~~ To be your friend was all I ever wanted; to be your lover was all I ever dreamed.~~ Unknown

Port Charles, New York
The Docks

"I'm sorry Lucky," Emily groaned, rubbing her knuckles. She leaned over then, sliding a hand along his back. "Do you forgive me?"

"I'll forgive you once I find out if I can digest food properly," Lucky grimaced, doubled over in pain. "Jeez, Em."

"I'm sorry," she repeated, his pain showing on HER face. "I just...well, it's not like you gave me much choice."

Lucky cleared his throat as he tried to stand up. "Oh yeah I know. I provoked you and all."

"Ugh! But you did! Lucky, you stomped all over Elizabeth's heart!"

He licked his lips, suddenly standing all the way up. "I know," he whispered, slowly turning around. His gaze landing upon the bench. Their bench.

Tears immediately sprang to his eyes. A searing pain running through his heart and threatening to break it all over again. For the 50th time that day alone.

Port Charles. Too many memories - too damn close together.

His sudden silence caused Emily to walk around to face him. "Lucky?...Lucky, are you - are you ok? Did I really hurt you?!"

Lucky smiled a bit through his tears, wiping at his cheeks. He inhaled deeply. The salty sea air reminding him of innocent moments on their bench. Moments of laughter. Moments of profound understanding. Moments of love.

"No...You didn't Em. I hurt me. I hurt us," he sighed, walking towards the water.

Emily followed behind him hesitantly. Not quite sure how to react to the ubrupt mood swing. Not quite sure of the dynamic of their friendship anymore. He looked like Lucky. Talked like Lucky. But he wasn't the Lucky she'd last seen. Not nearly as happy. Not nearly as peaceful.

"Why do I get the feeling, we're no longer talking about your stomach?" She asked finally, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Why did you leave Lucky?...I know you loved Elizabeth. We all knew that."

"Love," Lucky stated, looking straight out towards Wyndemere. A view that never changed. No matter what happened. He supposed that some things could stay the same. In spite of time passing. In spite of corruption.

"What?" Emily asked, stepping closer.

He turned to her, soberly. "I LOVE her. Present tense. Not past. Never past."

Emily shook her head and smiled. She'd known that all along. How many times had she tried to convince Elizabeth of that?! How many times had she begged her not to marry that pompous...' her thoughts trailed off, as she watched his eyes cloud over in pain.

"Then why, Lucky?! Why would you just leave like that? I don't understand! I mean...I wasn't there, so I don't wanna judge you," she rolled her eyes and grinned as Lucky looked down towards his stomach. Smoothing a hand over his shirt.

"Well - I guess I already kinda judged you, "she mumbled. "But you know what I mean!" She added quickly.

"I don't understand how you could say all those terrible things to her, and then just walk out of her life. All of our lives!"

Lucky sighed loudly and scratched the back of his head. "There were some things going on that nobody knew about Em."

"With you and Elizabeth? Were you two having problems? She never ment -

"No," Lucky stated without hesitation. "No. Everything was perfect Emily...it was never Elizabeth. She never did anything wrong. It was me."

"Well, I remember her telling me that you needed space...but that sounded really lame to me. It sounded crazy."

"It was crazy, and it was VERY lame. You're right.......but it wasn't my choice."

Emily tilted her head to the side, dread knotting in the pit of her stomach. "What do you mean it wasn't your choice? Did somebody make you leave?...Lucky what...

Her voice trailed off as she followed his hard gaze across the water to Spoon Island. The image of a recent Port Charles Herald headline flashing through her mind in an instant. "Helena?" She asked, the name slipping bitterly from her tongue.

She bit her lip at his silence. Trying to stifle an obscenity. A lesser one managed to slip past her lips in spite of the effort. "Damn her. I should have known."

"Yeah well, me too," Lucky smirked quietly.

She shook her head, running her slim fingers through her long brown hair. "Your dad knew. He thought so all along, but of course the incompetents around here that go by the name of the of the PCPD couldn't be bothered with 'gut feelings' or anything so...trivial."

Lucky licked his lips. So what if his father knew? What good did it do him now? What good had it done Elizabeth? None.

"What happened Lucky?" She asked at his silence. "The only thing that Helena could've done to make you ever leave Elizabeth was...threaten her..."

Emily shut her eyes, under the intensity of Lucky's gaze. "That bitch," she muttered. A feeling of utter uselessness settling upon her. If only she had known. If only...

The sound of his footsteps trailing away caused her to open her tightly shut eyes. She silently prayed that he would open up to her. Spill whatever it was that looked like it was eating away at his very existence.

"Helena had this thing about telling my parents that she owed them 'a debt' all the time, you know?" He asked, rhetorically turning towards his friend once again. "And then of course there was that little debt she owed me for supposedly 'spying' on her when I went to work for her."

"You worked for Helena Cassidine?! When?!" Emily asked, her feet moving forward of their own accord.

Lucky groaned inwardly. 'If you only knew the half of it, Em.'

"Back when I first left home...I wanted to get back at my Dad. More than that - I wanted the truth. I wanted to know all the secrets my family was keeping from me 'for my own good'.

Emily nodded silently. Remembering how angry he'd been with his mother and father that year. How his entire world had turned upside down, and wrong-side in.

"Anyway, it didn't last very long. She found one of my Dad's bugs on the yacht, and thought I'd put it there...I think my face is still feelin' the after effects of that little discovery."

'Or was that sting left there by someone else?' He thought, smoothing a hand over his cheek.

Ironic how he willed the feeling to stay. How some part of him ached to hold on to the sensation of pain caused in the wake of Elizabeth's hand.

"Helena - the master of the Grudgematch...well, her and my dad anyway," he sighed wearily.

"And she used Elizabeth to get even?" Emily asked, confusion lacing her features. Something telling her that her oldest friend was not about to divulge the entire story to her. That she would be getting the abridged version this time around.

'Don't worry Lucky, I'll get it out of you,' Emily thought. 'There's no way I'm not getting an explanation from you.'

"She wanted to take me away from my family. Thus, hurting me and hurting them. She had to take me away from Elizabeth to do that."

Emily folded her arms, not sure she wanted to know the answer to the question she was about to ask, but knowing she had to ask it anyway. She took a deep breath.

"What else did Helena get out of this?...Sure. Pain and suffering were enough motive for her, but I can't help but think there must have been something more to it. Something she stood to gain."

Lucky looked down towards his feet. Never meeting her eyes. "Yeah, she gained a really valuable employee."
~~~~~~~

Manhattan, New York
Hart & Hart Art Gallery

Elizabeth slid forward in her seat. Her fingertips pressing against her temples in an effort to curb the horrendous headache she felt settling in for the afternoon.

She had about a thousand phone calls to make, and all of them took a distant second to thinking about Lucky. Imagining his face as he'd walked into the gallery. Imagining what he may have been wearing. Imagining the eyes that Suzanne hadn't been able to get enough of.

"I'm familiar with that feeling Suzanne," she sighed, folding her arms atop her desk, and pillowing her head against them. The glare of the diamond on her finger caused her to quickly shove her hand beneath her arm.

The 7-carat rock, scraped against her skin briefly and she winced in pain. "Ow.."

She twisted the band lightly around her finger, moving it up and down absently as her mind traveled to far away places. Back to France.

Venturing, not back to the hotel room, or the walk along the Champs Elysses with her husband...but to another place. A magical place of green grass and sun. A place of love. A place of remembrance.

The words that she'd said in hurt - in anger, came back to her. Taunting her ears. Her own voice, declaring that she was married and that nothing else mattered. The words echoed in her ears like a hallow promise.

She'd said that Lucky's love for her didn't matter. That she didn't want to hear anything he had to say.

'If that's so true, Elizabeth why can't you get him out of your head? Why can't you forget what happened in Paris and move on with your life? Huh?'

Lucky's attempt at explaining - the story she hadn't let him finish - came back to her mind, and she closed her eyes as his words rang in her ears

It never even occurred to me that I was dealing with Helena...Like an idiot, I thought I was dealing with some asshole that I owed money!....But then - then came the one of you at work,...Yeah, I remember it so clearly even now...you were sitting at your desk biting on a pen -

His words drifted into oblivion and she opened her eyes. A videotape of her at work? How had Helena managed to watch her so blatantly? So openly? Had there been cameras in the gallery back when she worked at Montgomery Towers?

It was a perfectly legitimate idea for a gallery to have surveillance tapes.... but in the reception area? The fact that she'd been biting on a pen, brought her to the conclusion that she'd been answering phones at the time...maybe filing...

That would have had to have been even before her promotion. Back when all she ever did was answer the damn phone...Why would the camera be on her? Videotaping her? Watching her? If that were true, then Helena had to have been watching her for months before Lucky left. Months before...

A shiver ran through her and she swallowed hard against the sudden dryness in her throat. She closed her eyes, and willed the memory away.

Elizabeth smoothed both hands over her face, and opened her eyes. Taking a deep breath. 'Why don't you find out the whole story Webber...If somebody was watching you - you have the right to know! It doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean you believe Lucky's story...or that you even want to confirm what he's saying...You just want the truth. Don't you at least owe yourself that? Doesn't he owe you that?'
~~~~~~~
Port Charles, New York
The Spencer Residence

"What did you just say?" Nikolas asked, one corner of his mouth turning upwards. He was nearly afraid to smile. Afraid he'd heard wrong.

Laura smiled. "You heard me right. Your brother is home."

Nikolas shook his head, smiling. He turned around, glancing up the stairs. "Well where is he?... Lucky!?" He shouted, starting up the stairs.

Laura sighed and stopped him. "No..no, he left."

"What?" Nikolas asked, stopping mid-stride. "Why did he leave? Where did he go?"

"I'm not sure," Laura sighed, making her way over to the couch. "He said he had to get out of here...he'll be back though...for Leslie Lu if not for his father and I."

Nikolas was silent for a moment, quickly picking up the fact that his mother wasn't as happy as she should have been at this turn of events. He also tried not to take offense with the fact that his brother had not come to see him.

"Wh...Well, where has he been all this time?"

Laura glanced at her eldest son, and then looked down at her hands. "Helena."

She didn't have to say another word. Nikolas shook his head, and bit down hard upon his lip. An expletive nearly escaping the confines of his mouth. He jammed his hands in his pockets. "You gotta be kidding me...Damn her.

"What, did she do?"

Laura wrung her hands. "I'm not sure I know all the details...in fact I'm sure you'll be able to get more out of your brother than his father or I could...but it was all to get back at us. She wanted to take him away from his family.

"It turns out that he was working for her all this time."

Nikolas tilted his head to the side, and his mouth dropped open. He turned around, disbelief and anger coursing through him.

"Doing what, exactly?" He asked, finally turning around to face his mother.

She shook her head. "Like I said, I don't know all the details."

"Well, he's gonna tell me," Nikolas asserted, nodding his head. "I'll be back," he added, walking towards the door. "I'm gonna go find my brother."

"Thank you Nikolas," Laura smiled, tears once again pooling in her eyes.

Her son descended the step once more, and wrapped his arms around her. "Don't mention it...my brother's back, and I'm not letting him get away again. No matter what."
~~~~~~~
Port Charles, New York
The Docks

"Excuse me." Emily said, moving closer. Not sure she'd heard right.

"You heard exactly what you think you heard," Lucky stated, looking up into her brown eyes.

"No, no...I couldn't have," Emily asserted. "Because what I thought you said, was that you were an EMPLOYEE of Helena's, and that just COULDN'T be what I heard."

"Could and was," Lucky answered simply, turning to face the water once again.

"Well what the Hell were you doing for her exactly?" Emily grimaced even before her next words exited her mouth. "Oh My God...Lucky, you weren't like um...one of those...um, GUYS that she has with her all the time were you? Like one of those guys that really um...WORK for her, like um...on her yacht?"

Lucky's face contorted in horror. "Dear God, Em! No!" He shook his head. "Eeeww."

Emily bit her own lip in disgust. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry - I just had to ask."

"No...what I was doing wasn't exactly legal - but it wasn't exactly the 'oldest profession' either..." he added, a shiver running down his spine. Emily's words continuing to thoroughly disgust him.

He was horny. Not insane.

"Not legal?" Emily said, sobering up. "Lucky..."

He turned away, avoiding the question that loomed above them. "Hey...do you know of any places for rent around here Em?"

Emily rose and eyebrow and shook her head. He wasn't going to answer her. At least not now he wasn't. She folded her arms over her chest. "I think you're old place is vacant..."

Lucky's eyes clouded over. Visions of lazy days after school skipping through his mind. "No...I don't - I don't think so Em."

"Why not?...Too many memories?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

Lucky's immediate glare answered her question. Yet the answer only yielded more uncertainty. "Have you seen her? Talked to her?"

"Yeah," he sighed quietly after a long moment.

"I saw.....I.....She's beautiful Em," he finished, not knowing what else to say. No words able to describe what he'd felt the moment he'd laid eyes on her for the first time in years.

'Oh Lucky...you really are still in love with her aren't you?' Emily wondered silently, as that dreamy expression passed over his entire face.

Just when you thought life was fair and good, it had a way of quickly reminding you that it wasn't. How did two people so completely meant for each other, get torn so far apart?

"When did you see her?" she asked.

"A few days ago...in Paris."

"Paris?" Emily questioned.

Lucky rolled his eyes. "She and... ...Alex," he coughed, clearing his throat. "Were on a little...vacation."

Emily tilted her head and nodded. "Aaah, so you met Scree?"

"Who?" Lucky asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.

Emily shook it off. Passing judgement on Elizabeth's choice of mate, was probably what had gotten her banished from the Hart kingdom in the first place.

"I take it you met Alex?...Alexander?" She added, trying and failing to keep the distaste out of her tone. She drew out his name as if she were discussing royalty.

"No, haven't had the pleasure," Lucky smirked.

"Consider yourself lucky."

He smiled broadly in spite of the ache that seemed to have taken up permanent residence in his heart. Suddenly he was laughing at the incredibly lame pun.

"Yeah, yeah," Emily sighed. "I know I've done better than that before...but you'll have to excuse me. I'm out of practice ok...Now, what do you say we go get something to eat, and then maybe find you a place to live?

"I take it - boxcars are out as well?"

"Em..."

"Sorry. Sorry...let's go."
~~~~~~~
Manhattan, New York
Hart & Hart Art Gallery

Elizabeth looked up from her desk at the sound of a loud wrapping upon the hard wood door. When had she fallen asleep? Hadn't she been about to make a phone call or...

She combed her fingers through her hair slowly, and cleared her throat. Blinking rapidly, she lay her head back down upon the smooth surface of her desk. "Whoever it is...Go away," she mumbled grimly.

The door opened slightly. A subtle creak, causing her to glance upwards again. His face, immediately sending her powers of speech on a permanent vacation.

"Is that really what you want?" Lucky asked, pushing the door open slightly with one finger. Watching her intently from his place against the frame.

She could literally feel his eyes move over her. They locked with her own for a moment, before drifting down her neck and then to her collar bone, exposed by her silk button down shirt. Her breath stilled in her chest.

The words she knew she needed to say continuously fought for space in her throat, finally pushing their way through awkwardly. "Wh - what...what are you doing here?"

He walked in slowly. Silently, looking around. Sizing the place up. When finally his gaze landed on her, and once again he was sizing HER up. She shivered from her seat.

Elizabeth ran her hands up and down her arms, and stood up. Walking around the desk, closer to him. He was suddenly so close - she could feel his breath. Her skin prickled with something very much like anticipation. She would have called it excitement if she hadn't known better.

She couldn't feel this way. Not about him. Not about anyone, anymore.

"You should leave..." She whispered, feeling his body move closer to hers with every word that she spoke. He was so close...so close...She shuttered at the tingle that traveled up her body. The heat that settled like fire between her thighs.

His hand brushed softly against her cheek and she closed her eyes as her throat tightened. "I...Alex is going to be here...he's coming to ge....lunch...here...with me...."

Her words ended in small gusts of air that hovered like fireflies in the tight space between their lips. His incredibly red, luscious lips that lingered less than an inch away from hers. Lips that called out to her with the temptation of a ripe, candied apple.

When he finally spoke, his bottom lip brushed against hers, and the world ceased to exist. "We both know Alex isn't coming here Elizabeth...it's just you...just you and me."

His right hand moved up her thigh, gliding along the smooth fabric of her skirt, and coming to rest gently upon her waist. She closed her eyes and willed herself to tell him to leave. Willed herself to not want this - not want him - so badly.

"It's just you and me," he said again. His lips pressing softly into hers this time. Her knees going slack, under his spell.

Lucky picked her up then. Quickly, wrapping his arms around her waist. Losing no more time. Wasting not a second more in hesitation. He placed her on the desk, and she opened to him quickly. Allowing him to stand within the confines of her warm, welcoming thighs.

Elizabeth moaned as Lucky's lips pressed into hers, with a hunger that could no longer accept denial. No longer accept the fact that they were not destined to be together. To be one.

He cupped her softly through the delicate material of her blouse and she moaned louder still, and brought him closer. Locking her heels behind his strong buttocks. Her nylon covered legs wound around him. Rubbing incessantly against the denim covering him. She felt him grab her suddenly, stilling her legs movement. As if he could no longer stand it. His fingertips pressing into calves, her knees, and then her thighs...Spreading....

"Aaaah," she sighed, as he pressed her against the desk. Her phone, her Rolodex, her pens, all falling to the carpet in one lustful swipe of his hand. He was so strong. So big, as he loomed over her. As she lie on her back beneath him. Watching him as he attacked the buttons on her shirt.

"I want you Elizabeth," he mumbled quickly, his teeth pulling her shirt open in his haste to feast upon the gorgeous swells he viewed before him. Her skin glistened before him like vanilla icecream. Begging to be devoured before it melted into nothingness.

He licked her once through the fabric of her satin bra and she bucked hard against him, feeling his hardness strain against the fly of his jeans. She wanted to touch him. See him better. But she couldn't. He was doing too much. His hands and lips were everywhere, and she could no longer see straight. The fluorescent lighting of her office began to change colors in front of her very eyes.

Lucky pushed her farther onto the desk, and thrust his tongue under the seam of her bra. She bucked hard against him once more as he flicked softly against her tightening, pink nipple. His hand quickly followed the seemingly endless journey up her thigh and under her skirt. Her nylons doing nothing to hide the wetness he found there. Waiting for him. Beckoning him forth.

"Lucky," she whimpered breathlessly as his fingertips curled roughly around the waistband of the silky fabric. Pulling them down, and bringing the elastic of her panties right along with them.

His finger slipped inside her most sensitive place and she slid forward on the desk, moving as close to him as she possibly could. "Tell me what you want Elizabeth," he mumbled against her neck. His teeth and tongue, leaving a hot trail of desire from there to her chest.

"You," she panted. Her eyes darting around wildly when she felt his hand leave the confines of her body. He moved higher above her, and she could see that he was simply unbuttoning his pants. Her body pleaded with him to hurry. To end the silent torture the raged within her.

Lucky pushed his jeans down around his ankles and moved between her quivering thighs one again. "All of it Elizabeth...Say all of it," he whispered against her ear. Positioning himself for the moment of pure ecstasy that he'd waited three agonizingly long years for.

The tone of her voice emerged as a cross between someone commanding an action and someone begging for mercy. "I want YOU, Lucky...only you."

Her mouth fell open and her body jolted into some exquisite state of heightened awareness and blissful oblivion as he entered her in one powerful, longing thrust. His soul starved for her love. His body starved for her carnal embrace.

"God!" Lucky groaned, moving inside her coaxing walls over and over again. Feeling her writhe beneath him. Feeling her narrow and widen around him. Accommodating him, and only him - forever.

Elizabeth looked up towards the ceiling and arched beneath him, giving herself freely to the pleasure she hadn't felt in so long. To the pleasure she knew she could only feel with this man. The room swirled around her.

His breath - her breath. His movement - hers. Mixing with the colors surrounding them. The vibrant hues taking on shapes and meanings unknown to even her own understanding.

How could anything feel so good? So right? How could one thing feel like life, and death, and birth, and reincarnation all at once?

She ran her hands up his strong arms, pressing her fingertips into the muscle beneath the skin. Feeling the tension in his biceps flex and unflex with the pumping of his lower body as he braced himself against the desk. His entire body doing everything it could to be one with her. To be...

A hard sound against the door, caused her to look up. To look away too soon. For when she returned her gaze, he was gone. No longer inside her. No longer inside the room. No longer in her life.

A desperate sense of loneliness fell over her like a dark cloak. She was fully clothed. Yet she felt completely naked.

Elizabeth lifted her head, and blinked rapidly trying to clear the haze of whatever altered state had just inhabited the deepest recesses of her mind. Her heart.

It was dark. No light. No Lucky...and someone was knocking on the door.

"Whoever it is...Go away!" She shouted, angrily. Looking down at her clothes. Not a wrinkle on them. Not a button out of place.

She ran her hands through her hair, anxiously and tried not to cry at the injustice of reality. When all she really wanted to do was dream. Dream and dream until she couldn't distinguish reality from fantasy.

"What if I come bearing gifts?" a soft, familiar voice asked quietly. Leopold leaned in through the cracked door.

Elizabeth blinked hard once again, and sat up straight in her chair. "Oh..." she started quietly, clearing her throat. "Oh my God...Leopold.."

She stood up quickly, making her way over to the old man. She threw her arms around his neck in a tight embrace as he moved into the office.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, her composure returning as she pulled away. "Alex didn't tell me that you were in town."

The old man shook his head, making his way further into the office. "Allesandro is a busy man."

Elizabeth smiled weakly, and sat opposite him in her chair. She took a deep breath.

"Well," she mimicked. "Allesandro should have told me you were here." She placed a hand on top of his from across the desk. "You know I like to know when you're in town."

Leopold smiled back at her. She had a way of perking up even the darkest of days. Even when she wasn't as happy as she seemed. There was something dim behind her eyes. Eyes that were usually full of light - youthful.

"So what have you been up to?" She asked suddenly, fiddling with odds and ends on her desk in an effort to focus her mind on reality.

He shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Oh...a little of this. A little of that."

Elizabeth looked up and smiled knowingly. "Ah, so you're in Manhattan on business then?...I'm sure Alex has got you working overtime with the Anniversary Gala coming up soon."

"Si," he sighed, looking down. "Bella, why are the lights off?"

Elizabeth looked around, noticing for the first time that the lights were indeed off and then remembering why she had turned them off. Because of her headache - her life.

"Oh...I had a bit of a headache, that's all," she sighed, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

Leopold nodded and leaned forward in his chair. "I talked to Alexander a little while ago...He looked...distracted. Sort of how you look right now."

She looked towards the rug and he continued at her silence. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

Elizabeth bit her bottom lip and looked at the man in front of her. A man that had come to mean everything to her in the last few years. Like a father and grandfather all rolled into one. Someone who actually cared. Someone she trusted.

"Leopold do you remember when I was working at Montgomery Towers?"

He cocked his head to the side. A bit taken aback by the question. "Of course, this is when Allesandro first laid eyes on you - I remember even then, he couldn't stop talking about you....

"Liz said this today...Liz said that today...Liz smiled at me today...He couldn't STOP talking about you."

She laughed nervously, suddenly feeling guilty. Not for the question, but for what she was essentially getting at. "Well...do you - Do you remember there ever being any cameras? I mean like surveillance cameras in the gallery?"

He scratched his head and looked past her for a moment. "I don't remember specifically, but I'm sure there were...most galleries have these, no?"

Elizabeth shook her head in agreement. "Well yeah...but I guess what I mean is...Do you remember Alex ever having any installed AFTER I came to work there? I mean...maybe in the front office?"

Leopold's brow furrowed in confusion. "I don't recall Elizabetta...maybe you would like for me to talk with Allesandro?"

"No!" Elizabeth cleared her throat anxiously at her sudden outburst. "I mean, it's not a big deal...really. Nothing to bother him with. I was just wondering because I was looking into maybe having some installed here in the front office...and I was just wondering what...um....company or whatever...he used to do that. But, you know...I mean, I don't even know if I really want to do that yet...So, I'll think about it...and then I'll just talk to Alex about it...later. No biggee - Really."

"Ok," Leopold smiled, running a hand over his wrinkled features. He chuckled nervously. Why was she asking about the cameras in the hotel gallery? Why would she be wondering about that now?

Leopold rose slowly from his seat, and grasped his hat in his hands. "I'm afraid I have to be going now...Just came by for a quick visit. But I'll be seeing you soon, I hope Bella."

Elizabeth nodded. Slowly emerging from the daydream she had just slipped into. She hugged the elderly man once more. "We'll have to have dinner one night this week. While you're in town...ok?" She added, placing a kiss on his cheek.

He smiled softly. "Yes Elizabetta...I look forward to it."

She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed as he walked out of the office. She loved Leopold, but it had been strange to see him there. In her office. A place he had never visited before. Why did she get the feeling he wanted to tell her something? As if he hadn't really come there just to chat?
~~~~~~~
Port Charles, New York
Scarlet Road

"So what do you think of this place?" Emily asked, turning around in the small space that could legitimately be called a living room, if one stretched their imagination far enough.

Lucky licked his lips from his place by the kitchen, leaning against the bar. His gaze moved from the refrigerator, to the stove, and back over to the sink. Small...cramped. It reminded him of another place he'd shared. A place he'd shared with someone special.

"Yeah," he sighed. "I like it."

Emily smiled. "Yeah, I mean...it's a lot smaller than what I'M used to myself...but I'm sure you're not looking for anything remotely resembling the Quatermaine Mansion."

"He must not be looking for anything the size of Wyndemere either."

They both looked up at the sound of the familiar male voice that came from the doorway. Each of them smiling for different reasons. One of them because she hadn't seen him in hours. The other because he hadn't seen him in years.

Each of them said his name in unison. "Nikolas."