Juan Santiago was a dead man. Nikolas Cassadine had made that decision ten minutes ago. Now all he had to was figure out how the Puerto Rican slime machine would meet his maker. Poison? Too gentle. A shot through the head? Too fast. Besides his brain was so small it would be difficult to make sure he had hit it. Stabbing through the heart? Nik grinned as he contemplated that scenario for a minute. Then he shook his head. Too bloody. A fall off a tall building? Not vicious enough.

He was just beginning to contemplate whether Jason would let him borrow a pair of concrete shoes when he heard a voice in front of him and he looked up.

“She loves you, you know.” Jessica Buchanan’s voice was low and sympathetic as she slid into the booth opposite Nik, pulling Will into place next to her.

“You know that and I know that,” Nik’s words are infinitely sad, “but she doesn’t know that. As far as Emily is concerned Juan is her one true love.”

Jessica glanced at Emily and Juan near the juke box. It had been two weeks since the mall explosion, a small cast around her wrist the only tangible reminder of that horrible day.

That and the fact that she was clinging to Juan Santiago like a leech.

Jessica shook her head. “He isn’t her true love and he never was. The only one Emily has ever truly loved is you.”

“I wish I had your faith.”

“It isn’t faith. It’s fact. You keep forgetting that Em and I have been friends since she was 10 and I was 11. I know her. And I know that she loves you, not him.”

Nik shook his head. “She doesn’t remember anything about the last year or so. As far as she’s concerned its last summer and she and Juan are an item.” Nik shuddered slightly. “Hell, she even asked me where Katherine was the other day.”

Jessica gave an exasperated snort that caused Will to raise an eyebrow. “You’re not listening to me Cassadine. Emily never loved Juan. Never. The fact that she’s forgotten that you and she linked up, doesn’t change that. She might THINK she’s in love with him, but in her heart where it counts there’s only you.”

“So what do I do? You heard the doctors. Hell the Quartermaines flew in the best specialists in the country to see Emily. They all said the same. She has to remember on her own. If we force her to remember, the trauma could be devastating.” Nik leaned back in despair. “I love her too much to take the risk and force my hand and make her remember the last six months.”

“Then don’t,” For the first time since they had sat down, Will spoke up in a quietly authoritative tone. “You love her. She loves you whether she knows it or not Don’t worry about whether or not she’ll ever remember the last six months. Worry about the future and the next sixty years the two of you will have together. You don’t want her with Santiago, then put that Cassadine charm to good use and win her away from the jerk. It doesn’t sound all that hard to me.” Will sipped the soda Tammy put down in front of him. “Unless of course you’re afraid that she really does love him and not you.”

An intense light appeared in Nik’s eyes. “Emily loves me.” The gleam of battle settles in his dark eyes as he stands, throwing down his napkin like its a medieval gauntlet. “Excuse me, I have something I need to do.”

Jessica watches him walk towards Emily and grins at Will, reaching up to kiss him full on the lips. “What is it about you men anyway?” She complains with a smile, her hand resting on his chest. “I try my best to get him to fight for her and nothing. You all but call him a coward and suddenly he’s armed and ready for battle.”

“It’s that mythic warrior personality built into our DNA. It makes us always willing to fight for the women we love.”

“A mythic warrior gene?” Jess grins at her fiancée. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that one. I suppose you read all about in the Harvard Journal of Medicine.”

Will shook his head. “Cosmopolitan actually.”

“Since when did you begin reading Cosmo?”

“Since you started taking those incredibly long hot baths leaving me with nothing else to do.”

“ You could always join me you know?” Jessica kept her voice low and sultry as her hand trailed along his chest.

“Are you propositioning me Miss. Buchanan?”

“Actually I was trying to seduce you.....is it working?”

“And then some,” Will pulled her in for a fierce and passionate kiss. “Unfortunately I have to slay a dragon before I can carry the princess off to some tower and ravish her.”

“I don’t need a tower,” Jessica protested. “The car will do nicely.” She frowned as his words finally penetrated. “What dragon?”

“A big and ugly fire breathing dragon.” Will kisses her forehead gently. “But don’t worry he sputters more smoke than he does actually flame.” Will pulled out his cell phone. “And he’s expecting me to call in about two minutes.”

“Grandfather.” Jessica sighed. “I guess this means you have to go back to work.”

The thought left her uneasy. Even though, except for Emily’s memory loss, the last two weeks had been quiet, she couldn’t shake the thought that somewhere out there someone posed a threat to Emily’s well being. Her eyes drifted from Juan to Liz behind the counter. And maybe that threat was closer than any of them realized.

Will shook his head. “Not even the crazed rumblings of Asa Buchanan could make me leave Nik right now. I told Asa that I was going to be telecommuting right now and he’s not happy but since I kept pointing out that the alternative was to leave you in this town alone, he gave in. For some reason he doesn’t trust any of the inhabitants of this city. I think there’s a story there I want to hear, you want to tell?”

Jess giggled. “Let’s just say that Edward Quartermaine, my grandfather, and a bus load of chicken are not a good combination and leave it at that.” She grinned. “Of course the fact that Em and I were on the run in Mexico and her grandfather and my grandfather were trying to catch up with Jason and Kevin who were trying to catch up with us before these goons and....” She stopped at Will’s open mouth. “Don’t worry. Someday I’ll write the whole thing down for you.”

Will shook his head. “Something tells me that I better not hear the details on that one for my own piece of mind.” He gently brushes a stray hair back. “I don’t know whether to hope that our kids inherit your strong will and determination or live in fear of it.”

Jessica smiles. “It doesn’t matter. With you as their father our kids are going to be able to handle anything.”

“Including Great Grandpa Asa?”

“Absolutely.” Jessica was going to say more but Will leaned in for a long kiss and all thought fled.

Emily slipped a quarter in the jukebox and then looked through the possible selections listed. She frowned slightly. Most of the titles she didn’t recognize which was odd because Tammy usually kept the jukebox at Kelly’s up to date, except for the collection of blues and jazz selections she kept on hand for Luke.

The thought of Luke brought up thoughts of Lucky and a shadow crossed her eyes as she realized how much she missed her best friend.

She felt a hand slip around her waist and if a momentary flash of discomfort ripped through her, she let it go as she turned to face Juan.

“You pick a song for us to dance to yet, girlfriend?”

Emily hid a frown. Why did that word sound so odd coming from him? Why did she suddenly feel so uncomfortable around him? She shrugged mentally. Juan was her boyfriend. She remembered how hard they had had to fight to persuade his father to let him stay the rest of the summer.

Juan was crazy about her. And she was crazy about him?

Wasn’t she?

She was trying to figure out where that thought came from when she heard her name called and turned around.

Only to find her heart caught in her throat.

Nikolas Cassadine was there and the look in his eyes and the smile he was casting in her direction made her remember the crush she had had on him for so long, even as she felt Juan’s hand on her shoulder pulling her close.

“Nikolas.” Something made her voice suddenly breathless and uneven and she winced. She never wanted Nikolas or Juan to know just how hung up she still was on her Prince Charming. Even if he had proven on more than once occasion that he could be a jerk.

Their eyes caught and held and Emily could have sworn that something passed between them, but that was crazy thinking because Nikolas had made it clear beyond question that he only had eyes for beautiful and sophisticated women. Not teenage girls like her.

“It’s good to see you out of the hospital.”

“Thanks.” Emily stammered. “It was nice of you to visit me.” Her eyes darkened. “I still can’t believe that I almost died and I don’t even remember it.”

“Don’t,” Nikolas stepped forward as he saw her shudder, but his eyes caught Juan’s who defiantly tightened his hold on his “girlfriend.” Nik’s jaw tightened. “I mean, you’re okay and the police are going to catch whoever set that bomb so everything’s back to normal.”

“Everything’s the way it should be,” Juan’s voice was pleasant but Nik picked up on the undertones. “Emily and I are together and you are with..”

“No one.” Nik inserted quickly. “Katherine and I have broken up.” It was close enough to the truth.

“Oh.” Emily tried hard to hide her pleased look for Nik’s sake. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Nik didn’t look away from Emily. “It took me a while to figure it out but what Katherine and I had was just sex. What I want is a relationship based on love, real love, the kind that makes you feel like you would do anything for the other person, not because it was the correct thing to do or because it was expected of you, but because you can’t imagine not doing it.” He finished the last softly and waited for Emily’s response.

Emily stared at Nik in almost shock. She closed her eyes and heard his words and wondered how he had read her heart. It was like he felt like she did about that scene in that Robin Hood movie, the one that always made her cry. But that was impossible wasn’t it because no one knew how she felt, no one knew how many times she dreamed about a love like that and...

She stopped abruptly as she became aware that Juan was speaking.

“Don’t worry Cassadine. Maybe some day you’ll find a love like Emily and I have. Who knows, you and Liz seem awfully close these days and...”

“Juan!” Emily looked at her boyfriend shocked. She’d told him about Lucky and Liz, how it was between the two of them. She looked at Nik, apologetic. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Nik smiled at her gently, doing his best to ignore the fact he wanted nothing more than to wipe that smirk off Santiago’s face. Violently.

He listened as the music changed and a smile crossed his face. They had danced to this on that New Year’s Eve in Llanview.

“Dance with me?” he asked softly, forgetting for a moment that she was in the arms of another man and that it was broad daylight and they were in the middle of a diner.

Emily hesitated, then nodded. Stepping out of Juan’s arms.

The moonlight...
Shines down interstellar beams
And the groove tonight
Is something more than you’ve ever seen
The stars and planets taking shape
A stolen kiss has come too late

Nik could feel her stiffness in his arms and he forced himself to keep a distance between them and he made small jokes that put a smile on her face and helped her to relax. Still, even as he forced himself to play the part of long time friend, his senses were keenly aware of the feel of her in his arms, of the scent of her hair, of the shine in her eyes.

He smiled as he felt her relax into his embrace. In the moonlight
Carry on, keep romancing
Carry on, carry on dancing
In the moonlight
Carry on, keep romancing
Carry on, carry on dancing

Emily almost closed her eyes so that she could concentrate on her other senses. She was dancing with Nikolas. She was dancing with Nikolas and she almost didn’t care that Juan was watching them, almost couldn’t remember that she was Juan’s girlfriend.

This felt so natural, so right. So unlike the previous times she had danced in his arms. Times she had either been painfully aware of her infatuation or times she had been trying so hard to get him to see her as an equal.

She had never imagined that dancing with Nikolas could be like this, a feeling so intense she could swear that she could almost melt into him.

It was like they had danced like this before. It was like they were connected in a way that she could only begin to imagine.

It was like they were in love. You’re never safe till you see the dawn
And if the clock strikes past midnight
The hope is gone
To move under ...

The moonlight
Carry on, keep romancing
Carry on, carry on dancing
In the moonlight
Carry on, keep romancing
Carry on, carry on dancing
Move. Closer. Passion. Stronger

Emily’s eyes widened. In love? Nikolas in love with her? Just the thought was a clear sign that her head had been hit harder in that explosion than the doctors had told her.

Still the thought remained, tantalizing her, stirring up fantasies she thought she had buried when Juan had first kissed her. And the images. She could almost see what it would be like. Funny how real her imagination was. She saw the two of them laughing in a snow covered meadow. She saw them sitting by the fire in his cottage. She saw them walking on the docks and building a future together with every word.

The images so real she could almost touch them.

And as fast as they came, other images came. Walking in on Nik and Katherine when she turned sixteen. Standing across a room watching Liz and Nik dance together. Vivid, graphic photographs that left nothing to the imagination. An explosion that left her huddled in a dark place where death was the only thing she could teach.

And a voice in the darkness the only thing keeping her sane.

The intensity of the images, the strength of the emotions behind them, made her lose her step and falter, almost falling if Nik hadn’t steadied her. mo She was sane.

“Emily?” Nik’s voice laced with concerned touched that part of her those crazy images had ripped open and she winced.

Her instincts were screaming at her that listening to that voice would only bring pain.

No not just pain. MORE pain.

She shivered. “I have to go.” She pulled away from him, out of his reach. “Juan and I have plans.”

Turning away from him without another word, Emily returned to the sanctuary of Juan’s embrace, determined to forget whatever it was that had just happened. She loved Juan. She was over Nikolas. Had been over him for months.

She wasn’t going there again.

There’s a magic only two can tell
In the darken night
Ultra violet is a wicked spell
The stars and planets taking shape
A stolen kiss has come too late

Nikolas watched her ago, his heart aching. For a moment, just a moment, he had sworn that she felt what he was feeling, whether she remembered their time together or not.

For a moment he had had her back.

A grim look of determination rested on Nikolas’s features. He would not rest until he had her back for good.

So intent was Nikolas on making that silent vow to himself, that he failed to notice the angry glare on Liz’s face as she watched from behind the counter.
In the moonlight
Carry on, keep romancing
Carry on, carry on dancing
In the moonlight
Carry on, keep romancing
Carry on, carry on dancing