Emily and Lucky make the ride to the Queen of Angels in an uncomfortable silence, punctuated moments of pure awkwardness. When Lucky pulls the SUV into the parking lot, he is relieved to see the extra security details are already there. The main church has two men at each entrance. A second building, housing the church nursery and parish hall is not guarded as well since it will not be used by the guests. He spots Frisco and Robin in the parking lot, along with AJ, Monica, Ned, and Alan. From the corner of his eye, he sees Emily tremble. “It will be okay,” he whispers. “Everything will go according to Frisco and Robin’s plan. Trust them. Trust me. “

“I do,” she smiles gamely at him. “I trust you with my life.” Just not my heart she adds silently as she lowers her eyes.

Lucky says nothing. He’s been struggling all night trying to figure out what it means. If he’s fallen out of love with Liz, does that mean he’s falling in love with Emily? What is love anyway? All he knew was that falling in love with Elizabeth had been so easy, so unlike how he felt for Emily. Elizabeth had made him feel like a hero. It had been that simple. With Emily, he felt a thousand different things -anger, frustration, fear, desire, need- but not one of them left him feeling particularly heroic and not one was simple.

Emily gets out of the car and smiles at her family, patiently waiting for Lucky to walk next to her, his body a partial shield just in case.

She heads into the church and stops when she sees Sonny standing there. A huge smile lights up her face and she lets him pull her into a secluded corner and into his embrace, mindful of the dozen or so WSB agents watching them carefully.

“I didn’t think after I talked to you last night that you would still come,” she confesses softly, “but I am so glad that you are here.”

Sonny wipes a tear from her face. “You called an end to our romance, chiquita, not to our friendship. You need all of your friends around you this morning. Where else will I be?”

Emily looked at him. “I think I was a fool to call off our romance. You are a very special person Sonny Corinthos.”

Sonny smiled. “You change your mind on the just friends thing, you call me and I will be there.”

“Be careful. Someday, I might take you up on that.”

“I’m counting on it,” Sonny grinned. “Of course with the way Spencer is looking at me right now, that someday might never happen.”

Emily shakes her head. “Lucky and I aren’t even really friends anymore.” She looks around as more and more people file in. “I have to go. Will you come by the mansion for the reception afterwards? Please? For me?”

“For you? Anything.”

Emily smiles and walks away, ignoring Lucky’s scowl she makes her way to Lark and Taggert who are standing by the side entrance.. “Is everything taken care of?”

Lark nods. “I double checked with AJ and your mother. Everything is set and ready to go for the private entombment in the family crypt and a reception at the mansion. Reginald is bringing your grandmother and the private nurse your mother hired.”

“Good. Thank you,” Emily says to Lark. “When this is over, I think we need to talk about giving you more responsibilities at ELQ.”

“You’re kidding?” Lark smiled as Emily repeated the statement.

Taggert watched Lark for a moment. “You should do that more often.”

“Do what?” Lark says puzzled.

“Smile,” Taggert replied. “You light up the room when you do so, you know.”

Lark blushed and Taggert’s grin grew wider and then fell as he spotted the couple getting out of the limo that just pulled into the parking lot..

He flips open his two way radio.. “ The rat and the cheese are here.”

Lark looks up as Jason and Carly Morgan enter the church through the main door. “So which one is the rat and which is the cheese?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Taggert replies, grinning at Lark’s puzzlement.

Emily is talking to AJ, when they both spot Jason and Carly enter. AJ moves to kick them out, when Emily stops them. “Don’t. Just let them be. Jason was his grandson too and Carly is Michael’s mother.” Emily says smoothly, her eyes meeting Lucky’s who nods. Fighting her own impulse to kick them both out, Emily remembers her fathers saying about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. She looks at Jason and for a minute their eyes meet and she swears she can read concern in them. She shakes her head, she can’t afford to believe that Jason cares about her any more than he cares about the rest of the Quartermaines.

Sonny walks up to Frisco and Robin who are standing in the back of the church, two way radios on communicating with the agents who are stationed throughout the church and the church grounds. Sonny gestures to Carly and Jason. “You sure having them here is a good idea.”

“You’re here, aren’t you?” Frisco replies casually. “I guess that means this even is open to all kinds of riffraff.”

Sonny ignores Frisco, an act which gives him tremendous pleasure. “You okay Robin? I was worried about you when this Neanderthal broke into my place and told me you were missing.”

Robin smiles up at Frisco. “You did that for me?” “Breaking and entering is only one of the many criminal acts I would do for you.” Frisco grins. “Of course the fact that the police commissioner was my partner in crime does lessen the chances that I’ll ever get to prove my love by going to prison for you.’

Robin’s eyes widen. “You and my uncle worked together?”

“I know. The oceans didn’t rise. The ground didn’t shake. And best of all, we didn’t end up murdering each other.”

Robin shakes her head in wonder, ignoring Sonny’s impatience. She wasn’t worried. For the first time since arriving in Port Charles, she had everything under control. In a matter of hours, the murderer of Edward Quartermaine would be behind bars and with luck, the information that would prove charges of terrorism in international court against the Bolivian rebels would be in the hands of the WSB.

Emily stood at the podium, her eyes focused on the sea of faces in front of her that almost blurred, one into another. She spotted Nikolas, Tammy, her family, Tony Jones, Bobbie Jax, Mac Scorpio, Felicia Scorpio. Lois and Brooke had come to sit next to Ned. Emily smiled. It was great to see Ned lose some of that bitterness he had carried with him these last few months. She hoped Lois stayed around a little. The rest of the church was filled to capacity with ELQ executives and workers.

A hush has fallen over the crowd and she knows that they are waiting for her to say something. She looks at he solid mahogany coffin standing in front of her, draped with a flag because of her grandfather’s military service. The priest had eulogized her grandfather. Her father had spoken. Her brother. Lee Baldwin had spoken about their lifelong friendship. Nikolas had read a telegram from his mother talking about the days when she had worked at ELQ. Emily could have sworn she saw an indefinably sad looking Luke in the back of the church, but when she had looked again he had gone.

Now it was her turn. Her turn to eulogize this man who had meant so much to her life.

Her voice shaky but growing stronger, she began. “My grandfather and I did not always get along. There were times when I considered him too old fashioned and he considered me too young to know what I was talking about. There were times when we disagreed and times when we downright disliked each other. But through it all, he never stopped loving me and I never stopped loving him. Then my life fell apart. When I couldn’t put the pieces of my life back together on my own, my grandfather put them back together for me. He gave me a purpose in life. He taught me to believe in myself. He taught me that the only way you loose in this life is when you stop trying. He taught me that there are some things which are worth fighting for and others that you need to let go, no matter how painful that process can be. Those things that bring you love and happiness are worth fighting for. Loving and being loved by my grandmother for so many years had taught him that lesson.Edward Quartermaine played many roles in my life. He was my savior, my mentor, my tutor, my guardian angel, and my friend. But first and foremost he was my grandfather and I will miss him every day for the rest of my life. I love you grandfather. I will try to make you proud of me. I know that wherever you are, you will always be there when I need you.” Emily finished softly.

She moved to sit down next to AJ, whose arms went softly around her as brother and sister stood for the hymn that would begin the processional to the Hearst that waited outside.

After the funeral

Emily sat quietly in the front row, not wanting to get up, wanting to postpone a little longer the moment she would have to say her final goodbye.

“Emily?” She looks up and sees Nikolas looking at her, his brown eyes wide and filled with concern. “I wanted to apologize for yesterday. You know that your friendship is more valuable to me than any amount of money.”

Emily shrugs, not believing him but too emotionally drained to create a scene and say what she is really thinking. “It’s okay,” she says instead. She looks up at him. “Are you happy?”

Nikolas struggles for an answer. He fell in love with Liz believing that his brother was dead. Lucky’s return from the dead had shaken their love, but they had managed to stay together. But lately, the last few weeks, something had been wrong between him and Liz. He looked up as Lucky headed towards them. He didn’t think Liz loved Lucky anymore, but he wasn’t sure which was why he hadn’t protested when she had gone to Brussels to visit Sarah. Or why he hadn’t called her in a week or so. He was giving her space. He turned back to Emily. What was the question? Was he happy? He nodded. “I’m very happy.” And as he said he realized that it was true. He and Liz were happy together, despite everything.

Emily smiled gently at him. They would never be as close as they had once been, but as long as he left ELQ alone they didn’t have to be enemies either. “I’m glad.” she says simply.

“You ready?” Lucky approached the two of them, still very uncomfortable in his half brother’s presence. Emily nodded and started to walk away.

“Nikolas.” Lucky stopped his brother and reached into his pocket and handed him back Liz’s phone number. “I think you are the one who should be calling her. Something tells me you are the one that she is waiting by the phone to hear from.”

Nikolas looks at his brother in shock and Emily stares in amazement as she and Lucky head down the aisle together.

“What was that?”

“I decided that what you said up there was true. When you find happiness you have to be willing to fight for it.”

“But you just gave up Liz. You could call her? Go see her? You could win her back?”

“I could. But I don’t want her.”

“But you just said that you were going to fight for the woman you love?” Emily was puzzled.

Lucky grinned at her. “I know. I am.”

At the front of the church, Lark looks at Taggert in dismay. “I left my purse in the balcony when I was up there checking on the placement of the flowers around the church for Monica. I have to go get it.”

Taggert shake his head as he looks about the still crowded church. No one looks like they are leaving, there are crowds of people milling about inside and outside the church. “Wait a minute,” Taggert calls as Lark disappears into the crowd and a second later he follows.

The balcony is little more than an alcove above the alter area where the choir stands and sings. A stair case leads from the side of the alter area up to the balcony. Lark opens the door to the stairwell and quietly heads up the stairs. They didn’t have a choir and instead used a soloist who used a piano in front of the church, so the balcony has been deserted for the service. Her purse should be fine. Lark opens the door to the balcony quietly and immediately spots her purse in the corner. She goes to grab it, looks up, and freezes.

“Johnny...” She backs up slowly as Johnny advances, a deadly looking pistol in his hand.

“Lark.” He grins. “As much as I would love to enjoy our reunion, I think I have better things to do. “ He raises the pistol and is about to shoot, when Taggert opens the door. Johnny’s aim switches from Lark to the detective and he fires, Taggert goes down. The gun had a silencer and Johnny prevents Lark from screaming by grabbing her and holding the gun with the barrel pressed against her chin.

“One word and I blow your head off,” Johnny whispers coldly. Lark stands in shock, watching the pool of blood gather around Marcus. She can tell he’s still breathing but knows he needs a doctor and fast. She looks around her, placed over the alter, the balcony is partially open to the rest of the church but the noise from the crowd and their placement above the line of sight means that it will be hard for her to attract the attention of the WSB agents roaming the church.

Staring at Taggert, she realizes that she has to try to get him help even if it costs her her life and she prepares to scream, when the door from the stairwell opens again.

“Lark I needed to ask you about...” Emily begins, but then stops cold when she sees Johnny.

A wide grin breaks out on Johnny’s face. “Why Miss. Emily, you just made my day a whole lot easier.”

Emily falters at the look of pure evil on Johnny’s face. When she spots Taggert on the floor, she ignores Johnny and drops to the floor. removing her black jacket, she uses it to try to staunch the bleeding.

“I wouldn’t do that. He’s a dead man anyway. Not right away, but he’ll bleed to death soon enough. I wanted him to suffer a little before he passed on.” Johnny said in a casual voice as if he was discussing what coffee to order at Starbucks.

Emily looked up as her eyes met Lark’s. “Let her go. I’m the one you want.”

“You’re right. You are.” And with that Johnny took the gun and smashed Lark on the side of the head. A dazed look crossed Lark’s face before she crumpled to the floor.

“You’re crazy.” Emily says shakily.

“Nope. Just following orders. My orders are to eliminate you and anyone who gets in my way.”

“Are those the orders my brother gave you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“Actually I’d rather not,” Emily muttered her heart beating as the gun dug into her rib cage. “So what’s the plan now? It’s going to be a little hard to kill me and make your escape with the church crawling with police and federal agents. If I’m dead, what reason do they have for letting you live? You’re not stupid enough to think that they are just going to smile and wave you on your way.”

“Shut up. I never did like you. You were always a whiny little brat.”

Emily’s eyes darken with anger but she works to control her rage. This is the man who has tried repeatedly to kill her. Who killed innocent bystanders to get at her. Who might have killed or at least seriously wounded Taggert. Not too mention hitting Lark over the head. She takes a deep breath and regrets it a minute later as the gun moves deeper into her rib cage. This wasn’t as they planned it, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t work.

“So kill me,” Emily dares him softly. “Kill me and try to get out of here alive.”

Johnny looks around him wildly, already aware that his original plan, hide out in the balcony and shoot Emily as she walked out of church, was out of the question. Still, if he could get her out of here he could still accomplish what he had sat out to do, kill Emily.

“I’m getting out of this and you are going to help me,” he says, roughly grabbing Emily by the arms and pulling her to her feet and with her in front of him, he makes his way down the stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs and before he opens the door to the main part of the church, Johnny pulls Emily closer to him. He pulls the black hat further down his forehead and puts on the dark sunglasses.

“Great disguise,” Emily says sarcastically. “Sunglasses. Dark hat. Sure to blend in with the crowd.”

“Shut up,” Johnny growls or I’ll finish you here and to hell with the consequences.”

Emily remained silent. “Just remember,” Johnny whispers as he opens the door, “stay quiet, no surprises, and we’ll just slip out.....”

He stops as he opens the door and finds himself facing at least a dozen WSB agents, their pistols aimed at him. The church is empty, but he can see crowds of people out in the parking lot.

He looks at Emily in shock but she merely grins. “It’s called a wire. I’ve been wearing one all morning. Just in case.”

Johnny recovers quickly, moving the gun from her rib cage to her temple. Emily flinches but remains silent.

“You let me go or I kill her.”

Frisco comes to stand beside Lucky, who’s entire being is focused on that gun pressed against Emily’s head.

“You hurt her and you’ll be dead before you you can finish your next thought.” Lucky says quietly.

Frisco moves away from Lucky, so that Johnny has to divert his attention between the two of them. “Now Junior, don’t go making assumptions. No one’s been able to prove that D’Angelo can think.”

Johnny looks from one to the other. He moves the two of them so that they are standing in front of the alter. “You don’t fool me,”he says with a laugh as he pulls back the safety on the gun. “You might have been willing to let your partner and your father die, but you won’t let her die.”

“Are you sure about that?” Lucky pulls back the safety of his own gun and advances. He ignores the fear hammering away at his own heart as he looks into Emily’s brown eyes as she stares at him silently. He sees Frisco maneuvering into position and knows that he has to buy them time. He knows that if he lets D’Angelo take her, Emily will be dead. “What if you’re wrong?” Lucky says softly. “What if the truth is that I don’t give a damn who has to die as long as you pay for what you did? You killed innocent people. You kidnapped a WSB agent? You shot into a crowded restaurant. You shot up the car I was driving.” Lucky shakes his head. “All of these attempts and not much success. How the hell did Jason end up hiring you anyway? You’re given one simple direction and you keep botching it up. I’d say that pretty much means that you are a failure.” Lucky finished softly.

“Shut up,” Johnny said frantically as he jammed the gun against Emily’s temple and she reluctantly cried out at the sharp jabbing pain.

Lucky’s eyes narrowed. “Hurt her again and I’ll kill you.”

Johnny laughed. “Do you think I’m afraid of a kid like you?”

“You should be. I’m not the same kid you knew.”

“But you ain’t a cold blooded killer either,” Johnny grinned backing up so that they were right against the wooden partition separating the alter area from the rest of the church.

Out of the corner of her eye, Emily sees a familiar figure raise a gun, biting her lip, she lets herself become a dead weight and fall back against Johnny just as a shot rings out in the church.

“My son may not be a cold blooded killer,” Luke Spencer says from the side of the church as he lowers his weapon and hands it over to the nearest WSB agent. “But I am.”

As Lucky moves forward to help Emily and Mac heads up the stairs to see how Taggert and Lark are, Frisco turns to Robin “Not quite the way we planned it, but still....”

He stops as he realizes that he is talking to air and Robin is not there.

The nursery

The silent figure makes its way quietly down the hallway, following the sound of a child’s laughter as it heads for the church nursery. The nursery is a room off the main parish hall and today the building itself is quiet, except for the laughter of children as the classroom used as a nursery draws closer. Quietly the figure opens the door, prepared for to face several children and a few adults to get what it wants, the figure quietly draws a gun and pushes the door open.

And looks in puzzlement at the empty room with the lights off.

“No, you’re not imagining things,” Robin Scorpio’s voice cuts across the quiet of the room. “You did hear children laughing.” She holds up a tape player. “You didn’t think I would risk the lives of real children, did you?”

“This isn’t what you planned, is it? You didn’t want to kidnap Michael, that is who you are here for, isn’t it? But when you realized that Johnny had failed in his mission, I’m assuming that you had meant a quiet assignation, not a hostage taking drama, you saw it as a blessing. Every WSB agent in the place had their attention on Emily and Johnny. No one would notice you separate from the crowd. AJ and the rest of the Quartermaines weren’t going anywhere until they knew Emily was okay. So you figured you had time to slip in, take Michael, and leave.”

“Only by now my partners have taken care of Johnny and that leaves me to take care of you.” Robin says softly. “I have the tape recorder. You wouldn’t want to make this easy on both of us by just making a taped confession and then letting me arrest you for the murder of Edward Quartermaine, the attempted murder of Emily Quartermaine, conspiracy to commit treason, and all the other bad things you’ve been up t o lately.” Robin suggests softly.

“I have a better idea why don’t I kill you instead.”

“I think I like my idea better,” Robin says softly as she turns on the light behind her and looks up into the murderer’s face directly her gun drawn so that their barrels were aimed at each other.