Mind Games 4 (endgame), a General Hospital vignette by Sue Castle. Rated NC17, no copyright infringement intended, just a little outing for the brothers. (note : does not follow canon for Port Charles and bends canon for General Hospital)

Lying with his arms wrapped firmly around his brother, Lucky prepared himself to tell Nikolas the worst. It was always best to be ready for disaster when Helena was involved. And she was always involved. At least he was relaxed. Three orgasms in the space of a little over an hour would either kill a man or leave him as relaxed as a boiled noodle.

"What did she do to you?" This time, Nikolas didn't say. He didn't have to. Lucky heard it loud and clear. Not frustration. More like protectiveness mixed with a real need to rip his grandmother's head off and hand it to her. As soon as he could move again.

Lucky could relate.

"She got to me. Don't know how, it's another one of those blank spots. But Kevin had a videotape she made of us together. She'd tried to blackmail him into not helping me anymore, but it didn't work. He's not giving up on me."

Nikolas' arms tightened around him. "Us? Together?" He sounded like he was about to pass out.

Lucky hurried to reassure him. "Not us, like you and me. Me and Doctor Collins."

"What?" It was a barely-muted roar. Lucky started talking, fast.

"She set us up. Triggered me to ambush him when he was asleep, hand cuff him to the bed, suck him off, you know, make it look like we had a thing going. Then she showed him the tape. But it's okay -- he doesn't blame me -- "

"He sure as hell shouldn't!"

This time the roar was not nearly as muted. Lucky rolled them both over until he was lying on top of his brother, pinning him down and forcing him to shut up and listen by sheer force of will. Not to mention flopping all his weight down so Nikolas wouldn't have the air to keep getting so loudly pissed off.

"He was asleep. Wasn't his fault either. Doesn't matter."

Nikolas opened his mouth to argue and Lucky stuck his tongue in it. Several long, sloppy moments later Lucky drew back. Nikolas looked dazed. Good. By the time he snapped out of it Lucky'd be able to tell him the rest of it.

"We're going through Gail Baldwin so Helena doesn't know he's still helping me. Kevin hypnotized me to see how deep the programming goes, and it looks like it goes pretty far down. It's gonna take some time to get it all out. But if nothing else, it told me one thing."

Nikolas looked up at him, his entire expression one big question mark. Lucky beamed down at him.

"Told me who it was I loved more than anybody in the whole world." He ducked his head and kissed Nikolas again, enjoying it thoroughly before coming back up for air.

"Lulu?" Nikolas asked, his voice a little smothered. Lucky levered himself up a bit, so his brother could breathe, and ground his pelvis against Nikolas, gasping as he started to harden again.

"No, stupid." He thrust experimentally, and grinned harder when Nikolas thrust back up against him automatically. "You."

Then he burrowed between Nikolas' thighs with his own, ran his hands down to cup Nikolas' ass, and did his damnedest to prove it. It took awhile to convince his body that it could do it, but where there was a will, he'd find a way. And it was a lot of fun getting ready. This time, he was the one to do the mounting, and this time, it was Nikolas' turn to get fucked through the mattress. Neither of them complained. It was nearly noon before they pried themselves out of bed and wandered down to get breakfast.

Nikolas apologized for the third time to Ned for being late in to work, determined not to tell him what had gotten in the way of business that morning, and wondered why his boss was in such a rotten mood. Shrugging it off as probably another Quartermaine blow-up, he got started on the contracts and by mid-afternoon had made quite a lot of headway on the backlog of L & B paperwork. He was ready for a break by three when his cell phone rang.

"Nikolas, this is Kevin Collins."

"Doctor Collins, what can I do for you?" That my brother hasn't already done? He kept the uncharitable thought to himself and listened intently as the psychiatrist began to speak.

"Without going into too many details, I just wanted to warn you that you need to speak with your grandmother. As soon as possible. Some issues have been raised regarding the programming that was done on your brother that could put you in immediate danger."

"Details would be helpful," Nikolas prompted him. Kevin sighed, frustration evident even over the telephone connection.

"I can't give them to you," he admitted. "If Lucky is willing to do so, then I'd recommend you talk to him about it. But first, and most importantly, speak with Helena. Tell her that Lucky considers you to be the person he cares most for among his family members. She'll know why that's important."

The door opened and a familiar gaunt female figure sailed through it. Nikolas sighed. "No problem. Talk to you later." With a snap, he disconnected the call and put the 'phone back in his pocket. "Helena," he said with forced politeness, "to what do I owe the dubious honor of your presence?"

"There's something I need to share with you, my darling. Perhaps when you've seen it you'll reconsider your recent rebellious attitude toward me."

With that, she motioned him into the office. He followed, watching curiously as she turned on the combination television/VCR and pushed a videotape into the slot.

Five minutes later he was ready to kill her with his bare hands. Rip her throat out with his teeth. Break every bone in her body. Smother her with her own malice.

He felt like he'd been raped. The tenderness and passion he and Lucky had shared were spread out on the screen like a voyeur's banquet, and he could feel her watching him watching it. It made him want to tear her guts out and strangle her with them.

Nothing showed on his face. He was, after all, a Cassadine.

Reaching over, he pushed the stop button, then glanced calmly over at her. She smiled at him, pure pleasure and twisted love shining out of her eyes.

"As you can see, my darling, your ... indiscretion with your brother has been recorded for posterity. Unless you'd like your little secret to find its way into certain hands, you would do well to do as I ask."

"Do you want me dead?" he asked, still completely calm on the surface.

She stared at him, nonplussed at his reaction. When she didn't speak, he continued, maintaining an even tone, staring at her dispassionately.

"Did you know that Lucky loves me more than anyone else in the world?" She paled, and he pressed on as she considered the implications of that statement. "If your last little mind game is played out, if the final level of programming in Lucky's brain is triggered, then he will kill me. Is that what you want?"

Popping the tape out of the machine, he handed it back to her, the picture of nonchalance. She stared down at the small black case as if it had suddenly turned into a poisonous snake.

"I don't care what you do. What you say. Who you hurt. Because in the end, I will have love, and you will have nothing but my death and the ruins of your empire scattered at your feet. The Cassadine line will die with me, and you will be the one pulling the trigger on the gun that killed me."

She shook her head, weakly, then tried to rally. "This will destroy Laura. Not to mention Lucky. Don't you know that? You must stop it. Immediately. It's not too late."

"It's much too late," Nikolas contradicted her. He could feel a feral smile stretching his lips, and he did nothing to stop it. "My affair with Lucky is the only insurance I have, the only protection he has. As long as Lucky remains programmed, I intend to see to it that I remain Lucky's primary target. You cannot destroy Lucky without destroying me, and by destroying me, you destroy yourself."

Stalking past her to the door, he opened it and swept his arm in a courtly gesture, ushering her out. "Have a pleasant day, Helena," he called after her departing figure.

He had no way of knowing that for the first time in his life, he truly sounded like his father's son.

Crouching in the bushes, peering around the corner, Luke Spencer slouched against the wall and let the shock he'd been fighting for the past twenty minutes overwhelm him.

He'd been reluctantly impressed with the balls Nikolas had shown when he'd cornered Luke in his office. It was the first time the kid had really reminded him of Laura. All that protective fury, those well-aimed words, the complete lack of fear in his eyes. The boy looked a hundred per cent Cassadine, but he got his spine from his mother.

Keeping an eye on Helena had become his raison d'être ever since he'd discovered how deeply fucked up she'd left his son. So when she'd headed out for her little rendezvous with her grandson, he'd shadowed her, determined to find out what was going on.

Spying through the blinds into Ashton's office, he'd gotten a hell of an eyeful. Not exactly what he'd been expecting.

Frozen to the spot, he'd heard every word of Nikolas' challenge to the old bat. It had been beautiful, in a twisted, logical, triple-thinking sort of way that left Luke breathless. It would seem that Nikolas was as determined to protect Lucky from Helena as Luke was.

He just had a very different way of going about it.

As reluctantly as he'd been impressed with the Cassadine brat in his office, he was even more reluctantly admiring of Nikolas' bizarre and effective way of keeping Lucky from going off the deep end. As Luke had known, Nikolas was the only thing Helena gave a damn about. By making sure that he'd be the first one Lucky took out, he'd also ensured that Lucky took no one out.

Watching Helena wander off down the walkway looking punch-drunk, he glanced over at Nikolas, glaring off after his grandmother like he'd like to blow her head off with a bazooka. Luke appreciated the feeling. He also appreciated a manipulator who'd made a master's move. Settling against the wall until the coast was clear and he could make a clean getaway, he looked back over to where Helena was crawling into her limo with the help of her pretty boy muscle.

"Check," he whispered silently to her fleeing back, "and mate."

end mind games 4

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