Risk
Chapter LXXVII
Nikolas glances over his shoulder to the perfume and makeup counter that takes up most of the front of the only Nordstrom store in the state of Indiana. He has a cell phone to his ear as he keeps an eye on Gia. The Nordstrom rep had been right on top of things and was making sure that Gia had what ever she needed as far as water, pens, pictures and the like. The display of product was great. Detroit had been rough. Not because of the cities reputation but because the hotel they'd been booked into... there hadn't been any lower level suites. Anything that would actually address what they needed for the trip had been at a penthouse level. Gia had not been happy.
"Is this the Villa? Nikolas Cassadine. I want to make a reservation. Here is what I need." Nik focuses on the call momentarily. The Villa had been recommended to him by the Nordstrom rep as being the nicest small hotel in Indianopolis. It even had a spa, massages in room not an impossibility. Not just a B&B breakfast but a full restaurant with an impeccible reputation. This is just the ticket. Nik glances again toward Gia to make sure everything is going well. Then he reads off his credit card information. As soon as that is done he calls back to Deception in Port Charles and talks to the person in charge of making reservations on this trip. "You're going to have to take a hard look at our reservations." Nik declares as soon as he is connected. "I know that everything is supposed to be top of the line for this trip but you're going to have to start thinking boutique hotels. Gia's got a thing about heights... nothing over the third floor, fourth floor tops. Right. Right. I've taken care of here in Indianapolis. Fax the updated itinerary to the Villa. Yes, it's on Delaware. Right I'll talk to you later... no, no don't transfer me to Carly... don.... Carly-- how is it going?" Nik slides up against the wall leaning his back against it. This way he can look at Gia during what is surely going to be a long phone call.
Lucky puts the last of his pictures up to dry. Nik probably wasn't going to regret giving Carly blanket approval while he's on this trip for the art work but Mom wasn't going to be happy that is for dang sure. Mom liked the subtle while Carly was more into in your face sex. No heroin chic. That would be something they all agreed on, even if it was never admitted. And Gia... well Gia is hot. Hard to take a bad picture of her. Although some of the pictures that Nik had unwittingly approved for the most recent ad sells were going to give him a coronary and probably Marcus Taggart along the way too-- even if they sent Deception flying off the shelves across the country. No amount of autographs from Marvin Hagler or other childhood idols was going to get Gia out of these. Lucky glances over at the clock and starts cleaning up the darkroom so he can head out for lunch. Nevermind that he'd been stuck up on the management floor until Elton got back and even the day after and stuff had backed up here. He had a lunch appointment that he wasn't going to miss. Em is going to meet him over at Kelly's. Hopefully after that he could swing by Luke's. It's that whole two stone thing. Make sure Em's doing okay and see if there was any info on his dad. If he left now he'd just make it without having to call Em and tell her that he's running late.
Kristina looks up at the discreet sound of a bell toward the front door. A brief very temporary wrinkle appears on her forehead as she tries to place the face. Elizabeth... friend of Nikolas. "Hi. Elizabeth right?"
"Yes." Liz doesn't know if this is a good sign or not. "I saw an ad in the paper... I didn't know it was for your shop. I stopped by yesterday but the shop was closed." She fumbles her explanation.
Kristina looks blank for a minute. "Oh right the receptionist position. I forgot I even put the ad in The Herald." She laughs at herself. "Yesterday is exactly the reason why I need a receptionist. I had to go out to a prospect, and there was nobody to cover the store while I was gone. Let me show you around." Kristina rises from the comfortable couch. "Why do you think you want this position?"
"Well I used to be an assistant to Chloe Morgan, the clothing designer. I'm... taking the semester off from PCU where I was majoring in Art. So I need to be working fulltime but I really want to be involved in something... creative."
"So you're into color, texture." Kristina nods. "What I'm looking for is someone to make sure the doors are open during business hours. That when someone calls they talk to a human being and not a machine. Giving yourself a house makeover is scary, stress inducing and really my philosphy is all about bringing things into balance. Do you know anything about feng shui?"
Elizabeth answers hesitantly. "It's some kind of chinese style of decorating?"
"It's so much more than that!" Kristina enthuses. "It's about balance. It's a whole school of thought that goes back centuries! Actually I believe it's basic tenets been practiced all along by the really great designers and architects... people just didn't realize it. They were going by the way things made them feel rather than the actual science. Let me show you what I mean...."
"I want the hotfudge brownie sundae, only I want chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla. Do you have the chocolate whipped cream?" Emily asks hopefully. She sets aside her journal so that she can focus on talking to Penny.
Penny nods even as she is shaking her head. "Emily, how can you eat all that and still be skinny as a rail!"
"Getting well takes lots and lots of calories!" Emily defends her chocolate addiction with the skill of plenty of practice. Breaking her back had just given her another tool in her arsenal. "Besides I'm working out every single day. Otherwise my back stiffens up and I pay and pay. I'm in better shape now than I've ever been. Oh but you can hold the cherry. They are nothing but chemicals and food coloring anyway."
Penny laughs. "Oh yeah, like that is going to make a difference." Since Emily had a seat at a table rather than at her usual counter stool, she feels safe asking the next question. "Is someone going to be joining you? Do you want me to wait on making this?"
"Lucky." Em glances at her watch. "And no, he probably got hung up in the darkroom being an artiste."
"I heard that." Lucky comes in, shedding his coat and hanging it over the back of the chair across from Emily then taking that seat. "She already ordered her version of lunch right? The one that Lulu would order if my Grandmother would let her get away with it?"
"Hey! I resent that! And it's not true anyway!" Emily protests. "Lulu is into strawberrry! I'm the Chocolate gal remember!"
"Or Grape." Lucky counters. He looks up at Penny and just mouths the word usual. She nods and makes the notation on her pad, totalling as she walks behind the counter.
"Or Grape." Em agrees with a nod and a smile. It's good to have her friend back. She and Lucky had been on interesting footing ever since he'd gone along with his family in having Laura play dead to get away from the Cassadines. Then Lucky had been kidnapped and when he came back well it had taken Dead Ted to bring them back together but even then there had been a distance... mostly because Lucky no matter what he said, didn't get along with Zander and never seemed to see that Zander made her happy... or had made her happy. "How are things going at Deception?"
Lucky groans and starts banging his head against the table. "You know it's all Nik's fault right?"
"Excuse me?"
"First he brings Carly into the company at all. Then he goes on this trip with Gia for two weeks-- leaving us, no me, to deal with my crazy cuz! And she is crazy!" Lucky then mutters under his breath. "...like a fox."
"Yeah, I learned my lesson." Emily sighs. "I did some stuff that felt good at the time but..." She makes a face remembering Carly's bridal shower and then the one Carly had thrown for Alexis. "Why didn't I realize that Carly just isn't going away? I should have known it then. I mean come on even when she was lying about who Michael's father was it was one of my brothers! He's my nephew for goodness sake. I should have bit my tongue and just spent as much time with Michael as I could."
"Did I tell you when we were in Italy... Michael had no clue who I was." Lucky grimaces. "And I can't blame that one on Stavros as much as I'd like to. Carly and Michael were family long before Stavros was woken from the undead."
"Well you had the return from the dead thing too." Emily offers for an excuse. "And then you had all the programming to deal with after Helena and Faison messed with your head. I've been so remiss. Really. Jason wanted me to be Michael's godmother. I haven't even seen a current picture of him in a year! God is so going to get me for this."
Lucky cocks his head to the side and thinks about it. "I think you best bet is probably either Jason or Aunt Bobbie. Carly told me that Michael stayed the weekend over at Wyndemere with Lucas. And Jason for some reason actually seems to get along with Stavros."
"Next time I'm at the hospital or the warehouse." Em nods consideringly. "Although you know my parents would freak about me going out to Spook Island after what Stefan did to my mother. Getting her suspended from the hospital."
Lucky winces. "Change of subject. I've got an agreement going with Carly. We don't discuss Stavros and my dad. I think I'm going to need one with you about your mom and my Aunt Bobbie. So... were you able to get into any classes over at PCU?"
Jerry bends over to catch his breath. Running with his brother just isn't as fun as it used to be when say... he'd been 16 and the kid ten. Although Jax didn't start beating him in footraces until golden boy had hit his teens. Course he'd been a little busy at the time making sure that there was plenty of funds coming in without any of the dangers that went along with the men that John Jacks did regular business with back in the day. Had continued to do business with up until a few years ago. Staying in training so he could humiliate the Golden child hadn't been on his list of priorities.
"If you don't keep moving around you're going to get a cramp." Jax says cheerfully, barely out of breath.
Jerry straightens and lifts a brow. how much grief would mum give me if I just killed him now? could always blame it on cassadine... a little bit of deniability there. "Your mouth will never get a cramp, that is for sure-- the way you are always running it. How does Alexis stand it?"
Jax shrugs. "She doesn't mind as long as I keep Lady Jane from taking her on any ten mile hikes."
"You let mum take her before when you were fake married to Alexis. What's so different this time around?" Jerry asks.
"It's not a fake marriage, Jere." Jax looks around the park to make sure that nobody is listening.
Jerry catches him at it. "Gees, Jax, is it really that bad that you're looking for spies behind trees?"
Jax shrugs. "The house isn't secure not with that toady of Stavros there. He's never further away from Alexis than a few feet. I think he sleeps outside the bedroom door. And Alexis..." Jax doesn't complete the thought but it had been the same thing back in Greece. There was a silent communication going on between Andreas and his wife when ever they were in the same room together. Andreas never said anything out of line but there was something about the guy that put his back up. Course it could be knowing from his dealings with Helena how fullservice a manservant Andreas could be.
"Alexis..." Jerry prompts.
"Puts up with him." Jax puts on a pleasant face that doesn't fool his brother at all. Jax lets the fake face fall away and grimaces. "She figures she has to. Better the devil you know and all that."
"Explains her marriage to you. Beat you to Kelly's." Jerry takes off toward the diner. There was a shortcut thru the park that maybe Golden boy didn't know about.
Stefan strides up to the nurse's station on the sixth floor of the hospital. He glances around not drawing any attention. Hopefully he and Barbara could get some lunch perhaps even away from GH where they wouldn't be disturbed by the normal routines of the hospital. Stefan frowns and glances down at his watch. Barbara should be here. Taking over Audrey's duties had kept her out of the operating suites for the most part, although with Monica still on suspension, Bobbie had been called in to a few surgeries... mostly emergencies coming up from the ER. Amy sees him glance down at his watch and smirks. She focuses on her charting studiously not looking at Stefan as she makes sure she has a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye. "She's not here."
"Excuse me?" Stefan lifts a brow.
"Bobbie. She's not here. She had an appointment outside the hospital and took some personal time."
"What kin..." Stefan bites his tongue not wanting to be drawn into a conversation with the biggest gossip of gossip central.
Amy looks up with a sunny smile knowing she has him hooked. She leans a little closer with the counter still separating her and Stefan. "There are all kinds of things that could have pulled Bobbie out of the hospital. But you have to figure that it's either one of her kids, and if it's Carly..." Amy rolls her eyes. "But then again maybe it's got something to do with Jerry Jacks being back in town. All kinds of unfinished business there... don't you think?"
"I think you don't get paid to mind other people's business-- unfinished or otherwise." Stefan rebukes firmly and then turns sharply to go to the elevator, impatiently poking at the down button. Perhaps a walk in the park would calm him down.
"Touchy." Amy grins again. Now there was the real story, she picks up the phone.
Bobbie sits along on the park bench contemplating the appointment she'd had just left. She sniffs and wipes at her eyes and nose. Have to get it together before she got home. Had to have a plan of action. Wasn't it enough that Lucas had diabetes? That he'd been poisoned by Helena? How much was one little boy suppose to deal with?
"If you hadn't called me I was going to call you." Lucas' teacher had said grimly. "Lucas is just too damn smart, Ms Spencer."
"How can that be a problem? Smart is good. Is he bored or something? Is that why his grades aren't... I'll speak to him."
"Oh no he's not bored. He's frustrated. He just hit the wall he should have hit three years ago."
"Excuse me?"
"That's when we catch most of the kids with the learning disabilities."
"learning disabilities! But that is impossible."
"Damn labels." The teachers frustration comes thru as well. "I apologize for swearing but this should have been caught years ago. No matter how smart Lucas is-- it should have been caught. I need to have tests run to confirm what I think is going on. There is a specialist assigned to the district."
"Will you please just tell me what the hell is going on?!"
"I think that Lucas has a form of dyslexia. His brain isn't gathering and processing the information the way that most peoples do."
Bobbie shakes her head. "No. You're wrong. If there had been a problem then it would have been caught years ago when he was learning to read. His father is a brain surgeon for heaven's sake. My ex would have been all over this."
"That is where the too smart comes in." The teacher rises from behind her desk and comes around to where Bobbie is sitting in one of the student desks. "Lucas learned to cope early on. He's probably got something close to total recall. That's about the only way I figure it could have taken this long. We've reached a point where in order to pass a class you have to know what was said in class and know the reading. Before this if you just remembered everything that was in class then you'd ace the tests. Lucas actively participates in class. He sits in the front. But the tests and the school work don't reflect that he does get the material. I can talk to him and I know he is getting it." The teacher says emphatically. "But he isn't getting it from the books."
"Not my son. You are not talking about Lucas. Lucas does his homework every night. Every night he is cracking the books. I keep an eye on him or my... or Stefan. This is a priority for us."
The teacher brushes her hair back trying to ease the tension on her scalp. "But I bet the only homework he really shows you is the math or the art, not the social studies or the language arts. Ms Spencer, this isn't an I gotcha. I know that Lucas is working hard and I know that you are a very involved parent. Let me tell you about my first boyfriend back in high school... sweet, polite would always let me pick out the movies, what ever I wanted as far as dinner was great. He'd always have the same thing I was having. It wasn't until I was in college that I looked back on that relationship and realized that he was illiterate. My first boyfriend is the reason why I became a teacher! He wasn't stupid and neither is Lucas. Their brains don't process information the same way. It's not wrong; it's different. In order for Lucas to get as much as he can from the learning experience... we have to make the adjustments. We have to figure out how he learns.
"Bobbie?! Red, are you okay?" Jerry sits down next to Bobbie on the park bench. He'd been calling to her but she seemed lost in another world. And not a fun one if the trail of tears is evidence. "Come on, Red. What the bloody hell is going on! Do you need to get to a doctor? What's paining ya?"
Bobbie snorts and then wipes at her face again. "Sorry I was thinking of something else. I'm fine."
"Something not too happy." Jerry confirms his gut reaction with a nod. "And if you're fine... then what that brother of yours? Carly? Who is giving you grief? I'll take them out."
Bobbie laughs pretty much as Jerry intended. "Luke is out of town... again. Carly and I are actually getting on fine which puts the hair up on the back of my neck wondering when that is going to get all blown to hell."
"Cassadine making a pest of himself?"
"Jerry!" Bobbie shakes her head.
"Come on, Luv. Never did see what you saw in that guy."
"Most people don't." Bobbie mutters.
"If you're fine and the situs all normal with Luke and Carly. Do not tell me that it's Lucas that's got you crying in the park! Is it his sugar? Is he back in hospital?" Jerry's worry comes thru. He'd always like the lad.
"Oh Jerry!" Bobbie turns into Jerry's chest burying her head into his shoulder. Jerry's arms comes around her hugging her close.
Stefan steps back off the path and into the shadow of the trees.