Life As It Should Be: Chapter 4
Saturday, 03-Jun-00 11:11:30
4.54.20.250 writes:
Chapter 4
Wyndemere
Nikolas walked away from his sister’s door in shock. Her mother was here? In Port-Charles? His first thought went to Laura…but then he dismissed it. Laura would never abandon her child in front of an orphanage… to a bunch of Cassadines but never an orphanage. Which is what Caroline’s mother had done. The nuns had found a crying baby on the front of their doorstep one winter. According to the little he had managed to extract from his Uncle.. his father had tracked her down 5 years later. She was placed under the care of a couple …Bensons? That sounded right. She was left under the care of the Bensons with regular visits from his father he recalled bitterly. He had made sure to see his daughter regularly… keeping her away from his mother…yet he had never bothered to come see him…unless they ran into each other at family occasions….no he only cared about his precious daughter . But then when she was seven the tradgedy occurred…or so his grandmother liked to call it. he never really felt that it was one…it was better of this way…without him EVER around.
Helena of course had been the first to look through the documents her beloved Stavros had assigned to his attorneys in case something ever happened to him. Lo and behold she had found out about her granddaughter and quickly made arrangements to bring her to her. Ever since Helena had taken care of Caroline…or rather spoiled her….she allowed her to do as she pleased so long as it did not interfere with family ‘honor’. Whereas Nikolas had to contend with questions like .. how was he doing with the family business? Why didn’t he try to get a more involved with the business? Were the friends he had worthy of Cassadine company? She only seemed to be interested in how good a protegee he was….whether he was preparing well to take over the family enterprise in the future.
He hated his sister sometimes…she got all the freedom … his only comfort sometimes was that her mother had abandoned her to strangers. It was a cruel thing but he could not help it…. Now that comfort might soon be gone. He was scared that her mother could probably explain it all.
Nikolas went to his room and sat in front of his mirror. He looked at himself and saw the anger in his face. It took him back... this was his sister.. deep down he loved her… he should try and help her. He frowned… he wasn’t sure whether…she would be happy to find her mother or merely relieved to finally have it out with the woman who abandoned her. Either way…he would help find her it was the least he could do he decided, and felt the guilt of his disturbing feelings begin to ebb away.
Four days later
Caroline rushed to catch the elevator. " WAIT!" She called out and a hand stopped moved to stop the already closing elevator doors. She jumped in with a smile of relief.
" Thanks," she turned to the right of the elevator where the hand had come from. Her smile faded into a slight frown.
" Good-evening Sonny" she looked at him quietly. Ever since the morning she had met him in the hall she had been cold to her, to say he was rude was an understatement. She wasn’t sure what it was…that she had been spending time with Jason ever since that night or that Jason had been spending time with her.
" Mr. Corinthos," he prompted. " So… are you on your way to throw yourself at Jason again?" he sneered.
" Throw myself at him? Is that what I have been doing?" sparks of anger flew from her eyes. Sonny continued to sneer, looking down his nose at her.
" What do you call all these trips you’ve been making to his place? The man already has a girl… he doesn’t need you….spoiling the good thing he has with Robin!"
" You said it yourself ….he has a girl…not a woman….besides.. I haven’t heard him complaining so why are you?" she sneered back.
" Jason is…..you are no good for him!….lately he’s been spending most of his time doing other things beside work, which I am sure you have something to do with. He has never met someone like you…he can’t handle you…Robin she takes care of him…she doesn’t drag him into things without thinking about the effect it will have on him or his life!" Sonny stated coldly yet glaring at her as he moved into her space.
At the moment he wanted to throw her out of this elevator and make her go back to wherever she had come from. Couldn’t she see what she was doing was wrong?! He continued to glare a her taking in the slim fitting black slacks she wore with the chest hugging silk blue shirt…her hair was falling down her shoulders….she looked good. He glared harder at her with that thought.
Caroline saw him examining her and smirked " Jason…can’t handle me? I don’t care about him? Who are you to draw conclusions?!!" she snapped.
"I am his best-friend of almost eight years!" Sonny snapped back.
Their faces were so close now that they were sharing the same breath. Caroline took this in with an angry smile and reached up. She brought his head down and kissed him… she kissed him long hard and deeply. Sonny gasped in surprise then after a moment kissed her back just as hard and she let him. He grabbed the back of her head to deepen the kiss. When he leaned her back to deepen the kiss Caroline pulled away abruptly and took a step back. Sonny resisted slightly and then took a step back too wiping the lipstick of his mouth. She smirked at him angrily.
" You know what Mr. Corinthos? I don’t think what bothers you about me and Jason is how I might use him or break up his relationship….it might be part of it but I don’t think it is the main reason." She pointed at him. " What reaaaally bothers you about this is that Jason has the woman you want!" she stated pointing at herself. The doors opened and she walked through them,… past the guards with a slight smile and into Jason’s penthouse. She shut the door firmly behind her and then went and flopped on the couch.
She was angry…soo angry her hands were shaking… how dare he?! How dare he meddle into her business! She touched her lips slowly. She had kissed him to prove the point that he’s reason for being against this was because he wanted her, but it had gotten a bit out of control…for a moment she had reveled in the kiss. She shook her head firmly…it had merely been an instinct thing… anyone in that position would have given in….right? What was she thinking of course that was what it was…meaningless lapse into the physical! She pushed her hair back and stood up to go to the bathroom and fix her face before Jase came.
Sonny’s Penthouse
He couldn’t believe that he had done that! He had kissed her! He had realized when she started that she had been taunting him but he had kissed her back anyway and enjoyed it…if he told the truth. Her parting words rerun in his mind and he saw the truth in them. He didn’t want this relationship because he didn’t want to see Robin hurt by Jason, or Jason losing what he had fought so long for. But most of all he wanted her. He wanted her for himself, not Jason…himself. She was too complex a person for Jason to deal with in the long run. Jason liked things simple. He didn’t like chaos… he could deal with them …but he didn’t like them. He didn’t know Caroline… but he knew she WAS chaos!
Sonny sat down at his desk…and stared at his hands. He had talked to Robin two days ago but he hadn’t said a word about this thing Jason had going. It hadn’t been the right time and it definitely wasn’t the right way. He knew though that even when she came back next week he would not be the one to tell her. It would be the right thing to do…but he would not tell her. Maybe it was because he didn’t want to hurt her, maybe it was loyalty to Jason or just maybe it was the nagging guilt he now felt...as if he by wanting Caroline he too was a guilty party. Maybe.
He needed to shake this thing off, he could usually smell trouble and this thing he felt would come to no good. He knew that for a fact. So he needed to stay away from the situation altogether he decided.
Half an hour later
Jason walked into the penthouse to find Caroline sprawled on the couch. He smiled and walked to her stopping right next to the couch. " You comfortable?" he looked down at her his eyes laughing. She looked up at him and smiled back the early evening events forgotten. " Yes, but your late" she moved her legs from one end of the couch drawing them closer to her chest so he could sit down. Jason sat down and placed her legs on his lap. " You said to meet you here half an hour ago. What happened?" Jason raised a brow.
" YOU are lecturing ME on tardiness?" he toyed with the bottom of her pants pushing them up slightly.
" Oh shut up!" she hit him playfully. " So what was so important?" she moved forward until she was sitting on his lap. She leaned in and kissed him. It was short and lingering, he pulled away slightly. " Actually it was about Bobbie" At that she sat back stiffly.
" What about her?" she asked through stiff lips.
" We got the tests back, and she is your mother" Jason watched her closely and saw an indescribable look cross her face then it turned to stone. She stood up and went to the bar to pour herself a glass of water. Jason stood and followed her. " Isn’t this what you wanted?" he questioned quietly in slight puzzlement. " Carly?" She didn’t turn to look at him.
"Yes, this is what I needed to know" she swallowed a mouthful of water. Jason moved behind her back and placed his hands on her shoulders. Needed to know?
"Look I know how you must feel, but you’ve met Bobbie she is a really great person, I am sure she regrets what happened," Jason turned her to face him, and lifted her chin so that she was looking at him. " Just give her a chance, it will turn out fine." Caroline had to smile at his confident tone. She shook her head slowly " No it won’t Jason, she is a Spencer"
" So are you, you are her daughter" Jason said calmly yet forcefully reminding her, while he smoothed her hair back. Caroline jerked back at his words. She moved away from him quickly.
" No I am not! I am a CASSADINE and always will be! It is who I am" she jabbed at her chest forcefully "and no DNA test will ever change that!" she bit out coldly. Giving him a look that almost made him step back. Her words rang out in the room and Jason just stared at her. He watched her go to the couch and sit down …she reached for the bundle of mail on the table and examined them absently. Jason went and sat next to her quietly.
" You hungry?" he rubbed the back of his head in an attempt to ease some of the pressure he felt. She looked up at him with a small smile.
" I’m starving" she was glad he was not going to push.
" You want to order in? I don’t have anything here. She laughed "You never have anything," he just shrugged, he placed her hair behind her ear and then stood up to go to his desk where the phone was. " Is pizza fine?" he asked even as he dialed the number.
" Yeah, that is fine," she looked at the envelopes in her hand, she was about to toss them back on the table when she saw a card that was peeking out from an already opened envelope. Three letters stood out and she paled slightly even as she pulled it out.
" Jason what is this?" she turned to him as he came back to sit next to her. He took the card and read it. " It’s an invitation to a seminar" he shrugged placing it down.
" I can see that but it says " How to live with HIV! Is there something I should know?!" she shouted…her face still pale with anger and deep fear.
"Don’t worry…Robin probably just signed me up for it… she probably wanted me to go with her when she got back" Jason tried to calm her down.
" So your girl-friend is HIV positive and you didn’t tell me?!!!" Caroline paled further staring at him in disbelief. She stood up outraged, how could he?! Jason stood up too. He saw her expression and took her arms in his hands. She tried to pull back from his touch. She didn’t want him to even touch her at that moment. But he held on tighter when she tried to get away.
"Look I get tested regularly…and we are very careful. The last test I got done two weeks ago…and it was negative… and Robin and I haven’t had sex since…she left for her seminar. I would NEVER put you at risk and not even tell you!" He looked down into her eyes and repeated " I would never put you in danger…I just didn’t want you to worry over nothing" She looked up at him ad she knew that he was telling the truth.
"You still should have told me" she whispered color slowly returning to her face. It should have been the first thing he told her. He nodded " I know, I am sorry"
She sighed and pulled back slightly. " You know what…I should get going Jonas is probably having a cow right now." She laughed shortly sitting down to put on her shoes. Jason saw it for what it was, she needed some space to digest this. He nodded " I’m really sorry" he added again. She nodded back in acceptance of his apology as she went to the door. " I’ll see you" she pecked him on the cheek and headed out the door.
Jason watched her leave and then turned to look down at the card. He should have told her from the beginning, he just hadn’t been thinking about it. He wondered whether he would be seeing her soon. She hadn’t mentioned when exactly she would be back. If ever.
Meanwhile
Caroline got into a cab and gave name and address of a private clinic to the driver, and sat back. She had believed him but she needed to make sure for herself that she was okay.
Wyndemere
Nikolas was in his Uncle’s private study. It had taken him awhile to find the combination to Stefan’s private safe but he had found it. He now opened it and drew out a couple of files. Most of them had to do with Cassadine investments. He moved to the next bunch. They were detailed files on the Quatermaines, the Spencers even the Scorpios. He guessed that the latter was because the family was involved with the law. So they were not exactly the type a family like the Cassadines would consider allies. Caroline…ah ha! He put the other files back… he could explore them later. For now he sat down on his Uncle’s desk and opened his sister’s file. Caroline Iris Cassadine born…
" Nikolas what the hell are you doing" Stefan demanded coldly from the door of his study. Nikolas looked up in shock…dropping the file he had in his hand. Busted he thought.
mikmi