As Laura watched her son put away enough dinner for two kids his size, she decided to bring up a subject that he seemed to be avoiding. "Lucky," she began carefully, "Were you planning on calling Elizabeth this evening?" She was even more baffled as she saw him pause, the fork halfway to his mouth. "Is it that you don't want to shock her? Do you want me to call her first?"
Lucky's fork clattered to his plate. "No, don't!" He said quickly, pushing himself away from the table. "That was a great dinner, Mom. Excuse me please." He tossed his napkin on his plate and headed up the stairs.
Luke glanced over at Laura, who was staring after Lucky in amazement. "I think I better go talk to him. Something's definitely up. He winked at her as he left the table. "Don't worry. He'll be okay." He went up the back stairs and knocked on Lucky's door.
"Come in."
"Hey, Cowboy," Luke walked in and sat down on the bed next to Lucky.
"I know." Lucky sighed and sat up. "you and mom are wondering why I don't want to talk to her."
"Well, judging from the way you two were acting a year ago, I wouldn't have expected to see very much of you before you were hotfooting it over to her house."
"I've already seen her." The statement was made sadly and with finality.
"You have? When?" Luke knew it hadn't been since he'd found him.
"Last night. Right before you found me on the docks." Lucky blinked back tears. "She was with Nikolas."
"Oh...Ohhhhhhh." Now Luke knew what the problem was. He and Laura hadn't contacted Nikolas today because they'd wanted Lucky to talk to Elizabeth first and give her a chance to explain things to him. He closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his temples, trying to figure out how to handle this. "Lucky, Elizabeth was devastated when you...got taken from us."
"Yeah, I could tell," Lucky murmured cynically.
"She was. You really need to talk to her about her thing with Nikolas. I can't speak for her, but I really don't think there is much to it. I've seen her in love, Cowboy, and it don't look like this."
Lucky felt a small ray of hope in his chest, but pushed it back. He'd seen the way she'd smiled at Nikolas on the docks. It looked like Love to him.
Luke seemed to read his mind. "Talk to her, son. Let her explain it to you herself. That girl has never stopped loving you, Lucky." He patted Lucky's shoulder and stood up. "I better go help your mom with the dinner dishes or she'll kick me out of here." Luke was staying on for awhile. He wondered how the Count was going to take that news, and chuckled under his breath as he left Lucky's room.
Lucky stared at the ceiling he had looked up at so many times since their family had moved to Port Charles. Maybe his dad was right, and he should give Elizabeth a chance. He remembered when he had let her go in his mind, and he'd expected her to get on with her life. But Nikolas was his brother, for pete's sake. And it hadn't even been a year...He closed his eyes and tried to remember how it felt to hold her in his arms and bury his face in her sweet-smelling hair. It had been so long...After a couple of minutes he got up and grabbed his jacket. He needed some air. When he went downstairs and told his parents he was going for a walk, his father walked out onto the porch with him.
Luke pointed to a car sitting across the street, and one a little further down the block. "The one here is two of Mac's men, and since I don't trust those guys to keep track of their own heads, the one in the other car is one that I hired myself. They will be following you everywhere you go for awhile. I hope it doesn't cramp your style too much, but it'll keep you safe."
Laura joined him on the porch. She was biting her tongue to keep herself from begging Lucky to stay home, but she smiled at him. "Be careful, OK?"
"I will mom." Lucky started down the walk and the engines of the two cars started and they followed him slowly down the street.
Elizabeth was finishing up the dishes in the kitchen at Kelly's. Tammy had a date with Mike tonight, and even though Liz didn't work there much anymore, she'd offered to close up for Tammy. She glanced up at the clock. 12:05. It was officially Valentines Day now. She and Nikolas hadn't planned anything, because Nik knew what they day meant for her. She just wanted to be alone all day. Thinking of Nikolas, she shook her head in frustration. She'd planned to break things off with him today, but he'd called her at work and told her that he had business to attend to. What Elizabeth called "Prince Stuff." She would tell him tomorrow, for sure. This couldn't go on anymore.
Liz cursed softly when she heard a noise out in the restaurant. She'd forgotten to lock the door. She was getting ready to go and shoo out the prospective customer when the sound of the juke box stopped her in her tracks.
'Can this be true, tell me can this be real
How can I put into words what I feel
My life was complete
I thought I was whole
Why do I feel like I'm losing control
I never thought that love could feel like this
You've changed my world with just one kiss
How can it be that right here with me there's an angel
It's a miracle..Irrational fury swept over her that someone could come in off the street and play her and Lucky's song. She threw the dishtowel down and stomped out of the kitchen, yelling over the music, "Didn't you see the sign, we're clo..." She stopped in her tracks and stared, not daring to believe her eyes. He was standing next to the jukebox, looking at her in surprise. She knew it was her imagination...a dream, but she started talking to the vision anyway, in a shuddering voice, "I've had this same dream so many times....music...you and I dancing....then you disappear...you always disappear. The apparition started walking towards her. She hadn't ever imagined him like this before. He was taller and his hair was longer. Then he spoke, "Elizabeth..." That was when Liz started feeling dizzy and she realized she was sinking slowly to her knees on the floor, tears coursing down her face, and her mouth trying to form his name, "L-Lu..." From somewhere far away she heard a loud gasping, and some part of it realized it was herself making that noise as the vision dropped to the floor next to her and wrapped his arms around her
Lucky hadn't known she'd be there. He'd gone inside because the "closed" sign was up, but the lights were on. He thought that maybe Tammy had forgotten to lock up. Seeing the jukebox brought back a rush of memories that hit him almost physically in the chest. He couldn't stop himself from dropping a quarter in and pushing B-12. Their song. As the music pulsed around him he closed his eyes, but they snapped open at the sound of her voice. When she saw him, and started babbling almost hysterically, he automatically went to her. As he enfolded her in his embrace she kept talking between sobs, saying things like he had left her, and she missed him so much. He rocked her in his arms, crying himself. "I'm sorry....I'm so sorry," he kept murmuring He leaned back against the counter and cradled her in his arms on his lap. "Baby, I'm so sorry," he said again into her hair.
Elizabeth was finally realizing that she wasn't imagining this. He was holding her in his strong arms, and she could smell the light scent of the aftershave he was wearing. "I can't believe this," she whispered. "How can you be here? There was a fire, they said you didn't survive, I thought I'd lost you forever!" fresh tears were slipping from her eyes as she gazed up at him.
"It wasn't me in the fire, Elizabeth. It was a horrible, cruel trick. I was kidnapped. But I don't want to talk about it right now. I'm here now, and all I want to do is hold you. He kissed away a new tear that was tracking down her cheek, then her lips came up to meet his. When he felt the softness, he groaned and kissed her tenderly, pouring all the pent-up emotion from the last year into that single kiss.
A little while later they were still sitting there, Elizabeth's head resting on his shoulder. Elizabeth suddenly gasped. When Lucky looked at her questioningly, she said, "Lucky's back from Heaven!"
"Actually, it was more like hell," he said, and looked at her questioningly.
"Today I stopped by your house." Elizabeth explained, " Lulu answered the door, and she told me that you were back from Heaven. Of course, I just figured that she was pretending, but I guess she wasn't." Then, what Lucky had just said sank in, and she wondered what kind of things he had been through. She caressed his cheek with her hand and noticed the dark circles under his eyes. She hoped that he would share everything with her so that she could help him work through it. Liz sighed and snuggled close to him. "I still can't believe this. I keep thinking that pretty soon I'm going to wake up from the best dream I've ever had, and be miserable all day tomorrow, just like I'd planned to."
"Valentine's Day," he whispered. "For the last few weeks I've been thinking about it, and wondering how I was going to get through that day. And wondering how you were going to get through it. I wondered if you would think of me, or if..." he broke off. He had been going to say 'if you would be with someone else' but he didn't want to go there tonight. Elizabeth seemed so happy to see him that he was letting himself hope that his dad was right. Maybe there was nothing to his relationship with his brother. "I've never stopped loving you," he whispered.
Elizabeth opened her mouth to answer that she hadn't ever stopped loving him either, but then she felt a huge wave of guilt wash over her. In all the emotional excitement of the last half hour, she'd forgotten about Nikolas! "Me neither," was all she could force out around the big lump that was forming in her throat. She had to tell Lucky about Nikolas. Not tonight, though, Tomorrow. She'd tell him tomorrow, she thought, closing her eyes and listening to his heartbeat through the material of his shirt.
At that moment, at the Spencers house, Luke was talking on the phone while Laura listened, anxiously. "OK. Thanks Pete." he said, then hung up the phone, smiling.
"What did he say?" asked Laura. Is Lucky okay?"
"He said," answered Luke, "That Lucky is sitting on the floor of Kelly's diner with a beautiful dark haired girl in his lap. That's my boy!"