Prologue

"Hey you," said Nikolas, crossing over to Liz's bed, where she lay curled in
the fetal position. " I waited for you after your last class today, but you
never showed up. I thought we were gonna go to lunch. What happened?"

"I got sick," Liz mumbled turning away from Nikolas, and facing her
nightstand. The nightstand that held her cassette player and the cassette
player she had switched off as soon as Nikolas entered her room.

Of course, Nikolas had heard it on his walk down the hall towards Liz's door.
It was Lucky's voice. The same tape that played everytime Liz thought she was
completely alone. He had never let on that he heard it, and he probably never
would. It would save them both a lot of embarrassment. She the embarrassment
of having someone realize that still, almost a year after his death she
listened to it. And he, the embarrassment of admitting that she'd never get
over him.

"You seem to be 'getting sick' a lot lately," sighed Nikolas, not believing
her lame attempt at an excuse.

"What are you, my doctor now!?" snapped Liz, sitting up on the bed and
looking straight into Nikolas' concerned eyes.

No one had been able to convince Liz to accept the Art Academy's invitation
to enroll in their prestigous art program. Try as they might, Liz wouldn't
have it. She had instead decided to enroll at PCU. She had questioned this
decision more times than she could count. Why couldn't she leave Port
Charles? What unseen force kept her there, even when the pain of "Lucky"
memories was almost to hard to bear. Even when, lately she heard his voice at
every turn.

Nikolas was anything but taken aback by her sudden outburst. She had been
doing that a lot lately. Snapping at the slightest provocation. He was
worried about her, and it seemed the more he worried, the more he alienated
her.

"Liz...I'm just...I'm just concerned for you, ok?"

"Well, you know what Nikolas?" said Liz, rising from her bed. "I can take
care of myself. I don't need you or anybody else telling me what to do all
the time. I've takeing care of myself my entire life. If I feel like skipping
school, I'll skip school. I'm a big girl and I make my own decisions. PERIOD!"

Nikolas knew when Liz got like this there was really no argueing with her. He
could not believe that anyone could backslide this much. She was more
stubborn, and her behavior was more erratic then when she had first arrived
in Port Charles. It had happened overnight - the change. One day she had been
in total denial, not owning up to Lucky's death at all, and the next she had
begun to act as if he never even existed. Therapy sessions with Gail had
become a thing of the past, and so had most of her relationships in Port
Charles. It was as if she was trying to self destruct. The only reason that
Nikolas still talked to her was because he wasn't afraid to FORCE her to
talk, and because...he loved her.

"Liz," he began, slowly. "Please don't be like this. You know that Lucky
wouldn't have - "

"DON'T!" Liz said, cutting him off in mid sentence. "Don't talk to me about
what Lucky would have wanted for me. Or what Lucky would say! Lucky's not
here ok?! Lucky's gone! Lucky left me!"

Nikolas rose from the bed and wrapped his arms around Liz, trying to comfort
her. Trying to make it alright for her.

"Elizabeth..." he wispered gently in her ear.

Liz quickly pulled out of the embrace. "Don't call me that!" She yelled,
backing away. "It's LIZ, ok?! It's Liz.  Elizabeth...I don't know who the
Hell that is. Somebody that...somebody that he invented. We'll he's gone, and
she's gone too. I think maybe she died right along with him in that fire,"
she chuckled bitterly.

Nikolas' face contorted, squinting in pain at the person standing before him.
"Liz you're talking crazy," he muttered, looking down at his hands.

Liz threw her head back and sighed loudly. "Oh, now I'm crazy. Well Nikolas
you know what...if I'm so crazy why are you here? Why do you give a damn? I
mean, haven't you gotton the hint? Have you NOT noticed that you're the only
one that still talks to me?" She asked walking closer to Nikolas. "My dear
friend Emily hasn't called me to go shopping in a good 3 months, Tammy had to
fire me because I never came to work...Hell, even Gram has started putting in
more hours at the hospital, just so she won't have to see me."

Nikolas stared at her. "Liz you won't let anyone in. Everybody loves you but
- but it's just so hard to reach you."

"Well why are you still here then!!!" she screamed, looking down immediately
afterwards. When she finally looked up, tears began to cascade down her
cheeks. "What do you want?" she asked, her voice almost too thick with
sadness to comprehend.

Nikolas narrowed the gap between them and smoothed a hand down her cheek,
wiping away her tears. "You," he answered through his own burgeoning tears

Liz's eyes rose to meet his, unsure of what she had just heard. Not sure if
she wanted it repeated. Nikolas swallowd hard against the lump in his throat.
He had been hiding his true feeling for weeks now. He had to get this off of
his chest, no matter what her reaction would be.

"Liz," he wispered. "Somewhere in the middle of all this crazines..I - I fell
in love with you."

*~*

"Damn it!" yelled Lucky as he once again struck out after trying to dismantle
Faison's surveillance camera. The process had been slow and tedious, and now
it had proved a failure once again.

The last few months had been tortourous for Lucky, Faison constantly giving
him little tidbits about the goings-on in Port Charles. Never too much info,
just enough to peak his interest. Just enough to build a substantial
cliffhanger for the next go round of his sadistic game.

Trying to escape had become his new favorite past time, even though he
realized that Faison was watching. Lucky had no choice but to keep his mind
occupied with something...anything. Anything to keep from going insane inside
those four walls. He had to keep trying to get out. Each time, he could feel
himself get closer. He'd never give up.  Lucky had felt an overwhelming urge
to break free during the last few weeks. Something told him that it was now
or never.

Faison's threats on Elizabeth's life were frequent, but Lucky had come to
realize something: it was a bluff. At least at this stage of the game it was.
For whatever reason, a reason Lucky had not quite figured out yet, Faison
needed Lucky. His plan against Luke would only work if he had Lucky in his
possession. Knowing this, meant knowing that if anything ever happened to
Liz, Lucky would indeed escape and one of two things would happen: Lucky
would get to his father, thus foiling the master plan or Lucky would kill
Faison. Neither of these were options that Faison wanted to contend with.

Lucky also knew that Faison's men weren't the only ones "watching" Elizabeth.
On one of Faison's many home movies of Liz at Kelly's, Lucky had spotted yet
another watch dog, this one not belonging to Faison, but to Sonny. Lucky had
sighed in relief, realizing that Sonny had probably planted men on Elizabeth
as soon as he had "died." Lucky remembered smiling when he spotted Rick on
the videotape. He remembered trying to hide his glee from Faison.

"Good morning Mr. Spencer," smiled Faison as he slowly and menacingly walked
through the remote contolled door. " I trust your break out activities have
kept you entertained in my absence."

"Yeah, it's better than Seinfeld," sighed Lucky flattly, sitting down on the
sickeningly soft bed.

Faison chuckled at Lucky's sarcasm. "Lucas, you do amuse me so," he snarled."
I brought something for you...a gift of sorts. More LizTV."

Lucky slowly walked over to the table in front of the screen pulling out the
chair. He fixed the collar of his flannel shirt and sat down hard against the
chair. 'Never let him see how much it means to you to be able to see her,'
always blared in his head whenever Faison brought in a tape, but he knew that
his face betrayed him. He knew that Faison could see it in his eyes.

Faison leaned back in his chair, clicking "play" on his remote. The picture
came in clear. It gave way to a house. A white house, seemingly surrounded by
trees, lots of trees.

'The cottage,' Lucky thought. 'How the Hell did he get footage of Nikolas'
cottage.'

"You'll have to excuse me," Faison said, interrupting Lucky's thoughts. "I'm
afraid I've grown remiss in my visits to you...so this tape...is abit less
than live. It's about a week old."

Lucky just glared at Faison. The captor that loved to play mind games. He
silently turned back to the screen. Suddenly Nikolas walked up the front
steps, followed by Elizabeth. 'Wait...what was that?' thought Lucky 'They're
holding hands...or something...yeah, they're holding hands. Lucky stop being
so paranoid, stop thinking like that. Your letting Faison mess with your
head. He KNEW this would get to you...she looks so beautiful, but so
sad...God, I just want to touch her.'

A lump began to form in Lucky's throat. 'Wait...there going inside. I wonder
if she's still helping him decorate...I don't see Emily...no, they couldn't
still be decorating it's been too long...it's been...months, it should be
fall by now...yeah, the trees are brown it's fall....'

Suddenly Lucky's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Faison's cracked
voice yet again.

"Awww...don't they look cozy?"

Lucky turned in his seat and glared again. He wanted to kill him. He silently
vowed to make his own face the last one Faison saw before he died.