CHAPTER ELEVEN

Emily picked Elizabeth up directly at eight o’clock the next morning while Lucky and Nikolas was still asleep. Not having a clue that Lucky was even considered to be still alive, Emily goes right in talking about Juan, her favorite subject.

"Oh and Liz, if you can only hear him sing…he even made a song out of the poem I wrote for him," Emily smiled, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"That’s wonderful Emily," Elizabeth smiled. "He really loves you it seems like."

"And I love him," Emily sighed, and looks at her friend who’s been distracted for the past couple of day after, to her surprise moved in with Nikolas. "So mind telling me what’s been on your mind lately? I haven’t seen you this quiet since…last year."

Elizabeth turns and smiles at her friend. "You’ll never guess. And I’m sorry for not telling you sooner, but you were so preoccupied with Juan and the less people that knew the better, just in case something went wrong…"

"Liz. Just tell me. What’s going on with you? I mean one minute you’re living above Kelly’s and the next minute, Lily is over at my house griping that you’re moving in with Nikolas so you can get him for yourself. What’s up?"

"Well…Emily…I’m not delusional, and neither is Nikolas and the Spencers. Lucky’s home. He called Nikolas the other day and Luke went and brought him home. That’s why Nikolas had me move in with him because Lucky asked him to keep a eye on me."

"What!" Emily slams her foot down on the brakes. Lucky for her, the street was practically deserted. "What do you mean Lucky’s alive?"

"He’s alive and he’s home. He’s staying with me and Nikolas in the cottage."

"What and you didn’t tell me? You just letted me walk out of the cottage without giving me a chance to welcome him back?"

"Well he was asleep, plus I thought the shock of seeing him alive would be too much for you."

"Too much for me? Liz look at where we live? People come back from the dead all the time. Lucky’s family is the experts on that."

"Plus today is just about him and Nikolas. Nikolas is taking him horseback riding today at Wyndemere."
"That’s good. They were just getting close when the fire happened. I still remember how upset Nikolas was. And you…how are you taking this whole thing?"

"Oh Emily I’m so happy! It’s like he’s never left," Elizabeth laughed. "Now you and Juan can stop feeling guilty when you two start making out when I’m in the room."
"We don’t feel guilty!" Emily laughed.

"Yes you do! Everytime I walk in on you two you both look like two little kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar!" Elizabeth bursts into laughter.

"So nothing’s changed between you two?"

"Doesn’t seem like it. But he’s just got home, so I’ll know for sure sometime down the road," Elizabeth sighed. "I just pray that this hasn’t changed us too much."

"It hasn’t. I have faith in you two," Emily smiled reassuringly. "Does Lucky know your concerns?"

"No. And I don’t know if I should talk to him about them. He’s been through so much already Emily. He doesn’t need to deal with my being worried about our relationship."

"Well Liz…all I can tell you is to take one day at a time. Don’t rush things."

"Thanks Em," Elizabeth smiled gratefully for the advice. "And the same goes for you and Juan. I notice how you two seem to be moving towards sleeping together. Don’t let him push you into something that you’re not ready for."

Emily just smiled at her friend and keeps driving when a idea grabs her. "Hey Liz! How bout later on, I’ll grab Juan and all of us can have dinner together! That way Lucky gets to meet Juan and I get to welcome Lucky home!"

"That’s a great idea," Elizabeth grins. "I’ll call Nikolas when we get to the store. Have him set everything up. How about a private room at Eli’s?"

"Perfect," Emily giggled, for once looking forward to spending a evening with friends.

One hour later…

Both Nikolas and Lucky are dressed and ready to head out towards Wyndemere. Lucky had been surprised to wake up and find Elizabeth gone and Nikolas standing in the door way declaring that it was just going to be the two of them for most of the day and that night, they’d have dinner with Elizabeth, Emily, and Emily’s boyfriend Juan. He couldn’t believe his ear about Emily having a boyfriend. The last time he saw her she was sporting a thing for Nikolas.

"Are you sure this is okay with Stefan?" Lucky asked, grabbing a jacket that Nikolas had loaned him.

"Perfectly. I already called and told him we were coming. In fact, he’s looking forward to seeing you. Tell Lasha’s son he’s always welcomed was his exact words."

"Where do you Cassadines come up with these names? Stefanovitch? Mikkos? Stavros? Natasha? And Lasha. I think you’re the only one with a normal name," Lucky laughed. "Thanks to mom I assume."

"You call Nikolaski normal?" Nikolas made a face.

"Nikolaski?! Now I’ve heard everything!" Lucky doubled over with laughter.

Nikolas smiled at the sound of his brother’s laughter, a sound he dearly missed.

"But I’m one to laugh. For a time Helena was calling me Lucasvitch, but I never answered to that name, so she went back to Lucky," Lucky’s smile disappeared at the memory of his captivity. "If I ever see that witch again, it’d be too soon."

"Here here!" Nikolas sees his chance to get Lucky to open up about his captivity and takes it. "How did she treat you Lucky? How did both Helena and Faison treat you?"

"Well…Helena was okay I guess. She’d just come in and taunt me. Tell me lies about you and Elizabeth and my parents. Say that everyone I loved forgot about me and had moved on with their lives. She even went as far as to say that Elizabeth was sleeping with Jason Morgan. How ridiculous was that?"

Nikolas didn’t answer, remembering his hand in spreading that rumor. He had no idea that Helena was taking that information to Lucky, or he would have watched his tongue more.

"And as for Faison…well…listen why am I going throught this with you for? We’re supposed to be going out and having fun, not letting me load you down about problems that are in the past. Come on let’s go," Lucky darts out the door before Nikolas could reply to any of what he’s told him. Nikolas just stands there for a second, then follows his brother out to the car, hoping to dig deeper later on when Lucky had let his guard down a little more.

Juan’s in the studio recording when Emily arrives with Elizabeth, their arms full of bags, both laughing hysterically. Juan smiled to see Elizabeth so happy. In fact, he’s never seen her this happy since he’s known her. She always had this sad air about her and he knew it was because she missed her late boyfriend.

"Hey Juan," Elizabeth smiled, dumping the bags on the couch.

"Hey," Juan smiled, taking some of the bags from Emily. "So what did you girls buy?"

"Oh the whole mens department. Elizabeth wanted to buy clothes for Lucky, so he wouldn’t have to borrow any of Nikolas’s," Emily explained. "I brought some items for you too. Wouldn’t want you to feel left out."

"Wait a minute…since when have you called Nikolas Lucky?" Juan furrows his brow in confusion. As far he could tell, Nikolas wasn’t much for nick names. Plus, Lucky was the name of Liz’s boyfriend who had died in a fire last year.

"Not Nikolas…Lucky!" Emily kisses him.

"Lucky? Wait a minute, you don’t mean…?"

"Lucky Spencer. Luke and Laura’s son, Liz’s boyfriend. He’s not dead after all. It turned out the fire was a set up by Helena Cassadine," Emily smiled. "Oh Liz, how’s Nikolas? It must be hard for him to know that his own grandmother is capable of doing such a thing to his brother."

"Nikolas is fine. He’s overjoyed that Lucky’s back home," Elizabeth smiled.

"I’m happy for you Liz. You deserve to be happy," Juan hugged his girlfriend’s best friend.

"Thank you Juan."

"Now Juan go get dressed. We’re supposed to meet Nikolas and Lucky at Eli’s in about another hour," Emily looks at her watch. "Gosh, I can’t wait to see Lucky again. I never knew how much I actually missed him ‘til now."

Elizabeth smiled and watched Juan disappear upstairs to change. "Let me go and make sure our room is set." Elizabeth leaves the room.

Five minutes later, Juan comes out dressed in a pair of slacks and a nice shirt.

"You look great," Emily smiled.

"Thanks."

"You know Juan, I hope you and Lucky become great friends. I know he’s been mine ever since I came to Port Charles," Emily encircles her arms around Juan’s neck.

"I’m sure if Nikolas has his way, Lucky won’t like me at all," Juan looks at the ground, remembering the animosity between himself and Nikolas Cassadine.

"Don’t worry. Lucky has his own mind and he gives people the benefit of the doubt most of the time. It’s only Nikolas he had a problem warming up to, but that was because he was a long lost half-brother his mother had with his father’s sworn enemy," Emily laughed, but became serious. "He’ll like you. I’m sure of it. And if he doesn’t he won’t go on a campaign to break us up or anything."

"You guys ready?" Elizabeth comes out of the recording room where she was changing.

Emily nods, and the three friends leave the studio arm in arm.

Eli’s was pretty crowded, but with the private room Elizabeth reserved, the group had privacy. Elizabeth, Emily and Juan find both Nikolas and Lucky already seated.

"It’s about time you three got here," Nikolas stood up to greet them.

"Traffic," Elizabeth takes a seat next to Lucky, immediately taking his hand. "Have a good time with your brother?"
"It was great, but I missed you," Lucky kissed her lightly on the cheek.

"Lucky!" Emily takes the seat on Lucky’s other side and hugs his neck.

"Emily!" Lucky hugs her back. "Wow it’s been so long, and look at you! You look a lot different from the last time I saw you!"

"So do you! Look at those muscles! You didn’t have those before!" Emily laughed.

"So this must be Juan," Lucky looks at the young porta rican man setting next to Emily, a hand on her knee.

"Of course. Lucky Spencer meet Juan Santiago," Emily happily smiles. "The love of my life. Juan, this is my best friend in the entire world, Lucky Spencer."
"Hey," Juan greets. "I heard a lot about you."

"Well it’s nice to meet you," Lucky smiled, laying to rest Juan’s fear that Lucky harbored the same feelings as his brother.

"Nikolas," Elizabeth turned to her friend that was setting on her other side. "Can I talk to you? Alone?"

"I guess," Nikolas shrugged. "We’ll be right back," He nods to Lucky, who only smiles, then goes back talking to Emily and Juan.

Elizabeth pulls him outside the room. "Well? How did it go? Did he open up?"

Nikolas sighed, knowing that he’d have to go into this with her sooner or later. "Well kind of. Before we left for Wyndemere, I got him to talk about Helena’s treatment of him, but he wouldn’t talk about Faison. He was about to, but then he just shut down. He wouldn’t talk about. I tried later on to lead him onto the subject again, but he wouldn’t open up again. Liz…I think Faison may have done something horrible to him. I don’t know what, but Lucky’s refusal to even talk about him…It’s not good."

Elizabeth sighed sadly. "Do you think he’d talk to me about it?"

"I doubt it, but you can try," Nikolas shruggs. "With what you went through with the rape…well maybe he’ll feel like he can open up with you better than me."

"I’ll talk to him tonight. When we’re alone."

"Ok. Let me know how it goes."

"You can count on it," Elizabeth sighed, following him back into the room where Lucky and Emily were telling Juan about when they ran away together.

That night, after saying good night to Nikolas, Emily, and Juan Lucky and Elizabeth decided to take a walk to their boxcar. The night was beautiful with the twinkling stars and full moon above. The boxcar sat silently, waiting for it’s two visitors to arrive. Peeking inside, Lucky sighed when he noticed that nothing had changed. All the paint was still there. A little faded, but still recognizable.

"It’s almost as if I never left," Lucky sighed, seating in middle of the floor. "I still remember playing that guitar you gave me."

"I do too. When you played the song you made for me and our first kiss."
Lucky nods and stares hard at the floor. "That was so long ago Elizabeth. It seems like another world. Too dumb kids, pretending that a old boxcar was a house."

"And that nothing could touch them," Elizabeth sighed. "That’s how I always felt when I was with you Lucky. That nothing bad could ever happen to us again, that somehow just being us…we were invincible. Our bad thing did happen and that was it. If only I knew how wrong I was."

"It wasn’t your fault," Lucky looked at her, his eyes grim.

"What?"

"The fire…it wasn’t your fault. Just because you brought the candles…"

"Lucky I know that."

"But I needed to tell you. I needed to tell you for a long time…ever since Faison showed me the tape of you blaming yourself for the fire…"

"Oh Lucky…he showed you that?" Elizabeth raises her hand to her mouth, mortified. What other things did Faison show him?
"He showed me everything Liz. Your speech at my memorial…that guy coming on to you…you taking care of Jason. Of course he tried to make it seem like something else totally different, but I knew better. I knew you."

"Lucky…"

"I just wanted to tell you that it wasn’t your fault. It never was."

Tears were in Elizabeth’s eyes. "Thank you. Thank you for telling me that Lucky."

Lucky smiled, a brushed her hair away from her face. "Anytime Angel." He leans in and their lips lightly brush, just like their first kiss so long ago. "Now let’s head on home before Nikolas sends out the cavalry. You know how he can get."
"Yes I do unfortunately," Elizabeth smiled, holding onto Lucky as he helped her out of the boxcar. They begin walking, holding hands, enjoying each other’s company. Elizabeth thought it was safe enough to bring up Faison. "Lucky…what was it like? When you were being held? How did that Faison person treat you?"

She felt Lucky tense, a distant expression in his eyes. "Why do you want to know about all that for Elizabeth? That was in the past. Nothing necessary to talk about."

"It was a part of your life Lucky…I part I didn’t get to share in…I…"

"And I want to keep it that way," Lucky’s voice was harsh and a little shaky. "You should never have to share in that Elizabeth. You should never have to know what any of it was like because none of it was good. None of it at all."

"Lucky…"

"I think we better just drop the subject."

"Lucky…"

"Elizabeth please…just let it go." His eyes begged and pleaded for her to drop it, so she did. She didn’t want to push him. That may force him to close down all together. So she dropped the subject for the rest of that evening.

"Ok. Fine. Subject dropped," Elizabeth sighed, staring straight ahead as they walked back to Nikolas’s cottage, not another word was spoken between them for the rest of the night.

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