Jax ran into the hall, clad only in his hotel bath robe. He ran down the corridors, knowing in his heart it was too late. 'They had her.' He ran back to the room. "God, what do I do now?"
He threw on the clothes he'd worn since yesterday, the clothes he'd slept in, ignoring the wrinkles they'd accumulated while laying on the bathroom floor. He hadn't yet shaved, wanting to let her have her turn in the bathroom first. He surveyed the room quickly, grabbed his passport and identification, and noticed the files were gone. He knew only one place he could go for help, the last place on earth he wanted to go.
Soon after exiting the hotel he noticed he was being followed. It took 10 minutes of running down unfamiliar alleys, jumping over fences at the top speed and setting up makeshift blockades for him to loose them. He made his way to the airport and headed back to Port Charles.
~~~
Hours Later
L & B Corporate Office"Don't you think we should have gone home and gotten some rest before we checked on business?" Chloe asked Ned smiling.
"This won't take long. We'll just get the mail that's piled up while we were gone, make sure the place is still standing and then we'll go home." He placed his arm around her waist. He ushered her in the door where they caught sight of Juan sweeping and Emily dusting. "Wow, I'm impressed," he said taking in the neat appearance of L&B right away. "I guess those wild party's I was imagining you'd throw here while we were gone weren't so wild after all." Emily looked guilty. Ned didn't know if he had been right on or is she was just teasing him.
"Actually we were surprised you didn't come home sooner." Emily said aloud.
"Why? You knew how long we'd be gone." Ned said looking perplexed.
"Yeah, but you guys are so close to Alexis." Juan said as he picked up the dust pan and looked for the nearest trash can.
"And ." Ned was starting to worry.
"They didn't call you." Emily said wondering if they should just drop it.
"Who, who should have called me? What happened?" Ned was apparently upset. Chloe was surprised by the bark in his voice.
"Well, I don't know the whole story," Juan started, "but I know she was in the hospital, they said she had interrupted a robbery at the penthouse and had gotten hit over the head or something."
Emily went on. "She has a cut on her face and something wrong with her lung." Emily noticed that he was about to erupt. "She seems okay now. I mean, she must be. She's already out of the hospital. Sonny had his guards on her, so no one could get to her and I think she must be fine cause they called us yesterday and told us they were going out of town and to hold down the fort."
"Out of town? Why would they go out of town? Why would Jax allow Sonny's guards to guard her? Why didn't they call us?"
"I guess they decided they could handle it on their own." Chloe said trying to cover up Ned's extreme concern. "You guys have done a great job. You can have the rest of the day off. Emily and Juan left looking confused. "Ned, I'm sure she's fine. I'm worried about her too, but Jax wouldn't have taken her out of town if she wasn't okay."
"I don't get it ... he went on as if he hadn't heard her. I don't understand. If she needed protection, why did he turn to Sonny's men of all people. We could have arranged for someone to watch out for her together. I don't like this Chloe, I don't like it at all. Why didn't they call us when she got hurt?"
Chloe looked away guiltily. He noticed the look. He got very angry instantly. "Don't tell me you knew about this."
"I didn't Ned, trust me, I didn't."
He cooled off right away. "I'm sorry. I'm just concerned for her."
"So am I." Chloe knew she had to tell him. "I think I know why they didn't call."
"Why?"
"It was because of me, something I did. I just couldn't face the impending shame of openly admitting to Jax and Alexis what we had done. I thought I'd make the blow a little easier to handle, so I wrote them a letter."
"You did what?" Ned said clenching his jaw trying to remain calm.
"I'm sorry Ned. I thought it would be easier."
"For who?" he said yelling "For them or you?"
"For us." Chloe said. "I did it for us."
"Are you that clueless?" he said chastising himself for being cruel but too upset to apologize. He tried to drop the tone of his voice, when he saw the startled look that crossed her face. "Alexis and I were together for 3 years, Chloe. She deserved better than that. She deserved an honest face to face admission. She deserved a chance to yell at me. Tell me how much I hurt her. She deserved better than this Chloe."
"Ned, she must be okay. She wouldn't have gone out of town with Jax if she hadn't been okay."
"She's not okay, Chloe. She can't be."
"Why do you say that Ned? You are over her, aren't you? Why can't she be okay without you? Aren't you okay without her?"
"I don't know if I am." Ned said angrily. Then he grabbed his coat and left, too angry to stay, too worried about what he heard from Juan and Emily about Alexis to think about what he'd just admitted to Chloe. 'What have I done?' Ned asked himself as he headed to Sonny's for some answers.
~~~
Sonny's Penthouse"That seems a little too simple, Mike." Luke said wondering if Mike's translation of papers made any sense.
"I don't get it." Sonny admitted. "They are already dripping with money, what good with a hidden fortune do them. What else could they need?"
"Maybe they are greedy. Y'know the 'too much is never enough' philosophy."
"That's the only explanation that makes sense." Luke said.
"I don't get it though. If they are worried about Alexis finding it, why don't they just move it? Why would they try to kill her?" Sonny asked. "Are you sure there's nothing else in those papers? We aren't missing anything?"
No one spoke. Mike continued to look through the papers. There was a short knock on the door. Johnny entered, "Ned Ashton, here to see you."
"Tell him, I'm busy."
Ned walked past Johnny. "This is important. It's about Alexis."
"What about her?" Sonny said concerned.
"You tell me. I get back from Milan and find out she was in the hospital under your guard and now her husband's taken her out of town."
"Seems like you got the facts straight." Sonny said knowing now this was just Ned trying to play hero. He didn't have time for that. "You know, you aren't her boyfriend anymore. You are married to another woman. What business is it of yours if her husband takes her out of town?"
Ned knew he wasn't going to get any answers from Sonny. "I just want to try to help her if I can." He said looking at the men around the table.
~~~
Jax was in the elevator at Harbor View Towers, wondering when his life had taken a wide enough turn to throw him into turning to Sonny for help. 'God, who knows what they are doing to her?' "Alexis, its okay, don't be scared. I'm coming." He said his eyes closed. The jarring of the elevator stopping at the top floor shook him to the present. Johnny took one look at his unkempt appearance, asked no questions and let him into the penthouse. He stayed inside wanting to hear what the problem was, knowing they might need his help.
Jax saw Ned and his fear and anger welled up in him. "Johnny, get him out of here."
Johnny didn't wait for an okay from Sonny, being used to taking orders from Jax when he'd guarded Alexis, and respecting Jax for letting him and River defend Mike. He grabbed Ned by the arm and Ned shrugged away. "She's in trouble isn't she Jax. Let me help."
"She doesn't need your help." Jax said looking at him icily. "Johnny." Johnny walked him out and into the elevator. Ned tried to get him to talk but he wouldn't. Ned walked out and decided he had to help no matter what. No matter how much he had hurt her he had to make up for it. She meant so much to him. He stood around the corner of the building waiting for someone, anyone to leave so he could follow them. If they wouldn't let him help, he'd find away to help on his own. He stood there and waited trying to sort things out in his head about Chloe, but his mind always returning to Jax, his friend, looking so awful because something had happened, something bad, to Alexis and he couldn't even help.
~~~
Sonny decided not even to ask what the problem with Ned was or to scold Jax for ordering his guards around. That was his business, besides Jax looked like hell. Alexis was in trouble. "What's happened? Where's Alexis?"
Luke stood up and walked over to Sonny's little bar. He thought about drinking the shot himself but thought better of it and handed it to Jax. Jax downed the shot and started to talk. "They've got her."
"Where?" Luke asked concerned.
"I'm really not sure. It was all in the papers. She had copies. We started studying them when she got out of the hospital. We were following up on a lead, now they've got her and the papers."
"Why didn't you tell me you had the papers?" Sonny asked surprised.
"I was going too, that day on the docks, but then she got tired and she needed to get home and when we got home there was some major stuff to deal with. I can't think about that now. She's in trouble. They've got her."
"They took the papers, that was our only lead." Jax looked devastated.
Sonny knew he had to give him some hope. "We did get our hands on copies of those papers. We've been trying to figure them out. I don't get it though, how will the papers lead us to her? They seem to lead only to some kind of fortune. Why would they take her to the fortune? I don't get it."
Jax knew he had to tell them. It was time. It was the only way. "Fortune, that's what Alexis said at first. Then she explained to me that the more correct translation from the Greek was 'The fortunate one.' She said it was a person."
"The fortunate one?" Roy asked confused.
"Lucky." Jax, Sonny and Luke said all at once, everything starting to make sense. Luke sat down "It can't be."
~~~
Her head was throbbing. She wanted to open her eyes but the room kept spinning. What had happened? What had they done to her? She sat up even though it was painful and looked around the room that looked like the inside of a cabin. "Where am I?" She said aloud to no one.
"You're awake" she heard a semi-familiar voice say.
She turned in the direction of the voice. It took a minute for her eyes to focus, but when they did she was overcome. "Lucky."