Written in 27 minutes. No editing.  Quick note on the set up, though it’s probably relatively clear from the part that follows:

It picks up General Hospital canon in December 1997 with a few important changes:
– Jason’s history is as it was on the show. He had his accident in early 1996, went to work for Sonny, dated Robin, slept with Carly. He broke up with Robin, helped Sonny stand Brenda up at the altar, and then promised Carly he would help her with Michael.
– Elizabeth is slightly different. I’ve aged the group of teens. Nikolas and Sarah are both twenty-two, Lucky and Elizabeth are twenty, and Emily is nineteen. She and Sarah came to town to help with Audrey’s injury earlier in the summer. Sarah is in medical school, Elizabeth has enrolled in the nursing program.

And yes…I did look up the actual date of the shootout of Luke’s club — it was the Friday cliff hanger. I miss those days so much.

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Friday, December 5, 1997

Luke’s Club

It was supposed to be a night of celebration, and to Elizabeth’s Webber’s way of thinking, a night of toleration.

How else would Emily Bowen-Quartermaine, the closest thing she had to a best friend in this town, have talked her into spending the evening at a private party with three of Elizabeth’s least favorite people.

“You just have to get to know them better,” Emily had told her earlier that day with big brown eyes wide with hope. “Please.”

“I know my sister as well as I’m ever going to know her, and Nikolas and Lucky both think she’s amazing, so that’s all I need to know about them.” Elizabeth had rolled her eyes, and Emily had pleaded, and she’d finally given in.

After all, she did want to celebrate finishing up her first official semester in General Hospital’s nursing program. Finishing. Surviving. The words meant the same thing. She still wasn’t sold on this career, but her internship at the hospital paid her bills and gave her time for her art.

That’s all she really wanted.

So here she was, trying to make small talk with Lucky Spencer, Emily’s other best friend, as they awaited Sarah’s arrival. Elizabeth had been highly suspicious when Emily had chirped about Nikolas attending considering that Nikolas was Nikolas Cassadine, and therefore, the equivalent to Lex Luthor.

The only Cassadine Elizabeth figured was allowed in Luke’s Club was the really hideous painting of evil matriarch Helena that hung near the bar. It gave her shivers to even think about it.

Emily was beaming, looking very happy, Elizabeth didn’t really think about shooting Lucky all that much, even though he kept checking his watch for Sarah—because Lucky didn’t even know Nikolas was supposed to be there. She wasn’t sure how Emily intended to get away with this, but that was going to be her problem.

The music was loud, and everyone was laughing and dancing. Luke stopped the music long enough to proclaim his sister-in-law Amy Vining the winner of something. More laughter.

And then—

POP! POP! POP!

Somewhere glass shattered. Someone screamed. Emily’s face was pale as Lucky put his hand on her shoulder and motioned for Elizabeth to get down as well.

POP! POP! POP!

Tires squealed—

The screams continued—from inside the club. Outside—

Elizabeth stumbled to her feet and towards the front door. She—she was supposed to be a nurse right? That was the plan, wasn’t it?

“Elizabeth!” Emily cried, her fingers missing the hem of Elizabeth’s dress as Elizabeth darted around the warm bodies moving away from the doors.

The shots had stopped—who ever was shooting was gone now—and maybe someone was hurt—

The bitter winter wind swirled around her bare shoulders as she shoved the door open, Luke Spencer on her heels. “Lizzie, my dear,” Lucky’s father began—but he stopped—

Because they both saw the prone body laying near their feet. Elizabeth leaned down, pressed two fingers to his neck and took in the gunshot to his head. No pulse. Not that she’d expected it—

“Oh, God, don’t—” Luke murmured, staring hard across the parking lot.

Elizabeth got back to her feet and saw another body laying in the lot—but his legs were jerking, his hands clutching his throat, blood spurting—

Nikolas.

She hauled her skirt up to in her hands and started to run towards him, her heels kicking up gravel. “Hey, hey—” She slid to her knees, wincing as the small rocks bit into her stocking knees. She pressed her hand to his wound, her fingers drenched in blood almost immediately. “Jesus—” She looked up, whipperd her head around for Luke. “I need—”

“What do you need, darling—”

“He can’t breathe—” Another voice chimed in as Jason Morgan, Emily’s older brother and the town’s resident mafia boss, fell to his knees and moved Elizabeth’s fingers until she was pressed more firmly down on the spot. “The blood is pooling—I need—” He looked up, his wide blue eyes meeting hers across Nikolas’s jerking body. “I need a pen.”

“A pen?” Luke repeated.

People started to crowd around them. There were more screams—Elizabeth recognized them now—her sister was crying shrilly.

“Get her away from him! She’s going to kill him—”

“We need a pen—if you can hollow it out like a tube,” Elizabeth told Luke. “And—something to cut his throat—”

“I’ve got that,” Jason murmured, as he slid his hand into his back pocket, drawing out a switch blade. He met her eyes again. “You never saw this.”

“Right. Luke?” Elizabeth looked up again to find a pen in her face. She quickly unscrewed it, slid out the ink until it was a tube. “I need more towels!”

She felt fingers clawing her her shoulders dragging her back—she lost her grip on the wound and blood spurted—Nikolas jerked, gasping—

“Get off of me—” Elizabeth batted at the hands, struggled forward.

“Emily!” Jason barked, his voice clipped, and rough.

Sarah was gone then, and Elizabeth didn’t look to see where she went. She had observed a tracheotomy only twice and now she was going to assist—and how the hell did Jason Morgan know how to perform one?

“Ready?” Jason asked her. “I’m going to make the cut—”

“I’m ready,” Elizabeth said as she moved her fingers slightly to allow Jason to press the tip of his knife into the right spot. He made the cut, she adjust the pen, and then—

Then Nikolas drew in a ragged breath, his dark eyes finding hers—wild with fear. Elizabeth took her hand in his, squeezing it hard.

The paramedics arrived then, a roar of sirens that rolled into the parking lot, followed by a couple of patrol cars and then an unmarked mud brown sedan.

The paramedics came over, and after another moment or two as they stabilized the rudimentary airway they’d created, Jason and Elizabeth were gently pushed aside.

Nikolas was loaded into an ambulance, and Luke climbed in after him. The doors closed—

And he was gone. No more then seven minutes after it all begun—

It was over.

Elizabeth’s breath started to come more rapidly then as the cold bit into her bare arms. She stared down at her hands, stained with blood that looked bright red even in the dim lights the parking lot.

“What did you do?” Sarah Webber’s shrill scream broke into her trance, and Elizabeth turned to face her sister, blinking. Almost immediately, her head snapped to the side as Sarah’s hand connected with her.

“Whoa!” Lucky shouted, shockd, as he put an arm around Sarah, dragging her away. “What the hell is your problem?”

“She probably killed him!” Sarah screamed.

Elizabeth stared at her, trans fixed until something heavy dropped onto her shoulders and she felt a presence at her side. She blinked and turned to Emily’s brother, who had been wearing a suit before—and now his jacket was around her.

“Are you okay?” Jason asked, his voice low.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” came the drawl of one of the detectives who had climbed out of the sedan. He broke away from a uniform who had been giving him a report. “You juggling yet another woman, Anger Boy?”

Jason’s concern slipped from his features almost as if it hadn’t been there—his chiseled features appearing now as if etched from stone. He said nothing.

“She tried to kill Nikolas!” Sarah’s hysterical cry came from behind them.

“Jesus Christ,” Emily said with a roll of her eyes. Her voice was shaky as she continued. “Jason and Elizabeth saved his life, Taggert—”

“Nothing to say there, Anger Boy?” the bald-headed cop demanded, stepping right up to Jason, tilting his chin slightly so their eyes met. “She’s covered in blood, so I guess she belongs to you.”

Elizabeth knew she should say something—that she should correct him—but her words wouldn’t come. She’d rushed out into a potentially dangerous situation, seen a dead man with a gunshot to the eye, helped Nikolas breathe while covered in his blood—

She couldn’t seem to find the words.

And that was probably how she found herself in the back of a patrol car, handcuffed next to Jason Morgan, on her way to the Port Charles Police Department.

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