Maxie Jones smiled as she sat in the corner booth, her long blonde hair back in a pony tail and dressed casually in a loose fitting dress that didn’t exactly flatter her but more important to her at the moment was easy to get in and out of.

God, it felt good to be out of bed and more importantly out of the house. She was almost feeling human again. She had an appointment with Mac this afternoon to go over to the PCPD shooting range and put in some target practice. She had also talked the guys back in El-Paso into faxing her all of the information they had on her current open cases. Her mother had been furious with her for even thinking of going back to work even it was in such a small way. Mac had smiled sympathetically, told Felicia to relax, and offered to let her use the PCPD crime database. She knew there was a reason she had always loved Mac.

She took a silent inventory of her body. She still hurt from the gunshot wounds and she had never had less energy in her life, but all of the doctors Felicia had paraded in and out of the house these last three weeks had all agreed that she was making good progress and could hope for a full recovery. She couldn’t wait. She needed to reclaim her life. She needed something to help her forget. Anything.

“Maxie?”

Startled, Maxie looked up and into the brilliant blue eyes she was trying her best to forget.

“Jason.” She said coolly.

For just a second, he let himself devour her with his eyes before his normal mask filtered over his features. “It’s great to see you out and about.”

Maxie nodded. “It’s great to be out and about.” What am I doing sitting here making polite small talk? This is Jason. I want to tell him how I feel. I want....She catches his eye for just a moment and realizes that she doesn’t have to tell him anything. He knows how she feels and she knows how he feels. But it doesn’t change anything. It can’t change anything. She sighs in frustration. Back to small talk. “How is your family?”

“They’re fine. AJ took Michael camping this week.” Jason slides into the seat across from Maxie. She looks good, he had been getting reports on her medical progress from his sources but to see her in front of him, smiling, almost beaming meant more to him than almost anything else ever could.

“AJ took Michael camping?” Maxie almost spit out the coffee she had been drinking. “We are talking the same AJ Quartermaine, aren’t we?”

Jason grinned. “Yeah, but AJ’s theory of camping includes taking along a fully stocked motorhome and staying at some campground with a swimming pool and a convenience store, so I think the woods are safe for now. Michael....Michael ran into a bad patch a few weeks ago and AJ felt the need for some father/son bonding.”

Maxie looks at Jason softly. “It really doesn’t bother you does it?”

“What? That AJ and Michael are father and son?” Jason shook his head. “I made my peace with it when I decided to give Michael back to AJ. I may not always agree with AJ’s business decisions, but he’s been a good father to Michael all these years. The truth is,” Jason says his next words more harshly than he intends, “that there is no room for a family in my line of work. Michael is safer and happier in the Quartermaine’s world than he could ever be in mine. “

Their eyes met and Maxie could see the lingering shadow of pain and knew beyond a doubt what giving up Michael to AJ had cost Jason. Instinctively, her hand goes to cover his as she reaches out to comfort this man who means so much to her. His eyes move from being lost in her green ones to her full lips and he feels that frisson of desire between them. Without thought, his lowers his head to hers and...

There is a clang as the door to Kelly’s opens.

“Maxie,” yells a small child’s voice and the moment between the two of them is lost as they pull back from each other.

Maxie turns to see Stephanie Cassadine bouncing in her direction with a laughing Nikolas close behind her.

“You should have been with us,” Stephanie says excitedly. “We got up early and took the boat out and went fishing and I didn’t catch anything but dad caught an old boot and Jonathan caught two fish and.......”

Nikolas caught up with his daughter. “Maybe you should stop and at least let Maxie return your greeting.” he suggested and turned to Maxie. “I apologize for the interruption. We did just go fishing this morning and we stopped by for some breakfast.” He smiled at Maxie and she found herself returning his smile. Nikolas and Stephanie had become regular visitors to the Scorpio house hold over the last three weeks. Nikolas turns behind him and looks for Jonathan and catches the boy reluctantly entering the diner. Nikolas tries to curb his frustration, at least Stephanie had managed to persuade him to join them on their fishing trip this morning. It was the first time the boy had volunteered to do something with him. Nikolas took it as a good sign.

Jonathan’s eyes light up when he sees Jason. Jason gets out of the booth to greet his nephew. Forgetting that this was the uncle that kind of scared him and just glad to see someone from his family, Jonathan gave Jason a huge hug which Jason returned.

“Have you seen my mom? How is she? Is the medicine working? The baby? My dad?” Jonathan shoots out a barrage of questions and Jason holds his hand up to stop him.

Maxie smiles at the reunion between nephew and uncle and then frowns when she catches the hurt expression on Nikolas’s face. Jonathan’s referring to Lucky as dad and his obvious delight at seeing Jason have to hurt. She knows from their conversations over the last few weeks how hard Nikolas is working to try to claim a role in his son’s life. She gently takes his shoulder for support and he smiles down at her gratefully.

Jason frowns when he sees this but turns his attention back to his nephew. “I saw your mother yesterday. She and your dad (Jason gives Nikolas a cold stare) are decorating the baby’s room, they both miss you like crazy, and everything else is fine.”

Jonathan looks at his uncle. “You’re doing it too. It’s not fair. Every time I call or email or talk to mom or dad they tell me the same thing. They miss me. Mom’s working on the house. Dad is busy doing stuff for Jax. No one will tell me the truth. No one will tell me how my mom really is.” He turns angrily to Nikolas. “I don’t care what you or the courts say. You can’t keep me from my mom. She’s sick and she needs me. I’m going to my mom and if you don’t like it you can go to hell which is where all Cassadines belong anyway.” Jonathan screams, tears streaming down his face. He turns around and storms off leaving a shocked Nikolas staring after him.

“Jonathan!”

Jason’s command, cold and to the point stops Jonathan.

Jonathan turns around. “I want my mother.”

Jason looks at his nephew. “Throwing a tantrum is not what I would have expected of you. Not from a Spencer and not from a Quartermaine. And most certainly not from a child raised by my sister.”

Jonathan lowers his eyes and steps forward. He looks up at his uncle, his brown eyes so like his mothers and so full of the pain these last three weeks of separation have caused him. “I want my mother. I’m the only one who can keep her safe from Helena.”

Jason looked at his trembling nephew. “Do you remember when we first met? You were this small little miniature of the sister I loved. Lucky brought you to me when your mother was taken. You were so scared but you tried so hard to be brave, do you remember?” Jason wiped a tear off the boy’s cheek. “Then you snuck onto the plane and came with us because you wanted to rescue your mother. I remember being so angry with you for sneaking on board the plane, but I also remember thinking that he must be Emily’s son because that is exactly what Emily would have done.”

“I know you are scared, but you have to try to be brave again. Your dad and I will keep your mother safe. I promise you. Just like I promised your mother that I would keep you safe.”

“I just want to know how she is. No one will tell me.”

“I know. They think they are protecting you, but they are wrong, aren’t they? You don’t need our protection, you need our honesty. All right. The truth is that your mother is holding her own most of the time. The medicine the doctors are making her take makes her tired and she’s not as strong as she usually is. But she still misses you like crazy and she is decorating the nursery.” Jason smiles.

“And the baby?”

“Is doing okay. Does that help?” Jonathan nods. “All right then,” Jason continues, “Don’t you think there’s something you need to say?”

“Do I have to?”

“Your mom would want you to. You had no right to take out your frustrations on Nikolas or on your sister.”

Jonathan looks over at his sister and realizes that she is crying. “I’m sorry Steffie.” And less lovingly. “I’m sorry Nikolas.”

Stephanie looked at her brother. “I’m sorry your mom is sick.” She whispers as she moves to hug him.

Jonathan’s arms automatically go around his sister. “Me too,” he whispers. “Me too.”

Nikolas turns to Jason hesitantly. “Thank you.” He says simply.

Jason shrugs. “The kid’s my nephew. I don’t like to see him hurting. You take him away from his mother and he’s hurting like he’s never hurt before.”

“I would think you’d be a little more understanding of my position. You were the one who gave Michael back to AJ because a son deserved to be with his father.”

Jason meets Nikolas’s look with an intense gaze. “World of difference,” Jason says softly so that he isn’t overheard by the children. “Michael was three when AJ and I came to our agreement. AJ didn’t attempt to cut me out of his life. I see as much of Michael as I want to, always have. And by the time I gave custody to AJ, Carly had been out of Michael’s life for well over a year.” Jason pauses. “What you did- taking a twelve year old kid from the only family he’s ever known and then cutting him off from seeing them, that’s plain wrong. You can dress it up in as many fancy court documents as you want, but in my book you are as guilty of kidnapping as Helena ever was. It must be something in the Cassadine genes- take what you want and damn the consequences and the hurt it causes. I just hope that Jonathan grows up to take after his dad and not his father.”

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to pick up some coffee and breakfast to go.” He turns to Maxie and his voice softens. “It was good to see you again Maxie.” And then to Jonathan. “I’ll see you later. Remember what I said.”

As Jonathan nods, Nikolas looks from his son to his daughter who is still looking sad and lost. An hour ago, sitting in that damned boat and listening to his son teach his daughter how to fish, Nikolas had been so sure that he had been doing the right thing. Now, after Jonathan’s outburst, he is beginning to have doubts. He had no idea that the boy was in such a pain. The boy was good at covering his emotions and his feelings. He was like his mother. Emily had always been good at hiding her feelings around him. She had managed to get hooked on drugs without him noticing that anything was wrong. Not to mention conceal a pregnancy he had every right to know about.

“It will be all right,” Maxie whispers and he finds himself holding on to that thought and holding on to her for a moment. She is stunningly beautiful and he finds himself attracted to a woman for the first time since Kim died. He shakes his head to clear his thoughts.

He sees his little sister enter and watches as Jonathan makes a beeline for Ruby. Nikolas’s eyes narrow as he sees the pallor on his normally vibrant sister and the quietness of her manner. What the hell was wrong with Ruby? He had spent the better part of the last three weeks avoiding anyone with the last name of Spencer, but maybe he would have to rectify that and call his mother to find out what was wrong with Ruby. One crisis at a time Cassadine, he thinks to himself and turns to Maxie.

“Can you watch Stephanie for me? Just for a few minutes. The two of you can order breakfast on me.”

Maxie grins. “Be careful what you say. You have no clue how hungry I am.”

Nikolas smiles at her. “I think I can take care of all of your hungers,” he whispers seductively and smiles at her stunned expression.

The sky turns dark
and everything goes wrong
run to me baby
and I'll leave a light on
and I promise you now
you won't ever be lonely


The big glass house in the woods

Emily hated this. Hated it with a passion. She should have taken Monica up on her offer to call an interior decorator. No, she had to insist that she could do this on her own. She needed to keep busy she had told everyone. She needed something to do. After all, all those years of modeling as a teenager had to have taught her something about color coordination.

She looked at the wall again. She couldn’t do it. She needed help. It was time to give in and call on a higher power to make it through this crisis.

“Lucky!”

Lucky came into the room carrying a glass of ice tea and a grin. So much for getting that project done for Jax. This was the fifth time he had been called into the nursery to give his opinion in the last hour.

He didn’t tell Emily, but he had both the number of the interior decorator and the number of the contractor Monica had given them set on speed dial on the telephone.

He grinned as he entered the room.

“What have you done now?”

Emily smiled as she took the glass of ice tea gratefully. “I couldn’t decide on a color for the contrasting walls so I thought if I put up a sample of each color thinking than I could choose, but I can’t.”

“You bought five different colors of paint?” Lucky laughed. “Most people would have just picked up the free samples.”

“You can never tell what you are getting that way. Jason thought it was a good idea when we went shopping yesterday.” Emily stuck her tongue out at her husband.

“Jason doesn’t have to pay your credit card bills,” Lucky teased as he pulled her close and carefully set the glass of tea down. Their eyes caught and held and he smiled as he leaned forward to pull her into a kiss that almost makes her forget her surroundings.

Until the scent of fresh paint penetrates and she pulls away.

“You’re supposed to help me pick a color,” Emily says. “Not seduce me into forgetting about the nursery all together.”

“Was that what I was doing?” Lucky grins. “How terrible of me.”

“Not terrible, just very Spencerish.”

Lucky catches sight of something in the corner. His eyes going wide, he walks over to the small painting. It’s a picture of a child and a mother walking through a park. The figures are soft and hazy in the sunshine that envelops the setting and sets the mood.

“Is that?”

“Yeah, it is,” Emily replies nervously. “Your mother gave it to me when Jason and I stopped by yesterday. She thought it would look nice in this room. I didn’t want to hurt you but I....she was my best friend...and I...just wanted some part of her to be a part of our child’s life....if you hate it..I can take it back to Laura’s.” Emily stops, keenly aware that she is rambling. “Lucky?”

“I gave most of her paintings away. I always wondered what happened to this one. You know it’s mom and Lulu don’t you. We were all on this summer picnic and Liz did some sketches. I remember because Ruby was three and she kept wanting Liz to draw her picture. Liz promised that she would but the accident happened before she......” Lucky takes a deep breath. “You’re right. It belongs in here with our child.”

Emily breathes a deep sigh of relief and Lucky smiles. “I love you Emily Spencer. How do you always manage to know exactly what I need?”

“Hidden psychic powers?” Emily teases as her arms go around his neck. “Or maybe just the fact that I love you so much.”

A wave of dizziness sweeps her and his grin fades at her sudden paleness as he moves forward to catch her.

“Em?” His voice full of fear.

“I’m okay,” She whispers shakily but with growing steadiness as she pushes him gently away. “It was just a small dizzy spell.”

Lucky swears inwardly. “Maybe you should take a break. Come sit out on the deck with me for a while. It’s a beautiful morning.”

Emily shakes her head. “I can’t take a break when I’ve only been working for 45 minutes.”

“You can do whatever you want. You are a Bowen-Quartermaine-Spencer after all.” Lucky pauses. “I think we should hire someone to help you with all of this redecorating.”

Emily shakes her head. “I’ll take a break. But I really want to do this. It’s the first home we’ve ever had and I just want to decorate a few rooms. The nursery. Jonathan’s room for when he comes home...” A shadow crosses her face as her voice drifts off and Lucky winces.

“All right. But promise me no heavy lifting and no ladders. I’ll help you with the painting.” Emily nods and Lucky leads her out of the room.

Once in the living room, goes to stand on the balcony and feel the fresh air and enjoy the woods that surrounded the house. She smiles when she feels Lucky’s arms come from behind and enfold her.

“I miss him,” she says softly as she leans her head back. “I miss him so much. I hate that I’m not there to say good morning to to give him a hug goodnight. I hate that I have to talk to him on the phone. Nikolas won’t even let us see him. He’s my child. My son. I need him.”

“I know,” Lucky caresses her soothingly. “But you heard what Scott said. Two more weeks and we’ll be in front of the judge. And the judge will give us back Jonathan. You just have to hang on to that thought.”

“What if the judge says I’m too sick? What if he lets Nikolas keep Jonathan?”

“He won’t.” L:ucky kisses the back of her neck. “Jonathan will tell the judge how much he loves you and wants to live with us. He’s 12 years old. Most courts go with what the child wants.”

“Most. Not all.” Emily turns and looks at Lucky. “I’m sorry. I’m trying to be strong. I really am.”

Lucky looks at her in amazement.

“You are the strongest person I know, don’t you know that? I just want you to know that I will always be here for you no matter what.”

“I love you Lucky.”

In answer, he pulls her close and kisses her. In moments, the kiss turns from one of support and strength to one of desire and fire that makes Emily catch her breath.

She smiles beguilingly at him. “I thought you wanted me to take it easy.”

“You will,” Lucky says as he sweeps her up in his arms and carries her onto the leather sofa. “Just relax and let me do all of the work.

For as long as I live
there will always be
a place you belong
here beside me
heart and soul
baby you own me
and I promise you now
you won't ever be lonely

To be continued in Part Two