"Q.E.D." Part 31
The good news came at them in fronts. First officially, from
Mac, after hearing from the WSB, who arrived at the scene
shortly after the fire began, and then, unofficially, from a
secured channel aboard the Cassadine jet.
"What is it, Laura?" asked Lesley.
"That was Luke, Mother," Laura said, hanging up the phone. "He
said that everything's fine, and that they're all flying back
tonight."
Lesley hugged her daughter. "The children are all right?"
"Yes," she replied. "Nikolas had some problems with smoke
inhalation, but there's a doctor flying back with them, to keep an
eye on them on the plane."
"And.... Stefan?"
Laura sighed. "Well, apparently the doctor wanted him to stay in
Athens, so he could be treated for his gunshot wound, but he
refused."
Lesley smiled. "He is a stubborn one. Very.... tenacious."
Laura raised an eyebrow at her mother. "You know him quite
well, don't you?"
"Better than you think."
"It's... strange, having to wait like this for them to return,"
Laura said. "I'm used to being right there, in the middle of the
crisis. All those years of running with Luke and Lucky, I always
knew when the latest battle was finished and we were safe. But
now... I don't know where to put the final period. I can't see the
end of this yet. Even though I know it's over."
Lesley walked over to the secretary and picked up Stefan's
letter, glancing at his final question, the blank parchment of the
unfinished last page waiting anxiously for a reply. "Can you
really say it's over, yet?" she asked.
Laura looked down at the floor. "I don't know."
"What are you going to do about this?" asked Lesley. "About ...
his confession? Are you angry about it?"
Laura met her mother's gaze, and Lesley saw the answer before
it was spoken aloud. "I knew, Mother," Laura said, "I knew it
was him the moment he touched me. It was a soft touch,
tentative, asking me wordlessly for my permission. Stavros
never asked. And so I gave my permission, wordlessly. We were
like two people on the cusp of a dream, both afraid to speak, for
fear that the ether would shatter and the other would disappear.
Silence would be the foundation for our union, and silence would
be the seed of our shame. He punished himself all those years,
thinking that I didn't know, thinking that he had taken what I
never offered, and yet, how could he have not known? And my
punishment was knowing that I was the source of his suffering.
"We're both to blame, of course. One word, spoken by either one
of us would have prevented all that was to follow. But I think
that we both knew that the sound of a name might have held me
there forever. He gave me two gifts that night that ensured my
freedom: he gave me Nikolas, and he gave me his silence, which
in turn took away the choice." She paused, staring at her hands,
looking for answers in the soft lines of her palms. "I love Luke,
Mother. With all my heart. He and I have a bond that most
couples only dream of.... and yet, somehow, there was... there is
Stefan. How can this happen?"
Laura's reverie was shattered by her mother's light laughter, but
it was by no means derisive, more of a caress than a judgement.
"Oh Laura, honey, that ideal may sell a lot of romance novels, but
it just doesn't wash in real life," said Lesley, "Of course you
can love more than one person with 'all your heart'! They're just
not supposed to occupy the same space and time. When they do,
things get messy, and believe me, I ought to know!
"When I first asked about Rick, you were so careful and
considerate, tiptoeing around the fact that he married another
woman after my 'death'. Monica, however, had no qualms about
telling me the truth, and I am grateful to her for it. So now, I'm
telling you: I'm happy that my family is intact, and that both
Stefan and Luke are returning from Greece, because I am fond of
both of them. You, on the other hand, had better get yourself a
good broom, because your past and present are on a collision
course and there's going to be a lot to clean up."
Lesley smiled and patted Laura's arm. "I'm sorry, honey, for
being so blunt. Tony Jones says that I've lost my 'cushion of
tact', and frankly, I don't know where to look for it."
Laura laughed. "Oh mother! You're still you, only more so! And I
couldn't be happier about it..."
Lila could see him through the window of the ICU room. He was
frowning at the receiver, while jabbing at the phone's number
pad in an accusatory manner. After a brief, obviously fruitless
conversation, he replaced the phone on the nightstand, and rang
for the nurse.
"Good lord, what does he want now?" said Amy.
"Has he been difficult?" asked Lila.
Amy rolled her eyes. "First, he wanted the minutes from the last
hospital board meeting. Then, he wanted last month's financial
reports. Then, he wanted remote access to the mainframe from
his room..." she paused and smiled, "... which, I had the distinct
pleasure of saying 'no' to. And, of course, I've had to provide
updates on Nikolas' condition every five minutes for the past two
hours. How many different ways can I say: 'He's resting
comfortably. He's under observation for smoke inhalation. He'll
be fine.'" She sighed dramatically. "Why couldn't he have
recuperated in Greece?"
Lila smiled and patted Amy's arm. "Probably because he knew he
would never receive the care that he would here."
Amy laughed. "Oh Mrs. Quartermaine! You are too much! I hope
you're here to visit him. He needs the distraction." She wrinkled
her nose in the direction of the observation window. "I wish
Bobbie hadn't been called away to assist on that emergency
surgery. She should be here babysitting him, not me."
"As a matter of fact, I am here to visit him," Lila replied. "I
take it that is acceptable?"
Amy consulted her clipboard. "Well, you're on the list of
'approved visitors'.... which is something else I can't believe I had
to do." She walked over and opened the door. "Get in there and
talk to him. Tell him he needs to rest. He's having surgery in the
morning."
"I'll try, dear, but I'm well acquainted with that type of man. I
find them to be quite impossible."
"You're telling me!" she replied, and then leaned in close,
adopting the hushed tone of one about to receive a great secret.
"Say, how do you know him, anyway? I've never seen you two
talking before...."
"We met through a mutual acquaintance," Lila said smoothly,
easing into the lie: "International business dealings, you know."
"I should've figured. I'm sure the Cassadines and the
Quartermaines have a lot in common..."
"Indeed we have, dear," replied Lila.
The two women were interrupted by the subject of their
conversation. "Ms. Vining, are you going to stand at the door, or
are you going to answer my page?"
Amy frowned at the interruption. "What is it now, Mr.
Cassadine?"
"Please tell me why I am unable to reach an overseas operator
from this phone," he replied, pointing at the offending object.
"Probably because you're a patient right now, and you're supposed
to be resting, like all the other patients up here, and therefore
your phone is not supposed to be used to call Timbuktu, or
wherever you're trying call..." She paused, smiling sweetly,
"Besides, you have another visitor... Mrs. Quartermaine."
Stefan brightened immediately. "Wonderful! Send her in."
"My pleasure..." Amy muttered. Then, she wheeled Lila's chair
into the room and gratefully shut the door.
Stefan watched Amy through the window, until he knew she was
out of earshot, and smiled. "Lila, I have succeeded in alienating
one of General Hospital's most inquisitive minds," he said. "And
I consider it no small victory."
Lila laughed. "Oh, you know she won't stay away for long. But
she has a point, you know, you should be resting. So.. how are
you? I hear you're having surgery tomorrow."
Stefan dismissed the notion with a wave of his hand. "It's a
minor operation. A 'debridement', they call it. They are simply
going to clean the bullet wound and make sure that Luke
Spencer's efforts left no permanent damage." He sighed, "I can't
believe I was admitted to ICU for this. It's a ridiculous waste of
personnel and equipment."
Lila indulged him with a smile. "You don't think that your
position here has anything to do with this preferential
treatment?"
"I believe that it has everything to do with it..."
She reached over and patted his arm. "Then, you should just
relax and enjoy it." She leaned back in her chair and studied his
face. "Laura told me what happened in Greece. I was ... sorry to
hear about your mother and that awful fire..."
"My mother chose her own fate, which is more than I can say for
the other players involved."
"What do you intend to do now?"
"I want to finish this. I want to bury the past, once and for all."
He looked over at her. "Tell me, Lila, where is your mother
buried?"
"She wanted to be cremated," Lila replied. "She wanted to leave
no evidence of her former identity. She loved her Romanov
family, but her royal past had brought her such great pain, and
she did not want to pass that legacy on to me. So, my father and
I did as she requested. We smuggled her remains to
Ekaterinburg, and scattered her ashes on the grounds of the
Ipatiev house, where she spent her last days with Alexie and the
rest of her family."
"I see," Stefan said. "I am trying to organize a discreet team
that will search the island and locate Alexie's remains. I have
some people in mind..." He gave the telephone a scathing look.
"...but it appears as though that will have to wait until after I'm
discharged." He paused, and Lila thought he had the look of a
man reading several pages of argument in the length of a few
seconds. "Is it wrong," he asked, "to deprive the Russian people
of this particular page in their history? There are still other
Romanovs who survive, descendants of Nicholas II's grandfather.
Is it wrong to deny them the direct link to the last Tsar?"
Lila pondered his questions before answering. "You never knew
your grandfather, but I had the pleasure of knowing my mother.
Although I was a young girl, I still remember when my mother
received the news that her brother had died. My father was in
Ireland, on business, so she took me into York, and we attended
services at the York Minster. I had never been there before, and
the size and beauty of the great cathedral overwhelmed me.
After the service, she took my hand, and we climbed the winding
staircase to the roof. It was a difficult climb, through a dark
and narrow stairway, but when we emerged into the sunlight, I
thought we could see the whole world from that height. So I
asked my mother: 'Where is your kingdom?'. And, instead facing
the east, toward Russia, she turned and pointed in the direction
of our small estate in Yorkshire. 'There,' she said, 'that is all
that remains of my kingdom.' And she smiled at me, and added:
'But it is a precious one, indeed. One that my father, the Tsar,
and my brother, the Tsarevich, would have chosen, had they been
given the choice.'" Lila reached over and squeezed Stefan's hand.
"Like my mother, I decided long ago that the annals of history
had devoured quite enough of my family, and it was time to limit
the scope of my existence to that which is truly important to
me."
Stefan brought Lila's hand to his lips, as a courtier would kiss
the hand of a great queen. "You are a wise woman, Lila," he said.
Go To Part 32
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