought she was.

“Your blood types don’t match up. Neither does his and Laura’s.”

“Then who is his father?” Luke asked, getting even more afraid of the answer.

“Stefan is,” Bobbie answered, as everyone in the waiting room drew in breaths of surprise.

The End