Emily sighed and exchanged glances with Maxie as Jason and Lucky poured over a rough sketch of Helena’s building that Maxie had drawn for them, discussing the possible ins and outs and running through each scenario. The two women were sitting off to the side drinking Pepsi’s from the honor bar and trying to figure out just how much more of this chauvinistic treatment they were supposed to put up with.

“I say we lock them in the closet and throw away the key,” Maxie complained just loud enough for Jason and Lucky to hear.

“I think that’s a little harsh,” Emily said with a smile. “I agree that they are being total Neanderthals trying to exclude us from the planning when they are using the information you gathered and they need our help, but I think we can afford to be generous. Pretty soon they’ll realize that we are one step ahead of them.”

“I still like the closet.”

“Maybe later.”

Lucky looked at Jason, grinned, and walked over to sit on the edge of the couch behind his wife.

“Are we neglecting you?”

“Oh Spencer, I think you moved beyond neglect thirty minutes ago. You and Jason have been behaving as if we aren’t even here.”

“We can make that a reality,” Jason said easily looking straight at Maxie. “The two of you shouldn’t be here anyway.”

“All right,” Maxie stood up and walked over to Jason. “Your little macho act might have worked with Robin but I’m not Robin. I’ve been a cop for three years and you don’t get to be a woman working Homicide without being good at your job. I can handle any weapon, shoot any target, I rarely miss, and I never make mistakes. Not on the job anyway,” She said pointedly. “You want to get Jonathan out of that hellhole, than you need my help.”

“We have all the back up we need. I can make one phone call and get a hundred men here.”

“Oh good, turn this into a bloodbath, that’s sure to increase our chances of getting Jonathan out alive,” Maxie quipped sarcastically.

Emily paled and Jason swore. “Look” He begins but Maxie stops him.

“You look. You want that boy out of there than start thinking. All the muscle power in the world is not going to work against Helena Cassadine. You have to be smarter than her. You have to think this through every step of the way. Helena is clever so you have to be absolutely brilliant. How are you getting in? How are you getting out? When should you attack?” Maxie stepped back. “When were you planning your little raid?”

“Tonight,” Jason said slowly expecting a trap.

“Wrong.” Maxie said triumphantly. “People expect trouble at night. That’s when their security is turned up a notch. Night time. Now during the day, most people relax. Lower their guard. Figuratively and literally.”

Lucky looked at Maxie and whistled. “She’s right.” He said looking at Jason. “Helena would never expect us to go after the boy in broad daylight.”

“We can’t afford to wait. If she takes that boy out of the country than we will never have a chance at getting him back. We don’t know what she will do to him.”

Emily shakes her head and approaches her brother. “She won’t hurt him. She needs him. She wants him to be her prince so she won’t hurt him physically. She may go after him emotionally,” Emily shudders as she says the words. “She’ll try to twist him inside to get him to do what she wants, but Jonathan isn’t going to be as easy to manipulate as she thinks. That buys us some time.” She pauses and exchanges another glance with Maxie. “While you and my dear husband were busy making your plans, Maxie and I were making some of our own. There are two things that we can count on with Helena. Her determination to control the Cassadine Empire and reunite the fractured parts. And her greed. She has Jonathan, but we can still play with her greed. Get her to think that staying in the United States for a few more days with Jonathan is a good idea.”

“She’d be crazy to stay now that she has Jonathan. She has to know that we will come after her?”

“Look at this from her viewpoint. She has what she wants. My son. She believes that Lucky is dead so he’s no threat. She has never seen Nikolas as a threat. It probably doesn’t even cross her mind that I’d come after her in my condition. And you, well she probably sees you as a mild threat but one she can control. If she had a big enough incentive to stay, than I think she would risk it and stay.”

Lucky looked at his wife with pride. “How are you going to find a big enough incentive to appeal to Helena Cassadine?”

There was a knock at the door. Emily smiled. “While you boys were busy planning, Maxie and I made a few calls.” She glanced at her watch. “I think that’s my incentive right now.”

She opened the door and grinned.

Jax and V stood there smiling. “You called?” Jax quipped and then walked over to Lucky. “I’m glad you are alive. I would have hated to have paid out on that pension of yours after only getting a couple of weeks work out of you this time around.” Jax sees Jason in the corner and is dying to say something, but he has just endured a twenty minute lecture from V on behaving himself and focusing on the real issue, getting the boy back.

Lucky looked at Jax and then over to V and Emily and Maxie who were already huddled close together. “It’s great to see you boss, but what are you doing here.”

“Emily called. Said you needed help and here we are. No questions asked. What ever you want.”

“I hope you mean that,” Emily said as she walked back over to the two men. “Because what I need is for you to sell your company to Helena Cassadine.”

Fifteen minutes later the six of them were seated around the dining room table as Emily and Maxie explained their plan.

“If we can convince Helena that she has a shot at buying your company,” Emily points to Jax, “and at a lower price than its valued, than Helena will go for it because it will give her the foothold into American manufacturing and trade that she needs. So, if you call her and tell her that the company is suffering and you are thinking of unloading it for the right price, she’ll stay in town long enough for negotiations, especially if you insist on dealing directly with her.”

“What if she sends the boy back to Greece without her?”

“She won’t.” Emily says firmly. “She doesn’t have anyone she trusts”

“What about Katherine?” Lucky asks.

“Katherine is dead.” Jason says shortly. No one says anything, so Maxie continues.

“If everything goes according to plan, than Helena will go off to sign the papers Jax has drawn up, taking a number of her guards with her. We’ll get in, get the boy, and get out before Helena returns.”

Jax looks at Emily and Lucky. “I won’t really have to sell my company to the battle axe will I?” He catches the glare from V. “Not that I wouldn’t be willing to do that to save your son.”

Emily giggles at the flustered look on Jax’s face. “Remind me to sit down and discuss husband training with you,” she quips to V before turning to Jax. “No, you don’t. The papers will be fake. Don’t worry.”

Lucky shook his head. “We can’t do this. For this to work, for Helena to really believe it, there will have to be rumors all over Wall Street that Jax’s company is in trouble. People will start dumping your stock. You might not lose your company but you could lose millions.”

Jax doesn’t need to look at V for this answer. “Then you’ll have to use your computer expertise to make millions back for me.” He pauses for a moment. “Actually it might work out well. I can have Jerry buy up the shares as soon as they are dumped. By the time this is done we’ll have a greater share of the company and when the stock goes back up.....I’ll probably be able to give you a nice Christmas bonus.”

Jason, who had sat silent for most of the discussion, spoke up. “I still don’t like it. We have no way of knowing what is going on in that penthouse.”

“Yes we do,” Maxie gave Jason a blinding smile and his answering look did not go unnoticed by anyone else in the room. There was a knock on the door and Maxie went to answer it. She opened the door and two men in dark suits came into room, carrying two large boxes.

“Are you Maxie Jones?” One man said and then nodded as Maxie showed him some identification. “Your father asked us to deliver this equipment to you as soon as possible.”

“Thank you,” Maxie said. “Do you want me to sign for anything?”

The WSB agent looked at her. “Sign for what?” He asked simply and Maxie nodded.

“One last thing,” The agent stopped as he headed out the door. “Your father wanted me to give you this. It’s a phone number where he can be reached anytime.” The agent looks over at the others and he spots Jason. “You Morgan?”

“Yeah.”

“The director wants you to know that if you hurt his daughter he will have you eliminated before you can finish your next thought.”

Maxie groaned. Great. Frisco waits until I’m 27 to take an interest in my love life. Do I take that as a sign that he might actually want to be in my life more or do I simply never speak to him again for embarrassing me? Maxie closes the doors after the agents and simply ignores the looks on the other’s face and completely avoids Jason’s speculative one.

She places one of the boxes on top of the table. “You wanted to know what was going on in that apartment. State of the art listening devices that would allow us to hear what was going in the bedroom of the White House if we pointed it in that direction.” She looks in the boxes. “Plus some other surprises Frisco thought we might need. I guess it helps to have a father who’s the director of the WSB.”

“The best my father could have done was to send over some spare bandages and aspirin,” Emily joked trying to cover the awkward silence.

“And you don’t even want to know what my father would have sent over.” Lucky added.

Jax nodded. “Listen, I’ll make the call to Helena’s people as soon as we get home, but she’s not going to really buy it until we have the chance to spread some rumors. So this might take a day or more.”

“As long as it works.” Lucky said. “And if you don’t mind, I think I need to stay dead for a while. Helena thinks I’m alive and she might bolt and take Jonathan with her.”

“Right. You’re dead.” Jax smiled. “So what kind of flowers do you want me to send to your funeral?”

As the clock hit seven o’clock, Maxie and Jason were in living room. Emily and Lucky had retired to the bedroom for some privacy and rest before dinner.

Maxie was showing Jason’s bodyguard how to work the listening devices as well as the thermal imaging equipment Frisco had sent over. The angle of the hotel and Helena’s building made it possible to be able to both see and hear what was going on. Maxie pointed out the small microwave dish to the guard.

“See, if you point it in the direction of the building it will pick up conversations and everything else. And the thermal imaging device,” she points to the small TV like device, “reads heat images and tells you what is going on inside the penthouse. You see, she points to the patterns of colors against the gray, it reads body heat in terms of colors so the green, gray , yellow figures that you see are people. The shapes and shadows are furniture and other stuff. See this smaller figure setting over here, I’d lay odds that that is Jonathan.” Maxie smiles at the guard. “All we need for you to do is to listen and watch and if something is wrong, let us know immediately.”

“Are you done telling my bodyguard what to do?” Jason muttered as he came to stand next to her.

“I think so,” Maxie says casually, her body tensing at his nearness. “Actually I should be going if I’m going to get a room at another hotel.”

“What?” Jason pulls her into a corner as far away from the guard as he can manage. “You are not going anywhere.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, there are only two bedrooms in this suite. Your sister and her back from the dead husband have one that leaves only one for the two of us.” She hesitates. “It’s not that big a deal. I’ll get a room of my own. I doubt if the hotel is booked.”

“You can’t do that.” Jason raised his voice at Maxie’s arched eyebrow looks around and notices that his other bodyguard is watching them. “There is no privacy in this world anymore.” He grumbles as he pulls Maxie into the second bedroom and shuts the door. He looks at her. “You are laughing at me.”

“No I’m not,” Maxie tries not to giggle but fails. She looks up into Jason’s eyes and her smile falters and her giggle stills. Her heart starts to hammer in her chest and all she can think of is that this is the man she has been crazy about for years and they are alone. All alone. In a hotel room. Again.

“It’s hot in here,” she murmurs inanely as he takes a step closer.

“It always is when you are around,” He reaches with his hand around her waist and pulls her close. “You are so beautiful. I keep telling myself that we can’t be together but all I can think of is how much I want to make love to you again.”

She can feel the beating of his heart as her world focuses in on his words. “Love? Not just sex?”

Jason looks into her green eyes and knows that he is lost. He can walk away from her and he will, but he can’t lie to her. “Love,” He says softly as he plays with a strand of long blonde hair. “It was always love from the moment I saw you at that bar. You were so incredibly beautiful and so sad but so determined not to be sad. I didn’t know who you were I just knew that I wanted you in my life.”

“For a night? For a weekend?” Her voice is soft and husky.

“For as long as could have you. As long as you would stay.”

“I’ll stay forever,” she whispers as she lets herself lean against the solid steel of his body and feel his hands caress the curve of her back.

“You can’t,” The words are said in the saddest tone she has ever heard from him. “I made my choice twenty years ago and I choose this life and now I have to live with that choice. I won’t make you live with it too. I love you,” He finally says the words she has wanted to hear since they first kissed all those years ago. “But I can’t have you in my life. I won’t put you in danger and even if I did, I know you Maxie Jones.” He tilted her chin up so that she would look at him. “You could never live with me knowing what I do for a living and not end up hating me or worse hating yourself.”

Maxie wants, with everything she has inside of her, to deny what he is saying. If Robin could blindly accept, than she can. But she remembers what she said earlier. She’s not Robin. She’s seen first hand the kind of damage people like Jason did. She was a cop. She would always be a cop. Some things she couldn’t ignore. She shakes her head, tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry,” she whispers as she buries her head against her chest.

“Don’t be. I don’t want you to change. Ever.” Jason breathes deeply. “If I could get out, I would. For you I would walk away from everything but...”

“You can’t,” Maxie says softly playing with the buttons on his shirt. “We love each other but we can’t be together. It’s not fair.”

“I know. But it will be okay. You’ll find happiness with Nikolas Cassadine and the two of you will have the kind of life together that you deserve.” He can’t help the note of jealousy in his voice. “You spent the night with him last night so you have to have some feelings for him.” The moment he says it he realizes its a mistake. If Maxie found out that he had a guard on her....

Maxie looked at him astonished “I like Nikolas. He’s a good person. We spent most of last night talking about Lucky.” Her eyes narrowed. “How did you know that I was there?” Pause as Jason waits for the explosion. “Are you having Nikolas watched?”

Thank you God. “Yes.” He says simply. It’s not a lie technically, Nikolas was being watched while he had Jonathan and while Maxie was with him. “Look, I’m sorry I brought him up. I don’t want to think about Nikolas Cassadine or Helena Cassadine or anyone by the name of Cassadine at the moment. I just want to hold you for a moment before I let you go.”

Maxie is quiet in his arms. “Jason?”

“Yeah?”

“I know I can’t spend the rest of my life with you, but do you think I can spend the rest of the night with you?” Maxie held her breath and waited for his answer.

The second bedroom

Emily is sleeping and Lucky is lying next to her, propped up on his elbow and watching her sleep. He tries for a moment to imagine what his life would have been like if she had not reentered it and he can’t. She is everything to him. She opens her eyes and smiles at him softly.

“You’re still here.”

“Where else would I be?”

“I thought...I thought maybe I was dreaming that you were still alive.”

Lucky smoothes her forehead. “I’m right here where I’m supposed to be holding the woman I love.” He smiles at her. “You should be sleeping or at least trying to rest.”

“I will,” A look of worry crosses her face. “We are going to be able to save Jonathan aren’t we?”

“Do you doubt it?”

“Not really.” She places her head on his shoulder and closes her eyes again. “I’m just a little scared.”

“Don’t be.”

“I won’t be. As long as you are with me, there’s nothing to be scared off.” Her voice trailed off as she fell back asleep.

“Then you’ll never be scared again.” Lucky whispered.