Emily Quartermaine stared at the pile of papers in front of her and then back out the window of her huge office on the executive floor of the ELQ building. She tapped her pencil on the desk in a steady rhythm that matched the softly falling rain. She smiled for a moment as she imagined that she was looking out at a California beach with sunshine warming it. She had to admit that since she had started visiting Lucky in California, the thought of making her home somewhere where the winters weren’t gray and dull had crossed her mind. But in the end she supposed Port Charles was home for the moment at least. She wondered uneasily if Port Charles could ever be Lucky’s home again.

She shook her head and forced herself to look over the papers on the light rail project that AJ had left for her. The proposed light rail would run from the riverfront to downtown Port Charles and eventually connect with the airport. It was an ambitious project for a town Port Charles’s size, but as more and more people fled from the bigger cities Port Charles was going to increase in population over the next decade. Public transportation, even privately built public transportation, would be an asset. Of course it would never be profitable or at least not for the first decade or so, but the mileage they could get out of the PR might do a lot to restore whatever luster ELQ had lost with her grandfather’s murder. She eyed a paper on her desk set off to the side. It was a fax from Stefan Cassadine making yet another bid for ELQ if she was interested in selling. Emily smiled, tore the fax into pieces, put the pieces in an envelope, and then added a note. “Go to hell Stefan.” She looked at the sentence for a moment. The man was Lucky’s stepfather after all, even if she tended to think of him as a vulture ready to pounce, some day she might be sitting down at Thanksgiving dinner with him. She crumpled her first note, then wrote a new one. “Offer declined. ELQ is not for sale.” She put the note in the envelope, addressed it, and left it for Lark to send out on an express delivery.

She nibbled at the end of her pencil in silence for a moment before she picked up the phone. Please don’t let him be home. I just want to leave a message....

She breathed a deep sigh of relief when she got his answering machine. “Lucky. It’s me. God I wish you were here. I miss you. Anyway, I know we haven’t talked about this yet, but Monica called me this morning to ask me about Christmas. I think... I really think I need to spend Christmas in Port Charles with my family. With Jason in jail and grandfather gone, they need me you know? The hard thing is that I need you. I know you don’t want to come to Port Charles with your mom and Stefan back in town, but I just want to spend our first Christmas together.” Emily hesitated. “I understand if you don’t want to be here. If we can’t be together at Christmas, maybe I can come out for New Years? What about a cruise for New Years? Or that bed and breakfast we stayed at in Tahoe? Call me okay? I love you.” Emily hung up the phone softly.

Three thousand miles away, Lucky disconnect his cell phone after checking his voice mail and frowned. Would there ever come a time when his past didn’t tangle up his present? He wanted to spend Christmas with Emily, but the idea of being in Port Charles when Stefan and Laura were both there made him feel sick. Still, he’d see Lulu again and that was a positive. Could he see Nikolas and Elizabeth together? Who was he kidding? Nikolas and Elizabeth. Stefan and Laura. They were just a smoke screen. If it made Emily happy, he’d sit and watch Cassadine home movies all day long. He’d probably need to go get drunk like crazy afterwards, but he’d do it.

The real reason he was trying to avoid Port Charles was a lot darker and a lot more difficult to deal with. Being there on a case had been one thing. His focus then had been on protecting Emily and stopping the bad guys. Christmas. The holiday season. There would be nothing to stop the memories from returning. No safety net to keep him sane. Only Emily to hold him together. He didn’t know if it would be enough.

.He shrugged deciding to think about it later and knocked on the door of the condo. A moment later, the door opened and Frisco stood there smiling.

“You guys ready? The van’s out front, loaded and ready to go.”

“Not that helping the FBI catch bank robbers is not important,” Frisco said as he grabbed his jacket and gun from the closet. “It’s just not my idea of how to spend gorgeous December day like this one.”

“We can always call in sick and go Christmas shopping,” Robin Scorpio teased her fiancée as she walked into the living room.

Frisco stopped and looked at his lover. “You are not bringing that.” He elbowed Lucky. “Tell her Junior. Tell her she can’t bring that.”

“Uhhh Robin, no offense but the last time you brought a bridal magazine along on a stake out things turned ugly pretty fast.” Lucky said with a sympathetic glance at Frisco.

“No deal. If you two get to bring that stack of Sports Illustrated then I get to bring Cosmopolitan Bride.” Robin smiled at her two partners.

“All right,” Frisco shuddered dramatically. “Just tell me again why we ruled out eloping to Vegas last week.”

“Way too tacky. And you promised your daughters they could be in the wedding.”

“I did, didn’t I?” Frisco sighed.

“Besides with the Quartermaines footing the bill as a way of saying thank you, planning this wedding has been a breeze. Who ever imagined Lila as a wedding coordinator?”

“You know Emily says that planning your wedding is the one thing that makes Lila smile these days. Losing Edward and having her faith in Jason betrayed pretty much broke her.” Lucky comments.

Robin’s eyes turn soft. “That is the real reason we are not eloping. Felicia and Lila are having so much fun planning this wedding that I don’t have the heart to tell them that all we really want is a small wedding with just family.”

“Don’t you think that that’s a little too weird even for you two?” Lucky asks Frisco as they climb into the van. “I mean having your ex-wife plan your wedding. Of course the ex-wife is also going to be the maid of honor and the ex-wife’s husband is going to give the bride away so I guess it fits. I guess considering its you two, traditional is not the word to describe this wedding.”

“Be careful,” Robin warned from the driver’s seat after she pulled the van into an empty spot by the curb a half block from the entrance of the bank as Lucky and Frisco began their systems check. “The next wedding might be yours and Emily’s. And if you think Lila and Felicia can be a headache, just wait until Laura and Monica and Lila get together.”

Lucky’s voice is flat. “Laura would not be in the picture.” Then his tone lightened as he became aware of the awkward silence in the van. “But you guys know Em. She’d turn the whole thing over to ELQ’s Special Events division and just show up on the day of the big event.”

“You know,” Frisco said after Robin asked his opinion on a dress for the fifth time, “That doesn’t sound half bad.” He then turned to Robin who held up another picture. “You know that I will love you and marry you know matter what you show up in, so how about some red, clingy, and ultra-sexy number.”

“Not unless you want to spend your honeymoon waiting for my uncle to recover from his heart attack.”

“Honeymoon? You guys get a honeymoon? Does that mean I get a vacation?” Lucky’s ears perk up.

Frisco laughs. “Not on your life. You my dearest Junior get to spend our two week honeymoon doing background checks for internal affairs.”

“No problem. I can do that kind of work on my laptop from the beaches of Tahiti...”

“Somehow I don’t think Sean will agree,” Frisco smirked and then his eyes narrowed. “What’s the description of this guy the FBI is looking for?”

“Let’s see.” Lucky punches up the APB and the photo from the last bank robbery pops up on the screen.

Frisco looks from the screen to the man just about to enter the bank. “I think we’ve got a match.”

“Either that or a twin brother.”

“Please. This is LA not Port Charles,” Robin deadpans. “I get to play customer.” She announces reaching for the wireless microphone and camera.

Frisco frowns but then nods. “All right. Take the microphone. Lucky and I will handle it out here. “ It takes Robin less than a second to conceal the listening and video devices before heading into the bank. She immediately gets in line two people back from the suspect.

“Do we take him down now,” Lucky asks as he and Frisco watch what is happening.

Frisco shakes his head. “Look at the guy’s jacket. What kind of gun do you think he’s concealing.”

“Semi-automatic. From the size I’d say its an assault rifle.”

“What was his MO on the previous hits?”

Lucky checked the database. “A pistol. 39 caliber.”

“Looks like our boy is getting cocky. I guess three successful robberies will do that to you. We pull him in now and he’s going to spook. Let’s see if we can get him away from bystanders before we take him down.”

“Got it,” Lucky made a quick call. “All right, the FBI are on their way but their going to stay in a holding pattern. What’s our boy up to?”

Inside the bank, Robin wondered the same thing as she watched the suspect approach the teller. She saw the teller panic and the man become more nervous. “I don’t like this...” she whispered softly and heard Frisco’s reply.

“He’s too nervous. The big gun is panicking him. Or making him too bold.”

In the van Frisco swears as the camera cuts to the floor and the sound of gunfire echoes over the mike.

Robin looked up from where she had hit the floor when the suspect pulled out the assault rifle and fired a round into the ceiling above. The place exploded into mayhem as people screamed and scrambled for cover. Robin’s heart lurched as she saw a young mother trying to protect her small daughter. The child’s cries drew the gunman’s attention and he leveled his gun and aimed.

“No!” Robin stood up from behind the table she was using for cover and screamed at the gunmen, who turned the gun in her direction. His eyes were glazed and she realized he was high. Damn. That suddenly complicated matters.

She lowered her voice and kept it calm. “You don’t want to do this.”

“How in the hell do you know what I want?”

“I don’t.” Robin admitted softly as she moved away from the mother and the child, trying to draw the gunman’s attention away from them. “But I can’t imagine that hurting a child is what you want.”

The man laughed mirthlessly. “What I want is some money. Lots of money. Lots and lots of it.”

“Then I guess you picked the right place to come,” Robin’s reasonableness catches the man off guard and a puzzled look crosses his face. “There seems to be plenty of money around here. What’s the problem?”

“That bitch pushed the alarm,” He turns to her and waves the gun and shoots another round this time closer to the bank employees working behind the counter.

“Hey!” Robin yells again. “What in the hell do you think you are doing? You can’t just shoot someone just for doing their job.” Robin hears the people around her gasp and an old man hiding behind a bench tells her to shut up. Robin moves closer. “Relax. Give her a minute to think about it and I’m sure she’ll give you whatever you ask for.” The teller was already filling a bag with money.

“Who the hell are you?” The suspect looked at Robin in confusion.

“Just someone who doesn’t want anyone getting shot.”

“Try again.”

Robin shrugs. “I knew you were too smart for this.” Carefully and slowly she pulls out her badge “I’m a cop.”

“A cop. You?” The suspect laughed. “That’s a good one. I ain’t never seen and LAPD officer who looked like you.”

“You want the truth? I’m not that kind of cop.”

The suspect looked interested. “What kind of cop are you?”

“Would you believe I’m an international spy?”

“You mean like those men in black.” The suspect eyes her. “You ever meet an alien before?”

“Meet one? I have a close personal acquaintance with one.” Robin almost smiled remembering Casey “So you got your money, what’s next?”

“What do you mean?” The suspect’s drug filled mind was suddenly filled with little green aliens in silver spacesuits.

“How do you plan on getting out of here?” Robin was only a few feet away from him now. “The police are going to be here any second so don’t you think you should be making your getaway.”

“I don’t hear any police?”

“I’m sure they are on their way,” Robin said impatiently. “Any second now.”

“Suddenly the blast of a siren could be heard from outside.

“About time,” Robin muttered under her breath.

In the van, Lucky smiled as he pushed the button in front of him.. “Sorry about that. I was caught up in the alien story.”

“Man, oh man,” The suspect ran his fingers through his hair. “I’ve got to get out of here before the cops catch me. But I’ll never make it. I guess I’ll have to shoot my way out of this after all...” The suspect turned the assault rifle into the crowd of bystanders in the lobby.

“Wait.” Robin cried. “You don’t need to do that. What you need is a hostage? If you had a hostage the police would leave you alone.”

The suspect’s eyes light up. “A hostage. I think I’ve got myself tons of hostages here. The police won’t touch me.”

Now it was Robin’s turn to laugh. “This must be your first bank,” she said with sympathy. “Listen. I’ve seen a lot of these bank hostage kind of things and they never work out. You see all of these people. There are just too many of them. They’d get hungry. Have to go to the bathroom. Start snapping at each other. Hostages as a group are pretty dysfunctional. And the police? They can pretty much wait you out until you’re so fed up with these people that you pretty much beg them to take you in.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“The police haven’t a chance to organize anything yet. Hell, they probably haven’t even covered the back door yet. You take one hostage and head out that back door and you and your money are home free in twenty minutes.”

“That hostage would be you?”

“If you want. My being a cop might give you an edge.”

“So would my taking that kid”

“I wouldn’t. A sharpshooter can take you out at a block away. Part of the goal of having a hostage is to have a human shield. That little girl would leave you very exposed.”

The suspect looked at the petite brunette. All he wanted was to take the money and get out of here. He owed his dealer a lot. He grinned. The money in this bag would not only get him even with his dealer but it would buy him enough LSD that he would be flying for weeks.

“Man, you know I’ll kill you sooner or later.”

“I know,” Robin said simply.

“You heard her,” the man turned to the teller. “See it can’t be murder if she lets me kill her, can it? Doesn’t that make it suicide or something.”

“Maybe suicidal or something,” Lucky murmurs from his vantage point in the van. Seeing the man waver, he decides to up the ante.

The suspect pales as more “police” arrive a second later.

“All right, you win,” Holding the rifle in one hand he grabs Robin forcefully with the other and drags her through the art deco lobby to the back entrance of the bank. Pushing Robin through the glass doors first, the suspect follows, his eyes squinting under the California sunshine.

As she steps down the stairs, Robin loses her balance and falls to the ground, rolling slightly away. The suspect moves to retrieve her, but before he can, Frisco steps forward from the side of the building. Taking aim, Frisco yells freeze but the suspect reaches for his rifle. Frisco shoots, one shot clean through the shoulder that causes the suspect to momentarily drop his weapon. Before he can pick it up again, Robin smoothly picks up the assault rifle.

“I think he said freeze.”
Port Charles:

Taking advantage of the dying rain, Emily opts for a long lunch and a longer walk along the waterfront. Not really paying attention to where she is going, Emily finds herself down at Bannister’s Wharf. She looks around and remembers all the time she spent here when she was a teenager. The four musketeers. She looks over the water to where she can see Spoon Island in the distance and thinks of Nikolas. She’d gotten a letter or two from him in the last six months, mostly filled with not so subtle questions about how Lucky was doing. He and Liz were in New York, she imagined they would be back to Spoon Island for Christmas. Maybe it was better that Lucky not come back to Port Charles for Christmas.

Emily sighed as she bent over the railing. She thought she was past all of this. She knew Lucky loved her. He told her so with and without words whenever they were together. So why couldn’t she get over this ridiculous fear that all it would take was one look from Liz, one hooked finger, and Lucky would go back to her.

Maybe because it was the truth?

She shook her head. She couldn’t think like that. They’d come too far. She wasn’t going to sabotage her relationship with stupid fears.

“Emily?”

So deep was she in thought that the voice startled her and she turned around, her heart beating faster than normal. “Mrs. Spencer?” Emily said politely and then with a genuine smile to the little girl standing next to her mother, “Lulu? You look so grown up.”

The eight year old little girl smiled shyly, bright blue eyes fringed by dark lashes and set off by long dark hair.

“She’s growing up fast these days.” Laura smiled and then hesitated. “I was really sorry to hear about your grandfather. He was truly a special man.”

“Nikolas read what you wrote at the memorial service,” Emily replied. “Thank you.”

“Do you have a few minutes? Maybe we could get a cup of coffee.”

“I don’t think so,” Emily said awkwardly. “I’m sorry but I have to get back to work.”

“Ohh. Everyone talks about what a great job you are doing at ELQ. So much responsibility for someone so young.”

“I do my best to support my brother,” Emily gave her standard reply.

Laura hesitated. “Nikolas told me about how Lucky helped you. I..it’s hard for me to believe that my little boy is a WSB agent.”

“Lucky saved my life over and over again,” Emily’s eyes glow and her smile for the first time since spotting Laura grows more and more genuine. “You should be very proud of him. You know the President gave him an award”

“I know,” Laura almost beamed and Emily found herself feeling sorry for the woman whose own actions had cost her the respect and love of her youngest son. “I am. I know he doesn’t believe it but I am. He doesn’t return my phone calls or answer my letters. He seems so cut off since he....returned.” Laura’s confusion irritates Emily but she reminds herself of what she thought about Stefan earlier, some day this could be her mother-in-law. Maybe she truly doesn’t understand how devastated Lucky was when he returned to find his world torn upside down and inside out. “I just want to know if he’s happy.”

She looked at Emily expectantly. Emily sighed. “Mrs. Spencer, I value my relationship with your son more than anything in my life. I don’t think I should be in the middle of the two of you. I can’t betray Lucky’s trust in me.”

“No, of course not. I wouldn’t want to place you in an awkward position. I just want to know that he’s happy.”

Emily relented at the pleading look in the older women’s eyes. “I think he is.”

Laura nodded, then bit her lip. “Could you, maybe the next time you talk to him, could you ask him to call? Not me. He doesn’t have to speak to me. But Lulu. She misses her big brother and she doesn’t understand.....” Laura’s voice trails off.

“I’ll ask him. I know that he misses his sister too.”

Emily watches Laura and Lulu continue to make their way across the wharf. She wonders, not for the first time, what happened to Lucky during those two years of his imprisonment by Faison and what happened with his family when he returned. She knows bits and pieces of it, but she knows there’s so much more to the story than she has been told. And she has a feeling that its those parts that Lucky has left out, that she needs to know the most about.

As Emily makes her way back to ELQ, she is too lost in thought to notice the silent figure that follows her.