Chapter Thirty-one
The other end the warehouse

The tree men walked in an uneasy silence.  Sonny heard some talking coming from a room.  He held his finger to his lips to make sure no one decided this was the time to start up a conversation.  The other man nodded in acknowledgement.  Sonny pressed his ear against the door to try and hear more.  All he could make out was two people talking, one male and one older female.  He was able to catch bits and pieces of the conversation.

“…don’t care what she did…”

“…won’t happen again…”

“That’s for sure.”  There was a faint cracking noise and a thud, as if something heavy hit the floor.

“…take care of the…check on the little Ms. Fighter.”

That was all Sonny could hear, he stepped away from the door and motioned for Jason and Stefan to fallow him.  “I think that is Helena in there,” Sonny said in a hushed whisper.  “Jason, have your gun ready, you stay out of sight.”  Sonny said to Stefan.

“Fine with me.”  Stefan shurged.

They walked to the door and listened, when they were sure that it was just Helena in there Sonny opened the door and walked boldly in.

Helena stood up shocked.  “What’s the meaning of this?” she barked.

“The meaning is you’ve been busted.  Tell me where Erin is and you won’t suffer too much.”  Sonny said smoothly.

“Why boys I have no clue what you are talking about.”  Helena backed up and bumped into the table next to her sofa.

“Shut up you old bat.  Where is Erin?”  Sonny said trying to keep his cool.

Helena slipped her hand into the drawer unnoticed.  “My, my, my, make up your mind.  First you tell me to shut up then…”

“Answer the G*d-d*** question!”

“Gladly.”  Helena pulled the gun out of the drawer.

A shot was fired and everyone hit the floor in reaction.

Helena rolled over onto her back.  She had a searing pain in her stomach.  She looked down at her stomach in shock.  Crimson red blood flowed through her cloths and onto the floor.  She looked up to see who had shot her.

Stefan stood in the doorway holding his gun.  He looked down at the woman he had shot.  He felt no remorse for shooting his own mother.  He had never truly thought of her as a mother, just the woman who had given birth to him.

“How could you?”  Helena asked weekly, her poring out into a puddle on the floor.

“Easy, you have put me through hell and I wanted to be the one to send you there.  Tell Stavros, and Meekos hello for me.”  Stefan watched as mother died right before his eyes.

Lucky and Nikolas came walking down the hall in search of them.  Nikolas was the first to spot the tree men walking toward them in silence.  He was shocked to see his uncle with Sonny and Jason.  “What are you doing here?”  He asked before he could stop himself.

Stefan looked up; he was surprised to see Nikolas standing in front of him.  “The question is, what are you doing here?  I told Mr. Corinthos to just bring Mr. Morgan I didn’t expect for him to bring you with him.”

“They didn’t,” Nikolas paused.  “We found Erin, Luke took her back to the car.”

“Then let’s get out of here.”  Sonny said turning to head back in the direction they had come.

“But what about Helena?”  Nikolas asked.

There was silence.

“She won’t be bothering us any more.”  Sonny said flatly.

They walked back to the car and found that Luke had taken Erin back to the penthouse, he had left a message with one of Jason’s men.

Jason’s apartment

Luke carried Erin out of the elevator.  Bobbie, Robin and Liz all stood up when Luke entered carrying Erin.  Luke had called Bobbie and asked her to meet them there.  “She passed out while we were in the elevator.  Bobbie can you take a look at her?”

Liz looked at Erin then to Luke in horror.  “Was she…?” Liz stammered.

“I don’t think so.  She didn’t say anything about it on the way here.”  Luke said.

Bobbie checked Erin’s pulse and looked at Luke.  “Luke call an ambulance.  We need to get her to the hospital right away.  She might have a concussion.”

“No we’ll take my car, we will get there before the ambulance could find it’s way here.”  Bobbie didn’t argue, all she was concerned with was getting this girl to the hospital.  Robin watched helpless as Luke and Bobbie hurried out the door.

“I’m going to go with them.  Will you tell everyone where we are when they get back?”  Robin asked Liz.  Liz feebly nodded her head yes and watched as Robin chased after them.

Liz looked around the room uncomfortably.  She reached into her blouse and pulled out the necklace she always wore.  Lucky had given it to her before she had left for Africa.  It had a little compass on it, he had told her that his mother had given it to him but he wanted her to have it.  To keep her from loosing her way, he told her. 

Every time she had missed him or anything bothered her she held it to her and she could feel Lucky’s presence.  This time she wasn’t worried out her or anything like that.  She was worried about Lucky.  When she had seen Erin’s face it had taken her back tot he night she had been raped but then it quickly made her thing that Lucky could come back looking like that, or worse.  When he was protecting a friend he always forgot about his own safety and did only what his guts told him. 

At 18 he had the guts of a grown man but he still had a knack for getting himself into tons of trouble, just like in the stories that Laura would tell her from when they were on the run from the mob.  Only now he was a little smarter and could get out of trouble, most of the time.

They were a pair all right.  She used to get into trouble trying to get him to notice her and her would always be the one who bailed her out.  After they had gotten together almost a year ago, he would show off and end up doing something to get into trouble and she would be the one to bail him out.  Only this time, if he were to get in over his head she wouldn’t be able to help him.

Liz started to shake with fright. “Okay, Liz, snap out of it,” she told herself firmly.  “You’re not going to do any good getting hysterical, you have to stay calm.  Lucky is going to come back and he’s going to be just fine,” Liz took a deep breath to calm herself.  She always talked to herself when there was no one else around; it was an old habit from when she hadn’t had many friends.  She had learned to comfort herself and everything.  “That’s good now all you have to do is be patient.”  Liz snorted.  Be patient, yah right.  That had never been anything she had been good at.

Finely Liz couldn’t stand sitting still.  She got up and walked to the window.  G-d the view was beautiful.  It reminded her of the hiking trip Lucky had taken her on, that had been the first time he had told her the he loved her.  Liz smiled and drifted off into her memories.