Elizabeth awoke to bright sunshine streaming through the window. She stretched lazily and closed her eyes, prepared to go back to sleep, but her eyes popped back open when she heard a sound coming from the floor next to her bed A mouse? Cautiously she peered over the side of the bed, and a warm smile slowly lit up her face. Lucky lay stretched out on the floor sound asleep, as close to her bed as he could possibly be without being underneath it. She reached down and gently pushed a lock of hair out of his eyes, her heart swelling with love.
Lucky felt the feather-light touch on his forehead and his eyes slowly opened. The first thing he saw was Elizabeth smiling down at him. "Good morning, beautiful," he said softly.
"Good morning yourself," she answered, continuing to smooth back his hair with her fingertips. "When did you end up in here?"
He grinned sheepishly up at her. "About five minutes after I said goodnight. Just long enough for you to go to sleep. You don't mind, do you?"
"Mind?!" she exclaimed. "Of course I don't mind! When I saw you I was taken back in time for a second, back to when you used to camp in my room at Gram's. Seeing you there just gave me the sweetest feeling, like everything was right with the world." She glanced down at the engagement ring she wore on her finger and sighed. "I still can't believe all this. It's like a fairytale."
Lucky's expression darkened. "Yeah, complete with the evil witch." He sat up suddenly. "She didn't hurt you, did she?"
Elizabeth climbed out of the bed and joined him on the floor. "No, just gave me a good scare was all." She snuggled up to him as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her down to lay next to him.
"You know," he mused, "before yesterday, if you'd asked me if I could ever kill someone in cold blood, especially an old woman, I would have said definitely not, even after what she did to me. But when I heard that gunshot, and heard you scream before we were able to get to you...Elizabeth, I thought--" He squeezed her tighter for a second and took a deep breath. When I had that gun on her I was seeing red, and maybe I really could have shot her. Then I heard the voice of reason behind me telling me not to."
Elizabeth laughed. "That's the first Time I've ever been called that!" She sobered then and reached up to stroke his face. "You saved me Lucky....again. And you didn't have to kill anyone to do it either. Now we've got our whole future together in front of us. We're going to be able to do all the things we never thought we'd be able to..."
"Yeah," he agreed. "Like get married, have kids--how many kids do you want?"
"Mmmmm, at least six," she answered, giggling at the look on his face. "Okay, how about two? One little boy who looks just like you..."
"And a little girl just like her mom." he added.
"But hopefully without the attitude," she said with a little grimace.
"Shh, I love your attitude. I love everything about you." He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead.
"It's the little things that we'll be able to again too, that I've missed," said Liz after a minute. "Like eating ribs from Eli's..."
"And pretzels," added Lucky.
"Looking at the stars..."
"Watching movies and eating popcorn..."
"Dancing together..."
"Hold it!" Lucky broke in. He jumped up and grabbed her hand, pulling her up with him. "We don't have to wait for that one." He pulled her into his arms and spun her around.
She laughed as he danced her around the room. "Lucky! There's no music!" But at his next words a sweet feeling of Deja Vous overcame her.
"Shhhh. Listen.....I got sunshine...On a cloudy day...." He continued to sing into her ear as he held her close and they swayed with his a capella music.
Meanwhile, Laura had decided it was high time that Elizabeth and Lucky got up. They had a lot to do if they were going to have a wedding in a week. She went first to Lucky's room and found his bed unslept in. She put her hands on her hips and frowned suspiciously. Luke found her like that in the hallway and followed her down the hall to Elizabeth's room. "Really, Luke," she hissed. "I know that they're adults, but I think it is just a little inappropriate--" She broke off when she saw Luke put his finger to his lips, then she heard what he heard.
"I guess you'd say
What can make me feel this way
Is my girl......Talkin 'bout my girl....."She could hear them moving around the room and realized they were dancing. She smiled, then, at the sweetness of it. "Oh....Luke," she whispered, overcome with happiness for her son and Elizabeth, and also remembering what it was like to be young and in love
"I think it's pretty innocent," said Luke, voicing her thoughts. They tiptoed away softly and went downstairs, while Lucky and Elizabeth, oblivious to all but each other, continued to whirl around the room accompanied by Lucky's singing.