Chapter 21

Emily walked down the front staircase in the Quartermaine Mansion talking on her 
portable phone to Nikolas.  "I'm just going to get myself something to drink.  
So what were you saying about Lucky?"  Emily stopped at the bottom of the 
stairs.

Nikolas had surprised her by calling the day after The Kiss.  But he did say he 
was going to call.  He had acted like it hadn't happened at all and if that was 
the way he wanted it, then it was fine with her.  She wasn't going to drive 
herself crazy trying to figure out what was going on in his mind and what kind 
of relationship they were going to have because of one kiss.

"Lucky called me earlier about some new teen dance club that was opening next 
Saturday. Liz had heard about it and wants the four of us to go."

"Hmmm."  Emily thought about it.  "You? At a dance club?  I thought that other 
than the waltz, you hated dancing?"

"Yes but Lucky told me Liz is very determined we all go.  So what do you say?"

"I say sure, sounds like fun."  Just then the doorbell rang out. "Hold on, 
someone's at the door."

Emily went over and opened the door.  To her amazement stood a smiling Tino.  
"Tino!" She exclaimed.

"What?"  Nik wasn't sure but he thought she just said Tino.  "What did you say?"

Emily smiled brightly at Tino.  "Come on in."  She then said into the phone. 
"Tino's here."

"He is? Did you just invite him in?"

"Of course I did."  Tino stepped in through the doorway and waited patiently.  

"What's he doing there?"  Nik demanded to know.

"If you stop asking me questions, I can find out.  See ya tomorrow, Nik." She 
clicked the phone off.

"That was Nikolas the non-boyfriend, right?"

"Yeah.  What are you doing here?  How'd you know where I live?"

"Pretty girl, you're a Quartermaine. Everybody knows where the Quartermaines 
live.  All together in this *huge* house."  Tino whistled as he looked around.

"Hey, it's home."  Emily shrugged.  "Follow me."

Emily thought she heard Tino say under his breath.  "Anywhere you want." She led 
him into the living room and waved a hand to suggest he sit down on the couch.

"You didn't tell me why you're here."  Emily sat down.

Tino sat next to her and turned to face her.  "We never got a chance to finish 
our conversation yesterday."

"Oh?  I thought we were done?  So what else were we going to talk about?"

"Well, pretty girl, I *was* going to ask you out."

"You were?  You barely know me?"  Emily sat back shocked.

"And?  What I do know, I like."  He grinned wickedly.  "I'd like to get to know 
more if you let me."

"Well."  Emily smiled.

"So next Saturday, there's this new dance club opening and I was wondering if…"

"I can't."  Emily sighed.  "I just made plans with friends to go, I'm sorry."

"Hey, I don't give up so easily.  So we won't go there *together*. I'll
just meet up with you there.  But what about this Saturday?  Are you busy?"

Emily thought for a second.  "Um, yeah.  Ni… a friend and I are going to a
Yankee game.  I'm forcing him to go actually."

"I love the Yankees."  Tino grinned.  "Okay, are you free anytime soon?"

Emily mentally flipped through her calendar.  Almost everyday had something to 
do with Nik.  She hadn't realized how much her life seemed to revolve around 
Nikolas Cassadine.

"Well, not really, but I can move some stuff around."

"Just let me know when you're free, pretty girl, I'm in the book."

"You know about that `pretty girl' stuff, it's cute but could you call me Em?  
All my friends do."

"Then I'll call you Em…for now."

~~~~~~~~~  

Friday Afternoon

"So, Emily, do you think you are progressing as well as you think you should?  
Gail Baldwin asked her the question that seemed to end all their sessions 
lately.

Emily nodded happily.  "I do.  I can almost feel myself getting better. Even Nik 
thinks so."

Emily watched as Gail wrote something down on her notepad.  She wondered what 
she was writing.

"Did you enjoy yourself at the meeting earlier this week?"

"I did, it wasn't as bad as I had expected."

"You were talking with Tino Rodriguez at the end of the meeting."

"I had bumped into him.  Hey, what's his story?  He doesn't seem like the type 
of guy who would want to kill himself."

"It just goes to show you that there always isn't a `type'.  But I'm sorry, I 
can’t tell you.  You have to find out from him.  What do you think of him?"

"He's all right I guess.  I talked to him again yesterday."

Gail's eyebrows rose in surprise.  "You did?  Hmmm.  What does Nikolas think of 
him?"

"Nikolas?"

"You mention Nikolas a lot and it's clear that you value his opinion."

"I do but Nik…I don't think Nik likes him at all.  They met Wednesday and it 
seemed to me that Nikolas didn't like him."

"Hmmm."  Gail said again then wrote something else down.  "Emily, you once said 
Nikolas waits for you after each session and gives you a lift home, is he here 
today?"

Emily nodded.  She wondered where Dr. Baldwin was going with this.

"Could you get him for me?"

"Sure."  Emily almost dashed out of Gail's office.  She went past the nurses' 
station and waved at Bobbie Cassadine, who was behind the counter. She came to 
the waiting area and said to Nik.  "Dr. Baldwin wants to talk to you."

Nik put down the magazine he had been leafing through.  "Why?"

"I don't know.  C'mon."   Emily reached down and grabbed Nik's hand and dragged 
him out of his seat.  

They rushed back, waving again at Bobbie when they went past the nurses' 
station. They walked in and sat in the two chairs facing Gail.  Gail watched as 
Nik immediately reached for Emily's hand after they sat.

"You wanted to see me, Dr. Baldwin?"

"Yes.  I'm…concerned about your relationship with Emily."

"Excuse me?"  Nik sat forward.

"Your relationship with Emily concerns me because I don't think it's healthy at 
all.  Emily depends too much on you.  In her past sessions she has mentioned you 
many times.  I won't say in what way but you have an immense impact on her life.  
I understand that you were the one who found her the first time she attempted 
suicide and that you two have been seeing a lot of each other since her second 
attempt."

"Almost daily."  Nikolas nodded.

"Yes and I am afraid of what will happen if for some reason your relationship is 
severed."

"This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard!"  Nikolas exploded. "Emily 
is fine."

Emily nodded in agreement.  "Really, Dr. Baldwin, I'm fine. I'm not going to 
fall apart if Nik's not in my life anymore."

"That's the reason for this little experiment I want to do.  I want you two to 
spend two weeks away from each other…"

"What?"  Emily sat forward now.

"Oh, calm down.  I just want to see what happens.  It'll start right after 
Nikolas takes you home and end at the end of our next session two weeks from 
now.  Okay?"

"I don't like this."  Emily said.

"You should do it, Em.  At least just to prove yourself."  Nik told her.

She looked over at him.  It was a bad habit of hers, looking to Nik for his 
approval.  Maybe this will help break it. "You think?" 

Gail sat quietly during their little exchange.  She thought of how maybe she 
should have tried this experiment out on Elizabeth Webber when she had noticed 
how dependent Elizabeth was on Lucky Spencer.  But it was too late for that and 
the two of them seem to be just fine.

Nik nodded and Emily shrugged.  "All right then.  I'll do it."

"Good." Said Gail.  "I'm anxious to see how it all comes out.  I will see you 
next Wednesday, Emily and you, Nikolas, two weeks from now."

Emily and Nik stood and walked out.  They went pass the nurses' station again 
but this time they didn't wave at Bobbie.

Bobbie watch them walk past her, looking dejected.  She reached into her top and 
brought out the Cassadine medallion that Stefan had given her on their wedding 
night and began to fiddle around with it.  She had begun a habit of messing with 
it whenever she was worried about something.

"I wonder what's up with those two." Usually they stopped and chatted for a few 
minutes after Emily's sessions if Bobbie happened to be at the nurses' station.  
"They didn't look too happy."

"Maybe they were acting like normal hormonally teenagers.  It happens." Amy said 
next to her and she placed a couple of folders in front of Bobbie.

Still twisting her medallion, Bobbie turned to Amy.  "Nikolas?  A regular teen?  
Not in this lifetime.  Something's up."  Bobbie shrugged.  "If they wanted to 
talk about it, they would have stopped."

"Or he would come and talk to his *mother* about it."  Someone said. Bobbie and 
Amy turned and saw it was Laura.

"Oh, Laura, hello."  Amy said.

Laura ignored her sister.  "Maybe Nikolas would rather not discuss whatever is 
going on, with you."

Bobbie continued to fiddle with her medallion for a few seconds before letting 
go.  She decided to not get into a fight over Nikolas with Laura in the middle 
of General Hospital.  "Hi, Laura.  What brings you to GH? Lulu's check-up?"

"Lulu's here?"  Amy asked.  "I'm going to go see my precious niece."  Amy could 
feel the bad vibes coming from Bobbie and Laura and she had no need to be in the 
middle of whatever was going on between those two.  Her need for gossip wasn't 
that great today.

"Nice medallion," Laura nodded at it. "I used to have one just like it."  

"But not anymore."  Bobbie smiled.  "Only Cassadines have them."

"So you count yourself as a Cassadine now, Bobbie?" Laura raised her eyebrow. "I 
wonder how Luke feels about that."

"Luke knows that he cannot control my heart and who I love and if want to 
consider myself a Cassadine or a Spencer-Cassadine, he knows better than to 
judge me."

"Well…" Laura was cut off by a voice coming over the loudspeaker: "Bobbie 
Cassadine to room 204, Bobbie Cassadine to room 204."

"Gotta go.  Duty calls."  Bobbie smiled and left.

~~~~~~~~~~

Nik and Emily stood quietly in the Q Mansion foyer, holding each other's hand.  
Emily stared out into space as Nik looked down at the floor and absently rubbed 
his thumb softly across the back of her hand.  Emily sighed and looked at Nik.  
He continued to stare at the floor.

"Well."  Emily began.  She cleared her throat and said again.  "Well."

Nik looked up from the floor.  "Yeah, I know."

"So you should probably go."  Emily tightened her grip on his hand.

"Right."  Nikolas held onto her hand even more.

"We need to get this little `experiment' started to show Dr. Baldwin, that I can 
do well on my own."  

"Now, how is that supposed to make me feel?"  Nik smiled slightly, trying to 
lighten the mood.

Emily shrugged.  "I would really rather not do this but…"

"You should.  It won't be that bad, Em."   Nik tried to convince her.

"Yeah, not the end of the world.  Just two weeks."  Emily said.

"Two weeks will fly by.  You can hang out with Liz or Lucky or both of them."  
Nikolas suggested.

"And you can finally get your `Cassadine' work done."  Emily put in.

"I'm sorry that I won't be able to see the game with you tomorrow."

"That's okay.  I know how much you hate baseball anyway."

"I don't hate it, I just don't get it but I wanted to go to the game with you.  
See if Liz or Lucky or Carly wants to go." 

"I'll see.  I guess this means, I won't be going to the club opening."

"No, you should go."

"I don't know…"

"Yes.  I don't like dance clubs but you do, so you should go, have fun, hang 
out."  Nik smiled at her.  "I know how much you like to just let it all hang out 
as you put it."

"But it won't be the same without…" Emily began.

"Go."  Nik insisted.

"I'll think about it."  Emily slowly relaxed her grip on his hand.

Nik noticed and wanted to hold on but he let her hand go.  "So I'll see you in 
two weeks, huh?"

"Yup.  Two weeks.  And you're right.  It'll just fly by."

"It'll fly on by and you'll be fine." Nik stood quiet and then out of the blue 
he said.  "I want you to have my medallion."

"What?"

"My medallion.  Every Cassadine has one.  I want you wear it so that in a way 
I'll be with you."

"Aw, Nik. That's so sweet."

"Well, Bobbie always says I'm the sweet one."  Nik shrugged and lifted the chain 
from around his neck.  He placed it around Emily's and his hands lingered for a 
second.

"Thanks."  Emily smiled up at him.

"I will see you.  Okay?"  Nik hugged her close and started to give her his usual 
kiss goodbye when something came over him and instead of kissing her on the 
cheek, he kissed her on the lips.

Emily's eyes flew open in shock and amazement. She thought he wasn't going to be 
doing that anymore but instead of bothering to analyze his reason for kissing 
her, she threw herself into the kiss.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and 
kissed him back fully.  They were standing there, lost in the kiss when Emily 
heard a ringing in her ears.  She tried to ignore it but it continued.  Finally 
she broke away from Nik and realized that the ringing was the front door bell.

"Nik?  Someone's at the door."  She said.

"Huh?  What?"  Nikolas looked around confused.

"Someone's at the door." She repeated.  "I have to answer the door."

"Oh, the door.  Yes, you have to answer.  The door."  Nik dropped his arms from 
around her and stood slightly away from her.

Emily straightened her clothes and went over to the door.  She opened it.

"Hey, pretty girl, oops, I'm sorry.  It's Em now."  Tino stood, once again, 
outside her door with a wide smile on his face.