What Happened to Forever?

Chapters 49-50

~*~Chapter 49~*~

Nikolas waits nervously at the front door for Reginald to answer. Finally the door opens, and standing there, looking more beautiful than he thought possible, is Emily.

"Hi, Nikolas. Ready to go?" she asks, beaming at him.

It takes a moment to find his voice, but he finally manages to speak. "Uh...sure. Wow, Em, you look great!"

She giggles. She was just wearing a shirt and top, but he still acted like she was in some grand ball gown every time he saw her. Once again, he refused to tell her where they were going, so she wasn't sure how to dress. All she knew is that it was going to be something big. He hadn't said anything, but she could feel it in the air.

"So, where are you taking me?"

He shakes his head at her. "I told you it's a surprise. You'll just have to be patient. Oh, I promised Liz we'd stop by her place first so she could say happy birthday. I think she wants to give you her present or something," he says cryptically.

"Sure, it's been a while since I last saw her anyway. How is she doing?"

He smiles. "She's getting better. I think she had a breakthrough yesterday." They get in the car, and he figures that if he doesn't give her the ring now, she's going to keep going with her questions about Liz. Once she is seated, he turns to her.

"I want to give you part of your present now," he says nervously.

She grins. "Okay, I won't stop you."

He pulls the ring box out of his pocket and begins to speak. "I know we haven't been dating for that long, but I already know that I love you, and that's never going to change. I want you to have this ring," he opens the box, and her eyes widen at the sight of the beautiful sapphire. "...as a symbol of that love. This ring is my promise to you that we will always be together and that my love for you will never end. It will only grow stronger."

Emily is crying by now as he slides the ring on her finger. "Oh, Nikolas, this is the most wonderful thing anyone has given me. I love you so much, and that will never change. " She throws her arms around him and kisses him passionately. They stay like this for a few minutes, before finally driving off to Liz's house.

~*~

Elizabeth is having a wonderful dream about Lucky, when she's abruptly wakened by a sound at her window. She smiles when she realizes what it is. 'I guess yesterday wasn't a dream after all,' she thinks.

She gets up and goes to the window. Lucky is sitting on her roof, grinning. He had shaved and cut his hair, and looks like his old self again. His hair is a little longer on the top than before, and a strand keeps falling in his eyes.

"Good morning, angel," he says, crawling inside.

She giggles as he quickly wraps his arms around her waist. "Good morning yourself. Kind of early, aren't you?"

"I warned you I'd be here first thing. How do you like the new 'do?" he asks, brushing the lock of hair out of his eyes.

"I love it! And thanks for shaving."

He grins. "Like I said, anything for you. Are you sure you like the hair, though? My mom didn't want to cut it too short, so this one piece keeps falling in my face. It's driving me crazy," he says, brushing it aside again.

"I don't know, I think it's kind of sexy..." she says, eyeing him slyly.

"Sexy, huh? Well, in that case, I'll have to keep it," he moves to kiss her but she stops him. "What's wrong?"

"You just woke me up, and I really have to go to the bathroom," she says shyly. He laughs and lets her go.

She smiles at herself in the mirror. She didn't really have to go, she just wanted to brush her teeth before he kissed her, but this was a better excuse. When she finishes, she flushes the toilet in case he's listening, and goes back into her room.

"Okay, all better."

He smiles down at her. "You just wanted to brush your teeth, didn't you?"

She blushes. "How did you know that?"

"Well, for one thing, I know you too well, and for another, I kind of doubt that you wake up first thing in the morning with minty breath."

She punches him playfully on the arm. "You think you're funny, don't you?"

"I know I'm funny," he jokes, wrapping his arms around her waist again. She does the same, and they finally kiss. By the end of the kiss, they're both breathless. He smiles down at her seductively. "Emily and Nikolas won't be here for a while, so what should we do to kill the time?"

She decides to play along. "Gee, I don't know. Gram is at the hospital this morning, so we're all alone in this big house....whatever shall we do?"

He laughs. "I've got an idea," he says as he backs her towards the bed, kissing her all the way. She doesn't resist, so he lays her down, letting his body rest lightly on top of hers. They spend a good part of the morning kissing on her bed, until she realizes how late it's gotten and pulls away. "Uh, Lucky. I should probably get dressed now."

He's so involved with kissing her that he has momentarily forgotten their plans for the day. "I like you just fine in that," he murmurs, kissing her neck.

"Yeah, well, I'd rather not have Nikolas see me in it when he shows up with Emily in a little while."

Hearing his brother's name snaps him out of his trance, and he sits up. "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that."

She laughs, getting up and going to her closet. While she digs for something to wear, Lucky lets himself out of the room and goes down to the kitchen. He decides to take his mind off of their earlier activities by making breakfast.

A little while later, Elizabeth comes bounding down the stairs, carrying a garment bag. She can smell food and heads into the kitchen, to find Lucky flipping pancakes on the stove.

"Mmmm...that smells heavenly," she says, coming up behind him.

"I hope it's okay. It's been a while since I've cooked."

"I'm sure it will be delicious," she says, getting the orange juice out of the refrigerator and setting the kitchen table.

They finish eating quickly, rinse off the dishes, and head into the living room to wait for Nikolas to bring Emily over.

"What's that for?" Lucky asks, seeing the garment bag that Liz had brought down with her.

"Well, Nikolas didn't want to give Emily any hints, so he couldn't tell her to bring a nice dress for the play. He called last night and asked if I had anything she could wear, so I've got dresses for both of us in here. Which reminds me, what are you going to wear? Not that, I hope!" she says, referring to the white t-shirt, jeans, and flannel shirt that he's wearing.

He looks down at his clothes. "We'll have to stop and pick something up. It seems my father threw all of my stuff away after the fire. My mom bought some regular clothes for me so I'd have something to wear when I first came back, but I really need to go shopping. We don't exactly have the same taste, and this was the only thing that I could stand to wear."

"You should have asked Nikolas. I'm sure he has an extra suit or tux you could have borrowed."

Just then the doorbell rings. Lucky smiles. "I hope Emily doesn't faint or anything when I answer that!"

~*~

Nikolas pulls up to Elizabeth's house. They're running a little bit late, but he has a feeling that the couple inside doesn't mind.

"Go ahead, I'll be right there," he says to Emily as he turns off the car.

She can't wait to show Liz her ring, so she doesn't think there's anything strange about his behavior. She bounces up to the front door and rings the bell The door opens, and she starts talking before she even sees who is behind it.

"Liz, you'll never believe...." is as far as she gets before seeing Lucky standing there, grinning at her. She just stands there in shock, her mouth opening and closing, unable to speak.

He laughs, "Close your mouth, Em, you look like a fish out of water!"

This is all is takes to break her paralysis, and she lunges for her friend, catching him in a huge hug. "Oh my God! Lucky, how.....why....what's going on?" she finally manages to ask, getting annoyed that her friends can't seem to stop laughing at her shock.

Lucky manages to speak first. "It's a long story, but the main point is that I never died. My dad rescued me yesterday, and Nikolas thought it would a nice birthday surprise if you found out today."

She turns to Nikolas, still shocked, not sure if she wants to hit him for keeping this from her all morning or kiss him. She decides to do both. She reaches up and gives him a big kiss, then punches him in the arm.

"Hey! What was that for?" he asks, running his arm.

"The kiss was for being so sweet, and the hit was for not telling me about this!"

"I'm sorry, I wanted it to be a surprise," he says, pouting.

She smiles, knowing she could never stay mad at him, and he begins leading them to the car. "We'll tell you the whole story in the car, but we've got to get going. I don't want to be late." They all pile into his Jag and they head off to the airport as Lucky tells the story of his kidnapping and subsequent rescue.

~*~Chapter 50~*~

Alexis walks into the gatehouse and sees Ned resting on the couch. He had been working all night at L&B, and she hadn't been able to tell him the good news yet.

She hurdles over the back of the couch and lands right on top of him. 'Hi honey, I'm home!" she whispers.

He chuckles. 'You didn't fall off this time!"

She rolls her eyes. He's never going to let her forget the time she tried that same maneuver and landed on the floor instead of on him. "Well, at least this time I didn't land on Jax either!"

He looks at her strangely. "What are you talking about?"

"The first time I tried that, Jax was the one on the couch, not you. I just didn't realize it wasn't you until it was too late. I must say though, my landing was impeccable that time. You really should have been there." She kisses him and grins.

"Okay, I'll bite. Why are you so happy today?"

"What? I can't be happy to see my husband?" she asks, pretending to be hurt by his question. When she sees that he's not amused, she gives in. "All right, I'll tell you. First of all, Lucky Spencer is alive." She nods at his shocked expression. "He never died. Luke finally put the pieces together and rescued him from Wyndemere yesterday."

"Wyndemere! You mean he was here the whole time?"

She nods again. "Yep. Helena and some other guy that I've never heard of named Faison kidnapped him and faked the fire. But it gets better. Helena's dead. Luke blew up her yacht." She's grinning from ear to ear now, happy to finally be out from under the old woman's shadow. No matter what she did, she had always lived with the threat of Helena killing her whenever the whim struck. Now, she felt like she could finally breathe again.

"What about Stefan? Did he have anything to do with it? I mean, the kid was in his house, he must have known." Ned asks, still reeling from the news.

"Yeah, they arrested him at the hospital yesterday. It was quite thrilling."

"Well," Ned says, raising his eyebrows, "this calls for a celebration, don't you think?"

Alexis grins. "You know, that's exactly what I was thinking."

~*~

The doorbell rings, and Luke gets up to answer it. He still feels a little strange living in this house again. He opens the door and smiles warmly at his sister.

"Mornin' Barbara. What brings you here?" he asks, letting her in.

"Well, for one thing, I wanted to see my nephew. Is he here?"

"Oh, sorry, he isn't. He went to New York for the day with Liz, Nikolas, and Emily. It's Emily's birthday and they wanted to surprise her."

Bobbie smiles. "I'm sure they will. Speaking of Nikolas, how did he take the news?"

"About Count Stiff being in the slammer, or about me being his dear old dad?" Luke asks.

She chuckles at his choice of words. "Well, both, actually." They sit down on the couch as Luke begins telling her about the previous evening.

"He seems to have taken the news about me well, unless he's just in denial. I never thought I would say this, but I really like the boy. He's starting to grow on me, you know? I also think that with Stefan being involved in this whole thing with Lucky, Nikolas is more willing to cut his ties to the Cassidines. We may actually become one big, happy family someday. Corny, ain't it?"

She smiles and pats his hand. "No, it's not. I know you're just a big family man at heart, and I'm happy for you. I just wish you could have found out about this sooner. You missed so much of his life already."

"I know, but I guess things happen for a reason. I mean, if Lucky hadn't been kidnapped, I still wouldn't know about Nikolas, and Laura and I would probably still be separated. I figure that if enduring a year of grief was what I had to do for things to turn out this way, then I'm happy to have done it. Things can only get better from here."

She looks at him skeptically. "Since when did you get such a bright outlook on life?"

He grins. "Since my son came back from the dead, my wife came back to me, and Helena's six feet under where she belongs! I think that's enough to make any man feel hopeful, don't you think?"

Bobbie laughs. "I suppose it is. I'm very happy for you Luke. Oh! I just remembered the other reason I came by. I had the contents of that bottle that you gave me tested. The results were very strange."

He looks at her expectantly. "Well? What was it?"

"We don't know, exactly. It's not recognized as anything we've ever seen, but, we were able to determine what it does. Anyone who takes it, dies within 24 hours. Once it is absorbed into the body, there is no way to reverse it. If that had been given to Lucky before you got there...well, I don't want to think about what would have happened."

Luke thinks for a moment about this new information. "That must have been their plan. Faison would tell me at the last minute that Lucky was my payment, then trade him for the diamond, first giving him the poison. We'd all be so happy to have him back, we wouldn't even know what was going on until it was too late. Oooh, this has Helena written all over it! It's a good thing for her that she's already dead." He's getting angry now, and Bobbie tries to calm him down.

"Luke, forget about it, okay? Lucky's fine, and Helena and Faison are both dead. You've done all you can. We'll make sure the poison is destroyed, so just calm down. There's nothing more you can do."

He nods, "Thanks, Barbara. You always know the right thing to say to stop me from doing something crazy."

She laughs at him. "Yeah, well, I've had a lot of practice!" She gives him a hug and leaves. He goes back to the living room and sits down on the couch. It feels good to be home.