Bobbie was sitting near the docks. She didn’t feel the cold as she sat, crying. She stared over at Spoon Island. How could she let herself be played for the fool? Again. “What’s wrong with you, Barbara Jean Spencer Brock Meyer Jones Cassadine?” she asked herself under her breath. She wiped away tears and sighed as an older man came up and saw her.
Alexander walked over to his daughter and said, “Mind if I sit down?”
Bobbie shook her head, slightly, “Go ahead.”
Alexander sat down next to her. “Are you okay, Barbara Jean? Is there anything you want to talk about?”
Bobbie again shook her head. “No.” Then it hit her, “How did you know my name?”
Alexander smiled, “Well, you could say that I’m your guardian angel?”
“Ha. Very funny. If you’re my guardian angel, where have you been all my life?” she asked sarcastically.
Alexander took his daughter’s hands in his, “Not where I should have been. I’m very sorry.”
Bobbie pulled her hands away from this strange man, “I should have listened to my brother,” she rationalized.
Alexander sighed, “Luke would only say, ‘I told you so.’ Besides, he has such a vendetta against the Cassadines he wouldn’t be able to see what you were going through.”
“You know Luke?”
“Not well,” Alexander admitted.
Bobbie sighed, “Sounds like you know him pretty well to me. To Luke, everything has to be blamed on someone else. Before the Cassadines, it was the Smiths. And before that, it was our father. I’m tired of hearing about it.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexander said honestly.
“It’s not your fault. My brother has this huge ego thing. He thinks that he’s the be all and end all of everything. He warned me about the Cassadines, and I ignored him, again. Only this time, he was right.”
“He’ll enjoy that.”
Bobbie laughed slightly. “Yeah. I wouldn’t mind him gloating if it wasn’t about MY husband and HIS daughter.”
Matter of factly, Alexander said, “It could be worse. It could be your daughter with your husband.”
Bobbie nodded, somewhat relieved, “Yeah, you’re right.”
Alexander stood up, satisfied with a new tidbit of information. Bobbie didn’t know that Carly was her daughter. “I have to leave now. Goodbye Barbara, maybe we can chat again sometime.”
“Bye,” she replied. He started to walk away when Bobbie called out to him, “Wait, I don’t even know your name.”
“Alexander,” he called back to her without turning around.
He walked off slowly as Bobbie slowly said his name silently to herself. Then it hit her who he was. She stood up rapidly and called after him, “Dad?”
But Alexander had already disappeared around a corner. Bobbie sat back down on the bench and breathed deeply. She wasn’t giving up Stefan without a fight. Now she just had to figure out how to fight her own flesh and blood for the man she loved. “I need a weapon,” she mumbled to herself.
*****
Alexis and Lisa sat at the PC Grille, having dinner. “I’ve had enough, Alexis,” Lisa said determinedly, “I want my husband back.”
Alexis frowned, “Isn’t it a bit late to decide that?”
Lisa raised an eyebrow, “I thought you were on my side?”
“I am. I’m just thinking like the other woman. That’s one of the things that Bobbie will use against you. You left, of your own choice, and in her mind, gave up on the marriage.”
“I had my reasons,” Lisa said, looking down.
Alexis smiled sympathetically, “I know you did, Lisa. Very good ones, in my opinion. You maintained your contact with Stefan until you couldn’t reach him any more. But every time you told him where you were, by the time he got there, you were gone. Eventually, he just quit trying to catch up with you and assumed that when you were ready, you’d come home. Are you ready now?”
Lisa nodded, “I think so.”
Alexis folded her hands on the table, “You have to be absolutely sure. If you want Stefan back, and you want him to give up Bobbie, you have to be totally willing to come back into the fold. Now that may mean facing things that you don’t want to deal with. Alexander’s associations with Helena and your past with Billy are part of that. As is the other matter.”
“I know,” Lisa said quietly.
“If I’m any judge of character, Bobbie will fight for what she wants. You have to be ready for that too.”
“Alexis, you’ve been my friend for years. You’d tell me if I had no chance against her, right?”
Alexis nodded, “Of course. The one thing you and I have always been is honest with each other. You want Stefan. And I think you’re better for him than Bobbie. Anything I can do to help you, I will.”
Lisa smiled, “Thank you Alexis.”
Alexis frowned, “Don’t thank me yet. This isn’t going to be pretty.”
*****
Later that night, Lisa was sitting in her room at Kelly’s, staring out the window like she had all those nights before when Ruby had wished her a happy birthday. In a way, she wished that she could go back and change what had happened since then. But there was so much more she wished she could erase. Not that there was anything she could do about it now. The past was in the past, and that’s where she vowed to leave it. It was time to move forward with her life again. She picked up the phone quickly and called Carly, “Hey Cee, can you help me out with a little scheme?” She smiled as she worked through the details with her conniving cousin.
Two hours later, she sighed deeply and looked across the room at her open suitcases. There was a strong knock on the door. She braced herself, expecting either her father or Stefan. “Come in,” she said just as strongly.
She turned around to see neither of the men she expected. Instead, it was Bobbie that walked into the room. Lisa was slightly surprised, but the whole scenario was perfect. “Bobbie. I didn’t expect it to be you.”
Bobbie was harsh, “Sorry to disappoint you. Were you expecting my husband perhaps?”
Bobbie’s abrupt tone reminded Lisa of the first time she met Bobbie in the hospital. She decided to fight her aunt’s harshness with sugar sweet civility. She smiled ingratiatingly, “No, you didn’t disappoint me, Aunt Bobbie. Family is always welcome.”
“Be honest with me Lisa,” Bobbie sincerely asked. “What is your relationship with my husband?”
Lisa took a deep breath. Was Bobbie ready for the truth, she asked herself. Nah. “Stefan, right? What makes you think we have any sort of relationship? I lived on the Cassadine island for years, I was a servant. So if you would consider that a relationship...”
Suspiciously, Bobbie asked, “You’re sleeping with Stefan, aren’t you?”
Lisa laughed slightly, “Blunt, aren’t you? Must be a family trait.”
Before Lisa could continue any further, Carly rushed in, carrying a tote bag. “I got the things you asked me to pick up while you were packing, Cou…” She cut herself off when she looked up and saw Bobbie. “Oh, I didn’t realize you had company.”
Bobbie looked from one girl to the other and then to the suitcases. “Going somewhere, Lisa?”
“I think I need a little vacation. To clarify some things. I’ll be back, don’t worry.”
Bobbie looked back and forth between the girls again before continuing. “So you two know each other?”
Carly answered her, “We go way back.”
“So, husband stealing tramps go around in packs like wolves.”
With each insult Bobbie hurled, Lisa wanted to tell her that Carly was her daughter Caroline, but she held off. She laughed, “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Bobbie. What about you, Carly?” She had trouble calling her that, just like Carly had trouble calling Lisa anything but ‘Cousin’.
“Nope, no clue,” Carly responded with her usual smirk.
Bobbie frowned, obviously not impressed with the girls juggling act. Without another word, she left the room, slamming the door behind her. As soon as she was gone, both Carly and Lisa burst out laughing.
“I figured it would be either Stefan or Luke here when I got here,” Carly said.
Lisa smiled, “Me too, but this was more than perfect. She thinks I’m leaving and she’ll let her guard down.”
Carly laughed, “I have to say that I like how your mind works, Cousin. Devious.”
“Must run in the family. Plus, I’ve got years of watching the Cassadines under my belt. They are the true masters of manipulation.”
*****
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Alexis picked up her mail and frowned at one of the letters. She opened it as the phone rang. “Hello?”
“You called for me?” the female voice replied.
“It’s about time. How is Helena?”
“She has her moments. Alexis, what is this about?”
Alexis smiled, “Lisa is here in Port Charles. Stefan is involved in a charade of a marriage with Luke Spencer’s sister.”
The female voice laughed, “He’s suitably distracted.”
“That about sums it up. Be ready.” Alexis cautioned before hanging up the phone quickly.
She turned back to the letter in her hand. She smiled slightly at the swirling penmanship of a teenage girl. A girl with no worries, no fears. No clue about her real family. Alexis sighed and read the letter slowly, treasuring each word.
*****
On the Cassadine island in the Aegean, Helena Cassadine stared out her window. “Hurry up, Alexander. I will not be separated from my grandson much longer.”
*****
Lisa looked across the room after Carly left. She stared at the door, silently begging someone, anyone to knock. This whole scenario was probably the hardest thing she’d thought about ever since... Well, that was another totally unrelated subject. She felt like she was giving up on everything again. The knock came. “Come in,” she called.
Laura walked through the door and instantly noticed the suitcases, “You’re running again, aren’t you?”
Lisa motioned towards a chair for Laura to sit in. As Laura sat down, she flopped on the bed, “Well, that’s my M.O. isn’t it? Run at the first sign of trouble?”
“What’s wrong? Really. This has to do with the Cassadines, doesn’t it?”
Lisa nodded, “I’m split in two between my feelings for them and for you all. The best direction to go in now just seems to be away.”
“So you’re just going to leave, without telling anyone, just run away from your troubles?”
“It’s worked so far.”
“How do you feel about Port Charles as a place?”
Lisa smiled, “It’s great. My whole family is here. Something I thought could never happen, Spencer and Cassadine in the same place. Odd.”
Laura nodded, “And there’s the problem.”
“Exactly. Neither side understands the other. And now, Stefan’s ‘involved’ with Bobbie.”
Laura sat back and relaxed, reminded of the conversations that she and Lisa used to have all the time on the island. Lisa used to tell her everything. Laura had enjoyed it, it was always like talking to a daughter. She looked forward to those conversations with Lu. Only right now, the conversation was more serious. The kind she used to have with her mother. Laura missed her mother.
Lisa knew that she had to tell someone the truth. “Did I ever tell you what happened on the island after you left?”
Laura shook her head and waited for Lisa to continue.
“Remember that guy that put me in the hospital a few weeks back?”
Laura nodded, “Billy Evans.”
“I just called him Billy to make him mad. Unfortunately for me, it stuck. The whole family called him that when they found out. His full name was Erik Wilhelm Cassadine Evans.”
Laura’s eyes widened. “He was one of them?” She realized that this was going to be a long conversation.
Lisa continued, “After you left and Stavros died, Helena took control over the family.”
Laura added information she knew about that time, “She didn’t ever want Stefan as the head of the family.”
Lisa agreed, “He was unlike all the others, he had a heart. Anyway, when I was 13, Billy decided that he wanted me, so Helena promised him that when I was of age, he could marry me. Until then, she allowed us to go on “trips” off the island. They were absolute nightmares.”
Laura looked at Lisa gently, she understood exactly. “Then what happened?”
“I was about 15 when Stefan staged the coup and took over the family. He found out what Billy was doing and stopped him from taking me off the island. Billy had planned this huge wedding for the weekend after my 18th birthday, but the night before...” Tears welled up in her eyes. Lisa wasn’t sure whether she could continue.
Laura was very encouraging. She had no idea how bad things had gotten for Lisa on the island, but she knew how it helped to talk about them. “It’s okay, I understand.”
Lisa nodded, appreciating Laura’s patience. Taking control of her emotions, she said, “He grabbed me and hauled me down to the water’s edge,” She choked out. “I thought he was going to drown me. But he didn’t. Let’s just say that night was worse than all the others. When he fell asleep, I was able to literally crawl back to the house. It was really late, and Stefan had noticed that I was gone and had people out looking for me. He took one look at me and led me to the docks. I could see a cold fury in his eyes that I’d never seen before. I assumed that he was mad at me, but he wasn’t. I was afraid that he was going to banish me and leave me to Billy, but he and I got on a boat to the mainland. He was silent for the whole time until we were nearly there. He said that Billy would never have the courage to mess with the wife of the head of the family. We were married within the hour.”
Laura was surprised. She had no idea of the extent of Lisa’s relationship with Stefan. “Married? What about his current marriage to Bobbie?”
“It’s invalid, Stefan and I aren’t divorced. And he knows that as well as I do. The question is, does Bobbie?”
They both knew the answer to that without saying.
“How do you feel about Stefan now? Do you love him?” Laura asked.
“I’m not going to kid myself, I know that he can’t love me. He’s the only man that ever watched out for me, protected me. So maybe, yes, in that respect, I can say I love him. But I don’t know if it’s what I would call true love. He says he cares, but I don’t know. I remember being so afraid of him at first, not knowing whether he was like the other men in his family or not.”
“Afraid?” Laura was curious, usually fear wasn’t the emotion that followed Stefan around. “I thought you always liked him.”
“I did. But I was a scared kid whose only experience with men was nightmarish. Suddenly we were married and I was a Cassadine bride. I’d seen the way Stavros treated you, the way Billy treated me and I remember a bit about Mikkos and Helena. Love was never an emotion involved. It was always about power and control, who had it, who didn’t. I was scared that he would treat me the way most Cassadines treat their wives.”
“I’m assuming he didn’t, otherwise you would be upset about this marriage to Bobbie.”
“That first night, I was so scared, I refused to move off the sofa in the main living room. I just knew that he’d be furious, but I fell asleep and when I woke up, I was still on the sofa. He had covered me with a blanket and was asleep in the chair next to me.”
Laura smiled, “He can be very kind and caring, can’t he?”
Lisa nodded, “More than almost anyone I know. He never did anything to make me nervous or uncomfortable. The first thing he ever did to upset me was pursue this stupid relationship with Bobbie.”
Laura took a deep breath, she knew how much the subject bothered Lisa, just from the look on her face. “Why is he doing it, then? Especially now that you two are in the same town. And why aren’t you living with him? Why didn’t you come to town when they did?”
“He and I have been living separate lives for the last three years. Something happened. I’m not ready to say what yet, but suffice it to say that it was very traumatic for me. I started to travel. I went to Florida and met Caroline. I used to call him every night, to let him know that I was okay. I wouldn’t tell him where I was until the last night I was there. I couldn’t face him. As for the reasoning behind the relationship with Bobbie, I can’t even fathom what’s going on. Maybe it’s a statement to me to get my act together. Or maybe he’s saying that it’s over. I don’t know. And he’s not very forthcoming on the details. Not that I want to know them anyway.”
“Have you talked to him about it?” Laura asked.
“I don’t want to hear what he has to say. The past was too much for me to handle. I always felt that looking at him was like looking back to that time.”
Laura sighed, “Do you want him back?”
Lisa shrugged, “I say I do, but deep down, I’m afraid that if he takes me back, all that other stuff will happen again. Meanwhile, he has Bobbie keeping his bed warm. What does he need me for?”
Laura’s look became serious. “Just don’t leave town. We’ll figure this all out, even if it’s just you and I. The past is in the past. Now I don’t know exactly what sort of traumatic experience you had three years ago, but whatever it was, it’s over and you need to get on with you life. I won’t fight your battles for you, but I’ll stand by your side and help you all I can.”
Lisa smiled. “You’re the only person who could have changed my mind. You’re the only one that understands. Thank you, Momma.” Laura and Lisa both stood up and hugged.
*****