New Kid In Town

Chapters 16 - 20

Chapter Sixteen

"Your daughter? Great, in two day's time, I have a daughter and a granddaughter! Now I feel old!" Zoë smiled a bit. "If she's your daughter, then why isn't she here?" Zoë's smiled vanished. She turned away from him.
"When I was eighteen, I met this guy named Markus Jacksi. We fell in love and married. When I was nineteen, I gave birth to our daughter, Lenna Camille Jacksi. I was so happy. I had gotten the paternity test results back earlier and I was going to get Lenna and Markus and go see you." Zoë sighed. "Then, the night before Lenna and I were to be released, Markus and his brother Eric came to see me. We were having a great time, talking and laughing. Eric had a camera to take pictures of me, Markus, and Lenna. The nurse came in and said it was time for Eric to leave because visiting hours were over. We begged her to let him stay and she agreed and left. About an hour or so later, the nurses were in the ER because there had been a shooting, so they left the non-emergency patients alone. Markus asked to hold Lenna. I agreed because, well, it was his daughter. Then Eric grabbed my wrists with one hand and put his other hand over my mouth. I didn't know what was happening. Markus stood up and told me to take a good look at Lenna because I'd never see her again. Eric put a cloth over my mouth and nose. When I awoke, they were gone."

Chapter Seventeen

"But, Markus wouldn't leave it at that. He kept sending me pictures with just her first name written on the back, taunting me with what I couldn't have. I couldn't take it anymore, so I escaped my life. I lived in about twenty places over the next year, changing my last name in each of them. Finally, I ended up in Maryland. I had an old friend who lived there, who helped me falsify a past and create references for my resume, which were actually him and his friends. Then I came here. I thought I was OK. No more Markus to drive me insane. But this morning, I opened the door to get the paper and an envelope fell out. The picture was in it, along with this." Zoë handed Luke a piece of paper.
"What is this?"
"It's words from 'Amazing Grace'. We thought of naming Lenna Grace. Plus, the words itself: 'I once was lost, but now am found/ Was blind, but now I see'. They lost track of me, but they found me. And now I can see my daughter, in photographs, though. It's not the same!" Zoë slammed her hand on the wall.
"What do you want me to do? You said you needed my help."
"You used to be very involved in the Organization. I remember, uh, Sonny Corinthos was the last tie you had when I lost track of you."
"Why do you want the Organization's help in this?"
"Because Markus controlled the Saint Elimus territory for the Organization. His mother was Frank Smith's sister. Now, I need to know if you can help me."
"Yeah, I can. I call him now. It'll only take him a few minutes to get over here." Luke picked up the phone. "Yeah, Jason? I need you to come down to the club... I need a favor...."

Chapter Eighteen

Luke shut the door to the office.
"Well, that went good." he commented. "Zoë, if anyone can find Lenna, Jason can."
"I'll just keep reminding myself of that." Zoë sighed, checking her watch. "I've got to get to the hospital."
"I'll give you a ride." Luke offered, grabbing his coat.
"Really? Thanks." Zoë smiled for the first time in an hour.
"No problem."

"Barbara, I need to talk to you." Luke said as the elevator opened for him and Zoë.
"Sure. One second. Uh, Zoë, the patient in room 235 has been asking for you. There's a volunteer in with her right now."
"All right, thanks Bobbie. I'll see you, Luke."
"Bye, Zoë."
"I thought she drove you nuts!" Bobbie commented when Zoë was out of earshot.
"It's a long story. Do you remember Camille Sedmen?" Luke began.

Zoë walked over to room 235 just as someone backed out of it. She could hear Luke and Bobbie talking in the background.
"Excuse me," Zoë said, trying to get around the person.
"She's asleep." the person replied, turning around. Zoë stared at him, her jaw dropped. She began to smile.
"Nik?" she whispered. Nikolas stared at her, a look of realization coming to his face.
"Zoë?" he said. Zoë grinned. Nikolas picked her up and spinned her around.
"Oh my God! What are you doing here?" Zoë cried as soon as he put her down.
"I was just about to ask you that!"
"I work here in pediatrics."
"I volunteer here in pedia trics."
"Cassadine, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Luke asked, walking up to them.
"That's none of your business, Luke." Nikolas replied.
"Cassadine?! Well, that explains things." Zoë said.
"Zoë, I need to talk to you." Luke said, grabbing Zoë's arm. Zoë grabbed Luke's wrist and pryed his hand off of her arm.
"I don't care who you are to me, Luke. Nobody tells me what to do." She released his wrist. "I'll talk to you in a second." She turned to Nikolas, who had a shocked look on his face. "I get off at six. Do you want to meet somewhere and catch up?"
"Uh, sure. Do you know where the Outback is?"
"No, but I'll ask around. See you at six-thirty?"
"Sure." Nikolas smiled and walked away. Zoë turned to Luke.
"What are you doing hanging out with the demon spawn?"
"Excuse me, Luke, but Nikolas is an old friend. I've known him a lot longer than I've known you, and I don't really think he'll be too thrilled to find out whose 'demon spawn' I am."
"Zoë-"
"Can we deal with this later? I have a ton of work to do and I don't really feel like arguing about one of my friends whose parents you don't like!"
"It's not his parents! Just his father and all of his paternal relatives."
"Fine. Whatever. I'll talk to you after I get off. And AFTER I have dinner with Nikolas." Zoë walked off.
"A Spencer having dinner with a Cassadine. I'll notify the Weather Channel." Luke muttered.

Chapter Nineteen

"So, Zoë, what have you been doing for the past year?" Nikolas asked, sipping his drink.
"Let's see, since I met you last April? I finished my internship at Frederick Memorial Hospital in Maryland, I'm being threatened by the mob again, I got a job here at GH, I found out my father wants to kill you, I-"
"Hold it. Back up."
"The job at GH?"
"Zoë."
"Being threatened by the mob or the part about my father?"
"Let's start with your father, shall we?"
"I grew up in Florida with my mother, Camille Sedmen. I never knew my father because Mama never contacted him to tell him that she was pregnant."
"Your father never knew you existed?"
"Not until a few days ago. About 1997 or so, I had a paternity test done, using a sample of blood that was drawn to test him for something. It was postive, I was thrilled, so I was all set to come and say 'Hi, I'm your kid' when I lost track of him. He left the country and I couldn't find him."
"Until a few days ago."
"Right. It turns out he was here the whole time."
"And he wants to kill me because?" Zoë looked down at her plate.
"My father's Luke Spencer."

"Lasha, I must speak with you."
"Stefan, unless it's about Nikolas, I don't really feel like talknig right now."
"It's about Nikolas." Laura sighed and let Stefan into the house.
"So, speak."
"I believe that we can finally tell Nikolas the truth without incurring the wrath of your husband."
"No matter what the circumastances were, Luke and I won't see eye to eye on this issue, Stefan. We are not telling Nikolas."
"Luke has, as you Americans put it, no room to talk." Stefan replied, wondering how Laura would react to the news.
"Excuse me?"
"Do you remember a woman named Holly Sutton?"
"Holly Sutton... oh yes, she was Robert's wife at some point."
"Do you know why they married?"
"Probably not because she was forced onto an island." Laura sighed in annoyance.
"They married," Stefan continued, pretending not to have heard Laura's comment. "Because Miss Sutton was pregnant and about to be deported. And the father of her child was dead."
"Does your little story have a point?" Stefan ignored Laura once more.
"Imagine Miss Sutton's surprise when, after she had miscarried and fallen for her husband, her thought-dead lover returned."
"Stefan, I'm really becoming annoyed with you."
"She ultimately chose her husband, of course. A good thing, too, considering her lvoer's thought-dead wife returned from the dead not too long after that." Laura's forehead wrinkled slightly. No, she thought, it can't be. Stefan, noting her reaction, continued. "I guess your dear husband wasn't as faithful as you deluded yourself to believe he was." Instead of dissolving into tears, as Stefan thought she would, Laura stood up calmly from her chair.
"Get out of my home." She ordered.
Stefan, confused into submission, walked out the door.
Only then, with her enemy out of sight, did she dissolve into tears.

Chapter Twenty

Luke walked into his house purposefully. He had to tell Laura about Zoë before Lucky or, God forbid, Nikolas did. Laura was washing dishes in the sink; the dishwasher was broken again.
"Hey, there, darlin'," Luke said coming into the kitchen. Laura didn't even move a muscle.
"Luke, do you remember a woman named Holly Sutton?"
"Uh, yeah. Didn't she and Robert get hitched once?"
"Why did they marry?" Luke stared at her back in confusion.
Laura turned around, shutting off the water.
"You see, I heard that she was expecting your child." Luke paled. Laura waited for the denial, the shock - anything. Laura walked across the few feet between them in a second and slapped Luke across the face, snapping him back into reality.
"Laura, you were - I thought you were dead-" Laura cut him off.
"Your double - standard really tires me. You concieved a child with another woman, never bothered to tell me about the entire incident, and still got on my case because of Nikolas?!"
"Laura, he is a Cassadine!"
'Luke, I WAS KIDNAPPED!" Laura yelled, beyond all rational thought. Beyond any thought for that matter, not caring anymore. "Stavros is not Nikolas' father!" Laura spit out.
Luke stared at her, almopst hoping he was the father, so that the inevitable would not be the only alternative.
"Stefan is."

"Luke is - your father is -" Nikolas stared at Zoë. "Does Laura know?" Zoë looked at him in confusion.
"Who's Laura? As far as I know, only Lucky and Bobbie know."
"Laura is Luke's wife, Lucky's mother. . . my mother."
Zoë stared at Nikolas.
"Your father's not-"
"No way. I did the math once. I was born nearly a year after laura last saw him."
"Saw him? What do you mean?" Nikolas sighed.
"Zo, it's a LONG story. Now what did you mean about the mob being after you again?"
"Nik, that's an even longer story." Zoë sighed. "I wish we could just go back to when we were just Nik and Zo, and just pick up where we left off!" Nikolas smiled.
"Oh, you mean here?" he asked, leaning over the table and kissing her. Zoë laughed.
"Just about." Then she kissed him.

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