Where Will All Come Home?

Chapter 15

Laura Cassadine rushed down the stairs at Wyndemere with Sergei bundled up in her arms. She and Stefan had distracted each other in the pleasantest of ways that morning. As a result Stefan had skipped breakfast for an early meeting, and sent the launch back for her and the children. Now she in turn was rushing to get to work. Lesley Lu waited impatiently by the front door, hopping first on one foot, then the other.

"So," Lulu began as if continuing a previous conversation, "When my friend, Mr. Stu comes and asks for help, will you help him?"

"I'd be glad to help your friend, if I can. But with what?"

"Whatever it is that's bothering him. Something sad. Sad business brought him here. He told me so, and whatever brought him back again makes him sad, too."

"You met this man at your Daddy's bar, hmm?" Laura shifted Sergei from her right arm to her left to adjust Lulu's scarf and hat.

"Yes. You saw him before. You made him a special at Kelly's on Sunday."

Laura smiled. "I must have made close to fifty specials that day. That doesn't help me place him."

Lesley Lu waved her arms impatiently. "I told you about him. In the kitchen. He was sad. He didn't plan to come back. His family were PILGRIMS!"

"Okay. If he comes, I'll try to help him. But, Lulu, what's his name? How will I know him?"

"I don't know for sure. We don't ask for last names. Daddy says people don't come to bars to tell you that stuff . He says that people come to bars to forget about their names and addresses." She paused momentarily. "I guess that's why Daddy sends so many of them home in taxis. They do forget. But how do the taxi drivers know where to take them?"

Laura made a mental note to chat with Luke about Lulu and the bar, picked up Sergei's bag and opened the door.

"Ready?" she asked, throwing a blanket over the baby's head.

Lulu didn't budge. "I think he is friends with the professors who play at the bar every week. He has a big smile. A nice one." Lulu was determined to get her mother's promise.

"Okay. If a sad, smiling man accompanied by a jazz band asks me for help, I'll do my best." Laura answered facetiously. She bent down and kissed Lulu's cheek. "I promise," she added more seriously.

"Thank you, Mommy," sighed Lulu. She smiled with satisfaction as she closed the door behind her mother and baby brother. She scurried ahead of them down the walk, calling out her 'good mornings' first to the gardeners, then the workmen near the stables and finally to Wenders, who waited at the dock.

__ __ __
Across town, Lulu's friend Stu, was busy considering the plans which he had made to help himself. Only a few weeks ago, his life had consisted of little more than well-regulated, but somewhat dull routine. Who would have thought that his wife's sudden death could have plunged him into the odd circumstances in which he now found himself?

Following her previous requests to the letter, he had arranged for cremation. After a simple family memorial service in Cambridge, he had travelled alone to Port Charles, the town where they had met and married years before. She had asked that her ashes be dispersed in the Port Charles River, and he honored that wish.

Theo Leonidas and Dom Millegras, old friends from his university days, had insisted that he stay with them while in town, and he had gratefully accepted their offer. The night that he had gone to Luke's to meet them for dinner had been the night it all began. It seemed innocent enough. First he met Luke, then little Lulu, her stepfather, and finally the remarkable Helena Cassadine. He had been grateful for the diversion of their company. Nothing more.

The following Sunday, he had walked along the Port Charles River, saying his last farewell to his wife of many years. Stopping in at Kelly's on impulse, he had run into Lulu and her father again. His recognition of the Cassadine boy had brought matters to a head. Luke's words still echoed in his mind 'The Cassadines like poison.'

Returning home he had asked his brother David, a surgeon, to review Florence's autopsy results. David had reported that there were no irregularities, but sent the report for a second opinion to a friend who was a forensic pathologist. Nothing appeared out of order to either of them. David had laughed at his experiences in Port Charles, especially when he recounted his conversations with the little girl and the woman in the bar. "Be grateful for the distraction, and move on," his brother advised. His opinion of Luke Spencer had been devastatingly simple. "A crackpot. Be sure he doesn't have your address."

His brother had not laughed however, when Stu had discussed something else that he had been thinking of. He recalled the conversation.

"I feel in some ways as if Florence's last request - to be cremated - has freed me to do something I've thought of for many years," he had said.

"What's that?" David was comfortably ensconced in his leather chair near the fireplace in his study.

"You remember the infant who died?"

David snorted. "As if Florence had ever let you or any of us forget! Of course, I remember."

"Since Florence asked to be cremated, not to be buried with the family here..." Gordon had paced back and forth in front of the fireplace trying to find the words to explain himself.

"I want to know if you and Miriam will object if I try to have the child's body moved here. She was my only child. I have not seen the grave in many years, but it haunts me still. So small. And alone in a cemetery far away." He paused.

"Not really alone. Rows of unwanted children's graves from that atrocious clinic for unwed mothers. Shunted off to a side. Unclaimed. Unacknowledged."

David eyed him thoughtfully. "You want to bury her with the family?"

"Yes. I may be old and foolish to think that it matters at this late date, but she was not unwanted. God help me, I wanted that child. And her mother."

David sprang to his feet and embraced him. "Then I think that it's time we brought her home, don't you?" had been his gentle response.

Stu's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of the phone. He let the answering machine handle the message. Theo had told him that Luke Spencer had been making inquiries. Theo and Dom had been careful not to divulge any information, but if Spencer were the crackpot his brother thought, best to minimize contact. He had given him the autopsy report in the hopes that it would keep him from pursuing the matter of murder any further.

When he heard the voice leaving the message, he quickly picked up the phone.

" Yes, I'm here. What is it?"

"I have a very good lead here in Port Charles. I will pursue the matter further today. We've gotten an address for one former employee, who moved out of state, but we'll postpone following up that lead until after I've interviewed our subject today."

"Very well. When can I expect the background checks I requested?"

"Today, sir. A courier will bring them to you this afternoon. I will report back myself after I've completed the interview."

"Good. I appreciate both your speed and discretion. Thank you." Stu hung up the phone and dialed another number.

"David, we're making progress I think. No, not yet. We know that the body was moved, but we don't know exactly where or why. Perhaps re-interred with her mother's family."

He listened for a moment. "No. Not available. But what's really peculiar is that my little friend, Lulu.... Yes, I spoke to her father last night. No, he seems perfectly rational. He doesn't foam at the mouth. Calm down.

"I think that you are overwrought and that I am the calm one. Listen, David. Lulu told me where to find her. Perhaps I should have hired her instead of private detectives.

"No, I'm perfectly serious. Admittedly even Lulu seems to have some reservations about her father. If I thought he were dangerous....

"I am being careful. I do not need you to come here and hold my hand. I'm sure there are people in Cambridge who need big chunks removed today. Stay there and practice your craft. Slice. Dice. Leave me alone."

He listened again and laughed. "No, I knew this was inevitable. Call the office for travel times. I'll send the plane back to pick you up. I know. See you this afternoon."

"Yes, goodbye." He hung up the phone and looked around his friends' tidy home. Dom and Theo were out of town, and he was on his own. There was nothing to do now, but wait.

__ __ __

At just past two o'clock that afternoon, Laura heard a discreet knock at her office door. She regretfully stuffed a pile of folders requiring her attention into an open desk drawer, and called, "Come in."

She rose from her chair as Amy entered, accompanied by a tall, lean stranger with graying hair and dark blue eyes.

"Mr. Graham, I'd like to introduce you to my sister, Laura Cassadine," Amy began. "And, Laura, this is Samuel Graham, the gentleman I told you about on the phone last night."

Laura took her vistor's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she smiled. "Won't you sit down?" She gestured toward a chair.

As the three of them settled themselves around the low table she usually used for conferences with her teenaged clients, Laura found herself impulsively adding, "Amy called me last night, and I have to admit that we're curious as to the reason you asked for an appointment."

Mr. Graham smiled briefly then pulled an official looking folder of some sort from his briefcase. "I am with the State of New York's auditing division which licenses cemeteries. In a random search of records at a facility in Rochester we found what appears to be an irregularity in transferring a body from their facility to Memory Grove Cemetery outside Port Charles."

"Our family members are buried at Memory Grove!" Amy shrieked. "You mean, like Grandma may not be Grandma at all? A mistake like that?"

"Something on that order I fear." Mr. Graham looked at Amy over the top of his reading glasses. "Some years ago an infant's body...." he consulted his folder "was transferred from Rochester to Memory Grove, but Memory Grove has no record of receiving it."

"What does that have to do with us?" Laura asked. "We aren't missing any bodies, that I know of." She looked at Amy, who shrugged.

"The only transfer that Memory Grove recorded for that date was a transfer made to a lot owned by the Vining family." He handed Amy a set of documents. Are you in fact members of the family named? I realize that these events occurred many years ago. The two of you would have been mere children." He shrugged and smiled deprecatingly, " but I am required by law to trace any irregularities revealed in one of our audits."

Amy frowned, then exclaimed, "Oh, Laura! It's the baby's body. Lesley gave Mom and Dad permission to bury it with Grandma and Grandpa. Remember?"

She handed the documents to Laura, who examined them quietly for a few moments before looking up.

"Everything appears to be in order here," she told the gentleman. "This infant was originally misidentified as the baby of Lesley Williams and buried in Rochester. Some years later it was discovered that there had been a ...." she hesitated, "a mistake of some sort, and that she was in fact the child of Barbara Vining. The baby's body was moved here to the Vining family's cemetery lots. I'm happy to inform you that no errors were made in this case." She nodded, handed the documents back to Mr. Graham and stood up.

Mr. Graham thoughtfully replaced the documents in his briefcase. "May I ask what happened to the other infant's body? Where is it interred? I would like to include as much information as possible in my report."

"The other infant didn't die." Laura made an attempt to speak lightly. "She went home from the clinic where she was born with the Vinings and grew up as Laura Vining."

The visitor seemed surprised. "The other child wasn't dead?"

"No, as you see," Laura smiled a little tearily, "I'm very much here. It was a pleasure to meet you today, Mr. Graham." She took his hand again briefly. "If you'll excuse me, something came up unexpectedly today, and I have another rather pressing appointment."

Laura quickly exited the room, as Amy watched sympathetically.

"I am quite sorry," the stranger gestured helplessly. "I appear to have brought up a painful subject for you and your sister."

"Oh, that's okay," Amy answered kindly. "You were just doing your job. Laura'll be okay. You brought up some old memories."

"May I at least offer you a cup of coffee to repay you for your trouble?"

"Sure," said Amy. "I had arranged for half an hour off, and I've got some time. I'll show you the way to the cafeteria."

"Very kind of you, I'm sure," Mr. Graham responded. He picked up his briefcase, stood up, and quickly walked across the room to hold the door open for Amy.

As they went down the hall, Amy remarked, "I couldn't help but notice that you aren't wearing a wedding ring."


__ __ __

Stu looked at his brother and said "Here goes." He opened the thick manila envelope delivered by courier. The detective recommended to him had been thorough, quick and discrete. It was strange to realize that discretion hardly mattered. After so many years it was remarkable. Almost impossible to grasp.

He shook his head and began reading. He didn't have time to contemplate his life as an elderly single person. He had as best as he could tell, a whole plateful of new and presumably senseless problems.

The first report dealt with the life and times of one Lucas Lorenzo Spencer. Apparently he had begun acquiring a record for petty thievery and pimping at a phenomonally early age. Stu scratched his head, and thought about his little friend. What a father she had been blessed with! No time for emotion though.

He read on. There were huge gaps of time when Spencer's path simply couldn't be traced. He had been in Port Charles for a number of years now with frequent, but ill-documented trips out of the country. Where he went and why were unexplained. A long history of connections to organized crime. Divorced from Laura Spencer. Father of Lucky and little Lulu, he lived, and this was the real shocker, with the sister of Stefan Cassadine.

Again, he shook his head. Clearly no love lost between those two men. And reading Spencer's record he could understand Cassadine's overt dislike.

He handed that folder to his silent brother and picked up the next one labeled 'Stefan Cassadine.' There was much to displease him here also. The Cassadine reputation for ruthlessness in business was clearly not unfounded. The man controlled a global conglomerate which was not completely answerable to any one government entity. The power he wielded was disturbing.

Stu frowned and passed that report on to David. The next in the series dealt with Lesley Webber. This was the one he most wanted to review. He scanned it rapidly. One child: Laura Webber. Grandchildren. A questionable medical history. Two marriages. Two divorces. A disappearance that lasted thirteen years? Surely not. He re-read that paragraph. She had lived in hiding, severely injured. And the last item: reportedly hidden from her daughter and family by Stefan Cassadine. This was monstrous! How could any human abuse Lesley so?

He stood up and paced around the room, too discomfited by his reading to continue. He walked back into the silent kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee. He was rooting around in the cabinets hoping for canned milk when he heard a knock.

"Is Graham here?" he called.

"Yes. We're coming, I think. Oh, here you are!" David exclaimed as the two men rounded an unfamiliar corner and entered the airy kitchen.

"Coffee?" asked Stu.

David nodded yes, but the visitor declined.

"No thanks, sir. I'm awash in bad coffee." Graham held both palms out as if pushing the spectre of bad coffee away. "I have had a long, instructive chat with a Miss Amy Vining however."

"Good!" Stu gestured to the table. "Sit down and tell me what you've discovered."

"Before he embarks on solving this mystery," David said, "solve one for me." He picked up a note from Theo marked 'Stu' on the table, "Why do people here call you by this absurd nickname?"

Stu smiled as he told his younger brother the old story. "When I came here as a young man many years ago our department chairman was powerful, autocratic and generally impossible. He found my given name to be offensive since it was also his. At our first faculty meeting, he simply announced to everyone present that I would be called Stuart. And so it was."

"I would never have tolerated it," David observed.

"That's because you are a surgeon. Surgeons are possibly the most spoiled prima donnas on the face of our planet." Stu grinned, then returned to the matter at hand.

"But now, Graham, what did you find out from Miss Vining? Was she a member of the family in question?"

Graham drew a notebook from his breast pocket and referred to it before he began. "It was the correct family. But Miss Vining and her sister had an odd story to tell. Mostly Miss Vining. She is the talkative one."

"And...?"

"The body was that of an infant who died at birth. The child was misidentified as the child of Lesley Williams and buried in Rochester. Some years later, the family discovered that the dead child was, in fact, the Vinings' daughter, and they had her body moved somehow to the family cemetery."

"And the other infant? Where was that body interred?" Stu stirred his coffee absentmindedly, watching the detective intently. "The other infant is the one I'm interested in. That one...." he stopped, and went on apologetically, "was mine, you see."

Graham blanched.

"I'm sorry to shock you. It's an old secret. One that has caused me distress for many years. Most of my family has passed away. There is no one left who is easily shocked. I realized that I was finally free to do what I've always wanted to do. Bring my only child home to rest with her own family...." He broke off, then continued.

"I promised me late wife not to tell. It seemed the least that I could do. She was terribly damaged by the knowledge that I had loved another woman, one of my students at that. It was such a .... rebuke to her, in her own mind, since she could not bear children."

"Florence had bipolar disorder. Everything was about her needs for most of your adult life!" David answered angrily. "You didn't make her ill. No one could have been a more patient or loving husband to her."

"Thank you. Excuse me, but I felt that I owed you a bit of an explanation, Graham. Was the other child then buried with the Williams family?"

David got up and came around the table to his brother's side. He reached out and casually took his brother's arm. Too casually, Stu thought in suprise.

"You're taking my pulse. Why?" he asked.

"I'm a physician. It's second nature. You've been under a lot of stress, old fellow."

He paused another moment. "Steady as a rock. You'll outlive us all." David nodded at the detective.

Graham began slowly. "I told you that I met Miss Vining and her sister. The sister left rather abruptly after confirming that the infant had been incorrectly identified. Our conversation seemed to distress her. Amy Vining explained. The other child didn't die. She grew up in the Vining home, and was later the object of a terrific custody dispute I believe."

Stu and David exchanged disbelieving glances.

"When Lesley Williams discovered that her daughter was not dead, but had been exchanged with a dead infant and sent home with another family....." He stopped and considered his next words. "I saw her, sir. I gave you background information on her, but I didn't go back far enough. I pulled her birth certificate. It said Webber."

He stopped. "I need to do some additional research on her childhood. The birth certificate could have been amended if she was adopted. She is definitely Lesley Williams Webber's only daughter though. Her name is Laura Cassadine. "

"Not kidnapped, but switched," Stu said slowly.

"You already knew?" David asked, his hand still resting carefully on his brother's wrist.

"Lulu told me. By a mean grandpa and a nurse. I thought the child was fanciful."

Graham consulted his notes again. "Yes, that's the first part of the story according to Miss Vining. But who is Lulu, sir? You've lost me."

Stu looked at the detective. He spoke as if he wondered at his own words. "I believe that she's my granddaughter."

__ __ __

Stefan laid his glasses on his desk, and rubbed his eyes. He had finished reviewing monthly reports from each division of the hospital. Most were in order, but there were accounting discrepancies in two departments which required attention. He was e-mailing the departments concerned with questions when the Laura slipped in the door.

"One moment," he smiled. He pushed 'send' while she sat down near his desk, curling one foot up underneath her in the chair. She leaned sideways and propped her left elbow on the arm rest.

Stefan completed his second message and looked up. Laura stared toward the bookcase on the opposite wall, but he could see that her thoughts were miles away. He got up and quietly came around the desk, and cupped her face in his hand.

"How bad was it?" he asked.

"I don't know. I told Luke that it would be embarrassing. It was." She turned to look up into his face. I had to meet Lulu at school. They let me sit through most of the interview with the child welfare people, but they insisted that she also be interviewed alone by a social worker."

Stefan stroked his chin."How did she respond to the experience?"

"She was so puzzled. But she's so brave." Laura swiped at her eyes.

Stefan conjured a handkerchief from some secret pocket and gently wiped her face.

Laura placed her hands on his as he finished, and took a deep breath. "And when they separated us, the other social worker asked me very detailed questions about Luke's attitudes toward women. She wanted to know if had verbally or physically abused me, if I were physically afraid of him. Lots and lots of questions."

" I must have looked as confused as Lulu. I didn't know what to say."

She looked up at a silent Stefan. "You don't seem at all surprised. Do you know something that I don't ?"

"Perhaps. The night we found Lesley Lu at Barbara's house, Carly accused Luke of having told her that 'all Spencer women were whores' at her engagement party. The one for her first marriage." he added.

"That would have been before our divorce. He must have been so angry with me."

Stefan knelt on the floor in front of her. "Whatever Luke said does not reflect on you. You cannot take responsibility for his words and actions," he whispered, nuzzling her head which rested on his shoulder.

"I can't believe that he would ever say that to Lulu. He only said that to Carly, because she caused Bobbie so much grief, and because he was mad at me. He wouldn't say that to Lulu. He wouldn't."

"You are more familiar with him than I. I will accept your word for it. Have they interviewed Luke?"

Laura relaxed against a little. "I don't think so. They'll do a home visit and talk to him and Alexis separately also. But truthfully, they will only caution him unless he totally blows his top. They deal with such unspeakable situations. Following up on cases of suspected emotional abuse is a luxury their department seldom enjoys. This case will simply be marked as ' investigated' and filed."

Stefan stood up and pulled Laura to her feet. "Where is Lesley Lu now?" he asked.

"I dropped her off at Brownie meeting. I wanted to get her back to her regular routine as quickly as possible."

"A good idea. Why don't we pick up Sergei, and then all three of us will pick up Lesley Lu from her meeting?"

"Stefan, do you think that my father, if I'd known him, I mean.... Would he have been ashamed of me or think that I was a...." She gulped.

He quickly covered her lips with his fingers. "Do not complete that thought. Dear God, whatever made you think of such a thing?" he exclaimed.

"I don't know," she answered sheepishly. "Maybe the cemetery man."

"What man?"

"An auditor. He was asking questions about the baby's grave."

"What baby? The Vining's baby?"

Laura nodded.

Stefan grasped her shoulders and turned her toward him. "Why, after all this time would anyone make inquiries?"

"I don't know. The state did a random audit and couldn't account for the cemetery's movement of the body." She frowned. "He asked where the other baby was buried. Why did he think that there were two?"

Stefan frowned and shrugged. "Who knows? Is this what brought up thoughts of your biological father?"

"I guess so. Poor baby. I even took her name you know. Laura should have been her name, not mine."

"It is a beautiful name and suits you well. But you would have been beautiful in any case."

"Thank you. She smiled wearily and leaned in for a kiss. It's been such a long day," .

"A pity," Stefan said shortly. "It began so well."

"We can pick up the children, go home and end it well," said Laura, regaining a spark of enthusiasm in her eyes.

"Indeed we can." Her husband smiled and opened the door for her. His eyes narrowed thoughtfully as he locked his office door. Everything would end well. He would see to it himself.

Where Will All Come Home?

Chapter 16

It was quite late before Stefan parked his car on a quiet street near the university campus. He checked the address and noted the presence of two rental cars in the drive. Lights burned in the front of the house. He picked up his briefcase, got out of the car, walked to the front door and knocked.

."Yes?" A slender blue-eyed man opened the door a crack.

"Dr. Grey, I believe." Stefan nodded a greeting. "My name is Cassadine. I believe that your brother and I have mutual interests."

Stu looked out over his brother's shoulder. "Let him in David. I was rather hoping Mr. Cassadine would drop by tonight."

A wary David opened the door and allowed Stefan to enter.

"I have a little time to spare, Mr. Cassadine," Stu said. "I'm flying out early in the morning. I have a pressing appointment in Memphis tomorrow morning. A duck parade."



**********************************************************************************


At seven A.M. Luke sat up abruptly in bed. "I was thinking...." he began.

Alexis opened her eyes and closed them again. "Don't. Don't think. It's too early."

"Let's put a little effort into the holidays this year," he continued. "Spruce the joint up a little. Ya know?"

Alexis immediately pulled a pillow over her head. He heard a faint chant begin. "Coffee. Must have coffee. Coffee..."

He leapt out of bed and headed for the kitchen, calling out over his shoulder "Have a real Thanksgiving dinner. Ya think we still have time to order one from that fancy joint you like?"

Alexis took the pillow off her face, and sat up. The room swam in dizzy circles, and she fell back with a low groan. She pressed her fingers into her temples and lay still.

The clattering in the kitchen accelerated and with it the pounding in her head.

The welcome aroma of coffee wafted into the room.

"At last, a reason to live." Alexis muttered.

Unfortunately her euphoria was short-lived. Another more powerful odor muscled its way into the room, brutally assaulting her senses.

"God, no. Luke, no." Not Polska Kiehlbasa and onions for breakfast. Not today."

Alexis rolled desperately toward the edge of the bed, head pounding and stomach churning.

She ran for the bathroom and almost made it.

*****************************************************************************

Lesley Webber left her hotel room to catch the elevator downstairs. Today was her last day at the medical conference in Memphis. She checked her watch, and smiled briefly. Lulu had made her promise not to miss the duck parade on her last day. She had purchased photos of the famous ducks for the children and looked forward to sharing them with Lulu.

She patted her foot impatiently as she waited. "Maybe I shouldn't have done this Stefan's way," she muttered to herself. "I don't know if I can stand waiting much longer. I'm usually more direct."

She paced up and down in front of the elevator bank. It had seemed like a good idea to attempt to slowly lure Gordon to Port Charles. He was supposed to meet Nikolas first. Nik had been instructed to meet the Grey family ostensibly for business purposes, and to mention his own family and Port Charles as his home. Then they had mailed the fake fund-raising letter to Gordon, scheduling it to arrive the same week he met Nikolas. They had planned to follow it up with a personal phone call from Stefan inviting him to tour the hospital.

The long awaited elevator arrived. She walked in and punched the button for the lobby. Leaning against the wall, she remembered her terror when Nikolas had reported Florence Grey's death. She and Stefan had had a bad couple of days wondering if the woman had somehow realized who Nikolas was and died of shock.

She shook her head as the elevator lurched to a stop in the lobby. Nikolas had been through enough trauma. The woman's death, as it turned out, had occurred as a result of her own well documented medical problems.

Lesley made her way through the crowd to find a good vantage point near the red carpet. She would be patient. Stefan felt that Laura should be told the truth as gradually as possible. There was no point in telling Laura and the children that Gordon was alive if he wanted nothing to do with them. So the first step was to lure him to Port Charles.

Laura, Nikolas and Lucky in particular, had suffered enough trauma. Another lie. Another rejection. Stefan wanted to tell Laura the truth, but he was terrified of the consequences. What if Gordon were uninterested? But if Gordon wanted to become a part of their lives.... She sighed. That would be a different story. She wondered again how she could ever explain herself to him. To Laura.

She didn't have to wonder long.

"Good morning, Lesley."

That voice.

The hair stood up on the back of her neck. Lesley pivoted.

Slender, blue-eyed. Ramrod straight even in old age.

"We have a great many things to discuss, don't we?"

That face.

"Laura has your eyes." she said.

"I know," he replied, and she began to cry.


**********************************************************************************


Later, Luke lounged uncomfortably in a waiting area at the hospital while Alexis was examined by a doctor.

"Hey," Bobbie crossed the room to give Luke a quick hug.

Luke grumbled a hello, but his sister's quick eyes had detected the brief look of pleasure on his face when he spotted her.

Bobbie voiced her concern. "How's Alexis? Is she really sick?"

"I dunno. She thinks it's just a stomach virus, but she hasn't been okay in weeks."

Crushing a styrofoam coffee cup in his hand, Luke tossed it with sudden violence toward a nearby trash can. "Since about the time Lulu ran off. Since she began hanging out with her blood-sucking brother again...."

Bobbie leaned forward, and touched his hand. "Have Alexis and Stefan reconciled, Luke? I'd begun to think that wasn't ever going to happen."

Luke ruffled his hair and grimaced. "Well, Barbara Jean, they say bad things always happen to good people."

Bobbie's face expressed her disagreement. "Luke, when you and I are on the outs, there's a huge hole in my life. It's the same for Stefan and Alexis."

Luke rolled his eyes and snorted.

Bobbie remained adamant. "They share a lifetime of memories. Like we do."

Luke leaned toward her and rejoined. "Some memories shouldn't be raked up. Some family ties should be broken."

His sister shook her head. "That's not your decision to make."

"All I can tell you is that Alexis has been having nightmares ever since Stefan began cozying up to her. The guy's poison. Why can't women see it? It's like you're all blinded by his pretty face or money or somethin'."

Bobbie answered wryly. "I recovered, Luke. But what reason do you have to believe that Stefan is responsible for Alexis's nightmares? How does she explain them?"

"She doesn't. She doesn't explain them."

He stood up and paced the floor.

"It's like deja vu. Laura, she used to have these gut-wrenchin' awful nightmares. I always thought she was holdin' back. In my gut, I knew there was more."

He turned and looked at his sister, eyes somber. "Am I doomed to repeat that scene? Because I don't think I can live through it again, Barbara."

"Then, you're going to have to ask her about it, aren't you?"

"Yeah." He exhaled loudly. "Yeah. Looks like I will."

"And Luke," Bobbie hesitated. "She needs to know that you're in for the long haul. If you want her to tell you whatever it is...."

Luke smiled bleakly. "I get ya, Bobbie. I have to make her believe that I'm not gonna walk away."

Bobbie nodded silently.

He threw himself back into a chair. "I have to make myself believe it too," Luke added.


**********************************************************************************


Stefan strode into his office and flipped on the light. He had a great many things to accomplish and very little time to spare.

He started when he realized someone was sitting slumped over his desk.

"Alexis?" he asked.

She sat up and he pulled a chair near her. "Why are you here?" Stefan asked as he sat down.

"They told me that I could wait here while they wrote me a couple of prescriptions, and set up a follow-up appointment."

Stefan reached out and took her hands. "Is it the nightmares or your physical condition?"

A shadow of a smile flickered across her face. "You phrase everything so delicately. You missed your calling. Your diagnosis was correct. Dr. Bernhardt agrees."

"Laura had terrible nightmares. Every time she said. I only know what they were like with Sergei. Sometimes almost real. Sometimes surreal. But always profoundly disturbing."

"In my case, too disturbing, Dr. Bernhardt says. He thinks that I should risk therapy. He can't medicate me to help me sleep."

Stefan slid his hands up her arms and gently rubbed her tense shoulder muscles. "Bernhardt is concerned about the child's well-being?"

Alexis stared into space, dry-eyed. She responded in a whisper. "A high risk pregnancy he called it. He suggested I consider termination, Stefan. Termination. Under the circumstances. My age, my nightmares. He even looked at my left hand...."

Stefan cupped her chin in one hand. "Did you agree to the procedure?"

"No." She leaned toward him, then drew back, as if steeling herself for battle. " That's why he recommended therapy. I won't give up my child. I won't let my past engulf my future. I won't."

His eyes glittered. "How can I help you?"

There was a knock at the door. "Ms. Davis?" A nervous nurse looked around the door. "Here are your prescriptions for prenatal vitamins and nausea medication. Use the nausea medication only when you absolutely must. Here's a list of therapists and an appointment card for your next visit. Call if you have any questions." She almost ran out the door.

"Apparently you have a more beneficial effect on me than on your staff," Alexis observed. "That poor kid almost tripped over her own feet running out of here."

Stefan raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "If my staff are somewhat in awe of me, I am not totally displeased. You, however, are a different matter. Anything I can do for you, I will."

"Thank you," she said simply.

Stefan touched her hair lightly. "What will you do next?"

Alexis closed her eyes for a moment and sighed. "Decide how and when to tell Luke that he's going to be a father again."

**********************************************************************************

Luke desultorily moved the rag across the bar's polished surface, then heaved it into the sink. He poured himself another drink and dug in his jacket for a cigar. It had been a helluva day and he hadn't even opened the bar for business yet.

He unwrappred his cigar and bent his face to savor the heady aroma of his favorite tobacco. Leaning against the bar he drew his his lighter from another pocket and considered the events of the day.

"Stefan Cassadine, not money, is the root of all evil." he said aloud. A roach ran past his foot. He stomped it and then ground it beneath his foot. He smiled with satisfaction. "Goodbye, Mr. Roach. If only disposing of your Cassadine relatives were that easy, I'd be a happier man."

He gulped more bourbon. "He could meet his end at a Chinese restaurant. The tragedy of it! Cooked like Stefan the frog on television." His eyes crinkled with amusement. "Flushed first, and knocked into a few walls. Then "Bye, bye, Stefan! So long!"

His glass seemed to have mysteriously emptied itself. He looked at it with surprise. "How did that happen?" Luke looked down at the smashed roach and scratched his head. "At least I know it wasn't you, buddy."

He tilted the bottle again to fill his glass and noticed that it was nearly empty. "How many have I had?" he wondered aloud. "Not too tough a question," he answered himself. "Not nearly enough." He took another drink.

Luke pushed the glass away, leaned back against the bar, and remembered his first conversation with Stefan at Wyndemere. That smug face as the jerk had posed beneath a portrait of Laura. That look of secretive, malicious amusement. The same face later, looking at him from behind bars. The same look of pitying amusement, and the words he had never forgotten. "Laura? Laura has never hated me." And again today, walking down the hall with Alexis, arm around her shoulders, all brotherly solicitude. Again.

"He knows something that I don't. Again. But why would Alexis confide in him and not me?"

He puffed on the cigar thoughtfully. "Just a stomach virus," Alexis had said. "Nothing to worry about." But he had caught the quick flicker of her eyes toward her brother, and seen his hand squeeze hers. Alexis was lying to him, and Stefan knew it.

Luke exhaled noisily and reached for an ashtray. He tapped his cigar on the edge, and tucked it back between his lips. The rest of the day hadn't gone much better. He had dropped Alexis off at her office. Then he arrived at the child welfare office only seventeen minutes late for his appointment, but dressed in last night's clothes, and today's stubble. No one there had seemed impressed.

"Bet I looked like I was coming off a three day drunk," he muttered disgustedly.

Luke leaned over the bar and propped himself on one elbow. He spoke to the roach again. "Know just how you feel, buddy. Got stomped pretty good myself today." He was so preoccupied with their mutual plight that he didn't hear Laura come in the door.

"Luke," she came closer. "Who are you talking to? Is there someone on the floor behind the bar?"

"Nah. Just a dead roach." He smiled crookedly.

"Oh, man!" Laura shook her head. "I'm glad I wanted to talk to you alone. You are so wasted."

She pointed toward his office door. "Get movin', mister. We're gonna sober you up. Nobody else is gonna see you like this."

Luke opened his mouth to respond. Laura arched her eyebrows and glared.

"Okay. Okay. Don't have a cow," he mumbled and headed for his office.

**********************************************************************************

A lot of coffee later, Luke leaned back in the chair at his desk. "A long time ago, I think it might have been this morning, I had a great idea."

Laura arched her eyebrows again. "And this great idea was getting smashed so that you could really impress the child welfare officers? Uniquely stupid, I've gotta say."

"No. No. Before I had to rush Alexis to the hospital, I was thinking that I wanted Lulu to spend Thanksgiving with us."

"Yeah, well, that's already a done deal, isn't it?" Laura mercilessly pushed another cup of coffee across the desk.

"Did I discuss it with you already?" Luke looked woozily around the room. He pretended that he didn't see the newly filled mug of coffee.

Laura picked the mug up and put it in his hand. "No, not with me. Stefan told me this afternoon that he had invited you and Alexis to Wyndemere for Thanksgiving Day and that she accepted. So you will get to spend Thanksgiving with Lulu. Lucky and Elizabeth too."

Luke closed his eyes and moaned piteously.

"One more cup and I think that you'll be ready to shave," she said firmly. "The social workers are coming here tonight to have a look at your place, and you will...." she stopped to glare at him, "charm them."

He moaned again, then opened one eye to see if it was working. It wasn't.

He sat up and began to drink the coffee.

********************************************************************************

Some time later, Luke came out front again. Laura had put a bug in Claude's ear, and the place virtually gleamed. Claude had closed off a couple of the back rooms, and sent messengers out to recommend late night visits to a few of the more interesting regulars.

Luke's head ached, but he was able to walk all the way to the bar. Once there, he gratefully sank down on a stool.

"Just take it easy, boss," Claude smiled. "I've got everything covered."

"Thanks," Luke answered. "Did Laura leave? I'm gonna have nightmares about her and gallon mugs of black coffee."

"Good," her voice said from behind him. "Maybe you'll think twice before you do this again. I've gotta go, but I wanted to ask you a question first. I think you're sober enough to answer it now."

Luke turned his head slowly and carefully in her direction "Yeah?"

"This Mr. Stu, that Lulu's been talking about. She was bugging about him this morning. What's the story? What do you know about him?"

Luke answered evasively. "Not a lot, actually. What did she tell you? Why does she think he needs help?"

"She says that he came here on sad business, left, and then came back unexpectedly because of more sad business. She thinks that he needs help."

Luke's response was drowned by a harsh peal of laughter. "Help from you? That's one of the most ludicrous ideas I've ever heard." Helena put her purse on the bar and seated herself on a stool nearby.

"What's up Helena?" Luke reached in his pocket for another cigar.

"Just trolling, dear boy. As you said I might. I had a wonderful feeling that tonight I would get lucky." She smiled and propped an elbow on the bar. "And I believe I was right."

Chapters 13-14

Chapters 17-18

Where Will All Come Home?
Index