Lizzy sees Sarah, sitting in the living room. She comes down to join her. Lizzy has been pretty stand-offish to Sarah, not knowing if Sarah wanted to talk or be left alone. Since Lizzy's bogus relationship with Garcia was over, Lizzy had too much time on her hands. She decided to take a chance on Sarah wanting to talk.

Lizzy comes over to the sofa. "Sarah? Do you mind if I sit down? Do you feel like talking?" Lizzy stands there, hoping she doesn't get chewed out for bothering her.

Sarah looks up, with gratitude in her eyes. "Oh, please Lizzy. Please, sit down. I feel like I'm going stir crazy!" She reaches for Lizzy's arm and practically pulls her down on the couch next to her.

Lizzy straightens herself on the couch. "Okay. So, how do you feel?"

"I feel fat." Sarah says, looking down at her stomach. Am I showing already?"

Lizzy really thinks Sarah is paranoid. "Sarah, have you taken the test yet?"

"This morning." Sarah said. "I'm waiting for the phone to ring now...they call you with the results so, I'm just waiting..."

Lizzy sees Sarah is about to jump out of her skin. "Okay, let's talk about something else, to keep your mind off this." Lizzy thinks what better way to get Sarah's mind off her own screw-up than to let her know about her screw-up. "Sarah? Remember the boyfriend I had a while back? The one no one ever met?"

Sarah thought for a minute. "Yeah, the mysterious Alex. What ever happened to him? I never got a chance to meet him. "

"Oh yes you did." Lizzy says. "Remember at my Sweet 16 Party? What Alex did you know there?" Lizzy sees that Sarah is clueless, so Lizzy decides to help her out. "Detective Alex Garcia."

Sarah's eyes widened. "No! Lizzy...Detective Garcia, he's the mystery man..."

"Was the mystery man." Lizzy interjected. "I got busted when he came into the party. He had no idea I was sixteen. He thought I was legal." Lizzy felt just a little pride at being able to fool a grown man with her age.

Sarah reads into the 'legal' statement. "Lizzy, you didn't...with him, did you?"

Lizzy looks at her. "Sarah, I think he was ready to. That's when I kinda knew I was in over my head. He was so nice, Sarah...and so sexy, so manly. I wish we could have worked something out."

"Lizzy, you're only 16. How old is he?" Sarah asked.

"I really don't know still." Lizzy said.

Sarah momentarily forgot her own problems. "So what did he say? After the party?"

Lizzy looks guilty. "I haven't spoken to him since the party." Sarah looks at Lizzy unbelievingly. "I know, I should have gone to him by now. I just can't face him, Sarah. I feel like such a dog." She looks at Sarah wistfully. "Even though it was a lie, I still miss him Sarah."

Sarah grabs her sister's hand. "It's okay, Liz...you'll find true love one day. A love that will be real and honest...AND legal. But you have to end this with him, Lizzy, you can't go on like this, leaving him to wonder..."

"I know, I know..." Lizzy says. She looks at Sarah, finally willing to confess. "You know, I only did this because...I was jealous. Of you and Nikolas, and then Emily and Lucky. It was just...everybody had someone and I was, alone. And look, coincidentally, I'm alone...again." Lizzy halfway laughed at this realization.

Sarah felt bad for her sister. "Oh, Liz..."

The telephone rings. Dead silence follows. They look at each other.

"Do you want me to get it for you?" Lizzy asks.

Sarah shakes her head. "No, I have to do this." She gets up and answers the phone on the third ring. "Hello? Yes this is she." She turns and reaches out to Lizzy. Lizzy gets up and takes Sarah's hand, standing there with her. Sarah squeezes Lizzy's hand, so tightly that Lizzy thought her fingers would fall off, but she didn't care, she was glad she could be there for her sister.

"Yes, I came in this morning. Yes, I'll hold." Sarah is trembling now. She doesn't realize that tears are falling from her eyes. The person comes back on the other line. "Yes, I'm still here..."Sarah says.

After about five seconds, Sarah's knees buckle. She's vividly shaking now. "Thank you, thank you so much." She hangs up the phone.

Lizzy, not knowing what's going on, tries to interrupt Sarah's sobbing. "Sarah? What did they say? What did they say?"

"I'm NOT pregnant!" Sarah screams. Lizzy lets out a breath that she realized she had been holding for the past five minutes. They hug each other and squeal with relief as Audrey comes in from the supermarket.

Audrey eyes the scene of camaraderie between the two sisters. "My, my...what has caused all this excitement?" Audrey asks.

Lizzy and Sarah look at each other. Lizzy speaks first. "Oh, we both got 100's on our Algebra tests." She looks at Sarah, who nods in agreement. She's still too overwhelmed...and relieved, to speak.

"Well, I guess that is a milestone. Congratulations." Audrey hangs her coat and comes down into the living room. "Now, who's for roast beef for dinner?"

Sarah, suddenly feeling her appetite kick in for the first time in days, answers enthusiastically. "Oh Gram, I'm starved!"

Audrey smiles and heads towards the kitchen. "Okay, dinner will be ready in a few minutes."

Sarah turns to Lizzy once Audrey is out of earshot. "Thanks, Lizzy. You're a real buddy."

Lizzy looks at her sister and, for the first time, feels a bond with Sarah. Could they actually begin to like each other?

"Anytime, Sis. Hey, you have to tell Nikolas, right?"

Sarah gasps. "Oh my goodness, I almost forgot. I'm so relieved I forgot about poor Nikolas. He must be going crazy with worry." Sarah turns as they hear Audrey calling from the kitchen that dinner's ready. She turns back to Lizzy. "I'll call him right after dinner. And Lizzy...this is between us, right?"

Lizzy responds. "It's between just the two of us...just like the real Alex is just between us, right?"

"As long as you promise to see him, Liz." Sarah says.

Lizzy smiles at Sarah. "I promise."

Sarah puts out her pinky finger, Lizzy hooks hers with Sarah's, both making a pinky swear. They both smile as they fight to get to the dining room first.

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

Sarah meets Nikolas outside of the Hardy house. He had called her from Wyndemere...he had been so worried about the test results. She had planned to go over and see him after dinner, but when she learned that Stefan was there...she thought better of it.

Sarah closed the door and walked down the steps to meet him. She practically leaped into his arms. Nikolas wraps his arms around her, hoping that her good mood was from the test results.

"I'm not pregnant..." Sarah said, looking down at him.

Nikolas looked in her eyes and his heart was flooded with relief. He hugged her close as he breathed for the first time since he had met her at Kelly's and she had told him the news.

Sarah pulled from him, and noticed that Nikolas had tears in his eyes. She looked concerned as she searched his face.

Nikolas looked at her, choking on his emotions. "I...I almost ruined your life, I'm so sorry."

"What are you talking about, Nikolas?" Sarah said.

Nikolas walked away from Sarah. He spoke to her with his back turned. "I almost...I made a big mistake. Your life could have been ruined..."

"Nikolas, wait a minute. Stop this." Sarah walks over to him and walks around to face him. "Are you saying you feel responsible for my almost being pregnant?" She lowers her voice, looking around, hoping nosey neighbors had something better to do tonight. "Nikolas, I was just as responsible as you were...we were both there, together, remember? You didn't force me to do anything I didn't want to...hadn't dreamed of doing. You can't blame yourself."

Nikolas looked at her. "I was so scared...so scared that you were..."

"Me too, Nikolas. Oh, I was so scared." She shuttered at the thought of being pregnant. Not that being pregnant would be so bad, and definitely the baby being Nikolas' would be a joy. But not at 17...before her High School graduation, her prom...college...marriage.

She was shaking now, even though she hadn't realized it. Nikolas wraps his arms around her. He holds her for a minute, waiting for her to stop shivering.

He whispers in her ear, "Sarah? If it had happened....if you were pregnant, what would you want to do?"

Sarah pulls away and looks in his eyes. "I'm not sure...what would you have wanted to do?"

"I would have asked you to marry me." Nikolas said, so matter-of-factly that Sarah almost lost her balance.

She smiled as she thought of the gesture. "Nikolas...oh Nikolas, that is so sweet, but I wouldn't want you to feel you had to marry me because I got pregnant..."

"I would've married you because I love you." Nikolas said. "Even though you're not pregnant, Sarah...I still want to marry you one day...I love you, Sarah." He looked in her eyes, seeing the tears starting to form.

Sarah wraps her arms around Nikolas and hugs him tightly. "That is the sweetest thing I will ever live to hear..."

Nikolas whispers to her. ""Now, don't go misty on me..." He gets quiet for a moment. "Sarah...let's make a promise - to each other. That we will never put each other in this kind of pain again."

Sarah looks up at him. "What are you saying, Nikolas?"

"Celibacy." Nikolas looks in her eyes. "I don't want us to have a relationship where we have to worry about this kind of thing. I don't want us to be cheated by worry and guilt..." Nikolas was wondering what Sarah was thinking. He continued. "I say we vow never to make love again until we're married."

Sarah was so thrown by Nikolas' pledge of celibacy that she couldn't handle the 'marriage' part. She smiled at him. "Nikolas, you talk as if marriage is around the corner."

Nikolas smiled back. "Well, you never know..." He hugs her again, feeling himself getting nervous at the thought of spending the rest of his life with someone. Obviously, it's not a Cassadine trait to remain married for too long. Then again, love was never involved in any of the Cassadine marriages.

'Well, someone has to do it...and do it properly' he thought. A smile spread across his face.

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

Lizzy rings Garcia's doorbell. She wasn't looking forward to this at all, but she knew it was something she had to do.

Garcia opens the door, shocked to see Elizabeth, but knowing she would show up eventually. He personally hadn't had the guts to show his face to her, seeing that he was tricked by a 15-year old.

"Sorry little girl, I've bought all my girlscout cookies for the year." Garcia says, a little bitterly.

Lizzy smiles slightly. "I figured you would be angry at me. Please, can I come in? Please?" Garcia steps aside and lets Lizzy in the apartment.

He closes the front door. "Oh, do you think I should leave this door open...this might be a set-up, you know?"

Lizzy looked at him. "Why would you say that..."

"Do you have any idea how much trouble I could have been in?" Garcia says in as even a tone as he could muster. "I could have lost my badge."

"I would never do anything like that, I would never have told anyone." Lizzy says, desperate to let him know he was not the one who was in danger, but she was. She had let her heart get into this, now it was a problem.

Garcia walked away, standing against the window. "Why me, Lizzy?" He asked.

Lizzy felt tears spring to her eyes as he called her 'Lizzy'. She remembered the fear that came along with him finding out her true identity. She struggled for the right words to say, but none of them seemed to sound right. She figured she may as well tell the truth. "Alex...I don't know. I guess it was just fate..."

"Fate?" Garcia laughed. "I wouldn't actually call that 'fate', Lizzy. You wanna know what fate is? Fate is when I meet a beautiful 'woman', my age...or older, doesn't matter...and we fall madly in love - that's fate, Lizzy. Not being lied to by...a beautiful teenager who tricked me into thinking she was 23 years old." Garcia walked over to her, a smirk on his face. "I guess you feel like the big girl at PC High - you fooled a grown man into thinking that you were a full-blown woman. Tell me, Liz, how does it make you feel, now that you know you got one over on the old man?"

"You're only a few years older than I am..."

"Lizzy...I'm fifteen years older than you! Don't you get this? I'm not the twenty-one year old down the hall...I mean, couldn't you find a younger guy? Any guy...besides me?

"I'm sorry!" Lizzy yelled. She felt herself getting emotional, and that's not what she wanted to do. "We happened to run into each other, I flirted with you, you flirted with me...I didn't have to meet you again, I could have left it right where it was, at the PC Grill. But I called you, and I met you here...because, because...I like you, Alex. I don't care how old you are, I'm attracted to you, and I can't stop thinking about you." Lizzy turns, bringing her hands to her temples. She was suddenly fighting a growing headache. "Alex...did you think I was using you? Is that what you think this was about?"

"It crossed my mind...why, are you going to tell me that you weren't? Alex stood there, staring at Lizzy. Even though he was fully aware that she was young enough to be his daughter, he still felt a pang of desire as he remembered the last time she was here in his apartment. "Ugh, this is sick!" He walked off, disgusted with himself.

Lizzy stands there, without a defense. "I'm sorry." That was all she could say.

Garcia turns to look at her and notices that she's standing there, tears streaming down her face. He walks over to her, stopping to stand directly in front of her. His cold facade was melting quickly as he looked into her big blue eyes. He reached out and wiped the tears from her face with the pads of his thumbs. "Lizzy, I'm sorry...I guess I'm just feeling a lot of different things right now. First thing would be feeling like a fool, because yes, I was fooled by a fifteen year old, and secondly..." He looked into her eyes. "because I feel cheated out of something that could have been something - if it had been the right time."

He pulls her into a hug, she wraps her arms around him, still slightly reeling at the feel of his arms around her, enveloping her. Garcia pulls away from her and looks her in the eyes.

"Alex...you'll never have to worry...I won't ever tell anyone." Lizzy said.

"I'm not worried about that right now, Lizzy.

Lizzy wished he had gotten angrier at her. The guilt was eating away at her. She tore her gaze away from his face and realized she had to get out of there, fast.

"I'm sorry, I have to go now." Lizzy moves from him and takes her coat and purse, heading for the door. She looks back as she opens the door, giving him one last look.

"Goodbye, Detective Garcia." She said, as she stepped out the door and closed it tightly behind her.

Garcia stood there, "Goodbye, Lizzy." He thought wistfully. "Maybe I'll meet you again in about...another seven years." He smiles as he sits down on the sofa, suddenly feeling his age.

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

Stefan is in the sitting room. He is looking around feverishly, searching for something. He didn't hear Katherine come in.

"Are you looking for this?" Katherine says as she holds up the key to the cellar.

Stefan looks around at her. He had not seen her since last night's disastrous dinner party. He noticed the key in her hand and recognized it as the key he had been looking for.

"Where did you get that?" He says, already knowing what she would say and why she still had the key.

Katherine walked over to Stefan, placing the key in his hand. She didn't let go of his hand as she explained herself.

"I'm leaving, Stefan." Stefan began to protest, she interrupted. "I'm not here to argue, I'm here to settle this once and for all." She walked away from him, turning towards the fireplace. "I understand that you are in love with one woman, Stefan, a woman who has a control over you that I dare not compete with. I wouldn't want to compete with it."

She turns to face him. "Please, don't try to deny it, don't try to cover it...and please, don't acknowledge it. Just understand that I see just what's going on...between you and the now picture of Laura Spencer. But one day, that picture will be the real thing, if you have anything to say about it." Katherine stood there, oblivious to the look of shock on Stefan's face.

"I hope you end up with what you really want one day, Stefan. But I'm alright in knowing now that, I'm not it." With that, Katherine walks by Stefan, heading for the door. She turns around one last time to look at him, knowing this will probably be the last time she stepped foot on Wyndemere.

"The guesthouse will be cleared by this evening. Goodbye, Stefan." She turned on her heels and walked out...out of Wyndemere, and out of Stefan's life.

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

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