Chapter 7
Stefan picked a small book up off his desk, and dropped it into an open drawer. In the short time it had taken to complete the trivial task, his face resumed its habitual haughty expression. Luke knew that anyone inexperienced in dealing with Stefan would, by this time, doubt whether they had even seen that brief moment of panic. Stefan was rattled, and Luke hoped to keep him that way just long enough to get an idea of what was going on.
"Let me repeat myself, just in case you didn't hear me. I said you never intend harm. Nevertheless, bodies are found on an alarmingly regular basis almost anywhere a Cassadine passes. Then, I said...."
"Spare me the repetition of your mindless innuendo. It bored me the first time I heard it. There is no reason to prolong the annoyance."
Stefan sat down in the chair at his desk, and leaned back. He deliberately placed his elbows on the arm rests of the chair, and laced his fingers together over his abdomen. "Why are you here?"
"To see my daughter." Luke crossed his legs, and leaned back on the couch, mocking the other man's posture.
Stefan spoke as if addressing an unusually slow child. "Oddly enough, she is not normally in my study. Did you think to ask someone downstairs where you might find her?"
"Returning to the topic at hand, I'm dying to hear more about how Nikolas watched someone shuffle off this mortal coil, and why it unnerved him so."
Stefan took his glasses and a handkerchief out of his breast pocket, and compulsively wiped a nonexistent smudge off a lens. "My personal telephone conversations should be of no particular interest to you. There remains only one topic of conversation between us, and that is our mutual interest in Lesley Lu. I confess that I am convinced that your own interest in this topic is somewhat limited, however."
Luke almost leapt to his feet, and leaned over the desk. "I would say the two topics are intimately related. Listen carefully. I will not allow you to destroy or corrupt anything or anyone else. I will not allow my daughter to live in a house with a murderer."
Stefan stood up abruptly. His arms hung straight at his sides, but his fists were tensed in rage. For once, his face was unmasked, his fury and contempt unmistakable. "Then, we are in agreement upon one point. I do not want her in the home of a murderer either. Yet when Lesley Lu is under your roof, she is in the company of not one, but two, inept murderers. One of them also a rapist, as I recall."
Luke smiled grimly. "Nice try, but take your accordion to another corner. The monkey won't dance for that tune nomore."
He took a deep breath. "It's just too old. Too old. You are up to something, and I know it. There is nothing you can say that will distract me from the obvious. Prince, Count, what have you. Whatever method of address you're using this week, Your Highness, can't disguise the smell of rotting flesh."
"Are you quite finished?" Stefan stepped around the side of the desk.
"No. Let me repeat myself yet again. I will not let you destroy my child."
"You have never needed my help to accomplish destruction. Engendering chaos is your greatest talent. Your willful ignorance destroyed your family. I could not have driven your wife away from you under any circumstances. Only you could have accomplished a task of that magnitude. I will be forever grateful to you for that."
"And I will not discuss 'your child' with you. The child who whispers her nighttime prayers to me, the child who sleeps under my roof, laughs, plays, and learns, under my protection. Do you know by chance the names of any of her teachers, her weekly schedule, the names of her friends?"
Laura entered the room, carrying a yawning Sergei. "Stefan, you were so long, that we...." Laura gaped. "Luke, what are you doing here?"
Stefan crossed the room and took the child from her arms, smiling tenderly as the little one reached for him.
"Luke is on his way out." He reached out and touched her face with one hand. "Will you see him to the door while I share a few moments with our son? Our business is completed."
He strolled toward the fireplace with the baby's head cradled on his shoulder, whispering to the child, stroking its back.
"Yes, of course. Luke, come with me. Now!" she added firmly when he moved too slowly to suit her.
Luke followed Laura across the room, but turned and paused at the door. "Nothin' is finished between us, Cassadine. Nothin'." He whirled and strode out of the room.
__ __ __
Alexis leaned back in her chair, removed her glasses, and thoughtfully chewed the end of the right temple piece, frowned, and removed it from her mouth. "Let me review what appear to be the salient points of the information you just shared with me.
"One: you have struck a deal with your daughter, the purpose of said deal being to convince Laura to terminate visitation between the two of you.
"Two: you do not now and never have intended to honor this deal. It's a trick designed to worm your way into Lulu's affections.
"Three: you entered my brother's study unannounced and uninvited, overheard a portion of a telephone conversation between him and my nephew, which led you to accuse the two of them of committing a murder.
"Which brings us to four: your ex-wife crawled way out on a limb to help you establish rapport with your daughter, and as a unique sort of 'thank you', you chopped off the limb by attacking Stefan, and watched her plummet to the ground."
Alexis carefully laid the glasses down on her desk, smiled brightly, and inquired, "Did I leave anything out?"
Luke paced the width of her office, turned, and started back again. "No, but...."
"I didn't think so." Alexis placed her right elbow on the desk and propped her chin on her hand.
"You're doing it again," Luke blurted out.
"What?"
"That sort of nasty clear-headed thinking thing." He waved his arms in frustration. "It's not endearing."
"Thank you," she retorted. "It is exactly the nasty, clear-headed thinking part which leads my clients to pay me the big bucks. I don't require that they admire my charm. Although," she paused, as if giving it serious thought, "I prefer it when they do." She smiled again, in a self-satisfied way, then nodded for extra emphasis.
"The obvious question here is why?" she continued. Why did you do all this? What's wrong with you?"
"I'm still working on 'why'. Give me time, woman." Luke slouched into a chair and scowled at the painting nearest him.
Alexis put her glasses back on, and began ostentatiously restacking the papers on her desk into even neater stacks.
"I don't like your brother," Luke said finally.
"What an intriguing tidbit! I had no idea. Thanks. You've just clarified everything." Alexis smiled sardonically, stood up, walked over to a filing cabinet, and began filing the papers she had stacked.
Luke turned to look out the window. "He knows more about my kid than I do."
Alexis paused, and looked at him more sympathetically. "That has to hurt," she offered, "but he's good with children. He's as good with children, as he is hopeless with adults. It's almost like he can let go, and be a child with them; he empathizes with them. He was always good with Nikolas, and with me."
"Something's bothering Lulu, and when she can't sleep, she goes to his study. They've found her sleeping on the couch there."
"What does Laura think is wrong?"
"She doesn't know. But your brother does. He told her to be patient, and that Lulu will spit it out eventually." Luke sighed. "And he wants to adopt her. Laura was going to bring it up, but backed down when she saw me yesterday."
"I was aware of his intentions, but I don't understand. How do you know she backed down?"
"On our way to see Lulu, Laura admitted that she had just flown off the handle when Lulu faked a temperature to avoid me, and decided to get it over with, once and for all." Luke thought for a moment. "How did you know that Stefan wanted to adopt Lulu?"
"He brought it up a few weeks ago at Kelly's. He dropped in to bring Lulu something, and was enraged, to put it mildly, that Lulu was spending most of another weekend with Bobbie instead of with us."
"Yeah, that wasn't a banner week for Lulu and me."
"I understand that you've become jealous of Stefan's role in her life. The problem is simple. Do you really want a larger one, yourself? Not because you think Stefan has taken too much away from you, and you want to get even. The real question is: do you want to be Lulu's father, with all the responsibility that it entails? Are you up to it?"
Luke's answer was phrased obliquely. "With Lucky, it was like breathing. Being his father was never a chore. I loved it. It came so easy I never gave it a second thought. But my whole world exploded right after Lulu was born, and I guess I've been taking it out on her ever since.
"That night at the PTA meeting when she formally thanked me for disinterest and under-estimating her - what a kick in the teeth! Of course, that's what Laura and Sonny thought I needed.
"And they were right. I hadn't let myself know her, and now I'm fallin' for my own kid here. I've wasted all this time. And I just keep seein' myself at bat. Two outs, two strikes, and God help me, your damn brother is out there on the mound, winding up for the last pitch."
"Unlikely. He never played baseball."
"Well, in my fantasy, he does." Luke grinned crookedly. "And he's smirking, so he's probably put something on the ball."
"Don't you hate it when he smirks?" Alexis grinned back. "I do. I used to throw sand at him, or" she waved her hand airily, "shells, or rocks or whatever was handy."
"Was my answer acceptable?" Luke's face became serious again.
"Yes. I'm in," responded Alexis. "You and Laura are both too emotional about Lulu to scheme effectively. Luckily, however, you have me" she preened herself a little "to balance out Stefan."
"That spud."
"They called us the 'tater tots' back in Greece."
"That's awful!" Luke winced.
"You can blame my brother for that also. He tells very bad jokes in multiple languages. He merely appears erudite to those who cannot speak as many languages as he."
"Okay. He paused. "Alexis, thanks." He put his hands together, and then brought them up to rub his face. He whistled softly and slowly.
"It could get sticky though. If he and Nikolas are in as deep as I think they are...."
"It's already sticky. He may be up to something, but the chances of him plotting murders with Nikolas and discussing them over a residential phone line seem slim to me. The real problem is that you've now neutralized Laura's ability to help you any further, while enraging Stefan to the point that he may decide not to play fair any longer. And, knowing my brother as I do, Stefan has probably already planned for intransigence on your part in the adoption process."
"Which means?"
"How questionable have your activities been in the past two years?"
Luke looked at her in surprise. "I've done a favor here and there, nothing too unusual. And I haven't been careless."
"We will have to assume that he has kept an ongoing record of your activities."
"Why would he bother? He's married to Laura. They have a kid. I'm living happily with you. I've been no threat to him whatsoever." Luke shrugged and gestured dismissively.
"Stefan is who he is. He always thinks ahead and along several alternate lines. Think of him as a very careful spider. He's always thinking about what surprise might be coming around the next corner. He won't be unprepared for a fight. And you've just picked one."
"Will he refuse to let me see Lulu?"
"No. The court ordered visitation, and as your attorney, I will not allow him to interfere with it.
"You, however, are in pretty deep here," she continued. "I would hate to have Lulu testify in a custody hearing that you are only seeing her long enough to find a way to dump her. Do you think that she has told Stefan or Laura anything about this deal you made?"
"No, I'm sure of that. Laura knows only what I've told her. Lulu has been investigating other means of getting me out of the way on her own, though."
Alexis shook her head. "She seems so quiet, so repressed. I can't even visualize the things you seem to think she can or will do."
"Well, my namesake Lucas, a veritable fount of misinformation by the way, suggested she try divorcing me. He apparently called Scott's little girl, and put the case to her. They were quite disappointed in the answer she got from her dad, and even more surprised that he identified them by name. They thought they had been quite mysterious and anonymous."
"I'm offended that they sought advice from Scott, rather than from me. What did he tell them?"
"Serena, yeah, that's the kid's name, called them back and told them she couldn't understand what he meant, but that Scott clearly said 'tell Lucas and Lesley Lu that she's in a lose/lose situation.' In short to forget it."
"Good advice from a strictly legal standpoint," agreed Alexis. However, being a member of one of the losing families, I think that he might have omitted the lose/lose part of his statement."
"She also went to Lesley, and asked her if her bone marrow transplant turned her into a Cassadine, since she would have died without Nikolas' blood."
"Give her credit for thoroughness. She has explored both the legal and medical aspects of her case." Alexis responded approvingly. "Go on. What did Lesley tell her?"
"Lesley explained to her that she is genetically a Spencer, but that she does in fact, carry two different types of DNA in her body, and always will. Her bone marrow cells are still essentially Nikolas', but the DNA in all her other cells is her own.
"Lulu says that it will only matter if she meets a mad scientist who tries to clone her. If he takes the wrong cells, he'll make Nikolas instead. She seemed quite pleased with that, actually. Kids are such ghouls." He shook his head, and leaned sideways in his chair to prop his head on his right hand.
"Mad scientists. Not one of my favorite topics," Alexis observed thoughtfully, tapping her pen on the blotter.
She returned to the topic at hand. "We can't afford to go to court. She thanked you for disinterest in front of the entire PTA. Two other adults, Scott and Lesley, are aware of Lulu's desperation to sever her connection to you. And she's bound to have said something to Laura or Stefan. In fact, we know she's talked to Stefan about something. Our record for adhering to scheduled visitations is poor, plus we're living together without, as they say, 'benefit of clergy.' Even in today's more permissive society, none of that would look good to a judge."
"Oh, please," Luke protested. "Don't Stefan's activities count here? He's the one I heard telling Nik over the phone not to worry about the odd corpse here and there!"
"Your interpretation of the meaning of one end of a phone conversation is legally meaningless, Luke, strictly hearsay of the worst possible sort. And I will not help you pursue a pointless vendetta against my brother. I will however, keep you in your daughter's life, if you're sure that's what you want." Alexis waited for his response.
"Yeah, thanks." Luke nodded. "How can I repay you for helpin' me with this?"
"Oh, my bill will come in due course," smiled Alexis. "But you can begin paying me tonight."
Luke's eyes sparkled. "Really? I never expected to pay off debts that way, especially at my age! But, Baby, I'm game." He jumped up, and walked over to her desk. "It's closin' time here anyway. Wanna go home or do you wanna put this office to a better use?"
Alexis pushed her chair back, ran to the door, and locked it. She leaned against the door laughing. "I've got you trapped now. Watch this." She stepped away from the door and kicked off first one, and then the other of her high heels.
Luke watched her shoes sail through the air. One landed on the desk, and the other bounced off the bookcase before it fell to the floor. "If there's anything I appreciate about you, it's your enthusiasm." He let his jacket slide to the floor, and covered the space to her in two quick steps.
Alexis reached toward the wall with her right hand, while wrapping her left arm tightly about his waist. "One more thing," she murmured, and flipped the light off.
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