Luke was just closing the door when a hand stopped it from shutting completely. "Hey, you ask for my help and then when I come rushing here, you slam the door on me? Some partner you are."
"Sonny! Man, I'm so glad to see you, but I wasn't expecting you to come all the way to Port Charles when I called you," Luke said, giving his old friend a hug.
"I was surprised that you were calling about the Cassadine kid, so I figured if you asked for my help to find him, then it must be serious," Sonny said. He walked inside the house and saw a group of people just looking at him. "You know, pal, I wasn't expecting a whole welcoming committee to greet me when I got here. Whatever happened to the less people involved, the better?"
"I wasn't expecting this many people to be in my house during all of this either," Luke said.
Sonny walked over to Laura and gave her a hug. She was grateful for the embrace of a trusted friend. "Laura, I'm so sorry about your son. I'm going to do everything in my power to help bring him back here."
Laura nodded, tears flowing from her eyes. Luke walked over to Laura and Sonny and led Laura to the couch so she could sit down. He still didn't trust her condition, but if she was determined to be involved in this, he wasn't going to stop her. He knew he couldn't stop her anyway because she could be more stubborn than him at times.
Luke saw Alexis motioning him to join her and he went over to her. Alexis asked, "I trusted you enough, against my better judgement, to help you find my nephew, and you bring Sonny Corinthos in on this?"
Luke looked at her, taking her chin in his hand. "Trust me, Tash. Sonny's got connections that can help us, and right now, we need all the connections we can get."
Sean and Tiffany had taken in everything silently, until Sean walked over to where the crowd had gathered. "Are you all saying that Nikolas Cassadine is missing?"
"Yes," Alexis said.
"Then why wasn't I notified of this? If a minor is missing, the police should be notified. Private citizens are not supposed to take the law into their own hands," Sean said, staring at Luke the whole time.
"Are your feelings hurt, Sean?" Luke asked, placing his hand on his heart. "I'm so sorry. I forgot how you always want to be involved in a situation that doesn't concern you."
Before Sean could speak up, Laura started shaking. Tiffany rushed over to Laura's side, trying to comfort her down. Luke saw Tiffany rush to Laura, and ran passed Sean to get to her too. As soon as Luke reached Laura, Tiffany let go of her and let her be comforted by her husband. Luke wrapped his arms around her as she layed her head against his chest, listening to his heart beat.
"What's wrong, Laura?" Tiffany asked, quietly.
"I don't know," Laura said even quieter. "I just suddenly got this feeling that Nikolas is not the important one in this equation. I can't explain the feeling, but I just feel like he's a trap for someone else. I don't know who, but I do know that if this person doesn't give exactly what the kidnapper wants, then Nikolas will die."
"How do you know?" Tiffany asked.
"She knows," Luke answered quietly. He knew Laura could sense things that no one else could, especially when it came to her family. So he knew that she was telling the truth. If Helena was behind this, she wasn't after Nikolas, but after someone else. And there were so many people that could be... Stefan, Alexis, Laura, even him... they were all on Helena's top ten list of people she wanted revenge on.
Once the episode had passed and Laura seemed to be in more control, Luke asked Tiffany to watch her as he joined the others gathered around the table. "You know Laura's right about her feeling. She's got this thing that she can sense when her family's in danger. And she's always right. So we have to take into consideration that this is not about Nikolas at all, except that he's important to whoever this person wants," Luke said.
"Helena is the one who has him," Alexis spoke up.
"Yeah, Laura and I came to that same conclusion. It stinks of Helena. She's the kidnapping type to get what she wants. When nothing else works, that's her fall back plan. But who does she want? It can be any number of us," Luke said.
"Stefan thinks she wants him," Alexis said. Luke looked at her and she continued. "When I told Stefan that Nikolas was missing, he seemed to know right away that Helena had taken Nikolas, and wouldn't be let go until he confronted her. Then he took off to find her."
"Do you know where?" Sonny asked.
"He didn't confide in me about the location, but he did seem to know exactly where she'd be. We assumed it was because Helena had found out about Nikolas' true paternity. Did you tell her, Luke? Did you cause of all this?" Alexis asked.
"I would never have told her that!" Luke said, agrily. "I may not like the kid, but I would never put his life in danger purposely. He's my wife's son!"
"Luke calm down," Sean said.
"Luke, ever since Nikolas came to town, you've tried to keep him away from his mother and sister. If he really was your wife's son in your eyes, you wouldn't have tried so hard to keep him away from her," Alexis said, just as angrily.
"Yeah, I did do that. I would do it again because he's a Cassadine, but I would never wish actual harm on the kid. There's a difference between wanting him out of your life and wanting him dead. A huge difference," Luke said more quietly, hoping his wife wouldn't hear him.
"The arguing isn't going to get us anywhere, people," Sean said.
"He's right. If you two keep at it, we're not going to be able to find the kid at this rate," Sonny said.
"Fine," Alexis and Luke said in unison.
"So what are the facts that we do know?" Sonny asked.
"Well, the only thing we know for sure is that Nikolas is gone. Other than that, we're just speculating," Luke said.
"Since when have you needed hard proof, Luke," Sean asked.
"Okay. Helena's probably found out that Nikolas is not the heir. And she's probably real pissed at having to be nice to him all of these years, and for having Stefan steal the family power from her. We can also assume that she's really unhappy with my wife for cheating on her darling boy, Stavros, to begin with. I mean, the old lady was none too thrilled about Laura returning to me and Stavros ending up dead because of it. But to think of Laura actually cheating on Stavros while on the island... well, that might have pushed the old bat right over the edge."
"So, you're assuming that Helena's after either Laura or Stefan?" Sonny asked.
"Maybe both of them," Luke answered. "And maybe it's even more than just that. She might want good old Natasha over here too. After all, Tash, you are just as much a Cassadine as Nikolas or Stefan. You all share Mikkos' blood and none of you are the heir. She might want to try to get rid of anyone who can lay claim to the power."
"I didn't even think of that," Alexis said quietly, a chill running down her spine.
"And she can be after me too," Luke said. "After all, she blames me for Stavros' death. She can also blame me for taking away the heir and leaving the power up for grabs now. At least before, there was an heir still. Now that Stavros had no son of his own, and is incapable of having one where he is now, she could blame me for the chaos that has become her life. There are so many possibilities here. It can be either one of us, or all of us at the same time, that she's after."
"So what do we do?" Alexis asked.
"Well, first we need to find out where she is. Tash, can you go to Wyndemere and see if you can find out where Stefan took off to? I have a feeling it's Greece, but I want to make sure before we go on some wild goose chase."
"Sure. I'll go right now."
"Good. Once we find out where Helena is, we can meet back here and decide what we're going to do. Until then, maybe we should just act like nothing's happening. So, Sean, you and Tiff just go home and get some rest, and pretend you just had a normal visit here. And Sonny, since I know you're too clever to be followed, you can stay here in hiding for the time being. Sound good to everyone?"
Everyone nodded and Alexis went off to Wyndemere to get the information Luke requested. Tiffany helped Luke bring Laura upstairs for some rest before she left with Sean. Luke came back downstairs after making sure his wife was asleep again, and joined Sonny at the table.
"You really want to find this kid, don't you?" Sonny asked.
"Yeah, I do. Maybe it's my old age catching up to me, but I can't allow Laura to go through this if I can do anything to prevent the worst from happening. Did you see her, man? Whatever she felt before really freaked her out."
"I know. I just figured that you'd wish the kid off and say good riddance."
"I can't, though. I mean, it would be a lot easier on me if he weren't around, but that doesn't mean that it would solve anything. I should confess to you, though. Part of the reason I'm doing this is for purely selfish reasons. I have to prove to my wife that I still love her despite our problems."
"What do you mean?"
"I guess you couldn't tell by the scene you just saw, but my wife and I are separated at the moment. I found out that Count Vlad was the father and flipped. I walked out on her and gave her no sign that I would ever return. And she tried her damnedest to get me back home, and I was just plain cruel to her. I know that she probably understands that it was just my anger talking, and not how I really feel, but that doesn't mean that everything I've said since finding out the news has made her hurt any less than if I really meant it. I hurt her so bad, Sonny, and I blame myself for her not having the strength to handle this."
"She's a strong woman, Luke, and she'll handle herself just fine. Trust her. And don't blame yourself for this mess. You're here when she needs you and that's all that matters."
"Thanks, pal. I guess I really needed to hear that from someone. And I'm going to continue to be here for her, and prove to her that I always will be here when she needs me. Sonny, just seeing my wife like this, seeing the desperation in her eyes, the fear that I wouldn't help... all of it... it just makes me want to tear that old woman's heart out with a spoon."
"You'll get your chance, pal."
"With your help," Luke said, a smile forming on his face.
"Yeah. I said I'd always be there for you, and I always will. By the way, just one thing. How did you find me?"
"Oh. I called Jason. He told me that you told him never to give your number out, but when I said that my wife's son was in danger, he handed your number over. He probably assumed it was Lucky that I was talking about. Don't worry, though. We used the cell phones so no one could trace it."
"I knew you wouldn't be careless. And I'm sorry for not letting you know where I was at. You were in Switzerland when I decided to take off and..."
"I understand, pal. I lived a life on the run too. Remember?"
"But I want to let you know that if you were here, I would have let you in. And I did leave instructions with Jason to give you my number if you were in danger. I never was going to abandon you."
"I was counting on that when I called you."
"I know. Hey, you look as tired as I feel, so why don't you go be with your wife and I'll chill on the couch. You should spend some time with her anyway, man. That way you two won't have to be separated when this is all over."
Luke gave Sonny a hug and took his advice. He wasn't willing to throw away everything now, not when he was starting to get it all back. However, he also knew that once this was over, Laura and he had a lot to work out. He knew that the two of them were just pushing their problems aside to work on this crisis, but the problems would be there when it was over.
