She could feel the sun warming her skin as she lay on the soft sands, the ocean providing a quiet rhythm for her to sleep by. She was relaxed and more than half asleep, when she felt a gentle touch trace the line of her back and soft lips pressing gentle kisses on her neck and nuzzling her ear.

“Wake up sleepy head.”

“Want to sleep.” Emily grumbled even as she could feel the desire building. Still as much as she loved his touch, loved him, she had been up half the night in negotiations and all she wanted to do was to relax. His hand undid the back of her bikini. Okay maybe that wasn’t all she wanted to do.

“You’ll miss the lunch buffet.”

“I just bought the hotel and almost half this island. I think I can order room service later.”

She heard him chuckle and the sound of his laughter, his happiness, lit more sparks of desire than his hands were. Sighing, she turned around and looked up at him through her dark sunglasses.

“This was supposed to be a working vacation, Spencer. I finished the work, now I just want to enjoy the vacation.”

“Ahhhh,” Lucky lowered himself until he was resting next to her, propped onto his elbows, his face inches from her. “Is my poor little corporate tycoon tired?” His voice was low and teasing, his hands tracing patterns on her skin that made her heart race.

She stuck her tongue out at him and closed her eyes.

“Aren’t you at least curious about the security system at this place since that’s what you told Donnelly you needed me here for? You did ask the President himself to arrange to have me here as a favor, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t ask, I suggested.” She slipped the sunglasses up and looked into his blue eyes. “Are you complaining?”

“Let’s see ...you dragged me away from a stakeout in the wilds of Alaska with no running water or electricity where its freezing cold and brought me to a Caribbean Island with a five star hotel on it on the pretense of needing my help evaluating a state of the art security system just so you could ravish me.” He lowered himself a little closer. “I do have a complaint about that.”

“Lucky?” She started to sit up.... “Oh God Lucky you’re mad at me for making the WSB send you here and interfering in your job and I’m sorry I just missed you like crazy and I do need a good security system on this island because of the politics of the region and after what happened before......”

“Emily.”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t ask me what my complaint was.”

“Oh.”

“Emily.”

“Yes.”

“Ask me.” The last was more of a growl than a complete sentence.

She took a deep breath, “Okay what is your complaint?”

He grinned. “I don’t think you’ve ravished me enough.”

“You don’t think I’ve....ohhh....”

“So.....what are you going to do to rectify your mistake?”

“Anything you want me to.”

“Anything?”

“Anything.”

Emily smiled as he lowered himself on top of her, suddenly glad that they were on the private beach attached to the hotel. It had been sneaky of her to get him here under false pretenses but she had needed this, needed him so very much..... She pushed him slightly away.

“Em?”

“You were wrong,” the words were said with a fierce intensity. “I might not have needed your help, but I will always need you.”

He stared into her eyes for a long moment and then nodded. “I love you.”

The words were a whisper and a vow and a promise that would never be broken. Emily’s reply was lost as his lips once again claimed hers.

That was when it turned wrong. The lips on hers weren’t his. The body pressing into her was too heavy. The touch of his hand meant to hurt, not arouse.

And the smell. God she knew that smell.

She tried to scream but found it muffled by his hand over her mouth. And as she looked up, it wasn’t blue eyes she was looking into but his eyes.

He smirked as he pulled his hand away.

“What did you do to him? Where is he?”

“Where he belongs. With me.” Faison’s expression twisted and Emily felt the burning in the pit of her stomach. “He’s mine. He’s been mine from the start.”

“No he’s not. I won’t let you hurt him.”

“Silly child. I’m not going to hurt him. He’s my toy. I always play nicely with my toys.”

“He loves me.”

“How can he? I own him body and soul. Especially the body.”

Emily closed her eyes. There it was again. The implication just like it had been in the cell when he had been holding her hostage. What had he done to Lucky? She was still terrified from her own ordeal and he had held her for what....days? How long had Lucky been his hostage? Oh God what had he done to Lucky for all those months? What would he do to Lucky now?

“You’ll find out.” The voice seemed to answer the question in her head as Emily woke up with a cold start. It wasn’t real. Just a dream. It wasn’t real.

But whatever Faison did to Lucky, that was real. Too real.

Emily shivered. She couldn’t change the past. But she could stop Faison from hurting Lucky again.

No matter what.

Emily closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

“Tell me again,” Nikolas Cassadine’s voice dripped with thinly concealed hostility as he glared across a row of crates at the man he most wanted to strangle at this very second, “why this was necessary?”

Luke Spencer shrugged, a mischievous gleam in his eyes as he glanced at his once upon a time stepson. “The name of the game is secrecy Batboy. This is the last place Faison would bother to look for us and the easiest way to get close to his villa without his noticing.”

“Only because this is the last place any sane person would ever be.” Nik scowled as his eyes raked the inside of the cargo truck the three of them were riding in. “I could handle the weeks of hell on that damned fishing boat and sharing a room no bigger than a closet with you for those aforementioned weeks of hell. I even didn’t hesitate to jump out of a port hole into freezing water--”

“Didn’t hesitate?” Luke interrupted him with a howl of laughter. “Didn’t hesitate? Hell yes you hesitated. Hesitated. Whined. Moaned. Complained. We practically had to push you into the water.”

“Like I said,” Nikolas continued as if Luke hadn’t spoken. “I didn’t hesitate to plunge into freezing cold water for the good of the cause.....but this? Riding in the back of a truck full of crates of chicken over roads that only barely deserve to be called roads. Not to mention that this vehicle doesn’t even begin to superficially resemble a truck. This is too much.”

“Yo! Mr. I’m In The Mood To Feel Sorry For Myself, remember why we are doing this and then tell me that this is too much.” Luke shot back.

Nikolas fell silent. Lulu. Damn. Spencer had him. The truth was that he would endure worse than this to save his little sister.

A soft hand touched his shoulder and he found himself staring again into a pair of beautiful green eyes. “Come on Nikolas,” V coaxed him gently. “It hasn’t been that terrible has it?”

Nikolas smiled. No it hadn’t been that terrible and the parts that hadn’t been terrible were mostly those centering around those same green eyes. Nikolas felt his breath catch at the smile on her face. Don’t go there Cassadine, he warned himself as he drew in a ragged breath. You’re married. Remember Elizabeth. The woman you’ve spent the last few years with. The one you promised to love forever. The one you had planned on having children with and growing old with.

Until you discovered that whether she knew it or not, she was still in love with your brother.

Which left their marriage where exactly?

Nikolas shrugged. His personal life could waint until they had rescued Lulu. In the meantime, he smiled at V. “No it hasn’t all been terrible.” He reached out to stretch his stiff arm and winced when it collided with a chicken. “Although I do think we could have done better than the back of a chicken truck.” Nik glowered at Luke again. He didn’t mind the chickens if they had all managed to stay in their crates. As it was, after three hours on the road, a term he used lightly since every time they hit a bump, and there were a lot of bumps, the truck flew at least five feet in the air; more of the chickens seemed to be out of their crates than were in the crates. Chickens to the left of them, chickens to the right of them......Nikolas swore under his breath. Another favorite poem he never wanted to hear again. He stared at Luke for a long moment, if he didn’t know better he would swear that Spencer was deliberately letting the chickens out.....

V shook her head at the two men and decided that rescuing Lulu was going to be a breeze in comparison to keeping Luke and Nikolas from killing each other. And it would be a shame wouldn’t it if those huge brown eyes closed forever..... She shook her head again. Don’t think about it. Don’t go there. He’s married, right. And after the debacle with Simon do you really need a man to complicate your life right now...

V sighed again as she realized with a sinking feeling that this man had already complicated her life.

“Have either of you thought about what we are going to do once we get to Faison’s villa?” V asked the two men as she settled down with her back to a crate of clucking chickens.

Luke smirked and Nikolas found himself grinding teeth that were already becoming well worn. “Spencers don’t plan. They improvise.”

“Right and that’s worked so well for you in the past,” Nik muttered.

V sighed for a third time. “Look as much as I’d like to believe that we can just walk right up to the door and ask Faison to pretty please release Lulu, we know that it’s not going to be that easy. From the stories Mac used to tell me, Faison is one cold hearted bastard and beating him will be tough.”

A dark look crossed Luke’s face. “Then we’ll just have to be tougher.”

“Not tougher,” V corrected him softly. “Just smarter. Here is what I think we should do.....”

And as V’s voice lowered, a curious silence descended in the back of the truck as if even the chickens were listening.

The Mountainside

Robin Scorpio, up until a few days ago one of the shining stars of the World Security Bureau, shivered as she sat by the small fire, staring out at the black night waiting impatiently for it to lighten to that shade of gray that indicated that dawn was approaching.

Her hand tightened on her gun almost instinctively. Sitting and waiting was not her strong suit, especially when the enemy was nearby as she was almost sure Faison’s men were. They’d manage to make it a good distance from the crash site before the darkness, the rugged terrain, and Taggert’s broken leg made it impossible for them to travel any further. Truthfully, she had been surprised that Taggert had been able to make it as far as he had, each step had to be an agony for him.

Okay Scorpio, you know the drill. When in you’re a tight situation, the first thing you do is take stock of your situation. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t all that bad either. She and Emily were bruised but otherwise unhurt. The weather was chilly, but nothing near the cold weather it could have been this time of year in this region. She still had her guns and she knew that Taggert was carrying hers. She knew the language, knew the area, could figure out a way to the rendezvous point if they could get off this mountain.

Now your enemy. Okay, knowing Faison his men are well trained. Ruthless. And judging from the plane that shot us down well armed. So we can assume that they have the latest in gizmos and gadgets to be found on the black market. Not quite up to what the WSB had at their disposal, but not bad.

And a lot better than anything she had on her at the moment.

Okay, assume the worst. Faison’s men are out there with heat seeking or some other kind of infrared equipment. The fire isn’t going to hurt anything because it’s blocked by that stone over hang. And we need the fire to keep the animals away. So let’s assume they found the crash site. I was careful to make sure that we didn’t leave any trail. If we did leave something they could pick up, that mile or so we walked in the creek is bound to erase it. Still Faison’s men aren’t about to give up. They’ll use satellite or helicopters to search for us. We need to get off this mountain. Not only to get Taggert to a doctor and call for some back up, but because its a hell of a lot easier to lose yourself in a town or village than it is a mountainside where you are the only human figure for miles.

As soon as it became even a little lighter, she’d wake Emily and Taggert up and they’d continue down the mountain. She’d have to hope they came across something, anything, that they could use as transportation because as long as they were on foot and Faison’s men were not, there would be no real chance of escape.

At least, she sighed softly, at least if Faison is coming after us than he’s not going after Lucky and Frisco. She pulled her arms tighter around her knees at the thought of Frisco. She missed him. Badly. In the years since they had become partners and then lovers, they had rarely spent a night apart. Even in the worst times, even amidst the awkward tension that descended when she had violated orders to head to Canada to see if Faison was holding her mother, even when they were most unsure of each other, they had been together. It was almost as if their physical bodies knew by instinct what it had taken a long time for their spirits and souls to recognize, that they were incomplete without each other. Robin smiled into the darkness.

If someone had told her after the devastation that was Jason that she would find love again, her reply would have been a hopeful maybe. If someone had told her she would find it with the man who had been a distant “uncle figure” to her most of her life, she would have said they were insane. Frisco wasn’t only older than her, he was her complete opposite in so many ways. She was a self-confessed neat freak. He was a slob. She had to think things through a zillion times before acting. He was pure impulse and instinct on feet. She was shy, sometimes reserved. He was anything but. Yet she loved him as she had never loved another. Not Stone. Not Jason. And he, he loved her as no one else ever had. For who she was. Flaws and all. She didn’t have to be perfect for him or watch what she said or monitor her thoughts. There was no need for St. Robin. There was only Robin. And he believed in her. He didn’t try to protect her from life, he taught her to embrace it. He stood by and let her fall because he knew that was the only way to teach her to fly. And because he believed in her, she had learned to believe in herself again. He gave her back the Robin she had once been, the Robin that she thought long gone. The Robin that she wanted to be.

She loved him. Not because of who he was, but because of who she was when he was around.

“Scorpio?”

She looked up and a wan smile crossed her face. “Marcus you should be sleeping.”

Marcus Taggert shifted his leg. “Can’t this thing feels like its on fire.”

Robin bit her lip. “It’s probably just a bad....”

“Cut the act Scorpio. You’re almost as a bad a liar as your uncle. The legs broken and judging from the sheer agony tearing me in two, I’d say it’s broken in a few places.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. Damn, are guilt trips genetic in your family or what?” Marcus scowled. “Look no one put a gun to my head and forced me onto that plane with you and Emily. I did it because I wanted to. Period. Whatever happened after that, aint your fault it’s his.”

They both knew who he was talking about.

Robin sighed softly. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why did you get on that plane?”

Taggert gestured at a sleeping Emily. “Because of her.” A bemused look crossed Taggert’s face momentarily driving out the creases of pain. “I never thought I’d fall in love, but Lark.... she kind of slipped in when I wasn’t looking. One minute she was just a “person of interest” and the next she was all I was interested in. Period. I love her. More than I thought I could. More than I knew I was capable of.” He shook his head in wonder.

“She’s lucky to have you.”

“No, I’m the lucky one. Lucky to wake up next to her. Lucky to be the one she falls asleep next to.” He looked at Robin. “You know the feeling.”

“Yeah I do.”

“Emily....what she did for Lark I can never repay. What Lark did by helping Johnny, almost cost Emily her life. Yet Emily not only forgave her, she helped Lark with the authorities and gave her a promotion. Not many people give you a shot at redemption.”

“From what I’ve heard, Lark deserved that second chance.”

“Yeah, but deserving something and getting it aren’t the same.”

“No they’re not.”

“It doesn’t look good, does it?” The words broke the soft silence that had descended between them. “And my leg isn’t helping matters.”

“We’re going to get off of this mountain. All of us.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep Scorpio.”

“It’s Robin.”

Marcus shook his head. “Robin was a kid. Sweet. Innocent. Let herself get in over her head because she fell in love with the wrong person. You’re not that kid anymore. You’re WSB.” In the shadows, he didn’t see the lost expression that fell momentarily on her face. You’re strong. Smart.” He smiled. “You remind me more and more of your uncle every day.” He grinned. “Of course your uncle would never get himself involved with a character like Jones.”

Robin smiled. “That’s the Devane in me. Devane women have always been attracted to the charming rogues.”

“I’ll go with the rogue part but I don’t think I see the charm.”

Robin’s quiet laughter carried softly through the night.

On the road.

“You’re awfully quiet, Junior.”

Lucky didn’t look up from his laptop. His eyes were blurry and he was exhausted, but his instincts were wide awake. The closer they got to the rendezvous point, the more awake those instincts seemed to become. “I just want to make sure that every last detail is taken care of. Normally, I’d leave the details to Robin but.....” His voice trailed off momentarily until he determinedly brushed the emptiness aside. They were safe. They had to be. If he stopped believing that, he wouldn’t be able to function. And there was still Lulu to rescue..... He continued on. “I’d feel better if Alex was with us.”

“It’s better that he enter the town on his own. Faison doesn’t know that Alex is working with us and the less Faison knows the better our chances. My guess is that he has every road leading in or out of this region watched. He’ll know were here long before we see him.”

“Right. A trap. So shouldn’t we be in disguise or something?”

“Nope. I’ve always been a believer in the straight forward approach. No tricks. No games. No cons.”

“Since when?”

“Since the sooner we take Faison down the faster we can go after Robin. And Emily.”

Lucky took a deep breath. “Right. So how do we avoid making sure that the trap doesn’t close with us tightly in it.”

“I said we were going straight in. I didn’t say we were going to be stupid about it.” Frisco’s jaw tightened as he maneuvered the jeep around the bend. “I have some surprises planned for our old friend.”

“Like Alex?”

“Alex is one of them. Corinthos is another. I may hate the man’s guts for what he did to Robin, but he isn’t about to let anything happen to Lulu.”

Lucky shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t like to think about Sonny too much...or the ex-mobster’s relationship with Emily. Emily had picked him. He knew that. He thanked God for that every day. But it didn’t mean he wanted the man within a mile of her.... an attitude he was trying hard to change because he knew that Sonny and Emily were close friends. In many ways, Sonny was Emily’s link to the man Jason had once been, the brother who would once have done anything to keep her safe. Not the man he had become after his insane cousin had gotten her claws into him. Jason had turned into a man who would do anything to hold onto a child that wasn’t even his to begin with, and that anything had included killing his grandfather and allowing an assassin to take aim at his sister. Lucky shrugged. He doubted that anyone could really explain what had happened to change Jason Morgan. Or maybe Jason Morgan had always been that ruthless and that cold. Lucky didn’t know. In some ways didn’t care. He was just glad the man was locked away where he couldn’t hurt Emily again. Ever.

“Junior?”

Lucky looked up. “Yes, daddy?” He replied with a smirk and grinned unrepentantly at the look Frisco shot him.

“Did you put all of your toys away?”

Lucky smiled. He was about as heavily armed as one man could be, not to mention that he and Frisco had both picked up a supply of explosives and other neat little gadgets at the safe house in Rome. “Let’s just say that I don’t think I could make it through the metal detector at the airport.”

“Good.” Frisco had armed himself equally well.

“So,” Lucky flipped shut the lap top after studying the village and Faison’s villa itself. Too bad he couldn’t tap into Faison’s security system, but that would take at least a couple of hours if he didn’t want the intrusion picked up by Faison’s computers. Besides, the rendezvous was in town and hopefully they’d pick up Lulu without ever having to get near the villa. “So,” he began again as he pulled his gun out of his shoulder holster and checked it casually. “What do you think the odds are?”

“Knowing Faison?” Frisco did some mental calculations. “Fifty to one.”

“Fifty to one.” Lucky nodded. Fifty of the highest paid and best trained mercenaries on the market. “They haven’t got a chance, do they?”

“Not a one.” Frisco replied in a voice laced with quiet determination. “Not a one.”