CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE Lucky and Nik looked at each other, then at the dark corridor into which Sonny Corinthos had disappeared. "Don't get any ideas, kids," Pablo ordered tersely as Rudolpho pulled a cellular phone out of his pocket, his accent suddenly becoming obviously different. "Big T? Yeah, we've got 'em. No problems-here's the address where we're supposed to deliver them.....yeah, the mark is about to leave the catacombs at the southeast exit. Is Sal ready? Reece is in on this?? He did??? Does Marty know? Great! Okay, we'll take the boys to the safe house and then meet you guys there. Oh, and T-Man-we've got a lead on Brenda....." Bobbie watched surreptitiously as her husband poured himself another brandy. Not that she could blame him for his somewhat rattled state of mind. It was as if the world was starting to come crashing down around them in the last few days, indeed, in the last few weeks. Stefan had withdrawn more and more into himself, speaking less to her, and losing himself in thought. Tonight, when the news had come about Ruby, he'd held Bobbie as she'd cried, but she'd sensed a gulf between them that she realized had been widening recently. "Where are you, Stefan?" she whispered, her heart feeling the anguish that she sensed in him. "You didn't know Ruby well, yet it's as if you blame yourself for her death." There was, of course, no response. He hadn't heard Bobbie, nor was he likely to, not with thirty feet or more between them. What was going on? Bobbie wanted to ask. Even Laura, who had arrived only a short time ago with Lulu and Jeremy seemed to have no answers, only to say that Luke had asked if she and the children could stay with them. She'd told them that Lucky would be coming soon, and had asked about Nikolas. Unfortunately, nobody, not even the guards assigned to Nikolas, seemed to know where he was. "I'm here to see my nephew," came a harsh voice from the foyer of the mansion. That voice was naggingly familiar, and Bobbie smiled in spite of herself. Just when she'd thought things couldn't get a lot worse..... "Tracy?" "Bobbie?" Tracy smiled triumphantly as she entered the house. "I suppose that you are my half-sister. Well, one can't have everything." "I don't understand." "You never did. But, I'll explain in very simple terms that even you should be able to understand. My mother was Helena Cassadine, and my father was Tim Spencer." As Bobbie's eyes widened in surprise, Tracy cackled. "Which makes you my half-sister, and Nikolas my nephew. Oh, and Stefan is my half-brother." She laughed aloud and continued, "Now, if you are my half-sister, and if Stefan is my half-brother, what does that make your relationship?" She strode into the room, and helped herself to some of Stefan's expensive brandy. Stefan removed the glass from Tracy's hand and glared icily at her. "It makes it off limits to your particularly crude insinuations. Bobbie and I are married, and you are uninvited and unwelcome, regardless, or perhaps I should say primarily because of your heritage. I suggest that you leave before you are ejected." "Oh, I'm just getting started," Tracy smiled, then took a final shot. "Yes, Helena was my mother, and Tim was my father. I just wanted you to know that apparently there are more secrets to be unveiled and that I am having everything researched." She smiled. "You see, I've already uncovered rumors that Helena and Mikkos couldn't have children together........." "It's all coming down," Sean said to Frisco as he, Felicia and the girls entered the safe house. "Tonight." Jamie followed, having returned to Felicia after leaving Jillian with Ned. He held Georgie and listened carefully, wondering just how much of the truth Sean was willing to reveal. Was it all going to come out right now? "What's coming down and why am I here?" Felicia asked. "Does this have anything to do with why I was kidnapped?" "Tonight?" Frisco asked, his eyes alight with interest. "Where?" "What's going on?" Felicia demanded again. "Why were the girls and I dragged out of our house and brought here? I want to know? Is Ryan around somewhere?" "That I don't know, Princess," Sean admitted. "Where?" Frisco asked again, his eyes alight with interest. He was feeling the need to lash out against whoever had been behind the kidnapping and framing of Tony for murder. His heart ached as he thought of Tony, who was still in sitting mute in the psych ward at GH. "I need to know." "It's okay, if Frisco wants to go," Jamie told Sean, pulling Felicia into his arms. He looked down into her eyes. "I'm staying." "But I'll be back," Frisco countered. "I'll be back." "Whatever," Felicia answered, savoring the warmth of the tall blond man who looked at her as if she was everything he'd ever wanted from life. Moments later, Sean, Felicia and Jamie sat down to talk, the girls playing in the next room, under the careful care of one of Sean's policewomen. "Now, tell me what's going on," Felicia began, only to hear a sound at the door. Sean pulled a gun, while Jamie pushed Felicia behind him. "Who's there?" "Paul and Rudy-with a couple of kids that we found wandering around in the catacombs." Sean smiled, and opened the door. "Come on in, gentlemen. Felicia, Jamie, you know Lucky and Nikolas. We've been expecting you." "Will somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?" Felicia asked, growing impatient. "Why is everybody here??" There was another sound at the door, and Sean called out, "Who's there?" "Open the door, Sean," called a familiar voice. "It's cold out here." "Ruby?" asked Nik and Lucky together, throwing open the door. Both teens pulled her into the room and gave her a hug. "You're alive?" "Thanks to a friend of a friend," she admitted. "I'm still a little unclear how he pulled it off, but I'm alive and well. Will somebody please tell Luke?" "He'll learn soon enough," Sean told her. "We needed for him to give the appropriate appearance of grief." "Serves him right," Ruby grinned. "He's played this trick on us before." Felicia asked again. "Will somebody please tell me what in the $%^&* is going on?" Jamie grinned and kissed the end of her nose. "It's okay, Felicia. I think that Sean is going to tell you a few things that you don't know about your past." "My past? I don't have a past. I was brought up by my grandmother, Maria Cummings, in Texas, after my parents died." "Maria Cummings?" Nikolas and Lucky asked "Did you say Maria Cummings in Texas?" Nikolas quickly opened his bookbag and pulled out the photocopies he'd made of the diary. "Was your mother's name Kristin?" "No, that was my aunt. My mother's name was Krystal. They were twins, but they both died when I was little." "Not quite," Sean told her. "It's time for the truth. Your mother was Kristin, and there was no sister. Krystal was invented to give you a mother to keep you safe. Sit down, Princess. I have a lot to tell you and your young cousins here." Julian clicked off the phone, and smiled. It was all coming together, all of his plans were coming to fruition. In a matter of minutes, he'd be hearing from his agents regarding the Cummings woman and her knowledge of The Seventh Rose, and even if she was uncooperative, he'd get his answers. He looked at the medallion he'd carried all his life, and marveled at the intricacy of the workings that had been designed to conceal a set of numbers. Swiss bank numbers, if he wasn't mistaken. Numbers that might lead him to his identity, and the reason that he'd been abandoned as a child if he had no luck with his other endeavors along that line. Might Helena Cassadine have been correct about the Romanov link? Could it possibly be true that he was the descendant of Alexei Romanov? And, if he was, so what? Money was a good thing-it increased his options and his power, but he wanted more. He wanted answers that had been missing for his entire life. Julian wanted a real last name, not something that he'd invented. He took one more look at the medallion as the phone rang. "Yes?" He listened carefully. "No.....No!!! This can't be! Don't tell me that Lila Quartermaine was The Seventh Rose! She's dead!"