Lizzy walked out of PC High with Emily and Lucky. Lizzy noticed that Emily and Lucky were holding hands, looking quite 'the adorable couple'. Lizzy thought about her date with Det. Garcia last week and felt that pang of jealousy that had been hidden for quite awhile. Even though her involvement with Garcia may be the start of something, she couldn't be open about it like Lucky and Emily. The way they looked into each other's eyes, the way they smiled at each other...

Lizzy was jolted out of her daydream by Lucky's question.

"So, Liz, you ready for your party tomorrow?" Lucky asks.

Liz tried to pretend she had been paying attention all along. "Yeah, can't wait. It's gonna be a blast!" She turns to Emily. "Are you still coming over tonight to help me set up?"

"Sure." Emily says. "I just have to go home and pick up my dress for tomorrow and let my parents know. I'll leave them your number, I'm sure they'll want to check up on me and make sure I'm really at your house and not somewhere else..." She looks at Lucky and smiles. "They get the strange idea that I can't stay away from you."

Lucky looks at her. "I wonder where they got that idea from?" He smiles as he kisses her on the cheek.

Lizzy swallows down that jealous knot in her throat again. She slings her bookbag over her shoulder. "Okay, so I'll see you tomorrow, Lucky. Emily, I'll see you later?"

"Later." Emily and Lucky walk their way, Lizzy walks off towards home. She was totally oblivious to the car across the street and the binoculars that watched her every move.

As soon as she got far enough down the street, the engine started and the car shifted into gear and followed her...all the way home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lizzy's Sweet 16 Party was all she had wished for. Everyone from her class was there, and all the couples. Lizzy wished that Alex could be there, but then she realized that would be virtually impossible. She walked around the party, smiling at everyone, accepting the gifts that her friends were swarming her with. She was so happy, this night couldn't get any better.

Lizzy looked around as everyone was having a good time. Well, almost everybody...

She noticed over at the stereo there seemed to be an argument brewing between - who else - Lucky and Nikolas. Lizzy sighed as she realized that she may have made a mistake by inviting the two of them to spend time together in the same room. But how could she disappoint her sister by not inviting her boyfriend...and how could she disappoint her best friend, Emily, by not inviting her boyfriend?

"Why me?" Lizzy said aloud. "Why do I have to always be stuck in the middle of these things?" She walked over to the stereo to see what was going on.

Lucky's voice could be heard over everyone else. "Why can't you just admit that you are in the dark, Cassadine? You live out there on the 'Island of Dr. Moreau ' and you have no idea what's going on in the real world..."

Emily was standing by Lucky, tugging on his sleeve. "Lucky..."

Lucky looked at her. "What? Do you think that he has a right to say the music is not...what was it you said, Nik...not 'culturally edifying'...I mean, give me a break..."

Emily interrupted him. "He was speaking to Sarah, not you or anyone else. Why did you have to blow it out of proportion?

Lucky stopped to stare at Emily. "Are you taking up for him, Em?" Lucky asked her.

Emily shoulders sagged. "No, Lucky, I just don't want you two to get started..."" Emily pleaded to Lucky with her eyes to not take this any further.

Lucky, as much as he wanted to finish bashing the 'bat boy', looked in Emily's eyes and couldn't disappoint her. He turned to Nikolas and, sarcastically, apologizes. "I'm sorry, Nik...I should not have argued with you over your own opinion...however biased it may be." With that, Lucky walks away, only to be stopped by Nikolas' voice.

"Y...you think that I don't know what you're doing?" Lucky turns as Nikolas walks up to him. "You want...argue over...little things...anything...just to embarrass me." Nikolas hated the fact that his speech seem to worsen whenever he got upset, and he was upset right now.

Lucky looks as if he doesn't know what he's talking about. "Nikolas, man...relax. No one's trying anything..."

"Yes, you are!" Nikolas yells at him. "You can't st...stand the fact that there's something...you finally have over me, so you have to broadcast it to the whole world. 'I finally...got one over on the Cassadine!"

Lucky looks at him. "What are you talking about, man..."

"My speech!" Nikolas glares at him. "You think you finally...you can finally get to me..."

"Don't try to tell me what I'm doing or thinking, man!" Lucky screams back at him. "You don't know anything about me...you don't have a clue about what goes on in my head..."

"And neither do you." Nikolas said, sarcastically.

On that insult, Lucky moves to lunge at Nikolas, to be stopped by Emily and Sarah.

Emily attempts to calm Lucky. "Lucky, come on, don't fight, not here..."

"What's your problem, Cassadine?" Lucky says, ignoring Emily's plea. "Everything in this world is just supposed to please you, right? You're the one that the whole world turns upside down for. We're all just supposed to stop breathing, earth stop spinning, just so you can enter a room..."

"Oooh, now I see..." Nikolas smiles as a revelation hits him. He walks closer to Lucky, thinking he's going to enjoy this. He sets his face like a rock, mimicking Lucky's attitude.

"You...you still can't accept that I'm here, can you?"

Nikolas sees the anger in Lucky's eyes turn to rage. He continues. "You still can't accept that I'm your mother's eldest son, I'm your father's worst nightmare, I'm the reason Lulu's alive, and..."

Suddenly the look in Lucky's eyes made Nikolas not enjoy this as much as he thought he would. He voice softened a bit as he realized the truth of his following words:

"...and I'm...your big brother."

Lucky, not being able to stand being slapped in the face with the truth so blatantly, turns and walks out the front door. He didn't bother to stop and get his coat.

Nikolas stood there, not knowing why he wasn't feeling a since of accomplishment, in finally beating Spencer at his own game. Instead, he felt sorry for...Nikolas frowned to himself as he realized he was about to mentally refer to Lucky as his 'little brother'. Sarah walks up to Nikolas and puts her hand on his shoulder. He turns to look her in the eyes.

"I...I shouldn't have..." He stammers as he tries to finish his sentence. Sarah silences him.

"Nikolas, I know you didn't mean to hurt Lucky, it's just that neither of you guys knows what the other wants. You two will always butt heads until you both decide what you're going to do with each other. But don't worry, Lucky's tough, he'll be okay." She kisses him on his cheek.

Nikolas turns to Emily, who is still standing there in wonderment, and tells her, "I'm sorry, Emily." He and Sarah walk off, Sarah turning to give Emily a 'what are we going to do with them?' look.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lizzy looked around her party; at Nikolas - angry after the argument; Emily - shocked that Lucky just walked out of the party; Sarah...well, not knowing what to do...

'Well...," Lizzy thought, 'it definitely couldn't get any worse."

Above all the music and commotion following Lucky and Nikolas' argument, the doorbell rings. Audrey walks over to the door. She opened it to find Detective Garcia on the other side.

Audrey is surprised to see him. "Oh, Detective Garcia, I hope we're not being ticketed for disturbing the peace, I alerted the neighbors before hand to let them know..."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Hardy, there's no complaint." Garcia said. He looks around. "I see it's someone's birthday."

Audrey smiles, "Oh, yes...have you ever met my Granddaughter, Lizzy? Well, silly me, of course you haven't." Audrey stood to the side. "Won't you please come in, Detective?"

Lizzy heard the tail end of Audrey's conversation. 'Detective?' Lizzy froze as she prayed for a miracle. She couldn't bring herself to turn around. She felt Audrey come up behind her.

She hears Audrey speaking at her back. "Detective Garcia, this is my granddaughter, Lizzy." Audrey notices that Lizzy hasn't turn around. "Lizzy...aren't you going to say hello?"

Lizzy felt the floor cave in beneath her. She turned around slowly, trying to find a smile to plaster onto her face. She turned fully to face Garcia. She looked into his eyes, not knowing what they read.

"Hi." Lizzy managed to squeeze out. She knew her goose was cooked. She could just imagine everyone laughing at her when he tells everyone at the party...

Garcia takes Lizzy's hand in a handshake. "Happy Birthday...Lizzy, is it?"

Lizzy was stunned. 'He's not going to blow my cover!' she thought happily. She could stand feeling like a fool if she were the only one who knew about it.

Garcia looked up to the banner on the wall. "Happy Sweet 16...my we're getting older, huh?" He tries to hide the sting in his voice at this revelation. "So, you're Audrey Hardy's granddaughter? Wow, I guess you go to PC High? You know, as a matter of fact, I did see you there...yesterday as a matter of fact. You were with the Spencer kid, and Emily Quartermaine."

"How did you know that?" Lizzy asks, as non chalant as possible.

Garcia tries to play casual too. "Oh, I was just around the neighborhood and decided to spin around the school grounds." He looks up and notices that more than a few of the kids have stopped to listen to their conversation. He takes the edge out of his voice. "I've been around for awhile in Port Charles, funny I've never run into you."

Audrey cuts in. "Detective, was there a reason why you were in this neighborhood tonight? Has something happened?"

He looks around, figuring he'd better cover himself for being there. "Oh, no, not really. There's just a threat of someone's dog getting loose from one of your neighbor's back yards. He's roaming around the neighborhood so I figured I would warn the kids to be careful when they go home. He's probably harmless but...it's a big dog...you know..."

"Oh, I see." Audrey seemed satisfied with that explanation, even though it seemed a little out of sorts to her. "Well, thank you Detective. You're so nice to be concerned about the children's safety. I guess adults can't help but play parents."

Garcia sees the irony in this and laughs. "Yes, Mrs. Hardy. We must take care of the 'children'." He put extra emphasis on children. He turns towards the door. "I'll be going now." He turns back to Liz, who feels like her whole world has just fallen apart.

"Goodnight, Elizabeth. Happy Birthday." With that, he turns and leaves.

Elizabeth feels like her heart will stop beating if she didn't get out of there, and right then. She turns and pretends she getting something from the refreshment table. Anything to keep her hands busy.

Deannie walks over to Elizabeth. "Whoa! He's a looker. For a minute I thought he was your mystery man! Silly thought, huh?"

Lizzy feels the tears coming to her eyes, knowing that whatever it was she thought she had with Garcia had come to an abrupt end. She turns to Deannie with a smirk. "Are you serious? My guy's not that much older than me! Besides, we broke up anyway...last week."

Emily hears this conversation as she walks up. Emily can see in Lizzy's eyes that it's more to this than meets the eye. Deannie walks off and Emily comes in closer to Lizzy, whispering.

"That was the Alex, wasn't it?" Emily notices Lizzy's uncomfortable, so she decides to make it brief. "Lizzy, how could you date a grown man...a policeman at that? Do you know you could have gotten him into trouble?" Emily decides to drop it, seeing that Lizzy looks like she has definitely learned her lesson.

Sarah walks up to Emily and Lizzy, grabbing a soda for Nikolas and herself. She notices the serious looks. "Hey, it wasn't that bad, was it?" She was referring to the argument between Lucky and Nikolas. "Come on, this is supposed to be a party, right?"

Emily turned to Sarah. "How's Nikolas?"

Sarah sighs. "I'm not sure, he's just not saying anything. He's pretty upset..."

"Yeah, Lucky was too." Emily looks towards the door, waiting for Lucky to walk through it any minute, his usual cheerful self. It didn't seem to be happening.

"Maybe you should go look for him," Sarah said, knowing what was going on in Emily's head.

Emily turned back to Sarah. "Yeah...maybe. I wanted to give him some time to cool down...you know..."

"Yeah..." Sarah said, not liking that both their boyfriends were fighting each other. "Well, I'll see you later." She walks away, back to Nikolas.

Emily turned back to Lizzy, who was in another world. Emily waved her hand in front of Lizzy's face, trying to bring her back to the present. "Hello, anyone in there?"

Lizzy jumps as she realizes Emily is talking to her. Emily notices that Lizzy has tears forming in her eyes. "Lizzy, what's wrong?" Emily asked.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong." Lizzy answered, trying to sound cheerful. "Um...I'm going to go get some more dip from the kitchen, see ya later." Lizzy walks off with the half full dip bowl and heads straight for the kitchen at lightening speed.

Emily stood there, wondering was there a full moon tonight.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sarah walks back over to Nikolas, who is sitting by the window, staring out into space. She hands him the soda, he takes it, smiling his thanks. She notices that he seems a little sad...'After arguing with Lucky? That's odd' Sarah thought to herself.

She sits next to him. "Nikolas? Honey, what's wrong?" Nikolas turns to look at her, shaking his head no. Sarah didn't want to pry, but she knew he was lying. "You're incredibly stubborn, you know that? Look, I know you may not want to talk about this, but I think that you and Lucky..."

"No!" Nikolas cuts her off. He waves his hand in a gesture that he doesn't want to discuss Lucky or anything about him. He was having a hard enough time trying to deal with him in his head, he didn't need to add on the difficulty of trying to verbalize his exasperation. He turned back towards the window, away from Sarah.

As soon as he does it, he can actually feel her sense of rejection. He turns back to her and sees her trying to cover the fact that his pulling away from her is bothering her.

Nikolas leans over and kisses Sarah fully. Sarah is taken aback just a little...Nikolas was not the one to do this, not in front of everyone. He pulls away and stares in her eyes. Sarah is shocked, almost afraid, of the torrent of emotions that are hidden behind his eyes. She raises her hand to caress his cheek. He takes her hand in his and kisses her palm.

He looks back at her, smiling. "I love you...you know that?"

Sarah smiles. "I love you, too..."

Nikolas leans over and pulls her into another kiss. This time there are a few coughs and throats being cleared by the surrounding crowd. Nikolas is totally oblivious to this as his kiss deepens, causing Sarah's head to reel with excitement.

He pulls away just enough to whisper in her ear. "Let's get out of here," he says, nibbling her earlobe.

Sarah looks around, hoping no one heard what he had just said, or if anyone noticed she was melting out of her seat. "Nikolas, we just can't leave and not come back..."

"Why not?" Nikolas looks in her eyes. His eyes were full of passion and love.

Since their lovemaking, Sarah was having a hard time refusing Nikolas anything his heart desired. She wanted so badly to banish this bogus party and run off to...anywhere, just as long as she could be with him. She looks into his eyes. It was taking all her strength to deny his wish.

"Nikolas...this is my sister's Sweet 16 Party. I don't think it would look good if I disappeared for the next few hours." Sarah tried to sound convincing.

Nikolas gave her a puppy dog look, his brown eyes becoming sad and pitiful, as if he were begging. Sarah couldn't help but giggle at this silly side of Nikolas...she liked this silly side of Nikolas.

"No, Nikolas, we can't." Sarah replied. Then, a sneaky grin crossed her face. She leans over and whispers to Nikolas. "But who says we can't sneak away and sit in your car for a little while?" Sarah kisses him lightly, teasingly on the lips, making Nikolas shutter. When she pulled away, he opened is eyes, trying to focus.

"Let's go." He whispered to her. He stood and grabbed her by the hand. They were going to try to make a smooth exit, hoping no one would see them leave. They both start as Deannie and her boyfriend walk over, ready for a conversation. Nikolas and Sarah looked at each other, then impatiently turned to Deannie and tried to be politely interested, all the while eyeing the front door.

Lizzy came out of the kitchen, holding on the to bowl of dip. She wasn't having too good a time at her own party. She figured everyone was having a good time, with or without her. She put down the bowl and hoped no one noticed as she slipped upstairs and shut her room door.

She needed to be alone for awhile.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emily sat for awhile, not knowing what to do. She knew she should go after Lucky now, but she didn't want to disturb him. The accusations that flew from Nikolas' lips were disturbing him enough, she was sure of that. She couldn't be angry at Nikolas...she was there and realized that Lucky intentionally instigated the argument - she just didn't know why. Sometimes she felt like she didn't know Lucky, or better yet, she didn't understand the inner hate that Lucky was fighting every day as far as Nikolas was concerned. Sometimes he'd seem so sweet and loving...then one mention of the wrong name or the wrong subject and he was a bomb waiting to blow. Regardless of how crazy he was, Emily knew she was still crazy about him. Besides, she realized, she definitely had her own issues to deal with, she had no time to judge Lucky on his.

Emily went to the closet and grabbed her coat. She slipped out the front door, hoping she didn't have to go far to find him.

She didn't have to leave the front porch.

Lucky sat in the alcove on the porch, staring up at the sky. Emily felt so bad for him, but she didn't know what to do.

"Hey," She said, getting no response. "Hey, it's kinda cold out here, Lucky, why don't you come back insi..."

"I'm not going back in there..." Lucky said, distantly. He didn't even realize how cold it was out there. He continued to stare at the sky.

Emily figured she would get a fight on that one, so she was prepared for the worst. "Lucky, I know you and Nikolas hate each other's guts...but don't you think it's time for one of you to finally put an end to this? You're brothers, for goodness..."

"He's not my BROTHER!" Lucky yelled at Emily. He immediately regretted doing so when he immediately saw her eyes sadden. He sighed and jumped down from the alcove. He walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry, Emily...I didn't mean to yell at you. I will never do that again."

Emily looked at him, half playfully. "You'd better not." She noticed that Lucky was starting to shiver, so she opened her coat and wrapped it around him. He wrapped his arms around her waist inside the coat, pulling her closer to him.

"I'm sorry...I don't know what got into me, Emily." Lucky rested his chin against the top of her head. "I never meant to ruin Lizzy's party. I never meant to argue with Nikolas. It was my fault and I know it."

Emily looked up at him. "So...what are you going to do about it?" Lucky's tone changed. "I'm not insinuating that I'm gonna apologize to the guy, I'm just saying it was my fault."

"Lucky..."

"Emily..." Lucky mimicked her. "I'm not apologizing to Nikolas. No, no way." He hated the sinking feeling he was getting. He knew all Emily had to do was ask him and he would end up apologizing to Count Vlad, Jr. Sometimes he hated the way she could get him to do anything. He dropped the conversation, hoping the topic wouldn't come up again.

Emily is resting her head against his chest. "You need to apologize to him, Lucky." She looks up at him, waiting for a reply.

Lucky winced as he knew the gig was up. He looked down at her, seeing the look in her eyes, knowing that he would end up doing just what she wanted him to do. He bent down and kissed her slowly, hoping to take her mind of the subject.

Emily smiled against his lips. "I'm not going to change my mind, Lucky."

He pulled back and sighed. "There's no fooling you, is there?" She shakes her head no. "Okay, okay. Let's get this over with then."

They were both turning to go back into the house when the door opened and Nikolas and Sarah stood there, equally shocked to see them on the other side. Sarah figured it just wasn't in the cards for her and Nikolas to be alone tonight.

Nikolas looked at his brother, standing there, trying to pretend he wasn't uncomfortable in this situation. He would have laughed if it were the right time.

Lucky looked at Nikolas nervously, then decided it would be best to just get this over with. "Look, man...I'm sorry for what went down in there..."

"Look...I...I'm sorry." Nikolas interrupted. " I shouldn't have..."

Lucky shakes his head, huffing. "Man, can't you even let me apologize in peace..."

Nikolas cut off his sentence, raising his hands in a back-off stance. He let's Lucky finish.

Lucky decided to cut it short. "I shouldn't have been yelling at you, I shouldn't have caused a scene, and I wasn't trying to make fun of you, man, really. I'm sorry if that's what you thought."

"I know." Nikolas said, surprised at how happy he was that they were having a half-way civil conversation. "I'm sorry, too...for everything I said..."

"Don't worry about it, man." Lucky interrupted him. "Water under the bridge."

Emily, surprised that this moment went so well, decided to chide in. "So, Nikolas, you're not leaving the party, are you?"

Nikolas looks at Lucky, as if to see if Lucky wanted him to leave. Lucky meets his eyes, then turns away quickly. He hated the fact that Nikolas reminded him so much of Lulu.

Lucky says, "Hey, why not stick around...you know, for Lizzy's sake?" Lucky shifted his feet, not liking that he was being way too nice.

Nikolas gave him a half-smile. "Yeah...you're right." He turns to Sarah, his eyes telling her that their interlude would have to wait 'till later. She smiles in acknowledgement. "Let's go back in." he tells her. She smiles, not really wanting to go back in, but just so glad that he and Lucky had been civil to each other.

Sarah sneaks a look at Emily and they give each other a knowing smile. They were happy that maybe the two most important men in their lives could get along, if only for just a few minutes at a time. Nikolas stepped aside to let Sarah in, then Emily. He put out his arm in a polite gesture to let Lucky in first. Lucky nods his head and walks in, Nikolas following.

As they all enter, Audrey turns to them, shocked. "Oh, where's Lizzy? I thought she was out there with all of you?"

The four of them shake their heads no. Audrey walks over to the staircase. "Elizabeth? Elizabeth are you up there? It's time to cut your cake!"

Lizzy was upstairs in her bedroom. She couldn't stand to be near anyone right now. She felt so terrible about Alex...she hadn't wanted him to find out like this. Better yet, she hadn't wanted him to find out at all, not until she was ready to tell him - not until he had fallen madly in love with her and age may not have mattered. She felt that everything was ruined, before it had a chance to take off. She jumped at her Grandmother's call. She had almost forgot she had a party going on downstairs. She slid off the bed and, checking her face, she opened the door, going down to brave her audience.

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