Silent Prayers Chapter 6-10

Chapter 6

Lucky nearly ran back to the penthouse. All he wanted was to get that man, Daniel Forst, out of his head. But it seemed to be the one thing he couldn’t do. Why couldn’t he just forget? He wondered, as he picked up more speed.

Everyone else had already arrived at the penthouse, and was chatting quietly when Lucky burst through the door. He hadn’t waited on Renaldo to open the door, who was now standing behind him perplexed. Everyone looked at his appearance in shock. He was pale and sweating, and looked like something had knocked his breath out of him. Not taking note of all the people around him, Lucky started to his room when Luke jumped up and grabbed his arm, spinning him around.

“Lucky, what’s wrong?” Luke asked quietly and panicked, “Did something happen?”

Lucky stared at his father, his heart screaming at him once again to just break down and spill everything. But he could barely speak right now.

“Nothing happened, I’m just a little tired because I decided to take a jog.” He lied.

Laura walked over to them and took his other arm.

“Sweetie, are you sure that’s it? You can tell us anything, you know.” She said.

Lucky looked at her for a moment before responding. “I know mom, but nothing’s wrong, really. I’m just worn out from the jog, so I think I’ll just go lie down for awhile, okay?” Lucky asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine. But if you want to come out or talk or something, we’ll be here for awhile.” Laura replied.

Lucky nodded and walked out of the room.

Luke and Laura sat back down, worried now about their son.

“He was lying.” Laura said sadly, “His mind is going through something right now, and he won’t tell us.” Luke reached over and grabbed her hand, seeing she was close to tears.

“I know baby doll. We just have to be patient and try to find a way to get through.”

Emily spoke up from her spot next to Liz. “Mr. Spen-, I mean, Luke, maybe Liz and I could get him to talk. Lucky and I had a talk the other day, and he told me he stayed away from me for so long because he thought I couldn’t forgive him for lying to me. Maybe it’s the same kind of situation. Maybe he’s just afraid to talk to you because he’s scared that there is something you won’t forgive him for.”

“You think he’d say anything to you?” Luke asked.

“He might. I did tell him the other day that he could tell me anything, and he seemed to believe me. And he already tells Liz everything.”

Liz blushed but looked up at the Spencer’s.

“Yeah, I think the two of us together could get something out of him.” Liz said.

Luke smiled at the two girls and thanked them.

“Well, shall we go ahead and eat?” Jason asked.

Mike looked at him amused.

“Is food all you think about?” he returned.

“You gotta eat to live, right?” Jason said seriously.

Bobbie chuckled as she lifted Michael into his high chair.

“At least I’ve got someone raising my grandson that has the necessities of life down.” She said.

In his room, Lucky sat staring at the Cassadine medallion. It had belonged to that man he just saw, Daniel. He was the one that pulled him from the car that day. He was the one that--- Lucky’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock at the door. Opening his bag, he hid the medallion as fast as he could, and reluctantly opened the door. Liz and Emily were on the other side, and came in his room and sat down on the bed.

“Hey Lucky, how ya doin?” Liz asked cheerfully.

Lucky gave her a questioning look, but replied.

“I’m fine. What did you two want?”

“Do we have to want something? We’re you two best friends, right? Can’t we just come in to talk?” Emily asked.

“Of course you can, but like I said out there, I’m tired. So unless this is important, I think we could ‘just talk’ later.”

Liz and Emily frowned at him. Maybe this wouldn’t be as easy as they thought.

“All right, we’ll skip the small talk then.” Liz said flatly, “We’re worried about you, and we think there is something you’re not telling us. So spill it.” Lucky looked at them uneasily. Maybe they were two people he could tell.

He took a deep breath as he pulled up a chair and sat across from the girls.

“I saw someone on the docks tonight. I think I know him, from my past. I can’t remember where or how, though. He said his name was Daniel Forst, but that doesn’t sound right to me. And he was talking to Helena Cassadine, too.”

Emily and Liz looked at each other worriedly at his last statement.

“Lucky, don’t you think that if this involves Helena that you should tell your parents?” Liz asked.

“I can’t! I can’t talk to them about this!”

“Why Lucky? You have to work at getting over the mistakes they made. They were just mistakes.” Emily said.

Lucky became panicked now, and his words came out in a rush. He didn’t notice Luke and Laura were now standing in the doorway.

“I have gotten over them. That’s not the problem!” Liz looked at him confused.

“Then what it is? If your not mad at them for what they did anymore, why can’t you reconcile with them?”

“Because I lied to them too. Something happened when we were on the run, something bad. I did something that I’m completely ashamed of. But I never told them. For a while, I guess I blocked it out, but recently I’ve been having these dreams, that bring back everything. Now I can’t tell them because they’d never forgive me.”

“How can be sure if you don’t even give us the chance?” Luke spoke up.

Lucky jumped at Luke’s voice and stood up stunned. Tears were filling his eyes, and he backed up against the wall, almost like he was afraid of them.

“Lucky, there isn’t anything so bad that we wouldn’t forgive you for it.” Laura said.

“Yes there is.” Lucky whispered as he went on, “Yes there is.”

Luke and Laura walked over to their son. Laura reached out and laid a hand on his arm. It shocked her when her son jumped and drew back.

“How about we go out to the living room and talk about this, okay?” Luke asked.

Lucky shook his head and scooted down the wall.

“No, I just want to be alone right now. I have to… clear my head.” Lucky said.

“It feels better to talk things out.” Laura said, still trying, “Don’t you want to give it a try?”

“Not now, please.” he wiped the tears away as he looked up at them, “Maybe later, okay?”

Laura was going to protest but Luke stopped her.

“All right, Cowboy, we’ll leave you alone for now. But don’t think this conversation is over.”

Liz and Emily stood up from the bed and walked out, Luke and Laura following them. As soon as the door was shut Lucky let all his tears out. He was going to have to tell them now. He couldn’t avoid it any longer. All he had done for the moment was simply delay the truth from coming out.

Chapter 7

Helena sat at her desk, studying the latest reports that had been handed to her. The man she had put on Lucky had discovered that he was staying at Jason Morgan’s penthouse. Not only that, but the Spencer’s seemed to be regular visitors there. If this had been a normal day, she would have been furious that the rift between parents and son seemed to be closing. But after Daniel’s visit, this was good news. Lucky was going to need his parents to get through this.

She would never admit she cared. It was just concern. Concern for a boy that she accidentally put in danger at a young age. It could just have easily been Nikolas. All she was doing was following the example of Stefan and Luke. No matter how much they feuded, they would not harm each other’s children. Picking up a picture of Lucky, she ran her fingers over his face. For a Spencer, he really wasn’t all that bad. He was intelligent, knew how to handle people, and could think on his feet. Had she been able to totally break his loyalty for his parents when he worked for her, he would have been an invaluable asset. Luke and Laura Spencer didn’t deserve him. They had named him right, though. The boy had lived through ten years on the run, been shot, stabbed, fallen into a bog, and once survived Daniel Forst. She silently prayed he could do it again.

She could warn him, but would much good come from that. If she stayed on the inside with Daniel, she might be able to mess up his plans. But if she told, Daniel would have her killed. Not only that, Luke would kill her too for what she did.

Lucky woke up late. He wandered into the main room and found a note. Jason had some business to attend too, and Emily had gone back home, but would be around a lot to visit. He also found that Latecia had taken Michael out for a walk. Just then he heard a knock on the door, and Renaldo stuck his head in.

“Mr. Cassadine to see Ms. Quartermaine.” Renaldo announced.

Lucky stared at Nikolas as he entered. He was too emotionally worn to get into another fight today.

“Emily’s not here. She went home.” Lucky said.

“Oh. Okay.”

Nikolas stood there, a little nervously. Was he just supposed to turn around and leave now? He found himself wanting to stay there and talk to his brother. He was his brother, even if he denied it. And he looked like he needed a friend at the moment. Perhaps he could help.

“Did you want something else, or does it take this long for your brain to register what I said.” Lucky said.

Nikolas sighed. Perhaps he couldn’t help. He didn’t want to get drawn into another quarrel started for no good reason.

“No, that was all.”

Lucky regretted what he said as he saw Nikolas turn to leave.

“Hey, Niky, um, I’m sorry about that. It was just kinda reflex, I guess.”

Nikolas stared back at him. Lucky had just apologized to him? Not only that, but it had even sounded sincere. For the second time, he changed his mind. Perhaps he could help.

“That’s all right. Growing up learning not to be nice to Cassadines is probably a hard habit to break.”

“Yeah, I guess it is. Truce is still on, right?” Lucky asked.

“Of course. Anything I hold against you is purely because you’re a jerk, not because you’re a Spencer.”

Lucky let out a small laugh before he could help himself. It what just because of all the stress, though, he told himself. He would have laughed at anyone to relieve a little bit of his jumbled mind. Nikolas smiled back, though.

“So you here all alone?” he asked.

“Yeah, everyone had somewhere to go, and I just slept in too late to go with them.”

“I seem to have done the same thing. Stefan was gone when I got up, and I missed Emily now, too.”

There was an awkward silence now. Neither knew what to say, but were reluctant to end a conversation where they were actually getting along.

“Lucky, uh, are you okay? You looked a little, uh, stressed out.”

“So what’s new?”

“If you want to talk about anything… I mean, I know we still aren’t on great terms, but sometimes it’s nice to talk to someone who’s in the same position as you. And if your problems are with you family, I could certainly sympathize with you there.” Lucky looked a Nikolas for minute. Maybe he wasn’t all that bad…

“Well, you know, we should probably stay away from discussing family problems, or we’d be at each other’s throats again. But you know, if you want to just, I don’t know, hang out or something, since both of us seem to be alone for the day. Of course you could probably go catch Emily at the Q’s or something. Never mind.”

“No, Lucky, I think that would be great. Have you eaten yet?”

“No, I just got up.”

“Great.” Nik said happily, “You want to go get something at the PC Grill?”

“Um, I don’t know, I mean that’s rather public, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but that’s okay, right?” Nik said a little hurt, “Unless you don’t want to be seen with me.”

“Nah, that’s fine.” Lucky said smiling, “Besides, we can get all those shocked looks from people.”

Lucky wrote a quick note, and the brothers left for the grill.

Chapter 8

They were halfway through their meal, and everything was going surprisingly well. Nikolas talked of what his life was growing up in Greece, and Lucky shared stories of Lulu with him.

“Lucky, can I ask you something?”

“Sure, what?”

“Well, I’ve talked about my past, but I really don’t know that much about yours. I know you grew up on the run and all, but what was that like?”

Lucky looked down and waited a moment before he responded.

“It was just life. You know, we had good and bad moments just like any other family.”

“Except your bad moments were normally life threatening.” Nikolas said.

Lucky nodded. “Yeah. But it’s not as bad as it sounds. I was never really scared.” He lowered his voice to a whisper, “Except for maybe once.”

“When was that?” Nik asked, carefully.

“There was this one time that I got separated from my parents for awhile.”

“How long was awhile?” Nik prodded.

“About six months.”

“Six months? Lucky, that’s more than awhile. How old were you?”

Lucky replied, his voice flat, “Seven.”

Nikolas looked at him in surprise. He had lost track Stefan once at an airport when he was seven. They were off to another boring meeting with some royalty, and he had wandered off. He’d only been lost for two hours, and it had scared him to death. He couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like to lose your parents for six months.

“How did you survive without them for that long?”

“I knew how to take care of myself. And we had back up plans in case something like that happened. I found a friend of my father’s.” Lucky said, moving uncomfortably in his chair. “Eventually, mom and dad found out where I was.”

“Why did it take them six months to find you, especially if you were with one of Luke’s friends?”

“It just did, okay?”

Nikolas was about to ask more questions, but the waiter arrived then with the check.

“Just put it on the Cassadine bill, okay.” Nikolas said.

“No, wait, my half will be cash.” Lucky said quickly.

“Lucky, stop. Put your money away.” Nik then turned to the waiter. “On the bill, as I said.”

The waiter nodded and walked off, as Lucky gave Nikolas a look.

“I can pay for it myself, you know.”

“Yeah, but I’m the one that asked you to come to the grill, therefore I pay.”

“Well the other time you paid for my lunch here with Elizabeth, you didn’t invite me, so me paying this time evens it up.”

“Lucky, just shut up and let me pay, all right?”

Lucky regarded him with a suspicious eye for a minute, but then he just smiled and nodded.

“Fine. But this is the last time.”

“Whatever you say Spencer.” Nik replied smiling.

“So what now?”

“Huh?”

Lucky got a little nervous and avoided eye contact as he talked.

“Well, I mean, did you want to do anything else today?”

Nikolas allowed himself a small smile. His brother actually wanted to spend time with him.

“Sure, what did you have in mind?”

“I don’t know... you want to go see a movie or anything?” Lucky suggested.

“I’ve never really gone to the theater that much.”

“Oh yeah. Um, well…”

They sat there not knowing what to say. They didn’t want this to happen. They had been getting along so well, but now their different up bringings were showing up. Then Nikolas had an idea.

“You ever gone water skiing?”

Lucky look up surprised. “You’re kidding, right? I mean, yeah, I have, but you?”

Nikolas smiled. “Well life as a Cassadine isn’t quite as morbid and boring as you think. I got Uncle to let me keep a speedboat out on the other side of the island. Thing is, it kind of take two people, you know, someone has to drive, so I haven’t had a chance to ski in a long time.”

“Well if you’re serious, I can certainly drive, as well as ski. When I was down in Hawaii once, dad taught me how.”

“I don’t know what was more shocking about that statement. That you actually got to live in Hawaii for awhile, or that Luke Spencer knows how to water-ski.” Nik replied.

Lucky laughed as he replied, “Yeah, well life on the run could be glamorous at times. And all Spencers are people with many talents.”

They got up to leave then, a Spencer willingly following a Cassadine to Spoon Island for an afternoon of fun.

It was early evening, as Luke paced back and forth. Laura stared at him irritated.

“Could you please sit down, Luke?”

“Laura, our son has been gone all day, and he only left a note that says ‘Gone out to eat, be back later.’ I’ve had Jason check all his normal places. He’s not at Kelly’s or the boxcar, or anywhere.”

Liz and Emily entered the penthouse then. They smiled at Laura, and noticed how wound up Luke was.

“Hello girls. Have you seen Lucky?”

“Not since the last time you asked us Mr. Spen, uh, Luke.” Emily said.

Jason walked down the steps, slightly amused at Luke. “You know, Lucky can take care of himself. Maybe he just wanted to be by himself for a while. I know what that’s like.”

The door opened then, and Lucky walked in laughing, with Nikolas behind him. Everyone looked at them, shock evident on their faces. Lucky’s smile faded quickly, and he looked down.

“Uh, hi everyone.”

“Lucky. You had us worried, you know.” Luke said confused. “Your note wasn’t very specific.”

“Yeah, well, I really didn’t know what all I was going to do when I left today.”

Laura looked at her boys, and couldn’t help but smile. They looked like they had been getting along when they came in. It saddened her, though, that they looked like they’d been caught with their hand in the cookie jar when everyone saw them together. “So what did you end up doing?” she asked.

Nikolas could see that Lucky didn’t really want to speak up, so he did it for him. “Um, well, I came by looking for Emily this morning, but Lucky was the only one here. So we went out for breakfast, and then we went skiing behind Spoon Island.”

There was a deadly silence, then. Everyone was waiting for the blow up from Luke. But it never came.

“Well, Niky, since you’re here, you might as well stay for dinner with the rest of us.”

Though it didn’t seem possible, everyone’s eyes widened even more at Luke’s words. Luke just walked over to the table as if nothing had happened. If the Cassadine boy had actually gotten Lucky to enjoy himself for once, he wasn’t going to ruin it. He just didn’t want to see Laura smiling at him about it. Lucky and Nikolas exchanged glances, and then sat down with everyone else. Lulu raced over and sat on Nikolas’ lap. Still no remark from Luke though. This was certainly an interesting change in behavior, from more than one Spencer.

Chapter 9

For once Lucky woke up early the next morning. He shook his head as he remembered last night’s dinner. Neither Luke nor Nikolas said much, but they hadn’t fought, either. And it felt good to have his whole family there. Not only that, but his closest friends, Jason and Emily, and of course Liz. It made him realize how lonely living on your own could be.

After breakfast, Lucky headed out the door. He knew that Jason knew he wouldn’t stay at the penthouse for free, and that was why he said Lucky could do more odd jobs to stay there. The thing was, Jason already had people doing most things for him, so he really had to stretch to come up with anything for Lucky to do. And since Jason owned part of Luke’s, Lucky was now keeping the books there. He didn’t like doing jobs there, but he didn’t want to argue.

Two hours later, he was almost done. It had taken him so long, cause, well, Luke wasn’t all that great at it, and there were several mistakes that had to be corrected. Looking up when the door opened, he almost groaned out loud when he saw his father. Luke nodded at him.

“So, did you fix everything in there?”

“Well, it wasn’t easy, but I got it all worked out.” Lucky replied, stretching.

Luke sat down across from the desk and put his feet up on it. “You know, there is still that matter of telling your mother and I whatever it is that you’re hiding.”

Lucky was silent. He knew this was coming. He didn’t know if he could survive it. Well, he was still a Spencer, though, which meant he could still stall for quite awhile. “Don’t you want mom to hear this, too?”

“Of course. She’s waiting in the car.”

“You know, I really don’t want to talk with you too unless…”

“Liz is here, too, if that’s what you wanted.” Luke cut him off. “If you want to try and stall even longer, forget it. I even have Jason in his own car with Emily.”

“Covered all the bases. What rule was that again, when we were on the run, 7, 8, 2,000?”

“Now you’re not stalling, you’re just babbling. Come one, let’s go. We’ll take this back to the penthouse.”

Lucky thought briefly of running for it. But what was the use?

Luke, Laura, Liz, Emily, and Jason sat around the penthouse, waiting for Lucky to come out of his room. He had gone in there saying there was something he needed to retrieve. There was a knock at the door, and Renaldo announced a Mr. Cassadine. As Nikolas walked in, Luke shook his head. So that was the urgent phone call Lucky had made before they had exited Luke’s. But then Luke really got a shock, for behind Nikolas came Stefan, as well as Alexis. Who knows what would have happened then, if Lucky hadn’t appeared.

“Dad, it’s all right. I asked that they all come here.”

“Well would you mind if I asked why you invited these vampire bats to a family discussion?” Luke asked angered.

Lucky’s eyes went dead as he replied.

“Because I’m going to tell you everything, but there are parts that I don’t know about. I though they could help explain it.”

Stefan cleared his throat. He didn’t feel up to the Spencers’ games.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I really don’t see how my nephew or sister or I could be of any help to whatever catastrophe you have gotten yourself into now.”

Lucky slowly brought up his hand. While holding on to the end of the chain, he let the Cassadine medallion drop and dangle. With a quick glance around, he knew he had everyone’s attention now. Alexis was the first to find her voice.

“How did you get that?”

“I can tell you how, but I need a little help with who it belonged to.”

“Lucky, we can figure this out on our own. Bringing in the devil won’t help anything.”

“Dad, please.” Lucky pleaded. “I need to get this all figured out, and they aren’t the enemy.”

Luke was going to protest more, but something about Lucky’s face changed his mind.

“All right then, have a seat.” Luke relented.

Liz, Emily, Nik, and Jason moved to the floor as everyone else took a place on the two sofas. Lucky sat by himself in the chair, staring at nothing, but careful not to look at anyone. Laura decided to start the conversation.

“Now, Lucky, why don’t you start by telling us what it is you’ve done that you don’t think we could ever forgive you for.”

Lucky whispered, with all the emotion he had in him. “I killed a man.”

Chapter 10

A long drawn-out silence followed. Maybe everyone was waiting for him to say he was joking. He never did.

“Lucky, what are you talking about?” Laura asked.

“You wanted me to tell you what I did, so I’m telling you.”

“Well maybe you should start from the beginning, Cowboy.”

“You remember when we got separated?” Lucky asked his parents.

Luke and Laura both nodded, worried where this was leading.

“Well that’s when it happened.”

“Lucky, you were seven years old.” Luke said.

Tears started to well up in Lucky’s eyes now. “I know.”

No one seemed to know what to say, so Jason just asked the obvious.

“Who did you kill, and how?”

“I don’t really know who it was, but I shot him.”

“There had to be a reason, Lucky. Why did you shoot him?” Luke asked.

Lucky mumbled, but could still be heard. “Because I’m a horrible person.”

Luke was slowly getting angry now. “Don’t think for a second that I believe that. I know that if what you’re saying is true, you probably had a valid reason for it. Now there is something you’re still not telling us about that time. Why don’t you start from the moment you realized we weren’t there, till this happened.”

Lucky sighed, and he trembled a little. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Nikolas wanted to help him. Stefan didn’t know he had spent all of yesterday with him, and that he was starting to like him as a brother, but that didn’t matter right now.

“Lucky, it’s all right. There’s no rush. Just take your time.” He said gently.

Lucky nodded and continued, still not looking at anyone.

“It was at an airport, somewhere in Canada, right?” Lucky looked up just long enough to see Luke’s nod before continuing.

“We were in a rush, like usual. Mom and Dad were hard to recognize because they had hats and sunglasses on, and looked just like everyone else there.”

“So you lost track of us, and found my friend Luis there, right?” Luke finished.

“Not exactly.”

“What?” Laura said confused. “Sweetie, that’s what you told us happened.”

Lucky swallowed hard. “I lied. I was keeping up with you guys, even though it was hard. But then someone, it turned out to be Luis, pulled me back through the crowd.”

Luke was confused. “What? Why?”

“He said it was part of a plan you had arranged. That we needed to separate for awhile so it would be harder for Frank Smith’s men to follow us.”

Luke was angry now. “I never told him to do that! The one thing I always tried to do was keep us together.”

“I know that, but Luis was a friend. One of the only ones we had… Anyway, he took me out to his car, and we drove for a long time. We stopped off at a few hotels, so I think it must have been three days later that we finally stopped. Luis took me to some big mansion. He told me that you and mom where inside, but I had to wait in the car for a moment while he double-checked everything. While I was sitting there…”

Lucky suddenly dropped of his sentence. Luke and Laura were sitting there in shock, wondering how all of this could have happened without them knowing, and dreading what Lucky still had to tell them. Stefan and Alexis sat a little uncomfortably. They were a little afraid as to why they were here. All signs of his story were pointing to yet another evil act committed by their family, since he had a medallion. Jason sat there blankly; no one could really tell what he was thinking. I mean he held the same expression when he was having a good time with Michael, and when he was changing his diaper. Emily and Nik sat there with pity. They’d never heard Lucky talk much about life on the run, and now they were thinking they didn’t want him too. Liz, though, crawled over across the floor and took Lucky’s hand.

“What happened then, Lucky?” she asked.

Looking up into her eyes, he felt safe, and squeezed her hand as he began again.

“Some man came up from behind the car, and opened the door. I thought it was Luis but it wasn’t. I tried going out the other door, but he grabbed me. I struggled and kicked, but he was way too strong. I reached up once, and my hand grabbed on to this medallion. As I kept fighting, it broke off from around his neck. Then… then something hard hit me over the head and I blacked out.”

Lucky saw Liz crying and regretted her being here. “Liz, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking about…”

“No, Lucky, I’m crying because this happened to you.” She said sadly.

Luke didn’t want to interrupt, but he had too. “Cowboy, why have you waited until now to tell us this?” he asked softly.

“I didn’t remember it. I mean, I blocked it out, or at least my mind did. But I’ve been having these dreams, or nightmares, that brought everything back.”

Luke swallowed hard, remembering how he and Laura had finally found Lucky. This story was not going to be pleasant. “All right kiddo, go on.”

Lucky kept hold of Liz’s hand as she rested her head on his knees.

“When I woke up, I was in some room, in the mansion. Luis was standing over me, along with another man. The man that I saw the..”

He broke off, realizing he had only told Liz and Emily about Daniel Forst. Luke became very anxious, though. “The man that you saw where, when? Has this been recently?”

“I- I saw him on the docks two days ago.”

“That was why you came rushing in here looking like the sky had fallen?” Luke asked, already knowing the answer.

Lucky had nodded.

“What was he doing on the docks?”

“He was talking to someone.”

Luke got a little impatient. “Who, Lucky?” He changed his voice to sound more caring. “Cowboy, this could mean trouble. I just want you to tell me so I can help you. Now who was he talking to?”

Lucky answered in a whisper. “Helena.”

Liz and Emily knew that was coming, but everyone else had shock and anger on their faces. Well, except for Jason, who still held the same look. Luke began to rise, but Laura stopped him.

“Luke, sit. We have to hear the rest of the story.”

Alexis and Stefan exchanged a glance. Yep, this all led back to their family. Lucky got a nod from Laura and went on.

“They were both standing over me, I was asleep on a bed, and I asked them where mom and dad were. The man that I saw, on the docks, he said his name was Daniel Forst, but I don’t think I ever knew his name before. But Daniel told me that you guys had been killed by Frank Smith’s men. I didn’t believe him, and I got up and tried to run out the door. But he grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me around and...” his voice cracked as he continued, “he hit me with the back of his hand, and I fell down. He kept kicking me and hitting me” Lucky breathed in deeply, sobbing now. Laura got up and walked over to her son, as Liz moved back. She enveloped him and big hug and stroked his hair.

“It’s all right Lucky, it’s all right.” She comforted him.

Lucky pulled back and wiped his eyes. He was trembling but forced himself to go on. “I’m not done yet.”

Laura smiled at him encouragingly, and sat back down by Luke, who was wiping his own tears away.

“The next couple of days, they kept me in my room. Luis wouldn’t talk much to me. When they let me out, I saw that Daniel ran a sort of organization. He was an assassin. People would come there a lot. Daniel was normally angry at them. And when he was angry at someone, he would have them…killed. I had to stay in the house, and one day I was finishing up breakfast when Daniel walked by. He said he had a meeting, and that I should sit in on it with him. The person he had the meeting with messed up some job. Daniel wanted to punish him, but he thought…”

Lucky stopped and just sat there. Alexis was more than curious by now, and prodded on to find out about this Daniel had gotten the medallion from.

“He thought what, Lucky?”

Lucky covered his mouth and tried to hold the tears back.

“I can’t say.”

“Why Lucky?” Laura asked.

“Because you’ll hate me if you know.”

Luke and Laura both felt their hearts break. They wanted to tell their son that that wasn’t possible, but they couldn’t make their mouths work. Stefan realized this. He felt saddened, but why? This was only the little Spencer brat, who had been chosen over Nikolas. That wasn’t his fault, though, Stefan realized. Lucky was an innocent child, who seemed to have been hurt badly in the war between their families.

“Lucky, your parents could never hate you.” Stefan said. “I’m sure they’d tell you that themselves right now, if they weren’t shocked at you even thinking that.”

Laura nodded to agree with him as she bit down on her lips to try and regain herself. Nikolas was a little surprised that his uncle had spoken up, but decided he shouldn’t be. He always knew his uncle had a good heart. He caught Emily’s eye and smiled at her. She crawled over, and Nikolas held her close. Liz took Lucky’s hand again, and kissed it. Lucky trembled violently now.

“He thought that I should do it. That I should learn a lesson in how to make people obey me. He stood up, and walked over to a cabinet, and pulled a gun out of it. He placed it in my hands. I instantly dropped it, and he slapped me for it, and made me pick it up. He forced my hands around it..”

The tears were streaming down his face, but he made no effort to wipe them away. Everyone realized that right now he wasn’t with them. He was back in that mansion, in that ‘meeting,’ holding that gun.

“The person that had messed up his job for Daniel was a man in about his thirties. His hair was blond and his eyes were blue. His face was so scared, and his eyes… they were so disturbing. They had regret and sadness and pity in them. Pity for me when I was the one that had to hurt him. I tried to run, but Daniel had a hold of me.”

Lucky dropped Liz’s hand and brought his feet up on the chair, and hugged his knees to his chin. No one made a sound.

“He put his hands over mine, and forced me to pull the trigger. I killed a man I didn’t even know!”

Lucky’s last words had come out as a shout, and he completely broke down. Liz backed up crying and went over to Emily and Nikolas. Luke and Laura were over to Lucky’s side in a flash. But he was too much in pain at the moment to realize they weren’t going to hurt him like Daniel had. He fought them, and Luke had to physically hold Lucky’s arms and legs down as Laura spoke softly to him. Eventually he grabbed on to both of his parents, and cried until he fell asleep. Luke sighed as looked down at his son. There was still much to be told, done, and talked out, but it would have to wait. Right now all that was important was that his son needed him, and he would be there.