Memoria
by Laura
Part XIV
"It's time to do away with Alexis. Once and for all," Helena repeated, her hand held lightly over her heart. "You made a mistake last time. I'm willing to overlook that and move on. However, I won't tolerate another failure. Understood?"
Lucky flinched as she moved closer to him. His body stiffened and Helena clasped her hands over his shoulders. He was always afraid she could read his mind, or at least know his thoughts by the way his body was reacting. Secrets had never been so important. She couldn't know what he was thinking. "I understand," he said after a beat, nodding.
"Good." Helena's hands moved toward his neck. For a moment, her slender fingers were wrapped around him in a choking stance. She smiled and framed her hands around his cheeks. Her eyes probed his. Her steel gaze made him tremble, and Lucky had to hold his breath to keep from showing his fear. "I trust you, Lucky."
"I can be trusted," he told her, holding his head high.
She nodded. "Come sit." Her hands fell to her sides and she turned toward the bed. Their bodies sank down on the mattress and slipped closer together.
Lucky swallowed hard, his mouth dry. "We're going to talk about this now?"
"Of course. This must be taken care of as soon as possible, my dear. You aren't going to back out on me, are you?"
"Of course not," Lucky laughed. "Don't be absurd. Tell me. Tell me what you need me to do."
Helena's hand gently and briefly stroked his knee. Her face and gestures were animated as she spoke. Her eyes were gleaming, even inside the murky darkness of Lucky's bedroom. "Last time it was too simple. I believe that is why you failed. This time... elaborate. Just as when I killed her mother."
"Okay."
"In Greece. On the island or somewhere unexpected. It would be a wonderful surprise if a few others got in the way," she said, turning to glare at Lucky.
He simply nodded, idly wondering if she was referring to him or his family. Or both. "Sounds like a plan. When do we get started?"
"I'm pleaseed to see your enthusiasm," Helena sighed, "but there are a few things I must take care of first. Preparations, if you will."
"Okay. I'm ready whenever you are." He accepted her hand and kissed the smooth, pale skin of her wrist. Lucky watched her cross the floor and enter into the hallway, never looking back at him as she closed the door.
He waited until he was surrounded in silence. When he was sure she was no longer standing outside of his bedroom, Lucky dropped down onto his knees. He folded his arms over the bed, clasping his hands together. He prayed the way he could remember praying when he was a young boy. "Please, God. Please. I am not a murderer. Please help me defeat Helena. Please help me stop her."
~*~
Alexis wiped the tears from her cheeks. She cleared her throat and trailed a few fingers through her hair. Taking a deep breath, she turned the doorknob to Luke's office and entered without knocking.
"Go away," his gruff voice shouted out before he even saw her.
She shut the door and said, "You can't get rid of me that easily."
Luke turned around, staring blankly. He was holding a pack of ice to his stomach, his shirt wet from the cold moisture.
Alexis swore she heard him growl and bare his teeth. She flinched and stepped further into the room, her hands fastened behind her back. She rocked nervously side to side. She nibbled on her bottom lip and waited for him to say something. Anything.
"Go away."
"Say something else," she groaned, rolling her eyes.
Luke shook his head. "Like what, princess? I don't need to tell you that Aussie eye candy came into my club and threw a punch at me. You saw that yourself. I don't need to say how pissed off that made me, 'cause you can see that right now. So tell me, Alexis, what do you want me to say?"
"Just don't tell me to go away. That's why all of this happened tonight, because when someone just goes away, nothing gets resolved."
"If you've got some problems with Jax, I suggest you leave me out of them. Got that?"
Alexis shook her head. When he sat down, she moved to the chair on the other side of his desk. "You see, Luke," she told him, "you're the reason I have problems with Jax." When his only response was a blank stare, she leaned forward and folded her hands over her knees. "He… he says he's in love with me. He thinks you're the reason I don't have feelings for him."
Luke cocked an eyebrow, hiding the smirk that was twitching on his lips. It wasn't often that the women in Port Charles were accused of preferring a man like him to a youthful man like Jax.
"I know it doesn't make any sense, but-"
"Does it?" Luke asked. "Make sense? Does he have a reason to think that."
Alexis froze. She saw a bottle of whiskey through the corner of her and stood up, walking to the tray of liquor to grab it. She wrapped her dry lips around the rim of the bottle and took several long gulps before setting it back down and wiping her palm over her mouth. "No," she finally answered, unable to meet Luke's heavy gaze.
"Glad we got that cleared up," he said dryly, popping the last few buttons of his shirt. His body stiffened as the pack of ice hit his bare skin.
Alexis felt responsible for his pain. She circled around the room and dropped onto her knees in front of him, taking the pack into her hands. She held the cold ice to his skin, unable to look at the large bruise that had formed.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm helping you," Alexis sneered, purposely pressing the pack harder against his stomach.
Luke grabbed the ice from her and said, "Well stop it. I don't want your leftover sympathy."
"What does that mean?"
"You only came in here after you ran after Jax. You took his side and now you can't stand the idea of anyone being mad at Princess Natasha. Well I'm sorry, baby, 'cause I-"
"Luke," she shouted over his voice, "shut up. I did not take Jax's side. You were both acting juvenile and neither one of you really deserves my concern."
He stood up, brushing past her. He stopped at the stairs leading to his apartment and said, "Then you should just go home."
Alexis inhaled a sharp breath. She looked down at the ground and murmured, "I don't have a home to go to."
"What are you talking about?"
"I can't go back to the penthouse. I… I don't want to be at Wyndemere."
His back to her, Luke shut his eyes tightly. He had been craving the taste of her mouth or her salty skin, or the warmth of her svelte body pressed against his. He had been craving the mere presence of Alexis, ten feet away or in his arms. "Fine," he hissed unenthused, "you can stay with me. For the night."
Alexis smiled. She said "thank you" but the words never reached his ears. He had already bounded up the stairs and kicked the door open.
She found him standing in the middle of the room, fists resting low on his hips. She unconsciously licked her lips at the sight of his open shirt. "Thank you," she repeated, loud enough for him to hear.
"I'm not doing this 'cause I want to," he told her.
"Sure. I understand."
Luke removed his shoes on his way to the bedroom, leaving them in a pile on the floor. He returned with a pile of blankets and pillows. The smile on Alexis' face faded as he tossed them on the sofa. He glared at her for a moment and then turned away.
"Wait," she called after him. "You're going to sleep right now?"
He nodded. "Yeah." "Don't you think we should talk first?" Alexis asked, hopeful. She sat down on the sofa, crossing one leg over the other. She didn't bother to tug at her skirt when the material slid up her thighs and revealed the garter straps she wore.
"Why? 'Bout what."
Her eyes widened. She threw her arms in the air and released a hiss of breath, shaking her head in frustration. "Why? About what? About what happened tonight. About what Jax said."
"You already talked about that, Alexis. You told him you just don't want him. That your resistance to his charms has nothing to do with me. Did that change?"
Alexis stood up, folding her arms over her chest. She shrugged. "N-no."
"Alright then. Nothin' to talk about." Luke turned to walk away when he heard her sigh. He turned to face her again.
"It's just that… I don't know why I'm not in love with Jax. He's incredibly attractive and wealthy. He has a wonderful family that I adore and they adore me. He would do anything for me. But those feelings… they just aren't there. I can't stop thinking about someone else," Alexis confessed in one long breath.
Luke stood up straight. His alert eyes locked with Alexis' and he took a small step closer to her. "Someone else?"
She nodded. "He thinks I'm in love with you," she said. Alexis paused and then laughed, rolling her eyes. "Isn't that absurd!"
Luke nodded, his eyes angry slants. He turned away and took long, fast strides to his bedroom. Once inside the room he looked back at Alexis and hollered, "Yes. It's absurd. And it's a good thing because I don't love you!"
"Yeah! Well… well… I don't love you either!" Alexis squealed, preparing to let her body drop down onto the sofa when a large pillow hit her in the back of the head. She spun around to see Luke quickly duck into his bedroom and slam the door. She bent down and removed one of her shoes, launching it at his door.
Alexis sat down, burying her face in her hands. She wanted to scream. She wanted to possess the courage to march into Luke's bedroom and admit the truth. But part of her wasn't entirely sure of what that was.
~*~
There was never a good time of the day in prison. Morning never came, because the only windows were so far away from Stefan's cell that he couldn't see the murky light filtering in through cloudy glass. Night was not a comfort. The hard mattress beneath his body reminded him of lying on the rocks along the coast in Greece, and that in turn stirred thoughts of a bitter childhood and the reason he was in a jail cell.
Sleep was hard to come by. He was too restless to lie still, yet too exhausted to busy himself with the chess board he was allowed to keep or any of the books Nikolas had brought for him. Stefan spent his time leaning against the wall, his knees drawn to his chest, staring at the steels bars caging him in. He constructed elaborate plans in his head, plans of world denomination or something as simple as dinner with Alexis. He needed things to make him smile, and he needed things to make himself feel powerful. He had never been so helpless.
Stefan sighed, his parched throat scratched by the intake of stale air. The already dim lights above him sizzled as they went out. He shifted on the small cot so that he was lying on his back, arms folded behind his head.
He didn't turn to inspect the sound of heavy boots slamming against the floor outside his cell. Stefan kept his eyes closed as a guard tapped on the bars and said, "Hey, Cassadine. You forgot to pick up your mail." The heavy set man with bad breath slipped a letter through the bars, letting it sail through the air and fall softly to the ground. He chuckled, squinting to see Stefan through the darkness.
Stefan rolled his eyes and slowly sat up. He retrieved the letter and lifted the cot's mattress, where he kept a small flashlight that Alexis had managed to bring him. He sat at the edge of the bed, elbows resting on his knees, and tore through the envelope. He didn't recognize the handwriting. The letters were small and narrow, slanted to the right. The paper was too plain to belong to Helena, he thought, and Alexis or Nikolas would have left a signature.
His lips moved as his eyes scanned the short letter. "It is common knowledge that Helena Cassadine is a dangerous woman. I know that being in prison you cannot protect the people you love from her wrath. But you need to know it would be in Alexis Davis' best interest to go to Greece as soon as possible. One of you needs to be there, if not both. Save yourselves and the innocent lives that Helena has ruined. That is all I can say."
A chill shuddered down Stefan's spine. He wanted to believe that whoever wrote the letter had good intentions. He wanted to believe that from inside a tiny prison cell, there was something he could do to protect his family. As a Cassadine, the one thing he had come to know as a sure thing, you cannot trust anyone or anything but your own instincts. And Stefan was having a hard time even trusting himself.