Dearly Beloved

By Melanie Walker

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gia Campbell lay in her bed alone. She had decided, as she lay there alone that this was all Emily Quartermaine’s fault. Nikolas and she would never have had that last huge fight if Emily hadn’t asked Nikolas to help her move into her dorm. Nikolas was decidedly unrealistic where Emily was concerned. He said that they were just friends, but anytime Emily had a problem Nikolas went running off to help her. She was going to have to do something about Emily if she wanted to keep Nikolas to herself. As she lay there alone, in the dark, a plan started to form in her head. My brother’s a cop, it won’t be too hard to do, she smiled to herself.

 

 

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Nikolas Cassadine was alone in his bed, it was by his choice, because Gia had lost it when he had volunteered to help Emily move, and he just couldn’t deal with her right now. Just the thought of Gia being pissed at him for helping Emily unnerved him. He didn’t know what her problem was lately. Any time he helped Em, or Lucky or Liz, Gia flew off the handle. She had known when she got involved with him that he had three friends that he was tied to. The fact that they normally got pushed to the side when Gia needed or wanted something irritated him and didn’t seem to bother her. He missed having his friends, he was upset that he had to worry about upsetting somebody when he wanted to help one of them. Maybe it’s time we stand back and reevaluate our relationship, he decided, as he lay there alone in his bed.

 

 

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Emily Quartermaine lay alone in her bed, her roommate was sleeping peacefully but Emily couldn’t sleep yet. She couldn’t put her finger on it but something was off. So she lay there and stared at the ceiling. Gia had been yelling at Nikolas when they left, she couldn’t figure out why Nikolas had brought her, he had to know how Gia felt about her and Liz. And Liz and Lucky, there was something going on there, they had seemed to be happy enough. But the smiles they had on their faces never seemed to reach their eyes and Liz had been watching Jason intently when he had dropped by to see if Emily was settling in okay.

 

Emily smiled as it suddenly dawned on her why she couldn’t sleep, it was too quiet. There were no Quartermaine’s screaming at each other, or loudly discussing another member of the family. There was no bellowing or crying, she grinned to herself as she rolled over and pulled a pillow into her arms, College was going to be great!!

 

 

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Emily was laughing as she and her roommate Kylie James walked out of English 101.

 

“No, I’m telling you Damon insisted that he was serious. And I’ll tell you right now, the only way I’m jumping out of an airplane is if it’s on fire,” Kylie was saying as they made their way out to the common area of Port Charles University, “and ready to blow up!”

 

“Damon, skydiving? He’s scared of heights isn’t he?” Emily asked as they sat beneath one of the trees, waiting for their erstwhile friend to show up. Damon Phillips was notoriously late, he was probably flirting with some girl in his Physics class.

 

“Yes, but he said that one of his Fraternity buddies told him that the rush was worth it.”

 

“I can hear him now, ‘You didn’t tell me we were going to be so high off the ground’, he’ll probably throw up,” Emily laughed as she mimicked him.

 

“Did I hear someone who sounds like me?” Damon asked as he came out from behind the tree they were sitting under. He plopped down on the grass between them, his head resting in Kylie’s lap and his legs resting over Emily’s.

 

“Nah, I wouldn’t do that,” Emily smiled at him. She loved college, she loved her new friends, and she even loved her classes. Edward had been upset when he found out she was going to PCU instead of some Ivy League college. She’d had to explain, yet again, that her grades weren’t good enough to get her into the Ivy League schools that Edward or even her parents’ wanted her in. She’d had to promise, after finishing her first year at PCU that she would transfer to another school. Once she had convinced him that she would do fine at PCU she’d had to stop him from renting an apartment for her, half the fun of going to college was living in the dorms.

 

She assumed that Nikolas and Gia were still together, she wasn’t really sure, since they had helped her move into her dorm over a month earlier she hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him or Liz or Lucky. She sometimes wondered if her friends even remembered that she existed. She didn’t miss them too much though, she had new friends. And Kylie and Damon were carefree and friendly, they were from the same hometown in Tucson, Arizona. Damon had already been going to school at PCU and Kylie had decided to follow him. They insisted they weren’t dating, but they did everything together and always invited Emily to tag along.

 

She no longer felt like the consummate third wheel. Or was it fifth wheel? Her on again/off again relationship with Zander Smith was getting on her nerves and was currently off again. If she never saw her old friends, she always saw Zander. He made the lamest excuses known to man to explain why he was on the campus when he wasn’t taking any classes and she was pretty sure that he was seeing someone. She’d been able to blow him off for the last week by using Kylie and Damon as a cover, but she realized that sooner or later she was going to have to confront the issue.

 

“Okay, so who’s up for a party at Sigma Delta Phi?” Kylie asked as she played with Damon’s hair.

 

“Party? I’m always up for a party,” Damon stated tapping his fingers on the ground to an invisible beat that only he could hear.

 

“Well it is Friday night. It wouldn’t be Friday if the Sigma’s weren’t throwing a party and Damon wasn’t up for it,” Emily giggled.

 

“Hey we didn’t go last week,” Damon pointed out.

 

“Yeah, but that was only because you had, and I quote, a hot date with a blond with legs to die for, that I may get lucky with,” Kylie smiled.

 

“Well I didn’t get lucky, but it was a hot date and she did have legs to die for,” Damon said smugly.

 

“Yeah, but was she a blond?” Emily asked her eyebrows raising.

 

“Not a natural,” Damon smirked.

 

“God you’re disgusting,” Kylie groaned tweaking his nose.

 

“Okay, so, party tonight? Cool, cool.”

 

“Emily? Emily Quartermaine is that you?” Emily turned around in shock that someone actually recognized her and came face to face with Nikolas Cassadine.

 

 

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Nikolas was in shock. What had happened to his best friend? She didn’t look like Emily Quartermaine anymore. She had cut her brown hair to shoulder length and it now sported blond and red streaks, she had it pulled back in a ponytail and had no make-up on. She was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a black T-shirt. And she had a man sitting on top of her. This was not the Emily that he knew.

 

“Nikolas? What are you doing here?” Emily asked as she pushed the young man’s legs off hers so she could stand up. She gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek. Nikolas shot a quick glare at the young man as her friends watched in amused silence.

 

“My uncle wanted me to meet with some people this morning, I just finished and saw you, sitting here,” Nikolas said slowly.

 

“Hey Em, Damon and I are going to head over to Student Union do you want me to pick up your mail?” the girl interrupted as she and the young man named Damon stood up.

 

“Oh, yeah. Let me find my key,” Emily dug around in her pockets and pulled a key ring out. She hesitated as she handed it to the girl, “You are going right back to the room after Student Union, right?”

 

“Yeah, yeah. Cripes one time you get locked out and suddenly I’m not trustworthy anymore,” the girl grinned to show that she wasn’t serious as she took the key, Emily watched them walk away.

 

“Friends of yours?” Nikolas asked.

 

“Yeah, oh my god I should have introduced you. My manners are atrocious since I started school,” Emily laughed, she slung her backpack of her shoulder as they started to walk in the opposite direction.

 

“No biggie. Next time,” Nikolas said as he led her to where he had parked his car.

 

“Sure, next time. So how’s everything going?”

 

“Fine… Gia moved out.”

 

“What?”

 

“Yeah, we had a big blow out the weekend we helped you move in, she moved into a room over Kelly’s.”

 

“I’m sorry, I know she…. Well…”

 

“Don’t worry about it Em, I know you guys weren’t the best of friends.”

 

“Yeah but you liked her, maybe I should have tried harder,” Emily said looking down at her feet. She definitely had not wanted to try harder. It burned her to remember that Gia had blackmailed her after that whole Ted incident. And still Nikolas had dated her, slept with her. Maybe forgiveness wasn’t in her nature.

 

“Well I tried, and look where it got me.”

 

“So… how’s everybody doing?”

 

“You mean you haven’t talked to Lucky or Liz since you came here?” Nikolas asked in surprise. He would have thought that Liz would have been out here every day and Lucky, Emily was supposed to be one of her best friends. She’s supposed to be your best friend too, and this is the first time you’ve talked to her since she moved into the dorms, a tiny little voice in the back of his head said.

 

“No, but that’s okay. I know you all have got your own lives,” Emily said sadly. She missed the way things used to be, the four musketeers. Together she thought they could accomplish anything.

 

“No it’s not. We’ll do something. Tonight. Go to the movies or something,” Nikolas decided. It was time he put the friendships that he had put on hold for Gia back together.

 

“That’s okay. I’ve got plans for tonight. Kylie, Damon and I are going to a party,” Emily smiled, she always had fun with them. And she had a feeling, that after seeing Nikolas today, she was going to need some massive cheering up.

 

“Next weekend then. The four of us will do something together, just like old times,” Nikolas said as they reached his car. He turned around and looked at her. He couldn’t believe this was his Em, all grown up, when had that happened?

 

“Just like old times,” Emily said softly. She leaned up and kissed his cheek softly, “bye Nik.”

 

Nikolas watched as she walked away, when had he lost everyone? And what was it going to take to make things the way they used to be?

 

 

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Emily sat cross-legged on her bed later that night. The party had been great, she didn’t drink anything but she had danced with quite a few guys and she and Kylie had been asked to pledge which surprised them both. They were both freshman, but one of the girls on the pledge committee was in their Geography 101 class, and she wanted them both in the Sorority, she figured it was because of her last name. Emily wasn’t sure if she was going to seeing as how she wasn’t planning on being at PCU next year, but Kylie was excited so she might just do it to placate her.

 

They had returned to the dorms about 2:00am half dragging a stumbling, drunk Damon with them, he had collapsed immediately upon arriving at their room on the sleeping bag that Kylie’d had the foresight to roll out before they left.  He was now sleeping peacefully, he’d have a hangover from hell in the morning, but after going to just two parties with them she knew that she and Kylie could handle him.

 

Kylie was laying on her stomach on her bed, her wet black hair in a tight braid down her back, currently writing in her journal. Every so often she would roll over onto her back, stare up at the ceiling and then roll back over and continue writing.

 

Emily was currently going through her mail. She was separating it into piles, things to deal with, things to trash, when she came upon a white envelope with just her name written on it.

 

“Hey Kylie, what’s this?” she asked waving the envelope in the air. Kylie looked up and shrugged.

 

“Don’t know, it was in your box when I got your mail. Hey if it’s a love letter you need to start sharing,” she grinned.

 

“Yeah right, a love letter,” Emily snorted, “as if.” She took out the lone sheet of paper, when she unfolded it a picture fell out. She looked in shock at the words typed on the paper first.

 

Little Miss Muffet

Sat on her tuffet

Eating her needles and nails

 

Emily glanced at the picture and gasped, causing Kylie to look up, “What?”

 

When Emily didn’t answer she got off her bed and walked over to where Emily was sitting in shock. She picked up the paper and her eyes narrowed, when she got a look at the picture she gasped as well.

 

“What the hell?” she whispered. The picture was one of Emily from her modeling days, but it had been manipulated in such a way that it looked like she had been decapitated. Her eyes had been blacked out and a circle with a line through it was drawn across her body in a black marker.

 

“It’s just a joke, just a joke,” Emily muttered picking up the letter and the picture and standing she deposited them in the trashcan by her desk.

 

“Em?”

 

“It’s just a joke, its nothing,” Emily stated as she walked back to her bed. She picked up the piles of mail and placed them on the floor next to her bed, she pulled back the covers and climbed in. Turning over she turned off her lamp and closed her eyes.

 

“Em?”

 

“I don’t want to talk about it Kylie, we’ll do it tomorrow.”

 

“Okay,” she heard Kylie say quietly. She heard her lay down on her bed and a few minutes later she turned her light off. It was a long time before Emily slept.

 

 

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Nikolas walked into Kelly’s expecting to find Lucky. Instead he found Liz deep in conversation with Jason. He looked at his watch and sighed. What a waste of a Saturday, Lucky had insisted he would be there by noon. He walked over to the counter where he sat at one of the stools. He had been hoping to be gone by the time he knew Gia got up.

 

“What’ll it be Nikolas?” he heard Tammy ask from behind the counter.

 

“Coffee, black,” he sighed. He turned around when he felt the tap on his shoulder. Liz had evidently finished her conversation with Jason and was now standing behind him.

 

“What are you doing here? I figured you’d avoid this place at all costs,” Liz smiled at him.

 

“I’m supposed to meet Lucky here, actually I wanted to talk to you too.”

 

“Yeah, what about?” Liz asked as she sat down on the stool next to him.

 

“I ran into Em yesterday at PCU yesterday.”

 

“Really? How’s she doing?”

 

“You haven’t talked to her since she moved?”

 

“No, I tried calling a couple of times but we kept missing each other. I keep meaning to stop out there but I’ve been busy,” Liz said defensively.

 

“I know, me too. But I thought we could all get together next weekend and do something. Just the four of us.”

 

“That sounds good… Who’s gonna track down Emily and find out when she wants to do it?” Liz asked sipping at the soda she had carried over with her.

 

“I’ll do it. I’ve gotta go out there and drop off some stuff anyway,” Lucky said from behind them.

 

Nikolas turned around and made a pointed glance at his watch.

 

“Yeah I know, I’m late. Sue me,” Lucky laughed.

 

“Well good, now that we’ve got that settled I’m going to get out of here,” Nikolas said standing up. He pulled a couple of dollars out of his wallet and put them on the counter to pay for the coffee, then turned to leave.

 

“Nikolas?”

 

Nikolas groaned inwardly and turned around to meet Gia’s eyes as she came down the stairs from the apartment's above Kelly’s.

 

“Gia.”

 

“Were you coming to see me?” she asked making her way over to stand in front of him.

 

“No, I just came to talk to Lucky and Liz,” Nikolas said making a motion indicating the twosome sitting at the counter watching with interest. Liz waved a little wave, Lucky grinned.

 

“Oh, something personal?”

 

“No, I believe we were just making plans for the four of us to get together next weekend,” Liz smiled a wide, definitely fake smile.

 

“The four of you?” Gia asked her eyes narrowing as she watched Nikolas.

 

“Yeah, me, Lucky, Liz and Emily,” Nikolas stated.

 

“Emily?”

 

“Yeah Emily, what’s with you and your Emily complex lately?” Nikolas asked quietly.

 

“Doesn’t she have her own friends?”

 

“Yes, but she’s still our friend… Now if you’ll excuse me I believe I need to meet my Uncle now,” Nikolas said. He waved goodbye to Lucky and Liz and walked out of Kelly’s.

 

Gia watched him leave with narrowed eyes and then walked over to where Liz and Lucky had turned back around at the counter.

 

“Don’t you get tired of that?” she asked them.

 

“Tired of what Gia?” Liz asked turning to her, eyebrows raised.

 

“Tired of them running after Emily to protect her?” Gia said motioning to Lucky and pointing at the door that Nikolas had just left through.

 

“Emily is our friend. And we’re not protecting her. There’s nothing wrong with her. We’re just four friends who are planning on spending a day together. Do you know what friends are, Gia?” Liz asked snidely before standing up, she looked at Lucky pointedly, “are you coming?”

 

“Yeah. Gia,” Lucky said following Liz out of Kelly’s leaving Gia standing there on her own.

 

 

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Kylie groaned, pulling a pillow over her head, as some idiot continued to pound on the door to their dorm room. Getting tired of the insistent knocking she finally sat up in bed, looking over at Emily she could see that Em had pulled a pillow over her head and was ignoring the knocking. God she can sleep through anything, Kylie thought to herself. Throwing the covers off of her she stood up and made her way to the door, almost tripping over Damon, who had somehow moved, sleeping bag and all to almost right in front of the door. Kylie stepped over him, opened the door and groaned.

 

“Zander,” she said as politely as she could. Her mother had always told her if you didn’t have anything nice to say to not say anything at all. Right now the nicest thing she could say was his name.

 

“Hey Kylie, Em around?” Zander asked cheerfully.

 

“I believe she’s still sleeping,” Kylie said glancing over her shoulder to see that Emily had not moved.

 

“Sleeping? It’s after noon.”

 

“So? We’re college students, we sleep late here. It’s the one day that we get too,” Kylie muttered, then smiled. God would he please just go away!

 

“Well when she gets up have her call me. I want to do something today,” Zander said.

 

“Well,” Kylie, “I think we’re going skydiving later this afternoon,” God please don’t strike me down. It’s just a small white lie, she thought to herself.

 

“Oh, well, have her call me,” Zander said his eyes narrowing.

 

“Okay, yeah sure,” Kylie said shutting the door in his face. She made her way over to Emily’s bed and plucked the pillow of her head revealing a wide-awake Emily, “Call Zander,” she said then walked over and collapsed on her bed. “I really hate your boyfriend.”

 

“Yeah join the club, and I’m pretty sure he’s not my boyfriend this week,” Emily said sitting up in bed. She grinned and threw her pillow at Damon who rolled over and looked at her.

 

“Well tell your non-boyfriend to knock a little quieter. Some of us sleep in this building,” Damon said pulling the pillow under his head, “So we’re going skydiving today? When did we decide that?”

 

“I think you were drunk at the time,” Emily laughed leaning back against her headboard.

 

“We’re not going skydiving, I just said that to get rid of the pest okay! So who’s hungry?” Kylie asked changing the subject.

 

“I am, I am!” Emily said with mock excitement raising her hand and waving it, they both laughed as they heard Damon groan.

 

“Food? You’ve got be kidding,” he moaned.

 

Emily grinned as she got up out of bed, walking over to her dresser she stopped to pat Damon on the head, “It’ll be alright,” she said in mock sympathy. Damon locked his arms around her legs pulling her down on him and proceeded to tickle her as Kylie laughed. Kylie let them tussle for few minutes before she got up and intervened. She grabbed Damon’s hands and kissed his forehead.

 

“Alright guys. Shower and food,” she stated, letting go of Damon’s hands and grabbing her shower stuff she walked out of the room. Emily winked at Damon and then grabbed her stuff and hurried after her.

 

 

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Emily and Kylie were giggling as they watched Damon turn five shades of green when their omelets showed up. They had found this cute diner that was a ten-minute walk from their dorm, the morning after the first party they went to. They served breakfast 24 hours a day.

 

Damon made a point of looking away, he swallowed and then nudged Emily who was sitting next to him.

 

“Okay, do it again,” he said winking at Kylie.

 

“Okay,” Emily swallowed, cleared her throat, then looked Kylie dead in the eye,” Zander, I think we should see other people.”

 

“Okay. Now when you see him, be strong. Don’t wuss out. Because if he comes knocking on the door next Saturday I’m going to lay him out,” Damon said blowing on, then taking a sip of his coffee.

 

“Damon, it’s not even your room,” Kylie offered.

 

“Yes, but I sleep there on Friday nights. Well most Friday nights, and he’s interrupting my sleep patterns.”

 

“Oh poor baby,” Emily murmured leaning into him, she scooped up a forkful of her omelet then made a wide arc right in front of Damon’s face, the girls laughed as he swallowed fiercely and closed his eyes.

 

“You’re cruel Em.”

 

“So when are you going to do it?” Kylie asked as she continued eating.

 

“I figured I’d do it tomorrow. The sooner the better, right?”

 

“Before you wuss out again, you should have done it last week like you’d planned. Then we’d still be sleeping,” Damon muttered.

 

“If we were still sleeping Em and I couldn’t torment you with our food,” Kylie said pushing her plate right in front Damon, he pushed it back to her than laid his head on the table.

 

“Sometimes I don’t know why I stay friends with you two.”

 

“Because you love us,” Kylie laughed. She waited until the waitress had refilled Damon and Emily’s coffee cups before asking, “Okay, so cute guy scoop. Spill,” looking at Emily.

 

“Cute guy? Where?” Emily asked looking around.

 

“I think she’s referring to the one that knew you yesterday,” Damon laughed.

 

“Oh… You mean Nikolas? He’s just a friend,” Emily said.

 

“Nikolas huh? Just a friend? I wish I had friends that looked like that. So why are you dating the cretin, when you’ve got a friend that looks like that?” Kylie asked in disbelief.

 

“Zander wasn’t always a cretin, and Nikolas doesn’t think of me that way. He thinks of me like a kid sister or something,” Emily shrugged, “Why you interested?” It might be fun to watch Kylie and Gia go head to head, she’d lay money on Kylie any day.

 

“No way, I’ve got all the man troubles I can handle right now,” Kylie grinned.

 

“Kid sister huh? That’s the total kiss of death, but I honestly don’t believe that anyone could look at you and say she’s just kid sister material…” Damon said shaking his head, “Unless of course you are their kid sister.”

 

“So you honestly can sit there and say that you’re just friends with this guy?” Kylie asked tapping her fingers on the table.

 

“Yeah, just friends, why do you find that so hard to believe?”

 

“Because I saw him, and there is no way that you met him and said, I’m going to be just friends with him.”

 

“Well no, I did used to have the biggest crush on him. But I caught him in bed with another woman, an older woman on my birthday and that pretty much destroyed any illusions that I might have had about him ever being mine,” Emily admitted taking a sip of her coffee.

 

“Oh, well he doesn’t sound like the guy for you then.”

 

“Older woman huh? I think every young man needs to have a relationship with an older woman, it’s like a right of passage or something,” Damon said, in retaliation Emily smacked him on the arm and Kylie kicked him under the table.

 

“What? What did I say?”

 

 

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Lucky sat on the floor outside Emily’s room. One of the girls on her floor had told him that Emily, her roommate Kylie and their friend Damon had left for breakfast about 30 minutes prior to his arrival. Lucky looked at  his watch again, Ten more minutes, if she’s not here by then I’ll call and leave a message. He looked up as he heard a noise down the hallway and saw Emily walking towards him with her friends.

 

“Lucky? What are you doing here?” Emily said happily hugging him as they walked up.

 

“Nikolas said he ran into you yesterday, and I came to find out when you wanted to get together next weekend?” Lucky asked leaving his arm around her shoulder, he pointedly looked over at her friends.

 

“Sorry… My roommate Kylie James and this is our friend Damon Phillips,” Lucky held out his hand for Damon to shake, “Damon, Kylie this is one of my best friends Lucky Spencer.”

 

“Lucky huh? Cool name,” Damon commented.

 

“Thanks,” Lucky said. Kylie stuck her key in the lock opening it.

 

“I’ll be back guys,” Emily said as she turned to walk away with Lucky’s arm still around her shoulders. She knew from the way that Kylie was eyeing her that when she got back she was going to get another one of the ‘cute guy scoop’ questions. Thank god Lucky was the last cute guy she knew. Damon stopped her and handed her a couple of dollars.

 

“Hey stop at the vending machines on your way back and get some soda’s,” Damon said. Emily laughed and mockingly saluted him before away.

 

“And I don’t want Dr. Pepper this time,” he called after them. Emily laughed, “You’ll get whatever I happen to bring back with me.”

 

“So where’s Liz, I thought she’d come with you?” Emily asked as they walked out of her dorm building.

 

“She had plans this afternoon. I think she’s painting or something,” Lucky said as he held the door for her.

 

“Oh, well, I guess if she’s busy, she’s busy,” Emily said as they walked out onto the common area.

 

“Yeah…So next weekend…” Lucky prompted.

 

“We normally go out on Friday night. So, if you guys want, we can get together on Saturday… Maybe have a picnic or something?” Emily offered.

 

“I’ll check with Nikolas and see if we can get Mrs. Landsbury to make up a basket.”

 

“Maybe we can go out to Spoon Island,” Emily mused, laughing when she saw the grimace flash across Lucky’s face, “Oh come on, one day won’t kill you.”

 

“No but I may want to kill myself when we come back,” Lucky laughed, “Okay I’ll let Nik and Liz know when I get back.”

 

Emily stopped suddenly, holding Lucky’s hand she forced him to look at her, “Are you okay Lucky?” she stared into his eyes, he seemed sad, alone.

 

“I’m fine, I really am Em,” he said reassuringly squeezing her hand, “It’s just things with Liz are a little… strained right now.”

 

“Oh, I’m sorry. Is there anything I can do?”

 

“Make a time machine and turn back time?” Lucky laughed hollowly. Emily looked at him quizzically, “Sorry. I’m just having a rough week. We’ll talk about it some other time,” he said pulling her into a hug.

 

“Okay… I’m still your friend Lucky. You know you can tell me anything, right?” Emily whispered.

 

“I know… Once I figure it out myself I promise that you’ll be at least the third person to know,” he laughed. He pulled back and smiled at her, “go get your soda’s, your friends are probably waiting for you,” he turned to walk away.

 

“Lucky?” Emily called, he turned around and looked at her, “Call me, we’ll talk and figure it out,” she smiled. He waved at her and turned away again, head down he kicked at the leaves that have fallen as he walked across the common ground.

 

 

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Emily stumbled around her room, bumping into the trunk sitting at the end of her bed one more time. There must be some unwritten rule that said the quieter you tried to be the more noise you ended up making. She grimaced and silently went through all the swear words she had ever learned. She was trying so hard to be quiet, she’d already gotten the evil one eye glare from Kylie twice. Kylie was trying to sleep and Emily would be to if today were a normal Sunday. But today was not a normal Sunday, today she was going to break up with Zander.

 

An hour later found her standing outside Zander’s apartment knocking. It took a few minutes before he answered the door, all that time Emily was reciting her mantra, don’t wuss out, you are the strong one, over and over again. When Zander yanked the door open she was surprised to see him only half clothed in a pair of sweatpants.

 

“Emily? What are you doing here?” Zander asked trying unsuccessfully to mask his surprise.

 

“We need to talk,” Emily stood there waiting for him to invite her in, when he didn’t she asked, “Can I come in?”

 

“Now’s not really a good time, the apartment’s a mess.”

 

“That’s okay, I’ve seen it in worse shape,” Emily said ducking under his arm and walking in. She thought she heard Zander groan behind her and then he closed the door.

 

“So… what did you want to talk about?” Zander asked standing at the doorway, his hands awkwardly crossed over his chest.

 

“Can I get a glass of water first?” Emily asked sweetly, when Zander nodded and left the room, she hurried over to the coach. She thought she had seen something that looked like black lace, when she pulled it out she found it was a bra. A bra that was definitely not hers. A slow smile formed across her lips, this wouldn’t be too bad after all. Tossing the bra on the end table in front of the coach, she silently made her way to the bedroom, quietly pushing the door open she saw a young redhead wrapped in a sheet standing at the window.

 

“Em? This isn’t how it looks,” Zander said from behind her. The redhead turned around and her eyes met Emily’s.

 

“Oh I think its exactly how it looks,” Emily stated turning around to face her louse of a soon to be ex-boyfriend. He stood there, holding a glass of water and Emily could almost see the wheels frantically turning in his head as he tried to come with a reasonable excuse.

 

She moved until she was standing right in front of him, “You’re making this so much easier on me,” she grinned. She reached out and placed her hands on his shoulders, looking him dead in the eyes, “Zander I think we should see other people,” she said calmly. She gave him a little pat on the shoulder and then walked past him to the door.

 

“Emily!” she heard him call after her as she opened the door and walked out of the apartment, never looking back.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Kylie groaned, for the second morning in a row someone was knocking on the door. She was definitely in hell.

 

She looked over at Emily’s bed, vaguely recalling Emily stumbling around the room earlier. If the gods were working in her favor Emily would be breaking up with Zander even as she slept. Kylie tossed her covers aside and made her way to the door.

 

“What!?” she asked tiredly yanking it open.

 

“Oh… sorry… I was looking for Emily Quartermaine’s room?” the young woman standing at the door asked.

 

“Oh you’re…” Kylie said snapping her fingers as she tried to remember the name, leaning against the door.

 

“Liz… Liz Webber,” she supplied.

 

“Oh yeah, you’re one of the musketeers,” Kylie grinned holding the door open, so Liz could enter the room.

 

“Musketeer? Yeah I guess I’m one of them,” Liz said hesitantly, walking in, Kylie touched a lamp on one of the dressers and the light came on.

 

“You’re the last one, right?” Kylie asked sitting cross-legged on her bed, “I mean, its just you, Em and the two heartthrobs, right?”

 

“I don’t know if I’d call Lucky and Nikolas heartthrobs but yeah, that’s all of us,” Liz laughed taking a seat in an inflatable chair that was in the corner of the room.

 

“Oh they’re heartthrobs all right.”

 

“So… Emily?”

 

“She’s not here.”

 

“Not here? Do you know when she’ll be back?” Liz asked struggling to get comfortable in the chair that kept threatening to tip over.

 

Kylie glanced over at a large digital alarm clock on one of the dressers, “Well if all is going well, and she doesn’t wimp out like she did last weekend, she should be breaking up with the cretin as we speak.”

 

“The cretin? You mean Zander?” Liz asked confused, last she knew Emily and Zander were doing okay.

 

“That would be him.”

 

The door to the room flew open suddenly, “Kylie you’re not going to believe this,” Emily laughed as she came rushing in, “Liz? What are you doing here?” she stopped suddenly seeing Liz sitting in the corner of the room.

 

“Not going to believe what? You did it didn’t you?” Kylie asked a stern expression crossing her face.

 

“Oh, yeah. Zander and I are officially broken up. And I was right.”

 

“Right?” Kylie’s eyes widened as the implications of Emily’s statement set in, “Oh my god! He really was seeing someone else?”

 

“Wait a minute, Zander was seeing someone?” Liz asked shocked from the corner.

 

“Yep…  A little redhead,” Emily grinned flopping down on her bed.

 

“A little redhead? How do you know that?” Kylie asked, “Oh my god... She was still there?!”

 

“In his bedroom, wearing nothing but a sheet,” Emily laughed, “Made it much easier to break up with him since I had ammo,” she said laying back.

 

“And here I thought you and Zander were doing so well,” Liz said shaking her head, she gave up on trying to get comfortable in the chair and stood up, “Anyway, I came by to see if you wanted to have breakfast with me?”

 

“Sure… Kylie?” Emily asked looking over to where Kylie was crawling back into her bed.

 

“No way… I think I can still manage another two hours of sleep before I have to force myself to write that damn paper for tomorrow,” Kylie said burrowing herself into the covers, “Turn the light off when you leave.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Twenty minutes later, Liz and Emily were sitting in Emily’s favorite booth at the little breakfast restaurant they normally ate in. They had both ordered omelets and were now dealing with the awkward silence.

 

“So… You and Zander broke up huh?” Liz asked brightly.

 

“Yeah… What’s going on Liz?”

 

“What do you mean?” Liz asked defensively.

 

“Well I run into Nikolas just out of the blue on Friday, Lucky comes by to see me yesterday and now you’re here today. I haven’t seen you guys in over a month and now within days I’ve seen everyone.”

 

Liz sighed, “Well I have something I want to tell you… but I’m not sure how you’re going to take it.”

 

“So just tell me… You’re not dying are you?” Emily asked tapping her fingers against the tabletop.

 

“No… Well… you see…I’m seeing Jason,” Liz said softly.

 

“Seeing Jason? But you’re dating Lucky, how can you be seeing Jason?” Emily asked dumbly, her eyes widened as the truth hit her, “You’re seeing both of them at the same time?!” she exclaimed her voice raising.

 

Liz shushed her, “Yes. Jason knows I haven’t broken up with Lucky and he’s saying I need to make a choice, but I don’t know what to do.”

 

“Well you need to tell Lucky for one. Then you need to make a decision between the two of them.”

 

“You make it sound so simple,” Liz said looking down at her hands.

 

“It is simple, which one are you in love with?” Emily asked as the waitress set their plates in front of them, Emily waved her away as she waited for Liz’s answer.

 

“I love both of them… But I love them differently,” Liz said picking up her fork, she suddenly wasn’t hungry anymore.

 

“What does that mean? You love them differently?” Emily asked cutting into her omelet with the edge of her fork.

 

“Well Lucky he was my best friend, then he was my boyfriend, I thought I was going to spend the rest of my life with him. But then the fire happened and he was gone, and I thought I was going to die. Then Jason kind of snuck up on me. He was there for me during a really tough time and I was there for him during that whole Carly and Sonny thing,” Liz smiled as Emily grimaced.

 

“So do you still love Lucky?”

 

“I do, but it’s different, it’s not the kind of love that I feel when I think about Jason.”

 

“Then you’ve made your choice, you just need to tell them,” Emily said practically.

 

“Just tell them. I can do that,” Liz said softly.

 

“Tell them soon Liz, this is one secret I really don’t want to be keeping.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Three Weeks Later: October 27, 2001

 

Emily was scared. Granted if someone were to be looking for the fear they wouldn’t see it, she could be quite a good actress when she wanted to be. Which is why after three weeks and 26 notes and pictures later nobody had realized that there was anything wrong. Kylie only knew about three of them, the one she had first received and then two others that had been in Emily’s mailbox when Kylie had gotten mail for her. It had been two weeks since Kylie thought she had received a note, and Emily sure as hell didn’t tell her about the four that had been slipped under their dorm room door.

 

So that’s why, lying on a blanket, behind Nikolas’ cottage, under a moonless sky looking at the stars with Nikolas lying beside her, she couldn’t enjoy herself. Liz and Lucky were lying on a blanket nearby talking, although Liz was probably not telling Lucky she wanted to break up. Nikolas was pointing out the constellations and telling the Greek mythology behind each one, and all Emily could think about was how long she could drag out the evening before having to go back to her room, alone.

 

Kylie and Damon were in New York City until Sunday night, and Emily was nervous about staying in the room by herself. She had been tempted to ask Nikolas if she could sleep in Gia’s old room, but she didn’t want to explain to him why she didn’t want to go back to campus. 

 

“Hey Em… You still with me?” she head Nikolas ask beside her.

 

“Oh yeah… Sorry, my mind was wandering,” she smiled. It was nice having her friends’ back. This was the third weekend in a row that they’d spent the afternoon together, all four of them. The only downside, besides the notes, was the fact that Liz hadn’t broken up with either Lucky or Jason yet.

 

“What were you thinking about?” Nikolas asked turning his head so he was looking at her.

 

“Oh just… stuff,” Emily hedged.

 

“Stuff? What stuff?”

 

“Nikolas are you out here?” Emily was saved from answering by the sound of Gia’s voice coming from the back of Nikolas’ cottage. She heard Nikolas groan beside her as Gia made her way to them, she heard Lucky and Liz stand up and move over to them and Nikolas and she sat up.

 

“Gia,” Nikolas said in way of greeting.

 

“You didn’t tell me you were having a party?” Gia said smartly.

 

“We’re not having a party, we’re just hanging out,” Nikolas said.

 

“Uh-uh… Emily…” Gia said to her.

 

“Gia.”

 

“What are you replacing me with her?” Gia asked snidely. Emily rolled her eyes at Liz before looking at Gia.

 

“You know what Gia, you need help, serious help. Nikolas and I are only friends. Girls can be only friends with guys, it does happen,” Emily said smartly standing up and facing Gia, she was tired of taking her bull.

 

“Not Nikolas, he can’t be just friends with a girl, it always moves into something else,” Gia said sharply.

 

“Excuse me, I’m right here,” Nikolas said standing as well.

 

“You know what Gia, I am only friends with Nikolas. Only friends and I’ve been friends with him for a lot longer than we’ve even known you so deal with it, okay!” Emily stated angrily, she turned to the others and said, “Guys, it’s been a long night I’m going to head back to the dorms.” She accepted Nikolas’ hug, then hugged Lucky and Liz in return and walked away.

 

“Are you just going to let her get away with talking to me like that?” Gia screeched at Nikolas as she left.

 

“Why not? She’s right,” Nikolas laughed, he turned around and picked up the edge of the blanket they had been laying on, shaking it out, before tucking it under his arm, “Have a nice night Gia.” He said as he walked into his cottage. He heard Liz and Lucky laughing as they followed him. Leaving Gia standing in the backyard alone.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily smiled all the way the way back to the dorms, she had been wanting to light into Gia for quite some time. Of course she hadn’t said half of what she’d wanted to but given Gia’s current attitude she figured she’d probably get another opportunity.

 

She was still grinning to herself when she got to her floor and saw Kylie sitting outside their room.

 

“Kylie what are you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming back ‘til tomorrow?” Emily asked as she walked up to her.

 

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you, trust me,” Kylie sighed looking up from where she was sitting, her legs pulled up to her chest.

 

“Where’s Damon?” Emily asked as she put her key into the door lock.

 

“Well… I kind of lost of him,” Kylie said sheepishly.

 

Emily turned to look down at her, “You lost him? How could you lose Damon? He’s not a child.”

 

“No but sometimes he acts like one,” Kylie muttered, “I stopped for a couple of seconds to look at this necklace set in a store window, I thought it would make a good Christmas gift for my sister, I turned back around and he was gone.”

 

“Gone? Just gone? Did you go back to the hotel and wait for him?” Emily asked leaning against the still shut door.

 

“Yes I did, and he never came back there. He had the room key and I finally gave up waiting for him this morning and took the bus back,” Kylie said standing up.

 

“Wait a minute, this happened yesterday? Why didn’t you call or something?” Emily asked shaking her head.

 

“Because to be honest I thought he would come back to the room. He probably picked up some girl.”

 

“Hey Kylie, Em… Damon’s been calling and leaving messages for you guys,” Stacey, one of their RA’s called out as she walked down the hallway, “I have them written down for you.” Kylie muttered obscenities under her breath as she walked over to Stacey’s room.

 

Later Emily would not be able to tell exactly what had happened. She’d remember unlocking the door and turning the knob, she’d remember shoving Kylie’s dufflebag into the room with her foot and then she’d remember the sudden ‘swish” by her face. She wouldn’t remember screaming but later when Kylie told the story she’d learn that she sounded like she was trying to rouse the dead.

 

She couldn’t remember screaming herself although she did remember Stacey and Kylie screaming.

 

The first thing she would really have conscious remembrance of would be the movement of her hand to touch her cheek checking for cuts and thankfully feeling nothing. Then she would remember leaning against the wall in shock and Kylie talking at her, grabbing her arm and pulling her forcibly away from the room.

 

“Are you okay?!” Kylie asked looking from Emily’s white face to the knife now jutting out of the wall across from their room.

 

“I…I…” Emily stuttered her eyes blank, “My face? Did it cut my face?” she asked tears beginning to well in her eyes.

 

“No, no your face is fine,” Stacey soothed, Kylie was looking helplessly from the knife to Emily and then to Stacey, “Kylie, lets go into my room, I’ll call security,” she said putting one arm around Emily’s shoulder in a motion of comfort and calling back to Kylie.

 

Kylie walked over to the knife and was going to pull it of the wall when she heard Stacey call back, “Don’t touch that, campus security will want to us to leave it where it is.” Kylie nodded and then silently walked into Stacey’s room after them.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily was crying, she had never felt like such a baby in her entire life. Somebody had tried to kill her. Oh, campus security called it a prank, said that things like this happened all the time this close to Halloween. They had taken the knife and the pulley setup that had allowed it be thrown out the door and called it an elaborate prank. Emily had been trying to decide if she should tell them about the notes she was receiving when they told her that it was prank. She then decided that if they were to inept to deduce that this was a real threat that she would be better off going to the PCPD and that wasn’t saying much.

 

She was lying silent in her bed; for her own piece of mind as well as Kylie’s she had pushed her chair under the door knob after she had locked it. Kylie hadn’t said a word, just sat there silently watching her. Emily thought she might still be in shock from the whole incident. Kylie had taken this thing harder than she had, Emily figured she wasn’t used to people trying to kill her friends or threatening notes.

 

Damon had called Stacey again while they were waiting for Security to show up, when he found out what had happened he had said he would be back tonight and hung up to call the airport for a flight. When he couldn’t get an immediate flight out he had wanted Emily to call either Nikolas or Lucky to come stay with them until he got back. She had talked him out of it by telling him she didn’t want to worry her friends about something that was going to turn out to be harmless. Which it had, by campus security, been determined to be.

 

Campus security was comprised of a bunch of idiots, that probably couldn’t have found a clue with a detailed map and instructions on how to find it.

 

She turned over on her side, facing the wall. When had her life become this mixed up again? College was supposed to be different. There wasn’t supposed to be blackmailing, death threats, attempts on her life; her life was supposed to be normal for a change. It wasn’t fair.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Halloween: October 31, 2001

 

“Hey guys wait up,” Damon called as he ran across the courtyard to catch up with Emily and Kylie. As he struggled to catch his breath he put an arm over each girls shoulders.

 

“Damon you should really start working out,” Kylie criticized. She had forgiven him for “losing” her over the weekend and everyone was once again buddies. Kylie had bounced back from her near catatonic state on Sunday when Damon had arrived and ironically Damon had agreed with the inept Campus security. He had decided that it was a prank, and had convinced Kylie of it as well.

 

“Nah, exercise gives me a rash… Anyway the reason for my mad dash… My fraternity is having a Haunted House/Kegger tonight… Want to come?” he grinned.

 

“I thought there wasn’t supposed to be any midweek parties?” Emily laughed.

 

“Too bad, Halloween falls on a Thursday and they don’t want to wait until Friday for it,” Damon stated matter-of-factly.

 

“Friday’s tomorrow,” Kylie shook her head, “this is just an excuse to have an extra party, isn’t it?”

 

“Maybe… So if you’re coming be there at 8:00,” he pulled both girls close for a moment before running off in the opposite direction.

 

“Damon where are you going?” Kylie called after him.

 

“I’m on the decorating committee… Wear something fun,” he called back laughing.

 

“Wear something fun? What the hell does that mean?” Emily asked.

 

Kylie looked down at the standard uniform of blue jeans and T-shirts that both girls currently were wearing, “Well I’m gonna assume it’s not what we’ve actually got on.”

 

“So that means we need to go shopping,” Emily deduced grinning, changing directions to head to her car as opposed to the library.

 

“Shopping, cool,” Kylie said jogging to catch up with her, “What kind of Halloween costume are we going to get at this late date?”

 

“Something original, that’s for sure.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Damon’s Unnamed Fraternity: Halloween 

 

Joshua Cramer opened the door the Fraternity house and burst out laughing. Emily and Kylie exchanged looks before Emily asked, “Problem there Josh?” with a straight face.

 

“Oh… no…. Let me tell Damon that you’re here,” he laughed, he held the door open as he called, “Hey Damon, you’ve got visitors.” He shut the door behind them and then leaned against the wall, adjusting his toga around his waist.

 

“Oh. My. God,” Damon said his eyes widening before he began laughing.

 

“What? I thought it was an inspired costume choice,” Emily said with just a hint of a smile on her lips.

 

“Inspired? Yeah that’s one word for it,” Damon grinned looking them up and down, “the rosaries are great, what nuns did you mug to get those?”

 

“Well, you shouldn’t wait until the last minute to invite people to a Halloween party,” Kylie advised, “especially if you want them to show up in something ‘fun’.”

 

“Alright sisters, lets get you something to drink and then I’ll take you through the haunted house,” Damon laughed again putting an arm around each girls shoulder.

 

“Haunted house huh? I just love haunted houses,” Emily said.

 

Thirty minutes later Emily wasn’t so sure of her love for haunted houses anymore. She was holding onto Kylie’s habit in front of her with one hand while she tried to keep up with Damon who seemed to be moving at breakneck speed. Plus it seemed that the Fraternity had put a lot of thought into their haunted house, she had already screamed twice, plus a gasp that she was pretty sure no one had heard.

 

“Hey Kylie did anyone come in with us?” she leaned forward to whisper into Kylie’s ear. She heard Kylie whisper the question to Damon before she responded.

 

“No, Damon said they were only letting small groups in, then waiting for them to come out before the next one went in… Why?”

 

“Cause I could have sworn that there was someone behind us,” Emily said quietly. She looked back and all she saw was a shadow behind her, probably made by the candle’s that were burning she decided.

 

“Damon said we’re almost through,” Kylie whispered.

 

“Good, I’ll have to make sure I tell Joshua that this was a pretty good house,” Emily whispered back, she continued to keep a loose hold on Kylie’s habit. She stopped suddenly when she felt something brush up against her back and then screamed when she felt something sharp on her shoulder blade. She dropped her hold on Kylie’s habit and whirled around throwing her bottle of water in her assailants face, her assailant threw their hands in front of their face, dropping the knife they backed off into the shadow.

 

“Emily are you okay?” Kylie asked from behind her.

 

“There was someone here,” Emily gasped, “I think they cut me…” she said reaching her left arm over to feel her right shoulder, when she drew her hand away she could see something wet on her hand.

 

“Em?” Damon questioned turning her around, her eyes looked around frantically then back to her hand, which Damon took in his own, seeing the blood his eyes met hers, “Em?”

 

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Emily muttered.

 

“Kylie…” Damon said pulling Emily close he kept his arms around her as he led them through the end of the Haunted House.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily/Kylie’s Dorm Room: Halloween

 

“I can’t believe that Campus Security thought this was a prank,” Damon fumed as he paced in front of Emily and Kylie. The girls were sitting on their beds, both in sweats after showering, watching Damon vent.

 

“What kind of morons does PCU hire?”

 

“I told you what they were going to say,” Emily reminded him. The cut on her back wasn’t deep, and hadn’t needed stitches. One of the guys (a young med. Student in the fraternity) had put a butterfly bandage over it and told her to take a couple of Advil if she was in pain.

 

“Yeah, but Kylie and I were both there. Granted we didn’t see much but shadows, but you had a cut on your back and the person who did it vanished into thin air,” Damon growled running his hands through his hair.

 

“But when they went back, there was no knife, just Em’s water bottle,” Kylie inputted.

 

“Yeah but after that incident on Saturday, they should at least be investigating.”

 

“Pranks are a part of PCU’s Halloween tradition,” Emily said lying on her stomach, resting her chin on her linked hands.

 

“Well I’ll tell you what, until I’m sure that there isn’t going to be any more pranks consider me your new roommate,” Damon stated looking at both girls.

 

“Fine, but if it is really just a bunch of pranks you’re going to feel really stupid,” Kylie said.

 

“Pranks with real knifes are not funny, I would rather be safe than sorry,” Damon decided, walking over to Kylie’s closet he pulled out the sleeping bag that he normally used and untying the knots, unrolled it.

 

Emily smiled as she watched him. She wondered briefly if she should tell them about the other notes that she had received. She was up to 28 notes now, she had received one on Monday and one on Tuesday. She hadn’t received one today she had thought maybe it was done. She guessed she was wrong, the reason she hadn’t got a note was because someone was going to try to stab her at the Halloween party. What she couldn’t figure out was how anyone even knew that she was going to be at it. Damon had only invited her and Kylie that day.

 

“Hey Damon, did anyone ask you if I was going to be there tonight?” Emily asked.

 

“No, why?”

 

“I just wondered if maybe it was just random, maybe whoever happened to be going through at that time was the lucky person who got cut.”

 

“Someone called here,” Kylie said softly looking at her hands. Damon and Emily both looked at her in surprise.

 

“What?” Damon asked.

 

“I thought it was Liz, that’s who it sounded like, although the voice was kind of muffled. She asked if you were going to be home and I said no that we were going to a Halloween party at Damon’s fraternity.”

 

“You didn’t verify it was Liz before you told her where I would be?” Emily asked.

 

“No… I know Liz’s voice, I don’t normally ask ‘who may I say is calling’ questions.”

 

“We’ll call Liz in the morning and find out if she called,” Damon decided, he walked over to Kylie and plucked a pillow from under head before planting a kiss on the top of her head. He dropped the pillow on the sleeping bag and walking over to Emily he kneeled at the foot of her bed. He covered the tips of her fingers with his and looked her in the eyes, “We’ll figure this out, okay?”

 

He stood up and kissed her on the top of the head like Kylie and walked over to his sleeping bag. Laying down he stared at the ceiling, a few minutes later Kylie turned off her light and Emily moved around so her head was at the head of the bed, she pulled a throw over her and lay on her stomach. This was not happening to her, she wanted a normal life, she wanted her normal friends to have normal lives. This was not happening.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

November 3

 

“Hey Nikolas… What are you doing here?” Kylie asked when opening the door revealed Nikolas.

 

“I’m here to pick up Emily, we’re going to the movies this evening,” Nikolas said walking into the room.

 

“Movies huh? She went to get the rest of her laundry, she should be back soon,” Kylie laughed, she was standing at her bed, folding her own basket of laundry, wondering if she should say something to Nikolas about the incident Thursday night. She knew Emily hadn’t said anything, to either him or Lucky.

 

“Damon stayed over again?” Nikolas asked motioning to the sleeping bag lying on the floor.

 

“He normally does on Friday nights. Makes it easier if we only have to drag him here instead of back to his Fraternity house.”

 

Nikolas discreetly looked at his watch, if Emily didn’t hurry up they were going to be late, then they would have to listen to Lucky complain for the rest of the evening because they’d missed the previews.

 

“She really should be back soon, she just had a load in the dryer that was taking forever,” Kylie said smiling.

 

“That’s fine. Its just Lucky complains if we miss the previews… Which I don’t understand, it’s just clips for movies that we can’t even go see yet, but…” Nikolas said by way of explanation, he shook his head and went to sit at Emily’s desk.

 

“But the previews are sometimes the best part of the entire movie going experience… I remember when I went to see this god awful movie that I don’t even remember just to see the preview for the Star Wars prequel,” Kylie grinned.

 

“I guess,” Nikolas said, he glanced up at the pictures tacked to Emily’s bulletin board and started laughing, “Is that you guys?” he pointed at a Polaroid tacked up on the board. Kylie looked up from the socks she was matching up, she squinted at the picture that Nikolas was pointing at.

 

“Yeah, that’s our costumes for the Halloween party… Cool huh?”

 

“Yeah,” Nikolas said glancing down at the desk, “Wow Emily’s got no organizational skills at all,” he said looking at the mess of papers on her desk, he went to straighten one of the piles.

 

“Don’t touch that…. Emily says she has a system,” Kylie finished rushing over, she shook her head, “She’s gonna kill you.”

 

“What? I mean it was getting ready to tip over,” Nikolas defended himself, “Besides…” he faded off as he picked up a picture that had been under the pile he had straightened.

 

“Besides what?” Kylie noticed the picture he was holding in his hand, “Oh that’s one of those pictures the Em got a couple of weeks back. I thought she threw those out.”

 

“Those?! How many of these did she get?” Nikolas asked.

 

“I don’t… Three I think,” Kylie said.

 

“There looks to be more than three here,” Nikolas said harshly revealing a stack of pictures and letters that had been hidden under the papers on Emily’s desk.

 

“Oh my god, she never said anything. She never said she was still getting them,” Kylie said softly. It was all beginning to make sense now. She had thought that Emily would go off on Damon for insisting that he stay with them, to guard her. But Emily had actually been relieved to have Damon’s presence.

 

“How long has she been getting these?” Nikolas asked waving the pictures in her face.

 

Kylie glared at him before answering, “She got the first one that first day we saw you in the courtyard, and she got two others that I knew about. She never said she was still getting them or I would have…” Kylie stopped, what if Emily didn’t want Nikolas to know about the two attacks?

 

“Or you would have what?”

 

“Or I would have told you about the attempts,” Kylie said softly, screw what Emily wanted. If she wanted to pretend everything smelled like roses, Kylie wasn’t going to play that game. It seemed as if someone had tried to kill Emily twice and Emily was insisting, at least verbally that they were just pranks.

 

“Attempts? What attempts? What are you talking about?”

 

“The first one was last Saturday, there was some pulley thing set up in our room, that went off when the door was opened. God! If Damon hadn’t lost me in the city, and I hadn’t come home in a huff, and hadn’t had to wait for Emily because I left my keys here…” Kylie faded off as she sat heavily on her bed, the enormity of the situation finally hitting her.

 

“You’re saying someone tried to kill Emily last weekend and no one thought to tell the police?!”

 

“We called campus security, they called it an elaborate prank, said that stuff like this happened every year on Halloween,” Kylie said defensively.

 

“You’re saying that they thought a knife, a real knife being thrown at a student was a prank?!! What kind of imbecile…” Nikolas was furious, “And you didn’t call me or Lucky to tell us what was going on?”

 

“We thought it was a prank, I mean even Emily bought the “prank” line. Said not to worry you guys about it… Should have known something was up Thursday night though.”

 

“Thursday night? Wait a minute you said attempts? There was more than one?” Nikolas asked angrily.

 

“Wow, and I thought all Emily saw in you was the pretty face,” Kylie said snidely jumping up and pacing her side of the room, “Damon invited us to his Fraternity’s Halloween party, we were going through the Haunted House and someone stabbed her.”

 

“Stabbed her? You’re joking right?” Nikolas asked his face draining of all color.

 

“No, I mean it wasn’t deep or anything. One of the med students took a look at it and bandaged it up. Said it wasn’t serious, and Campus Security said…”

 

“Oh let me guess… An elaborate Halloween Prank,” Nikolas sighed, “Has she got anymore of these since Thursday?” he asked waving the pictures in his hand at her.

 

“I didn’t even know that she’d got those, she’s already opened her mail from Friday but we got mail before we came back here and she left it on her bed when she went to get her laundry,” Kylie said looking over at Emily’s bed. Sure enough there was a small pile of magazines and letters, they both reached the bed at the same time, both staring down at the pile of seemingly harmless mail.

 

“What kind of envelope did the first one come in?” Nikolas asked passing his hand over the pile.

 

“Plain white envelope, it’ll just have her name written on it,” Kylie’s breath stopped as Nikolas’ hand passed over an envelope matching that description. Nikolas picked it up, staring at the handwriting on the outside of the envelope.

 

“Hey Nikolas, I’m sorry I kept you waiting… Damn dryers,” Emily rushed breathless into the room, she dropped her clothesbasket in front of her closet. She ruffled through her closet looking for her leather jacket so she didn’t notice Nikolas pass the pictures he had been holding to Kylie or the warning glance he shot her. He shoved the envelope into his coat pocket.

 

“That’s okay, Kylie kept me entertained,” Nikolas said trying to keep his voice light. He couldn’t believe that after everything they’d been through that she would feel that she needed to keep this from them.

 

She turned around to them clutching her wallet in one hand, “Are you ready? You know Lucky’s going to be pissed if we miss the previews.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily wondered if Nikolas was mad at her. He had been unnaturally quiet since leaving the dorms, he hadn’t even said a word since they’d got in the car.

 

“Hey Nik, I think you just missed our turn off,” she said twisting in the car seat. Sure enough they had just shot past the street to the theater. He ‘hmmed’ at her and Emily looked at him warily, “You aren’t kidnapping me are you? Because I honestly don’t think I could handle being kidnapped again.” Emily just sighed when Nikolas shot her a look of disbelief, so she sat quietly in her seat wondering how much damage she would do if she jumped out of a car doing, she glanced over at the speedometer, 54 miles per hour.

 

She was spared having to find out when Nikolas pulled into a dark, wooded area and shut the car off. He sat silent for a few minutes before he said, “I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“Talk to me? About what? You do realize that Lucky is going to be pissed. Right?” she watched him uneasily, she wondered if insanity ran in the Cassadine family genes. Because lord knew his grandmother wasn’t playing with a full deck, and it seemed as if Nikolas had lost a few cards since the last time she’d seen him.

 

“You know you can tell me anything right?”

 

“Yeah, you’re one of my best friends”

 

“So you know I’d do anything to help you if I thought you were in trouble,” Nikolas said softly.

 

“Yeah…” she said suspiciously. What was the most he could know? Even if Kylie had told him everything, she only knew about three letters and the two attacks.

 

“So why don’t you tell me what’s going on?”

 

“Kylie told you. Didn’t she?” Emily said accusingly, she reached for the door, she would walk back to the road. It was only a couple of miles and she had her mace with her. She hadn’t honestly thought Nikolas would be the person she would be using it on, but hey.

 

“She shouldn’t have had to Em. If I was really your friend you would have told me yourself,” Nikolas said quietly hitting the lock button on his side of the car, then locking out the unlock controls for her door.

 

“What do you mean?” Emily asked turning to face him.

 

“I mean, I found the pictures. All of the pictures, Kylie told me about the two attacks,” Emily turned away from him, looking out the window, “Emily you should have said something.”

 

“Why? So everyone could say ‘poor Emily, she’s screwed up her life again, managed to pick up a psychotic stalker somehow’, no thanks,” Emily said sarcastically, her arms crossed over her chest, tears welling up in her eyes.

 

“We would never say that about you Emily. You’re our friend, we love you, we care about you. We don’t want to be identifying your body for you,” Nikolas said softly.

 

“You guys care about me? You love me? Where were you? I moved to college and no one ever came to see me, no one ever called,” Emily said snidely tears running down her cheeks.

 

“Em…”

 

“I would have understood if I’d gone to school out of state or something, but it was an extra ten minute drive. And none of you could be bothered to come see me?!”

 

“Em, I’m sorry about that…”

 

“I needed you guys,” Emily said her eyes meeting his, “I needed you guys and you weren’t there for me,” she sobbed.

 

Nikolas reached over, wiping the wetness from her cheeks he pulled her into his arms as she sobbed.

 

“We’re here for you now Em, we’re here for you now,” he said softly, kissing the side of her head he gently stroked her hair and let her cry.

 

A few minutes later she pulled out of his arms, wiping her tears from her face she tried to smile at him.

 

“Sorry about that, must be that time of month or something. I’m okay now.”

 

“No you’re not, but we’re going to make it better for you,” Nikolas said softly, he reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

 

“You don’t need to worry about it Nikolas. I didn’t get anything yesterday, and I don’t think I got anything today, so it’s probably just a prank. Like security said, just a prank,” Emily said her eyes not quite meeting his.

 

“Actually,” Nikolas said, reaching into his pocket he drew out the envelope that he had put there earlier. Emily’s face drained of all remaining color as she saw the envelope, Nikolas shoved the envelope back in his pocket and grabbed her hand with his, intertwining their fingers he said, “Emily! Em… You are not alone in this anymore. You have me, you’ll have Lucky and Liz once we tell them what’s going on, Kylie and Damon have been pretty supportive, right? You are not going to have to deal with this alone anymore, we’re going to figure out what’s going on, we’re going to find the person responsible and we’ll make them pay. Okay?”

 

“All I wanted was a normal life for a change, you know? A normal life, with no blackmailing, kidnapping, faked deaths, harassment. That’s all I wanted,” Emily looked at him imploringly, her eyes filling with tears again.

 

“We’ll get through this, you know the four musketeers, only now we’ll be the six musketeers. Between the six of us we’ll figure this out, okay?” Nikolas said smiling reassuringly at her.

 

“Okay… Thank you Nikolas,” Emily said quietly.

 

“Not a problem,” Nikolas said pulling her back into his arms, “Not a problem at all.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas sat outside Kelly’s holding an envelope in his hand. As far as he knew it was the only one that Emily had kept, his mind kept looking at the handwriting, the neat cursive letters that spelled out Emily Quartermaine. His mind knew who was responsible for this; his heart said that she wasn’t capable of this. You don’t know what she’s capable of, really. How well do you really know her? That small niggling voice in the back of his mind kept repeating. He knew he needed to do something, anything.

 

He had dropped Emily back off at her dorms, back into Kylie and Damon’s more than capable hands. Damon and he had spoken about safety precautions, Kylie having filled Damon in on what they knew. Emily seemed to be holding up better; at least she hadn’t broken down again after telling him what was happening.

 

He had called Lucky, a really irritated Lucky and told him just the barest minimum of what they knew. He would explain it further and in more detail tomorrow he had decided. First he wanted to see if he could take care of the problem himself.

 

He walked up the stairs quietly and stood outside her door, shoving the envelope back in his pocket he knocked on her door.

 

“Hey Nikolas,” Gia said in surprise when she opened it, “What are you doing here?” she asked ushering him into the room. She walked past him and took a seat on her bed while he took in his surroundings, the room was mostly bare, no decoration of any sort. He made sure he stood by the door just in case she became violent and he needed to make a quick getaway.

 

“I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“About what?” she asked brushing her hair off her shoulder and reclined back on the bed.

 

“About Emily.”

 

“What about her?” Gia asked spitefully.

 

“Whatever you’re doing to her, stop it, now.”

 

 “You know she’s the reason that we’re split up right now.”

 

“How do you figure?” Nikolas asked warily crossing his arms across his chest.

 

“Well, you know she wants you, she’s always trying to come between us.”

 

“Emily is my friend, she doesn’t think of me like that,” Nikolas said watching her.

 

“If Emily were gone, you know we’d get back together,” Gia sighed.

 

“What do you mean? If Emily were gone?”

 

“You know… gone,” Gia waved her hand in the air in a lazily.

 

“Gia, whatever you’re thinking, stop it. Emily doesn’t deserve this,” Nikolas said sharply.

 

“Please, what has she told you? Is she scared?” Gia asked in amusement sitting upright on the bed, hands braced on either side of her.

 

“Why? What are you going to do if I don’t? You going to tell somebody? Report me to the authorities? You have no proof, it’s your word against mine, and my brothers a cop. No one will believe you,” Gia laughed.

 

“The envelopes that the pictures have been coming in, they’re in your handwriting,” Nikolas stated.

 

“So? Someone could easily have forged my handwriting,” Gia pushed herself off the bed and came to stand in front of him, she lightly stroked his cheek with her fingertips, “You can’t help her, you can’t protect her and if you tell anybody, they’re never going to believe you. Then when she’s gone, we’ll be back together again, where we belong.”

 

Nikolas jerked back, moving towards the door, “You’re insane Gia. You hurt Emily in anyway I’ll make sure you pay, and I won’t need the cops to do that,” he warned her calmly. He jerked open the door and stalked out

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Stefan Cassadine walked into his office on Wyndemere and was shocked to find his nephew sitting in a chair in front of his desk, resting his head in his hands.

 

“Nikolas?” he asked walking to the other side of the desk and looking down at him. Nikolas looked up at him.

 

“Uncle.”

 

“Did you need something?” Stefan asked sitting down his chair, he linked his hands together on his desk.

 

“I need some bodyguards for Emily Quartermaine,” Nikolas said quietly.

 

“Emily Quartermaine? Doesn’t her family or Mr. Corinthos supply bodyguards for her?” Stefan queried.

 

“They would if I went to them with this, but I seem to have created this predicament she finds herself in…”

 

“So you feel the necessity to supply guards for her.” Stefan finished, “What’s happened? Has Helena threatened her in some manner?”

 

“No thank god… It seems Gia has gone slightly off the deep end and has decided that the way to get me back is to kill Emily,” Nikolas sighed running a hand over his face.

 

“I was unaware that you had any other relationship besides a friendship with Miss Quartermaine,” Stefan said with a puzzled expression on his face.

 

“I am only friends with Emily, but Gia, she seems to think that Em has romantic feelings for me and I broke up with her because I reciprocate them in some way.”

 

“I see… So you would like to put Cassadine guards on Miss Quartermaine to protect her from Miss Campbell.”

 

“Yes, she’s already made two attempts against Emily, I’d like to stop her before she makes another one that could possibly succeed.”

 

“And why does Miss Quartermaine not go to the police?”

 

“Because Gia was right when she said that they wouldn’t believe us. The only proof we have linking her to this is the fact that her handwriting matches that handwriting on the envelopes that Emily was getting. And that can be forged,” Nikolas sighed leaning forward.

 

“I would be more than happy to put guards on Miss Quartermaine… but…” Stefan inputted before Nikolas could get to excited.

 

“But what?” Nikolas grinned.

 

“But I have conditions.”

 

“What kind of conditions?” Nikolas asked warily, this couldn’t be good.

 

“One is that you take your rightful place within the family again,” Stefan said holding up one finger, Nikolas’ grin was replaced with a scowl. Was protecting Emily worth having to deal with his family?

 

“Is that it?”

 

“No… The second is that Miss Quartermaine must become a part of our family,” Stefan said resting his hand on his desk once again. Nikolas looked at him in shock and then started laughing.

 

“Oh… Oh that’s great! Are you planning on adopting her or something? The Quartermaine’s might have something to say about that,” he laughed, the smile slowly disappeared from his face at Stefan’s denial, “Than what?… Oh my god, you can’t be serious?!” he jumped out of his chair.

 

“I’m very serious, if you wish to put Cassadine guards on Miss Quartermaine than you must realize the risk to her,” Stefan said calmly.

 

“Risk to her?! The only risk to her is the fact the Gia is trying to kill her,” Nikolas said stiffly.

 

“Wrong. The moment you put a Cassadine guard on her, you make her a target to our enemies as well as Miss Campbell. If you wish for our family to protect her than you’ll need to decide how important she is to you. If she’s important enough to you to marry and rejoin our family to protect than we will, of course, proceed. If not, you should make arrangements with her family or the police to protect her.”

 

Nikolas paced in front of the desk, muttering to himself. He stopped pacing and faced Stefan, “If something happens to her…” he shook his head and turned and headed for the door.

 

“Nikolas don’t take to long to make a decision,” Stefan called after him.

 

He leaned back in his chair, templing his fingers, he thought, this was an interesting turn of events. If Nikolas was this concerned for the young Miss Quartermaine’s safety, he could be lured back into the family to protect her. It all depended on how much he wanted to protect her.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily grinned at Kylie, then started laughing out load.

 

“Come on Ky… my driving is not that bad,” she giggled. They were in the car that Edward had given her when she opted to go to school at PCU, not the new one he had wanted to give her. But an older model that Emily wouldn’t worry about in the dorm parking lots.

 

“That light was red when you went under it,” Kylie grumbled checking the fastening on her seatbelt. They were on their way to invite Liz to do some early Christmas shopping. Actually Kylie was going to do some early Christmas shopping; Emily was going to just plain shop.

 

“How would you know? You had your eyes closed,” Emily grinned.

 

“How did you… Never mind, just keep your eyes on the road,” Kylie said gripping her door handle just a little tighter.

 

Emily was in a good mood, she hadn’t got another note since she had talked to Nikolas Saturday night. He was still insisting that she needed to keep someone with her at all times and somehow Kylie, who weighed less than Emily did had been deemed an appropriate bodyguard for this outing. At least by Damon. Damon had heard the words Kylie, Christmas and shopping together in one sentence and he had been backing out the door declaring they shouldn’t have any problems in a busy place like a mall. Emily had decided that Damon didn’t want to be subjected to Kylie shopping, although she foresaw problems if they got to Kelly’s and Nikolas or Lucky was there. She was pretty sure they wouldn’t think Kylie was adequate protection, though she could be wrong. They had both relaxed, especially Nikolas, in the last couple of days.

 

Her phone was the busiest it had ever been though. She got three phone calls a night, one from Nik, one from Lucky and one from Liz all wanting to check to make sure no more pictures had shown up. Thursday night she had snapped at Lucky, who just happened to be the unlucky third caller, and told him to check with Nik and Liz and then hung up on him.

 

Then of course there was Zander, Zander who had decided that Emily was overreacting to the fact that he had a naked girl in his apartment and wanted her back. Emily had told him to go to hell, but Zander was nothing if not persistent, so Emily and Kylie came home everyday to an answering machine tape full of messages from Zander. Emily sighed.

 

“Don’t think about Zander, he’s a creep,” Kylie said looking out her window.

 

“I know, but he sounds really sorry.”

 

“And he’ll sound really sorry the next time he cheats on you and the next time and the next time. It’s a vicious cycle, just cut him loose,” Kylie advised.

 

“How did you get so wise?” Emily cracked.

 

“Years and years of practice,” Kylie laughed. Emily pulled the car into an empty parking place and Kylie jumped out before she even had a chance to turn it off.

 

“How long should I put money in the meter for?” she asked holding her dimes at the ready.

 

“30 minutes, no make it 60… Just in case she’s not ready and has to change,” Emily said climbing out.

 

“Aren’t you going to lock it?” Kylie asked watching her. Emily looked at her car, looked at her and then raised her eyebrows.

 

“Forget I asked.” They made the quick walk to Kelly’s, Emily rubbing her now mittened hands together.

 

“Hey,” she said reflexively when someone bumped into her, “Oh Gia, its you.”

 

“Emily,” Gia said snidely, “slumming today?” she asked before walking away.

 

“That girl bugs me on so many levels,” Emily shook her head as they continued on their way to Kelly’s.

 

“Hey Lucky,” she called when they walked in. Lucky turned from where he was sitting at the counter.

 

“Em, Kylie… Where’s Damon?” he asked.

 

“He didn’t come, its just us,” Emily grinned, “Liz upstairs?” she asked making her way over.

 

“She didn’t answer when I knocked earlier, she might have been in the shower though,” Lucky said, he made a motion to indicate Kylie, “She’s not your bodyguard for the day is she?”

 

“Hey… I’m stronger than I look,” Kylie said defensively.

 

“I’m sure you are… You weigh all of what? 105 lbs. Soaking wet?” Emily laughed as she went up the stairs. Let the two of them duke it out for bodyguard detail.

 

“Liz?” she called knocking on the door to Liz’s room, she heard movement inside.

 

“Hold on,” she heard Liz call out.

 

Emily laughed, “Hey get decent Kylie wants to go Christmas shopping,” she called opening the door and then froze in shock. Her brother, her big brother Jason slowly met her eyes as he pulled a T-shirt over his upper torso; Liz was in a bathrobe staring in shock at Emily.

 

“This isn’t how it looks, Em,” Jason said softly, moving forward to her.

 

“I’m sorry,” she looked at both of them apologetically, before beginning to back out of the room, “I…I’ve got to go… Kylie’s waiting,” she babbled. Lucky was downstairs, oh god, she had to keep Lucky away from here, this would devastate him.

 

“Em,” Liz started, before Emily turned on her heel and bolted.

 

On the stairs she ran into Lucky who was now climbing up them.

 

“Hey Em, where’s the fire?” he laughed, “Is Liz going with you?” Emily looked into his eyes, those deep blue eyes of her best friend in the entire world and she did the only thing she could think of, she lied.

 

“She wasn’t there. Guess Kylie will have to be a good enough bodyguard for today, huh?” she said brightly, she grabbed his arm as they walked back down the stairs.

 

“Are you okay? You look a little pale,” Lucky asked, noting the expression on her face, “Don’t worry about this psycho, we’re going to catch them,” he reassured her.

 

“I know,” she said patting his hand, then because she felt like she had to reassure him in some way she gave him a quick hug. “Let’s go Kylie,” she said leading Kylie out of the diner.

 

“What about Liz?”

 

“She wasn’t there, she’s not coming.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Kylie was worried about Emily, she had been unnaturally quiet since they’d reached the car. There was also the fact that they hadn’t moved and they’d been sitting here for ten minutes.

 

“Hey Em, could we at least turn the heat on? It’s kind of chilly,” she commented, rubbing her hands together and blowing on them to make the point.

 

“Oh… sorry,” Emily said absently. She put the key that she had been holding in her hand into the ignition and started the car. She looked out onto the road, noted there was no traffic coming put the car into gear and then pulled out.

 

“Are you okay? You don’t look good,” Kylie said looking at her friend intently.

 

“I’m okay…If you know a secret, a secret that could potentially hurt people would you tell them? Even if you had been sworn to secrecy?” Emily asked tapping her fingers on the steering wheel.

 

“That depends… Is it going to hurt more people to tell the secret or to keep the secret?”

 

“I don’t know… I don’t know anymore,” Emily whispered.

 

“This isn’t about the notes or the attempts is it?” Kylie asked quizzically. What the hell was going on? Emily had been in fine spirits earlier. What could have happened to bring her this low in such a short period of time?

 

“No,” Emily said quietly, then didn’t say another word. Kylie let her be, and started humming to a song on the radio.

 

“Hey Em?” Kylie asked quietly, she had noticed that the car seemed to be picking up speed instead of slowing down. Seeing as how they were coming up on a 30MPH-speed zone she wondered if Emily was looking to get another speeding ticket.

 

“Hmm?” Emily mumbled absently, that was funny she was pumping the brakes but she couldn’t feel them engaging.

 

“Hey Em… Why are we still speeding up?” Kylie asked nervously, she once again checked the secureness of her seatbelt and then glanced over to make sure Emily had hers on. She did.

 

“I don’t know… I’m pumping the stupid brakes and they’re not doing anything,” Emily muttered. This was crazy, Jason had just had the inspection done a few weeks ago, and he never mentioned anything about brake problems. Of course he probably had his mind on other things, but still… she was his baby sister.

 

“Crap… Hold on Kylie,” Emily yelled jerking the steering wheel to move around a car that had been moving at the posted speed limit in front of them.

 

“What the hell do you think I’m doing…God… Em… Do something!!!” Kylie screamed at her.

 

Emily snorted at her in disbelief, what did she think she was doing?! And suddenly the thought came to her, like a flash of lightning. Probably from seeing Lucky earlier, but she for some reason had Spencer on the brain, because Luke Spencer kept jumping in. She kept remembering all the crazy things he used to tell her and Lucky about protecting themselves, things to do if they found themselves in insane situations, situations that could never possibly happen to them. Emily and Lucky had laughed him off, but not before they had listened to him.

 

“Kylie brace yourself,” she said, she looked for the narrow stretch, the one with no stop lights and waited for a stretch with no cars and then she pulled the emergency brake on the car. Causing the car to spin around in two 360-degree turns before slamming trunk first into a car parked on the side of the road. The engine sputtered and then the music died.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas was down on the docks. Sitting on a bench he was watching the water and trying to figure out what he was doing. He should be happy that Emily hadn’t gotten anymore notes, he should be thrilled that all their lives seemed to be returning to normal. But he had the sinking suspicion that this was just the calm before the storm. It had been too quiet for the last week. Almost as if Gia had known that he was just waiting for her to make a move so he could bust her.

 

He still didn’t understand why Gia saw Emily as a threat; Emily had only ever been his friend. And while he admitted that she did have a crush on him once, she had long since seemed to outgrow it.

 

His cell phone ringing interrupted his inner musings. He pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open, “Hello?”

 

“Nik, its Lucky… get down to GH now,” Lucky said breathlessly.

 

“Why? What’s going on?” he asked, he had already started moving towards his car.

 

“Em and Kylie were in a car accident.”

 

“What?!  What the hell happened?! Never mind you can tell me when I get there,” Nikolas said angrily. Emily in a car accident? What the hell was going on?

 

He made it General Hospital in record time, and bursting through the doors to the Emergency Room he saw Jason and Lucky standing off to one side with their heads together talking in hushed tones.

 

“Nikolas,” Lucky called waving him over.

 

“What’s going on? How bad are they hurt?”

 

“Kylie’s fine, just shaken up… Emily has a cut on her forehead from where it looks like she hit her head on the steering wheel,” Lucky said agitatedly running his hands over his hair.

 

“What happened? Did they get hit or…” Nikolas saw Lucky and Jason exchange a cryptic look, “Okay, what?”

 

“From the way Kylie talked before she and Liz went in to see Emily it sounds as if her brakes went out,” Jason said softly, looking around to make sure no one was listening.

 

“Her brakes went out?” Nikolas asked horrified; how the hell did the car stop then?

 

“I called Sonny; he’s going to get one of the guys to look at the car before the police to see what they can see, but…” Jason exchanged another look with Lucky.

 

“But what?” Nikolas asked.

 

“But it looks like someone cut the brake lines on her car… This wasn’t an accident, we think someone deliberately set out to hurt or kill Emily,” Jason said quietly studying Nikolas’ face. He knew that Nikolas and Lucky knew something; it was plain as day, written all over their faces. He also knew that whatever Nikolas and Lucky knew, Liz knew too. Which burned him more he wasn’t sure. The fact that Liz was sharing secrets, still, with Lucky. Or the fact that the secret they were sharing had something to do with his sister being in danger. He would find out what was going on though.

 

“Nikolas you’re here,” Liz said as she walked up to the small group, she touched him lightly on the back, “Emily is asking to see you, I told her I’d check to see if you’d gotten here yet.”

 

“Is she okay?” Nikolas asked, worry etched in the muscles of his face.

 

“The doctor said she’s going to be okay. She’s a little banged up and she’s scared, but…” Liz glanced over at Jason, she shook her head, “she’s waiting for you Nik, Kylie’s with her.” She smiled at him reassuringly then started making her way to the waiting room.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas pushed open the door to Emily’s room. She was sitting on the bed crying, Kylie sitting next to her attempting to comfort her.

 

“Hey guys,” he said softly, letting the door close behind him as he moved into the room.

 

“Hey Nik,” Kylie said, she glanced worriedly over at Emily, “Hey Em, I’m going to get a soda, I’ll be right back okay?” Kylie said standing up, she squeezed Nikolas’ hand as she walked past; Nikolas watched her go then took her place on the bed next to Emily.

 

“Are you okay Em?” he asked softly taking her hand in his.

 

“Someone tried to kill me Nikolas,” she mumbled, she turned her tear-stained face to him, “Someone tried to kill me, they did something to my brakes… They could have killed Kylie and me.”

 

“I know… we’re going to stop them,” Nikolas whispered, he was going to stop her. The bandage on Emily’s forehead only served to infuriate him more, this had gone to far. The first thing he had to do was get Emily someplace safe. He would take her to Wyndemere for now, until something better could be worked out. “I think it’s time to tell Jason the truth, maybe he can have Sonny put some guards on you,” Nikolas said, Emily shook her head, her face, if possible, going even whiter.

 

“I don’t want him involved,” Emily said quietly, all she kept seeing was Jason in Liz’s room right before. No she definitely didn’t want Jason involved in this.

 

“He’s your brother Emily, he’s worried about you.”

 

“Don’t tell him Nikolas! Promise me you won’t say a word,” Emily said sharply, than touched her forehead in pain.

 

“Okay, we won’t tell Jason… But Em we have to tell somebody, maybe your parents,” Emily shook her head.

 

“My parents, they have enough stuff to worry about in their own lives I don’t want them having to worry about me. I’m a big girl I can take care of myself,” Emily whispered, she was so tired, it was probably from the painkillers the nurse had given her. She rested her head on Nikolas’ shoulder, “Promise me you won’t tell them anything, I don’t want them to worry about me,” she said tiredly.

 

“Okay,” Nikolas agreed reluctantly, “I’ll take you out to Wyndemere. You’ll be safe there.”

 

“I can just go back to the dorms, Kylie and Damon can stay with me.”

 

“No, this is escalated to far, if you don’t want to involve Jason and Sonny or your family then we’ll have to find another way to protect you,” Nikolas said softly, he looked down at her and was surprised to see her eyes closed and her breathing evening out.

 

It was time to make the decision that he had been putting off. He had hoped that he wouldn’t have to. That he could protect her without. But seeing Emily here bruised, with bandages, pale and tired, he had decided to accept his uncle’s conditions. The most important thing was protecting Emily.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Kylie met Lucky outside Emily’s room, in her hands she held three sodas, she looked at him casually and said, “These aren’t for you.”

 

Lucky grinned, the first time he had since he had gotten the call. God help him, he liked Kylie she was a good friend to Emily.

 

“I didn’t want them anyway,” he pouted, he pointed at Emily’s door, “how is she really?”

 

“She’s scared, but you should have seen her Lucky… It was amazing, I didn’t even know you could use the emergency brake if the other brakes were out. But Em, she just told me to hold on and pulled it. It was incredible,” Kylie said leaning against the wall. It had been amazing, at least it was now, then it had been pretty terrifying.

 

“I think my dad told us about the emergency brake once. Survival tips 101 I call them,” Lucky smiled.

 

“I think I’d like your dad,” Kylie said pushing the door open. The both walked in; Lucky surprised to see Emily asleep, resting her head on Nikolas’ shoulder and Nikolas just hanging up his cell phone.

 

“Oh, I forgot… The nurse gave her something for the pain,” Kylie said setting the sodas down on the bed.

 

“Aunt Bobbie said she could leave anytime, and told me tell you that she could only hold off the Quartermaine’s for a little while longer. So if we’re going to do something we should do it now,” Lucky said crossing his arms across his chest; he didn’t like the expression on Nikolas’ face. It meant he was up to something.

 

“We can go back to the dorms,” Kylie said than looked quizzically at Nikolas as he shook his head.

 

“We’re going to take her out to Wyndemere, Kylie you’re welcome to come as well. I called my uncle and he’s having some guest rooms fixed up.”

 

“Wyndemere? Why don’t we just take her to the dorms or better yet to your cottage?” Lucky asked.

 

“Because Wyndemere is contained, nobody can get on or off without someone knowing about it,” Nikolas looked at Lucky in amusement as he shook his head.

 

“My father can get on and off Wyndemere without anyone noticing,” Lucky laughed.

 

“Yeah, but do you really think your father is the one trying to kill Emily?” Nikolas asked raising his eyebrows.

 

“Good point… So what’s the plan of attack?”

 

“I’ll take Em out, you take Kylie to the dorms and pick up some clothes and stuff and meet us there.”

 

“What about Damon?” Kylie asked leaning against the bed.

 

“Bring him out to if he wants to come, heck the more the merrier,” Nikolas grumbled then smiled to show he wasn’t serious.

 

“Okay, so we all meet out on Wyndemere in say, two hours?” Lucky asked looking around the room, Nikolas and Kylie nodded their agreement, Emily continued to sleep.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas glanced down at his sleeping companion. They had managed to rouse Emily enough in the hospital to get her in a wheelchair and to his car. They had put her in the backseat and she had curled up in a ball and went back to sleep. Whatever had been in those pain pills the hospital had given her must have been some pretty potent stuff; he was going to have to wake her soon because he was pretty sure he couldn’t carry her to the house. His back wouldn’t take it.

 

“Hey Em?” he whispered softly touching her cheek softly. He guessed if he had to get married, Emily was a pretty good choice. They understood each other very well.

 

“Hmm,” she mumbled wrapping her arms tighter around her body.

 

“Hey Em, I need you to wake up.”

 

“Just hit the snooze Kylie, I’ll make the class up later,” she muttered sleepily, Nikolas laughed softly.

 

“Hey Em, we’re here I need you to wake up now.”

 

“Nikolas, what are you doing in my room?” she asked half opening her eyes to look at him.

 

“I’m not in your room,” he chuckled.

 

“Oh god,” she said, sitting up arrow straight suddenly, “hey my head doesn’t hurt anymore.”

 

“I think that would probably be the pain killers they gave you. You’ve been out cold.”

 

“How did we get to Wyndemere so fast?” she asked lazily stretching. God she felt good, too good, she was going to feel like crap tomorrow.

 

“It hasn’t been to fast, you’ve been out for about an hour.”

 

“Where’s Kylie?” she asked looking around, “Wasn’t she here?”

 

Nikolas touched her forehead lightly, “Lucky took her back to the dorms to get some clothes for you and to see if she could round up Damon. They’ll meet us here soon.”

 

“I worried you, didn’t I?” she asked softly taking in the stress lines on his face.

 

“Yeah, you did,” Nikolas stated looking away from her. She didn’t need to know how scared he’d really been, or how desperately he wanted to get his hands on Gia. She didn’t even know that Gia was the one doing this, he would have to tell her before the night was over.

 

Emily let Nikolas guide her up to Wyndemere; she hated feeling so weak that she needed to lean on him. But Nikolas didn’t seem to mind and he kept a tight grip on her shoulder. The door opened before they even ascended the steps and she saw Stefan standing in the doorway, Mrs. Landsbury hovering behind him.

 

“Nikolas, Miss Quartermaine,” he said ushering them inside, closing the door behind them.

 

“Mr. Cassadine,” Emily said softly, standing awkwardly in the foyer she wondered what he thought of her. She was the one always dragging his nephew into these insane situations. Being blackmailed by Tom, waking up dead next to the cop Ted. How did Nikolas stand being around her when she only brought horror to his entire existence?

 

“Welcome to our family Miss Quartermaine,” Stefan smiled warmly.

 

“Excuse me?” Emily questioned blankly, okay maybe Stefan was as wacky as the rest of the Cassadine’s. She looked over at Nikolas who was now studiously avoiding her gaze.

 

“I’m sorry… Welcome to Wyndemere,” he corrected, he glanced at Nikolas to find him now studying his shoes.

 

“Oh, thank you… I’m sorry about…” Emily started hesitantly.

 

“Nonsense… Mrs. Landsbury, will you show Miss Quartermaine to one of the guestrooms? I think she could use some time to clean up… Nikolas could I see you in my study?” Stefan said walking away. Nikolas hesitated momentarily to pat Emily reassuringly on the back and then followed him.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Stefan sat in his chair and waited for his nephew to join him. Motioning for Nikolas to close the door behind him, he sat back in his chair waiting for Nikolas to take a seat.

 

“I take Miss Quartermaine’s statements to mean that you have not told her yet of the terms of our agreement?”

 

“No, I haven’t had a chance. The only time we’ve been alone, she’s been unconscious.” Nikolas stated.

 

“Unconscious?” Stefan asked his eyebrows raising, and his fingers tapping against the desktop.

 

“The hospital, they gave her these pills and they knocked her out. I’ll talk to her as soon as she’s showered and a little more coherent.”

 

“When do you plan on conducting the ceremony?” Stefan leaned forward bracing his elbows on the desk.

 

“I thought on Monday, we’ll just go down to the courthouse and have a JP do it.”

 

“Why don’t you do it here, have a small ceremony with your family and friends?” Stefan offered stroking his short beard.

 

“I didn’t want to place you in an awkward position.”

 

“Nonsense, you only get married once, you may as well do it correctly. Go talk to Miss Quartermaine and gain her agreement. I’ll place a call to a judge I know and she can talk to her family tomorrow,” Stefan said booting his computer up.

 

“Thank you uncle, for you support in this,” Nikolas said softly, he stood and made his way to the door, when he opened it a thought struck him and he turned back, “What if she says no?”

 

“I have confidence in your ability to persuade her to do what needs to be done,” Stefan smiled; Nikolas snorted and then walked out of the room closing the door behind him.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Lucky surveyed the room in front of him. It looked ransacked to him; Kylie though had just picked her way through the piles of clothes on the floor and was standing at Emily’s closet.

 

“Are you sure we shouldn’t call the police?” he asked standing in the doorway.

 

“Why?”

 

“Well I mean… Look at this…” Lucky said gesturing around the room, how could she not see it?

 

Kylie looked around, “It looks exactly the way it did when we left,” she shrugged.

 

“I didn’t think the two of you were this messy,” Lucky said stepping over a pile of clothes and sat down on Emily’s bed.

 

“We’re not normally, today was supposed to be laundry day and we opted to go Christmas Shopping instead… I guess in hindsight we should have done laundry,” Kylie shook her head, she turned around to face Lucky, “No resting, I think her duffel bag is under her bed.”

 

“Are you sure there’s nothing under there that’s going to bite me?” he wrinkled his nose.

 

“Positive,” she grinned. When he resurfaced from under the bed she threw a stack of clothes at him and then started pulling undergarments out of Emily’s dresser, “How long do you think Nik is going to keep her out at Wyndemere?”

 

“Either until we catch this creep, or until Emily kills him, whichever comes first,” Lucky smirked.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily knocked on the door to the room that Mrs. Landsbury had assured her was Nikolas’. Her head felt much clearer now that she’d had a shower and changed into the satin pajamas that had been left on the bed. Her room was huge; she and Kylie could probably share it and never see each other.

 

“It’s open Em,” she heard Nikolas call.

 

She pushed open the door and peeked in, “Are you decent?”

 

“Yeah,” Nikolas laughed, “do you feel better?” he asked from where he was laying on a black leather couch in the far corner of the room.

 

“Much… Take these,” she said, walking over to him she handed him a bottle of pills. Nikolas glanced at them before eyeing her quizzically.

 

“These are your pain killers… Are you sure you don’t want to keep them?” he asked.

 

“No, I don’t want to take the risk… of you know,” she said awkwardly.

 

“Okay. If you need them just let me know,” smiling gently, he leaned over and placed the bottle on the floor, then patted the couch next to him, “I wanted to talk to you.”

 

“About what?” Emily asked, sitting down she sat with her back to the arm of the couch, she drew her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

 

“About what we’re going to do.”

 

“I can just go back to the dorms, I mean other than the one time nothing’s happened there.”

 

“No, you said you were getting notes at your room. I don’t think its safe enough.”

 

“Well no matter how friendly your uncle is I don’t think he’ll really approve of Kylie and me moving in here."

 

“See, well that’s what I wanted to talk about,” Nikolas said studying his hands.

 

“What?”

 

“Well, you said in the hospital that you didn’t want to tell Jason and by extension Sonny, right?” He looked at her for confirmation, when she nodded her head he continued, “I don’t really understand that, because Jason is your brother and he would do pretty much anything for you, but…”

 

“I don’t want to involve him,” Emily snapped.

 

“Okay, okay…And you don’t want to involve your family…”

 

“They’ve got enough…”

 

“I know they’ve got enough stuff to worry about, so that really only leaves us one alternative,” Nikolas said glancing over at her.

 

“The police would never believe me,” Emily said softly.

 

“I wasn’t talking about the police. I was thinking that we could put Cassadine guards on you.”

 

“Cassadine guards? How? I thought you, like, quit your family or something?” Emily asked watching him quizzically. He really wasn’t making much sense. Maybe she shouldn’t leave him the painkillers; she’d give them to Kylie instead.

 

“Well, you see. My uncle said he would allow family bodyguards to be placed on you if I rejoined the family.”

 

Emily jumped up from where she was sitting, “No! If you want to rejoin your family on your own than that’s just fine, but I’m not going to let you be forced into doing it because I’ve got some sicko stalker after me.”

 

“Em, I’m fine with this, I really am… but the family thing isn’t the only condition my uncle had.”

 

“What else than?” Emily asked glaring at him, folding her arms across her chest.

 

“His other condition was that I, well that I marry you,” Nikolas winced as Emily started laughing. A soft laugh to begin with and a full blow guffaw as she sat down hard on the floor holding her sides.

 

“Oh… Oh, I really needed that. You know you should warn people before you pull a joke like that next time,” she giggled tears running down her face. She stopped laughing as she caught the expression on his face, “You were joking right? Right?”

 

“Well no, and I didn’t really think that a marriage proposal was any cause for hysterics,” he said kind of put off by her reaction.

 

“You mean you were serious?! We’re just friends!”

 

“Friends get married all the time.”

 

“Really?! Where?”

 

“Well… That’s not really important… What is important is that in order for me to put guards on you, you need to be a member of my family.”

 

“Well then I just won’t have guards, Kylie and Damon have been doing a pretty good job of keeping me safe.”

 

“Lot of good Kylie did when your brakes went out,” Nikolas said snorted.

 

“Well what good would a bodyguard have done? The brakes would still have gone out,” Emily retorted.

 

“Yes but then you would have been riding in a private car, with a driver that stayed with it the entire time. She would never have gotten near it in the first place,” Nikolas stated hotly, then went pale as he realized what he had just said.

 

“Oh my god…” Emily looked at him, her face going white as the realization hit her, “You know, don’t you? You know who’s trying to kill me? Don’t you Nikolas?!” she moved so she was standing directly in front of him. He looked up at her and then looked away.

 

“Yes,” he said simply resting his head in his hands.

 

“Who? Who is it?” she sat down next to him, he could feel her shaking and took her hand to lend comfort.

 

“It’s…its Gia,” he said softly meeting her eyes, squeezing her hand in reassurance.

 

“Gia?” she said blankly, “Your girlfriend?”

 

“Ex-girlfriend, but yes.”

 

“Why? I don’t understand,” she mumbled.

 

“She’s jealous of you, of our relationship…”

 

“What relationship? We’re friends!”

 

“Gia, she sees something different… She decided that if you were out of the way that I would come back to her.”

 

“I saw her…” Emily said quietly, staring down at the floor.

 

“You saw her? When?”

 

“This morning, when Kylie and I were going to see if Liz wanted to go shopping with us… I bumped into her right after we parked the car… Why wouldn’t anyone notice?” her eyes filled with tears as she struggled to regain her composure.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“Why would I be any safer married to you? That’s why she’s jealous of me right? Because she thinks I have romantic feelings for you?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Than I would be in even more danger if I married you, I should just leave town or something.”

 

“Unacceptable. You leave town, there’s a good chance she’ll just follow you.”

 

“I don’t know what to do Nik. If I stay here I’m not safe, if I leave I’m not safe… When am I safe?” she cried softly.

 

Nikolas gripped her hand tightly, “Emily look at me, look at me,” he ordered, when she turned to him he continued, “If you marry me I will keep you safe, nothing will happen to you.”

 

“Promise?” she whispered.

 

“I promise,” he pledged softly. He watched as she turned away from him, gnawing at her bottom lip he knew she was weighing the pros and cons of the situation, knew that she was scared of making that commitment to someone. Especially someone who had never professed to love her as anything other than a friend.

 

“Okay,” she said meeting his eyes once again, “I’ll marry you.”

 

“Good,” he said drawing her into the circle of his arms, “Good.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas paced in the foyer of Wyndemere. Periodically he would glance down at his watch and then glare at the door. Emily was asleep in the middle of his bed, and he was waiting for his brother to show up with Kylie and Damon. When he heard the knock on the door, he jerked it open revealing an awestruck Kylie and Damon and a grinning Lucky.

“Hey Nik,” Lucky said, dropping Emily’s duffel bag on the floor and ushering his companions through the door.

“Where have you been? It’s been four hours not two,” Nikolas huffed.

“I believe that would be my fault, I wasn’t ready when they picked me up,” Damon raised his hand.

“Do you really live here?” Kylie asked looking around with wide eyes, “This place is like a museum or something.”

“Yes, look Lucky I need to talk to you… Mrs. Landsbury will show Damon and Kylie to their rooms,” Nikolas pointed to Mrs. Landsbury who had entered the room and was now standing near the stairs. “Hey Kylie leave Em’s bag, I’ll take it up,” he called back from where he was leading Lucky into Stefan’s library.

“Okay,” Kylie shrugged and then moved to follow Damon and Mrs. Landsbury.

“So what did you want to talk about?” Lucky asked once Nikolas had closed the door to the library and he had sat in one of the chairs.

“Emily and I are getting married on Monday.”

“You’re what?!” Lucky asked jumping up from his chair.

“Emily and I are getting married on Monday, I need you to be my best man,” Nikolas paced in front of the door.

“Married? You and Emily? When did that happen?” Lucky asked shocked.

“I asked her tonight, she agreed, we’re going to do it on Monday,” Nikolas stated simply.

“What’s the rush?” Lucky glared at him, “She’s not pregnant or something is she?”

“No! You know Emily and I don’t have that type of relationship.”

“Than why are you getting married?”

“Well it’s a long story, but basically Stefan has agreed to put guards on her if I marry her,” Nikolas said weakly.

“That’s the stupidest reason I’ve ever heard of… Why don’t you just talk to Jason or Ned?” Lucky asked with narrowed eyes.

“Because Emily refused, she said she didn’t want to involve Jason and Sonny or her family,” Nikolas said collapsing in a chair.

“That’s the… You know don’t you? That’s what the rush is about, you know who it is, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Nikolas said running his hands over his face, “its Gia,” he said in a muffled voice.

“Gia?” Lucky asked stupidly, he only knew one Gia, and as far as he knew she wasn’t homicidal.

“Yeah Gia.”

“And Emily knows this?”

“I told her… That’s one of the reasons she agreed.”

“I have to say I don’t like this at all,” Lucky stated crossing his arms across his chest.

“You don’t have to, just say you’ll be my best man and lets leave it at that.”

“There’s got to be a better way to handle this.”

“This is the only way, she’ll be protected.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

November 11

“Grandfather… grandfather just let me explain,” Emily held the phone away from her ear as Edward started another tirade, listing every bad thing that every Cassadine had ever done, for the third time.

Her phone call to her family to announce her impending marriage to Nikolas had definitely not gone over well. Monica had dropped the phone, Alan had asked her if she was pregnant. AJ, well AJ had started laughing and couldn’t stop, Ned had finally taken the phone away from him. Then he had proceeded to list the reasons why marrying a Cassadine was a bad idea, starting with the fact that Nikolas would probably leave her at the altar. Lila had offered her congratulations and had been about to offer something else when Edward had taken the phone away from her and then began his tirade. When she saw Liz walk into the room she interrupted Edward, “Look grandfather, I’ll just call you back later, after you’ve had a chance to calm down… No I’m not going to change my mind,” Emily hung up the phone while Edward was blustering about the lack of manners in children today.

“Hey Em,” Liz said softly offering a small smile.

“Liz,” Emily said crossing her arms across her chest awkwardly, “What are you doing here?”

“I wanted to talk to you alone, and to apologize.”

“Apologize? For what?” Emily asked confused.

“For dragging you into my personal business. I know Lucky’s a friend to you, I know Jason’s your brother, it wasn’t fair of me to place that secret on you knowing how important both of them are to you.”

“Liz…”

“Let me just finish, okay, then I’ll go… I love Jason, I really do,” she smiled gently, “he’s your brother so you don’t see him the way that I do, but he’s an amazing person and he loves me back.”

“Liz, I…”

“No, please let me finish this… I broke up with Lucky this morning. I love him, I do, but he deserves to be loved by someone who can love only him, who is devoted to only him. And that, well that’s not me anymore, it was once, but he’s not the same person he was before… and neither am I. I wish I was, but I’m not,” Liz said softly, tears welling up in the corner of her eyes. “So that’s it, I’m sorry, so I’ll go now.”

“Liz… it’s okay, you don’t have to apologize or be sorry. I overreacted when I saw you two. It’s just with everything else going on, I needed everything to be the same, when I saw you guys…”

“I know, so we’re okay then? Still friends?” Liz questioned her eyes bright.

“Yeah.”

“So… you and Nikolas are getting married? Is that right? How did that happen?”

“Long story, but yeah, tomorrow. I could use another bridesmaid, you know if you’re available tomorrow?” Emily asked hesitantly.

“Of course I’m available, what are we waiting for? Let’s go rescue Kylie from Damon and Nikolas snag one of Nikolas’ new bodyguards and go shopping. You need a dress, Kylie and I need dresses, we need to get busy,” Liz said taking charge, she hugged Emily softly and then looping her arm through hers led her out of the room.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

November 12

 

Emily smoothed her hands down her white dress. Shopping with Liz and Kylie the day before had yielded one dress that she felt appropriate. A knee length off white dress, that hugged her tall frame. She had frowned at the short sleeves but both Kylie and Liz had deemed the dress “the one” so she had acquiesced to their good fashion sense. They had both chosen dresses similar in darker colors, a burgundy for Kylie and an emerald green for Liz. Emily had commented that they looked like they were ready for Christmas.   They had both helped her get dressed this morning, Liz arranging her hair in a manner that covered the cut and new bruise on her forehead. She didn’t want to explain that to anyone.

“You look nervous,” Nikolas commented from the door.

“Nik, you’re not supposed to be in here,” Emily scolded, she turned a bright shade of red as she realized in less than 30 minutes he would be her husband.

“Stupid custom, besides what could possibly happen? I mean your grandfather’s already tried to buy me off,” Nikolas grinned.

“He did? I’m so sorry Nikolas, but I’m afraid I'm going to have to kill somebody today,” she grinned back at him.

“Relax, I told him that he couldn’t afford me. So why do you look nervous?”

“Well… we never talked about… well, you know,” she muttered turning red again.

“Em, I’m not going to force you into anything you’re not comfortable with. If you want to sit in bed, watch TV and eat ice cream than that’s what we’ll do,” Nikolas said softly walking up to her.

“It’s just, you know, we’ll be married and all,” she said awkwardly looking down at her white pumps.

“Em,” Nikolas drew her into his arms, hugging her tight. He waited until she relaxed, resting her head on his shoulder and her hands on his hips, “we have plenty of time,” he whispered in her ear.

“Get your hands off my girlfriend,” he heard an angry voice yell from the doorway before he felt hands on his shoulder. Zander shoved Nikolas back and latched onto Emily’s wrist, he started dragging her towards the door, Emily struggling with him

“Zander! Stop it! Have you lost your mind?!” she yelled at him, trying to peel his fingers off her wrist.

He stopped, wheeling around to face her, “No but I think you have!”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing Zander?” Nikolas asked angrily looping his arm around Emily’s waist loosely in an act of blatant possession.

“I think I’m reminding Emily that I’m her boyfriend, not you… God if Gia hadn’t stopped me and told me what was going on here today…” Zander stated harshly.

“Zander I hate to break it to you, but we’re broke up I can see or marry anyone that I want to,” Emily yelled, her face turning red.

“I know you’re only doing this because Nikolas has said he’ll protect you from your stalker, but I…”

“Wait a minute, how do you know about Emily’s stalker?” Nikolas interrupted pushing Emily behind him.

“Gia told me, she said that you two were getting married so you could protect her… But Em you don’t have to do this. You move in with me I’ll protect you,” Zander pleaded.

“I think the bed would be awful crowded, what with me, the little redhead and you,” Emily snarled at him.

“I told Cheryl it was over, you don’t need to worry about her anymore… Em I love you, you don’t have to do this,” Zander reaching out for her.

Emily backed away from his outstretched hands, moving away from Nikolas at the same time. Was it worth it? Was being safe, worth being married to Nikolas? She looked from one to the other.

“Nikolas,” she said her eyes locked on Zander’s.

“Yes?” 

“Get him out of here, please?” she said softly.

“Whatever you say,” Nikolas said a small smile playing on his lips as he went to the door, “Scott? David?” When the two guards came into the room he pointed at Zander, “Please remove Mr. Smith from Wyndemere. And make sure he doesn’t come back.”

“Sure Mr. Cassadine,” Scott said, moving forward he clapped a hand onto Zander’s shoulder and started leading him to the door.

“Emily you don’t have to do this,” he whined as he was led out by Scott, David following closely behind.

“Thank you,” Emily said softly, she turned her back to him and looked out the window blankly. He walked up behind her, placing a hand gently on her shoulder.

“Was that Zander I just saw leaving?” they heard Alan say behind them, Nikolas gently squeezed her shoulder before turning around.

“Yes, he came to try and make trouble.”

“And did he succeed?” Alan asked looking from Nikolas to Emily’s still turned back.

“No…” Emily stated firmly turning around, she took Nikolas’ hand in hers and met his eyes with a smile, “Lucky and the priest are probably looking for you.”

He smiled at her, then released her hand and walked out of the room.

Alan walked up to her gently touching her cheek, “I can’t believe you're getting married, it seems like just yesterday…” he drifted off softly.

“Dad, thank you for doing this for me. You know giving me away and all. I know the family is pretty upset,” Emily grinned impishly at him.

“Let them be, you look beautiful,” he grinned back at her linking his arm with hers, he led her out of the room, “Now are you sure you're not pregnant?”

Emily just laughed.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily lay in the middle of the bed, lying on her back staring at the ceiling; she was waiting for her husband to join her. Nikolas had mumbled something about movies and popcorn and had disappeared about an hour earlier. She had no idea what he had been talking about but she was grateful for the momentary reprieve, especially since she had no idea how to act around him. As she lay there thoughts of the day kept intruding in her mind.

 

Dearly beloved…

 

I Nikolas take thee Emily to be my lawfully wedded wife…

 

I Emily take thee Nikolas to be my lawfully wedded husband…

 

For richer and poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us apart.

 

She held her left hand up and looked at her finger again. She had been expecting the wedding band, she had not expected the diamond that had accompanied it. Nikolas had just shrugged it off and mumbled something about family expectations, then changed the subject.

 

“Hey Em… choose which one you want first,” Nikolas shocked her out of her thoughts by throwing a bag of movies on the bed next to her. She rolled over on her stomach and pulled a pillow under her chest, as she pulled the bag to her.

 

“What did you get?” she asked dumping the bag out.

 

“I have no idea, I asked Kylie to pick out some and that’s what she handed me when she got back,” Nikolas said setting the bowl of popcorn and the soda’s he was carrying down on the dresser. He looked around until he spotted the end table near the couch and pulled it over to the foot of the bed then transferred the popcorn and sodas to it. Finally flopping down on his back on the bed next to Emily.

 

“You let Kylie choose movies?” Emily cringed internally; Kylie had the worst taste in movies ever. They would probably end up watching horror movies, or some freaky movie from the seventies that would only make sense if someone were doing massive quantities of drugs.

 

“I sent Liz with her, there should be something watchable in there,” Nikolas said rolling over. He reached over and moved Emily’s bangs up wincing at the bruise surrounding the gash on Emily’s forehead, “Does your head hurt? Do you want a painkiller or something?”

 

“Nah it’s fine… I took some aspirin earlier and it’s just a mild dull ache at this point… Now about this?” she asked holding a movie up for his approval.

 

“I don’t know… it looks like a chick flick,” he winced.

 

“A ‘chick flick’? You’ve been talking to Lucky again haven’t you?”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas glared at the alarm clock with one eye. He had been rudely awakened from an awesome dream where he was annihilating his grandmother’s entire life when the buzzer had started.

 

6:30 am? Who the hell got up at 6:30 am? He made to reach over and turn the clock off when he realized that there was an arm wrapped around his waist and a leg thrown over his. Momentarily confused he turned his head and came face to face with his still peacefully sleeping wife.

 

“Em? I think its time to get up,” he said softly brushing a strand of hair off her cheek.

 

“It’s only dinosaurs,” she said suddenly sitting upright next to him.

 

“What?” Nikolas asked, an eyebrow raising as he struggled to hide a grin.

 

Emily looked down at him in confusion, then blushed as she realized that her leg was still laying over his, “Sorry Jurassic Park dream… Should have warned you before we went to bed,” she yawned looking away from him.

 

“Jurassic Park dream?” he questioned throwing the covers off his body. He stood by the bed looking down at her as he stretched.

 

“Never mind, it’s a long story,” Emily mumbled. She glanced over at the alarm clock before lying back down, “God whoever invented 8:00 am classes should be drawn and quartered,” she muttered.

 

“You didn’t have to sign up for the 8:00. You could have taken a different class.”

 

“No I couldn’t, it was the only one open,” Emily said laying her arm over her eyes. Nikolas laughed as he went to answer the knock at his bedroom door. Opening the door revealed Kylie holding a cup of coffee. Nikolas looked at her questioningly.

 

“Its for Em, she’ll need it get moving,” Kylie laughed.

 

“Go away Kylie,” Emily muttered.

 

“Get the lead out girl, I’ll meet you downstairs,” Kylie grinned walking away. Nikolas shook his head, closing the door he walked back over to the bed handing Emily the cup.

 

“I hate cheerful people first thing in the morning,” Emily said sipping the coffee, “you’re not one of those people are you?” she asked suddenly, narrowing her eyes at him.

 

“You mean am I a morning person?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Well it depends on how early in the morning it is. Now if we’re talking anytime before maybe 7:00 then no I’m not a morning person.”

 

“Good,” Emily smiled softly, she drained the cup and then handed it to him, “Take this, I’ve got to shower and meet Kylie or we’ll be late for class.”

 

“Don’t forget Scott and David when you leave,” Nikolas said placing the cup on the end table, he walked to his dresser and started pulling out his clothes for the day.

 

“You’re kidding about the bodyguards, right?”

 

“No… As far as we know Gia is still gunning for you. Until she’s stopped you have bodyguards with you anytime you’re not at Wyndemere,” he turned around holding his undergarments in his hands to find Emily staring at him, “What?”

 

“How do I explain them to my professors or the other dorm residents?”

 

“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Nikolas smiled; he kissed her gently on the forehead and then walked into the bathroom. She had another thing coming if she thought she was going to continue living in the dorms, he made a mental note to send some men over to her room and bring her possessions back to the Island.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily raced down the hallway of her dorm to her room with Scott and David close behind her.

 

“Kylie did you hear?” she asked excitedly throwing open her door, she stopped suddenly as she took in the room in front of her.

 

“Did I hear what?” Kylie asked from where she was lounging on her bed.

 

“Where’s all my stuff?” Emily asked turning around in a circle. All of her belongings were gone, even her bed had been stripped of its sheets. Scott and David hovered in the doorway watching their charge warily. She was a little high strung, and had almost lost them twice already.

 

“What’d you mean? Nikolas had it all moved to Wyndemere,” Kylie said confused.

 

“He what?!” Emily yelled.

 

“Well he is your husband Em, I’m pretty sure he expects that you’ll be living with him. What’s the big deal?”

 

“What’s the big deal?!” Emily shouted, she turned and stalked out of the room with Scott and David rushing after her.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

“Where is he?!” Emily asked an unsuspecting Stefan as she stormed into Wyndemere.

 

“Nikolas? I believe he’s still on the mainland. He should be back before dinner, is there a problem?” Stefan asked taking in her flushed, angry face.

 

“He…he…” Emily stopped taking a deep breath. She was not going to lose it over this, well she already had, but Kylie had seen worse.

 

“Are you alright my dear?” Stefan asked worriedly, she looked slightly dazed now.

 

“I’m fine, it can wait for Nik to get back,” she said with what she hoped was remarkable calm.

 

“Okay then… I have something for you. I meant to give it to you yesterday but the day seemed to fly by so fast,” Stefan said motioning for her to follow him into his study. He walked behind his desk; opening a drawer he pulled out a box and handed it to her.

 

“What is it?” Emily asked softly, almost afraid to open it.

 

“It won’t bite,” Stefan smiled. Emily opened the top revealing a necklace. She looked at him in confusion.

 

“It’s a Cassadine medallion. I had one I was saving for Nikolas’ bride,” Stefan said taking it out of the box. He held it in his hands, the medallion swaying gently on the silver chain. Emily watched it hypnotized by the ramifications of this gift.

 

“I’ve never seen Nikolas wear one of these,” she said, the first thing that popped into her head slipping out of her mouth.

 

“He has one, he never wears it though. Maybe someday you can convince him to,” Stefan said slipping the chain around her neck. Emily looked down at the medallion resting against her chest; she reached up touching it gently with her fingertips.

 

“Thank you,” she whispered.

 

“You are welcome… Welcome to our family,” Stefan smiled gently at her, a smile that Emily returned.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas walked warily into his bedroom. Stefan had forewarned him when he had walked into the house that Emily had been looking for him earlier. Angrily looking for him. Stefan, being the person he was, felt that forewarned was forearmed. Nikolas could have saved him the trouble by telling him that he was aware of the reason behind Emily’s anger. Scott had called his cell phone once they had dropped Emily off at the house to let him know that she had been furious to find all her belongings missing from her dorm room. So he was startled to say the least when he walked in and found Emily sitting cross-legged on their bed, calmly swinging a necklace in front of her.

 

“Em,” he said cautiously closing the door behind him.

 

“Nikolas… Your uncle gave me a present today,” she said quietly.

 

“He did?” Nikolas asked surprised as he walked closer to the bed.

 

“Yes… This…” Emily said swinging the necklace around so Nikolas could clearly see the Cassadine medallion.

 

“Oh.”

 

“Yes, he said he was saving one for your wife… I guess that would be me,” Emily said meeting his eyes, “You have told your uncle that this is a temporary thing, right? That we’re only staying married until Gia or whoever is caught, right?”

 

“Well you see Em, that’s the thing,” Nikolas started sitting on the edge of the bed.

 

“What?”

 

“You see, we Cassadine’s, we don’t divorce. It’s like a tradition.”

 

“You do to, your uncle, Stefan, he divorced Bobbie. I remember that,” Emily said crawling across the bed so she was sitting next to him, her legs hanging off the side.

 

“From what I understand there were mitigating circumstances,” Nikolas said quietly.

 

“So, no divorce. So we just get an annulment when this is done,” Emily said looking over at him as he shook his head. “What?” she asked in exasperation.

 

“No… I’m not going to continue a trend that has Cassadine’s tossing their wives aside. We’ll just stay married.” Emily looked at him in amazement before she pushed herself off the bed and turned to face him.

 

“I’m not going to stay bound to you because of some stupid tradition,” Emily laughed, “You’re going to have to give me a better reason than that.”

 

“That’s the only reason there is,” Nikolas stated, standing and moving to her. He cupped her cheek in his hand and forced him to look at her, “I care about you Em, you’re one of my best friends in this world. And we’ll stay married, end of story,” he kissed her cheek softly and walked out of the room. Shutting the door behind him he could hear her muttering something about pigheaded, arrogant jerks right before she kicked something. He smiled and went to join his uncle in his study.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily was furiously pacing, he had trapped her. Where was this whole no divorce thing when she was agreeing to marry him? Why hadn’t it been brought up in the conversation, wasn’t that something that she had a right to know? Well she would just file for divorce or annulment or whatever as soon as this was over with, Nikolas had another thing coming if he thought she was just going to stay married to him because he declared it so!

 

“Mrs. Cassadine… Mrs. Cassadine?” she heard Mrs. Landsbury calling from the open door. Oh right, that was her now.

 

“What is it Mrs. Landsbury?” she asked.

 

“There is a gentleman waiting for you downstairs. Jason Morgan, I believe he said he was your brother?”

 

“Thank you, I’ll be down in a few minutes, can you show him into the library?”

 

“Yes ma’am,” Mrs. Landsbury smiled at her and walked away.

 

Emily walked over to the mirror, looking critically at her appearance in the mirror she arranged her bangs so they draped over her forehead. She sighed, it was the best she could accomplish on such short notice and left to join Jason in the library.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Jason sat in one of the most uncomfortable chairs he’d ever had the misfortune to sit in and tapped his foot. Liz had finally told him what was going on, granted he had worn her down with an old bit about not trusting him. About trying to keep a wedge between them, so she finally spilled her guts. Every secret that she had been keeping she told him in one fell swoop, leaving him, well shell-shocked would have been a good description for his reaction to her secrets. She had finally left to go to work, leaving him in her room staring at the wall.

 

It has taken him about an hour to pull himself together and then he had headed straight for Wyndemere. First things, first. He had to deal with this mess that his sister had gotten herself into. He should have known something was up when she just out of the blue announced that she was marrying Cassadine. But Liz had insisted that it was nothing, that Emily and Nikolas had “found” each other. He snorted as he realized that he had been gullible enough to buy that one.

 

“Hey Jase,” Emily said from behind him, walking into the room she closed the door and walked over to the chair beside him.

 

“Okay, what kind of mess have you gotten yourself into this time?” he asked leaning back casually; he noticed the medallion around her neck and scowled. Cassadine moved fast, he shook his head.

 

“No mess,” Emily said sitting down in the chair she crossed her legs, tapping her fingers on the arms of the chair.

 

“Don’t lie to me Em. Liz told me everything,” Jason said standing up. He walked over to her, sweeping her hair out of the way he winced at the gash and bruise on her forehead. “You should have told me or at least Sonny.”

 

“I thought it was a joke, than I thought it might be Zander, you know being a jerk because I broke up with him. By the time I realized that it was serious I didn’t want to worry you guys.”

 

“Em you know you can always worry Sonny and me. The most important thing to us is your safety, we should never have listened to you and pulled your guards,” Jason shook his head.

 

“I wanted to be a normal college kid; I didn’t want to have to explain to everyone why I had bodyguards. Why do you think I didn’t have any friends in highschool? Everyone knew that I was being protected by Sonny Corinthos, they may have picked on me, called me names, but none of them would have lifted a hand against me because they were terrified of Sonny and you. They were terrified that if I said someone was threatening me that they would disappear.”

 

“Still Em…”

 

“Nikolas is taking care of it… I have to drag two bodyguards around me wherever I go, but I guess it could be worse. I could be dead,” she smiled softly at him.

 

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to marry him to get protection. Hell Sonny and I would have done that with no questions asked,” Jason said sitting back down in his chair, leaning forward he took her hands in his.

 

“It’s not so bad. Nikolas is giving me a hard time about the divorce or whatever when everything gets resolved but other than that…”

 

“Once this is over, if you want me to take care of him I will,” Jason said with a serious expression on his face.

 

“I think I can handle Nikolas Cassadine,” Emily laughed, “So what else did you come out here for? I mean you didn’t just come out here to tell me you knew right?”

 

“No,” Jason let go of her hands and leaned back in his chair, “I wanted to let you know that I asked Liz to marry me.”

 

“Oh… That’s great,” Emily smiled at him, she was thrilled that her brother had found someone that made him happy, even if that meant that one of her best friends was miserable.

 

“Yeah, I would have asked her eventually. I wanted to make sure there weren’t any residual feelings for Lucky but Liz told me something this morning that kind of forced me to move my timeline up,” Jason said quietly.

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“Liz is pregnant.”

 

“Oh my god! That’s great,” Emily jumped out of the chair hugging him, he patted her on the back before drawing away, “why aren’t you happy?”

 

“Well because after she told me I asked her to marry me, and now…”

 

“Now she thinks that you only want to get married because she’s pregnant,” Emily finished with a sigh; she ran her fingers through her hair.

 

“Yep, so now I have to figure out how to show her that I want to marry her regardless of the fact that she’s pregnant.”

 

“You’ll figure something out,” Emily smiled. “I can’t believe you’re going to be a daddy,” she crossed her arms across her chest grinning impishly.

 

“Yeah and I can’t believe that my baby sister voluntarily married a Cassadine.”

 

“Hey, not all Cassadine’s are like Helena,” she shook her finger at him.

 

“Yeah,” Jason snorted, “did you get that in writing?”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas was staring blankly at a column of numbers. He wanted to be anywhere but here. It had been two weeks since his wedding and as per the second portion of his agreement with Stefan he had begun to work within the family empire again. His grandmother would be so thrilled.

 

Both he and Emily were having trouble adapting to their new lives. Working for the family business was harder than he thought it would be, he grimaced thinking what it would be like once he was the Cassadine. He didn’t relish the thought. Emily was having trouble with her bodyguards. He wanted to ask how she had dealt with the guards that Sonny and her family had kept on her. But he knew, from experience, that she was a pro at sneaking away from them. For the hundredth time in the last hour he contemplated telling Stefan to shove his conditions

 

But Stefan had been honorable and kept his end of the bargain. Emily had two full time bodyguards whenever she wasn’t on Wyndemere. She also had a full time car and driver and he had discreetly disposed of her car. He had decided that the next car that she would drive would be a bulletproof tank. Let her try to wreck or kill herself in that. Lucky said he was being overbearing and insufferable. He preferred to think of it as being safe.

 

“What is it Scott?” Nikolas asked looking up gratefully from the papers in front of him, motioning the bodyguard into the room. Scott shut the door behind him then moving forward laid an envelope on the desk in front of him and stood waiting for Nikolas’ next set of instructions.

 

Nikolas picked up the envelope turning it over in hands, it had not been opened yet and he noted that Gia was being careful now. Emily’s name was now typed onto the envelope, no way of tracing it back to Gia unless they could prove that her typewriter had been the one used.

 

“Did my wife see it?” he asked laying it facedown on the desk and indicating that Scott should take a seat.

 

“Yes she did, she didn’t comment on it just kind of walked away. She seemed a little withdrawn on the ride back but I think that might have been more from her confrontation with Mr. Smith.”

 

“Zander approached her?”

 

“Yes, I’m not sure what was said but she became quite agitated and stalked off… You should talk to her about that.”

 

“About what? Zander? I think the less I say on the subject of Zander Smith,” Nikolas spat out the name, “the better at this juncture.”

 

“No I’m speaking about her tendency to walk off without waiting for David and I. If you don’t mind me saying so sir, your wife is slightly high strung.”

 

“Yeah I know, just do the best you can and I’ll reiterate the need to keep you two with her at all times,” Nikolas smiled.

 

“Then if that’s all we’ll take a walk around the perimeter with the others and shut the island down for the night,” Scott said moving towards the door.

 

“Where is my wife now?” Nikolas asked stopping him.

 

“I believe Mrs. Landsbury stopped her, she had some questions on Thanksgiving or something,” Scott said taking his leave.

 

Nikolas laughed. Thanksgiving? If Mrs. Landsbury was asking for Emily’s help with Thanksgiving dinner they would end up eating the traditional Quartermaine meal. Pizza.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily closed the door to the room she shared with Nikolas and leaned back against it. Mrs. Landsbury wanted her help with Thanksgiving dinner. Since Emily was an American she wanted to make sure that the dinner was everything she was used to. Emily had just stared at her blankly and said she was pretty sure Thanksgiving had a turkey, maybe some potatoes. She actually wasn’t too sure. If Mrs. Landsbury wanted to make a Thanksgiving dinner that she was used to she would have to remember to give her the number to the pizza place.

 

The last actual Thanksgiving dinner she’d had was years ago, when her mom was still alive. She remembered being allowed to mash the potatoes and slowly add the milk, she remembered the smell of Pumpkin pie cooking in the kitchen. She was pretty sure that was the type of dinner that Mrs. Landsbury was trying to replicate.

 

Emily dumped her book bag on the bed and picked out her Geography book. They had their last quiz before beginning the countdown to finals tomorrow. Though she was pretty sure she was prepared she wanted to review her notes before they went to bed. It scared her that she was getting used to sleeping with Nikolas. She was glad that she woke up normally before him, if he ever woke up first and found her wrapped around him, as she was prone to be first thing in the morning she would be mortified.

 

She flopped down on the couch kicking off her boots and tucking her feet under her. She flipped her book open to the chapter they were currently worked on and looked uncomprehendingly at the pages. She’d had to deal with Zander today, not a task that she had enjoyed. What had she ever saw in him? She thought Nikolas was overbearing sometimes? Zander was twice as bad.

 

She sighed out loud. This was so not the way she had imagined her life ending up. Married to a man that considered her a great friend but didn’t love her. The man that claimed to love her was sleeping with other women just because. Maybe she should stop focusing on her problems and focus on Jason’s for a while.

 

She and Jason had discussed in depth over the last couple of weeks someway for him to prove to Liz that he loved her and wanted to marry her regardless of the fact she was pregnant. So far both of them were drawing great big blanks.

 

Her cell phone ringing caused her to move from her comfortable position back over to the bed where she had dumped out the contents of her bag.

 

“Yeah,” she said flipping it over flopping down on her back on the bed.

 

“Hey… did you tell Zander to jump off a tall building?” Kylie asked from the other end.

 

“Sort of, I told him that I hoped that he was planning on playing in traffic. He didn’t find it amusing,” Emily giggled, Kylie laughing on her end.

 

“Well I find it hysterical… Maybe you should just have your brother or Nikolas take care of him,” Kylie said in deliberately spooky tones before ruining the affect by laughing again.

 

“Yeah and then maybe I could visit Jason or Nik in prison for attempted murder… No I’m going to take care of this myself,” Emily sighed rolling over onto her stomach.

 

“Listen the real reason I called… My plans fell through for Thanksgiving, think I can bum an invite off of you guys out to Wyndemere?” Kylie asked softly.

 

“Sure. What happened? I thought you were spending it with Damon and his family.”

 

“I was, but now his family is going to LA for whatever reason and I don’t want to intrude…”

 

“But you want to intrude on my first Thanksgiving with my new family?” Emily smiled.

 

“Listen that house is big enough you won’t even know that I’m there,” Kylie giggled.

 

“It’s fine. You can come out with me after our last class,” Emily decided.

 

They talked for a few more minutes about school and then hung up, Emily going back to her Geography book and silent musings on ways to help Jason.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas tiptoed into the bedroom trying to be very quiet. The room was darkened a small lamp that didn’t shed much light at all turned on for him by his end table. Emily had gotten into the habit of leaving it on when she went to bed so that he wouldn’t wake her up tripping over everything.

 

He picked up the pajamas that she had left out on the dresser and padded silently to the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He turned the mirror light on, washing his face and brushing his teeth he finished his nightly routine by throwing his clothes into the basket that Emily had taken to leaving by the door. He pulled his sweats on quickly shivering in the cold air. Emily had a small portable heater that she plugged in when she got ready in the morning, he didn’t normally take the time at night to pull it out from under the sink to use it.

 

Turning the light out he walked back out into the main room, moving quietly to the bed he pulled back the covers and removed his pillow from Emily’s arms, fluffing it lightly he set it in place and climbed in turning the light off as he turned over.

 

He felt Emily shift in the bed next to him and turn over rolling into his warm body heat. She flung an arm over his upper chest and insinuated one of her legs between his, she rested her head on his shoulder sighing softly in her sleep. Every night she did this and every night the reaction of his body to the nearness of hers caused sleep to be fleeting until his pulse and other body parts returned to normal. It was frustrating this desire that he felt for her, desire that he had never felt for her before.

 

He had wondered if they made love if this desire would fade. He hadn’t acted on the feelings and had decided that any move made in that direction would be made by her. He didn’t want her to make love to him just because they were married and shared a bed; he wanted her to want him. To desire him as much as it seemed his body desired hers.

 

The choice to change the course of their relationship would lie solely in her hands. He wondered how long he could wait for her. He would wait until she was ready at the very least, he decided. Turning his head slightly he pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head and than wrapped his arms around her. Closing his eyes he waited for sleep to claim him.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily surreptitiously glanced out of the corner of her eye at Kylie who was avidly studying a paper in front of her. She gnawed on her bottom lip as she sat there thinking. Kylie had journeyed out to Wyndemere with her after classes were over that afternoon. She was going to stay with them over Thanksgiving instead of going home to Arizona, a fact that perturbed Damon because he thought they would find all the secret passageways without him. They’d had to promise on each other’s lives that they wouldn’t look for any until he came back. So now, bored out of their minds they were in the library looking over each others papers for English 101 to make sure they were ready to hand in once break was over with.

 

She was currently debating the wisdom of asking Kylie’s help with Jason’s problem. Kylie and Nikolas seemed to have bonded over their insane need to protect her, she wondered if things she told Kylie in confidence were being told to Nikolas. She didn’t want Nikolas involved in this because Lucky was his brother and Liz was once the girl he had been crazy about. But as time continued to move forward and she and Jason continued to come up with nothing that could prove his love to Liz Jason felt he was running out of time.

 

“So… Kylie…” Emily started than stopped suddenly.

 

“Hmmm?” Kylie said absently tapping one of her fingers on the table.

 

“Nothing,” Emily said looking back down at the sheaf of papers in front of her.

 

“What? Is there something wrong with it, spelling error or something?” Kylie asked worriedly, “I used spell check on everything.”

 

“No, the papers fine… I was just going to…”

 

“Em just spit it out,” Kylie said exasperation lining her voice, “This isn’t about the notes is it?”

 

“NO! It’s just… If I ask for your help on something you’re not going to run and tell Nikolas are you?”

 

“Tell Nikolas? What are you talking about?”

 

“Well I know that you and Nikolas talk about stuff. You know like Zander and Gia and things, I just want to make sure that you aren’t telling him anything that he really has no right to know,” Emily said gnawing on the end of her pencil

 

“I don’t tell Nikolas anything personal if that’s what you’re asking. You’re my friend first Em, it’s just he doesn’t want you to have to worry about dealing with Zander alone.”

 

“That’s sweet, but I can handle Zander.”

 

“Yeah right,” Kylie snorted, “You still have a soft spot for the idiot, which I don’t understand because he’s a moron and I never thought you’d still not see it, but anyway…. What kind of help do you need?” Kylie asked, the less she said on the subject of Zander Smith the better. That was one topic that both she and Nikolas were in firm agreement on.

 

“Well it’s not for me really… It’s actually for my brother,” Emily said slowly.

 

“Jason? What kind of advice does he need?”

 

“Well see… He needs a way to prove to Liz that he loves her.”

 

“She doesn’t realize that already? I mean she chose him over Lucky,” Kylie said, she picked up her pencil rolling it between her fingers.

 

“Well there’s something else,” Emily glanced at the door to the library making sure it was closed, and then leaned across the table so she was closer to Kylie. “You see Liz is pregnant…”

 

“Oh, I get it. Liz told him she was pregnant, he said let’s get married, she said no because you’re only asking me because I’m pregnant and stormed out,” Kylie laughed, Emily looked at her in amazement.

 

“How did you know that? Are there rumors going around or something?” Emily asked her eyes widening, god Jason would be pissed if there were.

 

“No,” Kylie grinned, “Haven’t you ever noticed that your town is like one of those soap opera’s? The reactions of everybody here are just so typical to one of them. Take you for instance. You start getting threats, someone tries to kill you, instead of going to the police like someone in a normal town would do, you opted to marry your best friend for protection. Plus there’s the whole side story of said best friend being a bona fide Prince and all. And don’t even get me started on the histories of some of the other residents of this town, I could write a novel about this, base it all on fact and still market it as fiction.”

 

“Hey we’re normal,” Emily protested.

 

“Yeah, right,” Kylie snorted again.

 

“Okay miss smarty pants, if you know our reactions so well tell me what Jason has to do to convince Liz that he wants to marry her regardless of the fact that she’s pregnant,” Emily said leaning back in her chair folding her arms across her chest.

 

“Well in the old days he’d give her some elaborate gift that would have a hidden meaning that only she would understand,” Kylie mused tapping the pencil against the table, “Nikolas’ cottage.”

 

“What about it?”

 

“He’s not using it right?” Emily shook her head, “Have him sell it to Jason, cheap and then Jason can give it to Liz. No strings attached.”

 

“Your big idea is for Jason to give Liz a cottage?” Emily said disbelievingly.

 

“Hey… She needs more room than what her apartment affords her, it’ll give her space to paint and it’ll also be big enough so when the baby comes she won’t have to move.”

 

“That might work,” Emily said slowly, “I’ll have to talk to Nikolas though. How do I get him to sell the cottage to Jason without telling him anything?”

 

“So tell him.”

 

“I was sworn to secrecy.”

 

“It ain’t gonna be a secret for much longer, Liz is going to start showing eventually,” Kylie laughed.

 

“I guess… Okay I’ll talk to him tonight,” Emily decided, “Now have you finished reading my paper? Or do you need more time?”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas stood in the door to his bedroom; Emily was lying across their bed sound asleep hugging a pillow to her chest. Kylie was sprawled out on the floor, also sound asleep with a bowl of popcorn inches from her head.

 

He shook his head walking into the room; he kneeled tapping Kylie on the shoulder.

 

“What?” Kylie said suddenly, raising her head she smacked the top of her head into his chin.

 

“Ow!” Nikolas said backing away rubbing his chin; Kylie glared at him holding her hand to her head.

 

“Don’t do that! God! You scared me half to death,” Kylie whispered.

 

“I was just waking you up so you could go the guest room. I didn’t want to get knocked out for my troubles,” Nikolas glared back at her.

 

“Oh… Is the movie over with?” Kylie asked looking at the now blank TV screen. “Oh guess it is,” she stood reaching down to pick up the bowl and her soda glass.

 

“Just leave it, we’ll get it in the morning,” Nikolas said softly.

 

“What about Em?” Kylie asked looking over to where Emily was still sound asleep.

 

“She sleeps in here,” Nikolas said walking over to the dresser where his pajamas lay.

 

“Really? I thought you two didn’t have that type of marriage.”

 

“My god, does she tell you everything?” Nikolas asked staring at her.

 

“No, just the really important stuff,” Kylie grinned reaching up she tweaked his nose and walked out of the room closing the door behind her leaving Nikolas standing there shaking his head.

 

He picked up the bowl and Kylie’s glass sitting them on the end table with Emily’s then physically moved Emily so she was lying on the right end of the bed. God knew he wasn’t going to have her snuggling with his feet. He turned off the TV and then changed into his pajamas before climbing into bed next to her. She opened her eyes as he lay down next to her.

 

“Where’s Kylie?” she asked sleepily moving closer to him laying her hand on his chest.

 

“She went to bed; you guys didn’t make it through the movie?”

 

“Tired… long day,” Emily whispered laying her head on his shoulder she went back to sleep. Nikolas grinned, even half asleep she still voluntarily wanted to be close to him.

 

“Night Em,” he whispered. He gently stroked the arm lying on his chest with his hand and stared at the ceiling.

 

Already the smell of Thanksgiving and Christmas were permeating the air within Wyndemere. Mrs. Landsbury had been busy, she had baked pies, bread, had the turkey ready for the morning. She was bound and determined that Emily was going to have an actual Thanksgiving dinner. Stefan had asked how many people she planned on feeding when she had presented the dinner menu for approval. Mrs. Landsbury had retorted that the new Mrs. Cassadine would have no cause for disapproving of the menu.

 

Nikolas assumed they would be eating Turkey until at least Christmas. Emily had invited the Quartermaine’s out for dinner but Edward had steadfastly refused. Stating that the family was going to eat dinner in their own home. To which Emily had promptly rattled off the phone number of the only pizza place open and offered to phone the order in for them ahead of time. Edward had not been amused. So Thanksgiving was going to be just Stefan, Alexis, Kylie, Emily and himself. He hoped they didn’t explode from all the food.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily groaned as Mrs. Landsbury offered her another piece of pie, “I couldn’t possibly,” she rubbed her stomach.

 

“Are you sure?” Mrs. Landsbury asked holding the pumpkin pie in one hand.

 

“I’m positive.”

 

Mrs. Landsbury glanced around the table and got a quick succession of no’s from the table’s other occupants.

 

“Well I’ll start cleaning up then,” she said balancing the pan in one hand as she picked up the platter that the turkey had once sat on.

 

“Everything was wonderful,” Emily smiled, “I’d forgotten what actual turkey tasted like.”

 

“I don’t think I’ll ever eat again,” Kylie moaned slouching in her chair.

 

“I’m sure you’ll be hungry again once we get back from getting the Christmas tree,” Stefan said sipping his coffee.

 

“I didn’t realize you were serious about that,” Alexis frowned at him as she poured milk into her coffee.

 

“Of course I was. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I wasn’t serious.”

 

“But it’s snowing out,” Nikolas pointed out, “Why don’t we just wait until tomorrow?”

 

“Because half the fun of picking out the Christmas tree is doing it in the snow,” Kylie said looking at Emily for confirmation, to which Emily shook her head.

 

“Don’t look at me, normally Reginald goes to the tree lot with grandfather, they argue for an hour, Reginald comes out on top and we drag the tree home,” Emily shrugged running her finger across the lip of her glass.

 

“Well that doesn’t sound like any fun at all,” Kylie shook her head.

 

“I don’t think it’s supposed to be fun.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily clapped her mittened hands together as she trudged through the snow with Nikolas at her side. They were looking for the perfect tree, Stefan had it visualized in his head and they had split into groups to find it.

 

“So…” Nikolas said slowly trying to draw her into conversation. Emily had mentioned earlier that she wanted to talk to him about something but Stefan, Alexis and Kylie kept intruding so she had given up.

 

“What?” Emily said cocking her head as she looked at a tree. If everyone went around with their heads at an angle it would be the perfect one. She didn’t think Stefan would agree, he was turning out to be just as compulsive about this stupid tree as Reginald was.

 

“You wanted to talk about something earlier?” Nikolas said trying to prod her into talking.

 

“Oh, yeah… Your cottage… What are you planning to do with it now that you’re living at Wyndemere?” Emily asked as she started walking again.

 

“I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it. Why?” Nikolas looked at her with narrowed eyes. She wasn’t moving into the cottage alone. It would just make his uncle ask more questions than he already was. If Nikolas had to listen to more ‘So when can we expect the first heir?’ questions he was going to scream. He didn’t want to explain that Emily and he hadn’t taken their marriage to that step yet, or any step that could result with children.

 

“I was thinking maybe you could sell it to Jason, you know if you aren’t planning on keeping it,” Emily said quickly.

 

“Sell it to Jason? Doesn’t he already have his own place?” Nikolas asked confused.

 

“Well yeah, but I was thinking that maybe he could give it to Liz for a Christmas gift or something.”

 

“You want me to sell my cottage to Jason so he can give it to Liz?” Nikolas asked, Emily stopped and glared at him.

 

“Do you have to repeat everything back to me?!” she said exasperated, Nikolas raised his eyebrows at her crossing his arms over his chest, “okay fine… Liz is pregnant. Jason needs a way to prove his love to her, I want you to sell the cottage to him so he can give it to her so she doesn’t feel pressured into marrying him, thereby proving that he loves her regardless.”

 

“Liz is pregnant?”

 

“Is that the only thing that you heard?! Yes Liz is pregnant, with Jason’s baby. Will you sell the cottage to him?” Emily asked hotly her hands on her hips.

 

“Well yeah I can, but Lucky’s not going to be happy about this,” Nikolas said slowly.

 

“Nikolas he doesn’t know, you have to promise that you won’t say a word to him,” Emily said grabbing his arm, looking into his eyes. “Promise me.”

 

Nikolas looked at her, reaching out he softly touched her cheek. He could feel the heat of her skin through his glove as his eyes remained locked on hers. He leaned down close to her, his lips mere inches from hers he breathed softly, “I promise.”

 

His lips touched hers gently as her eyes fluttered closed and she leaned closer to him. Someone crashing through the brush in front of them caused them to jump guiltily apart.

 

“Here you guys are! Stefan found the tree, he wants you guys to take a look,” Kylie said as she moved closer to them, she took in the dazed, flushed expression on Emily’s face and the scowl on Nikolas’, “Did I interrupt something?”

 

“No! No, Stefan found a tree, great… We should go see it,” Emily said brightly rushing off in the direction that Kylie had come from. Nikolas and Kylie looked after her, when she was gone from sight Kylie took a closer look at Nikolas.

 

“I did interrupt something, didn’t I?” she said with a grin.

 

“Kylie,” Nikolas said looping an arm around her shoulders, “if you’re going to stay on Wyndemere we really need to work on your timing.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily stood staring at the Christmas tree. Stefan had put quite a bit of work into making it looks as perfect as possible, it actually looked like one of those fake trees that you would buy in a store. And no one else had got to touch it. It had dried out in the back storeroom for two days and then Nikolas, Emily, Alexis and Kylie had drank apple cider and ate popcorn balls while he painstakingly decorated it. It did look beautiful though.

 

She glanced around and then surreptitiously removed a candy cane stuffing it in her pocket. It had become a game of sorts between her and Stefan. She would remove or move something from the tree and then would wait until he noticed and raised holy hell. It had taken him 32 minutes last time to realize that one of the gold balls had been moved to a lampshade in the living room.

 

The game with Stefan took her mind off Nikolas, who was acting totally strange. Okay stranger then normal, she amended. After the kiss in the woods she had taken to avoiding him, a task that was becoming both tiresome and it seemed pointless. No matter where she was in the house he seemed to be able to find her. And he had suddenly become touchy feely, kissing her whenever he got the opportunity. It was just weird. She had originally though he was putting on a show for Alexis and Stefan but he continued to do it even when they were alone. He also seemed to have developed the uncanny ability to know when she was standing near or under the mistletoe the Stefan had liberally hung throughout Wyndemere. It was just plain weird. Even for a Cassadine.

 

“So Emily… You ready for Christmas?” Alexis asked coming to stand beside her holding a glass of egg nog in her hand.

 

“Sure… Did you see what grandfather got me?” Emily grinned.

 

“That would be the divorce attorney business card that was in your Christmas Card?”

 

“Yep, along with a letter citing all Cassadine wrongdoings. I swear I could hear him sputtering belligerently when I was reading it,” Emily laughed.

 

Alexis eyed the tree critically looking for whatever Emily had done. Both she and Nikolas hid their laughter but were amused by this rivalry between them. Alexis supposed it was Emily’s way of getting back at Stefan for not allowing anyone to help him decorate. She couldn’t wait to see what diabolical schemes they could come up with to torture each other with on the other holidays. It should be interesting to watch.

 

“So… candy cane, second tier?” she asked quietly glancing over at her. She saw Emily grin slightly and shook her head. “It won’t take him long to find that.”

 

“I know. But he won’t have anything to replace it with. I hid the box of candy canes,” Emily grinned widely.

 

“So what are you two whispering about over here?” Nikolas asked placing his arm around Emily’s waist and pulling her close to him. Emily glanced over at him from the corner of her eye.

 

“Just admiring the tree,” Emily grinned.

 

“Yes it does look lovely doesn’t it, if people would stop tampering with perfection it would continue to look lovely,” Stefan said as he walked up to them. He looked at the tree with a practiced eye and then turned to Emily raising his eyebrow, “I believe it’s missing a candy cane?”

 

“What can I say,” Emily shrugged, “I got hungry.”

 

Alexis and Nikolas laughed as Stefan walked away shaking his head to get the box of candy canes.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Emily waited impatiently in the line to check out her books. She glanced around her, and sure enough Kylie had gotten the quicker line just as predicted. It just wasn’t fair sometimes she sighed as she began tapping her foot. She had thoroughly enjoyed winter break. Mostly because it gave her a respite from having to drag around her two bodyguards. Scott and David were standing on either side of her also looking impatient.

 

“My god, I could get up there and ring these people out faster,” Scott said disgustedly. David snorted, Emily bit her lip to keep from laughing but nodded in agreement. Finally her turn at the counter came and she dumped her books and supplies on the counter, she pulled out the gold card that Nikolas had given her that morning with the instructions ‘don’t buy all new, the used ones are just as good’. She had laughed inwardly as she accepted the card, but used books?! No way! She didn’t know what kind of psycho had been using it the previous semester. She could get a book that some chick with a highlighter fetish had gone to town on, no way, she bought only new. The cashier bagged her books and other supplies and told her the total to which both Scott and David winced but Emily just calmly handed the card over.

 

“Come on guys, nerves of steel. Nerves of steel,” she grinned.

 

“Yeah but Mr. Cassadine’s gonna have a fit,” David whispered in her ear.

 

“Only if he doesn’t have a coronary first,” Scott retorted.

 

Emily laughed then signed the credit card slip, picking up her card and the bag of books they departed the bookstore Emily waving her receipt at the guard stationed there.

 

“So Ky, How’d you do?” Emily asked setting her bag down. She pulled her list of required books from her back jean pocket and began comparing it much the same way the Kylie was now doing.

 

“I forgot the damn calculator,” Kylie groaned, she looked over at the bookstore and sighed, “Whose bright idea was it to come on the first day again?”

 

“Hey, you don’t come on the first day you can only get used books,” Emily said crossing books off her required list, she circled one, sighed and looked at the store uneasily.

 

“Some of my used books weren’t that bad last semester.”

 

“Your geography book was missing all the maps,” Emily pointed out patting her back pocket. Credit card was there.

 

“Good point… But you had the same book and we just made copies so it worked out ok.”

 

“Look, you go back in with me, Nikolas’ll buy your calculator and lunch,” Emily said determinedly.

 

“Free calculator and lunch? Okay,” Kylie said pushing herself off the glass wall she had been leaning against.

 

“Will you guys watch our bags?” Emily asked as they walked away.

 

“Emily one of us should really go with you,” Scott said starting after them.

 

“Come on guys, you can see me through the glass and all we’re going to be doing is waiting in line again. What could happen?” Emily laughed walking back into the store with Kylie flashing her student ID as she passed the guard.

 

“Okay you go get the calculator, I’ll get the book that I need for Psychology and I’ll meet you at the register.”

 

“Okay,” Kylie agreed walking away.

 

Emily crossed her arms over her chest, glanced at her watch and began tapping her foot. God they’d already spent over two hours in here already. She didn’t think she could handle any more time spent on campus that didn’t require actually going to class.

 

How could she have forgotten the Psychology book of all things? She had laughed when she realized that she could probably use it to diagnose half the problems in her family, and maybe some of the ones in Nikolas’. Nikolas was a control freak, she’d known that before but it had never been displayed more prominently than when she married him. He was also overprotective as hell. They’d never had to test it, but she was pretty sure that the shiny new car that she was only allowed to be a passenger in was bulletproof. Maybe even bomb proof if she knew that Cassadine’s as well as she was beginning to think she did. She liked them though. They had all made her feel welcome and had given her a wonderful holiday season with actual holiday’s meals. When she divorced Nikolas that would be the hardest thing to get used to. Just two holidays and she was spoiled.

 

“So what did you forget?” a soft voice asked from behind her.

 

“Psychology book,” she answered absently still lost in her musings.

 

“That’s weird, with your family I would’ve thought that would’ve been the first book you bought.”

 

“What?” Emily turned around and came face to face with Zander’s smiling face, “Zander.”

 

“Hi Em… Did ya miss me?”

 

“No can’t say as I have,” Emily said calmly turning back around.

 

“Well I missed you, where’s your guards? Doesn’t Cassadine keep them on you 24, 7?”

 

“That’s none of your business,” Emily said carefully, he was starting to scare her. Why couldn’t he see that she wasn’t interested anymore and that she was, for the time being, unavailable? If she screamed would people think she was just paranoid as hell? Or would her bodyguards come running? She would bet on the latter but she really didn’t want to get Zander into trouble if he was just being a big jerk.

 

“Not here are they?” Zander grinned, “Good.” He grabbed her arm and started pulling her toward the back exit. She guessed he wasn’t taking any chances that they were waiting out front.

 

“Zander let me go,” she said agitatedly pealing at his fingers on her arm. God he must have been working out or something she didn’t remember him being this strong before. He pushed open the back door and she heard Kylie scream her name before he shoved her through ahead of me.

 

“Kylie, get help,” she yelled. The store behind them was in an uproar and Emily could see Scott and David running in guns drawn before Zander slammed the door shut and barricaded it with a large metal shelving unit.

 

“This is so stupid Zander, you don’t have to do this,” she said calmly, trying to reason with him. Obviously when she wasn’t looking Zander had gone off the deep end.

 

“No you see we do have to it this way, with Cassadine’s stupid guards hovering all over you I can’t get close to you to have a private conversation,” Zander spat angrily. He latched onto her wrist and began dragging her behind him, Emily frantically pealing at the fingers locked on her wrist.

 

“So just tell me what you want to say and let me go. Maybe Nikolas won’t press charges for kidnapping,” Emily said.

 

“See its stupid things like that. You throw him up at me like he’s some goddamn paragon of virtue or something! And if it isn’t him it’s Lucky, or Liz or Jason or Kylie or Damon. You’re my girlfriend, you’re supposed to put me first not your friends.”

 

“I’m your ex-girlfriend, Zander. Remember you slept with the redhead… what was her name again?”

 

“Cheryl,” Zander said helpfully.

 

“Right… Cheryl… you were my boyfriend, you weren’t supposed to be sleeping with anyone else, but you did. So that makes us finished,” Emily snarled at him trying to dig her heels into the grass that they were now walking on. She looked around frantically for someone who could help her, people wouldn’t just stand around and watch someone being dragged off against their will. She snorted to herself, of course they would, this was Port Charles.

 

“Well maybe if you had been a little more forthcoming with the affection I wouldn’t have had to look elsewhere.”

 

“You’re blaming this on me???” Emily laughed, now she knew, he was insane.

 

“You kept blowing me off, telling me you had plans with your friends. Who could blame me for wanting to have a little companionship?”

 

“Oh you wait just a minute buster… I only started blowing you off when I figured out you were cheating on me so you can’t turn this around on me.” Emily looked around her, trying to garner some sense of where they were so once she got free she could run like hell in a direction she knew help would be in.

 

Zander stopped suddenly, spinning around he released her arm and glared at her. “The first sign of trouble and you went running to him! Didn’t even let me explain just cut me off, don’t you think that hurt me? Just a little bit?”

 

Emily backed away from him slowly rubbing her wrist, she would be out of his arms reach in a second and then she could run like hell, with the adrenaline pumping through her system she figured she could be faster than him. She needed to be faster than him. Her heart stopped as she saw the still form creeping up behind him, god! Could this day get any worse?!

 

“Gia,” she muttered softly.

 

“Oh don’t even try that, she won’t come to your rescue. She blames you for losing Nikolas,” Zander laughed.

 

“Yeah, but it doesn’t mean that I won’t take her away from you so I can have my fun now,” Gia whispered in ear behind him before striking him at the base of the neck with the gun in her hand.

 

Zander stared at Emily in shock before crumpling to the ground unconscious. Gia waved her gun at Emily indicating for her to start moving.

 

“Hope you had some nice holidays Em, because your New Year is gonna suck,” Gia laughed as she kept the gun trained at Emily’s back.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas discreetly glanced at his watch as one of the family’s lawyers continued to drone on. Both Alexis and Stefan were listening intently so he figured if he needed to know what was being said he could just ask them later. They would lecture him about family responsibilities and such but he was beginning to get worried. Emily had left that morning at 9:00 with bodyguards in tow, to meet Kylie and probably Damon to get books for their next semester. It was now after 1:00 and they had not reappeared on Wyndemere as promised.

 

He shook his head slightly, and attempted to refocus his attention on what they lawyer was saying. Something about his grandmother no doubt. He was just being paranoid. His cell phone ringing brought every eye in the room to him; he shrugged apologetically before answering it.

 

“Hello?”

 

“Mr. Cassadine? It’s Scott,” the sound of agitation in the bodyguards voice caused Nikolas to come to his feet.

 

“Scott? What’s wrong? Is my wife okay?”

 

“We don’t know, Zander Smith dragged her kicking and yelling right out of the bookstore, we’re following their tracks now but it looks like someone else is to.”

 

“Someone else? You mean Gia?”

 

“I can’t be positive sir but that would be my guess.”

 

“Okay, keep looking for her. I’m going to assume that the police have been notified, I’m on my way,” Nikolas said softly, his voice sounded like it was coming from miles away.

 

“Yes sir,” Scott said before hanging up. Nikolas disconnected and met Stefan’s eyes.

 

“Nikolas?” Stefan asked softly, he had never before seen this particular look of utter despair and hopelessness before in his nephews’ eyes.

 

“Zander has Emily, her bodyguards are following their trail but think that someone else might be trailing them too,” Nikolas said softly. His mind felt muddled, like he’d had too much to drink and he could only focus on the thought that he had failed her. He had promised to protect her and he had failed her.

 

“They believe that Miss Campbell is following them?” Stefan asked moving forward. In a roomful of people it was not possible to offer comfort, but they would deal with this situation as a family would, together.

 

“Yes… I….”

 

“Whatever you’re thinking Nikolas stop it,” Alexis said sharply, Nikolas focused on her and found her eyes blazing at him, “Emily is a strong young woman, she would have to be to have agreed to marry into our family knowing our history. She will survive this and so will you. So pull yourself together and be strong, for yourself and for her.”

 

“I’m going to the mainland,” Nikolas said abruptly heading for the door, Stefan just a few steps behind him.

 

Alexis turned to the lawyers with a look of apology on her face, “I’m sorry gentlemen we will need to reschedule we seem to be in the middle of a family crisis.” She picked up her bag and then hurried after Nikolas and Stefan.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Kylie hurried after Scott and David, both still had their guns drawn and were following tracks that had been made in the wet grass.

 

“Shouldn’t there be snow?” she asked breathlessly trying to keep up with them. She wouldn’t be surprised to find out they were robots or something. They moved quickly, agilely and picked up the slightest marking. It was just to weird.

 

“What?” David asked over his shoulder stopping for a second as he looked for the next direction the tracks went to. He had a feeling time was of the essence. If the extra set of prints was Gia’s than she would have caught up with Zander and Emily by now, the problem was determining if Zander was Gia’s accomplice or merely a disgruntled ex-boyfriend that had kidnapped his ex-girlfriend from a store in order to talk to her. He was betting the latter but they weren’t taking any chances.

 

“Snow? Shouldn’t there be some? It’s January in New York,” Kylie said resting on a log as she waited to see which direction they would take off in next.

 

“Don’t ask me to explain the weather in Port Charles to you, I don’t understand it sometimes myself,” David said quietly studying the ground, “This way,” he pointed. And they were off again.

 

It only took a couple more minutes of running through brush and trees for them to come upon Zander’s unconscious form. But no Emily.

 

“Well this isn’t good. Is it?” Kylie said looking down at the creep who had dragged her best friend out of a store against her will. Suddenly she felt like kicking him someplace. Of course she wanted him to be conscious when she did it, so he could feel the pain. Scott leaned over him tapping him on the face to try and wake him, he rolled him up slightly.

 

“He’s been hit on the back of the neck with something. My guess probably Gia’s gun or knife or whatever weapon she plans on using to kill Emily with.”

 

“You’re not making me feel better over here,” Kylie growled glaring down at Zander.

 

“I’m not here to make you feel better.”

 

“Give it a rest… I think he’s coming to,” David said kneeling on the wet ground, “Alright Mr. Smith, where is she?”

 

“Gia… hit me,” Zander groaned putting his hand to his head.

 

“That’s the least of your worries at this point I think,” Scott mused standing back up, “Kylie stay with him, their trail goes this way.”

 

“I don’t want to stay here with him,” Kylie complained, she would miss all the fun, “Can’t we just knock him out again?” she asked hopefully.

 

“No, the police should be following the markers Scott dropped, we’ll go save Emily and hopefully Mr. Cassadine won’t fire us for losing her in the first place,” David said moving off, Scott not far behind him.

 

“So… Zander,” Kylie said standing over him, “Have you pretty much always been a creep or is this a recent addition to your personality?”

 

Zander groaned as he tried to glare at her.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

“Where are we Gia?” Emily asked as she surveyed the rooms before her.  She was keeping her voice as light and non-confrontational as possible. Years of dealing with explosive Quartermaine temperaments had taught her that little gift.

 

“It’s the old college caretaker’s cottage. Isn’t it quaint?” Gia said sarcastically motioning at Emily with her gun.

 

“How’d you find out about it?”

 

“Oh that was simple, I was out scouting locations for where to dispose your body and this place just jumped out at me. Sit,” Gia said suddenly.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Sit in the chair,” Gia said slowly, Emily looked at her in disbelief then sat down in the chair indicated. Gia tucked her gun into the back of her pants and tied Emily’s hands together behind her back, then looped another rope around her legs tying both ends to the back of the chair. She pulled the gun back out and patted Emily on the head as she walked past her to sit in the chair opposite her.

 

“Now where was I? Oh yeah, this place just jumped out at me. I figure I’ll just put a bullet in your head and then burn the building down. Nobody will be able to identify the body, if they even find one. Fire like that, destroys a lot of evidence,” Gia sneered at her.

 

“You’re insane,” Emily said softly, meeting her eyes, “you don’t have to do this.”

 

“Yes I do, because it’s the only way I’m going to get back what’s mine.”

 

“What’s yours?”

 

“Yes mine… Nikolas is mine, the Cassadine’s were supposed to be mine,” Gia said jumping up suddenly, stalking over to Emily she ripped the Cassadine medallion hanging around her neck off. “This,” she snarled waving the medallion in front of Emily’s face, “was supposed to be mine. But you took it all away.”

 

“Nikolas and I were only ever friends, we only got married because…”

 

“Because of me? Please Nikolas marrying you to protect you from me is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of,” Gia laughed.

 

“It’s the truth,” Emily muttered trying to work the ropes around her wrists with her fingers. No need to go into specifics with her. She’d go after Stefan for forcing the whole thing with as crazy as she was acting.

 

“See I knew Nikolas would eventually end up with you,” Gia said sitting back down, dangling the medallion on the chain in her fingers, “he was always protecting you. Emily needs help, Emily’s in danger, Emily’s having problems at home, at school, with Zander. With as attentive as he was it sometimes seemed as if he was just on loan to me until you dumped Zander. And I was right. You and Zander broke up and Nikolas went running right to you, like clockwork.”

 

“We’re just friends. I don’t know how many different ways you want me to say that. We care about each other as friends, just like we care about Liz and Lucky. It’s never been anymore than that,” Emily said carefully. The rope around her left wrist was almost off, just a little more time and she could get loose. Maybe fight Gia for the damn gun.

 

“Yeah right,” Gia snorted. “See the way I see it, Nikolas will never be able to move on as long as you’re around. Even if he came back to me he would always go running back to you at the first hint of a problem in your life. So if I get rid of you, no more barriers. Nikolas is mine free and clear,” Gia smiled.

 

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Emily said staring at her. “There’s been months on end when he ignored me because he was with you, being his friend doesn’t mean that he comes running to me at the first sign of trouble because he doesn’t. I went away to school and didn’t hear from him for a month. A month! And then the only reason we started seeing each other again is because we ran into each other by accident!”

 

“You’re boring me Emily, I think we need to finish this,” Gia said standing up she stalked over.

 

“Yes I think we do,” Emily said glaring at her, her eyes black in her anger.

 

Gia started to raise her gun to Emily’s head and Emily swung out with her left fist, Gia went flying to the floor, her hand going to her jaw.

 

“You bitch, you hit me!”

 

Emily ignored her as she struggled to get the ropes off of her feet, trying to hurry while she watched Gia struggle to her feet from the corner of her eye.

 

“You’ll pay for that.”

 

Emily stood suddenly, whirling around she picked the chair up brandishing it as a weapon. When she got out of this she was taking karate, or something. She was tired of other people fighting her battles for her, Jason, Sonny, Nikolas, Lucky they were always trying to protect her. From other people, sometimes from herself.  It was time she stood up for herself.

 

Gia started forward with the gun in hand, Emily waving the chair as she tried to weave her way to the door without Gia knowing what she was doing. She swung the chair at Gia hitting her in the shoulder with it trying to rush the door while she was disoriented.

 

“Emily,” Gia shouted.

 

Emily stopped turning back to her, the gun pointed at her chest, Gia wobbling slightly but not fallen.

 

“It’s time to say bye,” Gia said softly, “I’ll give your regrets to your family.”

 

Emily rushed her, struggling for control of the gun between their bodies. Trying to force Gia’s fingers off of it. And then the gun went off.

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Scott and David stopped suddenly. One shot, not good. They could see the cabin in front of them, door closed no sign of life. The cops were only a couple of minutes behind them. If they went in there and Emily was dead then both their lives were forfeit. You didn’t fail the Cassadine’s and get a job at a cushy Caribbean resort.

 

Scott put his hand on the door, it was shut all the way he looked at David expectantly and with his nod pushed the door open and both men moved cautiously into the room. They both stopped suddenly at the sight in front of them.

 

Emily was sitting on the floor, gun in one hand staring at the other. Gia was sitting across from her eyes blank. David walked over to Gia while Scott knelt down by Emily.

 

“Mrs. Cassadine? Are you okay?” he asked gently.

 

“I shot her,” Emily said softly, “I didn’t mean to do that.” Emily started crying softly then stopped herself, she wouldn’t give her enemy the luxury of seeing her tears.

 

“Yes you shot her,” David said perusing the wound, “in the foot, your aim could use some improving. We’ll work on that.” Gia glared at him.

 

Scott stood offering his hand to Emily, she took it standing by his side.

 

“What the hell is going on here?” Taggert exclaimed taking in the room. His sister, sitting on the floor, by all accounts a kidnapper and would be murder. Emily Cassadine handing a gun over to one of her bodyguards looking worn down and tired.

 

“This isn’t what it looks like,” Gia said suddenly. This was her brother, he would believe her.

 

“Save it Gia, Gomez read her her rights,” Taggert said disgustedly. Their mother was going to have a conniption when she found out.

 

“My rights? But…”

 

Taggert turned to Emily and Scott, David walking up behind him.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Just a little shaken up, but… What about Zander?” she asked suddenly, “He’s the one who grabbed me, I mean initially. Gia just hit him over the head with her gun and made me come here.”

 

“Mr. Smith is already in custody,” Taggert said as he watched them begin leading away his sister in cuffs.

 

“Wait,” Emily said suddenly walking over stopping them. She stopped in front of Gia who was staring at her defiantly, she grinned as she shoved her hand in Gia’s pocket pulling out the medallion on the now broken chain. “This,” she said dangling it in front of her face, “is mine.”

 

Taggert walked up behind her as she struggled to fix the chain so she could hang it around her neck again.

 

“Someday you’ll have to explain to me why you didn’t come to us for help in the first place, but for now I believe Nikolas is waiting at the station house for you.”

 

“Nikolas, oh my god he’s gonna be furious.”

 

 

******************************************************************************

 

 

Nikolas paced the main room of the station house. He could see Zander behind the glass of the interrogation room sitting at a table with his head in his hands. Kylie was sitting on a desk swinging her feet idly, Lucky sitting behind the desk she was perched on playing with the pencils in the pencil holder. Stefan and Alexis were both sitting on a bench conversing quietly, Damon sitting next to them with bags full of books around and on him. Jason and Liz were across the room on another bench, Liz had her head on Jason’s shoulder and her eyes closed while Jason tapped his foot impatiently. Jason had called Sonny to let him know what was going on, to which Alexis had advised that he needed to stay away until it was resolved.

 

“Where are they?” Nikolas asked angrily, he glanced at his watch and then shook it. Maybe the damn thing was broken?

 

“You know she’s okay, Taggert said so, Mac said so. They’ll be here,” Lucky said reassuringly. He was beginning to get worried himself, it had been 45 minutes since Taggert had called in to say they had her, she was unharmed and they were on their way back.

 

“Gia’s been caught, Zander looks really pretty behind the glass with cuffs on. What else could go wrong?” Kylie asked with an impish grin.

 

“Kylie…” Nikolas turned to her with a warning look on his face.

 

“Nikolas?” he heard softly from behind him, he saw Lucky stand up a huge grin on his face and Nikolas whirled around. There she was safe, unhurt and utterly beautiful. And suddenly she was moving towards him at breakneck speed, he hugged her to him tightly. Burying his face in her hair he closed his eyes and pulled her as close as their bodies would allow.

 

“I’m so sorry, I’ll never go anywhere without them again,” she whispered through her tears, forgetting for a moment that she could leave now, that she was safe. He could feel her trembling and held her tighter.

 

“That’s okay cause you’re never going anywhere without me again,” he whispered into her ear. She laughed pulling away from him. She kissed him gently on the cheek and then moved away.

 

Kylie caught her in a fierce hug, then Lucky. Liz touched her face gently than cried as she hugged her. Jason lifted her clear off the ground his normally stoic face showing his fierce joy at having his sister back safe and unharmed. Damon hugged her tightly then tickled her until she laughed. Stefan and Alexis both put aside years of breeding and tradition and hugged her gently if not quickly. Emily seemed to understand.

 

But as Nikolas watched all this he was faced with the bothersome voice in the back of his mind, a little voice that was chirping, Gia’s been caught she’s going to try and leave you now. Nikolas vowed that she wouldn’t, he would never let her go, he would bind her to him with that damnable tradition until she loved him.