Chapter 17

"Come on in Kyle," said Reese as she put the finishing touches of her makeup
on. She opened the closet door on which her mirror hung and pulled out her
leather jacket.

"Hey Reese," said Kyle as he sauntered in, plopping himself down on her bed.
"Where's Liz.?"

"She's at the library," answered Reese, walking over to pick up the purse that
sat next to Kyle. Reese, Kyle and a whole bunch of other people from 3-D had
decided to celebrate the beginning of yet another semester at the academy by
going dancing.

Kyle suddenly sat up straight. "What do you mean she's at the library?"

"Well Kyle, that is a traditionally acceptable place in which one goes to
study...I know you're not familiar with the concept of studying, but some of
us..."

"Reese!" Kyle said, interrupting her ramblings. "I meant, doesn't she know
we're going out?"

Reese slowly sat down on Liz's bed, letting the shoulder strap of her purse
fall onto the comforter. She looked at her bestfriend seriously. "Kyle. What
are you doing?"

"What do you mean what am I doing?" asked Kyle, with mock innocence.

Reese sighed heavily. "Kyle you know damn well what I mean...but if I have to
spell it out for you, fine. LEAVE HER ALONE, SHE'S MARRIED!"

"I'm quite sure I have no idea what you are talking about 'Reese's Pieces,' "
said Kyle getting up from the bed.

"First off, don't call me that. I hate that. Second, you do to know what I'm
talking about....Ever since she got here, or no....scratch that, ever since
Lucky left, you've been in her face. Constantly asking where she is, making
sure you always pop up by 'coincidence' wherever we are, asking her out to
lunch..."

Kyle looked surprised.

"Oh yeah," Reese continued. "She told me about you asking her to lunch. What,
you thought she wouldn't?...Kyle, honey, you're my bestfriend and I love you,
but you gotta cut it out."

"Cut what out Reese? I'm not doing anything. I'm just being friendly, and
until Liz tells me that she doesn't appreciate my friendship, I'm going to
continue to be one."

"Friendly my ass, Kyle," Reese shot back. "You wanted her the second you saw
her." Reese knew her bestfriend of two years very well. When they had first
met, he had persued her the same way. They went out a couple of times, but
things just hadn't worked out.  She could still see straight through the rich
boy from LA. 

"Well maybe so Reese, but like you said, she's married right? If her marriage
is all it's cracked up to be, and this 'Lucky' guy really is the best thing
since sliced bread, then you've got nothing to worry about. BUT...something
tells me you are scared," said Kyle grinning.

"Kyle, what could I possibly be afraid of?" Reese asked exasperated.

"That I always get what I want."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Hi, um are you...Lucky Spencer?" asked the stranger, looking down at the
crumpled, white piece of paper that she had pulled from her purse.

Lucky looked up from his coffee pouring at the sound of her voice. "Yeah...do
I know you?" he asked.

"No," she replyed, extending her hand to Lucky. "I'm Samantha Harris," she
said grinning widely. "Um...your friend, Emily and I have 'American History:
Since 1865' together and I was telling her that I needed a place to stay and
she told me that you..."

Lucky had customers to get to and he desperately wanted the girl to stop
rambling. "She told you that I've got rooms upstairs for rent?..Yeah, I do. Go
upstairs, take a look around. I've got three vacancies....so take your pic.
It's $200 a month. Is that cool?"

The blonde vigorously nodded her head in agreement, not believing her luck.
She laughed out loud at her own pun.

"What?" asked Lucky, confused.

"Oh, nothing. Sorry," smiled Samantha. "That's great Lucky. Thanks," she said
heading for the stairs.

"You're welcome Samantha," Lucky shot back while beginning to pour again.

She turned around and smiled at her new landlord. "Call me Sam."

Chapter 18

Liz lie awake in her bed, staring at the moon through her blinds. She had
crawled into bed around midnight after returning from the library. It was
nearing 1 a.m. and still she couldn't sleep. Reese was still out dancing, so
there was no one there to "talk her to sleep" tonight. Reese had of course
invited her to go, but she knew she woudn't have been much fun, so she,
Elizabeth Webber-Spencer had decided to go to the library instead. She laughed
out loud in the darkness. Never in her entire life had she vountarily gone to
the library, at least not without Lucky bribing her with kisses in the back
rows.

Elizabeth involuntarily reached up from the covers and touched her lips. It
had been 3 days since she'd felt Lucky's lips on hers. An eternity for
newlyweds. Two eternities for Liz and Lucky. She missed him so much.

"I wonder if he's asleep?" she thought out loud. It was a Wednesday night and
Kelly's should have closed at nine. She reached for the phone.

Lucky picked up on the first ring.  "Hey beautiful."

Liz sighed. "How did you know it was me?"

"Oh! Elizabeth?...is that you?" Lucky asked jokingly.

"Oh, don't you DARE," giggled Liz.

Lucky reveled in the sound of her laughter. "Man,  I didn't even realize how
much I missed that laugh."

Silence set in, each of them afraid to reveal exactly how much they missed
each other. Liz broke the silence.

"We're you asleep?"

"No."

"What were you doing?"

"Just lieing here."

"Are you sleeping ok?"

"Sure. Yeah - like a log," Lucky lied. He didn't want her to worry.   "How
about you?"

"Oh, yeah. Fine," answered Liz, lieing for the same reason.

Lucky decided to change the subject. "So how's school? I mean, tell me all
about it. What are you learning?"

"Well the teachers are really good. I mean, I can tell that they are...going
to be good..." Liz trailed off, not wanting to let on to Lucky that she hadn't
really been able to focus in class. "So how's PCU?"

"Um, fine I guess. You know...it's school. The professors, they're ....well I
guess they're...." Lucky stopped himself. What was the point of him trying to
hide the way he really felt? "Elizabeth. I have no clue how my classes are. I
can't think about anything else but you," he blurted out. At that moment he
was so glad that she was on the phone and not standing in front of him because
he was so red with embarrasment.

Liz sighed in relief. "Oh, Lucky me too. I thought maybe it was just me. Lucky
I can't eat. I can't sleep...Lucky please tell me that this gets easier," Liz
pleaded.

"It has to." said Lucky. He would never get through the next few years if it
didn't.

It was Lucky's turn to sigh. "So you are having trouble sleeping huh?"

"Yeah," answered Liz, unable to deny it any longer. "The first night it was so
bad that Reese had to spend the entire night talking to me....but she went out
dancing tonight....I should probably let you get some sleep though huh?"

"No, 'Lizbeth of course not. Are you ok there by yourself"

She loved it when he called her that. She felt as if she would melt. He always
called her that when he was really concerned about something.  "I'm fine baby.
I just can't seem to get to sleep."  Liz knew she had to say she was fine
because if she hadn't Lucky woud have hopped in his car and drove all the way
to NYC to be with her.

"How 'bout I try and put you to sleep?"

"Ok, " answered Liz smiling, and staring at the picture of Lucky that stood on
her nightstand.

"Close your eyes," Lucky instructed.

Elizabeth did so reluctantly, not wanting to take her eyes off of Lucky's
face.

"Are they closed?" asked Lucky, trailing a finger over the smooth, cool glass
that covered Elizabeth's picture.

"Yes," she answered.

Lucky took a deep breath and began to do something he hadn't done in a long
time. Sing.

As you kneel beside your bed tonight
Keep a little prayer for me in sight

Elizabeth smiled, she hadn't heard the such a long time.

Know that I will be there, when you call
Know that I will catch you, if you might fall

Elizabeth go to sleep
I wanna watch you breathe
I wanna feel God's peace
All I want is this...
Elizabeth

Lucky stopped after singing the song twice.  From the slow, even breathing he
heard on the other side of the line, he could tell that his angel had fallen
asleep. He decided he'd fall asleep to that very sound.