The Big House In The Woods

The plane is missing.

15 year old Jonathan Spencer tightened his hold on his little sister as they sat on the deck of their home, staring out at the forest in front of them.

Jonathan loved this house, had since the first time he and his dad had seen it while his mother was in the hospital. This house was the first real home he had ever had, the first place where he had gone to sleep at night absolutely sure that he would wake up in the same place.

The plane is missing. They have a search party out looking but the weather is bad. The blizzard hit harder and faster than we expected.

The plane is missing.

Jonathan shivered and a tear traced itself down his cheek as he cuddled closer to Paige’s warmth. The adults in the lit room behind probably thought he was out here comforting his little sister. The truth was that he needed to be close to her. She was his family. Maybe the only family..... He stopped himself. He wasn’t going to give up. His mother had taught him that. All those years when it had been just the two of them she had never given up, never given in to the terror.

He had to believe they were coming home. He had to. It was almost Christmas, wasn’t it. And didn’t miracles happen at Christmas all the time? And he believed in miracles. His father had taught him that. His father’s presence in their life was a miracle, something he was grateful for every single day.

He couldn’t lose them. Not now. Not after everything. Not this way.

He felt a sleeping Paige stir in his arms and he bent down and kissed her brow softly. “It’s okay Paige. Mom and Dad will be home soon and everything will be okay. I promise.”

Standing behind him in the center of the French doors leading to the deck, Laura Spencer turned and buried her head in her husband’s chest. Their daughter Ruby, took a step forward and then stopped. Encouraged by the gentle pressure of her cousin Michael’s hand, Ruby stepped forward again.

“Jonathan?” She hesitated, unsure of what to say. “Do you want to come back in?”

He shook his head. “Not yet.” He paused. “Any word yet?”

“Dad just called from the airport.” Michael Quartermaine approached his cousin softly. “They had to pull the search planes back in because of the storm, but as soon as there’s a break in the weather they’ll be right back out. You know Dad is using every resource ELQ has to try to find Aunt Emily and Uncle Lucky.” He shrugged helplessly. “They’ve even contacted Maxie and her Dad to see if the WSB could help. They’ll find them, Jonathan. You know how Maxie feels about your Mom.”

Jonathan nodded. After his uncle Jason’s death saving his lover Maxie Jones from Helena Cassadine, Maxie had become a member of their family. She’d left her job as a homicide detective in Texas behind her to take a job consulting for the WSB, a position that kept her busy during the day yet still allowed her to come home each night to her 18 month old son, Jake. Maxie was intensely loyal to all of the Quartermaines for all that she was often heard complaining that they threatened to smother her sometimes.

“I know.” Jonathan smiled wanly as Ruby took the quilt she was holding and wrapped it around his shoulders. “I just hope they find them before its too late.”

The Canadian Coast Near Nova Scotia

“Emily....Em. Come on sweetheart. Open your eyes.”

“Lucky?” Emily moaned as her lids flickered open and her eyes began to slowly focus. “What happened?” She tried to stretch and a burst of pain shot through her arm.

“Shh...Don’t move yet, okay? I think your arm’s broken and you’ve got a nasty gash on your forehead but you’re going to be okay.”

She believed him. She would always believe him. Slowly she nodded. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” He smiled as her eyes narrowed. “Honest. I’m not playing the he-man right now. I’ve got a few bruises and I would say that mad passionate sex might be difficult for a little while but I’m okay.”

Her eyes closed from relief and remained closed long enough for him to worry. “Em?”

She opened her eyes. “How long is a little while?”

Lucky laughed. “God I love you Emily Spencer.”

She smiled at him. “Good because you’re stuck with me you know.” She looked past him at the wreckage of the plane that was still smoldering twenty or so yards behind him. “What happened?”

“Near as I can tell the storm blew us off course, the instruments weren’t working right, and the pilot misjudged the altitude.” Lucky hesitated. “He didn’t make it.”

Emily shivered and Lucky opened up the emergency blanket he had managed to grab with the first aid and emergency supplies before the plane had exploded. “Here, put this around you.” He sat himself next to her on the side with the good arm. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get out of this.”

What was it about this man Emily wondered? It didn’t matter if they were in a cell in a Mexican prison or about to lose their beloved child to his natural father or on the side of a mountain in the Canadian wilderness miles from nowhere watching their plane burn- if he said things were going to be okay she didn’t question it, merely moved closer to him, careful of her injured arm, and nodded softly. “I know.”

“They’re probably sending out search parties as we speak. Between Jax and your brother and my father and my brother...”

“And our son.”

“And our son. they’ll find us before I have the time to try to get you to tell me what you got me for Christmas.” He rubbed her back gently. “Mom said you were looking at some sweaters in Wyndham’s last week.”

Emily opened her eyes. “I’m not telling you Spencer so stop fishing for clues.”

“Me? Fish for clues.”

“You offered Jonathan a twenty if he found out what your Christmas present was.”

“You offered him forty to keep his mouth shut if I remember right.”

“And knowing Jonathan he’s probably already invested it online and turned it into a small fortune.” Emily’s voice sounded tired. “Sometimes our son is so much like my grandfather it scares me” For a few minutes the only sounds were those coming from the burning plane. “Lucky?”

“Yeah?”

“If I fall asleep, promise me I’ll wake up again.”

“I promise.”

“Okay.” Emily whispered as she let herself slip into the darkness.

Two hours later, Lucky Spencer shook his sleeping wife gently. It was getting dark and although their position was somewhat sheltered by the trees, he needed to find real shelter for Emily. God knew that if she came down with pneumonia or something with her heart condition..... He shook his head. He wasn’t even going to go there. Not know anyway. He shook her gently again.

“Em? Come on. It’s time for us to get going.”

Emily looked up at her husband. “Shouldn’t we stay here at the crash site?”

Lucky shook his head. While the plane had been smoking it made sense to wait here in the hope that someone would spot the smoke from the wreckage. But now, the heavy snow was muffling the smoke and the thick canopy of trees would serve to camouflage the crash site even further. If their rescuers hadn’t found the crash site by now, odds are they weren’t going to find it soon. Which meant it was up to him to try to figure out a way to keep the two of them alive until help could find them.

“We need to be moving.”

Staring deep into Lucky’s eyes, Emily nodded. “All right.”

Ten minutes later, Emily’s arm bound into a crude splint and the emergency supplies in a backpack across Lucky’s back, they began their search for shelter.

The Big House In The Woods

Paige was taking her nap in her bedroom under the careful eye of both of her grandmothers and Jonathan, Jonathan was simply going crazy, pacing from one point in the living room to another.

“I called Nikolas in Greece. He wanted to fly back but I told him to wait until we got some news, one way or the other.” Luke told his grandson softly. “Unless...”

“No. That’s okay. Nikolas means well and I really don’t mean to sound ungrateful but he has a tendency to behave...”

“Like a Cassadine.”

Jonathan almost smiled. “You say that like you almost admire him for it. Don’t tell me you are finally getting fond of the Cassadines.”

“Considering two of them are among my most favorite people I figure they can’t be all that bad.” Luke placed his arm around Jonathan. “Or at least the newest generation of Cassadines are okay. Come to think of it, you and Stephanie are almost more Spencer than Cassadine.” He paused. “At least in your behavior.”

“I’ve always considered him more of a Quartermaine myself.” Alan spoke up as he entered the room with a diet soda that he handed to Jonathan. “How are you son?”

Jonathan sighed. “I want my parents home where they belong.”

“We all do.” Alan replied softly, fresh in his mind the agony of losing Jason. “We all do.”

Five hours later

Emily stumbled in the snow and would have fallen, if Lucky hadn’t reached out and grabbed her. Her feet were frozen numb with cold and so were her hands. The only good point in all of this was that because her body was so cold she could no longer feel the pain caused by her broken arm.

She couldn’t feel anything.

Except the determination of the man at her side.

“Come on love. Just a little bit further. There’s bound to be some kind of shelter ahead.” Lucky’s voice shivered despite his best efforts and he knew that his own movements were sluggish and slow. Emily however was in worse shape because her heart condition, a going away present from Helena Cassadine, made any kind of extreme physical exercise like this difficult under the best of circumstances.

Emily shook her head and dropped to her knees. “I don’t think I can make it any further.”

“You damn well better make it Mrs. Spencer because there’s no way I’m going to make it without you.” He gripped her by the shoulder and forced her to look up at him. “Just a little bit further Em and then we’ll stop I swear. All you have to do is trust me a little bit longer please.”

Emily leaned in and placed her frozen lips against his cheek in a gentle kiss. “Lucky Spencer I have trusted you since were ten years old and you told me to pack lightly. Nothing is going to change that now.”

Despite his frozen fingers, he pulled her close. “I’m going to get us out of this Emily. I’m going to make sure we get back to our children for Christmas.” She could feel his heartbeat and it steadied her, strengthened her. “Even if we are having Christmas dinner with your family this year.”

“You like my family. Admit it.”

“I love you. They love you. There has to be something there to like.”

“Lucky?”

“Yeah.”

“If we don’t make it.....”

“Don’t talk like that.”

“If we don’t make it,” Emily continued gently. “Do you think Jonathan and Paige will be all right?”

Lucky closed his eyes for a moment and thought carefully before opening them. “I think no two kids have ever been surrounded by so much love and support as our kids. But I’m not ready to throw in the towel. I don’t about you but I’ve been looking forward to teaching Jonathan about cars and girls and getting Paige read for her first day of kindergarten and all the rest of the stuff we have to look forward to. Our kids needs us as much as we need them.”

Emily blinked back her tears with a smile and then nodded. “Just one thing Lucky.”

“What?” Lucky softly nuzzled her hair before helping her stand up.

“Whatever kind of talk you were planning on having with Jonathan about girls it better happen soon. I heard him ask your father last week if Luke knew how to tell when a girl liked you.”

Emily laughed gently as Lucky groaned and a few minutes later they were on their way again.

Thirty minutes later, Lucky could barely see in front of him as the wind and snow began to pick up. He glanced at Emily who moving more because he was helping her than any movement on her own. He could feel her shivering and hear her teeth clattering. She didn’t look good and Lucky was getting scared. God he didn’t want to stop with just the trees for shelter but it looked like they would have to. Emily wasn’t going to make it much further. Maybe he could make a shelter out of branches and snow or maybe.... he stopped and blinked as he thought he saw a light ahead. He blinked again and the light was still there. A cabin. They’d stumbled upon a cabin.

“Em?” He turned to her but without him to mover her forward she had collapsed. Gathering up what remained of his own strength, he picked her up and cradled her in his arms as he made his way to the cabin in front of him. He had just made it to the front door and stumbled inside when exhaustion claimed him and he collapsed to the floor, taking Emily with him.

She was dreaming. In her dreams the sun was hot and warm and shot down at them from a bright blue sky. They were at the safe house in Mexico and she was watching Jonathan and Lucky play in the sand. She was lying on a blanket on the sand halfway between sleeping and waking.

And that was when it turned cold, a dark cold that swept over everything, threatening to take everything away. She struggled against a towel that had suddenly become a prison that held her. She wanted, no she needed to get free. To escape the cold. From a distance she could hear Jonathan yelling for her. And a small child crying.

Paige. Oh god Paige.

“Shhh. Emily it’s going to be all right. You’re safe now. Everything’s going to be okay.” The voice was familiar but she couldn’t quite place it.

“Lucky?”

“He’s okay. He’s just sleeping. You’re both going to be okay. Close your eyes and go back to sleep.”

Emily opened her eyes. “Jason?”

Blue eyes she knew she would never see again smiled down at her. “Hi.”

“You’re dead.” Emily murmured as her eyelids became heavy again. “Helena killed you.”

Jason Morgon waited until he was sure she was asleep before murmuring a soft “I know.”

A Secret Miracle

The Big House In The Woods

Seven days later, Emily stood in her kitchen directing Maxie as they attempted to make Christmas cookies.

In the living room, she could hear laughter as Lucky, Jonathan, Paige, and Jake played with the new puppy Lucky had picked up the day before.

Emily maneuvered around her kitchen neatly even with a cast on her arm and a bandage on her forward. They’d been found 24 hours after the plane had gone down. The Canadian authorities had been about to call off the search completely due to the bad weather and the low chances of them surviving, when they had received a phone call telling them where Emily and Lucky were.

For their part, Emily and Lucky had awakened in that cabin to find a fire in the fireplace, that their cold wet clothes had been removed, and that they were covered in blankets that had slowly returned the warmth to even their extremities.

“And you have no idea what happened in that cabin?”

Emily shook her head. “The authorities speculate that there was probably someone staying at the cabin who wasn’t supposed to be there. They police think whoever it was helped us out, called the police to let them know where we were, and then split before they could get in trouble for trespassing. They think it was someone skiing or backpacking in that area.”

Maxie dumped the chocolate chips in the dough. “And you don’t believe them?”

“I don’t know what to believe.” Emily said softly. “The doctor said we could have died even in sheltered in that cabin if it wasn’t for someone building that fire. I didn’t and I know Lucky didn’t. I just wish I knew who did so I could thank them.” Her eyes softened as they took in her family, her family, in the living room. “I owe them so much.”

Maxie Jones smiled at her friend. “Whoever it was, I’m just thankful that they were there. Kind of like having your own guardian angel.”

“My own guardian angel....” Emily murmured the phrase as she watched Maxie walk over and pick Jake up out of his crib and hold him close. The infant was almost an exact replica of the baby pictures of Jason Monica had shown them. Her own guardian angel.....

Emily’s eyes darted over to the picture of her family hanging on the wall, the one Jason had given to Lucky to give to her all those years ago. She walked over to it and stared at the familiar figure in leather. She remembered that moment in the cabin when she had been so sure Jason was there.

Could it have been him?

“Hey beautiful,” Lucky’s arm snaked around her as he kissed her neck. “You okay?” He’d been watching her like a hawk for any sign that she had done more than take a chill from their ordeal in the woods and had been thankful that they had both emerged from their ordeal relatively unscathed. At her nod, he pulled her closer. “Your children have decided that its time to decorate the tree and normally I would dig around the closet for the decorations myself but I have it on good authority that my present is in there so.....”

“I’ll get the decorations.” Emily laughed, a joyous laugh that made Jonathan break out in a huge smile even as the puppy licked him. Jonathan looked at the puppy. It wasn’t Diablo, couldn’t be Diablo, but it was still awfully cute and would need someone to teach it the rules of being a Spencer dog......

Lucky watched Emily disappear into the hallway and then found his attention caught by the picture on the wall.

Emily had told him about her dream of Jason in the cabin. She’d been quick to dismiss it as just a dream and knowing that that was one wound that hadn’t yet healed he hadn’t questioned her. Hadn’t told her what puzzled him the most about that mysterious cabin and their mysterious savior.

The police had said that the anonymous phone call had mentioned them by name.

Except that all of their identification- Emily’s purse, his wallet, had been destroyed in the plane crash.

Which meant that whoever had saved them in that cabin had known them by sight.

Which was impossible.

Unless........

Seeing Jonathan try to grab Paige to keep her away from the puppy and Maxie and Emily try to untangle the lights as rapidly as Jake managed to tangle them back again, Lucky Spencer turned from contemplating possible miracles to contemplating the only miracle that really counted- his family.