Carly stood there, wondering why both of these kids were staring at her as if she had two heads.

"Emily...aren't you going to introduce me to your friend here?" Carly said, noticing the young man's sudden nervousness.

Lucky eyed Carly sadly, feeling a sick, somewhat lonely feeling in the pit of his stomach at the realization that his own cousin didn't even know who he was. He handed the baby back to Emily. Standing, he faced Carly. He walked up to her extending his hand.

"Hello, Carly...or are you going by 'Caroline' these days?"

"Lucky Spencer...well, well." Carly finally put two and two together. Realizing first that Emily had said she was dating Luke Spencer's son, then looking into his eyes...seeing the same thing that scared her about Luke - the hidden emotions behind the smile, the smoldering emotions in his eyes.

Lucky spoke up. "Hi, cousin...nice to finally meet you. And honestly, I don't...I really don't know what to call you. I wasn't trying to be a comedian."

Carly gives him a half-smile. "Well, it's Carly...Carly Roberts." Turning the cards on Lucky, she asks. "And should I call you Lucky... or is it Lucas Lorenzo Spencer, Jr.?" She caught the look on Lucky's face. "I guess it's Lucky then, huh?"

Lucky grins at her. "Tóuche."

Carly walks over and stands next to Emily and the baby. Smiling at her baby, she turned back to Lucky. "He seemed to like you." She looks closely at her cousin. "I guess you remind him of Jason or something...I don't know." She suddenly got the urge to reach out and tousle his hair, or kiss his cheek. The fact that he was her 1st cousin, and she never really laid eyes on him made her feel even more alone.

"Um, Emily, will you be okay with him down here...you two, I'll be right back. I have something to do upstairs."

Emily notices Carly's nervousness. "Sure, Carly, we'll be fine."

Carly looks back to Lucky. "Nice to meet you, Lucky."

Lucky looks up at her, "Nice to meet you, too...cousin."

She couldn't help but shudder as she looked into the face of the exact replica of 'Uncle Luke'. She turned and practically ran upstairs.

Emily whispers to Lucky as soon as Carly was out of earshot. "I think she may actually like you."

Lucky tried to hide his pleasure in that comment. He sits down next to Emily. "Well, wait till she gets to know me, she'll know better then." He smiles at Emily and he notices that dreamy look in her eyes again. "Why are you staring at me like that, Emily?"

Emily slides over to him, putting her arm around his shoulder. "I was just imagining you with a son...you would make a great Dad, too."

He turns to her. "You really think so?" She shakes her head yes. He leans in and kisses her softly. "Thanks."

She smiles at him. "Thanks for what?"

"For always saying nice things to me...it makes me feel good." He looks down at Michael, who is starting to squirm. "I think he's getting tired of lying there. Maybe he's hungry...you wanna give him a burger or something?

"Silly." Emily shakes her head at him, smiling. "I think he may need changing..."

Lucky gets up and sits further away on the arm of the sofa. "Whoa...that's your territory, don't look at me!" Just then, Carly comes back down the stairs, Lucky turns to face her. There's an eerie silence between them as they just stare at each other.

Lucky looked at Carly, not knowing why he was feeling so, so...

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" It came out before he had a chance to think.

Carly looked at him. "Why didn't I ever tell you...that I was your cousin?"

Lucky shook his head. "Yeah, when you first came to town. You had to know you had a cousin?"

Carly looked at him sincerely. "Well, I guess I didn't look you up because...well, then the secret would have been out and I couldn't have been as horrible and manipulative as I wanted to be if my mother's nephew knew the deal, huh?" Carly laughs, then realizes that Lucky isn't.

"You...you mean, you didn't know about me, Lucky?" Lucky looked at her confused. "But, I thought Luke would have told you about me..."

"No, he didn't. I guess that was just one of his secrets." Lucky interrupted. "I had no idea you existed until about a month ago."

"You found out when Bobbie found out, huh?" Carly asked.

Lucky nodded. "Yeah, that's about right."

Carly looks at him, then says regretfully, "I'm sorry, Lucky."

Lucky sits there, staring at her. He knows, if no one does, that people do stupid things for stupid reasons. Himself, for starters. He had almost lost Emily for good by making her think his mother was dead. He can barely stand in the same room with his half-brother because of some Cassadine/Spencer on-going duel. His mother's in Switzerland right now, halfway across the world, for a stupid reason. His Dad is back and forth, leaving Lucky in the lurch...for more stupid reasons. He was so tired of everyone and everybody doing stupid things for stupid reasons, he was just so...so tired. In spite of himself, he felt very sad for some reason. Maybe because he realized, besides Emily, just how alone he really was.

He found himself fighting the urge to go over to Carol...Carly and hug her. 'That's not the Spencer way' he told himself as he stood there, fighting the growing urge. Then he realized that, regardless of what went down with Carly and Aunt Bobbie, it had nothing to do with him. Why should he have to suffer not knowing yet another relative because of other people's screw-ups in life? But he sat there, pretending to not feel anything at all. That was the best way to handle situations like this...so he was taught...

Carly stood there, looking at this little whips of a boy and wondered why she never thought to seek him out, to find out about him. She had never thought about him as a cousin before, but just as Luke Spencer's son. He looked so cute, and vulnerable and lost at that moment that Carly didn't realize what she was doing before she walked over to Lucky and pulled him to her in a hug.

She was even more shocked to feel his arms tightening around her waist. Carly held on to Lucky tightly. "I'm sorry, Lucky, I really am. Please, let's not let what's happened between me and Bobbie come between us. Hey, you think we can try to maybe be family...maybe even a little bit?" Tears were standing in Carly's eyes now as she realized this was the closest she's been to any family blood...ever.

"It's worth a shot, I guess..." Lucky buries his face against her shoulder. It felt good to actually find family and not hate their guts. He hoped she wouldn't break the embrace, for some reason it felt protecting...

He had no worry, for Carly didn't want to let go either, of the only strand of hope of one day having a real family. Lucky tightened his embrace and they just stood there, holding each other. Lucky realized that the word 'family' was becoming more and more distant to him. He thought of the fact that Carly, if Bobbie had kept her, could've grown up with him. They could've been best of friends, seeing how close Bobbie and Luke...well, used to be. Even though he and his family were on the run most of his life, she would've been right here, waiting for them when they returned. His mom probably would've liked her, Laura liked everybody.

Carly raised her hand and began stroking Lucky's hair, as if he were a small child. For some reason, this made Lucky want to cry. It reminded him of his mother...when she was ever there. As he closed his eyes, he let the tears flow, hating himself for being so emotional lately.

Carly noticed the soft sobs that shook Lucky and the tears fell from her eyes as well. She continued stroking his hair, rubbing his back with her other hand. "Shhh," she said as she realized she was gently rocking him. She bent down and kissed the top of his head, realizing that regardless of how she felt about her own mother or this boy's father, Lucky was just a little boy, regardless of how tough he tried to come off.

Emily sat there, she herself having to fight back the tears. She knew how important blood relatives were...especially when she had none around. Lucky nor Carly noticed Emily slipping out, taking Michael upstairs.

She left them to figure out where they would go from here, now that they had found each other.

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

Alexis could not believe Ned had talked her into this.

They sat in the metal seats, hands on the cold metal bar in front of them. Ned turned to look at Alexis. He smiled as he saw the raw fear in her eyes.

He leans over to Alexis. "How are you feeling right now?"

Alexis surveyed her surroundings, then back at Ned. "I'm feeling the intense desire to flee for my life." Just then, the big, metal bar came down over their heads and locked with a loud click. Alexis felt that click may as well have been the closing of a gas chamber.

Suddenly, fear gripped her as never before. Alexis turned to Ned. "Ned, maybe I shouldn't be doing this...maybe I'm..."

"Scared." Ned laughed at the terror on Alexis' face. She was already turning pale and the ride hadn't even taken off yet.

Alexis was fighting the panic attack that was forcing it's way up her throat. "Ned, get me off this thing right now...I don't know how I allowed you to convince me to let you even bring me to Brooklyn." Alexis shook the thick metal bar, trying to see if there was at least one star shining down in her favor that could get her out of this at the last minute.

Ned was trying to keep from cracking up. "Alexis, honey...it's going to be okay. The Cyclone is one of the oldest rides in Coney Island..."

"Oh, thanks Ned. I guess I can just kick back and enjoy the ride...now that I know the tracks are over 300 years old!" Alexis turns to look for the conductor of the ride. She spots him. "Excuse me, sir...but could you do me a little favor? I need to get out of this ride, so would you be so kind enough to let me out of this monstrosity?"

The conductor looked at Ned sitting behind Alexis' back. Ned was shaking his head no, letting the conductor know she was only scared. The conductor looked down at Alexis. "I'm sorry, Miss, but the ride is already locked down, I'm afraid you're in for the long haul. Enjoy the ride..." He walked off, mimicking an evil laugh from a horror show.

Alexis' face contorted with fear. "You maniac, I'll have you fired...Oh no..." Alexis' tirade was cut short. As the roller coster started to move, Alexis let the panic attack ride the wave. "Ned, get me off of this ride, stop this...you're a powerful man, make them stop this ride!"

Ned puts his arm around Alexis. "You've really were deprived as a child too, huh?" He holds her extremely close. "I've got you, honey...you're safe with me. Just hold on real tight and enjoy the ride." He kisses her cheek, then smiles at her.

For a few moments, Alexis allowed herself to be sucked in by his charm. She actually felt calmer as Ned wrapped his arms around her. She hadn't realized they were about 50 feet in the air. She was grinning back at him and was about to make a comment when the breath was ripped from her throat as she was suddenly plunged into a 70 foot drop

~~~~~~~~~~

Nikolas comes downstairs to the sitting room. He sees his Uncle seated at the table, looking off into space. Nikolas hated when his Uncle was this way, it made his Uncle evil and moody...well, considerably more evil and moody. He was about to sneak back upstairs when Stefan came out of his stupor and noticed him on the stairs.

"Well, hello Nikolas." Stefan said, half-heartedly. "Were you coming to join me?"

Nikolas figured the gig was up. He came down the stairs and took a seat across from Stefan. He eyed the chessboard. "Care for a game?"

Stefan waved his hand. "No thank you, Nikolas. I don't feel much like chess."

"Uncle, you haven't felt like much of anything lately." Nikolas told him. He chose his next words carefully. "Why don't you just go after her, and tell her..."

"I will not chase down anyone, do you understand, Nikolas? Katherine is the one who left. I will not be the one who is roaming around Port Charles looking like a puppy who's lost his favorite toy."

Nikolas rolled his eyes. "No, you'll just mope around here looking like a 'lost puppy'..."

"I am doing no such thing." Stefan interjected.

Nikolas shrugs. "Whatever. Uh, I'm going out for awhile."

Stefan looked displeased. "Undoubtedly going to meet that Webber girl?" Nikolas nods. Stefan continued. "I hope that I can safely assume that this...this 'relationship' you have with this young lady is just a momentary distraction. You aren't really serious about this, are you?"

"Have you lost your mind, Uncle?" Stefan eyed Nikolas, but Nikolas continued. "No disrespect, Uncle, but I'm not sure you're the one to be the critic on relationships, seeing that you can't stay in one as long as...a fish can live out of water..."

"That's enough! I will not have you disrespect me in this manner!" Stefan raised his voice at Nikolas. "I will not tolerate your ill-mannered behavior, Nikolas."

Nikolas defended himself. "And I won't have you disrespecting the woman I love!"

"Love! What do you know about 'love', Nikolas?"

Nikolas, angry now. "Well, what ever little I know, I can assure you, I didn't learn it from the Cassadines! Good evening, Uncle." Nikolas storms out of the room.

Stefan sat there, feeling quite the fool. There was no need for him to take his frustrations out on Nikolas. After all, Nikolas was right...Stefan could not hold on to a real relationship.

Stefan sat there, realizing that he was miserably and lonely.

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

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