Lucky watched Helena and wondered again at what he had gotten
himself into. "I'm glad you think so. Okay, well, is there anything else?"

        "In a hurry, Lucky?" Helena said. "I wouldn't want to keep you from
anything important."

        "No," Lucky said quickly.  "It's okay, I have time."

        "Well, I don't really have anything more," She said handing him a
wad of cash. "I'll call you with your next assignment. If you successfully
complete that one, you will get some of the information that you so
desperately desire."

        "Alright," Lucky said. "Goodbye, Mrs. Cassadine." He turned to leave.

        "By the way, Lucky," Helena said in a concerned voice. "How is
young Elizabeth." She gave a gentle tsk. "Such a traumatic experience for
such a young girl."

        Lucky's blood ran cold. Helena knew about Elizabeth? Did she really
know about the rape? He said, calmly, "Oh, Elizabeth's fine, Mrs.
Cassadine. I'll...uh...I'll talk to you later." He hurried off he yacht.
"Stupid!" he said to himself. "Now look what you've done. Now Elizabeth's
in danger too." It's not like he could change Helena's perception that
Lizzie was the most useful bargaining chip she had at close hand in respect
to Lucky. She would see through anything he tried to remove that idea from
her head.  "I'll just have to make sure I keep her safe," Lucky thought to
himself, "Because there's no way I'm gonna let her get hurt." He walked off
the docks and headed to the place that he would meet Nikolas.

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        Nikolas walked down the stairs with his packed bags and faced his
uncle who was in about the same place that he had been when Nikolas had
gone upstairs.

        "What? So now you are leaving?" Stefan questioned. "You are the one
who should be punished, not I. What have I done to deserve this behavior?"

        "You lied uncle. You always lie. I never know if what you say is
truth or what you want me to believe, so I'm leaving, and I'll be back when
I choose." With that he left taking his things and leaving a shocked and
furious Stefan behind him.

        He left the island as quickly as he possibly could. He got his car
and drove to pick Lucky up. He saw Lucky waiting and pulled up beside him.
It was a very worried Lucky that stepped into the car.

        "What's wrong?" Nikolas asked, as he pulled out and headed towards
Elizabeth's house.

        "Helena knows about Elizabeth, how close we've gotten."

        "Oh, no!" Nikolas said knowing how big of a problem THAT could be.

        "Not only that, I think she knows all about the attack. She knows
the best way to hurt her and me."

        "Lucky you have to get out of this."

        "Yeah, we both know how easy THAT is," Lucky said sarcastically.
"I'll just have to ride it out and protect her with everything I have. I
don't know what I'd do if I lost her," he added quietly.

        Nikolas glanced quickly at Lucky in surprise. The feeling behind
those words had been unmistakable. Lucky had not just fallen for Elizabeth,
he was totally in love with her!

        "It'll be okay Lucky. I'm sure that between the two of us, we can
figure out a way for you to get rid of Helena. I wouldn't mind seeing the
last of her myself, but first we have to come up with a way to protect
Elizabeth. At least you don't have to stop seeing her. We both know that
that wouldn't do any good." They pulled up in front of Elizabeth's house.
"We'll think of something," Nikolas repeated reassuringly.

        Lucky nodded, "Thanks Nikolas. Look, I'll go get Lizzie and try and
keep Sarah from coming out here, but no guarantees, okay. I'm not sure I'm
strong enough to hold her back. She can rival Helena when she wants
something." Lucky laughed and Nikolas joined him.

        "No kidding. I trust you to do your best."

        Lucky walked up to Lizzie's door and knocked. Audrey opened it and
ushered him in. "Is that Nikolas that you drove up with?" She asked
astonished.

        Yes, Mrs. Hardy," Lucky said. "We're working out our difference's
and amazing as it may seem, we're actually beginning to like each other!"

        "Nikolas is here!?" piped Sarah from the couch. "Why didn't he come
in? I'll just go ask him."

        "Ah, Sarah," Lucky said relieved that Audrey had headed up the
stairs to get Liz. "I don't think that that would be such a good idea."

        "What? Why not?" Sarah asked, looking at Lucky with her doe eyes.

        "Um...He's having kind of a hard time right now. Everything's
changing for him, and I don't think that an ex girlfriend would help him
too much right now." Lucky said slowly.

        "Oh," Sarah said looking hurt. "Well, I think that I'll go see him
anyway." With that she headed out the front door.

        Lucky sighed and said, "Sorry bud," under his breath. He had never
felt more sorry for Nikolas than he did at this moment.

        "Hi, Lucky," Elizabeth said, coming into the room. Audrey came down
with her and then went into the kitchen.

        Lucky looked at her. She was so beautiful, even though she looked
like she hadn't slept at all the night before. "Ah, Liz," he said sadly.
"You didn't get any sleep at all after I called, did you?"

        "No, not really," she said with a small sigh. "I couldn't stop
thinking about him and how I was finally going to be able to look him in
the eyes...and maybe even ask him all the questions that have been running
through my head since that night. I don't know. I just hope that I can
recognize his voice. I want to be able to say, 'It was him,' and know it to
the very core of my being, so that there's no doubt in my mind or in
anybody else's."

        "Liz, you just have to listen, and say what you think. No one is
going to question you in this. You say what you think, and everything else
will fall into place."

        "I just want to get this over with." Liz said.

        "Then let's go. I think Nikolas need rescuing anyway. He's under
attack from your sister."

        "You let Sarah go out there? Why's he here anyway?"

        "He's kinda staying with me for a while."

        "Really!?"

        "Yeah, we're getting along, and he's kind of upset with his uncle
right now. Lies and everything," Lucky paused. "I wanted to say again that
I'm sorry for telling the Quartermaine's. I was faced head on with this guy
and I couldn't control myself. It won't happen again. Your trust means
everything to me. I won't jeopardize it again."

        "It's okay, Lucky. If I had been face to face with him, I probably
would have let it slip too. I'll let it slide this time, but next time I
decide who knows when, got it," she said shaking her finger at him.

        "Yes, ma'am!" Lucky said smartly with a crisp salute.

        Lizzie rolled her eyes at him, "let's go save you're brother, shall
we?" Lucky nodded. "Gram, we're leaving!" Lizzie hollered to her
grandmother.

        "Okay, dear." Audrey called back. "Call me if you're going to be late."

        "Sure, Gram," Lizzie said, a little sad that Audrey hadn't asked to
go with her.  Lucky and Liz walked out the door and headed to Nikolas' car.

        "Sarah," Lizzie said, noticing how apprehensive Nikolas seemed. "I
think I heard Gram call you as we left. I think that you should go see what
she needs."

        "Oh," Sarah said, stopping in the middle of her sentence about how
perfect their relationship had been. "Can you wait a minute Nikolas? Gram
needs me."

        "Sorry, Sarah," Lucky said. "We need to get Liz to the police station."

        "Oh, well, call me!" she said to Nikolas as she skipped off towards
the house thinking that this time she had gotten through to him.

        Lucky and Elizabeth got into the car. "Thank you guys, so much!"
Nikolas said, as he pulled out of the driveway and headed for the police
station. "I thought that she'd never stop."

        "Sarah can be a little obsessive," Liz said. "Don't let it frighten
you too much. She's pretty likely to transfer it to someone else before
long. She has every other time, though she seems a bit more intense this
time."

        "I hope so," Nikolas said.

Chapter Twenty-Three

        They pulled up in front of the police station and got out of the
car. They walked slowly into the station. It was hopping as usual, people
hurrying here and there. Det. Garcia and Det. Taggert are talking when
Garcia notices the three of them enter the room. He points them out to
Taggert, "Elizabeth Webber is here. Get the lineup set up, okay?"

        "No problem. Ya know, guys like that are truly the scum of the
earth. Her English teacher for crying out loud. I wonder how she's gonna
react?"

        "Don't know Taggert. Let's just hope that she identifies him." He
motioned for Lizzie, Lucky and Nikolas to come over. "Hello, Elizabeth. How
are you."

        "I'm okay," she said glancing around the room nervously. "Is he here?"

        "He's in holding. We're setting up the line-up now, if you'd follow
me?"

        "Can Lucky come?" Lizzie asked, desperately needing him to be in
the room.

        "Sure, no problem. Nikolas, you can stay here, have a seat if you
like."

        "Okay," Nikolas said. He sat down.

        Garcia lead them into a small room, where a woman with short red
hair was waiting. "This is Detective Ardanowski, she'll be sitting in." (I
love V so I decided that in my story, Mac is already back in charge, and V
is already working. Besides with the way my story is going to go I think
that they're going to need a friend like V. Can't you just see her going up
against Mama Cass? That, I would pay to see! :-)

        "Elizabeth," V said holding out her hand. Elizabeth took it and
shook. "Call me V. okay?"

        "Sure," Elizabeth said. "Oh, this is Lucky. He's here for moral
support."

        "Hello, Lucky," V said shaking his hand as well.

        "Okay, Elizabeth, I need you to tell me the exact words that your
attacker said that night, and how he said them. We will then have the
line-up say those same words in that exact way. Do you remember that now?"
Garcia said

        "Yes, actually it came to me the other day, when I heard one of my
teacher's say something similar to my sister. He said, 'Not a word.' He
whispered it actually."

        "Okay," he looked quickly at Lucky who nodded his head slightly.
"I'll get that to Taggert. V could I speak to you for a moment?"

        "Sure," she said. They left the room, closing the door behind them.

        When the door was closed Garcia said, "This is looking better.
Emily Q, was in earlier to give her statement and she said that he had said
those exact words to her. Also from the look on Lucky's face, the teacher
in question was our very own, Mr. Murty. I thought that you'd like to be
kept up to speed."

        "Thanks, Garcia. Oh, and Mac said to ask you to try and keep
Taggert from making mistakes on this one. This is not a guy we want to set
free." Garcia nodded and V turned and reentered the room.

        "Taggert, you'd better not screw this one up," Garcia thought to
himself. "No one would be more angry at you than you." Garcia knew that
behind the attitude was a cop that wanted nothing more than to get rid of
all the scum of the earth. Sure he hassled Morgan, but the guy WAS a
criminal after all. He also knew that Taggert hated people who hurt kids
more than anything. To let this guy off would make him absolutely furious
with himself.

        He went over to where Taggert was standing. "Taggert, this is
definitely our man in the Webber case as well. He said the same thing to
her that he said to the Quartermaine girl. 'Not a word.' In a whisper."

        "Okay, I'll let them know that, and then I'm headed over to watch
the trial. They're doing verdict and sentencing today." Taggert went off to
relay the message and then to the courthouse, while Garcia headed back to
the room where Elizabeth, Lucky and V were waiting.

        He walked in and found V talking reassuringly to Lizzie, explaining
how the line-up would work. "There will be six men in the room, and they're
numbered one through six. You won't be able to see them, you'll only be
able to hear them. They'll each say, 'not a word' and all that you have to
do is tell us which one is the one that said those words to you in the
park. Do you have any questions?"

        "No, can we please just get this over with," Lizzie said, clutching
Lucky's hand. "I want this to be over. I want to know that he's caught."

        "Okay," V said. "Detective Garcia's back so they should be all
set." She turns to a microphone and says, "We're ready to begin. Have them
start."

        Lizzie closes her eyes and listened carefully to the voices whisper
those words. They still had the power to frighten her. She listened without
reaction until she heard number five speak, "Not a word." Her eyes popped
open and Lucky flinched as her grip on his hand became painful. He glanced
over at her and noticed the look of complete terror on her face. The
Detectives didn't notice until number six had finished and they turned to
look at her. "It was him," she whispered in a terrified voice. "Number
five. I'll never forget that voice. It was him," her certainty was clear.

        Garcia and V weren't even aware which one of the suspects was
Murty. They wrote down and vocally stated that the witness had identified
suspect number five. They then asked that the lights in the room with the
suspects be turned on. They were pleased to see that Elizabeth had indeed
identified Mr. Murty as her attacker. Her reaction was less pleasant.

        "Mr. Murty." she whispered in a horrified voice. "I..it was Mr.
Murty?" She began to cry uncontrollably. "H....how could he. I trusted him.
I thought it would be a stranger. Someone I had seen...but Mr. Murty!?" She
put her hands over her face unable to stop crying. Lucky pulled her into
his arms. She wrapped her arms around him for and hung on for dear life.
She sobbed into his shoulder, while he whispered soothing, nonsensical
things into her hair. "Shh, it's okay. He's in jail now. It'll be okay.
Shh." He looked up at the cops, who were watching Elizabeth with worried
looks on their faces. "Could you give us a minute? We'll be out in a
second."

        "No problem," V said, leading Garcia out of the room. They had
their man, but what affect would this have on Elizabeth? A trusted teacher
turning out to be the person that had attacked and savagely raped her? V
hoped that she would make it through this okay. Lucky seemed like he would
do anything for her though, and V was glad that she had a friend like that
to help her through this.

        "Ah, baby," Lucky said, his own tears starting to fall as he
continued to hold her close. "I'm so sorry that I couldn't warn you, but
you needed to go into this with only one voice in your head, and that is
the voice of the person that attacked you."

        "I know, Lucky. I'll be okay. Just hold me for a little while longer."

        "I'll never let go, Lizzie," he said, his heart breaking at her
pain. "I'll never let go." They stood holding each other for a little while
before Elizabeth drew a shaky breath and pulled slowly away from him,
wiping her face with the back of her hand.

        "Okay," she said. "I'm ready to go. I just need to use the restroom
to wash up and then we can get out of here." They left the room. Nikolas
saw them exit the room and walked over to them.

        "Hey, Lizzie, how are you?"

        "I'm okay, Nikolas. I...I just can't believe..."

        "I know," Nikolas said, unable to resist giving her a quick hug.
She looked so sad! "I couldn't believe it myself."

        "I just have to go wash up," she said, surprised at the hug. "Then
we can get out of here."

        "Sure," Nikolas said. "Take all the time that you need." Elizabeth
walked over to the rest room, and went in to wash her face. Nikolas turned
to Lucky. "How is she, really?"

        "I don't know," Lucky said. "She's trying not to show it but the
fact that it was Murty really shook her up. I think it'll be good for her
to see Emily. Maybe someone who can understand her disbelief from a point
of view  closer to her own will help her."

        "Yeah," Nikolas said, and they spent the rest of the time waiting
for Elizabeth in silence.

        Elizabeth studied the brothers as she walked back to join them.
They seemed so at ease with each other today! Had it really been only
yesterday that they had been at each others throats? It showed just how
deeply they were connected that they were able to become so close in such a
short time. She went up to them and said, "Okay, I'm ready to go."

        "Liz, do you want to go see Emily with us? We want to see how she's
doing." Nikolas said. Lucky was happy that Nikolas was making this seem
natural, rather than as a thing designed precisely to get her to go to
Emily's.

        "I'd like that," Lizzie said. "I want to talk to her."

        "Good," Lucky said smiling gently at her. "I'm sure that she'll be
happy to see you." They left the police station and headed for Nikolas' car.

Chapter Twenty-Four

        They drove up to the Quartermaine Mansion, glad that the strike was
over so that the people who had been picketing the mansion were gone. They
stopped the car and went up the steps and rang the doorbell. Reginald
answered the door. "Hi, Reggie," Lucky said. "Is Emily home?"

        "Come in, Lucky. Yes, the whole family is in the living room,
doting on her and driving her absolutely crazy." He lead the way towards
the main room of the Q mansion. Nikolas followed closely behind him but
Lucky noticed that Lizzie was walking slower. She was nervous about going
into a room full of people that knew what had happened to her.

        "It'll be alright," Lucky said. She looked into his beautiful blue
eyes that were so full of understanding. He knew her so well! He held out
his hand. "They're like a whirlwind. They'll bluster around for a while and
then they'll die down. Just hold on to my hand. They're good people." She
grabbed ahold of his hand and they continued toward the Q's livingroom
together, quickly catching up with Nikolas and Reggie who had stopped to
wait for them. They entered the room together, and were confronted with a
typical Quartermaine scene. The entire family was surrounding Emily,
showering her with attention, while she tried to convince them that she was
okay. Emily looked up and saw Lizzie, Lucky and Nikolas enter the room.
Emily was surprised to see Lucky and Nikolas together, yet again, but they
seemed at ease together. She would have to get one of them to explain to
her what was going on.

        "Oh," she said pushing her way through her family to run over to
Lizzie and give her a hug. "How are you?"

        "I'm...I'm okay, I guess," Lizzie said. "We, uh, we just came from
the police station. I did,...I did a voice lineup, and it, it was Mr.
Murty." She started to cry again, and the Quartermaine's went silent. For
once none of them knew what to say.

        "We're going up to my room," Emily said, knowing that Lizzie needed
to be away from this huge group of yelling people that she didn't know.
Emily was used to it, but Lizzie didn't need that kind of thing right now.
She lead Lizzie gently out of the room, with Lucky and Nikolas following.
They went up the stairs to Emily's room.

        "Who was that," Ned said. He hadn't been filled in on all of the
details. He had only been informed of the attack a moment before Lizzie,
Lucky and Nikolas had entered the livingroom.

        "Elizabeth Webber," Monica answered. "She was attacked in the park
one night, obviously by the same person."

        "Only in her case," AJ said. "No one found her until the attacker
was gone. She was raped."

        "Thank God, you found Emily, AJ," Edward said. "The thought of her
going through that," Edward shivered and his eyes welled up with tears. His
sweet little girl! He couldn't even stand the thought of such a thing.
"From now on we do everything in our power to make that girl comfortable
and happy. No more arguments where she feels the need to run out of this
house! Is that understood?" Everyone nodded. They would do anything to keep
Emily safe. "Good," Edward said. He and Lila left the room and slowly the
rest of the family followed, all headed to the courthouse to watch the end
of Tony's trial.

*In Emily's Room*

        Emily and Lizzie were sitting on Emily's bed talking quietly. "I
was wondering why you hadn't been in school for so long," Emily said gently
to Lizzie.

        "I couldn't stand the thought of walking through the halls with all
those people, most of whom I still don't know that well. All those guys. I
had no idea who it had been. Now I'm even more glad that I hadn't been
going."

        Emily nodded. The thought of Elizabeth sitting through English,
made HER stomach turn. She couldn't fathom how it must make Elizabeth feel
to think about it. "I can't understand it. Now that the shock has worn off,
all I can think about is how absolutely SICK Mr. Murty must be. I mean how
could HE do this. We saw him everyday, we trusted him. I just don't
understand!"

        "Neither do I," Elizabeth said. "The first day I went to Kelly's
after that night, he talked to me like nothing had happened. He stood there
and he looked me in the eyes and talked to me. Oh, god!" She didn't know
what to do. She felt like the world was spinning out of control. She felt
someone grab her hand. She looked up and saw Lucky kneeling in front of
her, and the world stopped spinning. He was her anchor.

        "Lizzie," he said. "I don't know how and I don't know when, but I
do know that someday you'll get through this. You *will* get through this."
She looked deep into his eyes and she believed him. With him and Emily, and
even Nikolas, (though she never thought that she would think of him as
support), with them to help her, she would get through this. She knew in
her heart that she had the strength to do this. She felt her fear change.
It was slow, but she felt it happen. She went from living in absolute fear
of this man, to anger towards him. She took control. She knew that she
would always be scared, but she would no longer let it rule her life. It
wouldn't be easy, she knew that, but she would do it. She would take back
her life,...and take Mr. Murty's away.

        "Yes," she said with determination. "I *will* get through this!"

        The four of them looked at each other in silence for a few minutes.
They would help each other. There was nothing that could come between them.
Just then, Lucky cell phone rang.

        "Since when do you carry a phone?" Emily asked as she watched Lucky
take it out of his pocket.

        "Since, yesterday," he said before holding his finger to his lips.
The room fell into silence again. "Hello?"

        "Hello, Lucky. I have another job for you." Helena said.

        "I'm listening," Lucky said.

        "I want you to go to Alexis Davis's apartment building to pick up
my trunk for me. She left it with the desk when she left for court this
morning. Just give them your name and tell them that I sent you for it. I
want it here within two hours." With that she hung up the phone.

        Lucky sighed and put the phone away. "Nikolas, I hate to ask you
this, but can I borrow your car? I gotta go back to the cabin and get my
car, then go pick something up and deliver it to...you know who, and I
don't want to be driving your car when I drop it off. I'll go do this and
then I'll come back and pick you guys up. Is that okay?"

        "Sure," Nikolas said handing over his keys to Lucky without
hesitation. "We'll be here. Be careful."

        "I will, don't worry." He gave Emily a hug and Lizzie a hug and a
kiss on the cheek before he left the Q's and headed for the cabin.

        "Where's he going?" Lizzie asked. "Is this part of the new job he
has working for that old woman?"

        "Yeah, this is it."

        "Is it really dangerous?"

        "Yeah," Nikolas said, staring worridly at the door that his brother
had recently exited. "It is."

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