CHAPTER 29

"What do you mean, she isn't here?" Roy asked nervously into the phone. He didn't have much time to call and get in touch with his mother, and now that he was actually alone for a couple of minutes, without Luke or Stefan breathing over his shoulder, the old witch was out! "Where? Isn't it too early to be having the baby?" Roy asked again, hearing the answer at the other end of the line. "Fine, I'll call the hospital to have an update on her and the baby, thank you."

"Who's having a baby?" Luke asked as he walked into the hotel room, his arms full of clothes for the disguises.

"A friend of mine. Did you find everything we need to break into the house?" Roy asked, closing his phone quickly and terminating the call.

"Yeah, I have," Luke answered, eyeing his friend suspiciously. Something had been wrong about Roy the whole trip, and Luke still wasn't close to finding out what it was. It didn't even occur to Luke that Roy could've been talking about Lucky's baby, though.

"Good, when do you think we'll be getting there?" Roy asked as he turned around so that his friend wouldn't see his eyes and the deception that he would find there.

"I'd say that we should be there in two days. Say, as long as we're alone, can I ask you something, man?" Luke asked nervously.

"Yeah, anything, you know that!"

"Then can you tell me what the hell is wrong with you?" Luke finally asked. "I mean, you've changed. When you came back from Pentonville, it was like old times, you and I, business partners, friends, you know? We watched each other's backs and all of that, but then, after I was in that car accident and I learned Nikolas was my son, and that Lucky wasn't, you changed. It's like I don't know you anymore. Did I do something?"

"No, man, it's not you." Roy said, meeting his friend's inquiring gaze. "I mean, I'm the one who changed. 20 years in the slammer, never knowing where you were going to be sent the next day kind of does something to a guy's personality, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah, but what changed? You came back the same man you were when you left and all of a sudden, you turned into his stranger. The way you look at me sometimes, it's like you hate me, you know?"

"I found Helena!" Stefan said, bursting into the room. "She's in the hospital near the summer house I told you about."

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

"Oh, Lucky," Helena cried when she saw her young husband enter the room, "I'm so glad that you're here."

Lucky had come back after calming down with Ari. Ever since he had been married to Helena, Lucky had started to drink incredible amounts of coffee. And that day had been no exception. When they had come back to the floor where Helena was giving birth, Lucky had been told by one of the nurses that his baby had been born.

"Why?" Lucky asked, suddenly scared for his baby's life, which of whom he didn't even know the sex yet.

Helena slowly raised her hands to her face, pretending to wipe off the tears when what she really wanted to do was hide her smile. By now, the child had to be dead, so she could announce the terrible news to its father.

"We had a daughter," Helena said brokenly. "A beautiful, baby daughter.

"Had?" Lucky asked, dumbstruck before it was replaced by anger. "What do you mean, Had?"

"She was too small! She couldn't breathe on her own," Helena said, acknowledging the baby's sex for the first time. "They tried to save her but..."

"This is impossible!" Lucky exclaimed, unable to believe his baby, his little girl hadn't survived. "It couldn't have happened so fast!"

"You were gone for half an hour!" Helena snapped accusingly, as if the fact that he hadn't been near played a part in their daughter's death. "All she needed was five minutes to die, and she did! She was too small, her lungs weren't fully developed. She cried when the doctor slapped her behind, but soon after that she started to struggle for air, before she turned blue. They couldn't save her, don't you think they tried?"

Lucky passed a nervous hand through his hair, his heart refusing to register that the child he had waited for, the baby that he had longed to hold, was gone forever. Over the months after he had married Helena, the baby had gone from an innocent life that he wanted to protect to a baby that he loved with all his heart and soul. He had been there when Helena felt her for the first time. After that, the baby girl wouldn't move for anyone's hand but her father's. He had been there for all of Helena's medical appointments, he had been there when the baby's heart was heard for the first time, when she wouldn't open her legs for the sonograms, and now, she was gone, before he even had a chance to see her, to tell her how much she had meant to him.

"I know that I haven't been the perfect husband to you, I know that at times I have been quite horrible, but please, don't mess with me. Don't keep me from my child." Lucky warned seriously.

"You think this is a plot?" Helena feigned incredulously. "You think that all of this is just to hurt you, that I would tell you that the baby died and then just raise her by myself? How would I do that, since we are married?"

"No, not really, that's not what I meant," Lucky whispered, taken aback by the force of her outburst. "I want to see her," Lucky then heard himself say. "I want to see her face, to know what my baby girl looked like for the rest of my life. And I want an autopsy."

"Very well, Lucky," Helena sighed. "I'll summon the doctor to take you to her."

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

"Damnation!" Faison said as he saw the nurse coming back already. He didn't have time to do anything with that ugly excuse for a human being hovering over the babies like a mother lioness over her cubs. He moved back to the pay phone and had her paged again. This time though, he let the phone open so the nurse would think that the other person was only on another line, instead of gone like the first time he called.

He saw the nurse leave the nursery to go into the little office in the back and she let the door open to be able to keep an eye on the babies. Faison sighed as he knew that he would have to hurry. Lucky had to be back already. He told the operator to hold, and he let the phone slowly fall down. That way, the nurse would wait for her correspondent to come back before heading out the office and into the nursery. Moving to the door of the nursery, he put on white scrubs, a mask, and entered the nightmare baby palace. He hated babies. Reading the plaques on the little beds, whatever they were called, he found the one that said baby girl Spencer. Still keeping his eyes on the office door, he looked at the little bundle of pink as she happily sucked on the pacifier that looked as big as her head.

"You know little one," Faison whispered, "It's almost a shame to see you go when I think of everything you and I could've done together. But business is business, nothing personal against you."

As he bent down to look at the child more closely, he heard a knock on the glass where the parents could come and see their kids. "Oh, bloody hell," He whispered and turned around to see who the hell it was. He didn't have time to play doctor! His heart started beating faster as he came face to face with Helena's play toy. "This is getting interesting," he muttered.

Ari had heard the nurse tell Lucky that the baby had been born, and he had decided to come and take a sneak peek at the newest Cassadine. He didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl and trying to read the names on the beds from so far away was a task that required all his attention. He didn't even see the strange looking doctor. A small movement caught his attention, though, and he saw the man bending down in front of one of the babies. Thinking nothing of it, he then saw the man leaving the nursery, without even looking at the other babies. "That's odd," Ari whispered to himself. "How come there isn't a nurse in this thing?"

Ari stilled looked at the papers, trying to find the one with baby Spencer written on it. "There you are," he whispered, getting on his toes to try and take a peek at the baby. What he saw was only blankets moving frantically, as if the baby was trying to uncover itself. "What's wrong, little one?" He asked out loud, not realizing that not only the baby didn't hear him, but that it couldn't answer him, either. "Why can't I still see your face?" Ari asked out loud again, his neck stretched as far as he could but still saw only pink material. The damn doctor passed behind him again and Ari saw his face. Still wearing the surgical mask, the only thing visible was the eyes. A pair of cruel eyes passing right by him, eyes that Ari knew too well.

His head snapped back to the baby, finally understanding what was going on. THE BABY COULDN'T BREATHE! His heart beating fast, he knocked on the window, trying to get some of the babies to wake up, hoping it would alert the nurse, wherever the hell she was. When that didn't work and he saw the baby slowing and stopping its action against the blanket, he knew that there was no time to waste.

Ari opened the door with a bang, before he ran for the cradle on wheels. "Nice of you to finally show up," he muttered as he saw the nurse come out of the little office in the corner of the room. "I'm taking this baby for a ride," he said, picking up baby girl Spencer in his arms and running for the door before the nurse had time to stop him. There was no way that he was going to let Faison attempt to kill Lucky's daughter twice. As the baby started crying, Ari started to run down the stairs 4 by 4, knowing that the nurse had to have called security by now. "What kind of hospital is this, anyway?" Ari asked out loud to the screaming baby. "Only one nurse to tend to those precious little angels."

As the little girl's cries became louder and angrier, Ari looked down and smiled tenderly at the little pink bundle in his arms. "Let it out, sweetheart," He whispered as he opened the emergency only door, half expecting security guards to wait for him as he exited. "You came too close to not being able to do that ever again for me to stop you." Ari finished his sentence as he ran into the night with his best friend's baby safely cradled in the crook of his arm.