~*~Chapter 1~*~

“Elizabeth! Are you home?” Lucky shouts, shutting the door behind him. He smiles as she bounces into the room, quickly putting his hand behind his back.

She runs up to him and kisses him. “What are hiding from me?” she asks, trying to reach behind him.

“Close your eyes first.” She does, and he holds out the small box. “Okay, open them.”

She smiles and takes the box from him, opening it slowly. “Oh, Lucky!” she gasps, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. Inside the box is a subway token exactly like his, with a diamond in the center.

“It’s an exact replica of mine,” he explains, taking the necklace out of the box and putting it around her neck. “Even the inscription is the same. The only difference is the diamond.”

She hugs him tightly. “I love it!”

“Happy Anniversary,” he says, hugging her back.

“Anniversary? Our anniversary isn’t until next week!”

He laughs. “This is the anniversary of our real wedding, or did you forget already? A year ago today we got married in the hospital. I know it wasn’t fancy or even very romantic, but it will always be the best day of my life.”

She smiles and wipes away a tear. “Of course I remembered! I just thought that you would consider our anniversary as the day of our wedding at the church. I like the idea of celebrating it today instead, though. Marrying you in the hospital felt so right, so perfect. I love you so much. This has been the best year of my life!” She kisses him deeply, pulling him into the living room.

He pulls away and looks into her eyes. Even after a year of marriage, he is still head over heels in love with her. She smiles and turns his head away from her, giggling when she hears him gasp in surprise. “Happy Anniversary,” she whispers, nibbling his ear playfully. She had done a large painting of the boxcar and had it framed and hung on the living room wall.

“When did you do this?” he asked, admiring the painting.

“At Nikolas and Emily’s, whenever you were at L&B,” she says. “I can be pretty sneaky, you know.”

“Well, I love it,” he says, pulling her close for another kiss. He starts to lead her towards the bedroom, but she stops him.

“Not yet, loverboy. There’s more to my present, but it’s not here.”

“More?” he asks, trying to figure out what else she could have planned.

“Turn around.” He reluctantly obeys, his curiosity running wild at this point. She quickly slips a blindfold over his eyes. “Do you trust me?”

“With my life. Why?” He looks at her questioningly as she grins back at him.

“Hey, what are you up to?”

“I let you do this to me when you showed me the house, so now we’re even. Keep it on and walk with me. And no peeking! I promise you, it’ll be worth it.” She leads him out to the car and helps him into the passenger seat, then backs out of the driveway.

“Be warned, the last time someone kidnapped me, they died!” Lucky jokes, trying desperately to fight the urge to take off the blindfold.

“That’s okay. I’m not kidnapping you, just bringing you somewhere. We’ll be back home by morning, I promise. I just wanted to do something special for our real anniversary.” A few minutes later she stops the car and helps him out.

“Now can I look?” he asks impatiently.

“Not yet. Calm down, we’re almost there. You know, you’re worse that I am at this!” She leads him onto an elevator.

“Elizabeth, where on earth are you taking me?” he asks as he feels them going up.

“Shhh, patience! Only a few more minutes.” Finally, the elevator stops and they get off. She fumbles with a key, and opens the door in front of them, leading him inside. Once she’s closed the door, she pulls off his blindfold.

He’s shocked to find that they’re in the same hotel room where they spent their first honeymoon. He turns and kisses her, without saying a word. Finally, they pull apart, breathless. “You’re amazing, you know that?” he asks softly.

“You like it?” she asks, smiling.

“Elizabeth, I love it. There isn’t any other place I’d rather spend our anniversary. I can’t believe you did all this.” He turns around and sees that there’s a meal set up on the table. “Is that what I think it is?”

She laughs. “Go check.” He kisses her quickly before going over to the table and lifting one of the plate covers.

“Ribs and cheese fries. And I thought this couldn’t get any more perfect.”

She walks up to him and wraps her arms around him. “I want us to relive our wedding night, now that we don’t have anything sad hanging over ours heads anymore.”

“Everything?” he asks playfully, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She laughs. “Yes, everything. Well, except for the part where your dad called us to tell us we had to leave. I want to stay the whole night this time.”

He sighs and kisses her gently. “I think I have the best wife in the entire world. How did I get so lucky?”

“It’s your name. I guess it was just destiny,” she says as they sit down to eat.

~*~Chapter 2~*~

Lucky slowly opens his eyes and smiles when he sees Elizabeth watching him.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” she says softly, planting a tender kiss on his lips. “Did you sleep well?”

He smiles and pulls her down for another kiss. “I slept like a rock. You wore me out last night.”

She blushes and gets out of bed. “We better get up. We have to check out in half an hour.”

Lucky rolls over to look at the clock and gasps. “Why did you let me sleep so late?” he asks, jumping out of bed and grabbing his clothes.

“You looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to disturb you. Anyway, I figured you could use the rest for tonight.”

“Tonight? Tonight! How could I forget! I have to rehearse at 2:00! “ he says frantically Elizabeth couldn’t help laughing at his nervousness.

“You’ll be fine, honey. Stop worrying.”

He stops and kisses her, then smiles. “Thanks. I can always count on you to bring me back to my senses. You’re right, there’s nothing to worry about. I’m just going to be singing my songs in front of half the town for the first time, ever!” he says sarcastically.

She giggles and hugs him. “Stop being so insecure. Your songs are going to be nothing short of beautiful. I swear, you’re going to give yourself an ulcer if you keep worrying like this!”

“Well, we better get out of here. Thank you again for this. It was the best anniversary I could have imagined. You’re the best, you know that?” he asks quietly, leaning in to kiss her again.

“The best there is,” she says teasingly, remembering the words he used so many years ago. He laughs and kisses her before they finally leave the room. “I have to say, this place was definitely more enjoyable when we didn’t think you were going to die in a few hours!”

~*~

“I’ll be back in a few hours, okay?” Lucky asks as he quickly kisses his wife good-bye.

“Why can’t I go with you?” she pouts.

“You know I want this to be a surprise. If you go with me, then you’ll hear the songs before you’re supposed to! It’s only a few hours. I’ll see you later!” he rushes out the door and down the walkway to his car, as she watches him from the window.

Sighing, she goes over to the phone.

“Hey, Em. Are you busy this afternoon? Meet me at Kelly’s? Thanks! See you then!”

She takes a quick shower and rushes out of the house to meet her friend.

~*~

“Nikolas! I’m going to Kelly’s to meet Liz! I’ll be back later, okay?” Emily yells into the kitchen as she’s getting ready to leave.

Nikolas comes out of the kitchen to give her a quick kiss. “Okay, but don’t forget we have Lucky’s show tonight.”

“I won’t. Anyway, I’ll be with Liz. I doubt she’ll let me forget! I shouldn’t be gone long. Bye!” she hugs him and skips out the front door. They were married 3 months ago, and were living in his cottage for the time being. It suited their needs perfectly, and Nikolas really liked the place, so they decided to stay there until it was necessary for them to get a bigger place.

A few minutes later she's pulling up to Kelly’s. Liz is already sitting at one of the tables outside, waiting for her.

“Hey girl!” Emily greets, sitting down across from her. “So, how did Lucky like the present?”

“He loved the painting. I also took him back to the hotel room where we spent our first honeymoon. It was wonderful,” she sighs, gazing off into space.

Emily giggles and shakes her head. “You guys have been married a whole year, and you’re still as goony over each other as you were before!”

“Goony?” Liz asks, laughing at her friend’s colorful vocabulary. Emily just shrugs. “How’s Nikolas?”

Now it’s Emily’s turn to get a dreamy look on her face. “He’s good. I think he’s really excited about seeing Lucky perform tonight. He’s really proud of him, you know?”

“So am I. He’s really nervous about it, though. It’s kinda cute. He wouldn’t let me hear any of the songs because he wants it to be a surprise. I’m so happy he’s finally getting to do what he loves.”

“Has V signed anyone to do his songs yet?”

“I think she has a couple of bands lined up, but nothing concrete yet. Lucky’s just happy to write them. I don’t think he even cares if anyone does them. I tried to convince him that he could easily do them himself, make singing his career, but he refuses to do it. I don’t know if he doesn’t think his voice is good enough, of if he just doesn’t want to be a singer professionally.”

“He probably knows that if he became a recording artist, he’d have to tour and stuff, and we all know that Lucky hates to leave you, even for a day!” Emily jokes. “Anyway, I’ve always known Lucky to prefer being behind-the-scenes, you know? I think songwriting is the best career for him. On a completely different topic, are the in-laws pressuring you for grandchildren yet?”

Liz laughs and shakes her head. “No, they’re quiet so far. I think they’re still coming to terms with the fact that they’re old enough to be grandparents already! What about you?”

She giggles. “Liz, we’ve got the same in-laws! If they’re not pressuring you yet, then they better not be thinking about pressuring me already! You guys have been married a year now, we’ve only been married for 3 months!”

“Yeah, well be happy about that. Your in-laws could have been Stefan and Helena!”

Emily shudders. “Don’t remind me! I have nightmares about that sometimes! Can you imagine how scary that would be? At least Laura would still be my mother-in-law, but still....I’d be a Cassidine!”

They both laugh as they pay their bill. “Well, I better get going. I still have to find something to wear tonight. I was so busy planning the anniversary stuff that I forgot to go shopping!” Liz says, walking to her car.

“You want some company? Shopping’s always much more fun with two people!”

“Sure. My car or yours?”

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