~*~Chapter 49~*~
“Ready?” V asks, sticking her head in the door of Lucky’s dressing room. He looks up and smiles nervously.
“As ready as I’ll ever be, I guess. Just remember this isn’t a full show, I’m only going to do a few songs, that’s it.”
V nods. “I know, don’t worry. Just go out there and knock their socks off, okay?”
He smiles and stands up, straightening his shirt. “I’ll try, but no guarantees. Oh, do me a favor?”
“Sure, what?” she asks, reaching up to push some hair out of his eyes.
“That blond waitress out there? The one who brought that water back here earlier? Keep an eye on her for me. She bugs me, and I’d rather not have to deal with her tonight.”
“No problem. Now, stop worrying about the bimbo waitress and go out there!” She pushes him lightly to the door, then follows him out.
Lucky stands backstage for a moment, gathering his thoughts, then takes a deep breath, grabs his guitar, and walks onto the small stage to a round of applause. As the band gets organized, he approaches the microphone and clears his throat, his eyes searching the room for his family.
“Um, thanks for coming tonight. This is going to be a pretty short show, only a few songs. I’m supposed to tell you to buy the new album, so if you like the show, V’s got a table set up back there with the CDs.”
Everyone chuckles at his attempt at a plug for the album.
Once the band is ready, they start the first song, “Hero,” which he wrote for Luke and sang at his showcase right before Liz was abducted. It’s hard for him to sing because of the memories from that night, but since it’s one of the few songs he has that’s not about her, he’s able to get through it without too much emotion. Once it’s over and the applause dies down, he clears his throat to introduce the next song.
“I’ve never played this one in public before, but it’s on the album. Dad, Mom, this one’s for you guys.” He smiles at his parents, and starts the song.
On the eight day God noticed a problem
For there below Him stood a cowboy alone
Stubborn and proud, reckless and loud
God knew he’d never make it on his own
So God looked out over creation
And listened as that cowboy prayed
God took passion and thunder
Patience and wonder, then He sent down
The best thing that God ever made
Cowboys and angels, leather and lace
Salt of the earth meets heavenly grace
Cowboys and angels, tested and tried
It’s a long way to heaven
And one hell of a ride
Nothin’s changed since the dawn of creation
For you will find them together today
And only heaven above them knows why she loves him
But he must be the reason she don’t fly away
Cowboys and angels, leather and lace
Salt of the earth meets heavenly grace
Cowboys and angels, tested and tried
It’s a long way to heaven
And one hell of a ride
It’s a long way to heaven
And one hell of a ride
Playing the final chords of the song, Lucky looks up to find his father grinning at the hidden meaning. Laura is smiling as well, so proud of her son
Emily leans over to Nikolas as Lucky launches into the next song. “I think mine is next,” she whispers. Lucky had written a duet, originally intending to sing it with Liz at some point, but after her disappearance, was ready to throw it away. V had come to Emily at one point and asked her to convince him to put the song on the album, singing it with someone else. After a lot of arguing, he had finally agreed to keep it, but under the condition that Emily sing it with him, no one else. She had been more than happy to do it, but now that she was going to have to go up on stage, eight months pregnant, and sing with him, she was feeling nervous.
“You’ll be great, I know it,” Nikolas says reassuringly, knowing that she has been worrying about this performance for weeks.
“I just can’t believe I have to get up in front of all these people, looking like such a cow!”
“Honey, how many times do I have to tell you that you’re not a cow, or a whale, or any other large animal that you can think of? You’re beautiful, radiant, and being pregnant only magnifies that beauty.”
Emily smiles and kisses him lightly. “Thank you. You always know how to make me feel better. I just wish everyone else here had the same blindness towards my size as you do!”
Knowing that she wasn’t going to give up her notion of being grotesquely huge, he just shook his head and smiled. “You’ll be great. I’m glad you agreed to do this. Lucky will probably feel better having you up there with him.”
Emily sighs and looks up at the stage as Lucky finishes the song he’s singing. “I’m sure you’re right. I just wish I wasn’t so nervous. I’m never this bad before the Nurses Ball, and that’s so much more crowded than this place!”
“I know, but this time is more personal, that’s all,” Nikolas says, clapping as the song ends.
Lucky smiles as the applause dies down, then looks over at his family’s table. “Em? You ready to do this?”
Emily nods and gets up from the table, making her way to the stage.
“Don’t mind her, she’s about to make me an uncle,” he explains with a small laugh as Emily stumbles up the steps to join him on stage. He kisses her quickly on the cheek and hands her an extra microphone. “Ready?”
Emily takes a deep breath and smiles. “Let’s do this!”
[Song credit: “Cowboys and Angels” by Kent Blazy, Kim Williams and Garth Brooks © 1995 Careers-BMG Music Publishing, Inc.]
~*~Chapter 50~*~
Elizabeth had become bored with always sitting out in the garden every day, and had taken to exploring the house once again, this time avoiding Helena’s office. Seeing those videos of Lucky again would just be too painful.
“This should be interesting,” she mutters to herself as she slowly pushes open the attic door. She tentatively walks inside, looking around at the crowded room. It’s slightly dusty, but not so much that it’s uncomfortable. There are boxes everywhere, and other odds and ends laying about.
Most of the boxes are marked to contain china, tablecloths, other kinds of dishes or kitcheware, old clothes, art, and other random things that she really has no interest in digging through. She moves around the room, looking for something interesting, anything that will keep her occupied for the afternoon so she can avoid going back downstairs.
Out of the corner of her eye, she catches sight of a large trunk, and walks over to it. Moving some sheets and small boxes off of the lip and brushing away the dust, she tries the latch, surprised to find it unlocked. She lifts the lid and looks over the contents of the trunk. There are a bunch of old dresses, some jewelry, and other trinkets, such as a hair brush, a mirror, a couple of pairs of shoes and barrettes. There were a few strands of long, blond hair still stuck in the brush.
“I wonder if this was Laura’s stuff?” she says quietly to herself, intrigued by the strange time capsule in front of her. She can’t help wondering if some day, the clothes, jewelry, and other things that she has been wearing and using while in the mansion would end up in a similar trunk.
After sifting through the trunk, she closes the lid and looks around the room. There must be something else of interest in the large attic. Her search soon proves rewarding when she discovers another trunk tucked away in the far corner of the room. This one doesn’t have a lock at all, so she quickly opens it. The smell of cedar and moth balls wafts up from the interior of the trunk, and she smiles.
Inside are baby clothes, rattles, other toys, shoes, old bottles and a few baby books. Judging by the age of them, she can only assume they were Nikolas’s or Sergei’s. Liz pulls over a crate and carefully sits down to get a closer look. Everything in the trunk is just adorable, down to the tiny socks. She’s amazed at how small some of the clothes are, and wonders if her baby will be that tiny. Maybe she can talk to Helena about using some of these clothes. They’ve obviously been well-preserved, and seem to be in perfect condition, aside form the cedar and moth ball smell that clings to them.
She looks through the baby stuff for a little while longer, then closes the trunk and stands up to look around the room again. She had hoped to find something a little more intriguing, maybe even incriminating, something she could hold over Helena. Unfortunately, so far the attic had yielded nothing more than some old clothes. Clinging to the hope that she will find something to help get her off of this island, she continues to wade through the piles of boxes, looking for anything suspicious, anything at all.
~*~
“Where’s Elisha?” Helena asks, seeing that Sergei is sitting in the living room by himself.
“I think she’s upstairs, exploring the house. I’ve gotten the feeling lately that she’s becoming bored here. She even seems to have tired of the garden outside.”
“Well, once this baby is here, she’ll have plenty to do,” Helena says, looking up the stairs. “Does she still believe that Lucky is dead?”
Sergei nods. “As far as I can tell. She’s trying to keep her spirits up, to keep the baby healthy, but I can still see the sadness in her eyes.”
Helena groans. “Don’t start that stuff with me, Sergei. You cannot get soft on me now. We have too much to do. She only has about another month before this baby comes, and there is much to be prepared.”
“Like what? Elisha just finished the nursery, and we have tons of baby clothes and other supplies already. What more is there to do?” Sergei asks.
“Oh, trust me, there’s plenty left. This child will be raised properly as a Cassidine, no matter what I have to do.”
“Don’t worry, I will do everything I can to make sure this baby is raised well,” Sergei says as Helena stands up to leave.
“You better, because I will not have that girl being the only influence on the child. She’s become too much like the Spencers, and I won’t have another Cassidine fall under their spell,” she says, hurrying out of the room.
Sergei sits back and sighs, wondering what else Helena has in mind for his baby.
~*~
“Nothing,” Liz mutters in annoyance. “All that searching, all that dust, and there’s nothing good here.”
She looks down at herself an chuckles at how filthy she is. She checks her watch as gasps when she sees that it’s almost dinner time. Knowing better than to be later, as well as going down there in her current filth, she rushes to the door, hoping to be able to shower quickly and get downstairs in time.
About two feet from the attic door, she’s suddenly gripped with a huge pain in her abdomen. She sinks to the floor, holding her stomach. “Oh, God,” she says. “Not now, not yet. It’s too soon!”
Graphics Courtesy Of:
