CHAPTER 24

''Our what?'' Lucky asked before he started laughing nervously. ''You have to be
kidding me. You're my grandmother, for God's sakes! Your eggs have to be dried up
by now!'' He chuckled. ''Besides, God probably saw that you can't be in the running for mother of the year, so I don't see why He would've let you conceive again!''

This was too ridiculous. Helena, pregnant? With his baby? Come on! He snorted at the thought and shook his head.

Helena looked at him with hate and contempt. Damn him for making fun of her. She would make sure that he died a long and painful death when she got what she wanted from him. Now wasn't the time, though. She hid her feelings behind a gentle smile and continued to convince him. ''I know what you must think, Lucky, but I was prepared. When I had the first symptoms of menopause, I arranged to have some of my eggs frozen, just in case I ever needed another child. They came in handy, I must say, in this case. I don't feel comfortable talking about it here, though, because there are too many unwanted ears around. Shall we go to my yacht and discuss it more privately?''

''You're bluffing,'' Lucky said nervously. ''There is no baby.''

''Shall we go discuss it on my yacht?'' Helena asked again, slowly losing her patience. ''Once there, I will be able to provide you with all the proof you need.'' When Lucky still looked doubtful, she sighed dramatically. ''I knew I should not have listened to that crazy Cesar. I should have just have had the baby and let you rot wondering if it was yours.''

Lucky looked at her hatefully, but the seed of doubt had bee planted. What if she really was pregnant? What if she had found a way to get herself pregnant with his child? What would happen to the baby if he didn't take the chance she offered and have a say in the kid's life? ''Fine, let's go to the yacht, but if I find out that this is a trick so that you and your ugly accomplice can abuse me again, I swear that I'll kill both of you with my bare hands!''

''Lucky, Lucky, Lucky, always so prompt to violence,'' she said as she shook her head. ''Now, come on, my dear, I want to get this matter over with tonight.''

''What matter?'' Lucky asked, but followed her nonetheless. Every fiber in him told him that this was a plot, that it wasn't true, but he couldn't rule out the possibility. When they reached her yacht, his nervousness was at its worst. This was just a ruse, a plot to be able to take him again, he kept telling himself. Suddenly he had the urge to run, but before he could turn around, he was face to face with his tormentor.

''How good it is to see you again, Lucky,'' Cesar said with an insincere smile. ''I see that you believed what Helena has told you. Good for you. I'll be leaving you now, dear, and let you explain to our former guest what needs to be done.''

''Done about what?'' Lucky asked, his voice coming out as a screech, betraying how nervous and scared he really was.

''Relax, my dear. Ari will be in shortly with refreshments. Sit down, please,'' Helena said soothingly, showing him to a stuffed chair at the table. ''Now, like I said, I am now pregnant with your baby, Lucky, and want it or not, you now have a responsibility towards it.''

''What responsibility? You are my grandmother! Do you know how many chances there are that the baby will be retarded? Or monstrous? This is incest! It's against the law! Besides, the baby was conceived in rape, so I have no responsibility whatsoever to it!'' Lucky said passionately.

''At the time the baby was conceived, neither of us knew it was incest.'' Helena pointed out. ''As for rape, don't flatter yourself. I could never have raped you if you hadn't gotten hard from my skillful hands. A man raping a woman is easy to do, a woman raping a man is simply impossible. But I won't force you, Lucky. I thought that you would want to acknowledge the baby, your baby, but it's clear that you don't. Even though you are a Cassadine, you were raised as a Spencer and I never thought that I'd see the day when a Spencer would turn his back on his own child. I guess Luke did not have that much influence on you after all.''

''Leave Luke out of this!'' Lucky growled. How could she say that she never raped him? He was only human, and being woken up in the middle of the night with a hand caressing his most intimate part had left him hard and wanting more. He wasn't even fully awake when she had jumped on him, riding him before he even had a chance to protest. He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of the shameful memories, before he came back to the conversation at hand. ''I never said that I wouldn't take care of my baby, if there is a baby, and if indeed it is mine. I'm not cruel enough to let my child be raised by you and that psycho lover of yours! If there is a baby, and the baby proves to be mine, then I will do what needs to be done. I won't coward away from my child. But tell me something, Helena. If you didn't know that I was your grandson, and since I'm not the prince, being the son of Mikkos' second son, why did you arrange to get pregnant with my child? This wasn't an accident, you admitted it yourself! I need to know why you arranged to get pregnant with your own great-grandchild.''

Helena was prepared for that question. She had thought about it long and hard, thought and rejected dozens of reasons, since she couldn't tell him the truth. How could she tell him that she had known that he was her grandson, and she had known that he was the prince. She had kidnapped him specifically to get pregnant with his child, the future Cassadine Heir. She would be able to mold the child in her image and, by doing so, control the Cassadine Family. She needed Lucky to marry her though, and to recognize this child as his own. Without the marriage, the child would simply not be considered the prince. But all of that, she couldn't tell Lucky, because he would make it impossible for her to achieve what she had dreamed of ever since she knew that she was having a grandson. Helena had waited, making sure that nothing happened to Lucky, waiting for the moment when he would be legal, when they could get married. Elizabeth Webber had almost ruined her plans by getting raped and getting Lucky to fall in love with her. That's why Helena had kidnapped him, and arranged to get a sample of Lucky's semen to be able to impregnate herself. Who cared what she had to do to ensure her own position in the Cassadine family? Stavros had been her ticket, but his obsession had gotten him killed, and Stefan never got the guts to act with the Cassadine power. She
would, but for that, she needed Lucky's child.

''I have tried, again and again, to get your father, I mean Luke, to cheat on Laura with me,'' Helena started silkily, ''to no avail, I might add. I wanted to combine my power and your father's. He always was my greatest enemy, but he is the smartest man that I have ever faced. I always thought that if I could mix my intelligence with his, we would be unstoppable. When I wasn't able to get him to associate with me, I thought about having his baby. The baby would've been the best of Luke and I, his wit and charm, combined with my intelligence. Oh, Lucky, it was a great vision. And since I couldn't
accomplish it with your father, I then thought about you, his son, Luke's pride. I thought that he was your biological father at the time, and I thought it was a great idea. Although now that I know you are Stefan's, I am not so sure it is such a great idea anymore, and that is what I wanted to talk to you about --''

''You can't be serious!'' Lucky cut her off without even letting her finish her sentence. ''Helena, you created this baby, and now that it won't match your expectations, you can't just kill it! It's not right!'' Lucky exclaimed before he could stop himself.

Helena smiled like the cat who ate the canary. She had him now and she knew it. She hadn't thought about an abortion, or even making him believe that she wanted one, but his fierce reaction to it, his obvious contempt for it would be his downfall. Helena decided that she would play that card more than any other, because nothing had made him react so violently so far. It had been as if he didn't believe there was a baby. But now, with his reaction, it was clear he thought he couldn't rule it out.

''But I can't have it and make it bear the shame of its parents, either. Lucky, think about it.'' Helena attacked viciously. ''Everyone now knows that you are Stefan's son. So they know that I am your grandmother. Can you imagine what this baby will be going through, to know that its great-grandmother is its mother, or that its nephew is its father? Children are ridiculed when they come from unmarried families, and being called bastards by the cruel other children is not a good thing to grow up with. Imagine what this child will be going through!'' Lucky's face was white, and Helena got up. She had just found the perfect way to have Lucky where she wanted him, proposing to her. She could see the idea of killing a baby he wasn't even sure existed was upsetting him, so she decided that now was the best time to give the last blow. She walked to the desk and took a file from the first drawer, before she took it to her young lover. ''Lucky, think about it,'' she said soothingly, her voice almost a whisper. She opened the file and showed him the picture on top of the sheets, the picture of her ultra sound. ''Look at this innocent little baby, Lucky. Do you really want it to go through its life bearing the weight of our faults on its little shoulders?''

Lucky took the picture in his hands and looked at it for a long time, before he slowly traced the baby's body with his finger. Wether it was his or not, he couldn't deny anymore that there was a baby. The chance that it was indeed his was slim, but he couldn't rule it out. Even if the baby wasn't his, its father was either Ari the bus boy, or worst, Cesar Faison. He needed to find a way to protect the baby from a fate worst than death by having these two as a parents and Helena was giving it to him by offering him the baby's paternity, wether or not he truly was the father. Now that he had seen the little innocent baby, he couldn't let her go through with the abortion, though. ''Can I.'' he started but took a deep breath and took the time to clear his throat, ''can I think about it?'' Lucky felt like he was betraying his father in acknowledging that he was giving into Helena's emotional blackmail, but Lucky's sense of honor was stronger than his upbringing, as it always had been. ''I mean, this may be my child. You created this life, you can't just decide that you don't want it anymore and kill it. The baby did nothing to you.''

''Think about what, Lucky?'' Helena asked as she took the ultrasound picture from his hands. ''What is there to think about?''

''A solution!'' Lucky looked at her. ''I'm asking you time to think about a solution so that you won't have to get rid of the baby, and it won't live in shame! Give me a week and I'll--''

''48 hours,'' Helena countered. ''I'm already advanced, and if I was to terminate the pregnancy, I'd have to do it real soon, before it's too late.''

''All right, 48 hours. But promise me that you won't get rid of the baby before that.'' Lucky asked her seriously.

''I promise''

''Fine. I'll see you in two days''

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

''All right, all right, I'm coming!'' Alexis said as she heard the rapping on the door. ''Why can't Jax be here when I need him?'' She sighed to herself and opened the door, only to come face to face with Laura. ''Well, you have more guts than I gave you credit for,'' Alexis admitted. ''What do you want, Laura?''

''I want to talk to you. May I?'' Laura asked, motioning inside the penthouse.

''Do I have a choice?'' Alexis groaned but opened the door to let Laura come in. ''Look, I'll save you the trouble. If you are here to tell me to stay away from Luke because he's yours, don't waste your breath. Luke doesn't want to have anything to do with you and who can blame him?''

''I couldn't care less if you and Luke got married,'' Laura lied. ''What I want to talk to you about is my daughter. I tried to go to Luke and he won't be reasonable, so I decided to take my plea to you, woman to woman. I can't lose her, Alexis. She's all I have left!''

''Is that why you want her so bad BADLY, Laura?'' Alexis asked cruelly. ''Because everyone else has turned away from you?''

''I love my daughter!''

''Like you loved your other children?'' Alexis countered back. ''Listen to me, Laura, because I will only say this once. I know that we will win. I am the one who told Luke to go for custody, because I don't believe that you love your daughter. You just see her as a bargaining chip. As long as she's with you, you have a way to control Luke. Well, guess what? You've met your match. I won't have you hurt him ever again. Before, he had no one in his corner. Now, he has me. I wasn't fond of you before but I let you go and do as you pleased. But now, you've hurt three people I love dearly and in doing
so, you have just made yourself a mortal enemy. When I am through with you, our
battle ground will make the Cassadine/Spencer war look like a schoolyard argument.''

''You're just jealous, aren't you?'' Laura said with a nervous laugh. ''You're jealous because everyone loved me better! Stavros barely looked at you, but he was obsessed with me! Stefan always chose me over you! I'm the ONLY woman Luke ever loved! You are just doing that as a little revenge because you were always second best to --''

''Would you listen to yourself!'' Alexis nearly squealed. ''You pride yourself in being the reason that 4 men fought! You like the idea of men fighting over you and you always chose the winner didn't you? Well, guess what? Luke doesn't love you anymore, and my brother certainly finally saw you for what you really are. Stavros is dead and Scott has moved on. How does it feel to be alone, Laura? But I'm not worried. You will soon find another man who will mistake those devil's blue eyes for an angel's''

This was too much! Luke's whore ridiculing his name for her made Laura snap, and before Alexis could even react, Laura had slapped her with all of her force.

''You did not just do that'' Alexis said as her hand covered where it stung.

''I can do it again if you ever make fun of Luke and my love.'' Laura warned.

''Get out of my house,'' Alexis snapped. ''And pray that I don't find any more secrets, because I'll make sure that Luke ends up with everything you ever owned!''

''This isn't over yet,'' Laura warned as Alexis was backing her through the door.

''Oh, it isn't over yet, you can count on it!'' Alexis said before she slammed the door in Laura's face.