Secrets Revealed
Chapter Nine: A Rock and A Hard Place

Port Charles
GH

Tony Jones walked slowly out of the trauma room. He
had spent the last hour in consult with Ramsey from Obstetrics
and Harding from Cardiology. They had pored over the lab
results, the ultra sound, the EKG, hoping to find some mistake
in their initial diagnosis. Something else that would explain
Emily’s collapse. Finally,. they had all agreed that their
suspicions were correct. All that was left was telling the family.
A family that included the current chief of staff who also
happened to be one of his closest friends. This was not a part
of the job that he enjoyed.

He took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the
waiting room. Monica was there with Alan and the rest of the
Quartermaines. Laura Spencer was there too, standing quietly
to the side talking with her sister Amy Corbin.

“Tony?” Monica’s voice held a question as the
Quartermaines gathered silently around the ER doctor.

“She’s awake. She’s coherent and her vitals are steady
again. We’ve run a complete series of ultrasounds and blood
work. The baby seems to be unaffected by Emily’s condition at
this point.” Tony paused to let his words sink in.

“Thank God,” Monica held onto Alan for support
before she realizes what Tony’s last words were. “What
condition? What’s wrong with Emily?”

Tony looks grave. “Dr. Ramsey and I have been in
consultation for the last hour with Harding from cardiology.
He’s the best in his field at GH,” an apologetic glance at
Monica, “next to you of course. He agrees with our diagnosis.
Emily is suffering from a heart infection that has resulted in an
irregular heartbeat and decreased the amount of oxygen in her
blood.”

“An infection? Something you can clear up with
antibiotics?” Laura says hopefully.

Tony shakes his head sadly. “Normally I wouldn’t
discuss this with you, but Emily wants me to be the one to tell
you. The infection that Emily has is bacterial in nature. It’s a
strain of bacteria that are very resistant to normal antibiotics.
We do have the medicine that will fight the infection.”

“Then give it to her,” Edward says shakily. “Whatever
you need to do, do it.”

“It’s not that simple.” Tony makes sure he has
everyone’s attention before he continues. “The medicine that
would clear the infection would also pose a serious threat to
Emily’s unborn fetus. There could be birth defects or the
possibility of a miscarriage or even a stillbirth. It’s not a
medicine you give a pregnant woman.”

“And if she doesn’t get the medicine?” AJ is the first
one to voice the question that is on everyone’s mind.

“Then she runs the risk of the infection doing permanent
and perhaps fatal damage to the heart muscle.”

“Oh God,” Laura sits down in shock. “What are we
going to do?”

“What I’d like to do,” Tony says heavily, “is abort the
fetus and then treat Emily’s condition. There is every indication
that Emily will be able to have children in the future.”

“What does Emily say?” Monica asks.

“Emily seems determined to keep the baby no matter
what the risks to herself. I understand that she and Lucky have
already suffered one miscarriage. Where is Lucky?” Tony looks
around the waiting room. “I was hoping he could help me
convince Emily to have the abortion.”

“Lucky is out of town,” Laura says. “I haven’t had a
chance to call him yet.”
“Call him,” Tony advises. “Emily shouldn’t be alone to
make a decision like this one.”

Tony is about to leave, when Edward speaks up. “Emily
has to have that abortion. Her life is the important one.”


Monica shakes her head. “Emily is a mother now
Edward. She may not see it that way. Mothers are known to do
anything to protect their children.” Across the waiting room,
her eyes meet Laura’s as both women nod in silent agreement.
“Whatever Emily and Lucky decide we will support them in that
decision.”

No one says anything as a quiet falls over the waiting
room.


El Paso Texas
The next morning

Jonathan gently shakes Stephanie until she wakes up.
They spent the night curled up in the airport lobby. He would
have preferred a hotel, at least for Stephanie’s sake, but knew
that two kids checking into a hotel would be like waving a red
flag to tell the men who were hunting them where they were.

“My neck hurts,” Stephanie complained as she slowly
began to stretch and wake up.

“Relax, “ Jonathan reached over and massaged her
neck. “Tonight with any luck you’ll be home with your father
and I’ll be with my parents.”

“Sounds good to me,” Stephanie said cheerfully. “I
always thought running away from home would be fun, but this
isn’t. I miss my dad. I miss my grandma Laura. I even miss my
bodyguards and my tutor.”

“What’s your grandma like?” Jonathan asked with
forced nonchalance.

“Grandma Laura? She’s fun. She makes my dad smile.
She’s a better cook than our housekeeper on Wyndemere. And
there’s Luke but he’s kind of scary, especially around my dad.
And there’s Lu who’s in college. She’s my aunt. She’s okay.
Not as much fun now that she thinks she’s a grown up in
college. But Ruby is fun. She’s always getting into trouble.
There was this time when she was in the sixth grade and...but
dad would say that’s gossip since I wasn’t there and we
shouldn’t gossip about relatives although Aunt Amy gossips
about everyone, although not as much since she got married
and...”


“Okay! Okay!” Jonathan holds up his hands in mock
surrender. Stephanie grins sheepishly. She is quiet for a few
minutes.

“Why are you always asking me questions about my
family?” Stephanie asks after a minute as she follows Jonathan
the outside of the terminal where they stand in line for the city
bus. “You did the same thing at my....grandparent’s house and
just now.”

Jonathan takes a deep sigh. “I don’t suppose you want
to ask me that question again after we have breakfast
somewhere.”

Stephanie shakes her head.

Jonathan looks at her. He wants to tell her the full truth,
but the need to keep his real parentage a secret has been drilled
into him for too long. So he settles on a half truth. Or maybe
the only truth that matters.

“I ask about them because they are my family too. Only
I’ve never met them.” At Stephanie’s confused look he
continues. “My father is Lucky Spencer. Laura Spencer is my
grandmother. My real name is Jonathan Quartermaine
Spencer.”

Stephanie looks shocked. “Uncle Lucky? Uncle Lucky is
your father?”

Jonathan looks at her. “You know him?”

Stephanie nods. “When I was little he used to bring me
presents and visit us on the island. I don’t remember him that
clearly because he left town years ago.”

Jonathan grins. “Well, you’re about to get the chance to
see him again because if all goes according to plan he and Jason
and Luke should meet us at the zoo and take you home to Port
Charles.”
“Me home? What about you? If Lucky is your father,
that makes us cousins. Aren’t you coming back to Port
Charles?”

Jonathan smiles but the smile is solemn and his eyes are
dark. “Maybe. I don’t know if my mom is with him or not.
She’s expecting a baby so he might have made her stay with
....Gran.....in Port Charles. We may have to go to Port Charles
to get my mom. We won’t stay in Port Charles for long
though.” Jonathan says confidently.

“Why not?”

“Because the people who tried to kidnap me, who killed
your grandparents, who shot at us, they will try again. So we
will probably leave Port Charles before they can.”

Stephanie looks at Nikolas. “I’ll miss you cousin.”

“I’ll miss you too squirt,” Jonathan says softly. “But
don’t get cocky. We still have a long way to go before we say
goodbye.”

The Zoo

Maxie is nervous. She has mentally run down the list of
things she needed to do a thousand times and she knows that,
technically at least, she has covered all her bases. But she is
possibly dealing with Helena Cassadine so anything is possible.

She is sitting on a bench, dressed in casual clothes with
a backpack on listening to an ancient CD player. Her long hair
is pulled back into a baseball hat and she has sunglasses on. Her
notebook is on her lap and she is casually scribbling notes on
lined paper. She looks to all the world like a college student
spending an afternoon at the zoo.

Except that she has an automatic pistol concealed in the
notebook, the CD player is really a communication system that
lets her keep track of her men and give orders, and the sun
glasses have a built in video transmitter that is recording
everything she sees. She looks around the quiet zoo. This early
in the morning and this time of the year there are only a cou ple
of dozen visitors and not the hundreds the zoo gets an hour
during peak periods- a fact for which she is intensely grateful. If
she had her way, she would have closed off the zoo completely
but such a move would have only made things more dangerous
for the two children. If the kids were followed, their best chance
at hiding was a crowd to blend in with.

She recognized her men in the various places where she
had positioned them. In line at the popcorn stand. Standing by
the monkey exhibit. Sitting by a picnic table. Kissing by the
elephants. She turned her glance back and smiled as she
recognized Peterson and James, two good officers who had
recently become engaged. As their superior, she knew she was
supposed to discourage fraternization while on the job, but she
decided to let it pass. Somebody out there ought to have a
happy personal life. She apparently wasn’t going to.

“Hi!” Maxie looked up and smiled despite herself. Here
was a sight that you never saw in Port Charles. Jason Morgan,
Mafia boss, playing tourist. He had on an “Passing Through El
Paso” T-shirt, a digital camera swung around his neck, a Texas
baseball cap on, and a pair of sunglasses that one lens in the
shape of Texas. He scowled when he noticed her giggles.
“Blame it on Luke. He said we needed to blend in.”

“He thought that outfit would blend in?” Maxie started
giggling again. “I think you’ve been had Jason.” Maxie started
to wonder how much her stepfather would pay for a shot of
Jason in that get up. She could probably sell one to Garcia and
Taggert and half the PCPD for that matter. Early retirement?

“Maybe,” Jason acknowledged. “But it sure beats the
janitorial outfits he picked out for Nikolas and Lucky.” Jason
pointed to where Nikolas and Lucky were trying to pretend like
they were cleaning up after visitors.

“And what does Luke get to wear?” Maxie wondered.
Jason pointed to a casually dressed Luke sitting at the zoo’s
coffee shop near the front entrance drinking coffee and eating a
Danish. He caught them looking at him and smiled. Maxie
almost returned his smile. It was nice to know that after all
these years Luke still had a little bit of the con man in him.

“You’d better move on,” Maxie said to Jason. “A
middle aged tourist is not likely to interest a college student. I
think you’ve had time enough to try a pathetic line on me and
get turned down.”
Middle aged? Jason looked at Maxie who merely
shrugged and went back to scribbling in her notebook.

Jason was about to protest when he stopped. “The kids
are here,” he whispered to Maxie. “And they are not alone.”
Maxie follows his line of sight to see the two kids at the ticket
window. Standing about ten or fifteen people behind them are
two men in dark suits. Further behind that are three more men.
All in dark suits. Definitely not your average zoo visitor. “We
can’t make a move towards the kids without attracting the
attention of the suits. And if we make a move towards the suits,
the kids are in the line of fire.

“Not to mention a dozen or so innocent civilians.
Damn.” Maxie mutters. “And double damn. Okay, this is what
we do.” Maxie proceeds to give orders to her officers.
McKenzie and Johnson, hold your position on the roof but keep
your rifles aimed on our visitors in the dark suits. The minute
they even think about pulling out a gun, I want you to take
them out of the equation. The rest of you hold your position
but look alive. The minute we have a chance to grab the kids
without anyone else getting hurt is the minute we’ve been
waiting for all morning. We’re on thin ice here and the last thing
any of us want is this thing blowing up. So hold your positions.”
Maxie pushes the microphone away from her mouth and turns
to Jason. “What do we do now?’

“We wait. We hope that Jonathan knows enough to
keep the crowd between himself and those goons. And we
pray.”

Maxie shakes her head. “Fifteen years in the Mafia and
that’s the best you can come up with for a strategy. What if it
doesn’t work?”

“Then we get ready to kill someone.” Jason says softly.
“Maybe even a lot of someones.”


Lucky has also spotted the kids and breaths a deep sigh
of relief. They are okay. It takes him less than a second to spot
the goons following them. He lets out a soft curse and pulls
Nikolas back, keeping a firm grip on the older man.

“What the hell are you doing?” Nikolas demands.
“There they are. Let’s grab them and get the hell out of here.”

“You make a move without my permission and I will kill
you myself,” Lucky says his voice calm, detached, and deadly.
“Look behind the kids. See those men in the suits. I can almost
guarantee you that they are not here to compare pin stripes with
the zebras.”

Nikolas pales. “What do we do?”

“We wait,” Lucky says. “And we watch. But we do
nothing to give away our position or to link us with the kids.
The only thing keeping those kids safe at the moment is the fact
that Helena’s men think they have those kids where they want
them. They see no need to risk the crowd involvement and
taking the kids now. They’ll wait until they have the kids more
isolated. Jonathan’s ad indicated high noon. Until Maxie called
this morning and we moved our time table up, none of us knew
that we would be here this early. That’s our advantage and
we’ll use it. You go rushing up to them now and all hell will
break loose with those kids in the middle of it.”

“Besides,” Lucky says. “Look at the two of them.
Jonathan is doing his best to keep her safe.”

Nikolas looked. The boy had Stephanie positioned so
that Jonathan’s body was between Stephanie and the men
following them.

“What is he doing?”

“Shielding her. He knows that Helena’s men won’t take
a shot at Stephanie and risk hitting him. Helena needs a live
Cassadine. Not a corpse.”

“God I hope you are right.”

“I learned a long time ago that Helena’s men may be
loyal and they may be well trained, but they are not very smart
or creative.”

“I don’t want to know how you learned that do I?”

“Not right now, you don’t.” Lucky agreed.

Jonathan spotted the men as soon as he got off the city
bus. And he knew they spotted him. He had been tempted to
take Stephanie and hop on the next bus, but he knew that
Helena’s men would find them. The only hope that he and
Stephanie had was the help that was inside the zoo. So Jonathan
had moved quickly, pushed and shoved, and managed to move
to the front of the line. Now they had their tickets and he
steered Stephanie towards a small tour group that was forming
around a zoo guide. He had to keep her in a crowd and hope
that even Helena’s men would balk at making such a public
move. His scanned the zoo looking for some sign of Jason or
Luke or Lucky. He spotted the officers easily enough but didn’t
think Helena’s men would. Then his eyes locked with Luke
sitting at the coffee shop. Luke shook his head almost
imperceptibly and Jonathan nodded. Jonathan took a deep
breath. They were here, but they would make no move and he
was to make no move until it was safer. The element of surprise
Lucky would call it.

After a moment of looking, he spots his dad and reads
in his eyes the same message that was in Luke’s. Jonathan nods
again.

“Come on,” he whispers to Stephanie. “Let’s join the
tour.”

“Aren’t we going to wait for Uncle Lucky?” Stephanie
asks nervously picking up on the tension in Jonathan.

Jonathan shakes his head. “He’ll find us.” Jonathan is
about to say something else when he is bumped into by a tall
woman with blonde hair who drops her backpack and spills her
notebook, college textbooks, etc.

“I’m so sorry,” the woman exclaims in a soft voice. “I’m
always running into people. My boyfriend says that I’m a
natural born klutz. I guess he’s right. I’m always bumping into
things or people or tripping over my two left feet or something
stupid like that. I guess I’ll just pick these things up.” The last is
said apologetically as the woman bends down to begin putting
things back in the pack.

“Let me help,” says Jonathan and he and Stephanie bend
down to help.

The woman puts her hands on Jonathan’s. “I can do
that.” She looks directly into Jonathan’s eyes. “Why don’t you
take your sister to see the Polar Bears. There’s a viewing area
underneath where you can see them in the water. My friend
Jason recommends it.”

Jonathan looks at her for a long moment and then
smiles. “I think I will. Thanks for the advice.”

“Polar Bears?” Stephanie grumbles. “I want to see the
tigers.”

“We will,” Jonathan says as he turns Stephanie around.
And they head towards the direction of the polar bear exhibit
“After the polar bears.”

“Wait a minute!” Stephanie grabs his arm. “That’s my
dad. That’s my dad. She takes a step in Nikolas’s direction.
Jonathan heart stops as he begins to reach for Stephanie as all
hell breaks loose.


Jason would never forget what happened next and he
tried really hard to forget many times over the years. He had
been standing near the entrance to the polar bears, relieved
when he saw Jonathan move in this direction which meant that
he received and understand the message Maxie gave him. He
waited for Maxie to move away from the kids and out of the
line of fire. Instead she followed a few feet behind the kids,
putting herself between the kids and Helena’s men. He swore
softly. That was not part of the plan they had agreed on. She
was suppose to give Jonathan the message and then let him take
care of the rest.

He was thinking of how badly he would yell at her for
changing their plans, when it happened. First the girl broke
away from Jonathan, Jonathan caught her and then the gunfire.
Jason saw Maxie move to cover the kids with her own body as
she reached for her gun.

Jason was faster as he whirled towards the direction the
shot came from and returned fire. He ducked behind a trash can
at the entrance to the Polar Bear exhibit for cover. He could see
Lucky and Luke also engaging Helena’s men in fire and knew
that they were trying to draw the attention away from the kids
and Maxie who were lying motionless and in the wide open.
Easy targets. Jason’s heart lurched and he aimed his gun and
shot again. All the while praying that Maxie, Jonathan, and even
the Cassadine girl were still alive.


It was all over with in a few minutes. As well trained
and as heavily armed as Helena’s men were, they had been
badly outnumbered. The two snipers on the roof had taken out
two of them as soon as they had drawn their weapons. The rest
were shot down in the battle that erupted.

In what had been the center of the storm, Maxie
struggled to get up. Her ears were ringing and she knew she
was shaking. But she had a job to do.

“Are you okay?” she whispered to Jonathan. Jonathan
nodded. As did Stephanie. The little girl was clinging to her
cousin. It occurred to Maxie that the real target hadn’t been
Jonathan but Stephanie. The minute they had a clear shot on the
girl without harming the boy, they had taken it. How evil could
Helena be to order the assassination of her own great
grandchild.

“Jonathan!” Lucky’s voice rang out as he and Nikolas
ran to the children.

“Dad!” Jonathan yelled back and ran into Lucky’s arms.
Watching them, Nikolas felt his heart begin to break until he felt
a small tug on his shirt and looked down.

“Stephanie? Thank God you are alright,” Nikolas leaned
down and drew his daughter against him, muffling her tears
with his own. “It’s okay, darling. You’re safe.”


“Jonathan saved me. Lots of times. When the men shot
grandma and grandpa. Just now. He saved me.”

“I know he did.” Nikolas said softly watching Lucky and
Jonathan embrace. “We’ll thank him for it a minute.”

“He’s my cousin you know.” Stephanie said softly.
“That makes him family doesn’t it.”

Nikolas nodded. “Yeah he’s family.”

“I was so scared but I tried to do everything like you
told me to.” Jonathan whispered as he clung to his father. “I
tried to remember all the Spencer rules and to follow them and”

“You did good kid.” a voice breaks in.

Jonathan looks up. “Luke!” he breaks away from his
dad for a moment and runs into his grandfather’s embrace. “I’ve
missed you so much and there’s so much I want to tell you and
I want you to take me fishing again and I want...” Jonathan
stops suddenly and looks at his dad.

“Are we staying?” His voice betrays his nervousness.

“For a little while,” Lucky smiles. “Long enough for
Grandpa Luke to take you fishing. Maybe your mom and I can
even tag along.”

Jonathan stops and looks around. “Where is mom?”

“She’s safe Jonathan.” Lucky assures his son. “She’s in
Port Charles. Give us a few minutes to deal with this mess and
you can call her and talk to her yourself.”

Jonathan nods relieved. He is never quite as afraid for
himself when it comes to Helena Cassadine as he is for his
mother.

Maxie watches the family reunions and smiles. She
surveys the scene around her. She has already called for
ambulances to treat two of her men who have been slightly
wounded. All of Helena’s men are down, but two look like they
will make it which means she has live suspects to grill. And
miraculously no civilians were hurt in the exchange of gunfire.
She orders the area cordoned off and the zoo evacuated while
the investigation goes down.

All in all it went better than she had hoped for.

“Are you okay?” Jason approaches Maxie his heart
beating fast as he visually checks her for any signs of injury.
Except for some scrapes and abrasions from the asphalt, she
looks good. He relaxes.

“I’m fine,” she says her voice shakier than she likes it.
There is something about the intensity of his eyes that makes
her turn away.

“Maxie I ..” Jason begins but is interrupted by Nikolas
Cassadine’s approach with his daughter in hand.

“I would like to thank you for saving my daughter’s
life,” Nikolas says softly. “Perhaps you would let both my
daughter and I express our appreciation by taking you to dinner
tonight. We will be staying in El Paso for the next few days
and....”

Maxie catches the hidden meaning in his words. He has
to stay to help bury his daughter’s grandparents. It reminds her
that as well as things went today, she still has a murder to solve.
One that she will find a way to connect to Helena Cassadine.

She is about to accept Cassadine’s dinner offer and use
it as a chance to learn more about his grandmother, when she
spots a glint of metal coming from some bushes and sees a
figure of a woman in white.

Acting on instinct, Maxie steps in front of Stephanie.
There is a scream and Maxie is puzzled to realize that the
scream is coming from her. She feels a white hot flare of pain in
her chest, looks down, and is shocked to see a growing stain of
blood. She looks up and her eyes meet Jason’s frantic glance as
she collapses.

There is pandemonium. The ambulance that was called
earlier for Helena’s men is steered towards Maxie instead. Jason
won’t leave her side until Luke pulls him back and even then his
eyes never leave Maxie as the paramedics work frantically.

Jonathan moves to put his arm around Stephanie and
pull his sister closer as the two watch the woman who saved
their lives fight for her own.

And Lucky and Nikolas eyes meet over the melee. They
both recognized the shooter.

“Katherine Bell.” Nikolas whispers as Lucky nods.

Jason hears this and makes a vow that this is the last
time Helena Cassadine or anyone working for her will ever hurt
someone he loves.

Just then one of the paramedics yells “We’ve lost her!”

And Jason knows that his world will never be the same.