Prologue part A

It was June. The year 2000. Lucky and Elizabeth were two weeks away from
their highschool graduation. However they were more excited by their upcoming
numptuals then by the prospect fo getting their diplomas.

For the past year, Lucky and Liz had been secretly planning to get married as
soon as they graduated highschool. They had hoped it would remain a secret at
least until a few months prior to the wedding. Neither of had any real need
for a big wedding, and they knew that the fewer people who knew about the
wedding - the fewer people to try and talk them out of it. However, recent
events had caused their entire plan to go awry.

In early January, tragedy struck when Ruby died. This even made it no longer
possible for the couple to keep their plans a secret...........

     Flashback....6 months prior to present day, it is January 11, 2000.

Bobbies home was quiet except for the sniffling that seemed to be plagueing
everyone at the reading of Ruby's will. The lawyer was almost finished. Ruby
had left nearly all of the money she had saved over the years to be evenly
distributed between Luke, Bobbie, and Laura. The other half of the money,
$6000 was to be split evenly between Lucky, Lucas and Carly. The last, and
perhaps most important item on the list was "Kelly's." When the lawyer finally
got to it, it seemed as if everyone in the room held their breath. Even the
sniffling stopped.

"The ownership of Kelly's is to be turned over to Lucas Lorenzo Spencer Jr.
upon his 18th birthday," said the lawyer.

Lucky gasped and Liz squeezed his hand. They both looked into each other's
eyes and knew that their lives would never be the same.

"Thank you," said the lawyer. "That will be all."

Lucky approached the lawyer with Liz holding on to his hand. He knew there
had to be a mistake.

"Excuse me," began Lucky. "Are you sure that's it? That's all it says?"

The lawyer looked at Lucky a bit perplexed. "Well of course there are legal
documents to be signed and arrangements to be made, but most of those will
have to wait until your 18th birthday. It's in May right?"

"Right," answered Lucky, still in shock. The way the lawyer spoke assured
him that there was no mistake. He was indeed to be the new owner of Kelly's.

With that the lawyer walked out the brownstone along with a few others that
had attended the reading of the will. Some still lingered, drinking coffee and
comforting the family.

Luke and Laura both saw the distressed look on their son's face and quickly
made their way over to him.

"How are you with this cowboy?" asked Luke with sullen eyes. He still
couldn't believe that Ruby was gone.

"Yes, Lucky....are you okay? We need to talk about this, " added Laura. She
wiped at fresh tears that forming near the corners of her eyes.

Lucky had been staring at Liz the whole time. He looked into her eyes and
already knew what she was thinking. He turned to his parents.

"Um, I need to talk to Elizabeth right now. This can wait till later," Lucky
said softly, his own tears beginning to threaten.

"Lucky," Laura began. "I really think we need to discuss --"

"MOM! Not now ok? I'll come over tomorrow and we can talk about this until
the cows come home, but right now I need to talk to Elizabeth."

Luke placed a hand on Laura's shoulder, silently telling her not to push
their son any further. Laura nodded and watched as her son and his girlfriend
hastily walked out of the brownstone.

Later that Day

Both Liz and Lucky had walked in silence on their way to his apartment but
there was no way the silence could go on forever. Ignoring the problem would
not make it go away.

"We're still getting married," said Lucky as he sat down on the bed and
watched Liz slowly remover her coat. She didn't say anything.

"Did you hear me Elizabeth?" said Lucky. "We're still getting married.
Nothing is going to stop me from making you my wife."

Elizabeth looked up with tears in her eyes.
"How Lucky?" she asked. Her voice filled with emotion.

"We'll find a way, " said Lucky as he took Liz's hands and pulled her down on
the bed next to him.

"Lucky we were supposed to get married and go to NYC together. I'd go ot the
art academy and you'd go to NYU and major in computer science, we had it all
planned. But that can't happen now. We have to face that."

"Elizabeth, no. We're still getting married."

Tears began to roll down Liz's cheeks, she got up from the bed and could no
longer control her emotion.

"Don't you get it Lucky? I'm letting you off the hook!"

Lucky wiped valiantly at his own tears. He couldn't believe what he had just
heard. She honestly thought that this marriage was something that he wanted to
get out of. He got up form the bed as well.

"You're what?" he asked calmly. "You're letting me off the hook?" Lucky shook
his head in confusion.

"Lucky I love you," Liz said as she turned to face him. "But I don't want to
force you to do this. Lucky do you understand what today meant? You just found
out that in a few months you are going to be owning and running a restaurant
and on top of all that your going to be married! All at the age of 18! Lucky I
have no desire to be the 'ol ball and chain'. I don't wanna tie you down like
that."

Lucky could not believe what she was saying. He took her face in her hands.

"Elizabeth. YOU are what I want. Do you think that when I asked you to marry
me I had any doubt in my mind? I knew it would be hard and now that I've got
this added responsibility, I know it will be even harder. But Elizabeth the
one that hasn't changed is that I love you. I love you more........more than I
can ever put into words. And you know what Elizabeth? That knowledge is what
gets me through this. I can get through anything with you. Sure it will be a
fight, but the best things in life are worth fighting for."

Liz placed her hands on either side of Lucky's face and brought his lips
together with hers. She kissed him gently at first, but the kiss quickly
turned into something they both could have continued for hours. But she knew
this was not the end of the conversation. She still had one more card to play.
One more way to make it easier for Lucky.

"Ok, " she said as she pulled away. "How about this? I could put the Art
Academy off for awhile..." she already saw Lucky about to open his mouth in
opposition. She placed a hand lightly in front of his lips. "Just until you
get used to running Kelly's. I could even take a few classes at PCU---"

Lucky removed her hand and interrupted.

"No. Elizabeth you got a full scholarship to that place. If you put if off
who knows if they'll make that kind of offer again. There's no way you can
pass up this opportunity."

"But Lucky we have to make some kind of compromise here," Liz said. She had
no idea how Lucky thought this would all work out.

"You're right we do," said Lucky."That's why I'm going to stay here, run
Kelly's and take classes at PCU---"

"Lucky," Liz interrupted.

"Elizabeth---It's a lot easier for me to enroll in the computer science
program here than it would be for you to find a decent art program."

"Lucky so what are you saying? I'm going to have a husband that I never see?"
LIz asked flabbergasted.

"Of course we're going to see each other. Will see each other every single
weekend. We'll alternate. One weekend here, the next weekend there...Honey,
it's only a  three hour drive."

Liz was exhausted and she knew there was no sense in argueing it further that
night and as much as she just wanted to curl up with Lucky and go to sleep,
she knew she couldn't. They weren't married yet and she had to get home to
gram. She nodded and let Lucky think that he'd won as he kissed her. They then
grabbed thier coats and left for the Hardy house.

Prologue part B


"Lucky are you out of your mind?" asked Laura Spencer as she got up from her
couch and began pacing the living room.

Liz looked at Lucky fearing that the two people she had come to think of as
her surrogate parents would now hate her for "stealing" their son away. When
Liz awoke that morning she knew that the feeling of dread in the pit of her
stomach would only get worse as the day went on.  She and Lucky had started
the day by telling gram about their wedding plans. For a moment there she had
thought that her grandmother was going to have a heartattack. Fortuneately she
did not. But she had insisted upon Liz calling her parents and explaining to
them what an idiotic thing she planned on doing. Liz had to hold the receiver
away from her ear for most of their conversation due to the screaming coming
from Bosnia. She had watched Lucky cringe when she had yelled 'NO! I'm not
doing this for attention!'  Now, not only were they going to tell his parents
about their wedding plans, but they would also have to finish dealing with the
fact that Lucky was to become owner of Kelly's.

Lucky sighed and bent forward on the coach. "No, I haven't lost my mind mom."

"Oh, you haven't?! It seems to me that you must have Lucky. There is no other
logical explanation for you to actually believe that you can get married, run
a business, and go to college at age 18!"

Liz knew that Laura had a point, but she also knew from her arguement with
Lucky the night before, that this was something that Lucky was determined to
do.

Lucky took a deep breath. " Mom. Elizabeth and I didn't tell you guys this
before...but we've been planning to get married after graduation for quite
some time now. The only reason we're even telling you now is because we found
out about me haveing ot take over at Kelly's in a few months."

"Lucky! When exactly were you planning to fill us in? Why didn't you tell us
sooner!?"

"Maybe because I knew you'd react like this!" Lucky yelled back.

Laura turned to Luke, her eyes pleading for help. Luke sighed and slowly
spoke form his place by the mantle above the fireplace.

"Cowboy...your mom has a point. Everybody knows that you and Lizzie love each
other," he said as he glanced at a silent Liz, sitting in the loveseat
nervously wringing her hands.

Luke went on. "It's as clear as day everytime we look at either one of
you....but son, you're gettin' a lot of responsibility thrown at your feet
right now. Are you sure you really want the added stress of being married? No
offense sweetheart," he added as he glanced at Laura.

A grin tugged at the corner of Laura's mouth.

"Dad I can deal with it," Lucky said with confidence.

"I know you CAN son. You can deal with a lot of things. But the question is,
should you have to? You're a young man. Don't you want to get out there and
see the world?"

Lucky shook his head. "You better pick a different angle dad. I've seen the
world, remember?"

Liz slowly stood up. She had to say something. She didn't know what, but she
knew she had to try and explain their position.

"Mr. and Mrs. Spencer. I love your son. I hope you know that, and I hope you
know how much. There isn't anything that I wouldn't do for him. If Lucky
decided, right this very minute that he didn't want to marry me...I'd say ok.
I'd deal with it. Lord knows I tried a hundred different ways to get him to
back out last night after the reading of Rubys' will. But you know what? He
turned down every, single one. We want to spend the rest of our lives
together. We are more sure about that, than about anything else. We know it
will be hard, but it can't be any harder than putting off what we know is
right."

Lucky took her hand in his and rubbed his thumb across her knuckles. He was
more certain than ever that he wanted to marry this woman.

Luke and Laura looked at the couple and saw something that they had tried to
avoid seeing - a younger version of themselves. They had tried to avoid it,
because realizing it, meant realizing that nothing would keep these two apart.

Lucky stood. "We've got a lot of decisions to make," he began. "As far as
who's going to school where and when we're going to see each other. But the
one decision that IS made is that we ARE getting married."