In cards and flowers on your window
Your friends all plead for you to stay
Sometimes beginnings aren’t so simple
Sometimes goodbye’s the only way, oh
And the sun will set for you
The sun will set for you
And the shadow of the day
Will embrace the world in grey
And the sun will set for you
– Shadow of the Day, Linkin Park

---

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Kiremit House: Britt’s Bedroom

The door on the ground floor slammed shut, then there was a light pair of footsteps jogging up the steps. Britt folded a pair of jeans and looked up as Lucky rounded a cramped corner to reach her doorway. “Hey. When are we leaving for the clinic?” he asked, leaning against the door jamb.

“Not until night fall. Around six.” Britt checked her dresser. “You’re back later than I thought.”

“Drew tracked me for a few blocks after I left the meeting.” He stepped inside the room, closed the door, and leaned against it.

Britt paused, glanced up, her eyes wary. “You’re sure you lost him?”

“Sure enough. I know the streets better than he does.” Lucky wandered over to the window, glanced through the filmy curtains overlooking the street. “Ducked into an alley that turned into another alley, then cut through a café. I tossed on a hat and sat in the café for ten minutes. Drew never came out of the alley.”

“He’s a former SEAL—”

Lucky turned back to her. “You don’t trust me to know if someone is on my tail?”

“Trust.” Britt smiled thinly, snapping her suitcase shut. “Funny word. I trust you as much as you trust me, which is to say, not much.”

“I haven’t told my brother what you know.” Lucky raised a brow.

“You haven’t told him because you’re still think I might be lying.” Britt snorted, then the suitcase by the door, then sat on the edge of the bed.

“I know when I’m being lied to.”

“Really? I find that hard to believe. Didn’t your wife have an affair with your brother behind your back?” Britt shrugged.

“She wasn’t my wife at the time,” Lucky muttered, then dragged a hand down his face. “And that’s none of your business—”

“Hey, I’m just pointing out you don’t exactly have a nose for these sorts of things—” She gasped when he snagged her elbow and dragged her off the bed, pulling her against him. “What the hell—”

“No, I didn’t know that my fiancée and my brother were screwing each other,” Lucky bit out. “Because I trusted her. I trusted him. You comparing yourself to them? You think you matter enough to get past my guard?”

Britt narrowed her eyes but didn’t wilt beneath the demand. She met his eyes, arched a brow, and waited an extra beat, his fingers clenched around her wrist, their chests pressed together. “No,” she said, finally. “Now you can either let me go or do something about it.”

Lucky released her, stepped back. “You keep pushing, Britt, and someone’s going to push back. Unless you’re saying I have a reason not to trust you, I don’t know what the point of this was—”

“Because I’m not—” Her eyes dropped, and she folded her arms. “Maybe I don’t believe you’d trust me over your father or your brother. I haven’t done much to earn it—”

“I didn’t know you in Port Charles,” Lucky said plainly, and she looked back at him. “Is there anything worse in your past then what you did to my sister?”

“No. I’d think that was enough—”

“I’m not proposing marriage,” he said, and she closed her mouth. “When this is over, we’ll go our separate ways. I don’t need to like you, Britt, to work with you.” He tipped his head. “I used to be addicted to drugs. Recovered or not, addicts don’t get a lot of trust either. This needs to be the last time we have this conversation. You either believe me or you don’t.”

“I do. I just—if Nikolas ever finds out—”

“He had an affair with my fiancée and worked with Helena to keep Jason away from his family,” Lucky cut in. “He’ll get over it.”

“Easy for you to say,” Britt muttered. She sat on the edge of the bed.  “Let’s go over the plan again.”

“You wait in the warehouse until I show up. With any luck, I’ve lost any tail already, and I can take over driving. Otherwise, you’ll have to drive while I navigate.” Lucky tossed a map at her. “I circled the airport and the lab. Get familiar with the area.”

“Oh, sure, in the next five hours—” Britt grumbled, but picked up the map. “Are you sure you trust me enough to do this? If I mess up, your dad still gets away.”

“Yeah, that’s the part of the plan Dad likes.” Lucky went towards the door, then stopped. “Don’t worry so much.”

“Once again, easy for you to say,” she retorted. He tossed her a grin and left, and she got serious studying the map. Lucky was the first person in years to offer her even a modicum of trust, and she wasn’t going to let him down.

Grand Ambiance Hotel: Jason and Drew’s Room

“Plane can’t take off until around eight,” Jason told Drew as his brother returned from another walk. “So we don’t have to head to the airport for another few hours.” He set his cell phone aside, considered the files he’d brought with him. “Any more, uh, memories?”

“No. No, but I think I’ll try to make some time to go to San Diego.” Drew sat on the bed, kicked off his shoes. “Maybe over spring break. I could take Oscar. He’d know some good places to go.” He reached for the tablet on the nightstand, scrolled through it for messages. “What’s the plan when we go back? You know Anna or Robert is going to make us sit through another big meeting.”

“Don’t remind me. Couldn’t you just go for both of us?”

“Absolutely not. Why should I be the only one tortured?” Drew paused. “At least now we have proof that Spencers were lying to us. What do you think they’ll say to that?”

“I don’t really care. Even though he told us about the lab and Valentin, Lucky’s still lying to us. Britt’s story doesn’t hold together. I don’t understand how her parents were involved or why either of them gave a damn what happened to me.” Jason exhaled slowly, tapped a finger against a manila folder. “They’re not actually helping us which all that matters. We’re giving them more than they’re giving us. You said as much on the plane, remember?”

“You’re ready to talk about cutting their access to the files?”

“They wasted a week following their leads. A day with our list? They found Valentin. They’re using us.” Jason shook his head. “And we don’t need them if Valentin is moving the lab back to Port Charles. They’ve been looking for Faison for two months. That’s what they told us they’d do. But Lucky told us they’ve been tracking Cassadine research facilities. So was anyone actually looking for Faison or Liesl Obrecht?”

Drew straightened, his brows furrowed. “Britt was supposedly with her old man until you came home — but Lucky just told us she hadn’t seen him since last year.”

“If Lucky knew where Faison was, I’d think he’d have told us that. To keep us out of Turkey,” Jason added. “So I don’t think either of them have the first clue where Faison or Obrecht is.” He paused. “You were right. I think we need to talk about whether or not we want to keep giving the Spencers access to the files.”

“Well, you and I are on the same page with that. But I’ll remind you of what you said on the plane. We’re gonna have an issue with Laura and Elizabeth.” Drew raised his brows. “You think it’s worth asking anyway?”

“I don’t like the idea of being used by the Spencers,” Jason said shortly. “After what Luke did to Jake, what Lucky has put Elizabeth and the boys through—Lucky thinks coming clean on a few lies while keeping back others is enough. We need to send a message. There’s no more working on their own. No more sharing information when all we get is lies in return. I’ve talked to Elizabeth. She’ll be on board. Spinelli works for me. Laura will just have to deal with it.”

Kiremit: Kitchen

Lucky closed the back door behind him and headed for the fridge. “Stashed the cars in the warehouse for tonight,” he told his father as he pulled out the ingredients for a sandwich. “I’m gonna go up and quiz Britt on the back streets and turns, but—”

“I don’t like the idea of her being in charge of the drive.” Luke twisted in his seat, his brows drawn. “You need to risk the time to get behind the wheel. I don’t see why—”

“You’re not the one in the car, so you don’t have to see.”

Luke nearly let it go, nearly didn’t push. Nothing had been right with Lucky since they’d arrived in Istanbul, and he knew exactly who to blame. He’d known that Britt Westbourne would be working overtime to get someone on her side — and Lucky was carrying enough guilt to be vulnerable.

But there was too much on the line, and he didn’t want to see his boy go down on account of a manipulative woman. “Do we have a problem, Cowboy? Everything I say, you go the opposite. And the shots about Jake and the accident—”

“Does the truth bother you?” Lucky asked, almost pleasantly. He leaned against the counter. “I take shots at you, Dad, because sometimes you need the reminder. And so does Nikolas. You both want to jump down Britt’s throat every time she opens her mouth, but neither one of you is shiny or clean in this. And neither am I. What has she done that’s worse than you?”

Luke pressed lips together. “You can’t trust her—”

“Why? Nikolas had an affair with my fiancée. You ran over my kid. Britt stole an embryo. I used to be a drug addict.” He jerked a shoulder. “What exactly makes any of us worth trusting?”

“She’s Obrecht’s kid.”

“And Nikolas’s is Stavros’s, but you trust him more than Britt. Look, Dad, you don’t have to like or trust her. No one asked you to work with her. She’s gonna unless I feel like it’s safe enough to risk switching drivers. End of story. This needs to be the last time we have this conversation. I’m done defending myself.”

“This isn’t just about Britt—something’s been off with you since we got here—”

“The last trip home.” Lucky paused, exhaled slowly and looked towards the window. “I don’t like lying to Elizabeth’s face. And I miss my kids. Cam and Jake don’t even see me as their dad anymore. This wasn’t supposed take years. How much longer am I supposed to put my life on hold for this? Until Aiden can’t be bothered with me either?”

Luke sighed, rubbed his forehead. “No one said you couldn’t have gone home. Kept your relationship with the boys—”

“Why? So another Cassadine could come out of the woodwork and go after them? No. I’m not going to rest until there’s no one left that can hurt them. Four years—” Lucky paused. “Four years, my son was dead. You think you know what’s that like because I was gone for a year. But I was sixteen. I was old enough to remember you and Mom. Helena stole Jake when he wasn’t even four years old. She screwed with his brain, warped it. Just like me. Cam’s almost the age I was when she destroyed my life. I didn’t want any of this to touch them.”

He exhaled slowly. “They’re normal. Elizabeth made sure of it. Even with all of this going on with Jason and his brother, the boys — they have friends. Cam’s an honors student. He’s never run away from home and slept under the docks. He’s never been brainwashed. No one’s tried to use computer games to hurt him.” He folded his arms. “A good father protects his kids. That’s what I did. Maybe it was the wrong way. Maybe all of that still would have happened if I stayed in the picture, I don’t know. But I did what I thought was right. That doesn’t mean I like where it ended up.”

He tossed the remains of his food into the garbage. “You know what to know what my problem is, Dad? I’m sick and tired of the Cassadines. It’s that simple. Any other questions?”

Kiremit House: Foyer

Before stashing the cars in the warehouse, Lucky had taken most of their luggage to the airport, ready for whatever destination Nikolas had determined was the right one.

Now, he stood in the foyer, checking his watch, adrenaline coursing through his veins. In just an hour, his father would be using his contacts to get Stefan out of the lab, and they’d be taking off from the lab in different directions —

It was Lucky’s job to draw the heat off his father, to clear a path to get Stefan to the airport. He was ready for it. Ready for the challenge. Ready to do something.

“All right, I’m heading to the airport to make sure everything is ready. I want to be taking off as soon as we’re all there,” Nikolas said, striding down the steps. “Is there anything we’re forgetting?”

“Hey, Britt, did I ask if you could drive stick?” Lucky said. “That was an oversight on my part.”

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Luke bit out. “You waited until now—”

“Son of a bitch,” Nikolas began.

“He’s screwing with you,” Britt said, rolling her eyes. “I can drive automatic or manual. It’s fine.” She slapped Lucky in the chest. “Knock it off.”

“But it’s so much fun,” Lucky said. He opened the door and the two of them headed out.

“I told you,” Luke said to Nikolas, “if she screwed with his head, I was gonna make you pay for it.”

“Let’s just get this over with.”

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