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Nikolas Cassadine
Played by Coltin Scott & Tyler Christopher
Written by Taryn

Nikolas' life has been privileged yet bumpy. He first came to Port Charles in 1996 with Stefan to help save his half sister, Lesley Lu (Lulu), who needed a bone marrow transplant. He spent most of his life looking for a real family connection.

When he was a baby, his mother, Laura, abandoned him to go back to her husband, Luke Spencer, after being held captive on the Cassadine Island in Greece. Nikolas was raised by his Uncle Stefan after Stavros, his father, was killed by Luke. Growing up, he was taught to have an extreme disgust for his mother, but he got over that feeling after getting to know her and his brother Lucky. He is a Russian Prince, and the former public relations representative for L&B Records, and was the former head of Cassadine Industries. He was romantically involved with Sarah Webber, Katherine Bell, and Gia Campbell, and eventually hooked up with Emily Bowen-Quartermaine.

He's basically a good guy caught in a bad family, the Cassadines. His whole life Stefan and Helena lied to him, claiming that everything they did for him was for his own good and for the Cassadine name. His grandmother Helena is pure evil but she does seem to love him as much as she wants to control him.  His Uncle truly loved him and tried to teach him the right values, but eventually he became warped by his life and did some terrible things before he died.  His father Stavros came back from the dead briefly; Nikolas had a rough time with his mixed feelings for his murderous pop.

He was engaged for a time to Gia, who moved into Wyndemere with him. A number of things drove a wedge between them until they finally split up.

Emily came to see him about asking him to pretend to be in love with her. She told him that she had breast cancer, and she didn't want her boyfriend Zander watch her waste away and die. Nikolas forced Emily to attend a breast cancer survivor group meeting, which inspired her to fight her cancer. However, all of the pretending Nikolas and Emily had done had led to a real love between them. Nikolas finally found what he was looking for.

Nikolas and Emily battled many obstacles to be together. He married a rich woman named Lydia because Stefan wanted him to. Emily's former boyfriend, Zander, fought Nikolas for Emily. Nikolas' family had financial problems for a while. Nikolas was thought to be dead when the Port Charles Hotel caught on fire, but Emily refused to give up on him.

Nikolas had a car accident and got amnesia. A woman named Mary took him and told him that he was her husband, Connor (he had died and Nikolas looked just like him). Mary even got Lorenzo to help her keep him in the dark, but he was always suspicious. Emily discovered he was alive but was heartbroken to realize that he had amnesia. He underwent hypnotherapy and even made love to Emily.  He found out that Mary had almost drowned, so he stopped trying to leave her and remember Emily.

Nikolas went back to Mary, who wanted to have a baby. He found out that he was really Nikolas and was upset to learn that everyone had been lying to him. He tried drinking his sorrow away and even got into a fight with Lucky, which landed him in jail. Helena tried to have him committed. She drugged and tried to brainwash him. Emily helped him escape, and they hid at the Quartermaine boathouse. Nikolas finally remembered everything. Helena then put a curse on Emily, and she got sick. They were finally able to break the curse by traveling to Greece. Nikolas pushed Helena off a cliff when she threatened Emily with a knife.

Nikolas married Emily but was put in jail. The real Connor returned to town, so Emily hired him to pose as Nikolas, to lure Helena out of hiding. They did, and it worked, but not before Connor raped Emily. Emily had a hard time trusting Nikolas after that, since he looked just like her rapist.

Nikolas grew close to Courtney because she was having marital problems, too. They eventually had an affair and she got pregnant. Emily divorced him. Helena kidnapped Courtney, too, to get the Cassadine heir. Courtney then contracted a virus and died after giving birth. Eventually, Jax told Nikolas that the baby was his (there had been a custody battle and multiple paternity tests), and he named him Spencer.

Emily and Nikolas teamed up after Helena got Spencer's nanny, Colleen, to steal him for her. Nikolas was happy for a while with Emily and his son, but then he got headaches and blackouts. He proposed to Emily before the big Black and White Ball at Wyndemere, and she said yes. Unfortunately, Emily was strangled during the ball. Nikolas had a black out and thought he may have killed her. He started seeing visions of Emily and speaking with her. He found out that he had a brain tumor. He was torn for  awhile because getting rid of the tumors meant that he would no longer be able to see her.

Nikolas finally remembered seeing Diego the night of her death (he had been presumed dead), so he and his good friend Nadine tracked Diego down. Nikolas and Jason fought Diego, who then died. Nadine had a crush on Nikolas, but he did not return her feelings. He did have his brain tumor removed. Nikolas opened a clinic in Emily's honor, and Nadine helped him with that.

Nikolas found Claudia washed up on the shores of Wyndemere after Ian tried to kill her. They were friends and co-conspirators for a while, until Nikolas broke that off.  He then found out that there was a woman named Rebecca who worked at the hospital and looked exactly like Emily. She turned out to be Emily's long-lost twin sister. Rebecca was more interested in Lucky than Nikolas, which made both Nikolas and Elizabeth jealous. They kissed each other one night to make Rebecca and Lucky jealous. They were surprised to find sparks there.

After some more scheming, Nikolas realized that he had feelings for Elizabeth, but she was back with Lucky. Rebecca left town and Lucky eventually found out that Elizabeth and Nikolas were having an affair. They both felt terrible about it. Elizabeth got pregnant, and Helena changed the test results to make it look like Nikolas was the father. A long time later, they found out that Aiden was really Lucky's son.

Nikolas had a brief relationship with Brook Lynn. She left town to continue her music career. When Lucky's son Jake was killed, Nikolas managed to fix their relationship and even help set up a romantic wedding night for Lucky and his new wife, Siobhan. Nikolas helped Lucky and Lulu to try to intervene into Luke's drinking and rehab.

When Elizabeth finally told Nikolas that Aiden was not his son, his first reaction was to leave town with both of his sons. He visited Emily's grave and realized that was not the right thing to do. Nikolas left town in 2011 with just Spencer.

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Page updated 4/28/12