~*~Chapter 79~*~

Liz emerges from below deck and slams the door angrily before sinking into a chair.

“What’s wrong, Elisha?” Sergei asks, hurrying over to her.

She sighs and shakes her head. “My name isn’t Elisha, Sergei. It’s Liz. And I’m fine.”

“You don’t seem fine to me. Did something happen down there?”

“I have to agree with him, honey,” Laura says softly. “You look pretty upset.”

Liz looks down at her lap, trying not to cry. “I don’t think Lucky will ever forgive me for....for what I did.”

Laura stands up and hands the baby, which she had been holding, to Luke, then walks over to Liz. She crouches down in front of her and takes her hands. “He will forgive you, just give him time to sort everything out. He loves you too much to let this come between you forever.”

“But, he’s so angry. He wouldn’t even look at me, and when he finally did, I hardly recognized him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him look at me before with such hate.” She lets out a small sob and Laura quickly pulls her into her arms to comfort her.

“He’s been given a lot to deal with at once. Finding you, finding out about Sergei being his brother, then the baby....that’s a lot to process at once.”

Liz sniffs and looks up into Laura’s eyes. “But I slept with another man, with his own brother! How can I expect him to forgive that?”

“I know exactly what you’re going through, believe me. You didn’t want to do it, you only did it to keep the people you love safe. He’ll realize that sooner or later.”

“Will he? I mean, even if he does eventually realize it, will he care? I always thought we could get through anything, but now I’m not so sure anymore. What if he can never forgive me? What am I supposed to do without him?” She starts to cry again, and Laura looks over to Luke helplessly.

Luke stands up and looks around. Seeing that Sergei was the only person left on the deck, he walks over to him. “Here, I need to go talk to someone. Can you take him?”

He nods and reaches out for the baby. “Until today, I though he was my son, remember? He’ll be fine with me, go talk some sense into Lucky.”

Luke cracks a small smile at his perceptiveness. “I’ll try.” He hurries down to the sleeping quarters, determined to make his son listen to reason.

Liz hears the door and looks up expectantly. When she sees that Luke is gone, she sighs. “Did Luke just go downstairs?”

Laura nods. “I think he’s going to try to convince Lucky that he’s being irrational. If anyone can get through to him, it’s Luke.”

~*~

Lucky looks up at the sound of the door, expecting to see Liz again. Luke smiles at him and sits down on the bed across from him, where she had been sitting earlier.

“What do you want?” Lucky asks bitterly. He had been reading her letters, but had only gotten through the first one so far.

“To be honest, I came down here to tell you that you’re being an ass,” Luke says bluntly. Lucky flinches, but continues to glare at him.

“Am I?” he asks angrily. “Did you know that she slept with him the first night she was there? She sure didn’t waste any time, now, did she?”

Luke sighs and shakes his head. “Did she want to? Does it say in that letter you’re waving around that she liked the guy? That she wanted to sleep with him?”

Reluctantly, he shakes his head. “No, she said it was like being raped again.”

“Oh yeah, slap a big red A on her chest right now. You want me to start the fire so we can burn her at the stake?” Luke asks sarcastically.

Lucky rolls his eyes and stands up. “Dad...”

“What? Am I being ridiculous? Going a little overboard? Well, that’s how you sound right now.”

“How do you do it?” Lucky asks, ignoring his questions. “How do you look at Mom and not see....”

“Because I love her too much to let something like that come between us. What happened on that island, to your mother, and now to Liz, was a very isolated thing. Are you trying to tell me that if you had been kidnapped by Helena...”

“I was kidnapped by Helena!” Lucky cuts in.

Luke rolls his eyes and continues. “Fine, then if when she had kidnapped you, she had told you that she would hurt Elizabeth unless you married some girl and slept with her, what would you have done?”

Lucky paces anxiously, trying to deny that his father had a point. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess I’d do it, if I couldn’t find a way out....I’m sorry, but I just can’t forget this.”

Luke sighs and stands up, tired of arguing with him. “Fine, keep your grudges, ignore your wife, the mother of your child. Turn her away all you want, if that’s what makes you happy. But just keep in mind that you weren’t much better while she was gone.”

Lucky stops pacing and turns to stare at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“One word: Kimber,” Lake says before turning to climb the stairs.

“Whoa!” he shouts, stopping him. “You can’t just say that and then leave. What about Kimber? Nothing ever happened with her.”

Luke turns back to face his son. “Are you sure about that? Can you honestly say that if V hadn’t stopped you that night, you wouldn’t have gone too far with her?”

Lucky runs a hand nervously through his hair, embarrassed that his father knew about that. “How did you...?”

“Who do you think sent V out looking for you? We were worried when you didn’t come back to the hospital, so we called her. It sounded like she got to you in the nick of time, too. You may have only been kissing her, cowboy, but no one was forcing you to do it. You may have been drunk, but you were perfectly willing. Maybe you should think about that a little before you condemn Liz for letting herself be raped again so you would be safe.” He walks up the stairs, leaving Lucky alone once again, feeling like he’s had the wind knocked out of him. He sits heavily on the bed and picks up the next letter, hoping that it would help him make some sense of things.

~*~Chapter 80~*~

“So, when do you think it will be safe to go back out there?” V asks with a laugh.

Jax shakes his head as he steers the boat. “Don’t ask me, I’m just driving here.”

“Can I try?” she asks suddenly, grinning at him. He laughs and starts to shake his head, then realizes she was being serious.

“You really want to steer this thing? I thought you were seasick.”

“I was, but I think that medicine Laura gave me finally kicked in. Come on, just this once. I promise I won’t tell anyone!” she pleads.

He sighs and steps aside, motioning to the wheel. “All right, go ahead, just try not to run us aground.”

V squeals happily and grabs the wheel. “Oh come on, Jax, look around. There’s nothing out there to run into!”

“Yes, but I trust you to find something. You have a knack for that,” he says with a laugh.

“Are you trying to say I’m a klutz?”

“Trying? No, I thought I was being rather explicit. Face it, V, you’re not the most nimble person in the world. Frankly, I’m surprised the police trusted you with a loaded gun!”

~*~

“So, how did it go?” Laura asks as Lake emerges onto the deck.

He shrugs and sits down. “I don’t know. I think I made an impression, but I don’t know if that’s enough. He’s still being pretty stubborn about it.”

“Well, thanks for trying,” Liz says quietly. She looks down at her son, who is now sleeping peacefully in her lap, and sighs. “I’m going to have to face the fact that he may never forgive me. Maybe our love just isn’t as strong as I once thought.”

Laura walks over to sit next to him. “What’s wrong with him? Why is it so hard for him to accept that she didn’t have a choice?”

“His pride is just getting in the way right now. He can’t live without her, and he knows it. Just give him some time to stew down there.”

“He’s being a hypocrite, you know that? Has he even stopped to think that he came pretty close to doing the same thing to her?” Laura asks angrily, keeping her voice down so Liz won’t hear.

“I made sure to remind him of that. I think he was surprised that I knew, but I could also tell it made him think.”

“Good. I wonder what she would do if she found out about that?” she asks, nodding towards Liz. “Do you think she’d forgive him, considering what she’s going through right now?”

“I don’t know, but considering that Kimber’s still lurking around Port Charles, we may find out soon. I got the impression from V that she has no intention of fading into the background quite yet.”

“I was afraid of that,” Laura says, gazing out at the water as they sped along.

~*~

After driving the boat for about twenty minutes, V shouts for Jax. “Look, I see land up there!”

He walks over to her and peers through the window. “Hey, it looks like we’re almost there. Time for me to take that wheel back.”

“Oh, so you don’t trust me to land this thing?” she asks, pouting.

Jax laughs and pushes her out of the way. “First of all, you don’t land a boat, you dock it. And no, I don’t trust you to do it. Nothing personal, of course.”

“Fine, go ahead, ya big show-off,” she says, stepping away from him. “I guess I’ll go tell the others that we’re almost there.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Oh, and V?”

“Yes?” she asks, turning at the door to look back at him.

“Thanks for keeping me company,” he says, flashing a smile at her. She grins back, then leaves the room and goes out to the deck.

“Hey, guys, we’re almost there,” she announces, looking around the area. “Is Lucky still down there?”

Luke nods. “Yeah, he’s being anti-social today. I’ll go down and get him.” He stands up and heads down the stairs, wondering what kind of reception he was going to get this time.

A few minutes later, he reappears in the doorway, alone. “Liz, he wants to talk to you down there before we land.”

“Dock,” V corrects quickly. When Luke frowns at her in confusion, she elaborates smugly, “planes land, boats dock.”

He grunts in response, and returns to his seat next to Laura. Liz walks over and transfers her son into Laura’s arms, then heads down the stairs, praying he was ready to talk to her.

“You wanted to see me?” she asks as she walks into the small room, trying to keep her voice detached. Lucky looks up from the letter in his hands, a tear running down his cheek. She hurries over and kneels on the floor in front of him. “What’s wrong?”

He carefully folds the letters and sniffs. “My dad was right, I was being an ass. You’ve been through so much, and all I could think about was my stupid pride. I’m so sorry!”

Liz smiles and shakes her head. “It’s okay. I understand that you were hurt by what happened, and I don’t blame you. But do you understand now that I didn’t have a choice? I would never cheat on you like that willingly, you know that, don’t you?”

He nods, pulling her to his chest. “I love you, Elizabeth, nothing could ever change that. I couldn’t stand the thought that I might lose you again. I think I just felt a little threatened by the whole thing.”

She lifts her head and looks into his eyes. “Threatened? By Sergei? Oh Lucky, that could never happen! I could never love him. I barely even liked him while I was there. You are the only man I will ever love!” Impulsively, she reaches up to kiss him, tasting the salt from his tears as they ran across his lips.

He pulls away and sighs. “Elizabeth, there is something that you should know. We promised each other a long time ago that we wouldn’t follow in my parents’ footsteps, that we wouldn’t let lies tear us apart. You remember that, right?” She nods slowly, fear creeping into her chest. “Well, after you disappeared, I got really depressed, and I would drink a lot, like Dad does. Anyway, once they found out, they took away all the alcohol in the house, so I started going to Jake’s.”

“Okay...” she says, not sure where he’s going with this.

Lucky takes a deep breath and meets her eyes, praying that she will forgive him. “Anyway, there was this waitress there....”

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