Chapter 13

Lucky pressed hard against the doorbell, ringing it in between incessant wraps upon the door. "Nikolas!" He called, his voice the only sound to be heard in the silence and seclusion surrounding his brother's cottage. "Nikolas!"

Suddenly, the door flew open and Nikolas stood before him, obviously having just rolled out of bed. "Lucky?" He asked, smoothing a hand through his hair. "What are you doing here man?" he inquired, glancing at the clock on the other side of the room. "It's 11 o'clock." Lucky pushed past him and into the house, ignoring his words.

"Nikolas I need to talk to you," Lucky stated, pulling off his jacket and throwing it on the couch.

Nikolas stepped off the small step that separated the entrance from the living room, following his brother. He knew immediately that something was up. Something big. There was no way Lucky would be here this late if there weren't. He looked worried. Panicked. "Yeah man......what's up?....Is this about earlier...about Elizabeth."

Lucky licked his lips nervously, hoping to God that he was doing the right thing. "Nikolas...man....I need to know that I can trust you."

"Lucky...you know you - "

"No," Lucky interrupted solemnly. "I mean REALLY trust you. This is BIG man. You can't tell ANYBODY...Not Stephan, not - "

"Hey! Lucky!" Nikolas exclaimed, cutting him off. He looked directly into his brother's eyes. "I know how to keep my mouth shut......I thought I'd proven that to you by now."

Lucky looked down, knowing he was right. He had proven himself on numerous occasions now. He hadn't told anyone when he'd spotted Liz coming out of the Rape Survivor's Meeting at GH, and he'd remained solid for them throughout the entire Tom nightmare.

"Yeah," Lucky said quietly, looking up. "You have....it's just that...this is," Lucky's voice faltered a bit, as he searched his brains for the right words to express how important this really was. "This is....Nikolas this could effect the rest of my life....Elizabeth and I....OUR life."

Nikolas nodded and grinned slightly. "I knew it...I KNEW you two hadn't broken up."

Lucky grinned a little himself. The first time since he'd left Elizabeth's room. "Yeah well," he began, finally taking a seat on the couch. "NOBODY else can know....well, Emily knows....but nobo - "

"Wait! Wait!" Nikolas said, placing himself next to Lucky on the couch. "You mean to tell me that Emily knew about this and I...your BROTHER, did not know?!"

Lucky sighed loudly. "Gimme a break...she only knows because Elizabeth told her...I was GONNA tell you......Look, the point is I'm telling you NOW...and....and I need your help."

Nikolas thought of smiling. Thought of gloating at the fact that his little brother, Lucky Spencer had just asked for his help. He THOUGHT about it, but he didn't. The feeling was too wonderful to spoil with sarcastic barbs or humorous comments. If his brother needed his help. It was help he was going to get.

Lucky proceeded at Nikolas' silence. "Elizabeth and I didn't REALLY break up. We're pretending......we're pretending so, that......so that when the time comes....no one will suspect us of running away together."

The words hung in the air like an echo. Playing over and over in both of their heads until finally Nikolas spoke. "What?" He asked, knowing exactly what Lucky had said. "Wha - Wait...why would you guys run away together.....Lucky I don't under - "

"Her father hates me Nikolas," Lucky stated bluntly.

"Yeah. I know that Lucky, but - "

"But nothing! He REALLY hates me.....and I'm afraid he hates the idea of me being with Elizabeth so much that he's willing to jeopardize HER future to keep us apart," Lucky paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "Nikolas...her parents are planning on taking her to Colorado right after graduation....for good."

"Wait...what about the Art School?"

"They don't care about the Art School, Nikolas.......Her parents....ugh....let's just say they don't KNOW her the way we know her. They don't see her talent ....Her potential for...................Nikolas, they want her to go to some community college in Colorado....and more than anything they want to keep her away from me.........so that means..."

"That means you two have to run away....and it also means that you have to pretend to be broken up in the meantime.....just to throw everyone off track," Nikolas said, finishing Lucky's sentence.

"You catch on fast," Lucky stated, a small grin tugging at his lips. It disappeared quickly though. "Nikolas......all I need now are two things from you."

"Name 'em."

"First and foremost....I need you to not breathe a WORD of this to anyone."

"Done."

"Second," Lucky said, raising two fingers. "I need you to act as a go between for Elizabeth and me....I took a big risk tonight and I went to go see her.......we came THIS close to being caught. I can't let that happen again, so I need you to give her messages for me or vice versa....Emily can help you....but you guys have to be so careful...I mean SO -"

"Careful?" Nikolas asked, raising his eyebrows.

Lucky let out a breath, realizing that he was probably being far too intense. Too nervous for his own good, but he couldn't help it. "Nikolas..."

"I know Lucky...don't worry about it.....anything you need...........Emily and I have got you covered." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ << Next Day>>

Elizabeth walked into the kitchen to see her parents making breakfast. It made her nauseous to see how happy they were since she told them she'd broken up with Lucky. Elizabeth did a quick roll of the eyes now just to get it out of the way before she made herself known.

"Morning," she said, with a huge smile on her face.

Jeff was the first to respond. "Well, good morning to you sweetie," he said as he went over to give her a hug. "Come sit down, we made your favorite."

Elizabeth saw the pancakes on the table and did her best to put on a happy face. Even though she had no desire to sit down for a breakfast with her family. Even though the truth was, she couldn't have felt farther away from both of them.

Jeff and Susan took a seat on either side of Elizabeth. Jeff looked to his wife before turning to Elizabeth, "Honey, we have a surprise for you!" He said with excitement and a little anxiousness in his voice.

Elizabeth tried to sound enthusiastic, not realizing exactly how difficult that would be. "Really, what is it?" she asked finally, letting out her best phony voice.

Susan stood up and walked over to the counter and picked up a brown manila size envelope and handed it to Elizabeth. She began slowly. "Your father and I were able to get an application from the art school in Colorado for you honey! We'll have to send your submissions there. It's a little late in the application process but your Dad knows some people there, so it's not going to be a problem for you to start there in the Fall! Isn't that exciting honey?" Susan said smiling.

Her favorite movie last night. Her favorite breakfast this morning. And now....Now, she no longer had to go to community college. Now they were sending her to an art school. An art school in Colorado.

Elizabeth sat in her seat, wanting to scream. It took everything she had not to tell her parents off at that second. What was this? Bribery? Or was it some sort of prize for being a good little girl and breaking up with her boyfriend? Was this supposed to make her feel better? Was she supposed to be grateful for all of this? Because she wasn't. All she was, was furious!

She lowered her head and tried to gain some sort of composure. She couldn't afford to say what she really wanted to say. She and Lucky couldn't afford it. When she finally looked up at her parents, they were staring at her, trying to read her expression. 'Not much longer Elizabeth. You can do this,' she thought to herself.

She slowly smiled. "Wow...that was quick!" Elizabeth exclaimed, beginning to ramble in her haste to get the words out. "You guys work fast...........I actually have a copy of my application to the art school in New York on my computer so I can probably get it done pretty quickly," she said, part of her wanting to scream because her parents really thought they had won and part of her wanting to laugh in their faces and tell them there was no way she was going to some art school in Colorado.

There was no way she was going anywhere without Lucky.

Knowing she couldn't get away with saying that to them, she settled for a "thank you" and a "this was so nice of you guys," before quietly excusing herself to go to school.

~~~

"Well that went better then expected," Jeff said, letting out a deep breath.

"Why's that? She already agreed to go back to Colorado, you didn't think she'd go to school too?" Susan asked as she busied herself cleaning the table.

"I don't know anything anymore Susan. One day she's adamant about not going back home, the next, she's saying how she's ready to go. I guess I'm just not really sure what to expect from her anymore.................. I'm telling you though, getting away from Lucky Spencer was the best thing she could have done. I don't like the girl he turned her into. I'll tell you one thing Susan, I will be extremely happy to get my family out of Port Charles and back home where we belong."

Chapter 14

Liz slowly, almost catatonically walked into Kelly's for her shift. Tammy spotted her right away and wanted to tell her to walk back home. She'd been a wreck for weeks, her breakup with Lucky obviously taking it's toll on her.

"Hey sweetie, how ya doing?" Tammy asked, as she walked around the counter to help Liz with her coat.

'How am I?' Is that what Tammy asked? Elizabeth thought to herself. It was an easy enough question, but at the moment Liz had no idea how to answer it.

How was she? Well, let's see.... It'd been weeks since she and Lucky's infamous "breakup" and ever since their night of "almost" getting caught in her bedroom, they hadn't seen each other.

Even though Nik and Em had been amazing with getting messages back and forth between her and Lucky and had even managed a few phone calls, it just wasn't enough. Not seeing him was making her miserable.

And if that wasn't enough, she was spending her days going to school and her nights and weekends working every shift available at Kelly's. She had to make as much money as possible for her and Lucky. Add to that, her annoying parents hounding her to get her application done and you had quite the fun mix.

Having to be nice to everyone was really starting to get on her nerves as well. 'Next time I'll leave the acting to Gwenyth,' she thought sullenly. 'Oh god, 3 more weeks. Three more weeks and Lucky and I will be out of Port Charles and Lucky and I will be together.'

Liz took a breath and sighed, having remembered her boss's original question. "I'm ok Tammy, although you must be getting sick of seeing me huh?" she said, managing a weak smile.

Tammy grinned. "Hey, I'm not gonna complain when my best waitress insists on working everyday and gives up her weekends to help me out. I do wish you would go out and have some fun though..........but hey.....at least you're raking in the dough," she said teasingly before she headed back to the kitchen.

Liz took the apron from the counter and put it on thinking about what Tammy had said. She was right, she HAD been making a lot of money. It was probably the only good part of being away from Lucky. Even though she was miserable, she was still able to stick to the plan. She hadn't seen this much of Kelly's in her whole 2 years of being in Port Charles. She smiled at the thought. Working was helping her. She just wished that being here didn't remind her so much of Lucky. She wished he'd walk in right this second.

Elizabeth woke out of her daze as a man called her to his table. She started to walk over to him when the door opened suddenly. Elizabeth stopped dead in her tracks as Nikolas and Lucky made their way inside.

"Lucky," she said, her eyes lighting up and her face beaming. One wish come true.

Lucky couldn't help himself either. The smile was automatic. It took everything he had not to walk right up to her and kiss her.

They stood there for a moment. Entranced by each other. Looking like two people who had no business breaking up. Like two people so in love that if anyone they knew walked in at that moment, their plan would be ruined.

Realizing that took Lucky out of his trance. Well, that and Nikolas whispering in his ear that he looked like a love sick idiot. His smile quickly faded and as he took his eyes off of Elizabeth he brushed past her and took a seat at a table with Nikolas.

Lucky ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He'd come here to see her. To catch one small glimpse of her, yet now he couldn't even look at her without wanting to jump up and hold her. Without wanting to taste those beautiful lips.

School had been torture for the last few weeks as well, but at least there had been distractions. Most of the time he couldn't have gotten a spare moment with her if he'd tried. A teacher lecturing, or one of Elizabeth's friends dragging her off to some corner to talk or something had always taken her away. But now there were no distractions, nowhere to go. Why was he doing this again?

'Because you HAVE to see her,' his brain answered as he fiddled with the salt and pepper shakers on the table. 'And this is the safest way...no one will think anything....she's a waitress...you're a customer! That's right..........Yeah, Spencer, this has got to be the dumbest idea you've ever had. You're father would disown you.'

Elizabeth walked behind the counter and finally decided that she could breathe. She wanted so much to walk over and throw her arms around him, but she knew she couldn't.

All she could do now was thank God for small favors. Lucky had obviously come there because he wanted to see her as much as she wanted to see him. Even if they had to act broken up she could at least admire him from afar.

~~~~

"This was a bad idea," Lucky said, suddenly looking up at Nikolas. He desperately tried to focus on him, and not the stunning beauty behind the counter

"Well, just so you don't forget, it was your bad idea," Nikolas responded sarcastically.

"Yeah..yeah, I know," Lucky answered. "But you're supposed to talk me out of these things...you're the older brother Nikolas. You're falling down on the job."

Nikolas chuckled. "Oh...I'M falling down on the job. Ok...I think I'll remember that the next time little Lucky wants me to pass a note to his little girlfriend -"

Nikolas voice faded as the steel blue eyes across the table glared at him. "Sorry," he said quickly. "Ok..so, what's the plan here?...Are you gonna talk to her, or are you gonna sit here and stare at her all day."

Lucky shook his head in annoyance. "Nikolas...the whole point of this is NOT talking to her....YES, I came here to look. You got a problem with that?"

"Nope...not at all," Nikolas chuckled once again. His brother threw some of the most amusing temper tantrums he'd ever seen.

Nikolas' laughter subsided when he noticed Ross Sherman come walking in. A senior at PC High that he'd heard nothing but wonderful things about from Emily. Wonderful in the most sarcastic sense of the word. He watched as Lucky turned in his chair, eyeing the tall, basketball star as he made his way over to the counter.

"Hey," Nikolas said quietly, waking Lucky from the trancelike state he had just fell into. "How 'bout those Giants?" Nikolas asked, trying to change the subject before it even began.

Lucky quickly brushed his brother off "It's not Football season Nikolas." His line of sight rapidly returned to the counter where Ross Sherman was currently smiling a bit too much at his girlfriend. At Elizabeth. Ross Sherman, who was leaning way too far over to talk to his girlfriend. To Elizabeth.

He had wondered why Sherman had been so damn curious about their breakup in Chemistry today. Now he knew. Man, this guy was too obvious. 'Apparently not obvious enough Spencer...you didn't catch it until now.'

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hi Liz..." Ross said, pressing his elbows to the counter and leaning forward just a bit.

"Hey Ross," Elizabeth greeted politely, as she poured coffee into a cup behind the counter. "What's goin' on?"

"Not much," he sighed, slumping down onto a stool. He sat quietly for a second before catching her eyes as she looked up again. "You know...I was wondering...I don't know if you knew this or not....but Tiff and I broke up about two weeks ago."

Elizabeth shook her head. She'd been a little too busy to keep up with the PC High Gossip circuit as of late. She had her own problems to deal with. Her own "break-ups" to get through. "No...I'm sorry. I didn't know that.....how come?"

Ross brushed it off, looking down at his hands. "Ahh..I don't really wanna get into it.........I just...Well, the only reason I bring it up is because Prom is around the corner...next week to be exact..........and well I'm single...and I know you're currently unattached - "

"Hey Liz!" Nikolas said, interrupting Ross as he walked up behind him. Seemingly out of nowhere. "What kind of corsage am I supposed to get you?....I forget....You know how bad I am at this kind of thing."

Liz looked back and forth from Nikolas to Ross, trying to understand what was happening. For a split second, she wanted to laugh at the both of them and say, "Are you guys kidding me? I'm going with Lucky."

But suddenly she realized that she wasn't going to get to go to her Senior Prom. There would be no highschool dances with Lucky. The thought made her want to cry. She looked up at Nikolas and managed to smile.

He was obviously just trying to be nice. Trying to spare her the discomfort of having to say no to Ross, or to anyone else for that matter. She'd go along with the joke for now.

"Yeah, um you know Nikolas, things have been so busy that I haven't even had time to get a dress, but I'll call you ok?" She answered before looking back at Ross. "I'm sorry Ross. Was there something you were going to ask me?" she asked, feigning ignorance.

Ross stood there in disbelief, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. Cassidine was taking Liz Webber to the prom? Since when? When he'd talked to Spencer in Chem. that afternoon, it had sounded as if Liz was totally available. After a moment, he simply shook his head. "Nah...nuthin' really Lizzie.....I'll catch you later."

Elizabeth smiled weakly as he walked away. "Something I said?" she whispered, looking back to a grinning Nikolas.

"That was close huh?" Nikolas said.

"You didn't have to do that you know? I was going to say no to Ross. Lucky knows I would never go to the prom without him," she said, confusion written all over her face. She craned her neck a bit to look over Nikolas' shoulder, Lucky was nowhere to be found.

Nikolas backed away from the counter and held up his hands. "I'm just following orders mam." With that he turned around, quickly making he way out of Kelly's.

Elizabeth smirked, wondering exactly what Lucky was up to this time.

~~~

Nikolas nearly bumped right into his brother when he exited the doors of the diner, where Lucky had been nervously circling.

"Okay, so you've managed to confuse Elizabeth more then ever. What are you up to now?" Nikolas asked, as he and Lucky began walking.

Lucky turned around, a smile on his face that told Nikolas that he was about to be asked to do something he had no desire to do. Realizing what it was, Nik stopped in his tracks, "Oh no...no way....I am NOT going to your Prom Lucky."

"You don't have to go...you just have to pretend to.....",

"Explain," Nik said, a little less defensively.

"Ok....You'll get all dressed up, make plans with Elizabeth around people, even pick her up on the night of the prom but then....."

"Take her to you," Nikolas said, finishing his sentence.

Lucky ran a hand through his hair and looked at Nikolas. "Look man, I just know how much Elizabeth wanted to go to the prom. I want to be able to give that to her. This could be one dance that I get right.....you know?" Lucky added, looking down for a moment at his shoes. The familiar pangs of guilt touching his heart for just a moment.

Nikolas remained silent as Lucky continued. "Maybe it won't be with everyone at school, but at least we'll be together. And I know it's a lot to ask you. You've really done a lot man and I appreciate it...so if you don't want to do this, I understand." Lucky finished, his tone serious.

"I thought you didn't want to take any more chances," Nikolas said, just wanting to make sure Lucky knew exactly what he was doing.

"I don't," Lucky said adamantly. "We won't get caught. Last time.....last time, we weren't using our heads. Neither of us thought we'd ever get caught..so we weren't as careful as we should have been... But now....now, I know better. See, I'll plan on taking someone else, and Elizabeth will go you........and then I can take her someplace no one would think to find us......It'll work Nikolas........ I just need some help," Lucky said, the last words coming out a little tenser then the rest.

If he and Elizabeth had only two weeks left in Port Charles, he was going to make them memorable. Break up or no break up.

Nikolas was stunned. I mean, Lucky had come to him for help, but he didn't realize how much Lucky would ask him to do. Not that he minded. It actually made him happy to know how much Lucky trusted him.

"Alright," Nikolas answered finally. "Just tell me what I need to do."

Lucky smiled, then chuckled lightly as he wrapped an arm around his brothers shoulders, pushing him along. "Well, the hardest part will probably getting Elizabeth to go anywhere with you........."