***************
Chapter 38
***************
“Danny? Are you home?” Maxie Jones asked as she peeked her head through the door of Luke’s apartment.
“In my room!” he called back.
Maxie shut the door behind her and walked the short distance to his room. She found him stretched across his bed, rubbing his forehead.
“Are you sick?” she asked in concern. “Is that why you didn’t come to school today?”
“No,” Daniel sighed, standing and taking the huge backpack from her shoulders. He sat it beside the chair at his small desk before claiming the chair as a seat. “I’m just wiped out.”
“You look terrible,” she admitted, sitting down across from him on the bed.
“I feel worse than I look,” he added. After storming out earlier, he gone to the mall and walked around until he felt like coming back here. Thankfully, Luke was no where in sight. With a weary sigh, he admitted to her, “Me and Luke had it out this morning. Huge, huge fight. The worst yet.”
“I am sorry,” she stated. “You know, my mom and I use to do that alot. But things really have gotten better for us.”
He smiled in gratitude, but reminded, “It is different for you and your mom. She knows you. She raised you. Me and Luke are just two strangers pretending to be something we aren’t. We’re not a family, Maxie, and we probably never will be. Sometimes. . .sometimes I wish I had never come to this town. Sometimes I think I should just leave it.”
“Don’t say things like that,” she pleaded. “I would miss you too much.”
“I would miss you, too,” he admitted. He stood then and walked to his dresser and retrieved a jewelry box. He set it down on the bed beside her and opened it, retrieving a wrapped box and handing it to her. “I got this for you in the mall today.”
Maxie smiled in pleasure, touched by the gesture and his shy admission. She hurriedly opened the box to reveal a gold bracelet. “Danny,” she sighed in amazement. “This is beautiful. But I can’t accept it. It must have cost so much.”
“Ah,” he shrugged, kneeling in front of her as he took the bracelet and hooked it around her wrist. “Let’s just say I won it in a poker game last night. Besides, I wanted to thank you for being such a good friend to me.”
“It is so pretty,” she admitted, touching it. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he replied, giving her what James called his “winning smile“.
Maxie felt herself fluster a little. Nervously glancing around, her sight fell on the jewelry box and she pointed out, “That is beautiful.”
Following her gaze, he reached for the box and handed it to her. “It was my mom’s.”
“My grandmother use to have one just like this. They only made like a handful of them at the time. They are very hard to find and worth a fortune. My grandmother sold hers to a collector years ago.”
“Really?” he stated in surprise. “I never thought it was worth much.”
“Are you kidding? Not only are they valuable now, but they cost a lot back when they were first made.”
“That’s odd,” he admitted. “My mom always said she bought it second hand. I figured from a pawnshop or something. But why would a place like that sell a piece so valuable? I mean, we were never well off so I know she couldn’t have afforded to pay much for it.”
“Maybe whoever sold it to her didn’t know how valuable it really was,” she suggested, turning the back of the box to him. “There is a secret compartment back here. This little hole is for the key. Do you have it?”
“No,” he shook his blonde head. “My mom swore she never had the key to it. Maybe whoever sold it to her had lost it by then.”
“Not surprising,” Maxie stated. “The key is very tiny. My grandmother always kept hers on a chain so she didn’t lose it.”
“Maybe I will pick the lock some day,” he shrugged, setting it aside. “Who knows, maybe there is a fortune of priceless jewels in there.”
She laughed, stating, “There would be plenty of room for it. That compartment is huge. My grandmother said she use to hide her journal in it.”
“Your grandmother sounds like a nice lady.”
“She’s great. Me and Georgie lived with her awhile back. When Mac and Mom were having so many problems. She lives in Texas and we went to school even---Oh, school!” she exclaimed, reaching for her backpack.
“Oh,” Daniel groaned, sitting back down in his chair. “You didn’t bring me make-up work, did you?”
“No,” she laughed, pulling a paper from her bag. “The teacher asked me to give this to you and to tell you how proud she is of you.”
“What is this?” he asked.
“The paper you had to re-write on ‘Hamlet’,” she explained. “You got an A.”
“No, I got an A+,” he stated, laughing in disbelief. “Remind me to thank Stefan Cassadine.”
“Why?”
“He helped me write this,” Daniel recalled with a smile. “If I pass this year, I owe it to him for this paper. He’s a pretty okay guy, you know. He actually helped me understand all this deep Shakespeare junk.”
“Then you should hire him as a tutor,” she teased. “Maybe he could get us both through Algebra.”
“Yeah,” he drawled. “Me and Stefan Cassadine hanging out. . .Which one of us do you think Luke would kill first? Me or him?”
“Good point,” she sighed. “Danny, how do you really feel about Luke?”
“I don’t know,” he honestly admitted. “I like him sometimes. Sometimes I don’t. But I do care about him regardless.”
“Then maybe you should tell him that,” she suggested. “Talk to him when you both cool off.”
“I will,” he promised, reaching for her hand and pulling her to his side. “Maxie?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you,” he stated simply before giving her their first kiss.
***************
Chapter 39
***************
“What is he doing here?”
The words of Roy DiLucca prompted Luke to turn from restocking his bar to see James Cordova standing in the doorway. Anger filled him at the mere sight of the arrogant, pompous jerk.
“What do you want?” Luke demanded when Cordova strolled to the bar and sat down on one of the stools.
“We need to talk about Danny,” he replied, glancing at Roy. “Alone, preferably.”
“Whatever you have to say, Roy can hear it. Not that I would put much stock into anything you say after that stunt you pulled last night. What type of drugs did you give my kid?”
“You’re wrong on both counts,” James laughed. “First, Danny is a smart kid. He doesn’t mess with the stuff. Second, he isn’t *your* son.”
“You lying, worthless son of a--”
“No need to get rude, Mr. Spencer,” he calmly stated. He reached into his jacket then and retrieved a thick envelope, tossing it on the bar.
“What is that?” Roy cautiously asked.
“Proof that Daniel doesn’t belong to our friend Mr. Spencer here,” Cordova asked, his eyes never leaving Luke. He was practically daring him to look inside.
Luke reached for it, tossing it into the trash without opening it. “Do you think I would fall for a crock like that?”
“Do you think I am a fool?” James countered. “Do you think I didn’t check Daniel out before hiring him? I know *everything* about him from the day he was born to losing his first baby teeth to the fight that got him suspended from kindergarten. And I know everything about his mother, too. Melanie Ann Jackson, born in a hospital in Austin, Texas to an unwed teenage mother. She was adopted by Bill and Cindy Jackson. They divorced when she was ten. Bill died in a car wreck a year later. Cindy remarried John Norris, but she died of cancer when Melanie was fifteen. She and John were civil, but never that close. Her only close friends were Luke and Laura Spencer. After what Daniel believes to be a one-night stand with Luke, she left Texas and moved to New Orleans. There she changed her name to Ann Norris and took a job as a waitress on a riverboat that toured the Mississippi. Two months later, she got pregnant.”
“No,” Luke snapped in anger. “She got pregnant that night in Texas. Daniel was born exactly nine months later.”
“Two months premature,” he revealed. “It is all there in my file on him. He was born two months premature. Where do you think his asthma comes from? Complications from being born before his lungs were fully developed.”
“I don’t believe you,” Luke stated, shaking his head. It couldn’t be. . .it simply couldn’t. . .
“We have seen the birth certificate that lists Luke as his father,” Roy added.
“It is a forgery,” James stated simply. “I, too, have a copy of his birth certificate. Daniel Ryan Jackson, born two months premature, with no known father.”
DiLucca hesitated a moment, but then reached for the stuffed envelope in the trash. He opened it, taking a moment to scan all the documents. After several minutes, he lowered the papers and admitted, “It is true, Luke. I am so sorry, but he’s not yours.”
***************
Chapter 40
***************
“It’s simple,” James Cordova stated, sipping the beer before him. “You tell him the truth so I don’t have to.”
“Shut up!” Roy ordered, tossing a concerned glance at his friend.
Luke was reading the papers for the fifth time, at least. He had not said a word since Roy’s announcement nearly an hour ago. And Cordova wouldn’t go away.
“I will take good care of him, Spencer. Don’t worry about that. And he will be happier with me. I understand him. I will give him the chance of a lifetime--”
“You will turn him into a drug-dealing thug like you!” Roy shouted.
“Get out, Cordova,” Luke finally stated. “Go near my kid again, and I will make you sorry.”
James laughed at the pitiful threat. Standing from the barstool, he moved to the door. He was startled to see a blonde woman hiding in the shadows, listening to the conversation. Felicia Scorpio Jones, he knew. The little PI who had came snooping around his town weeks ago. The same woman who had placed the forged birth certificate in Daniel’s file. He ignored her, stepping past her and out into the parking lot.
Felicia watched him leave, literally trembling in every fiber of her being. The truth was out. Luke knew that Daniel was not his now. Perhaps it was for the best, she tried to assure herself. Luke wasn’t happy with this arrangement. He had said so earlier that day. But she couldn’t risk him finding out that it was a lie of *her* doing! That would certainly send him back to Laura.
“What are you going to tell him, buddy,” Roy hesitantly asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“Nothing. No one tells Daniel anything. I have an obligation to him that I will keep. I brought him into my life and I made him promises. I will honor that responsibility.”
“Luke. . .a secret like this is bound to come out. Cordova will tell him just out of spite. Or because he thinks that Danny deserves to know. Which he does.”
“No one tells him, Roy!” Spencer practically screamed. “And anyone who does is a person I will never forgive. Ever!”
Felicia peeked around the corner, watching as Spencer threw the papers into the trash. He stormed from the bar then and Roy followed him. She had came here to pick up Maxie from her visit with Daniel. . .instead she had found it all unraveling.
Luke had used words like “obligation” and “responsibility”. Words that shouldn’t be used to describe a child. But that was how he felt, she realized. He had no real father/son bond with Daniel because they were not related. Luke might have some sincere affection for the boy, but it was the type one had for a friend. An acquaintance's child perhaps. Daniel was an obligation to him, she realized. A burden that she had placed on his shoulders.
But she loved him. . .and if she told him the truth now, he would never forgive her. He would go back to Laura. Furthermore, he had vowed to never forgive the person who might tell Daniel the truth.
A thought raced through her head then. She tried to push it aside, but it took root and began to flourish. She hastily moved to the trashcan then and retrieved the proof. She stuffed it into her purse as she turned to leave.
She knew what she had to do. It would be the best for all parties involved.
***************
Chapter 41
***************
“Felicia, please tell me what is wrong,” Chloe Morgan employed, closing the door to her office to ensure their privacy. She could tell her friend was deeply disturbed about something.
“It’s all falling apart,” Felicia stated in a rush, pacing the floor. “One of Daniel’s mob friends knows that Luke isn’t really his father. And he told Luke.”
“Oh, no,” she sighed. “I tried to convince you not to tell that lie. I knew it would come out, eventually.”
“Luke doesn’t know that I am the one who forged the birth certificate,” Felicia insisted. “But it is only a matter of time before he starts asking questions.”
“Tell him now,” Chloe insisted. “He will be mad at you, yes. But if you keep compacting the lies, then when he does find out--”
“No,” Felicia interrupted, running a frustrated hand through her hair. “Right now, I have to get the attention off of me.”
“What are you planning?” Chloe asked in concern.
“I overheard Luke saying to Roy that he wasn’t going to tell Daniel the truth. And that he would never forgive anyone who did,” she revealed. “Laura.”
“Laura. . .?”
“Laura will tell Daniel the truth,” the other woman insisted. “Don’t you see how perfect this is? If Laura is the one who tells the truth, then Luke will *never* forgive her.”
Chloe stared at her friend in deep concern, reminding, “Laura doesn’t know the truth. And if you tell her, then isn’t that defeating the purpose?”
Felicia pulled an envelope from her purse, stating, “This is all the proof she will need. Just this. Once she sees it, she won’t be able to keep her mouth shut.”
“Are you going to mail it to her?”
“No. That would take too long and I don’t want any type of traceable postmark. It has to be hand delivered. And that is where you come in.”
“Me?” Chloe questioned in disbelief. “I don’t want any part of this.”
“All you have to do is put this on her desk in the ‘Deceptions’ office. I would do it myself, but my being there would arouse too much suspicion. You are friends with Carly so no one would question your going by for a visit.”
“I don’t know. . .”
Felicia moved to her friend then, grasping her hands as she pleaded, “Do this for me. Please. Do this because we are friends and I am asking you to. Please, help me keep the man I love.”
***************
Chapter 42
***************
Chloe Morgan nervously strolled into the reception area of “Deceptions”. She was actually going to do this. She couldn’t believe she was going to do this.
“Why, Ms. Morgan,” the ever chipper Elton greeted her. “What a delightful surprise! What brings you by?”
Her hand tightened on the envelope hide behind her purse. “I was hoping to see Carly. Is she in?”
“Oh, no, I am sorry, but she isn’t,” he admitted, glancing past her as a young intern from the mailroom approached.
The young woman handed him two stacks of letters, stating, “This is for Mrs. Corinthos. The other is Ms. Spencer’s.”
“Thank you,” Elton stated, setting them down on the desk.
“Uh, Elton,” Chloe pressed. “Could you tell me when Carly will be back in?”
“Sure, just let me check,” he stated, turning his back on her and reaching for a calendar.
Chloe hastily stuffed the envelope into the pile belonging to Laura. “On second thought,” she corrected. “I will just call her myself.”
“Sure,” Elton agreed, watching her turn and leave in haste. “Well, that was odd.”
***************
Chapter 43
***************
“Have you seen these photo proofs?” Laura asked her son Lucky, handing him the proofs. “They are marvelous.”
“Sure,” he stated, visibly distracted.
“Lucky, what is wrong?”
“I found out why Dad missed LuLu’s school play this morning,” he angrily revealed, throwing down the photo sheet he was looking at. “It was Daniel. I called this morning when he didn’t show and Claude told me that he and Roy were off hunting for Daniel. He blew off LuLu to go chasing after his stray.”
“I know this is hard for you,” she sympathized.
“No. I have learned to expect as little as possible from him,” he snapped. “But you and my sister. . .he just keeps hurting both of you.”
“But do you really blame all of that on Daniel?” she asked.
“I don’t know. . .I shouldn’t, I suppose. It isn’t his fault what Dad did. And to hear Maxie Jones tell it, he is Heaven on earth. And the times I spent around him, he seemed nice enough. I just don’t want to see Dad neglecting his daughter, though.”
Laura’s comment was interrupted when Elton bounced through the door, announcing, “Mail call.”
“Thank you, Elton,” she stated, taking the bundle of letters. She waited until her assistant had left before turning back to her son.
Lucky saw in her eyes that she was about to defend his father and warded her words off with a hand, “I don’t want to hear it. Besides, I have got some work to do.”
Laura reluctantly gave in with a nod, watching him leave. She leaned back in her chair and sighed irritably. Maybe reading her mail would help. She reached for the stack of letters, shuffling through them.
“Bills, bills, bills,” she mumbled, stopping when she gave to a thick envelope. It had no address on it, only her name scribbled in big letter. Curiously, she opened it, a small piece of paper falling out.
She reached for it, reading aloud the typed note, “Your husband never betrayed you with Melanie Jackson. Daniel is not his son. He knows that already. Here is all the proof you need. Signed, A Friend.”
She pulled the rest of the papers out then, her eyes hurriedly scanning them. On top was a copy of his birth certificate. . .listing his father as “Unknown”. But how could that be? The one Luke had presented in court had listed him as the father. Next were medical records. A note was scribbled across the top, referring to his premature birth.
“Premature,” she whispered in disbelief. “He was born nine months after Melanie left Texas, but if he was premature. . .”
She searched out his blood type on the records, then looked for Melanie’s blood type. She already knew Luke’s--It was wrong! Laura gasped as the reality hit her. The blood type was wrong. Luke and Melanie were both the same, so Daniel should have had their type. But he didn’t. He was *not* Luke’s son.
She had to confront him about this, she hastily decided. She had to know if this was true and how much he knew already. And if he was really prepared to lose his real family over a child that wasn’t his.
***************
Chapter 44
***************
Luke Spencer was on his third glass of scotch when his son--No, he cryptically corrected himself, someone else’s son appeared in the door of his office, watching his hesitantly.
“It’s a little early for that, isn’t it?” Daniel cautiously approached him.
“You worried about my liver?” he tried to joke, but came out harsher than he had intended.
“Nah,” Jackson shrugged. “Just your logic. Look, Luke, I’m sorry.”
“Me, too,” Luke sighed, his words taking on a double meaning. “Sorrier than you will ever know.”
“I was wrong to leave with James without you wanting me to. I should respect you because you are my father.”
The words carried a bitter sting to them. “What did Cordova have to say to you?” Spencer changed the subject.
“He wanted me to go on a business trip with him,” Daniel admitted. “To South America. But I told him no. I am going to stay here, and I promise that things will change. I will study harder and do better in school. I will honor curfew and accept whatever punishment you hand out for my behavior last night and this morning.”
Luke studied him with sorrowful eyes then. The kid had no idea that he was not his real father. And here he was, offering to make a change to appease him.
He was a good kid. Spencer knew that. And he needed someone--anyone--to see to it that he stayed that way. Cordova would turn him into something cold and hard and cruel. He would make Daniel into his image. He couldn’t let that happen.
“Just don’t pull any more stunts like last night and we will okay,” he bargained.
“Deal,” Jackson smiled in visible relief. “How about I go upstairs, put a frozen pizza in the oven, and you can lecture me over supper.”
“You eat ‘supper’ in the South,” Luke teased with forced humor. “Up north we eat dinner. And, yes, go. Make it a sausage and cheese pizza.”
“Sure,” the teen agreed, disappearing from the office.
Luke leaned back in his chair, pushing a hand through his hair. This was so much more complicated than he had ever thought it could become.
“Hello, Luke.”
Startled, he sat up straighter as Laura Spencer entered his office. “Hello, darlin’,” he greeted, his face registering the surprise he felt. “What brings you by?”
“You missed LuLu’s play this morning,” she stated.
“Yeah, I know. We had kind of a problem here,” he explained. “I promise I will make it up to her, though. I will take her to the park tomorrow.”
“She has swimming tomorrow.”
“So you came by to lecture me on parenting?” he snapped.
“Oh, no,” she took the opportunity he offered her. “You are excellent at taking care of children. . .especially the ones who aren’t yours.”
“Excuse me?” he demanded.
She held the envelope up before his eyes, and he released a loud curse. He snatched it from her, cursing, “Cordova! That lousy son of a--”
“Then it is true?!” she exclaimed in horror. “How long have you known?”
“This is none of your business. And I am not asking you, Laura, I am *telling* you to stay out of this. It doesn’t affect you.”
“It doesn’t affect me?” she repeated in stunned disbelief. “How can you say that! Everything you do affects me because it affects our children! I will not see you hurt my son or daughter any more! Especially over a boy who isn’t even yours!”
“Daniel,” Luke breathed in horror, glancing past her to see him in the doorway. Laura’s words had made him pale visibly.
Laura turned as well, groaning as a realization dawned on her. Until this moment, Daniel had not known.
“What can I do for you, kiddo?” he asked, silently praying the boy had not heard her angry words.
“There is no sausage pizza left,” Daniel absently mumbled. “What she just said. . .”
“This isn’t about you. Go upstairs.”
“Luke,” she scolded. “How can you lie--”
“That’s enough,” Spencer warned.
“No, it’s not,” Daniel disagreed, entering the room and moving to face Laura. “Is it true? Is he not my father?”
She hesitated then, torn between Luke’s warning look and the plea in his eyes. He wanted the truth, and he deserved it. “No, he’s not,” she softly admitted, handing him the envelope. “I am sorry, Daniel, but--”
“Get out!” Luke ordered angrily.
Laura faltered then, wondering if she had just made a drastic mistake. She had never seen him so furious. She took her leave then, leaving the two of them alone.
Daniel stood with his back to Luke, shuffling through the papers. “What is all of this?”
“They could be forgeries, kid” he suggested, even though he knew they weren’t. “Cordova brought them to me. He wants you to go with him to South America and he thought that. . .”
“That I would leave if I knew the truth,” Daniel finished.
“Cordova just dropped this stuff on me out of the blue--”
“If James said so, then it is,” Jackson whispered softly. “He may be a lot of things, but he would not lie to me about this.”
“I don’t like you placing so much trust in him,” Luke insisted. “I certainly don’t. I mean, he has these files on you about your past and your childhood and medical records on you saying you were born premature--”
“I was,” he stated, quieting Luke with the revelation. “Two months, actually.”
Spencer felt the words hit him like a ton of bricks. Even without knowing it, Daniel had just given him all the proof that was needed. If he was premature, then there was no way Luke could have fathered him.
Daniel dared a glance at him, sensing that something was changing between them. Something had been broken this night and there was no fixing it. He had the strongest feeling that Luke already knew the truth but would never admit it to him. But there was a way to test him.
His mother had given him that even without knowing it. She had told him of the verse his father had said to her.
“For now we see through a glass, darkly,” Daniel purposely spoke the words, quietly beckoning a response from Luke.
“A what?” Spencer asked in confusion.
“That’s a verse from the Bible. Haven’t you ever heard it before?” he cautiously asked.
“Kid, I’m not too big on the Bible, if you take my meaning.”
“My father was, apparently,” Jackson revealed. “My *real* father, that is. He use to quote that verse to my mother.”
Luke sighed in defeat, stating, “Then I guess we both have our proof, huh?”
“Yeah, I guess we do,” Daniel sighed, turning away from him then and swallowing past the lump of emotion that swelled in his throat. It was true. Luke was not his father. But it made no sense? Why had his mother sent him here? Why had she given him the locket if she hadn’t wanted him to find Luke?
“Danny?” he asked in worry.
“You’ve known since this morning, and you weren’t going to tell me, were you?” Jackson demanded, his pain slowly turning to anger.
“No,” he honestly stated. “I was not.”
“You have no right.”
“I have every right!” Luke argued. “I took you in and cared about you like you were my own. I risked losing everything to have you here with me.”
“So you are a man of honor, then?” Daniel mocked bitterly. “In that case, I guess we both can be. I won’t mess up your life anymore, Luke. Go get back your ‘real family’.”
“Danny!” Luke called out, watching in frustration as the teen walked from his life, slamming the door in his wake.
***************
Chapter 45
***************
Daniel Jackson stood on the docks, starting out at the water. He wasn’t sure of anything anymore. He had walked for hours and thought about Luke and his mother. It simply made no sense to him.
Why had she sent him here? Was it possible that she wasn’t lucid towards the end? Had she been talking out of her mind? Or had she merely wanted him to find shelter with her old friends the Spencer’s?
But she had seemed so sure and insistent that day in the hospital. She had assured him that his father was here. He didn’t understand anymore.
All he did know was that his presence in this town had caused nothing but trouble. For Luke and Sonny and Roy. . .Maybe it would be better if he left.
He had called James only a half-hour ago and the man promised to meet him here. He would have to give him a definite answer then. A yes or no to South America. He had said no at first, but things had changed for him now. Cordova knew that and expected him to reconsider.
The sound of someone behind him prompted him to turn. He watched as Stefan Cassadine moved down the steps and towards him. He had not seen the man since the trial. He had figured avoiding him was the best way to keep peace with Luke.
Stefan smiled in recognition, but it soon faded into concern, “Are you okay? You looked troubled.”
“I’m fine,” he tried to assure.
“What are you doing on the docks so late?” Stefan pressed. “It is unsafe.”
“I was. . .looking for you,” Daniel lied, forcing an over bright smile. “I passed that English paper on ‘Hamlet’ you helped me write, so I thought I would say thanks.”
“You are welcome, but that is not the real reason, is it?” Cassadine pressed. He was startled to realize how well he read this boy.
Daniel released a bitter laugh then, admitting, “You’re like a dog with a bone sometimes.”
“I don’t mean to press,” Stefan apologized. “I just want you to know that you do have a friend with me.”
“I know,” he smiled in gratitude. For some reason, he had always found Stefan an easy person to talk to. Easier than Luke even. “I am actually waiting for someone here. My friend James.”
“And you couldn’t have met at a safer, warmer spot?”
“I was out for a walk,” Jackson started, but then sighed loudly. He needed to talk to someone, he realized. Someone who was unbiased. “Luke Spencer isn’t my real father.”
Cassadine started at the news, asking, “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. I am not his son. I just found out a few hours ago.”
Stefan rested a hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze of support. He knew this pain. He had felt it when a DNA test had ripped Nikolas from him in so many ways.
He surprised even himself by siding with Luke Spencer as he stated, “It does not have to change things for you. Blood means so little sometimes. It is about love, Daniel. The bond a father has to his son is not something that is easily broken. Even if that child is not his by birth, it does not take away that closeness.”
“But that is the kicker--Me and Luke never had that, really. We were. . .friends, I guess. But never a real family. Today just gave me solid proof of that.”
“Then I am very sorry to hear that,” Stefan sympathized. “I thought the two of you had become very close.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” Jackson stated. “Everything’s so screwed up right now. I don’t know what is real anymore. I thought I saw things so clearly. . .but now it is all distorted.”
Cassadine smiled at the analogy, softly adding, “For we see through a glass, darkly.”
“W-What?” Daniel stammered, whirling around to face the other man.
“Forgive me, that is an old Bible verse,” Cassadine stated.
“I know,” Daniel breathed in disbelief, unable to take his eyes off this man. Stefan Cassadine. Was it even possible. . .? “My mother use to quote it all the time. Her name was Melanie Jackson.”
If Cassadine recognized the name, he did not show it. Instead, he questioned, “From New Orleans, correct?”
“Yes. You ever been there?”
“Many times. It is a beautiful city.”
“Filled with beautiful women,” Jackson pressed. “I am sure you’ve appreciated that.”
Stefan chuckled, admitting, “I try not to mix business with pleasure. And my trips there have mostly been about business. But. . .well, I did meet a lovely lady there once. Her name was Ann.”
“That was my mother’s middle name,” Daniel whispered mostly to himself. His mind’s eyes watched in stunned disbelief as the pieces literally fell into place before him.
“Ann is a common name, I suppose,” Cassadine acknowledged, studying the boy closely. An image filled his mind then of a beautiful young blonde waitress nervously chewing the end of her pencil while she took his order. Followed instantly by that of Daniel chewing his pencil at Kelly’s several weeks past.
That was who this boy reminded him of! He was the literal image of Ann Norris. But that could hardly be possible. He knew Daniel’s mother was Melanie Jackson, a troubled woman who had abused drugs and Heaven only knew what else.
Ann had been beautiful and bright. She had been full of energy. She had planned on being someone the world would remember, she had told him once. If Daniel resembled her, it was merely a coincidence. Nothing more.
“Danny Boy!” the booming voice of James Cordova snapped them both back to the present. “Sorry, I’m late.”
“You’re friend, I assume,” Stefan stated. “I will leave you to talk alone.”
“Wait,” Daniel insisted, catching his arm.
“I will stay if you wish,” he assured. “You look very upset.”
Jackson glanced towards James then. No, he needed privacy for this conversation. But there was a part of him that did not want to leave Cassadine without knowing for sure. He had the strangest feeling that if he did not get his answers right now from Stefan, then he never would.
Forcing those ominous feelings aside, he stated, “No, I don’t need you to stay. Go on.”
Stefan hesitated, sensing that he should stay. Something told him he should not leave Daniel alone this night. But it was the boy’s wish, so he must honor it.
James Cordova watched the other man walk away before approaching Daniel. There was an angry fire in his blue eyes, and he knew where it originated from. Spencer had told him the truth, and Danny knew he was behind the revealing of it. But that was okay. He could handle anyone’s wrath, including this boy’s.
“So you know, huh?”
“I want to know how much *you* know,” Jackson demanded. “My real father.”
“I don’t know. And that is the truth,” James insisted. “Yes, I dug up some things on your mother, but mostly because I was investigating you before I hired you. I can tell you little things about her. I can tell you when she came to New Orleans, when she changed her name--”
“Whoa,” he interrupted. “When she what?”
“She changed her name for a brief time. She started using Ann Norris for some reason.”
“Ann,” Daniel softly repeated the name, savoring it. So it was true. Stefan Cassadine could be his father. His mother had been lucid when she had mentioned this place. The Bible verse she had mentioned that Stefan also knew. But the locket. . .how did that play into it? He reached a hand to his neck, belatedly realizing that he had left the necklace at Luke’s.
“Look, Danny, we can sort this out on the flight to South America, okay?” James pressed. “But we need to leave right now--”
“I am not going,” Daniel interrupted.
“There is no reason for you to stay!” Cordova angrily snapped. “Spencer is not your father!”
“Listen, I have some business here that I have to finish. I am sorry, James. But I am staying,” Daniel insisted.
“This will not make my associate very happy. I cannot promise you protection if you stay here, Danny,” James sighed.
“I’m not asking you to,” he assured.
“Just be careful,” he requested, grabbing the kid and hugging him.
Daniel returned the embrace, insisting, “Go see to your business. We’ll talk later.”
“You know how to reach me if you need anything,” Cordova reminded. He hesitated visibly, torn between leaving and staying. Or, even better, dragging the kid with him. But he knew he couldn’t do that. Daniel was making his choice tonight. . .And he had to let him live with it. Or die with it if his unhappy associates decided to defy him and come after the boy anyway. He would avenge Jackson if that was the case, but it wouldn’t matter after the fact. Daniel would still be dead. And dead was dead.
“I hope I see you soon,” James stated honestly, forcing himself to turn and walk away.
Daniel watched him leave before turning his attention back to the mansion on the water. Stefan Cassadine lived there. . .Stefan. . .His father?
It seemed so far-fetched. Coincidental, one might say. His mind argued that many a man was familiar with the Bible and could quote scriptures. So what if Stefan had met a woman in New Orleans named Ann? It was a tourist city. Many people visited it. Ann was a common name.
Yes, his mind argued against it, reminding him of how insane the possibility was. But in his heart. . .In his heart, he knew that it just *felt* right.
But how would Stefan feel about it? He was fine being friendly to a street kid who had gotten him out of a jam once. But as a son. . .how would he react when Daniel announced himself as a long lost Cassadine bastard?
They were a rich family. Powerful and influential. Certainly not prone to claiming the skeletons in the closet. Would Stefan even discuss this with him? Or would Cassadine send him packing with a bribe and a warning to keep his mouth shut?
It was those doubts that faltered him. They made him think he should walk away and leave it all alone. But he knew he couldn’t do that. Not now. Not when he had come so far.
A sound from behind him startled him from his thoughts. He turned, instantly recognizing the person who moved to stand before him.
“What are you doing here?” he cautiously asked.
“You should have left when you had the chance. Now it’s too late.”
Belatedly, Daniel saw the gun in the black gloved hand. He tried to turn away, but a single shot rang through the night air. And then all was silent.
***************
Chapter 46
***************
Roy DiLucca stood in the doorway of Luke’s apartment, watching as his friend sat several boxes on the floor and began taping them shut.
“You moving?” he asked.
“No,” Luke sighed sadly. “This is. . .It’s, uh, it’s Danny’s things. I thought it was time to pack it up and move it out.”
“It is still hard to believe, isn’t it?” Roy added.
“Yeah. Even after six months. . .I still expect him to walk through that door. Has Sonny found Cordova yet?”
“No. But he is still looking. And when he does--”
“When he does, I am going to kill the bastard with my own two hands,” Spencer vowed.
“You do that and his people will wipe you out without blinking,” Roy stated. “Besides, you have no proof it was Cordova.”
“Who else could it have been?” Luke angrily snapped. “He sent that information to Laura because he knew she would tell Danny the truth. He knew he was losing his hold over Daniel. He was scared that Danny was going to turn against him, so he did the only thing he could. He stopped Danny. The only way he could.”
***************
Chapter 47
***************
Chloe Morgan sipped her glass of wine, smiling at the waiter who placed her food in front of her. The Port Charles Grille had been repaired and reopened since the explosion months ago. One would never even know what had happened here.
Turning her attention to her friend, she asked, “How are things going with Luke?”
“They are much better, I think,” Felicia confided. “He is certainly opening up with me a little more.”
“And what about Laura?”
“He is still furious with her for telling Daniel the truth. I don’t think he will ever forgive her for that.”
“And what if he finds out that you were the one who sent that information to Laura?” Chloe asked in a hushed voice.
“He blames Cordova for that,” Felicia whispered back. “He blames the man for everything.”
Chloe shook her head in disbelief, inquiring, “Do you even feel the slightest bit upset over Daniel?”
“Of course I do. I am not completely heartless,” she ensured. “I feel terrible over what happened and how badly Luke was hurt by it. He really cared for that boy.”
“He thought Danny was his son! He took care of him for weeks and then he--” Chloe broke off, the sight of two people entering the dining room drawing her attention elsewhere. Her face filled with fury as Stefan Cassadine and Melissa Bedford were seated across the room from them. “I don’t believe this.”
Felicia followed her attention to the couple, asking, “Are they an item now or something?”
“They have been as thick as thieves for the last six months. It is disgusting, really. That man nearly ruined my life! He almost cost me my eyesight and could have cost me my health. And yet he gets to walk around free as a bird.”
“Chloe, I understand that you are upset, but there is something I need to ask of you,” Felicia changed the subject. “I have confided in you. You know everything that I did as regards to Luke and Laura. Now, I need your word that this stays between us. Please, you can’t tell what I have done.”
“How about we make a deal?” Chloe bargained. “I won’t breathe a word of what you have told me. But, in return, I want you to do some investigating for me. There is something I want you to help me do.”
“And what is that?”
“I want you to help me destroy Stefan Cassadine. Once and for all.”
***************
Chapter 48
***************
Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan were half way through their business meeting when a light knock fell on the door of his penthouse. At Sonny’s bark to enter, his bodyguard opened the door, a concerned look on his face as he announced, “James Cordova to see you.”
Both men stood to their feet, anger brimming in their eyes as Cordova strolled casually into the room. He measured both men with a dark stare before stating, “Word on the street is that you are looking for me, Corinthos?”
“You’ve been a hard man to find,” he pointed out.
“Isn’t that the whole point?” James reminded. “I have certain business connections that needed to be reconfirmed. Making my whereabouts known to the authorities would not have been a bright idea.”
“Coming here alone and unprotected wasn’t a bright idea, either,” Jason snapped.
“Obviously, I am out of the loop because I seem to be missing the point,” Cordova sighed. He reached into his jacket pocket then and retrieved a long, wrapped box. “Besides, you two are not the reason I dropped in. Where’s Danny?”
“Excuse me?” Sonny questioned.
“Tomorrow is his birthday. I brought him a present. Is he around?”
“What the hell kind of a question is that?” Jason shouted. “We both know where he is, don’t we?”
“I don’t have a clue what you are talking about,” James sincerely stated. “Now where is he?”
“He’s gone,” Sonny stated simply. “Danny is gone.”
***************
Chapter 49
***************
“Let me see if I have this strait,” Luke Spencer skeptically stated as he paced the floor of his bar. Sonny and Jason had dropped by unexpectedly with their guest, James Cordova. It had taken both Jason and Roy to keep him from strangling the man on the spot. “This clown wants me to believe that he had nothing to do with Laura telling Daniel that I was not his father. And he doesn’t have a clue what happened to Danny after he left?”
“I have no reason to lie to you,” a clearly worried Cordova insisted. “I left him on the docks, alive and well. He said he had to stay because there was some type of unfinished business he had here.”
“Cut the bull!” Luke shouted in fury. “We both know what happened six months ago. You took him from Port Charles and disappeared with him.”
“And why would I lie about that?” James countered. “Why wouldn’t I just tell you that I had relocated him? I left this town *without* him. He swore that he was staying here.”
“No one in this room saw him again after that night,” Roy confessed. “He just dropped out of sight. We figured he was with you. He had to be. He didn’t even come back to Luke’s place to get his things.”
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Jason agreed. “Why would he tell you that he was staying if he weren’t? And why would he leave town and not take any of this things? His clothes, his money--everything is still at Luke’s.”
Sonny sighed then, softly stating, “I think there is a bigger question to be answered. If he isn’t with James, and he isn’t in Port Charles, then where is he?”
***************
Chapter 50
***************
“Happy Birthday, Daniel.”
“Go to hell.”
Physical therapist Josh Manier smiled at that, stating, “Well, it is nice to see you haven’t let a little thing like a birthday lighten your mood. Always nice to know I can count on your dower attitude to darken my day.”
“Oh, how foolish of me!” Jackson proclaimed, turning his wheel chair away from the barred window to stare down the older man. “I forgot that it is the prisoner’s place to keep the warden in a good mood.”
“You’re not a prisoner,” Josh disagreed. “You are a patient here. You have been for the last six months--”
“Yeah, I’ve heard it, Doc,” he interrupted. “A nice *hospital* with bars on the windows and locks on the door and a scenery that looks more like I am in the woods somewhere. This is no hospital, pal.”
“I brought you a piece of cake,” Josh changed the subject, holding out both of his hands. In one, he held a covered plate. In the other, two distinctive metal objects. “And a birthday present.”
“Crutches!” he exclaimed in mock enthusiasm. “Just what I always wanted.”
Josh shook his head, refusing the let the cynicism damper his mood. With the money he was being paid to watch this kid and get him back on his feet, he could easily take all the wisecracks Jackson had to offer.
“How does it feel to be seventeen?”
“It feels like sixteen,” Daniel snapped, rubbing his temples. “Only with a headache.”
“I’m not surprised,” Josh sympathized. “You had a very serious accident.”
“Yeah,” he sarcastically drawled. “The type where I shot myself in the back. Happens all the time, right?”
Josh stilled in surprise at that. He had been ordered to never mention the shooting. And, as far as he knew, Daniel wasn’t even suppose to know about it.
“Are you getting your memory back?” Josh cautiously asked.
“No,” Jackson sighed. “But I am not stupid enough to believe that I fell out of bed and landed here.”
“You had a serious head injury. A car accident,” Josh reconfirmed the lie he had been instructed to tell.
“Uh-huh,” Daniel skeptically nodded. “I feel more and more like a mushroom everyday. Kept in the dark and feed pure crap.”
“Would you like something for your headache?” Josh asked.
“Yes,” Daniel admitted. “The strongest thing you’ve got, preferably.”
“I will be right back,” Josh promised.
Daniel watched him leave, closing his eyes against the blinding pain in his head. He had awoke to this agony nearly eight weeks ago. He had been scared and confused and uncertain of where he was. A nurse and a doctor had been in and out, usually giving him shots that had just made him sleep again. He had heard words and sentences that had meant little to him in his state of delirium at the time. Broken fragments of conversation that had included statements like “lucky to be alive” and “massive head trauma”. But the ones that stuck out the most had been “gunshot” and “coma”.
No one would discuss the “gunshot” with him. They insisted he had dreamed them saying that. He had been in a car accident, the doctor and his nurse had insisted. But, as Hamlet had put it, the lady did protest too much. It was too rehearsed. Told the exact same way every time.
He had gotten them to discuss the coma, though. Four months. Impossible to believe at the time. He had lost four months of his life, and then another two being their prisoner.
Six months, he shook his head in amazement. Six months missing from the world. He remembered. . .he remembered arguing with Luke over the papers Laura had shown him. He remembered walking to the docks after calling James Cordova. . .and then nothing until he woke up here.
His doctor had told him it was not unusual to experience some sort of memory loss after a serious head injury. But still. . .
He sensed that there was something so important that he needed to remember. But he couldn’t, and the harder he tried to force himself, the more it slipped away.
There were so many questions to be answered. Like what he was doing here? And who was keeping him here?
In those first few days of consciousness, he had not cared. All he had known was the shattering pain in his skull. The doctor had insisted that it would ease in time, and it had. But he still got splitting headaches from time to time.
After a few days, he had began to realize that this was no hospital and he was no ordinary patient. His first thoughts had been that one of Cordova’s unhappy associates had taken a shot at him, and this was one of James’ safe houses. But James had never appeared and the doctor and the nurse had shown no recognition to his name. James wouldn’t do that to him. He would have visited by now or called or at least told him what was going on at some point. Cordova wouldn’t leave him hanging like this.
Then he had considered the possibility that he was the unwilling guest of one of Cordova’s enemies, to be used against his friend at some point. But that had yet to play out, either. All he did know was that he was being well cared for medically, but kept in the dark about his whereabouts for some reason.
But not anymore, he had decided that weeks ago. Unfortunately, it had not been that easy. He was weaker than a newborn and being constantly fed pain pills that usually left him sleepy or too high to care. He hadn’t minded at first because of the headaches, but he had finally just decided to grit them out. He needed a clear head to get out of this dump.
And Josh Manier was helping him with that, unwittingly, of course. His physical therapist had done something even he was unaware of: He had gotten him back on his feet and walking again. Josh didn’t realize that, though. He was still under the impression that his exercises were helping slowly, but that Daniel was still unable to walk without assistance. And he would let the man think that for as long as he wanted to.
“Relief is here,” Josh announced, reentering the room with a small paper cup and a glass of water.
Daniel took it, eyeing the little blue pill. He popped it into his mouth and chased it with the water. “Could I get some more water, please?”
“Sure,” he agreed, turning his back and moving towards the bathroom.
Jackson quickly spit the pill back into his hand and tucked it under the pillow on his bed. He could hear water running in the bathroom and then Manier exited, extending the refilled glass to him. He accepted it and took several sips.
“Thanks.”
“Sure. You will probably start to feel sleepy soon. You want me to help you back into bed?”
“Yes,” Daniel stated, letting the large man assist him from the wheelchair and to the bed. He laid down on it, sighing as if content.
“You know we didn’t get your therapy in this morning,” he pointed out. “Should I come back later?”
“Yes,” Daniel acknowledged. “After dinner.”
“Good. I will see you then.”
He waited until the therapist had left the room before retrieving the pill from under his pillow. He tugged open the dresser drawer beside his bed and pushed aside the clean gowns and linens until his hand connected with the paper cup he had stashed away. He pulled the blue capsule apart then, dumping the contents of the pill into the cup as he had for the past several days.
It was time Josh Manier got a taste of his own medicine. . .literally.
***************
Chapter 51
***************
“You look bright eyed and refreshed,” Josh pointed out as he stood over the bed hours later, smiling in approval.
“It has to be the delicious food,” Daniel insisted. “But. . .I didn’t drink my hot chocolate.”
Josh grinned at that, reaching for the warm mug. This had become a nightly ritual. Danny knew he loved the hot chocolate and always saved it for him. He sat down in a chair beside the boy’s bed and downed the contents of the mug in one huge gulp, grimacing at the bitter aftertaste. Not enough sugar, he thought.
He sat and talked with the boy for quite some time. He was surprisingly chatty tonight. Usually Jackson was just sullen and withdrawn. But this evening Josh couldn’t get him to shut up.
“So, Josh,” Daniel pleasantly stated nearly thirty minutes into the conversation, “don’t you think it is time you told me who is paying you?”
“You know I can’t do that,” he reminded.
“At least tell me where I am.”
Manier rubbed his suddenly heavy eyes. He felt groggy and disoriented. Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind, he stated, “I can’t do that, either.”
“It would make it easier when I leave here tonight,” Daniel announced, tossing the covers aside.
Josh’s groggy mind comprehended that he was fully dressed and. . .walking around the room? He shook his head again, trying to clear it.
“How ya feeling there, Josh? Think you need a nap?”
“What have you done?” he demanded, trying to stand but losing his balance and falling to the floor instead.
“You’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Jackson promised, leaning over the man and reaching for his wallet and key chain. He flipped through the wallet, taking the money and tossing what was left back down on the floor. He walked to the door then, mindful of Josh’s disoriented mumbling as he inserted the key into the lock and turned it.
He smiled triumphantly as it clicked open for him. Freedom. At long last, he was free of this place. He stepped out of the room then and stopped in his tracks. His eyes hastily scanned the surroundings. He didn’t have a clue where he was or how to get out of here.
He turned right and walked down the long hall, cautiously rounding to corner to see a dead end. He turned back then and went back as he had came. He walked past the room that he had been an unwilling guest in for months. This time the hall forked into two different corridors. He took the left one, sighing in relief as a staircase came into view. He carefully crept down it.
This was no hospital, he realized. It was a house. And a maze of one, at that. Once at the bottom of the steps, it took him another few minutes of trying rooms and doors until he finally found one that led outside.
Daniel stepped into cool night air, inhaling the fresh breeze. It was the first time he had seen anything other than the four walls of his prison for quite some time. He glanced around his surroundings then. It looked to him like some type of estate, definitely in the country. A paved road ran in front of the house, but he quickly decided against it. It would be an obvious choice for anyone wanting to track him down. The woods would be better.
He moved towards them then, disappearing into the thick green foliage. He didn’t have a clue where he was going. All he knew was that, if he walked long enough and got lucky, he might find his way back to civilization.
He wasn’t sure how long he walked, all he did know was that he was still weaker than even he had realized. He stopped several times to rest, but forced himself to keep moving. He couldn’t let them catch up with him. He wasn’t going back.
He was thankful for the clear night and bright moon, though, for it gave him enough light to see by. He could at least avoid breaking his ankle in a hole. Somewhere close to daylight, he finally collapsed under a sheltering tree. He gave into the exhausting then, and slept.
***************
Chapter 52
***************
Daniel awoke to the sound of birds chirping over his head and. . .cars! The sound of engines made him sit up from the wet ground. He brushed himself clean of the dew and grass before following the sound.
His long legs carried him to the end of a bluff, a highway below. He gave a shout of triumph, decreeing, “Happy late birthday to me.”
He cautiously made his way down the steep bluff and towards the highway. He stuck his thumb out to hitch a ride. The first few cars passed him by, but then an eighteen wheeler finally slowed and pulled over for him.
He raced to it, opening the cab door and climbing up. A man he guessed to be in his middle fifties stared back at him from behind thick glasses.
The trucker pushed his baseball cap back a little, scratching his baldhead as he waited for the kid to settle in.
“Thanks for stopping,” Daniel stated sincerely.
“I also didn’t,” he scowled. “Name’s Jake Keith.”
“Danny Jackson,” he admitted.
“You look like hell, Danny Jackson,” Jake decreed. “Where you headed?”
“Where am I?” Daniel asked.
Jake put the rig in gear and pulled back into the highway, asking, “Huh?”
“Where am I?” Jackson repeated. “What state am I in? New York?”
“This is Canada, kid,” Jake revealed, realizing the announcement had startled the boy. “You didn’t know where you in Canada?”
“No. Look, I know that sounds stupid, but the truth is even stupider,” Daniel sighed. “I doubt you’d even believe it.”
“Kid, you’d be surprised some of the stories I’ve heard traveling this road. So what is yours? You’re too young to be running from a wife? Running from your parents, maybe? Followed your friends off on some wild adventure and can’t find your way back to the States?”
“I was. . .abducted by aliens,” Jackson stated with a grin. “I just escaped last night.”
“That is the best one I’ve heard yet,” Jake laughed loudly at that, reaching beside him and producing a thermos. “You hungry?”
“Starving,” he admitted.
“Here,” Jake tossed to him. “Chicken noodle soup. My wife makes the best in this part of the country. I am taking this rig to New York. What about you?”
“Port Charles, I guess,” Daniel sighed. “I think my answers are there.”
***************
Chapter 53
***************
Luke Spencer jogged down the halls of General Hospital. Tension flowed through his lithe body and he was coiled so tight he feared he might explode at any moment. An odd assembly of people were gathered in the waiting area of the emergency room.
Tony Jones. Mac Scorpio. Sonny Corinthos and his associate James Cordova. Even Alexis Davis was there. As was a man he did not recognize.
“Tony,” he breathed when he finally reached the man. “What is it? What happened to Lucky?”
“Lucky?” Jones asked in surprise.
“Yes! The message at the club said my son was in the hospital here.”
“It’s not Lucky,” Roy spoke up. “It’s Daniel.”
“Danny,” Spencer breathed in surprise. “What. . .Start explaining, someone.”
“Gladly,” Scorpio agreed. “Dr. Jones called me down here because it is his duty to report all gunshot wounds to the police.”
“Gunshot?” Luke whispered in horror, feeling himself pale.
“He is fine,” Jones assured. “This gentleman brought him here.”
Luke turned to the stranger then, his eyes asking a thousand questions.
“I picked him up hitchhiking in Canada a couple days ago,” Jake Keith admitted. “After dropping off my cargo in New York, I thought it wouldn’t be too much trouble to make sure he got home safe. Only. . .only he got really sick. He said he had a headache and then he started having trouble breathing.”
“His asthma?” Luke asked, turning back to Jones.
“He is stable now,” Tony reassured. “But it is a good thing Mr. Keith brought him by.”
“I almost didn’t,” Jake admitted. “He kept insisting that he would be fine and didn’t want to go to the hospital. He just wanted to call Mr. Corinthos. Which I did for him.”
“I told Jake to bring him here,” Sonny acknowledged. “Alexis was with me and we rushed on over. I called James and he joined us.”
“They called the bar looking for you, but they got me instead,” Roy explained. “I left the note before coming over. I’m sorry, Luke, I should have made things plainer.”
“That’s fine,” Luke assured, glaring at Scorpio. “But what is the good Commissioner doing here?”
“Apparently, we have a real mystery on our hands,” Mac taunted. “I mean, your long lost son shows up and just as quickly disappears. And then, six months later, this nice man finds him hitchhiking in Canada. According to Mr. Keith, Daniel didn’t have a clue where he even was or how he got there. He comes here with an asthma attack and that is when Dr. Jones finds something new and interesting. A bullet hole in his back that wasn’t there the last time Dr. Jones treated him.”
“Maybe Dr. Jones just overlooked the scar before,” Roy suggested.
“Don’t insult me, DiLucca,” Tony snapped.
“Has Daniel ever been shot before?” Alexis asked Cordova in a hushed voice.
“Never,” James insisted.
“I would wager a guess that it is about six months old,” Tony stated. “Around the time he went ‘left’ Port Charles, right, Mr. Cordova?”
“This is news to me,” James snapped. “And I don’t appreciate your accusations.”
“And I don’t appreciate being treated like a fool!” Dr. Jones replied. “Not only has he been shot within the last few months, I ordered a CAT scan because Mr. Keith said he kept complaining of a serious headache. Imagine my surprise when it revealed a recently fractured skull. If I had to guess, it looks like he hit his head really hard on something. Perhaps he hit it when he fell. . .after being shot. You see, a type of injury like that requires expert medical attention. Surgery was done to remove both the bullet and put a steal plate in his skull. Now, I wonder who would have the money and the connections to have a neurosurgeon operate on Daniel and never report it to the authorities?”
“It wasn’t me,” Cordova insisted.
“I find that very hard to believe,” Scorpio snapped.
“Alexis,” Sonny intervened, “do we have to take his badgering?”
“No,” she assured. “He has no legal recourse to be harassing you.”
“Good. Then let’s take this conversation elsewhere.”
Nodding, Luke fell into step beside the others as they walked away from Jones, Scorpio and Keith. He waited until they were a safe distance away to turn to Cordova and demanded, “I know you probably bullied your way into see him already. What is Danny saying?”
“He’s as confused as we are,” James admitted. “He says he woke up in some country estate two months ago. A doctor, a nurse, and later a physical therapist told him that he had been in a car accident and was in a coma for four months. Jones basically confirmed that. He said his head injury was very serious and he was probably comatose for some time. He spent another two months there after he woke up before he managed to escape. That is when the trucker over there picked him up.”
“Who shot him?” Alexis inquired.
“He doesn’t remember. He doesn’t remember anything aside from fighting with you the night he disappeared,” Cordova stated to Luke. “But someone. . .someone shot him and then someone else has been taking care of him all this time. If this was a person after him because they feared his connection to me, then he would be dead. My associates would have never left him alive, much less taken care of him all this time.”
“It could be someone hoping to use him against you,” DiLucca suggested.
“Then why shot him in the first place?” Sonny argued the point. “That makes no sense. He could have died. If they wanted a prisoner, they would have just taken him without hurting him.”
“Not to mention the expense and trouble of finding a doctor to take care of him,” Alexis sighed. “You heard Tony. A specialist was required. Someone saw him through a very difficult surgery and took care of him while he was in a coma. That would require a great deal of money and connections.”
“And Danny doesn’t have that many ‘connected’ friends,” Luke reminded. “Aside from you, Cordova, he doesn’t have anyone that was capable of that kind of bribery.”
“Not entirely true,” James sighed. “I did a little digging into his past when I realized he was missing. There is one other person. . .His father.”
***************
Chapter 54
***************
“Mr. Cassadine.”
Stefan turned at the sound of his name, eying the man he recalled as Daniel’s mobster friend, James Cordova. He glanced back over his shoulder at Melissa Bedford who still stood behind the nurse’s desk. Never taking his eyes off of her, he stated, “I am having a private conversation.”
“Then postpone it,” James demanded.
“I will go and check on him,” Melissa stated just loud enough for Stefan to hear. “See what he wants. And then get rid of him.”
Cassadine nodded, turning his full ire to Cordova and his group of friends. “An interesting lot you travel with,” he decreed, glancing over Spencer, DiLucca, Corinthos, and his sister. “Are you forming your own gang to wreak havoc on the Emergency Room?”
“What does this clown have to do with anything?” Spencer demanded.
“Because this ‘clown’ was the man I last saw Danny talking to before someone put at bullet in him,” Cordova revealed.
If the news of the shooting startled Cassadine in the least, he did not show it. He kept himself firm and composed, reminding, “Yes. And I left him alone on the docks with you. The next thing I hear, he has disappeared from Port Charles. Then he shows up here six months later, after being shot and having his skull nearly bashed in.”
“Interesting you should bring that up,” Cordova stated. “Because Tony Jones tells me that someone did surgery on him. A specialist, he insists. Being part of the administrating board, I would imagine that you have quite a few connections here, don’t you? I bet you known of a few shady doctors who could be paid handsomely to care for Daniel and keep him locked away.”
“I don’t like your insinuations,” Stefan declared. “For starters, *why* would I do something like that?”
“Because the skeletons were coming out of the closet, weren’t they?” Cordova angrily accused.
“What are you talking about?” Cassadine irately demanded.
“I am talking about your son, Daniel Jackson!”
“My. . .my what?” Stefan asked in confusion.
“No way,” Luke shook his head in denial. “There is no way. . .”
“Stefan?” Alexis asked, looking as equally shocked. “Is this possible?”
“No,” he insisted. “I would have had to known his mother and I swear to you, Alexis, I have never met Melanie Jackson before.”
“Then what about her alter ego, Ann Norris?” Cordova challenged, seeing the effect the name had on the other man. “You knew her, didn’t you?”
Numbly, Stefan nodded, “I knew Ann. . .But. . .she would have told me. . .This doesn’t make any sense. . .”
“Ann Norris and Melanie Jackson was the same person,” Cordova revealed, glaring at Stefan. “She was Daniel’s mother. And she was your wife, wasn’t she, Cassadine?”
“Yes.”
***************
Chapter 55
***************
It took Luke Spencer, Roy DiLucca and two orderlies to separate the hands of Stefan Cassadine from around Cordova’s throat. Later, when Alexis Davis looked back on this moment, she would shudder at the cold rage she had seen in her brother this day.
Perhaps James Cordova had made a mistake by dredging up the past and announcing for all to hear that Daniel was the son Stefan had had from his marriage to Melanie Jackson. Or Ann Norris. Or whatever her name was, Alexis mentally sighed. She had never even known Stefan had another wife!
After admitting that he had been married to this Ann or Melanie, her brother had stood still for a several long moments. She could literally see slow reality settling in for him. Ann had given birth to a child that belonged to him. A boy that had come here in search of him, no doubt. A son. . .
He had a son. A child he had never known about until this moment. And then he had lunged. She had been startled at the fury in him when he had attacked James Cordova.
“That is enough,” DiLucca ordered, barely holding onto a still furious Stefan.
Cordova stood on shaky legs, holding his throat. Red marks from where Stefan had tried to strangle him were clearly visible. “You don’t know what you have done,” James warned on a raspy voice. “Do you even know who I am?”
“You are a pathetic excuse for a man!” Stefan hissed. “You use teenage children to do your dirty work and then you leave them to the wolves when things become too complicated! You left my son on those docks to die six months ago!”
“Stefan, please,” Alexis desperately tried to reason with him. “You are upset. Don’t do anything you will regret.”
“Listen to your sister, Cassadine,” Cordova warned. “I never hurt Danny.”
Stefan was literally shaking with rage as he decreed, “No, you just brought him into your filthy world of drugs and corruption. And then you left him to take a fall for you! You bastard! My son took a bullet in the back because of you!”
“We have no proof that the person who shot Daniel was connected to James,” Alexis insisted.
“Who else would want him dead?!” Stefan shouted at her.
“I left orders that anyone who touched him answered to me,” Cordova insisted. “And I will not stop until I find out if someone defied me--”
“You go near Daniel again, and I will eviscerate you,” Stefan warned. “You think you have power? You haven’t seen power. I have power that you can only dream about. Defy me on this, and you will learn in the most difficult of ways.”
“Are you threatening me?” Cordova asked, inwardly shaken by the pure rage he saw in the other man.
“I am vowing it,” he declared. “Anyone who hurts my child will pay a hefty price.”
With that, Stefan jerked away from the hand his sister had rested on his arm.
“Stefan,” Alexis pleaded. “Where are going?”
“I am going to check on my son,” he replied. He let his eyes connected with the stunned ones of Luke Spencer before repeating, “*My* son.”
***************
Chapter 56
***************
Daniel Jackson awoke to the sound of monitors beeping and someone shuffling around in the room with him. The first thing his eyes focused on was an IV drip hanging above him.
“Oh, nooo,” he groaned then, reaching for it and jerking it out of his arm.
They had found him, damn it! They had caught up with him and Keith The Truck Driver and drug him back to his prison. Or worse, he had never escaped to begin with. It had all been a dream. He kicked at the covers around his legs, shaking his head to try and clear it.
“Daniel! Daniel, stop!” Melissa Bedford ordered, rushing to him and pushing him back against the mattress with surprisingly strong hands. “Stop before you hurt yourself!”
“Melissa?” he belatedly recognized, glancing around the room. This was not the same place he had been in for the last six months. This looked like a real hospital.
“Yes,” she gently assured, easing her hold on him. “You’re at General Hospital. You were brought here earlier today. Do you remember?”
“I’m starting to,” he sighed in relief. The truck driver had brought him here, he recalled. And then James had been in to see him. But so had the cops. He had bit his tongue with them. He didn’t know what the score was on the outside, so he would feign innocence until he had a chance to get a story straight with Cordova.
“Is James around?” he asked then.
“I don’t know,” she stated, avoiding his eyes. “Besides, I think your visitation is being limited to immediate family only.”
A sardonic bark of laughter escaped him then. Family? What a joke that one was! He had no family. He thought at one point that he had had Luke, but that was a lie. His mother had sent him here to find--
“Stefan,” Melissa smiled in greeting, interrupting his thoughts.
He glanced up to see Cassadine entering the room. A memory flashed through his mind, startling him. He and Stefan talking on the docks. It was the night he disappeared, he remembered suddenly.
The memory flooded back then. He had called James, walked to the docks and then Cassadine had shown up. They had talked and. . .And he had thought the man was his father!
No, that was insane, Daniel quietly reasoned, shaking his head. Whatever drug the doctors had given him earlier was making him have crazy thoughts. Still. . .he pressed himself to remember more. Stefan had been there and then James had shown up and. . .nothing. He couldn’t remember anything after that, he quietly cursed. It was a blank and the harder he tried, the more it slipped away.
Cassadine was watching him oddly, he realized. His stare so intent it was almost unnerving. Melissa quietly excused herself then, leaving them alone.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, unable to take his eyes off this boy. His son.
“Okay, I guess.”
“I, uh,” Stefan cleared his throat nervously, “I hear you have quite a tale about these last few months.”
“Not really,” he shrugged. “I don’t remember most of it.”
“Do you remember speaking with me on the docks the night you disappeared?” Cassadine gently pressed.
Daniel started at the question. So it had been real and not some false memory or crazy dream! Then that meant---No, he was getting ahead of himself again. He had talked with Cassadine on the docks more than once since his arrival to Port Charles.
“I remember a little,” Daniel admitted. “I had argued with Luke earlier that night.”
“Yes. You fought because you found proof that he was not your biological father,” Stefan reminded.
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Mom told me he was in Port Charles before she died. She thought it was Luke, I guess. Or she wanted me to think that.”
“No, she did not,” Cassadine revealed. “Danny. . .Your mother apparently knew Luke and Laura from the time she lived in Texas. But Luke was not the man she intended you to find when she sent you here. He is not your father because. . .Because I am.”
Stefan watched in angst nerves as a thousand different emotions played across his face then. Disbelief. Hope. Fear. Denial. Perhaps even knowledge.
“You are very quiet,” he finally pressed. “Say something, Daniel. Please.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Daniel muttered. “It isn’t like Hallmark makes a card for these occasions, you know.”
“We are hardly strangers,” he insisted, moving to his bed and sitting down on the edge of the mattress. He looked his son in the eye, decreeing, “I admit that this is shocking for me in some ways, but in others it makes perfect sense. I have felt a connection to you for some time now. A need to protect you that even I did not understand then. Now I do. It is because you are my child, Danny. My stubborn, hardheaded, wonderful. . .wonderful son.”
“Are you sure?” Jackson finally asked, wanting to hope but not daring to.
It was a loaded question, Cassadine realized. Daniel wasn’t just asking about his paternity alone. He wanted to know if his father was certain he wished to take this step and claim him.
“Quite sure,” Stefan vowed, resting a hand against the boy’s slightly pale cheek. Belatedly, he realized that Daniel was not as stunned by the news as he had been. And he wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad sign. “You do not seem very surprised by this.”
“I-I think I already knew,” Danny admitted, rubbing his forehead and cursing his inability to remember clearly. “It. . .It’s a little fuzzy, but something you said to me on the docks made me think it. Still, I wasn’t sure. I mean, a rich, powerful guy like you and my mom. . .I don’t see the connection there.”
“Neither did I until your friend Cordova pointed it out to me,” Cassadine admitted. “I feel rather foolish for not having seen it sooner. You look so much like your mother. Ann--Melanie, as you knew her--was working as a waitress in New Orleans. I was there on business and I met her. She was so lovely and full of life. I was rather taken with her, I admit.”
“And what?” he pressed on. “You had a fling or something? Stefan, that is hardly proof that I am your son--”
“I married her,” he interrupted.
“You what?”
“Married her,” Stefan repeated. “About a month later, she left me. She said our wedding had been a mistake and she regretted it. She asked for an annulment and I granted it to her.”
“She loved you,” Daniel angrily disagreed. “She told me that my father was the only man she ever loved.”
“I thought at one point that she loved me,” the older man admitted. “But she did not love my family. Once she realized just who and what a true Cassadine really was, she did not like it. And she did not want any part of it. She did not want to be a Cassadine, Danny. And apparently she did not wish you to be one, either, because she never told me about you.”
“She did it to protect me,” Danny whispered, repeating the dying words of his mother. “She said she never told you because she wanted to protect me.”
“I would never have hurt you,” Stefan whispered insistently. “My God. . .she must have thought worst of me than even I knew. She would rather see you working for a mobster and living on the streets than with me.”
“She told me about you in the end, though,” he stated. “That has to count for something. She obviously trusted you enough to send me here to find you.”
Cassadine grunted then, stating, “Her choices for your guardian were very slim, Daniel. It was either the state foster care or a criminal who nearly got you killed more than once. . .or me. I suppose I was the lesser of three evils.”
Daniel’s reply was cut short when the door opened and Tony Jones entered. “You look better,” Dr. Jones praised.
“I feel better,” he admitted, daring a glance in Stefan’s direction. His father smiled reassuringly at him.
“When can he be released?” Cassadine asked.
“I want to keep him overnight for observation,” Jones insisted.
“No--” Daniel started to protest, but was cut off my Stefan.
“Yes, he will stay,” Stefan assured the doctor. “If you think it imperative to his health, then he stays.”
“Good. Now, get some rest,” Jones ordered. “Tomorrow, I want another CAT scan and if everything looks fine, you can be discharged. Uh, I can arrange for security to stay with you, if you would like. I mean, considering everything that has happened recently, it might not hurt to have a security guard nearby. Just in case.”
“No need,” Stefan insisted. “I will have my own people see to his security measures now. At least until Commissioner Scorpio can offer me some assurances to his well being.”
Jones nodded, leaving the room then.
“You don’t have to do that,” Daniel pointed out. “I can take care of myself and James--”
“Nearly got you killed,” Stefan interrupted again. “No, you will have nothing else to do with him or his business. When you are discharged, you leave here with me and I will take you to Wyndemere.”
“That isn’t necessary,” he tried to reason. “I get that you feel guilty and all, but you don’t have to play instant father to me.”
“Nothing I do for you is out of guilt or pity,” Cassadine insisted. “It is out of devotion. You are my son, Danny. That means more to me than I have words to express. I *want* you with me.”
Tears stung Jackson’s eyes and he quickly blinked them away. This was more than he had expected when he had set out to find his biological father. It was even more than he had hoped for. “Thank you,” he whispered past the lump in his throat.
Stefan sensed that the boy was fighting hard to keep his emotions under control and wouldn’t press further and risk embarrassing him now. Instead, he stood and reached for the covers, ordering, “The doctor ordered you to rest.”
“You don’t have to tuck me in,” Daniel grumbled, but only half-heartedly. “I’m not a little kid.”
“Humor me,” Stefan requested, pulling up the covers and tucking them around the boy. Impulsively, he leaned down and kissed the top of his head.
Daniel rubbed his eyes, surprised by how exhausted he really was. “Are you coming back tomorrow?” he asked.
“No.”
“You’re not?” he asked in surprise. So much for his promises--
“No, I will not return tomorrow because I am not leaving,” his father insisted, settling down in the chair beside his bed. “I will stay with you until you are released tomorrow. It is time you faced one reality: You are--how do you say it?--stuck with me from now on.”
“You’re an okay person to be stuck with,” Daniel acknowledged. “Good night.”
“Good night, my son.”