Lucky burst through the double doors leading to the intensive care ward, his heart beating wildly and his thoughts racing. He grabbed the first nurse he saw. “Emily Quartermaine? Where is she?”

As the nurse shook his head, Frisco showed him his badge. “We believe that one of our men brought Miss. Quartermaine in a little while ago. We understand that she is somewhere on this floor.”

The nurse looked over his clipboard. “We don’t have a Emily Quartermaine registered ...” he began in a puzzled tone and then stopped. “Unless you mean our Jane Doe. Nobody told me they had ID’d her or I would have...”

“Where is she?” Lucky broke into the male nurses train of thought impatiently.

“Let me see...CCU. Right down that hall.”

Without waiting to hear more, Lucky took off in the direction the nurse pointed in. Frisco began to, but Robin grabbed him. “CCU? Isn’t that the Critical Care Unit?” She asked the nurse.

The nurse looked down at the chart. “That’s right. Jane Doe..I’m sorry Miss. Quartermaine was admitted with severe hypothermia and an erratic heartbeat due to shock. Plus some broken bones, malnutrition. She’s listed as extremely critical.” The nurse looked up at them. “I’m sure her doctor can tell you more.” The nurse said the last in a voice that clearly indicated that he didn’t think there was that much more to tell.

Robin looked at Frisco. “What if she dies?” Her voice no higher than a whisper, Robin shook her head. “What if she dies?” “She won’t.” Frisco said with a calm he was far from feeling. “She won’t.” Lucky slowed down as he approached her room, his eyes narrowing as he caught sight of the stranger standing in front of her room. His hand went instinctively to the gun in his holster as he drew it carefully, discretely. “Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?” His voice was low and casual, the threat in it clear to the man standing there but not meant to be heard by the nurses and doctors in the ward. “Relax.” The stranger grinned but Lucky kept his face blank. “Tell me who you are.” he repeated his request in soft yet deadly tones. “Jesus. Gone from the agency a few short years and they’ve already taken my picture down. I bet they stopped telling stories about that time I single-handedly prevented the bombing of Buckingham Palace.” Alex Masters complained softly as he reached into his coat pocket. “Hold it.” Lucky began but Alex only shook his head casually. “You want me to prove who I am kid, than I have to get the ID out. Shoot me if you want but then you’ll be the one who has to explain the dead body to Donnelly and I know from experience that that is not any fun.” Alex reached into his jacket and pulled out his ID and showed it to Lucky. “You’re WSB.” “Retired Agent Spencer.” Alex smiled. “Very happily retired.” “You know who I am?” “I keep up with my old pals. Knowledge comes in handy every once in a while.” Alex returned his ID to his pocket as Lucky put his gun back into its holster. “That’s how I recognized Miss. Quartermaine in there and knew to contact Sean. Of course I haven’t yet told the hospital who she is...I wasn’t sure how much you wanted them to know.” “How is she?” Lucky stood at the glass and watched the doctors work on her, he could feel a wave of relief sweep through him as he found himself breathing and thinking and functioning for the first time since he had looked up in New York and realized she was gone. She was safe. She was just a few yards from him. In minutes he would be touching her again. He wasn’t surprised to realize that he was shaking.

“I’d say she’s lucky but I wouldn’t want to be accused of making bad puns or really bad jokes. Suffice it to say that it was in her best interests that I decided to spend a few weeks at my cabin this winter instead of going to the Caribbean to escape my troubles. If I hadn’t found her when I did....” His voice trailed off and he shook his his head.

Lucky turned to the ex-agent. “You saved her life. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“Don’t sweat it. I’m just glad that I was there. From everything I’ve read about her, she’s a tough fighter this Emily of yours.”

“Yeah.” Lucky’s voice was soft and his eyes were filled with tears. “It’s one of the things I love most about her even if I hate that she has to be that way. All I want to do is protect her and I can’t even do that.”

“Don’t blame yourself kid.” Alex’s voice was tinged with a slight hint of bitterness. “Faison is evil incarnate.”

Lucky’s eyes met the older mans and something he had heard rang through his brain. “Alex Masters. You wouldn’t be any relation to Jocelyn Masters?”

“She’s my ....”

“Alex!” Robin’s cry of delight interrupted whatever Alex was about to say as she flung herself at the other man. “God it’s so good to see you. It’s been so long...too long..since Paris or was it Cairo right after I first joined up.....”

“My favorite Scorpio.” Alex returned Robin’s hug. “Or at least the best looking Scorpio in my opinion.” His eyes traveled to Frisco with a mischievous glint. “I see the WSB still has you slumming with Song Boy here.” He caught Robin’s hand until her ring glimmered in the light. “I think there is a story here...” Alex began but stopped when the doctor emerged from Emily’s room.

“How is she?” Lucky asked.

The doctor looked at the anxious young man. “I’m sorry. Do you know our Jane Doe?” Lucky nodded. “Her name is Emily....Emily Bowen. She’s my fiancée.”

“Oh..” The doctor nodded and made a note on the chart he held. “If you would like to discuss your fiancée’s condition in private...”

“Whatever you need to say can be said here.” Lucky stated firmly. “This is my family.”

The doctor shrugged. “Miss. Bowen was suffering from severe hypothermia when she was brought in. Her body temperature was below what the body can survive at. Unfortunately or fortunately for Miss. Bowen, we have a lot of experience at dealing with hypothermia cases this far North. We were able to run her blood through a machine to warm it at the same time we gradually brought her body temperature back up again. She had arrested twice during the process, but that’s to be expected when the heart is under so much strain. Fortunately we were able to bring her back times relatively easy and her body temperature is slowly beginning to approach an acceptable level. She has a broken rib, what looks like its either a badly sprained ankle or a broken ankle, we didn’t bother x-raying it as our first concern was the hypothermia. There might also be a concussion and some other internal injuries, but again once we have her stabilized and her heart beat regulated again we’ll be able to look for secondary injuries.”

Lucky took a deep breath. Two times. Emily had died twice. He’d almost lost her for good twice. He didn’t know that the eyes he turned on the doctor were haunted with grief but the doctor, used to delivering this kind of information on an almost daily basis, found himself hoping against hope that young girl in the room he had just left would make it.

“Will she be all right?” Lucky asked the question as if he was afraid of the answer and he was.

“I don’t know. She’s been through a lot and the human body is incredibly fragile.” He sighed at the look in the blue eyes in front of him. “But it is also incredibly strong when it needs to be. I’d say the next 24 hours will tell us one way or the other.”

Lucky nodded, his eyes fastened on the unnaturally pale and still figure on the other side of the glass he didn’t hear Frisco arranging for a security detail to guard Emily or Robin call in to report to Sean. All he could focus on at the moment was the young woman lying in that bed and the growing certainty inside him that if she died, he would too.

An island in the Caribbean

Nikolas Cassadine had just about had enough. Five hours in a jet, one hour in a boat, and thirty minutes in a jeep alone with his one time stepfather was enough to make him realize that he could skip penance at Sunday Mass for the next decade. Maybe the next century. Or the next millennium.

He turned to Luke and turned down the radio on the jeep that seemed only capable of playing early Dolly Parton tunes. “Are you sure you know where you’re going?”

“Relax Vlad Junior,” Luke grinned mockingly. “Someone might get the impression that you don’t trust me?”

“Now how in the hell would anyone get that idea,” Nikolas grumbled as the jeep turned a corner way too sharp for his comfort. He was about to complain, yet again, when he looked up.

“Shit.” He exclaimed.

Luke nodded. “That just about covers it.”

Nikolas jumped out of the jeep as soon as Luke stopped it. He took a step back and stared at the massive fortress in front of him. It resembled the medieval castles he had once visited in Scotland. It looked completely out of place on the tropical island. Damn, Faison probably loved it.

“I’ve had lovers give me flowers and occasionally a tip on the tracks or free legal advice, but I’ve never had any of them give me a castle before.” Luke whistled sharply. “Hell, if I’d known she was this generous I’d have taken Hells up on her offer years ago.”

“Why does that not surprise me?” Nikolas muttered as he walked up to the gated entrance.

“What do you think you are doing? Faison might not be here but chances are he left a few heavily armed reminders of his presence hanging around. You just can’t walk in.”

Nikolas turned cold and angry eyes on Luke. “This madman tortured my brother. He is holding hostage a girl I once called my friend. And if I am not mistaken we have about seventy two hours before he kills my sister- your daughter. I am not playing games. I am damn well going in there and if anyone tries to stop me, they will regret it.” Nikolas barely stopped to see what effect his words had on Luke before storming off.

Luke whistled again before reaching into the jeep and pulling out an assault rifle. “Hold up kid.” Luke called. “If you are going to act like a Spencer than you might as well start thinking like one.”

And together the erstwhile pair prepared to storm the citadel in front of them.

Maine

Lucky sat in silence by Emily’s bed, listening to her ragged breathing. The doctors had come in a little while ago, drawing blood, changing IV’s, and slipping an oxygen hook up through her nostrils to help ease her breathing.

She hadn’t woken up yet.

Lucky ran a hand through his hair, not caring that the end result left it more messed up than before.

All he truly cared about was fighting for her life on that bed. He just prayed that it was a fight she would win.

He felt a gentle hand touch his shoulder and looked up, accepting the cup of coffee offered to him with a grateful smile.

“She’s going to be okay.” Robin said softly as she pulled up a chair and sat next to her partner. “We’re all going to be okay.”

“God I hope so. I really hope so,” Lucky expelled a jagged breath. “I’ve screwed things up so badly.”

“You’re not responsible for what happened to her.” Robin said firmly.

Lucky remained silent, the encounter in the hotel room with Liz burned into him. All he could think was that while she was out there fighting for her life, he’d been walking down memory lane with a woman who in the final analysis and in the present day meant so much less to him than she did. How could he explain the madness that had seized him when faced with Liz? The desperate desire to recapture what had not only been lost but shattered by the things that had torn him apart. The sixteen year old he had been could not have imagined anything that would have kept him from Liz. The man he was knew that the world was full of unimaginable things. What was it that old proverb said, when God closed a door he opened a window? Maybe Liz was his door and Emily his window, one his past and the other his future.

If she lived that long. If she forgave him for what happened between him and Liz. If she forgave him for bringing an evil like Faison into their life.

God. He didn’t care about that, about any of that. She could hate him forever, as long as she was alive to do it.

That was all he cared about.

He shook his head. “She wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.”

“You’re right. She wouldn’t be.” Robin said simply taking a sip of her coffee. “She would have died six months ago at the Outback.”

“That was pure luck.” Lucky whispered softly. “No pun intended.”

Robin smiled. “Haven’t you learned yet that luck is 95% of what we do Spencer? Throw in a dash of instinct and maybe a little skill, and that pretty much sums up the job. Sometimes the luck goes with us, sometimes against us. We screw up one day. The next we’re a hero. It’s like playing a game of Monopoly. Throw the dice right and you end up owning a hotel on Broadway. Throw the dice wrong and you’re lucky if you can buy Mediterranean Ave. At the end of the game it’s not who has the most money that’s important, it’s whose still in the game when the buzzer sounds. The buzzer just went off Lucky and as far as I can tell you are still in the game. You can either let yourself be wrapped up in guilt or you can play the hand you’re dealt. You’re choice. But take it from someone who knows about these things first hand- guilt sucks.”

The two friends exchanged a long look before Lucky nodded. “When did you get to be so wise?”

“It’s something about car accidents.” Robin smiled ruefully. “There’s nothing better to bring clarity to your thought process than a run in with a telephone pole.”

Lucky whistled. “I heard you cost Sean a rental car. I bet Frisco freaked when you decided to come to Maine instead of checking yourself into GH for observation.”

“Let me see....Frisco freak? Frisco go overboard on the overprotection? We couldn’t possibly be talking about the same Frisco?” Robin smirked slightly then openly grinned. “Let’s just say the fact that we were headed to a HOSPITAL helped. I think he figures if I pass out here, at least I’m in the right place.”

Lucky smiled. “Where is the old man?”

A frown crossed Robin’s face. “He’s filling Alex in on....things. Jesus Alex is going to be devastated. They were divorced and everything, but I know he still cared about Jocelyn. To find out that Faison....”

“We’re not sure she’s dead right?” Lucky asked hopefully.

Robin shook her head. “With the amount of blood stains we found at the cottage? It doesn’t look good.”

“Faison has a lot to answer for.”

“I know. At least we can hope that Emily escaping is going to throw a wrench into his grand countdown.”

“I wouldn’t count on it.” Lucky said uneasily. “I won’t feel better until Lulu is safe.”

“None of us will.” Robin said evenly. “Listen I’m going to go see if they’ve turned anything up yet. I’ll be back in a few, okay?”

Lucky nodded and with a gentle kiss to his cheek, Robin departed. Lucky traced Emily’s cheekbone with his thumb.

“I love you Em. I wish you’d wake up so I can tell you myself.” Standing and stretching, Lucky headed to the small bathroom attached to Emily’s room, intent on merely splashing some water on his tired face, he didn’t bother shutting the door all the way or turning on a light.

His hand froze on the faucet when he heard the door to Emily’s room open. Whoever it was was moving way too quietly for his taste. The doctors and nurses tread with heavy footsteps, the agents who’d been assigned to guard her moved with a clumsy loudness.

This person moved with a silent stealth that didn’t seem to indicate that they were there to take Emily’s temperature. His blood running cold, Lucky put his hand into his jacket and pulled out his semi automatic pistol.

He should have known Faison wouldn’t give up a prize like Emily without a fight. Holding himself still and ignoring the racing of his heart, Lucky inched towards the door, his eyes noting the intruders feet through the partially open door.

Moving fast, he opened the door and drew out his gun, immediately holding it steady on the intruder.

“Don’t move.”

The intruder looked up. Lucky recognized him as one of Faison’s men from his own imprisonment. One of the men who had taken particular pleasure in causing him pain. Any kind of pain.

“Nice to see you again, Lucas.” The man grinned, displaying two missing front teeth.

“Haven’t seen a dentist since our last encounter, Forest?” Lucky sneered, his gun not shaking at all. “Doesn’t Cesear include dental coverage in his benefits these days?”

“Always cocky Lucas. That’s what I liked about you. Even when you were strapped and tied down and naked and bruised within an inch of your life, you were still quick with those witty statements and those positive life affirming states we all so loved hearing. At least you were for the first day or so we kept you chained. After five or six days if I remember right, you weren’t nearly as cheerful.”

“Spend five days with you for company and you’d be slightly depressed too,” Lucky deadpanned. “Now I’d move away from the bed if I were you. Far awary from the bed. Unless you want a hole in the head to match the hole in your teeth.”

“Lucas. Lucas. Lucas. Still all talk, no action. Somethings never change I guess.” Forest said with measured contempt. His hand didn’t loosen on the syringe he held up to Emily’s IV. “I wouldn’t be so quick to call the shots. All it would take is one quick jab and what’s in the syringe is in the IV and crawling up your girlfriend’s veins. You didn’t think Faison was going to let your little friend escape?”

“Why not? He let me escape, didn’t he? The man is as far from infallible as my father is from sainthood.” Lucky kept his composure outwardly, but inwardly he had to keep forcing himself not to remember all the times when this man had called the shots and he had jumped. He wasn’t going to let Emily down again. Not ever again.

“I’m not going to ask you again to step away from her. Or I’ll kill you.”

“I don’t think so.” Forest grinned evilly. “You might shoot me but I don’t think you are willing to take the chance that I can push this syringe in first. The way I see it is YOU have no choice but to back down.”

Lucky shakes his head. “You still haven’t learned, have you. I’m a Spencer. I’m also a WSB agent. I’m not the helpless kid you used to get pleasure out of torturing, And I don’t like being told what to do.”

And despite Forest’s disbelief, Lucky casually took aim and fired.

While Forest was wrong about Lucky’s ability to go on the offensive, he had unfortunately been right about his ability to push the syringe into the IV before the bullet pierced his brain. The poison in the syringe filtered through the liquid in the IV and into the IV drip immediately. Once in Emily, the poison would kill her in a matter of minutes.

But it never got into Emily. Lucky’s first shot hadn’t been aimed at Forest, it had been aimed instead at the IV line running from the IV bag into Emily’s arm, neatly severing the plastic tubing.

His second shot shattered Forest’s skull.

Robin, brought back to the room by the sound of gunshots, whistled softly. “I guess all those extra hours of target practice have finally paid off. She held up the ragged edge of the IV tube. “Hell, I don’t think I could have hit that.” She kicked the dead body. “Now that I could have hit blindfolded, so don’t get cocky Spencer.”

Before Lucky could reply, he hears a stirring from the bed and turns to the bed.

“Em? Emily? Hell the IV... Robin get a doctor in here. “ The command was unnecessary as the gunshots brought three doctors, two nurses, a security guard, and a candystriper. They were all nonexistent as far as Lucky was concerned. All he cared about was the girl on the bed whose eyelids were slowly beginning to flutter open.

“Lucky?” Her voice was raspy and cracked, her eyes fuzzy and vague. Her words were slurred and sleepy. But they were coherent. “I heard a noise.”

“It was nothing.” Lucky soothed her quietly. “Just a movie on TV. Go back to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up. Promise.”

Emily half-smiled before her eyelids lowered. “I always sleep through the good parts, you know?”

“I know. Don’t worry. I’ll wake you up when the mushy stuff comes on.”

“OK.” Emily’s eyelids fluttered and the closed again as sleep overtook her. “Love you...” She whispered softly as she drifted back to sleep.

“Not half as much as I love you.” Lucky told her. “Not even close.” Once he was sure she was asleep, he turned to help Robin and the other agents check out the body and clean up the mess, making sure that they were as quiet as they could possibly be.

An hour or so later, Lucky still sat by her bedside. She hadn’t woken up again and he was beginning to be worried, especially when she started to move restlessly in her sleep.

He turned to Robin, who stood behind him talking to the agent who would now be stationed in the room with her.

“Does she feel hot to you?”

Robin quietly walked over to check, placing the back of her head against Emily’s forehead. She nodded. “I’ll go get her doctor.”

“No,” Lucky stood up. “I’ll get him. You stay with her.”

Robin frowned but nodded and watched Lucky head to the nurses station.

On the bed, Emily stirred again, thrashing slightly in the heat of the blankets.

“Shhhh, “ Robin whispered soothingly. “You’re safe Em. Everything’s going to be okay.”

“LuLu.”

“Lulu will be okay too. We’ll find her. Just relax.”

Emily’s eyes opened, their brown depths feverish. “You don’t understand. I saw her in the window.”

Robin frowned. “In the window? What window?”

“Faison’s window. With the women.”

“Woman? A woman has Lulu? Em do you remember what she looked like.”

“I can’t....brown hair. She had brown hair...” Emily reached out to grab Robin. “Please save her.”

“We will.” Robin gently disengaged Emily and laid her back down as Lucky came back with the doctor.

Robin backed away and let the doctor work, her mind whirling. A woman with brown hair. Brown hair. Oh God. What if......Turning, Robin fled from Emily’s room and headed down the hall to where Frisco and Alex had taken over an empty office.

Before she could reach them, her cell phone rang. She was almost afraid to answer it.

“Robin?”

She breathed a deep sigh of relief. “Nikolas?”

“Yeah. Listen. Luke and I are at the island Helena gave Cesear and I think we found something.”

Robin’s professionalism took over.

“What?”

“I’m not sure, but it looks like Faison owned some property in Canada. Nova Scotia, near Halifax.” He gave her further directions. “Can you have someone check it out? He might have Lulu or Emily there.”

She assures them she will and it doesn’t occur to her until after she hangs up that she hasn’t told them that Emily escaped.

Robin holds onto her dead cell phone for a moment. Halifax. It makes sense. It would explain how Emily ended up here in Maine. She starts to head towards Frisco to tell him what Nikolas has discovered when she stops.

A woman with brown hair.

Her mother’s voice on the cell phone.

“What if she’s alive?”

Before she can think better of it, Robin turns and heads down the corridor in the opposite direction, away from Frisco, towards the exit and the waiting rental car.

Nikolas disconnects his cell phone and looks at Luke. “Robin’s going to have the WSB check into it.”

“Good.” Luke voice is deceptively casual. “Now can you tell me what you plan on doing about them?” Luke points in the direction behind Nikolas.

Towards the dozen or so heavily armed guards rapidly approaching.