~*~Chapter 35~*~

Lucky had lost track of how many drinks he had consumed hours ago. He looks up to see Kimber approaching his table and frowns when he realizes she isn’t carrying another drink.

“Okay, Lucky, my shift is over, and I think you’ve had way more than your share of alcohol for one night. You’re in no shape to drive home, and you can’t stay here, so why don’t I drive you?” she asks, looking down at him with concern.

Lucky sighs and sits back in his chair. “Since when does Jake offer transportation?”

She shakes her head and reaches down to take away the empty glass in front of him. “She doesn’t, but I don’t like to see a nice guy like you do this to yourself. Whatever made you so sad isn’t worth dying in a car accident over, and if you try to drive right now, that’s probably what will happen!”

He stands up and glares at her, trying to fight the dizziness that washes over him. “You know nothing about me or what I’ve been through! Maybe dying is exactly what I need right now.” He grabs the back of his chair to steady himself, but his angry gaze never leaves her face.

Kimber is taken aback by his sudden outburst. “Hey, I wasn’t trying to assume anything, I was just trying to be a friend. You look like you could use one, but far be it for me to push. Do whatever you want.” She starts to walk away, hoping he’ll change his mind.

Lucky sighs and runs a shaking hand through his hair. “Wait!” She turns around, trying to hide a smile. “If you don’t mind, I could use a ride home.”

“Good, I was hoping you’d come to your senses. Come on.” He follows her out of the bar and climbs into her car. He gives her directoins to his house, then sits back, wanting nothing more than to get home and go to bed.

A short while later, she pulls into his driveway, marveling at his house. “Wow, you’ve got a nice place here,” she says, turning off the car. Lucky opens his door and nearly falls out onto the driveway. She gets out and hurries around to help him, pulling him into a standing position. “Okay, you’re going to have to help me here. I can’t exactly carry you!”

Leaning on her, he manages to make his way to the front door. He pulls out his keys and opens it, then starts to walk inside. Remembering that she was there, he turns and tries to smile. “Thanks.”

“Any time. Look, are you going to be okay in there, or do you want me to come in and help you?” she asks, trying to make it sound like an innocent question.

“Um,, I...” his head is swimming, and he has to grip the door to keep from losing his balance. He looks up at her and realizes that she’s really quite attractive. Her blonde hair falls slightly past her shoulders, and she has piercing green eyes that are looking at him with concern. He struggles for an answer as she steps closer to him.

“Lucky? Do you want me to come in?” she asks again, her voice a little deeper this time, more seductive.

When he doesn’t answer, she decides to be bold, and leans in to kiss him. He sees her coming towards him and tenses up. Sensing his sudden change in demeanor, she stops and looks around the room behind him. It’s obvious by the way it’s decorated that a woman lives there, or at least, used to live there. Remembering his wedding ring, she asks quietly. “I’m sorry, is your wife home?”

As soon as the words are out of her mouth, he sobers up, a picture of Elizabeth flashing through his mind. “Um, I think you should go now,” he says firmly, moving to close the door.

Kimber is thrown by his sudden change in behavior and backs out of the house. “Okay, sure. I guess I’ll see you around.”

“Whatever....um, thanks again,” he mutters, shutting the door, then turning to lean against it. He slides down to the floor as tears begin to flow down his cheeks. What was he thinking, almost inviting her inside like that?

Outside, Kimber walks back to her car, looking back over her shoulder at the house. “Okay, Lucky, you won this one, but don’t think you’ve gotten rid of me yet!”

~*~

Lucky puts down his guitar and sighs. That was the last song, they were finally done.

“Great job!” V shouts over the intercom. “Looks like we might get this record out after all!”

Lucky stands up and smiles. “So that’s it? We’re done?”

She opens the door to the control booth and steps out into the studio. “You’ve got it! That was the last track, now all that’s left is some mixing, production, artwork, that sort of thing. Your part’s done, though. How does it feel?” She grins, excited that they were moving on to the next step, which meant they were that much closer to release.

“Okay, I guess,” he answers, not sure if he’s happy about it. At least when he was recording, he had something to distract himself with. Now that he was done, the chances were greater that he could end up drinking at Jake’s again, and he didn’t want to take the chance of last week’s incident with Kimber repeating. He hadn’t told anyone about it, and had avoided Jake’s ever since, with the exception of wlaking there the following morning to retreive his car.

“Okay? That’s all? Lucky, this is big, show some excitement, or else I’m going to be offended!” V jokes, trying to cheer him up.

Lucky grins and hugs her. “Okay, I’m excited. Thanks, V, this was exactly what I needed.”

“That’s better,” she says, hugging him back. “I’m going to miss having you around here every day.”

He pulls back and smiles at her. V was one of the few people he could be around without feeling like he had to put on an act. Everyone in his family was always so worried about his state of mind, he felt like he had to prove to them all the time that he was fine, even if he wasn’t. With V, he could just be himself, and she didn’t judge him or start asking all sorts of questions. He vaguely remembered her comforting him when he had his “breakdown,” as everyone liked to call it. He was grateful to her for being there for him, and was especially thankful that she’d never mentioned it since.

“I’ll probably stop in and say hi every once in a while,” he says.

She smiles as she watches him leave. “You better!” she shouts after him, laughing.

~*~Chapter 36~*~

For the first time since Liz had been brought to the island, Helena wasn’t there. One of the servants had said something about her going on a short business trip, so Liz decides to explore the house. She wanders around, finding herself at Helena’s study. Figuring she has nothing to lose, so goes inside, closing the door behind her quietly, and starts snooping around.

There isn’t much in her desk, just a bunch of financial papers and other files that make no sense. She goes over to the bookcase, looking through the titles. Once again, nothing too suspicious. Chuckling to herself, she pokes at a few of them, wondering if there are secret passages there, like at Wyndemere. If there are, she doesn’t find them. She turns around, surveying the room, looking for anything that may be of interest to her. Her eyes fall on a small cabinet next the the television set, and she goes over to it. It’s not locked, so she looks inside.

The cabinet is filled with video tapes and a few files. She flips through the papers, gasping as she realizes that they’re serveillance reports and guard reports from the time when Lucky was kidnapped. There were reports from his guards about what he had been doing while Helena and Faison were away, mostly just records of the times he ate, slept, played chesss, etc. Then there were reports on the rest of his family, including her! There were pages and pages filled with notes about what they had done, where they went, who they talked to. Lucky had said that Faison had her and his family followed, but she never realized before how much.

She puts the files away and picks up one of the tapes. It’s just labeled with a date. She glances at the others and saw that most of them were marked that way. She pulls one out at random and puts it in the VCR, waiting to see what’s on it. She falls back into a chair as Lucky’s face pops up on the screen. Tears begin streaming down her face as she watches him pace the small room. They were obviously videos from the security camera in his room under Wyndemere. Why had Helena kept them?

Liz wipes her face and goes back to the cabinet, digging through the tapes until she finds one with a familiar date. She puts it in the VCR and hits play, sitting down and watching. She fast-forwards for a bit, until she sees a man come into the room. She recognizes him as the man she met on the docks that day, the man Lucky later told her was Faison. On the tape, Lucky sits up and glares at him, saying something to him angrily, but there’s no sound, and she can’t read lips very well, so she can only assume he’s demanding to know why he’s there.

A short time later, Faison points to a monitor, and as Lucky approaches it, she can see that it’s showing her at the church, after his funeral. The look on Lucky’s face breaks her heart. He reaches up and touches the screen, a tear running down his cheek. After Faison leaves, he falls onto the bed and cries. Liz sniffs and ejects the tape, then looks through the cabinet for another. Over the next hour or so, she watches tapes from the significant dates in their lives: Valentine’s Day, their birthdays, Christmas, New Year’s, the anniversary of the fire, and some of the days after it.

Deciding that she has tortured herself enough, she tries one of the other tapes that are marked differently, wondering what they are. She puts one in and sits back, bracing herself. To her surprise, the tape is of her, in their church. She’s sleeping, and a moment later, Nikolas walks in. Suddenly, she remembers what day this was. She watches as on the tape, she starts to have a nightmare and Nikolas tries to wake her up, then she suddenly kisses him. She stops the tape and sighs. No wonder Lucky had been so convinced that something was going on between her and his brother! Faison had been showing him these tapes!

She puts that tape away and picks up another of the security tapes of Lucky. Even though it hurts to watch him in such pain, it’s the only way she can see him anymore. She sits back and begins watching one, wiping away her tears with the back of her hand.

~*~

“Well, that about does it,” Sergei mutters to himself, gathering up the file folder he had put together to show Elisha. He felt badly about this, knowing how much it was going to hurt her, but if he didn’t do it, he knew Helena would, and she would be much more vengeful about it.

He leaves his study and tracks down one of the servants. “Do you know where Elisha is?” he asks.

“I think I saw her go into Madam’s office,” the maid answers.

Shocked that she would do something so bold, he walks over, opening the door slowly. Sure enough, there she is, sitting in a chair, watching something on Helena’s TV, crying. He lets himself in, startling her. She quickly stops the VCR and stands up looking at him fearfully. “Sergei, um, I didn’t hear you!”

“It’s okay, I won’t tell her,” he says, wakling up to her. “Um, I have something to show you, and I know you aren’t going to like it, but I figured you’d rather hear it from me instead of Helena.”

Liz sniffs and turns to look at him. “What is it?”

In response, he hands over the file. “This.”

Liz takes it gingerly and opens it. Her eyes scan over the first clipping as her hands begin to shake. “Nooooooooo.......” she wails, dropping the folder as she collapses into his arms.

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