Path To Power

The days are working to the longest days of the year. It’s a handy fact for soccer games. The PeeWees could get their game in and be home in time for dinner and the high schoolers could have their game after the dinner hour and maybe even not have to turn on the field lights.

There are bleachers on both sides of the field and since both teams are from Port Charles the bleachers are filled with parents, family and friends and then the sides are also. Skye’s SUV has become a feature at all of Kyle’s games. She is set up to the side under a large umbrella with a comfortable chair and cooler that she has set up as a side table. Coleman actually provided the contents of the cooler. Jakes had taken to providing the midgame snacks of sliced veggies, fruits and other drinks. If there is something every bartender knows how to do... even in a beer joint like Jakes is how to slice a garnish.

In her breezy summer dresses with the sunhat and the umbrella for extra protection everything about Skye’s appearance screams southern belle rather than southern Pennsylvania. Even though she does nothing overt to draw attention to herself, she’d blush if she knew the way the high school boys thought about her.

"Man, you are so lucky." One of Kyle’s teammate groans as he looks over in Skye’s direction. All the girls their age are into tans and bare mid-drifts down past their hip bones leaving nothing to the imagination. Skye is a woman. "She look that good in the morning?"

"Oh man." All of a sudden Skye isn’t wearing a white linen dress but black leather bustier with black, no, red leather pants. Big pointy heels and a paddle, yeah a wooden paddle. "Oh man, You are so lucky."

"You are such a perv." Kyle moves away from the guy to keep warming up. The game would be starting in about twenty minutes. He looks over at Skye under the umbrella and she sees him and waves. Just then his uncle arrives carrying his own folding chair. He leans over and gives Skye a kiss that would get the couple suspended if they had tried that back in high school.

Over on the sidelines, Skye has her hand gripping firmly the front of Coleman’s shirt and pulls him in again for another kiss. "I thought you were going to miss the start."

"Relief was almost late showing up." Cole nuzzles her neck inhaling deeply. Reluctantly he pulls away and sets up his own chair on the other side of the cooler. "We could be home. We know where the kid is going to be for the next couple of hours. I could give him some money for going out after the game..."

Kyle doesn’t say anything but he does realize he is a lucky guy. Skye and his Uncle are cool. His Mom never came to his games back in middle school. It was one of the reasons he quit, even if he didn’t say that. And his father had never come to his games, ever. He watches as Skye touches base with one of the high school newspaper geeks. Skye makes a habit of buying pictures from the students for the Herald High School games coverage. She’d even made a deal where the top photographer would get a season press pass to the Stallion Games. It was almost enough to make you want to be a geek. Cept Skye had given him a look and rolled her eyes then told them that the paper had box seats anyway. Her brother owns the freaking team. Kyle watches a Hummer pull up to the sidelines. The coach calls them all over to the sideline.

AJ jumps down from the Hummer and comes around to help Lydia down. "Michael, keep the leash on Rosie, okay? She’ll be in big trouble if she gets loose around here."

AJ winces and blanking his face goes around to the back of the hummer to grab some chairs and blankets. Lydia takes the picnic basket that Sally had filled. It was their souvenir from the trip to Washington DC. "He’ll be fine, AJ." Lydia says reassuringly.

"I hope so. I really hope so." AJ reaches out and takes Lydia’s free hand. Once they get over to the umbrella the chairs are switched around so that Skye and Lydia are under the umbrella and closest to the cooler while AJ and Coleman sit on the other sides of their ladies. Michael and Rosie are kicking on the blanket in front of everybody. Michael doesn’t say anything just keeps petting the dog who is laying slavishly across his lap luxuriating in the attention.

"I did a little field hockey back in boarding school. At least with this they aren’t beating each other with sticks." Skye replies. Then she reaches over and punches Coleman in the arm. "Forget it."

AJ starts laughing and even Lydia cracks a smile. Skye looks over at them. "Don’t encourage him." She gives a sigh of relief as the game starts. Hopefully Coleman would behave.

It’s isn’t really a planned thing where Stefan was off the island one night and Nik the next. It never was spoken. But Tasha hasn’t been alone on the island since the incident with Lorenzo Alcazar. With the heat off them thanks to the kidnapping, Penny and Nikolas went to a play in the park.

The breeze is kicking up off the water and Penny snuggles into Nikolas. The guy is a furnace. Must be something about genetics and Russian winters. "I had a great time."

"Well... I guess its all in how you define stars." Nik laughs. His cell phone rings and he reaches into his pocket. "Nikolas Cassadine. Why are you calling me; you just pulled up to the docks?" Nik hears the answer and frowns. "Thank you for letting us know. Have you already called the police?" Nik nods at the answer.

"If it’s about us then its best we know before the police. Please call Uncle and let him know what happened in case Tasha has questions about the lights." Nikolas strides toward the dock after giving Penny his jacket to keep her warm. It’s only after Nikolas is half way down the dock does Penny realize that she’d been included in the us along with the Cassadines.

After the soccer game everyone descends on the ice cream store. Skye is surprised to see Faith’s guy Bruno there but then when it becomes clear he is hitting on the gal behind the counter she just shrugs and tries to decide between the purist french vanilla and maybe the pistachio almond. She bites the inside of her lip.

"Yeah." He nibbles on her ear delighting in her shivers and the way her eyes close as she leans back into him. The moment is interrupted by her cell phone going off.

Cursing Skye reaches for her phone and knows she will have to take it as soon as she sees it’s the night editor at the paper. "French vanilla and pistachio almond but in a cup not a cone, okay?"

Skye goes outside and takes the call. She turns around and stares at Bruno until he notices and frowning goes outside too. Skye has a quick conversation with Bruno and then goes back inside.

Coleman pulls her back under his arm and gives her a hug. "Nothing going on that a little Baskin and Robbins won’t fix." He grabs the cup of ice cream and a stupid little pink spoon and his milkshake and escorts Skye outside. They take a seat at the little white two topper outside. "Well."

"Alcazar’s man Javier was found floating in the Charles. The night editor heard the body called in over the scanner and sent someone out to find out if it was hold the presses time or just get it on the website."

Coleman takes a sip of his shake as he considers his answer. He isn’t going to be a hypocrite. One stalker down and one to go. Good riddance to bad rubbish. He hadn’t forgotten that Javier had forced an introduction to Skye by slashing her tire. "Then it’s a good thing Kyle and I have alibis."

"I’m not joking. Couldn’t have happened to a more perfect guy. Don’t even worry, Babe. Other than having the perfect alibis– Kyle and I would be way down on the list that would have wanted this guy gone. Hell even Faith is a ways down the list."

"Javier is the wink wink suspect in Capelli’s death remember?" Coleman counters. "And he works for Alcazar which means not too popular with Corinthos, Morgan, Lansing, hell even Jax."

"That probably eliminates Morgan too. If he’s going to kill someone he’s going to shoot them. Puts Faith even lower on the list. If she’s involved there is either a hole you could drive a truck thru or not a scratch on them. Course they all have people who could be tasked to get it done. The last real stabbing in town was..." Coleman curses his runaway mouth.

Kyle is still in his soccer gear when he stops by Kelly’s. He should be surprised to see Maxie there but he really isn’t. "Missed you at the game."

"I am so sorry." Maxie apologizes even though she’d texted him earlier to let him know what was going on. "Mike called in. He is either hanging out with Courtney and Sonny or he found a floating craps game. And Bobbie is over at AJ’s house helping out with Michael. I couldn’t call her and tell her that Mike pulled a no show. I really wasn’t planning on pulling a double when I came in this morning. My feet are killing me."

"No good deed goes unpunished." Kyle says piously and then shakes his head. "Look, you’re going to close in about ten minutes. If there is one thing that I’ve learned how to do since my mom split and I started living with my Uncle it’s how to clean a kitchen. You let me help and we’ll be out of here ten minutes after you close."

"I called Mac and let him know what was going on. He got called out on another case. So he isn’t expecting me home until at least midnight."

Kyle rubs his hands together. "Let me at the cleaning supplies. I think we can get you out of here within 5 minutes of closing. Anyone comes in tell them the grill is closed." Kyle heads back to the kitchen. It appears whoever started Kelly’s had gone to the same school of organization as his Uncle because he quickly finds all the supplies he needs to start shutting down the kitchen and scrubbing pots, pans, counters and floors. He grabs a work apron from off a shelf and puts it on. If he didn’t then his soccer uniform is going to be specked with holes from getting hit with hot grease.

"Don’t make it look too good or Aunt Bobbie will never believe I did it." Maxie calls thru the pass through. She is not expecting an answer and is already on her way to the tables to flip the chairs up and turn the juke box up. The sugar, salt, pepper and napkins had already been refilled earlier during a lull. So she grabs a broom and starts sweeping.

For once it’s like the teenage gods are smiling, everything goes as planned and they are out the door within 15 minutes of Maxie flipping the sign around. Maxie had been dropped off at work by Mac since she was only supposed to be working until 2p so it’s good that Kyle has his... "That is not your car."

"My Uncle’s." Kyle tosses the keys. "He drove home with Skye from the game. I had a feeling which is why I hitched a ride to the game with one of the other guys."

"And I came to Kelly’s straight from the field." Kyle nods. Then the brilliant idea occurs. "Why don’t we go over to my house? I still have some clothes there. We could use both showers... or one." He looks over at Maxie.

Kyle resists the temptation to floor it. The last thing he wants to happen now is to get a ticket.

Faith strides into the bunkhouse. "This had better be important. The baby had a series of shots today at the doctor and she’s being a little bitch. Alice finally got her to go down."

"It’ll be on the news but I doubt they’ll be naming any names. That Javier dude bought it down off the Harrison Fishing Pier. Knife in the back." Mouse blurts out Bruno’s news.

Bruno gives him the glare of death. It is his news after all. "I ran into Coleman and the redhead at Baskin and Robbins. She just got a call cause it came over the police scanner. Her reporter on the scene heard one of the cops ID the guy."

"I do like having Skye owning the Herald." Faith murmurs. "Should have thought of that." She looks around the room. "Anyone here missing any knives?"

"Good. Cause you know I don’t like surprises. This is a good heads up, Bruno." Faith nods. "We got no beef with Alcazar so far. At least as far Port Charles is concerned, we got people in common on the karmic Couldn’t Happen to A Nicer Guy list. I wouldn’t mind knowing who did it but just to find out if there is another player in town."

Faith nods but is slow to answer. "Not in our best interest to appear too interested, ya know? Going to drop this one on Cassadine. He’s the one that needs an alibi. Him and the nutjob. She’s got a history of playing with knives. We need to keep on our own game here." Faith starts holding up fingers. "One-- find the hag and send her back to hell. Two--cut the Corinthos organization off at the balls and three-- make some money. I’m paying you guys too much to have you sitting on your asses waiting for Coleman and Skye to put a hot tub in."

Kyle races around the front of the classic Pontiac Firebird to open the door for Maxie. He helps her out of the car and gathers her close. They have trouble walking up the walk to the house because they can’t keep their hands off each other. This is the first time they’ve really been alone, alone since the internet incident. As they end up on the stoop Maxie has her back to the door and Kyle is sliding his hands everywhere they can reach while ravishing her mouth.

"Right." Kyle groans. He fumbles for the keys to open the door and the dead bolt. They fall back into the entryway as the door opens. Kyle goes right back to devouring Maxie.

Kyle takes a step back and starts swearing as he looks around. He’s been burglared. There is nothing on either side of the entryway. No furniture or electronics in the living room. No dining room set or china cabinet on the other. "Son of a bitch!" You could still see the dents in the carpet where the furniture had been. Even the area rugs were gone. "Son of a bitch." Setting Maxie aside he starts racing upstairs.

"Don’t touch anything!" The Top Cop’s daughter hollers after him already reaching for her cell phone. "I can’t believe this happened! Our house is one street over from here. Mac made sure there is the best neighborhood watch in the whole city around here. Cause he knows he’s always getting called out and wants to feel okay with leaving me and Georgie alone."

"Wait a second on that okay? It’s not like we caught them in the act. Fuck! They would have had to show up with a moving van to do this." Kyle wanders into the kitchen. Even the fridge is gone. He opens up a cupboard and isn’t surprised that everything is gone: dishes, pots, pans and Captain Crunch.

Maxie is the one that finds the business length envelope on the counter addressed to Coleman. Getting Kyle’s attention she hands it to him.

Kyle groans but this time doesn’t try to stop her. They were going to be in deep trouble over this. But not as much trouble as if they didn’t call. He knows that his Uncle will know at a glance what they were up to. "Lets wait for them outside. I can’t look at this." Maxie hands the phone over to Kyle. "Yeah? Uncle Cole, I stopped by here to get a change of clothes bring some more stuff out to the lake house. The house has been emptied, and there is a letter from my Mom." Kyle winces. He can hear his Uncle swearing not only at his mother but at him too for what he KNEW Kyle had been planning at the house. They are calling on Maxie’s phone after all.

Talk about a mood killer, Maxie and Kyle wait on the front porch for Coleman to arrive. Neither are surprised when Skye is with him but neither know if this is cause for a sigh of relief or a sign that things are going to get real ugly real fast.

"Kyle, why don’t you take Maxie home and come straight back." Skye says quietly. As soon as she heard that Kyle’s mother had done this she’d started to get a very bad feeling. The last thing she wants to have happen is two ticked off guys together when they can’t get at the person they are really ticked at. "Straight back, Kyle. Oh and Maxie? Tell Mac about this before I get a chance to."

Skye takes the letter and scans thru it. She winces at the part where Margery lays the blame at Coleman’s door. How because he wouldn’t help her that she’s had to resort to this. "Lets see how bad it is before Kyle gets back."

Coleman goes into the house and if anything gets more furious as he walks thru the empty rooms. The only room with anything in it is Kyle’s. That had been left intact. Everything else is gone as a big screw you. "I can’t believe she did this to her own kid." Coleman shakes his head again. If Margery were here right now he’d snap her neck without a second thought.

Skye scrambles to make something positive out of this. "Well we know what would have been happening here if Margery hadn’t... cleaned house." At Cole’s growl she knows that might have been a step in the wrong direction. Different track but what? "Okay well. I think that tomorrow you and Kyle should rent a van and finish what Margery started. Bring all his stuff out to the lake house so he can have his own things in his room. And then... rent this place out. Put the money in an account for Kyle’s expenses. Start the college fund now. And then if there is another family in here, he won’t have the urge to use it as his private love nest?"

That gives Cole pause. He still has his apartment. Most of Kyle’s stuff had been left here and he’d been just crashing in the guest room. This would be... official. Him moving in with Skye. It’s a hell of a silver lining in a truly fucked situation. He had tried to maneuver things so that she hadn’t spent the night alone out at the lake house ever since busting Jax on his stalking. "You serious?" He asks very quietly. He doesn’t want there to be any misunderstandings.

"It is a big deal, Babe. And make sure before you make the offer. Cause if I take you up on this then I’m cleaning my apartment out too."

Skye’s eyes narrow at that. "Oh now slow down, buster. If you think you’re bringing your bachelor pad decor out to the Lake House you can just think again. You don’t even have to bring your clothes. In fact I’d rather you didn’t." Skye cries out in surprise as she is swept off her feet in a huge circle. "Put me down you maniac!"

The last thing Kyle expects to see when he arrives back at the house is Uncle Cole sitting on the stairs with Skye in his lap making out. He clears his throat. If this was the lake house he would have just retreated back to his room without saying anything but Skye had been real clear. Straight to Maxie’s and back. He was going to need the alibi with Maxie’s dad. He clears his throat again. He isn’t particularly surprised when his Uncle growls in his direction.

"He’s going upstairs to pack whatever he wants straight away because it will take you a few days to arrange for van to pick up the rest and bring it out to the lake house." Skye reminds Cole.

Skye gives him an elbow and crawls off Coleman’s lap. "Kyle, we’re going to head back to the Lake House. Just take the things you’ll want for the next few days before every thing else can be delivered. And the rest... I think it would be better if you and your Uncle talked later after you’ve both had a chance to calm down and think things thru."

"One hour, Kyle." Cole demands. He knows it’s only going to take about that. But the nonverbal is clear. Longer and he’d ben in trouble. Earlier and he’d really be in trouble.

"I’ll get my stuff." Kyle nods. He waits until they have left, then calls Maxie. "I’m still breathing. Skye put some kind of mojo on Uncle Cole. He’ll probably still be ticked in the morning but she bought me some time to get my story straight."

"Well maybe by the time we get our stories straight Mac will be ready to hear them. The case he got called out on is a murder, down by the docks."

"Oh I know. I’ll probably be hearing about that too. In about 12 hours, if I don’t do some very fast talking, I’m going to be losing my boyfriend and my job."

Nikolas opens the door to a suite at the Port Charles Hotel. Penny walks in first and looks over her shoulder. "We could have waited until they were done down at the docks."

"I don’t think they are going to be done until morning." Nik disagrees. He tosses the mag key on the desk just inside the door. "I’m sure they will be looking for clues once the sun comes back up. And there is no way I wanted to take you to the Summer House."

Penny shudders at the thought. And then remembers that Helena had done her own dirty work here at the hotel. "The Quartermaine’s did beef up security here right?"

"Very much so and they had the entire hotel fumigated." Nik nods. "And I signed in under an assumed name and paid cash. The desk clerk may have recognized me but there is no record."

"I am The Cassadine. It is part of the job description." Nik proclaims self mockingly. He notices then that Penny has burrowed deeper in his jacket rather than removing it. "Are you still cold?"

Penny apologizes her voice muffled against Nik’s chest. "Sorry. First I faint when I win the lottery and now I’m doing the damsel in distress imitation. I’m not like this really."

"I know. I know. You are my reason. Please, Penny, go get warm. I’ll join you as soon as I make the call." Nikolas releases her and urges her in the direction of the bathroom. He picks up the phone and is already calling when Penny looks over her shoulder.

Skye hears Kyle pull up to the Lake House and eases out from under Coleman’s arm. Sliding her silk robe on she belts it tightly before going out into the main part of the house. "Kyle?"

"Would you believe me?" Skye asks. She goes over to the fridge and pours them both a glass of juice. Kyle pulls up a stool at the breakfast bar. Skye leans against the other side of the counter. "It’s no big secret that I’m an alcoholic. Your uncle has seen me when I’ve been drunk and when I’ve been sober. I like myself better sober. He knows that and supports me. The night I met your mother..." Skye shakes her head. "I don’t know your mother at her best. I’m sure you do. You’ve got memories of her being something off of the Cosby show or something."

"Or not. Right now I don’t like your mother too much. But I don’t know her either. I’m willing to say– hell I don’t know, maybe she’s drinking? Maybe she’s drugging? I don’t like the idea that someone would be so cold as to come to town, clean out the house and then try to alienate you from the guy who has stood up for you from the first day I met you!" Skye stops and takes two deep breaths and then another one. "Sorry. I guess I’m having a tough time giving measured responses too. I just can’t believe that letter."

"It’s a disease. She needs help. But until she wants help, gets help then something else is doing the talking for her– the addiction." Skye reaches across the bar and lifts Kyle’s head so he is making eye contact with him. "I told your uncle to lie to you, and I’m sorry about that now. When your mother called him at the bar she didn’t ask about you. She asked about money. That’s why I think the addiction is still in control. She was furious that she hadn’t gotten her child support."

Skye takes a sip of juice to avoid answering the question. "And when Cole told her to talk to your father about the support payments she threatened to take a mortgage out on the house and get money that way. The thing is...." Skye takes a deep, deep breath and knows that she is betraying a confidence. But Cole and Kyle’s relationship is too important. "... you remember when your Uncle got shot? He took a job watching my brother’s ex wife, Courtney. She caught him, freaked and shot Cole. Your uncle spent weeks in the hospital. Had all kinds of run ins with the cops about it. He earned every penny of the money that AJ paid him. And he spent all that money on the mortgage on your house to make sure it was free and clear. Maybe he knew or maybe Cole was just being Cole but he set things up so that your mom couldn’t get any money out of the house. When he reminded her of that...."

"Not exactly." Cole mutters. He goes around to the kitchen and grabs Skye’s juice and drains the glass. "We’re done. You want to talk about it tomorrow. We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Not going to happen tonight." He puts an arm around Skye’s shoulders and starts walking her back to the bedroom.

Kyle watches them leave and the door shut after them. He grabs his bags and heads back to his room. It’s off on the other side of the house far away from the master bedroom and it’s a good thing. His cell phone is vibrating so he grabs it and knows there is one person who would be calling. "Hey, babe."

Maxie can tell from Kyle’s voice that Cole isn’t the only one that Skye had mojo’d. "What is going to happen? About your Mom I mean?"

"It’s her stuff." Kyle shrugs. "I’d love to know when she did it though. I was just over there a couple of days ago to mow the lawn and make sure that the mail was picked up."

"If you really want to know, if you want to find her..." Maxie hesitates. "My dad sold his detective agency to Lucky Spencer. You know Elizabeth’s boyfriend? He could find out."

"It may come to that. I don’t think that Uncle Cole wants her back in town. If Mom showed up, hell he might just stuff her in a freezer somewhere."

"Kyle..."Maxie doesn’t know quite how to put this but decides to get blunt. "I saw that letter too. She wants you to be ticked at your Uncle Cole. And sure fine whatever. Thing is what happens if she comes back and decides you need to go with her? Are you going to go? How could you not go? I mean she’s your mother. Your uncle was only supposed to be in the picture for a couple of days until she got out of detox. There is nothing official right? Georgie and I have been thru this with our mother. Every once in awhile she decides it’s time for us to go be with her. Nevermind that our lives are here with Mac. It’s like we don’t get a say."

"Skye wants to believe that treatment didn’t take and the reason why Mom dumped me is because she’s still drinking and drugging. If Skye is right then she’s going to need money as soon as she runs through whatever the furniture will get her. I’m her ticket. She doesn’t get child support unless she’s supporting the child."