"Ok, let's not get crazy here Cowboy, all we know is that she was here today for the movie" Luke said, trying to get his son to calm down but already Lucky was at the ticket boot buying one and he rushed inside. Luke couldn't do anything but run after him, throwing money on the counter to pay for his way in.
Luke found Lucky inside the theater, going from row to row, checking every seat, under, over, checking the material to make sure she didn't rip it to put a message. Finally he found what he was looking for and motioned to his father. "Look, these are the same she put in my car. She is sending me a message dad"
Luke took his son out and drove to the hotel. As Lucky was working on the tickets, Luke called home, for news on his granddaughter and great-grandson. After speaking for a moment to LJ, he passed the phone to Lucky while he took over on the messages she sent them.
When Lucky took the phone, it was Elizabeth's daughter Lu Ann who spoke back to him. "Uncle Lucky, Lucky said that you were in California looking for my mom, is that true?" She asked in a voice that told Lucky she was about to cry. He didn't have the courage to lie to her. "Yes I am. I will find your mom, I promise you that." He heard her take a deep breath and sniff. "Will she be home before Christmas?"
Lucky looked around and saw the calendar, and counted the days. 17 days before Christmas. "She will be, don't worry" Lucky said into the phone, knowing that didn't leave him a lot of time to find her, free her and bring her home to her family. "Thank you uncle Lucky" The girl said into the phone and Lucky heard his son's voice replacing her. "Hey dad, any luck so far?"
"LJ Why did you tell her? I told you not to worry, why did you have to go and put hope in your sister's heart? What if I don't find her? What if I was wrong and she truly doesn't want to come home?" Lucky asked, but he knew it wasn't true, not with the message she gave them today. "I'm sorry dad, but my little 10 year old sister came to me, crying the other day, when she saw you left again, too. She kept saying she would lose Nikolas, then Stefan, then me, then Kiara, then Little Luke and Lani, because it started with her mother leaving her, then you leaving Lani behind, like mom left us. She was panicking, she didn't want to leave my arms, she was calling in the middle of the night to make sure I didn't leave without telling her. What was I suppose to do?"
Lucky let out a slow sigh. He hadn't thought about what Lu and Stefan must have been going through with their mother gone and now him leaving without a good bye. He hadn't thought about how this was affecting Elizabeth's family to the core. The only thing he thought about was get her home for her to be in his arms. He had been so selfish. "It's ok son, I just didn't want your sister's hopes up in case I don't find Elizabeth. How's Lani and the Little Monkey?" He heard his son, the proud father, talk about the progress his son was making, and he was talking about what Lani and Luke played together, but Lucky wasn't listening. He was watching Luke intensely. His father found something in the message she tried to get to them. Lucky saw it in his father's body language. Luke was so close to the table, reading, that anyone else could think Luke fell asleep his nose on the wood, but Lucky knew better. His father was reading Elizabeth's message. He was drinking Elizabeth's message. Whatever it was, Luke was letting it sink in, maybe to understand it more, but Lucky's heart started to beat faster. They were closer to the truth, closer to Elizabeth.
"Ok dad, spill it. What did you find?" Lucky asked as soon as the phone was down. He had cut his son's conversation short, saying they needed to go back on the field to find his mother and LJ seemed to understand. Now, Lucky was back next to his father and was reading over his shoulder. "It's easy Cowboy. Look at the date on those scrubs, and you will see that Elizabeth goes to the movies every Tuesday afternoon, probably because that's the show that has the less people, so less chance for looking weird by checking her. Also, they never take her to the same one two weeks in a row. They are extremely careful not to draw attention to themselves, by making sort of a circle around here with the theater they choose. Kinda like they want to be able to take her back to her 'jail' quickly if something happens. So Cowboy, I believe Elizabeth is being held really close to us."
The next day, the two Spencer men started to look around them, to try and find where she was being held. They had a week to wait before being able to see her again anyway, so they might as well start their investigation of the neighborhood to know which building was more likely to hide an hostage or someone against their will, as well as buildings that had easy access with either a garage or a back entrance. While they were examining the building in front of them, Lucky saw his father lift his head and smile from one ear to the other. "I'll be damned" Luke muttered and Lucky saw him shake the hand of a man before Luke took him in an embrace. Lucky felt a little feeling he hadn't felt in a long time, to see his father so close to someone, a feeling of pure jealousy. He got up and walked to the two talking men, to make sure his father remembered why they were there in the first place.
"Lucky, I'm glad you came here, I want you to meet your cousin. First, second, once removed, I don't know, but anyway. Meet Michael Morgan, your cousin, Caroline's son." Luke said to his son with a smile. "Mickey Boy, meet my son Lucky, the one we thought died years ago, turns out he was only being a true Spencer and living under another name."
"Michael Morgan?" Lucky asked with a raised eyebrow "Didn't they change your last name to Quartermaine when you were two?"
"Yes they have but I never liked AJ, never called him dad a day in my life. My real father always has been Jason, and as soon as I turned 18 I changed my name back to Morgan, in memory of the only father who loved me" the red head answered passionately, as always when he thought about his uncle, which to him always was his father.
"Memory?" Lucky asked softly. "What happened to Jason?"
"He died" Michael answered. "When I was 3, Edward hired someone to teach me how to act in high society, and all, but that man only tried to kidnap me to ask for a ransom, and when Edward refused to pay, the guy held me by my feet on the top of the PC hotel and threatened to let me fall. Jason released me and got me safe, and ran to get the man to the police but he fell to his death in a fight to prevent him from leaving. They both died"
Lucky stayed quiet for a while, looking at Michael, who was a baby last time he saw him. "I'm sorry Michael, Jason was a good man" He said quietly. "Call me Mike" answered the red head. "Everyone else does. Only Uncle Luke doesn't. He calls me Mickey from the time we were living together to spite Edward, he was yelling every time Uncle Luke called me Mike in front of him. He even called me Sonny a couple of times" Michael turned to Luke and smiled. "But what are you doing here anyway?" He asked. "I thought you said your days as a bohemian were over and no one would make you get out of Port Charles, not even to visit me, your favorite nephew!"
"He tried to get me to come here to see him ever since he moved here after changing his name. He couldn't get away from his psychotic family fast enough. His grandmother, mother and I are the only ones he allowed him to visit, although I'm ashamed to say I never did."
"How come you guys lived together?" Lucky asked to take the conversation away from the what they were doing in California. The usual lie they fed everyone else wouldn't work on Michael, Lucky had that feeling. So a diversion was the only thing he could think about.
"I had to get away from my family, and Grandma Barbara wouldn't let me stay with her, since my mom didn't want me out of the house. I was 14, I think, 15 at most and Uncle Luke said he would take me in, that he didn't care about my mother's temper or, what was it you called it uncle Luke?" Michael asked
"I believe it was the officially insane branch of the family tree. But honestly I called her enough things to rename the whole town of Port Charles, some names I'm not really proud of, to tell you the truth"
"So anyway" Michael continued "Luke took me under his wings, and when I moved out here he promised to come and see me and I don't think he's here for a family outing, so what's going on Uncle Luke?"
"Someone was kidnapped, someone really dear to me and my son, and our lead got us here. In California. Actually, we could use your help" Luke told Michael everything they knew about Elizabeth's whereabouts in the last few weeks, with the tickets and all, and Michael told him where they were, showing them how to get there. Finally, after showing the young man Elizabeth's picture, exchanging phone numbers and promises to call if help needed, the men separated, Lucky and Luke going back to their hotel room to figure the fastest way to go to all the theaters and to get back to the hotels, and Michael went inside the building they were checking, passed by Natti and walked into Elizabeth's room, and sat by her bed. "Hey" He said quietly.
"Mike, I don't usually see you today, isn't Ralph the one watching me on Fridays?" Elizabeth asked, nervous about the change of plans.
"He usually is, I just wanted to let you know I ran into good friends of yours, Luke and his son" Michael said coldly. "They told me about the little stunt you pulled with the tickets and how you tore everything but the word ZIL from the last movie we took you to. Just wanted to let you know that next time you pull a stunt like that will get you killed. Have I made myself clear?"
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