~*~Chapter 37~*~

Lucky steps out of the studio and pauses to look up at the sky, trying to figure out what to do with himself now that he’s done recording. He starts to walk down the steps and suddenly feels a gripping pain in his chest. He gasps and falls to the ground, doubled over in pain.

“Elizabeth,” he whispers, a tear escaping his eye as he gasps for breath. V looks out the window as this happens and comes rushing outside.

“Lucky!” she shouts, hurrying down the steps and sitting down next to him. “Lucky, what’s wrong? Do you want me to call a doctor?”

He shakes his head. “No, I’ll be fine,” he says in between gasps.

“You don’t look fine! What happened?”

The pain starts to fade and Lucky sighs and looks up into V’s worried face. “I don’t know. It’s going away, though,” he lies, not wanting to be sent off to Kevin Collins again. He knows that what he felt had something to do with Elizabeth, that she was in some kind of pain somewhere, but no one would believe him, so he decides to keep it to himself this time.

V eyes him suspiciously. “Why don’t I believe you? Is this about Liz again?” she asks, her voice filled with concern.

Lucky looks at her in surprise. “Why would you say that?”

“Because that’s what happened last time, and even though you’ve convinced everyone else that you’re fine now, I’ve seen the look in your eyes when you sing, and I know that you’re still really hurting. It’s okay, Lucky, no one’s going to think less of you for it.”

He runs a shaky hand through his hair and leans back. “Yeah, it was about her. I know it sounds crazy, but I can feel when she’s in pain. I think that’s what just happened.” He turns to look at her, the desperation in his eyes evident. “V, what am I supposed to do? I know she’s still out there somewhere, but no one can find her. How am supposed to go on when I know she’s out there in pain?”

V sighs and looks out at the trees that surround the small studio. “I don’t know, Lucky. I wish you didn’t have to go through this, you’ve been through so much already. So they have no clue at all where she is?”

He shakes his head sadly. “No, nothing. It’s like she just vanished. If it weren’t for these feelings I get every now and then, I might actually start to believe that, but I know that she’s out there. I just wish I knew where, or who took her.”

“Well, what do you do to keep your mind off of things? I mean, besides this record?”

“Nothing, really. I used to drink, but then my parents decided to play liquor cops, so then I would sneak over to Jake’s, but I finally realized it wasn’t helping things. I guess all that’s left is spending time with my family.”

V smiles. “That reminds me, how is Emily doing?”

“She’s good. I think she’s at four months or so right now. She’s driving Nikolas crazy.” He chuckles, remembering how the last time he saw them, she had Nikolas running all over the place.

“I can imagine. Do they know what it’s going to be? Boy or girl?”

He shakes his head. “No, they’re waiting until it’s born to find out.” He stands up and smiles shakily. “I’m sorry if I drug you down there. I think I’m okay now. You can go ahead back inside, I’m going to head home.”

V stands up as well, meeting his eyes skeptically. “Are you sure? I really don’t mind, you know. I worry about you.”

“Well, you don’t have to. I’ll be fine, really.”

She stares at him for a moment, trying to decide if he’s being sincere. Finally, she nods. “Okay, but promise you’ll call if you need someone to talk to? I’m a really good listener.”

Lucky smiles and hugs her quickly. “Thanks, V. I promise. Now go work on my record!”

She laughs and gives him a mock-salute. “Aye, aye! Take care of yourself, Lucky.”

She watches him leave, wondering how one person can have so much happen to them in such a short period of time and still keep on going like that.

~*~

Lucky unlocks his front door and walks inside. Every time he walks into the house, he finds himself picturing Elizabeth, waiting to welcome him home. He sighs, gazing around the empty room, then closes the door behind him. He wanders into the kitchen and pulls a bottle of vodka out from under the sink, where he had stashed it away a few months ago.

“Looks like you missed one, Dad,” he mutters amusedly, reaching for a shot glass. He holds it up for a moment, then puts it back. “What’s the point?” he sighs, taking a long drink right from the bottle. He shivers for a moment as the harsh liquid slides down his throat, then walks out into the living room, flopping down in a chair. He picks up a remote and turns on the stereo, sitting back and taking another swig from the bottle.

~*~Chapter 38~*~

“Nooo!” Liz shrieks, crumbling to the ground, as Sergei falls with her, trying to hold her up, but failing. She turns to him, her eyes wild. “This isn’t true! Helena! Helena did this! Right? It was Helena, right? He’s not really dead, he can’t be!” She reaches out and grabs his arms, shaking him in her desperation.

Sergei sighs. He knew she probably would react this way. “No, Elisha. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Look, the article is from the Port Charles Herald. And there are other reports in there, too. When Helena first told me, I thought the same thing as you, so I did some research. For once, she was telling the truth. He really is gone.”

Liz looks back at the floor and scoops up some of the papers that had fallen, leafing through them, shaking her head as a low moan escapes her lips. “What happened? How...”

“From what I can tell, he was at that club his father owns, Luke’s, right? Anyway, I guess they’ve had a lot of problems there with shootings and such, and it happened again. Someone shot at Sonny Corinthos, but it hit Lucky. The reports say the bullet hit him right in the heart, so he didn’t suffer. He died instantly.” His voice catches at the end of his statement, sounding like he is about to cry, when in fact it’s because he’s starting to feel sick from telling her such a horrible lie. Seeing her literally crumble in front of him is destroying him inside.

Liz stares at the death report in front of her, her hands shaking as she clutches it tightly. She shakes her head, causing her tears to fall onto the wrinkled paper, smearing some of the print. “No, not Lucky,” she whispers, dropping that page and gingerly picking up another news clipping. She quickly wipes her face and turns it over, gasping as she sees the photo that Sergei had carefully forged. It shows Lucky, on the ground in front of Luke’s covered in blood as Luke holds his head in his lap and cries. Most of the photo was taken from a copy Helena had from when Nikolas was shot outside of the club. He spliced Lucky’s face into it and made it look like the wound was in his chest and not his neck. The photo of Luke was superimposed with a shot from the docks after he told Laura of Lucky’s death a few years ago. Helena had been secretly filming them, for her own sick pleasure. Thanks to the magic of computers, he was able to use all the images and put together a realistic and convincing newspaper photograph.

Liz traces a shaking finger over the image of Lucky’s face. “Oh, God, no. He can’t be gone. I can’t lose him again.” She sniffs, unable to tear her eyes away from the picture. “Oh no, Luke and Laura must be...” she trails off, her tears choking her speech. Sergei watches quietly, amazed that in the midst of such pain, she still managed to worry about someone else.

After taking a shuddering breath, she meets his eyes again. He flinches at the anguish in hers, but keeps his expression flat. “When did this happen?” she manages to ask in between sobs.

“Um, about two weeks ago, I think. There,” he points to a part of the article she’s holding. “It says the date right there.”

Liz looks down, staring at the paper for a moment as her eyes slowly focus on the print. “No, he’s not,” she says firmly. “If I learned anything from that fire, it’s that my instincts told me he wasn’t gone, but I let everyone else convince me that he was. I should have gone with my instincts then, but I didn’t. So how can you tell me that he’s really dead this time, when I don’t feel it?”

Sergei sighs and looks over at her, trying to figure out how he was going to convince her of this. “Well, you’ve been here for a while now, maybe being apart from him for so long broke whatever connection that was. Can you really be sure that you would still be able to feel something like that?”

She thinks for a moment, his words making more sense than she’d like. She remembers the “conversation” she had with him about a month ago. It was the last time she had felt really connected to him, and ever since, she hadn’t really felt much. She had assumed it was because she was trying to let go of the hope that they’d find her, so she could concentrate on her baby, but maybe it was more than that. What if Sergei was right, and being so far away had broken that connection between her and Lucky? After all, these articles were hard to ignore.

Liz sniffs and grabs the rest of the file, wrinkling the pages as she hastily stuffs them into the folder. She grabs the chair behind her and tries to push herself into a standing position. Sergei grabs her other arm and helps her up, worried at the detached look in her eyes. “Elisha? Are you okay?” he asks quietly.

She stares off into space for a moment, then wrenches her arms out of his hands. “I need to lay down,” she mutters, staggering to the door of the office. Sergei watches helplessly as she makes her way out of the room. Knowing she doesn’t want him around right now, he follows at a distance, making sure she gets to her room safely. Once she’s inside, he sighs and leans against the wall, wondering what he was doing. How could he live with himself, knowing that he just played a part in completely destroying the one person he actually cared about? As much as he tries to deny it, it’s becoming clearer to him that he’s falling in love with Elisha. He vows to keep that to himself, knowing that she doesn’t return his feelings, and that if Helena knew, she would do everything she could to use it against him.

~*~

Liz closes the door behind her and looks around the room. She walks over to her bed, dropping the folder on it and falling to the floor. Her hands shaking, she pulls up the floorboard and digs around in the hole underneath, feeling around for the envelope she had placed there when she first arrived on the island. Her vision is so clouded by tears, she can no longer see what she’s doing, but after a few minute, her fingers close around the small envelope. She pulls it out, letting the floorboard fall back into place, then pushes herself up. She falls onto the bed, pushing aside the folder and tearing open the envelope. She tips it, and the ring falls out into her had. Quickly discarding the envelope, she holds up the ring and sniffs.

“God, I almost forgot how beautiful this was,” she whispers, pulling off the ring that she currently wears, the one from her marriage to Sergei. She slips on her “real” wedding ring and smiles slightly, remembering how beautiful their wedding had been.

She lays down, curling herself into a loose fetal position, holding her hand in front of her face as the ring catches the light that streams through her window. Her body shudders with emotion as she slowly falls asleep, returning to the day that Lucky placed the ring on her finger, and made her the happiest woman in the world.

Liz is standing with Lucky in the front of their church. She looks up at him as he takes a breath and begins his vows.

“Elizabeth, I love you. I can’t say it enough. We’ve been through so much together, and you’ve always remained right by my side. Even when everyone thought I was dying, you refused to leave my hospital bed. You will never know how much that meant to me. You are my life, Elizabeth. I can’t remember who I was before I was yours. I can’t wait for our life together, for our first child, our first grandchild, and everything in between. I promise I will do everything in my power to make you happy, and I will never do anything to hurt you. You are the only woman for me, you’re my soulmate. You've got my heart. That's a permanent lock. Everything I am is in love with you. My soul, my mind, my body, my spirit. That'll never change. I pledge myself to you Elizabeth, today, forever.”

She smiles, trying not to cry as she begins her vows. “I love you, Lucky, you are my angel. Whenever I think you can’t get any better, you do. You are truly my other half, and when you’re not around, I don’t feel complete. When I was a little girl, I loved to read fairy tales, and always dreamed that someday I would meet my knight in shining armor or a handsome prince. It turns out that fairy tales do come true, because you are that knight, the handsome prince, and every other hero all wrapped up in one amazing and wonderful man. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you, but now that I have you, I’m never letting you go. I swear to you that I will be the best wife I can be and that I will never leave you for another, because you are the one and only man I could ever love. You've got my heart. That's a permanent lock. Everything I am is in love with you. My soul, my mind, my body, my spirit. That'll never change. I pledge myself to you Lucky, today, forever.”

They smile at each other, tears in their eyes, as the priest asks for the rings. Emily takes Lucky’s and hands it to Liz. Not waiting to be prompted by the priest, she slides it on his finger and says, “This ring is a symbol of my love. It is my promise to you, Lucky, that we will never part. With this ring, I thee wed.”

He smiles as Nikolas gets her ring and hands it to him. “This ring is a symbol of my love. It is my promise to you, Elizabeth, that we will never part. With this ring, I thee wed.”

Her door creaks open slightly and Sergei looks inside. He sighs when he sees her on the bed, curled up in a ball, asleep. There’s a smile playing on her lips, and he knows she must be dreaming about Lucky.

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