No I would not sleep in this bed of lives
So toss me out and turn in
And there'll be no rest for these tired eyes
I'm marking it down to learning
I am

Lucky froze as he entered the foyer. His eyes growing wide with fear, as they took in the utter destruction of the room. The expensive pieces of lamp shattered into a billion particles against the normally pristine marble. The coat rack turned over. A vase, miraculously unbroken but generously allowing all of it’s contents to spill free onto the floor. Water floated towards his feet and he stepped back as if it were blood.

There was a crash from the next room, and he quickly followed it. In spite of the leaden sensation in the pit of his stomach and in his every step.

"Elizabeth!" He called. His eyes darting from room to room as he wandered down the hall. His pace, quickening with every step.

‘What the…

The entire east wing seemed to be chaos as he stared down the hall. Books thrown from shelves. Paintings torn from their selected spots upon the wall.

"Elizabeth! Baby, where are you?…Are you hu…"

His voice trailed away, and he seemed to move and bend in one fluid motion. Finding her on the carpet in the middle of Alex’s office. Just sitting there. Seemingly transfixed by a spot on the wall.

"What the H…Elizabeth…honey?" Lucky breathed, searching her eyes.

She wasn’t seeing him…she wasn’t hearing him. And she wasn’t alone.

Lucky glanced up at the figure in the corner. The old man silent and stoic as he shifted his hands within the coat pockets that contained them.

He let his eyes travel back down to the carpet in front of her. Strips of white paper strewn haphazardly around. Ripped to shreds at her knees.

"Elizabeth…look at me…Sweetie…"

She wasn’t answering. Still wasn’t looking.

Lucky rose quickly to his feet and turned on Leopold. "What the Hell is going on here?"

The old man took a deep, steadying breath and held up his hands as the young man advanced on him. "I just wanted…I just wanted to stay until you got here. To be sure she was alright - I will leave now."

Before he could take a step, Lucky moved in front of him. Effectively blocking his path to the exit. "Like Hell you will. Not until you tell me what happened here -

"Help me."

The two words were so soft Lucky barely heard them. But so completely pitiful that they caused an immediate rock to lodge itself within the confines of his throat.

He turned on his heels instantly and went to her. Kneeling again in front of her as she seemed to come alive now. Recognize him a bit. But she glanced at him for only a

second before taking in the room again. Letting her eyes travel over all that she’d massacred.

She looked as if she were taking inventory.

"I’m here Sweetie…What’s wrong? What’s the matter?"

Elizabeth glanced at him and blinked hard. There would be no more tears. No more crying. There was too much to do.

"You have to help me…there’s so much more to do. There are 19 rooms…you have to

help me."

Lucky licked his dry lips and his brow knitted together in confusion and helplessness. "Help you what Honey?…I don’t understand…What’s happening here Elizabeth?"

"You have to help me get rid of everything…it’s all trash…it has to go."

Leopold’s voice interrupted them from behind. "She’s been talking like this for the last hour…I’ve only seen her like this one other ti –

"Tell him to leave…I’m not going crazy," she said adamantly. "Tell him he has to leave."

Her voice was strong, and unflinching as she stared into Lucky’s eyes. "Tell him to leave," she repeated. "I’ve been trying to get him to go away, but he won’t listen…I don’t want him here Lucky…he’s done enough."

Swallowing hard, Lucky placed his hands on top of hers, and slowly glanced up at Leopold from where he sat. "I want you to tell me what the Hell is going on here, and then I want you to get out of this house. Do you understand me?"

"Tell him to leave now Lucky…he’ll listen to you," she whispered.

Lucky passed both of his hands over the sides of her face and hair and leaned in to gently kiss her forehead. "In a minute Sweetie."

"I’m serious," he said soberly. Rising to his feet. "Start talking, and then leave."

Leopold stared down at Elizabeth before nodding. She would never again trust him. They would never again be friends.

"I told her the truth."

"About what?!" Lucky spat. His patience level, having dropped below zero in the last few hours.

Leopold blinked hard and once again tore his eyes away from her small form. "The truth about why she’s really here. How she got here…and why you left her."

Lucky inhaled roughly through his nose and looked him dead in the eyes. "She already KNOWS why I left…What the Hell are you talking about? What did you say to her?"

"He was talking crazy Lucky…He thinks I’m losing my mind, but he’s the one that’s crazy…it’s him."

Once again, Lucky turned to look at her. She wasn’t looking his way. Just staring out into space, muttering about how crazy he was. About how crazy all of "it" was. How it didn’t make any sense.

He closed his eyes and felt the beginnings of sheer insanity claw the edges of his own mind. He thought angrily back to the last few hours and then to the last few months. All along…all along it had been there. Just staring him in the face.

For over 3 years he’d allowed it to be. He’d allowed all of it to be true for over 3 years…

Allowed her to live in this house. Live in this…marriage.

‘Oh baby…it’s starting to make perfect sense to me,’ he thought bitterly.

Lucky turned back to Leopold but threw his voice over his shoulder. "What did he say Sweetie?"

"Things," she mumbled. "Things about Helena…and Alex…things that can’t be true."

He instinctively turned towards her again and bent to her eye level.

When she glanced up at him she looked as if she know longer understood anything. The difference between day and night…Her own name. Her eyes were wide with some indescribable fear.

"Crazy things," she said. A weird sort of smile spreading slowly across her lips, until she simply shook her head of the entire idea. "Crazy things…like…like how they planned this all – together.

"You leaving me…the wedding…everything…all of it…………Together…and how…how he’s her…"

Lucky allowed himself to close his eyes for a moment. The bile in his stomach rising like poison to burn his throat. He swallowed it back and forced himself to open his eyes. "Her what? What else Sweetie?"

Of course he already knew. Every fiber of his being…KNEW.

Even if he didn’t want it to know.

But, she had to say it. If she was going to emerge from the self-induced trance she’d inflicted upon herself…she was going to have to say it out loud.

Her head jerked towards him suddenly. "That isn’t enough?"

And she was on her feet before he had a chance to respond. On her feet and stalking out of the door and down the hall. Her eyes darting here and there in search of something else. Some other innocent inanimate object to break, to throw, to demolish…

Lucky jogged after her, just praying that she wouldn’t hurt herself. When he heard the old man’s footsteps behind him, he whirled around. "Go home!…Get the Hell out of here, before I throw you out!"

"I can’t leave…not like this," Leopold stated adamantly. Shaking his head. "There is still more that I should tell you. More that I shou –

"Haven’t you done enough?!" Lucky screamed. "If you open your mouth one more damn time, I swear I –

"I have things that will HELP you!" Leopold shouted.

"Help?!" Lucky scoffed. His eyes going wide again. "Are you out of your mind?…Can’t you see that you’ve done enough for tonight. Why don’t you go somewhere else and ‘help’…in fact, I’ll help you by showing you the damn….

Lucky’s voice trailed away and Leopold stood silently, as the realization dawned on the young man in front of him.

"It was you…that night…on the flight from Paris – it was you," Lucky sighed suddenly.

Licking his lips nervously, Leopold nodded. He knew it would only be a matter of time before he remembered that evening. "Yes."

Lucky shook his head and turned half way around to glance at Elizabeth. She was surveying the shelves. Circling…deciding what had to come down next.

He moved backwards towards her and took her hand in his, before he spoke again.

"What’s your stake in all of this old man?…You give love advice to virtual strangers on airplanes, and you decide when and where the truth should be told?…What kind of game are you playing?"

"None – anymore," Leopold sighed. "He - Alessandro…He’s been nothing but awful to her since day one, you know?"

Swallowing hard, Lucky brought her to him while the old man continued to speak.

"I – I should have told her before now. I should have helped you both. But instead I –

"Instead you helped Helena and Alex break us apart…Is that right?" Lucky asked. Straining something awful to keep his temper in check. His veins, trying ceaselessly to push through the skin of his neck. "So what?…You deciding to switch sides now?"

He rubbed his hand in circles along Elizabeth’s back as Leopold continued.

"Alessandro never had much as a child. He was very –

"Oh don’t even fucking go there!" Lucky shouted. Losing it all of a sudden, and wanting to kick him self only a split-second later when Elizabeth flinched in his arms.

"I am not trying to make any excuses for him!…I am not," Leopold countered. Watching as Lucky brought Elizabeth down to the floor to sit with him. "I am just telling you what I know about him…and why he did what he did –

"You think I care WHY he did what he did?…You think I give a rats ass why someone like Alex or Helena does what they do?…Why someone like you helps? Because you had a bad childhood?! Because you didn’t get enough love?! I don’t give a fuck.

"All I want from you is the story. All I want to know is what happened from beginning to fucking end. That’s all I want from you."

Taking a deep breath, Leopold nodded before beginning to speak again. The young man was right. There was no time for excuses. Only time for action now. That was the only thing that could make any of this right…If making things right was possible at all.

"She – Helena," he sighed. "Contacted him soon after Elizabetta started working for him…it was only later that I found out about it. He didn’t want to tell me at first…he knew I wouldn’t approve of him speaking with her -

"It was a set up," Lucky said, interjecting. "Her professor…the one that told her about the gallery job…"

"Yes," Leo nodded in affirmation of the suspicion. "I found out later that he was in Helena’s hip pocket…she needed Elizabeth to work there. She wanted a link between you and Alex."

Lucky felt the bile rise in his throat as Elizabeth lay her head on his shoulder. He passed a tired hand through her hair. "Go ahead…then what?…She set me up with a bunch of thug gamblers and the rest is history right?"

"I didn’t want to go along with it at first," Leopold sighed. "But I just…he was never happy…even though he had a great job…and cars and…he was never happy…but then I saw her – Elizabetta…and just talking about her made his face light up –

"Well goody for him!" Lucky shouted. Again feeling Elizabeth shift against his shoulder. "Let me ask you something here Leo…why are you telling us this now? What’s in it for you huh?"

"Nothing," he vowed. "Absolutely nothing…In fact if Alex knew I was here, he would…this is – See, this is why he fired me. He knew…he knew I would tell you. That I couldn’t take the lies or the deceit anymore."

"Yeah," he Lucky sighed. "I can see that you’re a prince among men Leopold…So what about the rest?…What about the BIG secret huh? The big secret that cheated my brother out of his inheritance…what about that one. I don’t hear you spillin any beans there."

Leopold shook his head and gestured towards Elizabeth. "I already spilled them…and this is what happened……….I don’t think I should say the words again."

Lucky looked down at Elizabeth, who decided to unbury her face from his shoulder. "He’s lying isn’t he Lucky?…He’s lying. Alex has nothing to do with the Nikolas or his money…because he’s not a -

"A Cassidine," Lucky filled soberly. "Elizabeth he is. He’s a -

"Luck –

"He’s the one," he said softly as she shook her head. "He’s the one Sweetie……the paintings, his glee over the fact that Nikolas lost his inheritance, the car that Emily saw pull away from Helena’s yacht the other day…it all makes sense now…

"It’s made sense for awhile now," he continued. "I just don’t think that either one of us wanted to see it."

"No," she said. Shaking her head vehemently. Pulling out of his arms, she turned around to pick something up off the floor. He stood back as she hurled the previously unbroken vase against the wall. Watching and listening as it shattered into a thousand pieces.

"No!" She shouted again.

Lucky swallowed and stepped quickly to grab her around the waist before she could get too close to the glass. He didn’t trust her not to try picking the pieces up. "Elizabeth, listen to me –

"No," she said again. Shaking her head. "It can’t be…that would mean that I…No…No…I won’t let that be true. I can’t Lucky…No…You have to help me…there’s still so much left to do here before the Gala."

Lucky shot Leopold a menacing look as he followed yet again. Gesturing roughly for him to stay put. "Don’t move."

Leopold did as he bid him, and watched silently as they made their way back down the hall and towards her studio. She talked as if she were staying. As if she were cleaning the house instead of destroying it.

In her eyes, maybe she was cleaning it. Removing all the dirt.

Lucky closed the door behind him and watched silently as she took things down from the shelves. There were brushes and other art supplies. Most of the stuff appeared practically new and completely unused.

He glanced towards his old chair that sat nestled in the corner. The green and brown plaid speaking of times long past. Innocence long past.

He thought he’d seen it between the crack of the door once before. But here it was…in full view. Raw.

It choked him up to see it for some reason.

The words, "Help me," came from her again and he followed her gesture. Reaching up to where she couldn’t, to pull down the box on the top shelf. More supplies. Still completely unused.

"He bought these," she said gruffly under her breath. "We have to throw them out."

"Eliza –

"All of it," she said sternly. "Follow me."

He started to follow her down the hall before something at the bottom of his box beckoned his attention. The blare of something disturbingly red, against a white sheet of paper, startling to his eyes.

It was slightly crinkled. Like something she’d started to draw, but in her always too harsh opinion of herself, had thrown out as ‘no good’.

But she’d kept this piece of ‘no good’…at the bottom of a box.

Lucky stood silently and stalk still, as she walked further out of the room. Pulling it from the confines of the cardboard box, he slowly unwrapped it from it’s balled up state. Smoothing it out as best he could against his thigh.

Dark…and very red. Sharp lines drawn across a small figure that he couldn’t quite make out.

A figure that looked familiar. Was it a small chi…

"Lucky! Help me!" Her voice shattered through his thoughts and he shoved the picture into his back pocket.

Taking a deep breath he followed her voice outside to a pile of rubbish that was already growing on the acres wide front lawn.

~~~~~~~

They hadn’t gotten to every room like she’d planned. In fact it was that detail that she’d fallen asleep whispering to him a few moments ago.

Which rooms they had yet to tackle. What things had to be done. How they had to start the fire before bed. At a certain point it had all been to much to process, and she’d simply fallen asleep.

Nodding silently had been his only response to it all. His own mind still reeling from the day’s events. Still reeling from her reaction to the news.

She didn’t want to do anything that he didn’t want to do himself.

He wanted to rip the whole house to shreds, and then fly to Europe to rip Alex to shreds as well.

When he came back…when he came back.

Elizabeth shifted restlessly on the couch and he absently combed his fingers through the soft hair that fell across her forehead. Sighing deeply, he turned around to draw up the blanket that he’d brought from his car a moment later.

He rose timidly off of the cushions, as not to wake her. It was best that she sleep now. Time for rest. Lord only knew, he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. Something told him it’d be the first of many nights.

Since he’d come home a few months ago, he’d shared a few, sporadic beautiful dream filled nights with Elizabeth…but now…He didn’t think he’d ever sleep the way again.

He had allowed this to happen.

Folding his arms he turned towards the man that still stood silently in the corner.

Had he been standing there for the past few hours while they’d been busy upstairs? He hadn’t made a sound.

Lucky licked his lips and inhaled deeply. He didn’t have any use for Leopold, but if the man truly had information that they needed, then what choice did he have? He had already helped to ruin the best thing in his life…what more harm could he do now?

"If you truly have anything to offer," Lucky said quietly. Moving away from the couch. "Now would be a good time to do that."

The bitterness that laced every syllable of Lucky’s tone was enough to cause Leopold to close his eyes to the pain. He spoke quietly as well, in order to allow Elizabeth the sleep she needed.

"There is a box, that holds some information that Alex thinks will proove he is a rightful heir to the Cassidine fortune...It’s the same box that Alex broke into Helena’s yacht to get just the other day…But…I think there is something in this box that could help you as well."

Biting down on his lip to keep from speaking, Lucky pulled a leather stool from under the grand piano in the corner. Sinking down on it heavily.

It had to be the same box Alex had been yammering about the other night in Elizabeth’s room. The same box that his ‘father’ had supposedly left him.

Leopold continued at Lucky’s silence. "Before her death, Helena gave him a key and a spare to this box…but she died before she could send the actual box…or tell him exactly what was in it."

Lucky rolled his eyes. If he’d given the bitch her medication maybe he could just shake the information out of now. Choke her until her eyes rolled back in her head and she gasped for breath…Just like she had. Only this time it would be due to his own hands and not his lack of balls.

"So why would he take off for your place in…" Lucky’s voice trailed away. "He didn’t did he?…He didn’t go to your house…he went to Helena’s villa in Florence."

"Yes," Leopold said, nodding. "He thinks what he’s looking for is there…the keys…I imagine he’s half lost his mind by now."

"And why would they be there? Did Helena dupe her little boy perhaps?" Lucky smirked mockingly. More anger than actual amusement flashing in his indigo eyes.

‘Don’t get too smug there Spencer,’ he thought bitterly to himself. ‘She duped you too, remember?’

"No," Leopold answered suddenly. "Helena didn’t dupe him…I did."

Lucky glanced up at him and held his tongue. Leaning as far back as he could against the closed piano.

"I have his precious keys," Leopold admitted quietly. Frustration and anger that he didn’t know he could still muster slipping through his words. "The ‘spare’ in the library that you made a copy of was a fake – this is why it did not fit when Alex tried it…this is why he left here half crazed the other night."

Lucky’s head tilted to the side and he rose from the small bench. "Why would you do that?" He asked. Regarding him with great suspicion. "You plannin’ on stealin’ whatever info is in there first?…Somethin’ in there that you need too?"

Closing his eyes, Leopold shook his head. He deserved that.

"I am sure that I have no use for the information that is in that box Lucenzo…but maybe you do, no? Or Elizabetta?"

"What exactly do you think is in that box?" Lucky asked. His eyes trained on Leopold’s.

"Proof of what Alex did…what we did."

"And you’re saying you stole those keys for us?" Lucky asked. His eyes still narrowed. He wasn’t going to let his guard down ever again. He wasn’t going to open himself up to trusting this guy.

If there was information big enough to prosecute Alex, than that meant there was information enough to do the same to Leopold. Why would he risk that?

"I am saying I stole them long ago in hopes of winning Elizabetta’s trust back when I inevitably lost it. In hopes of somehow redeeming –

"I wouldn’t hold my breath."

Each of the men turned to look at where the voice had come from. Elizabeth sitting up groggily from the couch.

"I thought I told you to leave," she continued. Smoothing out her jeans in and standing up.

"Elizabetta, I –

"No! Don’t call me that...don’t even talk to me. I don’t want you here anymore. I want you to pick up your coat and get the Hell –

"Elizabeth he’s got information," Lucky said quietly interrupting her. Not wanting him to stay anymore than she did, but realizing that what he was saying was important…or was about to be. They couldn’t afford to kick him out. "The keys to the box that Alex was so crazy about the other night…Leopold has them."

"I heard what he said," Elizabeth said. Venom dripping from every word. "But unless he has those keys to hand over right now, then I say we have no use for him in this house any longer."

Her eyes silently followed Leopold reach inside his pants pockets. Continuing to follow when he withdrew two golden keys. Each of them sparkling for an instant in the moonlight that streamed through the large window.

"Here you are," he sighed. Walking to place them in her hand. "Each of them works…One of them was hidden beneath Alex’s drawer in his office and the other in the library where Lucenzo found the fake. "They are both in perfect working order."

Her absolute silence prompted him further. "He thinks that once he has opened that box Elizabetta that he has finally won…that he will have the proof he needs that he is a Cassidine. That he is entitled to their fortune…but if I am correct there are other things in that box bella…things that could also prove what he did to the both of you…things illegale…Things he should pay for."

Elizabeth stared down at her shoes. Not wanting to see the kindness in his eyes or the regret. She had no use for kindness and regret now. He’d made his bed, and now he would have to lie in it.

She’d put up with years of Hell, and no amount of regret would erase that. No matter how much he or she wished it would.

"Why would you do this for us?" She asked finally, looking up.

The gesture of glancing into his eyes had been a mistake. They misted immediately, and hers did as well in response. "Because li amo Elizabetta…I have not always shown this…but I do…you are like my daugh - "

She shook her head and pointed a finger in his direction. "Don’t say it… I think you should just go now…Just go."

Leopold nodded. Her voice was different now. Quiet and angry, but no longer fragmented or half, psychotic with rage. She would be fine…and she had Lucky. They would be fine now.

Together.

"Ok," he whispered. Picking up his coat and hat. "If you need anything…You know how to reach me."

Leopold turned to Lucky slowly, Liz no longer looking in his direction. "You have to get to the box before he does…He will have it with him when he comes back…He plans on announcing his ‘heritage,’" Leopold said snidely. "At the Gala."

Elizabeth turned towards him quickly. Eyeing him as he spoke, but not saying a word. So that was Alex’s plan, huh?

Well God help him if she didn’t have a plan of her own.

She tried to tune herself back into the conversation when he spoke again. "But once he sees all that is in that box…he will try and discard the information that is harmful that to him…don’t let him – it could be the only documentation left…"

Lucky nodded slowly and looked to Elizabeth. She had her back turned to them. Her arms folded.

He silently gestured to Leopold that it was indeed time to for him to go. The man then, straightened his hat and crossed the threshold. Exiting out through the parlor.

Lucky’s eyes traveled down her frozen figure from across the room. She stood stalk still in front of the large window. Staring out into the garden. The blooms closed to the cool night air. The moon reflecting off of the stream that laced its way through small rocks and foliage. When she felt his hand smooth gently against her back she shut her eyes tightly. Warding off the tears…the pain.

"How can you stand it?" Elizabeth whispered. Her eyes still glued to the outside world. She tried with all her might to blink away the salty liquid that built within her eyes.

Lucky slowly let his hands smooth up both of her shoulder blades and towards her neck. The amount of tension he felt in her muscles, mirroring his own. "Believe me Elizabeth, I can’t…I’ve just been trying to keep a lid on everything long enough to find out what information he really –

"I’m not talking about that," she said. The beginnings of a sob shuddering through her body as she stayed focus through the window. All the beauty that surrounded ugliness.

She felt ugly. She felt used…and ugly.

"How can you just pretend?"

Feeling her back shake, Lucky rounded to the front of her and slipped endless strands of hair behind her ears. Shaking his head. "What are you talking about?…What do you mean, pretend?"

"I mean this!" She whimpered. Pushing his hand away from her face.

"How can you stand to touch me?! To look at me?! To be in the same room with me?!…How can you stand it Lucky…you hate...you hate Cassidines and I – I’ve been sleeping with one for years…for years Lucky…how does that make you feel? Doesn’t it make you hate me? Doesn’t it make you despise my skin? How can you touch me? How can you just stand there and be so…calm?!"

Lucky’s eyes went wide. "Calm?…I must be a damn good actor…Elizabeth, I am no where NEAR calm….and how can I - ….Elizabeth what are you asking me?"

He had to stop for a moment, as his voice caught in this throat. He swallowed around the rock and continued. Laying his fingertips on her face tenderly now regardless of her attempts to push it away.

"Elizabeth…I could NOT ever hate you or de – despise your skin…God, I can’t even fathom the idea of that…I - Elizabeth we aren’t…we aren’t my parents. This isn’t…"

He could no longer think of the words to say, and his head continued to shake. He bent his knees in frustration with himself and her, and the situation they’d been placed in, and he roughly cupped her face in his hands again.

"I feel like a fucking freight train just hit me Elizabeth…and I’m not sure of ANYTHING right now, but the fact that I LOVE YOU…I don’t care who you’ve spent the last few to!…I love YOU…and everything that YOU are. This doesn’t change anything. All it changes is the fact that Alexander Hart has nowhere else to hide anymore. I know all about him now Elizabeth…I know everything I need to know, and he’s never – EVER gonna get close to anyone I love again…Not you. Not my brother…not anyone.

"As long as I have THIS, Elizabeth," he said. Placing his hand over her heart. "I can get through anything.

"Do you understand that Elizabeth?….Do you understand that I LOVE YOU no matter what?"

"But –

"No!…No buts," he insisted. His eyes still level with hers. "That’s the bottom line…I love you."

She closed her eyes tightly and the tears escaped haphazardly beneath them. He reached out to brush them away, but she pulled back. Gasping for air as she began to move pace around the room.

"Elizabeth," Lucky said quickly. Moving towards her. "Sweetie, we need to leave here. We need to get out of here tonight…for both of our sakes."

Choking back a sob, she shook her head. "No," she said.

Lucky’s mouth dropped open a bit and he threw his hands up in the air. "Elizabeth why not?! There’s nothing left to keep us here. We don’t have anything left to find out. We already know what Alex has to do with the Cassidine fortune. There’s no other reason for –

"He can’t get away with this," she said stoically. Her eyes focused on his. The tears having dried.

"And he won’t…believe me Elizabeth, he won’t."

"No…I –

The sobs she thought she’s put a stop to, immediately made a return appearance. Ricocheting violently throughout her entire body. Lucky caught her around the waist as she began to break down.

"No what Baby?" He said softly. Pulling her to him.

She could barely speak. The words garbled and slipping in between gasps for any oxygen she could take in. "I don’t…I don’t want him h – here anymore…"

Lucky closed his eyes and rubbed her back in circles. "He won’t be. Elizabeth this is it for him."

"No," she whimpered. "He’ll always be here…he’ll find a way out…just like Hel – Helena…she a – always found away…until she died Lucky…until the day she died she toyed with us!…She’s STILL doing it! Even from the grave!"

His arms tightened around her. He knew exactly what she was saying. What she was alluding to. She didn’t have to say the words out loud.

The air thickened when she did say it though. When she whispered against his shoulder that Alex had to die.

Lucky didn’t say a word in response. He merely strengthened his hold on her and brought her down slowly to the carpet with him.

He kissed her then. Gently at first, tasting the salt of her tears against her warm lips. Tasting the same pain that resonated inside his own chest. Elizabeth responded instantly, rising to her knees next to him and intensifying the kiss. Her fingertips grasping the sides of his face as her tongue eagerly sought his. Her fingertips tangled in his hair and suddenly she couldn’t taste him fast enough. Couldn’t have him quick enough.

"Make love to me," she mumbled against his cheek. Kissing him there as her body still shuddered with left over sobs. "Make love to me Lucky."

He pulled back for an instant and searched her eyes. Wild with desperation. "Elizabeth…are you sure…here?"

Regret instantly filled his eyes when she broke again. Her face crumpling before him and a low moan easing terribly from her throat.

Suddenly his mind registered that making love ‘here,’ was exactly what she wanted. Half of the reason why she was so frantic about it.

She wanted to rid herself of the thoughts of Alex. Rid herself of the memories she had here, of him touching her. Wanted to erase her mind of all the things it couldn’t handle. She wanted to replace the ugliness that ran rampant in this house with something beautiful and pure.

Even if he wasn’t there…she wanted to show Alexander Hart that he hadn’t broken them. That they would be together come Hell or high-water and nothing he did or had done would ever stand in there way.

She wanted that, she needed that, and damnit maybe he wanted that too. Maybe he needed that, if only to feel better for tonight.

For a few hours.

Lucky placed both of his thumbs beneath her eyes and wiped away the tears as they fell. Quickly closing the distance between them once more with a kiss. This time, the lip embrace began as it had ended before. Intense.

Slow and deep as he heard her groan with longing. A need to be healed. A need to feel better. To feel alive.

He kissed her for a long time. Slowing her down as seconds lapsed easily into minutes and lips and tongue tasted one another. He ran his hands through the back of her hair and felt himself harden as her small hands smoothed down his sides and towards his lap. Her fingers searching with a slow molasses like pace to his zipper.

When his mouth eased closer to her ear, he whispered to her. His heated breath sending ripples of anticipation over her skin. "Do you want to go upstairs?"

She sighed "no" breathlessly, and he lay her to the rug beneath him in compliance. Settling between her thighs.

He held her for a long moment. Letting his kisses rain over her face before moving one solitary inch. Before easing his own emotional or physical ache. But her legs rose and she wrapped herself around his waist like a belt. Beckoning him forth, asking him to come inside.

Begging him to bring them both a little pleasure in this misery.

Begging him silently to end the day with the same sweetness in which it began.

She remembered their time in the lake at the beginning of the day and felt how far away it was. How it seemed like months and not just hours ago.

When he rolled off of her she whimpered in pain.

"It’s ok," he said softly. His right hand traveling from the softness of her cheek to the soft swell of her breast beneath the blouse that she wore. "I’m here," he whispered. "I’m here."

Lucky lay at her side letting his eyes travel slowly down her length, and letting his fingers attach themselves even more slowly to each one of her buttons. Starting at the top and inching their way down to the bottom. He leaned over each time a segment of skin was revealed and kissed her there. The moonlight shining against her. Illuminating the trail of wetness that his tongue left in it’s wake.

She sighed audibly and he felt her shudder. Her legs moving against the rug. Her hips rising a bit. Opening her eyes, she made contact with his beautiful blue orbs and leaned upwards. He needed her too. Wanted the same thing she did. To escape…just for a bit.

Propping herself up on one elbow, she unfastened the top button on his shirt. Immediately pressing her lips to the hollow of his throat.

Lucky squeezed his eyes shut, and reached up behind her to hold her head there as she began to suck and nibble at his collar bone. A slow burn building and building within him.

Elizabeth shifted the collar aside and continued to unbutton. Her mouth in the same spot. Licking and drifting across his beautifully constructed bones. When she felt his fingers wind themselves more tightly in her hair, she grew more eager.

Lifting herself completely off the carpet. She sat before him. Allowing him to push her blouse all the way off of her arms before she finished what she had began earlier: unzipping his pants.

Elizabeth found him hard and wanting. Throbbing between her fingers as she slid her fist over him and pumped tenderly. He groaned deeply and moved closer to thrust lightly into her hand.

Her lips traveled up the base of his neck to his jawline. Nibbling skin. Tasting and teasing every bit of flesh. Removing her hand from inside his pants, she used them both now to push them off of his hips.

Bending his head to her shoulders when she was finished, he moved away the straps of her bra with his teeth. Pausing for short moments to enjoy her sweet skin. Savoring the taste of her as he moved lower, pushing the satiny cups away with his chin. He engulfed one stiffened bud in the fiery depths of his mouth and closed his eyes to revel in it.

She cried out instantly. His suckling, immediately deep and yearning. The hand that cupped her breast fell away as his mouth continued the task, and he let it travel to the waistband of her jeans. Managing to unfasten only a few buttons before her writhing prompted him to wiggle his fingers inside as far as he could get without finishing the task.

His fingers found her drenched with desire, and it made his own sex stiffen more harshly within his underwear. He lay her back down on to the thick carpet, as he slipped a finger inside of her. Beginning to rub her slowly with another. His thumb slicking back and forth over her sensitive flesh, as he moved to feast on the next breast.

Elizabeth writhed beneath him. Unable to control her hips or their need to be free of the constraints that her jeans put on them. He heeded her silent request and used his one free hand to push them away. Never removing his other hand from her heated core.

He could hear her heart beat wildly through her chest, as his lips and tongue moved from crest to crest. Panting as her muscles began to their exquisite narrowing around his fingers. Her breath gave way to soft mewling sounds as she started to come, and he beckoned her forth. Whispering that he wanted to feel it. Wanted to feel her come, as he rose slightly above her to look into her eyes.

They closed and opened of their own accord and he watched every nuance of her face. A grimace here, a twitch there. He bit his own lip to keep from exploding in his underwear, as their hips met each other with his hand still between them.

When she shuddered and shivered around him, he rolled away quickly. Trying with all his might to get his own breathing under control as she fought for hers. When he moved closer again she felt his length graze her thigh and shook involuntarily. Her entire being aching for him.

She would never, ever get enough.

Lucky smoothed his hands over her weakened thighs and moved to crawl towards her feet, where her jeans still clung to her. Pulling them the rest of the way off, he bent quickly to her ankles. Pressing a butterfly kiss to the supple flesh and moving upwards at a pace more torturously slow than either one of them could handle.

The euphoria of her orgasm still clung to her senses as she watched him. The sensation like going to sleep and waking up at the same time. Enough to tear you in two.

His lips were soft. So impossibly soft as they moved up her shin and traveled to her calves and then the insides of her knees. She giggled from somewhere she didn’t know still existed, and saw through hooded lashes the way that he smiled.

He’d done that, years ago. Kissing the backs of her knees to get her to laugh.

A warm feeling of déjà vu settled over her and she felt light…suddenly.

Lucky tasted the insides of her thighs. The aroma of her body, pulling him closer to what he desperately wanted to lick. And when he did, she jolted beneath him.

Her fingers knitted immediately through the hair at the back of his head and she called out his name. His tongue beginning it’s torment on her swollen body immediately. With no mercy in sight.

Elizabeth murmured things only they understood to be an honest to God language as his tongue swept against the apex of her thighs over and over again. When he sunk that very tongue inside of her. Grasping at his hair was no longer enough. She clutched at thick handfuls of carpet instead. Panting and staring blindly at the ceiling.

His fingers dug firmly into the tops of her thighs to hold her in place as he brought her closer and closer to the brink of bliss or insanity. A thin line separating the two on the scale of ultimate pleasure.

She thought she heard him mumble, "more," as she began to come like crazy against his mouth, but she couldn’t be sure. There seemed to be no sound at all anymore. And there simply couldn’t be ‘more.’

There was only sensation. Just, unbridled fury and sensation of things unheard of.

Lucky lapped rabidly at her juices as she came and came again. As he coaxed her into coming once more.

Elizabeth lay sated there motionless and weak against the rug when he finally pulled away. He closed his eyes to how incredibly hard he was. Ignoring the pain for a moment as he moved slowly to get the blanket that still lay on the couch from earlier. He spread the blue softness of it against the carpet next to her, and bent to pick her up.

She stretched languidly against it when she felt the fabric against her skin. From his car…from their apartment…

Her eyes closed to that light feeling again as he moved in behind her. Spooning against her body.

It took only a few seconds for her to open her eyes. Feeling the smoothness of his erect penis pressing against her behind. He’d taken off his underwear. He was naked behind her…and wanting.

Slowly, she reached behind her back, feeling him shiver when she stroked his length. When his kisses on her shoulder, turned into bites she knew exactly what he wanted and how he wanted it. She lifted her top leg and bit her lip when he helped her along. Grasping her thigh and placing it over his hip.

She arched forward and felt him lower himself a bit, before thrusting upwards and sinking directly into her saturated heat. Her mouth dropped open and she gasped when he slowly pulled out only to plunge back inside.

Each time he drew himself out, he drowned himself deeper with the next stroke. Bathing in her depths with for longer moments. Her breathing grew frantic as she felt every ridge of his penis slide through her and out of her.

She reached behind her and felt the tightening of every muscle in his perfect ass. Biting her lip for a moment before realizing she didn’t have to. That she could scream out loud. That she know longer cared who heard her. If any of the servants were still milling about…let them hear.

She wanted them to.

Lucky’s tight clasp around her waist loosened, holding her there no longer enough to stabilize them. He turned her halfway over onto her stomach, and slipped both of his arms underneath hers. Pressing his fingers into her shoulders. She cried out again as he slipped deeper inside. Unable to believe he actually could. Unable to contain the whimpering and moaning that escaped her throat.

He felt her legs shift over and over beneath him and began to lift himself slightly from the rug, pulling her backwards and into his lap. She reached behind her and tugged on his hair. His teeth sinking into her shoulder as she moved incessantly against him. She no longer allowed him to pull out. Feeling him throb and pulsate inside of her as her inner walls narrowed around him.

She remembered this…a Christmas morning next to the tree…a song…just for her.

That lightness again…

One of his large hands pressed against her belly and she bucked against him as his other found moist with passion. His fingertips coming away soaked with desire when he held her again.

A groan emerged from deep in his gut and she felt it as she rode him into eternity. Breathing wildly and screaming as she came. Leaning over to grip the carpet as she met with some unearthly force.

He locked her hips against him. Pushing and thrusting until every muscle in his body detonated at once. Sending a rocket of liquid ecstasy rushing through flexing walls and into her warm and waiting depths.

Each of them sighed loudly when he collapsed over her. His body still lodged inside hers. Each of them panting with something untamed. Unhindered by years of separation. Something just beginning to reach it’s fullest peak.

Alex and Helena hadn’t known what the Hell they were dealing with. Hadn’t realized what they’d tried to destroy could not be broken by a gambling debt, a break up, or a marriage built on lies.

Nothing. Nothing could break this.

~~~~~~~

Lucky woke some time in the middle of the night. Blinking against the thick fatigue in his eyes as the fire that he’d started after they’d made love still flickered in front of them. He felt her naked body shift against his and pulled the blanket tighter against her chin.

Licking his dry lips, he slowly released her from his embrace. Rearranging the blanket around her yet again before he rose to look for his pants. He found them atop the arm of the couch, and slid them over each leg. Zipping up before turning to grab one of the long matches that sat on the mantle near the fireplace.

Quietly he made his way out into the parlor and then outside into the cool night air. You could feel summer coming just around the corner.

You could feel other things coming too. Like the end of Alexander Hart. The end of the Cassidine reign of terror.

You could feel that, just as clear as the night mist falling against your skin. Lucky could feel that.

He walked slowly towards the pile of crap that Elizabeth had thrown out into the yard. Eyeing its contents. Fancy dresses, shoes, boxes of God only knew what. Boxes…

Reaching behind him, Lucky pulled the folded up drawing from his back pocket, and smoothed it out once more against his thigh. Staring at it for a long moment.

A fist clutched around his heart and squeezed until he gasped for a breath.

Starting to cough, he quickly shoved the picture back inside his pants pockets and struck the match against the bark of a tree that stood near him. He watched the flame flicker in his hands for a moment. Letting the heat recede close enough to his skin to scorch it for a moment before throwing it into the pile.

Yes, he could feel Alexander’s end coming.

~~~~~~~

Elizabeth clutched the blue blanket tightly around her as she stood in front of the kitchen window. Watching as Lucky set the trash on fire. It went up in a huge rush of blinding flame and it made something inside her smile.

She wasn’t sad to see it go. None of it had ever meant anything to her. None of THIS had ever meant anything to her, she thought, glancing around at the pots and pans that still hung from the gourmet counter top Alex had installed over a year ago.

On a night not too long ago, she’d had the thought of bashing Alex’s head in with one of those pans. The night she’d come in from Lucky’s car, having left the safety of this blanket behind. The night Alex had tried to take her against the counter top.

Yes, she thought of bashing his skull in then. She should have.

Maybe this was why she hadn’t though. She hadn’t known everything about him yet. Hadn’t known there were bigger reasons to want to kill.

But she had reason now. Reason enough.