NIKOLAS CASSADINE

Coltin Scott 

1999-present

Tyler Christopher 

1996 to 1999

The paternity of Nikolas was in question from his conception forward and was an issue that was only recently at last put to rest.  His mother, Laura Spencer, was kidnapped by his father, Stavros Cassadine, with the approval of his grandmother, Helena Cassadine.  Laura was brought to a private Greek island and led to believe that her beloved husband, Luke, was dead.  She was coerced into marrying Stavros, who was obsessed with her.  Stavros was a cruel and cold husband and Laura, who was incredibly lonely, found herself irresistibly drawn to Stavros’ sensitive, younger brother, Stefan.  She and Stefan began having an affair and when she became pregnant, she was unsure whether Stefan or Stavros had fathered the baby, but thought it to be Stefan.  Grandmother Helena hated Laura for having enraptured not just one, but both of her sons, especially her beloved favorite, Stavros.  She had great distain for son, Stefan, seeing him as weaker and quieter than the boisterous Stavros who loved her devotedly.  Stefan, however, was confused by his mother’s coldness and great up both idolizing and fearing her.  Knowing there could be some question of the baby’s paternity, when Nikolas was born, Stefan quietly asked Dr. Lastirus, the obstetrician attending Laura, to conduct DNA testing.  He received word that Nikolas was, in fact, his own son.  Little did he know that Helena had bribed the doctor to tell Stefan just that.  This ensured that Stefan would not only guard the precious heir with his life, but would also torture Stefan with the knowledge of a son he could never claim, lest that son lose his inheritance of the Cassadine fortune.  Laura believed Nikolas to be Stefan’s, but allowed Stavros to believe the baby was his.   

Shortly after Nikolas was born, Laura learned that Luke was really alive and left the island and newborn Nikolas to go search for him.  She reunited with him as he was being inaugurated as mayor of Port Charles.  They were ecstatic to find one another again, but the evil Stavros followed Laura to Port Charles and was killed by Luke as he attempted to rape her.  This fueled Helena’s rage against Laura and Luke even further.  Laura told Luke about her forced relationship with Stavros, but did not tell him that they had married or about her little boy.  She secretly tried to reclaim Nikolas, but quickly learned that Helena had determined that if she tried to contact the child or come to the island, that people she loved would die.  This was confirmed to Laura when she attempted to claim Nikolas and her mother, Lesley, was run off the road and killed.  In actuality, Stefan injected Lesley with a medication to feign death and took her to a clinic in Switzerland where he held her in catatonia for nearly 20 years to “protect” her from Helena.  With her mother dead and fearing for the rest of her family, Laura sadly let her son be raised by Stefan and his servants.   

Luke and Laura went on to have two children, Lucky and Lesley Lu.  When LuLu became ill and was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a bone marrow transplant was needed for the little girl to survive.  All the members of the Spencer clan were tested, including Carly who had herself tested, and no match was found in Port Charles as a whole either.  In desperation, Laura phoned Stefan and begged him to see if Nikolas would be a match.  She had learned that Helena was on her deathbed and would no longer be a threat to her.  Stefan had Nikolas tested and he donated the marrow.  When the transplant was finished, Nikolas came to Port Charles (Stefan was already there) to see his sister, whose health was greatly improving.  Laura was forced to tell Luke and Lucky the identity of Lulu’s donor.  Luke was incredulous and Lucky was angry.  Having an immense distrust of the Cassadines, he told Laura that he didn’t want Nikolas to be around Lulu or anyone in their family. It was touch and go for some time.  Laura was desperate to connect with the son she never knew and Luke forbid her to see him.  Stefan was bitter and cold at their every contact and Lucky and Nikolas desperately hated one another.  Nikolas was curious about his mother, but also disdainful of her offers of affection.  He had been raised to believe that his mother had willingly left him and therefore she didn’t love him.  She chose her husband over her son and went on to bear more children, his half-siblings.  He was jealous of Lucky in that he had their mother’s love and devotion and Lucky was mad at Nikolas because he treated Laura so poorly and for being a Cassadine. 

When Stefan threatened to expose their relationship to Luke, Laura ended up faking her death to escape him.  Luke and Laura had learned that Lesley was really alive and being held by Stefan.  They devised a plan with the help of Dr. Tom Hardy whereby Laura would go to rescue Lesley but they would both “die” in an explosion.  After the funerals they would sneak away to Switzerland to get Lesley the help she needed.  The plan went off without a hitch and Nikolas was strangely affected by the loss of Laura even though he didn’t really know her.  It took time to realize that he had grown to love her and he tried to find out what he could about her.   

Things went from bad to worse when Stefan became engaged to Katherine Bell.  The Spencer marriage was hanging in tatters and he systematically tried to mould Katherine into Laura, down to giving her Laura’s ring and having her wear a dress that had belonged to Laura.  Laura returned to town the night of the Baccanalia, an engagement dance customary to the Cassadines.  She was shocked to find Katherine wearing her dress and ring and they ended up on a parapet at Wyndemere (Stefan’s home where the ball was being held) on Spoon Island.  As Laura confronted Katherine with the truth, Katherine leaned against a railing that had been loosened by Luke in an effort to kill Helena.   

Ultimately, Stefan was put on trial for Katherine’s murder and Laura was forced to testify.  On the stand, Laura denied allegations that she and Stefan had been lovers on the island.  Luke was in the courtroom during her testimony and by simply looking in her eyes, he knew that she was lying – she had in fact slept with Stefan.    When he confronted her, the last thread broke on the marriage of soap opera legends and Luke left Laura.   

At the end of his uncle’s murder trial, the victim herself made a startling reappearance, exonerating the accused.  It was then learned that Helena had given Katherine the same drug Stefan had given Lesley and saved her life.  The two continued their friendship.   

Nikolas had a brief relationship with Sarah Webber, older sister of Elizabeth Webber and granddaughter of Audrey Hardy.  When celebrating at Luke’s club, there was a shootout outside and Nikolas was wounded in the throat.  Jason Morgan performed an emergency tracheotomy and Nikolas was rushed to the hospital.  Sarah went to the hospital along with her sister and stuck by his side throughout the ordeal.  In his anger and depression, he lashed out at everyone and pushed Sarah away in his pain.  This put such a strain on their relationship that they eventually broke up.  With the help of friends Robin Scorpio and Emily Quartermaine, he regained his speech months later. He developed a crush on Robin, but Stefan was dead set against Robin being friends with Nikolas due to the Spencer-Scorpio feud.  Robin’s father Robert had imprisoned Stefan’s uncle Victor, who later died in prison and he had also played a role in Mikkos’ death.  Nikolas was ordered to stay away from Robin, but their friendship deepened as she used French to help him regain his speech.  When he kissed Robin, she told him that she still had feelings for her former boyfriend Jason. 

During an intense argument in the park, Lucky told Nikolas that his father was a rapist but Nikolas retorted that it was Lucky’s father who was the rapist.  To Lucky’s horror, Luke had raped Laura before they were married.  The brothers slowly decided not to engage in the Spencer-Cassadine feud as they worked with Emily and Elizabeth to catch Emily’s blackmailer (and as it turned out, Elizabeth’s rapist).  The brothers even co-habitated for a time when Nikolas learned that Stefan was his father and had kept this a secret and he moved out of Wyndemere.  Eventually he rented out Brenda Barrett’s old cottage in the woods where he built sables to accommodate Sheba, his horse. 

Eventually, Nikolas forgave Laura for leaving him and the two became very close.  He bonded closely with LuLu from the beginning.  Stefan and Laura began to renew their closeness after her separation from Luke and while helping Emily Quartermaine, a mutual friend who was being blackmailed, Lucky and Nikolas recognized the admirable qualities in one another and became fast friends. 

Around this time, much to the disapproval of his mother and Stefan.  She learned that Stefan was Nikolas’ real father and hurried to tell him, bring his life crashing down around him.  He confronted Laura and Stefan at Wyndemere and they tearfully admitted the truth to him.  After a few rocky weeks, Nikolas forgave them and admitted to Stefan that he was glad that the man who had treated him as a son for so many years was, in fact, his real father rather than a stranger he couldn’t even remember.  When he caught Katherine in a number of malicious and manipulative lies, he decided to end the affair and she retaliated by faking a pregnancy.  He decided to do what he saw as the honorable thing and marry her, much to her joy.   

Nikolas weathered a tremendous blow when his beloved brother, Lucky was supposedly killed in a fire.  Little did he know that his grandmother had hired Cesar Faison to kidnap Lucky, fake his death, and hold him captive, brainwashing him to do her bidding. 

Helena had pushed around Laura and Stefan to the point that Stefan decided to take action.  He poisoned her, leaving her in a catatonic state that allowed her to see and hear everything, but not move a muscle in her body.  Stefan moved her to Wyndemere and hired a nurse to care for her, periodically coming in to whisper threats to her and gloat with Laura.  Katherine also came to visit Helena often, telling her excitedly about the wedding and sharing with Helena her plan to dupe Nikolas by having herself artificially inseminated. When she learned she could not carry a child, she sought out a surrogate mother.  Neither she nor anyone else knew that Cesar Faison had reproduced the antidote to the drug Stefan gave Helena and she was once again fully mobile.  Frustrated with Katherine’s invasion of Nikolas’ life, on the day of her wedding to Nikolas, Helena shoved Katherine off the same parapet she had fallen to her “death” from before.  This time, however, Katherine was truly dead.  Nikolas grieved the loss of his child and was stunned when the autopsy revealed Katherine had never been pregnant after all. 

In their mutual grief over Lucky, Nikolas found himself drawn to Elizabeth Webber, Lucky’s girlfriend.  She politely and kindly rejected his advances, assuring him she wanted very much to be friends, but still loved Lucky too much to start a relationship with anyone.  Although Nikolas tried to honor her wishes, his affection took on a darker, more menacing and stalker atmosphere for a few months.  This was amplified when Alexis Davis, his aunt, went in search of her father, Mikkos Cassadine’s will and found proof that Helena had paid off (and killed) Dr. Lastirus.  She gently informed Nikolas that Stefan was not his father after all, Stavros was.  This news floored Laura and Stefan and they repeated DNA tests, which showed that indeed, Stefan was Nikolas’ uncle and Stavros was his father.  Saddened by the news, Stefan was warmed when Nikolas assured him that he would always be his father, no matter what the tests showed.  Nikolas went to work for L&B records as a public relations person. 

Nikolas was overjoyed when he learned that his beloved brother, Lucky, was actually alive.  After Luke and Laura were unable to trace him far enough to bring him home, he and Elizabeth went in search of Lucky.  They too, had no luck and returned home, hoping Lucky would seek them out.  Nikolas and Lucky reunited outside Lucky’s old boxcar.  Nikolas urged Lucky to go see Lulu and Elizabeth, as they missed him terribly.  At this time, Lucky is still being brainwashed by Helena and Nikolas is confused by his insistence that he and Elizabeth get together as a couple.  A girl, Gia, who the group met when she tried to blackmail Emily, intrigued Nikolas.  She was revealed to be Taggert’s sister and despite her efforts to be aloof, she began to find herself drawn to Nikolas as well.