Summer Heat
Ch. 3

Emily picked up the phone and put it down again. She looked over at her best friend with pain filled eyes.

“I can’t do this.” she said in a strained whisper. “I don’t want to do this.”

“You have to.” Jessica Buchanan’s voice was firm. “He deserves a chance to explain. Come on Em. You, better than anyone, should know that you can’t always believe what you see.” A pause. “Besides you’re one of the fairest people I know. You know that you can’t condemn Nikolas without giving him a chance to explain.”

“I’m scared to death Jess.” Emily closed her eyes and leaned back on her bed. “It was so hard to make myself trust Nikolas, to believe in his feelings for me. If he’s changed, if he no longer loves me, I feel like I’ll shatter into a million pieces.” She sat back up again and picked up a photograph, tracing first Nikolas’s naked form and then Elizabeth’s with her finger tip. “It will destroy me.”

“No it won’t. I won’t let it. I swear to you, whatever the outcome, I will be here for you.” She forced Em to turn and look at her. “And if you shatter into a million pieces I swear to you that I will find each one and glue you back together.”

“What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you?”

“Easy. You took a shy, confused girl who was coping rather badly with her parent’s divorce at a summer camp where she didn’t want to be and you became her protector and ultimately her friend.” Silence. “You can do this Emily.”

After a moment, Emily nodded and picked up the phone. She dialed Nikolas’s cell phone.

She resisted the impulse to hang up when Nikolas answered.

“Cassadine.”

“Nikolas?”

“Emily?” His voice sounded strangled and Emily realized for the first time how badly her behavior this last week had hurt him. “Are you okay?”

“I...” she took a deep breath. “We need to talk.”

“I’m on my way.”

“No wait. Not here. Somewhere private. Just the two of us. Can you meet me at the boathouse.”

“I can meet you on the moon if it means you’ll talk to me.”

She almost giggled as Jess mouthed something to her. Emily nodded.

“Bring Will.”

After Nikolas hung up, Jessica turned to Emily. “Can I borrow your car to run an
errand with Will while you and Nik talk? Or I can wait for you but I really think you need to talk in private. You have my cell number so.....”

“It’s okay Jess. You’re right. Nik and I have to talk in private. But what kind of errands do you have to see to here in Port Charles.”

“Nothing big,” Jess murmured evasively. “Come on let’s get you ready for your meeting.”

Twenty minutes later, Jess sat behind the drivers seat of Emily’s Volvo as she and Will maneuvered the car through Port Charles. Jessica had only been in Port Charles about six or seven times, but she knew where she wanted to go.

“Somehow a Volvo is not the kind of car I would associate with Emily. Maybe one of those new bugs or something.”

Jess giggled. “Emily wanted one of those. Or a roadster. Alan and Monica held firm. If she wanted a car of her own, then it had to be a Volvo. At least they gave in on the custom paint job,” Jess smiled as she led the deep purple Volvo through the streets.

“So....” Will began. “You want to tell me what’s wrong? You’ve hardly said a word since Nik and I met up with you guys at the boathouse and Emily looked like she was going to be sick. What did Nik do?”

Jess looked over at him startled. “What makes you think he did something wrong?”

Will shrugged. “The guy is my best friend. I’d die for him without question. But he has a track record of really screwing up when it comes to the women in his life. I’d hoped with Emily....I don’t know. He loves her but love doesn’t always prevent stupidity from striking.”

Jess took a photograph from her pocket and handed it to will as she pulled into a parking space outside a high rise building.

Will took a look at the photo and his jaw clenched. “I will kill him.”

“No you won’t. But the person we are about to see might.”

Jess was still explaining things to Will as they disembarked the elevator. “Whoever sent those pictures to Emily didn’t do it out of the kindness of their hearts. They want to hurt her and they succeeded. One picture each day Emily said. That’s sick and borderline psychotic.” A fierce anger burned in Jess. “I won’t let Emily be hurt. Not by Nikolas and not by whoever sent these pictures.”

She approached the man in the suit standing outside the door.

“I’m here to see Jason Morgan.” She said in a casual voice totally at odds with the fact that she was at the door of one of the biggest mob bosses in the East.

“I’m sorry. Mr. Morgan is not receiving visitors.”

“He’ll see me. Tell him Jessica Buchanan is here to see him.”

“I told you...”

“Just tell him. I’m not leaving until you do.” The guard recognized the stubborn glint in her eyes and nodded, momentarily disappearing he returned a moment later his displeasure almost evident.

“Mr. Morgan will see you.”

Jessica smiled and walked into the penthouse with Will right behind her.

“Jessie!” Jason Morgan greeted his little sister’s best friend with enthusiasm, or at least what passed as enthuasism for Jason. “How are you? And how is Kevin? I haven’t talked to him in a while but I did read that piece he did for the Banner that got picked up by the NY Times. Nice work. Not as smooth as Cassie’s, but still nice.”

“I’ll tell him you said so. Especially the part about it not being as good as Cassie’s. I don’t know what makes those two happier, competing against each other or making love.” Jess ignored Will’s stare at her last few words. “It makes me feel sorry for their soon to be born baby.”

“That reminds me,” Jason turned to Johnny who was staring at Will trying to remember where he had seen him last. “Cancel my meeting this afternoon and schedule a shopping trip to Wyndhams. I need to pick out some baby gifts for Kevin and Cassie.” He turned to Jessica. “You want to help since you’re here? You and Emily can help me pick out some baby clothes. I assume you are here to visit Emily?” Jason’s eyes drifted to Will standing behind her. “Who’s your friend?”

“Will is my fiancee,” Jess improvised trying to head off the lecture that she felt coming on. Ever since that summer she and Emily had gotten into that trouble in Mexico and Kevin and Jason had had to rescue her, it was almost like both men felt an obligation to play “big brother” to the other’s sister. “And I am here to see Emily but something has happened and I need your help.” She paused. “I think Emily’s in trouble.”

A dangerous gleam appeared in Jason Morgan’s eyes. Gone was the man who had greeted Jess and discussed baby gifts. In his place was a cold blooded killer. Will almost shivered. “Explain.”

“Promise me you won’t kill him.”

“Him who?”

“Just promise.”

“No way.”

“Okay. Then promise me you won’t kill him for at least an hour.”

Staring into her blue eyes intently, Jason nodded. Carefully, Jessica handed him the photograph.

A deadly fury filled Jason as he looked at the photograph. “Grab your gun Johnny. Nikolas Cassadine is dead.”

“Not for 59 minutes and 30 seconds he isn’t.” Jessica spoke up hastily. “I didn’t come here for you to hurt Nikolas.”

“Damnation Jessie if he’s cheating on her he deserves to be shot.”

“I agree. If he’s cheating on her.”

Jason tried to calm down. “All right tell me what you know.”

“Somebody has been sending Emily pictures, pictures like that one, one a day for the last week.”

“That’s....perverted.”

“I know. But I also know what it means.”

Jason looked at her and nodded. “Somebody out there wants to hurt my sister.”

Jessica picked up the picture. “I don’t know where this picture came from. It could be doctored. I don’t know. But I do know that Nikolas wouldn’t deliberately hurt Emily.” She paused letting her words sink in. “I can’t say the same for the person who sent her this picture.”

Realization dawned in Jason.

“Oh hell.”

“That pretty much sums it up.” Jessica agreed softly.



He thought seeing her again would be enough. He thought just being with her in the same room would be enough to dull the ache in his soul.

He’d been wrong. He wanted to touch her. He wanted to hold her. He just simply wanted her. So much.

Nikolas Cassadine forced himself to keep his distance as he watched Emily. She was standing so stiffly, so nervous, so uncomfortable around him. So unlike the young girl who had fallen asleep curled up in his arms as they watched a movie. The young girl who had trusted him with her dreams and secrets and inner most thoughts. Something was really wrong.

Emily looked up into his brown eyes as she sat next to him on the dock overlooking the lake. She was so tempted to forget those damn pictures, to pretend that they had never existed. Nikolas loved her. Why was she going to ask a question that was about to destroy all that? A question that she really didn’t want to know the answer to anyway.

“Emily?” His voice was soft and pleading. “Talk to me.”

Emily shivered in the summer sun, not feeling its heat at all in this moment. “I need to ask you something and I’m scared.”

“Of me?”

She shook her head. “Of the answer.”

“Emily, I love you. I promise you that there’s nothing to be scared of.”

Oh I wish I could believe that Emily thought. “Do you love me?”

“Do I love you? God Emily don’t tell me you still doubt that. Tell me what I need to do to convince you and I’ll do it. I’ll put it on a billboard or shout it from the tallest mountain or...” His voice trailed off. “Emily you are the most important person in my life. Please believe that.”

“I want to. I really really want to.” Emily’s voice shook as she picked up the manila envelope she had put down on the dock next to her. “A week ago I got this picture in the mail.” She handed it to Nikolas face down. “Each day a new picture comes. All the same.”

She watched the color disappear from Nikolas’s face as he turned it over.

“Oh God...” He whispered harshly.

Emily’s heart began to break. “Are they true? Did you make love to Elizabeth?” Emily could hear the desperation in her voice but she didn’t care. “Please Nikolas. Please tell me that they are doctored. Tell me that someone made them up just like Tom made those pictures of me up.” Her voice broke. “Tell me its a lie.”

Nikolas looked at her with sorrow in his eyes. “I can’t.”