Risk

Chapter LI

Maybe Forever

Nik watches down the hall as his father escorts Carly to their room. Stavros has a hand at the base of Carly's back and is carrying Michael who is out like a light and resting his head on Stavros shoulder. Carly fumbles for the key card for the lock of the room and pushes it open so that the the three of them can go in.

"It's weird seeing them like that isn't it?" Gia follows Nikolas' gaze.

"Yeah." Nik agrees. "And I know back in Greece you said that it was a set up. Something that Carly was doing to get in my face about Stavros."

Gia nods. "Yep. And I still think there is an element of that. But I also think it's because she believes it. Your dad has really come thru for her. And the thing about about Carly. You come thru for her and she'll do the same for you... until she has time to start thinking too much."

"You didn't say how the shoot went. Maybe we should go inside and..."

Gia is already shaking her head. "I'm really wiped, Nikolas. And you have to get that to Lucky." Gia refers to the take out order that Nik had brought back from the restaurant.

Nik swallows his protest and grits his teeth. "Breakfast then? I'm going to be flying back to the States tomorrow. I should have gone back today."

"Breakfast is good. Call me when you wake up." Gia opens up her door. There is a hesitation in the open doorway. "Well. I'll see you tomorrow." Gia steps back and then shuts the door.

"Damn." Knowing he can't sleep, Nik decides to head down to Lucky's suite/cottage. Lucky was always good for an all-nighter.

"I don't think it's just seven course meals that put Michael out." Stavros tells Carly as she comes back to the living area. Carly curls up on the couch next to him. Stavros puts a hand around Carly's shoulder hugging her to him. She rests one of her hands on his thigh.

"He did fine thru dinner. He didn't start to fade until after dessert when we were all yakking it up. Something was different between you and Nik tonight." Carly hints at a request for info.

"Nikolas should be spending more time with Gia. To resolve their issues." Stavros declares.

"They just spent over three hours together!" Carly protests. "It went great!"

"But the shoot..."

"Nope." Carly shakes her head. "Same thing as you and Nik; gotta go slow. And I think you should stay out of it."

"Stay out of it?! I think not."

"Well sorta stay out of it." Carly amends. "Gia's got to figure it out now. Cause you know it'll be a hell of a mess if it all goes wrong after they get hitched."

"I don't think you should be siding with Gia against my son."

"I'm not! I'm siding with Gia for your son." Carly declares emphatically. She takes her hand from Stavros thigh and puts it on her hip.

Stavros takes Carly's hand from her hip and places it back on his thigh and then covers it with his other hand. "Explain."

"You Cassadines are bossy. Arrogant, self centered, know it alls..."

"And your point?" Stavros says tersely, affronted by the recitation of his family's flaws.

"So if you hook up with someone who is a pushover then that it what happens... they get pushed over. Gia will stand up to Nikolas. It'll only work if he respects her opinions, her input. Otherwise it will be just like me and Sonny. He'll be sending her to her room and looking for someone who will stand up to him, force him to respect them and neither of them will be happy."

"I really hate when you compare me, or my son, to your husband." Stavros says flatly.

Carly winces. "Sorry. What I know is only what I know. You're a Cassadine. You're a guy. What do you think?"

"I think Gia makes my son happy."

"But how long will he be happy if she's not?" Carly counters. "You got to trust Nik. He'll figure it out." Carly bounces back to her original question. "You never did say what's changed between you and Nik."

"We had a discussion of his relationship and things Cassadine." Stavros says cryptically not ready to reward Carly's curiosity after her obstruction of Nikolas' trying to be with Gia.

"Well whatever you talked about worked. So maybe it's a good thing Nik wasn't at the shoot. Gave you two some quality time."

"Caroline..."

Carly rises up on knees and plants a kiss on Stavros and punctuates every sentence with a kiss on a different part of his face avoiding his lips. "I'm right. You know I'm right. Admit it. Say... Carly, you're right. You gave me time with my son and it paid off big time. Say it."

"Perhaps it is not the Cassadines who are arrogant, self centered, know it alls." Stavros growls as he runs his fingers thru Carly's hair and tightens his grip on her hair to hold her head immobile and stop the teasing kisses with a deep passionate kiss of his own.

"Yeah?" Lucky replies to the knock on the door. He has out a loupe and is looking at contact sheets of the shoot.

"Lucky, it's me. I brought dinner." Nik calls thru the door.

Lucky winces and looks at the contact sheets then shrugs. Might as well get it out of the way. He gets up from the table where everything is spread out and goes over to the door. He opens it up and goes back to the table. Nik follows him into the room shutting the door with his foot. Nik hands him the take out order. "Thanks. I got something while I was out but I never turn down food."

"Are these from today?" Nik picks up the loupe and starts checking the contact sheet luckily picking up some from around Milan.

"Yeah, Carly says she's got Quartermaine problems and won't be able to get into the States. I figure with the contact sheets she'll be able to see what we got done and I can do up the images once we get back to Port Charles." Lucky opens up the box and inhales. "Man, this looks really decent. Thanks." He goes over to his backpack and pulls out a set of silverware. The silverware was only one of the reason he'd ended up checking his bag at the airport. Dad must have had a bitch of a time getting thru security. But then Dad was better at traveling light and sneaking things by security.

"I can't believe you got so much done in one day." Nik comments as he reaches for a third contact sheet. "There is plenty here without the estate. And without a full crew."

"Carly snapped up a girl from one of the local beauty schools. She did the hair and makeup. I got her name around here somewhere so that she can be credited in the photos. And Carly was keeping a log of which outfits so they could be credited too." Lucky goes digging thru his pockets and pulls out a name, address and phone number and hands it to Nikolas. "Her brother works over at the University and had keys to the photo lab." Lucky refers to the proofs. "So how weird was dinner? With Stavros I mean."

"No weirder than my conversation with him while you were out doing this." Nik holds up a sheet. "What was weird was having a normal dinner out. hell." Nik realizes. "I went out on a double date with my father... with Michael as a chaperone."

Lucky spits a bit of Costoletta alla milanese (veal cutlet) back into the take out box as he chokes and laughs. "Normal. right."

Nik reaches for another sheet and stiffens when he sees the content. "What? When?! What the fuck is this?" Hanging out with rock and roll bands at L&B had done nothing to improve his language... only taught him another one.

Wincing, Lucky decides to keep the sharp implements off of Nik's side of the table. "Carly says that Deception has a new line of bath products. Foaming bath crystals made from Dead Sea salts."

"No." Nik says flatly. "No. No, I forbid it."

"That horse has already left the barn." Lucky counters. "Hey you were the one that brought Carly into all this. Creative concept blah blah blah. Well I tell you what... those pictures are going to make you a fortune... make mom a fortune. And you don't see anymore of Gia than you would if she were wearing a bathing suit on the beach."

"She isn't at the beach she is in the bath... nude. These are intrusive, invasive, prurient."

"And a bunch of other seventy five cent words." Lucky sets aside his dinner. "Look, I knew you weren't going to happy. I wasn't happy about shooting them but look at the damn photos, man. You are going to have guys lining up to buy the stuff for their ladies cause it's sexy. And you're going to have the gals lining up because they just scream had a hard day try a soak in this better than any calgon take me away ad. What are you going to do? Is there a bath line or not? And if there is... you planning on shooting Gia covered from head to toe? I think she might have something to say about that."

"A nice terry robe." Nikolas suggests plaintively.

Lucky snorts. "Right. She's the FOD, man. You knew it going in. And if I recall yesterday's conversation-- You're going to do everything to make sure she stays that way." Lucky taps the contact sheet of the shots taken in the bathroom. "This is FOD."

"Elton.... Where is Elton?" Laura comes out of her office at Deception.

"Mrs Spencer," The temp stands to her feet. "Elton took some personal time. He called me up from the secretarial pool to make sure that the phones were covered."

"Personal time?!" Laura hears herself and closes her eyes and grits her teeth and then opens her eyes and smiles at the temp. "I appreciate you covering. I was wondering if there had been any calls from Lucky or Nikolas?"

The elevator opens and a young woman steps off. "Laura..." Then she bursts into heart breaking sobs.

"Elizabeth, my gawd what happened? Are you okay? What are you doing here? Come into my office." Laura wraps an arm around Liz's shoulders and turns to the temp. "Make sure we aren't disturbed."

"Of course, Mrs Spencer."

"One week." Elton groans.

"Five days actually." Kristina counters.

"Hush your mouth." Elton hisses and then takes a deep breath. "Well the house is beautiful but so empty. It's impossible."

"The invitations went out this morning." Kristina looks to the phone that she'd turned the ringer off on. The light is blinking rapidly. "And I bet those are the RSVPs. I wasn't at Alexis' ceremony when she was going to marry Ned... but it's evidently made this the hottest ticket in town. There is going to be a ceremony here in five days. Ready or not."

"I was. It was horrifying." Elton exclaims. "I was ruined. I went from an independant businessman with a bright future to an hourly employee working for someone else hawking perfume and makeup."

"And we really appreciate you coming thru for my sister and Jax now." Kristina says soothingly. "You know you could do this in your sleep."

"You and I have never met, missy, before today. It might be a little more reassuring from someone who actually knows me."

"I know Jax. And I know he likes nothing but the best. If anyone can pull this off it's you." Kristina continues the verbal/emotional strokes. Jeez what a prima donna. Who was getting married anyway? Elton or her sister? "Besides this whole place is at your disposal. It isn't like a church where you have to wait to the last minute to decorate. You can do what you like when you like and have everything ready for the big day. And Jax says you have the file for the last wedding still." Kristina holds out her hand. Elton puts the file in it. Kristina looks around for a place to lay out the folder but the house is bare. So she goes over to the staircase that dominates the foyer and sits down on one of the stairs. "We'll go with the same colors. Alexis picked them the first time... so it must have been what she liked."

"Your sister spent most of her time breathing in a paper bag." Elton snarks. "If it hadn't been for Mrs Corinthos, nothing would have gotten done."

"Carly was my sister's matron of honor?!" News to me.

"And pleased as punch about it. She knew it was what her husband wanted. For her and Alexis to get along. She even threw a bridal shower for Ms Davis at her penthouse. What a fiasco that was." Elton rolls his eyes. "The hen party from hell right up until the press showed up and started snapping pictures of Ms Davis opening a present of really skimpy lingerie."

"But that's what you're suppose to get at bridal showers. The toasters come as wedding presents."

"Eddie's Angel." Elton says significantly. "Ms Davis and Lingerie weren't on speaking terms at the point." Elton shudders. "It was merely a preview of the horror show to come."

"Elton, just stop alright?! I know you got burned last time but you have to put it behind you. We need to do this event and we need to do it now. No more tripping down memory lane."

Elton straightens his jacket fussily and throws his shoulders back. "It's a distant, abet horrible, memory. First things first. Let's look at the menu."

"Buffet rather than sit down dinner I think." Kristina suggests. She pulls out the menu that had been with the previous wedding. "Was this used?"

"Oh you betcha and what wasn't eatten was sent off to the homeless shelters. Gave new meaning to the whole let them eat cake thing."

"Okay then we need to tweek it." Kristina pulls out a pen from her bag. "Jax says he's going to have a baker from Austria flown in to do the cake. He's off at the airport picking the guy up now. So that's already taken care of. All we have to worry about is the dinner."

"Oh to be so innocent." Elton sighs but then gets down to work.

Stefan looks up from his tasks when he hears the door of his study opening. "Barbara, Nikolas is in Italy."

"I know."

He is startled by her admission and waits until she had taken off her coat and settled in a chair before continuing. "I know because he called me this morning. How do you know?"

"Penny got back from Italy today. That's where she went. She's floating on cloud nine at the whole thing. Nikolas, Gia and Jason all flew over with her. Made sure she had a really great time."

Stefan gets a sinking feeling. That wasn't all that happened he can tell by Bobbie's expression. "What else."

"Carly staged an intervention for Lucky to show him what a liar Elizabeth has been. Nik, Gia and Penny were all apart of it. As was Jason. Only in the middle of the intervention Luke showed up."

Both of Stefan's brows go up. "There was bloodshed? Nikolas didn't mention it. All we discussed was Alexis."

"I don't think there was bloodshed." Bobbie winces. "Jason bashed Luke over the head while he was holding a gun on Stavros. Penny says that my brother spent the whole trip tied up in the plane guarded by one of Jason's guys. I am so going to hear about this from Luke."

"Without a doubt." Stefan nods. Then a thought occurs. "But if they flew over for the intervention as you call it. Then why is Nikolas still in Italy? He should have flown back when it was over."

"I don't know. Penny says it was just her, Jason, Liz and Luke on the plane. And Jason's guy. What did Nikolas say about Alexis?"

"He had questions about this." Stefan hands Bobbie an invitation to Jax and Alexis' wedding.

Bobbie takes it and reads it. "Do you think this is really going to happen? It can't happen right? I mean Alexis would never go along with this. Talk about a shotgun wedding."

Stefan nods. "I believe it will not only happen..." Stefan pauses and strokes his beard as he considers all of the factors and players involved. "But I also think that Stavros will use this to announce to the world he is back."

"Thought the tabloids had already done that." Bobbie reminds wryly.

"True. Then to announce his return yet again to Port Charles. It will probably be very... dramatic."

"Great... Luke out for Blood. If it's Stavros then it will probably be Carly and Michael too. That means the Quartermaines will be out for blood. Forget black tie." Bobbie hands back the invitation. "I think bullet proof vests should be the dress of the day."

"I think it would be better if Lucas stayed with Mrs Lansbury while we attend."

"Oh yeah." Bobbie nods. "What are you doing?"

"You don't want to know."

"Stefan..."

"I am... attempting to defang the Quartermaines. As is... par for the course with my brother-- he is rushing me." Stefan complains. "He has no interest in minimizing the fallout but would prefer to have a scene of monumental proportions. Something I am sure he would find entertaining. I am still attempting to find a way to shift the balance of the board so that they cannot impact on the smooth running of the hospital."

Bobbie winces. "I can't believe I'm saying this."

"What?"

"Audrey wants to take a year long sabbatical and she's got the vacation time coming to do it. Does that help? Doesn't she sit on the board?"

The grins slowly builds across Stefan's face. He rises to his feet and comes around the desk. He takes both of Bobbie's hands and pulls her to her feet and then pulls her even closer so that their bodies are touching from chest to hip. "Perfectly. It will work perfectly." He leans in and starts nibbling on Bobbie's ear and then the top of her jaw right below her ear. "How do you feel about taking a seat on the board as acting head of nursing?"

"Doesn't that have to be approved?" Bobbie gasps wondering how in the hell she is keeping her wits about her as she tilts her head to give him better access.

"Not acting... only the permenant members of the board. But that doesn't interfere with voting. It isn't the member that votes but the position. Proxies are used all the time otherwise nothing would ever get done." Stefan murmurs as he nuzzles her neck.

"Stop."

"What?"

"Go back to that spot... right.. oh GAwd yess."

Stavros stares up into Carly's face. Her beautiful brown eyes are so serious and so intent. Her tongue pressed against her upper lip. Her intensity and enthusiasm has a child like quality to it. Nothing was interfering with this very moment. Of course there is nothing child like in either her state of undress or her position on top of him in the most intimate connection. Stavros holds his hands steady, his fingers threaded with hers as she uses them for balance. "Faster." Stavros urges Carly on. She was toying with him... teasing him. And he while it was driving him crazy he was also savoring every expression on her face, every contraction of her body around him.

"Stavros..." Carly gasps.

"Faster." Stavros orders again. He sits up in the bed. Carly wraps one arm around his neck and the other resting on his shoulder her nails digging as a wave hits her. Stavros grip on her hips were sure to leave bruises as he clutches her to him. "Now. now." He surges up at the same time as he pulls Carly to him slamming her to him skin to skin-- connected. Stavros falls back against the pillows bringing Carly over with him. His hands slide up from her hips to her back caressing the bare length.

"I wanna stay this way all night." Carly mutters into Stavros neck.

"Like this?"

Carly's body contracts around his in a long slow spasm. "Like this."

"Ah." Stavros laugh turns to a groan. "What is it about you Spencers and trying to kill me?"

Carly presses a kiss to Stavros chest. "Yeah, but you like this way better. And it could take months and months and months for me to drain you to a dry husk of a man that will just blow away." Carly follows that tempting thought with a smooth blow of air over one of Stavros nipples.

"Maybe forever." Stavros says quietly.

Carly looks up at him. "Stavros?" There was something in the way he'd said that. Something different. "Is everything okay?" She reaches up and runs a thumb over his eye brow and then down his jaw. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, my little cat. Better than I have been in... for as long as I can remember."