Barbara Jean Spencer swallowed hard, blinking furiously to hold back tears, dangerously close to falling. It was hard to believe that in a matter of days her whole world had changed. It wasn't even her world but that of her sister-in-law's, that of her former husband and that of her missing nephew. She shivered, pulling her coat tighter around her slim frame. Bobbie's eyes traveled around the small group. Alexis was a mess, silently shaking, her grief obvious as Ned struggled to keep her from collapsing. The Quartermaines stood silently, for once, perhaps still in shock from the recent events, perhaps out of respect, who could tell.
It was really Laura whom Bobbie's eyes zeroed in on. Her neatly done up hair from hours earlier was now down, flowing with the winds from the water, her simple dress, now covered by a long black coat, but it was her eyes that transfixed Bobbie. Her gaze was down, her face expressionless and her eyes dark, almost dead. It appeared as though Laura was simply going through the motions as was expected of her. Bobbie blinked, curious as to what was running through Laura's mind right now. She quickly dabbed the tears with her crumpled tissue but continued her gaze on Laura. Her curiosity grew as she wondered what Luke was thinking right now. Bobbie shook her head, deeply saddened as her mind wandered back to the minister's voice.
It was altogether a tragedy.
Alexis could barely see straight as the wind whipped her hair about. "How could this have happened?" she whispered hoarsely. She struggled from Ned's grip, he eventually relented and she stumbled forward, suddenly free. Alexis lowered herself and felt the cold hard ground beneath her knees. She touched the dewy grass, allowing her hand to gently graze over it before her eyes rose and Alexis gently touched the tombstone before pulling back, her anger welling up inside her, before rising again, this time determination overcame her.
"I will do right by this, I promise you Stefan."
*****************************************
Jax's Penthouse
Jasper Jacks, deep in thought, furrowed his brow as he attempted to decipher Jerry's scrawled notes in reference to the deal with the stock brokers in London. Finally, resolving himself to allowing Jerry's assistant, by far, the only employee who could even begin to read Jerry's penmanship to figure out the garbled notes. Jax rose as he dropped his pen onto his desk and wandered over to the pinball machine, needing distraction from the day's event, a funeral he chose not to attend. Suddenly a rapping at the door caused Jax to jump, clearly startled.
"Who is it?" he snapped, a little more angry then he intended to be as he crossed the room briskly.
"It's me Mr. Jax!" came the timid reply. Almost immediately, Jax'sexpression softened as a smile crept across his face.
"V, sorry 'bout that, I'm just a little tense today," Jax chuckled as he opened the door, allowing V to hustle into the room and remove the paperwork overflowing from his desk.
"How do you live with this clutter?" V said disapprovingly as she yanked open a drawer, stuffing in as much paper it would contain before slamming it shut as Jax stared, shocked at V's demeanor as she opened her backpack and produced a large book, or at least what appeared to be a book.
"V, what's going on?" Jax stammered as he walked slowly towards the desk. V carefully opened the cover, revealing to Jax what appeared to be a very old storybook. His eyes focused on the blurred ink, trying to read the words.
"It's Greek mostly," V supplied helpfully, "I couldn't read it either so I took it to the University and found a professor who could tell me what it said."
Jax pulled up a chair, intrigued as V moved her chair over, giving him room. "See, I was clearing out my parents house for the Realtor and came across this. My Father said it belonged to his Mother, Irenie."
"Okay," Jax said, allowing V to continue her story, despite the obvious confusion.
"Anyway, turns out that Irenie was not Hungarian like I suspected. See our family is from Hungary, my Father was only a small child when the family immigrated to the United States. I was never told that our family originated from Greece."
Jax's eyes rose with interest, "like the Cassadines," he commented.
"Sort of, they're from Russia actually, but that's beside the point. When I was mulling through this, I realized that this was actually a diary. My grandmother must have had this when she was about 19. Now that thrilled me to no end but it wasn't until I saw this," V said as she carefully moved the pages until she was halfway through the book, "it was this that made me realize there was a lot more to my past than I thought."
Jax leaned over and peered at the blurry image, before shaking his head, "I can't tell what it is."
V nodded, "yeah I know, me neither, it wasn't until I saw this by chance on the front page of the newspaper that it became a whole lot clearer." V then produced a snipped out newspaper photo with the attached article. "See this? And then compare it to the one in the book."
Jax took the magnifying glass V offered him and closely examined the portion of the photo before moving his eyes back to the one in the book. After a few moments his eyes rose, "they're the same!" he exclaimed and V nodded eagerly.
"Now, take a look at the rest of the picture," V advised as she unfolded the photo for Jax. Jax's mouth dropped open.
"Oh my god!" he said astonished as he gently took the photo of StefanCassadine, covering his face as he was led into the courtroom several months earlier. On the middle finger of his right hand was a large ring, the Cassadine ring. Jax compared the two images again, "they're a match, a definite match."
Jax dropped his hand momentarily as he turned to face V, "You're a Cassadine V?!" Jax exclaimed.
******************************************
Wyndemere
"It was a beautiful service Alexis, I'm certain Stefan would have wanted it held near the ocean," Bobbie said quietly as she sat tensely on the edge of the chesterfield in the den. Guests were chatting quietly in groups, filing in and out of the room as a picture of Stefan stood nearby for people to observe. It was an old portrait, maybe ten years, showing Stefan standing straight and tall, a solemn expression covering the pride that emanated from him as an eight year old Nikolas stood in front of his Uncle wearing are remarkably similar solemn gaze. There had been dozens of others Alexis could have chosen from but this one, she felt best represented the man she had loved as her brother her entire life. A man and the child he adored or more specifically, a Father with his son. Alexis had chosen not to reveal to anyone the real cause for Nikolas's disappearance, Stefan's last wish.
"Any word on Nikolas's whereabouts?" Bobbie asked concerned. Alexis shook her head quickly, "no, ten days and not a trace but I won't give up. I don't care what it takes, I'll get Nikolas back."
Bobbie nodded, it was all she could do in a situation she had very little knowledge of. "My thoughts are with you of course, I mean that," Bobbie stressed.
Alexis nodded vaguely, "thank you Bobbie, I know."
Bobbie glanced around her, noticing the crowd thinning out, she rose slowly, "perhaps I should be going and anything that I can do, just let me know."
Alexis gave Bobbie a tight smile, "of course, thank you for coming, Mrs. Lansdbury will show you out."
Bobbie nodded uncertainly before allowing Mrs. Lansbury to show her to the front door.
**********************************
V jerked back, "no! No thank you, I've got enough weird family members to suit me, I don't need more. No, see my grandmother worked for the Cassadine family when she was young, before she immigrated to Hungary. See, it took awhile for the professor to decipher the language because it was a mixture of Greek and Russian." V turned and grabbed her bag and fished out a handful of loose leaf papers with words scribbled over them. "See how these two words combined, make one? Well, interestingly enough, when the Romanovs got wind of the revolution, the takeover being planned by the Bolsheviks, the word of imminent death for all royalty spread like wildfire. Families had to scramble, they had to actually smuggle their way out of the country, it was the only way they could survive.Unfortunately the Romanovs didn't take appropriate measures, the Tsar believed that his family could be safely exiled in England, after all the King of England was his cousin but the King refused and we all know what happened to the royal family."
V gave Jax a cryptic smile as she took a sip of her water, "now it's gets REALLY interesting. Most families fled Russia through the North, Finland and Norway. Others went through Poland, it was more expensive but quicker, but one family went South."
Jax smiled slowly, the pieces were slowly coming together, "the Cassadines, going through Rumania wasn't a wise choice though, if they were planning on settling in Greece."
V's grin grew wider, "no, but they led the Bolsheviks to believing they were crossing the border there. The Cassadines were really high stakes, extremely rich and very ruthless and those were two things Russian people hated during the revolution. They wanted this family bad."
Jax nodded thoughtfully, "but how did they make it to Greece in one piece?"
"Well, first they didn't leave Russia right away. From what's written in the book, they slowly made their way to Baku, on the Southwest coast of the Caspian Sea where they stayed for almost a year. Then they went through Turkey, making their way to Istanbul before crossing the border at Enez into Greece where they settled. When you're rich, you can do almost anything, especially in those days. The Cassadines are living proof of that."
Jax leaned back in his seat, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "well, their family history certainly takes first prize for most interesting. But, one thing, how come Irenie knew all this, it couldn't have come from the history books?"
"She was a servant, her family had been with the Cassadines for generations, that's where the mixed Russian-Greek language comes in. It was a kind of secret language only used when trading secrets and information but vital to the Cassadines, simply because they didn't know who to trust so this was instrumental in their survival and of course during their years on the run, it was natural for the servants to learn the language too. The family abandoned the language once they had secured their safe arrival in Greece but I suppose the servants found a use for it on their own so of course my grandmother would know it. Do you know what Irenie did when working for the Cassadines? She was a nanny and guess who for?"
Jax's eyes bulged slightly, "Stefan Cassadine?" he exclaimed.
V shook her head, "you're early a generation. Try Mikkos, Anthony, Victor and Petros Cassadine. I guess that theory of six degrees of separation really works," she commented thoughtfully.
***************************************
The Brownstone
Bobbie sighed as she laid down on her double bed for the first time since waking that morning for the early shift at the hospital. Her arm searched for the beside lamp on he nightstand before finding it and she clicked it off before falling into an uneasy sleep, thankful that Lucas was spending the weekend with his Father at the cabin. Without warning, Bobbie bolted upwards in bed to the sounds of her phone shrieking her awake.
"What the hell?" she mumbled drowsily as she turned, fumbling for the phone.
"Hello?" she groaned loudly.
There was silence at first, then Bobbie sensed heavy breathing. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and snapped on the lamp.
"Hello?" she said more clearly.
More silence, Bobbie grimaced, "listen, if you're not gonna talk, I'mhanging--," she started before being interrupted.
"Barbara?"
Bobbie let out a gasp, unsure if she'd heard what she thought she just heard.
"St-Stefan?" she asked quietly.
"Barbara?"
This time Bobbie was sure of the voice, it was strained, almost pained and there was definite panic in his voice but it was unmistakable. Stefan Cassadine, back from the dead.
"Barbara, I need your help, please I don't have much time."