Chapter 16
It was quite late before Stefan parked his car on a quiet street
near the university campus. He checked the address and noted
the presence of two rental cars in the drive. Lights burned in the
front of the house. He picked up his briefcase, got out of the car,
walked to the front door and knocked.
"Yes?" A slender blue-eyed man opened the door a crack.
"Dr. Grey, I believe." Stefan nodded a greeting. "My name is Cassadine. I believe that your brother and I have mutual interests."
Stu looked out over his brother's shoulder. "Let him in David. I was rather hoping Mr. Cassadine would drop by tonight."
A wary David opened the door and allowed Stefan to enter.
"I have a little time to spare, Mr. Cassadine," Stu said. "I'm flying out early in the morning. I have a pressing appointment in Memphis tomorrow morning. A duck parade."
******************************************************
At seven A.M. Luke sat up abruptly in bed. "I was thinking...." he began.
Alexis opened her eyes and closed them again. "Don't. Don't think. It's too early."
"Let's put a little effort into the holidays this year," he continued. "Spruce the joint up a little. Ya know?"
Alexis immediately pulled a pillow over her head. He heard a faint chant begin. "Coffee. Must have coffee. Coffee..."
He leapt out of bed and headed for the kitchen, calling out over his shoulder "Have a real Thanksgiving dinner. Ya think we still have time to order one from that fancy joint you like?"
Alexis took the pillow off her face, and sat up. The room swam in dizzy circles, and she fell back with a low groan. She pressed her fingers into her temples and lay still.
The clattering in the kitchen accelerated and with it the pounding in her head.
The welcome aroma of coffee wafted into the room.
"At last, a reason to live." Alexis muttered.
Unfortunately her euphoria was short-lived. Another more powerful odor muscled its way into the room, brutally assaulting her senses.
"God, no. Luke, no." Not Polska Kiehlbasa and onions for breakfast. Not today."
Alexis rolled desperately toward the edge of the bed, head pounding and stomach churning.
She ran for the bathroom and almost made it.
******************************************************
Lesley Webber left her hotel room to catch the elevator downstairs. Today was her last day at the medical conference in Memphis. She checked her watch, and smiled briefly. Lulu had made her promise not to miss the duck parade on her last day. She had purchased photos of the famous ducks for the children and looked forward to sharing them with Lulu.
She patted her foot impatiently as she waited. "Maybe I shouldn't have done this Stefan's way," she muttered to herself. "I don't know if I can stand waiting much longer. I'm usually more direct."
She paced up and down in front of the elevator bank. It had seemed like a good idea to attempt to slowly lure Gordon to Port Charles. He was supposed to meet Nikolas first. Nik had been instructed to meet the Grey family ostensibly for business purposes, and to mention his own family and Port Charles as his home. Then they had mailed the fake fund-raising letter to Gordon, scheduling it to arrive the same week he met Nikolas. They had planned to follow it up with a personal phone call from Stefan inviting him to tour the hospital.
The long awaited elevator arrived. She walked in and punched the button for the lobby. Leaning against the wall, she remembered her terror when Nikolas had reported Florence Grey's death. She and Stefan had had a bad couple of days wondering if the woman had somehow realized who Nikolas was and died of shock.
She shook her head as the elevator lurched to a stop in the lobby. Nikolas had been through enough trauma. The woman's death, as it turned out, had occurred as a result of her own well documented medical problems.
Lesley made her way through the crowd to find a good vantage point near the red carpet. She would be patient. Stefan felt that Laura should be told the truth as gradually as possible. There was no point in telling Laura and the children that Gordon was alive if he wanted nothing to do with them. So the first step was to lure him to Port Charles.
Laura, Nikolas and Lucky in particular, had suffered enough trauma. Another lie. Another rejection. Stefan wanted to tell Laura the truth, but he was terrified of the consequences. What if Gordon were uninterested? But if Gordon wanted to become a part of their lives.... She sighed. That would be a different story. She wondered again how she could ever explain herself to him. To Laura.
She didn't have to wonder long.
"Good morning, Lesley."
That voice.
The hair stood up on the back of her neck. Lesley pivoted.
Slender, blue-eyed. Ramrod straight even in old age.
"We have a great many things to discuss, don't we?"
That face.
"Laura has your eyes." she said.
"I know," he replied, and she began to cry.
******************************************************
Later, Luke lounged uncomfortably in a waiting area at the hospital while Alexis was examined by a doctor.
"Hey," Bobbie crossed the room to give Luke a quick hug.
Luke grumbled a hello, but his sister's quick eyes had detected the brief look of pleasure on his face when he spotted her.
Bobbie voiced her concern. "How's Alexis? Is she really sick?"
"I dunno. She thinks it's just a stomach virus, but she hasn't been okay in weeks."
Crushing a styrofoam coffee cup in his hand, Luke tossed it with sudden violence toward a nearby trash can. "Since about the time Lulu ran off. Since she began hanging out with her blood-sucking brother again...."
Bobbie leaned forward, and touched his hand. "Have Alexis and Stefan reconciled, Luke? I'd begun to think that wasn't ever going to happen."
Luke ruffled his hair and grimaced. "Well, Barbara Jean, they say bad things always happen to good people."
Bobbie's face expressed her disagreement. "Luke, when you and I are on the outs, there's a huge hole in my life. It's the same for Stefan and Alexis."
Luke rolled his eyes and snorted.
Bobbie remained adamant. "They share a lifetime of memories. Like we do."
Luke leaned toward her and rejoined. "Some memories shouldn't be raked up. Some family ties should be broken."
His sister shook her head. "That's not your decision to make."
"All I can tell you is that Alexis has been having nightmares ever since Stefan began cozying up to her. The guy's poison. Why can't women see it? It's like you're all blinded by his pretty face or money or somethin'."
Bobbie answered wryly. "I recovered, Luke. But what reason do you have to believe that Stefan is responsible for Alexis's nightmares? How does she explain them?"
"She doesn't. She doesn't explain them."
He stood up and paced the floor.
"It's like deja vu. Laura, she used to have these gut-wrenchin' awful nightmares. I always thought she was holdin' back. In my gut, I knew there was more."
He turned and looked at his sister, eyes somber. "Am I doomed to repeat that scene? Because I don't think I can live through it again, Barbara."
"Then, you're going to have to ask her about it, aren't you?"
"Yeah." He exhaled loudly. "Yeah. Looks like I will."
"And Luke," Bobbie hesitated. "She needs to know that you're in for the long haul. If you want her to tell you whatever it is...."
Luke smiled bleakly. "I get ya, Bobbie. I have to make her believe that I'm not gonna walk away."
Bobbie nodded silently.
He threw himself back into a chair. "I have to make myself believe it too," Luke added.
******************************************************
Stefan strode into his office and flipped on the light. He had a great many things to accomplish and very little time to spare.
He started when he realized someone was sitting slumped over his desk.
"Alexis?" he asked.
She sat up and he pulled a chair near her. "Why are you here?" Stefan asked as he sat down.
"They told me that I could wait here while they wrote me a couple of prescriptions, and set up a follow-up appointment."
Stefan reached out and took her hands. "Is it the nightmares or your physical condition?"
A shadow of a smile flickered across her face. "You phrase everything so delicately. You missed your calling. Your diagnosis was correct. Dr. Bernhardt agrees."
"Laura had terrible nightmares. Every time she said. I only know what they were like with Sergei. Sometimes almost real. Sometimes surreal. But always profoundly disturbing."
"In my case, too disturbing, Dr. Bernhardt says. He thinks that I should risk therapy. He can't medicate me to help me sleep."
Stefan slid his hands up her arms and gently rubbed her tense shoulder muscles. "Bernhardt is concerned about the child's well-being?"
Alexis stared into space, dry-eyed. She responded in a whisper. "A high risk pregnancy he called it. He suggested I consider termination, Stefan. Termination. Under the circumstances. My age, my nightmares. He even looked at my left hand...."
Stefan cupped her chin in one hand. "Did you agree to the procedure?"
"No." She leaned toward him, then drew back, as if steeling herself for battle. " That's why he recommended therapy. I won't give up my child. I won't let my past engulf my future. I won't."
His eyes glittered. "How can I help you?"
There was a knock at the door. "Ms. Davis?" A nervous nurse looked around the door. "Here are your prescriptions for prenatal vitamins and nausea medication. Use the nausea medication only when you absolutely must. Here's a list of therapists and an appointment card for your next visit. Call if you have any questions." She almost ran out the door.
"Apparently you have a more beneficial effect on me than on your staff," Alexis observed. "That poor kid almost tripped over her own feet running out of here."
Stefan raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "If my staff are somewhat in awe of me, I am not totally displeased. You, however, are a different matter. Anything I can do for you, I will."
"Thank you," she said simply.
Stefan touched her hair lightly. "What will you do next?"
Alexis closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "Decide how and when to tell Luke that he's going to be a father again."
******************************************************
Luke desultorily moved the rag across the bar's polished surface, then heaved it into the sink. He poured himself another drink and dug in his jacket for a cigar. It had been a helluva day and he hadn't even opened the bar for business yet.
He unwrappred his cigar and bent his face to savor the heady aroma of his favorite tobacco. Leaning against the bar he drew his his lighter from another pocket and considered the events of the day.
"Stefan Cassadine, not money, is the root of all evil." he said aloud. A roach ran past his foot. He stomped it and then ground it beneath his foot. He smiled with satisfaction. "Goodbye, Mr. Roach. If only disposing of your Cassadine relatives were that easy, I'd be a happier man."
He gulped more bourbon. "He could meet his end at a Chinese restaurant. The tragedy of it! Cooked like Stefan the frog on television." His eyes crinkled with amusement. "Flushed first, and knocked into a few walls. Then "Bye, bye, Stefan! So long!"
His glass seemed to have mysteriously emptied itself. He looked at it with surprise. "How did that happen?" Luke looked down at the smashed roach and scratched his head. "At least I know it wasn't you, buddy."
He tilted the bottle again to fill his glass and noticed that it was nearly empty. "How many have I had?" he wondered aloud. "Not too tough a question," he answered himself. "Not nearly enough." He took another drink.
Luke pushed the glass away, leaned back against the bar, and remembered his first conversation with Stefan at Wyndemere. That smug face as the jerk had posed beneath a portrait of Laura. That look of secretive, malicious amusement. The same face later, looking at him from behind bars. The same look of pitying amusement, and the words he had never forgotten. "Laura? Laura has never hated me." And again today, walking down the hall with Alexis, arm around her shoulders, all brotherly solicitude. Again.
"He knows something that I don't. Again. But why would Alexis confide in him and not me?"
He puffed on the cigar thoughtfully. "Just a stomach virus," Alexis had said. "Nothing to worry about." But he had caught the quick flicker of her eyes toward her brother, and seen his hand squeeze hers. Alexis was lying to him, and Stefan knew it.
Luke exhaled noisily and reached for an ashtray. He tapped his cigar on the edge, and tucked it back between his lips. The rest of the day hadn't gone much better. He had dropped Alexis off at her office. Then he arrived at the child welfare office only seventeen minutes late for his appointment, but dressed in last night's clothes, and today's stubble. No one there had seemed impressed.
"Bet I looked like I was coming off a three day drunk," he muttered disgustedly.
Luke leaned over the bar and propped himself on one elbow. He spoke to the roach again. "Know just how you feel, buddy. Got stomped pretty good myself today." He was so preoccupied with their mutual plight that he didn't hear Laura come in the door.
"Luke," she came closer. "Who are you talking to? Is there someone on the floor behind the bar?"
"Nah. Just a dead roach." He smiled crookedly.
"Oh, man!" Laura shook her head. "I'm glad I wanted to talk to you alone. You are so wasted."
She pointed toward his office door. "Get movin', mister. We're gonna sober you up. Nobody else is gonna see you like this."
Luke opened his mouth to respond. Laura arched her eyebrows and glared.
"Okay. Okay. Don't have a cow," he mumbled and headed for his office.
******************************************************
A lot of coffee later, Luke leaned back in the chair at his desk. "A long time ago, I think it might have been this morning, I had a great idea."
Laura arched her eyebrows again. "And this great idea was getting smashed so that you could really impress the child welfare officers? Uniquely stupid, I've gotta say."
"No. No. Before I had to rush Alexis to the hospital, I was thinking that I wanted Lulu to spend Thanksgiving with us."
"Yeah, well, that's already a done deal, isn't it?" Laura mercilessly pushed another cup of coffee across the desk.
"Did I discuss it with you already?" Luke looked woozily around the room. He pretended that he didn't see the newly filled mug of coffee.
Laura picked the mug up and put it in his hand. "No, not with me. Stefan told me this afternoon that he had invited you and Alexis to Wyndemere for Thanksgiving Day and that she accepted. So you will get to spend Thanksgiving with Lulu. Lucky and Elizabeth too."
Luke closed his eyes and moaned piteously.
"One more cup and I think that you'll be ready to shave," she said firmly. "The social workers are coming here tonight to have a look at your place, and you will...." she stopped to glare at him, "charm them."
He moaned again, then opened one eye to see if it was working. It wasn't.
He sat up and began to drink the coffee.
******************************************************
Some time later, Luke came out front again. Laura had put a bug in Claude's ear, and the place virtually gleamed. Claude had closed off a couple of the back rooms, and sent messengers out to recommend late night visits to a few of the more interesting regulars.
Luke's head ached, but he was able to walk all the way to the bar. Once there, he gratefully sank down on a stool.
"Just take it easy, boss," Claude smiled. "I've got everything covered."
"Thanks," Luke answered. "Did Laura leave? I'm gonna have nightmares about her and gallon mugs of black coffee."
"Good," her voice said from behind him. "Maybe you'll think twice before you do this again. I've gotta go, but I wanted to ask you a question first. I think you're sober enough to answer it now."
Luke turned his head slowly and carefully in her direction "Yeah?"
"This Mr. Stu, that Lulu's been talking about. She was bugging about him this morning. What's the story? What do you know about him?"
Luke answered evasively. "Not a lot, actually. What did she tell you? Why does she think he needs help?"
"She says that he came here on sad business, left, and then came back unexpectedly because of more sad business. She thinks that he needs help."
Luke's response was drowned by a harsh peal of laughter. "Help from you? That's one of the most ludicrous ideas I've ever heard." Helena put her purse on the bar and seated herself on a stool nearby.
"What's up Helena?" Luke reached in his pocket for another cigar.
"Just trolling, dear boy. As you said I might. I had a wonderful feeling that tonight I would get lucky." She smiled and propped an elbow on the bar. "And I believe I was right."
 |
 |
Cathy's
Stories