“Emily!” Nikolas’ frantic scream cut through the eerie silence following the explosion that rocked the suburban mall. But despite the frantic edge to Nikolas’ voice, despite the desperation clearly laced through that one single word, it was met with only silence.

Again and again and again.

Nikolas stared in horror at the sight in front of him, his mind still not comprehending how such an act could occur at such a place and time. To an extent, Nikolas was used to violence. You could not be raised a Cassadine and not be familiar with death threats and car bombs and the occasional poisonous dinner party. There had even been that evening outside of Luke’s when he had been shot.

There was nothing in his past that had prepared him for this moment, this image.

It was the sunshine that struck him as odd, mostly because it was streaming in from the hole blasted through the roof of the the three story mall. The sunshine itself seemed to be strangled by the massive amounts of dust that seemed to billow forth from the piles of rubble and debris that the third floor of the mall had been reduced to.

After it had collapsed onto the second floor.

How could anyone have survived that? The treacherous thought was followed by another, one that he refused to acknowledge or even give voice to.

She was alive. She had to be alive. His heart would have stopped beating along with hers if she was dead.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, he turned to make his way to the stairs leading to the second level, ignoring the panic and mayhem erupting around him, the screams of the lost and injured.

He stopped only when he felt an arm grab him and he turned to see Liz, her eyes dilated with fear.

He bit back his impatience, the part of him that wanted to scream at her that this was her fault. If she hadn’t come along, Emily would be with him, safe. He reminded himself that Lucky would have wanted him to look out for her.

And that if anyone was to blame here, it was himself for lying to Emily to begin with.

“You’ll be safe if you head to the exit with everyone else Liz.”

“What about you?”

“I can’t leave without Emily.”

“She has to be dead Nikolas. No one could have survived that.”

“Don’t say that. Emily is alive. She’s alive and she needs me and I’m not letting her down. Not again.” Tearing himself away from his dead brother’s fiancée, Nikolas turned and headed down the stairs. Once he arrived on the second level, he headed to the where the massive piles of debris started, where one side of the third level had simply flattened the second.

Liz’s words rang in his ears as he contemplated the destruction with a sick feeling in his stomach. From where he stood, he could see body parts jutting out from the rubble and he knew that people were dead and others dying. Was Emily among them?

Frantic, he moved forward and with his bare hands began to claw at the rubble, not caring about the cuts and abrasions that began appearing on his hands as he shifted broken glass and rough pieces of plaster and marble. The rubble was shifting around him and he could feel the pieces moving as he strived to regain his balance. He turned as he saw another man in his mid forties come to help him begin the process of digging out the victims.

Dead or alive.

Another part of the mall

Will covered Jess’s body with his own as they waited for the explosion to end, sharp pieces of glass from the window they had been staring in flew through the air like crystal projectiles and Will could feel a few cut through his skin. He could hear the screams and cries as the reality of what had just happened hit.

When he was sure the world had stopped shaking, Will stood up shakily and helped Jessica up.

“Are you okay?” He asked her frantically as he ran his hands over her body looking for signs of injury that weren’t there.

“I’m fine.” Jess said, a tremor running through her voice as she tried to steady it. “I’m fine,” she repeated. She looked up at him for the first time. “You’re bleeding,” she reached up and touched him where the glass had cut a path across his cheek. “God Will you’re bleeding.”

“It’s nothing.” Will shrugged it off as he began to look around and realized the magnitude of the destruction he was seeing. It looked like scenes of earthquakes he had seen on television. Or better yet, the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing or the embassy in Saudi Arabia.

To put it simply, it looked like hell.

He found himself tightening his hold on Jessica as if she was the only real thing in a world that had just turned very very unreal.

Jessica turned to view the devastation herself and her face paled.

“Emily. Oh my God. Emily.” She tugged frantically at Will. “Where is Emily?” “I don’t know. She was at the bookstore over there...” He turned to look at the bookstore which, except for a shattered front window was relatively unharmed. “I don’t see her.” He looked further down the mall where the real damage had occurred. “You don’t think...” Jessica suddenly found it hard to breath as the words she was about to say strangled her. “I don’t know.” Will said simply. “But I’m going to find out. Wait here.” The last was said with a kiss to the forehead as he headed back down the mall. Jessica shook her head. “Not on your life.” She said the words out loud to strengthen her resolve as she took off after Will, determined to find Emily and make sure she was okay. He had no idea how long it had been since the explosion. He’d been digging through the rubble and debris for what could have been five minutes or five hours. He was too busy to keep track of time. He’d uncovered two victims and helped them to the triage area that mall security had set up. He’d been told by a few mall workers to stop, but he’d ignored them, intent only on finding Emily. He felt a hand on his back. “Look I told you that I’m not leaving. If you want me to stop you are going to have to arrest me,” he began angrily as he turned around. He stopped. “Johnny?” “Cassadine.” Jason’s man responded coolly, not at all inclined to be friendly to the man responsible for breaking Miss. Quartermaine’s heart. Besides in his book the princeling was far from worthy of his boss’s sister. His eyes narrowed. “Where’s Emily?” The only response was a glance at the debris in front of him. “Dammit.” Johnny swore softly, then pulled out his cell phone and tried to reach the two guards assigned to Emily. There was no response. Johnny made a quick call to Jason to apprise him of the situation before turning back to Nikolas. “Come on, I’ll help you dig.” “No you won’t.” An authoritative voice spoke up from next to them. “The two of you are going to step back and let the authorities do their job.” Marcus Taggert looked at the disheveled young man for a long moment. “I need you to clear the accident scene Cassadine and clear it now.” Nikolas shook his head. “I’m not stopping.” “This is a crime scene as well as an accident scene. I could have you arrested for interfering with a police operation.” “Right. And we all know how successful you are at arresting people and making the charges stick.” Johnny snickered. Taggert ignored him. “Listen Nikolas,” Taggert lowered his voice. “This kind of rescue operation can be tricky. One wrong move and you can put yourself in as much danger as those you are trying to rescue. Be smart and leave this to the professionals.” Nikolas shook his head. “No way. Look around you. The fire department have their hands full. They need all the help they can get.” His dark eyes blazed with a furious intensity. “Emily is under that mess somewhere and I’m not stopping until I get her out. So unless your plans include hauling kicking and screaming out of here, images that will look really good splashed across the evening news Detective Taggert, than I suggest you step back and let me get to work.” “Whatever he just said,” Johnny echoed. Taggert hesitated. Then he shrugged. “What the hell?” He murmured, removing his jacket, he bent over to pick up a piece of debris and join in. Thirty minutes later... Having been joined by Will, Jess and a handful of Port Charles firefighters, Nikolas paused as he picked up a chunk of what had once been the marble tiling on the floor of the third floor. And stopped. Standing perfectly still, he listened. “I hear something.” With dirt and blood smeared across his face and shirt, Will Rappaport looked up. His eyes met Jessica’s and he saw the sudden flare of hope rising in them. Inwardly, Will was trying not to let his own hopes rise. In the time they had been searching, more dead bodies had emerged from the rubble than live ones. He was beginning to be afraid that Emily Quartermaine wasn’t going to make it out of this one alive. He didn’t want to start thinking about how it would tear apart Nikolas and Jessica if Emily didn’t make it. He didn’t want to stop and think about how badly it would hurt HIM if something happened to the charming young girl who had danced with him at the diner and then held him when he had been so scared that he had lost Jessica. “I don’t hear anything.” He said the words softly as he touched Nik’s shoulder. “Come on Nik let’s get back to...” Nik shrugged him off. “It’s Emily. I can hear her. I’m not imagining things and I’m not losing my grip. Just listen for a minute. All of you- be quiet and listen.” The urgency of Nik’s words carried to the would be rescuers who stopped. After a moment, their looks of skepticism were replaced as they heard a faint cry. A weak and thready voice yelling for help. “Emily. Emily.” Nikolas yelled back through the rubble. “Just hang on. We’ll get you out.” With a renewed frenzy, Nikolas moved to move the rubble at a faster pace when he the fire chief, called over by one of his men, stopped him. “You can’t do this.” Nikolas looked at him wildly. “What are you talking about? She’s alive. She’s alive and I’m going to get her out.” The fire chief shook his head and forced Nikolas to take a step back and look at the rubble. “My guess is your friend is only alive because of the way that debris fell. Something stopped it from falling on her. You keep removing debris like you are and something is going to shift and a ton of debris WILL fall on your friend and this time she won’t be as lucky.” Nikolas shivered at the last word. His face paled. He couldn’t lose someone he loved again. “What do we do?” The fire chief looked around. “We need to know more about what kind of pocket your friend is in. We need to be able to see where she is.....” He hesitated. “I’ve made a call for the kind of equipment we need, but Port Charles is a small town. It will take at least an hour to get the kind of search and rescue team that we need up here.” “An hour? “ Nikolas shook his head incredulously. “Emily doesn’t have an hour.” “We have no choice.” “Maybe not,” Jessica looked around and spotted a Sharper Image store. “Maybe not.” Five minutes later, Jessica returned with a small video camera attached to a wire. The wire was about sixty feet long and could carry both sound and video images to a small monitor. The fire chief took it gratefully while Will turned to Jessica with a puzzled look. “How did you know where to find something like that?” “You don’t grow up with Asa Buchanan as your grandfather without learning something about how to spy on people.” Jess said simply. “For once I’m glad your grandfather is a distrustful old coot.” Will whispered to Jess. The fire chief moved carefully to push the wire through the rubble, shifting it above or around debris without applying any pressure that would cause the debris to shift. “Damn.” “What is it?” Nikolas asked frantically at his side. “There’s a block. I can’t get the camera any further in.” The chief turned on the monitor. The picture was dark although vague outlines of pieces of rubble could be made out if you looked closely enough. There was no sign of Emily. The chief looked up at Nikolas. “Talk to her.” “How?” “This wire is two way. We can hear her and she can hear us. Talk to her. We need to know if she’s conscious and she can tell us what she sees.” Nikolas nodded and ignored the sudden lump in his throat. “Emily? Em. It’s Nikolas. Em you need to hang on. We’re going to get you out but you have to hang on.” “Nikolas?” Nikolas took a deep breath at the sound of her voice. “Nik. I’m scared.” “I know babe. I know. But its okay. It’s going to be okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” “It’s dark. I hate the dark.” “I know. I know Em but hang on. Just focus on me okay, listen to my voice.” “I’m not alone down here Nik. There’s someone else underneath me and I think they’re dead. I’m scared Nik. I don’t want to die too.” Emily’s voice sounded tired and confused. Nikolas cringed. “You won’t Em. I won’t let you..” “Are you sure?” Emily’s voice was like that of a small child seeking reassurance. “I promise.” He lowered himself to his knees on the rubble. “I love you, Emily.” There was no reply. “Emily?” Jessica moved next to Nik and the mike. “Come on Quartermaine. Talk to us.” “Jess?” “Yeah.” Her voice softened. “Yeah, it’s me. You didn’t think I’d let you have all the fun around here, did you?” “I’m tired, Jess. I want to go to sleep.” Jessica looked over at the paramedic who had joined them and saw him shake his head. “Not a good idea Quartermaine. I need you to stay awake and stay focused. Open your eyes Em, open your eyes and tell me what you see.” “It’s dark.” “Come on Quarterbrain...you’re repeating yourself. Tell me something I don’t know.” There was a raspy sound that in another situation might have been a laugh. “You haven’t called me that since summer camp. Remember? I hated that nickname so I called you Bucktooth Buchanan.” Jess grimaced. “I remember. The first thing I did when I got home was to ask my mom for braces.” She shook her head. “Enough of the small talk Em. You have to help us rescue you. So again, tell me what you say.” There was a shuffling noise. “It’s hard to see but I think there’s a large piece of debris that’s blocking this piece from falling on me. It’s like a cave.” “Good girl.” Nik encouraged Emily as the fire chief withdrew to talk to his men. “Are you hurt Emily?” “You mean besides the broken heart?” Nik flinched. “Yeah besides that.” Silence. Then a small and quiet voice. “I’m sorry Nik. That was mean.” He could hear her coughing from the dust. “I’m just scared you know and when I get scared I get...” “Sarcastic.” Nikolas finished for her. “It’s okay Em. I understand. You get sarcastic, I get arrogant. You should see how many people I’ve been trying to boss up here. They’ve threatened to arrest me but I refuse to leave.” “Typical.” More coughing. “Emily? Are you okay?” “I think so. My head hurts and my arm hurts, but I think I’m okay. It’s just hard to breath with all the dust.” He can hear more coughing and then silence. “Emily. Come on babe. You have to stay with me. Talk to me.” “Tired.” Her voice sounded sluggish and the single word was slurred. He could almost feel her struggle to keep her eyes open. “You talk. I’ll listen.” “What do you want me to talk about?” “Greece. I love to hear your voice when you talk about Greece.” “It’s beautiful you know. The white of the beach under the moonlight and the scent of the jasmine in the air. I want to take you there. I want to hold you hand as we walk along the water’s edge. I want to see the light in your eyes reflected in the moon. I want...” “Nikolas.” “Yeah Emily.” “Don’t leave me, okay? I don’t want to die alone.” “You won’t die. And if I have my way you’ll never be alone again.” His voice soft, he continued to talk to her about his plans for the future, stopping once in a while to make sure she was responding. Blinking back tears, Jessica moved away from Nik towards the area where Taggert stood next to Johnny near the chief. “It will take a little while, but I think we can bolster that one piece of debris hanging over her so that it won’t fall when we pull her out of there.” The paramedic joined them. “Whatever you are going to do, do it soon.” He shook his head. “I don’t like the sound of that head injury, especially the slurred speech. The lack of oxygen because of the dust isn’t helping. If you don’t get her out of there, rescue might be a moot point.” As the chief nodded and he and his men began working on the implementation of their rescue plan, Jason charged in, pointedly ignoring the half dozen police officers who tried to keep him behind the police barricade and the assorted media representatives who filmed his going through them. “Where the hell is Emily?” Jason approached the group.

Johnny pointed to the area where the rescue attempt was taking place.

Jason paled. “She’s alive, right?”

Taggert nodded. “At the moment. But if you truly believe in God Angerboy, now is the time to start praying.”

And staring at the fire fighters who were beginning to move in on the treacherously shifting debris, Taggert said a prayer himself.

“What happened?” Jason asked in a daze.

“Bomb squad said it was a bomb. A very powerful and sophisticated bomb.”

“Who would want to blow up a mall? Especially a mall here in Port Charles?” Jason asked incredulously.

“I don’t know,” Taggert’s eyes were glued on the rescue effort in front of him. “I don’t know but I intend to find out.”

At the docks Helena Cassadine stood and watched the water, her regal figure draped in a light trench coat despite the hot day that was fading into evening.

Without turning, she handed an envelope to the man who came to stand next to her.

“It’s all there. As promised.”

“I hope so.” The man looked uneasy as he accepted the envelope. “I may be good at blowing things up but that doesn’t mean I like blowing things up with innocent people in them.”

“A thief with honor?” Helena asked skeptically. “More like a man who can be bought and sold. Just remember that I’m a far better friend than I am an enemy. If you are smart you will take that money and disappear.”

“Oh don’t worry. Half a million will buy me a new identity somewhere and a chance to start over. I’m curious though. Why blow up a mall?”

“I have my reasons.” Helena smiled coldly. “I definitely have my reasons.”

And the man found himself shivering as he wondered why a hot day had suddenly turned cold.