Sometimes being raised a Cassadine, especially “The Cassadine”, left you feeling a little too arrogant for your own good.

A fact Nikolas Cassadine discovered when he tried to shut the door on a very angry and very dangerous Jason Morgan.

“I don’t think so.” Jason said the words in a cold even voice as he kept the door from opening with his foot. “I came here to make some things so damn clear that even you can understand them.”

Nikolas looked into Jason’s blue eyes. Maybe it was a sign of just how emotionally spent Nikolas was. He’d spent the last week worrying over what was going on with Emily. Today he’d discovered what Emily was hiding and in the process he might just have lost her forever. Or maybe it was just stupidity. Either way he wasn’t in the mood to be polite to Jason, someone he only tolerated because he knew how much Morgan loved Emily. Nikolas scowled. “Whatever the hell you have to say to me, can you just say it so we can both go on with our lives.”

“Assuming you will have a life when I’m done with you, aren’t you Cassadine?” Jason advanced, leaving his men to wait for him outside. “I should just shoot.” Jason removed his gun from its holster and casually twirled it. “It would be so easy. One shot through the head and you’ll never have the chance to break my sister’s heart again.”

“My relationship with your sister is none of your business.”

“The hell it isn’t,” Jason turned over the coffee table, sending the books and dishes on it crashing to the floor. “Everything to do with my sister is my business. It will always be my business. You can’t handle that than you stay the hell away from Emily. Better yet stay away from her anyway, since all you’ve ever managed to do is break her heart. All Emily has ever done is love and forgive and all you’ve ever done is hurt her. Not again. Not ever again.”

Before Nikolas could react, Jason grabbed him by the collar, pushed him up against the wall, and delivered a hard punch to Nik’s eye, jaw, and mouth. When Nik had slid down the wall nearly unconscious with blood pouring out the side of his mouth, Jason grinned with a grim sense of satisfaction.

“You’re a bastard Cassadine, but you are a lucky one.” Jason shook his head. “For some reason, despite everything, my sister still cares about you so I won’t kill you. Not today anyway. But you will stay away from Emily. She deserves someone who better than you. Someone who won’t lie to her. Or use her.”

“I know,” Nikolas said softly. “She does deserve better than me. Unfortunately for you Emily loves me and I love her.” The words were not nearly effective as they would have been if they hadn’t been said between lips that barely opened a jaw he wasn’t sure he could move. “And I’m not giving her up.”

“I believe that is out of your hands. My sister values honesty above many things. I think that’s the result of growing up in the Quartermaine mansion. You lied to her and I don’t think she will ever get over that.”

Jason had just voiced Nikolas’s deepest fear but he wasn’t about to let Jason know that. “Emily loves me.” Nikolas repeated the mantra that was all he was hanging on to. “When she calms down she will trust that love and she will forgive me.”

“Right. And they say I’m brain damaged.” Jason muttered underneath his breath. “Whatever. In the meantime if I hear of you coming within 500 feet of her you’ll know why people in my line of work don’t have to bother with restraining orders.”

“Why? Because they don’t bother with morals.?” Nikolas quipped.

Jason’s eyes narrowed. “Emily told me not to hurt you. But an accident that has nothing to do with me can always be arranged, so keep it up Cassadine.”

After a tense moment of trying to outstare each other, Jason moved towards the door.

“Jason.”

Jason turned, his face expressionless and remote.

“Whoever sent the pictures to Emily wanted to hurt her.”

Jason nodded. “I know.”

There was a long moment where Nikolas eyed Jason steadily for a moment before nodding, accepting without words the idea that Jason would do all he could to keep Emily safe.

Jason turned to go.

“Jason.”

This time with the slightest air of impatience, Jason turned.

Nikolas took a deep breath and expelled it slowly. “Take care of her.” He added after a heartbeat. “Please”

Jason nodded and this time as he turned to leave there no one called him back.

After Jason left, ignoring the pain in his eye and jaw, Nikolas reached for his car keys. After a moment, he put the keys down and called a cab.

He had someplace he needed to be. Someone he needed to be near even if she didn’t know he was.

As he moved, a wave of pain emanated from his jaw. Maybe he could fit in a visit to GH first. Nikolas’s Cottage
The Next Morning

Wearing only a faded pair of denim pants and a white T-shirt, his hair still messy from sleep and his eyes only slightly bloodshot, Will descended the stairs into Nikolas’s living room.

And stopped dead still.

“I hope you got the license plate of the truck that hit you.” He offered the words with slightly less sympathy than he normally would have. Nik hadn’t been around when Will had finally gotten in last night, which considering that Will had spent the entire evening helping to nurse Emily’s broken heart was probably for the best. That, coupled with the fact that Jess had spent the night at Jason’s to keep Emily company, did not leave him feeling particularly warm towards Nik this morning. He hid a grin as he took in Nikolas’s black eye and split lip. Apparently he wasn’t the only one not feeling particularly warm towards Nikolas this morning. He turned and headed into Nik’s kitchen, removing a package of frozen peas from the refrigerator and tossing them to Nikolas who sat on the couch.

Nik grabbed the bag and hesitantly placed it against his eye.

“You want to tell me what happened?”

“Not what. Who.”

“Wait a minute let me guess. Let’s see. He’s six feet tall, broad shouldered, heavily armed, and not likely to play nice with the boy who trampled over his little sister’s heart.” Will finished sarcastically.

“I did not....” Nikolas protested but the protest died when he meet Will’s cool stare. “At least I didn’t mean to.”

“Cassadine,” Will shook his head and regarded Nikolas with an exasperation only an old and dear friend could get away with. “Don’t play games with me. You can dress it up in as many fancy terms as you want and try to justify it with that standard Cassadine “It’s for your own good” line, but the truth is you lied to the one person you were supposed to be honest with.” Will paused. “You know I wonder if your father used that line on your grandmother when he kept her drugged and locked away.” Will shrugged when Nikolas just glared at him. “All right. Off topic and all that. But I bet he did. I can just see old Stiffy declaring.....oohf” Will felt the pillow hit him. “Okay. I get the point. I don’t say anything negative about your family and you don’t bring up anything about mine.” Will stood up. “The point here Nikolas is that you screwed up and you screwed up big time. Your lucky Jason didn’t kill you. If it wasn’t for the fact that Emily would have killed him, you might not be here right now.”

Nikolas looked up at the mention of Emily’s name. “How is she?”

Will looked down, remembering the feel of Emily in his arms as they danced at Luke’s before Jess had joined them. “Broken hearted. What else did you expect?”

“Damm it. She wasn’t supposed to ever find out about Liz and I.” Nik’s words were muffled since it was difficult for him to move the side of his mouth.

“Right. Just like Luke was never supposed to find out about you. You were never supposed to find out that Stefan was your father. Stefan was never supposed to find out about Alexis being his sister. You would think that you Cassadines would have learned by now that every time you keep a secret it blows up in your face.”

Will held up his hands at Nik’s glare. “Peace. You know as well as I do that every negative thing I say about your family probably applies twofold to mine.” Will grinned. “Besides you know that you’ll always be more than just a Cassadine to me.” His voice was syrupy sweet and he batted his eyes at Nik.

Nik laughed, a sensation that sent waves of pain flowing through his head. He looked at his best friend. “You’re in a mood this morning.”

“Blame it on my having to have slept alone for the first time in three months.” Will scowled. “So, have you figured out how you are going to fix this yet.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know if I can fix it.” Nik paused, studying the bruises on his knuckles. “After my.... “ conversation” with Jason, I went over to the mansion.” Nikolas’s eyes grow darker with emotion. “I just needed to be near her. To make sure she was okay. I stared at her window for hours.”

Will hid a smile as he fought the temptation to tell Nikolas that Emily spent the night with Jason at the penthouse. After a moment, Nik continued.

“ You can’t build a relationship on a lie. And you are right too. I thought I was protecting Emily by keeping the truth from her. The fact that Liz and I had had sex didn’t seem to have anything to do with my feelings for Emily. I broke it off with Liz before I realized I was in love with Emily. I just thought that if I told Emily that Liz and I had been lovers, it would bring up Katherine and that whole ugly affair and Emily would never have given me a second chance. I can’t lose Emily. I couldn’t then. I can’t now. Somehow I have to make Emily see that what happened with Liz has nothing to do with our relationship. A task which would have been easier if she didn’t have those damned pictures burned into her head. Dammit I could kill whoever sent those pictures to Emily. I know exactly how I’d do it. Somewhere on the Cassadine Island there has to be a torture chamber that is in good working order. I’d find it and I’...” Nikolas shook his head. “Revenge isn’t what is important here. Rebuilding Emily’s trust in me is. Maybe if I talk to her and....” His voice trailed off as he became aware of the fact that Will was staring off into space, a glazed look in his eye.

“Rappaport. William. Wills.” The hated nickname from grammar school in the sharp tone of their old headmaster made Will turn his head. “Do you mind? I could really use your help figuring out how to get Emily to trust me again when she won’t even talk to me. We need to have a plan of attack, a strategy, a course of action......” He paused, wondering if his ancestors were rolling over in their graves because he, a Cassadine, was asking for help with devising a plot. Mikkos probably was if no one else.

“No problem,” Will smiled. “Between the two of us we could come up with a plan to reunite the Beatles if we had to.” Will paused, his grin growing wider. “But first can we go over that part where I’m right one more time?”

Jason’s Penthouse

Emily said nothing as she looked at Jason’s hands across from her on the table. She had a feeling that the bruised and scraped knuckles had something to do with Nikolas. Inwardly she shrugged. She trusted Jason not to have killed or seriously maimed Nikolas. And she supposed if given the choice she would far rather see Jason with bruised knuckles than a smoking gun.

Not to mention the idea of Nikolas hurting even half as badly this morning as she was, felt good. Maybe that made her a horrible person, but it was how she felt. She was hurting so she wanted Nikolas to hurt too.

She sighed. Either she wasn’t as far removed from the third grade as she liked to believe or she had been hanging around the Quartermaines for far too long.

Jason looked at his sister, hating the pain he heard in that sigh. He should have killed Cassadine. His blue eyes met Jessica Buchanan’s as they shared a moment of concern. Gathering his courage, Jason did what he would only do out of love for his sister.

He decided to engage in small talk.

He smiled softly. “So, what are your plans for today?” He asked the question and then sat silently, hoping that one or the other of them would answer. Small talk didn’t work when it was a monologue.

“I don’t know,” Jessica finished off the French toast Graciella had made. “I think Scream 3 is playing at the movies. It has that hot new actor, Jonathan Jackson, in it. You remember him Em, he was in that issue of Seventeen you bought me in the hospital. What do you say Emily? You up for seeing a movie where everybody gets killed.”

Emily grinned suddenly. “Tell me that one of the people who gets killed has dark hair, dark eyes, and is a dead ringer for a certain lying jerk that we all know and I’m right there.” Emily quipped maliciously.

Jess returned her grin. Okay. Last night “It was I can’t believe Nikolas did this to me.” and now it’s “I want to hang him by his toes and turn the screws.” First disbelief. Now anger. This had to be an improvement. A sign that she was at least processing what had happened between her and Nikolas. Maybe by the end of the day Emily would be ready to at least listen to Nikolas’s explanation.

Jessica looked at the evil gleam in Emily’s eyes.

Then again, maybe not.

Next: An afternoon at the mall: A deadly deal, a bittersweet moment, a romantic interlude, an angry confrontation, and hearts aren’t the only thing in danger of getting